Get Product Reviews Free

What is Huawei Mate 20 Pro?

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro might have just seen its official announcement, however we still don’t know when it’ll get a release in the UK. There’s also the big issue of the lack of Google apps (even if it is fairly easy to install Google apps on the Mate 30 Pro) due to the ongoing Android ban.

Those issues don’t affect the Mate 20 Pro, though. Pick up this phone today and you’ll have access to Gmail, YouTube and the full delights offered by the Play Store.

It is also still receiving updates from Google and Huawei has said Android 10 with EMUI 10 will be coming. In many ways the Mate 20 Pro might be a better buy than the Mate 30 Pro.

Related: Huawei Mate 30

Editors Note: Due to the recent retraction of Huawei’s Android license, future Huawei and Honor phones won’t be able to access Google Play Services and as a result many Android apps including YouTube and Gmail. Both Huawei and Google have confirmed Huawei and Honor phones, like the one in this review, will continue to have access for this time being. Until we know more about the situation we’re leaving the scores on all our Huawei reviews, however as the situation changes we’ll revisit this.

Related: Huawei P30 review

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Design – This remains a gorgeous phone

In just a few years Huawei has gone from shipping phones that feel like knock-offs of other flagships to creating some of the slickest devices around.

The Mate 20 Pro is Huawei’s best-looking phone – even when compared to the newer P30 Pro. While it certainly takes inspiration from the curvature of Samsung’s Galaxy S-series, it showcases enough individuality to make it stand out – and, personally, I’d put it right up there with the best-designed phones around.

Huawei has done an exceptional job of making a phone with a 6.39-inch display feel far smaller than it should. This is in part the result of the stretched-out screen, which now pushes almost to the edge – aside from the requisite notch, of course – and also due to the heavy reliance on curves. 

Related: Best Android phones

Huawei is a fan of experimenting with colours and so the Mate 20 Pro is available in a wide range of hues. My review unit has a dark green back that not only looks great, but has some added texture as a result of raised lines running from one side to the other. These are almost impossible to see in pictures, but scratch your fingers across the surface and it sounds like a vinyl record.

Oddly, this textured rear is only available on the green and blue options, with the other colours – including the trippy Twilight finish made famous by the Huawei P20 Pro – coming with a more conventional, smooth back. Even though the Mate 20 Pro isn’t the biggest phone around, it still feels far more comfortable in this added texture.

Around the sides of the phone sits both the power button and volume rocker along one edge, with the other completely free of buttons. Personally, I prefer the lock button to be located on the opposite side to the volume buttons since it reduces the chance of accidental presses.

Related: Samsung Galaxy S10

USB-C is the only port on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro; there’s no headphone jack here. There is, however, an IR blaster on the top for controlling a TV, for example.

Like the 3.5mm jack, the physical fingerprint sensor has been ditched. Now, unlike Apple, Huawei isn’t forcing you into solely using face unlock. Instead, it has placed a fingerprint scanner beneath the phone’s OLED display. Aside from feeling ridiculously futuristic, this method of unlocking allows for a cleaner-looking device.

Alongside the in-display fingerprint sensor is a face-unlocking system reminiscent of the one seen in the iPhone series. Instead of simply using the front camera to determine it’s you, the Mate 20 Pro builds a depth map of your face using an IR emitter, dot projector and the 24-megapixel camera.

This system is far more secure than simpler solutions, and as such can be used to unlock banking and other apps that usually require fingerprint authentication. It also works very well in the dark, without forcing the screen to light up and blind your tired eyes.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Screen – Curved OLED panel looks great

Another winning aspect of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is its excellent 6.39-inch, 19.5:9 OLED screen. The panel is rounded at the corners, curved at the sides and packs a sharp 3120 x 1440 resolution.

There’s very little to criticise here, but I’ll begin with my only negative point: I don’t really like the curved edges. Sloping the screen down over the phone’s edges was first popularised by Samsung with its Edge series, and then more recently with its Galaxy flagships.

As Samsung has refined its design, the sides have gradually become less sloped, to the point where on the Galaxy Note 9 they’re barely there. With the Mate 20 Pro, the sides feel too curved and have a sharp finish.

You’ll also notice that they catch far more light than the flat portion of the screen, reflecting quite heavily in bright environments.

Look past these issues, however, and the Mate 20 Pro’s panel is up there with the best displays on the market. OLED presents deep blacks and infinite contrast, while Huawei has kept the colours fairly natural: reds have a nice burst of vibrancy without feeling oversaturated, and greens don’t end up appearing luminous.

