I remember being fortunate to be a conscious adult already when the PDAs morphed into smartphones, and, as smartphones evolved, so did their accessories. In the early days, when the first Bluetooth headphones came out (those you could only use for talking on the phone), I remember looking at people who seemed to be talking to themselves while walking alone on the street.
Then I learned to spot the blinking blue or green LED in their ears and understand they’re having a hands-free conversation. Later people looked weird at me when I took a phone call on my wrist using a smartwatch, and society quickly caught up to understand and accept what was going on.
But without raising your wrist to your mouth or wearing headsets, as small as they’ve become, and still having a conversation while walking down the streets, now that’s a serious mental illness, at least in the minds of those who watched me doing it. Or is it?
Whether we like it or not, smartglasses are here, and will slowly become part of our lives. I’ve been using a pair recently, and this is my HUAWEI Gentle Monster Eyewear II review.
What are they?
Gentle Monster is a rather popular South Korean glasses brand, with celebrities like Gigi Hadid, Rihanna, and Beyonce as their customers.
The Eyewear II, as its name implies, is the second collaboration between HUAWEI and Gentle Monster after the first model in 2019.
It comes in four models split into two categories: Smart Havana and Smart Kubo for the optical glasses, as well as Smart Myma and Smart Lang (the one we have) for the sunglasses.
HUAWEI basically took these Gentle Monster glass models and made them smart, crossing them over with a pair of headphones, if you will, equipping them with antennas, batteries, speakers, microphones, and a lot of tech in general (more in the Hardware segment below).
Unboxing experience
As with any HUAWEI product in the past years, the entire experience is premium. You don’t get much in the box, but what you do get is pretty high quality.
You get the Eyewear II inside its protective case, which is also its charging station, and a USB cable to plug inside a charger that you already own, or a computer, and the other end inside the charging case.
Additionally, you get some literature to help you set them up, as well as a microfiber cleaning cloth.
Make sure you peel all the plastic off of the Eyewear II. They are shiny glossy black, and there’s a lot of plastic wrap out of the box to protect them.
Design and materials
When it comes to the design of glasses, whether they’re optical, or sunglasses like in our case, it’s all a matter of preference and physiognomy. Maybe you prefer aviator-style glasses or another shape, but can adapt to what HUAWEI is offering, or maybe it’s just spot on. You have four styles to choose from, pick the one you like.
In my particular case, I’m an aviator-guy, but I don’t look away when I see myself in the mirror wearing the Smart Lang, especially that I found them to be a good fit for my face, not too tight, not too loose, just spot on and comfortable.
As far as materials are concerned, they’re top-notch. So far they’ve been holding on in pristine shape. There was no abuse but there’s the occasional accidental rubbing them against a zipper or contact with the keys on the shotgun seat, but no wear and tear signs so far.
Also worth mentioning in this category that they are IP54 rated, which means they’re not fully waterproof, and these features “may deteriorate due to daily wear and tear”, HUAWEI says.
Hardware
Moving away from the “glass” and towards the “smart” part, HUAWEI managed to cram a lot of technology inside the Eyewear II.
According to the official spec sheet, they weigh 44.2g, but they’re not at all uncomfortable to wear. Powering everything is a rechargeable Li-Po battery rated 85mAh, built inside the temple of the Eyewear II. That should, and in reality, does offer enough juice for five hours of music playback and 3.5 hours of voice calls.
Also on the temple, you’ll find one dynamic speaker on each side, while the two silicon microphones that pick up sound and cancel noise are located on the main frame temple.
Now, built into the temples you have a pinch sensor, a tap sensor, and a swipe sensor, in addition to the antennas that ensure Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity.
The protective/charging case is charging the Eyewear II wirelessly via NFC wireless fast charging technology. However, in order for that to happen, the smartglasses need to be inside the case, and the case needs to be connected to a power supply. We wish the case had its own battery so that you can at least top off the glasses once while out and about.
Experience
When you want to use the Eyewear II for the first time, you have to pair them up with your smartphone. We’ve used the HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro, and the entire process is seamless. Just like in the case of the Freebuds Pro, it is not mandatory but advised to have the AI Life app installed, which will give you easy access to settings, controls, and firmware updates.
After you make sure the Eyewear II is charged, you need to push the button located on the bottom of the charging case. Once you’ve done that, pinching the left temple will put the glasses in pairing mode, followed by confirming on your smartphone. That’s it!
Inside the AI Life app you can enable or disable wear detection of the glasses, which will automatically switch to them as the preferred audio input/output device when they sense they’re on, and back to the phone (or another accessory) when they sense they’re off.
You can also enable or disable the smart greeting, which will, depending on the time of the day, greet you with “Good Morning” for instance when you put them on.
The AI Life app is also the place to upgrade the firmware version of the glasses, which we have done twice during our review period, to the latest 1.0.0.122 version.
Taking calls and listening to music
When you receive a call while wearing the glasses, or initiate one, you can talk freely like you would with any other wireless headset on. The sound quality is excellent (more on that in the music paragraph below), and people on the other end said they heard us better than when talking on the actual phone.
When you listen to music, you have the advantage of not blocking out noise from the outside, but they’re still loud enough for you to enjoy your favorite tunes without distractions. The sound quality is really good, considering the small dimensions of the speakers. However, at higher volumes, some sound will leak out and will be heard by people in your immediate vicinity, something which is also valid for phone calls.
We especially liked the stereo separation, the wide soundstage, as well as the overall sound quality, which is lacking, if we really need to be picky, a little bit on the lower end. However, considering the convenience of never pulling your phone out from your pocket, and staying aware of your surroundings, they’re doing a great job.
Operating and gestures
Similar to the Freebuds Pro, the Eyewear II also relies on gesture control, hence all the sensors inside the temples. Using the AI Life app, you can customize these gestures to your liking. You have tapping gestures (which can be customized to Play/Pause, Wake AI voice, or none – on both temples), and sliding gestures where you slide your finger back and forth on the temples to adjust the volume or switch to the next/previous track, also optional on both temples.
Sunglasses and fashion
As I mentioned in the intro, when it comes to sunglasses as a fashion accessory, it all comes down to preference and taste. However, if the Eyewear II in any of its two sunglasses and two optical iterations are to your liking, they are a nice accessory to wear.
As a matter of fact, they’re more of a fashion statement than a wearable device, because people will mostly see you wear them, rather than hear you use them.
The ones we used are dark enough for bright sunlight, but you can also continue using them before sunset without a problem. Sadly we didn’t manage to wear them as much as we would have liked because of late autumn weather with cloudy rainy conditions, but we managed to get more than a couple of sunny days outdoor to test them out in real life with real traffic.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
+ great design (subjective); + premium quality; + loud speakers; + sensitive microphone; + decent battery life.
Cons:
– charging case doesn’t contain its own battery and needs to be plugged in; – sound leaks out at louder volumes; – lenses are highly reflective on the inside; – lenses are not polarized.
Conclusion
Buying the Eyewear II will set you back at the moment £310.00 in the UK, or €299,99 in France, and €329 in Spain. They’re only available in certain markets in the EU, and Asia Pacific.
Considering that a pair of regular, non-polarized sunglasses, say, from a company like Ray Ban, go for 110-150 pounds or euros, is the “smart” part in the Eyewear II worth just as much? Yes, and no.
While it ultimately comes down to your personal preference (and wallet), you still need a pair of headphones with your regular sunglasses in order to take calls or listen to music. If you already rock a pair, you’ll probably pass on the Eyewear II.
Also, there’s another variable to factor in: if you’re opting for the sunglasses, you’ll likely only use them outdoors and in bright sunny days, which, depending on your routine, could be a lot, or just a couple of days. Factor that in as well. When you talk about the optical versions, that’s a different story altogether.
And then, if you’re the type of person who loves tech and gadgets, and want to set yourself apart from the crowd, and even attract attention and questions from people, this should definitely be on your list of items to add to your gadget collection.
This is the iPhone 12, what Apple Calls Blast Past Fast, whatever that means, and yet what I’m gonna call the iPhone most people should buy, even if a couple of the reasons that made its predecessor so popular took a back seat.
That more affordable price strategy that we praised which separated the XR from the 11 went down the drain; an odd move considering that the price drop happened even with the iPhone 11 being superior. 2020, being as tough as it’s been, would’ve made that strategy even more ideal, but it’s important to look at the bigger picture. In Apple’s defense, you can still buy the XR and 11 for less money, and it’s important to clarify that the iPhone 12 is NOT an iterative update. This is an entirely different animal that’s so much better than its predecessor, that for the first time ever, I’m seriously questioning if you need to go Pro.
I’ve always been fascinated by the purpose of the non-pro iPhones. In the past, the slogan was the right amount of everything, and that held true for the most part. It wasn’t the best looking phone but it resembled the Pro in many ways. The display wasn’t the best, but it nailed color accuracy like few at its price, and even if it didn’t have all the cameras, it had the most popular ones in tow.
Hardware
By contrast, the iPhone 12 doesn’t really follow on any of that. It’s actually more similar to the 12 Pro than you think. If you were to stack them both side by side from the front, you wouldn’t be able to tell a difference. They share the exact same design language, the same size, and for the first time, some of the differences are kind of welcome. The aluminum build is not just lighter to hold, but also provides this matte finish on the sides that is gorgeous and not prone to fingerprints. And sure, the back glass is not exempt from smudges or looks as red as experts wish it did, but I don’t care, Product Red continues to be my favorite finish.
Seriously, a comparison with the iPhone 11 would be more to show the new vs the old, but not to measure similarities. This new flatter finish makes the old curves seem dated, and also contribute to durability in the process. It’s dramatically smaller than what we had before, but looks can be deceiving.
See, this is a way more efficient display than what we had on its predecessor. It’s the same 6.1-inch diagonal, but since the technology jumped from LCD to OLED, the bezels were trimmed. Rumors pointed to this also being an OLED made by a different manufacturer, but if Apple also dubs this as a Pro Display XDR, who are we to argue? We have the same color accuracy and contrast ratio, the same viewing angles, and even the same loud dual firing speakers to enhance content consumption. I know, odd move in offering their Pro display on a non-pro smartphone.
If only that efficiency extended to the entire display and that right antenna band were a fingerprint scanner during this pandemic. Many rumors surfaced over improvements to Face ID, or the reduction of the module, but nope. The same exact obstructive notch that’s been pretty useless all year while wearing a mask.
It’s also sort of Pro if you look at the internals. Same 5nm A14 Bionic chip that powers Apple’s next-generation products, but with a few things trimmed down. There’s a bit less RAM, and Storage tiers were cut in half, though upgrading to more storage is actually less expensive. Everything else, from the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, to the IP rating, heck even the support for all flavors of 5G is the same.
I’d give the hardware a solid A. The smaller footprint makes this an ideal one-handed phone, though keep in mind that even if the ceramic shield on the glass is harder to break, it’s still just as easy to scratch. Get a case, and if you want to enhance the flat design of this phone, channel sponsor SUPCASE has got the coolest case EVER. Here’s the perfect iPhone 4 bumper throwback with the new UB Edge. It’s a matte and scratch-resistant metal bumper with elevated bezels to protect the screen and the back along with cut-outs to make all features accessible. It’s also modular with a detachable clear back panel in case you want added protection, all for just $19 on Amazon. If you wanna go fancier and with full-screen protection, there’s the new UB Royal made of a shock absorbing TPU, faux leather, and a hand strap. Simply search iPhone 12 Case by SUPCASE on Amazon to find all their options. We’ve partnered with SUPCASE to give away an iPhone 12 mini and 12 Pro Max, so follow the link in the description to participate and enter promo code POCKETNOWMAX to enhance your chances to win.
Performance
Now, back to internals and performance, let’s be real, Apple knows its market and cares so little about most of the numbers that they rarely provide detailed specs. All people want is for the thing to work as advertised, and hey, I just reviewed the most affordable iPad a few weeks ago and realized it made no sense to go Pro. The experience using it was nearly identical to using an iPad Pro, and that’s kind of the same story here.
Can you really name an App that’s exclusive to the iPhone 12 Pro? None, right. That’s the beauty of iOS. All apps run, from the cheapest iPhone SE to the most expensive 12 Pro Max. Maybe they’ll launch a second faster on one than the other, but it’s not as if you’ll feel short-changed by any iPhone that’s still being sold.
The iPhone 12 may be shorter on RAM, but I bet you won’t be able to tell. Apps launch quick, games play just the same, and every single element of iOS 14 is here. From the picture in picture to the more compact Siri that has evolved a bit, to the new automated AirPod Switching and spacial audio, to widgets on the homes screen, it’s all here.
And since we began talking about it, you really gotta hand it to Apple for how good they are at locking you into their ecosystem. The Apple Watch continues to be my favorite Smart Watch, I edit videos on a Mac so AirDrop is crazy convenient, I handle my scripts with the new iPad Air, and now that Apple One came to town, it’s making it harder and harder to switch away.
iOS 14
That said, let’s talk about the state of iOS 14. It is a bit buggy, I know. I’m willing to forgive it for now given the much-needed changes in visuals. What I battle with is the state of widgets. I have more than 90 apps on my phone, at most 10% of these support the new feature. I wonder what’s the holdback?
Also, if you come from an iPhone 11 or XR, the other change to notice is endurance. You may complain about LCDs all you want, but those two phones were all-day battery champs thanks to how efficient the technology became, plus the larger power packs. I’d call the iPhone 12 a decent one day phone like the Pro. I’m sure the A14 is helping, but the smaller battery is not.
Phone calls are just as good as with every iPhone, and to not be bothered about which flavor of 5G to get is awesome. I’ve tested this phone on multiple carriers, and even if Ultra Wide Band is currently hard to find, at least I know my phone will support it down the line.
Camera
Now if there is one reason why you’ll debate going Pro, even more, is the cameras. Yes, you only get a primary and ultra-wide at the back, losing the added kick of the telephoto, but then the specifications between the existing ones are the same, and once you dig into the results, the dilemma only gets more complicated.
Apple’s new image processing proves major improvements to an already great phone. You’ll actually notice when you take a still that processing continues even after the fact. The result is a fantastic detail, crazy good dynamic range, and colors that are so balanced that you’ll have an easy time editing in postprocessing to your preferred tone if need be. I’m not a fan of Apple not making it easy to switch focal lengths on this phone, nor would I recommend that you push it to 5X digital, but if you stick to the ultra-wide, primary and then fumble to 2X, I have photos where you won’t be able to tell if they were taken with the Pro or the regular. I’d even say that 2X digital is good enough for social media if you’re not too picky.
Night Mode now makes it to all cameras and what I’d call fairly usable from the primary or selfie, with the Ultra Wide being ok, but I do wish we had the option to select the mode, and not depend on the camera app determining that you need it or not.
I do like selfies and portraits from this phone a lot. The lens is wide enough to not bloat your face, it handles depth really well, and about the only thing to debate is how it handles skin tones. I’m sure most of you won’t complain, but yeah there is a tad of beautification going on here.
Seriously the reason I drift most to iPhones is for video, but first, go to Settings, Camera, Record Video, switch off HDR Video. Like sure this phone can do Dolby Vision HDR, but unless you’re a pro, you’ll wanna disable this. It’ll make your Instagram stories look blown up, and if you plan to edit these videos, apps like Final Cut still don’t support it.
Stick to regular video for now, which is the best from a phone in my opinion, with great stabilization and color, great dynamic range, no warping as you walk, and a very smooth operation to switch between focal lengths. At night I will recommend you get a gimbal to reduce the warping, I won’t recommend the ultra-wide, and yeah, Apple needs to do something about how it’s lenses handle flares with all these greens pots.
The thing is the selfie video on this phone, and the way it captures audio is so good, that if any of you are considering starting a YouTube channel, this should be your primary vlogging camera. Just spare yourself the complexity.
Conclusion
To conclude, I think it’s important to consider a few things. This is not the iPhone it used to be, and Apple has made it clear. If you’re on a budget and don’t care yet about 5G, you have the iPhone SE, XR, and even the 11 for a lot less money. You could even wait for the iPhone 12 mini and pay less money for that same 5G experience.
The iPhone 12 kind of reminds me of the “grow with your vehicle” mentality we’ve seen from car makers, where those who bought a Honda Accord as teenagers saw the later generations grow and evolve along with them. I actually think this phone is a very good deal even with the bump and price.
Think about it, you have the same aluminum and glass, the same display, the same complete 5G, and most of the camera experiences that will cost you four figures if you bought a Samsung Galaxy. It lags behind on 2020 essentials like high refresh rates, but we know a lot of services still don’t take advantage of it.
I think the iPhone 12 is not just all you need, but honestly, a dramatic leap forward when compared to its predecessor. It’s definitely not what I’d call as affordable, but the technologies used and its capabilities aren’t cheap either. The combination does so well in blurring the lines with the Pro, that I think it’s honestly the better buy, but expect that other review coming very soon.
This is the iPhone 12, what Apple Calls Blast Past Fast, whatever that means, and yet what I’m gonna call the iPhone most people should buy, even if a couple of the reasons that made its predecessor so popular took a back seat.
