Droid Turbo 2 is shatterproof and that’s all that matters (Review)

Over the last couple of years, Motorola has been making its way into our hearts with the Moto X flagship phones and amazing software support. So, when Motorola partnered with Verizon to build a “shatterproof phone” it turned more than just a few heads. Never has anyone actually managed to build a high-end Android phone that was genuinely protected from the daily torture that some people put their phones through that doesn’t look like a boulder with a screen. Could Motorola have finally pulled it off?

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Tech Specs

Motorola Droid Turbo 2 | SpecOut

The Droid Turbo 2 sports the Snapdragon 810 processor and 3GB of RAM. That pretty much matches any of the top flagships of 2015 and it comes with a 5.4” AMOLED QHD shatterproof display. It also comes with a 21MP camera on the back with all of Motorola’s optimizations that they baked into its 2015 Moto X Style flagship. On paper, this thing is the phone of the year.

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Design/Feel

When I first took the Droid Turbo 2 out of the box, my first reaction was to how much easier it was to hold than my Nexus 6P. Admittedly, I find the 6P to be a bit unwieldy but the Droid Turbo 2 is a bit smaller and has a nice feel with the metal band around the outside and the rugged soft grip on the back. It also looks pretty slick and you can fully customize it just like any other Motorola flagship on Moto Maker.

When you actually start to take a look at the screen, though, you notice the compromises that Motorola had to make in order to make this thing shatterproof. The display is hidden under 3 layers of glass and plastic that help to protect the phone and guarantee that it won’t shatter. The problem with that is that there are 3 layers of glass and plastic between you and the display and you can immediately tell that when you look at it compared to other high-end smartphones. What’s worse is that the outermost layer picks up fingerprints and grease like it’s made of the same material that swiffer pads are made from.

The big question that everyone has about this phone is whether it is truly shatterproof, though. I actually hadn’t planned on testing that feature myself, but I accidentally dropped it directly on its edge on concrete one night during my testing. You’ll notice that the edge took a pretty solid hit but the glass was completely untouched. On any other phone, let’s be honest, it would be ruined and I would be crying.

To be entirely sure that this thing is shatterproof, though, UnlockRiver went ahead and dropped it from 275 meters and it survived. It landed right on the corner and it definitely felt the impact, but the phone was still totally usable, which is nothing short of astonishing.

One thing that drove me crazy about the design was that the SIM card tray was not flush with the rest of the phone. It is about 1mm lower than the rest of the metal band and I thought that it was a good metaphor for this entire phone. It’s about one off from being perfect.

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Software

The Droid Turbo 2 is the child of Verizon and Motorola coming together to build a thing. It’s obviously mostly Motorola, but it also has bits of Verizon in there for flavor. You get a decent amount of bloat along for the ride but you can also uninstall most of it. Luckily this device only comes in 32GB or 64GB variants so at least you won’t be burning half of your space on a tiny 16GB internal storage thanks to the system and bloat.

The software is what we’ve come to expect from Motorola from the last couple of years – it’s very lightly modified AOSP with Motorola apps that can be updated through the play store that really improve upon the experience.

It’s been a long time since I’ve used a phone with Moto Display and I really appreciated having those pulsing notifications. The equivalent that Google built into AOSP, ambient display, is just terrible by comparison and it was a refreshing improvement. I also really liked the IR magic that it pulls off so that you can wave over the phone to get Moto Display to show you the time and your current notifications (if there are any). I found that after switching back to my Nexus I kept wanting to wave over my phone to get notifications and it was really disappointing when I couldn’t do that anymore.

One app that they seem to be pushing on the Droid Turbo 2 is Moto Loop. This is a product that is being at least partially funded by Verizon because it won’t even run unless you have a Verizon SIM in the phone. It is designed to be a light and easy to use app for keeping track of the things that mean the most to you – your family. It’s basically Motorola/Verizon’s version of Life360’s Family Locator but you can also control your Nest Thermostat from Moto Loop….for some reason.

They will also bother you with notifications from the My Verizon app, which doesn’t seem necessary but if you (like me) have no desire to see that you can just disable the app and forget about it forever.

Overall, there’s not much to say about the software experience on this phone because if you’ve ever touched a Nexus or a Motorola phone over the last few years, you already know what to expect. You may as well read a review of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Admittedly, it’s a bit disappointing that a phone that launched after the release of Android 6.0 Marshmallow didn’t come with Google’s latest tasty dessert (and has yet to be updated to such), but it’s really not that surprising either. It’s not like Verizon has an amazing track record when it comes to Android updates and Motorola has been disappointing us at every turn since they were purchased by Lenovo.

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Battery Life

I would give the battery life on the Droid Turbo 2 a B+. It definitely gets better battery life than the Nexus 6P, but that’s probably attributable to its massive 3760mAh battery by comparison to the Nexus’ 3450mAh battery. When the Droid Turbo 2 gets its Marshmallow update, we can probably expect it to get better battery life, still. In my experience it had no problem making it through the entire day without needing a recharge, so that’s generally 16 hours off the charger with and going to bed with about 20% left. 

Motorola has done pretty good over the last couple of years optimizing for battery life, but this phone doesn’t seem to be much better than what you would expect from AOSP. That partially could be attributed to the improvements in AOSP, but I think that the Snapdragon 810 is partially to blame for holding this phone back. Moto did a good job of taming the beast, but it is particularly evident when you’re “turbo charging” this guy, which is remarkably fast but the phone also gets really hot when you’re doing that, so keep it away from flammable objects while turbo charging.

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Performance

I’m an opponent of the idea that you can get any real information about a phone based on benchmarks so you’re not going to get any, here (sorry, not sorry), but performance on this phone is above and beyond what you would expect from a Snapdragon 810 phone running Android 5.1.1. It’s very smooth and could handle anything I threw at it without a stutter.

Like I mentioned in the previous section, Motorola did a good job of taming the beast (SD810) and keeping Android’s memory issues on Lollipop under control, so I would highly recommend this phone if performance is important to you.

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The Camera

Overall I would give the camera on this phone a solid B. I didn’t get to spend as much time with this phone as I normally do and that prevented me from fully reviewing the camera but I would say that it leaves something to be desired compared to most 2015 flagships. Android phones really brought the competition this year when it came to camera improvements and Motorola is by no means an exception, but they still aren’t at the same level as an LG, Samsung, or even the new Nexuses. I could make the pictures come out well, but I found that it took a lot of effort on my part rather than just shooting and snapping.

I also can’t stand the camera app that Motorola has on its phones. When everyone else is using tap to focus, it really throws you off to have tapping anywhere snap a photo and focus is basically just a prayer.

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Fingerprint Reader (oh, wait…)

I put this section is because that’s what Derrick Miyao had put into his review of the Nexus 6P a few weeks ago (definitely worth checking out). After now having used several phones that have fingerprint scanners (OnePlus 2, Samsung Galaxy Note 5, and Nexus 6P), I’ve honestly been spoiled by the convenience of having the ability to instantly unlock the phone and I found that it was really annoying after setting up Android Pay that I had to use a pattern unlock again. If you’ve never had a fingerprint scanner on your phone, you probably won’t care but this was a disappointment to me for Motorola’s entire 2015 lineup. This is something that we should see on all flagship phones going forward (unless you’re Blackberry and think it isn’t secure enough).

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Audio

When I play games or music out loud on my phone (that is to say, rarely), I like for the sound to be loud and crisp. I love the trend that HTC started with its Boomsound speakers to bring the speakers around to the front of the phone where they can actually be enjoyed and they’re less likely to be covered up by your palms when you’re playing a game in landscape. At first glance you see that the Droid Turbo 2 is a part of this trend as well – it appears as though you have a great set of stereo speakers much like the HTC One M-series or Nexus 6P.

As it turns out, the top speaker is for the earpiece only – no big deal, you still have two speakers on the bottom part of the phone flanking the Verizon logo, right? Turns out that’s deception as well. Only one of these is actually a speaker and the other is just a hole for collecting dust and small creatures. Covering up the right of the two blocks all of the sound from coming out of the phone. I understand wanting symmetry, but this just feels deceptive – much like the “stereo” blasters on the bottom of the OnePlus 2.

The single speaker that actually does exist makes a pretty decent amount of sound, though. It’s not nearly as loud as it could be if it had a dual setup, but it holds its own for what it is. I noticed that the sound gets a little distorted if you turn it all the way up, but I don’t really have the highest of expectations for phone speakers, and these are honestly pretty average.

Reception

It’s worth mentioning that this phone (much like most of Motorola’s phones) has above average reception across the board. I was getting better coverage than I usually do with my Nexus on all types of coverage (2G-4G LTE). What’s especially impressive about this is that I was using my personal SIM card in the phone while I was testing it, which is a T-Mobile SIM.

The Droid Turbo 2 isn’t marketed as such, but it has all of the LTE bands necessary to be used on Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile and get excellent coverage throughout the country. The only loss for T-Mobile customers is band 12, which is missing from this phone. I was really impressed by this phone’s reception overall and I would give it an A+ for radio quality.

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Overall

Like I mentioned earlier, I think that the Droid Turbo 2 is just short of perfect in every category. The speakers are fine, the camera is fine, the design is fine (albeit shatterproof), the lack of fingerprint sensor is disappointing, and the software would be a lot better if it were devoid of all of the bloatware that Verizon insists upon. Of course it really shines in the way of reception, but there are other options from Motorola if that’s what you want (and for a lot cheaper). The Droid Turbo 2 clocks in at $624 if you buy it outright, or $21.83/mo if you get it on an Edge plan from Big Red. For some people the prospect of a shatterproof phone is worth any amount of money, and for that you really do get your money’s worth. For me though, it’s just not worth it. I’m more likely to pick up a Nexus or the Moto X Pure Edition, but that’s just a difference in my priorities. Of course, there’s no other phone that you can get a Force Awakens edition of, so if you need a BB-8 phone (much like I sort of do) then this is your only option.

Purchase: Verizon Wireless

Verykool Maverick SL5550 review: Unlocked phones get another strong contender

You may have not yet heard of the verykool brand, and that’s okay. It’s a startup based out of San Diego. The parent company, InfoSonics Corp, has a past history as a distributor for more known brands (Samsung, LG) before it branched off to do its own thing.

Verykool has quite a few smartphones under its belt now, and the experience shows. We were given its latest, the Maverick SL5550, to review for you guys today.

The SL5550 comes with a considerable 5.5″ screen and is LTE-ready. Verykool thinks it’s packed with all the things you’d need from a top-notch smartphone, at a very cool retail price of $179. Let’s check out if the Maverick SL5550 is the unlocked smartphone for you.

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Design

I’ll cut to the chase about the Maverick SL5550’s design. I was majorly impressed upon opening the box. An asking price of $179 doesn’t beg for high expectations. I was wrong. Budget phones are beginning to offer a lot, and the SL5550 is certainly no exception.

The classy metal frame slapped me in the face when picking up the smartphone for the first time. It looks and feels so good. The finish on the metal is smooth and matte. It’s flanked by shiny chamfers on both sides, which create a lovely contrast. The metal alone gives the phone an appearance way past its price.

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I also like the front of the phone as well. Tempered glass protection dominates the entire front panel, and verykool was considerate with minimizing bezel.

However, with such an aggressive price, something indeed had to give. The back cover doesn’t keep up with the quality feel of the rest of the phone.

The plastic has a cheap feel, and there’s a hollow response when you tap on it. The glossy finish tries to hide the fact, but it can’t really.

I’m not suggesting that the backing won’t hold up, and the fact that it is removable can be a point of redemption. Yes, the battery in this guy is replaceable. Access to the back also provides a microSD card slot and two SIM slots.

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Performance

The SL5550 is powered by a MediaTek MT6735P processor, which consists of four ARM Cortex-A53 cores running at 1.0 GHz. The MT6735P is comparable to the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 SoC (low-mid range). Therefore, you shouldn’t expect mind-blowing performance.

That isn’t to say it won’t get you by. In my experience, the SL5550’s performance was just fine for basic phone functionality (moving through the UI, opening applications, internet browsing, etc.).

What had me most worried was the fact that the processor is bundled with only 1GB of RAM. It is a big risk going with such a low memory capacity (bear in mind that part of it is reserved for the OS). In my opinion, 2GB should be the minimum in this day and age. It may forgivable for a sub-$100 phone, but not at $179. Fortunately, it didn’t show a problem for basic phone functionality. But there can be slowdown when you ask for more from the system (gaming, camera, multi-tasking, etc.).

The SL5550 comes with 16GB of internal storage. That isn’t a lot when you consider that the OS takes up a chunk of that space. However, it’s fantastic that the concern is supplemented by microSD expansion support (up to 64GB of additional storage).

Regarding audio performance, I was pleasantly surprised. The external speaker (bottom-facing) isn’t anything to write home about, but I felt the headphone output was superb for a phone at this price range.

The sound is clear and rich. And where most budget phones I’ve tried make my favorite tunes uninspiring, the SL5550 is engaging and has that articulated oomph from strong-hitting notes in the music.

Display

I’m always worried when powering up a budget phone for the first time. You never know what you’re gonna get with the display. They usually have some kind of standout weakness in the form of color degradation or a washing-out effect.

I was pleasantly surprised with the SL5550’s display. No, it won’t match top-end panels from Samsung or LG, but it’s not far off either (and that’s saying a lot for a budget phone). It most definitely surpasses what you’d expect from this price range. It’s clear that we’re looking at an IPS panel, because blacks are deep and the image quality is maintained at angles (even surprisingly at extreme viewing angles). Colors are neither vivid nor dull; they should be just right for most people.

But what I will red mark is the resolution. At a 5.5″ display size, a 720p resolution (267 ppi) does show weakness. Elements in the images show a slight blur, especially to someone used to seeing a much more pixel dense display (which isn’t hard these days). However, I admit that this is more of a snobby complaint. The display is just fine for general use.

Camera

I’ll cut to the chase and say I wasn’t overly impressed with the camera performance. The capturing speed is what bugged me the most. It can be too slow to focus and take the shot. But don’t get me wrong, it’s not incompetent. I’m speaking from the perspective of snappy shooters in many smartphone cameras these days.

Spec-wise, we’re looking at a 13MP module as the primary camera and a 8MP front shooter. The megapixel count is impressive for a budget device, but the general consumer must know by now that the amount of megapixels don’t determine camera quality.

Rather than just talk about it, I’ll let you be the judge (click the image to go to the collection):

The camera software is verykool’s own implementation. Navigation through it is just fine, and it has the essential functions you’d expect from smartphone camera software (HDR, panorama, picture effects). There’s a feature called Live Photo Mode, which is a gif-like capture (or moving set of pics).

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A minor annoyance in my experience with the camera is the software’s shutter button. You have to hit it right at the center. Many times when I thought I got the picture, it actually only focused where I tapped.

Battery

The SL5550 packs a modestly-sized 2,500 mAh battery. Considering the price and size, I have no complaints over the capacity. The value is also raised by the fact that can buy another battery and swap it out at desperate times (an ability that many phones have now lost).

