Nonda USB-C to USB 3.0 Mini Adapter review – CNET
The Good Quickly turns a USB-C port into a regular USB 3.0 port. It’s only 10 bucks.
The Bad Nothing. Like I said, it’s only $10.
The Bottom Line The Nonda USB-C to USB 3.0 Mini Adapter is the cheapest way to connect your iPhone or iPad to your new MacBook and is totally worth its $10 price.
The Nonda USB-C to USB 3.0 Mini Adapter plugs into a USB-C port and lets you plug USB 3.0 devices like traditional portable drives into it.
And it works amazingly well, supporting virtually every USB device I threw at it, including an SD card reader, a few portable drives, many thumbdrives, one printer, an iPhone 6S and an iPad Air.
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In fact, at just $10, this Nonda adapter is the cheapest way to connect your iPhone or iPad to your new MacBook Pro or 12-inch MacBook. Otherwise, you’ll need to spend $25 for a USB-C-to-Lightning cable.
2016 McLaren 570S review – Roadshow
The Good The 570S’ lightweight construction and superbly communicative controls enable drivers to get the best out of the engine and chassis.
The Bad Sub-par infotainment tech mars an otherwise remarkable supercar experience.
The Bottom Line McLaren’s least-expensive offering is also its most compelling.
It’s a rare thing when a car company’s least expensive offering is also its best. It’s an especially rare feat among high-end automakers, but it happens every once in a while. It requires distilling down the essence of a company’s core philosophies about everything from driving dynamics to styling and tech into one product.
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BMW’s M division arguably managed that trick a few years ago with its 1 Series M Coupe, a sharp-handling two door that wore the company’s “Ultimate Driving Machine” mantra on its sleeve, even as the German automaker was arguably in the middle of retreating from that very mission statement.
And now there’s the 570S, an “entry-level” supercar that’s part of McLaren’s Sport Series. Notice the scare quotes — anything with a starting price tag of $184,900 is unlikely to be a bargain-basement proposition, but the sharply styled Brit nevertheless goes without some key McLaren tech in its quest for a more accessible price point. You won’t find the spookily effective hydraulic anti-roll system employed on the 650S or 675LT, nor the active aero pack that includes Mac’s novel active Airbrake rear wing. And it goes without saying that the 570S lacks the hybrid electric assist found on the (now out-of-production) P1 hypercar.
You won’t miss any of it.
How on Earth can anything that looks and drives like this be an entry-level model?
Nick Miotke/Roadshow
What you will find with the 570S are the same theatrical butterfly doors and the same lightweight, ultra-rigid carbon construction clothed in aluminum panels. This time, there’s a reshaped passenger tub to allow for easier ingress and egress, affording a slightly larger interior in the process. The 570S and its slightly posher 570GT sibling have been expressly designed to be more usable — a bit less “trackday and special occasion,” and a bit closer to a daily drivable machine like the Audi R8 V10 Plus and Porsche 911 Turbo S. Both of those are worthy supercars the 570S counts among its chief rivals.
So the 570S is more accommodating, but it’s no less special to drive. Like other McLarens, the 570S is still powered by the same compact, yet characterful 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8, tuned here to net 562 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque. Those are solid but not overwhelming figures for this class, but it’s the 570S’ feathery construction that gives it an edge in the power-to-weight ratio stakes. Weighing in at around 3,200 pounds, it’s several hundred pounds lighter than its nearest rival and that pays big dividends dynamically.
That lightness not only translates into an official 0-60-mph time of 3.1 seconds, it also means there’s substantially less heft to halt under braking and less mass threatening to pull you off the apex while slingshotting around corners. The 570S’ mid-engined layout was already inherently ideal for handling, but being so light has cascading benefits. Doing more with less has enabled McLaren’s engineers to specify less-than-monster meats, for instance. That’s especially up true front, where 225/35 ZR19 Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires come good in the form of reduced unsprung weight and lighter, quicker-reacting steering. Less weight means improved dynamics, heightened driver feedback and improved efficiency. It’s a virtuous cycle.
Cabin seems to be sponsored by the makers of the suede-like material Alcantara. This is a good thing.
Nick Miotke/Roadshow
As car reviewers, we’ve been taught to believe that true modern sports cars have limited-slip differentials and torque vectoring hardware that mechanically overdrives the outer wheel in a corner to aid turn-in. Conversely, in a corner, the 570S relies on individually braking the inner wheels to induce yaw and tighten the car’s trajectory. This is widely considered to be a less elegant, less effective way to add torque vectoring, and is generally viewed among gearheads with suspicion as a cost-saving technique.
