Huawei Nova preview: Channelling Nexus 6P design into the mid-range
When we first caught wind that Huawei was going to be contributing to the Nexus programme in 2015, we were excited for this ambitious Chinese company. The good thing about making a Nexus phone, is it puts you on the Android map.
Although some questioned whether the company was up to the challenge, the Nexus 6P has been well received – loved, in fact.
It’s perhaps no surprise, then, to see Huawei release a new handset that channels the Nexus 6P design into something new.
This is the Huawei Nova, and it’s excitingly cute for a mid-ranger.
Huawei Nova: Design
One glance at the metal unibody of the Huawei Nova, announced today at IFA 2016 in Berlin (alongside a larger Nova Plus) and you can’t help but see the Nexus 6P. As Google’s champion phone of 2015 strolls into retirement, Huawei’s offering this mini version in its mid-range.
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Apart from the size, of course, the biggest difference is that the camera is no longer sitting on a raised platform. The back is flat, giving Richard Yu, Huawei CEO, every opportunity to shout “no bump, no bump,” as he so emphatically did at the launch of Huawei’s flagship, the Huawei P9.
What the Nova carries is Huawei’s commitment to bring quality to all its devices: 2.5D glass curves into the edges of the phone, with neat chamfering, for a phone that feels solid, high quality and sits comfortably in the hand.
Coming in gold, silver and grey, the brushed edges meet the sandblasted back in a phone that’s only 7mm thick. It’s a surprisingly confident build for a phone that’s sitting in the middle of the pack.
- Huawei P9 review: The flagship and the folly
Huawei Nova: Hardware and specs
One of the things about the Nova that’s a little strange for Huawei followers, is that the company has turned to Qualcomm to power this device, rather than using its own HiSilicon hardware. That perhaps suggest that Huawei wants the Qualcomm name to carry this device to consumers and instil a little more confidence; equally, that could just come down to supply.
It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, a 64-bit octo-core chipset, with 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. As with other Huawei devices, there’s a hybrid tray in the side that will support with a SIM and microSD, or dual SIM cards. At least you’ll be able to expand the internal storage as you see fit.
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That SD625 chipset marks the phone out as the mid-ranger it is, so it won’t offer the same sort of power as flagship devices on the SD820, like the HTC 10, but from previous experience, we’ve found this class of chipset to perform well in everyday tasks. Just look at the HTC One A9 (a device that’s not too dissimilar to the Nova), and you’ll find satisfying daily performance.
Given the short period of time that we had with the Huawei Nova, we didn’t have the chance to put it completely through its paces, but things seemed smooth enough: bear in mind that it was presented to us running pre-production software, so it’s too early to draw any definitive conclusions.
The Huawei Nova is powered by a 3020mAh battery and there’s a USB Type-C connection on the bottom of the handset for charging. Fast charging is supported, and there’s a fast charger in the box.
Huawei Nova: Display
We’ve mentioned that 2.5D glass on the front of the display. The Nova is a compact handset, with a 5-inch IPS display, but it still carries a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. There are higher resolution displays out there, but at this size, a bump in resolution makes little difference.
Here you’re looking at 440ppi, but it’s the colour and vibrancy that’s impressive at first glance. We didn’t have time to assess this display in all conditions, but it seemed vibrant enough, free from grain, with good viewing angles, so there’s little to dislike so far.
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Huawei Nova: Camera
Huawei knows that great cameras get a lot of attention. The Huawei P9 flexes its camera muscles with a partnership with Leica, bringing the novelty of a second monochrome camera. The Nova in comparison is conventional, with a 12-megapixel sensor on the rear.
This is reported to offer 1.25µm pixels, which aren’t huge compared to the 1.5µm you’ll find elsewhere and an f/2.2 lens. The camera app is the familiar arrangement that Huawei’s Emotion UI offers and our first tests revealed it to be snappy enough.
There’s an 8-megapixel camera on the front, offering up the usual selection of fun features, beauty modes and so on.
With the software being pre-release, Huawei wouldn’t let us share any samples, but as it is, we’d need longer to assess its potency as a camera.
Huawei Nova: Software
Unlock the Nova using the fingerprint scanner on the rear of the handset and you’ll find yourself in familiar EMUI territory. This is the same software as you’ll have seen on earlier Huawei handsets, or Honor devices.
