Saturday, December 24, 2016

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Galaxy S6

   

Galaxy S6


Galaxy S6, a phone clad in metal and glass for the ultimate kind of luxury. The design's so good, in fact, that Samsung barely changed a thing for its latest S phone, the Galaxy S7.
The S6 might not be brand-spanking new anymore, then, but when prices have now dropped to just £370 SIM-free or £24-per-month on contract, it's actually much better value than most of today's mid-range rivals. It's also a great budget alternative to the still rather expensive Galaxy S7. There's also its fancy brother to consider as well, the Galaxy S6 Edge, which is the same size as the Galaxy S6 but has a more attractive (and more expensive) curved display.
Both phones have the same hardware and exactly the same features (save the S6 Edge's special Edge screen tabs), so in my eyes, it's probably worth paying that little bit extra for the S6 Edge, particularly if you want a phone to show off to your friends. That's not to say the S6 isn't great in its own right, but whether it will continue to be a good buy in the coming months is less certain, as Samsung has yet to announce whether the S6 is inline for an update to Android Nougat.
It took quite a while for the S6 to receive an update to Android 6.0, and with the S7 and S7 Edge taking a higher priority this time round, Samsung may well decide not to bother with the S6 (and S6 Edge, for that matter) at all. This could change, of course, but if Samsung don't roll out a Nougat update for the S6, then you'll be missing out on several new features, such as quick toggle notifications, night mode, improved energy efficiency and new emoji options. 
Design
Android 6.0 and TouchWiz

Still, until Samsung says one way or another, the Galaxy S6 is a big improvement on the S5, with the glass and metal design bringing the phone up to the quality we think its price demands. That's not to say that everything is perfect: as much as we love the phone's metal design, its smooth, rounded corners make it feel extremely slippery to hold, and it constantly felt like it was about to fall out of our hand.
It doesn't help that the S6 has a glass back either, as this provides very little purchase when you're using the phone single-handed. The S6 Edge, on the other hand, skirts around this issue by having a thinner, more angular frame to accommodate its curved screen, making it much easier and more comfortable to grip. We never thought we'd miss Samsung's faux-leather back panels, but we did like the amount grip they provided.
The phone's rounded edges also have the strange effect of making the S6 appear considerably fatter in your hand compared to the S6 Edge, despite the fact the S6 is actually 0.2mm slimmer, measuring 6.8mm compared to the 7mm on the Edge. It's a minor quibble, but it nevertheless serves as a reminder that the S6 Edge feels like the more premium product.
Samsung's TouchWiz interface on the S6 was more streamlined than ever before, with fewer pre-installed apps and widgets cluttering up your home screens. In fact, there were only two pages of pre-installed apps when we first turned it on, which will be welcome news to anyone who's suffered through the mountains of Samsung bloatware it used to install on its previous smartphones.


Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Sunday, October 30, 2016

iPhone 7 and 7 Plus





Apple has two flagship options this year. Both the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus benefit from the increased power afforded by Apple's A10 Fusion chipset, but the latter has 3GB of RAM compared to the standard model's 2GB. This year the 16GB storage option has been retired, with 32GB being the entry level point. The other big difference between the two phones is the addition of a second telephoto lens on the 7 Plus

The other change to the design is the new home button, which is now a solid state sensor which simulates the effect of a click using the haptics in Apple’s much vaulted taptic engine. To begin with, this feels weird, but in time I found that it felt like the screen on the old BlackBerry Storm phones which needed to be depressed. By the time of writing this review, I am now fully comfortable with this new button. Importantly, I like it over some phones with physical home buttons like the Xiaomi Mi 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S7.
Users can manually set three different intensities for haptic feedback. Apple claims this will be a more reliable and usable solution for users. I haven't used the phone for long enough to test out its reliability apart from the fact that it works well. App developers too haven't customised their apps to leverage this new feature.
The last design improvement that Apple has managed is IP 67 water and dust resistance. For this, I’ll say finally! The likes of Sony and Motorola have been doing this for years and Samsung did this earlier this year with the Galaxy S7, so it was high time that Apple did this.
In specialised areas, Apple certainly has the better offering - for shooting live photos, 4K video, Panoramas and slow-motion video.


The iPhone 7 features a water-resistant housing; a new, non-mechanical Home button that relies on haptics for feedback; major updates to the camera system; a notably better display; faster system performance and up to 256GB of storage capacity. Battery life, too, should be improved, despite the demands of the faster system architecture.

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Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge review



Galaxy S7 EDGE are still two of the best devices to launch this year. Samsung has fended off a number of key competitors, with the LG G5 failing to keep up in terms of sales; meanwhile, Apple's iPhone 7 proved the rumours correct by being something of a by-the-numbers update and apparently confirming that the big changes for Apple's brand will come in 2017. Of all this year's big hitters the recently launched Google Pixel seems like the most capable opponent, and although Samsung's Galaxy Note series rarely cannibalises its own flagship sales, the exploding battery crisis and subsequent discontinuiation of the Galaxy Note 7 has kept the Galaxy S7 at the forefront of the picture. 
In the run-up to the big reveal, both  Galaxy S7 devices have proven possibly Samsung's worst-kept secret to date, not that this is meant as a slight against Samsung - pretty much every manufacturer is unable to keep things wrapped up tight these days and in-development products always leaks onto the web in abundance. Consequently, once again much of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge design, and many of the features, are not a surprise to anyone who had been keeping an eye on things in the six months or so ahead of the launch