Category Archives: Reviews

FINALLY – Apple iCloud Photos & Photo Syncing – One Month later and Resolved

October 26, 2015Apple, Reviews, Tech NewsApple iPhone 6S plus, iCloud Photos, Photos syncing issuesGavin Fabiani-Laymond

I had a plan, a master plan to use all Apple’s Cloud services with my new iPhone 6S Plus. It was an ill conceived plan as I realise now, but the light at the end of the tunnel finally arrived at 10pm last night.

Back tracking, my saga using iCloud Photos and iTunes Match has not been a fun affair and it most certainly just didn’t work. Since receiving my 6S Plus on 25th September I have had nothing but a nightmare experience with iCloud Photos and iTunes Match.

I have several Apple support incident numbers and have lost many an hour of my spare time with the support staff at Apple. Apple have remote accessed by MacBook Pro so many times too.

I had decided last week to permanently not use iCloud Photos sync, and a few weeks before that, unravelled the mess iTunes Match had created. Well actually Apple support resolved the chaos caused by iTunes Match. I do think part of the problem is my 0.5mbit upload speed being too slow for Apple’s servers but I can’t be the only person with a slowish upload speed in the world. Anyway, I still had My Photostream and iCloud Photo Sharing enabled but finally relented and turned these off after updating to iOS 9.1 on Wednesday.

Yesterday and Saturday, I took some photos. Cut a long story short, my iPhone 6S Plus would not import photos into the mac using a lightning cable. The Photos app would register the iPhone but show grey outline boxes instead of the pictures, and then the iPhone would disappear from Photos, yet remain showing as connected in iTunes. So 3 hours on the phone to a senior Apple support person, various tests done to eliminate what was causing the problem, and it turns out it was my iPhone that was the culprit. So I wisely insisted to the Apple support guy that I did a manual back up of my iPhone to iTunes on my MacBook. Note if you use homekit and the health app, YOU MUST ENCRYPT your backup to save this data. In fact, even though I use iCloud Backup, it is worth doing a manual backup to iTunes on your mac once a week as the backup to your mac is more comprehensive and can save the health and home kit data, whereas iCloud Backup doesn’t save the health and home kit data. (the backup most be encrypted to save this data).

The phone was put in to recovery mode, a new firmware was downloaded and installed. The phone was then restored as a new phone, a few camera shots taken, then tested to see if sync worked, and it did. Good news. Hard reset phone and started again, this time restoring from the backup on my MacBook. This took 12 hours to complete. BUT the iTunes restore is pure genius. Everything is reinstated, including app data in full with just a few passwords in some apps and Viewranger GPS needed the maps redownloaded. Other than that it was restored perfectly.

So after 12 hours restoring, a quick test taking some photos, tried a sync with the cable, and it didn’t work. Grrrrrrr.

Then I had a thought. I noticed there were photos in the camera roll and this would have been different to the iPhone setup as a new iPhone, and maybe something had corrupted the camera roll, so I deleted all these 60 photos. Took a new shot, tried to sync and voila it worked. And repeated the test and it continued to work. So what this meant was the wiping my phone, spending 12 hours restoring was not necessary. All I had needed to do was to have deleted the photos in the camera roll. I put this corruption down to iCloud Photos and My Photostream doing something it shouldn’t.

Oh well, it now just works now!

If I do get any more issues, I will either just use Photosync app to wirelessly transfer photos or ask Apple to look at replacing my iPhone for another. I don’t wont to spoil the enjoyment of the iPhone any more with support calls etc, as it really is superb to use. My advice, just don’t use iCloud Photos. For my sanity, I am now using Google Photos as a backup solution.

Apple iPhone 6S Camera – Not Much has Changed but Everything – Photo and Video

October 26, 2015Apple, Reviews, Tech NewsCamera, iPhone 6S, Photos, videoGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Apple released a rather cool video on the new iPhone 6S Camera. This video really makes you want to use the iPhone camera!

And this is a sample of what I took on Sunday morning. The camera really does just work sometimes.

And then Apple released another cool video on Siri –

The Chord Mojo – The Game Changer has Arrived – First Impressions

October 23, 2015Audio, Reviews, Tech NewsChord Mojo, details, First ImpressionsGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Chord Electronics is a UK audio company based in Kent. Chord has been making high end quality audio products for many years. Last week they announced their new Chord Mojo, their most affordable product to date and likely to be one of their most successful products. So what is the Chord Mojo? Chord Electronics state –

“Chord Electronics is proud to introduce Mojo, the ultimate DAC/Headphone Amplifier for your smartphone. Simply connect Mojo to your iPhone, Android phone, PC, or Mac, plug in your headphones and you can experience crystal clear audio the way you would hear it in the recording studio.”

