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The Samsung Galaxy A80 shows off the future of smartphone cameras

Matt Adams
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In search of the truly full screen display, companies have been trying to figure out what to do with the front-facing camera. We’ve seen notches, pop-out cameras, and phones that just completely dismiss the front facing camera but put a secondary screen on the back of the phone so you can still take those perfect selfies.

Samsung has a different idea. With the announcement of the Galaxy A80, the South Korean juggernaut brings us a rather unique camera setup. The phone is a slider much like the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 but instead of placing a dedicated front-facing camera in the slider pop-up, Samsung flips the rear mounted camera to shoot right at you.

It’s a pretty interesting concept and quite compelling if selfies really matter that much to you. Why stick the best camera on the back of your phone where you can’t use it for most of your group shots, right? This design allows users to take advantage of the triple camera setup at all times.

The three cameras on the phone are a main 48 megapixel f/2.0 lens, an 8 megapixel ultra wide lens, and a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor. Because of this new flipping camera mechanism, there’s no notch on the massive 6.7-inch 1080 x 2400 Super AMOLED display, something notch haters can all get behind.

Samsung is calling this new display “New Infinity” which basically means its the same curved display that you’ve seen in Samsung’s flagship phones for years now with no hole punch or notch included. It’s really not a new concept and we’re not really sure why the company felt the need to rebrand it, but C’est La Vie.

The Galaxy A80 is a budget-ish device, but we’re pretty surprised by how powerful the it is. You’ve already heard about the impressive display and cameras, but there’s also 8 GB of RAM on board along with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 SoC, which is an octa-core chip with two cores clocked at 2.2 GHZ and six low-power cores clocked at 1.7 GHz. There’s also a 3,700 mAh battery that supports up to 25W charging and an under-display fingerprint scanner like the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+.

The Samsung Galaxy A80 will hit the markets on May 29 and come in Gold, White and Black. There’s no official word on official pricing yet, but we’ve heard rumors that it’ll cost about $650, or roughly the same cost as the Samsung Galaxy S10e. That begs the question, which would you rather have? The Galaxy 10e with the flagship processor and smaller, but flat and higher resolution display, or the Galaxy A80 with the larger display and new camera module with higher resolution lenses? Hit us up on Twitter and let us know what you think.

YouTube TV broke my heart today

Scott Webster
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YouTube TV did something today that I truly did not expect: it raised a grandfathered rate on me.

Before I come across as whiny and/or entitled I want to qualify a few things. First, I am a longtime Google advocate and early adopter. I was on Google Voice back in 2007 when it was still called Grand Central. I sign up for beta access to everything it offers and welcome new endeavors no matter how polished they look.

Do you think it was easy to get through the first year or two of Android? Hardware wasn’t the prettiest and the software wasn’t any better. I bought into the idea and promise of better things.

I’m a Day One Loyalist

Google Wave? Google Plus? Google Play Music? In there on day one. I did the same for YouTube TV the moment it was offered to me in my area.

One reason that I flock to Google services is that the experience almost always gets better. What’s more, Google has never asked me for more money for the privilege of using its apps or services. Whatever I paid at the start, including the stuff that was free, is the same as it is today.

Look how much Google Drive has evolved over the years. Look at how flexible a Google Family account is now. My Google One storage capacity doubled overnight and at no cost. Hell, I’ve been using the same G Suite account that I signed up for years ago because it gave me 100 free users. I know the newer accounts are more feature rich but this one has kept pace with my needs.

I have always gotten more from Google and its services over the various iterations and enhancements. The one thing I could bank on was that it didn’t ask me to pay more for it.

You can imagine, then, the surprise today when I learned that Google was adding $15 to my monthly YouTube TV bill. Indeed, there are now eight more channels included in the service plan, but that’s not the point.

This Feels Familiar

I left my cable provider because of YouTube’s low-cost rate plan. I got in when it was $35 and before it added a second round of channels. It offered me everything I needed, but not quite everything I wanted.

You know how your cable provider has 400 channels but you only watch a couple of them? That’s what I ran away from when I came to YouTube TV. Today’s move feels like a step toward a bunch of channels I don’t/won’t watch.

