Reviews – AMP

Amazon’s £50 tablet is actually really good

This 7-inch slate will set you back just £49.99 – yes, really – and while your wallet will breathe a sigh of relief, your tech-loving mind won’t be getting wound up by the tablet’s shortcomings. On first use, there really aren’t that many.

Yes, there’s no escaping that this is a no-frills affair, but for £50 what do you expect, really? Slightly portly at 10.6mm thick and 313g in weight, the new Amazon Fire tablet is nonetheless a comfortable device to hold.

Affordable tablets that pair a wallet-friendly price tag with anything but an abysmal array of specs and a disappointing user experience are still something of a novelty. Enter though, the new Amazon Fire tablet.

Its weight is well balanced across its 7-inch form, and its matt finish gives a reassuring amount of grip. It would be nice if the screen wasn’t swallowed up by some oversized bezels, but that bare-bones price tag makes it hard to grumble at this too much.

Aside from the chunky frame giving the screen a slightly recessed look, the Fire’s 7-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel IPS panel provides pleasingly detailed results. Given that image quality is usually the first thing on the chopping block when the prices come tumbling, this makes for a nice surprise.

Offering image quality equal to devices two or three times its price, the Fire’s modest 171PPI resolution offers decent visuals by any standard, and outstanding results for the cost. There is some notable pixellation to text, making reading a little tricky, but image-viewing and movie-watching is perfectly acceptable for casual use.

Sony Xperia Z5: Bond’s phone reviewed

The Sony Xperia Z5 isn’t just any phone. Oh no: this is James Bond’s phone, you know. Hand-crafted for him specially by Q… ok, a multi-million dollar product-placement deal in new movie Spectre. But the question remains: does that make it a good phone for you, a mere non-secret agent?

Well, Sony’s £530 answer to the iPhone 6S and the Samsung Galaxy S6 is the company’s best handset to date. A promising step up on last year’s Xperia Z3(don’t ask what happened to the Z4, yeah?), the Xperia Z5 is accomplished on most fronts and offers the best smartphone camera we’ve ever seen.

Be warned though: despite being Bond’s handset of choice, this device won’t make you good at driving like a boss, fighting hoards of henchmen or wooing ladies. Maybe they’re saving that for the Z6.

That’s not to say there aren’t some design improvements that have been bestowed on the Z5, however. The frosted-glass rear of the device, for example, offers a nice point of differentiation in a metal and plastic-obsessed market – an unusual finish that oozes class without being too much of a fingerprint magnet. It’s water and dust resistant too, but we wouldn’t advise testing its ability to withstand a drop.

The Z5 isn’t an ugly phone. It’s not quite the sleek, suave bit of kit you’d expect to see in the hand of the world’s coolest spy, but it’s not too shabby. It does look pretty familiar though, echoing the look of both the Z3 and Sony’s flagship phones of the past three years. This is a company that’s all about evolution over revolution.

Hands on OnePlus X review: a startlingly good budget phone

Last year, OnePlus upset the whole flagship world with its OnePlus One and it followed it up again this year with the even better OnePlus 2. That’s not going to happen here with the OnePlus X though.

Unlike OnePlus phones of the past, the X is more about style than it is about spec, coming in Onyx and Ceramic versions (glass and, well, ceramic) but still offering a really cheap price.

The main thing to get excited about is the design – this isn’t a phablet any more, rather a smaller phone with a five-inch screen that sits much more nicely in the hand.

However, the design isn’t supplemented by a totally awesome spec sheet – rather, just a sprinkling of attractive specs that are supplemented by some rather crazy ones.

Design

The phone is definitely better crafted than ever before, with both the glass and ceramic versions looks rather nice and feeling decent in the hand. There’s actually very little to tell the ceramic and glass variants apart… weirdly OnePlus has polished the ceramic down to a glass-like finish, so it feel the same but is a little sharper and weighter.

The 13MP sensor is using Isocell technology and it’s really rather quick. When we run it through a harder camera test we suspect that it will come unstuck in the more technical images, but in quick snaps its shows that it’s got a great macro mode, quick snapping ability and enough modes to play with to make it worth trying out.

Apple TV review: the super-shiny new media streamer is here

The Apple TV is so Apple. The app-enabled set-top box from Cupertino is tiny and beautiful, fast and slick, a big step towards the future… and sometimes annoying and occasionally limiting. What else did we expect?