Key Features

-Mojo was designed for the music loving Smartphone owner.
-It is powerful, but small and comfortable to carry.
-It works with your iPhone, Android or Windows phone… Also DAPs.
-Mojo is also compatible with your Mac, PC, or Linux computer.
-Mojo has three digital inputs – USB, Coaxial, and Optical.
-Mojo charges in just 4 hours to provide up to 10 hours use.
-You can use any pair of headphones with Mojo, from 4Ω to 800Ω.
-With two 3.5mm analogue outputs you and a friend can listen too!
-Mojo plays all files from 32kHz to 768kHz and even DSD 512.
-Mojo is fully automatic and remembers its last used settings.
-Its case is precision machined from a single solid block of aluminium.
-Mojo is entirely designed and manufactured in Great Britain.
-Output Power @ 1kHz
-600 ohms 35mW
-8 ohms 720mW
-Output Impedance: 0.075 ohms
-Dynamic Range: 125dB
-THD @ 3v – 0.00017%

So we can all read the specs and features and so on, BUT the key point is how does the Chord Mojo perform and does it sound any good! Answer it is a magical, breathtaking product that blows the competition away when it comes to musicality, sound quality and tonal reproduction. At its price point of £399, there is nothing anywhere near this and likely up to and slightly over £1,500 that competes. Chord sell the Hugo, a bigger version of the Mojo for £1,400, and yet the Mojo according to those that are lucky enough to own both reproduces 97% of what the Hugo achieves. Some say its better.

I have been listening to the Mojo with Sony MDR-1RNC, AKG K702 and ATH-M50x headphones and I have never heard my headphones sound so good. Period! The Mojo is funky with its coloured balls that change colours yet its built like a rock. A stunning piece of engineering. I am not listening to high end FLAC or DSD tracks just normal MP3 encoded music to achieve this wonderful sound. For the record, the Mojo is not a review unit/loan. I consider the Mojo the single best electronic purchase I have ever made. That list includes phones, cameras, tablets, audio equipment, gadgets and more.

My recommendation would be to stop buying the next best smartphone, and start enjoying your music collection all over again!

Chord Electronics Mojo Headphone Amplifier / DAC information and deal at Amazon UK

Motorola X Style Smartphone – review

October 21, 2015Android, Reviews, Tech NewsMotorola X Style, Review, smartphoneGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Welcome to my review of the Motorola X Style smartphone.

Basics

Key specifications –

– Networks – GSM / CDMA / HSPA / LTE Cat 6
– Dimensions – 153.9 x 76.2 x 11.1 mm
– Weight – 179g
– SIM – Nano-SIM
– Water repellant – nano-coating ,IP52 certified
– Display – 5.7 inches (74.9& screen to body ratio) IPS
– Resolution – 1440 x 2560 pixels, 520 ppi
– Protection – Corning Gorilla Glass 3
– Android OS – v5.1.1, upgrade to v6.0
– Processor – Snapdragon 808, CPU Dual-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A57 & quad-core 1.44 GHz Cortex-A53,GPU Adreno 418, Natural Language Processor, and Contextual Computing Processor
– Storage -Card slot microSD up to 128 GB, Internal options 32/64 GB, 3 GB RAM
– Camera – Rear 21 MP f/2.0, 5248 x 3936, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash, Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, panorama, auto-HDR
– Video – 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30fps, HDR
– Front camera – 5 MP f/2.0, LED flash
– Loudspeaker Front stereo speakers
– 3.5mm jack
– Communications – WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, hotspot
– Bluetooth – v4.1, A2DP, EDR, LE
– GPS – A-GPS, GLONASS
– NFC- Yes
– USB microUSB v2.0
– Moto Sensors
– Fast battery charging: 34% in 15 min
– Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
– Battery – Non-removable 3000 mAh battery
– Price £350

I recently reviewed the Moto X Play ( https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/10/01/motorola-moto-x-play-review/ ) and really loved this phone. With its 1080p and whopping sized battery it provided up to 2 days usage. It had a loud mono front loudspeaker. The fit and finish was a bit plastic feeling but then this was reflected in its price.

