Design and Hardware

The OnePlus Pad 2 is technically the third tablet to come out of the OnePlus design studio, they had the original pad that launched around the same sort of time last year and then came the Pad Go which I reviewed on the site right here. What OnePlus has done here is to take what they learned from feedback on both of these devices and then build it into the new Pad 2 as a result we do have some notable changes to the hardware

I have already covered the hardware in an unboxing video which can be found just below or if you want to read the article then take some time to do so now.

I was very impressed with the hardware of the Pad 2 but I want to just focus on a few of the significant parts that lept out at me. In addition I will also be looking at some of the optional extras that I was lucky enough to be provided with as this unit was given to me very kindly by OnePlus for review.

(Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and have not been influenced by OnePlus who will not be given a preview of this review before it’s published. I have not been paid for this review, however, the items in the review have been provided at no cost to me.)

First things first is the size of the Pad 2, it has grown slightly from an 11″ screen to a 12.1″ screen now and this comes with some benefits to the rest of the design. By having a slightly bigger screen size the Pad 2 can now fit a massive battery (9150mAH) and it can also accommodate a better cooling system which in turn means a more powerful chipset. The size increase does of course have some downsides too though. It now has a bigger footprint than the previous design and this can be shown here by comparing this to the smaller Pad Go. The pad is also slightly thicker than the Pad Go and it is also a tad heavier as well. None of these aspects are really issues for me as I find that the size is a great size for a tablet and it is really nice to use for both work and play.

Coming onto play the next thing I want to highlight is the display on the Pad 2 as this is a great display as I mentioned above it is 12.1″ diagonal but it has an aspect ratio of 7:5 which makes it great for content viewing. It is also sporting a resolution of 3000 by 2120 with a PPI of 303. The panel will output anywhere between 30Hz and all the way up to 144Hz with various stops in between. It will also offer up to 900nits HBM but in normal conditions will go up to 600nits. All of this comes from an LCD panel which OnePlus is calling a Readfit display. Now I don’t want to gloss over the LED display part here as I was actually genuinely surprised that the panel was LCD after I got my first look at it. Had I not been told by the rep from OnePlus I would have assumed that this was an OLED display. It is a great display and one I have enjoyed using to consume content a lot I have also really enjoyed working on this display as well it is clear and vivid and the aspect ratio is really conducive to multitasking but more on that later…

Next up is the sound stage provided by the Pad 2. This is very good and more than enough for watching movies, YouTube and listening to music. The Pad 2 packs in six speakers to give a great range of sound and as the tablet is not a bit wider we get great distance between the individual drivers so we are able to get more of a stereo effect. In addition to the speakers’ physical setup, OnePlus has also sprinkled in some magic in the form of OReality Audio. This is the company’s take on what Dolby has been doing for years and offers you some preset sound settings some of which can be customised.

I have been using the Music mode whilst I am writing this review on the tablet now and I have been quite happy with my tunes blasting out. That being said you cannot always use your device with the speakers blaring out for everyone to hear or endure! This brings another nice feature that we are now seeing across OnePlus’s portfolio which is of course Spatial audio on Bluetooth headphones. Thankfully I have a pair of OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro which I have been able to use alongside the Pad2 and this creates a great audio experience when you use an app that supports this feature. I have used this setup on Disney+ whilst on an overnight trip and it was great.

That about sums up the key external point of design and hardware that I wanted to highlight. However, as suggested above there is a lot more going on inside the OnePlus Pad 2!

So the first internal feature I want to talk about is the chipset. OnePlus has been able to cram a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SOC into the Pad 2, bringing a lot of power to the table. I am not going to go into the performance of the chip as I don’t do benchmarking here, what I will say is that I have used a few devices with the 8 Gen 3 chipset and this is by far the biggest to date. This is relevant as the inbuilt graphic has to drive a bigger display than on a phone. the good news is that the Adreno 750 GPU is more than capable of the task and provides crystal-clear images regardless of what you are trying to do. I have already mentioned it is great for watching movies and videos. It is also a great platform for some light gaming, while handheld but it comes into its own when used with a controller setup like shown below.

The next bit I want to cover is the battery. As I have already mentioned the battery has a little bit more space due to the bigger chassis however it has not increased in size over the original Oneplus Pad. The battery is still a 9150mAh size and will charge at up to 67W when using a SuperVooc charger from OnePlus. I don’t have the appropriately sized SupperVooc charger to test the charging speed but I have been using a GAN charger and the Pad 2 will charge very fast allowing me to get from 0 to 100% in just under 1hr 30 mins. If using a OnePlus charging brick then the officially measured time is 81 minutes according to their own internal testing.

While this isn’t an amazing step up from the OG Pad it is nice to see that it hasn’t gone down and that the charging speed remains consistent. I am also really happy that you can leave this device to sleep for a really long time and pick it up again knowing that you should have some power left. This was one of the features I liked about the Pad Go in my review. Also of note is that there is no significant heat build-up within the tablet when it’s charging. The one thing that I would like to pick fault with is the location of the charging port. While having it mounted on the die is not by any means the worst place it does mean that handheld gaming is not really a viable option when charging. This must have been a designer-based decision for the inclusion of the optional keyboard accessory. It is not a bad thing but just something I would like to mention.

The next thing and indeed the last is the build quality of the tablet. The Pad 2 is built very well with no indication of torsional twisting or flexing when it is held in one hand. The rounded-off edges of the case make it a joy to hold. the texture of the Aluminium body is grippy and not an absolute fingerprint magnet either. Whilst the bezels on the front are larger than some people would like they are useful being that size as it stops accidental screen touches when you are holding it.

If I had one complaint, I would have to say that this is not a light tablet especially when you include the optional accessories. The tablet feels very similar in weight to my Macbook Air Pro when I am carrying it around. Its bare weight is 584g but once you add the Smart keyboard case then you are including another 800g. Include the Stylo 2 at a tiny 1 gram and you are carrying a total of 1.385 kg, my MacBook Pro weighs in at 1.6kg. Dont get me wrong I like the reassuring heft to it but this is worth bearing in mind for those looking to purchase.

So that brings me nicely onto the optional accessories that can be purchased (or can be free depending on offers). First up and I think this one is an essential extra, is the Smart Keyboard case. This is a two-in-one affair and it allows for the tablet to be used as a laptop replacement to a degree. it comes in two parts the first is the keyboard itself which is one of the best typing experiences I have had on a tablet keyboard case. the keys are well spaced and they have a solid feel to them. They have just enough travel to keep most people happy. It is a relatively standard layout but it now has an extra row that has been added to the top in the form of shortcut keys. this was not present in the previous version. the actual keyboard base is solid as well and this can be used with relative ease when on the lap. However, that is not the only way it can be used, as inside the Smart Keyboard is a hidden battery and some Bluetooth connectivity. This means that you can also use this as a removable keyboard separate from the tablet. So if you are on a Plane, train or automobile and you need to get some work done then you can remove the keyboard from the tablet and then have just the keyboard on your lap and the tablet screen positioned somewhere else. This is very convenient when I have been writing this review as I have been doing the majority of this on the Pad 2 itself, in either my office or my recliner in my lounge. In the latter setup, I will have the screen on a separate piece of furniture and the keyboard on my lap as this is the most comfortable position for me to use it.

Another thing that has grown from the previous folio-style keyboard is the trackpad. This is now a massive 8640mm surface area which is a significant increase in size. It is bigger than my Pixel Fold in its folded state! Now if I am being entirely honest, I had some issues with the trackpad on my device. So much so that it required a new one to be sent from OnePlus, for some reason on the first trackpad, I got there was no discernable click from the trackpad and this created all sorts of problems effectively rendering it useless.

Fortunately, after some email exchanges with OnePlus Tech support, I was sent a replacement unit and the issue was solved. I have asked some other reviewers who received their devices at the same time as me and they have had no similar issues so it may have just been a glitch on mine. As you would expect you can use the trackpad for all the normal gestures and swipes that you would expect and it does have a nice feel and responsive click to it. It also does not get in the way too much when I have been typing and I haven’t had issues with accidental presses with my palm.

There is another feature on the keyboard which the eagle-eyed would have seen from the pictures. In the bottom right-hand corner, there is an NFC logo. This is to indicate the position where you can hold your OnePlus phone to initiate a wireless connection between the Pad2 and the Phone allowing you to screen share your phone and also take control of the phone on the Pad 2. It also allows you to access content from the phone’s storage and shares the Mobile data connection. I will cover this a bit more in the software section of the review as it is mostly software-based.

I mentioned that the Smart Keyboard was a 2 in 1 accessory. This is because the standing element of the keyboard is a completely separate component to the keyboard. The stand is a panel that has a central hinge going across it at the halfway point. This hinge will allow you to fold the backplate into various different positions.

The top half of the panel contains several magnets that align with magnets in the back of the Pad 2. This is how the back panel attaches and also how the panel supports the weight of the tablet. This setup allows for a large range of angles to be achieved when you are using the stand and the keyboard together. I have found that you can have the set-up as shown in the image below and this is the most conducive for typing and still being able to use the last accessory the Stylo 2.

The Stylo 2 is OnePlus’s take on a Stylus for its tablet lineup. As far as I am aware it will only work on Pad 2 as there was a different Stylo for the original Pad. The Stylo 2 will not work on the OnePlus Open internal display as far as I have been advised. I have not had the chance to test this so your mileage may vary. The Stylo 2 has got an internal battery that will recharge wirelessly when you “dock” the Stylo 2 on the top right-hand edge of the screen.
The Stylo 2 will also detect up to 16,000 levels of pressure to allow you to get the pressure of the screen just right when drawing and writing. When writing the Stylo 2 will vibrate ever so slightly to recreate the feel of using a pencil on paper. It can also be used as a laser pointer when being used in conjunction with a presentation. For the most part I have been using the Stylo 2 as a mouse-style device as I find that I can get a slightly higher level of accuracy with it.

I have tried to do some drawing with it but I am by no means an artist so I decided to skip this test. One thing I did like is that I was able to use the Stylo to take notes with the screen off. previously this has been something I have only found on Samsung kit so it is a nice feature to see here. How much I would use this in my day-to-day life is still up for debate.

Normally I would now go into the camera section of a review but, I am not going to give it much time here as let’s be honest no one will use the camera for taking photos as you don’t want to be that person.

The rear camera is a 13MP sensor which will record video at up to 4K at 30fps. It also has EIS on board as well if you really want to use it for photos/video when moving. Here are some pictures from the rear camera for your viewing pleasure.

Not too shabby I am sure you would agree but not something I would use to capture photos with unless I had no other option.

What is more important and will be vastly more useful is the front-facing camera which is an 8MP sensor that will record at up to 1080p 30fps and also includes EIS. The front camera is also used for Face Unlock but this is just regular 2D Face Unlock not the depth-sensing 3D version. This does mean that it doesn’t pick up a lot of the time which is a bit annoying. Facial recognition is the only biometric unlock option here as there is no fingerprint sensor. I do feel that this is a bit of a miss but for most people, it won’t bother them.

I also included a few images from the front camera as well as a quick video clip to show what video calls would be like.

Really if you want to get photos onto your pad 2 the best way is to take them on another device and then transfer them either through the OneTouch Transmission option (taping the NFC point on the keyboard if you have it) or using nearby share.

Now moving to the software lets see what makes Pad 2 tick under the shiny hardware skin.

Software

The software is very what we have to come to know from OnePlus. We have got Android 14 on board with Oxygen OS 14.1 UI over the top. As far as UI’s go this is one of the better ones especially as OnePlus has brought the excellent Open Canvas elements across from the OnePlus Open.

Open Canvas makes multitasking on a large-scale device like a foldable or a tablet a much more fluid and enjoyable experience. It allows you to expand the useable desktop space virtually by having windows that can be slid out of sight until needed. It also supports the normal Split screen functions that you would expect but has the added benefit of having up to 3 active apps at any one time.

I have included a few screenshots below so you can get an idea of what it looks like.

As you can see you can have the apps appear as 3 normal size apps side by side and you can switch between them as above. Pinching in with 4 fingers on the screen will give you an overview mode as well.

Or you can have one full-screen app with the others sitting just below the main app but still easily accessible.

What I found really cool is that if you are using something like YouTube then it will continue playback while you can be using another app. The only time I couldn’t get this to work was when I had two apps trying to play media at the same time which is understandable. i have found this really useful whilst writing this review as it has allowed me to have the OnePlus page open for reference and the WordPress app running alongside it in addition to having my Gmail app open as well. You can also fully interact with the apps even when they are in the overview view which is awesome to see.

Here is a quick screen recording of the app switching in action.

Pretty sweet I think.

However, there are other quite cool software tricks in the OnePlus Pad 2, I am of course talking about the previously mentioned OneTouch Transmission function. This allows you to use the NFC on the Smart Keyboard to initiate a screen-sharing mode on the Pad 2 with a compatible OnePlus Phone. However, screen sharing is just one fo the things that it can do. Once the process has started and the phone is being displayed on your Pad 2 you can then use the Pad 2 to control every aspect of your phone in a window. You can use this “phone ” to interact with any of your apps and even use it to make calls and share the data connection with the Pad 2. I’ll be honest this last one I was never able to get to work probably due to an error on my part but the functionality is there. I was however able to use it to transfer files from the phone to the tablet which was extremely useful during the course of this review.

I am sure this can also be done without the use of the Smart Keyboard but it is not going to be as smooth an operation as it would be just tapping the NFC point on the keyboard to initiate it.

Here is what the Phone looks like when shared with the Pad 2.

Other than these two features you have got a fairly regular Android 14 tablet and all the goodness that comes from that along with the weaknesses. Android as an OS has never fully embraced the tablet form factor as much as the likes of iPadOS which is a shame as there are some very good tablets on the market now including this one. if Google is serious about large format devices and making Android into a multiplatform OS then they need to get more apps designed with Tablets in mind. There are still too many apps that just scale up to be a big phone UI on a tablet which gives the user a poor experience. being an Androdi tablet user for many years and now a foldable user I have learned to live with these issues but it is not enticing for newcomers.

There is however one major omission from the OnePlus Pad 2 software suite and this is a “desktop mode”. We have seen the likes of Honor, Samsung and Huawei (even after the Google Mobile Services ban) implement their own version of a desktop mode for use when you have a keyboard connected to your tablet and it can make things a lot more useable for power users. Again I have learned how to navigate around the pitfalls of Android on Tablets and things like Open Canvas certainly go a long way to help with this but the key phrase in that sentence is “learned”. A new user shouldn’t have to learn how to do these things it should be intuitive. The Chromebook experience can run on the same processor as the ones we have on tablets and it would be awesome to see this being implemented on tablets that have the powerful enough chipsets to do it. The OnePlus Pad 2 is certainly one of these devices. However, I have gone a bit off-topic, back to what we do have today.

The use of AI in the software is not something that has been missed by the Pad 2 and it is as present here as it was on the Oneplus Nord 4 that I recently reviewed. You have got the same SmartSidebar as found on the phone and this allows quick access to tools depending on what app you are in and also to multitasking. AI Eraser is present in the Photos App and is effective at doing so.

You also have AI doing its thing in the Notes app where it will allow you to carry out a voice recording whilst the Pad2 will transcribe what is said into Notes for you to use later as required. Currently, this is limited to English and Chinese only. there are more AI features to come in the form of AI Toolbox in Q4. How much of this will be used in the day-to-day I can’t be sure but at least we know it is already here or coming soon. Before we leave AI though I am sad to see that OnePlus has not embraced what Google has made available in the form of Circle to Search and Googles other goodies like Live Translate and Generative Wallpapers or example. to be fair a lot of Googles new AI features are limited to Samsung and Pixel devices at the time of writing so it is not surprising that we have not seen them on a OnePlus device yet.

Overall despite my early rant about the state of Android on tablets (which to be fair is not the fault of OEM’s like Oneplus), I am very happy with the software that I am presented with on the OnePlus pad2 and it has been a joy to use it for the past few months.
Conclusion

So it has come to the time where I need to gather my thoughts and try to answer the question I posed at the beginning of this review. IS the OnePlus Pad 2 a suitable laptop replacement?
Quick answer No it is not.
Long answer yes but with caveats and a learning time.

I dont think that the OnePlus Pad 2 can replace your laptop outright for all your needs especially if you use any pro tools at all. But then the same can be said of things like Chromebooks, or the latest laptops to feature Snapdragon chipsets in them. If you are not someone who needs programs (I deliberately called them that) and can make do with Apps then the OnePlus Pad 2 may work for you just as well as some of the lighter computing alternatives i.e. Chromebooks. I have been able to get a lot of the reviews for both the Pad 2 and the Nord 4 written on the Pad 2. It has been my lighter-weight travelling computer when I have been away from home and I have even used it for a bit of gaming on the side. The OnePlus pad2 is a powerful and productive mobile computer that could potentially fill the needs of a lot of people over a laptop and it is also a significantly cheaper cost.

However with all that being said, there is another threat looming for tablets and that is the emerging foldable market for me that is where I will be planting my flag into moving forward as it gives me my dream two-in-one device which ticks the vast majority of the boxes for what a tablet used to do especially as I lent towards the smaller tablet like the Nexus 7 and the iPad Mini, My Pixel 9 Pro Fold is the same size as these when unfolded and is a phone size when folded.

It is incredibly expensive though and if money is an important factor then a separate tablet like the OnePlus Pad 2 and high-end mid-ranger like the excellent OnePlus Nord 4 would be worth looking into.

Just remember that this combination even with the accessories is less than the cost of a folding phone and some may say more practical…..

Check out the OnePlus Pad 2 on the OnePlus website now for the latest offers

The post OnePlus Pad 2 – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

The first is the unboxing of the OnePlus Pad 2 along with the OnePlus Smart Keyboard and the OnePlus Stylo 2.

This is the successor to the OnePlus Pad which came out last year and at the time of writing is the most powerful Android tablet on the market with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip powering it. Alongside this chip we have got 256 GB of Storage and 12 GB of RAM.

It has a very crisp and vibrant screen with 3K resolution from a 12.1″ diagonal LCD panel that is capable of up to 900 nits in brightness. The tablet follows a similar design to last years however now comes in a more toned down Slate gray colour way. We still have the centrally mounted 13 MP rear camera when the device is being held in landscape. This is very much the way the tablet is designed to be used which is also reinforced by the fact that the front facing 8MP camera is situated in the middle of the top edge of the device.

The OnePlus Smart keyboard is significantly different in design to the previous gen as it now has an extra row of tools along the top room of the keyboard and it has a bigger track pad area. One other major improvement is the fact that you can use the keyboard when it is not physically connected to the device via a Bluetooth connection. This is very useful as you can set the tablet up in a standing position using the magnetically attached back stand, which can fold to a variety of angles from near vertical to almost flat allowing a good range of adjustability. I am actually using the Smart Keyboard to write this article whilst on holiday in Rhodes! This combination of the OnePlus Smart Keyboard and the powerful Pad 2 does make it possible for this to be the “laptop replacement for mobile work” that I have been looking for since I had to give up Xperia Z4 Tablet many years ago due to it no longer being supported by updates.

The last piece of the tablet based kit is the OnePlus Stylo 2, which as the name suggests is the stylus based input for the Pad 2 and it is very good from the limited use I have given it so far. I have found that the accuracy of the pen on the screen is very good and when I have used it for writing notes the tracking works very well with the accompaniment of some audible feedback that makes it sound like you are writing on paper. There is also just enough resistance on the display so that it feels like you are getting some feedback. The Stylo 2 is capable of detecting up to 16000 levels of pressure which is more than I could ever discern!

All of this makes for a really easy to use mobile workstation, there are of course limitations but I will cover this more in the full review as for now this is merely a first impressions post.
OnePlus Watch 2R and the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro.

Next up we have got the OnePlus Watch 2R and the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro.

This video is a combo of the two in one as they are accessories but they do deserve some airtime in their own right.

OnePlus Watch 2R

This is the update to the extremely well received OnePlus Watch 2 which I previously reviewed for the site and was very impressed with. Again this is not going to be a full review but I have got an unboxing video below for your viewing pleasure.

In the above video I unbox both the Watch 2R and the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro I have been using the Watch 2R as my daily watch since the moment I unboxed it and as I mentioned above I am currently on Holiday in Rhodes and this has been performing extremely well during this time. I have been putting it through its paces and testing the water resistance which has been awesome. I have not been particularly kind to the watch as I have been using it in the sea and in swimming pools and it has barely skipped a beat.

I have still got some further testing to do before I form my final review thoughts. I will try and test it up against my Garmin Epix 2 that I have been driving daily for the past month or so. This will give me a true idea of its accuracy in terms of health metrics but so far I have been very impressed with the overall package.

Next up and last but by no means least are the new OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro

OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro

These have been in use a lot since I received them as they have been my headphones of choice for my trip.

They are comfortable and provide very good and adequate noise cancellation and can wear them for a sustained period of time which makes them amazing for traveling.

Yes they are a bit more basic in terms of functionality than the Google Pixel Buds Pro that I normally rely on exclusively but it is entirely possible that these may end up being my go to earphones for the future.

iF you want to find about any more about any of the specs or prices for the above products then please check out the OnePlus website.

I have included a gallery of some other pictures of the devices below if you want a closer look at them.

OnePlus Pad 2

OnePlus Watch 2R

OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro

The post OnePlus Summer Launch – Unboxing extravaganza is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Honor has worked alongside Studio Harcourt utilising the power of AI to analyse thousands of photographs to “learn” how to use some of the pillars of of the Studio Harcourt process to allow your phone to capture the very best portrait images with ease. Having experienced this in a relatively controlled environment, I was very keen to get the phone into a normal atmosphere to allow me to really use it in anger. 

So without further ado let’s look at the phone in all its glory.

Hands-on video

Display

The display measures 6.78″ and is a Quad-Curved Floating AMOLED display covered in Aluminosilicate glass for protection. This screen is purportedly as tough as Gorilla Glass and Honor is claiming that the glass is extremely scratch-resistant. The screen has a resolution of  FHD+ 2700×1224 and an aspect ratio of 19.85:9. The screen will also output up to 4000 nits during peak brightness whilst watching HDR content. It has a colour gamut of DCI-P3 and its Delta E is 0.27. Lastly, it has a refresh rate of 120Hz and is DXI Gold mark certified.

Before I move away from the screen one last thing for those of you who are sensitive to PWM. The 200 Pro screen has a PWM frequency of 3840Hz which has been flicker-free certified by TUV Rheinland

On the top of the phone, we can find a couple of different things. The most prominent thing here is the upward-firing speaker grill which allows the sound to be pushed out to the side when you are using the phone for gaming, music or video viewing. The good news is it does really help and is not just a gimmick. Next to this, we have a a good old Honor favourite in the form of the IR blaster allowing you to control various IR compatible kit. Next to this is one of the various pinhole mics around the phone.

On the right-hand side of the phone is where we find the power/sleep/wake button, which as is the norm now can be doubled up as an assistant button. The volume rocker sits above this. The buttons are positioned in a way that they fall under the right-hand thumb nicely, it is a bit more awkward if you are left-handed though but this is quite normal in the phone world unfortunately.

On the bottom of the phone, we have got the USB Type-C port which will support USB 2.0 and more importantly up to HONOR 100W SuperCharge with a compatible charger (not included in the box, but currently being included as a gift when you buy the phone from Honor direct). We also have the downward firing speaker which like the one on the top of the phone works well. on the other side, we find another pinhole microphone and the Micro SD card slot which has a waterproof gasket on the inside to aid with the IP rating of the phone.

The left-hand side is void of anything at all not even an antenna break line. An interesting note here is that there are no visible antenna lines on the frame exterior which is nice to see and a nice nod to design simplicity.

On the back, we have a very pretty design which is inspired by the moonlight on the Moonlight White version we have here. On the Ocean Blue version, the phone has a wavelike pattern which resembles a meandering coastline. The final colour version is simple called Black to represent simple serenity. We have also got the camera module which contains three camera elements including a 50MP Portrait Main Camera, a 50MP Telephoto Camera, a 50MP Portrait Selfie Camera. net tot his is a dual-lens flash module. The camera module’s shape has been inspired by Guadi’s Cass Mila of Barcelona.

In terms of the profile below is the Honor 200 Pro being compared to the Google Pixel 8 Pro. You can see that the phone is very slim (8.2mm excluding camera bump) This is accentuated by the use of the curved screen and it makes for a comfortable feel in the hand. However, this curved edge screen does also have its downside mainly in that it can make the phone feel like it is going to slip out your hand. There is a reason why we are seeing a trend back towards flat screens again.

Again another comparison here with my Pixel 8 Pro which is on the right. you can see that the Honor 200 Pro is marginally narrower. It is also interesting to see the scaling of the displays at work here both these phones have their scaling and font size at their lowest settings. More on this in the main review though.

I have also added a Samsung device here in the form of the Galaxy A 34 to give a bit more of an idea of sizing.

So that covers my hand-on and unboxing of the phone. I have not included any of the in-box items as this is a review device and typically they don’t come with included accessories however I can confirm that the following items will be included in the box.

1. Phone (Built-in battery) x 1

2. Type-C Cable x 1 (Europe is C2C, other regions are A2C)

3. Quick Start Guide x 1

4. Eject Tool x 1

5. Warranty Card x 1*

6. TP protective film (Attached on the phone before delivery) x 1

The Honor 200 Pro is currently available to buy from the Honor Store. If you want to pick one of these devices up then you can currently get one for £599.99 (down from £699.99) and this will include the HONOR Earbuds X6 and HONOR SuperCharge Power Adapter (Max 100W) for free. Honor will also stand by their screen quality by offering a free 1-year screen replacement policy with a one-time use.

The post Honor 200 Pro – Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

In the current mobile tech environment where we have got standard smartphones with displays of bigger than 6 1/2 inches screen size and we also now have the newer book-style folding devices like the Honor Magic V2  and Pixel Fold, do we still need tablets and if so what is there purpose? So this is something I have been wrestling with for quite some time whilst I have been using the Pad Go

I have been fortunate enough to use some of the latest and greatest phones from a variety of manufacturers including the Honor, Google, Samsung and indeed OnePlus. I have used their normal candy bar-style devices and their book-style folding devices. I have been very happy with those devices and in the case of the folding style devices they have become a dual purpose device for me as they can act as phones and tablets simply by unfolding the device. For me, I thought that ticked the boxes for what I would need from a tablet. However just before this review period started I sold my Pixel Fold and I changed to a Pixel 8 Pro. This in turn meant that I did not have that dual functionality device anymore. My timing couldn’t have been better because the Pad Go arrived the day after I made the switch. This meant that for a significant cost saving, I now had a phone and a tablet albeit as two separate devices. Now the true test would be whether will I use them in the same sort of way I used my Pixel Fold.

Typically when I was out and about I would use the Pixel Fold in closed mode and I would limit myself to relatively basic phone functions, quickly skimming emails, on-the-go gaming and some very light media content in the form of either YouTube tube or music playback. When I needed to get more stuff done this is when I would typically unfold the device, for example, if I needed to respond to an email with more than a few lines, if I was editing an image I had taken, reading a PDF or watching a video of more than 10 minutes in length. All of these things I had identified as “tablet mode” tasks. These tasks were simpler on a larger screen and being able to have two apps open at the same time was advantageous. An example is when I was renewing my car insurance as I could be on a live chat at the same time as searching for price comparisons in a web browser.

So now that we have had some background on my uses for a tablet let’s see if the Pad Go can tick the boxes and see if it will work as part of a two-device mobile setup for me. Firstly let’s recap the hardware tour from the unboxing.

Design

As always with a device tour we will start on the top edge of the device and to avoid confusion I am going to be orienting the tablet in landscape mode as that is what is suggested as its normal use mode by the camera positioning.

This is where we can find the volume up and down buttons on the far left edge the next noticeable thing is the pinhole microphone that will be brought into function when the front camera is being used. on either end of the top edge, there are two antenna bands for the inbuilt connections.

Moving around to the right-hand side we will then find that there are two of the 4  speakers, nestling inside these you will find another pinhole microphone next to the USB type C port. This port does not support Display Out, unfortunately, but given the price point and target demographic, this is hardly surprising.

Moving around to the bottom of the tablet there is nothing to see here which makes holding the device in the landscape orientation comfortable.

Continuing to the right-hand side we can see that we have got the other two speakers but this time they are flanking a Nano SIM/microSD card slot. This allows the tablet to support LTE bands for full phone and data duties if you wish to use it as a phone! You can also expand the storage by up to 1TB via the Micro SD card slot. You can also find the sleep-wake/power button on this side. This is simply just a button there is no fingerprint reading going on here.

Around the back we have the Camera module that is mounted on the upper third of the device in a shinier section of the back cover, presumable this is where the twin Mint naming comes from. Incidentally, this colour is the only variant you can get in the UK and it matches up with a lot of the other OnePlus devices of late. The camera itself is an 8MP sensor which has EIS and will support 1080P/720P video recording at 30FPS.

Going around the front finally, we have got the 11.35″2.4K screen which has a pixel density of 260PPI, and a refresh rate of 90Hz. The screen is reasonably bright at 400 nits with a contrast ratio of 1500:1 and a colour gamut of 96% NTSC. As is the case on most devices these days the screen is set up for Eyecare as well meaning that it will automatically adjust in lower light settings to limit Blue light and adjust colour temperatures to suit the available lighting in your viewing environment. It is a TÜV Rheinland Certified Full Care Display. Very good to know especially if this is a purchase being considered for younger users.

Also at the very top of the display is where we find the 8MP front-facing camera.

Thickness comparison with RedMagic 9 Pro gaming phone

Overall I really do like the aesthetics of the design and the way the tablet feels in the hand. It is comfortable to hold due to the 7.5mm bezels surrounding the devices and the 7.:5 aspect ratio of the display means it is not too wide for a 11.35″ screen size. I can find that I can interact with the tablet easily enough but typing is a bit easier using the thumbs when in portrait mod. it is light enough to hold in one hand while poking at the screen with the other hand which is great if you’re doing a quick search for something to watch or listen to. It is also pretty useful for games as well as I found with a quick session of Asphalt 9. As I mentioned earlier the device has a quad-speaker setup which creates a very good sound stage. I was more than happy to have this playing music in the background as I was working on writing this review.

Hardware

The outside may be good to look at but none of that makes any difference unless the internal hardware is any good. thankfully we have got some pretty good-looking kit inside. bear in mind that this is by no means a flagship-grade tablet so the expectations need to be aligned to that. To start with we have got a MediaTek Helio G99 CPU powering the tablet. This is an octa-core CPU built on the 6 NM process it has 2x Arm Cortex-A76 up to 2.2GHz and  6x Arm Cortex-A55 up to 2.0GHz and is paired with an Arm Mali-G57 MC2. We also have 8GB of LPDDR4X and 128b GB of UFS 2.2 storage which will give a reasonably fast read and write speed but is not anything groundbreaking, more than adequate for streaming media and some light gaming. As I mentioned above the device has a SIM card slot and this is down to the CPIU being able to support 4G for both calls and data. Alongside that, you have the usual WIFI 5 and 2.4Ghz available frequencies and Bluetooth 5.2. Lastly, we have got support for GPS (L1), BEIDOU (B1I), GLONASS (G1), GALILEO (E1), and WLAN positioning. All in all, this is some pretty good spec for the price and is comparable with tablets from other players like Honor in the form of the Honor Pad 9u

We also have a standard suite of sensors that you would expect to see in an entry-level tablet; a Geomagnetic sensor, Light sensor, Acceleration sensor, Gyroscope, and Hall sensor.

I am pretty pleased with the hardware and especially happy to see that this device carries a battery with 8000mAh in it that is also capable of charging at 33W SUPERVOOC with the appropriate power supply unit (not included). This will allow for use for at least two days but it also supports a standby time of 514 hours according to OnePlus, which works out as just under 21.5 days. This is an important metric for a tablet as you tend not to use it constantly all day long. You will use it for a quick look at something or maybe to catch a TV Show watch a film etc. Having the ability to shut the screen off and then come back to it and still have some charge a few days later is a very useful feature.

The screen is plenty bright enough for use inside but it does struggle when in direct sunlight outside due to that max brightness of 400 nits. however, at this price point, you will struggle to find a much brighter screen. As you would also expect there is a lot of reflection in very bright conditions, however, I have yet to use a tablet that doesn’t suffer from this issue so I can let it slide.

Software

A key area for this tablet to be used in the way I am looking to use it is the ability of the device to work for the “tablet tasks” that I have identified above. the first of these that is important for me is long-form email. I have found that when typing up longer emails in the landscape orientation the keyboard spacing does prove to be a little bit of a stretch for me to thumb type. That being said though if the tablet is supported then I can type reasonably efficiently but it is far from ideal. This is where a keyboard attachment would have been advantageous for me. If I use the tablet in portrait then I can get on a bit better when thumb-typing as the keyboard is a bit more condensed but this is true of all tablets not just the Pad Go. Image editing is another area where having the bigger screen provides for a better experience and this was true for the Pad Go, particularly taking advantage of the fact that Google Photos has been enabled for tablet mode when using the in-built edit function. I can still see the full image and the tools easily as the tooling appears on the right-hand side of the image in a list view as shown in the image below.

Split Screen mode is something I have found to be very useful when using a folding device and I have been trying to use it as effectively on the pad go as well and for the most part it does work just as well. Using the split screen to reference something whilst working in a different app is extremely useful and productive. I will be going to Rhodes in the summer and have been able to do some sightseeing planning on the tablet by using the split screen. Whilst I could easily do this on my Pixel 8 Pro having the ability to have two apps open side by side does make this much easier especially when I want to show this to someone else as the device size is more conducive to doing so.

Media playback is another huge aspect of the tablet experience and I have been using this a lot for that function. I was away doing some training for my new job and having the pad Go with me during this time was a big advantage as I was able to stream Netflix on a screen that was big enough to be enjoyable for long durations in the evening instead of having to make do with watching the in-room TV  which was showing mostly football and reality TV rubbish. Again this is something that could be done on either my phone or Macbook but the Pad Go made the process easier and more flexible as I could take the Pad Go with me if I wanted to indulge in my viewing in the bar or the beer garden. What would have been useful in this scenario is a stand which I don’t have for review but there is one available from the OnePlus Store.

An area where I was hoping that I would be able to use the extra screen real estate was in the writing of this review but unfortunately, as the Pad Go does not have an attachable keyboard cover like the OnePlus Pad this was not a successful endeavour. Unfortunately, the keyboard takes up too much of the screen real estate to be used in this mode and this was enough to stop me from trying to get the review written up on the Pad Go. Admittedly I could have used a Bluetooth keyboard but the lack of a stand and and mouse made this prohibitive to me and it was more practical to use my laptop for this. The hardware deficiency is not the only issue here as this has been an issue with Android and if I recall correctly iPad tablets for some time so the Pad Go is not to blame here. This is one of the reasons I moved to a Chome-based solution the last time I had a tablet. While it is certainly possible to create content using a word processor and then copy this into our chosen platform (WordPress) it is not as fluid as it could or should be.

One nice surprise that I did get when doing this review was that the tablet was updated to Android 14 which is great to see as normally these cheaper tablets get left behind in terms of updates to the core OS. At the time of writing the Pad Go is on Android 14 and the Google Play system update is on the 1 May 2024.

Which is not too bad given that is the same as my Redmagic 9 Pro is, (my Pixel 8 Pro is on the latest beta version of Android 15 so the Google Play System update is a bit out of whack).

The Multitasking is smooth and you can choose to use an app in Picture in Picture mode if you wish as well as the split screen shown mode above.

So overall the Pad Go software is exactly what I was expecting it to be for a mid-range Android tablet. It does not have the extra hardware to support the possibility of being laptop replacement but it does have the benefits of the bigger size which makes it great for web browsing and media consumption whilst travelling or away from home (or just when you are kicked out of the living room).

Gaming is another thing that I have used Tablets for in the past and did use my Pixel Fold for and the Pad Go is perfectly adept at the medium-weight games that I have be playing recently The refresh rate is adequate for all but most intensive games and the brightness is okay for indoor gaming but you will struggle outside under direct sunlight. I tested the Pad Go by playing Asphalt 9 and Grand Mountain and both were fine. I do find that the hardware is a bit too big for my liking and i couldn’t get my Stadia Contoller to pair with the Pad Go correctly but I was still able to get by. It will not replace a dedicated gaming console or handheld by any means but the same can be said for any mid-range Android tablet that is over 10″ in size. I have found that the best-sized device for gaming is around 7″ to 8″ and it seems that the industry is in agreement with me as this is the screen size of the Steamdeck and the Nintendo Switch console.

There is also the Games app which is very useful for configuring your gameplay settings and keeping track of your games on the device.

Next up is the camera,

I will be honest the camera is an addition that I have never really looked to use on a tablet. They are not the best device to take photos with due to their size. However I have taken a few sample shots here to showcase what it can do and it is not terrible but still, the rear camera is for me largely superfluous. Video can be recorded at 1080p and 720p at 30fps as well. Although as you can see from the results below I probably wouldn’t bother if I were you!

The front camera on the other hand is more useful as it will allow the user to use the tablet for video calls etc. It is also not too bad for selfies but i feel that the video call experience has been what has been prioritised here. The camera will record at 1080p or 720p at 30fps. I have enclosed a sample of the video at 1080p below and a couple of static shots as well one with middling bokeh and one without any.

Conclusion

That about finishes up the review so we just now need to wrap things up.

The need for a standalone tablet is in my opinion coming towards an end. I can fill the need for a tablet and a phone in one device now as I have been bitten by the foldable bug in a big way. At the time of writing this, I have just re-bought my Pixel Fold back from the person I sold it to a few weeks ago.  However, not everyone is on board with the foldable phone concept and I can see where it would be useful to have a separate device like the OnePlus Pad Go as a secondary device for use around the house when travelling etc. This is where the Pad Go fits into a use case and it does so very well. However, this is not by any means a high-end device, which is fine as it is not meant to be. if you are looking for a laptop replacement then I would advise looking for a tablet like the OnePlus Pad with a keyboard or any of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 lineup (although be prepared to pay more for these).

I am glad I have had the opportunity to review the OnePlus Pad Go as it has answered a question for me that I had been pondering. Do I need (as someone who uses a folding phone) a standalone tablet? For me, the answer is no but that is because my phone will perform as one and I am happy with the compromises that foldable phones entail. if you prefer your phone to be non-folding but want the extra real estate sometimes then the OnePlus Pad Go would be a very good addition to your kit.

If you want to pick up the Oneplus Pad Go you can do so by going to the OnePlus website where you can get one for £269 and it will come with a free Folio case worth £39.99 included. You can also look at the bigger brother the OnePlus pad which has the option of Stylus use and an attachable keyboard as well.

The post OnePlus Pad Go – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Design

As always with a device tour we will start on the top edge of the device and to avoid confusion I am going to be  orienting the tablet in landscape mode as that is what is suggested as its normal use mode by the camera positioning.

This is where we can find the volume up and down buttons on the far left edge the next noticeable thing is the pinhole microphone that will be brought into function when the front camera is being used. on either end of the top edge, there are two antenna bands for the inbuilt connections.

Moving around to the right-hand side we will then find that there are two of the 4  speakers, nestling inside these you will find another pinhole microphone next to the USB type C port. This port does not support Display Out, unfortunately, but given the price point and target demographic, this is hardly surprising.

Moving around to the bottom of the tablet there is nothing to see here which makes holding the device in the landscape orientation comfortable.

Continuing to the right-hand side we can see that we have got the other two speakers but this time they are flanking a Nano SIM/microSD card slot. This allows the tablet to support LTE bands for full;l phone and data duties if you wish to use it as a phone! You can also expand the storage by up to 1TB via the Micro SD card slot. You can also find the sleep-wake/power button on this side. This is simply just a button there is no fingerprint reading going on here.

Around the back we have the Camera module that is mounted on the upper third of the device in a shinier section of the back cover, presumable this is where the twin Mint naming comes from. Incidentally, this colour is the only variant you can get in the UK and it matches up with a lot of the other OnePlus devices of late. The camera itself is an 8MP sensor which has EIS and will support 1080P/720P video recording at 30FPS.

Going around the front finally we got the 11.35″2.4K screen which has a pixel density of 260PPI, and a refresh rate of 90Hz. The screen is reasonably bright at 400 nits with a contrast ratio of 1500:1 and a colour gamut of 96% NTSC. As is the case on most devices these days the screen is set up for Eyecare as well meaning that it will automatically adjust in lower light settings to limit Blue light and adjust colour temperatures to suit the available lighting in your viewing environment. It is a TÜV Rheinland Certified Full Care Display. Very good to know especially if this is a purchase being considered for younger users.

Also at the very top of the display is where we find the 8MP front-facing camera.

Thickness comparison with RedMagic 9 Pro gaming phone

Overall I really do like the aesthetics of the design and the way the tablet feels in the hand. it is comfortable to hold due to the 7.5mm bezels surrounding the devices and the 7.:5 aspect ratio of the display means it is not too wide for a 11.35″ screen size. I can find that I can interact with the tablet easily enough but typing is a bit easier using the thumbs when in portrait mod. it is light enough to hold in one hand while poking at the screen with the other hand which is great if you’re doing a quick search for something to watch or listen to. It is also pretty useful for games as well as I found with a quick session of Asphalt 9. As I mentioned earlier the device has a quad-speaker setup which creates a very good sound stage. I was more than happy to have this playing music in the background as I was working on writing this review.

Hardware

The outside may be good to look at but none of that makes any difference unless the internal hardware is any good. thankfully we have got some pretty good-looking kit inside. bear in mind that this is by no means a flagship-grade tablet so the expectations need to be aligned to that. To start with we have got a MediaTek Helio G99 CPU powering the tablet. This is an octa-core CPU built on the 6 NM process it has 2x Arm Cortex-A76 up to 2.2GHz and  6x Arm Cortex-A55 up to 2.0GHz and is paired with an Arm Mali-G57 MC2. We also have 8GB of LPDDR4X and 128b GB of UFS 2.2 storage which will give a reasonably fast read and write speed but is not anything groundbreaking, more than adequate for streaming media and some light gaming. As I mentioned above the device has a SIM card slot and this is down to the CPIU being able to support 4G for both calls and data. Alongside that, you have the usual WIFI 5 and 2.4Ghz available frequencies and Bluetooth 5.2. Lastly, we have got support for GPS (L1), BEIDOU (B1I), GLONASS (G1), GALILEO (E1), and WLAN positioning. All in all, this is some pretty good spec for the price and is comparable with tablets from other players like Honor in the form of the Honor Pad 9u

We also have a standard suite of sensors that you would expect to see in an entry-level tablet; a Geomagnetic sensor, Light sensor, Acceleration sensor, Gyroscope, and Hall sensor.

I am pretty pleased with the hardware and especially happy to see that this device carries a battery with 8000mAh in it that is also capable of charging at 33W SUPERVOOC with the appropriate power supply unit (not included). This will allow for use for at least two days but it also supports a standby time of 514gours according to OnePlus, which works out as just under 21.5 days. This is an important metric for a tablet as you tend not to use it constantly all day long. You will use it for a quick look at something or maybe to catch a TV Show watch a film etc. Having the ability to shut the screen off and then come back to it and still have some charge a few days later is a very useful feature.

The screen is plenty bright enough for use inside but it does struggle when in direct sunlight outside due to that max brightness of 400 nits. however, at this price point, you will struggle to find a much brighter screen. As you would also expect there is a lot of reflection in very bright conditions, however, I have yet to use a tablet that doesn’t suffer from this issue so I can let it slide.

In terms of the hardware that is all I have at the moment for initial first impressions as I need to spend d a bit more time with it but I am impressed with things so far.

As I have only been using the device for a short period I have been unable to draw any conclusions about the software yet but I am happy to say that it all looks pretty good so far. There has been a lot of development on the adaptation of Oxygen Os to accommodate the larger display and the tablet is better for it. I would have appreciated it if the device was running Android 14 but it is currently still on Android, With that being said though the tablet did receive a security update a few days ago bringing it up to March 2024 for security patches which is okay. it will be interesting to see if they can get this more aligned with Android in terms of the OS platform as we are not that far away from Android 15 being launched by Google. I have an older Oneplus Nord CE 3 Lite that is running more up-to-date software than the PadGo so it should be possible for them to push through the update to keep at least near relevance regarding the the core OS.

So for the moment that is all I have got for the OnePlus Pad Go and my brief time with the device.

if you are interested in picking one of them up for yourself or a family member it is definitely worth considering it, especially as at the moment OnePlus is giving a £30 discount on its RRP which is normally £299. You can pick one up from the OnePlus website for £269.00 from this link.

I will continue to run this device and will follow this up with a full review after a bit more time with the device during which I will be trying to use it for some gaming and also more consumption of media. Check back in with me in a few weeks for some more.

The post OnePlus Pad Go – Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

This is an important phone for Honor as mentioned as it is them making a statement that they want to play in the Foldable market on the global stage (the previous Magic V was a Chinese-only release) and they have come out strong and also undercut their rivals in the space in doing so. However, I do feel that whilst the hardware is something for the most part I prefer, with the exception of the hinge mechanism which is too prone to unfolding when you don’t want it to, there is still work to be done on software.

The last time around I compared the Honor Magic Vs with the only real competition which was the Galaxy  Z Fold 4. Today I will be comparing the phone primarily with the Pixel Fold which has been primarily my daily driver since it was released last summer. I have also been lucky enough to have used the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the OnePlus Open during this time. A lot of people will wonder why I am comparing it with the Pixel Fold as there are a lot of jaded opinions from reviewers out there of the folding pixel. I however have lived with that phone for going on 6 months and I honestly think of it as one of the best book-style folding phones for the average person, especially given that you can get one for nearly half the price of the RRP if you know where to look.

With the above being said the Honor Magic V2 needs to be bringing its A-game to compete, thankfully as you will see during this review it has done just that.

Design and Hardware.

I have gone through the hardware of the Magic V2 in the course of my unboxing post which you can find here. I was very impressed with it and now having spent a bit longer with the phone my feelings toward it have not changed. This is a beautifully designed piece of hardware and other manufacturers need to take note. the screen sizes on both inner and outer displays are great and the image those screens produce is crisp and clear as you would expect from any flagship phone. However, where Honor makes a big difference is in the crease or lack thereof.

Internal Front Camera

The crease is still there but it is very barely noticeable. Now I know that you will have read this all before in previous reviews but I do mean it. When viewing the phone straight ton you will not really see it in normal use and when you move your digits around the screen then you will barely notice the small rippl that is present. When I compare it with my Pixel Fold then it is like night and day one is a small ripple akin to a wide speed bump in a housing estate whereas the other is more like a sinkhole that has gouged the road out and will swallow you whole! Okay, that’s a bit dramatic but I think you see my point.

Before I leave the verdant expanse of the screens I want to touch on smoothing else that I have not been able to test and that is the fact that we have stylus support from the Honor stylus for both screens. Now unfortunately as I said this is not something I have been able to test as I don’t have an honor Stylus and they are currently not for sale here in good old Blighty. I have confirmed though that if you source one from the distant shore so fo China then it will work after you have turned on the setting on the phone. Oh, and I should probably add it works on both displays not just the internal one. Would have been nice to have it as an optional accessory at the time of the phone’s release here but the option is there if you want it and can afford it. When I checked the Honor Stylus is currently for sale for around £150 on eBay

The other aspect of the design that I am a huge fan of is the big headline for the Magic V2, at the time of writing this the Honor Magic V2 is the thinnest book-style folding phone available worldwide. This phone when unfolded is seriously thin at 4.7mm at its thinnest point ( the camera module is a bit thicker). Even when you fold the phone into its closed position then it is still under 10mm thick. This is especially impressive given that the phone still has the hardware onboard to pack the same punch as any other foldable on the market today (in the UK at least). For manufacturers that say they can’t pack in all the features that we want into a thin form factor then honor just upened the apple cart on that. They have done this because of two major components, the hinge and the battery. Firstly the hinge is made out of Titanium which is very on trend at the moment and they have reduced the hinge thickness by 75 percent in the process of changing from the previous aluminium design. The next key element is the dual battery design which we have again come to expect from foldable now but this is a little bit different the batteries are the thinnest batteries I have ever seen or heard of. They are not much thicker than a credit card but since they are made from silicone carbon over more traditional cell construction they still pack a 5000mah punch. This goes a very long way in reducing the overall thickness of the phone. As a comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is 13.4mm folded and 6.1mm unfolded and the Pixel Fold is 12.1mm folded and 5.8 unfolded. Admittedly these phones do both have wireless charging coils but these are not really that chunky so what Honor has done is still not to be sniffed at.

