Apple May Use OLED Only Briefly Until Micro-LED Displays Are Ready
While several rumors point towards Apple releasing its first iPhone models with OLED displays next year, the head of LCD manufacturer Innolux Wang Jyh-chau believes that OLED is unlikely to fully replace LCD technology in terms of performance-cost ratio and reliability long term, according to DigiTimes.
Instead, a new display technology called Micro-LED could eventually replace LCD to become the mainstream display technology, as noted by Innolux vice president and mobile product general manager Yang Hung-wen.
In response to market speculation that Apple will adopt OLED for its new iPhone to be launched in 2017, Innolux vice president and mobile product general manager Yang Hung-wen indicated that in order for product differentiation, Apple is likely to do so but it is uncertain whether it will be on a long-term basis, especially when Apple is developing Micro LED on its own.
Apple reportedly opened a secret laboratory in northern Taiwan last year to develop thinner, lighter, brighter, and more energy-efficient displays for future iOS devices, recruiting talent from local display maker AU Optronics and Qualcomm subsidiary SolLink. The report described the new displays as more advanced versions of LCDs currently used in iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other devices.
A subsequent report said Apple may be developing Micro-LED technology at the factory following its acquisition of Micro-LED company LuxVue Technology in 2014. In December 2013, LuxVue raised $25.2 million in funding to pursue the display technology, and the company also filed several Micro-LED patents. At the time, one of the company’s investors said it had “a technical breakthrough in displays.”
Micro-LED displays can be thinner and lighter and allow for improved color gamut, increased brightness, and higher resolutions. The panels do not require backlighting like traditional LCD displays, but they can be difficult and expensive to mass produce. Micro LEDs range in size from 1-micron to 100-micron.
Apple currently uses TFT-LCD displays for iPhones, while the Apple Watch is the company’s only product with an OLED display. Rumors suggest the Apple Watch may gain a Micro-LED display itself as early as the second half of 2017, likely because the device’s small size makes it suitable for testing new display technologies ahead of larger devices like the iPhone and iPad.
Today’s report ultimately means that Apple’s rumored switch to OLED display technology next year may only help keep up with the competition in the short term as it works to develop Micro-LED displays. Apple’s tenth-anniversary iPhone in 2017 is expected to have glass casing and a 5.8-inch curved OLED display supplied by Samsung. Meanwhile, it has been reported Apple still plans to introduce 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models with flat LCD displays like the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
Tags: digitimes.com, OLED, Micro-LED, LCD
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Apple Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Unresponsive iPhone 6 Touchscreens
Thomas Davidson of Pennsylvania, Todd Cleary of California, and Jun Bai of Delaware have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple over an alleged defect that causes iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus touchscreens to become unresponsive and fail, according to court documents filed electronically this week.
The class action complaint, filed with the U.S. District Court for Northern California, accuses Apple of violating California’s consumer fraud statutes, through fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of implied warranty, unjust enrichment, and for violations of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act.
Apple has long been aware of the defective iPhones. Yet, notwithstanding its longstanding knowledge of this design defect, Apple routinely has refused to repair the iPhones without charge when the defect manifests. Many other iPhone owners have communicated with Apple’s employees and agents to request that Apple remedy and/or address the Touchscreen Defect and/or resultant damage at no expense. Apple has failed and/or refused to do so.
As a result of Apple’s unfair, deceptive and/or fraudulent business practices, owners of the iPhones, including Plaintiffs, have suffered an ascertainable loss of money and/or property and/or value. The unfair and deceptive trade practices committed by Apple were conducted in a manner giving rise to substantial aggravating circumstances.
The complaint, lodged by California law firm McCuneWright, LLP, seeks an order that requires Apple to repair, recall, and/or replace affected iPhones and to extend the warranties of those devices for a reasonable period of time. The plaintiffs also seek unspecified damages. A jury trial has been demanded.
The lawsuit cites repair website iFixit, which last week shared a blog post and video about the defect, nicknamed “touch disease.” The defect presents as a gray flickering bar at the top of the screen and a display that’s unresponsive or less responsive to touch. The problem is said to be caused by the touchscreen controller chips soldered to the iPhone’s logic board losing contact after a period of normal usage.
The complaint specifically claims that Apple’s failure to incorporate a “metal shield” or “underfill” over the logic board, as it did with the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c respectively, makes the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus “substantially less durable to foreseeable and reasonable use by consumers and ultimately causes the touchscreen defect.”
iFixit said the defect has affected a growing number of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners, citing its own repair shop colleagues and dozens of complaints on the Apple Support Communities. Multiple customers who brought their iPhones to Apple Stores were told that Apple doesn’t recognize it as an issue and nothing could be done as their iPhones were no longer covered by warranty.
Related Roundup: iPhone 6s
Tag: lawsuit
Buyer’s Guide: iPhone (Caution)
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Apple Invites Media to September 7 Event: ‘See You on the 7th’
Apple today sent out media invites for an iPhone-centric event that will be held on Wednesday, September 7 at 10:00 am at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, California. Media invites (via The Verge) offer up a first look at the theme of the event and feature the simple tagline: “See you on the 7th.”
