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Honor 10 review: a compelling option in the affordable flagship niche

Alexandra Arici
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Putting the words “affordable” and “flagship” used to feel like an oxymoron in the recent past. But not anymore, as more and more manufacturers have reached a point where they have achieved a great balance between specs and price.

OnePlus has been spearheading these efforts with its line of premium, yet still affordable products that have, over the years, become an icon of budget excellence. Obviously other Android manufacturers have been very quick to jump on board with the new trend and offer their own takes on the category.

Indeed, affordable flagships are a thing now, and they are taking away some of the premium segment’s long-standing appeal. With good reason. After all who wouldn’t want the best specs and features in a cheaper package?

One of the newer affordable flagships was introduced earlier this year by Huawei’s sub-brand, Honor. The Honor 10 is a tremendous device which borrows a lot of features from Huawei’s more expensive P20 flagship. But the big question here is, does it have what it takes to dethrone the OnePlus 6 from its place of glory? Below we take a look at what the Honor 10 brings to the table.

Design and display

Design was obviously a big focus here. The back of the Honor 10 is reminiscent of the high-end Huawei P20 with a gorgeous Twilight gradient-effect that makes the phone look really unique. This will give you a different shade and look depending on what angle you view the device from.

Honor says it has achieved this super-polished, striking design by stacking more than 15 layers of glass on top of each other. On top of its sleek coloring, the Honor 10 features a mixed metal and glass body.

In this respect, it’s not very different from most of the flagships we’ve seen arrive this year. The device has metal sides and a 2.5D glass back that houses the dual-camera setup and the Honor logo at the bottom. While the phone looks quite beautiful, it’s shiny back is a magnet for fingerprints. Also, it’s very slippery, so you might use a protective case with it. Our review unit came with a clear case, but unfortunately, we found it was also prone to gathering grime and marks.

The Honor 10 is also a very trendy device in the sense that it features the all-popular display cutout (aka the notch) at the top of its 5.84-inch LCD panel. But don’t worry if you’re not a big fan of the rectangular bump. Honor provides you with the option of hiding it if you so prefer.

The Honor 10 is indeed quite a looker

The resolution of the screen is only FHD+, which is exactly what it’s direct competitor, the OnePlus 6 is offering too. Overall, we found the display to be bright, clear and vibrant, so we don’t have any major complaints in this department. If you prefer warmer or cooler tones, Honor gives you the option from Settings to tweak the color temperature or contrast. But, we kept it in the out-of-the-box Vivid mode.

The phone features a so-called bezel-less design with a minimal chin which houses an under-glass fingerprint scanner, which is wonderfully responsive. So instead of a physical button, you’ll find the Honor 10 has a subtle pill-shaped outline that shows you where your finger should hit the scanner. During the weeks we used the Honor 10, we found ourselves using the fingerprint scanner quite a lot. Although, its placement is less than ideal in our opinion, as we tend to prefer devices that incorporate it on the back.

The phone also features a face unlock feature which is super-fast too. It works incredibly well and is able to recognize you even if you’re wearing sunglasses or a hat.

Like the OnePlus 6, the Honor 10 keeps the 3.5mm headphone jack, which is located at the bottom, next to the USB Type-C port and the speaker. Speaking of the speaker, it offers a moderate performance, but don’t expect anything too spectacular. Yeah, it does its job, but it doesn’t offer anything out of the ordinary. Maybe except for the fact that it doesn’t tend to distort sound at high volumes.

Performance

The Honor 10 is a super-fast phone which has no problem sustaining the most intense sessions of gaming. It’s powered by Huawei’s latest 10nm chipset, the Kirin 970, the same that keeps the lights on the P20 and P20 Pro flagships. Unveiled in October of last year, the chipset features a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) which brings AI capabilities to the device.

Paired with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, the Honor 10 is a beast of a phone. In the two weeks we’ve used the device, we haven’t noticed any slowdowns, freezes or any other weird performance issues. There’s no microSD card slot on board, but the 128GB you get by default should be plenty enough to accommodate all your apps, photos and videos. However, you do get a dual SIM card tray with 4G connectivity for both SIMs. And yes, there’s dual VoLTE too.

While everything seems peachy in the performance department, one area of concern with the Honor 10 is the battery life. Many reviewers write that the Honor 10’s battery life is pretty great and the phone can easily go through a full day of use and still have 10% left by the time you go to bed. But our experience was a bit different.

Maybe the phone got damaged in the shipping process, but our Honor 10’s battery levels dropped alarmingly fast. With the phone connected to a Wi-Fi, the device lost 10% constantly by just sitting on a table. A factory reset later and the battery was still draining a bit too quickly. With LTE turned on sporadically and doing our normal routine (check emails, spending a lot of time on chat apps, taking and uploading photos, browsing the web etc) we got around nine hours of life. Fortunately, the Honor 10 does have fast charging, so you can juice it up again in under 2 hours or so.