Those are the main selling points regarding the design of the phone but the phone also packs some very good albeit slightly out-of-date hardware on board. So let me first address that statement. This phone was first announced in China back in July around the same time the Pixel Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 5 were announced. At that time the ship of the moment was the Snapdragon 8  Gen 2, which is what powers the Honor Magic v2, the OnePlus Open and the Z Fold 5 (the odd one out is the Pixel Fold as it is Tensor G2). So in terms of folding phones, this is bang up to date.

However, the chipset world is an ever-moving treadmill and now as January has drawn to a close and we enter 2024 things have moved on. The chipset of the moment is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and this is what people now expect in a flagship phone being released in 2024. Now whilst I do understand where these people are coming from for the consumer the chip in the phone is not all that important as long as it does your normal phone tasks quickly and without delay. It is for this reason that I don’t care that this does not have the newest Chip and I can forgive Honor for not using the newest 8th Gen 3 in this phone. The phone is fluid and fast and it will support all the normal use apps that most people will throw at it in its lifetime. What is more important is that the phones are fluid and fast and this is more down to the software implementation than the hardware. With that being said though there is a part of the hardware that helps to keep things moving quickly and that is RAM, fortunately, the Magic V2 has a boot full of this as it comes with 16GB of it alongside 512GB of storage space for all your digital goodies.

The Magic V2 is also a bit of a champ when it comes to receiving those all-important mobile network bands signals and wifi signals as they have designed the antennas to allow for an additional 10% more reception capability than the Magic VS by using some nifty design on the antennas and the use of the Honor C1 RF enhanced chipset. I have found that I am less likely to lose my mobile signal with this than I am with some other phones I have used but it is not a massive difference. When I have been on calls the other party can hear me clearly and has not complained of me breaking up to bad signal either. In terms of my Wi-Fi signal, I have found it to be pretty much on par with my Pixel Fold which also adopts a similar antenna design layout. I have tested the Wifi in a very unscientific test later on in the review.

As for the other bits of hardware, you have all the other bits you would be looking for in a flagship in terms of Bluetooth connections more sensors that you can throw a stick at USB 3.1 with OTG support and Dsiplay out for using Honor’s Desktop UI which is serviceable but nowhere near as user friendly as Samsungs DEX implementation. You also have one feature that is not often seen on phones designed primarily for the Western markets, an IR blaster which you can use with the Hoor Smart Remote control app to control the likes of your TV or Radio etc.

I have included a spec sheet below if you want to check all the specs out in further detail otherwise onto the cameras!

The specs are pretty on par for a flagship foldable for the current generation. If you are looking for a high end flagship grade foldable and are not too bothered about Qi charging then this is a real contender.

Now onto the camera.

Camera

The camera for this phone is as you expect like the rest of the phone a high-end unit with 3 lens composed of:-
50 MP, f/1.9, (wide), PDAF, 8×8 dToF Laser AF, OIS
20 MP, f/2.4, 62mm (telephoto), PDAF, 2.5x optical zoom, OIS
50 MP, f/2.0, 13mm (ultrawide), AF

The camera supports a large variety of shooting modes including all your standard go-to options such as;-

The camera system also includes 2 of Honor’newest party pieces HONOR Falcon Camera System, which uses a combination of AI and fast lenses to capture much more detail from fast-moving subjects and HONOR AI Motion Sensing Capture which will use AI to take a picture when it detects movement in the frame which is a great feature to have when you have a built-in stand due to the folding form factor.

Video recording duties are supported at up to 4K@30/60fps (10-bit), 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS, HDR10+, OIS which is pretty good going for a phone this slim again.

The rear cameras take good photos as can be seen for the sample shots here. I found the photos easy to capture and the result was pleasing to the eye.

I am no pixel peeper I just want my camera to be easy to take shots and then for me to be able to use them on things like calendars and the occasional standard-size print. Any image I have captured on the Honor Magic V2 is going to tick that box perfectly especially when they’re taken in the optimal conditions.

I include an array of samples below for you to check out for yourself below.

Here are some samples of the various Zoom levels for you to see as well.

I have not been able to put the video capture to the test mainly as I have not had anything to take a video of in these dreich and dreary months of January and February. So I can’t really comment on the video quality.

The front camera is about as expected even disabling the normal beauty mode that is ever present on phones for far eastern shores I find that there is still an aspect of manipulation within the images which some may like but I am not a huge fan of.

Check these selfies to see the results for yourself.

That about sums up my camera insights but we will be having a camera special from my colleague Ian after he has had the chance to use the camera in slightly more picturesque locations as he is taking his Honor Magic V2 to New York when he travels there in the next week or so

Next up is the software.

Software

This is an area where the Magic V2 needs to get things right. I am very pleased to say that one of the biggest annoyances that had from my time with the previous folding effort from Honor is that they have now added the App drawer back as an option to have turned on which is awesome as it was silly that it was there, to begin with. That was really one of the biggest things I was hoping that the magic v2 would bring but there are other things we need to talk about.

With its being a folding phone you need to be able to pull off Multitasking well and the Magic V2 is on par here with the Pixel Fold in that you can have two apps open in full size at the same time but if you try and push it beyond that you will get stuck very quickly. In terms of the pure ability to multitask with multiple windows, this is a weak point of both the Pixel Fold and the Honor. However, the Honor does have one party piece that the pixel does not. You can have one app as the main view and the other two will be available as 2 floating apps that you can minimise down to a mini window to essentially hide when you don’t need it. This puts the Honor on a slight level up on the Pixel Fold I would say B+ for Multitasking. If you need more multitasking windows then you might need to look at Samsung or OnePlus or a laptop/tablet/2 in1!!

There is however another way to get more Multi-tasking action though and that is, of course, to plug the phone into another display using USB Type C and you have a Desktop to meet all your multitasking dreams unless browsing the web is one of these dreams as this is, not an app that I could get to show up when I plugged into my display. Also, the icons in this mode can be a little odd looking with some of them being very pixelated. This again is a function that is not to be found on the Pixel Fold or indeed on the OnePlus Open so bonus point here for the Magic V2.

Unfortunately, the good also comes with the bad. One of the most annoying things is when you are using a non-optimised app then when you transition between folded and unfolded some apps will display weirdly. Examples of it are shown below in the Yu Life app that I use for my work and the Mewe Social app.

Another issue that we are never going to be rid of is the amount of Honor apps that come preloaded as this is something that we get with manufacturers but it is not an issue found on the Pixel Fold as that has no bloat to speak of. I counted all the apps up as I was segregating them into their own folder there are 24 apps preloaded!

Now some of these are Honors own apps and are genuinely useful such as the inbult compas. However, if wanted TikTok then I would be quite happy to add it don’t need anyone to do it on my behalf.

If I had to really pick out other issues then another one would be a particularly foldable phone-related issue. When you’re in a full-screen app ie the web browser then you don’t have the very helpful dock that I have been able to find on the other foldable that I have used. The feature is there in a form, but I had to hunt for it in the settings menu. Instead of coming up on the side it pops in from the side if you swipe in from the side and then pause it will then bring up the dock for access to all your other apps. I didn’t like the way that this worked and I found that a lot of the time I would end up going back to the app I was in which caused frustration.

I think the persistent dock on the Pixel Fold is a much more elegant solution as this mirrors your front home screen dock with the addition of a recent app icon.

That about sums up my thoughts on the key software features that I wanted to compare with the Pixel Fold. I would say that the software is on par with what Google can offer with the Honor giving a bit of an edge on the multi-tasking abilities if you can live with the app switching. I do find the ability to have two windows open at the same time handy. I did use it a few times in this mode instead of grabbing my laptop which was genuinely useful, however, I could have had the same experience on any folding phone.

Other than that the software is pretty much all of the stuff you would expect to find in an Android 13 folding phone these days. Android 14 is coming very soon and is rumoured to be arriving on the phone with a Magic UI update alongside it very soon. Hopefully, this will arrive in time for Ian to give you his thoughts as my time with the phone has come to an end and it does need to be sent back to Honor very soon.

In terms of software updates Honor has promised five years of security patches and four years of Android updates, which is aligned with both Samsung, OnePlus and Google. At the time of writing, I am on the January Security update which arrived on my phone two days ago. I am also on the latest Google Play system update as well.

Another pain point is with notifications as these don’t always come through on time which can be irritating especially if you are awaiting time-sensitive alerts. I can see a notification come not my Pixel Fold and then it can be an age for it to arrive on the Magic V2. I have allowed some apps to get them quicker but then I have to put up with the ever-present high battery drain notice coming up.

I also do not like the way that the settings shortcuts and notifications are now separated and require you to perform the gesture on a specific side of the display. I would gladly see this disappear please Honor.

So that sums up the software experience. How about other stuff well let’s give you a quick run-through.

• Sound and speakers.

These sound great and you can really feel the effect of having the separation afforded by having the speakers on either end of the phone when you are watching content in the landscape orientation. The phone produces a good sound stage for watching content, however, that being said the majority of the playback i experienced using the phone was over Bluetooth headphones which worked very well and I had few interruptions with the Bluetooth signal.

• Bluetooth and  Wifi connectivity.

I have been running the phone with my Pixel Watch 2 smartwatch for the entirety of this review period and I have had no issues with it connecting and reconnecting at all., the only thing of note was that the watch did run down a bit quicker than I have seen when it was connected to my Pixel Fold but this also happens with Samsung devices so not a fault of the Magic V2. In my car, the Bluetooth has worked great and Android Auto connected with no issue over a wired connection as sadly my car needs to use that archaic process! (ED Note 1st world issue!!)

In terms of Wifi, I have experienced brilliant Wifi connectivity all over my home and when have been at work and never found reason to fault this at all. The wraparound antenna design and HONOR C1 RF Enhanced Chipset do really work and I am glad to have had them onboard. In a very unscientific test, I was able to have my Magic V2 pick up a wifi booster on the other side of my house with a better signal strength than on my Pixel Fold with a difference of 7 dBm which is significant. Even with the router which was under 1 m away, there was a difference in Honor’s favour of 1 dBm.

• Phone signal

Again this was an area where I did not have any noticeable issues at all calls were clear and crisp and had no connection issues or issues holding a call once it had connected. I had no complaints from the other party on the call either about background noise bleed.

• Charging speed and battery life

Sadly I did not have a supper charge to test the phone’s super fast charging but I was very pleased to say that I didn’t need to worry about being able to charge at super-fast speeds as the battery life was excellent easily allowing me to get through near two days full usage. Now to be fair I can normally stretch my Pixel Fold out to the same level but I don’t open the Pixel Fold into unfolded mode as much as I was doing on the Magic V2. When I did have to charge it from a regular charger I was able to charge it with no significant issue in a couple of hours. It would have been nice to have QI charging as an option but I didn’t miss it too much.

• Gaming

I don’t have time for games any more but I will ask if Ian can give his thoughts in his follow-up review and impressions piece as he might have some time while he is on his flight stateside.

Conclusion

I am really quite keen on the Honor Magic V2 5G. The hardware is fantastic and it feels as good after a few weeks of usage as it did on day 1 when it came out of the box, The hinge is smooth and the motion is fluid the lack of crease is so nice to see and use. The screens are crisp and clear no matter what the lighting. The external display size makes this feel like a normal slab phone but you have the benefit of that extra real estate when you unfold it.

In terms of software, Honor has stepped up here and I think they have improved upon the Magic VS and I expect more will come in the update to Magic OS 8.0. Multi-tasking is more capable than the pixel fold if you want to use it but the basic of two apps on the same display works brilliantly. The Magic OS implementation has become more in line with the Android ‘Stock” feel that people think of without needing to use all the bells and whistles to get stuff done.

The cameras are great and I wasn’t ever really left lacking in terms of their performance but I am by no means an expert here.

The phone really does pack a great punch and I have thoroughly enjoyed using it. However, would I buy one? If I am being honest if it was this of Pixel Fold then I would have to pick the Pixel Fold. I can’t quite put my finger on it but I just keep getting drawn back to that phone. I have owned 3 now having sold two previously!!

However, it is not me who is looking at this phone to buy it is you the reader and if you have made it his far then you may have already decided and I wouldn’t blame you for thinking about buying one of these as they are great and particularly love design then this is the foldable phone to get at the moment. Don’t be put off by the lack of QI charging as I know one of my colleagues was as it is not a big issue especially as if you take advantage of the offer on Honor’s website you get a Supercharger included with your purchase.

If you want to get the Honor Magic V2 5G then head on over to the Honor website and pick one up now while the offers are still on as this will reduce the asking price down to as low as £1119.99 (Normal RRP is 1699.99) if you use a trade-in and subscribe to get a voucher. This makes the Honor Magic V2 5G not only the thinnest bookstyle foldable phone but one of the cheapest as well!

Be sure to keep an eye out for Ian’s camera special and follow up after he has used it on his holiday back here on Coolsmartphone.com!

The post Honor Magic V2- Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

So the day has come when I can share the unboxing of the new to the UK market, Honor Magic V2 5G. I have a little spoiler for you though, I am impressed by this foldable’s hardware very impressed!

So let’s get into the video for you then.

As you can hopefully see from above I am enjoying the hardware on this folding phone it is so much sleeker than any other folding phone I have used before and I have used most of them! I currently use a Pixel Fold as my main phone (when I am not doing reviews) and this is quite a significant step on from what the Pixel Fold offers in terms of design. I still can’t wrap my head around how they have managed to get this phone so slim (more on that later) especially when you think that it has got a 5000mah Silicon Carbon battery inside! The battery isn’t the only great spec inside the Magic Fold V2, we also have a Qualcomm® Snapdragon® 8th Gen 2 as the processor and this is backed up with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of Storage and this is the only option. Of course, the phone has all the other goodies that you would expect to see on this type of phone for Connectivity specs:-

• Bluetooth 5.3, BLE, SBC, AAC, LDAC, APTX, APTX HD
• USB Type-C, USB 3.1 Gen1, DP1.2
• 2.4GHz：802.11 b/g/n/ax/be, MIMO
• 5GHz：802.11 a/n/ac/ax/be, MIM
• Support NFC, eSIM
• Wraparound antenna

Rear Camera Module

The camera array is pretty impressive with a triple header setup with the following details:-
Triple Rear Camera
• 50MP Ultra Wide Camera (f/2.0)
• 50MP Wide Camera (f/1.9) 8, OIS
• 20MP Telephoto Lens Camera (f/2.4), OIS

Around the front we have got two cameras there are two screens
• 16MP Wide Camera (f/2.2) (Interior screen)
• 16MP Wide Camera (f/2.2) (Exterior screen)

The rear cameras will support videos at 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS, HDR10+
Whilst the front will support up to 4K@30fps. These front cameras will also support a basic face unlock.

Side profile, Unfolded

As for the rest of the visible hardware, we have the power keys on the right side when the phone is unfolded and the volume rocker on the left.This is quite a nice setup for both folded and unfolded use cases. When the phone is unfolded the buttons are not in your way and it is easy to develop a muscle memory to find where the buttons are. When the phone is closed the buttons are then sitting above each other but they are still easily defined by the separation from the buttons being on either half of the phone.

Power and Volume key placement

External 6.79″ Display

Coming to the screens which is what you came here for these are both very good quality screens with the outer being a 6.43″ display with a screen-to-body ratio of 91.2%. the PPI is 402 and the resolution is 2376 x 1060 which is a nice 20:9 ratio and more akin to a normal phone. The screen will go up to 2500nits in terms of brightness which is plenty to see on the dreak days of January! It is protected with Nanocrystal Glass which is good to see but would have preferred to see some G0rilla Glass Victus here. There is also factory fitted screen protector which is removable but I have kept mine in place for the time being.

Internal 7.96″ display

The inner display consists of a 7.92′ panel with a screen-to-body ratio of 90.4%. The PPI is the same 402 with a resolution of 2344x 2156 which means a near square 9.78:9 ratio. The interior screen is not quite as bright at 1600 nits, but if I am out and about I have found that I am less likely to open the display up so this lower brightness is fine on a foldable for me. There is no glass screen protector here but you do get a very well-fitted plastic screen protector covering the Ultra Thin glass underneath. This one should not be removed but if you buy one early enough then you can get at least 6 months of Honor Care included to repair the screen if needed for free!

That leads me to the hinge the real crux of the folding phone, this is very easy to describe. It is smooth with a nice flick at the end of the opening motion. there is enough tension for the phone to be kept open at a variety of angles but not quite as many as my Pixel Fold. It will stay open at angles up to about 150 degrees before the flick closes, this is an improvement over the previous Magic Vs. When closing the hinge will snap closed once you get past approx 15 degrees and it is a satisfying snap at that. When closed the two halves sit flush to each other like all good folding phones do now.

Bottom showing USB Type C 3.1 port, Speaker and Sim tray

Something I was very keen to see is how the hinges affected the screen crease and I am extremely pleased to say that this is a vast improvement over what I have become used to in the Pixel Fold and the likes of any of the Galaxy Z Fold line up. It is very near to being invisible and it is barely noticeable when you are viewing the inner display. In terms of the feel you will notice it but your finger does not feel like it drops into a canyon when crossing the crease area, which is a great feeling.

Top view showing Speaker, IR blaster and mic

Vegan Leather back view

That about wraps up the main things that make this phone what it is apart from one of the headliners the dimensions! Normally I don’t get too excited by these measurements but you can feel the difference. In terms of when the phone is folded, this phone is 156.7mm high, 74.1 mm wide and 9.9mm thin. When it is unfolded the height remains the same but the width goes out to 145.1mm and the depth becomes 4.7mm (excluding the camera bump)! To say this phone is thin is an understatement. When the phone is folded up it has about the same 3D footprint as the likes of a regular 6.5″ screen slab phone but it is still thinner than most. When you unfold it then the slimness goes to a different level and it is truly remarkable. However, the great news is even with this thinness the phone does not feel fragile which was a surprise. Honestly, if you compare this phone to the likes of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and 5 it feels like the fatter cousin! I nearly forgot the other important figure for this phone which is the weight or the lack of it. The phone in its Vegan leather version is only 231g (the glass-backed version is 237g) My Pixel Fold is the right fat boy in comparison!

So in terms of the hardware and initial unboxing experience, I have been very impressed by the Honor Magic V2 5G and it matches up to the hype I have been seeing for the last 6 months since I first saw it being released in China. However, hardware alone does not make the phone and I will be reporting back on the software in my full review once I have used it for a bit more time.

All that remains now is to let you know that if you want your own Honor Magic V2 5G then you can buy one now from Honor directly at the hihonor.com/uk website and they have got some launch offers that can reduce the price to £1199.99 via vouchers from the full RRP of £1699.99, if you act fast then you will get a bundled Bang & Olufsen Beocom Portal headset via redemption that are worth £399!

Pre-orders are open now and shipping can be as soon as the beginning of next week.

The post Honor Magic V2 5G- Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Ever wondered who iQOO is? They are an independent sub-brand of vivo, a well-known smartphone manufacturer. If you’re unfamiliar with vivo, you’re not alone. They were once part of the BBK Electronics conglomerate, which also houses Oppo and OnePlus. Within this group, vivo operated as a separate entity. But now, vivo has achieved independence, and iQOO (pronounced eye-koo) is poised to become a prominent force in the smartphone market. Their focus is on producing high-performance devices that cater to both photography enthusiasts and hardcore gamers.

Irrespective of the legacy of these mobile phone brands, the iQOO 12 possesses a strong enough reputation to adorn the official BMW M Motorsport branding on its Legend edition. This collaboration demonstrates the iQOO 12’s exceptional performance and its ability to cater to the demanding standards of passionate motorsport enthusiasts.

Powered by Qualcomm’s latest third-generation Snapdragon 8 mobile platform, the iQOO 12 Pro boasts a cutting-edge 4nm TSMC process, a 1+5+2 64-bit architecture, and a Cortex-X4 ultra-core that can reach an astounding 3.3GHz clock speed. This powerful combination delivers a remarkable 30% performance boost over the previous generation Snapdragon 8, while also achieving a 20% improvement in energy efficiency. Additionally, the iQOO 12 Pro leverages LPDDR5X and UFS4.0 technologies to elevate its performance even further, forming a formidable “Iron Triangle of Performance” that sets new standards for mobile gaming and overall responsiveness.

In essence, the iQOO 12 Pro harnesses the full potential of the Snapdragon 8 mobile platform to deliver an unparalleled gaming experience, while also maintaining exceptional energy efficiency. This makes it the ideal choice for demanding mobile gamers who seek the ultimate in performance and power.

Key Features at a glance:

• 50MP main wide-angle, f/1.68, OIS, 23mm equivalent (1/1.3inch sensor)
• 50MP ultra-wide-angle, f/2.0, 15mm equivalent
• 64MP telephoto, f/2.57, 3x/70mm equivalent, OIS
• 16MP selfie camera, f/2.45, 27mm equivalent (video: 1080P only)
• 8K 30p, 4K 60/30p, Full HD 240p
• 6.78inch screen, AMOLED, 144Hz, up to 3000nits brightness
• 5000mAh battery, 120W charging
• 12/16GB RAM, 256/512GB storage options
• Android 14
• 163.2 x 75.9 x 8.1mm
• 203.7g weight.

Good Points:-

• Flat screen design.
• Amazing battery life.
• 120W Fast charger included in the box.
• Deicated gaming mode.
• Dual Stereo speakers.
• IR Blaster.
• Claimed 3 yrs of OS updates, and updates4 yrs of security updates.
• 6.78 inch screen, 144Hz, with 517PPI

Bad Points:-

• Quite a bit of bloat.
• Very slippery without the case.
• Annoying app notifications from the V App Store.
• Camera bump seems larger than necessary.
• Lots of recommended app pop ups.

Whats In The Box.

The phone, SIM tool, some BMW performance leaflets a Clear TPU case a 120w charging brick, and cable.

Design:-

In terms of aesthetics, the iQOO 12 Pro embraces a range of captivating color schemes to suit diverse preferences. The classic “Legendary Edition” exudes a timeless elegance with its gleaming white enamel textured glass back. This premium finish not only enhances the phone’s aesthetic appeal but also provides a comfortable and secure grip. The iconic BMW M Motorsport branding has been subtly incorporated into the design, adding a touch of motorsport flair without compromising the phone’s sleekness.

The iQOO 12 Pro’s vibrant and immersive display takes center stage, featuring a groundbreaking 6.78-inch E7 AMOLED panel. This cutting-edge display boasts a stunning resolution of 3200 x 1440 pixels, translating to a pixel density of 517 PPI, ensuring exceptional clarity and detail. Whether you’re engrossed in an intense gaming session or captivated by a visually captivating movie, the iQOO 12 Pro’s display delivers an unparalleled visual experience. To further enhance the visual feast, the display supports a blazing-fast 144Hz refresh rate, ensuring smooth and fluid transitions between scenes, whether scrolling through web pages or navigating through demanding applications. This rapid refresh rate also elevates the gaming experience, eliminating stutters and tearing for a truly responsive and immersive gameplay experience.

The in-screen fingerprint reader works well, and the phone offers rapid charging at 120W. However, the lack of wireless charging is a little bit of a shame. There’s an always-on AMOLED display with a fast refresh rate of 144Hz; which will be great for the gamers out there. The phone has an IP64 rating, which should mean it’ll survive a light rain shower.

On the top of the device is one of the stereo speakers, the IR blaster and microphone, on the right is the volume rocker and power button, the left hand side is clear, and along the bottom is the sim tray, usb type-c port, second speaker and another microphone.

In Use.

Once unboxed and set up, a few things immediately struck me about the IQOO 12 Pro, the device does have a lot of bloat pre installed, like Hot apps folder, that has 12 recommended apps, Hot Games folder with 12 recommended games. Doubling up of apps was present as well eg 2 App Stores, 2 messaging apps, imanger the same as device care. That said they were all easily dealt with and removed.

The device is possibly one of the most slippery (est) phones I’ve ever used, those who remember the Nexus 5 ( a device that could slide off a perfectly flat table) well the IQOO 12 is right up there, thankfully the included TPU case deals with this, and keeps the devices aesthetics.

It was then on to setting up the face unlock and under screen fingerprint reader, the face unlock is not as secure as Apple’s offering, but the IQOO 12 Pro unlocks loads quicker than my iPhone, the face unlock was so quick that the device was unlocked before, I had even a chance to use the fingerprint unlock, on the point of fingerprint unlock again this was blistering fast.

Then it was on to the screen, the 6.78-inch 144Hz 1.5K flat panel display on the iQOO 12 is of excellent quality in terms of colour accuracy, brightness, and sharpness, featuring a 1.5K resolution screen, with a 517PPI compared the iPhone 15 pro at 460PPI and the S23 Ultra’s screen coming in at 500PPI, what does this mean, well the screen is gorgeous to look at and use with smooth and silky scrolling. The display, which supports HDR video streaming on platforms like Netflix and Prime Video. Additionally, it is a high refresh rate panel with up to a 144Hz refresh rate and support for LPTO technology, which can lower the screen refresh rate to as low as 1Hz to reduce power consumption—an advantageous feature for users who utilise always-on display.

Once i’d loaded up all the relevant Google accounts. It was on to using the device, The first thing I’ve got to say is this thing absolutely flies, with absolutely no lag at all. flicking between apps opening and closing processes, there is no stuttering, this will be down to the snapdragon Gen. 3 chip and the oodles of Ram available. Then I enabled what IQOO are dubbing Monster Mode which basically ramps everything up to 10

One thing I did notice, though, was that the developer options were already enabled, thus, meaning the device was slightly not as secure as others straight out of the box.

The IQOO 12 Pro runs Android 14 with Funtouch OS running over the top, it has 16GB of RAM which can be dynamically extended to by up to another 16GB, the device also comes with 512GB of storage.

In the first couple of days the device received 3 software updates, but the Android security update was sitting at the 1st November.

Despite the device having a very South East Asian influence it was pleasant suprise to see the Google Feed on the far left of the home screen.

There is a version of Samsung’s edge panel, ( something I use a lot on my S23 Ultra ) named smart side bar, but I found it more of a quick launch panel rather than the full edge panel experience that said I used it to give a more uncluttered home screen.

Gaming with the Q1 Chip.

As well as packing the very latest flagship-grade mobile processor, memory, and storage, iQOO debuts Supercomputing Chip Q1, a customized display chip that offers Game Super Resolution, Game Super Frame Rate and Game Display Enhancement – features that radically enhance the mobile gaming experience.

With one touch users can activate Game Super Resolution, boosting image contrast and overall clarity through enhanced edge sharpness of graphical characters. Users can enable Game Super Frame Rate to experience mobile gaming at incredible high frame rates of up to 144 FPS. While many mobile games cap frame rates at 60 FPS or 90 FPS, peaking at 120 FPS, Super Frame Rate uses frame interpolation to provide users with smooth 144 FPS gaming, matching the native 144Hz display refresh rate to reduce tearing and stuttering on even the most demanding games.

iQOO 12 uses an LTPO AMOLED display that can dynamically switch between high and low refresh rates. This lowers power consumption by reducing refresh rates when a static image is displayed, while allowing refresh rates to be pushed to the maximum to provide the ultimate viewing experience when watching movies or playing games.

To give gamers a physically immersive experience, iQOO 12 packs a Large X-Axis Linear Motor that produces accurate haptic feedback triggers during gameplay. In terms of audio, iQOO 12 uses a Symmetrical Dual Stereo Speaker design that gives gamers directional cues in first-person-shooter games, making gunshots and footsteps more pronounced and clearer during gameplay. During audio playback, users can enjoy incredible instrument separation, with a large 1.2cc speaker chamber providing improved bass frequencies.

To keep things calm during extended gaming sessions, iQOO 12 uses a Four-Zone Cooling System that ensures a comfortable in-hand experience in key contact areas. A 6K Vapor Chamber ensures rapid and effective heat dissipation from the CPU, with heat buildup further reduced with a Low temperature sensitivity design and a specialized Under-Display Graphite Cooling Film that mitigates hot spot

What does all this mean in the real world, firstly let me say I am by no means a full on mobile gamer, but that said I do have Call Of Duty Mobile installed in all my devices, so I had to install it on IQOO 12 Pro as well.

I had all the settings ramped up there max and the game played fluidly with no dropped frames, stutter or glitches, that said it certainly didn’t make me any better of a player.

The IQOO 12 Pro’s gaming mode gives you loads of settings, ranging from Battery Saver Mode, Balanced, and Monster Mode (ramp everything up to 10). You also have the options to enable motion control, gaming resolution, block notifications and reject calls., all to enhance the game play.

Camera

Flagship smartphones have become increasingly standardized in their triple camera setups, leading manufacturers to seek innovative ways to differentiate themselves. Samsung’s Galaxy S22 and S23 Ultra series stand out with a fourth telephoto camera featuring an impressive 10x optical zoom. Google, on the other hand, emphasizes computational photography and AI-powered features to simplify capturing specific shots.

The iQOO 12 deviates from the norm with a 50MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 50MP main camera, and a unique 64MP 3x telephoto macro lens, similar to the one found on the Xiaomi 13 Pro. It also boasts an Astrography mode, which iQOO claims can capture the majestic Milky Way. While testing under clear skies has not been possible yet, the iQOO 12 offers a unique AR Planetarium feature that virtually overlays constellations onto your night sky photos, while preserving the original unedited image of the stars. This fusion of technology and creativity makes the iQOO 12 a standout in the smartphone camera landscape.

The problem with reviewing a camera in the UK in December is there isn’t always the best light, but the IQOO 12 Pro’s camera was still able to snap some decent shots.

A snap of the moon up there with the S23 Ultra.

Indoor night shot with flash.

Indoor night shot no flash

Frost on the trees.

Zoom in to the Teddy

The camera app is filled with different modes, ranging from the standard modes Night, Portrait, Video, Pro Mode etc. but then there is High Resolution, Pano, Ultra HD Document, Slow Mo, Time Lapse, Long Exposure, Super moon, Astro, Tilt Shift, and Fisheye.

 Some Astro shots, where the Star map is overlayed the final picture.

Battery Life

The iQOO 12 Pro’s robust battery life is assured by its hefty 5100mAh power source, augmented by a revolutionary graphite stack reconfiguration technology that seamlessly blends high capacity with lightning-fast charging capabilities. This innovative approach surpasses its predecessor’s endurance, ensuring extended usage throughout your demanding days. Although the iQOO 12 Pro’s 120W flash charger may seem like a minor inconvenience, it delivers exceptional charging speeds that cater to everyday needs. Additionally, a 50W wireless flash charger provides flexibility for those who prefer wireless charging. With these versatile charging options, the iQOO 12 Pro caters to diverse charging preferences and ensures your device remains powered up when you need it most.

The IQOO 12 was easily lasting me a full day of heavy use, and with moderate use I was getting 2 days out of it. That said when plugged into the included 120W charger and cable the device went from 0 to 100% in a eye watering 31mins, although charging at those speeds everyday won’t be the best for battery longevity.

Conclusion:-

The iQOO 12 Pro doesn’t look like what we call a “gaming phone”. As the title says, it has a powerful performance but looks so elegant. It’s similar to the Xiaomi 14 Pro, with photography first, and performance second. Whereas the iQOO 12 Pro is all about gaming and then the photos are pretty good too. Which one to choose depends on whether you prefer photography or gaming

I absolutely loved my time with the IQOO 12, once I had sorted the extra apps and bloatware out, it was a joy to use, in fact in some aspects better than my S23 Ultra. The device did seem snappier and I would say that the camera was a good 90% of Samsung’s offering.

It’s a shame that this device may well get overlooked by the main players in the Android world, but this clearly should not be the case, if you want a change from the mainstream the IQOO 12 Pro is well worth considering. It’s currently available here in the UK from Wondamobile for £669

The post IQOO 12 review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Now that your eyes have been sufficiently seared by the beauty within that glorious white box let’s talk specs….

Specs

So that is the specs taken care of let’s have a quick look around the device to see the hardy beats in all its glory.

Staring up front is where we can find the 6.6″ LCD IPS panel which is made of Gorilla Glass Victus at 0.8 mm thickness to ensure that is scratch and impact-resistant. it will also work with gloves if you enable Glove Mode in the settings and can be used with wet fingers! The screen will refresh at up to 120hz and this can be set on at all times, reduced to 60hz or set to adaptive mode which will automatically adjust depending on what is being done on the device. 

Also to be found on the front of the phone is the front-facing 8MP camera which is located in an old-style teardrop and is in the bezel around the screen. The bezels by the way are huge and this is deliberate and is most likely been done in this way to help against the screen breaking if dropped but I also suspect that it may be to do with the aforementioned glove mode.

Tucked into the section just above the camera is the earpiece which is also built into that top bezel as well this sounds crisp and clear and I have not had any issues hearing people during calls. 

Moving around to the right-hand side we can find the strangely placed buttons. This is one of the first phones I have used in quite some time where the power key is placed above the volume rocker. This requires some finger gymnastics to find the power key on what is already quite a tall phone. the good news is that this can mostly be negated buy the “lift-to-wake” feature that is present in the phone’s settings and also by using the fingerprint reader on the back. Both the volume rocker and the power buttons do have a solid feel and are responsive when pressed. They are not metal though but they do feel sturdy which is a theme throughout the phone.

On the base of the phone, we can find a USB Type C port that is flanked by what looks to be a dual speaker but in reality, this is a single-speaker affair. The grill on the right of the USB port is the speaker and the other side most likely is hiding a mic array under the grill. Although I cannot see the water ingress protection for myself I expect these apertures to all have gaskets on them internally.

Continuing around to the left-hand side is where the programmable key is hiding along with the only port that will allow access to the internals of the phone the Sim/SD card slot. The programmable button like the other on the right of the phone is again solid but this time has the added benefit of being ribbed for ease of location as this can be used for a Zello Push To Talk (PTT) button or just for any other functions which can be configured in software.

The Combo Sim/SD card tray is quite deeply recessed inside the phone and is a toolless style the flap that covers this is a reassuringly solid feeling and when closed creates a tight seal. I am a little concerned that it could be flipped open with relative ease but I am sure that this has been thought about in design and I wouldn’t be surprised if the internal sections of this compartment are all coated in a waterproofing agent.

Finishing our tour of the sides we come to the top of the phone which house the SOS button in a deep red, which is again ribbed for ease of location but this time it is recessed into the phone’s casing so that it is level to prevent accidental activation. Next to this is the only visible Mic hole on the phone.

Around the back, we have got a fairly clean panel with the exceptions being the camera array and the fingerprint reader. the fingerprint reader is nicely positioned where your index finger would naturally fall so it is easy to use and a good size for me but if you have bigger/wider fingers it may be problematic for you. It responds quickly and seems to be pretty accurate with a very low failure rate from my testing at least.

The camera array is housed in a single slightly raised bump that is on the rear right corner of the phone in a very similar position that Samsung tend to place their cameras. In the array, we have got a 50MP Main Camera (f/1.8), 8MP Wide angle camera and a 2MP macro featuring underwater mode. Below this, we have got a very bright dual LED Flash which works really well as a torch as well if you need it too.

That concludes the tour of the phone.

I have been able to get some limited use out of the phone since it arrived on my doorstep on Monday but I have got plans to take it with me mountain biking this weekend to give it a bit more of a test. This is one of the areas where Bullitt and CAt intend for this style of the phone to be used so I will be putting it through its paces as best as I can over the next few days.

I am normally quite gentle on the phone I am lent for review as i don’t want to break them and be asked to pay for the damages! However in this case I am going to be a bit rough with the phone as it is a tough phone after all so within the realms of relative sense I will be tough on this phone over my testing period. I may even be able to get some underwater photography use out of this if I am allowed to keep it for my trip to Turkey later this month! It then the north sea may have to suffice instead not that you will be able to see much in there!!

If you are interested in picking up a tough phone from CAT or more specifically the CAT s75 then you can do so from the CAT phones store now for £549. If however, you prefer your phones with Motorola branding then you can also pick this phone up as the Motorola Mobility made Defy 2 although I think this is limited to America’s at this time.

As a small treat here is a link to the app satellite messaging app working as it should, not as I tried to demo unsuccessfully in the video above!!

The post CAT S75 by Bullitt – Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

This is a big launch for Honor as this is the first non-Samsung horizontal folding phone that has been launched in the UK. It is also aiming to be undercutting the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the recently announced Pixel Fold. if you caught the recent article that I published regarding the price for this phone you will have noted that you can get the Magic Vs for as little as £1399 as the standard RRP, however, it is highly probable that this will be subject to discounts as Honor do love to do a good discount now and again. That is a massive and significant saving over the other two options on the market at this time.

The Pixel Fold is coming in at £1849 for a matching spec and the Z Fold 4 will cost £1769 without any trade-in options on either phone. Now I know that these phones will offer things that the Magic VS cannot but the latest from Honor is by no means a slouch in any respect. I will be mainly focusing this review on the comparison with the Z Fold 4 as I have been using this as my primary phone for nearly 8 months outwith times when I have been using a review device. I have grown quite accustomed to the way I want my folding phone to work for me and things that can be improved in this area.

So I would normally go into a full tour of the device and a specs list for you at this point in the review but I am going to skip that here and suggest that you pursue the Unboxing Article that I posted back when I first received the phone earlier this month.

I will however include the specs list here again for those of you who don’t want to click over to that post above.

Design

Now that we have ticked that off it is time for a few of my thought now that I have used the phone and lived with it for a bit longer.

First thing first and this won’t be a surprise for those of you who have used foldable already is that this phone has got a fair bit of heft about it. You will notice this in your pocket when you are stowing it, not just in the weight though as the phone is thicker than a candy bar design. This is hardly surprising as the phone essentially consists of two phones held together by a hinge assembly in the middle. Whilst I have mentioned the hinge this is an area where Honor has invested a lot of time and energy in the development of the phone and as such they have managed to achieve something that Samsung has not in that this hinge is a no-gap hinge and the actual size of it is considerably smaller than that of the Z Fold 4

.

The hinge is also slightly less complicated and whilst this does mean that the size is smaller it doe cause an issue when you are trying to find the correct screen angle when using it partially folded. The Z Fold 4 will be happy at most over approx 25 degrees to the full 180 degrees. This is down to the much more complex hinge design which Samsung has refined over 4 generations of development. Sadly the same cannot be said about the Magic Vs hinge as I found that it was only really happy at an opening angle between 35 degrees to about 150 degrees as the hinge does not have the same friction capabilities built into the device.

Whilst this is by no means a deal breaker for me it is something that I feel is important to know about as some people will want to use the phone at the wide end of these angles for viewing video content etc. I found it was a pain point when I was using it to read Ebooks in particular. There is however one saving grace in that the Magic Vs is very secure when it is fully closed maybe even more so than the Z Fold 4 is.

A big difference between the two devices in terms of the screen footprints both when folded or unfolded, this is most notable when the phones are closed as the Magic Vs has got the larger outer display, especially in terms of width. this makes for a nicer experience when using the phone closed as you can use it more like a regular phone. I found that I was using it more in the folded state than I was with the Z Fold 4, I really only used the screen unfolded if I was settling into a long session of browsing socials, the web or consuming media content. This feels like one of the key benefits of a folding phone and the way you interact with them but this is also where software becomes a big factor as well and I will cover that a bit later on.

Another design aspect that liked is the bundled case that I had included in my review kit as it doesn’t add any bulk to what is as I already mentioned a chunky device, this is appreciated and is a massive improvement to my Z Fold 4 which I ended up using without a case for most of the time I have had and it shows the marks due to this.

The next thing I like more than I thought I would is the positioning of the Volume buttons and the Power buttons on the different sections of the folding screens. It meant that I had a lot fewer accidental presses when I was playing games or watching videos on the phone. The Power key is in a good place for finding and using for unlocking the phone however it is set up in a strange way in the software. I found that there were a lot of occasions when I was having to use the fingerprint reader differently than on the Z Fold 4. Normally I would expect that when I put my finger on the reader it would perform a scan and then unlock the screen without the need for an actual press. I thought this must have been a setting issue so I check the settings and it was set up correctly but it was just not working as I expected, now I have got an early production unit so your mileage may vary if you get one but it is something to be aware of.

UPDATE:-Shortly after starting this review my Magic Vs received a software update that seems to have improved the behaviour of the fingerprint reader and I was not seeing the missed read of the sensor as often.

I also like the positioning of the speakers as it provides a good soundscape when watching videos as the speakers are less likely to be covered by your fingers when holding it in the landscape.

In terms of negatives I would say the main ones are the fingerprint magnet that is the rear cover, I would recommend the Blue colour version if you don’t like a smudgy rear. The offset camera lens array means that the phone will not sit flat on a surface and will rock, especially when being used in folded mode. Other than these things I genuinely do like the design of the phone and I would (barring the hinge stiffness which I identified earlier) say that it may be slightly above the Z Fold 4 in the design stakes. However, there is so much more to these two phones than design, so it is time to dig into the hardware and performance.
Hardware and Performance

So there are a few areas where the hardware of the Magic Vs is significantly different to that of the Z Fold 4. The there areas I want to specifically focus on are the Screen Tech, the Battery and Charging tech and the Camera Array.

Screen tech:

Without further ado let’s take a closer look at the screens. The external screens as we have mentioned are different in terms of size and aspect ratio but that is really the main difference. Yes, the Samsung one will get slightly brighter but in most scenarios the Magic Vs has been plenty bright enough for me. The refresh rates of both panels are the same at 120hz and they are both sufficiently high resolution for daily use. With both screens using forms of OLED tech the colours are bright and crisp on both and the blacks are inky and deep when they need to be, incendentally in terms of colour representation the same statement rings true for the internal displays on both phones. The big difference comes into play when we are talking about the internal displays as the Z Fold 4 has one or two aspects where it gets a leg up on the Magic Vs.

I will cover the more minor one first, the refresh rate of the internal display on the Magic Vs drops to a 90hz refresh rate which is not something I would really worry about and unless you have very good eyesight in normal use you will not notice this. I was only able to see a very slight difference when was scrolling a website with the phones both unfolded and them set up side by side. It shouldn’t affect your gaming either as the Honor will also push the refresh rate to the highest available setting during gaming due to the GPU Turbo X software tweaks.

The second big difference is potentially much more substantial and that is that the Magic Vs does not have a digitizer on the inner screen meaning that you will not be able to use a stylus of any kind on the inner display like you can on the Z Fold 4. Now I say that is potentially a bigger issue but for me, it is a non-issue as I can count on my fingers of one hand how many times I have actually used the SPen on the Z Fold 4 inner display. I simply don’t see this as being a useful feature and this is down to the way the stylus has been integrated with the phone. Quite simply it hasn’t been, which means it is never on me as I refuse to have it clipped onto the outside of the phone case adding even more bulk to what is already a bulky phone. I am glad that Honor did not try and copy this feature as I don’t feel it is a useful enhancement for me until that is they can actually have the SPen stowed inside the phone frame for quick and easy access like on the Note series of old. In short, if you need a folding phone that has Stylus input then buy a Z Fold series device if not then the world is going to be your oyster as you now have the Honor Magic Vs 5G and the Pixel Fold to choose from in the UK and more will come very soon trust me on that.

Battery and Charging tech:

In the simplest possible terms, this phone has the Z Fold 4 liked in terms of what the battery is and what it can do in terms of longevity and charging speed. it is however not that fully onesided as the Z Fold 4 does claw some points back here with Qi Wireless charging and reverse Wireless charging support. The batteries in both phones are split cells across both sides of the hinge as this allows for the phone to feel more balanced. I believe the split in the Magic Vs is a 50/50 split whereas with the Z Fold 4, I think there is a bit more battery in the camera half of the phone. This doesn’t really matter in terms of the use as both phones balanced excellently for weight on both halves. What it does mean as the cell sizes for the Honor are equal in capacity then it can adopt the faster charging technology to fill the bigger 5000mah total capacity battery.

The Honor will use their propriety SuperCharge charging technology to allow the Magic Vs to charge from 0 to full in under an hour as opposed to the slower charging of Z Fold 4, which can take nearly 1 hour 30 mins from my testing. Whilst this is not a big issue for me it is good to know that I can quickly top up the Magic Vs with a SuperCharge charger and it will get back up to 50% in the time it takes for me to have a quick shower before I head out for the day.

What is however a shame is that this is the only way I can get power into the phone as there is no QI charging here either fast or slow and no reverse charging for your earbuds or watches etc. This is annoying as I have become a wireless charging covert for my phones and I hate having to use wired charging as I have a wired charging stand built into my desk and on my bedside table I even have it available in my car! Fortunately, the pain of having to plug in is lessened by the fact that I can eek two days of use out of this battery without too much trouble on a normal workday. When using it more intensively that will come down to about a day and a quarter. This is however still better than on the Z Fold 4 as most days I was getting near to empty by the end of the day. So there are pros and cons in each camp but I think for me, I am in my happy place with the Wireless charging capability on the Z Fold 4 if I had to choose one over the other.

Camera array:

Again this is an area where there are differences in terms of the numbers but in reality, those differences are not that significant. That is until you come to the front camera of the inside display. So let’s address that first, on the Z Fold 4 Samsung has tried to use a hidden under-display camera to hide the camera when it is not in use this results in the camera being quite a low MP (4) and this reflects the quality of image that is produced as it is normally pretty bad. On the Magic Vs, they decided against the use of this emerging tech and went with a much more simple hole-punch camera which allows them to use a higher quality 16MP sensor that works as you expect as normal from a front-facing camera, they actually use the same senoras they use on the outer display so you will not see any difference between the two cameras. As for my thoughts, I am not going to use either normally so I don’t care about it but I do like that the one on the Z Fold 4 is kinda hidden when it is not in use.

As for the rear camera’s we have got similar triple sensor arrays on both phones with slightly different setups.

On the Z Fold 4 we have got the following;

12MP Ultra-Wide camera F1.8 aperture , 50 MP Wide-Angle camera F2.2 aperture, 10MP 3x Optical Zoom Telephoto camera F2.4 aperture

On the Magic Vs we have the following

50MP Ultra-Wide camera F2.o aperture, 54MP Main camera F1.9 aperture, 8MP 3x Optical Zoom Telephoto camera F2.4 aperture

So as you can see they have got differing numbers of megapixels but as we know the numbers don’t always paint the full picture when it comes to cameras. I have been able to get good photos from both but I will go into this is in more detail in the cameras section of the review below. What is a big difference is in terms of the way these cameras are mounted. The array on the Magic Vs is mounted in the corner in a very similar position to what we find with the Z Fold 4 but the difference is that while the lenses on the ZFold 4 are in a slim sliver, the Magic Vs has them all in one large and wide glass bump. I feel that this bump protrudes a lot more on the Magic Vs which means that the phone is more prone to rocking when laid on a flat surface in folded state. This may be exaggerated by the way that the stock case fits around the camera bumps respectively but then found the Z Fold 4 was more stable, probably due to the slightly bulkier case.

As I am writing this I had almost forgotten one fairly major difference to the hardware is the level of ingress protection of the devices as this is very different across the two phones. Neither of the phones has any official dustproof rating so this may not be one to use on your next trip to the desert but if you are planning on getting them wet then I would be concerned with the Magic Vs as it does not have any waterproofing rating whereas the Z Fold 4 is rated for IP8X which should mean that it can take a quick splash here and there. In all honesty, I wouldn’t feel 100% comfortable with taking either of these down to my local beach due to the sand….. Eurgh nasty stuff.

