The MIXX Resonate Pro is designed to go wherever your workout takes you. It’s built for safety, with a design that lets you enjoy your music while still hearing the world around you—a non-negotiable for runners or cyclists on busy streets. The fit is secure and lightweight, so it won’t bounce around during your most intense sessions.

Good Points:-

• Comfort
• Price
• Waterproof
• Built in Storage
• Fast recharging.

Bad Points:-

• Proprietary Charging Cable
• Not concert quality audio.
• Battery life approx 7 hrs

In the box  you get the heaphones themselves are a proprietary charging cable which is USB- A to the magnetic pogo pins. This is a departure from the common USB-C standard and means you’ll be reliant on this one specific cable for all your charging needs, I would have liked this charging cable to be a bit longe as I did find it a little on the short side.

Design And Specifications.

Bone Conduction: Sound You Can Feel.

The core of this headset is its bone conduction technology. Instead of speakers pushing sound through the air, the Resonate Pro rests on your cheekbones, sending vibrations directly to your inner ear. For swimmers, this is a “no-brainer” because it can make the audio sound fuller even when you’re wearing earplugs. On land, the open-ear design is a crucial safety feature, letting you hear traffic, pedestrians, and other important sounds. Just be aware that this tech often means sacrificing the deep, thumping bass you get with traditional headphones. what you get is a slight vibration that did take some getting used to.

After wearing the headphones for hours while working/walking I did genuinely forget I was wearing them, and they remained comfortable throughout. The headset doesn’t feel tight on my larger head, so I’d confidently call it a one-size-fits-all design. The only minor drawback I noticed was when I turned the volume up on a favorite track — in pursuit of “full fidelity,” the headphones began to vibrate slightly against my cheekbones. They definitely pack plenty of volume!

Dual-Mode Functionality: Ditch the Phone

One of the coolest features of the Resonate Pro is its Dual Mode, which includes both Bluetooth and a built-in MP3 player with a whopping 32GB of storage. This isn’t just a bonus—it’s a necessity. Bluetooth signals don’t work well underwater. The onboard MP3 player gets around this problem, letting you load your music directly onto the device for seamless listening while swimming.

​This 32GB of storage is a huge selling point. It matches the high-end Shokz OpenSwim Pro and is four times bigger than the 8GB you get with the H2O Audio Tri 2 Pro. If you have a big music library you want to take with you, the Resonate Pro has you covered.

​However, there’s a catch: you have to transfer music files manually via a wired connection. This is a big hurdle for anyone who relies on streaming services like Apple Music or Spotify, as their files are encrypted and can’t be moved to an external device. This makes the Resonate Pro a better fit for a user who still owns a local collection of MP3s, while some competitors are moving toward seamless streaming integration.

Performance, Durability & What to Expect.

Really Waterproof? A Look at the IP68 Rating

The Resonate Pro has an IP68 waterproof rating. In simple terms, this means it’s fully protected from dust and can handle being submerged in up to one meter of water. That’s perfect for swimming laps or getting caught in the rain. But be aware that some competitors, like the H2O Audio Tri 2 Pro and Shokz OpenSwim Pro, have a more robust IPX8 rating, allowing for deeper and longer submersion. So while the Resonate Pro is swim-proof, it might not be quite as rugged as the top-tier options.

That said I’m not a swimmer so I tired the next best thing and wore them in the the shower and out in the pouring rain, they perfomed perfectly and more Importantly they have continued to work ever since meaning no permanent water damage.

All the controls are located on the right side and can be accessed from the bottom, just behind your ear. It takes a little time to get used to, but the volume buttons at the top are fairly easy to reach. These buttons also serve as track controls — double-pressing the volume up button skips to the next track, while double-pressing the volume down button goes to the previous one. In my testing, track navigation was instant.

Between the volume buttons sits the Multi-Function Button (MFB), which also acts as the power button. A single press plays or pauses your music, while holding it for more than three seconds turns the Resonate Pro headphones on or off.

When the headphones are connected to your phone, the MFB also handles calls — press once to answer, or hold it for two seconds to reject an incoming call.

Conclusion.

For users with an active lifestyle, these headphones present a safer and more practical alternative to traditional over-ear models. Their open design allows ambient sound to remain audible, which enhances situational awareness during outdoor activities. While they naturally fall short of delivering the fully immersive, high-fidelity audio experience typical of over-ear headphones, they fulfill a distinct functional niche. This makes them particularly effective for activities such as running, cycling, or swimming — scenarios where maintaining awareness of the environment or operating without a phone is advantageous.

MIXX Resonate Pro for £60 on Amazon U.K. or on the MIXX website.

The post The MIXX Resonate Pro Review: A Deep Dive for Swimmers & Athletes is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Now, let’s delve deeper into the design of the Honor Magic V5.
One of the first things I want to mention is how incredibly thin this phone is. The colour I have is Dawn Gold, which is not the thinnest version of the phone. If you’re looking for the thinnest version, you’ll need to consider the Arctic White variant. This version measures 8.8 mm when folded and 4.1 mm when unfolded, leaving barely enough room for the USB-C port. Weight-wise wise it comes in at staggeringly low 217g in the Ivory White version with the Dawn Gold and lack version a tiny bit heavier at 227g, not that you can really notice.
The gold variant I have is slightly thicker, measuring 9 millimetres unfolded but less than 4.2 millimetres when unfolded. This means that the phone feels like a regular candy bar when used in its folded state.
For example, I have a photo below of the Honor Magic V5 next to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. You can see how these phones compare in terms of thickness. It’s amazing to see how Honor has managed to cram in two batteries and two screens into such a thin form factor.

Every time I pick up the device, I’m slightly awestruck by how thin it feels. However, I understand that some people may think that thinness comes with fragility. Rest assured, I’ve had issues with creaking, bending, flexing, or indeed, grinding from the all-important hinge mechanism. I’ll discuss these issues in more detail later.

When using this phone as my daily driver, I’ve taken it to various environments, including a recent holiday to Madeira. Thanks to its IP rating of IP 58 and IP 59, I have very few concerns about using it in damp environments.
Although I haven’t actually done so yet, I’m comfortable taking this phone to the beach. This is the first time I’ve said that about any folding phone I’ve used in the past. I’ve used various types of folding phones over the years, including both Pixel Fold devices and Samsung Z Fold devices. I’ve also been lucky enough to use every Honor Magic V Fold device they’ve produced, with the Magic V5 being by far their best implementation of a folding phone yet.

The outer display is the same size as most candy bar phones available today, making folding the phone a breeze. I can do everything I need to do without any issues. When I need more real estate, unfolding the phone is easy and smooth, with a seamless transition from folded to unfolded.
As an added bonus, the Magic V5 is now the only new flagship folding phone available in the UK that supports stylus input using the Honour Magic Stylus 2. This is a significant difference from the implementation Samsung had on the Z Fold line, as you could only use the stylus on the internal, more fragile display. As a result, I barely used the stylus on the Z Fold when I owned it. With the Honor Magic V5, I can use the stylus on the outer display without any concern, as it’s a solid glass panel with a slightly softer plastic, glass composite panel on the inner display.

Insert images of Magic Stylus 

Moving away from the display, let’s talk about buttons. One thing I noticed with the Honor Magic V series, up until now, was the asymmetric placement of the volume and power buttons. The reasoning for this made sense at the time: you had the power button on one side of the phone when unfolded, and the volume button on the other, creating a stepped bottom effect when folded closed. This did allow for clear distinction between the bottoms once you adjusted to it, though.
However, the owner has adopted a more standard button placement for the Honor Magic V5. Now, we have the power and volume rocker located on the right-hand side of the phone, one above the other, which makes it easier to transition from a more traditional candy bar format. As your muscle memory knows where to put your fingers, you can perform appropriate actions, as is the norm with foldable phones. The power button also doubles as a fingerprint reader, which I’ve found to be fast and effective at scanning my fingerprints, with only very rare failures. This is probably more down to me as I switch phones quite a lot, but I’m sure if I stuck with using the Magic V5 for a long time, I would minimise the misreads of the fingerprint sensor.

When holding the phone in my right hand, I find that my thumb naturally finds the power key with ease. The buttons also have a nice, reassuring click to them, so you know from haptic feedback that you’ve pressed them correctly. The same cannot be said for some of the Honor Magic V5’s rivals.

Around the back of the phone, your colour choice will make a difference to how things feel. If you choose the Dawn Gold version, like I have, you have a textured golden finish that still allows for some grip. If you go with the White version, you have a back panel made of carbon filament, which I haven’t had the pleasure of feeling, but I’m assuming would be grippier still. As far as I know, the Black finish will be the most similar to the gold design, but I haven’t had the chance to hold one in my hand yet.

The phone has a substantial camera module on the back. Initially, I wasn’t a fan because it means the phone doesn’t rest flat when placed on a surface. However, over time, I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of having such a large module. I really like the design of the camera modules around it. Honor has taken the time to give fine detailing to this round, making it look and feel like an expensive watch face. I also like that it’s centrally placed along the Z axis, so when you place the phone on a flat surface and close it, there’s no appreciable wobble.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said when the phone is open and folded. This is a byproduct of having high-quality camera sensors in such a thin device. The simple laws of physics dictate that these cameras need to be raised slightly from the back panel to allow for the space needed to achieve the focal lengths we now demand from our smartphone cameras.
As a bonus, the owner includes a protective back cover in the box. This colour-matched cover is made of PU leather-like material and provides a nice degree of protection for the camera island. It also has the added benefit of including some hinge protection that magnetically holds itself in place when the phone is closed.

I’ve found myself using the phone with and without the cover, depending on what I was doing that day. When I was on holiday, I did use the cover, and I did drop the phone on one occasion. Fortunately, the cover was present, so the phone was largely unscathed. I did suffer a slight scratch on the bottom rail, next to the USB-C port.
However, it was merely cosmetic thankfully.

The Metal side rails are made of stainless steel and subtly curved to provide a comfortable feel and prevent them from sticking into your palm when using the phone, whether folded or unfolded.

The front glass is a hardened glass from Honor, an in-house developed glass. The screen on the inside is also using in-house developed, almost level technology that allows the inner screen to be tougher than previous generations. After a month of usage, I haven’t had any marks on the inner display from daily use or debris when the phone is folded. A nice touch is that Honor’s inbuilt software can detect something on the screen when you’re trying to fold the phone and will warn you. I’m not sure how this is done, but it’s a nice reassurance to keep your inner display safe.

As mentioned, the phone does have a very thin USB-C port that barely fits into the thickness of the side rail. However, this USB-C port will support fast charging, including Supercharger Standard, which can charge at up to 80 watts when using the appropriate Honor Supercharger.
Sadly, this charger is not included in the retail packaging. However, I would be very surprised if Honor didn’t offer a charger as a bundled accessory when the phone is pre-ordered, as they have done with most of their flagship devices over recent years.
The last area I want to mention about design is the speaker placement. The Honor Magic V5 speakers are offset when the phone is unfolded, which is important because it provides a better audio experience when you hold the phone in its unfolded position, as the chances of you covering one or both of the speaker grilles are minimised. This is different from the implementation of some other manufacturers. Follow. It’s now becoming more common for speaker grills to be placed on one side of the fold mechanism, as seen with the Oppo Find N5, which I reviewed previously.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the design of the Honor Magic V5. I’ve been very happy using it as my daily driver. However, when I returned to using my Pixel 9 Pro Fold, I found that I missed the thinness of the Honor Magic V5.If you’re looking for a thin and sleek folding phone, then the Honor Magic V5 definitely needs to be on your list.

With that said, let’s now look at the internal hardware and see what makes this phone truly special.

Before we get into the hardware, let’s take a look at the specs table

*The actual dimensions and weight may vary depending on the configuration, manufacturing process, and measurement method.

*The display screen adopts a rounded corner design. When measured according to a standard rectangle, the diagonal length of the screen is 6.43 inches for the outer screen and 7.95 inches for the inner screen (the actual viewing area is slightly smaller).

Hardware

The hardware on the Honor Magic V5 is truly flagship-level.

Internally, it boasts a full-fat Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, supported by the Adreno30 8 chipset. Additionally, it features 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512 gigabytes of UFS storage, ensuring smooth performance for tasks focussed on the chipset and memory. You can also expand the memory by using VRAM, although I’ve never found myself needing this feature during my time using the phone. 

The phone is powered by Honor’s third-generation silicone carbon batteries, which I deliberately refer to as batteries. The phone actually features two separate battery cells: one mounted on the front and the other larger battery, mounted on the rear. Combined, these batteries offer a storage battery capacity of 5820mAh, which has proven to last a long time, allowing me to get full days of battery life out of the phone. I have only depleted the battery on very rare occasions. Around 30% from a full charge during the day, this has only happened once or twice, and only when I’ve been using the phone’s camera, GPS, and streaming a lot of videos for gaming.

In terms of keeping the phone cool and performing,  it features advanced cooling technology, akin to what you would be more familiar with from the PC world. It has large vapour chambers that allow the movement of small amounts of fluid in these chambers to help disperse heat, which is essential to allow the phone to remain as cool as possible while still performing at the highest possible levels. This means that the phone is very high performing and has not presented any struggle when doing intensive tasks. I have used the phone for capturing 4K 60 per second video and also for high frame rate gaming, playing my typical games of Asphalt Unite and Call of Duty Mobile. When playing these games, I have not noticed any overheating. Yes, the phone will warm up, but it is well within comfortable parameters.

Another aspect that relates to the phone’s performance and multitasking ability is its slim and sleek design. While I’ll delve deeper into multitasking in the software section of this review, rest assured, you can definitely carry out multiple tasks simultaneously. I often find myself having at least two apps open side by side using the split-screen software implementation, and it’s been seamless.

Honor has cleverly combined a slim and sleek phone with a high-performing device that can function as both a candy bar-style phone and a large-format folding tablet when needed.

I mentioned earlier that the battery is a dual carbon silicone design, which allows it to be slim while also enabling rapid charging. I recall mentioning the charging speed of up to 66W when using a SuperCharge charger from Honor. Interestingly, I’ve also found that the phone charges rapidly using a standard Power Delivery charger. This is particularly beneficial since there’s no charger included in the box. If you’ve invested in a high-speed GAN-style charger like me, you’ll still get very high charging speeds from the Honor Magic V5.

However, this isn’t the only way to charge this slim phone. You can also utilise up to 50W wireless charging, again when using the appropriate Honor Supercharge wireless charging stand. Of course, this is an optional extra, and the stand is so powerful that it has built-in active cooling to help the phone cool down as it’s being charged wirelessly, which can cause heat build-up from the charging system. The phone also supports reverse wireless charging at a speed of 5W. This is particularly handy if you’re caught short and need to charge some wireless buds, like the Pixel Buds Pro, which I’ve paired seamlessly with the Honour Magic V5. 

In terms of connectivity, all your bases are covered. The phone has Bluetooth 6 built in, supporting all the commonly used codecs. It also has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e/7 support

Additionally, it supports all the international cellular bands up to 5G. I’ve heard from our American friends that it will support some American networks, despite not having an official North American release.

The phone will also work on multiple GPS services, ensuring you can always get a correct and long-lasting GPS fix, regardless of your location. This is crucial for various location services scenarios, such as maps and tracking, or using the phone’s or ancillary options like Bluetooth trackers.

I’ll delve deeper into the camera module in my review, but it’s a triple-lens system with a 50MP Ultra Wide Camera (f/2.0), 50MP Wide Camera (f/1.6, OIS), 64MP telephoto Lens Camera (f/2.5, OIS) that supports up to 3x optical zoom via a prism telephoto lens. This large camera array is necessary to accommodate these three lenses. In addition to the lenses, there’s a single LED flash that’s bright enough to use as a flashlight and works well as an LED flash when needed. However, due to the aperture of the cameras, I haven’t really needed to use the flash for low-light photography. More details on this will follow later.

We truly have flagship-grade components on the Honor Magic V5. While there will always be some compromises with hardware on a foldable phone, in my opinion, these compromises have been kept to a minimum to deliver a new flagship-level experience.

Now that the hardware is done, let’s delve deeper into the software.

Software

The Honour Magic V5 software is an evolution of what we’ve come to expect from Honour devices in the past. Built on the foundation of Android 15, it does shave some of the extras added by Honour. These extras are mainly in two areas: how multitasking is managed and the obligatory serving of AI. Most of this AI is either duplicating what can be done on via the Google Gemini platform or some customer AI tools made in-house by Honour.

Looking at the multitasking on the Honour Magic V5 is a great place to start. The main core of multitasking on the Magic V5 is called Honour Multi-Flex. This is essentially the feature that the launcher uses to allow multiple apps to be open side by side. Yes, you read that correctly – it’s now possible to have three apps open at the same time when the phone is unfolded. This is a big step up from the Honour Magic V3 and is Honor’s attempt to challenge the likes of OnePlus, Oppo, and Samsung to create the best multitasking environment possible.

I find this feature incredibly useful and has allowed me to complete tasks that I would normally reserve for my laptop. Whether it’s managing emails and my calendar simultaneously or researching my next smartwatch, having the ability to have two or three near-full-screen apps open simultaneously, albeit on the larger screen, has been very helpful.

However, if I really want to expand and get more work done, I then have the option of using the built-in Honour Desktop mode, which allows me to work in a desktop-styled environment. This is something that I find fun to do, but it’s not nearly as finely polished as it should be, so I don’t use it extensively beyond the occasional use for sharing photos on my big TV. Having the flexibility is what makes a folding phone so important to me, and Honor’s software enhances this multitasking experience. However, there is some room for improvement. I’ve found that when I’m trying to utilise gestures within full-screen apps with more than two open at the same time, it’s easy to get confused about which gestures I need to use to navigate around the app itself. I’ve been able to get used to it, but sometimes it’s just not very intuitive.

Another area where multitasking could be improved is if, for example, I’m in a YouTube video and I get a WhatsApp message. I tap on it to read it, and it opens in a floating window that shows the full app. This means the scaling is sometimes a bit tricky to interact with. I’ve mostly got used to it, but I would actually prefer it to open the app as a split-screen app. I’m not sure if this is just an adjustment in the settings. It’s better at handling it than my Pixel is, though, as that just opens the app that triggered the notification.

The second part of the software equation added to the Honour Magic V5 is all about AI. Honor has invested a lot of time and effort into building and fine-tuning their AI platform, with significant collaboration with Google. It seems that many of their AI toolset actually builds on the Google Gemini base. In terms of AI, you have all your usual functions, such as AI Translate, AI Call Assist, AI Deepfake Detection, and AI Subtitles, to name a few. These functions work as their names suggest and enhance your experience in using the phone for the tasks they are designed for. What I particularly like is that most of the Honor-based AI is on the phone and doesn’t rely on cloud computation. This means it’s faster to respond and works regardless of your location. The exceptions are a few of the AI tools from the gallery, but that’s the case with most AI-assisted photo or video apps these days. I also appreciate that there’s no indication of any extra cost involved in using the AI services, unlike Google and Samsung.

To be honest, I don’t find myself using many of Honor’s own AI toolset. I tend to stick with using Google Gemini. I’ve used the AI transcribe from voice recordings and found it slightly better at picking up what I’m saying and transcribing it correctly. Some of the other AI functions I’ve found useful are actually embedded in the gallery app. These are an evolution over what Google offers with their photo editing suite.

One tool I found particularly useful is the ability for the phone to detect when a person has their eyes closed in a photo. The Magic V Fold 5 incorporates Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance the photo-taking experience. It can adjust the eye areas to expand the actual eye detail, making it appear as if the person’s eyes are open and improving the photo. This feature is particularly useful because many of my subjects have their eyes closed.

Another notable addition to the core Android software is the Magic Sidebar, accessible by swiping in from the side of the screen. This toolbar provides quick access to functions and allows users to save images and text extracts to a favourite space. This space can then be used to pull information into different fields or documents.

It also has a very handy summary, which uses Ai to summarise the content from the page, as shown below.

Moving on from the AI aspect, the Magic V Fold 5 also offers the ability to connect with either iOS devices or Mac computers. While I haven’t had the chance to use this feature myself, I imagine it will work similarly to the implementation I discovered when reviewing the Oppo Find N5 and OnePlus Nord 5 recently.

This feature expands upon the Magic Ring service, which allows users to enjoy the benefits of being within the Honor ecosystem if they own other Honor devices like tablets or laptops. Through Magic Ring, users can seamlessly share content and their phone’s screen with these other devices. Based on my observations of Magic Ring, the iOS and Mac sharing function appears to perform a similar task, albeit within a different ecosystem. As someone who uses a Mac daily, I’m pleased to see this functionality being adopted by more manufacturers.

one new feature i was however appble to try was Honoer Share with iOS devices. This a relatively simple process and just requiores you to download the Honor Connect App on your iOS device and then open the app on the iOS device and scan a QR code from the Honor Magic V5 Honor Share menu located  within the phones settings. Once this has been done a direct wifi connection is setup and you can share content between your Honor Magic V5 and your iOS device with ease. here is an example of the result of me sharing a video from my Honor Magic v5 with my iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Overall, I’ve been impressed with the Honor software and Magic OS 9.0.

There’s one area that really annoys me, though it’s not a dealbreaker and I’ve learned to live with it. It’s the insistence on splitting the notification and control panel areas when dragging your finger down from the top of the screen. I understand why they’re doing this, as it’s something that iPhone and iPad users are now accustomed to. But the Honour Magic V5 is an Android device, not an iOS one. And for Android users, the notification and control panel drag-down option has always been unified.

I don’t like that not only do they have this set as the default on Honor devices now, but there’s no way to revert to the old style as can be found on other devices that have made this change.

I’ve been a long-term Android user, and one of the core values I had with Android was the customisability of certain aspects of the phone. The fact that Honour and some other manufacturers are now limiting this customisation doesn’t sit well with me. I can only hope that they add the function of joining the notification and control panels back together as intended by Android.

So, summarising the software, it’s very good. The multitasking is also very good, not quite A-grade but much better than found on Google’s own Pixel devices. The AI implementation is expansive, and I feel that the Honor Magic OS 9 software has been developing nicely from what I remember of early iterations. There’s also not a massive amount of bloat, and the bloat that is there can be removed fairly easily.

I’ve enclosed a screenshot below showing the bloatware and app duplicates that do exist for your reference. These additional apps are not so much bloat in the typical form of adware but they are duplications of existing apps and my personal preference is to use the google apps for these services as such for the most part they have remained un used with the exception of perhaps the gallery app as it has the editing function I mentioned above that is missing from Google Photos.

Now that we’ve covered the software aspect of the phone, I need to take some time to go through the rather large and prominent feature on the rear of the phone: the camera.

Camera

The camera on the Honor Magic Fold v5 is a big deal both in terms of the size of the camera itself , as it is no shrinking violet, and what it can do. I have been very fortunate that Honor provided me with the phone early so that I was able to take it with me on my family holiday to the beautiful island of Madeira earlier this month. This allowed me to give the camera a very thorough test in a variety of scenarios. I have included some camera samples below for you to check out, but before I go into that, I want to discuss the camera’s hardware a bit further.

64MP Ultra Sensing Periscope Telephoto Camera:

• 64MP resolution
• 1/2-inch sensor
• f/2.5 aperture
• 3X Optical Zoom
• 100X Digital Zoom
• Optimised light intake for various lighting conditions

50MP Ultra-Light Sensitive Falcon Main Camera:

• 50MP resolution
• 1/1.56-inch sensor
• f/1.6 ultra-large aperture
• Autofocus (AF) functionality
• Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS)
• Excellent low-light performance

50MP Ultra-Wide Camera:

• 50MP resolution
• 122° ultra-wide field of view
• f/2.0 aperture
• Ideal for group photos and landscapes
• Captures expansive scenes with stunning detail

With the above specs, you would expect that the camera on the Honor Magic V5 should take some stunning photos, and you would be correct. Admittedly, the vast majority of my testing was done in very good lighting and in a very vibrant and colourful environment, but I have been very pleased with the results. Here is a selection of the photos using a variety of lenses and zoom settings.

I have also been able to to some close up shots using the auto macro mode as can be seen below.

A feature that I did really enjoy playing with was the light painting mode available under the more menu as this allowed me to get the shots below using the Silky water configuration.

Essentially what this does it keeps the lens open for longer creating the deliberate blurring of the water but it does it in way that in my opinion looks really cool. It is almost as if it is bringing movement to the picture.

As for the zoom capabilities here are some  samples of this in action below.

I am quite impressed at how the blades on the wind turbine are still very clear even at 20x zoom. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to capture any 50x zoom or 100x zoom images at the time, as it was difficult to keep things stable while handheld. Honestly, though, I am still happy with the results of these images.

As for the front-facing camera, it is very good at capturing selfies as you would expect from a 2oMP sensor which has an f/2.2 aperture. Both the inner and outer screens use the same sensors, so you will get the same results from both cameras. Here are a few samples of these cameras taken in my home office.

Not too shabby given the subject. Of course, I could have improved the image from the external camera further by using AI to remove the reflection in my glasses, but I thought I would share the true image with you for the purposes of the review!

Last up is video, and here is an area I have been really impressed I have recorded both HD and 4K video on the phone and have found the quality to be very good, especially the sound. Here is a sample

Sample Video from Honor Magic V5

Unfortunately, this has been downsampled to a lower resolution for sharing here, but it gives you an idea of the quality.

In short, the camera on the Honor Magic V5 is a significant step up from the previous generation device and is up there with the best cameras on foldable phones available in the European market

Conclusion

The Honor Magic V5 represents a new era of thinness for smartphones, particularly in the foldable category. This device is currently among the thinnest available on the market.

I have been satisfied with my experience using the device, as it is a strong contender in the European foldable market. The phone’s price also offers good value when compared to its primary competition, such as the Galaxy Z Fold 7 series and the upcoming Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

I was impressed with the quality of the camera and the steps Honor has taken to refine Magic OS 9.0. Building on the foundation of the Honor Magic V3, the phone feels fast and fluid, with no noticeable sluggishness in the user interface. While the software has room for improvement, it is on a positive trajectory.

I can recommend the Honor Magic V5 to prospective foldable phone buyers, and the pre-order offers are worth considering. However, if you currently own an Honor Magic V3, an upgrade may not be necessary unless you receive a strong trade-in value. I will be disappointed to see the Honor Magic V5 go. It has been a pleasure to use and provides a sense of optimism for the future of Honor’s foldable lineup.

The Honor Magic V5 can be pre-ordered from the Honor website with prices starting from £1,699.99, before any special discounts or gifts. It will also be available from high-street retailers including EE, O2, Three, Vodafone, Tesco Mobile, Argos, Currys, Amazon, and Very starting on August 29th.

The post Honor Magic V5 – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

In an age dominated by digital streams and lossless audio files, the humble vinyl record has staged an astonishing comeback. It’s more than just nostalgia; it’s a cultural phenomenon driven by a desire for tangible music, the ritual of physical interaction, and the unique warmth of analog sound. This resurgence has flooded the market with turntables of all shapes and sizes, from esoteric audiophile rigs costing thousands to compact, all-in-one players designed for convenience. But let’s be honest, the budget end of this spectrum has often been a minefield of compromises: flimsy construction, tinny sound, and a distinct lack of features.

Enter the MIXX Revival 55 Vinyl Record Player. Priced at an incredibly accessible £79.99  (or $99.99 for our US readers), this isn’t just another portable record player. Mixx Audio, a brand known for delivering “hardware that won’t break the bank” , has explicitly positioned the Revival 55 as an “affordable yet high-quality option” that aims to provide “everything vinyl enthusiasts need in 2025”. This bold claim directly challenges the prevailing notion that budget portable players “suffer from low-end construction and a lack of features” . 

The Revival 55 promises to strike a delicate, yet crucial, balance: blending captivating retro aesthetics with essential modern functionality. In this comprehensive review, we’ll peel back every layer of the MIXX Revival 55. We’ll scrutinize its distinctive design and portability, analyze its core playback capabilities and mechanical components, explore its versatile connectivity options that seamlessly bridge analog and digital worlds, assess the surprising sound experience from its built-in speakers, evaluate its overall user-friendliness, and ultimately determine if it truly redefines the value proposition within the competitive budget turntable market. Get ready to find out if this stylish spinner is the perfect gateway to your vinyl journey.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Exceptional Value for Money: Priced at an accessible $99.99 / £79.99, it offers a surprisingly robust and modern feature set that genuinely exceeds expectations for its category, making it an outstanding entry point into vinyl .
• Stylish and Portable Design: Features a captivating retro suitcase aesthetic available in a wide array of vibrant colors, crafted with a durable polyurethane leather-wrapped wooden body and sturdy metal accents, making it both visually appealing and highly portable for on-the-go listening .
• Two-Way Bluetooth Connectivity: A true standout feature, providing seamless integration of analog vinyl with digital streaming by allowing both Bluetooth output to external speakers/headphones and Bluetooth input from smart devices, transforming it into a versatile audio hub .
• Surprisingly Good Sound Quality (for its class): User reviews consistently praise the built-in stereo speakers, directly refuting common criticisms of sound quality in budget portable players and offering a satisfying listening experience that punches above its weight.  
• User-Friendly and Accessible: Designed for simplicity, with intuitive controls and a straightforward setup, making it ideal for first-time users, casual listeners, and even elderly individuals rediscovering their record collections .
• Comprehensive Playback Features: Supports all three standard speeds (33 1/3, 45, and 78 RPM), includes a convenient 45 RPM adapter, features pitch control for fine-tuning speed, and an auto-stop function to protect records and stylus, offering more control than many competitors .
• Versatile Wired Connectivity: Offers essential wired options including an AUX input for external audio devices, RCA line-level output for connection to amplifiers or external speakers, and a headphone jack for private listening, providing excellent flexibility for future upgrades .
• Durable Construction: The wooden body, reinforced hinges, metal handle, and dual buckle points contribute to its overall durability and longevity, making it a robust choice for a portable player that feels more premium than its price suggests .

Cons:-

• Not an Audiophile Turntable: While its sound quality is commendable for its price point, it is not designed to compete with or replace higher-end, component-based turntables that offer superior fidelity, detail, and dynamic range for critical listening. Audiophiles will need to look elsewhere.  
• Ceramic Cartridge Limitations: The ceramic cartridge, while durable and suitable for casual listening, inherently offers less nuanced sound reproduction and tracking capabilities compared to magnetic cartridges found in more expensive players. This is a trade-off for affordability and robustness.
• Limited Long-Term Review Data: As a relatively new product, having been released in late 2024 or early 2025 across various regions , extensive long-term reliability and performance data from a broad user base is not yet widely available.
• Minor Discrepancies in Specifications: Some online retail listings show minor inconsistencies regarding specific features (e.g., 1x RCA output vs. 2x RCA, USB power delivery vs. AC adapter), which can cause slight confusion, though the user manual generally provides more reliable details .
• Inherent Built-in Speaker Limitations: While praised for their quality within the portable category, the compact size of the built-in speakers will naturally have limitations in terms of deep bass response, overall volume, and soundstage compared to dedicated external speaker systems.

First Impressions: A Retro Vibe That Demands Attention

From the moment you lay eyes on the MIXX Revival 55, it’s clear this isn’t your average bland black box. Its defining characteristic is the captivating retro-inspired suitcase design, a deliberate aesthetic choice that instantly evokes a sense of nostalgia while simultaneously feeling chic and contemporary. This isn’t just a functional device; it’s a statement piece.

What truly sets it apart in the visual department is its vibrant colour palette. While many budget record players offer a limited, often uninspired, selection, the Revival 55 embraces bold aesthetics. It’s available in classic black, elegant cream, and a striking turquoise blue, with exciting plans for upcoming releases in playful pink and sophisticated sage green . This broad array of choices is a significant differentiator, allowing for greater personalization and appealing to a wider, style-conscious demographic eager to integrate their audio equipment seamlessly into their living spaces. It’s designed to be seen, not hidden away.

Beyond its visual allure, the Revival 55 boasts a construction that genuinely defies its affordable price point. The body is crafted from a polyurethane leather-wrapped wooden frame, accented by gleaming chrome-plated buckles . This thoughtful selection of materials contributes to a sleek, durable finish that immediately feels more substantial and premium than the flimsy, all-plastic alternatives commonly found in this category. The attention to detail extends to functional elements, with “no exposed seams,” “supported hinges,” a “metal cast handle,” and “dual buckle points” . These features collectively reinforce its robust and thoughtful construction, promising enhanced longevity and providing a more premium tactile experience—aspects often severely compromised in budget-friendly portable players. In a market where many portable players are known to “suffer from low-end construction” , these material choices and design elements are direct indicators of a commitment to durability and a perceived higher quality that is frequently absent. It suggests that Mixx understands that for a portable, budget-friendly player, visual appeal and perceived robustness are as crucial as, if not more important than, audiophile-grade sound for its target audience.

 It’s a device that’s as much about lifestyle as it is about listening.   

Core Performance: Spinning Your Tunes with Thoughtful Mechanics

At its heart, the MIXX Revival 55 is engineered to accommodate virtually any vinyl record you might own. It supports the three standard playback speeds: 33 1/3 RPM for your cherished long-playing albums (LPs), 45 RPM for singles and EPs, and the often-overlooked 78 RPM for older, brittle shellac records . This comprehensive compatibility ensures that your entire vinyl collection, from modern reissues to antique finds, can be enjoyed without limitations. A thoughtful and highly practical addition is the included 45 RPM adapter , which conveniently integrates into the turntable platter for playing records with larger center holes, such as those originally cut for jukeboxes.

Mechanical Components and Record Care

The player features a mechanical tonearm that the manufacturer states is “designed to protect your vinyl collection while delivering high-quality playback” . While specific technical details on this protection are not extensively provided, the inclusion of a tonearm lift lever is a crucial feature that cannot be overstated for a player in this class. This lever allows for smooth, controlled lowering and raising of the tonearm, significantly minimizing the risk of accidental scratches or damage to both your precious records and the delicate stylus during placement and removal. The user manual also explicitly advises keeping the included stylus guard in place whenever the turntable is moved or cleaned to prevent damage , underscoring the importance of proper care for longevity.

Underneath the hood, the MIXX Revival 55 utilizes a ceramic cartridge in conjunction with a belt-drive system . Ceramic cartridges are a common and sensible choice in budget-friendly record players due primarily to their durability and affordability. While they may not offer the same level of nuanced detail, expansive soundstage, or dynamic range as more expensive magnetic cartridges found in audiophile setups, they are perfectly suitable for casual listening and provide a robust, low-maintenance solution ideal for a portable device. The belt-drive system, a standard for many entry-level turntables, effectively isolates the platter from motor vibrations, contributing to stable playback and reducing unwanted noise that could otherwise interfere with your listening experience.

Enhancing Playback Control

A truly notable inclusion for a player in this price bracket is the pitch control knob . This feature allows users to fine-tune the playback speed by approximately 10% (either increasing or decreasing). This can be incredibly useful for correcting minor speed inconsistencies inherent in some records, which can sometimes occur due to manufacturing variations, or for creative audio adjustments if you’re feeling experimental. Its presence underscores Mixx’s commitment to providing a more refined user experience, moving beyond mere basic functionality and offering a level of control rarely seen at this price point.  

The combination of universal three-speed support, the convenient 45 RPM adapter, a tonearm explicitly stated to be “designed to protect,” the crucial tonearm lift lever, precise pitch control, and the practical auto-stop feature represents a remarkably comprehensive and user-centric feature set for a sub-$100 portable record player. Many competitors at this price point frequently omit features like pitch control or a dedicated tonearm lift, which are vital for user convenience and record preservation. These inclusions suggest that Mixx has gone beyond merely assembling basic components; they have paid genuine attention to enhancing the user experience and facilitating basic record care. This aims to provide a more “complete” and less “gimmicky” experience than typical suitcase players, directly supporting the claim of being a “high-quality option” within its specific market segment, in contrast to some products labeled as mere “stylish gimmicks”. 

Key Specifications at a Glance

Connectivity and Versatility: Bridging Analog and Digital Worlds

One of the most defining and genuinely modern features of the MIXX Revival 55 is its sophisticated two-way Bluetooth connectivity . This dual capability significantly enhances the player’s versatility and its seamless integration into contemporary audio ecosystems, making it far more than just a vinyl player.

Let’s break down what “two-way” really means here. Firstly, the Bluetooth output, or transmitter capability, allows you to effortlessly stream your beloved vinyl records wirelessly to any external Bluetooth-enabled speakers or headphones . This is a monumental advantage, as it directly addresses and overcomes the inherent limitations of built-in speakers for those seeking a more powerful, immersive, or private listening experience without the clutter of cables. Imagine spinning your favorite LP and having the sound fill your entire living room through your existing Bluetooth soundbar, or enjoying a late-night session with your wireless headphones without disturbing anyone. This provides considerable flexibility for diverse listening environments, from a quiet personal session to filling a larger room with sound.

Conversely, the Bluetooth input, or receiver capability, transforms the record player itself into a versatile digital audio hub . You can wirelessly connect your smartphone, tablet, or any other digital device and stream music directly to the Revival 55’s built-in stereo speakers. This seamless fusion of vintage and modern technology means you can effortlessly switch between the warmth of vinyl and your favorite digital playlists, all from a single, convenient audio device. This feature truly positions the Revival 55 as a comprehensive all-in-one solution for both analog and digital listening, making it incredibly adaptable to modern habits.

Beyond its wireless prowess, the Revival 55 offers a robust suite of wired connections, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of audio setups, both old and new. A 3.5mm AUX input provides a convenient option for connecting non-Bluetooth audio devices. Think older MP3 players, CD players, or even your computer – you can pipe their audio through the turntable’s built-in speakers, effectively turning it into a compact stereo system for all your audio sources.

The inclusion of RCA jacks is a crucial feature for anyone looking to take their audio experience up a notch. These jacks output an analog line-level signal, enabling direct connection to external amplifiers, powered speakers, or a full-fledged home stereo system. This provides a clear upgrade path for users who wish to enhance their sound quality beyond the built-in speakers, offering greater fidelity, volume, and stereo separation. While one source mentions “Stereo Cinch RCA (1x)” , other descriptions and the user manual consistently refer to “RCA Jacks” (plural) or “Stereo Cinch RCA (2x)” , strongly implying a standard stereo pair for line-level output, which is the most common and logical configuration for connecting to external audio equipment. This flexibility means your Revival 55 can grow with your audio aspirations.   

Historically, the term “all-in-one” record players often implied a self-contained unit with built-in speakers and minimal external connectivity. The MIXX Revival 55, however, with its sophisticated two-way Bluetooth, dedicated AUX-in, and full RCA line-out capabilities , fundamentally redefines this concept. It is not merely a standalone player; it functions as a versatile, interconnected audio hub. This comprehensive connectivity suite positions the Revival 55 as a highly adaptable device for the contemporary listener who seamlessly navigates between physical vinyl and digital streaming. It caters to the immediate convenience of a portable player while simultaneously offering the flexibility to integrate into more elaborate home audio setups or enable private listening. This makes it a more future-proof and versatile investment within its category, directly supporting the assertion that it offers “everything vinyl enthusiasts need in 2025” by effectively bridging the gap between traditional analog and modern digital listening habits.   

Sound Experience: Defying Expectations from Built-in Speakers

Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room for any budget portable record player: sound quality. This is frequently the Achilles’ heel of the category, where convenience often trumps audio fidelity. The MIXX Revival 55’s integrated stereo speakers provide an immediate, convenient, and all-in-one listening experience right out of the box . This “plug and play” simplicity eliminates the need for external equipment, making it an ideal choice for casual users, those with limited space, or anyone seeking instant gratification from their vinyl collection. The speakers are described by the manufacturer as “designed to immerse you in high quality sound capturing every nuance and detail of your favorite tracks” .

This is arguably the most critical aspect for any budget portable record player, as sound quality is frequently a significant compromise in this category. However, the MIXX Revival 55 consistently receives overwhelmingly positive feedback from users regarding its audio performance, often defying expectations.

In my testing I found it gave a fantastic sound, I was wary as reviews for these type of record players from various brands say the sound quality is not great however that is not the case with this one. It is crucial to manage expectations for any record player in this price range. While the MIXX Revival 55’s sound is commendable for its specific class and price point, it will not rival the fidelity, stereo separation, or bass response of higher-end, component-based turntables and dedicated speaker systems.

The inherent limitations of small, built-in speakers mean that while they provide convenience, they are not designed for audiophile-grade performance. You won’t be hosting critical listening sessions with this, nor will it shake the foundations of your home. However, the inclusion of RCA output and two-way Bluetooth offers users the flexibility to upgrade their audio experience with external speakers or amplifiers should they desire higher fidelity in the future. This means the Revival 55 can serve as an excellent starting point, allowing you to enjoy your vinyl now and expand your setup later. 

User Experience: Setup, Operation, and Accessibility for All

One of the MIXX Revival 55’s most compelling attributes is its unwavering commitment to user-friendliness. This player is designed for immediate enjoyment, with a setup process that is remarkably straightforward, ensuring that even vinyl novices can get their records spinning in minutes.

Based on the user manual, getting started involves just a few simple steps: first, finding a flat and stable surface free from vibrations to place the unit . This is crucial for optimal playback and to prevent skipping. Next, you remove the small tie-wrap securing the tonearm, which keeps it safe during transit . Finally, you connect the AC adapter to the power jack, though the manual wisely advises against plugging it into the wall outlet until all assembly steps are complete . The clear, step-by-step instructions labeled “Let’s Get Started” and “Let’s Play” indicate a strong focus on user-friendliness, ensuring even absolute beginners can begin playing records quickly without confusion or intimidation. This emphasis on a hassle-free setup contributes significantly to its appeal for a broad audience.