The fall 2016 event is expected to see the debut of the next-generation iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, which are rumored to feature improved cameras, better processors, and improved water resistance, implemented through the removal of the headphone jack and the introduction of a new flush, pressure-sensitive home button. Both devices are said to look similar to the iPhone 6s, with the same general size and shape, but with relocated antenna bands that no longer span the back of the devices.
Faster LTE and Wi-Fi speeds are rumored, as is a jump in storage space with 32GB positioned as the new minimum and a 256GB option rumored at the high end (possibility limited to iPhone 7 Plus). Display improvements first introduced in the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, including the True Tone feature able to adjust the display to match ambient lighting could be offered, and the larger iPhone 7 Plus is expected to have exclusive features like 3GB RAM and a dual-lens camera for crisper, brighter images.
Apple may use the event to debut a second-generation Apple Watch, said to include better waterproofing, an improved processor, and a built-in GPS chip. Design changes are not expected for the next-generation Apple Watch, but new materials and new bands are always a possibility. Apple rotates its Apple Watch band offerings on a regular basis and we expect to see new designs this fall.
Most of Apple’s Mac lineup is due for an update, but the most highly anticipated machine, the MacBook Pro, will reportedly not be debuting at the event, coming later in the year instead. It’s not known if other Macs will see a refresh announcement at the event, but it’s unlikely, and we’re also not expecting any iPad announcements at this time.
We will, however, get an update on the prospective launch dates of iOS 10, macOS Sierra, watchOS 3, and tvOS 10. We’re expecting to see iOS 10 and watchOS 3 launch shortly ahead of the release date of the next-generation iPhone (rumored to be September 16 or September 23), while macOS Sierra could come a bit later, perhaps towards the end of the month. tvOS 10, as a new operating system, could launch alongside iOS 10 or alongside macOS Sierra.
In line with past events, the September 7 event will begin at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. As it has done with several past events, Apple is likely to stream the event live on its website and on the Apple TV. MacRumors will also be providing full event coverage, both on MacRumors.com and through our MacRumorsLive Twitter account.
Update: Apple has announced it will indeed be live streaming the event.
Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 2, watchOS 3, iPhone 7
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Caution)
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The Posh Volt LTE L540’s insane battery, dual SIM and $120 price tag make it the perfect travel phone (review)
“Good phones are getting cheap, and cheap phones are getting good.” YouTuber MKBHD has been known to repeat this in his videos and he’s generally right. Sure, we do have phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and the Apple iPhone 6S Plus (64GB) with price tags that can reach north of $800, but generally, good phones are getting cheaper and cheap phones are getting better and better every year.
Posh Mobile might not be a name you know right now, but there is a good chance you will soon. It has received some notoriety lately for having the largest LTE phone on the market (review coming soon!), but today we’re focusing on one of its best phones, the Volt LTE L540. It has impressive specs, a sub-$200 price tag, and a massive battery.
Specs
- Display: 5.0″ 720p IPS LCD
- Processor: Mediatek MT6735P Quad-core 1.0 GHz
- Storage: 16GB (expandable 128GB)
- RAM: 3GB
- Camera: 8MP main, 5MP front
- Battery: 4000mAh (embedded)
- Software: Android 5.1
-
Connectivity: Dual-sim,
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900
4G HSDPA+: 850/1900/2100
LTE: 2/3/4/7/17
Read More: Reference guide to US carrier bands and networks
Build
Build quality is one of the most popular areas for OEM’s to cut corners so it can control its costs. Posh has done a pretty good job of walking the line of using decent materials and cost savings. It definitely feels like a plastic phone, but I don’t hate it. I’m used to glass and metal phones at this point from my time spent with the OnePlus 3, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and Samsung Galaxy Note 7 so the L540 is definitely a downgrade in terms of those phones, but it also costs half as much as the cheapest phone in that list, the OnePlus 3 ($119 vs. $400). Those phones are also very fragile, where the L540 isn’t.
The battery cover is a removable hard plastic that comes off easily and provides only a little bit of flex when removed from the phone. It’s decently strong and I think the biggest advantage of having a phone with a plastic backing is that you’re not going to break or dent it with due to a fall. I’ve dropped the L540 a few times and my daughter knocked it off an end table onto hardwood floors and it still looks like I just took it out of the box. When you remove the back you’re greeted by an embedded battery, two SIM card slots, and a micro-SD card slot. Posh passed on dual use SIM/micro SD card slot that has become pretty popular so you can insert all three cards at once.
The camera on the rear of the phone barely sticks out at all and has a small flash directly under it. The only other two features on the faux brushed metal back are the Posh logo and the deceivingly large speaker grill. It’s a very simple design without being too boring.
Posh chose a simple and angular design for the front of the device. The rectangular screen sits inside of pretty big bezels on the top and bottom and larger than we’d like bezels on the right and left. The chin on the bottom reminds us of an HTC device sans front face speakers. The top of the phone houses the standard speaker, sensor, and front-facing camera.
