How indie game ‘TumbleSeed’ made it to the Nintendo Switch

Greg Wohlwend is an accomplished independent game designer and artist whose résumé includes critically acclaimed mobile titles Threes, Ridiculous Fishing and Puzzlejuice. His games tend to be whimsical and playful, and his latest project, TumbleSeed, is no different in this regard.

TumbleSeed is a “rolly roguelike” — players guide an adorable rolling seed up a treacherous, procedurally generated mountainside pockmarked with deadly holes and dangerous creatures. Fall into a hole or run into a nasty beast, and players are sent back to the base of the mountain to begin the climb all over again. The concept is easy to grasp, but the game itself is difficult to master, Wohlwend says.

In that sense, it’s reminiscent of early Nintendo Entertainment System games like Tetris or Dr. Mario. That’s one reason Wohlwend wanted to bring TumbleSeed to Nintendo’s new console, the Switch.

“TumbleSeed has a lot of the same values a Nintendo game has,” Wohlwend says. “It’s colorful and easy to get into. But it also has a lot of the things from the NES days, especially difficulty. We’ve spent a ton of energy on getting TumbleSeed to fit that combination of natural-to-learn mixed with challenging and fun, even after playing for two years. That’s how long we’ve been playing, and we still genuinely have fun with it.”

To get TumbleSeed on the Switch, Wohlwend reached out to Nintendo this past summer. He describes the process as a pain-free experience.

“We always felt like TumbleSeed would really be at home on a Nintendo console, so we cold-called them, and, luckily, they felt the same,” he says. Wohlwend’s experience with Nintendo should be a positive sign for other independent developers looking to get in on the Switch.

Nintendo has been rehabilitating its image as an indie-friendly studio for years now. In 2013, the company removed a handful of onerous restrictions on independent developers looking to develop games for the Wii U, including the requirement that they have “relevant game-industry experience” and a separate, secure office outside of the home. These regulations were out-of-touch with the rising independent market — Nintendo’s competitors, Microsoft and Sony, were courting indies with hassle-free registration processes and headlining spots during their major press conferences.

Today, Nintendo isn’t as walled-off as it once was. Registering to be a Nintendo Developer requires basic personal information, and the company highlights its indie selection with special events like the #Nindies Summer Jam. A handful of larger indie studios have released games on Nintendo consoles, including Shovel Knight from Yacht Club Games, Octodad: Dadliest Catch from Young Horses and Severed from Drinkbox Studios.

As it prepares to launch the Switch, Nintendo is dedicated to the indie space, a spokesperson tells Engadget. “Nintendo greatly values its collaborations with indie developers across the world, and is working closely with them on a wide range of content,” the representative says. “We look forward to discussing more as we approach GDC 2017.”

The Switch is set to get a smattering of independent games, including modern cult classics like The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+, massive hits including Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove and Terraria, fresh IPs like Rime and Redout, and, of course, TumbleSeed.

These changes have bolstered Nintendo’s reputation as a hub for independent games, but many low-profile developers still feel locked out of the company’s systems. Take Robert Boyd, for example: He’s the co-founder of Zeboyd Games, the studio behind Cthulhu Saves the World and the Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series. Zeboyd is working on Cosmic Star Heroine, a PC, PlayStation 4 and Vita game that raised more than $100,000 on Kickstarter back in 2013.

On January 11th, Boyd said on Twitter that he was interested in bringing Cosmic Star Heroine to the Switch, but he didn’t have access to a developer kit because he didn’t have an existing relationship with Nintendo.

“As far as I know, it’s impossible to get Switch devkits now if you’re an indie who Nintendo isn’t specifically seeking out,” he said.

@ShaunMusgrave It’s looking like unless Nintendo makes the first step, you’re not getting a devkit until post-launch.

— Robert Boyd (@werezompire) January 14, 2017

Boyd isn’t alone in his assessment of Nintendo’s indie-outreach efforts. A handful of independent developers, including Yacht Club Games and Tequila Works, recently told US Gamer that Nintendo should be doing more to build relationships with talented independent developers.

