Next Gen Gaming: Xbox Series X

The Xbox Series X could be the most powerful home console ever made

The $499 Xbox Series X is the most powerful console that Microsoft has ever created, with impressive specs, a promising lineup of games, robust backwards compatibility and unprecedented compatibility with both the Xbox One and gaming PCs.

Microsoft’s claims for the Xbox Series X are pretty bold. The system will aim to run most games at 4K resolutions and 60 frames per second framerates. Certain games could go up to 8K resolutions and 120 fps framerates — although probably not at the same time. From its powerful SSD, which will reduce load times, to its ray tracing capabilities, which will deliver more realistic lighting effects.

What you need to know:

  • What it is: Microsoft’s most powerful game console ever
  • Release date: November 10 (pre-orders start Sept. 22)
  • Price: $499
  • Key features: 4K visuals at 60 FPS, 8K and 120 fps support, ray tracing, near-instant load times
  • Key games: Halo Infinite, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, full Xbox One backward compatibility
  • Specs: Custom AMD Zen 2 CPU, 1TB NVMe SSD, 16GB GDDR6 memory, 12 teraflop RDNA 2 GPU

Release date:

Xbox Series X is slated to launch on November 10, 2020, the same day as the lower-spec Xbox Series S.

Xbox Series X price:

The Xbox Series X will cost $499 when it hits stores.

Xbox Series X controller:

The Xbox Series X will have a slightly upgraded version of the current-gen Xbox Wireless Controller. The new peripheral will feature a dedicated Share button for screenshots and video clips, as well as an improved D-pad, similar to what you’d find on the Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller. Textured dots on the bumpers make theme easier to find, while matte finish on certain buttons makes them more resistant to wear and tear. 

Like the current Xbox Wireless Controller, the new version will work on Windows PCs as well as mobile phones. Almost all existing Xbox One accessories will continue to function on the Xbox Series X, so there’s no reason to ditch specialty gear that you already own.

Xbox Series X UI:

Xbox Series X backwards compatibility:

Microsoft has confirmed that all existing Xbox One games and accessories will work on Xbox Series X. That includes all of the best Xbox One games, as well as the hundreds of Xbox and Xbox 360 titles that are backwards compatible with Xbox One. Microsoft says that backwards compatible titles will enjoy better framerates and resolution on Xbox Series X, all with no extra developer work needed. 

 

What about Xbox Series S?

The Xbox Series X will be joined by the Xbox Series S, a $299 console that promises next-gen gaming at a lower price point. The Series S can play games at up to 1440p and 120 frames per second, and includes many key Series X features such as ray tracing and fast SSD loading. However, the console has a much smaller hard drive at 512GB compared to the Series X’s 1TB drive.

Next Gen Gaming : PlayStation 5

The PS5 will be Sony’s most powerful gaming console yet.

This machine is a beast. The system will feature a custom 825 GB SSD that can load games incredibly quickly, as well as a 10.3 teraflop AMD RDNA 2 GPU for rendering vivid, lifelike graphics. Most games will run at 4K resolution with speeds of 60 frames per second, but the system can theoretically handle resolutions up to 8K and frame rates up to 120 fps.

What you need to know:

  • What it is: Sony’s newest console, the fifth non-portable PlayStation
  • Release date: November 12 (select territories), November 19 (rest of world)
  • Price: $499 for PS5, $399 for PS5 Digital Edition
  • Key features: 4K games at 60 fps, up to 8K resolution, up to 120 frames per second, ray tracing, fast-loading SSD
  • Key games: Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon II: Zero West, Gran Turismo 7, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Final Fantasy XVI
  • Specs: 8-core 3.5 GHz AMD Zen 2 CPU, 10.3 teraflop AMD RDNA 2 GPU, 16 GB GDDR6 memory, 825 GB custom SSD

Release date:

The PS5 will launch on November 12 in U.S, Japan, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia and South Korea, and on November 19 throughout the rest of the world.

Price:

In North America, the PS5 will cost $499 in its standard configuration with a disc drive, and $399 for the Digital Edition. In other parts of the world, the two systems will cost €499 and €399, £449 and £359, and ¥49,980 and ¥39,980, respectively, depending on where you live.

Controller:

In April 2020, Sony officially took the wraps of DualSense: a radically redesigned PlayStation controller that will accompany the PS5. While DualSense has a familiar button layout and brings back the touchpad from the DualShock 4, its two-toned black-and-white design looks nothing like any PlayStation controller before it.

As Sony confirmed before, DualSense will have haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, which will provide realistic, tactile rumble to simulate the feel of, say, driving through mud or firing a bow and arrow. The controller’s Share button has been replaced by a new Create button, which Sony says will provide even more ways to capture and share your favorite gameplay moments. 

DualSense also has a built-in microphone, which will let you chat with friends without needing to dig your gaming headset out. The controller’s light bar now surrounds the touchpad, which lets you better see the glow emanating out of it and complements the white design nicely.

PS5 UI:

PS5 user interface should make getting to your games even faster

PS5 backwards compatibility:

The PS5 will be backwards compatible with most — but perhaps not all — PS4 games. Unlike the PS3, which essentially incorporated a PS2’s guts into early models, the PS5 will run older games via regularized software algorithms. In theory, this means that almost every PS4 game will be compatible with the PS5 right from the get-go. At launch, most of the PS4’s 100 most popular games will be playable.

The All New iPhone 12 Series

The iPhone 12 series is announced and here’s what we know so far.

The iPhone 12 is coming, with four new models the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

All four iPhone 12 models offer 5G, a faster A14 Bionic processor and a sleek new design. Apple has updated the cameras, too, with better computational photography and a 7-element lens. 

To make the iPhone 12 tougher, there’s a new Ceramic Shield glass display that Apple claims is the toughest in the industry. There’s also a new MagSafe charging system that’s designed to make wireless charging a bit easier (and faster).

The iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max deliver a more powerful camera system with better optical zoom, a stainless steel design and a LiDAR sensor for faster autofocus. 

Apple has also introduced a new MagSafe charging system to make wireless charging easier. The idea is to snap the charger on the back of the phone, similar to the Apple Watch. Apple is also introducing a dual charger that charges the iPhone 12 and Apple Watch simultaneously. 

Each iPhone 12 will come with a USB-C to Lightning cable, but there won’t be a charger or headphones in the very thin box.

iPhone 12 ($799)

The iPhone 12 has been announced. For $799, it features 5G connectivity, a 6.1-inch OLED display a 5nm A14 Bionic processor and a new design. The phone comes in black, white, red, green and blue colors.

Apple has reduced the display borders on the iPhone 12 while still using a 6.1-inch screen. The handset is 11% thinner, 15% smaller and 16% lighter. 

The Super Retina XDR display has twice as many pixels as iPhone 11, and the panel is rated to hit a peak 1,200 nits of brightness.

