While 2020 may be the year of lockdowns, it also presents a bit of a watershed as far as mobile phones are concerned. You see, unless you go really cheap with your choice of smartphone, you can pretty much guarantee that it will offer a decent screen, above-average build quality and it will take a reasonable photograph.

So, it might be worth asking the question, “have we taken the slab phone as far as we can?” Well, not quite. Granted, many of the big hitters seem to have some spin on the folding screen design, Huawei included, but it seems that there’s still life in the old dog yet. 

Sexy silicon

Huawei’s Mate series has traditionally been the company’s showcase for its latest Kirin chip which, in this case, is the Kirin 9000. The Kirin 9000 boasts 5nm technology — the same as Apple’s A14 Bionic — but the Huawei’s flagship silicon one-ups the Cupertino chip in that it has an integrated 5G modem built-in. Also, it has the grunt to thumb its nose at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865.

Partnering that incredibly powerful processor with built-in 5G is 8GB RAM and a capacious 4,400mAh battery that easily lasts a day. Furthermore, when it does need recharging, it can take advantage of the blistering speeds afforded to it by way of its 66W charger and 50W wireless charging capabilities. This is all wrapped up in a chassis that boasts an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.

Heavenly hardware

The exterior of the Mate 40 Pro is nothing short of gorgeous. Beyond the pearlescent finish on my review model, the overall aesthetic follows the design language set by the Mate 20 and 30 Pro. So, you’ll find a centrally located camera module, curved Horizon screens, and a 3D facial scanning system for possibly the most accurate face unlocking tech available on a phone.

The 88° curved Horizon Display is vibrant and matches the best out there right now where viewing angles and brightness are concerned. The display eschews accidental touch commands thanks to Huawei’s software algorithm and, I can assure you, it does an excellent job of ignoring passing touches when navigating the striking 6.67-inch display. Additionally, the screen has a 90Hz refresh rate. Whilst this might not be the fastest out there, animations are smooth and scrolling through menus is slick. 

It’s hard not to notice the rather large cut-out in the upper left corner of the display, especially after using a P30 Pro with its little central hole punch. However, this slot houses a powerful front-facing camera system that features a 13-megapixel selfie camera, a wide-angle camera with a field-of-view of 100-degrees, and an infrared camera for face scanning. All of a sudden, that cut-out doesn’t seem so big after all, does it? Moreover, all of the kit packed into that little slot works incredibly well.

The rear of the Mate 40 Pro is covered in glass that’s coated in a soft-touch finish and is reasonably resistant to fingerprints. I love that the hardware volume rocker has returned to the Mate’s side, and stereo speakers are back too! But, it is the way that the Mystic Silver of our review model shimmers and changes colour as you move the mobile and the back catches the light that had my jaw on the floor.

Mate 40 Pro cameras 

The Mate 40 Pro’s main camera system consists of a triple-lens setup. The star of the show here is the 50-megapixel f/1.9 primary sensor, and that is joined by a 20-megapixel ultrawide-angle camera and a 13-megapixel Periscope camera.

That 50-megapixel lens boasts the largest image sensor currently in a smartphone at 23mm. Add to that Huawei’s custom-built RYYB sensor, and you can see why the Mate 40 Pro will be found at the top of the mobile photography charts getting Huawei another raft of prizes, no doubt. Night photography is still best in class, in my opinion.

Daylight snaps – click to enlarge

Low-light shots – click to enlarge

Huawei’s 20MP ultra-wide camera, dubbed “Cine Lens”, features an f/1.8 aperture and shoots at a 4:3 aspect ratio. Also, it doubles up as the Mate 40 Pro’s default video camera. It has a narrower field-of-view than the ultrawide lenses on Apple’s or Samsung’s flagships. Still, Huawei’s 20-megapixel ultrawide camera packs significantly more detail in the shot thanks to cramming in more pixels, and a larger aperture enabling more light to the photo. 

Zoom – click to enlarge

Next in line is the Mate 40 Pro’s 12MP camera, which uses a periscope system to offer 5x optical zoom. This is further bolstered by optical image stabilisation. The upshot here is that zoomed shots don’t become a big blur of smudgy pixels. Granted, go full digital zoom and things can go a bit wonky, but then how often will you need 100x zoom? I would say that any shot up to 20x zoom is more than strong enough to taunt the competition.

Huawei’s love for ultrawide lenses carries over to that front-facing Ultra Vision selfie camera, too. Like ultrawide unit at the rear, this lens keeps sharpness and exposure consistent with the primary selfie camera, allowing a much wider field of view. Furthermore, you also get excellent digital image stabilisation, which all adds up to the Mate 40 Pro being a vlogger’s dream. Not only do you get smooth video, but the frame is wide enough to ditch the selfie stick – which is always a good thing! 

By-the-way, video is shot in HDR by default. Furthermore, the camera will track your video subject as it moves without you having to move your phone—very clever stuff. 

The tricky bit

The Huawei Mate 40 Pro has excellent hardware, and the company is still at the top of the photography and videography game, then. At this point in any other regular review, this would be a done deal, and I’d be suggesting that you part with your cash right now. However, cool your jets for a bit.

These days two, perhaps three, things can make-or-break a phone. One is its camera and, as we’ve covered, the Mate 40 Pro pretty much has that wrapped up. Secondly, some people will look for battery life. Again, no worries here – the Mate 40 Pro will even wirelessly recharge other phones. Thirdly, and this is where this otherwise superb phone gets a little nervous, is app support. 

Let me start by saying that EMUI 11, the newest version of Huawei’s Android skin, is pretty slick and world’s apart from my first encounter with the OS about five years ago. Also, AppGallery is growing at an impressive rate of knots. This isn’t just homegrown talent that Huawei is packing into its app store either. Flicking through the list, you’ve got All 4, Sky, Amazon, Tinder, as well as all the leading social networking sites. The thing is, right now, there are some gaps. I’m not saying that these won’t be plugged in the next few months, but I have to review the phone as it is now. And, thanks to the software restrictions placed on Huawei’s phones by The Donald and his government, the Mate 40 Pro cannot run Google services, such as Play Store, YouTube, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Photos.

I did manage to get plenty of my apps ported over from my P30 Pro via PhoneClone. In fact, most of them came across. And Huawei’s built-in Petal Search did its best to find and install all other apps online from sources such as APKPure. However, I couldn’t get Outlook working (required for two out of my three jobs), but Gmail, oddly, appeared to be okay. For Outlook, I simply bookmarked the Office365 app to the home screen, which was mostly fine but, obviously, I wasn’t notified when stuff landed in my inbox. Also, I couldn’t have the unified inbox that I have on my P30 Pro. Microsoft Authenticator, on the other hand, worked without issue.

Additionally, JustPark migrated over but refused to work without talking to its buddy, GooglePlay. Also, while we’re on the subject of car parks, RingGo, an app I use to pay for parking at most of the studios I rehearse and record at was absent. The same goes for UberEats, Deliveroo and Costa’s app.

All that said, Huawei’s Maps app works really well from what I have experienced, although it’s yet to get walking/cycling directions or a Street View equivalent. I also noticed it doesn’t do the satellite view thing, but I can live without that. My Nationwide app worked fine as did a few other surprise ones. I guess it depends which apps you use, how often and, if they are not yet available on Petal Search/ Hauwei’s app store. It’s all about compromise right now. Are are happy to use a workaround such as saving a shortcut to the phone’s home screen which I used for Microsoft 365, for instance? 

