Don't believe everything you see in the news.
Huawei is not dead. Not even close.
With its ground-breaking four-sensor camera and sizzling processing power, the P30 Pro is still one of the best performing phones of the year.
Last week's Huawei Developer Conference saw the official announcement of its new HarmonyOS, Huawei's backup plan if the Trump-led Android impasse ever really comes into effect.
There's a lot going on. And not just in the high-end, flagship range...
A quick look at this image and you could easily be convinced the Huawei Y9 Prime is at the prime end of the smartphone price zone. In fact, this is only a $399 device, but it out-delivers most other phones in that market.
For starters, it looks pretty cool. In New Zealand, the Y9 Prime is available in black and blue, both featuring a unique and eye-catching split finish on the rear panel, just below the fingerprint sensor. Yes - ironically, there's still a physical fingerprint sensor on the back of the Y9 Prime - which works very well by the way - I still have mixed feelings about the in-display sensors popping up elsewhere. The reason I find this ironic is I found this phone to be far less of a fingerprint magnet than most other glossy handsets. Great news if you're not into using a cover, although there is a clear one included in the box.
Of course, the other notable feature on that rear panel is the tri-lens camera, something we're not even seeing on all the high-priced phones yet, let alone in the sub-$500 category.
The good news here is one of those lenses provides wide-angle capability, again, something pretty unique for the money. The camera story isn't all good news, although it does have a surprise ending. Usually I enjoy the camera experience on a Huawei phone. The software is generally set up to let you point and shoot without too much tweaking and you'll get decent results most of the time. For some reason Huawei has really dumbed things down for the Y9 Prime's camera app. Unless you go into the Pro settings, which can only be accessed via a secondary screen, you simply don't have the option to change resolution or aspect ratio, which drives me nuts. Not all of us want square, 4:3 Insta-ready snaps - some of us want the option of a rectangular shot that will fill a larger screen. Even accessing the wide-angle option provided by that third lens only happens sort of accidentally, when you zoom out past 1X. Also, HDR is manually activated and not available for portrait shots for some reason. The whole operation feels very restrictive, which is unfortunate, because the majority of photos I took looked great. Sharp, clear but annoyingly, usually square.
There is a bright side... and it's inside. The Y9 Prime's 16MP front facing camera pops up - a feature we've seen working surprisingly well on some, but not many, other phones. The camera comes out quickly enough for any emergency selfie and it retracts instantly if it's knocked or if the phone's A.I. senses the device has been dropped.
Again, you're out of luck if you want to use HDR on your selfie, although at least you can choose different aspects in Photo mode. Portrait mode is where all the fun stuff is - not just adjustable beauty settings but a bokeh effect button and several nifty lighting filters. You can also do some pretty crazy stuff with stickers and there's an AR mode that lets you apply real-time silly glasses, hats and special effects.
This is where the Y9 Prime's surprising processing power comes to the fore. While I don't love the camera app, I do appreciate the A.I. at work, identifying scenes and objects - even text - and photographing them accordingly.
This is made possible by Huawei's magical Kirin chip technology - it's only got 4GB of RAM, but somehow they manage to squeeze every nanometre of performance out of it. Operation is silky smooth and quick, once again belying this phone's more-than-reasonable price tag.
Obviously, the reason for the pop-up front camera in the first place is all about maximizing screen space. If a reasonably priced priced device with a massive display is what you're after, the Y9 Prime might well be the phone for you. The 6.59" display really does stretch right out to every edge, with just the narrowest of ear speakers at the top. It's only LCD, not OLED, but that's to be expected from a mid-tier phone - I've had no issues in terms of clarity or brightness though, indoors or out.
And you don't just get a big screen, there's a respectable 128GB of on-board storage and the Y9 Prime sports a nice, big 4000mAh battery too. This'll easily get most users through a long day if not a day and half. Sadly no wireless charging option though. In fact, no fast charging either. I guess something had to be left out to keep the price down.
I also found WiFi speeds to be a bit sub-par, although I had no issues with bluetooth connectivity at all. Really, other than no IP water/dust resistance rating and the lack of a face unlock, I'm scratching around to think of premium capabilities the Y9 Prime doesn't offer.
It honestly hums along. While some of the camera options are frustratingly difficult to access, at least there are a lot of options (not to mention a lot of lenses.) And there aren't too many phones around with a screen this big - especially with a price tag this small.
Click here for more information and pricing on the Huawei Y9 Prime.
There are some real jerks out there.
Whole organisations set up to take advantage of people like my mum.
She'll be eighty next year and while I wouldn't describe her as a technical genius, she doesn't do too badly when it comes to modern gadgetry.
