Category: Articles

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UAG Monarch Case for the Pixel 4 XL: When your fabric case gets gross…

Phone design is irrelevant. There. I said it.

When factoring in minute differences between glass on glass sandwich gadgets, a fraction of a millimeter of bezel, or an edge of a sidewall taper, manufacturers have largely agreed on what a modern smartphone should resemble.

That aesthetic is incomplete.

We want a daily driver phone, able to survive lifestyle abuse. To make our phone functionally usable in the real world, without having to baby it, you have to “finish” the phone hardware on your own dime.

You gotta slap a case on it. Continue reading “UAG Monarch Case for the Pixel 4 XL: When your fabric case gets gross…”

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Android 10 on the Sony XPERIA 5: Gestures for a Skinny Phone?

2019 was a strong year for Sony hardware. The Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 showed off a new skinny form factor, a bold new design which still echoed the hard-edged rectangular DNA of classic Xperias. I was very taken with this approach in my X5 review.

The other half of the phone review equation though, how well has the manufacturer updated the software for the phone?

Pretty darn well. Continue reading “Android 10 on the Sony XPERIA 5: Gestures for a Skinny Phone?”

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Cheap Phones Won Christmas 2019 -or- Consumer Don’t Listen to Tech Reviewers

We’re looking at an analyst report, so it goes without saying that these numbers should be taken with a fairly large rock of salt. That said, this report reinforces a handful of other sales reports and anecdotal examinations of the mobile market. Manufacturers go to great lengths to hide actual sales data these days. Shareholders don’t seem much interested in facts, as much as they are the perception of the brand, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t dig a little deeper.

Flurry Analytics published a report on device activations in North America over the month of December, focusing on the lead up to Christmas day, and how those activations changed from Christmas to New Years.

Out of all the individual brands sold in this region, it’s not too surprising that Apple topped the charts. Overall, Android outsold iOS, but only one company makes iPhones. Apple significantly outsold every other phone manufacturer this year.

What is surprising is the breakdown on the most popular iPhones activated over the holidays. Continue reading “Cheap Phones Won Christmas 2019 -or- Consumer Don’t Listen to Tech Reviewers”

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OnePlus 6 on Android 10: A High Water Mark

The OnePlus 6 is one of my favorite phones from 2018 to revisit. The last offering from OnePlus with a rear fingerprint sensor and a headphone jack, this phone STRONGLY tested my theory on waiting for the “T” version.

The OnePlus 6T was an exciting phone. It came in a gorgeous purple shell. It got a carrier deal with T-Mobile. However, the farther we get from 2018, the OnePlus 6 is the phone I hold closer for its practicality.

Over a year from its initial launch, how well is OnePlus keeping up with support for the 6? Pretty stinking well…

Continue reading “OnePlus 6 on Android 10: A High Water Mark”

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Nokia 9 PureView on Android 10: A Beautiful, Wonderful, Mess…

The Nokia 9 has been updated to Android 10, but that’s only a small part of this long-term review story.

I tend to slow-play my reviews. I don’t think you can really share the experience of using a smartphone when you’ve only used it on pre-release software a week before the phone is officially announced. Some manufacturers update faster than others.

I gave the Nokia 9 a little extra leeway because of the crazy camera experiment on the back of the phone. Getting the software right for that much hardware is a difficult challenge.

From March to December, I think we’ve given Nokia a fair window of software support. Continue reading “Nokia 9 PureView on Android 10: A Beautiful, Wonderful, Mess…”

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SomeGadgetGuy’s TOTALLY Biased Pixel 4XL vs LG V50 ThinQ Comparison! Brains vs Brawn!

I’ve already gone on record proclaiming the V50 as my favorite phone of 2019. As a reviewer and editorialist, I don’t believe there can be “true objectivity” in a review. If you know more about me, how I use my gadgets, and the work I put them through, you will have a better understanding of my analysis. You can apply my experiences which overlap with your needs, and you can disregard the parts of my analysis which don’t apply to you. I made a video on this idea, which you can watch below.

I try to be as fair as I can. I try to examine a gadget based on the claims made by the manufacturer, not my preconceived idea of what the gadget SHOULD be. I try to figure out who the audience might be for EVERY gadget I review.

