POCO F3 review: the BEST bang for buck? (video)

It's only fair to share...Share on RedditShare on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on Tumblr

We as tech reviewers and content creators get asked very often what kind of smartphone is the best — and we never have any one answer. It almost always comes down to us responding with our own question: “what is it that you prioritize from your smartphone experience?”

Often it seems like a hard question to answer, especially in an age when smartphones are trying to be powerhouses and everything to everyone. But one company has been illustrating what products can look like when you prioritize and optimize some features over others. But here we might have the most compelling example of what that philosophy entails. This is our POCO F3 review.

Third time’s a charm

If you’ve followed POCO over the years, you will know what to expect from the latest in the F line. After all, the first Pocophone F1 was a deliberate appeal to people who wanted high-powered internals but weren’t too pressed on the aesthetics.

POCO themselves make it clear they know you might put a case on this, so a bit less effort on the design front was needed, which could further bring down the price. But I have to admit that while that philosophy definitely remains, the POCO F3 is quite the step forward in the company’s design.

The F3 is delightfully thin, managing to pack in quite a few good points in a body that is sleek and pretty attractive. The fact that the phone is thin means any cases you put on it, like the included clear case, will add to the ergonomics and keep from making things too bulky. I like that it’s a clear case too — despite my unit having a typical glossy black backing made of Gorilla Glass, I still like the look overall.

POCO made a couple of other colors of the F3 that stand out more, including that blue edition that puts a bit more flair around extra branding. If anything, the phone gives me some Galaxy S20 FE vibes with its flat display, center punch hole camera, and comfortable curve on the backing.

POCO F3 specs

Subtle touches like having a proper power button that still has a fingerprint reader in it are appreciated — while I never really thought about the difference, I’ll admit that feeling for the real power button is a win for tactility. Finally, the display is quite large at 6.67 inches, meaning there is plenty of room for all of the media and gaming that you might do here given the internals.

POCO F3 in hand cameras

And that’s really the biggest story with the POCO F3 — the powerful spec sheet. So let’s just go through all of that now. The F3 sports the Snapdragon 870, the processor that lands under the top of the line Snapdragon 888 but is still a step up from the well-regarded Snapdragon 865. It’s great to see that there is increased nuance in performance processors, because it means that manufacturers like POCO have plenty of choices of what to use, without much fear of sacrificing much in terms of speed and reliability.

Think of it as an RTX 2070 instead of a 2080 — you know you’re still going to have a good time even if you’re not rocking with the absolute best. So it’s no surprise that the Snapdragon 870 is a proper workhorse, taking everything that you can throw at it, including high-performance gaming. I even played a bunch of different games in a bunch of different ways without issue whatsoever.

Couple the heart of the POCO F3 with some supporting specs like up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage, and nearly every type of typical smartphone user will have enough room to get work done, watch a ton of stuff, and comfortably play all of the games available in the Google Play Store in the foreseeable future. The heart of this phone is really its main draw, and POCO continues to give it the right attention.

POCO F3 app drawer

Cutting just enough

The other layer to that attention is making sure their offerings are affordable. POCO prices this phone at around $400 US, which again begs the question of ‘what do you prioritize the most?’ Well, POCO paints the picture for you and all other manufacturers as to what the answer could be.

Let’s start with the display. It’s a large but vibrant AMOLED display that isn’t QuadHD resolution. Most of you out there won’t mind, and for everyone else, when you remind yourself of the price, it makes perfect sense. A higher resolution is a norm in high-end smartphones, but as POCO’s flagship, the F3 doesn’t see it that way — instead, the company puts more focus on the AMOLED offering because it is not something you get in the other phone they released, the X3 Pro.

AMOLED helps MIUI achieve always-on display capabilities on top of making nearly all viewing enjoyable. The other specific inclusions include the 120hz refresh rate, which makes the experience silky smooth in both interface and gaming. Speaking of gaming, 360hz touch sampling ensures that you have accurate and ultra-responsive results when playing. All of this is to say that the display has just enough of what you could call luxuries stripped away while leaving a clear picture of what many users will find essential to their viewing and touch experience. Sure, you can look past all of this give and take and strive for even high-powered displays, but then the price will go up in a hurry.

POCO F3 home screen

Admittedly, there are a few other places where the cuts get a little deeper. POCO did away with the headphone jack, opting for the USB-C adapter route. Thankfully, the speakers are quite good, as the F3 has a stereo setup via the grills on the top and bottom. The onboard storage is fixed without an SD card slot.