There are also lots of options for tweaking the colour performance, making it cooler, warmer or enabling ‘Vivid’ mode to boost saturation. High Dynamic Range (HDR) video support is here, too; however, Netflix or Amazon Prime don’t currently support the Mate 20 Pro’s display specifically. HDR videos on YouTube look exceptional, though.

Sitting at the top of the display is a notch – the small cutout that hides all the sensors required for the biometric face-unlock feature. Notches tend not to bother me in the slightest, especially when they’re hiding advanced tech.

The notch on the Pro isn’t one that simply mimics the unit on the iPhone. Here it houses a multitude of sensors and ensures the screen can be pushed out as far as possible.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Performance – Still very fast

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is powered by the Kirin 980 – a chipset designed in-house by Huawei. Just like Apple and its A-series Bionic silicon, having the ability to build a chip yourself means you’re never waiting for the likes of Qualcomm to come out with its next iteration of the flagship Snapdragon chip.

The Kirin 980 is built using the 7nm architecture, which allows of smaller gaps between the transistors on each chip. A smaller distance leads to improved performance and, more importantly, better efficiency.

The chip here remains an eight-core unit, like the previous Kirin 970. However, it now uses four low-powered, two medium, and two high-powered cores – each responsible for specific tasks.

This is also likely down to the 6GB of RAM. Huawei also said the Mate 20 Pro will continue to be fast 12 to 18 months down the line, which is far more important than how quick it feels after having just bought the device.

Taking care of the graphics is the Mali G76 MP10 and, once again, this phone is an absolute beast when it comes to gaming. There might be dedicated gaming phones out there but the Huawei Mate 20 Pro should be taken very seriously if you’re into mobile gaming.

Intensive titles such as Asphalt 9 launched noticeably faster than on the competition, and I found myself in a race consistently quicker than with a Pixel 3 or the Samsung Galaxy S10.

Huawei’s phones have always impressed with strong reception for both Wi-Fi and cellular data, and that remains the case here. Phone calls sound clear, and since the phone supports dual-SIM, you can place two nano-SIMs inside.

Interestingly, there’s no microSD support here. Instead, Huawei has developed a new expandable storage card called Nano Memory. As the name implies, this card is the same size as a nano-SIM, and fits in the same slot. At the time of review, I couldn’t find any nano memory cards for sale. The lack of microSD support is softened by the 128GB of internal storage, though.

To offset the missing 3.5mm headphone jack Huawei includes both a dongle for connecting wired headphones along with a serviceable pair of USB-C earbuds in the box. There’s also a decent speaker setup here, with noise coming both from the notch and the bottom of the device.

Related: 5G in the UK

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Software – You’ll still get Google apps and updates here

There’s so much to like about the Huawei Mate 20 Pro – but, sadly, the software experience still needs work.

Huawei’s intrusive EMUI, which runs on Android 9 Pie, remains a strange combination of Google’s software and knock-off iOS. It ditches the app drawer for an iOS-like appearance of multiple homescreens crammed with apps, not to mention it comes with an excess of bloatware. Everything about EMUI continues to feel a bit all over the place. The icons are blocky and ugly, notifications often miss out important information, and the Settings menu is a mess of hard-to-find options.

Problems aren’t confined to the UX design, either; EMUI seems to actively limit functionality. You can’t interact with and act upon notifications on the lock-screen, and I had continual issues with Google services refusing to sync properly and reliably.

Huawei has also taken two of Pie’s biggest features and tweaked them. Digital Wellbeing is now Digital Balance, and this lets you set timers for apps, keep an eye on how much time you’re spending on your phone per day, and dim the colours at night.

Navigation gestures are here, working more like iOS than Android as you’d find on a Pixel 3. I like being able to swipe from an app to go home but Huawei’s implementation of going back needs work: you need to swipe on the left side of the display, but the phone just doesn’t do a good job at recognising this gesture, an issue that gave me flashbacks to early iterations of the company’s Knuckle Mode *shudder*.

Huawei has said it is updating the Mate 20 Pro to EMUI 10 (which is built upon Android) and you’ll of course still be able to access Google apps here even with the Android ban.

The post Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Read More

What is the iPhone 8?

The iPhone 8 is now available without a contract directly from Apple for £479. The phone has undergone many price-cuts since its original release in 2017 and it’s currently at its lowest price. You might be able to pick it up cheaper through other sellers or on contract.

While it’s cheaper than the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone XR, the iPhone 8 feels like a device from a bygone era. The chunky bezel, TouchID fingerprint sensor and very small display are a far cry from modern full-screen devices we’ve come to expect from both Apple and Android phone makers.

