Google Pixel 6 VS Samsung S20 FE VS Samsung S20 FE & GCam

Daylight Samples

Thoughts & Takeaways

Both of these devices do completely fine during the daytime. Samsung continues the trend of oversaturated photos and Google continues to give us an over HDR effect. For daylight photos GCam on the S20 FE does just as well as the Pixel 6 and personal preference is the deciding factor.

Lowlight Without Nightmode

Thoughts & Takeaways

Although both devices do a good job at pulling out detail in lowlight the pixel is slightly better at retaining highlight detail in most cases. GCam on the S20 FE does a completely fine job at giving users a pleasing image but it could be slightly better. I think that if GCam for the S20 FE had been developed for a longer period of time we could see improvements in noise reduction but the software isn’t perfect because its community developed and maintain. I think that for lowlight photos either the stock camera app from Samsung or the Pixel 6 will give users consistent results they are happy with.

Nightmode: Samsung Nightmode VS GCam VS Pixel 6 Nightmode

Thoughts & Takeaways

Due to the settings in the XML and tweaks within the GCam app, GCam was often returning blurry results when being handheld. Samsung’s camera app consistently nails these lowlight images and returns sharp images that people would be happy with. Pixel 6 showed weakness in highlights getting clipped and blown out while GCam would give blurry results.

The Poco X3 Pro Is The Wrong Phone For Me, And Probably You

The Poco X3 Pro launched and the Poco X3 Pro is one of the more interesting phones from Xiaomi. The Poco X3 Pro is a frankenstein phone made up of parts from the Poco X3 and the old Xiaomi Redmi k20 pro mi 9t pro. The first reason I'm not interested in the Poco X3 Pro is the screen. The headline feature for the Poco X3 Pro's screen is the refresh rate. The Poco X3 Pro features a 120hz LCD display. But the Poco X3 Pro has the same display as the Poco X3 which tops out at 450 nits of brightness. 

The second reason I['m not buying the Poco X3 Pro is the cameras. The cameras of the Poco X3 Pro are worse than the cameras on the regular Poco X3. Obviously a cost cutting move from Xiaomi to bring the price of the Poco X3 Pro down but still, I don't want to buy a brand new phone with a 2 year old camera. The Poco X3 Pro packs the same sony imx 582 sensor found on the Redmi k20 pro and a mediocre 8mp ultrawide camera. Although the Poco X3 Pro might be an adequate camera for you, I want my new phone to have no camera hardware. 

The third reason I'm not interested in the Poco X3 Pro is the construction. The Poco X3 Pro features glass on the front and back but the Poco X3 uses a plastic chassis instead of metal. While this might not sound like a big deal to you upon closer inspection you might be surprised. Although we have seen huge advancements in smartphone durability with gorilla glass victus most of that comes from it being easier to bend and deform before shattering. The Poco X3 Pro doesn't have gorilla glass victus and combined with a plastic chassis the Poco X3 Pro isn't a device I would feel comfortable putting in my back pocket either. 

The last and final reason the Poco X3 Pro isn't the phone for me is the SOC. The Poco X3 Pro utilizes the same Snapdragon 855 CPU in the Redmi K20 Pro. Now this isn't a bad thing but it's clear that at the pricepoint the Poco X3 Pro is sacrificing everything for the SOC. While I love a smooth smartphone experience in my opinion I want a better and more well rounded phone. In actuality the Poco X3 Pro sacrifices these things for the sheer computational horsepower afforded by the SOC and that means the Poco X3 Pro Isn't the device for me. 

RealMe GT Banned From Antutu, But What Does That Mean For Buyers

The RealMe GT has been caught cheating on its Antutu benchmarking application and the implications of that are huge. Specifically the because before the RealMe GT was announced RealMe published their Antutu Results prior to launching the device. Lets examine why the RealMe GT cheating scandal is such a big deal, how Antutu discovered the RealMe GT was actually cheating, and finally what this means for consumers.

