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.

On Thursday I was able to attend our great capital of London to attend a launch event being hosted in the Tate Modern to launch Honor’s latest flagship in the UK the Honor Magic 4 Pro.

A few other ancillary devices also accompanied the phone’s launch in the form of the new Honor Watch GS 3 and the Honor Buds Pro. These other devices were mentioned in passing, but the event’s main focus was all on the Honor Magic Pro 4.

This is a true Flagship contender from the reawakened brand of Honor and it has some pretty big claims that from an initial first look it will be able to stand up to.

I got a very brief hands-on whilst I was at the event, but I will be conducting a full review of the device in due course. Before I dive into the details of the device I will cover the important news about what this will cost for you to buy outright.

The Phone will be launched in two different colours with both being available with a Storage of 256GB and 8GB of RAM with a launch price of £949.99. it will go on general sales on the 27th of May however if you are looking to grab a great deal then the pre-orders will open tomorrow for the same price with some added goodies in the form of the Watch GS 3 Ocean Blue & SuperCharge Wireless Charger Stand & Magic 4 Pro PU Case. This deal is available from 13/05 to 26/05, and is a gift package worth ￡324 which is nothing to be sneezed at!! See more at this link Honor Store

In terms of the event, it went through quite a lot about what makes this device a great new device for Honor to bring to the market i am going to go through some of the highlights now. I will try and give you a bit of a feel for the device from my limited hand on time that i was able to get and the presentation that we witnessed.

The display of the phone is one of its key features as it should be given that this is where you will interact with the phone. It is comprised of a 6.81″ Flex OLED panel which is of LPTO construction. The Screen also sports an eye pleasing Pulse Width Modulation rate of 1920Hz so it should be kind to your eyes. In addition to this, it will allow for an adaptable refresh rate all way down to 1 Hz and up to 120hz. This is called Honor motion Sync and is new to the Honor Magic 4 Pro.

The screen resolution comes in at 1312 x 2848 giving a PPI of 4060 whilst also being able to display 1 billion colours. We also have 100%DCI-P3 colour gamut support and HDR 10+. All of this display wizardry is actually made possible by the phone having its very own display Chipset which allows the active conversion of low frame rate videos to a higher frame rate resulting in silky smooth video, which in itself will have also be uprate to HDR by the Always on HDR technology

Moving onto the next big feature of the phone, the camera. When you look at the phone from the back you are greeted with the camera module which Honor is referring to as “The Eye of Muse”!

Whilst this may be some very fancy marketing speak there is indeed a lot going on around the back of the phone. So within this module are 3 camera sensors, comprising a 50Mp Main Camera, a 50MP Ultrawide and finally a 64MP Periscope Telephoto unit. In addition to all of the main sensors, we also have an 8×8 dTOF multipoint laser focus sensor to ensure that the camera is as focused as possible in the quickest amount of time. Lastly here is a Flicker sensor to reduce that flicker effect when taking photos.

Here are more detailed specs for all the camera sensors.

I think it fair to say that this camera sounds mighty impressive however these sensors are not any good unless there is a great computation behind them. This is where Honor’s Ultra-Fusion Computational Photography comes in. This enables the device to produce high-definition images in stunning clarity, even when shot from afar.

In essence, the idea behind this is that the camera sensors will all work together to produce the best focused, sharpest and cleanest image they can. The computational side will stitch all these images together and apply the colour engine to create the final image all of this in mere seconds. This is all being powered by the heart of the phone the mighty Snapdragon 8 Gen1 Chipset which is included Snapdragon Sight which is the ISP for the camera.

Now before I move entirely away from the camera I also want to circle back around to something I mentioned earlier, which was IMAX Enhanced. This is a term we are used to seeing in Cinemas these days so why am I mentioning it on a phone with a relatively small display (when compared to the behemoth of IMAX cinemas) Well that is down to something Honor is calling Magic Log.