Still, the iPhone 8 is still getting updates – including the latest Dark Mode-infused iOS 13 – and takes good photos. It supports wireless charging and is a great buy if you’re keen on picking up the Apple Watch 5.

iPhone 8 Design – It now looks very dated

The iPhone 8 represents the most refined take on the design Apple first offered up with the iPhone 6, back in 2014. It’s a conventional candy bar touchscreen device with rounded corners and curved edges, although the materials at play here are a little different from that of its progenitor. More in line with most other flagship phones from the last couple of years, the iPhone 8 swaps a metal build for a glass-backed design, while a band of aluminium now runs the phone’s edge, where you’ll find the volume rocker, antennas and lock switch.

Moving to a glass back isn’t solely for aesthetics but it certainly doesn’t hurt them. For one the phone looks and feels more balanced, and although it adds a little weight, it also improves grip, which is no bad thing. The added grams are less welcome on the Plus model but here, it feels just right.

Related: Best smartphone

My one slight annoyance with the glass design is that it doesn’t quite blend into the aluminium rim as it did in previous models. There’s a notable lip between the end of the glass and the start of the metal, and my fingernail often gets caught in it. It’s a minor design quirk, however.

The obvious downside with glass is its fragility. The worry here is that a drop that wouldn’t have left any lasting damage on the iPhone 7 will leave the 8 with a seriously cracked rear. 

Related: Apple Watch 5 review

My overall view of the iPhone 8’s design is that it feels dull, predictable and quite some way behind Android flagships. At least Apple has ensured the iPhone 8 is still IP67-rated for water-resistance, a feature that’s fast-becoming a prerequisite on flagship phones. It also retains the exceptional Taptic engine that provides thoroughly satisfying nudges and buzzes throughout the operating system.

Related: Best iPhone 8 deals

Apple’s handsets remain my preferred choice when it comes to the colourways available. There are three colour options for the iPhone 8 – not the five of the iPhone 11 or XR – but the gold is easily my favourite. This replaces the former gold option and Rose Gold; it’s an amalgamation of both. The glass on the rear of the device possesses a soft, almost ‘creamy’ quality, while the sides are a less vivid pink. It’s appealing, but not all in the Trusted Reviews’ office share this view. If gold isn’t your thing then the iPhone 8 is available in Space Grey and silver too.

It’s been a years since Apple killed the headphone jack, and to absolutely no-one’s surprise, it hasn’t made a return here.

Related: Best wireless headphones

iPhone 8 Screen – Small, yet still sharp

At 4.7-inches, with a barely over-720p resolution, the display on the iPhone 8 doesn’t whip up much excitement. However, there is actually plenty to like here, and the few changes Apple has made do make a noticeable difference in use.

The main upgrade is True Tone, which first debuted on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. It’s a clever feature that dynamically alters the display’s white balance depending on the environment you’re in. It’s like the Night Shift mode in iOS, but on a hardware level. It sounds minimal, but it really does work to soften the blue tones in the display, with the end result making it more comfortable on the eyes.

Apple is also now supporting the Dolby Vision and HDR10 formats, so you can play back HDR movies from iTunes and supported content from Netflix. Unlike the iPhone X, which Apple claims has a ‘True HDR’ screen, the iPhone 8 doesn’t. Still, watching Mad Max in HDR does look noticeably better than on the iPhone 7.

Related: Best iPhone

The rest of the display specs remain the same as before. It’s still an IPS LCD panel; if you want the perfect blacks and more vivid colours of OLED, you’ll have to plump for an iPhone X, iPhone XS, XS Max or an Android device.

Related: iPhone XR vs iPhone 11

The resolution can make photos look slightly grainy but it remains one of my favourite displays for colour reproduction, and the support for the DCI-P3 wide colour gamut makes a huge difference in supported content. It also excels for use in super-sunny conditions – an area in which OLEDs often suffer.

The post iPhone 8 Review appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Read More

The original Razer Turret was an interesting, but compromised, beast that aimed to be the ultimate wireless keyboard and mouse combo for lounge PC gamers.

It offered an innovative stand design and charging mechanism. This, coupled with a fold-out mouse pad, made the original Razer Turret come close to achieving its goal. But the use of chiclet keys ultimately made it feel inappropriate for competitive gaming.

This is why we’re happy to see Razer take a second stab at making the ultimate lounge gaming keyboard with its shiny new Razer Turret (Xbox One edition), which – thank the pew pew gods – features proper mechanical switches.

Razer Turret (Xbox One edition) design – A far cry from the original

The use of Razer’s own mechanical switches isn’t the only design change the company’s made to the new Turret. These are good and bad in equal measure.