She has a laptop for example. Okay, she leaves it plugged in and never takes it anywhere, but she knows how to use it.
She has a smart phone. Not sure if she's ever used any actual apps, but she can check her emails and I think she even printed some photos off from it once.
I've given her several lectures about ignoring suspicious emails, being careful about volunteering personal details and obviously I try to keep her computer secure and updated.
So who would have guessed one of her biggest cyber-risks would be the trusty old landline?
Every week we hear another story of someone being conned out of their savings, just by answering the phone. And that's before you get to the raft of unsolicited calls you're forced to deal with from marketing and survey companies. Well, Spark has decided to do something about it, with the Call Screen cordless phone.
The idea, like all good ideas, is simple but effective. Any unsolicited call from an unrecognised number is diverted to the Call Screen's answer service, before it even has a chance to make the phone ring.
The caller is told they're being screened and asked to identify themselves before being put on hold.
Only then will the phone ring. Pick it up and you'll be told who's calling, with a recording of the caller leaving their name. Then you can decide to accept the call or block it. Block it and you'll never be bothered by that person again.
If you're thinking that sounds like a complicated process to set up, the complete opposite is true. The Spark Call Screen is merely a twin set of phones that look, feel and operate pretty much like any other cordless phone and best of all, the call screening function is all set up and ready to go, from the moment you plug the phones in.
You don't even have to record a message - there's an automated one built in to play by default, keeping you nice and anonymous to any prospective con artists on the other end of the line.
Conversely, any caller you allow through won't be screened next time round, or you can add trusted numbers in advance.
The great thing about the Spark Call Screen is any of those annoying automated calls will never get through because robots don't know how to leave their name... yet. Score one for the humans.
The other great thing is this is not some kind of subscription answer service, everything's built into the handsets themselves, so you're only paying a one-off price of $139.99. I think that's pretty reasonable for a couple of high-spec handsets even before you include the call-screening functionality.
The phones feature large, clear colour screens and big, backlit buttons. The ringtones go up pretty loud if you want them to and the phones can be paired with bluetooth devices including some hearing aids. Most operations are easily accessed within a few presses - things like recording your answerphone message and programming speed dials. You can even sync the contacts from your mobile phone.
Best of all - the "Block" button - right in the middle of each handset. Push it and that caller is gone for good... well, almost.
Obviously you can access a list of the numbers you've banned and un-ban them if you have a change of heart. (Or if you blocked them by mistake)
Strangely, while the large, clear keypads on the handsets themselves are brilliant, the controls on the main base - mostly to operated the answer machine - are far more fiddly; much harder to read and positioned right next to each other introducing the possibility of mispresses. I didn't actually have any trouble, but then, I'm not nearly eighty.
There's just one minor flaw in this otherwise robust wall of landline security. Obviously there's no way for the Call Screen to magically recognise withheld numbers. That's not the end of the world of course, because it just means those callers will be screened every time they ring, as they can't be blocked or allowed by default.
The point is, you'd have to be a pretty determined scam artist to work your way around this system and I imagine the vast majority of would-be wrongdoers would give up pretty quickly and move onto easier prey.
So if you don't want to be that easier prey, but you still need a landline in your life, (or your mum does) Spark Call Screen seems like a pretty good investment.
Click here for more information and pricing on the Spark Call Screen cordless phone.
This year, like several other manufacturers, Samsung has gone line-extension crazy.
Why offer only premium devices, or budget devices, when you can come up with a phone to fit every single price point in between?
Samsung's mid-range A-series certainly provides some serious bang for buck.
The Galaxy A50 looks every bit as classy and sophisticated as its S-series counterparts, despite the fact it's more than $1000 dollars cheaper than some of them. It's available in black or a mysterious white colour that reflects light with a pleasing rainbow effect.
At first glance the A50 seems to be just as curvy as the flagship models but it's not quite the case. Yes the rear cover curves into the rounded edges but the screen is actually flat. Another subtle difference is the back isn't covered with glass - it's plastic. I don't actually mind these two compromises at all - in fact they probably save money not just at the manufacturing end, but should you need to replace the screen due to breakage, I imagine a flat one will be considerably cheaper and hopefully the plastic rear casing is less inclined to shatter at all.
Another eye-catching feature is the tri-lens rear camera configuration, another sign premium photo functionality is becoming more commonplace on mid-range devices. Flip over and you'll see the selfie-cam in a small, water-drop notch, rather than in a corner cutout as you would find on the S10's O-Infinity display, but the screen still stretches far and wide, thanks to the in-display fingerprint sensor.