The iPhone 12 features dual cameras, including Apple’s first 7-element lens that delivers low light performance. Apple is adding Night Mode Time-lapse as well. There’s a 12MP wide lens with a f/1.6 aperture and a 12MP ultra-wide lens with a f/2.4 aperture and 120-degree field of view.

iPhone 12 mini ($699)

The iPhone 12 mini delivers all of the same same features as the regular iPhone 12 but in a more compact package. In fact, Apple says that the iPhone 12 mini is the smallest, lightest and thinnest 5G phone in the world.

That means you get the same fast A14 bionic chip, Ceramic Shield for better drop protection and MagSafe charging but with a smaller 5.4-inch display. In fact, you get a bigger display than the iPhone 8 but in a smaller design. 

The price is small-ish, too, as the iPhone 12 mini starts at $699. It features the same five color options as the iPhone 12.

iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max ($999, 1,099)

The iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max are here with larger displays. The iPhone 12 Pro offers a 6.1-inch screen, up from 5.8 inches, and the iPhone 12 Pro is 6.7 inches.

The good news is that these phones are about the same size as their predecessors. So you get more real estate in the same size chassis.

The iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro come in a range of new colors with an aluminum band. These include silver, graphite, gold and blue.

The A14 Bionic processor enables powerful computational photography, such as with Deep Fusion. This feature is now available on all four cameras.

The iPhone 12 Pro Max and and iPhone 12 Pro Max both have better main wide cameras with a f/1.6 aperture. While the iPhone 12 Pro lets in 27% more light, the larger sensor on the Pro Max lets in 87% more light.

The iPhone 12 Pro offers a 2x optical zoom (10x digitial) and the iPhone 12 Pro Max ups that to 2.5x optical zoom (12x digital). Both of these sets of numbers are okay, but they’re behind some of the top Android camera phones, including Samsung’s latest flagships. 

The iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max can capture HDR video. In fact, it’s the world’s first camera to record in Dolby Vision HDR. The phones can do this in 4K at 60 fps, and you can edit in Dolby Vision HDR as well. 

The LiDAR scanner on the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max can improve autofocus speed up to 6 times. And you’ll get better performance in low-light portrait shots. This in addition to the advantages that LiDAR brings to augmented reality apps. 

Samsung-Galaxy-S20-Ultra-home-screen-1910x10745

SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 ULTRA REVIEW

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is at the top of the specs and as the name suggests it is ultra in every aspect. The new high refresh rate display of 6.9 inches, an even bigger battery of 5,000 mAh, a new camera system of 108MP with 100x camera zoom and 5g. This is the biggest and greatest of Samsung right now but it doesn’t come cheap.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Behind all this praise, there is powerful new chipset, it can either be Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 or Exynos 990 (depends on where you live) with 12GB or 16GB of RAM. You have storage option of 128GB or 512GB  and also have SD Card support up to 1TB. A beautiful AMOLED display of 6.9 inches with 120 Hertz refresh rate. You’ll get five cameras with 100x digital zoom. All this is powered with gigantic battery of 5,000mAh which is increased even more from Galaxy S20. All is good but there is one thing this time, most of you will dread about Samsung. Yes you got it right; there is no more headphone jack. This is the first phone of the S series to drop this great feature.

DISPLAY:

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has 6.9 inch display which is 0.7 inch bigger than its other model Galaxy S20 and has the same display resolution of 3200 x 1440 (QHD)
Because of the bigger screen size it has aspect ratio of 20:9 which makes it more taller than wide and of course you’ll need two hands to use this big boy.

Bigger display means time to check screen to body ratio which is wow…just wow, it’s brightness levels and support display standards like HDR10+, you can’t go wrong with this display it’s the best out there.

You can also have the option to use the display resolution of 2220 x 1080 (FHD+) by default which looks as good and consumes less battery. To switch to higher resolution display, we can change it from settings.

The biggest upgrade for Galaxy S20 display is the refresh rate. This time we get 120 Hertz of refresh rate which is highest of almost most of other phones as well as previous Samsung devices which had 60 Hertz refresh rate. It’s not a gimmick, higher refresh rate means scrolling and animations becomes a lot smoother.

It also gives gamers richer and smoother experience. With higher refresh rate touch sensitivity is also doubled from 120Hz to 240Hz. On day to day usage you won’t find this noticeable but for mobile gaming you find it more noticeable as it makes games more responsive to touch, by sensing your finger brushes on the screen at a much higher rate than previously.

Downside is 120 Hertz works only with resolution of FHD+, so it’s up to you to decide if you want higher refresh rate or higher resolution.

DESIGN:

The design of Galaxy S20 Ultra is same as it’s other counterpart Galaxy S20 with two pieces of glass sandwiching an aluminum frame. Also has the edge display with curves on left and right which means there are accidentally presses along the edges of the display.

Sadly as its counterpart it has no headphone jack. You can use an adapter (not included in the box) or you can buy headphones with USB-C connection.

As of now most of the flagships phones are coming without headphones jack so it won’t be a deal breaker, as most of us are using wireless earphones, headphones now a days.

The phone looks very premium and expensive with its aluminum and glass body.

Ultra model is more thicker and heavier than other S20 models and has noticeable camera bump but what can you expect for getting gigantic battery of 5,000mAh, fast 5G mmWave technology and gorgeous 108MP camera in a single body.   

It comes in just two color variations Cosmic Grey and Cosmic Black.

CAMERA:

Galaxy S20 Ultra comes with five cameras. 108MP main shooter, 48MP telephoto lens, 12MP ultra wide shooter, 0.3MP Depth sensor with support upto 8K video recording and 40MP selfie shooter with video recording up to 4K.

Camera sensor upgrade is the biggest since Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge but bigger doesn’t mean better as 108MP shooter captures the same photo as main camera’s default 12MP mode.

But these extra-large photos gives you ability to crop these photos without much quality loss. Also recording 8K video even if you don’t have 8K display to watch it on gives you option to crop and edit videos without sacrificing any details.

But Samsung’s 108MP mode has a tendency towards overexposing images while its overaggressive image processing can smooth out faces and textures, and we had difficulty with the autofocus in several of our tests. Another issue: once we snapped good 108MP shots, we had issues with uploading the 20MB files to some social media networks, as they had a 12,000 x 9,000-pixel resolution. Twitter didn’t just downsize the pictures, it flat-out rejected them.

That’s troubling for such a pricey camera phone. You also lose some features in 108MP mode, including motion photos (fine) and beauty mode (won’t miss that), and there seems to be some baseline skin smoothing you can’t control (not good).

CAMERA SAMPLES:

5G:

The Galaxy S20 Ultra is one of the few consumer smartphone with 5G. S20 Ultra  will have fastest peak download speed than 4G but limited in range.

