VODAFONE COMES TO THE RESCUE... AGAIN

There's nothing like owning a high-end smart phone with all the bells and whistles.

Ah, the sheer luxury of taking your phone swimming after charging it wirelessly in under 10 minutes.

In saying that, perhaps $1400 is too much to spend on something that can fall out of your pocket on a bus...

We’re at that point in history where technology has advanced faster than we have. Sure we can now buy a phone that slots into a VR headset so we can pretend we’re walking on Mars, but weirdly, not everybody wants to do that.

Even more weirdly, lots of people just use their phones for calling, texting, taking pictures and monitoring their social media feeds.

For these people, a $1400 fast-charging, underwater phone may be overkill.

By the same token, you still want your phone to do that talkie-texty-photo-emaily-social thing as well as you possibly can.

So Vodafone went straight to the Germans.

The German-designed 5” Smart N8 and 5.5” Smart V8 handsets are both very attractive phones as phones go. The V8 is slim, comfortable to hold and has a cool metal feel. As a matter of fact, it has a cool metal look too – it’s only available in a colour called “Cool Metal.” It also appears to be constructed of some kind of cool metal.

By contrast, the N8’s rear casing is plastic but is available in both graphite and gold. Just because the casing is plastic, doesn’t mean it feels cheap. It’s textured and the phone is still solid to the touch.

The other first-class feature you’ll find on both these phones is a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, situated in my favourite position, right in the centre, just below the rear camera lens. Other manufacturers keep changing their mind on where to put the fingerprint sensor, but the centre-back position makes most sense to me because that’s where your fingertip naturally goes when you’re holding your phone with one hand. I found the sensors worked very efficiently on both phones, unlocking them straight to the home screen.

Interestingly, both phones boast the latest version of Android straight out of the box, with virtually no bloatware. This is good news for people who’ve been frustrated by other phone-makers’ operating systems installed over the top of the one that works perfectly well already.

As for how well these two phones actually run that operating system, this is where the similarities start to end.

The Smart V8 is packed with a lot more processing power and storage space than the N8. In fact, with 3GB of ram and 32GB built-in storage, the V8 purrs along very reliably and smoothly, genuinely on a par with many other high-end phones from other brands. It will run multiple apps simultaneously and has excellent battery life.

When it came to multitasking, the less powerful Smart N8 came up pretty short. Streaming to other displays, screen mirroring, running multiple Bluetooth devices at once, all these activities tended to max out the N8’s processing power, sometimes even requiring a reboot to carry on.

Meanwhile, the appropriately named V8 just kept on trucking.

My other big concern around the N8 is limited storage. 16GB just isn’t enough these days. Yes, you can expand storage via a microSD slot on both handsets. Trouble is, while the V8 features the (now standard) pop-out sim/SD drawer on the side, on the N8 you have to remove the back entirely to access the separate sim and SD slots. Let’s be honest, that’s a major pain.

Camera quality may also be a deciding factor between these two phones. While both run the same camera app, the slightly more limited hardware on the N8 resulted in quite a few blurry snaps. Again, the V8’s pics were much more satisfactory.

None of this means you should write the Smart N8 off as an option and here’s why; $199. If you’re only doing one thing at a time with your phone, you’d struggle to find one this good-looking, with a fingerprint sensor, that works this well for this price.

One "but" though…

Can’t you find another $150? Because the Smart V8 isn’t just $150 better than the N8. I’d say it’s at least $500 better. If you’ve ever regretted buying a budget handset because you ran out of space after a month or it couldn’t run the games your friends were playing on their phones, the Smart V8 is incredible value at just $349.

You can’t use it in the pool, but it really doesn’t have too many other limitations.

Click here for more information and pricing on the Vodafone Smart V8

Or...

Click here for more information and pricing on the Vodafone Smart N8

WHY BIGGER ACTUALLY MEANS BETTER

Plus.

You have to have a Plus model these days. The question is, does that just mean a bigger screen, or have other features been plussed too?...