The keyboard has been completely redesigned. As well as the new switches, Razer’s ditched the proprietary charge stand. This is great, because you can now charge the keyboard using any USB cable – as an added perk, the company also includes a port and cable to let you charge the included wireless mouse through the keyboard.

The downside here is that it makes an already large product take up a lot more space. One of the best things about the original Turret’s stand was how much space it saved by letting you vertically dock the keyboard and mouse. Razer’s also refrained from loading the keyboard with media shortcut and macro keys. I can forgive the absence of macros, but the lack of media controls makes it feel a step behind the Corsair K63.

The 2.4GHz wireless dongle included makes it a breeze to set up on both the Xbox and PC – insert it into a USB port and you’re good to go. The Chroma backlighting continues to look great on both the keyboard and mouse, and is super-easy to customise via Razer’s Synapse app. The only issue is the Xbox main UI isn’t set up for mouse input, so you’ll find yourself navigating the main menu with arrow keys.

That aside, I’m a huge fan of the new pop-out mouse pad. Unlike the previous Turret, the new version has the lap mouse mat slide out of the keyboard’s right side. The mechanism feels significantly sturdier and makes it possible to store the mat if you happen to be using the Turret at a desk.

Related: Best Gaming Keyboard 2019

Razer Turret (Xbox One edition) performance – Good for lounge gaming

When it comes to performance, the Razer Turret Xbox edition is generally good, but comes with a few compromises resulting from its lap/lounge gaming focus.

The biggest elephant in the room is its size. The use of mechanical switches is great, but it makes the keyboard significantly bigger than the original Turret. With the mouse tray out, it’s nearly two feet wide and weighs 1860g. Even though it’s a 10-keyless keyboard this makes the new Turret feel a little clunky.

But for me, the cleverly designed mouse tray makes up for this. As well as being larger than the original Turret’s, the new tray is magnetised. This sounds like a small improvement, but it helps prevent the mouse falling to the floor or flying across the room when you stand up or adjust your position.

Personally I prefer the red switches on Corsair’s K63 to the new Turret’s proprietary Razer Mechanical Green switches, which have a more noticeable tactical bump and feel a little like Cherry MX Blues. But the updated tray and new mechanical keys mean you can play competitive first-person shooters in your comfy chair, away from a desk – something I couldn’t say about the original or the K63, which doesn’t have an attachable mouse pad.

The mouse is also generally good. The 16,000 DPI mouse is a customised version of the Razer Mamba, which is no bad thing. The mouse has a compact, ergonomic design with two side buttons and a nicely tactile control wheel and DPI controls on top.

The only downside is that, because it’s on your lap, the play angle is lower than it would be on a desk setup. This means prolonged sessions can feel a little painful, despite the keyboard’s nicely sized wrist rest. This is a shame, as battery life is pretty good and I’ve easily had at least 10 hours gaming out of the Razer Turret, with backlighting on, before having to reach for a charge cable.

Related: Best Gaming Mouse 2019

Should I buy a Razer Turret (Xbox One edition)?

If you’re a console or lounge PC gamer looking for a well-built, reliable wireless gaming keyboard to use on your lap, then the Razer Turret is pretty much your only option at the moment.

As gaming keyboards go, I’m not completely sold on Razer’s custom switches. But the mouse, nifty pop-out pad design and solid battery life make it a great option for its intended users.

Issues with its hefty weight and sizeable design, coupled with strong competition from Corsair, whose K63 is a better standalone wireless gaming keyboard, stop it from scoring top marks, however.

Verdict

The Razer Turret (Xbox One edition) is a definite step forward from the original, with an upgraded mouse and large mat making it a great option for sofa-seated players. But as a standalone product there are better value alternatives available.

The post Razer Turret (Xbox One Edition) appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Read More

What is the iPhone X?

The iPhone X isn’t sold officially by Apple anymore, having been replaced first by the iPhone XS and now the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. You can still buy it though and while it hasn’t dropped too much in price, it can be had on offer during sales and days like Black Friday.

If you pick up the iPhone X now you’ll still be getting a great buy. It has just been updated to iOS 13 so you’ll be able to get access to new features like Dark Mode, a much better Apple Maps app and much more. You’ll also likely get an update to iOS 14 next year as Apple remains very good at updating its old phones to newer software.