As for Performance, the phones are very level in terms of performance which is hardly surprising as I have got two phones which at their cores both have the same specs, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 + Gen processor, 12GB of Ram and 512GB of storage (Z Fold 4 is available in smaller 256GB and larger 1TB sizes). They both use the Adreno 730 GU as well so the raw number crunching abilities are the same, however, this is again an area where software is a big factor so more about that later. I have been happy to use both phones as my daily driver and experienced very few issues with ever needing more oompf out of either device. The only thing I would say is that the Samsung feels a touch more refined but I am going to put this down to the software implementation as you will see there are some significant differences to be found there.
Software

I have broached this matter a few times so it is now to pool the wool back and dig into what makes these phones so different. The crux here is that the software on the Samsung is more evolved and fits better to the foldable form factor. This is quite understandable as they have had four years of developing the software for the fold whereas Honor is only in its second year of doing things for foldable phones. Normally I would say that I prefer the cleanness of the lack of modding that has been carried out to the core Android 13 software on the Magic Vs as I am normally a big fan of the pure Android UI but this is not the case here. Let me explain.

The Magic Vs has taken a simple approach to the implementation of Andriod 13 on the phone and as such there is no immediate apparent evidence that the form factor has been given much thought. An example of this is when you have taken the time to set up your home screen layout on the external display and then you open it to be a tablet-style device this app layout is exactly the same in terms of layout (see below examples).

Now those of you who are familiar with my reviews may be thinking well that is just how you like things clean and uncomplicated. However, when it comes to a tablet-style foldable form factor I want my tablet-mode home screen to reflect that I am working on a bigger canvas. My logic is if I am unfolding the screen I am doing so as I want to be reviewing the content on that bigger screen or I want to be productive, I will therefore have my main apps for these tasks at the forefront with the widgets laid out to fit into the bigger display format. When I then fold the back top phone mode I would then go back to my regular app layout for daily normal use. Now I will be the first to admit this is perhaps a behavioural trait that has been learned from using the Z Fold devices over a few generations, but I would also argue that this may have come from using tablets in the past as well.

Unfortunately, this is not the case with the Magic Vs as when you unfold the screen to enter tablet mode your app layout is exactly the same just with slightly bigger iconography. This is something that I have now learnt to live with but it is a shame that Samsung give you the option to have different home screen layouts depending on what mode you are in. I do however this is an option that comes more from Samsung One UI than from Google so I do understand. What is more concerning is that I dont see many other ways that the Ui Element s that Google has been developing for foldable have come through either. We dont have a navigation dock to allow you to quickly switch between apps, the back navigation gesture does not only work on the active app when in-app pair mode and the biggest sin of all is the lack of the App Drawer as shown in the video below!!!

This last point is in my opinion inexcusable for any Android software UI and it is especially worse on a Folding phone. Up until I was given this review unit I have always had the option on Honor devices and some others from Chinese brands as well to have either all apps on-screen iPhone style or an App Drawer. I have always been a fan of the latter and it is normally the first thing I do when setting up a phone if it isn’t on by default. I was shocked to see that this was not an option that I could see within the Ui anywhere, so I asked Honor as I thought it may be down to me having an early preview of the phone. Sadly this was not the case as I am now (to my knowledge) running release firmware and there is still no App drawer. I was advised that this was due to the UI embracing the folding nature of the device. the end result is I have an extra display screen which has all the apps that I rarely used and a folder with all of the Honor duplicate apps in there as well. It is messy and I can’t fathom why anyone would want this on an Android phone at all.

Moving away from the negative to the more positive, Once you do start using the multi-tasking it does become more intuitive use but it is nowhere near as simple as on the Z Fold 4. You can have apps open as split-screen apps and floating apps as well. you can also use Picture in Picture mode for some video playback apps. Some apps are context and fold-state aware. for example, Gmail will adopt a dual view mode like you get a on tablet when the phone is unfolded in landscape but it will revert to normal when folded. Youtube will also respond to the fold state and orientation really nicely as seen in the image below. Twitter gives you the option of opening a split screen when you click on a link whilst having your main feed open and being able to action the reply or link in the other half, this does need to be enabled under foldable settings though. Some other apps are not quite as well-honed but that is more to do with the developers than anything else.

My main takeaway from the Magic Vs is that Samsung has done a boatload of work to make the software work with the folding phone form factor as well as it does on the Z Fold 4 and Android have some catching up to do. This does concern me slightly as I have put down a preorder for the Pixel Fold and if the UI features that I like come from Samsung, is that going to be a mistake?

Only time will tell I guess but I hope with Google now have ig hardware of their own in the mix this will give the push needed for Developers to start thinking about how we can really use the real estate better. Hopefully, with the Magic Vs being on the more affordable end of the currently available foldable it will bring the tablet-style foldable form factor to a wider audience which will also increase the need for better software implementation onto these devices from Google themselves.

Here is a selection of images of the software of various apps for you to see some of the multitasking at work.

I just hope that any changes that are made to the core Android design in Android 14 are quickly rolled out to the Magic Vs as well

Last but not least we need to discuss the camera on the Magic Vs
Camera

While this is not one of the main draws for the phone as that is the giant foldable screen it still needs to perform to a reasonable degree as this would be your main on-the-go camera if you are to buy one of these phones. The good news is I have been pleased with the camera in the situations I have tried it in. I am not going to say that I have been blown away by the camera performance but it has been more than satisfactory for use day to day.

I have been happy with the various different levels of Zoom and I have found that I have not been lacking in this area it does a good job at closes up and wider shots as well and I include a few samples of this below for you to see for yourself.

The camera modes are as you would expect from Honor all here and this allows for you to get some rather interesting shots and capture on multiple camera modules at one time which is a nice feature but if I am honest it is not one I see myself eve rising and indeed I have not used it during the course of this review.

I like the UI of the camera it is straightforward to use and easy navigate, you can also customise which shortcut modes you have in your toolbar for quick changes to shooting modes. Honestly, I am not much a of pixel peeper if the pictures that are captured by the camera are useable then for the most part I am happy. I have included a selection of photos below for you to review if you want to see what the phone can produce along with a very short video clip to give it a representation of the video quality.

Here is a video clip that was shot a 1080p and 30fps but has had to be downgraded by WordPress to share here so it is now 720p and 25fps but it is still representative of what the camera can do for video work.

Next up is the obligatory selfie using the front-facing outer display camera which is the same in terms of spec as the internal one.

Pretty happy with the result but given the subject matter it was never gonna be great was it?

Finally here are a few low-light images where weaknesses for the camera start to show

This one isn’t too and as it has picked up a bit of light from the clock face and that has helped however the next one which is the other side of the room where it was darker things start to unfold pretty quickly.

Magic Vs very Low Light

You can start to see some edge blending where the phone tries to make up for the lack of clarity to try and give you a good image but it fails miserably. For context this is the same shot with some light

You can clearly see the differences here. Most phones would of course struggle in the conditions I took the same shot with my Z Fold 4 and the result was a bit better but still far from perfect as I could still see the edge blurring see below

Z Fold 4 very Low Light

I am as I mentioned above pretty happy with the result in the good lighting of the Magic Vs and as I don’t tend to venture out after dusk anymore i would normally be using the Night modes of the camera anyway so this is moot point for me.
Conclusion

So there you have it my review of the Honor Magic Fold Vs. This is an important phone for Honor as mentioned as it is them making a statement that they want to play in the Foldable market on the global stage (the previous Magic V was a Chinese-only release) and they have come out strong and also undercut their rivals in the space in doing so. However, I do feel that whilst the hardware is something for the most part I prefer, with the exception of the hinge mechanism which is too prone to unfolding when you don’t want it to, there is til work to be done on software. Honest ly this conclusion surprises me as i thought that i would prefer the implementation of the more clean Ui over what is offered by Samsungs One Ui on the Z Fold 4. I also felt that the lack of an app drawer on this phone is a big misstep and this will need to be looked into as they should at least give the user the option (i did eventually get over it though!).

Do I think it is worth the investment into getting one now given that we have just had the Pixel Fold announced and we have got the Z Fold 5 on the horizon imminently? Well, it is a simple question of how much you are willing to pay and also if you think having a non-stowable stylus is important. if you are not willing to pay but do want the stylus and don’t mind buying a refurbished unit then i would say go for the Z Fold 4 as you pick these up for less than half the original price at the moment in great condition. if you want the wider aspect ratio afforded by the front display then you have got two real options the unknown Pixel Fold which has a very phone-like width to the front display and then becomes more of a tablet when unfolded or you go with the slimmer but taller Honor Magic vs which still give you all the benefits of folding screens but in taller skinnier front screen ratio and a squarer unfolded internal display, it is also nearly £500 cheaper.

I like the Honor Magic Vs 5G but the software is a bit too compromised for me and as such I would b sticking with the Z Fold 4 for the time being but it has given me food for thought about my planned move to the Pixel Fold at the end of next month. I guess i have inadvertently become a One UI Foldable fan, which was very unexpected!!

The Honor Magic Vs 5G is available to buy now from Honor’s website and is currently retailing at £1399 with shipping of the BHlack colour sooner than the Cyan one which is the more popular and the one I would go for if I was buying one now.

The post Honor Magic Vs 5G – Review. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

The Murena One is a smartphone designed for people who value privacy and security above all else. It runs on/e/OS, which is a privacy-focused version of the Android 11 operating system. However, the Murena One takes privacy even further by removing many of the Google apps and services that are pre-installed on most Android phones. This means that the Murena One does not collect as much data about its users as other Android phones.

Murena is a company that has been around for a while. They previously created the operating system for the Fairphone 4, another privacy-focused smartphone. The Murena One is their first smartphone that they have created themselves. Overall, the Murena One is a good choice for people who are looking for a smartphone with strong privacy and security features. However, it is important to note that the Murena One does not have all of the same features as other Android phones. For example, it does not have access to the Google Play Store, so you will need to download apps from other sources.

Specs

Here are some of the pros and cons of the Murena One:

Pros:

• Privacy-focused: The Murena deGoogled Android smartphone is designed to protect user data and privacy, which is a major selling point for users who are concerned about online privacy.
• Open-source apps: The device comes with open-source alternatives to popular Google apps, such as OpenStreetMap, K-9 Mail, and NewPipe.
• MicroG support: The microG project allows users to use apps that rely on Google Play Services without needing a Google account or giving those apps access to their Google data.
• Hardware-based security: The Murena deGoogled Android smartphone has a number of hardware-based security features, such as a physically separated SIM card slot and a dedicated hardware key for resetting the device to factory settings.
• Two-year warranty and 14-day return policy: The device comes with a 2-year warranty and 14-day return policy, which gives users peace of mind when purchasing the device.

Cons:

• Price: The Murena deGoogled Android smartphone is priced at around €300, which is on the higher end for a mid-range smartphone.
• Compatibility issues: Since the device does not come with Google’s proprietary optimizations, some apps may run slower or have compatibility issues.
• Limited app selection: The device does not come with the Google Play Store, which means users may have to rely on third-party app stores or sideloading apps to access all of their favorite apps.
• Mid-range specs: The Murena deGoogled Android smartphone has mid-range specs, which means it may struggle with more demanding tasks such as gaming or running resource-intensive apps.
• None OLED screen,

Hardware.

The device frame and back panel are made from a glossy plastic, which I found to be a real fingerprint magnet,

it has a 6.5-inch Full HD IPS display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. Upon setting up the device the software asked to set up my fingerprints, showing the reader to be on the back of the device, but the sensor was actually on the left edge of the phone,

It is powered by a Mediatek Helio P60 processor with a clock speed of 2.2 GHz and 4 GB of RAM. The device has 128 GB of internal storage, which can be expanded up to 512 GB with a microSD card.

In terms of camera, the Murena deGoogled Android smartphone has a dual rear camera setup consisting of a 48-megapixel primary sensor and a 5-megapixel secondary sensor. The device has a 4,500 mAh battery with support for fast charging via USB-C.

Moving to the front of the phone, you’ll find a 25MP front-facing camera that’s OK for selfies. Moving around the phone, the fingerprint sensor is located on the left side, (the first time I’ve ever seen one in that location.) You’re informed it’s in the rear during setup, thus the fact that they didn’t even know where it was is red flag number one.  That said once setup I did find the reader to be both fast and reliable. The volume control and power button are located on the phone’s right side.

Another key design consideration is that this phone only has Bluetooth 4.2 and does not support 5G. The phone also includes a 4500mAh battery that will provide the user with approximately 6 hours of usage, which is unlikely to win any awards for longevity.

Software

The Murena One runs on the AOSP operating system without any Google services or apps, but it does include its own operating system called /e/OS. This means that it does not come with pre-installed apps such as Google Maps, Gmail, or YouTube. Instead, it comes with open-source alternatives such as OpenStreetMap, K-9 Mail, and NewPipe, Magic Earth, a closed-source version of Google Maps that isn’t quite as excellent as Google Maps.

What the phone allows you to do is disable location services in the phone’s settings, which will provide you more privacy. You can also set up your own free cloud account for emails and storage during the setup process. You get 1GB of free storage, but you can upgrade to 20GB for €2 per month or 2TB for €24.99 per month.

The Murena One now includes a feature called the app lounge, where you may download your favourite apps. When you enter the App Lounge, you will be asked to check in with your Google account or utilise anonymous mode. The app lounge is essentially an Aurora store, which is not illegal but also not entirely legal, Aurora store gets its content from Google servers without requiring a Google account. It was observed on some Huawei devices after the troubles with Google, and some owners felt that this was the way forward rather than simply disposing of the phone. When you go to download an app, it actually comes with a privacy score for each programme. For example, Whatsapp has an 8/10 privacy score with a list of permissions the app requires and trackers it includes.  You also get a custom-built music player that appears very similar to the Apple Music app, but you will have to transfer your music via your computer with this app.

Privacy

The Murena One is marketed as a privacy-focused device, and it comes with a number of features designed to protect user data. For example, the device comes with the microG project, an open-source reimplementation of Google’s proprietary Play Services framework. This allows users to use apps that rely on Play Services, such as Uber or Snapchat, without needing a Google account or giving those apps access to their Google data. When you slide left from the home screen, you will have access to recent apps, but it is the sophisticated privacy tracker that allows you to toggle a system-wide VPN sort of. You can block all trackers, spoof your location, and even disguise your IP address.

Performance

In terms of performance, the Murena One has a dated MediaTek Helio P60 mid-range processor, thus meaning no 5G compatibility, and 4 GB of RAM. This is sufficient for most day-to-day tasks such as browsing the web, using social media, or streaming video. However, the device may struggle with more demanding tasks such as gaming or running resource-intensive apps. Additionally, since it does not come with Google’s proprietary optimizations, some apps may run slower or have compatibility issues. I did notice a considerable slow down in the device, when it was set to maximum privacy settings. Although that said it was a nice breath of fresh air to read the local on line newspaper without a barrage on adverts and pop up videos, which normally ruin the experience, not one ad made it through to my viewing pleasure.

Price

The Murena One is priced at around €290/£250 which is on the higher end for a mid-range smartphone. However, this is justified by the device’s focus on privacy and the fact that it does not come with any pre-installed Google services or apps. Additionally, the device comes with a 2-year warranty and 14-day return policy.

Camera

The Murena one comes with a 48-megapixel rear main camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. While these specs may seem modest compared to most mid-rangers, with bright light the camera can give some decent photos. Low light the camera does struggle though.

The front-facing camera is suitable for video calls and selfies, but it may not be as sharp or detailed as some of the higher-end smartphone cameras on the market.

One of the main drawbacks of the camera performance on the Murena deGoogled Android smartphone is the lack of advanced camera features and settings. The camera app is simple and straightforward, with limited customization options and no advanced manual controls.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Murena One deGoogled Android smartphone is a unique device that is marketed towards users who prioritize online privacy and security. The Murena One is a promising concept, but it falls short in several areas. First, it is not truly de-Googled, as it still relies on Google services for some functions. Second, the phone’s security features are not as robust as they could be, as it uses outdated hardware and software. Finally, the lack of kernel sources will disappoint enthusiasts who want to customize the phone. Me, well I’ve realised that like so many others I rely too much  on Google and its services

The post Murena – deGoogled Android smartphone- Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Now admittedly there have always been some sacrifices made t get the Nord series produced on a tighter budget and these are as evident as they always are on the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G (to be henceforth referred to as the Nord CE 3). I will come back to some of the ommissions that were made to get under the budget set by the designers in a moment, before that though let’s take a moment to review the unboxing video.

Here are the Specs below

The Specs

Next up is time for a tour of the device in all its glory starting of course from the top edge and working our way around the phone.

So on the top, we find that we have got a single microphone port and that is it.

Next around on the right-hand side is where we will find the power key that also doubles up as the fingerprint reader for the phone. This sits slightly proud of the edge of the body which makes it a bit easier to locate. unfortunately by the nature of it being a fingerprint reader as well as the power key, it lacks all texture meaning it can be missed easily. As a fingerprint reader, it is reasonably accurate but I have to say it is not one of the better side-mounted units I have used it is early days maybe it will improve over time.

Moving to the bottom of the phone is where we can find a speaker grill on the left and the mic hole and lo and behold a 3.5mm headphone jack! This is a rarity o phones these days and is nice to see although if I am honest I can’t see myself actually using it given the Nord Buds 2 that I also got in the box with the phone ( this is not standard as i got a demo kit for review purpose) Still nice to see that there are some phones out there that still account for this now somewhat niche requirement.

Sitting in between these is a USB Type C port that will support SuperVooc fast charging at 67W which is really nice to see and the phone does charge in a really quick timeframe which is handy given the lack of wireless charging in any way, which is understandable for the price point.

Continuing around the fourth edge we have got our combo volume rocker and sim card slot which has another uncommon trick inside. This Nano Sim card slot is also cable of receiving a second Nano Sim Card or a Micro SDcArd slot of up to 1TB! This is great news for the memory hoarders out there!

On the rear, we got our camera array which I composed of two large circular apertures the top of which contains a Samsung HM6 sensor capable of up to 108MP and has an aperture of F/1.75. The sensor sits behind a Six Element lens and although it does not have OIS it is at least supported by EIS.

Below we find that the second circle contains a 2MP depth of field sensor and 2MP Macro lens. Next to this, we find a single LED flash which is plenty bright and doubles nicely as a torch when needed.

The main feature here is the 108MP camera sensor which I have yet to test in anger but hopefully will produce serviceable results for the user without too much faffing with settings.

The back panel is made of plastic and is very very fingerprint friendly due to its glossy finish which is why I was glad to find the enclosed TPU see-through case which has a reassuringly tight fit around the phone.

Coming back the front of the phone we have a few things to mention, starting at the very top of the display is where we will find a small portal for the earpiece and the top speaker. The speakers both combine to give an average sound experience that is suitable for Youtube but if you are gaming or listening to music I would recommend that you either use some Bluetooth headphones or take advantage of the built-in 3.5mm headphone jack to get the best audio experience.

Below this earpiece is of course where we find the fourth camera on the phone and all I can say about his one is that it is a 16MP camera and that is about it as I haven’t been provided with any other details. it does of course come with all the normal features that you would find on an Android phone designed for both the Asian and Western markets ie all the retouch tools associated with Beauty Mode. Fortunately, these can be turned off to give you normalise results.

Below this is the LCD Panel which is capable of an Adaptive refresh rate between 30Hz/48Hz/50Hz/60HZ/90Hz/120Hz. In honesty though I checked this and you only have 2 options either High (120Hz Max) and Standard (60Hz Max) so maybe some creative market mumbo jumbo there. I am sure that the screen is capable of the step changes ut most users are unlikely to notice them. It is nice to see these High refresh rates filtering down to both LCD panels and cheaper devices though so nice job OnePlus.

The screen is a really nice size of the screen especially as this phone is being targeted towards a market where the screen size is an important factor as its intended audience will be using the phone more for media consumption/creation, social media and gaming than say phone calls. I have used it for a little bit and I am more than happy with the screen but then I am someone who has recently made the move to foldable which is the top of the big screen pile so what do I know? OnePlus does at least include an easy-to-use one-handed mode if you find this is required.

So that sums up the tour of the phone which from my limited experience so far is a cracker of a phone and one that I think any young (or young at heart) phone user would be more than happy with. I will of course run it as a daily device for a full review but I have to say I am presently surprised with the initial experience of the phone out of the box. I know that my son would be more than happy with it as it is sufficient for most of what he does on his mum’s phone (that he steals a lot). I also think that the more price-conscious user would be more than happy with this as a phone as it ticks a lot of boxes for a lot of people from what I have seen so far.

If you like what you have seen and want to pick up the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G for yourself then you can buy it now from OnePlus on their website for £299 and you can also get a free set of 3.5mm headphones or a Snaddtone bumper case if the include clear case is not to you liking. it is also available for the same price minus the freebies from Amazon as well if you prefer shopping there.

The post OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G – Unboxing. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

I am lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to test one of those options and I have had my hands on the for the last week. I am talking about the Honor Magic Vs 5G. I have a preview unit of what will be landing in the UK markets very soon and I have some thoughts on it since I unboxed it a week ago. Usually, I would post my first thoughts within 24 hrs of the unboxing being done, however, this time around I was awaiting a forward update to be released before I posted. That update has now arrived so I am now happy to post my thoughts.

Now that is out of the way let’s dive into the device’s specs.

Some pretty good-looking specs but folding phones are so much more than their component parts. The key to a folding phone and also to differentiating it in terms of the way it feels is all down to the design and feel. So onto the tour of the device.

Let’s start with the hinge. there has been a lot of talk about the Hinge in the Honor Magic Vs 5G. It is rightly deserving this as the hinge from the outside edge is very small looking and it feels very strong when in use. On the inside of the hinge, we have only 4 major components instead of the predecessor’s 96 major components! That is some real evolution of design there. However, it does present a problem. i have become quite accustomed to having the hinge in a halfway open position on my Fold 4 but this is not something that is easily achieved on the Magic Vs. it will Hold the angle but it does require a bit more fiddling to get it to stay put and even then it is only a matter of time until it unfolds fully. Whilst it may not be a major issue I have grown used to having the phone in “book mode” for reading e-books at night. It’s a shame that the Magic Vs doesn’t keep its position as well. I have tried to show an example of this in the clip below.

As for the rest of the tour let’s start-up on the top bezels where we can find on one side a pinhole mic a speaker grill and then an IR blaster, which i still find weird to see on phones these days but it has long been a feature of Honor devices

Moving around we have got a staggered arrangement meant of keys with the volume rocker being on the upper of the edge and the power button/fingerprint reader being on the bottom. This staggering is actually quite clever as it means when the phone is unfolded then the volume is on the left-hand side and the power is on the right.

When you use the phone in its landscape orientation of wit the fold horizontally then the power button is on the bottom. This is true of the Fold 4 as well but on the Magic Vs, I find that the power button is not where my fingers rest naturally which means I don’t accidentally press it when gaming.

On the bottom edge, we have got a Dual sim card slot with a waterproof gasket. another speaker grill and mic and then the USB Type C Gen 3.1. This allows for the use of fast charging when used on a suitable fats charger brick and also Video and data throughput allows you to utilise a Desktop UI akin to Samsungs DEX mode.

This USB port also opens the door to using Honor’s proprietary Supercharge technology which will allow the two internal batteries to charge at up to 66W depending on the battery state and conditions. This is very useful and does go a little way to make up for the loss of lack of a QI charging could for Wireless charging, although, for a phone of this level, I would still have expected that to be on board.

Moving around the rear we have a relatively normal-looking rear panel with an overly glossy fingerprint magnet glass panel and a larger-than-life camera array. This array features 3 sensors each of the highest quality. We have got  the following

• 54MP IMX800 Main Camera (f/1.9),
• 50MP Ultra Wide & Macro Main Camera (f/2.0),
• 8MP 3X Optical Zoom Camera (f/2.4)

However, things change when the phone is unfolded as part of the back of the phone used to be the outer display which now becomes a rear panel!

Now that I have mentioned the outer display it is a panel that is nice and tall but also and importantly a little bit wide than the one found o the Fold 4. This makes for a very useable outer display and the phone can be used perfectly in the one hand via this screen. the panel has the following  specs

Size: 6.45″
Type: OLED,
HDR10+ Screen-to-body ratio: 90%
Refresh rate: up to 120Hz
Brightness: up to 1200 nits
Resolution: 2560 x 1080 pixels
Pixel density: 431 PPI

It is a very nice panel to use and for the most part when in use it feels just like a normal phone albeit a bit thicker than a normal phone. Even though there is not a massive difference in the outer screen sizes of the Fold 4 against the Magic Vs for ease of use the Magic Vs just feels that little bit better which I have to say did surprise me. The only slight negative is that the pre-fitted screen protector is quite sticky and therefore smudges and fingerprints are easily added and the finger doesn’t seem to track as smoothly as on Gorilla Glass Victus. I do like having the high refresh rate on the outer display and i feel that this is now becoming the industry standard spec for this price point and a lot lower in some cases.

Embedded into the middle of the front /outer display is a 16MP selfie camera with the following specs

16MP Camera (f/2.45),
Video: Up to 1080 × 2520 pixels,
Photo: Up to 3456 × 4608 pixels

Just above the camera is a tiny groove which acts as the earpiece for voice calls and the audio produced from this opening is very clear and is not so loud that other parties will be able to hear your conversations either.

Whilst talking about calls you may have noticed that there are a lot of antenna lines around the edge of the phone and this makes for some really good signal reception on both cellular signal and Wifi signal. I have been impressed with the quality of the signals being held on all networks that I have tested the phone on. as you would reasonably expect from a phone of this level in 2023.

Finally, the bit we are most interested in is the internal folding display. the display itself is great and i cannot fault it for the colour and the brightness levels. I can’t even fault the fact that it is only a 90hz display. However, the issue that I do have with the inner display and an area where the fold 4 still come into its own is how the internal display is used. This is more something that will be discussed in the software section of the full review but it is a big weak point for the Magic Vs. The inner display will mirror exactly what has been going on on t router display in terms of the layout of apps and the icon size.

This is a big shame as otherwise, the display is really good and I would go as far as saying that the crease is less noticeable than that of the Fold 4 and any preceding fold device from Samsung. As you can hopefully see from the image of the devices alongside each other below the crease is so much more visible in Fold 4 than it is in Magic Vs. This is down to the Magic Vs using a different folding screen method from the Fold 4 and for me, this is the better out of the two options.

Fold 4 on the left and Magic Vs on the right

We do of course have one other major difference on the internal screens and that is the selfie camera which is a cutout on the magic vs and it shares the same spec as the one on the outer display. I can’t really say that it makes a big difference when I am using the phones regarding the cutout as i would tend to have the cutout in the bottom right-hand corner when I am holding the phone in landscape so it doesn’t intrude too much when I am gaming or watching videos.

So that pretty much covers my unboxing for the Honor Magic Fold Vs 5G. Overall impressions are the hardware is in some ways better than the Fold 4, however, where it takes its hits they are hard hits.

I do prefer the feel of the slightly wider folded phone and using it in this way feels more natural than on the Fold 4, the differences in terms of hardware are not so apparent when you unfold it though as the Fold 4 uses this mode better in terms of software and that outweighs the benefits of the reduced groove in the middle of the display.

I have had a few days of use of the Magic Vs under my belt by the time I have written this and i will say that there are some big differences here and they will be what really makes or breaks this as an option for me especially as i have been living with a 4th gen product for some time now. 

I look forward to getting you the full review out to you soon.

I will also be getting an update on the pricing ad availability of the Honor Magic Vs 5G in the UK soon which I will share with you very soon. if you are thinking of getting a folding phone then watch this space as things are about to get more interesting and the Honor Magic Vs 5G is going to play a big part in that.

The post Honor Magic Vs 5G Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Following on my review of the Honor Magic5 Lite I’ve been sent through the Honor Magic 5 Pro for review.

The Honor Magic5 Pro is another intriguing top cameraphone that has recently entered international markets. Its distinctive style, first rate hardware package, and intriguing camera kit will make it stand out. Additionally, it’s an ex-Huawei device with access to the whole Google suite and 5G networks.

Honor split from Huawei in 2020, and since then, it has introduced a number of handsets free of the US penalties that were placed on Huawei. For those looking for a smartphone without restrictions that is similar to the Huawei P or Mate, the top Magic range has always been a fantastic option. And the new Magic5 Pro most accurately fits that description.

With better camera specs, a brighter display, the most recent Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPU, and a larger battery, the Honor Magic5 Pro improves on the Honor Magic4 Pro (and Huawei Mate 50 Pro).

A sizable 6.81-inch HDR10+ OLED panel with a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate and 1312p resolution is present. It boasts a promising 12MP camera with a 3D ToF system inside the pill-shaped cutout, is covered by curved glass, and is protected by that. There is also an optical fingerprint scanner under the screen if Face ID unlock is not your thing.

As previously noted, the Magic5 Pro is equipped with the most recent Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The most recent LPDDR5X RAM and UFS4.0 storage chips are also included. Additionally, there is the first standalone antenna architecture in the market, which is said to eliminate Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connection interference.

The rear camera configuration follows a familiar concept but should provide better performance. The 50MP camera boasts a big sensor as well as a brilliant wide-angle stabilised lens. A 50MP ultrawide camera with autofocus is also available for macro photography. The 50MP zoom camera with a 3.5x periscopic telephoto lens is possibly the most intriguing, since the big sensor should allow for up to 10x high-quality lossless zoom. Another 3D ToF system is present. The Honor Magic5 Pro runs Android 13 with the most recent EMUI-like MagicUI 7.1. It includes the entire Google infrastructure and apps, so you don’t need to worry about anything.

Specs:

• Body: 162.9×76.7×8.8mm, 219g; Glass front, glass back or eco leather back; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 min).
• Display: 6.81″ LTPO OLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1800 nits (peak), 1312x2848px resolution, 19.54:9 aspect ratio, 460ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8550-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (4 nm): Octa-core (1×3.2 GHz Cortex-X3 & 2×2.8 GHz Cortex-A715 & 2×2.8 GHz Cortex-A710 & 3×2.0 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 740.
• Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM; UFS 4.0.
• OS/Software: Android 13, MagicOS 7.1.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.6, 23mm, 1/1.12″ 1.4µm, multi-directional PDAF, Laser AF, OIS; Telephoto: 50 MP, f/3.0, 90mm, PDAF, OIS, 3.5x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.0, 13mm, 122˚, 1/2.5″, AF; Depth: TOF 3D.
• Front camera: Wide (main): 12 MP, f/2.4, 100˚, 1.22µm; Depth: TOF 3D.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS, HDR10, 10-bit video; Front camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@60fps.
• Battery: 5100mAh; 66W wired, 50W wireless, Reverse wireless, 5W reverse wired.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); Infrared port; stereo speakers.

Good Points:-

• Premium design: The Honor Magic 5 Pro has a sleek and stylish design that is sure to turn heads. It is made of high-quality materials, including a curved glass back and a metal frame.
• Powerful processor: The Honor Magic 5 Pro is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, which makes it one of the most powerful smartphones on the market.
• Long-lasting battery: The Honor Magic 5 Pro has a large 5,000mAh battery that can easily last for two days on a single charge.
• The Honor Magic 5 Pro has a triple-lens rear camera system that takes stunning photos in any situation. The main sensor is a 50-megapixel wide-angle lens, and there is also a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens and a 64-megapixel periscope telephoto lens.
• Fast charging: The Honor Magic 5 Pro supports 66W fast charging, which means you can get a full charge in just 45 minutes.
• Wireless charging: The Honor Magic 5 Pro also supports 50W wireless charging
• IP68 water resistance: The Honor Magic 5 Pro is water resistant to a depth of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes, so you don’t have to worry about using it in wet conditions.
• Fingerprint sensor: The Honor Magic 5 Pro has a under screen fingerprint sensor of the optial varity which I found to fast, reliable and accurate.
• Face unlock: The Honor Magic 5 Pro also supports face unlock, which I found to easily be as fast and reliable as the offering from IOS.
• Android 13: The Honor Magic 5 Pro runs Android 13, which is the latest version of Android.
• IR Blaster ( I didnt know who much I missed one of these handy little additions) 
• Magic UI 7.1: The Honor Magic 5 Pro also has Honor’s Magic UI 6.0 skin, which is a user-friendly interface that adds some extra features to Android.

Bad Points:-

• Expensive: The Honor Magic 5 Pro is a expensive smartphone, and its a brand the masses have yet to hear of and may not want to pay a premium for
• No headphone jack: The Honor Magic 5 Pro does not have a headphone jack, so you will need to use wireless headphones or an adapter if you want to use wired headphones.
• No expandable storage: The Honor Magic 5 Pro does not have expandable storage, so you are limited to the amount of storage that comes with the phone.
• When ever you placed the phone face down it always felt like I was going to damage the camera glass
• Poor GPU stability; throttles a lot.
• So-so zoomed videos.
• 4K videos limited to 15 minutes.

Honor Magic5 Pro Unboxing:-

The Honor Magic5 Pro comes in a standard black package. The retail package includes a 66W charger, a 6A USB-A-to-C cable, and a soft transparent case.

The Magic5 Pro comes with a thin protective film that was placed at the manufacturing. I removed it because, well I just didnt like the feel of it under my fingers, it was of poor quality and a smudge magnet. However, we are confident that many individuals would appreciate having it.

Design, construction quality, and handling

The Honor Magic5 Pro is a dual-glass smartphone with a curved design, similar to the Magic4 Pro, with similar features such as the pill-shaped display cutout and the circular camera island on the back. The phone, like the previous one, is IP68-rated for dust and water protection.

The global version of Macig5 Pro is offered in Meadow Green (our colour) and Black, both with glass panels on both ends. There is also an orange eco leather back variant, but it is only available in China.

The front panel is composed of glass and has a modest arc on both sides, but the device does feel flat in the hand.  The back  features the same curvatures as the front, but the camera glass is a great showstopper here, grabbing your whole attention. Finally, the aluminium frame is thicker at the top and bottom and narrower across the left and right sides.

This matt covering on the back panel makes it feel less like glass and more like plastic. This is OK, but the panel is fully fingerprint and smudge resistant. However, don’t anticipate much of a grip. Although whenever I placed the phone rear side down it always felt like I was going to damage the camera glass.

The glossy metal frame also does not help with grip, however we must say that the Meadow Green Magic5 Pro looks stunning with its unique paintjob and matching shining frame. While there isn’t much grip (unless you use a case), the Magic5 Pro has a beautiful and recognisable appearance that is fairly likeable.

The 6.81-inch OLED screen with narrow, uniform bezels dominates the front. The 12MP selfie camera and the ToF 3D technology for face scanning are visible through a pill-shaped cut out on the upper left corner of the device.

Although the protective glass is curved, particularly along its left and right sides, the OLED panel is flat as usual underneath.

There is an under-display fingerprint scanner placed centered around the bottom of the screen. It’s quite convenient, fast, and plenty reliable. Easily as good as the one on my latest S23 Ultra, with a nice feature of being able to change the animation to one of your choosing.

The secure 3D face unlock also works as stated; once set up, it looks to be a notch faster than on the most recent iPhone models.

The last item you probably don’t see at the front is the earpiece – its outlet is exceedingly narrow, nearly undetectable – and it’s located above the screen, just before the frame. It’s worth noting that the speaker in this location has two sound outputs, one front-facing and one top-firing.

The matt back panel is a visual feast, with a camera housing jutting-out with a flat glass surface enclosed by a metal ring. The 50MP periscope zoom camera, the 50MP primary camera, and the 50MP ultrawide camera are all visible here. A single-LED flash, a flicker sensor, a multi-spectrum colour sensor (next to the flash), a microphone, and yet another ToF 3D system for depth mapping and autofocus help are also present.

The camera island is large, and while the phone will never sit flat on a table, it will not wobble due to its enormous size and support. I’ve already mentioned that the phone has an additional speaker grille at the top. The IR blaster and another microphone are also visible here.

The dual SIM tray, primary microphone, USB-C port, and second speaker are all located on the Magic5 Pro’s bottom. There is nothing on the left side of this Honor. The volume and the power/lock keys are on the right. The freestanding antenna architecture, which Honour claims is an industry first, is something you can’t see but should benefit from. The phone contains separate Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antennas located around the phone to resolve mutual interference and increase speeds and minimise latency of both types of connections.

Display:-

The Honour Magic5 Pro has a high-resolution 6.81-inch LTPO OLED screen with 10-bit colour depth, a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate, and HDR10+ support. The display appears to be identical to the Honour Magic4 Pro’s, with the pill-shaped cutout and curved protective glass, although it should be significantly brighter. The actual resolution of the OLED panel is 1312 x 2848 pixels, or 460ppi density. It features a 10-bit colour depth and can display more than a billion colours.

Honour also upgraded the high-frequency PWM dimming technology, increasing its frequency to 2,160Hz (from 1,920Hz). This should improve the experience much more in low-light conditions, and there should be no ghosting. The sole noticeable enhancement over the Honour Magic4 Pro panel is the brightness, which can reach up to 1,800 nits while viewing HDR material and 1,300 nits when displaying normal content. In comparison, the previous display had a maximum brightness of “just” 1,000 nits.

Other prominent features include a Frame Rate Booster and Video Enhancer, both of which may be enabled or disabled for any suitable programme (Netflix, YouTube).

The Frame Rate Booster does what it says: it raises the frame rate of videos by injecting a black frame between each one, resulting in 60fps videos. MEMC (Motion Estimation, Motion Compensation) is a feature present on most current televisions. We don’t enjoy utilising it since the false black frames cause blurring in fast-paced sequences, although it may be effective in making certain forms of video content appear smoother.

The Video enhancer converts non-HDR videos to HDR ones by boosting the colour and contrast, although the results aren’t spectacular. Nothing compares to the actual thing.

All this means this is a gorgeous display to look at. 

Battery:-

The Honour Magic5 Pro has a larger battery with a capacity of 5,100mAh, up from 4,600mAh on the Magic4 Pro. The phone has the latest flagship Snapdragon chipset – 8 Gen 2 – which is more powerful and efficient than the 8 Gen 1 seen in the Honour Magic4 Pro. These enhancements resulted in me being able to use the phone for 2 full days before a recharge. 

On the point of charging the Honour Magic5 Pro has 66W fast wired charging and 50W fast wireless charging capabilities. This meant I was able to charge from empty to full in just 45 mins.  Furthermore, the phone supports both reverse wired and reverse wireless charging (through settings).

A quick clip showing how fast the device charges. 

Operating System & Chipset:

Magic OS 7.1 on top of Android 13
The Honour Magic5 Pro is powered by an in-house MagicOS 7.1 operating system on top of an Android 13 core. And, unlike Huawei’s software releases, which are constrained in some way, it’s a fully working Android 13, with full support for the Google applications suite.

With version v7, Honour has rebranded its Android overlay from UI to OS in an attempt to distance itself from its Huawei EMUI roots. A lot has been shared over the years between Magic OS (or UI) and EMUI, and elements of that common past remain, so if you’ve used a reasonably recent Huawei phone, you’d be right at home, but there are distinctions. Naturally, where the two differ, the Magic Vs aligns with Honor’s latest non-bendy models, even if they may still be on prior Magic versions.

The Honour Magic5 Pro is powered by the newest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPU, LPDDR5X RAM, and UFS4.0 storage chips.

The SD8G2 features an octa-core processor with one primary core, four performance cores (2+2), and three efficient cores (1+2+2+3). This means that the CPU has 1×3.2GHz Cortex-X3 CPU cores, 2×2.8GHz Cortex-A715 and 2×2.8GHz Cortex-A710 CPU cores, and 3×2.0GHz Cortex-A510 CPU cores.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset includes a Ray Tracing-capable Adreno 740 GPU. It remains to be seen whether and how this is employed in genuine mobile games in the future.

Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and dual-SIM 5G are all supported by the Macig5 Pro.

Two ToF 3D systems and four cameras:

On the rear of the Honour Magic5 Pro, there are three cameras: a 50MP primary, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 50MP telephoto. An 8×8 dToF laser focusing system for autofocus and depth mapping, a single-LED flash, a flicker sensor, and a multi-spectrum colour sensor (behind the white cover adjacent to the yellow LED flash) are also included.

The Magic5 Pro comes with a 12MP front-facing camera as well as another ToF system for autofocus and depth mapping.

The primary camera is equipped with a 50MP customised 1/1.12″ sensor with 1.4m pixels. It is housed behind a brilliant 23mm f/1.6 OIS lens. It’s worth noting that, as is customary, the camera app saves cropped photographs with a focal length of 27mm.

In terms of light-gathering ability, this primary camera vastly outperforms the Magic4 Pro, which had a 1/1.56″ sensor and an f/1.8 aperture. Even better, Honour added Optical Image Stabilisation to the main camera (the Magic4 Pro does not have OIS).

The 50MP ultra wide-angle (122°) camera has autofocus and a 13mm lens with a brighter aperture – f/2.0 vs. f/2.2 on the Magic4 Pro’s UW camera.

The third camera on the back has a 50MP sensor as well, however it is paired with a 90mm f/3.0 periscopic stabilised lens. This camera appears to crop slightly as well, as it saves photographs with a focal length equivalent to 95mm.

This phone includes two cameras, one of which is capable of shooting macro photos. The ultra-wide module can do it at a distance of roughly 2.5cm, while the tele camera can do it at a distance of 30cm. The UW camera is used for closeups in the Super Macro mode.

Photo Quality.

As opposed to many other 50MP imagers, the main camera saves 12MP photographs by default rather than 12.5MP. That’s because the camera app somewhat crops the edges, which is why the actual 23mm focal length is different from the 27mm one listed in the EXIF.

In any case, these 12MP stock images are without a doubt among of the best available today from a smartphone. There is no discernible noise, an incredibly high level of detail, and a balanced sharpness. Even better, the processing is fairly advanced, and every minute detail is beautifully rendered; even random detail is well-developed, which is difficult for smaller Quad-Bayer sensors to do. All of the photo samples have excellent contrast, and the dynamic range is acceptable but not excessive. In my opinion, this is the perfect approach.

As we previously stated, these photographs are unquestionably among the best in their class, comparable to the top models from Sony and Huawei., and Samsung. Shooting at 50MP with the High-Res setting and then reducing to 12MP is one approach to get less processed photographs. The 50MP photographs are quite nice, with sufficient detail and attributes that match the usual output in terms of colours, contrast, and dynamic range. Some photographs have obvious noise, but it isn’t distracting. You won’t gain greater detail if you shoot in 50MP and then downsize to 12MP, but like we mentioned, it will appear more natural. Nonetheless, given the balanced Honour processing, 

The ultrawide camera stores 12.5MP shots by default, as it should – no cropping here. The photographs I took with the Honour Magic5 Pro are fantastic; they’re tremendously wide, with a lot of resolved detail and, once again, perfectly balanced sharpness and overall rendition. Corners are also expertly fixed. There is no obvious noise in the images, the colours are vibrant and true to life, the contrast is good, albeit somewhat lower than what the main camera provides, and the dynamic range is very broad. Overall, the ultrawide camera delivered decent performance and, once again, flagship-worthy images.

There is a distinct Super Macro mode, and it may also display as a toggle on the viewfinder if the camera app or AI (if enabled) determines that you require it. The Super Macro mode itself has 1x and 2x zoom capabilities, although we recommend avoiding the 2x option if possible because it is achieved by cropping and upscaling from the default 13mm view, which degrades overall shot quality. Closeup images taken with the ultrawide camera are particularly attractive – their centres are detailed and sharp, with developed objects that will undoubtedly reveal previously unseen details. The dynamic range remains broad, and the contrast is adequate.

The phone is described as having a zoom range of up to 100x, and I couldn’t pass up the chance to shoot some 50x and 100x zoomed shots – these are the two fixed locations when you reach the zoom bar. Those are lacking in detail, but you can nonetheless make what’s available.

Portrait mode on the Magic5 Pro has 1x and 2x (default) modes, both of which use the main camera. The default portraits are 2x zoomed, and they are solid – the subject rendition and exposure are fantastic, the separation is superb, and the bokeh appears extremely natural. Everything else, including noise reduction, colours, and dynamic range, is excellent. However, the quality is not as good because these were clipped from the main camera. It’s not a true digital zoom, but the detail and crispness aren’t up to pace with the standard photographs below. Nonetheless, these will suffice for any occasion.

Finally, let us discuss the selfie camera. The 12MP selfie camera has three FoVs, which translate to 18mm, 21mm, and 26mm in 35mm equivalent, or as the UI names them – Wide, 0.8x, and 1x. The camera always stores 12.5MP photographs, however we believe there is a higher-resolution sensor inside, most likely a 13MP one. The 18mm selfies are exceptional and noticeably broad – the resolved detail is substantial and the clarity is excellent, the subject is natural, and it is not over-processed. The photographs are noise-free, the colours are true and attractive, the contrast is strong, and the dynamic range is above average.

Photo quality in low light.

The Honour Magic5 Pro claims and offers amazing evening photography. There is also a short Night Mode, but it turns out that the default shooting mode does the same thing, and all photographs from the default output and the Night Mode output are similar. The photographs from the main camera are nicely exposed, have a lot of resolved detail, and have minimal, if any, noise. The dynamic range is amazing, and the contrast hasn’t suffered in the least. And the colour reproduction is superb, with realistic and vibrant hues.

Video recording:

The Honour Magic5 Pro’s cameras can record video in 4K resolution. Only the main and zoom cameras support 4K60. The remainder are limited to 4K30 video capture, though the front one can also capture 1080p@60fps. A annoying feature I discovered is that all 4K video capture modes are limited to 15 minutes, which is most likely due to file size and file system limitations. This would be a very discouraging barrier for video artists, vloggers. Stabilisation is provided on all cameras; the front and ultrawide utilise EIS, the primary uses OIS + EIS, and the telephoto appears to use solely OIS. Video stabilisation cannot be disabled.

The bitrate for the 4K@30 clips is 39-40Mbps. The audio is always taken in stereo with a bitrate of 250kbps, and the sound is usually free of wind and other interruptions and reasonably rich. The main camera’s 4K footage is superb, with plenty of resolved detail and excellent clarity. The colours are accurate, the contrast is good, and the dynamic range is ideal. The video is free of noise, and the processing appears to be extremely proficient.

Conclusion:-

The Honour Magic5 Pro is an extraordinarily powerful smartphone with some of the best display, speakers, chipset, cameras, and charging options on the market, all housed in a stunning and one-of-a-kind IP68-rated chassis. The camera experience was as high-end as it gets these days, with superb photo quality and natural-looking, balanced output across the board. The same can be said for the video experience, but I’ve seen a few higher-quality zoomed films on other flagships.The phone lasted me two full days of use, and when empty only took 45 mins to charge back to full.

The Honour Magic5 Pro isn’t flawless, but it’s close. The phone has a slick look, and the 2x digital zoom isn’t as lossless as on other phones ( I’m talking about phones with 1″ main cameras). The magnified movies are also subpar, and there is no 8K option. Surprisingly, all 4K videos are limited to 15 minutes, which is not ideal for video creators.

Finally, the GPU throttles a lot when running in peak performance, which is a thing you should have in mind if you consider competitive gaming. But even with these setbacks, the Honor Magic5 Pro is a solid offer with flagship specs and quality top to bottom. literally has everything and it’s not the most expensive offer on the market.

But with all that said I loved my time with the Magic5 Pro and having had the latest flagship from Samsung for past few years, I do think that the major manufacture’s have some serious competition to worry about. 

The post Honor Magic5 Pro -Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

It is not the time or the place to go into these issues today however as OnePlus unveiled their new Flagship yesterday in the form of the Oneplus 11 5G and I have been lucky enough to be one of the first people to be able to use one and put it through its paces. Not to be a spoiler but I am impressed with what I have seen so far, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves as there is a review to be done!!

Design

I like the overall design of the Onplus 11 5G it is not too far stretch from what they have done before and you can see the evolution of the design when it is held in comparison with its predecessors the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G and the OnePlus 10T 5G. In general, the phone feels great in the hand and has a reassuring solidity to it. I don’t feel that the phone is fragile when I use it which is very comforting to know that if I am a bit rough with it then it should come off unharmed.