Over time I saw a few more channels added and optional packages offered. If I wanted to, I could add EPIX ($6/mo.), STARZ ($9), or a couple of other options. NBA League Pass was added as an opt-in deal for $40 per month.

I do not mind that YouTube TV has done this; I expected it. As I see it, these were channels that were not included in the base package but something that I may, or may not, want to add.

In my time with YouTube TV I learned that I was more than content to live without a couple of channels. And, should they ever show up, I anticipated that I might discuss the options with my wife and figure out if a particular channel or network was worth the extra $5-$10.

For my money, $35 was a tremendous deal as I had the ability to create up to six user accounts, each of us with our own unlimited DVR and channel preferences. I absolutely love that I can start a show on my NVIDIA SHIELD, pick up on my phone or PC, and cast to my Google Home Hub. It’s everywhere I need it.

Fool Me Once

Let’s talk about the DVR and how this ought to work. In theory, I set it to record my show(s) and I watch them wherever. Right? Why is it, then, that I am forced to watch VOD versions of shows instead of the one I recorded? That’s right. I am have to watch advertisements and am unable to skip ahead.

I didn’t like this the first time I noticed it and I hate it every time it happens. It’s not DVR. It also smacks of “business” and tells me there are deals in place for particular channels or shows.

You Were the Chosen One!

Today’s move mimics the cable industry to be sure. Perhaps more importantly, it’s a slap in the face of the early adopters. Absolutely zero of YouTube TV’s user base had the channels when they signed up. We all knew what was and wasn’t offered and jumped on board.

Sure, people complained and begged for these channels to be added. More often than not the chatter around it was how users ought to be able to add-on the channels. Today Google added them. Today Google raised my rate 43% in the process.

I have absolutely zero problems with the $50 package as it stands, especially to new subscribers. It’s still competitive and makes for an excellent alternative to traditional methods. But, I fear this was a tipping point and my first step onto the slippery slope.

Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

YouTube TV forced me to add channels I don’t want. Even worse, it’s reaching into my pocket for another $180 per year.

I am sure there are business reasons as to why YouTube TV doesn’t offer the new channels as an add-on. And, truth be told, I will probably end up watching something on one of them along the way.

I don’t know what each broadcasts in terms of shows, but I am aware of a few things that may be worth checking out. The reason I don’t know too much about them, though, is because I didn’t need them in my life. I was blissfully ignorant.

The part that hurts me is that Google/YouTube TV will hit its most loyal subscribers with the biggest rate increase. If all of us were on the $40/mo. plan then it would make sense. But, when you start out by grandfathering people into plans, you set a precedent that you may do the same down the road.

Two Fixes; Pick One

Here’s how YouTube TV could do right by me in wake of the new channels. It’s simple stuff, and I am not the only one who thinks these make sense. Really, I’ve hinted at them throughout this article.

  • Keep the grandfathered rate for the most loyal subscribers, or those on the $35 rate plan
  • Move the new channels into its own tier as an add-on package

I’ve already seen plenty of chatter on Twitter and Reddit to tell me that those of us who have been here since the beginning are angry. The company line response seems to be something along the lines of “we hope the unlimited DVR and six accounts is worth keeping us”. Dudes, you don’t even know what DVR really is.

I don’t know how many subscribers there are for YouTube TV and I certainly can’t begin to guess at what percentage of those signed up before the first rate increase. My gut tells me that it’s small enough that it wouldn’t have a sizable impact YouTube TV’s bottom line.

What Happens Next?

I am worried about how far YouTube TV goes with moves like this. Will it continue to add channels and programming, slowly ticking the price up? Probably. I suspect we’ll ultimately get to where it’s more closely aligned with other players in the space.

I am also concerned that Google will try this with other services like YouTube Premium or Google Play Music. It would not surprise me to see that suddenly I will no longer have my playlists and uploaded music because everything is now offered on YouTube Music — at a higher monthly rate.

I didn’t think like this before.

Old Man Yells at Clouds

What will I do now that my bill is going up? Nothing immediately. I’m complaining just to complain. Why? Because I need to get this off my chest and maybe I’ll feel better about it.

I hate that I wasn’t given a warning. We knew months in advance when Google Plus was going away. Google always tells us what’s coming, far in advance.

