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

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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.

 

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OnePlus 9 Pro review: they almost nailed it! (video)

Anton D. Nagy contributed to this OnePlus 9 Pro review.

This is the OnePlus 9 Pro, and by all counts, I think this is the phone the company has wanted to make for years. The product that will establish them more as part of the cool kids, where we see more established players like Samsung and Apple. Companies that have gained enough brand recognition to become status symbols, that have earned customer loyalty for years.

The biggest question is if this is the phone we’ve wanted them to make. This is the company that became famous for flagship killers. Products that defied that establishment with better value at acceptable compromise. There’s even proof that the strategy worked as we saw companies like Google, Apple, and Samsung diversify their lineups in order to launch their own sort of affordable flagships.

Now, in their defense, that flagship killer does exist in the OnePlus 9, which is such a dramatic improvement from before, that it deserves its own separate review. The Pro is more a showcase of everything the company can do, and I think the only way to judge it correctly is to forget the past. I get the impression that OnePlus is so certain of the 9 Pro’s capabilities, that this is the most expensive phone they’ve ever made. This price bracket is tough because we even debate the Apples and Samsungs that created it. That would mean that this phone is better than those, not just for the price, and there’s only one way to find out. This is our OnePlus 9 Pro review, in both video and text format.

OnePlus 9 Pro review video

Even if we’re going clean slate, the OnePlus 9 Pro seems like a blend of many successful ideas from the past. I think Huawei was first at calling any of its phones a Pro, and actually owning that title. Their reputation for cheap phones was so bad in the early days that I wouldn’t even care to review any of them before the Nexus 6P or P10, but then we saw the company drift so dramatically towards quality and capability, that they became a driving force that was hard to be ignored.

I mean, the P40 Pro Plus was my favorite camera on a phone last year. It also demonstrated the importance of co-branding with photography experts like Zeiss on Nokia and Leica on HUAWEI to prove that they’re taking photography seriously. What’s different with OnePlus is that this would be the youngest company to try to do all this, and for Hasselblad, a second chance at getting this right.

OnePlus 9 Pro review

Hardware

Visually, I’m gonna call this my favorite design on a OnePlus phone, ever. No more aggressive camera humps to wobble much on a table, and a far lighter build that feels more balanced in the hand. I’m not sure if it’s the cutout or the co-branding on it, but this phone looks like one of those classic Chevies from the 50s and 60s. I think the morning mist color plays a huge role in that appearance from the top, but the bottom is a mirror that made filming this phone a nightmare.

It does have this cool way of making fingerprints almost blend with the gradient, but I recommend you consider the other matte color options. Still, staples like the three-way mute slider are still here to remind you that this is a OnePlus phone.

OnePlus 9 Pro in hand

From the front, we have the company’s best display on a phone. Dubbed its Fluid Display 2.0, we’re talking OLED with fewer curves, 10-bit color, 1300 nits of brightness, QuadHD+ resolution, and LTPO, so the variable refresh rate can go from 1 to 120hz based on your usage, and we have up to 360hz touch sampling for gaming. Certifications include HDR10+ from the panel and even Dolby Atmos from the speakers for content consumption. Oh, and by the way, this includes Qualcomm’s new Aqstic platform for improved wireless performance.

And since we began talking specs, In typical OnePlus fashion we also have the latest ones, with the amount of RAM and storage directly tied to how much you’re willing to pay. The latest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, IP68 resistance, Dual flavors of 5G, and even a Dual-Cell battery that enables Warp Charge 65T, meaning crazy fast 65 watt PD from the charger that’s actually included in the box, or 50-watt wireless that’s only possible if you grab the optional stand. Also, that wireless charging is now reversible for accessories.

OnePlus 9 Pro lifestyle

That said, I have a feeling you won’t need to charge this phone much. Testing any phone’s 5G in New York is rough, and even if Google Fi is still not pushing blazing speeds, they were good given the city’s infrastructure. Phone calls were loud and crisp even on Subway stations, but this would be the first OnePlus phone I test that isn’t dual-SIM. It might just be that the T-Mobile approach now became regional, so just keep it in mind. Regardless, after 10 days of testing, this proved to be an all-day phone every single time, no matter how hard I taxed it.

Software

A lot of it has to do with Oxygen OS on top of Android 11. Even if OnePlus is not as quick as Google at pushing you new versions of Android, they’ve been number 2 for at least two years. It’s fast, aesthetically pleasing, includes the Google Feed on the launcher, the Power Menu in the power button, but then has its own set of perks focused on flexibility.

Never Settle speedtest

You can easily switch to Amazon’s assistant, you have Reading Mode which is still one of my favorites, Zen Mode to force you to take a break from your phone every now and then. Maybe my favorite is to use facial recognition to only show me notifications on the lock screen when it detects it’s me, and the fact that the optical fingerprint scanner on the display can also be used to lock specific apps.

Camera

But alright, if anything the first part of this review proves that this is very much a OnePlus phone in everything we’re used to, which is great. I’ve always been a big fan of using them and was accustomed to accepting the OK cameras because the price was just too good. Now we have a Hasselblad collaboration, and a retail ticket to match, and if you were to look at the spec sheet, OnePlus is not playing around. The Primary sensor is one of the best Sony makes right now, the Ultra-Wide is also the best on any phone right now, which doubles as a Macro camera, and even if the Telephoto is not designed to honor all the lunar marketing prowess that Hasselblad is known for, it looks pretty good on paper.

camera lifestyle

The results are.. Well, good depending on your scenario. If you have enough light you’ll get the typical photos you’ll expect from any phone with great color, contrast, and detail. In close-ups or macro shots, you get some really good dynamic range, though it can blow out colors when taxed too hard. The problem is that the slightest gloom will somehow have the camera software favor light over the shutter. This makes it really hard to capture detail unless you have a steady hand, and the darker it gets, the more the color tuning gets in the way of the detail.

And sure, inconsistencies are expected when switching focal lengths since each is a different sensor, but in some cases, even saturation varies. It’s as if the software magnifies the grain and sometimes makes a dark vehicle look cartoony. If you like to take photos of animals you’ll find yourself frustrated. I get the impression that the software wants to push that Hasselblad contrast so much that it forgets that all that is pointless without detail. Just keep in mind that on the phone they’ll mostly look good. My findings are when you pull these shots into a computer and compare them to other flagships.

Hasselblad

That means that obviously at night, finding detail only becomes more difficult. Some photos are good, some are not. The way light reflections are handled could have a lot to do with it, again, because of that slower shutter being used.

You’ll see what I mean in portrait shots where unless your hand is ultra steady, the detail will be lost. Same story with Selfies where I struggle to find any shot that I can say I like as skin tones are just completely gone over this sort of hue the camera is trying to bring in how it handles light.

In video, sure, you have 8K and I love that the ultra-wide sensor is good enough to assist, pushing a far better crop than Samsung. You also have 4K at 60 and even 120 to get some really smooth cinematic shots. Just make sure you have enough light as that will require more shutter work.

OnePlus 9 Pro and OnePlus 9

Stabilization is somewhat inconsistent though, with some video working well and some not so well, so just keep that in mind. Really my problem is having selfie video that’s 16 times lower in resolution than what the primary cameras can do, throwing the versatility of what you can do with this phone just out the window if you care about being able to frame yourself in-home movies.

In photos, I feel a software update is needed urgently, and in selfie video, I mean the megapixels are there, and if the OnePlus Nord can do 4K, seriously the flagship should too.

OnePlus 9 Pro review conclusion

To conclude, I think that OnePlus has achieved a lot of what it intended with this launch. If the desire was to prove that it could launch a true flagship that competes against the premium sector, the hardware is all there, and all it needs is a bit more software tuning to become one of the best Android phones you can buy right now.

Warp Charging

The only problem is perception, and it has a lot to do with how young the brand is. I asked at least 5 friends that were average consumers to pick between the 9 Pro and the iPhone 12 Pro or the Galaxy S21 Plus, which are almost the same price, and none of them picked the OnePlus. Sadly, if the 9 Pro is not really a better phone, or doesn’t have a halo feature that makes those other phones look bad, once you remove the value proposition from the equation, it’s a hard sell.

For sure, in cases like photography, it has Improved a bit, but not completely. And then if the company chooses to trail behind in things like selfie video at a time when social media is a huge part of our lives, then why should you pay more for the 9 Pro if a regular iPhone 12 can tackle these things for less money? If there was one product that needed that whole Never Settle mentality, it’s this one.

OnePlus 9 Pro in hand

If you’re a OnePlus fan, I have no problem recommending the 9 Pro. It’s definitely the best phone they’ve ever made and we know the company is speedy about software updates to address the shortcomings. Now, if you’re not, you might want to consider what features you care about most before choosing this over any of its flagship competitors.

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OPPO Find X3 Pro review: the wow got conventional (video)

Anton D. Nagy contributed to this post.

For the longest time, the OPPO Find lineup has been more about Finding innovation than restraint. The Find 7 wowed many of us with its specs and QuadHD display for the time. The Find X was… Well, crazy. It took the design and motorized cameras more seriously than any other, and then the Find X2 Pro didn’t just go Periscopic but also taught the new kids how to do it in a compact body. There’s never been anything conventional about them, so of course, it creates this sort of expectation of another vanguard phone for 2021. 

Well, this is the Find X3 Pro, what OPPO dubs as the Billion Color phone, and what I’m gonna call one of the sleekest, best-looking phones of the year so far, but not necessarily what I’d call a successor to what made the brand popular. So yeah, it’s not crazy, there’s no wow factor, but if refinement was the intent, there’s a lot of that here. This is our OPPO Find X3 Pro review.

You know, I saw the leaks, and sure, I also thought it looked a lot like an iPhone, but I think that’s a huge oversimplification. See, usually, smartphones in this category are large and chunky just to fit all their hardware, but this is probably the thinnest and lightest flagship I’ve tried yet.

Hardware

To provide some context, it’s just 193 grams, making it around 35 to 36 grams lighter than the 12 Pro Max and S21 Ultra respectively. It’s also just 8.2mm thick, leaving the Ultra trailing behind at 8.9, though the 7.4mm on iPhone is hard to catch up with. I don’t usually make a big deal about these things, but because the body is narrower than average, somehow the weight distribution makes this phone feel almost hollow and effortless to use. 