I have already done a full unboxing of the phone if you have not had a chance to view that it can be found below

If however, you prefer your device tours in text form then here we go.

Starting from the top edge of the phone we have got a microphone whole and what I can only presume is a port for air circulation for the top speaker which is a forward-facing affair and doubles the earpiece. It is pretty loud and works well when used for calls resulting in a clear sound profile allowing you to hear your calls clearly.

Moving down the right-hand side I am very pleased to say that we have got a return of the much-vaunted “Alert Slider” that was noticeably absent from the OnePlus 10T 5G. it is just satisfying to use as it has always been and I am so glad that it has been added back into the phone. Below this is where you will find the sleep wake button that will also double up as a Google Assistant button if you wish it to via quick in the software settings. Apart from that and a few antenna lines there is nothing else to see here so around we go.

On the bottom of the phone, we have got the other stereo speaker which is bottom-firing but is again like its bedfellows at the top of the phone plenty loud enough for you to know the difference. next to this is the USB Type C port which is sadly only USB 2 in terms of support but it does support SUPERVOOC fast charging of up to 100w when used with the correct charger (handily included in the box).

Onto the left-hand side and this is where we will find a few more antenna lines (they are everywhere on this phone) and also the volume rocker. This is a typical OnePlus design trait and it has been common practice for a few years now. I have to say though it can be a bit annoying as I have accidentally ended up taking a screenshot when picking out the phone as this is where my fingers will naturally end up. I suppose it would stop happening once you become more familiar with it or change the screenshot function within the setting of the phone.

Around the back is where one of the main features of this phone is to be found. I am of course meaning the camera module. The entire module itself is encased in a stainless steel camera decor (bump) which stretches to the edge of the frame. The back panel itself consists of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to protect from being scratched and gives some impact protection. However, in the colour, I have (Eternal Green) the phone is a slippy customer so some sort of case would be a wise investment.

Here are a few shots of the official Oneplus 11 5g Aramid Fibre Bumper Case that i have been testing on the phone to stop it from slipping out of my hands and off flat surfaces!

The camera module itself consists of four three different cameras:

Main Camera:-

Sensor: Sony IMX890
Sensor Size: 1/1.56″
Megapixels: 50
Pixel Size: 1.0 μm
Lens Quantity: 6P
Optical Image Stabilization: OIS
Electronic Image Stabilization: Yes
Focal Length: 24mm equivalent
Aperture: ƒ/1.8

Ultra-Wide Camera:-

Sensor: Sony IMX581
Sensor Size: 1/2″
Megapixels: 48
Lens Quantity: 6P
Aperture: ƒ/2.2
Field of View: 115°

Portrait Tele Camera:

Sensor: Sony IMX709
Sensor Size: 1/2.74″
Megapixels: 32
Lens Quantity: 6P
Aperture: ƒ/2.0

Here is a close-up of the camera module

The last thing in this module is the Duel LED flash which is very bright!

Around the front is a glorious 6.7″ Super Fuid AMOLED LPTO 3 display, that has a PPI of 525 and a resolution of 3216 by 1440 to make it QHD+. The screen has a refresh rate of between 1Hz and 120Hz depending on the content being viewed and this is something I will cover later on in my review. The aspect ratio is a very reasonable 20.1:9 which feels about right for a panel of this size. The other features of the display are that it has a response rate of up to 1000 Hz, Supports sRGB, Display P3 and has a 10-bit colour depth. as if this wasn’t enough the display supports Dolby Vision and is covered by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. I am sure that you will agree that on paper this looks pretty impressive and i can assure you that in person none of that impressiveness is lost!

Quite a nice tidy package I am sure you will agree. Now on with the specs sheet.

Specifications

So this is a pretty banging phone on the Specs sheet alone but how is it in real-life usage and what does that hardware feel like to use? Onto the hardware section of the review and we will throw in some performance just for good measure as well!

Hardware and Performance

A pretty face does not always mean a powerful core, however, I am very pleased to advise that this could not be further from the truth with the OnePlus 11 5G. The phone as we can see from the above specs sheet is packing a very powerful heart in the form of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor and this n turn is ably assisted by 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM on my phone with the added assistance of the RAM-Vita which will allow for the allocation of extra Virtual RAm if the OS find that the phone needs that extra boost in computational power. Not only is the RAM massive and fast but the storage on offer is, in my case 256GB of UFS.40. The combination of these elements allow for very fast read and write speeds and allows up to 44 simultaneous apps to be active in the background. Now I can not imagine a scenario where I will ever need that amount of apps to be open as I tend to break out into a cold sweat when I have more than 10 apps running at the same time. It is good to know however that I had the desire to run this amount I could do so without any significant problem

Along with the massive and quick storage, we have an equally large and fast charging battery in the form of a 5000mAh two-cell battery which charges at up to 100w via the SUPERVOOC fast charging technology that has now become synonymous with devices from the Oneplus, OPPO and Realme families. If you are reading this in America please be warned however due to the difference in power standards you will only get 80w of fast charging and your charging time will be a tad slower than the advertised time of 25 minutes from 1% to 100%. The fact that this battery can charge so quickly does lessen the sting a bit of the removal of Wireless charging from the device.

This is a strange decision as it was present on both of the last two OnePlus devices in the form of the OnePlus 9 family and the OnePlus 10 family (the OnePlus 10T notwithstanding). What makes it even stranger still is that OnePlus have included wireless charging into the Oneplus Buds Pro 2 which are being sold alongside the new phone and it would have been great to have been able to utilize the reverse wireless charging feature of the phone to allow you to quickly easily top up the earbuds when on the go.

The battery and its rapid charging could be seen as a point of concern to some as this has long been the weakest link for a lot of phones in the past. So in order to counter this Oneplus has developed its Battery Health Engine. Now coming into these phone reviews as someone who deals with the concerns of battery health daily due to owning an Electric vehicle, this sounds and indeed functions in a very similar manner to what is being done on the massive multi-cell battery backs that power the EVs of today.

In essence, the BHS will allow you to continue to use the total battery capacity and obtain faster speeds for longer by the use of the Smart Battery Health Algorithm and Battery Healing Technology. The former will allow the phone to self-regulate charging speeds automatically only doing the fastest charging when the phone needs it or you demand it by overriding a setting. it can also implement an 80% limit on the battery for normal daily charging if you are not regularly using the total capacity in one session. The latter is actually down to the electrolyte formula that has been used in the battery and this will help to protect the anode and cathode in that battery for longer meaning that the cells will last longer. Now all of this is great to see on paper but the sceptic in me has been burned before with EVs and their promised performance so the fact that the BHS system and the batteries have been independently tested by TÜV Rheinland gives me some peace of mind for the long term. How long i hear you ask well over 1600 charger cycles or 4 years (based on a daily charge session) whichever comes first.

So there is a side effect that we know about when it comes to faster charging and high performance and this is our old friend heat. Now don’t get me wrong, with the current temperatures as they are in the UK I am all for my phone doubling as a hand warmer! However, this is yet another thing that will hamper the longevity of a phone so therefore it is bad joo joo. So under that smooth glossy exterior of the OnePlus 11 5G, we find it has been optimised to try and reduce that thermal afterthought as much as possible to again ensure that you are getting the maximum performance for your movie binging, gaming, video recording, editing sessions when you are on the go. I would like to introduce the Cryo-velocity VC Cooling system, which claims to be the largest ever on the OnePlus 11 Series device’s (ED note could there be others in the series coming later on….) at a 3685 mm². if you were to lay that flat then you are looking at a piece of paper in between the sizes of A4 and A3 which is pretty awesome to think is inside the phone in the form of a Vapour chamber! If all that wasn’t enough then we also have a 5673 mm² graphene mid-frame layer to add to the mix. That is a huge amount for such a small device and it is hard to imagine how they managed to get all this inside the phone so here is a visual to show it off for you.

So what does all of this mean for performance well OnePlus has always had a mantra when it comes to performance and it is Never Settle and one of the key components of that is Smooth and Fast. The Oneplus 11 ticks the boxes when it comes down to this. I loaded up a few games to try and see how they would perform in testing conditions. I am pleased to advise that during some short but intense gaming sessions, the phone stayed cool and comfortable to hold and allowed me to play with everything on maximum settings with ease. I used F1 Mobile Racing and Republique as my test games. Both of these games ran smoothly with a consistent 29-30FPS on the screen even at their highest settings.

F1 Mobile

Obviously, these are not the most demanding games that could be run on the phone but they are what i am currently playing and I found them to work absolutely perfectly. I also took the time to run a few benchmarks on the phone and the result are shown in the screenshots below.

As you can see from the benchmarks that I have completed the OnePlus 11 is getting a faster FPS consistently over the Galaxy Z Fold 4 it also seems to handle the thermals a bit better as well as this was found in the sustained load test in Wildlife Extreme Stress test on 3D Mark. In the Geekbaench test the galaxy ZFold 4 does have a slightly high single-core score but when it comes to the multicore processing the OnePlus 11 comes out on top again.

Both of these devices are extremely powerful devices and will both be more than adequate for mobile gaming and I have not seen any sluggishness when using either of them in my daily use.

So now that we have established how powerful the phone is what can it do in terms of photography? This is a key area where this phone needs to perform well and i am not going to take it easy on the phone as I am going to be pitching it up against the Pixel 7 Pro which is one of the better phones for camera performance.

Camera

So let’s look at some macro Shots first

To my eyes, the pictures are both good but there seems to be a tad more detail on the face from the shot taken on Pixel 7 Pro. Also getting the OnePlus 11 5G to go into macro mode is a bit more of a faff as it wants to jump between macro and normal modes too easily.

Some more generic shots here one of my back garden where you can’t really see a massive difference I would say that things are about equal in these two images. The second set or some inside shots of my watch and OnePlus 11 5G edges it out for me in this one as it is a more pleasing image.

The next set is of a tricky lighting condition and in this group, you can see more from the OnePlus 11 5G shot than you can in the Pixel 7 Pro.

It is very close though but in the bottom right-hand corner, you can see a bit more colour detail of the frame on the picture from the OnePlus 11 5G.

Next up is a comparison of Zoom levels taken at the standard levels of 0.6 x zoom(o.5 x zoom for the Pixel 7 Pro) 1x ,2x and 5,

Some interesting things are going on here which i am a bit surprised by Overall at the different zoom levels the OnePlus 11 5G shots are better and truer to life than that of the Pixel 7 Pro shots. if you look in particular at the colours of the window sills on the OnePlus 11 5g they remain white through all the zoom levels. When you look closer at the Pixel 7 Pro shots you can see that the window sills adopt the blueish tint from the wall colour. Overall the Oneplus 11 5G images are truer to life. However, in the Ultawide images for each phone, the Pixel 7 Pro shows the colour of the wall much better than the OnePlus 11 5G which indicates that when the Ultrawide lens is being used the OnePlus 11 5G is lacking colour reproduction.

Time for a selfie shootout

I am expecting this too again by similar in terms of the results but I will say that the process of turning all the enhancements off on the OnePlus 11 5G is a bit more involved than that of the Pixel so if you are just looking for the unenhanced image then bear this in mind.

You will see that the OnePlus 11 has got a slightly wider angle than the Pixel 7 Pro but that being said you do have the wide angle available as an option on the Pixel 7 Pro which is not a feature found on the OnePlus 11. In terms of colour, I would say that they are even, with the Oneplus 11 5G being a tad brighter when you look at the wall in the background. However, once it comes down to sharpness this is where the Pixel take a lead. When I look at a zoomed-in version of the images focusing on my beard I can see more defined hairs on the Pixel 7 Pro than on the OnePlus 11 5G.

This could be a by-product of the fact that to get a real-world image of what you actually look like you need to turn off a load of the extra AI stuff on the OnePlus 11 5G. In isolation the OnePlus 11 5Gis a perfectly adequate selfie shooter. It also does a very good job of getting portraits when you actually select that mode. There is a noticeable difference and you can adjust the depth of field focus on the portrait mode with the OnePlus 11 5Gwhich you cannot do on the Pixel 7 Pro until you have taken the image it can be edited afterwards.

So that is the end of the comparison of the images and I think it is fair to say that in most areas the OnePlus 11 5G is a good camera and it stacks up very nicely against the Pixel 7 Pro. There is however one area where the Pixel 7 Pro stands out above the OnePlus 11 5G and indeed in this reviewer’s opinion. This area i simplicity in the camera UI. As i mentioned briefly above there are a lot of different things that you can tweak and fiddle with on the OnePlus 11 5G and for me, this is actually a turn-off. I like my camera interface to be simple and I don’t want to have to faff with setting to get the image I want. If you do like using filters and tweaking settings even in the normal modes then the OnePlus is probably for you but for me i want simple and this is where the Pixel 7 Pro wins out for me and even with the choice of phones that I have is always my go-to when I need a camera I can rely on 100%.

Below i just want to share some more images of what can be achieved by the OnePlus 11 5G when you are willing to play with some of the other settings including the option for using XPAN mode which i never really fully figured out if I am honest!

So With the stills camera covered pretty extensively, I also wanted to include a little bit of Video for you just to show what the phone is capable of. This sample has been recorded at 1080p using a 30 FPS second framerate but the video will allow up to 8K and up to 24fps when in that mode. Due to the constraints of WordPress I have not been able to upload that sample and i don’t really ever see myself using it, however, it is there if you want it!

I am happy now to move on to another area where OnePlus has been scrutinised a lot recently and this is the question of Software.

Software

OnePlus phones used to be nearly unique in the relative sparseness of things that they added to the UI on their phones. But as with the inevitable march of time they have also had to change things up as time has moved forward. So over the past few years, we have seen what was once a user favourite in the form of Oxygen UI become Oxygen OS 13 in its current form. I have found that this new OS bears a remarkable similarity to an OS i have also seen on another brand of Phone in the form of a Realme device. (see Realme GT 2 5G review).

This is not surprising given that Realme and Oppo devices run Colour OS and OnePlus devices run Oxygen OS but hold on a minute those OS’s are different are they? Well dear reader this is where eth problem lies the lines between these OS’s have now blurred significantly so much so that in the far east the OnePlus 11 5G was launched with colour OS 13 instead of Oxygen OS 13 and if you were to place phones from each region next to each other you would struggle to identify the difference between them.

But what does this all mean for the user? Well in short it is actually not that bad when compared to something like One UI from Samsung or Magic UI from Honor but if you compare it to what Oxygen UI used to be then it is also not that great. I loved Oxygen UI back in the day because it was as close as you could get to having a Nexus/Pixel phone without having one of them, it was also normally significantly cheaper than the aforementioned devices as well! However, now the Oneplus Phones are no longer clean in terms of software and they have added extra features and started to duplicate apps which is not a good place to be in my book.

Dont get me wrong there are new features to Oxygen OS 13 that I like the cute Always on Display that shows either Polar bears or Coral and the effect that temperature has on them is a nice touch, I also like the gaming app that collates your game into one place and has the ability to get pop pout tools when playing a game and also block notifications. However, there is a lot of other largely useless stuff on there that just gets in the way. I dislike that I am limited to only having an app drawer that will not show more than 4 icons across.

I don’t need the duplicate apps that are present and I shouldn’t be seeing what is essentially a storefront for OnePlus every time I go into the settings screen.

Now i know that OnePlus is not alone in the above implementations of strange add-ons to UI’s but that is what used to distinguish OnePlus from the rest of the industry they were not just putting extra bloat in for the sake of it and they kept the UI clean and streamlined. A lot of this may just be me being a bit grumpy and old-fashioned but I liked that I didn’t use to have to spend an hour removing unnecessary apps from my phone to get it to work the way I want it to. I am sure that there will be users who are new to OnePlus who have been pulled in by the Specs and the camera who will not even notice these changes from the old to the new but for me it is annoying. Dont get me wrong once i had spent some time cleaning up duplicate apps (there are not that many to be fair) and turned off the extra features that I did not want or need then I enjoyed using the phone a lot and the software is not bad at all. I just prefer things to be a bit cleaner like that what is to be found on Pixels and dare I say iPhones!

Moving on from that rant let’s get int the conclusions about this phone.

Conclusion

As i inclined at the top of this review i am impressed with what I have seen about the OnePlus 11 5G and i am happy to have had the chance to use it for the time i have been able to do so. I suppose though the real test of it is whether I would buy one with my own hard-earned cash. Well for me it is a no but where does that leave you the normal consumer? I would defiantly give this phone a look it is a great-looking and very powerful phone that comes in at an awesome price point.

Yes, there are a few things that are missing such as Wireless Charging and a full IP 68 rating but the lack of wireless charging was really a non-issue for me as the battery life is really good and the IP rating doesn’t bother me at all.

I was also very impressed by the camera as this is a massive step in the right direction from what I had seen during my last time using a Co-developed camera (OnePlus 9 series). it seems that OnePlus and Hassleblad have actually figured out what is important to people and made sure that this works for them. In all honesty, If you were to give me a batch of photos from either the Pixel 7 Pro or the OnePlus 11 5G and ask me which was which I would struggle to tell you either way.

So if you fancy a phone that is one of the most powerful currently in the market with a respectable camera and a sensible price point, then you could do a lot worse than getting a OnePlus 11 5G, and the good news is that if you do want one you can order it now from OnePlus or from Amazon right now. Prices start at £729.00, when you are there then be sure to also pick up one of their cases, as well as this, is a slippy customer, particularly in the Eternal Green colour like the one I have been testing!

The post OnePlus 11 5G – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

To give a little context and background we have seen the T series of phones before as a follow-up after the main lead phones have been announced for that yearly cycle. Now for some reason, this did not happen with the OnePlus 9 family last year as they had the OnePlus 9 Pro 5G and also the OnePlus 9 5G. I think that this was perhaps OnePlus testing the water. I dont think they found that this release pattern was how they wanted to work which perhaps explains why we have had the 10Pro 5G with all its Hasselblad camera polish but then there has been a spell of nothing until the launch of the 10T which comes without the camera goodness but focus more on sheer performance with a bit more of a gaming focus that we have perhaps seen before with OnePlus. This is I believe one of the reasons why we have the OnePlus 10T 5G. The other comes down to the company wanting to ensure that they stay in the realm of the press and the technology news as nothing gets you noticed as a phone launch does in the mobile tech domain, especially when your price point is as aggressive as the one that OnePlus has stuck on the 10T but more on that later on!

As is the case with all my reviews let’s start with the design and hardware.

Design

For those of you who have read the unboxing post I put out of the OnePlus 10T 5G on launch day, this will all be familiar ground, however, for everyone else, I will cover it again here.

Starting on the right-hand side where we can find the Power key, sadly no alert slider this time around! This is a real shame as it was one of the staples that differentiated the OnePlus flagships from other ones on the market and it was something I did actually use a lot when I carried the phone. Could this be an indication that OnePlus is not thinking of this device as a flagship model?

Well, I have thought about this one for some time during my time with the phone and come to the conclusion that it was a design decision that had to be made to accommodate the internals of the phone. The alert slider is actually quite a large module that needs to be fitted into the side of the phone as it is not just the physical slider that needs to be accounted for but there is also the internal mechanism to allow the slider to convert the slide action into an electrical signal for the phone to interpret. Now if you put yourself in the position of the designer who had been given a brief of cramming this phone with as much power and performance as he can you can see that any way of saving space would be looked at. I think it is for this reason that the alert slider has been given the heave-ho. Will this be a new design language we see on the next “Pro series” models in 9 or so months only time will tell but I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t make a return, particularly on future “T series” devices?

Next is the base where we can see the USB Type C 2.0 charging port alongside one of the two speaker grills. Again here we can see another distinct difference in focus from the 10 Pro in that the USB Type C port has received a downgrade from 3.1 to 2.0 indicating again to me that the target audience of this phone from the designer’s viewpoint is not one that would need the capability of USB 3.1. as it is a non “Pro” device. As a side note Apple also adopted a similar policy between their Pro and Standard devices (especially in their computers) so this move is not unprecedented. 

Of course, this port does still support the propriety fast charging technology which is now called SuperVOOC. This phone will charge at 150w when used with the included 160W charging brick. The name may have changed but the technology being used is the same just with a ramp-up in terms of speed.

We also see a sim card slot here which will house 2 sims if required and does have a gasket to enhance waterproofing. We also have a large mic aperture Notice how I mentioned enhance waterproofing. Well, this was because this device does not have an IP rating, unlike its fellow family member’s as this was another area where OnePlus has been able to remove a cost from production and design development. I have not tested how resilient to water this phone is but during my time with it, I have never been concerned about the liguid ingress protection on offer. It even managed to survive having a half can of Monster spilt on it with no ill-effects as far as I can tell and that was 2 weeks ago!

Moving around to the left-hand side is where you will be able to find the volume rocker key. Not much more to say on this on apart from it give a good positive clicking action dn is easy to find after the initial first few minutes of adapting form the previous phone I had been using.

Moving around the top we have got we have got a pinhole mic and again a secondary larger mic. You will have noticed I have referred to oval shaped holes on the phone as additional mic inputs however I am yet too have had this confirmed by anyone, once I have the update I will be sure to include it here as either confirmation or correction as required.

The rear of the phone contains the camera module, which contains three different camera sensors/lenses. Firstly the primary is a 50MP Sony IMX 766 sensor with an f/1.8 aperture and a 7P lens. Next is the 8Mp f/2.2 aperture Ultra-Wide angle. Lastly, we have got a 2MP macro camera which has an effective shooting distance of 2-4cm. They are also supported by the same dual-LED “ring flash” that was to be found on the OnePus 10Pro 5G

Around the front is where we find the 6.7 ” display which has a resolution of 2412 x 1080 with a PPI of 394 and an aspect ratio of 20.1:9. The panel is a flat one and is made up of the same Fluid AMOLED that is found on the Nord 2 5G range.

It will support up to 120Hz but it will only allow three options of 60Hz, 90 and of course 120Hz. There are a load of other little features about the screen but I will cover those more in the full review.

For now, though I can say this display is a good display and I really like using it.

The last thing to mention on the top is the top speaker which hides just below the bezel and it actually sounds reasonably good given the constraints of the space it occupies certainly good enough for Zoom calls etc.

That concludes the hardware tour. Now that I have taken to going through hardware detail in a bit more detail and depth I am drawn to the similarities between this device and the Nord 2 5G as there is a lot that this very similar to that device in terms of the specs, the screen and the camera setup. Some may even be inclined to say that this is where this phone may fit as a Nord 2 Pro, above the Nord 2 and below the 10 Pro, an interesting thought but requires a bit more pondering on that one I think. 

Specifications

Hardware

This is where OnePlus is really hoping that they can draw in the specs aficionados. There are a couple of key areas where the OnePlus 10T separates itself from the masses. As normal I am going to go through these key areas as otherwise, the phone is your normal glass-fronted rectangle chock full of some very shiny hardware. So the key features I wish to talk about are.

1. Battery and charging
2. Processor
3. Back panel

So the first thing I want to cover is the battery and the charging as this is the first OnePlus device in the European market that has got the first 150w charging speed. This is down to the use of the new SuperVOOC 150W fast charging system which is a propriety system that has been developed by the OnePlus and Oppo partnership. We have already seen the SuperVOOC charging technology on some of the OPPO lineups of phones. This is a name change for the OnePlus as previously they called their charging technology was called Dart charge.

I am really happy to see that we are now starting to see these faster-charging speeds on phones however the issue I have here is that the use of the Propreit technology does limit the usefulness of the charger for powering other devices. It would be awesome if, for example, I could use the SuperVOOC 160W charger to charge my Chromebook however as the SuperVOOC 160w charger does not support Power Delivery that will not work so it means I still have to rely on my trusty Anker Mini GAn charger. As for the battery itself, this is designed to that it works as a two-cell system which will allow for faster charging as you are no longer having to cram the power into one battery. It does mean that you have to carry out some cell balancing near the end of the charging cycle. This however is all taken care of by the SuperVOOC charger and minimal heat actually gets transferred to the device when it is under charger load.

In terms of speed to recharge the phone, its advertised rate is 19 minutes to fill the 4,800 mAh battery and a day’s charger from 1o minutes of charging. These speeds are awesome and it makes up for the lack of one of the biggest convenience features of the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G device and also the preceding 9 Series. This is also a downside of the bigger battery technology and the larger heatsink as they were not able to fit in a wireless charging coil. More on this later on though when I cover the cons

Next up have the processor which is again another of the main attractions of this device. OnePlus have managed to put a Snapdragon 8+ gen 1 into the phone which means that it is packing the latest and greatest in terms of chip performance and power. insert snapdragon image here I have not got another Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 device available to draw a direct comparison against, but I can say with a certain degree of confidence that this phone is fast and it feels it in normal day-to-day use. I was never left wanting when I was trying to load apps and move through the UI. The only time i was left wanting was when I was in a weak signal area and I was being let down by the mobile network signal. This was something that did happen when I was touring the southwest coast of Wales on a recent trip. I was trying to push this phone so I tested opening multiple apps in sequence to see if I could get it to stutter at all. performed this test of the Pixel 6 Pro that I run as my daily driver as well and the results are shown in the video below.

As we can see from the video and as I expected there is some slight difference in the speed of the apps opening once a few apps are open. This will of course be affected by RAM as well, with the Pixel 6Pro having 12 GB of RAM and the OnePlus 10T having 16 GB of RAM. These differences in RAM However should not come into effect until the apps are being “reopened” For the first opening of the app the device should be essentially just working on the power of the processor with minimal support from the RAM. It also has to be stated that the Pixel 6 Pro is on Android 13 whereas the OnePlus 10T is running on Android 12 so there will, of course, be differences due to the way that these respective Operating systems deal with cache memory usage etc.

Put simply if you are looking for speed over anything else then you want a phone with the SnapDragon 8+ Gen 1 inside it which is exactly what OnePlus has delivered and just to make it extra punchy, they slathered a massive 16GB of RAM on top. That is the same amount of RAM as my Macbook Pro 14! With that being said the difference was not as marked as I expected it to be.

I also found that the phone was plenty fast enough for even my moderate gaming needs, admittedly these don’t extend much further than the odd game of World of Warships and Alto’s Odessy but the phone was slick to l0ad up the game and the UI was buttery smooth, this was no doubt helped along by the crisp 120Hz refresh rate of the screen which allowed the gameplay to be smooth and stutter-free.

Next is a bit of a weird one that I would normally not cover in the hardware section of a review but I feel that this needs to be mentioned. The back panel of the phone. it is not what most people think in that it is not made out of Toughened glass or indeed any glass. it is on the other hand made up of a type of plastic known in the “tech world as Glastic” it has some of the properties of Glass but is made out of a plastic composite.

This is a distinct departure from what we have seen before with the OnePlus Flagship lineup. While it doesn’t necessarily feel as premium it does actually bring some benefits that I feel do get overlooked by some reviews. As the material used is not as dense it does not block the radio signals in and out of the phone meaning that you will not find an antenna break line anywhere on the outside of the phone. This is also due to the outside of the frame being made of plastic as well. In theory, this should allow for a near 360-degree antenna coverage and it should be better than say the likes of the Pixel 6 Pro.

While this was true for mobile signal and Wi-fi as far as I could tell. I did find that the phone really struggled to maintain a GPS signal in some of the areas in South Wales when I driving between our cottage and the various sites we wished to visit. I also had this occur in possibly the flattest of all counties East Anglia! As such I don’t think that problem is due to not having a line of sight to the Satellites but potentially more to do with how good the GPS radio is and where it is positioned on the device. I have asked to see if fellow reviewers have had a similar experience as I did but they have not been able to confirm this or not.

Those are really for me the real differentiators between this and some of the similar phones that are being offered at these price points. There are of course two other things that need to be addressed which I do think are things that OnePlus users will miss. The first is of course the most obvious. I am of course talking about the alert slider or more accurately the lack of one. This feature has been a staple of the Oneplus Flagship lineup since the very first OnePlus One was released to the market. It was even present on the OnePlus X which was sadly the only ever version that we saw of that device. This is the 1st OnepLus device I have ever encountered without this brilliant feature and I have to say it is something that I miss.

Alert Slider we miss you!

It was not something that I used every day as I work in an environment where it is required to not have my phone ringing or pinging away constantly. Honestly, i used to use it as something that i would absent-mindedly fiddle with in my pocket more often than not but on the occasion where I did need to quickly change my alerts to loud or silent it was just great to have the facility to do so with a simple slide of the switch. I have asked for the reason for its exclusion on this phone and the cited reason was that the space it takes up is being used for seeking out the extra battery size without making the phone thicker or wider. I am not 100% that I buy this but whatever the reason it is not there it stings a bit to not have it on board as it was a genuinely useful feature that people loved, it was also something that was a big standout feature for OnePlus as it made the phones different. I do hope that they can find a way to get it back on board for the OnePlus 11T if they are going to go down that route next year.

The second big omission for me is the lack of QI Wireless charging. I feel that for a phone of this level and also this price point wireless charging is a must-have as people have now come to expect it on their devices. Again I understand from a design point of view it would have added extra bulk to the rear of the phone and it would have also added weight. However with all that being said QI Wireless charging has been a normal way of people charging phones these days with most new cars now either featuring it or at least having it as an option. This for me is an indicator that technology has moved out of the niche domain and into the mainstream as the car industry can in certain terms be quite a bit behind that of the mobile tech industry. I am aware that OnePlus, has the technology to include this even with the SuperVOOC Wireless charging technology that was seen on the OnePlus 10 pro earlier on this year so this is just a cost-saving exercise in my mind and it is one that I feel they didn’t need to do. If I am paying over £700 for a phone I expect it to be near flagship grade and this requires in my eyes at least QI Wireless charging onboard.

Finally, another commission that is not as major as the other two mentioned above is the lack of the official IP rating on the phone as again this is just something that has come to expect for this price point these days. Now I know that while the phone has not got an IP rating the phone is at least splash resistant as I mentioned earlier this test phone has had an energy drink shower!  Surely in terms of the scale that OnePlus is hoping to shift these phones, it would have not cost that much to get the official rating, so instead of scrimping next time around just send it through the testing and certification process, please!

So that wraps up my thought on the hardware side of the phone. Now it is time for the cameras!

Camera

I have seen a lot of people who have been hating the Oneplus 10T for the camera which they are stating is a massive negative on the phone. I have seen some reviewers who are actually calling out OnePlus and saying that this is now the decline of OnePlus! Now whilst I don’t necessarily agree with that extreme judgement, I am not sure that the direction Oneplus have taken with the 10T’s camera is the correct way to go. don’t get me wrong i actually think that camera setup is absolutely fine and i am very happy with the result. i mainly take a lot of wide-angle photos or landscape shots and the camera has performed really well in these scenarios of choice. During the review period, I was lucky enough to away on a “staycation” in South Wales. As such, I was able to really catch some outstanding scenes with this camera and I would like to share the with you if I can.

As you can see there is quite a good mix of various different styles of photos in the mix here and I was suitably impressed with these images and many more that I have taken in my time with the phone over the few weeks I have had use of it. 

Now, none of this should come as a surprise as the camera being used here are essentially the same as those found on the OnePlus Nord 2 5G that I reviewed near the end of last year. I really enjoyed using that camera and I have really enjoyed using this one as well. The sensors are accurate and the time between shots is quick using the software is easy and does allow you to switch into the more advanced stuff if you wish to. Now I have not had the opportunity to use the Oneplus 10 Pro 5G with all the Hasselblad software that came on that phone but I did test these features when I was using the Oneplus 9 Pro 5G and I honestly would have preferred that they were not on that phone as in my eyes all they did was add to the cost of an already expensive phone. 

I suppose what I am saying is if you like your camera relatively simple and easy to use without having to put a massive amount of thought into what you are doing then this is exactly that. If you want a pro Grade camera with enhanced functionality then consider a Oneplus 10 Pro 5G however i think you may be better served with something in the Sony Xperia lineup as they are really honing in on full-featured Cameras on their latest releases but you are paying a premium for this. I think in this vain this is why the Pixel phone lineup has also appealed to me as it is a simple and intuitive camera UI that actually takes some damn fine images.

On the video front, the camera is again absolutely serviceable without needing to be something fancy and shouty. I very rarely use the video on my phone and I will really only use it to capture footage on the rare occasion when something catches my eye. this waterfall was one of these moments.

As you can see the quality is fine for capturing these memories but it isn’t going to worry anyone in the film industry either!

As for the selfie camera well it does what it says on the tin and having the slightly wider angle lens does help when you are trying to squeeze in more than one person. See the example below.

It does the job and I was able to get some nice shots of me and my family but you will have to make do with the above!

For a phone that is not marketed with the camera at the forefront, this is a good fit for a camera in my opinion and I had no reason to question its performance when I was using it.

That pretty much covers that camera and my thoughts. Now time for the software. 

Software

This can and has broken great phones for me in the past fortunately I have found that the software on the OnePlus 10T does not fall into this category. Yes, this is Oxygen OS with a lot of influence from the sister brand Oppo’s Colour OS but I have used a lot worse when it comes to customizations. the things that made a OnePlus phone are still here and they are good. OnePlus have also been careful to not include too much bloat and associated crapware on the phone when you get it out of the box. I found that the UI was intuitive and smooth in daily tasks with barely a hiccup. The icon scaling was adequate and didn’t feel that it was too cramped when I compared it to the Pixel UI. I was only able to get a grid width of 4 icons in the app drawer, which annoyed me when I moved from my Pixel, but I got over it reasonably quickly and OnePlus is not the only offender in this respect. I have been using this alongside an Honor 70 whilst I have been doing this review and I have to say that the OnePlus scales so much better. Here are some comparison pictures of the UI’s in various different scenarios.

It is very much a case of larger icons on the Honor 70 but the smaller text on the titles at least. Fortunately, in the web browser things settle down and the scaling returns to normal as can be seen below. but when you load the same image up on the Pixel things do change quite a bit as you can see below

OnePlus 10T vs Honor 70 Website

However, if I fire up the Pixel 6 pro to the same glorious site then we see another massive change in text size see below.

OnePlus 10T vs Pixel 6 Pro website

Whilst the obvious difference between the phone’s resolution is apparent in that last image the UI does have a part to play in this as the scaling could be allowed to be tweaked further by the user to allow us to create the effect of a higher resolution screen. This is something you have been able to do in Google’s other OS for years and it can be done via developer settings so why can we not be given the option?

Anyway moving away from my pet peeves. I like the things that OnePlus have added to the UI that are nice to have, one in particular that I wish was able to be used on other devices in the form of the Zen Mode app. I find that I use this quite a lot if I have had a stressful day as it gives me a bit of time just before I turn in for the night when I can just zone out for 20 minutes or so and decompress mentally. I actually find that if I am using a different phone (which I do a lot), I will still use the OnePlus 10T to use this app.

The Games mode and app are useful to have all your gaming settings in one place and this, in turn, allows you to control the Hyperboost gaming Engine to take full advantage of the processor power and the GPU. 

It also allows you to have a constant ticker of your performance if that is the sort of thing that is important to you in gaming. You can also set up screen recording from this menu as well. I have not pushed the gaming on this phone as I am not really a big mobile gamer but I like knowing that I can play games with very high performance if I wanted too!

That pretty much closes the software of the phone for me.

Pricing

So the OnePlus 10t comes in two flavours to the UK. they vary in terms of Storage/RAM and colour so nice and simple. If you want the Moonstone Black version then you will get 8 GB RAM + 128 GB Storage for £629 from Oneplus. If you go with the colour of my unit here then you would be choosing Jade green and getting 12GB RAM + 256GB Storage for £729. if you have an older phone that you are willing to get rid of then you can also get a £100 trade-in bonus. I priced up my Pixel 6Pro 128GB and i was offered £400 trade-in value Which isn’t too shabby, however, unlike some other offerings, this value is not deducted from the purchase price and will only be credited to you after the trade-in has gone through, please read through the trade in FAQ’s before going ahead with this option.

Conclusion

So at the top of this review, I stated that the Oneplus 10T doesn’t quite fit into the market anywhere in particular and some of my fellow reviewers have been struggling to find where it fits. i think I can now give you my thoughts and I have a space for where I think this phone sits in the OnePlus stable. 

Firstly who is this phone for, I think this is a phone for those who want the raw performance of a Flagship spec chip, memory and storage but don’t have or want to spend extra on things that may be superfluous to what they need, in this a high-end camera. I  can see this being a phone that gamers would be more than happy with as it gives enough in terms of the gaming performance whilst being good in other aspects of what that sector wants. This is not a phone for the camera aficionados but that is fine as that is where the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G sits in the lineup. I think the segment that will really appreciate this phone will be those of us who are a bit too old for being wannabe social influencers but still want to have fun with their phone and demand the best in terms of the hardware that counts to them. ironically enough this is actually the segment i see that i could potentially fit into if i was actually buying the phone!

I do think that OnePlus did however make one big mistake when they launched this phone. it should not have been called the OnePlus 10T. As I mentioned at the top of the review the T has been traditionally been used as a moniker for the mid-season refresh of the existing lineup that was launched earlier that year. This phone falls into a different slot for me it falls into the space between the Oneplus flagship lineup and the excellent Nord range of phones. in that respect, I feel that this phone should have been called the OnePlus Nord 2 Pro. If that had been the case then I honestly think there would not have been as much disdain from the industry as a whole and people would have been able to see what Oneplus had been trying to do with the phone. By calling it the OnePlus 10T the industry was expecting this to be an evolution of what had come before in the form of the OnePlus 10Pro 5G which is not what this phone is about.

i will leave you to ponder this thought and on that bombshell, I will see you on the next one which is coming soon.

The post OnePlus 10T 5G – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Staring at the top is where we will find the normal pinhole speaker and that is it.

Moving down the right-hand side we can see the volume rocker switch that sits above the power key which will also acct as a Google Assistant key on a long press if you wish to set it up this way.

Around the bottom things get a little bit busier here as we have a dual sim card slot, one of the speakers (this one is bottom-firing), another pinhole mic and the USB Type C port that Support Honor’s propriety SuperCharge tech at up to 66w in this instance.

The sim card slot does have a waterproofing ring around it but this phone does not have an IP rating, unfortunately.

On the left-hand side, we are met with a barren expanse of nothingness which is fine with me as I am right-handed but could be annoying for left-handed users but then this is true of most phones on the market.

Going around to the back is where we find the gorgeous shimmery, colour-changing (it is subtle but it is there) back panel which I believe is toughened glass but at this point, I am not certain. It does feel good and it is not a fingerprint magnet which I really like. Nestlered up in the top left quarter of the phone is where we can find the twin camera setup which consists of three different camera sensors including the world’s first Sony IMX800 54MP Super Sensing Main Camera (f/1.9 aperture), a 50MP Ultra Wide & Macro Main Camera(f/2.2 aperture) and a 2MP Depth Camera (f/2.4 aperture). These cameras will also pull double duty and work video recording along with various AI tweaked and assisted modes. I am looking forward to trying them out, especially Solo Shot.

Up from the have the Display along with a 32MP Super Clear Selfie Camera (f/2.4 aperture) hole punch camera that again will work for video and AI Assisted modes for those all-important selfies. Above the display is the earpiece which is nestled into a minuscule gap between the edge of the frame and the screen itself. Onto the display though. This measures in at 6.67 “diagonal and has an FHD+ 2400 x 1080 resolution with a PPI of 395 and a 20.1 aspect ratio. It will support 1.07 billion colours and it is rated for DCI-P3  with a wide colour gamut. I have to say it looks really good and I am a fan to see that it has a variable refresh rate although this is limited to 60hz or 120hz instead of being infinitely variable like on some other devices. I also have to say that I really do like the curve to the edge of the phone. It feels really smoothly done and natural and it makes the phone feel a lot slimmer than it actually is.

here are a few more shot in comparison to the Oneplus 10T which I am just finishing the review of.

Size wise they are very similar with the Honor 70 being a bit thinner shorter and narrower. It could be said that these phones are targeting a similar market but more of that in the OnePlus 10T review!

Overall this is a nice-looking phone albeit with a few missing compromises ie no stereo speaker setup, no official IP rating and of course no headphone jack or expandable storage. however, this is also a phone with a premium feel for a mid-range price and that is very important.

I was talking to a colleague today bout this phone and he is coming from a Huawei P20 Pro, he has been looking to upgrade for a while but likes the design language of the P20 pro along with the features. Now he hasn’t even seen or held the phone yet but he is very keen to see it as soon as possible. it could very well be a potential upgrade for him as it has the features he wants for a price he wants to pay

Here is the unboxing video that I promised above for your viewing pleasure

So what is that price and how and where can I get one? If you are after the Emerald Green, Midnight Black or Crystal Silver then these can be had for £479.99 for the 128GB 8GB RAM version. If however, you demand a bit more storage then you get the Emerald Green or Midnight Black in 256GB Storage for £529.99 (currently not showing on the website).

They are currently available to preorder from HiHonor but you will get a free pair of HONOR Earbuds 3 Pro which are usually worth £169.99 if you order before the 16th of September while stocks last. Preorders deliveries will arrive by the 2nd of September. This is also when it will available to buy from other stores such as Argos, Currys, Amazon and other mobile retailers.

I will be of course using the phone as my daily driver for the next few days and will be sharing a full review as soon as possible with you right here on Coolsmartphone.

The post Honor 70 – Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Right let me just come out and say it, I know absolutely nothing about Dragon Ball Z, (might be my age) but if you’re a fan of this comic series, or even a collector of special edition devices,  this might just be the phone for you.

The device is a heavily skinned version of the Realme GT Neo 3T, with Dragon Ball wallpapers, and all the icons skinned to match the Dragon Ball theme. To be brutally honest this theming just wasn’t for me I felt it was a bit to “cartoony” but then this is a Manga cartoon themed device what did I expect?

The Dragon Ball Z theming doesn’t stop there, the device itself is a Blue and Orange colour. The device box is Dragon Ball Z themed, with Dragon Ball artwork throughout. Also in the box is some of the best included stickers Ive come across, even the sim ejection tool is a Dragon Ball special edition version, along with a special edition Dragon Ball Z playing card, a TPU case and a 80W charger ( remember when they used to be included ? )

Device Specs:-

• Dimensions                           162.90 x 75.80 x 8.65 mm
• Weight                                    194.50 g
• Display                                   Super AMOLED , 120 Hz , 1080 x 2400 px (6.62″) 398 ppi
• Display protection               Corning Gorilla Glass 5
• Standard battery                  Li-Ion 5000 mAh
• Quick battery charging       80W Superdart Charging
• Internal memory                  128 GB, 256 GB
• RAM memory                       8 GB
• Operating system                 Android 12
• Interface                                realme UI 3.0
• Processor                               Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SM8250
• Processor clock:                   3.20 GHz
• Number of cores:                 8
• GPU:                                      Adreno 65
• DualSIM                                Dual nanoSIM
• 64 Mp AI Tripple Camera.
• Stainless Steel Vapour Cooling.
• GT Mode 3.
• Dual Stereo Speakers.
• Tactile Vibration Engine 2.

Good Points:-

•  lightning-fast fingerprint reader.
• Amazing Battery Life.
• Super fast charging.
• Textured power switch.
•  COD Mobile played with absolutely no issues.
• Good Stereo speaker 
• Good clear, bright screen.
• 120Hz display. 

Bad points:-
 

• Sometimes some stutter all lag when scrolling on pages for example on the Google now feed page.
• A few bloat apps installed, linkedin, booking.com etc. But not as many as I’ve seen in previous devices.
• No wireless charging.
• No SD Card support. 
• Camera Performance in less than ideal conditions.
• The pre-installed screen protector was a bit of a fingerprint magnetic.

Design:-

If we start at the top of the phone, there isn’t much there, but there is a pinhole microphone. Additionally, the phone’s edge is somewhat recessed, which makes it feel quite comfortable in the hand. Additionally, we see one of the two speaker grills, which is a wonderful addition on a phone of this kind and helps the speakers produce a limited stereo illusion.

The power key is located on the right side, lower, and has a great texture that makes it easier to feel for in darkness. 

Moving on to the bottom of the device we have the bottom-firing speaker, which does generate decent sound. Next, we have a USB Type C port that supports Superdart Charger technology, which enables incredibly quick charging. More on this later. Another effective pinhole microphone for voice pickup is presented next. The last item is the Dual Nano sim cardholder.

The individually mounted volume buttons are located on the left side and have a nice, positive clicking action when used. Like other Realme devices the separation of the buttons because it prevents you from confusing the volume for the power button.

On the front is situated the  earpiece/speaker, which is creates the illusion of stereo separation. This speaker’s volume is a little lower than the one on the base, but still gives a good sound.  Additionally, there is a front-facing camera with the following specifications: 16 MP, f/2.5, which makes it ideal for selfies without completely erasing the background. It can capture videos in 1080p at 30 frames per second, thus using it for video call

 The rear cover’s quality is almost rubberized to the touch, pleasant to the touch, and glossy in a slight relief near the Dragon Ball insignia in the upper right. The sides are orange and blue in colour. You may still get the GT Neo 3T in the most traditional hues if colour and finish are a concern for you.

The smartphone’s aluminium frame is constructed with the same meticulous attention to detail that Realme has been known for in all of its products, from the most affordable to the most expensive: The smartphone weighs 195g and measures 162.9 75.8 8.7mm, making it not particularly lightweight but usable in all situations. The smartphone’s curved edges, which make it easier to use and in more situations, are quite comfortable in my opinion. The bump chamber is also gorgeous, with its orange chrome finishes leaving a terrific impression.

One of the things that hasn’t advanced (however, let’s be clear, it wasn’t essential!) The display is the same one that was used on the GT2 from the previous year, measuring 6.62 inches with FullHD + resolution, Samsung’s matrix panel AMOLED E4 with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz and a touch sampling rate of up to 360 Hz. Although I did find that the auto brightness was to aggressive in its settings, but simple to toggle off. 

The panel’s backlighting feature, which has a maximum brightness of 1300 nits, is a superb technical jewel. Beyond the dull technical specifications that almost all smartphones in this price range share, it must be said that Realme is a guarantee as usual: from the incredible visibility in direct sunlight to the colour accuracy and dependability of the images, a quality that doubtless many smartphones, even those made by more expensive and well-known manufacturers, occasionally struggle to achieve.

The smartphone’s attached hardware, albeit not of the newest generation, enables it to perform admirably in all conditions, including those requiring the most resources. On the other hand, we’re talking about a smartphone that costs around £500 , so it is the very minimum that you can expect. a thing from this category. The smartphone manages gaming, multitasking, and operations of all types with a breeze.

Graphite, diamond thermal gel, silicon sheets, and other elements capable of ensuring effective heat dissipation make up the framework of the Realme GT series’ cooling system, which is what unquestionably distinguishes it from competing smartphones. According to the manufacturer, the GT Neo 3T’s cooling system, which measures 4.129 mm2, is the largest one ever built into a Realme smartphone. In fact, during CPU stress tests, the GT Neo 3T performs at 90 to 100 percent of its potential for as long as samples are taken, which is an excellent result given that the temperature increase is barely perceptible to the touch.

Software:- 

Realme GT Neo 3T, which will launch in mid-2022, has Android 12 onboard, one major release more than the previous model, along with the custom Realme UI 3.0. The user interface (UI) is unchanged aesthetically, but as always, it enhances the user experience, which is now even faster and smoother thanks to recent corporate upgrades.

Therefore, there won’t be any significant modifications made, if any at all. The Privacy, with its dashboard including user-related information and permissions, is the most important area in need of improvement. The rest of the time, RealmeUI in-depth is used, which is repeatedly confirmed to be my personal favourite ROM for Android handsets.

Unusually there were only a couple of pre installed apps, linkedin, Facebook TikTok, and Booking.com, these can be easily uninstalled, if not needed.

In Use:-

For this review I decided to put my S22 Ultra in a drawer and solely used the Realme GT Neo as my only device, At the base there is the  Snapdragon 870 5G 7nm Octa-core, flanked by 8GB RAM memory LPDDR4X and 256GB of dual-channel storage type UFS 3.1 

I found device a breeze to use, it was extremely snappy, as was able to handle any task I threw at it, including some long gaming sessions on Call Of Duty Mobile. I did find some very slight lag, but this was only limited to the Gogle Now feed. The under screen optical fingerprint reader, worked absolutely flawlessly, and would open first time 95 times out of a 100. Powering down the device needed some new muscle memory and it required a long press of the power button and the volume up key. Just pressing the power button triggered the Google Assistant. 