But how does that 2,500 mAh battery pack perform in the SL5550? In my experience, fabulously. I consistently managed to get over a day. Specifically, it would be around 30% by the time I went to bed.

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This was with being out and about half the day and at home on WiFi. I tried to cover several use cases (internet browsing, music listening, picture taking, and navigation). The SL5550 held up like a champ. Note that although the battery stats say “Use since last full charge”, it doesn’t actually display the complete usage (must be a bug).

A neat feature verykool has implemented to help on battery life is called Standby Intelligent Power Saving. As implied, it helps minimize usage while the phone is in standby. It worked pretty well in my test. I went to bed at 37% and woke up to 32%

However, note that Google baked this kind of battery-saving feature into Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) – Doze. The SL5550 is on Android 5.1 (Lollipop), so it’s generous that verykool has a similar feature in the meantime until Marshmallow comes through.

Software

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Verykool did it right with regard to software in the SL5550. It is practically stock Android (version 5.1, Lollipop). I will always praise when budget phone manufacturers don’t waste their resources in trying to create a standout UI (which end up being fugly) and just let Android be Android. Stock Android has a UI, just use it and put the effort into something that matters.

/rant.

With that said, the SL5550’s software isn’t completely free of verykool’s own touches. I must say that I was extremely worried about the presentation upon the phone’s initial power up. I was taken to a home screen that didn’t look one bit like Android. Fortunately, this only turned out to be a verykool app that launches on startup (not very cool at the slightest).

You have to press the Home button to get into Android. I also need to say that launcher isn’t Google’s own (you won’t find Google Now on the far left panel), but it might as well be. Lollipop transitions, icons, app drawer, and notification shade are present. And the fluidity and animations when moving through the UI is how it should be.

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Final Thoughts

My overall opinion is that verykool did a fine job with the Maverick SL5550. I think the manufacturer is progressing nicely, and it is making the right compromises for the aggressive price target.

The way I give a passing grade to a budget phone is if I could say I could drop my flagship and use it as my daily driver if I really needed to. With the SL5550, I no doubt could. But what keeps me from saying “I totally could” is the 1GB of RAM and sub-par camera performance. I hope that verykool has these refinements on the priority list for the next phone.

Nonetheless, the SL5550 would definitely be one of my top recommendations for someone looking for a sub-$200 smartphone.

Maverick SL5550 product page

Blu Vivo XL review

Blu Products is an American-based (Miami, FL.) smartphone maker who has been around since 2009. With a primary focus on Android and Windows handsets, the company’s bread and butter is unlocked and less expensive alternatives to other, more familiar manufacturers.

As of today, Blu — Bold Like Us –splits its smart phones into three distinct series. The Dash is the most affordable of its models while the Studio is the mid and upper tier stuff. The Vivo line is where you’ll find the high-end and more polished designs.

The Vivo XL Excel, first introduced at CES in early January features a 5.5-inch display, a 13-megapixel rear camera, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Powered by an octa-core Mediatek processor, the phone packs 16 gigabytes of storage (ROM) with two gigabytes of memory (RAM). It is not a groundbreaking device by any stretch, however it is a package which most typical smartphone users might consider looking into.

We recently spent a few days with the Vivo XL and have put together the following review for you. Please read on for our impressions and takeaways.

First Impressions

The first thing you notice about the phone is actually the box that it comes in. It’s gold and made of a bit thicker construction than most cardboard boxes.  Coupled with a striking black print, the box sets the tone for a more premium smartphone experience.

Upon taking the handset out we notice that it was thinner and lighter than expected. In terms of overall footprint, the phone is pretty close to what you’ll get with the Nexus 6P. At 5.5-inches it’s just a smidge shorter than the Google handset.

After inserting the battery and putting the back case on, the phone feels not unlike the Samsung Galaxy S3.  Although people are often quick to call this material a plastic design, it is actually more of a polycarbonate or synthetic material. Indeed, the battery cover has some give and bending in it, but the honeycomb print on the inside helps keep it from cracking.

Handing the phone off to a couple of people for a quick reaction, the first things typically said were that it was a “nice feeling phone”, that it “looked more expensive than it is”, and it was “comfy”.  Before going further, I should point out here that the retail price of this phone is only $150. Yep, that is without a contract. And, as if that weren’t enough, the phone supports two SIM cards so you can bounce around from carrier to carrier or mix business and personal lines.

The gold finish on the front somewhat reminds us of the matte gold on the Nexus 6P and it almost borders on the rose gold that you’ll find with the iPhone. The model we reviewed was the Liquid Gold so we imagine the Rose Gold version is even more in line with the Apple counterpart. Other colors offered include Chrome Silver and Midnight Blue.

The battery cover has a pattern printed on it however it is not physically textured. While it certainly looks as if it would have a grip, it is smooth to the touch. Another quick impression before turning on the phone was that this battery cover was quick to pick up fingerprints and smudges. The front however was more forgiving.

But, whereas the rear of the Vivo XL easily picks up finger traces, it is also very easy to wipe down. A simple swipe against a shirt or pant leg and we’re back in business. Were you to put this into a protective case there might be nothing to discuss here — this is somewhat of a non-starter of an issue.

General Details

Powering on the phone we found that it offered up bright and sharp display that was easy on the eyes. Although enthusiasts and early adopters might scoff at the bezel around the display, we’ve seen worse and we are quick to remember the value proposition. Remember, we are not dealing with a phone that runs $500 to $700. It would be unfair to compare the traits and hardware materials to something in that realm.

As mentioned before, the Vivo XL supports two SIM cards. It is worth noting, however, that you will have to remove the battery if you want to swap in or out a SIM card in the first position. The second position is more on the side and is accessible simply by removing the battery cover.

The phone supports a micro SD card for expansion. Should the 16GB of storage not be enough, simply add your memory card to increase it.

The power button is on the right hand side just about half way up with the volume buttons slightly higher up the phone but still on the right. The headphone jack is on the top of the phone and is set off to the left about 25% of the way. On the bottom we find the USB Type C port.

Display

With a resolution of 720 by 1,280 pixels, the image looks better than it sounds on paper. Once you get into that 5 inch and five and a half inch space, anything below this is going to look very pixelated. And, while this doesn’t look nearly as sharp as a 1080p or 2k screen, we had no problems reading text and images we’re still very clear.

The display is very bright with a decent amount of contrast. Also, it is possible to adjust the LCD effect from neutral to cool or warm. What this does is slightly tweak the picture by adding or removing a small degree of color. It is a minimal change, going from one to another and is not something that adversely impacts anything you might do on a daily basis.

As expected, there are options to adjust the brightness level manually. Additionally you can set adaptive brightness to dim and lower light settings or brighten itself when outside or in a place where it is called for. In a related note, there’s also an option to adjust economical backlight which automatically adjusts — wait for it — backlight to save power. Toggling on and off you can see what it does for you in different environments. Do know that messing with these sort of settings can have an impact on your battery life, good or bad.

Performance

The Vivo XL draws power from the MediaTek octa-core processor and 2GB RAM. While not a top-tier device by 2016’s standard, we found that this model still punches above its weight. As devices are treading deeper into the 3GB and 4GB realm of memory, we are sometimes quick to want that from our phones. Maybe it comes from trying to future-proof ourselves with desktop computers or laptops, however we should remember that the average user does not necessarily need that much performance.

To test general usage, we installed a handful of applications and games that a typical smartphone user might enjoy. Examples include various social media apps and casual games. We did not find that the phone was necessarily laggy or unresponsive even when we opened up multiple apps at a time. Moreover, hopping from one app to another went as smoothly as we would expect, and the overall performance was actually better than we had hoped for out of a phone at this price point. In other words, don’t let the 2GB RAM deter you.

We had erroneously anticipated becoming frustrated with the experience. It was thought that at some point during testing we would find a flaw or something specific in its performance to point out that says, “see, this is why the phone only cost this much.” Alas, we did not. There were some quibbles, of course, but nothing that pushes the phone out of its price range.

When it comes to the topic of speakers and sound, the phone could be a touch better.  There are no stereo speakers to be found here. Should you play music or a video, your sound will come from the back of the phone.

The speaker grille is just below the battery and, while it puts out a reasonably loud sound, it did have a little bit of tin to it. Again, we have to give the benefit of the doubt because of the price. We are not paying for dual front facing speakers;  we have heard worse on phones in the past and have been content.

Battery lasted us well into a second day of usage, which is what we’d hope for in a 3,150mAh unit. Once the 6.0 Marshmallow update is pushed out and the Doze feature is added we would expect to squeeze out even more. The USB Type C charger replenished the battery at an average rate – adding roughly 25 percent juice in an hour’s charging.

Camera

One area where the phone comes up a little short is in the aspect of the camera. Although there are plenty of software features and customizations to be found, the overall quality leaves a bit to be desired.

In testing the camera, we notice that it doesn’t handle range as well as other models. But, this is where we remind you to consider the cost of the phone. Bearing that in mind, it still performs as expected. Truth be told, we know people who have smartphones with much better cameras that ultimately take bad photos. For whatever reason, they are content with poorly shot images with blurry subjects and terrible lighting. This wouldn’t fare any worse than what they’re currently putting on Facebook.

Click here to see an entire gallery of photos taken with the Blu Vivo XL (Google Photos)

As you can see from the gallery of images the camera blows out the white. Even in using the HDR and/or playing with the flash, we found that white edges in lighting and on the edge of items don’t look as clear or sharp as we want. This is not to suggest you can’t clean them up or run them through a photo program for sharing on social media or messages. Let’s be honest here, we are not printing out our photos or hanging them on a wall. If that is the type of using you plan to be, then you certainly do not want to look at this phone.

Generally speaking, the camera captured the subjects quickly and without too much time to focus. We were particularly impressed with the speed in which the phone captured and saved photos and HDR mode.

As far as overall options are concerned, the Blu Vivo XL offers more than you’d expect out of a budget-friendly phone. There’s plenty here to play around with (see below) when it comes to filters and settings for unique images.

We could spend paragraph talking about images, however it ultimately comes down to use your preference. If you look at the gallery and think to yourself hey this is sufficient for me, then there you go. But, if your first reaction is to point out picture flaws and where it comes up short, then this is not for you.

Software

Powered by Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box, Blu promises this will be upgraded to at least 6.0. We don’t know when that will happen so keep that in mind if you are expecting the latest version of Android. Yes, there are handsets coming out with the newer version of Android, but we venture to guess the target demographic doesn’t really know or care that much about the different versions of Android.

As someone who has spent time with all versions of Android, we have become reliant on some of the features that come with marshmallow, but that is just a personal preference and experience. If you need the latest and greatest, then we lost you a while back.

What we like about this phone is that it is essentially a stock Android experience with no major UI customization.  The first time you use the phone you will find a home screen configured with some shortcuts, folders and widgets. Noticeably, the phone does come with Opera installed as a browser option. The app is prominently displayed on the home page right next to the phone, camera, and messaging icons.

Interestingly enough, there is no button to open up any sort of app tray. Instead, your apps and games are accessible by swiping the home screen. For those of you who have spent time with other brands or versions of Android this may feel a little awkward at first — and maybe a nuisance.

We like to install a custom launcher on our devices so our experience is uniform and tailored to suit our specific needs. It helps us when jumping from one model or device to another on a regular basis.

If you prefer a minimal or clean desktop, you may find yourself a little put off by the Blu way of doing things. Download a lot of apps and you potentially have pages or screens full of icons.

The phone does come with Google Mobile Services which means you get all of the standard applications including Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Drive, Hangouts, and the Play Store. This is an important distinction that not all lower price manufacturers offer.

Look around a bit and you’ll discover there are knock off brands and very inexpensive models on the market. On the surface they may appear to be the phone you want, but play with the software and you see where corners are often cut. Rest easy knowing that with the Blu Vivo XL you can get into the Play Store and download all the titles you expect.

In addition to the Google suite of applications, we found the phone was preinstalled with a couple of Amazon titles including the standard Amazon app, Kindle app and one designed to install other apps and games.

Other preinstalled applications worth noting include an FM radio which works when you plug in headphones, a compass, “Torch” (flashlight), and Yahoo weather. McAfee security comes pre-installed on the phone as well and is designed to keep a watchful eye on your mobile experience. If you don’t like it, you can remove it.

In terms of keyboard the phone is set up to use TouchPal 2016 as the default. This means that you can theme your keyboard or customize it with a wide variety of settings. Some of the options here include toggling word gesture, a dedicated number row, auto-correction, and auto-capitalization. You can also switch the keyboard to learn from your messages and import contact names. This is helpful if you have friends or family or the occasional email with a contact that has a unique name. We’re more of a Google keyboard lover, however this was not that difficult to get used to.

The Chameleon application is pretty cool if you are looking to create a custom or handpicked theme. Simply point the camera at an object or room and you’ll be able to select color droplets based on what’s seen. These colors, once applied, will change your wallpaper as well as the various menus and setting screens.

Along the same lines there is a Theme Park application which lets you choose from a variety of wallpapers including static images and live wallpapers. There are also a half-dozen themes to choose from which are essentially bundles based around a common design.

Digging around a little deeper in some of the settings, you will find options to adjust gestures notifications and other personal preferences. It is also possible to set separate ringtones and message tones for the different SIM cards.

Although the Android OS is pretty much untouched, there’s a little bit here that adds to the overall experience. Nothing that should slow down an Android update from rolling out, mind you, but enough to help it stand out from a pure stock build.

Conclusion

We were impressed with the total package of the Vivo XL.  It was not all that long ago that we paid double for lesser phone and felt okay about it.

As more users become acclimated to the concept of buying a phone and then selecting the carrier, devices such as these will stand out. As much as we like a flagship experience like a Samsung Galaxy S6 or LG G4, it is sometimes hard to justify paying that much money every few years. This goes double if you are on a prepaid carrier and do not have the luxury of equipment installation pricing. If you are looking to pay for your phone up front, then you want to get as much bang for your buck as possible. A phone like the Vivo XL truly is bang for the buck.

Unlocked is the way to go. You need to get used to that concept as soon as you can. Blu, one of the emerging brands to watch in this space, only concerns itself with GSM-ready devices free of any carrier influence.

There is peace of mind knowing that you can leave your carrier behind and still use the same phone when you go across the street to a different provider. Tossing the secondary SIM card here and there’s added flexibility for international travel or multiple phone lines.

Also in its favor is the fact that it’s pretty much untouched Android. That’s a big win for people who don’t like custom UI’s or excessive skinning and preloaded applications. Blu hasn’t necessarily proven to be incredibly adept at pushing out software updates, but that could be a non-issue for Average Joe types. As long as it’s supported with security updates and patches any vulnerabilities, we’re okay recommending the 5.1 Lollipop release.

There is peace of mind knowing that you can leave your carrier behind and still use the same phone when you go across the street to a different provider. Tossing the secondary SIM slot and you have flexibility for international travel or multiple phone lines on the same device.