OPPO Find X3 Pro review

Now, it does seem like if 2021 is the year of the contour camera, but this is a very different approach. There’s a whole scientific explanation into how it takes 40 hours and more than 100 processes to create this kind of a curve, and I like it. It’s more cohesive and helps prevent lint from being stuck in the corners. If anything I’d say the curves make the hump look larger than it is because it doesn’t really protrude much. It is elegant, I’ll give you that, but that’s so long as you can keep it clean. I might recommend you try the Blue option cause this Gloss Black color doesn’t do so well in that department. Also, I don’t have a specific rating for the back, but I do know the front is Gorilla Glass 5.

Now the whole claim for the Billion Colors starts with this display. Last year’s Find X2 Pro was my favorite display on a phone, edging out every competitor in contrast ratio, and the legacy continues. This is a stunning 6.7-inch Quad HD OLED capable of 10-bit color, 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, HDR10+, 1,300 nits of brightness, and the same 5 million to 1 contrast ratio from last year. Colors, brightness, and viewing angles are seriously fantastic, and because it’s LTPO, you also have a variable refresh rate between 5 and 120hz at more power efficiency, and 240hz touch sampling. Match this with tiny and symmetrical bezels allowing for 92.7% of screen to body ratio, and a good pair of dual firing speakers, and yeah, content consumption is great. There’s also a very fast but not as reliable face to unlock through the punch hole, and an optical fingerprint scanner at the very bottom of the display to unlock it easier while wearing a mask.

OPPO Find X3 Pro review

Internals are also that of your typical high-end flagship, with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, 12 gigs of RAM, 256 gigs of non-expandable storage, Dual-SIM 5G that supports all flavors, the latest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a large 4,500 mAh battery, VOOC rapid charging up to 65 watts and yes it comes in the box. Finally, some wireless charging up to 30 watts if you have AirVOOC which is optional, it’s reversible up to 10 watts, and yeah, IP68 water and dust resistance are in tow.

Software and Experience

 This is Color OS 11.2 running on top of Android 11, which sure is not stock Android, but not really far from it. The UI elements are still mostly OPPO, but the more you use it, the more you realize just how much Google-ified it is. You have the Google feed to the left of the launcher, there’s an option to call on the Google Assistant from the power button, and you can also set an app tray if that’s your jam. Other features are actually welcomed, like using your fingerprint to unlock your Private Safe or specific apps, in addition to calling on shortcuts with a gesture. A side menu for quick shortcuts, and other enhancements like Game Space and OPPO Relax 2.0.

OPPO Find X3 Pro review

Really all you care about is that the UI doesn’t bog down the experience, and that’s the case here. Apps launch fast, animations are minor so it all feels smooth, and as a result, I feel battery life is pretty good. After a week of testing on Google Fi, I’ve been able to end my days with enough of a charge left, no overheating, though even with all the 5G antennas included, I can’t say I ever got 5G to work. Fi is still finicky about the phones it supports with it, even leaving iPhones off the list, so I’ll attribute that to my problem. 

Camera

Now let’s talk cameras for a bit, cause that’s another reason for the Billion Color tagline. OPPO and Sony co-engineered a new 50-megapixel IMX766 sensor that’s capable of 10-bit color, but this is actually the first phone to include two of them. One for the primary camera, and the other for the ultra-wide. This makes a lot of sense cause if you think about it, in a mirror-less camera you can change lenses to provide different focal lengths, but image quality is never affected cause the sensor doesn’t. I wish that were the case with the telephoto, which took a step back from being periscopic. I’ll let the results do the talking, and we’ll discuss that fourth camera in a bit.

OPPO Find X3 Pro review

At first, I thought they just looked great because the display made them look good, but once you pull them into a computer, the results remain consistent. As expected daylight photos are great, but OPPO is playing with a bit more contrast in its color science, creating this sort of Leica grain that I’m really liking. It makes colors like red look bolder and more elegant. It plays in its favor mostly when switching focal lengths since you’re losing aperture on the other cameras, so the grain sort of compensates for the loss in detail in the shadows. Having the same sensor in the Ultra-wide leads to color consistency, and even if there’s one less element on the lens, there is nearly no distortion on the sides. And sure, we lost the periscopic zoom lens, but I’d say photos even up to 5X hybrid are really good, though I do suggest you stay away from 20X digital.

In low light, I’d say this phone performs better than most. These would be the only ultra-wide photos I’d recommend at night, providing results that are almost on-par with the Primary. Obviously the darker it gets the harder it is given the differences in aperture, but I’m very impressed overall. It’s not until you jump to the telephoto that things start falling apart, but it’s the story with every other phone.

OPPO Find X3 Pro review

Oddly, I’m a fan of selfies, but not of selfie portraits. Somehow the latter needs some serious tuning as all dynamic range is blown off, something every other competing phone solved generations ago.

And sadly, it’s the same way I feel about the video. I mean, the back camera can go up to 4K at 60 providing some decent results with good stabilization and colors, but I’m gonna apologize right now for the selfie video footage. No stabilization, pretty regular dynamic range, and it’s still stuck at 1080p, which again is something that competitors addressed ages ago.

OPPO Find X3 Pro review

As for camera number 4, well this is a Microlens that allows up to 60x magnification and even records Full HD video of, well, the weave that makes up my mouse pad. It uses a circular ring light to help you get really close to your subject, but aside from learning that my hankies were not really 100% cotton, this is more of a gimmick given the low resolution of the results. 

OPPO Find X3 Pro review conclusion

To conclude our OPPO Find X3 Pro review, I think the best way to summarize the OPPO Find X3 Pro is by calling it the most mature flagship in this lineup. I mean sure the wow factor is gone, but I think it was done on purpose. During our briefing, we asked why features like the periscopic lens were taken away, and the engineers claimed that users didn’t use it as much as the primary or the ultra-wide. It kind of makes sense for the complexity to be removed if it’s an extra value that’s under-utilized.


Because of its great design, superb display, a great set of cameras,
and excellent battery life,
the OPPO Find X3 Pro is our choice
for a great overall flagship smartphone.


Maybe the reason why I disagree with that approach is that I feel the industry needs phones like the ones this lineup used to stand for. Not all features will stick around for an extra year or two, but the only way to live in the future is through experimentation. If it wasn’t for those motorized cameras or periscopic lenses, I don’t think other manufacturers would’ve adopted the technology. It’s proof that OPPO was actually delivering on useful ideas and not the usual gimmicks we get from other manufacturers.

Regardless, if I were to judge the Find X3 Pro as a flagship, it’s a great phone. From the look and feel of the hardware to the experience with the software, it’s a joy to use. If photography is your thing, it’s one of the best phones on my list, even if I wish all my needs for video were addressed. Sure, I was expecting a bit more than just another flagship with this phone, but that doesn’t deter me from the fact that I have no problem recommending it. 

OPPO Find X3 Pro review OPPO Find X3 Pro review OPPO Find X3 Pro review OPPO Find X3 Pro review OPPO Find X3 Pro review OPPO Find X3 Pro review OPPO Find X3 Pro review

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HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro review: keeps getting better and better

If you’ve been following HUAWEI and its development over the past quinquennial, you know very well that the two flagships, the spring P-series, and the autumn Mate-series are two different animals.

The P40 – which earned our Road Warrior award for the Pro version, and the Best Camera of 2020 for the Pro+ variant – is aimed towards the creative, focusing on multimedia and photography. The Mate-series is the one pushing the limits of performance. It is also the device that usually introduces the latest iteration of the Kirin chipset, and other advancements.

That has certainly been the case with the Mate 40 Pro, bringing even more power to the palm of your hands. Three months after starting using it, this is our HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro review, long-term.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review

Design

HUAWEI decided to spruce up the color palette of the Mate 40 Pro, offering it in White, Black, Olive Green, Sunflower Yellow, and the very interesting, chameleonic, Mystic Silver we have over here.

This color option shifts shades from dull silver all the way to red, through orange, yellow, green, and starting from blue. It’s got most of the colors in the spectrum if the proper light hits it at the right angle. The matte finish of the glass also helps keep fingerprints to a decent amount.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review

The display is curved towards the edges, and so are all the extremities of the back panel. This makes the phone incredibly easy to grab, and ergonomic. The buttons are easily reachable with the power button on the lower side being painted in vibrant red. The volume rockers are placed towards the top, but you also have the option to control output via the virtual buttons on the left side of the display.

At first, I didn’t know what to think about the round, Oreo-like camera arrangement on the back, with the Leica branding in its middle, painted with the same color-shifting shade as the rest of the phone’s backside. I guess this makes it a circle, rather than a disc or an Oreo. You catch my drift. HUAWEI calls it “the Space Ring”.

Overall, we think HUAWEI nailed it with the design, materials, and overall finish of the Mate 40 Pro. That is why Pocketnow decided to honor the HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro with its Editor’s Choice Award for design.

Specs

The Mate 40 Pro, as the case with any Mate model before it, is a beast. It is powered by the 5nm octa-core last-gen Kirin 9000 processor, which contains a 24-core Mali G78 GPU, three NPUs, as well as modems capable of operating on most 5G networks and frequencies. 

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review

Couple that with 8GB of RAM and future-proofing just got an entirely new meaning. It also features 256GB of storage, and a 4,400mAh battery capable of 66W wired, and 50W fast wireless charging.

The display is a gorgeous 6.76-inch OLED panel with an FHD+ resolution of 2772 x 1344 pixels and a max refresh rate of 90Hz. Aside from the fact that it’s a gorgeous display, it is also extremely curved around the edges, to the point where content flows over almost to a 90-degree angle.

Underneath the display, you’ll find a fingerprint scanner that is fast and accurate and gives you an easy alternative to unlock your phone in case facial recognition fails, you know, due to the fact that you’re wearing a mask most of the time when you’re out.

Just in case HUAWEI needed to prove that they really mean business with the Mate 40 Pro, they packed a total of 5 cameras, 3 on the back and 2 on the front.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review

On the back, you’ll find a trio of 50MP Ultra Vision Camera (Wide Angle, f/1.9 aperture),  20MP Cine Camera (Ultra-Wide Angle, f/1.8 aperture), and 12MP Telephoto Camera (f/3.4 aperture, OIS), as well as the LED flash.

