Why bother making a glass phone without wireless charging?

Without some kind of added benefit like wireless charging, what reason is there to use a fragile material like glass?

I don’t always have the most popular opinions on smartphone design; I’ve been arguing in favor of the display notch for some time now, and I firmly believe that every phone should have a quick switch for audio profiles like the OnePlus 5T and iPhone X. But one thing that everybody can seem to agree on is that glass backings just don’t seem like a good idea — at least, not without some kind of added benefit.

In most cases, that benefit is wireless charging. While it may not be quite as fast as traditional charging through a cable, wireless charging is a convenient way to top up your battery without wearing down your phone’s USB port — and if your phone’s gotten wet recently, it’s likely your only option until the port has time to dry. I still love the fit and finish of an aluminum phone, but wireless charging can’t work through a metal chassis (or at least not as easily), so manufacturers are left to choose between other materials like plastic and glass.

So why not use plastic instead? It’s much less fragile than glass, after all, and it’s cheaper as an added bonus. There’s a long list of reasons manufacturers aren’t using plastic in their flagships anymore, but the most applicable here is that glass just looks and feels better in a store. As superficial as it may be, when customers walk into a carrier store to buy a new phone, they’re going to notice the shiniest, prettiest phone first — and when they pick it up and feel the solid build quality, it’ll be all the more enticing.

Love it or hate it, glass back phones are here to stay. As a big fan of wireless charging, I’m not too upset about it, but despite the claims of “shatter-resistant” Gorilla Glass panels, the phone repair business has been booming lately. Everywhere you turn, there’s a phone in someone’s hand with a cracked corner or a totally shattered backing that could practically be considered a weapon. Wireless charging is great, but let’s face it — this is a bad tradeoff, made even worse when your all-glass phone still doesn’t support wireless charging.

They don’t make ’em like they used to.

But what are the alternatives? It’s easy enough to slap a case onto your phone for some added protection, and wireless charging still works just fine through all but the thickest of cases, but that shouldn’t have to be the only option. While glass isn’t going away any time soon, that doesn’t mean manufacturers can’t at least dabble in other materials. What if we revisited the polycarbonate backings we used to see on phones like the HTC One X and the Nokia Lumia 920? The latter was one of the first phones to support wireless charging, and it felt great in the hand. I’d love to see a modern take on that same design.

When an all-glass phone doesn’t support wireless charging, it just feels like an accident waiting to happen with no real justification. Sure, it looks better in a shop, but most everyone knows that, one way or another, glass breaks. It’s a liability, and especially on a device costing anywhere from a few hundred up to a thousand dollars, the fewer liabilities the better.

Do you use wireless charging every day like I do? Is it justification enough for a glass backing? And do you like all-glass phones, or would you prefer a more durable material like polycarbonate or metal, regardless of wireless charging capabilities? Let us know in the comments below!

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

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• Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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Samsung Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S9+: Which should you buy?

An easy-to-manage decision.

Samsung’s seen serious success with launching its yearly flagship in two sizes. In the last couple of years, the larger version has become the more desirable model while the smaller turned into the solid, default choice at a lower price.

Unlike the Galaxy S8 release, the Galaxy S9 and S9+ have more differences than just size: you get a few feature and spec improvements as well, offering a bit more to justify the higher price.

So when you go to get a new Samsung flagship, you have a choice: should you buy the Galaxy S9 or Galaxy S9+? Here’s what you need to know to make the best decision.

What’s the same

When it comes to design, Samsung doesn’t discriminate between its two flagship sizes. Whether you get the compact Galaxy S9 or larger Galaxy S9+, the materials and proportions are identical. Neither size has an exclusive color or hardware feature. When it comes to the core experience of using the phones, you won’t notice a difference beyond the size.

The screens are of course different dimensions, but the resolution and quality of the panel are the same. Yes, that means that the Galaxy S9 has a slightly higher pixel density, but in real-world use you’d never notice the difference — particularly if you leave the phones set at the 1080p resolution they are out of the box.