Cameras

Photography is one of the main highlights of this phone. The Honor 10 features a dual 24-megapixel + 16-megapixel arrangement on the back. The first sensor is a monochrome shooter, while the second is color.

And thanks to the imbued artificial intelligence, the Honor 10 can take some awesome photographs. The camera software takes advantage of special algorithms to improve your snaps including brightening areas or changing the focus, so you can get the best results.

According to Honor, the phone can automatically identify 22 different scenes like pets or green landscape and will automatically adjust the settings for you. Above you can see an example of a shot taken with AI and without AI (which can be easily turned off). And if the phone hasn’t enhanced the photo to your liking, you can easily revert to the original.

The phone also offers a lot of Pro features including being able to change the aperture or adjust the ISO and shutter speeds. There’s also a dedicated Monochrome mode and other goodies such as the ability to do a Light Painting, apply filters or add a Watermark.

The Honor 10 also includes a 3D panorama feature which lets you take a moving panorama picture. You can also take advantage of a 3D creator. This is a feature that scans your face to create a 3D avatar figure of yourself. It’s similar to Samsung’s AR Emoji option. Speaking of which, you can shoot pictures and then add AR characters on top of them.

The phone also has “moving pictures” which is a feature similar to motion photos on the Pixel 2. The device basically records a short video for a few seconds which you will be able to view in the gallery afterwards.

When it comes to editing, there are a few nice surprises here too. Like Splash, a tool that lets you isolate and keep a color, while the overall picture remains monochrome.

The selfie problem…

What about selfies? Well the 24-megapixel secondary snapper offers the promise of great self-portraits. However, we found that the selfies we took looked kind of fake.

Indeed, there’s a beauty mode enabled by default in Portrait Mode. But even if its effect can be toned down, selfies still look like you have foundation on. If you’re the type who loves a natural look, you might not like what the Honor 10 has to offer in this department. Even regular selfies look a bit too perfect.

On the bright side of things, the phone has a lighting effect for your self-portraits including split lightning or soft lighting which will help you enhance your snaps. While most selfies will look pretty good in bright light, these modes will come in handy when you want to take a snap of yourself in the dark.

Software

The Honor 10 ships out with the latest version of EMUI, which is based on Android 8.1 Oreo. Those of you who used a Huawei phone before will feel just at home here. The Chinese company has taken steps to make the interface more-friendly for the Western market, so EMUI 8.1 is a lot more usable than before. For example, you can now add an app drawer, although it’s not enabled by default and you’ll have to do from Settings.

But even so, EMUI is nowhere as clean as stock Android. You’ll find there are a lot of pre-installed apps for Music, Calendar, Email and others, which are quite useless.  On the other side of the coin, there’s no shortage of customization options. EMUI is packed with all sorts of tools and features to give you control of your experience.

Just to give a few examples of what you can do:

  • Enable/disable the notch
  • Take screenshots using knuckle gestures
  • Mute notifications by flipping the phone over
  • Use Ultra Power saving mode which consists of a minimalist interface
  • Answer calls with voice controls
  • Enable Navigation dock
  • Off-screen navigation button

But a word of warning to you! These options are scattered all over the place, and you’ll have to dig deep to find certain features. Some are filed under Display, others under Smart Assistance and so on. Basically, you’ll have to devote a lot of time if you really want to get to know EMUI in-depth.

Verdict

Priced at only €399 / $467 in Europe, the Honor 10 makes you a proposition you can’t resist. Putting the battery issue aside, the Honor 10 is really an excellent device at this price point. Its major highlights include design, camera, and advanced performance.

Sure at the end of the day, EMUI still won’t be to everyone’s liking. And some sort of waterproofing and a microSD card slot would have been nice. But at this price point, you can really understand why there aren’t there.

In the US you can grab the Honor 10 from places like Amazon. But be warned that you won’t be able to use 4G LTE. Even if the device is listed as compatible with GSM carriers, it doesn’t appear the phone supports any of T-Mobile’s 4G frequencies.

The 3-year old NVIDIA SHIELD TV gets its 20th update

Alexandra Arici
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Owners of the NVIDIA SHIELD TV must be feeling pretty lucky right now, as their device is currently receiving the 20th update since it was released.

The Android TV, which is among the best product in its category, was released back in 2015, so the fact that it’s currently getting its 20th update today is mighty impressive.

Titled the SHIELD Software Experience Upgrade 7.1, the new build offers an impressive list of new features and improvements that will refine your overall experience with the device.

What’s new in the Software Experience Upgrade 7.1?

The update brings 120Hz modes for supported TVs and monitors and resurrects NVIDIA Share, which allows users to Broadcast to Twitch, record gameplay and take screenshots.