So how does the Moto X Style improve over the X Play. Firstly, a 5.7 inch QHD screen which screams quality. Brilliant viewing angles and excellent visibility in all lighting. Next it has a metal frame, not plastic and feels so much more premium than the Moto X Play. And finally there is the stereo front speakers. On paper both phones have the same rear camera, but the X Style has a more powerful processor and can therefore take better photos. It also has a front flash for the front 5mp f/2.0 camera, ideal for selfies.

The sim tray houses both the nano sim and micro SD card. I used my 128gb sandisk micro sd card with no issues. Call quality and reception was excellent. WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC all worked really well. WiFi included Mimo Dual band.

Clove Technology provided the Moto X Style, and are selling it for a fair amount less than Motorola themselves. Details here https://www.clove.co.uk/motorola-moto-x-style .

The Moto X Style comes with android 5.1.1 but android 6.0 marshmallow is due shortly. It is near stock android, with just a few Moto apps.

Moto Assist – understands whether you’re in the car, at work, or at home, and adapts in ways that help you. Like letting only priority calls through while you’re asleep or automatically replying to important messages when you’re in a meeting.

Notifications – You can wave you hand over the phone to see the time and any notifications. You can use your voice to ask and control the X Style. If you want to see more info on any notification you can slide up.

The Moto functions are handled by a Natural Language and Contextual Computing Processor that enables all this functionality without impacting battery.

Battery life is one day only, and if used heavily the QHD screen will mean a quick charge at some point during the day. This is compensated with quick charge 2 or turbo charging as Motorola call it. This is very fast and adds up to 10 hours of battery life in 15 minutes. The Turbo charger is included in the box.

The Moto X Style has one more feature up its sleeve. It you head over to Motorola you can customise the look, colours and materials used for your phone. But you will pay a premium for this and in my opinion the extra cost is not worth it.

Camera and Audio

The Moto X Style has a rear 21mp f/2.0 and front 5mp f/2.0 both with flash. That’s right, a front flash is included. The X Style has an excellent camera. Really impressive. Low light becomes difficult but it compensates for being super fast. It also received an update to the Moto camera app allowing barcode scanning.

I had a surprise with the camera. I shot a moving cyclist. I went to check the photo in the Gallery and the X Style told me it had taken a better shot. I saved both my shot and the one the camera took. My shot is with the cyclist in the middle of the frame. The camera caught the cyclist as it entered the shot. Rather neat!

Below are a selection of photos from the X Style. All rather good photos.

A good shot by the X Style with the sun although there is some glare.

Another good shot.

The shot below is the one the camera took all by itself!

And finally a low light shot.

I mentioned earlier it had front stereo speakers. These go very loud, nearly HTC One M9 levels. Heck its worth buying the X Style just for the stereo speakers alone! USB Audio is supported. Good headphone output and quality too.

Conclusion

This Motorola Moto X Style is a cracking piece of kit. Clove Technology are selling the Moto X Style for £350, which makes this an easy recommendation. Superb screen, camera and pumping stereo front speakers.

My thanks to Clove Technology for the Moto X Style, so if you want to know anymore or buy the X Style, click here – https://www.clove.co.uk/motorola-moto-x-style

Apple iPhone 6S Plus – Extreme Low Light – Photography Special Part 2

October 20, 2015Apple, Reviews, Tech NewsApple iPhone 6S plus, Extreme Low light, part 2, Photography SpecialGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Welcome to part 2 of my iPhone 6S Plus Photography special. To recap on Part 1 click here – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/10/12/apple-iphone-6s-plus-photography-special-video-and-photos-part-1/

Over the last few weeks I have been exploring several camera apps that all claim to help or add something to the photography experience when taking photos. The apps I tested were the default Apple camera app, Slow Shutter, Camera+, Camera Vortex and Nightcap Pro. The 6S Plus was on a tripod for all these night shots. Camera Vortex and Slow Shutter did a terrible job, so I have omitted their photos.

The setting was my local church which has been photographed by most of my smartphones and if you want to see loads of photos of the church was a multitude of angles head over to my flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100 . The Church is called the Church of St Michaels and All Angels. The time of day was passed dusk and the last shots were taken inside the graveyard in near pitch black. I will add commentary on each shot and also at the end I have linked to low light shots from the LG G4 and Honor 6+ that I took.