What’s different

The Galaxy S9+’s differences come down to a larger size, two spec changes and a camera addition. The most important ones to consider are about size: moving up to a 6.2-inch display gives you more room to work and play, but also makes the phone larger and relatively tough to manage in one hand. The Galaxy S9+ is about 10 mm taller, 5 mm wider and 15% heavier than the standard Galaxy S9 — that’s nothing to sneeze at.

But to go along with that increased size is, of course, a larger battery, which at 3500mAh can help you get through a full day without worrying about charging. The capacity is over 15% higher than the Galaxy S9’s 3000mAh, but the larger display certainly doesn’t use that much extra power — so you’ll be able to do all of the same things for longer on a charge. Battery life hasn’t really improved from the last generation, so the Galaxy S9 once again is likely to leave heavy users in need of charging before the day is done.

The Galaxy S9+ gets a secondary camera, but it may not be a deciding factor in your buying decision.

The primary camera on the Galaxy S9+ is identical to the Galaxy S9, and that’s a great thing for everyone because this camera is great. But the larger chassis in the GS9+ afforded Samsung the room to add in a secondary camera that mimics the Galaxy Note 8’s. That means it has a longer “telephoto” focal length, roughly twice the length of the main camera. The secondary camera lets you seamlessly zoom in without losing resolution at 2X, and enables Samsung’s “Live Focus” portrait mode that artificially blurs the background behind your subject for a dramatic effect.

The secondary sensor isn’t the same type of “Super Speed” Dual Pixel that the main camera is, so the quality isn’t the same. And as we saw with the Note 8, those extra features of zooming and Live Focus aren’t something that completely changes the camera experience. The main camera’s improvements in this generation are far more important for daily photography — you just have to decide how much you want the zooming and Live Focus, because you just don’t get them on the Galaxy S9.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs

The least consequential addition in the Galaxy S9+ is more RAM, which Samsung bumped up to 6GB to match the Galaxy Note 8. Considering it left the standard Galaxy S9 with 4GB, and the two phones run identical software, it’s hard to think that Samsung’s done much optimization to take advantage of that extra RAM itself. But the extra memory will, of course, help you hold just a few more applications in the background, and give you more runway into handling future software updates and more powerful apps. This is absolutely a “nice-to-have” and not a necessary feature.

Bottom line: Which should you buy?

As I said from the start, the Galaxy S9 is the default choice for so many people when they walk in the store simply because it’s less expensive. If you’re unsure about whether you want a “big” phone, start by using the standard Galaxy S9 — you won’t regret the size, and it can do almost everything the larger Galaxy S9+ can.

You’re going to want to start with the standard S9 and decide whether it’s worth spending the extra money on a second camera and larger battery.

But by moving up to the Galaxy S9+, you get a better overall phone. To choose it, you have to know you want a bigger device — maybe you want the extra screen space for everything you do, or need the extra battery life. But you also have to know you can manage the extra size and give up some one-handed usability. If you want to take that trade-off, you then also get the bonuses of more RAM and a secondary camera for extra photography choices — I very clearly put those two additions below the decision regarding screen size and battery capacity, which have clear benefits in everyday use.

Finally, remember the cost involved. To get that bigger screen, larger battery and couple extra features, you have to pay about $120 more for the Galaxy S9+. Over the course of a two-year payment plan, it’s about $5 more a month, which is easy for a lot of people to handle — but everyone has their own threshold for how much they’ll pay for a new phone, especially when it’s just incrementally better. If you can afford it, and your hand can manage the size, the Galaxy S9+ is the better overall phone — and if you can’t, the Galaxy S9 gets you most of the way there for less.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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Update May 2018: Changes made to reflect our further use of the phones and our opinions of their strengths.

Honor View 10 vs. OnePlus 5T camera comparison: Budget flagship battle

Which phone makes better use of its dual cameras?

There are two phones that come to mind when shopping with a $500 budget: the Honor View 10 and the OnePlus 5T. Both phones boast impressive build quality with powerful specs inside, offer great features like face unlock, and ship with Android 8 Oreo. They also both benefit from dual camera arrays that help them take some pretty impressive photos.

