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LG has not tried to compete directly with the top phones from Samsung and Apple with its latest wave of phones. The result is the LG G8X ThinQ.

This is a top-end mobile with some of the same hardware as the £800-1000 models. But the price is low enough to offset LG’s relative lack of raw brand cred these days.

At this point LG has even intersected with the former darling of affordable phones. The LG ThinQ G8X costs $699 with the “second screen” case accessory, similar to the cost of the OnePlus 7 Pro.

But is the LG G8X ThinQ as good? No. The design is a little more conservative. The fingerprint scanner is not as reliable. The camera array is not as versatile and the speakers could be more powerful. However, it is a solid all-arounder well worth considering if your network offers a good deal for the handset.

LG G8X ThinQ Design – Metal and Glass

The LG G8X ThinQ has a design to match its price – it’s not remotely cheap, but is more affordable than the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus or iPhone 11 Pro. It is metal and glass, and has a large screen but not the tiniest screen surrounds around. Its notch style, a little dimple at top of the display, could these days belong to a £200 phone.

This is a good-looking, somewhat minimalist phone. But if you want one people will instantly recognise as ultra-pricey, the LG G8X probably isn’t it, not least because the phone is unlikely to be hugely popular, or an enthusiast’s choice like a OnePlus.

A few parts of the hardware do stand out. No part sticks out of the LG G8X ThinQ back. The rear Gorilla Glass 6 panel is used to cover both the cameras and the dual-LED flash. That silver border around the lenses? It sits behind the glass.

This puts a lot of faith in the scratch resistance of Gorilla Glass 6. Most phones still have raised metal borders around the camera housing to take the brunt of any scrapes. And Oppo’s recent Oppo Reno 2 has a little metal dot that lifts the back off the camera glass ever-so-slightly.

Some may say the LG G8X ThinQ style is a gamble, but it does look good. The back isn’t a completely flat panel of glass either. It curves at all four sides for a smooth look and feel.

LG also earns bonus points for its use of a headphone jack. Hardly any new £500-plus phones have one these days. LG has an extra reason to add one too. An advanced DAC has been a left-field draw of higher-end LG phones for several years, and the LG G8X ThinQ is no different. It has the same 32-bit DAC as the LG G7 ThinQ.

What does it do? This translates the digital audio data your phone’s apps produce into an analogue signal your headphones can relay. It does nothing for wireless headphones, as they receive audio digitally and there’s a DAC in the headphones themselves.

This is a good fit for higher-end wired headphones, as the amplifier inside is good too. The headphone jack alone is a solid draw for many at this point, though.

With such a focus on audio, I’m a little disappointed by the LG G8X ThinQ’s own speakers. There’s one on the front, another on the bottom, but the sound is not that loud or powerful. I switched to the G8X from the Google Pixel 4XL, and its speakers are significantly better. However, the sound gets a boost if you sit the phone on its back against a solid surface, as it resonates a bit.

The fingerprint scanner does not impress either. This is an in-screen scanner, placed in the usual thumb-friendly position towards the bottom of the screen. However, it is not particularly fast and seems to require far more second (or third) attempts than other phones I’ve used recently with similar scanners. I’ve tried re-teaching the LG G8X ThinQ my fingerprint, but it continues to fail to recognise my thumb regularly.

The other notable hardware extra was seen in the LG G7 too: a Google Assistant button on the left hand-side. And like last time, you can’t re-map it do anything else at launch. Still, it’s handy to have if you like Google Assistant, and does not get in the way if you don’t.

The LG G8X ThinQ is also water resistant to IP68, ready for complete submersion. My advice, as ever, is not to do this deliberately.

LG G8X ThinQ Screen – Is this a real foldable?

There’s a good chance you’re here because you have seen the LG G8X ThinQ described as a dual-screen phone. This makes it seem like a cheaper alternative to something like the Samsung Galaxy Fold.

The reality is a little different. You can get the LG G8X ThinQ with the LG dual screen case. This plugs into the phone itself using a USB-C connector, and has two screens of its own. There’s a small, low-res 2.1-inch OLED panel on the front, which shows you the time, battery life and recent notification icons.

This is similar to the display you might see on a windowed “folio” style case.

The display inside is more interesting, a 6.4-inch OLED screen that matches the main screen millimetre-for-millimetre. You use this as a second screen. It lets you run two apps at once, and you can load apps on either display. Fire up Chrome and you can also make a webpage scroll between the two.

Both are touchscreens, both have access to the app drawer and the second screen even gets its own homescreen, to which you can add a widget or two.

LG has made the software that gets this working, and it has done its best. You can, for example, make the LG G8X ThinQ’s second screen launch an app automatically when dual screen is used.

Gaming is the best use for the dual screen. You can turn one of the displays into a virtual controller, and there are four baked-in presets. They cover Xbox-style pads, retro controllers and a car steering wheel. How well they work depends on whether a game has been optimised for a gamepad.

Ark: Survival Evolved works well, PUBG less so. However you can also design your own layouts, and these are then linked the games you made them for. You lay down the buttons, then drag the corresponding touch zones they control on the other screen. This worked very well for Sonic 1, which barely needs any buttons and works best with a minimal layout. It had me playing all the way through the Green Hill zone.

The LG Gamepad feature lets you add little haptic feedback buzzes when you press a button too. Is it a replacement for a real physical controller? No, and buttons won’t respond if your other thumb is resting on a non-mapped zone. That caused a few lost lives in Sonic. However, it’s more practical than carrying around a Bluetooth controller, and frees up the screen so your thumbs don’t obscure the visuals.