The Vivo XL is thin, sharp looking, and offers a big display at a small price. For a lot of people, that’s all that matters. The camera could be better and the sound could be more robust, but we could also be looking at a $200 phone instead.

In thinking about the target demographic, we  feel that this is more than sufficient enough to get the job done. Heck, there’s even a little bit left over, too.

Where to Buy

Launching today (January 29), the Vivo XL can be had at Best Buy for a downright incredible price of $99. While that’s a $50 savings off its normal cost of $150, it’s only a short time promotional rate. Look for a wider retail and online seller availability in the coming weeks.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (Review)

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is here and is undoubtedly one of the most attractive phones ever made. The curved display, or “infinity screen” as my friends have taken to calling it, is one of the most unique features on any phone out there. Samsung has tried to up its game this year by adding in some fan favorite features like expandable storage and water resistance.

But, the question I keep asking myself is this: Is the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge a great phone, or just a spec sheet monster? I’ve spent a little while with the phone, and these are my thoughts.

Specs

• Screen: Curved 5.5″ 2560 x 1440p AMOLED display
• Processor: Snapdragon 820 (US and China), Exynos 8890 Octa (International)
• Storage: 32 GB/64 GB (expandable up to 200 GB)
• RAM: 4 GB
• Primary Camera: 12 MP, f/1.7, 26mm, with phase detection autofocus and Optical Image Stabilization
• Secondary Camera: 5 MP, f/1.7, 22mm
• Battery: 3,600 mAh
• Dimensions: 5.94 x 2.86 x 0.30 in
• Weight: 5.54 oz
• IP68 certified – dust proof, water resistant at 1.5m for 30 minutes

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge matches the LG G5 and Xiaomi Mi 5 for the best specs in a phone currently available. Depending on where you live, you’ll be getting a Snapdragon 820 processor (US and China), 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage standard. International (Europe, Middle East, and the rest of Asia) markets will see the phone come equipped with an Exynos 8890 processor.

There have been a lot of questions about the difference between the processors so far, and it seems to break down to this: the Snapdragon has better GPU and single-core performance, where the Exynos has better multi-core performance and better battery life. Both processors are still top of the line, no matter which one you have.

Samsung turned a few heads this year by dropping the megapixel count in its cameras. Low light pictures are the focus this year and by reducing the sensor size, more light should be able to be picked up, resulting in better pictures in less than ideal situations. Has it succeeded? You can make your own decisions in the camera section of this review.

The screen resolution remains unchanged from last year’s Galaxy S6 Edge even though the screen size has jumped up from 5.1″ to 5.5″. But, one of the biggest changes has been the bump in battery life. The 3,600 mAh battery is simply huge. An increase this large indicates that Samsung listened about how bad the battery life was with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge were last year and moved to address it.

Hardware & Physical Overview

To begin the conversation about the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge anywhere else than the display would be crazy. The curved screen is the defining feature of this phone and certainly makes it stand out from any other flagship on the market.

Not only is it curved, but it’s a fantastic size. While the Galaxy S7 might be a bit easier to handle with it’s 5.1″ screen, the Edge is perfect for those with medium to large hands. Female friends in the past have complained that anything bigger than an iPhone 5 was unwieldy, but I’ve heard nothing but praise for the Galaxy S7 Edge due to its superior screen to body ratio.

Above the display, we find the earpiece for phone calls, the front facing camera, proximity sensor, and a Samsung logo.

The texture feels amazing, and I often find myself just moving the phone around in my hands because it feels cool.

To the south lays Samsung’s famous button layout. A physical home button is flanked by the multitasking button (to the left) and the back button (to the right). Because Samsung has sought to reduce the screen to body ratio, these buttons are very close to the screen. More than once, I’ve tapped an icon in my dock when I’m trying to hit back. Not a huge deal, but it will probably happen to you if you own this phone.

Within the generously big home button returns a fan favorite, the tap-and-press fingerprint scanner. It seems that all high-end phones have fingerprint scanners, and Samsung is no different.

The fingerprint sensor this year is improved over last year. While I haven’t had the phone for months on end, my problems with misreads started early with the Galaxy S6 Edge. There are no traces of that with the Galaxy S7 Edge. While it is accurate, it doesn’t get a hit every time and can be a bit slow occasionally. The iPhone is still the leader in scanning speed with the Nexus phones right behind. The Galaxy S7 Edge lags behind both, but unless you’re used to those phones, it probably won’t be an issue for you.

On the back of the phone, we find the camera bump and the flash + heart rate sensor right next to it.

This year, Samsung made the body of the phone a little bit thicker. This has served two purposes. First off, it gave some extra room for a bigger battery. Secondly, the camera bump from last year is almost gone. While there is still a bit of a bump, it’s nowhere as noticeable as it used to be. If you’re buying this phone from Verizon, you’ll be treated to its logo about an inch under the flash, while the “Galaxy S7 edge” branding sits near the bottom.

It’s important to point out here that the back of the phone is curved on the edges as well. While the curve isn’t as drastic as on the screen or like phones from Motorola, it’s definitely noticeable and greatly increases your ability to pick the S7 Edge off a flat surface (which was a big pain for last years model).

Even though the sides of the phone are incredibly thin, you will still find the volume buttons on the left and the power button on the right. These buttons retain their fantastic clickiness. Seriously, this can’t be said enough. For such a small feature, it really makes a world of difference.

The bottom of the phone houses the micro-USB connector, speaker and headphone jack, flanked by antenna strips. Yes, sadly, we’re seeing a return to micro-USB instead of the newer USB type-C. I’m sure Samsung has its reasons for sticking with the older standard (Gear VR support?), but it’s a disappointment, nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the speaker on the bottom of the phone this year is a bit of a letdown. It’s certainly loud, but the sound quality isn’t great. I personally think it sounds a bit tinny and muffled. I have a feeling this is due to Samsung going for the IP68 water and dust resistance rating on this phone and sealing up the charging port and speakers to retain water resistance. It’s certainly a trade-off that I’m happy to make for the long-term health of the phone since I don’t use the speakers a lot anyway.

The top of the phone sees a secondary microphone and the SIM/micro-SD card combo slot. Yes, expandable storage has returned to the Galaxy S line after a one-year absence. The S7 and S7 Edge can take micro-SD cards up to 200 GB for your pictures, movies, and documents. Notably missing from the top of the phone is the IR blaster from last year.

The body is comprised of two pieces of beautiful glass sandwiched around a metal frame. But, something is different. Recently I stood holding my friend’s Galaxy S6 in one hand and this Galaxy S7 Edge in the other. The S7 Edge feels so much better. While it is still slippery, it’s not nearly as bad as the S6.

The texture feels amazing, and I often find myself just moving the phone around in my hands because it feels cool. I wish Samsung could have done something about fingerprints as the S7 Edge collects them religiously.

What sets this year apart is Samsung’s design choice to make everything black. There are no silver outlines to show off the edges of the home button or ear piece. It’s just black. And it looks amazing. The Black Onyx color with the glass body of the Galaxy S7 Edge makes it the most attractive phone I have ever laid eyes on. It’s sleek, it’s sexy, and it’s beautifully curved.

Screen

We’ve established how beautiful the screen is by this point. But, there is more than just how it looks.

One of the first things you notice when using the S7 Edge is that your palm is probably going to rest on the edge of the screen (unless you have long fingers). It’s just unavoidable at first. This leads to a lot of accidental touches and accidental taps until you re-learn how to hold your phone.

It took me a few (extremely frustrating) days to consistently get it right. There were times when I just wanted to put the phone down and walk away. Now that I’m used to it, I still press the side on accident from time to time, but not nearly as frequent. I really feel like these issues could be fixed by better palm rejection. I’m by no means a software engineer, but this seems like one of the first things you’d want to do on a screen that’s going to replace bezel.

There is still some green discoloration at the screen curve (much better than last year), and the keyboard buttons can be a bit of a pain to hit, but you really get used to it quickly. The screen may a bit overly sensitive. I will occasionally run into the phone registering a tap when I’m trying to scroll. I feel like Samsung could probably fix this with a software update. No big deal.

But, it’s not all bad. There are many reasons I believe this is the best screen on the market.

The biggest of which is how vibrant these colors are. Sure, there is some oversaturation in places, but it looks beautiful throughout. In the settings, you can change the scenes between Adaptive Display, AMOLED Cinema, AMOLED Photo, and Basic. All have their different focuses, but I love AMOLED Cinema for how vibrant the colors are on the AMOLED panel.

In addition to how beautiful the colors are, the screen is incredibly bright. The ability to read the display comfortably in direct sunlight is a huge plus for this phone. Auto-brightness does a great job of keeping the phone at an adequate level. I never see it inch above 50% unless I’m in an extreme situation. Turning the brightness all the way up in a normal light situation almost hurts my eyes because it’s so bright.

Galaxy S7 Edge vs. Nexus 6P 100% brightness

Minimum brightness is another strength of the Galaxy S7 Edge. Reading in bed is comfortable and free of any kind of eye strain due to how dim the display can get. The real issue with reading at night are the back and multitasking buttons lighting up. Fortunately, there are third-party apps in the Play Store to rectify this.

The screen is so good it overshadows a lot of little flaws with the phone.

Performance

This section of my review may be a little bit different than others. I don’t focus on scores at all. I think benchmarking is only important pre-release to give people a frame of reference for what kind of device we’re talking about. Instead, I focus on real world performance. What the phone feels like, where it stutters, where it frustrates, where it shines.

One of the biggest things I like to focus on are graphical stutters and dropped frames. These two things indicate that the CPU or GPU is unable to keep up with whatever task you’re trying to complete and must render fewer frames in order to have the power to get it done. In previous Samsung devices I’ve owned (Almost everything in the Galaxy S and Note series), I’ve always had issues with dropped frames and stuttering.

Most people refer to this as TouchWiz lag.

With a brand new top-of-the-line processor, GPU and 4 GB of RAM on board, nothing should slow this phone down, right? Well, not so much. I must say, performance, for the most part, has been excellent. But, the lag is still there. It shows up in the weirdest places as well. I’ve noticed it the most when scrolling through apps in my app drawer and through the Google Play Store. While these issues aren’t game breaking, they do take you out of the experience. They make you think about what you’re doing instead of it being effortless.

When the Galaxy S7 Edge is humming along, it is an absolute joy to use. For the handful of times it stutters, it frustrates. These instances are few and far between, and however annoying they may be, they aren’t a reason to pass up this phone.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 that powered the last generation of flagships (the exception being Samsung’s who used their own Exynos chips) had a bad reputation for running hot. A processor that puts out excessive heat gets thermal throttled more often, and that leads to a loss of performance and operational efficiency. Samsung was so worried about the thermals in the Galaxy S7 Edge that it put a liquid cooling pipe in the phone.

It helped. But there are still issues.

During set-up, the phone became extremely hot. I could still hold it, but it was uncomfortable. I believe that while installing apps after the initial set-up the phone thermal throttled to such a degree that it took HOURS to download about 100 apps from the Play Store on a moderately fast connection. This was a bad first impression, but things did get better. I don’t play many games but for the purpose of this review, I did try out Asphalt 8, a notoriously power hungry game as a sort of real-life benchmark.

Results were pretty great. The phone ran smooth at high frame rates and with little heat displacement. It definitely became warm, but not uncomfortable enough to put the phone down. I was impressed after the initial misstep during set-up. The phone runs cool almost all of the time unless you really push it, a big win for Samsung and Qualcomm.

Multitasking is great. The problems that the Samsung Galaxy S6 faced are gone. For the unfamiliar, the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, and Note 5 would only hold four or five apps in memory at a time. That is staggeringly low for a phone released in 2015. I did a test and loaded up 10 applications of varying sizes and had zero issue with the OS killing them in the background. This was one of the most frustrating issues (along with battery life) with the Galaxy S6, and I’m glad to see that Samsung made a huge leap in performance here.

The last metric I use to determine performance is battery life. During the review period, all the radios were on except for WiFi, location was set to high accuracy and auto-brightness was turned on. We started off strong, but it has sure been a struggle recently.

My average seems to be between four and four and a half hours of screen on time, with about 20 hours on battery. I sleep odd hours because of my job so I take the phone off the charger about 1:30 AM and it goes back on the charger between 9 PM and 10 PM. That’s a lot of standby time and that’s one of the areas where problems crop up. Something or some things that identify under the “Android System” category are ruining the battery life on this phone. Every day I’ve used it, Android System has been at the top of the list with between 35% – 50% of the battery used.

Some days are better than others, though. There have been a few days where I could only get about three hours of screen on time before the low battery reminder kicked on.

On the flip side, the screen seems to be extremely power efficient. To be able to get almost five hours of screen on time with auto-brightness and not have it be the top power user is very impressive. Well done, Samsung. If Google or Samsung can figure out what is going on with Android System, they could have a two-day battery on its hands. Until then, you’ll be reaching for that charger before bedtime.

Unfortunately, the screen shots didn’t capture the remaining battery. On day 1, I had roughly 25% left and on day 2 I had roughly 40% left

Camera

In an effort to raise the quality of pictures taken with their phones, Samsung for the first time in memory dropped the megapixel count in their cameras. This year we see a 12 MP main shooter with f/1.7 aperture, phase detection autofocus, optical image stabilization paired with an LED flash. The camera has the ability to simultaneously record 4K video and take 9 MP pictures.

The front facing camera is 5 MP with a f/1.7 aperture and features auto HDR.

The improvements in low light are real. The details picked up in full auto mode are fantastic. Below you can see a comparison I took of the anchors at the station I work at. In the first photo I used our professional lighting grid. The second photo is just the house lights that barely light the room. I think the detail is still great.

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Well lit

Low light

The improvements don’t stop with just low light. This camera is seriously fast, almost instantaneous. Phase detection autofocus helps with quick moving objects, and while it doesn’t get everything right every time, it’s pretty reliable. The colors are not just vibrant on the beautiful screen of the phone, but everywhere else too. Below are five pictures I took at varying light levels.

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Lighting conditions: Well lit to low light

In the two well-lit pictures, you see everything. Every detail. There is very little to no artifacting or blurriness.

Outside on an overcast day, the camera does a good job of not blowing out the sky for the sake of everything else in the picture. It’s balanced and gets most everything right.

The two low light pictures show off, again, how well the camera can do with varied light levels in the picture. You have very bright monitors along with a dark coffee cup from Starbucks. While the cup isn’t perfectly in view, you can make out what it is and some small details. Most cameras would make that a black hole of nothingness because of the light being emitted from the monitors behind it.

What makes taking great pictures easy is a great camera application and Samsung delivered one on the Galaxy S7 Edge. The application is easy to use and intelligently laid out. It’s as simple as you want it to be with more powerful features like setting the ISO and white balance a tap away.

You’re offered many, many modes within the app. Auto, Pro, Selective Focus, Panorama, Video collage, Live Broadcast, Slow motion, Virtual Shot, Food and Hyperlapse all come standard on the phone with the ability to download more from Samsung’s market.