I’m not sure if McLaren’s engineers collectively graduated from Hogwarts, but there are at least a couple of tricks in the 570S’ arsenal that feel downright magical, and this is one of them. Simply put, the 570S gets around corners magnificently, without any of that extra hardware. This is one of the best-handling cars on the planet, and more to the point, it’s one of the best feeling ones while doing so. The always quick, always light steering offers excellent feedback and the standard carbon-ceramic brakes are a perpetual joy to use. And regardless of what mode you have the suspension in, you can faithfully feel what the chassis is doing underneath you, yet there’s no punishing ride as an ugly byproduct of tuning for handling.
For something that enables a 0-60 time of just 3 seconds, the small-displacement V8 feels surprisingly docile around town, it never comes across as hair-trigger nervous, thanks in part to its well-mannered partner, a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox that works well whether left to its own devices or grabbed by its cantilevered paddle shifters. Downsides? There’s a decent-sized sliver of turbo lag before the engine builds enough revs to wake the forced induction bits, a momentary pause that asks your right foot, “Are you really sure you want to light this Roman candle?”
Satechi Slim Aluminum Type-C Multi-Port Adapter review – CNET
The Good Compact with a smart design. Adds two USB 3.0 ports and a 4K-capable HDMI port via USB-C.
The Bad There’s no SD card slot and it’s kind of pricey. The device’s USB-C port can’t transfer data and can only be used for charging.
The Bottom Line A pricey but useful adapter for anyone who wants to use a MacBook but see the results on a much bigger screen.
The Slim Aluminum Type-C Multi-Port Adapter from Satechi is a small dongle that turns a USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port into an HDMI port, capable of delivering 4K video to any large-screen TV.
What’s more, it also has two USB 3.0 ports to connect regular USB devices, like an iPhone, an iPad or a thumbdrive, to your laptop at the same time.
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If you use a 12-inch MacBook, which has only one USB-C port, it’s helpful that the adapter also has a USB-C port of its own for pass-through charging (you connect your MacBook’s power cord to the adapter and it charges your computer) but you can’t use the port to transfer data.
The adapter worked well. I liked the fact that it connects to a computer via a short 5.5-inch cable, giving it some flexibility when I moved the laptop around a bit so nothing became accidentally unplugged. An SD card slot would have been a nice addition, but if you can live without that slot, the adapter is well worth its current cost of $60.
Satechi Type-C Pass-through USB Hub review – CNET
The Good Conveniently adds an SD card slot, a miniSD slot and two USB 3.0 ports to your MacBook’s USB-C port.
The Bad The drive doesn’t fit securely enough and could easily fall out if you’re not careful. The pass-through USB-C port can only be used for charging, not data transfers. And there’s no HDMI.
The Bottom Line Far from perfect, this is nonetheless an essential accessory for any new MacBook owner.
There’s no SD card slot in the new MacBook Pros or the 12-inch MacBook. I hate this. I really do. I’m transferring files from my camera to my computer all the time. Without this slot, it’s incredibly difficult to get my work done.
The Satechi Type-C USB Pass-through Hub is my savior. It can be plugged into your MacBook’s USB-C port — just like you would a thumb drive — adding two USB 3.0 ports, one SD card slot and one miniSD card slot to the computer. There’s also an embedded USB-C slot that lets you charge your computer or other devices, but not transfer data.
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One thing, though: The device runs along the side of your MacBook while connected, but only connects through the USB-C port. And since there’s nothing other than the lone port to keep it connected, if you attach a large enough device, like an external hard drive and then move the laptop around too much, it can detach quite easily.
Also if you happen to lift the laptop up with the hub plugged in, as well as a few devices plugged into the hub, you risk bending the hub in a way that may make it snap off from the port. So be careful. With the amount of ports it supports already, the lack of an HDMI port is disappointing. But if you can be mindful of its fragility, the convenience it brings, especially if you use a dSLR camera, is totally worth its sub-$40 price.
ASUS ZenFone 3 review
ASUS first unveiled the mid-range ZenFone range of smartphones in 2014, and with ZenFone 3, the company wants to break away from the budget segment and is looking to increase its market share in the premium segment where it competes with the likes of the impressive OnePlus 3 and Honor 8 for example.
Available in two variants – one with a 5.2-inch display (3GB RAM/32GB internal storage) and the other with a 5.5-inch display (4GB RAM/64GB internal storage) – the ZenFone 3 packs mid-range innards into an all-new glass chassis and holds no qualms about its higher pricing.
