ZTE Blade S6 Review Part 2

The standard Camera app is rather basic in its Simple mode, with the usual Auto, HDR, Panorama, Beautify and Smile modes. You can also straighten images, remove moving items from view and take group photos in which you can pick the best image for each person in shot. Switch to expert mode and you lose these presets, but you’ll get more control over your image in terms of exposure, ISO metering and white balance. After you’ve taken a photo you can edit the image to add fi lters, borders, decorations, doodles and text, and also blur parts of the picture. At the front of the Blade S6 is a 5Mp selfi e camera with f2.2 aperture. The resolution is good, but while there are Beauty and Smile shot modes there is no real-time preview or ability to adjust the eff ect. This is possible through the preinstalled Camera360 app, however. Although it doesn’t launch by default when you open the Camera, with Camera360 you can apply fi lters before you take a photo, easily adjust white balance, ISO and the like, turn on image stabilisation, and choose from a selection of ‘cameras’ that help you take ID photos, scene shots or simply better selfi es. More ‘cameras’ are available to download, too.

Software and extras The ZTE Blade S6 is one of the fi rst non-Nexus devices to come with Android Lollipop out of the box. With cheap phones often left behind as new Android updates are released, that’s fantastic news. Over the top of Lollipop is the MiFavor 3.0 UI. The most noticeable diff erence over standard Android is that it completely removes the app tray, and with all app shortcuts displayed on the home screen its off ers a very iOS-like experience. We’re not keen on the approach, but you can use folders to minimise the clutter. MiFavor also provides a number of themes and customisation options. Several apps are preinstalled. In addition to those mentioned above, these are mostly utilities such as a backup app, Task Manager, 1-Tap Boost and a Clean Master app that lets you manage your apps and memory, and includes an antivirus scanner. There are also apps for video- and music playback, an FM radio and a sound recorder, Kingsoft’s WPS Offi ce for reading and creating text documents, spreadsheets and presentations, a TouchPal keyboard and a 30-day trial of the Route 66 navigation app.

All Google’s usual apps are also preinstalled. Mi-Pop enables easier one-handed operation, not that the ZTE Blade S6 is uncomfortable to use in a single hand. Activate Mi-Pop and you can place onscreen a cluster of buttons for returning to the home screen or going back a step, accessing more options or opening Android’s multitasking menu. One of our favourite features of the ZTE Blade S6 is its smart gestures, although we had trouble getting these to work with Mi-Pop enabled. If you shake it twice you’ll turn on the LED torch, or hold volume down and make a V gesture in the air to begin playing music. In portrait mode you can hold volume up and lift the phone to open the Mirror app (which is in essence just the front camera); when held horizontally this gesture will launch the camera. When placed in a dark pocket the Blade S6 will vibrate and ring at max volume; lift it to your ear and you’ll instantly answer the call, or you can wave a hand above the screen to mute the ringtone or turn over the phone to reject it. This latter action will also dismiss the alarm.

When viewing a text message, lifting the phone to your ear will automatically trigger a call to that contact. A ‘leather case mode’ allows the screen to wake or sleep when the case is opened or closed. Battery life ZTE fi ts a 2400mAh non-removable battery to the Blade S6, which in our experience you’ll need to charge every day. There is no power-saving mode. Verdict At a touch over £150 the ZTE Blade S6 is a great-value Lollipop phone with strong general performance and an attractive iPhone 6-like build. Dual-SIM and 4G LTE connectivity, a selection of smart gestures and a capable camera all add to this phone’s appeal, but its battery life is no better than average and we’re not so keen on the idea of having all our apps by default laid bare on the home screen.

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ZTE Blade S6 Review Part 1

The name might lead you to expect the Blade S6 to be a copy of the Samsung Galaxy S6, but it’s much more iPhone 6 in design. The clean white front with circular home button, rounded corners and curved screen edges is certainly reminiscent of Apple’s fl agship smartphone. Even the SIM and microSD slots are very iPhone-like, not that there’s much scope for diff erentiating there. And the MiFavor UI’s lack of an app tray is just Apple all over. For a budget- to mid-range phone the ZTE Blade S6 is good-looking, at least from the front with its slim bezels and slick design. But this unibody phone is built from a very slippery white and silver plastic, and compared with the iPhone 6 has a larger, lower-resolution 5in screen and slightly bigger and chunkier – but still commendably thin for the price – 7.7mm chassis. The weight is identical though, with both phones coming in at 129g. The home button might be circular, but as soon as you put the phone on charge or get a new notifi cation it glows a cool blue.

That constant glow can be irritating when charging the phone overnight, and you should note there’s no fi ngerprint sensor built into this button either. On either side sit touchoperated Back and Multitasking keys, and you can switch these around if you’d rather have the Back button on the right than the default left. That 5in screen is a usefully bright IPS panel, which off ers realistic colours and excellent viewing angles. The ZTE Blade S6 might have only an HD (720x1280) resolution, but its 293ppi pixel density isn’t far behind the 326ppi of the iPhone 6, and it’s quite acceptable for the price. A small speaker is found on the rear. If you’re lefthanded or place the phone screen-up you’ll fi nd it easy to muffl e, but it otherwise does an acceptable job. There’s also a headphone jack up top, which lets you take advantage of the Blade’s FM radio. Hardware and performance Equipped with a 1.5GHz Snapdragon 615 64-bit octacore (quad-core 1.7GHz Cortex-A53, quad-core 1GHz Cortex-A53) processor, Adreno 405 graphics and 2GB of RAM, performance is very decent for a midrange phone. The ZTE Blade S6 also feels nippy in operation, with no sign of lag when launching apps or moving between home screens and menus.