The biggest difference is in how each phone utilizes a dual camera system. Both are a bit unconventional; you won’t find a telephoto or wide angle lens on either phone. Instead, the View 10 features a 16MP primary sensor with a 20MP monochrome secondary sensor that helps pull in more detail and reduce noise. The OnePlus 5T has the same 16MP and 20MP combo, but its secondary lens is tuned for low light photography.

We’ve taken some photos with both the Honor View 10 and the OnePlus 5T to see how the cameras compare.

Outdoors

Honor View 10 (left) / OnePlus 5T (right) — click to view larger.

The OnePlus 5T takes brighter and warmer photos, but the View 10 pulls in noticeably more detail.

I tend to think outdoor photos look best on a slightly overcast day, but the last two weeks in Indiana has consisted of snow, rain, and gray in April, so I’ve had no luck getting any pretty photos of scenic blue skies or budding flowers. Still, the photos I’ve been able to capture show some differences in the ways the View 10 and OnePlus 5T process images.

The 5T consistently shoots brighter and warmer than the View 10. Too often, I find the View 10 underexposes a bit more than I’d like, and I tend to prefer the warmer look from OnePlus. On the other hand, photos from the View 10 generally looks significantly sharper than shots taken with the OnePlus 5T, and text is far more readable — that could be the work of the View 10’s secondary lens pulling in more fine details.

The View 10’s main advantage is the inclusion of Huawei’s Neural Processing Unit built into the Kirin 970 chipset. While neither phone features OIS, the NPU in the View 10 uses AI to help reduce motion blur in photos by predicting when you’ll take a photo and compensating for hand shakiness.

Indoors

Inside, with more artificial lighting, the tables turn a bit. The OnePlus 5T still errs on the warm side and the View 10 remains more cool-toned, but I actually start to appreciate Honor’s higher levels of saturation, particularly with dark subjects like a chalkboard. In the above samples, the chalkboard looks washed out in the OnePlus shot, whereas the chalkboard in the View 10’s image is punchy — maybe a bit too punchy, but it looks better to my eyes. Once again, the text is significantly sharper and more legible in the View 10’s photo, as well.

The View 10 also has a nice trick up its sleeve with its wide aperture mode. If you’ve ever used a DSLR or other professional camera, you’re probably familiar with how aperture works; essentially, the wider your aperture, the blurrier the background behind your subject will be. This is a great way to bring focus to the main object in the shot, and the difference is noticeable in my latte photos. With wide aperture mode enabled, the plants behind my mug are significantly smoother in the View 10’s shot than the OnePlus 5T’s.

Portrait mode

Wide aperture photography is also what the ever-popular portrait mode is based on, and while both the 5T and View 10 offer a portrait mode for taking artsy photos of your friends, they go about it in different ways. I’ll immediately say that I prefer the results from the OnePlus 5T overall, but it’s not a sweeping win.

The 5T is pleasingly natural-looking, with surprisingly good separation around the subject. It does a great job around hair, which is usually a challenge with artificial bokeh effects, though the stitching isn’t perfect — in my samples, the handbag behind my friend is a bit more in focus than it should be, given the different focal plane.

On the other hand, the View 10 produces a much sharper portrait photo, with far smoother background blur and better object separation. Interestingly, portrait mode seems to cancel out the View 10’s cool-toned nature, with roughly the same warmth as the sample photo from the OnePlus 5T. However, there’s significantly more smoothening on my friend’s face, even with the lowest configurable beauty setting.

Low light

In low light, the OnePlus 5T’s secondary camera really shines. It’s designed to automatically engage in low light situations — typically below 10 lux — and more often than not, the 5T manages to pull in more light than the View 10 in the dark. Take the photos of the Emerson Shoppes sign, for instance. The image shot with the OnePlus 5T is dramatically brighter than the one from the View 10, though details like the texture in the bricks are a bit softer on the 5T.