Daily operation of the Revival 55 is equally intuitive. Key controls are clearly labeled and logically placed, making interaction a breeze. You’ll find an On/Off Volume Knob to power up and adjust sound levels, a Function Switch to select between Phono (PH) mode for vinyl playback and Bluetooth modes (with a clear RED Function Indicator for PH mode) . There’s a Speed Switch for effortlessly selecting between 33 1/3, 45, or 78 RPM records, and a Tonearm Lever for gentle, controlled needle placement . The process of placing a record on the platter, using the tonearm lever to lift and lower the tonearm, and engaging the auto-stop feature is designed for simplicity and ease of use. This streamlined operation makes the vinyl listening experience accessible and enjoyable, removing any potential intimidation often associated with turntables, especially for those new to the hobby.

The design of the MIXX Revival 55, encased in its durable, portable carry case , significantly enhances the overall user experience. Its compact form factor and sturdy handle make it incredibly easy to move from room to room, take to social gatherings, or simply store away neatly when not in use. The ability to be “easy to store when not in use” adds to its practicality, especially for users with limited living space, transforming it from a permanent fixture to a convenient, on-demand entertainment source.   

Value Proposition: Price, Market Positioning, and Target Audience

The MIXX Revival 55 enters the market with an exceptionally aggressive price point of $99.99 or £79.99 . This strategic pricing firmly establishes it within the budget-friendly category, democratizing access to vinyl playback for a wider audience. The observation that it “costs roughly the same as two new vinyl albums” serves as a powerful illustration of its affordability, making it an impulse-buy possibility for many consumers looking to dip their toes into the vinyl world without a significant financial commitment.

It is crucial to clearly differentiate the MIXX Revival 55 from higher-priced “budget” turntables recommended by audiophile publications, such as the Pro-Ject Primary E at $278 or the Rega Planar 1 Plus at $725. These turntables are designed with fundamentally different priorities, focusing on pure sound fidelity, upgradability, and minimal features, catering to a distinct segment of the market. They are for serious audiophiles building a dedicated Hi-Fi system. The Revival 55’s value proposition lies squarely in its all-in-one convenience, stylish design, and surprising performance for its price, rather than in competing on raw audio performance with dedicated Hi-Fi components. Its strength is in offering a complete, accessible package for casual listeners who prioritize ease of use and aesthetics.   

Clearly Defined Target Audience

The MIXX Revival 55 is ideally suited for several distinct user groups:

• New Vinyl Enthusiasts: Those just embarking on their vinyl journey who seek an affordable, low-risk, and easy-to-use entry point into the hobby. It’s a perfect starter player that won’t overwhelm them with complex setups.
• Casual Listeners: Individuals who appreciate the aesthetic and ritual of vinyl but are not looking to invest in complex, bulky, or expensive audio setups. They want to enjoy their records without becoming an audiophile.
• Style-Conscious Consumers: People for whom the visual appeal, vibrant color options, and retro charm of a device are significant purchasing factors, allowing it to serve as a decorative element in their living space. It’s as much about the look as the sound.
• Gift Givers: Its appealing design, accessible price, and user-friendliness make it an excellent and thoughtful gift.  
• Older Generations:, its simplicity and ease of operation make it particularly accessible for older individuals rediscovering their cherished record collections from their youth.
• Portable Music Lovers: Individuals who desire the flexibility to easily move their music from room to room or take it on the go for gatherings, without sacrificing basic functionality.

The MIXX Revival 55 is not merely cheap; it is inexpensive and sufficiently capable to overcome the negative stereotypes often associated with its price point and form factor . By bundling features like two-way Bluetooth, pitch control, and surprisingly decent sound ququality into a £79.99 package, it significantly broadens the definition of what a “budget” record player can realistically deliver. It moves beyond being a mere novelty item. This product is strategically positioned to significantly expand the overall vinyl market. It achieves this by making the enjoyment of records genuinely accessible and satisfying for a mainstream audience that prioritizes convenience, stylish design, and affordability over the pursuit of absolute audiophile-grade fidelity. It serves as a highly effective gateway product, lowering the barrier to entry and inviting a new wave of listeners to appreciate the unique magic of vinyl.

Conclusion: Is the MIXX Revival 55 the Right Spin for You?

The MIXX Revival 55 vinyl record player stands out as a remarkably compelling option in the budget portable turntable market. It masterfully blends vintage charm with crucial modern functionality, delivering a surprisingly satisfying audio experience for its price. Its exceptional user-friendliness, robust and stylish design, and versatile two-way Bluetooth connectivity are its core strengths, making it far more than just a basic entry-level player.

For those embarking on their vinyl journey, casual listeners seeking a convenient and stylish way to enjoy their records, or anyone looking for a thoughtful and accessible gift, the MIXX Revival 55 is an outstanding choice. It offers significant value for its modest price, providing a genuinely enjoyable and hassle-free vinyl experience. However, it is essential to reiterate that this player is not designed for audiophiles or those seeking a high-fidelity, highly upgradeable system. Its primary appeal lies in its convenience, aesthetics, and accessible vinyl enjoyment, rather than uncompromising sonic purity.

In essence, the MIXX Revival 55 successfully lowers the barrier to entry for vinyl enjoyment, making the magic of records accessible to a broader audience than ever before. It demonstrates how thoughtful design, strategic feature integration, and a focus on user experience can elevate a budget product, delivering a surprisingly satisfying listening experience and fostering a new generation of vinyl enthusiasts. If you are ready to rediscover the magic of vinyl without breaking the bank or committing to a complex setup, the MIXX Revival 55 is undoubtedly a strong contender for your next spin.

The post MIXX Revival 55 Vinyl Record Player: – Review – The Retro Spin That Redefines ‘Budget’ Turntables is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Good Points:

• Exceptional display quality: A bright 6.7‑inch pOLED panel, 120 Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, and peak brightness up to 4,500 nits.
• Premium build with durability: Curved glass, Gorilla Glass 7i, plus IP68/IP69 and MIL‑STD‑810H ruggedness .
• Impressive cameras: Triple rear setup with 50 MP main + 10 MP 3× telephoto + 50 MP ultrawide; 50 MP front camera .
• Solid battery life & fast charging: 5,200 mAh (global) supporting 68 W wired fast-charging .
• Expandable storage & strong memory: Up to 512 GB UFS 4.0 plus microSD slot; configurations up to 12 GB RAM .
• Latest software & long updates: Runs Android 15 with Moto AI; promises up to 3 major OS updates and 4 years of security patches .

Bad Points:-

• No wireless charging. 
• No power adapter included in the box.
•  Some bloatware pre-installed. 
• Moto AI app not very useful. 

What’s in the Box:-

In box is the phone itself, a USB type C to C cable sim ejection tool, usual documentation and slim line case, but no power adapter. 

Design & Build Quality.

The frist thing I noticed when unboxing the Edge 60 was the screen, a quad-curved unit features subtle curves on all four sides—top, bottom, left, and right. Unlike the dramatic waterfall curves seen in the past, these curves are gentler and more refined. The left and right curves are familiar from previous generations of curved-screen phones, offering a premium and elegant feel. However, the top and bottom curves are even more subtle.

This thoughtful design makes swiping gestures incredibly smooth and comfortable, as your finger glides effortlessly over the edges. This subtle, yet effective, design choice elevates the overall user experience and contributes to a modern, sophisticated aesthetic. This quad‑curved display and slim side profile, making it feel thinner than its 7.9 mm thickness suggests .

The back features Pantone‑curated finishes—canvas-like or leather-like textures in stylish tones, offering both grip and uniqueness . Despite using plastic for the rear/frame, the phone feels premium, fortified by Gorilla Glass 7i protection and rated IP68/IP69 for dust, water, and even high-pressure jets, plus MIL‑STD‑810H toughness .

At 179 g, it’s lightweight yet sturdy, on the right side is the volume rocker, and power button

Motorola is no stranger to crafting stunning displays, and their latest is no exception. The P-OLED screen on this device is a masterpiece of modern mobile technology.
This panel is gorgeously bright, capable of hitting an incredible peak brightness of 4,500 nits in auto mode.

This means that even under direct sunlight, your content will be vivid and easy to see. Paired with its vibrant colors, the display provides an immersive viewing experience, whether you’re streaming videos or scrolling through your photos.

The screen boasts a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, ensuring that everything from gaming to daily navigation feels fluid and responsive. With a sharp resolution of 1220 x 2712 pixels, it packs an impressive 446 pixels per inch (PPI) on its 6.67-inch panel. Interestingly, the phone’s quad-curved design makes it feel much smaller in hand than its screen size would suggest—it feels more like a 6.5-inch device.

To top it all off, the display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 7i. While not quite as robust as Victus, it offers a notable improvement over older versions like Gorilla Glass 3 and 5, providing enhanced drop performance and improved scratch resistance to keep your screen safe from everyday wear and tear.

Software & Performance.

Motorola has a clear commitment to keeping your device current. The phone ships with Android 15 and comes with a promise of three major OS updates, taking you all the way to Android 18.

Furthermore, you can count on four years of Google security patches, which will keep your phone secure well into 2029. However, like many modern phones, this device isn’t immune to bloatware. During the setup process, you may find that the phone auto-installs a variety of applications from Motorola’s partners, which likely helps keep the hardware costs down. In my experience, these included games like Ball Sort Puzzle and Monopoly Go!, as well as apps like Amazon Music and Temu Shopping. The good news? All of these apps can be easily uninstalled.Additionally, some apps like Opera, Booking.com, and LinkedIn are pre-installed. While they can also be removed, two apps—Perplexity and Adobe Scan AI PDF—are baked into some of Motorola’s own applications. While this integration can be useful, especially for those interested in AI, it’s worth noting if you prefer to have full control over your app library.

Whipping out the SIM card tray with the included tool, we were met with a satisfying resistance. It’s clear that Motorola has sealed this device up tight to meet its impressive ingress protection ratings—a trend we’re seeing more and more on their phones, regardless of price point.

And what ratings they are! This phone doesn’t just have one, but two impressive ratings: IP68 and IP69. But Motorola went even further, making it MIL-STD-810H compliant. This means the phone is built to withstand a host of extreme conditions, from shocks and vibrations to temperature changes and morIn short, it’s ready for pretty much anything you can throw at it (or throw it at). To my surprise, the SIM tray also holds a secret. It has a spot for either a second nanoSIM or a microSD card, giving you flexible options for storage and connectivity. This is a huge plus, especially since you can also use an eSIM for even more convenience.

The Edge 60 comes in several storage and RAM configurations, with options varying by region and carrier. The review unit I tested packs the top-tier setup: 512GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. Other versions include 256GB/8GB and 256GB/12GB, depending on availability. Starting at 256GB as the baseline is already impressive—plenty of breathing room for most users. Stepping up to 512GB feels luxurious, and when you factor in the microSD card slot, things get even more exciting. With expandable storage, it could be pushed to an incredible 1.5TB total capacity, that’s laptop-level storage in a smartphone.

On the RAM side, Motorola includes a RAM Boost feature, which lets the phone use storage as virtual memory. My unit came with 12GB + 4GB enabled out of the box, alongside a new “AI Auto” mode. This AI-driven system supposedly optimizes RAM usage dynamically, allocating up to 12GB depending on workload. While I’m not entirely sure how seamless this implementation is (it traditionally required a reboot for changes), I can confidently say this: with 12GB of physical RAM already on board, very few users will ever need to rely on RAM Boost. The Edge 60 keeps apps and tasks in memory effortlessly, well beyond what most people will realistically push it to handle.

Powering the Edge 60 is the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 (4nm), the same chipset found in last year’s Edge 50 Neo. Day-to-day, it feels quick and responsive, with no noticeable slowdown during testing. Industry comparisons place it roughly in line with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7-series (possibly Gen 3), which is a solid benchmark for this price bracket. Unless you’re pushing the phone with graphically intensive gaming, the performance will more than satisfy 95% of users, 95% of the time. For the small slice of power-hungry gamers or heavy-duty multitaskers, a flagship-class device is the more realistic target anyway.

On the audio front, the stereo speakers deliver a well-balanced experience. They’re not the loudest in the category, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Instead of chasing volume at the expense of fidelity, Motorola opts to cap output to preserve sound quality, avoiding the distortion and harshness you hear on some rivals.

Dolby Atmos support adds flexibility, with profiles including Spatial Audio, Smart Audio, Music, Film, Game, and Podcast, plus a Custom mode with EQ sliders for fine-tuning. Personally, I found Spatial Audio the most enjoyable for music playback, though the presets make it easy to tailor sound to your preference.

One omission: there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack. Wired listening is handled via USB-C, which worked beautifully in my tests. Wireless users get Bluetooth 5.4, offering strong, stable connections and excellent sound quality. Paired with my Bose QC headphones, audio performance was consistently excellent—wired or wireless.

In a landscape where many Android OEMs struggle to strike the right balance between functionality and simplicity, Motorola’s HelloUI continues to shine. Built atop the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), HelloUI manages to preserve the clean, uncluttered feel of stock Android—evoking fond memories of the Android One era—while thoughtfully layering in enhancements that feel purposeful rather than excessive.

HelloUI isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel—it’s refining it. The inclusion of intuitive gestures like the three-finger screenshot, the iconic “chop-chop” motion to toggle the flashlight, and “swivel-swivel” to launch the camera are not just gimmicks—they’re reliable, practical, and genuinely useful. Add to that features like Attentive Display (which keeps the screen awake while you’re looking at it), edge lighting for notifications, and a dedicated gaming control panel, and you’ve got a user experience that feels polished without being bloated.

Customization is another area where HelloUI excels. Through Motorola’s dedicated personalization app and streamlined settings, users can tweak themes, fonts, and UI elements to match their style—without wading through labyrinthine menus or redundant options. While some features may echo ideas from other brands, Motorola’s implementation feels cohesive and well-integrated, never forced.

The end result is a software experience that’s lightweight yet powerful, customizable without being overwhelming. It’s this thoughtful approach that makes Motorola devices feel more approachable and user-friendly than many of their competitors. HelloUI doesn’t just sit on top of Android—it complements it, enhancing the experience without getting in the way.

Motorola may not always make the loudest noise in the Android space, but with HelloUI, it’s quietly setting a high bar for what a custom skin should be.

In a sea of lock screen gimmicks, Motorola’s Peek Display remains a quiet standout—an understated feature that’s both functional and refined. With just a lift or a gentle nudge, the phone springs to life, presenting notifications as sleek badges. Hold one down for a detailed preview, release to dismiss, or swipe toward the fingerprint sensor to dive straight into the app. It’s tactile, intuitive, and surprisingly satisfying.

Peek Display has been around for years, and it’s still baffling that no other OEM has truly replicated its finesse. Motorola has hinted at even more advanced versions in the past, which makes this iteration feel like it’s holding back just a little. Still, what’s here works beautifully—and that’s no small feat.

Beyond Peek, Motorola offers a generous suite of lock screen tweaks. Users can adjust clock styles and sizes, rearrange visual elements, choose how notifications appear, and even add widgets or shortcuts. A simple double-tap on the dormant screen brings it all into view—no swiping, no fuss.

Lift-to-wake, nudge-to-wake, and tap-to-wake are all supported, and when combined with Motorola’s snappy face recognition, the transition from locked to unlocked feels nearly instantaneous. Setup is refreshingly simple—no convoluted menus or trial-and-error calibration.

The one missing piece? A true Always-On Display. Motorola’s motion-based alternative is clever, but for users who prefer a persistent glanceable screen, its absence is noticeable. Peek Display does a lot—but it doesn’t quite fill that gap.

Motorola’s approach to lock screen UX is a masterclass in restraint and utility. Peek Display isn’t flashy—it’s thoughtful. And in a world of over-engineered features, that’s a breath of fresh air.

Motorola’s Smart Connect—formerly known as Ready For—has quietly evolved into one of the most versatile cross-device ecosystems in the Android world. On the Edge 60, it’s not just functional—it’s flawless. Whether you’re tethered via cable or going wireless, the experience is consistently smooth, with the added bonus of charging your phone during extended wired sessions.

Smart Connect isn’t just a screen-mirroring gimmick—it’s a full productivity suite. Here’s what it brings to the table:

• App Streaming: Run mobile apps on your PC with minimal latency
• Mobile Desktop Mode: A desktop-style interface powered by your phone
• Phone-on-PC Mirroring: Interact with your phone directly from your computer
• Webcam Mode: Use your phone’s camera for high-quality video calls
• File Management: Drag-and-drop file transfers between devices
• Hotspot Sharing: Turn your phone into a secure internet source
• Smart Clipboard: Copy-paste across devices with ease
• Cross Control: Use one mouse and keyboard across phone, tablet, and PC
• Share Hub: Transfer content seamlessly between platforms

For users who juggle between phones, tablets, and Windows PCs—especially in hot-desking or hybrid work setups—Smart Connect is a game-changer. It eliminates friction, streamlines workflows, and makes your phone feel like a natural extension of your desktop environment. Motorola isn’t just building phones—it’s building bridges between them. And Smart Connect is proof that thoughtful software can elevate hardware in ways that specs alone never could.

Battery Life & Charging.

Motorola’s Edge 60 delivers a compelling battery experience—but not without a few caveats. Most notably, Qi wireless charging is absent. It’s a surprising omission, especially considering the Edge 50 offered it last year. Adding a charging coil wouldn’t have broken the bank, but Motorola’s data likely shows that most users aren’t clamouring for it. Still, for power users and desk dwellers, its absence feels like a missed opportunity, Wired charging is speedy with 68 W wired support, topping up fast. In my testing the battery easily lasted me a full day with plenty in the tank at the end of the day.

Camera. 

The three lenses/cameras in the phone are a 50MP f/1.8 main unit with OIS, a supporting 10MP f2 telephoto with 3x optical zoom and OIS and that 50MP f/2 wide-angle with the AF/Macro. The main camera can shoot video at 4K@30fps or 1080p@240fps (with gyro-EIS) and round the front there’s a 50MP f/2 Selfie which can do the same video at 4K@30fps with a slightly reduced frame rate at 1080p@120fps.

Motorola’s camera app on the Edge 60 strikes a great balance between simplicity and depth. The main interface offers quick toggles for 0.5x ultra-wide, 1x standard, 2x, and 3x zoom, along with a dedicated Macro mode. The latter can also switch on automatically if enabled in settings, jumping in whenever the phone detects you’re close enough to the subject.

There’s no shortage of creative options either. A variety of filters can be applied pre-shoot, while Portrait mode delivers pleasing results with adjustable depth-of-field effects at focal lengths of 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm. For enthusiasts, Pro Mode allows manual control over focus, white balance, shutter speed, ISO, and exposure.

The More menu expands things further with tools like Document Scan, Night Vision (which impressively brightens even very dark scenes), Panorama, Ultra Res (full 50MP captures with larger file sizes), Photo Booth (four shots taken three seconds apart), Timelapse, and more.

Digging into settings unlocks plenty of extra features: AI Audio for video (Audio Zoom), smile and gesture capture, grids, level guides, and other refinements.

Overall, the Moto Camera UI is intuitive and versatile. For casual shooters, it’s straightforward and fun; for those who like to experiment, there’s real depth without being overwhelming. And for the vast majority who won’t be pixel-peeping, it delivers an enjoyable, no-fuss shooting experience.

Security & Connectivity:

Security is handled by face unlock and an under-display optical fingerprint sensor. Setup is quick, and while optical readers don’t quite match ultrasonic or capacitive, this one is fast and dependable—never once failing during my use.

Connectivity is comprehensive: 5G support for data and voice, Wi-Fi 6 (not the latest but still excellent), NFC for payments, and GPS with fast lock and solid stability. Bluetooth 5.4 ensures strong wireless performance, while the USB-C 2.0 port supports OTG for SSDs, headphones, and more.

Final Thoughts: Motorola Edge 60 Delivers Big in a Small Package.

The Motorola Edge 60 proves that great things really do come in small sizes. With its compact form factor, generous 512GB storage, and 12GB of RAM—all for just £379 direct from Motorola—it’s a standout value in today’s smartphone market.

From its stunning display and seamless Smart Connect integration to its capable MediaTek chipset and expandable storage, the Edge 60 is built to handle everyday life with ease. Add in solid audio performance, a versatile camera system, and reassuring durability credentials, and you’ve got a device that feels far more premium than its price tag suggests.

Motorola’s evolving AI features and commitment to software support only sweeten the deal, promising a phone that grows smarter over time. While the absence of wireless charging and a true Always-On Display might give some users pause, these omissions are minor in the grand scheme.

In short, the Edge 60 is a compact powerhouse that nails the essentials and sprinkles in enough extras to make it a compelling choice for anyone seeking performance, style, and longevity without breaking the bank.

The post Motorola Edge 60 – Review. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

In a market saturated with earbuds vying for ultimate sound isolation, the OpenRock S2 Earphones emerge as a distinctive contender, carving out a unique niche with their innovative open-ear design. These aren’t your typical in-ear or over-ear headphones; instead, the S2 prioritizes a harmonious blend of audio enjoyment and crucial environmental awareness. This design philosophy positions the S2 as a compelling alternative for users who demand to remain connected to their surroundings while immersing themselves in their favourite tunes or podcasts. The core proposition is simple yet profound: deliver a high-quality listening experience without sealing off the ear canal, allowing for natural ambient sound perception.

The emphasis on an open-ear design isn’t merely a feature; it’s a deliberate choice which immediately sets it apart from the vast majority of True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds that typically prioritize noise isolation. This design inherently targets a specific segment of the market: individuals who place a premium on situational awareness. Think urban runners and cyclists navigating busy streets, commuters needing to hear platform announcements, or office workers who must remain accessible to colleagues. This foundational design choice shapes expectations for every other aspect of the product, from audio delivery to comfort, signalling that OpenRock isn’t looking to directly compete with noise-cancelling behemoths, but rather to establish and excel within its own specialized niche.

Design & Aesthetics:

The OpenRock S2 Earphones immediately distinguish themselves with a distinctive ear-hook design, a clear visual departure from the sea of conventional earbuds. This unique form factor elegantly wraps around the ear, guaranteeing a secure placement without the need for direct insertion into the ear canal. While the individual earbuds are noted as being “larger than typical,” their overall aesthetic remains undeniably sleek and modern, characterized by a refined matte finish that extends seamlessly to both the earbuds and their charging case. This cohesive finish contributes significantly to a “premium feel,” signalling a meticulous attention to detail in material selection and surface treatment.

Despite accommodating these larger earbuds, the charging case is “surprisingly compact.” This isn’t just a casual observation; it speaks to thoughtful engineering aimed at minimizing the overall footprint, making the S2 considerably more portable than one might anticipate given the size of the earpieces themselves. The precise way the earbuds fit snugly within the case further underscores a well-considered design that expertly balances physical dimensions with practical usability.

The larger physical dimensions of the earbuds are likely a direct consequence of deliberate design choices made to enhance performance. This increased size likely accommodates larger dynamic drivers, specifically 16.2mm units, which are crucial for delivering robust audio quality in an open-ear format. Furthermore, the more substantial form factor almost certainly allows for the integration of larger batteries, contributing to the impressive battery life figures.

OpenRock S2 Key Specifications

Feature	Specification
Design	Open-ear, Ear-hook
Driver Size	16.2mm Dynamic Drivers
Bluetooth Version	5.3
Battery Life (Earbuds)	Up to 19 hours
Total Battery Life (with Case)	Up to 42 hours
Fast Charging	10 mins for 1 hour playback
Charging Port	USB-C
Water Resistance	IPX4
Microphone	Dual-mic ENC
Controls	Intuitive Touch Controls
Key Audio Feature	TubeBass Bass Compensation Algorithm

Fit & Comfort: Unfettered Listening.

The OpenRock S2’s ear-hook design is the cornerstone of its promise for both comfort and stability. By resting outside the ear canal, a fundamental aspect of the open-ear philosophy, these earbuds significantly alleviate the pressure and discomfort often associated with traditional in-ear headphones. This design choice enables extended periods of wear without the fatigue or occlusion effect that can be problematic for many users. In my tests I had them on for hours on end and genuinely couldn’t tell I was wearing them, the lightweight materials used in their construction further amplify their comfort, making them ideal for long listening sessions.

The secure fit provided by the ear hooks is a particular point for active individuals. The design ensures rock-solid stability even during intense workouts, meaning users can engage in strenuous activities like running, jumping, or cycling without the slightest concern for dislodged earbuds. This robust stability, combined with the inherent situational awareness of the open-ear design, makes them an excellent choice for outdoor sports where hearing your surroundings is crucial for safety. OpenRock also claims the design will “accommodate most ear shapes,”

The open-ear design offers a significant advantage in terms of comfort and safety by eliminating ear canal pressure and enabling situational awareness. This directly addresses common complaints about traditional in-ear headphones, such as ear fatigue and feeling disconnected from the environment.

While the claim of accommodating “most ear shapes” is positive, the very nature of ear hooks means that a small minority of users, particularly those with very small ears or who consistently wear thick-framed glasses, might still encounter minor fit challenges. This isn’t a design flaw but rather an inherent characteristic of the form factor. However, for the majority of users, especially those seeking an alternative to intrusive in-ear solutions, the primary benefit lies in the compelling combination of comfort and enhanced safety.

Sound Quality: Defying Open-Ear Expectations.

The OpenRock S2 delivers a surprisingly rich sound profile for an open-ear design. Typically, open-ear headphones face inherent challenges in bass reproduction due to the lack of a sealed ear canal, which is crucial for low-frequency resonance. However, the OpenRock S2 tackles this head-on, equipped with 16.2mm dynamic drivers and a proprietary TubeBass bass compensation algorithm. This represents a deliberate engineering effort to mitigate the inherent weaknesses of the open-ear design, particularly concerning bass. The result is a sound quality which I found surprisingly rich, with bass that is present but not overpowering.

The S2’s deliver impressive clarity across frequencies, mid-range frequencies, where vocals and many instruments reside, are rendered clearly, ensuring that voices are distinct and natural. Treble was crisp, giving good detail without harshness. A notable benefit of the open design is the perceived soundstage, which felt wide, resulting in a spaciousness and more immersive listening experience, allowing for better instrument separation.

It’s important to acknowledge that the open-ear design inherently leads to sound leakage. While this is a necessary trade-off for situational awareness, it means that in quiet environments, nearby individuals may be able to hear audio playing from the earphones. This is a characteristic feature, not a flaw, and users should consider its implications for privacy in shared, quiet spaces. For call quality, the OpenRock S2 incorporates Dual-mic ENC (Environmental Noise Cancellation), which aims to provide clear communication by effectively reducing background noise for the person on the other end of the call. This feature significantly enhances the practical utility of the earphones for daily communication.

The presence of a specific “TubeBass bass compensation algorithm” and large 16.2mm drivers indicates a deliberate engineering effort to overcome the typical audio limitations of an open-ear design. This isn’t merely a passive design choice; it represents an active technological solution to deliver a more complete sound profile, particularly in the low end, despite the physical constraints. The “surprisingly rich” sound output suggests that this compensation is largely successful. This means the OpenRock S2 is not just an “open-ear” product, but an “optimized open-ear” product. It aims to provide the benefits of situational awareness without completely sacrificing audio quality, especially in the low frequencies. This positions it as a more refined offering within its niche, justifying its value proposition by demonstrating technological solutions to common open-ear audio challenges. The wide soundstage is a natural consequence of the open design, further enhancing the listening experience by providing a sense of spaciousness.

Build Quality & Durability: Built to Endure.

Both the earbuds and their charging case boast a nice matte speckled finish and do feel premium. This tactile quality suggests the use of durable plastics and a careful assembly process, indicating a product designed to withstand regular use. The robustness of the materials and construction instills confidence in the earphones’ ability to endure the rigors of daily life and active use.

A critical aspect of the OpenRock S2’s durability, particularly for its target audience, is its IPX4 water resistance rating. This rating signifies that the earphones are protected against splashing water from any direction. In practical terms, this means they are perfectly suited for workouts where sweat exposure is common, and they can comfortably withstand light rain during outdoor activities. This level of water resistance, while not making them fully submersible, is perfectly adequate for the conditions most users will encounter during exercise or daily commutes.

The charging case also demonstrates a sturdy construction, effectively protecting the earbuds when not in use. The hinge mechanism, often a point of weakness in earbud cases, appears robust, further contributing to the overall durability of the system. Based on the quality of materials and the protective features, the OpenRock S2 is clearly designed for long-term wear and tear, aligning seamlessly with the demands of an active lifestyle.

Connectivity: Modern and Reliable.

Leveraging Bluetooth 5.3, the OpenRock S2 ensures a stable and highly efficient wireless connection. This Bluetooth standard provides an improved range, faster pairing, and superior power efficiency compared to older iterations. The pairing process is notably straightforward, and once connected, the link remains exceptionally reliable during use, virtually eliminating frustrating dropouts. While not always explicitly detailed, Bluetooth 5.3 intrinsically supports multi-device connectivity, which would enable seamless switching between paired devices.

Control Mechanisms: Effortless Command.

Controlling the OpenRock S2 is managed through intuitive touch controls, gracefully integrated into the design. These responsive controls provide users with effortless command over playback (play, pause, skip tracks), call management (answer, end), and voice assistant activation, all without needing to reach for your connected device. I found no issues with the accuracy and responsiveness of these touch gestures, and the controls registered reliably every time. The absence of physical buttons not only contributes to the aesthetic appeal but also prevents accidental presses during active use.

Battery Life: Unrivaled Endurance.

One of the most compelling features of the OpenRock S2 i found was their exceptional battery performance. The earbuds themselves delivered an astounding 19 hours of playback on a single charge surpassing the endurance of other True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds I’ve reviewed. When paired with the charging case, the total battery life extends to an equally impressive 42 hours. This extraordinary total playback time makes the OpenRock S2 incredibly practical for long commutes, extended workout sessions, international travel, or even multiple days of casual use without the constant hunt for a power outlet. Furthermore, the earphones support fast charging via USB-C, where a mere 10 minutes of charging can provide an hour of playback, swiftly mitigating any potential concerns about battery anxiety.

Call Quality: Crystal Clear Communication.

The OpenRock S2 integrates Dual-mic ENC (Environmental Noise Cancellation) specifically for calls, this advanced technology actively works to filter out distracting background noise, ensuring that the user’s voice is transmitted with remarkable clarity to the recipient, even when i used them in moderately noisy environments, people on the other end of the call stated I was clear with littel to no background noise.

The Good & The Bad:

The OpenRock S2 Earphones present a compelling package, particularly for a specific user demographic. Like any meticulously engineered product, its strengths are balanced by certain characteristics inherent to its innovative design.

Pros:

• Exceptional Battery Life: Offering up to a staggering 19 hours on a single charge and an impressive 42 hours total with the charging case, the S2 significantly outperforms many competitors in terms of sustained uptime, redefining expectations for wireless earbud endurance.
• Superior Comfort & Secure Fit: The revolutionary open-ear, ear-hook design expertly reduces ear canal pressure, making them exceptionally comfortable for extended wear and remarkably stable even during intense physical activity.
• Enhanced Situational Awareness: The inherent open design allows users to remain acutely aware of their surroundings, a critical safety feature for outdoor activities, urban commuting, and busy environments.
• Surprisingly Rich Sound for Open-Ear: Despite the inherent acoustic challenges of open-ear designs, the powerful 16.2mm dynamic drivers combined with the proprietary TubeBass algorithm deliver a clear and surprisingly full audio experience, including a present and well-defined bass response.
• Durable & Water Resistant: With a robust IPX4 rating, the S2 is well-protected against sweat and light rain, and its premium matte finish suggests a highly robust build quality designed for longevity.
• Clear Call Quality: Integrated Dual-mic ENC (Environmental Noise Cancellation) ensures crystal-clear voice transmission during calls, even in moderately noisy settings, enhancing communication reliability.
• Stable Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3 provides a consistently reliable and highly efficient wireless connection, minimizing interruptions.

Cons:

• Inherent Sound Leakage: Due to the open-ear design, audio will inevitably be audible to those nearby in quiet environments, which can impact privacy in shared spaces.
• Bass Not for “Bass-Heads”: While remarkably compensated for an open-ear design, the bass may not satisfy audiophiles or users accustomed to the deep, resonant, and often overpowering bass of sealed in-ear earbuds.
• Larger Form Factor: The earbuds are physically larger than typical in-ear models, which might be a visual or aesthetic preference consideration for some users.
• Potential Fit Issues with Glasses/Some Ears: While designed to accommodate most ear shapes, the ear-hook design could potentially interfere with certain types of glasses or not perfectly suit a small minority of ear anatomies.
• No Active Noise Cancellation (ANC): The open-ear design inherently precludes ANC, meaning users seeking complete isolation from ambient noise will need to explore alternative audio solutions.
• Multi-Point Connectivity Not Explicitly Confirmed: While Bluetooth 5.3 supports it, explicit confirmation of multi-point connectivity functionality is not always guaranteed, a potential omission for power users.

Value for Money:

Assessing the value for money of the OpenRock S2 Earphones requires a nuanced understanding of its unique positioning in the dynamic audio market. It is not engineered to compete directly with traditional noise-cancelling in-ear monitors or over-ear headphones, but rather to excel within a specialized niche. Its price point should be meticulously evaluated against its distinct features, compelling performance, and the specific problems it elegantly solves for its intended users.

The OpenRock S2 offers strong value for its intended audience because it comprehensively addresses specific needs and pain points that are often overlooked by conventional designs. For someone who critically requires situational awareness for safety, such as during intense outdoor sports, or who consistently finds traditional earbuds uncomfortable due to in-ear pressure, the OpenRock S2 provides a compelling and highly effective solution that few other products can truly match. The significant engineering efforts, such as the proprietary TubeBass algorithm and the integration of large, high-fidelity drivers, to mitigate the common audio compromises of open-ear designs further enhance its intrinsic value within this specialized segment. This means the OpenRock S2 might not be a “universal best buy,” but it undeniably stands out as an excellent, optimized solution for its particular niche.

Ideal User Profile.

The OpenRock S2 represents an excellent investment for several distinct user profiles:

• Active Individuals: Runners, cyclists, and fitness enthusiasts who prioritize safety by needing to hear crucial environmental cues such as traffic, other people, or approaching hazards during their workouts. The secure ear-hook fit and IPX4 rating are particularly beneficial here.
• Commuters: Those who utilize public transport and need to hear vital announcements, or pedestrians who wish to remain aware of their surroundings in bustling urban environments.
• Office Workers / Home Users: Individuals who need to listen to audio but also remain accessible to colleagues, family members, or ambient alerts without the constant need to remove their earphones.
• Users Sensitive to In-Ear Pressure: Anyone who consistently experiences discomfort, fatigue, or earaches from traditional in-ear earbuds will find the open-ear design a welcome and liberating relief.
• Battery Life Prioritizers: Users who demand exceptional uptime for long days, extended travel, or simply to avoid the inconvenience of frequent charging.
• Listeners Valuing Soundstage and Clarity: Those who appreciate a wide, expansive soundstage and clear, detailed audio over deep, thumping bass or complete noise isolation.
• For these users, the OpenRock S2 offers a highly tailored and exceptionally effective solution, making its price point justifiable given the unique combination of comfort, enhanced safety, cutting-edge sound engineering, and unparalleled battery life.

Conclusion & Recommendation:

The OpenRock S2 Earphones unequivocally stand out as a highly capable and thoughtfully designed product within the rapidly expanding open-ear audio segment. Its core strength lies in its remarkable ability to deliver a balanced and surprisingly rich audio experience while maintaining crucial situational awareness – a potent combination that effectively addresses a significant gap in the broader earphone market. The exceptional 19-hour single-charge battery life and the robust, comfortable ear-hook fit are particularly compelling features that significantly elevate its practical utility for a wide range of daily activities and demanding use cases.

The OpenRock S2 is a strong performer within the open-ear category, effectively addressing common concerns related to comfort, fit, and even bass response for this particular design. Its success has the profound potential to further legitimize and significantly expand the open-ear earphone market. By demonstrating that an open-ear design does not necessarily equate to poor sound quality or flimsy build, it sets a much higher standard for competitors and actively encourages further innovation in this burgeoning space. This makes the OpenRock S2 an intensely interesting product not only for discerning consumers but also for astute industry observers.

The post OpenRock S2 Earphones – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

The OnePlus Nord 5 has now been publicly announced. So, it is time for us to sit down and go through its features, its specifications and use it for some time to ascertain whether or not this is a suitable replacement for the predecessor, the OnePlus Nord 4.

As Always if you havent already been over the Unboxing post then I would highly recommend you do so as this will give you a bit more insight into the design and the Specs.

You can also find the unboxing video there as well.

Without further ado, Let’s dive in and have a look. at, the design

Design

The OnePlus Nord 5, in terms of design, takes a slightly different approach from what was seen previously on the OnePlus Nord 4. On the OnePlus Nord 4, the design was largely a metal unibody with the exception of the upper third of the rear, which was a glass panel, which also contained the horizontally mounted camera array, For the OnePlus Nord 5.

OnePlus has decided to revamp its design, returning to the more traditional aluminium side rails and frame, sandwiched between two glass panels. The front panel is made of Corning Gorilla Glass 7i (a codeveloped material by OnePlus but also being use don other products). Additionally, the camera has undergone a change, now featuring a vertically orientated camera module, unlike the previous horizontal design.

In terms of how the phones look, my personal preference stays with the OnePlus Nord 4. However, that does not mean that the OnePlus Nord 5 is by any means a bad looking phone. The use of a matte rear glass panel. Which has a soft touch finish. Apart from the embossed OnePlus logo slap bang in the middle is very nice and I do appreciate that, they have been able to use glass but also apply a finish that allows for some grip.

The overall dimensions of the phone are very similar however, the OnePlus Nord 5 is a smidgen wider. And this allows for a slightly larger screen. Measuring in at 6.83” diagonal the screen itself is a very good quality panel and is extremely bright even when used in direct sunlight and, when used with my prescription lens sunglasses.

I have had no issue reading, any text on the screen or viewing the content on the display. On the display whilst wearing these sunglasses. Oddly enough this has actually been something that has been very important over the last few weeks, in the UK as we are currently experiencing unseasonably sunny weather.

The screen also has a high PPI count of 450 due to it being a 1.5K FHD resolution panel made up of 2800 x 1272 pixels with 19.8:9 aspect ratio. In a nod to gaming the screen also has up 144 HZ refresh rate set at 4 stages (60/90/120/144Hz) and has a touch response rate of up to 3000 HZ which puts it in the same space as the REDMAGIC 10 Air for gaming.Lastly for those with a sensitivity to Pulse Width Modulation the OnePlus Nord 5 comes with a PWM of 3840 Hz which again is flagship grade.

As for the rest of the design. It is very similar to what you would. And come to expect from OnePlus. We do have the inclusion of two speakers. One on the bottom and an Amplified earpiece at the top. And this delivers a very clear and crisp sound stage as long as you don’t turn the volume up too high.

The one major other difference between previous generation, OnePlus Nord devices and the OnePlus Nord 5 (and indeed the OnePlus 13 and previous number of generations), has been to change from the Notification slider to the “Plus” button. As I mentioned, in my unboxing article, this button comes pre-configured out of the box to act like the notification slide.

However, If you require it to perform other functions can be chosen from a settings menu. And it does allow for you to customize this button to a certain extent. I have not found the need to change the function of the “Plus” button during my time with the device. I can see how it may be useful for people, who prefer to have other controls at a finger press away.

Hardware

The hardware on the OnePlus Nord 5. Is particularly impressive the internals of the phone are very much what you would have expected to find a medium to low price flagship from the middle of 2024.

We find that there is a Qualcomm Snapdragon. 8s Gen3 Chipset driving the phone and  this is suitably supported by the Adreno 735 GPU. Qualcomm and OnePlus have worked together to ensure that Oxygen OS takes full advantage of the chipset and will use the onboard AI to learn usage patterns and then adapt its resource usage in accordance with these usage patterns.

In terms of storage and RAM there are various options available for the OnePlus Nord 5, depending on how much you want to spend, however, for the purposes of the review I have the 512 GB of storage and 12 GB of RAM version. This is the most expensive model. Even if you were to go with the 256GB storage option, you will get 8GB of RAM. The ramp itself is LPDDR 5. and the storage is UFS 4.0 so, suitably fast RAM and suitably fast storage.

You also have the ability to expand the RAM virtually by up to 12 gigabytes. This will give you a total usable RAM on the most expensive version 24 gigabytes. Which is plenty even for the most heavy duty multitasker. I have had no need whatsoever to even consider changing this setting at all. Powering this computational giant in terms of phones is a 5200mAH. This battery is of a single cell design. But is still capable of very fast. SuperVOOC charging, if used with the appropriate SuperVOOC adaptor, which sadly does not come in the box.

Regarding the battery it will last you easily through a full day and I have regularly been getting through 2 days of usage with my light usage during my work days. Over the weekend I can normally get a full day with about 30% remaining when it comes to lights out. A typical day for me is 7am to at least 1am the next morning. Usage is mainly Emails, Whats App, Social media, Youtube, Web Browsing. I also have the life360 app running all day with no battery optimisation allowed.

