Sony Xperia X review

Unknown   4:55 PM

Sony Xperia X review

 

What is the Sony Xperia X?

In a year of impressive phones, notably the Samsung Galaxy S7 and HTC 10, the Sony Xperia X is a disappointment. Despite the new name, the Sony Xperia X is more of the same from the Japanese brand.
It’s a mid-range phone with a price tag that matches the high-end LG G5 – a baffling misstep.

Sony Xperia X – Design

Sony is an iconic brand. Growing up, I was surrounded by tech products bearing the company's logo. Think the PlayStation 2, the VAIO line of laptops and, more recently, the RX100 range of cameras. Yet, in that time Sony hasn't quite managed to transfer the flair of the aforementioned products to its lineup of phones.

The Sony Xperia X looks just like the Xperia Z3+. And the Z3. And the Xperia M5. And pretty much every phone the company has released in the past five years.
It isn't an ugly phone by any means; it just lacks imagination. Both the front and back are flat, while the sides are slightly rounded with pronounced corners. It isn't particularly thin, but its fairly compact nature makes it easy to grip in one hand.


One improvement over the previous Xperia Z handset is the rear, which isn't glass, but brushed aluminium. It has a slight texture, and is no longer a magnet for sticky fingerprints and oily residue.
Along the side of the phone sit an elongated lock button with an embedded fingerprint sensor, volume rocker and a dedicated camera button. I have a problem with each of these.
First, the fingerprint scanner is mushy, has barely any give and seems unreliable. There's no doubt that it's quick, but it often pops up with the message "Fingerprint hardware not available", and out of 20 attempts it failed seven times. Bizarrely, the volume switch is positioned towards the bottom, making it a pain to reach.

I do like that Sony has stuck with its dedicated camera button, but like the others, it’s mushy and requires a lot of pressure to push. Another little annoyance in a phone where there are so many.
On the other side is a SIM-tray – no annoying SIM tool required – that holds both a nano-SIM and microSD card, but every time you open it, it automatically restarts the phone. I’d understand this if the phone supported Marshmallow’s adaptable storage feature, since you’re not supposed to take out the SD card when the phone is on – but it doesn’t.
Sony’s phones have a history of being water-resistant, but the Xperia X isn’t. The isn’t a major omission, but the feature would have at least given the Xperia X something to make it stand out from the crowd.
Related:  Samsung Galaxy A5 review

Sony Xperia X – Display

Sony made headlines last year when it unveiled the Sony Z5 Premium, the first phone with a 4K screen. People gushed and were in awe – just think of all those pixels. Then the realisation set in that the 4K was limited and that 99% of the time it was a plain-old 1080p panel.
While the same trick isn’t played here, a whole host of buzzwords and tech jargon has been used to describe the 1080p, 5-inch LCD panel in the Xperia X. It’s a "Triluminos Display for Mobile", with an "X-Reality engine" and "Dynamic Contrast Enhancement".
All you really need to know is that’s it’s a decent display. One of the better ones out there and definitely one of the brightest. It might not be quad-HD, but the 1,920 x 1,080 resolution is still fantastic when spread over a 5-inch display. The smaller screen means it isn't great for media, but pixels on photos and games are virtually impossible to spot.


Blacks are deep, colours are accurate and viewing angles are fantastic. There’s no discolouration when you tilt the phone to the side, something I found very obvious on the HTC 10.
Since it’s an LCD panel, colours aren’t quite as vibrant as those on the OLED panels favoured by Samsung. But, realistically, unless you’re holding both phones next to each other, you're unlikely to notice the difference.
Sony's screen isn't entirely free of issues, though. Since the maximum brightness is so high, it becomes even more obvious when the auto-brightness doesn’t work. I’ve unlocked the phone in the pitch-black at night to find that it’s lit up the whole room; similarly, I've tried to use it in the bright sunshine and it’s unreadable.

Sony Xperia X – Performance

Sony is marketing the Xperia X as a "flagship" device, pricing it between £459 and £529 in the UK. However, it isn't powered by the de facto high-end CPU of 2016 in the form of the Snapdragon 820. Instead, you get the Snapdragon 650. This is slightly better than the Snapdragon 617 used in the Moto G4 – a phone that costs a mere £169 – and is also use by Xiaomi in its equally affordable Redmi Note series.
When it announced the X series, Sony also showed off the X Performance – a spruced up X, with a Snapdragon 820. However, Sony seems to have said this unit won’t officially be coming to the UK, which is baffling.
Related: Samsung Galaxy A5 review

 

The 650 CPU of the Xperia X is paired with a healthy 3GB of RAM and an Adreno 510 GPU – again, neither of which can be considered high-end. Internal storage stands at 32GB, and is propped up with a microSD card slot.
I have few qualms with the day-to-day use of the Xperia X. Opening up apps, browsing fairly basic sites and playing casual games are all done with ease. If you do little else than emailing, messaging and browsing Facebook then you won’t be longing for a faster CPU.
If you like to push things a little harder then you might run into issues. Overly image-heavy websites take a while to load and you'll struggle if you want to edit RAW snaps. It also has a tendency to become warm, especially when watching videos and playing games.
The shortcomings of the CPU/GPU combination also become apparent when trying to play graphically intense games. Asphalt 8 stutters intermittently, and loading times are noticeably long – but it's mostly fine to play.
In our standard suite of benchmarking tests, the Xperia X falls behind some of its similarly priced competition. Its 3,691 score in Geekbench 3’s multi-core falls short of Huawei P9’s 5,065 and the LG G5’s 5,172. It’s scores are more in line with the Honor 7, with costs £250.
Sony’s continued support for the Hi-Res audio standard is once again present here, and it’s great. Audio through headphones sounds excellent, and the dual stereo front-facing speakers are decent too. They lack the oomph of BoomSound on the HTC 10, but there’s enough bass for basic music listening and a good hit of volume.

Oddly, the Xperia X is the first phone in a while to suffer issues with phone quality and Wi-Fi signal. In my modest (okay, tiny) two-bedroom flat, I haven't come across any device that struggles to stay connected to the the router, even in the furthest away room. Yet, the Xperia X does. Phone signal, on Three’s UK network, is also consistently is two or three bars below other phones.