A bunch of GeForce Now features have also been added including in-game chat support in GeForce Now games like Fortnite via the SHIELD controllers’ headphone jack. On top of that, there’s improved keyboard and mouse support in GeForce Now.

Moreover, NVIDIA also throws in more day-and-date released including Monster Hunter World and F1 2018. Shadow of Tomb Raider will be joining these titles soon enough.

The NVIDIA SHIELD TV companion app is also getting a makeover adding a virtual keyboard and mouse for faster form filling.

Since it was released NVIDIA’s Android TV product has received countless upgrades including three operating system updates that culminated with Android 8.0 Oreo that brought forth a new UI.

Over the years, the SHIELD TV also gained a few AI capabilities. It was the first Android TV to get hands-free Google Assistant integration via SmartThings Hub support. This turned the SHIELD into a hub that could connect to countless smart home devices.

On top of that, the SHIELD’s Google Assistant added voice commands for Google services like Photos and Calendar.

And as it released the 20th update, NVIDIA promised the SHIELD TV will continue to get even better. The company says that old and new users should expect more surprised in the future. Uhu!

These are all the Android Go apps that you can try on your device right now

Alexandra Arici
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Android Go is Google’s lightweight mobile platform that has been designed to run on lower system specifications than usual. It’s aimed at developing markets and lower-income areas, where people own devices with poor processors and smaller amounts of RAM.

At such low specifications, Google had to rework some applications to optimize them to work within smaller RAM constraints. Thus the Android Go applications were born.

Most of these apps come installed on Android Go phones by default, but you can also download them on your device, even if it’s not part of the Android Go family. So below, we have assembled a list of all the Android Go apps available right now.

Google Go

Google Go basically allows you to do everything you’d be doing with the standard Google app. This includes searching the web or requesting help from your Google Assistant via voice. The app is only 5MB in size, and Google has optimized it to save up to 40% data compared to the regular version.

Download Google Go

Gmail Go

Google’s Android Go mail app remains virtually unchanged when compared to the regular Gmail app. You get mostly the same features including smart categories and Quick Replies, all wrapped up into a 9.9MB download. The app also offers 15GB of free storage.

Download Gmail Go

Maps Go

Google’s Maps app boasts more than 1 billion active users, making it the most popular navigation software in the word. It gets us where we need to go, and naturally, Google wants to get it into the hands of users with less than stellar phones.

So Maps Go bundles the best features of the standard Maps app. It’s available in 70+ languages and provides comprehensive and accurate maps in 200 countries. It also includes public transport information for over 20,000 cities. The app weighs a meager 167Kb.

Download Maps Go

Assistant Go

Google lets you take advantage of the power of the Google Assistant even on lower-end smartphones with the Assistant Go app.

However, the stripped-down virtual assistant currently supports only English.  Yet, it can perform all kinds of actions like asking it to make a phone call, send a text, or offer you weather information.

However, some of the Assistant’s higher functions like the ability to control smart gadgets or use Actions aren’t supported in this release.

Download Assistant Go

YouTube Go

Google’s YouTube Go offers the basics including the ability to browse and watch videos, which let’s face it, it’s the most important one of them. You can even download videos for later offline viewing, although you don’t get an option for liking videos.

But the app does its main job, and at only 9.4MB it’s more than understandable why some features have been omitted.

Download YouTube Go

Files Go

This is Google’s first attempt at building a standalone file manager. It features a series of handy storage management tools such as the ability to clear cache, uninstall unused apps and more.

The app also features a powerful search option to help you find your lost photos and videos. All these features and more are available via an 8.2MB download.

Download Files Go

Yahoo Mail Go

A lot of people are still using Yahoo Mail, which used to be very much in vogue some years back. Well, users of low-end Android devices can download and install the Yahoo Mail Go app on their phone and take advantage of most of the functions they know and love.

So you’ll be able to do things like delete emails by swiping, choosing a certain color for your interface and switch between multiple email accounts. Note that the app needs Android 8.0 Oreo or higher to work. Plus, you get 1000GB of free secure cloud storage.

Download Yahoo Mail Go

Gboard Go

Like the previous apps on this list, Gboard Go looks almost the same as the regular app. However, Google has sacrificed some options including GIF search, stickers and one-handed mode.

On the bright side of things, you still get the integrated search, gesture typing, and even themes. The app is compatible only with handsets running Android 8.1 Oreo.

Download Gboard Go

 

The anonymous Tor browser is now available on Android

Alexandra Arici
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Tor has been the go-to browser for those who wish to keep their online activities anonymous, and don’t trust that popular browsers like Firefox offer that.

Not only are government agencies tracking our individual online movements, but so are corporations who are in need of our private info to better target ads. Indeed, unseen eyes are everywhere these days, so it’s no wonder that many of us have become privacy-conscious.

Up until now, Tor has given users the ability to browse the Web anonymously, but only on desktop. But today most of us do so on our mobile device, so this week, Tor Project, the non-profit organization behind the browser, has unveiled the Tor for Android.