That more affordable price strategy that we praised which separated the XR from the 11 went down the drain; an odd move considering that the price drop happened even with the iPhone 11 being superior. 2020, being as tough as it’s been, would’ve made that strategy even more ideal, but it’s important to look at the bigger picture. In Apple’s defense, you can still buy the XR and 11 for less money, and it’s important to clarify that the iPhone 12 is NOT an iterative update. This is an entirely different animal that’s so much better than its predecessor, that for the first time ever, I’m seriously questioning if you need to go Pro.
I’ve always been fascinated by the purpose of the non-pro iPhones. In the past, the slogan was the right amount of everything, and that held true for the most part. It wasn’t the best looking phone but it resembled the Pro in many ways. The display wasn’t the best, but it nailed color accuracy like few at its price, and even if it didn’t have all the cameras, it had the most popular ones in tow.
Hardware
By contrast, the iPhone 12 doesn’t really follow on any of that. It’s actually more similar to the 12 Pro than you think. If you were to stack them both side by side from the front, you wouldn’t be able to tell a difference. They share the exact same design language, the same size, and for the first time, some of the differences are kind of welcome. The aluminum build is not just lighter to hold, but also provides this matte finish on the sides that is gorgeous and not prone to fingerprints. And sure, the back glass is not exempt from smudges or looks as red as experts wish it did, but I don’t care, Product Red continues to be my favorite finish.
Seriously, a comparison with the iPhone 11 would be more to show the new vs the old, but not to measure similarities. This new flatter finish makes the old curves seem dated, and also contribute to durability in the process. It’s dramatically smaller than what we had before, but looks can be deceiving.
See, this is a way more efficient display than what we had on its predecessor. It’s the same 6.1-inch diagonal, but since the technology jumped from LCD to OLED, the bezels were trimmed. Rumors pointed to this also being an OLED made by a different manufacturer, but if Apple also dubs this as a Pro Display XDR, who are we to argue? We have the same color accuracy and contrast ratio, the same viewing angles, and even the same loud dual firing speakers to enhance content consumption. I know, odd move in offering their Pro display on a non-pro smartphone.
If only that efficiency extended to the entire display and that right antenna band were a fingerprint scanner during this pandemic. Many rumors surfaced over improvements to Face ID, or the reduction of the module, but nope. The same exact obstructive notch that’s been pretty useless all year while wearing a mask.
It’s also sort of Pro if you look at the internals. Same 5nm A14 Bionic chip that powers Apple’s next-generation products, but with a few things trimmed down. There’s a bit less RAM, and Storage tiers were cut in half, though upgrading to more storage is actually less expensive. Everything else, from the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, to the IP rating, heck even the support for all flavors of 5G is the same.
I’d give the hardware a solid A. The smaller footprint makes this an ideal one-handed phone, though keep in mind that even if the ceramic shield on the glass is harder to break, it’s still just as easy to scratch. Get a case, and if you want to enhance the flat design of this phone, channel sponsor SUPCASE has got the coolest case EVER. Here’s the perfect iPhone 4 bumper throwback with the new UB Edge. It’s a matte and scratch-resistant metal bumper with elevated bezels to protect the screen and the back along with cut-outs to make all features accessible. It’s also modular with a detachable clear back panel in case you want added protection, all for just $19 on Amazon. If you wanna go fancier and with full-screen protection, there’s the new UB Royal made of a shock absorbing TPU, faux leather, and a hand strap. Simply search iPhone 12 Case by SUPCASE on Amazon to find all their options. We’ve partnered with SUPCASE to give away an iPhone 12 mini and 12 Pro Max, so follow the link in the description to participate and enter promo code POCKETNOWMAX to enhance your chances to win.
Performance
Now, back to internals and performance, let’s be real, Apple knows its market and cares so little about most of the numbers that they rarely provide detailed specs. All people want is for the thing to work as advertised, and hey, I just reviewed the most affordable iPad a few weeks ago and realized it made no sense to go Pro. The experience using it was nearly identical to using an iPad Pro, and that’s kind of the same story here.
Can you really name an App that’s exclusive to the iPhone 12 Pro? None, right. That’s the beauty of iOS. All apps run, from the cheapest iPhone SE to the most expensive 12 Pro Max. Maybe they’ll launch a second faster on one than the other, but it’s not as if you’ll feel short-changed by any iPhone that’s still being sold.
The iPhone 12 may be shorter on RAM, but I bet you won’t be able to tell. Apps launch quick, games play just the same, and every single element of iOS 14 is here. From the picture in picture to the more compact Siri that has evolved a bit, to the new automated AirPod Switching and spacial audio, to widgets on the homes screen, it’s all here.
And since we began talking about it, you really gotta hand it to Apple for how good they are at locking you into their ecosystem. The Apple Watch continues to be my favorite Smart Watch, I edit videos on a Mac so AirDrop is crazy convenient, I handle my scripts with the new iPad Air, and now that Apple One came to town, it’s making it harder and harder to switch away.
iOS 14
That said, let’s talk about the state of iOS 14. It is a bit buggy, I know. I’m willing to forgive it for now given the much-needed changes in visuals. What I battle with is the state of widgets. I have more than 90 apps on my phone, at most 10% of these support the new feature. I wonder what’s the holdback?
Also, if you come from an iPhone 11 or XR, the other change to notice is endurance. You may complain about LCDs all you want, but those two phones were all-day battery champs thanks to how efficient the technology became, plus the larger power packs. I’d call the iPhone 12 a decent one day phone like the Pro. I’m sure the A14 is helping, but the smaller battery is not.
Phone calls are just as good as with every iPhone, and to not be bothered about which flavor of 5G to get is awesome. I’ve tested this phone on multiple carriers, and even if Ultra Wide Band is currently hard to find, at least I know my phone will support it down the line.
Camera
Now if there is one reason why you’ll debate going Pro, even more, is the cameras. Yes, you only get a primary and ultra-wide at the back, losing the added kick of the telephoto, but then the specifications between the existing ones are the same, and once you dig into the results, the dilemma only gets more complicated.
Apple’s new image processing proves major improvements to an already great phone. You’ll actually notice when you take a still that processing continues even after the fact. The result is a fantastic detail, crazy good dynamic range, and colors that are so balanced that you’ll have an easy time editing in postprocessing to your preferred tone if need be. I’m not a fan of Apple not making it easy to switch focal lengths on this phone, nor would I recommend that you push it to 5X digital, but if you stick to the ultra-wide, primary and then fumble to 2X, I have photos where you won’t be able to tell if they were taken with the Pro or the regular. I’d even say that 2X digital is good enough for social media if you’re not too picky.
Night Mode now makes it to all cameras and what I’d call fairly usable from the primary or selfie, with the Ultra Wide being ok, but I do wish we had the option to select the mode, and not depend on the camera app determining that you need it or not.
I do like selfies and portraits from this phone a lot. The lens is wide enough to not bloat your face, it handles depth really well, and about the only thing to debate is how it handles skin tones. I’m sure most of you won’t complain, but yeah there is a tad of beautification going on here.
Seriously the reason I drift most to iPhones is for video, but first, go to Settings, Camera, Record Video, switch off HDR Video. Like sure this phone can do Dolby Vision HDR, but unless you’re a pro, you’ll wanna disable this. It’ll make your Instagram stories look blown up, and if you plan to edit these videos, apps like Final Cut still don’t support it.
Stick to regular video for now, which is the best from a phone in my opinion, with great stabilization and color, great dynamic range, no warping as you walk, and a very smooth operation to switch between focal lengths. At night I will recommend you get a gimbal to reduce the warping, I won’t recommend the ultra-wide, and yeah, Apple needs to do something about how it’s lenses handle flares with all these greens pots.
The thing is the selfie video on this phone, and the way it captures audio is so good, that if any of you are considering starting a YouTube channel, this should be your primary vlogging camera. Just spare yourself the complexity.
Conclusion
To conclude, I think it’s important to consider a few things. This is not the iPhone it used to be, and Apple has made it clear. If you’re on a budget and don’t care yet about 5G, you have the iPhone SE, XR, and even the 11 for a lot less money. You could even wait for the iPhone 12 mini and pay less money for that same 5G experience.
The iPhone 12 kind of reminds me of the “grow with your vehicle” mentality we’ve seen from car makers, where those who bought a Honda Accord as teenagers saw the later generations grow and evolve along with them. I actually think this phone is a very good deal even with the bump and price.
Think about it, you have the same aluminum and glass, the same display, the same complete 5G, and most of the camera experiences that will cost you four figures if you bought a Samsung Galaxy. It lags behind on 2020 essentials like high refresh rates, but we know a lot of services still don’t take advantage of it.
I think the iPhone 12 is not just all you need, but honestly, a dramatic leap forward when compared to its predecessor. It’s definitely not what I’d call as affordable, but the technologies used and its capabilities aren’t cheap either. The combination does so well in blurring the lines with the Pro, that I think it’s honestly the better buy, but expect that other review coming very soon.
I’ll start my HUAWEI MateBook X review for the 2020 model by talking just a little bit about the MateBook X Pro, I had the pleasure of using in spring. I called it “one damn fine laptop” because it was spot on for everything I personally require on a daily basis from an ultra-portable computer.
Back in May, I was pretty sure HUAWEI can’t do any better, but to my surprise, the company proved me wrong. Not because there is something wrong with the 2020 MateBook X Pro, which I still recommend, but because the company totally nailed it with the 2020 model of the MateBook X, which we’re currently reviewing.
They say a piece of paper is as smart as the words you put on it. In the case of the MateBook X, we’re looking at a damn smart piece of paper, as the computer not only fits on a sheet of A4 (297 x 210 mm), but it’s actually smaller. So what can you expect from a computer that’s this small and lightweight? Let’s find out in our HUAWEI MateBook X review below.
We’ve been using the HUAWEI MateBook X for two weeks exclusively, typing two reviews (this included) on it, as well as for everything else work and play.
Hardware
You have the option of choosing either the Forest Green or the Silver Frost (our current review unit) colors. Weighing just 1kg, the MateBook X measures 284.4 x 206.7 x 13.6mm, making this a very lightweight and portable machine. Don’t be fooled by its rather small footprint; it “makes up” for it in many other departments.
Designed for the fashion-aware urban user who’s on the go, the MateBook X has an elegant build and design. By utilizing an aluminum-magnesium alloy unibody, HUAWEI managed to keep the weight at 1kg, and by spray painting five times the company added a finish on top of it that speaks luxury and premium.
The design is so minimalistic that nothing distracts you from admiring the actual machine and finish. A subtle, polished HUAWEI logo on the top, and two delicate cutouts on the bottom curvature towards each side for two (of the total of four) speakers. No air vents, no grills, just uninterrupted finesse.
A thickness of 13.6mm (should be thinness) doesn’t allow a lot of wiggle room when it comes to ports. The MateBook X features 1 USB Type-C port on each side, granted, these support data transfers, display port, as well as charging.
There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack on the left-hand side, which doubles as a microphone input port as well, being a 2-in-one jack.
Display
That’s all there is to it on the outside, but the real surprise comes when you flip it open. You’ll be amazed that such a small footprint can be home to a full 13-inch display. HUAWEI achieved that by slimming down the bezels to an insane amount. Dubbed the Infinite FullView Display, it offers a whopping 90% screen-to-body ratio which is a sheer pleasure to look at.
The aspect ratio is 3:2 by design and on purpose, as HUAWEI claims it offers more screen real-estate than the traditional 16:9. This is true, but it also means that you’ll have some letterboxing going on when watching videos.
The 13-inch panel is LTPS, and one of the prettiest we’ve seen yet. At a resolution of 3000 x 2000 pixels, it brings 278PPI density, and the colors and contrast it delivers are amazing. Claimed brightness is 400 nits and viewing angles at 178 degrees, but the only thing that sometimes hinders the viewing experience is the glossy finish of the display and the reflections on it.
The panel is also 10-point touch-enabled and has been treated to an anti-fingerprint coating to minimize the smudges on the screen after operating it by touch.
Keyboard
It should come as no surprise by now, if you’re even somewhat familiar with HUAWEI (and HONOR) laptops, that the webcam is located on the top row of the keyboard. This serves two purposes: not only allows for ultra-slim bezels, but it ensures your privacy, being a pop-up camera. It also has the inconvenience of a lower angle, hence by now the overused “nosecam” name it was labeled with.
The keyboard has a scissor approach for its buttons, offering a comfortable key travel (1.3mm). It is a full-size keyboard though, don’t let the compact design trick you. It is also backlit with nice, even, and quite bright light. We’ve seen no visible bleeding or dark spots, it gets as even as possible across all keys.
On top of the keyboard, you’ll spot the power button. It has an integrated fingerprint scanner which intelligently uses caching so that the same press of the button that turns the computer on is used to sign you in, without the need of touching the button once again. HUAWEI says it comes in pair with a smart optimized BIOS in order to improve Windows log-in speed and reliability.
Trackpad
For the 2020 model, the trackpad (or clickpad, as HUAWEI calls it) on the MateBook X is not only larger, but it now offers haptic feedback for a better tactile experience. The company calls it HUAWEI Free Touch, as it debuts on this model, but the changes don’t stop there.
Do you remember the NFC tag/stickers on previous models, used for pairing the laptop with the phone in order to use HUAWEI Share and Multi-Device Collaboration? They’re now gone, as HUAWEI built the NFC tag underneath the clickpad.
The smarts
The 2020 MateBook X comes in two processor configurations: you can opt for the 10th Generation Intel Core i5-10210U processor or the corresponding Core i7-10510U. Both feature the same amount of memory, at 16GB of RAM (dual-channel, LPDDR3 2133MHz), as well as the same storage in the form of a 512GB PCIe SSD.
This is not a gaming laptop, and most who will opt to buy one (should) understand that. It is equipped with the integrated Intel UHD Graphics which is enough for office and multimedia, but, while it will handle less demanding gaming titles, it is not recommended for demanding ones.
Multimedia
The webcam we mentioned earlier, as a pop-up camera on the top row on the keyboard is a 720p HD camera. It gets the job done, granted, you’ll have to get used to the angle, but if you absolutely can’t, just buy an external webcam for your video calling needs. Make sure to unplug it, if you grab one, to protect your privacy, which is as easy as pressing it down into the chassis when it comes to the built-in camera.
There are four speakers on the MateBook X, of which two tweeters are embedded under the keyboard to enable the laptop to deliver sound from its input devices. The MateBook X also supports virtual 5.1 channel output for a more immersive experience, as well as two microphones.
Also debuting on the MateBook X is the edge microphone setup, which delivers, according to HUAWEI, better signal-to-noise performance. Sensitivity-wise the microphones pick up sound from up to five meters and AI intelligently removes echoing that occurs in large conference rooms.
Connectivity
Aside from the two USB Type-C ports on each side, the MateBook X features Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac/ax at 2.4GHz and 5GHz as well as Bluetooth 5.0. Of note that there’s another first on HUAWEI laptops with this model: it features, for the first time, Wi-Fi 6, with advertised potential speeds of up to three times those of Wi-Fi 5.
Battery
There’s a 42Wh battery pack powering the MateBook X, and inside the box, you will find a 65W charger. Talking about in-the-box accessories, you’ll also find a USB-C power cable, and the HUAWEI MateDock 2, which, once plugged into the USB-C port, offers you a multitude of output options (HDMI, VGA, USB-A, and USB-C).
Performance and battery life
While I usually do more than a fair amount of testing and real-life usage with my review units, I’ll be honest: I think I exaggerated with the MateBook X. Not because I was trying desperately to find flaws, but simply because I couldn’t put it down. Once pressing publish on this review, I’ll be sad to see it go!
I carried it everywhere with me and it turned eyes everywhere it was seen. This of course means that I worked more than the usual hours that I do, but I didn’t mind, as the MateBook X made it a sheer pleasure.
For work: I’ve written reviews (including this one), responded to emails, created documents and spreadsheets, manipulated imagery, and had a fair amount of Skype and video calls. I’ve basically moved in making it my permanent mobile office for the review period.
For fun: I’ve listened to music, watched Netflix and YouTube videos, with a fair amount of chatting, whether through dedicated apps, or web versions of specific clients.
Nothing I threw at this machine made it ever hiccup or make me doubt that it’s going to get the job done, in a buttery smooth manner. I’m not a gamer, and I already advised above against trying to play demanding games on this machine.
Benchmarks
If you’ve been following Pocketnow for a while you must already know by now that we’re not fans of benchmarks. We rely mostly on real-life usage scenarios, as that’s more likely what you’ll do (except if you’re the type of person who only runs benchmarks for a living).
However, we do understand that some of you appreciate seeing analytical and synthetic data, so we’ve run a couple. You can find the results below.
CrystalDisk Mark
Geekbench 5
Geekbench 5
Geekbench 5
Cinebench R20
When it comes to battery life, things get a little bit tricky, and, it all comes down to your usage scenario. If you’re doing basic office work with documents, browsing, email, etc., you’ll likely make it through the day.
The higher the brightness on the display (say if you’re outdoors and you need to crank it up, or you are watching or streaming videos), the shorter your battery life will be.
The shortest we’ve got out of the MateBook X was close to six hours of streaming video with full brightness. For the benchmark people among our readers, that translated to 7 hours and 44 minutes on PC Mark 10.
Regardless of what’s been thrown at it, the system stayed fairly cool and silent.