Next up I want to talk about cooling as doing all the things that you can do on a near flagship tier phone is going to produce some heat so it is.important that a decent cooling system is in place. Fortunately OnePlus have us covered as they have used their knowledge from previous phones in their line up to implement their vapour chamber designs. This is the Cryo-Velocity VC Cooling system with 7,300 mm²in total area, ensuring consistently smooth performance even under heavy load. This exceeds some other flagship level gamin phones which are normally between 5,000 mm². I found that the phone remained cool during prolonged usage even when using it to record 4k 60FPS video it never got too hot.

Gaming was a breeze due to the powerful Chipset and RAM combination as previously mentioned.i was able to play my regular games with non dropped frames or stuttering which I have seen from other mid range devices in the past.

As always I do like to look at how good a signal I can get with these devices as what good is a smartphone if you can’t actually make calls and receive data. I am pleased to say that as this is OnePlus it performs as one of the better for finding signals and maintaining connection to this signal.

This is down to the new design details to the antenna architecture. This time around there are three additional high-performance antennas for 5G and Wi-fi. The addition of the extra Wi-fi antennas has been done with gaming in mind so regardless of how the phone is benig held you will still get a strong and fast Wi-fi signal.

Software

As you would expect with a new phone launched in 2025 the OnePlus Nord 5 come with Oxygen OS 15 onboard which is built of the back of Android 15. I am a fan of the latest Oxygen OS and what it brings to the party. Oxygen OS of course has a healthy smattering of AI on board and the OnePlus Nord 5 features a new offering from OnePlus in the form of AI Plus Mind.

This is a feature that is accessed via the Plus Key on the left hand side of the phone if you choose to configure it in that way in the settings menu as mentioned above. The idea behind Plus Mind is that it works as your personal assistant, understanding your informational needs and helping organise your digital life. It will do this by you using either the Plus Key to trigger a screen shot that is saved into Mind Space. But that is not all as this uses AI to then understand the significance of what has been captured so if you take a capture of an event you are attending then it will extract the details and and it to your schedule for you.

I tried this on my device with an invite to an upcoming event at IFA and it was able to capture all the relevant info and then add it to my calendar with all the details intact. I was actually very impressed by it. This is one of those tools that come along and you think yeah that will be okay but I don’t believe it will work. You then try and it shrugs any preconceived expectations off and works exactly as it was advertised. Nice work OnePlus.

AI Plus Mind to give it its full name will continue to change and improve over time via updates that will be delivered as app updates. This will lead to a more intelligent, streamlined approach to personal knowledge management. It is also going to expand to the rest of the OnePlus family starting with the OnePlus 13 and 13R this month.

Of course all your other AI goodies are covered including AI Search for system wide searching of your data to deliver personalized results, AI Translation which can translate using one of 5 different modes :text, live voice, conversation, camera, and screen translation and it will support up to 29 languages and of course AI Creativity suite which takes care of all your Photo editing needs but this time it also includes AI Reframe which wil analyse a photos to suggest the most optimised crops, filter and compositions to give your photos that extra level of flair.

A lot of these AI tools are essentially very similar to the Google AI suite which is also of course present in the Google photos app or the other Google apps. However where OnePlus puts Google’s AI service front and centre is in the implementation of Circle to Search which is a welcome edition as it is something I use regularly in my day. You also of course have of Google Gemini backed into the phone and it can either be accessed by a long press of the power button or a swipe from the bottom right corner. Once it is open then Gemini will be able to access Oxygen OS App such as Notes, Clock and Calendar to make it easy to get stuff done. This is something I have found that I am using Gemini more and more for these days as it improves with every iteration.

A lot of people don’t like using AI due to privacy concerns, well thankfully OnePlus AI services are protected by Private Computing Cloud which will ensure that your data is processed within a trusted framework which cannot be accessed by OnePlus or third party companies and none of your data is ever stored on external servers.

In addition to all these AI goodies you have the normal staples from OnePlus like Gaming mode which allows you to optimize the phone for gaming and control some essential system resources during said gameplay. The OnePlus Nord 5 will also include the Zen Space app which is great for helping you switch off after a hard day.

The app that I was not expecting to be here is more of a service than an app. This is a feature that I praised massively during my review of the Oppo Find N5 and my recent OnePlus Pad 3 review. I am of course talking about O+Connect which is part of the cross device sharing suite of tools that are all on the OnePlus Nord 5. This is big news and a genuine surprise, I would normally only expect this sort of productivity toolset to be on a flagship grade phone. It would be like Samsung adding DEX support to the A series of phones.

I love being able to have this connection open and then if I need to capture a picture of something on my OnePlus Nord 5 it will instantly show up on my Mac in the O+Connect App. It also allows me to transfer content from my Mac to the phone which makes it really easy to load up my phone with Music, Movies and TV Shows for when I am offline. You can actually go as far as use this as a Remote access for your Mac if you wanted to do so from a 6.83”phone screen. I did use it on the OnePlus Pad 3 but found it a bit fiddly on the phone display. I am seriously impressed by this integration software and its presence on the OnePlus Nord 5.

Now I have been using this service on my Mac but everything I have mentioned above is now also possible on Windows and the File sharing is also available on iPads and iPhones

If all of that wasn’t enough, OnePlus has also graced the OnePlus Nord 5 with their superb multitasking environment OpenCanvas which allows you to have simple and easy multitasking especially when used in conjunction with the Smart Sidebar. Here are some screenshots of what you can expect again for me personally, the full benefit of this style of multitasking comes when it is being used on a bigger display like the OnePlus Pad 3 for example. Again though i am also just very pleased that it has been included on this mid tier phone!

Camera

The design hardware and software of the OnePlus Nord 5. It is now time to have a look at the camera. The camera is one area where OnePlus has distinguished the Nord 5 as a mid-tier device.

What I mean by that is this phone only has two camera lenses on the rear and one on the front, which we will come back to. The rear cameras consist of a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera. Those eagle-eyed among you may have seen there is what looks like a third lens; however, this is only a LED flash.

The camera is by no means a bad camera (it is the same sensor used as one of the OnePlus 13 cameras); it is capable of producing good-quality photos in various different lighting levels. However, due to the lack of a telephoto lens, you are limited to a maximum of 20x zoom. This zoom is facilitated by digital cropping and some AI tweaking. If you keep the zoom settings within a reasonably short range, i.e., up to around 5x zoom, then you will get good results. Once you go over 5x zoom, things do start to get a little bit messy, and we do start to see some artefacts from the digital cropping and AI tweaking creeping into the photos. This is, of course, on the 50 MP wide-angle camera.

When using the 8-megapixel ultra-wide, you are really only able to utilise this for ultra-wide shots, as the name suggests. If you were to zoom into the photo after the fact, you will notice that some of the finer detail is lost. However, if your subjects are reasonably close and you are just wanting to get more subjects into the actual photo, the ultra-wide is perfectly serviceable. I would be hesitant to say that this is going to produce equal high-quality landscape shots when using the ultra-wide camera.

In terms of video, the rear camera is capable of recording at up to 4K and 60 frames per second. Again, when your subject is reasonably close, these video recordings do come out quite well. I have used the video camera for recording product-style videos, and this was used to record the unboxing video for the upcoming review of the Honor Magic V5. One thing to be aware of when recording at 4K and 60 frames per second is that the phone will get warm. It will not overheat, but it will warm up. This is nothing to worry about as this is normal for a phone when recording higher quality. I mention it so that the potential buyer/user is aware that if they want to record a lot of 4K 60 frames per second video, they will need to let the phone cool down after using this for some time.

The phone also features a front-facing camera, which OnePlus are very pleased about, as it is another 50-megapixel sensor; the Samsung JN5 Sensor to be exact. This is perfect for taking both individual selfies and also group selfies, as it has a wide field of view. As is normal for most selfie cameras these days, there is the option of adding bokeh for focal, and this can be adjusted from within the camera’s settings. There is also the option of using AI beauty mode to smooth out any imperfections in the subject’s faces. Personally, this is a feature I always turn off immediately as I find it creates an image that does not represent the subject in any form of reality. As for video on the front-facing camera, it will also record at 4K and 60 frames per second, which is more than adequate for video selfies. Here are some samples of the selfie camera below.

I have included various photos of the rear cameras down below for you to judge the camera settings yourself. These have been taken at a variety of zoom levels, mostly in good lighting conditions. The camera is not the OnePlus Nord 5’s strongest feature but it is more than serviceable as long as you have modest expectations.

Conclusion

My overall experience with the OnePlus Nord 5 has been overwhelmingly positive. While I may not be the biggest fan of the subtle shifts in its aesthetic and design, the device’s performance has truly impressed me. I would wholeheartedly recommend the OnePlus Nord 5 to a family member, especially if they are seeking a well-rounded smartphone without necessarily chasing the bleeding edge of flagship specifications.

It’s true that the OnePlus Nord 5 does omit a few features that a “spec-hunting” flagship user might prioritize. The absence of wireless charging and a formalized IP rating are two notable omissions that prevent it from being a “true” flagship in every sense. However, it’s crucial to understand that this isn’t the target audience for the OnePlus Nord 5.

Instead, the prime demographic for this phone is someone like my son, now a teenager, who values different aspects. He desires a phone with robust gaming performance, impressive battery life, and a usable camera – areas where the OnePlus Nord 5 excels, ticking all the right boxes.

It’s a testament to OnePlus’s consistent quality that the Nord 4, released last year, remains a very close competitor to the OnePlus Nord 5. I can state this with confidence as my wife continues to daily drive the OnePlus Nord 4, and it’s still going strong a year after its release. I am equally confident that the OnePlus Nord 5 will exhibit similar longevity.

OnePlus further reinforces this confidence by offering significant software support, committing to at least four years of OS and 6 years of security updates. This provides excellent reassurance for long-term usability.

If you are in the market for a high-quality mid-tier phone and are operating within a constrained budget, then I strongly recommend checking out the OnePlus Nord 5. It’s a particularly safe and solid bet if you’re buying for a family member or a teenager and prefer alternatives to Samsung or iPhone.

You can pick up the OnePlus Nord 5 from OnePlus now for 399 for the 8GB RAm and 256GB of storage version and £50 more for the 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage version. The Phantom Black is available in both RAM and Storage versions but if you want the Dry Ice then you are limited to the higher priced version and the opposite is true if you want the Marble Sands version.

Well done, OnePlus! This is a superb addition to the Nord lineup, and I have genuinely enjoyed using and reviewing it over the past few weeks. Long live Nord!

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

Honor have stuck to what they do best, as they proved last year with the Honor Magic V3; they have gone thin. They have (for the moment at least) the thinnest* folding phone in the world, the Honor Magic V5, at a preposterous 8.8mm folded and 4.1 mm unfolded. Sounds good, let’s have a closer look then.

However, before we dive in, I do have some admin I want to cover.

This is the Global version of the Honor Magic V5, and as such, I have not been given the full details of the specifications. I do have some limited information, and I will, of course, share what I am allowed to, but bear this in mind as you read the below article.

Here are the Specs that we know for now.

So with the specs out of the way lets go around the device and have a look at it in more detail.

Starting from right hand side with the phone unfolded we have got the power/sleep/wake and fingerprint reader above that is the volume rocker button. I have found the positioning of both of these buttons to be fine and they all have good responsive click to them which gives you reassurance that you have actually pressed the button. the fingerprint reader on the power key is very fast to identify finger prints as well i find it to be a tad quicker than on my Pixel 9 Pro Fold which is nice to see.

Moving around to the base of the phone is where we will find a speaker grill on the right and side along with the USB Type C port and a Dual Sim Slot  there are also 2 noise cancelling mics on the left and side of the base. In terms of the capabilities of the USB port I have yet to have had it confirmed what the charging speed is but I know it will work with Honor’s Supercharge so it is going to be at least above 30W. I have also not been advised wether this will work as a display out port to allow the use of a larger display and desktop mode. The speaker down here is crisp and clear and I like that it has been offset from the other one which is on the top edge of the phone as it lessens the chance of them both being covered when using for gaming or watching a video.

Next up is the left hand edge of the phone which is totally barren except for some antenna break lines. This is a good move as on the Honer Magic V3 and V2 I was not a fan of the staggered button placement when it was unfolded. It worked when folded but unfolded it was just annoying especially if you wanted to take a screen shot for example.

Moving around to the top edge we have got the second speaker which also pulls double dute as the earpiece speaker when on calls, on the left and then o  the right we have a single noise cancelling microphone. No infra red blaster which is something that was normally to be found on Honor devices, they must have realised that not enough people actually used it.

If we head a round the back the crown glory is right at the top in the form of the large protruding camera bump that has grown considerably in size over the Magic V3. tis now means that the Cameras used have been significantly upgraded as well. So in the camera bump we have 3 cameras as follows:-

50MP Wide Camera (f/1.6), OIS

64MP Periscope Telephoto Lens Camera (f/2.5), OIS

50MP Ultra Wide Camera (f/2.0)

These cameras are accompanied buy a triple LED light in between the Wide and Ultrawide camera’s. the cameras specs do look impressive but I have yet to decide if having the massive bump that facilitates them is a pro or a con.

In comparison I have also taken some side by sides with my pixel 9 pro Fold to show you the camera bumps against each other. I think it may grow on me over time but we will have to wait and see.

Obviously with he phone unfolded we have got the large front screen visible as well but we will come back to that shortly.

Next up is the internal folding display This is an OLED panel which in turn is covered with a protective layer Honor call Super Armour which should increase the durability of the display slightly. the screen is 7.95 ” diagonal and has a resolution comprised of 2352 x 2172 pixels to give a fairly square aspect ratio to the panel. it is also an incredibly bright display capable of hitting a maximum of 5000nits in the right conditions. This will of course be a specific are of the panel but from my initial impression’s the screen is sufficiently bright fro viewing outdoors in all but the brightest of conditions which we have been having lately in the UK which has been nice!

We also have the first of two front facing cameras tucked up on the centre of the upper right hand side of the display. It is a 2oMP unit and it will record video at an undefined quality and FPS it does not seem to have OIS

Lastly we are now closing/folding the phone to see that onto the left had side there is the hinge cover which has some nice patterned detailing on it but not much else to say apart from that. I will say that i have heard no creaks clicks or grinding noise from the hinge it is very smooth and defiantly smoother than my Pixel 9 Pro Fold which sounds like me when i get out of bed in the morning.

Folding the phone bring the outer display to the forefront and this display is roughly 6 and bit inches and that is all the details I can share as I have not got the actual specs. I can tell you that it is agin very bright and that it also looks to be a high resolution panel again. i am also goign to make an assumption and say that it is an OLED panel as well. We do also have the seconf front facing 20MP camera up the top here as well just below a superskinny earpiece cut out.

As for the internals I can tell you that the magic v5 is powered by a Snapdragon® 8 Elite Mobile Platform so will have all the other bells and whistles that come along with that. As for storage and RAM I have the 512GB Storage version here which has 16GB of RAM. This is all kept ticking along by a massive 5820mAh battery which should keep you going for a decent amount of time!

So that is the tour of the Honor Magic V5 complete. I am seriously impressed by the design of this phone I like the changes that have been made to the button placement. The colour of my review unit which is Dawn Gold is stunning especially as it has been roughened up slightly the only thing I am bit unsure about is the camera bump but that will be something I either get used too or come to be annoyed by and only time will tell. If it means I get better camera performance I thin I can live with it.

As is alway the case I will be using this phone as my daily for the next couple of weeks including when i go away on holiday at the end of this month. I am looking forward to getting stuck in to this and seeing how much of an improvement it is over my Pixel 9 Pro Fold in daily use and also in the cameras. 

Please do come back to see how I have been getting on.

You can register your interest for the Honor Magic V5 Global  on the Honor Website now and it would be worth doig that as they will no doubt have some tasty launch offers available for this beauty when it does launch!

The post Honor Magic V5 – Unboxing the world’s skinniest foldable. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

So without further ado, let’s have a tour of this mid-range marvel and see if it lives up to the hype of the Nord brand’s name.

First up, the unboxing video

Here are the Specs

Specifications
Dimensions	16.34 x 7.70 x 0.81 cm
Weight	211g
Display	6.83” (17.35 cm diagonal)
Resolution	2800 x 1272 (1.5K FHD+)
Pixel Density	450 ppi
Aspect Ratio	19.8:9
Screen-to-body Ratio	93.6%
Refresh Rate	Up to 144Hz (60/90/120/144Hz)
Panel Type	Swift AMOLED with Ultra HDR Support
Brightness	Normal: 800 nits, HBM: 1400 nits, Peak: 1800 nits
Colour Support	10-bit (1.07 billion colours), sRGB, DCI-P3, 100% DCI-P3
Touch Response (Instantaneous)	Up to 3000 Hz
Eye-care Features	Nature Tone Display, Eye Comfort, Bed Time Mode, Screen Colour Mode, Night Mode
Performance
Operating System	OxygenOS 15.0 based on Android 15
CPU	Qualcomm® Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Mobile Platform
GPU	Qualcomm® Adreno 735
RAM	8/12GB LPDDR5X with OnePlus RAM-Vitalisation
Virtual RAM Expansion	4/6/8GB (8GB RAM), 4/8/12GB (12GB RAM)
Storage	256/512GB UFS 3.1
Heat Dissipation Area	32207 mm²
Haptics	X-axis Motor
Certification	TÜl SÜd 72-month Fluency Rating A
Battery Capacity	5200mAh (Single-cell, non-removable)
Charging	80W SUPERVOOC, 18W PD (33W PPS), Bypass Charging
Reverse Charging	5W (Wired Only)
Camera
Rear Camera’s Wide Camera	50MP, 1/1.56” Sensor, F/1.8, OIS, EIS, 24mm Equivalent
Ultra-wide Camera	8MP, 1/4” Sensor, F/2.2, 116° Field of View, Autofocus
Video Capabilities	4K (60/30 fps), 1080p (60/30 fps), 720p (30 fps), Slo-mo, Time-lapse, Dual-view Video
Camera Features	Photo, Pro Mode, Panorama, Cinematic, Hi-Res Mode, Nightscape, Tilt-shift, Google Lens
Front Camera	Samsung ISOCELL JN5, 50MP, 1/2.75” Sensor, ¿/2.0, 90° Field of View, EIS
Video Capabilities	4K (60/30 fps), 1080p (60/30 fps), 720p (30 fps)
Camera Features	Face Unlock, Portrait, Panorama Selfie, Nightscape Selfie, Dual-view Video, Time-lapse, Slo-Mo
Connectivity
SIM Support	Dual SIM with Dual Active Support
Network Support	LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR (Bands: n1/n3/n5/n8/n28/n38/n40/n41/n66/n77/n78)
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 6, 2×2 MIMO, 2.4G/5G 160MHz, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax
Bluetooth	Version 5.4, Supports aptX, aptX HD, LDAC, AAC, SBC, LHDC 5.0
NFC	Enabled
Positioning Systems	NavIC, GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo, QZSS
Sensors
Biometric	In-display Fingerprint Sensor
Motion & Environmental Sensors	Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Electronic Compass, Infrared Blaster
Ports
USB	USB Type-C 2.0
SIM Slot	Dual nano-SIM Slot
Audio and Multimedia
Audio	Dual Stereo Speakers, Noise Cancellation Support
Supported Audio Formats	AAC, AMR, MIDI, MP3, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, WMA
Supported Video Formats	3GP, MP4, MKV, HEVC, AVI, AVC, VP9, VP8, AV1, FLV, MOV
Supported Image Formats	JPEG, PNG, AVIF, WEBP, GIF, BMP, WBMP, HEIF, DNG, ICO
Accessories
Type-A to C Cable	1
Quick Start Guide	1
Warranty Card	1
Pre-applied Screen Protector	1
SIM Tray Ejector	1

Now is the time for us to do the 360 tour of the device.

Starting on the right-hand side, as is tradition, we can find a volume rocker switch and below that we’ll find a sleep/wake and power key. This will also work as a Gemini key on a long press; that’s it for the right-hand side.

Moving around to the bottom is where we will find, in the middle, a USB Type-C 2.0 port and one of the loudspeakers. We can also find that two pinhole mics are straddling the USB Type-C 2.0 port. This is where the dual SIM tray is also located. It’s interesting to note that the dual SIM tray does have a red rubber gasket, suggesting some waterproofing in the design, even if it hasn’t been officially IP tested.

Continuing around to the left-hand side of the device, this is where we would traditionally have found the alert slider.

This has now been replaced with what OnePlus is calling the “Plus key”. This key can be assigned various different tasks out-of-the-box; it has been assigned to control the alert settings.

So by pressing and holding, you will be able to change the notification settings from all notifications on, vibrate and silent. Whilst I see the benefit of having a multi-function key, for the traditionalist in me, it’s sad to see the alert slider having gone.

Moving up to the top edge of the device, here we have another loudspeaker aperture for the earpiece and amplified speaker combo. We also have another noise-cancelling mic, and it looks like we may also have an IR blaster.

On the rear of the device, we find the dual camera array,

which actually looks like it may have had three cameras due to the way it has been designed. However, this is not the case. What we do have is a 50 megapixel main wide camera and an 8 Megapixel ultra-wide camera, below which sits a dual-tone LED flash.

Lastly, on the front of the phone, we have the 6.83” 1.5 K Swift OLED panel, which is capable of up to 144Hz refresh. But as this is not a dynamic refresh panel. This is done in stages that can be set within the display settings menu. The panel will also support up to 3000 Hz touch sampling rate, which gives for a near instantaneous detection of input on the screen, which is great for gamers.

Of course, the OnePlus Nord 5 will feature Aqua Touch 2.0, allowing use when your fingers are wet and oily.

Up top, we find the front-facing camera, which is a 50MP unit, which is also a wide-angle.
So that completes the 360 tour of the device. In terms of the look and feel of the phone, I do feel that when compared with its predecessor, the OnePlus Nord 4, this is a partial backwards step. Yes, we do have a slightly larger display due to it being slightly wider, but we have lost the all-metal construction, which has been replaced by a metal frame sandwiched between two glass panels. Fortunately, the rear glass panel has a matte finish and is not a glossy fingerprint magnet, and I do like the subtle blue colourway, which OnePlus call Dry Ice
However, I was a big fan of what they did with the OnePlus Nord 4 and the dual tone finish with the metal lower two-thirds, and then the glass-coloured section, particularly in the green version that I had.
In terms of other colours for the back, it is also available in a white colour, which is called Marble Sand, and a Grey/Black colour called Phantom Grey
I will be using this device for the next few weeks to complete the review and check battery life, performance and all the other bits that people want to know about. I will also be able to do some comparisons between this and the Nord 4, particularly since there isn’t any noticeable changes to the cameras.
I am hoping for a slight performance jump due to the newer generation in the 8s Gen 3 Chipset, and also for slightly better battery longevity. This will all be revealed after I have had some time to do further testing.
If, however, you want to pick up an OnePlus Nord 5 straight away, you can get it now from the OnePlus website for the following prices.

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

This time around it is going to be called the REDMAGIC Astra Gaming Tablet, and quite a few things look to have changed from the previous version, the Nova, which I also reviewed.

This looks like it will be a 9.06″ gaming tablet which will feature a 2.4K AMOLED screen with the requisite high refresh rate, 165hz in this case. Of course you get the other staples that you would expect like a high end Chipset from Snapdragon in the form of an 8 Gen Elite processor supported by the RedCore R3 Pro chip which gives you the very best gaming experience form the current tech. This is supported by 24GB of RAM and 1TB of internal storage and powered by a 8200mAh to keep things ticking over. This battery will apparently allow for up to 6.67 hrs of continuously gaming of COD Mobile which will also allow you experience this game is wonderful 120 FPS thanks to the upscaling effect of the RedCore R3 Pro.

The REDMAGIC Astra Gaming Tablet will come in two colours which are Eclipse (Black) and Starfrost (Silver) I really do like the look of the silver version and that would be my personal preference.

Having seen what REDMAGIC can do with their gaming phones I am really excited to see what can be achieved on the larger tablet platform.

I have included a small teaser video for you below to give you a taste.

I am hoping to get a review unit in soon to allow me to fully put this tablet to the test and the full Coolsmartphone review.

Check back here with us at Coolsmartphone Towers in the coming weeks.

You will be able to place a preorder on the REDMAGIC website from tomorrow at 13:00 UK time, with prices starting at £439for the base entry level model which comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The price of the top spec is £739 which will give you 24GB of RAM AND 1TB.

The post REDMAGIC Announces, REDMAGIC Astra Gaming Tablet is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

The OnePlus Pad 3 has a different design, which we’ll discuss later. However, my main focus during this review is to determine if it’s a worthy successor to the OnePlus Pad 2 and to test it as a potential laptop replacement for the duration of my review. To do this, shortly after posting the OnePlus Pad 3 Unboxing video (which I encourage you to watch if you haven’t already), I shut down my MacBook Pro. Since then, I’ve been using my OnePlus Pad 3 exclusively as my primary writing device. I’ve already used it in that role to complete my recent REDMAGIC Air 10 review.

Without further ado, let’s delve into the design of the OnePlus Pad 3.

Design
In terms of design, there are some quite obvious differences and there are also some quite subtle differences. The most obvious difference. Is the fact that the OnePlus Pad 3 has grown in size over its predecessor. Now, whilst a lot of people have become used to tablets growing to be a larger size with the likes of the Galaxy Ultra tablets of recent years, this will be the first time I have used a tablet that measures in excess of 13 inches. But what I want to try and do during this review is to see if this is a worthy successor to the OnePlus Pad 2 and also test it as a possible laptop replacement for the duration of my review, period.

So, without further Ado, let’s have a closer look at the design of the OnePlus Pad 3.

I must admit, I was a bit sceptical about the larger screen size of the OnePlus Pad 3. For me, one of the advantages of a tablet over a traditional laptop is its versatility and portability. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to use the OnePlus Pad 3 in the same way I had used the OnePlus Pad 2. However, I’m pleased to say that the increase in screen size hasn’t diminished my use cases as much as I had anticipated.

Admittedly, it is not anywhere near as compact as it is forebear, and it will take up more space in your bag or other storage location. But I have found that when combined with the OnePlus Pad 3 Smart Keyboard, which is available as an optional accessory, currently half price on the website (when bought with the tablet). It does allow me to use the tablet more as a laptop than I would say was ever possible with the OnePlus Pad 2.

One of my typical scenarios for getting work done these days is actually whilst sitting in the front of a van. I can use the OnePlus Pad 3 with its keyboard, with the back of the tablet resting against the steering wheel, and I am still able to type in a relatively comfortable position.

Obviously, one of the additional benefits of having a bigger screen size is that multitasking becomes more of a realistic possibility. However, I will discuss these benefits further when we look at software. Going back to that bigger screen. We now have a 13.2-inch display panel. This panel has a 3.5 K resolution, and it is an LCD panel. Whilst some may look at that and think LCD is a poor choice, I would disagree with having used it. The panel is very crisp and clear, and handles colour tones very well. Don’t get me wrong, though, this is not as good at handling deep blacks as you will see from an OLED panel. It has been perfectly suited to watching content and, perhaps more importantly, getting work done.

Another thing to note is the size and dimensions of the display section of the tablet. The tablet is very thin, under 6mm (5.97mm to be exact), and the bezels are also quite thin for a tablet, not too small to jeopardise your viewing experience, but small enough so they don’t encroach on your viewing experience.

On the rear of the tablet, we still have a camera. However, this camera has now moved to the upper right-hand corner of the rear panel when viewed from the back. This is a different placement from where it was on the…OnePlus Pad 2, which was in the centre. The back panel is also now composed of one single piece of aluminium and does not sport the two-tone style of the predecessor. At the bottom of the back panel. We now have connection points in the form of a pogo pin connector. This is for the optional… OnePlus Pad 3, Smart Keyboard. I prefer this point of connection over the predecessor, which was on the bottom edge, as it creates a much more secure and stable mounting point for the keyboard.

Around the edges, we find that there are four speaker enclosures, two on either side. These speaker enclosures contain two speakers; each one contains a woofer and a tweeter. This creates a very pleasant sound stage, especially as all four speakers’ arrays are symmetrically positioned.

On the right-hand side of the tablet is where you will find your USB Type-C. The port does support the capability of display output, but there is only support for display mirroring at the moment. OnePlus does not have a desktop mode when connected to a display output at this time. Perhaps, this is something that will come in the near future, particularly as Android 16 is rumoured to be supporting a native desktop-style mode when connected to a display output.

In terms of other ports. The OnePlus Pad 3 does, of course, have the dual microphone ports. One of which is nestled next to the USB Type-C port on the right-hand side. And the other is on the uppermost edge next to the volume buttons. Also found on the uppermost edge is the area for mounting the optional stylus, which will magnetically connect to the tablet, where it will also charge via wireless induction charging. I don’t have the OnePlus Stylo 2 accessory. So I will be unable to test this, and you will therefore not see this in any pictures of the device.

I have already mentioned two of the accessories that are available for the OnePlus Pad 3, and it would be remiss of me not to mention the third. Again, this is one I don’t have; however, it is one that may be worthwhile if you are intending on using this primarily as a media focused device. It is, of course, the OnePlus Pad 3 Folio case. As the name suggests, the case is a folio-style case that acts as both a cover and a stand. I believe it will support both landscape and portrait. And when used in landscape, you do have a few different positions, where you can angle it as appropriate. This and the OnePlus Pad 3 Smart Keyboard attach to the tablet via magnets that are embedded into the body of the tablet itself. These magnets are strong. And they make a solid and reassuring “thunk” when you attach them to the tablet itself.

I do want to take a moment and cover the design of the OnePlus Pad 3 Smart Keyboard accessory. This has had a subtle redesign. To accommodate being mounted onto the OnePlus Pad 3. As previously mentioned, the point of connection is on a magnetised flap, which extends underneath the bottom edge of the tablet and up onto the back of the tablet itself. This, in turn, will then connect to the Pogo pins on the tablet. I have found in my limited usage that the connection is much more secure than on the OnePlus Pad 2 Smart keyboard. It also helps to create a much more stable base for using the tablet in its laptop mode on one’s lap. This is something I couldn’t really do with the OnePlus Pad 2.

The other part of the Smart Keyboard cover is the magnetic back panel, which is where the tablet gets its support for standing up. This is again a strong and stable connection, and it has many angles of adjustment for getting a comfortable viewing angle.

However, when using the OnePlus Pad 2, with the Smart Keyboard accessory, one thing I really enjoyed was the ability to separate the keyboard and the tablet, but still have the keyboard connected to the tablet via Bluetooth. This allowed me to set up a working area within my van where I could have the screen behind the steering wheel on the dashboard. And then I could have the keyboard positioned better for prolonged typing. I have noticed that with the Smart keyboard cover for the OnePlus Pad 3, I can no longer have this option. Now, I am not sure if this is a software switch that I need to enable. Or whether it is a functionality that has been pulled as a feature by OnePlus. If I find this to be true, then I will update this review accordingly.

Update: I have been advised by OnePlus that the OnePlus Pad 3 Smart Keyboard does not support the Bluetooth connection of its predecessor, as the keyboard does not have an internal battery anymore.

The keyboard itself is very comfortable to type on. I find the key spacing, based on a 13-inch platform, is a little more comfortable than on the smaller OnePlus Pad 2 Smart Keyboard setup. This is most likely due to the fact that this keyboard is virtually the same as the Apple Magic Keyboard V1 that I currently use at my desk for most of my writing.

We do still have a large trackpad, which is really comfortable to navigate around the tablet interface. It supports multi-finger gestures, allowing you to minimise Windows, take screenshots, navigate through multiple apps, and bring up all your apps in the multitasking overview. Unfortunately, I believe this is something that cannot be helped due to the keyboard’s design. The trackpad is prone to clicking when you have the keyboard in your lap. In my slightly cramped van work position, I’ve found it’s better to disable the trackpad and focus my touch inputs on the screen itself.

This is certainly one area where I do miss having the OnePlus Stylo 2, as this goes a long way to minimise the fingerprint marks that end up covering the screen. I would definitely consider packing a Microfibre cloth in your bag, as it is not just the screen that picks up these fingerprint smudges, but that magnetic backing plate for the keyboard cover is prone to it as well.

I really appreciate OnePlus’s decision to include command keys in the keyboard. One particularly useful one is the screenshot key, which makes capturing screenshots a breeze for future reference. I’ve also found the AI key to be incredibly helpful with Google Gemini, allowing me to access my toolkit swiftly. The media control keys are also very useful. Additionally, I enjoy being able to use my familiar keyboard shortcuts from my full-fledged MacBook Pro laptop within the Android ecosystem.

Hardware and Performance

Now that we have the design side of things sorted, it is time to look at what makes this tablet tick. That means we will need to have a deeper look at the heart of the tablet. Inside the OnePlus Pad 3 is a top-of-the-range chipset in the form of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is supported by an Adreno 830 GPU. This means that you are not going to have any app or service that will cause the performance on the tablet to struggle in any way. I have been able to run any app that I wanted to, and it loads quickly and smoothly, including any of the Google work apps that I have been using to write this review. I have also been using the tablet a lot for streaming content from various services, and these have all been seamless.

I have even managed a bit of gaming on the OnePlus Pad 3, going with my staples of Asphalt Unite and Grand Mountain 1 and 2. These are games that don’t demand much in that way of performance, so these have been absolutely fine for playing and have been able to support their maximum settings with no issues. I was also able to set the tablet up to work with my old Google Stadia Gamepad via Bluetooth, which allowed me to get a better gaming experience. However, I will say that holding the device in hand can be a bit cumbersome due to its large form factor. Playing with a dedicated controller does give a much better experience.

The tablet boasts an impressive 12,140mAh battery, designed to keep you powered up for extended periods. This substantial battery capacity ensures you can indulge in hours of uninterrupted streaming, whether you’re binge-watching your favourite series or catching up on the latest films. Its longevity means you can confidently rely on it during long journeys, whether you’re on a cross-country train ride or a long-haul flight.

For those planning adventures to distant sunny destinations, this tablet’s battery performance is particularly advantageous. You can explore new cities, relax on the beach, or embark on scenic excursions without the constant worry of your device running out of power. Unfortunately, I won’t have the opportunity to test the tablet’s endurance during my upcoming holiday to Madeira this summer (as I have to return the device at the end of the loan period), but its specifications strongly suggest it will handle such travel scenarios with ease.

The connectivity performance is very good, as I mentioned, I have been able to use the tablet with my Pixel Buds 2 Pro and my Google Stadia gamepad over Bluetooth with no issues or any appreciable latency that I can see. The performance of the Wi-Fi has been great, with me being able to get a strong and stable connection anywhere in my home, which is sometimes problematic.

I have also been able to get a very good connection to my Oppo Find X8 Pro when using the O+ Connect app to allow me to screen share and control my phone from the tablet. This also allows me to seamlessly share files and data between the two devices. It is also a really easy way to share the mobile hotspot from the phone and allow me the option of connection from anywhere I have a phone data signal. You can start this connection in one of two ways. You can either initiate it from the Smart Keyboard cover by holding the phone over the NFC spot on the lower right-hand corner of the keyboard. This will then start the connection process to your phone. Upon first setup, you will need to tick some checkboxes and grant a few permissions, but once done, it is smooth and quick to connect. The other way is by accessing the connection menu and initiating the connection on either the tablet or the phone side, as long as the pairing has been done at least once. If you do it this way on the first attempt, it still requires the same setup as the NFC method. Unfortunately, during the writing of this review, I sold the Oppo Find X8 Pro, so I was unable to capture any images of this working.

Volume when using it without headphones is clear and crisp as long as you don’t try and run it at full volume as at above 80% volume you will start to notice a bit of distortion but it is not hing that is too severe and 80% is more than loud enough for most environments where you are going to be using the speakers!

One other point of note is that during my use and even during the most intensive of tasks I have not noticed any considerable heat build up the device but it is worth bearing in mind that I have been mainly using the OnePlus Pad 3 in its “Laptop” mode so there has not been a massive amount of handheld use.

When you are in “laptop” mode, the Smart keyboard and stand do really come into their own and do exactly what they say on the tin. I have found that the stand is solid and will cope with all the biggest pokes at the screen. The keys on the keyboard are very nice to type on, and the travel is deceptively good for a low-height membrane-style keyboard. It also provides a reassuringly good amount of travel for a low-profile-style board. The trackpad is smooth and tracks your finger movement well, but being that the actual keyboard is less than 1cm thick, it is prone to false clicks when the keyboard is on your lap. I was quite surprised at how “lapable” the OnePlus Pad 3 and OnePlus Pad 3 Smart keyboard really are.

When it comes to performance, I can confidently say that this is, without a doubt, one of the best-performing Android tablets I have ever had the pleasure of using. This impressive performance can be attributed to a combination of factors, notably the exceptional software optimisation, which I will delve into shortly, and the top-tier hardware specifications that this tablet boasts.

The seamless user experience is a testament to how well the software complements the hardware. The tablet handles multitasking effortlessly, applications load swiftly, and navigation feels fluid and responsive, making it a joy to use whether for productivity tasks, media consumption, or light gaming.

If I were to deduct any points, it would be solely for the choice of display technology—specifically, the use of an LCD panel instead of an AMOLED one. However, upon reflection, I find that this decision has its merits. While an AMOLED panel could offer slightly deeper blacks and more vibrant colours, the difference in display quality is relatively marginal for everyday use. Moreover, incorporating an AMOLED display would have significantly driven up the cost, potentially making the tablet less competitive in its price segment.

In fact, I appreciate that OnePlus decided against the more expensive AMOLED option. This strategic choice helps keep the tablet’s price point more accessible, giving it a significant edge over competitors. The LCD panel used here is of excellent quality, offering bright, crisp visuals with good colour accuracy and strong viewing angles, which more than suffice for most users’ needs.

I am highly impressed by this tablet’s exceptional performance. Its powerful hardware, seamlessly optimised software, and stunning high-quality display come together to deliver an outstanding user experience.

Now that we have covered the hardware and performance, I want to take some time to go through the software and how this enables this to work as a “laptop”

Software

The OnePlus Pad 3 runs on OxygenOS 15, an operating system that significantly evolves OnePlus’s recent software, with a primary focus on multitasking. This is best showcased by Open Canvas, OnePlus’s innovative approach to managing multiple application windows based on usage. First seen on the OnePlus Open, this feature has been further developed in collaboration with Oppo on their Colour OS platform. Having experience with the Oppo Find N5, I was already quite familiar with the advanced nuances of Open Canvas on the OnePlus Pad 3. Essentially, Open Canvas allows you to have up to three full-sized apps running simultaneously on your display. When I say “full-sized,” I mean windowed versions of the apps. In practice, this means a tiny sliver of the other two apps remains visible even when you’re actively using one. This is just one of several ways to display multiple apps. You can also opt for a single main app with two smaller ones, or have two apps displayed side-by-side, each taking up half the screen.

This last option proved incredibly useful during my review, as I did all my writing on the OnePlus Pad 3. The ability to have Google Docs open alongside a Google Sheets spreadsheet, or even another Google Docs window or press release notes, allowed me to quickly and easily reference information from one document and write it into another. Using multitasking in this way, especially with the OnePlus Pad 3 Smart Keyboard, creates a near-laptop-like experience. Without Open Canvas, I would seriously doubt how easy it would be to use this device as a laptop replacement.

Beyond Open Canvas, the latest OxygenOS software includes several other valuable features. The ability to drag an app from the taskbar while another full app is open, and have it immediately snap to whichever side you drag it to for multitasking, is very useful.

App drawer from the taskbar

There’s also a taskbar-style sidebar that can be pulled out from the side of the tablet. It can be set up on either side, but only one at a time, and it provides quick access to frequently used apps and some of the OnePlus AI tools, such as AI Write or AI Translate, if they’re relevant to your current task.

I attempted using the AI Write option for editing this review, but I encountered a frustrating limitation: the AI Write tool can only be used with up to 3,000 characters. While this might be sufficient for using the tool as a prompt to generate content, it was inconvenient for my purpose of editing and improving the flow of existing content. It’s possible I wasn’t using the tool as intended, but the name “AI Write” implies a multi-function tool for writing and content creation, similar to the writing tools I regularly use on my MacBook.

In addition to the existing AI tools, there has been a significant expansion centred around Google’s Gemini-based offerings. These enhancements are designed to provide users with more intuitive and versatile search experiences. Notably, the introduction of Image Search allows users to effortlessly find relevant visuals, enhancing both personal and professional productivity. This feature, coupled with the new full-screen search functionality, is accessible through the innovative Circle to Search tool. Circle to Search greatly simplifies the process of identifying and retrieving information directly from the screen by allowing users to circle items of interest, prompting an instant search.

Previously, such functionality was notably absent from the OnePlus Pad 2, leaving many users eagerly anticipating its inclusion. The good news is that this feature has now been successfully implemented, markedly improving the device’s AI capabilities. This advancement not only fills a critical gap but also aligns the OnePlus Pad 2 with the latest industry standards in smart device AI integration.

Furthermore, accessing this comprehensive AI toolset has been made remarkably straightforward. Both Circle to Search and Gemini are now readily accessible via a quick key press on the smart keyboard. By simply pressing the dedicated AI key, users can instantly bring up Gemini, facilitating seamless interaction with AI-powered features. This convenient shortcut also enables the use of Circle to Search, making it easier than ever to leverage advanced AI tools in everyday tasks.

Another software aspect worth mentioning is the gaming sidebar. OnePlus has been developing this over time, and it offers certain optimisations within gameplay on the tablet. While significantly simpler in operation than game spaces found on dedicated gaming devices like Red Magic, which is understandable as the OnePlus Pad 3 isn’t primarily sold as a gaming device, it’s still useful. When you pull the game task toolbar out from the corner of the screen, it allows you to change the performance mode for the game being played and, I believe, initiate a screen recording session. My main use for this was quickly changing performance modes to increase performance and quality while playing a game.