The iPhone X remains a strong buy in other areas too. It looks very similar to the latest iPhone 11 Pro, has a great screen (that supports HDR in iTunes and Netflix) and a camera that still stands up there with the better ones you can buy. If you want a slightly bigger device that might even come in cheaper than the iPhone X it might be worth looking at the iPhone XR which has just received a significant price drop.

if you want to know more about the iPhone X you can read our original review below.

iPhone X Design – This phone reignited Apple’s phone design skills

Apple has been coasting for too long with the design it introduced for the iPhone 6, but that all changes with the iPhone X – in a big way. You don’t need me to tell you the iPhone X is a huge departure from the iPhone design of old – just look at the pictures. Not only does it look good, however; Apple has done a fantastic job at actually making it feel really good too.

Related: OnePlus 7T review

This phone is simply gorgeous. It’s slightly taller than the iPhone 8 (and 7 and 6) but much narrower and smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus. It strikes the perfect balance, especially since you’re getting a 5.8-inch display here.

The aluminium sides have been swapped out for stainless steel – as seen on the Apple Watch – and the front and rear of the device are glass. I received the Silver variant for review – and, unfortunately, it wasn’t long before it was covered in fingerprints, those shiny sides being a particular magnet. This is a phone that looks fantastic straight after a wipe-down; not so much a few hours after it’s been in your greasy palms.

Also of concern is how the iPhone X will fare over time. No matter how unscientific they might be, drop tests indicate that the finish here doesn’t lend itself well to wear and tear. After all, the stainless steel Apple Watch I’ve been using is a scratched-up mess. As a result, my iPhone X has spent much of its time inside an Apple case, but this certainly sees it lose points in the glamour stakes.

It’s around the front of the iPhone X that the magic happens, though. The iPhone 8 has an extensive bezel running around the display, but the iPhone X doesn’t. The lack of a thick bezel means there’s no room for the Home button, a feature present on every single iPhone iteration until now. As a result, there’s no Touch ID fingerprint scanner. Instead, the iPhone X sees Apple introduce facial recognition – a bold move.

All of the components for Face ID (infrared camera, flood illuminator, dot projector) are housed in what’s affectionately being called the ‘notch’. You’ll find the notch at the top of the display, where it somewhat disrupts that all-screen look. There’s been much controversy concerning the notch with regards to it completely ruining the immersive experience. Once you begin using the phone, however, I’ve found that it simply blends into the background. 

Sure, you notice it when the screen is on, plus it juts into video if you’re playing something full-screen. But in all other instances it fades into the background. Certain apps – Apple’s Music being one – use software trickery to blank out the notch, and some apps clearly need to be updated to ensure important buttons aren’t hidden by it.

In the space either side of the notch you’ll find the battery indicator and time. Annoyingly, you can no longer see the battery percentage remaining or whether you have a pair headphones connected without opening the Control Center. The bigger annoyance is that the battery and signal indicators aren’t in line with the bottom of the notch, so they dip slightly below and look rather weird.

I do feel that the notch gives the iPhone X a bit of character and a distinctive look, something lost by the dismissal of the Home button. I’m sure Apple would get rid of it in an instant if it could cram this tech inside the bezel; but it does feel as though the company wants to use it as a distinguishing feature while it’s here.

iPhone X Face ID – How Apple replaced the iconic Touch ID

I’ve used Samsung’s face unlock and iris scanners a fair bit, and have never been particularly impressed by either their speed or accuracy. So it was important that Apple’s Face ID worked every single time.

It works accurately in both the light and dark; it can’t be fooled by pictures or masks; and it works if you’re wearing glasses too. There have been reports that twins have fooled it, and Apple told me some IR-blocking sunnies won’t work, but these are limited scenarios. Note that you need to be ‘actively aware’ for it to work – you can’t just shove it in someone’s face and expect it to unlock.

Face ID isn’t perfect, though, but then neither was Touch ID; the fingerprint scanner was poor if your fingers were slightly greasy or wet. This isn’t a problem now. However, I have found that Face ID struggles if my eyes are a shrivelled mess, usually first thing in the morning, and if the phone isn’t close enough to my face. If you’re the type of person who tries to sneak a look at their notifications with your phone at pocket-level then you’re out of luck.

Apps that previously used Touch ID as a means of unlocking will automatically be replaced by Face ID without the need for an update, and you can of course use it for Apple Pay payments too.

iPhone X Screen – Nearly the same you’ll find on the iPhone 11 

The iPhone X sees Apple switch out its usual LCD screen tech for an OLED panel for the first time. Samsung, Google and many other Android phone makers have been using this technology for some time now, and it’s nice to see Apple finally joining the fray with a product other than the Apple Watch. This is also the highest-resolution screen ever on an iPhone, with a slightly odd 2436 x 1125 pixels, plus there’s support for the DCI P3 colour gamut and Dolby Vision HDR.