Tor browser is now available for the mobile crowd

Note that this is the alpha release, and a stable version is due to become available in early 2019. You can get it either from the Google Play, or you can grab the .apk from the download page.

Keep in mind, that to take advantage of this release, you’ll also need to install Orbot. This is a proxy application needed to connect the Tor Browser for Android to the Tor network. But for the stable Android version, Tor Project’s goal is to remove Orbot from the equation altogether.

So what are some of the features that recommend this app? Well for starters, Tor can very effectively block trackers. The browser isolated every visited website, so trackers and ads can’t reach you. It also defends against surveillance and ads multi-layered encryption.

For those who don’t know, Tor was originally called the Onion Router because it employs a technique called onion routing to hide information about user activity. It was initially created by people on contract from DRAPA and the US Naval Laboratory’s Center for High Assurance Computer System. Quite ironically, most of the funding for Tor has come from the US Government in a form or another.

Anyway, if you want to try it, you have the download links listed below.

Download Tor browser for Android

Download Orbot

Urbanears Lotsen Speaker Review: A better “smart” speaker clone?

AndroidGuys
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Urbanears has been an audio company for a long time now. It focuses mainly on aesthetics rather than creating the highest audio quality for only prestigious “audiophiles”. The company’s newest project includes a 3-tier family of smarter, connected speakers. These include the Baggen at the high end, Stammen in the middle, and the Lotsen on the low end. I’ve received the Lotsen to review. This family of speakers seems to rival the similar families from Sonos (Play series) and Bose (Soundtouch series).

I’m already heavily invested in Sonos’ lineup. So, while not only reviewing this speaker, I got the chance to compare it to its biggest rival.

Setup and Features

The initial setup of the Lotsen wasn’t tricky at all. Plug in and turn on for the physical speaker, and app setup was pretty straightforward. The app, ‘Connected Speakers’ which you download for free on Google Play, allows for a host of settings changes. You can set up the preset channels or change music quality, and directly stream music from your device.

Speaking of preset channels, the Lotsen features a second dial on top that allows you to switch from Bluetooth, wifi, or preset channels. The Bluetooth and wifi selects are pretty self-explanatory and work as advertised.

Channels are something unique to the Lotsen speaker. You can (using the app) assign Spotify playlist, radio channels, and more to a set channel. From there, you can then turn the dial to start up that particular choice without using a device. I’ve set mine up to a few different Spotify radio playlists. Now I can leisurely listen to music without having got pull out my phone first.

With the ability to do Bluetooth, Aux, Wifi, Airplay, Google Cast, and a somewhat native Spotify, there isn’t a connectivity feature I miss.

Sound

Urbanears Lotsen speaker is designed to fill a similar space that a Sonos One would, on a side table, bookshelf, or pair up in stereo in separate corners of a room. The Lotsen does a good job filling a room with sound, but honestly, I was hoping for more regarding quality.

The Lotsen contains a primary driver and a tweeter to the front, so no surround or 360 sound. For someone like me that listen to a lot of urban (RnB, Hip Hop, etc.) and electronic genres, I like some bass in my audio devices.

It doesn’t deliver super deep bass, especially at quieter volumes. The bass and even the treble of this speaker is “safe.” It doesn’t wow the audio geek in you, but it does perform at a standard level. Unfortunately, it isn’t only the lower levels that suffer, but the highest levels suffer a bit too. Not that you wouldn’t want to listen to the Lotsen at higher volumes, but it’ll start to get messy.

With all that said, this speaker is solid in sound for what it is. Especially when you consider the features it offers (Airplay, Google Cast, Bluetooth, AUX, AND without a phone) for the price it’s set. Looking at the Losten reveals a speaker that fills a room in a variety of ways that can support any general consumer. Overall the audio is balanced but teeters off at super low or super loud volumes.

Design and Availability

While offering a decent sound signature that can easily fill a bed or living room, the Urbanears Lotsen has a unique look. The Lotsen is a rectangular brick of a speaker with four small feet on the bottom to raise it for that the power cable. That brick design is made of plastic and covered with fabric to hide what I assume is a speaker grill. The fabric does add a nice aesthetic touch though. It comes in 5 different colors and doesn’t scream ‘smart speaker.’ This technique is evident in all of Urbanear’s products, where the company may not cram all of the latest specs into its product, contemporary design is also at the forefront.

The Lotsen is available to purchase for $200 at Urbanears website, Amazon, and a host of other online stores. Again for that price, you could buy a competitor’s speaker. You may then would have to sort through a pro/con list to make sure of your decision. Urbanears also offer the Stammen and Baggen speakers of the family for 250 and 350 respectively. For only $50 more, it’s hard not to see if the Stammen improves on the Lotsen’s audio shortcomings.