While the previous Apple TV models (which are still available much cheaper) were just streaming units, limited to whatever ‘apps’ they came with and whatever you streamed over AirPlay, the new Apple TV is smarter.

It’s basically an iPad mini 4 without a screen or battery – its core is an A8 processor, meaning that it’s capable of running complex apps, and it comes with an App Store anyone can develop and submit apps for. It runs tvOS, which is pretty much iOS redesigned and reworked for the big screen, and with a few features specific for making it easier to find things to watch. Like iOS, you grab apps from the App Store and put them into a Home screen grid, and you can make your most-used ones more prominent – if you’ve used an iPhone or iPad, it’s all pretty intuitive.

The one area that Apple has badly got wrong, though, is the keyboard. When you need to type (such as a search term or password), the keyboard appears in a long line of the alphabet, which you have to scroll all the way through for every. Single. Letter. It’s maddening, and it makes you want to select the option to turn off the need to enter a password when you buy something (when you set up the Apple TV, you can place an iPhone near it to share your Apple ID details, but you still need to enter passwords in many places) – but if this is going in a family home, you probably won’t want to do that…

Samsung Gear S2 review: a giant leap in smartwatch design

In the past, the quality of Samsung’s wearables was questionable, just look at the Gear 2, Gear Live, and hideous Gear S.

But when the Korean company unveiled the Gear S2 just before IFA 2015, it surprised us with a smartwatch which actually looked wearable.

Has Samsung broken tradition and built a smartwatch worthy of a place on your wrist, or is the Gear S2 destined for the sock draw?

Design, Build Quality and Screen

We’ll start where we always do, with the design, an area where Samsung has struggled in the past. The Samsung Gear S may have been very smart, with no reliance on a smartphone, but no one in their right mind would want to wear it.

Thankfully the Gear S2 is much more of a looker, with it’s fully circular screen, clean aesthetics and a futuristic design which pays homage to traditional watches.

The watch feels solid and well made, with durable (if not premium) materials.

The rubber strap and metal casing is comfortable to wear, and it’s reasonably lightweight, coming in at 47g.

There isn’t a huge number of design options, with the standard S2 only available in black or white.

The Samsung Gear S2 measures 42.3 x 49.8 x 11.4 mm, which is larger than some competitors, but due to a less bulky design, it feels smaller.

Interacting with the device is primarily done with the rotating bezel around the screen. It’s not an exaggeration when we say the bezel is a breakthrough in smartwatch interaction.

iPad mini 4 review: why has Apple hidden this great tablet away?

What do you do when you’ve made a massive tablet that’s got tongues wagging? You slip out a well-made teeny one and don’t really tell anyone about it, apparently.

That’s what Apple’s done with the iPad mini 4. The iPad Pro is getting the bulk of the interest in the tablet world at the moment, but that’s a shame – there’s something really awesome here with this smaller model.

For £319 you’re getting a really decent tablet (the iPad Air 2) squished down into a smaller size – while that’s a year old, that doesn’t mean it’s less impressive. The iPad range struggles to find an equal from the competition, and at this lower cost the mini 4 is definitely worth thinking as a ‘big present’ to someone.

The design is as you’d expect with a tablet from Apple: it’s got a metal case, curved at the edged, but it’s done in such a way that it feels almost ceramic in the hand. The buttons – a little small, it has to be said – are now limited to just power and volume, with the silencing rocker switch now placed on screen in the Control Center.

Nexus 5X review: Google’s Nexus back at its best?

At 5.2 inches the Nexus 5X fits into the new average size of Android phones for 2015, but more importantly, its price and specs give it an above average value.

Google is selling its new flagship for £339 with 16GB of storage. Even at £379 for 32GB, the Nexus 5X is cheaper than its rivals, like the LG G4 and Samsung Galaxy S6 at launch.

It’s still able to keep up, for the most part, with specs like a Snapdragon 808 processor, 2GB of RAM and a fingerprint sensor. Its performance makes few compromises.

LG is behind this Google-commissioned phone, and it carries the first competent Nexus camera that fares better than the iPhone 6S in low light situations.

It’s also the first Android, along with the Nexus 6P, to run Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It’s a fine introduction to the new software, even if there are better Android phones out there. The Nexus 5X isn’t a small phone, but it does fit snugly in one hand and we can operate it with a little stretch. It’s as if the Nexus 5 from two years ago has been reborn for modern times.