PERFORMANCE & SOFTWARE:

The Galaxy S20 comes with two chipset variants depend on where you live. If you live in US you’ll get Qualcomm’s top-end Snapdragon 865 chipset for rest of the world you’ll get Samsung’s very own high-end Exynos 990 chipset.
It is powerful enough to give us outstanding performance in everything including loading apps and playing games (such as Call of Duty, Asphalt 9 and PUBG).

The Galaxy S20 comes with two chipset variants depend on where you live. If you live in US you’ll get Qualcomm’s top-end Snapdragon 865 chipset for rest of the world you’ll get Samsung’s very own high-end Exynos 990 chipset.
It is powerful enough to give us outstanding performance in everything including loading apps and playing games (such as Call of Duty, Asphalt 9 and PUBG).

BATTERY LIFE:

Everyone knows that with 5G the super-fast internet battery will drain faster than any other task on your phone, which is where the gigantic 5,000mAh battery comes to work. It has a solid battery life which can easily see through a day with typical use. Sometimes you can have some left even after 24 hrs of typical use. But with 5G it comes to 12 to 13hrs and further comes down to 9hrs if you use 120Hz refresh rate.

With Samsung’s fast charging you can charge your phone from 0 to 63% in just 30 minutes with 25W charger which comes in the box, there is also Samsung’s “Super-Fast” charging with 45W charger but that’s optional you have to buy that charger separately

PROS:

One of best display so far        
Great camera camera zoom range
Powerful and 5G  

CONS:

One of best display so far        
Great camera camera zoom range
Powerful and 5G  

BUY IT IF...

You want 5G phone
You want Big, beautiful and the best display so far
You want to show off 108MP and 100x zoom

DON'T BUY T IF...

You are on a budget
You are looking for smaller display size
You want to be best in photography

Samsung-Galaxy-S20-Hero-1

SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 REVIEW

Samsung made some moves with this phone and they’re all around pretty great. The new high refresh rate display, a bigger battery, a new camera system and 5g pretty simple safe but all good moves. This is the phone for you if you want to try and enjoy the new tech Samsung has to offer and also you can have both of your kidneys. But if you are a fan of bigger storage and more megapixels you can go for Galaxy S20 Ultra but it’ll stretch the price tag.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Behind all this praise, there is powerful new chipset, it can either be Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 or Exynos 990 (depends on where you live) with either 8GB or 12GB of RAM, depending whether you buy 4G of 5G version. The storage option is limited to single variant of 128GB but you do have SD Card support. A beautiful AMOLED display of 6.2 inches with 120 Hertz refresh rate. The camera is another best feature of this phone. It has been greatly improved not only in megapixel count but also in quality with 3x optical zoom and 30x digital zoom. Another improvement is it’s battery. The battery is bumped up to 4000mAh which is a significant increase from 3400mAh of its predecessor. All is good but there is one thing this time, most of you will dread about Samsung. Yes you got it right; there is no more headphone jack. This is the first phone of the S series to dropped this great feature.

DISPLAY:

The Samsung Galaxy S20 has 6.2 inch display which is 0.1 inch bigger than the last years Galaxy S10 and has the same display resolution of 3040 x 1440 (WQHD+)

You can also have the option to use the display resolution of 2220 x 1080 (FHD+) by default which looks as good and consumes less battery. To switch to higher resolution display, we can change it from settings.

The biggest upgrade for Galaxy S20 display is the refresh rate. 

This time we get 120 Hertz of refresh rate which is highest of almost most of other phones as well as previous Samsung devices which had 60 Hertz refresh rate. It’s not a gimmick, higher refresh rate means scrolling and animations becomes a lot smoother.

It also gives gamers richer and smoother experience. With higher refresh rate touch sensitivity is also doubled from 120Hz to 240Hz. On day to day usage you won’t find this noticeable but for mobile gaming you find it more noticeable as it makes games more responsive to touch, by sensing your finger brushes on the screen at a much higher rate than previously.

Downside is 120 Hertz works only with resolution of FHD+, so it’s up to you to decide if you want higher refresh rate or higher resolution.

The Galaxy S20 has one of the most brilliant screens available right now with 563 pixels per inch and with return of HDR10+ to the display you can have best experience of gaming and watching movies.

DESIGN:

The design of Galaxy S20 is same as Galaxy S10 with two pieces of glass sandwiching an aluminum frame. Also has the edge display with curves on left and right but not as much as Galaxy S10 which means fewer accidentally presses along the edges of the display.

This is the first phone is Galaxy S Series to lose the headphone jack. You can use an adapter (not included in the box) or you can buy headphones with USB-C connection.

As of now most of the flagships phones are coming without headphones jack so it won’t be a deal breaker, as most of us are using wireless earphones, headphones now a days.

The phone looks very premium and expensive with its aluminum and glass body but this time camera bump is our pain point but it’ll be worth it if you are camera freak.

There are five color variants of Galaxy S20 but not every color is available in all the markets. The variants are Cloud Blue, Cosmic Grey, Cloud Pink, Cloud White and Aura Red.

Fingerprint scanner is under the display as with the Galaxy S10 but it is faster and more reliable than Galaxy S10.

CAMERA:

When you compare the camera to that of Galaxy S10 there are important steps forward with camera setup on Galaxy S20.

The main camera has 12MP with f/1.8 aperture whereas Galaxy S10 has dual aperture resulting in better low light shots.

However, Samsung has increased the size of individual pixels here, from 1.4 microns to 1.8 microns. Combined with the larger sensor, you should be able to capture more detail and more light with the Galaxy S20’s main snapper, and we found that to be the case when shooting in darker scenarios.

The main upgrade is telephoto camera from last year’s 12 MP to this year 64MP, because of higher megapixel the aperture is wider.         

Overall result is positive with 3x lossless zoom which is the best in the smartphone so far. Also we have 30x digital zoom which is not lossless but can be in some situations.

The ultra-wide camera of 12MP as compared to 16MP of Galaxy S10 is a touch better than higher megapixel of S10.

Overall we found all the cameras to work brilliantly well and if you are shooting in automatic mode the results will be quiet impressive.

For the first time Samsung Galaxy S20 series comes with 8K video recording and anti-roll correction (up to 60 degrees) as part of Samsung’s Super Steady stabilization function.

But unfortunately Super Steady stabilization is only allowed in 1080p not even in 4K.

Samsung’s camera app continues to be best in the smartphones with new and returning features. It’s simple and easy to use.

CAMERA SAMPLES:

5G:

The Galaxy S20 is first consumer smartphone with 5G. S20 will have 6x greater download speed than 4G.

PERFORMANCE & SOFTWARE:

The Galaxy S20 comes with two chipset variants depend on where you live. If you live in US you’ll get Qualcomm’s top-end Snapdragon 865 chipset for rest of the world you’ll get Samsung’s very own high-end Exynos 990 chipset.

