So today has been a big day for OnePlus as they have been conducting their Launch event from New Delhi. Now that the event has wrapped up, we have much news to go through regarding what we saw that was expected and there were a few other teased details that have been clarified for us.

So let’s dive in for a look at what was talked about today: the big news, the phone release.

The OnePlus 11 5G.

So this phone has hardly been the best-kept release since the Chinese variety was released quite a few weeks ago. The phone is every bit as good-looking as the one that i have seen teasers of since the Chinese release. However, the beauty of this phone is not only skin deep with some serious processing power under those sleek curves. The base spec will feature 8+128GB variant at £729 and 16+256GB variant £799. These are awesome prices that will surely shale the market up upon its release on the 16th Feb when it goes on sale on the Oneplus.com website and Amazon.

Other than the awesome storage as shown above the phone features a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile platform and this brings the support of Ray tracing which is a feature normally found on Dedicated Graphics cards in large-scale Gaming PC’s and Laptops. This is a hardware-supported feature dynamic support for games that are designed to support this new feature. For those of you who are getting the phone and don’t want to have to wait to experience the effect of Ray Tracing Oneplus have you covered. By using the PhysRay app you will be able to experience what Ray tracing can do in Live wallpapers which will dynamically adapt to showcase. The two variants will both support LPDDR5X RAM for fast and efficient multitasking. In addition to that to further bolster the performance is RAm-Vita which is OnePlus’s own machine learning technology. This is a combination of CPU Bandwith acceleration, background application compression, AI Ram allocation and dedicated RAM assignment. all of this will work together to make the OnePlus 11 5G a beast when it comes to multitasking abilities. It will purportedly be able to keep 44 apps open all at the same time in the background without noticeable depreciation in the performance of apps functions.

OnePlus are also pushing the performance over time side of things by ensuring that the phone will be kept up to date for a longer time than previously seen. The Oneplus 11 5G will receive 4 major Oxygen OS updates and 5 years of security updates. This means that the phone will be able to, in theory, run Android 17 when it lands in the much further future. The phone also received a TÜV SÜD 48-month Fluency Rating A for its long-term system fluency. Essentially this is stating that the performance of the phone should not degrade over time with regular use. This is becoming more and more important in these days of awakening about sustainability.

The other big draw of the Oneplus 11 5G device is the new Hasselblad co-developed Camera array. This array composes of 3 rear cameras that can work in concert or independently of each other. These raw camera sensors are supported by specially developed Hasselblad software and image processing. At the forefront of the camera is the 50MP IMX890 sensor, with a wide dynamic range and optical image stabilisation (OIS) this is sure to capture some excellently detailed images. The large MP sensor will allow for more light to be exposed meaning a brighter and sharper image even in low light, this is also going to be true for the video performance. The Ultra-wide camera is a 115° 48MP number which a 1/2″ sensor size that allows for steller wide angle shots using the Sony IMX581 sensor. the last camera in the rear module is the Portrait lens which is backed by an IMX709 32MP camera that has been designed and optimised to capture great portraits. All of these sensors come equipped with 6 Element lenses with the main camera supporting OIS and EIS alongside PDAF + CAF autofocus technologies.

Of course, these cameras will also work for recording video as well and the video capabilities are what you would expect for a flagship-grade device. We have the following all available to us 8K video at 24 fps, 4K , 1080p and 720 video at 30/60 fps. For those who like to slow things down, you are covered as well with Super Slow Motion: 1080p video at240 fps, 720p video at 240/480 fps. Lastly, for those who like an artistic flair and don’t mind waiting then you have got Time-Lapse: 4K/1080p at 30 fps.

In addition to the standard video and camera modes, you would expect to see you also have the latest edition of TurboRaw HDR for the ultimate in HDR capture over a wide dynamic range. But it doesn’t end there as I mentioned this camera has been co-developed with Hasselblad. their input has been essential to the camera’s development and this is the 3rd year of this partnership. To mark this they are unveiling the new natural Colour Calibration with Hasselblad feature to deliver industry-leading colour science. Tie this together with a 13-channel multi-spectral sensor and light colour identification is greatly improved on the OnePlus 11 5G which should also result in this camera producing some great shots. Hasselblad has also considered the portrait shooters out there by integrating Hasselblad Portrait Mode which will give a near DSLR-like effect when used for close-up portraits. It is reported to give results similar to that of an Actual Hasselblad camera equipped with XCD 30mm and 65mm lenses. Some big claims it will be interesting to see the results in real life.

Up front, we have a glorious crisp and vibrant looking 6.7″ 2k 120hz SuperFluid AMOLED display that is one of the first in the industry to utilise an LPTO 3.0 display. This has been self-developed to allow energy saving and adaptive refresh rates according to what is being displayed. The screen will happily sit at 1 Hz refresh when using the Always on Display and ramp up as and when needed ie for fast-moving games. The colours look crisp and vibrant without being overbearing. On the edges is a subtle curve to the display to make the feel of the phone fit inwit the User interface’s new “Aquamorphiic design” ethos. in the top corner is where the Selfie camera is buried away and this again is quite subtle and non-intrusive with the hole punch not being too large.

Audio is something that has had a large focus from Oneplus for this phone and this ties in very nicely with another announced product from today but more on that later. We do of course have a front-facing speaker/earpiece right up at the top of the phone Which allows the phone to offer stereo speakers when used in combination with the bottom-firing unit. To help add to the immersion the speakers are being backed by Dolby Atmos in what OnPlus is calling Dual “Reality” Speakers. Fortunately, the audio effects on this phone don’t stop there as this is OnePlus’s first phone that supports Spatial Audio which i am very keen to check out in the near future. 

I have already mentioned that the phone now comes with an “Aquamorphic design” on the UI and this falls under the latest version of Oxygen os 13 which boost the AI function of the UI and will anticipate your actions as you are using the phone in effect learning what you do with the phone in your daily use and adapting to that as required. A big part of this is the Hyperboost Gaming Engine which, via a Machine learning GPa frame rate stabilisation technology will learn and adapt to your game-playing habits and techniques. I am not much of a gamer but i am keen to test these gaming claims as this seems to be not just a phone that is all about the camera.

As for the hardware this gorgeously designed phone and it must be said that although I was a little bit anxious when I saw the first picture of the camera bump on the rear I am now warming to it, especially in the glorious Eternal Green Colour which has a smooth finish and the Titan Black which leans more to the traditional Sandstone effect that OnePlus pioneered with the OnePlus 1 back in the day.

As I mentioned at the top of this post the OnePlus 11 5G will be available for sale on the 16th of Feb from 9am UK time at OnePlus.com and Amazon. The device will retail at £729 for the 8+128GB variant and £799 for the 16+256GB variant. The Emerald Green variant will be exclusively available via Amazon for the 8GB+128GB for £729. If you are looking to get one and you are preordering as well then you will also receive a free gift in the form of either a Beosound A1 2nd Gen Bang & Olufsen Speaker or a pair of OnePlus Buds Pro 2 You can sign up to be notified of preorders opening here.

For more news on the other products that were released today then check out this companion article on Coolsmartphone.com

OnePlus Launches OnePlus 11 5G in New Delhi

OnePlus 11 5G is OnePlus’ latest flagship, giving users an extremely fast and smooth experience, effortless imaging, and modern elegance design.

February 7, 2023 – Leading technology brand OnePlus today officially launched its latest smartphone, OnePlus 11 5G, at GMR Grounds, Aerocity, in New Delhi. OnePlus 11 5G comes with the fastest performance of any OnePlus smartphone to date, 3rd Generation Hasselblad Camera for Mobile, and a purposeful and modern elegance design.

“We are incredibly excited to introduce OnePlus 11 5G with our community members and partners in New Delhi,” said Pete Lau, Founder of OnePlus, Senior Vice President and Chief of Product at OPPO and OnePlus, “With an improved fast and smooth experience, effortless imaging, and modern elegance design, OnePlus 11 5G is definitely a well-rounded flagship that is competitive at its price point.”

Extreme Fast and Smooth Experience That Lasts
OnePlus 11 5G is powered by the latest Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform with up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and up to 256GB ROM with UFS 4.0 to ensure maximum power with greater efficiency, wider bandwidth and improved read and write speeds. To further bolster performance, OnePlus 11 5G comes with RAM-Vita, OnePlus’s own machine learning technology involves CPU bandwidth acceleration, background application compression, AI RAM allocation, and dedicated RAM assignment. All of this combined means OnePlus 11 5G with 16GB RAM can keep as many as 44 applications active in the background, reducing app kills or forced restarts.

In addition, OnePlus 11 5G is the first Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 device to be approved as Snapdragon Spaces Ready. It is the entrance for developers to bring their XR ideas to life and to explore the full potential of wearable AR.

OnePlus 11 5G has been built to provide a fast and smooth experience that lasts. As well as being the first OnePlus device that will receive four major OxygenOS updates and five years of security updates, it has also received a TÜV SÜD 48-month Fluency Rating A for its long-term system fluency. It is also certified by SGS Perceived Fluency A+ for its system fluency.

Hardware-enabled Ray Tracing
OnePlus 11 5G will also be one of the first phones to support hardware-enabled ray tracing thanks to its powerful Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform. And to give users the chance to enjoy ray tracing technology on their phone, OnePlus will be offering a 3D dynamic live wallpaper app called PhysRay Wallpaper to download on their new OnePlus 11 5G. This app contains four different wallpapers called Vitality of Light, Matrix, Candyverse, and Oceanfront.

Unlike traditional static wallpaper, the PhysRay wallpapers render light in real-time, making the displayed object’s shadow, reflection and refraction more vivid and realistic. Users can slide, swipe or click on the phone to show different animation effects and achieve real-time interaction with the live wallpaper.

Fast Charging and Cryo-Velocity VC Cooling System

With support for 100W SUPERVOOC Endurance Edition, OnePlus 11 5G allows you to spend less time tethered to an outlet and more time using the device the way you want to. OnePlus 11 5G takes only 25 minutes to charge from 1% to 100% battery capacity courtesy of its 100W SUPERVOOC fast-charging technology.

To help give users peace of mind when charging, OnePlus 11 5G also features the innovative Battery Health Engine (BHE), making its charging system safer and more efficient. Meanwhile, OnePlus 11 5G also has a TÜV Rheinland Certification for Safe Charging and Usage after stringent tests including real-time temperature monitoring in all aspects of charging, drop tests, pressure and compression tests, operation in high and low temperatures, and operation in dry and humid, dusty environments.

OnePlus 11 5G also features a new Cryo-velocity VC Cooling System to remove any overheating worries during prolonged gameplay and heavy use. The cooling system has a 3685 mm2 VC area, 5673 mm3 crystalline-graphene in the mid-frame layer, and a dedicated layer of crystalline-graphene for the display to significantly increase heat dissipation capability.

Vibrant Display, Impeccable Sound

OnePlus 11 5G sports a 6.7-inch 2K 120Hz Super Fluid AMOLED Display with LTPO 3.0. LTPO 3.0 is a self-developed technology that saves energy and adapts refresh rates according to the specific use, ensuring touch response and accuracy, and power efficiency. Additionally, OnePlus 11 5G is certified by TÜV SÜD Precise Touching S Rating and SGS Low Blue Light Ex.

Furthermore, OnePlus 11 5G is one of the first Android smartphones to be transformed by Dolby Vision to elevate every mobile experience with stunning picture that brings your on-the-go entertainment to life. OnePlus 11 5G is also equipped with the Dual “Reality” Speakers and support Dolby Atmos, which takes the audio experience to a new level, both via onboard speakers or Bluetooth headphones.

Effortless Imaging with the 3rd Gen Hasselblad Camera for Mobile

OnePlus 11 5G has a powerful and balanced camera setup designed to accurately record each of life’s milestones at every angle – capturing everything the eyes can see.