Call quality was clear and mobile data performance was more than adequate, with some impressive 5G speeds, RCS messaging worked straight away,

Camera. 

Photographically speaking, however, small steps have been taken by the company: the primary lens counts as much as 64MP available and has an aperture of f / 1.8, the lens ultra-wide is 8MP f / 2.3 and the lens macro finally, it is from 2MP f / 2.4. The front selfie completes the kit of lenses, which remains 16MP with f / 2.5 aperture.

The RealmeUI camera app has improved with the new update, including new options for more seasoned users who can now regulate the focus, shutter speed, lens exhibition, and much more. This is the first thing I noticed.

However, when it comes to photography, the Realme GT Neo 3T produces stunning images throughout the day with a high degree of detail, fantastic dynamic range, and outstanding lighting adjustability. Even if the results tend to go somewhat worse as the light diminishes, they are still excellent and competitive with those of other smartphones in the same price range. Even though, to be honest, the final photo may have slightly distorted colours if there are a lot of warm lighting present, the results at night are good because the smartphone regulates the light sources well. However, this frequently occurs.

The 16MP selfie camera can capture images with superb focus and beautiful bokeh when used during the day, but at night it performs somewhat less well due to the necessity for a steady hand. The films may now be recorded up to 4K 60fps, where there is outstanding information and excellent sharpness. For my personal tastes, FullHD recordings continue to be preferred due to their superior stabilisation.

Some Video footage. 

Battery Life.

The My typical days used included some call of duty mobile gaming watching a tiktok (far too much I know it’s an addiction) checking in on my other social media applications again too many times per day.

Listening to pocketcasts for a few hours location services on all the time for my weather service and my life360 service and three email accounts constantly syncing.

I was able to get all but 6 hrs of screen on time, to be honest it did feel the GT Neo 3T was better on battery than my S22 Ultra.

It was time to top GT Neo up, which I did using the supplied 80W Superdart Charger. Which took the device from 2% to full in just 33 mins. And with charging speeds like that I can almost forgive the lack of wireless charging.

GT Mode. Turned on for a full day, there was a noticeable increase in how the device felt, it was super responsive and snappy when flicking through menus or opening apps, and on some occasions it felt faster than my S22 Ultra.

At the end of my normal days use with GT Mode on all day my battery was at 35% so a hit on the battery life, but that’s running at the max settings all day.

Conclusion:-

If your a fan of the Dragon Ball Z series this is definitely the phone for you, but I reviewed it as a mid range (approx. £500) phone, and it didn’t disappoint at all, the screen was fluid at 120Hz refresh rate, and the whole device was snappy to use. The battery life was excellent and its easily a tow day per charge phone, that tied to the included 80W charger meant the device was topped up in the length of a shower. I did find that the auto brightness was a bit to aggressive for my liking but it was quickly toggled off.  The GT Neo 3T felt a good size in the hand and on some occasions felt preferable to use over my S22 Ultra. I’ve got wireless charging pads all over the house and even in the car, and due to the omission of wireless charging I did miss just plonking down my phone for a quick charge.  

The post Realme GT NEO 3T Dragon Ball Z – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

This is one of the latest devices from Realme and is a device that kind of sits in between the Realme GT 5G that was reviewed recently and the Realme GT 2 Pro in terms of pricing. In terms of hardware, some subtle differences separate from the GT 2 series. One of the key hardware differentiators is the fact that this phone is capable of charging at a massive 150W via the UltraDart Charge technology. This is a significant step up from the charging speed on the GT 2 which was a paltry 65W SuperDart charging. there are of course few more differences which we will uncover during the full course of the review.

Design

If we start from the top we have got very little on the top end of the phone but we do have a pinhole microphone. and the edge of the phone is slightly inset making it feel quite comfortable in the hand. We also find one of the two speaker grills that work to create a limited stereo effect of the speakers which is a nice touch to see on this grade of the phone.

Moving down to the right-hand side we find the power key which has some nice texture on it making it a bit easier to find by feel.

The base of the phone shares the same slight inset as can be found at the top. There is a lot going on here and it is quite busy. Down here we also find the bottom-firing speaker which does produce pretty good sound. Next, we have got a USB Type C port which allows very fast charging via the Superdart Charger technology more on this later though. Next up is another pinhole microphone for voice pickup which works well. Lastly, we have got the Dual Nano sim cardholder which does have a waterproof gasket around it for some waterproofing.

The left-hand side has the individually mounted volume buttons which have a nice positive clicking action and fall nicely below the thumb when being used in the right hand, it might be a bit more awkward to use if you are left-handed but I like the separation of the buttons as it avoids you mistaking the volume for the power button.

Around the front at the top, we have got the front earpiece/speaker which is clear and gives the effect of stereo separation the volume of this speaker is a bit lower than the one found on the base but this is normal for this sort of setup as my Oneplus Nord 2 5G uses the exact same setup. The speaker is hidden behind a very small and skinny grill and it is situated between the top of the phone and the top of the screen. It would be a fair assumption that this earpiece is the same component used for the speaker grill I mentioned on the top of the phone as they do line pretty well.

We also have the front-facing camera which is a 16 MP, f/2.45 24mm (wide), 1/3.09″, 1.0µm unit so works well for selfies whilst also not obliterating the background due to it being a wideish angle. It can also work at 1080p at 30fps for video recording so would be fine for use for video calls on Zoom etc. Unlike the GT 2, this one is mounted in the centre of the screen which is the more common placement for this type of speaker.

Moving down from the speaker and camera we have the 6.7″ display which has a resolution of 1080 x 2412  and a PPI of 394. The aspect ratio is 20.1:9 which is a nice size not being too skinny but still having enough width to display content. Lastly, this screen can have a refresh rate that will dynamically switch between 60HZ and 120HZ. You can leave this to be adaptive which is what I did or you can manually set it at either mode depending on your requirements. I found the refresh rate to be satisfactory in normal use and it was plenty fast enough for my liking. The last thing of note is the brightness for the screen will purportedly reach near 500 nits, whilst I have not been able to confirm this as I don’t have the correct equipment to test, I can confirm that the screen does get really bright, I had no issues reading the screen under direct sunlight!

Around the back, we have got two main points of interest for the phone. The first is the paint job and then the second is the camera module that has been used. I have the Sprint White and I just love the way that this looks. That twin racing stripe design that has drawn its inspiration from the likes of “Le Mans” racing cars from the 60s is just such a cool detail. I particularly like the way that the camera module interrupts the “stripes” and then a little further down you get the same effect from the Realme Logo. I would recommend this with the colour Sprint White or the Nitro Blue version. I have not seen the other variant which is more sedate Asphalt Black but I presume this has a more textured and roughened finish to it than on the other two more akin to what was seen on the original Realme 8 Pro that I reviewed a while ago.

The next bit for the back panel is the other big selling point that you can see the Camera modules. On the back panel, we have got a module made up of three lenses that have the following sensors:  50MP main, 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro. I will cover these cameras in a bit more detail further down in the review.

In terms of the actual external dimensions and weight we are again in very familiar territory with the GT 2 with the Lenght being 163.3mm Width being 75.6mm the depth being 8.2mm and finally weight being 188g which does make 1o grams. In the hand, you will not notice these differences at all. It does feel great in the hand and I like that I am not faced with a design that loves fingerprints like most other high-end flagships. I have not felt the need to put a case on this phone which I would normally do with all my phones either that or a skin which I ended up doing with my daily driver the Pixel 6 Pro. incidentally, as I have mentioned the phone the Realme GT 3 Neo 150W is so much lighter than the P6Pro that it is refreshing to use a lighter phone after having spent so long with the heavier phone.

In the box you do of course get your usual Realme goodies like a case the sim eject pin, a beefy USB to USB Type C cable and the beast of a charger which i am going to talk more about very soon, Honestly I think the charger is heavier than the phone!!

Next up it is time to look at the specifications of the phone so here comes the table.

Specifications

Now that we have seen the raw specs let’s have a closer look at some of the key hardware features

Hardware

I want to start with the headline feature for this phone the charging speed. It is such a big feature Realme decided to include it in the phone’s name! So it seems that charging speeds has become one of the new smartphone battlegrounds, especially with the onset of GAN technology which is allowing chargers to become much smaller whilst still maintaining the ability to push high amounts of power. Another area where this technology has developed is the use of split cell battery packs. Add to this the propriety charging technology and software that each manufacturer seems to be developing (or renaming) and we have a hotly contested bed of development.

Realme’s Solution is to use their own UDCA Charging Architecture to power the 150W UltraDart charger allowing the phone to fully recharge in record time.  All this is kept safe by the TUV Rheinland certified process that includes 38 Levels of Safety protection and a Smart MCU chip for management of the two battery cells. The eagle-eyed of you may have noticed that the Realme GT Neo 3 also comes in another flavour albeit with a slightly bigger battery. This one uses a single cell battery of the more traditional design and charging speed of 80W! having the slower charger speed does allow for an Extra 500mAh to be crammed into the battery giving a 5000mAH pack instead of the 150W’s 4500mHA.

I have only used the faster-charging version of the 2 devices and I have found that in terms of battery I have not been left lacking during a normal day even with that slightly smaller pack size. This in turn down to the fantastically efficient but still power full chipset.

The Chipset is the brain of any mobile tech these days and this is another example of the ladies and gents of Mediatek smashing it. I have not had any performance issues or excessive heat build-up on the new Mediatek 8100 5G processor. Like the processor in the Oneplus Nord 2 5G that I reviewed near the end of last year, this chipset really impresses. I used to be a bit of a Snapdragon snob back in the early days of the super processor. The phone loads apps quickly and cuts through most tasks like a knife through hot butter. All this being said the processor is only as good as the other components that it is supported by and again Realme have brought the A -Game, we find that we have UFS 3.1 Storage and also 6400Mhz of LPDDR5 RAM a massive 12GB of the stuff.

The Mediatek chipset isn’t the only processer present on the Realme GT Neo 3 150W though as there is also a dedicated display processor to allow the 120fps framerate. Now whilst it is not as granular a framerate as that seen on the Pixel 6 Pro I have been using it on Auto mode for the adaptive rate and I have found that it performs smoothly with very little evidence of it stitching between the standard 60hz  to the 120hz max rate that can be achieved. Scrolling through text-based lists and the like is smooth and flow really well. When I have been playing games I found the screen to be pleasing to the eye and the framerates were what I expected them to be. I will admit that unlike some testers my gaming choices don’t tend to push the phone to its limits but i was happy with the result. I also found that when watching videos the playback was also buttery smooth with many an hour spent watching videos on either Netflix or YouTube.

Cooling is another very important part of the hardware puzzle and again we see some time-tested technology on this phone in the form of a Stainless Steel Vapor Cooling System Max which is 7% larger than the one found on the GT 2 Pro which is really nice to see given that the phone sizes are extremely comparable. It was very rare for the exterior of the phone to get uncomfortably hot. I did notice the normal heat build-up that comes with using services like Google Maps for a prolonged time period and when using the camera intensively a bit of heat can be felt. This is pretty much par for the course with a modern smartphone these days though so I can forgive the phone for this.

Moving on from the hardware the call performance and connectivity of this phone were as you would expect from a modern smartphone pretty much on par. I have found that my calls were crystal clear and I had no issues with the signal when making those calls. As I found when I was testing the Relame GT 2 5G, this was ever so slightly better than what I had seen on my Pixel 6 Pro. this is partially due to the extensive use of the integrated antennas and the fact that the central core to the phone is actually a plastic component allowing for seamless transmission from the antennas located around the body of the phone. I also found that Wi-fi performance was excellent with it consistently getting about the same as I found on my Pixel 6 Pro. I was also suitably impressed with the Bluetooth capability of the device with a very good connection to my car for use when driving and unlike some other phones, I have tried recently it was always fast to regain the connection when I asked it to do so.

Last but not least the biometrics of the phone ie the Fingerprint Scanner was quick and responsive with very few misreads of my digits when in use. The face unlock was good as you would expect it to be with a 16mp camera behind it but as always this is more a convenience factor and not something I would recommend using for actually securing your phone as a primary solution as like and 2D scan it can easily be fooled into unlocking your device.

That pretty much covers the Hardware elements of the phone, next up is the camera performance.

Camera

The camera on this phone is very similar to the one found on Realme GT 2 5G. I found it more than capable of keeping up with the task of taking day to day photos and the software was a pleasure to use. While I am by no means a photographer I can appreciate a good photo when I see one, especially if the colours are accurate and vibrant. Fortunately, the Realme GT 3 Neo 150w stands proud in the section.  Below are a selection of photos taken with the phone during my review period and I hope this shows the abilities of the camera.

The main sensor is not too bad and produces pretty good quality images from the 50mp and f/1.9 sensor with vibrant colours and good levels of contrast. The night mode works well and does create some good photos in tricky conditions. I was more than happy to use it for capturing the antic of some grown men playing with Radio Controlled trucks!

The Zoom is not really anything massively impressive but as long as you don’t push it too hard you will get some useable results. However, once you go into the higher levels expect to start seeing some noticeable distortion and cropping as this is only a digital zoom after all.

I found that the night shots were surprisingly colour accurate, especially when compared to the likes of the Honor Magic 4 Pro, recently reviewed here.

When working with the ultrawide camera things were okay as long as you were not trying to get the subject of the image too close as you do start to get a bit of degradation in this instance.

The selfie camera is fine and it does what it says on the tin just be aware of the rather aggressive Ai that is the Norm for phones designed with the Asian market in mind as i found that the Beauty mode, even when turned off, could still be quite intrusive.

The video was serviceable and I have recorded a clip here again of grown men and RC trucks! It will of course support up to 4 K recording if you wish to use it but to be honest, if you are wishing to get good quality 4K footage then this is not really your best option. For the impromptu video of memorable events then this will do the job but you won’t be recording a Cannes film Festival feature on this phone.

I did find the camera software intuitive and easy to navigate through and the heat build-up when using the camera was within the acceptable parameters for a smartphone these days with it only getting a tad warm when I was using it for video over prolonged periods.

Here are a few more general images for you to look at to make your own judgement of the camera.

Software

The software on the Realme Gt Neo 3 150w is pretty much identical to that of the Realme GT 2 5G, which is a good thing as the latest Realme Ui is pretty good especially as they have fixed my biggest annoyance with the previous version. I still am somewhat confused by the way in which you have to interact with the notifications, these require a double press to actually see the content. And the permissions prompt every time you open a core app for the first time is a bit annoying for the first few days. All that being said though if i had to use this as my daily driver I could certainly live with it as it does have enough niceties to keep my interest. I also received at least 2 minor software updates during my time with the device which is nice to see.

It is a bit early to say how well the software will continue to be supported but there is a sign of some light on the horizon. One of my first reviews of a Realme device the Realme 8 Pro is still being used in the house by my wife and I have read that it is due to get the update to Realme UI 3 in the next few weeks to months. Now while my unit does not have it yet it gives me hope about how Realme will address future updates to this and their other devices going forward. Only time will tell if that hope is dashed or delivered upon.

Conclusion

So why should you care about the Realme GT Neo 3 150W phone and choose it over others in this crowded mid-tier high-end segment? Well, there is one big reason and that is of course the stupendously quick charging speed. if you are the type of person who needs their phone charged in less time than it takes to have a shower then this phone will suit you very well as long as that is one of the main features you are drawn to.

The reason for that previous statement is that if you don’t need the phone to charge in an Ultrafast time then there are other options from both Realme and its sister brands in the form of the OnePlus 10R (not available in the UK) and the Realme GT2 5G or GT 2 Pro 5g both of which incidentally are currently cheaper. Looking to outwith the BBK brand family you also have the likes of the upcoming Pixel 6A to consider and the A series line up from Samsung which has always served the market well in this section.

The Realme GT Neo 3 150W is a great fone and is one that I have been very happy to use for the time I have had it. But with so many similarities in terms of functionality, camera and performance I have to bring its reason for existing into question. Yes if you want an Ultrafast charging Phone with the familiarity presented within the very good Realme UI (ie Colour OS/ Oxygen OS) and you are in the UK then this is the only way to currently get it without importing a device. if not then look to the other stablemates in the form of the Realme GT2 5G and the GT2 Pro 5G and save yourself a bit of cash.

Oh if you like racing stripes “Le Mans style” then that is another good reason to go for this phone too!

The Realme GT Neo 150W is available now from Realme’s website for £599

EXTRA EXTRA!!!

What if you like Japanese Superhero Animation then don’t Worry cos Realme of got you covered there as well, keep it on Coolsmartphone.com for the review of the other phone in the GT Neo 3 line up…..

The post Realme GT Neo 3 150W – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Honor Magic 4 Pro

I was a great fan of the previous generation flagships that came out of the great behemoth that was Huawei of old when it still had a smaller scale sibling of Honor under its wing. Those days are gone and the likes of the Huawei P30 Pro got left behind in the wake of the Huawei/Google Mobile Services ban instigated by the Luminous president of yore. Well, thankfully we have moved on from those days and we now have Honor as a fully independent brand from Huawei, which brings a new spark to the company and the ability to use GMS again. we had an inkling of what Honor can do as a standalone brand in the form of the Honor 50 5G which I reviewed recently here for Coolsmartphone.

What we have here is what they can do when they are not restricted by the limitations of trying to build a mid-range phone. We have the Honor Magic 4 Pro and it harks back to the previous pro series device that I had soft spot for from my day using Huawei devices like the P30 Pro. I loved that phone and it brought some true flagship specs to the table and an awesome camera. Can the Honor Magic 4 Pro give the same feel as a flagship or is it just a fluster with its oversized camera module and fancy colour. Well, I hope to find that out over the course of this review.

So as is customary in a review let’s start by having a tour of the device.

Design

We will start at the top edge of the phone which has a Speaker grill for one of the two loudspeakers. This is tucked up in between two of the numerous Antenna break lines as the signal needs to get in and out of the device somehow! to the right of the top section are a microphone hole and a feature that is not often included in phones the IR transmitter. This is predominantly used for the Smart Remote app that is bundled with the phone, not something I played with if i am being honest as it is not a feature I need.

Honor Magic 4 Pro top

Moving around to the right-hand side of the phone is where we will find the volume rocker and just below is the power key. These are again in between more antenna lines. The power key can be set up to either have a long press bring up a Google assistant should you want with a longer press still allowing you to turn the phone off or restart the device. the buttons have positive feedback but feel that Honor missed a trick by not including any texturing on the buttons.

Honor Magic 4 Pro right hand side

Moving down to the bottom edge. is where we will find the second loudspeaker, another microphone and the dual sim tray. Hiding amongst these components is the new SuperCharge 100W charging port that is also capable of supporting display output. It takes the form of USB type C and when plugged into a display gives you the option to use a desktop-style interface along with a keyboard and mouse if you wish to. It is not as good as the offering from Samsung’s DEX offering but it is a nice feature to have on board.

Honor Magic 4 Pro base

As we move around to the left-hand side we have nothing really to speak of apart from more of the ever-prominent antenna lines. As a right-handed user, this is fine for me but left-handed users may find it a bit annoying at first.

Honor Magic 4 Pro left hand side

Next up we will take a trip to the front and the display. Which is a glorious panel measuring in at 6.81″ with a variable refresh rate of between 1Hz to 120Hz LTPO Display. It also features 1920Hz PWM Dimming for those who are sensitive to this. It makes viewing the 2848 x 1312 resolution display very enjoyable and it is a joy to interact with no noticeable lag or false inputs being found in my usage so far.

Honor Magic 4 Pro Display Locked

Up in the top left-hand corner is a camera cut-out that is not the smallest in the world, it does however need to be this size in order to allow for the 2 cameras that reside in it to have enough space. Under the screen, we have got a 12MP camera with f/2.4 aperture and a 100° smart wide-angle selfie. It is capable of capturing some great stills thanks to its Portrait mode and AI anti-distortion. In addition to these features, the camera will also be able to record up to 4K video. So that is the camera but there is also another sensor here which is the 3D Depth Camera which is used primarily for facial recognition with its 3D depth face unlock technology. This is nice to see after coming from a Pixel 6 Pro which has no face unlock something that I missed more than I thought I would.

While we are talking about unlocking the front of the phone also hides the fingerprint reader which is of the Ultrasonic under-display variety and I am very happy to say works like a charm as id plenty fast for quick access to your home screen from unlocked. it features Qualcomm’s 3D Sonic Sensor which is one of the many ways in which the Qualcomm chipset has raised the game with this phone.

I suppose i cannot avoid it any longer but it is time to talk about that rear. the rear is dominated by the “Eye of Muse” camera module which houses a massive 5 camera sensors of various varieties shapes and sizes.

“Eye of Muse” camera module

• 50MP Wide Camera (f/1.8)
• 50MP Ultra Wide Camera (f/2.2)
• 64MP Periscope Telephoto Camera (f/3.5, 3.5x Optical Zoom, 100x Digital Zoom, OIS)
• Flicker sensor
• 8×8 dTOF Laser Focusing System

The 64MP Periscope Telephoto Camera is capable of a massive 100x zoom which promises to provide some very interesting shooting options.. Especially when you combine them with the other two 50MP cameras one of which will allow for a Wide Angle and the other a more Normal shooting mode. The camera will use Optical Zoom for up to 3.5x magnification and then it lets the Ultra Fusion engine take care of the rest. I will go into the camera features and how it performs later on in the review.

Apart from that massive camera array that nearly takes up the top third of the phone we have not got anything else particularly notable back here.

That culminates the design tour and now it is time to talk about some of the hardware of this flagship monster!

Hardware

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is a hardware nerds wet dream when it comes to flagships at the moment. I have to admit that even I got a bit excited by the prospect of this specilicous treat. There is so much goodness in this phone that it is hard to know where to start so I am just going to do a list of the specs and take it from there.

Specs

So as you can see from the impressive specs list above the phone has got a lot to take in but I want to focus on a few of what I think are the key selling point for this phone. Processor and GPU, Battery life and charging speed and niceties (it will become clear later).

So first up the Processor and GPU.

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is powered by the very power-dense 4NM Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor with the support of MEMC chip that helps to generate the best viewing experience that the phone can. That is not all though as the phone also supports GPU Turbo X which promises to increase the speed across the entire UI with an extra boost for Gaming needs. So do the high-end headline-grabbing components actually make a difference. For the most part yes they do I did not find the phone was slow in any task. There was barely a stutter in normal use and even when I put the phone under significant pressure. I even tried to run the built-in Desktop UI when plugged into my USB Dock that was hooked up to my monitor, which was using two displays at 1080p and being controlled by a Bluetooth keyboard and a mouse running on a 2.4ghz dongle. This was me trying to push the phone to its limits and I couldn’t get it to glitch.

The only time the phone was showing any stress was when using the Camera to record 4K Video as the phone did get a bit warm but this is more than normal for flagships at the moment as we are asking for so much in terms of computational assisted photography these days.

The other area that really did impress me was the Graphics processing on the phone as it was great and watching the video, streaming content and playing games were all pulled if really well. I was able to easily play my staple games of Grand Mountain and Alto’s Oddest with no dropped frames and very good quality images. All this without the battery being nuked and draining in mere seconds. I have watched many hours of YouTube on the phone and it always remains comfortable to hold when binging on the latest Radio Controlled trucks videos (yeah it’s an issue I know).

I mentioned the MEMC assistant chip earlier and this is on board to allow the phone to dynamically adjust the frame rate when using the phone for video playback. This converts Standard Definition video to High Definition video on the fly during the playback of the aforementioned content. The MEMC will work on YouTube Netflix and Prime Video. . That is not all that the MEMC will do as it also has a Frame rate booster that will work on the video’s Frame rate in the same way as the video enhancer function. I can report that it does make a small but noticeable difference

The only area that did let me down in terms of performance was when using Android Auto, but I feel this may be more a software-based issue, however. The only reason I mention it in this section is that there may be a hardware element involved as I have had the same Android Auto version on lower specced phones and not had any issue. Oddly enough I seem to recall this being an issue on Honor 50 as well so maybe some legs to this theory.

That about concludes the Performance and GPU area, next up the battery and charging.

I actually want to mix this one up a bit and talk about the charging first as Honor has brought out the big guns to get the Honor Magic 4 Pro powered up fast and safely. The battery will charge at extremely fast speeds depending on which method of charging you go for. If you use the. Wired Supercharger that comes in the box with the phone you will get up to 100W of charging speed. This will allow a full 0 to 100% charge in under 30 mins. If you choose to use the Wireless 100W Supercharger then you will allow you to charge at 80W when using the in-box charger and will allow you to recharge 0 to 100% in just under an hour. If you wish to obtain the full 100W capability then you can use the optional 135W charger from the Honor Laptop range as this will give the higher amount of juice required, for the quicker charge.

One thing that is important to note is that I mentioned that you can recharge quickly and safely. When you are talking about rapidly charging batteries then there are a few areas of concern that can become relevant. The enemies of super-fast charging are heat build-up and battery health over time. This is something that Honor is aware of and they have put in various procedures to avoid these potential pitfalls. So how do they counter these issues, well they use two different methods. the charger in the box utilises Honor’s in-house developed Supercharging Technology to allow the heat build-up to be largely concentrated in the charging brick without passing it down the cable to the phone. The second is in the way that the charger and phone monitor charging rates to provide the optimum power usage minimising wasted energy that would normally be kicked out in terms of heat. The last thing that Honor has also realised is that you don’t need your phone to always charge at super fast speeds. So you can set it up to allow the phone to the only fast charge in certain scenarios as you dictate.

A brilliant example of this is when using the Wireless Supercharger. I tended to put my phone in this when I went to bed at night to ensure I had a fully charged phone by the morning. Now when I normally did this during the day the phone charged rapidly causing there to be some heat build up which normally occurs during Wireless charging. This in turn caused the fan on the charger to spin up which was pretty noisy.

However when it was charging it overnight I didn’t hear any noise from the fan on the charger and my phone would charge a bit slower, which isn’t a problem as I am going to sleep. now as far as I am aware I didn’t actually configure anything specific to do this apart from setting a “bedtime mode” within Digital Wellbeing. I am not sure if this influenced the charging behaviour or not but if it did then brilliant. It is also possible that this is set up from the stock software config in which case kudos to Honor for doing so as it is one less thing you the user need to worry about configuring.

Here is a sound bite from the Wireless Supercharger during a charging session. It is not the best quality as it was recorded from my phone but it will give you an idea of how loud it is,

In terms of the speed to complete a full Charge here is an image of a test I conducted below on the wireless charger with 80W of power being delivered to the charger unit.

The phone was able to receive a full charge in under 1 hr which is mightly impressive and I was pleased to see this  I didn’t do a test on just the cable charging as i ah the use of the Supercharger so didn’t see there is much reason to test this out.

That concludes the battery and charging section. The next thing I want to cover for hardware is what I am going to refer to as “niceties”. So these are not essential to the way the phone performs but they do make for a much nicer and more comforting user experience.

First up is the fact that the charger has been made to conform with an IP rating of IP68 which should mean that it is protected from drops in shallow water i.e. your sink or toilet. It can be safely used in the rain without you needing to huddle for a shelter somewhere. On very much the flip side of this is another feature that is good to have and that is a high brightness screen as we have been seeing some very bright and sunny weather recently and using the phone in daylight has not presented any real issues. Next up is the reverse wireless charging which will allow me to charge my Apple AirBuds 3 and in the extreme a friend’s phone if I am feeling generous.  I liked that if it detects no activity it will turn the feature off automatically as well, therefore, you will not be using excess power when you don’t need to.

Honor Magic 4 Pro side view

Now, this next one will potentially cause some raised eyebrows but I like the heft and the feel of the phone. I normally daily drive a Pixel 6 Pro which is very similar in terms of weight and dimensions. During the closing days of the review though I had another phone in to start testing so I switched over to that while I was setting it up and it felt dramatically lighter despite being very similar in size. The main reason for this was the lack of the glass back and wireless charging components I guess. The heft afforded by Honor Magic 4 Pro gave it a reassuring air of quality in both the materials on the outside and the internal build quality of the phone. A lot of other reviewers have called it unwieldy but for me, I didn’t find this to be a problem at all.

The last nice to have is the Honor Desktop mode as it gives the phone some more flexibility and was nice to use. Dont get me wrong this is not as good as what Samsung offer in terms of DEX but it is at least an ability that not a lot of other brands and phone offer at this time.

Connectivity and Calling

Connectivity and calls were flawless in most of the areas I used the phone and I got a very good and strong signal thanks to the multitude of antennas strewn around the device. I did not have any issues with Wi-Fi connectivity or dropped calls due to a weak signal. This did actually perform better in terms of the phone signal i received when using it at home as there have been scenarios when I have been on a call on my Pixel and I have had to move outside to get better reception. This was not the case with the Honor Magic 4 Pro which was flawless in this regard.

The audio experience was also excellent in part due to the use of AI Privacy Call and the Piezoelectric glass of the display which will actually use vibration to create the sounds you hear whilst on a call. This minimises the amount of sound that can be heard from the display by others near you. When you are wanting the sound to come from the phone then the Stereo speakers do provide a nice and comfortable sound stage and this is supported by the screen as well so all three “speakers” play their part.

The next big thing about this phone is so big it even got its own marketing slogan  “Eye of Muse”!

Camera

I am of course referring to the cameras on both the front and the back. Let’s tick off the front camera first. The front camera is as mentioned above composed of two distinct elements. The 3d DEpth camera for Face Unlock which has the 12MP f/2.4 Aperture 100° wide angle lens nestled in beside it. Now would I have preferred this to have been better hidden of course I would but honestly after a few hours of use iI didn’t even notice it was there until I needed to take a picture of myself (a rarity thankfully). I strangely found it only as noticeable as the one on my Pixel, which only has a small pinhole. I was however impressed with the quality of images it was able to produce.

The above image was from the Jubilee torch lighting and it has come out pretty well for a spur-of-the-moment selfie. If you zoom into it though you do start to see some issues appear and it doesn’t take much t notice that the edges are not that well defined. However, it has captured the memory well enough for a family album which is fine for me.

The 3D camera for Face unlock was great though and it had no issue in recognising my face in pretty much any conditions either with or without glasses, which other 3D Scanning cameras do sometimes have problems with. I would not suggest using it as your only security access method though as the fingerprint reader is much more secure than the facial recognition. It does however go further than the cheaper and easier to implement 2D facial recognition tech so it isn’t too bad and cannot be fooled as easily.

Moving around the back there is a lot to take in in terms of what these cameras can deliver but I want to concentrate on what I see as the headline feature for me at least. The first is Ultra Fusion Photography. This uses all three of the main camera units to allow you to get a photo from a variety of different zoom levels and widths.

Using the above engine you can start with a nice wide-angle shot and then after various zoom stages end up with a 100x zoomed image. I have tried to recreate this below for you.

So as you can see there is a fair bit to discuss in these images. The image starts out being quite a bright shot with the colours of the clouds and the red car coming through nicely. As we then go to the 1x Zoom things start to change as we have a distinct shift in the colour between the two lenses as that is in reality what has happened. The 1 xZoom is using the primary camera and colours are being changed quite dramatically as we move to the 3.5 x Zoom we can see that there is not as much of a shift when we switch to the periscope camera but it is sadly at this point that we say goodbye to optical zoom and enter the muddy waters of digital zoom.

Before I go through the next 3 zoom stages I just want to quickly say this. Digital Zoom when done well can be great as can be seen with the Pixel Line up including the current crop of Pixel 6 devices. These devices use Computational photography and this is an area where Google really do excel. Unfortunately, Honor still has work to do!

Let’s continue onto the 10x Zoom this in all fairness is a pretty good shot and the colours are still good and things are not getting too distorted. Given that we are now using computation to crop the section of the image I am not that disappointed by this image. However, this is where it starts to go wrong in my eyes. at 50x and 100x we start to lose colour levels and clarity altogether.

I have included another few shots that were taken in wide and within this 50x to 100x zoom range and this shows what I mean.

So in terms of the Ultra Fusion Photpgraphy which according to Honor will allow you “you to capture more detail no matter how far you are” I think that the engine does need some tweaking. I do have to say that to be fair to the phone all of these images were taken from the hand and I assume that if I was to have used a tripod then the images would have been better as there will be some motion blur in these shots

Moving the other important feature of any phone camera is the point-and-shoot ability. Here I was a bit more impressed with it as I was able to get quick capture and nice-looking images without too much fuss and faff and a lot of this comes down to the AI assist that is built into the phone thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Snapdragon Sight which is their 18 Bit triple ISP technology that is available to the phone’s software to work with. Here are some quickly snapped shots below of some small-scale RC Trucks in their natural habitat.

Next up is what the camera can do on close-up subject which will utilise the Depth of field sensor in combination with the AI to allow for that ultimate macro shot it works pretty well as can be seen below.

I like the detail that is pulled through in these shots and the macro AI is working very well in these images as we have good clear and crisp shots very impressed!

And before we get into the darker hours and a direct comparison with another phone we have the Bokeh effect via Aperture mode which like to play with when i am feeling arty!

Again the AI functions well here along with the natural aperture levels afforded by the 7-element lens of the main 50MP camera sensor. You can see that the glass bird is brought nicely into the foreground of the shot with the background fading away as the picture gets deeper.

So moving into the night.

i tried to capture some night shots and tried to compare this directly against my Pixel 6 Pro to give you an idea of what Night shot is capable of. I will let you be the judge here first up are the shots from the Pixel 6 Pro

Pixel 6 Pro

Next is the Honor Magic 4 Pro

Honor Magic 4 Pro

As you can see for yourself a fairly dramatic difference there These were taken at the same zoom level of 4x and i have to say that I am let down by the Honor in this scenario again. What surprised me is that I have used night mode on some of the predecessors (when Honor and Huawei were one and the same) of the Honor Magic 4 Pro and I have been very impressed by them but this example above just disappoints.

In summary, this is a good camera if you get the correct conditions and keep the zoom levels under control. However when you start pushing it to the extreme of Zoom and lighting then you start to see weaknesses. The good news is that the camera hardware is great as can be seen but the gallery showing the RC truck’s but it just needs some software tweaks to bring the computational side of things up to scratch. I hope that Honor takes the time to do this as this phone’s camera system could be great.

Video, I have to admit I did not have the opportunity to test the video side of the phone as generally don’t use it so I cannot fairly report on this but I am sure you will be able to find this from much more accomplished videographers than me. What I will say is that I have seen the video that was captured on the phone and I was impressed by it.

This short film was shot on the Honor Magic 4 Pro by some professionals and it shows the capabilities when you know what you are doing which I don’t! It is a bit weird but showcase’s what video can be created when in the right hands!

That wraps the camera section

Lets now cover the other big one Software

Software

In the past, I have been very critical of the software that is used to skin Honor and Huawei devices with my biggest annoyance being that the UI scaling is too big. I have come to accept that it is just the way things are now so will not delve into this area of personal annoyance any further in this review.

The software is Android 12 with the Magic UI 6 Skin and for the most part, this is a good implementation and i have not really got any major complaints about things. I was able to set up my home screen pretty much the way I have on all my devices complete with multiple instances of the same widget. I had very few issues with daily use. I found that all the standard things you would expect to find in Android 12 were present and correct, Importantly they were relatively easy to find.

The two main complaints have are to do with Android Auto and to a much lesser extent the failure of a direct dial widget to stay as a persistent icon on my home screen. These however are very minor issues in what is otherwise very good. I didn’t really utilise any of the Magic UI 6 unique features at least not that I was aware of (see above regarding Supercharging settings). If I am being completely honest most of these extra features are just duplications of what can already be done by what I see as a launcher the way Google intend it to be which is the Pixel UI.

Whilst taking a look at the software one thing I am sure I was able to do in the past but couldn’t do on the Honor Magic 4 Pro was download custom themes and Apps from the Honor App store. Now while I am glad that the latter no longer exists as an option I am not completely averse to the option of having Themes as downloadable options as it is another way to get that extra bit of customisation and for me was a way of evading the icon size issue that I have. In terms of the ability to customize the existing themes, there is not much that you can do and I did miss the adaptive icon colour that was made possible via the Material You update to Android 12. I am not sure if I was just missing something but it didn’t seem to allow these nuances to be picked up within the launcher.

These are just very minor pet peeves and on the whole, the Honor Magic 4 Pro’s software is sufficient as long as you don’t mind skimming all the usual duplicate guff that is to be found on any phone that has been developed for the Asian market. I was happy enough to use this as my daily driver for the last 3 weeks.

Conclusion

So should you go out and splash the £949.99 that Honor is asking for the Magic 4 Pro?

if you want an all-singing and dancing flagship with excellent raw specs, power, stupidly fast charging and a serviceable camera then yes go for it but be aware of the minor weaknesses in the camera and the software. The flagship-grade phone is being sold at a fraction of what its current competitors can offer and is genuinely a good device which I was happy to carry around.

If on the other hand, you are wanting this for the camera then you may wish to try it before you buy it as this is the phone’s biggest area of weakness but one that can be resolved with some care and attention from Honor.

It is defiantly one that is worth consideration and some thought. I am happy that Honor is back in the Flagship game and I cant wait to see what they do next.

You can buy the Honor Magic 4 Pro now for £949.99 from Honor, as a special fathers day deal you will get the Honor Watch 3GS 3 Ocean Glass smartwatch Earbuds 2 Lite and a black PU case thrown in for free!

The post Honor Magic 4 Pro – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

You can buy the phone now from Realme direct for £399 of the 128GB Storage and 8Gb RAM variant with the 256GB Storage and 12GB RAM version being £100 more. This on special early bird offer until the 21st of March when the prices will go up to £499 and £549 respectively

However, before we get into that, let’s take a tour of the device.

First up is the unboxing video that was posted a few weeks back.

Design

If we start from the top we have got very little on the top end of the phone but we do have a pinhole microphone. and the edge of the phone is slightly inset making it feel quite comfortable in the hand.

Moving down to the right-hand side we find the power key which has some nice texture on it making it a bit easier to find by feel.

On the base of the phone which shares the same slight inset as can be found at the top. There is a lot going on here and it is quite busy. Down here we also find the bottom-firing speaker which does produce pretty good sound. Next, we have got a USB Type C port which allows very fast charging via the Superdart Charger technology more on this later though. Next up is another Pichole microphone for voice pickup which works well. Lastly, we have got the dual nano sim cardholder which does have a waterproof gasket around it for some waterproofing.

The left-hand side has the individually mounted volume buttons which have a nice positive clicking action and fall nicely below the thumb when being used in the right hand, it might be a bit more awkward to use if you are left-handed but I like the separation of the buttons as it avoids you mistaking the volume for the power button.

Around the front at the top, we have got the front earpiece/speaker which is clear and gives the effect of stereo separation the volume of this speaker is a bit lower than the one found on the base but this is normal for this sort of setup as my Oneplus Nord 2 5G uses the exact same setup. The speaker is hidden behind a very small and skinny grill and it is situated between the top of the phone and the top of the screen.

We also have the front-facing camera which is a 16 MP, f/2.5, 26mm (wide), 1/3″, 1.0µm unit so works well for selfies whilst also not obliterating the background due to it being a wideish angle. It can also work at 1080p at 30fps for video recording so would be fine for using for video calls on Zoom etc.

Moving down from the speaker and camera we have the display which is a 6.62 inch AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1080 x 2400  and a PPI of 398. The aspect ratio is 20:9 which is a nice size not being too skinny but still having enough width to display content. Lastly, this screen can have a refresh rate that will dynamically switch between 60HZ and 120HZ. you can leave this to be adaptive which is what I did or you can manually set it at either mode depending on your requirements. I found the refresh rate to be satisfactory in normal use and it was plenty fast enough for my liking. The last thing of note is the brightness for the screen will purportedly reach 1300 nits, whilst I have not been able to confirm this as I don’t have the correct equipment to test, I can confirm that the screen does get really bright, I had no issues reading the screen under direct sunlight!

Around the back, we have got two main points of interest for the phone. The first is the way the back has been made and then the second is the camera module that has been used. I want to quickly discuss the back panel which makes it somewhat unique in the current phone market. Realme have been on a major push when it comes to sustainability this year which has meant that instead of using just a normal plastic rear panel it developed a new material called a”biopolymer”. This allows the phone to have a solid back from renewable resources such as paper pulp, this allows a carbon reduction of 35.5% when manufacturing the back panel. It also gives the panel a “paper-like” feel, which actually works well and feels nice under the fingers. I have also been able to use the phone without a case which is nice as I haven’t been too worried about it getting scratched up which has been nice as most phones I use always need to have a case slapped on it straight out of the box. I was also lucky enough to get the Paper Green colour which really pops. As an aside if Green isn’t your thing then you can get this in Paper White. You can also get the Steel Black edition employs a new AG glass chemical etching technique, creating a more frosted look, and a more tactile feel.

The next bit for the back panel is the other big selling point that you can see the Camera modules. On the back panel, we have got a module made up of three lenses that have the following sensors:  50MP main, 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro. I will cover these cameras in a bit more detail further down in the review.

Hardware

So with the external design all taken care of now to look a little below the skin and there are a few areas i wish to cover here; the Battery, the processor and memory and the antennae. These are really the key hardware points for the phone as far as I am concerned. Let’s have a look at the battery first.

Inside the phone, we have got a great battery which is actually composed of two separate packs each measuring in at 2500mah to give a total of 5000mah. This is now becoming more and more commonplace for phones as it has the benefit of allowing the battery to be charged faster if you instigate the correct charging technology. Being that Realme exists under a parent company that shares technology with OnePlus and Oppo it is hardly a surprise to see that this phone is capable of very fast charging. In this case, the phone is capable of charging at 65W  which will allow the phone to be charged from 0 to full within 33 minutes when paired with the included SuperDart 65W charger. It also works fine with the Oneplus WarpCharge 65 Charger that comes with the OnePlus Nord 2 (they are essentially the same).

As for battery life, I could regularly get through a day and a half with light to moderate use and if used more intensively then the pack would last me for a day. This is in line with what I experienced on other rival devices from this price point.

It is a shame that there is no wireless charging to be found here but at this price point it is hardly a surprise either. With the ability to charge so fast via the cable it was not really something I missed either. The nice thing about the way that the charging has been implemented is that the heat from charging the battery is not transferred to the pack. The downside is that the charger will not work on other devices as it is proprietary. I tried to charge my Chromebook which uses Power delivery via USB Type C and it didn’t want to work as it was identified as a low powered charger. The same was true with my Pixel 6 Pro.

Next up is the processor which is the brilliant Snapdragon 888 5G processor. This is a great processor and has been proven in multiple other devices including a lot of recent flagships. It is great to see this is a low priced device especially as it brings integrated 5g into a very efficient and powerful chip. I have not seen any slowdowns in the UI and games load quickly and are responsive with good framerates. I am not the heaviest of gamers but I have found that my staples of World of Warships and Alto’s Oddessy ran smoothly without any perceivable glitching. The AI elements used in the camera work quickly and as expected.

Of course, the processor is very ably supported by the speedy 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM which again is great to see at this price point. Memory usage never really reached the full 12GB’s in my usage so there is plenty of breathing room. Having multiple apps working at the same time did not present any issues and when things do get a bit too busy it is really easy to close the apps from the multitasking menus which rather handily it will show how much memory has been freed up by doing so. The phone also packs 256Gb of UFS 3.1 storage which is very speedy and efficient. I found that when transferring content to the phone from my computer it was speedy with very good transfer rates. I also found that when moving files in the internal memory it was very quick.

Next up are the antennas and this is something that Realme are very proud of and rightly so as this is an area that I feel more focus may need to be applied by some of the bigger players (I’m looking at you Google). The design allows for several specifically place antennas to allow the phone to maximise signal strength regardless of what orientation you are holding it in. For example, if you are in a particularly intense gaming session whilst on the bus to work/college the last thing you need is for your network to drop when n you are trying to make that critical kill shot or overtake that annoying competitor to get into the pole position. It is for this reason that Realme has positioned antennas on all the sides of the phones as pictured here.

As you can see from the images above this means that whichever way you hold the phone you will always get a good signal be it on one of the 4 $G and %G antennas or one of the two Wifi Antennas. This is of course made a lot easier as the side rails of the phone are made of plastic instead of the higher-end metal which would be expected to be found on a full flagship. Does it work though? Well if using the phone and comparing it against my current daily whip is anything to go by then yes as I was able to perceive at least one bar more signal when compare against each other. in terms of Wifi Signal I was getting a marginally better signal from the Realme GT 2 5G over the Pixel 6 Pro.

If you look at the Plusnet network then you will see that on the Realme we have got a 7dbm improvement on the signal strength (When testing signal strength the lower the dbm number the better). The difference isn’t has marked on the Ext network which is my extended network but there is still a significant difference. As I don’t currently have two sims on the same network I could not do a side by side mobile data test but there is an appreciable difference on the mobile network side as well. I found this out when i was speaking to my father one evening and he kept losing my call when i was on the Pixel* so I chucked the sim into the Realme and i was able to carry on the call.

It is things like this that make the hardware a little bit nicer than a normal mid-tier offering and that also makes it a bit harder to go back to the full flagships i am fortunate enough to have at my disposal. Even going back to the OnePlus Nord 2 5G which is a great competitor to this phone was a bit weird as they are so similar but just subtle different enough o make you appreciate it.

With the rest of the phone being your normal sort of mid to high-end range fare we will move on. But not before I cover a late entry into the category which plays a big part in the next section. I am of course talking about performance and this is where need to blur the lines between hardware and software a bit, hence why I wanted to mention it now. The Realme GT 5G can pack a good size punch here in terms of performance. As I mentioned the phone will not have any issue handling games as well as multitasking like a beast. This is all down to the excellent memory management that is core to Android 12 and is enhanced by Realme’s development and tweaking that can be seen all the way through the software. Howver software alone cannot make for a great performing phone you have to keep it cool and this is another area where Realme wanted to make a bold statement. They have done this by implementing what they call the “Stainless Steel Vapor Cooling System Plus”. This is essentially a very long-winded way of saying that this has a big vapour chamber on board. just check the images below to try and get an appreciation of the size of this thing.

With a vapour chamber that big it is no surprise that apart from a slight bit of heat building after charging I was never found to have a phone that got too hot. This great news for gamers and media users.

Next, we need to address the software.

Software

This I perhaps the easiest section to complete as for once we have a mid to high-end phone from a Chinese manufacturer that is not absolutely riddled with bloatwarey crap. It is not a hidden fact that I was not a massive fan of the previous iteration of Realme UI. The good news is that things have made a nice change in the newest version of the UI, Realme UI 3.0. The boffins at Realme have addressed the main thing that got on my nerves and made the last phone practically unusable for me, we can now use the same widget tool more than once. For me, this was a big limitation on the previous generation but now that it is resolved I could actually use this software. If I am honest it was one of the only things I disliked from the Realme 8 Pro in terms of the software. The rest of the software feels very Oxygen OS like which is hardly surprising as the similarities across software between Oneplus Realme and Oppo are not that much. Now Oxygen OS is one of my favourite UI’s over even the svelt cleanness of Google Pixel UI which is great.

I have however found a few peaves that could be addressed if the developer wished to.  The first is the way that notifications react on the lock screen. Dont get me wrong they look good but to actually interact with them is via a tap and then this will select the notification so that you interact with it. This is different enough from other Ui’s that I had to actually think about. Another one was the way that some of the apps require additional permission prompts to appear when using for the first time which was annoying but quickly overcome.

Other than those two relatively minor issues i was generally pretty happy with the phone’s UI and the way it worked Realme’s Magic UI 3.0 is now completely usable as a day to day phone and I could see myself using it for the long run if i had the review unit for longer. Given where things were even six months ago with regard to the way the software was presented and for me at least the inherent limitation presented by the widget issue I am impressed. Credit is due to the developers here as although the changes are subtle they do make a difference.