Other software features include video enhancement and image enhancement. Video enhancement brightens colours in videos, which I found worked within apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, as well as with native content on the device. Image enhancement brightens the colours and vibrancy of photos, both on the device and on cloud-based services like Google Photos.

When it comes to image editing within the OnePlus Gallery, you have a wealth of tools, including Object Eraser, Smart Cropping, and AI Detail Boost enhancement. These tools are very easy to use and offer essentially the same functionality as those found in the Google Photos suite. For this reason, I tended to do the majority of my image editing within Google Photos, an environment I’m more familiar with from using Pixel devices over the years.

I really appreciate the direction OnePlus is taking OxygenOS. The strong similarities between OxygenOS and Oppo’s ColorOS are very evident, and having used both device families recently, there’s very little difference between them. Another app that was very useful during my time with the OnePlus Pad 3 was O+Connect. This app originated from Oppo and has been implemented on OnePlus devices.

Files from OnePlus Pad 3 being viewed on my MacBook Pro via O+Connect

It allows for seamlessly linking a OnePlus or Oppo device to my tablet and transferring content between them. It also lets me connect the tablet to either a Windows PC or a Mac and even remotely control either a Windows device or my Mac. This is a very useful feature set, especially if you need to quickly pull files from your desktop onto your tablet.

During my brief review period, around the time of the tablet’s full sale launch (June 19th), the device received a significant software update. This is fairly normal for newly released devices, especially when they’re sent out to reviewers before public release. So, as a new owner, you can expect the software version you receive to be the one I currently have installed.

Camera
Cameras on tablets have always struck me as somewhat peculiar, especially as these devices continue to increase in size, exemplified by the latest OnePlus Pad 3. The idea of holding up such a large device to take photos can seem awkward compared to the ease and convenience of smartphone photography. However, manufacturers continue to enhance tablet camera capabilities, blurring the lines between traditional tablet usage and mobile photography.

On the rear of the OnePlus Pad 3, there is a neatly positioned camera module tucked into the corner. This module houses a 13MP camera, which offers respectable image quality for a tablet. The camera is capable of up to 10x zoom, allowing users to capture distant subjects with reasonable clarity. This feature could be particularly useful for scenarios such as taking photos of presentations, documents, or even casual outdoor shots where getting physically closer isn’t feasible.

Since the device utilises a single-lens setup, it does lack some of the versatility found in multi-lens smartphone cameras. There are no ultra-wide or macro modes, which means you can’t capture expansive landscapes or detailed close-ups with the same finesse. Instead, it adopts a straightforward point-and-shoot approach, focusing on simplicity and ease of use for casual photographers.

Nevertheless, the camera comes with a night mode feature, designed to enhance low-light photography. By keeping the shutter open slightly longer, the camera can gather more light, resulting in brighter and clearer images in dim conditions. While it may not rival the quality of dedicated night mode cameras on high-end smartphones, it still adds a useful dimension for those spontaneous evening shots.

You can, of course, still capture video with the camera, and you have the options of 720p, 1080p, and 4K. The quality of the video is also shown below. They are both relatively short clips, one of which is Full HD and the other of which is 4K. Both of the clips are shot at 30fps, which is the maximum available.

Here is a 1080P sample

Here is a 4K sample (This may have been reduced by the WordPress wizards)

There’s no built-in portrait mode, so it’s quite a basic camera setup. However, I’m glad about this because, in my opinion, the use case for a tablet is to capture documents and use it for video calls.

This is where the front 8MP camera comes into its own as it allows you to make video calls in pretty good quality. It also allows you to adjust the bokeh and whether you are using the wide angle option for the camera or not.

Some video from the Front camera, first with 1X Zoom setup

Secondly, with the zoom set as 0.8x Zoom for those wider-angle video calls.

The camera’s on the OnePlus Pad 3 may not be revolutionary, but it provides practical functionality for everyday use. Its features cater to convenience rather than professional photography, making it a handy tool for quick snaps, video calls, and document scanning.

Conclusion

I am very impressed with the OnePlus Pad 3, and it has been a joy to use it for the duration of this review. It is a powerful tablet and ticks all the boxes that a typical tablet customer could want. I tried to use the tablet in a more “Pro” style of use as a tool for writing this review, and for the most part, it worked very well. The only time I really came up against any issues it was not due to the OnePlus Pad 3 but down to the Android Software. I am sure if I were to spend more time experimenting with this setup, I would be able to find sufficient workarounds for the shortcomings of the Apps that I was using in this review’s creation.

If you are looking for a new tablet and don’t fancy paying the Apple or Samsung tax for their products, then this is a very good option, especially when you combine it with the array of accessories that are available to purchase (or get for free if you are lucky enough). I have found that the performance is excellent for gaming, media playbac,k and even getting work done.

I, for one, will miss the OnePlus Pad 3 when it is returned, as it has become a core piece of kit for me in my “blogging” arsenal.

If you want to purchase a OnePlus Pad 3 or any of the associated accessories, then you can buy it now from the OnePlus website and potentially have it gracing your lap/desk within the next week.

The post OnePlus Pad 3 – Review – Is this the best Android tablet of 2025? is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Good Points :-

• Powerful enough
• Stunning p-OLED display
• Lightweight
• Battery Life
• Great Camera’s
• IP68 without rubber plugs
• Wireless Charging
• Fast Wired Charging.

Bad Points:-

• Programmable Button Removed
• Micro SD Card Slot Removed.

ThinkPhone 25: Specs

The ThinkPhone 25 is a refined evolution of its predecessor, combining rugged durability with modern upgrades while maintaining a sleek, everyday design. Sold under both Motorola and Lenovo branding, it offers a more accessible price point and updated hardware.

One of the biggest changes is price, the new ThinkPhone 25 launches at £449, nearly half the cost of the original £899 model, which was initially hard to obtain outside business and educational sectors. A savvy move by Motorola to make the device more accessible!

Beyond cost, the hardware upgrades are significant. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 has been replaced with the more power-efficient MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Ultra, optimizing battery life without sacrificing performance. The camera system has also been improved, addressing one of the key weaknesses of the first model.

Despite its rugged credentials, the ThinkPhone 25 defies expectations by avoiding the bulky, industrial look typical of rugged phones. Instead, it delivers a sleek, premium design that blends seamlessly into daily life. It meets the IP68 waterproof standard, allowing it to be fully submerged in water up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes, all without requiring a rubber plug over the USB-C port. Its battery life, while not as large as some rugged devices, is still solid—lasting around two days of typical use. Plus, it compensates with fast charging, going from empty to full in under an hour, making it a highly convenient choice.

Another noticeable change is its smaller form factor—now 6.36 inches, compared to the original’s 6.6 inches, making it even more compact and comfortable to hold. Despite this reduction, its display performance has been enhanced, boasting a higher 144Hz refresh rate (up from 120Hz) and a sharper 462ppi resolution, thanks to the 1220 x 2670 19.5:9 ratio screen over the older 1080p 20:9 panel.

The ThinkPhone 25 is also lighter, partly due to its plastic frame, much like the Edge 50 Neo, whereas the original featured an aluminium chassis. While this shift in materials may impact its premium feel, it hasn’t compromised rugged durability, as it still meets MIL-STD-810H compliance and IP68 waterproofing. The Aramid Fibre back remains, ensuring the same sturdy protection. Another upgrade comes with the Gorilla Glass 7i, which promises advanced toughness for intermediate devices, offering nearly the same level of protection as Victus, found on the original model. With its balance of toughness, usability, and practicality, the ThinkPhone 25 is a strong contender for those who want resilience without compromise.

What’s In The Box ? 

In the box you get. the phone itself, obviously,  USB wired headphones. A USB type C to USB type C charging cable. The usual documentations and sim injection tool, A 68 watt charging brick and a slim line hard plastic protective case, although not really needed when the rear of this phone is made out of aramid fibre. But unlike other manufacturers of the day. It’s nice to see all these accessories included in the box.

ThinkPhone 25: Design:- 

• Slim and stylish
• Simplified button layout
• Nano SIM and eSIM support
• Wireless charging

Most rugged phones tend to embrace bulky, heavy-duty aesthetics, but the ThinkPhone 25 defies expectations, looking more like an elegant everyday device than something out of a sci-fi show. At 8.1mm at its thickest point, tapering down to around 6mm across most of its body, it maintains a sleek profile with minimal screen bezels. The camera cluster does stand out, but given the inclusion of telephoto optics, it earns a pass in terms of functionality.

Unlike many rugged phones that incorporate customizable buttons, Motorola opts for a streamlined approach, keeping only the power button and volume rocker. The fingerprint reader is embedded under the screen, making the device better suited for left-handed users compared to phones with side-mounted sensors. There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack, but Motorola includes USB-C headphones in the box along with a power adapter. A protective bumper is also provided, ensuring the camera lenses sit flush with the housing when attached.

A SIM eject tool comes with every ThinkPhone 25, though a simple paperclip works just as well if misplaced. The SIM tray breaks from rugged phone norms, accommodating only one Nano SIM and no MicroSD card, though eSIM support partially offsets the single SIM limitation. For corporate users, eSIM functionality is particularly valuable it allows remote carrier switching via QR code, eliminating the need for physical SIM replacements when changing service providers.

ThinkPhone 25: Storage and Charging:-

• No MicroSD slot, but external SSD support via USB-C
• 15W wireless charging & 68W fast wired charging

While the absence of a MicroSD card slot might be a dealbreaker for some, the ThinkPhone 25 compensates with USB-C external SSD support, offering a reliable way to carry large amounts of data. In many cases, an external SSD is a more dependable solution than a MicroSD card.

A common frustration with rugged phones is their flat-back design, which often lacks wireless charging capability. Thankfully, the ThinkPhone 25 avoids this flaw, delivering 15W wireless charging alongside 68W wired fast charging.

In testing, the phone took around 3 hours and 40 minutes to charge wirelessly from empty, whereas wired charging refilled the battery in just 50 minutes. This fast-charging capability ensures that users can quickly top up battery life, making it ideal for those who forget to charge and wake up to a low battery alert.

ThinkPhone 25: Hardware:-

• MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Ultra SoC
• Energy-efficient performance
• High-quality p-OLED display

Branded smartphones once relied almost exclusively on Samsung and Qualcomm processors, while MediaTek was seen as a budget alternative in Chinese devices. However, times have changed, and the Dimensity 7300-Ultra proves just how far MediaTek has come—offering greater power than the Snapdragon 7cPlus Gen 3, a widely used mid-range chipset.

While not as powerful as the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, the Dimensity 7300-Ultra (MT6878) brings enhancements well-suited to rugged devices. This 4nm, eight-core chip, released in Q3 of 2024, supports WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4, and advanced camera features. It also enables dual 5G connectivity, with 3CC carrier aggregation unlocking up to 3.27Gb/s download speeds, depending on regional spectrum availability.

The key difference between this and the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 lies in the GPU—the ARM Mali-G615 MC2 cannot match the Adreno 730 in demanding 3D gaming, but for everyday tasks, it’s more than sufficient. Additionally, the Dimensity 7300-Ultra excels in power efficiency, making it one of the most energy-conscious choices among mobile processors.

Display:-

The ThinkPhone 25’s display is far from ordinary, with a 1220 x 2670 pixel resolution and 39:18 aspect ratio, its p-OLED panel boasts impressive visual capabilities. Utilizing the latest AMOLED technology, it covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour space at 10-bit depth, supporting adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz.

But what truly sets this display apart is its peak brightness of 3000nits, making it one of the few phones fully capable of HDR10+. This extreme brightness enhances outdoor visibility, especially in strong sunlight, by delivering massive contrast levels. While an anti-reflection coating could further improve usability, the screen remains highly effective right out of the box. Beyond photography, The device also includes Widevine L1 encryption, ensuring high-resolution playback for streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV, and Disney+, allowing users to enjoy their

For drone pilots, where screen reflections can be a challenge, this display could be an ideal companion for outdoor use.

In Use :-

I think Motorola made a wise move by scaling down the ThinkPhone 25’s dimensions. While large displays have their perks, a work phone should be as unobtrusive as possible. The device now sports a compact profile, measuring 71 x 8.1 x 154mm and weighing in at just 174g—light enough to carry around all day without fuss.

Despite its smaller size, it remains impressively durable. The screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 7i, and the IP68 rating ensures solid resistance against dust and water. Although the frame has shifted from aluminium to plastic, it doesn’t feel like a downgrade. The back panel, made from aramid fibre—the same material used in bulletproof vests and aerospace equipment—gives it a reassuring toughness and a pleasantly soft texture.

There’s only one colour option—black—which suits its professional role. It looks sharp enough, although the aramid finish does tend to pick up fingerprints a little too easily for my liking On that note, both the under-display fingerprint scanner and face unlock worked reliably throughout my testing—quick and consistent every time.

That about wraps up the hardware highlights. Unfortunately, Motorola has removed the signature red customizable button that featured on the original ThinkPhone. It was a genuinely useful shortcut for launching apps or security functions, and its absence feels like a step back. Without it, the ThinkPhone 25 loses a bit of the distinctiveness that once set it apart from other mid-range devices.

Display:-

The ThinkPhone 25 drops from the original’s 144Hz refresh rate to a slightly lower 120Hz, but in day-to-day use, that difference is barely noticeable. Navigation remains silky-smooth, whether you’re swiping through apps or scrolling social feeds.

Brightness performance held up well during testing. With auto-brightness disabled, the display peaked at 461cd/m². Switching to adaptive mode and triggering the sensor with a flashlight pushed that up to an impressive 1,098cd/m²—a standout result at this price point

Like many of Motorola’s recent mid-range devices, the ThinkPhone 25 offers three distinct colour modes. Vivid and Radiant both cater to the DCI-P3 colour space—Vivid leaning slightly cooler, while Radiant delivers a warmer palette.

For those who prefer accurate colour reproduction, the Natural profile targets the sRGB gamut. In my testing, it hit 100% sRGB coverage with a gamut volume of 104.6%. The average Delta E colour variance measured 1.48—not quite perfect, but still accurate enough that colours remain true to life and nothing appears visually off

Performance and Battery Life:-

You’d expect Motorola to prioritise smooth and efficient performance with the ThinkPhone 25—especially given its focus as a productivity tool. While the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset holds its own, it doesn’t stand out dramatically from the competition.

In the Geekbench 6 CPU benchmarks, the ThinkPhone 25 delivered results in line with most rivals for single-core performance. However, the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G pulls ahead with a 14% advantage in multi-core scores. The Google Pixel 8a takes an even more commanding lead—outpacing the ThinkPhone by 64% in single-core and 45% in multi-core processing.

Though not positioned as a gaming handset, the ThinkPhone 25 performs competently in GFXBench graphics tests. Most rivals are on par here, with the Pixel 8a again being the main exception. In real-world terms, it handles demanding titles like Genshin Impact at medium settings fairly well, and breezes through casual games like Candy Crush or Solitaire with ease—ideal for a quick break between meetings.

Battery-wise, the 4,310mAh cell might seem modest by today’s standards, but paired with the energy-efficient Dimensity 7300, it proves surprisingly capable. It managed a solid 28 hours and 33 minutes in my video playback test.

Charging is another plus. Thanks to 68W fast charging and the supplied adapter, the ThinkPhone 25 goes from flat to 50% in just 17 minutes, reaching 100% in only 42 minutes—comparable to the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion, which shares the same charging spec.

Software:-

Shipped with Android 14 and now upgraded to Android 15, the ThinkPhone 25 is backed by Motorola’s promise of five years of OS and security updates. That takes support through to August 2029—generous for this price range, with only Google’s Pixel 8a pushing further, offering seven years of support well into the next decade

I had numerous software updates with my time with the ThinkPhone which clearly shows that Motorola are providing slow incremental updates rather than the huge updates some manufactures push out, which is important in the corporate world.

When it comes to Android interfaces, Motorola’s version ranks as one of my top picks outside of Google’s own Pixel devices. It’s refreshingly minimal—clean icons, a streamlined layout, and barely any bloatware cluttering the experience.

The handful of preloaded apps serve a clear purpose, enhancing the ThinkPhone 25’s business-first appeal. Chief among them is Moto Secure, a centralised hub for managing your device’s protection. Whether it’s scanning for threats via Motorola’s AI-driven ThinkShield or setting up a disguised secure folder for sensitive content, everything’s neatly tucked into one straightforward, user-friendly app.

There’s also Smart Connect, a handy feature that streamlines multitasking across devices. It lets you effortlessly transfer files between your phone, tablet, and laptop, cast apps to a larger screen, mirror your phone to your laptop, and even use the ThinkPhone 25 as a webcam for video calls. It all works with impressive ease, making cross-device productivity feel practically effortless

Camera Performance:-

• Rear cameras: 50MP Sony LYTIA 700C primary, 13MP ultrawide, 10MP telephoto
• Front camera: 32MP
• Four cameras in total
• The ThinkPhone 25 is equipped with a versatile camera system, featuring a 50MP Sony LYTIA 700C primary sensor, a 13MP ultrawide lens, and a 10MP telephoto sensor for optical zooming. On the front, a 32MP camera ensures high-quality selfies and video calls.

While smartphone manufacturers often push high-megapixel counts, raw resolution isn’t everything. The Sony LYTIA 700C, previously seen in the Motorola Edge 2024, takes imaging to the next level with dual-layer pixels that create an f/1.8 aperture and 1.0µm pixel size.

Sony’s Ultra Pixel Technology enhances low-light performance by delivering 2.0µm effective captures while maintaining optical image stabilization—all from a 1/1.56-inch sensor housed in a phone just 8mm thick.

The ultrawide sensor doubles as a macro shooter, providing flexibility for various photography styles. Plus, the inclusion of a telephoto lens ensures optical zoom without sacrificing image quality.

Notably, both rear and front-facing cameras support 4K video recording, a rare capability among rugged smartphones. At lower resolutions, the rear cameras can also record at 120fps for slow-motion capture, adding to the device’s creative potential.

Real-World Performance:- 
Unlike many smartphone cameras that sound impressive on paper but fall short in actual use, the LYTIA 700C sensor delivers outstanding results. HDR imaging comes standard, and low-light performance is excellent, making this a solid choice for photography enthusiasts.

With its high-performance sensors, flexible shooting options, and strong video capabilities, the ThinkPhone 25 stands out as one of the best-equipped rugged phones for photography and media consumption.

Price, Availability, and Value:-

The ThinkPhone 25 continues Motorola and Lenovo’s rugged phone lineup, offering durability without sacrificing everyday usability. However, its availability is somewhat limited, and pricing varies across regions.

Price: £450 / €321
Availability: Currently available in Europe and Asia
Where to buy: Available outside the USA from online retailers

Motorola has chosen not to sell the ThinkPhone 25 in the USA, despite offering its predecessor there. This decision may disappoint American customers looking for an upgrade.The ThinkPhone 25 is priced at £449 on Amazon.co.uk and €599 in most European countries. While this price point places it above rugged phone brands like Ulefone and Doogee, it remains significantly cheaper than the original ThinkPhone, which launched at $900/£899.

Some features of the original model have been downgraded, while others have been upgraded, making the halved price a reasonable trade-off. Compared to competitors like the Samsung Galaxy XCover7 (£274) and Nokia XR21 (£403.75), the ThinkPhone 25 commands a higher price, but its specifications justify the cost for those seeking rugged durability with premium features.

It might not be the cheapest option, but for users who need both toughness and practicality, the ThinkPhone 25 offers solid value.

Conculsion:-

Motorola’s intentions with the ThinkPhone 25 are clear—it’s trying to fill the business-phone void left by the likes of BlackBerry. But while that niche once had a loyal following, the market may have simply evolved past the need for phones specifically branded for work.

Mainstream smartphones have more than caught up in terms of productivity and software features, making the idea of a dedicated “work phone” feel less essential in today’s landscape.

That said, the ThinkPhone 25 has its strengths. It excels in battery life, and its tough design and inclusion of a telephoto camera are rare perks in this price bracket. I loved my time with the ThinkPhone I enjoyed the smaller form factor and stella battery life, and without the need to case the device, certinally made me ponder do I really need to spend over double on the latest and greatest flagship device, when I’m getting 95% plus of what I need from the ThinkPhone.

The post ThinkPhone 25 – Review. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

You are still able to take advantage of some of the preorder offers though. If you order one today from the OnePlus site then you can get the limited time storage upgrade from 256Gb to 512Gb included for free. In addition to that you will also be able to get a free OnePlus Stylo 2 at checkout. If however you don’t want that then you can still choose from the OnePlus Pad 3 Folio case or the OnePlus SUPERVOOC 80W Dual Ports GaN Power Adapter Kit.

If you want to get the OnePlus Pad 3 Smart keyboard cover then this is currently on 1/2 price offer when bought alongside the tablet, meaning that it will only cost £84.50, which is well worth spending in my opinion as it certainly opens the possibility of the OnePlus Pad 3 becoming a laptop replacement. I am currently trying to do all my daily computer related tasks on my OnePlus Pad 3 including writing this very article!

I am still in the process of completing my review for the OnePlus Pad 3 but based upon the time I have had with it and my previous experience of the OnePlus Pad 2 I can wholeheartedly say that this is going to be a top tablet for 2025 certainly in the Android market.

So if you are in the market for new and powerful Android tablet then head over to the OnePlus website and have a look at the Pad 3 and while you are the re it would be worth subscribing to the their site as they have an event coming up July 8th for dome new hardware to be released including a new Watch 3 variant, two new Nord series phones in the form of the Nord 5 and Nord CE5, a new “lite” tablet the OnePlus Pad Lite and finally some new Buds called the OnePlus Buds 4.

By subscribing not only will you be able to get up to a £30 discount coupon for use in the store but you will entered into a draw to win all of the new products that are being launched don the 8th of July!

In the meantime please check out my OnePlus Pad 3 unboxing video below and check back in within a few more days for the full review.

The post OnePlus Pad 3 now available. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Design
There are a few key areas I want to discuss about design which make the REDMAGIC 10 Air different from the previous REDMAGIC devices such as the 9 Pro or the more recent 10 Pro.
First things first, this device is significantly slimmer than the REDMAGIC 10 series, and this has been done by removing one of REDMAGIC’s USPs from the device.

I am, of course, talking about the REDMAGIC cooling system, which incorporates a turbofan with vents and an air ducting channel that runs across the entire phone, giving enhanced cooling to the processor and main areas of the motherboard. Now that we no longer have this cooling system, the phone can be slimmer, but the question is, does this compromise the performance? This is something I will look into more thoroughly later on.

The next area I wish to address is the removal or replacement of the gaming slider button that was found on previous devices with a new multi-function button called Magic Button.

Which can now be programmed to work in a few different ways. On previous devices, the slider would enter you into game mode and their custom gaming interface, which by default, is what Magic Button will also do; however, the Magic Button will now also allow you to set custom actions, albeit from a list of predefined ones, to enter different modes. This suggests that REDMAGIC are not targeting this device purely as a gaming-focused phone, but casting their net a little wider to allow light-use gamers to have the gaming phone experience without having an out-and-out gaming phone image.

The back panel is also slightly different from what we have seen from REDMAGIC before. Gone are the RGB LED accents which were on the Pro series. These have been replaced with very subtle graphics of the REDMAGIC logo and name. This makes for the phone being a lot more subtle than the 9 Pro and 10 Pro series that went before. Again, indicating the intentions of REDMAGIC for the REDMAGIC 10 Air device.

Something that has been carried over from the previous generation is the awesome full screen display. This panel is a 6.8 inch panel which has a very high screen to body ratio due to the under display selfie camera that is utilized. This gives you an uninterrupted display when gaming, watching video or browsing the web. The camera is noticeable if you look hard enough for it, and in very bright sunlight, you will see that sometimes a sun icon will appear over the camera area, indicating that it has activated sunlight brightness mode. This is a feature that can be turned off or on within the display settings menu.

Something else that has been carried over are the haptic air triggers on the right hand side of the phone. These air triggers work as buttons during gameplay and give substantial haptic feedback when in use. The positioning of them is at either end of the phone and they are inactive outside of gaming scenarios. By default, they will not be activated in games unless you use the Game Center settings menu to activate them.

As I previously mentioned, the RGB aspect of the phone used to be found on the back panel, but also it was found on the cooling system fan. Now with the REDMAGIC 10 Air not having a fan, they have had to relocate the RGB lighting, which they have done by integrating it into the flash element of the camera array. This is a nice touch and a nod to REDMAGIC’s heritage at using RGB to distinguish the phones as gaming-focused devices. The good news is, if you don’t want the RGB feature, it is easily disabled via the lighting section of the settings menu. I like that it is still present and it is useful as a way of alerting notifications amongst other things.

The last design aspect I want to discuss is the look and feel of the phone. It is still following the blocky style design of the previous devices and we still have very squared off edges and corners, making this phone seem very utilitarian. I am actually a fan of this style, as I did not like phones with curved edges to the display. This, for me, limited the actual usable area of the display panel and also made the fitting of third-party screen protectors extremely awkward. No such problems here as the display is a completely flat panel, edge to edge. Some people may find that the corners of the phone can be uncomfortable, however, in my extended use, I have found no such issue, as they are smooth enough with a subtle enough grounding that they do not dig into your hand or cause any discomfort.

The phone will come in three variants for colour each with their own imaginative name which is the REDMAGIC way Twilight (Black), Hailstone (White) and Flare (Orange). Flare is only available in the larger storage size and will be available in the near future the launch date is still to be confirmed, we are expecting this later in the month though.

Hardware
From a hardware perspective the changes are mostly under the skin and the biggest change here from the REDMAGIC 10 Pro is the downgrade of the chipset to a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 instead of the Elite being used in the 10 Pro. Now on paper this sounds like it would be a bad thing but in reality to the daily user you and me are going to be very hard pushed to actually notice any significant difference in speed and fluidity of the chip. The one area where things are a bit better is the efficiency of the newer chip which would normally affect the battery life of the phone but due to the 10 Air already having a massive 6000 mAh battery this is somewhat negated.

In terms of storage and memory the REDMAGIC 10 Air is available in two configs you can have one with 12GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage or one with 16GB of RAM and 512 GB of Storage like the version I have here. The memory being used is LPDDR5X along with UFS 4.0 for the storage which will ensure fast data transfer and multitasking.
However the Snapdragon chipset is not the only thing providing the power here as the phone also features RedCore R3 and Energy Cube built into the phone to enhance your gaming experience by taking these tasks off the Snapdragon chip when in the gaming environment. The RedCore R3 chip will work on Graphics Enhancement techniques such as graphics interpolation and maximise frame rates on supported titles such as Genshin Impact and Call of Duty Mobile amongst others. In addition to this fairly big task it will take on some of the other resource draining features like, Enhancing in game audio, optimising power efficiency and thermal management via the ICE-X cooling system.
That brings me onto the next big change from the REDMAGIC 10 S Pro: the cooling of the phone.

As previously mentioned the REDMAGIC 10 Air does not have a built-in cooling fan that has been normally found on the REDMAGIC phones in the past. This is achievable by the use of a slightly different cooling system that was actually first seen on the REDMAGIC Nova Gaming Tablet last year. When I reviewed that device last year I was impressed but it was also a tablet so had a larger area for the all important cooling system. Well the good news is that REDMAGIC have been refining this system which they call ICE-X and on the 10 Air it has been implemented into a passively cooled phone. The Vapour chamber in use for actually providing the oomph of the cooling power is significant at a size of 6,100 mm². This in turn is supported by a 9 layer system which utilises a lot of the same technology as gaming laptops. An important element of the 9 layer build is liquid metal with a thermal conductivity of 80w/mK, it is 13 times more effective than other cooling solutions and gets rid of excess heat fast.

I am pleased to say that all the engineering that has been put into the cooling system does indeed work and during extended gaming sessions I did not feel any heat build up. In fact the only time the REDMAGIC 10 Air did get hot was during prolonged SatNav use while charging the phone and streaming Spotify via Android Auto. I am yet to find a phone that will not heat up in that scenario but I include it to be thorough.

Those are all the good things inside the phone but we don’t see and feel them, that aspect is taken care of by the display which is quite a beauty in itself. As I previously mentioned the screen is a 6.8” which is great size for both gaming and media. This is down to the high resolution of 1.5k due to the 2480 x 1116 pixels and the high PPI of 401. The screen is also an AMOLED panel so that gives you all the normal benefits of that tech with High Peak Brightness of 1600 nits rich and true to life colours thanks to the 100 DCI-P3 wide colour gamut. Where it becomes a gaming phone screen though is the 2000Hz instant touch sampling rate with an average rate of 960Hz to allow your touches to be picked up accurately and fast, great for when you are playing fast paced action games. The other important feature here is that lack of a camera cutout afforded by the under display camera that I previously mentioned. The screen uses Gorilla Glass 5 to give it some protection against scratches and scuffs Although in my short time using the phone I managed to accumulate at least two scratches to join the one already present. I would recommend picking up some sort of screen protector if you want the 10 Air to stay in good condition. REDMAGIC do sell them on their website and these will probably fit better than my cheapo 3rd party one.

That being said though the screen is not the only way of interacting with games on this phone on the REDMAGIC 10 Air as you also have the excellent shoulder triggers which will allow you move some of the action away from the screen leaving you more space to see what is actually going on. The shoulder triggers are cleverly designed to look like the shoulder buttons on gaming controllers. This makes gaming more fun and responsive, especially in fast-paced or competitive games. The triggers themselves also have a 520Hz response rate and matching RGB from the RGB light on the rear (sadly the triggers don’t light up!)

Of course these are the main headlines but you do also have all the regular flagship style features onboard such as Dual Band Wifi with support for 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be. In terms of cellular banding you have full Support for everything up to 5G with the following bands available on the phone.

• 2G bands GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• 3G bands HSDPA 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100
• 4G bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 66
• 5G bands 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 26, 28, 38, 40, 41, 66, 77, 78 SA/NSA
• Speed HSPA, LTE, 5G

Bluetooth is taken care of with 5.4 compatibility utilising the A2DP codec and is also LE compatible. I was able to easily pair my Pixel Watch 3 45MM and Pixel Buds Pro 2 to the phone and had very few connection issues.

One area where I did have a minor annoyance is that when I connected the phone to my car via USB for Android Auto I had to select it to work in media transfer mode (MTP) every time even if the phone had not been unplugged but the car was being started again. This became quite tiresome after a while. I am sure that this behaviour could probably be changed with a setting but I couldn’t find where to change it.

Before I move away from hardware I need to talk about another area of the gaming experience that is driven by both the hardware and the software. This is of course the audio experience. As you would expect from a gaming phone the soundstage is well supported and the 10 Air has dual stereo speakers, one at either end of the device. The speaker at the base of the device is slightly larger than the one up by the top that also pulls double duty as an earpiece. However they have been tuned in a way that there is no perceptible imbalance between the two. The Speakers setup has been certified to DTS-X Ultra level which allows the speakers to take advantage of various qualities of sound, such as location, movement, and size making the audio experience more immersive and engaging. This is also supported by Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound tuning to provide the best possible sound over various different apps, not just games.
Whilst the sound is important there also needs to be a physicality to that sound which is brought forward by the use of a large super linear haptic motor for the vibration feedback. And of course you also have that nifty RGB Light ring as well to add that extra flair to the whole experience!

There is one thing that is sadly missing from the audio experience which will potentially affect gamers more than other users. This is of course the 3.5mm headphone jack. This is very important where sound is part of the game as is the case where FPS games are involved. The use of a good wired headset will minimise any sound latency effects that may be experienced while gaming to a level which cannot be matched by Bluetooth headphones so for the hardcore mobile FPS gamers this could be a negative that is worth bearing in mind. I have not found it to be an issue when i was playing Call of Duty Mobile but then again I am not good enough to be aware of the sounds of things going on around me!
Moving on lets look at the software.

Software
I am going to be excluding the Game space software in this section as this warrants its own full section as it is quite extensive tbh. What I do want to touch on here is what REDMAGIC 10.0 is all about.

The first thing I will say is that this is one of the cleaner OEM Launchers that I have come across and apart from 1 massive glaring omission I am a big fan.I am able to choose my grid width preferences and icon sizing with relative freedom (staying within the launcher settings). The smallest text size is suitable and it means that the interface doesn’t look cartoon-like. The application drawer all the icons show their default colour over being changed to match the wallpaper colours. While I am not sure if I prefer this it does mean that I can find things a bit quicker in most cases. I would prefer it if my background in the app drawer was a bit dimmer as it can be a bit too much visually sometimes.

The bit that causes me frustration is the inability to set my feed to Google Discover when I swipe left from my first home screen.This is so annoying and I cant recall an Android phone from rect memory that has not got this as an option. I know that OnePlus had their own option for this action but they did have the ability to change to the Google Discover feed. This should be a standard feature on all Android phones and it really annoys me that it is not there. The Google News widget is not an acceptable substitute. Please change this REDMAGIC. I also don’t recall this being an issue on the REDMAGIC Nova Gaming Tablet but perhaps it was and I just don’t use the swipe left option as much on a tablet.

Moving away from the negatives to the positives. Of course the REDMAGIC 10 Air has a whole array of AI goodies thrown into the software with all the Google Gemini powered features that you would expect to see within the Google Apps. REDMAGIC have also implemented some of their own AI in the form of Smart Sidebar, REDMAGIC Translation and REDMAGIC Smart Communication

Starting with the Smart Sidebar it allows you to drag in an actionable sidebar from either side of the phone to access useful actions such as take screen shots, start screen recording and pin apps. Where it becomes a bit more useful is for a means to quickly multitask into other apps.You can set up your own apps to appear in the sidebar area. This is a really nice way of multitasking especially if the app needed is not an open app. This is a screenshot of an app that has been opened via Smart Sidebar.

Next up is REDMAGIC Translation which will allow you to complete real time translations within phone calls and also have the phone transcribe phone calls for reference to at a later date.

Lastly is REDMAGIC Smart communication.
This is a way of the phone boosting its signal quality by optimizing the antenna stitching ensuring that you have the best signal. It will also decide which sim will be the best one to use to ensure the optimal signal is being obtained.

Overall I have to give REDMAGIC props from keeping the software pretty close to that of stock Android 15. One thing that is an area where REDMAGIC has always been a little less clear cut though is how the future support of the software will be in terms of the software update and also security updates. Well I do have some news on that front. REDMAGIC have revealed that the REDMAGIC 10 Air will get 3 years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates meaning that the phone will continue to be supported until 2030. This is good news however I do feel that they do need to do a bit better as we are now seeing phones getting this support for up to 7 years from the likes of Samsung and Google, even Honor have improved their offering as they will not support both for up to 6 years on the recently launched Honor 400 series.

Next up is the big one for this phone, the Game Space and Gaming experience.

Gaming and Performance
I want to address this as 2 parts as the gaming experience is not just about the hardware performance for the phone it is largely supported by the Game Space software.

First up Game Space
The Game Space software is essentially a suite where you can keep your games on your phone and also a place to tweak how each game will run on your device. Here you will also find access to some other tools for enhancing your gaming experience.
There are two sections to the Game Space menus the first one is for your local stored games which is called Game Lobby and then the second one allows you to access other functions this second menu is called Super Base.

Within Game Lobby you will be able to see your locally stored games, your play time stats and other details. You can also set up customised ways for the game to run and how it utilises Energy Cube which is a term given for in game enhancements. For example if you want Call of Duty mobile to run at 120 FPS and it all run on the max performance setting (called Rise in the settings) then you can set this up here. This means that whenever the game starts up you will be in the best optimised state for that game. Here is an example of the settings I have for Call of Duty Mobile.

When you’re within the game itself you can also access the settings for the Energy Cube and plug in controls by swiping in from the left hand side twice this will then bring up the full menu overlay as shown below. I have included a few screen shots below of the interface. I have tried to play a few games where the shoulder “trigger” buttons are utilised and I will be honest I have had some success albeit let down by innate lack of ability!

What is really cool is that you can use the Trigger buttons in any game which means I was also able to set them up in Alto’s Odyssey which is one of my favourites games to play when I need to chill out. I have set them as the jump function and it allows me to experience the full beauty of the game without having any interruption on the screen.

You also have the Multi square sub screen option which would allow you to use an second display as a secondary screen for data and quick operations. The caveat is that this second display does need to be a REDMAGIC device. Again with this being my only REDMAGIC device at this time I was unable to test this feature.

The last option within Super Base is called Mora, this is REDMAGIC’s anime style mascot and in here you can settle character up to do various things such as have her as a wallpaper and charging screen. There are also various outfits you can choose to have the character dressed up in!. This one is definitely not for me but might appeal to some!!!

So now that we have got the Game Space software out of the way how does the REDMAGIC 10 Air actually perform whilst gaming. Well you will pleased to here that in my testing I had no issues with GamePlay at all. I had not lags or stutters in any of the games I tested. I was as advertised able to get a 120FPS rate on Call of Duty and the triggers worked exactly as advertised.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Chipset with the Adreno 750 GPU work brilliantly and using my gameplay never skipped a beat. If there is any thing that is a slight negative it is that the phone does get a touch warmer than I would have liked but then again this is normal for most phones running this sort of processing power, it was certainly not anything that would cause me concern nevermind stop me from continuing my gaming session. Something to bear in mind is I was using the phone with the in box case during the sessions so your results may vary when the case is not being used.

I did try out some of the plug-ins while I played COD Mobile, however as previously mentioned I cant say if the addition of these actively helped my game or not as I am not that good at the game.

I also tried to plug the REDMAGIC 10 Air into my Ultrawide PC Monitor to see if I could utilise the bigger display for gaming but unfortunately the device does not support Video out through the USB Type C port as this is a feature available on the REDMAGIC 10 Pro and recently announced REDMAGIC 10S Pro. The other way would be via Smartcast which would allow me to control the game from my phone whilst viewing on a TV. Unfortunately I was unable to get this feature to work with either of the TV’s in my house so I was unable to test this further. I am sure it was an issue with the TV or me not configuring something correctly on the TV though.

Overall I was very impressed with playing games on the REDMAGIC 10 Air, however I will be the first to admit this is not my primary use case for a phone. I want a phone that is powerful enough for anything I am going to throw at it and for it too last a decent period of time while doing the tasks I ask of it. The good new is that the REDMAGIC 10 Air does this with bells on. There was not point during my review period that I found the phone to be sluggish or unresponsive. It handles all my normal phone tasks with aplomb and has the added benefit of being a very powerful hand held gaming rig when I want it to be. I suppose that kinda cover the performance side but there are a few more factors I want to look at away from gaming and aw horsepower.

One key aspect to any phone being useful despite how powerful it is, is the ability for it to gain connect and hold onto a mobile signal. Again here is a an area where the REDMAGIC 10 Air did not disappoint. I would have to say that it matches my current best performer which was the OnePlus Nord 4 from last year in terms of the mobile connection capabilities. It was also very good at keep a WiFi signal as well, particularly in weaker signal areas.

I have tested this against another device I currently have in the form of the Oppo Find X8 Pro and the results are shown below. This test was done within about 10 metres of my router and through two walls.

The REDMAGIC 10 Air did get slighter slower download speeds on average but the upload speed is matched throughout the testing.

I also measured the signal strength and the majority of time the REDMAGIC 10 Air did pick up a slightly stronger signal than the Find X8 Pro. They are both more than sufficient for streaming media and online gaming.

Bluetooth connectivity was perfect and I had no issues connecting and maintaining a connection with either my Pixel Watch 3 45mm or my Pixel Buds Pro 2. I also did not experience any significant latency issues when playing back mixed media.

GPS was good and it was quick to obtain a fix and use that fix for tracking car journeys and locating me on the Life 360 app, which we use as a family to see where each of us are during the day.

Battery wise for me with the usage I tend to have on normal work day this is two days phone. However I have been able to drain it quicker than this by using the phone for a combination of gaming GPS navigation and camera whilst I have been on days off. The good news is it will charge very fast with the included 80 W fast charger taking less than an hour for full juice of the massive 600mAh battery. In screen shot below you can see that have had nearly 4 hrs of screen on time and I am still above 50% meaning that I have the potential for another full day of use before I need to plug it in again.

Now that the gaming and performance aspects are covered lets dive into the camera. This was an area I was keen to check out as I was concerned that this would be one of the weakest aspects for the phone.

Camera

To say that the REDMAGIC 10 Air camera is an afterthought would be unfair but it is not totally inaccurate. The cameras the phone are by no means bad but they are not great either. We have two cameras on the back and these are comprised of one OV50E 50 MP camera that is the Maine lens. This therefore gets the OIS functions and the 7P Lens with APL coated anti glare. The secondary ultra wide angle is a OV50D 50MP camera but doesn’t have any of the other bells and whistles of the main camera.

The shots it can produce without the zoom being used are actually pretty good and the ultra wide works reasonably well. However when you start to zoom in things start to get messy. You can go upto about 5x zoom and things are still serviceable but once you get past this the lens cannot handle the image clearly any more and things start to break down.

When you are using the camera in good light you can get some good results as can be seen in the shots below. Even the portrait mode works well and delivers some nice “bokeh” effects.

However when the light gets darker the camera starts to struggle and you start to see some blur and undefined edges.

If I am being completely honest if you are wanting a camera focused phone then the REDMAGIC 10 Air is not the phone for you. Yes you can use the cameras in a pinch but they are not designed for high quality photography.

