Category: Articles

Posted on

The OnePlus 7 Pro DOES have a 3X OPTICAL Zoom – Why generic consumer measurements suck…

Looks like we needed something to be outraged about.

A flurry of stories have been published, claiming deceit on the part of OnePlus. The zoom on the OnePlus 7 Pro camera is a LIE! It’s NOT really a 3X zoom! PITCHFORKS! TORCHES!

Except it is. It’s exactly what OnePlus advertised it to be. In fact, it’s a little better than what they advertised. You get a little more than what they listed on the spec sheet. The main thing OnePlus is guilty of is a clumsy execution, which we shouldn’t be too surprised about. This company is regularly “charmingly clumsy”.

We’ve got a lot to unpack here.

First of all, Very few phones really have a ZOOM lens. Continue reading “The OnePlus 7 Pro DOES have a 3X OPTICAL Zoom – Why generic consumer measurements suck…”

Posted on

Mrs. GadgetGuy’s First Reaction to the OnePlus 7 Pro, Written as a One-Act Play!

I like to check in with my Wife as a barometer for where “general” consumers might be when it comes to new gadgets. She currently uses a work issued iPhone 8 (which she asked for specifically as she wanted a smaller phone with TouchID), and she still has not given back my LG G7 after breaking her previous phone.

Typically when she buys her own phones, she’s leaned towards the entry level. She was excited by her Alcatel Idol 3, where she got a small phone, with stereo speakers, for less than it cost to replace the screen on her cracked Galaxy S5.

After that she got a Moto G5, where she was stoked to have a metal backed phone for cheap. Both the Idol and the Moto succumbed to the destructive environment of her purse, so she’s “borrowing” my G7, in a rugged armor case.

It’s doing OK…

So, I was curious what she would think about the OnePlus 7 Pro. No prep. No coaching. Just put the phone in her hand, and see how she would react.

Unsurprisingly, she kept it pretty practical. Continue reading “Mrs. GadgetGuy’s First Reaction to the OnePlus 7 Pro, Written as a One-Act Play!”

Posted on

A response to the DXO review of the LG V40: They’re not wrong, but…

Better late than never DXO?

The V40 has been ranked and scored at DXO, and the results aren’t what LG fans might have been hoping for. A combined score of 93 places the V40 well outside the top ten list of current phones. It’s just above an iPhone 8, and just below a Note 8 in DXO’s ranking.

LG fans are understandably “not thrilled” with this conclusion, especially for how long the phone has been out. Sort of adding an insult to the injury of delaying their review this long.

The thing is, based on the way DXO shoots and analyzes image quality, they’re not wrong. The DXO testing suite is very consistent.

They just might not test for what you use…

Continue reading “A response to the DXO review of the LG V40: They’re not wrong, but…”

Posted on

Bokeh is NOT Pronounced “Boca”! Limited run T-Shirts and Hoodies for April!

It’s a joke for April, but NOT an April Fools joke!

There’s much debate over how to pronounce the word “bokeh”, a Japanese term used to describe the artistic quality of lens blur. While we photo-geeks squabble about “ke” versus “kay”, or what region of Japan has a slight upward inflection, or blah blah blah…

The one thing we should all be able to agree on is that the recent Apple commercial is completely wrong. Where one woman turns to another and says:

“Did you just BOCA my child?”

Boca. As in Boca Raton. That’s completely wrong. All I can hear is one woman ask another:

“Did you just MOUTH my child?”

Which is kind of dirty for an Apple ad.

I’ve drawn a line in the sand, and if you want to stand with me on the correct side of that line, I’ve put up a collection of t-shirts and hoodies to help you support the good and righteous cause of language preservation. We’ll probably lose this fight against the juggernaut of Apple marketing, but we won’t go down without a fight!

Men and Women cut premium t-shirts, and super soft premium hoodies, only available through the month of April!

Click here to check out The Bokeh Collection on TeeSpring!

Posted on

What do we really get from “more powerful” smartphone processors?

When a new phone is announced, manufacturers often point to improvements like new processors and GPUs as things consumers desire. We want more powerful gadgets, but what does that really mean? What do we actually get with these generational improvements?

More gratifying benchmark scores don’t correlate with performance improvements for your favorite services.

Continue reading “What do we really get from “more powerful” smartphone processors?”

Posted on

#SGGQA 074: iPhone Notch Lawsuit, FCC to end Media Merger Ban, Gooodbye ALLO

Should Apple be sued over false advertising for trying to hide the notch? The FCC is on track to end a ban on major media companies merging to form even BIGGER media companies. Is anyone sad that Google is killing ALLO? And, who should we be rooting for between Apple and Qualcomm?

Get your tech week started off right!

Continue reading “#SGGQA 074: iPhone Notch Lawsuit, FCC to end Media Merger Ban, Gooodbye ALLO”
Posted on

OnePlus Type-C Bullets Review: All that and a DAC!

Well, if OnePlus is gonna dump the headphone jack, a decent pair of low cost USB-C headphones helps take some of the sting off, but it’s not ALL roses. Let’s take a listen!

Continue reading “OnePlus Type-C Bullets Review: All that and a DAC!”
Posted on

Night Shots! 3-Way Smartphone Camera Comparison Results!

What were you doing last Friday night? I was hiking around Ventura Blvd collecting night shots for smartphone reviews, so it’s time for a showdown! I posted three sets of photos from three different phones, and requested YOUR comments on Instagram. Which phone would YOU take with you for a night out on the town?

I was going to post the results on IG , but I felt this round required a touch more explanation than I could easily deliver in an IG post. To start, here are the full res images, uncompressed. The only edits were cropping them all into squares.

I got a TON of great comments on that post. Lot’s of people sharing their thoughts on their favorite processing styles. More than a few people guessed the phones correctly, which makes me really happy. Even with TERRIBLE Instagram compression, I’m interacting with people who understand and appreciate the nuance of what different cameras bring to the table. I’ll always point to those conversations as data points. Maybe we shouldn’t ONLY consider the lowest common denominator “average user” while we review these pocket supercomputers. But I digress… Continue reading “Night Shots! 3-Way Smartphone Camera Comparison Results!”

Proudly powered by WordPress