The 4,520mAh battery, which actually gave me impressive runtimes, is charged by an included 33W fast wired brick and cable — however, wireless charging is completely omitted. Another luxury, sure, but still something worth noting. These are all things you have to consider when looking at the POCO F3 — your priorities might set you on a different path with a completely different price point, but I think POCO did a great job of creating a package of essentials that make us all question just how much we actually need certain features or luxuries.

Making MIUI look like my UI

Some thoughts on the software before we get to the place where POCO definitely and famously dials things back. MIUI, with the POCO Launcher, in this case, is more or less business as usual — but that’s in terms of MIUI’s recent developments and in the scope of other Android iterations.

POCO F3 review

What was once a convoluted and rather overwhelming package of features and design choices is now easier to fathom, at least on the surface. The home screens even bear Google Discover as the extra screen and the many different features MIUI touts are easily accessible but mostly tucked away.

And then you start digging — the robust AoD customizations are always welcome, the notification center and quick settings can actually be split now depending on which side from the top you swipe down from, and the robust theme store makes it easy to really change up the look if you want to get creative. One feature I’ve personally used a ton is floating windows, through which I shrunk certain apps like Telegram and put them in the corner while playing games or watching media. It’s a key feature in the Game Space layer, after all, which gives players access to performance monitoring, game recording, and more.

MIUI still comes with its many extras, including preinstalled games and applications which take some time to remove. And every time you install something from the Play Store, MIUI’s security layer performs a scan and will serve you an ad if you haven’t turned that off yet. Indeed, MIUI is still a service-forward operating system, which might bother some people who don’t want to be fed suggestions or recommendations across portions of the interface. But with some time and a little work, MIUI can be as simple or as showy as you prefer.

POCO F3 cameras

Shutterbugs, look elsewhere

Okay, that brings us to the camera, which can be summed up pretty simply: this is not a package for people who think the cameras make or break the value of a smartphone. That’s not to say the POCO F3 is bad at taking photos and videos, it’s just not going to hold a candle to top-tier smartphones whose cameras get an hour of presentation time during events.

True to current norms, the POCO F3 sports three rear cameras — the main sensor is a 48MP shooter while the supporting sensors are an 8MP ultra-wide and a 5MP macro. Obviously, the best results come from the main sensor, which will do well in good lighting situations as most phones do. Binning brings the results down to 12MP photos, which are also helped along by HDR and post-processing.

All of this lends to decent lower light photos, too, before you move over to the actual dedicated Night Mode. The other sensors are decidedly lesser experiences, with the ultra-wide providing the dramatic looks but far less detail and quality. And finally, the macro lens is a novelty shooter that gets you close to subjects and fairly decent results as long as you have a really steady hand.

POCO F3 back

So, clearly, this is not a phone for avid smartphone creators — instead, it’s the example of the axiom ‘the best shooter is the one on you.’ When you do need to get a quick shot or a memory, you have a capable main shooter that won’t excel in quality or resolution but will get you that snapshot or simple video. That also goes for selfies via the 20MP front-facing shooter.

There will be no 4K, or perfect portrait cutouts using this smartphone, but I would venture to say many of you watching this will be okay with that — besides, if high creation was your first need, you probably already knew not to look toward POCO for it. Casual creatives — maybe those who do enjoy their social media from time to time — can have a good time with the POCO F3, since MIUI’s camera app does afford this shooter plenty of options for having fun, including dual video recording, the clone mode, and the recently introduced Movie Effects. The camera might not be the best, but again — that was never meant to be the point.

POCO F3 review

Short expense for the long term

The point, then, was to make a phone that was compelling enough in all the right ways to appeal to the most common type of user — the one looking for a balance between everyday work or enjoyment and the price.

Every phone manufacturer has its ways of tackling this equation, and often it’s at the expense of the overall performance. But those phones around this price point often go obsolete quickly in multiple spec departments, especially the camera. It seems POCO sought to just embrace that truth and make sure that their flagship phone can still be one you can rely on years from now since the powerful Snapdragon 870 is sure to handle all that Android demands of it for years to come.

Other phones with midrange processors, less active software development, and even more dialed back specifications will require a replacement once their essentials begin to show signs of slowing down. And that’s all before the cameras even factor in. The POCO F3 is far from the perfect phone, and that was by design — because it might be the perfect example of the phone to get when the balance of high performance and low price outweigh everything else.

 

The post POCO F3 review: the BEST bang for buck? (video) appeared first on Pocketnow.

It's only fair to share...Share on RedditShare on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on Tumblr

Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review: best earbuds? (video)

Anton D. Nagy contributed to this Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review.