The Huawei P10 Plus features a 5.5 inch display, which by today's standards, is not massively plussy. The standard P10 is 5.1 inches, so is 0.4 of an inch enough to justify an extra 200 bucks? Actually, for a lot of people it probably is. 

Don't get me wrong, the P10 is a truly excellent phone, powerful, fast, amazing camera, plenty of storage. It's just...

Little.

And to be honest, right at this point in time, people seem to prefer something with... girth.

So choose the P10 Plus and girth you get. Yet surprisingly light and extremely thin. This means even though it's a genuinely large phone, it'll still slide into a front pocket without too much difficulty - even if you're using the clear case included in in the box.

I won't get too bogged down (or blogged down) with the finer details involved with the operation of the P10 Plus, because in most respects, it really does work the same way as the Huawei P10. It has the same home key/fingerprint sensor setup and the same volume key and power button configuration on the right-hand side. 

It's really important you should know the power key on the P10 Plus is also red. Just as cool.

So other than a bigger screen, is there anything else for your extra two-hundie?

Well hang on a minute, because the screen isn't just bigger - it's better. 

Another high-profile phone to hit the market recently also offers a plus-size option, but while that screen is bigger, there are no more pixels so the picture quality certainly isn't any better. Not so with the Huawei P10 Plus. Here you jump from the P10's 1920 X 1080 display, with 432 PPI, to a significantly higher 2560 X 1440 screen which squeezes 540 pixels into that same square-inch. Admittedly, there are a lot of numbers there but you can definitely see a difference when you compare the two displays side by side.

The other major gain is the main camera's wider aperture. The dual-lens Leica on the smaller P10 was already pretty stunning, definitely among the top phone cameras on the market. The P10 Plus goes even further with noticeable advances in low-light shooting.

Whether you choose HDR mode (easily accessible with a swipe to the right) or you use Huawei's unique trick of the "Always-On" flash, those indoor, nighttime shots are now magical works of art instead of noisy, blurry mistakes, waiting to be deleted.

If you've ever missed that crucial blowing-out-the-candles moment because your phone was blinded by the candles and you couldn't see any cake, let alone the birthday blower, the P10 Plus captures everything in 20MP clarity.

So let's say that bigger, better screen is worth an extra $75 and the cooler camera another $75, is there something else about the P10 Plus that can convince you to part with $50 dollars more for the step up?

I believe battery-life is the answer.

A larger phone invariably means more space for a bigger battery. Yes a wider, taller screen takes more power to run, but while the P10 had me a little nervous about how much charge was left by the end of the day, the P10 Plus absolutely cruises through, with plenty of juice to spare.

Again, like the P10, the Plus fast charges and Huawei makes a big deal about the multiple layers of built-in protection against any potential overheating or overcharging issues.

So there's my 3-part $200 argument in a nutshell; bigger screen, specced-up camera, longer battery life.

If you're spending a thousand dollars on a phone you may as well go the whole hog and the Huawei P10 Plus still works out significantly cheaper than some of the other "Plusses" out there.


Click here for more information on the Huawei P10 Plus

WHAT'S IN THE BOX! WHAT'S IN THE BOX!

THURSDAY NIGHT, MAY 4.

So excited I can't sleep.

Even though my alarm goes off at 2:55AM, I can't stop thinking about it.

What a sad-arse. Such a geek. All this over a new phone. It arrives tomorrow...

Mine's black. Sorry, "Midnight Black." And it actually is really black. My S7 Edge was only Black Onyx, and even then the edges (such as they are on a curvy-screened phone like this) were still a metallic aluminium kind of colour.

My new S8 is black, black, black - on the edges and everywhere. Definitely blacker. Definitely cooler. It also comes in Orchid Grey (lavender) and Maple Gold. There's no longer an option to NOT have a curvy screen which is as it should be. Who wants boring when they can have sexy? Admittedly, even though I've been using curvy screens for a while now, I don't actually use any of the features designed especially for them, I just like them because they look so bad-ass. Nothing feels quite like a curvy Samsung in your hand either. In fact, even my old S7 Edge feels like it's full of clunky sharp corners around the bezel compared to my super-smooth new S8.