The 5T pulls in more light in the shot of my car, as well — the photo taken on the View 10 is dark enough that my car starts to blend into the street. The View 10 doesn’t have a specialized lens for low light like the OnePlus 5T, so to compensate the camera app asks you to hold your phone steady when shooting at night. Assuming a steady hand, this results in less noise and sharper detail on stationary subjects, but it also means that moving objects will be blurrier than on the point-and-shoot OnePlus 5T.

Bottom line

It’s pretty clear that both phones offer very capable photography experiences, but which works best for you will depend on a couple of factors. If you prefer warmer tones and a more natural portrait mode, the OnePlus 5T may be the better option for you. If you have an eye for sharper details and punchier colors, the View 10 could be your best bet.

Given the choice, which phone would you buy? And what are your camera priorities? Let us know in the comments below!

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How to connect Google Home and IFTTT to do amazing things with your connected tech

Controlling hundreds of smart devices and services by voice is easy with IFTTT’s Google Assistant channel.

One of the cool things you can do with your Google Home is using your voice to control connected items around your house. While there are native connections to things like Philips Hue lamps, SmartThings devices and Nest equipment, Google Home’s Assistant was ready for IFTTT on day one. That means you can control all sorts of things!

In case you didn’t know or just weren’t sure, IFTTT (short for IF This Then That) is an online service that smart devices can connect to and it facilitates communications between them. Companies like Facebook and Amazon and Google have used the service for a while and there are literally hundreds of “things” that connect to IFTTT. Some you’ve heard of and some you haven’t. Getting things to talk to one another is also simple to set up using a sort of flowchart system. Pick a “thing” that will be a trigger — the weather channel says it’s going to rain — then pick a thing that will act on that trigger — I get a text message telling me to bring my umbrella.

IFTTT is the messenger between two services and knows how to talk to both.

It works the same way with Google Home through Google Assistant. When you say “OK, Google. Turn on my bedroom TV,” it’s a trigger that the IFTTT Harmony channel can use to fire up my television through my Harmony remote. It’s really easy to use and works surprisingly well. Even if you don’t have a Google Home or a phone with Assistant it’s worth taking a look at because you probably are using something that is hooked into IFTTT. Have a look at the list of supported applets. Now think of things you can do to one of them that will make another do something on its own. Taste the rainbow.

The best way to understand how IFTTT works and to learn how to get it to play nice with Assistant is to just do it.

• Visit the IFTTT website or install the app from Google Play and get an account set up. If you already have an account at IFTTT, you can use it (and you likely already know how easy it is to add a channel like Google Assistant.)
• Make sure you’re logged in at IFTTT, and head to the Google Assistant applet page. You can find it at ifttt.com/google_assistant if you’re using a web browser, and if you’re using the IFTTT app tap the search button at the bottom and search for “Google” and it will be the first one on the list.
• Once you’re there, tap the blue Connect button. You’ll be redirected to a secure Google login page unless you’re already logged in through the browser or on your phone. If you have two-factor authentication enabled on your Google account you’ll need to authorize things. Once you’re logged in properly you’ll be asked to allow IFTTT to “Manage Google Voice commands.” Tap the Allow button and you’re done.

Native integration is always better

It’s awesome that IFTTT works so well with Assistant and that so many gadgets are supported. But you should be careful when you’re trying any IFTTT recipes for devices that natively connect with Google Assistant like Philips Hue or Nest products because the results can be … weird. You won’t break anything if you try and things go wrong, but you might be forced to disconnect whatever it is you’re trying from both IFTTT and Assistant and set it up again.

You’ll find a list of things that connect directly to Assistant at the link below.

These Products and Services Work with Google Home

You’re conveniently redirected back to the Google Assistant page at IFTTT. You’ll see all sorts of pre-built applets you can play with that have Google Assistant do things like tell your robot vacuum to clean the room or turn your lights on. You’ll also find practical things like writing a note to Evernote or Todoist or Google Drive, making your lost phone ring or logging meals and weights to FitBit. All you have to do to try one is give it a tap. You’ll be walked through everything you need to do to set it up and test it. From there, you can look through the services that use IFTTT and start building your own.