For those in the know, this is the ability to capture videos in a glorious 10bit 4K 60fps thanks to Log recording. What is Log Recording and why should I care will here is an explanation in as simple terms as I can put it or understand it! Essentially when recording using a log (logarithmic)profile you are able to preserve the dynamic range and tonality of what you are recording better The end result is that when you playback the finished article you will get much truer to life representation of the footage. Having more dynamic range to play with will also allow for more flexibility when it comes to editing the masterpiece you just captured. So this will be beneficial to any budding Stephen Spielbergs out there and also to those who just want to up their ticktock game alike!

So that cover of the two biggys Display and Camera next up is power and as I have already mentioned this comes with the very latest from Qualcomm in the form of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 5G Mobile Platform. This is supported by the latest Qualcomm 7th Gen AI Engine and Cortex-X2 CPU Architecture Allowing the phone to deliver amazing speed and processing for everyday use and intensive tasks such as video editing and high-end gaming. Pair this up with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM and you have a great platform for all but the most demanding of tasks.

However, with great power comes the concern of poor battery life well Honor hopes to alleviate this by the inclusion of a 4600mah battery that can be recharged either wired or wirelessly at 100w when using the 100W Wired Honor SuperCharge plug or the 100W Wireless Honor Super Charge stand. This will allow up to 100% charge in 30 minutes. This is something I am very keen to test when I get a chance as i currently charge my Pixel 6 Pro on a 10W wireless charger!

A couple of other very cool feature that the new Honor Magic 4 Pro possess are the following;

Privacy Calling, this s supported by AI and provided by Directional Sound technology via the simultaneous transmission of sound from the screen and the receiver to adjust the volume of the incoming audio so it can only be heard by and not your neighbour in the seat next to you. The two parts will work together to adjust the volume to suit different environments resulting in the caller’s voice being all but inaudible to a person nearby.

Qualcomm Sonic Sensor Gen 2 fingerprint reader which is 77% larger and should result in up to 40% increase in recognition of your fingerprint to allow for enhanced security. This is something that will be tested upon receipt of a device for certain!

Also to cap the whole thing off the Honor Magic 4 Pro is IP68 rated meaning you don’t need to worry about the occasional spillage or using it in the delightfully British weather!

I mentioned that Honor also released some new headphones and their latest watch and i have included some brief details of these below as not much time was spent discussing these items

Honor Watch GS3

This is the latest incarnation of the Honor Watch series and is a non-Google Wear smartwatch that provides a great array of sensors for all your fitness needs whilst maintaining some style and longevity that you would expect from a smart watch

Honor Earbuds 3 Pro

Honor’s latest headphone’s release feature the world’s 1st Coaxial Dual-Driver design and High resolution piezoelectric ceramic tweeter to deliver both rich and delicate sound details and booming bass. They also  support AI Active Noise Cancellation for an enhanced audio experience.

These accessories are available to buy right now from Honor starting at £189.99 for the Honor Watch GS3 and £169.99 for the Honor Earbuds 3 Pro

So as i mentioned at the very top of this post all of this can be ordered now from the Honor website. if you are quick and you order before the 26/05/2022 then you will get the bundle shown below plus a SuperCharge Wireless Charger Stand & Magic4 Pro PU Case for free.

The phone will be released for general sale without the above offer on 27/05/2022 and will be available from Honor, Currys, Argos and Amazon. It will also be available on competitive pay monthly tariffs from Three and Carphone Warehouse. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is not also being offered by some of the other networks in the UK but we have not had confirmation of that yet.

I am very excited to see the Honor Magic4 Pro in my hands and I hope that I will be able to bring you the full unboxing and review of the phone very soon.

The post Honor Magic Pro 4 – Launched in the UK!! is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Google has announced pricing for the Pixel 6a outside the United States.

The “a” line of Pixel devices seems to be more of a hit than the actual Pixel flagships, so following on from its announcement last week, at Google IO pricing for the eagerly awaited Pixel 6a outside the US has been revealed. Costing the rough equivalent of $449 in most countries.

