Galaxy Note 5 vs. iPhone 6s Plus vs. LG V10

Introduction

When you spend your days in the big city, winter hardly feels like a fun season. But once you step outside of the city's boundaries, the sweeping vistas of the snowy slopes make for some of the best photo opportunities. And regardless whether you ski or not, we bet you would be interested to see which cameraphone is best geared for a winter trip to the mountain. To answer this one, we grabbed some of the hottest phablets of the season - the Apple iPhone 6s Plus, the LG V10, and the Samsung Galaxy Note5 - and took them for a ride up the mountain to see how they handle the cold.

We wanted to include the recently announced Huawei Mate 8 as well, but it turned out most of its photos were out of focus due to reportedly, a software issue, which should be fixed soon. We still snapped a few keepers with it, so you'll see it featured here and there.

Coincidentally, the Meizu Pro 5 was with us on our little mountain trip, and we're glad it was as it will fill in the Mate8 shoes as the fourth phablet competitor. Meizu may not be such a popular brand in Europe or the USA, but the Meizu PRO 5 camera produces some spectacular daylight shots, so we're sure it will be up to the challenge.

Best of all, we captured our field test trip on video. Since it contains potential spoilers regarding the results that we got, we've embedded it on the last page of this article.

On the other hand, if you don't feel reading the whole thing, you can skip directly to the video.

Now, meet our lead stars, the three mountaineers ready to take on a snowy adventure.

Apple iPhone 6s Plus

The Apple iPhone 6s Plus has the smallest screen of all compared phones, but it's the biggest screen Apple offers. The Live Photos feature also provides an innovative way of capturing short, action-packed video scenes on the slopes.

All-metal unibody 12MP/2160p camera with OIS, f/2.2 aperture High-res HDR panoramic photos Live photos Instagram's Hyperlapse app available

Slippery without a case Smaller, lower resolution screen (5.5" 1080p) Touchscreen doesn't work with gloves on Battery non-removable

LG V10

LG has an extra durable design and as a nice break from the current crop of flagships, you can swap its battery for a fresh one once you've gone through its charge. There is also a microSD slot. Our previous camera shootouts confirmed it's also got one of the best cameras - be it day or night. We'll have to see whether it can hold its own up high on the mountain slopes.

Extra durable design (double glass over the screen, rubber back, steel rails on the sides) Replaceable battery Secondary, always-on screen 16MP/2160p camera with OIS, f/1.8 aperture Dual 5MP selfie cameras: having 80° and 120° field-of-view IR blaster, FM radio

Rather heavy, even for its size LCD screen has the lowest contrast in direct sunlight Touchscreen doesn't work with gloves on

Samsung Galaxy Note5

Now that the Samsung Galaxy Note5 is finally about to become available in Europe, the interest in this flagship phablet is higher than ever. And for good reason - it should be cheaper than the identically equipped Galaxy Edge+ and it offers the industry-leading S-Pen. It also provides a high sensitivity touchscreen out of the box so you can use it with the gloves on when out in the cold.

Metal and glass body 16MP/2160p camera with OIS, f/1.9 aperture High-res 360-degree panoramic shots Works with gloves on Heart rate and blood-oxygen sensors

Not widely available in Europe yet Slippery without a case Battery non-removable

You can't replace the batteries of both the Meizu Pro 5 and the Huawei Mate 8, but the Mate 8 is the only other phone besides the Note5 that has a dedicated glove mode. And that's an important consideration when we're talking -10C temperatures.

Okay, this should be enough of a presentation - we bet you already know these devices in and out. Let's see how good their cameras would be when faced with lots of sun and snow.

Read More

Huawei Mate 8 review

Introduction

The Huawei Mate 8 has dropped the Ascend badge, but it offers all the key pros of the Ascend Mate7 and then some. Coming a year after the Mate7, it was only expected that the Mate 8 will show maturity and address its predecessor's shortcomings, most notably the poor graphics performance and the less than stellar camera output.

Huawei's in-house-developed Kirin 950 chipset promises to deliver on the first count, and also brings heaps of CPU oomph. The camera is all-new as well - with a larger, higher-res sensor and phase detection autofocus and optical image stabilization.