In real-life use we couldn’t fault it. We ran our usual trio of synthetic benchmarks, recording 658 points in Geekbench 3 single-core and 2420 multi-core. General performance is therefore more iPhone 5s (2556 points) than iPhone 6 (2794), and pretty much on par with last year’s fl agship LG G3 (2465). We also ran the GFXBench 3.0 graphics test, with the ZTE Blade S6 turning in 25fps in T-Rex and 11fps in Manhattan, matching the performance of the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge and HTC Desire Eye. Lastly, in the SunSpider JavaScript test the ZTE recorded 1088ms. In this test its nearest rival is the Samsung Galaxy S4 with 1092ms. That’s not bad for Android, and especially not at a touch over £150. In terms of storage the ZTE Blade S6 has 16GB built in, and it has microSD support up to 32GB.

That will be plenty for most users, although you can also make use of cloud storage with Google’s own- and third-party apps. Connectivity Not only is this ZTE Blade S6 a 4G LTE phone, but it supports dual SIMs as standard (both Nano-SIMs). Note, though, that the data connection is accessible by the fi rst SIM only on this dual-standby handset. As with all phones you should check the ZTE Blade S6 will work with your network, which we understand may be an issue in the US. ZTE lists support for GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, UMTS 850/900/2100MHz, and 4G LTE 1800/2600/900/700MHz. The Blade S6 also supports dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and A-GPS. There’s no NFC, but Alive Share software lets you transfer fi les and play multiplayer games with nearby compatible handsets. Cameras At the ZTE’s rear is a 13Mp Sony Exmor IMX214 camera with a 28mm wide-angle lens and f/2.0 aperture that can shoot full-HD (1080p) video at 30fps. We were generally impressed with our test shot and video, which you can see for yourself below. Colours are realistic and detail is sharp, although the LED fl ash does little to help grainy low-light photos, and we found video can be rather jerky as you move the camera.

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Nokia N1 Review

The display of the Nokia N1 is 7.9in, just like the iPad mini, and has a resolution of 2048x1536, which equates to 326ppi, identical to Apple’s Retina display on the iPad mini 2 and 3. It’s made with Gorilla Glass 3, and uses zero air-gap tech to reduce refl ectiveness and increase contrast. Nokia has equipped the N1 with an Intel 64-bit Atom processor clocked at 2.3GHz which should prove to be speedy, though possibly not as fast as the iPad mini 3’s A7 processor but we’ll have to wait and see. It’s paired with 2GB of RAM and has PowerVR G6430 graphics. We’re looking forward to putting the processor and graphics chip through their paces in our benchmark tests when we get the N1 back to our labs in the UK. There’s 32GB of built-in storage but no microSD card slot for adding additional space.

Connectivity includes 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. There’s no 4G LTE version yet. The battery is an impressive 5300mAh, and the charging/syncing cable uses the new reversible USB Type-C connector which makes things less fi ddly. The camera on the rear of the Nokia N1 is 8Mp and features autofocus, while the 5Mp front-facing camera has fi xed focus but should be good for selfi es if using a tablet for photography is your kind of thing. It’s also capable of capturing 1080p video.  The Nokia N1 tablet runs Android 5.0 Lollipop and comes with the Nokia Z Launcher, which seems to be an acquired taste that’s dividing opinions. Personally, I really like seeing a list of the most commonly used apps on the home page, and being able to search for apps or search the web by drawing letters on the screen – it worked brilliantly during our testing. We’ll need to spend some more time with this latest iteration to determine how well the prediction system works, though.

It’s designed to learn which apps you use and when and then present the apps it thinks you want to launch on the home screen. If you’re not keen on the Launcher then thankfully it’s optional, so you can always return to stock Android if you prefer. If you’re curious about the Nokia Z Launcher it’s actually available in beta from the Play Store to try out on your Android device.  Unfortunately, right now, the Nokia N1 is only available in China. Nokia has said that it will launch elsewhere in the future, though, and when it does we expect it to be quite a popular choice of tablet. It could be priced at under £200, so we expect it’ll be signifi cantly cheaper than the iPad mini 3’s £319 starting price.

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Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Review

With the M2 Aqua, Sony brought the dust- and waterproofi ng which was previously reserved for the high-end Z range to a cheaper smartphone. It’s got an IP68 rating which is the highest available and now the Micro-USB no longer requires a fi ddly fl ap. The device has a similar design and feel to the Z3 smartphones including a glass rear cover and protective nylon corners making it feel more premium than the price suggests. The Xperia M4 Aqua is thin and light for a mid-range phone at 7.3mm and 136g. The Xperia M4 Aqua will be available in black, white, silver and coral.

This is Sony’s fi rst smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core 64-bit processor and there’s also 2GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot. Not bad for the price, and performance seemed good during our time with the phone. We will test this properly asap. The screen has jumped from 4.8in with a qHD resolution to a larger 5in IPS display with a 720p HD resolution. You’re getting a decent screen for a midrange smartphone with a pixel density of 294ppi. Mid-range smartphones tend to scrimp on photography but the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua has a 13Mp rear facing camera with Sony’s Exmor RS sensor and a 5Mp wide angle lens snapper at the front for selfi es.