There has been a lot made about the Galaxy S7 Edge’s camera. Many are stating that it has passed the iPhone 6S Plus in quality. No matter if it has or not, you simply aren’t going to go wrong with using this camera. It’s more difficult to take a bad picture than the other way around. Color me impressed.

Interested in more? Check out our Galaxy S7 Edge vs. Nexus 6P Camera Shootout!

Software

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge comes running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box. On top is Samsung’s skin, TouchWiz. TouchWiz has been notorious over the years as one of the heaviest Android skins out there. It’s also synonymous with bloat.

I’ve seen a lot of praise being thrown around by owners and reviewers alike for how much Samsung has “paired down” TouchWiz. I don’t understand why people are saying that. TouchWiz is just as heavy and bloated as it’s ever been. The biggest change I can really identify over years past is that the color scheme is more pleasing now.

One of the biggest offenders is the settings application. This is a central hub for everything you’d want to change about your phone and needs to be as easy to navigate as possible. In past versions of TouchWiz, there were a million brightly color coded categories. Now there aren’t as many categories, but more settings hidden in each option.

What used to takes two or three clicks now takes four or five. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, burying options and settings that far down makes it significantly less likely that the average user will ever find them.

There has been a rumor going around that in the next version of Android the app drawer will be removed. Further rumors around MWC 2016 pointed to the LG G5 and Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge doing away with it NOW to get ahead of the game. Fortunately, that isn’t the case. Unfortunately, Samsung’s choices regarding the App Drawer are some of the clearest of examples of an OEM changing something just to change it and making it worse.

The app drawer button is locked to the bottom right corner of the screen, unable to be moved. Once you get into the app drawer, the first thing you see are folders for Amazon, Google, and Samsung (and Verizon if you have that variant) holding multiple apps. These apps no longer show up in the rest of the list so you have to know exactly what’s in those folders or you’ll be scrolling back and forth forever. Lastly, and most frustratingly is that the default sorting is by newest app last, and there’s no way to change it. You can hit the A – Z button to re-arrange them, but as soon as you delete or install an application, your order is screwed up again.

Why, Samsung? These are awful choices. Pre-defined folders in the app drawer? An icon that can’t move? Awful sorting? None of these save time and that’s one of the biggest advantages of HAVING an app drawer in the first place. You know exactly where everything is and can get there quickly.

This is what my app drawer looked like after deleting and installing a few apps. Horrible.

Samsung could do everything else right in their software and this alone is so frustrating that it sometimes makes me want to put the phone down. Stop changing things just to change them. There is no improvement here.

The bloat on this phone is simply outrageous. 8 pre-installed Verizon apps, 5 from Samsung and 3 from Amazon, and if you consider some of Google’s extraneous apps bloat, there are a lot more. The two gigs or so of space I could get back if these apps simply could be uninstalled instead of disabled is invaluable. I feel bad for AT&T customers who have it even worse than Verizon customers.

Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC, Huawei, Xiaomi, Apple, you guys need to listen. Some of you are better than others but stop forcing us to keep apps we don’t want on our phones. People are paying upwards of $800 for these devices and to tell them that they MUST keep Verizon’s Message+, NFL Mobile or Slacker Radio on their phone at all times is ridiculous. It’s 2016. Get it together.

Some of you are better than others but stop forcing customers to keep apps we don’t want on our phones. People are paying upwards of $800 for these devices and to tell them that they MUST keep Verizon’s Message+, NFL Mobile or Slacker Radio on their phone at all times is ridiculous. It’s 2016. Get it together.

I’ve beat up Sammy a little bit here, and I do believe it deserves the criticism for some of these awful decisions, but not everything it did to the software is bad.

Quick toggles are back in the notification shade and I absolutely love that. Sure, it does take some screen real estate, and it can get a little crowded when you have multiple notifications, but those instances don’t present themselves often enough to be a big annoyance. Making these settings easier to get to just makes the choices in the settings app even more head-scratching. It seems like Samsung gets it in some places, but not others.

Another huge improvement comes with gaming. I’m not a huge gamer, but I can appreciate the improvements Samsung made for hardcore gamers here. Game Launcher and Game Tools are great additions to Android.

Game Launcher is a central hub to keep track of all your games. This is one of those features that keeps you from going into your app drawer or creating a special folder just for games. They’re organized and easy to get to. It will identify some weird apps as games occasionally (my Barclays app is definitely not a game), but it lets you add “unlisted” applications as well.

Within Game Launcher, you can set some additional settings like power saver or not receive alerts while you’re playing which is really handy. There are some ads for other games and videos that will appear at the bottom of Game Launcher, but I suppose we can give it a pass on this one.

Game Tools is a floating chat head-like icon that pops out options without taking you from your game. In the pop-out menu, you’re given the option to turn off all alerts during the game, lock the recent and back buttons to avoid accidental presses, minimize the game while putting it in a save state, take a screenshot or record the screen.

I don’t know how useful recording gameplay on a phone or the screenshot option will be (you can take a screenshot by holding down the home button and hitting the share icon too), but the first three options are very, very nice to have.

 

One feature that was prominently displayed at Samsung’s announcement event was the addition of an always-on display. This is a software feature that keeps your screen on at all times with a black background and a graphic of your choice. I personally have a clock with the date, time and battery percentage with a nice blue design behind it. You can choose between a clock, calendar or an image always displayed, and since it’s an AMOLED panel, only the pixels in use are lit up. This is great for battery life since you don’t have to constantly turn on the entire screen to check out what’s going on with your phone.

If you want the curve of your screen to be more than just something pretty to look at, Samsung includes some software features to make the most out of it. Edge panels and Edge feeds can both be customized to your liking.

By default, you’ll have four Edge panels on. These swipe in from the right side of the screen (there’s a white tab to indicate where to swipe from) to display quick links to tools, applications, contacts, and news. You can also enable other panels like stocks, sports scores, and a compass. Samsung has opened this functionality up to third parties and lets you download more options from their store, both free and paid, to customize the phone even further.

Edge feeds is a bit more simplistic than the Edge panels. These black background and (mostly) white text graphics display notifications like missed calls and emails, news headlines, sports scores, fitness information, and stocks. You can download more of these as well from Samsung’s store. Edge feeds are activated by a swipe long ways along the curve, rather than swiping in from the side.

Edge lighting is the third option here and it lights up the edge of the screen when you’re getting a call. I don’t know how many of you are going to set your phone face down on a table, but the option its there.

For some reason, the option to set the Night Clock isn’t in the same menu as the previously mentioned features, but it’s my favorite use of the Edge. I often times wake up in the middle of the night and I always check what time it is so I know how much longer I have to sleep. The Night Clock displays the time and my next alarm in a dim light that doesn’t wake me up (or keep me up) but lets me know the vitals.

The curved screen of this phone looks great, but almost every feature that it has come up with feels like a gimmick.

Evolution, not Revolution

Consumer Reports recently came out and said that the Samsung Galaxy S7 was the best smartphone ever made. I can see how anyone could come to that conclusion, it truly is a tremendous phone, but I don’t think I can sit here and call it the best phone ever.

I don’t have an answer to “the best phone ever made” question, but I do have a while of use under my belt with this phone and I wouldn’t go as far as Consumer Reports did. There are still some really big flaws with this phone that need to be overcome in order to lay claim to that title.

Samsung does deserve a lot of credit. IP68 water resistance and dust proofing, a microSD card slot, the best screen I’ve ever seen, a better fingerprint reader and an Always-On Display make this phone much better than the Galaxy S6 Edge. That doesn’t even take battery life into account. While it’s not great this year, it is far improved and will get most through an entire day.

But, it’s frustrating to see the best hardware on the market held back by subpar software. The lack of better touch rejection on the curved display hampers the phone and frustrates me as much as any phone ever has. TouchWiz lag, as much as we hoped it would be gone with a new processor, is still alive and kicking. It may be on life support, but it shows up and reminds you of the missed potential with this phone.

I can’t in good conscious sit here and say this phone is worth $800. I know I have to return this phone at the end of the review period so I’ve kept my eyes out for deals, and even though I’ve found some, I haven’t pulled the trigger. That tells me a lot about the value of this phone.

It’s a tremendous phone, but a few fatal flaws keep it from greatness.

A no holds barred review of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Another look)

Three weeks ago I called out many reviewers of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge with the intention of making sure you readers didn’t buy into the hype of marketing and drop $800 without considering the long term.

I still believe that many reviewers are irresponsible and shortsighted with their reviews, particularly with the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. The Galaxy lineup is the best selling smartphone in the world. That means those reviews have more impact on how we spend our money and ultimately that sets the direction for other manufacturers to follow. Manufacturers go where the money is. So if “experts” are saying the S7 edge and S7 are just about “perfect” with one week of usage, they’re possibly missing out on a larger part of the review.

After using the $800 Galaxy S7 edge for almost a month now, I am ready to give my no holds barred in depth review.

The Good

• Superior design to anything available now
• Screen to body ratio is perfection for large phones
• Camera is top notch
• Display is second to none
• Expandable memory
• IP68 rating
• Battery life

Design, build, and display are without a doubt the best you can get on any mobile device right now. The sleek lines and high grade aluminum frame sandwiched in between two layers of curved Corning Gorilla glass is stunning. Beyond the good looks is an unmatched feel and comfort that other 5.5″ display phones only dare to dream about.

I have been a proponent of large 5.5″ display phones since the days of the Note, because the added size adds more functionality and makes viewing much easier. It’s quite similar in going from an 11″ laptop display to a 23″ desktop display – it’s easier to do more and you can make text larger which is great for aging eyes like mine.

The big downside to large display phones is the physical size becomes unwieldy at a certain point. The LG V10 comes to mind as a phone that has great specs, but is just too big and too heavy to want to use as a daily driver. The V10 is so massive it feels like I am carrying a shield in my pocket to protect against gunfire. Where the S7 edge excels is having almost no side bezels, due to the curved display, making it one easy smartphone to hold. The Nexus 6P and iPhone 6S Plus, which I have also used, while having great designs, don’t come anywhere near the S7 edge in terms of actual comfort in hand.

The iPhone 6S plus and LG V10 are massive compared to the similar sized display S7 edge.

Samsung has been leading the way when it comes to displays for a couple of years with its famous Super AMOLED 2k panel. Some may argue that it is slightly over saturated, but the clarity, pixel density, brightness, and contrast ratio make this display one to drool over. Other flagships may use Samsung OLED displays too, but none match up to the greatness of the Galaxy displays. I don’t have a scientific explanation as to why Samsung makes their displays better – it could simply be calibration, or it could be something else. I don’t know the answer but I do know the display on the S7 edge is only matched by its older siblings, the Note5 and s6 edge+.

Camera

• Check out Josh Noriega’s S7 edge shootout with the Nexus 6P here

Yes the camera is fantastic. Three-four weeks into its release and I am almost certain you have seen camera comparisons on AndroidGuys amongst many other websites like Android Central and Android Authority. No matter which way you look at it, no smartphone camera is perfect. Sure the S7 edge is close to the best, but there are very few reviewers who are willing to call it the best. There’s no reason to do another sample shooting when you’ve seen many already.

Andrew Martonik from Android Central stated this comment in his review of the S7 edge camera, ” The Galaxy S7 edge still takes really wonderful pictures and can stick with the best of ’em in low light situations in particular, but to see a camera offering that isn’t a complete upgrade from last year is a tough pill to swallow.”

However, most of us do agree that it is a great camera and should make you extremely happy nonetheless.

Most of us also agree that starting up the camera and snapping pics are extremely fast with the S7 edge and those are great features to have. But calling the camera the best of the best is a stretch that almost no one is saying about this camera, and I fully agree. In some scenarios I would take the Nexus 6P or iPhone 6S Plus camera over the S7 edge, but overall it’s hard to be dissatisfied with any of these cameras. My personal favorite smartphone camera to date is the Note5 from last year.

One pain point to take note of is if you are using expandable memory with the camera, and save your photos to your microSD card, you will have to use the Gallery app in order to delete your files. This is a pain point for those of us who use Google Photos as our main photo and video manager, as you will have to use Samsung’s duplicate software just to delete a file. It’s one of the funky quirks in owning a Galaxy device.

IP68 water resistance and dustproof rating

Samsung proved with the S7 edge that all phones should have water resistance and dust proofing built into every smartphone. A few years ago, having an IP67 or IP68 rating may have meant added bulk and ugliness, but with the Galaxy S7 edge you can have the best of both worlds.

Not worrying about spilling water on your $800 device is comfort that we all deserve, and quite frankly, pay for. Stuff happens sometimes. You might drop your phone into a toilet, swimming pool, kitchen sink, and you might surround it with dust on your adventures outside of the home or offive. With the Galaxy S7 edge you’re protected from the elements and that is something all flagships need these days.

It’s especially nice to have when the S7 edge is a fingerprint magnet and you can rinse your phone off under the kitchen sink. Doing so makes your phone look new again and washes off any dirty microbes you may have accumulated throughout the day.

Technically speaking, IP68 means you can leave your S7 edge in 1.5M of water for up to 30 minutes, and it also means it is completely dustproof. You won’t get little specks of dust under your display like some other phones are notorious for getting.

In no way does this mean you should take this phone with you into the pool – it’s not designed for that purpose. The touch display gets confused when you try to use the phone when it is wet. The IP68 rating serves as another layer of protection against daily accidents and should be used with that in mind. Very few flagship smartphones have this added protection, but going forward they need to include it. Samsung proved you can mix beauty with function in terms of design with the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.

Expandable memory

Expandable memory shouldn’t be listed as a benefit in 2016 considering it has been around for many years now. It’s now listed as a benefit because Samsung opted to leave it out of its flagships in 2015. 32GB of memory is great, but with ~20GB of usable space, many of us need more, especially if we are recording 4k video. Bringing back expandable memory is a win in my book and let’s hope Samsung never does away with it again unless they start giving us 128GB as a new standard.

Battery Life

Samsung opted for a much larger battery this year in the S7 edge increasing it from 3000mAh to 3600mAh. That’s physically more battery than the Nexus 6P, LG V10, iPhone 6S Plus, and even the Galaxy Note5.

While some users have anecdotally claimed 10-11 hours of Screen on Time, I haven’t seen anywhere near that level of performance. Although I do see four to six hours of SoT and that is perfectly fine for me to get through one whole day of standard usage. While I would like more, I have yet to see any other manufacturer give us two days of SoT and asking Samsung to do more is a bit much. With that being said, battery life of one day is standard across the board, and is something I get with the iPhone 6S Plus and Nexus 6P. The LG V10 on the other hand is one of the worst performing phones when it comes to battery life, and since that was my last flagship daily driver, I am happy to get back to a device with a full day of power.

Just don’t expect magic with a larger battery in the S7 edge, and know you will get through a full day of usage.