The developer of Nightcap Pro, Chris Wood, has been extremely helpful trying to help me extract the best from his app. He also gave some interesting insight into the new iPhones –

“The iPhone 6s / 6s Plus cameras are a solid upgrade except in very low light where they perform slightly worse than the 6 / 6 Plus and even the older 5s. The smaller pixels mean higher resolution but since they’re smaller, there’s less area for light to hit which means it doesn’t receive as much light. Apple have done a great job in compensating for that with better technology, though. However, the camera is also limited to just 1/3 second exposures, which is 50% less than the 6 / 6 Plus which go to 1/2 second, so the end result is slightly worse performance.”

You'll see why I got in touch with the developer of Nightcap Pro as his app was the best by far for creating a usable low night shot of the church.

First let's take a look at what the default camera app can achieve.

Flash first. Shutter was 1/17, with ISO 2000.

HDR on, no flash, shutter 1/17 , ISO 2000.

Auto mode, no HDR, no flash, shutter 1/4, ISO 640. A less noisy shot and the best of the 3 from the Apple default camera app.

Using Nightcap Pro, the shot below was taken in pitch black conditions. Using long exposure mode for around 20 seconds. ISO is showing as 3,200, but you wouldn’t know it.

So with Camera+ using full manual settings, this was the best shot possible at 1/4 second shutter speed and ISO 1250. A noisy shot.

So Nightcap Pro did a really good job. It also has other modes, so I was experimenting with some light trails as per the two shots below. Unfortunately, I live in a rural village, which means no traffic. After 3 hours only 2 cars drove through, hence why there is only 2 photos using this mode!

Nightcap Pro also has a mode to brighten up dark shots. Photo as below. There are many other features of Nightcap Pro, but the long and short of it, is that it takes brilliant night shots that are way better than the default camera app and many other third party iOS camera apps too.

To see how my LG G4 in manual mode coped with darkness at the same church click here – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/05/17/lg-g4-the-review/ . About half way down the review is shots taken at various shutter exposures.

As another point of reference is the super night mode from my Honor 6+. See here for shot of same church again using the super night mode – https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/05/13/honor-6-the-review/

So in summary extreme low light is difficult on the iPhone 6S Plus unless you have Nightcap Pro ( https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/nightcap-pro/id754105884?mt=8 ) . I can only hope that as the 12mp rear camera is new, Apple will release software update to improve its results.

What do you think?

Nexus 5X – First Impressions

October 20, 2015Android, Reviews, Tech NewsCamera, First Impressions, Nexus 5XGavin Fabiani-Laymond

The Nexus 5X arrived yesterday, so this is simply first impressions.

In this post I am not going to cover off the official specs, just give you my first thoughts.

I have the carbon black 32gb version and its a great size. 24.89gb is available so I would completely avoid the 16gb as you could run out of storage at some point in the future.

The screen is fabulous as is the overall profile. Easy to hold and fairly comfortable. In fact, size wise it is the perfect size. The fingerprint sensor works flawlessly and fast. You can use it to turn on the phone too. No need to press the power button.

I took the camera for a quick spin and the results are good. I need more time with the camera, but it will take shots to be proud of. Whether its the best camera on the market at the moment is under review. Look back to the previous post to see camera samples.

To turn the camera on, just double press the power button. This is really fast and works a treat. The phone is really fast and fluid too with excellent viewing angles.

So far so good. Except, rant coming. I had nothing to charge it with in the car. It comes with a USB C to USB C cable and a mains adapter. Grrrr. Luckily the battery has been excellent and I have managed to survive a whole day with ease from a 80% start. In fact I only used 30% which is superb. If you buy the Nexus 6P you get an additional cable with a traditional USB end and USB C at the other.

I thought the phone didn’t have a notification LED, but it does. It is turned off by default in the settings. It is located in the bottom speaker grill and is fairly prominent.

That’s all for now.

If you have any questions, please let me know in the usual manner. If you want to see camera samples from the Nexus 5X look back one article. I also have the Nexus 6P for review too.

Huawei G8 Smartphone – My review

October 19, 2015Android, Reviews, Tech NewsHuawei G8, ReviewGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Welcome to my review of the Huawei G8.

First up this phone’s hardware is absolutely gorgeous. Curved corners, metal unibody and a very decent specification.