OK Google, let’s do cool stuff.

Update, April 2018 This post was updated to reflect slight changes in the IFTTT on-boarding process and to provide information about native integration vs. IFTTT integration.

Honor 7X vs. Huawei Mate SE: What’s the difference?

Two nearly identical phones set apart by a small price increase and an equally small spec bump.

Huawei hasn’t exactly been having the best year so far. Back in January, the company saw AT&T back out of a deal to sell its phones in the U.S., and more recently Best Buy pulled a similar move. But the company is nothing if not resilient, and has put out yet another phone directed at the U.S. market in the form of the Mate SE — a $250 aluminum phone with an 18:9 display and dual cameras.

If that sounds familiar, that’s because Huawei’s subsidiary brand Honor already released a nearly identical phone back in December, the Honor 7X. For $200, it’s one of the best bang-for-your-buck values around, but Huawei’s new Mate SE complicates things a bit. What’s the difference? And which one should you buy?

The reigning budget champ

Honor 7X

Even four months after its release, it’s hard to beat the value of the Honor 7X. For $200, you get an aluminum unibody chassis with dual cameras and a rear fingerprint sensor. There’s an 18:9 Full HD+ (2160×1080) display up front that brings a modern look and feel to the phone, and it’s even dual SIM-compatible.

Inside is a respectable Kirin 659 chipset — it’s a rough equivalent to Qualcomm’s mid-range Snapdragon 630, and while not blazingly fast it’s enough to power the Honor 7X through most tasks. Along with the processor, you get 3GB of RAM in the U.S. variant, and 32GB of onboard storage (expandable via microSD).

The budget champion is made even better with its recent Oreo update.

Even at launch, the Honor 7X felt a bit long in the tooth on the software side. It shipped with Android 7.0 Nougat and EMUI 5.1, which left out a number of improvements from newer software iterations that already existed on Honor’s other products (namely, the Honor View 10). Thankfully, the 7X just received an update to Android 8.0 Oreo with the much newer EMUI 8.0 software overlay. With this update, the Honor 7X feels like an even better value than before, and the newly added support for Project Treble means that it should stay up to date for years to come.

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The new kid on the block

Huawei Mate SE

The most perplexing thing about the Huawei Mate SE is how indistinguishable it is from the Honor 7X. Aside from differing logos and a full enclosure around the dual camera module (as opposed to the Honor 7X, whose cameras individually protrude from the chassis), the Mate SE is completely identical to the Honor phone that came before it. The antenna lines are in the same spots, and the fingerprint sensor and display remain unchanged as well. Unfortunately, that also means the Mate SE retains the ever-aging Micro-USB standard.

Where you’ll finally start to notice some changes made is in the internal specs. Though the Mate SE comes at a $50 premium over the Honor 7X, that extra money buys you an additional gigabyte of RAM (up from 3 to 4GB) and twice the internal storage at 64GB.

The Honor 7X and Mate SE are almost indistinguishable, but the latter pulls ahead with improved specs.

The rest of the specs remain the same, including the Kirin 659 processor, 3340mAh battery, and 16MP + 2 MP rear camera combo. In most applications, you likely won’t notice the added RAM (and some models of the Honor 7X already feature 4GB), but this should help with multitasking features like PIP video once the Mate SE eventually gets updated to Oreo.

Unfortunately, at the moment the Mate SE is running the same dated software the Honor 7X launched with — Android 7.0 Nougat and EMUI 5.1. Shipping with software from 2016 was bad enough back in December, but in late March of 2018 it’s just egregious. Hopefully, Huawei will be quick to update its new budget phone.

See at Amazon

Which one’s right for you?

This time around, this is a pretty easy question to answer. With both phones so similar, there are only a few things to consider when deciding between the Honor 7X and Huawei Mate SE. Is $50 worth an extra 1GB of RAM and double the storage to you? Rather, with the option to expand the storage capacity of either phone with a microSD card, you might only need to consider the extra RAM.