Every phone I’ve reviewed this year has gotten SOME kind of purchasing recommendation, but obviously some phones have been more broadly recommended than others.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at one of the most brutal comparisons in the premium tier of the Android ecosystem. This is a battle of polar opposites. Two substantially different takes on the idea of an expensive phone. And when the dust settles from this showdown, the songs we will sing of these mighty titans will echo through the halls of history.

Or, we’ll just totally nerd out on two flashy gadgets. Continue reading “SomeGadgetGuy’s TOTALLY Biased Pixel 4XL vs LG V50 ThinQ Comparison! Brains vs Brawn!”

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Silly Tech Geeks! Of course the Pixel 4 is worth $100 more than an iPhone 11!

I feel we all get swept up in popularity trends. It can be difficult to swim against that stream once a general consensus has been agreed upon. I have to be honest here, as an editorialist, I happen to enjoy those situations where I can shine a light on a topic, and maybe poke at that popular trend.

Whether I’m responding to a mega-youtuber about a jack-of-all-trades phone, correcting a popular Android blog about audio, or explaining how camera crop factor works when people flip out about a 3X zoom, I enjoy ruffling a few feathers to spread better data on complicated subjects.

The Pixel 4 was one of the worst kept secrets of 2019. It may be one of the worst kept secrets of all time. Now that it’s finally arrived, the tech community is in first stage of impressions and reviews. What makes the Pixel 4 different, we knew pretty much everything about the phone a month before it launched. Google isn’t facing a community just beginning to form opinions on the new Pixel, they’re facing a community that has already made up its collective mind on the Pixel.

It’s pretty clear that Google is setting their sights on Apple as the primary competition. For better, and for worse. When Apple does something, it seems to motivate a LOT of the decisions made by Google’s hardware team.

When the original Pixel launched, we all lovingly joked about it being “Google’s iPhone”. For a hot minute, I really tried to get the nickname “gPhone” to stick.

With the Pixel 4, it would seem Google took those early sentiments to heart. The Pixel 4 seems a purpose-built iPhone competitor, the closest way to recreate an iPhone-style experience, but in the Android ecosystem.

It’s entirely fair to compare Pixels against the phones Apple released this year. What’s frustrating though, is seeing folks cherry-pick one or two features to declare a winner, and to highlight “worth”.

Phones should be judged holistically, and any phone can win or lose a showdown if we move the goalposts to align with a user’s pre-determined bias. The common criticism I see now, is declaring the Pixel 4 unworthy to compete even against the cheaper non-pro iPhone 11. It’s a causally delivered verdict, folks kind of nod along. It’s a surface statement that sounds good, and throws a thumb in the eye of Google.

“The Pixel 4 can’t possibly be worth $100 more than an iPhone!”

The issue is, that statement doesn’t really hold water… Continue reading “Silly Tech Geeks! Of course the Pixel 4 is worth $100 more than an iPhone 11!”

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Smartphone design “improvements” are not progress: Prettier is less practical

And the immediate reaction by consumers will likely be a shrug.

“What can you do?”

The problem is, that apathy shouldn’t be a surprise. We don’t have much room to “vote with our wallets” these days. The reality of the tech market, these supposed “upgrades” happen way too quickly for consumers to react. Gadgets sales paced out over years from individual consumers don’t guide manufacturing decisions.

This week Samsung stumbled into a bit of a security issue on the Galaxy S10.

The in-display fingerprint sensor can apparently be unlocked by ANY finger. I discussed this on the #SGGQA podcast while the story was fresh, and the general sentiment from Samsung fans was that this had to be a case of user error. We’re getting confirmation now that this is a flaw in the current software from Samsung. Users are starting to test this flaw, and it has nothing to do with improper setup or using Non-Samsung approved accessories. BBC confirms Samsung will release a software patch for the problem.

 

Here’s a video of a Galaxy S10 owner on Twitter demonstrating the problem, freshly training a thumbprint, and then bypassing the fingerprint lock with a different finger. Continue reading “Smartphone design “improvements” are not progress: Prettier is less practical”

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