Software and experience
The HUAWEI MateBook X ships with Windows 10. Our unit arrived with Windows 10 Home, and our experience refers to the operating system and drivers being up to date.
The entire experience is smooth, with nothing to report. Things just work as they should, and if you’re a Windows person you’re probably already used to how the OS handles updates and requires restarts. But once it’s settled in, things are buttery smooth.
There’s little to no bloatware on the device, but it does ship with the PC Manager app, which serves two purposes: 1. It makes sure your system stays in top-notch shape by checking hardware and drivers and 2. It’s the interface between connecting your smartphone and the computer.
We’ve detailed Multi-Screen Collaboration and how HUAWEI Share works among HUAWEI and HONOR (sadly limited to these two) smartphones with the occasion of our HUAWEI MateBook X Pro and HONOR MagicBook 14 reviews. Check those out if you need more details on how useful these features are.
The overall experience is top-notch, offered by a beautifully designed piece of jewelry you’ll be proud to show off. The system is silent and cool, and if you’re consuming multimedia, you’ll absolutely love how loud and clear those four speakers are.
Conclusion
About the only thing stopping us from saying that this is potentially the best ultrabook out there is competition from HUAWEI itself. We wouldn’t hesitate if there wasn’t a HUAWEI MateBook X Pro, but then again, we’d hesitate to call that one the best, because of this model.
HUAWEI did a great job of having two offerings which are both just as good choices, depending on the target audience, as they fall into two different categories.
With a beautiful design, lightweight and small footprint, great display, and some “first on a HUAWEI laptop” features, we have no doubts in highly recommending this computer. Whether it’s your MacBook Air replacement, or the first computer for someone who is constantly on the go, its beauty, smarts, and small/light unibody structure will make it a pleasurable companion.
Officially announced for €1,599 (Core i5) and €1799 (Core i7), the price varies, just like the configuration options, from market to market. HUAWEI currently sells the i5 version in Germany and France for €1,499, and in Romania for the equivalent of €1,530.
Pros
+ beautiful design; + small and light; + gorgeous screen; + snappy performance; + good battery life.
Cons
– only two USB ports; – odd webcam angle; – poor graphics for gaming; – a tad on the pricier end;
HUAWEI, and its sub-brand, HONOR, have been present in the laptop landscape for quite some time, but it’s only been the past couple of years that the two companies really started to make waves. HUAWEI offers really high-tier, premium products, as we’ve seen with the occasion of our MateBook X Pro review, and HONOR is doing a great job at bringing premium quality and design, as well as performance, to the more affordable segment.
The HONOR MagicBook 14 hasn’t changed much, if at all, compared to the previous generation, in terms of its design. However, the 2020 model, announced at IFA, brings a serious spec-bump with the addition of AMD’s Ryzen 5 4500U chip, a step up from the previously used 3500U.
In our HONOR MagicBook 14 review (2020), we’re taking a look at whether you get the most bang for your buck if you decide to purchase this laptop.
Hardware
Those familiar with the previous generation will be right at home when it comes to the MagicBook 14. If, however, this is going to be your first time with the computer, you should expect a solid build mostly of aluminum and some plastic.
The laptop is available in Mystic Silver, and Space Gray, the unit we’re currently reviewing. While the case itself is indeed Space Gray, the logo on the top, as well as the chamfers, have a nice blue tone to them, which gives it an extra flashy, but subtle look at the same time.
Taking a look around the MagicBook 14, on the right side you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone port, next to a full-size USB3.2 Gen 1 (Type A). On the left-hand side, you get a USB Type-C, an HDMI, and a full-size USB2.0 (Type A) port.
The bottom features a slightly raised design in order for air to easily find its way underneath the laptop, and inside, through the grill that runs almost the entire width of the device. This is also where the speaker grills reside, one on each side for stereo sound.
Opening up the lid reveals, as its name implies, a 14-inch display with rather small bezels, thanks to HONOR inheriting the webcam approach from HUAWEI. The display has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, which is FHD, and an aspect ratio of 16:9. Said small bezels result in a screen-to-body ratio of 84%, which is not the largest out there, but it’s definitely nice to look at, granted, hindered only by the fairly large bottom bezel.
The panel is an IPS LCD, and HONOR claims a brightness of 250 nits and an 800:1 contrast ratio. The matte finish of the display ensures no reflections and the colors are nice and punchy. About the only thing we can nitpick on is outdoor visibility which is a tad difficult in bright environments, as well as the viewing angles, which are narrower compared to a higher-end laptops, but definitely not a dealbreaker.
The keyboard is full size, with nice and pleasant key travel. Keys size and spacing ensure comfortable typing and the backlight is nice and even with little to no bleeding, illuminating clearly each key in the dark.
The touchpad offers a great experience as well. Despite being plastic, it doesn’t pose any usability issues. Clicks are firm and gestures work as they should.
On the top right there’s a round power button which also has the fingerprint scanner embedded in it. What’s worth mentioning here is that if you turn on the computer with the finger you enrolled as your fingerprint authentication, Windows will automatically sign you in without the need to authenticate or touch the button again.
Inside you’ll find the new AMD Ryzen 5 4500U processor, paired with AMD Radeon Graphics. The chip is a six-core CPU with six threads, built on the 7nm technology, and has an 8MB L3 Cache. Depending on the market, the laptop is available with either 8- or 16GB of memory, and the same goes for storage with 256- and 512GB versions.
…and then the webcam, which is always a polarizing topic when it comes to HONOR and HUAWEI laptops. The dreaded “nosecam” title still remains, but HONOR, just like HUAWEI, stresses on the privacy issue, and they’re right. A camera that’s tucked inside the keyboard will most likely not reveal anything about you even if hacked. Once you pop it open, the only downside is the awkward viewing angle, but you’ll get used to it (or buy a separate webcam if you have to).
Performance and battery life
Our review unit has 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. While it is by no means a powerhouse gaming machine, it gets the job done if you’re ok with playing titles that are not demanding. You might also need to tweak the game’s settings to a lower resolution to be easier on the graphics card.
That being said, all other mundane tasks are being handled without issues. Whether it’s work (documents, spreadsheets, browsing, emails, video calls, etc.) or entertainment (YouTube, Netflix, listening to music, basic photo manipulation), it gets the job done without any issues.
We’re not huge fans of benchmarks here on Pocketnow, but for those of you who are, here are some of the results from the tests we ran:
Geekbench 5
Geekbench 5
Geekbench 5
CrystalDisk
CrystalDisk
Cinebench
In terms of battery life, the 56Wh unit inside the MagicBook 14 did a great job. It will last for an entire day if you do lightweight office work. To get a better sense of how much juice you can squeeze out of the battery, it should last you a tad above 11 hours of YouTube videos with the display brightness cranked up to the maximum, and close to 13 hours of constant browsing.
Software and experience
In terms of software, the MagicBook 14 ships with Windows 10 out of the box. After a couple of updates to the operating system, drivers, and firmware, once you’re up to date, the entire experience is smooth. Not much to report here, things are working, behaving, and performing as they should.
A special mention goes to HONOR MagicLink, which is the company’s take on HUAWEI Share. It acts and behaves the same way, allowing you to link up your compatible HONOR or HUAWEI phone to the computer so that you can mirror your display, and do some other tasks.
The sticker on the laptop is basically an NFC tag which, once scanned, will pair your phone to the computer. NFC, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi will have to be enabled on both devices. Once paired, your smartphone’s home screen will appear windowed so that you can take calls, send texts, chat, as well as drag and drop files among the two devices seamlessly. This includes images, texts, documents, and real-world scenarios include dragging a photo from your phone straight into a document or presentation.
There’s also a shared clipboard feature where you can access content copied on one device on the other one. Overall, it’s a great experience, with one caveat: your smartphone has to be HONOR or HUAWEI to access this Multi-Screen Collaboration feature.
The overall experience is top-notch. We absolutely like the display, as well as the sound produced by the speakers. Considering the affordable price tag, we’ve experienced poorer sound quality on more expensive laptops, so props to HONOR for this.
The system doesn’t overheat, thanks mostly to the huge grill vent we talked about in the Design segment. The fans are doing a great job at keeping it from overheating, but you’ll have to get used to them hissing if you’re in Performance mode and you’re undertaking demanding tasks.
For day-to-day lightweight operation, they barely fire up while the system stays nice and cool and stable.
Conclusion
The HONOR MagicBook 14 was already a great choice when it ran the older version of the processor. Now, with the upgraded 4500U chip, the 2020 model not only outperforms other laptops in its class and price range, but it also manages, like an overachiever that it is, to sometimes get closer and bridge the gap to that high-end segment.
But not everything’s roses and rainbows. Our cons category includes the “nosecam”, a rather heavy build at 1.4kg, and I/O could be somewhat better.
However, for (currently on sale) €749,90 or £669.99 respectively, it’s affordable enough to overlook the aforementioned cons. The price is for the model we’ve been using, in an 8GB and 512GB configuration.
Pros
Great design, premium materials;
Really nice display;
Great performance;
Excellent battery life;
Speakers are loud;
Integration with HUAWEI smartphones via HUAWEI Share.
Cons
Not recommended for graphics-intense operations;
Pop-up webcam’s angle is something you’ll have to get used to;
A tad heavy at 1.4kg;
I/O could be better;
If you’re in the U.S. you’ll likely need to import it, which will add to the price.
If you’re looking for the best monitor there is for pretty much any task you wanna throw at it, this is it. With 178 FoV, elegant design, great color accuracy, plenty of connectivity options, and tiltable design, the LG 38WN95C is our Editor’s Choice for the best monitor in its class.
This is the LG 38WN95C, what the company dubs as a wider, well-rounded experience, and what I’m gonna call one of my favorite products of 2020. See, one of the biggest challenges with what I do is that I can’t just use any monitor. There are specific reasons why it needs to be the best at certain things, and after spending some time with it at CES 2020, it was enough for me to know I needed to try it out.
I know for some of you a monitor is about refresh rate, or for others about the size. While for me, my workflow has a couple of demands.
The first is I need monitors, not just one. I handle a ton of tasks at once, so I either need more than one, or a canvas that’s large and wide enough to achieve the same task.
Second is the avoidance of distractions. The biggest problem with most large monitors is screen glare, which can confuse your content consumption.
And the most important, third is color accuracy. If you’re going to be editing a video, reds must be reds, blues must be blues.
For years LG has been one of the pioneers of Ultra-wide monitors, with some of the best glare-free experiences, and also, the gold standard for color accuracy, and this is their top of the line. This is not an affordable monitor by any means, but it offers the benefit of being everything that everyone wants, in one package.
The unboxing experience is one where I feel the company really goes all out. First of all prepare cause, the box is huge. Like seriously very large. Inside we’re greeted with lots of foam protecting the monitor and judging by the fact that mine traveled a few countries to get here, I say order with confidence.
I recommend following the instructions for taking the monitor out, setting up the metallic stand as the setup is fairly easy if you follow it step by step. At the top, we have a smaller box full of accessories. This is that one product where you seriously won’t have to spend a dime in buying any sort of cables, they’re all here.
The good
My second favorite feature on this monitor is the amount of IO. You get 2 HDMI ports, 2 USB 3 ports, a DisplayPort connector, a headphone jack, and then my favorite, Thunderbolt 3. All these literally enable my current setup. I currently have my mechanical keyboard connected to one of the USB ports, the mouse to the other, and that way, whatever Thunderbolt-capable computer I connect to the monitor will automatically detect them. Thunderbolt 3 also offers 94W power delivery, so you’re pretty much covered on this being the only cable that goes to your computer if need be.
Now let’s talk about why this display matters. This is a 38-inch 21:9 Ultra-Wide monitor at QuadHD+ resolution. That’s 3840 x 1600, which if you do the math is really just a few hundred pixels shy of being 4K. Its design allows for a crazy 178 degrees of field of view, and with very minor bezels on three of its sides, with just a slightly thicker bezel at the bottom.
It’s also the world’s first Nano-IPS monitor with 1 millisecond response times. This allows it to be crazy color-accurate covering 98% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 135% of sRGB which is also VESA DisplayHDR 600 Certified backed by 450 nits of brightness. Best of all, it’s NVIDIA GSYNC compatible, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro compatible and it offers 144hz refresh rate, so yeah, everything but the kitchen sink in anything you could ask from a monitor. Match that with 2 loud 5W speakers on each side, and yeah, this is the real deal.
Now, while Diego loves the gaming aspects of it, for me this is more a productivity workhorse. I need a large canvas for video editing, that’s also color accurate, something every other gaming monitor can’t really claim. I consider this to be a far better solution than having two monitors stacked together. If you do the math, this is literally the equivalent of two separate 3 x 1 screens side by side, so for any other kind of work, this has allowed me to multitask like crazy.
This monitor is so wide, that there’s even a PBP mode, meaning you can set two inputs to work at the same time on each side of the monitor. It will require you to do a little juggling with the aspect ratios depending on the products you have connected, cause games don’t always adapt.
And speaking of games, it’s the main reason why I’ve left my Nintendo Switch connected permanently to the monitor. At first, you’ll notice resolution to be a bit fuzzy in menus, but when it comes to gameplay, that all goes away. I’d even say that this camera is not doing enough justice to the fluidness of the gameplay. The image quality on this monitor also makes my living room TV look so bad that it’s also become my go-to for watching a movie. Movies are pretty much the same aspect ratio.
The mixed
Now, of course, there’s no such thing as a perfect product, so let’s discuss the issues where I’m mixed with this monitor.
The first is really not a complaint, but really something that comes with the territory. Viewing angles won’t necessarily be the best, and reflections on shadows will be noticeable. For me having a matte screen is more important, so I’m fine, but just keep that in mind.
The second is the materials. I guess for the price I was expecting a bit more metal in the body. Obviously, that won’t bother you in day-to-day use, but just make sure you set it on a sturdy desk as it might wobble a bit if you’re a hard typer.
The third is the on-screen controls. Given the price, I do feel this monitor should at least have some sort of remote control to help you handle them. I’m not gonna call them bad, but since volume controls and brightness controls switch from the computer to the monitor completely, that can be kind of a chore.
Last but not least, yes, you can tilt the monitor, raise it to your preferred height and so many other ergonomic options, but if there’s one I wish wasn’t here is tilt as it’s really hard to tell when the monitor is not tilted. And also, yes I agree with other reviewers that the matte coating does seem like it can peel off from the corners, but no worries, you can’t, or at least not easily.
Conclusion
Probably one of the reasons I like this monitor most is its design. Doesn’t matter who walks into my home office, this monitor is imposing, and it’s elegant. Not really a fan of those gaming monitors that are just over the top with lights and stuff. I honestly prefer my monitors to be simplistic.
To conclude, let’s be honest. The reasons why I’m mixed are more nit-picks than anything. The LG 38WN95C is the best in its class and has won so many awards for a reason. If you’re looking for the best monitor there is for pretty much any task you wanna throw at it, I’d say this is it.
It will cost you though. This is definitely not an affordable monitor, but it also beats the need to have to own more than one monitor to suit your needs. In my book, this is definitely one of my favorite products of 2020. I have no problem recommending that you give it a try.
Probably one of the reasons I like this monitor most is its design. Doesn’t matter who walks into my home office, this monitor is imposing, and it’s elegant. Not really a fan of those gaming monitors that are just over the top with lights and stuff. I honestly prefer my monitors to be simplistic.
If you’re looking for the best monitor there is for pretty much any task you wanna throw at it, this is it. With 178 FoV, elegant design, great color accuracy, plenty of connectivity options, and tiltable design, the LG 38WN95C is our Editor’s Choice for the best monitor in its class.
This is the LG 38WN95C, what the company dubs as a wider, well-rounded experience, and what I’m gonna call one of my favorite products of 2020. See, one of the biggest challenges with what I do is that I can’t just use any monitor. There are specific reasons why it needs to be the best at certain things, and after spending some time with it at CES 2020, it was enough for me to know I needed to try it out.
I know for some of you a monitor is about refresh rate, or for others about the size. While for me, my workflow has a couple of demands.
The first is I need monitors, not just one. I handle a ton of tasks at once, so I either need more than one, or a canvas that’s large and wide enough to achieve the same task.
Second is the avoidance of distractions. The biggest problem with most large monitors is screen glare, which can confuse your content consumption.
And the most important, third is color accuracy. If you’re going to be editing a video, reds must be reds, blues must be blues.
For years LG has been one of the pioneers of Ultra-wide monitors, with some of the best glare-free experiences, and also, the gold standard for color accuracy, and this is their top of the line. This is not an affordable monitor by any means, but it offers the benefit of being everything that everyone wants, in one package.
The unboxing experience is one where I feel the company really goes all out. First of all prepare cause, the box is huge. Like seriously very large. Inside we’re greeted with lots of foam protecting the monitor and judging by the fact that mine traveled a few countries to get here, I say order with confidence.
I recommend following the instructions for taking the monitor out, setting up the metallic stand as the setup is fairly easy if you follow it step by step. At the top, we have a smaller box full of accessories. This is that one product where you seriously won’t have to spend a dime in buying any sort of cables, they’re all here.