However, Wohlwend’s experience with Nintendo suggests there’s hope for a studio like Zeboyd. Wohlwend has historically specialized in mobile games, and TumbleSeed will be his first game on a Nintendo platform.

“I can’t speak for what’s happened in the past because this is the first time I’ve worked with Nintendo, but I can say they’ve been a joy to work with,” Wohlwend says. “They’re truly as excited about TumbleSeed as we are about being on the Switch, and so it’s been a really solid partnership so far.”

Wohlwend is excited about the Switch’s ability to be both a mobile and a living-room console, and the new HD Rumble system. He says that in TumbleSeed, the Switch’s HD Rumble gives players a sixth sense of where they are in the world and how fast they’re rolling. Plus, he says, the console itself simply feels right, seamlessly shifting between hand-held and big-screen gaming.

“There’s a wonderful invisibility to the console that I think all beautifully designed objects have,” Wohlwend says. “It gets out of the way and showcases the games like no other console I’ve owned.”

That’s precisely why many other independent developers want to bring their games to the Switch. Developers like Boyd still face Nintendo’s invisible walls, while others like Wohlwend get lucky and find an easy in. If the rules continue to relax and Nintendo takes feedback from frustrated developers seriously, the Switch could represent a new phase of third-party, independent development for Nintendo — a phase four years in the making.

Watch the first trailer for Marvel’s ‘Iron Fist’ on Netflix

With Marvel’s Iron Fist hitting Netflix on March 17th, it’s about time we’ve got a full look at the series. The series’ first full trailer quickly introduces you to Danny Rand (Finn Jones), who returns to New York City after being away for 15 years. His goal? To reclaim his family’s company, and, apparently, beat up a lot of bad guys with mystical martial arts powers. As you probably expected, Iron Fist will lead to the eventual team up of Netflix’s Marvel shows later this year in The Defenders.

Netflix’s bet on “adult” Marvel series has mostly paid off. Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage were well received by audiences and critics alike (though they all ran into problems towards the end of every season). There’s a good chance Iron Fist will be a rollicking good time, at least based on past evidence. Though, like Marvel’s Doctor Strange, its origins as a kitschy 70’s-era comic with troublesome racial politics might be an issue for some.

Source: Netflix (YouTube)

Email Privacy Act has another run at becoming law

If the definition of madness is doing the same thing and expecting different results, someone should check in on the Email Privacy Act. The bill is taking its third run at becoming law after failing to pass the house in 2013 and the senate in 2016. Reuters reports that the bill was waved through congress but faces a difficult time of it in the Senate.

The law that governs how the police and security services can access our emails is the Electronic Communications Privacy act from 1986. The date alone should tell you how antiquated the law is here, basically letting agencies read your emails without a warrant. Nobody had anticipated how much of our lives would be carried out over email, so the law doesn’t cover it.

As the ACLU argues in a letter, the existing law essentially violates the fourth amendment, protecting citizens against unreasonable search and seizure. Richard Salgado, Google’s head of information security, adds that the bill has good bipartisan support in the House. Salgado describes the existing regime as a “constitutional flaw,” letting the FBI and others read our private emails without a warrant.

Unfortunately, despite the backing of heavyweights like Google and Microsoft, the bill still has to go back to the Senate. When the act reached that part of the hill last year, republican senators added amendments that were designed to kill it. John Cornyn pushed an amendment that gave law enforcement agencies warrantless access in counterterrorism cases. The clause also gave wide-ranging powers to the FBI, enabling it to force people to hand over personal data without oversight.

Additionally, Jeff Sessions — who is currently nominated to be attorney general — added an additional poison pill of his own. His contribution to the bill was a line enabling officers to bypass warrant requests in an emergency. Of course, such a wide-ranging shortcut was bound to be abused, and so the bill’s co-sponsors withdrew the whole thing. It’s not clear what, if anything, is going to change given the makeup of the current Senate compared to last year. But we can all keep our fingers crossed and keep calling our elected officials in the hope of getting this passed.