As usual on almost any Samsung device, the screen quality leaves nothing to be desired. The A50's Super AMOLED display is bright and clear in all light conditions.
Even the user experience once you power the A50 up is strikingly similar to that of the S10. Samsung's One UI is still one of the most user-friendly Android-based interfaces around. Changing to the A50 from another phone is very straightforward; The Smart-Switch app is more comprehensive than ever, especially if you're upgrading from another Samsung device. It's not just contacts and photos you're transferring these days, but homescreen layouts, backgrounds - even WiFi and bluetooth profiles.
What is a major step down is speed. While most software features on the A50 mirror those of the S10, the engine room doesn't come close. The octa-core processor is fast enough for most actions but there's only 4GB of RAM so while operation remains smooth, many things only happen after a bit of a pause. Face unlock, fingerprint sensor, camera app - none of these tasks happen instantly, there's generally a second or two's delay while the phone gets itself together. In saying that, it always works, it just takes longer.
The camera setup is certainly very full-functioned, especially with the inclusion of the ultra-wide lens on the back. There's plenty of AI thrown in - including a scene optimisation setting that'll recognise everything from greenery to scenery, dogs to sunsets, beaches to waterfalls. Picture quality is pretty damn good - as long as there's plenty of light and you don't zoom in too much. That's when you'll start noticing the difference between a $500 phone and a $1500 phone. I really like Samsung's Live Focus (bokeh) setting though and it works well on the A50 - from both front and rear-facing cameras.
For those of you who insist on a dedicated headphone jack, the A50 doesn't disappoint. It also charges via USB Type-C - hopefully an indication microUSB is on the way out, even on lower cost devices.
There's no wireless charging though, which is certainly a shame. It's always one of the first features to be left off to shave the price of a device. No expense spared in terms of battery life though - it's a generous 4000mAh cell which is plenty big enough to get most users through the day - even a long day.
Another optional extra that usually gets sliced to chop the price is water resistance and sure enough, there's no IP rating for the A50, so do try and keep it out of the toilet.
Sound quality also takes a bit of a hit. These days, many high-end handsets have managed to squeeze a pretty decent stereo listening experience out of two fairly small speakers - not so with the A50. You're back to a fairly tinny sound from the single downward firing grille, even if it is reasonably loud.
No worries running accessories like the Galaxy Watch or Galaxy Buds though - again, the software experience controlling these devices through the Wear app is pretty much identical to doing it with the S10.
In fact, so much about the way this phone operates is S10-like, you'd have to wonder why most people would ever consider shelling out for the much more expensive option. The A50 looks first class, it runs the same software and takes perfectly good photos. Yes, it's somewhat limited under the bonnet, with just 4GB of RAM and only 64GB of internal storage, but unless you're using an A50 side-by-side with an S10, you'll probably never know the difference.
Click here for more information and pricing on the Samsung Galaxy A50.
First it was a phone you could take anywhere.
Then you could load all your music onto it too.
In no time, the internet was built in as well.
In their ongoing quest to be everything to everyone, smartphones have been gobbling up one form of technology after another.
GPS? No problem.
Gaming? Easy.
Video? Have you seen these screens?
But one thing has never been perfect. although they've tried. Oh, how they've tried.
The camera.
Phone makers have included photo-taking-tech since before mobile phones were even smart, but let's be honest, they've always been a compromise.
Till now...
I've never owned a camera, let alone a phone camera with a 10x zoom, until this year - now two phones have stepped up to the plate and I'm sure there'll be more to come. The OPPO Reno 10x Zoom is the latest cab off the rank.
This is of course the phone most famous for its unique, pop-up, "shark fin" camera - but that's nothing to do with how zoomy it is. The periscope-based zoom functionality is part of the rear-facing tri-lens camera configuration; a 48MP + 8MP + 13MP setup that actually offers up to 60x digital zoom - the most powerful currently available. Of course, at that level of magnification, you'll definitely need a tripod (or at least something to rest the phone on) to keep the image still enough to shoot - and to be honest, because it's digital, you won't be reading the headlines on the newspaper your neighbour is holding in the building across the street.
The really useful stuff happens up to 10x zoom - hence the name of the device. Although not strictly optical at 10x (AI kicks in around 6x to help out) the images remain crisp and clear, meaning there's no longer any loss of quality when you take those all-important long shots at school assemblies, of kids in the surf while you're on the beach, or triumphant tries scored on the other side of the field. Historically, OPPO has been obsessed with camera innovation and the raw power of this new setup has to be seen to believed... so let's look at it...