Sony Xperia X – Software

One of the highlights of the Sony Xperia X is its approach to software. This is really because, instead of overlaying Android with an ugly skin, Sony has kept it simple with a pretty much stock version of Android Marshmallow 6.0.1.
This is the best software I've ever used on a Sony phone. It’s clean, smooth and doesn’t try to overdo it with swathes of useless additions.


It’s one of the few instances where well-thought out extras over the top of vanilla Android actually make it better. There’s a clear-all button in the multi-tasking bar; you can add in your icon packs and edit the quick-settings menu. They’re minor changes, but they help usability no-end. You can swipe down from the homescreen to access an iOS-like search bar, too.
Where Sony falters somewhat is in its plentiful bloatware. There’s the usual duplicate apps, alongside a number of Sony’s own creations, such as Movie Creator, Sketch and What’s New. My biggest issue with the bloatware is the incessant notifications they all seem to throw up. In my opinion, notifications should have to be turned on by the user, manually; not automatically. Yes, I can turn them off, but I shouldn’t have to.


Remote Play is still present for beaming games from your PS4 – although why you’d want to stream, say, Uncharted 4 onto a 5-inch display is beyond me – and the Music app supports a number of high-res files types.
I’m a little cautious about future updates. The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium that's sitting gathering dust in my desk drawer is still stuck on Android 5.0.1, so who knows when the X might see an update to the final version of Android N

Each time Sony releases a "high-end" phone, much of its marketing surrounds the camera. I can hardly blame the company for this tact, especially when you consider the brand’s heritage in the space and the fact that it makes the camera sensors for many of its rivals.
But I’ve never really seen Sony deliver a truly great mobile phone camera. While there's no doubt that the sensor has been a strong feature, the camera has always missed the mark with dodgy, slow software and some overly harsh post-production.

Samsung Galaxy A5 review

MOBILE Unknown   4:42 PM

Samsung Galaxy A5 review

What is the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)?

Samsung has mastered the high-end with the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, but it has always struggled a with affordable devices. This is because Samsung kept skimping on important features to save money.
That changed with 2015’s Galaxy A5, and even more so with the updated 2016 version. The Galaxy A5 (2016) ticks all the right boxes; good screen, fast camera and sleek design. But it’s still not perfect, and some of Samsung’s older issues come back to haunt it.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) – Design

Remember Samsung’s Galaxy Alpha from 2014? A lot of people don’t, but this minor release was vitally important. It was a turning point where Samsung shifted its design focus and began creating handsets capable of standing beside the iPhone visually. The A5 (2016), like last year’s version, is the spiritual successor to the Alpha.
It’s all metal and glass, with rounded corners and a flat back. It lacks the curved sides that make the Galaxy S7 such a pleasure to hold, but it’s still comfortable in hand.
Metal phones in this price-range are far from rare, Honor and OnePlus have been doing it for a while, but none feel quite as good as this. The volume buttons and lock switch have a satisfying click, while the microUSB port and speaker grilles on the bottom are finely cut and precise. The headphone jack sits on the bottom too, a design choice I’m always on board with.
The Galaxy A5 is slightly taller than both the Galaxy S7 and S6, but ever so slightly lighter.


As is typical with just about every Samsung phone, there’s a home button sitting below the screen. Tucked inside is a fingerprint scanner that’s about as fast as the one on the S7, but it seems much less accurate. It can’t compete with the Honor phones for unlocking speed, but it’s absolutely fine.
There’s a strong hint of the Galaxy S6 here, and it’s still a fingerprint magnet. Use the phone for 5-minutes and it will be covered in marks and smudges. There are a couple of improvements in design though; the ugly blue colour scheme has gone for a much nicer black and there’s almost no camera hump.
The Galaxy A5 is easily one of the sleekest looking phones at this price-range. It feels much sturdier than the OnePlus X (£199) and it’s much nicer than the plastic Nexus 5X.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) – Display

Samsung’s displays have long been regarded as the pinnacle of mobile screens, with the Galaxy S7 currently the best out there.
While the A5 isn’t going to match its classier brothers for visual fidelity, it’s still a great display for the price.
It’s 5.2-inches, with a 1080p resolution and uses Super AMOLED tech which is the killer feature.
It’s bright, vivid and oh so colourful just as you’d expect from AMOLED. If you prefer something a little more true to life, there are a number of screen modes to choose from. I like the default one myself, but it’s all down to personal preference.
Whites can sometimes look a little muddy, but blacks are deep and bright colours have multiple levels of vibrancy. Outdoor visibility isn’t great though, unless you jack the brightness up (or keep the rather uneven auto-brightness on) all the way. Thanks to the dense resolution, pixels are universally hard to spot unless you get really really close.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) – Performance

Depending on your region, the Galaxy A5 will either be powered by a Snapdragon 615 or an Exynos 7580 CPU. My phone is running the latter, but I’d expect them both to perform equally.
There’s a decent 2GB RAM too, plus a Mali-T720 GPU. There’s nothing particularly out of the ordinary here, but it’s a stellar set-up that gets the job done.
Scrolling the web, knocking out emails and all that day-to-day stuff is done with ease. The majority of gaming is handled well too. Rounds of Monument Valley, Horizon World Tour and Alto’s Adventure are all smooth with no dropped frames.
More graphically intense games run fine too, though loading times in Asphalt and Hitman Sniper are especially laborious. The games themselves run fine, though.



In our usual array of benchmarking tests, the Samsung Galaxy A5 performs as expected. In the Geekbench 3 test it scores a middling 721 in the single core test (similar to last year’s HTC One A9) but it does better with a Nexus 5X matching its 3,646 multi-score test.
16GB of internal storage is towards the lower end of what I would call reasonable, but considering the £500 iPhone 6S comes with it as its starting point it seems harsh to criticise Samsung here. There’s a microSD slot too, so at least you can boost that even further.
The downward facing speakers are, well, fine. They’re loud enough for a morning alarm and watching YouTube, but they lack the clarity and bass needed for music.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) – Software

My biggest issues with the Galaxy A5 stem from its software. In my Galaxy S7 review I praised for Samsung for finally turning around TouchWiz and making it much more visually appealing and less buggy, but most of that work has been undone here.
Instead of running the latest version of TouchWiz and Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, it’s stuck on Lollipop with the same look as the Galaxy S6 when that launched over 15-months ago. I’m not sure why Samsung has done this, but it’s an unacceptable and lazy step. To really make a go of the mid-range you have to treat them just like higher-end devices, and Samsung hasn’t done that here.