Conclusion

In the end, this speaker is for a customer who cares about modern design as much as a decent sound. That person doesn’t want to always fiddle with their phone to hear some of their favorite music. They also may host a small party mode type of environment, including being able to host a variety other devices. If you solely care about audio quality and are ok with losing out on some unique features the Urbanears Lotsen is not for you.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: A great phone that comes at a price

Jason England
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Samsung always swings for the fences with their Note line up and it should because it is quite literally its biggest phone of the year. Not every year can be a home run though. Most people have all but written off the Galaxy Note 9 as nothing more than an incremental upgrade. They would not be wrong, but even minor upgrades can have a big impact.

A little about this review

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 used in this review was provided courtesy of AT&T and used on their network for the past three weeks.

Read More: First 10 things to do with your Note 9

Design

Not much has changed here, if you liked the design of the previous Note 8 then you’ll enjoy the Note 9. Samsung is back with the same glass sandwich with metal chamfered frame they’ve been using for the past couple of years now. Just about every phone maker has jumped on this trend, and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

By utilizing this same design Samsung has also retained some of the best features of the Note 8 such as the IP68 waterproofing, wireless charging, and near flush camera design. However, it also retains some of the flaws of this particular design.

For example, the glass back is a fingerprint magnet and no matter how tough Gorilla Glass 5 is, glass is still glass and is less durable than a plastic or metal back. The Galaxy Note 9 does have some improvements though.

The fingerprint scanner is now in a much better location in the center of the phone. While it is much easier to reach now, it could be a little lower and larger. It is still a little too high and you run the risk of overreaching and smudging the camera lens with them so close in proximity to each other.

Screen

The screen is also slightly larger than the Note 8 and as always it is gorgeous. Others can get close but no one can compete with the beauty of a Samsung AMOLED panel. It is sharp, the colors are vivid, and the blacks are inky.

Samsung regularly wins awards from DisplayMate for having the best displays of the year and it is a title well deserved. Plus, you’re getting a slightly larger screen in essentially the same sized body. It’s really hard to complain about that, especially when they do it without an obnoxious notch.

S-Pen

The Note series simply wouldn’t be the same without the S-Pen. It is a unique feature that Samsung offers that no other phone on the market comes close to replicating. Regardless, Samsung continues to search for ways to enhance and improve the experience. This year we saw the Galaxy Note 9 S-Pen get its biggest upgrade ever in the form of Bluetooth LE.

With Bluetooth LE built in the S-Pen can now act as a remote providing features. By pressing once, long pressing, or double pressing the button you can unlock your phone, launch the camera, take photos, control media playback, control Powerpoint presentations, and more. Samsung even allows you to customize these actions in the settings menu.

The one downside of this upgrade is that Bluetooth devices run on battery power. Similar to Bluetooth speakers and headphones the S-Pen now has a battery inside that must be charged. The good news is 40 seconds of charging is enough to give the S-Pen 30 minutes worth of usage.

Fortunately, if the battery dies in the S-Pen all of the old features still work. You will only lose the ability to use the button to launch apps or control them.

Read More: Tips and Tricks for the S-Pen

Even with all the tricks, the S-Pen is capable of old and new. I still can’t find much of an excuse to use it. Whenever I have a Note phone I always have to force myself to use the S-Pen. Once I send it back I never once miss having the S-Pen. For all intents and purposes, the S-Pen is nothing but a gimmick to me. However, that is only my personal opinion as I’m sure many others out there use it and love it.

Bixby Button

The Bixby button is back and is just as useless as ever. Samsung is determined to force this on their users whether they want it or not. At best this is a worthless button and at worst the button is a major annoyance when you trigger it accidentally.

If only Samsung were to allow a little customization of the button similar to the button on the S-Pen. You don’t have to allow us to assign it to Google Assistant but at least give us the option to assign other actions to it.

Unfortunately, the apps that once made this little button more useful by reassigning it do not currently work with the Galaxy Note 9. Nor do you have the option to disable the button in the Bixby settings like in previous phones. Hopefully, by the time this review is released or sometime in the near future this will change. Until then, we must live with Bixby getting in our way.

Headphone Jack

Yes, the headphone jack is still there. Once again Samsung bucks the trend of nixing the headphone jack and forcing wireless audio on their customers. As an avid music fan who owns several wired and wireless headphones that I use regularly, I dread the day that Samsung and LG give in to this trend. Thankfully, that day has not come yet and I don’t have to live the dongle life.

Speakers

Continuing with their improvements over the Note 8, Samsung has made the stereo speakers even better this year on the Note 9. Between the bottom firing speaker, earpiece speaker, and Atmos processing the Note 9 sounds fantastic. I wouldn’t say it can compete against a phone with true stereo front facing speakers, but the Note 9 gets closer than ever to being one of the best sounding Android phones.