I have put some camera samples down below for you to allow you to judge them for yourself.

Conclusion

I came into this review wanting to know a few things about the REDMAGIC 10 Air. I will repeat that question again here.

The question is, does this quest for a slim phone negate the benefits of having a slightly chunkier device with the integrated cooling that REDMAGIC are renowned for.

It is now time to answer that question, for your average phone user the answer is no the slimming of the device does not create a negative experience of the REDMAGIC experience. This phone will do everything you could need or want it to do with the possible exception of high quality zoomed photography. Yes it misses out on some features like wireless charging and display out capability but this phone is not designed for that. The phone is designed for the everyday user who might be put off by the more full-on REDMAGIC 10S Pro series.

If on the other hand you are a hardcore mobile gamer that wants the very best mobile gaming experience and all that entails. The REDMAGIC 10 Air is not the phone for you and I would recommend that you look to the REDMAGIC 10S Pro series as they would be better suited to your needs.

I see the REDMAGIC 10 Air as a way for REDMAGIC to target a different market segment those who want gaming phone level performance but don’t want a “look at my gaming phone” style phone. This where the REDMAGIC 10 Air makes the most sense to me and if that was the design teams brief then they have nailed it. I can do all the things I want to do on this phone but no one would know that at is core is the beating heart of a gamer phone.

If you want to buy the REDMAGIC 10 Air then it is now variable on there website in the Midnight and Hailstone variants with the Flare version launch date tbc.

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

For those specs geeks out there (you know who you are), here are the specs

Now that we have the video segment and specs table out of the way, how about a full tour of the device

Starting on the right-hand side, we find the first pair of speaker grills, each containing a pair of speakers – a tweeter and a woofer. Nestled against the USB Type C 3.2 port is one of the noise-cancelling microphones, which allows for charging at up to 80W when used with an appropriately rated SuperVOOC charger.

Moving around to the bottom of the tablet, we find nothing on this version as the way of making the connection to the keyboard has been changed for the OnePlus Pad 3.

Continuing to the left-hand side where we find another pair of speaker grills and the sleep/wake button that is also the power key.

Next, we move to the top edge, which is a little bit busier as we have got the volume keys on the far left, and then  towards the right-hand side, we have the area where the OnePlus Stylo 2 would connect and charge wirelessly We also find another noise cancelling microphone here as well.

Moving to the back, we find the camera island on the top right corner. It houses the 13MP camera and Dual LED flash. I’m pleased to see they’ve avoided packing a larger sensor camera into this space. With a tablet this size, the only likely subjects for photography are documents and similar items. The 13MP unit will be more than sufficient for this task.

Down at the base of the back panel, we find the newly repositioned Pogo Pin connectors for the keyboard accessory. I believe this is a better position as it alters the hinge mechanism for the keyboard, which we’ll delve into further during the full review.

The OnePlus Pad 3’s large size is due to its 13.2” LCD display. This display has a 7:5 aspect ratio and an 89.3% screen-to-body ratio. It features an adaptive refresh rate of 144Hz and a touch sampling rate of up to 540Hz, but defaults to 120Hz in normal use. The screen can reach a bright level with an HBM of 900 nits and an average of 600 nits. In terms of colour accuracy, the screen colour depth is 12-bit, comprising 8-bit hardware and 4-bit FRC. The colour gamut readings are 96% NTSC and 98% DCI-P3. The resolution is 3.4k, with 3392 x 2400 pixels.

This makes for a great screen to view content on. It’s plenty bright and punchy enough for indoor use, although I haven’t tried it outside yet. I’ll put it to the test when I’m out on the road next week or two.

Hiding away at the top of the display is the 8MP front-facing camera. It seems like the right size for its intended use case, which will likely be video chats and other similar activities.

Finally, I have included a few shots of the OnePlus Pad 3 with the OnePlus Pad 3 Smart Keyboard to show you what the OnePlus Pad 3 looks like when in laptop wanna-be mode. I am intending this to be the main way that I use the tablet as a laptop replacement.

I’m planning to use this over my MacBook Pro 14 for the next few weeks to give it a proper test. I’m fortunate that I’m also using an Oppo phone for photos and other tasks, so I can use the O+ Connect software to connect the OnePlus Pad 3 to my phone for screen mirroring and file transfer. This should streamline my workflow and allow me to use the Pad 3 effectively wherever I am, whether it’s at home or in the office.

If you’re interested in pre-ordering a OnePlus Pad 3, you can do so now from the OnePlus website, where the double storage offer is still in place. However, the OnePlus Pad 3 Smart Keyboard, which was previously a free gift, is now on a half-price offer. I would definitely consider getting this keyboard if I were to buy the tablet, even if I had to pay for it, as it allows you to use it as a quasi-laptop. Unfortunately, since the keyboard can’t be included as a free gift, you’re now limited to the OnePlus Stylo 2, the OnePlus Pad 3 Folio Case, or a OnePlus SUPERVOOC 80W Dual Ports GaN Power Adapter Kit.

Check back in with us in a few weeks for our full review of the OnePlus Pad 3 and see if it managed to replace my MacBook!

The post OnePlus Pad 3 – Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

What’s the StreamQ TV Bundle I hear you ask ? well its a  pair of over-the-ear headphones that comes with an audio transceiver that streams audio from your TV right into your ears. However, it does a lot more than just that.

The MIXX StreamQ Surround wireless headphones and StreamQ TV Bundle aren’t just for movie lovers and audiophiles—they’re perfect for those who prefer to listen at higher volumes.

• Direct Sound Control: These headphones provide independent volume adjustment, allowing users to set their preferred sound level without affecting the TV or media device.
• Enhanced Surround Sound: Designed to improve audio clarity and spatial awareness, making it easier to distinguish dialogue from background noise.
• Wireless Freedom & Comfort: The cable-free design enables greater mobility, which is especially beneficial for those who find wired solutions restrictive. It also helps prevent strain from sitting too close to sound sources.

An immersive listening experience that prioritises clarity, comfort, and control.

What’s In the Box.

In the bundle you get the StreamPort Audio Transceiver, the StreamQ Wireless headphones, 2 x 3.5mm audio cables 2 x USB Type C charging cables, and optical audio cable, and instructions booklets for each device.

StreamQ Wireless Over-ear headphones.

Key features include:

• 3D Surround Sound: Delivers a rich, immersive audio experience that enhances movies and TV shows with deep, dynamic sound.
• Bluetooth Connectivity: Effortlessly pairs with Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as laptops, tablets, TVs, and smartphones.
• 40-Hour Battery Life: Provides up to 40 hours of playtime on a single charge, ensuring long, uninterrupted listening sessions.
• Voice Mode: Ensures crystal-clear dialogue for an enhanced viewing experience, particularly during speech-heavy scenes, or perfect for watching chat shows, sports or news coverage.
• Music Mode: for a perfectly balanced musical experience with a wide sound stage and rich yet detailed sound.

StreamPort TV Audio Transceiver:

Designed to seamlessly connect with the StreamQ Surround headphones, this compact device lets you wirelessly stream audio from your TV to your headphones. Alternatively, use it to send music from your phone to a linked speaker system or soundbar. While the transmitter might have a budget feel, it’s an unexpectedly valuable piece of tech. Imagine this: you can wirelessly stream audio from your TV to one or two pairs of StreamQ headphones (through a headphone jack or digital audio port) AND simultaneously send that same audio to your home sound system or soundbar. That’s quite a feat in itself, but the features don’t stop there.

Switching to receive mode transforms your home audio system or soundbar into a wireless hub, letting you stream music in high quality from any Bluetooth-enabled device, like your smartphone. This is an excellent way to easily upgrade an older hi-fi system. I actually found myself using this feature the most, and it worked flawlessly.

The key features of the StreamPort TV Audio Transmitter include:

• Transmit Mode (TX): Streams audio wirelessly from a TV to one or two sets of StreamQ Surround headphones while simultaneously passing the audio through to a home sound system or soundbar.
• Receive Mode (RX): Streams music from any Bluetooth-enabled device, such as a smartphone, to a home audio system or soundbar for high-quality wireless playback.
• Low Latency Bluetooth: Minimises lag with a latency of less than 70ms, ensuring synchronised audio without lip-sync issues.
• Multiple Connectivity Options: Features USB-C power input, 3.5mm audio input/output, and optical input/output, providing flexible and reliable audio transmission.

On the front of the Stream Port the main controls for power Bluetooth, mode switching, a large rotating bezel for volume control and a play/pause button housed inside, and a small screen that gives you all the information you need. On the top is a antenna, which boosts the signal to the headphones, on the back is the USB Type C Charging port, 2 3.5mm audio in ports in/out 2 Optical audio ports used for bypass.

In Use :

I connected this StreamPort to my TV’s Optical Audio port (I had to use the bypass function as my current sound bar used the same connection) I then paired the StreamQ, headphones, to the Stream Port. Sat down to watch some Netflix. I was immediately blown away by the audio difference that these headphones provided,  they gave a rich deep sound and more importantly  a noticeable  crystal clear 3D soundscape and experience.

You know when you use some Bluetooth headsets, watching media, sometimes the lip sync is just a little bit out, just enough to be annoying, which if you’re lucky, you will be able to adjust sync through the settings, this, it’s clearly not the case with the StreamQ and Stream Port set up, the sync was perfect straight out of the box. One advantage I did notice was the volume and clarity of The Voice dialogue was increased you know sometimes when you’re watching a movie the sound effects or music drown out the spoken word well this is clearly not the case with the StreamQ TV Bundle as it enhances spoken word measurably.

And what if you don’t want to listen through headphones, well the Stream Port can pair with your Bluetooth speaker of choice and Stream the audio to that, as well as receiving input as well.

Conclusion:- 

the Mixx StreamQ TV Bundle stands out as a useful and feature-packed solution. It allows you to indulge in your favorite movies and shows at your preferred volume without disturbing others, all while providing an impressive 3D surround sound experience and crystal-clear dialogue. While the build quality of the headphones might be a minor concern for some, the overall functionality, versatility, and sound quality offered by the StreamQ TV Bundle make it a highly recommended addition to any home entertainment setup.

The MIXX is available from MIXX  and Amazon for £95 

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

OnePlus Pad 3 and Accessories

Today, OnePlus has just taken the covers off the new OnePlus Pad 3, with the intention of this being the tablet of 2025. A big claim, and one that we will be able to find out more about when we get our review unit in. For now, though, let’s have a look at the main headlines.

Firstly there is a new design to contend with and as part of this design the screen has grown a tad from 12.1″ on the OnePlus Pad 2 to 13.2″ on the OnePlus Pad 3 This results in a slight increase in the resolution up to 3.4K  whilst still maintaining the unigue aspect ratio that OnePlus like to embu their tablest with in this case it is 7:5. The OnePlus Pad 3 has also got a little bit skinnier as is the trend these days and the thickess now measure in at 6mm (excluding the cameras).

The all-metal unibody design, which ensures the body is incredibly strong and bend-resistant, has made this possible. This design also allows for the integration of some rather special hardware, which brings us nicely to the new hardware.

As mentioned, the OnePlus Pad 3 boasts significant improvements in its internals. We now have up to 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM. The latest Qualcomm silicon, the Snapdragon 8 Gen Elite chip, powers the tablet. To keep the device cool, a graphene composite-based vapour chamber has been introduced. The tablet’s sound system is handled by eight symmetrically placed speakers. These speakers consist of four tweeters and four woofers, positioned on the edges of the tablet when held in landscape mode – a design choice that emphasises its intended use. 

The OnePlus Pad 3 is designed to keep you powered up throughout the day.

It features a massive 12,410 mAh battery, allowing you to play AAA games for up to 6 hours, watch YouTube shorts for up to 15 hours, and even play longer videos (movies) for up to 17 hours, according to testing from OnePlus. Impressively, the battery can last up to 70 days in standby mode after a full charge, and it should maintain its state of charge for up to 2 years. Based on my experience with the OnePlus Pad 2, I believe these claims are accurate. The battery on that device has never let me down over the past year of my usage.

Fast charging is going to be taken care of using SuperVOOC charging with an appropriate plug, with a full charge from 0 to 100% taking just over an hour and a half, the tablet is capable of charging at 80W.

The last headline is the software change that OnePlus has introduced to the new OnePlus Pad 3. This includes a new, improved version of Open Canvas, which enhances multitasking efficiency and introduces a system-level drag-and-drop action. The update also proactively suggests that using a split-screen layout might be beneficial, making it easier to manage multiple windowed apps and optimise the available space. Additionally, the update brings all the latest Google AI tools, including new ones like AI Writer and AI Summarise, which users have previously used on OnePlus phones like the OnePlus 13 and OnePlus Open, and now are available on the tablet as well. 

Of course, OnePlus would not be launching a new tablet without adding new accessories. So we have been provided with a new OnePlus Pad 3 Smart Keyboard, which is slimmer and lighter and has now got more functionality with useful command keys and an AI Button for initiating Google Gemini. Thankfully, the Pad 3 will still work with the OnePlus Stylo 2 that I have from the previous tablet. The Stylo 2 supports all the features that you would want from a Stylus, being able to detect up to 16,000 different levels of pressure. They have also added a quick drag gesture to enable quick annotations to be made to anything on your screen. These will be useful features for those notetakers out there, for sure! The last accessory is a new trifold case which has 3 ways to prop up the tablet at three different angles. This will help you find the perfect angle for using the OnePlus Pad 3 for video work or play. It also includes a new magnetic buckle for securely storing the OnePlus Stylo 2, which will be very handy as I have been close to losing mine several times.

So those are the main headlines of the OnePlus Pad 3, but now onto the more important stuff, What, When and How much, so here are the details below.

OnePlus Pad 3 is available in Storm Blue and is available in two versions, priced as follows

• OnePlus Pad 3 12GB + 256GB: £529
• OnePlus Pad 3 16GB + 256GB: £599

The accessories are priced as below

• OnePlus Pad 3 Stylo 2: £99
• OnePlus Pad 3 Smart Keyboard: £169
• OnePlus Pad 3 Folio Case: £59

So if you are interested in getting a OnePlus Pad 3 you can preorder it now from the site. If you are quick enough, then you can take advantage of the following deal:- £70 direct discount on OnePlus Pad 3 16GB + 512GB when you buy from OnePlus. That’s 512GB for the price of 256GB!

In addition to the above, you can also choose from any of the accessories above for free while stocks last. I would recommend the Smart Keyboard as it has been abundantly useful with my OnePlus Pad 2.

OnePlus Pad 3 pre-orders are now available, with the first shipments expected on the 19th of June when the tablet goes on open sale.

I’m excited to get my hands on the OnePlus Pad 3 and Smart Keyboard in the next few days. I’m eager to explore its features and compare it to my previous tablet of the year, the OnePlus Pad 2.

The post OnePlus make the OnePlus Pad 3 official is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

The TCL 60R is a budget-friendly 5G smartphone designed to make next-generation connectivity more accessible. Announced in March 2025 and officially launched in May 2025, it offers an affordable way for more users to experience 5G technology.

Specs:-

• Display: 6.7-inch IPS LCD, HD+ (720 x 1600 pixels) resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 480 nits typical brightness
• Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 6300 (6nm octa-core with 2x 2.4 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55)
• RAM: 4GB (with an additional 8GB RAM expansion, totaling up to 12GB virtual RAM)
• Storage: 128GB (expandable up to 2TB via microSDXC)
• Rear Camera: 50MP main lens (f/1.8, PDAF), with auxiliary lens (likely for depth or macro, details vary slightly across sources, sometimes listed as 0.08MP or 2MP).
• Front Camera: 8MP (f/2.0)
• Battery: 5200mAh with 10W wired charging.
• Operating System: Android 15 (with up to 1 major Android upgrade expected).
• Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (dual-band), Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, GPS, USB Type-C 2.0.
• Audio: Dual speakers, 3.5mm headphone jack.
• Durability: IP54 dust and splash resistant.

Good Points :-

• Price
• Amazing 6.7inch 120hz Screen
• Micro SD card slot
• 3.5mm Audio port.
• Did I mention the price.
• Supplied case.
• 5200mAh Battery

Bad Points :-

• No wireless charging (see the price)
• Slow wired charging
• Camera performance in less than ideal conditions
• Plasticky construction.

What’s In The Box :-

In the box there’s a TPU case, documents USB type A to C charging lead, no charging brick.

Design:-

The TCL 60R has a plastic mid frame and rear panel, which adds to the devices lightweight feel in the hand, although it does feel a bit plasticky which does disappear when the included TPU case is fitted .

On the front is 6.7-inch IPS LCD, HD+ (720 x 1600 pixels) resolution, 120Hz refresh rate screen, and it’s this screen that TCL’s screen expertise shows. Yes the screen only has 720p resolution which on a 6.7-inch screen means a relatively low pixel density (around 262 ppi), which might result in less sharp visuals compared to Full HD+ displays , there are some slight bezels around the screen with the lower on being slightly larger than the others. 

Left hand side of the device houses the SIM micro SD card tray, on the right is the power switch and volume rocker, along the top is a speaker and microphone and the bottom houses the USB type C charging port, the second speaker, microphone and a 3.5mm audio port.

Round the back houses the duel cameras and led flash, and TCL branding.

I did notice that was quite a lot of bloatware installed, a number of games and apps I wouldn’t use, but a few minutes of uninstalling and they were all gone.

The 60R comes fitted with a 5200 mAh battery which easily lasted a full day of heavy use and two days of moderate normal use, although the 10 watt wired charging did take some time to fill it back to full again. The speakers provide an adequate sound for listening to podcasts or audio books, but the inclusion of a 3.5mm audio port meant wired headphones could be used for some serious listening. When I popped the device into performance mode I could see a marked difference in responsiveness, with any stutter or lag greatly reduced.

Camera :- 

The camera on the 60R certainly isn’t going to have the likes of Samsung or Apple quaking in their respective boots, but in good light the phone is able to produce some decent more than usable images. What’s that’s saying the best camera you have in the one in your pocket.

The post TCL 60r 5G – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Now that we have got that bit out of the way time for the 360 tour of the device.

Starting on the right-hand side is where we will find the majority of buttons for the phone, and it has a few more than your standard device. In the normal positions of the upper half, when held in portrait, we can find the Volume rocker at the top and then below that we have the power/sleep button. Then, flanking either fo the at the ends of the device we will find the shoulder triggers for gaming. These shoulder buttons are only active when you are playing games and are not actually physically pressable buttons, but haptic areas that respond to pressure. They do, however, prompt significant haptic feedback to make them feel like real buttons, which is nice when used for games.

Moving around the base of the phone, we have got a loudspeaker grill on the right which hides a very loud speaker and one that’s remarkably clear even at higher volumes. Then on the left is the dual SIM tray, which has a waterproof gasket on the tray. Next to the SIM tray is one of the noise-cancelling microphones. In the middle of the base is the USB Type C 2.0 port, which is capable of up to 80W fast charging with the appropriate charger, which is included in the box, although mine is a US version of the charger so I have been using an Anker PD capable GAN charger that will output at 67W.

On the left-hand side, we have one solitary button, which is called the “Magic Key”. This is a customisable button which can be used to launch the Game space by default, but can be customised for other functions if required.

On top is where we will find an IR blaster (although there is no software for this function) and then another noise-cancelling microphone.

Around the rear, we have three circles suggesting that we have three cameras however, this is not the case as we only have 2 cameras, both of which are 50MP. The main one is a 7P lens with APL-coated anti-glare and OIS. The sensor is 1/1.55″ and it has an aperture of f/1.9. The second one is the ultra-wide-angle that also has optimised distortion built in. The sensor here is 1/2.88 with an aperture of f/2.2. The third circle is your flash, and this is also encircled with customisable RGB as it wouldn’t be a REDMAGIC product without a little bit of RGB onboard now, would it! Again, this is fully customisable from within the Game Space menu and also the settings menu, which is nice to see.

The actual rear panel itself is very clean, and the camera lenses do sit slightly round, but this can be countered very easily by using the included clear clip-on case/shell. There is no Wireless charging or magnets for MagSafe accessories, but this is not surprising given that REDMAGIC have yet to include QI on any device to date. It is also great to see that the back is using a matte finish to eliminate fingerprints whilst maximising grip at the same time. It works really well to be honest and the ephoen doesn’t feel that slippery.

Moving around to the front, and this is where REDMAGIC make their USP apparent. it is in the form of a display, which is a Full Screen, 6.8 inch AMOLED display, 120Hz refresh rate, with 93.7% screen-to-body ratio and 2,480 x 1,116 Resolution, this gives a PPI count of 400. The screen is also capable of a peak brightness of 1600 nits in certain conditions. 

The display is bright and vibrant, and I really like the lack of any interruption to the display. REDMAGIC have proven that underscreen front-facing cameras are the way forward and that if done well,l they have all the benefits of the uninterrupted display whilst still allowing a good camera experience. I was impressed with this setup on the REDMAGIC 9 Pro  I reviewed a few years ago, and I hope to be as impressed this time around as well.

Nestled above the screen is the earpiece, which also doubles as a secondary loudspeaker, and this gives a good sound for both calls and when playing back media. 

Finally, under the earpiece and the display, you have the front-facing 16MP, F2.0 aperture camera with a 5P lens, AI Algorithm Enhancement. With a lens angle of 77 degrees, this camera is great for taking selfies at a reasonable width.

That is all she wrote for the tour of the phone; however, there is more included in the box. You also have the fast charging brick, which will allow charging speeds of up to 80W and a black and red USB Type-C to Type-C power cable.

There is also a clip-on style clear plastic case that is nice enough, but has limited protection of the edges, most likely due to the shoulder triggers.

The last thing to deal with is the specs table

I will be of course using this phone as my daily driver for the next little while to give some real-world testing. I will then be following this up with my review in about a week’s time.

If you cannot wait that long and want to get one of the stunning-looking phones, then you can buy now from REDMAGIC directly. It is currently retailing for the following prices for the Hailstone and Twilight:

• 12GB RAM + 256GB ROM Memory £419 (£439 normally)
• 16GB RAM + 512GB ROM Memory£509 (£559 normally)

These prices are subject to a deal and will most likely return to the normal prices shown above.

If you don’t mind waiting and want to add a little bit of colour to your phone, then you can get the Flare version  from June, date tbc for £559

The post REDMAGIC 10 Air – Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Design
First, let’s start with the design. This was covered in great depth during my unboxing post and unboxing video. But if you have not seen this, then I would encourage you to check the video and the post out before continuing to read on.

The design of the Honor 400 is subtle but a significant change from the previous Honor 200 series. The reason for me saying that is that they have gone with a more boxy design on the 400 over the previous curved edges design on the 200. They have also changed the camera island on the back from an oval to a more rhombic shape.

There is also a significant screen size difference. The 200 series had a 6.7″ screen with curved edges, and the 400 has a screen size of 6.55″ with completely flat, squared-off edges.

The phone feels quite utilitarian and blocky, which is by no means a bad thing. However, the svelte and pebble-like rounded feeling of the predecessor is no longer present.

Another feature that I instantly found to be missing, which is somewhat perplexing as it was found on the 400 Lite phone previously reviewed on CoolSmartphone.com, is the occlusion of any camera action button, which was to be found on the right-hand side in the lower third of the edge of the phone. I don’t know what the reasoning behind this is, but I can only imagine that the camera shortcut button was intended on the 400 Lite series to test its functionality and adoption before they implemented it on the higher-tier devices.
In terms of durability and ruggedness, the phone is IP65 rated, so it will cope with some dust and debris, and it will also cope with light splashing. I would not recommend using this phone submerged. Then again, I would also not recommend using any phone submerged. But it is good to see a mid-tier device getting the IP ratings that used to be exclusively for higher-end devices.

The body consists of a metal frame with Gorilla Glass both front and back, I believe. The front is Gorilla Glass Victus, and the back is a form of Gorilla Glass. The back of the phone has a matte finish to the glass, which does aid in the grip slightly, and it is as slim as you would expect from a candy bar design in 2025.
In terms of colours, there will be 3 colour variants, Desert Gold, Meteor Silver (exclusive to Honor.com)and Midnight Black, which is the one I have on review.

Hardware and performance
The phone features the Snapdragon 7 Gen, which is a powerful chip and will cope with most things average users will throw at the phone. It only comes with 8 gigabytes of RAM. However, there are two storage variants of 256 GB or 512 GB, depending on your desired storage and potentially colour variant.
Hidden underneath the frame is where we will find a 5300mAh silicon-carbon battery with up to 66W HONOR Wired SuperCharge. My review unit did not come with a charger in the box. So I cannot confirm what speed of charger you will get. I expect it will be one of the lower-powered varieties, and they will offer a 66-watt-capable charger for free as a gift with purchase. This is based upon previous Honor sales.
There is one missing feature concerning charging, and that is the ability to wirelessly charge, which is sadly missing from the phone. I would have liked to have seen this, but there has to be something to distinguish this and the 400 Pro.
Another area of distinction between the 400 Pro and the 400 is the cameras. I won’t dive into this too much as I will save this for the camera section, but the 400 only has a dual camera setup featuring a 200 megapixel camera and a 12 megapixel ultra-wide camera, whereas the 400 Pro features a triple camera setup featuring the same cameras with the addition of a telephoto lens. I have found the cameras to be satisfactory for the price point, but more on that in the camera section.

Not sure why it looks green here, it is Black, I promise

As previously mentioned, the phone will charge via supercharger, and this is all taken care of via the USB Type-C 2.0 port on the base of the unit. This does not support display out, but does support reverse wired charging at 5 watts. This can be useful for powering headphones, etc., while on the go.
The phone features multiple bands over the full mobile spectrum, including up to 5G, and it features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac. It also supports Bluetooth 5.3 and all the associated codecs that you could think of. I have had no problem pairing this to wireless headphones from both Google and OnePlus, and also to my Pixel Watch 3. Call quality has been very good, as has been data reception when travelling around the UK. I have rarely experienced a time when I have no service, which is great to see, particularly as there are no visible antenna lines on the exterior casing. The antennas must be positioned in a way that the RF escapes through the back of the phone.

The loudspeakers are crisp and clear, up until around about 80% volume, after which They do start to get a little muddy, but most of my experience using this has been with wireless headphones, where, as mentioned, I have had no problem with pairing or listening to music, videos, podcasts, etc.
In terms of gaming, those of you who read my articles often will know I am not the biggest gamer. However, I have put this through my usual gaming tests of Grand Mountain Adventure 2 and Asphalt Unite. I have found that in both games, I was not lacking performance at all, and unlike the Honor 400 Lite, I did not experience the laggy bug when initially starting to play on Grand Mountain Adventure 2. This is not surprising, as previously mentioned, the Snapdragon 7 Gen. chip on board is plenty powerful enough.
Software
The software on the Honor 400 is very similar to that on the 400 Lite that I have previously reviewed. There is little to distinguish the two. Of course, both the phones have… Google’s AI is built into the phone’s core. However, with the 400, Honor and Google have co-launched a new feature called AI Photo to Video, which allows you to take a photo and use AI to create a very short five-second video clip or moving picture for use in sharing on social media, etc. I have tested this with stock photos provided by Honor and also with my photos, and in both scenarios, it works very, very well. Is it a feature I will use often? Probably not. But given that this phone is intended for a market of potentially younger users, and also the 400 series in general is intended for that market. It is a nice feature to have on board.

Here is a demo of how it works

And here is the end result.

In terms of other AI that is featured, Google Gemini is built into the core, and I have had no problem using that. There is AI translate, AI writing and various AI tools. Honor has worked hard to make AI use easy and seamless. And for the most part, this has proven to be successful. My use of AI is generally limited to voice-to-text via AI notes and Gemini, and occasionally, some AI tools are used within Google Photos. However, I have dabbled with the AI photo editing suite built into the Honor’s Gallery app, and it does a good job of carrying out the edits that you would want, such as AI Object Remover, AI Reflection Remover, etc.

Unfortunately, with this being Honor’s standard launcher, one of my pet peeves is still present. This is splitting the notification pane and the control centre. I have gone into this before, so I will not dwell on it. I don’t like it, and I would like the choice to turn it off, which is something given to you by Oppo and OnePlus, and I believe Samsung. So this would be a suggestion for Honor moving forward.

I have received at least one software update since the phone was provided to me, but as the phone has been used primarily in pre-release software, it is hard to say how reliable software updates will be. However, Honor announced on the 21st that they will be supporting Android 16 on the 400 series within the next few months, and the phone will get six years of OS and security updates. This brings it up to the higher tiers of companies supporting OS and security updates. Not quite matching Samsung and Google, but still very, very good.

Another aspect of software that Honor are very proud of is their EyeCare suite. This is taken care of by 7 different tools that will allow the screen to dim or adjust depending on times and conditions. The idea behind this concept is to allow you to use your phone without having to worry about eye strain, blue light bleed, etc. It is something Honor is very proud of, and as such, it has its own menu level within the settings. See screenshot below.

I have not noticed any eye strain when using the device for prolonged periods, even at night, so… what they have done must be working.

Another new feature for the Honor 400 is AI Writing tools, which are a joint effort between HONOR and Google Gemini. Here’s how it works: you just type in a command or prompt, and the tool will do all the magic to help you create content. Whether you need to draft something from scratch, make it sound better, or change the way it’s written, the AI Writing Tools can help you expand your ideas and even check your grammar and spelling across different languages. It’s like having a personal writing assistant that makes everyday writing a breeze!

Here are some examples using the rewrite tool and the smart compose tool

The rest of the software build is very similar to what we have seen on previous Honor devices like the recently reviewed Honor 400 Lite. Honor software has evolved into a usable Skin on top of Android, and they have cemented support with Google going forward as well, with various strategic moves such as being the first device to offer the previously mentioned AI Image to Video functionality.

Now moving on to the camera.

Camera

The camera on the Honor 400 is a really interesting proposition. it has a fairly high MP count on the main camera at 200MP, and then the secondary is a massive reduction. It is also missing the Ultrawide camera from the Honor 400 Pro. So with that being said, how does it stack up? I have been using this to capture some photos when I have been out and about over the past few days, and I have some thoughts. However, before we go into that,t I want to share some of the details of the modes that are available to you because there is a lot going on here.

In terms of the main options, you can see these in the screenshot below we have Photo, Video, Pro, Portrait, and just out of shot, we also have Night and then the More button.

Under the More option, you will also find Slow Mo, Stickers, Story, Multi Video, Timelapse, High-res, Aperture, Panorama, Supermacro and Scan Document.

Now while I would love to take the time to go through each and every mode for you I am not going to do that as that would take your fun away! What I will say is that each of these modes gives you a different level of versatility when using the camera. I am going to cover the main ones though, those being Photo, Portrait and Video

Photo mode is the first up, and this is to be honest, probably where most people will spend their time. In this mode, you can use the various camera controls to zoom in and out, adjust the brightness and exposure values, set the focus point, etc. You also have the option to change the filter and to set the camera to capture moving photos. None of this is particularly special, but I do like the subtle touches that are here, such as the fan-style zoom control, which indicates the actual zoom equivalent to what it would be on a dedicated camera. Here are a few shots of the camera interface in the Photo mode

So you are very well covered in terms of what you can and can’t do within the standard Photo mode. As an aside, if you want even more manual control, then this is available in the Pro mode. I think that most users will be more than happy with the controls that are to be found here. The results from this mode are shown here.

I also wanted to showcase the Zoom levels for you, and this is where we have some AI coming into play. This first batch of images are without AI zoom turned on.

This next batch AI Zoom is enabled on the last shots as it kicks in after you exceed 10 x zoom.

The AI Zoom really does clean the edges of the window up and allow for a much better image. I have another two shots below that may highlight this these were taken at 30x Zoom

The horse is much better defined in the second image, as is the fence, so the AI is really doing quite a good job. It does, however, struggle with text, as is shown in the next image, especially when it is compared to a camera with more advanced optics.

20 x Zoom with AI Zoom

You can just about make out the text, but when compared to the Oppo Find X8 Pro at 20x Zoom, it might as well be unreadable. However, this, as mentioned, is a different sensor with different optimisations etc.

The photos this phone can produce from the rear cameras are pretty darn good, but having used this back to back with the Oppo Find X8 Pro you can see where the extra money goes.

Moving on to video mode, I only have a few samples to show you here, but needless to say, the phone will record video well and can do so up to 4K. The main camera has Optical Image Stabilisation, which makes for a nice stable platform to shoot from.

Unlike when I was using the Honor 400 Lite you should not get motion sick from watching the above clip as the OIS works nicely to take out the movement from my steps.

This panning shot shows how the sensor reacts to lighting changes of the subject, and again, I was quite pleased with the result.

Finally, this one shows the capture of movement, and again very pleased with the end result.

Rest assured that you will be able to capture some good quality video with the Honor 400 without too much need for faff. So, for a point-and-shoot style camera, we have two ticks. Let’s see how it deals with portraits

So the portrait mode has a couple of different filters you can choose from, and also the ability to play with Bokeh effects. The filters use the Studio Harcourt algorithms that were developed for the launch of the Honor 200 Series last year. The Camera Lens work harmoniously with the AI-based algorithms learnt by Honor analysing Studio Harcourt photos in their thousands. Using machine learning, the AI then learned how to use the individual cameras to create the perfect portraits for three distinct camera modes: Harcourt Vibrant, Harcourt Colour and Harcourt Classic.

The use of machine learning to analyse the Studio Harcourt process. Capturing unique and classical style portraiture has taken what is capable of AI to another level
As a result, the end user is now able to utilise the three Studio Harcourt photography modes available by toggling in the camera settings. To emulate what can be done by a DSLR camera.

How you enable this mode is extremely simple. Enter the camera, select portrait and then select the Studio Harcourt mode that you require. You then point and shoot, and the AI will work its magic in the background to help create a unique style of portrait shots that previously would have taken some real skill to create. Here are the results below.

If this was not enough, then you also have the option to change between different film styles; however, in my testing, the difference is not really that apparent, so I didn’t really use it. What I do like is that each filter has a little bit of information about what it is doing and how it will affect your photo, which can be accessed by pressing the (i) button next to the filter.

These are great for when you are picturing a subject, how about when you are using the front-facing camera for the good old standard selfie. Well, here are some samples below for you to assess.

Apart from the subject matter needing to hit the gym hard, I would say these are pretty pleasing results.

The Use of AI for editing images is, as you would expect, extensive and includes all the tools you could think of, including AI Outpainting, which I wanted to single out as it is really quite cool as to what it does. So, taking one of my portrait shots from above, we are going to expand the image using AI Outpainting to see what it comes up with.

As long as your expectations are not too wild, this works extremely well, and using it on the image above is only one of the many options you have available to you. You can choose from a wide array of aspect ratios and scales of extensions. This is a really nice feature and one I would use a fair bit. Here is another example where i have taken a 4:3 aspect ratio shot and changed it to 9:16 aspect ratio, and it worked out pretty darn well.

Overall, this, like many cameras on smartphones these day’s will be more than adequate for most people, especially if all you are doing is using it to capture images for social media. If however, you are looking to use your images or video for content creation, then you will start to see weaknesses here, and this may not be the best option, but it is certainly a good starting point.

Conclusion

The Honor 400 is a great option for a modern AI-enabled phone that will serve the vast majority of mobile phone users well. It has plenty of power for navigating the UI and playing all but the most demanding of games. It has a very capable camera system supported by a wide array of AI goodies, thanks to the close ties that Honor is making with Google. As to where it sits in the smartphone environment as a whole, I would put this up against the likes of the Pixel 9 and the Samsung A56 devices. If you don’t have an enormous budget and you want a phone that ticks a lot of boxes, then go with this. If, however, you need a telephoto lens and wireless charging, then it would be worth looking at the Honor 400 Pro as it will have all the same features s the Honor 400 apart from the Telephoto or Wireless charging.

You can buy the Honor 400  from Honor’s website now, and remember, there will probably be “early bird” discounts or offers* available for those who get their orders in early and pre-register at honor.com/uk. Pricing starts from £399.99 with 256GB storage, £449 with 512GB storage. If you prefer to buy from a brick and mortar store, then you can do so from the 22nd at EE, O2, Three, Vodafone, Tesco Mobile, Argos, Currys. The phone will also be available from Amazon and Very as well.

*There are indeed offers available, as shown in the picture below, also a discount is available on the 512GB version by using the code “A4000UK50” at checkout to get £50 off.

The post Honor 400 – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

https://youtu.be/fsD5xd1DRIk

Now that we have viewed the eye-catching unboxing, let’s hone in on some of the finer details in our tour of the device.

Starting on the right-hand side is where we will find the power button, which performs multiple duties as a sleep/wake/lock/unlock and Google assistant key. This is accompanied by the ubiquitous volume rocker that sits just above the power key. There is no discernible difference in texture between the two keys, which means it is easy to misidentify the buttons by feel. Fortunately, muscle memory kicks in pretty quickly to avoid confusion. What the eagle-eyed will have observed is the lack of a camera shortcut key, as this is no longer present on the phone I am not sure of the reasoning behind this decision, but it is slightly baffling that it was found on the lower-tier Honor 400 Light and not found here.

Moving around to the base of the phone, we find the usual array of loudspeaker grill, USB Type C 2.0 port, noise-cancelling microphone for calls and then the dual SIM card slot. This slot does have a waterproof gasket around it, as the phone is IP 64 rated. There is no support for video output from the USB Type C port, and it will support Honor’s Supercharger protocol when used with the correct charger, which, sadly, as we saw in the video, was not to be found in the box on our review unit. When used with he appropriate cable and charger, you can expect up to 66W charging speed and up to 5W reverse charging.

On the left-hand side, we are met with a barren expanse of black matte metal.

On top of the phone, we get a little bit more interesting as we have got the secondary loudspeaker (which is actually the front-firing earpiece) and IR blaster and another noise-cancelling microphone. 

Moving around to the front is where we have our display, which measures in at a reasonable 6.55″ and is an AMOLED panel. The screen-to-body ratio is 88.8%, which does mean we do have some bezels, but they are not too obtrusive, especially in the back colour way I have. The front is also home to the 50MP front-facing camera, which has an aperture of f/2.1 and is set to be a wide-angle camera. Above the camera is a n earpiece slit to allow for you to hear cleary on voice calls.

The display, as already mentioned, is an AMOLED affair, but it is a very bright panel and it will reach up to 5000 nits in HDR peak brightness, although expect this to be lowered when the screen is measured as a whole. I dont have the equipment to measure this, but I can say that the screen has been bright enough in direct sunlight to use without too much bother, both with and without sunglasses on, which is a good measure in my opinion. In similar conditions, my work phone Samsung Galaxy A34) is not as bright.

Moving around to the rear is where we have another key difference between this and the Honor 400 Lite. The camera array, which is made up of a triangular module this module contains a 200MP camera with f/1.9 wide-angle aperture and Phase Detection Auto Focus and Optical Image stabilisation. The secondary camera is comprised of a 12MP shooter with a f/2.2 aperture and a 112-degree angle, making it ultra wide, and this only has Auto Focus. The third component is an LED flash, which is the smallest of the three components.

The whole camera module sits proud of the back panel, which itself is glass with a colour treatment that happily does not seem to be too prone to fingerprints as it is a matte finish on the black colour way that I have. I expect that in the full retail package, you will have an optional TPU case included to alleviate that issue and provide some protection for the device.

The phone does give off a slightly greenish hue in certain lighting conditions, but I can assure you that it is black, as can be seen from this image below.

So that concludes my unboxing and the tour of the device; all that remains is for the obligatory spec dump for those who like to read between the lines.

Check back soon for the full review.

The post Honor 400 – Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Good Points:-

• 140W Maximum Output.
• Useful TFT display
• Fast charging for mutliple devices.

Bad Points.

• No Wireless charging
• Slow Interface.

You might not have heard of Cuktech yet, but this emerging brand has a solid foundation. Previously a white-label manufacturer, Cuktech took a significant step in 2022 by merging with ZMI, a well-known brand within Xiaomi’s vast ecosystem. With ambitious global expansion plans, Cuktech is launching intriguing products such as the Cuktech 30, a massive 40000mAh power bank with a 300W power budget and Qi wireless charging. This review focuses on the Cuktech 15 Ultra, a capable 20000mAh power bank offering a 165W power budget.

Like Anker and UGREEN, Cuktech chose a vertical profile for the power bank, a decision that undeniably boosts the 15 Ultra’s portability.

Beyond its shape, the 15 Ultra boasts thoughtful design elements. The clean grey and black color combination is visually appealing, while the textured back provides a secure and comfortable grip. Overall, Cuktech has executed the design of the 15 Ultra effectively, leaving me with no complaints.

In The Box:-

In the box comes the powerbank, usual documents, a USB Type C to C cable that can be used to charge the powerbank, or charge your device, and a nice velvet pouch to carry it all in.

The front button wakes up the display, which offers a comprehensive overview including battery level, charging duration, and real-time power flow. While the simultaneous display of all this information can feel a bit busy, ultimately, the panel provides all the crucial details you need.

You won’t encounter any issues taking the 15 Ultra on a plane due to its 72Wh battery. The 20000mAh capacity offers good endurance for charging your phone and accessories several times, and its charging efficiency is on par with other brands I’ve reviewed.

Just a heads-up: that 20000mAh rating on the 15 Ultra doesn’t mean you’ll get a full 20000mAh of charge for your devices. Power banks lose some energy during the charging process, so you’re looking at closer to 12000mAh of actual charging capacity (around 60% efficiency). This is normal for all power banks, so you’re not at a disadvantage with the 15 Ultra.

