BE NICE TO THE NEW KIDS

Over the last couple of years, we've learned it's not just Samsung and Apple who make decent smart phones. We've seen quality devices and innovations from manufacturers like Sony, LG and Huawei too, the latter even leap-frogging some of the "bigger" names in certain features.

But here in New Zealand we still only get a fraction of the story. Due to the small size of our market and the domination of 2 major mobile suppliers, we're not being exposed to some brands that have just as much merit as what Vodafone and Spark want to sell you.

Meizu is one of those brands.

Before trying the m2 and the m2 note from Meizu, I'd never even heard of Meizu, let alone seen or used one. Turns out, Meizu makes a pretty good phone.

The first thing that stood out for me was how light these handsets are. Both feature a polycarbonate all-in-one body design that was so light, it had me wondering if they'd left the battery out. They hadn't, it's just I've become so conditioned to all the glass and metal surrounding some of the latest high-end phones, I'd forgotten how liberating and durable a plastic casing can be. Picking these handsets up reminded me of the Galaxy S3 I used to own, although no removable back here so these phones are significantly more streamlined and slimmer.

There are the fairly standard power and volume buttons situated on the side, although I found it strange these were placed on opposite sides on the two phones. This is really weird given the m2 and m2 note are physically identical in every other way (apart from the screen size, obviously)

Other than that, there's only one button at the bottom of the screen - standard for you iPhone users but a bit freaky if you're an Android guy like me. After all, the m2 nd m2 note are still Android devices, so what's happened to the Go Back and Menu buttons?

That's where Flyme comes in; Meizu's own user interface. You navigate around these phones by swiping across the home button, as well as pushing it. Swipe left to go back. Swipe up to show running applications.

The home screen layout itself is beautifully boring, no bells or whistles unless you add them yourself. There's almost no bloatware to be found on these phones out of the box. No offers of subscription music services or personalised magazine and news feeds you never asked for.

Both phones feature a 13MP rear camera, which is very high-spec for this price range, while the 5MP forward facing camera uses something called FotoNation, which is supposed to enhance your selfies to make them look better than ever. I usually just end up looking like me, which is always a slight downer.

Both phones have excellent battery life - not the best I've experienced but definitely better than most. While there's no wireless charging option, Meizu does supply a fast-charger which is another advantage.

The laminated screen is not the brightest, sharpest or highest definition around, but I was immediately impressed with how black the blackness was. (I'm sure there's a technical term for that, it's something LG always goes on about)

For those of us familiar with Android devices, it's easy to be lured into a false sense of security when you first try to operate the m2 or the m2 note. But controlling everything by twiddling your thumb over the home button does take a while to get used to. Once you do get used to it though, it becomes very intuitive and I found it hard to change my new thumb habits once I went back to my more familiar 3-button setup.

As usual, neither the stock home screen or email app works in landscape mode, even on the m2 note, which boasts a 5.5inch display - certainly big enough for me to want to use it sideways more often than not.

Putting these two devices through their paces, I noticed the difference wasn't just half an inch of screen space. The octa-core processor of the m2 note out performed the quad-core capabilities of the smaller m2 pretty noticeably. (Did you catch my pun? note-iceably?... Never mind) Multi-tasking was a lot more convincing on the m2 note, and there was the odd thing I couldn't get to work at all on the m2, like the Gear Manager plugin for my smart watch. None of these issues were a major concern, but given the price difference between these two sub-$300 phones is only about 50 bucks, I'd definitely recommend shelling out a bit more for the m2 note unless you have a major aversion to large screen phones.

And that's the crucial factor here, budget. These Meizu contenders are too well priced not to consider when you're shopping around, especially if your teenager is trying to talk you into the latest "big name" handset priced over a thousand dollars. You just know they'll drop it out of their schoolbag on the second day and crack the thing. Give one of these polycarbonate phones a go and they might be surprised at the functionality.
They'll certainly be impressed with how light they are to carry around.

There's one final feature that really sets the Meizu phones apart, especially in New Zealand; dual sim capability. By taking advantage of two networks at once, you can also take advantage of extended coverage and specific offers and plans. That's why you won't find either of these two phones in either of the big phone stores. They're not keen on having their competitor's sim cards nestled beside theirs in the same phone. But if you are, it might be time to have a play with a Meizu.