With the screen off you could be forgiven if you thought that the screen had zero bezels on either side, but once you turn the display on, the illusion is quickly broken. The bezels on the sides are among the biggest I’ve seen on a phone this size and absolutely scream “budget phone”.
SEE ALSO: Stop paying for big brand overhead; Buy an unlocked phone online (Elephone)
The L540 feels solid and light in the hand. This is partially due to the fact that the smaller screen size makes the phone a little more compact, but also because it only weighs a touch under 6 ounces. This puts the phone right on par with flagships like the Galaxy Note 7, HTC 10 and budget phones like the ASUS Zenphone 2.
The L540 is by no means provides an offensive experience, but you definitely get what you pay for here.
Display
The display on the Posh Volt L540 is a 5″ 720p LCD IPS display. As with most budget phones, you’re getting LCD instead of AMOLED here. The blacks get decently dark without looking gray which some LCD panels can struggle with. Viewing angles are great with text still able to read at extreme angles and minimal color shifting.
Where the display struggles is top end brightness and color accuracy. I normally keep my devices on auto-brightness during review periods but the aggressive dimming of the display can make it very hard to use. When taking it off auto-brightness you’re forced to jack up the brightness to at least 75% to get a decent experience. It’s rough to try and use it in direct sunlight since the of the low brightness ceiling. On the other hand, the brightness floor is sufficiently low with nighttime reading in bed a pleasing experience.
Colors, unfortunately, feel washed out on the display. This is very obviously not a current-generation display and may, in fact, be something off the shelf several years old. It reminds me a lot of early smartphone displays that you dealt with because there was simply nothing better on the market. That’s exactly what the display is here, just something you deal with. It, again like the build of the device, isn’t offensively bad, but it’s not a standout feature either.
Software
The L540 is running Android 5.1 Lollipop with a custom skin atop of it. If you’re someone who has used Android before, the first thing you’ll notice is the lack of an app drawer. I actually find this pretty puzzling because the software experience across Posh’s device lineup is not standard. Some of its devices feel like Stock Android, some feel heavily skinned. Some have an app drawer, some drop it. I hope at some point Posh can standardize the software across its lineup so customers have an idea of what to expect.
If you’re worried about bloatware, you can rest your head easy because there isn’t much installed on the L540. No, not much bloatware but not much period. It comes with only the basically Google mandated apps like the App Store, YouTube, and Maps and a few that Posh loaded onto it like FM radio, a music player, and a Sound Recorder.
Prominently displayed in the dock alongside the dialer, messenger, and browser is the “Posh Apps” application. The app allows you to earn tokens when you complete surveys, watch videos and install suggested applications that you can spend on app deals and accessories. You’re given 100 tokens right off the bat, but I was never able to do anything with them because the app won’t actually load beyond the tour and splash page. I don’t know if Posh is having issues with the service, it hasn’t begun operations or it’s already killed it, but for right now it’s just an icon taking up space on my phone screen.
SEE ALSO: Xiaomi and Meizu gain first U.S. carrier sales via T-Mobile MNVO (UPDATED)
Performance
Posh Mobile seems to be able to push the quad-core 1.0GHz chip in the L540 about as hard as it can. It does fine with normal tasks like social media apps, texting, and most web browsing. You won’t have an enjoyable experience if you try to play any kind of graphics intensive games with it, though.
I generally stay away from benchmarks, especially on phones like this because I think it sets false expectations. This isn’t a phone that you’re going to swap out your Galaxy S6 or LG G4 for. If you have something like HTC Desire 816 from back in 2014, this would probably seem like an upgrade. You can easily get through the basic tasks with some occasional lag when scrolling through long lists or the graphics get a bit heavy.
Expect to stick with just one task when using the L540. I saw some pretty bad lag and dropped frames when I would run YouTube in the background listening to music and trying to do anything else.
Battery life is easily the standout feature of the L540. Due to the large battery and the low resolution of the display (720p), the battery can easily last two full days of use. When the processor pushes hard you can see a noticeable dip in battery life, but for standard use, a teenager or senior citizen looking for their first smartphone should see wonderful battery life.
Camera
The camera frankly reminds us of something straight out of 2013 or 2014. While it is possible to snap good pictures in optimal conditions, it is a bit of a mess in overly bright or low-light situations. You’ll see foggy pictures, blown out brights, crushed blacks, and soft focus. The camera is best suited for social media pictures and MMS only. Taking pictures with the intention of blowing them up or printing them is outside the capabilities of this camera.
Conclusion
The Posh Mobile Volt LTE L540 definitely makes some compromises to keep the cost down, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad phone- in fact, it’s a pretty good one. The L540 won’t be an upgrade to may of you who own flagships from the last two years, but there are a couple of groups of people I would recommend it for.
First being travelers. If you’re navigating around a city while on holiday or a work trip, the dual SIM capabilities and a huge battery will keep you in contact with your friends, family, and colleagues until you can get back to a charger.