Source: Reuters

Stanford students recreated a 5,000-year-old Chinese beer

Homebrewing is a niche hobby today, but before the industrialization of the industry, a lot of beer was made in people’s kitchens. Li Liu, a professor in Chinese archaeology at Stanford, was part of a team that recently discovered a 5,000-year-old beer recipe that she figured could be recreated at home. The process was approachable enough for students in her Archaeology of Food: Production, Consumption and Ritual course to make in the classroom, so that’s what they did.

The recipe, found during research that presents the earliest known evidence of beer production in China, consists primarily of grains like millet and barley, as well as Job’s tears (a type of grass native to southeast Asia) and traces of yam and lily root. The concoction produced is thicker than modern beers, and one student said it had “a pleasant fruity smell and a citrus taste, similar to a cider.”

Liu said she was surprised to find that barley was part of the recipe, since the earliest evidence of barley seeds in China dates back to about 4,000 years ago. This could mean that barley was first brought to China for alcoholic uses, rather than other food purposes.

“Archaeology is not just about reading books and analyzing artifacts,” Liu said. “Trying to imitate ancient behavior and make things with the ancient method helps students really put themselves into the past and understand why people did what they did.”

Ancient drinks have captured the imaginations of many consumers and enthusiasts, which is why breweries like Dogfish Head make their own throwback beverages based on the traditions of yesteryear. For those wanting to learn more about the process, watch Liu explain the process in the video below.

Source: Stanford

CRISPR, ‘binge-watch’ and ‘botnet’ are now in the dictionary

The vocabulary experts who decide which terms get added to the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary are at it again. Today, over 1,000 new words made the cut from fields like science, tech, medicine pop culture, sports and more. Among the new additions are CRISPR, botnet and binge-watch alongside microbiome, truther, SCOTUS and FLOTUS. Other notable new entries include Seussian — of, relating to, or suggestive of the works of Dr. Seuss — and the technical term for the inability to recognize faces: prosopagnosia. Merriam-Webster doesn’t publish the full list of new additions, but you can take a brief survey via the source link below.

Source: Merriam-Webster

References to Next-Generation MacBook Pro Models Discovered in macOS 10.12.4 Beta

While the latest MacBook Pro with Touch Bar notebooks launched under four months ago, references to possible next-generation models have already been discovered in the latest macOS 10.12.4 beta.

Apple blog Pike’s Universum uncovered a trio of motherboard identifiers that do not correspond with any current MacBook Pro model, but use the exact same processor power management data as 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models released in late 2016. The plist files do not exist in previous macOS Sierra versions.

The next-generation MacBook Pro models would likely be powered by Intel’s faster Kaby Lake processors, which are the natural successor to Skylake processors used in late 2016 models. This would be in line with a report from six weeks ago claiming the MacBook Pro will receive only minor bumps in processing power for 2017.

Mac-B4831CEBD52A0C4C would likely be for two new 13-inch MacBook Pro models with function keys. The models would likely have Kaby Lake processors with a maximum Turbo Boost of 3400 MHz and 4000 MHz respectively.

Mac-CAD6701F7CEA0921 would likely be for three new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar models. These notebooks would likely have Kaby Lake processors with a maximum Turbo Boost of 3500/3700 MHz and 4000 MHz respectively.

Mac-551B86E5744E2388 would likely be for three new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar models. These notebooks would likely have Kaby Lake processors with a maximum Turbo Boost of 3800/3900 MHz and 4100 MHz respectively.

The blog said it checked the performance bias setting of each motherboard and determined that they are unlikely to be for desktop models such as the iMac and Mac Pro. There is also no GPU data as of yet.