It is fitted with a “three-main-sensor” triple camera system. At the core of the camera setup is a 50MP IMX890 sensor, chosen particularly for capturing wide dynamic range images, with an optical image stabilizer (OIS) for steady shots. The main camera allows for more light intake and lets users capture brighter and sharper images and record videos in low-lit and backlit environments. Supplementing the main camera are a 115° 48MP ultra-wide camera, which ensures users get wide photos with absolute clarity, and an IMX709 32MP portrait lens, helping users capture stunning DSLR-like portraits.

OnePlus recently tested the portrait capabilities of the OnePlus 11 by challenging one of the UK’s best photographers to take portraits of the residents of Knoydart, the UK’s most remote village, without leaving his studio in London. Matt Porteous took control of a OnePlus 11 as it flew across the highlands of Scotland capturing unforgettable images of the Knoydart community and the heartstopping landscapes on their doorsteps. To see more, watch the YouTube video here

Additionally, OnePlus 11 5G is equipped with the latest iteration of TurboRAW HDR, OnePlus’s own algorithm for High Dynamic Range (HDR), to help to capture scenes with pristine HDR clarity of wide dynamic range.

OnePlus and Hasselblad Collaboration

The collaboration between OnePlus and Hasselblad continues with the OnePlus 11 5G. The brand new Natural Colour Calibration with Hasselblad feature on OnePlus 11 5G delivers industry-leading colour science. Moreover, a 13-channel multi-spectral sensor for light-color identification has been introduced on OnePlus 11 5G for wider spectral analysis of light.

The Hasselblad Portrait Mode helps users to easily shoot images with almost DSLR-like depth-tracking, natural bokeh, and light flare effects. Benchmarked against exacting Hasselblad optical standards to achieve portraits in perfection, the result simulates stunning professional portraits captured by an actual Hasselblad camera fitted with XCD 30mm and 65mm lenses.

Intelligent Software

OnePlus 11 5G and OxygenOS 13 also boast intuitive AI capabilities that learn from users’ habits to be able to anticipate certain actions moving forward. This includes the HyperBoost Gaming Engine, whose machine learning GPA frame rate stabilization 4.0 technology actively learns and adapts to the user’s gameplay.

With an industry-leading 1Hz AOD, OnePlus 11 5G consumes 30% less power compared with typical 30Hz AOD. This lets users access frequently opened applications, other widgets and information, while not having to worry about depleting the phone’s battery.

Modern Elegance Design

Designed specifically for those who desire to be different, OnePlus 11 5G adopts a bold, loud, confident, and shiny “modern elegance” design. It is a continuity and evolution of the OnePlus 10 Pro’s design to deliver the OnePlus classic simple, elegant, and purposeful design philosophy. OnePlus 11 5G has a K-shape curve along the camera decor which make the module more vivid with the flow of light.

OnePlus 11 5G comes In two colours – the calm Titan Black and the rousing Eternal Green, respectively inspired by the black hole in the universe and by the shades of the rainforest at dusk. Both colors are meant to bring out “rawness”.

By utilizing the Matte Frosted Glass, the Titan Black version delivers an irresistibly smooth, soft but sturdy hand-held feeling. With a multi-layering of glass, the Eternal Green version adopts the purposeful design of OnePlus to successfully combining a brand-new dusk green color and internal layering treatment. The design ensures high resistance to sweat and fingerprint stains.

With purposeful design in mind, OnePlus puts much attention in engineering every exterior piece to specifically ensure a smooth transition between the Corning® Gorilla® Glass Victus® and midframe, which improves feel-in-hand by nearly eliminating any bumps between parting lines.

Availability and Price

In the UK, the OnePlus 11 5G will go on sale on 16 February at 9AM UK time at OnePlus.com and Amazon. The device will retail at £729 for the 8+128GB variant and £799 for the 16+256GB variant. The OnePlus 11 5G Eternal Green 8GB+128GB will be available exclusively via Amazon for £729.
Plus all customers who pre-order the OnePlus 11 will receive a free gift, including a Bang & Olufsen Speaker or a pair of OnePlus Buds Pro 2. T&Cs apply.

The post OnePlus 11 5G Launch from New Delhi is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

If you are fan of the OnePlus brand you will no doubt have seen that they have announced the new OnePlus 11 for the Chinese market with a full Global launch coming on the 7th of Feb.

At Coolsmartphone I have always had a bit of a passion for what OnePlus have been doing and as a result.of this we have been very fortunate to have been able to get some early hand in time with the OnePlus 11 and new Buds Pro 2.

Now I am not allowed to share any further details about the device but I am allowed to share some shots of the devices which I am more than happy to do here.

So with out further ado here are some glamour shots for you below.

So that is all I can share with you for now but rest assured that we will be giving all this gear a good run through its paces once the shackles have been lifted!

If you are any to know more about the launch or OnePlus then check out their website.

The post OnePlus 11 and Buds Pro 2 Preview is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Today OnePlus launched its new phone for 2023 getting out of the gates very early. bear in mind that this is the launch for Chinese markets however the international launch is coming very soon as well so we will be seeing this device in the very near future. The event was full of the usual chat about this being the best camera and the fastest phone ever from the company as would expect for any flagship launch. So without further ado, I would like to introduce you to the…

OnePlus 11 5G.

Pictured above in the rather glorious Emerald Forest (not sure of the official name at this time as it may change for Western markets!) I also like that the other product that was announced, the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, is colour matched to the phone. it will also come in a Volcanic Black hue and a matching Volcanic Black case and Bud’s.

Another design cues to note are the return of the Alert Slider (thank goodness) the main focus of the back of the phone is what OnePlus refers to as a”Black Hole” which is designed to stand out and is surrounded by a Chrome detail.

The Actual module is comprised of Stainless steel to enhance the in-hand feel. Within the module is the usual smattering of cameras. It features an IMX890 50MP main sensor, an IMX581 48MP ultra-wide sensor and an IMX709 32MP portrait lens for DSLR quality portraits. these are some pretty good camera specs and should produce some good results.
As has been the way of the previous 2 generations the Oneplus 11 5G is also equipped with imaging smarts courtesy of Hasselblad. I was not a massive fan of these on the Oneplus 9 Pro 5G when I reviewed that phone but I have hope that the 3rd time is a charm for the third attempt as they do say the third time is the charm! The phone also features a 13-channel spectral light-colour sensor ensuring that despite the light levels you will be covered in all scenarios.

So that covers the cameras but what else have we got under the skin as the camera is not the only headline-grabbing feature here?

The Spec list is a phone spec geek wet dream at least on paper anyway. Starting with the Silicon this features the Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform, which will give faster CPU (35% improvement) and GPU (25% improvement) performance along with added bonus of improved power efficiency.

In terms of memory and storage you will be able to get up to 16GB RAM and 512GB of Storage capacity in the higher-end version and the lower tier will come with a respectable 12 GB RAM and 256 GB Storage. There is also a mid-way model with 16GB RAM and 256 GB of storage for those who don’t need 1/2 TB of space on the phone.

The battery is comprised of a now standard two-cell design meaning that the 5000mah battery capacity can be recharged in minutes by utilising the 100W SUPERVOOC fast charging system. The charger will also support Power Delivery at up to 6%w which is a nice touch as this means that other devices can be charged from it like thin and light laptops and other things that use the Power Delivery system.

Onto the Display and this one looks like a doozy with a 6.7″ 120Hz 2K A= fluid AMOLED display which features LPTO 3.0 technology to allow the adjustable framerate between 1 Hz and 120 Hz dynamically according to what is being shown on the display and how it is being interacted with.
OnePlus Buds Pro 2

So that covers the OnePlus 11 5G part of the proceedings but that was not all that was announced. OnePlus also showed off the new OnePlus Buds Pro 2.

These new in-ear headphones will bring Spatial Audio to the Oneplus user. This is a feature that is now embedded into Android 13 Which will be the launch software for the OnePlus 11 5G and should also work on the previous-gen devices (tbc) with Android 13 installed. The spatial audio feature will bring a wide sound field and multidimensional sound experience. This has been a feature on iOS devices and macs for a few years it is a really nice feature and I am looking forward to testing it out.

The in-ear buds were developed in partnership with Dynaaudio who have years of experience in creating exceptional sound quality.

Of course to get the full spatial experience your head position is required to be known. This is taken care of by a high-precision six-axis IMU sensor that is built into the unit.

Of course, these are not all the features that are onboard. Melody Boost Dual Drivers for stereo-grade audio. These feature an 11mm driver for the lowers and then 6mm delivers a wide range and pure clear vocals. Designed with crystal polymer diaphragms and separate edges and domes for enhanced balance and tone.

Of course the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 will also include Smart Adaptive Noise cancellation function to eliminate up to 48dB of background noise Battery life is reported to be put to 39 hours of playback with the use of the compact and colour-matched charging case. in terms of connectivity the buds will support Bluetooth 5.3 LE audio and dual connection for connection to multiple sources.

Although today was the launch of the OnePlus Buds pro 2 in China they will like the OnePlus 11 5G to be only available in China for the time being and will go on sale on January 9th 2023 in local markets. They will be released Globally on February 7th 2023 at the launch event in New Dehli when the international launch is happening.

Incidentally, if you are wanting to go to the launch event in New Dehli then Onepluys are running a competition on their website right now in order to attend the event.

The post OnePlus 11 5G Launch in China is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Earlier this week I was able to attend an event with members of the OnePlus software team. The purpose of these was to discuss some of the new features that will become available to OnePlus 10 Pro 5G and 10T owners, (the former is available now and the 10T will be out before Christmas). This was by no means the headline of the event.

The event was presented by Gary Chen, Head of Operating System Products at OnePlus and OPPO, Crayon Hsieh, Head of OneLab at OnePlus, and hosted by Ben Wood of CCS Insight. The panel presented various different aspects of the development of OxygenOS 13 for the current phones and what may come in the future with OOS 14.

There was a lot of talk about the new Always On Display features that will come along with the new software feature sets. These include Homeland AOD and Spotify AOD. These are two new features for Android that OnePlus are claiming to be an industry first for them.

I particularly liked the implementation of Polar Bears on an Iceberg to represent the temperature changes in the local temperature. The idea is that the diminishing size of the Iceberg represents the increase I heat and this will dynamically change throughout the day. This animation will only be active during a short time period when the phone identifies that you are wishing to interact with it. This is being done via the front camera and detection of you looking at the screen. However, the exact way this works was not divulged on the day but it sounds awesome.

The Spotify AOD will allow you to see what is playing on your Spotify playlist but more importantly perhaps, it will allow you to interact with it without having to unlock the phone. Again it is using the same method of being aware of your presence as above.

OnePlus have been very conscious of what it can do to preserve battery life within these two additional functions. This is why they will not be always active and the Music AOD will only allow actions when the user is detected. I will be keen to see how these work in reality when they are available to download onto my OnePlus 10T in the next few weeks.

The main headline of the event however was that OnePlus have committed to providing 4 years of OS Updates and 5 years of security updates. This brings them in line with offerings from the likes of Samsung. It actually surpasses that offered by Google itself. Why is this such big news? Simply because we are now keeping phones longer.

This 4 + 5 model will only support devices that are to be released in the coming months in 2023 and it is most likely only going to be premium flagship tier devices. This is a bit of a downer but they need to draw the line somewhere. It was also unclear how timely these updates would be and whether they would be released in line with Google OS release. As for security updates, I believe Gary Chen stated that these will be bi-monthly at least that is aimed release cycle.

I am happy to see this happening with more and more Android manufacturers coming to the realisation that this has to happen for a few reasons the main one being more sustainability as a brand. This empowers users to give the phone a second life with either another user through pre-owned marketplaces or by allowing it be refurbished and offered up for sale again at a discounted price. It is better than simply recycling as long as the phone is still smooth and fast in terms of UI there should be no reason other than hardware failure to need to replace the phone. The next piece of the puzzle is repairability by the end user. This one’s a tougher nut to crack and will take more time. Apple has only started on this road with mixed results as far as I can tell I don’t have an Apple device that is new enough and that I have broken sufficiently to test this out yet).