The second group of people would be those seeking their first smartphone, such as kids and seniors. Again, the huge battery will come in handy for those who are on their phones a ton doing social media or might forget to charge their phones at night since they’re coming from flip phones that last multiple days.
I’m not in love with the build materials or the camera, but I’m also coming from flagship phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. This phone isn’t for me. As a reviewer, though I can definitely see that the group of people who this phone is made for would absolutely love it.
The Volt LTE L540 isn’t a perfect phone, but it is a very good one for the price. You can pick it up on Amazon.
Fitbit Charge 2 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Fitbit’s best-selling tracker is the Fitbit Charge HR. Since its January 2015 debut, it’s been one of our favorite fitness trackers at CNET. It’s affordable, can track heart rate decently and isn’t too big.
Now, just in time for the all-important holiday shopping season, Fitbit is unveiling its inevitable sequel. The Charge 2 costs the same as its predecessor ($150 in the US, or £130 in the UK/AU$250 in Australia), does a bit more. Really, the biggest difference is design: the new steel body and swappable bands mean you can add accessories — leather, rubber or even a slightly pricier special edition ($180, or £150/AU$290) with a different band finish.
Design is also the big attraction for the Fitbit Flex 2, the other new Fitbit the company announced today. The Flex 2 lacks a display and heart rate measurement and is more squarely focused on fashion, with optional bangles and pendant accessories.
Exercise modes can be picked on-band, or tracked automatically.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Solid sequel
Most of the Charge 2’s features are largely the same as on the Charge HR: 5-day battery life, continuous heart rate, automatic step and sleep tracking. But the new model is better designed, I think, with replaceable bands and a larger OLED black-and-white display that shows a lot more data than the Charge HR. It felt better on my wrist, but the band also comes across as slightly thicker than the Charge HR.
In fact, now the Charge 2 looks like a larger, thicker version of Fitbit Alta, which launched earlier this year. Like Charge HR, the strap has a standard watch buckle (which I prefer), and a physical button on the side of the tracker to go with a tap-sensitive display that sometimes takes several hard taps to register.
Feels comfy.
Sarah Tew/CNET
I’ve been wearing the Charge 2 for about a week, but this isn’t a full review. That’s because the final software update still isn’t here yet. But so far, the Charge 2’s bigger display is a big help. I can see the time and up to two stats at once: steps and heart rate, for instance. That’s pretty much all I need.
The bad news? The Charge 2 still lacks some stuff that other fitness bands have: this isn’t water resistant for showering or swimming, and it doesn’t have GPS (but it will use your phone’s GPS to record map data for runs, like the watch-like Fitbit Blaze released earlier this year).
Breathing, plus respiration feedback.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Chill out
Fitbit’s finally gotten into meditation, sort of. A new “Relax” mode estimates respiration on the band based on heart rate intervals and triggers either a 2 or 5-minute breathing session. Inhale, exhale. If you time your breaths just right, the background sparkles.
The session doesn’t get recorded on the Fitbit app at all: according to Fitbit, it’s just exploring the idea of mindfulness without statistics. It’s a bit like Apple’s Breathe app for Apple WatchOS 3. I tried it, and it helped me focus a bit. Was it like true meditation? Sorta. I got a feeling I was learning to pace my breathing. But I didn’t really understand if this was helping me in any measurable way. I’d prefer if Fitbit’s app encouraged using Relax at certain times, like after a workout or a long day.
My Cardio Fitness Score.
Sarah Tew/CNET
A new measure for heart health
There’s also a new focus on understanding heart rate. “Cardio Fitness” is Fitbit’s way of trying to boil down heart rate data to make sense as an everyday measure of health. In Fitbit’s newly updated app, a score now gets generated based on everyday activity, which is meant to represent your fitness relative to age and gender.
According to Fitbit, it’s calculated based on “resting heart rate and user profile.” Mine said I was “average to good.” The Cardio Fitness score is based on VO2 Max, a recognized test used to determine how much oxygen is used during exercise. Fitbit’s app offers a more accurate way of sensing Cardio Fitness by running with GPS enabled. I haven’t tried that yet, but stay tuned.
If Fitbit can crack gamifying cardio better, that could be the most important feature update of all. But it’s hard to tell if it works. The Cardio Fitness displays show what level I could be with more exercise or weight loss, but in a generalized way. And there’s a reminder that super-fit athletes can have Cardio Fitness scores well beyond mine. (Thanks, Fitbit.)
Swappable bands.
Sarah Tew/CNET
A few more features
Fitbit’s get-up-and-move way of encouraging standing — which requires 250 steps every hour — is onboard too, just like it is on the Fitbit Alta and will be on the Blaze. It’s less forgiving about being sedentary, which is good because the Apple Watch seems to mark me down as standing for every hour I’m awake.
There are a few notifications that come in on this band: incoming calls, texts and calendar notifications. It’s enough to know if someone’s trying to reach you, but not much more.