Pixel 6a Specs include :-

Price: $449

OS: Android 12

Display: 6.1-inch OLED 

Refresh rate: 60Hz

CPU: Google Tensor

RAM: 6GB

Storage / Expandable: 128GB / No

Rear cameras: 12.2MP main, 12MP ultrawide

Front camera: 8MP 

Battery: 4,410mAh

Charging: 18W wired

Size: 6.0 x 2.8 x 0.35 depth inches/152.2  x 71.8 x 8.9 mm

Weight: 6.3 oz/178 g

Colors: Sage, Chalk, Charcoal

While pre-orders and open sales are not yet available, Google Store listings are live for the Pixel 6a in the following countries and regions with pre-order prices and currently visible colour variants noted:

• Australia – AU$749
○ Colours: Sage, Chalk, Charcoal
• Canada – CA$599
○ Colours: Sage, Chalk, Charcoal
• France – €459
○ Colours: Sage, Chalk, Charcoal
• Germany – €459
○ Colours: Sage, Chalk, Charcoal
• Italy – €459
○ Colours: Sage, Chalk, Charcoal
• Japan – ￥53,900
○ Colours: Sage, Chalk, Charcoal
• Republic of Ireland – €459
○ Colours: Charcoal
• Singapore – SGD 749
○ Colours: Charcoal
• Spain – €459
○ Colours: Sage, Chalk, Charcoal
• Taiwan – NTD$13,990
○ Colours: Sage, Chalk, Charcoal
• United Kingdom £399
○ Colours: Sage, Chalk, Charcoal
• United States – $449
○ Colours: Sage, Chalk, Charcoal

Google has priced the Pixel 6a fairly competitively in all countries in which it will be sold. Fingers crossed we manage to get one in for a full review.

The post Pixel 6a None US Prices Revealed. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

I have been using the Realme GT 2 5G  for a few weeks now and now is my time to pass judgement on this mid to high-end contender. It is a device that presents a very compelling argument as to the question of do you need an expensive high-end flagship? After having used the device for a few weeks I would say that for the most part the answer would be no. I have a lot of reasons for this which I will go into further during the process of the review.

You can buy the phone now from Realme direct for £399 of the 128GB Storage and 8Gb RAM variant with the 256GB Storage and 12GB RAM version being £100 more. This on special early bird offer until the 21st of March when the prices will go up to £499 and £549 respectively

However, before we get into that, let’s take a tour of the device.

First up is the unboxing video that was posted a few weeks back.

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.

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.

On the base of the phone which 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 Pichole 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.

We also have the front-facing camera which is a 16 MP, f/2.5, 26mm (wide), 1/3″, 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 using for video calls on Zoom etc.

Moving down from the speaker and camera we have the display which is a 6.62 inch AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1080 x 2400  and a PPI of 398. The aspect ratio is 20:9 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 1300 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 way the back has been made and then the second is the camera module that has been used. I want to quickly discuss the back panel which makes it somewhat unique in the current phone market. Realme have been on a major push when it comes to sustainability this year which has meant that instead of using just a normal plastic rear panel it developed a new material called a”biopolymer”. This allows the phone to have a solid back from renewable resources such as paper pulp, this allows a carbon reduction of 35.5% when manufacturing the back panel. It also gives the panel a “paper-like” feel, which actually works well and feels nice under the fingers. I have also been able to use the phone without a case which is nice as I haven’t been too worried about it getting scratched up which has been nice as most phones I use always need to have a case slapped on it straight out of the box. I was also lucky enough to get the Paper Green colour which really pops. As an aside if Green isn’t your thing then you can get this in Paper White. You can also get the Steel Black edition employs a new AG glass chemical etching technique, creating a more frosted look, and a more tactile feel.

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.

Hardware

So with the external design all taken care of now to look a little below the skin and there are a few areas i wish to cover here; the Battery, the processor and memory and the antennae. These are really the key hardware points for the phone as far as I am concerned. Let’s have a look at the battery first.