This will mostly be about the main differences (or upgrades) between these two phones - why is this year's better than last year's? Especially when I confidently declared the S7 Edge to be the best phone I'd ever used.

Let's keep it physical for one more paragraph. In a Doctor Who-like stroke of design genius, Samsung have bent the laws of physics to put a larger display on a smaller phone. They achieved this with two neat tricks; for starters, the front of the phone is now pretty much all screen and nothing else. Secondly, they've done away with the physical home key and gone with on-screen navigation instead. This means a whole new, long and skinny profile which definitely has more advantages than drawbacks.

The first thing that'll freak out regular Galaxy users is because the home key has gone, the fingerprint sensor has moved round to the back of the S8 next to the camera lens. Calm down guys, other manufacturers have been putting theirs there for years and it's way more ergonomic when it comes to one-handed operation. You'll soon get used to it, then love it. The only downside is it really is right next to the camera lens, which means accidental fingerprints on the camera are pretty much inevitable. Underneath and in the middle next time please, Samsung. the good news is, the sensor is faster and more reliable than ever before.

If fingerprints aren't for you, there's now also the option of an iris scanner, and they've brought back facial recognition too, although as we've learned in the media, if someone has a good photo of you, this may not be the most secure way to secure your phone.

Once you're in, what really is the difference here? To be honest, if you've kept your previous Android phone up to date with the latest operating software, nothing's going to make your brain explode. I certainly found the connectivity to be more efficient than ever, be it WiFi, WiFi Direct, NFC or bluetooth. The S8 is definitely more proactive when it comes to power-saving options too, letting you know when it's shutting down background apps, while giving you the option to keep them running if they're important.

As a result, battery life is pretty off-the-hook - literally, because as usual, the S8 charges wirelessly which is something other brands seem unbelievably slow to jump on board with. Fast charging is now just standard, obviously. The IP68 waterproof thing (drop-in-the-loo-proof) is slightly more available these days, but wireless charging and water resistance are two very compelling reasons to choose the Galaxy S8 over any other kind of phone.

The cameras have been tweaked to be even more user-friendly than ever - 12MP at the back and a somewhat over-the-top 8MP for selfies. Last year's S7's were already outperfoming all other phone cameras when it came to low-light shots, the S8 is just that little bit better. There are also other new photo features including stamps, filters and beauty settings I'll probably never use, but they're there.

Time to address the elephant in the room, an elephant named Bixby. If you've heard anything about the S8, you'll know about Samsung's new personal assistant. There are 3 ways to use Bixby; press the Bixby button and a screen of cards appears, very like the Google cards you can already access if you have an account. Today's appointments, news, weather and other suggested links to general stuff you may be interested in.

Secondly, using the Bixby Vision option, you can take a photo of something and Bixby will try to find all there is to know about that thing. Bottles of wine seem to be the example everybody likes to use, but me being me, I've just tried it out on a bottle of Jim Beam Honey Bourbon. Bixby decided to show me lots of pictures of Ben and Jerry's ice cream in response. I'm thinking this is still definitely a work in progress, especially since the third method of using Bixby, Bixby Voice is still to come. Bixby Voice will be Samsung's version of Siri, allowing you to control apps, set reminders and appointments, find out who invented the internal combustion engine for that trivia quiz, that sort of thing. I can't tell you if it works, because it hasn't arrived yet - presumably Samsung's R&D department are slogging away tirelessly to ensure Bixby recognises the unique qualities of our sexy New Zealand accent.

The fact Bixby is a work in progress is either really embarrassing, or more likely, an exciting way of future-proofing the S8, like clearing a space on your bookshelf for the next Lee Child; it hasn't been written yet, but it's bound to be amazing once you get your hands on it. Bixby had better be amazing in the end, after all, Samsung have introduced a whole new button under the volume controls just to turn it on. I'm not complaining about it, moaning about an extra feature I didn't ask for would be like whinging about the quality of free samples at the supermarket.