This is obviously an impressive, wide angle shot taken on an extremely bright, sunshiney day. Okay, sure there are some minor contrast issues with some of the dark areas, but when you've got midday sun reflecting off water, it's hard for any camera to compensate.
I'm really impressed by how true the colours turned out though and the clarity of foreground objects balanced against distant boats and even the clouds.
Now let's zoom in...
I mean, come on. This shot was taken from exactly the same spot. I challenge you to pick out that boat from the previous picture... pretty hard to spot right?
This is genuine telephotography. With a phone. What a golden age we're living in.
Not such a stellar performance once we head inside though. Generally I found low-light shooting to be good, but not perfect.
This shot is both impressive and disappointing - impressive because the hand I zoomed in on is actually pretty clear but disappointing because the other hand was moving a bit and that's why it's blurry.
There is an Ultra Night Mode, which produces good results in the dark - but I'm not likely to select that option just because I'm inside.
I found indoor video to be a bit dim too, although I loved the fact you can shoot Super Slow-Mo for as long as you want - not just for a few seconds as is the case on other phones with this feature.
Now, about that fin.
Like last year's Find X, which was a fantastic phone by the way, OPPO have again thought outside the box to maximise the Reno's screen-to-body ratio. In fact, they've thought inside the box, with the selfie-cam popping out of the top edge of the phone when required. Unlike the Find X, the Reno's camera only swings up from the right-hand corner, creating the aforementioned, "shark fin" effect.
This isn't just a gimmick, it works brilliantly, most of the time popping up without you even noticing it. In fact, you can still use facial recognition to unlock the Reno, with the shark fin rising to the occasion every time. Although the OPPO team claims their engineers have spent a lot of time making the pop-up mechanism quieter than the one on the Find X, it's definitely still audible in a quiet room. On the bright side, it seems to attract a lot less dust than the much larger Find X version.
In terms of picture quality, OPPO's had some of the best selfie cameras on the market for years now, and this one's no exception.
But the Reno 10x Zoom offers even more than exceptional photography, this is a genuine flagship device, fully deserving comparison with the best from Samsung, Huawei and Apple.
Like last year's R17 Pro, there's also an in-screen fingerprint sensor but this one is way more reliable and much faster too.
It's not a small phone by any means, after all, this is a 6.6" display we're dealing with. It's actually pretty heavy and quite thick too. In spite of this, the Reno is still comfortable to hold, due to its rounded edges and elegantly curved back. Adding to this elegance is the fact the three lens rear-facing camera is completely flush with the body, very unusual as the cameras on most other phones stick out a mile, just asking to be scratched or bashed around.
Ingeniously, OPPO goes a step further to protect the lenses by positioning a little bump just below them, meaning the phone can never actually rest directly on the lenses themselves. Simple but brilliant. The bump sits at the top of a kind of contrasting racing stripe, featuring some OPPO branding which all looks very styley, in either Jet Black or Ocean Green.
What is less stylish is the case included in the box. It's the biggest, thickest, ugliest thing I've ever seen. Although have to admit, despite all that, it's very practical - providing the maximum amount of protection possible, especially around the corners. If you decide to use the case, it certainly gives good peace of mind given the top of the phone has to remain exposed for the camera to pop up. Good luck fitting it in your pocket though.
Battery life is fantastic, as is fast charging via the included VOOC 3.0 charger - but we've come to expect that from OPPO phones recently. What's more significant is the dramatic upgrade to the ColorOS user interface, based on Android 9.0. At long last there's the option for an app drawer so you're not stuck with home page after home page of apps you hardly ever use. There are several options for virtual buttons or gesture controls, whichever you prefer and there's also a quick access bar you can tailor to suit you needs for commonly used actions like Do-Not-Disturb or apps you need to get to in a hurry.
Yes, at last the OPPO software experience matches up to the Reno 10x Zoom's first-class hardware; 8GB of Ram, 256GB of storage, the very latest in cooling technology... a flagship that legitimately matches up with other frontline devices in almost every department - although no IP water-resistance rating and still no wireless charging option, which may have been a niche requirement a year or so ago, but now a lot more people expect their high-end devices to charge wirelessly.
And make no mistake, this is definitely a high-end device, despite the fact it's priced under $1300. The design, the power and of course, the outstanding photographic capabilities make the Reno 10x Zoom worth every penny.
Click here for more information on the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom.
There's a fine line between entry-level and mid-level in the smartphone market.
In fact, there are two lines - a price line and a features line.
The question is; which line are you prepared to cross?...