Storage

Bravo to Samsung for making the 128GB model the base model for the Galaxy Note 9. This doubles the amount from the previous Note 8 and Samsung also sells a 512GB version. If you really want to go overboard then you can take advantage of the microSD card slot and carry a whopping 1TB in your pocket by adding a 512GB microSD card.

Software

Samsung is notorious for their software skin most commonly known as TouchWiz or Samsung Experience. The name Samsung Experience does it the most justice because that is what Samsung is trying to provide its users. When you use a Samsung phone it is distinctively different from stock Android. Samsung is also the only handset maker to include a skin on an Android Go phone.

This is one way Samsung brands themselves and sets their phones apart from others in the marketplace. However, there are things to love and things to hate about the Samsung Experience.

Some of the things I love are all the extra features that are added to Android. These include extras such as themes, a customizable always on display, calibration options for your display, a sound equalizer, dual messenger, video enhancer, one-handed mode, multi window, and much much more.

Read More: 9 Tips and Tricks for your Note 9

Samsung also includes a couple of extra software goodies which work in conjunction with their hardware. S-Health, for example, uses the sensors on the back near the camera as well as other sensors in your phone to help you keep track of your health.

Samsung Pay also deserves a special mention thanks to the use of Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology in its phones. Thanks to this wonderful technology you can make mobile payments at almost any terminal that accepts a debit or credit card. This by far is one of my favorite exclusive features and I love being able to pay with my phone almost anywhere.

Some of the reasons to hate the Samsung Experience come in the form of delayed OS upgrades and in general some performance lag. In my opinion, all of the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and I prefer a phone packed with more software and hardware features.

Performance

As I mentioned, one of the drawbacks of Samsung’s heavy software skin is performance lag. Fortunately, the Snapdragon 845 SoC and 6GB of RAM offer quite a powerful duo to combat any sluggishness. In my usage, the Galaxy Note 9 was the quickest and snappiest Samsung phone I have ever used. It might still struggle to keep up with some phones running lighter skins, but overall I didn’t notice any lag or performance quirks and it kept up with everything I threw at it.

For those interested in the stats when I personally ran AnTuTu it returned a score of 283533 and Geekbench reported a single core score of 2435 and 8760 for multi-core performance. This ranks the Note 9 as one of the top five fastest phones out right now.

Camera

The same 12MP dual camera setup with dual focal lengths from the Note 8 returns on the new Note 9. This time gaining a new trick with the variable aperture. We first saw this in the Samsung S9 models where the aperture on the main camera can switch dynamically from f/2.4 to f/1.5.

The reason for the dynamic aperture is because when you shoot with a lower aperture such as f/1.5 it keeps less of what’s in the frame in focus. Using a variable aperture allows you to shoot f/2.4 in abundant light keeping more in focus while only switching to f/1.5 in low light allowing the camera to absorb more light.

On top of having a variable aperture, Samsung also makes use of two different cameras giving you options for a 2X optical zoom and portrait modes. In my experience, this dual camera setup works better than the single-camera portrait modes. Due to providing a greater range to capture the subject in portrait mode and offering a warning when it won’t work.

One thing to note is the 2X optical zoom camera has significantly worse camera quality in low light conditions. If you are trying to take photos in a low light situation you’ll get much sharper and detailed photos if you use the regular camera. Check the full view of the samples below for an example of this.

Samsung also includes a new software enhancement to the camera in the form of scene optimizer. After taking many samples and comparing them, it seemed to me scene optimizer no matter what scene means make it darker and add a yellow tint. That doesn’t always result in the best photo, and generally, I preferred to leave it turned off.

Where it was most helpful was for detecting flawed photos. For example, if something moved and was blurred or someone blinked it would pop up a message immediately after saving the photo giving you plenty of time to snap another.

As far as overall photo quality is concerned Samsung always has one of the top cameras on Android. General second only to the Pixel phones and in my opinion that is the case here as well. The Note 9 continues on with this tradition and if you’re looking for the second best camera with the most features available then you’re looking for the Note 9.

View More Photos on our Google Photos Album

The front-facing camera much like the rear-facing camera is feature packed. This 8MP f/1.7 shooter includes autofocus, beauty modes, built-in stickers, AR emoji, and a portrait mode.

It includes just about everything you could need or want for a selfie camera except for a portrait lighting mode similar to the iPhone X. Personally, I’d prefer a portrait lighting mode over all of these useless stickers and AR emoji.

Unlike the rear camera that provides a decent second place to the Pixel phones, I find the front-facing camera is significantly worse than the Pixel phones. It is entirely due to Samsung’s over processing of the photos, where even with all the beauty filters set to 0 the images still come out soft.

If you were to try the Google Camera app for selfies then the results are much sharper with far better contrast. Which leaves me very disappointed in the front facing camera on the Note 9 unless using third party software.