There’s still a sense that the dual screen is a work-in-progress. I’ve encountered some strange bugs. Sometimes the soft keys go AWOL when you remove the case, although LG is likely to fix such problems fairly swiftly with software updates.

Size is the real issue here. The LG G8X ThinQ is huge with the dual screen case attached. It adds more than a centimetre of width to the phone.

Still, the dual screen case feels more likely to hold up to real life better than a Samsung Galaxy Fold. Its front and inside panels are glass, and the outer is covered with rubberised plastic. The hinge feels solid too, although the way the tension varies a lot through its articulation makes it seem an experimental accessory. Apple wouldn’t release something like this for the iPhone.

Adding a pointless notch will seem odd to many too. There’s no camera in it, although it’s likely there so when apps are flung over from the main screen, the screen shape and style are identical.

The second screen’s quality is very good for an add-on like this. It’s a 6.4-inch 2340 x 1080 pixel OLED, but in my LG G8X at least there’s a slight but noticeable difference in colour tone between the two panels.

I have mostly used the G8X without the second screen as it’s more practical flying solo. The main screen is also a 6.4-inch OLED panel of 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution, similar to the OnePlus 7T’s.

Top brightness is excellent and the effect of the just OK pixel density is only evident when you look at the LG G8X ThinQ close-up. The phone also has an always-on screen mode, handy for checking out the time when the phone is sat next to your laptop (yes, your laptop can tell you the time too).

I’m not a huge fan of what LG has done with its screen calibration, though. The LG G8X ThinQ has a whopping seven display modes, mimicking Samsung’s old style (it has since slimmed down your options). However, where Samsung used these modes to make the screen line-up with industry standards, LG’s mostly seem to alter colour temperature. All preset modes bar “Web” are fairly saturated.

To get a relaxed sRGB appearance to you have to use the Expert mode, dig into the Advanced settings and pull down the saturation slider. You also need to play with the LG G8X ThinQ to get clean-looking whites.

Other manufactures handle OLED screens better. But this is still a high-quality OLED screen so we’re quibbling about the top 10% of performance here, and you have the controls to get the screen looking as you like. After fiddling my G8X ThinQ looks great to my eyes.

The OLED panel itself is not the most advanced around, though, as it has a standard refresh rate of 60Hz, not the 90Hz on offer in phones like the OnePlus 7T and Google Pixel 4XL. 90Hz is a “nice to have” extra, and it makes Android’s menus seem to glide by more smoothly, but there’s a real question of whether it’s worth the extra battery drain.

LG G8X ThinQ Software – LG’s skin isn’t the best

The LG G8X ThinQ runs Android 9 and has LG’s custom interface. It offers a few neat extras like the always-on screen mode mentioned earlier, which keeps the time in view, and the ability to dress up the notch area.

You can add a gradient effect to the top half-inch of the screen, keep it bare or black it out.

This kind of customisation seemed appealing back in the early days of notches when they seemed a bit odd and unsettling, but nowadays LG’s bonus gradients seem a little unnecessary, even tacky. Let your own eyes be the judge on this one.

Other parts are raise the question of taste too. The LG interface squishes icons fonts to make text fit in place, and it ends up looking odd. You wouldn’t catch Apple doing this, as its reputation for design relies on tasteful consistency. Fiddling about with the width an aspect of characters is the opposite of this.

LG UX also diverts from “standard” Android in its app drawer style, like some other custom UIs. There’s no app drawer by default, and if you add one it’s arranged in pages rather than as one long scroll.

The G8X ThinQ’s UX interface is one of my least favourite custom Android UIs. It hasn’t developed all that much in the last few years, even though this is a “new” version, and some elements would raise a designer’s eyebrow. But would it stop me buying the phone? Absolutely not.

Android runs well, and if you really don’t like how it looks you can use a Launcher app. These paste over the top layer of an interface with their own. I’ve largely stopped caring about the little software quirks that annoyed me at first.

LG G8X ThinQ Performance – A strong performer

The LG G8X ThinQ has one of the best processors available to Android phones at present. It’s Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855, a Kyro 485-based CPU with an Adreno 640 GPU.

Qualcomm has since released a Snapdragon 855+, to keep the progress train rolling on, but it is effectively an overlocked Snapdragon 855 and performance gains are not huge.

The LG G8X ThinQ’s dual screen add-on lets you test the processor’s power like no other phone. I tried loading up Ark: Survival Evolved and PUBG at the same time, expecting a lot of stuttering. The LG G8X ThinQ can play both games with their graphics maxed-out at the same time and the frame rates are still better than those of some mid-range phones playing just the one title. They are pretty smooth.

This tells you quite how little of the Snapdragon 855 Adreno 640 CPU’s power most Android games actually tap into. Do I want to play Ark and PUBG at the same time? No, but the power to do so is here.

The phone also has 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. There’s nothing to complain about here, but at this point it’s hard to ignore Chinese rivals. The Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro costs around £240 less and has the same specs. The OnePlus 7T, perhaps a more familiar name in the UK and US, has the “Plus” version of the Snapdragon 855 and 8GB RAM. It is around £150 less.

You know how everyone has said for years that China was going to take over pretty soon? We’re seeing that start to happen in phones right now, and it’s hard not to be swayed. You used to have to import Xiaomi phones, but now they are readily available in the UK, complete with the extras we expect in the west, like Gmail – how bourgeois.