Inside the phone, we have got a great battery which is actually composed of two separate packs each measuring in at 2500mah to give a total of 5000mah. This is now becoming more and more commonplace for phones as it has the benefit of allowing the battery to be charged faster if you instigate the correct charging technology. Being that Realme exists under a parent company that shares technology with OnePlus and Oppo it is hardly a surprise to see that this phone is capable of very fast charging. In this case, the phone is capable of charging at 65W  which will allow the phone to be charged from 0 to full within 33 minutes when paired with the included SuperDart 65W charger. It also works fine with the Oneplus WarpCharge 65 Charger that comes with the OnePlus Nord 2 (they are essentially the same).

As for battery life, I could regularly get through a day and a half with light to moderate use and if used more intensively then the pack would last me for a day. This is in line with what I experienced on other rival devices from this price point.

It is a shame that there is no wireless charging to be found here but at this price point it is hardly a surprise either. With the ability to charge so fast via the cable it was not really something I missed either. The nice thing about the way that the charging has been implemented is that the heat from charging the battery is not transferred to the pack. The downside is that the charger will not work on other devices as it is proprietary. I tried to charge my Chromebook which uses Power delivery via USB Type C and it didn’t want to work as it was identified as a low powered charger. The same was true with my Pixel 6 Pro.

Next up is the processor which is the brilliant Snapdragon 888 5G processor. This is a great processor and has been proven in multiple other devices including a lot of recent flagships. It is great to see this is a low priced device especially as it brings integrated 5g into a very efficient and powerful chip. I have not seen any slowdowns in the UI and games load quickly and are responsive with good framerates. I am not the heaviest of gamers but I have found that my staples of World of Warships and Alto’s Oddessy ran smoothly without any perceivable glitching. The AI elements used in the camera work quickly and as expected.

Of course, the processor is very ably supported by the speedy 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM which again is great to see at this price point. Memory usage never really reached the full 12GB’s in my usage so there is plenty of breathing room. Having multiple apps working at the same time did not present any issues and when things do get a bit too busy it is really easy to close the apps from the multitasking menus which rather handily it will show how much memory has been freed up by doing so. The phone also packs 256Gb of UFS 3.1 storage which is very speedy and efficient. I found that when transferring content to the phone from my computer it was speedy with very good transfer rates. I also found that when moving files in the internal memory it was very quick.

Next up are the antennas and this is something that Realme are very proud of and rightly so as this is an area that I feel more focus may need to be applied by some of the bigger players (I’m looking at you Google). The design allows for several specifically place antennas to allow the phone to maximise signal strength regardless of what orientation you are holding it in. For example, if you are in a particularly intense gaming session whilst on the bus to work/college the last thing you need is for your network to drop when n you are trying to make that critical kill shot or overtake that annoying competitor to get into the pole position. It is for this reason that Realme has positioned antennas on all the sides of the phones as pictured here.

As you can see from the images above this means that whichever way you hold the phone you will always get a good signal be it on one of the 4 $G and %G antennas or one of the two Wifi Antennas. This is of course made a lot easier as the side rails of the phone are made of plastic instead of the higher-end metal which would be expected to be found on a full flagship. Does it work though? Well if using the phone and comparing it against my current daily whip is anything to go by then yes as I was able to perceive at least one bar more signal when compare against each other. in terms of Wifi Signal I was getting a marginally better signal from the Realme GT 2 5G over the Pixel 6 Pro.

If you look at the Plusnet network then you will see that on the Realme we have got a 7dbm improvement on the signal strength (When testing signal strength the lower the dbm number the better). The difference isn’t has marked on the Ext network which is my extended network but there is still a significant difference. As I don’t currently have two sims on the same network I could not do a side by side mobile data test but there is an appreciable difference on the mobile network side as well. I found this out when i was speaking to my father one evening and he kept losing my call when i was on the Pixel* so I chucked the sim into the Realme and i was able to carry on the call.