Bixby aside, the S8 is faster, it looks even better and the big screen/little body equation means it fits more comfortably in my pocket. (That's why I didn't go with the S8+... essentially the same phone but bigger) This handset has undoubtedly achieved exactly what Samsung needed it to; the next logical step forward in the Galaxy succession, rightfully claiming its predecessor's mantle of the best phone in the world.

Just pick one up and hold it. You'll know what I mean.

Click here for more information and pricing details for the Samsung Galaxy S8

HUAWEI, YOU'VE NAILED IT

It's been coming for a long time.

A phone that performs just as well, if not better than the latest Samsung Galaxy or iPhone.

The Huawei P10 does not have a fancy-pants curvy screen. It isn't waterproof. And it doesn't charge wirelessly.

But as far as I can tell, those are the only things Huawei's latest flagship phone won't do.

By now, if you've read any of my other phone reviews you'll know I have quite a list of demands when it comes to top-of-the-line handsets. Some might say unreasonable demands. I prefer the term, "exacting."

These days, when it comes to things like storage space, charge time and battery life, it's not enough to be good - you have to be great.

The P10 comes with 64GB of onboard storage, with the option of adding up to 256GB via microSD - that'd provide more space than the device I'm writing this review on!

As with most other high-end phones, the P10 ships with a fast charger. It definitely lives up to its name - a 10 minute burst providing hours more use. The battery life from 100% is indeed great... ish. It'll get you through the day without too much trouble, just not well into the NEXT day like last year's Mate 9. (That was a bigger phone with a bigger battery. Just saying)

In fact the P10's size, or lack of it, was one of the first things that struck me. I've become so used to massive phones with displays over 5.5 inches, at first it seemed a little weird dropping down to a 5.1 inch display. But I soon began to appreciate the little things - like this phone. It really is extremely thin, easy to handle and noticeably light. What's more, unlike some of its more shiny competitors, Huawei have gone with what they call a "hyper diamond-cut finish" on the back casing. This provides an attractive reflective finish that is not smooth to the touch, making the phone extremely easy to hold. The theory is this means you don't end up with messy fingerprints all over the back of your phone, which is true. Although I did find after going for a run with the phone in an arm band, sweat and other gross stuff built up on that same hyper-diamond cut surface and it needed a good wipe down afterwards.

The handset I reviewed was "Dazzling Blue" and if not dazzling, it was certainly a very smart alternative to boring black and good old gold - which are the only other colours available in New Zealand at this time. Shame they couldn't have also brought in the green ones on sale elsewhere - that would fit in nicely with Huawei's next unique feature; you can use this phone in Te Reo.

Being white and middle-aged, it had never occurred to me how frustrating it must be to send a text in Maori if your phone doesn't speak it. Now all Huawei's latest models do just that, surely taking the brand one step closer to becoming a New Zealand favourite.

Of course, since last year's partnership with photography pioneers, Leica, the star attraction of any new Huawei phone is the camera - now cameras plural, because the selfie lens is now also a Leica. As I've admitted before, I'm no expert at clicking pics, so all this dual-lens, wide aperture talk makes my head spin a bit. What I can tell you is for the P10, Huawei has tweaked the camera interface so it's a little less daunting for know-nothing bozos like me. That monochrome lens means professional black and whites are just a screen-swipe away. Pointing and shooting is what I'm about and I'm getting much better results than the first time I encountered Leica's dual lens setup. Best of all, both those lenses are still completely flush with the rear casing of the phone, keeping Huawei's design tradition of simple, clean lines intact.

While we're talking design, I have to confess I was little disappointed to discover the fingerprint sensor had been moved off the back, back around to the home key at the base of the front. The good news is, it seems to work even faster and more reliably than ever. Oh yeah, that's the other thing; there's now a physical home key - although, it's not really a key at all, just a depression. This will be somewhat disorientating for regular Huawei users, as while you can still choose to use the virtual on-screen navigation keys you're used to, there's now another option. The home "key" can be operated by a series of taps and swipes which quickly become habit when you need to go back, show recent apps or, obviously, return to the home screen.