With the release of the Galaxy S21 line, Samsung also introduced an update to their truly wireless earbuds. Despite having quite a few options in the lineup — ranging from long battery life to simple sound to interesting bean designs, Samsung decided that they would put all of that together to create their version of a Pro earbud. I have already done a Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review over on my channel, but weeks later I have a couple of extra thoughts on these little earbuds.

Let me put this out there right now: despite me saying these aren’t the absolute best I’ve ever used, the Galaxy Buds Pro has become my go-to every day truly wireless earbuds. So let’s talk through that. This is Pocketnow and this is our Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review video

Small yet mighty

The terminology of Pro might make you think that Samsung’s track record of making small earbuds is shifting. Instead, Samsung manages to make earbuds that are basically the same size as the previous Galaxy Buds Live, to the point that style shells for the Live can actually fit on the Buds Pro case.

The overall footprint of the Galaxy Buds Pro is pleasantly small, making for a package that can be thrown easily in any pocket or bag. The case still has some smarts installed, with the USB-C port providing conventional charging on top of the wireless charging capabilities. It’s kind of nice to be able to put the Buds Pro case on a wireless charger while I’m using whatever phone was previously sitting on it — I barely think about how much battery the Live case has, because it’s constantly being topped up. So while it might not have the longevity of the Galaxy Buds+, the give and take means I’ll take the better sound in the Pro despite that sacrifice.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review

The word Pro

Obviously, the actual shape of the Galaxy Buds Pro is different than the Galaxy Beans — in the first move toward what could constitute the word ‘Pro,’ Samsung comes back to an in-ear driver that creates a seal in one’s ears for better-isolated sound. The result inevitably is better bass response, for a bit more bump than before. That’s not to say Samsung completely moved away from the lessons learned with the Buds Live — the Buds Pro still has a small vent that allows for just a little bit of air to filter through so that you don’t have a total and potentially uncomfortable seal. This is something that actually adds to the earbuds’ ambient sound feature, which we’ll get into later.

The Buds Pro has touch-sensitive areas on both earbuds that can be customized in the app, but basically provide just the typical tap and hold controls. Single, double, and triple taps on either earbud give you playlist control while holding either earbud can control volume, activate voice assistance, or change up the sound modes. Either earbud can be used on their own, making for the usual scenario for me where I have one earbud in until it runs out of battery and then switch up to keep the background tunes or podcasts rolling. And finally, if you want to turn on the pairing mode to get the Buds Pro connected to a new device, both earbuds have to be in and pressed until the mode is activated.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review

Samsung sound, now Pro

Now obviously sound and sound mode quality might be different across other people’s I found in my JV review and since then, the Buds Pro provides a great listening experience that works for multiple genres of audio content. Finding the right ear tip for a comfortable but robust seal is the first step toward a good sound experience, and I found the already installed tips to be just fine. The music I generally listen to came through very pleasantly, from hip-hop tunes to poppy R&B to electronic songs from Daft Punk (shouts out to them, end of an era). While I did say that there is better bass this time around, I will also admit that I’m a bit of a bass head especially for my hip-hop songs, so it’s good that in the Samsung app there are equalizer settings — Bass Boost was an obvious choice.

But for yet another layer of immersion on top of the raw sound profile, you get the active noise cancellation. That’s part of the joy of the Buds Pro, as the typical construction finally meets the features of the previous releases and puts them all together. The noise cancellation only works when both buds are in, at which point you can select two levels: high and low. The high setting seems to make the bass response stand out even more, so if you have this on with bass boost, you’re definitely in for a bump.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review

Overall, I’m really happy with the sound of the Galaxy Buds Pro but I have to restate the point I made in my first review: these are not the best-sounding earbuds I’ve ever used — that accolade for me goes to the Sennheiser Momentum 2. They’re also not the best noise-canceling earbuds I’ve ever used — that distinction still goes to the Sony WF1000Xm3. But like I said at the beginning of the video, the Galaxy Buds Pro has become my go-to dailies — and it comes down to how practical they are for my personal utility.

Talk to me

It all has to do with the last sound mode — Ambient Sound. The mode that uses the microphones to funnel in the sounds of the outside world. It’s there so that you can continue engaging comfortably with the outside world, even with both buds in — this is a feature that Samsung took further with detection, where the buds will automatically turn down the volume and max out the ambiance when its sensors and microphones can tell you’re trying to talk to someone. It’s sensitive enough so that the one sentence of ‘sorry, repeat that’ can trigger it.