Is it worth the price and does ASUS deliver on its marketing pitch of a ‘premium’ mid-range smartphone? We find out in this, our review of the Asus Zenfone 3.
In this review, we’re focusing on the smaller Zenfone 3 ZE520KL variant, which has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The other one is ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL), which has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The two variants differ in size and memory departments only while packing in the same processor, camera and overall experience.Show More
Design
The ASUS ZenFone 3 is a refreshing change from the common, and increasingly boring, all-metal design of smartphones in the market.
The ZenFone 3 sports 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass on the front and rear held by a metal frame. It’s stylish, sturdy (and can easily take random knocks on the glass), and quite attractive. The polished metal chamfers on the front and rear and the absence of antenna lines at the back are nice touches, and a testimony of the company’s focus on elegance here.
The compact size and the 7.69mm slim profile combined with the rounded edges makes it a delight to grip in the hand (How I miss smaller smartphones!). At 145 grams, it’s not the lightest smartphone out there, but is comfortable to hold. The all-glass design though means that it is a tad slippery, and I’d avoid holding it carelessly. Also, as one would imagine, it is a fingerprint magnet – the smudges being more prominent in the black variant I reviewed than in other colors I’d assume.
Yet it’s not all hunky-dory. The capacitive navigation buttons below the display are not backlit. Sometimes you’d end up fumbling to find them in the dark, and although it becomes an impulsive thing after few days of usage, this is a poor design element in a smartphone at this price.
Most people complain about the protruding rear camera too. Yes, it does not sit flush with the back, but I really didn’t mind it much, and it doesn’t hurt the aesthetics of the device. ASUS claims that the sapphire lens on the ZenFone 3 provides protection from any type of scratch, which is a constant worry with a protruding camera bump, and it certainly seems to live up to Asus’ billing.
This time around, ASUS has shunned the utilitarian design of the older ZenFone smartphones and has upped the ante for the ZenFone 3. The glass and metal design looks striking and exudes style in all four color variants – Shimmer Gold, Moonlight White, Aqua Blue, and Sapphire Black. It impresses at first glance, and helps the Zenfone 3 stand out in what is becoming an ever-increasingly homogenous industry.
Display
The 5.2-inch Full-HD IPS display on the ZenFone 3 is incredibly sharp and offers crisp visuals and good clarity. It’s vibrant, offers rich colors, and it is a treat to watch high-res videos or play games on it. The touch response too is smooth and fluid. The ZenFone 3 features high brightness level of 600nits and therefore sunlight legibility is pretty good. The viewing angles are great too, and the display supports touch recognition through gloves.
You can control the display settings with the built-in Splendid app that allows you to choose between Balance, Bluelight Filter, Vivid, and Customized color modes. The Bluelight Filter mode cuts out the blue light so that the display is easier on the eyes.
Performance
The ASUS ZenFone 3 is powered by Snapdragon 625, a mid-level processor, and packs in 3GB of RAM in this variant. On the specifications sheet, that makes for a modest entry. Several smartphones in this segment offer flagship processors from Qualcomm bundled with up to 6GB of RAM. Also, some of the budget smartphones pack in similar internals for half the price.
Yet, how a smartphone performs is not always reflective of the internal specs. The ZenFone 3 performs like a breeze with no apparent lags in multitasking or navigating across the UI. Even while playing graphic-intensive games, there was hardly a performance issue or overheating and no dropped frames. Overall, the ZenFone 3 is zippy and smooth when used as a daily driver, and can give other devices with similar specs a run for their money.
The fingerprint sensor on the ZenFone 3 has a quick response and is quite good. In most cases, it recognizes fingerprints even with wet fingers on the first try. You can also tap and hold the fingerprint sensor to answer a call or double tap it to launch the camera (and take a photo with just a tap when the camera app is on).
Interestingly, one of the highlights of the Snapdragon 625 chipset is less power consumption compared to previous generation chipsets. The 2650mAh battery on the ZenFone 3 (3000mAh on the other variant) might just look average on paper, but combined with the SoC and software optimizations, the smartphone offers impressive battery life easily lasting me through the day on heavy usage.
Hardware
The ASUS ZenFone 3 packs a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor clocked at 2GHz with an integrated Adreno 506 GPU. Since it performs quite well, one would be less inclined to go for the higher spec’d variant (4GB RAM versus 3GB RAM) unless there is a preference for larger display. There’s 32GB of internal storage, with about 23.5GB was available out of the box, and there’s also support for microSD cards of up to 2TB for expansion. ASUS is also offering 100GB of free cloud storage space for two years, in collaboration with Google.