A lot of Fitbits
Fitbit makes a lot of trackers right now. This year, there have already been four: the Alta, Blaze, Charge 2 and Flex 2. Thankfully, Charge 2 replaces both the Fitbit Charge and Charge HR. But picking which Fitbit to buy isn’t exactly easy. The Blaze is bigger and has a few more features. The new Flex 2 is waterproof, but doesn’t have heart rate. Only the Surge has GPS, but that older watch now lacks newer features the others have. Charge 2 might end up being the best middle ground.
Full review coming soon
As a replacement for the Fitbit Charge HR, the Charge 2 looks promising. But also, a somewhat safe bet. The real question is whether Fitbit can truly conquer deciphering heart rate and making everyday fitness coaching easier to understand…and whether the Fitbit platform remains a strong sell for people looking to upgrade. I’d say this looks like a modestly improved Charge HR…and for the new display alone, I’d consider an upgrade.
Fitbit Flex 2 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
The Fitbit Flex 2 just might be the most stylish Fitbit we have seen to date.
It’s also the company’s first waterproof tracker, and the latest in an already large lineup of products that includes the Fitbit Blaze, Alta and newly announced Charge 2.
The Flex 2 is 30 percent smaller than its predecessor, the Fitbit Flex. It’s slim, discreet and has long battery life (up to five days). I can’t help but be reminded of the Jawbone Up2, which was an old favorite of mine.
The tracker is available now for $100 (£80, AU$130) and will begin shipping towards the end of September or early October. It comes with a rubber strap in both large and small sizes, but the beauty of the Flex 2 is its customization.
The Fitbit Flex 2 comes with a rubber strap.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The actual tracker is incredibly small, and pops into a new USB charger when it needs a top-off. It can also be used with a variety of accessories, including leather straps, metal bangles and necklaces. There will even be more luxurious bands from designers like Tory Burch and Vera Wang. The actual tracker is incredibly small, and pops into a new USB charger when it needs a top-off.
Related Links
- Everything Fitbit announced
- Hands-on with the Fitbit Charge 2
- Everything new in the Fitbit Blaze
As for features, it’s what you would expect from a Fitbit: It can measure steps, distance, calories burned, active minutes and sleep. The tracker also includes move reminders and can automatically recognize and record a variety of exercises like running and biking.
But there’s no heart-rate sensor or a display. The Flex 2 instead features five LED lights (along with vibration) to show step goal, move reminders and even alerts for incoming calls and text messages. After wearing it for a few days, I still get frustrated when I look down at my wrist expecting to see the time. It’s slim, but I wouldn’t wear it with a another watch.
The Flex 2 does not have a display.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Part of the reason we like Fitbit’s products is for the ecosystem. The Fitbit app is easy to use and has a large social base. The company is also adding a new adventures feature that uses your daily step goal to digitally travel to remote locations, such as Yosemite National Park. It’s an interesting concept that we haven’t seen before.
The band feels nice and the accessory straps, which start at $15 (roughly £10 in the UK and AU$20 in Australia) for rubber straps and go all the way up to $100 (£75 in the UK and AU$130 in Australia) for the gold bangle, help give it some extra personality. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of more expensive Fitbit products, but the Flex 2’s discreet style and waterproof design will be hard to pass up.
We will have a full review of the Flex 2 in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
Honor 8 review: A new competitor in the U.S.
Same old software frustrations, wrapped up in a fantastic package for $399.
After seeing considerable growth and brand awareness in Europe, Honor is properly launching itself in the U.S. Sure it released its budget-minded Honor 5X earlier this year … but that was a bit more of a test run — this, the Honor 8, is the true embodiment of what Honor is capable of right now, and it’s launching in the States right on cue with the launch in China and Europe.
Though Honor’s phones can cover a wide range of prices, the Honor 8 really hits the current sweet spot when it comes to getting value for your money: $399 starting for an unlocked phone with almost all of the specs you want in a high-end phone, wrapped up in hardware that rivals that of the better-known brand names out there. It has a crowd-pleasing size, great screen, fingerprint sensor and good performance, and even though its software isn’t leading the industry it has improved immensely in recent months.
This is just the beginning of a long play for Honor in the U.S., with the obvious goal being to bring the Honor name to the U.S. and starting to build brand awareness. For this reason the Honor 8 itself doesn’t have to sell in the tens of millions, and Huawei can certainly eat the costs, but it shouldn’t have to worry about that — the Honor 8 is poised to be a great budget-conscious, flagship-challenging option. Read on for our full review.
The good
- Fantastic screen
- Long battery life
- Great specs for $399
- Awesome fingerprint sensor
The bad
- EMUI still has room to improve
- Entirely average speaker
- Proprietary fast charging
- Camera hit or miss in low light
About this review
I (Andrew Martonik) am writing this review after just over a week using an unlocked U.S. version of the Honor 8, running on T-Mobile in New York City, San Francisco and Seattle. The phone arrived with software version L04C567B122 (with the July 1 security patch), and was not updated during the course of the review. The phone was provided to Android Central by Honor for this review.