So if you have OnePlus 10 Pro 5G or a OnePlus 10T then keep your eyes open for the new Oxygen OS update coming to your phone soon. If not then keep an out for their new line up which will be coming in the next few months. As we are only a few months away from MWC time and rumours have that there are plans afoot (these are unsubstantiated rumours from the technosphere and may be total hogwash).

The post OnePlus announce 4+5 update plans is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Honer 70 rear

Do you want a phone with a great screen great processor high capacity storage and decent memory? Do you want this phone to have a cracking camera with more video modes than you can shake a stick at as well? How nice, would it be if you get this for under £600 sim free in a sleek package with a hint of glitzy design thrown in for good measure? Sound pretty good, doesn’t it? Well luckily for you the new Honor 70 has launched recently and this phone ticks most if not all of these boxes including the cost one (if you are willing to sacrifice storage space you can get it for even cheaper!).

I have been fortunate to have been given the use of an Honor 70 for the past few weeks and I have had some time to get some thought on the device. It is that time again when I try and string together my rambling into a readable and enjoyable review for you our dear reader. So without further ado let’s jump right in with the design.
Design

I have gone through the design of this phone on my unboxing and first impressions post and also covered it a little in my launch event write-up. If, however, you didn’t catch those articles, let me review them again.

Staring at the top is where we will find the normal pinhole speaker and that is it. The top edge is at least flat which is something I do like to see as it reminds me of the Note Series (RP) from Samsung.

Moving down the right-hand side we can see the volume rocker switch that sits above the power key which will also acct as a Google Assistant key on a long press if you wish to set it up this way. You can notice how slim this phone is almost immediately as when you pick it up the skinny edges just mold into you hand. this feels really nice and it still feels durablem

Around the bottom things get a little bit busier here as we have a dual sim card slot, one of the speakers (this one is bottom-firing), another pinhole mic and the USB Type C port that Support Honor’s propriety SuperCharge tech at up to 66w in this instance. Again like up the top this is flat edge which has made capturing the glamour shots of this phone a damn site easier!

The sim card slot does have a waterproofing ring around it but this phone does not have an IP rating, unfortunately.

On the left-hand side, we are met with a barren expanse of nothingness which is fine with me as I am right-handed but could be annoying for left-handed users but then this is true of most phones on the market.

Going around to the back is where we find the gorgeous shimmery, colour-changing (it is subtle but it is there) back panel which I believe is toughened glass but at this point, I am not certain. It does feel good and it is not a fingerprint magnet which I really like.

Nestled up in the top left quarter of the phone is where we can find the twin camera setup which consists of three different camera sensors including the world’s first Sony IMX800 54MP Super Sensing Main Camera (f/1.9 aperture), a 50MP Ultra Wide & Macro Main Camera(f/2.2 aperture) and a 2MP Depth Camera (f/2.4 aperture). These cameras will also pull double duty and work video recording along with various AI tweaked and assisted modes. I am looking forward to trying them out, especially Solo Shot.

Up front, we have the Display along with a 32MP Super Clear Selfie Camera (f/2.4 aperture) hole punch camera that again will work for video and AI Assisted modes for those all-important selfies.

Above the display is the earpiece which is nestled into a minuscule gap between the edge of the frame and the screen itself.

Onto the display though. This measures in at 6.67 “diagonal and has an FHD+ 2400 x 1080 resolution with a PPI of 395 and a 20.1 aspect ratio. It will support 1.07 billion colours and it is rated for DCI-P3 with a wide colour gamut.

I have to say it looks really good and I am a fan to see that it has a variable refresh rate although this is limited to 60hz or 120hz instead of being infinitely variable like on some other devices. I also have to say that I really do like the curve to the edge of the phone. It feels really smoothly done and natural and it makes the phone feel a lot slimmer than it actually is.

This genuine a really nice and well-designed phone that looks like it should be a lot more expensive than it actually is. However, is all this glitz and glamour hiding a dark and haunting secret under the skin as they do say that beauty is only skin deep!

Hardware
Well, I am very pleased to say that in this case that beauty is much more than skin deep and I would actually have loved to have seen a teardown of this phone as the components inside are all top-notch with what you can expect for a top of the mid their phone. but that is enough of my depravity for phone internals! Let’s take a closer look at what it takes to make this phone sing!

Before I really get into this there is a small matter of the spec sheet to be dealt with.

Specs

The beating heart of this phone is nothing particularly special as it is comprised of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 778G Plus processor which is mated with the Adreno 642L GPU. This is by no means a ground-shaking paring but it is one that will serve you well and it is more than good enough for the average user. One aspect of this processor and GPU combo is that it sips power which is great to hear as the battery is not a beast by any means at 4700 mAH pack size. It does however pack punch especially when it comes to charging it up as this phone thankfully supports the inclusion of Honor’s Supercharge 66W.

I am very grateful to see this as one of the omissions on this phone is QI Wireless charging which is excusable for a phone at the price point we are looking at. The inclusion of a QI Wireless charging coil would have added some more thickness which would have ruined the design aesthetic of this phone so I can understand why it was omitted here. We are starting to see a distinct division in the market where QI Wireless charging is concerned, more and more of the mid-tier devices are not including the wireless charging option in their spec sheets. I think up to a certain price point this is acceptable but manufacturers need to tread carefully as if you don’t include it in a device that tips over the £600 price point without including Wireless charging then you are going to start to annoy people and put them off buying your phones. Fortunately, Honor is on the correct side of this price point and has gotten away with it.

The Honor Supercharger 66W charger is thankfully also included in the box, which is a very good thing as this is a propriety charging system much like the SuperVOOC system employed by Oneplus and OPPO. The vast majority of the heat from the charging process is taken up by the charger brick and it allows simultaneous charging of 2 cells within the battery with a very short call balancing program built into the final stage of the charging session. You can also stop the phone from charging as this superfast speed from within the settings for the battery, allows you to prolong the battery life of your device and reduce the strain being placed on the battery over long charge times meaning you don’t have to worry about it as the software takes care of things for you.

In terms of the memory options available, you can get the phone with only one option for RAM and that is fixed at 8GB. You can however get 2 storage capacities depending on which colours you choose. if you go with Midnight Black or Emerald Green you can get either 128GB or 256GB of onboard storage. If however you go with the Crystal Silver then you are limited to only getting the 128GB storage option. I guess if you are pretty you don’t need much space to store memories as you’re the most memorable thing in the room! *Editors note We are not quite sure what has got into Garry too much exposure to shiny things I think we get him the counselling he needs we promise!

I cannot move away from the hardware section of the review without talking about the materials used in the build of this phone. Of course, upfront, we have got a hardened (not GorillaGlass though) curved screen panel.

This then goes around to a plastic mid-frame in every smooth way with very little to indicate the transition barring a protrusion of a fraction of a millimetre that you can barely see but can feel. It doesn’t feel bad but if you look for it you can see it. Continuing around this curved body takes you to a frosted back panel which is composed of Frosted Glass. I am glad that they have used the frosted back panel as this means that the back is not a fingerprint magnet and it doesn’t turn into a smudgy mess as soon as you go near it. It would even be possible if you wished to do so to use this without the extra (and included) case that allows for increased grip as the phone is pleasantly grippy with the back panel the way it is. With the mid-frame of the phone being made of plastic, this gets away from the need to have ugly antenna bands but gives the opportunity for 360-degree coverage for the antennas built into the phone’s skinny frame.

It is a shame that there is no official IP rating on this phone but again this is a cost-saving measure as the phone does have a protective rim around the dual sim tray and I would hazard a guess that the various other apertures are suitably protected as well. There is however no official rating so now swimming with this one! I would have also liked to see a recognised brand name for the glass on the front panel as it gives reassurance to the potential buyer seeing a name they recognise on a spec sheet.

Moving on from hardware, the big reason that people are going to want to buy this phone, of course, is the camera or cameras to be more accurate.
Camera

Honor have made some big claims about the camera performance for the Honor 70 and I have been reasonably impressed with the performance of the camera for normal day to day shots. i have included a few images of these below for your review.

I have found that the camera is really true to what you see with your eyes and this is due to the new Sony IMX800 sensor board with a rated megapixel count of 54. Honor have called the camera a SuperSensing camera. The camera does draw on the AI part of the Snapdragon chipset to help with the super sensing capabilities and this does work when you are using it to take various images. For example, the picture of the Cat correctly identified that the picture was of an animal and made the various tweaks to the setting and parameters to correctly capture the cat’s features and the end result is pretty good. The same was true of the sunset and this one is a bit trickier as I am asking the sensor to accommodate an extremely bright source of light and not wash out the rest of the image, again I think it does quite a good job.

The next thing i wanted to test was the variable aperture mode to get some background blur or Bokeh. Whilst the phone does have an inbuilt bokeh mode which I did try but i wasn’t that happy with so use the adjustable aperture mode to get the effect i wanted on the two shots below.

I am happy with the result in the shots above as they give me the effect i was looking for and it was easy enough to get.

One of the other features of the camera that was another area being talked about a lot at the press event was the video functions. And I was keen to have a play. So first up is the fairly normal dual camera modes that we have seen on various different devices over the past few years. They are useful if you want to give a different perspective to your footage but I can’t see myself using them very much. If I were TicToc creator or an Instagrammer then this may be more interesting. Check these samples out below.

Here is a regular video just to give you an idea of its capabilities.

The big one that is shouting from the rooftops, it is called Solo Cut. This is a very interesting feature that is something that I have never seen before. The video will automatically track a subject that you identify from the preview screen this will track the subject as it moves across the frame. I have tried to capture its functionality for you below.

The first video is the raw footage

The second video is the Solo Cut

You can see that in the first video the tracking is not as smooth as i move across the frame as the camera was being panned and the motion is not that smooth. whereas in the second video the tracking is being handled by the SoloCut software that is actively tracking my motion across the frame and it does create a smoother panning motion. While this may not be the best demonstration of this feature it gives you an idea of what it can do. The demo we were shown at the launch event showcased a group of people where one of them was selected as the target or “Solo” and the camera tracked the movement of that “Solo” as they moved around in the frame.

Here is a demo video below that might give a better impression of it in action.

The camera is a well-rounded component of the phone and if you like taking photos and are on a budget then this is potentially going to be a key selling point for you on this phone. Solo Cut mode is something that is very interesting and I can see it being extremely useful in a concert experience or at a family get-together.

Software

Honour has been getting quite good at cleaning up their software loadout on the Android lately and this is no different on the Honor 70. The phone comes with Magic UI 6.1 loaded onto it and this is based on Android as the OS. I would have liked to have seen the phone come out with Android 13 from the get-go but as the phone’s software would have been iterated a few months ago i can understand why it is not here. The UI is fairly clean and it doesn’t have too many annoying hangups as I have observed on other devices that i have reviewed and used in the past few years. In terms of bloat, there are a few of Honor’s own apps that do replicate the core Android apps but these can very easily and quickly be disabled from the main screen after a few long presses. It only took me about 3o mins to get the phone set up how I like it. This could be sped up if you use a 3rd party launcher like Nova Launcher which can store a backup of your Home screen layout in an online space. I like to try and run the phones i test with the stock launcher and UI where I can and i was pleased to say that with the Honor 70 i have not found any need to move away from their inbuilt launcher. I would have liked to see more options for changing the iconography though as the inbuilt icon sets are a bit too cartoony for me. This is something that you use to be able to do back in the Honor<->Huawei days via the Themes app. Unfortunately, this is no longer possible and the Themes App is a bit of a waste of time now, to be honest. Even if we had the ability to use the wallpaper colour match option as introduced in Android 12 then that would have been something but this is not available to you which is a shame in my eyes.

There are a few special tweaks that Honor has made in the software that are designed to help with daily tasks and the longevity of the phone. I will go over the Longevity part first as this is a big part of this phone’s personality.

The phone will easily last me 2 days with very light use of Emails, Soical media, Youtube, Music playback from local storage and so Web browsing during the evening. At the time of my writing this review, the phone is currently on 11% and it was unplugged from a power supply the morning before. I started today with around 47% in the tank. This is pretty damn good but there is a cost to this battery performance. The AI in the snapdragon chipset works with the very aggressive battery management software within the phone to pretty much kill most background processes.