On the front, inside the oval pill-shaped cutout, there’s a 13MP Ultra Vision Selfie Camera (Wide Angle, f/2.4), as well as the 3D Depth Sensing Camera.

Performance

I’ll be honest, I haven’t handled a smartphone snappier than the Mate 40 Pro in the past 12 months. Whether it’s the fast processor, the amount of memory, or EMUI 11 (or a combination of all the aforementioned), I really don’t know, but it’s wicked!

Throw at it whatever you want and it will instantly execute without breaking a sweat. It does that both fresh after a restart as well as running without a reboot for days.

We won’t bore you with benchmarks and other analytical information (there are other reviews out there that specifically focus on that) as we here at Pocketnow believe in real-life performance.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review

Now, whether you’re playing a demanding game, like Asphalt 9 Legends, or you have several other applications running in the background, you won’t feel any lag, delay, or hiccups.

While we weren’t able to test out 5G due to the lack of service in this particular region, we can safely say that the same performance is translated to WiFi and 4G as well. Data speeds are right there at the upper limit of what the service provider guarantees. Phone calls and general call audio is crisp and clear, and limited only by the quality of your service provider (for instance Hi-Fi voice is only available if both parties’ phones, and their carriers, support it). That is not the case with calls placed on WhatsApp or Facebook, where the quality is crisp and clear.

This brings us to the speakers. The Mate 40 Pro has a pair of rather powerful speakers, one at the top, and one at the bottom, for stereo effect. They are not only loud, but they produce a rather surprising high-quality sound, considering where that sound is coming from (a phone). 

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review

HUAWEI has literally spoiled us with the performance of the cameras it equips its phones with. The triple-camera setup on the Mate 40 Pro is no different. It is needless to say that it’s one of the best camera phones out there, competing head to head with its other siblings in the Mate 40 line-up, as well as the P40 lineup.

Regardless of what you decide to capture for posterity, the Mate 40 Pro will not disappoint, let it be landscapes, close-ups, portraits, etc. Colors are accurate, contrast and depth are spot-on, and with the improved focal length of the ultra-wide camera, you’ll get great results. These are also due to the free form lens Huawei decided to use on the Mate 40 Pro, where an uneven shape is utilized to reduce and sometimes completely remove distortions.

HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro zoom increment samples

HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro miscellaneous camera shots

When it comes to the telephoto lens, you have the option to zoom in optically up to 5X. Since it’s an optical zoom, and it’s heavily stabilized, the quality of the pictures is exceptional. There’s also the option to go further with digital zoom, but we’d advise you to keep it towards the lower end.

And, again, when it comes to low light, Huawei does such a great job that oftentimes night photos are as bright as if they were taken at dawn or sunrise. 

HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro night shots (pitch black, all zoom ranges, handheld)

Turning to the front we can only commend Huawei for opting for a wide-angle lens for the selfie camera. It makes it easy to frame your shot, as well as gather more people inside the same frame, should you decide to not distance yourself socially.

HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro selfie shots

Selfies snapped can often benefit from the effects you choose to apply, but you’ll be satisfied with the results even if you opt not to utilize one.

Experience

This elephant in this same room has been addressed so many times before that I feel I’m writing the same paragraphs every time I review a modern HUAWEI smartphone.

Yes, it’s Google! I won’t beat the same dead horse once again. The status quo has become the “norm”, so I think it’s time the world shifts from a complaining/wishful thinking/criticizing mindset to just accepting the product for what it is.

EMUI 11 is based on AOSP Android 11, and, instead of Google Play, you get your apps officially from the HUAWEI AppGallery, or unofficially (at your own risk) from one of the various services out there.

We touched on this topic in detail in at least two of our recent reviews with the occasion of the HUAWEI P40 Pro and Mate 30 Pro. Read any of those (heck, read both!) for more details on the topic.

So instead, we’ll be looking at the present and the future. HUAWEI is not only committed to, but has already proven that it can build a solid alternative ecosystem. The AppGallery is expanding every day and yes, while it’s still far behind the Play Store, chances are more and more apps are available every day, slowly filling in the gap.

Solid Google Maps alternatives are represented by TomTom and Here Maps, local banking apps are being added (localized to each country), Bolt is available as an Uber alternative, so yes, there’s an app gap, but it’s closing slowly to the point where the absence of Google and its services is really manageable.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review

HUAWEI did a nifty little thing with Quick Apps. You go to a website, like YouTube for instance, and it loads the mobile version of the page (which is pretty much as close as you can get to the mobile app functionality-wise). With Quick Apps, you can send that page directly to your home screen, retaining the icon and everything, so for an untrained eye it would seem like it’s the regular app you have installed.

You can do that with Google Maps, Gmail, and pretty much every other service that has a mobile-optimized web offering. Trust me, even if one or two features are missing (which is on the company that’s offering the service, not HUAWEI), it’s as close as it gets.

HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro review: conclusion

Sure, I’ve been commending and recommending modern HUAWEI smartphones for years now. Their solid build quality, great design, snappy performance, stellar cameras, and the all around experience makes it easy to recommend them hardware-wise.

But it’s the software and services that really made me hold back just a little in recommending a purchase, especially for those who are not advanced users to the point where you can make this work by spending a little extra time and tinkering with the software.

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review

This has now changed thanks to HUAWEI’s efforts. Sure, the product is continuously improving hardware-wise from the predecessor to successor, and that’s easy to recommend, but it’s the company’s software and ecosystem efforts that allow me to finally recommend HUAWEI’s flagship without major reservations, and I think that’s the most important conclusion to our HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro review.

And the thing is, with top-notch hardware components inside the Mate 40 Pro, it’s future proof enough to where it will still be a top performer down the line when the HMS ecosystem will continue developing into what HUAWEI’s vision is down the road.

You can purchase the Mate 40 Pro outside of the US from HUAWEI’s store (where available) or partner retailers. In the US, it currently goes for $1,348 on Amazon.

HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro review: Pros and Cons

Pros:
+ excellent build and design;
+ exceptional cameras;
+ great battery life;
+ powerful speakers.

Cons:
– a tad on the expensive side;
– some apps might not be available yet.

The post HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro review: keeps getting better and better appeared first on Pocketnow.

XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro Review

For creators these days, a pen-based interface is pretty important. It has a much more direct interaction method versus traditional mouse or trackpad interactions. The old mouse and trackpad are disconnected from the information that you’re actually interacting with on the screen. Touch displays solve that to some degree, but fingers are big and clunky. A more-precise stylus provides much more accuracy. We’ve covered some Wacom displays here on Pocketnow before, and I’ve personally been a big fan of since starting as a graphic designer in the late 1900’s. Today, we get to review a competitor to Wacom’s high-end pen displays in the form of the XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro. I’ve always sworn by Wacom pen tablets/displays, so it will be very interesting to see how the XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro compares, especially since its price is considerably less than a comparable Wacom pen display.

Specs

The Artist 24 Pro’s screen size is about 23.8 inches diagonally which is 20.74 x 11.67″. The display resolution is a nice 2560 x 1440 pixels. In terms of the whole monitor’s size, it’s 24.88 x 14.57 x 1.76 inches. For color gamut options, we’ve got an awesome 90% of Adobe RGB color gamut! You can also use 88% NTSC or 120% sRGB with a color depth of 16.7 million. The contrast ratio is 1000:1 and the response time is 14ms. The viewing angle is about 178 degrees and you can get a brightness level of 250 cd/m2. There’s a 100x100mm VESA mount, too. The stylus doesn’t require a battery and supports 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity as well as 60 degrees of tilt sensitivity.

What’s in the box

The XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro includes a slew of wires and accessories for connecting the display to your computer.

If you have a display port capable USB-C port, you can use the USB-C to USB-C cable in the middle of the above photo to connect the pen display directly to your computer. This works really well and supports the full resolution of the display. If you don’t have a USB-C display port, you’ll have to use the USB-A to USB-C cable on the left to connect to your PC for data transfer AND you’ll have to use the HDMI cable on the right to connect to your GPU. If you have to use the HDMI cable, then you’ll probably only get a 1920 x 1080 pixel display resolution, so it’s better to have a USB-C display port.

You actually get two pens for the Artist 24 Pro! There’s a big cylindrical case to use to keep one safe as well.

The other end of the pen case also unscrews to reveal 8 spare pen tips for when you wear out the one that’s already in the pen.

All of the ports you’ll need are on the back in the above inset area. You’ll need the DC power whether you use the USB-C display port or not. There are two additional USB-A ports here (labeled “Host”) which you can use to connect other peripherals such as a keyboard or whatever.

Hardware and Design

First of all, the 90% Adobe RGB color gamut is beautiful. Getting as close to 100% Adobe RGB as possible is very important for photographers and graphic designers. It’s a wider color gamut than you would get with other monitors or laptops. The Adobe RGB color gamut is an improvement over Apple’s DCI P3 color gamut as well.

The Artist 24 Pro ships with a screen protector over the monitor display area, and that screen protector sheet was very reflective. I was much happier after peeling off the protective plastic which revealed a beautifully anti-glare screen. This is so much better than using iMac’s or Macbook Pro’s which have extremely reflective screens. The Artist 24 Pro diffuses ceiling light reflections really nicely. It’s a joy to work with. Still, I like to keep the ceiling lights off and use a well-placed lamp for room lighting in order to avoid glare completely.

The display looks great, but what about the pen interaction interface? Well, that works great as well. Windows 10 has pretty good inking and pen interaction usability, except for a few bugs that were added in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. The Artist 24 Pro software driver has some good workarounds for Windows 10’s problems, and we’ll talk more about those in the Software section below.

Let’s talk about those express keys and roller dials in the bezels though! There are 10 express keys on each side! That’s 20 programmable hardware buttons. Twenty!! There’s also a dial on both left and right bezels and this too can be programmed to control whatever you want.

The bezel buttons feel great. Not only do they have nice tactile feedback, but they also have some texture differentiators. As seen above, one button has a dot protrusion while another has a dash protrusion. This helps you identify the location of your express key buttons simply by touch. You can keep your eyes on the display and what you’re doing with the pen, while feeling for the programmed controls you’re looking for by using touch alone. This is a huge efficiency booster. Most people use regular keyboard shortcuts for this kind of thing, but being able to program your own hardware buttons to do the things you want is a huge advantage. If you’re left-handed, you can program the buttons on the right side to be your most-used functions, while if you’re right-handed, you can program the buttons on the left side to be your most-used functions.