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review conclusion

Huawei’s Mate series is always worth checking out and the Pro, as the name suggests, is the flagship. The Mate 40 Pro continues that heritage of astounding aesthetics, potent performance, and a superb snapper. Typically, it would be a shoo-in for a perfect score underlined by ‘Must Buy’ in flashing lights. However, in the Mate 40 Pro’s case, it’s more a ‘try before you buy’ situation. Don’t get me wrong, this is a top tier phone as far as fit, finish, and fotography (sorry) goes. It’s just that not all apps are available to it right now. That could well change as we look to be ushering in a new POTUS. I’m just not sure that giving Huawei access to Google will be one of his priorities.

As with most of 2020, it’s just not quite worked out how it should.

Price and availability

The Huawei Mate 40 Pro is available now with an RRP of £1099.99.

The post Huawei Mate 40 Pro Review appeared first on GadgetyNews.

GadgetyNews has been using the Samsung Space Monitor in its 32-inch flavour for the past couple of weeks. Has it made our life easier? Has it handed us back some much-needed desk space? Read on to find out.

The £330 Samsung Space Monitor sounds all very sci-fi, doesn’t it? Well, there’s nothing genuinely futuristic about it, if I’m perfectly honest. However, it is a 32-inch, 4K monitor with minimal bezels and a handy built-in cable-tidy.

Anyone moving from a smaller monitor to a larger one will automatically notice the benefits. The same way as working on a single monitor suddenly seems silly after using a dual-screen (or more) set-up. Personally, I would prefer one large flat monitor instead of using dual screens for most of my work. I do see where a curved monitor would work better, especially for immersive gaming, but I have little chance for that kind of behaviour these days.

So, when the kind folks over at Samsung asked me to check out their Space Monitor, I was intrigued. Not just because a 4K, 32-inch monitor sounds ideal to me but – well, it has space in the name. Geek Mode initiated!

Samsung Space Monitor design

Most of us will agree that size does matter – when it comes to monitors (I’ll leave you all alone to debate other areas amongst yourselves). The thing is, large monitors need big desks. Even then, once positioned and looking awesome, they tend to take over the space they are in. Also, plenty of sizable monitors have equally sizable feet to stop them from falling over. So, if your desk real estate is at a premium and you want a large monitor, you will usually have to see that mascot, holiday snap and, worse of all, your venti cup live elsewhere. That was before Samsung’s 32-inch Space Monitor.

The way that Samsung has enabled space-poor desk monkies the opportunity to fit a 32-inch monitor on their desk is swapping out the usual stand for an arm that clamps on the back of your desk. Furthermore, that arm allows the screen to be brought forward when in use or pushed right back up against the wall or office divider when you need the desk for other things.

Up against the wall

The fact that when in its pushed-back mode, the rear of the monitor is perfectly flat with the arm means that even if you got a ‘normal’ monitor and paid the extra for a monitor arm, you will still not get all the space back you do with the Sammy Space Monitor. Samsung claims this design allows for 40% more usable desk space than a standard monitor stand for the same size display.

Additionally, the integral arm sports nifty cable routing channels and a recessed area for the HDMI, power, and Mini Display Port connections.

The arm allows the display to move forward and down as well as tilting. However, this clever hinging does not enable the screen to pivot nor rotate. Furthermore, as the arm mount is not of the common VESA variety, you won’t be able to easily swap arm for arm.

The 16:9, 32-inch display boasts 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution and slim bezels along the top and sides. The VA panel has a quoted average brightness of 250 nits, which suits most office settings. You also get 100% sRGB and 72% NTSC Colour Gamut coverage, according to Samsung. Finally, a 4ms (GTG) response time and 60Hz refresh rate means that this won’t be on your list if you’re a serious gamer but for the casual shoot em/drive em kind of player that gets the chance to boot up Steam perhaps five times a year the displays’ ‘Game Mode’ will suffice. For the most part, this screen is for productivity and maybe some design/photo/video work.

Samsung Space Monitor in use

Firstly, I had to ditch my VariDesk Pro 36 table-top adjustable standing desk for this review as the Space Monitor refused to dock with it, owing to a bar that runs just below the top tier at the rear of the VariDesk. I did try altering the clamp position but to no avail. However, attaching the Space Monitor to my regular desk was simplicity itself. Additionally, once the cables were run up the monitor’s rear trench, the result was a clean and tidy 32-inch monitor.

The on/off switch has been squirrelled away to the rear, and I will openly admit some mild confusion until I located that pesky button. This little blue nubbin is actually a joystick of sorts and will drive you through the on-screen menu.

Nothing added

Also, I must applaud Samsung for not bothering with adding speakers to this monitor. I understand that some might need speakers in their monitor, but they rarely do a great job and, as the Space Monitor has been designed for productivity, I see no use for integrated speakers here. Furthermore, should I require PC audio, I’ll run it directly from the source device or, better still, via a decent DAC/ amplifier and headphones or speakers. Thanks to the Space Monitor’s negligibly tiny footprint, a compact headphone DAC/amp will hardly undo all of Samsung’s good work.

Furthermore, there’s no FreeSync, G-Sync or kitchen sink, for that matter. What you do get is a slick-looking panel – no more, no less.

Be that as may, I do think that Samsung is missing one trick, though. As the Space Monitor can be positioned like a draughtsman’s drawing board, it would have been very cool if the display had touch support. I know, maybe a bit daft after my applauding the lack of unnecessary faff – but I stand by it.

Screen Quality

The out of box settings had the colours somewhat washed-out. To start with, I assumed it was in Eye Saving Mode. As it turned out that all it took was a few tweaks before colours were as vibrant as I was hoping from the spec sheet.

The Picture By Picture (PBP) option is pretty neat, enabling you to run the HDMI and Mini Display Port inputs at the same time and displaying their output side-by-side on the screen. There is also Picture in Picture where the second source can take 25% of the screen space. So, you could be working on something in most of the area while having a boxset running in the corner. Nice.

The imaging is decent and a quick 30 minutes of Counter-Strike was playable enough to have a break and get back to what I should be doing. I do really love the amount of space, both on-screen and on-desk, that the Space Monitor gives me. There have been times where I’ve had my document full screen and the display in its upright position just so that I can enjoy seeing my desk more.

Space Monitor review conclusion

Overall, I think that the Samsung Space Monitor does what it sets out to do. It is a great-looking monitor with decent colour reproduction and brightness once you fiddle with the settings a bit.

I liked the screen’s adjustable eye-level and the clever hinging; however, I would have liked some lateral height adjustment too, though.

I maintain that touch tech would’ve made this display even better but, as it is, and ignoring that it wouldn’t clamp to my standing desk-topper, I would still very much buy one.

The post Samsung Space Monitor Review appeared first on GadgetyNews.

Shark vacuum cleaners have been catching our eye for the past couple of years, so it was time to take one for a test drive.

I have been using a cylinder vacuum cleaner designed by a well-known British engineer. It’s done me proud over the past 7 years. However, as always with technology, it has since been bettered – by both its successors and by alternative brands. Shark is one such alternative that has been making waves and a regular at tech shows I attend. The designs are modern and eye-catching, and the company appears to make real-world claims.

Hairy issues

The main issue in my household is hair. I’ve had long hair since my teens, and my girlfriend has shoulder-length hair. Furthermore, we seem to shed. A lot. This means that the regular style spinning bristle brushes found on most cleaners soon get hair wrapped around the barrel which impacts on its cleaning efficiency. It also requires me to unravel and cut the hair out of the bristles, wasting more time.