An example of this is the App I use for music playback on my device called Musicolet, I install it on every phone I use and it works really well. On my Pixel 6 Pro which is running on Android 13 it just works with no issues with playback when the screen goes to sleep etc. On the Honor 70 I noticed that I would get issues with playback when the screen went to sleep, I actually got a prompt through the app that I needed to enable it to run in the background if I wanted it to return back to normal functioning. This is a real-world example of one of the apps that i have had to tweak to work around the over-eager battery management tools employed on the phone. Whilst it is not a massive issue it is something that is worth being aware of if you are an intensive user of the phone. Fortunately, I did not have any issues with receiving any of my notifications on the phone during my time with it as this used to be something that the battery management profile would hone in with laser focus and try to kill off anything other than a stock default app from delivering notifications.

I am not sure if my next concern is strictly related to the aggressive battery tweaking but i do find that when I pair my device with Android Auto i get an issue where although the pairing goes through and my car will use Android Auto it will not allow the content of the screen to display or even be interacted with. It could be that the app has not had permission set up correctly or the phone is killing the screen streaming part of the Android Auto environment but it is somewhat annoying to see this happen as i do a lot of driving so this feature is important to me. I would like to say at this point that i have had lots of issues with Android Auto on multiple phones so this is not something i am placing on Honor here and it could very well be the car software at fault. I just felt that it is worth mentioning so you know all the gory details!

The second part of the phone’s extras come in the form of neat features like the Multi Windows dock menu that will come in from the side of the phone if you perform a swipe and hold gesture this will allow you to have some quick launch apps from any screen Within a new window or a split screen mode. While it is something I have never found myself using it is nice that it is here. Also having all the usual useful gestures like Raising to wake and flipping to mute are useful little touches that make living with the phone just that little bit easier. The inbuilt storage management tool is also pretty neat as a way to help keep you on top of your files to stop that digital hoarder in all of us.

I am pretty happy with the software overall and I have been happy using the phone in my day-to-day tasks I have found that it all performs smoothly and is a nice phone to interact with. That being said I do just wish that i was able to tweak a few more things on the UI to get it to look the way I want it to. I am potentially in the minority on this though as most people who have asked and shown the phone have liked the way it looks. I suppose that this is the curse of reviewing so many phones you will always become jaded with the first little thing that irks you. Most people who will be using this phone, will find the software a great experience and probably would not question the wrinkles I have observed because quite simply they won’t notice them. This is a sign that the software has been done right for me so well done Honor you have done a good job on your latest version of Magic UI 6.1.

There is one last big feature that Honor is keen to talk about in the Honor 70 and this is Multi-Screen collaboration. Now unfortunately as I don’t have another Honor device that I can use with this tool I can tell you that I would have loved to have had this feature in years gone by as it works really well. In essence, this will allow you to access your files and other phone functions on another screen as if you are doing things on the phone. This is in itself nothing new. What is really clever is that you can actually copy things from one device to another just like you would if you were doing it on the same device I think this is really cool and wish I could have tested it for you as part of this review but it was not meant to be. This feature will work with any of the current lineup of Honor Laptops and also the brand new Honor Pad 8 that was launched alongside the Honor 70 here is a short video demoing this tool courtesy of Honor.

Pricing

The Honor 70 as mentioned above comes in three different colours and 2 different storage varieties

For 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage in Midnight Black, Emerald Green or Crystal Silver it will be £479.99

For 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage in Midnight Black or Emerald Green it normally costs £529.99 but for the next 7 days you can get this phone £499.99

All the above prices are available now from the HiHonor store where you can also get some free HONOR Earbuds 3 Pro in Gray that are worth £169.99
Conclusion

I have been very impressed with the Honor 70 and I have been happy with my time using the phone. I think it is going to be popular with those in the market for a premium-looking midi-tier phone that doesn’t have a mid-tier price point. it does a lot of things right from the stunning design to the great cameras and smooth stutter-free performance. I have even been mostly pleased with Magic UI which has traditionally been a pain point for me.

Who would I recommend this phone to then? Honestly, this is a phone that can capture such a broad segment of the market it is difficult to say. Howver one thing i can say with certainty is that if you are a keen mobile photographer then there is a lot on this phone to be excited about and you will enjoy using its features especially if you are someone who uses a lot of social media for sharing those photos and videos that you create. Another segment is style-conscious and up-and-coming influencers as they are able to afford a phone that looks like it should be in the next tier and for the most part, it will perform in that higher their as well. Lastly, for anyone who wants their phone to look good and make a subtle but strong statement then this may be a phone worth considering as it is certainly one of the nicer-looking handsets I have seen this year especially if shiny things are your cup of tea (go for the Crystal Silver one as it is stunning)

I hope that gives you an idea of if the Honor 70 is for you, if you think it is then you can order one now from HiHonor and they will even throw in some HONOR Earbuds 3 Pro Grey for free which is a nice touch.

The post Honor 70 – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

The OnePlus 10T 5G is an odd phone that many people have stated shouldn’t exist and is an unnecessary addition to the current OnePlus lineup. It just doesn’t to seem to fit a reason to be around for many people and fellow tech reviewers. I have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to use it for a few weeks now and to try and see where it fits into the crowded market as a whole and also the OnePlus lineup. During this review, I will try and answer that question and give my impressions and thoughts on who this phone is for. 

To give a little context and background we have seen the T series of phones before as a follow-up after the main lead phones have been announced for that yearly cycle. Now for some reason, this did not happen with the OnePlus 9 family last year as they had the OnePlus 9 Pro 5G and also the OnePlus 9 5G. I think that this was perhaps OnePlus testing the water. I dont think they found that this release pattern was how they wanted to work which perhaps explains why we have had the 10Pro 5G with all its Hasselblad camera polish but then there has been a spell of nothing until the launch of the 10T which comes without the camera goodness but focus more on sheer performance with a bit more of a gaming focus that we have perhaps seen before with OnePlus. This is I believe one of the reasons why we have the OnePlus 10T 5G. The other comes down to the company wanting to ensure that they stay in the realm of the press and the technology news as nothing gets you noticed as a phone launch does in the mobile tech domain, especially when your price point is as aggressive as the one that OnePlus has stuck on the 10T but more on that later on!

As is the case with all my reviews let’s start with the design and hardware.

Design

For those of you who have read the unboxing post I put out of the OnePlus 10T 5G on launch day, this will all be familiar ground, however, for everyone else, I will cover it again here.

Starting on the right-hand side where we can find the Power key, sadly no alert slider this time around! This is a real shame as it was one of the staples that differentiated the OnePlus flagships from other ones on the market and it was something I did actually use a lot when I carried the phone. Could this be an indication that OnePlus is not thinking of this device as a flagship model?

Well, I have thought about this one for some time during my time with the phone and come to the conclusion that it was a design decision that had to be made to accommodate the internals of the phone. The alert slider is actually quite a large module that needs to be fitted into the side of the phone as it is not just the physical slider that needs to be accounted for but there is also the internal mechanism to allow the slider to convert the slide action into an electrical signal for the phone to interpret. Now if you put yourself in the position of the designer who had been given a brief of cramming this phone with as much power and performance as he can you can see that any way of saving space would be looked at. I think it is for this reason that the alert slider has been given the heave-ho. Will this be a new design language we see on the next “Pro series” models in 9 or so months only time will tell but I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t make a return, particularly on future “T series” devices?

Next is the base where we can see the USB Type C 2.0 charging port alongside one of the two speaker grills. Again here we can see another distinct difference in focus from the 10 Pro in that the USB Type C port has received a downgrade from 3.1 to 2.0 indicating again to me that the target audience of this phone from the designer’s viewpoint is not one that would need the capability of USB 3.1. as it is a non “Pro” device. As a side note Apple also adopted a similar policy between their Pro and Standard devices (especially in their computers) so this move is not unprecedented. 

Of course, this port does still support the propriety fast charging technology which is now called SuperVOOC. This phone will charge at 150w when used with the included 160W charging brick. The name may have changed but the technology being used is the same just with a ramp-up in terms of speed.

We also see a sim card slot here which will house 2 sims if required and does have a gasket to enhance waterproofing. We also have a large mic aperture Notice how I mentioned enhance waterproofing. Well, this was because this device does not have an IP rating, unlike its fellow family member’s as this was another area where OnePlus has been able to remove a cost from production and design development. I have not tested how resilient to water this phone is but during my time with it, I have never been concerned about the liguid ingress protection on offer. It even managed to survive having a half can of Monster spilt on it with no ill-effects as far as I can tell and that was 2 weeks ago!

Moving around to the left-hand side is where you will be able to find the volume rocker key. Not much more to say on this on apart from it give a good positive clicking action dn is easy to find after the initial first few minutes of adapting form the previous phone I had been using.

Moving around the top we have got we have got a pinhole mic and again a secondary larger mic. You will have noticed I have referred to oval shaped holes on the phone as additional mic inputs however I am yet too have had this confirmed by anyone, once I have the update I will be sure to include it here as either confirmation or correction as required.

The rear of the phone contains the camera module, which contains three different camera sensors/lenses. Firstly the primary is a 50MP Sony IMX 766 sensor with an f/1.8 aperture and a 7P lens. Next is the 8Mp f/2.2 aperture Ultra-Wide angle. Lastly, we have got a 2MP macro camera which has an effective shooting distance of 2-4cm. They are also supported by the same dual-LED “ring flash” that was to be found on the OnePus 10Pro 5G

Around the front is where we find the 6.7 ” display which has a resolution of 2412 x 1080 with a PPI of 394 and an aspect ratio of 20.1:9. The panel is a flat one and is made up of the same Fluid AMOLED that is found on the Nord 2 5G range.

It will support up to 120Hz but it will only allow three options of 60Hz, 90 and of course 120Hz. There are a load of other little features about the screen but I will cover those more in the full review.

For now, though I can say this display is a good display and I really like using it.

The last thing to mention on the top is the top speaker which hides just below the bezel and it actually sounds reasonably good given the constraints of the space it occupies certainly good enough for Zoom calls etc.

That concludes the hardware tour. Now that I have taken to going through hardware detail in a bit more detail and depth I am drawn to the similarities between this device and the Nord 2 5G as there is a lot that this very similar to that device in terms of the specs, the screen and the camera setup. Some may even be inclined to say that this is where this phone may fit as a Nord 2 Pro, above the Nord 2 and below the 10 Pro, an interesting thought but requires a bit more pondering on that one I think. 

Specifications

Hardware

This is where OnePlus is really hoping that they can draw in the specs aficionados. There are a couple of key areas where the OnePlus 10T separates itself from the masses. As normal I am going to go through these key areas as otherwise, the phone is your normal glass-fronted rectangle chock full of some very shiny hardware. So the key features I wish to talk about are.

1. Battery and charging
2. Processor
3. Back panel

So the first thing I want to cover is the battery and the charging as this is the first OnePlus device in the European market that has got the first 150w charging speed. This is down to the use of the new SuperVOOC 150W fast charging system which is a propriety system that has been developed by the OnePlus and Oppo partnership. We have already seen the SuperVOOC charging technology on some of the OPPO lineups of phones. This is a name change for the OnePlus as previously they called their charging technology was called Dart charge.

I am really happy to see that we are now starting to see these faster-charging speeds on phones however the issue I have here is that the use of the Propreit technology does limit the usefulness of the charger for powering other devices. It would be awesome if, for example, I could use the SuperVOOC 160W charger to charge my Chromebook however as the SuperVOOC 160w charger does not support Power Delivery that will not work so it means I still have to rely on my trusty Anker Mini GAn charger. As for the battery itself, this is designed to that it works as a two-cell system which will allow for faster charging as you are no longer having to cram the power into one battery. It does mean that you have to carry out some cell balancing near the end of the charging cycle. This however is all taken care of by the SuperVOOC charger and minimal heat actually gets transferred to the device when it is under charger load.