LG G8X ThinQ Cameras – We miss the zoom

The LG G8X ThinQ has two rear cameras, an ultra-wide and a standard one. There’s no zoom camera, and I do miss it.

You can pinch to use digital zoom, but even at 2x there’s the same major hit to image quality that has made photographers dismiss this “enlarge and crop” measure since forever. However, the hardware does represent a big upgrade over the LG G7.

Last year’s phone used a 16-megapixel sensor and had a bad habit of leaving big overexposed areas in your images at launch. The LG G8X ThinQ has the 12-megapixel Sony IMX363 sensor, the same used in the Pixel 4 XL.

This is the highlight of the camera line-up. The other two, the ultra-wide and selfie camera, use Samsung sensors (s5kdg1, s5k3m3), and they are rarely anything to get excited about.

The central hardware of the main camera is a match for the Pixel 4XL, but is the image quality? Not quite.

Its processing doesn’t handle fine textures as well and the Night View low light mode is a step below the best. However, you can take excellent photos with the phone. Its colour reproduction is tasteful, dynamic range optimisation is mostly excellent and detail seems great until you compare it directly with the very best phone cameras in the world.

There are a lot of camera extras packed in here too. For example, you can use the dual screen as a way to review photos without leaving the shooting interface, or as a tilt screen so you can compose from awkward angles. It can also function as an off-centre flash for low-light selfies.

Not all the extras rely on the dual screen case either. There’s an ASMR mode for video that increases mic sensitivity — pretty niche — and an extra-stabilised video mode for shooting action. This uses the ultra-wide camera so there’s masses of spare image data for software stabilisation.

I recommend using the standard mode most of the time, though, as it lets you shoot at up to 4K, 60 frames (the ultra-stabilised mode is limited to 1080p) and already has pretty good stabilisation. Image quality is better too, as the main camera sensor is superior.

The ultra-wide camera is fun to play around with too, but its not one of the best around. Some darker tones take on a purplish hue, and this secondary camera has a fixed focus so is no use for close-ups.

Here are some more sample images:

I’m a little disappointed by the front camera too. It uses a 32-megapixel sensor, but tends to leave fine facial hair detail looking soft even in good lighting.

The purpose of all those megapixels is actually for pixel binning, where sensor pixels are clustered to increase sensitivity in lower light. This does work pretty well. The LG G8X ThinQ’s front camera actually holds up better in worse conditions, relative to its major competitors.

LG G8X ThinQ Battery life – Good, but not the best

The LG G8X ThinQ has a 4000mAh battery, which has become the expected size for a large-screen phone. This phone’s longevity is split. Use it without the dual screen add-on and it’s great. One lighter-use weekend day I ended up with 50% charge left.

On more hectic weekdays, I tend to have around 20-30% left. I use my phone fairly intensively during the week, so this is a good result.

However, the dual screen drains the battery quite significantly as it does not have a power source of its own and a second 6.4-inch OLED is not a tiny power draw. For this reason you’ll likely only want to switch the second screen on when needed. The LG G8X ThinQ comes with a fast charger.

Should you buy the LG G8X ThinQ?

Curiosity is one of the best reasons to buy the LG G8X ThinQ. It’s a solid all-round phone for those who want a high-end mobile that costs less than the biggest names, but the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro and OnePlus 7T simply cost less.

The dual screen accessory is the truly unusual part, and it’s a mixed bag. It’s fiddly and a bit buggy, the side-by-side multi-tasking isn’t arguably all that useful. But the virtual gamepad feature is interesting, particularly as LG has gone well beyond the basics. It lets you create your own virtual gamepads, adding only the buttons you need.

I leave the dual screen add-on at home more often than not, but there’s real value here if you use mobile games to make your journey to work less of a chore.

Verdict

A quirky Android phone that should interest mobile gaming fans.

The post LG G8X ThinQ rated: one for the gamers? appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

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What is the Moto 360 (2019)?

When I heard that the Moto 360 was returning, I was intrigued, but I really had no idea what to expect – there were no leaks, no murmurs, and in this day and age, that’s unheard of. The lid has, however, been lifted and a shiny new smartwatch has been launched; it’s a new Moto 360… but not a Motorola Moto 360.

Motorola has licensed the Moto 360 name to a company called eBuyNow and it has created a Wear OS watch that looks like a premium smartwatch (from 2015). Honestly, I am still scratching my head after having had a quick play with the thing.

It’s chunky, has a bezel within its bezel, and while it looks premium and runs Wear OS, costing $349.99 when it ships at the end of the year, it’s boldly priced, to put it mildly.

Moto 360 (2019) Design and screen – A blast from the past

In a dark, moody basement bar just off Oxford Street, I spent a brief evening fondling both the black and the rose gold versions of the new Moto 360 and its leather straps. It’s also available in a grey version too, all showcasing a brushed stainless steel body, with a patterned, ribbed plastic back and 3 ATM waterproofing.

There’s no flat tire here, i.e. that horizontal line on the bottom of the original Moto 360’s screen, so, that’s good, but this time around, there’s not one, but two bezels surrounding the display, making this 2019 edition look distinctly dated. In fact, we’d go so far as to say, the 2nd gen Moto 360, which was more edge-to-edge looks fresher.

Don’t get us wrong, this watch’s body feels solid, the two buttons on the right have a gratifying tactility and the top button, which doubles up as a digital crown is seriously smooth when interacting with it, but I can’t help but feel like the fascia itself is a step back in time.