Battery

With the jump to a 4000mAh battery, I was ready to be impressed by the Note 9. To my disappointment, I wasn’t quite blown away by the battery life. That doesn’t mean battery life isn’t good, on the contrary, it is quite good. I was easily able to end my days with 5 hours of screen on time with at least 30-40% of battery life remaining. If I was a little more conservative I could even see almost up to two full days of usage.

You might wonder, what is there to be disappointed about then? The answer to that question would be that all of this is done on the FHD 1080p resolution. While other phones such as the Pixel 2 XL and LG V35 are able to accomplish similar or dare I say better battery life using QHD resolutions with smaller batteries.

If you increase the resolution to QHD on the Note 9 then you’ll see closer to 6 hours total screen on time. Without a doubt, that’s still great battery life and most general users will be pleased. Personally, though, I expected more from the upgraded battery.

Final Thoughts

Despite a couple of qualms here and there the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 will have no trouble ranking as one of the best phones of 2018. It is fast, it’s premium, it has a great camera, it has great battery life, and it has a new improved S-Pen. There were only a few reasons I could come up with to not buy this phone.

First off, it is $1000 dollars which is no easy sell but unfortunately, this is becoming more common in the smartphone market. Another reason would be that you have a Note 8 and have no complaints about the battery life and no use for a Bluetooth S-Pen. Then there’s the final reason, which is you love the Pixel phones for stock Android, fast updates, and the best camera on Android.

Beyond any of these reasons, the Galaxy Note 9 is going to be one of the top two phones of the year and if you can afford it, then get it. Outside of the price I could not find any one flaw that would prevent me from buying and loving this phone.

Buy from AT&T Buy from Samsung

Devices used in this article were provided by AT&T

Read next:

Xiaomi Pocophone F1 review: First impressions

Donovan Jeska
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We’d like to thank our friends at GearVita for supplying the device for this review. We’ve placed a link at the end of the review if you’d like to purchase the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 from GearVita.

Generally speaking, if a phone launches a Snapdragon 845 (currently the best mobile processor on the market) 6GB RAM (the gold standard of mobile memory) and most of the must-have amenities of modern smartphones, you’d expect to drop about $700 on it – like the Samsung Galaxy S9, or LG G7, perhaps. If you’re phone-savvy, you might even be able to spend $500 on a Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S or a OnePlus 6.

But $300? For those specs? All-but unheard of.

At least, so we thought. The Pocophone F1 (from the aforementioned Chinese tech giant Xiaomi) crams flagship-caliber hardware into bargain bin pricing, while simultaneously cutting very few corners in the process. Released in August and starting at just $300 for the base model, the F1 features a very impressive spec-sheet worthy of a phone twice its price.

Pocophone F1 Specs At-A-Glance

  • Display: 6.18″, 1080p IPS LCD (82.2% screen-to-body ratio)
  • Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 CPU, Adreno 630 GPU
  • Memory: 6+64/128GB or 8+256GB RAM/ROM (expandable)
  • Rear camera: 12+5MP, f/1.9, 1/2.55″, 1.4µm
  • Front-facing camera: 20 MP, f/2.0, 0.9µ
  • Connectivity: Bluetooth 5, WiFi 802.11ac
  • Audio: 3.5mm jack, “Stereo” Speakers (see below)
  • Battery: 4,000mAh battery
  • Build materials: Plastic Body, Gorilla Glass display
  • Measurements: 6.12 x 2.96 x 0.35 in, 6.35 oz

But is it really that good?

Short answer? Yes, yes it is. It runs just as smoothly as my OnePlus 6, with better battery life and a screen that competes despite being “just” a 1080p IPS LCD. Since it runs on a Snapdragon 845 core, it features the same built-in Bluetooth 5.0 and 802.11ac WiFi modules that you’d see on any other flagship phone. At 4,000mAh, the battery is about 25% larger than your average flagship battery, and the same size battery as the spankin’ new Samsung Galaxy Note 9.

Need more praise? As GSMArena points out, the Pocophone F1 puts up a ridiculous 285k aggregate AnTuTu score, landing it squarely between the OnePlus 6 (286k) and the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (283k). That’s pretty great company to be in. And granted, that metric only measures raw processing power and doesn’t take into account things like firmware and the performance of accessory modules, but even still – that number blew me away.

Okay, so what’s the catch?

There’s one rather severe catch and a number of smaller ones. The major on – for US users, at least – is that neither the Global nor India versions of the Pocophone F1 support any of the Primary LTE bands of the four major US-based carriers. This means that while the Pocophone will technically run on either of the GSM-based carriers (AT&T or T-Mobile), the best connection you’ll ever see is the HSPA+ “4G” label – never a true LTE connection.

The smaller catches are significantly smaller. The phone doesn’t feature wireless charging or NFC – which is a deal-breaker for very few people, I would imagine. It also features a plastic back, which is a purely cost-cutting move I’m sure most people will be able to handle at this price point. Ironically, perhaps the plastic back makes the Pocophone more drop resistant than many glass-bodied phones on the market.