For charging your devices, the 15 Ultra provides two USB-C ports and a standard USB-A port. The main USB-C port is a powerhouse, delivering up to 140W via USB PD 3.1, while the second USB-C port offers a respectable 65W. The 18W USB-A port is ideal for lower-power accessories. Using both USB-C ports simultaneously allows for a combined output of 165W. Below are the detailed power specifications for each port and how they work together:

• USB-C1 (Input/Output, Maximum 140W): [List of voltages and amperages]
• USB-C2 (Output, Maximum 65W): [List of voltages and amperages]
• USB-A (Output, Maximum 18W): [List of voltages and amperages]
• Simultaneous Output (USB-C1 + USB-C2, Maximum 165W): 100W + 65W
• Simultaneous Output (USB-C1 + USB-A, Maximum 118W): 100W + 18W
• Simultaneous Output (USB-C2 + USB-A, Maximum 83W): 65W + 18W
• Simultaneous Output (USB-C1 + USB-C2 + USB-A, Maximum 163W): 100W + 45W + 18W

The 15 Ultra reliably charged my range of test devices, including the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Galaxy ZFold 6, Iphone 16 plus, Tab S9 Ultra and Galaxybook pro 360,  Importantly, I observed no overheating during use, indicating effective thermal management by Cuktech. The device was even able to identify my Samsung devices, and the phones themselves reported the abiltity for “Superfast Charging” that said charging cable choice did affect charging speeds.

The 15 Ultra delivers incredibly fast charging. My phone went from zero to 24% in a mere 15 minutes, and the USB-C port pushed that to an even quicker 27% in the same short time. This level of speed is among the best I’ve encountered with a power bank.

The Cuktech charger boasts a clever final feature: while it can handle a 100W input on its own, you can also connect two wall chargers simultaneously for a combined 165W. This unlocks a special “Beast Mode” on the 15 Ultra, complete with a visually satisfying animation that tracks the charging percentage in real-time. In this mode, I observed the phone rocket from empty to 80% in a mere 20 minutes. Despite this rapid charging, the device remained only slightly warm to the touch, alleviating any concerns about excessive heat.

Conclusion:-

The Cuktech 15 Ultra offers a compelling package with few drawbacks. While the user interface for setting the USB-C port’s function (input, output, or bidirectional) isn’t the snappiest, its limited use makes this a minor quibble. The absence of wireless QI2 charging is understandable, likely a cost-saving measure that contributes to the power bank’s attractive price point. For those seeking a potent, future-ready high-speed charger capable of handling three devices, the Cuktech 15 Ultra delivers. It’s fast, boasts ample capacity, and maintains a reasonable size and weight. While perhaps not an everyday carry for a backpack, it’s an excellent companion for weekends or extended trips, and the rapid “Beast Mode” is a lifesaver for last-minute charging needs.

The 15 Ultra is available from Amazon and CUKTECH web site at £89.99

The post CUKTECH 15 Ultra Powerbank – Review. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Design

I have already discussed a few of the phone’s design aspects in my unboxing post, which I encourage you to check out if you want to. If not, I have included the video below.

From the video, we can see that Honor has played it relatively safe in terms of the design and has adopted a design language that is now becoming more mainstream of the squared off edges, flat display and rounded corners. Some may even mistake the phone for being an iPhone at a glance. That is, until you were to take a closer look at the back and, in particular, the camera module, which stands out enough to give the phone some identity. I like the slight change in colour used in the triangle containing the camera lenses and flash module. It gives a focal point to the back and draws the eye in.

The other noticeable change from previous Honor-numbered series devices is the squared-off edges and the use of a flat display over the previously seen curved displays. This creates a harsh edge for the screen where it ends, but it does allow the fitting of edge-to-edge screen protectors like the included factory-fitted plastic one. While the curved edges of old were very nice aesthetically, they were annoying to use as the edges of the phone were sometimes not very useful for picking up touch points. I am glad to see that Honor has now adopted this design ethos here, and I hope they will continue to include this in the rest of the lineup. I am also pleased to say that the bezels on the edge of the phone show up some other brands to shame as they are both very small and, more importantly, uniform in size, which is really nice to see. Overall, the Display panel is very pleasing to the eye and has been a joy to use. I will go into the brightness and visual quality a bit later on. One other thing I should mention while we are here is the fact that the display has 7 different “shields’ to help protect your eyes. These are the following

• 3840Hz high-frequency PWM
• Dynamic Display Dimming
• Circadian Night Display
• Comfortable dim light adjustments
• Low blue light (hardware)
• E-book Mode
• Dark Mode

I have not used all of these, but I can say with some certainty that they do get very dark when used in a darker environment, almost to the point where they are too dark, especially for my old, ailing eyes. The options to control all of these modes are in the display settings, which makes them easy to find. However, the PWM setting cannot be adjusted, and neither can the Dynamic Display Dimming, as these are just controlled by the phone automatically.

The next bit that I want to mention is a new feature that Honor is introducing with the 400 Lite and will hopefully be seen in future versions as and when they come out (Ed note: I expect to see some more from the series later this year, based on previous years.) This is, of course, the new camera button, which I am pleased to say is actually a physical button, unlike some of the other reinterpretations of the design that have been seen. On the right-hand side, below the power/sleep, wake/lock/unlock button, is where you will find a slightly recessed long button/touch bar that will allow you to perform a few different actions.

Now, first and foremost, I do want to have a moan about the positioning. It is too high up on the phone; it needs to be closer to the bottom, as this is not where I would naturally place my finger when I am taking a photo. It is also far too easy to press this by mistake on phone calls or when trying to unlock the phone. I have done this several times while using the phone.

With that out of the way, I am pleased to say that the button works very well as it allows you to do a quick launch into the camera app from anywhere in the phone’s UI or indeed when the phone is locked. A long press will open up Google Lens, allowing you to do a quick image search. It would be nice to see that ability to customise this if you wanted to, though. When you are in the camera itself, the button will then allow you to slide your finger along its length to adjust the zoom settings. A long hold with your finger on the button will allow you to pick the focus point, and then pressing it will take the picture. You can also use a press and hold to record video. It is not quite what I have used previously on the likes of Xperias from Sony back in the day, but it is a nice thing to have. Apparently it will also work with Gloves on, but as it is currently the middle of a heat wave in the UK I have not tried this feature!

The next thing I want to mention in the design is the ruggedness and water resistance. I incorrectly stated in the above unboxing video that the phone was not IP-rated. The phone is in fact rated for IP64, which in plain English means that it is splash resistant, although Honor seems to think differently with their marketing campaign on X, as they have this image below

If you ask me, I wouldn’t intend to take this swimming, but I wouldn’t be afraid to use it while I was at the beach or by the pool, for example. It is also SGS rated for up to a 1.8 m drop onto hard surfaces, which again I haven’t tried, but it is nice to know that this was tested.

That about concludes the design side of things, so we will not move onto hardware. These two areas tend to merge into one quite a lot, so I will try not to repeat myself.

Hardware

Overall, the phone is very well made, and as you saw above, it shows from the testing it has undergone, but beyond that, the components being used on the inside are all good specs for the price of the device.At the very heart of the phone, we find that it is being powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 7025 Ultra, which is in turn backed up by an IMG GXM08-256 graphics chip. Now I have never heard of that specific graphics chip, but I have heard of the Dimensity CPU, and it is no longer associated with being a cheap chipset only used by budget brands. Medaitek have been making big moves within the Chinese smartphone market with both Vivo and Oppo having used it in their flagships at the end of last year on both their Chinese-focused phones and also the Global versions. 

The Dimensity 7025 is not a flagship chip, but it’s comparable to the Snapdragon 695, which is essentially a Snapdragon 6s Gen 3.  This means phones like the Samsung Galaxy A 36 and the Moto G 85 use the 695/6s Gen 3.  It was also used in the Nord CE Lite 3G, which was reviewed in 2023. I found the performance then was more than adequate.

Now, let’s talk about how the Honour 400 Lite performs day to day. I’ve been quite pleased with it. I haven’t had any issues using it as my daily driver. There was sometimes a small delay when opening bigger apps, especially for the first time, but once they cached to the fast memory, this wasn’t an issue.

The memory unit I have for review is the 8GB version with 256GB of storage, which is the only version available in the UK. I believe there’s a 12GB RAM version in other markets. RAM can sometimes be a bottleneck to performance, especially if you’re the type of user who has many apps open and tabs open. However, clearing out active apps and browsing tabs can speed things up again. I am not going to try an blow smoke up your ass and say that this is the only phone you will ever need in terms of performance but for the casual user who need as phone as a phone and wants to use for emails and social media then this will suit them perfectly from a performance standpoint. As a side note, I have given the Nord CE 3 Lite to my Son, who has never complained about the performance of that phone at all, and he uses it for more than the things I just mentioned above.

The next big internal part is, of course, the battery. Inside the sleek profile of the Honor 400 Lite we have got a 5230WH battery which can charge at 35w. This battery was able to last me through 2 full days with very light usage, and when stressed, it would get me through a full day.  To recharge the battery took me around 1 hr 37mins when plugged into a GAN 67 W charger and using the Honor Supercharger protocol. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, for this price,e we don’t have any of the fancy Silicon carbon battery tech and have to make do with the older style Li-ion Polymer Battery. I suspect this is why the charging speed is relatively low compared to the rest of the market. We are also lacking Wireless charging, but again, this is completely understandable.

So those are the two big hitters from an internal hardware perspective. What about all the other parts? Well connectivity-wise wise we are very well served with all the essentials, as it will support all the G’s from 2 up to 5 it has Wifi 2.4GHz and 5GHz up to 802.11 ac. You can use it as a Wi-fi hotspot on both of these 2.4GHz and 5 Ghz bands if you wish to. It will also support Wi-Fi Direct for file transfer, which made moving all my details from my Oppo Find N5 to the Honor 400 Lite simple and easy. For Bluetooth, we have got 5.3 onboard, which does the essentials without too much concern and this is about as up-to-date as we can expect from a budget offering. I had no issue using my Pixel Watch 3 45mm with the phone, with notifications and other actions coming through quickly every time.

As mentioned earlier, the phone will charge at up to 35W via the included charger, which will in turn be plugged into the phone via the USB Type-C 2.0 port. This will also offer reverse charging for low-powered devices like Vapes, Bluetooth headphones, smartwatches etc. It should be noted that when I plugged my Oppo Find N5 into the Honor 400 Lite it was the Honore that took the charge but when i did the same with my One Plus Pad 2 (which was at20%) that charged, the only thing i can think of is that the device with the greater battery charge will be the one offering the charge. It may be that this was a previously known and understood concept that had up until now eluded me!!!

GPS-wise, we are well catered for again with all the expected systems being supported, those being GPS/AGPS/GLONASS/BeiDou/Galileo. The phone will also work off network-based positioning as well as WLAN-based positioning.  Leaving the best for last, we have all sensors  that are supported, all the main culprits being here, consisting of:

• Gravity Sensor
• Fingerprint Sensor
• Compass
• Ambient Light Sensor
• Proximity Sensor (Ultrasonic approach, non-physical approach sensor)

That about concludes the hardware and design aspects, but I wanted to share some images of the phone next to another one from a similar price point, and for this, I have chosen the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G (mainly as I had one to hand, as it is my work phone).

Performance

This phone has been built to be a “Lite” version for a series of phones, and due to this, I am not expecting to be presented with a high-end gaming monster or DSLR substitute. That being said, though, most phones these days, including lower-end models such as the Honor 400 Lite, are very capable in terms of what they can do performance-wise.

My initial first impression was good, with very little perceptible lag when moving around the OS, and I was able to bring all my apps and services over from my Find N5 without too much drama. I then started to use it, and little things started to show up, the fact that this is running a lower-tier processor, to be fair, though, I am comparing this to my daily, which is running the Snapdragon Elite. I found that some bigger apps just needed that little bit more time to load up than I was used to. Dont get me wrong, the phone is by no means slow, but it is slower than a flagship in 2025, which is expected.

I was able to play games on the phone without too many issues, although my gaming choices are not exactly the most taxing things in the world. I am mainly playing Grand Mountain Adventure(a ski/snowboard sim game). I have got it set at the highest framerates and graphics settings, and it played just fine. I did notice a little bit of heat build-up from extended gaming sessions, but nothing uncomfortable. I also noticed a bit of initial lag when I started to play the game, but this disappeared as soon as I performed a restart, allowing the lag to stop. I have tried to demo this in the video clip below.

There is a game getting menu that can be brought up whilst playing a game, but it offers very minimal adjustments. Nothing like what can be found on gaming-focused devices like the RedMagic series.

I also tried Asphalt Legends Unite as I want to push it a bit harder with a more intense game. Even with Settign fully cranked to the max, I was able to get a very good gaming experience. and virtually no lag. Here are some screenshots from the Game

In this first one, I had 3D mode turned on, along with all the other settings being ramped up to max.

Here I have turned off 3D Settings

It makes things look a lot better.

Gaming performance is good enough for all but the most ardent of gamers, as I have indicated with the above two games, the phone is great for casual gaming, but if you desire to play intense RPG-style games or first-person shooters with full graphics and high frame rates, then you may want to look elsewhere.

Another aspect of performance is how well this works as a phone for making calls. I am pleased to report that it fulfils this task very well I was able to make a receive calls with no issues, and the other person was able to hear me clearly and concisely in all but the weakest of signal areas. It also handles my messaging needs very well with the native Google Messages preinstalled, supporting RCS messaging with no issues. WhatsApp was seamless, as can be expected.

Lastly is the performance of the loudspeaker. It is ok for volume, but there is no depth to the sound that comes from having a stereo setup. It is also far too easy to cover the speaker when watching a video or when gaming. Check out the example below.

Two more sections to cover, and we will deal with the biggy first, the Camera.

Camera

I have been able to get some pretty okay shots out of the camera setup on the Honor 400 Lite, which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise given that they are now quite well-versed in making good camera phones. The 400 Lite uses a two-lens setup on the camera module with the larger of the two being a 108MP Camera with an aperture f/1.75. The second one is a wide-angle and Depth camera and is only 5MP with an aperture of f/2.2. The majority of the work here is being done with the main 108MP camera, which will pixel bin the images down to a more palatable 13.3MP image. These images were for the most part pretty clear and crisp  as you can see in the gallery below. 

As you can see from above, even with the light fading into dusk, these photos were all pretty good and were acceptable. I did come across one issue, and that was when I was trying to capture an image of this black cat.

The phone’s shutter speed wasn’t quick enough to capture the movement, and as a result, we have a bit of a blurry mess.

Low light performance wasn’t too shabby either, as can be seen from the night shots below.

The one on the left is with night mode off, just using the normal settings, and the one on the right is with night mode turned on. There is a significant difference, and this suggests that, unlike more higher specced devices I have tested, the phone’s AI is not being used to change the camera setting from normal to a night mode shot without you doing it yourself.  Strangely enough, this does not annoy me as I like to know when the phone is going to things in the camera and when it is not!

As for Selfies, these are not too shabby.

In the samples below, you can see both a shot with Bokeh effects and one without Bokeh.

I do like the Bokeh that is being applied as it is a very close cut around my face, and it really doesn’t impact my face too much. I also tried the selfie cam in low light and I was surprised by the results. Below is an example without the flash, and then one with the flash. Now, when I say flash, I mean that there is an LED hidden in the camera cutout next to the front Camera lens that will light up just before the camera takes its shot. I’ll be honest, I have not seen this before, so I was a bit surprised when this happened. It turns out that if it gets dark enough, then the full screen will light up as well, which is more what I was expecting to see!

Having looked at the specs again, I don’t know why I was surprised, as it is there in black and white!

As for the AI Camera Button, as Honor calls it have been pleased with how it performs, and the UI is easy to use. Sliding your finger from left to right zooms in, and vice versa. A long press will allow you to set the focus, and then finally, a hard long press will start recording video, with you having to tap again to stop recording.

The last thing I want to discuss is video. Both cameras will record video at 30 FPS in 1080p, which is par for the course on a budget phone like this. If you are stationary when recording, then the results are okay; however, bring in any motion and then things get a lot more sketchy. recorded this while gently walking down the road.

Not great to be honest, and I didn’t want to record for much longer as I didn’t want to give you all motion sickness! This is down to a lack of any form of image stabilisation in the phone. Now I am not really that surprised by this, as at the end of the day we are looking at a sub £300 phone, so some things have to be cut from the spec sheet.

Time to delve into the software

Software

The Honor 400 Lite comes with Android 15 with an Honor OS 9 skin on top of it. The Honor skin is good and has some very useful functions on it, but it also has one feature that is, in my opinion, unnecessary. As you would expect there is full suite of AI onboard which will help you do various things from editing photos you have taken to using the camera along with the AI Camera Button to quickly open Google Lens for searching with Gemini. It can also do text translation and help with homework right there within the Lens app.

Within the gallery, more AI functions are present, including your normal AI editing suite for photos and another one that I thought was quite cool called AI instant video, which can create some very easy slideshows for you.

You also have Honor Magic Portal which will allow you too easily share content from your screen to a variety of services such as Facebook, WhatsApp, X. You can also used this to add an image to the gallery or a Favourite Space. if you are lucky enough to own other Honor Devices then this can be accessed from other devices as well, assuming the correct permissions have all been set up.

You also have Honor AI Translate which is a very useful app for translating speech into other languages. I have included some screenshots of this in action below.

The software works pretty darn well, and it will be supported for six years of OS updates and six years of security updates, which is a big plus for potential buyers. Whether the phone will still be going strong by that point is uncertain, but time will tell on that one.

Now I have left it long enough time for a rant!!!!

Notifications and Control panel splitting are not needed; why must manufacturers force this change when some of us don’t want it. I have seen that this is a trend that is starting to be found across multiple manufacturers as they are all aping what Apple has done in splitting these up. I don’t mind having the option as I have on my Oppo Find N5 and previously on my OnePlus 13 etc. What i do mind is that Honor and others have now stared to force this change on us with out giving us the choice and to be blunt this pisses me right off. Stop it, if you must do this “splitting” then give the user the choice of what they want to use either split (ick) or unified (glorious). Thankyou

Now that is out of the way we need to come to a conclusion.

Conclusion

Honor looks like they have set the tone for another series with the 400 Lite, and it is for the most part, a very good base from which to build future devices, as they did with the 200 series last year. Yes there are a few compromises that have been made to get the price to where they needed it to be and these may be deal breakers but for a lot of people, they won’t. I know that if I were looking for a second phone (for work use maybe) or a phone for my family members, then this would defiantly be one on my radar.

When looking at competition then you are going to be looking at the likes of the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite 5G (£199), OnePlus Nord 4 (£399) Samsung Galaxy A26 5G (£249). Having not had the chance to review all of these I cant say which one will be the best however the Honor 400 Lite is a good bet, if you can stretch the budget a little bit, though I would also be considering the OnePlus Nord 4 especially if it is on offer which it frequently is.

So there you have the Honor 400 Lite has been reviewed and it is a great budget banger of a phone, maybe not for the flagship chasers, but certainly good enough for the lighter user of a phone such as kids or (to coin a term from Steve Litchfield) Normobs. You can buy the Honor 400 Lite from Honor now for the sweet and tasty price of £249 and they will even include some HONOR Choice Earbuds Clip which are worth £149.99.

Cheers for your time.

The post Honor 400 Lite – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Without further delay, here’s an unboxing video for you to enjoy:

Now that you’ve seen the unboxing, it’s time for our comprehensive 360-degree walk-around of the device.

Starting on the right-hand side, we have a volume rocker button, below which sits a sleep/wake/lock/unlock and power button.

Below that, we have a camera launch button, which also doubles as a zoom control when in the camera app. If long pressed, this will trigger a visual search via Google Gemini.

Moving down to the bottom of the phone, we’ll find the USB Type-C 2.0 port, the dual SIM design SIM card slot, and the speaker grill, which is the only external speaker. There’s also a pinhole microphone down here.

On the left side, we have nothing at all. It’s completely clean, not even a single antenna brake line.

Moving around to the top, we have a solitary pinhole mic and that is it.

Our front panel boasts a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2412 x 1080 and a PPI of 394. It can reach a maximum brightness of 3500 nits at its peak settings. The screen to body ratio is 89.9%, and the aspect ratio is 20:9. Additionally, the screen supports a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, which can be adjusted through the settings. However, I don’t believe it will go down to as low as 1Hz, as this is not an LTPO panel.

On top of the display, we have a camera cutout, which features Honor’s Magic Capsule, which I will talk more about in the software section.

Above this, you have a very small earpiece slit which houses the earpiece but sadly no other speaker.

Behind the camera module, we find a 108 megapixel wide-angle camera with an aperture of f/1.8. Alongside this, we also have a 5 megapixel ultra-wide camera with an aperture of f/2.2, and a single-tone LED flash.

There is no wireless charging on the back panel, and there is also no MagSafe mounting.

In terms of material, the back feels like it could be metal, but I believe it is plastic or a glass-plastic composite.

One interesting point to note is that when the torch is turned on, there’s significant light bleed from the left and right edges, as well as the bottom of the back panel. This suggests that the plastic glass composite I mentioned is being used. However, I’m leaning towards this being plastic, given the phone’s price point.

An error I made in the unboxing video is that I said this phone didn’t have an IP rating. This is incorrect, as it does have an IP64 rating and is also SGS five-star certified for water resistance and drop protection.

When the phone drops, it will be available in three colours: Marrs Green, Velvet Black, and Velvet Grey. Here’s the Marrs Green version.

This phone is running Android 15 out of the box with Honour Magic Os 9.0 on top. I’m reviewing the 256GB storage and 8GB RAM version, but it’s also available with 12GB of RAM and the same storage  (in other markets, not the UK).

I was able to do a quick charging test on the Li-Po 5230 mAh battery, and using my Anker GAN 67w charger, I was able to get a full charge from 0 to 100% in 1 hr 37 mins. This was apparently using the Honor Supercharge protocol, as that was being displayed on the phone throughout. This should have allowed the phone to charge at 35w. I will continue to experiment with this as I have some Honour-branded chargers in the house somewhere!

Specs

Quick thoughts

Having used the Honour 400 Lite for a few days now, I can say that it falls firmly into the lower end of the current smartphone market. This is perfectly acceptable, as it aligns with the intended market.

However, there are a couple of shortcomings that I’ve noticed.

The most significant ones are the single loudspeaker setup and the lack of wireless charging. While these features are not uncommon in high-end or high-priced devices, they are still a downside for this phone.

The performance can also be a bit slow at times. However, this may be due to the fact that the phone is currently running on pre-release software, as it is not officially launching until the end of the month.

Despite these minor flaws, if you’re looking for a low-cost entry-level smartphone with good battery life and reasonable charging speeds, then the Honour 400 Lite might be worth considering.

I’ll provide a more detailed review in the future, after I’ve had a chance to use the phone for a bit longer.

The post Honor 400 Lite – Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Good Points :-

• Excellent audio for the price.
• Carry handle and shoulder strap
  
• AUX input
• USB for charging
  
• Solid battery life
  
• App is well-designed

Bad Points  :-

• Still uses USB Type A for charge out
• Default tuning needs tweaking to get the best sound .

The Bluetooth speaker market is packed with choices. You’ve got fancy picks from Bose, home-friendly options from Sonos, and budget-friendly ones from Anker’s Soundcore. Tribit has been around for a while, but it seems like they’re stepping up their game with their latest releases—especially the Tribit StormBox Lava, which looks ready to give Anker a serious run for its money.

The Tribit Stormbox Lava has burst onto the scene, delivering bass so intense you’ll “feel the heartbeat of the earth.” This bold, semi-cylindrical party speaker promises top-notch sound and tough durability, all while keeping the price reasonable. At $129.99 / £111 (around AU$200), it’s an impressively affordable choice for a medium-large speaker.

The StormBox Lava is designed to handle a bit of everything. It’s large enough to pack a punch, but not so big as to be unwieldy. With a built-in handle for easy carrying and a subtle design that blends effortlessly into home spaces, it aims to strike the perfect balance. Many speakers with this “jack-of-all-trades” approach often fall short and end up missing the mark entirely. Will the StormBox Lava rise above those challenges and prove itself as a true all-rounder at an affordable price? Only time will tell.

In the Box:-

The box includes a braided nylon handle and a shoulder strap, making transportation effortless and adding a touch of practicality. There’s also a USB-A to USB-C cable included, though it would have been even better to see a USB-C to USB-C option for added convenience. That said, the thoughtful inclusion of both the handle and the strap is a standout feature that elevates the overall package.

Design.

The Tribit StormBox Lava isn’t designed for ultra-portability, but it’s also not as large or cumbersome as the Tribit StormBox Blast 2. With dimensions of 12.2 x 5.8 x 6.0 inches and a weight of 5.1 pounds, it could technically fit in a backpack, though that’s likely not how you’d choose to carry it. Its size makes it ideal for tossing in the back of the car alongside your picnic essentials.

The StormBox Lava offers an impressive 24-hour battery life, placing it among the top tier of Bluetooth speakers in this regard. Heavy users can rely on it for a few days of power, while lighter users may enjoy weeks between charges. The speaker also features a convenient array of controls, including buttons for power, Bluetooth pairing, volume, playback, an “XBass” option for added bass, and a button for linking to another speaker in TWS (True Wireless Stereo) mode. Additionally, the playback button allows for versatile control: a single press plays or pauses audio, a double press skips to the next track, and a triple press returns to the previous one.

On the back, there’s a rubber-sealed panel concealing the ports. You’ll find a USB-C port for charging the speaker, a USB-A power output port to charge your other devices, and a 3.5mm AUX input for wired connections. The construction feels robust, featuring a fabric mesh cover that appears well-suited for regular use. A rubber base ensures the speaker stays steady on flat surfaces, adding a practical touch.

With its IP67 rating, the StormBox Lava is equipped to handle some rough handling. This rating indicates it can withstand immersion in water up to 3 feet deep, though it’s not specifically designed for such scenarios and deliberate submersion should be avoided. However, you can confidently use the speaker by the pool or at the beach without fretting about water exposure. It’s even rain-friendly, perfect for those carefree souls who enjoy spending time outdoors in the rain.

Tribit App:-

The Tribit app boasts a sleek and intuitive design, organized into distinct tabs for managing various features of the speaker. The main screen provides a clear view of the Lava’s battery level, offers playback controls, and enables firmware updates for the speaker.

The second tab is dedicated to EQ settings, offering six presets and the option to craft a custom EQ curve with 10 bands spanning from 50Hz to 13kHz—a standout feature, especially since many budget speakers only provide a five-band EQ, if any customization is available at all.

The final tab leads to the settings menu, where you can adjust essential options like auto-shutdown and voice prompts. While the app may not boast the most extensive feature set, its sleek design and smooth functionality make it a pleasure to use.

Sound And Perfomance:-

The Tribit StormBox Lava is equipped with dual 70mm 30-watt neodymium woofers and dual 30mm 10-watt silk dome tweeters, delivering a combined output of 80 watts. It operates in stereo and covers a frequency range from 43Hz to 20kHz. The speaker also incorporates Tribit’s proprietary TI amplification chip, designed to ensure a clear and balanced sound profile. It supports AAC and SBC Bluetooth codecs, though hi-res audio is unfortunately not available.

As for audio performance, the sound quality was generally quite clear. However, to achieve the ideal balance, some adjustments to the EQ may be necessary. While the presets are serviceable, they didn’t quite meet my preferences. Customizing the EQ settings largely resolved this issue.

Even with a custom EQ curve, the speaker can’t create frequencies beyond its physical limitations. Overall, the bass response was solid, but some tracks with heavy sub-bass content lacked depth. For instance, Trentemøller’s Chameleon, which relies heavily on sub-bass, lost much of that lower frequency detail. That said, the speaker still handles bass impressively well—especially given the challenging nature of that track—and outperforms most alternatives in its size and price range.

On the higher end, the speaker offered decent clarity. While it doesn’t deliver the level of detail you’d expect from premium speakers and lacks support for hi-res audio, tweaking the EQ to boost the treble yielded surprisingly good results. For example, on AC/DC’s Back in Black, the hi-hat was crisp, and the guitar solo had a satisfying sharpness.

In terms of volume, the StormBox Lava is likely sufficient for 95% of users in most scenarios. It won’t match the larger StormBox Blast 2 in power, but it gets plenty loud. At home, I usually kept it around 50-60%, only increasing it occasionally for particularly exciting tracks. Testing it at full volume proved it could go higher, but I quickly dialed it back to avoid disturbing the neighbors. For context, my listening sessions were typically conducted about six feet away from the speaker.

I noticed some minor distortion in the bass when the volume reached around 75%, but it wasn’t overly noticeable and likely won’t bother most listeners. One small quirk to keep in mind is that the speaker briefly cuts out for a split second when the volume is adjusted, before settling into the new level. Initially, I thought it might be a Bluetooth connectivity issue, but I realized this only happens during volume changes—whether on the phone or directly on the speaker itself.

Despite these quirks and the frequency range limitations, the StormBox Lava delivers outstanding sound quality for its price point. One of its closest competitors is the Anker Soundcore Boom 2, which I’ve also had the chance to test. While I couldn’t perform a direct comparison, the StormBox Lava impressed me with superior bass performance and better high-end extension than I recall from the Boom 2.

Conclusion :-

The Tribit StormBox Lava proves that Tribit means business. For arround the £100 mark,  you’re getting a speaker that can actually sound quite good with a little effort put behind the custom EQ, plus you’ll get a solid battery life, a well-designed app, and extra features like a USB port to charge your phone with. Again, perhaps its best competitor comes from the Anker Soundcore Boom 2, and while you might like the more interesting look of the Soundcore speaker, the Tribit StormBox Lava beats Anker in sound quality and connectivity, while offering the same rated battery life. Not only is the Tribit StormBox Lava is the best mid-size Bluetooth speaker in the £100 price range, it’s the best option for anywhere up to £200.

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

Design

Without further ado, let’s get into the design of the device. The Find N5 is one of the thinnest foldable book-style phones currently available anywhere in the world, and I have to say this was one of the appealing factors that made me so eager to get hold of this phone. I really like the fact that when the phone is folded, it feels like I have a regular candy bar-style phone in my pocket or hand, and it is nowhere near as bulky as any of the previous folding-style phones that I have used. I really do like the way it feels in my hand. I can hold on to this and use it mostly one-handed. There are occasions where I need to adjust my grip to reach a menu at the top of the phone with my thumb, for example, but this is true of pretty much any candy bar or foldable-style flagship that I have used over the last few years.

Going around the phone, if we start on the right-hand side with the phone folded, we have an alert slider button that is positioned just above the volume rocker key. Then below the rocker key, we have the sleep-wake/unlock and fingerprint buttons. Moving down the right-hand side, there is nothing else there apart from some antenna brake lines, which makes for a clean bottom half of the phone.

On the base of the phone, we have, on the upper portion, the dual SIM card slot, a speaker grill, and a pinhole microphone. On the bottom half again, with it folded, we have another two pinhole microphones and a USB Type C port, which I believe is USB 3.1. This is also capable of SuperVooc charging at up to 80w. There’s nothing else to see down there.

Moving around to the left-hand side. This is taken up entirely by the titanium 3D-printed hinge mechanism, which has proven to be solid. It has a nice smooth finish, with no antenna lines or texture here for obvious reasons.

As we completed our 360, we reached the top. Where on the upper half of the fold, we have again a pinhole, mic, an IR blaster, and the second of the two speakers. On the bottom half of the fold, we have another pair of pinhole mics.

Around the front. We have our front display, which is measuring in at 6.6”.2 diagonal and is an AMOLED display. The screen uses LPTO technology to allow for variable refresh rates up to 120Hz. It also has quite a bright display with a maximum peak brightness of up to 2450 nits with an HBM of 1600nits. The resolution is FHD+ with 2616×1140 pixels giving a PPI of 431. Near the top edge, we find the first front-facing camera, which is an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens. Just above this is where we see the earpiece, which is positioned just below that top-mounted stereo speaker.

With the phone fully unfolded, the front display grows in size to 8.12 diagonal, and again, this is an AMOLED screen. The inner screen also uses LPTO technology to allow for variable refresh rates up to 120Hz. It is also quite a bright display with a maximum peak brightness of up to 2100 nits with an HBM of 1400nits. The resolution is QXGA+ with 2480x2248pixels giving a PPI of 412. However, this time, it is no longer made of glass as it has to be flexible, so this is using ultra-thin glass, and it does, of course, have the factory-fitted non-removable screen protector in place. On the far right-hand edge, hiding up in the corner, is where we will find the second of the two 8MP front-facing cameras, and again, this is an ultra-wide camera.

The hinge or crease that is formed by the hinge on the screen is barely noticeable if you are looking at the screen face-on. If you angle it in certain directions towards the light, you can, of course, see the hinge. However, in use, it is barely noticeable when you are running your finger across it. I am really impressed with the lack of crease for this design. It is definitely an evolution of the crease depth that was found on the OnePlus Open/FindN3, which, as mentioned, is the predecessor to this phone. The above image is after using the phone for nearly 3 weeks of daily use so the hinge has had time to settle in. if i am being entirely honest the crease looks worse in the pictures than in reality.

Another point of interest for the screens is that both the front-outward display and the internal folding display are able to be used with the OPPO stylus, which is available separately. I got very little use out of this as I have not been one for using styli on any of my phones going all the way back to the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. However, this is a nice option to have for those who want it.

The hinge is relatively stiff, and the phone can be held at various different angles of the fold. However, when you start getting close to either fully open or fully folded, the phone will snap into place as the spring mechanism will force it either open or closed. This has not been a problem for me, but it is something that I know a lot of people like to have. There are also a lot of people who like to not have this snap effect and have the phone open at varying angles, but also a lot of people who like to not have this snap effect and have the phone open at varying angles. I am undecided as to which one I prefer, as with my Pixel 9 Pro Fold, I was able to open the phone at all angles without it snapping. However, this isn’t something I do regularly, so I don’t mind the fact that the phone will snap open or snap closed once you get to the extremities of the folding motion.

Around the back of the phone is where we will find the triple camera setup array, and this is in a slightly protruding section of the rear phone. All the cameras are accommodated in a circular-style island. This is significantly smaller and shallower than what was found on the OnePlus Open, and again it is one of the design features that I prefer with the Find N5 as it makes for a more candy bar-style feel. Underneath the camera array and hidden under the rear panel, to my amazement, is where we find the wireless charging coils, which do not have any MagSafe-style magnets surrounding them; however, you can opt for optional cases that will allow you to utilise the MagSafe standard. I was able to achieve wireless charging without too much bother with a variety of different styles of charging docks, including stands and flat-mounted pads. In terms of speed, I was able to get AirVooc charging to work easily enough using the Oppo AirVooc stand, but I was unable to determine the actual charging speed in watts. It supports up to 50 watts of wireless charging when used with the appropriate charger brick and wireless pad/dock.

In terms of the camera, we have a 50MP standard camera, a 50MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, and then a somewhat disappointing, at least on paper, 8MP ultra-wide. This is a significant step down on paper from what was to be found on the OnePlus Open. We will get into the actual real-world results later on in this review when I compare the two phones’ camera setups.

One last point I want to mention while we are looking at the hardware is the inclusion of a very good-quality rear case that also provides hinge protection. This is one case that I will actually want to use long-term. This is a good thing as with the Oppo Find N5 being import-only status, you will not be able to just pop down to the nearest mobile accessories store to pick up a case!

I am highly satisfied with the OPPO Find N5. As a point-and-shoot user, I will never fully utilise the capabilities of any camera on a smartphone. However, the Find N5 excels in the style of photography I prefer, and I believe this would be the case for most users. The form factor and hardware of the OPPO Find N5 are more compelling to me than a camera with a large sensor size and the highest optical zoom lengths. If I prioritise these features, I would consider phones like the Xiaomi Ultra 15 or the Samsung S25 Ultra.

I am so impressed with the photography capabilities of the OPPO Find N5 that I have since sold the OnePlus Open, as mentioned earlier. In rare scenarios where I anticipate editing and cropping my photos, I use my OnePlus 13 as the camera, as its performance is superior. However, this is only a unique case where I require a significant improvement over the Oppo Find N5.

So, in conclusion, the printed specifications of the Oppo Find N5 cameras may not be particularly reassuring. However, it’s important to note that the printed specifications and the actual performance of the camera system are two entirely different things.

The post Oppo Find N5 Review – Is it a keeper? is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

• Price.
• Comfort.
• Sound Quality.
• Bluetooth Range.
• Battery Life.
• Good Button Control.

Bad Points :-

• Case doesn’t wirelessly charge.
• Call quality can be a bit lacking at times.
• A bit fiddley to get them on one handled if your a glasses wearer.

I’ve noticed over the past few years. I really don’t like earbuds/headphones that use the soft silicon tips to plug the ear canal.  In the past my favourite earbuds have been the Samsung galaxy buds live (the ones that look like a kidney bean).

The post MIXX Airflow Open Ear Headphones – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

I was intrigued to see if there was much truth in these concerns but before we get into that I want to quickly recap on the relevant specs of the camera between the two phones.

Well, we can see from that table above that we have some areas that look like there could be issues primarily the Ultrawide camera. So with that taken care of let’s see some actual images.

First up the rear primary camera

The above shots were all taken using the 1 x zoom setting and as you can see apart from the additional lens flare on the OP Open bunker shot they are very close in terms of the colours and shadows. I think that in both cases the images are so similar that had I not used the watermarks you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart (Spoiler, this is a trend going forward btw).

Next up we look at what can be done with Zoom.

These shots above were both taken using 6 x zoom which is double to optical zoom length so it is using some pixel binning to produce the 6 x zoom. I am honestly very happy with the results on both of these images and would be happy with either of them. Let’s dive into the zoom levels a bit further for both the phones below.

Using this tower as a reference I was able to test the zooms up to what I feel is going to be reasonable levels, as anything beyond 20x zoom is going to start getting weird in terms of AI and artefacts. Again we are unable to determine much in the way of differences at the lower levels but once we get into the 10 x and 20 x then things do start to happen. On the 20x the post at the top of the tower starts to look a little fake at this zoom level. However, I also noticed when I looked a bit closer and started to pixel peep that the edges on the stonework of the OP Open’s image were less defined and crisp than on the same image with the Find N5. This is not immediately obvious unless you zoom into the images side by side as I have done but it is there.

Strangely though when we look at the 10x zoom the artefacts and fakeness efforts seem to be reversed as the areas jutting out from the wall seem to be more “drawn on” with the Find N5 than they do with the OP Open.

Next up is some examples of extreme zoom levels for this set of photos i used 60X Zoom and we were trying to focus on a ship out at sea.

So as you can see from both the samples above when you reach 60x Zoom things start to break down and the phones have to rely upon the AI systems to help piece the image together. this means that we start getting made-up parts to the image. Here the Op Open performs slightly better as there is less ghosting on the outline of the ship/ With that being said both of the images are pretty poor.

As an experiment, I used the inbuilt Photos app to crop into the ship in the 10x Zoom photo. I then ran the Enhance clarity tool and the result is below.

Whilst it is a bit clearer than the 60x Zoom image it is still very artificial and the same AI algorithms have been at work to try and pick up the details of the ship.

The OP Open clearly emerges as the victor in this extreme Zoom test, as the writing on the side of the ship is much more legible.

Moving onto the macro test, this is a trickier one to judge as the Find N5 features a tele macro, and the Op Open just has the standard one. So, I took the below photos using the standard macro modes on both phones to see what you think of the results.

To my eyes, they both look about the same.

The benefit of the tele-macro is that you don’t need to get as close to the subject to get a good macro shot I have tried to demonstrate this in the images below.

As you can see from the images above the macro is not too bad but with the tele-macro, I was able to have the phone a decent distance away from the subject and still get the same detail of image, in fact, I think it is a little bit more detailed in terms of the highlighting of the rust. I also like the bokeh effect of the tele-macro more as it brings the subject into the foreground better.

Next up is my favourite bit  (not) Selfies. These were both taken with the front camera when the phones were closed as that is how I would normally take a selfie image. I am aware of the fact that I could use the rear camera to get a better quality image but I honestly find that more precarious and not worth the risk of having the phone unfolded whilst holding it at arm’s length!

I think the OP Open is the winner here but for all the times I take selfies, which is not a lot then I am more than happy with the result from the Find N5! You still have a nice bokeh effect on both phones but the OP Open is just a tad clearer around the fringes of my face and in the separation of the subject from the background.

The last one from the camera sample is the Ultrawide.

The ultra-wide is comparatively weak in comparison to the normal camera but this is hardly a surprise as the sensor is only an 8MP sensor for the ultra-wide instead of the 50MP sensor for the normal camera.

Above is what happens when you try to crop the images to focus on a specific area of the image in this case the writing on the green box. I can read the writing on the box in the normal image however in the ultra-wide image I cannot. That being said I am never going to zoom into an ultra-wide in that much detail in normal use. I also tend to only use the Ultrawide fro taking photos of landscapes so this i not going to be an issue for me.

Below is more of a normal case from my use of the ultrawide lens and also a comparison to what the OP Open can do in this landscape-style scenario.

I have not recorded any video samples as I haven’t had a sufficient opportunity to do this with the Find N5 and I no longer have the OP Open, due to it being sold. However from what I have seen it is more than suitable for what I normally do in terms of video work. I normally only use the video camera functions for recording unboxing videos and these are normally shot at 1080P which the Oppo Find N5 is more than capable of doing. I will try and get some video samples for my full review which will be coming soon.