Well-executed design
Honor 8 Hardware
If there’s one thing we’ve all learned from watching Android phones in the past couple of years, it’s that the price you have to spend to get some great hardware has decreased dramatically. Huawei’s sub-brand Honor has been among the biggest manufacturers pushing this notion along, in both the super-budget space but also the mid-range segment with phones like the Honor 8.
Externally, Honor seems to have taken some influence from the Galaxy S6 and S7 and put its own spin on things — glass panes on both sides of the phone are accented by a very nicely crafted metal frame that has just enough texture to add grip, aided by shiny chamfered edges near the glass. The glass itself takes on the familiar “2.5D” curved design down into the metal, and Honor executed the build immaculately. Everything else is standard fare: a headphone jack, USB-C port and speaker on the bottom, fingerprint sensor in the back and easy-to-press but tough to distinguish power and volume buttons on the right.
With just a 5.2-inch display the Honor 8 is quite compact, though the bezels around it are just average-sized nowadays. The display itself is a 1920×1080 IPS LCD that’s fantastic at any price, and extra impressive in a $399 phone. It’s far better than the OnePlus 3’s, and is right up there with the flagships — minus the Galaxy S7 — in all-around clarity, brightness and colors.
Inside, you’ll see a processor name even lesser-known than the Honor brand: Huawei’s own Hisilicon Kirin 950, which is an octa-core unit that isn’t the bleeding edge from the company but is darn close, and more than capable of driving the interface at 1080p resolution when paired with 4GB of RAM. There’s also an ample 32 or 64GB of storage inside, paired with a microSD card slot if that’s your sort of thing.
 |
5.73 in145.5 mm |  |
| 2.8 in71 mm | 0.3 in7.5 mm | |
| 5.4 oz 153 grams |
- Display:
- 5.2-inch IPS LCD
- 1920×1080 (423 ppi) resolution
- Cameras:
- Dual 12MP f/2.2
- 1.25-micron pixels
- 8MP f/2.4 front camera
- Battery:
- 3000 mAh battery
- Non-removable
- 9V/2A fast charging
- USB-C connector
- Chips:
- Kirin 950 octa-core CPU
- 4GB RAM
- 32/64GB storage
- microSD card slot
More: Full Honor 8 internal specs
There are really just two downsides to this glass-backed design. The first being how slippery it is … and not in your hands, but on flat surfaces. Like we saw back with the Nexus 4, the Honor 8 is perfectly flat on the back. That looks really nice in images, but means that it just straight up won’t stay put when you lay it on a table, desk or countertop. My Honor 8 regularly slid dangerously close to the edge of tables at dinner and I started charging it on the floor next to my bed instead of on my nightstand for fear that it’d fall and break.
The other downside here is durability. In just a week using my Honor 8, it has several easy-to-see scratches on the back, and one big gouge that’s surprisingly deep. Glass backs will scratch, that’s always the case, but I’m used to mine lasting a bit longer before showing such signs of wear.
Those are honestly pretty minor “issues” that are valid trade-offs in order to have a sleek and beautiful phone. Ergonomically the Honor 8 works really well, and the only thing that’s moderately tough to reach on the screen is the notification shade — which itself is perfectly handled by the inclusion of a swipe-down gesture on the fingerprint sensor to perform the action.
Still so frustrating
Honor 8 Software
Huawei has come a long way with its EMUI software, now in version 4.1 and built on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The pre-installed apps are intuitive and fast, the settings area is soundly designed and there are lots of baked-in features that you haven’t come to expect on every other phone.
Visually, I can’t complain much about what EMUI has settled on considering that it’s all very consistent and smooth — it’s just a bit dated. Though cohesive and arguably beautiful, big areas of the experience like the lock screen, notification shade and launcher all represent heavy-handed designs that don’t jive with modern expectations for Android phones and are miles behind the smooth and intuitive experience you get from other manufacturers that have been selling millions of phones in the West for years.
The huge pile of little features available in the Honor 8 is rather astounding, though it makes the phone a bit daunting to get set up and use right away. You can configure presses of various buttons to perform certain actions, configure the fingerprint sensor’s button to do dozens of things (like bring down the notification shade, which is nice), and can configure just about everything. On the backside of that, you’ll also still go crazy with all of EMUI’s warnings about power consumption and notifications — and if you tap the wrong thing or set things up improperly you’re going to be missing notifications and potentially see extra issues with app performance.
Too many features are one thing, but completely broken and user-hostile ones is another
The notification shade doesn’t properly handle many expanding notifications, the lock screen by default doesn’t show notifications and after turning them on is still odd to use, and the launcher is like sandpaper to my eyes. Many of EMUI’s built-in features are heavy-handed and by default are set to generally user-hostile states, emphasizing battery savings over all else.
Nothing in the software is downright horrible or a deal breaker for me, but none of it feels ideal, efficient or anywhere near the best software experience you can get out there on a phone today. There are still a lot of rough edges here that need tuned up if Honor expects to draw U.S. consumers away from what they’re used to getting from Samsung, HTC, Google and scrappier upstarts like OnePlus. And if rumors and leaks are to be believed, Huawei has a major redesign of EMUI in the works that will likely address these issues — I’m extremely hopeful that that’s the case.
