Recently, Xiaomi opened its first Mi Store in the Oceania region, right here in New Zealand.
There was a lot of publicity around the Mi Home electric scooter - which does look pretty amazing - and as a result they sold out almost straight away.
But the other big impact of Mi opening its bright orange doors at Sylvia Park is now we have access to a whole new range of phones...
The Redmi Note 5 is full of surprises, even for a phone junkie like me.
At first it's hard to know what to expect from the Note 5, especially since I haven't reviewed a Xiaomi-manufactured device before. Also available in a powder blue, the black version I have takes minimalist design almost to an extreme. From the matte-finish metal back cover to the reinforced shock-absorbing corners of the device, this phone is really black. Even the transparent case included in the box is tinted black. The Redmi Note 5 is almost the complete opposite of some of the gaudy, multicoloured devices we've seen on show throughout the year.
It's a solid piece of kit, quite weighty in the hand. Unusually, the seams, joins and edges are all slightly raised - almost as if to create a tactile experience that suggests industrial usability rather than something that'll slip out of your hand onto the floor.
The large, 5.99inch display seems even bigger than it is, due to sizable bezels top and bottom. The top bezel holds a speaker, the selfie camera and a selfie-light - the bottom one doesn't hold anything so I guess it's just for aesthetic balance.
The bottom edge of the Note 5 is the main physical clue about which part of the phone market it slots into; just the single downward-firing speaker, a real live, physical earphone jack (soon to be extinct I think) and most telling of all, a microUSB port - very old-fashioned at this end of 2018.
So it might not scream style and elegance, but once you fire the Note 5 up, functionality rules supreme. The Snapdragon 636 octacore processor, combined with a respectable 4GB of RAM really keeps this phone flying along with very few pauses, jumps or stutters.
As this was my first experience with the MIUI 9 operating system, I decided to jump in head first, get rid of the buttons off the display and learn the Redmi range of gestures. I actually found this to be very intuitive on the whole, my only real frustration coming when scrolling through photos; the go-back gesture is a swipe from the side of the screen - easily confused with a swipe to the next picture. It's a muscle memory thing, I guess.
Not every phone handles split screen functionality well, if it offers it at all. The Redmi Note 5 makes it easy. It's stable and the screen is certainly big enough to handle it. In fact, the screen is great for all kinds of content - browsing, video whatever.
The cameras were the other big surprise for me. A 15MP + 5MP dual camera on the back combined with a 13MP selfie-cam. No, theses won't win any photography awards up against the big brand flagships, but the low light performance was actually not too shabby - especially from the front-facing camera due to its own built-in selfie light. There are a good selection of beauty settings too, quite customisable compared to many other phones I've tried. I'm still not actually beautiful at the end of it, but a bit closer than usual.
Battery life is the hero feature of this phone. There aren't too many others around with a massive 4000mAh battery like this. Yes the charging cable is old-fashioned, but you'll get a couple of days use out of this phone easy.
At just $398.99, the Redmi Note 5 is priced at the lower end of the mid-range market, but it has the features and performance of a handset at the upper end of that same market. I think that makes it a very good buy.
Click here for more information and pricing on the Redmi Note 5.
If 2018 taught us anything about the New Zealand smart phone market, it was there's always room for one more.
After a relatively low-key kick-off last year, OPPO seems to be going from strength to strength, even if most kiwis have still never heard of them.
Now there's another premium OPPO phone available, at a less than premium price...
When you review a lot of phones, you get picky. Most of them are pretty good these days but there are some that really stand out. I often ask myself the question, "Would I be happy to keep using this phone post-review, as my every-day handset?"
The OPPO R17 Pro is definitely one of those phones.
This year OPPO has released quite a few models in various price brackets and clearly the Chinese based manufacturer has shrugged off its tendency to produce Android devices that look like iPhones in favour of a more unique design ethic.
Nowhere was this more evident than with September's unprecedented Find X - the phone that boldly removed the cameras from both the front and rear panels and put them inside the phone, physically popping up when required.