Before we can dive into this subject thought, lets discuss what is Antutu and why the RealMe GT cheating is such a big deal. Antutu is a popular benchmarking platform used to test the computational performance of a device. Antutu test several different components and several different processes that most mobile phones have to do. Antutu will test the multi-threaded performance for applications that have to do a lot of little tasks. An example of this could be autocorrect on a notes or messaging application. When composing a message the software is constantly checking the text that has been inputted for spelling errors grammatical mistakes or other such things. On the other hand single core performance is meant for one task that takes a lot of computational power. an example of this could be rendering a video out of your favorite gallery application or in a mobile application such as Adobe Premiere Rush. In this instance our single core needs to ramp up to the highest frequency possible to complete one complicated set of tasks. This is obviously an oversimplification and applies specifically to the RealMe GT cheating in Antutu benchmarks.

The RealMe GT is currently the cheapest phone with the Snapdragon 888 CPU offered by RealMe. This means that the real me GT is aimed squarely at people trying to get the most computational horsepower for the cheapest price. A phone like this would probably be popular with mobile gamers or people that don't care about what a device is actually like to use and people who focus specifically on benchmarks as a measuring tool for which device to buy. This means for many people the Antutu score of the RealMe GT versus the price of the device is a huge deciding factor. RealMe cheating this benchmark could be the deciding factor between buying, and not buying a device.

Next, let's discuss how Antutu discovered that the RealMe GT was actually cheating. This information comes directly from Antutu's Weibo post that had declared the RealMe GT was actually cheating. Antutu discovered that during the multicore benchmark the system was intercepting threads meant for the lower powered cores and scheduling them for the higher power high performance cores. It's unlikely that this is some type of high performance mode or mix up on the RealMe GT for a few reasons. First is that if the RealMe GT had this hidden high performance mode that was regularly being activated than gaming and even high stress tasks would destroy battery life. Second, although sending the multi threaded workload to the most powerful core would increase performance it undermines the entire point of having these multicore CPUs. This gives us a good indication that RealMe specifically found a way to inflate it's Antutu benchmark scores prior to launch.

Finally what does Antutu's banning of the RealMe GT mean for consumers. Well very little frankly. The RealMe GT was a device made for keyboard warriors and gamers looking for the highest score. This Antutu score has very little impact on what these devices are actually like to use on a daily basis and serve more as a bragging rights for their perspective buyers. The RealMe GT being banned from Antutu simply goes to show that hile companies like apple use their conflated numbers to sell devices its not apple alone.

Redmi Note 10 Pro Max Is The TRUE Flagship Killer, Not The Redmi K40 Pro

Redmi has recently released the Xiaomi Redmi K40, Redmi K40 Pro, and Redmi k40 Pro Plus. Amongst the release of the Redmi K40 Pro for China, Redmi is getting ready to release a phone that is likely to destroy the Redmi K40, Redmi K40 Pro, AND Redmi K40 Pro Plus... for the average consumer. See the thing that Redmi left out about the Redmi K40, Redmi K40 Pro, and Redmi K40 Pro Plus, is that they are plastic, and they are recycling the camera from the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5g and the cameras from the Redmi Note 10, Redmi Note 10 Pro, And Redmi Note 10 Pro Max.

We have to talk about plastic, because the Redmi K40 Pro being plastic ISN'T a bad thing. But we need to consider how the Redmi K40 Pro is being advertised and being promoted. In the past, the Redmi K20 Pro was called the K20 because it stood for Flagship Killer 2.0.

Which at the time the Redmi K20 Pro was an unmatched value for the dollar. The Redmi K30 Pro was released later and this was sold as the Poco F2 Pro in quite a few markets. The Poco name harkens back to that of the Poco F1 Pro aka the original "OG" flagship killer. To make matters worse, we already have evidence of one of the devices released, although the Redmi K40 is an unlikely choice, that the Redmi K40 Pro or the Redmi K40 Pro Plus will be released as the Poco F3 Pro.

It seems like in the haste to fill every niche in the market with a phone from the Redmi K40 lineup that Redmi has completely forgotten what a "flagship killer" actually was. Instead the Redmi K40, Redmi K40 Pro, and Redmi K40 Pro Plus are now Xiaomi's budget gaming phones. In order for the Redmi K40 Pro to be a "flagship killer" the Redmi K40 Pro, or even the Redmi K40 Pro Plus need to address the biggest flaw since it's inception. Part of the reason people buy flagship phones is because they have flagship cameras and flagship battery life.

