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Category Archives: Reviews
Huawei P20 Pro – Top cases reviewed
A Tour of Bristol’s architectural highlights – Shot on the Huawei P20 Pro in black & white
Bristol is full of architectural delights. From the Grand Hotel above in Broad Street to some spectacular buildings in Corn Street.
But it’s not just Corn or Broad Street that holds some architectural gems. Walking around the City centre reveals more great places.
A short walk down to the canal reveals even more buildings.
All these photos were shot on the Huawei P20 Pro using its dedicated monochrome mode.
The above are just a snapshot into the architecture of Bristol city centre.
Huawei P20 Pro Audio Review vs iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S9+ & Google Pixel 2 XL
Welcome to my Huawei P20 Pro Audio Review.
In this review I take a look at the audio options and quality of the Huawei P20 Pro covering speakers, bluetooth, wired (dongle) and other options including some external DACs.
Useful Links
Huawei P20 Pro, cases & accessories latest deals on Amazon UK
Latest deals on bluetooth headphones on Amazon UK
Huawei P20 Pro Camera Review & Showcase – Every Video & Photo Mode Tested
Welcome to my Huawei P20 Pro Camera Review & Showcase.
Just to recap the Huawei P20 Pro rear cameras feature a co-engineered Leica Triple Camera New AI-assisted camera system. The 3 lenses are as follows. A 40mp RGB sensor. a 20mp monochrome sensor and a 8mp zoom sensor. The P20 Pro can do 3 x optical zoom and up to 5 x lossless zoom.
– The front camera is 24mp.
– A huge 4,000mAh battery.
– 6gb ram & 128gb storage
– 6.1 inch full vision OLED display.
– Bluetooth codecs APTX, APTX HD , LDAC , HWA
So what can the Huawei P20 Pro capture? Let’s take a look.
Useful Links
My Huawei P20 Pro Flickr Album
Latest pricing on Huawei P20 Pro, cases & accessories on Amazon UK
Latest pricing & more info on Optoma NuForce BeFree 8 on Amazon UK
Latest pricing on Bose Soudsport Wireless Free earphones on Amazon UK
Latest pricing on Sony WH-1000MX2 on Amazon UK
Huawei P20 Pro – First Impressions incl Camera & Audio + My Top 10 Tips & Tricks
Welcome to my Huawei P20 Pro First Impressions which includes a live demo of the camera, analysis and my personal top 10 tips and tricks.
My Huawei P20 Pro is setup will all my apps too, so I have included a quick tour of what’s installed on this phone.
In case your’re wondering this is what you get in the box –
Below is the full list of what is included –
– The phone itself, the Huawei P20 Pro
– The battery is built in, all 4,000mAh
– High current charger for super fast charging
– USB Type-CTM digital headset
– Warranty card
– Quick start guide
– A protective case – ideal so you don’t scratch phone within minutes of opening box by accident
– USB Type-CTM to 3.5mm headphone adapter
– Eject tool
The Huawei P20 Pro rear cameras feature a co-engineered Leica Triple Camera New AI-assisted camera system. The 3 lenses are as follows. A 40mp RGB sensor. a 20mp monochrome sensor and a 8mp zoom sensor. The P20 Pro can do 3 x optical zoom and up to 5 x lossless zoom.
– The front camera is 24mp.
– A huge 4,000mAh battery.
– 6gb ram & 128gb storage
– 6.1 inch full vision OLED display.
– Bluetooth codecs APTX, APTX HD , LDAC , HWA
As you will see in my video review below, I have been testing all the best bluetooth headphones with this phone incl AirPods, Bose Soundsport Wireless, Sony WH-1000MX2 and Optoma NuForce BEFree8.
DxOmark scored the Huawei P20 Pro and overall score of 109 points, which is 10 points clear of any other current flagship phone.
So one of the shooting modes on the P20 Pro is handheld night mode. Using the AI camera you can take up to 6 seconds hand held long exposure night shot. It can also shoot an ISO over 100,000. If you look at my previous post to this one, you will see a comparison of the night shots taken in auto, night mode hand held and pro mode. In auto one of my shots had an ISO of 12,800.
Shot below taken in night mode, hand held, with a 5 second exposure.
Anyway, sit back and enjoy my first impressions along with my top 10 tips and tricks.