I also hate that I cannot opt out. In this case, opting out means cancelling.

Before today I had zero reservation about recommending YouTube TV and my eyes never once wanted to wander. That changed today.

I will start to look at what my other options are and whether I might want something else. Maybe an HD antenna is the answer for me. Maybe it’s Hulu’s live programming. Maybe, just maybe, I go back to my cable provider and bundle it in with my internet. I don’t know. But until today I didn’t have to know what the alternative was.

Visible debuts ‘Swap’ program with free phone via trade-in

AndroidGuys
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Visible, a digital service provider that leverages Verizon’s wireless network, today rolls out a new program for its customers. Called “Swap”, it gives subscribers a free smartphone for trading in an existing device and signing up for the first month of service.

The Visible R2 is a handset manufactured by ZTE which runs Android Oreo and features a 5.45-inch display. The device typically retails for $99 with a rate plan.

Other specifications in the Visible R2 by ZTE include a 13-megapixel camera, 3200mAh battery, and USB Type C charging port. Internally, the phone offers up 16GB storage space and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor with 2GB RAM.

Visible makes it easy for customers to score the free phone through its Swap program. In short, they’ll take just about any handset you’ve got lying around.

SEE ALSO

Instead of going without service, Visible will ship the Visible R2 by ZTE to consumers ahead of time. All you have to do is return your old phone within 14 days to avoid being charged the $99. As the carrier puts it, they’ll take “any Android that turns on, except the Galaxy S9 or S9+”. The deal is limited to new Visible accounts only.

Visible keeps things simple, giving its subscribers just one rate plan. For $40 per month a user receives unlimited calls and texts as well as unlimited 4G LTE data at up to 5 Mbps speeds. This no-contract plan also allows for unlimited mobile hotspot.

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Visible CEO Miguel Quiroga where we discussed the brand, its rate plan, and how the carrier fits in the space. Give it a listen in the media player below or find our podcast wherever you normally enjoy other shows.

AT&T launches mobile 5G in another seven cities ahead of first capable phone

AndroidGuys
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AT&T on Tuesday announced it has launched mobile 5G service in another seven markets, bringing the total to 19 cities.

Although it was the first US carrier to introduce 5G wireless service in late 2018, AT&T has yet to carry a phone with support. It does have the NETGEAR Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot you can pick up for $500 but that’s it for now. And, from what we gather, it’s not as if AT&T is anxious to sell you one.

We spent the early part of this year accelerating and advancing our 5G network with early adopters by our side. And now it’s time to offer this experience to more businesses and consumers in another 7 cities.

Among the new markets with 5G are Austin, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose.

AT&T currently employs millimeter wave for its 5G network which means it trades high download speeds for distance. With that in mind, do not expect city-wide, uninterrupted 5G coverage. The lower frequency, “sub-6” spectrum will arrive in 2020 bringing about a much wider footprint.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G is anticipated at AT&T “later this year” with two other phones coming in 2019. The Samsung phone will support both the mmWave and sub-6 spectrum.

Ultra Mobile is giving away free service to political refugees

Matt Adams
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Sit back in your chair, clear your mind, and imagine this. A new governor has been elected in your state and imposed a new draconian law that makes you fear for the safety of you and your loved ones. Your only option to make sure you’re safe is to leave. You pack up your kids and your partner and just start driving and land in a city you’ve never been to before while using all of your resources just to get out. You’re alone, you’re scared but at least you’re safe and you can connect with your loved ones through your cell phone.

Now imagine all of that, but substitute your new state for a new country halfway across the world and get rid of the cell phone because your SIM card doesn’t work here in the States. How scared do you think you’d be? How would you get the money to start up a new plan so you could communicate with the outside world while still trying to feed yourself and your family?

Read more: Ultra Mobile expands unlimited calling to 80 plus destinations

These hard questions are ones that almost all political refugees face. Giving up everything you’ve ever known to move thousands of miles away with almost nothing is one of the scariest and hardest things you can do. Ultra Mobile, the MVNO founded in 2011 to service the foreign-born community, wants to help and is teaming up with Ads-Up to provide 1,000 refugees with service so they can resettle just that little bit quicker, integrate just a little bit easier.