It is powerful enough to give us outstanding performance in loading apps and playing games (such as Call of Duty, Asphalt 9 and PUBG).

On Geekbench 5, the Exynos 990 version of the phone averaged a multi-core score of 2699. The S20 is scoring far higher than the S10 5G from 2019, which returned an average result of 2197, and the OnePlus 7T Pro, which scored 2584. These number don’t matter to day to day user of the phone but it’s a positive result.

We will have better performance in 5G variant as it comes with 12GB RAM and some tasks may take more time on 4G variant as it comes with 8GB RAM.

The Galaxy S20 is running Android 10, the latest and greatest Google operating system out of the box. It has Samsung’s very own One UI laid on top of android which is very attractive and easy to use. It includes some pre-loaded apps but fortunately you can delete most of them if not required.

You have only one storage option of 128GB with Galaxy S20 which is enough for average user but if you shoots 4K and now 8K videos then there is also SD card slot which supports up to 1TB.

BATTERY LIFE:

Everyone knows that with 5G the super-fast internet battery will drain faster than any other task on your phone, which is where the 4,000mAh battery comes. It has a solid battery life which can easily see through a day with typical use. Sometimes you can have some left even after a heavy usage for a day.

Some features drained battery life quickly for example 120Hz with full brightness of display. With Samsung’s fast charging you can charge your phone from 0 to 100% in just an hour. Like its predecessor S20 also features reverse wireless charging.

PROS:

A brilliant display
Great camera performance
Powerful and 5G

CONS:

Expensive
Doesn’t support all 5G network
Erratic Fingerprint scanner

BUY IT IF...

You want 5G phone
Flagship which is easy to hold
Top-notch camera

DON'T BUY IT IF...

You are on a budget
Upgrading from S10
You want 3.5mm headphone jack

gsmarena_004

SAMSUNG GALAXY S10 REVIEW

Samsung Galaxy S10 is launched on the anniversary of Samsung and its S series. It has what is called Infinity-O display having a punch hole for the selfie shooter. It has three rear cameras and an in screen fingerprint sensor. The Galaxy S10 is still a powerful and great looking phone even after the launch of its successor Galaxy S20. If you don’t want the latest and greatest or you have strict budget you can grab on of these and still be competitive with 2020 phones.

SPECIFICATIONS:

There is powerful new chipset, it can either be Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820 (depends on where you live) with 8GB of RAM. The storage option is either 128GB or 512GB, also you have SD Card support. A beautiful AMOLED display of 6.1 inches with QHD+ and FHD+ resolutions. It has triple camera lens with 12MP regular lens, 12MP optically zoomed telephoto lens and this time a brand new 16MP ultra wide lens.

Another improvement is it’s battery. The battery is bumped up to 3,400mAh which is a significant increase from 3,000mAh of its predecessor.

DISPLAY:

Samsung have one of the best displays in smartphone world and Galaxy S10 is no exception. It has the one of the most color accurate smartphone display ever with 6.1 inches 19:9 Super AMOLED. It has HDR10+ support for better contrast and color.

The overall brightness of the display is amped up to get the better visibility outdoors. It has option of QHD+ and FHD+ resolution. By default it comes with FHD+ but that can be change in settings. QHD+ gives us 550ppi which is more than FHD+ but there is no noticeable difference and also it saves your battery.This time around there is no notch instead you get brand new Infinity-O display which makes this phone stand out. You get laser-cut hole in the top right corner of the screen for the selfie shooter.

Is it as distracting as a notch? We’ll say from our experience that it is less distracting as it sits comfortably in the corner. With absence of notch it give 93.1% screen to body ratio which makes it comfortable to use 6.1inch display.

It is marginally taller and wider than Galaxy S9 but noticeably thinner and lighter. There are tiny bezels on top and bottom of the phone which are slightly noticeable.

DESIGN:

The design of Galaxy S10 is not what makes you over surprised, the device is with two pieces of glass sandwiching an aluminum frame. Also has the edge display with curves on left and right which means accidentally presses along the edges of the display.

The phone looks very premium and expensive with its aluminum and glass body.

The color variations are Flamingo Pink, Prism Black, Prism Blue, Prism White, Canary Yellow and Prism Green. Colors will vary by the region.

We get a clean back look with a tiny camera bump. Wireless PowerShare feature works quite good in charging other devices but it won’t work if your Galaxy S10 is below 30% of charge.

As the body is made up of glass and aluminum if doesn’t provide as much grip so to avoid accidents a simple silicon case would be enough.

Fingerprint sensor is invisible. Yes you got me right its invisible means it’s in display sensor. Samsung use ultrasonic fingerprint sensor not an optical sensor means you can use it even if your hands wet or cold.

CAMERA:

It has triple camera lens with 12MP regular lens, 12MP optically zoomed telephoto lens and this time a brand new 16MP ultra wide lens.

The Galaxy S10 camera takes excellent photos, even in mixed and low light conditions.

The main S10 camera exhibit punchy, Instagram-ready colors and looks better than the muted photos out of an iPhone in most cases. It’s one of the best camera phones out now. However, its HDR prowess can, at times, blow out bright backgrounds,

during daytime shots. And lowlight, while good enough, does have serious noise reduction to reduce grain.That only leads to a lot of skin smoothing, as if you put on beauty mode when you didn’t.  

On the front we have single selfie shooter of 10MP. Samsung’s S10 single front-facing camera relied heavily on software to blur the edges around our hair. The S10 Plus dual-selfie cam did better.

On the video side, the software has been upgraded to record offer Digital Video Stabilization. Samsung says that this is meant to make all of your Ultra HD video as smooth as an action cam.

There’s also HDR10+ video recording, which is significant because last year’s S9 didn’t offer HDR recording at all (when other phones from Sony had this feature). It pulls in a wider amount of contrast, though the HEVC (smaller files) codec turns off when you enable Samsung’s lab-labeled HDR10+ feature in the settings. It worked well for us, but expect higher file sizes and maybe a few hiccups, as it appears to be experimental.

 

CAMERA SAMPLES:

PERFORMANCE & SOFTWARE:

Galaxy S10 is a huge upgrade from previous year’s Galaxy S9. You get top of the line Snapdragon or Exynos chipset depending on where you live.  You get Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 which is pretty fast. The benchmarked came back with a record-breaking multi-score speed… for Android. The iPhone XS is still a bit faster, but Samsung is very close at 10,318 to Apple’s 11,610. This is the first time we can say this. The gap is usually a lot wider. It comes with 8GB of RAM which is huge upgrade over last year’s 4GB of Galaxy S9.

You have storage option of 128GB and 512GB, no 64GB this time with SD card support. It comes with android 9 out of the box with it’s own One UI which is quite sleek and attractive in my opinion. As you know Samsung is a bit slow in its software releases so you might have to wait for Android 10.