Face-on, the 1.2-inch 360 x 360 OLED screen looks bright and felt responsive, but it is pretty small. Our roughly 1.4-inch Huawei Watch GT 2 display wiped the floor with it side-by-side from a size and resolution perspective, and it also felt less chunky too, despite being bigger.

Moto 360 (2019) everything else

That said, the new Moto 360 can do some things the Watch GT 2 can’t. For example, running Android Wear, Google’s voice assistant is loaded onboard – just swipe to the right-hand screen to fire it up and the world is at your beck and call – provided you’ve got an active internet connection.

Google Pay integration means you can tap and pay from the watch thanks to the Moto 360’s NFC tech, and this even works when you don’t have your phone to hand. 

The reprise also features a 355mAh battery, is powered by a Snapdragon 3100 processor from Qualcomm, and comes bundled with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. I found swipes to be smooth, and clarity and brightness to be decent, though I used it in a dimly lit London bar, so will have to test it outdoors before nailing our colours to the mast on that front. 

As for fitness tracking, there’s a heart rate monitor on the back and the watch also includes GPS too, while Wear OS plays nicely with third-party apps like Strava, and is integrated with Google Fit. That 3ATM waterproofing means it’s good for a swim as well, though be sure to use the ribbed rubber strap, included in the box, rather than the leather one when training. 

If you’re interested in seeing how this strange tale of licensing unfolds, you can sign up for updates by visiting moto360.com, with shipping in the US expected to commence in December 2019 – just in time for the holidays.

Related: Best smartwatches

Moto 360 (2019) – Early Verdict

After a quick hands-on, the Moto 360 (2019) doesn’t make all that much sense. You can buy better-looking smartwatches for less, its rotating crown is cool, but not game-changing and I am having serious difficulty dealing with the fact the latest Moto 360 isn’t made by Motorola. When I get it in for review, it could have sensational battery and usability, totally blowing my mind… for now, though, it’s just a bit confusing.

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What is the Motorola Moto E6 Plus?

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus is a handset for money-savers, for the young, for the clumsy serial phone smashers. It’s it’s for those smartphone users who want to stay within a budget, who don’t believe in spending a small fortune on a phone.

At £99.99, the Motorola Moto E6 Plus is right near the bottom of your smartphone options from big names. But it’s far better than most that launch at sub-£100.

Its screen is low-res, but surprisingly good. Its body is plastic, but the look is at least “current”.

Gamers are the only group that would be wise to look elsewhere. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus loads titles slowly, can’t play many of them, and doesn’t run them as well as the Moto G7 phones.

But for the basics – and more besides – the Motorola Moto E6 Plus is a charmer, and one of the better Moto E series phones to date.

Related: Best budget phones

Motorola Moto E6 Plus design – Modern in many ways, but no so much in others

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus is a most unusual device. It’s a phone with a removable rear, of the type seen in handsets dating back half a decade or more.

This is so rare these days that I spent an hour trying to charge the phone, wondering why it wouldn’t turn on – only to discover the battery wasn’t inside. You’ll find it loose in the box on unpacking the handset.

Some will see this as a blessing. For example, when the battery starts to play up, you can simply buy a replacement and switch it out yourself, rather than having to pay someone to sort it for you.

On the other hand, a sealed in unit is often accomplished in concert with some basic weather-sealing techniques, which give a phone a degree of water-resistance – even if officially has none. Other Motos use a “nano coating” to achieve this effect.

In the rain, we’d advice the Motorola Moto E6 Plus is put in your pocket, since there’s nothing to stop water from seeping into the case and onto those battery connectors.

In this regard, the Motorola Moto E6 Plus really has taken a leaf out of the old-school book of phone design.

However, elsewhere it doesn’t look old-school at all; it’s absolutely a handset that belongs in 2019/2020. It has a tall aspect screen, a neat little display notch and a shiny finish. The rear of the phone is plastic, but it has some of the visual impact of treated glass or buffed metal.

Many of the photos in this review don’t quite show what the Moto E6 Plus looks like on the back, since most are taken with a wide lens aperture, which blurs reflections. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus actually sports a high-gloss finish, like seen below:

This model above is “Polished Graphite”; but it’s also available in a “Bright Cherry” red finish.

The plastic doesn’t feel too fancy, and I’d recommend using the included silicone case. Following a week of use, the Motorola Moto E6 Plus has picked up a number of tiny nicks and scrapes. You could, in theory, buy a replacement battery cover – although these don’t seem to be available online just yet.

I switched to the Motorola Moto E6 Plus from the Google Pixel 3A XL, an “affordable” phone that’s almost five times the price of the Moto. Sure, the plastics used in the Moto are cheaper, but it didn’t seem like a major stylistic downgrade.

However, the buttons on the side of the Motorola Moto E6 Plus feel a cheaper, and while the speaker is loud, it’s also quite thin-sounding, which is common for a phone at this price. The E6 Plus lacks NFC, which rules out the use of Google Pay wireless payments. There’s no compass, either, meaning you won’t see the direction you face in Google Maps, which is quite annoying.

Related: Best phones 2019

In addition, the Motorola Moto E6 Plus has super-slow micro-USB charging, so you’ll want to recharge overnight. Motorola’s G7 series phones comes with a much faster Turbo Charger.

While I missed that charge speed and the compass, I didn’t miss much else. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus has a solid fingerprint scanner on its rear, a headphone jack, and even face unlock; I recommend using the finger scanner, though, since it’s usually quicker.