We’re not huge fans, as we feel it makes a number of changes to Android that just don’t need to be made, such as changing the layout and colour scheme of the settings menu and restructuring the quick settings and so on. While that’s no crime – Samsung does a perfectly good job in this regard – we’ve always been left with the feeling that EMUI could be better.
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That aside, the Huawei Nova offers you all the flexibility and customisation that Android allows, so in many cases, if you want to change something that Huawei has done, you can.
From the time we’ve had with the device it seems slick enough in operation, although we’ve not had the chance to fill it with our own apps and give it a real world test. Huawei has been getting better and better in this regard, so we suspect the Nova will toe the line and put in a strong performance.
One of the star performers is the fingerprint scanner. We’ve seen excellent performance from the rear scanner on Huawei’s previous devices, but the inclusion of a range of other interactions – like being able to swipe down the notifications with a swipe of the finger on the scanner – adds a dimension that no one else is offering.
First Impressions
There’s a lot to love about the Huawei Nova. It’s a mid-range handset that wants to bring you adequate power, with specs that matter, and a build that’s class leading. The mid-range is in many ways more interesting and disruptive than the flagship level in Android devices and that’s true of the Nova.
The thing that’s likely to turn heads with the Nova is the mini Nexus 6P looks. But it’s not just looks. First impressions are that it pulls off this doppelganger act with some class.
The HTC One A9’s downfall was the price as it sailed over £400, higher than flagship devices like those from OnePlus. Huawei has always been more affordable, and the €399 asking price is reasonable. Exactly how that will translate into UK pricing given current exchange rates, we’re not quite sure.
The Huawei Nova will be available in October.
Tado third-gen system adds multi-room control, plus HomeKit and Echo compatibility
Tado has announced a third-generation of its smart heating system at consumer electronics show IFA in Berlin. The latest system comprises the v3 Smart Thermostat and Smart Radiator Thermostats, the latter of which will enable room-by-room heating control.
The third-generation of Tado devices deliver an optimised user interface and improved algorithms for better energy efficiency. They also offer expanded platform connectivity, meaning compatibility with Apple’s HomeKit, Amazon’s Echo and IFTTT.
This means users will not only be able to control their rooms individually with the new devices, but they will be able to do it using their voice, such as asking Siri or Alexa to turn down the heating in the bedroom. Scenes can also be created using the platforms, meaning you could set your heating to turn down, your lights to turn off and your alarm to switch on when you leave the house, all through HomeKit, for example.
Tado uses your smartphone’s location to automatically turn the heating down when the last person leaves home. It will also turn the heating up when it recognises someone is on their way home and it takes into account the weather and your building characteristics. According to the company, users can save up to 31 per cent with the system.
The third generation of Tado products will be available in two Starter Kits, both of which can be rented for less than £6 per month. The Smart Thermostat v3 Starter Kit includes the Smart Thermostat and internet bridge and costs £199 to buy outright, while the Smart Radiator Thermostat Starter Kit that includes two Smart Radiator Thermostat and the bridge costs £179.
Additional Smart Radiator Thermostats, priced at £59, and Smart Thermostats can be added to a Starter Kit and they will all be available from 1 September at tado.com.
TomTom’s new fitness tracker can analyze your body composition
Today at IFA 2016, TomTom revealed a trio of new wearables, including its first fitness tracker. Unlike other similar devices, the new TomTom Touch has one feature that particularly stands out: it can analyze your body composition. That’s something you typically only see on smart scales, so it’s interesting to see TomTom bring this over to a fitness tracker. Not only does the Touch show you body fat and muscle percentage, but it also monitors your heart rate continuously, as well as count your calories and steps. Pictured above, the sleek wearable will hit stores September 8th for $130/£130.
Additionally, TomTom rolled out two GPS watches for outdoor enthusiasts. For starters, there’s the Spark 3, which comes with 24/7 GPS tracking and 3GB of built-in storage for music playback. Compared to its predecessor, the third-generation Spark sports a route exploration feature, which lets you view your starting and current location and shows you the direction you’re moving in. You’re also able to manage and upload your own trails (15 max), including those from third-party services such as Strava.
The TomTom Adventurer, meanwhile, has everything that the Spark 3 does plus a barometer. This is designed for hikers, skiers, snowboarders or trail runners who want to track 3D distance, altitude, longitude, total ascent and other things like that. Most importantly, the company claims its Adventurer has a 24-hour battery life, and that’s great considering it monitors heart rate, calories and steps too. It also automatically detects your runs, in case you want to check out your max speed and more.