The good
My second favorite feature on this monitor is the amount of IO. You get 2 HDMI ports, 2 USB 3 ports, a DisplayPort connector, a headphone jack, and then my favorite, Thunderbolt 3. All these literally enable my current setup. I currently have my mechanical keyboard connected to one of the USB ports, the mouse to the other, and that way, whatever Thunderbolt-capable computer I connect to the monitor will automatically detect them. Thunderbolt 3 also offers 94W power delivery, so you’re pretty much covered on this being the only cable that goes to your computer if need be.
Now let’s talk about why this display matters. This is a 38-inch 21:9 Ultra-Wide monitor at QuadHD+ resolution. That’s 3840 x 1600, which if you do the math is really just a few hundred pixels shy of being 4K. Its design allows for a crazy 178 degrees of field of view, and with very minor bezels on three of its sides, with just a slightly thicker bezel at the bottom.
It’s also the world’s first Nano-IPS monitor with 1 millisecond response times. This allows it to be crazy color-accurate covering 98% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 135% of sRGB which is also VESA DisplayHDR 600 Certified backed by 450 nits of brightness. Best of all, it’s NVIDIA GSYNC compatible, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro compatible and it offers 144hz refresh rate, so yeah, everything but the kitchen sink in anything you could ask from a monitor. Match that with 2 loud 5W speakers on each side, and yeah, this is the real deal.
Now, while Diego loves the gaming aspects of it, for me this is more a productivity workhorse. I need a large canvas for video editing, that’s also color accurate, something every other gaming monitor can’t really claim. I consider this to be a far better solution than having two monitors stacked together. If you do the math, this is literally the equivalent of two separate 3 x 1 screens side by side, so for any other kind of work, this has allowed me to multitask like crazy.
This monitor is so wide, that there’s even a PBP mode, meaning you can set two inputs to work at the same time on each side of the monitor. It will require you to do a little juggling with the aspect ratios depending on the products you have connected, cause games don’t always adapt.
And speaking of games, it’s the main reason why I’ve left my Nintendo Switch connected permanently to the monitor. At first, you’ll notice resolution to be a bit fuzzy in menus, but when it comes to gameplay, that all goes away. I’d even say that this camera is not doing enough justice to the fluidness of the gameplay. The image quality on this monitor also makes my living room TV look so bad that it’s also become my go-to for watching a movie. Movies are pretty much the same aspect ratio.
The mixed
Now, of course, there’s no such thing as a perfect product, so let’s discuss the issues where I’m mixed with this monitor.
The first is really not a complaint, but really something that comes with the territory. Viewing angles won’t necessarily be the best, and reflections on shadows will be noticeable. For me having a matte screen is more important, so I’m fine, but just keep that in mind.
The second is the materials. I guess for the price I was expecting a bit more metal in the body. Obviously, that won’t bother you in day-to-day use, but just make sure you set it on a sturdy desk as it might wobble a bit if you’re a hard typer.
The third is the on-screen controls. Given the price, I do feel this monitor should at least have some sort of remote control to help you handle them. I’m not gonna call them bad, but since volume controls and brightness controls switch from the computer to the monitor completely, that can be kind of a chore.
Last but not least, yes, you can tilt the monitor, raise it to your preferred height and so many other ergonomic options, but if there’s one I wish wasn’t here is tilt as it’s really hard to tell when the monitor is not tilted. And also, yes I agree with other reviewers that the matte coating does seem like it can peel off from the corners, but no worries, you can’t, or at least not easily.
Conclusion
Probably one of the reasons I like this monitor most is its design. Doesn’t matter who walks into my home office, this monitor is imposing, and it’s elegant. Not really a fan of those gaming monitors that are just over the top with lights and stuff. I honestly prefer my monitors to be simplistic.
To conclude, let’s be honest. The reasons why I’m mixed are more nit-picks than anything. The LG 38WN95C is the best in its class and has won so many awards for a reason. If you’re looking for the best monitor there is for pretty much any task you wanna throw at it, I’d say this is it.
It will cost you though. This is definitely not an affordable monitor, but it also beats the need to have to own more than one monitor to suit your needs. In my book, this is definitely one of my favorite products of 2020. I have no problem recommending that you give it a try.
Probably one of the reasons I like this monitor most is its design. Doesn’t matter who walks into my home office, this monitor is imposing, and it’s elegant. Not really a fan of those gaming monitors that are just over the top with lights and stuff. I honestly prefer my monitors to be simplistic.
The LG 38WK95C features a Resolution 3840 x 1600 pixel resolution. It comes with a 5mn response time, 21:9 aspect ratio, IPS panel with adaptive sync technology.
If you’ve always wanted a HUAWEI Watch GT 2 (and there are three of them: the original GT 2, the more affordable GT 2e, and the premium GT 2 Pro), but for whatever reason, you also wanted an even longer battery life, and a build that is more durable and can withstand the abuse, the HONOR Watch GS Pro is where your attention should be.
It should come as no surprise, given the fact that HONOR is a HUAWEI sub-brand, that the HONOR Watch GS Pro shares most, if not all of its features with the HUAWEI Watch GT 2. Internals aside, this watch is addressing a completely different target audience, one that is not training at the gym and wearing the same classy watch to work. This is a fully ruggedized smartwatch, that promises 25-day battery life and is also MIL-STD-810G certified for those outdoors enthusiasts among the active.
We’ve been training with this beast for more than two weeks, and this is our verdict, in our HONOR Watch GS Pro review below.
HONOR Watch GS Pro design
The HONOR Watch GS Pro is the complete opposite of the HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro, which is subtle, elegant, and classy. The Watch GS Pro is chunky, but in a “masculine” way, not in a bad way. Sure, it retains the basics of the original design, with the two side buttons on the right, and the speaker in between, but it has a much thicker case and bezel in order to offer more protection.
Featuring almost double the battery capacity than the Watch GT 2 required HONOR to make the case of the Watch GS Pro thicker. That’s fine if you’re a fan (or just OK) with a chunky watch, but if you are absolutely terrified of wearing an almost 14mm thick watch on your wrist, you should probably look elsewhere.
The stainless steel bezel nicely blends in with the reinforced polycarbonate body, to offer thermal resistance, shock resistance, as well as water resistance, in addition to 11 more military-grade certifications, for a total of 14. It’s available in Charcoal Black (our unit), Camo Blue, Camo Grey, and Marl White.
On the back, we spot the TruSeen 3.5 heart-rate and blood oxygen setup consisting of four LEDs, as well as the two pogo pins used for charging. The rubber strap is rather stiff, but it’s still comfortable on your wrist, and features a spring-loaded mechanism should you want to switch it out to another 22mm strap.
HONOR Watch GS Pro specs
You shouldn’t be surprised if you already know these specs from the HUAWEI Watch GT 2-series. There’s a 1.39-inch AMOLED display with 454 x 454 resolution and 326PPI on the top, underneath which the Kirin A1 chip, paired with 32MB of RAM and 4GB of storage (2 available) are doing the heavy lifting.
Fueling everything is a massive 790mAh battery (with 25 days of advertised battery life), all crammed in a case measuring 48mm x 48mm x 13.6mm and about 50 grams.
While there’s no Wi-Fi and NFC, the Watch GS Pro features an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, heart rate sensor, barometer, ambient light sensor, its own GPS, Bluetooth 5.1, and, of course, the microphone and the speaker.
Software and experience
The HONOR Watch GS Pro features the same software as the HUAWEI line-up. Our unit is currently running LiteOS 10.1.1.22, and if you’re familiar with the software you should feel right at home. If you’re new to owning a recent HONOR (or HUAWEI, for that matter) smartwatch, it’s an easy learning curve, and getting used to it will be no problem.
There are six screens, including the home screen, you can swipe through in an endless loop. These are your main home screen, which is customizable with tons of watch faces, your heart-rate screen followed by your stress readouts, weather, music controls, and your summary circles (consisting of total steps, workout minutes, and active standing number of hours).
More than 100 workout modes are available on the watch (including hiking, skiing, and swimming), so you’ll probably find the one that suits you, except if you play basketball. I mention this every time I review a HUAWEI or HONOR watch, since there are so many sports included, but not a basketball option, and since I’m shooting baskets twice a week, I have to always go with another training mode. I’ll end my short rant here.
Relying on the GPS inside the watch, there’s a neat “Route Back” feature you can use should you get lost in the woods or mountains while hiking. The watch will guide you back to your starting point, which is really convenient for the outdoor lovers. GPS will also record your walks and runs, and other outdoor activities.
You still can’t act on notification, aside from scrolling through them and dismissing them, so forget about replying to a text message. And, while still on the topic, the watch still doesn’t support the display of emojis, so if you get a text or a WhatsApp message that only contains an emoji, like a , the notification will be empty.
We said the above paragraph with the occasion of our HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro review, and it’s just as applicable to the HONOR Watch GS Pro since it’s running the same software. It also comes with the same inconvenience.
You still have no payment options available, but thanks to the speaker (which is really loud) and microphone, you can take calls on your wrist if you find it more convenient than searching for your smartphone inside the backpack.
The rest of the experience relies on the HUAWEI Health app, which is available to download on the AppGallery, as well as the Play Store. You can find more details on the HUAWEI Health App by checking out its section in our Watch GT 2 review.
Fitness and Health
My training routine is unchanged and includes ten cardio sessions per week, 5 CrossFit and weightlifting, and two sessions of shooting baskets. During our two weeks of training with the HONOR Watch GS Pro, I only charged it once. While not exactly a 25-day battery life, as advertised, it’s still double the battery life or the HUAWEI watches, considering the rather heavy use thanks to the high amount of training sessions, during our HONOR Watch GS Pro review period.
During those aforementioned sessions, heart-rate monitoring and VO2Max readouts seemed pretty accurate and consistent with the readouts of other brand watches.
Sleep tracking was also in line with previously recorded results from another watch, and the Watch GS Pro does a good job at automatically recognizing bedtime and wake up time.
Nothing negative to mention in the Stress monitoring department. The watch takes readouts throughout the day so you have a better sense of how stressed you are, and maybe take a break or a breathing exercise.
Of course, while you can check your exercise records and daily activity on the watch, it’s the HUAWEI Health app that collects all the data and nicely represents all of your fitness activities and health-related readouts.
With rather accurate blood oxygen level monitoring, you can always keep track of your SpO2 levels; the readings are not automatic, but on-demand, which is something HONOR could include during the night for an even better estimation of your sleep quality.
Pricing and availability
Priced at a rather steep €249.99 or ₤249.99, you can definitely grab it at a lower price as there are several discounts and bundles offered in various countries in the EU. If you’re in the US, you’ll most likely have to import it due to the ban on HUAWEI (and HONOR) products.
– no NFC, Cellular, or Wi-Fi – no payment options – notification system needs more work – iOS experience inferior to Android – chunky design could not appeal to some
Conclusion
If you are the kind of person who enjoys outdoor activities more than the average person, the HONOR Watch GS Pro should definitely be on your shortlist for a companion.
Its rugged build is shock resistant and with 14 military-grade certifications, it will continue to perform in all extreme conditions. Not only that, but with extreme battery life, you can rest assured that it will not give up on you, and the “Route Back” feature will safely return you to your starting point.
We’ve been using the HUAWEI Watch GT2 Pro as our daily driver for close to one month. Usage scenarios detailed within the review below.
I was fortunate enough to live and train with the original HUAWEI Watch GT2, and then with the more affordable Watch GT 2e. They are great lifestyle and training companions, and I enjoyed my time with both of them long after my review period.
With the recently announced HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro, the company addresses a totally different target audience. If the base model GT 2 got a more affordable GT 2e companion, the GT 2 Pro is the watch’s premium version. You can not only wear it to the gym or dressed casually, but you can also dress up and still use the watch, which no longer looks like a sports-only accessory.
While most of the things are unchanged, there are some differences though compared to previous models. We’ll check those out in our HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro review below.
The looks
The Watch GT 2 e was aimed at the active users, so HUAWEI flattened the side buttons to avoid accidental presses if you’re bending your wrist during your workouts.
For the Watch GT 2 Pro, the manufacturer returned to the original rounded buttons that were featured on the initial GT 2. However, the GT 2 Pro being a more elegant accessory, HUAWEI replaced the numbers on the watch dial with a more discrete signage consisting of a triangle at 12 o’clock, and subtle lines at every hour mark.
While still rubber, the watchband nicely imitates a leather strap to keep the elegant look consistent. This is the first aspect of the premium materials HUAWEI has been using for the GT 2 Pro.
Next is the watch case itself. It is now made of titanium, which is lighter and more durable. The watch face itself is sapphire glass, which is also more durable and deals with scratches better, while the watch’s backside is ceramic.
Last but not least, still in the looks department, the default watch face is an elegant one, called “Black Tie” (there are 13 pre-installed on the watch), for obvious reasons. You can, however, easily change it from within the HUAWEI Health app. You’ve got endless options to choose from.
The display – a 1.39-inch OLED panel with 454 x 454 resolution and 462 PPI – is gorgeous, but it should come as no surprise since the entire line-up features the same, beautiful panel.
What’s new
While previous generation GT2 models were pretty damn accurate in determining your heart rate and blood level oxygen, for the GT 2 Pro HUAWEI upgraded the sensor on the back. It now features a TruSeen 4.0+ sensor, which, according to the manufacturer, offers better light transmission and utilization, it’s more power efficient and features AI-assisted intelligent heart rate algorithms.
The other significant change, which is a very welcome one, is the addition of wireless charging. Sure, if you’re using the supplied charging pad, it makes no difference whether it’s a pogo-pin approach or a wireless charging approach, but with this charging technology, you can use your smartphone’s reverse wireless charging capabilities to charge your watch.
HUAWEI claims that a 5-minute charge offers you 10 hours of usage, and we’ve verified that to be true.
The smarts
The HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro features, more or less, the exact same software (LiteOS) that powers the predecessors. Sadly, it comes with the same cons we’ve mentioned with the occasion of our past reviews.
You still can’t act on notification, aside from scrolling through them and dismissing them, so forget about replying to a text message. And, while still on the topic, the watch still doesn’t support the display of emojis, so if you get a text or a WhatsApp message that only contains an emoji, like a , the notification will be empty.
Also, no payment options are supported on the Watch GT 2 Pro, similar to the two predecessors, which, of course, makes sense since, aside from the differences outlined in the segment above, this is, in reality, the same watch.
Unlike the GT 2e, but similar to the GT2, the GT 2 Pro allows you to take calls on the wrist. The loudspeaker (and it’s pretty loud) is back, with a very subtle opening between the two buttons, with the microphone being on the opposite side.
The Kirin A1 chip does a great job of keeping things fluid and snappy, but the lack of cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity means that the watch relies solely on the smartphone for its needs.
You can, however, train without your smartphone, as the GT 2 Pro does feature its own GPS antenna for all your tracking needs. Not only that, but there’s a new “Route Back” feature that relies on the recorded GPS data to help you find your way back should you get lost while being out.
Out of the 4GB of storage, 2GB are available for local music storage. You can listen to music without your smartphone while training, and you can pair any Bluetooth headphones or earbuds directly to the watch in order to achieve that.
In terms of battery life, in our experience, it lasted the advertised seven days. This is with ten cardio sessions per week, 5 CrossFit and weightlifting trainings, and two sessions of shooting baskets. Also, heart rate monitoring is continuous, and considering that the aforementioned sessions all imply the use of GPS, charging the watch every Sunday evening is an excellent run, considering other competitors barely make it through the day.
Fitness and Health aspects
The HUAWEI Health App is the HQ for everything fitness, sleep, and health-related. That’s where all your data is synced, from your training sessions to your heart rate, from your sleep records to your blood oxygen levels. You can find more details on the HUAWEI Health App by checking out its section in our Watch GT2 review.
The HUAWEI Health App is the HQ for everything fitness, sleep, and health-related. That’s where all your data is synced, from your training sessions to your heart rate, from your sleep records to your blood oxygen levels. You can find more details on the HUAWEI Health App by checking out its section in our Watch GT2 review.
The Watch GT 2 Pro supports more than 100 workout modes (sadly, still no basketball, HUAWEI!). Of those, 17 are professional modes, and 85 are custom modes, and new is the addition of Golf Mode and Skiing and Snowboarding Modem in addition to Cross Country Skiing.
When it comes to training, the watch records your heart rate pretty accurately, as long as you keep the contact between the sensor and your skin clean. This means that if you’re pushing hard and you’re sweating a lot, you might need to occasionally wipe your wrist (and/or the back of the watch) dry.
If you’re walking or running, it will also calculate your VO2Max, and compare it to a general benchmark of people your gender, age, etc. SpO2 readings are on-demand, and the results are synced back to the Health App.
Sleep tracking is also pretty accurate, with the watch precisely detection your bedtime and wake-up moments, with everything in between (sleep stages and awake time).
You can also set a benchmark for your stress level readout, which your watch takes during the day, to see exactly how bad or good of a day you’ve had, and whether you need to calm down by taking some breathing exercises, also available on the watch.
You can also set a benchmark for your stress level readout, which your watch takes during the day, to see exactly how bad or good of a day you’ve had, and whether you need to calm down by taking some breathing exercises, also available on the watch.
Pricing and availability
€349 is what you’ll have to pay for this premium version of the watch, but if you are in the US, there’s no word yet on whether it will officially be available, or you might have to import it yourself.
The Watch GT 2 Pro is available in two options: Sport (with a black rubber band, the one you see above), and a Classic variant with a brown leather strap.