Combined with other innovations like SuperVOOC Flash charging, OPPO is really starting to stand out from the crowd. Still, how many people would really be prepared to fork out almost $1500 for the Find X from OPPO, a brand with very little reputation in this country?
Well, there's a reason OPPO hovers around fourth or fifth in world phone sales; they do a lot right.
The R17 Pro is available in Emerald Green and a very eye-catching Radiant Mist - which isn't pink or purple or blue but a flowing combination of all those hues and more. Both models feature a glass encased back panel with a slightly matte finish that improves grip and helps prevent too many fingerprints.
Like the Find X before it, the R17 Pro has nicely rounded edges but is uniquely concave top and bottom, which is where you'll find the dual sim tray.
There's no earphone socket, which seems to be standard for most new high-end phones these days, as is the USB Type-C charging port. Using the included SuperVOOC Flash charger, OPPO claims you can reach 40% in just ten minutes. I tested this myself and that claim isn't quite accurate - it's better. I actually achieved 43% charge in ten minutes. Somehow the charger safely generates a massive 50watts to boost the R17 Pro in no time. This is why they've yet to change to wireless; I've been told until OPPO can make wireless charging somewhere near as fast as SuperVOOC, we'll just have to wait.
Apparently OPPO is using some new dual-cell battery technology which keeps everything safer and more efficient than ever before - certainly battery life was excellent (without being completely off the charts). As I've found with many phones these days, that's due in part to some very persistent battery optimisation shutting down apps working in the background. This usually wasn't too hard to solve from the settings menu though.
The other, almost unique physical feature of the R17 Pro is the sheer amount of screen real estate due in part to the tiny, "water drop" notch - just big enough for the selfie lens - and partly due to the in-screen fingerprint sensor. I'm sure we'll see a lot more of these in-screen sensors on next year's phones, but there aren't many around at the moment. The one on the R17 Pro worked fairly consistently - not quite as fast as a more traditional, physical sensor - but almost. It seemed a bit unreliable if my thumb was sweaty or greasy. Mind you, who wants to be poked with a sweaty, greasy thumb?
The fingerprint tech is almost redundant though, because the 3D facial recognition is so efficient. Not only will it take you instantly to your home screen, as soon as the phone comes out of your pocket - but it will do it an any lighting conditions - even pitch black, using the illumination from the R17 Pro's own screen to recognise you in the dark.
In fact, darkness really poses few problems at all for the R17 Pro - especially when it comes to photography. The tri-lens rear camera configuration has produced some of the best low light shots I've ever taken with a phone - and not just when I select Night Mode, which combines several images from each lens, then filters out any over exposure and noise. Even in auto mode, the R17 Pro's impressive AI skills kick in, combined with OPPO's OIS Optical Stabiliser Technology and produce consistently great nighttime pics.
In fact, most of the photos I've taken with this phone are pretty stellar and as usual for an OPPO device, the selfies are particularly standout.
They've tried to future-proof the R17 Pro by building in as much 3D tech as they could muster - it's fun to play around with creating 3D portraits. These render nice and quickly too - good processor speed on this phone; another mark of a high-end product.
With a 6.4inch display, this is quite a large phone, but its so slim, it remains easy to hold in one hand - especially if you use the cover included in the box, which in my case was tinted green to match the phone itself - nice touch. The screen is fashioned from the latest Corning Gorilla Glass 6 - so it should withstand a few knocks. I've found it very watchable and sensitive to touches and gestures. Color OS is certainly not my favourite operating system, but I do like some of the new features in version 5.2 like the Smart Bar you can swipe over from the side of the screen to access your favourite apps and settings.
There's no doubt about it, there's not much missing from the R17 Pro. There's no IP (water resistance rating) which seems a bit strange these days, but other than no wireless charging, I can't find much to complain about - and I can't really complain about that when you have a phone that charges in a blink of an eye and takes some of the best after-dark shots I've ever seen.
Priced under $1000, you must at least consider the R17 Pro next time you're upgrading your phone. You might not have heard of OPPO yet, but it won't be long now...
Click here for more information and pricing on the OPPO R17 Pro.