Useful Links
Latest pricing on Huawei P20 Pro, cases & accessories on Amazon UK
Latest pricing & more info on Optoma NuForce BeFree 8 on Amazon UK
Latest pricing on Bose Soudsport Wireless Free earphones on Amazon UK
Latest pricing on Sony WH-1000MX2 on Amazon UK
Huawei P20 Pro – Camera Analysis of First Photos from the phone + Adobe Lightroom edited versions
The Huawei P20 Pro is the first phone with 3 Leica co-engineered rear cameras totally 68mp. There is a 40mp RBG, 20mp monochrome and 8mp telephoto sensor. Using advanced AI and computational photography the Huawei P20 Pro is able to pull off some masterstrokes. So let’s take a look at some photos from the P20 Pro, all shot in auto at 10mp. My thanks to Jonathan Morris for allowing me to use his photos. I would imagine the software is not quite final retail but it still gives a good idea on the quality. My retail P20 Pro arrives next week.
With all these photos, auto mode with AI on, was used. There is a clear pattern of how the P20 Pro decides on what settings to use when AI option is enabled. The field above is slightly dark in places, but gives a real feel for what the eyes could see. This pattern is repeated in a number of shots.
The same goes for the house above. The P20 Pro does have auto HDR as one of the AI options, but this is not always the best option.
The AI mode selected blue sky, so made everything extra blue. Quite vivid and maybe too over the top for some but I actually don’t mind it.
You can turn of the AI if required. The forest path above is really well balanced and I do like this picture.
The above photo is taken with HDR on, which was selected by the AI feature whilst in auto mode. The post processing and look is something I quite enjoy, but what do you think so far?
Ok so let’s up the ante and show you my 5 second edits in Adobe Lightroom mobile of the above shots. Before anyone asks, I did not use snapseed. I am not a fan of snapseed filters. The Lightroom edited shots are 3 times larger in size too. These aren’t adjusted perfectly either, I just wanted one type of edit to see what difference it made to the photos.
So with all these shots, I applied the same editing sequence in Adobe Lightroom mobile, for speed and uniformity.
Every shot has auto tune ticked, +10 on clarity, +5 on dehaze, -7 on vignette and +5 on the shadows on top of the auto adjusted amount.
But do you like the enhanced look? What do you think of the house now?
The blue sky IMO is way OTT now.
In some of the shots, the quick editing makes a difference, but I do prefer some of the original versions. But what is your opinion?
Stay tuned for a lot more Huawei P20 Pro coverage.
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Aune B1s Portable Headphone Amp Review – Class A Amp
Welcome to my review of the new Aune B1s Portable Headphone Amp. The Aune B1s was sent to me by Aune to evaluate.
The Key Specifications
– Frequency response (from 10 Hz to 20 kHz): ±0.02dB
– THD + n: 0.00015% @300Ω
– SNR: 124dB @300Ω
– Crosstalk: <110dB @300Ω
– Max output: 6.443Vrms 18.4dBu(10Hz to 20kHz)
– Headphone output power: @300Ω 84mW , @600Ω 42mW ,@32Ω 74mW
– Class-A: 25mW/16R 50mW/32R
– Size: 125×65×18（mm）
– Weight:230g
For the review of the Aune B1s a range of headphones were used. Sennheiser HD579, HD598 HD660s, Sennheiser Momentum in ears, Sony XBA-1 Balanced Armatures, Fiio F9 Pro in ear and Beyer Dynamic DT770 Pro 80 and 250 ohm headphones.
Genres tested included rock, pop, classical, blues and jazz.
The main video part of the review covers off the sound in more detail along with the results using the above headphones.
In summary, warmer headphones like the Sennheiser sounded much nicer and were a good match. The Sony XBA-1 sound awful.
Using the Aune B1s allowed for plenty of power to drive my Beyers DT770 Pro, both the 80 and 250 ohms. The same applied to the over ear Sennheiser.
Where the pairing worked, more detail and soundstage occurred. Jazz and blues genres in my opinion worked the best.
Conclusion
The Aune B1s is a neutral sounding amp and therefore its pairing is best suited to warmer sounding headphones. Otherwise the sound lacks excitement as it is so neutral.