I won’t sugar coat it for you, the “Stereo” speakers on the Pocophone F1 are not great. In anything other than a quiet room you’ll struggle to hear it even on max volume – and I use “Stereo” in quotes because while the phone has two speaker grates on the bottom, there’s only one speaker in there. Covering up the right one makes sound all but muffled, while covering up the left one doesn’t impact sound in the least. It’s a fake speaker grate, and marketing the phone as having Stereo speakers is rather disingenuous of Xiaomi.

Verdict

And that’s it. Everything else works as you’d expect from a phone running the above specs, which is to say – quite well. Personally, if the couple problems listed above are all that’s wrong with a $300 flagship, I call that a huge win for Xiaomi.

Now if they’d just make a North American version, we might see a true shakeup in the industry. Keep an eye out for my full review in a week, AndroidGuys.

Again, we’d like to thank our friends at Gearvita for supplying this device for review. If you’d like to pick up a Pocophone F1, head over to GearVita and pick yours up today.

Samsung launches the mid-range Galaxy A6 and Galaxy Tab A 10.5 in the US

Alexandra Arici
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0

Samsung is expanding its mid-range lineup in the US with two new products this week. The company has announced it will soon start offering the Galaxy A6 smartphone and Galaxy Tab A 10.5 in the country.

Don’t have the funds for a Galaxy Note 9 or Galaxy S9? You now have the option to grab the Galaxy A6, a relatively affordable handset that packs some decent features.

Starting off, the device features a 5.6-inch Super AMOLED display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. It relies on an Exynos 7884 processor backed up by 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. There’s also a microSD card slot on board that lets users expand memory up to 400MB.

Samsung brings a new mid-range smartphone and tablet to the US

The Galaxy A6 features two 16-megapixel snappers, one on the front and one on the back. The camera also offers a smarter way to use the phone thanks to Bixby. Users will be able to do things like shop for something they see or translate a piece of text just by pointing the phone at it.

Also included in the package are a 3,000 mAh battery and Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box. The phone is expected to hit the market on September 14 for the price of $359.99.

Next up we have the Galaxy Tab A 10.5 which is a tablet built for entertainment. With this purpose in mind, Samsung has outfitted it with a spacious 10.5-inch display with 16:10 aspect ratio. The slate also benefits from the presence of quad speakers and Dolby Atmos sound.

Parents can also use Samsung Kids to set limitations on how much time kids spent with the tablet. What’s more, the service includes curated content including games, books and videos for children aged between 3-12 years old. Samsung Kids is free for 30 days, after which users will need to pay a subscription.

The Wi-Fi version of the Galaxy Tab A 10.5 will go on sale on September 14 for $329.99 at Amazon, Samsung.com, Walmart and Walmart.com. As for the LTE model is will become available at Verizon and Sprint later this year.

LG’s new TONE Platinum SE wearable earbuds go on sale at Verizon for $199.99

Alexandra Arici
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Unveiled last month during IFA 2018, LG new TONE Platinum SE and TONE Ultra SE wearable wireless audio products are coming to the US.

You can already purchase the TONE Platinum SE from Verizon Wireless for $199.99. The device will also become available at Best Buy and AT&T later this month.

As for the LG TONE Ultra SE, it will go on sale at Verizon later this month. Customers will also be able to get it from AT&T or Sprint later this fall for $129.99.

LG has refreshed its audio accessory portfolio

In case you don’t know, the LG TONE Platinum SE is a pair of premium earbuds that have a dedicated button for calling up the Google Assistant without having to utter the “OK Google” command. The TONE Ultra, on the other hand, has a mono speaker as well as earbuds, so you can listen to audio without blocking out the outside noises.

LG thinks the Assistant button will prove its worth, especially in scenarios when you need to use Google Translate. Without having to use a specific phrase, LG claims communicating in another language will be done faster and feel more natural.

We’re also told that when crafting these earbuds, LG used a hybrid unit consisting of a balanced armature and dynamic driver. This is a combination that’s usually found in-ear units used by professional musicians and results in high-frequency sound and robust bass.

At launch, LG said its new audio products will be available in black, gold and blue. However, for the time being, customers can only pick up the TONE Platinum SE in black from Verizon. Perhaps the other color options will go on sale via Best Buy and AT&T later this month. We’ll just have to wait and see.

On top of launching two new wireless audio products, LG at IFA 2018 also introduced two new middle-range phones, the G7 One and G7 Fit.

Hot Take: Google Pixel 3 event, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, and Play Store policy (Episode 24)

Donovan Jeska
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0

Join us as we sit down and discuss some of the hot tech topics out there today. This edition focuses on the Google’s October 9th Pixel event in New York, Dono’s review of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, and Google’s policing of the Play Store.

What we talked about today

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