The Watch GT 2 Pro is available in two options: Sport (with a black rubber band, the one you see above), and a Classic variant with a brown leather strap.
– no NFC, Cellular or Wi-Fi – no payment options – notification system needs more work – iOS experience inferior to Android
Conclusion
The original Watch GT2 was already a great smartwatch, to begin with. For the current model, HUAWEI took the Watch GT 2 Pro to the next level by using premium materials, upgrading the main heart-rate sensor, and adding in the convenience of wireless charging. Because of the extreme battery life, accurate health and fitness features, gorgeous display, and premium/classy appearance, the HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro is our Editor’s Choice for the best smartwatch in terms of looks, performance, and insane battery life.
We’ve been using the HUAWEI Watch GT2 Pro as our daily driver for close to one month. Usage scenarios detailed within the review below.
I was fortunate enough to live and train with the original HUAWEI Watch GT2, and then with the more affordable Watch GT 2e. They are great lifestyle and training companions, and I enjoyed my time with both of them long after my review period.
With the recently announced HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro, the company addresses a totally different target audience. If the base model GT 2 got a more affordable GT 2e companion, the GT 2 Pro is the watch’s premium version. You can not only wear it to the gym or dressed casually, but you can also dress up and still use the watch, which no longer looks like a sports-only accessory.
While most of the things are unchanged, there are some differences though compared to previous models. We’ll check those out in our HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro review below.
The looks
The Watch GT 2 e was aimed at the active users, so HUAWEI flattened the side buttons to avoid accidental presses if you’re bending your wrist during your workouts.
For the Watch GT 2 Pro, the manufacturer returned to the original rounded buttons that were featured on the initial GT 2. However, the GT 2 Pro being a more elegant accessory, HUAWEI replaced the numbers on the watch dial with a more discrete signage consisting of a triangle at 12 o’clock, and subtle lines at every hour mark.
While still rubber, the watchband nicely imitates a leather strap to keep the elegant look consistent. This is the first aspect of the premium materials HUAWEI has been using for the GT 2 Pro.
Next is the watch case itself. It is now made of titanium, which is lighter and more durable. The watch face itself is sapphire glass, which is also more durable and deals with scratches better, while the watch’s backside is ceramic.
Last but not least, still in the looks department, the default watch face is an elegant one, called “Black Tie” (there are 13 pre-installed on the watch), for obvious reasons. You can, however, easily change it from within the HUAWEI Health app. You’ve got endless options to choose from.
The display – a 1.39-inch OLED panel with 454 x 454 resolution and 462 PPI – is gorgeous, but it should come as no surprise since the entire line-up features the same, beautiful panel.
What’s new
While previous generation GT2 models were pretty damn accurate in determining your heart rate and blood level oxygen, for the GT 2 Pro HUAWEI upgraded the sensor on the back. It now features a TruSeen 4.0+ sensor, which, according to the manufacturer, offers better light transmission and utilization, it’s more power efficient and features AI-assisted intelligent heart rate algorithms.
The other significant change, which is a very welcome one, is the addition of wireless charging. Sure, if you’re using the supplied charging pad, it makes no difference whether it’s a pogo-pin approach or a wireless charging approach, but with this charging technology, you can use your smartphone’s reverse wireless charging capabilities to charge your watch.
HUAWEI claims that a 5-minute charge offers you 10 hours of usage, and we’ve verified that to be true.
The smarts
The HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro features, more or less, the exact same software (LiteOS) that powers the predecessors. Sadly, it comes with the same cons we’ve mentioned with the occasion of our past reviews.
You still can’t act on notification, aside from scrolling through them and dismissing them, so forget about replying to a text message. And, while still on the topic, the watch still doesn’t support the display of emojis, so if you get a text or a WhatsApp message that only contains an emoji, like a , the notification will be empty.
Also, no payment options are supported on the Watch GT 2 Pro, similar to the two predecessors, which, of course, makes sense since, aside from the differences outlined in the segment above, this is, in reality, the same watch.
Unlike the GT 2e, but similar to the GT2, the GT 2 Pro allows you to take calls on the wrist. The loudspeaker (and it’s pretty loud) is back, with a very subtle opening between the two buttons, with the microphone being on the opposite side.
The Kirin A1 chip does a great job of keeping things fluid and snappy, but the lack of cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity means that the watch relies solely on the smartphone for its needs.
You can, however, train without your smartphone, as the GT 2 Pro does feature its own GPS antenna for all your tracking needs. Not only that, but there’s a new “Route Back” feature that relies on the recorded GPS data to help you find your way back should you get lost while being out.
Out of the 4GB of storage, 2GB are available for local music storage. You can listen to music without your smartphone while training, and you can pair any Bluetooth headphones or earbuds directly to the watch in order to achieve that.
In terms of battery life, in our experience, it lasted the advertised seven days. This is with ten cardio sessions per week, 5 CrossFit and weightlifting trainings, and two sessions of shooting baskets. Also, heart rate monitoring is continuous, and considering that the aforementioned sessions all imply the use of GPS, charging the watch every Sunday evening is an excellent run, considering other competitors barely make it through the day.
Fitness and Health aspects
The HUAWEI Health App is the HQ for everything fitness, sleep, and health-related. That’s where all your data is synced, from your training sessions to your heart rate, from your sleep records to your blood oxygen levels. You can find more details on the HUAWEI Health App by checking out its section in our Watch GT2 review.
The HUAWEI Health App is the HQ for everything fitness, sleep, and health-related. That’s where all your data is synced, from your training sessions to your heart rate, from your sleep records to your blood oxygen levels. You can find more details on the HUAWEI Health App by checking out its section in our Watch GT2 review.
The Watch GT 2 Pro supports more than 100 workout modes (sadly, still no basketball, HUAWEI!). Of those, 17 are professional modes, and 85 are custom modes, and new is the addition of Golf Mode and Skiing and Snowboarding Modem in addition to Cross Country Skiing.
When it comes to training, the watch records your heart rate pretty accurately, as long as you keep the contact between the sensor and your skin clean. This means that if you’re pushing hard and you’re sweating a lot, you might need to occasionally wipe your wrist (and/or the back of the watch) dry.
If you’re walking or running, it will also calculate your VO2Max, and compare it to a general benchmark of people your gender, age, etc. SpO2 readings are on-demand, and the results are synced back to the Health App.
Sleep tracking is also pretty accurate, with the watch precisely detection your bedtime and wake-up moments, with everything in between (sleep stages and awake time).
You can also set a benchmark for your stress level readout, which your watch takes during the day, to see exactly how bad or good of a day you’ve had, and whether you need to calm down by taking some breathing exercises, also available on the watch.
You can also set a benchmark for your stress level readout, which your watch takes during the day, to see exactly how bad or good of a day you’ve had, and whether you need to calm down by taking some breathing exercises, also available on the watch.
Pricing and availability
€349 is what you’ll have to pay for this premium version of the watch, but if you are in the US, there’s no word yet on whether it will officially be available, or you might have to import it yourself.
The Watch GT 2 Pro is available in two options: Sport (with a black rubber band, the one you see above), and a Classic variant with a brown leather strap.
The Watch GT 2 Pro is available in two options: Sport (with a black rubber band, the one you see above), and a Classic variant with a brown leather strap.
– no NFC, Cellular or Wi-Fi – no payment options – notification system needs more work – iOS experience inferior to Android
Conclusion
The original Watch GT2 was already a great smartwatch, to begin with. For the current model, HUAWEI took the Watch GT 2 Pro to the next level by using premium materials, upgrading the main heart-rate sensor, and adding in the convenience of wireless charging. Because of the extreme battery life, accurate health and fitness features, gorgeous display, and premium/classy appearance, the HUAWEI Watch GT 2 Pro is our Editor’s Choice for the best smartwatch in terms of looks, performance, and insane battery life.
I’ve been a huge fan of the Surface devices ever since I first got the original Surface Pro after waiting in line during a snowstorm at the Microsoft Store. The mall wasn’t even opened, but I had the manager’s cell phone number and called while waiting with a bunch of other people looking for the same thing. That was 8 years ago, and the Surface devices have grown significantly. As a Windows Phone user and fan, I had also often wished for a Surface Phone designed by the team that makes all of the other Surface devices. Today that wish is granted, but instead of running Windows as we wanted, the Surface Duo runs Android with a customized shell/launcher from Microsoft. Read on to see how that turned out.
Specs
The Surface Duo is a dual-screen hinged Android phone with two 5.6″ AMOLED 1800×1350 pixel screens which adds up to a 2700×1800 pixel resolution. The unfolded dimensions of the entire device are 5.72×7.36×0.19 inches and when closed, the dimensions change to 5.72×3.67×0.399 inches. The weight is about 8.8oz or 250g. For a processor, we’ve got a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. For storage, there’s 128Gb or 256Gb depending on the model you choose and there’s 6Gb of RAM. There’s only one camera and it’s 11 megapixels, but it does have an LED flash. Of course, there’s WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, and LTE radios for connectivity. There’s also a fingerprint scanner on the edge and a 3,577 mAh battery to power it all. It’s also running Android 10 with a launcher made by Microsoft and lots of bundled Microsoft apps. There is no 5G data connection support and there is no NFC either (which means no tap-to-pay options.)
Hardware and Design
The Surface Duo hardware really is unique and beautiful. The outside is two blank white glass panels with a reflective silver Microsoft Windows logo. It doesn’t make sense to have a Windows logo on this thing though since it doesn’t run Windows. So, that’s a mistake. I suppose maybe the four boxes logo is supposed to be more representative of Microsoft as a whole instead of just Windows now?
The Surface Duo doesn’t feel like a phone. It feels like an electronic notebook made of glass.
The panels are so thin that it’s just about as thick as a normal phone when folded. On this edge, you can see the SIM card tray pin hole, indented fingerprint scanner, power button, and volume toggle buttons.
The spine edge is where the 360-degree hinges are. It’s totally straight and smooth curved chrome metal with two double hinges at the ends. The hinges have the perfect amount of friction where you can easily unfold the device, but the two screens will stay put in whatever position you stop moving them at.
The Microsoft Windows logo is shiny chrome as well which matches most other Surface devices. This is the only identifying mark on the device and it looks super clean. There are no other logos or IMEI numbers.
The Nano SIM card tray pops open with the usual pin or paperclip tool, but this one’s tray seems a little loose. There’s a tiny bit of play if you poke it with a fingernail. It doesn’t fall out, it just jiggles a little.
A microphone is hidden very well as a tiny little slit in the edge of the glass and plastic of the Surface Duo’s body. The edges are pointed right angles, not smooth, and you can see a little bit of a ledge on the edges.
The power button and volume toggle buttons feel exactly the same as the ones on other Microsoft Surface devices. This is a great move for user interface consistency. I love it! Unfortunately, this might be the only thing that provides user interface consistency, but we’ll get to that. The fingerprint scanner is nicely indented so that you can easily feel for its location while holding the Surface Duo.
The tiny dual hinges are beautifully designed, but I’m afraid dirt will get in there pretty easily.
We’ve got Surface Pen support too, but the Surface Duo doesn’t quite match the nice magnesium alloy of the Surface Pro.
Software
The Surface Duo ships with Android 10 and a custom launcher from Microsoft as well as a bunch of Microsoft’s Android apps. Most of Microsoft’s Android apps are set as defaults too while the Google Equivalents are hidden in a folder. So you’ll have Microsoft Edge as the default browser, Outlook as the default email/calendar app, etc. Office, OneNote, ToDo, LinkedIn, Teams, etc. are all there too.
As you open the Surface Duo, there’s a nice “peek” mode that shows the time and date. I wish that this could display some recent notifications too as that would be way more useful when you hear a notification sound. As it is now, after a notification sound, you have to open it all the way, unlock the screen, swipe the top edge, then try to figure out which notification there is the one that made the sound.
The awesome part of having two screens and a hinge in such a thin and light device is the multitasking. I can be on a video call with someone AND be taking notes in OneNote at the same time without making the other person disappear or shrinking them to thumbnail size.
You can check the weather and read the news at the same time.
You can browse web pages and read your email at the same time. Microsoft’s Edge browser is nice and it syncs with the desktop versions of Edge, but the Android version uses an old rendering engine that doesn’t support newer technologies like CSS backdrop filters or dark/light mode scheme preferences. Sometimes I was able to get two instances of the Edge browser to load in each screen, but there’s no obvious interface for doing that. Edge is also supposed to have support for some dual-screen javascript and/or CSS media query programming. I tried to implement some of that on my personal website, but it didn’t work immediately, so I gave up.
Outlook for Android is probably the worst version of Outlook, too. The Windows 10 x86 version of Outlook is my favorite PIM (Personal Information Management) program. It’s extremely feature-rich and capable. The iOS version is pretty nice too, though not as great as the Windows version. The Android version is frustrating as heck. It’s got these ugly distracting useless colorful circles next to each email in the list and you can’t remove them like you can on iOS. What’s worse is that it can’t connect to my personal IMAP account even though I’m using the exact same settings as in the iOS, Windows, & Mac versions of Outlook.
The Surface Duo is fully compatible with all of the Microsoft “Your Phone” app features, which is pretty nice. Setting it up takes kind of a long time. There are lots of permission requests happening every time you go to a different section.
You can only see 2000 photos on the phone via “Your Phone”, but I don’t really need this since my Android phones sync all of their photos to OneDrive anyway and that’s accessible via Windows 10, too. The “Your Phone” app enables phone notifications and SMS messaging on Windows 10 PCs as well, but personally I don’t like that feature at all as the double notifications become annoying quickly. I already get email notifications on my PC. SMS messages I’ve turned off about 5 years ago since everyone has the internet now. So, the extra notifications are just extra noise.
The screen mirroring is pretty nice though! This feature shows the Surface Duo’s entire two screens on the Windows 10 PC and you can interact with it using your mouse, keyboard, pen, or touch screen. The gestures are terrible to use this way, so it’s recommended to switch to the 3-button navigation option. The screen mirroring reminds me a lot of the SOTI Pocket Controller software we used to use at Pocketnow all the time for Windows Mobile and Pocket PC devices 20 years ago. That feature stopped being a thing when Windows Phone came out, so I’ve been living without it for 10 years and don’t really miss it anymore. It’s nice to see that the feature is back though for those who never had it in 2001. Still, it’s a nice way to multi-task with your phone while using a real hardware keyboard and a mouse. Apparently, Windows 10’s handwriting recognition panel and Windows Ink do not work though.
If you have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you can play any of about 186 Xbox games on one screen and do whatever else you want on the other screen. This is actually really useful when you’re waiting for a game to load.
The Surface Duo has some of the most basic user interface design problems. Just look at the home screen above. Why are there 6 icons at the bottom that don’t have text labels while all of the others above do have text labels? Why should users be allowed to understand the icons in the middle part of the screens, but not the icons at the bottom? Every time I have to support clients, I have to describe unlabeled mystery meat icons to them by their shape and colors. It would be so much easier for everyone if people could read the name of the button and instantly know what it does.
Normal people aren’t going to understand many of the icons at the bottom and that’s not even the taskbar like on Windows 10. There’s no congruity with Microsoft’s Surface devices in this design. I get that these are similar to the bottom row of icons on most other Android launchers as well as the iPhone OS, but the Surface Duo is more like a tablet than a phone. The necessity for a row of persistent icons is lower.
Another feature that normal people will have trouble finding is the ability to group two apps into a single group icon on the desktop that will allow you to launch both apps at the same time in the two separate screens. This option requires a tap-and-hold on an icon, then choose “Groups” and it will then show you a whole list of the installed apps that you can group that icon with. One bit of disconnect with this feature that doesn’t seem to be well thought out is that when the screens are folded backwards so that only one is showing, the group icons are still there but only load one app in the one screen. Opening the device to show two screens doesn’t necessarily show the second group app on the second screen. It’s very confusing.
System Software Gestures
The Surface Duo’s default Android Launcher (basically the graphical user interface shell) was customized by Microsoft and it is measurably worse than the interface you may have hated in Windows 8 and Windows RT eight years ago. Normal people are rightfully going to be frustrated with this (see: The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think).
First let’s look at the tablet Interface for a Surface Pro running Windows 10. The Start screen takes up the full screen in tablet mode and everything here is basically point and poke. You can read the names of the icons and poke them to open the programs. It has smooth scrolling which is great because you can manage the speed of scrolling yourself and you don’t have to re-orient your fingers or eyes as you would if these were full-screen pages.
The Windows 10 tablet interface also has some hidden gestures. These are completely undiscoverable, but once you figure them out, they’re very useful. A swipe from the right edge shows your notifications and action center. A swipe from the left edge shows the multi-task interface where you can choose an open app to switch to. Swiping down from the top essentially grabs the window’s title bar and then you can swing the gesture to the left or right in order to enable the split-screen snap mode. If you swipe all the way from the top edge to the bottom edge, this will close the foreground app. If you have two apps in split-screen mode, you can drag down on the title bar of one of them and then move it to the top middle to expand it to full screen. So that’s what, four hidden gestures that you need to learn in order to use a Surface Pro’s tablet mode? Now if you rotate the tablet into portrait mode, all of these gestures work the same (except there’s no room for split-screen mode.) Four hidden gestures to learn is not that bad. It does not take up too much cognitive energy to learn 4 or 5 gestures.