Motorola Moto E6 Plus screen – It isn’t perfect, but for the price it certainly impresses

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus has a 6.1in screen. A number of Motorola’s “Plus” phones over the years have been a bit of a handful; they’ve been unsuitable for children and those who find bigger displays a bit of a stretch.

With the E6 Plus, Motorola brings to market a device that’s similar to “normal” phones at a much higher price. Add 1.5mm of horizontal screen border to each side of the Samsung Galaxy S10e and it would feel similar to the E6 Plus.

Still, if you’re buying a first phone for a younger child then you might want to consider the Moto G7 Play. It doesn’t look as slick as the Moto E6 Plus but is slightly smaller when it comes to overall dimensions.

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus’s 6.1in display is one of the best you’ll find at the price, even though its 1560 x 720 pixel resolution doesn’t sound impressive on paper.

Full HD is the optimal resolution for a budget phone, but I didn’t find the pixel drop here obvious. This is a result of two factors. Android seems to be much better at resolution scaling than it has been in the past, applying anti-aliasing to small interface fonts so they look smooth, not blocky. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus’s LCD screen doesn’t make the pixels too visible.

You can see the grid of pixels in some lower-end LCDs, and low-res OLEDs tend to look fuzzy. But here? A perfectly satisfying image.

Even the colour reproduction is sound. Sure, the deep red of the YouTube logo doesn’t have the pop of a higher-end phone, but this is the kind of colour you might see when using the “accurate” mode of a more expensive mobile.

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus has no such customisable modes, most likely because the handset is already maxing out the screen’s capabilities.

There are two shortcomings that show up in day-to-day use. The first is that the Motorola Moto E6 Plus’s screen doesn’t look hugely bright on a sunny day. The second, at times the Auto Brightness mode isn’t good at judging the level required for indoors lighting. Neither should put you off, given the price.

 

Motorola Moto E6 Plus software – It looks like Android One, and is lacking any extras

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus runs Android 9.0, and doesn’t have quite the same approach as the previous Moto E5 range or the Moto G7 family.

Those phones have a light custom interface, but the Motorola Moto E6 Plus’s looks exactly like Android One. The number of Motorola extras is completely stripped back, too.

Almost all Motorola phones, even Android One models, come with a bunch of Moto extras. These include the Moto Display standby screen and gestures such as turning the “flashlight” (camera LED flash) on with a double-flick of the phone. None are present here.

It really does look and feel almost exactly like an Android One phone.

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus has 32GB of storage, but there’s a microSD slot under the back cover. I currently have 7.85GB remaining, having installed a handful of apps, three fairly large games, downloading a few audiobooks and taking 100 or so photos.

Space isn’t limitless, then, but for the kind of person who wants a cheap phone for the basics it will do the job.

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus also has more recent Android features for those who might use those “basics” too often. Google’s Digital Wellness suite is present, allowing you tomonitor and control how much you use certain apps. Disclaimer: some willpower is still required.

Motorola Moto E6 Plus performance – It’s reasonably quick, but this isn’t a device for serious gaming

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus has the MediaTek MT6762 Helio P22 processor, a lower mid-range CPU that can be seen in the Nokia 3.1 Plus.

It’s an octa-core CPU with Cortex-A53 cores and a PowerVR graphics chipset. That’s an ageing core and one of the least common brands of mobile GPUs.

But, on the whole, it gets by just fine. Android 9.0 feels reasonably quick. It isn’t as fast as a mid-range phone, with a short delay to almost all transitions – but these aren’t such that you’ll wish you had something more powerful while simply browsing and looking through Twitter.

Coming from the Google Pixel 3A XL, it’s with app loads that the differences are most obvious. There’s always a little wait for an app to initialise, and that wait can be quite long in the case of some games.

You’ll see these loading pauses more regularly than in other phones, too, because the Motorola Moto E6 Plus has only 2GB of RAM (4GB version available in some countries). Phones use this kind of memory to “park” apps when not in use, to avoid closing them down completely in case you return after a few minutes.

Little spare RAM makes the Motorola Moto E6 Plus close down these parked apps quickly. This isn’t an ideal multi-tasking phone, but I can’t say I’ve found it irritating in this regard. The Honor 7S’s performance made me want to microwave the thing, but the Moto E6 Plus is just fine.

Gaming is a mixed bag – but, again, good enough for the money.

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus doesn’t yet support the Vulkan graphics API, so certain titles such as Ark: Survival Evolved simply won’t work as they should. The game runs, but none of the 3D elements appear.

Asphalt 9 runs but its frame rate is slow enough to seem slightly juddery. PUBG is pretty smooth but will only run at the lower graphics settings, missing out on anti-aliasing and some higher-end textures.

3DMark scores of the Motorola Moto E6 Plus aren’t miles behind some phones that include mid-range Snapdragon CPUs, suggesting some of this passable performance is down to a lack of GPU-specific optimisation.

But for £100? I’m happy with the results here, and I’ll be even happier when/if Vulkan support is added. Such support has been added to previous budget Motos post-launch.

Motorola Moto E6 Plus camera – Day time shots are good, but low-light performance is as you’d expect from a budget handset

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus has two cameras on its rear, giving it an advantage over the slightly more expensive Moto G7 Play.

One is a 13-megapixel sensor and f/2 lens. The other is a 2-megapixel depth sensor. It enables the background blur of the “aperture” mode that sits right at the top level of the custom camera app.