Click here for information and pricing on the Meizu m2

Click here for more information and pricing on the Meizu m2 note

TECH SUPPORT FOR MUM

It's not every day your mother is the one who puts you on to a new and exciting piece of technology. So it was with some trepidation I decided to research her query about a phone she'd heard about from one of her friends.

"A smart phone for oldies," - her words, not mine.

I found it. I used it. I instantly hated it. But then, I'm not an oldie. (Not yet, anyway) So I gave it to Mum to review instead...

The Doro Liberto 820 Mini is a very weird piece of kit.

Let's start with Doro itself; I mean, who's even heard of this company? Turns out, it's a Swedish-based outfit specialising in providing user-friendly phones for seniors. What's more, they appear to be going from strength to strength all over the world.

The strategy is quite brilliant in its simplicity - how many times has your mum, dad or grandparent sent you a blank text? Or pocket dialed another country? Or taken 17 photos of the footpath? And how many times have you tried to explain to them how to not do those things?

The Doro Liberto 820 Mini has been specifically designed to prevent issues like those ever arising, thereby saving everybody a lot of stress all round.

It has a friendly appearance straight out of the box. Rounded corners and a chunky feel that's very easy to hold, unlike some of the new-fangled phones that are so skinny they're likely to slip between the couch cushions and never be seen again. The Options, Home and Back keys are actual, physical buttons, so you're not just pushing at the handset randomly, blindly hoping something will happen. There's also a separate, physical Camera button and there's even an Emergency Assistance button you can program to contact your preferred first responder with a single touch.

The Liberto 820 Mini is also packaged with a convenient charging cradle that's a lot less fiddly than dealing with a micro-USB cable and a tiny socket. What's more, the handset sits in that dock sideways, conveniently transforming into a bedside clock.

So you can see what they're trying to do. The reason I struggled with it is what happens when you actually turn the thing on. Perfomance-wise this ain't no rocket ship. I've become spoiled by the miniaturised super-computers available at the top end of today's smart-phone market and if I can't stream the latest episode of Billions directly to my Chromecast while wirelessly charging, what's the point?

Then I realised, I'd missed the point...

Me: "How's the new phone going?"
Mum: "It's good. I find the actual phone part, you know, like now, what we're doing, much easier than my other one."
Me: "Why's that?"
Mum: "Because it's more clear. And I haven't actually tried to ring up. But I think, when I go to where I ring up, it brings the numbers up, and the other one I used to have difficulty finding the numbers."
Me: "Riiiight..."
Mum: "And it doesn't seem to take so long to charge up as the other one."
Me: "So it charges quicker?"
Mum: "Yeah. I think so. And it's good because I can make the letters bigger which I couldn't with my other one. I found out where I can do that."
Me: "Oh. Wow."
Mum: "The only thing is, I've got emails on it, you know?..."
Me: "Yeeees?..."
Mum: "But there were photos, and I couldn't get the photos. It had a little thing, like an attachment, so I pressed that but I couldn't get the photos."
Me: "Oh okay. We'll have to have a look at that."
Mum: "And I'm not sure yet, when I get a text or an email, whether there's a little light that flashes. But I haven't had a lot of traffic. Nobody's sent me anything."

Translation; very clear audio quality. Easy to use directory and keypad. Easy to change font size. Attachments not automatically set to download in emails and no notification LED light.

I was impressed with how impressed she was. Mum seemed amazingly self sufficient. She'd even found out how to change the "tunes and tones and things like that."

Mum: "And I set the alarm just for fun yesterday."

These kids and their phones. They just can't leave them alone.

Turns out the reason she couldn't see a notification light blinking anywhere is there isn't one. Ironically, that's one of the first things I deactivate on a new phone. Who knew there were people out there who actually like annoying little lights?

As for the email attachments, it seems the Liberto 820 Mini is really just a normal (fairly entry level) Android phone with a very simplified operating system laid over the top. It's easy enough to access more complicated settings like downloading email attachments automatically in much the same way as you would on any phone.

The Doro tries to help out as much as it can - every time you open an app, whether it's email, camera, messaging etc, a window appears offering to walk you through a step-by-step guide to teach you what to do. This can be turned off by ticking a box of course... something I still had to point out to Mum after she'd been using the phone a few weeks.