I only hope that they can improve on the software updates for the device as in the whole time i have been using the Realme 8 Pro ( it is now being used by my wife) it has only been updated as far as Android 11 which is not bad for that side of things and is normal at the price but the security version is still the 5 Decmber 2021 version which isn’t greatgiven that we are now in March 2022. It has in fact only ever received one update to the software which was that security update nothing else was changed. I do not expect that it will ever get Android 12.

Next up is perhaps one of the headline-grabbing features, the camera.

Camera

This is a big aspect of the phone and is a really difficult one to call. On the most part, it is a step down from the Realme’s of previous generations however it is also a very competent sensor that has been used as the main component. I am of course talking about the much-lauded Sony IMX766. This sensor has been used on many of the best mid to high-end devices over the course of the year. In some devices it has been great however in some it has been merely average. In the Realme GT 2 it sits in the middle ground between the two it is not bad by any means and it will serve most users well. However, it is not one for camera phone fans as there are better options out there. When you consider the price of the phones then you can get a better camera for not a massive amount more, especially if you look at the Pixel lineup from Google.

The main sensor is not too bad and produces pretty good quality images from the 50mp Sensor with vibrant colours and good levels of contrast. The night mode works well and does create some good photos in tricky conditions.

Things take a slight turn for the worse when you start using the 8mp ultrawide camera as things start to get a bit noisy with some strange distortion around the edges of the subjects. I can only surmise that this is down to the software being used as the aperture has been increased up to f/2.3 but it doesn’t make a massive difference to things.

The zoom works exactly as expected as can be seen below.

The 2mp macro is really not that worth mentioning and I wish they had used this space for a time of flight sensor to add to the overall performance of the camera. Instead, we get a 2mp macro shooter which takes photos that are just a bit meh.

Now if you stick with the main camera which let’s be honest most people will then you will be happy with the results and it is nice to see that the software has been tweaked to dial down the AI in some of the features which is great news as I did find it a bit intrusive in certain scenarios.

As for the video, I can’t really find much to fault it as it ticks all the boxes, I really don’t tend to dive into the video aspects of most phone’s that I use these days as I am not attending many tradeshows anymore (thanks COVID) it is fine for recording silly impromptu shots when the moment strikes which is again what most people will use this for.

In essence, as long as you don’t try to push the camera too hard then you should be happy with its performance but once you start pushing the envelope then you start to see it unfold. Please see the below galleries for some sample images taken on the phone so you can form your own opinions.

Conclusion

This is a great phone and it punches above weight its weight. However, it is a bit late to the party as this segment of the market is becoming more and more crowded in the last six months. There are some great devices now on the market including the Onplus in the form of the Oneplus Nord 2 5G. If you are able to pick this phone up before the 21st of March then it is a compelling offer for the spec at the cheap price of £499 for the top version or a bargain for the 128GB model as you do get a phone with great features and for well below what you could be expected to pay for a more well-known brand. Just be aware that it may not be supported as well in terms of Software support as the bigger names,

You can buy the phone now from Realme direct for £399 of the 128GB Storage and 8Gb RAM variant with the 256GB Storage and 12GB RAM version being £100 more. This on special early bird offer until the 21st of March when the prices will go up to £499 and £549 respectively.

The post Relame GT 2 5G – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Specs:-

• 30W Output.
• Bluetooth® standard: V5.0, Wireless range: Up to 98 feet.
• Battery Capacity:（3.65V/4000mAh *2）/29.2Wh.
• Charging time : 4 hours @ 5V/2A.
• Playtime: Up to 20 hours (varies by volume level and music files).
• USB-C.
• IPX7 Waterproof.
• Dual External Charging Ports Two USB-powered devices can be charged simultaneously by the two power outlets on the speaker.
• Front RGB Led ring.

Good Points:-

• Good powerful sound with strong bass.
• Long playtime.
• USB-C Charging.
• Link speakers.
• Use as a power bank.
• 3 EQ Modes.
• Carrying Strap.
• NFC One Touch Pairing
• Ability to link up to 100 speakers. (yes 100)
• Speaker phone for calls.

Bad Points :-

• Bit on the heavy side.
• No dedicated fast forward/rewind controls.

Inside the box

• User manual.
• USB type C charging cable.
• 3.5mm Auxiliary Cable.
• Carrying Strap.

Design

Frist thing that I noticed with the X Sound Mega, was its weight, this is a reassuringly heavy speaker, with a  rugged design, rubber feet on the bottom to help reduce vibrations to the rear of the speaker is where the charging port and USB A output along with the 3.5mm port all live under a silicone cover.

All the controls are situated on the top of the device sitting under a silicone cover , power, Bluetooth play/pause volume up volume down LED light button and your EQ mode button.

The triangle button is not solely a play button, it serves as a multi-function button,  single press will allow you to play/pause a track or answer/end a call, a double-tap will enable you to move to the next track, a triple-tap will allow you to return to a previous track, and a two-second hold will activate the voice assistant. although if you didn’t read through the manual correctly like me, these multi-functions don’t spring to hand. Once I did read the manual it showed a small “N” (NFC) to the left of the Power button/indicator, which was somewhat hard to visualize on the speaker.

Up front is the large metal Oval speaker grille and hidden around this grill is the mulit-function LED light bar.

Paring the speaker to my phone couldn’t be simpler just press the Bluetooth button and it appeared almost instantly on my list of devices on my Galaxy S21 Ultra.

In Use:-

Let me just come right out and say this the sound that comes out of this little unit is amazing, clear and very very loud, listening to music you can actually hear a marked difference in the output when changing to the different EQ settings, despite it being pretty much a  one direction ( front facing)  it still sounds good from each side.

Audiobook mode gets rid of pretty much all the base, so the spoken word from Audiobooks or podcasts come through clear and crisp. Overall am really liking the loudness of the speaker has got really good clarity in my personal favourite is Xbase mode where it just hits a little bit harder the beast as our power that vocals or anything it sounds just right to my ears

Tribit claim 20 hrs of battery, which I I have had this long enough to see if the battery life is what there ever tising but the build quality on this speaker is really nice and I feel like a speaker is easily compared what to save AJBL foot 5 or flip 6 that I tested recently

And I have no problems recommending this Bluetooth speaker expressly considering this one’s already a sale hopefully these clips give a little bit closer low get what this speaker sounds like by Tribit.

Conclusion:-

Even though the speaker may not be audiophile high-end, the near-indestructible waterproof shell, the colourful LED, the various sound modes, and the portable design provided significant positivity points.  The weight was slightly on the heavier end, but this supported the Xbass mode.  The sound will fill a medium to large size room and will be perfect for a kitchen, apartment, office, or even a smaller outdoor gathering.  I found that the speaker gained some additional punch by placing it on a sturdy base, near a wall. With up to 20 hours of battery time, waterproofing, and a colourful LED light show, the speaker should be ever ready for your next activity. The Tribit XSound Mega is available from Tribit and Amazon for £99.99

The post Tribit XSound Mega Bluetooth Speaker – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Some time ago I was sent through the TCL 10 Max 4G tablet for review, and for the last couple of months it has come everywhere with me, and used as my primary tablet device.

TCL 10 Tab Max, it is a mid-range tablet that comes with a pretty decent set of features and specifications. The tablet is available in two variants — Wi-Fi and LTE. I got the LTE variant of the tablet which comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage and an unspecified octa-core processor with Mali-G72 MP3 GPU clocked at 800MHz, the TCL 10 comes with a massive battery and a full HD display.

Specs:-

• Operating System Android 10.
• Display10.36″ IPS TFT – 2000 x 1200 – Multi-Touch.
• Processor(8-core).
• Processor Clock Speed2 GHz.
• RAM4 GB.
• Storage64 GB.
• Supported Flash Memory Card microSD.
• Cellular Technology 4G.
• Wireless Connectivity802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0.
• Rear Camera 13 Megapixel. Front camera 8Megapixel.
• Dimensions (WxDxH)24.78 cm x 0.765 cm x 15.756 cm.

Good Points:-

• Amazing battery life.
• Lightweight.
• Price.
• Good screen quality with NXTVision

Bad Points :-

• Poor Camera Quality
• Viewing angles lacking.

Design :-

It’s clear that the 10 Tab Max is a mid-range tablet that’s built entirely of plastic which is of decent quality. The back panel has a dual texture finish which feels rugged and durable, and does give the device a more premium feel, although I would have liked to have seen a chrome housing or gloss finish to jazz up the look even more.

The back panel houses a single 13MP sensor with an LED flash at the top left corner along with the TCL logo at the bottom left. The top and bottom of the tab have four speaker grilles, out of which only two work as the speaker.

The left side has a five-pin POGO connector for docking, while the right has volume buttons and a SIM card tray. The power button is placed at the top of the tablet which feels a bit of stretch to reach while using the tab in portrait mode. The front has a 10.36-inch full HD display and an 8MP selfie shooter.

In Use :-

Talking about the display, the tab comes with a 10.36-inch display, and it comes with TCL’s proprietary NXTVison, this is where TCL use all there experience in the TV world and the screen digitally upscales content, making games and videos look HDR, and tweaking images viewed, to make them better-looking, and I found watching media or playing games more that adequate.

Mid range tablet performance plays an important role, I tested the Tab 10 in different scenarios like watching videos on YouTube, binge-watching TV shows and movies, attending office meetings and also some gaming, the TCL 10 Tab Max performed really well and I never felt the need for more ‘horsepower’ while performing a task, the device was able to play AAA games like Call Of Duty Mobile and Google Stadia with no issues.  The audio quality from dual speakers is loud enough and clear, not full surround sound but more that adequate.

As far as the camera is concerned, the 13MP rear camera is average and is only good for occasional photography, to be honest I only ever use a tablet camera to scan documents etc and the camera was fine for this task. Also, the 8MP at the front offers decent clarity for video calls and taking selfies. Also, the landscape positioning of the sensor comes in handy while attending conference calls or while attending online classes.

Where the tablet shines is in the battery. The 8000mAh battery lasted for an entire day under heavy load which included some binge watching on Netflix and gaming and hours of browsing by far the battery is the strongest point of the TCL 10 Tab Max. I left the device over the Christmas and New Year period and the battery only dropped a couple of percentage points, standby battery drain was up there with the Apple Ipad.

Coming to the software part, it runs the Android 10 operating system which is a two-year-old system as Android 12 is now fully released, I would have liked to have seen a more up to date operating system, and TCL has not confirmed anything about the tablet receiving the Android 11 update in future. That said the Tab was smooth with no stutters or lag.

I was able to pop a unlimited data sim in the Tab and got decent download speeds, all the features and messaging apps were there and phone calls were possible ( I know your not going to hold a 10 inch tablet up to your ear) but connected to some headphones meant I was always connected.

Conclusion:-

TCL 10 Tab Max, is a mid-range tablet with mid-range specifications, but don’t let that put you off it was able to do 95% of the tasks my Samsung Tab S7 can do with ease, in its favour  is full HD resolution, very good battery life, decent pair of speakers and performance. Priced at £240 for the 4G version and £220 for the Wifi Version ( I’d fork out the extra £20 for the always connected device) from Amazon

If you are looking for a decent tablet for casual work like content consumption, browsing and attending online classes, then TCL 10 Tab Max is definitely  worth a look.

The post TCL 10 Tab Max 4g – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Honor 50 5G glamour shot

Design

This is an area where I feel that Honor has made a step up in terms of quality as this is one the nicest looking Honor phones I have had the pleasure of using. it is a really nice and comfortable shape and it feels good in the hand. Normally I try and avoid using the included case with phones I have in for review to give me a feel for the naked device. I did try and do this for a few hours but the phone just got so manky that the see-through case had to go on.

Encased Honor 50 5G!!

Surprisingly for a free case, this didn’t detract from the design aspects that I like about the phone in its raw uncovered form. The curves on the case mirror those of the phone nicely creating a secure feeling grip that is smudge-free. All the buttons are still responsive and easy to locate, with the cutouts on the case all lining up perfectly as well.

Now that we have gone over that kets have a little tour around the device. 

Starting on the right-hand side we have got the volume rocker and the power key which is placed below the volume rocker. As I have been switching phones a lot recently this takes a bit of getting used to but once I had used the phone for a day it became normal for me to find the buttons in these places.

Right-hand side

Moving around to the underside of the phone is where we can find the primary speaker alongside a Micro USB Type C, a pinhole microphone and the sim card slot which is capable of taking two Sim cards but sadly no SD Cards as the storage is not expandable.

Bottom side

On the left-hand side, we find an expanse of nothingness. So we will move on!

Left-hand side

Up to the top of the frame, we have got a few more pinhole mics.

Topside

Around the back is where we come to what is perhaps the main focus for this phone the camera array which is comprised of two units.

Rear panel

Up top, we have got the primary camera which delivers an impressive 108MP when used at full resolution. Underneath this is the rest of the quad-camera set up comprising of an 8MP Ultra-wide camera, a Bokeh Camer and a Macro camera.

Camera module

I will explore these in more detail a little bit later in the review. If you can get the Frost Crystal Colourway of this phone then you will get a very fancy back that is comprised of dual-film dual-coating technology, which makes each colour sparkle like diamonds. As I have the Emerald Green I don’t get this sparkle but the colour does shift slightly depending on the angle that you look at it from which is a nice touch.

Coming around to the front of the device is where it gets a lot more interesting as this is a very nice display. But before that, we have another camera up at the top which is a 32 MP unit with a 90-degree field of view for getting those nice wide-angle selfies and also for good video but more on this is the camera section later.

The front camera and Earpiece

Just above this camera is the secondary speaker which pulls double duty as an earpiece as well. This gives a reasonable level of stereo separation which is nice to see and hear too.

Front panel

The other thing of note here is the screen which is really nice one that measures in at 6.57″ diagonal with an 89.7% screen to body ratio. The resolution is 1080 x 2340 a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and a PPI density of 392. In addition this the screen itself is OLED and has a refresh rate of 120Hz meaning that it is both responsive and fluid to use.

The front screen turned on

There is however one big issue with the display which I will come back in the software section as it is down to the software and not the display.

And to round up the tour it is time for a specs sheet

NAME	Honor 50 5G
COLOR	Frost Crystal, Amber Red, Emerald Green, Midnight Black
DIMENSIONS	Height: 159.96mm Width: 73.7mm Thickness: 7.78mm Weight: 175g
DISPLAY PARAMETERS	Size: 6.57 inches Resolution: 1080 x 2340 PPI 392 Aspect Ratio: 19.5:9 Refresh Rate: 120Hz Type: OLED Support 100% DCi-P3
PERFORMANCE	Operating System: Magic UI 4.2 based on Android 11 with Google Play Services CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G GPU: Adreno 642L RAM: 6GB / 8GB / 12GB Storage: 128GB / 256GB Battery: 4300 mAh (non-removable) Honor SuperCharge 66w
MAIN CAMERA – REAR	108 MP, f/1.9, (wide), 1/1.52″, 0.7µm, PDAF
ULTRA-WIDE CAMERA -REAR	8 MP, f/2.2, 120˚, 17mm (ultrawide)
MACRO CAMERA – REAR	2 MP, f/2.4, (macro)
BOKEH CAMERA – REAR	2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)
FLASH	Dual-LED Flash
ZOOM	0.7x – 10x
AUTOFOCUS	Multi Autofocus (PDAF+CAF)
VIDEO	4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS Video editor
FEATURES	Night Mode, Aperture, Portrait, MultiVideo, Video, Panorama, High Res, Time Lapse, Super Macro, Pro
FRONT CAMERA	32 MP, f/2.2, 22mm (wide), 1/3.14″
VIDEO	1080p@30fps
FEATURES	Face unlock, Screen flash, HDR, Face retouching, Portrait
CONNECTIVITY BAND	2G Bands GSM: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 CDMA: 800 3G Bands HSDPA 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100CDMA2000 1x4G Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 66 – International1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 18, 19, 26, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41 – China5G Bands 1, 3, 7, 28, 38, 40, 41, 77, 78 SA/NSA – International1, 5, 8, 41, 77, 78 SA/NSA – China
WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
BLUETOOTH	5.2, A2DP, LE, aptX HD
NFC	NFC enabled
POSITIONING	A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS
SENSORS	In-display fingerprint sensor Accelerometer Electronic compass Gyroscope Ambient light sensor SAR Sensor Proximity sensor Sensor core
PORTS	USB 2.0, Type-C, USB On the Go Dual nano-SIM slot
BUTTONS	Gestures and on-screen navigation support Volume key Power key
AUDIO	Dual stereo speaker Noise cancellation support

Hardware

Now that we have got the specs and tour of the physical hardware out of the way it is time to discuss what makes the phone tick on the inside. The Honor 50 5G is not an out and out powerhouse and nor is it trying to be. It comes with a more modest chipset in the form of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset which is paired to an Adreno 642L GPU as can be seen from the specs list above there is multiple version available in terms of the memory that you can get with 3 different configurations, 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM. These internals are supported in turn by a 4300mah battery that supports up t 66w fast charging from the Honor SuperCharge charger that is thankfully included in the box. This will give you up to 70% charge in 20 mins with the remaining 30% taking you up to a full 45 minutes as it slows down near the end to balance the cells in the battery thus prolonging the pack life span. if you don’t need a rapid recharge then this will charge from a lower power supply with no issue at all as this is what I did for the majority of my use during testing.

That is the internals dealt with but you don’t interact with them you interact with the display and thankfully this is a good one. I do like the fact that Honor has decided to include a 120Hz display. now I have said in the past that I can’t tell the difference between 60Hz and 90HZ displays and that it doesn’t bother me what i use. While i still stand by this statement it is nice to know that this screen tech is becoming more widely adopted in the midrange sector now. I still can’t really perceive a difference with my ageing eyes but knowing it is there gives me a nice smug feeling! I found that the 6.57″ panel was nice and enjoyable to use and looking at the curved edges made it feel sleek in my hand without detracting from the content. Colours were punchy and didn’t seem to be too “tweaked” to make them feel unreal. Brightness was more than sufficient for use indoors and out with the only time i had any real issue was when i was under direct glaring sunlight which is not all that common at this time of year. I watched a bit of Youtube on it and found that the video was fluid and didn’t seem to distort at all so was a pleasing viewing experience. 

You can of course lower the refresh rate down to 60Hz if you wish to but i kept mine on Dynamic which will ramp up the refresh rate when required or daily it down when it is not needed. You can also lock it into High if you want that as well but this will be a detriment to the longevity of the phone. Whilst we are talking about the longevity of the phone I have been very please with the battery life of this phone as I have been managing to get through a workday with very little issue normally with just under 35 to 40 % left in the tank. This is spread across mixed usage of Calls, Messaging via text or WhatsApp, Email, Light web browsing, Streaming content on Youtube or Spotify and also using it as a Satnav whilst hooked up to Android Auto. Some days I would even have enough juice left over to not need to bother with a charge until well into the next afternoon. On average I was seeing between 3 and a half to 4 hours screen on time most days.

Performance was snappy whilst interacting with the device as you would expect from a phone from this year. I never felt like I was moving faster than the OS would allow me to. The phone responds to inputs accurately and smoothly. it is a really nice device to interact with one caveat, more on that later. I found calls to be crisp and clear as well while signal retention was good and of course when I ventured into a 5G enabled area then this would be picked up quite quickly. As for data speeds I was able to hit download and upload speeds slightly higher on this device than I can on my OnePlus Nord 2 5G  over my home Wifi. My Nord2 averaged 48.23 Mbps download and 16.77 Mbps upload. The Honor 50 5G averaged 59.03 Mbps download and 17.87 Mbps upload. making for a near 20% increase over both metrics.

It was pretty much a match when it came to loading up various apps after a cold reboot.

So as you can see the performance is on par with the Nord 2 5G. The differences come to light however in the software.

Software

This is where, as always Honor and to a greater extent the old parent company Huawei phones have started to show weakness for me. I mentioned this issue when i was reviewing the Huawei Mate 40 Pro. The user interface that Huwaei adopt and that Honor has inherited is just downright sinful. i cannot for rhyme nor reason fathom why you would want the UI icons in both the home screens UI and drawer to be so large. I may be alone here but i cannot get over the comically large scale of the iconography on this phone. it is enough to make me not want to use it if I am honest. I know that I can use an alternate launcher and that is fine for most people, if I were to be adopting this phone for my daily driver, I would do the same thing. I shouldn’t however need to do this as it is possible with some tweaks to the developer options to reduce the icon scale down to something more reasonable. This in my mind means that the scale of the icons has been made this way deliberately and i don’t understand why!!!

Here is an example of my home screen and app drawer from my Nord 2 5G and also the app drawer.

Here is the Homescreen and app drawer from the Honor 50 5G

Lastly here is a picture of the two side by side focusing on the app drawer

The difference is quite apparent although we have got 6 rows it is the columns that really annoyed me as we only get 4 on the Honor but 5 on the Nord. Both phones have got their display and font settings down to the smallest that is possible. I am not sure what influenced this decision but I for one am not a fan.

Once I had gotten past the size of the icons (which was a challenge) I found the rest of the UI to be quite pleasant with a little bit of clutter and app duplication, which was more than I would like but i could live with it. The one thing that i did notice to be lacking was the option to set a theme on the phone as the Honor Themes store app didn’t seem to be present anymore. Other than that you have got all the Honor staple extras that you would expect 18 in total which is a bit much. However, these can be disabled so they don’t encumber you. There is also thankfully a noticeable absence of any alternative app store for which I am glad.

The main reason for the lack of an alternative app store is that this phone comes with Google Mobile Service’s installed which include the Play store and all of Googles other Googley goodness. It is for this reason I was excited to test this phone out as it represents the re-entry of the Honor brand into the UK Market as what most would call a “proper” Android phone. 

This is a big thing for Honor as the brand had become known to be the more affordable sister brand of Huawei and unfortunately due to the relationship between the two brands Honor also got dragged down by the American embargo placed on the Chinese company. Since Honor has now separated from Huawei they are not allowed to trade again in the US which means it, in turn, can also now use American businesses in the manufacturing and then the distribution of the phone. Most importantly this means that Honor can embrace all the goodness of Google’s services. 

I have always been a massive fan of the design and hardware that the Honor range of phones brought to the market but when things went awry regarding the “ban” I missed the way that Honor brought high-end to the mid-range and I felt that there was a gap left in the market. Thankfully that time has now passed and we have the once-great Honor back and bringing its great design with it.

The other big area where Honor has been known for delivering above the price bracket has traditionally been the camera. I am pleased to say that for the most part, they are still doing this in the form of the Honor 50 5G.

Camera

So as I alluded to earlier the camera component of this phone is most certainly one of its features that Honor is shouting about. This is rightly so as for normal day times conditions this phone work really well it has some really clever AI assistance in the camera which does allow it to utilise the camera module well. It will also allow for some rather clever bit’s within the video camera. i want to cover these off first before delving into stills units.

So within the video section of the phone, you’ll be presented with a few different tools to use for your vlogging purposes. Examples of these are shown below for you to review. I have found that these can be useful in some scenarios.

First up is the Rear Dual Camera mode.

This uses the main camera and the zoom lens to obtain a view of two different perspectives when recording the video. It would potentially be useful if you are trying to do a close-up demo of something that needed a bit more of a detailed viewpoint.

Second, we have got the Front and back  Camera mode

Ever wanted to show what you can see whilst also showing the customer your reaction to what you are seeing. No neither have I but this mode allows you to do just that. By using the front-facing camera and the rear-facing camera at the same time, possibly useful for reaction videos I guess. If you can find a use for it then good on you but for me, this is not one that I would use personally.

The third one I wish to highlight is the picture in video mode, Picture In Video

This one that I could maybe see me using but not really all that often although extensively the same as the above option it will use the front-facing camera but keeps it in a smaller window that can be moved around the screen to allow you to get the best view of the rear shot whilst also allowing your reactions to be seen.

Of course, the video will also record regular video in 720p, 1080 at 60fps, and 4k at up to 30fps. there is also a gyro-based Electronic Image stabilisation to allow you to keep the video reasonably blur-free, just be warned excessive movement will not be able to be prevented from showing in the footage as the EIS is not as effective as mechanical stabilization. You also have a slow-mo mode which can create some rather cool shots.

Another video-esque feature is Timelapse mode which will allow you to create some really cool shots of scenes as they change across time. Be warned though as with the full video features you will need to have got a stable position when you are using this mode. I would defiantly recommend using a tripod here.

Next to the still shooters, First things first let’s look at the type of shot you would get from the 108MP  camera. (Click on the image to see the full-res version)This is a really cool mode to have as it allows to crop into the image with minimal loss of clarity on the cropped area. If I crop the photo above to the lego figure then I get really detailed shot including the detail on the uniform where you actually make out the numbers on the shirt lapels.

Inside at Full resolution

Crop of Inside at Full resolution

Quite a neat feature but unfortunately it comes a bit undone when you are not that close up to the subject though as when you are cropping the image you do lose fidelity.

Outside image at Full resolution

Crop from Outside Image at Full resolution

Fortunately, Honor has added a zoom camera that works at a 2X level allow you a bit of Zoom magic to add to your tools when you are out and about. As if on cue here are some photos of the camera on different Zoom levels from Ultrawide, Normal and of course 2X.

I think it is fair to say that the zoom does its job and the Ultra-Wide option is really nice to have included as well. I have been able to get a lot of really nice photos on the phone in the right light levels. However, when things get a bit darker the camera starts to struggle a bit as the camera seems to take a bit longer to get the required levels of light into the sensor. To try this I thought I would take the camera out with me to a fireworks display and capture the show on there and the results are shown below.

I was a bit disappointed if I am being honest as I was not able to really capture any images of my Wife and Son enjoying the show as it took so long to get the shot that they wouldn’t stay still for long enough so I ended up with a blurry mess. Had I taken a tripod with me then I would have maybe got some better results. However, I want to be able to capture the moment as it happens and I just felt that I was let down here (also didn’t want to be that guy!!) I just feel that for the money this phone should have performed a bit better in the dark especially given that the phone does have an AI-assisted night mode on it. 

So coming back to daylight shots The 108MP sensor works well with 9 in1 pixel binning to reduce the 108MP capture from the sensor down to a more palatable size of 12mp. These photos have good detail and produce a pleasing result when used in good lighting.

So the rear camera is good when used in the correct light levels but can slip a bit when things get a bit darker.

How about the other features such as Macro and Aperture modes well here are a few samples for you below. First up is Super Macro which is awesome for those close up product style shots.

This worked very well and you are guided by the software to say whether you are too close which is useful. I am impressed with the clarity of the writing on the figures spanner. I also quite liked the bokeh effect of the background which almost makes the subject stand out a bit better.

Next up is the Aperture mode

I really like the aperture mode on the Huawei Phones of the past and I am still a fan of the Honor devices. The subject in the image is very clear and the background blurs away really nicely. Let’s see what happens on one taken inside.

This one was taken a bit closer up and the light was not as good but again we do get a nice shot although it is significantly darker almost moodier.

Last up before we move to the selfie shooter is the video at night from the aforementioned fireworks display.

Now moving to the front camera and the obligatory selfie. I have taken three different offerings for you using the different modes available to you.

These are all perfectly serviceable with the standard mode showing a bit of blurring on the boundary between my beard and the dark sofa background. Night Mode manages to get a clearer more defined separation between my face and the background. The portrait mode is about halfway between them. I did turn the bokeh and beauty modes down to zero before taking the Portrait as I wanted to get the purest image without any AI tweaking. if you do turn these on you get something more akin to the image below.

Not a massive fan of this look to be honest as it tweaks things a bit too much and I only had the beauty mode on stage 1 of 10!!

Conclusion

So now that I have covered all the key sections where do I stand on this phone. I proposed that this phone may be a good option for those who are looking at a high-end mid-ranger like the OnePlus Nord 2 5G. I am going to cut to the chase for me the Nord 2 5G wins and there are two main reasons here the camera at night and the icon size in the UI. I will be honest I am a bit spoiled by the fact that I get to test and play with a lot of phones so I have very high expectations for this level of phone.

In isolation, this is a great phone and one that i can imagine that a lot of people will be very happy using. However, when it is being put up against the competition from the likes of OnePlus and to a lesser extent Realme I feel that the phone still has a few things that have let it down. The camera was such a disappointment for night shots as this was somewhere that I remember previous Honor and Huawei devices really shining. If I recall my experience of the Huawei P30 Pro which had a brilliant camera both in the day the night then the overall feeling is that this is just a B Grade camera. Moving away from the camera and perhaps my second biggest complaint the rest of the phone is great it has a really nice design a good battery and a really good screen but i just feel that a bit more work needs to be done with the UI and the camera to really make it that go to high-end mid-ranger that Honor wants it to be.

With all that being said one of the things Honor has always been very good at is getting the price right and this may be enough to sway people especially at this time of year. Currently, the Honor 50 5G is being sold on the Honor website for £379.99 for the 6GB RAM and 128GB Storage version or £449 for the 8GB RAM and 256GB storage versions each of these will also include an Honor Watch ES included for free! This is a cracking price and makes it a great option for a gift for someone at Christmas particularly for someone who stepping up from a lower-end device as this will be a significant step up for them. It also makes it a bit cheaper than the OnePlus Nord 2 5G at the time of this article going live. (10/12/2021)

So there you have it the Honor 50 5G a good solid phone with a great screen and capable camera as long as you don’t take too many photos at night, you may want to use a different launcher though!

On a personal note oi am glad to see Honor devices with google services back on board and I look forward to seeing what they come up with in the next couple of months with intrigue again which I didn’t think I would say again the last time I was at one of their events in the summer of 2019!!

The post Honor 50 5G – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Who are TCL? I can hear you ask, Well, don’t worry too much. TCL were behind the BlackBerry rebirth and you may have seen some of their Alcatel phones in the past,  it is a fast-growing consumer electronics company and leading player in the global TV industry. Founded in 1981, it now operates in over 160 markets globally. According to Sigmaintell, TCL ranked 2nd in the global TV market in terms of sales volume in 2019.  

So they know their stuff,  and recently the company got in touch with us and asked if we would like to review the latest handset the R20 5G, well before its general release. 

Good Points:-

• Price.
• Gorgeous 90hz screen.
• Good Build Quality.
• Lightweight.
• 5G connectivity. 
• Good Battery Life.
• 3.5mm Audio Jack.
• Fast Face Unlock.
• SD Card Support. 

Bad Points:-

• Slippery when not in a case. 
• Camera Quality.
• Auto brightness can be a bit too aggressive.
• No Wireless charging. 

Spec’s :- 

•  Mediatek Chipset.
• 6GB ram with either 128/256GB Storage.
• 4500mAh battery, up to 18W Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0
• USB-C charging data port. 
• 6.67 inch FHD Display 1080X2400 resolution with 395 PPI, 0:9 aspect ratio.
• 48MP main camera, 8MP wide-angle, 2MP macro camera. 
• Video Capture 4K@30FPS, 1080p@60/30FPS.
• 8MP front camera, 1080p@30FPS.
• 3.5mm Audio Jack.
• SC Card Support.
• Rear capacitive fingerprint reader.  

Design:-

The TCL has a 6.67 Screen a metal frame and plastic back, where there is the camera hump and fingerprint reader, upon first picking the device up it reminded me so much of a Pixel 3, The left side of the device is plain apart from the  SIM card/SD card tray located at the bottom. On the right side volume up/down and power button below, I found that these were a little low down on the frame for my large hands. Up at the top is the 3.5mm Audio Jack, and microphone, and at the bottom is the single speaker and USB-C port. There is a very slight rib to the metal chassis, almost invisible to the eye, but gives a tactical feedback and extra grip when used without a case.

In Use :- 

Upon booting up the TCL the first thing I noticed is the screen, it’s really bright and clear, and comes with a 90hz refresh rate, at the top is a tear drop notch, but I found the chin a little on the large side although, it’s clear that TCL have put their TV expertise into this screen, which the company have billed as NXTVision.  This AMOLED screen digitally upscales content, making games and videos look HDR, and tweaking images viewed, to make them better-looking, the device comes with a 90% screen to body ratio, a reading mode, eye comfort mode and low blue light. With this all told, this screen clearly punches well above it weight and I’ve to say in some circumstances it was nicer to look at than my S21 Ultra, and I found it too bright when the brightness was ramped up to 100%, that said I found that the auto brightness setting was to aggressive when it came to adjusting the screen output, no gradual lowering/raising of brightness.

Set up is the usual Android affair but with the inclusion of  choice of search provider, loads more than I have seen previously. 

The R20 5G comes with TCL UI version 3  which is very close to stock Android and comes with the Google Feed off to the left of the launcher. The App drawer has lots of customisation and the apps can be arranged in a multitube of ways. There is some bloat apps are installed Facebook, booking com, Open Office, Microsoft news etc,  but these can be fully uninstalled.

As with every review that I do I decided to use the TCL as my only device, putting my S21 Ultra in the drawer for the duration. Did I miss my Samsung flagship ? well for 95% of the time no I didn’t and for the retail price of this device that was pretty amazing. The face unlock, although not as secure as other iterations, unlocked the device really quick, and the capacitive fingerprint reader on the back worked flawlessly on every asking. 

The UI is very close to stock Android (once I had removed the bloatware) and swipes were fluid and smooth, I only noticed the occasional stutter opening certain apps Youtube and OneNote being the main culprits, (this may improve as software updates arrive.)

The device shipped with RCS messaging service working straight out of the  box, and it was showing as having the July 21 Security Patch, but again I imagine this will be updated in due course.  Everyone I spoke to said the call quality was really clear, with no dropped calls. 

I connected the TCL to my Galaxy Watch, and all the notification’s came through fine, and I was able to make/receive calls with no issues, sometimes the Bluetooth connection would drop, but that may be down to the two manufactures not playing nice together.  The single speaker on the bottom of the unit, it loud and clear, it does lack bass, but it is more than adequate for podcasts, news etc. 

Battery life was on par with my S21 Ultra, which was a surprise as it was driving that fantastic screen, I know people measure screen on time etc etc, I just used the device as I would on any normal day,  I took the device off charge at approx 6am and used it during my normal working day returning home 7:30 that evening with 45% battery remining, so the R20 should easily last the whole day. 

The R20 is a 5G device and I was able to get some decent data speeds on the device, although as with any 5G speeds this down to numerous factors. 

Camera:-

Unfortunately, I think I may have found the R20’s Achilles heel, or where the company have lowered spec’s to get the device at low price point.  The camera set up does have some interesting modes including Super macro, Light trace, Stop motion, and Portrait mode. In good bright light the camera is able to produce some good acceptable images. 

The problems start to appear in low light, here the camera really struggles and the images produced were blurry with poor edge detection. 

Conclusion :-

The R20 5G is a  cracking phone that is well worth the money, and will be available through EE  from October 29th Priced at £21 per month at £0 upfront with 4GB data, and available for general sale in the UK from November for £179.

I really liked the form factor, and the screen is just a joy to look at, at times I thought it looked better than my £1200 S21 Ultra ( and lets be honest that’s where we spend most of our day).

It  does it have some faults, yes of course  but these are mainly in the camera department, but I have a very early version of the device and I can see that these short comings can be addressed in further updates, it won’t be the phone for the absolute top end spec hunters. It is not intended to be for that market.

Look back in the Coolsmartphone archives where Leigh reviewed the TCL 10 5G a midrange handset priced at over double the R20’s price, and this lower tier device scores higher. 

Would I recommend this phone to people yes I would, I know the lower tiers of the market is flooded with devices from all over the globe but the R20 5G is a handset worthy of a look if your in that market. 

The post TCL R20 5G – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

The latest salvo in the mid-tier battle is the OnePlus Nord 2 5G and I have had the pleasure of using it for about a month now. Without giving too much away I am really glad that they are still playing in the mid-tier area as they have produced a cracker of a phone in the form of the Nord 2. With that out of the way let’s have a closer look and see what they have done to make this phone a real contender for my cash at least!

But before I do that I want to cast your mind back to the most recent review I did of the Realme GT 5G, this is relevant as these phones are related and you can see this is the design language that has been used. I am pleased about this and pleased that OnePlus did a bit more with the Nord 2 to make it a bit more special.
Design

The design for the Nord 2 is not a massive departure from what we find familiar on modern phones. The phone is the standard rectangular slab of glass plastic and metal that most phones are. This in my opinion is a good thing as it is familiar and comfortable. I have recently had the chance to use a Samsung Galaxy Fold 3 and whilst it is true that it is an engineering marvel, I was paranoid about using it and didn’t take it out of the house. I actually sent the phone back due to my concern that I would break it! The Nord 2 is what I chose to use over the Fold 3 as it felt solid and safe and it just fitted into my hands so well that it felt right. So let’s look at the phone in a bit more detail.

On the left-hand side, we find the volume rocker as you would expect. It is a single switch design and works well with nice feedback when pressed.

Up top, we have one of the several pinhole microphones used to allow noise cancelling during calls. That is it for the top surface.

Continuing around to the right-hand side is where you will find a Oneplus staple in the form of the notification switch.

This is a feature that I love on Oneplus devices ever since I first used a OnePlus 2 back in the day. it is such a convenient way to change your alerts quickly and easily. Below this the there is the power switch which is smooth to the touch unlike the alert slider which is knurled so that you can differentiate between the two by touch. I have to say that I do like having the volume controls and the power keys on the opposite side’s as I missed this on my Note 10 Plus. Again it just feels more natural I can see a theme developing here…

Down at the bottom is where we find the dual sim card slot and the 1st indication of any waterproofing that has been built into the design albeit unofficially.

Next to this is the USB Type C for power and data transfer. This port is capable of using the Oneplus Dart Charge at 65W which is really fast, more on that in a bit! There is also a mother microphone down here as well. Finally top finish up at the bottom of the phone is one of the 2 speakers which is pretty loud and punchy.

Moving to the display at the top we have the other speaker that also doubles up duties as an earpiece.

This speaker is loud as well and the sound that is produced by both the speakers is more than sufficient for playback of Youtube when sofa surfing, or listening to podcasts etc. Music is okay but do yourself a favour and get some decent headphones with an adaptor for USB Type C or Bluetooth as it will be a much more enjoyable experience.

Below the speaker is the screen which measures in at 6.43 inches and 85.8% screen-to-body ratio. The resolution is 1080 x 2400 pixels with a PPI density of 409 and a ratio of 20:9. All of this is made up of Gorilla Glass 5 which is nice to see with a phone at this price point.

Up in the screen’s left corner, we have a hole punch for the 32MP Selfie camera which also has a nice effect where it will show a halo around the camera when it is being used for face unlock.

Whilst not a fan of the see hole-punch cameras or indeed the notch it becomes less noticeable after a while. Hopefully, we are getting close to not having to deal with them for much longer as Samsung has used their first under-display camera on the Fold 3 which means more brands will now follow once the quality improves.

Lastly, on the front of the phone, we have the under-display fingerprint reader which is fast and responsive under most conditions only when my finger was very dirty did I have any real issue with unlocking the phone, in these scenarios the face unlock worked fluidly enough to get by.

Around the back is a 3D AG Glass panel that comes in three different colours. We have the Grey Sierra you can also get the phone in Blue Haze, if you are in India then you have the option of getting the exclusive Green Woods colourway. The back panel feels good to hold and has just the correct level of texture on it to provide grip. It is also a matte finish so fingerprints are not instantly visible which is nice to see as I am a bit sick of glossy phone backs now.

In the top left-hand corner of the phone is where we can find the camera module that Contains the 50MP main sensor the 8Mp Ultrawide and a 2MP Monochrome sensor along with a dual-tone flash. The lenses do sit a bit proud of the back of the phone which is a shame but has been necessary to get the phone thickness down to 8.25mm which allows for to feel svelte and sleek in the hand.

That covers the external design now for a quick look at the specs before diving into the hardware.
The Specs

NAME	OnePlus Nord 2 5G
COLOR	Gray Sierra/Blue Haze
DIMENSIONS	Height: 158.9mm Width: 73.2mm Thickness: 8.25mm Weight: 189g±1
DISPLAY PARAMETERS	Size: 6.43 inches Resolution: 2400 x 1080 pixels 410ppi Aspect Ratio: 20:9 Refresh Rate: 90Hz Type: Fluid AMOLED Support sRGB, Display P3
DISPLAY FEATURES	Video enhancement AI-Super resolution Daylight readable enhancement
PERFORMANCE	Operating System: OxygenOS based on Android 11 /Color OS 11.3CPU: MediaTek Dimensity 1200-AI GPU: ARM G77 MC9RAM: 6GB/8GB/12GB LPDDR4X Storage: 128GB/256GB UFS3.1 Battery: 4500 mAh (non-removable) Motor: X-axis linear motor Warp Charge 65
MAIN CAMERA – REAR	Megapixels: 50M Pixel Size: 1.0 µm Lens Quantity: 6P OIS: Yes Aperture: f/1.88
ULTRA-WIDE CAMERA -REAR	Megapixels: 8M Field of View: 119.7° EIS: Yes Aperture: f/2.25
MONO LENS – REAR	Megapixels: 2M Aperture: f/2.5
FLASH	Dual-LED Flash
ZOOM	0.6x – 10x
AUTOFOCUS	Multi Autofocus (PDAF+CAF)
VIDEO	4K video at 30fps 1080p video at 30/60 fps;720p video at 30/60 fps Super Slow Motion: 1080p video at 120 fps, 720p video at 240 fps Time-Lapse: 1080p 120fps, 720p 240fps Video editor
FEATURES	Nightscape Ultra, AI Photo Enhancement, AI Video Enhancement, UltraShot HDR, Portrait Mode, Night Portrait Mode, Portrait distortion correction, Panorama, Pro Mode
FRONT CAMERA	Sensor: Sony IMX615 Megapixels: 32M Pixel Size: 0.8µm EIS: Yes Aperture: f/2.45
VIDEO	1080p video at 30fps 720p video at 30fps Time-Lapse
FEATURES	Face unlock, Screen flash, HDR, Face retouching, Portrait
CONNECTIVITY LTE	4×4 MIMO, support up to DL Cat 18/UL Cat 13 (1.2Gbps /150Mbps), depending on carrier support
CONNECTIVITY BAND (EUROPE)	GSM: GSM850, GSM900, DCS1800, PCS1900 WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/8/19LTE-FDD: B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/18/19/20/26/28/38/32/34/39/40/41/66 NR NSA: N1, N3, N7, N8, N20, N28, N38, N41, N78NR SA: N1, N3, N7, N20, N28, N78, N41, N8*Network connectivity may vary depending on the carrier’s network and related service deployment. Notes: B66 frequency range is only 2110-2180MHz(3GPP defined 2110-2200MHz)
WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, 2.4G/5G,2*2MIMO
BLUETOOTH	Bluetooth 5.2, support aptX & aptX HD & LDAC & AAC
NFC	NFC enabled
POSITIONING	GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, NavIC
SENSORS	In-display fingerprint sensor Accelerometer Electronic compass Gyroscope Ambient light sensor SAR Sensor Proximity sensor Sensor core
PORTS	USB 2.0, Type-C Dual nano-SIM slot
BUTTONS	Gestures and on-screen navigation support Left: Volume key Right: Power key
AUDIO	Dual stereo speaker Noise cancellation support
MULTIMEDIA – AUDIO SUPPORTED FORMATS	Decoder: WAV, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, MP3, WMA, AMR, FLAC, ALAC, Vorbis, AIFF, APE Encoder: WAV, AAC, AMR
MULTIMEDIA – VIDEO SUPPORTED FORMATS	Decoder: H.264, MPEG-2, VP9, HEVC, HEIF/HEIC, MPEG-4, H.263 Encoder: H.264, HEVC, HEIF/HEIC, MPEG-4, H.263
MULTIMEDIA – IMAGE SUPPORTED FORMATS	Decoder: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIF Encoder: JPEG, PNG
IN THE BOX (EUROPE)	OnePlus Nord 2 5G — Warp Charge 65 power adapter — Warp Type-C cable (Support USB 2.0) — Phone case — Screen protector (pre-applied) — SIM tray ejector — Welcome letter — Quick start guide — Safety information and warranty card — Highest SAR value

Hardware

The phone’s hardware is very similar to what we have seen from OnePlus on the previously done on the Nord Line. This is very good news as the previous generation Nord was a great phone that we really liked here at Coolsmartphone. There are a few very significant difference’s here, however. We have some significant upgrades to the core hardware that have trickled down from the OnePlus 9 Family that I have previously reviewed here.

With that being said the biggest change is actually within the Chipset that has been used for the Nord 2. This is the first time that we have seen a chipset from anything other than Qualcomm. We have got a Mediatek Chip on board this time and it is a cracker. I have been using this alongside a Pixel 4A 5G and also a Realme GT 5G the latter of which has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 as the processor and if I am completely honest I have found that the Nord 2 is just as fast and smooth in terms of operation. Now that could be partly down to the larger amount of RAM on the Nord than on the Realme but I genuinely think that the Dimenisty 1200 AI Chip on the Nord 2 is a very good competitor to that of the Snapdragon 888. I can run all the features of the phone without any hiccups or slow down. I am genuinely impressed by the new chipset and extremely happy with the performance, Mediatek has come a long way with this chipset and it shows.

Moving away from the Chipset to the other parts of hardware. The battery in the Nord 2 has been one of the features that has been brought over from the 9 Series family in that it is a two-cell unit. This is great news as it allows the phone to accept a much faster-charging rate at up to 65W via the WarpCharge 65 technology. This allows the phone to the bundled charge to take the load while charging and it will also power up the battery cells simultaneously. This wizardry allows the phone to be charged from 0 -100% in 30 minutes or so which is awesome. This fast charging allows me to no longer worry that it doesn’t have any Wireless charging via QI, a feature that I used to always rely on to charge my phone.

Next up are the camera’s these are again pulled from its big brother in the form of the 50MP main camera and it certainly delivers. I have always liked the OnePlus cameras and they are getting closer to what I see as being the gold standard which is the Pixel camera but they are not quite there yet. I am glad to report that there is none of the Hasselblad software onboard which keeps the price down and honestly I don’t see any difference between the camera on the Nord 2 and the OnePlus 9 Pro 5G/OnePlus 9 5G. That being said I am not a serious photographer I am more than happy with the basic functions of a camera and this one does the job. Upfront, we do have a 32MP camera like on the previous generation so it is fair to say that selfies are on point but I will cover the camera later on in the review.

Another thing that I was really impressed with in terms of Hardware is the speaker setup. We do have stereo speakers via the bottom-mounted speaker and the earpiece and this phone is loud. They are still mobile phone speakers but the volume that they can produce is very pleasing, more than adequate for some YouTube binging and podcast listening.

The screen is the last section I really wanted to cover as this is again a unit that some of the tech has been carried over from its big brother. It is a 6.43″ AMOLED panel that supports a 90hz refresh rate so scrolling is supremely smooth and fluid. it is also intelligent in that the screen will adapt to what is being displayed via AI Colour Boost in certain apps. It is also nice and bright making for good visibility in sunlight thanks to the Smart Ambient display. A once touch is the ability of AI Resolution boost to upscale content from YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram to HD to further enhance the viewing experience.
Performance and Battery life

So I haven’t already mentioned that the performance of the OnePlus Nord 2 is very impressive and it is up there with some of the more high-end phones meaning that his phone will keep up with your daily tasks easily. I have been running the phone as I do on all my normal devices. This involves running multiple email clients and having a lot of activities running behind the scenes. The phone just keeps on going without any major concerns at all. In certain scenarios I found it to be just as capable as its distant cousin the Realme GT. I certainly have not missed having my Note 10 + since i started using the Nord 2 so much so that i actually sold it fairly early on in the review period. Gaming is fluid and enjoyable and it doesn’t hit the battery that hard when i want to indulge in some World of Warships or Altos Oddesy. Now while neither of these games are the most graphically intensive games out there they do still demand a bit of horsepower to make the work correctly. I have found that using the device to play games is an enjoyable experience and that is what really counts, to be honest (IMHO), not how many FPS you are getting!

Now in what seems to be an upset to the balance of all things techie, this performance is also backed up by a very good and long-lasting battery.