Without Marshmallow you miss out on things like Now on Tap, Doze for improved standby times and deep support for the fingerprint scanner. It does work with Android Pay though, as there’s an NFC chip inside.
Will we see Marshmallow hit the Galaxy A5? Hopefully, there are shots of it running on the device, but I’m not sure when.
With Android N on the horizon, I’m a little shocked to see phones still coming out with Lollipop.
There’s also some strange bugs throughout the software. Apps randomly crash, streaming video often causes the back to get very hot and so on. Nothing is catastrophic, but the bugs are noticeable.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) – Camera

Maybe I’ve come to expect too much from Samsung cameras, but the rear-facing 13-megapixel camera used here isn’t anything special. It’s soundly beaten by the Moto G4 Plus, which costs £100 less, and feels like not much effort has gone into it.
Opening up the camera is fast, just double tap the home-button, and focusing is snappy too. It’s just the results aren’t always up to scratch. Daylight shots can look a tad washed out, especially when the conditions aren’t great and there’s a lot of post-processing going on that can make details look fuzzy and unrealistic. This is something I used to find constantly with Samsung cameras, so it’s annoying to see it creep back in.

 

Pictures, even in good light, lack vibrancy and can be washed out
 

Though low-light snaps are fairly impressive
Colours look good though, even if they could do with a bit more zing and the wide f/1.9 aperture means it’s possible to some lovely shots with a shallow depth of field.
There’s optical image stabilisation here too, but it doesn’t do a fantastic job of reducing blur. As you can see in the sample shots, any sort of shake on the camera leads to blurring around details and in movement especially.

 

Blurring around details is common, even with the OIS
Dusk shots are acceptable and actually better than those in pure sunlight because there isn't quite as much need for the colours to look punchy. There’s plenty of detail and it doesn’t overexpose light sources.
Video maxes out at 1080p 30fps, which is absolutely fine as 4K recording on phones is still only useful to a small number of people. Footage is nice and smooth, helped by the OIS.
The 5MP front-facing camera is unremarkable, but acceptable. It’s wide enough to cram a few faces in and the sensor is good enough to not make you look like a ghost.

Moto G4 2016 review

MOBILE Unknown   4:30 PM

Moto G4 2016 review

 

What is the Moto G4?

What can £169 get you in the smartphone world of 2016? Certainly not a Samsung Galaxy S7, iPhone 6S or Huawei P9. It'll get you a new Moto G, though, and that's plenty.
The budget phone of choice for many has received an impressive update and while it’s now officially a Lenovo phone, that hasn’t had the detrimental effect many were expecting.
It’s fast, has a great camera, bright screen and Nexus-like software. I do have some reservations about the size, but honestly every other affordable phone maker should be worried. Seriously worried.

Moto G4 – Design

The Moto G has never been a flashy phone. It’s grounded, durable and functional. It also has to meet a substantially low price, so unnecessary extras and luxuries have to be ditched.
It’s still made almost entirely out of plastic, but it far outweighs its £169 price-tag. The front is simple and clean, with no branding and no buttons of any sort. There’s the smallest hint of flair with a silver-rimmed speaker opening at the top, but that’s it.


I’m not at all a fan of the dodgy-looking faux-metal sides – they remind me of a budget Samsung phone circa 2013 and I’d also like some tougher, less plasticky, buttons. The volume and standby keys on the sides require a good hit of force and they’re a bit mushy, but I’m being overly picky.
The rear panel has been a bit divisive in the TrustedReviews office, and I’m not completely a fan. Gone is the heavily ridged, almost rubbery, feel of the 2015 version and it’s been replaced by a soft-touch textured plastic. It’s grippy, but it feels strange and seems to get oily and greasy very quickly.
The once iconic ‘Moto Dimple’ is getting less and less pronounced with every phone. On the original Moto X it was the perfect spot to place your finger, but now it’s barely noticeable. Above the batwing logo sits the camera and flash, encased in glass and surrounded by a silver oval.
Like previous Moto Gs, the back pops off to allow some colourful customisation through sold-separately backplates. This is also where you access the microSD card and SIM slots, meaning you don’t need an annoying SIM tool to access them. Interestingly, the SIM slot works with both a Micro and a Nano card – a nice touch I haven’t seen before.
Even though the back comes off, the battery is firmly attached. Sorry to those of you who love replaceable cells. The Moto G4 has also lost its predecessor's water-resistance powers, though it still should escape a trip through the rain unscathed.



My biggest issue with the Moto G4 is the size of the thing. It’s well and truly a phablet, and it’s as wide as the iPhone 6S Plus (though not as tall) making it cumbersome to hold unless you have large hands. It’s a two-handed phone for sure, and my thumb can’t easily move from the top of the screen to the bottom unless I grip it with my palms.
The jump from a 5-inch to a 5.5-inch display is clearly the main factor in this growth, but in doing so I feel it loses some of the mass-market appeal that made the previous iterations so great. It’s not heavy or particularly thick, but I have passed it between friends and the vast majority have said it’s too big for them.
With Lenovo releasing two versions of the G4 and one boasting a ‘Plus’ branding, it seems odd they’re both 5.5 inches. I’d have much preferred one to stay at a more manageable 5-inch size, or even 4.7-inch, and the other sitting higher above.

Moto G4 – Screen

The screen might be large, but it’s also fantastic. There isn’t anything better out there for the price.
While previous Moto Gs have been stuck at 720p, the G4 bumps it up to Full HD 1080p and it’s all the better for it. The LCD panel is bright, colourful and pixels are impossible to pick out. Viewing angles too are fine – obviously not as good as on pricier competition, but great for the mid-range.
It’s a very warm panel, with oranges and reds looking particularly rich. This makes it great for videos and it’s fantastic for gaming. Whites aren’t muddy and while blacks certainly aren’t as deep as on an AMOLED panel, they’re still very good.