TomTom does have a companion app (web, iOS and Android) for its new wearables, dubbed MySports, for those who want a more detailed breakdown of their activities. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to fully test out any of these, as the devices we demoed were prototypes. That said, similar to TomTom’s Touch, the Spark 3 will also be available next week for $250, while the Adventurer is set to arrive on October 18th for $350. It’s a steep price, but both come with Bluetooth earphones in the box, which should keep you from having to spend extra cash on a pair later on.
We’re live all week from Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
Libratone’s Q Adapt headphones offer adjustable noise cancellation
One of the most prevalent rumors about the new iPhone(s) is that Apple will get rid of the 3.5mm headphone jack. Unfortunately, the options for Lightning-equipped wired headphones are still limited, but Libratone has a new model that fits that description. The company is getting into mobile audio after releasing a number of speakers, but the Q Adapt headphone line’s key feature is actually the ability to adjust noise cancellation based on your environment. For example, you might want to turn it down when you’re walking in a busy city when you need to hear the cues from traffic.
The headphones have a CityMix tool that sets the noise cancellation at 4 when you’re in a bustling office or coffee shop and decreases the level to a 1 or 2 during a commute on bike or on foot. Libratone’s Q Adapt in-ear headphones can also offer improved sound thanks to that Lightning connector. The earbuds also don’t need an extra heft on the cable to house the noise-cancelling components. There is still an in-line remote for calls and giving Siri commands though, in case you fancy those things. The buds themselves also have an egg-like shape that Libratone says offers a more ergonomic and comfortable fit for extended listening sessions.
In addition to the in-ear model, there’s also a wireless on-ear version of the Q Adapt. The Bluetooth headphones have touch controls for that CityMix feature, playback controls and taking calls. Those controls include Libratone’s Hush feature that stops the music by hovering your hand over the earcup. Proximity sensors on the headphones turn off the noise cancellation when you take them off to conserve battery life.
Both the in-ear and on-ear Q Adapt headphones will be available in early September in Elegant Nude, Cloudy White and Stormy Black. The in-ear model also comes in a Rose Pink color that isn’t offered for the on-ears. When the time comes, expect to part with £159 (about $208) or £219 (about $287) for the in-ear and on-ear models, respectively. Unfortunately, there’s no word on exact US pricing just yet.
We’re live all week from Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
O2 wants to help you spread the cost of building a smart home
Although there are plenty of smart home solutions, deciding which platform to back can be hard. Do you invest in a product from a major brand like Google’s Nest or choose a startup that cares more about its products and services than parting you from more of your money? It’s a problem that UK companies like British Gas’ Hive have tried to solve with its mix of smart appliances, but mobile carrier O2 thinks it might have the solution. The operator today launched O2 Home, a new smart home subscription service that lets customers spread the cost of devices but also the support they may require.
O2 Home consists of three customisable 24-month packages. There’s Comfort, a £30 per month package that offers a Tado smart thermostat, two smart plugs and one presence sensor. For the same price, you can ditch the smart heating option and choose Home View, a security-focused package that comes bundled with Samsung camera, a wide view camera, one open and close sensor and one presence sensor. The last of the three is Home Connect, a £20 bundle that offers two presence sensors, two open and close sensors and two smart plugs. All of the packages come with O2’s own app-controlled Smart Hub as standard.
O2 Home doesn’t stop there, though. Each of the products can be bolted on to existing packages to fill any gaps in your connected home. You can choose from products like flood sensors, Powerline adaptors, indoor sirens and even Yale’s keyfree smart lock. The operator has decided not to incorporate those additional devices into its plans, which ramps the price up considerably. However, if you do invest in a camera solution, the monthly price covers 250MB of cloud-based video storage (enough for ten 15-second clips and 250 snapshots), 24-month device warranty and ten profiles for you and your family.
Initially, O2 Home will be available in selected parts of London before rolling out across the UK. To incentivise customers, the company is offering O2 Home free for the first year, as long as you order between September 1st and September 14th. They aren’t ready just yet but you’ll also be able to check out its installations in one of four O2 Home demo spaces, located in Westfield White City, Tottenham Court Road, Kingston and Watford.