Thankfully, Shark has an answer with its Anti Hair Wrap system that features on this AZ910UK model, so I put it to the test.

Shark AZ910UK Vacuum design

Firstly, I like that vacs are now allowed to sport funky colours. The Shark upright we have is the kind of purple that Prince would have approved of. 

Putting the device together actually gives you a preview of its nifty superpowers. The Powered Lift-Away part of its moniker means that you can detach the vacuum bit and use it as a handheld vac using the long wand that makes up the upright part of the handle.

Alternatively, you can disengage the handgrip, which then becomes the nozzle. It’s all quite engenious.

I am also digging the LED headlights at the front of the roller brush head. It is this sizeable DuoClean floorhead that also boasts the Anti Hair Wrap Technology, too. The clever bit of engineering actively separates and removes hair with a unique bristle-guard.

The result is a tangle-free bristle brush-roll. Oh yeah, Shark gives the floorhead the DuoClean moniker due to the two motorised brush-rolls which together removes large debris and small particles, as well as stuck-on dust from hard floors and carpets, so Shark tells me.

I have to admit, it’s quite a nice looking thing and really easy to put together.

The Shark AZ910UK in use

My first impression was that it was more substantial than the drag-along vac that I have had in service for several years. You see, I have grown used to waving the hose around while the motor and dust collection was happening in the unit on wheels being dragged behind, now I was pushing and pulling the lot. However, once I had got back into the upright-vac-shuffle, all was well.

I tell you what though, it is excellent at its job. My living room is a mixture of hard-flooring, a thick pile rug and a more hardy close twill rug. It was the cleaning of those rugs that really impressed. Whether it’s the little robot vac or me using my regular yellow sucker, there are generally still little bits suck in the fibres, especially in the black shaggy rug. However, the Shark DuoClean using the correct setting flicked on using the handle switch, got every little bit after a few passes. I really did get the feeling that the rug was the cleanest it had been for a long while.

It gets everywhere

I also liked the 8 meter-long power cord, which meant that I could attack the living room, hallway and stairs in my little London home without having to unplug. It’s been a while since I’ve had to manually coil up a vac cable, but I’ll live. On the subject of stairs, being able to convert the Shark AZ910UK into a more compact machine really does help.

The dust collection/motor section fits well on the stairs and removing the wand means that close work is effortless. Using the same configuration also works wonders for the car too.

Finally, a note about hair tangles. Even after cleaning the trouble areas (in front of the hallway mirror and in the bedroom), the DuoClean head remained tangle-free. Moreover, the easy-to-empty collection bin was full of hair that would have otherwise been left for me to untangle and cut away from the brush head of a regular vacuum cleaner.

Shark AZ910UK review conclusion

The Shark AZ910UK DuoClean Powered Lift-Away with Anti-Hair Wrap Technology might be a long title, but it tells you everything you need to know about this very talented vacuum cleaner.

The DuoClean head does an exceptional job of cleaning and being able to adjust for low pile, deep pile carpets, and hard flooring at the handle means there’s no starting and stopping. The Powered Lift-Away is nothing short of genius and, finally, the Anti-Hair Wrap tech really works.  

If being this excited about a vacuum cleaner is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

The post Review of the Shark AZ910UK Vacuum Cleaner appeared first on GadgetyNews.

We were in Berlin for the launch of Huawei’s Mate 30 smartphones as well as the brand’s latest smartwatch, the Watch GT 2. Furthermore, we were lucky enough to come back with a Watch GT 2, and it has been our daily wrist wear ever since.

We liked the look of Huawei’s first smartwatch. The Watch GT was certainly a promising proposition. However, we weren’t quite ready to take the plunge.

Now the Watch GT 2 has arrived. Building on the foundation of its predecessor with two new sleek designs, the Huawei Watch GT 2 sports the same simple user interface but adds more features. 

The trick that Huawei has to pull off is to offer a decent watch with a screen and features that impress along with excellent battery stamina. Have they managed this?

Read on to find out.

Huawei Watch GT 2 Design

The watch comes in two flavours, a 46mm and 42mm. We have been testing out the larger of the two. This weighs in at 41g and sits rather nicely on our not overly chunky wrist.

We have seen the Watch GT 2 on larger wrists, and it still looks good.

The indexed bezel around the watch face looks cool but is fixed. In other words, the bezel does not rotate and is pretty much decorative. 

What you do get is 3D glass with nicely slanted edges. We have the model with a polished stainless steel casement, and we reckon it looks excellent. The other finish in this size is black brushed stainless steel that lends it a more stealthy look.

Also, the Watch GT 2 has a remarkably slim profile measuring only 10.7mm.

Finally, the bright 1.39-inch (454 x 454) AMOLED display is clear.

Smarts

Under the hood, you get 4GB of storage for your selection of faces and offline music. You can either play the music through the watch speaker or via connected Bluetooth headphones. Nice.

Processing is taken care of by Huawei’s Kirin A1, which is the same processor found in their FreeBuds 3 earphones. The larger watch gets a full 32MB RAM whereas the smaller version ticks along with just 16MB. 

There is some intelligent task management going on inside these smartwatches.

Straps

The 22mm quick-release straps make it really easy to change from the tan leather band and the additional black silicone one included in our bundle.

Always-on display

Having a nice case and choice of straps is one thing. However, it’s the watch face that you’ll be spending most of your time looking at.

We think that the current crop of Huawei watch faces are decent and we particularly like Shadow. However, you are not able to customise the watch faces or download them from anywhere other than Huawei’s app.

You do, however, get the option to have an always-on display or simply go with a blank face until you move your wrist to see the time. 

Listed in the options as ‘lock screen’ you get the choice of digital or analogue faces in monochrome. Again, we like these and understand that the ‘lock screen’ options are pared down to conserve battery life.

Functions

It might be easy to assume that, due to its lightweight and minimalist design, that this would be the same for its feature set. Don’t worry, there is still plenty to play with.

Firstly, there is a pretty accurate heart-rate sensor on the base.

Additionally, there are slits for the speaker output and microphones – yup, you can take calls and play music through the Watch GT 2.

The interface, Huawei’s Lite OS, is straightforward to navigate. Granted, you don’t get as many functions as some other smartwatches, but this makes it easier to use and hands you that claimed fortnight battery life.

All it takes is a downward swipe to access quick settings and a horizontal one to scroll through to the apps such as heart rate, stress, weather, music, fitness logging etc. Finally, an upward swipe enables you to see your notifications and messages. It’s a bit of a shame that you cannot respond to messages directly from the watch, though.

The physical buttons work as short cuts. The top button takes you to the watch’s app list. The bottom one, however, is customisable and is defaulted to trigger to record a workout. Oh, how we laughed at that one as we tucked into a burger.

We’ve used the timer, alarm and stopwatch quite a bit and the compass is a nice touch. That said, the Watch GT 2 isn’t big on multitasking. Let’s say you’ve kicked off a workout, and then someone asks you to set a countdown, or you need the stopwatch – this will mean you’ll have to pause or stop your workout to use one of the other apps. Not a big deal, but could be seen as a shortcoming.

I think you’re fit

We like the addition of stress monitoring and sleep tracking as these are areas that we definitely need to improve. 

Huawei has also included a barometer to measure air pressure in the GT 2.

Overall, the Watch GT 2’s heart rate tracking seemed to be accurate when compared with its competitors and more expensive professional options.

We were impressed at the range of workouts that it supports, too. Sixteen in total, including running courses, outdoor run, indoor run, outdoor walk, indoor walk, outdoor cycle, indoor cycle, pool swim, open water, climb, hike, trail run, triathlon, elliptical, rower and other for gym workouts and the like.