The Good summary

The S7 edge excels in many areas, and when it does, it is near the top or at the top of the pack in those categories. That’s a good thing, and is appreciated because it makes the competition do better. Just because it does some things really well though, doesn’t mean it does everything well.

The Bad

• Carrier bloat
• Poor software performance
• Micro USB
• 32GB only option
• Price
• Extremely slow software updates

Software performance issues

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge is no different than one of the Miss Teen USA contestants who fumbled on what seems to be a most basic question.

To some the candidate’s answer might be cute, but for the vast majority of us, all we can say is “WUUUUTTTT?” and then give a good chuckle. (This one question shouldn’t be an indication of who this candidate is as a person – no one is perfect, and being on stage in front of the world is something most of us will never get an opportunity to do, and if we did, I am sure many of us would stumble too.)

While the beauty contestant looks incredibly good, just like the S7 edge, sometimes what’s on the inside is lacking. While the S7 edge does use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 in the US variant, and does manage to sit atop benchmark tests, real world performance doesn’t live up to what is on paper.

I am frequently running into errors, bugs, and glitches that are nowhere to be found on other Android devices. The S7 edge does run Google’s latest iteration of Android in Marshmallow, but it also runs another layer of customization called TouchWiz.

TouchWiz is specific to Samsung phones and is Samsung’s idea of what Android should be. While some things are good from TouchWiz, the bad things outweigh any benefits TouchWiz offers. For example, Samsung’s new Game control center suddenly showed two versions of itself on my S7 edge. Why? I don’t know and when I turned it off, I was still left with one of the Game control centers open on my phone. Ironically I captured the moment in the image below.

In the background you can see the Game tools are set to Off yet there is another Game tools that is open on top of it.

That’s just one example of a TouchWiz error you won’t find on other Android devices. And the edge display functions are pretty useless and are duplicates of what exist. I turned my edge features off and simply used the edge display for what it is primarily designed for – it’s good looks. Other bugs I encountered were the slow or no response when trying to auto rotate my device into landscape mode, Google Photos and Maps erroring and closing in the background, and slow button responses. There were even times when I thought the touch display wasn’t working, because the lag was so extreme, and it still happens on a regular basis.

You can see TWO game centers on the left side of the screen.

Some may argue that a few of the software errors are pervasive throughout Android, but in my experiences with the LG V10, Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X, I simply do not find that to be true. The errors and software bugs I experience on the S7 edge are limited to it only.

Many reviewers are claiming that TouchWiz is more dialed back than ever, but I don’t find that to be the case. Sure it looks better, but it’s still bad.

Just because TouchWiz was extremely bad three years ago, was just kind of bad last year, doesn’t mean a cleaned up version of it is acceptable this year. It is still buggy and is a reason people might hate this phone a year from now after being stuck with these bugs.

Carrier Bloat

Preinstalled apps from AT&T.

 

If you have read any of my criticisms of Samsung from 2015 and on you would know I can’t stand that carrier bloat they allow on its devices. I know Verizon and AT&T are particularly bad, but Samsung has the ability to tell them no bloat. Samsung just chooses not to as part of whatever agreement they have, and at the end of the day, customers like you and I suffer because of it.

DIRECTV bloat on startup

While we do have the option to turn bloat off, we don’t have the outright option to delete it. It’s almost as if AT&T and Verizon would prefer to have its presence known in a negative light rather than none at all. The saying “bad press is still good press” lives on in the bloat that they install, and outside of rooting our devices, we don’t have a choice otherwise. Samsung doesn’t sell the S7 edge unlocked and free of carriers in the US, and subjects us to wasted storage on our premium, $800 smartphones. Bloatware takes up roughly 2-3GB of memory on my smartphone which works out to three full length movies.

I blame Samsung for letting this happen. They’re big enough to tell carriers to not install bloat, like Apple does with the iPhone, and in this case Apple wins handily over Samsung. iPhones don’t come with crapware installed, and even if they did, Apple still gives its customers the option to buy unlocked.

32GB only option for internal memory

Even though Samsung did us a favor by returning with expandable memory, it didn’t make it adoptable storage like Android M now allows for.

Here’s what adoptable storage is according to Google:

“When external storage media is adopted, it’s formatted and encrypted to only work with a single Android device at a time. Because the media is strongly tied to the Android device that adopted it, it can safely store both apps and private data for all users.

When users insert new storage media (such as an SD card) in an adoptable location, Android asks them how they want to use the media. They can choose to adopt the media, which formats and encrypts it, or they can continue using it as-is for simple file storage. If they choose to adopt, the platform offers to migrate the primary shared storage contents (typically mounted at /sdcard) to the newly adopted media, freeing up valuable space on internal storage.

When a user adopts a new storage device, the platform runs a benchmark and compares its performance against internal storage. If the adopted device is significantly slower than internal storage, the platform warns the user about a possibly degraded experience. This benchmark was derived from the actual I/O behavior of popular Android apps. Currently, the AOSP implementation will only warn users beyond a single threshold, but device manufacturers may adapt this further, such as rejecting adoption completely if the card is extremely slow.”

There’s virtually no reason for Samsung to no opt into making external memory internally adoptable. If the microSD card you choose to use isn’t fast enough to keep up with your daily tasks, Android M will warn you and recommend you don’t do it. Instead Samsung opted to leave external memory as its name describes, which means only certain types of files can be backed up to it. That leaves you with a limited amount of internal storage space and with no other options besides the 32GB Samsung gives you. For some users 64GB or 128GB of internal storage is what they want, but Samsung doesn’t offer those options.

Extremely slow Android updates

I recently wrote about how Samsung Galaxy devices are extremely fragmented and get major updates very slowly. Pure Android Nexus devices, as well as iOS devices destroy Samsung Galaxy phones in the area of software updates.

Samsung is so slow when it comes to updates they won’t even give a schedule of which of its premium flagships will get the next iteration of Android. Instead they pay programmers to give you bloat like S-Voice, a duplicate phone dialer, internet and text messaging app, when they should be giving you software updates.

That leaves your phone vulnerable to security issues and it also shortens the life of the phone as those bugs will slow your phone to a crawl over time.

Read more in depth about Galaxy software updates here.

Price

The price of the S7 edge is outrageous at $800. Three years ago this price was acceptable given that the competition was weak. Sure Apple charges the same price for its phones, but just because someone else is doing it doesn’t make it right.

One phone in particular, the Nexus 6P costs $300 less with an MSRP of $500. Sure it doesn’t have a curved display, but it still has a great build, quality camera, gorgeous 2k AMOLED display, and top notch battery life. It also doesn’t have carrier bloat, and will be the first device to get Android updates, keeping your phone running smooth and up to date with security issues.

Samsung may still have the crown when it comes to the number of devices sold, but the biggest thing holding it back right now is the price it charges for its premium devices. Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi will be the new global leaders soon if Samsung doesn’t read the writing on the wall.

The good, the bad – at the end of the day the decision is yours

Looks only go so far with me. I’m not looking to wear my S7 edge as arm candy, take it to a movie, or make it my travelling companion on vacation to the Bahamas. Instead, I need my cellphone to help me in my daily routine. It needs to email, text, browse the web, get me places with GPS, take pictures and help me stay productive with work. While I love the looks of the S7 edge, more than any other phone on the planet right now, the looks only get it so far with me. Software bugs these days are not acceptable like they were five years ago. We’ve moved beyond most of them.

The S7 edge is without question a gorgeous device. But the software and price ruin the whole experience for me, and make me frustrated with Samsung because I know they have the ability to do better. Samsung is so close to getting it right, yet it is so far with the things it does wrong. For that reason I cannot recommend the S7 edge until it comes down a few hundred dollars in six months, or until Samsung gives a clear vision on how and when it will provide software updates to all of its premium devices.

At the end of the day, if looks and build are more important to you than anything else, then go ahead and get the S7 edge. You won’t find anything better. Otherwise, stay away if you need your phone to do more than just look good.

Matt Adams also wrote a review of the S7 edge here.

Nick Scwiwy is sticking with the Nexus 6P over the S7 edge.

Nexus 5X review: is the “all-around champ” back?

Another year, another Nexus. Except this time around, Google has released two Nexus phones. One of which is the phablet sized Nexus 6P, the all-metal Huawei smartphone that packs a punch in nearly every way possible. The other is the LG made Nexus 5X, marketed towards those looking for affordability and a smaller sized phone. Plenty of attention and anticipation has been given to the Nexus 5X this year, as it is the successor to the top sold Nexus phone back in 2013, the Nexus 5. The 5X attempts to fill the big shoes of its predecessor by bringing the year’s high-end specifications into a minimal, rectangular slab of plastic that’s around half the price of most premium flagship phones. Do Google and LG succeed this time around?

Before I start the review, a point must be made. Ever since last year, the smartphone market has taken a new direction. Many smartphone manufacturers now realize the potential of more affordable handsets, and have begun offering stellar hardware for almost half the price of the competition. We’re seeing more and more consumers purchasing these more affordable unlocked smartphones rather than the subsidized versions offered by many carriers.

High-end smartphones are entering into the “mid-range” price point, which is around $200-$300 less than they use to be a few years ago. Mid-range smartphones are going for price points between $100-$300 unlocked, and budget phones can be found for less than $100 outright, a la Moto E.

What’s my point? Compared to a couple years ago when the Nexus 5 came out, the current Nexus line has some heavy competition when it comes to price unlocked. No more can we say, “this is an amazing phone… for the price.” because there are currently a plethora of amazing phones… for the price. This leads me to the first category of the review, the overall design and build quality.

 

Design and Build Quality

My daily driver before the 5X was the Moto X 2014, another 5.2 inch phone, which currently goes for $299 unlocked. My immediate impressions of first holding the 5X left me with no excitement. I was holding a phone that felt lighter, cheaper, and more uncomfortable to hold. The first thing I noticed about the Nexus 5X design was how tall it was. Google went with an HTC kind of style that gives the phone a giant top and bottom bezel, making it look tall and narrow. I would be okay with this if there was a solid reason for how tall these bezels are, especially compared to the much more compact feeling Nexus 5 of two years ago. So far, I can’t seem to find one.

Sure, the 5X includes what looks like top and bottom front-facing speakers, but similar to the Moto X 2nd gen., only the bottom speaker provides sound for audio, while the top is merely there for voice calls.

“Who cares? At least the speaker is facing the right direction!” Well, while that statement is very popular, you won’t be very impressed with the sound coming out the 5X’s speaker. I usually love turning my phone speaker up to full volume to listen to music and for YouTube videos, but the 5X is almost painful to hear at that volume. It gets loud, louder than my Moto X, but the quality is just not there and not worth listening to at high volumes.

It’s just a bit of a bummer that the smallest Nexus offering from Google is still barely qualified to be held and used with one hand. I don’t have the biggest hands on the block, which is why I use smaller handsets and loved the original Nexus 5, but I feel betrayed that even by holding the 5X with my pinky on the bottom for support, I can barely reach the notification bar of the screen, thanks to the giant bottom chin of the phone.

As for the build quality, I have mixed feelings. The device is very light at 136 grams, but it almost feels hollow. As I tap the front or back of the phone, I feel a “springing” reaction inside, as if there is a lot of empty space. This makes me even more confused as to why Google would add so much space to the top and bottom of the phone. I cannot accept the excuse that the phone’s build quality and materials resembles the price asked, because it doesn’t. There are numerous phones that feel twice as solid and premium for the same price if not less.

Not to point out specific devices, but believe when I say the 5X build quality could be better for the price.

Negatives aside, I like the feeling of the matte plastic on the sides and back of the phone, mainly because of how smooth the backs feels when I hold it. The buttons on the right side feel great and durable, however I’ve gotten used to barely using the power button thanks to the addition of a fingerprint scanner on the back, AKA Nexus Imprint.

Nexus Imprint

One of my favorite features of the 5X is the new fingerprint scanner that Google calls Nexus Imprint. It’s placed on the back of the device right beneath the camera, and performs amazingly. The best part about it? It wakes the device without even needing to press the power button. Just place your finger on the scanner for a split second and your phone is awake. I did a quick test with my roommate’s iPhone 6 to see which scanner is faster at going to the homescreen from the unlock screen, and while it was extremely close, the Nexus 5X definitely unlocked faster. LG and Google nailed this part of the phone.

Performance

The Nexus 5X uses the Snapdragon 808 hexa-core chip capable of 64-bit computing. While this isn’t the fastest Snapdragon chip offered by Qualcomm this year, every day performance of it is incredibly close to the more powerful 810 chip. Apps launch quickly, animations are very smooth, and overall navigation of the device is easily one of the smoothest experiences of any phone out there.

The only downside to the Nexus 5X in terms of performance is multitasking, but only slightly. When using both my Nexus 5X and 6P and switching between apps, it was obvious which device had 3GB of RAM and which one only has 2GB. On average, I found that I could switch back and fourth between 5-7 regular apps (not games) before they were closed by the system and had to relaunch. If I kept the device on without powering it off for almost a week, the amount of apps the phone could keep running shrunk down to around 3-4 before closing them.

Gaming on the device is also quite smooth, as I played Modern Combat 5 Blackout, Contre Jour, Smashy Road, and Asphalt 8. Modern Combat wasn’t a very smooth gameplay experience, averaging about 25 frames per second, but other games performed just fine. From the one second launch of Google’s camera app, to scrolling through Google Now, Google+ and Chrome, the Nexus 5X is a solid performance upgrade from the original Nexus 5 and many other phones.

Battery

For a phone with a 5.2 1080p display and 2,700mAh battery, I was expecting a bit more from the 5X. My day starts at around 9:00 when I take the phone off the charger, and typically I was getting till about 8:30 pm. when the battery reached about 10% and I made the move to plug it back in. I consider myself a moderate smartphone user. I watch a couple YouTube videos (especially now that it’s holiday video game season), text using Google’s Messenger app, install and app or two and browse reddit quite a bit.

I have about three one hour long classes a day that I don’t use the phone at all either, so the 5X seems to have a heavy battery drain when the screen is on. I think this is because LG is still using some pretty old LCD technology that’s not very battery efficient, but I’ll talk about that in the display section of the review. However, when the screen is off and the phone is sleeping, that’s when the real battery saving magic happens. Doze, which is one of Android 6.0’s newest features, is a battery saving software optimization that restricts heavy app activity when the phone is sleeping. With my Moto X ’14, I lose about 3-5% battery when my phone is off during my hour class. With the 5X, I didn’t lose a single percent.

So, if you’re a user that doesn’t have the screen on all the time and keeps the phone asleep a lot, you’re going to be getting great battery life.

Software

The premier feature of Google’s Nexus phone are the promise of the latest and greatest Android updates before any other phone. The Nexus 5X ships with Android 6.0 AKA Marshmallow. Marshmallow is a much more polished and speedy version of Android 5.0 Lollipop. Performance of Android 6.0 on this phone flies through anything you throw at it, and because this phone will be updated for quite some time with newer version of Android, you should not expect this software to slow down anytime soon, especially compared to other smartphones on the market that weigh themselves down with heavy UI skins.