Both seem decent but we’ll update this after some proper testing. Another thing we can’t test with a short hands-on play is battery life but Sony touts two days of usage from the Xperia M4 Aqua. When in Ultra Stamina Mode, the device can run for a week on core functions, according to the fi rm. Like the Xperia Z4 Tablet, the smartphone runs Android 5.0 Lollipop which is the latest version with Sony’s own user interface which this time around uses many stock Android elements like the recent apps menu and dropdown notifi cation bar. We found the software to be smooth during our time and we like the fact Sony hasn’t gone mad with customisations. As per usual, Sony preloads its own apps such as Walkman and PlayStation but you’ll have to opt for a Z2 or Z3 handset if you want features like High-Res audio support and PS4 Remote Play. Things are a little more basic on the M4 Aqua.

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Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet Review

Design and build Its predecessor was and still is an impressive tablet and we didn’t think Sony could do much to the 6.4mm, 426g chassis. However, it has managed to slim it down further to 6.1mm which isn’t much but the weight has dropped to just 392g. In comparison with the market-leading iPad Air 2, it’s the same thickness and a decent 45g lighter so tops marks to Sony. The Xperia Z4 Tablet feels great in the hand with the weight particularly making it easy to handle. The fi rm calls it the ‘World’s lightest 10in tablet with brightest 2K display’. Sony continues to off er dust- and waterproofi ng, this time to an IP68 rating which is the highest available. We’ve got used to the headphone port not needing a cover or fl ap to keep the moisture out but now the Micro-USB port doesn’t either, which is a great addition. Aside from the above changes, the design remains essentially the same. A reasonable bezel runs around the display which doesn’t look great but means you can hold any side without needing to touch the screen. The Xperia Z4 Tablet will be available in black and white options. An optional Bluetooth keyboard dock will be available that supports tilt and a trackpad for what Sony calls a ‘premium laptop experience’. We weren’t massively impressed with it.

The screen size remains at 10.1 in but Sony has improved the resolution to 2560x1600 and boosted the brightness to 500cd/m2. That’s plenty of brightness on off er and the pixel density of 299ppi is impressive outpacing the iPad Air 2 which is 264ppi. The ‘Triluminos’ screen looks great and the IPS panel means great viewing angles. We really can’t fault it. Other hardware upgrades include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor which is both octa-core and 64-bit. There’s 3GB of RAM to accompany it, 32GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot for adding up to 128GB more.

Additional hardware consists of 11ac Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1 and MHL 3.0, but Sony has dropped the IR blaster. There’s a Wi-Fi only model but you can also opt for 3G/4G LTE connectivity, and Sony tells us this model can also make phone calls. On the audio side is added support for High-Res audio like the Z3 range with front facing stereo speakers, digital noise cancelling support, automatic headphone compensation and a new LDAC codec which supposedly transmits data three times more effi ciently than Bluetooth. For photo and video there are reasonable 8.1- and 5.1Mp cameras back and front. The main camera uses Sony’s Exmor RS sensor and the front has a wide angle lens to get more people in the frame. An impressive claim and one we couldn’t test during our hands-on is a whopping 17 hours of video playback from the 6000mAh battery. For comparison Apple touts 10 hours from the iPad Air 2.

Software For software, the Xperia Z4 Tablet runs Android 5.0 Lollipop and Sony adds its own user interface which doesn’t really have a name. Sony has kept things quite vanilla meaning the experience is close to that of a Nexus device running stock Android. There’s the Lollipop twostage notifi cation bar and card-style recent apps menu. The software was slick and responsive during our time with the tablet. The fi rm preloads its own apps including Walkman, Album, PlayStation and Lifelog. Our sample also had Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint in pride of place on the home screen. Xperia Lounge off ers silver- and gold tiers with the top level reserved for Z devices. Sony promises content including music, video, cloud storage, stickers, themes and software upgrades. The Z4 Tablet includes PS4 Remote Play, enabling you to play PlayStation 4 games on the device from the console over the same Wi-Fi network.

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Motorola Moto E 4G Review

Moto E 4G on O2’s network from Amazon for £119. The non-4G model will be available in the US, Latin America and India from 3 March, with other countries to follow. That 3G version will cost $119.99 in the US, but a UK price is not yet known. At £109 this budget 4G phone goes up against the likes of the EE Kestrel and Doogee F1 Turbo Mini. With some useful hardware upgrades that we’ll outline below, the Moto E is no longer just a cheap phone for fi rst-time or light users, but a proper Android smartphone that is more than capable enough for day-to-day use. Design and build The new Moto E 4G is very similar in its design to the original, with the same curved rear, chunky design that feels good in the hand, and reasonably thin screen bezel. It’s lost one of the two metal bars at the front, now with just the one at the top to hide the speaker.

For a budget phone, it looks pretty good. Whereas you could change the rear shell on the original Moto E, with this new version you can also change the grippy band that runs around its edge, allowing you to mix-and-match colours and create your own design. Motorola shells and bands are sold separately, though, and the Moto E ships with matching black or white shell and band. A key diff erence is the slightly larger screen. Now a Kestrel-matching 4.5in rather than the 4.3in we saw in the original Moto E, the Motorola off ers slightly more screen space on which to watch videos and play games. The resolution hasn’t changed, though, meaning this qHD (540x960) IPS display has a slightly lower pixel density of 245- rather than 256ppi. Show us the diff erence and we’ll show you a liar. The display itself is good for the price, bright and reasonably clear for a qHD screen.