Ultra Mobile’s offer is open to political refugees and will provide unlimited nationwide talk and text, unlimited calling to more than 90 countries around the world, and over 200 Call Anywhere credits to over 200 destinations. There’s also unlimited LTE data included which is extremely important because many times, phones are the only way refugees can access the internet. This allows refugees to contact home to let their families and friends know their okay, search for safe housing, and work and learn their new surroundings. It helps them to start rebuilding their lives.

Most do not have home internet, so their phone is their only access to education, medical information, as well as to an online community that can provide a much needed sense of belonging. Until they have found stable employment, it is very difficult for refugees to afford the ongoing expense of mobile service, yet without it they lose connection to support, potential employers and resources. Our partnership with Ultra Mobile functions as an investment into their future

-Fleur Wood, Ads-Up Co founder

Ads-Up is a volunteer organization that is working to help resettle over 1,000 political refugees from the US-Australia refugee agreement. The organization is working with men, women, and over 150 children to restart their lives in peace and safety. As part of this new agreement, Ultra Mobile will be a sponsor for Ads-Up’s fundraising Gala on April 25 in New York City, designed to thank donors and rally support for new funds.

If you’d like to learn more or know someone in need, head over to Ultra Mobile’s website for more information. You can also find out more information about Ads-up on its website and if you’re interested in going to the gala, click here.

Logitech Harmony Elite review

Jason England
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After becoming hooked on Logitech’s Harmony Companion remote, I wondered, what could the Elite version offer? For over double the price, surely it must offer something significantly better. What I found was, in some cases yes, but not always.

Design

The Harmony Elite comes with one remote, one hub, two IR blasters, and is limited to 15 total devices. I much preferred the thinner design of the Harmony Elite remote. The bottom has a soft touch grip and despite it being slightly heavier than the Companion remote, I found the added weight felt good in the hand.

It was much easier to reach all of the physical buttons on the remote than it was on the Harmony Companion. It also uses a slick plastic material on the top which did not absorb oils and appear dirty after using it for several weeks.

The Harmony Elite suffered from a similar problem as the Harmony Companion when it came to buttons. They didn’t offer much in the way to distinguish themselves by feel alone. However, the way the Elite made itself easier to use was by having less buttons overall and using a backlight. This made it much easier to learn the remote or find the buttons I was searching for at night.

There is also an LCD screen at the top of the Harmony Elite. This is where you’ll find many of the missing buttons that are on the Companion remote. Each time you choose a device you’ll find every button on the original remote and sometimes more. If you happen to be missing a physical button or can’t find which button an action is assigned to this little LCD screen is a lifesaver.

Now, the downside of this LCD screen and the backlit buttons is battery life. Unlike the Companion, the built-in battery on the Harmony Elite is not replaceable but it is rechargeable. What this means is, you won’t be getting a year of battery life like you would with the Companion remote.

Instead, you’re going to have to charge it up much like you do your phone and other devices with built-in batteries. In my experience, with minimal usage it lasted around four days in between charges. However, it was quite frustrating when I forgot to charge it and I’d pick it up only to find it was dead.

The good news is, you have your phone to act as a backup remote and smart speaker if you happen to have one.

Set up and Usage

Setting up your remote is simple through the Harmony app. It will scan your Wi-Fi network and automatically add devices if they are turned on and connected. If your device isn’t connected via Wi-Fi or it simply fails to detect it, then no worries. It is as easy as doing a search in the app and adding the device from Logitech’s vast database.

During the set up, Logitech strongly encourages you to create activities where you can assign one button on the remote to accomplish several actions and control multiple devices. These activities can be as basic as having a button which turns on your TV and automatically launches Hulu or Netflix.

They can also be more complicated such as turning on your TV, cable box, and soundbar with one remote layout to control all three at once. Sometimes this works out perfectly, while other times you lose functionality of say the menu button since it can only open the menu for one of these devices.

Luckily, the Harmony Elite has an LCD screen at the top and most likely you’ll be able to track down the button for the device that you’re looking for using that. You can also dig through the Harmony app and reassign buttons, although that can be a daunting task in itself.

Connection Issues

While the Harmony Elite remote generally worked well, I did run into some connection issues. Despite only being 15 feet. away and having line of sight with the hub, even though it is not required, I still often ran into connection issues.