The latest update to Huawei's OS, EMUI 5.1 has made it less clunky than before - so much so you have to wonder why they don't just offer up the base Android 7 interface and leave it at that. Regardless, EMUI now boasts a much more searchable settings menu and you can access functions like split screen and screen shots with specific knuckle gestures... assuming you can remember them.

What I love most about the P10's interface is finally, FINALLY you can set the home screen to rotate from Portrait to Landscape, a feature I've only been looking for in a smart phone since... well... forever.

When it comes to out and out performance, you'd struggle to find another phone that works as fast and as smoothly as the P10. I don't know what magic Huawei used to create the Kirin 960 CPU that is the brain of this little beauty, but I personally haven't seen apps download and install faster than they do on the P10.

This feels like a small phone. But it looks amazing. The performance is outstanding. And it's $300 cheaper than those other ones. Huawei, you have well and truly arrived.

Did I mention the red power key? Come on, how cool is that?

Click here for more details on the Huawei P10

THIS RACE IS GETTING INTERESTING

Can you feel that?

Suddenly, in 2017, it feels like the shine is wearing off the two biggest names in smart phones. From pocket explosions to corruption hearings, Samsung seems to be lurching from one PR crisis to another.

Meanwhile, what is it that Apple has actually done for us lately? From leaders in tech innovation to Johnny-come-lately followers in just a couple of years. The iPhone cult is a powerful one, but more and more kids are yelling, "The emperor's wearing no clothes!"

If ever another brand was going to grab some market share in New Zealand, now's the time.

Here comes OPPO...

You don't become the number one selling phone brand in China by accident. To keep that many customers satisfied, the phone has to deliver on what it promises. The OPPO R9s makes some pretty big claims, and doesn't disappoint.

It's a highly attractive phone to start with, extremely thin and extremely light, due to the aluminium casing. The brushed finish on that casing, combined with a slightly indented bezel around the screen means the R9s isn't as slippery to hold as other classy looking phones. Normally I wouldn't talk price until the end of the review, but it's such a significant part of the OPPO equation, you need to know what you're dealing with right off the bat. The R9s is currently retailing for just $699... at least $400 less than comparable models from other established brands. A lot cheaper, but there's nothing cheap about it.

Take the cameras for example. Both are 16 megapixels - yes, even the selfie lens! Both feature a wide aperture for better low-light performance, with the main camera doing particularly well in this department. It's not the very best camera I've encountered on a phone, but it's not far off. On the other hand, the selfie camera probably is the best I've tried, offering a variety of filters and beauty options to streamline your social-media uploading process. Unfortunately, my selfies all still have me in them - OPPO hasn't come up with a solution for that yet. One weird quirk was a lack of picture size settings - I'm used to being able to select between 16:9, 4:3 or 1:1 sizes of varying resolutions, but the OPPO R9s merely offers "Standard," "Rectangle," or "Full Screen." The horizontal level guide in Expert Mode is pretty cool though.

The fingerprint sensor is another definite promise keeper. Situated under the home button at the bottom of the screen (which isn't actually a button, just a depression) it did its job from multiple angles, even when I'd just taken my hands out of a sinkful of dishes. What's more, it's lightning fast, bringing up the home screen in an instant at the slightest touch. I personally prefer a sensor on the back of the phone for your index finger - much more practical for one-handed operation, but this one worked as well if not better than any I've used before.

Battery is another biggie for the R9s. You won't find fast charging on too many phones in this price range, but OPPO's VOOC Flash charger is genuinely quick and boasts 5 levels of protection against any kind of overheating/overcharging issues. What's more, the R9s is designed to learn from your personal usage habits, optimising which apps to let run in the background and which to freeze. This meant an extremely long life between charges, as much as two days of casual use. The downside was sometimes I had apps I didn't want to be optimised quite as much as the phone thought I should, and the process to reverse this is a bit mysterious and complicated.