The OPPO AX5s is almost exactly the same phone as the AX5 (note the lack of an "s") I reviewed last September. At that time, I was pretty impressed with what OPPO was offering for the money. Interestingly, at $299RRP, the AX5s is a hundred dollars cheaper than last year's version was.
Market-wise, the main change since September is there are a lot more devices with similar specs in that price-range now. That doesn't mean the AX5s isn't still a good buy, it just means you have more to compare it with.
First up, if you like a black phone, the AX5s is a good fit for you, because that's the only colour it comes in. I'm being a bit mean - as black phones go, this one does look and feel pretty classy. The back has a mirror-like finish, with a subtle rose gold trim around the dual-lens camera in the top left corner.
The front is all about the screen - no physical buttons, no fingerprint sensor, a tiny ear speaker built right into the top bezel and the water drop cutout for the selfie camera as opposed to the much larger notch which I'm hoping we've seen the last of.
No fingerprint sensor means you're left with either a passcode or facial recognition to unlock the device. Luckily, the face unlock works very efficiently, although only in portrait. The AX5s will even turn the lockscreen bright white to light your face to unlock in dark conditions, which is useful. You can also turn this feature off if you don't want your screen to light up in a theatre or bedroom every time you take it out of your pocket.
The screen is big, bright and surprisingly good for a three-hundred dollar phone. I actually really enjoyed watching video content on the AX5s, as long as I had headphones or earbuds connected. The single downward-firing speaker isn't great - not particularly powerful and quite tinny sounding.
On the other hand bluetooth connected headphones and earbuds sounded nice and loud, although for some reason bluetooth connectivity, especially with my smartwatch and car stereo was very inconsistent. Sometimes the phone would connect almost instantly, other times not at all. Perhaps I was just trying to keep to many things connected at once.
While the AX5s does have a GPS sensor, I found it to be wildly inaccurate - especially when used to track my exercise. My 7km run ended up being recorded as several much longer distances - ranging from 8.6kms to almost 10. That's okay, I quite like the idea of telling people I ran 10 k's today, they don't need to know it's not quite true.
Like the AX5, the AX5s has quite the oversized battery, clocking in at 4230mAh which is still enormous, even by the very latest standards. This is probably why the phone feels slightly thicker and heavier than some, but it's well worth it for the massive battery life. You'll get two days out of this handset without too much trouble at all - outlasting some flagship phones by more than a day. As I've noted with other OPPO devices, the power-saving tricks built into the ColorOS operating system are probably too aggressive for me. Even apps I've told the phone not to optimise seem to get shut down eventually, but you can't argue with the battery economy that results.
While we're talking ColorOS - I think it's time OPPO gave this interface a major overhaul. Although some improvements have been made - the settings menu is easier to navigate than ever and smart sidebar is a useful way to access some specific shortcuts - we still need the option of an app drawer so we're not left with screen after screen of rarely-used app icons. What I do particularly like are the navigation options. You can choose between virtual keys or simply go with gestures, which can be tailored to your preferred configuration. This is something OPPO has got dead right.
The camera configuration is more or less the same as we saw in September, ie: a little underwhelming. It's not that it's bad, and certainly the camera app itself is full featured and easy to use. It's just that there are so many phones with incredible cameras these days, when you come across one that's only good, you can't help but be disappointed. I enjoyed the colour temperature of most of the pics I took with the AX5s and the selfie camera offers a good range of beauty options, filters and stickers. Unfortunately, OPPO has set an extremely high standard for itself with some of its other devices leaving this particular phone's photographic performance towards the bottom end of the scale.
But remember, at $299 it's also priced at the lower end - so you can't have it all. If you want to shoot masterpiece photos with every click, you're just going to have to pay more. On the other hand, if you want a massive battery and pretty decent storage instead, this shiny black number's looking better all the time.
The AX5s has a different processor and GPU to the AX5, but performance-wise it's very much on a par - with 3GB of RAM keeping things chugging along fairly consistently, although I did find some apps a little slow to start or swap between on occasion. There's a very respectable 64GB of on-board storage so you'll be able to take plenty of pics before uploading to the cloud.
At the end of the day, given this is essentially last September's phone, I think it's about $50 overpriced. In saying that, I thought it was exceptional buying in September, so I guess now it's merely a great buy. Other than the rockstar battery life, there are no real surprises here but that's not necessarily a bad thing, as there are no nasty surprises either.
Click here for more information and pricing on the OPPO AX5s.
Ever since Huawei teamed up with photographic legend Leica to create the P9 in 2016, the collaboration has been constantly redefining what's possible with a smartphone camera.
So why would this year's P-Series device be any different?...