Most times it was from pressing the volume button too quickly or holding it down. Then an error screen would pop up on the LCD and the remote would refuse to function again until I pressed an OK button acknowledging the connection issue. Being forced to dismiss this error message made the interruption even more frustrating.

Other times the connection seemed to flake out with no apparent cause, and I would be forced to push the button a second time. Either way, it happened a few times every week and it was a mild annoyance. In comparison, the Harmony Companion only had this kind of issue twice in around a month and required no special button press to continue working.

The Hub

The Harmony Elite includes a hub which it communicates with by using RF signals. The hub, in turn, relays what the remote says sending out infrared or Bluetooth commands to your devices.

What this means is you don’t have to aim the remote at the devices you’re trying to control. You don’t even have to aim it at the hub because it is using radio signals to communicate with it. This feels so freeing to not have to worry about where you point your remote.

However, you must place the hub in an area where it can send signals to all of your devices. If you choose it is even possible to hide all of your devices in a cabinet along with the hub giving your living space an uncluttered clean appearance.

The Harmony Elite comes with two IR blasters in the box. The IR blasters are used when the hub is unable to send signals to one of your devices due to its location. With both setups that I used, I was able to position the hub in an area to reach all devices. Regardless it is excellent to have the IR blaster for those times when the signal could be blocked by a piece of furniture.

Smart Speaker Support

One of my favorite features of these remotes is the ability to use voice commands to control my devices. I use both Alexa and Google Assistant smart speakers so I was able to try both out. In my experience, the Google Assistant speaker was able to handle more commands than Alexa and that won me over.

Using your smart speaker you’ll be able to power the TV on or off, change the channel, control volume, pause/play, open Roku apps, and more. I found myself using the voice commands more than I did the remote on most days. It just became too convenient to say what I wanted without having to know where the remote was.

Harmony App

The Harmony App allows you to control your home theater devices using your phone or tablet. This is a great option for when you don’t have the remote nearby or you’re in another room. Besides controlling all of your devices, it also allows you to customize your remote. I found this very useful when buttons were either not assigned to the remote after adding it or were assigned to a button I didn’t find convenient to reach.

However, as convenient as it is to have the option to remap your remote. I found the process of remapping the buttons tedious and overly complex. It requires digging through menus and several clicks each time. Surely, there must be a better way of doing this. All I know is, once I set it up I never wanted to have to dig through those menus again.

Final Thoughts

After using both the Logitech Harmony Companion and Harmony Elite here are the key differences I noticed. Mainly the more expensive Harmony Elite provides the ability to add more devices, includes an additional IR blaster, has an LCD screen, backlit keys, and costs significantly more.

Beyond these differences, the functionality between the two remotes is essentially the same. Both have a database of 275,000 devices, both can be controlled by Alexa or Google Assistant speakers, both use IR hubs which can be hidden, both provide smartphone controls, and both have customizable activities.

The Harmony Elite has a better remote design, but between the glitches and charging, it didn’t offer a better overall experience. Unless you absolutely must have more than eight devices connected the Harmony Companion provides the best bang for your buck.

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Digital Wellbeing, Google Call Screening come to select Motorola phones

Andrew Allen
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No one likes a random phone call from a robot in the heat of a busy day. Google has helped solve this on the Pixel phones with Google Call Screening. Now, Motorola has announced the two companies are partnering to bring this Assistant-powered feature to the G7 and Android One family of devices.

For those that don’t know, this great feature is built into the Phone app and uses Googe Assistant to give you a Call Screen button to give an automated response to robocalls. If it’s a real person they are giving the option to answer and Call Screen will provide you with a real-time transcript on the screen of the response to give you a chance to answer if the caller looks legit.

Moto will make the first alternative OEM to get the blessing from Google for this portion of the Phone app. The two companies have a long background of partnering that dates back to Moto being a Google subsidiary for a few years and is still fueled by Moto keep its software a very clean, stock experience that closely resembles Google’s.

Call Screening is not the only thing these two Android giants are partnering on. Digital Wellbeing is also coming to the same lineup of devices. The initiative is Google’s new focus on limiting mobile usage in the pursuit of better health of the user by automating signing off of certain tasks by eliminating the habit of screen time.