Wacom’s Cintiq Pro 24 doesn’t have this many programmable bezel buttons at all. It doesn’t have any. Instead, they sell a separate programmable remote that you can hold in your non-dominant hand. Personally, I kind of like the bezel buttons since they’re built-in, don’t require charging, and won’t be as easy to lose as a wireless remote.

20 programmable express keys to memorize is an awful lot though. Some people make stickers to place on the buttons so it’s easier to remember what they do. I might start with programming only 5 of them since that would be easier to memorize and personally, I was really happy with the 6 programmable bezel express keys on my Wacom Mobile Studio Pro 13.

Pen accuracy is quite good as well. It’s very precise and very smooth. The pen has two hardware buttons that you can program as well, but it does not have an eraser on the back end. Also note, that XP-Pen includes a nice drawing glove for resting your hand on the display without getting sweaty hand grease all over. Excellent touch including this!

The included stand attached to the back is very robust. There’s a lever at the top that unlocks the stand’s angle.

It’s easy to pull the lever forward with one hand and lift or lower the display to whatever angle you want. Release the lever to lock the stand in place at the desired angle.

The top right corner is where some normal monitor controls are located. The button on the right is the power button. To the left of that is a display settings menu button that looks like a hamburger. Then there are + and – buttons for navigating the settings menu and changing things like brightness or contrast.

A small clip style pen holder is included, but it’s not so obvious how to use it.

It turns out there are two little rubber circular insets on the left and right sides of the monitor. If you pry the little piece of rubber out, a screw hole appears behind it. You’ll need a flat head screwdriver to screw the pen holder clip into the side.

Even though I tightened the screw, the clip still spins and wobbles, so maybe I didn’t install it properly. I didn’t see any instructions about this aspect of the tablet. Anyway, you might want to buy a different kind of stylus holder. I think I would prefer a desk-top stand that holds the pen upright for me.

Software

There are two driver versions available for download from the XP-Pen website. At first, I tried the “Official” driver and later tried the “New UI” beta driver. The normal official driver software is shown above. It’s not terribly customizable, but certainly good enough.

The dialogue for programming the bezel express keys and dials is not super intuitive. The keys are labeled with numbers and drop-down menus let you add customized functions. At the top, there’s a row where you can add specific programs and when that program is in focus the buttons will use the customized functions for that program. One issue with this driver is that I can’t program the pen to behave differently in different programs. So for example, the “Windows Ink” option is pretty terrible in certain apps like web browsers, the Windows 10 Photos app, the Windows 10 OneNote app, etc. I would want to turn that off in those programs, and it’s not possible with this software. However…

Later on I decided to uninstall the official driver and try the “new UI” beta driver, and it was much better. The user interface design is obviously different, but my previous complaint about not being able to control the pen behavior on a program-by-program basis is fixed.

The interface for customizing the programmable dials and express keys is much improved in the new software as well.

The Express key customization interface now has labels for where the buttons exist on the bezel, but now there’s side-scrolling for matching the key numbers to new functions.

The new software even has the ability to disable certain aspects of the software completely. Thankfully an import/export for saving your configuration settings is here as well.

The interface for programming the Express keys is very extensive too. By default, one of the pen buttons was assigned to the eraser function, but I was able to change it to a “double left click” function pretty easily here.

Pricing & Availability

The XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro is only about $899.99 USD which is less than half the price of a Wacom Cintiq Pro 24. That’s some significant savings. You can order the Artist 24 Pro from the XP-Pen online stores in the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, and Australia.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • $900 is half the price of something comparable from Wacom
  • 20 programmable Express keys in the bezel
  • Included stand has a great range of angles
  • Gorgeous 90% Adobe RGB color gamut and anti-glare screen
  • USB-C displayport compatible
  • Includes all the accessories you could possibly want
  • Included stand can be replaced with a Vesa mount stand

Cons

  • There’s no easy way to show an overlay of what each of the bezel Express keys is programmed to do while you’re working (in case you forget)
  • Included pen doesn’t have an eraser on the back (hold a button down to erase instead)
  • 90% Adobe RGB isn’t as good as 100% Adobe RGB color gamut
  • Some may prefer a desk top pen holder rather than the included bezel mounted holder

Conclusion

That list of “Cons” above are very minor nitpicks compared to the list of “Pros” which are pretty excellent. As a pen display, the XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro feels very similar to the high-end pen displays from Wacom. The Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 is probably a good competitor. Wacom’s Cintiq Pro 24 has a 99% Adobe RGB color gamut though, plus a higher resolution display, more ports, and there’s a version that also supports touch… but it’s more than double the price of the XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro! So yes, the Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 is better, but is it twice the price better? Maybe not.

If we look at how the XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro compares to something that’s closer to its price range, for example, the Wacom Cintiq 22 for $1200, the Artist 24 Pro still looks like a much better deal at $900 with its better resolution, better color gamut, better bezel buttons, and better stand.

If you’ve been craving a new Wacom pen display for graphics and drawing, but are still saving up for a good one, you just might want to consider an XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro instead.

The post XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro Review appeared first on Pocketnow.

Apple M1 MacBook Pro 2 Months Later – ALMOST Living The Dream!

Anton D. Nagy contributed to this post.

The day was August 1st, 2011… Well, earlier actually. More like 2009. But that’s a story for another video. 2011 is actually my first full day on Pocketnow, and that 13-inch MacBook Pro behind me was what started it all.

Apple’s New MacBook video really sold me on it. You gotta understand that at the time, there were no laptops with multi-touch trackpads, aluminum unibody housings, back-lit keyboards, or LED backlights. This Mac was only one of few, and the only one I could afford.

At the time we were already doing video, and iMovie was fine at first. The problem is when we came up with the idea of the Pocketnow Daily and decided to do multi-layered content. My first ever 3-minute project took one and a half hours to render and export. Nope, I’m not exaggerating. After hours of editing was done, renders took hours on Final Cut 7.

But see, this has been the paradigm of computing for decades. If you want more power to export a video in minutes, portability doesn’t help. You either got a powerful desktop or spent thousands of dollars on a large and heavy laptop. The maxed-out 16-inch MacBook Pro I bought back in September was $4,700, and even with 64 gigs of RAM, a powerful GPU, and fan noise like a jet engine, you make peace with some compromise in performance and battery life.

For years, I’ve dreamed of an ultra-portable laptop like my first Mac, but that could handle all my tasks, last all day on a charge, and not cost an arm and a leg. I knew Apple Silicon was coming, but like every marketing pitch, it sounded too good to be true. Apple has never gotten first-generation products right. I still bought the cheapest models, just out of curiosity, cause I figured they were still not going to fulfill my dream, and well, I was kind of wrong.

Foreword

This is the M1 13-inch MacBook Pro, what Apple calls the future of the Mac, which is actually the least pretentious thing they’ve ever said about a product. After two months of using it, I’m gonna actually go as far as to say it doesn’t do this computer enough justice.

I’m not gonna bore you with a review full of benchmarks and numbers, the Internet is full of that by people that are actually better at it than I am. I’d even say those numbers don’t really explain why this chip changes everything.

M1 MacBook Pro

So, simple example. In the past, if you wanted to edit a video smoothly, the base 13-inch MacBook Pro didn’t cut it. I mean, it could, but trust me, I tried and fried a $3,000 maxed out Intel version 2 years ago. As it was, even if you had a quad-core CPU and 32 Gigs of RAM, integrated graphics was just not enough. You were forced to go 16-inches just for the extra discrete graphics.

What’s mind-boggling about the M1, is that even this MacBook Pro is overkill. I actually started the testing with the Air, and it turned out to be so good, that a week after testing the cheapest $999 base model, it has now replaced Diego’s old $3,000 15-inch MacBook Pro to edit the Pocketnow Daily. I ended up keeping the Pro because I do videos in 4K, expecting that I’d need the fan cooling for sustained loads, and two months later, I’ve only heard it spin once during a software update.

Like how can this be? How is it that Apple is willing to kill its own, more expensive computers with these little entry-level machines? The only logical explanation that I have is scale. The more similar the chip is to an iPhone, the more they can negotiate volume and reduce the cost per chip all around. I used to work in supply, so I understand this really well. The less the cost per component, the more the profit. Think about it: How many more MacBook Airs can Apple sell at less than a grand, versus trying to sell maxed-out 16-inch MacBook Pros? There’s just more profit in scale. And Apple has already tried this before with the iPad. How many times have you seen them trying to sell you that an iPad as a computer? So, if that didn’t work, why not turn things around and optimize the software in a way to make the computer run on iPad guts?

M1 MacBook Pro

So, if you’ve joined me in dreaming about one affordable computer that can behave like an iPad in lasting all day on a charge, this is it. My battery anxiety issues were addressed. I’ve been able to edit entire videos on flights, render them in just minutes, and have enough power for the rest of the day. Sure my 16-inch MacBook Pro can export videos faster, but to give you some perspective, just around 2 minutes faster. Yes, 2. In the past, it would be a difference of about 20 and don’t even dream about the 16-inch letting you edit a video on a charge. It makes no common sense for anyone today to want to spend $3,500 more, just to win 2 minutes on an export on a dead battery.

All this being said, yes there is a catch. For you to achieve this ideal, you kinda have to be sold on Apple software. See macOS Big Sur is Apple’s full return to ARM ever since they abandoned PowerPC chips 15 years ago for Intel. You could say Cupertino never stopped living a double life since that foundation is how iPhones and iPads ran a variation of OS X in the early days. What’s genius is that Apple has made this transition almost seamless through Rosetta 2. Apps just run, and that includes non-apple apps, but to explain the difference, think of it this way: If your app is already optimized for Apple Silicon, you’ll get all the performance and battery life. If it’s not, it’ll most likely run just as well or take an extra second to launch, but then your battery will behave like you were using any other Mac, which is still fine. In two months I have never seen this computer hang, drop frames, or bore me with beach balls. And this is with only the base 8 gigs of RAM. For those interested in seeing performance with 16 Gigs, I’ll link to my buddy David Cogen for his deep dive.