BATTERY LIFE:

Galaxy S10 comes with battery of 3,400mAh which is also an upgrade over 3,000mAh of Galaxy S9. But still it gives you same “all-day” as Samsung quote battery as Galaxy S9 because it has bigger display which means it’ll consume more battery. Sometimes you get 20% of the battery remaining at the end of the day.

The Galaxy S10 supports wireless charging, like the previous generation, but Samsung has added a new feature here too. It’s called Wireless PowerShare and allows you to use the Galaxy S10 as a wireless charging mat for your other wirelessly charging devices.

It comes with fast charging of 15W.

PROS:           

High screen to body ratio
In-display fingerprint sensor
Wireless PowerShare Feature 

CONS:           

Expensive
Camera is great but not the best

Huawei P30 Pro

HUAWEI P30 PRO REVIEW

There are two big ways smartphones can still improve substantially, at least until foldables come along. One is the camera, the other is the battery. The Huawei P30 Pro does both. Its advantages over competitors are almost unfairIn a time when smartphones have become increasingly similar, Huawei has found a way to make the P30 Pro stand out: it gave it superpowers. Its ability to see in the dark is uncanny; its optical zoom is amazing; its stamina is out of this world.

The Huawei P30 Pro is the manufacturer’s last flagship that shipped with Google apps on board. Even a year after its release, the P30 Pro remains an attractive option for customers who just can’t deal with the lack of Google apps, but still like Huawei’s products. 

Unlike other manufacturers, Huawei bundles its flagships with the best charger available. It’s the same crazy-fast 40W charger we saw on the Mate 20 Pro. The soft clear case is basic, but still nice to have until you get something more personal. The earbuds are decent, for a bundled product, but you can definitely do better.

WHAT'S IN THE BOX:

  • 40W fast charger
  • USB-C earbuds
  • A basic clear case

Unlike other manufacturers, Huawei bundles its flagships with the best charger available. 

It’s the same crazy-fast 40W charger we saw on the Mate 20 Pro. The soft clear case is basic, but still nice to have until you get something more personal. The earbuds are decent, for a bundled product, but you can definitely do better. 

DESIGN:

  • 158 x 73.4 x 8.4mm
  • 192g
  • Waterdrop notch
  • Curved display edges
  • USB-C port
  • No headphone jack

If you ever played with the Mate 20 Pro, you already know what the P30 Pro feels like. The overall format is the same, but the P30 Pro is a hair bigger. Other than the different notches and camera setups, these phones are almost identical.

The Huawei P30 Pro feels very comfortable in the hand, despite the slippery glass back. It’s a little heavy, but not too much. While most folks will want to use it with two hands, once you slip a good case on, you can definitely use it with one. The notch on the P30 Pro is small and inconspicuous. As far as notches go, it’s probably the best compromise between form and functionality, as it doesn’t really mess with the notification bar. That was my top complaint about the large notch on the Mate 20 Pro.

DISPLAY:

  • 6.47 inches
  • 1080 x 2340, 19.5:9
  • OLED
  • HDR10, DCI-P3
  • 398 ppi

Always-on displayMost high-end phones now feature beautiful OLED screens, and the Huawei P30 Pro is no exception. The pixel density, brightness, and contrast levels are on point. By default, display colors are set to Vivid, which I prefer over the slightly warmer Default mode. You can easily pick a custom color setting as well.

PERFORMANCE:

  • Huawei Kirin 980
  • Octa-core
  • Mali-G76 MP10
  • 8GB of RAM
  • 128, 256GB or 512GB of RAM
The Huawei P30 Pro performs admirably. It’s as fast and smooth as you’d expect a phone of this caliber to be. Not counting a few hiccups in the first hours I had the phone – which can be chalked up to installing all the apps – I encountered no performance issues whatsoever.

The P30 Pro features a proprietary file system that helps performance. Most users won’t ever notice it, but this deep-level customization gives the phone a bit more oomph when transferring files to and from its storage, in addition to slightly lower app start times.

Speaking of storage, don’t buy a microSD card for your new P30 Pro. The phone has a card slot, but it only works with Huawei’s proprietary Nano Memory format, just like the Mate 20 Pro.

CAMERA:

  • Standard: 40 MP, f/1.6, OIS
  • Pixel-binned 10MP images
  • Ultra-wide: 20MP, f/2.2
  • Telephoto: 8MP, f/3.4, OIS
  • Time-of-Flight camera
  • 32MP selfie camera

The P30 Pro has three main cameras and a Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor that measures the distance to objects in the field of view. The main 40MP camera is what you’ll use in most cases. Because it uses pixel binning, it saves 10MP images by default. 

But you can switch to the full 40MP resolution if you prefer it. For groups of people or landscapes, you can switch to the ultra-wide camera. If you need to bring your subject closer, switch to the telephoto.

BATTERY LIFE:

  • 4,200mAh
  • 40W fast charging
  • 15W wireless charging
  • Reverse wireless charging

After the excellent camera, the P30 Pro’s battery is its best feature. I was able to get between 8 and 9 hours of screen-on time. The phone was mostly connected to Wi-Fi, with auto-brightness and the dark mode on, and Performance Mode off. My usage was a mix of plain internet browsing, using Sync for Reddit, watching lots of YouTube, and some gaming. David, who did the Huawei P30 Pro review video, got even better screen-on time of 9 to 10 hours. That’s despite using his phone’s roaming cellular connection over in Morocco. Both of us were able to go through two days of usage without any issues.

AUDIO:

  • No headphone jack
  • Single speaker

The bottom-firing speaker on the Huawei P30 Pro gets very loud. The sound is clear, but it lacks bass and there’s a little distortion at the high end when volume is maxed out. The wired USB-C earbuds in the retail box feel cheap in the hand, but they sound surprisingly good.

Given the sorry state of USB-C headphones, you may want to opt for a wireless model – we have plenty of recommendations here. The P30 Pro supports Bluetooth 5.0 with the high fidelity aptX HD, LDAC, and HWA codecs.

SOFTWARE:

  • EMUI 10.1 (OTA available)
  • Android 10 (OTA available)
  • Dark theme

Out of the box, the Huawei P30 Pro runs EMUI 9.1, based on Android 9 Pie. Despite the change in version number, EMUI 9.1 remains very similar to the UI on the Mate 20 Pro, with some small improvements. The P30 Pro finally displays third-party notifications on the always-on display, which has been a peeve of mine on the Mate. You can also swipe from the sides to exit the app drawer, and you can now open Google Assistant by holding the power button. There are some new integrations too, like the ability to open and start your car with just your phone – if you own a fancy new Audi, that is.

SHOULD YOU BUY THE HUAWEI P30 PRO?