The blog cross-referenced Intel’s lineup of Kaby Lake processors currently available with the motherboard identifiers and was able to determine which chips are likely to be used in each new MacBook Pro:

13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar

Intel Core i5-6360U 2.0 GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.1 GHz) with Intel® Iris™ Graphics 540 (15W)
Will be replaced by the:
Intel Core i5-7260U 2.2GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.4 GHz) with Intel® Iris™ Plus Graphics 640 (15W)

Intel Core i7-6660U 2.4 GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.4 GHz) with Intel® Iris™ Graphics 540 (15W)
Will be replaced by the:
Intel Core i7-7660U 2.5 GHz (max Turbo Boost 4.0 GHz) with Intel® Iris™ Plus Graphics 640 (15W)

13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Intel Core i5-6267U 2.9 GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.3 GHz) with Intel® Iris™ Graphics 550 (28W)
Will be replaced by the:
Intel Core i5-7267U 3.1 GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.5 GHz) with Intel® Iris™ Plus Graphics 650 (28W)

Intel Core i5-6287U 3.1 GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.5 GHz) with Intel® Iris™ Graphics 550 (28W)
Will be replaced by the:
Intel Core i5-7287U 3.3 GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.7 GHz) with Intel® Iris™ Plus Graphics 650 (28W)

Intel Core i7-6567U 3.3 GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.6 GHz) with Intel® Iris™ Graphics 550 (28W)
Will be replaced by the:
Intel Core i7-7567U 3.5 GHz (max Turbo Boost 4.0 GHz) with Intel® Iris™ Plus Graphics 650 (28W)

15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Intel Core i7-6700HQ 2.6 GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.5 GHz) with Intel® HD Graphics 530 (45W)
Will be replaced by the:
Intel Core i7-7700HQ 2.8 GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.8 GHz) with Intel® HD Graphics 630 (45W)

Intel Core i7-6820HQ 2.7 GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.6 GHz) with Intel® HD Graphics 530 (45W)
Will be replaced by the:
Intel Core i7-7820HQ 2.9 GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.9 GHz) with Intel® HD Graphics 630 (45W)

Intel Core i7-6920HQ 2.9 GHz (max Turbo Boost 3.8 GHz) with Intel® HD Graphics 530 (45W)
Will be replaced by the:
Intel Core i7-7920HQ 3.1 GHz (max Turbo Boost 4.1 GHz) with Intel® HD Graphics 630 (45W)

Apple seeded the first beta of macOS 10.12.4 to developers on January 24, and additional betas should follow. It is highly unlikely Apple will launch new MacBook Pros until the software update is officially released at the earliest, which should happen by late February or early March based on previous releases.

Apple could feasibly launch next-generation MacBook Pro models at any point following the release of macOS 10.2.4, but its late 2016 models are still rather new. WWDC 2017 in June is likely the earliest possibility for a refresh, but previous rumors also point towards a launch in the second half of 2017 or later.

Last month, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said new Kaby Lake-equipped MacBook Pros will enter mass production in the July quarter. He also mentioned a “15-inch MacBook” that will include 32GB of RAM and enter mass production in the early fourth quarter, which starts in September.

Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra
Tags: Kaby Lake, Pike’s Universum
Buyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now)
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Steve Wozniak to Share More ‘Untold’ Stories About Apple at ‘Startup World Cup’ Next Month

Fenox Venture Capital today announced that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak will share more “untold stories of Apple” at the Startup World Cup Grand Finale on March 24. The event will take place at the Marriott Marquis hotel in San Francisco.

Steve Wozniak, aka “Woz”, will share insights on his time at Apple and tell some untold stories. In 1976, Woz co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs, where he developed the Apple I, and co-created the Apple II. He remains a Silicon Valley icon and is recognized as a pioneer of the personal computer revolution.

Wozniak, better known as “Woz,” co-founded Apple alongside Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne in 1976. He temporarily left Apple after injuring himself in a personal airplane crash in 1981, and he permanently left the company in 1985. He published a book called iWoz in 2007 to reflect on his past with Jobs and the company.

Startup World Cup consists of 16 startup competitions around the world. The top startup from each competition will be flown to the final event in San Francisco, where they will be competing for a $1 million investment prize from a panel of venture capitalists. It is at this grand finale where Woz will speak.