The not so good

Now, you know me, I make reviews, not love letters, and this computer is far from perfect. I think the reason why Apple has not done this launch enough justice starts in the visuals. The price we had to pay for this first-generation product is that it’s kind of boring. This design is five years old, with just a few minor improvements that are not even new. If you place it next to any other MacBook Pro you won’t be able to tell a difference. Same machined aluminum unibody, with the large trackpad, the improved scissor switches with Touch ID, and the touch bar that just won’t die. Over time I’ve learned to stick to silver instead of space gray since it ages better, but it won’t be free from dents if you hit other metals.

M1 MacBook Pro

Now, all that aside, my biggest problem with this M1 MacBook Pro, is that the one thing Pros need most is not addressed: and that’s Ports. Seriously, not sure what engineer thought that a Pro can survive with just two USB-C ports, out of which you’ll need one for charging every now and then. Sure, I appreciate the portability when I’m on the go, but when I’m at the studio or at home, I need my monitor and peripherals. Sadly, what most people don’t know is that dongles don’t really solve all the problems. You’ll find a ton with HDMI out for example, but most are capped at 4K at 30hz.

Still, for those asking why, even with its flaws, I always come back to using a Mac, it really has a lot to do with the quality of their panels for the price. This 13.3-inch Retina Display continues to be my favorite for color accuracy and its support for the P3 color gamut. Viewing angles are top-notch and it does get pretty bright in direct sunlight. Sadly yeah, it’s also kinda boring. I won’t blame you for thinking the bezels are a real waste of space with what Dell and Huawei have been doing for years. After using 15 and 16-inch models for years, I agree, this screen is just as crammed as the storage options you get. If you’re a creative, that’s the one upgrade I would recommend, as you can’t upgrade later.

Maybe the only portion of overhyped marketing is the whole idea of running iPad apps. You can, but the navigation is funky, and if there’s a more expensive Mac app, you better believe the iPad version won’t be in the store.

Conclusion

To conclude, what can I say? I mean, I’ve been living a dream for the past two months. You can call it marketing all you want, but I don’t think this is just the future of the Mac. Apple has almost re-invented laptops as we know it. This seriously has changed the rules of how we judge computers so much, that it would be incorrect to compare this to anything. Be an Apple hater all you want, but I challenge you to give me a more powerful and complete creative tool for just $1,299, or even $999 with the MacBook Air.

M1 MacBook Pro

After 10 years of iPad, Apple finally achieved a paradigm shift, but on the Mac. This is not something that happened overnight, Apple Silicon began with the A4 on the first iPad in 2010. The result is that we finally have almost all the benefits of an iPad but on a real computer.

Really the only reason why this is not replacing my 16-inch MacBook Pro just yet is because certain of my graphics plugins are still not yet compatible with the M1, but that’s been changing quickly. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to wait and see what Apple has next, but if you’re in the market for the best laptop I can recommend right now, this M1 MacBook Pro is a pretty complete package.

The post Apple M1 MacBook Pro 2 Months Later – ALMOST Living The Dream! appeared first on Pocketnow.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: FINALLY memorable

Anton D. Nagy contributed to this post.

There is a simple way for a company to spare a product from being forgettable, and that’s to actually walk the talk. If you’re gonna call your phone Ultra, price it like a MacBook Pro, and paint 100X zoom on the camera hump, you’re automatically setting the bar really high for when testing begins.

I’m not gonna call the Galaxy S20 Ultra a bad phone, but its flaws made it quickly forgettable. It was full of nice ideas, but sadly, the implementation made it really hard to recommend. I even felt it was ahead of its time, and the proof was seen with how well the Note 20 Ultra came to save face. It shows how second-generation products are always a better investment.

Now, what happens when you get to the third generation? What if the idea matured to where there is no more need to boast numbers on a chassis, fan-favorite features are finally added, and the price dropped in such a way that you can almost forgive the other important features that were removed.

Well, this is the Galaxy S21 Ultra, what Samsung calls an Ultra that easily lives up to its name, which is actually a statement that I’m willing to agree on in almost everything. After about a week in a half of testing, there is a lot to Unpack.

Galaxy S21 Ultra review

The opposite of the word forgettable is memorable, and by definition, to achieve that, a product has to be both special and unusual. I think the biggest problem with the S20 Ultra is that Function didn’t follow the Form. It was unusual, but couldn’t really nail the special part reliably. The massive phone, camera hump, and price intended to give you the best camera experience you could buy and fell short.

Hardware

The S21 Ultra intends to fix that. Unusual shouldn’t really mean ugly, and I’m just gonna say that I think this is the best looking Galaxy, ever. Samsung’s new contour design intends to be more cohesive. The camera hump is now less pronounced, and designed to sort of blend in with the aluminum side rail. And since the back is as matte as can be, it remains clean for longer, and the shiny border only helps that stand out. Yes, this is still a large and heavy two-handed phone, but there are some clear improvements in weight distribution. You’d assume this phone is lighter than the S20 Ultra, but in reality, it’s the other way around.

Galaxy S21 Ultra review

Another welcomed change is that Samsung is no longer competing for the largest display on a phone, finally!  Samsung’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X continues to reign supreme as the standard to beat with its color reproduction and HDR10+ support, but at 6.8-inches diagonal, it’s a hair shorter than before, and also better in every other metric. It’s now brighter at up to 1500 nits, has additional improvements for eye strain management, we finally get a 120Hz refresh rate at QuadHD+ resolution, and given the minor bezels and loud dual speakers, it is a joy for content consumption.

By default, the screen is set to 120Hz at Full HD+, but after two weeks of testing, I have no problem in recommending that you max out the settings. Since the panel offers a variable refresh rate that switches between 10 and 120Hz depending on what you’re doing, this larger-than-average battery has lasted me at least a day and a half, every single time, and that’s with moderate to heavy use, and while on Verizon’s 5G speeds.

Galaxy S21 Ultra review

A lot of the legwork for these results comes from the new set of internals. The 5nm process on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 is far more power-efficient. Other essentials like the RAM and Storage options, matched with the updated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and even the multiple flavors of 5G are all the fastest in the industry. And sure, you also get the usual perks like water resistance, reverse wireless charging, and even Ultra-Wideband, but I suggest you choose your storage option wisely as it’s no longer expandable.

And that’s just one of the reasons why I use the word Almost Ultra at the beginning of this review. At this price, you’ll also have to invest in headphones and a charger that doesn’t come in the box. I’ll be sure to recommend some of my favorite options in the description.

Also, keep in mind that the Gorilla Glass Victus that surrounds this phone is not indestructible, or scratch-free.

Software

Now, I never thought I’d ever say this from a Samsung phone, but the main reason why I’ve switched to this as my primary Android phone is because of the experience using it, given some added perks in hardware, and very desired updates in the software. The first is that the new Ultrasonic fingerprint scanner is significantly faster and far more convenient during this pandemic. The second is finally, S-Pen support.

Galaxy S21 Ultra review

Not sure what took Samsung so long to bring a Wacom digitizer to the S Line, but this finally feels like an Ultra that envies nothing from last year’s Galaxy Note. Yes, you’ll have to buy one separately, and you’ll lose the Bluetooth Air Gestures, that I honestly never used. My advice is that you use an older S Pen, or choose from a bevy of third-party options. Sadly Samsung’s silicone case with S Pen is really bad quality. If anything, it keeps the taller S Pen included, cause it’s more convenient, but the flimsy material in the case is a lint magnet that subtracts from the phone’s badass finish.

In everything else, the S21 Ultra works and feels like a Galaxy Note. You can call on screen off memos, your Samsung Notes now sync even with Microsoft OneNote, and yes, this means the entire Microsoft Office Suite fully supports it. You can use it as a surrogate mouse, and pretty much every other trick the Note can do.

Galaxy S21 Ultra review

And, as for the desired software updates, One UI 3.1 includes a few perks that last year’s Galaxy phones still don’t offer on version 3. For example, on this phone, you can now choose the Google Feed to the left of the launcher, finally! And hey, if you don’t want that, Samsung Free is pretty good. It actually ports the free TV Channels and entertainment that Samsung TV owners get. In everything else, from the new aesthetics to the faster navigation of the UI, to the edge menu for multi-tasking, to Android 11’s new way to stack notifications and home devices… If you’re gonna have a large phone, this is one of the few that can actually take advantage of the added canvas.

Camera

Now, Samsung’s definition of Ultra is mostly about what these cameras can do. The new array follows more of the Huawei P40 Pro Plus arrangement, with one massive primary sensor, an ultra-wide, and two telephotos at different focal lengths, all assisted by laser autofocus. You might think it’s overkill, but I seriously feel this is what allowed the module to be less prominent.

Galaxy S21 Ultra review

As a result, pretty much everything but the color science that I praise from Leica and Huawei is seen here, but since Samsung has toned down its oversaturation and over-sharpening dramatically, the results during the day are fantastic. Switch to any of the 4 focal lengths and prepare to be mind-boggled by the amount of detail. I seriously prefer a jump to 3X for street photography instead of 5X like we had with the old Ultra. Optical 10X is just fabulous for skylines, and I’d say you can get perfectly usable photos up to 30X digital. So yeah, forget about the 100X option. There are tricks I disabled like Focus Assist for closeups, as I prefer the natural bokeh of the primary sensor. What it’s doing is actually switching to the Ultra-Wide for more detail overall if that’s your jam, but it’s also quite convenient for Macros.

Galaxy S21 Ultra review

Night mode is available on all focal lengths, but I recommend you stick to the primary if you’re looking for detail, less motion blur, and just an overall better-balanced shot. The Ultra-wide does try hard but will be mostly grainy, and any zoom shots are really just a digital crop of the primary. Surprisingly though, the only exception I recommend is for taking photos of the moon, as the phone’s AI does a really good job at metering to catch it in all its glory.

Selfies are also crazy detailed after you switch off beautification, rendering some of my favorite results if you have enough light, though portraits can sometimes be hit or miss with my ears.

Galaxy S21 Ultra review

When it comes to video, I see some dramatic improvements. In 4K we have far less warping, if any from the primary camera, fantastic stabilization even without super steady, and probably the best dynamic range I’ve seen come from an Android phone. In low light video the EIS you’ll still get some minor warping as you walk, but perfectly usable. I’m really just struggling with selfie video, which seems a bit less detailed than I’d like, a bit of grain even in brightly lit scenarios. It’s still perfectly usable, but it might not be your favorite choice for a stabilized shot as you walk.