In the short term, you might also want to take into consideration the Honor 7X’s rollout of Android Oreo. While U.S. customers are receiving the update now, there’s still no word on a similar update for the Mate SE. If you’re in a rush to get the latest software, the Honor 7X might be the better option for now — otherwise, the Mate SE’s slightly improved specs may be worth the extra cash.

Which phone would you buy? If you already have the Honor 7X, do you wish you could switch to the Mate SE or are you content with what you have? Let us know in the comments below!

B&O Play redesigns its Earset headphones for the wireless generation

Today, B&O Play announced a refresh of its Earset earphones. These new premium in-ear headphones keep the adjustable design of their predecessors, but they’ve been updated with the latest technology. You can preorder the Earset wireless bluetooth earphones on B&O Play’s website for $299 (£269 in the UK), though only the Graphite Brown model is available. They also come in white, which will ship starting June 1st.

These wireless earphones boast a 14.2 mm speaker unit with a neodymium magnet. Two acoustic vents, a bass port and digital equalizers ensure that that you get great sound performance. The earbud grill helps disperse the sound into your ears equally. The earphones feature a 5-hour battery life, with a USB-C port to charge, and have an in-line remote with a microphone.

In addition to sound quality, the flexible fit of the Earset earphones has always been a huge draw. You can change the angle, height of the piston and the curve of the hook, customizing the earphones in three dimensions, in order to ensure that the Earsets fit in your ear.

Source: B&O Play

2018 iPhones Could Ship With New 18W USB-C Power Adapters, USB-C to Lightning Cables for Fast Charging

Apple’s 2018 iPhone lineup could ship with new USB-C power adapters that come with USB-C to Lightning cables for faster charging, according to a post on Chinese social network Weibo that cites supply chain sources.

Apple is said to be planning to upgrade to USB-C support for all of its devices, shipping next-generation iPhones with a redesigned 18W power adapter that allows for USB-C fast charging with an included USB-C to Lightning cable.

We’re not able to verify this rumor as it comes from a source without a track record for accurate reporting, but switching to USB-C power adapters across the iPhone and iPad lineup would make some sense as Apple’s Mac lineup has largely transitioned to USB-C.

An 18W USB-C power adapter would enable fast charging speeds that would allow the iPhone to charge from 0 to 50% in approximately 30 minutes.

This kind of fast charging functionality is available for the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, and iPad Pro models, but at the current time, it requires customers to use a USB-C MacBook power adapter (minimum price $49) or a third-party USB-C power adapter ($15+) paired with a Lightning to USB-C cable, which is priced at $25 and only available as a standalone accessory.

Current iPhone models ship with a 5W power adapter that works with a USB-A to Lightning cable, so an upgrade to an 18W adapter would be a huge change. Presumably, the same changes will be implemented in upcoming iPad Pro models if the rumor is true, with Apple also upgrading the existing 12W USB-A iPad Pro power adapter to an 18W USB-C power adapter.

When using fast charging functionality over USB-C with a USB-C to Lightning cable, maximum charging speeds are achieved on an iPad or iPhone at approximately 18W, as we discovered in a detailed iPhone X charging speed test we performed late last year.

An included USB-C power adapter and USB-C to Lightning cable that supports fast charging would be a huge gain for iPhone users. Such charging speeds promise 50% battery in 30 minutes and can deliver an 80% charge (from zero) in approximately an hour. Many competing Android devices already support fast charging without the need for customers to purchase additional accessories.

Today’s report suggests the design of the charger that ships with the iPhone will see an overhaul, going from the traditional square shape to something more akin to an oval. As mentioned above, it will reportedly include a USB-C to Lightning cable.

Right now, Apple does not allow third-party companies to make USB-C to Lightning cables, and the Weibo report indicates USB-C to Lightning cables will continue to be proprietary technology until 2019, when Apple may open up the standard to allow its MFi partners to manufacture the cables.

(Thanks, ED!)

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