Android has needed better battery management for a long time, and Google’s finally taking steps to improve this with Doze. Doze has eliminated my fear of not plugging in my phone overnight, risking the loss of 5-15% battery life. Now, I’ll be surprised if I lose more than one percent overnight. Doze works fantastically.

Google Now on Tap is a new feature exclusively for Marshmallow that allows the users to hold the home button on any screen to scan all words present to provide an overlay of Google search results right on top of the screen pertaining to information you need. It’s a really neat feature that works almost flawlessly, and I can’t wait to see what Google does next with it.

Overall, the software of this phone leaves me with the impression I’ve never experienced before with Android. I no longer feel like I’m beta testing Android. I feel like I’m using an incredibly polished software that does just what I need it to and more.

Display

The Nexus 5X sports a 5.2 inch 1920x1080p display using IPS LCD technology. If you have any worry that images won’t look as sharp as a 1440p display, ditch that thought now. The 1080p display on this phone is incredibly crisp and you’re not going to be noticing any pixels. The only problem with this display is the fact that LG is using the same screen tech that the original Nexus 5 had, which was considered cost-effective even in 2013. The only difference is this screen is .2 inches bigger. When you compared this screen against the Nexus 6P or most newer AMOLED panels, you’re definitely going to prefer the latter.

Colors are a bit washed out    and don’t pop as much as AMOLED panels. What’s most troubling is the fact that LG is capable of making LCD panels look amazing, such as their Quantum Dot displays on the G4 and V10 smartphones. Yet they still use dated LCD panels for the 5X because it’s considered a “budget phone”. Overall, I consider this screen average for today’s offerings, and wasn’t made to “wow” anyone.

Camera

Nexus devices have always lacked an impressive camera, but Google aims to change that this year. The Nexus 5X and 6P share the same 12.3 megapixel camera with laser auto-focus and dual flash. While this doesn’t sound as impressive as other camera offerings on paper, such as the Galaxy S6 and G4’s 16 megapixel camera, the real world results are exceptional.

“The best all-around camera we’ve ever put into a Nexus shines in low-light conditions.” Google was not kidding when they stated this on the device page.

The camera on the 5X captures the perfect amount of detail and is the best camera I’ve ever used in low light situations. As I took a walk through campus at night, I was amazed with the clarity the 5X was able to capture. Take a look at some of the pictures below. I wouldn’t dare attempt these with my beloved Moto X 2nd gen.

Switching to the front of the phone, the 5X offers a large 5 megapixel camera, and it performs just as it should. I use my front-facing camera mainly for Snapchat, and I was very impressed with the camera capturing low-light selfies without much noise.

I don’t record very much video with my phones, but my judgement on the Nexus 5X’s video recording capabilities are average. The detail and focusing abilities are great for me, but I really wish they included optical image stabilization, something the original Nexus 5 included. Even with the software image stabilization enabled, the videos were shakier than I would have liked. The new Sony Xperia series, as well as LG and Samsung flagships provide much better stabilization in their cameras.

Conclusion

The Nexus 5X is almost everything I wanted for the successor to Google’s 2013 flagship phone, but it’s not enough for me to keep as my new daily driver. The build quality feels cheaper than it should be considering other options in the same price range with better build materials, such as the new Moto X, OnePlus 2, OnePlus X, and more. I also don’t see why Google couldn’t have included the Snapdragon 810 instead of 808, considering they used the latest and greatest Snapdragon 800 in 2013’s Nexus 5. Google also skipped out on higher RAM memory, and it definitely shows when multitasking slows down when not powering the phone off after a few days.

However, the Nexus 5X offers a camera that competes heavily for best smartphone camera of 2015, the best battery life of any Nexus phone, and zippy performance that bests just about any high-end Android phone today. On top of this, you’re getting the latest Android updates before any other phone, and monthly security updates from Google, keeping this one of the most secure phones available today. Google currently offers this phone for $329, but that will go back up soon. For that price, I heavily recommend this phone. But once the price goes back up to the original offer, that recommendation is a lot harder to make.

Nexus 5X at the Google Store

 

The Asus Zenfone 2 is the perfect example of why unlocked phones will rule the market in 2016 (Review)

Being a writer definitely has its perks. The last two phones I reviewed were the Google Nexus 6P and the Samsung Galaxy Note 5. Both define  “flagship”, and impress in just about every way. You can argue that both phones would please almost any Android fan, but the major downside to both devices is the hefty price tag that is associated with them. The Nexus 6P starts at $499 while the Galaxy Note 5 starts at $749 excluding any deals. Unfortunately for our readers, when we only review flagship devices, we are missing out on saving you money by reviewing budget and mid-range devices.

In the U.S. we basically have access to high-end devices like the Galaxy lineup, the Nexus lineup and iPhones, or we have over the counter type pre-paid phones which run anywhere from $20 to $100 dollars and offer bare minimum features. So basically, you either have to shell out a ton of money for a full-featured smartphone, or you can give up all features for a basic phone that can text, make phone calls and send emails.

Why aren’t there many mid-range phones in the U.S.? I really don’t have the answer to this question, but overseas you can find dozens of smartphones in the $150-300 price range that may not feature the super powerful internal hardware specs of flagships, but they do feature hardware that performs quite well.

The review today is the first of many I will be doing, of low to mid range devices, in the coming months to provide you with a full and unbiased alternative to phones that cost over $500.

The Asus Zenfone 2

Asus should be a name you’re familiar with, since they make a wide range of consumer electronics for the U.S. market. They may not have a strong hold on the smartphone market locally, but they have made the Nexus 7 which has a 4.5/5 star rating from over 6,000 reviewers on Amazon.com. Asus also makes Chromebooks, home PCs, and laptops. You just may not have used a smartphone from Asus, but that’s the purpose of this review.

The Zenfone 2 has been my daily driver for the last full three weeks and let me tell you all about it.

Design and Hardware

The Asus Zenfone 2 is a full featured Android Lollipop device at a price less than $250. I have been using the international unlocked, dual SIM 5.5″ 1080p IPS display version. Powering the Zenfone 2 is an Intel Atom processor, with a hefty 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory(expandable via microSD up to 128GB).

With a 5.5″ display, curved back, brushed plastic back, the Zenfone 2 reminds me of the LG G3, which was a favorite phone of mine from a year ago. The volume rocker on the Zenfone 2 is even on the back of the device, directly under the camera and LED flash. Holding the Zenfone 2 is extremely nice as it feels light and balanced, while the brushed back gives it a texture that makes it rather grippable.

Many people complain about having plastic phones but the Zenfone 2 does not at all feel or look cheaply made. The back is curved making this device extremely comfortable to hold, much more so than the Samsung Galaxy Note 5.

• Color –Black/Red/Gray/Gold
• Dimensions –77.2 x 152.5 x 3.9 mm (WxDxH) ~ 10.9 mm
• Weight –170 g
• CPU
  Intel® Atom™ Quad Core Z3580 (2.3GHz), PowerVR G6430, with OpenGL 3.0 support
  Intel® Atom™ Quad Core Z3560 (1.8GHz), PowerVR G6430, with OpenGL 3.0 support
• Memory
  2GB/4GB LPDDR3 RAM
• Storage
  16GB/32GB/64GB eMMC Flash
• Memory Slot –MicroSD card (up to 128 GB)
• Modem
  Intel 7262 + Intel 2230
• Connectivity Technology
  WLAN 802.11 ac
  USB
  Bluetooth V4.0, NFC
  Dual Micro SIM card
• Network Standard

  Data Rate:
  HSPA+: UL 5.76 / DL 42 Mbps
  DC-HSPA+: UL 5.76 / DL 42 Mbps
  LTE Cat4:UL 50 / DL 150 Mbps Network type: GSM+WCDMA+LTE-FDD
  2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
  3G: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz
  4G: FDD-LTE 1800/2100MHz

• GPS/GLONASS/QZSS/SBAS/BDS
• Display
  5.5inches, Full HD 1920×1080,IPS
  Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3
• Battery
  3000 mAh Li-Polymer (non-removable)
• Camera
  Front 5 Mega-Pixel, Fix Focus, Wide View, PixelMaster
  Rear 13 Mega-Pixel, Auto Focus, PixelMaster
• Sensor
  G-Sensor/E-Compass/Gyroscope/Proximity/Ambient Light Sensor

Daily Usage

I am definitely one of the least technical writers here at AndroidGuys and my reviews reflect that as such. I don’t root, customize, or do other things that require an advanced knowledge of software. I have a full time job outside of writing, and don’t have the time nor willpower to learn those types of things. As long as my phone works well is all that really matters to me.

AT&T is my mobile service provider and happens to be compatible with my Asus Zenfone 2. In order to activate my Asus Zenfone 2, all I had to do was throw in my SIM card from my Nexus 6P. The Nexus 6P does use a Nano SIM card, whereas the Zenfone 2 uses a larger Micro SIM card, so my options were to go and get a free Micro SIM from AT&T or use a SIM adapter. I used the SIM adapter, inserted the card into the Zenfone 2 and within a minute I was up and running on the AT&T network.

The Asus Zenfone 2 is a 4g LTE capable phone, but in my area all I could connect to was the HSPA network. HSPA is theoretically slower than the latest LTE speeds, but in practice proved to be no slower or faster than the full LTE network in North County San Diego. Using the Speedtest app, I averaged 7-10mb/s download on the Zenfone 2, which is quite comparable to the 9-12mb/s I averaged on my Nexus 6P. Without getting too deep into technical details on network speed, the overall speed of my cellular connection felt identical to the Nexus 6P.

Phone calls came in as clear as any other phone I have used, which is a must have for me, because I do use my smartphone as my primary work device. I have two to four conference calls per week, so voice clarity and loudness is something I simply cannot live without. The Zenfone 2 has been a pleasant surprise and has completely impressed me for a device that can be purchased for less than $250.

 

Camera

The Asus Zenfone 2 comes with a 13MP rear camera that takes great pictures, even in less that ideal lighting conditions. No this camera isn’t as good as what you’re going to get on the Note 5, but very few cameras are. The Nexus 6P camera doesn’t even live up to the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 camera, but that doesn’t mean the Zenfone 2 camera is at all unacceptable. In some low-light conditions the camera did produce some grainy results, but in full day light and with the flash, the pictures came out quite nicely. I am more than happy with the results.

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Software

If there is one downside about this phone it really comes to the customization of Android. LG and Samsung definitely are guilty of over-customization too, but the Asus Zenfone 2 does come with many features built atop Android 5.0. Although, bear in mind, I just came from a stock Android device in the Nexus 6P, and customization of software is a subjective point of view. Some people like it and some people hate it.

Although being an unlocked device, I am VERY happy that AT&T could not get its paws on the software, and install loads of useless apps it pre-installs on devices it sell directly. In order to keep things simplified, I just installed the Google Now launcher and immediately my Zenfone 2 felt like I was using a stock Android device.

The most important factor about the software is that it felt fast. In no way did any of the customization slow the phone down. I really pushed hard on the Zenfone 2 as I do with any of my daily drivers. I make calls, send texts, use social media, take notes, play games, watch movies and capture plenty of memories with my camera. I was thoroughly impressed with the speed of the phone. It may not win benchmark tests, but neither does the Nexus 6P or Nexus 5X. What matters most is daily performance, and if a device is free of lags and memory leaks it is a winner in my book

The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 wins almost all benchmark tests, yet frequently runs into software issues. Just because a smartphone has the latest and greatest processor does not necessarily mean it will translate into the best performance. The Zenfone 2 shines in the software performance category. It just has a little too much customization that I find useless.

Although there are some nice features like “Tap to Wake Up” or Zenmotion which allows you to draw a “C’ on the screen to open up the camera. Software customization is purely subjective. What matters most is that the customization do not effect performance.

 

Display

One major area where budget and mid-range phones save money is the display, because the display is one of the major areas of build cost. The Asus Zenfone 2 does come with a 1080p IPS display, and if you have ever read my reviews, you would know I much prefer AMOLED technology to LCD or LED. AMOLED offers superior contrast levels when it comes to blacks, and it also offers fantastic color saturation.

One reason for my preference of AMOLED display is that there is never any back light bleed. Back light bleed, where you can sometimes see an abundance of light around the perimeter of the display is a pet peeve of mine. I hate it. Also IPS displays sometimes look a little washed out when it comes to color.

To my surprise, the Asus Zenfone 2 has absolutely no back light bleed, and the colors on the display look accurate and rich. Not as rich as on the Nexus 6P, but rich enough to make me happy. Display performance is something that I care about second to overall performance. If a display looks bad, I simply will not like the phone. The Zenfone 2 display is very clear and is easy on my aging eyes. The 5.5″ display falls into the sweet spot of sizes that I prefer.

 

Summary

Overall I could not be more happy than to start my journey into the budget to mid-range devices with the Asus Zenfone 2. I picked this phone to start with, because I know Asus has a great track record for creating great products at affordable prices like the Nexus 7. Intel has also proven to be quite impressive, with its relatively unknown mobile Atom chip, as it performed incredible smoothly paired with 4GB of RAM. 32GB of internal memory should be the minimum all devices come with these days, and having expandable memory is a bonus too.

Should I travel overseas I will definitely be taking advantage of the second SIM card slot. The absolute best feature of the Asus Zenfone 2 is that it can be purchased brand new for less than $250. That’s half the price of the Nexus 6P and $500 cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Note 5. It truly makes me question why you need to spend the extra money on a flagship device. There will always be a market for flagships phones, but unlocked budget and mid-range devices are definitely worth taking a gander at. The Asus Zenfone 2 is a rock star when it comes to performance versus price.

Look for more reviews of budget and mid-range devices in the near future.

I will be giving this phone away to a lucky reader. All you have to do is make a comment below, and/or follow us on Instagram and tell us you read the Asus Zenfone 2 review. If you happen to be the winner of the Zenfone 2, please let us know how you like it.

If you would like to make a purchase, head on over to gearbest.com and check out the Asus Zenfone 2. It is currently on sale for $233 with free shipping, and a 100% 45-day satisfaction guarantee. Unlocked international smartphones are designed to work on GSM networks such as T-Mobile and AT&T.

Gearbest.com LINK

There are other models of the Zenfone 2 at gearbest.com:

Asus Zenfone 2 Selfie – $237 (limited time price)

The 6.0″ Asus Zenfone 2 Laser – $324

 

 

Droid Turbo 2 is shatterproof and that’s all that matters (Review)

Over the last couple of years, Motorola has been making its way into our hearts with the Moto X flagship phones and amazing software support. So, when Motorola partnered with Verizon to build a “shatterproof phone” it turned more than just a few heads. Never has anyone actually managed to build a high-end Android phone that was genuinely protected from the daily torture that some people put their phones through that doesn’t look like a boulder with a screen. Could Motorola have finally pulled it off?