It is things like this that make the hardware a little bit nicer than a normal mid-tier offering and that also makes it a bit harder to go back to the full flagships i am fortunate enough to have at my disposal. Even going back to the OnePlus Nord 2 5G which is a great competitor to this phone was a bit weird as they are so similar but just subtle different enough o make you appreciate it.

With the rest of the phone being your normal sort of mid to high-end range fare we will move on. But not before I cover a late entry into the category which plays a big part in the next section. I am of course talking about performance and this is where need to blur the lines between hardware and software a bit, hence why I wanted to mention it now. The Realme GT 5G can pack a good size punch here in terms of performance. As I mentioned the phone will not have any issue handling games as well as multitasking like a beast. This is all down to the excellent memory management that is core to Android 12 and is enhanced by Realme’s development and tweaking that can be seen all the way through the software. Howver software alone cannot make for a great performing phone you have to keep it cool and this is another area where Realme wanted to make a bold statement. They have done this by implementing what they call the “Stainless Steel Vapor Cooling System Plus”. This is essentially a very long-winded way of saying that this has a big vapour chamber on board. just check the images below to try and get an appreciation of the size of this thing.

With a vapour chamber that big it is no surprise that apart from a slight bit of heat building after charging I was never found to have a phone that got too hot. This great news for gamers and media users.

Next, we need to address the software.

Software

This I perhaps the easiest section to complete as for once we have a mid to high-end phone from a Chinese manufacturer that is not absolutely riddled with bloatwarey crap. It is not a hidden fact that I was not a massive fan of the previous iteration of Realme UI. The good news is that things have made a nice change in the newest version of the UI, Realme UI 3.0. The boffins at Realme have addressed the main thing that got on my nerves and made the last phone practically unusable for me, we can now use the same widget tool more than once. For me, this was a big limitation on the previous generation but now that it is resolved I could actually use this software. If I am honest it was one of the only things I disliked from the Realme 8 Pro in terms of the software. The rest of the software feels very Oxygen OS like which is hardly surprising as the similarities across software between Oneplus Realme and Oppo are not that much. Now Oxygen OS is one of my favourite UI’s over even the svelt cleanness of Google Pixel UI which is great.

I have however found a few peaves that could be addressed if the developer wished to.  The first is the way that notifications react on the lock screen. Dont get me wrong they look good but to actually interact with them is via a tap and then this will select the notification so that you interact with it. This is different enough from other Ui’s that I had to actually think about. Another one was the way that some of the apps require additional permission prompts to appear when using for the first time which was annoying but quickly overcome.

Other than those two relatively minor issues i was generally pretty happy with the phone’s UI and the way it worked Realme’s Magic UI 3.0 is now completely usable as a day to day phone and I could see myself using it for the long run if i had the review unit for longer. Given where things were even six months ago with regard to the way the software was presented and for me at least the inherent limitation presented by the widget issue I am impressed. Credit is due to the developers here as although the changes are subtle they do make a difference.

I only hope that they can improve on the software updates for the device as in the whole time i have been using the Realme 8 Pro ( it is now being used by my wife) it has only been updated as far as Android 11 which is not bad for that side of things and is normal at the price but the security version is still the 5 Decmber 2021 version which isn’t greatgiven that we are now in March 2022. It has in fact only ever received one update to the software which was that security update nothing else was changed. I do not expect that it will ever get Android 12.

Next up is perhaps one of the headline-grabbing features, the camera.

Camera

This is a big aspect of the phone and is a really difficult one to call. On the most part, it is a step down from the Realme’s of previous generations however it is also a very competent sensor that has been used as the main component. I am of course talking about the much-lauded Sony IMX766. This sensor has been used on many of the best mid to high-end devices over the course of the year. In some devices it has been great however in some it has been merely average. In the Realme GT 2 it sits in the middle ground between the two it is not bad by any means and it will serve most users well. However, it is not one for camera phone fans as there are better options out there. When you consider the price of the phones then you can get a better camera for not a massive amount more, especially if you look at the Pixel lineup from Google.