If you’re appy and you know it

The smartphone companion app, Huawei Health, works with Android and iOS, and links to Apple’s Health app, Google Fit and also My Fitness Pal. However, the lack of Strava integration and such will undoubtedly put off more active healthy types.

Sleep tracking we found quite useful. The results are broken down into light, deep and REM sleep, with guidelines on how well you’re resting across all three metrics. We found that the Watch GT2 could even spot when we took a power nap (passed out) during the day. 

If you’re the type to run for fun, then you’ll also like the charts you get to review. Here you get your pace, heart rate, cadence and altitude at different points in the session to mull over. Actually, you can also get further involved and check out performance metrics such as aerobic and anaerobic effort, VO2 Max, and the recovery time required before repeating all that effort. We’re pretty sure our recovery time will be measured in weeks.

Daily activity is tracked automatically. Here you get your steps counted, any exercise you do and your resting/average heart rate.

All very impressive considering that the battery lasts so long.

Battery life 

Like most boasts of stamina, you need perfect conditions to get Huawei’s 2-week battery life. However, we generally clocked in well over a week between charges. 

We guess that turning off the smart features such as heart monitoring and the like might get you that magical fortnight. 

However, get that lock screen always-on display going and then 5-7 days will be the best you can achieve. That said, we think it’s still impressive.

We were slightly disappointed that battery charging isn’t wireless. However, the upside is that it’s quick.

From empty to full tank only takes an hour and the magnets in the cradle snap securely to the Watch GT 2. 

Conclusion

If you are looking for a smartwatch with excellent battery life and some health tracking smarts, then the Huawei Watch GT2 is what you’re looking for.

The design is great from any angle, and the full-colour AMOLED panel is gorgeous.

We like the always-on lock screen and loudspeaker, almost as much as we love the week+ battery life.

The Watch GT 2 does fall short on some functions when compared to others out there, and it won’t play with third-party apps, so might put off serious fitness freaks. However, for the rest of us seeking a good-looking watch with a great health tracker for less than £200, the Huawei Watch GT2 gets our vote.

Price and availability

The Huawei Watch GT 2 46mm comes in two flavours, the black-cased Sport (black or orange strap) which costs £199 and, the silver-cased Pebble Brown (leather strap with a spare sports strap included) for £219.99 as reviewed here.

If you just want a fitness band, perhaps check out Honor’s Band 5 that costs less than £30!

The post Huawei Watch GT 2 Review – Just how smart is it? appeared first on GadgetyNews.

We have been testing out the latest U1000 4K dashcam from Thinkware, and we are mightily impressed.

While at IFA earlier this year we chatted to the folks at Thinkware and they were pretty proud of their U1000 dashcam. So much so, they got us excited enough to ask to test it out.

We fitted it to our imported Honda using the 12v power adapter and hit the road.

Thinkware U1000 dashcam bundle

The Thinkware U1000 2-Channel bundle comes with both the front and rear cameras, a 12V power cable, an adhesive windshield mount, cable clips, a 32GB microSD Card and a USB microSD card reader.

You also get the Thinkware Hardwiring Kit and an Anti-Glare CPL Filter (which we didn’t fit for this review so we could see how the cam managed without).

Thinkware U1000 Design

The first thing we liked about this dashcam was its design.

Unlike the previous dashcams we have tested, the U1000 is built to look like part of your car’s original equipment, rather than a suction-cupped aftermarket add-on.

Here you have camera lens built-in to a unit that affixes to your windscreen using 3M tape. The dashcam is pretty discreet and, sitting behind your rear-view mirror, less likely to distract you from the road.

On the control panel, you have a trio of buttons for Power, WiFi, and Microphone. The three indicator lights show if the U1000 is connected to a WiFi hotspot, is recording, and connected to GPS.

There is also an additional Recording button to trigger ad hoc capture.

Cameras

At the front of the unit is the front-facing camera that boasts an 8.42MP Sony Exmor R Starvis image sensor. You can thank this for the crystal clear 4K UHD video quality at 30FPS.

Additionally, the 150° wide-angle lens view minimises blind spots so you can capture every little detail out on the road.

Also, the U1000 features Advanced Wide Dynamic Range (WDR), Intelligent Automatic Exposure and Super Night Vision 2.0. So, no need to worry if things are being captured as bright and dark environments are covered.

The Thinkware U1000 also covers your… rear.

The company actually developed a new rear camera specifically for the U1000.

The U1000 rear camera is equipped with a 5.14MP Sony Exmor R Starvis image sensor. That means that the back camera records in 2K QHD.

Just like the front cam, the rear also comes with a 156° wide-angle lens view and the advanced video enhancement technologies.

From what we can tell, this could well be one of the most potent rear cameras on the market.

Cloud Cam

As you can imagine, we love added tech, and the U1000 is connected to the Cloud. All you have to do is activate the hotspot on your phone and use the Thinkware Cloud app to connect the cam.

As well as storing the captured videos in the Cloud, the front unit also has a microSD card slot. Ours came with a memory card; however, we had our mobile phone working as a hotspot all the time.

Although, if we had the cam hardwired to the car, the memory card would save video triggered by someone running into our car, etc. The U1000 supports microSD cards up to 128GB.

Thinkware Cloud App

With the app, you also get neat skills such as Geo-Fence, Locate Vehicle and Driving Impact Notification.

The app’s Live View function allows you to watch what is happening in real-time, as long as it’s connected to a hotspot or WiFi. The upshot is that you can monitor your vehicle using your smartphone, no matter where you are.

With Geo-Fencing, you can set up up to 20 different geographic zones, which will send a push notification through the app if the vehicle enters or leaves a pre-configured zone.

The Locate Vehicle function will let you discover the current location of the vehicle using the app.

In the event of an impact, such as a collision, while driving, a Driving Impact push notification will be sent through Thinkware Cloud as well.

In addition to the Driving and Parking Impact Notifications, the U1000 has several driver assistance systems that can deliver audible warning alerts. The alerts rely on the U1000’s built-in GPS, which can track the vehicle’s location, speed, and direction of travel.

The alerts include Fixed Speed Camera Warning, Mobile Speed Camera Zone Warning, Average Speed Zone Warning, and the likes.

Of course, this is where you can access all your saved footage, too.

You can either see front and rear camera captures in separate areas or both captures listed together.

While in this area you can also delete or download selected captures. It’s all very intuitive.

Naturally, some of these skills require the cam to be hardwired and WiFi/hotspot connection.

Installation

As the hardwiring of the kit requires a professional, we settled for using the 12v cigarette lighter for power. This does mean that we lose so of the cam’s features, such as automatically recording parked impacts, etc.

However, the rest of the installation was simple. If you are as fussy as us, there will be time taken about hiding cables in the roof liner, under carpets, and the like.

Thinkware does supply plenty of cable length, too. Granted, our little silver box on wheels isn’t the longest of vehicles, but we had plenty of lead to go from front to the rear cam, tracking the cable under carpets as we went.

Additionally, the cable seems to be of good quality as does the 3M tape pads used to secure the cams.

It is then merely getting everything where you want it. For instance, we placed the front cam behind the rear-view mirror and the back cam just below the high-level brake light. The latter was difficult to photograph due to the heavily tinted privacy glass our ride has at the rear.

After that, download the Thinkware Cloud application and connect the front cam to your phone’s hotspot or your WiFi if it is in range. After spending time with the U1000, we are considering getting a Mi-Fi hub for the car or setting up an old phone as a hotspot to keep in the car.