The feature is already present on the new G7 family of devices, but Moto says it will be rolling the same set of options to the Android One models as well. Moto claims this is a focus on what matters most and to help users step away from their online lives via software.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DIGITAL WELLBEING

It’s nice to see Google opening up some of the AI-assisted features that were originally Pixel exclusives. These are great features that offer consumers valuable options for users to have a piece of mind against spam call and controlling their habitual phone usage. Hopefully, Moto is the first of a wave of other devices to get these additions.

Why a Chromebook still cannot replace my Windows laptop

Jason England
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When Chromebooks were first released I scoffed. As a content creator, there was no way a machine that was little more than a browser could replace my everyday computer. However, over the years there have been some changes. Both in the area of Chromebooks and in my personal usage.

For starters, I no longer do any video editing. This, as readers may know, requires massive amounts of storage space, high-end specs, and specialized software. Secondly, Chromebooks have evolved and now offer support for Android and Linux apps. That would give me access to an array of apps from messengers I use to keep in contact with friends to photo editors making the switch seem more feasible.

Recently, I had the chance to review the HP Chromebook X2, a beautiful and very capable machine. With that my experiment began to see if I could break free from my reliance on Windows computers.

The Switch

It was a bit of a rocky start. As a lifelong Firefox user I had hoped I could make the switch and use the Android or Linux app. Unfortunately, the Android app didn’t offer enough options and the Linux app froze under heavy loads. This was the first time but certainly not the last that I would be disappointed by Android and Linux apps on Chrome OS.

After transferring over to the Chrome browser, syncing all my bookmarks, and installing all of my usual extensions I was ready to move forward, only to hit another snag. As a writer, I often have many tabs in the browser open doing research, and on a Chromebook it likes to dump unfocused tabs out of memory. Which means clicking back and forth on many tabs requires the page to refresh.

Even with a fast internet connection, this causes a lot of time waiting and sometimes losing your place on a page once it refreshes. Thankfully, I was able to find a way to change this behavior but it was quite frustrating until I looked it up.

Apps

As a Windows user, I’m accustomed to using dedicated apps for most of my computing. And, as an Android user, I love the variety of apps available to us. Using a Chromebook taught me to rely more on web apps or portals than Android or Linux apps. This is mostly due to the fact that Android and Linux app support is a mess on Chromebooks.

While I would have preferred to use the dedicated Android app for many tasks, most were too unstable to be usable. Instead, I was forced to use the Chrome app or website portal if available. Chrome apps and web portals are often functional but not as convenient to use when multitasking, in my experience.

For example, I use several different chatting services and I like to keep these separated out from my web browsing to quickly jump back and forth. This is certainly possible on a Chromebook albeit with a little more effort and using a mix of Chrome apps, web portals, and Android apps.

Overall though, it gets messy and the experience is inconsistent. For a chronic multitasker like myself, this mix of apps and inconsistency made me less productive.

Buggy apps

Besides the inconsistencies, there were other, more serious, issues. When it came to video file playback the built-in video player didn’t support AC3 sound. No problem I thought, I’ll just use VLC. However, the VLC Android app refused to play the voice channel, and unfortunately, Linux in Chrome OS doesn’t support sound.

I was eventually able to get it to work with MX Player with an external decoder. Not my preferred method but it worked.

Another issue I ran into was my favorite Reddit app wouldn’t work and I was forced to find an alternative. Hangouts is one of my favorite apps but it froze intermittently while attempting to use it. Then there were other chatting apps which didn’t recognize the enter button, alt+enter, or ctrl+enter and required pressing the send button manually each time.

Even on apps that did work, the DPI was often set to a level which made text too small to read comfortably with no option to change it. When I gave gaming a try I ran into an issue where the shelf wouldn’t hide during Mortal Kombat X. This made buttons in the game lower than they appeared on the screen, forcing me to tap below the actual button in order to make it work.

Linux apps were more stable in my testing but I also ran into issues here. I often need to edit photos, whether for work or simply for fun. Without access to Photoshop, I had to use Gimp, which is a capable editor but not the most user-friendly or convenient to use.