The main sensor is not too bad and produces pretty good quality images from the 50mp Sensor with vibrant colours and good levels of contrast. The night mode works well and does create some good photos in tricky conditions.

Things take a slight turn for the worse when you start using the 8mp ultrawide camera as things start to get a bit noisy with some strange distortion around the edges of the subjects. I can only surmise that this is down to the software being used as the aperture has been increased up to f/2.3 but it doesn’t make a massive difference to things.

The zoom works exactly as expected as can be seen below.

The 2mp macro is really not that worth mentioning and I wish they had used this space for a time of flight sensor to add to the overall performance of the camera. Instead, we get a 2mp macro shooter which takes photos that are just a bit meh.

Now if you stick with the main camera which let’s be honest most people will then you will be happy with the results and it is nice to see that the software has been tweaked to dial down the AI in some of the features which is great news as I did find it a bit intrusive in certain scenarios.

As for the video, I can’t really find much to fault it as it ticks all the boxes, I really don’t tend to dive into the video aspects of most phone’s that I use these days as I am not attending many tradeshows anymore (thanks COVID) it is fine for recording silly impromptu shots when the moment strikes which is again what most people will use this for.

In essence, as long as you don’t try to push the camera too hard then you should be happy with its performance but once you start pushing the envelope then you start to see it unfold. Please see the below galleries for some sample images taken on the phone so you can form your own opinions.

Conclusion

This is a great phone and it punches above weight its weight. However, it is a bit late to the party as this segment of the market is becoming more and more crowded in the last six months. There are some great devices now on the market including the Onplus in the form of the Oneplus Nord 2 5G. If you are able to pick this phone up before the 21st of March then it is a compelling offer for the spec at the cheap price of £499 for the top version or a bargain for the 128GB model as you do get a phone with great features and for well below what you could be expected to pay for a more well-known brand. Just be aware that it may not be supported as well in terms of Software support as the bigger names,

You can buy the phone now from Realme direct for £399 of the 128GB Storage and 8Gb RAM variant with the 256GB Storage and 12GB RAM version being £100 more. This on special early bird offer until the 21st of March when the prices will go up to £499 and £549 respectively.

The post Relame GT 2 5G – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

That time of year has come around again when we get some new phones to unbox and review. First, one up this year is going to be the brand new Realme GT 2 5G which is hot of the press as it has only just been announced in Barcelona at MWC 2022.

This is a continuation of the Realme GT Brand from last year and it is focused on providing great specs and value for a fair and reasonable price. Now the eagle eye of you will be reading this and will be saying that this phone is old news and you are not entirely incorrect in that observation as the phone was previously announced at the beginning of the year but in its China only guise. Today it was now announced for the European market. 

So let’s take a look at the unboxing video below to see what we have got.

Next up here are the specs for the phone:

I have got the 12 GB RAM and 256GB version of the phone in for review and in the few days I have been using it the phone has felt fluid and snappy. The only time I got any hangups was using Android Auto wirelessly but that has been known to cause even the most powerful phones to falter. 

I have found the camera to be quite nice to use and I was able to get some pretty good pictures on a day trip to the Zoo as shown below.

I also gave the camera a bit of a nighttime test just after dusk and it wasn’t too bad.

On the phone’s user interface, I am very happy to report that one of the biggest bugbears I have had with any Realme device I have used has been resolved. I can now add multiple of the same instances of widgets, Hazzuh!!

So that is me just scraping the surface of the Realme GT 2 5G I think this is gonna be a fun phone and I am looking forward to getting to know it a bit more over the next few days and weeks while I finalize my review.

If you wish to preorder the Realme GT 2 5G or its bigger brother the Realme GT2 Pro 5G then you can do by heading over to this link on the 8th of March. The preorder price is £399 for GT2, with the GT2 Pro coming in for an extra £200 They will be both be available on the 15th of March

The post Realme GT2 5G – Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.