For those of you not overly familiar with the Huawei brand, there are two flagship lines; the P-Series, generally launched early in the year and the Mate-Series, usually available closer to Christmas. While the Mates focus more on sheer power and performance, the P-Series is all about style and taking great photos.
Last year's P20 Pro was the first phone to feature a tri-lens rear-facing camera - a groundbreaking feature many other manufacturers were unable to emulate, even by the end of the year. This triple-threat camera wasn't just a gimmick, it produced some of the best pictures ever taken with a phone.
So perhaps no massive surprise to find 2019's P30 Pro sporting an extra camera again. Yes, the "Leica Quad Camera System" has added a Time-Of-Flight (TOF) sensor to the array - it's the little one just below the flash there. As I've often admitted, I'm no photographer, but apparently TOF lenses measure depth. This helps the P30 Pro figure out what's in the foreground and what's in the background and it means very fine details like strands of hair won't be lost to background blur in portrait shots. But that's far from this quad-cam's greatest trick.
Apart from the 20MP Ultra Wide Angle Lens, (great for landscapes and stadium shots) we're dealing with a 40MP Super Sensing Camera as well as a SuperZoom Lens. That may sound like a lot of "super." But in this case, it's not just overhyped ad-speak.
By using a periscope-like form factor that bends long distance images down inside the phone for extra optical zoom, the P30 Pro can produce sharp, detailed images at 10x magnification - twice that of pretty much any other phone around. If you're prepared to lose a little quality and you've got a steady hand, digital zoom will take you right in to 50x. This literally makes it possible to pick out objects in the distance you can't even see with the naked eye.
And if that hasn't got your attention, Huawei has thrown out traditional colour sensing rules and rewritten them so the P30 Pro can see in the dark.
I know that all sounds like a commercial, but you have to see the results to believe them. Rather than using Red, Green and Blue light, the RYYB Huawei Super Sensor looks for Red, Yellow and Blue instead. Once again, this means you can take photos of things you can't even see. By way of a quick demonstration, here's a shot I just snapped in a dark wardrobe - no light on at all...
Okay, terrible composition - but come on; amazing colour and detail in near darkness.
The best thing about these four lenses is the P30 Pro brings them all together to give you the best image possible. This is thanks mostly to the same magical Kirin 980 Octa-core processor that made the Mate 20 Pro last year's most powerful phone. It takes a lot of grunt to turn dusk into day - but that is essentially what Night Mode does. Not that you need to choose Night Mode. My wardrobe picture was literally me taking the phone out of my pocket, pointing and shooting.
There are plenty of modes though; Light Painting, Slow-Mo, Underwater to name a few.
If you really want to go crazy, open up the Pro settings and knock yourself out. It's like having a bag full of different cameras and lenses. A very big bag.
It's actually hard to get your head around; the two things phone cameras just can't do - decent zoom and great low-light performance - this camera does.
So by comparison, the selfie camera was a bit... meh. It's still a powerhouse - 32MP is huge and it also performs well in low light. But unlike many other phones on the market it's only a single lens configuration, albeit in a very small central notch at the top of the display. While you can still achieve a split-focus, bokeh effect on your self portraits, it's nowhere near as precise as portraits taken with the TOF-assisted rear-facing array. Edge details can end up quite indistinct, especially if you push the filters and beauty effects a step too far. If it's a really important selfie, I'd hand the camera to someone else and get them to take it.
Or maybe it just seems a bit average because the rear camera is so fabulous.
But let's not forget, this isn't just a photo machine. The P30 Pro is a top-of-the-line smartphone and it belongs at the very top of the line. It does all the high-end tricks we've quickly come to expect; IP68 water and dust resistant, wireless charging, an impressive 8GB of RAM and a huge 256GB of storage space.
The aforementioned Huawei Kirin 980 CPU is one of the best available and has this device absolutely purring. Operation is slick and smooth and thanks partly to the workload being split between the dual neural processors, battery life is quite simply off the scale. While the 4200mAh battery is the same size as the Mate 20 Pro's from last year, I believe the performance is even better on this phone. As you can imagine, I typically use my phone quite a bit on a daily basis - browsing, streaming, connected to bluetooth accessories - and yet it's not unusual for me to go to bed with more than 70% battery life still showing. I'm not kidding.
What's more, even if you do manage to run the battery down, the SuperCharge 40W charger will have this phone up and running faster than just about anything else out there.