Source: O2 Home
BBC iPlayer now requires a TV licence following loophole closure
It’s been a long time coming, but from today all iPlayer viewers now need to own a TV licence to watch the BBC content. New rules have closed the so-called “iPlayer loophole,” which had previously allowed users to get out of paying if they only watched catch-up content. The BBC is in the process of updating the iPlayer website to display a message that will warn users that they must have a licence, similar to the one used on live BBC streams.
At the moment, it’s unclear how the BBC will enforce the new rules. A spokesperson says the corporation has a “range of enforcement techniques which we will use” that have already helped “prosecute people who watch on a range of devices, not just TVs.” In the future, users may be required to log into the service to prove they’ve paid and it doesn’t appear that snooping on people’s home WiFi connections, as reported last month, will ever figure on TV Licensing’s agenda.
The new rules cover all devices used to access iPlayer — ranging from smartphones and tablets to set-top boxes and gaming consoles. If you already have a standard TV licence, don’t worry as you’re already covered. Time will tell if an iPlayer-only licence will appear to cut the cost of the annual £145.50 charge.
TV Licensing law changes today, Sept 1. Head to https://t.co/RpMUqfkiQy where @tvlicensing answer your FAQs about the change.
— BBC iPlayer (@BBCiPlayer) September 1, 2016
Source: TV Licensing
DJI’s new OSMO Mobile captures pro-level selfies
Shaky cam shots are great for indie horror films and Jason Bourne-esque action sequences, but less than ideal for filming your family’s holiday. With DJI’s latest addition to its popular line of handheld gimbals, you’ll be able to perform pans and tilts like a pro.
DJI unveiled the new Osmo Mobile at IFA in Berlin today, and it works much like its predecessor, which we were very impressed with. Except that, instead of using your phone as a viewfinder for an onboard 4K camera, the Mobile uses your phone as the camera.
What’s really cool is that the Mobile employs the same Active Track technology that we saw on the Phantom 4. This allows the gimbal to automatically keep the camera trained on your face so that you can capture selfies but still be present in the moment, rather than experiencing it through a viewfinder. What’s more, you’ll be able to capture time lapse videos, panoramic and long-exposure shots on your phone without so much as a tripod or slider. These feature run through the DJI GO app, which is available for both iOS and Android. You can even livestream to YouTube Live directly through the app.
I recently had the opportunity to mess around with the Osmo Mobile and came away only marginally impressed. The device uses a basic, adjustable vice clamp to hold onto your phone while it’s being stabilized and can accommodate a variety of phone sizes. A quick survey around the office found that iPhone 5’s, 6’s and 6S’s all fit — even my gigantor Nexus 6P worked. That said, don’t expect to go cramming a tablet in there. Also, why are you trying to take photos and video with your tablet. Stop that.
Mounting the phone is a challenge. The problem is that you have to position the phone within the vice grip so that it naturally balances atop the gimbal. Apparently, on my 6P, that sweetspot is the exact point where the grip presses the phone’s volume. Suddenly I’m faced with a choice of getting wonky, lopsided shots or muting my phone and continually staring at the Doe Not Disturb dropdown menu. It’s not quite as bad on an iPhone or if your device is in a case but the fact that the Mobile fails to work with a marquee model like the 6P straight out of the box seems a pretty significant oversight.
Once you do manage to get the camera mounted, you’ll need to open the GO app and pair your phone to the gimbal via a Bluetooth connection. That’s pretty straightforward on the existing app, but DJI insisted that we use a beta version so things were a bit weird. Like half of the installation was in Chinese and a “required” firmware update failed to download which consistently caused the app to crash and reboot. I will update this post once the new version of the app goes live in case this stuff is still happening.
Pairing your phone to the Mobile allows you to control the zoom and recording functions on your phone without having to actually tap on the screen. You will, however have to touch the screen to use the app’s manual ISO, shutter and white balance controls. The Mobile also allows you to control the pan and tilt of the camera using an integrated thumbstick. Additionally, you can set the gimbal to automatically isolate movement, recenter the camera and enter “selfie mode” which, as I said, autonomously tracks your face.