This is a basic camera array that can take some nice-looking photos during the day, thanks to Auto HDR, dynamic range enhancement. The Motorola Moto E6 Plus is no master of colour, or at avoiding blown highlights regardless of the light contrast in a scene. However, on a bright day it can take some pleasant shots.

I’m also reasonably impressed by the background blur mode, and I haven’t been impressed by the Moto version in the past. As usual, there are often messed-up parts of a shot, sections that are blurred that shouldn’t be blurred as a result of the low quality of the depth map. But Lenovo/Motorola seems to have worked on its algorithms in the last couple of years, and can now deliver artistic looking effects even in a sub-£100 phone.

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus’s blur mode also lets you choose the virtual aperture. Its widest f/0.95 setting throws everything out of focus bar your subject, with a pleasing level of progressive blur on show.

In terms of what this camera doesn’t handle so well, low-light performance is poor. Images become super-soft and colour takes on the usual crude look you’ll see from other low-end cameras.

Also, in daylight the noise reduction algorithms tend to turn some natural textures such as grass into mush. There’s often too much purple hue in the browns of nature scenes, highlighted by the Motorola Moto E6 Plus’s tendency to slightly overexpose images when there’s no sky in the shot to act as an exposure guide.

By manually reducing the exposure you end up with more realistic-looking results in some scenes

Some types of photo also take an age to process. Those background blur images are the clearest example.

Here are some more photo samples:

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus has an 8-megapixel selfie camera. I didn’t expect much from this, but it’s great. Shooting selfies indoors with some natural light coming from a nearby window, detail is excellent, skin tones look natural. And you can even use the background blur mode seen in the rear camera view.

The camera holds up well in dark rooms, too, brightening up photos far beyond their “real” level while holding onto a remarkable amount of detail for a sub-£100 phone. These low-light images tend to look a little milky, but I’ve seen worse results from phones double the price.

Why use such a solid selfie camera in a cheap phone? The world loves selfies, and this makes sure the face unlock feature works in all kinds of lighting.

There are no similar surprises in the Motorola Moto E6 Plus’s video. The phone can shoot at 720p or 1080p resolution with either camera, but there’s no software stabilisation and no 4K capture. Video is poor.

Motorola Moto E6 Plus battery life – For light users, it’s fine; but charge times are slow

Unlike the G7 Power, which comes packing a truly huge battery, the Motorola Moto E6 Plus has a 3000mAh unit. As such, it doesn’t last a truly remarkable length of time.

Like most Motos, it’s fine. Moderate use might see it hold onto around 20-30% by bed, but I’ve drained it further most days. This is because use has included a lot of streamed audio, a fair amount of YouTube and some public transport navigation by CityMapper.

The Moto G6 Play or Moto G7 Power are better “low maintenance” phones for light users who want to think about charging as little as possible.

The E6 Plus loses more maintenance points for its ultra-slow charger, mentioned earlier in this review. It’s an extremely slow 5W charger, which is far less powerful than the 15W Turbopower charger included with most of the G-series Motorolas.

This won’t matter too much to light users who charge phones every night. But for those quick top-ups before you go out for the evening, the E6 Plus will power-up at sloth-like speed.

Should I buy the Motorola Moto E6 Plus?

The Motorola Moto E6 Plus is an excellent buy for anyone looking to spend as little as possible on a phone. It may be affordable, but it doesn’t present in that way: it looks good and has a large, fairly high-quality screen that makes movies and casual games look nearly as good as though would on a phone costing five times the price.

There are compromises, of course. It lacks NFC, plus the best phones in the £150-200 range handle some games better and load apps more quickly. And, like every phone at the price, low-light photos are poor.

But at £100, the Moto E6 Plus shows the Moto range at its best – providing a no-nonsense phone for those who want a device that can handle the basics without issue.

 

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The best Android TV streaming box around

What is the Nvidia Shield TV?

The Nvidia Shield TV is an Android streaming box, allowing easy access to a huge library of TV apps such as Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video and more. Since this device is from graphics card manufacturer Nvidia, it shouldn’t come as a shock that it offers a gaming-focused spin on the likes of the Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV ranges. 

With GeForce Now – Nvidia’s answer to Google Stadia – available on the Shield TV, you’ll be able to stream games you own on Steam, Origin or uPlay via the cloud. This means the Shield TV’s hardware has no limits on performance, with the speed and reliability of your internet connection the only obstacle to play the latest and greatest video games at max graphics settings. 

The 2019 edition of the Shield TV further improves experiences for both gaming and TV, with a Tegra X1+ processor speeding up the performance, Dolby Vision HDR and AI upscaling boosting the picture quality and Dolby Atmos support levelling up your audio to such an extent your local multiplex will turn green with envy. 

Nvidia also made sure to remove the perception the Shield TV is exclusively for gamers by ditching the mini console design (at least for the entry-level model) and redesigning the remote so it no longer looks out of place in the living room. Best of all, the Shield TV is launching at its cheapest price, an affordable £149.99. But is that enough for to be champion of the TV streaming boxes?

Related: Best Streaming Sites

Nvidia Shield TV design and controller – Radical makeovers

Previous editions of the Shield TV looked like a miniature Xbox. While I’m sure plenty of gamers appreciated this, it also likely turned off many who thought the overbearing design would look jarring in the living. The new entry-level Nvidia Shield TV box is rocking a far more low-profile design – in fact, it’s so low profile you could mistake it for a power brick. 