Conclusion

In terms of the camera from the Oppo Find N5 and how it compares to the Oneplus Open, well I am very happy with the Find N5. I am a point-and-shoot kind of user and as such I will never really get the most out of any camera on any smartphone. For the style of photography that I want to get the Find n5 is more than suitable and I would argue that this would be the case for most users, The form factor and hardware of the Oppo Find N5 overall are more compelling for me over a camera which has a massive sensor size and he highest optical zoom lengths etc. If I want this then I would be looking at phones like the Xiaomi Ultra 15 or the Samsung S25 Ultra. I am so impressed by what the Oppo Find n5 can do in terms of Photos that I have actually now sold the OnePlus Open as I mentioned above. If i want to get photos with slightly better zoom and ultra-wide in the rare scenarios where I know I will be editing and cropping into the shots afterwards then I will use my OnePlus 13 as the camera on that phone is stronger but that is only in a very unique case that I would need that level of improvement over the Oppo Find N5.

So as a final conclusion, the printed specs of the Oppo Find N5 cameras may not be that confidence-inspiring but what the specs in print show and what you get in reality from the camera system are two very different things.

I’m focusing on my decision about what to do with the Oppo Find N5 loan I received from Average Dad Tech Store for testing and reviewing. I’ll share my thoughts in my upcoming review, which should be ready for you to read in a few more days here on Coolsmartphone.com.

The post Camera comparison Oppo Find N5 vs OnePlus Open is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

This is relatively easy if you use a phone such as a Samsung device or in some cases an Honor device because they have file browsing software available for the Mac ecosystem. When using OnePlus and Google Pixel devices it has always been problematic and you have to rely upon some bare-bones software in the form of Android file transfer. However, the Find N5 Oppo has also announced a service called O+Connect. Now O+Connect will allow you to set up a remote control connection with your Mac or MacBook and one of the benefits of this is the ability to do file transfer over WiFi, instead of having to use a wired USB connection.

Now, while this could potentially raise privacy concerns, I decided to give it a try anyway. The set is fairly simple all you need to do is download the Oconnect from Oppo’s website using the link here.

The setup is quite straightforward. Once you’ve downloaded the app, simply install it on your MacBook. During the installation process, you’ll be prompted to accept various permissions. After all the permissions are granted, you can access the “Connect to PC” option under the “Connections” section on your phone. You can also start the connection from your mac as well but will need to authorise it on the Phone. This option allows you to establish either a one-time connection or a more permanent connection. By choosing permanent you’ll eliminate the need to enter new passwords or codes every time you connect.

Once you’ve established this connection, you’ll be able to view the file structure of your OPPO device. Additionally, you’ll be able to access a remote viewer of your desktop on the OPPO Find N5 itself.

I have enclosed a video of the remote desktop and how to use this below.

I’ve also explored the file transfer capabilities of this device, and from my experience, it’s as smooth as using a USB wire for the connection. In terms of functionality, it’s a very useful tool for transferring files between devices. I could also see it being useful if you have a Mac system set up as a server for remote media streaming or using remote access to move files when you’re away from home. I don’t envision this as enterprise-level functionality, but if you need to quickly remote into a home-based Mac, this could be incredibly useful. Beyond that, I was hoping to also see my Find N5 screen on my MacBook, but unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. So, this isn’t a replacement for the Windows companion option that Microsoft offers, but it’s a great alternative for Mac users. Up until now, this has only been possible with an iPhone, although I’m not sure if an iPhone will actually allow you to take remote control of a Mac.

One other thing I chose to experiment with while I was in the process of doing this test was the Multi-connect function with my OnePlus Pad 2. I am very pleased to say that this worked exactly as I would expect and I was able to interact with my phone on my OnePlus Pad 2 as I would be able to do any other OnePlus device. This is due to the fact that the software is actually designed for Colour OS and is compatible with Oxygen OS as well.

While I don’t believe either of these features is entirely unique, as other services offer similar functionality, it’s pleasant that both are integrated into the OPPO Find N5. You don’t need to download any third-party apps to use these features, except for the Connect app on your Mac, of course.

I am continuing to test my Oppo Find N5 and I will be putting together some photo comparisons with the OnePlus Open, over the next few days. So if you want to see how these two devices compare then please come and check out the article on the website in a few days time.

Thanks very much

If you are interested in getting an Oppo Find N5 for yourself then please check out the Average Dad Tech Store where you will be able to buy both the Global variant which is what I am using and the Chinese version if you prefer to go down that route.

The post Remote to Mac On Oppo Find N5 is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

It is a phone that I have imported with the help of the chaps over at the Average Dad Tech Store who are one of the exclusive importers of this device. and if you are interested in purchasing you should head over and check out their deals.
The device I’m talking about is of course the Oppo Find N5 Folding smartphone. This device is essentially what would have been had OnePlus decided to launch
under their brand, the OnePlus Open 2.

Having been someone who has used the OnePlus Open for the last three to four months, I was very excited about getting hold of this phone as soon as I saw its announcement.
This is the reason why I have worked alongside the team at Average Dad Tech Store to get an import device, which they have generously loaned me for a short while to allow me to determine whether…
I will be keeping the device, but most importantly, allow me to bring a review along with unboxing and other associated content to you, our cool smartphone readers.
So, without further ado, let’s get into the unboxing video below.

As you can see from the unboxing video above, the Oppo Find N5 is astonishingly thin at 4.21mm when unfolded. It is currently the thinnest book-style foldable device available in any market worldwide, being just a tiny bit slimmer in its unfolded state than the previous leader which was the Honor Magic V3.

Now there has been a lot of discussion about whether we needed such a thin device and whether the sacrifices to certain elements such as the cameras and the speakers were worth this pursuit of thinness. Having just unboxed the phone and not been able to use it for any succinct period of time, I am unable to answer those questions right now. but I look forward to finding out over the duration of the next couple of weeks.

To further assess some of the design choices made in this phone, let’s compare below to the predecessor, the OnePlus Open.

With the phone closed, we can see the Oppo Find N5’s screen is slightly taller than that of the OnePlus Open, and the front screen is also a tiny bit wider. When it is open the Oppo Find N5 adopts a similar squarish shape but it is just bigger in every proportion as the internal display is now measuring at 8.13″ diagonally.

The button placement is very similar between the two devices with the buttons being slimmer than they were on the Open

Of course, we do have the alert slider on the top edge of the phone, on the right-hand side, above the volume up and down rocker, when the phone is folded closed. Underneath the volume rocker, we have our sleep/wake and power button which also pulls double duty as a fingerprint reader this fingerprint reader is fast and responsive as you would expect from any modern foldable flagship these days.

Moving down to the bottom of the phone, we find the USB-C charging port, which barely fits within the phone’s frame.

I have been reliably informed that they had to design the thickness of the frame around the USB-C port and that as a result there has been significant reinforcement made in this area. As the last thing we want to see is what happened with the original Surface Duo where the frame was seen to crack around the USB-C port.

Having mentioned the USB-C port, hopefully it is not something that you will need to use very often unless you really want to take advantage of the SuperVOOC charging capability which will charge your phone from zero to full in 45 minutes at a maximum charging speed of 80W, if used with the included charging brick. If you use any other charger, then you will not get the SuperVOOC charging capability, but the phone will still charge at a comparatively fast speed.

However, this is not the only way to charge the Oppo Find N5, as the clever boffins at Oppo have somehow managed to fit a wireless charging pad/coil into the back of the device underneath the camera bump. This will allow up to 50W of AirVooc charging, if used with the appropriate AirVooc charger which is incidentally, the same AirVooc wireless charger that was recently launched alongside the OnePlus 13.

Moving up from the charging coils, we do of course have the camera bump. Now again, to compare with the OnePlus Open, we can see that the camera bump is significantly smaller in terms of overall size and depth from its forebear, the Find N3/OnePlus Open. This is in part because they have tweaked the cameras, with one of the significant areas of reduction being the ultra-wide lens, which has now been reduced to an 8-megapixel lens. That being said, they have still managed to keep the 50-megapixel normal camera and a three times optical zoom with 50-megapixel capabilities. Given that I don’t tend to use the ultra-wide cameras very much, I don’t feel that this is going to be too much of a compromise for me when you look at the rest of the package.

One other final area I want to look at quickly is the speakers. The OnePlus Open had a rather novel three-speaker design setup. This allowed you to get the optimum sound from the phone regardless of how you held it this triple speaker setup also allowed for a louder overall volume.

The Oppo Find N5, however, has been forced to resign the third speaker and adopt the much more uniform two-speaker setup. These speakers are both positioned on the front screen, which would be the left-hand side of the phone when unfolded, and therefore will produce a stereo effect when the phone is in its landscape orientation, however, when being held vertically, you may not get the full benefit of stereo speakers. Again, this is something that I will have to further assess over a period of time.

Here are a few more glamour shots for you

Here is a Specs table with all the juicy details.

That concludes my very brief hands-on with the Oppo Find N5.

I will be using this phone as my daily driver for the next few weeks to assess whether this is a sufficiently capable replacement for my OnePlus Open and also to see how it performs against
the OnePlus 13 which I have as its stablemate.

I hope that you follow my journey with this phone over the next coming weeks and if you are interested in purchasing one of these devices then please do head to the Average Dad Tech Store,  they are getting fairly consistent stock coming in, and where you will get the best price and best customer service experience available of all of the Chinese phone importers.

If you want to find out more about either the Average Dad Tech Store or look at some of the other devices he imports, then do head over to his YouTube channel, and give him a follow and a like.

Check back here in the next few days for my camera comparison and more of my first impressions.

The post Oppo Find N5 – Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

The OnePlus Watch 2 in all its colours is now available for £149.99 which is a 54% discount over the standard RRP. However OnePlus are not just stopping there, they are throwing in a free pair of OnePlus Buds 3 worth £99 and an Elastomer strap worth £34.99.

This is a cracking deal and one that I would be jumping on myself if I didn’t already have one which I got when I bought myself a second hand OnePlus Open!

I have the Nordic Blue Edition which is absolutely stunning alongside the blue leather strap.

If you want to find out more about this great smart watch then check out my review done around this time last year.

I have used this watch with a variety of phones of various brands and I have not had any issues with comparability with any Android phone that I have tried.

With the OnePlus Watch 2 at the price it is currently selling for I would give it a solid recommendation for anyone who’s wants a general smart watch but you need to act quick as I do t expect the stock to last very long.

Be sure to come back to the site tomorrow as I have something very exciting to share….

The post OnePlus Watch 2 on sale 54% off is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Design

First of all, let’s have a look at the design.

If you prefer this in Video form then please check the Unboxing video i have done previously.

So starting at the very top, we have some cutouts for the speaker vent on the far left. We then have some pinhole microphone cutouts, and we also have an infrared blaster, which is really useful if you ever need to control something that works off infrared, such as a TV or air conditioner.

Top edge with Mic and Speaker cut-outs and IR Blaster

Moving around to the right-hand side, we have the volume rocker and the lock, unlock, and power keys, which are both the same keys. This can also be long-pressed to activate Gemini Assistant, which is pretty useful. You also have some antenna break lines on the left hand on the right-hand side.

Volume rocker and Power button

Moving around to the base, this is where we will find some more pinhole mics and a loudspeaker output and in the middle, you have the USB type C 3.2 port that is capable of up to 100 watts. Power if used with a Supervooc 100-watt charger. In the US I believe this is limited to 80 watts on Supervooc. You will also find the SIM card Slot which has a waterproof ring on it hinting at the IP 68/69 rating that the OnePlus 13 is rated for. This sim tray is a dual sim so it is possible to have two working sim cards in the phone at one time if you want to.

SIM tray, USB Type C 3.1 and Speaker

Moving around to the left-hand side again we’ve got some more antenna brake lines and the all-important OnePlus toggle Alert Slider for vibrate mode, silent mode and all sound. This is a really nice button to have and it’s something that OnePlus used to be unique with. I believe Vivo now offer it as well, but still, it is great to see that it’s still here.

Alert Slider

Up front, we have the display which is a 6.82-inch diagonal display with a resolution of 3168 x 1440 making it QHD. It has a PPI of 510 with an aspect ratio of 19.8:9. The display is capable of a peak brightness of 4500nits but is normal High Brightness Mode is 1600 when manually cranked up this is the total average measured across the panel in direct sunlight. We also have a dynamic Refresh rate of between 1-120Hz as this is a Pro XDR display with LTPO 4.1 technology on board. All of this is covered by a Ceramic Guard glass panel. It is a very good looking display and I have been very pleased with it.

Front display 6.82″

Here around the back is where we find the camera module which consists of three different sensors All the sensors are rated at 50 megapixels sensors. You have a normal camera, a wide-angle camera and a telephoto camera. You also have a 2 tone flash and another microphone pinhole.

Camera Module Close-up

Underneath the camera is where you would be able to find the Qi charging coil (if you were to remove the back panel), which does not have MagSafe. If you wish to use Magsafe, you do need to use one of the optional OnePlus magnetic cases. I have been lucky enough to be able to use the OnePlus Sandstone Magnetic case, which does work very well. However, if you just want to use a non-magnetized Qi charger, you can use it without the case.

Full Rear

So that pretty much rounds up the design aspects of the phone.

One thing I will say, the Black Eclipse back panel is a nice-looking panel. I love the way that they’ve tried to recreate the look of black rosewood with the etching that they’ve done on the glass. If you go with the Artic Dawn one, I believe the panel is just a plain white panel. And if you were to go with the Midnight Ocean version, then you do get a vegan leather microfiber back panel instead of a glass back panel, which does provide a nicer feel without using a case. 

However, I would always recommend you use a case with these phones as all it takes is one drop to end up in some hot water!

Hardware

The OnePlus 13 has been designed for durability. What I mean by this is that the manufacturer has been able to increase the IP rating over its previous generation to IP 68/69. Now, while this may not mean very much to most users, myself included, It is reassuring to see that companies are actually thinking beyond the typical use case scenario.

A lot of reviewers who were able to attend. In-person events have stated that they were able to expose the phone to various tests such as high-pressure water jets, high-temperature water jets and even going as far as the phone being put inside a mini washing machine. Now, I have not done this with my review device and I have no intention of doing it with my review device.

But the phone does feel adequately solid in the hand and in my time using it, I have not sustained any damage or scuffs or marks. To the side rails of the phone. The rear of the phone. The only Mark I have managed to get is on the replacement screen protector which is there for that reason. Underneath the screen protector though, the screen is a hardened glass. I believe it uses Ceramic guard glass type, how does that relate to Corning Gorilla Glass ratings? I can’t be certain, however, that I have no concerns about any damage to this phone. As I’ve previously mentioned, I would always recommend using a case with the phone.

Rear

OnePlus does offer some very compelling options for cases. Looking more closely at the cases, I was given the Sandstone Magnetic Charging Case. This came with a strange piece of plastic in the box. Now it turns out that this piece of plastic is designed as a spacer insert because the OnePlus 13 in Black Eclipse or Arctic Dawn is ever so slightly thinner than the Midnight Ocean, So they made the cases slightly bigger to fit in the Midnight Ocean and have shipped a spacer. If you are using the Black Eclipse or Arctic Dawn

Performance

Regarding the OnePlus 13’s performance. It is very difficult for me to quantify performance on any smartphone, recently released i.e. within the last year and a half to two years. As I don’t really do tasks that explicitly would affect the performance of a phone, the most task-intensive or memory-intensive task that I would potentially do would be having Either a game running or potentially running two apps side by side. I no longer do video editing on my device.

But just to give you an idea of the performance, in terms of power that this phone actually has, I have performed a 3D Mark  Benchmark, And I will provide the comparative results of this against a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Platform Device. In this case, the OnePlus Pad 2 I reviewed recently. The results are as follows.

• OnePlus Pad 2 score  = 4576
• OnePlus 13  Score = 6717

That is almost a full 3rd better in that result alone. Now while this is a graphical test it does show a marked leap in performance.

In terms of signal strength, Please see the signal and reception. Details below. As for battery performance, I have found that the phone will easily get me through one day and most of the way through a second day. Now, this is even with a high-load app running. It uses GPS called Life360, which is an app that I can my family to keep track of us all so we know when each of us will be home  I have been very, very pleased with the battery life and I’ve had no reason to have any concerns. 

The phone will manage the application and battery usage fairly well without requiring any input from me. Unlike some of the other more Chinese style devices. I recently was able to test an Honor Magic V3 which continually tells me that apps were causing High battery drain in the background.  I haven’t had anything like this on the OnePlus 13.

Gaming

As for gameplay, on the OnePlus 13, this this not an out-and-out gaming device but it can easily be utilised for playing high-intensity games without any problems. This is thanks to the 120-hertz refresh rate on the screen plus the awesome performance offered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor.

As previously mentioned, I haven’t any high-intensity games that would specifically cause the phone to be challenged. However, during my fairly sedentary gameplay. I have noticed no performance slowdowns, dropped frame rates or anything of that kind. So if you are a gamer and you are looking to buy this phone then rest assured that from my experience and At least from what I’ve seen on other reviews. The OnePlus 13 will not present any challenge for any existing game on the Android ecosystem. If Android were ever to adopt the AAA format that we are now starting to see on iOS then potentially you could come up against some issues, but I find this highly unlikely.

Android games are developed primarily to run on mobile infrastructure and remember the Snapdragon 8. Elite chips are now also being utilised in laptops. That is capable of moderate to good gaming without too much strain and without the need for a dedicated GPU.

One of the areas where OnePlus has thought of Gamers though, is The aforementioned AirVOOC 50-watt Magnetic charger. This has been designed at least in my opinion to allow for you to have a means of recharging your phone and cooling it whilst gaming it does this very effectively via the fan.

However, even without the AirVOOC 50-watt Magnetic charger, I have not actually ever found a need for the phone to be externally cooled. Even with the case on the back as the cooling, is sufficient via the Liquid cooling chamber, that is built into the design. Which I have to say is an extensive one.

If you require more information about this, Then check out Jerryrigeverything’s YouTube channel which has unlike myself done, a complete teardown of the OnePlus 13. I would encourage you to have a look at his where he will go through this for you.

Signal and call quality

On the OnePlus 13, I have found that the call quality and signal strength I am able to achieve is much better than I have been able to get on other devices such as my Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Now, while I don’t have any scientific way of measuring this improvement that I have experienced from using the phone, I have found that in areas where I previously had weak signal strength and was unable to make calls, this is no longer an issue.
With the OnePlus 13, this is hardly a surprise as I have previously experienced this increase in signal strength quality on the Nord 4, which I reviewed in the previous summer.

I regularly have to drive a stretch of road almost every day where I can not receive or make a phone call or get any data reception at all on my Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Whilst using the OnePlus 13, however, I have been able to see that I get a good enough signal for both voice calls and also for streaming media from the Internet, such as services like Spotify or Amazon Music. This is due in part to the new developments in antenna design that OnePlus premiered on the Nord 4 that was launched last summer.

Camera

One area that has been highly touted with the OnePlus 13 is the camera. Now as I mentioned previously, the camera is composed of three separate lenses each lens is supported by a 50-megapixel sensor and each lens is also capable of utilising the OnePlus and Hasselblad cooperation.

I have used OnePlus devices with this Hasselblad tie-in previously back in the days of the OnePlus 10. I found that it didn’t really make much difference. So going into this review, I had mixed thoughts about the camera. What I can say is in normal bright conditions, this camera is most certainly up there with one of the best cameras I have used to date with a caveat.

If you are the type of person who likes to zoom in to really capture details of items that are far away, then you may be somewhat disappointed. Although the zoom is capable of reaching up to 120 times in terms of zoom, after you go beyond 10 times zoom, you are very much in the realm of digital and AI enhanced zoom. This unfortunately does result in creating very messy and cartoon-like images. However, if you keep the zoom at a reasonable level, i.e. under 10 times, then you will have a good experience. I believe the camera will optically zoom up to six times and you will be told which lens you are using in terms of how that would relate to an actual proper DSLR camera lens.

Please take the time to look at the zoom samples as you will be able to see what I mean about the higher zoom levels and the characterization or cartoon-like effect that it provides

Another area where I was concerned about the camera quality was in low light. Now I have tried taking some low-light photos, both in complete darkness and where there is some partial illumination in complete darkness without the flash enabled. Even when using night mode, the camera struggles and you won’t get very good photos, however, most smartphone cameras would struggle in these conditions.

When you have some light around, that makes things a little bit better, especially if you use the night mode and you select the tripod setting. As long as you can keep the phone stable, then you will get some good results. I have included a couple of nighttime shots below for you to appraise and give your opinion on, as well as some daylight shots.

Some daylight shots

Finally some close-up product-style shots

In terms of the front-facing camera. You have a 32-megapixel front-facing camera which does exactly what it says on the tin and it will be more than adequate for your Instagram selfies and doing the occasional video conference call.

Again, I have included a few selfie examples and a brief video sample of a mocked conference call.

Talking about video, we need to return to the rear camera which is capable of capturing up to 4K at up to 60 frames per second. Technically you can record at 8K on the rear camera only. But I don’t see any need for anyone to be recording at such a high resolution and the file sizes will be astronomical.

If you are looking for a simple, easy-to-use camera, then the OnePlus 13 will tick that box. It will also tick the box. If you want to have a camera with some enhanced, I’ll call them filters, which is essentially what the Hasselblad software provides. However, if you are looking for a camera to out and out replace a DSLR then this is not going to be the phone for you. You would be better off looking at something with a one-inch sensor size, such as the Vivo x200 Pro or Vivo x100 Ultra.

Software

In terms of software, the OnePlus 13 is running Android 15 with an Oxygen OS skin on top in the Western markets. It is also available in Global and Chinese versions, but these versions do run the Color OS operating system, much like the phones from sister brand Oppo, OnePlus doesn’t really add too much in the way of bloat to their operating system.

There are a few extra apps here and there, and there is some app duplication in places such as the calendar, the files app, and also probably most relevant is the Photo’s app.
Now the addition of the Photo’s app is not something that bothers me that much because it does actually have a benefit above most normal gallery apps, at least as far as I know, of allowing you to access and save photos to your Google Photos account. This can be quite helpful, however, you do need to err on the side of caution if you use the burst mode for photography, as it will actually save all of those burst shots as individual photos in Google Photos, but in the Photo’s app, they will appear as a stack of photos, so something to be aware of there, but not a deal breaker.

Of course, this would not be a newly released smartphone if there was not an abundance of AI tooling added to the phone.

A couple of areas where AI has been added that I believe are beneficial is within the camera you have some AI editing tools of which I will talk about more in the camera.

One of them is a 4K Editor tool. This tool features AI Detail Boost, AI Eraser, AI Unblur and AI Reflection Eraser. These tools will allow you amongst other things enhance some old photos or zoomed-in photos. You can of course use the AI Eraser tool to get rid of unwanted objects from your shot. The AI Unblur kind of smooths everything out a bit and the AI Reflection Eraser tries to remove reflections from the shot where they may occur.

But another area where AI has been used I believe to great effect is the use of Intelligent Search. This is an optional tool that you can turn on that will allow you to, with a pull-down gesture on the home screen, perform a search not just of the phone’s apps, but also the files within the phone’s actual storage. It works alongside some of the latest Google Gemini Models 

I did find this useful when trying to find documents that I had downloaded and forgotten about, but other than that, because I’m just a bit old school, I didn’t actually use this feature massively.

In terms of actual UI and customization, there has been a lot of discussion about how iPhone-like the UI now looks, but I believe this is about the splitting of the notifications pane and also the quick settings pane, which you can actually turn off if you prefer to have both notifications and quick settings in the one drag down, which I have done. You can of course customize your Wallpapers, your lock screens and always on display. The always-on-display has neat little animations where it will tell you what your carbon footprint usage has been. It will also show you this in a pictorial representation by using a penguin on an iceberg that’s gradually melting. This is just one of the many options you can choose from.

There is one other element I do want to discuss and that is the implementation of the Open Canvas task switching from the OnePlus Open phone.

This makes having multiple apps open at the same time, a much more palatable experience. Rather than just having the standard split screen with two apps, one on top of the other, you can actually have a near as dammit full-size app open with just a peek at the app that is being split screened with and then by tapping that second app it will expand into a full-screen app, making task switching a lot more simple.

This does have the limitation of there only being one screen on the phone or a normal phone-style screen as opposed to a foldable, but it does make multitasking much more useful.

Overall, I am happy with the software implementation of Oxygen OS15 and I’m sure there is a lot more in terms of features that I have not discovered or utilized.

Conclusion

I could drone on about other bits and pieces on the OnePlus 13 for hours more but I feel that I would lose your interest as this has been quite long enough already (kudos for making it this far). However, I am not going to drag this out any more than is needed. Simply put although this is one of the 1st major brand launches of the year with the new Snapdragon Chipset onboard it is in my opinion one of the best phones currently available to the wider global market.  I would be very happy to continue to use this phone daily and if I wasn’t so hooked on foldable phones I would certainly being doing so.

While I fully expect the next phone series from Samsung to be up with the OnePlus 13 in terms of specs I also expect it to be way more expensive. To me, this is what the OnePlus phones are good at and that is making great phones that are flagships but are not flagship money. 

If you want to pick up a OnePlus 13 then you can do so now from their Store where they are also offering the 16GB RAM and 512GB Storage version for the same price as the 12GB RAM and 256 GB storage version. This price is £899, which is limited until the 5th of Feb. You can also get a free case or Watch 2R if you are quick.

Now OnePlus can we please have all of this glorious speed, battery and performance but in a Folding phone and soon…..

The post OnePlus 13 – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

As you can see if you have watched the video we have got a few things to look at here. Firstly we have the OnePlus 13 in Eclipse Black and this is 512Gb Storage with 16GB of RAM version. Next up we have the newly announced OnePlus AIRVOOC 50W charger which looks very cool. Finally regarding the phone bits we have the OnePlus Sandstone Magnetic Charging Case. As an added extra I also had a pair of Merino wool gloves included which if you watched the above video to the end you will know what they are all about.

In terms of the specifications of the OnePlus 13 check out this nifty table below.

OnePlus 13
Height	162.9 mm
Width	76.5 mm
Thickness	8.5 mm (Arctic Dawn/Black Eclipse)<br>8.9 mm (Midnight Ocean)
Weight	213g (Arctic Dawn/Black Eclipse)<br>210g (Midnight Ocean)
Display
Size	17.32 cm (6.82 inches, measured diagonally from corner to corner)
Resolution	3168*1440 (QHD+), 510 ppi
Aspect Ratio	19.8:9
Brightness	HBM / Peak Brightness: 1600 / 4500 nits
Refresh Rate	1-120 Hz dynamic
Type	120Hz ProXDR Display with LTPO 4.1
Color Depth	Support 100% Display P3, 10-bit Color Depth
Cover Glass	Ceramic Guard
Display Features	Nature tone display, Eye comfort, Bedtime mode, Image sharpener, Video colour enhancer, Screen colour mode, Colour personalization, Colour vision enhancement, Auto brightness, Manual brightness, Screen Colour Temperature, Bright HDR video mode, Night mode, Multi-brightness colour calibration
Performance
Operating System	OxygenOS 15.0 based on Android 15
Platform	Snapdragon® 8 Elite Mobile Platform
CPU	Qualcomm® Oryon CPU @4.32GHz
GPU	Adreno 830
RAM	12GB/16GB LPDDR5X
Storage	256GB/512GB UFS 4.0
Battery	6,000 mAh (Dual-cell 3,000 mAh, non-removable)
Vibration	Haptic motor
Configurations	12GB+256GB / 16GB+512GB
Charging Wired/Wireless	100W SUPERVOOC/ 50W AIRVOOC
Wide Camera	Sensor: Sony’s LYT-808, Sensor Size: 1/1.4″, Megapixels: 50, Pixel Size: 1.12 µm, Lens Quantity: 7P, ALC lens coating, Optical Image Stabilization: Yes, Electronic Image Stabilization: Yes, Focal Length: 23 mm equivalent, Aperture: ƒ/1.6, Field of View: 85°, Autofocus: Yes
Telephoto Camera	Sensor: Sony’s LYT-600 with 3X optical zoom, Sensor Size: 1/1.95″, Megapixels: 50, Pixel Size: 0.8 µm, Lens Quantity: 1G3P, ALC lens coating, Optical Image Stabilization: Yes, Electronic Image Stabilization: Yes, Focal Length: 73 mm equivalent, Aperture: ƒ/2.65, Field of View: 32.8°, Autofocus: Yes, Ultra Res (digital) Zoom: Up to 120X
Ultra-wide Camera	Sensor: S5KJN5<br>Sensor Size: 1/2.75″, Megapixels: 50, Pixel Size: 0.64 µm, Lens Quantity: 6P, Electronic Image Stabilization: Yes, Focal Length: 15 mm equivalent, Aperture: ƒ/2.05, Field of View: 120°, Autofocus: Yes
Flash	LED
Autofocus	Multi Autofocus(All pixel omni-directional PDAF+CAF+LDAF)
Rear Video Features	8K at 30 fps, 4K at 60 fps/30fps, 1080p at 60 fps/30fps and 720p at 30 fps, Steady video: 4K at 60 fps/30fps and 1080p at 60fps/30fps, Video zoom shooting support: 4K at 60 fps/30 fps, 1080p at 60fps/30fps, 720p at 30fps Dolby Vision: 4K at 60 fps/30 fps, 1080p at 60 fps/30 fps, Movie mode:4K at 30 fps, Time-lapse: 4K at 30 fps and 1080p at 30 fps, Multi-scene video recording supports 1080p at 30 fps, Slo-mo video: 1080p at 240 fps, 720p at 480 fps/240 fps
Rear Camera Modes	Photo, Video, Portrait, Nightscape, Master, High Pixel, Panorama, Movie, Slow Motion, Timelapse, Long Exposure, Multi-Scene Video, Document, Axis Shift, XPAN
Front Camera	Sensor: Sony IMX615<br>Megapixels: 32, Sensor Size: 1/2.74″, Lens Quantity: 5P, Pixel Size: 0.8 µm, Electronic Image Stabilization: Yes, Focal Length: 21 mm equivalent, Autofocus: Fixed Focus, Aperture: ƒ/2.45, Field of View: 90°
Front Video Features	Video: 4K at 60 fps/30fps, 1080p at 60 fps/30 fps, 720p at 30 fps, Steady video 1080p at 30 fps, 720p at 30 fps, Dolby Vision: 4K at 60 fps/30 fps, 1080p at 60 fps/30 fps
Front Camera Modes	Photo, video, portrait, night scene, panorama, time-lapse photography, multi-scene video recording
Connectivity
LTE/LTE-A	4×4 MIMO, Supports up to DL Cat 20/UL Cat 18 (2000Mbps / 200Mbps), depending on carrier support
2G GSM	850/900/1800/1900MHz
3G WCDMA	Bands 1/2/4/5/6/8/19
4G LTE FDD	Bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/19/20/25/26/28/30/32/66/71
4G LTE TDD	Bands 38/39/40/41/48
5G SA	n1/n2/n3/n5/n7/n8/n12/n20/n25/n28/n30/n38/n40/n41 /n48/n66/n71/n75/n77/n78
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 7,Wi-Fi 6,Wi-Fi 5,WLAN Display,WLAN tethering,WLAN overlay,1 60 MHz Wi-Fi channels over 5 GHz,2×2 MIMO
Bluetooth	Bluetooth® 5.4, SBC, AAC, aptx, aptx-HD, LDAC, LHDC5.0
NFC	NFC enabled
Positioning	GPS(L1+L5), GLONASS(G1), BDS(B1I+B1C+B2a), Galileo(E1+E5a), QZSS(L1+L5)
Sensors	Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Color temperature sensor, Compass, Acceleration sensor, Gyroscopes, Ultrasonic fingerprint, Hall sensor, Laser focus sensor, Spectral sensors, Infrared remote control
Ports	USB 3.2 Gen 1, Type-C, Support standard Type-C earphones, Dual nano-SIM slot
Buttons	Gestures and on-screen navigation support Alert Slider
Audio	OReality Audio, Noise cancellation support
Multimedia
HDR Supported	Dolby Vision®, HDR10+, HDRViVid
Audio Supported	MP3,AAC,AMR,APE,OGG,FLAC,WAV
Video Supported	MP4,3GP,MKV,MOV,AVI,FLV,HEVC,AVC,VP9,VP8,AV1
Image Supported	JPEG,BMP,PNG,DNG,HEIF,AVIF,WEBP,GIF,WBMP,ICO

Quite an impressive specs list I am sure you will agree.

Here is a quick visual tour of the device.

Here are some more images this time of the phone in the Sandstone Magnetic Charging Case.

Next up from the box of goodies that I received is the OnePlus AIRVOOC 50W charger.

Here is a quick clip of it in action as well.

As for the last items in the box, there was a pair of rather nice looking black gloves which were put in there to showcase the fact that the OnePlus 13 has an enhanced glove mode that is capable of detecting gloved hands with gloves of up to 0.5mm thickness. This has been pretty handy lately as it has been a bit nippy here in South East Englandshire

So that is the picture and the video dealt with. Now onto how the phone is to be used. Well, I promised 1st impressions in the title so here we go.

Overall, I’ve been very pleased with my limited time using the phone. It’s been working well for me in terms of how I use it. As frequent customers here will know, I have a lot of OnePlus Kit that my family and I all use. So, the OnePlus 13 has seamlessly integrated into our ecosystem.

The camera performs exceptionally well in bright conditions. However, when I attempted to take some shots in near-total darkness, the results were somewhat disappointing. Nevertheless, I believe I have some time to experiment with this feature further. I’ve taken a few shots that I’ll share below. Some of them are quite good, while others are not so great, but they provide a glimpse into my experience with the device so far.

Here are some samples of the zoom levels which are assisted by AI once you get into the higher zoom levels.

As you can see once we get past the 20x Zoom we start getting into territory that is a bit blurry and pixelated, Howeve rit is pretty good up to the 20x mark which is beyond the optical telephoto scope.

The battery life, which I had anticipated from a contemporary flagship smartphone, has been satisfactory. However, I encountered some problems with resource-intensive applications that caused the battery to deplete rapidly. Surprisingly, the same app exhibits the same behaviour on my Pixel phone, so I’m not overly concerned. I’ve given the phone the freedom to manage its battery usage independently, and I’m still able to obtain a full day’s usage, with sufficient charge remaining for the following day.

In terms of multimedia experience I have been very happy the speakers are loud and clear with a good depth and feel to the sound. It has paired perfectly with my headphones (both OnePlus and Pixel branded ones). I have been using it in the car with no problems connected to Android Auto again this was seamless. the screen recreates colours with great clarity for video and photos.

Talking of Photos again, I have also been having a bit of a play with the new AI functions within the Photos app editing suite. The AI Detail boost has been quite useful in that I have been able to improve some of my older photos from the late noughties, which is a nice thing to be able to do. This is made a bit easier as the OnePlus gallery app works really well with Google Photos.

Lastly, the call quality has been excellent, and this has been the case for OnePlus phones for the past 18 months, which is one of the reasons why both my wife and son now use OnePlus phones (the Nord 4 and Nord CE 3 LTE, respectively). The new antenna designs that OnePlus has developed have helped me get a stronger signal when I’m in the middle of the East Anglian countryside!

That about sums up my time so far with the OnePlus 13. It is now available from OnePlus’s website, and it is a great price: £899 for the 256GB version and £999 for the 512GB version.

I am going to be putting together a full review soon that will go into more depth about the cameras and performance aspects of the OnePlus 13. I would invite you to come back in about a week for that report.

Until then check out all the new features and whistles at the OnePlus site now

The post OnePlus 13 – Unboxing and 1st impressions is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

I have already taken some time to go through the design in my unboxing post which can be found here along with a video of the proceedings. I have been using the Nova for a few weeks as my go-to media and gaming device and I thought it was a good time to pull my thoughts into a review. In case you missed the last post, I have included the video below.

So without further ado let’s check out the specs of the tablet.

So there are some pretty good-looking specs and very similar in some regard to the OnePlus Pad 2 I reviewed recently. There are some significant differences, which I will go into more detail about later on in this review.

Given the gaming credentials of RedMagic and the previous phones that I have used, (RedMagic 9 Pro) I am not that surprised about the specs that are being shown above. What is the real crux here is how the specs transform into the actual use of the Nova tablet. I have to say that it is are great-feeling tablet to use for gaming both in that hand and on a stand. I was unable to try the optional accessories of the REDMAGIC Nova Magnetic Keyboard or the REDMAGIC Nova Stylus which would enhance the tablet experience to a Laptop replacement style device.

The tablet has a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:10 which allows for the device to be quite wide. This means that when you are using it for gaming and video the aspect ratio of the content being displayed fits the screen very well. This is of course dependent on the gaming developer or content creator ensuring that they have used either a dynamic aspect ratio setting for games or the widescreen format for the content.

I have found that YouTube and the likes of Prime Video, Netflix and Disney Plus all playback really well with minimal “letterboxing” This creates a nice viewing experience. and I can enjoy the content without distraction. If I am being completely honest this is something I haven’t really noticed on other tablets. The difference the lack of the letterboxing makes is significant.

The sound from the four side-mounted speakers is of good quality, and while it won’t necessarily impress the audiophiles, it is more than enough to listen to music and watch media without having to resort to using headphones. If you do wish to use headphones, then you will need to use either a pair of Bluetooth ones or a USB Type C to 3,5mm adaptor, as there is no included headphone jack here, which is hardly surprising.

While talking about ports we have only one real port to speak of and that is of course the USB Type C that I have already mentioned. This will support Audio and Video out as well as fast data transfer and up to 8oW fast charging if used with the appropriately rated charger. The charger in my box was of the two-prong type which is not correct for me in the UK so I have not tested this for charging speed with the bundled charger, it is however nice that we still get a bundled charger as this is now absent from most tablets these days. The Video output does not have any fancy “desktop modes” like you see on Samsung and Honor tablets. Hopefully, this is something that will be implemented as a core Android feature in the next version of Android which I expect the Nova to get however this can be confirmed as it hasn’t been officially stated by Nubia (they own the RedMagic brand).

I did mention that the USB Type C was the only real port as we do also have the Pogo Pins on the bottom edge of the tablet to allow the connection of the Magnetic Keyboard. I am not certain what goes through this connection as I don’t have the keyboard to test. I would expect there is some sort of communication through the connection, even if it is just a way of triggering the connection to Bluetooth to activate then it is something. What I have been able to confirm is that there is no battery on board the keyboard so it is being powered by the Pogo pins connection (thanks Reddit).

Lastly, there is also a magnetic section on the top of the tablet which is presumably for mounting and charging the Nova Stylus which is also an optional accessory.

So that covers the externals but I am keen to delve into the guts of the device at least as much as I can without taking it apart, I will leave that to Zack from JerryRigEverything. There are a couple of things I want to point out that stand out to me as key points.

-: PC level Heatpipe technology

The Nova uses a combination of a 103mm x 9.3mm 3D heat pipe conductive thermal paste and the 17173.4mm High-Speed Turbine Centrifugal Fan to allow air to circulate around the tablet to create a cooling system that improves the cooling of internals by 30%. This air is internally circulated and is not subject to exhausts or intakes like we have seen before from RedMagic so I was dubious of the effectiveness of the system. I can say that from my time with the tablet I have not experienced any excessive heat build-up during gaming or media playback.

Of course, this cooling system is aided massively by the 9 layers of heat dissipation that are built into the very core of the device. It uses heat dissipating materials as heat syncs in three places, the Mainboard Superconducting Copper Foil which has a surface area of 9,268mm, an Under-Screen Aluminium plate with 29,400mm surface area and finally the aluminium body/shell which measures 89,114mm surface area.

This allows for a lot of heat to be let out of the system without the need for an exhaust port. The lack of an exit port or indeed intake port means that the chances of dust getting into the system are very low which is a bonus as this was a concern I had with the RedMagic 9 Phone

-: Snapdragon Chipset

Next, I want to talk about what is powering the Nova Tablet. We are looking at the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading edition which is the cream of the crop when it comes to the 8 Gen 3 Generation. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version is essentially an overclocked variant of the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Here’s a breakdown of the key differences:

• CPU Clock Speed: The Leading Version boosts the clock speed of the primary Cortex-X4 core from 3.3GHz in the standard version to 3.4GHz. This translates to slightly higher performance in CPU-intensive tasks.
• GPU Clock Speed: The Adreno 750 GPU in the Leading Version operates at 1.0GHz, compared to 900MHz in the standard version. This results in improved graphics performance and smoother gaming experiences.

Essentially all this means is that you will get a very slight bump in CPU and graphically intensive tasks but this will only be noticed by the most die-hard users.

I have run a comparison using 3D Mark between the Nova Tablet and the OnePlus Pad 2 to show these differences. For the purposes of the test the tablets were 11… fully charged and also had all other background apps closed (at least as much as possible), they were also running at their highest performance settings as well.

Here are the results of the Wild Life Extreme test

• OnePlus Pad 2 4576
• RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet 5374

here are the I’m ages of the test results for each device.

As you can see there is a significant difference with the Nova coming out on top. Have I noticed this is real-world use when I have been gaming, well no, but I am not the most demanding of gamers in the world so that is hardly surprising. What I can say is that gaming is smooth and pleasing. I also prefer the experience on the Nova over the Pad 2. This is probably down to the design of the tablet and its shape.

