Welcome to my review of the Poco X3 NFC smartphone which retails from £199 for the 64gb version. It is also available with 128gb storage for £229.
The Key Features
– The POCO X3 includes an AI quad-camera with a 64MP primary sensor and a 13mp ultra-wide-angle sensor, 2mp depth sensor to help with portrait mode, and a 2mp macro sensor.
– The POCO X3 includes the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G processor, and an Octa-Core CPU.
– The POCO X3 features a 6.67″ display with a 120hz display for smoother scrolling and browsing.
– The POCO X3 includes 5160mAh big battery, for more prolonged phone usage without having to recharge.
– The POCO X3 charges via USB-C and supports up to 33W fast charging. A 33W fast charger is also included in the box.
– The POCO X3 comes with a 20mp punch-hole selfie camera.
– The POCO X3 also features a side-mounted finger-sensor, allowing you to unlock your phone from the side using the natural grip of your hand.
– It also has a FM Radio and Infra Red Blaster.
– Stereo Speakers
– IP53 rating.
Video Review
Conclusion
The POCO X3 NFC is not just a budgetpriced phone, but an incredible phone. At £199 it’s a massive recommendation but do see my other video and post on how to remove the system ads which is a oneoff 10 minute exercise . 9/10.
Welcome to my review of the Huawei Watch Fit which retails for £119.99.
The Key Features
– 10 Days Battery Life & Quick Charge Technology – Featuring the dual chipset architecture and power-saving algorithms, this watch can last for 10 days. And with the quick charge technology, the watch can support you a whole day with only 5-minute charge. This is a strength of the Watch Fit.
– 96 Workout Modes – provides precise and real-time workout metrics for 11 professional sport modes including running, swimming and cycling. The 85 custom workout modes allow you to unleash your potential, whether you’re into yoga or high-intensity interval training, the watch also keeps track of your real-time heart rate, calories and duration of the workout. All the modes are shown in my video review.
– Real-time Metrics & Professional guidance – With a built-in GPS sensor, 5ATM, AI heart rate algorithm and innovative sensors, HUAWEI WATCH FIT is made for all the ways you exercise. This watch helps you train better by providing real-time metrics, scientific training effect evaluations and professional guidance.
– 24-Hour Heart Rate Monitoring – HUAWEI TruSeen 4.0 heart rate monitoring technology, this smart watch can accurately monitor your heart rate in real-time during the day even when you are sleeping. And timely detect if your heart rate exceeds the normal range, and send out a reminder to provide you with all-day health protection.
– Oxygen Saturation Detection – Very low levels of blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) can result in health problems. Try to wear HUAWEI WATCH FIT and start detecting SpO2 with a simple touch. Only a few seconds, it will show the detecting data accurately and give you a reference to pay attention to your health.
Video Review
Conclusion
A superb fitness device from Huawei, excellent screen size to display all metrics and with battery endurance to match. Highly recommended 9/10.
Apple iPhone 8 Plus. First Impressions and initial thoughts.
Judging by the lack of queues at all the main Apple stores it seems many people are clearly waiting for the newer iPhone X.
But from my initial use of the new iPhone 8 Plus I have come away with a different view. The expression a wolf in sheep’s clothing is quite appropriate. It’s actually its more like a bland lion in sheep’s clothing.
The A11 Bionic processor is a beast. What it does for the whole phone experience is badass.
First my views on the 3 finishes. I didn’t like space grey. The gold is ok. But I loved the white and silver finish.
Screen. The true tone screen looks too good to be true at times. It’s the ultimate in IPS technology. But it’s not light years ahead of the 7 Plus. But it’s still better.
Operation. The A11 processor must contribute to the overall smoothness of the phone. Really felt like gliding through menus and apps.
Camera. There’s no HDR option. It’s on by default. The camera felt fast to take shots and there was low noise in the indoor photos. Portrait lightning was fun to use but I did notice some errors on the edges. It is in beta though. The standout feature of the camera was the video. 4K at 60fps is freaking unbelievably amazing. So life like and real to view footage back on the screen. Stabilisation looked good too.