And while the Mate7 was a premium device to begin with, the new iteration looks even more refined. The Mate 8 has an unmatched high-end vibe, thanks to precision-machined metal and glass components, and sharper, bolder edges.

Then again, a few things haven't changed. The display is still 1080p, which was a bit of a stretch for a 2014 flagship and is even more so now when the competition has moved to QHD resolution on even smaller diagonals. Huawei insists that's as many pixels as you need at this size, and the tradeoff in battery life and processing power required isn't worth it. Oh, well.

Other than that, we're glad that the large battery is still in place, the fingerprint reader placement and its always-on implementation are also as nice as ever. And there's little to complain about having a 6-inch display in a body as compact as the Mate's.

Huawei Mate 8 key features

• Hybrid DualSIM/microSD card slot (up to 128GB)
• Aluminum unibody, diamond-cut beveled edges, sandblasted satin back finish
• 6" 1080p IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 368ppi
• HiSilicon Kirin 950 chipset: octa-core CPU (4xCortex-A72 @ 2.3GHz plus 4xCortex-A53 @ 1.8GHz), Mali-T880 MP4 GPU
• 3GB of RAM/32GB of built-in storage, or 4GB/64GB;
• Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, Huawei EMUI v4.0 overlay;
• 16MP camera with Sony IMX298 sensor, phase detection autofocus, OIS, f/2.0 aperture; 1080@60fps video recording
• 8MP front camera, f/2.0 aperture; 1080p video recording; wide selfie
• Cat. 6 LTE (300/50Mbps); dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct; Bluetooth 4.2 LE; NFC; GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS/Beidou; microUSB
• 4,000mAh Li-Po battery, fast charging
• 3.5mm headphone jack, active noise cancelation with a dedicated mic

Main disadvantages

• No 4K 2160p video recording
• Low-resolution display by flagship phablet standards
• Non-removable battery
• Hybrid DualSIM/microSD card slot limits options

We were willing to let it slide that the Mate7 couldn't record 4K video, but a year later, it's quite simply unacceptable for a flagship. The 60fps at 1080p resolution is of little consolation when the chipset is clearly plenty powerful to handle 4K video.

     
Huawei Mate 8 press images

The display we already mentioned and the rest are more or less par for the course lately. Flagships with a removable battery are a dying breed, and dedicated microSD slots are steadily making way to the hybrid variety if they are available at all.

But a smartphone is a lot more than the sum of its features (or the lack thereof), and we're not in the habit of relying on the spec sheet alone. We'll be proceeding with the full review on the following pages, with a look at the Mate 8's hardware first on the list.

Read More

Xiaomi Redmi 3 review

Introduction

Xiaomi Redmi 3 is not your usual budget smartphone. The word budget is hardly a good match for an aluminum unibody, a 5" IPS display, a powerful octa-core processor, a 13MP camera, and a beefy 4,100 mAh battery. And yet, here we are. The Xiaomi Redmi 3 may be cheap in price but it does not skimp on features.

Unlike the Redmi Note 3, the Redmi 3 is a massive upgrade over its predecessor - it bumps the screen size, switches from glossy plastic to metal, opts for a much more powerful Snapdragon 616 chip, upgrades the two cameras, and doubles the RAM, the storage and the battery capacity. How about the price? It stays the same - about €150 or less.

Key features

• Hybrid DualSIM/microSD card slot (up to 128GB)
• 5" IPS display of 720p resolution; 294ppi
• Snapdragon 616 chipset; octa-core Cortex-A53 processor (4x 1.5GHz and 4x 1.2GHz cores); Adreno 405 GPU; 2GB of RAM
• 13MP main camera with hybrid phase detect autofocus, LED flash
• 1080p video capture at 30fps
• 5MP front-facing camera, 1080p at 30fps video recording
• MIUI v.7 based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
• 16GB of built-in storage
• 4G LTE Cat.4 (150Mbps); Wi-Fi b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.1; GPS, GLONASS and Beidou; FM radio
• IR port
• Dual-microphone active noise canceling
• 4,100 mAh non-removable battery, fast charging

Main disadvantages

• No scratch resistant front glass
• No NFC
• Battery not removable

Just like before, Xiaomi didn't bother to announce any details on the screen's protective glass, so we are guessing there is no special protection, probably to keep the price as low as possible. The lack of NFC isn't surprising while the non-removable battery may be a bummer for some.