IPS tech means colours are true and viewing angles are good. The Moto E’s screen is now splashproof; it also has an anti-smudge coating and is protected with Gorilla Glass 3. Despite the increase in screen size, the new Moto E is just 3g heavier than the original. The reassuringly heavy 145g smartphone is the same width at 12.3mm, which is a tell-tale sign of its budget price, and just a little longer and wider at 66.8x129.9mm. Hardware and performance The new Moto E features several hardware upgrades. It still has a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, but the 410 chip seen here is quad- rather than dual-core. Memory is the same, at 1GB, while storage has doubled to 8GB. As before you can add up to 32GB via microSD. (Neither the memory or storage allocations would be anything to shout about with a fl agship phone, but at this price they’re very reasonable.) And whereas the original featured the Adreno 302 GPU, this new Moto E has the 306. We ran the new Moto E 4G through our usual benchmarks and were pleasantly surprised with its performance. Whereas the original managed 608 points in Geekbench 3.0’s multi-core component, the new Moto E recorded 1463. In the single-core component we saw 464 points. In terms of raw performance, that makes it signifi cantly faster than the original Moto E, quite a bit faster than the EE Kestrel, and lagging only the Doogee F1 (but that’s a grey-market phone, and you may prefer to stick with one intended for sale in the UK).

In SunSpider it lagged those phones with its 1301ms score, but again saw a marked improvement over the original Moto E’s 1877ms. And it was the same story for graphics performance, with the new Moto E 4G turning in 6fps in Manhattan and 13fps in T-Rex (the original managed 5fps in Manhattan and 11fps in T-Rex). In actual use, the new Moto E feels pretty swift in general, but there can be annoying delays when opening apps. There’s also slight hesitancy when navigating around Lollipop, but nothing you won’t quickly get used to. Cameras One of the additions to the new Moto E is a frontfacing camera. It’s only a VGA model, and not much cop for selfi es (although you can set a timer), but those looking to Skype or video chat through other means will appreciate its presence. As before the rear camera is 5Mp, here with a f2.2 aperture, 4x digital zoom and several features such as a burst mode, auto HDR, tap to focus and quick capture. HD (720p) video is supported at 30fps, and there’s also a slo-mo video mode. There’s no LED fl ash, which is not at all unusual for a budget phone, but it’s a pain if you were hoping to use your phone as a torch. The results are very much the same as we saw from the original Moto E.

Images are generally well exposed, but lack detail and reveal heavy-handed compression when you zoom in and look closely. They’re fi ne for sharing online, but won’t produce good enlargements for printing to put on the wall. A neat feature of this new Moto E is its ability to quickly launch the camera with a quick double-fl ick of your wrist, even if the phone is in standby. As usual, you’ll need to change the default aspect ratio in the camera app from 16:9 to 4:3 in order to get the full resolution of the sensor, otherwise you’ll be getting 3.7Mp images. Video is understandably shaky since there’s no stabilisation. However, it is captured in HD now – 1280x720 as opposed to the 854x480. It is much better than the old phone and colours are decent enough, but detail is lacking compared to the best smartphone video and it isn’t particularly sharp. Connectivity Here’s the key change in the new Moto E: for an extra £20 over the original it includes 4G connectivity, operating on LTE bands 1, 3, 7 and 20. 4G is the fastest mobile data standard, and both network coverage and pricing within the UK is getting better all the time. Other connectivity specs remain unchanged, and the new Moto E 4G features Bluetooth 4.0 LE, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and GPS. Software Whereas the original Moto E ran Android KitKat, the new Moto E 4G has Lollipop version 5.0 out of the box.

Amazingly, for such a cheap phone, Motorola is also guaranteeing an upgrade to the next version of Android. It’s a reasonably plain implementation of Lollipop, but with some unique Moto software features. It can show notifi cations without waking the screen, and monitor your activity to create useful new features and functions. Motorola Assist keeps your screen off while you sleep or in a meeting, plus there’s the double-twist gesture we mentioned earlier to launch the camera. Motorola Migrate also features, easing the transition from your old phone, and there’s Motorola Alert, which can share your location with your friends and family. Battery life Motorola has also upgraded the Moto E’s battery. Whereas before it was fi tted with a 1980mAh battery it now has 2390mAh. That’s perhaps not a big a jump as it sounds, given the faster hardware, although Android Lollipop *should* be more effi cient than KitKat. We’ve not had this phone long enough to thoroughly test the battery, but early indications are very good, and we’re sure the Moto E will last a full day with mixed use, just as Motorola claims. Verdict The new Moto E 4G is a worthy upgrade over the original, with upgrades in every area. For an extra £20 it adds 4G connectivity and a frontfacing camera, plus performance and storage improvements. A much better deal than the Kestrel, this is the best UK budget 4G phone we’ve seen.

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HTC One M9 Review Part 2

With BlackFire technology and some more speakers you’ll also be able to have a multi-room setup playing diff erent tunes in diff erent rooms or the same one on everything. Other HTC One M9 users will be able to hook into the system and queue their own tracks. Cameras The HTC One M9 no longer has the Duo Camera setup consisting of two camera lenses. Instead, HTC has gone for a 20Mp rear camera with the same dual-LED fl ash. This is the biggest hardware change compared to the M8 and confi rms HTC has given up on the refocusing element. We like the stylish and easy to use camera app which has various modes. There’s Camera, Selfi e and Panorama but you can add more like Bokeh and Split Capture. With 20Mp on off er, there’s plenty of detail and we found the camera accurate at auto focusing and shooting quickly.