This is ultimately where the Redmi K40 Pro and Redmi K40 Pro Plus absolutely fall flat on their face and fail. At the time of release of the Poco F1 the Poco F1 had a flagship camera and performed well as you can see here. On top of that Poco was great about adding features like 4k 60 after the fact as you can check out in a video here. In fact the Poco F1 camera wasn't only a flagship in it's features, the flagship Xiaomi devices the Poco F1 was released, Xiaomi Mi 8, had the same camera sensor.

This is where the Redmi Note 10 Pro creates a massive problem for the Redmi K40, Redmi K40 Pro and Redmi K40 Pro Plus. See in many ways Redmi is launching the Redmi K40, Redmi K40 Pro, and Redmi K40 Pro Plus on the legacy of devices that were bonafide value kings with an aim at giving people a great all around device. Unfortunately, the king of value and overall "great experience for the price" can't go to the Redmi K40, Redmi K40 Pro, or Redmi K40 Pro Plus, the new king is the Redmi Note 10 Pro.

First we can start at the display of the Redmi Note 10 Pro and how it's likely to compare to the display of the Redmi K40 Pro. It's been confirmed that the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max is going to be shipping with a 120hz AMOLED display. If that sounds similar to the display of the Redmi K40 Pro, it's because it is. Redmi decided to give the Redmi K40 Pro a Samsung E4 display. The Redmi K40 Pro display is one of the standout flagship features of the Redmi K40 Pro, Poco F3 Pro. But if the Redmi Note 10 Pro has a slightly lower quality 120hz AMOLED display how many people are going to actually be able to tell the difference. What's more, is the small difference in display going to dissuade that many people away from buying a Redmi Note 10 Pro compared to the Redmi K40 Pro?

Next we might as well talk about batteries as this was an area all the Redmi K phones, K20 Pro, K30 Pro, and Poco F1 excelled. The Redmi K40 Pro is packing a smaller battery than the Redmi K30 Pro. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if the Redmi K40 Pro charged faster than the Redmi K30 Pro. But it doesn't. The Redmi K40 Pro has the same 33W charging tech as Redmi K30 Pro. Now there is nothing wrong with Xiaomi's 33W charging unless you live in a hot climate as you can watch in this video. The only real issue with the Redmi K40 Pro's charging is that it's got a smaller battery, more power hungry CPU in the Snapdragon 888, and significantly more power hungry 120hz display. This means that under most circumstances your battery experience is going to be worse on the K40 Pro than on the K30 pro. Meanwhile the Redmi Note 10 Pro is going to destroy the K40 Pro and Redmi K40 Pro Plus in battery experience. The Redmi Note 10 Pro is going to pack a 5000Mah battery, more power efficient CPU, and the SAME 33W charging found the the Redmi K40 Pro and Redmi K40 Pro Plus.

Next is my favorite topic, cameras. This is another place that Redmi screwed the Redmi K40, Redmi K40 Pro Plus, And Redmi K40 Pro. The Redmi K40 is going to be using the Sony IMX 582, the sensor that is in the now 2 year old Redmi K20 Pro. The Redmi K40 Pro isn't much better. The Redmi K40 Pro is giving you the IMX 686, which if that sounds familiar, the IMX 686 is the sensor from the Redmi K30 Pro which did well in my comparison to the K20 Pro which can be watched here. The Redmi K40 Pro Plus is giving you a slight upgrade with the Samsung HM2 108MP sensor. This a great sensor but its not paired with OIS meaning youre video stabilization is going to be greatly effected by low light and low light photography is basically out of the question. What's more is if youre not a smartphone photography enthusiast the lack of OIS is gonna make it difficult to get good images in poor lighting. On top of this you can get the same Redmi K40 Pro Plus Camera in the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max.

Does the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max having the Redmi K40 Pro Plus camera make the Redmi K40 Pro Plus a WORSE device? No, not at all, but it does show us something very clear. From the choices Redmi made when designing the Redmi K40, Redmi K40 Pro, and Redmi K40 Pro they don't care about average consumers. Redmi wants the K40 Pro and Redmi K series lineup to be bought by gamers and people who's singular focus is performance. Is there anything wrong about the K40 Series being aimed at performance? No, not at all, but if you measure the value of a device in more than just FPS in gaming this device isn't for you.

The device for you is the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. The Redmi Note 10 Pro Max is set to make more reasonable compromises and the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max is likely to give you 80% of the user experience while saving you a ton of money and ultimately giving you more features you care about at that price point.