Another point I have noticed about the display is just how precise and sensitive it is – something which you rarely see on more budget offerings. It reacts instantly to my touches and doesn’t miss the target. Impressive stuff.

Moto G4 – Performance

Keeping the Moto G4 chugging along is Qualcomm’s older mid-range 617 CPU paired with another middle-of-the-road GPU that seems to handle even graphically intense games very well.
You’ve got 2GB of RAM to play with too (up from 1GB last time) and the base storage is again boosted from 8GB to 16GB. They’re similar specs to the Samsung Galaxy A5's, which retails for about £140 more than the Moto G4.
There's no NFC, though, so you won’t be able to use Android Pay here.
The bump in all areas means this is a very smooth phone to use. Apps pop open almost instantly and even bulky, image-heavy websites don’t cause issues. To be honest, the performance on this £169 phone is as good as, if not better than, that of the £469 Sony Xperia X. That shows you just how much phone you’re getting for your cash.



In our usual benchmarking tests the Moto G4 scores 3,190 in the multi-core test in Geekbench 3, putting it in the same space as the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016).
The 5.5-inch 1080p display is great for games and they run impressively well. You won’t be surprised to learn that simple titles play without a hitch, but even Asphalt 8 and Hitman Sniper don’t suffer from any noticeable dropped frames. Loading times can sometimes be quite lengthy, but that’s something you probably won’t notice unless you have this side by side with a Samsung Galaxy S7.

Moto G4 – Software and Android

One of the best, but also downright simplest, ways the Moto series has become such a cult hit is because of its approach to software. During a time when heavy, ugly and cartoonish skins were all the rage, Motorola took a different approach and gave us Android as Google intended. Even though Motorola Mobility is now owned by Lenovo, this mantra hasn’t changed.
The objective here is simplicity. There are no duplicate apps, no bloatware, no skinned menus and no superfluous features. It’s vanilla Android, the way Google designed it. This also means you’re more likely to get newer versions – Android N for example – and security patches first. Both of which are huge bonuses.
As it’s Android Marshmallow – Android N is coming later in the year – you get features like Now on Tap and Doze. Having the latest software is far from a given on budget devices – the Galaxy A5, for instance, still comes with Lollipop – so I’m happy to see it here.



There are a couple of small additions added by Lenovo, but they only really add to the experience rather than detract from it. The display glows, showing off the latest notifications and the time when you pick it up, while a quick shake opens up the camera. There’s a basic Help app too, and an FM radio, which is probably a welcome feature for a few.
The only other additional software feature is a time and weather widget that’s fairly underwhelming.
Support is included for Marshmallow’s nifty Adoptable Storage that lets you format the microSD card as internal storage. Bung in a 64GB card, follow the setup instructions and you’ve boosted your 16GB to nearer 80GB.

Moto G4 – Camera

The biggest difference between the Moto G4 and the G4 Plus is the camera, but that’s not to say the cheaper brother is a slouch in the optics department. In fact, it’s the best camera you can get on a phone at this price. By a sizeable margin.
It’s the same Sony-made 13MP sensor as last year's, but the faster processing and streamlined software make it much quicker and easier to use. Daylight shots are superbly detailed and the dynamic range is fantastic for a mid-ranger. Colours are mostly accurate, though it does often add too much punch to reds and greens, and the auto-HDR mode means 99% of the time when I pulled out the camera I was confident I would get a useable shot.

Colours can look a bit oversaturated, but only in certain cases
For a budget phone, the photos look great
Detail is impressiveThe slightly beefed-up 16MP camera in the G4 Plus has a much larger sensor and that helps it push those extra pixels even further for much improved night-time performance – an area in which the regular Moto G4 isn’t that great. There’s no optical image stabilisation here, so once the lights go down blurry details and fuzzy outlines are commonplace. Still, no phone that costs £169 is good in low light, so it'd be unfair to count that against the G4.
For years Moto’s main camera issue was its downright awful, painful, dreadful app. It had an annoying tap-to-shoot system, plain design and the options were hidden away in a pesky dial that was virtually impossible to navigate. I can happily say that it’s been laid to rest, in favour of something much better.
Focusing is easier now and the most important settings – flash, timer and HDR – are front and centre for easy access. There isn’t anything as snazzy as pro or manual mode, but you can alter the exposure and this can help if the conditions aren’t great.
Sometimes capturing HDR snaps takes a second or two longer, and on a few occasions the app took some time to load, but that aside this is a solid camera.
The 5MP selfie camera is as good as can be expected and matches most of the competition. It captures skin tones well, focuses quickly and has decent head tracking.
Video maxes out at 1080p 30fps, and there’s slow-mo support at 540p.

Chromebook Pixel Review: Awesome. Just AWESOME!

Chromebook Pixel Review: Awesome. Just AWESOME!

Computer Unknown   9:53 PM

ChromeOS is here to stay and it’s never looked or felt better than on the awesome Chromebook Pixel

 

ChromeOS has been around for awhile now and is slowly starting to gain some traction with users. Mostly because the average cost of a ChromeOS machine is around £300, but also because the OS itself is extremely versatile in the right hands, sitting somewhere between a mobile OS like Android or iOS and full-blown operating system like Linux, OS X or Windows.
ChromeOS does have its detractors, though -- not everybody is onboard with Google’s vision of what a pseudo-laptop should be like. For a lot of people it simply isn’t powerful enough to be their daily work machine. For others, the idea of doing EVERYTHING through a browser seems a little odd. And to an extent it is. But this doesn’t mean there isn’t any room for ChromeOS in today’s consumer electronics space.
To be fair, I was pretty much on the fence about ChromeOS, being neither completely onboard with the idea or totally against it. I had a MacBook Air and was pretty happy with the way things were going. But then it broke, leaving me well and truly in the lurch as I had a press trip the following week. And a journalist without a laptop is like a bar without booze. Just plain wrong.
This is how I met the Chromebook Pixel, Google’s REALLY expensive poster boy for its burgeoning ChromeOS platform. Unlike 99.9% of ChromeOS machines on market, the Pixel is a thoroughly premium affair, jam-packed with all the latest and greatest hardware and specs, and it has a price tag you won’t forget about in a hurry -- the best part of £1000.
The average cost of a Chromebook is around £300. This is the sweet spot in Google’s eyes, making the devices an ideal choice for students or those that just want something cheap and portable to work on while on the move. Like a lot of things in tech, ChromeOS has A LOT of serious fans; people 100% committed to the platform that’d argue you can do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING on a Chromebook. I am not one of those people but I do like ChromeOS very, VERY much. I haven’t missed my MacBook Air at all when using the Pixel. I can still edit pictures and upload content to the web. It has INSANE battery life and it looks absolutely amazing.
But this isn't your average Chromebook.
Not that Google cares. The Pixel wasn’t built to sell by the boat-load. Nor is it designed to give Apple’s MacBook line any trouble. No, this machine is a proof of concept, a means of showing the world just how good a ChromeOS can look and feel. In this respect it’s sort of like a Renault Clio with an F1 engine in it -- positively insane and definitely not for everyone but immense fun all the same.