-: 10100 mAh battery

The one other area I want to cover is the battery as this is a massive battery one of the biggest I have ever seen on a tablet. It is 10,100mAh which is massive it is larger than the Pad 2. It also sports a dual-cell design allowing for faster recharging as previously mentioned. It will also support Pass through as well which will allow prolonged sessions without adding to the battery wear and tear.

All of these things create some rather compelling hardware features That means that this tablet should be up to all but the most demanding of tasks. However great hardware does not make for a great tablet a lot of the feel for that will come from the software.

Software

Fortunately apart from one big gripe the software that is on the Nova Tablet is very nice to use. It runs Android 14 at the time of writing and the skin being used is very slight without too much in the way of overzealous additions. With it being a gaming-focused tablet there are some nods to that which I will come onto in a moment. All the staples you would expect with Android 14 are present and correct and they all work well.

The biggest gripe I have is down to the way it is all scaled when you are in the UI. The grid size being used for icons and widgets cannot be changed from its default and this means that you cannot take advantage of the wider aspect ratio of the screen. This is almost criminal as the screen is as previously mentioned one of the high points of the device. When you are in some of the Google Apps they will accommodate for the widescreen aspect, Gmail will split to have your mail list on one side and the reading pane on the other for example.

But the home screen and app drawer seem to be cut down to a 4:3 aspect ratio when being held in landscape orientation which is how the design of the tablet suggests it should be used.

Don’t get me wrong RedMagic is not the only brand that is guilty of this but it just seems to be more obvious here and a shame as simply by increasing the grid size or reducing the scaling of icons etc it could be so much better. It is even more galling that the Grid size setting is absent from the display options, I have never seen this missing before.

However, once you get past this rather glaring (IMHO) issue then the rest of the tablet software is very good and clean. I counted less than 10 pre-installed bloatware apps which is really nice to see and less than from other brands. Yes, there are still some duplicate apps but nowhere near as many as you would get on a Samsung tablet. I was pleased to see that there are no additional Apps that have been shoehorned into existence only to allow RedMagic to force their own AI tool implementations down your throat.

The Nova makes use of Google’s inbuilt AI tools such as Gemini which work flawlessly and also picked up my subscription level with no issue. There is also no Gallery app relying solely on Google Photos which I am a huge fan of.

With this being a gaming tablet, you do, of course, have the de facto customisation apps, this time called Game Space. In a slight difference to the phones from RedMagic, there is no dedicated switch, and you can access this from the Quick Settings menu but not the app drawer, which is a bit strange, I thought. You can’t even get it up from the settings menu. However, once opened, you can tweak your settings to your heart’s content.

I found that using the tablet for gaming I was able to fully immerse myself into a game for a decent duration of time and there was no discomfort experienced from things like heat build-up or fatigue from holding the tablet. The screen has a as you would expect smooth feel to it which is important when using it as your main input for commands. There are two haptic motors in the lower right and left corners which allow an element of feedback in the game which are a nice touch as they add to the immersion feeling. i also found that the sound from the speakers was crisp and punchy throughout the session. I have not recorded frame rates etc as the games I have been playing were not exactly the most tasking titles but I never noticed any jarring effects. if you do want to see your metrics then you can enable a performance monitor overlay from the Game Space controls which are accessed from a swipe in from the right hand side whilst in a game environment.

All in all, I have been very pleased with this as a gaming tablet and I would be more than happy to use it as one. I have also been trying to use it for things other than gaming and I have found that it is suitable for use for light browsing and email work. However, this would be better suited to the addition of the keyboard case and pen which as I have mentioned I don’t have available to me. Where I have found that it has shone for me is the use of it as a media consumption device. I really like the widescreen aspect ratio which makes for a really nice viewing experience for movies and TV shows. Below is a comparison of the Nova against the Pad 2 from, now obviously the screen sizes are different but the actual area is taken up by the content is what I am focusing on. On the Nova, there are fewer black bars in the way which makes for a nicer viewing experience overall.

So that is the hardware and the software discussed let’s quickly go over the cameras.

There are two cameras one on the front and one on the rear. On the front we have got a 2oMP camera which is more than suitable for video calling etc, I have included a sample picture and video below for you to see what it is like.

In terms of the rear camera, we have got a 50MP unit which will support up to 10 x zoom but anything over 5x gets really messed up. There are different modes for your camera including Slow motion, Timelapse, Video(which can go up to Ultra HD 4k) Regular Photo, Panorama, Document, and Full Size (presumably a 50MP image, instead of an interpolated image with lower resolutiopn the normal photo mode will produce) Again I have taken some sample shots below for you to check out.

I also tried taking the below shot which was in difficult lighting conditions and it came out quite well, to be honest. I suspect that the camera has been lifted from the main shooter of the Redmagic 9 Pro as that was a fairly good camera sensor and the results do seem similar.

Difficult light shot

I would be happy to use this camera in pinch or if I had been given this tablet as a work tool and I had to capture some images of documents of wider landscape shots but like with all tablets you will undoubtedly have a better camera on your phone which will most likely be in your pocket already so best to use that over the tablet.

Well with that out of the way we have now got to come to some sort of a conclusion.

Conclusion

The Redmagic Nova Gaming Tablet is a powerful and well-designed device that excels in gaming and media consumption. Its impressive hardware, including the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Edition chipset and advanced cooling system, ensures smooth performance and comfortable extended use. The 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio provides an immersive viewing experience, further enhanced by the quality of the four side-mounted speakers.

While the software experience is generally positive, with minimal bloatware and a clean Android 14 implementation, the inflexible UI scaling is a notable drawback. The lack of a headphone jack and limited port selection might also be a concern for some users.

Overall, the Redmagic Nova Gaming Tablet is a strong contender in the gaming tablet market, offering excellent performance and a compelling widescreen display. However, the UI scaling issue and limited connectivity options prevent it from being a truly perfect device.

If I were in the market for a specific tablet for Android gaming and that was my main drive then I would certainly be considering the RedMagic Nova Gaming tablet however if productivity is your thing then a more square aspect ratio like the OnePlus Pad 2 may be more up your street One thing that I would certainly recommend is that whichever tablet you go for if you intend on doing any work get the keyboard case options as well.

You can buy the Redmagic Nova Gaming Tablet now from RedMagic’s website. if you are looking to get the accessories then these are also to be found on the same site. The tablet I have reviewed here was the 512GB 16GB RAM version and that can be bought for £559 once they have renewed the stock as is the case for the cheaper 256GB 12GB RAM version which sells for £439.

The post RedMagic Nova Gaming tablet – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

The Pro’s : – 

• Extremely easy to set up and use
• Very sturdy stand and charging cable
• Won’t take up too much desk space
• Blends well aesthetically with Apple products.
• USB C Input

The Con’s :- 

The post Twelve South HiRise 2 Deluxe – Review. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

First up is the display size as this is one of the most important things for a tablet. Here we find that we have a 10.9′ display with a 2.8K resolution (2880 x 1800) and a 16:10 aspect ratio. which makes it more widescreen than the likes of the recently reviewed OnePlus Pad 2 which is 7:5. You can see the difference in the image below, the Nova is on top.

This means that when you are in a game that has been set up correctly for a widescreen format you will be able to reap the full benefits without a ‘letterboxing’ effect. it also has the added benefit of not restricting the viewable area for video as well.

Moving away from the display we have the various ports and buttons located around the edges to look at so lets start on the right hand side. 

This is where we will find two fo the 4 side-firing speakers that sit on either side of the USB Type C 3.2 port that is capable of video output and also up to 80W fast charging when using the included 80W power brick or an appropriate similar brick (like a high wattage GAN charger for instance)

Flanking the USB port is where we can see a pair of two side-firing speakers capable of very reasonable sound output. 

If we continue around the edges we find on the top of the tablet is where the volume is located on the far left and on the right is a location for the Stylus accessories which I sadly don’t have for review. I can only presume that this will allow for magnetic attachment and charging via induction much like the OnePlus Pad 2 and the iPad’s do.

There are also two pinhole mics up here which I am presuming will be for video conferencing to try and give some gravitas to the sound of any video calls you are making. These are in addition to the 3rd pinhole moc next to the USB Type C port from earlier.

As we continue around to the left-hand side of the device we have a power and sleep/wake button present alongside the other two speakers. This button is also pulling double duty as a fingerprint scanner and for the most part, seems to work reasonably well. It could do with being a little bit more prominent as I find if a bit tricky to locate from time to time. Once you find it though it recognises my finger reliably enough. The tablet can also use face unlock as an alternative to fingerprint if you wish to have this.

The last stop on the edges is the base. 

Here find some Pogo pin connectors and cutouts for guides for the Nova Magnetic Keyboard attachment. Again I don’t have the keyboard but I expect it is very similar to the connection method being used on the like of the OnePlus Pad 2. Not sure if it will also work disconnected as the OnePlus one does but given the price of it I would suggest potentially not. There is no mention of any backlight on the keyboard information page.

REDMAGIC Nova Magnetic Keyboard

REDMAGIC Nova Stylus

Around the back of the Nova is where things get a bit more interesting. As is the Case for the redmagic phones this comes with some flash in the form of RGB. The RGB is a lot more subtle as it has only been implemented on the cooling van instead of embedded into the logo or writing. What we do have though is a faux transparent p[anel which mocks up some circuitry and the cooling systems.

Nestled in the upper left-handmost corner is the 50MP camera and next to his in what could be mistaken for another camera is the RGB-accented Turbo cooling fan.

I like the fact that some effort has been made to make the back of the tablet interesting but it would have been so much cooler if it were actually the real motherboard that was visible under this window. I guess that this is not that practical a solution especially having watched a few tear-down videos of the device.

In terms of weight, the Nova tablet weighs 530 grams and is 7.3mm at its thinnest point. 

Under the sleek body we have got a a lot going on as this tablet is running the Snapdragon 8th Gen 3 Leading Version which has been boosted to 3.Ghz on the big cores. Now with this power you would expect a cooling system to match. Well you are correct as the Nova has a 9-layer cooling system that is also aided by the 17173.4mm High-Speed Turbine Centrifugal Fan which has a Fan Speed of up to 20,000 RPM.

In addition to this powerhouse of a processor we have got 16GB of LDDR5X of RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage, this is the highest-end version as there is a specced version that halves the Storage and reduces the RAM to 12GB. Keeping this all going is a mammoth 10100mAh daul cell Battery which can charge at up to 80W.

This battery has a neat trick up its sleeve though. If you were playing a game on the tablet with it set up on a stand for example and you just want it to be powered up but are not worried about charging it then =you can set it to do just that. This is called Charge Separation and can be set up within the settings menu. This is a great option for those who wish to take advantage of the display out option and set this up as a mini gaming station with a monitor, mouse and keyboard for example.

That about wraps up my hands on and unboxing of the RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet. I will be using this over the next few weeks to see how well it works and how it fits in with my usage scenarios.

If you are interested in getting hold of one of these tablets then please do check out the RedMagic site here for current pricing and availability. they also have the aforementioned Keyboard and Stylus available there as well.

Prices for the tablet start at £439 for the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage version and increase to £559 for the one I have on review here.

Check back in a few weeks for a full review

The post RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet – Unboxing is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

• Powerful 45W Fast Charging
• 20,000mAh high capacity battery
• Built-in USB-C cable for convenience
• Lightning-fast charging: 42% in 30 minutes for MacBook Air; 70% in 30 minutes for Samsung S24 Ultra
• Recharge up to 43% in 60 minutes with 40W PD adapter
• Multi-device charging with 3 output ports
• 2 input ports for versatile charging options
• Durable cable tested for over 10,000 uses
• Convenient carrying strap design.

The CUKTECH 20,000mAh Power Bank delivers rapid charging with a powerful 45W output, perfect for quickly charging devices like the S24 Ultra, Google Pixel 9 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or a Chromebook. Whether you’re traveling, working, or in an emergency, this portable charger ensures your essential devices stay powered.

I was recently sent one through for a full review, so with that I popped it in my bag as I went away for a weeks holiday. Its built-in USB-C cable eliminates tangled wires and doubles as a carrying strap. This cable supports 45W fast charging, keeping the entire setup compact and organized, although I couldn’t shake the feeling that this cable was going to snap at any second, when carrying the power bank, that said there was  no more fumbling with multiple cords, making the on-the-go charging experience much more streamlined.

There are two ports on the power bank, a USB 3 Type A port a USB type C port and the incorporated USB type C cable, there’s also a LED screen, to show remaining charge and charging percentage when topping it up.

The core feature of the CUKTECH Power Bank is its impressive 45W fast charging capability, enabling it to quickly and efficiently charge devices like the iPhone 15 Pro Max, MacBook Air, and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

In my 30 minute, test it charged my devices as.

The 20,000mAh capacity translates into significant charging potential. For instance, it can recharge an iPhone 15 about 4.1 times, or a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra approximately 2.9 times, and on my week away it proved invaluable to the family for phone top ups when we were away from a power socket.

The only drawback I found was this is a bulky power bank, measuring in at 160mm long 70mm wide and 25mm deep, and weighing in a 500 grammes so its definitely a put it in your bag device rather than popping it in your pocket, that said its definitely staying in my bag, for on the go top up’s .

The CUKETCH CP235L is available from £26.95 on Amazon

The post CUKTECH CP253L Power Bank – Review. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Last week, Twelve South introduced the latest version of its PlugBug wall charger, which they claim is the “world’s first power supply with Apple Find My.” As a previous enthusiast of the original PlugBug’s sleek, space-saving design, I promptly reached out to Twelve South to request a hands-on of the new Find My model, having personally experienced the inconvenience of misplacing a charger.

Features at a glance.

• 2-Port 50W or4-Port 120W Compact USB-C Charger.
• Built-in Apple Find My technology to locate the charger if lost
• GaN-powered, ultra slim design for travel
• Smart power delivery fast charges multiple devices at once.

The new Twelve South PlugBug with Find My comes in two flavors, a 2-port 50W variant and the 120W model with 4 ports. Outside of that and the actual size, they are otherwise the same, my review unit being the 50W model.

2-port 50W PlugBug USB-C Wall Charger with Find My £69.99
4-port 120W PlugBug USB-C Wall Charger with Find My £119.99

Does the charger need to be plugged into an outlet for the Find My features to work though?

The answer is no. According to Twelve South, it uses the same replaceable button battery as the Apple AirTag, enabling the Find My tracking to operate independently of the AC charger. Twelve South states the battery “should last about a year,” and you can check its charge status in the Find My app, similar to other tracking cards recently featured.

Alright, let’s dive into the charging. The new USB-C wall charger with Find My is available in two configurations: a 2-port version with 50W and a 4-port model delivering a combined 120W of power. Both models sport a GaN-powered, ultra-slim design, which appears slightly thicker than the previous single-port model but still maintains a relatively thin, flat, upright form factor.

This charger is USB-C only, with no USB-A ports in sight. It boasts Power Delivery technology, capable of detecting connected devices and dynamically providing the appropriate amount of power. Unlike some models on the market where certain ports are dedicated to higher output, PlugBug will automatically adjust based on the device’s requirements and the charger’s maximum capabilities. Here’s how it works:

In many ways, the new PlugBug is just another charger. It’s a solid one, but still just a charger. However, it does have some key advantages, particularly the onboard Apple Find My tracking integration.

First, let’s dive into the physical design and charging capabilities. The design remains consistent with the previous-generation PlugBug, featuring a more vertical and slender design that allows the charger to sit snugly against the outlet, whether on the wall or flat. I appreciate this form factor for vertical wall outlets, as it makes it easier to tuck behind furniture.

This shape also works well for flat outlets, like those found on tabletops in airports, though it requires a bit more space than your average small block charger. You’ll need to use the bottom outlet in a standard dual-outlet wall receptacle to avoid blocking the top one, and make sure there’s enough clearance on flat setups to accommodate the bottom half of the PlugBug.

Around the back of the device, you’ll find a small compartment door to house the unit’s battery. This isn’t some kind of wall charger-meets-power bank though, this is where the small replaceable battery resides – it is, according to Twelve South, the same kind of thing that powers an AirTag and lasts for about a year. This battery is solely just for the Find My action to work, as the PlugBug does not need to be plugged into outlet for the item tracking to work because that would be terrible. You need to replace this battery, and it might be nice if the charger featured wireless charging for the internal battery instead, but it’s not an entirely inelegant solution if you ask me.

Find My Integration.

The Find My integration worked smoothly and immediately. Simply hold the button on the back of the unit for a few seconds with the Find My app open, and it connects in seconds. Name the PlugBug, choose an icon, and you’re set. The app can make the charger emit a chime for easy locating and set up usual notifications like “notify me when left behind” at selected locations. It worked flawlessly in my testing. Though it’s just a charger and costs more than others with similar features and wattage, it’s the first to implement Find My according to Twelve South. You’ll appreciate the investment when you realise you left your charger behind before leaving the hotel or when frantically searching for it at home. 

In my testing the PlugBug was able to charge my Samsung GalaxyBook Pro absolutely fine without the annoying ” Use a faster Charger” pop up and when I plugged in either my Samsung  S24 Ultra of Tab S9 Ultra I was presented with “superfast Charging 2.0” message and the PlugBug coped with both of these plugged in simultaneously with not problems at all and charged them up in fairly fast order.  I appreciated not needing to check which port to use with the PlugBug 50, as it automatically provided the most power to either port. It reliably charged various devices without any issues.

Should you but it ?

Ultimately, it’s just a charger, and it’s priced higher than some others with similar output options, features, and wattage. However, according to Twelve South, it’s the first to implement Find My functionality, making it a worthwhile investment. ( I wished the Apple Magsafe Battery Pack had it  ) You’ll appreciate it when you realise you’ve left your charger in a hotel room or are rushing out the door, frantically searching for it.

The post PlugBug Charger with Apple’s “Find My” by Twelve South. – Review. is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

The only way to find out is to get into the nitty gritty of a Coolsmartphone review!
Hardware and Design

A lot of what we are seeing here in terms of design is very similar to what we have seen previously with the Watch 2. In fact the internals are nearly the same. I have done an unboxing for the Watch 2R and I would encourage you to take a look at this to acclimatise yourself with the specs and refresh your memory.

For the more specifications inclined, here is a comparison of the specs for you.

Spec’s comparison table

So as we can see above there are a lot of similarities between the two watches particularly on the internal hardware. I will just spend a bit of time reviewing the key changes between the two devices.

First up is the most obvious and that is the design, the Watch 2 used an asymmetric design with the right-hand side of the watch having a bulge to it that was reminiscent of the OnePlus 12 camera design. This is where we could find the Home buttons and the lower shortcut buttons. These buttons could be changed in terms of long press functionality as well. There was a lot of speculation that the home button was also going to be opened up to be an actionable rotating crown. This has not happened at the time of writing, and I doubt it will be based on the lack of any new speculation online.

The Watch 2R uses a very similar design in that it also uses the dual button setup but it drops the asymmetric design in favour of a more traditional watch style design. This means that the two side buttons now protrude slightly from the watch side. This makes it easier to locate and press. The Home button this time gives no aspirations of being any other than a button which is good to see We also have a slightly differently designed watch band but as this is normally something that is swapped out by the user I am not too concerned by this as both watch straps where comfortable to use long term. The last bit I want to mention is the finish that the casing uses, the Watch 2 has a very shiny and glossy finish which was very prone to be smudged up easily by usage of the watch. On the Watch 2R the casing is now a more matte affair which does make it easier to keep smudge-free. With that, we can actually now move onto a key area of differences and that is the materials used to build the watches.

On the Watch 2 we found that they were largely using more premium materials for the build of the case and this is reflected in the Spec sheet above. We can see that the Watch 2 uses stainless steel for the watch body which brings a higher toughness and scratch resistance to the body. It also unfortunately brings more weight to the watch. In addition to this, the screen on the Watch 2 is made of Sapphire crystal for durability. Now this is the gold standard for smart watches and I feel all watches should now have Saphirre faces on them. Unfortunately, this is where we do see one of the spec hits on the Watch 2R as we have got a Panda Glass screen which has flat edges instead of the slightly rounded edges that were witnessed on its older sibling. Another area to be hit is the aforementioned casing as we now have a aluminium construction over the brushed stainless steel of the Watch 2. Now normally these compromises would give me reason for concern but in this case, I have no issues.

I have been wearing the Watch 2R on and off as my main watch for nearly a month over the summer and during this time I have exposed it to many things that watches don’t like in terms of keeping them in pristine condition. In my role as an engineer, I expose the watch to getting scuffed and scratched and the screen is still as pristine as the day it was unboxed. the casing has also held up very well and I have not been able to make out any markings on the exterior of the watch at all. I am so confident that the watch is durable, that after I finish this review the watch will be used by my son and I have high hopes that he will be able to keep it in a similar condition to what it currently is.

In terms of the battery life and charging this is the same as that of the Watch 2 as the Watch 2R uses the same battery and runs the same internal architecture and screen as the previous watch.

The only other area where the design has changed is in the weight of the Watch 2R. Now at first when I heard about the weight change I brushed it off as not really being a concern after all it is a watch it should be light. It wasn’t until I picked the watch up that I was then shocked at how light the Watch 2R felt. Now to be fair I was using a Garmin  Epix Gen 2 at the time and this is not exactly a featherweight. However, my honest first reaction was that the unit I picked up was a dummy unit as it was so light. It has been a pleasure to wear the Watch 2R due to this lightweight and I have been able to wear it comfortably whilst swimming and mountain biking.

I have included some images of how the watch is fairing after two months of usage and wear below for you and as you will see it is still pristine.

So moving onto the software and this is where things don’t really change much again from the Watch 2 to the Watch 2R. They are both running the same software and both utilise the Dual-Engine Architecture that was first launched with the Watch 2. This uses the same splitting of the load as before. it also brings the same battery life advantages. I would normally go over all of this again for you but I have already written this up extensively in my OnePlus Watch 2 Review so I would encourage you to refer back to that review.

I have been using the Watch 2R with both the OnePlus Nord 4 and more recently the Pixel 9 Pro Fold (horrible name) during this time I was able to transfer my data from one phone to the other by using the backup function that has not been added to the OHealth App. However, that is there only real significant change that has been made to the OHealth app which is still disappointing. I was unable to get the app to sync with Google Fit or any of the other fitness solutions that I have used Garmin Connect and Fitbit). I was also disappointed to see that Komoot is still not really that useful on the watch as you can only use it to track a walk/cycle not follow a pre-created one. This last point is not an issue exclusive to the Watch 2 and 2R though as this is an Android Wear issue more than anything else.

There was however one thing that surprised me about my time using the Watch 2R and that was that i missed Android Wear on my wrist. So much so that i have actually bought myself a new watch the Pixel Watch 3 45mm. The reasons why I have gone with the Pixel Watch 3 over the 2R are purely down to OHealth and its lack of integration with other Fitness solutions. There are a few quirks that I noted in the watch software as well but nothing I couldn’t get past. For me though using the Pixel 9 Pro Fold as my phone it makes sense to use the Pixel Watch 3. My son however will be using the Watch 2R with a OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite so it will go perfectly alongside that and his Nord Buds 2.

I have really liked using the OnePlus Watch 2R and I look forward to getting the feedback from my son when he starts to use it as well. It is a very good smartwatch from a hardware point of view and with some further development of the OHealth app I believe it could be something I would use again. OnePlus have got the hardware-to-price point relationship on point here and they have also managed to nail the battery life issues of most Android Wear owners. it is not time for a bit more love to be shown to the software and get that working better and this would be a highly recommended option for an Android Wear smartwatch for the price-savvy user.

Editor Note:- Apolagies for the lack of any sort of fitness tracking testing in this review. The reviewer’s job does not allow for much activity day to day so it was decided not to include this in this review. The health section of the watch was previously covered loosely in the OnePlus Watch 2 review.

You can buy the OnePlus Watch 2R from the OnePlus site right now and its RRP is £249 but as is normally the ace with OnePlus there’s an offer of £30 pounds off which reduces the price to £219 making this one of the cheapest fully featured Android Wear smartwatches currently available. Incendentally the Watch 2 is also still available and that is only priced a fraction higher. Both are fantastic watches and well worth a look if you are in the market and don’t want to go down the Samsung or Google route.

The post OnePlus Watch 2R – Review is original content from Coolsmartphone. If you see it on another news website, please let us know.

Design and Hardware

The OnePlus Pad 2 is technically the third tablet to come out of the OnePlus design studio, they had the original pad that launched around the same sort of time last year and then came the Pad Go which I reviewed on the site right here. What OnePlus has done here is to take what they learned from feedback on both of these devices and then build it into the new Pad 2 as a result we do have some notable changes to the hardware

I have already covered the hardware in an unboxing video which can be found just below or if you want to read the article then take some time to do so now.

I was very impressed with the hardware of the Pad 2 but I want to just focus on a few of the significant parts that lept out at me. In addition I will also be looking at some of the optional extras that I was lucky enough to be provided with as this unit was given to me very kindly by OnePlus for review.

(Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and have not been influenced by OnePlus who will not be given a preview of this review before it’s published. I have not been paid for this review, however, the items in the review have been provided at no cost to me.)

First things first is the size of the Pad 2, it has grown slightly from an 11″ screen to a 12.1″ screen now and this comes with some benefits to the rest of the design. By having a slightly bigger screen size the Pad 2 can now fit a massive battery (9150mAH) and it can also accommodate a better cooling system which in turn means a more powerful chipset. The size increase does of course have some downsides too though. It now has a bigger footprint than the previous design and this can be shown here by comparing this to the smaller Pad Go. The pad is also slightly thicker than the Pad Go and it is also a tad heavier as well. None of these aspects are really issues for me as I find that the size is a great size for a tablet and it is really nice to use for both work and play.

Coming onto play the next thing I want to highlight is the display on the Pad 2 as this is a great display as I mentioned above it is 12.1″ diagonal but it has an aspect ratio of 7:5 which makes it great for content viewing. It is also sporting a resolution of 3000 by 2120 with a PPI of 303. The panel will output anywhere between 30Hz and all the way up to 144Hz with various stops in between. It will also offer up to 900nits HBM but in normal conditions will go up to 600nits. All of this comes from an LCD panel which OnePlus is calling a Readfit display. Now I don’t want to gloss over the LED display part here as I was actually genuinely surprised that the panel was LCD after I got my first look at it. Had I not been told by the rep from OnePlus I would have assumed that this was an OLED display. It is a great display and one I have enjoyed using to consume content a lot I have also really enjoyed working on this display as well it is clear and vivid and the aspect ratio is really conducive to multitasking but more on that later…

Next up is the sound stage provided by the Pad 2. This is very good and more than enough for watching movies, YouTube and listening to music. The Pad 2 packs in six speakers to give a great range of sound and as the tablet is not a bit wider we get great distance between the individual drivers so we are able to get more of a stereo effect. In addition to the speakers’ physical setup, OnePlus has also sprinkled in some magic in the form of OReality Audio. This is the company’s take on what Dolby has been doing for years and offers you some preset sound settings some of which can be customised.

I have been using the Music mode whilst I am writing this review on the tablet now and I have been quite happy with my tunes blasting out. That being said you cannot always use your device with the speakers blaring out for everyone to hear or endure! This brings another nice feature that we are now seeing across OnePlus’s portfolio which is of course Spatial audio on Bluetooth headphones. Thankfully I have a pair of OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro which I have been able to use alongside the Pad2 and this creates a great audio experience when you use an app that supports this feature. I have used this setup on Disney+ whilst on an overnight trip and it was great.

That about sums up the key external point of design and hardware that I wanted to highlight. However, as suggested above there is a lot more going on inside the OnePlus Pad 2!

So the first internal feature I want to talk about is the chipset. OnePlus has been able to cram a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SOC into the Pad 2, bringing a lot of power to the table. I am not going to go into the performance of the chip as I don’t do benchmarking here, what I will say is that I have used a few devices with the 8 Gen 3 chipset and this is by far the biggest to date. This is relevant as the inbuilt graphic has to drive a bigger display than on a phone. the good news is that the Adreno 750 GPU is more than capable of the task and provides crystal-clear images regardless of what you are trying to do. I have already mentioned it is great for watching movies and videos. It is also a great platform for some light gaming, while handheld but it comes into its own when used with a controller setup like shown below.

The next bit I want to cover is the battery. As I have already mentioned the battery has a little bit more space due to the bigger chassis however it has not increased in size over the original Oneplus Pad. The battery is still a 9150mAh size and will charge at up to 67W when using a SuperVooc charger from OnePlus. I don’t have the appropriately sized SupperVooc charger to test the charging speed but I have been using a GAN charger and the Pad 2 will charge very fast allowing me to get from 0 to 100% in just under 1hr 30 mins. If using a OnePlus charging brick then the officially measured time is 81 minutes according to their own internal testing.

While this isn’t an amazing step up from the OG Pad it is nice to see that it hasn’t gone down and that the charging speed remains consistent. I am also really happy that you can leave this device to sleep for a really long time and pick it up again knowing that you should have some power left. This was one of the features I liked about the Pad Go in my review. Also of note is that there is no significant heat build-up within the tablet when it’s charging. The one thing that I would like to pick fault with is the location of the charging port. While having it mounted on the die is not by any means the worst place it does mean that handheld gaming is not really a viable option when charging. This must have been a designer-based decision for the inclusion of the optional keyboard accessory. It is not a bad thing but just something I would like to mention.

The next thing and indeed the last is the build quality of the tablet. The Pad 2 is built very well with no indication of torsional twisting or flexing when it is held in one hand. The rounded-off edges of the case make it a joy to hold. the texture of the Aluminium body is grippy and not an absolute fingerprint magnet either. Whilst the bezels on the front are larger than some people would like they are useful being that size as it stops accidental screen touches when you are holding it.

If I had one complaint, I would have to say that this is not a light tablet especially when you include the optional accessories. The tablet feels very similar in weight to my Macbook Air Pro when I am carrying it around. Its bare weight is 584g but once you add the Smart keyboard case then you are including another 800g. Include the Stylo 2 at a tiny 1 gram and you are carrying a total of 1.385 kg, my MacBook Pro weighs in at 1.6kg. Dont get me wrong I like the reassuring heft to it but this is worth bearing in mind for those looking to purchase.

So that brings me nicely onto the optional accessories that can be purchased (or can be free depending on offers). First up and I think this one is an essential extra, is the Smart Keyboard case. This is a two-in-one affair and it allows for the tablet to be used as a laptop replacement to a degree. it comes in two parts the first is the keyboard itself which is one of the best typing experiences I have had on a tablet keyboard case. the keys are well spaced and they have a solid feel to them. They have just enough travel to keep most people happy. It is a relatively standard layout but it now has an extra row that has been added to the top in the form of shortcut keys. this was not present in the previous version. the actual keyboard base is solid as well and this can be used with relative ease when on the lap. However, that is not the only way it can be used, as inside the Smart Keyboard is a hidden battery and some Bluetooth connectivity. This means that you can also use this as a removable keyboard separate from the tablet. So if you are on a Plane, train or automobile and you need to get some work done then you can remove the keyboard from the tablet and then have just the keyboard on your lap and the tablet screen positioned somewhere else. This is very convenient when I have been writing this review as I have been doing the majority of this on the Pad 2 itself, in either my office or my recliner in my lounge. In the latter setup, I will have the screen on a separate piece of furniture and the keyboard on my lap as this is the most comfortable position for me to use it.

Another thing that has grown from the previous folio-style keyboard is the trackpad. This is now a massive 8640mm surface area which is a significant increase in size. It is bigger than my Pixel Fold in its folded state! Now if I am being entirely honest, I had some issues with the trackpad on my device. So much so that it required a new one to be sent from OnePlus, for some reason on the first trackpad, I got there was no discernable click from the trackpad and this created all sorts of problems effectively rendering it useless.

Fortunately, after some email exchanges with OnePlus Tech support, I was sent a replacement unit and the issue was solved. I have asked some other reviewers who received their devices at the same time as me and they have had no similar issues so it may have just been a glitch on mine. As you would expect you can use the trackpad for all the normal gestures and swipes that you would expect and it does have a nice feel and responsive click to it. It also does not get in the way too much when I have been typing and I haven’t had issues with accidental presses with my palm.

There is another feature on the keyboard which the eagle-eyed would have seen from the pictures. In the bottom right-hand corner, there is an NFC logo. This is to indicate the position where you can hold your OnePlus phone to initiate a wireless connection between the Pad2 and the Phone allowing you to screen share your phone and also take control of the phone on the Pad 2. It also allows you to access content from the phone’s storage and shares the Mobile data connection. I will cover this a bit more in the software section of the review as it is mostly software-based.

I mentioned that the Smart Keyboard was a 2 in 1 accessory. This is because the standing element of the keyboard is a completely separate component to the keyboard. The stand is a panel that has a central hinge going across it at the halfway point. This hinge will allow you to fold the backplate into various different positions.

The top half of the panel contains several magnets that align with magnets in the back of the Pad 2. This is how the back panel attaches and also how the panel supports the weight of the tablet. This setup allows for a large range of angles to be achieved when you are using the stand and the keyboard together. I have found that you can have the set-up as shown in the image below and this is the most conducive for typing and still being able to use the last accessory the Stylo 2.

The Stylo 2 is OnePlus’s take on a Stylus for its tablet lineup. As far as I am aware it will only work on Pad 2 as there was a different Stylo for the original Pad. The Stylo 2 will not work on the OnePlus Open internal display as far as I have been advised. I have not had the chance to test this so your mileage may vary. The Stylo 2 has got an internal battery that will recharge wirelessly when you “dock” the Stylo 2 on the top right-hand edge of the screen.
The Stylo 2 will also detect up to 16,000 levels of pressure to allow you to get the pressure of the screen just right when drawing and writing. When writing the Stylo 2 will vibrate ever so slightly to recreate the feel of using a pencil on paper. It can also be used as a laser pointer when being used in conjunction with a presentation. For the most part I have been using the Stylo 2 as a mouse-style device as I find that I can get a slightly higher level of accuracy with it.

I have tried to do some drawing with it but I am by no means an artist so I decided to skip this test. One thing I did like is that I was able to use the Stylo to take notes with the screen off. previously this has been something I have only found on Samsung kit so it is a nice feature to see here. How much I would use this in my day-to-day life is still up for debate.

Normally I would now go into the camera section of a review but, I am not going to give it much time here as let’s be honest no one will use the camera for taking photos as you don’t want to be that person.

The rear camera is a 13MP sensor which will record video at up to 4K at 30fps. It also has EIS on board as well if you really want to use it for photos/video when moving. Here are some pictures from the rear camera for your viewing pleasure.

Not too shabby I am sure you would agree but not something I would use to capture photos with unless I had no other option.

What is more important and will be vastly more useful is the front-facing camera which is an 8MP sensor that will record at up to 1080p 30fps and also includes EIS. The front camera is also used for Face Unlock but this is just regular 2D Face Unlock not the depth-sensing 3D version. This does mean that it doesn’t pick up a lot of the time which is a bit annoying. Facial recognition is the only biometric unlock option here as there is no fingerprint sensor. I do feel that this is a bit of a miss but for most people, it won’t bother them.

I also included a few images from the front camera as well as a quick video clip to show what video calls would be like.

Really if you want to get photos onto your pad 2 the best way is to take them on another device and then transfer them either through the OneTouch Transmission option (taping the NFC point on the keyboard if you have it) or using nearby share.

Now moving to the software lets see what makes Pad 2 tick under the shiny hardware skin.

Software

The software is very what we have to come to know from OnePlus. We have got Android 14 on board with Oxygen OS 14.1 UI over the top. As far as UI’s go this is one of the better ones especially as OnePlus has brought the excellent Open Canvas elements across from the OnePlus Open.

Open Canvas makes multitasking on a large-scale device like a foldable or a tablet a much more fluid and enjoyable experience. It allows you to expand the useable desktop space virtually by having windows that can be slid out of sight until needed. It also supports the normal Split screen functions that you would expect but has the added benefit of having up to 3 active apps at any one time.

I have included a few screenshots below so you can get an idea of what it looks like.

As you can see you can have the apps appear as 3 normal size apps side by side and you can switch between them as above. Pinching in with 4 fingers on the screen will give you an overview mode as well.

Or you can have one full-screen app with the others sitting just below the main app but still easily accessible.

What I found really cool is that if you are using something like YouTube then it will continue playback while you can be using another app. The only time I couldn’t get this to work was when I had two apps trying to play media at the same time which is understandable. i have found this really useful whilst writing this review as it has allowed me to have the OnePlus page open for reference and the WordPress app running alongside it in addition to having my Gmail app open as well. You can also fully interact with the apps even when they are in the overview view which is awesome to see.

Here is a quick screen recording of the app switching in action.

Pretty sweet I think.

However, there are other quite cool software tricks in the OnePlus Pad 2, I am of course talking about the previously mentioned OneTouch Transmission function. This allows you to use the NFC on the Smart Keyboard to initiate a screen-sharing mode on the Pad 2 with a compatible OnePlus Phone. However, screen sharing is just one fo the things that it can do. Once the process has started and the phone is being displayed on your Pad 2 you can then use the Pad 2 to control every aspect of your phone in a window. You can use this “phone ” to interact with any of your apps and even use it to make calls and share the data connection with the Pad 2. I’ll be honest this last one I was never able to get to work probably due to an error on my part but the functionality is there. I was however able to use it to transfer files from the phone to the tablet which was extremely useful during the course of this review.

I am sure this can also be done without the use of the Smart Keyboard but it is not going to be as smooth an operation as it would be just tapping the NFC point on the keyboard to initiate it.

Here is what the Phone looks like when shared with the Pad 2.

Other than these two features you have got a fairly regular Android 14 tablet and all the goodness that comes from that along with the weaknesses. Android as an OS has never fully embraced the tablet form factor as much as the likes of iPadOS which is a shame as there are some very good tablets on the market now including this one. if Google is serious about large format devices and making Android into a multiplatform OS then they need to get more apps designed with Tablets in mind. There are still too many apps that just scale up to be a big phone UI on a tablet which gives the user a poor experience. being an Androdi tablet user for many years and now a foldable user I have learned to live with these issues but it is not enticing for newcomers.

There is however one major omission from the OnePlus Pad 2 software suite and this is a “desktop mode”. We have seen the likes of Honor, Samsung and Huawei (even after the Google Mobile Services ban) implement their own version of a desktop mode for use when you have a keyboard connected to your tablet and it can make things a lot more useable for power users. Again I have learned how to navigate around the pitfalls of Android on Tablets and things like Open Canvas certainly go a long way to help with this but the key phrase in that sentence is “learned”. A new user shouldn’t have to learn how to do these things it should be intuitive. The Chromebook experience can run on the same processor as the ones we have on tablets and it would be awesome to see this being implemented on tablets that have the powerful enough chipsets to do it. The OnePlus Pad 2 is certainly one of these devices. However, I have gone a bit off-topic, back to what we do have today.

The use of AI in the software is not something that has been missed by the Pad 2 and it is as present here as it was on the Oneplus Nord 4 that I recently reviewed. You have got the same SmartSidebar as found on the phone and this allows quick access to tools depending on what app you are in and also to multitasking. AI Eraser is present in the Photos App and is effective at doing so.

You also have AI doing its thing in the Notes app where it will allow you to carry out a voice recording whilst the Pad2 will transcribe what is said into Notes for you to use later as required. Currently, this is limited to English and Chinese only. there are more AI features to come in the form of AI Toolbox in Q4. How much of this will be used in the day-to-day I can’t be sure but at least we know it is already here or coming soon. Before we leave AI though I am sad to see that OnePlus has not embraced what Google has made available in the form of Circle to Search and Googles other goodies like Live Translate and Generative Wallpapers or example. to be fair a lot of Googles new AI features are limited to Samsung and Pixel devices at the time of writing so it is not surprising that we have not seen them on a OnePlus device yet.

Overall despite my early rant about the state of Android on tablets (which to be fair is not the fault of OEM’s like Oneplus), I am very happy with the software that I am presented with on the OnePlus pad2 and it has been a joy to use it for the past few months.
Conclusion

So it has come to the time where I need to gather my thoughts and try to answer the question I posed at the beginning of this review. IS the OnePlus Pad 2 a suitable laptop replacement?
Quick answer No it is not.
Long answer yes but with caveats and a learning time.

I dont think that the OnePlus Pad 2 can replace your laptop outright for all your needs especially if you use any pro tools at all. But then the same can be said of things like Chromebooks, or the latest laptops to feature Snapdragon chipsets in them. If you are not someone who needs programs (I deliberately called them that) and can make do with Apps then the OnePlus Pad 2 may work for you just as well as some of the lighter computing alternatives i.e. Chromebooks. I have been able to get a lot of the reviews for both the Pad 2 and the Nord 4 written on the Pad 2. It has been my lighter-weight travelling computer when I have been away from home and I have even used it for a bit of gaming on the side. The OnePlus pad2 is a powerful and productive mobile computer that could potentially fill the needs of a lot of people over a laptop and it is also a significantly cheaper cost.

However with all that being said, there is another threat looming for tablets and that is the emerging foldable market for me that is where I will be planting my flag into moving forward as it gives me my dream two-in-one device which ticks the vast majority of the boxes for what a tablet used to do especially as I lent towards the smaller tablet like the Nexus 7 and the iPad Mini, My Pixel 9 Pro Fold is the same size as these when unfolded and is a phone size when folded.

It is incredibly expensive though and if money is an important factor then a separate tablet like the OnePlus Pad 2 and high-end mid-ranger like the excellent OnePlus Nord 4 would be worth looking into.

Just remember that this combination even with the accessories is less than the cost of a folding phone and some may say more practical…..

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