The OnePlus Buds Reach High but Disappoint

With the release of the One Plus Nord, the company has once again generated a lot of excitement for the brand. Along this wave of hype, the company has decided to release its own take on the widely popular Airpods - but the end result isn’t only slightly underwhelming, but it also goes against the company’s “value first” philosophy.

Before criticising the product, here are some aspects that we think the OnePlus buds shine: The company has maintained its beautiful design language with this product, the ability to automatically pair with any OnePlus device is definitely convenient, and lastly, the inclusion of IPX4 should leave those who buy this product as an exercise companion fairly pleased.

With that said, despite having a few fundamentals done well, OnePlus missed the mark on a few more noticeable parts of the overall experience. Most importantly, with a custom chip powering the device, OnePlus has managed to not only miss the powerful audio and latency controls that are usually offered by Qualcomm, but it also excluded the wealth of touch controls seen in other cheaper offerings.

With just average audio and the lack of touch control, the OnePlus Buds experience suffers severely. At the price range, users may expect a way to customise their controls through a companion app, or to be able to double tap their earbuds for pause and play controls - unfortunately, unless you currently own a OnePlus device, neither of these things are possible, and even if you do have a OnePlus device, the software update that brings you this companion app has not yet been released!

With this lack of control, and not enough features to make OnePlus owners feel like they are getting an amazing device that is made for them, we are left wondering if this device truly matches the company’s philosophy. For a manufacturer that has garnered so much attention for including the best specs for a low price, this pair of earbuds seems like a failed attempt to get consumers to spend more on what’s ultimately less.

If the company aims to ever release a second generation buds, taking a look at Samsung’s offering, the galaxy buds, could help OnePlus solve a lot of the problems this device presents. Whether you own a Pixel or a Xiaomi device, the Samsumg Buds allow you to download a comprehensive app that can make the best use of your new earbuds. If you own a Samsung device however, you get extra access to a low latency and better audio mode that truly takes the Galaxy Buds experience to the next level. This easy inclusion not only makes the Galaxy buds the superior device for any smartphone owner, but it also gives Samsung owners just enough additional features to make them feel as if their loyalty is justified.

For 109 Canadian dollars, the OnePlus Buds are a well designed, exercise proof set of truly wireless earbuds that struggle to take the experience to the next level. With more customisation options, and a better usage of audio chips already available on the market, OnePlus could potentially release a second generation product that could truly match the company’s long established value first philosophy.

Will you be purchasing the OnePlus Buds? Let us know in the comments below

To watch a video version of this article, click here

To read an article on the OnePlus Nord, click here

The One Plus Nord Seriously Challenges Xiaomi's Main Philosophy

The smartphone market grows at extreme paces, and a company that does wonders today may not be as glorious tomorrow. With the announcement of the One Plus Nord, One Plus has shaken up Xiaomi’s philosophy that cheap hardware always wins.

The One Plus Nord, which is gaining more and more praise by reviewers as time goes on, introduces the same great hardware that customers have become accustomed to in 2020, and shakes it up with a buttery smooth version of Android that is very similar to Google’s own. While this is great news for consumers looking for an Android smartphone, it is not great news for Xiaomi, which has struggled to leave reviewers satisfied due to one key feature: software.

Photo found on ZD Net

Since the Mi lines of phones has been given to western reviewers, many have been impressed by what the company can do in terms of hardware, but the IOS like interface has generally been declined by reviewers and consumers alike. For many years however, western consumers have lived with this issue due to the ability to easily install a launcher or custom ROM on any Xiaomi devices.

This may change lately, as companies like Apple, Samsung, Google and now One Plus are all introducing products that easily integrate with their phones, kick-starting a new age of smartphones where users not only want a good device, but one that feels fast out of the box.

Despite Xiaomi’s heavy software being considered an easy fix by many, this isn’t the full picture. Based in a country where the heavy, fully featured launcher is appreciated, introducing a new, more western version of Android to Xiaomi devices could alienate Xiaomi’s Chinese consumer base.

To solve this issue, many have turned to the Pocophone line of products, which features a MIUI like version of Android that includes more western features such as an app drawer - but as development goes on, could Xiaomi’s Poco Launcher be the company’s secret to thriving in western markets? Only time may tell.

Do you think Xiaomi can fight back One Plus’ success? Let us know below

To watch a video on this topic, click here

To read an article on Xiaomi’s new astrophotography mode, click here