UPDATE (19/5/2016): Android Apps COMING To ChromeOS

Google I/O 2016 is now in full swing and so far we’ve seen updates on Android N, a new VR platform from Google called Daydream and some new hardware in the form of Google Home, which is basically the same thing as Amazon Echo, just powered by Google services like Assistant and Google Now.
Google will also detail how it is engineering a closer relationship between ChromeOS and Android. According to multiple sources, Android apps, via Google Play, will be coming to Chrome OS in the not too distant future. This will be a huge boon for an already excellent platform; Google Play has hundreds of thousands of applications that would have great second lives on Chromebooks.
A closer relationship between the two platforms would also encourage developers to work harder on making their applications scale up properly on bigger screens. Microsoft and Apple are now pushing their hybrid initiatives into the space and having quite a lot of success in the process with the Surface Pro line and Apple’s iPad Pro lineup.
Google has a lot of potential with its Chromebooks, which are cost effective and used by millions of people all over the globe. As a mobile computing solution, a Chromebook is hard to beat. Add in support for Android applications and you have an even more attractive package, especially if there’s cross-over between Android apps on your phone and Android apps on your Chromebook.

Google Chromebook Pixel Review: Design, Display & Trackpad

The entire chassis is made from a metallic material, similar to Apple’s MacBook line. The bodywork is angular and precise; nothing seems out of place and everything serves a function. Closed, the Pixel looks like a metallic-slab of awesomeness with its completely superfluous but still amazing strip of LED lights, which, when tapped three times, indicate how much juice is left on the battery.

Open, the Chromebook looks much like any other laptop and its keyboard reminds me very much of the one from my 2010 MacBook Air. Travel is decent on the keys. Ditto for spacing. And you seldom miss a beat when bashing out words (unlike Apple’s new, teeny tiny iMac keyboard). The keyboard has a few tricks up its sleeve, too: a Google Search key below the Tab key and a bunch of useful navigation keys across the top that include access to a screengrab tool, tabbed window mode and brightness settings.

The Chromebook Pixel’s big USP, the thing EVERYBODY is talking about, is its gorgeous 12.9in 2560 x 1700 pixel resolution display. It’s stunning to behold and is one of the most impressive displays I’ve ever seen on a laptop. Nothing I’ve tested in the past 12 months, save for my 5K iMac, even comes close. The Pixel’s ultra-high-resolution display is a pleasure to look at, work on and interact with on a daily basis. And because of its 3:2 aspect ratio, which makes the screen taller, you see a lot more when surfing the web. Combine this with 4.3 million pixels and, well, you have perhaps the best display of any laptop currently on market.
But that’s not all the display does. No, this bad boy is also a touchscreen. Yep, that’s right: a mother humping touchscreen. And while this might sound a little like overkill, I must admit I have become rather fond of occasionally prodding the display when something takes my fancy. It’s great for flicking through image articles, browsing websites and zooming in for a closer look at high-res, detailed pictures. It also works as good as any tablet I’ve used too, so don’t think of it as something that Google simply heaped on at the 11th hour to impress handsy early adopters like myself.

Google has also outfitted the Pixel with a rather excellent trackpad. It supports multi-gesture, so, two fingers for scrolling up and down, one finger for pointing, and four fingers for switching tabs, which means a mouse is never really required unless you’re doing very specific, close-work in something like Polarr or the like. In addition to an awesome display, excellent trackpad and solid overall design the Pixel also utilises USB Type C ports for charging. There are two ports located on the left and right side of the machine, as well as two USB ports on the left-hand side and a handy SD-card reader on the right.

Google Chromebook Pixel Review: Specs & Hardware

The Pixel is an absolute monster in the specs department. A beast of such epic proportions you might wonder why the hell Google decided to make it so powerful when it runs such a lightweight OS. I have no idea, myself, and I don’t really care one way or another. This thing FLIES.
Under the hood you’ll find an Intel Core i7 CPU model and 16GB of RAM inside the £999 version and a fifth-generation Intel processor (2.2GHz Core i5-5500U) backed by 8GB of RAM in the £799 one. Both versions are brutally fast, though I’d argue the £799 version makes more sense as it’s still plenty powerful and you save a couple of hundred pounds in the process.
To say the Pixel is fast, though, is an understatement. I’ve had hundreds of tabs open, ran six HD videos at once, and edited video all at the same time and it runs as smooth as Tom Cruise. Nothing you can do in ChromeOS seems to slow it down. Nothing. It just keeps on going, and going, and going like some kind of PCP-powered Duracell bunny.
You also have two storage options to choose from: 32GB SSD on the £799 model or 64GB SSD on the £999. Again, if I were buying this machine I’d go for the cheaper model. Partly because of the cost, but mostly because you don’t need all that additional storage -- you get a ton of free Drive storage (100GB for two years) and the Pixel accepts SD-cards.
All of this processing grunt translates into pretty exceptional performance across the board -- and, yet, this isn’t even the Pixel’s biggest USP. More on that later, though...
In order to illustrate just how powerful the Pixel is we performed a bunch of benchmarks on the machine during testing. As you can see below the results are pretty impressive, even compared to top of line MacBooks and Windows machines:

• SunSpider -- 196ms
• Peacekeeper -- 4432
• WebGL Cubes -- 30fps

The Pixel is an expensive piece of kit and it certainly won’t be to everybody’s tastes. However, you do get plenty of bang for your buck. The design. The hardware. The specs. The careful thought that has gone into its engineering -- all of it is best in class and for that you always have to pay top dollar.