The Nvidia Shield TV is a small, slender black cylinder. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s designed to disappear out of sight behind the television instead of being proudly displayed. While I really love this subtle design approach, it does come with drawbacks, as there’s limited room for ports. There’s only wired connections for power, Ethernet HDMI and storage expansion via MicroSD card. 

Don’t worry gamers, the new Pro model of the Shield TV still retains the overt gaming style and USB 3.0 ports for hooking up your gaming keyboard and mouse if those are both crucial features for you – although you’ll have to offer up an extra £50 for the privilege. 

The Nvidia Shield TV remote has also seen a massive design overhaul, now looking far more approachable and accessible to non-gamers. Playback control buttons have been added, making it easier to pause, fast forward or alter the volume, while a dedicated Netflix button ensures accessing the world’s most popular streaming service is an absolute doddle. The microphone button remains here too, so you can bring up Google Assistant to take you to your favourite TV show without faffing with menus. 

Google Assistant is reasonably accurate, but its functionality is limited with Shield TV. It can easily whip up any film or TV show from Netflix and the Google Play Store at command for example, but it faltered when opening The Apprentice on BBC iPlayer. Google Assistant also refused to acknowledge the existence of GeForce Now, so I had to open up all my games manually – first-world problems ey? The Shield TV also supports Alexa now too, so you still boss the system around if you’re loyal to Amazon’s assistant.  

Nvidia has introduced additional nifty extra features to the remote too, including a motion-activated backlight, IR control for your TV and video/equipment and a lost-remote locator. These may sound insignificant on paper, but every one of these features helps to eradicate all the faff and stress when settling down to watch TV.

The remote also uses 2x AAA batteries (provided in the box) which apparently last six months of use before requiring replacements. This is a welcome change from using disc, batteries which were an absolute pain to replace, so kudos to Nvidia for listening to customer feedback. 

Overall, I’m a big fan of the remote. The toblerone shape and miniature size ensure its comfortable to hold, while Bluetooth connectivity means you don’t have to accurately point at the device for your commands to be registered. In terms of upgrades from the previous generation Shield TV, the controller redesign is certainly among the best.

The Shield gamepad no longer comes bundled with the Shield TV. Instead, Nvidia has allowed you to hook up your own Bluetooth controllers, which includes pads from both the PS4 and Xbox One, or even your old Shield controller. Pairing them is a very simple – following some quick fiddling in the settings, and you’re good to go. I’m a big fan of Nvidia letting users pick their own pad of choice, while not forcing their own in a bundle helps to keep the cost down. 

Related: Best TVs 2019 

Nvidia Shield TV – Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and AI Upscaling

The Nvidia Shield TV is a premium streaming TV box, allowing you to watch content in 4K via the likes of Netflix, Prime Video and even the upcoming Disney Plus. The new iteration goes several steps further, also enabling support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. 

Dolby Vision is a high dynamic range (HDR) video format, which helps to increase the range of colours displayed on screen while also boosting the brightness, resulting in a drastically improved picture. The only issue here is Dolby Vision content is limited, with only select modern films (Avengers Infinity War and Solo: A Star Wars Story etc) and Netflix originals (Stranger Things, Altered Carbon and more) supporting the technology. 

Dolby Atmos, meanwhile, is a surround-sound technology which proves to be a big step up from what you get with 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound. The major improvement here is that sound occupies a more vertical space, as its blasted from the ceiling and floor and gives the illusion that a whirring helicopter or roaring dinosaur is directly above you. Again, Dolby Atmos support isn’t plentiful, with a very limited Netflix Originals library – restricted to the likes of The Haunting of Hill House, nature documentary Our Planet and Breaking Bad movie El Camino – taking advantage of it. Dolby Atmos really does offer a cinema-esque experience to the living room though, providing a level of immersion I didn’t think possible in the living room. 

Another limitation for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos is the hardware required. You’ll need a Dolby Atmos-compatible TV and Dolby Atmos certified sound system for the technology to work, and neither of them come cheap. Both technologies are of course very welcome additions, but unless you have the required hardware, it’s probably not worth upgrading to the new Shield TV. 

There is another exciting feature with the new Shield TV which doesn’t require such an extravagant setup: AI upscaling. This technology allows you to convert 720p and 1080p content to 4K, making images look sharper and more detailed. While upscaling is nothing new, Nvidia claims the computing power of the Tegra Z1+ chip allows for a more enhanced upscaling process. The final picture won’t look quite as good as native 4K content, but it still often results in a remarkably improved picture. 

Nvidia demonstrated the power of AI upscaling with an episode of Game of Thrones. Since only season one currently supports 4K, it was a marvel to see the larger pixel count finally give Westeros the extra shine it truly merits. With AI enhanced, the medieval clothing suddenly looked more textured, while background scenery looked noticeably less blurry. 

After taking the Shield TV home, I soon realised AI Upscaling can be hit and miss. It actually made Lord of the Rings look worse, with the artificial intelligence making the film look more grainy. Nvidia acknowledge the upscaling technology won’t make every film look better, and so does allow you to turn the feature off with a single press of a button. 

I found animated films to be one of the biggest benefactors of AI upscaling, with the likes of Shrek and Coco looking significantly sharper. With most content though, I really had to squint to see the difference. AI Upscaling, then, is certainly a good addition for the Nvidia Shield TV, although I’m unconvinced it provides enough of a difference to merit an upgrade from an older Shield device. 