There are two big ways smartphones can still improve substantially, at least until foldables come along. One is the camera, the other is the battery. The Huawei P30 Pro does both. Its advantages over competitors are almost unfair. This review isn’t about competitors, though, it’s about people. So, should you buy the Huawei P30 Pro? If you want the best camera, the best battery life, or just a really good all-around smartphone, the answer is a strong yes.

The P30 Pro has a few shortcomings, like the proprietary memory card format, the lack of a headphone jack, and perhaps Huawei’s less-established ecosystem. But they pale in comparison to its strong points. As far as I’m concerned, this superhero has no kryptonite.

And that wraps up our Huawei P30 Pro review. Will you buy this phone?

The-unlocked-Samsung-Galaxy-S10e-and-S10-128-GB-come-with-free-dual-wireless-charging-pads-at-Microsoft

SAMSUNG GALAXY S10e REVIEW

The Samsung Galaxy S10e is still one of best affordable flagship smartphone you can have. The “e” in S10e stands for “essential” which means it has all the essentials of S10 and S10 Plus at a lower price. You’ll have 5.8 inch display with the same all-day battery, dual lens camera instead of three lens, no curved display edges and absence of the in-screen fingerprint scanner. This is the compromise for the price drop and an answer to it’s rival Apple Iphone XR

SPECIFICATIONS:

It has the same chipset as of Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820 (depends on where you live) with 6GB and 8GB of RAM variant. The storage option is either 128GB or 256GB, also you have SD Card support. AMOLED display of 5.8 inches with FHD+ resolutions. It has dual lens camera with 12MP regular lens and 16MP ultra wide lens.

The battery is bumped up to 3,100mAh which easily gives one day backup.

DISPLAY:

As compared to it’s bigger versions Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus it has resolution option of only FHD+ but it’s 5.8 inch AMOLED display is what you expect from Samsung display have bright and crisp details with 438ppi.

Galaxy S10e comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on front and back whereas it’s older siblings have Corning Gorilla Glass 6. It has same “Infinity-O” display which is having a punch-hole for a camera rather than full notch. It also looks more attractive than huge notch you can see most of the phones.

DESIGN:

In a world filled with larger flagship smartphones Galaxy S10e gives you smaller display size of 5.8 inches for the peoples who want smaller phones but with flagship performance as these are rare to find these days. Galaxy S10e mostly looks like its older siblings with few exceptions. It does not have Galaxy line’s Infinity Edge display, so you’ll have to adjust for flat front display with some noticeable bezels. As it is smaller, it is lighter with 150g. It doesn’t have in-display fingerprint scanner or on its back this time Samsung put fingerprint scanner in power button. It is quite responsive but it is best to use your thumb for that as it covers full power button.

Even with being budget flagship it looks and feels quite premium with chromed aluminum case sandwiched by attractive glass and elegant rounded corners. It has narrow camera bump at the bump as t has no heartbeat sensor.

Galaxy S10e comes in six different colors but colors depend on which region you buy it from. Colors are Prism Black, Pearlescent Prism White, Shimmering Prism Blue, Flamingo Pink, Prism Green and Canary Yellow.

On left side you have volume rocker and below Bixby dedicated key but good news you can use it to activate other apps.

On bottom you’ll find USB-C port, microphone and 3.5mm headphone jack.

CAMERA:

The S10e comes with two rear-facing main cameras: a dual-aperture f/1.5-2.4 12MP main camera with OIS for smoothing out your shaky footage and a 16MP f/2.2 ultrawide shooter. Even packing two cameras makes the S10e an upgrade over last year’s Samsung Galaxy S9, which had a single dual-aperture shooter. So…how do the photos look? In our casual (i.e. automatic settings) shots, Samsung’s nailed photos in bright sunlight. It doesn’t do dark shots as well, though, and its night photography doesn’t hold a candle to the current king, the Google Pixel 3.

The other upgrade from the S9 line is the software, which has received some new tricks and other invisible additions.

Video gets an upgrade, too, with the front-facing camera now capable of shooting in UHD/2160p at 30fps (the rear camera has the same capabilities as the Galaxy S9, maxing out at 2160p at 60fps). There’s better footage stabilization too, but the big leap forward is the capability to shoot in HDR10+, which is Samsung’s custom format to improve on HDR10. Switching it on and off is a bit tedious, and you won’t even be able to see the difference on the phone, since you’ll need a higher-quality display.

While the S10e only has a single 10MP front-facing lens, there’s a simulated ‘ultra wide’ mode that zooms out a bit. You’ll feel the lack of a depth sensor when going in for Live focus (the depth-adding ‘Portrait’ mode).

CAMERA SAMPLES:

PERFORMANCE:

Galaxy S10e packs powerful Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820 depending on your region. The S10e managed a blistering 10,523 average score on Geekbench 4, if you wanted its performance put to numbers. The base model comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage option which will be more than enough for most of the people as we were getting smooth performance without any hiccups but if you want more storage and RAM then there is option for 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, also there is support for SD Card.

Gaming performance was excellent while handling Asphalt and Fortnite at highest specifications, though high specs drains battery faster and phone heats up a bit too. 

BATTERY LIFE:

Galaxy S10e comes with battery of 3,100mAh which was enough to last a full day with regular use. Charging was quick with 15W fast charging. Galaxy S10e has Wireless PowerShare feature. Essentially, you can use your S10e to wirelessly charge other devices that have Qi-enabled charging. In theory, the Wireless PowerShare feature is simple: turn it on, place the second device on the rear cover of the S10e, and wait. Sadly, wireless charging speeds are still slow

PROS:

No compromise on performance
Superb camera for its price
Wireless PowerShare Feature 

CONS:

Dual camera lens
In-display scanner absent
Wireless PowerShare Thicker than S10

huawei_mate_20_pro_review_8

HUAWEI MATE 30 PRO REVIEW

WHAT'S IN THE BOX:

The Mate 30 Pro is bundled with a 40W charger, meaning you won’t need to spend extra to get the best charging speeds available for the phone. You also get a pair of basic, but decent-sounding USB-C earbuds.

DESIGN:

  • 1 x 73.1 x 8.8 mm, 198 g
  • Glass and aluminum build
  • IP68
  • No headphone jack
  • IR blaster
  • Single speaker

The Mate 30 Pro feels luxurious. Every inch of it is polished, gleaming, and pleasantly rounded. On the flip side, it’s less practical than previous Huawei flagships.

The display features curved edges that wrap around the sides at almost 90 degrees. It’s similar to Samsung flagships, but more curved. Huawei markets it as the Horizon display, while others have taken to calling this style a “waterfall” display. Whatever you want to call it, there’s no disputing it’s very pretty.