Using a Surface Pro in tablet mode only requires learning maybe 4 or 5 hidden gestures.
Now let’s look at the Surface Duo. The home screen is similar to the Windows 10 full-screen start menu in that you can launch programs from here and also customize it with widgets that show information. A big difference is that it scrolls in pages as opposed to a user-controllable smooth scrolling list. That means there’s more work in reading each page and re-orienting your finger to poke the things you want. There’s also a dock of shortcuts at the bottom and these really aren’t necessary since the home screen is also customizable shortcuts. Also, why should I be able to read all of the icons on the homescreen, but the ones in the bottom row don’t have text labels? It doesn’t make sense that I should be able to understand the functions at the top, but not the ones at the bottom. I get that this is something Apple and Google do, but it still doesn’t make sense. There’s plenty of room to label the functions so that people can understand them. There are some fairly intuitive gestures to control the homescreen. A swipe from the right edge inwards scrolls a page to the right. A swipe from the left edge inwards scrolls to the left.
A swipe from the top edge reveals the notifications and action center just like Android and iOS do, but completely different from how Windows 10 does. This is obviously a problem if you use other Microsoft Surface devices, but at least this top edge gesture works in all scenarios and it’s familiar from other non-Microsoft platforms. However, if you miss the top edge while you’re on the home screen and do a top-down swipe that does not start at the very top… then you’ll get the search interface.
The next problem is when you install new apps. The icons for new apps don’t appear on the home screen and there is zero indication of where to find them or how to launch them. There is no button for an app drawer that lists all installed programs! Seriously! Maybe the tutorial at the first boot covered this, but I’ve forgotten that already (as will every non-tech enthusiast that tries to use this). It turns out you have to figure out a hidden gesture where you swipe up from the bottom middle of the touch screen and this reveals the full list of programs. Unlike the home screen, this listing DOES smooth scroll so that you can easily choose the speed and movement of the list thus reducing eye and finger movement.
Launching an app loads it in whichever side of the split-screen that you poked it in. That makes sense. The other side of the screen still shows a portion of the home screen and allows you to launch another app on that screen.
In the book mode, you’ve got about 10 hidden gestures to learn and a lot of them overlap similar bottom-to-top, top-to-bottom gestures.
Now that we’ve got two apps loaded and both showing in both screens, the gesture controls are going to be completely different. Now instead of a taskbar or any system control buttons, you’ve got absolutely nothing except two white wiener bar lines at the bottom. They look like scrollbars, but they’re not. Tapping the wiener bars don’t do anything. Swiping the wiener bars outwards towards the edge of the screen doesn’t do anything. Swiping it inwards towards the spine flips it to the other screen. Swiping it upwards minimizes the app and reveals the home screen again. Yes, that’s the opposite of the gestures that you may have learned by using other Microsoft Surface devices. Sometimes if you drag from the bottom edge upwards long enough to feel some haptic feedback, you’ll get a list of open apps instead which you can then scroll through in order to switch apps. Confused yet? It gets worse.
When you have apps opened, the left and right edge gestures are different now. Both the right edge or left edge gestures invoke the “back” function. This is something that’s normally a dedicated button on the taskbar in Windows 10, but now on the Surface Duo, we have invisible back buttons. In some apps, they don’t even work and will often just minimize the app and show the home screen. These gestures also heavily conflict with apps that also have side-edge gestures. For example, many apps have a left-edge gesture that reveals a panel of other options. This doesn’t work if you have the app loaded on the left screen on the Surface Duo.
Now if you drag the bottom edge wiener bar and hold it in the middle of the screen, you can then drag it to the center spine of the split screen in order to make the app span both screens. Again, this is a completely different gesture than what was used for the same function on Windows tablets since 2012.
So we’re up to about 10 non-discoverable hidden gestures that you need to learn in order to use the Surface Duo so far. That’s too many already, but guess what, it gets worse…
When you rotate the Surface Duo 90 degrees, all of those gestures you just learned become completely different thus requiring EVEN MORE cognitive energy to re-learn the user interface in this orientation.
If you rotate the Surface Duo so that the spine is horizontal, both screens will change their orientation, and now… all of those gestures you just learned are completely different. Well, the only one that’s the same is the top-edge gesture which still shows the notifications and action center. The right edge gesture no longer functions as the back button. It now minimizes the app because now the white wiener bar is on the right edge instead of the bottom where it was before. The left edge swipe gesture does still function as a back button, but it still also conflicts with the in-app left-edge swipe gestures that some programs depend on. The bottom edge swipe up gesture now does nothing.
Let’s go back to the home screen in this landscape layout. Guess what, everything is different here too! Instead of horizontally scrolling pages of icons and widgets, now we have vertically scrolling pages. Remember how before we had to swipe up from the middle of the home screen in order to access the full list of installed programs? THAT DOESN’T WORK ANYMORE!!! Instead, you have to use a “swipe right to left from anywhere other than the right edge” gesture in order to access the full list of installed applications. Now that the swiping up and down switches between home screen pages what happened to the search interface? The “swipe down from anywhere other than the top edge” home screen gesture no longer opens the search interface. It just scrolls through home pages until you get all the way to the top and THEN it opens the search interface.
So that’s 6 more new hidden gestures to memorize that we need to add to the other 10 from the book/portrait orientation. 16 hidden gestures to memorize! That’s 4 times more complicated than the gestures we had to learn for Windows 8 in 2012. Remember how everyone hated the hidden gestures in Windows 8? Making a user interface that’s four times worse than that is not going to help. That’s not even counting the hidden gesture to activate Google Assistant, which I never even figured out how to do.
Okay, the Google Assistant gesture is a swipe up from a corner. Completely not discoverable, and unintuitive!
You can, in the settings, change the UI to have a more point-and-poke type interface that has a triangle, wiener bar, and square button on each screen. This might be easier to use if you’re familiar with Android, but this all would have been much much easier if it used the same interface as Windows 10 already has. It’s certainly possible to make an Android launcher that’s similar to Windows 10 and that would have made the Surface Duo much more consistent with other Surface devices as well as with itself.
If you want a device to be easy to use, the interface needs to be easy to learn first. “Easy to learn” should always be the default. The ability to customize a UI for each individual’s preference for more efficiency in their specific use-case is absolutely important, too, but what’s efficient for you should not be forced on users who aren’t going to be able to figure it out.
The Surface Pen and input methods
What about the pen and input interface? Well, that’s a huge downgrade from what Windows tablets had in 2012 and even 2002, as well. The Surface Duo does support the Surface Pen, which is awesome, but the software support is pretty terrible. There is no system-wide pen support. It’s only useful in apps that specifically are made to detect it like Microsoft OneNote. There is no character recognizer or handwriting recognizer input panel for all input fields like we had on Windows CE in 1998-2010 or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition in 2002 through Windows 10 today.
There’s no split-screen keyboard either. You ONLY get a swipe enabled Qwerty keyboard that can appear on one screen at a time. There’s no option to detect a stylus and automatically switch to handwriting recognition as I had on my Windows Mobile 6.1 HTC Touch Diamond in 2008. How can you release a Surface device with hardware support for the Surface Pen, but not include a handwriting recognition input panel?! The version of OneNote on the Surface Duo doesn’t even have a “convert to text” command for converting ink to plain text. It’s embarrassing that Microsoft was such an innovator in pen technology 20 years ago, and yet the Surface Duo has practically nothing in terms of digital ink support.
Typing with my left thumb is difficult. I wish the keyboard was on the right side.
The keyboard input is often frustrating too. If you’re in book mode and you want to type something in a field on the left screen, then the keyboard appears in the left corner. That really sucks because I’m right-handed and could have easily swipe-typed if it had appeared in the right corner. So then I have to flip the screen backward so that the left side switches to a full-width keyboard that I can use two thumbs on, but guess what… sometimes the act of flipping the screens over will cause one screen to turn off, and sometimes that screen is the left one that I was trying to type into. It’s hugely frustrating.
The only input method that’s actually pretty good is when you hold the Surface Duo in kind of a laptop display mode where one screen is on the bottom and the other screen is angled up. In that mode, the keyboard appears within the entire lower screen and you’ve got big buttons that you can either point & poke at, or use your thumbs while holding the device.
If you connect a Bluetooth keyboard, like my Microsoft Universal Folding keyboard, there are some keyboard shortcuts added. There’s a prediction row of words that will show at the bottom and each has a number above and to the right of it. If you type Ctrl + the number, that will finish typing that word prediction for you. So that’s pretty nice, but the rest of the operating system lacks keyboard access keys significantly. There are no keyboard shortcut indicators anywhere else like you would expect in Windows x86 programs from 1995-2015 (before UWP apps removed them.) So, hardware keyboard navigation on the Surface Duo is very bad as well, but at least you can connect a nice keyboard for typing.
Stability Problems
Previously we were only talking about the design of the Surface Duo’s interface. In reality, it’s even worse since often things don’t work. Sometimes the orientation doesn’t switch, sometimes both screens don’t turn on, sometimes the screen switching doesn’t work, sometimes the complicated gestures aren’t recognized or invoked correctly. It’s a big mess.
Sometimes the screen orientation doesn’t switch.Sometimes the UI hangs or apps crash.
Camera
Ok, so the software is pretty bad, but what about the camera? Oh, it’s kind of embarrassing especially since Microsoft used to have some of the best smartphone camera technology around when they had bought Nokia years ago.
The Surface Duo only has one camera and it’s on the inside. So if you’re holding it in book mode, the camera will be facing you. You can, however, flip the screens around backward and switch the viewfinder to the other screen in order to point the camera at something else and look through the viewfinder from the other side. This makes accessing the camera for quick photos terribly difficult. There is a shortcut that works a bit better if you can figure it out. Double pressing the power button will launch the camera, and that works well if you already have the phone’s screens flipped backward on the outside of the device. You’re still going to run into the problem of the shutter button not responding right away sometimes, and that’s not acceptable for a camera that doesn’t save RAW data and is such low quality.
Below is a series of 100% crop images of the same model using different camera phones to show how the Surface Duo compares to a few other phones.
The Surface Duo’s 11Mp camera is about on par with the Nokia N8’s 12Mp camera… from 10 years ago… although I still seem to see a little more detail in the hair in the Nokia N8’s example. Next, you’ll see the Microsoft Lumia 950 with a 20Mp camera and much better detail. After that is the old 2013 Nokia Lumia 1020 with its 41Mp camera and this one has the most detail of anything. I can practically see myself in the reflection of our model’s pupil! The last sample is from a 2020 phone called the Infinix Zero 8 which is using a 64Mp camera sensor (which subsamples down to 16Mp in hardware) and costs $250 or about 1/5th the price of the Surface Duo.
Above are a few full resolution sample photos from the Surface Duo camera. It’s ok in nice light, if not a little hazy, but in low light, the details become very blurry. The camera doesn’t support RAW output and doesn’t work with the Android CameraAPI2 via Open Camera, so we’re stuck with Microsoft’s noise reduction and post-processing.
Battery
The 3,577 mAh battery works well for keeping the Surface Duo running for most of the day. The 18-watt fast-charger should get things back up and running pretty quickly via the USB-C port.
Pricing & Availability
The Surface Duo launched on September 10, 2020 for $1399.99 which comes to $1524.24 with tax. That’s ridiculously expensive for something who’s software is so poorly thought out and doesn’t replace my Surface Pro (which is less expensive).
My parents’ $40 Microsoft Lumia 640’s with Windows Phone 8 are easier to use than the $1400 Surface Duo.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Gorgeous and unique hardware design
360-degree hinge has the perfect amount of friction
It runs Android apps
Multi-tasking with two screens is great
Surface Pen kind of works
Cons
Microsoft’s software design & stability is very disappointing
Software has no consistency with other Surface devices (or even with itself)
Can’t run real Windows programs or UWP apps
No wireless charging
No NFC
No 5G support
Single 11Mp camera might have been ok 10 years ago
Very expensive
Camera doesn’t output RAW
No water resistance
Almost zero software support for the Surface Pen
Doesn’t fit in the usual car holders
Conclusion
As a huge fan of the Surface Pro since its first release and a huge fan of Microsoft’s previous mobile phone software attempts (Windows Phone, Windows Mobile, Pocket PC, Windows CE), I was very much looking forward to the Surface hardware engineers finally releasing a Surface phone. Other than the mediocre camera, the hardware is beautifully well designed and robust. Yes, there are bezels, but I prefer having those since it gives you someplace to put your fingers in order to hold the device without activating things. The 360-degree dual hinge is practically perfect.
The problems come when you turn it on. Yes, it uses Android, so the interface is going to be different from Windows, but Android is open-source and you can create your own launchers that change the system UI a lot. That’s what Microsoft did, but they did it in a way that makes no sense for Surface users or anybody who has never used the Duo before really. While Windows Phone was really well thought out and designed for ease-of-use, the Surface Duo’s Android implementation was not. With all of the overlapping, non-discover-able gestures, it seems like it was designed to be frustrating to use. It’s like the difference between learning pi to 4 decimals versus learning pi to 20 decimals. A lower amount of cognitive energy required to use the software would have been so much better. It’s not just poorly designed, it’s also buggy and often does not do the things you expect. That makes it even more frustrating to use. The lack of digital inking support is even more embarrassing since Microsoft was a pioneer of digital inking on smartphones and mobile devices over 20 years ago.
All of those issues would probably be acceptable and forgivable if this was an inexpensive $200 device, but it’s 7 times that price at $1400!
Around the turn of the century, smartphones came in many clever and innovative shapes and sizes. For about 10 years, we lost that innovation to rectangular touch screen slabs, but now some of that innovation is coming back. The Cosmo Communicator is a good example. It’s an Android smartphone with a real physical keyboard, a clam-shell hinge to open it up, and an external screen. It even allows you to partition the storage area and install full Linux for a dual boot experience.
Specs
The Cosmo Communicator is 171.4mm long, 79.3mm wide, and 17.3mm thick. It’s not a small device. The weight is 326g, so it’s not light either. It’s got a 4220mAh battery with fast charging, 5.99″ FHD 2160×1080 pixel main display, 1.91″ external OLED touch display, 24Mp external camera with LED flash, and 5Mp front-facing video call camera. It supports all of the GSM, CDMA, and 4G LTE radios and is also available in a Verizon version or Japan version for those different frequencies. You’ve got dual nano-SIM card slots and eSIM support as well. It comes with Android 9.0 installed, but now with recent updates, we can also install a special version of Debian Linux. Sailfish might work too.
For a processor, it uses a MediaTek Helio P70 and includes 6Gb of RAM and 128Gb of storage. Of course, there’s WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, HD Stereo speakers, noise suppression microphones, GPS, NFC, fingerprint scanner, and a 3.5mm audio jack. There are also actually two USB-C ports! One on each side. The left side is best for charging, by the way.
Even the box has a clamshell flip up design.
Hardware and Design
Opening the clamshell device is a little difficult. It takes two hands to pry it open, but once you do, there’s a gorgeous keyboard inside. The keys look full-sized, but they’re obviously smaller to fit the small form factor. They have excellent key travel. Putting two hands on the keyboard and trying to touch-type isn’t so great since it’s such a different size. Plus there are not tactile raised bumps on the “J” and “F” keys for finding your place by touch. That’s something that I wish the designers had included.
Really the keyboard works best as a thumb keyboard where you hold the device in two hands and type with your thumbs like you would with an old blackberry. This method works well except the Shift key is not sticky, so you have to use the Shift keys and modifiers on both sides. Instead of just hitting the Shift key once and then typing the key you want to be uppercase, you have to hold it down. That means if the key you want to shift is on the left side of the keyboard, you have to use your right hand to hold down the Shift key on the right side of the keyboard. It takes some getting used to.
On the outside, there are a lot of controls so that you can use some phone aspects and see notifications without having to open the device. We’ll talk about this in more detail later on. There’s also a fingerprint scanner where those two blue LEDs are and that area is also a rocker switch that works for interacting with the external screen as well as for volume control. You can also see the 24MP external camera at the top. The grey side pieces are metal while the blacktop pieces are rubber. It’s a very unique and distinctive design!
The back of the device is all smooth metal with hard rubber ends. It feels very sturdy.
The Planet Computer logo on the back looks great.
The hardware branding is not too obtrusive and it’s nice to show what this device actually is. A lot of phones don’t label themselves very well anymore.
There’s even some nice branding on the edge where the screen and keyboard open.
The right edge has the silver power button. It’s flush with the device, so you won’t press it accidentally. There’s also a USB-C port here along with some microphone and speaker grill holes.
The left edge of the Cosmo Communicator also has another USB-C port along with the 3.5mm headset jack, some more speaker/microphone holes, as well as a slot for the NanoSIM card and MicroSD card tray. The tray can accommodate two NanoSIM cards or one NanoSIM and a MicroSD card.
The hinge has an interesting mechanism to it where an “L” shaped metal part extrudes from the edge to give you a raised keyboard kind of set up when using it on a desk. This makes for an opening that goes through the inside of the hinge, so be careful not to get any dirt in there. The rubber part of this hinge looks a bit damaged as well. Not sure how that happened.