Me: "How's the phone going?"
Mum: "Well, it's okay. I was very pleased with it because I found I could read it outside, even in the bright sunshine with my sunglasses on."
Me: "Gosh."
Mum: "But it's got a bit stroppy and it thinks it knows better than I do what I want to write and it changes words on me without me noticing."
Me: "Right. Well, you should pay attention and select the word that you want to write."
Mum: "Yeah, but you think you've put the right word, but sometimes you go back and read what you've got and you see it's put something different to what you originally put."
Me: "And then you go back and correct it..."

I then gave Mum a long lesson in managing predictive text. I think she got it. Eventually. Good to hear the screen brightness ramped up automatically in the sun. Things seemed to be going really well... Then I got a text claiming the emails had stopped working altogether.

Me: "I don't understand how it could have changed between now and the other day."
Mum: "No. Except I went to Email, just to see if there was anything there and it showed up. There were emails and then it disappeared just like that. Then I put the computer on and there were 3 emails there just like that and they were no longer on the phone."
Me: "You understand once they're on the computer, they won't be on your phone?"
Mum: "I know that. But these were new ones I hadn't seen before."

Do you really think she did know that? I gave her the benefit of the doubt, fiddled with the phone settings and somehow the automatic email sync had been switched to manual. Mum claimed she wouldn't have done that. Obviously I have to believe her. She's my mother.

This business with the emails not appearing seemed to happen one more time. Again, difficult to explain without accusing my own mother of being technically challenged... and I would never do that.

The upshot is, after using the Doro Liberto 820 Mini for a month, Mum absolutely loves it and doesn't want to give it back. She thinks it's a million billion times better than the $49 phone she was using before and I have to admit, as frustrating as some of those "tech support" phone calls may have appeared, they weren't a fraction of what I was expecting.

This all leads me to believe Doro has achieved what it set out to; it's not a phone for me. It's a phone for Mum. I wonder if she'll ever stop calling it her Dora phone?

Click here for more information on the Doro Liberto 820 Mini

Or here for a good deal on one...

JUST DIFFERENT ENOUGH

There are two kinds of tech consumers out there; there's the kind who use their device the way they're told, the way it came straight out of the box.

Then there's the kind who have to fiddle. Customise. Personalise.

The first kind are probably still using Internet Explorer.

The second kind installed Google Chrome when it was still in beta.

I think you know which kind I am...

The Nexus 6P is a beast.

In many ways, it's a lot like Huawei's elegant and sophisticated P8.

But although Huawei also put this latest Google phone together, I'm not sure many people would use the adjectives "elegant" or "sophisticated" to describe it.

Perhaps due to its aluminium casing, when you first pick it up the Nexus 6P feels cold, hard and steely - almost like a piece of military hardware.

Straight away you can see this is a device for that second kind of techie, the kind who like to buck the system.

There are quite a few physical things to make the Nexus 6P stand out amongst the crowd on the cafe table...

First, the weirdly scooped up camera bar at the top of the rear panel. It's hard to see any practical reason for this other than to make the phone look really science-fictiony. It's also the complete opposite of the totally flat camera scenario you'll find on a Huawei P8.

While were checking out the 6P's backside, there's a subtle circle in the middle of it. That's the fingerprint sensor, situated in a much cleverer position than under the home button on other devices. You can instantly wake the phone up by placing your finger where it naturally goes when you grab it out of you pocket or purse. What's more, it actually works.

The other stark differentiator on the Nexus 6P is the speaker setup. There are speakers at the bottom and top of the handset. Or, if you're even remotely sane and using a 5.7inch screen, you'll be using it sideways so there's now a left and right speaker.

This means small but significant stereo separation and I swear the difference is quite noticeable. Let's be real; by no means will you get the bass response you would from a half-decent sound dock, but it certainly isn't the tinny, thin sound you've come to expect from most other phones either.

At a pinch, the Nexus 6P could be used to provide just the background music required to finish this review.

So physically, there's quite a lot to set this phone apart from the others.

Even the charging cable is the latest technology Type-C connection, which doesn't care which way up it gets plugged in. Super convenient... unless you lose it, like I did. The only place I could find one to replace it was on TradeMe. The perils of being an early adopter.