Every day
Honor 8 Daily use
After I got everything configured and made myself familiar (again) with the quirks of EMUI, I really enjoyed using the Honor 8. The phone was refreshing to hold thanks to its smaller size and excellent build quality, and really reminded me of the Galaxy S7 in that respect. I can’t remember a single time when the software slowed down or an app stuttered, no matter how hard I pushed it, and even with that the battery held up every single day.
The single software outlier I found was that location services seemed to completely lose track of where I was if they weren’t in use for a longer period of time, then quickly snap back to the proper place when I requested — something that seems like a clear bug, and is likely easy to fix.
Battery life
The 3000 mAh battery is a completely standard and expected capacity for this size of phone, and it’s capable of offering really solid battery life as well. Even with most of the annoying battery-first settings in the software disabled or mitigated, I still made it through a full heavy day on the Honor 8.
Even when you disable all of the power-saving features, you easily get a full day of hard use
How it handled one particularly tough day impressed me: over three hours of screen-on time, a couple hours of hotspotting, the whole day on LTE, taking photos, keeping up with messaging and social media apps I made it almost 17 hours before plugging in. On simpler days when I didn’t push it hard, and spent more time on Wi-Fi, I ended the day with 30 or 40% battery left in the tank — that’s extremely impressive.
The Honor 8 doesn’t offer wireless charging despite its glass back, but does work with its own proprietary quick charging solution that you’ll only find from its in-box charger — using a 9V/2A brick that can add 45% to the battery in just 30 minutes. When plugging it into my Quick Charge 3.0 wall plug or Quick Charge 2.0 battery it would only pull about 5V/1A, which is rather slow … a “standard” 5V/2A charging plug gave it the best speeds outside of its own in-box charger. It’s rather annoying to not have a Quick Charge-compatible system here that lets me use my other standard accessories to the fullest with the Honor 8, since I’m really not likely to carry this pre-packaged charger just for this phone.
Cameras
Honor is making a big deal about the dual 12MP cameras on the back of the Honor 8, rightfully so, but this is also a known quantity after debuting on the Huawei P9 earlier in 2016. Despite the fact that we lost the Leica branding (and yes, it was just branding), we’re looking at a very interesting dual-sensor setup with one providing the phone with a color image and the other monochrome — the combination of which purports to offer better overall image quality. Each sensor sits behind the same relatively slow f/2.2 lens and there’s no OIS to be found here, and both of those specs are somewhat disappointing nowadays if we’re pitting the Honor 8 against its direct competition.
The Honor 8’s camera software is relatively simple from the main view, giving you quick access to often-used toggles and live filters. You can take a single swipe to jump into the settings, and swiping the other direction gets you into shooting modes. Unfortunately there’s no option for automatic HDR … which is really table stakes in 2016. The app is relatively quick and can open up from a double-press of the volume down key when the screen is off, or can be set to open with a double press of the fingerprint sensor button.
The quality you get here is really great when the light is good, but that should be expected from every phone over $200 or so in 2016. Colors pop, edges are crisp and there’s a good enough dynamic range that I didn’t always need to hop into HDR mode (though I did often to achieve a certain look). In lower light, the slow-ish lens and lack of OIS were apparent — if I steadied my hand and took a few different shots I’d usually get one that was perfect and crisp, but any random shot when I pulled the phone out and didn’t have physical stabilization it’d be more of a mixed bag. Situations in between with decent but less-than-great light almost always required HDR or manual metering to get the right kind of shot.
This is a really solid camera, that could be so much better with OIS and faster lenses
Overall, this is a solid camera in terms of being quick and often capturing the shot you expect to get, but it takes a bit of massaging in some situations and in lower light falls short of what the OnePlus 3 can do at the same price. With the addition of OIS and a faster lens, I have no doubt that these sensors and this processing could provide a top-tier overall camera experience.
The front-facing camera is an 8MP unit (with 1.4-micron pixels) that annoyingly defaults to an unnatural skin-smoothing “beauty” mode, but other than that does the job. There’s a lot of resolution to work with there and a few software settings, but for the most part is a point-and-shoot situation — plus an extra feature of detecting smiles to auto-capture.
Odds and ends
A few quick hits to round this thing out:
- Mobile network performance was great everywhere I went.
- The speaker is small and unremarkable.
- Because of the flat back, the vibration motor feels very weak when the phone is on a table.
- There’s an IR port on the top for controlling appliances and TVs.
- A lot of EMUI’s ringtones are … very bad.
- You can uninstall all of the pre-installed “bloat” apps, and disable many built-in Honor apps.
- EMUI makes it a lot easier to switch launchers now, but it’s still relatively hidden.
Solid phone, great price.
Honor 8 Bottom line
Before even approaching the pricing of the Honor 8, this is a really great phone. Externally, it’s slick and can grab eyes with a few subtle design features while also feeling solid and built with high tolerances. The metal and glass protect really great internal specs that can power the phone through all of your regular tasks, with a battery that lasts all day (and then some), and you can view it all on a really top-end display. The camera, while coming up short of amazing, is great in many situations and leverages its dual sensors for neat effects and better image quality.