In terms of speed to recharge the phone, its advertised rate is 19 minutes to fill the 4,800 mAh battery and a day’s charger from 1o minutes of charging. These speeds are awesome and it makes up for the lack of one of the biggest convenience features of the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G device and also the preceding 9 Series. This is also a downside of the bigger battery technology and the larger heatsink as they were not able to fit in a wireless charging coil. More on this later on though when I cover the cons

Next up have the processor which is again another of the main attractions of this device. OnePlus have managed to put a Snapdragon 8+ gen 1 into the phone which means that it is packing the latest and greatest in terms of chip performance and power. insert snapdragon image here I have not got another Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 device available to draw a direct comparison against, but I can say with a certain degree of confidence that this phone is fast and it feels it in normal day-to-day use. I was never left wanting when I was trying to load apps and move through the UI. The only time i was left wanting was when I was in a weak signal area and I was being let down by the mobile network signal. This was something that did happen when I was touring the southwest coast of Wales on a recent trip. I was trying to push this phone so I tested opening multiple apps in sequence to see if I could get it to stutter at all. performed this test of the Pixel 6 Pro that I run as my daily driver as well and the results are shown in the video below.

As we can see from the video and as I expected there is some slight difference in the speed of the apps opening once a few apps are open. This will of course be affected by RAM as well, with the Pixel 6Pro having 12 GB of RAM and the OnePlus 10T having 16 GB of RAM. These differences in RAM However should not come into effect until the apps are being “reopened” For the first opening of the app the device should be essentially just working on the power of the processor with minimal support from the RAM. It also has to be stated that the Pixel 6 Pro is on Android 13 whereas the OnePlus 10T is running on Android 12 so there will, of course, be differences due to the way that these respective Operating systems deal with cache memory usage etc.

Put simply if you are looking for speed over anything else then you want a phone with the SnapDragon 8+ Gen 1 inside it which is exactly what OnePlus has delivered and just to make it extra punchy, they slathered a massive 16GB of RAM on top. That is the same amount of RAM as my Macbook Pro 14! With that being said the difference was not as marked as I expected it to be.

I also found that the phone was plenty fast enough for even my moderate gaming needs, admittedly these don’t extend much further than the odd game of World of Warships and Alto’s Odessy but the phone was slick to l0ad up the game and the UI was buttery smooth, this was no doubt helped along by the crisp 120Hz refresh rate of the screen which allowed the gameplay to be smooth and stutter-free.

Next is a bit of a weird one that I would normally not cover in the hardware section of a review but I feel that this needs to be mentioned. The back panel of the phone. it is not what most people think in that it is not made out of Toughened glass or indeed any glass. it is on the other hand made up of a type of plastic known in the “tech world as Glastic” it has some of the properties of Glass but is made out of a plastic composite.

This is a distinct departure from what we have seen before with the OnePlus Flagship lineup. While it doesn’t necessarily feel as premium it does actually bring some benefits that I feel do get overlooked by some reviews. As the material used is not as dense it does not block the radio signals in and out of the phone meaning that you will not find an antenna break line anywhere on the outside of the phone. This is also due to the outside of the frame being made of plastic as well. In theory, this should allow for a near 360-degree antenna coverage and it should be better than say the likes of the Pixel 6 Pro.

While this was true for mobile signal and Wi-fi as far as I could tell. I did find that the phone really struggled to maintain a GPS signal in some of the areas in South Wales when I driving between our cottage and the various sites we wished to visit. I also had this occur in possibly the flattest of all counties East Anglia! As such I don’t think that problem is due to not having a line of sight to the Satellites but potentially more to do with how good the GPS radio is and where it is positioned on the device. I have asked to see if fellow reviewers have had a similar experience as I did but they have not been able to confirm this or not.

Those are really for me the real differentiators between this and some of the similar phones that are being offered at these price points. There are of course two other things that need to be addressed which I do think are things that OnePlus users will miss. The first is of course the most obvious. I am of course talking about the alert slider or more accurately the lack of one. This feature has been a staple of the Oneplus Flagship lineup since the very first OnePlus One was released to the market. It was even present on the OnePlus X which was sadly the only ever version that we saw of that device. This is the 1st OnepLus device I have ever encountered without this brilliant feature and I have to say it is something that I miss.

Alert Slider we miss you!

It was not something that I used every day as I work in an environment where it is required to not have my phone ringing or pinging away constantly. Honestly, i used to use it as something that i would absent-mindedly fiddle with in my pocket more often than not but on the occasion where I did need to quickly change my alerts to loud or silent it was just great to have the facility to do so with a simple slide of the switch. I have asked for the reason for its exclusion on this phone and the cited reason was that the space it takes up is being used for seeking out the extra battery size without making the phone thicker or wider. I am not 100% that I buy this but whatever the reason it is not there it stings a bit to not have it on board as it was a genuinely useful feature that people loved, it was also something that was a big standout feature for OnePlus as it made the phones different. I do hope that they can find a way to get it back on board for the OnePlus 11T if they are going to go down that route next year.

The second big omission for me is the lack of QI Wireless charging. I feel that for a phone of this level and also this price point wireless charging is a must-have as people have now come to expect it on their devices. Again I understand from a design point of view it would have added extra bulk to the rear of the phone and it would have also added weight. However with all that being said QI Wireless charging has been a normal way of people charging phones these days with most new cars now either featuring it or at least having it as an option. This for me is an indicator that technology has moved out of the niche domain and into the mainstream as the car industry can in certain terms be quite a bit behind that of the mobile tech industry. I am aware that OnePlus, has the technology to include this even with the SuperVOOC Wireless charging technology that was seen on the OnePlus 10 pro earlier on this year so this is just a cost-saving exercise in my mind and it is one that I feel they didn’t need to do. If I am paying over £700 for a phone I expect it to be near flagship grade and this requires in my eyes at least QI Wireless charging onboard.

Finally, another commission that is not as major as the other two mentioned above is the lack of the official IP rating on the phone as again this is just something that has come to expect for this price point these days. Now I know that while the phone has not got an IP rating the phone is at least splash resistant as I mentioned earlier this test phone has had an energy drink shower!  Surely in terms of the scale that OnePlus is hoping to shift these phones, it would have not cost that much to get the official rating, so instead of scrimping next time around just send it through the testing and certification process, please!

So that wraps up my thought on the hardware side of the phone. Now it is time for the cameras!

Camera

I have seen a lot of people who have been hating the Oneplus 10T for the camera which they are stating is a massive negative on the phone. I have seen some reviewers who are actually calling out OnePlus and saying that this is now the decline of OnePlus! Now whilst I don’t necessarily agree with that extreme judgement, I am not sure that the direction Oneplus have taken with the 10T’s camera is the correct way to go. don’t get me wrong i actually think that camera setup is absolutely fine and i am very happy with the result. i mainly take a lot of wide-angle photos or landscape shots and the camera has performed really well in these scenarios of choice. During the review period, I was lucky enough to away on a “staycation” in South Wales. As such, I was able to really catch some outstanding scenes with this camera and I would like to share the with you if I can.

As you can see there is quite a good mix of various different styles of photos in the mix here and I was suitably impressed with these images and many more that I have taken in my time with the phone over the few weeks I have had use of it. 

Now, none of this should come as a surprise as the camera being used here are essentially the same as those found on the OnePlus Nord 2 5G that I reviewed near the end of last year. I really enjoyed using that camera and I have really enjoyed using this one as well. The sensors are accurate and the time between shots is quick using the software is easy and does allow you to switch into the more advanced stuff if you wish to. Now I have not had the opportunity to use the Oneplus 10 Pro 5G with all the Hasselblad software that came on that phone but I did test these features when I was using the Oneplus 9 Pro 5G and I honestly would have preferred that they were not on that phone as in my eyes all they did was add to the cost of an already expensive phone. 

I suppose what I am saying is if you like your camera relatively simple and easy to use without having to put a massive amount of thought into what you are doing then this is exactly that. If you want a pro Grade camera with enhanced functionality then consider a Oneplus 10 Pro 5G however i think you may be better served with something in the Sony Xperia lineup as they are really honing in on full-featured Cameras on their latest releases but you are paying a premium for this. I think in this vain this is why the Pixel phone lineup has also appealed to me as it is a simple and intuitive camera UI that actually takes some damn fine images.

On the video front, the camera is again absolutely serviceable without needing to be something fancy and shouty. I very rarely use the video on my phone and I will really only use it to capture footage on the rare occasion when something catches my eye. this waterfall was one of these moments.

As you can see the quality is fine for capturing these memories but it isn’t going to worry anyone in the film industry either!

As for the selfie camera well it does what it says on the tin and having the slightly wider angle lens does help when you are trying to squeeze in more than one person. See the example below.

It does the job and I was able to get some nice shots of me and my family but you will have to make do with the above!

For a phone that is not marketed with the camera at the forefront, this is a good fit for a camera in my opinion and I had no reason to question its performance when I was using it.

That pretty much covers that camera and my thoughts. Now time for the software. 

Software

This can and has broken great phones for me in the past fortunately I have found that the software on the OnePlus 10T does not fall into this category. Yes, this is Oxygen OS with a lot of influence from the sister brand Oppo’s Colour OS but I have used a lot worse when it comes to customizations. the things that made a OnePlus phone are still here and they are good. OnePlus have also been careful to not include too much bloat and associated crapware on the phone when you get it out of the box. I found that the UI was intuitive and smooth in daily tasks with barely a hiccup. The icon scaling was adequate and didn’t feel that it was too cramped when I compared it to the Pixel UI. I was only able to get a grid width of 4 icons in the app drawer, which annoyed me when I moved from my Pixel, but I got over it reasonably quickly and OnePlus is not the only offender in this respect. I have been using this alongside an Honor 70 whilst I have been doing this review and I have to say that the OnePlus scales so much better. Here are some comparison pictures of the UI’s in various different scenarios.

It is very much a case of larger icons on the Honor 70 but the smaller text on the titles at least. Fortunately, in the web browser things settle down and the scaling returns to normal as can be seen below. but when you load the same image up on the Pixel things do change quite a bit as you can see below

OnePlus 10T vs Honor 70 Website

However, if I fire up the Pixel 6 pro to the same glorious site then we see another massive change in text size see below.

OnePlus 10T vs Pixel 6 Pro website

Whilst the obvious difference between the phone’s resolution is apparent in that last image the UI does have a part to play in this as the scaling could be allowed to be tweaked further by the user to allow us to create the effect of a higher resolution screen. This is something you have been able to do in Google’s other OS for years and it can be done via developer settings so why can we not be given the option?

Anyway moving away from my pet peeves. I like the things that OnePlus have added to the UI that are nice to have, one in particular that I wish was able to be used on other devices in the form of the Zen Mode app. I find that I use this quite a lot if I have had a stressful day as it gives me a bit of time just before I turn in for the night when I can just zone out for 20 minutes or so and decompress mentally. I actually find that if I am using a different phone (which I do a lot), I will still use the OnePlus 10T to use this app.

The Games mode and app are useful to have all your gaming settings in one place and this, in turn, allows you to control the Hyperboost gaming Engine to take full advantage of the processor power and the GPU. 

It also allows you to have a constant ticker of your performance if that is the sort of thing that is important to you in gaming. You can also set up screen recording from this menu as well. I have not pushed the gaming on this phone as I am not really a big mobile gamer but I like knowing that I can play games with very high performance if I wanted too!

That pretty much closes the software of the phone for me.

Pricing

So the OnePlus 10t comes in two flavours to the UK. they vary in terms of Storage/RAM and colour so nice and simple. If you want the Moonstone Black version then you will get 8 GB RAM + 128 GB Storage for £629 from Oneplus. If you go with the colour of my unit here then you would be choosing Jade green and getting 12GB RAM + 256GB Storage for £729. if you have an older phone that you are willing to get rid of then you can also get a £100 trade-in bonus. I priced up my Pixel 6Pro 128GB and i was offered £400 trade-in value Which isn’t too shabby, however, unlike some other offerings, this value is not deducted from the purchase price and will only be credited to you after the trade-in has gone through, please read through the trade in FAQ’s before going ahead with this option.