While we're talking charging, the Nexus 6P ships with a fast charger that is very fast indeed. At 50% I achieved a full charge in under 40 minutes. You've got to be happy with that. Alas, no wireless charging option due to the metal casing - something to consider if you're as much of a fan of cord-free charging as I am.

The other frustration with this phone was the usual one; no Landscape mode for the home screen. I thought for sure Google would be the leader on this and finally insist on a stock layout that compliments such a large display. Half the widgets I use barely even fit on a Portrait-style home-screen. Ah well, thank heaven for Nova Launcher.

Other than that, this phone is most definitely a high end performer. Fast, smooth operation, especially (not surprisingly) with Google-based functions like Chromecast and Google Now.

The display is nice and sharp (as you'd expect from a phone in this price range) and the camera is user friendly, although I struggled to get a nice, bright shot in some conditions.

It goes without saying most things are Google-centric on this device. Google's Photos app replaces the standard gallery option. Chrome is obviously the default browser, Gmail the stock email client. This is all a benefit rather than an impediment as these tools are generally fairly stripped down and efficient, without a lot of the manufacturer bloat features you might have to endure from other brands.

I found the Nexus 6P's battery life to be satisfactory rather than impressive, but the fast charging option more than makes up for any shortfall. Connectivity was generally superior to most other devices I've used, be it via WiFi or bluetooth and it ran my Samsung Gear S2 smart watch without too  much trouble at all.

The Nexus 6P is not fancy, but it is different. It's a phone that has a reliable feel to it and leaves out added extras you didn't ask for.


Click here for more information on the Nexus 6P

CLEVER WITHOUT THE CALORIES

There's a weird no man's land in the middle of the smart phone market.

People who are really into the latest tech seem to be more than happy to shell out a thousand bucks or more for the next generation of high end handsets. Either that, or if you're on a really big plan, your telco might upgrade you automatically.

At the other end of the price range, there are phones posing as smart phones, but they're not really smart at all, usually under powered, running on outdated software with terrible battery life and virtually no storage.

My mum has one of these. She thinks it's a rocket ship. But then, her last phone was a tin can and a piece of string.

The good news is, you can find a middle ground, if you're prepared to make a few compromises...

The first thing I noticed when I picked up the Huawei P8 Lite was how easy it is to pick up. While the spec sheet would suggest it's actually only a few grams lighter than its high-end cousin, the P8, I swear the difference is totally noticeable. This may also be due to the plastic back cover as opposed to the metal one on the P8. Yes, the P8 feels more solid, but the P8 Lite is... well... light. Initially, that was one of the few differences I could detect.

When I reviewed the P8 a few weeks back, I was impressed enough to suggest it was a serious contender to the likes of the top-end Samsung, Apple and LG phones. Likewise, the P8 Lite has many things to commend it to buyers in the sub $400 category.

Firstly, it's a really sharp looking phone. In fact, it's almost identical to the P8 with the same minimalist design; very slim with the same rear-facing camera situated flush in one corner.

That 13MP rear camera is an excellent camera for a phone in this price bracket, although the forward-facing camera is a significant step down. Not a problem for me as I have said before, the lower resolution my selfies are, the better. For everyone.

Another important bonus the P8 Lite features is storage space. Unlike the paltry 8gb of on-board storage you get with some other handsets in this price range, the P8 Lite boasts a healthy 16gb, with a slot for microSD expansion. That's good news with the latest Lollipop OS taking up a fair chunk of space all on its own, before you even start adding apps, music and videos.

Speaking of video, the display is only HD, not Full HD, but given the screen is a little smaller than what I'm used to, you really only notice the difference in a side-by-side comparison. However, that screen is indeed only 5 inches and given many phones start at 5.2 these days, I felt a little squeezed. Widgets I normally use to control music and podcasts become quite fiddly to access on a screen that size. Funny how quickly we get used to new tech; it's not so long ago a 5 inch screen was considered massive and a bit show-offy.

Given the step down in processing power, I was worried about the P8 Lite's ability to stream video and audio. Would it maintain a steady bluetooth connection? Was Chromecasting content to other devices still an option? I was pleasantly surprised to discover the connectivity in all these situations was very stable, although video files from other sources did take a while to get going sometimes.

There's no NFC function on the P8 Lite for file-sharing between devices, but I almost never use this feature anyway. I'm beginning to wonder if it's one of those things engineers thought would be a good idea at the time but never really caught on.