Speakers. Louder than before. That’s a good thing. Wireless charging worked as expected.
I started by saying it’s a bland lion in sheep’s clothing. And that is how I feel. It looks like every other iPhone for the last 4 or so years. Except it performs like the King of the Jungle.
I can see this being quite popular on contract upgrade plans and for people that still want the convenience of Touch ID. It is however not a design I want to see in my hand. I’m more interested in the upcoming iPhone X!
A short video walking along the high street in the historic market town of Tavistock, Devon, UK. Tavistock has some really ancient buildings. Make sure you change the YouTube video quality to the maximum 3K.
For this 360 degree video the titles, music and all the editing was done on my iPhone 7 Plus using Luma Fusion app which supports 360 degree footage.
Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom impressions Day 2. Lots to talk about but so little time so I will try and cover off some points.
That 5,000mAh battery is epic. 2 days heavy use should be straight forward. 10% lost in 13 hours. 35% in a day which included using the camera. The power management is super smart with a couple of slick options which I will cover off in my main review.
The front camera does slow motion video as well as the rear. 4K video from the rear. 1080p from the front.
The audio system is consumer friendly. It has a slight presence towards the bass, producing a full, powerful and fun sound. Just not the bleeding edge in neutrality for audio, although it does manage hi res audio and include apt-x. I need to spend some more time with the audio though to decide where it fits in my scoring.
So below are the first 7 shots from the camera.I intend to go through the options in a lot more depth. Just remember this phone costs £330 which is over half the cost of an iPhone 7 Plus.
Close up of some bushes. There is a slight softness on close up shots.
Both the shots above and below look good.
All photos shot in auto mode.
Sky looks quite good too.
I love this shot of my local church. Captured the mood really well. This was just before a hailstorm.
After dusk I took the shot of the dandelions.
The sky looks great last night.
So there you have it so far. Plenty plenty more to cover off.
Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2 Bluetooth headphones review. Welcome to my next bluetooth headphone review. This Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2 are the new flagship bluetooth headphones from Plantronics. They have replaced the original BackBeat Pro headphones which were excellent in their own right.
Key Features / Specifications
– Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR, HSP 1.2, HFP 1.6 (Wideband)
– Up to: 24 hours of listening time, six months’ DeepSleep
– Rechargeable, non-replaceable lithium-ion battery
– Charge Time: Up to 3 hours
– Wireless Range: Stream music up to 100 metres (330 feet)
– Multi-Point: Yes
– Microphones: Dual microphones with DSP
– A2DP: Yes
– Voice Alerts: Status alerts for remaining battery
– HP Drivers: 40 mm dynamic drivers
– In the box: BackBeat PRO 2 headphones, micro-USB charge cable, 3.5mm cable, travel sleeve
– Weight: 0.64 lbs / 289 grams
Bluetooth headphones seem to be getter better and better. Everyone wants a slice of this market, and it seems wired headphones are quickly being relegated to the bin. So it should come as no surprise that Plantronics decided to update and improve their original BackBeat Pro headphones.
So how did Plantronics improve the Pro 2’s over the original. First of all, the BackBeat Pro 2 are approximately 50g lighter. The reduction in weight makes a huge difference to the overall comfort. Next, the design of the headphone cups is now rectangular in style. This provides a better fit over the ear and this also adds to the improved comfort. The next improvement is the sound quality. The BackBeat Pro 2 still have deep bass but with more control, but now the mids and treble are improved too. This creates a wider soundstage, clearer vocals and more detail in the mids. Or in simple language, these sound fantastic and are wonderful to use over very long periods. The bass is enhanced so if you prefer a flatter sound, these aren’t for you. Personally, I have enjoyed listening to these with every genre.