The only thing that tends to be a real drain is the reverse wireless charging feature, which we first saw on the Mate 20 Pro. It's pretty slow and takes a lot of juice to do - and is a bit curious given Huawei doesn't have any wirelessly charged accessories available in New Zealand. So it's more of a gimmick than a tool - which is probably why it's so complicated to access the feature via the Settings menu. (There's no straightforward shortcut)
Two slightly more useful gimmicks are the concealed phone speaker and the in-screen fingerprint sensor - both contributing to the P30 Pro's incredible screen-to-body ratio. The behind-screen speaker works perfectly well and I've had no trouble hearing my calls. Unfortunately it is not used as a second speaker when playing audio, only the single, downward facing speaker is. It's loud, but no stereo effects on this device - unless you're wearing headphones.
The fingerprint sensor was a massive relief. I've used quite a few in-screen sensors now and all of them sucked - till now. The P30 Pro's sensor works almost as consistently and as quickly as the old-school rear-mounted, physical sensors we used to have. You know, back in the old days. A year ago. Just as well Huawei has figured this tech out because the face unlock is not so hot. Unlike the Mate 20 Pro, there's no 3D sensor, which may be why it's nowhere near as effective. It unlocks fast enough when it recognises you, but it only seems to work at exactly the right distance and it doesn't work at all in the dark.
So without any speakers, sensors or buttons cluttering things up, the front of this phone really is all screen - a big screen. 6.47 inches to be exact. Curiously, Huawei only went with an FHD+ OLED display, a bit of downgrade compared to the 2K screen on the Mate 20 Pro or even 4K options on some other phones. This makes no difference to me as I would argue 2 and 4K screens are just overkill on a handset - even one with a screen this big. I think it looks great and most people wouldn't be able to spot the difference unless they were comparing devices side by side.
Which is something I definitely recommend you do, by the way. If you're not already a Huawei convert, I think you might be surprised how responsively the P30 Pro performs and in Black, Breathing Crystal or Aurora, the all glass, curved finish is certainly eye-catching.
To summarise, not only is the P30 Pro an outstanding flagship device, it takes photos no other phone can. All for under $1500? Bargain.
Click here for more information and pricing on the Huawei P30 Pro.
The race to the top of the smart phone market is fierce indeed.
The moment one company announces a new feature or design innovation, suddenly all its competitors are doing it too - sometimes even better.
By the end of 2018, Samsung had a little bit of catching up to do. I'd argue after several years leading the pack, some other players have been beating them to market with a few new tricks.
So what does the latest Galaxy have to offer?...
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Samsung's Galaxy range and to celebrate, not only do we have an S10 and a larger S10+, but for the first time Samsung is also offering a slightly pared down (in size, specs and price) S10e.
I'll be reviewing the S10+ here because it's the one with all the bells and whistles... and it's the one they sent me. Not that I'm complaining. The S10+ is one of the highest specced phones available. Even the base model comes with a whopping 8GB of RAM and 128GB of on board storage - choose the ceramic white model and you can go right up to 12GB / 1TB - the first smart phone to ever offer that much space for your pics, vids and games.
I'm not quite sure what 12GB of RAM can do that the 8GB on my device can't, because I can assure you, combined with its extremely quick CPU, the S10+ is lightning fast - a notable step-up from last year's devices. This is probably due in part to the latest Android O.S. and the all new Samsung interface, simply named, "One."
Simplicity is indeed the key here; Samsung has dramatically stripped back the user experience and come up with perhaps the most easy-to-use and intuitive U.I. I've ever come across on an Android phone. Yes, there are the usual number of new and exciting features added on, but you don't have to jump through any complicated hoops to use them - in fact, some of the S10+'s new tricks work without you having to lift a finger.
Most impressively for me, after using the device for a week now, I haven't yet changed the default launcher over to my preferred Nova setup. That's never happened before. Firstly, the home screen rotates from portrait to landscape as all home screens should, but hardly ever do. This is critical for the S10+ as this year Samsung has stretched the display aspect out even further, to 19:9 - which makes for a very wide screen indeed when you're holding it sideways. That's more than enough space for all your icons and widgets, especially with the rest of your apps tucked neatly away in their drawer and the new option of removing any on-screen navigation buttons completely in favour of customisable gestures. I found these worked brilliantly and I never want to see another button cluttering up my screen ever again.
The next thing I usually fiddle with is the theme. I like things dark. If there's an option for white text on a black background, that's usually my go-to. Once again, the S10+ makes this easy, with Night Mode accessible straight from the pull-down menu of quick settings. This activates a much easier-on-the-eye black background everywhere you go, from Settings to Email to Messages. I love it.
My next standard tweak is the keyboard. I'm a Swiftkey user and all my predictions and preferences are stored in the cloud. Once again, the default keyboard that pops up on the S10+ is so quick to learn, I simply haven't needed to change... although, I might when I have a spare few minutes as I do prefer the option of arrow keys and turning off emoji suggestions.