By now I know what you're all dying to find out; how did the P8 Lite perform playing Minion Rush? To be honest, not the best. The lower-spec screen just didn't feel as responsive to my lightning fast reflexes. The handset wasn't very sensitive to tilting controls and worst of all, the game actually glitched on the odd occasion, usually resulting in dire consequences for my minion. Either that, or I've finally reached a level of the game that's simply too difficult for me. Either way, if you've come to love playing HD games on your phone, you'll probably need to choose something with a bit more grunt.

That's really the biggest criticism I have of the P8 Lite; its basic lack of power. If you're only planning on doing one thing at a time, it's more than up to the task - multi-tasking though? Not so much.

I also stumbled across a wee issue with the P8 Lite's attention span. For some reason it was happy to run my fitness app for an hour when I was wearing it in an armband on my run, but if I left it in my bag at the gym it would give up recording my Body Attack class about 15 minutes in. No idea why. I mean, I can relate to wanting to give up and go home 15 minutes into a workout... but I usually don't.

Battery life is not really an issue, either negatively or positively. The Lite has a smaller battery than the P8, but it's not driving as much display or processing so a charge lasts about as long, generally long enough for a day's use which is pretty standard. I felt like it was slow to charge, but maybe that was just my frustration at being forced to deal with yet another handset without the option to charge wirelessly. I thought we were supposed to be living in the future!

My pet power peeve aside, the P8 Lite is an elegant-looking phone with plenty of functionality for the money. It's an option well worth considering if you can't justify the spend on the latest high-end features you might never use.

Click here for more information on the Huawei P8 Lite

HE THINKS HE'S SO GOOD LOOKING (AND HE'S RIGHT)

PART II OF A 2 PART STORY...

We all knew his little brother of course, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. Made quite a splash when he arrived on the scene earlier in the year.

No-one had ever met a phone quite like him; all smooth lines and curved edges. Some said he was the best looking phone they'd ever seen. The others, well they were thinking it.

This was something new though. Something exciting. Something... dangerous.

Who could have guessed his brother would be bigger?

Now they're lining up to take on the Galaxy S6 Edge+ from Samsung.

Edge+ was everything his little brother was and so much more. Slim like the S6 Edge, but taller, broader. So much more screen (5.7 inches in fact) but all perfectly in proportion and wrapped sensuously around the sides the way only the Samsung family knows how to.

And he wasn't just a pretty face. Sure, he had his brother's looks but he certainly had his sister's functionality to boot. I told you about her amazing host of talents last week. Well short of making an S Pen appear from nowhere, the Edge+ could do pretty much everything the Note 5 could do, just looking so damn hot the whole time he's doing it.

It wasn't long before all the other phones were feeling pretty jealous, if not positively flat. Literally flat. Their screens were all flat while his was curvy. Curvy is always more sexy than flat. Curvy doesn't just look sexy. Curvy feels sexy.

Just like the Note 5, the camera on the Edge+ is Samsung's best yet, so easy to use, starting instantly with a double tap of the home key. The HDR setting produced some of the best low-light photography I'd ever seen from a phone.

After a few hours, the other handsets began to wonder if there was anything wrong with the Edge+ at all. Surely all that processing power and the massive screen would suck up the battery. It must only be a matter of minutes before he'd run out of steam.

But no. The Edge+ had stamina. He had no problem lasting the day and into the night, no matter how many levels of Minion Rush I subjected him to.

What's more, he was the fastest charging phone anyone had ever seen and like all those Samsung guys these days, he could charge wirelessly and still top up his battery super quick.

Suddenly I was struck by a terrible realisation... this phone was too good for me. I wasn't stylish enough to hang around with the Edge+! What's more, my fat, clumsy fingers were starting to cause trouble.

The first problems surfaced when I was watching video. Nothing wrong with the quality of the play-back or the streaming capabilities, that was all outstanding. However, because the display reached all the way to the very edge of the handset and beyond, I kept pushing the on-screen progress bar instead of the play/pause button, accidentally fast-forwarding or rewinding my video by minutes at a time.

Meanwhile the Edge+ humoured me by letting me play out my Minion Rush obsessions repeatedly, but there were many times I lost lives simply because my clumsy club-hands couldn't quite grasp the phone without oozing onto the screen, causing my minion to run in the wrong direction.