I am regularly able to get through a whole day with plenty of juice left in the tank.

This is over a mixed-use of streaming from Youtube Spotify browsing and emails with the occasional call thrown in for good measure. Some days I will even be able to stretch that single day out to two if I am very careful. The biggest drain on the battery is through the use of Satnav via Android Auto. This is hardly surprising as I am able to use it wirelessly in my newish car. In order to do this, it has to connect to the Wifi hotspot in the car. This means that alongside doing all the other complex tasks there is enough computing power left over to ensure all of the other areas are dealt with such as background notifications searching for new GPS when I move from one coverage area to the other. If I really want to make the phone work I will throw some Spotify into the mix for fun!

In summary, I am very very impressed with the speed and responsiveness of the phone, I also have no real concerns over the battery life especially as I can recharge it quickly with the aforementioned Warp Charge 65.

Software

This is possibly the area of the phone that is the least interesting as the phone sports Oxygen OS11 which is a very close reproduction of the Pixel UI found on the Google Pixel Line up. This makes the phone a joy to use for the Android Purist and has long been one of the appeals to Oneplus owners. It is down to the software that I have bought 2 previous Oneplus devices. As is always the case with software things move forward pretty quickly and Oneplus for the most part are able to keep particularly on the Flagship line up. Whether the same will be true of the Nord Line up is yet to be seen but I have high hopes that we will see Android 12 on the Nord 2 in the not distant future. There are some features that have been added by Oneplus to enhance the UI experience but these have become less obvious over time as both Android has evolved and Oxygen OS along with it. The other thing of note here is that there are a lot of similarities starting to show up between Realme, Oppo and OnePluss what with them all being owned by BBK as the parent company. I am not sure how long Oxygen OS will remain but as long as they dont commit the utter travesty made by Realme in their launcher (see rant in Realme 8 Pro and Realme GT reviews), I will be happy for the merge to Colour Os to happen. As to when this will occur time again will have to tell.

So a big tick for the software as well this is looking like the real deal time to delve into the camera.
Camera

I have said it before and I will reiterate it again for the record and to give this review context. I am not a great photographer but i know what I like in terms of a good photo. I like being able to capture pictures easily with a minimum of fuss and complication. If I see something I want to be able to capture an image of it and that image to be as true to life as possible without having to faff and fiddle with settings. This is why AI-Assisted photography is a big plus in my book. It is also why I have always been a fan of the Pixel Camera since I first tried a Pixel 3 XL a few years ago. I now dual wield the phone I am testing alongside a Pixel 4a XL so this gives me a great chance to regularly compare the camera experience and quality between the two devices.

So with that established how does the Nord 2 stand up against my requirements. Well for the most part I am very happy with it and what it can do. I like the fact that we have got the ability to shoot using the 50 MP Sony IMX 766 sensor with a large f/1.88 aperture on the phone that even in its tops trim is under £500. I think it is great that OnePlus did not feel tempted to bring the Hasselblad “features” from the One Plus 9 series down to the Nord 2 as it has allowed them to concentrate on the basics and use the Sony sensor as it should be with a minimum of meddling. The AI from the Deminsity 1200 AI chip works very smoothly and the ISP is very effective at scene recognition allow the camera to tweak the settings on the fly with ease and speed. This is not just concentrated on the main camera as it works on the Ultrawide lens as well allowing for well support shots from the 8MP 119.7° ultra-wide-angle camera. Something that is also nice to see is that when you do switch between the 2 lenses there is little to no colour shift between them something I have seen on other more expensive devices. The last camera sensor on the rear is a Monochrome unit and this is useful in giving the whole setup that little extra boost when taking photos full of colour as this sensor can capture the dark shades well and it helps make the overall contrast mix very pleasing. I would actually go as far as saying that I am much happier with the camera setup on the Nord 2 than I was with the bigger brothers in the OnePlus range. it doesn’t try to be something it isn’t and this is largely down to the exclusion of the Hasselblad settings and tweaking that OnePlus added to the higher-spec devices.

I have included a few photos that were captured on the device below for you to assess for yourself.

However, this is not the camera section completed as there is also that front-facing 32MP camera which is the biggest sensor that has been put on a OnePlus device to date. With this phone being pitched more towards the mid to high-end market having a good selfie camera is very important as a lot of buyers of this device will potentially be in the 20 somethings age group and being able to take a good selfie is important to them.

If I am honest it is wasted on me as I don’t even like seeing myself in the mirror never mind being immortalised in digital form! What I can say is that the shots it produces are crisp and clear and I presume will be useful to the intended market who will no doubt use the phone for Tik-Tok and Instagram stories with great zeal!

Yes, I do realise how old that statement makes me sound! here is an example of the selfie camera in action.
Conclusion

There you have any review of the OnePlus Nord 2, A cracking phone that is well worth the money that is being asked for it. Does it have some faults, yes of course and it won’t be the phone for the absolute top end spec hunters. It is not intended to be for that market, this is the categories being occupied by the OnePlus 9 Pro 5G and OnePlus 9 5G. This phone is intended for those who are a bit more price sensitive but still want good value and features. I think this is the most competitive market segment at the moment and for me, it is actually turning out to be the most interesting.

Would I recommend this phone to people absolutely yes I would! It is defiantly one of my top 5 phones of the year so far and I have struggled to find anything that I would willingly replace it with. I am in a fortunate position to be able to play with phones from various different manufacturers that are aimed at all sorts of market segments. However, even with that being said I have started to come to the realisation that I don’t need to spend 4 figures on a “flagship” anymore as phones like the Nord 2 and its fellow competitors fulfil my requirements perfectly well.

If I had to cite a negative it would be the omission of QI Wireless charging on the phone but as mentioned above that is negated by the quick wired charge speed and it is probably more energy efficient.

So if you are in the market for a reasonably priced phone that will be a solid and safe performer and you don’t want to be an iPhone or Samsung sheep then it is well worth a look at the Oneplus Nord 2 as you won’t regret it. This is back to the original form of Oneplus with there “flagship killers” of old Well done.

You can pick up a OnePlus Nord 2 5G from OnePlus direct or network stores Check this article for more info

The post OnePlus Nord 2 5G – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Realme GT 5G

That is the question that is being posed in the review of the latest phone from Realme the Realme GT 5G. I have been able to use one for the past few days, and I will try to answer it during this review.

Now before I delve fully into the review I feel I should give you a bit of a tour of the device. I have done a full unboxing of the phone and the video for that can be viewed below.

Before I get started on the review I just want to add this quick disclaimer. I am basing this review on a sample unit that I have been supplied with by Realme. I have not had any form of payment for this review and Realme have not had any preview of this review either. The thoughts and opinions in this article are my own and this will always be the case with any reviews for Coolsmartphone.com

If you prefer your tour in text and photo’s, medium then you read my unboxing post by going to it here.

I was pretty impressed with the phone after my initial first impressions out of the box. now that I have been using it for a bit longer and the initial excitement of it being new has worn off how is it?

First here are the specs

Well, it is a bit a mixed bag if I am honest as I do like the hardware but there are some minor niggles that stop it from being great. But before I go into them I quickly want to say that for the price this phone comes in at a lot can be forgiven. Currently, you can pick up the phone as I have it in my review unit (8GB RAM, 128GB Storage), for £346.09 (price on 16/07/2021). This is an awesome price and there are not many other phones which pack the punch this one does at this low price. That being said onto the niggles.

Hardware

The first thing I found a bit annoying was the fact that the volume and the power buttons were located on the opposite sides of the phone from each other. This made it a bit trickier to learn the muscle memory to know how the phone was sitting in my pocket. I found that a lot of the time I was pulling it out of my pocket to find that I had been pressing on the volume down button to try and wake the screen. This then required me to do a double-take what way around I was holding the phone causing me to have missed some threat impromptu shots. Not a big issue but it can mean losing the perfect opportunity which can be frustrating.

Left hand side

Next up are the factory-supplied freebies. So first is the Screen protector which is really only suitable for protecting the screen for transit. I have managed to get multiple scratches on it without me being particularly hard on the phone at all. Next up is the included case which is just a bit nasty if I am honest. I am grateful that it comes in the box but can we start to see the quality of these step-up please, as this one doesn’t do the phone justice.

This next one is a minor complaint but I found that the NFC sensing area on the back of the phone awkward to use as it is next to the camera bump and I was always worried I would scratch up the glass on the camera when using it. Admittedly NFC is not something that is used a lot anymore but I have now found that I need to use it almost daily at work so this did flag up on my radar. In retrospect, I am glad it even has NFC as a lot of earlier phones designed for the Asian market didn’t even have this feature

Apart from these really quite minor issues I have found the phone pleasant in terms of hardware. Nothing really leaps out at me to make this phone a “special” phone unless you get the Yellow “leather effect” version, which stands out a bit more due to the rear panel being clad in the aforementioned material. The phone I got was a glass backplate which is nice but as is the case with most glass-backed phones it is a fingerprint magnet so most of its life was spent in the free case that is provided.

I would have liked to have some sort of an official IP rating on the phone but at this price point, it is not worth the manufacturer going through the testing process. A lot of devices from OnePlus have until very recently been similar in terms of not being tested to an IP rating but in reality being perfectly splash resistant to all but a full submersion. I have happily used the phone in the rain with negative effects so far.

Another feature that would make this flagship worthy is Qi charging but also we don’t find this either a real shame as I now look for this in a flagship device. However, this too can be forgiven at this price point and at least the charger that is provided will give you a full recharge in 35 minutes which is awesome and QI charging would slow this considerably.

In terms of battery longevity, I have found that I can easily get through a full working day with the phone not needing to be plugged in until I got to bed and even then it still has at least 20% on it. This is with the phone being used for email phone calls, Teams and other social networking apps about an hour of web browsing along with at least 3o mins of Youtube surfing during the course of the day. To give you an example of how it compares i get similar results from my Note 10 + which has a slightly bigger battery but doesn’t have 5G support. My Pixel 4a 5G will also get me through a day but it will be closer to single digits by bedtime. I can stretch that battery life out further if I need to use it by lowering the refresh rate of the screen down to 90hz if I feel I need to but so far I haven’t felt the need. That leads me to the last bit I want to cover on the external hardware which is the screen.

This is a good screen and it performs really well. It may not be up there with the likes of Samsung and their Super AMOLED panels but I have used a Samsung for the past year and I cannot really fault the Realme AMOLED panel to be fair as it compares very nicely.

Realme GT 5G

That is about all I can say about the external hardware. The phone is well built and stands quite high in the category it is in price-wise.

Moving onto the internals now.

The big key selling point of this phone is the Snapdragon 888 SOC (System on chip) that is at the heart of this device. This is perhaps (at least to my knowledge) one of the cheapest ways to get this chipset in a phone these days. Does the phone need all this raw power? In a word no, is it appreciated that it is available hell yeah! I found that during my normal use of the phone there was no real perceptible lag in any operations that I carried out. I am quite tough on my phones, particularly when travelling in the car.

This is an activity I do a lot and I have Android Auto running through the cars infotainment system when I am driving. This has been a good way of showing up deficiencies in the phone processing power in the past and for the Realme GT 5G, it worked like a charm. I would actually go as far as saying that the operation seems to be smoother than on my Pixel 4A 5G. I found that when I was using the assistant whilst also using the navigation via google maps I had no noticeable issues with the response. The only problem I did have was that sometimes there was a small lag in the map updating my actual real-time location. It is hard to say whether this is down to the phone or Android Auto as I have seen it on other devices including my Realme 8 Pro and my Pixel 4A 5G.

I was also particularly keen to see how the phone coped with running games so I booted up my staple test of World of Warships. I then proceeded to ramp everything up to the maximum and I was not disappointed with the outcome as the gaming experience was as smooth as I would have expected for a phone with the power of the SD888. Having the 120hZ refresh rate was also a really nice bonus as I could feel a difference from when I have played the same game on my Note 10+. It just felt a bit smoother which was nice to see.

As for my other daily use scenario of multiple email, clients, Chat groups via Whats App and Teams plus the use of the Camera and Google photos to share all of the pictures with my team, I had no issue with any of this. I was also having to use the phone as a tool to set up systems for work that required me to use the NFC as mentioned above it worked fine but I dint like the position of the NFC reader.

What I was really impressed with and I have alluded to this above is that the phone gave stellar battery life easily powering me through the day and I put this down to 2 things really. Firstly the optimisations have been made at a Chipset level with the automatic load balancing that takes place within the cores. The chip will automatically reduce the amount of processing cores as needed to “throttle down” the performance if you don’t need it. This helps to eke out that battery life a little further when you are not using the phone intensely. You cannot see this in action but you can see the results. The second one is down to the optimizations built into the phone itself. Realme have added various battery-saving feature into the software fo the phone at its core. These optimizations take on various forms a few of which I want to highlight here.

Auto screen refresh rate:- This will allow for an adaptive refresh rate on the screen when it is needed. It is a very similar technology that was implemented into the OnePlus 9 Pro 5G that I reviewed previously although it doesn’t have quite the same level of range as that phone. Essentially when the phone’s screen is displaying a static non-moving image the refresh rate will be as low as possible whereas if you are doing something that needs the screen to “refresh” it will ramp the screens rate up to an appropriate level. It is awesome to see this being used on a mid-tier phone as it is normally a high or low option but having the Auto mode is a really nice touch.

Auto App optimization:- This is done on an App by App basis and will look towards how the apps are being used and also how often. The AI on the chipset will then figure out which apps need to be left to run at full power and which ones can be put to sleep. This is a big one for me as during the week I will be requiring the use of certain app more than others during my working day. A prime example of this is Outlook as I use this a lot for work. However, when the workday finishes I want the app to stop drawing power so I can tell it to do so or let the phone manually take care of it. The good thing about this system is that the more I use it the more it learns from me about how I use it and gets better at knowing what I want when I want it.

Quick App Freeze:-This essentially puts an app that has been used recently into a frozen state and will hold it in that state until it is called upon again, therefore, saving you battery as it is not polling for information until you ask it to do something again. I find it particularly useful if launch an app unintentionally.

All of these little things add up to a phone that gives really impressive battery life and I know that I can get through the working day without having to hunt for the charger. However, should I need to juice the phone up again then I can do this very quickly thanks to the included 65Watt SuperDart Charger that comes included in the box! This will give me a fully charged battery in 35 minutes as I have already mentioned which is great to have in the back pocket should I need it!

With the performance of the phone now covered let’s look at the other core feature that makes the phone pleasing to use and that is, of course, the software.

Software

This is an area where Realme is a little behind the curve in my opinion. The implementation of the UI is good but it is not the best. I have am quite particular when it comes to UI’s and I always have been which I possibly the reason that I am always drawn back to Pixel’s (and Nexus devices from a bygone era). I like my UI to be clean uncluttered and flexible and this is where I find that the Realme UI falls foul for me. I like to have my home screens set upon a way that I can action things at a glance without having to go into apps to do stuff. This makes the use of widgets really important to me. On my Note10+ I use three Gmail widgets across 4 home screens to allow me to see what I have coming into my various account at a glance. This allows me to streamline what I need to act and what I don’t. I cannot do this on the Realme GT 5G or on any Realme device for that matter and this is down to Realme UI 2 not supporting multiple occurrences of the same widget. For me this is a big negative and until it is sorted almost rules the phone out as an option for a daily driver. I say almost as I can of course use other launchers to get around this issue but that then adds a layer of complication that I feel shouldn’t be necessary.

I must say here that I am probably an extreme case as I have spoken to other reviewers about this and most of them don’t find this to be an issue. For a normal user, the phone UI is pleasant and it offers a lot of customization which I did actually like as you can set it up to have the colours that you want and in a way that you like to use it but I did miss having the multiple widgets and if I am honest it did annoy me over time.

Here are some screen recordings of the setup on my Note10+ and the Realme GT 5G

Dont get me wrong the phone is not by any means unpleasant to use and I do like the fact that you have the ability to have a quick launch bar on the side of the display that can call up recently used apps.

The long-press on any home screen to bring up the settings for configuring the home screen is useful for wanting to make quick changes is also really intuitive.

All the standard Android features that you would expect to see in an Android 11 device are present and correct and multitasking is a dream with split-screen view easily accessible. So maybe I am being a bit hard on the UI but I am just a bit set in my ways. if you like a clean UI then I think you will be very happy with what is offered by Realme UI. I gave my wife the chance to use the phone for a few days and she was absolutely happy with everything on it and she noticed that it was a vast improvement over her previous phone which was slow and cumbersome in comparison.

A nice addition to see here was the inbuilt Game Space. This allows you to block notifications and draw the maximum power from the phone when you enter a game along with some other useful features like screen recording. When in a game you can swipe in from the left-hand side to bring up the Game space menu to set things up the way you want to and it will also show your CPU, GPU and FPS stats. You can also adjust the settings for what mode you want to run the games in from three options, Low Power Mode Balanced and Pro Gamer. These different modes will configure the screen and the chipset demands accordingly with Pro-Gamer giving the maximum performance at the cost of battery power.

In World of Warships

In Odyessy

Next, we move onto the cameras.

Camera

The Realme GT 5G is not being positioned as a camera king but in order to be a “flagship Killer” worthy contender, it does need to have a good camera. For the most part, it fulfils that need. It is not a great camera more of a serviceable camera. it will take a good picture but there are better options out there particularly at this price point as well. We have got three elements to the camera in the form of a 64MP IMX 682 main sensor that is supported by an 8MP UltraWide and a 2MP Macro lens.

Camera module

The main camera has a lot of cool features that have been added to its UI mostly assisted by the AI from the SD 888 chipset.

When taking an image on the main camera in auto mode it will actually take multiple images then it will stitch these images together in order to attempt to give you the clearest and noise-free image available. This works reasonably well within good light but I have to say it does start to struggle when it gets darker.

As a comparison here are some shots from the Pixel 4A 5G taken in the same conditions.

The other modes that are available within the camera are as follows:-

• Pro 64MP mode, is essentially a mode that will utilise the full 64MP sensor to capture an image that can be zoomed into further digitally.
• Super Nightscape Allows for tweaked parameters and AI support to enhance photos taken at night or in low light.
• AI passport, Takes professional-grade ID-compliant photos avoiding the need to go to the photo booth at the local supermarket!
• Chroma Boost, using AI to identify scene information and ensure that the colours in the image are as true to real life as possible

Most of the above are AI-enhanced features of the camera and these are in addition to the regular shooting mode’s that are to be found on most smartphones. I was surprised to see that Starrynight mode was not available on the Realme GT 5G as this is something that really impressed me on the Realme 8 Pro when I reviewed that.

I have included some images of the same scene below to show how the Ultrawide camera compares against the normal camera. it also shows the extent of the zoom function although with this only being an optical zoom I wouldn’t use it anywhere above 2x as otherwise, things get a bit messy, as you will see below.

The front-facing camera is a 16MP unit and does a good job at getting pictures once you have turned the beautification mode (which is on by default) off. In portrait mode, the Bokeh can only be dialled down to 1% and it does have some slight fringing issues on the edges of my face. Here are some samples below so you can see them for yourself.

Here are some shots of the Auto mode and then also the 64MP mode and the only noticeable difference is how far into the photo you can “zoom”.

As for Video, the phone will record at up to 4k at 60FPS although for my use I found that 1080p at 60fps was adequate. I did notice a difference in the focus speed during a brief test shown below. With AI turned on the video retained focus better than without which I didn’t expect. This is shown in the second clip below.

There is also a Dual View Video mode that could prove to be useful for bloggers and influencers etc. I personally have not yet found a need for it (answers on a postcard greatly received…)

The last thing I want to cover is the Macro lens which really does seem redundant as this can actually be achieved more effectively by utilising a wide-angle lens properly. However, it is here so let’s try it out.

It does the job on this very extreme close up shot but i don’t find that i need to get this close to things very often and I can get a similar result from a reasonable distance with the zoom on the Pixel 4A 5G

As I mentioned above the camera is serviceable but I wouldn’t be buying the phone for the camera alone as there are better options for your money.

So now we have got that all covered off I think we can come to some sort of a conclusion.

Conclusion

Is this a “flagship killer”. In my opinion no with a caveat as what I need from a “flagship killer” is what I expect from a flagship but fro a fraction of the price. However, I have been blessed with the opportunity to use many flagship phones over the years so my views are somewhat jaded by that. So I posed the question again to my wife and after explaining what the term meant she gave it a more positive appraisal. for most people who are looking for a high performance and generally good all-around smartphone for a fair price, this is a “flagship killer”. it is what the creators of OnePlus were doing with the first few generations of their phones. You can see this is n the DNA of the Realme GT 5G. This phone will certainly tick the boxes for those who are not really that bothered by specs and niche features but do want a good all-around experience and something that just works. The Realme GT 5G does that and then some. There is enough here to interest a phone geek but not enough to keep them I feel (more on that later though).

I have been really happy to use the Realme GT 5G and I would happily recommend it to someone who wants a bit more bang for their buck than from the likes of Samsung or Huawei. If however like me you are a bit fussy about UI’s and want some nice although niche features such as Qi then it may not be for you.

Just one more thing………..

There is however one thing that would make me buy this phone and that is the fact that it is one of the cheapest ways to get an Android 12 beta ready 5G device at the time of writing this. I know that the Pixel 4A is cheaper and will also be a hell of a lot easier to test the Beta software on but that is not a phone I could ever see myself using as it is too small. I am hoping to follow up this review with my progress of getting the Android 12 beta onto the device but at the time of writing it is not looking too good. I will however keep trying and of course, keep you posted.

With the phone being on the Beta test roster, it does mean that once the beta period is over this will be one of the 1st batches of phones to get the official software upon release. So this may be worth considering if you want to be on the cutting edge of Android software but don’t fancy a Pixel device.

Here is the video overview below

The post Realme GT 5G – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

We have the full Realme 8 family in the house here at Coolsmartphone towers. We have had the Realme 8 Pro for a while and it was a great mid-ranger as you see from its review. It is now time to have a look at the Realme 8 and the Realme 8 5G.

Here is a joint unboxing video of both phones. Enjoy!

So we are going to start with the Realme 8 as it is the most similar to the Realme 8 Pro that I have already reviewed. 

Time for the around the device tour

On the right-hand side, you will find the volume rocker and the power key

On the left, you have the triple slot for two sims and an SD card which is a bonus as you dont have to choose between an extra sim and extra memory.

Here is the sim tray

On the base of the phone, we find another nice surprise in the form of a 3,5mm headphone jack next to the USB type C port which will pull charging duties. Next to this is a speaker grill for a very loud-sounding speaker which I was pretty surprised at!

The top has a tiny pinhole mic but other than that is barren of anything else.

The front of the phone has a stunning display again very nice to see here. We have got a 6.4″ AMOLED display with a 90.4% Screen to body ratio and a maximum brightness of 1000 nits. The resolution is Full Hd + with 2400×1080 as the resolution.

Set into this screen si the front facing camera which is a 16MP camera with  an Aperture of F2.45 and it uses a Sony IMX471 Sensor

And lastly, the rear of the phone which contains the camera module with its 4 lenses. The primary camera has been downgraded to a 64Mp unit this time around The back panel is made of plastic and given a multilayer fabrication to make it look like it is glass.

The similarity of the phone to the 8 or is uncanny and if it weren’t for the difference in materials used on the rear panel it would be very difficult to distinguish the two from a casual glance. It is not until you look a little bit closer that you can see the differences. if I am honest I would have preferred the plastic back panel that is being used on the 8 Pro as I found that added grip and strangely actually made the phone feel a bit more special.

As with 8p Pro in the box, you will also get a clear TPU case which you will want to use pretty much instantly, if you choose not them be prepared for a smudgy mess of a back panel. You also have the USB Type A to USB Type C charging cable and a 30W fast charger power supply.

What I do really like is the slightly different implementation of the logo. As it has a rainbow effect when lit up in a certain way whereas the rest of the back doesn’t. It makes for a pretty looking phone which is nice to see as long as you can keep it clean for more than 30 seconds!

Next up is the Realme 8 5G

Starting on the right-hand side we have got a power key plus fingerprint reader. I really do like to see that the under screens are sometimes not as effective as the direct contact ones found on the more premium smartphones or tablets. The side-mounted ones just seem to be a bit better at picking fingerprints.

On the left-hand side, we have got the sim tray and memory card slot and like the rest of the family, this is capable of housing two nano sims and a micro SD card slot. Below that, you have now also got the volume rocker. which some people will prefer as it gives some operation between the volume and power buttons.

Next up is the base which houses the main speaker and the 3.5 mm headphone jack making it 3 for 3 in the Realme 8 Range for including this often missed feature. Nestled in between these you will find a pinhole microphone and the USB Type C port that is capable of 18W fast charging as opposed to the Realme 8 which can handle 30w fast charging.

Up the top of the phone, you have a blank panel with the notable absence of the pinhole mic found on the other two phones suggesting that there is no noise cancellation on this phone which is understandable given the respective prices of the phone.

Coming around to the front of the phone is the 6.5″ FHD+ display with a resolution of 2400×1080. This time it is not an AMOLED as the phone sports an LCD display again this is an indication of the price shaving that has been done on this phone. The phone will give out a brightness level of 600 nits which is not too bad for this display type. again the screen to body ratio is high at 90.5%.

Set into this screen is the front-facing camera which is a 16MP camera with a FOV of 79.3° and an Aperture of F2.1

Around the back, we have got another plastic back panel but this time around there is no “Dare to Leap” branding emblazoned across the back it also looks like there may not be any NFC on this device and the outer plastic packaging did not indicate it unlike the Realme 8 and the Realme 8 Pro where it was to be found next to the camera module.

The camera module itself houses 3 cameras this time with the primary sensor being capable of 48MP. This is the lowest MP count for the group and again is another indication of this being the lesser phone of the family.

That sums up the tour of the two devices exteriors. there are some distinct difference on the inside which I briefly wish to cover off as this is really what will separate the two phones.

Both the phones use a Mediatek processor with the Realme 8 opting for the Helio G95 and the Realme 8 5G opting for the Dimensity 700 5G Processor. This is a key difference in the phones as it means that the Realme 8 and 8 Pro are only 4G devices and as the name suggests the Realme 8 5G is the only 5g device in the group.

It can also lay claim to being the current cheapest 5g device on the market as it is available for £199 for the 4GB RAM and 64GB Storage version. (£179 for early bird pricing). if you want more memory and storage then you can get the  6GB RAM with 128GBstorage version for £249(£229 for early bird pricing.

The phones are being released at different times as below

Realme 8 4GB RAM with 64GB storage is priced at £199, and Realme 8 6GBRAM and 128GB storage is priced at £219, on-sale in the UK now

Realme 8 5G is on sale in the UK from May 20th, with the early-bird special offer running from May 20th to May 23rd.

The phones are available from either the Realme store or Amazon with the Realme 8 available now and the Realme 8 5G coming on the 23rd of May although you can preorder at the Early bird price from the 20th of May.

The post We have the Realme 8 family let’s unbox them is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

A mid-ranger phone with a flagship camera sensor does it work as an alternative to a high-end alternative?
This is the question I am going to attempt to answer during the review of the Realme 8 Pro.

So for those of you who have not heard of Realme before then not to worry they are quite new to the market here in the UK. They started out life as a sub-brand of OPPO and were originally called OPPO Real. They then became Realme as a spinoff from OPPO in 2018. Like OPPO and also Oneplus the Brand is still owned by BBK and this is important as we will see some of this heritage in the review as we go through it. So without further ado onto the review.

Before I get started on the review I just want to add this quick disclaimer. I am basing this review on a sample unit that I have been supplied with by Realme. I have not had any form of payment for this review and Realme have not had any preview of this review either. The thoughts and opinions in this article are my own and this will always be the case with any reviews for Coolsmartphone.com

If you don’t want to read the review then you can also check out my video review here.

Design

The phone is like all phones these days a rectangular slab of glass, plastic and some metal. However, it is nice to look at and I have found some nice little detailed bits around the phone that I do quite like. Normally I would give you a full 360 of the phone and cover what all the edges look like, in this instance, I am not going to do it here as I have already covered this in my Unboxing post that went out the other day. What I do want to focus on are the little quirks that Realme have built into the phone that for me make it stand out above the crowded marketplace.

First up is the panels on either end of the phone as these have got a very slight inset curve to them which I really do like as it makes the phone much more comfortable to hold. They are very hard to see in a picture but they are there and you do notice when you hold the phone in your hand. I have been trying to remember where I have seen this design detail before but I have had it on a previous phone and it made me want to use it over much more expensive and higher-spec devices at the time. 

Secondly and this may be one for a bit of contention amongst readers. I love that phones are now coming with all-glass back panels as makes the phone look all sleek and sexy especially when you have multicoloured back panels that shift with the light. That being said I also hate glass back panels as they are fragile and require nursing to make sure they don’t break or get scratched up when you put your phone into your pocket and god forbid there is some hard material in there as well. it is bad enough that our screens get all scratched up but we now have the back to contend with as well!! This is the reason why I am such a big fan of skins from places like Dbrand and Xtremeskins. So I was very pleased and happy to see that the Realme 8 Pro comes with a plastic back panel that is not glossy and also has texture to it. The feeling reminds me of the wrist rests on my work laptop and these have stood up to a lot of typing over time so it should be a similar case here. I am also not averse to the new branding approach that Realme has decided to use on the phones back as this is something a bit different. As you can see in the image below it isn’t exactly subtle but again it makes the phone stand out from the normal slab that we are all so familiar with now.

The last thing I want to specifically mention here is the depth or thickness of the device. This phone is svelte and I like it! It fits very nicely into my hand and the edges don’t dig into my palm at all. It is barely noticeable in my pocket at all (to the point where I have to do a double-take sometimes). The feel of the phone is just well, nice I enjoy holding it, I enjoy playing games on it and the proportions work well. Dont get me wrong I have got a like for big phones and the screen on it is a little small for my taste but even with all that being said if this were to be my only phone, based upon the way it feels I would be happy to use it long term.

So the above for me three areas where the phone stands out a bit more from the crowd and the Realme 8 Pro differentiates itself from the crowd. There is a lot more to a good quality smartphone that just designs though, which leads me very nicely onto the hardware used on the phone. So it is time for a Specs sheet!

Specifications

Processor	Qualcomm® Snapdragon 720G CPU：8nm, Octa-core, Up to 2.3GHz GPU：Adreno 618 AIE：5th Generation Qualcomm AI Engine
Storage & RAM	RAM：6GB/8GB LPDDR4x ROM：128GB UFS 2.1
Display	16.3cm (6.4”) Super AMOLED Fullscreen Resolution：2400×1080 FHD+ Screen-to-body ratio：90.8% Peak brightness: 1000 nits Touch Sampling Rate: 180Hz
Charging & Battery	50W SuperDart Charge 4500mAh（typ） Includes a 65W charger & cable USB Type-C port
Camera	108MP Primary Camera 1/1.52″ sensor size f/1.88 aperture 6P lens PDAF 8MP Ultra Wide-angle Lens f/2.25 aperture FOV 119° 5P lens 2MP Macro Lens f/2.4 aperture 4cm shooting distance 2MP B&W Lens f/2.4 aperture Photography Function: Starry Mode, Tilt-shift, Dynamic Bokeh, Neon Portrait, AI Color Portrait, Ultra 108MP Mode, Super Nightscape, Panoramic view, Expert, Portrait Mode, HDR, Ultra-wide, Ultra macro, AI Scene Recognition, AI Beauty, Filter, Chroma Boost, Bokeh Effect Control, Text Scanner Video Recording: Starry Time-lapse Video, Tilt-shift Time-lapse Video, Dual-view Video, Nightscape Video, UIS Video Stabilization, UIS Max Video Stabilization 4K/30fps video recording, 1080P/60fps video recording, 1080P/30fps video recording, 720P/60fps video recording, 720P/30fps video recording, 1080p/120fps slow motion, 1080p/480fps slow motion, 720p/960fps slow motion ,720p/240fps slow motion *The Starry Mode, Starry Time-lapse Video, 1080p/480fps, 720p/960fps and 720p/240fps slow motion features require a subsequent OTA update to be available. 16MP In-display Selfie f/2.45 aperture Sony IMX471 Sensor 5P lens Photography Function: Portrait Mode, Panoramic view, AI Beauty Mode, HDR, Face-Recognition, Filters, Super Nightscape, Bokeh Effect Control Video Recording: 1080P/30fps video recording, 720P/30fps video recording 1080p/120fps slow motion, 720p/120fps slow motion
Cellular & Wireless	3-Card Slot 2 SIM Slot + 1 MicroSD Slot Frequency Bands: GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 WCDMA: B1/B5/B8 FDD-LTE: B1//B3/B5/B8 TDD-LTE: B38/B40/B41(2535-2655MHz) Wireless: 2.4/5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 5.0
Navigation	GPS/APGS/GLONASS/ BEIDOU
Audio	Double mic noise suppression Hi-Res Audio
Size & Weight	Length: 160.6mm Width: 73.9mm Depth: 8.1mm Weight: 176g
Sensors	Ultra-fast in-display fingerprint sensor Light sensor Proximity sensor Magnetic induction sensor Acceleration sensor Gyro-meter sensor
Operating System	realme UI 2.0 Based on Android 11
Packing List	realme 8 Pro USB Type-C Cable 65W Charge Adapter SIM Card Needle Screen Protect Film Protect Case Quick Guide Important Product Information (including the Warranty Card)

Not a bad spec sheet to be fair although it does have to be said that there are a lot of similarities to that of the Realme 7 Pro with the biggest changes happening where the cameras are concerned. This is hardly surprising given that all the build-up to the launch of this phone has been based entirely around what the camera is capable of. We will get into the camera, later on, I just want to spend a bit of time focusing on the hardware aspects for a moment.

Hardware

So this is a phone that packs a mighty camera module into a slim and compact body and is powered by a Snapdragon 720G CPU, To some that might cause some concern but I can honestly say that I have been impressed by what this phone can do. I have been using this for a few days now as my daily driver and I have come from a Samsung  Note 10+ which is a flagship-grade phone but I can’t say that barring one thing I have not found it to be lacking the power department. This is hardly surprising to anyone who has used a recent phone featuring the Snapdragon 700 series CPU as they are very capable chipsets. Yes, it can be said that they dont have the raw power given out by the latest and greatest Snapdragon 888 series but it is not trying to pitch itself at that level. I have not seen any significant slowness in the chip and it handles all the processes of the phone well. I have been able to have multiple email accounts including a work based Outlook account all work seamlessly. When switching between apps it has been for the most part smooth. I have also used it for a bit of light gaming with no problem, It handles one of my go-to games World of Warships well and i was able to play the game for far too long without any excessive heat build-up or noticeable slowdown. 

The screen is a joy to behold and it is plenty bright enough for me to use outdoors without having to ramp the brightness up too high. Viewing video on it is pleasing to the eye and colours are well represented once you have chosen your favoured setting through the settings menu. It is a Samsung Super AMOLED panel which is very nice to see and while the refresh rate is not amazing it has not been an issue for me at all at 60hz. The touch is responsive as you would expect from an 18ohz sample rate and I never felt that I was having to press hard to get a response. The Phone just feels smooth to use which is a nice way for a phone to feel.

Connectivity is also good and reliable I have been able to pair it with my car with very few problems from the phone end. The only thing I did experience was with Android Auto being a bit hit and miss. It would sometimes struggle to get started correctly and the route displayed on Google Maps would stutter whenever I made a turn which was a bit weird. I am not sure if this is isolated to my review unit or if it is a more widespread issue. I have informed Realme about the issue and they have stated that it is a bug and they are working on the fix for it. As for phone calls, they were fine as I could hear the other party clearly and crisply. This was the case over both normal calls and when rerouted over VOIP as well.

The Wifi seemed to receive a good signal wherever I was in my house so no real concerns there either. The Phone will work for data on GPRS, EDGE 3G and 4G but it is not a 5G phone which has not been an issue for me as where I live there is no 5G service anyway!! The lack of 5G must have been a decision that has been made to get the price down to a palatable one for the brand as they could have used the SD735G which would have given 5G support. However, this is likely to have tipped the phone over the £300 price point. it does of course have the added benefit of causing less battery drain as a plus side though so for me it is a compromise I am happy with.

That leads us to the battery. This is an area where the phone has really impressed me is how long I could use it without having to hunt out a power supply. Not that it would have been a cause for concern as the phone ships with a 65 Superdart charger in the box which will boost the battery back to full in next to no time. Now dont get me wrong I would have loved to have had QI charging on board but this would have added bulk and weight to the phone not to mention an increase in the cost of it as well. The phone has a 4500mAh battery onboard which is able to be recharged at 50W using high-voltage charge pump technology.

This means that in as little a 47 mins you can charge the battery back up ready for your next trip out. I was able to get through a day of use without any major issues at all. If I ever needed to push the battery that little bit further then I know the phone has me covered as there are various battery saving protocols that I can enact until I get back ti a power supply.

That about covers everything on the hardware side of the phone barring the camera which i will cover off separately. next up is Software.

Software

The Software on the phone is Android 11 with the brand new Realme UI 2.0. I think the best way to go over it is to do a quick video of it so I will not bore you with reams of text and jump into video.

As you can see from the video above it is a largely standard sort of UI with some very subtle tweaks here and here. I mostly liked it barring the issue of not being able to add multiple widgets for my many email accounts. This however is not a deal-breaker as the phone is not really intended for a user like me. it is more aligned to someone who wants a good all-rounder which just so happens to have a high MP camera. I can see this as something that a more normal user like my wife would be absolutely fine with. In fact, after I have finished testing the phone this will be going to my wife for more long-term testing. It will be a distinct upgrade from her Motorola macro as i have already done some side by side testing of the phones and the Realme 8 Pro is much much faster than the Motorola macro when it comes to loading websites, performing Google searches and clicking through links via Facebook etc. I will no longer have to hear the sound of frustration as she cannot load a website or read an article linked from Facebook!! I am also pretty sure she will appreciate the discernable increase in quality from the camera.

Having said that let’s have a look at that camera

Camera

This phone has had so much hype about particularly with regard to a high-performance camera. Given that the main sensor has effectively been lifted straight out the Samsung lineup it is reasonable to expect big things here and for the most part for standard no zoom pictures, you will not be disappointed. More on that later let’s just recap on all the various different options that you have from the Quad camera setup.

So we have got 4 parts and these are as follows;

108MP Primary Camera, 1/1.52″ sensor size, f/1.88 aperture, 6P lens, PDAF

8MP Ultra Wide-angle Lens, f/2.25 aperture, FOV 119°, 5P lens

2MP Macro Lens, f/2.4 aperture, 4cm shooting distance

2MP B&W Lens, f/2.4 aperture

First off I am going to start with the smallest cameras and get them out of the way. The Black and White 2MP unit is largely redundant for most uses cases as the sensor is so small it doesn’t really add much, it may help with some of the low light shots as it can detect a larger array of light but it is not a big enough sensor to make that much of a difference really.

Next up is the 2MP macro unit. if you like shooting things really close up then this will be of use to you but it would have been better to build this into the Ultawide lens than to add a completely different camera for this purpose. Dont get me wrong the result of shots from it are not that bad but it isn’t a make or break feature for me here.

Next, we move to the Ultrawide 8MP unit. This is getting a bit more interesting and the photos we can get from the Ultrawide are good and I was more than happy to have the option of the Ultrawide here on the phone. it is once to have the option of switching to this mode if I need it. The shots are not as crisp as you would expect from the main camera but they are serviceable given that you are more likely to be using this for pictures that are taking in a larger area and not isolating on things that are closer to the lens.

If you are to look at the colour difference then we can see that the Ultrawide leans to a brighter image than that of the Main camera this can be easily seen in the images above with the blue car. These photos were taken with full auto and Ai controls in place as a point and shoot picture would normally be taken. Neither is a bad shot to be fair but the Ultrawide does seem to be a bit truer to life.

Now onto the main event the 108MP Main camera!!

There are various different ways of using this camera but I am only going to cover the main ones that I would use here.

Ultra 108 MP shot. This is one that I personally won’t use that much unless I was wanting to get a photo that I could then zoom into digitally. However that being aid the quality of the picture is pretty pleasing as you can see from the picture of this RC truck belowRealme 8 Pro full 108MP Image

If you click on the link above you will be able to see the full-size image. Thanks to the 3 x In sensor Zoom, you can really get close into the image even from a far off shot like the one above and you don’t lose too much detail. It can also work for closer up shots as seen below again click on the link below the image for the full-size shot.

Realme 8 Pro Full 108MP Image 2

The next mode I want to mention is Starry Mode which I was really quite pleased with as this produced some quite cool photos. Here is one of my first attempts below. it essentially uses the Images Sensing processor from the SD 720G to optimise the imaging process and it now deals with adding the brightness layer separately giving the shot seen below. This is taken as a multitude of shots and then all mixed together to produce one image with the best lighting levels and optical clarity etc. it takes a few minutes and does require the phone to be stable during that tie for the best result tripod is required. Not too bad in my opinion and certainly good enough to please most users. Just as an aside here is the same shot from my Samsung Note 10+ which does not have Starry Mode.

Next up is Super Nightscape

No for this one the camera uses all three of its technologies, ISOCELL Plus, Smart-ISO and 9 in 1 Pixel Binning. When all these are added together you do get a very reasonable quality picture. Below are two photos’s taken within minutes of each other from the same vantage point.

I don’t know how I feel about these two images. On the one hand, the image on the Samsung is much clearer in terms of what you can see but in the Realme it is a better representation of nighttime. I will let you make up your mind as to which one you prefer on this one.

The last up is Tilt-shift mode. This one is new to me and I have been trying to get a good shot with it but I am struggling to get one. Essentially it will use blurring to trick the eye into thinking that the subject in the photo is a miniature as opposed to real size. It can prove to please when it is done right but I can quite get it to work for me correctly. Here are some of my best attempts below.

Of course last but not least is all-important to some (not me), the Selfie camera which is a 16Mp camera and is actually the same camera as in the recently announced OnePlus 9 Pro and OnePlus 9, (reviews of those phone’s coming soon). It does the job and like all Chinese origin phones it tries to beautify me even with all the setting turned off but I don’t use it enough to worry about it.

Those are the main features as far as the stills camera is concerned. However, there are a lot of things that can be done with the video features of this phone as well. So it can record in Normal 1080 resolution and also 4K resolution. In addition, you have slow motion which can be a slow as 960fps at 720p.

Another new addition is Dualview video this is a very useful one for if you are wishing to live stream something and will be quite useful for video bloggers etc.

I think the most interesting one that I have played around with is the Starry Mode timelapse feature which allows you to get a not time based timelapse of the view into the stars. This builds upon the standard Timelapse feature which is pretty good and works well. here are examples of each below.

Daytime Timelpase

StarryNight Timelapse

That wraps up the camera section at least the main features of it anyway.

Here are a few more shots from the cutting room floor.

The only area that was a bit of a let down in the camera in terms of features was the zoom capabilities as once you go past the 3x In Senor Zoom capability it starts to become a bit of a pixelated blurry mess which was a bit disappointing. So if you keep it under the 3X for zoom it will serve you well but if you want more Zoom functionality then you need to get something with a dedicated telephoto lens to help take care of that. Here are soon gradually zoomed-in images to compare.

Conclusion

This is a good phone but is it enhanced by having the 108MP Camera sensor on it? Could Realme have just used the 48MP that is more abundant and gotten away with it? Two interesting related questions there and I believe by answering both I will also answer my question from the head of this review. The camera is really quite a bit of kit and it does add some genuinely interesting features into the mix for this phone by having such a massive sensor but I don’t think that its full potential has been realised and I do think that this phone would be just as good with a 48MP camera instead.

I get what Realme has tried to do here and they have done so with some degree of success but they have also made things a bit to complex especially for the intended market. This phone will sit well with those for who a phone is just something that they feel they need to have not something that they really care about. It is not a phone for geeks or for the power user. To coin a term from our good friend Steve of Phone Show chat this is a phone for “normobs” and as such it didn’t need all the bells and whistles added in the terms of the mahusive camera.

With all that being said if you know someone who is needing a phone but wants to have a fancy camera then point them in the way of the Realme 8 Pro as I am sure they won’t be that disappointed with it as it ticks all the boxes fro a modern mid-tier phone with some added glitz of a big MP count.

You can buy th phone from the Realme Website and also from Amazon for £279 on the 31st of March.

The post Realme 8 Pro – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

So today Oneplus has just announced the new One Plus 9 series of phones on a live stream and it was great to watch but we know you guys who read our site want the latest news on new handset releases as soon as we can get it to you.

So just for you guys I have pulled some strings and I have managed to get not one but both of the new OnePlus 9 handsets in for reviewing. So the first and foremost thing was to do an unboxing which will now be live as this article goes out to you.

So without further ado here is the unboxing

I have got a lot of things planned for the review of these phones but I am still trying to decide whether to review them together as one review or to split them up into separate reviews. Also which one do you want me to review 1st the OnePlus 9 5G or the OnePlus 9Pro 5G.

If you can let me know either in the comments here or on Twitter (@coolsmartphone)

I am excited by the potential that these phones have so I hope you guys are too!

The post OnePlus announces the new 9 series and we have them here!!! is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

You can watch the full unveiling on the Realme live stream here

It is not much but it shows the phone off a bit more and gives you a bit of an idea of how the phone feels.

More to come on the Realme 8 Pro but you will have to wait a little longer for that content as I am not allowed to tell you any more yet…..

The post Sneak peek video of the Realme 8 Pro before its launch tomorrow afternoon. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

I have been using the Mate 40 Pro on and off as my daily driver for the past few weeks now and in that time I have found that on the whole, it is an acceptable compromise. The camera is fantastic and is still one of the best available for those who really want to be able to dial in on specific setups and play with functions. The UI is as good as we have come to expect from Huawei devices of the past. I cannot fault the phone for the basics of what a phone needs to be. All this being said though I am not ready to give up on my Note 10 Plus though. Let’s take some time to dive into what that is by breaking the phone down into a few different categories.

Design

The phone is wonderful to look at because it has very smooth lines and curves in all the right places. It is really nice to hold in the hand and is not too slippery. I have become accustomed over the years to using bigger phones so the size is no issue to me and is worth it for the stunning screen. The display measures 6.76″ diagonally (this measurement as a standard rectangle accommodating the curved edges) and has a really high resolution of 2772 x 1344 pixels which works out to be above FHD with a PPI 456 and an aspect ratio of 18.5:9. What also makes a difference is that the display is actually a 90HZ panel which gives a higher than standard refresh-rate, making scrolling really smooth. The palm rejection of the curved sides works pretty well too and I have not had that many accidental touches being recognised when just holding the phone. You can help to all but eliminate this via the included case if you wish to as well which is a nice bonus that not all manufacturers do. Brightness wise the screen is good enough that I was able to use it in bright conditions without too much bother although during my testing we have not had many days of sunlight to really push this aspect of the phone. It is on par with my Note 10 Plus which still has one of the best AMOLED panels i have seen in a phone (with the possible exception of the newer gen S20 and Note 20 series which I have not used)

Around the back, we have another of Huawei’s gorgeous colour shifting glass panels which I do really enjoy looking at as this phone can be so many different colours in different lighting conditions. It still amazes me how they have achieved this look and I really appreciate the effort that has been put into the manufacture. If you can get the Mystic Silver one then it is worth it!

This colourful design extends to the power button which has a nice little red accent making it easy to locate with a nice spacing below the volume rocker. The buttons are both located on the right-hand side of the device making it very easy for right-handed users. If you are left-handed then some minor adjustment may be required but it is something that you will be able to get used to very quickly.

At the top, you will find all the usual things including a speaker, a pinhole mick and the rare appearance of an infrared transmitter, something that is only really found on Huawei devices now. It is a feature that i can’t say i have ever found a use for but it is nice to know that if you want to use it to control TV’s home stereos etc it is there!