I decided to compare the Cosmo Communicator to some of the old slide-out & tilt keyboard smartphones from the ’00s. The Cosmo Communicator is huge compared to the HTC Touch Pro 2 (center) and HTC Kaiser (left).
KDE Plasma Debian Linux
Recent updates in the firmware on the Cosmo Communicator have enabled users to partition the storage and install Debian Linux with the KDE Plasma desktop environment for dual booting the device between Android 9 and Linux. This is an awesome new feature for power users and tech enthusiasts. So of course, I wanted to do this right away.
The Cosmo Communicator does not ship with Linux support available right away. In fact, the firmware to support this was only recently made available as part of the online updates. You will have to partition the storage area using the boot firmware, create a MicroSD card with the custom Linux installer downloaded, boot to the MicroSD, and then install from there. You can find the full instructions and the Linux installer downloader on the Planet Computers Linux for Cosmo Wiki page. Partitioning will lose everything on the Android side, so it’s best to do this before you really start using the Android side.
After receiving this review unit, I installed version 1 of Linux for Cosmo from February of 2020 and a lot of things didn’t work right away with that one. There was no phone calling, SMS, or LTE data support. Only WiFi networking really and even that didn’t save my password. Version 2 was released later on in July of 2020, and that brought a phone app, SMS messaging app, and LTE data connection support, but getting LTE data connections to work even in version 2 requires a lot of work as you can see here.
Once you get Linux running, you’ll need to enter the username and password, which are both “cosmo”. There is no onboarding interface that lets you create your own username & password. Also, this is the KDE Plasma desktop environment which isn’t very well designed for keyboard interaction (there are no visible keyboard access keys)… nor is it very well designed for touch screens (interactive elements are very small). By default, the touch screen acts as a left click poke. Meaning that you point and touch something and that acts as a left click on that item. Scrollbars are very thin in the default theme as well, so those are impossible to use. I was able to enlarge the scrollbars and many buttons by customizing the system theme.
The KDE Plasma interface is so poorly suited for a device like this, you might be better off just typing terminal commands for everything. Still, I was able to install xserver-xorg-input-mtrack, which makes the touchscreen act like a trackpad that moves the pointer around on the screen. Instructions can be found here. If you’ve used Remote Desktop apps on phones before, the effect is very similar. Swiping the touch screen makes the arrow move around, tapping causes a left click at the pointer’s location. This modification helps a lot. Alternatively, you can always plug an actual hardware mouse into one of the USB-C ports on the sides.
I was able to get the Graphical Image Manipulation Program installed, but its interface was not scaling well at all. The menus weren’t even accessible. So there are still some problems here.
Darktable works pretty nicely, but again it’s hard to work with on such a small screen. Still, it was able to load photos from a USB SD card adapter no problem… just like a real computer.
Of course, the venerable Libre Office works here as well, but again the user interface might be a struggle to use without a mouse on this small screen.
As of July 2020, there are now functioning SMS and phone calling programs in the Gemian Debian Linux build! They don’t appear with updates from the version 1 build, so I had to re-install Linux from the version 2 image download.
Incoming calls work as well and even include canned SMS replies. While the ringing works even if the phone is asleep with the screen off, nothing is displayed on the screen or the external screen… AND you have to enter your password to unlock Linux before you can see the answer dialogue. It’s certainly not perfect at the moment.
As mentioned, the external screen doesn’t work when booted into Linux and neither does the camera… or at least there is no functional camera software included yet and the web browser cannot recognize the existence of cameras for things like WebRTC video calls.
Android Software
If Linux is too much of a challenge for you, of course, you can always go back to the good old Android 9 partition with a reboot. Or if you want to hack Android a bit, you can also root the Android partition in order to do whatever you want there.
The Cosmo Communicator’s default Android home screen always switches to landscape mode. You’ve got the usual back, home, tasks (triangle, circle, square) buttons on the right instead of the bottom, and there are application icons all over. There is an application drawer for showing all of the other applications, but you can’t see it. There is no button to activate the application drawer. You have to learn the secret swipe up gesture on the home screen to find it.
Planet Computers has included some extra software to make Android a little better for keyboard devices. One is the “App Bar” that appears at the bottom. It’s kind of like a dock in MacOS or the taskbar in Windows whereas you can pin whatever programs you want to the app bar and rearrange their sequence. Then you can use the Planet Computers logo button (Alt) on the keyboard to show the app bar and then use the arrow keys to select the app you want to launch. This makes the keyboard usability of Android much better.
Even though the very first Android smartphones (Check out my review of the Android G1 from 2008), were actually designed for landscape/portrait switching and slide-out keyboards with decent keyboard navigation support. Today’s version of Android certainly is not.
Planet Computers also includes some other useful programs. Above is “Airmail” which is a decent email program based on the K-9 open-source Android email app. It’s got better information density than the default Gmail app and works well with the keyboard.
The Agenda app is another one that Planet Computers added. It’s a calendar program that syncs with the regular Android calendar libraries, but you can also sync it directly with a PC using a USB cable. That’s how things used to be before wireless internet was so prevalent and it has its advantages such as: not uploading your data to someone else’s computer in the cloud.
There’s also a basic Notes app. It doesn’t seem to sync with anything, but you can back up the notes to a separate file. It lends itself nicely to the landscape layout, but personally I’d rather use Microsoft OneNote.
There are a lot of LED lights on the outside of the Cosmo Communicator, and there’s a utility for customizing them here.
We’ve actually got a database program in the Cosmo Communicator too! You can import data from CSV files into tables and also export data to SQL, CSV, or TXT. It doesn’t connect directly to any online database servers though, so this is mainly for offline uses.
There’s also an app that makes it easy to specify which voice assistant you want to use with the keyboard shortcuts.
Planet Computers also includes a special file manager separate from Google’s Files app.
External Screen
Since this is a clamshell device that closes against its main screen, you can’t really see much when the phone is closed. Luckily there’s a small external screen on the outside. This will show you radio status, the time, and date normally, and it will also show icons that represent notifications that are waiting within Android.
You can open the notifications to get a little more information as well as some actionable options. Most of the actionable options will tell you to open the device in order to continue, but it will launch whatever app you’re trying to interact with so that it’s a little less disconnected.
There is also a grid of mystery meat icons that you can access with the buttons in the fingerprint scanner. These give you quick access to certain functions like phone calling, photos, video recording, flashlight, and music playback. Since this is also a touch screen, you can tap the circle icon you want to activate it. Unfortunately, this makes accidentally changing things while the phone is in your pocket very easily. I’ve accidentally switched to airplane mode and turned off all of the radios for the phone while it was in my pocket.
One awesome feature of the external screen is that you can use it to take photos with the external camera. Unfortunately, the viewfinder display here is extremely laggy. It’s often behind real-life by a couple seconds. So you really have to hold still to frame the selfie photo. Then the camera shutter button is often unresponsive as well, so you may have to hold still and also press the button a few times before it takes a photo.
There are a good number of settings in the external screen interface as well. You can change its orientation, brightness, notification text options, etc. As mentioned before, you can also control which radios are on. Here you see we’re using the “CODI” external display software version 1.1.1.14.
Just so you know, getting the cover display software to update can be an absolute nightmare. It took me maybe 1.5 weeks of repeatedly pressing the “upgrade now” button, waiting for 20 minutes, seeing it fail, and trying again. There’s a “manual” upgrade option where you can download 2 files from Planet Computers and try to install those through the utility. If you navigate to them through the file browser’s “recent” list, then the whole thing will just crash. You have to go through the file browser’s main storage listing. This way it won’t crash, but it will still fail with an error. You also have to disable the cover display in the Android action center, as well as go into airplane mode to disable all radios. You also have to try to install the smaller update file first before the larger one it seems. Even then, it may not work, and the documentation is pretty thin. You’ll see lots of complaints about this on the Open Embedded Software Foundation website.
Cameras
The external 24Mp camera sounds like it would be really good. If we were talking about a 24Mp camera on a Nokia Lumia phone from 7 years ago, then yes, it would be something really fantastic. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here. The image quality is disappointing. The camera software is disappointing as well. It has very very few controls. You can take a picture, take a video, turn on the flash, and turn on HDR mode. That’s it.
Installing Open Camera helps to give you a lot more control, but Android’s Camera API2 doesn’t get access to the camera’s RAW data, so we can’t really do further edits or customizations.
Above is a 100% crop of a JPG from the 24Mp camera. While it technically has 24 Megapixels, there is not much detail here at all. Everything is smeared and smudged. Below are a few more camera samples.
Battery
The 4,220mAh battery seems like a large number that should get you through a weekend, but in practice, it really might only last a day. Of course, all of this depends on what you’re doing with the device. Do you have the keyboard backlight on, is the external screen always on, what kind of programs are you running, are you trying to render animations in Blender on Debian? In general, I would expect the battery to last most of a single working day.
Pricing & Availability
You can order the Cosmo Communicator directly from the Planet Computers Store. There are 28 versions available with different language keyboards. It’s costs £665.83 ($871.64 USD) and not all language keyboard options are available at the moment. Some are still pre-order options. There is also a special version for Verizon radio bands in the U.S.A.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Big keyboard works great for typing
Dual boot to Android 9 or KDE Plasma Debian Linux with other operating systems coming soon
Desktop Linux gives you a lot more customization, computing power, and flexibility than Android
External screen gives you access to basic functions and notifications without opening the device
Two USB-C ports
3.5mm headset jack
Extremely unique design
Cons
Very big and heavy
Includes Android 9 instead of 10
No wireless charging
Camera hardware doesn’t support RAW output via Android’s Camera API 2
24Mp camera has very poor image quality
No water resistance
Difficult to use in portrait mode with Android apps that don’t rotate
Touch screen can be very difficult to use in KDE Plasma on Linux
Conclusion
The Cosmo Communicator certainly is not for the faint of heart. This is clearly a power-user device as even updating the software can be a massive undertaking. You’re going to need some courage and technical expertise to buy this phone. The big appeal for me is the fact that it can run full Linux outside of Android. The Linux side is still a work in progress, so the initial user experience isn’t very good, but improvements have appeared even while I was writing this review. Having Debian Linux on your phone means you have way more control than you would in Android or iOS. Plugging a mouse in and using the phone as a little laptop is really pretty awesome. The camera is terrible though, so I wouldn’t buy this if you like to take photos a lot while out and about. I would highly recommend this phone if you’re a programmer or white-hat hacker though, as the Cosmo Communicator gives you a lot more flexibility than you would have on a normal rectangular slab touch screen phone. You’ve got Debian Linux, unlocked root-able Android, Team Win Recovery Project support, and maybe someday, Jolla Sailfish.
15-20 years ago, many of us dreamed of having a full laptop computer that could fit in a pocket and still make & receive phone calls, browse the web and get email over wireless internet. Microsoft’s Windows CE/Mobile/Phone came closest to that dream… until now. Having full desktop Linux on a pocket-friendly handheld computer that still makes phone calls and has wireless internet is a pretty excellent dream come true.
The price of OnePlus flagships has risen in the past few years. While the phones got better with time, they lacked mainly two features – IP rating and wireless charging. With the OnePlus 8 Pro, the company has gone all-out with its offering. It finally offers the two missing features but doesn’t build upon the existing ones. When I first received the phone almost three weeks back, my expectations were high. I expected it to offer smooth performance, a decent set of cameras, a good display, and a fast-charging battery. Now, after using the phone, I can say that I was amazed by some features while the others left me wanting more. Here’s why the OnePlus 8 Pro is a fabulous phone but not a flawless one.
Hardware
If you have used a high-end OnePlus phone in the recent past, the OnePlus 8 Pro is likely to feel familiar to you. It features a curved display at the front, which has a punch-hole notch located at the top left corner. On the rear lies a quad-camera setup. Three of the lenses are housed in a vertical pill-shaped module and the fourth one is located adjacent to the module above the AF module. The camera module does protrude a bit from the phone but it is not something I’d worry about.
It comes in three color options – Glacial Green, Ultramarine Blue and Onyx Black. We received the first one, and it is my personal favorite. It changes from green to blue based on the ambient light. It is classy, to say the least. Moreover, it is rated IP68 water and dust-resistance.
The rear panel is a bit curved and the corners are rounded, which adds to the gripping experience of the phone. It is made out of glass but it sports a frosted matte finish, and thanks to that, it doesn’t attract fingerprints. The phone is easily one of the best I’ve used without a cover. Still, I slapped on the in-box silicone case just to be sure. After all, I’m a clumsy man. There is an added refreshment of the case too. It has “Never Settle” imprinted on it in large font. Overall, the phone is easy to grip, with or without the case.
On the right edge lies the signature OnePlus Alert slider and the power button. The latter is programmed to trigger the Google Assistant on long press, which was pretty annoying to me. Thankfully, it can be changed to the usual power menu. Coming to the left edge, it houses the volume rockers. Further, the SIM tray, USB Type-C port (USB 3.1), and speaker grille are located at the bottom of the device.
The OnePlus 8 Pro weighs 199 grams and measures 165.3 x 74.3 x 8.5 mm. In terms of ergonomics, it is a well thought out big phone. While it is hard to reach at the top with one hand, the rounded corners, curved edges, and weight distribution make the one-handed use easy.
Display
The OnePlus 8 Pro features a 6.78-inch big Fluid AMOLED display, which has a 3168 x 1440 pixel resolution at 513 PPI. It comes with a 120Hz refresh rate and 19.8:9 aspect ratio. It is covered with 3D Corning Gorilla Glass. Now that we are done with technical details, here is how it performs in daily life.
My unit has the infamous black crush issue, which is hard to tell during the daytime. However, when I used the phone in dark environment (read dark as no light) before going to sleep, I noticed weird black spots that were darker than the app UI wanted them to be. The issue was experienced on Twitter and Instagram loading screens, and on Spotify. It can only be observed on that particular gray color. Otherwise, the spots aren’t visible. I watched Sherlock on Netflix and The Office on Prime Videos. Not once did I notice any issue while watching videos in the dark. Hence, black crush is not a big deal.
I used it at QHD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. It is a gorgeous screen. One of the best I’ve used thus far. The colors are bright, vibrant and it is easily visible under direct sunlight. However, the brightness doesn’t get low enough for my taste. My daily driver is an OnePlus 7T, which gets a lot lower in terms of brightness. It helps in dark environments. While curved displays make your phone look good, they lose out on practicality. There is a slight color distortion along the curved edge of the display. Nevertheless, I didn’t have any issues with ghost touches or palm rejection.
Coming to display features, the OnePlus 8 Pro comes with Motion Graphics Smoothing. It basically bumps up the framerate of any video to 120Hz for a smoother feel. While it may be good for sports, I wasn’t able to notice it on YouTube, Netflix or Amazon Prime despite getting the pop-up the Motion Graphics Smoothing was enabled. Further, there’s a ‘Comfort tone’ toggle in the display settings. It adjusts the display’s color temperature based on the ambient light around you. Like other OnePlus phones, there is also a Reading Mode that helps me read on the Kindle app.
Performance
The OnePlus 8 Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC, paired with X55 5G modem. Our model has 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.0 storage. It all combines to provide one of the most fluid and responsive experience on a smartphone. It delivers what you’d expect from a flagship device. From day-to-day apps to games, and streaming services, everything works perfectly. The memory management is top-notch as well.
Coming to 5G, we were not able to test the X55 5G modem since there is no way to connect to a 5G network in India right now. You can check out Jaime’s video review of the device for more on 5G below:
To review the gaming performance, I played Asphalt 9, COD Mobile, and PUBG Mobile on my OnePlus 8 Pro review unit. It runs the games at the highest graphics settings with no issues whatsoever. It ran PUBG at HDR graphics and Extreme framerates. Moreover, there is minimal heating. The gaming experience was one of the best on an Android phone, thanks to the hardware prowess and 240Hz touch sampling rate, which makes everything seem swift. Furthermore, the gaming mode lets notifications appear on top of the game. You can reply to that urgent text while not exiting the game.
Speaker is another area where the high-end OnePlus phones do well usually, and the OnePlus 8 Pro is no exception. The smartphone comes with dual stereo speakers where the earpiece is a part-time secondary loudspeaker and the primary one is situated at the bottom of the device. The audio separation is good and it can get loud enough for you to watch movies. There’s Dolby Atmos at work as well. Further, the smartphone lacks a headphone jack so you either have to use Type-C earphones or resort to wireless ones for individual listening.
The call quality is good as well. The listeners said I sounded well and I could hear them clearly so no problems here. Coming to the biometric security options, you get two of them. First, the Goodix fingerprint sensor located inside the display. It is fast, reliable, accurate, and secure. Second, you can unlock your phone with the Face Unlock, which is less secure but faster than the first option. Interestingly, it works with face mask on as well.
Battery
The OnePlus 8 Pro packs a 4,510mAh battery that supports 30W fast charging both wired and wireless. It provides a day’s battery life easily. My use case includes browsing the web, lots of Twitter, WhatsApp video calls, Instagram and Telegram, clicking a few pictures and playing music while in the shower (do you do that too? You should!) It gave me 6-7 hours of screen-on time while on QHD+ resolution at 120Hz refresh rate. You can extend the battery life by changing the resolution.