Google Chromebook Pixel Review: ChromeOS

I have to admit prior to testing the Chromebook Pixel I was ready and willing to completely rubbish ChromeOS. I didn’t understand how you could build an OS out of a web browser or, for that matter, why you’d even want to. But just as my preconceived notions about the BlackBerry Passport were wrong, so too were my ideas about ChromeOS. Dead wrong…
There is an adaptive phase you go through when using ChromeOS. You need to learn all of its little features and nuances to really get the most out of it. But for the most part it is a very simple, easy to use OS -- mostly because the core component of it, Chrome, has already been used by most people.
Core apps can be saved at the bottom of the display for easy access in a similar fashion to OS X and Windows. Google seems to have most of the big boys covered too. I have Spotify, Office, and Tweetdeck, as well as all of Google’s core applications at my disposal, so can pretty much get on with my day-to-day without feeling like I’m missing out.

Some users may find issues with using ChromeOS, however. I don’t see machines like this ever being widely used in enterprise for instance as a lot of business applications are not present. But for those that predominantly work on the web, or just want a machine for general office tasks and web browsing, ChromeOS is perfect. I’ve edited images (Polarr) and video on the Pixel. I do all my accounting and spreadsheets in Drive, as well as word processing. And if you need anything else, well, you just do it via the web.
You can’t please everyone, though, and I do think some power users might find ChromeOS a little too limited. But I would argue these types of users are the minority. Most people could use ChromeOS as their daily driver, as it does all the core things a laptop should -- word processing, spreadsheets, web browsing, image and video editing -- very well indeed. And if it doesn’t do something you want, a quick Google search usually presents a solution, workaround or alternative.
You kind of have to commit to Drive to really get the most out of the Pixel, though. Not that this is a bad thing. It just might feel a little too much like a conversion for those that do not use it already. I’ve been addicted to Drive for years, so there was no issue with switching to using it full time for all my office needs. You get a ton of free storage and the software now works offline, meaning you aren’t completely reliant on a web connection to get stuff done.
ChromeOS is lighter, simpler and not quite as feature-packed as Windows 10 or OS X. But this is exactly the point behind it; ChromeOS is meant to be used, I believe, as a supplementary platform. You have your main workstation, in my case an iMac, and a Chromebook for when you’re on the move. Or, if you only really use the web and do a bit of word processing, your main PC.
And if you want to get really fancy, you can install Ubuntu on the Chromebook Pixel as well, giving you access to full desktop functionality. Personally, this isn’t something I’d do myself, as I am more than happy with how it works out the box, but because ChromeOS is based on Linux it makes life pretty damn easy for those that want to.
Linux.com has an AWESOME and very easy to follow tutorial on how you do this. Below is an extract but we'd recommend you check out the full post in full
There are many ways to install a Linux-based OS on your Chromebook. For this tutorial I have chosen Crouton (aka Chromium OS Universal Chroot Environment), which is a set of scripts that bundle up into an easy-to-use, Chromium OS-centric chroot generator. The scripts are hosted on GitHub and currently support only Ubuntu and Debian. It offers various desktop environments including Xfce, Unity, and KDE. Unity can be quite heavy for your Chromebook, depending on your hardware, and I don’t find Xfce to be enough eye candy, so I am going to try KDE and see how it works.
The Pixel is something of an aberration in the world of Chromebooks, however, on account of its insane specs and price. Most Chromebooks are dirt cheap, like £300 or less. But the Pixel isn’t your average Chromebook, or PC for that matter. It is the poster boy for ChromeOS, the physical embodiment of everything the platform could potentially be when money and R&D costs are of no concern.
I do absolutely love this machine. But it does cost A LOT of money. However, I don’t think Google made the Pixel for profit. I think it made the Pixel as a means of communicating just how good ChromeOS can be when it is completely unhindered by costs, specs and hardware. It has worked too because I would now always think about ChromeOS first when updating my mobile computer. And to be completely honest, I like the Pixel so much I wouldn’t really have any issue paying £800 for one. But that’s just me. You might think differently.

Google Chromebook Pixel Review: Battery

This has been a fairly gushing review. But I did save the best for last. The Chromebook Pixel has an absolutely astonishingly good battery life. So much so that it really does have to be experienced to be believed. Google quotes the battery life at around 11 hours, which is very good. But in our tests we’ve seen the Pixel surpass the 12 hour mark and, in some instances, top out at 13 hours.
You can just leave it unplugged for what seems like days and come back to it and find there’s still juice in the tank. In idle it is superb, gently sipping at power. With heavy use, you’re looking at a very solid 10+ hours. For example: I recently flew to Hong Kong, a 12+ hour flight, and the Pixel was with me every step of the way. I watched two films, did some work and wrote a bunch of emails and, once we landed, there was still about 15% left on the battery.
What this means in real world application is that you can take the Pixel with you anywhere, providing it is fully charged, and not have to worry about plugging it into a wall charger for an entire day. I regularly take mine with me to events and never bother bringing the charger. You just don’t need to with 10+ hours of power at your disposal. This for me is one of the biggest USPs of the Pixel, especially after using a five year old MacBook Air that struggled to get through four hours of intensive work.

Google Chromebook Pixel Review: Verdict

The Chromebook Pixel is easily one of the coolest things I’ve tested this year. The machine itself looks damn impressive, but it is the little surprises you encounter while using it that make all the difference because they add up to create one of the best portable computing experiences I’ve ever encountered.
The battery is exceptional, as is the screen. It’s got more power under the hood than you’ll ever need and it looks positively stunning. ChromeOS is super lightweight, easy to use and, in the right hands, a perfectly capable OS that can do 99.9% of the things most people want from a laptop.
I’d say the price is a downside -- and for some it almost certainly will be. Nevertheless, once you factor in everything this machine has going for it becomes impossible to imagine it costing any less. If you want the best in class experience you have to pay top dollar. Them’s the rules, and if you don’t like it, well, you can just get a cheaper one from Samsung or Asus.