Surprisingly, while it’s taller and broader versus the 2013 Nexus 5, its dimensions of 147 x 72.6 x 7.9mm make it thinner. Our hands wrapped around this phone with great ease.

Apple iPhone 6S review: A touch of the future

Apple announced its ninth-generation iPhones, the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus, at a media event in San Francisco, California on September 9, 2015. The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus can be summed up beautifully with a single quote from Apple CEO Tim Cook: “While they may look familiar, we have changed everythingabout these new iPhones.”

Available with the same 4.7 and 5.5-inch Retina displays, the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus have the same exterior design as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but much of the hardware inside, from the camera to the processor, is new and improved. Core technologies like the touchscreen and the vibration engine have been updated, and the new devices are even constructed from an entirely new material.

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are made from a 7000 Series aluminum alloy, which is stronger and more durable than the 6000 series used in the previous-generation iPhones. Apple’s also updated the devices with stronger glass, made using a dual ion exchange process. One of the biggest changes is the introduction of a new aluminum finish in Rose Gold, which accompanies the traditional Silver, Space Gray, and Gold color options.

A new second-generation Touch ID module makes fingerprint detection twice as fast, and the 64-bit A9 processor in the two devices is 70 percent faster at CPU tasks and 90 percent faster at GPU tasks than the A8 processor in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Abuilt-in M9 motion coprocessor enables new features, such as always-on “Hey Siri” functionality.

Moto 360 (2015) review: loveable, but still flawed

Despite having rather significant flaws, the original Moto 360 was the most popular Android Wear smartwatch. Has Motorola learnt from their previous mistakes, or is the second generation just as flawed as the first?

I’ve been wearing the 2015 Moto 360 for several weeks now, here’s the verdict.

Design, Screen and Battery

We loved the design of the original Moto 360, it was sleek, stylish, futuristic, and of course, round.

The 2015 version follows on in the same vain. Although the design is very similar, there are some slight improvements.

The home button has been moved around the bezel to a more ergonomic location, the strap attaches to extended lugs (so they can be changed easily), and it now comes in black, silver, and gold.

The watch also now comes in two sizes, a 46mm watch face (the same as the original, but 0.1mm thinner, at 11.4mm) and a new, smaller 42mm watch face (again, measuring 11.4mm thick).

I’ve tried both on and much preferred the smaller version. It feels like a more natural size for a watch, and doesn’t hamper usability. There’s also a new ‘for Women’ version, which features a slimmer strap, and more blingy bezel.

The Moto 360 is very comfortable to wear, the size is fine for men’s wrists, and just about passes for women. It’s also reasonably lightweight, so you won’t suffer from watch fatigue.

In terms of design, it’s probably one of the best looking smartwatches around.

Motorola Moto X Style Review: One of 2015’s best Android phones

If you’re looking for a comparison, Motorola are the Leicester City of the smartphone world. The Olly Murs. Maybe the Donald Trump. Whichever way you put it, they’re the once-ridiculed brand who are now most definitely in-form, and exceeding all expectations.

See for yourself. The third-gen Moto G continues to reshape the expectations of affordable phones. The Moto X Play is the best sub-£300 handset available. And the Moto X Force looks set to revolutionise the mobile industry with its indestructible display. So what, then, of the company’s iPhone 6S-rivalling flagship phone – the Moto X Style?

Well, at £399 the phone isn’t as affordable as its siblings, but still undercuts the direct competition. Considerably. It plays host to features you’d be more inclined to see on devices north of the £500 marker – namely a QHD display and OIS-enhanced camera – and wraps them together in a stunningly simple user experience.

OnePlus made a big deal about the OnePlus X’s design, claiming it to be the first “truly premium affordable smartphone” at its London launch. The OnePlus X is available in two variants: Onyx and Ceramic. The Ceramic version is the more premium of the two, made using a laborious crafting process that OnePlus claims takes 25 days.

The process begins with a zirconia mould that’s fire-baked up to 1,482^oC for more than 28 hours. It’s then cooled for two days before going through a rigorous “polishing process”.

The OnePlus X Onyx retails at £199, while the OnePlus X Ceramic costs £269. If you want to get your hands on the Ceramic version, you’ll have a battle on your hands. The company is making a meagre 10,000 Ceramic units and will continue running a strict invite-only sales model until stocks run dry.