Specification

– Operating System Android 5.1 with Emotion UI
– Processor Snapdragon 615 Processor + 3gb ram + Andreno 405 GPU
– Storage 32gb (22gb available) storage plus micro SD card support upto 64gb
– Network LTE Category 4: 50 Mbit/s (UL), 150 Mbit/s (DL),DC-HSPA+: 5.76Mbit/s (UL),42 Mbit/s (DL),WCDMA: 384 Kbit/s (UL), 384 Kbit/s (DL),EDGE Class 12: 236.8 Kbit/s (UL),236.8 Kbit/s (DL),GPRS: 40 Kbit/s (UL), 60 Kbit/s (DL) – Phone has dual antennas
– GPS/AGPS/Glonass
– Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0,Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, 2.4G, USB2.0 high speed
– Sensors – Accelerometer,Proximity sensor,Ambient light sensor,Compass
– Cameras 13mp OIS f/2.0 BSI 28mm wide angled rear with sapphire lens, 5mp front
– Battery – 3,000mAh
– NFC – Yes
– Screen – 5.5 inch 2.5D 1080p,
– Dimensions – 152 x 76.5 x 7.5 mm, 401 PPI
– Weight -167g
– Fingerprint sensor
– Dual sim setup with micro SD

Basics

First let us see what we get in the box and take a closer look at the gorgeous hardware.

As this is manufactured by Huawei, the phone reception, in fact all the radios WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC and cellular are excellent at picking up and signal as well as clear voice calls. The Mate S is configured with a dual sim arrangement, which can use the second nano sim as a micro SD card slot up to 64gb, although my 128gb sandisk card seems to work ok. The Huawei G8 will be on sale for around £350 or less, so is similar in price to the Honor 7. So what are the differences. Unlike the Honor 7, the Huawei G8 does include NFC so it is ready for Android Pay. It also has optical image stabilisation something the Honor does not include. However, the Honor 7 has a larger 20mp camera vs the G8’s 13mp. The Honor 7 also has the fancy light modes and the legendary smart key.

In terms of interface, the skin is Emotion UI (EMUI) so looks and feels identical to other Huawei offerings.

More about EMUI 3.1 – This is the custom Huawei’s custom launcher/skin. The main difference with this custom launcher is the removal of the app drawer. Think iPhone with folders or apps on home screens. There are many many themes available for EMUI to change the look as required. Of course, if EMUI is not to your liking then you can install another launcher eg. Nova or Google Now.

AnTuTu benchmarking produced an overall score of 36,023. However, like all benchmarking scores real world usage matters. So in use the phone is fairly fluid. The screen has good viewing angles too.

Extras –

– Its a dual sim. Only one sim has 3g/4g. The second sim can only manage data at 2g. However, the first sim does 4g on all the UK bands. The dual sim management works well. You can select which sim is the default for data, calls and messages. Also when using 2 sims as I did, you can have 2 signal strengths showing in the status bar as well as both network names and the network speed.

– On screen menu buttons can be reconfigured and an extra menu for the notifications screen is available.

– To conserve battery there is an option for Protected apps (apps to be allowed to run in the background), Notification Manager (control apps that are allowed to be in the notification centre), Battery saving modes. If you are installing a lot of apps, you might find apps stop working in the background. It is important to make sure you setup the apps you want to run in the background. Also the phone reminds you of apps that are draining battery. This can become a nuisance.

– Fingerprint sensor that allows up to five fingers to be stored. Once unlocked the fingerprint sensor can be used a a touch panel. You can go back to previous view, back to home with a touch and hold, take photo, answer a call, stop an alarm, slide up to show the recent apps and slide down to display the notification centre. The fingerprint sensor is lightning quick to unlock.

– Voice Wakeup – by speaking at any time, “Dear Honor, where are you”, the phone plays this creepy music with a voice that gets louder whilst saying “I’m here”. You can also use the voice control to call contacts are other functions are available.

– Motions – You can flip to mute, pickup and reduce call volume, double touch to turn on, draw 4 different letters to launch an app e.g. draw a C to launch the camera.

– Glove mode. This is also available.

All the above extras are user configurable. So you could turn them all off or turn on just the features that you want.

Battery life – I got around 4.5 hours screen on time and managed to reach the end of a day with ease.

Camera and Audio

If you read my review of the Huawei Mate S or Honor 7, the G8 has a similar camera setup and app, except it is minus a few features. Huawei promote the camera with a high dynamic flashlight mode which is always on when needed. They have decided to go this route instead of including the super night and light painting modes found on the Mate S and even the Honor 7. However, the G8 does include optical image stabilisation to try and ensure you get a good shot first time and a two tone flash.