The M9 does crop to 16:9 by default though, so you’ll need to head into the settings to get all those available pixels. You can shoot in a regular mode, but quickly switch to others such as HDR, Night and Macro. If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, you can enter manual mode and start fi ddling with the white balance, ISO, shutter speed and even focus. It’s displayed on the screen in bars like the Lumia 1020. On the video side it can now record video in up to 4K resolution and uses a ‘dynamic exposure algorithm’ to mimic the human eye, we’re told. Default is full-HD, though and to rival the iPhone there’s a Slow motion mode (120fps). HTC hasn’t completely given up on the UltraPixel (which lets in more light) as the front camera on the M9 is the rear camera from the M8. Whether or not it was good on the back of the last generation, it makes for a good selfi e camera on the M9 with a crisp and detailed image that works well in low light. To go with the new hardware is a software feature called One Gallery which we haven’t been able to try out but will in theory bring all your photos together from the likes of Dropbox, Flickr, Google Drive and Facebook into one place. Battery life HTC increased the battery size from the original HTC One to the One M8 and has done so again with the new One M9.

It’s now 2840mAh compared to 2600mAh, which is a smaller jump than last time around and the battery is still non-removable which is the same across most fl agship smartphones. Despite the larger capacity, we’ve found the battery life to be no diff erent to the HTC One M8. With an average usage pattern, the M9 lasted us a couple of days before needing to be charged. That’s still a good eff ort with many phones only managing just one day. Note that the fi nal software may aff ect battery life, however. There’s no wireless charging, which is a shame, but HTC still off ers its Extreme power saving mode which put the M9 into a basic mode (although not greyscale like similar features on rival phones), allowing access to a small selection of simple functions like phone and messages. Software As you would expect, the HTC One M9 runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop which is the latest version. However, HTC doesn’t leave it as is so puts its own skin or user interface over the top.

The M9 introduces Sense 7.0 which means you get HTC’s style including icons and apps but there are also some new features. HTC largely does things its own way with BlinkFeed to the left of the main homescreen, a grid view recent apps menu and a vertically scrolling app menu. However, the stock drop-down notifi cation bar is in use (with some HTC style added) and the good news is that you can customise which quick settings you want – thanks, HTC. Luckily you can tweak the way you want to use the phone so the BlinkFeed panel can be removed, you can opt for the stock Lollipop card system for recent apps and although you can’t make the app menu scroll horizontal you rearrange around, hide them and adjust the grid size.

Talking of customisation, this is the main emphasis of Sense 7.0 so there’s a new Themes app where you can download various user interface themes. However, you can edit details yourself such as icon styles and fonts. The software will also generate a theme for you based on a photo which is pretty cool. Motion Launch Gestures are still part of Sense and mean you can do handy things like double tap the screen to turn it on and off . Up, down, left and right swipes will unlock, turn on voice dialling, launch the widget panel and open BlinkFeed respectively – all with the screen off .

We’ve already mentioned HTC Connect and One Gallery in relation to audio and photo; another new feature is called HTC Sense Home – it’s not an app, but the launcher HTC now uses. The software is location-aware, so you can use a diff erent lock- and home screens depending on where you are. For example, when at work you’ll get icons for your email and calendar and these will automatically get replaced with a remote control app and Facebook when you get home. You can select what you want for each layout, but suggestions will be made based on your habits. We’ve been using it for only a few days; it’s already pretty handy, although the suggestions can be annoying.

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HTC One M9 Review Part 1

The new HTC One M9 is absolutely gorgeous, is the Taiwanese fi rm’s fl agship smartphone for Note: The software on our HTC One M9 review unit is not fi nal so we will be updating this review on 23 March with more details including benchmarks. Until then, this is a hands-on review of the phone. UK release date and price The HTC One M9 will hit the shops on 31 March 2015 and the offi cial price is £579, matching the Samsung Galaxy S6 which will arrive just after on 10 April. Unusually the iPhone 6 is now a cheaper option as it starts at £539, but the entry-level Apple phone has just 16GB of storage. The HTC’s price is acceptable, but more than was the HTC One M8 when it launched at £550.

 With the M9 being a similar phone, as we’ll explain, the older generation looks like a bit of a bargain at the £350 mark saving you more than £200 – it could well drop even further once the M9 goes on sale. It’s similar to the situation with the LG G2 and the LG G3 – if you’re happy to not have the latest handset, there are bargains to be had. If you don’t think you can aff ord the HTC One M9, the fi rm normally off ers a mini version, but there’s no sign of it yet. Don’t worry because HTC didn’t announce them together last year. For now we’ll have to focus on the full-size phone. Design and build As you can see from our photos, HTC hasn’t altered the design of the M9 much compared to the M8 or even the original HTC One.

It’s more a case of design evolution which the company likens to that of the Porsche 911. It might be easy to criticise HTC for having another similar looking smartphone but we can hardly blame it considering how nice the previous two generations are. If you look close enough, there are some changes, though. The M9 is made from a similar metal block to that of the M8 and uses the same curved shape and hairline fi nish while using angular features from the HTC One M7 (the original HTC One). The fi rm tells us the process takes 70 steps to complete. New features in the design include a scratchresistant coating, machine drilled buttons and a sapphire glass lens on the rear camera. The power button is now on the side instead of the top which we think is a much better place for it and it has a textured fi nish so you can feel the diff erence next to the smooth volume buttons. It’s still easy to get confused between them, though and the volume buttons might have been better placed on the left. Motion Gestures mean the power button isn’t needed half as much, though.