Using it on a Chromebook adds another hurdle. Despite having a microSD card slot for expandable storage Linux apps cannot access it. Instead, you are forced to copy files to the Linux partition or else you cannot open them with Linux apps.

This poses a problem on a machine with only 32GB of internal storage. It also makes file management very disorganized.

Final Thoughts

When I began this experiment I was optimistic that, between Android and Linux app support, a Chromebook would be able to replace my Windows laptop. In reality, the Chromebook was actually able to replace my Windows laptop. I was able to go a few days without even opening my previous Windows laptop and accomplish everything I needed.

The problem is, even though I didn’t need to open my Windows laptop, I wanted to. What I had hoped would be a smooth transition often turned into me jumping through hoops just to make things work.

Buggy apps left me frustrated and I felt I was constantly compromising in order to make the Chromebook achieve the tasks I needed. This was annoying, and the extra time needed to accomplish tasks made me unproductive.

The HP Chromebook X2 is a great Chromebook and Chrome OS can certainly work for some people. However, having a consistent experience with access to superior apps such as Photoshop makes me more productive and ensures I’ll stay a Windows user, for now.

Bitwarden review

Jason England
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Between the number of shopping sites, streaming services, and social media accounts the average person has accumulated more passwords than they know what to do with.

If you’re practicing good password protocols, that means each one is unique and consists of random characters making it impossible to remember one password, let alone dozens. That’s where password managers such as Bitwarden come to the rescue.

Developer: 8bit Solutions LLC

Price: Free/subscription plans

What’s so great about Bitwarden?

Since its release, Bitwarden has had a lot of positive buzz around it and for good reason. For starters Bitwarden is open source, why is this important? Open source software allows for anyone to view the code that makes up the program, that means if there is a flaw it is much more likely to be found and fixed. Fewer flaws means more secure software.

Another reassuring feature is Bitwarden doesn’t store your passwords, it stores encrypted copies only you can unlock. In fact, your passwords are encrypted on your device before they are even uploaded to the cloud servers.

Having your passwords encrypted, hosted in the cloud, with easy access on just about any device you own is a lifesaver. If you happen to be like me, you bounce back and forth between several devices and syncing your passwords securely is something I can’t live without. Whether it’s Chrome, Firefox, Windows, Linux, Android, or iOS Bitwarden has you covered.

What’s even better, is you can choose to host the password database yourself. That’s right, you don’t have to even use Bitwarden’s cloud storage to have all the benefits of syncing your passwords between devices. Truly a fantastic option for those of us more safety conscious users out there.

Speaking of being safety conscious, Bitwarden features two-factor authentication (2FA) which when enabled requires a secondary code before logging in. If you don’t already know about 2FA, then check our article explaining 2FA because this is one of the best ways to secure your online accounts.

If you’re switching from another password manager, then no worries because Bitwarden includes a way to import all your passwords. It features support for popular password managers such as LastPass, 1Password, Dashlane, and many more.

A staple of any password manager is the ability to create secure passwords. Bitwarden is not lacking in this area either. It gives you a myriad of options to choose from to customize your password including a choice to use a passphrase instead.

Have you ever wanted to share your Hulu, Netflix, or security alarm password with your significant other or your family? Then good news, because Bitwarden allows you to share your passwords with others, although you’ll be limited to two users for free accounts.

What does it cost?

So far you must be thinking, Bitwarden sounds great, it features encrypted cloud storage and syncing, unlimited entries, apps for the most popular platforms, it’s open source, has a password generator, and 2FA. Now, for one of the most important questions, how much is it going to cost me? Amazingly, for all of those benefits I just listed, it is 100 percent free.

That’s not to say Bitwarden doesn’t include paid plans, they most certainly do, but the free plan offers all the functionality most users would ever need. If you find you’re looking for some extra features such as 1GB of encrypted file storage, 2FA with a hardware key, sharing with more than two users, and more then that’s all available for a very reasonable price.

Final Thoughts

After switching over to Bitwarden, the only real downside I’ve experienced is some extra steps to fill in my passwords on Android. With it set up as the default autofill service, you get a convenient pop up in apps to sign in with.

However, if you want it to work in Chrome or you’re using a version of Android Nougat or below it requires the accessibility service to be enabled and a few more steps. In order for it to fill in the username and password, I had to select the password field, swipe down, tap on the notification, scan my fingerprint, and then tap on the username and password.