Samsung Galaxy X COMING In 2017: Folding, Flexible, 4K Super AMOLED Display

MOBILE Unknown   9:40 PM

Samsung Galaxy X COMING In 2017: Folding, Flexible, 4K Super AMOLED Display

 

 

Samsung will launch as many as FIVE new Galaxy flagships in 2017

Well folks this could be it - 2017 may well be the year we first see a smartphone with a truly flexible OLED display, and not just in the "it's a bit bendy" LG G Flex style either. Nope, according to some very robust rumours out of Asia Samsung will release a new Galaxy-branded smartphone flagship next year which will be fully foldable, just like the old flip-phones of the 90s, except it'll fold right down the middle of the touch display with no impact on image quality. This handset, it's alleged, will be one of FIVE flagship smartphones Samsung plans to launch inside 2017, and it'll be dubbed the Samsung Galaxy X if the tipster sources prove correct.
The word comes via often reliable source of accurate Samsung details - SamMobile - a site with plenty of insiders lurking within Samsung itself, inside its home nation of Korea. The word emerged on May 13, with a report stating that the firm, following up on its incredible performance in Q1 2016 with the Galaxy S7 series, will push out a grand total of FIVE Galaxy flagship models in 2017. In addition, the report claims that amongst the devices will be a new model dubbed the Samsung Galaxy X, which will utilise the firm's flexible Super AMOLED technology, but unlike the Galaxy S7 edge with a fixed curved screen it will be the first folding smartphone with a truly flexible OLED setup.

As of May 25 we now have some more evidence that Samsung is gearing up for the Galaxy X next year. The firm has exhibited its flexible Super AMOLED technology at the SID 2016 expo, a dedicated display industry conference in San Francisco, and it's clear that this prototype is in a much more advanced state than any we've seen before - it almost looks production ready. The demo unit is a 5.7in Full HD 1080p 386ppi OLED screen arranged on a rig where the display is coiled in a roll but can be unravelled by an automated arm; the display is still operation while being coiled and unrolled and still showing pictures and video. The display measures 0.3mm thick although this does not include the touch layer. Of course with the display at 1080p it is not the rumoured 4K for the Galaxy X, but again this is a demo test prototype and not the finished product, but is a demonstration of what that may look like in terms of functionality, but with a higher resolution.

Of course anyone who has followed the smartphone space for a while will not be too surprised about this; Samsung's ambitions on the flexible smartphone front have been known for a long time - the firm has been talking for years about its intentions to bring a truly flexible smartphone to market and has rocked up at CES several times with very early prototypes. It was really just a question of "when", with Samsung beavering away in the background trying to get the technology to a commercially viable, mass-production ready state. In the meantime we've enjoyed the curved EDGE displays but these have simply been a tester to see how consumers respond to non-traditional display tech.
The idea of completely flexible and even foldable phones has been around for quite some time. Way back in 2009, there were Nokia concept phones doing the rounds which looked positively futuristic compared to phones at the time. But it wasn’t just Nokia that was looking to the future; all major players were experimenting with advanced form-factors in their R&D labs.
Samsung, however, is one of the biggest and most fearsome innovators in the mobile space. It builds chips, produces memory and is an expert with display technology -- the company’s successes in the mobile space are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the company’s overall business.
This is why we consistently see Samsung pushing the boundaries in mobile with new technology, new form factors and new ways of interacting with technology. VR will be a big deal in 2016/17, but the advent of form-factor changes to phones will also be very significant. The phones of tomorrow will not look and feel like the phone’s we use today; they will be flexible, more robust and likely feature plenty of new utilities that just aren’t possible with today’s physical designs.
SamMobile describes a launch schedule which at first will mimic 2016; in the first quarter or first half of the year it's believed the firm will simply launch the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 edge, probably around MWC, just as it did this year. At the same time, it is  expected we will see the Galaxy Note 7 and Galaxy Note 7 edge launched later in the year, although exactly when isn't clear, previously this has been September, but rumours say this year's Galaxy Note 6 will arrive in August.
It is interesting that SamMobile's sources class the Galaxy Note series as a flagship (we would too, but generally the industry doesn't seem to) and that there will be TWO models, one with an EDGE display in 2017. This year the rumours are pretty adamant that Samsung will only release ONE Galaxy Note 6 model and is attempting to decide on either equipping it with an EDGE display or not. All Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 7 reportedly feature QHD display panels using Samsung's pretty amazing Super AMOLED diamond RGB tech currently seen on the Galaxy S7.

However, the new model, the Samsung Galaxy X, will feature a 4K diamond PenTile setup - this phone is also said to be the same one previously codenamed "Project Valley". It's said users will be able to fold up the handset to make it easily fit in a pocket. If the Samsung Galaxy X is well-received by consumers we can likely expect Samsung to pick up the positive feedback and really go to town with flexible screen devices; previously the firm released concept videos showing ideas for a whole range of similar products, including smartphones which can be unfolded into a larger tablet form factor.
The firm's portfolio has been steadily increasing since it started adding EDGE variants of its flagships, previously we'd just see a Galaxy S and a Galaxy Note flagship every year, then with the Galaxy Note 4 Samsung tested a dual-launch with the Galaxy Note EDGE alongside. Because that was so well-received the firm later followed up with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, as well as the Galaxy S6 edge+ phablet variant which released alongside the Galaxy Note 5.
At present there aren't any other details about the new Galaxy X phone in terms of specs or price, and we don't know when it will launch in Samsung's 2017 roadmap, but if all this turns out to be true (and we suspect it is) then we'll see a lot more leaks in the coming months.