Conclusion

So at the top of this review, I stated that the Oneplus 10T doesn’t quite fit into the market anywhere in particular and some of my fellow reviewers have been struggling to find where it fits. i think I can now give you my thoughts and I have a space for where I think this phone sits in the OnePlus stable. 

Firstly who is this phone for, I think this is a phone for those who want the raw performance of a Flagship spec chip, memory and storage but don’t have or want to spend extra on things that may be superfluous to what they need, in this a high-end camera. I  can see this being a phone that gamers would be more than happy with as it gives enough in terms of the gaming performance whilst being good in other aspects of what that sector wants. This is not a phone for the camera aficionados but that is fine as that is where the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G sits in the lineup. I think the segment that will really appreciate this phone will be those of us who are a bit too old for being wannabe social influencers but still want to have fun with their phone and demand the best in terms of the hardware that counts to them. ironically enough this is actually the segment i see that i could potentially fit into if i was actually buying the phone!

I do think that OnePlus did however make one big mistake when they launched this phone. it should not have been called the OnePlus 10T. As I mentioned at the top of the review the T has been traditionally been used as a moniker for the mid-season refresh of the existing lineup that was launched earlier that year. This phone falls into a different slot for me it falls into the space between the Oneplus flagship lineup and the excellent Nord range of phones. in that respect, I feel that this phone should have been called the OnePlus Nord 2 Pro. If that had been the case then I honestly think there would not have been as much disdain from the industry as a whole and people would have been able to see what Oneplus had been trying to do with the phone. By calling it the OnePlus 10T the industry was expecting this to be an evolution of what had come before in the form of the OnePlus 10Pro 5G which is not what this phone is about.

i will leave you to ponder this thought and on that bombshell, I will see you on the next one which is coming soon.

The post OnePlus 10T 5G – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Right let me just come out and say it, I know absolutely nothing about Dragon Ball Z, (might be my age) but if you’re a fan of this comic series, or even a collector of special edition devices,  this might just be the phone for you.

The device is a heavily skinned version of the Realme GT Neo 3T, with Dragon Ball wallpapers, and all the icons skinned to match the Dragon Ball theme. To be brutally honest this theming just wasn’t for me I felt it was a bit to “cartoony” but then this is a Manga cartoon themed device what did I expect?

The Dragon Ball Z theming doesn’t stop there, the device itself is a Blue and Orange colour. The device box is Dragon Ball Z themed, with Dragon Ball artwork throughout. Also in the box is some of the best included stickers Ive come across, even the sim ejection tool is a Dragon Ball special edition version, along with a special edition Dragon Ball Z playing card, a TPU case and a 80W charger ( remember when they used to be included ? )

Device Specs:-

• Dimensions                           162.90 x 75.80 x 8.65 mm
• Weight                                    194.50 g
• Display                                   Super AMOLED , 120 Hz , 1080 x 2400 px (6.62″) 398 ppi
• Display protection               Corning Gorilla Glass 5
• Standard battery                  Li-Ion 5000 mAh
• Quick battery charging       80W Superdart Charging
• Internal memory                  128 GB, 256 GB
• RAM memory                       8 GB
• Operating system                 Android 12
• Interface                                realme UI 3.0
• Processor                               Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SM8250
• Processor clock:                   3.20 GHz
• Number of cores:                 8
• GPU:                                      Adreno 65
• DualSIM                                Dual nanoSIM
• 64 Mp AI Tripple Camera.
• Stainless Steel Vapour Cooling.
• GT Mode 3.
• Dual Stereo Speakers.
• Tactile Vibration Engine 2.

Good Points:-

•  lightning-fast fingerprint reader.
• Amazing Battery Life.
• Super fast charging.
• Textured power switch.
•  COD Mobile played with absolutely no issues.
• Good Stereo speaker 
• Good clear, bright screen.
• 120Hz display. 

Bad points:-
 

• Sometimes some stutter all lag when scrolling on pages for example on the Google now feed page.
• A few bloat apps installed, linkedin, booking.com etc. But not as many as I’ve seen in previous devices.
• No wireless charging.
• No SD Card support. 
• Camera Performance in less than ideal conditions.
• The pre-installed screen protector was a bit of a fingerprint magnetic.

Design:-

If we start at the top of the phone, there isn’t much there, but there is a pinhole microphone. Additionally, the phone’s edge is somewhat recessed, which makes it feel quite comfortable in the hand. Additionally, we see one of the two speaker grills, which is a wonderful addition on a phone of this kind and helps the speakers produce a limited stereo illusion.

The power key is located on the right side, lower, and has a great texture that makes it easier to feel for in darkness. 

Moving on to the bottom of the device we have the bottom-firing speaker, which does generate decent sound. Next, we have a USB Type C port that supports Superdart Charger technology, which enables incredibly quick charging. More on this later. Another effective pinhole microphone for voice pickup is presented next. The last item is the Dual Nano sim cardholder.

The individually mounted volume buttons are located on the left side and have a nice, positive clicking action when used. Like other Realme devices the separation of the buttons because it prevents you from confusing the volume for the power button.

On the front is situated the  earpiece/speaker, which is creates the illusion of stereo separation. This speaker’s volume is a little lower than the one on the base, but still gives a good sound.  Additionally, there is a front-facing camera with the following specifications: 16 MP, f/2.5, which makes it ideal for selfies without completely erasing the background. It can capture videos in 1080p at 30 frames per second, thus using it for video call

 The rear cover’s quality is almost rubberized to the touch, pleasant to the touch, and glossy in a slight relief near the Dragon Ball insignia in the upper right. The sides are orange and blue in colour. You may still get the GT Neo 3T in the most traditional hues if colour and finish are a concern for you.

The smartphone’s aluminium frame is constructed with the same meticulous attention to detail that Realme has been known for in all of its products, from the most affordable to the most expensive: The smartphone weighs 195g and measures 162.9 75.8 8.7mm, making it not particularly lightweight but usable in all situations. The smartphone’s curved edges, which make it easier to use and in more situations, are quite comfortable in my opinion. The bump chamber is also gorgeous, with its orange chrome finishes leaving a terrific impression.

One of the things that hasn’t advanced (however, let’s be clear, it wasn’t essential!) The display is the same one that was used on the GT2 from the previous year, measuring 6.62 inches with FullHD + resolution, Samsung’s matrix panel AMOLED E4 with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz and a touch sampling rate of up to 360 Hz. Although I did find that the auto brightness was to aggressive in its settings, but simple to toggle off. 

The panel’s backlighting feature, which has a maximum brightness of 1300 nits, is a superb technical jewel. Beyond the dull technical specifications that almost all smartphones in this price range share, it must be said that Realme is a guarantee as usual: from the incredible visibility in direct sunlight to the colour accuracy and dependability of the images, a quality that doubtless many smartphones, even those made by more expensive and well-known manufacturers, occasionally struggle to achieve.

The smartphone’s attached hardware, albeit not of the newest generation, enables it to perform admirably in all conditions, including those requiring the most resources. On the other hand, we’re talking about a smartphone that costs around £500 , so it is the very minimum that you can expect. a thing from this category. The smartphone manages gaming, multitasking, and operations of all types with a breeze.

Graphite, diamond thermal gel, silicon sheets, and other elements capable of ensuring effective heat dissipation make up the framework of the Realme GT series’ cooling system, which is what unquestionably distinguishes it from competing smartphones. According to the manufacturer, the GT Neo 3T’s cooling system, which measures 4.129 mm2, is the largest one ever built into a Realme smartphone. In fact, during CPU stress tests, the GT Neo 3T performs at 90 to 100 percent of its potential for as long as samples are taken, which is an excellent result given that the temperature increase is barely perceptible to the touch.

Software:- 

Realme GT Neo 3T, which will launch in mid-2022, has Android 12 onboard, one major release more than the previous model, along with the custom Realme UI 3.0. The user interface (UI) is unchanged aesthetically, but as always, it enhances the user experience, which is now even faster and smoother thanks to recent corporate upgrades.

Therefore, there won’t be any significant modifications made, if any at all. The Privacy, with its dashboard including user-related information and permissions, is the most important area in need of improvement. The rest of the time, RealmeUI in-depth is used, which is repeatedly confirmed to be my personal favourite ROM for Android handsets.

Unusually there were only a couple of pre installed apps, linkedin, Facebook TikTok, and Booking.com, these can be easily uninstalled, if not needed.

In Use:-

For this review I decided to put my S22 Ultra in a drawer and solely used the Realme GT Neo as my only device, At the base there is the  Snapdragon 870 5G 7nm Octa-core, flanked by 8GB RAM memory LPDDR4X and 256GB of dual-channel storage type UFS 3.1 

I found device a breeze to use, it was extremely snappy, as was able to handle any task I threw at it, including some long gaming sessions on Call Of Duty Mobile. I did find some very slight lag, but this was only limited to the Gogle Now feed. The under screen optical fingerprint reader, worked absolutely flawlessly, and would open first time 95 times out of a 100. Powering down the device needed some new muscle memory and it required a long press of the power button and the volume up key. Just pressing the power button triggered the Google Assistant. 

Call quality was clear and mobile data performance was more than adequate, with some impressive 5G speeds, RCS messaging worked straight away,

Camera. 

Photographically speaking, however, small steps have been taken by the company: the primary lens counts as much as 64MP available and has an aperture of f / 1.8, the lens ultra-wide is 8MP f / 2.3 and the lens macro finally, it is from 2MP f / 2.4. The front selfie completes the kit of lenses, which remains 16MP with f / 2.5 aperture.

The RealmeUI camera app has improved with the new update, including new options for more seasoned users who can now regulate the focus, shutter speed, lens exhibition, and much more. This is the first thing I noticed.

However, when it comes to photography, the Realme GT Neo 3T produces stunning images throughout the day with a high degree of detail, fantastic dynamic range, and outstanding lighting adjustability. Even if the results tend to go somewhat worse as the light diminishes, they are still excellent and competitive with those of other smartphones in the same price range. Even though, to be honest, the final photo may have slightly distorted colours if there are a lot of warm lighting present, the results at night are good because the smartphone regulates the light sources well. However, this frequently occurs.

The 16MP selfie camera can capture images with superb focus and beautiful bokeh when used during the day, but at night it performs somewhat less well due to the necessity for a steady hand. The films may now be recorded up to 4K 60fps, where there is outstanding information and excellent sharpness. For my personal tastes, FullHD recordings continue to be preferred due to their superior stabilisation.

Some Video footage. 

Battery Life.

The My typical days used included some call of duty mobile gaming watching a tiktok (far too much I know it’s an addiction) checking in on my other social media applications again too many times per day.

Listening to pocketcasts for a few hours location services on all the time for my weather service and my life360 service and three email accounts constantly syncing.

I was able to get all but 6 hrs of screen on time, to be honest it did feel the GT Neo 3T was better on battery than my S22 Ultra.

It was time to top GT Neo up, which I did using the supplied 80W Superdart Charger. Which took the device from 2% to full in just 33 mins. And with charging speeds like that I can almost forgive the lack of wireless charging.

GT Mode. Turned on for a full day, there was a noticeable increase in how the device felt, it was super responsive and snappy when flicking through menus or opening apps, and on some occasions it felt faster than my S22 Ultra.

At the end of my normal days use with GT Mode on all day my battery was at 35% so a hit on the battery life, but that’s running at the max settings all day.

Conclusion:-

If your a fan of the Dragon Ball Z series this is definitely the phone for you, but I reviewed it as a mid range (approx. £500) phone, and it didn’t disappoint at all, the screen was fluid at 120Hz refresh rate, and the whole device was snappy to use. The battery life was excellent and its easily a tow day per charge phone, that tied to the included 80W charger meant the device was topped up in the length of a shower. I did find that the auto brightness was a bit to aggressive for my liking but it was quickly toggled off.  The GT Neo 3T felt a good size in the hand and on some occasions felt preferable to use over my S22 Ultra. I’ve got wireless charging pads all over the house and even in the car, and due to the omission of wireless charging I did miss just plonking down my phone for a quick charge.  