That's the problem when you have a handset that's basically all screen, you simply can't keep your hands off it. Oh, I wanted the Edge+ to be my best bud, but I had to face facts; I was holding him back.

The Edge+ deserved someone better than me. Someone worthy of a 5 megapixel selfie. Nobody wants to see an ugly mug like mine in that high a definition.

So I let him go. I gave him his freedom. He was born to run with the cool crowd. A high performance sports car of a phone like that was never meant to live in a hatch-back, Corolla world like mine.

The other phones were glad to see him go. He made them feel second best, obsolete. To be honest, the Edge+ made me feel a little obsolete myself.

If only you could upgrade humans the way you can with technology. I could trade up to some 2015 hands with more nimble fingers and a gentler touch.

Then I'd be worthy of a phone as classy as the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+.

Silly name of course. Far too long.

Click here for more information on the Samsung GS6 Edge+

WHY MY SMART WATCH LEFT ME FOR ANOTHER PHONE

PART I OF A 2 PART STORY...

I thought we were happy, the 3 of us. Me, my trust Galaxy S5 and my Gear 2 Neo smart watch. Together we were connected, you know? In sync.

We all just had so much in common; the same fitness regime, moved in the same social media circles. Played the same music. We even kept to the same schedule.

We were good together. Really good.

Then the new girl came to town and everything changed.

Now I wish I'd never met the Galaxy Note 5 from Samsung.

Oh, we all wanted to connect with her at first, she was irresistible. So slim and yet plenty of size in all the right places, if you know what I mean. (Before you really get the wrong idea, I'm talking about a massive 5.7 inch display that just won't quit... well, not before it gets to the very edge of the handset, anyway)

And the things the she could do! The hidden S Pen in the same beautiful gold finish as the phone, making handwritten notes so easy. I was saving notes as appointments, converting them into text, making lists. I didn't even need to turn her on to use the S Pen - the Note 5 was good to go the moment you popped the pen out. (That's not a euphemism. You literally pop the S Pen out)

It wasn't just notes I was taking with that S Pen either - like the Note 4 I could use the pen to highlight both text and pictures, or parts of pictures. Only now, thanks to the Note 5, I could even scroll through multiple pages from websites and paste them into my own documents and emails.

The Note 5 did everything I wanted. Clear photos in low light? Not a problem. Live broadcast video to Youtube? A cinch.

Perhaps the most alluring thing about the Note 5 was her ability to last all day long... on one charge. I'd never encountered battery life like it. In spite of her large screen and powerful processing speed, she was slow to drain yet quick to charge.

"At long last!" I thought, "Finally a phone who really understands me. Real, quick, dependable wireless charging. It's a miracle." While everybody else glazes over whenever I bring up my favourite subject, the Note 5 just said, "Sure. I'll do wireless charging. And I'll do it faster than ever before."

Just like that, I was lost. This was the phone I'd been waiting for. Oh, sure she was a bit longer than my S5, but not much wider. Besides, who wants to hide something so beautiful away in their pocket? I wanted everyone to see me with the Note 5. I wanted to show her off.

Ah, the times we had. The levels of Minion Rush we completed together. But nothing this good can last forever and sadly, all review periods must come to an end.

Like a refugee camped outside a Budapest railway station, I had to send her back where she came from. Parting wasn't sweet and there was a fair amount of sorrow.

So I returned to my S5 with my tail between my legs and everything seemed fine... at first. It wasn't until I tried to pair my Gear 2 Neo smart watch back with the S5 I realised everything had changed. Initially I thought I was imagining it - bluetooth devices don't always get along straight away; sometimes you have to switch off a few times before you can really get their attention.

No, it wasn't till I went running I realised how much my watch really wanted the Note 5 back. It simply refused to talk to my fitness app and that was that.

I have to admit, I know how it feels. Sure the Note 5 had her faults, but not many. For example, I couldn't touch her without smearing her surface with greasy fingerprints, but that might have been more my problem than hers. Yet again, Samsung had released a phone without landscape functionality on its home screen but now I'm just searching for small little niggles to ease my pain.

I miss her. I miss her real bad. Maybe with time I'll get over her. But I'll never forget those few glorious days with the Galaxy Note 5.