Samsung Galaxy Note 6? Nope! Will Be Galaxy Note 7

Samsung Galaxy Note 6? Nope! Will Be Galaxy Note 7

MOBILE Unknown   9:30 PM

Samsung will skip a number for the 2016 Galaxy Note

Well this is a doozy. According to reports out of Korea on May 25, Samsung may be about to pull a Microsoft (skip Windows 9, straight to Windows 10) and skip a number for its Galaxy Note series; instead of the much-rumoured Galaxy Note 6 said to be arriving in August, we may be looking at the 2016 Galaxy Note model being dubbed the Galaxy Note 7! The word comes via Korean publication ETNews, which claims that Samsung is seeking to align the Galaxy Note with its contemporary Galaxy S flagship series; because the Galaxy S7 is the current model, Samsung apparently thinks having the Galaxy Note for the same year as the Galaxy Note 7 will be less confusing, and will prevent consumers from assuming the newest Galaxy Note is in some way an older, inferior, or outdated model compared to the main flagship.
The same report goes on to say that the Galaxy Note 7 (for 2016) will feature curved edges on both front and back, strongly implying that we're looking at a curved 'edge' display, though whether the handset will be dubbed the Galaxy Note 7 edge remains to be seen. It's interesting because previous reports claimed Samsung was considering two prototypes for the next Galaxy Note, one with a curved edge display and one without, but the reports were adamant that only one would be chosen. This latest report would appear to indicate that Samsung has picked the edge display model. What's also interesting is the curved edges around the rear panel, which is reminsicent of the Galaxy S6 generation where the Galaxy S6 edge had a curved front and flat back, while the Galaxy S6 had a flat front and curved back, except with the Note 7 it will be both!
Previously rumoured specs include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 823, 6GB of Samsung's new LPDDR4 10nm RAM, and water and dust proofing just like the Galaxy S7 - this will be a first for the Galaxy Note series, however.

LG G5 Cam Plus And Hi-Fi Plus Review: Modular Marvels?

MOBILE Unknown   9:21 PM

LG G5 Cam Plus And Hi-Fi Plus Review: Modular Marvels?

 

The LG G5 is one of the first modular smartphones to hit market. But how good are its actual modules? Damien has a look

The recent confirmation that Google is charging ahead with its Ara modular smartphone concept may have triggered public interest in the idea of a smartphone you can take part and put back together again, but it's important to remember that LG has already got on phone on sale that does this, albeit to a slightly less drastic degree.
The LG G5 is easily one of the most interesting handsets we've reviewed in a while, offering some genuinely different to its competitors. Its modular design involves removing the bottom of the device and attaching new components which bestow the phone with new functionality, and while this doesn't go as far as Google's Ara concept, it's a neat element to set the G5 apart from the crowd.
Only two modules are available at present, and we've spent the past few weeks messing about with both.

LG G5 Cam Plus And Hi-Fi Plus Review: Cam Plus

The more affordable of the two modules currently available, the £80 Cam Plus is - as you might expect - focused on photography. It adds a bump to the back of the phone which makes it easier to hold with one hand, but thankfully that's not all; it also comes with a range of physical buttons and a 1200mAh battery to give the G5 even more stamina.
A quick-launch switch can be found on the bottom edge of the Cam Plus and this instantly boots the phone into camera mode when the screen is asleep. On the side there are two physical keys, one of which acts as a two-stage shutter for photos, allowing you to refocus the camera without having to tap the screen. The second controls video recording. Finally, there's a scroll wheel which is in charge of zoom, and this automatically switches between the 8 megapixel wide-angle camera (for a zoomed-out shot) and the 16 megapixel standard lens, which is a neat touch. However, it's still a digital zoom so don't expect too much - the wheel also lacks any feedback when turned, which feels a bit odd.

These physical controls do make taking photos easier; pressing a button is always going to be preferable to stabbing at a touchscreen, but the module doesn't actually do anything to enhance the images or video you're capturing. To do that you'd need to replace the phone's camera, and that's obviously not possible with LG's design.
Having another 1200mAh of battery power is possibly the biggest benefit of the Cam Plus; while the G5 never has any issues lasting an entire day, that additional helping of juice means you can use the phone quite aggressively and still have power in the tank by the time the evening rolls around.

LG G5 Cam Plus And Hi-Fi Plus Review: Hi-Fi Plus

At twice the price of the Cam Plus module, the Hi-Fi Plus unit is naturally a harder sell. Made in conjunction with Bang & Olufsen, the unit is far less bulky than the Cam Plus unit and only adds a few millimeters to the bottom of the phone.
Inside is a 32-bit digital audio converter and headphone amp which - when used with high quality audio sources and a decent set of cans - produces truly amazing sound quality.

The G5's 24-bit DAC is already a step ahead of the 16-bit DAC seen in the Samsung Galaxy S7, but with the Hi-Fi Plus module installed the results are incredible. This is the best audio you'll ever get from a smartphone, but you obviously need to ensure the tracks you're playing are encoded at a high enough standard or you won't feel the benefit.
The Hi-Fi Plus unit can also be used with other devices as a stand-alone DAC and amp, so if you're keen on your "high res" audio then it's a worthy purchase - however, I can't help but feel that for most casual music lovers, the ideal of spending £150 on such a unit is going to be hard to stomach.

LG G5 Cam Plus And Hi-Fi Plus Review: The Future

While the Cam Plus and Hi-Fi Plus modules are interesting to use and show that LG is at least thinking outside of the box, neither could truly be deemed essential, and neither really gives a compelling argument for the whole modular phone concept. Worryingly, LG is yet to confirm if any other modules will be released in the future, which could suggest that its modular dream begins and ends with these two units.
That would be a real shame, because while the G5 doesn't go as far as Google's Ara, there's definately untapped potential here. Just imagine bolting on a proper physical gaming interface on the G5 for arcade titles or emulation, or a cheap-and-cheerful module which simply expands the battery capacity of the unit without adding too much bulk to the phone itself. It could even be possible to add another camera to the device by including it in a module, or packing a larger, more powerful speaker so the handset can be used as a fully-fledged portable music system.
While these ideas might sound unexciting of half-baked, if LG - or a third party manufacturer - could produce them at a low cost, they'd become the kind of accessories you would happily invest in, picking a different module to suit the needs of your day. Going on a long trip? Better pack the physical gaming module with its built-in battery. Visiting a friends for a barbeque? Attach your speaker module for some open-air tuneage. LG needs to harness this level of focused customization with cheap add-ons rather than £150 high res sound units. Changing modules on the G5 is practically effortless, so why not encourage people to swap them out on a daily basis to make sure they have the functions they need?
It remains to be seen if LG will stick with its modular approach when the inevitable G6 comes around, but I for one hope that it isn't a flash in the pan and the Korean company sticks with the idea. There's a lot of potential here, and hopefully devices like the G5 and Google's ARA will prove the worth of a modular phone.