The screen still has bezels on the sides, you just won’t see them most of the time. To achieve this bezel-less look, Huawei made the metal frame much thinner than on other phones. This really isn’t an issue from a usability perspective, and the phone feels strong in the hand

DISPLAY:

  • 53-inch 18.5:9 AMOLED
  • 2,400 x 1,176 pixels, 409ppi
  • Gorilla Glass 6
  • Waterfall display

The Mate 30 Pro is available in Black, Space Silver, Cosmic Purple, and Emerald Green. The pictures in this Mate 30 Pro review are of the Space Silver model. The Emerald Green version has a gradient to it – the lower part of its back is matte, while the area around the camera is glossy.

The Mate 30 Pro features a beautiful Samsung-made AMOLED screen covered in Gorilla Glass 6. The resolution and pixel density are actually lower than on the Mate 20 Pro, but I couldn’t see any difference in crispness. Overall, the display on the Mate 30 Pro looks identical to the P30 Pro’s, which is to say very good.

The notch at the top looks a bit dated, now that other manufacturers are doing punch hole cameras and wild pop-up cameras. Huawei kept it in order to have room for a selfie camera, depth sensor, and the 3D face unlock system. The notch is slightly smaller now, and I didn’t find it intrusive at all. Your mileage may vary.

I never really liked very rounded corners, so it was good to see a more squarish look on the Mate 30 Pro, much like on the Galaxy Note 10 Plus.The fingerprint reader works reasonably well — it’s still not as fast and reliable as rear-mounted scanners (remember those?), but it gets the job done.

PERFORMANCE:

  • HiSilicon Kirin 990 7nm
  • 2 x 2.86GHz Cortex-A76; 2 x 2.09GHz Cortex-A76; 4 x 1.86GHz Cortex-A55
  • Mali-G76 MP16
  • 8GB RAM
  • 128GB/256GB UFS 3.0
  • Nano Memory card slot

The bar for smartphone performance is set high, but the Mate 30 Pro clears it with ease. Despite technically being an engineering sample, the phone I tested felt lightning fast and smooth.

It’s all thanks to the Kirin 990 chip at the heart of the Mate 30 Pro. Huawei has invested heavily in its own silicon over the years, meaning it was able to put a cutting-edge chip inside its latest phone despite the US ban. 

Storage space of 128GB or 256GB and 8GB of RAM means you won’t need to worry about bottlenecks. As with the P40 Pro, P30 Pro and the Mate 20 Pro, the dual SIM card tray doubles as an expandable storage slot for Huawei’s proprietary Nano Memory cards.

CAMERA:

  • Wide: 40MP, f/1.6, OIS, RYB sensor
  • Telephoto: 3x zoom, 8MP, f/2.4, OIS
  • Ultrawide: 40MP, f/1.8
  • 3D ToF camera
  • 4K 60fps video
  • 7680fps ultra-slow-motion
  • Selfie: 32MP, f/2.0
  • Front facing 3D ToF camera

Where some manufacturers have focused heavily on software (with great results), Huawei has opted to throw more hardware at the camera problem. There’s merit to both approaches, but Huawei’s hardware-centric philosophy results in a versatile and flexible camera experience. This isn’t the most seamless and user-friendly camera phone, but the Mate 30 Pro is definitely fun to use.

The cameras on the Mate 30 Pro are similar to the P30 Pro’s setup, with a couple of important exceptions. The biggest is the use of a new 40MP sensor for the wide-angle camera. This relatively large sensor will result in better, brighter images in wide-angle shots; it’s also used by default when shooting video. Another difference is that, instead of the 5X periscope optical zoom of the P30 Pro, the Mate 30 Pro only offers 3X optical zoom.The Time-of-Flight camera helps the Mate achieve great simulated bokeh, with a natural-looking transition between foreground and background. Details like loose hair strands are typically challenging; the Mate 30 Pro handles them better than most phones, though it’s not perfect.For selfies, the Mate 30 Pro has a second Time-of-Flight camera on the front. It helps create a more realistic background blur in self-portraits. Selfies are generally good, even with strong backlight. One issue I noticed was the excessive skin smoothing that happens from time to time.

CAMERA SAMPLES:

BATTERY:

  • 4,500mAh
  • 40W wired charging
  • 27W wireless charging
  • Reverse wireless charging

Huawei launched a wicked-fast 40W charging solution on the Mate 20 Pro, and a year later, it’s still among the best on the market. The Mate 30 Pro doesn’t improve in this key metric, but it does bring improvements in just about every other department. The battery capacity is now 4,500mAh, compared to 4,200mAh on the previous generation.

According to our testing, the Mate 30 Pro battery will fill up from empty in just 70 minutes. A quick 15-minute top up will charge the phone to 39%.

n our battery testing, the Mate 30 Pro handily beats the Note 10 Plus and OnePlus 7T in the mixed use, WiFi browsing, and video playback benchmarks. The phone lasts almost as long as the ROG Phone 2, which has a 6,000mAh battery.

SOFTWARE:

  • EMUI 10
  • Android 10
  • No Google apps

Once you have the Play Store and your apps up and running, the Mate 30 Pro feels very familiar to anyone who’s tried recent Mate and P series devices. Somewhat ironically, the Mate 30 Pro is one of the first major phones to launch with Android 10, in the form of EMUI 10.

The update is focused on visual refreshes, including a new color palette, reworked quick settings tiles, and a revamped settings menu. Beneath that cosmetic layer, the OS is full of features and customization options, including a great system-wide night mode.

As of June 2020, Huawei has yet to offer a compelling solution to the missing apps conundrum. The company encourages customers to use its Phone Clone app, which can copy over most (but not all) apps from an existing device. Another option is to try Huawei’s App Petal service, which scours APK sites for the apps you need. You can also try your luck with third-party APK sites directly.

AUDIO:

  • Single speaker
  • In-screen earpiece
  • No headphone jack

The Mate 30 Pro gets loud! When I placed the Mate 20 Pro and the Mate 30 Pro side by side and played the same video, the Mate 30 Pro drowned out its predecessor.

Sound has a bit more punch that I was expecting, despite there being a single speaker at the bottom (the earpiece doubles as a secondary speaker, but it’s pretty soft in comparison to the main one). One minor annoyance: playing music on the Mate 30 Pro’s speakers makes the whole phone vibrate.

The earpiece, which is hidden below the screen, works flawlessly. Like almost every other flagship phone, the Mate 30 Pro lacks a headphone jack.

VERDICT:

Buy the Mate 30 Pro if you:

  • Want top-notch hardware;
  • Want something that’s a little exclusive;
  • Believe photography is more than pressing that big button;
  • The price isn’t a primary concern of yours;
  • You don’t mind tinkering with your phone;
  • You’re willing to take a chance with your smartphone;
  • Hate volume rockers.