I won’t bore you with gimmicks like Director’s View because I was seriously expecting all cameras to record simultaneously, instead of just giving me a choice for a picture in picture video, or birds-eye view of the others to switch. And sure, 8K is here, but still not a fan of the crop to be willing to recommend. Clearly, this is still just a work in progress.

Conclusion

To conclude, did anyone keep track of how many times I repeated the word Finally? I’ve counted six, and it’s not just because of this phone. This is clearly a new Samsung we’re talking about here. The frenzy of bigger is better, or the more the merrier has been toned down. The mentality of Samsung services versus Google services is now pretty much gone. It’s as if instead of just throwing everything they can do at you, they instead decided to listen to consumers.

Galaxy S21 Ultra review

If we focus on this phone, we can clearly see how three generations of Ultra has matured into a more desirable product. It’s my favorite design on an Android phone so far. It’s got the latest chip and network technology. It’s got the best display on a phone, that now gets S Pen support. The camera can do things most other phones can’t, and the software finally almost everything we want. Match to that the fact that it became $200 less expensive, and that even if you didn’t pre-order the phone, the amount of trade-in deals available right now is still pretty irresistible. You’ll compensate easily for the accessories that are not in the box, so I’ll be sure to link to all that in the description. 

Bottom line, all that’s holding this phone back from total dominance is timely software updates. In absolutely everything else, I think the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the best Android phone you can buy right now. It doesn’t just pack the numbers for bragging rights. This time, it actually delivers on them so well, that I’d call it memorable.

The post Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: FINALLY memorable appeared first on Pocketnow.

OPPO Enco X review: fantastically awesome

OPPO cemented its place as a major audio brand with the launch of its Enco M31 last year. It delivered an exceptional sound quality with these budget wireless earphones. The company followed it with the Enco W31 TWS at a budget. Now, OPPO has announced its premium offering in the TWS earbuds segment – the Enco X. As the saying goes, “with costlier price comes greater responsibilities,” OPPO seems to have delivered. But at £169 in the UK and INR 9,990 in India, is this pair of earphones enough for you? Let’s find out in our OPPO Enco X review.

OPPO Enco X review: Specifications

TypeIn-ear True Wireless
Audio driver11mm
Frequency range20Hz ~ 20kHz
Audio codecsLHDC / AAC / SBC
Noise control modesMax Noise Cancellation
Noise Cancellation
Transparency
Noise Cancellation Off
BluetoothBT 5.2
Size66.3*49*21.7mm
OtherIP54-rated
OPPO Enco X Dynaudio

Sound quality and ANC

The most important aspect of an audio product is its sound quality. Hence, we are kickstarting our OPPO Enco X review with its audio performance. Let me tell you right off the bat, the Enco X sound fantastic

OPPO has made its premium TWS earbuds in partnership with Dynaudio. The device supports Low-latency, High Definition Codec (LHDC), which only works on a handful of devices, but it is not a big deal in my opinion. You’ll get to experience audio in LHDC on various OPPO smartphones including the Find X2 Pro. However, it defaults to AAC / SBC on other devices. These feature 11mm, dynamic drivers.

I listen to a lot of acoustic music alongside songs from Vance Joy, The Lumineers, Kodaline, Oasis, Simple Plan and Smiths. Judge all you want, that’s me.

OPPO Enco X TWS earphones

And, if you are anything like me you are going to enjoy the audio experience on these earphones. You can make out the different instruments playing in the background while the vocals sound clear as ever. They don’t compromise the mids for an overbearing bass. 

A joy to listen music on but the treble could get sharper than preferred if you have ANC on Max

While the bass remains strong it isn’t thumping, which is to my liking. That said, I experienced ear-piercingly-high treble at times (in Max ANC). The high frequencies could get sharper than preferred. And, that’s the only demerit in the audio segment for me. As for the soundstage, it is on par with the AirPods. I enjoyed listening to podcasts as well.

For the unaware, ANC helps analyze the sounds around you and then creates a counter sound that cancels out the sound waves that it’s detecting with the microphones.

The OPPO Enco X features one of the best ANC you can find in the segment. I was genuinely impressed with the ANC performance. You can choose four levels of ANC from the My Melody app on Android. These options are:

  • Noise Cancellation off
  • Transparency
  • Noise Cancellation
  • Max noise cancellation
  • Design and Comfort
OPPO Enco X review

Design and Comfort

These are IP54-rated

The OPPO Enco X are small and light. They come in Black and White color options and we received the former. The case, as well as the buds, come with a glossy finish, and it could get scratched easily. Each bud weighs 4.8 grams and the charging case is another 42.5 grams, which totals to 52.5 grams. The device is also IP54-rated for sweat resistance.

They are comfortable to wear for long durations. For me, they did fall out of my ear while I was working out but you get three pairs of ear tips to match your fitting. I listened to music, watched The Office, streamed YouTube, as well as made calls – all in one go. And, I’m happy to inform you that I didn’t feel fatigued. There was no sweat build-up, but it is also worth noting that the room temperature was between 5-15 degrees Celsius.

OPPO Enco X in case

Gestures and the control app

The OPPO Enco X feature a short stem that also offers some functionality. The controls are easy to learn and you get the following options:

  • Double tap
  • Triple tap
  • Hold
  • Long hold
  • Swipe up and down

The swiping gestures are a bit tricky

Tap gestures function properly, and the long hold works well as well. However, swipe up and down gestures are finicky. You have to hold the earbud from the top while you slide your finger on the stem, else they’ll fall out. 

You get plenty of options for each control. Double tap gesture can be configured to Play/Pause, Previous and Next. Further, triple tap can be used to access Voice Assistant and the long hold gesture gives you ANC options. 

That said, you can’t mix up these options. You can’t assign ANC to double tap or voice assistant to long hold. It didn’t bother me much, and I believe it wouldn’t bother you either but it is worth mentioning.

These gestures can be configured within the companion OPPO HeyMelody app. Notably, the app is only available on the Google Play Store. This means, you cannot configure the gestures if you are an iPhone user. 

OPPO Enco X outside case

Battery life

The OPPO Enco X are claimed to last up to 4 hours with noise cancelation on and up to 5.5 hours with the feature turned off. The charging case can add up to 20 hours and 25 hours, respectively. These numbers are tested at 50% volume. In my usage, the buds lasted 3.5 hours with ANC turned on, and I could use them four more times before plugging in the charging case. The case also supports Qi wireless charging. On wired charging, these can be charged from 0 to full under one and a half hours.

OPPO Enco X review: Conclusion

The OPPO Enco X are a joy to use. Notably, you get LHDC and AAC codecs and miss out on aptX. But you don’t miss out on the sound quality. These offer a fantastic sound with a segment-leading ANC. At £169 in the UK, you might have several other options to choose from, but at INR 9,990 in India, there are not many options with this level of performance. These are easy to recommend.

    OPPO Enco X
      The OPPO Enco X are a joy to use. Notably, you get LHDC and AAC codecs and miss out on aptX. But you don’t miss out on the sound quality. These offer a fantastic sound with a segment-leading ANC.

        Pros:

        Cons:

    The post OPPO Enco X review: fantastically awesome appeared first on Pocketnow.

    HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio review: their first over-ear product offers first-class experience

    HUAWEI has seriously upped its audio game (to be honest, the company upped its entire game in the past years) starting with the FreeBuds 3 last year. For 2020, HUAWEI has a bulletproof audio line-up, from the excellent sounding FreeLace Pro all the way to the premium FreeBuds Pro.

    For 2020, however, the company has ventured into over-ear full-fledged headphones, the FreeBuds Studio being the company’s first such product. The timing is perfect, as Apple has just announced its own similar product with the AirPods Max, which is really one of the FreeBuds Studio’s main competitors, among a select few from other brands like Sony, Bose, Shure, Jabra, and the likes.

    We’re wrapping up the two weeks we’ve spent using the wireless noise-canceling cans with our HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio review below.

    HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio in hand

    HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio Specs

    Available in Gold and Black (our unit), the FreeBuds Studio weighs 260 grams, which is pretty lightweight considering its size. The claimed 24-hour playback (with ANC off) is achieved thanks to the 410mAh battery that you charge via a USB-Type C port on the right can.

    Sound comes out of the two 40mm dynamic drivers, with an operating frequency of 4Hz to 48kHz, which goes way beyond the range of sound perceivable by human ears. Noise cancellation, which is Intelligent and Dynamic, is possible thanks to the six microphones inside the build of the headphones (there are eight in total, four on each side).

    Other hardware components include radios for Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, three buttons (two on the right for power and Bluetooth, and one on the left for toggling ANC modes), and a touchpad on the back of the right can for gestures, in addition to a microphone sensor, a capacitance sensor, an IMU sensor, as well as a premium audio codec chip.

    Design, build, and fit

    Everything about the FreeBuds Studio screams premium (including their price point), from the moment you unbox the headphones. They come in a very nice carrying case (which is not leather) that offers protection during your travels.

    The top part of the headrest (or headband) is soft-touch plastic, while the bottom part, in contact with your head is vegan leather (so are the speaker cushions that are in contact with your ears), softly padded in the middle.

    The cushions themselves are also soft to the touch and very comfortable while wearing. The chassis is made of metal and sliding the two cans up and down to adjust your fit is very accurate and tight. The back of the cans and the outer shell is also made of polycarbonate, but the overall view and feel of the product is a premium one.

    HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio cans in hand

    Once you find the best fit for your head size, you need to make sure that the cans (cushion) are fitting your ears well. It’s an easy fit, but we occasionally had to adjust a little bit for optimum isolation and audio quality.

    Having done all of that, you’ll be surprised at how lightweight and soft they feel. After a period of time, you’ll actually forget you’re wearing them, which is the complete opposite with some other headphones, where they become uncomfortable to wear after a period of time.

    This could be more of o personal impression or issue, but I didn’t start to sweat after wearing the FreeBuds Studio for a long period of time, something I occasionally run into when using other headphones.

    HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio with Mate 40 Pro

    It takes a little bit of getting used to the locations of the buttons on the two sides, but you’ll get used to them after a couple of hours of usage.

    On the downside, the cushions don’t seem to be detachable, which could raise some problems with wear over time. We wish owners could easily remove old ones if they’re worn or damaged in order to replace them with new ones. 

    Audio quality, ANC, and Experience

    Audio quality

    The 40mm dynamic drivers live up to the expectations, however, as mentioned earlier, you need to make sure that the fit is tight in order for the drivers to shine. Why is it so important? HUAWEI is using a TAT structure (Tee Audio Tube), which is responsible for linking the inner ear space with the front and back sound cavity. Aside from balancing air pressure inside your ears, offering a comfortable wearing experience, the TAT structure also filters out the medium and high-frequency noise.

    All of that, in simpler terms, means that these cans sound really good. With a very wide frequency response, you can rest assured you’ll hear even the deepest bass, as well as the highest hisses. 

    HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio branding

    HUAWEI designed the FreeBuds Studio with Hi-Fi quality in mind. Adding to the potential of the drivers themselves is an audio codec chip that features less distortion and lower noise floor, while at the same time delivering higher dynamic range.

    In order to utilize the headphones to their full potential, you need to make sure the source (your music) is high quality. When it comes to audio quality, audiophiles know that the overall quality of your entire system will be as good as the weakest component. It doesn’t matter how Hi-Fi your headphones are if the music you are playing back is low quality.

    HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio ANC

    However, when playing back lossless, or very high bitrate encoded music, you’ll be more than satisfied with the audio quality of the FreeBuds Studio. The L2HC High-resolution Codec enables the headphones to transfer audio at speeds up to 960kbps. That’s more than double the frequency, and almost quadruple the transfer speed of the AAC codec for 24-bit audio.

    If you’re not so much into technology and all the terminology above, all you need to know is that you won’t be disappointed. You’ll love the sounds you’ll hear, and you may even hear portions or instruments in a song you never knew they were there.

    HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio buttons

    ANC

    Similar to other products in the FreeBuds and FreeLace family of recent earphones, the FreeBuds Studio also features HUAWEI’s own Active Noise Cancelation system. If you have a recent HUAWEI or HONOR phone, you can fine-tune the ANC inside the AI Life app, choosing between Ultra, Cozy, and General modes. These instruct the ANC to be more or less aggressive, depending on your surroundings.

    If you’re using the FreeBuds Studio with another phone (an iPhone for instance), you can only select one of the following three modes: ANC on, Awareness, and ANC off.

    The Awareness mode will allow ambient sound to pass through, so you’re at all times aware of your surroundings while listening to music. The Voice Mode, which you can enable inside the AI Life app, will only allow human voices to pass through while blocking out the rest of the environmental sounds.

    Noise cancellation also extends to phone calls. The FreeBuds Studio utilizes six microphones to properly enhance your calls. According to HUAWEI, “the four outward-facing mics effectively pick up human voices from the background noise based on the beamforming technique. The other two inward-facing mics collect the voice in-ear and avoid strong wind interference”.

    And, since we’re talking about phone calls, I’ll mention here (and not in the Experience segment below) that we didn’t face any problems. We heard people really well and we were heard loud and clear on the other end of the call, let it be regular call or WhatsApp/Face Time/Facebook.

    Experience

    While the entire experience can vary, depending on what kind of phone you use (of course, your experience will be the best when paired with a recent HUAWEI phone) the FreeBuds Studio offers a superior UX.

    Once you’re getting used to the gestures available on the touchpad, located on the back of the right can, you no longer need to have direct access to your phone. The gestures are intuitive and the learning curve is really flat. Swiping up and down increases or decreases audio volume. Swiping forward and back takes you to your next, or previous song. Double-tapping acts as a Play/Pause or Answer/End call button, while tapping and holding either activates your voice assistant or rejects the incoming call.

    HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio gestures

    Adding to the experience is also the wear-detection feature. The FreeBuds Studio recognizes whether you are wearing it or not, and music is automatically paused upon removing the headphones, and it resumes once you put them back on. 

    We’ve tested the FreeBuds Studio both with a HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro and an iPhone 12 Pro Max, as well as a desktop computer, to fully grasp the pairing and overall experience. Worth mentioning here is that the FreeBuds studio features Dual Device Connection, which enables you to connect to two devices simultaneously. 

    HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio USB port

    With the Mate 40 Pro, pairing is seamless. EMUI 11 automatically detects and asks to pair the headphones, thanks to the pop-up pairing feature which searches, finds, and offers to connect to the FreeBuds Studio. From here on, it’s all about tweaking the settings to your liking inside the AI Life app, and EMUI’s Histen inside the sound settings, which could dramatically impact your experience.

    Pairing to the, and using on the iPhone and desktop computer offers a similar experience. You have to manually put the FreeBuds Studio in pairing mode (there’s a Bluetooth button on the right can), and then manually pair it to your phone or computer. You have no software to tinker with the settings, so you should expect a raw user experience, but premium nonetheless. The ANC button on the left side still allows you to enable or disable noise cancellation, as well as toggle Awareness mode.

    HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio case

    Battery life should not be a concern. Our mileage was fairly close to what HUAWEI claims: 24 hours of music playback with ANC off, and close to 20 with ANC on. We obviously didn’t manage to test it all in one take, but the periods of times used added up close to those numbers. 

    It did, however, take a hair over one hour to fully charge them from 0 to 100 percent, with 10 minutes of quick charging being enough for close to eight hours of music playback. 

    Conclusion

    When it comes to the price of the FreeBuds Studio, it varies from market to market. This has been HUAWEI’s approach in the recent past, and that’s what it continues to do with this product. 

    In the UK, it will set you back, at the time of this review, £229.99, down from the initial £299.99, and HUAWEI throws in a Watch Fit, valued £119.99.

    In France, you’ll pay €299,99, but in Spain, they’re discounted to €249,99. In any case, we’re looking at a rather premium price-point, but, compared to the close to €600 Apple is asking for the AirPods Max, it’s less than half the price.

    HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio case open

    Considering that the FreeBuds Studio is HUAWEI’s first full-fledged, over the ear, pair of headphones, the company nailed it in every aspect. With a great design, superior audio quality, excellent noise-canceling, and great battery life, the FreeBuds Studio are a great choice if you’re looking for a pair of wireless headphones for the holidays, and not only.

    Pros and Cons

    Pros

    + great design;
    + good battery life;
    + excellent audio quality;
    + top notch noise cancelling;
    + touch gestures;
    + multi-device connection;
    + wear detection.

    Cons

    – no IP rating whatsoever (beware of rain);
    – some features are exclusive to HUAWEI phones;
    – only two color options;
    – cushions non-user-removable/replaceable.

    The post HUAWEI FreeBuds Studio review: their first over-ear product offers first-class experience appeared first on Pocketnow.

    This is the Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2

    This is the Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2…
    …and it’s the best-looking smartwatch I’ve ever used.

    I’m well aware, as I’m typing this, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it’s all a matter of taste, but how can you take an already gorgeous smartwatch, the HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro, and make it even more appealing?

    This is not a review per se, as there are no differences in functionality compared to the previous model, the aforementioned GT 2 Pro. If you want to know about specs, features, functionality, hardware, and software, we advise you to read our Watch GT 2 Pro review.

    We’re having more of a lifestyle and purist approach when looking at a Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2. As with any Porsche Design HUAWEI product, it’s not for everyone. It’s for purists, it’s for the exclusivists, and it’s for the die-hard fans of either one or both brands. We touched on that with the occasion of our Porsche Design HUAWEI Mate 30 RS feature.

    Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2 in Porsche car

    Exclusivity

    There are two aspects that make a product exclusive, unique, and valuable. On one hand, they are manufactured on a small scale, immediately making them scarce, and, on the other hand, their price tag, which is a reflection of that, and immediately takes them out of reach for most.

    We can use the analogy of pebbles versus diamonds. Pebbles have no value because they’re abundant and you can find one within minutes if you look around. Diamonds, on the other hand, are rare to come by, and, if properly polished, are not only unique but also only affordable to a select few, while the others are left dreaming about them.

    Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2 on keyboard

    That’s exactly the case with Porsche Design HUAWEI products in general.

    But, on the flip side, you do get something special in return, and you expect that once you shell out £629.00 for a product that has a £229.99 alternative, granted, not labeled Porsche Design.

    Design

    Porsche Design took the Watch GT 2 Pro and made subtle changes to leave its minimalistic and purist design philosophy fingerprints.

    Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2 on wrist

    First of all, the materials have been exchanged for premium ones. The watch dial is made out of sapphire glass (similar to the GT 2 Pro), which is more resistant, and has a unique feeling to it when you touch it. The watch case itself is lightweight and durable, made of titanium, with a smooth finish which makes it both look good and feel good. 

    Last, but not least, the watch strap. It is made out of the same titanium blending in seamlessly with the watch case. The back of the watch is made of ceramic, ensuring that the part which is in contact with your skin is both durable and comfortable at the same time.

    Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2 unlinked

    A subtle Porsche Design (PD) logo is etched on the clasp, with the full Porsche Design branding at the top of the watch dial. PD also brought in the automotive touches from Porsche cars and racing cars to the usage of the color red, visible on the watch dial, subtly around the two side buttons, and all the way throughout the software (more on that later).

    Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2 on coffee table

    The simplicity and excellence go into every detail of the strap. The butterfly deploying buckle not only conceals the connections to make the transition between the strap and itself seamless, but it is also simple to lock and unlock in a safe way.

    Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2 buckle

    The strap itself is not only easily detachable (there’s also a secondary strap inside the box, which is pretty much the premium strap the GT 2 Pro ships with) but very easy to resize, thanks to the attention to detail Porsche Design and HUAWEI invested.

    Seven links on each side have their own telescopic connections, so you can easily snap them off, link by link, from both ends, to ensure a perfect fit.

    Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2 links

    Aside from being a smartwatch person, I am a watch person first. Never have I received as many compliments on a watch as when wearing this Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2, and believe me, I have quite a collection ranging from premium brands to designer editions.

    Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2 buttons

    For Porsche Design, conforming with their philosophy, every product is a statement, and that particular minimalistic and purist approach instantly makes you proud in showing off not only a beautiful product but making a statement yourself, knowing you’re part of an elite group of people who appreciate the work behind a unique product.