Apple’s OLEDs come from Samsung, and while there’s a small shift to blue if you tilt the device off-axis, it’s far less noticeable than on the Pixel 2 XL. Apple says it’s made a fair few tweaks to this panel, and the company’s optimisation of it is certainly different to Samsung’s approach for its own Galaxy S9 and Note 8 panels. Colours on the iPhone X are more natural and the saturation isn’t quite so intense.

The iPhone X’s screen also benefits from True Tone, which alters the screen temperature depending on the environment you’re in. 3D Touch makes a return, too, allowing you to perform alternative actions on applying different levels of pressure on the screen.

Whether or not you’re a fan of the iPhone X’s display will come down to what features you value most in a screen. For me, this is the best screen on any handset I’ve seen. I downloaded a few HDR-enabled movies from iTunes – something you can’t do on Android – and they’re stunning. I wouldn’t normally watch an entire film on a sub 6-inch screen, but on the iPhone X I did – and I wasn’t distracted by the notch at all.

The post iPhone X Review appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Read More

The Sennheiser GSP 670 is the brand’s latest swing at creating the Holy Grail of gaming headsets: a wireless set with audiophile-level sound quality.

While it doesn’t have the nifty head tracking tech seen on the rival Audeze Mobius, which remains one of the most interesting headsets ever made, it does largely manage to succeed in this aim and is one of the best sounding wireless sets we’ve ever tested.

The only downside is that with the price set to £300 and a home-wear only design, the Sennheiser GSP 670 is a seriously expensive luxury.

Sennheiser GSP 670 design – Functional, but a little dull

Visually the Sennheiser GSP 670 fall between the two extremes you normally see on a gaming headset.

One being Asus and its ROG / Strix line which tend to have garishly over the top angular designs full of RGB lighting that make them look more like a prop from a Predator movie than a pair of headphones. The other being SteelSeries, which tends to make wonderfully discrete headsets that look a lot like regular headphones.

The GSP 670 are blissfully free of RGB lights and stupid gimmicks, but the large volume control wheel, huge noise cancelling mic and giant swath of nylon padding also make it unmistakably a gaming headset and something you definitely won’t be wearing during your morning commute. Personally I like the functionality-first, utilitarian approach, but it’s something to be aware of.

In terms of build quality, they don’t have the premium feel of the SteelSeries Artic Pro Wireless or Audeze Mobius. But they are well made and tick all the right boxes when it comes to functionality.

The pairing process is wonderfully simple, just turn them on and pair via Bluetooth, or using the dongle to establish a superior low latency connection. From there download the Sennheiser Gaming Suite (PC) and tweak the settings to your liking – it’s here that you can turn on the headset’s 7.1 surround sound.

Related: Best Gaming Headset 2019

The controls are all sensibly placed with the main mic and game audio volume controls sitting on the right bud, with a custom programmable key sitting just below them that can be used to turn on 7.1 surround sound or switch between audio profiles. The padding and adjustable headband also make it quick and easy to get a comfortable fit, a fact aided by the fact they only weigh 398g.

Battery life is the only minor weak point with Senheisser’s quoted 20 hours Bluetooth, and 16 hours low-latency estimates proving a wee bit optimistic during testing. I tended to get closer to 10-12 hours using the low latency connection. My only other minor quibble with the design is that it uses a micro-USB, not USB-C charge input, which is a bit of a faff considering most hardware has moved to the newer standard.

Sennheiser GSP 670 audio quality – Amazing sound and clear mic

When it comes to sound quality, you’ll struggle to find a more balanced wireless gaming headset than the Sennheiser GSP 670.

The sound is very different too what you’ll find on most gaming headsets. This may put off some regular, non-audio conscious buyers as the most noticeable difference is how controlled the low end is. Unlike competing sets, such as the Arctis Pro which push the low end to the point it can wonder intrude on other parts of the sound, the Sennheiser GSP 670 keep it under permanent control. This gives it a far precise sound than most headsets, but can initially feel like it’s less powerful to an untrained ear.

It’s this precise quality that resonates through the whole sound. Tonal balance is great, with every part of the audio taking a distinct space. Creeping around in Dead by Daylight I could hear every distinct noise, from a generator blowing in the distance to a crow chirping, even when my character’s heart was beating like a kick drum as the killer approached,

The 7.1 surround sound doesn’t match the Audeze Mobius for pure immersion, but it works well enough and gives audio a clear sense of direction. I could definitely identify where gunfire was coming from when playing Destiny 2 and other online shooters

The headset’s closed back design and leatherette pads also offer great noise isolation. Despite not having true ANC I never had any background noise creeping in. The only time I suffered any audio issues was when playing games at very high volumes. Here some sibilance could creep in and high frequency sounds, like gunfire, could begin to distort. But this only occurred when the volume was incredibly high.