Don’t buy the Mate 30 Pro if you:

  • Want something that just works out of the box;
  • Don’t want to (or can’t) mess with sideloading apps;
  • You’re security conscious;
  • You’re budget conscious;
  • You want the best possible return on your investment.
OnePlus-7-3

ONEPLUS 7 REVIEW

There’s not much difference between it and the OnePlus 6T which it replaces, but that’s sort of the point. It offers a more affordable option to those who can’t stretch to the pricier Pro, but still want the latest power under the hood. The OnePlus 7 packs in the top-end Snapdragon 855 chipset along with a choice of either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. Your RAM choice is tied to the amount of storage you’ll get inside (128GB or 256GB), but even the entry-level model provides plenty.

It fits the ‘affordable flagship’ bill nicely, giving you enough power to run pretty much any app or game, and there’s plenty of storage for your downloads, photos and music.

 

DISPLAY:

There’s a 6.41-inch AMOLED display on the front of the OnePlus 7, with a 2340 x 1080 Full HD+ resolution. That gives you 402 pixels per inch, and it provides plenty of color and detail. The OnePlus 7’s screen has a tall, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, providing you with more space for landscape gaming, and a better viewing experience for video. The top of the screen is also interrupted by a small notch, which houses the front-facing camera.

OnePlus has managed to keep bezels around the screen to a relative minimum, but there is a small chin at the base of the display – although it’s not an issue. The fingerprint scanner on the OnePlus 7 is embedded into the display, and while it does work, it’s not the fastest or most accurate in-screen scanner we’ve used.

You can opt for face unlock instead, which is impressively fast, but you need to be looking at the device for it to work and it’s less secure.

We didn’t have any issues with the screen during our time with the OnePlus 7. It’s bright and colorful, providing enough detail for general usage as well as gaming and video. 

It lacks HDR and a QHD (or higher) resolution, so image quality isn’t as good as the OnePlus 7 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S10 or Sony Xperia 1 – but all these handsets cost more. Considering the OnePlus 7 price, it’s hard to knock the screen.

 

DESIGN:

The design of the OnePlus 7 is very similar to the OnePlus 6T, but look closely and there are a few minor differences between the two handsets.

There’s a notch at the top of the phone housing the front-facing camera, which you may feel already looks a little dated, especially as the Pro version doesn’t have any notch, instead employing a pop-up selfie camera.

As noted above there’s also an in-screen fingerprint scanner here, which generally works well but not as fast as Huawei P30 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S10.

It does allow the rear of the phone to be almost completely flush, with just the centralized camera module interrupting the shiny glass finish. 

That rear glass doesn’t offer up much in the way of grip, so a case may be called for it you want to have a better hold of the OnePlus 7.

There’s still a silence slider on the right side of the OnePlus 7, just above the power key, which is a feature many like about OnePlus phones. This handset doesn’t have an IP rating though, so stay away from water. Also no microSD card slot, wireless charging and headphone jack.

Available in Mirror Grey, Red and Mirror Blue depending upon the region you are buying the phone.

The OnePlus 7 also gets stereo speakers, and you can see this with a slender speaker grille which runs along the top edge of the phone. That’s a new addition over the 6T, and it joins the down-firing speaker on the base of the handset.

CAMERA:

One of the more significant changes on the OnePlus 7 comes in the form of its upgraded cameras. The primary 48MP camera uses a ½-inch Sony IMX586 sensor with a 6-element lens giving it an f/1.7 aperture. There’s a secondary 5MP camera which works in tandem with the main camera unit, to assist it in creating pictures with a depth-of-field effect. Furthermore, this is supported by Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS).

You don’t get a telephoto lens or an ultra-wide angle sensor like its elder sibling as the OnePlus 7 focuses on the basics. It uses pixel-binning technique to create a crispier 12MP picture by merging the data from four pixels into one. That’s not to say that you cannot produce a native 48MP picture with the OnePlus 7.

So, while the 48MP primary sensor does all the heavy-lifting, it can also record in 4K at 60 fps, 480p for slow-motion clips along with features like time-lapse, nightscape, AI scene detection, portrait mode and HDR support to name a few.

All of this translates into generally good and bright looking pictures with more texture, balanced exposure and vivid colors. This is in daylight though, as the cameras are pretty average during night time.

On the front, the 16MP selfie camera uses Sony’s IMX471 sensor backed by EIS and an f/2.0 aperture. The pictures from the front camera look great when used in day-light, however, the software optimization sometimes overdo things. However, it can be fixed via software patch.

CAMERA SAMPLES:

PERFORMANCE:

If you’d have asked me, the OnePlus 6T was by far the fastest phone of 2018 in my opinion. The OnePlus 7 just hits it out of the ballpark when it comes to speed. No to mention the buttery slick experience one can experience on the OnePlus 7 Pro, our regular chap here is no less and can flex its muscles with equal ease.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 is the fastest processor in the world and forms the beating heart of the phone. This chipset has been fabricated on a 7-nanometer architecture process and is 45% faster than the previous generation while consuming 20% less power. Its octa-core CPU consists of Kryo 485 cores, one clocked at 2.84GHz, three running at 2.42GHz and another one at 1.8GHz. 

The OnePlus 7 is available in two variants- 6GB RAM + 128GB storage and 8GB RAM + 256GB storage.

OnePlus has developed a new feature they’re calling RAM Boost. This enables the phone to allocate RAM to memory intensive applications based on your app usage pattern. So, when you’re firing up a game, it will load faster and smoother. In my general use, RAM Boost allowed more applications to stay open in the background without any lag.

Sheer raw power. That’s how I’d like to describe the performance of the OnePlus 7. With OnePlus’ optimizations on OxygenOS, this right here is one powerful smartphone that will last for long if you want.

AUDIO:

OnePlus 7 has dual stereo speaker setup which gets really loud when needed. These have been fine-tuned by Dolby Atmos and is a very different experience than on the 6T.

It is the rich and immersive audio output that makes the gaming experience worthwhile. Even while watching videos on YouTube, the visual and aural elements are perfectly balanced and captivating.

BATTERY LIFE:

OnePlus 7 has the same 3,700mAh battery like the one found on the 6T. It supports 20W fast charging and comes with a Dash Charge adapter in-the-box.

In my use case, the OnePlus 7 lasted for a day and then some. But in many cases, such as if you play games, mostly the phone would require some juice to go on for the rest of the day.

Having lower refresh rate than OnePlus 7 pro and with Snapdragon 855 which is power efficient SoC gives the OnePlus 7 its long-lasting battery life that should suffice most users.

PROS:

  • Value for money
  • Great viewing experience
  • Extremely powerful
  • Slickest UI ever
  • Superior audio experience
  • Respectable battery life

CONS:

  • No Type-C to 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter
  • Cameras need more polishing

VERDICT:

OnePlus 7 is the most balanced smartphone that would appeal to most users as it keeps the basics at the helm of things. Then there’s the Pro version that offers a superior experience for users who can afford to pay the premium. If you’ve already got a taste of the OnePlus medicine, you’re likely to budge for the latter even though the OnePlus 7 stands its ground firmly, head still held high.