Tag: Steve Wozniak
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Apple Seeds Second macOS Sierra 10.12.4 Beta to Developers

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra 10.12.4 update to developers, two weeks after seeding the first macOS Sierra 10.12.4 beta and just over a two weeks after releasing macOS Sierra 10.12.3.

The second macOS Sierra 10.12.4 beta is available for download through the Apple Developer Center or the software update mechanism in the Mac App Store for those who have previously installed a beta.

macOS Sierra 10.12.4 brings iOS’s Night Shift mode to the Mac for the first time. First introduced with iOS 9.3, Night Shift is designed to gradually shift the display of a device from blue to yellow, cutting down on exposure to blue light. Blue light is said to disrupt the circadian rhythm and is believed to interrupt sleeping patterns.

Night Shift can be activated through the Displays section of System Preferences, where a setting to have it come on at sunset and turn off at sunrise is available. Night Shift can also be toggled on manually through the Notification Center or via Siri.

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The 10.12.4 update focuses mainly on Night Shift, but also includes dictation support for Shanghainese, cricket scores for Siri, and improved PDFKit APIs.

Related Roundup: macOS Sierra
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Apple Releases Second iOS 10.3 Public Beta to Public Beta Testers

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming iOS 10.3 update to public beta testers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the first beta and one day after providing the second iOS 10.3 beta to developers.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple’s beta testing program will receive the iOS 10.3 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on their iOS device.

Those who want to be a part of Apple’s beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and macOS Sierra betas. Betas are not stable and include many bugs, so they should be installed on a secondary device.

As a major 10.x update, iOS 10.3 introduces a new “Find My AirPods” option to help users locate a lost AirPod. Located in the “Find My Friends” app, the Find My AirPods feature keeps track of the last known location where AirPods were connected to an iOS device via Bluetooth, and it allows the AirPods to play a sound to make finding them nearby easier.

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Along with a Find My AirPods feature, the update also includes a shift to Apple File System (APFS). First introduced in 2016, APFS is optimized for Flash/SSD storage and includes strong encryption and other important features.

Apple recommends all users make an iCloud backup before installing iOS 10.3, as the update will cause the iPhone’s file system to switch over to Apple File System.

iOS 10.3 also introduces a tweaked app animation, a new Apple ID profile in the Settings app, a better breakdown on how iCloud storage is being used, SiriKit improvements, new iCloud analytics options, and more.

Related Roundup: iOS 10
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Vodafone Smart Platinum 7 review: Surprisingly few compromises

Vodafone isn’t exactly the first company that comes to mind when you think of premium smartphone manufacturers but with the Smart Platinum 7, the UK carrier is giving it its best shot. This is a device that has some surprisingly neat features for a £300 phone and that might just be worthy of your attention – as long as you’re happy with being tied to a Vodafone contract.

One question that springs to mind is this: if this is Vodafone’s first attempt at a premium handset though, then why is it the ‘Smart Platinum 7’ and not just the ‘Smart Platinum’? The company also offers a ‘Smart Prime 7’, ‘Smart Ultra 7’ and ‘Smart Turbo 7’ though and these did come with lower numbered-versions, so presumably it’s an attempt to get all the branding to line up.

Nomenclature aside, let’s take a look at the Smart Platinum 7 and see just how smart it really is.

Design

To look at, the Vodafone Smart Platinum 7 is off to a good – but not great – start. It doesn’t have quite the same ‘wow factor’ as flagships from the likes of Samsung or Sony but then not everything has to be new to be good. What the Platinum 7 does have is a professional-looking black finish and a nicely patterned, reflective rear. It’s understated but feels quite ‘executive’ and as a rare surprise the shiny rear panel is not too much of a fingerprint magnet!

The body is made entirely from metal and glass, has thin bezels and no physical home button on the front. The device can be a little slippery when placed on some surfaces, though it feels very nice in the hand with a decent amount of heft and rounded edges.