Colour options are similar, but HTC has employed a new two-tone look with the back and sides getting contrasting adonisation. Our sample’s rear cover has a silver fi nish, while the sides are gold. If this model doesn’t fl oat your boat then there will also be ‘gold on gold’ and ‘gun metal grey on grey’. All in all the HTC One M9 is a very desirable smartphone when held in the hand – easily one of the most desirable. It fi ts nicely and like the M8, is one of the only phones on the market to compete with the iPhone on build quality. It screams of good craftsmanship, but the stepped design might not be to everyone’s taste – at certain angles it looks like a case. We were hoping for a thinner and lighter design and although HTC tells us the device is slightly lighter than its predecessor we weighed them both at 158g, it’s also marginally thicker at 9.7mm compared to 9.6mm. It’s 10.4mm where the camera slightly sticks out.

 HTC’s original Dot View case was a winner and there’s a new version for the M9. It’s a pretty similar aff air and you can customise what is shown through the tiny holes in the front cover. The big diff erence is a clear back which partly wraps round the side so you can still admire the metal chassis. There’s nothing worse than buying a gorgeously made product then hiding it behind a case. Hardware and specs HTC has decided to stick with a 5in screen for the M9 and has also kept the resolution at full-HD (1080x1920). There’s no upgrade here so it might seem lower grade than Quad-HD devices such as the LG G3 but HTC tells us the higher resolution isn’t needed on a display this size and would mean a sacrifi ce in the battery department. 5in is a solid size, neither too big nor too small, but we can’t help but feel disappointed that HTC has done nothing here to upgrade.

We’ve seen Quad-HD on the LG G3 and now the Samsung Galaxy S6 and it’s simply better. The M9’s screen looks good but the aforementioned rivals look incredible. There are some other things which remain the same too, such as 32GB of internal storage (21GB available) and a microSD card slot capable of accepting up to 128GB cards. There is a 64GB model, but this has not been confi rmed for the UK. Wireless setup remains strong with 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX, NFC and an IR blaster. The One M9 also supports 4G LTE networks via a nano-SIM slot. If you were hoping for any new features like a fi ngerprint scanner or heartrate monitor then it’s bad news. What HTC has done instead is focus on improving existing hardware in the audio and photo departments. While the above remains the same compared to the M8, there are some hardware improvements.

Memory has been boosted by 50 percent to 3GB and there’s a new processor in the form of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 which is both octacore and 64-bit (quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 and quad-core 2GHz Cortex-A57). It comes with the Adreno 430 GPU and we really can’t fault the performance. It’s really only the camera app which doesn’t open instantly. We’re waiting for the fi nal software before we publish benchmark results. The BoomSound front facing stereo speakers are still a key feature and although HTC hasn’t added support for High-Res 24-bit audio (look to Sony for that), it has added Dolby Audio. A new audio feature is called HTC Connect and means a simple three fi nger swipe will send the audio to a connected speaker – a reverse gesture will bring it back. We tested this out with the Harmon/Kardon One, which will be exclusively bundled with the M9. It worked fi rst time, although with a slight delay.

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Samsung Galaxy S6 Review

However, fl ip over the S6 and you’ll spot a major diff erence: Samsung has gone for a mirrored- rather than the brushed fi nish you’ll get with the iPhone 6. Samsung describes the eff ect as a “unique visual texture that refl ects natural light.” We’re not keen on it – it’s quite blinding, and not in a good way. It also picks up fi ngerprints within minutes. There are four colours to choose from, though, with the white and black models much less prone to fi ngerprints and eye-aching mirror eff ects than the blue and gold models. It’s a departure from the traditionally plastic back for Samsung. Last year’s S5 had that dimpled plastic back, but the S6’s metallic back is made with Gorilla Glass 4, just like the display. Gorilla Glass 4 is designed to be super-durable, but if something should happen to the back of your S6 you won’t fi nd it as easy to fi x as with the previous models, because Samsung has made the decision to go for a unibody design and therefore no removable back.

That, of course, also means that there is no access to the battery. It does feel light and comfortable to hold and not too big, though, weighing 138g and measuring 6.8mm thick (that’s 0.1mm thinner but 9g heavier than the iPhone 6, in case you’re wondering). A big downfall to the S6, and incidentally another way that it’s similar to the iPhone 6, is that the S6 doesn’t appear to be waterproof. Samsung only introduced the waterproof design with the Galaxy S5, so the decision to sacrifi ce that extra durability that many people loved about the previous model is a surprising one. Display The Samsung Galaxy S6’s display is stunning, at 5.1in and 577ppi, it’s one of the best screens we’ve seen so far on a smartphone. It’s has a Quad-HD 2560x1440 resolution. It’s arguably a bit unnecessary on a screen of this size, but there’s no denying that it looks amazing. As mentioned previously it’s made with Gorilla Glass 4, so should prove to be tough and durable, and is Super AMOLED as can be expected from a Samsung fl agship.

Hardware & performance Inside the Galaxy S6 you’ll fi nd an octa-core Exynos processor rather than Snapdragon, paired with 3GB RAM. During our time with the Galaxy S6 we found it brilliantly fast, with apps launching pretty must instantaneously every time. We’re looking forward to getting the S6 into our labs for some full benchmark testing, as we’re expecting some impressive results. In terms of storage, you might be surprised to fi nd that there’s no microSD card slot in the Samsung Galaxy S6. The company has decided to take a leaf from Apple’s book, but a leaf that is likely to disappoint many of its fans. Instead, you’ll need to decide on the storage space you’ll need when you buy the S6.