Having the app also helps with positioning your cameras.

Thinkware U1000 Video Quality

I think we can all agree that this is the most crucial aspect. As you can see in the video, both front and rear cameras perform remarkably well.

We have to add here that we didn’t use the supplied filter either. That filter will reduce glare, but we wanted to see how the cam fared without.

We were really impressed by the recording quality – 4K Ultra HD y’all.

Even the rear camera outperformed some of the dashcams we’ve had through here.

The video shows the cam in glorious sunshine, good weather, rain and at night.

Downloading Clips

A quick note here, after our attempts at compiling the above video.

The Thinkware app appears to compress the video and then, should you download the videos and store them on Google Photos, they get compressed even further.

In short, if you want the full resolution, you are going to have to take the clips straight off the microSD card. But, make sure your video editor plays nice with HVEC – ours required a paid-for upgrade to accept the video taken off of the card.

Furthermore, it wasn’t until after all of that, we discovered that our editing software would only export at 1920×1080 at the most. So, sorry. No 4K video to be had in this clip, but at least you get full HD. You will have to take our word for it that the unadulterated quality you get from this cam is very good indeed.

Conclusion

The Thinkware U1000 is a fantastic bit of kit. We used the supplied cigarette lighter adapter for power so couldn’t test the added parked features.

Now we know just how could this dashcam is we are happy to see if we can buy it and get it professionally installed. We are really that impressed.

Granted, it isn’t cheap, but with the U1000 onboard, you can sit back and relax knowing that your ride is well-protected. Additionally, video from your drive is almost movie quality, so that’s pretty cool too.

The post Thinkware U1000 4K Dashcam Review appeared first on GadgetyNews.

We were in Munich recently for the Huawei Mate 30 launch. We also spent some time with the new handset. While there was the usual rush of people posting their thoughts, we thought we’d take some time to reflect, and also see if we could get some more details – this was no ordinary launch.

The Mate 30 is Huawei’s second hero phone of 2019, following the excellent P30 Pro which is still our daily driver – and camera. 

Naturally, the Mate 30 sports usual expected upgrades of cosmetic tweaks, uprated display and cameras. So, what else were we waiting to find out? Well, this was no straight forward launch.

Awks

Unless you’ve been avoiding the news (which we totally understand), you will know that President Trump is upset with China and so has prevented the likes of Google playing with them. The upshot of this hissy fit is that Huawei is unable to release the Mate 30 loaded with the Play Store. The result of this is no Google Maps, Google Pay, Gmail app, you get the idea. It sucks. 

As discussed with fellow tech journalists out there, everything felt a “tad awks” before, during and after the launch. That’s not to say it wasn’t impressive with many gasps, applause and the rest of it; it’s just that there was also a slight undercurrent to the whole proceedings.

Anyhoooo – enough of that. What about the phone?

Mate 30 Pro hands-on

The Mate 30 Pro certainly has the looks and the spec to claim its crown as a flagship. 

The newcomer boasts a curved ‘Horizon’ display, a super-powerful chipset, and a huge camera sensor. Additionally, there’s mind-melting slow-mo and 8K capture skills, ToF (Time of Flight) modules front and back, and a battery with super-stamina as well as a range of charging options.

Mate 30 Pro and Android

OK – let’s get tackle the irritating pachyderm in the room first. The Huawei Mate 30 Pro runs Android 10. Is that a confused look on your face after everything we’ve said? Let us explain – this is the AOSP version (Android Open Source Project) which is free to use across the world. All previous Huawei Mate phones used the “standard” version of Android, which includes all the proprietary software many of us use every day. So – you get Android, just not the Google apps.

Huawei already has the apps needed to replace much of the Google suite. There is an app store, a mail client, a browser, a fitness tracker and a cloud storage service, but we know that this might not be enough. We reckon we won’t see the likes of Netflix, WhatsApp, even Facebook appearing in the Huawei app store anytime soon – but we could be wrong. We suppose that some apps have browser versions we could use…

During our hands-on time with the phone EMUI10 (Huawei’s Android wrap) seemed to work smoothly with no hint of any loss of full-fat Android.

What were we waiting for?

Originally, Huawei’s Richard Yu stated that bootloader unlocking would be available to give customers “more freedom.”

We limited [bootloader unlocking] because we wanted to guarantee more security for consumers. But this time we will leave more freedom for the consumers so they can do more customisation by themselves.

Naturally, everyone read that as it’s making it easier to install Google apps.

That glimpse of light, however, was soon diminished after the company then said it has “no current plans” to allow bootloader unlocking.

Did Yu misspeak? Did he show Huawei’s hand too soon? Only those closer to the situation than us knows for sure.

Mate 30 Pro improved camera

This is what most people will be interested in after the P30 Pro grabbed awards left, right and centre for its snapper.

Seeing the Mate 30 Pro in the flesh for the first time, the most noticeable thing that grabs you is the new circular lens array. Dubbed Halo the circular lens grouping looks great to us. If you recall, the 20 Pro rocked the square-style, much like the latest iPhone does.

Camera quartet

The flagship 2019 edition Mate boasts a quartet of cameras on its rear.

Firstly, there’s a standard-view 40-megapixel sensor, then an 8-megapixel 3x zoom and a 40-megapixel ultra-wide. Finally, there is the ToF (time of flight) depth sensor.

The P30 Pro is still king of the zoom, although the Mate 30 Pro is very capable; however, it is the Mate’s ultra-wide that steals the show with its performance thanks in part to its 1.54-inch sensor.

If you’ve used a P30 Pro, then the Mate 30 Pro’s camera app will feel very familiar. You can zoom in by 5x and still get decent results, or up to 30x if you don’t mind a slight hit-and-miss aspect to your shooting. 

We weren’t able to test the Mate 30 Pro’s night mode, but it is still one of the P30 Pro’s stand-out skills, so we assume the new Mate will match it. Again, Huawei is using an RYB pixel set up in the main sensor that swaps the typical green pixels (RGB) for yellow pixels. The result is that the sensor can capture more light and so the bright f/1.6 lens with OIS, along with some software magic, means the phone can shoot pictures in near darkness.

The snaps we took in Munich (although not able to keep them) showed the expected good dynamic range, even without HDR engaged. The images seemed to have plenty of detail on screen with very low noise.

The Mate 30 Pro gives you a decent macro camera too, enabling you to take incredibly sharp shots as close as 2.5cm from the object.

Video

The Mate 30 Pro boasts a dedicated cine camera so videos promise to be top-notch.

Slo-mo is really impressive looking at the specs. Where 960fps has become the high-end mobile standard for slo-mo video, the Mate 30 Pro trumps that (so to speak) and goes up to 7,680fps, for 256x slo-mo.

This uses smart interpolation skills thanks to complicated algorithms that works out what the frame between two others should look like.

Would we ever use that setting? Perhaps not. However, that upper limit does mean that 64x, 32x, 8x and 4x is silky smooth.

Mate 30 Pro front cameras

On its front, the Mate 30 Pro sports another three lenses.

In addition to a primary 32-megapixel selfie snapper, the Mate 30 Pro features an ultra-wide-angle shooter and another ToF sensor.

Overall, the Mate 30 Pro is armed with a mind-bending total of seven cameras.

Curvy display

The Mate 30 Pro comes with what Huawei calls a “Horizon” display.

This essentially means the curves on the display’s sides are more prominent than on its curvaceous rivals such as the P30 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S10.