This is all part of OPPO's Color 3.0 operating system, built on top of Android 6.0.1. I don't quite understand why different manufacturers can't just leave us with Android and be done with it. Color 3.0 has it's good points; there's virtually no bloatware and iPhone users will find the icon-based layout very familiar. On the downside, for someone who likes to customise things, there just aren't enough easily accessible settings. As usual, while most apps auto-rotate between portrait and landscape, the homescreen doesn't. So I ask the same question I always ask; why no landscape for a 5.5inch screen? I'd also like a splitscreen email display for the same reason, although the stock email app is surprisingly user-friendly. The calendar is far too basic however, with no easy way to choose which accounts to sync.

I think that's the simple beauty of the R9s though; OPPO never said it was the world's greatest calendar or email phone. Besides, there are plenty of other apps for that.

Where I really ran into trouble was trying to run wearables like smart watches and fitness trackers. No matter what I tried, I simply could not get notifications to push from the phone to those other devices. Media controllers on those devices wouldn't work back the other way to the phone either. Again, OPPO never claimed to be your smartwatch go-to, but I thought it was weird that other phones seem to handle this stuff okay.

Back to basics though - when it comes to browsing, streaming, filming and photography, the R9s runs like a dream. It has masses of processing power under the hood and a whopping 64GB of on-board storage - practically unheard of in a $700 handset. What's really crazy is you can expand that out to 256GB using the SD slot, something I didn't even know was technically possible in a phone.

Okay, so it's not waterproof and there's no wireless charging, but again, OPPO never said there would be. What you DO get is an expensive-looking, smooth-running, high-spec phone, that takes great photos, AMAZING selfies and charges super quick.

All for $699. What's more, OPPO launched two other models in New Zealand last week that cost even less.

At long last the race for smart phone market share in this country is back on. OPPO is definitely a form player to watch.

Click here for more details on the OPPO R9s

FINALLY FILLING THE PHABLET GAP

Is it just me, or has the smart phone market gone a bit quiet in the last few months?

Maybe that's what happens when one of the most anticipated devices of the year starts exploding in people's pockets.

In an unprecedented turn of events, suddenly lovers of phones with oversized screens were left with a lot less to choose from. Until now.

This could well be the moment Huawei has been waiting for. In the wake of the Note 7's spectacular demise, my feeling is Samsung users are still unlikely to cross to the dark side (iPhone). Google's Pixel XL models are an option, but they're an expensive option and I'm not sure how many people want to shell out $1400 plus for a relatively untested newcomer to the marketplace.

Meanwhile, Huawei has consistently been producing elegant, high-performance, non-exploding handsets for several years. The Mate 9 is clear evidence Huawei is more than ready to foot it with the biggest of the big boys.

There's small a list of things the Mate 9 is missing, but the list of things it's got going for it is a lot longer - and some of those things you won't find on another phone.

To start with, it's really pretty. Remember, this is a massive phone; the display is 5.9 inches. But because that screen stretches right to the very edge of the handset, it still fits easily in your hand. The curved back and noticeably bevelled edges make the Mate 9 even more comfortable still. It's super slim at the sides and the first phones available in New Zealand will be "Mocha Brown" in colour. This is not a dark brown, it's somewhere between gold and grey - very sophisticated.

The Mate 9 features the same innovative Leica camera as it's P9 predecessors, you know; the one with two lenses. This means amazing black and white options, as well as satisfactory low-light performance. However, as I found with the P9, the auto-shoot setting doesn't always produce stellar results and if you have the opportunity, you're probably better off fiddling with the settings to ensure the perfect shot. (At least those advanced settings are accessible with a simple swipe, and it's certainly worth the effort)

Sadly, Huawei still hasn't figured out how to charge wirelessly through a metal casing, but you do get genuinely fast charging via USB-C cable (that's the one that doesn't matter which way round you plug it in). The fast charger lives up to its name, especially considering the Mate 9's huge 4000mAh battery. It takes a battery that powerful to run a 5.9 inch screen and it was certainly interesting to note how easy it was to either save or waste power with a few tweaks (brightness settings, darker wallpaper etc). Don't worry, a long day's use is absolutely no problem on a full charge. The two days Huawei alludes to on its website is, as with any phone's publicity, pure hype. (Unless you just leave the phone in your pocket and never turn the screen on)

The Mate 9's fingerprint sensor is, without doubt, the best I've ever experienced. For starters, it's on the back, right where your index finger naturally sits. But it still works even if you pick up the phone sideways or upside down. Better yet, it turns the display on straight to your home screen, instantly. Even when my fingers were damp or greasy, I struggled to get the sensor to not work. Love it.