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Tech Specs

Motorola Droid Turbo 2 | SpecOut

The Droid Turbo 2 sports the Snapdragon 810 processor and 3GB of RAM. That pretty much matches any of the top flagships of 2015 and it comes with a 5.4” AMOLED QHD shatterproof display. It also comes with a 21MP camera on the back with all of Motorola’s optimizations that they baked into its 2015 Moto X Style flagship. On paper, this thing is the phone of the year.

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Design/Feel

When I first took the Droid Turbo 2 out of the box, my first reaction was to how much easier it was to hold than my Nexus 6P. Admittedly, I find the 6P to be a bit unwieldy but the Droid Turbo 2 is a bit smaller and has a nice feel with the metal band around the outside and the rugged soft grip on the back. It also looks pretty slick and you can fully customize it just like any other Motorola flagship on Moto Maker.

When you actually start to take a look at the screen, though, you notice the compromises that Motorola had to make in order to make this thing shatterproof. The display is hidden under 3 layers of glass and plastic that help to protect the phone and guarantee that it won’t shatter. The problem with that is that there are 3 layers of glass and plastic between you and the display and you can immediately tell that when you look at it compared to other high-end smartphones. What’s worse is that the outermost layer picks up fingerprints and grease like it’s made of the same material that swiffer pads are made from.

The big question that everyone has about this phone is whether it is truly shatterproof, though. I actually hadn’t planned on testing that feature myself, but I accidentally dropped it directly on its edge on concrete one night during my testing. You’ll notice that the edge took a pretty solid hit but the glass was completely untouched. On any other phone, let’s be honest, it would be ruined and I would be crying.

To be entirely sure that this thing is shatterproof, though, UnlockRiver went ahead and dropped it from 275 meters and it survived. It landed right on the corner and it definitely felt the impact, but the phone was still totally usable, which is nothing short of astonishing.

One thing that drove me crazy about the design was that the SIM card tray was not flush with the rest of the phone. It is about 1mm lower than the rest of the metal band and I thought that it was a good metaphor for this entire phone. It’s about one off from being perfect.

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Software

The Droid Turbo 2 is the child of Verizon and Motorola coming together to build a thing. It’s obviously mostly Motorola, but it also has bits of Verizon in there for flavor. You get a decent amount of bloat along for the ride but you can also uninstall most of it. Luckily this device only comes in 32GB or 64GB variants so at least you won’t be burning half of your space on a tiny 16GB internal storage thanks to the system and bloat.

The software is what we’ve come to expect from Motorola from the last couple of years – it’s very lightly modified AOSP with Motorola apps that can be updated through the play store that really improve upon the experience.

It’s been a long time since I’ve used a phone with Moto Display and I really appreciated having those pulsing notifications. The equivalent that Google built into AOSP, ambient display, is just terrible by comparison and it was a refreshing improvement. I also really liked the IR magic that it pulls off so that you can wave over the phone to get Moto Display to show you the time and your current notifications (if there are any). I found that after switching back to my Nexus I kept wanting to wave over my phone to get notifications and it was really disappointing when I couldn’t do that anymore.

One app that they seem to be pushing on the Droid Turbo 2 is Moto Loop. This is a product that is being at least partially funded by Verizon because it won’t even run unless you have a Verizon SIM in the phone. It is designed to be a light and easy to use app for keeping track of the things that mean the most to you – your family. It’s basically Motorola/Verizon’s version of Life360’s Family Locator but you can also control your Nest Thermostat from Moto Loop….for some reason.

They will also bother you with notifications from the My Verizon app, which doesn’t seem necessary but if you (like me) have no desire to see that you can just disable the app and forget about it forever.

Overall, there’s not much to say about the software experience on this phone because if you’ve ever touched a Nexus or a Motorola phone over the last few years, you already know what to expect. You may as well read a review of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Admittedly, it’s a bit disappointing that a phone that launched after the release of Android 6.0 Marshmallow didn’t come with Google’s latest tasty dessert (and has yet to be updated to such), but it’s really not that surprising either. It’s not like Verizon has an amazing track record when it comes to Android updates and Motorola has been disappointing us at every turn since they were purchased by Lenovo.

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Battery Life

I would give the battery life on the Droid Turbo 2 a B+. It definitely gets better battery life than the Nexus 6P, but that’s probably attributable to its massive 3760mAh battery by comparison to the Nexus’ 3450mAh battery. When the Droid Turbo 2 gets its Marshmallow update, we can probably expect it to get better battery life, still. In my experience it had no problem making it through the entire day without needing a recharge, so that’s generally 16 hours off the charger with and going to bed with about 20% left. 

Motorola has done pretty good over the last couple of years optimizing for battery life, but this phone doesn’t seem to be much better than what you would expect from AOSP. That partially could be attributed to the improvements in AOSP, but I think that the Snapdragon 810 is partially to blame for holding this phone back. Moto did a good job of taming the beast, but it is particularly evident when you’re “turbo charging” this guy, which is remarkably fast but the phone also gets really hot when you’re doing that, so keep it away from flammable objects while turbo charging.

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Performance

I’m an opponent of the idea that you can get any real information about a phone based on benchmarks so you’re not going to get any, here (sorry, not sorry), but performance on this phone is above and beyond what you would expect from a Snapdragon 810 phone running Android 5.1.1. It’s very smooth and could handle anything I threw at it without a stutter.

Like I mentioned in the previous section, Motorola did a good job of taming the beast (SD810) and keeping Android’s memory issues on Lollipop under control, so I would highly recommend this phone if performance is important to you.

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The Camera

Overall I would give the camera on this phone a solid B. I didn’t get to spend as much time with this phone as I normally do and that prevented me from fully reviewing the camera but I would say that it leaves something to be desired compared to most 2015 flagships. Android phones really brought the competition this year when it came to camera improvements and Motorola is by no means an exception, but they still aren’t at the same level as an LG, Samsung, or even the new Nexuses. I could make the pictures come out well, but I found that it took a lot of effort on my part rather than just shooting and snapping.

I also can’t stand the camera app that Motorola has on its phones. When everyone else is using tap to focus, it really throws you off to have tapping anywhere snap a photo and focus is basically just a prayer.

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Fingerprint Reader (oh, wait…)

I put this section is because that’s what Derrick Miyao had put into his review of the Nexus 6P a few weeks ago (definitely worth checking out). After now having used several phones that have fingerprint scanners (OnePlus 2, Samsung Galaxy Note 5, and Nexus 6P), I’ve honestly been spoiled by the convenience of having the ability to instantly unlock the phone and I found that it was really annoying after setting up Android Pay that I had to use a pattern unlock again. If you’ve never had a fingerprint scanner on your phone, you probably won’t care but this was a disappointment to me for Motorola’s entire 2015 lineup. This is something that we should see on all flagship phones going forward (unless you’re Blackberry and think it isn’t secure enough).

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Audio

When I play games or music out loud on my phone (that is to say, rarely), I like for the sound to be loud and crisp. I love the trend that HTC started with its Boomsound speakers to bring the speakers around to the front of the phone where they can actually be enjoyed and they’re less likely to be covered up by your palms when you’re playing a game in landscape. At first glance you see that the Droid Turbo 2 is a part of this trend as well – it appears as though you have a great set of stereo speakers much like the HTC One M-series or Nexus 6P.

As it turns out, the top speaker is for the earpiece only – no big deal, you still have two speakers on the bottom part of the phone flanking the Verizon logo, right? Turns out that’s deception as well. Only one of these is actually a speaker and the other is just a hole for collecting dust and small creatures. Covering up the right of the two blocks all of the sound from coming out of the phone. I understand wanting symmetry, but this just feels deceptive – much like the “stereo” blasters on the bottom of the OnePlus 2.

The single speaker that actually does exist makes a pretty decent amount of sound, though. It’s not nearly as loud as it could be if it had a dual setup, but it holds its own for what it is. I noticed that the sound gets a little distorted if you turn it all the way up, but I don’t really have the highest of expectations for phone speakers, and these are honestly pretty average.

Reception

It’s worth mentioning that this phone (much like most of Motorola’s phones) has above average reception across the board. I was getting better coverage than I usually do with my Nexus on all types of coverage (2G-4G LTE). What’s especially impressive about this is that I was using my personal SIM card in the phone while I was testing it, which is a T-Mobile SIM.

The Droid Turbo 2 isn’t marketed as such, but it has all of the LTE bands necessary to be used on Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile and get excellent coverage throughout the country. The only loss for T-Mobile customers is band 12, which is missing from this phone. I was really impressed by this phone’s reception overall and I would give it an A+ for radio quality.

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Overall

Like I mentioned earlier, I think that the Droid Turbo 2 is just short of perfect in every category. The speakers are fine, the camera is fine, the design is fine (albeit shatterproof), the lack of fingerprint sensor is disappointing, and the software would be a lot better if it were devoid of all of the bloatware that Verizon insists upon. Of course it really shines in the way of reception, but there are other options from Motorola if that’s what you want (and for a lot cheaper). The Droid Turbo 2 clocks in at $624 if you buy it outright, or $21.83/mo if you get it on an Edge plan from Big Red. For some people the prospect of a shatterproof phone is worth any amount of money, and for that you really do get your money’s worth. For me though, it’s just not worth it. I’m more likely to pick up a Nexus or the Moto X Pure Edition, but that’s just a difference in my priorities. Of course, there’s no other phone that you can get a Force Awakens edition of, so if you need a BB-8 phone (much like I sort of do) then this is your only option.

Purchase: Verizon Wireless

Verykool Maverick SL5550 review: Unlocked phones get another strong contender

You may have not yet heard of the verykool brand, and that’s okay. It’s a startup based out of San Diego. The parent company, InfoSonics Corp, has a past history as a distributor for more known brands (Samsung, LG) before it branched off to do its own thing.

Verykool has quite a few smartphones under its belt now, and the experience shows. We were given its latest, the Maverick SL5550, to review for you guys today.

The SL5550 comes with a considerable 5.5″ screen and is LTE-ready. Verykool thinks it’s packed with all the things you’d need from a top-notch smartphone, at a very cool retail price of $179. Let’s check out if the Maverick SL5550 is the unlocked smartphone for you.

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Design

I’ll cut to the chase about the Maverick SL5550’s design. I was majorly impressed upon opening the box. An asking price of $179 doesn’t beg for high expectations. I was wrong. Budget phones are beginning to offer a lot, and the SL5550 is certainly no exception.

The classy metal frame slapped me in the face when picking up the smartphone for the first time. It looks and feels so good. The finish on the metal is smooth and matte. It’s flanked by shiny chamfers on both sides, which create a lovely contrast. The metal alone gives the phone an appearance way past its price.

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I also like the front of the phone as well. Tempered glass protection dominates the entire front panel, and verykool was considerate with minimizing bezel.

However, with such an aggressive price, something indeed had to give. The back cover doesn’t keep up with the quality feel of the rest of the phone.

The plastic has a cheap feel, and there’s a hollow response when you tap on it. The glossy finish tries to hide the fact, but it can’t really.

I’m not suggesting that the backing won’t hold up, and the fact that it is removable can be a point of redemption. Yes, the battery in this guy is replaceable. Access to the back also provides a microSD card slot and two SIM slots.

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Performance

The SL5550 is powered by a MediaTek MT6735P processor, which consists of four ARM Cortex-A53 cores running at 1.0 GHz. The MT6735P is comparable to the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 SoC (low-mid range). Therefore, you shouldn’t expect mind-blowing performance.

That isn’t to say it won’t get you by. In my experience, the SL5550’s performance was just fine for basic phone functionality (moving through the UI, opening applications, internet browsing, etc.).

What had me most worried was the fact that the processor is bundled with only 1GB of RAM. It is a big risk going with such a low memory capacity (bear in mind that part of it is reserved for the OS). In my opinion, 2GB should be the minimum in this day and age. It may forgivable for a sub-$100 phone, but not at $179. Fortunately, it didn’t show a problem for basic phone functionality. But there can be slowdown when you ask for more from the system (gaming, camera, multi-tasking, etc.).

The SL5550 comes with 16GB of internal storage. That isn’t a lot when you consider that the OS takes up a chunk of that space. However, it’s fantastic that the concern is supplemented by microSD expansion support (up to 64GB of additional storage).

Regarding audio performance, I was pleasantly surprised. The external speaker (bottom-facing) isn’t anything to write home about, but I felt the headphone output was superb for a phone at this price range.

The sound is clear and rich. And where most budget phones I’ve tried make my favorite tunes uninspiring, the SL5550 is engaging and has that articulated oomph from strong-hitting notes in the music.

Display

I’m always worried when powering up a budget phone for the first time. You never know what you’re gonna get with the display. They usually have some kind of standout weakness in the form of color degradation or a washing-out effect.

I was pleasantly surprised with the SL5550’s display. No, it won’t match top-end panels from Samsung or LG, but it’s not far off either (and that’s saying a lot for a budget phone). It most definitely surpasses what you’d expect from this price range. It’s clear that we’re looking at an IPS panel, because blacks are deep and the image quality is maintained at angles (even surprisingly at extreme viewing angles). Colors are neither vivid nor dull; they should be just right for most people.

But what I will red mark is the resolution. At a 5.5″ display size, a 720p resolution (267 ppi) does show weakness. Elements in the images show a slight blur, especially to someone used to seeing a much more pixel dense display (which isn’t hard these days). However, I admit that this is more of a snobby complaint. The display is just fine for general use.

Camera

I’ll cut to the chase and say I wasn’t overly impressed with the camera performance. The capturing speed is what bugged me the most. It can be too slow to focus and take the shot. But don’t get me wrong, it’s not incompetent. I’m speaking from the perspective of snappy shooters in many smartphone cameras these days.

Spec-wise, we’re looking at a 13MP module as the primary camera and a 8MP front shooter. The megapixel count is impressive for a budget device, but the general consumer must know by now that the amount of megapixels don’t determine camera quality.

Rather than just talk about it, I’ll let you be the judge (click the image to go to the collection):

The camera software is verykool’s own implementation. Navigation through it is just fine, and it has the essential functions you’d expect from smartphone camera software (HDR, panorama, picture effects). There’s a feature called Live Photo Mode, which is a gif-like capture (or moving set of pics).

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A minor annoyance in my experience with the camera is the software’s shutter button. You have to hit it right at the center. Many times when I thought I got the picture, it actually only focused where I tapped.

Battery

The SL5550 packs a modestly-sized 2,500 mAh battery. Considering the price and size, I have no complaints over the capacity. The value is also raised by the fact that can buy another battery and swap it out at desperate times (an ability that many phones have now lost).

But how does that 2,500 mAh battery pack perform in the SL5550? In my experience, fabulously. I consistently managed to get over a day. Specifically, it would be around 30% by the time I went to bed.

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This was with being out and about half the day and at home on WiFi. I tried to cover several use cases (internet browsing, music listening, picture taking, and navigation). The SL5550 held up like a champ. Note that although the battery stats say “Use since last full charge”, it doesn’t actually display the complete usage (must be a bug).