And neither will my watch.

Click here for more information on the Samsung Galaxy Note 5

AT LAST... AN ALTERNATIVE

For years now the battle has been raging. Android versus iOS. Apple versus Samsung. Galaxy versus iPhone.

At the top end of the smartphone market , there's really only been two heavyweights and they've been going at it hammer and tong for a pretty long time, virtually uncontested.

In cyber land, a long time is measured in months, not years, but Samsung and Apple really have been the double act at the head of the market for nearly a decade.

Recently LG and Sony have come close, technically speaking, but only two brands consistently have customers queuing for each new generation of their flagship handsets.

Huawei may be about to change all that...

The P8 is a very, very good phone.

I'll start with what's wrong with it, because there isn't much.

First, no wireless charging. I know I keep bleating on about this but seriously, now Samsung has proclaimed wireless charging to be the way of the future and has started building it into its phones, any competitor who opts out is kidding themselves. Hell, Nokia/Windows phones have been charging wirelessly for years.

My other pet peeve any regular readers are probably bored silly by is no landscape mode for the default home screen. I think any display over 5 inches is easier to use sideways and and when almost all the apps auto rotate, being bound to a portrait profiled home screen just seems so... iPhoney. In fact, a quick glance at Huawei's EMUI home screen and you'd be forgiven for confusing it with iOS's now very dated grid of uniform tiles.

Of course, thankfully Android offers many alternatives and even Huawei asks you if you'd prefer to use Google Launcher right from your first use.

(I use Nova Launcher by the way, no problems getting that to auto-rotate)

Another feature which various manufacturers seem to move towards and then mysteriously away from is dust and water resistance. Sadly, there's no indication the P8 would survive much of a dunking, although it is sealed up pretty tight. Unlike some handsets, there's no removable back to acess the battery, although there are slots for both sim and microSD cards on the side, meaning there's not much incentive to splash out on the 32gb model when you can expand the 16gb version with a microSD up to 128gb.

One more little niggle, then I'll get onto the good stuff. The P8's navigation buttons are on screen, like an LG, not physically on the phone like a Samsung. This isn't too annoying, as they disappear when you're watching video (a swipe will bring them back) but I'd like them to disappear when using other apps as well, or at least have that option. On the plus side, you can change the order they appear in.

Now... Let me tell you how good this phone really is.

Let's start by talking battery life. I've read other reviews suggesting the P8 only demonstrated mediocre charge life but I've found the opposite to be true. This could be due in part to the built-in battery saver function which prompts you to turn off apps that are running in the background, consuming power. I know you can download similar apps to perform the same function, but the P8's stock app seems to do a pretty effective job. 

This handset looks and feels amazing, by the way. The lines are minimalist and smooth, it's very slim and the display stretches almost to the very edge of the phone. Unlike almost every other device, the camera lens and flash are completely flush with the back, tucked subtly in the top left corner.

The camera performs well - in fact, critics have accused it of performing TOO well, bizarrely claiming some photos look too colourful! As for nighttime shooting, initially I did struggle to capture a pic that wasn't overexposed, but then I simply turned off the flash and clicked on the little light bulb symbol instead. This lit up my subjects the whole time I took the photo and provided a much better image, a really effective function I've never come across before. 

As for performance, apparently there's all sorts of twin octa-core processing going on I can't begin to understand, but the upshot is, everything worked extremely smoothly, just as you'd expect from a modern, high-end phone. My browsing experience was effortless and the stock email and messaging apps did the job without any fuss. 

One feature that really excited me was the default Huawei Swype keyboard. Usually I find the limited functionality of most stock keyboards so frustrating, it's not long before I resort back to my preferred option, SwiftKey. The P8's Huawei Swype keyboard has me hooked though, apart from the tiny space bar it's almost perfect, especially the long list of suggested words at the top instead of just the 3 options I get with SwiftKey. 

The P8's connectivity also impressed me, once again prompting me with the battery saving option to turn off the WiFi when out of range of a known network. Again, while I can download an app to do this,  with the P8, it's built in. 

All in all, I found the P8 to be a great phone, matching top-of-the-range handsets from other manufacturers in most areas and even outperforming them in some. 

It looks sexy and best of all, it's at least $200 cheaper than its big-name rivals. 

Click here for more details on the Huawei P8