Samsung seems to have been smarter with its starting space than Apple, opting for 32GB instead of the small 16GB of the iPhone 6’s starting model, and then also off ering 64GB and 128GB models. When it comes to connectivity, you’ll fi nd 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, LTE and an IR Remote. Cameras We were really impressed with the camera during our testing. Samsung has given the S6 an excellent 16Mp snapper on the rear paired with an LED fl ash, and a 5Mp camera on the front for some pretty good selfi es, both with an f/1.9 aperture. That rear-facing camera has optical image stabilisation and some good auto-focusing features, including tracking and selective focus. There’s also auto real-time HDR (this applies to the front-facing camera, too), as well as low light video capabilities, slow motion, fast motion, IR Detect White Balance and more. Handily, a simple double click of the home button on the S6 will launch the camera from any screen. Software The Galaxy S6 runs Android 5.0 Lollipop, as can be expected. It’s overlaid with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI.

There’s the S Health 4.0 app, which will track your activity thanks to the various sensors including a barometer and is also used in conjunction with the heart rate scanner on the rear of the device. Samsung’s new Samsung Pay is made available thanks to the NFC chip, too, though it isn’t set to launch in the US until the second half of 2015 so won’t arrive in the UK for a long time. One interesting thing is that the S6 comes with Microsoft Apps preinstalled, and you’ll get OneDrive with 115GB of space for two years, as well as Microsoft’s OneNote app. Samsung KNOX is present with security features including Find My Mobile. Battery life Samsung representatives were keen on highlighting the S6’s battery life. The company claims that just 10 minutes of charging time will give you four hours of battery life, and there’s optional wireless charging available too. The battery itself is 2550mAh. Samsung provides an Ultra Power Saving Mode for prolonging that battery life further.

We’ll be bringing you full battery tests soon. Extra features In terms of additional features we’ve got the fi ngerprint scanner in the home button, which has been tweaked to now recognise your fi ngerprint with just a touch rather than the previously slightly annoying downward swipe. The heart rate monitor is still positioned on the rear of the S6, just beneath the camera’s LED fl ash. Price & availability The Galaxy S6 is expected to be available worldwide from 10 April, but UK pricing has yet to be offi cially announced. Mobile Fun is accepting preorders on the 32GB S6 for £579, which is the same as Samsung’s original price for the Galaxy S5. We have also had confi rmation that Vodafone and Three will be among the carriers selling the S6.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 Review

New 8- and 9.7in versions of Samsung’s high-end Galaxy Tab S tablet are rumoured for summer 2015 Successors to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and 10.5 tablets have leaked as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 8in and 9.7in. Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2: UK release date According to Sammobile the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 8in and 9.7in will likely be released in the UK in the mid-summer. With the original Tab S 8.4 and Tab S 10.5 unveiled at a Samsung event at the end of June 2014, and on sale in the UK on 4 July, we expect to see a similar pattern in 2015 with their successors. Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2: UK price Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S line-up are high-end tablets that are fi rmly pitched as Apple iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 rivals. 

Last year we saw an RRP of £349 for the smaller tablet which, even before its release, was reduced to £319 to match the iPad mini 2. It was a similar story with the larger Galaxy Tab S, which went on sale at an iPad Air-matching £399. We reckon we’ll see the same again in 2015, which means prices starting at £319 for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 8in and £399 for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 9.7in. What to expect from the new Tab S 2 Sammobile has leaked specifi cations for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 8in and 9.7in tablets, which use the model numbers SM-T710 and SM-T810 respectively. Once again the tablets will be very similar to each other, with the main diff erence being a new metal frame and their screen size. While both screens have been slightly reduced over the 8.4- and 10.5in of the original Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablets, they have also switched to a 4:3 aspect ratio and the resolution has been reduced from 2560x1600 pixels to 2048x1536 pixels. 

The reduction in screen size means the drop in pixel density isn’t as great as you might expect, and you’re unlikely to notice the diff erence between the old (359ppi) and new (320ppi) compact Tab S, and old (288ppi) and new (264ppi) large-screen Tab S. As before, they will use Super AMOLED panels. Inside Sammobile says you’ll fi nd a Samsung Exynos 5433 processor (although this may be upgraded to the Exynos 7420 before the Tab S 2’s release, given that the tablets will run Android Lollipop and therefore support 64-bit processing). 

There will also be 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage (plus up to 128GB via microSD). A tablet with the model name SM-T815, which is likely the cellular version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 9.7in, has shown up in the GFXBench 3 database. According to the information held there, the processor is a 1.9GHz octa-core model using an ARM Mali-T760 MP6 GPU. Cat 6 LTE connectivity is rumoured to feature (we expect this will be optional, adding around £100 to the price), and there will be 3580- and 5870mAH batteries on the small and large models respectively. Both tablets will feature an 8Mp camera at the rear and 2.1Mp at the front. The tablets are slimmer and lighter than their Apple rivals, with the Tab S 2 8in measuring 198.2x134.5x5.4mm and weighing 260g, and the larger Tab S 2 9.7in measuring 237.1x168.8x5.4mm and weighing 407g. By comparison, the 331g iPad mini 3 and 437g iPad Air 2 are 7.5- and 6.1mm thick.