Overall, the presentation is fairly ‘by the numbers’ but there are a few nice elements that are worth mentioning. For one, there’s a fingerprint sensor located around the back, just below the camera and at just the right height to find easily with an index finger. What’s particularly impressive for a phone in this price range is the two front facing speakers which will be a very welcome addition for audiophiles.

If it’s a comfy and stylish set of buttons you look for in a device, then this is the phone for you! They are very nice to use and they kind of put the buttons on other devices to shame! Oh, and you’ll also find one more button than usual here too: a dedicated camera button!

Things aren’t perfect in the design department though. Unfortunately, there is some visible separation between the individual elements: the speaker grilles are on separately textured panels for example. This means you’re not getting the ‘unibody’ feel of the really heavy-hitters and to me, this prevents it from feeling truly ‘premium’ in the way a more expensive phone might. Overall though, there’s more good than bad here. It may just be an acquired taste.

Display

It’s the same story with the screen: surprisingly high-end. It has a nice and crisp 2K (1440 x 2560) resolution and it’s an AMOLED panel at that. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that it also has great color saturation, deep blacks that almost blend into the bezels and decent brightness. At 5.5”, the screen is also more than large enough for the majority of tasks and to be considered a phablet. Whether you’re watching YouTube or playing games, you’re going to have a good time with this display.

Look closely and you’ll notice that the screen is actually very slightly curved too, which is interesting. It describes itself as being 2.5D but it’s not going to be giving Samsung any sleepless nights. Rather, it appears as though the screen is very slightly raised off of the rest of the body of the phone, like a slight bulge. This contributes to the less cohesive look of the phone in my opinion but points for trying.

There’s Gorilla Glass here, though I can’t find the version anywhere on the net. And I have already managed to pick up a slight scratch in my few days with the phone – I think my keys were the culprits here – so you’ll still want to be a bit careful with it.

Performance

This phone performs pretty smoothly, due to the great combination of software and hardware. Specs-wise, the Platinum 7 could be seen to be slightly under powered when compared with the last-generation of flagships as it uses an octa-core Snapdragon 652 processor, which has four Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 1.8GHz and the other four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.2GHz. Despite that, navigating around the home screen is seamless, launching apps is snappy and the processor should be beefy enough to handle most games and apps with no problem.

More importantly, I haven’t experienced any stutters or lags. Multitasking is also super-smooth, which is helped along by the welcome 3GB of RAM and the relatively stock version of Android (more on that in a moment). If you want the top performing Android phone on the market, then this is not it. But for general use, you shouldn’t have any problems and actually, it’s pretty slick.

If you are interested in the numbers though, then you can check out the results from GeekBench, Antutu and 3D Mark below:

As you can see the phone scored 82566 on AnTutu. According to that test, it falls just below something like the Galaxy Note 5. The Galaxy Note 5 was a very powerful phone for its time, but like I say – that’s a phone that came out in 2015. The score from Geekbench was pretty low here but it is very inconsistent in testing and regularly scored higher. Suffice to say though that once again, the results don’t keep up with the best phones on the market today. You’ll be playing most games just fine but keep in mind that it’s not as future-proof as a device from a bigger name.

Storage wise, you get 32GB on-board and happily Vodafone saw fit to provide space for a microSD card too. Another great choice!

Hardware

So, we have average internals and an above-average screen. How about the rest of the hardware in here?

First, let’s take a closer look at the fingerprint sensor. Some have reported finding it hard to locate but I have had no trouble since locating it the first time. It’s also particularly quick and accurate and has become my preferred way to unlock the phone, though I have had it freeze on me once or twice (which of course always happens right when you need it to work!).

That fingerprint sensor doesn’t have any fancy tricks like some others– you can’t use it to swipe through your photo gallery for instance. Somewhat making up for this though, is the hardware camera button that can also be programmed to perform various other jobs, including quick-launching specific apps. NFC is here too, something that distinguishes this device from some of the offerings in the mid-range segment. It is also handy for Android Pay fans.