Camera app options include shooting modes for good food, video, photo, beauty, light painting, HDR, watermark, best photo, audio note, panorama, all focus and time lapse. Within the settings you can turn on voice control,timer, touch to capture,smile capture, perfect selfie, ultra snapshot, object tracking, adjust ISO, white balance, exposure, saturation, contrast, brightness and more. There is no manual mode and no raw options.

A selection of photos below.

Now a normal and HDR version. Notice the artistic effect.

So do you like the HDR shot? I am not too impressed with the normal shot. There is too much shadow.

Again a normal and HDR version.

I actually like the artistic HDR version but I accept not everyone will prefer this style of shot. It is also rather fake HDR looking. It would be better if Huawei just focused on trying to take a better more natural shot.

One more from the Huawei G8.

My views on the photos that I have taken is that the Huawei G8 can take acceptable shots in good light but introduces a lot noise in lower light. HDR photos are too fake looking for most people. Whilst the optical image stabilisation helps it doesn’t end up being the cure. I also am puzzled by the omission of all the special night and painting modes that are found on the cheaper Honor 7 and more expensive Mate S.

Audio. The loudspeaker is situated on the bottom edge and produces a reasonable clean sound. It is not at the level of the HTC One M9 but is acceptable for podcasts and such like. USB Audio is supported too. If you connect headphones, the output quality is good. The G8 also offers DTS Dolby sound via headphones. I have over 4,000 tracks on my 128gb sandisk micro sd card and the default music app had no issue handling this size of memory card.

Conclusion

With NFC and optical image stabilisation in a lovely metal unibody casing, I really like this phone from Huawei and have decided to keep this a while longer to see when and what Android Marshmallow brings to the table. The Huawei G8 actually has competition from within with its sub brand Honor and the Honor 7. If mobile payments are important then the Huawei G8 is the one to go for, but if its about the camera and functionality I would opt for the Honor 7.

Huawei G8 32GB 4G Champagne at Amazon UK – special deal

Recent Phone, Bluetooth Headphones and Audio Equipment reviews

October 18, 2015Android, Apple, Audio, Headphone, Reviews, Tech News, WearablesApple Watch, august headphones, august stereo system, Honor 7, Huawei G8, Huawei Watch, iPhone 6S Plus, LG G4, Note 5, Reviews, sony z5, suaokiGavin Fabiani-Laymond

There have been several reviews over the last few weeks. Below are the links. Over the next few weeks there will be more reviews covering new smartphones and the brand new Chord Mojo which has taken the audio world by storm.

Apple iPhone 6S Plus incl Apple Watch review (continuously updated) – Now 14 Parts

Apple iPhone 6S Plus – The Review

August SE20 Mini Radio and Portable Bluetooth Stereo System Review

August SE20 Portable Mini FM Radio and Bluetooth Stereo System – review

August EP650 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones Review

August EP650 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones – review

August EP610 In Ear Bluetooth Stereo Sports Headphones review

August EP610 In-Ear Bluetooth Stereo Sports Headphones – review

August EP636 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones review

August EP636 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones with NFC and Mic – Review

Honor 7 Smartphone review

Honor 7 Smartphone – my review

Suaoki 40W 8A 5 Port Compact USB Charger

Suaoki Compact 40W 8A 5 Port High USB Charger – review

Motorola Moto X Play

Motorola Moto X Play – review

LG G4 – 4 month review

LG G4 – 4 Month Review – The Ultimate Package and its last hurrah

LG G4 – main review

LG G4 – The Review – All 26 Parts

Sony Xperia Z5 Compact 23mp Camera Test

Sony Xperia Z5 Compact – Just how good is the new 23mp camera – See for yourself!

Huawei Watch review

Huawei Watch – my review

Samsung Note 5 Dual Sim review

Samsung Note 5 – Dual Sim – First Impressions

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Camera Shootout – Apple iPhone 6S Plus vs Huawei G8 vs Motorola Moto X Style

October 16, 2015Android, Apple, Reviews, Tech Newscamera shootout, iphone 6s plus vs huawei g8 vs moto x styleGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Today I’m looking at three different phones each with unique selling points. All 3 phones have different rear cameras too.

The Apple iPhone 6S Plus is 12mp and has OIS. The Huawei G8 is 13mp and also has OIS. The Motorola Moto X Style has a huge 20mp rear camera but no OIS. The shots were taken at sunset and within minutes of each other.