The post Realme GT NEO 3T Dragon Ball Z – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Another review time. We will be looking at the Realme GT Neo 3 150W.

This is one of the latest devices from Realme and is a device that kind of sits in between the Realme GT 5G that was reviewed recently and the Realme GT 2 Pro in terms of pricing. In terms of hardware, some subtle differences separate from the GT 2 series. One of the key hardware differentiators is the fact that this phone is capable of charging at a massive 150W via the UltraDart Charge technology. This is a significant step up from the charging speed on the GT 2 which was a paltry 65W SuperDart charging. there are of course few more differences which we will uncover during the full course of the review.

Design

If we start from the top we have got very little on the top end of the phone but we do have a pinhole microphone. and the edge of the phone is slightly inset making it feel quite comfortable in the hand. We also find one of the two speaker grills that work to create a limited stereo effect of the speakers which is a nice touch to see on this grade of the phone.

Moving down to the right-hand side we find the power key which has some nice texture on it making it a bit easier to find by feel.

The base of the phone shares the same slight inset as can be found at the top. There is a lot going on here and it is quite busy. Down here we also find the bottom-firing speaker which does produce pretty good sound. Next, we have got a USB Type C port which allows very fast charging via the Superdart Charger technology more on this later though. Next up is another pinhole microphone for voice pickup which works well. Lastly, we have got the Dual Nano sim cardholder which does have a waterproof gasket around it for some waterproofing.

The left-hand side has the individually mounted volume buttons which have a nice positive clicking action and fall nicely below the thumb when being used in the right hand, it might be a bit more awkward to use if you are left-handed but I like the separation of the buttons as it avoids you mistaking the volume for the power button.

Around the front at the top, we have got the front earpiece/speaker which is clear and gives the effect of stereo separation the volume of this speaker is a bit lower than the one found on the base but this is normal for this sort of setup as my Oneplus Nord 2 5G uses the exact same setup. The speaker is hidden behind a very small and skinny grill and it is situated between the top of the phone and the top of the screen. It would be a fair assumption that this earpiece is the same component used for the speaker grill I mentioned on the top of the phone as they do line pretty well.

We also have the front-facing camera which is a 16 MP, f/2.45 24mm (wide), 1/3.09″, 1.0µm unit so works well for selfies whilst also not obliterating the background due to it being a wideish angle. It can also work at 1080p at 30fps for video recording so would be fine for use for video calls on Zoom etc. Unlike the GT 2, this one is mounted in the centre of the screen which is the more common placement for this type of speaker.

Moving down from the speaker and camera we have the 6.7″ display which has a resolution of 1080 x 2412  and a PPI of 394. The aspect ratio is 20.1:9 which is a nice size not being too skinny but still having enough width to display content. Lastly, this screen can have a refresh rate that will dynamically switch between 60HZ and 120HZ. You can leave this to be adaptive which is what I did or you can manually set it at either mode depending on your requirements. I found the refresh rate to be satisfactory in normal use and it was plenty fast enough for my liking. The last thing of note is the brightness for the screen will purportedly reach near 500 nits, whilst I have not been able to confirm this as I don’t have the correct equipment to test, I can confirm that the screen does get really bright, I had no issues reading the screen under direct sunlight!

Around the back, we have got two main points of interest for the phone. The first is the paint job and then the second is the camera module that has been used. I have the Sprint White and I just love the way that this looks. That twin racing stripe design that has drawn its inspiration from the likes of “Le Mans” racing cars from the 60s is just such a cool detail. I particularly like the way that the camera module interrupts the “stripes” and then a little further down you get the same effect from the Realme Logo. I would recommend this with the colour Sprint White or the Nitro Blue version. I have not seen the other variant which is more sedate Asphalt Black but I presume this has a more textured and roughened finish to it than on the other two more akin to what was seen on the original Realme 8 Pro that I reviewed a while ago.

The next bit for the back panel is the other big selling point that you can see the Camera modules. On the back panel, we have got a module made up of three lenses that have the following sensors:  50MP main, 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro. I will cover these cameras in a bit more detail further down in the review.

In terms of the actual external dimensions and weight we are again in very familiar territory with the GT 2 with the Lenght being 163.3mm Width being 75.6mm the depth being 8.2mm and finally weight being 188g which does make 1o grams. In the hand, you will not notice these differences at all. It does feel great in the hand and I like that I am not faced with a design that loves fingerprints like most other high-end flagships. I have not felt the need to put a case on this phone which I would normally do with all my phones either that or a skin which I ended up doing with my daily driver the Pixel 6 Pro. incidentally, as I have mentioned the phone the Realme GT 3 Neo 150W is so much lighter than the P6Pro that it is refreshing to use a lighter phone after having spent so long with the heavier phone.

In the box you do of course get your usual Realme goodies like a case the sim eject pin, a beefy USB to USB Type C cable and the beast of a charger which i am going to talk more about very soon, Honestly I think the charger is heavier than the phone!!

Next up it is time to look at the specifications of the phone so here comes the table.

Specifications

Now that we have seen the raw specs let’s have a closer look at some of the key hardware features

Hardware

I want to start with the headline feature for this phone the charging speed. It is such a big feature Realme decided to include it in the phone’s name! So it seems that charging speeds has become one of the new smartphone battlegrounds, especially with the onset of GAN technology which is allowing chargers to become much smaller whilst still maintaining the ability to push high amounts of power. Another area where this technology has developed is the use of split cell battery packs. Add to this the propriety charging technology and software that each manufacturer seems to be developing (or renaming) and we have a hotly contested bed of development.

Realme’s Solution is to use their own UDCA Charging Architecture to power the 150W UltraDart charger allowing the phone to fully recharge in record time.  All this is kept safe by the TUV Rheinland certified process that includes 38 Levels of Safety protection and a Smart MCU chip for management of the two battery cells. The eagle-eyed of you may have noticed that the Realme GT Neo 3 also comes in another flavour albeit with a slightly bigger battery. This one uses a single cell battery of the more traditional design and charging speed of 80W! having the slower charger speed does allow for an Extra 500mAh to be crammed into the battery giving a 5000mAH pack instead of the 150W’s 4500mHA.

I have only used the faster-charging version of the 2 devices and I have found that in terms of battery I have not been left lacking during a normal day even with that slightly smaller pack size. This in turn down to the fantastically efficient but still power full chipset.

The Chipset is the brain of any mobile tech these days and this is another example of the ladies and gents of Mediatek smashing it. I have not had any performance issues or excessive heat build-up on the new Mediatek 8100 5G processor. Like the processor in the Oneplus Nord 2 5G that I reviewed near the end of last year, this chipset really impresses. I used to be a bit of a Snapdragon snob back in the early days of the super processor. The phone loads apps quickly and cuts through most tasks like a knife through hot butter. All this being said the processor is only as good as the other components that it is supported by and again Realme have brought the A -Game, we find that we have UFS 3.1 Storage and also 6400Mhz of LPDDR5 RAM a massive 12GB of the stuff.

The Mediatek chipset isn’t the only processer present on the Realme GT Neo 3 150W though as there is also a dedicated display processor to allow the 120fps framerate. Now whilst it is not as granular a framerate as that seen on the Pixel 6 Pro I have been using it on Auto mode for the adaptive rate and I have found that it performs smoothly with very little evidence of it stitching between the standard 60hz  to the 120hz max rate that can be achieved. Scrolling through text-based lists and the like is smooth and flow really well. When I have been playing games I found the screen to be pleasing to the eye and the framerates were what I expected them to be. I will admit that unlike some testers my gaming choices don’t tend to push the phone to its limits but i was happy with the result. I also found that when watching videos the playback was also buttery smooth with many an hour spent watching videos on either Netflix or YouTube.

Cooling is another very important part of the hardware puzzle and again we see some time-tested technology on this phone in the form of a Stainless Steel Vapor Cooling System Max which is 7% larger than the one found on the GT 2 Pro which is really nice to see given that the phone sizes are extremely comparable. It was very rare for the exterior of the phone to get uncomfortably hot. I did notice the normal heat build-up that comes with using services like Google Maps for a prolonged time period and when using the camera intensively a bit of heat can be felt. This is pretty much par for the course with a modern smartphone these days though so I can forgive the phone for this.

Moving on from the hardware the call performance and connectivity of this phone were as you would expect from a modern smartphone pretty much on par. I have found that my calls were crystal clear and I had no issues with the signal when making those calls. As I found when I was testing the Relame GT 2 5G, this was ever so slightly better than what I had seen on my Pixel 6 Pro. this is partially due to the extensive use of the integrated antennas and the fact that the central core to the phone is actually a plastic component allowing for seamless transmission from the antennas located around the body of the phone. I also found that Wi-fi performance was excellent with it consistently getting about the same as I found on my Pixel 6 Pro. I was also suitably impressed with the Bluetooth capability of the device with a very good connection to my car for use when driving and unlike some other phones, I have tried recently it was always fast to regain the connection when I asked it to do so.

Last but not least the biometrics of the phone ie the Fingerprint Scanner was quick and responsive with very few misreads of my digits when in use. The face unlock was good as you would expect it to be with a 16mp camera behind it but as always this is more a convenience factor and not something I would recommend using for actually securing your phone as a primary solution as like and 2D scan it can easily be fooled into unlocking your device.

That pretty much covers the Hardware elements of the phone, next up is the camera performance.

Camera

The camera on this phone is very similar to the one found on Realme GT 2 5G. I found it more than capable of keeping up with the task of taking day to day photos and the software was a pleasure to use. While I am by no means a photographer I can appreciate a good photo when I see one, especially if the colours are accurate and vibrant. Fortunately, the Realme GT 3 Neo 150w stands proud in the section.  Below are a selection of photos taken with the phone during my review period and I hope this shows the abilities of the camera.

The main sensor is not too bad and produces pretty good quality images from the 50mp and f/1.9 sensor with vibrant colours and good levels of contrast. The night mode works well and does create some good photos in tricky conditions. I was more than happy to use it for capturing the antic of some grown men playing with Radio Controlled trucks!

The Zoom is not really anything massively impressive but as long as you don’t push it too hard you will get some useable results. However, once you go into the higher levels expect to start seeing some noticeable distortion and cropping as this is only a digital zoom after all.

I found that the night shots were surprisingly colour accurate, especially when compared to the likes of the Honor Magic 4 Pro, recently reviewed here.

When working with the ultrawide camera things were okay as long as you were not trying to get the subject of the image too close as you do start to get a bit of degradation in this instance.

The selfie camera is fine and it does what it says on the tin just be aware of the rather aggressive Ai that is the Norm for phones designed with the Asian market in mind as i found that the Beauty mode, even when turned off, could still be quite intrusive.

The video was serviceable and I have recorded a clip here again of grown men and RC trucks! It will of course support up to 4 K recording if you wish to use it but to be honest, if you are wishing to get good quality 4K footage then this is not really your best option. For the impromptu video of memorable events then this will do the job but you won’t be recording a Cannes film Festival feature on this phone.

I did find the camera software intuitive and easy to navigate through and the heat build-up when using the camera was within the acceptable parameters for a smartphone these days with it only getting a tad warm when I was using it for video over prolonged periods.

Here are a few more general images for you to look at to make your own judgement of the camera.

Software

The software on the Realme Gt Neo 3 150w is pretty much identical to that of the Realme GT 2 5G, which is a good thing as the latest Realme Ui is pretty good especially as they have fixed my biggest annoyance with the previous version. I still am somewhat confused by the way in which you have to interact with the notifications, these require a double press to actually see the content. And the permissions prompt every time you open a core app for the first time is a bit annoying for the first few days. All that being said though if i had to use this as my daily driver I could certainly live with it as it does have enough niceties to keep my interest. I also received at least 2 minor software updates during my time with the device which is nice to see.