The only real disappointment here is that the Honor 8 is launching with EMUI 4.1, which is serviceable but far from the great experience you can get on other phones today — both at this price and below. The promise of EMUI 5 may be enough to help you put up with the quirks, heavy-handed design and mounds of annoying features, but I wouldn’t blame you if you decided that you’d rather pick a phone with software you know is great today.
But now, let’s talk about that entry price for the Honor 8: yes, you get all of this for just $399. For that price you never expect to get the little fringe features that are missing here, but you also don’t always get performance, battery life, a screen and a camera that are collectively this good either. You don’t often get that kind of package even at a higher price. And at $399, you may even be able to deal with the software for a little bit while you wait for an update.
The Honor 8 is a really great phone that is going to give everyone in the U.S. who is first experiencing Honor something positive to talk about. If the software can improve and marketing can bring people to be aware that Honor actually exists here, the future is looking bright for this brand.
See at Honor
Moto G4 Play with 5-inch 720p display is coming to India on Sep. 6
If you’re not a fan of the 5.5-inch form factor of the Moto G4 or the Moto G4 Plus, you’re in luck, as Motorola is all set to launch the 5-inch Moto G4 Play in India next week. The phone will make its debut on September 6, and will be sold exclusively on Amazon India.
Here it is! Put an end to the #FearOfMissingOut Now #NeverMissOut on the most affordable Moto G ever! #MotoG4Play pic.twitter.com/W5xSN1HNCo
— Moto India (@Moto_IND) August 29, 2016
While the Moto G4 and G4 Plus feature Full HD screens, the Moto G4 Play comes with a 5-inch 720p display. Other specs include a Snapdragon 410 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 16GB storage, microSD slot, 8MP camera, 5MP front shooter, LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (still no love for 5GHz networks), and a 2800mAh battery.
With the Moto G4 retailing for ₹12,499 ($185), Motorola will likely position the Moto G4 Play for under ₹10,000, which will see the phone duking it out with the likes of the Redmi Note 3 and the Vibe K5 Plus.
Moto G4 Play comes to Canada for $0 on contract
Tell me about the Moto G4 Play in Canada.
Another Moto G4 variant has debuted in Canada, and it’s not the relative spec powerhouse of its Moto G Plus counterpart. The Moto G Play is now available at various Canadian carriers, including Bell, Virgin Mobile, Telus, Koodo, SaskTel, and Wind Mobile, for $0 on contract.
Featuring a 5-inch 720p display, a Snapdragon 410 SoC with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage, the Moto G4 Play is a slight improvement over last year’s Moto G3 — at least the one sold in Canada with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage — but it loses a few things in translation, including camera resolution.
The device has a 2,800mAh battery, which is a significant bump over last year, and an 8MP rear shooter with an f/2.2 aperture lens, and a 5MP front-facing camera with the same lens setup. Running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box, the phone is relatively snappy, but its Snapdragon 410 chip can’t muster the same responsiveness as the newer S617 chip in the Moto G4 and G4 Plus. Indeed, this is the same processor used in last year’s Moto G3.
The Moto G4 Play is available for $0 on contract from all carriers, and between $199 and $249 outright.
See at Motorola
T-Mobile offers unlimited LTE tethering, but at a cost
T-Mobile wants you to spend even more to use your phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Earlier this month, T-Mobile announced that it would be eliminating data buckets by moving to a T-Mobile One plan that offers unlimited data, text, and calls starting at $70 per month for the first line, $50 for the second line, and $20 for the third up to eight lines.
The plan offers unlimited video streaming as long as it’s in SD, and Wi-Fi hotspot support at 2G speeds. The latter part has been a point of contention for customers, and T-Mobile is making amends by quadrupling tethering speeds to 512kbps. The carrier is also launching the T-Mobile One Plus plan for an additional $25 per line per month, offering unlimited video streaming in HD along with unlimited LTE tethering.
With T-Mobile One Plus, you get “unlimited high-speed 4G LTE mobile hotspot data”, which gives you LTE speeds when using your phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot. As you can expect, the plan isn’t truly unlimited, as T-Mobile will throttle speeds should you use up more than 26GB of data while tethering. T-Mobile One Plus subscribers also have the ability to stream unlimited HD content on T-Mobile’s network, and get double the data speeds (up to 256kbps) when roaming internationally in over 140 countries.
If you’re not interested in using your data plan to connect to other devices, T-Mobile is breaking out the HD streaming option as an add-on. The carrier is offering one-day passes that allow you to stream unlimited HD content for $3 per day.
T-Mobile One Plus plans will be available from September 1, and the HD passes will be rolling out in October. While the new plans are beneficial to those that consume a lot of data, the pricing will adversely affect customers with limited data requirements. Existing customers will be able to retain their current plans, but those taking a new line after September 1 will have to opt for the pricier T-Mobile One or One Plus plans.
AIVAnet 