They are all random shots and all in auto. I am going to collate each cameras photos together so you can appreciate the style of each phone. I have also added some commentary. These were the first shots. No retakes.

iPhone 6S Plus

Auto HDR works really well dealing with the sun. Fairly natural shots with HDR working well. No surprises really.



Difficult lighting in the above shot but well exposed.


Good colour reproduction above.


Again just a good shot above.


Notice how close the field of view is with the iPhone. Relevant for comparing to the other phones.

Motorola Moto X Style

The photos below are from the Moto X Style. My thanks to Clove Technology for supplying the X Style for this comparison and also full review.

I really like the quality of the photos from the X Style. Auto HDR works really well too.

A good shot by the X Style with the sun although there is glare.

With the wider field of view the X Style captures more of the scene. Another good shot.

Again a reasonable shot, although not quite as good as that from the 6S Plus, but still good.

Again the wider field of view captures the whole supermarket into this shot. Good capture.

The bus had just driven passed as captured on the 6S Plus shot and then a cyclist whizzed passed. When I went to view the shot taken, the X Style said it had a better shot of the one I had taken. WTF. I had only captured one, but the camera had sneakily taken another as shown below. Very useful feature IMO.

Huawei G8

Unlike the other phones it doesn’t have auto HDR so you have to manually select this. And the G8 takes artistic HDR shots as you will see below. Where there is an HDR version I have included it. The shot below has good colour reproduction.

–

Now a normal and HDR version. Notice the artistic effect.

Ð

So do you like the HDR shot? I am not too impressed with the normal shot. There is too much shadow.

Again a normal and HDR version.

8

I actually like the artistic HDR version but I accept not everyone will prefer this style of shot.

One more from the Huawei G8.

Conclusion

From the 3 different cameras, whilst the Huawei G8 photos are ok, they are not at the level of the Motorola X Style or iPhone 6S Plus, but then there is a price differential between these phones. The Huawei G8 and Moto X Style cost £350 and the iPhone has a £250 plus premium on top. Of course there is more to a phone than just the camera, but what do you think about these photos?

One comment so far

August EP650 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones – review

October 14, 2015Audio, Headphone, Reviews, Tech NewsAugust EP650 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones reviewGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Welcome to my review of the August EP650 Bluetooth stereo headphones. This is the last August Bluetooth I am reviewing and as the expression goes, I have left the best to the last. Out of all 3 this is my personal favourite. More on why later. First the key specifications.

Specifications

– Bluetooth V4.0 with aptX® Technology
– Operating Range: Up to 10m
– Frequency Response: 60Hz – 20KHz
– Speaker Output: 30mW
– SNR: ≥85dB
– Distortion: ≤1.0%
– Battery: 3.7V/220mAh Built-in Li-ion Battery
– Working Time: 10 Hours
– Charging Time: 2 Hours
– Standby Time: 30 Days
– Weight: 235g
– Dimensions: 176.6 x 188.6 x 71mm

Key Features/Usage

The August EP650 Bluetooth Wireless Headphones are packed with all the functionality of the smaller EP636’s which I reviewed a few days ago. The EP650 improve upon the EP636 with more comfort due to the 12mm ear piece cushions and padded headband. In addition the headphones features apt-X and can connect to non bluetooth devices with a standard 3.5mm audio cable (provided). The retail price is normally £67.95, but there is currently an offer on Amazon UK saving nearly £30.

Other key features include –

– Microphone for Hands-Free Calls
– Bluetooth Range up to 10m
– NFC Ready – Tap to Connect
– 11 hours Battery Life
– Adjustable Headband

The August EP650 have larger cushions than the smaller EP636’s and consequently are really comfortable. Add in APT-X for better sound quality and the ability to use a 3.5mm audio cable (provided) for non bluetooth devices or when the battery has gone flat and you have a really versatile good quality headphone.

In terms of call quality, these sounded ok. The caller at the other end had no issue hearing me. I listened to a large number of tracks and a range of musical genres from classical, jazz, blues, pop and more. The EP650’s lean slightly towards the bass which reduces the sound stage and slightly overpowers the treble. The 650’s are best described a fun and comfortable headphone to listen too. During quiet classical pieces you can hear a slight hiss.

Conclusion

The August EP650’s are available in a range of colours and at their price point, comfort, quality and versatility offer good value for money. Recommended.

August EP650 Bluetooth headphone deal at Amazon UK

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