When it comes to the UI, Huawei has made some pretty significant tweaks. Yes, the EMUI interface is still installed over the top of the Android 7.0 OS, but now you can choose to tuck your icons away in an app drawer instead of being forced to scroll through screens and screens of apps and folders you hardly ever use (suck on that, iPhone users). But the real breakthrough is finally, FINALLY an over-sized phone comes with the native ability to display its home screen in landscape mode. Yes, my prayers (for years) have been answered at long last. Normally I'm forced to use Nova Launcher to set up a sideways home screen, but I didn't even install Nova on the Mate 9 - the new functionality let me customise everything quite satisfactorily indeed. In saying that, occasionally the Mate 9 was slow to recognise it had been unlocked in landscape mode and would require a little shake to straighten things out.

The Mate 9 even has a couple of secrets up its sleeve. While there's no on-board stylus as you'd find on a Sumsang Galaxy Note, you do still have the ability to multi-window, which is actually pretty useful on a screen of this size. The trick is how to activate it. I knew it was supposed to do it, I just couldn't see how. Eventually (on about the 3rd page of my Google search) I discovered something called a knuckle swipe. This unique gesture literally slices the display in half, allowing you to show and control 2 apps at once.

What I didn't know the Mate 9 could do is control my telly. It's been a while since I heard of any phone maker including IR capability on their handsets - Samsung stopped building it in years ago. I thought that was a weird decision, especially if you were already likely to be using your device to stream content to your home theatre. For some reason Huawei has brought that function back on the Mate 9, once again turning your phone into a universal remote. Good on them.

Huawei's now famous Kirin CPU keeps this phone working super fast, with a variety of options to improve download speeds. In short, the Mate 9 is designed to monitor the way you're using it and is supposed to actually speed up over time when other phones start to seem tired.

The display, while full HD, is not QUAD HD. No, don't worry - I don't really know what that means either. Apparently it may have limitations when it comes to displaying VR content. I'll consider this a limitation when I'm spending all day watching VR content. Till then, it looks fine to me.

Oh, it comes with a massive 64GB of storage as standard by the way, and you can use the dual sim tray to accommodate an extra microSD card if you should ever need more.

Sorry this review is so long, but this phone is really that good. I keep remembering more things I love about it - like the brilliantly intuitive keyboard or the easily accessible range of themes (I knitted my home screen its own festive jersey for Christmas). Yes, it's a significant jump in price ($300 more than the smaller P9), but I have no qualms claiming the Mate 9 is $300 better and it's still way cheaper than an iPhone 7 Plus.

No, the Mate 9 isn't waterproof, but it doesn't explode either. Huawei have successfully jumped into the ill-fated Note 7's gap and it might take Samsung a while to force them back out.

Click here for more information on the Huawei Mate 9

HOUSE BRAND DOESN'T MEAN NO FRILLS

As big brand phone companies keep competing to boast the most sought-after device on the market, they continually add crazy features and high-spec components to turn your head. This means the prices seem to be going up and up too. Trouble is, it's so cool having the latest tech. If you can't justify a thousand-dollar-plus price-tag for something that could just as easily slip out of your pocket never to be seen again, Vodafone may have a solution...

The new Vodafone Smart 7 range features 3 options priced from $349 right down to - wait for it - $79. (With a fourth high-end model due for release next month)

For those of you who've dealt with pocket-change price-tag phones before, especially in-house branded devices, you've probably stuck with it for about a week before losing your mind and wishing you'd used the money for a down payment on "real" phone.