However, its not just the sound quality that make these headphones special. They are firmware upgradeable but you need a mac or pc for this and if you find you are on firmware 1.8 you definitely want to upgrade it to v1.9 or above as the difference is noticeable and makes the headphones rock solid when it comes to holding the bluetooth connection. Firmware v1.8 had a few issues. I originally tried to update the firmware on my Mac, but the updater wouldn’t work. I had to use a friend’s laptop!
There is an iOS and android app that provides a help menu and a few other options. The BackBeat Pro 2 allow you to move around up to 100m away and still maintain a connection. Other features like stopping the music automatically when removing them from you head, and restarting the song when you place them back on is rather neat. Call quality was good on these too. The headphones have all the controls you could dream of as listed in the key features.
One of the aspects I like is being able to use the bluetooth connection with or without active noise cancellation. At home, in the peace and quiet, I don’t need noise cancellation. In terms of noise cancellation the BackBeat Pro 2 managed a reasonable job of removing noise but they are not as good as the Bose QC35.
Video Review
Now watch the video review to learn more about the headphones.
Conclusion
The Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2 correct some of the weaknesses of the original BackBeat Pro’s. There are more comfortable and fit better. More importantly, they sound incredible. Highly recommended.
I am currently putting the Lenovo P2 through its paces testing every aspect of this new phone that is available on Three UK for £199 on PAYG.
To give you some idea of what makes this phone special, take a look at the key specs –
The Key Specification
– 5,100mAh battery providing up to 3 days use
– Charge other devices – OTG cable in box and adapter
– 24W fast charging – 15 mins charge gives 10 hours of use
– Special Hardware Key slides to activate power saving mode
– 5.5 inch super amoled screen 1080p
– Full metal unibody design in a profile of just 8.5mm thin
– Processor – Snapdragon 625, Andreno 506 GPU
– Connectivity – VoLTE (4G Super-Voice),3G ,Wi-Fi,GPS,Bluetooth® ,NFC, FM Radio
– 32gb rom, 4gb ram
– Micro SD cards up to 128gb
– Headphone Jack
– Micro USB, USB Audio, OTG
– Sensors – Accelerometer,Gyroscope,Ambient light,Proximity,Magnetometer
– Bands – GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, WCDMA: 850/900/2100 MHz,LTE: 800/900/1800/2600 MHz
– Dimensions – Height: 153 mm,Width: 76 mm,Depth: 8.5 mm
– Weight: 177 g
– Front Fingerprint sensor – special functions on sensor too
– Android Marshmallow
– Cameras – Rear – 13 MP, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash, Front 5mp
My full review will be live soon, so if you have any questions please let me know either by leaving a comment below, or contacting me across social media.
Honor is back with its new Honor 6X. The Honor 6X has a dual camera setup. The main sensor (a Sony IMX386 sensor), is 12 megapixels, equipped with phase autofocus and LED flash, and a secondary 2 megapixel sensor, that helps deliver pro photography: Even in low light, noise levels are kept to a minimum thanks to Deep Trench Isolation, which isolates pixels to suppress blur. The result? A sharper picture quality with better colour reproduction, and no more challenges getting subjects in focus. The 12mp sensor has a 1.25um pixel size and can lock on focus in 0.3 seconds.
The 8mp front camera has a Prism ISP for superb selfies. The 8mp front camera has a 77 degree angle, and intelligent software that is self-adaptive for skin tone and can auto touch up faces.
The lens system consists of six layers to enhance uniformity of light and reduce screen distortion significantly. To add to this, Phase Detection Autofocus Technology (PDAF) promises camera focus on a rapid 0.3 seconds, guaranteeing moments won’t be missed. Wide Aperture mode sets the user up with a host of photographic effects with the ability to adjust f/0.95 – f/16, including watermarks, whilst guaranteeing a simple-to-use editing.