Also, the added curvature makes the hardware look more like a single piece of glass than any of its competitors. The display curves 88 degrees to the sides, and if you look at the phone head-on, you practically don’t see any side bezels. 

The curvy 6.53-inch display is also called in for volume control dutues as the Mate 30 Pro has no physical volume rocker. A double-tap on the side wakes the virtual slider up and then you make the adjustments. It seemed to work well during our time with it.

We were a little concerned about accidentally triggering things while the phone is in our hands with that extra bit of side-screen, but all seemed well. We were told that the side areas were “switched off” for the most part – which explains the need for the double-tap to wake the volume control.

Sophisticated notch

Huawei has created “the most sophisticated notch” – is this going to be the new battleground for phones? 

It’s a lot smaller than the Mate 20 Pro‘s and still manages to pack in a gesture sensor, a 3D (ToF) depth camera, a proximity sensor and a selfie camera.

Rolling the Mate 30 Pro around in our hands it certainly feels like a premium device thanks to its all-glass and forged metal casing. Additionally, you get a choice of Space Silver, Emerald Green, Cosmic Purple and black colourways to choose from. There’s also cool-looking vegan leather options too, available in orange and green. We fell in love with the orange pleather in a rather major way.

The phone’s IP68 rating should protect it from water and dust, which is a good thing.

The single, bottom-ported speaker, however, not such a good thing.

5G-ready

The Mate 30 Pro is powered by Huawei’s new Kirin 990 chipset.

The Kirin 990 comes in two variants – one that supports 4G networks and another with 5G capabilities.

Most notably, the 5G version has support for the next-generation networks built-in, meaning an external modem is not required.

We hear plenty of people saying 5G skills are unwarranted right now but as 3 year contracts are commonplace, we would rather buy a handset that is ready for tech coming in the next 1-2 years.

Mate 30 Pro – Neat tricks

We saw a demo of the Mate 30 Pro’s AI gesture control. Using the front-facing sensors you can interact with the screen without touching it. For example, we were able to scroll through web pages simply by waving our hand. Additionally, using another gestrure we could perform screen captures.

Auto Rotate is cool and all but it can be easily confused, especially if you’re reading in bed or on the sofa. However, AI Auto Rotate can detect your head movements and rotate the screen from portrait to landscape automatically as you move around.

We also really liked AI Private View. Here your privacy is further enhanced. The phone is able to detect if there’s somone trying to see your screen and so hides the content – for your eyes only.

Mate 30 Pro battery

Of course, we were unable to test the battery life on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, but we’d expect it to be excellent with its 4500mAh cell inside. There’s fast-charging technology on offer, plus fast wireless charging.

Mate 30 Pro first impressions

Huawei has certainly created the best Mate yet with the 30 Pro. 

The Mate 30 Pro has it all – a fantastic display, impressive stamina, and excellent picture quality, all of which hinges on class-leading performance. 

It is just rubbish timing that the ‘leader of the free world’ as decided to prevent the company from pre-installing Google apps for its users. Knowing full well that his decision makes the Mate 30 Pro practically unusable in the Western world without some sideloading antics which could open the phone up to security concerns.

Nevertheless, as Walter Ji told us, Huawei has faced challenges throughout its 32 years and this is just another one to overcome.

However, the moment Google gets the license to provide products and services to Huawei, then you will see Samsung, Apple and all the rest run for cover.

Price and availability

We haven’t got an exact release date for the Mate 30 or even if it will ever come to the UK.

Huawei gave pricing of €799 for the Mate 30 and €1,099 for the Mate 30 Pro. The 5G model has an asking price of €1,199.

The post Huawei Mate 30 Pro Hands-on Review appeared first on GadgetyNews.

We were in Berlin for the Honor Band 5’s launch at IFA 2019, and now it’s time to see what we think about the inexpensive fitness wearable.

Looking down at my increasing waistline I for one can do with being more mobile. Most gym-dwellers, pavement-pounders, and all-round fitness types will have some sort of fitness tracker attached. Those that mean business will no doubt have one of the pro-level trackers from a big-name brand. These generally cost big bucks.

But, what if I told you that there was a nifty little device that will cover most things for most people. Even better still, thanks to a recent update, it also monitors your Pulse Oxygen Saturation (SpO2) and adds remote music control of your phone. All for under £30.

Honor Band 5 design

The Honor Band 5 boasts a 0.95-inch AMOLED full-colour display, an upgrade on the previous iteration’s OLED screen.

Now, the colours are brighter and more vivid. Furthermore, and more importantly, the screen is even easier to read.

You also get 282 pixels-per-inch, which is pretty decent and, all-in-all, everything is easy to see, even in bright sunlight (we remember summer still, right?).

As a fitness band, it is a narrow wearable as well as having a slim profile. This makes it an ideal gym partner as you are unlikely to whack it into equipment – something that more chunky designs risk.

I haven’t the thickest of wrists; however, I was pleased to see the amount of range that the molded strap allows for. From slender to giant (more-or-less). I have tested fitness bands before, but they have been much more limited in the fitting. Nice one, Honor.

The compact Band 5 is also light and will not hamper your chosen torture – errrr, fitness regime.

The Honor Band 5 is available in Midnight Navy, Coral Pink, and Meteorite Black – choose carefully as the band is not interchangeable. What you can do, however, is change the watch face design – and there are plenty to choose from. Can’t find anything that tickles your fancy from the installed selection? Well, there’s even more to download.

Overall the design has been well thought out with the textured strap and everything. However, I guess you’re also limited to what you can do and it would be difficult to pick out the Band 5 from a line-up of other sports bands, to be fair.

Honor Band 5 features

For less than thirty notes, the Honor Band 5 is packed with all kinds of fitness-focused tech. For instance, you get an always-on heart-rate monitor, sleep tracking, multiple workout modes, and so much more. 

The Band 5 links up with the Huawei Health app, which also gives you more information and a way to track your progress.

Compared to the Band 4, there are even more exercise modes. Added to the already fairly comprehensive list including favourites such as running, cycling, swimming (the Band 5 is waterproof to 50m), is Rowing Machine and Cross Trainer. 

Naturally, there is also Step tracking which features as default on most of the watch faces. As you would expect at this price, there’s no GPS.

Heart rate tracking has been made more accurate with Honor boasting that it’s almost as good as a traditional chest-mounted heart rate monitor. Not having such a monitor to compare the Band 5 with, I will have to take Honor’s word for it – although I am sure that if you are really serious about this kind of thing and its accuracy, you will be looking to spend more than £30.

Being pretty rubbish at sleeping, I like the new-and-improved sleep-tracker. It also dishes out advice, as the Honor Band 5 can identify your sleep structure and monitors your changing patterns. Additionally, this brings me on to the way the Honor Band 5 tracks your heart rate. Unlike some other monitors, the Band 5 uses non-visible light, meaning it won’t irritate you as you’re trying to nap.

Latest update

The latest update for the Band 5 has brought along Blood oxygen saturation monitoring. This measurement is a vital indicator of the oxygen supply to cells and tissues. 

Proper blood oxygenation is necessary to supply energy to your muscles to function well. Blood oxygen levels between 90% and 100% are healthy, while a SpO2 value below 89% could be a signal to stop exercising or seek medical attention. 

Additionally, Honor added Music Control. This requires you to flick the function on in the Huawei Health app. Once that is sorted, you can then use the Band 5 to view and control your music apps right from your wrist. Apps supported include Tidal (thankfully as that’s what I use), Google Play Music, Spotify, YouTube, Shazam and many more.