The mic is another stand out feature and one of the biggest differentiators between the GSP 670 and Arctis Pro. The Arctis Pro sounds great, but like most SteelSeries headsets its mic was a little weak, and had a tendency to distort. The GSP 670’s noise cancelling mic is blissfully clear by comparison, and one of the best I’ve tested on a gaming headset. Even during heated, loud, online matches my team reported being able to hear me loud and clear, making it a great option for competitive gamers.

Related: Best Gaming Keyboard 2019

Should I buy the Sennheiser GSP 670?

If you are a gamer that really cares about audio quality and doesn’t want the hassle of a wired connection then the Sennheiser GSP 670 could well be the gaming headset for you. It offers wonderfully balanced audio and has one of the best mics I’ve ever tested on a gaming headset.

The only downside is that it costs a whopping £299, which makes it a very expensive luxury that’s probably complete overkill for most casual gamers.

Verdict

The Sennheiser GSP 670 are one of the best gaming headsets you can get at the moment. They don’t look pretty, but they offer wonderfully balanced audio, industry leading mic quality and a super comfortable fit. The only downside is they’re seriously expensive.

The post Sennheiser GSP 670 review appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Read More

The OnePlus 7T is the a 0.5 update to the OnePlus 7 that launched earlier this year. It aims to offer buyers a number of subtle, but important hardware improvements on its predecessor.

Highlights include an upgraded Fluid AMOLED display, more powerful CPU, better fast charging and a new triple-sensor rear camera.

The upgrades don’t sound like much, but they add up to make the OnePlus 7T feel like a significant improvement on the original OnePlus 7.

The only issue is, that with UK pricing still unconfirmed, knowing how good value the phone is, is a little tricky. If the company prices it sensibly in the same £500-£600 region as the original OnePlus 7, the 7T will be one of the best mid-range phones on the market that easily competes with top end blowers, like the Huawei P30 and Asus Zenfone 6.

If it’s more than that things get a little difficult, as there are a number of great competing flagships, like the Galaxy S10 and iPhone 11 on the market. The fabled OnePlus 7T Pro, which is expected to launch in October could further complicate the OnePlus 7T’s place in the market.

Which is why we’ve held off scoring our OnePlus 7T for now. When pricing is confirmed we’ll update this article with our final verdict. In the meantime, scroll down to find out how the OnePlus 7T performed running through our stringent set of tests.

Related: Best phone 2019

The OnePlus 7T has a reworked Fluid AMOLED screen

Out of the box you’ll struggle to tell the OnePlus 7T from the regular OnePlus 7. It has the same OnePlus 6T inspired mixed metal and glass design, which is no bad thing. The design may not have the nifty pop-up front camera setup seen on the OnePlus 7 Pro, but it still looks great and comes with a wealth of handy features.

Up front you’ll see a cool Huawei P30-style dew drop notch front camera housing. Under the display there’s also an in-screen fingerprint scanner, which works a treat, though I used the face unlock feature for most of my review. On the side there’s also a nifty quick switch that lets you switch between noise, vibrate and silent profiles on the fly.

The design looks and feels as good as it did on the OnePlus 7 and 6T and overall I have no complaints about it. The only thing I’d say is that like all glass backed phones, you’ll want to invest in a case as it won’t survive any accidental fumbles completely unscathed. The lack of an IP water resistance rating is also a common and recurring issue with OnePlus phones, which means you’ll want to avoid the 7T having any aquatic adventures.

Under the hood things have been given more of a spruce. The biggest is the addition of the “Fluid AMOLED” screen tech seen on the OnePlus 7 Pro. Fluid AMOLED is marketing-speak for the fact the 6.55-inch AMOLED screen has a 90Hz refresh rate. Like every phone I’ve tested with a higher than 60Hz refresh rate, this is a key selling point for the 7T.

The higher refresh rate makes little things like scrolling through menus feel significantly smoother and can give you a competitive edge in competitive games, like PUBG and MOBAs. This is because by displaying more images per second, there are fewer gaps between you enacting commands and them being rendered on-screen.

Related: Best Android phone 2019

The screen retains the same 2400 x 1080 resolution as the OnePlus 7, which is a slight shame, but it’s hard to hold it against the 7T given how well it performs in other areas. The screen’s 1000 nits max brightness makes it HDR ready and ensures it remains usable in everything but direct sunlight. The AMOLED panel also ensures blacks are uniformly deep, giving movies and games a wonderfully immersive feel. Colours look a little overcooked in the default Vivid setting, but it’s quick and easy to fix this in the settings.