The other highlight in terms of hardware is the inclusion of stereo speakers. These always make a difference and this is no exception; the Vodafone Smart Platinum 7 is capable of immersing you in its sound and can be heard easily over the sound of a frying pan if you like to watch YouTube while you cook.

Having stereo front facing speakers is a real luxury actually and it’s something you won’t find even on many truly premium devices – so that’s a real win for Vodafone!

The call quality is also exactly what you would expect/hope, while the signal strength has been very reliable in my testing. Of course the phone is locked to Vodafone, so you’ll have to decide for yourself how you feel about that. Oh and while I didn’t get to play with one, note that Vodafone has also released its own VR headset to work with the device. This is likely what motivated the decision to include such a fancy screen, though I can’t imagine this will be in contention as the ‘go-to’ setup for mobile VR.

Battery life

For me, the longevity of the 3,000-mAh battery is actually one of the stars of the show here and it’s one of the things that Vodafone is bragging about the most in its marketing. Bragging rights are earned though and the battery life here has put all my recent phones to shame. To shame!

At the end of a full day of moderate-to-heavy use, the Smart Platinum 7 will generally still have about 20% battery life. This is pretty impressive, especially considering that it’s running such a nice display. More impressive still, is the phone’s longevity on idle. On my first day with the phone, I ended the day on 10%. I then set it down on my bedside table without charging it. To my surprise, it was still on 10% the next day when I woke. That’s some great performance and it’s something I’m going to really miss when I give the phone back. Again, some of this is down to the software and specifically Google Doze. There’s quick charging too, so you can fill up quickly again when it finally does run out.

If you are one of the many people bemoaning the lack of battery life on modern phones, then I would definitely recommend checking this device out. The only thing that they could have done better in this regard is make the battery replaceable. But we can’t have everything I guess…

Camera

For me, the camera lets the side down somewhat. The rear shooter has plenty of pixels at 16MP but the results just can’t compete with the top players. There’s a f/2.0 aperture but it does not perform well in low-light settings. To be fair though, a two-tone LED flash makes up for that to some degree.

Depth of field effects are distinctly underwhelming and autofocus seems to struggle in macro shots. Photos often look over-exposed and pictures will often feature cloudless white skies. And HDR doesn’t make a ton of difference. At times the colors look washed-out, though admittedly I am a fan of a little hyper-real saturation.

I’m not saying it’s terrible, under the right circumstances it will pick up a lot of detail and the app is easy to use and nicely laid out; but coming from my Galaxy S6 Edge+, this is just a big step backward. I do love the inclusion of a dedicated hardware camera button though. Here are some samples so you can judge for yourself:

As for video you can record in 2160p at 30fps, or 1080p at 60fps. There’s also a front facing 8MP camera, capable of filming at 1080p.

Software

The Vodafone Smart Platinum 7 wins back some major points with its software implementation. Specifically, Vodafone should be applauded for opting to provide us with a pretty-much stock version of Android 6.0.1. There’s no ugly skin on top of the UI and even the bloatware is surprisingly restrained (what is there can largely be removed!). This no doubt helps the performance a great deal and Android purists are certain to be very pleased with the choice – it almost feels like using a Nexus device.

One tweak that Vodafone has made, is the ability to swipe from the homescreen to a favorite app. This might be occasionally useful for some people but it does mean you can accidentally launch an app when flicking through your widgets and then have to wait for it to launch!

Final thoughts

So just how premium is Vodafone’s top-end offering? How does it stack up against the big flagships? For those who really want the best Android experience, the slightly less-futureproof processor is likely to be a turn off. Everyday users meanwhile may find the camera a little lacklustre for their tastes.

But for those who don’t have the money to spend on a £700 phone, choosing the Vodafone Smart Platinum 7 will involve making surprisingly few compromises. I think those who do pick this up are going to be very pleasantly surprised by a number of the features – that battery in particular and certainly the front-facing speakers. There are no sexy gimmicks but this is a very reliable phone that performs better-than-average in almost every capacity and will last as long as you need it to. It would be a great choice for road warriors and busy business-types.