The Honor Band 5 smartwatch skills

You can also use the Band 5 as a regular ol’ smartwatch. Yes, it tells the time but, when not working up a sweat, you can access other nifty things. Firstly, it will display the weather, notifications and that kind of thing.

As well as SMS and Facebook messages, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that you can add Twitter, Snapchat and even Discord to that list. Granted, emojis and the like won’t display so you will get the occasional blank message, but still, a handy thing to have.

I also like the fact that you can control your phone’s camera shutter from the Band 5. Whether its Star Trails or similar long-exposure shots or Selfies, having the Band 5 as a remote trigger is another bonus.

Honor Band 5 battery life

With the message notifications on, as well as the heart-rate monitor, the Honor Band 5 was clocking in about 5 days battery life from a charge. To me, that’s not bad. Naturally, if you were looking to use it purely as a fitness buddy, then some of the juice-draining options can be stopped and so increase the band’s stamina.

Still, I think a working week between charges is fair, especially when being used as a smartwatch.

Honor Band 5 review conclusion

The Honor Band 5 is undoubtedly worth your money in my opinion. It’s more than a fitness tracker thanks to all its health monitoring skills. Furthermore, it can even out-smart some smartwatches.

The screen is responsive although there were moments where I must not have been tapping the Home button in just the right way. The less said about that, the better.

Also, for £29.99, you’re risking less than a month’s gym membership and are more likely to still be using the Honor Band 5 in six months. 

The post Honor Band 5 Review appeared first on GadgetyNews.

There is still a resurgence for all that is retro and for gadge that gives us a flavour of analogue. The Polaroid POP is here to remind you of when seeing your photos straight away involved your camera spitting out a hard copy print.

The Polaroid Pop is part of the Polaroid line of instant cameras and printers that use the Zink format (zero-ink). The gadgets quickly print fun-sized digital photos that resemble the old Polaroid snaps of times past.

I always wanted a Polaroid camera back in the 80s, so this was a fun chance to see what I was missing, albeit that the Polaroid name is now licensed to a variety of kit – from televisions to cameras.

Polaroid POP Design

The Polaroid POP’s design states its fun credentials loud and clear. If you had any thoughts of using the POP as a serious photographic tool, then one look of its chunky exterior tells you otherwise.

The main body of the POP is black with the bottom, removable quarter, being a solid pop of bright colour. Our review model is yellow, but there’s also green, blue, peach and more to choose from. There are six colours in total and all come with an optional matching chunky plastic wrist strap.

At the front is the 20MP CMOS lens with flash next to it. Around at the rear is a small 3.97-inch touchscreen. The only other thing of note is the big red shutter button.

One of the reasons for the Polaroid POP’s heft is that it is also a printer. Up to ten sheets of Zink paper can be loaded from underneath by removing the coloured section. The coloured part is held on magnetically and also reveals the SD card slot.

At 454g the POP is surprisingly weighty, and at 15cm tall, you can’t really call it compact. However, it’s not uncomfortable to handle, and its size is kind of necessary to hold that printer paper.

In use

Firstly, that glossy plastic loves fingerprints. If you were thinking about giving this to a kid, then be prepared to have the POP age in seconds.

The Polaroid POP has built-in Wi-Fi so you can send photos and videos from the POP to your phone or tablet using the free Android and iOS app. Alternatively, you can send snaps on your phone and use the POP as a printer. You can even add the Pop’s various borders and filters to those photos before you print.

Using Wi-Fi, as opposed to Bluetooth, means that transfers are pretty quick. All it means is that you have to disconnect your phone from whichever Wi-Fi connection it has and connect it to the camera’s own Wi-Fi network. Not tricky at all and, chances are, all the camera’s SSIDs are 1234567890 by default.

Also, if you want to post one of the POP’s photos on Instagram, you have to send the snap to your phone and hit accept. Then, you have to disconnect from the Pop Wi-Fi, hook up to the internet as you would typically and then share it online. It really is a shame that the POP isn’t able to share with your socials directly.

Taking the camera out and about I found myself using my phone, a Huawei P30 Pro if I wanted a specific shot and the Polaroid POP if I wanted a particular look.

Photos and filters

The particular look is reminiscent of the instant cameras of the 70s and 80s. Colours are muted and detailing isn’t what we now expect from our phones, let alone cameras. Additionally, low light and moving objects are Kryptonite to the POP.

However, we must remember what this camera is supposed to be doing. Once you get used to the lag between pushing the button and the photo appearing on the screen and that you’re never going to get forensic levels of detail, there is a certain magic to still be enjoyed.

Additionally, it’s fun to play with the filters, add borders, and stickers to the images. I can see teens especially getting a kick out of the POP. But, frames, stickers and filters can all be attained on most smartphones now through apps and even the phone’s own editing software.

The POP can also create gifs and shoot video, with a similar range of potential effects. Naturally, these cannot be printed and have to be sent to your phone over the Wi-Fi connections.

Printing

The small format of the prints does disguise some of the camera’s shortcomings. Selecting the print option sends the internals whirring and clunking.

Before you can print anything off you have to send through a blue card with the calibration settings printed upon it.

The neat touch of the selected image moving up the screen as the camera starts to print would have been better had it been in sync. That said, printing off pictures around friends and family, still garnered a feeling of excitement and anticipation.

The Zink does appear to mute the colours even further in some cases, but I’ve seen snaps taken by the original Polaroid cameras and those images don’t really pop, either, so to speak.

I do like that you get the large bottom border on the photo and that you can even scribble on via the camera’s app, should you so desire.

Conclusion

The Polaroid POP is good fun and I can see it being popular with young teens, college students and social folk. However, that friendliness may be tested as you burn through the 3.5×4.25-inch Zink paper at £29.99 for 40 sheets or £9 for 10.

I fear that the Polaroid POP could find itself in a bit of ‘no man’s land’ as far as who would actually buy it as, at £200, it’s definitely not a toy. Also, it’s not at a price point most of us would buy for just a bit of fun.

I cannot deny that I have enjoyed having it around and being able to print photos from my phone to the Zink sheets is nifty. The question is, would I buy a Polaroid POP or would I look for a small photo printer? I guess it depends on how grown-up I am feeling.

Price and availability

The Polaroid POP 2.0 is available now for £199 and comes in black, green, peach, white, blue and yellow.

The post Polaroid POP 2.0 Review appeared first on GadgetyNews.

There are many times when I need a potent portable puter, so the chance to live with the Dell Latitude 7390 2-in-1 was too good an opportunity to pass up. This convertible touchscreen tour-de-force boasts an 8th-gen Intel Core i7 CPU, all-day stamina, a fingerprint reader and face-recognition camera for security. But, did I like it?

There are a lot of things to like about having a 2-in-1 laptop and, when given the option, I tend to be attracted to these over the regular clamshell variety. However, I can possibly count the number of times I flip that keyboard over to use the said device as a tablet. So, it is perhaps worth noting that the 7390 is also available in regular lappy flavour.

Dell 7390 Design

The Dell 7390 comes wearing a black, soft-touch slim-fit work suit. It is obviously more ready for work than play which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

It does feel solid, and the keyboard certainly feels like it can take some hammer. Additionally, the screen stands up to some severe prodding too.

The Dell measures 0.75- x 12- x 8.3-inches (HWD) and so makes for a pretty portable PC. Weighing in at a respectable 3.2 pounds it also makes for a good bag companion.