In my experience, anything under $150 means no storage, no processing power, no battery life, no screen size, no features and an obsolete operating system that won't run any of your favourite apps.

This is where Vodafone has seized the opportunity to offer something more... for less.

I've spent a fortnight comparing the Smart mini 7 with the Smart ultra 7 and there were plenty of surprises waiting for me - most of them good.

Each of these latest handsets from Vodafone were designed to run the latest Android build from the word go, even the Smart mini 7. So unlike most other budget phones, all your apps should function the same way they would on any other Android device.

Both phones I tried had good battery life, easily seeing me through the day, although I must point out, the Smart ultra 7 was much faster when it came to charging.

The Vodafone home screen launcher is pretty user friendly, not too different from what you'd find on a Google phone like the Nexus or using the Google Now Launcher. I could have done without the Google search bar at the top of every home screen though. I tried to find a way to turn it off but failed.

Both phones provided excellent sound quality over bluetooth connections and I was also impressed with the motion sensors; even the $79 phone was quick to respond when I changed from portrait to landscape and back again.

However, there's only so much you can expect from an entry-level phone at an extremely entry-level price.

It's all about storage. Call me Mr Cynical, but I've always been highly suspicious of the way devices are priced because of the amount of storage space they boast. I simply can't believe it costs that much more to manufacture a chip with 64GB capacity than a chip with 4GB. Yes, you read that right. The Smart mini 7 only comes with 4GB storage, which is mostly taken up with system files anyway. So unless you already have a microSD card to slot into it, you'll definitely need one for this phone to be any use to you at all.

At least it does have a memory expansion slot, so your 4GB phone can become a 36GB phone in seconds. But remember, there are certain limitations to using a microSD as your main storage partition. There's no problem saving all your photos, music and videos to your added memory space and you can install apps on it too. But I found any apps saved to the microSD lost the ability to run their associated widgets on the home screen. If you don't understand what I just said, then this won't be a problem for you.

On the other hand, the Smart ultra 7 sports a more respectable 16GB internal memory (still a little thin by 2016 standards, but quite usable on its own)

The Smart mini 7 ran smoothly enough on its quad-core processor but with only 512MB of ram, things certainly slowed down quickly once any multi-tasking was attempted. On the other hand, its big brother features an octacore processor (dual quad-core configuration) and a full 2GB of ram, so flicking from app to app posed no problems at all.

I wasn't very impressed with the camera experience on either device. I didn't expect great shots from the smaller phone - at just 2MP the quality was never going to be exhibition standard. But the 13MP camera on the Smart ultra 7 wasn't much chop either. Many of my images came out blurred and I had to reshoot them. The selfie cameras on both phones worked well enough, with the budget VGA version on the Smart mini 7 doing a surprisingly good job of my Periscope videos. I'm thinking if photography is really your thing, you might have to move up into a different price bracket.

Of course, the most obvious difference between these two phones is screen size. 1.5 inches doesn't seem like a big difference on paper, but in reality, you simply can't compare a 4" screen with the Smart ultra 7's massive 5.5" display. There aren't actually that many phones out there with a screen that big. It's full HD and not only looks way better than the tiny Smart mini 7, but feels a lot nicer to use as well.

In fact, the Smart ultra 7 feels great just sitting in your hand. The attractive metal frame combined with the textured back cover provide a solid touch which is also very classy to look at. The Smart mini 7 is certainly lighter, but its all-plastic casing really does make it look and feel like a cheaper phone.

Which it is of course. WAY cheaper. And yet it carries out most functions required of a modern phone admirably, making it a great choice if you need a temporary phone in a hurry, or perhaps a first smart phone for one of the kids.

Meanwhile, the Smart ultra 7 is easily $270 better, just on screen size alone. It looks equally as sophisticated as handsets priced a thousand dollars more and it does most of the things they do. Neither phone would be my first choice for photos, but if you're working to a budget, they're the smart choice.

Click here for more information on the Vodafone Smart mini 7

Click here for more information on the Vodafone Smart ultra 7