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Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Review

Design and build The Galaxy S6 looks pretty similar to the regular Galaxy S6, as you’d expect. However, it has a curved screen which wraps both sides of the phone and we’ll talk a lot more about those in a bit. For a large smartphone, the Galaxy S6 Edge is very light, just 132g and it’s not exactly thick at 7mm (a tiny bit thicker than the regular model but strangely lighter). Note that the measurement doesn’t includes the camera, which sticks out a bit. We’ve been criticising Samsung for putting out premium phones with a plastic build for a long time and this is the fi rst time the fi rm has really eradicated that horrible stuff .

The S6 uses a nice metal frame around the edge which does look remarkably similar to that of the iPhone 6. Similarities aside, the front and back use Gorilla Glass 4 which fi nally makes the S6 feel like the premium phone it should be. Both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge feel great in the hand and can compete with the likes of HTC and Apple on design and build. This is a massive win for Samsung and will really help it this year in the fi erce smartphone market. Although we’re awestruck by the design, there are a couple of downsides as a result. The fi rst is that the battery is no longer removable which fans may be disappointed with. This is a necessary change to get the design like it is, though while the second downgrade isn’t. Apart from the Galaxy Alpha, Samsung has always off ered expandable storage but the S6 Edge lacks a microSD card slot which is a real shame and moves Samsung towards the Apple style of less freedom.

Another big design change from the Galaxy S5 is that Samsung has dropped the dust- and waterproof credentials which unavoidably makes it more like the iPhone 6. While the Galaxy S6 Edge looks great in either black or white, there are other colours available. There’s gold and a new green colour which is exclusive to the Edge (the regular S6 will come in gold and blue). Colour options are great but they use a chromed/mirrored fi nish which won’t be to everyone’s taste.

Not only does it look a bit naff , fi ngerprints and smudges show up like never before. Hardware The Galaxy S6 Edge is identical to the regular model apart from the screen. They are both 5.1in and Quad- HD, but the Edge has the dual edge feature which is the main thing to talk about. For starters the screen looks amazing with the usual SuperAMOLED technology and the curved sides give it a bezel-free look. The upgrade to Quad- HD (1440x2560) means an incredibly crisp image. A pixel density of 577ppi is the highest we’ve ever seen on a smartphone, outpacing the LG G3.

The Galaxy Note Edge has an edge screen down the right-hand side, and while the S6 Edge is similar it’s also very diff erent. For a start it’s down both sides so you can choose, based on whether you’re left or right handed, which side you use for the features. It’s worth noting that the edge screen isn’t as big as that on the Note Edge, so there isn’t a bar showing icons and information all the time. Instead you use it occasionally for a handful of things. Like the Note Edge, you get notifi cations and a clock. The main feature touted is People Edge, so if you swipe in from the side you get quick access to contacts.

These can also be grouped with a colour assigned to each group so that when the phone is face down, you can see which group is calling via the edge. However, it only lights up the side which you’ve selected which seems a bit silly and who places their phone face down anyway. With a great deal more functionality on the Note Edge, the S6 Edge seems a bit of a let down. We hope Samsung can add more in the future. We’re waiting for offi cial pricing so can’t say yet whether it’s worth the extra compared to the S6. As expected, Samsung hasn’t gone for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, instead opting for its own Exynos 7420 which is also octa-core (quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 and quad-core 2.1GHz Cortex-A57). There’s 3GB of RAM and a Mali-T760 GPU.

Performance seemed exemplary during our hands-on time but we’ll test this further when we get a review unit. There is no microSD card slot for adding more storage, which we’re disappointed about and will no doubt anger fans. While the regular Galaxy S6 comes in 32-, 64- and 128GB capacities, the Edge only comes in 64- or 128GB. Wireless and additional hardware remain strong with dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 with atpX, NFC and an IR blaster. There’s also Cat 6 4G LTE support with Samsung’s Download Booster which combines 4G cellular and Wi-Fi connections. Samsung still provides a heart rate monitor, which is located on the back next to the LED camera fl ash and still doesn’t take a reading fi rst time.

The fi ngerprint scanner is still embedded inside the home button and gladly Samsung has changed it so you only need to touch it rather than swipe. We’ve only has a quick play with it but it seems a lot better than the last iteration. Battery size has dropped compared to the Galaxy S5 from 2800mAh to 2600mAh (even lower at 2550mAh on the regular S6). However, Samsung has added wireless charging with WPC and PMA standards. The fi rm also touts fast charging with 4 hours usage from just 10 minutes worth. We’ll test out battery life fully in our fi nal review. The main camera remains at 16Mp but there are improvements elsewhere which new auto real-time high dynamic range (HDR), Smart Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and IR detect white balance.

You can also now launch the camera in as little as 0.7 seconds, according to Samsung by double tapping the home button. We’re not sure if it quite hit this mark but it certainly does it speedily. At the front is an upgrade to a 5Mp snapper for selfi es and the results of our hands-on photos were very impressive but we’ll test it more when we get a review unit. Software Moving on from hardware and the Galaxy S6 Edge is running on Android 5.0 Lollipop with Samsung’s own TouchWiz user interface. The software isn’t massively changed from the Galaxy S5 despite rumours of a move to a much more vanilla look. That said, the software is slick and easy to use with Samsung using its own notifi cation bar rather than Lollipop’s but going for Google’s card-style recent apps menu.

Flipboard still sits to the left of the main homescreen for your newsfeed and we found a Themes part of the settings menu which will let you change the look of the interface. Samsung was touted to install less apps outof- the box and while there seems to be less, the phone now comes with Microsoft apps preinstalled including OneDrive, Skype and OneNote. A new feature which will launch in the US later this year is Samsung Pay, an NFC payment system to rival Apple Pay.

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