Good old trusty old brand new Nokia.
Still New Zealand's sole supplier of androidone devices.
Still dependable as ever... up to a point...
Nokia's newest is the 7.1 - which is a bit confusing because from what I can tell this device is not really a direct evolution from the Nokia 7 plus, but rather a step forward from the Nokia 6.1. Why can't they just give these phones names instead of numbers? It'd be far less confusing.
As you can see from the image above, Nokia has stuck to the unique copper highlights around the edges of the device, but unlike previous models the back is now covered in glass to show off the new "steel" colour. It's actually quite striking and will certainly stand out among other more boringly coloured phones. I really like the way this phone looks. One drawback is the glass is obviously a bit more slippery - and perhaps won't take the knocks quite as well as those previous phones either. In saying that, I have accidentally dropped it out of my pocket onto a hard wood floor with no noticeable damage done, so maybe I'm wrong. The glass does give a more premium feel - even though at $599 the Nokia 7.1 is slap bang in the middle of the now crowded mid-range market.
Like its immediate predecessors, the 7.1 features the androidone O.S., which definitely casts a magic spell over average hardware and makes it perform like the latest and greatest... for the most part.
When you look at the numbers alone, it'd be easy to pass by the 7.1 - just 3GB of RAM seems pretty low these days, especially combined with a mere 32GB of internal storage. Normally I'd shy away from any handset with less than 64GB of space, but at least you can expand up to 400GB with a microSD. Something to bear in mind because I found I was left with less than 8GB to play with once I'd installed all my favourite apps and taken just a few pics.
3GB of RAM seems risky too - but that's where androidone steps in and takes over a lot of the heavy lifting. Apps still launch fairly quickly and smoothly - video plays with no issues and the screen, while comparatively small at 5.84", is extremely clear and I watched the entire sixth season of House of Cards on a recent plane trip with no trouble at all.
Multi-tasking starts to take its toll on the underpowered processor though and I certainly struggled to keep some apps running in the background. This seems to be a common theme with many midrange devices and I find it a bit confusing because some uber-popular apps like Instagram and Messenger keep on keeping on no matter what - never missing a notification. Meanwhile, other apps just go to sleep, no matter how many times I tell the phone not to optimise them. I guess the onus is on the app developers themselves to keep their programs up to date with the latest devices - but it remains a frustration for me, anyway.
What I found even more frustrating was the camera on the 7.1. It's great - or rather, they're great - both the front and dual-lens rear-facing configurations. I actually took some very good, clear photos, in a range of lighting conditions. Only problem is, every time I use the camera, it just about crashes the phone. The camera app is painfully slow to launch, swapping between front and rear views even worse and swapping between the photos you've taken and the live view even worse. It's so confusing to be able to take great pictures, but only once the phone has thought long and hard about it.
It's a bit like making Beauden Barrett play for a high school first XV again - sure he'd be capable of some amazing rugby, but only if the rest of the team can actually give him the ball.
As much as I like the stripped-back, efficient performance of androidone, it obviously has its limits and on the Nokia 7.1., that limit is the camera app. Maybe this is something that can be sorted out with a software update down the track. That's the real advantage of androidone of course, plenty of regular updates, guaranteed.
Pleasingly, there are quite a few hardware compromises that haven't been made to fit the 7.1 into this price range. There's a fast and reliable fingerprint sensor below the camera on the back. It has a pretty good battery life and charges quickly enough. Best of all, the charging cable is USB Type-C - just like all the fancy phones. There's a notch - which seems to be almost standard by now - but it's not overbearing and it's worth it for the extra screen space at the top, especially given there's quite a lot of blank real estate at the bottom - more than enough for a Nokia logo anyway.
Perhaps the most welcome feature of all is NFC. This means, unlike many of its competitors in this price bracket, the 7.1 can tap and pay - or connect to speakers and the like with one touch. Very convenient.
At $599, I'd suggest this device is priced at the top of its market value - not because it doesn't have plenty of premium features but just because there's not always the processing power available to run them.
Click here for more information and pricing on the Nokia 7.1