OnePlus has also bumped the CPU up to Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 855 Plus CPU, which should offer a moderate gaming performance boost – though if we’re honest, the regular 7 is still more than powerful enough, so you probably won’t notice the difference 99% of the time.

The OnePlus 7T camera’s had a few big improvements too

The bigger change has happened round the back. Specifically, OnePlus has bumped the camera sensor count from two to three.

This means you get a triple sensor rear camera that combines the same 48-megapixel Sony sensor seen on the OnePlus 7 with a 12-megapixel telephoto and 16-megapixel ultrawide.

OnePlus has never been the best at camera tech, but I have to applaud the gradual progress its made improving it’s phones’ photography generation-to-generation. This remains the case with the OnePlus 7T which is another definite step in the right direction.

The triple sensor doesn’t match key, more expensive, rival phones such as the Huawei P30 Pro when it comes to image quality, but it’s more than good enough for most users.

The biggest improvements relate to how the camera performs in low light and when capturing macro shots.

Related: Best camera phone 2019

The Nightscape mode comes installed out of the box. It lets the OnePlus 7T take noticeably better photos in low light than the original 7 did when it first launched. With a steady hand, photos taken in low light look clearer, are less noisy and generally more than good enough for Instagram.

OnePlus claims macro mode lets you shoot shots at distances of just 2.5cm. The feature works OK, and I could get usable shots at distances that rendered the Asus Zenfone 6 and Motorola One Vision’s cameras useless.

The triple sensor setup also lets you take wide angle shots, which is great for nature scenes and holiday photos.

The portrait mode is functional and good enough for social media. But if you blow up photos on a big screen you will notice blurred edges and a few anomalies.

Video recording is great thanks to the addition of optical image stabilisation (OIS) and electronic image stabilisation (EIS), though audio quality is an issue in windy areas.

My only real quibble with the OnePlus 7T’s camera is that, by default, it tries to force you to use OnePlus’ own gallery app. The app itself is fine, featuring decent auto-sort features, but I still prefer Google’s own.

This is representative of my feeling of OxygenOS 10 as a whole. While it doesn’t have much bloatware and the few features it adds are generally good, including intelligent swipe command shortcuts, I’d still have preferred a clean Android install.

You can see a selection of photos taken on the OnePlus 7T below. 

OnePlus 7T offers solid battery and upgraded fast charging

The addition of OnePlus new 30T Warp Charging tech is another key difference between the 7T and 7. The tech’s a modest upgrade on the regular 30 Warp Charge solution seen on the 7 that will reportedly let the phone go from 0 to 70% charge in 30 minutes.

Testing the charger, I found it wasn’t as big a step up on the rates we recorded on the OnePlus 7 as the company claimed, however, after half an hour at the mains I regularly had over 50-60% juice, but I never once got the quoted 70%.

Outside of this the OnePlus 7T’s battery is a modest update on the regular OnePlus 7’s. The OnePlus 7T’s 3800mAh battery isn’t as big as the 4000mAh cell seen in the OnePlus 7 Pro. But the phone offers solid battery life with regular use. Using the OnePlus 7T as my main blower, with the screen set to 90Hz, I generally got a day to a day and a half’s use out of it from a single charge.

Regular use entailed listening to music on my morning and evening commute, regularly checking incoming messages and social media feeds, taking and making a few calls and the odd PUBG or Netflix session before bed.

Gaming and video put a bigger drain on the battery, especially when using the phone in its 90Hz mode. Playing demanding 3D games with the screen at 150 nits – the level most people are comfortable – the phone lost an average of between 14-18% of its charge per hour, which is a bit more than I’d like. Video playback with same screen settings led to an average discharge rate of around 7-10% per hour. This again is good, but not best in class.

Should I buy the OnePlus 7T?

Without pricing this is a tricky one to answer. The OnePlus 7T is a great phone that fixes most of the niggling flaws we had with the OnePlus 7. The upgraded camera, Fluid AMOLED screen and improved fast charging all add up to make an already good Android phone great. If OnePlus competitively prices it, then the OnePlus 7T could be a contender for phone of the year.

Verdict

The OnePlus 7T is an excellent bit of hardware. The Fluid AMOLED, 90Hz screen is industry leading and a key feature we’d like to see other mobile phone makers adopt. Add to this its improved fast charging, CPU and triple-sensor rear camera and the OnePlus 7T quickly becomes a pretty alluring bit of kit. But with its price still a mystery, and numerous other top end phones doing the rounds, gauging how it fits into the current market is tricky.

The post OnePlus 7T rated: Is it a big enough upgrade? appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Read More