The other key specs start with its gorgeous looks using 2.5D glass and a metal frosted design. It comes equipped with a Kirin 655 processor (4 cores at 2.1GHz and 4 at 1.7GHz), 3,400 mAh battery, 5.5-inch screen 1080p Full-HD resolution (403 pixels-per-inch) 450nits brightness, 32gb rom, 3gb ram, micro SD cards up to 128gb, Micro USB faster charging at 5V 2A, a finger print sensor and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Where to Buy
The Honor 6X is available from January 4th in Grey, Gold and Silver on Honor’s vMall and Amazon for an incredible price of just £224.99, and with Three at the end of January, the exclusive provider for Honor.
More information at Amazon UK – Click HERE.
Honor 8 in blue is currently on offer – Click HERE
Welcome to my review of the BlackBerry DTEK60. This is BlackBerry’s new flagship phone with killer specs, audio, security and camera. My thanks to Clove Technology for delivering the phone swiftly.
So does the DTEK60 from BlackBerry cut the mustard? Well, lets take a look at the key specifications and features.
Key Specifications/Features
– Android 6.0 Marshmallow – Full Google services and access to over 1 million applications
– BlackBerry DTEK security – Security that protects the private details of your life from being hacked
– Fingerprint sensor – Physical protection against unwanted access to the phone
– Regular security updates – BlackBerry have committed to delivering Google’s monthly security patches and OS enhancements
– BlackBerry Intelligent Keyboard – Learns and provides word suggestions for up to 3 languages of your choice
– Customisable BlackBerry Convenience Key – Provides quick access to your most used applications and more
– 5.5″ QHD 534 ppi amoled screen – scratch resistant glass and nano coating to avoid fingerprint smudges
– 21 megapixel main camera -f/2.0 6 element lens, 4K Video 30fps
– 8 megapixel front camera – Capture great selfies even in low light with a front facing flash
– Snapdragon 820
– 32GB internal storage – 4gb ram
– MicroSD card slot – up to 2TB
– it has a headphone jack
– 4G LTE –
– 3,000 may battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge
– USB Type C
– Stereo loudspeakers
The Basics
The BlackBerry DTEK60 is probably the phone all BlackBerry users have dreamed of with a powerhouse of top end specs, decent stereo speakers, a superb QHD 534ppi amoled screen, a headphone jack, excellent headphone audio and bluetooth stereo.
The 3,000 mAh battery reached on average 4.5 hours screen on time. Some days, this was less, sometimes a little bit more than 4.5 hours. Standby time was ok. It did seem to lose more than other phones I have tested whilst in standby mode. Call quality was good.
The viewing angles of the screen were good too along with sunlight visibility. The screen adjusts the contrast and brightness making photo taking a breeze.
It also features BlackBerry’s DTEK security suite, keyboard, launcher and productivity apps including the BlackBerry Hub. There is a lot of nice useful bits of software from BlackBerry.
The BlackBerry launcher is fantastic too. It allows custom icon packs which 100s available on the Google Play Store. On the home screen, swiping up on an app opens up the app widget. The launcher also allows for a wide selection of shortcuts. More details on the video review.
Camera and Audio
The DTEK50 has stereo speakers that sound superb and go loud. Lovely clarity and good volume. Brilliant for podcasts, gaming, watching YouTube videos and more. Headphone audio via the 3.5mm headphone jack was better than normal. Bluetooth audio was excellent. The phone has MAXX audio which adds to the whole enjoyment and quality. See video for more details.
The camera app is superb to use. I personally really like the camera app. The video below goes through all the options so do check that out. The photo quality is good too. The 21mp rear camera and 8mp front camera take lovely photos.
A lovely macro shot.
With poor light and fog. The above photo was superb.
Video Review
Below is the video section. The video helps compliment the written part to provide more detail around the phone construction, camera app, Blackberry apps and sound quality.
Conclusion
The BlackBerry DTEK60 is an excellent phone. It excels in all areas and in today’s cyber crime environment, has BlackBerry’s commitment to providing fast and regular security updates. Recommended.
Gavin's Gadgets & Photography 