Elsewhere, the Shield TV retains the same high quality of its predecessors. There’s a massive library of TV apps here, including the classics such as Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube and BBC iPlayer, while also boasting more obscure cult favourite options such as Crunchyroll, Rakuten Viki and Ted Talks. With even Disney Plus confirmed, its future proofed for entrainment too. The only significant omission I could find was Now TV, but I did have the option to cast the Now TV mobile app to the Shield TV, so it’s not a massive issue. 

There are also many non-TV streaming services available through the Google Play Store, such as Spotify, Twitch and Plex. Even NordVPN is here, which I imagine will you let you access the US Netflix from British soil, although the VPN’s recent hacking scandal does make that option less attractive. 

The interface remains the same as previously too. I think it’s fine, with the Android software organising your streaming services and games into separate rows. It’s all customisable too, so you can pin your most used apps to the top for easy access. Navigating Google Play for new apps can be a pain though, especially since it prompts you to use voice commands for search which isn’t always reliable. Nvidia assured me it will continue to regularly update the Shield TV though, so don’t rule out an improved interface further down the line.

Related: Apple TV 4K review

Nvidia Shield TV Gaming – GeForce Now and GameStream 

The Shield TV is a fantastic device for streaming films and TV, but there’s no doubt its greatest ace card is its gaming credentials. You’ve the option to play Android games locally, stream games from your own PC or use cloud streaming via GeForce Now. Not one of these features are new or exclusive for the 2019 edition of the Shield TV, but there’s no doubt Nvidia has made huge strides in the gaming department since the previous Shield TV device first launched. 

Nvidia’s GeForce Now allows you to play AAA video games without the need for high-end hardware. This means you’ll be able to play GPU-demanding games on the low-powered Shield TV, putting your PlayStation and Xbox to shame. This cloud-streaming service is very similar to what Google Stadia offers, but instead of being forced to buy games directly from Nvidia, you can instead port titles over from over online game stores such as Stream, EA Origin and Uplay. 

With a purchase of a Shield TV, you also get access to 42 games via GeForce Now for free. Most of these titles are admittedly pretty old, but there are still some fantastic picks including Batman: Arkham City, BioShock Remastered and Borderlands. 

I installed Hitman 2 from my Steam library to test out GeForce now, and was shocked to see how smooth the performance was – I didn’t notice any performance lag or frame rate drop once. Of course, your internet connection is detrimental for the performance of GeForce Now, but my 35mbps broadband coped just fine. 

There are teething problems with the service though. For example, despite prompting me to use a gamepad to play Fortnite, I couldn’t log into the game without a keyboard. Since the entry-level Shield TV doesn’t have USB ports, it’s impossible to play the battle-royale shooter without using a Bluetooth keyboard, which is very odd. 

It’s also worth noting that while GeForce Now is currently free, this could change once the public beta ends and the service officially launches. I suspect Nvidia will offer a free subscription tier like Google Stadia though, limiting the performance to Full HD at 60fps, but it’s impossible to know for sure. If Nvidia gets it right, GeForce Now really does have the potential to blow Google Stadia out of the water and make the Shield TV a viable alternative to the PS5 and Xbox 2. 

The Shield TV also allows you to directly stream titles from your own gaming PC. This makes it possible to play games on the Shield TV which are stored on your gaming PC, which comes in handy if you want to swap from your monitor to your living room’s ultra-wide television. You’ll need to have an Nvidia GeForce graphics card and a reliable internet connection for this to work though.

Just in case you don’t have good internet, the Shield TV also allows you to buy and play Android games locally too. These are made up mostly of indie and mobile titles, but there are a couple of gems here such as Super Meat Boy, Star Wars: KOTOR and a number of old Final Fantasy entries. 

The Shield TV Pro edition has access to an even larger library of Android games such as Half-Life 2, Portal 2, Resident Evil 5, Tomb Raider and more. This is thanks to the system’s greater 3GB RAM, but with GeForce Now already offering access to these titles on the standard Shield TV (provided you’re subscribed to the service) I personally think you’re better off saving the £50, unless you really want to use a wired keyboard and mouse with Shield. 

Related: Nvidia GeForce Now

Should I buy the Nvidia Shield TV? 

The new Nvidia Shield TV has a number of improvements over the previous generation model, with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support being the most prevalent. However, unless you have the high-end hardware to enable such technology, I really don’t think there’s enough here to justify an upgrade from an old Shield TV device. 

If you’re new to Shield though, it’s another matter entirely. With 4K HDR streaming capabilities, an abundance of apps and a more affordable £149 price, the Shield TV has a great shouting of being the very best Android TV box on its streaming skills alone. 

If you’re a gamer who would take advantage of the GeForce Now cloud-streaming service though, the Shield TV becomes a no brainer. Being able to play all my Steam, Uplay and Origin video games with no need for a high-end hardware is mind boggling, and I’m still struggling to fathom how smooth the performance is. With GeForce Now still in beta, there are still a lot of questions hanging over the service, including subscription costs and game support. 

If Nvidia gets it right with GeForce Now though, then the Shield TV will not only be the best of the best for TV streaming, but could well usurp Google Stadia as the go-to cloud-streaming console king too. 

Verdict

The Nvidia Shield TV is among the very best premium Android streaming boxes thanks to support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, while still offering users the capability to stream 4K content from popular streaming services. Add in its incredible Stadia-rivalling cloud-streaming gaming potential, and this becomes a no-brainer box for gamers.

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