    Software

    While functionality-wise, the watch offers the same features as its non PD variant, there are some subtle changes you’ll notice across PD HUAWEI smartphones and now the smartwatch.

    Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2 menu

    Just like in the case of the PD HUAWEI Mate 40 RS and Mate 30 RS before it, the icons (and overall theme) on the PD Watch GT 2 are red. This not only sets them apart from their non-PD brethren but this way Porsche Design brings in that particular automotive and racing component into technology.

    Furthermore, the watch comes with exclusive watch faces that you can only find on this model, all built around the same signature design of Porsche car dashboards. These are Chronograph, Ultimate, Racing, and E-Pure. It also comes with an always-on watch face that carries that design over into a minimal power consumption mode.

    Another subtle signature touch you’ll see is when you boot up or restart the watch. You’re no longer greeted by the HUAWEI logo, but, like in the case of PD HUAWEI phones, you’re booting up to the PD logo. Other people won’t likely see it, but you’ll know it’s there.

    The value, the heritage

    This is not an everyday watch, at least not in my mind. I couldn’t see myself wearing this to the gym, or shooting baskets. Heck, I wouldn’t even see myself wearing it with an attire below business casual.

    The Porsche Design part of it is responsible for the extra price you’ll have to pay, but, by paradox, it is also the one that will reassure you that the timepiece will retain most of its original value. That’s usually the case with low volume/limited edition/exclusive products (only time will tell if the value could actually go up).

    Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2 box

    Porsche Design and HUAWEI are aiming this product at a specific niche target audience, one that not only needs no convincing that it’s priced “just right”, but one that appreciates it for what it is: the price of admission in an exclusive club of people who are either fans of the brand, its design, Porsche cars, or all of the above. 

    Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2 resting

    Porsche owners and PD fans will know exactly what I’m talking about, and this watch, similar to this post, is for them, those who most likely read it in its entirety without dismissing it, or the product as expensive (or offering up “cheaper” alternatives).

    You can get the Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2, in select markets, for £629.00, or roughly the equivalent in other currencies.

    The post This is the Porsche Design HUAWEI Watch GT 2 appeared first on Pocketnow.

    HUAWEI FreeLace Pro review: excellent value

    If you’re looking for a sporty pair of wireless earbuds, or you simply don’t want to take your premium headphones or earphones to the gym, HUAWEI has got you covered. The company has a product portfolio that offers something for everyone, for every taste, and basically every wallet. 

    Today we’re looking at the HUAWEI FreeLace Pro, which has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. Not only is it wireless, but it also offers active noise cancellation, an IP55 rating, and whopping 24-hour battery life. 

    We’re looking at all of that, in our HUAWEI FreeLace Pro review below.

    Design, materials, and fit

    There are three color options to choose from: Obsidian Black, Dawn White, and the Spruce Green we’re using for this review. HUAWEI chose the neckband style for the FreeLace Pro, which means that you’re wearing the base around your neck, with the two earbuds being connected to the band by a cable each.

    HUAWEI FreeLace Pro earbuds

    They weigh 34 grams, and, except for the two metal portions in the middle (housing the batteries and other tech), they have a nice rubbery feel to them. 

    The controls (volume up, volume down, play/pause) reside on the right metal portion, together with the power button. This is also where you charge them: you can pull off the bottom portion of the metal part to reveal a USB-Type C connector. You can plug it into a USB-C charger or use the cable adapter provided inside the box.

    If you have a recent HUAWEI smartphone, plugging the earbuds directly into the smartphone will not only charge the FreeLace Pro but will also pair it to the phone, should you choose to do so.

    Small, Medium and Large are the three bud sizes provided with the FreeLace Pro. Once you identify the right size for your ear, it’s a perfect fit, which is not only snug, but it will stay inside your ears when doing any activity without a problem. They won’t fall out unless you manually pull them out.

    HUAWEI FreeLace Pro on table

    There’s an additional way to control the FreeLace Pro: the left earbud’s exterior doubles as a touch surface. Touching and holding it cycles through HUAWEI’s proprietary active noise cancelation modes: ANC on/Awareness/ANC off. 

    Hardware

    I’ll be completely honest, I love the sound of the FreeBuds Pro. I think they’re the best sounding ANC-enabled true wireless earbuds. That’s until I started listening to the FreeLace Pro. No wonder they sound that good (more on sound in a segment below), as HUAWEI crammed in a pair of 14.2mm dynamic drivers, opposed to the 11mm ones in the FreeBuds Pro.

    With a total length of 862.4mm you might think they are a tad too long, but we don’t think it should worry you as it doesn’t interfere with your activity or movements. 

    They also pack two microphones for Active Noise Cancellation, and in-call noise cancellation is handled by a triple-mic system. 

    HUAWEI FreeLace Pro batteries

    That 24 hour playback time is possible thanks to the rather large, 150mAh battery, which takes more or less about an hour to fully charge. 

    As previously mentioned, if you’re rocking a relatively recent HUAWEI smartphone model (on EMUI 9.1 and above), you will also benefit from HUAWEI HiPair and its quick charging.

    The Bluetooth radio is compatible with BT 5.0 standard, and the entire system is rated IP55 for splash, water, and dust resistance.

    Experience

    We’ve used the HUAWEI FreeLace Pro paired both to a HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro and an iPhone 12 Pro Max. We didn’t find any differences in the experience, except for the fact that when paired to a HUAWEI smartphone, the entire UX is seamless. This, of course, should come as no surprise.

    Pairing

    Pairing with the Mate 40 Pro was as easy as plugging them into the phone’s USB Type-C charging port. EMUI 11 detects the earbuds automatically and asks you whether you want to pair them or not. Once paired, you have access to the settings and firmware updates, which we’ve received during our review period: 1.0.0.139 and 1.0.0.145.

    Pairing with the iPhone (or even a computer) is as easy as putting the FreeLace Pro in pairing mode (pressing and holding the power button), and, once it pops up in your iPhone’s Bluetooth menu as a discovered device, simply tap on it to pair.

    Battery life

    While it comes with some juice out of the box, we plugged them in to make sure we have 100 percent battery life on our first run.

    HUAWEI FreeLace Pro charging

    HUAWEI advertises all-day battery life, which is something we obviously couldn’t test out on a single run. We’ve used it for around 3 hours on a daily basis for an entire week, and we still have some battery left on it.

    If you own a modern HUAWEI phone, you can simply rely on it to charge the FreeLace Pro, by plugging it in directly to the device’s USB Type-C port.

    If you don’t, you can plug it into a USB Type-C charger directly, and if you don’t have that, HUAWEI is bundling a USB Type-C to Type-A cable so you can easily charge your earphones using any charger that you have handy.

    Another great feature is the magnetic back of the earbuds. Not only holds the two earbuds in place, preventing them from dangling around, but it also disconnects from your device’s Bluetooth when they’re magnetically connected together, and reconnects once you take them apart. You can save battery without the need to press the power button on the neckband.

    HUAWEI FreeLace Pro on Anton

    Phone calls and audio quality

    With in-call noise cancellation, thanks to the multiple microphones on the FreeLace Pro, people on the other end will hear your voice loud and clear, without any background noise, irrespective of where you are. You can be outdoor and the traffic noise won’t go through, or you can be indoor with fans on or air conditioning, the other party won’t hear any distractions.

    On the other hand, you will hear the interlocutor loud and clear, thanks to the rather large dynamic drivers powering the FreeLace Pro. If your carrier supports HD voice, or you’re on a WhatsApp/Facebook/Face Time call, you will hear crystal clear voices.

    When it comes to music, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, it is my personal opinion that the FreeLace Pro sounds a tad better than the FreeBuds Pro. That’s not to say the latter sounds bad. They both sound great, with the FreeLace Pro having a richer, ampler, and somewhat louder sound. That’s due to larger drivers on one hand, and an independent low-frequency sound tube on the other hand.

    HUAWEI FreeLace Pro controls

    You can hear tones on the entire spectrum, from rich lows to punchy mids and crystal clear highs. Irrespective of the type and genre of music that you prefer, as long as it’s a high-quality stream or encoding, you will be able to enjoy your music at a premium-grade listening experience and audio quality.

    Noise cancellation

    There’s an outward-facing microphone that picks up external noise (and actively counters it with equal anti-noise sound), and there’s an inward-facing microphone that picks up the in-ear noise (and generates additional anti-noise sound to eliminate it).

    Just like on any modern HUAWEI earbuds or headphones (FreeBuds Studio), the company is bringing its proprietary and innovative noise canceling system. It has three stages. When off, you will still get some passive noise cancellation due to the fact that the FreeLace Pro adopts an in-ear canal design. By this alone, some of the noise will be physically blocked from entering your ears.

    HUAWEI FreeLace Pro buds back

    Switching active noise cancellation on will take advantage of those two microphones per bud to intelligently measure and cancel out noise detected, so you can enjoy your audio content without any distractions, regardless if you’re outdoor, commuting, in a car, or on a plane/train.

    There’s also a special mode called Awareness, which blocks out all the noise except for the frequencies on which we human beings communicate when speaking. It not only lets voices get through, but it also amplifies them, acting as a hearing aid in a sense. This is useful if you want to have a conversation without removing the earbuds, or if you’re at the airport and you’re waiting for that particular flight announcement.

    Conclusion

    There’s no way we can’t recommend the FreeLace Pro. It’s got everything working for it, from great battery life to stellar audio quality, good fit, active noise cancellation, and IP55 rating. If you’re the active type of person, these should definitely be on your shortlist.

    HUAWEI FreeLace Pro battery

    Normally going for €119, they’re currently priced at €99,00 in Germany. In the Netherlands, they go for €129,99, but you get a free HUAWEI Band 4 Pro Pink Gold valued at €80. In the UK they regularly set you back £119,99, but now you can grab them for £99.99, and also get a free HUAWEI Band 4 Sakura Pink valued at £40.

    Pros and cons

    Pros:
    + excellent battery life
    + great sound quality
    + convenient charging (if you have a modern HUAWEI phone)
    + active noise cancellation
    + IP55 rating

    Cons:
    – color options might not be for every taste
    – lack of wear detection

    The post HUAWEI FreeLace Pro review: excellent value appeared first on Pocketnow.