It is a bit early to say how well the software will continue to be supported but there is a sign of some light on the horizon. One of my first reviews of a Realme device the Realme 8 Pro is still being used in the house by my wife and I have read that it is due to get the update to Realme UI 3 in the next few weeks to months. Now while my unit does not have it yet it gives me hope about how Realme will address future updates to this and their other devices going forward. Only time will tell if that hope is dashed or delivered upon.

Conclusion

So why should you care about the Realme GT Neo 3 150W phone and choose it over others in this crowded mid-tier high-end segment? Well, there is one big reason and that is of course the stupendously quick charging speed. if you are the type of person who needs their phone charged in less time than it takes to have a shower then this phone will suit you very well as long as that is one of the main features you are drawn to.

The reason for that previous statement is that if you don’t need the phone to charge in an Ultrafast time then there are other options from both Realme and its sister brands in the form of the OnePlus 10R (not available in the UK) and the Realme GT2 5G or GT 2 Pro 5g both of which incidentally are currently cheaper. Looking to outwith the BBK brand family you also have the likes of the upcoming Pixel 6A to consider and the A series line up from Samsung which has always served the market well in this section.

The Realme GT Neo 3 150W is a great fone and is one that I have been very happy to use for the time I have had it. But with so many similarities in terms of functionality, camera and performance I have to bring its reason for existing into question. Yes if you want an Ultrafast charging Phone with the familiarity presented within the very good Realme UI (ie Colour OS/ Oxygen OS) and you are in the UK then this is the only way to currently get it without importing a device. if not then look to the other stablemates in the form of the Realme GT2 5G and the GT2 Pro 5G and save yourself a bit of cash.

Oh if you like racing stripes “Le Mans style” then that is another good reason to go for this phone too!

The Realme GT Neo 150W is available now from Realme’s website for £599

EXTRA EXTRA!!!

What if you like Japanese Superhero Animation then don’t Worry cos Realme of got you covered there as well, keep it on Coolsmartphone.com for the review of the other phone in the GT Neo 3 line up…..

The post Realme GT Neo 3 150W – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Honor Magic 4 Pro

I was a great fan of the previous generation flagships that came out of the great behemoth that was Huawei of old when it still had a smaller scale sibling of Honor under its wing. Those days are gone and the likes of the Huawei P30 Pro got left behind in the wake of the Huawei/Google Mobile Services ban instigated by the Luminous president of yore. Well, thankfully we have moved on from those days and we now have Honor as a fully independent brand from Huawei, which brings a new spark to the company and the ability to use GMS again. we had an inkling of what Honor can do as a standalone brand in the form of the Honor 50 5G which I reviewed recently here for Coolsmartphone.

What we have here is what they can do when they are not restricted by the limitations of trying to build a mid-range phone. We have the Honor Magic 4 Pro and it harks back to the previous pro series device that I had soft spot for from my day using Huawei devices like the P30 Pro. I loved that phone and it brought some true flagship specs to the table and an awesome camera. Can the Honor Magic 4 Pro give the same feel as a flagship or is it just a fluster with its oversized camera module and fancy colour. Well, I hope to find that out over the course of this review.

So as is customary in a review let’s start by having a tour of the device.

Design

We will start at the top edge of the phone which has a Speaker grill for one of the two loudspeakers. This is tucked up in between two of the numerous Antenna break lines as the signal needs to get in and out of the device somehow! to the right of the top section are a microphone hole and a feature that is not often included in phones the IR transmitter. This is predominantly used for the Smart Remote app that is bundled with the phone, not something I played with if i am being honest as it is not a feature I need.

Honor Magic 4 Pro top

Moving around to the right-hand side of the phone is where we will find the volume rocker and just below is the power key. These are again in between more antenna lines. The power key can be set up to either have a long press bring up a Google assistant should you want with a longer press still allowing you to turn the phone off or restart the device. the buttons have positive feedback but feel that Honor missed a trick by not including any texturing on the buttons.

Honor Magic 4 Pro right hand side

Moving down to the bottom edge. is where we will find the second loudspeaker, another microphone and the dual sim tray. Hiding amongst these components is the new SuperCharge 100W charging port that is also capable of supporting display output. It takes the form of USB type C and when plugged into a display gives you the option to use a desktop-style interface along with a keyboard and mouse if you wish to. It is not as good as the offering from Samsung’s DEX offering but it is a nice feature to have on board.

Honor Magic 4 Pro base

As we move around to the left-hand side we have nothing really to speak of apart from more of the ever-prominent antenna lines. As a right-handed user, this is fine for me but left-handed users may find it a bit annoying at first.

Honor Magic 4 Pro left hand side

Next up we will take a trip to the front and the display. Which is a glorious panel measuring in at 6.81″ with a variable refresh rate of between 1Hz to 120Hz LTPO Display. It also features 1920Hz PWM Dimming for those who are sensitive to this. It makes viewing the 2848 x 1312 resolution display very enjoyable and it is a joy to interact with no noticeable lag or false inputs being found in my usage so far.

Honor Magic 4 Pro Display Locked

Up in the top left-hand corner is a camera cut-out that is not the smallest in the world, it does however need to be this size in order to allow for the 2 cameras that reside in it to have enough space. Under the screen, we have got a 12MP camera with f/2.4 aperture and a 100° smart wide-angle selfie. It is capable of capturing some great stills thanks to its Portrait mode and AI anti-distortion. In addition to these features, the camera will also be able to record up to 4K video. So that is the camera but there is also another sensor here which is the 3D Depth Camera which is used primarily for facial recognition with its 3D depth face unlock technology. This is nice to see after coming from a Pixel 6 Pro which has no face unlock something that I missed more than I thought I would.

While we are talking about unlocking the front of the phone also hides the fingerprint reader which is of the Ultrasonic under-display variety and I am very happy to say works like a charm as id plenty fast for quick access to your home screen from unlocked. it features Qualcomm’s 3D Sonic Sensor which is one of the many ways in which the Qualcomm chipset has raised the game with this phone.

I suppose i cannot avoid it any longer but it is time to talk about that rear. the rear is dominated by the “Eye of Muse” camera module which houses a massive 5 camera sensors of various varieties shapes and sizes.

“Eye of Muse” camera module

• 50MP Wide Camera (f/1.8)
• 50MP Ultra Wide Camera (f/2.2)
• 64MP Periscope Telephoto Camera (f/3.5, 3.5x Optical Zoom, 100x Digital Zoom, OIS)
• Flicker sensor
• 8×8 dTOF Laser Focusing System

The 64MP Periscope Telephoto Camera is capable of a massive 100x zoom which promises to provide some very interesting shooting options.. Especially when you combine them with the other two 50MP cameras one of which will allow for a Wide Angle and the other a more Normal shooting mode. The camera will use Optical Zoom for up to 3.5x magnification and then it lets the Ultra Fusion engine take care of the rest. I will go into the camera features and how it performs later on in the review.

Apart from that massive camera array that nearly takes up the top third of the phone we have not got anything else particularly notable back here.

That culminates the design tour and now it is time to talk about some of the hardware of this flagship monster!

Hardware

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is a hardware nerds wet dream when it comes to flagships at the moment. I have to admit that even I got a bit excited by the prospect of this specilicous treat. There is so much goodness in this phone that it is hard to know where to start so I am just going to do a list of the specs and take it from there.

Specs

So as you can see from the impressive specs list above the phone has got a lot to take in but I want to focus on a few of what I think are the key selling point for this phone. Processor and GPU, Battery life and charging speed and niceties (it will become clear later).

So first up the Processor and GPU.

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is powered by the very power-dense 4NM Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor with the support of MEMC chip that helps to generate the best viewing experience that the phone can. That is not all though as the phone also supports GPU Turbo X which promises to increase the speed across the entire UI with an extra boost for Gaming needs. So do the high-end headline-grabbing components actually make a difference. For the most part yes they do I did not find the phone was slow in any task. There was barely a stutter in normal use and even when I put the phone under significant pressure. I even tried to run the built-in Desktop UI when plugged into my USB Dock that was hooked up to my monitor, which was using two displays at 1080p and being controlled by a Bluetooth keyboard and a mouse running on a 2.4ghz dongle. This was me trying to push the phone to its limits and I couldn’t get it to glitch.

The only time the phone was showing any stress was when using the Camera to record 4K Video as the phone did get a bit warm but this is more than normal for flagships at the moment as we are asking for so much in terms of computational assisted photography these days.

The other area that really did impress me was the Graphics processing on the phone as it was great and watching the video, streaming content and playing games were all pulled if really well. I was able to easily play my staple games of Grand Mountain and Alto’s Oddest with no dropped frames and very good quality images. All this without the battery being nuked and draining in mere seconds. I have watched many hours of YouTube on the phone and it always remains comfortable to hold when binging on the latest Radio Controlled trucks videos (yeah it’s an issue I know).

I mentioned the MEMC assistant chip earlier and this is on board to allow the phone to dynamically adjust the frame rate when using the phone for video playback. This converts Standard Definition video to High Definition video on the fly during the playback of the aforementioned content. The MEMC will work on YouTube Netflix and Prime Video. . That is not all that the MEMC will do as it also has a Frame rate booster that will work on the video’s Frame rate in the same way as the video enhancer function. I can report that it does make a small but noticeable difference

The only area that did let me down in terms of performance was when using Android Auto, but I feel this may be more a software-based issue, however. The only reason I mention it in this section is that there may be a hardware element involved as I have had the same Android Auto version on lower specced phones and not had any issue. Oddly enough I seem to recall this being an issue on Honor 50 as well so maybe some legs to this theory.

That about concludes the Performance and GPU area, next up the battery and charging.

I actually want to mix this one up a bit and talk about the charging first as Honor has brought out the big guns to get the Honor Magic 4 Pro powered up fast and safely. The battery will charge at extremely fast speeds depending on which method of charging you go for. If you use the. Wired Supercharger that comes in the box with the phone you will get up to 100W of charging speed. This will allow a full 0 to 100% charge in under 30 mins. If you choose to use the Wireless 100W Supercharger then you will allow you to charge at 80W when using the in-box charger and will allow you to recharge 0 to 100% in just under an hour. If you wish to obtain the full 100W capability then you can use the optional 135W charger from the Honor Laptop range as this will give the higher amount of juice required, for the quicker charge.

One thing that is important to note is that I mentioned that you can recharge quickly and safely. When you are talking about rapidly charging batteries then there are a few areas of concern that can become relevant. The enemies of super-fast charging are heat build-up and battery health over time. This is something that Honor is aware of and they have put in various procedures to avoid these potential pitfalls. So how do they counter these issues, well they use two different methods. the charger in the box utilises Honor’s in-house developed Supercharging Technology to allow the heat build-up to be largely concentrated in the charging brick without passing it down the cable to the phone. The second is in the way that the charger and phone monitor charging rates to provide the optimum power usage minimising wasted energy that would normally be kicked out in terms of heat. The last thing that Honor has also realised is that you don’t need your phone to always charge at super fast speeds. So you can set it up to allow the phone to the only fast charge in certain scenarios as you dictate.

A brilliant example of this is when using the Wireless Supercharger. I tended to put my phone in this when I went to bed at night to ensure I had a fully charged phone by the morning. Now when I normally did this during the day the phone charged rapidly causing there to be some heat build up which normally occurs during Wireless charging. This in turn caused the fan on the charger to spin up which was pretty noisy.

However when it was charging it overnight I didn’t hear any noise from the fan on the charger and my phone would charge a bit slower, which isn’t a problem as I am going to sleep. now as far as I am aware I didn’t actually configure anything specific to do this apart from setting a “bedtime mode” within Digital Wellbeing. I am not sure if this influenced the charging behaviour or not but if it did then brilliant. It is also possible that this is set up from the stock software config in which case kudos to Honor for doing so as it is one less thing you the user need to worry about configuring.

Here is a sound bite from the Wireless Supercharger during a charging session. It is not the best quality as it was recorded from my phone but it will give you an idea of how loud it is,