On the bottom is where you will find the USB Type C which will support both fast charging and Display output, a feature that has become the norm on a lot of flagships these days. The data transfer speeds were par for the course with this port and nothing to complain about. Also on the bottom is the dual sim card slot which will support either 2 sim cards or a sim and a Nano SD Card. Huawei is the only company that has really adopted this format so it is still somewhat niche and therefore cards are still more expensive than their Micro SD card counterpart (A 128GB Nano SD card on Amazon is £35.49 a Micro SD of the same size from Sandisk is £16.61).

The next thing of Note is the massive Camera ring that really is a large design element on this phone it houses four camera sensors and a two-tone flash. In the centre is a small disk that is colour match the rest of the back and the whole thing is raised above the back glass by about 2 to 3mm. It looks a bit like a miniature car tyre has been slapped on the back the phone and it is not the nicest looking thing in my opinion. Whilst I understand and appreciate that camera has got bigger and better part of me thinks that they could have made it a bit more subtle! When I compare the camera module to that of the one on my Note 10 Plus I definitely prefer the design of the Note 10 Plus implementation as it is more subtle and you’re less likely to get a finger in the way when you use it. That being said i have not had an instance where I have inadvertently covered a sensor but it is just something to be aware of.

The last thing of note is the selfies camera on the front of the phone which comes in the form of the pill style cutout on the screen. I am not a fan of this as it is a bit of an eyesore. I understand that it is needed as the phone offers two sensors for the front-facing camera but I just don’t think it is necessary at least not for my use. I also don’t really like the offset camera cutouts that we are seeing on phones these days and would have preferred it to be centralised. To be fair, Huawei’s designers thought this would have also looked a bit strange so I suppose they have done the best with what they have got. I personally can’t wait for under-screen front-facing cameras to become a thing.

That covers things from a design perspective and in summary, it is a nice enough looking phone but i think some elements could have been more subtle and less in your face. There is one thing for sure it will certainly stand out. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is not for me to say but I guess it will come down to your own personal taste with this one.

Hardware

This is an area where Huawei needs to get the Mate 40 Pro right and I am pleased to say that for the most part they have. The main requirements of a modern pro-grade flagship have all been ticked off. So what have we got in terms of hardware then?

Big Battery
Wireless Charging
Water resistance
Sleek design
Powerful processor
A large amount of RAM
Large storage capacity
Excellent Signal strength

The only thing that they are missing from the mix to make it a real pro-grade device in my eyes would be stylus support, that being said I am coming to this from being a Note 10 Plus user so I am little biased and no other “Pro” level phone has this feature either so I can forgive this shortcoming.

I do want to dive into the specs a little bit but before I do that this is as good a time as any to show you what they actually are.

-Processor-HiSilicon Kirin 9000 8 x 2.1 – 3.1 GHz, Cortex-A77/-A55
-Graphics adapter-ARM Mali-G78 MP24
-Memory-8192 MB, LPDDR5
-Display-6.76 inch 18.56:9, 2772 x 1344 pixel 456 PPI, capacitive, native pen support, OLED, 240 Hz touch sampling rate, glossy: yes, HDR, 90 Hz
-Storage-256 GB UFS 3.1 Flash, 256 GB, 237.89 GB free
-Connections-USB 3.0 / 3.1 Gen1, USB-C Power Delivery (PD), 1 HDMI, 1 DisplayPort, Audio Connections: USB-C, Card Reader: nano memory card (FAT, FAT32, exFAT, up to 256 GB)
-Fingerprint Reader
-NFC
-Sensors-Brightness Sensor, gesture sensor, 3D face recognition, gravity sensor, infrared sensor, barometric pressure sensor, gyroscope, compass, proximity sensor, laser sensor, colour temperature sensor
-Networking-802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax (a/b/g/n = Wi-Fi 4/ac = Wi-Fi 5/ax = Wi-Fi 6), Bluetooth 5.2, 2G (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), 3G (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 19), LTE (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 32, 34, 38, 39, 40), 5G (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 28, 38, 40, 41, 77, 78, 79, 80, 84), Dual SIM, LTE, 5G, GPS
-Size-Height x Width x Depth (in mm): 9.1 x 162.96 x 75.5 ( = 0.36 x 6.42 x 2.97 in)
-Battery-4400 mAh Lithium-Ion
-Charging-Wireless charging, fast charging / Quick Charge
-Operating System-Android 10
-Camera-Primary Camera: 50 MPix (Ultra Vision, wide, f/1.9), 20 MP (ultra-wide, f/1.8), 12 MP (5x telephoto, f/3.4, OIS), 4K video at 60 FPS, Camera API level: Limited
-Secondary Camera: 13 MPix (f/2.4) with 3D ToF sensor
-Additional features- Speakers: stereo, Keyboard: onscreen, 66-watt charger, USB cable, SIM tool, headset (USB-C), documentation, EMUI 11, 24 Months Warranty, DRM Widevine L1, IP68, fanless, waterproof
-Weight-Phone 212 g ( = 7.48 oz / 0.47 pounds), Power Supply: 136 g ( = 4.8 oz / 0.3 pounds)

The phone is fast and fluid as one would expect and I have not had any reason to find any issues with its performance. It will do everything I am asking of it at the same speed as my Note 10 Plus if not a bit faster sometimes. An area where the hardware is just simply better is the biometrics. My fingerprint is recognised much faster as is my face when using the option for that. The Optical sensor being used in the fingerprint reader just seems to be better tuned than the one on the Note. It should also be said that I was doing all my testing with the screen protector that was applied in the factory on the Mate 40 Pro still in place! I have not got a screen protector on my Note and it is much slower to recognise. The face detection software also seems to be quicker but this is down to software more than hardware so I will leave it there for now.

Another area where the Mate 40 pro is better is in the playback of the sound. This is mainly because the Mate has got 2 actual speakers whereas the Note doesn’t have an earpiece speaker using the screen vibration instead which doesn’t give as good an experience for music playback. Calls are fine on both but the Mate is just better for media playback. This is true of video playback as well although the Note does catch up a little bit here.

As for the display, this is where the phones are both matched very well against each other as they are both vibrant and both excel at showing content. The Mate’s screen is a tiny bit more natural-looking by default than the Note but that is something that has become synonymous with Samsung devices. I have enjoyed viewing content on both displays. There is however one key difference that I was able to detect between the two displays. It is the refresh rate. The Mate 40 Pro has a 90hz screen whereas the Note 10 Plus still uses the older 60hz display. Now for those of you who have not had the chance to experience the faster screen, you will not think that this is important. For the most part, you would be correct in that thought as it isn’t really that important for daily use. It does however come into play when you are using the phone for web browsing and gaming in particular. Having a higher refresh rate allows for a much higher level of fluidity on the screen and it is something you can see but you will need to look for it. Where it is a bit more prominent is within games but as this is something i have not done much of recently I haven’t been all that bothered by it.

Battery life is another area where I have my concerns with a smartphone these days. I have found that I can nearly run my Note down to 20% most days however with a similar workload the Mate 40 Pro was getting the same time of the day with closer to 40% left in the tank. This is due in part to the battery being more aggressively managed by the software but having a 4400mah battery doesn’t hurt either! Whilst we are talking about the power the Mate 40 Pro also features Wireless Charging along with reverse Wireless Charging as well. This is very useful if you pair the phone with a QI enabled Smartwatch or Wireless earbuds. I have also used this system in the past to give my backup phone a boost when i have been travelling and i forgot to bring a spare battery pack. As before and also on previously implemented solutions from both Samsung and Huawei the speeds of power transfer are not that high but this is perfect for charging accessories. Nonetheless, it is nice to have it as a feature onboard.

The last area I want to address before I get into what you all really want to find out about is the Processor and the memory. So in the Mate 40 Pro, we have the fastest Chipset that Huawei has made to date in the form of the HiSilicon Kirin 9000. This brand new chipset supports an Octo care design utilising 4 x Cortex-A55@ 2.05 GHz, 3 x Cortex-A77@ 2.54 GHz and 1 x Cortex-A77@ 3.13 GHz. In operation, it will only really utilize all eight cores when it is under its highest load in activities such as gaming and photo/video rendering. Here is a bit of the spiel about the chip from HiSilicon’s website

Cutting-edge 5 nm manufacturing and up to 15.3 billion transistors make this 5G SA solution available in the smallest footprint possible. The brand-new Arm Cortex-A77 CPU ensures superior performance while the groundbreaking 24-core Mali-G78 GPU enables uninterrupted gaming. Two big and one tiny core support AI video applications with better energy efficiency. The NPU is integrated with an embedded Kirin ISP 6.0 for camera functions – HDR video synthesis with real-time exposure to excel in low light and backlit conditions.

So we have a fantastic chip on board which is also paired to very fast 8192 MB, LPDDR5 memory which helps to ensure that things open fast but perhaps, more importantly, are retained in memory for a tad longer leading to easier multitasking.

The NPU is also very busy working away behind the scenes to carry out the previously mentioned battery management ensuring that the phone runs at optimal levels and a lot of number crunching when the camera is being used. It is in the camera that the NPU is most evident as it is very active in assisting the Image Sensing processor (ISP) to allow for scene recognition. This is an area that Huawei are very keen to push and something that leads us very nicely into the camera section of this review.

Camera

This is really what people who are interested in this phone are looking for. This is one of the better phones on the market for the camera especially if you want to be able to delve into the settings of it further than your typical point and shoot. That being said if you do want a simple good quality camera then you may want to look at the significantly cheaper Pixel 4a as it will give you very similar quality photos for near half the price! If you are wanting an all singing all dancing setup though you will not be disappointed with the Mate 40 Pro. The specs of the camera alone means this thing packs a punch as you would expect for a camera that has been co-developed with Lecia. Here are those specs again:-

Camera-Primary Camera: 50 MPix (Ultra Vision, wide, f/1.9), 20 MP (ultra-wide, f/1.8), 12 MP (5x telephoto, f/3.4, OIS), 4K video at 60 FPS, Camera API level: Limited
Secondary Camera: 13 MPix (f/2.4) with 3D ToF sensor

How do these relate into actual images though well I have taken some sample shots which I have included below for you to check out.

Next up is some scenic shots

Here are some low light ones that were taken in difficult conditions for most camera phones

Now a few macro shots

Last but not least some product style shots.

I think it fair to say that the phone copes with taking the photos very well and can produce some very good quality pictures if you play about with the functions of it. For those who wish to really get into the nitty-gritty of the camera, there is an extremely comprehensive Pro Mode. However, if I am being completely honest I have not delved into it very much and I don’t tend to go into it on any phone these days. There is one very simple reason for this. The reason is the combination of a fast and efficient ISP and the use of AI to detect what settings are needed to get the best out of your photos. I am confident in its results 95% of the time in that it will produce a better result than I could if I were to tweak the settings myself!

Video is also handled very well and you can even use a split-screen mode to show the video as a zoomed-in version of what you are filming should you want too! It will also allow you to use various different filters such as colour isolation etc which is a nice touch.

Not something I would use often but a nice way of showcasing the tech onboard the phone!

I really don’t have much more to say on the camera front part from it is very good but is it enough to overlook the next section where there is one very large omission. Let’s tackle the software now to see.

Software

This is my biggest area of concern fo this phone and in my opinion, it will be the parts that makes it or breaks it. At the very beginning of this review, I asked a simple question. Can I get on with a phone that does not allow Google’s core services on it? Well, the simple answer is in my case no. The reason for this is a fundamental one for me. I use Google Services a lot. I have found that although some of the apps will flash up with a message saying that they won’t work you can still signing to them eg WordPress. I have also found that some won’t even allow you to sign in, The app is to charge my car is one example (OHME Charging App).  I also use Google Photos to back up all my images and this is an automatic function on my Note 10 Plus which means I don’t need to worry about it. On the Mate 40 Pro, I would have had to switch to using either Huawei’s Cloud or another service.

Had this phone come out before the Apps market had become so dominated by the likes of Google and Apple then it would be in a great position to establish itself as a player with the Huawei App Store. However, it is just behind the curve in so many respects. Some of the mainstream apps that I use were obtainable via the petal Search app but I was then having to download those apps via an APK mirror site which could cause the potential for security concerns. I was certainly not confident to set this up as my work device. It was this that made for a difficult testing period for me as I have various systems that are now core features of my daily use for work that I didn’t want to set up on the Mate 40Pro due to the possibility of them not working correctly and it causing me a problem.

The biggest problem I can foresee for Huawei though is not that the phone’s software is bad because the core features are good but the perception of a phone without Google is not going to be one to overcome easily. I feel that for a market such as some of the Far Eastern locations i.e. China etc there will be no significant issue but for the UK and the USA at east the damage has now been done and this will be in most customers mindsets irreversible.

Conclusion

I really wanted too like the Mate 40 Pro and there are certain elements to ut that I do really enjoy the design is great (with the notable exclusion of the camera array). The power being delivered by the phone is fantastic. The screen is beautiful and is on par with the best from Samsung and Apple. The phone feels great in the hand as well. All these things are great and set the phone to a very high standard. It is just such a shame that the phone is in my opinion stymied for the Western market due in most part to an Orange skinned lunatic that was (thankfully no more) in charge of the American Government.

If and I for one hope that it can Huawei are able to get back into the good graces of the US government then perhaps they will be able to bring a phone as competent as the Mate 40 Pro back to the western markets with Google Services onboard, then will be back. For the time being in this reviewers opinion, it is better to stay with a brand that does support Google in all its forms. Sadly I cannot foresee this happening anytime soon and it is not a fault of Huawei in any way maybe there will be some hope from the recently separated Honor brand especially if they can get Google back on board.

The post Huawei Mate 40 Pro – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

The video overview

Want the quick info? Here’s our overview of the Mi 10T Pro..

Using an aluminium frame, this is otherwise an all-glass affair with a big 144Hz 6.67″ 1080 x 2400 panel running at 395 ppi.

The screen isn’t curved but it does managed to consume a lot of the front frame and that speedy refresh rate means that browsing and gaming is silky smooth.

You can, should you wish, throttle the refresh rate down to either 90Hz or 60Hz – there’s a settings screen that’ll show you the difference. The lower refresh rate will save your battery.

On the side is a fingerprint sensor which I wasn’t expecting too much from (considering how thin it is), but it’s incredibly quick and responsive – unlocking your phone in no time at all. It’s also in just the right place, so you naturally rest your finger or thumb up against it when you pick up the phone. It also doubles as the wake key, which is a nice touch. Very nice indeed.

Above the fingerprint sensor / wake key you’ll find the volume controls on a single button. It’s a thin and polished button which is easy to locate.

Up top, a range of holes for your secondary microphone and the left speaker. Holding the phone in landscape orientation means that you get a very decent stereo sound from both ends of the phone.

The left side of the phone is totally unused but you may be able to see by now just how pronounced that camera arrangement is on the back. When placed flat on a desk, this rocks due to the bulge and, although it looks rather lovely, it’s a definite “Marmite” moment on whether you can deal with it.

The bottom has the SIM tray (dual SIM) and USB-C charging. No microSD card here, so the storage you have (either 128GB or 256GB) is what you get. The model we’re reviewing has 128GB storage and around 20GB has already been consumed out-of-the-box.

Powered by the super-quick Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 running 8 cores and up to 2.84GHz. You’ll have no problems from this chip, believe me. Inside there’s Android 10 but the MIUI 12 flavour has been added to the interface and you’ll notice that things are slightly different to the usual Android stock build.

Camera

Onto the back though, and things get pretty serious with the camera setup – a 108 megapixel f/1.7 lens, a 13 megapixel wide-angle lens and a 5 megapixel macro shooter. There’s also a 20 megapixel lens in the display up front for your selfies.

That 108 megapixel lens is the same as the one found in the Mi 10 and Mi Note 10. It’s an incredible amount of megapixels, that’s for sure, but for me it didn’t always mean a better photo, and I found that shots taken on cameras with less megapixels were better.

Don’t get me wrong of course, the majority of shots were amazing – bright colours, sharp shots and the ability to crop out a shot without losing too much resolution. Daytime shots came out well, but in lower light conditions things did seem to suffer a little. There was a need to hold the phone quite still and some shots – for example this one of my cat – seemed to confuse the phone quite a bit.

I’d recently reviewed the Vivo X51 and there was a definite difference in zoom levels. Despite the 108 megapixels, I couldn’t zoom as far and things got grainy quickly. It needs a telephoto camera.

During my shots, the AI abilities of the camera detected what I was snapping, and tweaked settings to ensure that the resulting photo came out well. There’s also a “Pro” mode if you want to do things yourself and lots of additional camera modes such as a Vlog mode, Document shots, time-lapse, night mode, panorama, slow-mo and more. You can also take photos or film using the front and rear camera at the same time.

I liked using “Clone”, which uses two pictures or videos of the same scene, blending them together and the “Sky” mode, which lets you fiddle around with the sky.

Here’s some example photos…

As you’ll have seen on the photo of the moon above, there’s a “Night” mode which boosts the available light. The shot below was taken in darkness but, when held steady and in the right mode, you get a very decent shot.

I also experimented with the differences between the macro lens, the normal lens and the wide-angle lens. Here’s some shots from each..

Video footage, especially when played back on the 144Hz screen, looked incredible smooth. It’ll do 8K video recording if you’re into that.

Inside

For £599 you’re getting quite a lot for your money here. Dual-band WiFi (and WiFi 6), Bluetooth 5.1 with aptX, GPS, NFC (contactless payments), 5G, USB-C charging, that excellent fingerprint sensor, a 5000mAh battery (with 33W fast charging getting you to 100% in an hour) and a great screen with reading and eye-comfort modes. Inside you’re also getting the MIUI interface, which is something that’s added onto the existing Android user experience.

The MIUI 12 user interface adds “Super Wallpapers” and you get Live (moving) wallpapers too. There’s also a Weather app with some lovely sounds and animations, an easy-uninstall method (just click and hold an icon) and a fairly chunky “Control centre” which is accessed from the notification pull-down. There’s a large amount of phone features accessible here and I’d advise using the little “edit” option to ensure that the most frequently-used ones are shown up top.

Other features include more information being presented on a single screen, intuitive visuals, privacy protection (such as sharing pictures without location data etc) and smaller but really useful additions, such as being able to pull down a notification and getting a more fully-featured reply window with floating windows.

MIUI version 12 also adds a Dark Mode, a “Lite” mode for making the icons bigger and more accessible, a video toolbox and a message grouping system that’ll keep your chats all in one place via “Smart Messaging”.

Other than that, you get all the Google kit – YouTube, Maps, Google Play for your apps, Calendar, Drive, Gmail and so on. There’s a small element of bloatware – an additional browser (Chrome seems to be default but “Mi Browser” is also here) and Mi Video for playing your video footage or any MP4 / AVI / MOV / MKV files that may have “fallen off the internet”. I also found that Facebook, Linkedin, Netflix, WPS Office and eBay were all pre-installed on here too.

Swipe left and you’ll get the usual Google news feed, but swipe up from the bottom and you’ll get Microsoft News, Youtube videos and a very “embellished” Search system. Luckily you can turn this off in the “Home screen” settings options. You can also switch the layout – adding or removing the App drawer, changing the layout, icon size,  switching off Google Discover and much more.

Oh, I should also mention that you can shake the phone whilst in the Home screen edit mode and it’ll fill all the empty cells automatically – keeping your main screen tidy.

The interface, the clarity and just how everything is display really did win me over. The myriad of settings were far easier to navigate thanks to the clear definition in what everything did.

Other bits I appreciated included a “Cleaner” to keep your phone performance running as well as can be, plus the fully-featured Gallery system with the ability to doodle, beautify, filter, adjust and erase (plus you can remove the “Shot on the Mi 10T Pro” watermark if you’ve forgotten to turn that off, which I thought was a really nice touch). There’s also gesture navigation, a “second space” for additional app security, a “Game Turbo”, digital wellbeing and parental controls, beautification for video calls, a one-handed mode and – yes – it’s got a notification light too!

Overall

It rocks when you’re using it on a desk because of that protruding camera arrangement and the camera does struggle a little in low light. I tried with the supplied case but the “rocking” was still there, but whilst in the box I was able to confirm that you get a 33W charger and there’s also a USB-C-to-3.5mm converter should you have a favourite pair of non-Bluetooth headphones you’d like to use.

The handset also has a slight amount of weight to it, but for £599 direct this is priced very well considering the spec inside of it. The screen is LCD but the 144Hz refresh more than makes up for it and the performance, battery life and interface is fantastic.

Great value, the best CPU around right now, a healthy amount of storage and memory plus 5G and a 5000mAh battery. All of that is incredibly decent at this price.

Update – As I type, there’s a sale on at the Mi.com website and you can get the 8GB / 256GB version for £439, plus there’s £40 off that in vouchers – so it’s only £399!

The post Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Now for long term readers, you will no doubt be aware that I have had a bit of a love-in with Huawei and in turn Honor over the past few years. However, I have become more and more embedded in Google’s Ecosystem. I use a Chromebook as my daily driver and I use a Google Wear watch too. I also have all my photos backed up on Google Photos. My personal email accounts are on Google and I use it in my car via Android Auto. Using Google services is a big part of my life, so I was a little apprehensive of using a phone that had no way of utilising these services.

Huawei and Honor, for those who may not know, have been blocked from using Google Services in their newest phones. The sale of Honor may mean that that will change but, right now, the Mate 40 Pro has no Google Play, no YouTube, no Google Mail and so on.

I actually changed back to a Google-made device and then after a few more switches, I ended up with a Note 10 Plus from Samsung. My last Huawei Phone was the P30 Pro which was also the last Huawei flagship that had Google Services on board.

That’s some of the background out of the way. Now onto the present day. I have in my hand the Huawei Mate 40 Pro which, I have to say, feels and looks awesome. Especially in this shade – which changes the colour depending on the available light. It has a nice shimmer to it and it feels lovely in the hand, offering just the right level of grip.

The edges of the screen bend around to the back of the phone in what Huawei refer to as the “waterfall screen” which is remarkably good at palm rejection when being held. I do find it interesting that Samsung who innovated the “edge” concept in their phones such as the Galaxy S6 Edge and then took it further in the S7 Edge has now started to move away from the concept of “edge” interaction. It is almost as though they have inadvertently passed the torch to Huawei for them to see if they can make it useful.  I don’t think it adds anything in term of practicality and useability but then I am only one person and I never used it in the Samsung either so maybe I am not the target market!

An area where I am a little bit torn is the camera module. It is reminiscent of the massive ring-like camera from the Nokia 1020 of yore which I did really like back in the day.

However, I think this design has had its time as camera modules have become slimmer and sleeker. There are, of course, some exceptions where the camera module has an optical zoom in it, but I think the ring is a bit too much when compared with my Note 10 Plus. I would like to have seen this be a little bit more compact and sleeker. Don’t get me wrong though, I am very glad to see the multi-lens array that this ring hides and the fact that Lecia is still assisting with the camera development.

Apart from these things the design is pretty much a par for the course for a flagship Android phone in late 2020. So, with that covered off, for now, I will move onto the real matter at hand – the UI.

I am quite particular about how my UI feels and behaves and I had some genuine trepidation about using the Mate 40 Pro as my daily driver. I like Android and keeping it as near as stock as it can be on an OEM device such as Samsung, OnePlus Sony, etc.

When I started using the AOSP version of Android that Huawei has built their UI on I was hesitant. However, it turns out that I should not have been – things feel very comfortable. There’s one big negative though, and that’s the bloatware. Step into the Huwaei App Gallery and you open the flood gates for crapware. It is a bit of an unorganised mess as it pulls all the apps from the worldwide store into view. I would like to have seen this been more locale-aware so that I only see apps for my country. That said, it was still easy enough to find the main apps that I use to charge my Electric Car.

However, some apps rely on Google Services and, although you can get around these using a webpage, the experience is not quite the same.

As mentioned earlier, my personal email accounts are all Gmail accounts and this is an area where my phone plays a big part in my day. I found that the Huawei Mail app was not great as I couldn’t easily identify my unread emails when using the dark mode view. Now, I know that I could use an alternate email app but I want to test the Huawei core services and this was a bit of a fail for me when compared to the Google equivalent (which is by no means perfect either).

Another thing I missed is Google Photos – I use this all the time and it has become my primary backup facility for photos and videos. I have been using Google Photos for many years now and have got thousands of photos stored in my Google Cloud. This is not directly accessible from a Huawei device anymore and it is a big turn off as it would require workarounds to get my easy backups working as they should.

After a few days, what are my thoughts on the Mate 40 Pro? Is it still sporting my main SIM and how long will it be onboard?

I’ll be honest, no – it’s not got my SIM in it and I’ve switched back to my Note 10 Plus because I have got that all set up for work. It will remain there for the time being. However, I am using the Mate 40 for all my non-work related tasks at the moment. Pictures, videos, gaming, music, personal emails etc. I am going to give it a try as my main phone for the rest of this week to see how it copes and maybe I will be impressed, maybe I won’t.

In the meantime I have got some pictures of the phone to share for you, so you can admire the design excellence that this phone is.

Please do keep an eye on the site for the full review of this phone that will be coming to you after some extensive testing over the next week or so. If you are wanting to get hold of the Huawei Mate 40 Pro you can do so from their website or your normal network providers.

The post Huawei Mate 40 Pro – First Impressions is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

For the time-poor, here’s a tour around the phone..

The brand itself is part of the BBK Electronics group and they have some good stablemates – Oppo, Realme and OnePlus.

Let’s look at the specs first, and although there’s no microSD card you do get a healthy 256GB of storage. Add to that the 8GB RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G running up to 2.4GHz and you do get very nippy performance out of it.

The screen is a curved 90Hz 6.56″ unit with a 1080×2376 pixel (398 ppi density) AMOLED panel. It’s bright, clear and – although many pixel-fans will tell you that there’s higher resolution (and refresh) screens out there – it looked and performed really well for me.

I liked the tweaks on this – the font is really nice, stylish and thin. It added some class to the proceedings.

It runs Android 10 with a skin called “Funtouch 10.0” which adds a uniform look and enhancements such as styles and effects. There’s also a fully-featured “Album” application which lets you do far more than just look at pictures. You can heavily edit images and alter your video footage with templates and stack of editing tools.

In addition, Funtouch brings a phone tune-up app called “iManager”. It’ll keep an eye on the performance, security, space, apps, battery and privacy. Add to that a “Ultra Game Mode” and a Picture-in-Picture Esports Setting and you’re going to be keeping the gamers happy too.

My initial thoughts, though, were with the design of the thing. It’s got a brushed steel appearance – almost like it’s been chiselled from a metal block.

An industrial, but slim and sexy design which really did win me over. It’s not steel of course – aluminium and glass has been used but, at just 8mm thick, it’s a joy to hold and use – feeling really light and natural.

Around back, and via a slightly protruding platform, you’ll find four very decent cameras. They are, and I can’t overstate this, simply fantastic. The main 48 megapixel unit has a gimbal for optical image stabilisation and there’s laser auto-focus. Your videos are buttery smooth and your photos are so, so clear and crisp.

In addition, there’s a 13 megapixel portrait lens (with 2x optical zoom), an 8 megapixel wide-angle lens and an 8 megapixel telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom. They work together perfectly and the 5x optical zoom isn’t your limit – even when you switch to digital zoom you’ll find that the images remain very clear until you start getting to the insane 15x zoom limit.

This is full zoom and, whilst a little blocky, you can still see an amazing amount considering how many miles away this tower is

Even then, though, you’ll be able to see what you’ve snapped. Sure, it might be a bit grainy, but no-where near as grainy as other phones zooming in at this level.

The camera also comes with a range of filters. You can either choose to add filters as you’re taking a shot, or use the “Albums” app to add them on afterwards. There’s also a selection of Portrait light effects you can add too.

The camera also has the ability to calibrate the gimbal, add motion autofocus (motion tracking), a timer, AI scene recognition and the ability to save as “RAW” too.

In addition to the Video, Photo, Portrait and Night modes, there’s also a panorama, live photo (to capture some movement after the shutter has been pressed), a slo-mo setting, supermoon, time-laptop, Pro, astro mode (for those night-time star scenes) and AR stickers to make you look like this..

I’ve taken a range of photos with the camera arrangement. It’s an absolutely fantastic setup and the images produced are top class..

Wide

Normal

Zoom

Wide-angle

The night shot mode and the “auto” shot was pretty much the same, which is good. No need to faff too much switching across – just take that low-light photo and it’ll come out looking really rather lovely.

Other specs include dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS, NFC (for those contactless payments), USB-C charging and a fingerprint sensor in the screen.

The battery accepts 33W fast-charging which pushes the 4315 mAh unit to 57% in 30 minutes.

Inside there’s no real bloatware and, as you’ll see from the overview video below, it’s all very clear and simple…

As mentioned earlier, the GUI and the apps are all clearly and neatly presented, with lots of options to change the way that the phone operates. This goes down to quite a granular level, including the animation used for the fingerprint unlock, the charge plug and so on..

There’s live homescreen backgrounds and you can pop apps into folders, as is normal for most Android handsets..

Overall

A very classy and well designed handset which really shows what Vivo can do. The interface and the build quality are fantastic. I loved the brushed metal finish and the little additions such as the custom font, enhanced gallery and additional settings screens.

This phone has 8GB RAM, it gets 256GB storage and it runs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G octa-core chip. The camera arrangement is perhaps the best I’ve seen on a phone for a long, long time. For all of that, you need to shell out £749.

OK, so what you have to do now is compare that with the OnePlus Nord. Even if you go for the top-end 12GB RAM / 256GB storage version, you’ll only be paying £469. That’ll get you the same CPU as the Vivo X51 5G (Snapdragon 765G) with the same 5G tech. A 90Hz panel, just like this one, a similar screen size 6.44, the same selfie camera and similar speedy charging.

Sure, the camera on this one is better. For zooming in, it is far better. The rear camera arrangement of the X51 is superior too, but for regular day-to-day shots you may be happy enough with the OnePlus Nord.

For a refreshing, skinny and metallic design, the Vivo X51 5G really is a stunner. The camera tech on the back is amazing, with low-light and zoomed photos looking punchy and clear. The price-tag though? £749 is a lot when there are so many other competitive handsets around.

The Vivo X51 5G is available from LaptopsDirect or Box. Get more information on the Vivo website.

The post Vivo X51 5G – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Things I liked:-

• Speakers are on the keyboard and have a good depth to them. I could quite happily listen to music and watch movies with the laptop.
• The trackpad is large which gives a good area to move around the screen, it is also nicely matched to the screen resolution.
• Can charge via my GAN charger that i use for my phone which is a huge win as I don’t have to carry multiple chargers around.
• Charging from a high capacity charger is speedy.
• The slim design makes it easy to fit in a bag
• Plenty of power for gaming  and video work

Things I didn’t like:-

• The keyboard seems a bit off which caused me problems when it came to getting comfortable. This could be related to the German Layout but I’m not so sure.
• Half size up/down arrow keys really annoys me!
• Keyboard backlight was weak and there is a lot of bleed from the keys.
• Cannot open with one hand.
• Not a fan of the camera angle for video calls and it is quite a low res as well.
• Lack of a microSD reader was annoying as it is a memory card format I do use from time to time.

So let’s dissect these things a little further ..

On the good list, I mention that the speakers are plenty loud enough and give a good depth of sound. This makes this a great device for consuming media and I spent a good few evenings watching content from Netflix or Apple TV on the device. It would allow me to get through quite a few hour-long episodes before crying out for power – great. It also didn’t get too warm whilst using these streaming sites which was nice especially if it is on your lap.

The screen has a matte finish, which also helped because I didn’t have a lot of reflections back at me whilst watching content. I would say that the colours were not massively accurate out of the box, which is a bit of a shame and one to watch out for if you are planning on using this for anything that is colour critical. It wasn’t a big issue for me but it is worth knowing.

Next up was the trackpad which is a generous size and is mapped really well to the screen. I have another laptop which is a 15.6″ and the mousepad is tiny in comparison. This made a big difference to me when I was trying to multitask and work with multiple windows. If I had to find a fault it is that I would have liked to it to be a glass trackpad – these just feel nicer to the touch and smoother when dragging your finger over. It is, however, accurate and consistent so no major complaints to be found there.

I have been lucky enough to get hold of a high powered GAN charger.  I carry it around in my bag most places I go. The fact that I can use it charge the Honor MagicBook Pro is really useful as it is one less charger to worry about. Don’t get me wrong, the bundled charger is great as well, (in terms of size) but the Anker GAN Charger that I have is even better when it comes to portability. If you need a fast charge though, the inbuilt plug will get you back up to full in no time at all as it can kick out a significant amount of juice. See below for an example of relative charging speeds between the two.

Though the laptop sports very large 16.1″ screen it is not that much larger than a standard 15.6″ laptop and is a smidge slimmer, making for a relatively compact carry in a rucksack. This is great for me when I am wanting a minimalistic setup on my travels. I also found the wider screen useful when working with multiple windows as I could get a little bit more on the screen over a traditional widescreen. The resolution was just right too –  I don’t honestly need anything over 1080p when I am working on any laptop. As for the weight, it is pretty good for a laptop that has the battery life this has. It was als lighter than my comparable work laptop, again making it great for carrying around. The only downside is when I was using it I confined space – it was a bit tricky due to the overall size – but this is true for any laptop of this size. I prefer 13.3″ as my go-to size of laptop if I am honest. For desk-based work, it is no problem but when you are using it on the go it can be a bit bulky.

Lastly on the plus side of things is the actual power that the laptop has and can deliver. Now I am not one for using benchmarks as these are great for you stats lovers but I don’t think that they give a good reflection of what the laptop is like to actually use in the real world.

So for day to day tasks like working on a blog post whilst having multiple windows and tabs open I couldn’t fault the system – it sped along with no issue at all.  I also found that I was able to render videos significantly faster than I was able to do on my Mac Mini which had been my solution for quite some time. I also took the opportunity to try a bit of light gaming on it using my current go-to game World of Warships which was smooth and flawless in playback. I have taken some screen grabs whilst I was playing the game, these are shown below.

Whilst it does drain the battery quickly (as I did start to push the system a bit harder purely because I was testing it) I was still able to get a good few hours before it warned me I was running low. One thing I was very pleased with is that, during my gaming session, I didn’t once hear the fans spin up. This is something that cannot be said of my work laptop which will spin the fans up a lot more frequently and they are loud when they come on. The fans on the MagicBook Pro are whisper quiet in comparison. Even the ones on my Acer Chrome Spin 13 are louder and more noticeable.

To give you an example of the processing power and to get the graphics working as well I have performed the below test. I used the same video files and the same encoding setup on PowerDirector on each machine one machine is the Honor MagicBook Pro and the other is a Dell Precsion (my work laptop) The respective specs are…

Honor MagicBook Pro AMD Ryzen 5 4600H Processor, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD ROM, Integrated Radeon Graphics

Dell Precison 3550 Intel Core Processor i7-10510U , 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD ROM, Nvidia Quadro P520 w/ 2GB GDDR5

Here is the video which incidentally was edited on the MagicBook Pro!

What is interesting about this is the relative times of the completion of the render on each system. The MagicBook took less than half the time to complete the task than the Dell. This surprised me a lot as the Dell has a dedicated graphics solution and the MagicBook Pro doesn’t. As for the fan noise, whilst both fans did indeed come on during the test the MagicBook was the louder of the two which suggests that whilst it was the faster of the two machines it was working harder to do the task. I’ll be honest it was not the result I expected and I was surprised how much slower the Dell was.

So I think it is safe to say that this thing can perform pretty damn well.

Now onto the things I didn’t like as much

First up is the keyboard. Now I am not sure what the issue here is but I just couldn’t get on with typing on this keyboard. I am not a touch typist by any means but I found that, when I was trying to type on the MagicBook, my hands where not in the correct place and this led to many frustrating attempts to write content. I am aware that this laptop has got a German QWERTZ keyboard layout but I don’t think that is causing the issue. It could be a subconscious thing though as when I look at the keyboard it just looks wrong and this makes me think about what I am doing more hence the issue. I can’t get any “muscle memory”. The annoying thing is the keys do actually feel nice and the travel is good so it could be that my brain is just playing tricks on me.

Whilst we are talking about the keyboard there are few other issues here. The back light is pretty and it is not even and there is a lot light bleed from the keys which is a real shame as it again detracts from the nice feel of the keys. To show you this is a comparison with my Acer Chromebook Spin 13

It is clear that the Acer is better with less bleed around the edges of the keys. It was also on half brightness where the MagicBook Pro was on its highest setting!

The last keyboard related issue that I have is regarding the up and down arrow keys which I hate the fact that they have used half-size keys but put them in the same row as the full size left and right keys. If you look at the image below then you can see what I am on about.  Doing the keys like this makes it really awkward to actually use them without having a look at where they are before you press them. It is just really annoying and something I hate.

Next up on the list is the fact that you can open the lid to the laptop with one hand. This a common problem with some laptops and it is not the worst thing. It actually shows that there is some strength in the hinge for the screen and it means that you don’t have a screen that wobbles around too much. It is more of a minor annoyance than anything and because I switch between multiple laptops I notice it. I am sure if this were my main machine I wouldn’t even notice it after some time.

The last two things are really not that important but I thought it was best to mention them really. The camera position isn’t great if am honest as it gives very little room to get a good angle when you are on a video call, something that we are now finding ourselves doing a lot more of at the moment. I can forgive it as the thought behind it is sound. I do like the fact that the camera is hidden when you don’t need it though. What I cannot really forgive is the low resolution that has been chosen as it is really quite poor and makes the image look very grainy and that is not great when you are on a call.

The lack of any sort of SD card slot is a drag as it means if I want to transfer anything via an SD card I need to dig out a dongle. This is just a bit of pain, but as Ii a need to carry one for using an Ethernet port as well then I can let it slip. I would have expected there to be an Ethernet connector included on the laptop especially as this the Pro lineup and wired Ethernet is much better for working with large data files on a network. I understand that it was omitted in an effort to keep the laptop thin but at least there could be a dongle included in the box. To be fair to Honor they are not alone on this front as Apple and Microsoft are just as bad on this form as they don’t have Ethernet ports on any of their systems.

So that wraps up my good point and bad points.

The good points do outweigh the bad points and, if I am honest I have enjoyed using the MagicBook Pro. It has been great for doing the basic video work that I do and it is really quite speedy. When it does get a bit hot and bothered the fans are not too intrusive and they don’t run for any longer than needed. The battery is great and can get me through a day of working under a light load. When things get a bit more demanding I can run it on the mains power with ease, plus I can recharge it very quickly.

Due to its lightweight design, I don’t really notice it in my bag when I am out and about. I could see this being my daily driver, I would just need to get used to the keyboard which would come after a short time using.

There is room for improvement in a few areas the backlighting for one. That being said there is one big omission here for me which I have not mentioned. The reason I have not mentioned it is simple. If this feature was added then the price would change significantly. I would have really liked to have seen this with the option of having a touch screen. I have become so used to using a touchscreen on my laptop that I have found myself on various occasions reaching out to touch the display and then when nothing happens I am shocked. Don’t get me wrong, adding touchscreen brings additional issues all of their own, but it would have been nice to have had the option.

Conclusion

Would I buy an Honor Magicbook Pro for myself? That is really the ultimate question I suppose. For me, the answer is no.

The reason for this is quite simple. I just prefer smaller laptops. As I mentioned above for me the sweet spot is 13.3″ and a touchscreen.

Should you buy it for yourself then? Well, if you are looking for a thin but powerful laptop that you are going to be using mainly at a desk or something similar then this is a great laptop. It coped well with all the tasks I gave and it also stood in for my work laptop on a few occasions. It is a good option for casual gamers as well as the integrated Radeon graphics do a stellar job when it comes to running more basic games.

Is it a laptop for professionals? Yes to an extent, but I think there are better options out there – although they do cost more – so if you are not going to be too demanding on it then yes this will foot the bill.

Where I think this will fit into the market really well is for someone who is working from home and needs to run a lot of tasks at the same time but can’t afford the expense of an external display and doesn’t have a need for higher-end graphics. Then after work has finished you have a good laptop for the rest of the family to be able to use for gaming or streaming the latest films via Netflix or Amazon TV. I believe in the industry this market is referred to as the “Prosumer” and that fits in very nicely with the MagicBook Pro lineup.

You can buy the Honor MagicBook Pro from the Honor Store and if you buy one soon then you can get a backpack, mouse, Band 5 or earphones included. You will also get £50 off the RRP. If you dont fancy the Pro version or want something a little smaller then check out the MagicBook 14 or MagicBook 15 as they also now come with the AMD line of processors.

The post Honor MagicBook Pro – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

As is usual with OnePlus phones, a clear case is provided so that you can keep the phone in tip-top condition. More on this in our next story.

That screen, I should mention, has an ultra-low JNCD. This stands for “Just Noticeable Colour Difference” and, at less than 0.55, means that your videos and photos will have brilliant colour accuracy.

Next is the CPU, and on the £799 OnePlus 8 Pro you’re getting a SnapDragon 865 CPU. However, on the OnePlus 8T you get the very same processor again and – just to add to the fun – you can have an 8GB / 128GB storage 8T (£549) or a 12GB / 256GB storage 8T (£649). That’s similar to the OnePlus 8 Pro, but on the 8 Pro you’re going to be paying £899 for the 12GB / 256GB storage model.

The higher 12GB / 256GB model is only available in Aqua Marine Green and the 8GB / 128GB model only in Lunar Silver. Here’s the silver one, for reference…

The OnePlus 8T has UFS3.1 performance storage too. This really is necessary when you’ve got a 5G phone chucking big blobs of data all over the shop.

I do like the clear interface on the OnePlus handsets. Reminds me a little of Windows Phone from back in the day.

Weighing in at 188g, it’s lighter than the Pro and just a nudge heavier than the Nord, which dances quite close to the OnePlus 8T in a lot of ways.

Running on Android 11 with the OxygenOS, there’s lots of OnePlus cleverness in the software, including a separate algorithm to tell how smoothly the screen brightens and darkens on the screen slider. There’s a massive 8,192 different levels of screen brightness – so you can get it just as you want it.

The new 65W charger (on the right) compared to the existing Warp Charger (left).

Not only that, but OnePlus have ramped up their utterly-mental charging tech. Here on the OnePlus 8T you get Warp Charge 65 and the in-box charger (plus new cable) will see your battery go from flat to full in just 39 minutes.

The new Warp Charge 65 – on the right in the photos – with USB-C output

Oh wait, when I say “battery”, I should clarify – there’s actually two 2,250mAh batteries in here, creating 4,500mAh of total power. No more overnight charging – the twin-battery charging tech (pushing more than 30W into each cell) will sort your battery concerns in minutes. You can just plug it in for 15 minutes and get an entire day’s worth of power. Boom. Believe me, I’ve used this and it’s bonkers-fast.

There’s a lot of safety kit involved too – the 65W charger (10V/6.5A) itself has 12 individual thermal monitors and the USB-C to USB-C cable can charge laptops and other compatible devices too.

Charging, gaming or watching your favourite film – having a hot phone isn’t a problem. OnePlus have added a large vapour chamber with graphite and thermally conductive silicone grease to dissipate the heat. This is far, far larger than the chamber on the 8 Pro.

Head to the back of the OnePlus 8T and you’d be forgiven in thinking that there’s 6 lenses. There isn’t, but let’s have a look at the 4 that are actually cameras. First – notice how everything is in the corner now – a definite departure from the design of the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro but something we did see on the Nord. The main lens is a Sony IMX586 48 megapixel lens which will be doing most of your shots. Images we snapped on this came out very well indeed.

Next is an ultra-wide 16 megaxpixel lens – again from Sony (IMX481) – performed well and has a big 123-degree view. Here’s a look at the same shot taken on the wide-angle lens, the “normal” lens and zoomed in by 2x. More on the cameras shortly…

Wide-angle

The “normal” lens

2X Zoom

Also I should point out the dedicated monochrome lens. It’s a 2 megapixel unit and means that there’s no need to software trickery. First, select it from the filters, then take your photo..

Here is an image taken with the standard on-board graphical trick…

..whilst this one was taken with the dedicated monochrome lens…

It might only seem like a slight difference, but it does give more classical monochrome appearance – as if you’d taken the shot on a really old camera.

For your videos, an improved stabilisation system reduces the shakes and shudders, with focus tracking and low-light enhancements (something you’ll also notice on the still shots too). It’ll do super-slow-mo at 480fps (720p) or 240fps (1080p).

Above is the Sony IMX471 16 megapixel in-display selfie shooter.

There’s stacks of options in the camera too, including video portrait, nightscape, macro, panorama, smart pet capture, RAW, video nightscape, pro mode, Ultrashot HDR and a “Super Stable” mode which works with the OIS and gyroscope to give super-smooth videos. Nice.

Here’s a slow-mo video example..

…and a “super stable” video example..

There’s one slight issue with “super stable” though, and you can hopefully see this below. First, I grabbed some footage without it turned on and I could touch on the screen to do object-tracking auto-focus, plus I could zoom in and out..

Then, with “super stable” enabled, the zoom is no longer available..

This is all controlled from the simple but fully-featured camera app..

The rear camera arrangement also adds bokeh and a dual LED flash too.

The camera interface is clear, straightforward and has a range of filters and options to choose from. There’s also that Nightscape mode, although in fairness the shots taken without it turned on looked just as good..

Without Nightscape

With Nightscape

Here’s some example shots from the camera, using the macro lens for some of the up-close shots too.

There’s NFC for your contactless payments, dual-band GPS, 5G, dual-band WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.1 (with aptX support), USB-C charging (and headphones – no 3.5mm audio here), dual-stereo speakers, noise cancellation support and a dual SIM slot.

Some very good specs then, but what doesn’t it have? Well, it’s not water resistant, there’s no microSD expansion (so ensure you get the one with enough storage for you right from the get-go) and there’s no wireless charging. Apart from that though, it’s a lot for your money. A very good phone. As mentioned, OnePlus will be doing the 12GB / 256GB model in Aqua Marine Green and the 8GB / 128GB model in Lunar Silver, so if you can – get the green one and then you can show off. I should, however, also point to the OnePlus Nord as an option though – prices start at £379 if you want the 8GB / 128GB version and £469 for the 12GB / 256GB one. The processor isn’t a Snapdragon 865, but it’s well worth considering if you want something cheaper.

This OnePlus 8T will, in all honesty, replace the OnePlus 8.

The GUI of the phone is clear and crisp – as mentioned before it reminds me of the Windows Phone interface a little from back in the day.

You can of course change the appearance and layout of the home screen, lock screen, background, icons and fonts. This is just the standard “out of the box” experience but you can easily move across from your existing phone with the OnePlus Switch app, which does a rather excellent job of moving all your stuff across. It even maintains your icon / shortcut positions and all the customisations you’ve made to your phone.

Inside there’s a new Dark Mode which adds newly-tweaked colour tones to make everything easier to read. There’s also an Always-on display and you can turn photos into line drawings which, when you unlock, convert to the original photo. They call this “Canvas AOD” and it’s pretty cool, let me tell you. I’ll show you more on this in a separate article.

This unlock screen shows how many times you’ve used your phone

The Always-on display, which we’ll now start calling “AOD” to make it easier on my fingers, also gives you the ability to add clocks, notifications and more to the lock screen.

They’ve even added a new “Insight AOD” which lets you know how many times you’ve unlocked the phone. This will hopefully get you in the habit of using your phone a little less. Plus, with the new version of Zen Mode, you can put your phones and distractions out of sight.

To get a better idea of the user experience, here’s a YouTube video of me using the phone…

Preorder the OnePlus 8T from 4PM today on OnePlus.com or buy directly on October 20th from OnePlus, Amazon and John Lewis. £549 for the 8GB / 128GB (in silver only) and £649 for the 12GB / 256GB (green) version.

Overall

I’ve used the phone as my main handset for a week or two now. The green model I have is cheaper than the OnePlus 8 Pro but has the same CPU, the same memory, the same storage and a smaller screen which I actually found more suitable. Sure, there’s no wireless charging, no microSD and the screen is a little different, but this is – as with all the OnePlus phones – a lot of bang for your buck. A beautiful interface, a fantastic design and an attention to detail which really is lifting this company into the limelight more and more.

Full press release below…