The Redmi 3 is indeed shaping as an excellent successor to an already quite popular device. But is it as good as the sum of all these parts suggests it will be? Let's find out!

Special thanks to HonorBuy.com for providing the review unit.

Read More

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) review

Introduction

The A-Team is back and we start with the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016). It pairs a premium build with premium features, a true S6 lookalike.

The Galaxy A models for 2016 are Samsung's answer to the trend started by Chinese OEMs of making premium feeling midrange devices.

This makes the Galaxy A5 as much a OnePlus X/Xiaomi Mi 4c competitor as it is a Galaxy S6 alternative. Speaking of it, the S6 price hovers barely above that of the A5, so the young 'un has to prove it's just as good as the phone that started Samsung's mobile rebirth.

Key features

• Available with a hybrid dual-SIM/microSD slot
• Metal frame sandwiched between 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4
• 5.2" Super AMOLED of 1,080 x 1,920px resolution, ~424ppi
• Octa-core Cortex-A53 processor, 2GB of RAM, Adreno 405 GPU; Snapdragon 615 chipset (also available with Exynos 7580)
• Android 5.1 Lollipop with TouchWiz, theme support
• 13MP camera with f/1.9 aperture and OIS; 1080p video recording; 5MP front-facing camera, 1080p video
• 16GB of built-in storage, 8GB user available
• Fingerprint reader, Samsung Pay
• LTE Cat.4 150 Mbps, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, GPS/GLONASS, Bluetooth 4.1, ANT+, NFC, FM radio
• 2,900mAh battery

Main disadvantages

• No 4K video or 1080p @ 60fps
• Limited storage out of the box, no 32GB version
• No MHL (but USB OTG is supported)

Compared to Galaxy S6

• microSD and FM radio, welcome back
• Lower resolution camera (13MP vs. 16MP, 1080p video vs. 2160p)
• Bigger battery (2,900mAh vs. 2,550mAh), but no wireless charging
• Screen resolution is 1080p, not QHD (not a huge deal)
• Slower chipset with less RAM (2GB vs. 3GB)
• No heart rate/blood-oxygen sensor

Who would believe that an A-series phone will have features that are missing from an S-series flagship? And yet the microSD card slot is one of the major complaints about the S6. The boost in battery capacity is welcome, even though the battery itself is not removable.

The one major stumbling block may be the camera. Sure, the wide f/1.9 aperture and OIS sound great, but no 4K video feels like a big drawback. We're less worried about the drop in screen resolution, even if it seems major.

     
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) official images

The original 2014 incarnation of the Galaxy A5 was ambitiously priced for the relatively limited feature set it offered. The 2016 model is a whole different story - it brings a much-needed boost to the screen and chipset, along with great camera specs and Samsung Pay.

This makes the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) a clear upgrade path for those still holding on to an S5 or even S4 and it puts feature pressure onto the premium mid-range market.

Read More

Oppo F1 review

Introduction

The Oppo F1 is the ambassador for a whole new potential line of handsets within the manufacturer's portfolio and as such, it definitely deserves some attention.

However, despite the lofty "F1" title that instantly sparks up images of Formula One cars or fighter jets, swooping at phenomenal speeds, the Oppo F1 has no actual aspiration of blowing users away with performance.

On the contrary, the 5.0-inch phone has its roots set firmly in the mid-ranger realm. It sets out to offer some decent hardware, wrapped in a very signature Oppo-style body, akin that of the R7 line, all the while keeping pricing more reasonable.

Speaking of pricing, Oppo seems to have a rather odd pricing policy, with the R7 often going for more than the R7s, so, hopefully, the F1 can help bring some order. Cheaper or not, the Oppo F1 is still a very nice-looking phone. We still find it rather refreshing to see Chinese companies exploring a design language of their own rather than simply shadowing industry leaders, like Apple's iPhone.