Flipping the lid up and the full HD display is surrounded by slim bezels. Of course, the top bezel is a tad thicker to make room for the webcam. The infrared webcam is Windows Hello face-recognition friendly allowing you to log in with your grinning mug. For the more self-conscious password dodgers, there is a fingerprint reader.

The Latitude 7390 2-in-1 has connectivity options aplenty with a pair of Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports on the left that can also be used as DisplayPorts. Furthermore, either of those ports can be used with the supplied AC adapter for power. Additionally, there’s also an HDMI port and a SmartCard slot.

On the right-hand side, you’ll find an audio jack, a microSD card slot, and a micro SIM tray for optional mobile broadband. The power button and volume rocker are also on the right. Rounding things off are a brace of Type-A USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, one on each side. Wireless support includes 802.11ac, Bluetooth, and near-field communication (NFC).

Rounding off the design is the nicely-sized backlit keyboard.

All-in-all, a good looking laptop that keeps it stealthy.

Performance

The Latitude 7390 2-in-1 is powered by an Intel Core i7-8650U processor with a 1.9GHz quad-core CPU boasting Intel’s vPro manageability features and UHD 620 integrated graphics. The processor is buddied with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB NVMe solid-state drive (SSD).

Power and handling

With all of that pushing things along in the engine room, most tasks are dealt with quick-smart. Large Excel workbooks are despatched, documents are dispensed and even photos edited without the 7390 breaking a sweat.

Naturally, integrated graphics aren’t going to handle the latest gaming titles on insane settings, but it will play your Netflix boxsets nice and smoothly. A real bonus when those meetings start to circle around the same discussions.

The Latitude accompanied me to work and also to some press bashes and when using it rested on my knees it all felt solid. The screen doesn’t flex that much when being prodded and poked and the chassis didn’t feel like it was going to buckle when typing away on it.

Work it

This brings me nicely on to the backlit keyboard. The keys have a pretty fast and responsive feel. Dell has even managed to make way for real Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys. At first, the keys did feel slightly closer together, but it wasn’t long before I was happily touch-typing my way through presentations.

Also worthy of note is the relatively small touchpad. Again, nicely responsive it picks up gestures well and clicks when you mean it rather than by accident. The two buttons beneath it have a grippy texture and do their job wonderfully.

Sound and vision

The speakers on the Latitude 7390 3-in-1 are found underneath the keyboard. They are reasonably loud but not what I’d call audiophile quality. However, they will add music and sound effects to brighten up any PowerPoint presentation or watching a film in the Travel Lodge.

The convertible’s 13.3-inch screen is nice and bright with deep colours and wide viewing angles. Contrast is remarkably decent and helps to make those HD videos look pin sharp.

Battery life

Stamina isn’t bad either racking up around 14 hours of video playback. That result equates to easily getting you through a day’s work with an episode or two of your favourite series on the commute. Alternatively, a flight and a meeting for you jet-setters.

This is a very capable machine.

Dell Latitude 7390 2-in-1 review conclusion

The Latitude 7390 convertible is an excellent workhorse. Its soft textured rubberised outer will brush off the rigours of the road, while the 8th Gen i7 will power it through the day. Keeping the lights on is excellent battery stamina and the keyboard, while a little snug, is great to use. Finally, the screen is bright and colours deep with contrast that will do justice to movies.

Add to that it can be used as a tablet or display screen in ‘tent mode’, and you have an extremely useful executive tool.

I would definitely be happy to have one on the road with me.

Price and availability

The Dell Latitude 7390 2-in-1 is available now with prices starting at £1,232. The model we had to review comes in at £1,732.

The post Dell Latitude 7390 2-in-1 Laptop Review appeared first on GadgetyNews.

The BenQ ScreenBar is one of those things where you first look at it and think, “what’s the point?” That is until you use it. You see, if you have limited desk space but would still like a lamp to illuminate your keyboard, etc. this is where the ScreenBar plays its trump card.

BenQ ScreenBar lamp design

The ScreenBar measures 18-inches wide. As soon as you lift it from the packaging, the lamp feels like another quality BenQ lighting item as it’s solidly constructed from aluminium. The metal tube is about 3/4-inch in diameter and is fitted with a row of LEDs.

Fitting it to your monitor is done by way of a clever, and deceptively heavy, counter-weight mount. The entire tube rotates a little enabling you to get the right angle. Additionally, you can further adjust it by moving the mount on the monitor a bit.

Along the top of the aluminium bar are four touch controls. The buttons are for power, an auto-brightness feature, brightness controls, and colour temperature controls. Brightness varies between a bright max output of 320 lumens and a low light output that works well at night.

The lamp is powered entirely by USB and BenQ bundles in a 60-inch long cable for this.

Lighting was fairly even and easy to adjust from shining on the screen.

BenQ ScreenBar lamp performance

We have had the ScreenBar sat atop an old Phillips and a new BenQ monitor (23-inch and 27-inch respectively), and there were no issues as far as fitment went. However, my other half regularly uses a webcam for family Skypes, and the ScreenBar meant that the cam had to be repositioned. A minor niggle but perhaps something to consider. The plus side is that there is minimal overhang from the lamp’s stand so if your monitor has an integral webcam, chances are this won’t interfere with it.

Bright idea

The light output is quite directional, thankfully. My main concern was that the lamp would create glare on the screen – not something anyone needs. However, I should have realised that a company such as BenQ who actually make monitors with eye-friendly tech would have this covered. The band of light can be aimed to stay off of the screen and just light up your desk and keyboard. Furthermore, the light quality is exceptionally even and doesn’t appear to have any hot spots.

The lamp illuminates the area of my keyboard and mouse perfectly. No need for a long goose-necked lamp clamped to the edge of my desk here.

Flicker-free and temp control

Another area where BenQ have seemingly worked their eye-care, flicker-free magic is with the LEDs themselves. To my knowledge, most LEDs will strobe or pulse. I have taken both video and still shots of the lights and have not been able to decern either. Now, this is not to say that they are not strobing, but it leads me to assume that the rate at which they do so will not produce any ill effects to our eyesight.

The colour temperature can be varied between a very cold/ blue, 6500K and a reasonably warm 2700K. Just as the BenQ WIT desk lamp does, the ScreenBar has warm amber-tinted LEDs mounted next to standard blue/white LEDs. When set to its warmest 2700K, the colder LEDs are pretty much switched off, so you also get less light on the warmest setting. Naturally, for the settings between warm and cold mix the two LEDs for the temperature you want.

If you leave the adjustments to the auto-brightness, then the photosensor mounted directly on top of the bar takes control. I have had mixed results from allowing the sensor to do its job; however, this may be due to my monitors being directly in front of a window. With the blind shut then the sensor is pretty accurate with the amount of light it decides to dish out. Also, the automatic setting seems to ignore your colour warmth choices. Again, something to keep in mind.

Although, the ScreenBar does remember the settings from the last time you used it. So, as soon as you turn on your PC or monitor (depending on whose USB out you are using for power), the lamp will be how you left it.

BenQ ScreenBar lamp review conclusion

The BenQ ScreenBar has left me with one initial question – why the heck as this not been done before? Again, this lamp goes to prove that some of the most genius designs are the simplest and most overlooked.

This monitor-mounted lamp takes up no desk real estate, has adjustable brightness and warmth and even an automatic mode. Furthermore, it’s solidly built and, once set-up does not move unless you really want it to.

Aside from the premium price tag, we cannot find a downside to the BenQ ScreenBar lamp.

BenQ ScreenBar price and availability

You can buy the BenQ ScreenBar right now for £90 from Amazon.

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