And while it’s a nice mode to have especially when you’re just jamming out with both buds in, you can forget about singing along with your music. It’s only really useful for those incidental moments like a family member trying to get your attention. I still prefer to have as much environmental awareness as possible. when I’m out and about.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review

Talking to people in the meat space is one thing, but of course, you can use these earbuds and their microphone arrays for voice and video calls. Here is your test of the microphone quality using the Galaxy S21’s Pro Video mode, where the earbuds can be used as the Bluetooth audio input.

My use case

This brings me to my use case. If you want to just have some literal background tunes while running around and getting things done, you can do what I do and have one of the Buds in at half volume with Ambient Sound on max. Let’s call this the multitasker’s scenario, in that I can listen to audiobooks, podcasts, news, or YouTube videos without it fully taking my attention away from the task at hand. I can continue enjoying that content even if I’m walking around in a grocery aisle, without blocking out speaking scenarios with workers or cashiers. And if I need even more open hearing, a quick tap to pause the media is just fine because the maxed out Ambient Sound mode in just one ear lets me comfortably interact.

This is the way I use the Galaxy Buds Pro more than half of the time. The fact that the sound is plenty good to enjoy, the active noise cancellation does a proper job of blocking out the world, AND the ambient sound mode can help me maintain awareness makes these earbuds one of the most satisfyingly versatile pairs I’ve ever used.

Buds Pro in hand

Semi-pro fit?

It’s not all high notes, though, as Samsung’s move to marry multiple features into a Pro model actually makes the Galaxy Buds Pro regress a tiny step backward in the fit department. Don’t get me wrong, I love that these are the more typical earbud design because it means the low-end response is better — but it’s almost as if Samsung prioritized small size over design cues that might help keep the buds in one’s ear.

The Galaxy Buds Live, with all of its quirks, fit really nicely in my ears, while the wingtips of the Galaxy Buds+ gave them that needed a bit of extra security. I appreciate that the overall footprint of these earbuds is so small, but without these little extras, extended-wear times for me eventually mean a bit of sweat internally or externally makes them slip. It can get kind of annoying and considering the vast differences in people’s ear sizes and anatomy, obviously, your mileage will vary.

earbuds in ear

The specter of Samsung

You might have noticed that in this video I’ve been using the Galaxy Buds Pro with a phone that isn’t made by Samsung. The Buds Pro, like most all Samsung accessories, can be used with any Android device as long as you install the companion app. This means installing not just a frontend app, but also some backend services. While all of these things are innate to any Samsung smartphone or tablet, you’ll have to just install the additions to your phone to get the most out of these earbuds.

This includes sound mode switching, the equalizer, getting notifications read aloud, and using the Find My Earbuds feature that blares sounds from each earbud if you forgot to put them back in the case. But for those of you who want the lowest latency, the Gaming Mode feature is only available if you pair these with a Samsung phone. That’s the thing about high featured earbuds like these — Samsung tuned them for best use with a Samsung phone, which makes sense but is something you have to keep in mind.

earbuds in hand

Daily drivers

recommended award

With the occasion of our Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review, we want to take this opportunity and award these earbuds with our Recommended badge for all-around value true-wireless earbuds.

All things considered, the Galaxy Buds Pro provides so many features in a package that sums up the best parts of Samsung’s previous audio products. Even though the fit might be a point of contention, the practical use cases that each and every capability the Buds Pro bring to your ears makes them so useful.

If anything, the $199 price tag is right in the middle between the more affordable offerings that don’t have as many features and the higher-priced competitors that excel in certain departments like noise cancellation and battery life. Despite each particular part not being the best, Samsung used the sum of those parts to pleasantly achieve the term ‘Pro.’

The post Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review: best earbuds? (video) appeared first on Pocketnow.

Are you excited for the Pixel 4?

It's only fair to share...Share on RedditShare on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on Tumblr

TK Bay and JV catch up for a bit while lamenting over some iOS troubles, despite how impressed they are by the cameras. But it is just an appetizer to the main course of this episode, which is the upcoming Google Pixel 4! So much of the phone has already been leaked — and in some cases, straight up provided by Google — so the mystery surrounding the upcoming might be a bit low. However, the excitement seems to still be high!

Here is the video on XDA regarding the Android 10 Live Caption feature!

Enjoy a video version of the show in our YouTube version and keep the discussion going by answering our question in the comments section! We encourage you to listen in on the whole conversation below or by tuning in via your favorite podcasting application. We are on Google, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts, via direct download, and more!

Produced and hosted by

Joshua Vergara

Guests

TK Bay (XDA)

The post Are you excited for the Pixel 4? appeared first on Pocketnow.

It's only fair to share...Share on RedditShare on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on Tumblr