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Bose Soundsport Free Wireless Earphones Review vs AirPods, Sony WF-1000X, Optoma NuForce BE Free8 & More
Welcome to my review of the Bose Soundsport Free Wireless Earphones. These are Bose’s answer to Apple’s AirPods and all the other totally wireless earphones on the market.
Key Specifications
– Truly wireless for total freedom of movement
– Volume EQ adjustment for music sound clear and powerful
– Earbuds are sweat and weather resistant (with an IPX4 rating) and come with 3 different pairs of Stay Hear+ Sport tips (in sizes S/M/L) that provide a comfortable and secure fit
– Up to 5 hours of play time with each charge and an additional 10 hours with the charging case
– Track lost earbuds with the Bose Connect app’s “Find My Buds” feature
– Bose Connect app also updates the firmware
Conclusion
The Bose Soundsport Free Wireless earphones are excellent and recommended depending on where and with what device you’re using them with in terms of bluetooth capabilities.
Useful Links
Bose Soundsport Free Wireless earphones latest pricing on Amazon UK
Optoma NuForce BE Free8 Wireless Earphones latest pricing on Amazon UK
Samsung Galaxy S9+ Review One Week Later – shot entirely on the S9+
Welcome to my review of the Samsung Galaxy S9+ one week later. The entire video was shot using the front and rear cameras of the S9+, outdoor at the start of the second snow blizzard that was just returning on Dartmoor National Park.
I have also discussed my views on the audio and some comparisons as well. New camera samples are included, previously not seen before or shared by me.
Video Review
Useful Links
Samsung Galaxy S9 & S9+ sim free phones, cases and Accessories on a Amazon UK
Samsung Galaxy S9+ – First Impressions incl Camera & Audio
Welcome to my first impressions of the Samsung Galaxy S9+. This is the new flagship phone from Samsung, but is it all that it is cut out to be? Lets start investigating.
Samsung Galaxy S9+ – Low Light Camera Test in Brutal Weather Conditions
The Samsung Galaxy S9+ Camera is meant to shine in low light conditions. Fortunately, the UK is in the middle of heavy rainfall, fog and generally miserable conditions. The below photos were shot in very heavy rain and fog.
The photos are the full size uploaded, so you should be able to download these and pixel peep. The above shot looks as clear as day, with very little noise. Slightly softer on the edges but that’s to be expected with a f/1.5. But what to you think.
Shot once again in very heavy rain and this time the fog has increased. In auto again, but this time I wanted to see what would happen if I dropped the exposure down a little. Another clear , low noise and realistic photo.
The last photo was in auto, but this time the exposure was left untouched. It was actually semi dark outside but look at the light levels here. The shot above is a more accurate rendition of the level of darkness.
So what do you think?
Samsung Galaxy S9+ – First Thoughts and More
Samsung announced the Galaxy S9 and S9+ just over a week ago now and since that time I have been evaluating the new flagship.
Quite a fair amount of content has been shared by major websites, and whilst some of that, not all, is either biased or non committal it still is possible to read thru the lines and makes some assumptions. However, I will be putting my own S9+ thru its paces when it arrives later this week, with particular focus on the following :-
– overall user experience
-the audio capabilities from the loudspeaker, bluetooth and wired headphones with a very large selection of headphones tested
– the camera – from auto mode to pro mode and then taking it to the extreme
– Comparisons with other phones like the iPhone X, Mate 10 Pro, Pixel 2, Huawei P20 Pro, Note 8, S8, S8+ and more
So my first thoughts are that Samsung has refined the S8+ and Note 8 to produce the S9+. Undoubtedly, it will be a fine phone, but I still have questions over whether the camera is that much improved and whether the user experience will be hampered by Samsung including double of everything eg voice assistants.
So if you have any particular questions you would like answered, let me know.
Apple HomePod – 2 weeks later – Wood Staining Update & Final Verdict
Welcome back everyone. I thought I would give an update on hows I have been getting on with the Apple HomePod.
I have had my HomePod on a wooden piece of furniture and I decided to have another look to see if any damage had occurred.
Plus my final verdict.
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Apple iPhone X – 3 months later + What’s on my X + What Games work fullscreen on my X + Camera Showcase
So something strange happened. The HomePod has caused me to drift over to an iPhone X. But just how am I getting on with it?
What apps and games are on my X? Which games work full screen on the X and how much has the camera improved since release.