As for charging, the OnePlus 8 Pro charges from 0 to 90 percent within 70 minutes. It made me appreciate the wireless charger kept on my desk. Just put it on the stand while working and it charges. It is a welcome addition to the smartphone. Thanks, OnePlus! However, the company has stuck with 30W fast charging since the OnePlus 6T Mclaren Edition. I expected an upgrade in that department. Moreover, there is room for improvement in one more key area – loss of battery life overnight. The phone drains 7-8% battery while I sleep even when WiFi and Bluetooth are turned off.
Separately, the smartphone is eligible to charge your accessories like the smartwatch or earbuds. It supports reverse-wireless charging, which is pretty useful at times.
Cameras
Optics is one department where OnePlus phones have struggled in the past. While the company has improved the cameras with its OnePlus 8 Pro, the phone still struggles in some scenarios. Let’s start with the technical details first. The phone sports a quad rear camera setup: a 48MP Sony IMX689 sensor with f/1.78 aperture and OIS + an 8MP telephoto lens with 3x hybrid zoom, an f/2.44 aperture, and OIS + a 48MP ultra-wide-angle lens with 120-degree field-of-view and an f/2.2 aperture + a 5MP color filter lens. Here’s how they perform.
The primary camera captures very good details in direct sunlight. The color tone is pretty neutral too. The pictures aren’t over-saturated, the edges are well defined and there is no noticeable noise. The dynamic range is good. There are lots of details in the darker areas as well. The videos have a good dynamic range too and focusing on the subject is easy.
Non-portrait shots
As with other cameras, there is inconsistency in the primary 48MP camera as well. The images are slightly blue-tinted at times. You can see the left image below and the the blueness.
Primary: Bluish
Wide-angle: On the warmer side
The wide-angle camera is one of the best in its segment. You can shoot at full 48MP resolution on this lens as well, which is great. Most of the times it captures good details, the dynamic range is great but, at times, it changes the tone of scence. For comparison, you can see the above images, the left one is clicked on primary camera whereas the right one has been clicked on the ultrawide-angle lens. The right one is warmer than the actual scene.
Primary
Wideangle
Further, the camera enables ‘Super macro’ mode automatically when you bring the camera close to the subject.
Macro mode
Here as well, the details are good, but I had a bad time getting it to focus on the subject. It could be blamed on my shaky hands. Overall, the camera is miles better than the 2MP one you get on the OnePlus 8.
Portrait mode
Coming to the portrait mode on the primary lens, the inconsistency follows. At times, you get a very contrast-y shot when you tap op the human subject, which shouldn’t happen. Notice my left eye in the above pictures. The edge detection seems to be good but the overall portrait shots could’ve been better.
Let’s talk about low light photography. The main sensor clicks well-lit landscape shots, with good details. Nightscape helps in fixing exposure a bit. It also produces slightly better textures. Notably, you cannot automatically click the ACTUAL low light photo on the OnePlus 8 Pro.
Without Nightscape
Nightscape
How it actually looked like
Without Nightscape
Nightscape
How it actually looked like
Without switching to Nightscape too, some AI algorithms brighten the pictures. While there is too much noise in those shots, they can be better in terms of stability of the subject than the Nightscape. However, to click a low light picture without AI messing around you need to go to the manual mode.
Also, it’s hard for the camera to focus on a flower in the dark. For example, look at the images below:
Without Nightscape
Nightscape
Overall, the rear camera setup is underwhelming since it is not something that you can depend-on to capture great pictures straight by clicking on the shutter button. You need to put in efforts, and at times those might not be enough either. OnePlus needs to up their color science and post-processing if it wants to compete with the Pixels and iPhones of the market.
Switching to the front camera, there is a 16MP Sony IMX471 shooter residing in the punch-hole notch. In daylight conditions, it captures good details, the colors are bright and the overall images look good.
The Portrait shots have decent edge separation and bokeh effect.
It is the low light where the front camera struggles quite a lot. It smoothens the skin and lacks details. The overall images are below-average for a flagship. The difference could also be noticed in video calls. My OnePlus 7T’s selfie shooter is better than the one on the 8 Pro. We don’t get a nightscape mode on the front camera, but there is a screen flash to help you in low-light shots.
Software
The OnePlus 8 Pro runs OxygenOS based on Android 10. First things first, OxygenOS is good, smooth, and fluid, but it is not flawless. I had phone freezes twice where I had to restart my phone to use it again. Still, it is one of the best takes on Android out there. The skin is clean, minimalistic, and consists of a few welcome tweaks.
From changing color themes and icon packs to changing the shape of the icons in the pulldown notification panel – all is there. These little customizations add to the overall user experience and make it much more convenient for the user. Also, there’s Work-Life Balance that allows you to prioritize select notifications based on your location, time, or Wi-Fi network.
Adding the two years of major Android updates and three years of security updates, the OnePlus 8 Pro beats the competition in software in my opinion.
Verdict
I rate display, battery, and performance above the cameras since you interact with those three on a daily basis. The OnePlus 8 Pro has a gorgeous display (with some niggles), good battery life, and fluid performance. If you don’t prioritize the camera, the OnePlus 8 Pro is a sweet deal for $899 and Rs 55,000. Just go for it. However, there are decent camera smartphones available in the Indian market right now including the Mi 10 and Vivo X50 Pro. If the camera is on top of your priority list, look for options. Overall, for the price, the OnePlus 8 Pro is a feature-rich, solid choice.
Wireless earbuds are all the rage now in terms of headphone accessories. Everyone you see on COVID video conferences in life or on TV is probably wearing them. No wires dangling around, no strap over your head or around your neck. They’re really great! And most people are wearing those white Apple Airpods, which has prompted numerous copy-cats. The Urbanears Luma is another set that copies Apple’s Airpod design, but it gets a few things different and makes the popular wireless headphone design more compatible with diverse devices. Not to mention, the price is an improvement as well.
First of all, the included case & charger is certainly different from the Airpods. It’s a box with rounded corners that opens with a clamshell style hinge and subtle magnetic fasteners. There’s also a fabric cord protruding from one corner which you can use to attach the case to something else for safe keeping. The headphones themselves last for about 5 hours, while the case can recharge them about 5 times in order to give you a total of 25 hours of battery life.
Above you can see that the case supports Qi wireless charging as the green LED indicates while it sits on my Nokia Qi wireless charging battery. Note that the LED indicator is INSIDE the case. You won’t be able to tell if the headphones are charging or have finished charging if the case is closed. In fact, the case has no external indicators or buttons whatsoever. All it has is the hinge, attachment cord, and a USB-C charging port for wired charging (a small black USB-C cord is included without an AC adapter). The Qi wireless charging option is great if you have charging plates throughout your house and office as I do. Plus, it keeps the headphones warm.
Since there are no buttons on the case or on the headphones, pairing with your phone or other Bluetooth device is very unintuitive, but once you read the instructions in the box… turn out to be very easy. First off, you’ve got to remove the headphones from the case and then peel the little pieces of plastic off of the metal contacts in the case. After that, you can put the headphones back on the case, which will basically turn them on. Then remove them again and now you should see a blinking light on the shaft of each earphone. That means they’re in pairing mode now.
Next, all you have to do is go to your phone or whatever, open the Bluetooth settings and search for new devices. The “Urbanears Luma” will show up and you’ll hit the “Pair” button to connect them. They’ll automatically reconnect from now on whenever you remove them from the case and put them in your ears.
Pairing the headphones to a 2nd devices requires disconnecting them from the first device which puts them into pairing mode again. You can also factory reset the headphones by putting them in the charging case, press and hold the touch control surface on both for 10 seconds, then put the headphones in your ears, and double tap both earbuds.
Yeah, you heard that right, the Urbanears Luma have a touch surface on the outside that you can use to control different aspects. Here’s what you can do:
Double tap either headphone to play/pause music or answer/end a phone call. Triple tap the right earbud to skip to the next track in your music software. Triple tap the left earbud to go to the previous track in your music software. Press and hold either earbud for about 2 seconds in order to activate your phone’s voice command service. On Android, this would be Google Assistant by default, and on iPhones it would be Siri. These headphones do not have always on listening for “Hey Siri” or “Hey Google” voice commands, and that’s ok. Pressing & holding for 2 seconds is a good way to activate those. A little chirp will play in the earbuds when you’ve successfully activated one of these commands, so you can tell that you’ve done it right, but figuring out how to do it right takes some practice and the chirp is not unique enough to the tapping sequence. It’s hard to tell by the chirp sound effect if you activated a double tap or triple tap. Aiming a triple tap of your finger at the right spot in your ear takes some practice too. Sometimes a triple tap registers as a double tap, too, and that’s annoying.
On the first Android 10 phone I paired with there was an annoying bug where after a handful of tapping control gestures, often the earbuds become unstable and start play/pausing by themselves repeatedly. Rebooting the phone or putting the earbuds in their case and removing them again seems to fix this temporarily. I couldn’t reproduce the issue on a 2nd or 3rd device, and re-pairing with the 1st device again seemed to fix the issue completely, so that may have been a fluke.
While the Urbanears Luma earbuds do not have any fitting options, they do seem to stay in my ears nicely. Sometimes they feel like they’ll fall out, but they haven’t yet just by shaking my head. If I brush against them with a shirt or hand, they’ll fall out really easily though. Obviously, they copy Apple’s “universal fit” for their original Airpods, but a more-customizable fit is absolutely going to be ideal. Urbanears actually has a less expensive “Alby” model of earbuds that do add interchangeable fitting options.
The Urbanears Luma earbuds have IPX4 splash resistance so you can wear them in the rain, and they also have dual microphones on each earbud for better voice quality during phone calls or video calls even in noisy areas. The sound quality is pretty great. No complaints there, but I wish there was a touch/tap gesture for volume control. You can control the volume if the speech assistant on your phone/device supports volume control by tap & holding an earbud for 2 seconds and saying the “Volume up” or “Volume down” command, but that interrupts what you’re listening to and obviously won’t work if you’re on a phone call.
Personally, I would rather see more unique and innovative earbud designs versus copying the popular Apple Airpods, however Urbanears does differentiate a little bit by offering more color options than Apple does. The Ultra Violet and Teal Green color options certainly look more unique than the regular white and black options.
The Urbanears Luma wireless earbuds are now available for $99 which includes the wireless charging case.
The Roborock S6 MaxV is one of the most versatile, accurate, and intelligent robot vacuums out there. Because of its ability to learn, adapt, and avoid obstacles, as well as its obsession with dirt and doing a good job cleaning up (both vacuuming and mopping up), the Roborock S6 MaxV is our Best Choice for a robot vacuum that you need to have in your household.
Growing up in the 80s not only allowed me to experience the shift from VHS to Blu-ray, tapes to CDs and digital media, PDAs to smartphones, and so on, but it also made me adapt to the way we go around our household chores.
I remember the big and noisy vacuum cleaner I had to drag around the house when I was in my teens, moving to a different power outlet every time I started cleaning a new room or reaching the far end of the living room where I was literally missing just a single extra foot of power chord to finish the job.
Then vacuum cleaners went cordless, and more silent, and boy was it convenient to clean up the entire place in a single run. Of course, mopping up was always a pain after a run or two with the vacuum cleaner… and then came robotic vacuums which can do the job for you.
When it comes to robot vacuums, there are smarter ones, and, well, less smart ones, but the Roborock S6 MaxV we’re looking at today just ticks all the boxes: looks, smarts, wits, and effectiveness. It’s funny, because I’ve been using the Roborock S5 Max for more than six months now, and I thought it couldn’t get any better than that. Well, it can! This is our Roborock S6 MaxV review.
Roborock S6 MaxV box contents
The Roborock S6 MaxV comes in a fairly compact packaging. Inside you’ll find the actual robot vacuum cleaner itself, together with some indispensable accessories.
The charging/docking station is included, together with a power cable we wish could be just a tad longer. You also get the mopping cloth and mopping module, as well as a sheet of plastic with double sided tape you can tape to the floor underneath your robot when it’s docked so that there are no leakages that can damage your floor.
You also get not one, but two HEPA filters which are completely washable, but having a spare one is also reassuring.
Roborock S6 MaxV: what I like
I absolutely loathe vacuuming. It comes in second best after doing dishes, but having an intelligent robot do the vacuuming and mopping for me is a blessing.
Due to its relatively small footprint, the Roborock S6 MaxV is able to clean up in places that are difficult to reach. It always puts a smile on my face when I see it vanish underneath the bedroom bed or the bathroom furniture, just to reappear on the other side. I know that if it were up to me, those areas would only be thoroughly cleaned occasionally.
The first run is also the one that takes the most time. After fully charging the robot, it will start mapping out your home. Interestingly, it didn’t pick up on the map that was created by the Roborock S5 Max, even though I had both vacuums connected to the same app (more on the app and features in the segment below).
After thoroughly mapping out every inch of the apartment (while meanwhile vacuuming), the robot creates a map of the entire location which is then saved in the Mi Home app. Inside the app, you can clearly define rooms: I’ve got a hallway, living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom.
This comes in handy when you only want the robot to clean up a single specific room in your apartment or more, but not the whole place. It’s also useful when scheduling it. Tasks can be defined to vacuum, mop, or both, a single room, multiple rooms, at a specific time of a specific day. Meanwhile, you can set up quiet hours to make sure the robot stays quite (during night time, for instance).
Inside the app, you can also definite no-go zones, and no-mopping zones. The no-go zones will be avoided by the robot at all costs. Think of these zones like corners with lots of cables, or simply just stuff you don’t want your robot to stumble upon.
No-mopping zones will be avoided only when in mopping mode, and this comes in handy if you have a carpet in the middle of your living room you don’t want your robot to mop over.
More power, better cleaning
Being more powerful than its predecessors, which were not too shabby either, and literally obsessed with dust and cleaning up, it did a wonderful job in the entire apartment. Most of it has a hardwood floor, except the kitchen and bathroom which have floor tiles. I’ve got a couple of carpets and rugs as well, which were not a problem for the Roborock S6 MaxV. Neither were the thresholds delimiting the rooms as the robot effortlessly tackled them.
The dustbin is also somewhat larger than on earlier models, so it can clean-up a larger area without getting full, which is a breeze now with a larger battery offering up to 3 hours of continuous operation.
Worry not, if it ever senses that it’s running out of power (and that happens at 20 percent battery level — sadly, the user has no control over this threshold) it will automatically return to its charging dock. Once charged, it will resume its activity from the same spot where it stopped.
Roborock S6 MaxV: object identification
New with the Roborock S6 MaxV is its capability to identify objects. As a first, it features a dual-camera and with the help of ReactiveAI, the robot is able to identify objects that are in its way.
Whether that’s a bathroom scale, a shoe that’s in the middle of the hallway, or even animal droppings (if you have pets), it will detect and avoid them, conveniently placing a mark on the map where it stumbled upon the object.
Those worrying about privacy shouldn’t. All the pictures the robot snaps are processed locally (they never leave your robot) and are immediately deleted, according to the manufacturer.
To protect your privacy, images captured by ReactiveAI cameras are processed onboard and immediately deleted.
Roborock
Object identification isn’t perfect, and sometimes it will miss-identify something. In that case, you can go inside the app and correct the mistake, which makes the robot learn and adapt.
It does that anyways, intelligently optimizing routes the more you use it. This way it will try new routes to make the entire process finish faster.
And, being the intelligent robot that it is, I don’t have to watch over it afraid it will get tangled or stuck somewhere if I’m not around. As a matter of fact, its schedule tells him to mop up every other day, and vacuum twice a week, usually, during the times I’m at the gym or out and about.
Mi Home app
The Mi Home app is your central hub for managing your robot, as well as maps. As we touched upon earlier, this is where you define rooms and zones, correct identification errors, and create schedules.
This is also where you adjust your robot’s settings. You can set the level (strength) of the vacuuming process, and you can also select the amount of water it will use when mopping up.
From within the app, you can also update the firmware of your robot, choose the volume and language of the voice notifications, and choose between cleaning up a room, the entire place, or just a zone that you define inside the app.
The app is intuitive with little to no learning curve required and offers a great user experience. Most of the work you’ll do will be at the beginning when you divide your place into rooms, but once that’s done, it will become an easy task to get things done with just a couple of taps.
Roborock S6 MaxV: what could be improved
As useful as object identification is, being based on cameras, good lighting conditions are required. Just like with any other camera, the cameras on the robot require light to clearly capture images, in the lack of a flash (or headlight — but who knows, maybe that’s coming in the next iteration).
Opposed to its radar guidance system, which does a good job even in the dark, light is needed for object identification.
While the battery lasts for a long time, and you shouldn’t worry if the robot spends its entire idle time on the dock (as recommended), it takes quite a long time for the charging station to top off the battery. Faster charging would be nice.
With all the technology also comes a price you’ll have to pay. While Roborock vacuum cleaners are usually much cheaper than competitors, while offering the same, or even more/better features, it’s still an expensive gadget. It currently goes for $749,99 on Amazon, which, again, could be less than competitors, but still a pain for the wallet.
Roborock S6 MaxV: conclusion
This being my second Roborock robot vacuum (and fourth I’ve worked with), I’m still just as impressed, if not more than I was with the first one. Granted, I’m yet to meet a Roborock product that fails to impress me.
If you can afford it, definitely get one. You won’t be disappointed. Of course, you’ll have to do some basic robot-proofing in your house, but it’s a small price to pay (in addition to the purchase price) for a hassle-free, clean home.
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