Besides its charming, albeit familiar exterior, the Oppo F1 has another trick to lure potential buyers - a superb selfie experience, or at least that is what the marketing team has decided to focus on. The Selfie Expert is definitely a catchy tag line and the team is justifying it with the 8MP front-facing camera with an aperture of f/2.0. The tiny shooter does look impressive on paper, especially considering it is on board a phone that costs around $250. However, a digital camera is only as good as its software and processing, so we'll make sure to check its virtues for ourselves. But, more on that later.

Oppo F1 key features

• Metal alloy body
• Hybrid Dual SIM/microSD slot
• 5.0 inch IPS LCD display with 720p resolution and 294ppi
• Octa-core 1.7 GHz, Cortex-A53, Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 SoC, 3GB of RAM
• 16GB of built-in memory
• Color OS 2.1 on top of Android 5.1
• 13 MP, f/2.2, phase detection autofocus main camera with single LED flash
• 8 MP, f/2.0, 1/4" sensor size front camera capable of shooting 1080p video
• Cat. 4 LTE (150/50Mbps); Wi-Fi b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.0; GPS/GLONASS; microUSB
• 2,500mAh battery capacity

Oppo F1 main disadvantages

• The display has a resolution of only 720p
• Built-in memory is rather small
• VOOC fast charging technology is notably missing

As you can see, the Oppo F1 doesn't really shine with any particular point on its feature list. Even more so, with the increasing number of interesting budget offerings, these days $250 can definitely get you more power or a bigger, higher resolution display from manufacturers like Xiaomi or Meizu.

However, Oppo has been happy to offer similar hardware in the R7 line so far for lot more money, so the F1 still has its place in Oppo's current lineup.

   
Oppo F1 in official photos

What follows is a short and sweet review (shorter than usual, anyway) to get you through the most important aspects of the Oppo F1, while keeping our impressions and observations brief and to the point.

Read More

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) review

Introduction

Samsung reinvented itself last year and that gave the A-series a chance for a coup. It took the great new design from the S-phones and parred it down to a mid-range price.

The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) is essentially an A5 (2016) stretched to 5.5" screen size. This sort of size has turned into somewhat of a sweetspot for a phablet - any bigger and the phone becomes unwieldy, any smaller and you lose the benefit of the big screen .

While the A5 (2016) competed with the company's flagship - the Galaxy S6 - the A7 (2016) is placed somewhat differently - it can't even hope for taking on the Galaxy S6 edge+ or the Note5, so it's instead targeting a market populated by a number of Chinese-made phablets.

Key features

• Available with a hybrid dual-SIM/microSD slot
• Metal frame sandwiched between 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4
• 5.5" Super AMOLED of 1,080 x 1,920px resolution, ~401ppi
• Octa-core Cortex-A53 processor, 3GB of RAM, Adreno 405 GPU; Snapdragon 615 chipset (also available with an Exynos 7580 chipset)
• Android 5.1 Lollipop with TouchWiz, theme support
• 13MP camera with f/1.9 aperture and OIS; 1080p video recording; 5MP front-facing camera, 1080p video
• 16GB of built-in storage; 11GB user available; microSD slot (same as SIM2 slot)
• LTE Cat. 4 150Mbps, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, GPS, GLONASS, Bluetooth 4.1, ANT+, NFC, FM Radio
• 3,300mAh battery

Main disadvantages

• No 4K video or 1080p@60fps
• Limited storage out of the box, no 32GB version
• No MHL (but USB OTG is supported)

Compared to original Galaxy A7

• Same screen size, resolution
• Same chipset, but more RAM (3GB vs. 2GB)
• Same camera specs, but has OIS
• Bigger battery, 3,300mAh vs. 2,600mAh
• 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4 on the back

The relationship between the old and new Galaxy A5 and A7 is strange. The original A5 left to be desired and the new one is a great upgrade... except it's priced too high. The A7 was pretty solid and so the new A7 (2016) isn't a huge improvement, but it's pricing is on point.

      
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) official images

And the new features, while few in number, do a great job of transforming the phablet into a true premium mid-ranger. The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) brings a first-rate fingerprint reader and Samsung Pay support.

It also looks to have some impressive photography chops on paper - with a bright f/1.9 aperture and OIS. Not to mention the AMOLED screen with perfectly calibrated colors.

We'll check up on that later, first let's have a look at the new design, which features 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4 on the back, just like on the front.

Read More