A neat feature verykool has implemented to help on battery life is called Standby Intelligent Power Saving. As implied, it helps minimize usage while the phone is in standby. It worked pretty well in my test. I went to bed at 37% and woke up to 32%

However, note that Google baked this kind of battery-saving feature into Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) – Doze. The SL5550 is on Android 5.1 (Lollipop), so it’s generous that verykool has a similar feature in the meantime until Marshmallow comes through.

Software

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Verykool did it right with regard to software in the SL5550. It is practically stock Android (version 5.1, Lollipop). I will always praise when budget phone manufacturers don’t waste their resources in trying to create a standout UI (which end up being fugly) and just let Android be Android. Stock Android has a UI, just use it and put the effort into something that matters.

/rant.

With that said, the SL5550’s software isn’t completely free of verykool’s own touches. I must say that I was extremely worried about the presentation upon the phone’s initial power up. I was taken to a home screen that didn’t look one bit like Android. Fortunately, this only turned out to be a verykool app that launches on startup (not very cool at the slightest).

You have to press the Home button to get into Android. I also need to say that launcher isn’t Google’s own (you won’t find Google Now on the far left panel), but it might as well be. Lollipop transitions, icons, app drawer, and notification shade are present. And the fluidity and animations when moving through the UI is how it should be.

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Final Thoughts

My overall opinion is that verykool did a fine job with the Maverick SL5550. I think the manufacturer is progressing nicely, and it is making the right compromises for the aggressive price target.

The way I give a passing grade to a budget phone is if I could say I could drop my flagship and use it as my daily driver if I really needed to. With the SL5550, I no doubt could. But what keeps me from saying “I totally could” is the 1GB of RAM and sub-par camera performance. I hope that verykool has these refinements on the priority list for the next phone.

Nonetheless, the SL5550 would definitely be one of my top recommendations for someone looking for a sub-$200 smartphone.

Maverick SL5550 product page

Blu Vivo XL review

Blu Products is an American-based (Miami, FL.) smartphone maker who has been around since 2009. With a primary focus on Android and Windows handsets, the company’s bread and butter is unlocked and less expensive alternatives to other, more familiar manufacturers.

As of today, Blu — Bold Like Us –splits its smart phones into three distinct series. The Dash is the most affordable of its models while the Studio is the mid and upper tier stuff. The Vivo line is where you’ll find the high-end and more polished designs.

The Vivo XL Excel, first introduced at CES in early January features a 5.5-inch display, a 13-megapixel rear camera, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Powered by an octa-core Mediatek processor, the phone packs 16 gigabytes of storage (ROM) with two gigabytes of memory (RAM). It is not a groundbreaking device by any stretch, however it is a package which most typical smartphone users might consider looking into.

We recently spent a few days with the Vivo XL and have put together the following review for you. Please read on for our impressions and takeaways.

First Impressions

The first thing you notice about the phone is actually the box that it comes in. It’s gold and made of a bit thicker construction than most cardboard boxes.  Coupled with a striking black print, the box sets the tone for a more premium smartphone experience.

Upon taking the handset out we notice that it was thinner and lighter than expected. In terms of overall footprint, the phone is pretty close to what you’ll get with the Nexus 6P. At 5.5-inches it’s just a smidge shorter than the Google handset.

After inserting the battery and putting the back case on, the phone feels not unlike the Samsung Galaxy S3.  Although people are often quick to call this material a plastic design, it is actually more of a polycarbonate or synthetic material. Indeed, the battery cover has some give and bending in it, but the honeycomb print on the inside helps keep it from cracking.

Handing the phone off to a couple of people for a quick reaction, the first things typically said were that it was a “nice feeling phone”, that it “looked more expensive than it is”, and it was “comfy”.  Before going further, I should point out here that the retail price of this phone is only $150. Yep, that is without a contract. And, as if that weren’t enough, the phone supports two SIM cards so you can bounce around from carrier to carrier or mix business and personal lines.

The gold finish on the front somewhat reminds us of the matte gold on the Nexus 6P and it almost borders on the rose gold that you’ll find with the iPhone. The model we reviewed was the Liquid Gold so we imagine the Rose Gold version is even more in line with the Apple counterpart. Other colors offered include Chrome Silver and Midnight Blue.

The battery cover has a pattern printed on it however it is not physically textured. While it certainly looks as if it would have a grip, it is smooth to the touch. Another quick impression before turning on the phone was that this battery cover was quick to pick up fingerprints and smudges. The front however was more forgiving.

But, whereas the rear of the Vivo XL easily picks up finger traces, it is also very easy to wipe down. A simple swipe against a shirt or pant leg and we’re back in business. Were you to put this into a protective case there might be nothing to discuss here — this is somewhat of a non-starter of an issue.

General Details

Powering on the phone we found that it offered up bright and sharp display that was easy on the eyes. Although enthusiasts and early adopters might scoff at the bezel around the display, we’ve seen worse and we are quick to remember the value proposition. Remember, we are not dealing with a phone that runs $500 to $700. It would be unfair to compare the traits and hardware materials to something in that realm.

As mentioned before, the Vivo XL supports two SIM cards. It is worth noting, however, that you will have to remove the battery if you want to swap in or out a SIM card in the first position. The second position is more on the side and is accessible simply by removing the battery cover.

The phone supports a micro SD card for expansion. Should the 16GB of storage not be enough, simply add your memory card to increase it.

The power button is on the right hand side just about half way up with the volume buttons slightly higher up the phone but still on the right. The headphone jack is on the top of the phone and is set off to the left about 25% of the way. On the bottom we find the USB Type C port.

Display

With a resolution of 720 by 1,280 pixels, the image looks better than it sounds on paper. Once you get into that 5 inch and five and a half inch space, anything below this is going to look very pixelated. And, while this doesn’t look nearly as sharp as a 1080p or 2k screen, we had no problems reading text and images we’re still very clear.

The display is very bright with a decent amount of contrast. Also, it is possible to adjust the LCD effect from neutral to cool or warm. What this does is slightly tweak the picture by adding or removing a small degree of color. It is a minimal change, going from one to another and is not something that adversely impacts anything you might do on a daily basis.

As expected, there are options to adjust the brightness level manually. Additionally you can set adaptive brightness to dim and lower light settings or brighten itself when outside or in a place where it is called for. In a related note, there’s also an option to adjust economical backlight which automatically adjusts — wait for it — backlight to save power. Toggling on and off you can see what it does for you in different environments. Do know that messing with these sort of settings can have an impact on your battery life, good or bad.

Performance

The Vivo XL draws power from the MediaTek octa-core processor and 2GB RAM. While not a top-tier device by 2016’s standard, we found that this model still punches above its weight. As devices are treading deeper into the 3GB and 4GB realm of memory, we are sometimes quick to want that from our phones. Maybe it comes from trying to future-proof ourselves with desktop computers or laptops, however we should remember that the average user does not necessarily need that much performance.

To test general usage, we installed a handful of applications and games that a typical smartphone user might enjoy. Examples include various social media apps and casual games. We did not find that the phone was necessarily laggy or unresponsive even when we opened up multiple apps at a time. Moreover, hopping from one app to another went as smoothly as we would expect, and the overall performance was actually better than we had hoped for out of a phone at this price point. In other words, don’t let the 2GB RAM deter you.

We had erroneously anticipated becoming frustrated with the experience. It was thought that at some point during testing we would find a flaw or something specific in its performance to point out that says, “see, this is why the phone only cost this much.” Alas, we did not. There were some quibbles, of course, but nothing that pushes the phone out of its price range.

When it comes to the topic of speakers and sound, the phone could be a touch better.  There are no stereo speakers to be found here. Should you play music or a video, your sound will come from the back of the phone.

The speaker grille is just below the battery and, while it puts out a reasonably loud sound, it did have a little bit of tin to it. Again, we have to give the benefit of the doubt because of the price. We are not paying for dual front facing speakers;  we have heard worse on phones in the past and have been content.

Battery lasted us well into a second day of usage, which is what we’d hope for in a 3,150mAh unit. Once the 6.0 Marshmallow update is pushed out and the Doze feature is added we would expect to squeeze out even more. The USB Type C charger replenished the battery at an average rate – adding roughly 25 percent juice in an hour’s charging.

Camera

One area where the phone comes up a little short is in the aspect of the camera. Although there are plenty of software features and customizations to be found, the overall quality leaves a bit to be desired.

In testing the camera, we notice that it doesn’t handle range as well as other models. But, this is where we remind you to consider the cost of the phone. Bearing that in mind, it still performs as expected. Truth be told, we know people who have smartphones with much better cameras that ultimately take bad photos. For whatever reason, they are content with poorly shot images with blurry subjects and terrible lighting. This wouldn’t fare any worse than what they’re currently putting on Facebook.

Click here to see an entire gallery of photos taken with the Blu Vivo XL (Google Photos)

As you can see from the gallery of images the camera blows out the white. Even in using the HDR and/or playing with the flash, we found that white edges in lighting and on the edge of items don’t look as clear or sharp as we want. This is not to suggest you can’t clean them up or run them through a photo program for sharing on social media or messages. Let’s be honest here, we are not printing out our photos or hanging them on a wall. If that is the type of using you plan to be, then you certainly do not want to look at this phone.

Generally speaking, the camera captured the subjects quickly and without too much time to focus. We were particularly impressed with the speed in which the phone captured and saved photos and HDR mode.

As far as overall options are concerned, the Blu Vivo XL offers more than you’d expect out of a budget-friendly phone. There’s plenty here to play around with (see below) when it comes to filters and settings for unique images.

We could spend paragraph talking about images, however it ultimately comes down to use your preference. If you look at the gallery and think to yourself hey this is sufficient for me, then there you go. But, if your first reaction is to point out picture flaws and where it comes up short, then this is not for you.

Software

Powered by Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box, Blu promises this will be upgraded to at least 6.0. We don’t know when that will happen so keep that in mind if you are expecting the latest version of Android. Yes, there are handsets coming out with the newer version of Android, but we venture to guess the target demographic doesn’t really know or care that much about the different versions of Android.

As someone who has spent time with all versions of Android, we have become reliant on some of the features that come with marshmallow, but that is just a personal preference and experience. If you need the latest and greatest, then we lost you a while back.

What we like about this phone is that it is essentially a stock Android experience with no major UI customization.  The first time you use the phone you will find a home screen configured with some shortcuts, folders and widgets. Noticeably, the phone does come with Opera installed as a browser option. The app is prominently displayed on the home page right next to the phone, camera, and messaging icons.

Interestingly enough, there is no button to open up any sort of app tray. Instead, your apps and games are accessible by swiping the home screen. For those of you who have spent time with other brands or versions of Android this may feel a little awkward at first — and maybe a nuisance.

We like to install a custom launcher on our devices so our experience is uniform and tailored to suit our specific needs. It helps us when jumping from one model or device to another on a regular basis.

If you prefer a minimal or clean desktop, you may find yourself a little put off by the Blu way of doing things. Download a lot of apps and you potentially have pages or screens full of icons.

The phone does come with Google Mobile Services which means you get all of the standard applications including Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Drive, Hangouts, and the Play Store. This is an important distinction that not all lower price manufacturers offer.

Look around a bit and you’ll discover there are knock off brands and very inexpensive models on the market. On the surface they may appear to be the phone you want, but play with the software and you see where corners are often cut. Rest easy knowing that with the Blu Vivo XL you can get into the Play Store and download all the titles you expect.

In addition to the Google suite of applications, we found the phone was preinstalled with a couple of Amazon titles including the standard Amazon app, Kindle app and one designed to install other apps and games.

Other preinstalled applications worth noting include an FM radio which works when you plug in headphones, a compass, “Torch” (flashlight), and Yahoo weather. McAfee security comes pre-installed on the phone as well and is designed to keep a watchful eye on your mobile experience. If you don’t like it, you can remove it.

In terms of keyboard the phone is set up to use TouchPal 2016 as the default. This means that you can theme your keyboard or customize it with a wide variety of settings. Some of the options here include toggling word gesture, a dedicated number row, auto-correction, and auto-capitalization. You can also switch the keyboard to learn from your messages and import contact names. This is helpful if you have friends or family or the occasional email with a contact that has a unique name. We’re more of a Google keyboard lover, however this was not that difficult to get used to.

The Chameleon application is pretty cool if you are looking to create a custom or handpicked theme. Simply point the camera at an object or room and you’ll be able to select color droplets based on what’s seen. These colors, once applied, will change your wallpaper as well as the various menus and setting screens.

Along the same lines there is a Theme Park application which lets you choose from a variety of wallpapers including static images and live wallpapers. There are also a half-dozen themes to choose from which are essentially bundles based around a common design.

Digging around a little deeper in some of the settings, you will find options to adjust gestures notifications and other personal preferences. It is also possible to set separate ringtones and message tones for the different SIM cards.

Although the Android OS is pretty much untouched, there’s a little bit here that adds to the overall experience. Nothing that should slow down an Android update from rolling out, mind you, but enough to help it stand out from a pure stock build.

Conclusion

We were impressed with the total package of the Vivo XL.  It was not all that long ago that we paid double for lesser phone and felt okay about it.

As more users become acclimated to the concept of buying a phone and then selecting the carrier, devices such as these will stand out. As much as we like a flagship experience like a Samsung Galaxy S6 or LG G4, it is sometimes hard to justify paying that much money every few years. This goes double if you are on a prepaid carrier and do not have the luxury of equipment installation pricing. If you are looking to pay for your phone up front, then you want to get as much bang for your buck as possible. A phone like the Vivo XL truly is bang for the buck.

Unlocked is the way to go. You need to get used to that concept as soon as you can. Blu, one of the emerging brands to watch in this space, only concerns itself with GSM-ready devices free of any carrier influence.

There is peace of mind knowing that you can leave your carrier behind and still use the same phone when you go across the street to a different provider. Tossing the secondary SIM card here and there’s added flexibility for international travel or multiple phone lines.

Also in its favor is the fact that it’s pretty much untouched Android. That’s a big win for people who don’t like custom UI’s or excessive skinning and preloaded applications. Blu hasn’t necessarily proven to be incredibly adept at pushing out software updates, but that could be a non-issue for Average Joe types. As long as it’s supported with security updates and patches any vulnerabilities, we’re okay recommending the 5.1 Lollipop release.

There is peace of mind knowing that you can leave your carrier behind and still use the same phone when you go across the street to a different provider. Tossing the secondary SIM slot and you have flexibility for international travel or multiple phone lines on the same device.

The Vivo XL is thin, sharp looking, and offers a big display at a small price. For a lot of people, that’s all that matters. The camera could be better and the sound could be more robust, but we could also be looking at a $200 phone instead.

In thinking about the target demographic, we  feel that this is more than sufficient enough to get the job done. Heck, there’s even a little bit left over, too.

Where to Buy

Launching today (January 29), the Vivo XL can be had at Best Buy for a downright incredible price of $99. While that’s a $50 savings off its normal cost of $150, it’s only a short time promotional rate. Look for a wider retail and online seller availability in the coming weeks.