I don't know if those things are things you're looking for in a phone, but they're things I've always wanted and now I have them I'm a very happy boy indeed.
But those are little things. There are some majors to mention too.
Not only is the screen bigger than ever, at 6.44", the "Infinity-O" display has been winning awards left, right and centre for it's unmatched clarity and performance. And that's before you get to the "punch-hole" camera, a dual-lens selfie-cam in the top right-hand corner. Of the screen. Yep, no notch or tear drop for the S10+ - Samsung has literally poked a hole in the corner of the display to provide the maximum screen-to-body ratio possible. This seems like a pretty good idea when you're using the phone in portrait, but when you're watching video content or gaming, having a hole in the corner is a little distracting at first, although I was surprised how quickly I got used to ignoring it - a bit like the scoreboard graphic when watching a sports match on TV.
As I said, it's a dual-lens selfie camera, which means a lot more options - especially when it comes to wider angle group selfies. The S10+ also sports a three lens camera on the back, adding an ultra-wide angle option. Again, this really makes the most of the long, skinny display, as you can now take shots as wide as your natural point of view. (In fact, it's 123 degrees - that's actually wider than you can see!) Practically what this means is those shots of sunsets, landscapes and rainbows now look like what you thought they looked like - not just a bit of scenery in the distance.
You can quickly swap between wide, ultra-wide and telephoto lenses and there's yet another new option called "Shot Suggestion" which literally helps you compose your picture and level the camera before you click your pic. This phone takes way better photos than I do, believe me. Just as well, because if you're in "Instagram" mode, you can now post straight to your timeline.
Sometimes phone makers give us features we didn't ask for. I feel like last year's iris detection was one of those. Sure, maybe it kept your phone super secure, but you had to look at it just the right way to make it work. Samsung has ditched it now the facial recognition on the S10+ is so good. This is terrific news because iris detection only worked in portrait, this year's face unlock works both ways and it's very fast.
Just as well, because the in-screen fingerprint sensor isn't great. I've tried these on a few phones now and to be honest, none of them have blown me away. Unlike the optical sensor most other manufacturers use, Samsung has gone with an Ultrasonic scanner, which of course they claim is more reliable and should work even if the screen is wet. Unfortunately, I found I just couldn't unlock the phone this way a bit too often for my liking, even after re-registering my print. Although fingerprints have been proven to be vastly more secure than faces (especially given the S10+ face unlock isn't 3D), I'll take convenience over security every time.
When it comes to battery performance, it's a complicated good news/bad news/great news/average news story. Samsung was one of the wireless charging pioneers and I've been enjoying this feature on their devices for years. The S10+ has a 4100mHa battery which is the biggest Samsung has ever packed into a phone. The latest Samsung wireless chargers will top it up nice and fast. That's all good. And yet... depending on how I used the phone I was either super impressed by the battery life, or a little disappointed. It sounds a bit obvious, but lots of screen time certainly led to big drains - bigger than I was expecting. Downloading and transferring large files also seemed to cause the percentage to drop. On the other hand, if I just used the phone "normally" there'd still be well over half a battery's worth of juice left by bedtime. In Samsung's defense, I admit I've been using a pre-release review unit and this inconsistent performance may not be a factor in the genuine retail models.
What does work well is the device-to-device wireless charging - allowing you to use the S10+ as a charger itself. The most practical use for this is topping up the Galaxy Buds many customers received free with their pre-ordered device. You simply activate device-to-device charging from your pull-down menu, flip the phone over, plonk the Galaxy Buds case on the back and they're charging. Unsurprisingly, it's nowhere near as quick as plugging the buds directly into a fast charger, but way more convenient.
I'll finish the way I usually start... how does this thing actually look? Well, it's all glass and curved edges of course - that's what we've come to expect from Samsung Galaxies. In fact, I'm sure this is their slipperiest phone yet. The 128GB S10+ comes in Prism Black, Prism White and Prism Green - the "Prism" effect is sort of holographic - hard to describe and quite unique. The 512GB and 1TB models come in any colour you like as long as it's Ceramic White. Yup, white is the new black, baby. Get used to it.
Whichever variant you go for, you won't be disappointed. Samsung has been doing this for a decade now and they know what they're doing. The S10+ is powerful, easy to use, has a fantastic 5-lens camera array and even charges its own accessories like the Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Watch. Quite simply, it's the best phone money can buy... for now. After all, it's only March.
Click here for more information on the Samsung Galaxy S10+