While I didn’t manage to run entirely through a battery charge during my time with the Osmo Mobile, according to DJI, it lasts up to 4.5 hours. Batteries can be hot-swapped and there is an external battery extender if you need it. That’s handy given that it takes 2.5 hours to recharge a battery using the included 1 amp charging cable. I should also point out that the DJI GO app utterly ravages your phone’s battery life. It ate through 20 percent of my 6P’s charge in just 10 minutes of filming so the gimbal’s power reserves probably aren’t your biggest concern. For all this, you’re going to pay $300 MSRP when it begins shipping in two weeks.
HTC One A9s dons a familiar metallic design and cheaper tag
Last year we were left impressed with HTC’s premium mid-range One A9 smartphone: It was a good-looking phone with great build quality and great battery life, plus it was one of the first to ship with Android Marshmallow. It was apparently so “well received” that HTC decided to release a follow-up model. The new and supposedly more affordable One A9s features a near-identical metallic design plus the same fingerprint sensor on the front, with the main aesthetic changes being the earpiece is now shorter, the proximity sensor is in the middle and the front HTC logo is gone. Eagle-eyed folks will notice that the old 5-inch 1080p AMOLED display is now just a 720p Super LCD, so it better be a noticeable price drop.
The cost-cutting doesn’t stop there. The 13-megapixel main camera here has gone from f/2.0 to a slower f/2.2 (it’s likely no longer using the same nice Sony sensor) but still comes with RAW support, whereas the old UltraPixel front camera is now just an ordinary 5-megapixel imager. The old Snapdragon 617 has been replaced with MediaTek’s octa-core Helio P10 (8x Cortex-A53), but it’s hard to tell whether this is an upgrade or a downgrade just yet. At least we know that we’ll still be getting Cat 6 LTE and NFC here, just no 802.11ac WiFi.
Depending on where you’re buying the A9s, you may get either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage plus 2GB or 3GB of RAM, and you can expand storage space via microSD (up to 2TB). The built-in battery has been gently bumped up to 2,300mAh but there’s no fast charging feature this time, so here’s hoping the A9s has at least inherited the same impressive battery life optimization from its predecessor. What we do wish HTC had changed was the USB port: We’re already entering the last quarter of 2016 and HTC is still using micro-USB instead of USB-C; but then again, we’re not exactly short in micro-USB accessories, and it’s probably the least of HTC’s target audience’s worries in this price segment.
Speaking of, we’re still left in the dark in terms of actual price points: We’re only told that the A9s “will be very competitively priced at the mid-tier,” which doesn’t mean much given HTC’s track record. If priced right, the A9s’ fancy metallic design may still be compelling enough to help drive sales before the year ends.
We’re live all week from Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
Get ready for simple USB-C to HDMI cables
More devices are starting to ship with USB-C connectors built-in, and today groups behind HDMI and USB announced another way to take advantage of it. That method is HDMI Alt Mode, which means cable manufacturers can build a connector that plugs directly from the port on your phone, laptop or other device into the HDMI port on a TV or monitor. With this spec, there’s no additional dongle or adapter needed in the middle.
It’s all pretty simple, with just a USB Type-C cable on one end, HDMI on the other, but there are a couple of drawbacks. It supports the older HDMI 1.4b spec instead of the newer HDMI 2.0b. What that means for you is that while 4K video, 3D, HDMI-CEC and Audio Return Channel are all supported, it won’t be quite enough to send the newest Ultra HD 4K video with HDR. That’s probably not an issue if you’re just trying to play a video or two from your phone, but it’s good to know.
Logitech Unveils New Subscription Video Storage Plan for Circle Camera
Logitech released its Logi Circle home monitoring camera last September, but up until now, it has offered only 24 hours of storage, leaving users with no way to store multiple days of footage.
That’s set to change with the debut of the new Logitech “Circle Safe” subscription-based video storage plan that will let users keep and replay video footage beyond 24 hours.
Circle Safe will allow Logi Circle owners to store and access video footage for a full 31 days, keeping important moments available for a much longer period of time.
Alongside Circle Safe, Logitech is debuting improvements to Day Briefs, so subscribers will be able to create time lapse videos for the past day, week, or month. It also supports the creation of Day Briefs for specific user-inputted time frames.
Pricing for Circle Safe starts at $9.99 per account per month, and Logitech is providing all Logi Circle owners with a free 31-day trial. Introductory pricing options are also available.
Logitech’s Logi Circle home camera, which includes features like night vision, activity alerts, battery support, and two-way communication, is priced at $199.99 and can be purchased from the Logitech website.
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