This makes the experience a little less than seamless depending on your setup. However, that’s a minor inconvenience for an app which provides so many options for free and helps protect your most sensitive information. Between all the pros and very few cons, Bitwarden offers one of the most compelling password managers on the market. If you haven’t given it a try, I suggest you do so.

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My MediaTek misconception

Matt Adams
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MediaTek. The chipmaker from The East. The midrange and budget king of Asia. What do you think of when you hear the name MediaTek?

If you’re anything like me, your opinion was not exceedingly high. While I do write about phones pretty frequently, I don’t often play around with phones running MediaTek chips. My experience comes with a few of the more inexpensive devices I’ve played with throughout my years.

Those few experiences led me to believe that MediaTek chips ran poorly. When you only see the bottom of the barrel chips running in $100 phones, that might be an understandable position to take. But, as I found out over the last few months, I was dead wrong.

Read more: Doogee S80 review: An Android that’s also a walkie-talkie

I hooked up with a rep from MediaTek earlier this year and was given three loaner units to try out. I would use one of the phones, put it down for a week or some, come back to another. The three phones I ended up taking a look at were the Oppo F9 Pro, Realme 1 and the Panasonic Eluga X1 Pro.

All of the devices feature the MediaTek Helio P60 processor, 6 GB of RAM and displays north of 6-inches with a 1080p resolution. Both the Panasonic and Oppo devices carry a 16 MP main camera, while the Realme 1 has a 13 MP main shooter. What’s important to remember here is that the MediaTek P60, by anyone’s standards, is a midrange chip. It wasn’t designed to compete against the flagship Qualcomm chips like the Snapdragon 835 and 845. Instead, it goes up against the 600 series.

Now that our expectations are properly set, how did I find my time with the phones? Well, I went into this thinking that there was no way I would enjoy my time, but I really did. Yes, the phones do lag behind flagships, but not by much. And once I really used the phones for extended periods of time, I found no real difference between them and devices running midrange Qualcomm chips.

To say I was surprised by the outcome of this experiment would be an understatement. I expected extremely long loading times and stuttering animations but what I found was a fluid experience and acceptable, if not a bit frustrating, loading times. I wouldn’t say I fell so in love with these devices that I’m telling you to seek them out, but I no longer think that they’re an obstacle to an otherwise solidly spec’ed phone. I think that’s about the highest praise I can give them.

Since the beginning of my time with the devices, MediaTek announced and released a new chipset, the Helio P70. The P70 would rightly be considered an evolution in MediaTek’s midrange lineup. The chips are very similar, with the P70 capable of slightly higher clock speeds that should give phones running the chips a bit of a performance boost. Without a P70 phone in front of me, I can’t say whether the new chip is worth upgrading to if you’re running a P60 phone, but hopefully we can get one of them into the shop soon to see. Right now, I’d be inclined to wait until the more powerful chip we’ve been promised to see sometime in 2019 comes out.

Coming “soon”

The exciting areas of improvement in the P70 are centered around AI. AI is a buzzword that has been beaten into the ground at this point, but MediaTek did make some pretty serious improvements around the tech. The P70 supports 30% better AI performance, according to the company and allows users to experience better real-time human pose recognition and improvements in AI video encoding for Skype, YouTube, and Facebook video. The P70 also added raw HDR capture, a boost to depth mapping and tools to prevent post-processing of pictures from blowing up whites.

We wish MediaTek had really pushed the envelope and moved past the 12nm manufacturing processes and added now-standard communication protocols like Bluetooth 5.0 (the P70 only supports Bluetooth 4.2), but again, we are talking about a midrange chip. Some corners will have to be cut, but it’s up to you to do decide if they’re corners you really mind. Would you know that a chip only supports Bluetooth 4.2 unless I told you?

Read more: MediaTek mobile processors: What’s the difference between ’em?

The MediaTek story is not cut and dry, but it is a little more clear for me now. I no longer think of them as an also-ran that produces chronically underpowered chips in frustrating devices. Now I know that I can pick up a Helio P60 or P70 device and expect true midrange performance while not breaking the bank.

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