The ZenFone 3 sports a hybrid SIM slot that can take in a Nano SIM along with a Micro SIM or a microSD card. While both SIMs support 3G/4G, only one can connect to 3G/4G networks at a time. If you prefer lot of storage and use two SIMs every day or while travelling, you might want to go for the 64GB variant. For most people though, 32GB is good enough, and of course, if you use only one SIM, you can always expand storage via microSD card.
Camera
ASUS pitches the camera on the ZenFone 3 as one of the highlights of the smartphone. While the optics are solid on paper, the real magic – or the lack of it – obviously lies in the software processing the data from the camera sensor. That’s the company’s PixelMaster 3.0 at play.
The 16-megapixel rear camera has an f/2.0 aperture and packs in 6P Largan lens, and focuses on the subject really quick. According to ASUS, the TriTech auto-focus technology on the ZenFone 3 combines laser, phase detection, and continuous autofocus allowing the device to focus in just 0.03 seconds in all conditions. There’s also Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) as well as Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) which are quite handy while shooting videos and still shots in difficult light conditions.
Outdoors, the rear camera on the ZenFone 3 of course performs great. Consistently. The colors are vibrant, and the photos include a great amount of detail and accuracy. The color reproduction too is excellent whether it’s the landscapes or the close-up shots. However, in low-light conditions while most of the shots are quite decent, often some noise would creep in and there would be a loss of detail. Although, I often managed to get blur-free shots in poor light conditions, validating the ZenFone 3’s camera creds.
In fact, it’s the 8-megapixel front camera on the ZenFone 3 that surprised me with the sharp and detailed selfies that I took, even in low light conditions or when indoors.
The camera app on the ZenFone 3 packs in a lot of options and camera modes to choose from. There’s also a manual mode for tinkering with the DSLR-like camera settings as well as a low light mode that enhances light sensitivity for clearer and brighter low-light shots. With the Super Resolution mode, you can take composite images at up to 4X resolution, and then wonder why would you need it. Not from a review perspective, but I ended up using the GIF animation mode a lot for random fun GIFs converted from a series of captured images. Maybe that’s why there was a delay in publishing the review!
For better or worse, the camera on the ZenFone 3 builds on the precedent set by the earlier generations of ZenFone. It’s not perfect, and serious photographers would find few limitations here and there, but for most regular as well as power users, it works great.
Software
The ASUS ZenFone 3 runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box with the new version of the company’s proprietary ZenUI 3.0 on top of it.
Right up, that’s a good thing. The older versions of ZenUI were plagued with bloatware and gimmicky UI elements that marred the overall user experience. The latest version is a complete makeover, and offers a clean UI with subtle animations. There are several nifty utilities, but there’s still a plethora of ASUS-branded apps that I’ve hardly seen anyone using really. Unfortunately, only a few of these can be uninstalled and while you can disable most others, they still occupy storage space on your phone.
ZenUI 3.0 features an app drawer, and there’s a built-in search functionality. You can swipe down the screen and search the Web or your apps and contacts, and view your frequently used apps. There’s an all-new Theme Store from which users can download free as well as paid themes, wallpapers, icons, and ringtones to customize their smartphone.
One of the neat features of the ZenUI is ZenMotion which allows configuring a variety of touch and motion gestures like double tap to wake or flipping the phone when you get an incoming call to enable silent mode. It also allows you to enable the one-handed mode that shrinks the display to one corner of the screen for easy, one-handed usage when you’re on the move.
Of course, the most useful app from the entire ZenUI suite is the Mobile Manager. With slick animations and intuitive UI, the app offers quick ways to free RAM and storage space, and manage apps as well as app permissions. It’s a sort of one-stop destination for managing your phone’s performance.
For gamers, ZenUI offers Game Genie which pops up automatically when you start playing a game and allows you to record your gameplay and broadcast it live on YouTube or Twitch, search for tips, and boost gaming performance. It’s a neat, little addition that gamers would appreciate.
The latest version of ZenUI on the ZenFone 3 is fluid and aims to offer stock Android-like experience while adding additional functionalities. And, it succeeds in doing that. But the excess of bloatware is disappointing, and shows that the company has learnt nothing from similar criticism in the past.
Specifications
| Operating System | Android 6.0 Marshmallow with ASUS ZenUI 3.0 |
| Display | 5.2-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) super IPS+ | 2.5D contoured Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Processor | 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon Octa-Core 625 2.0GHz | Adreno 506 GPU |
| RAM | 3 GB |
| Internal Storage | 32 GB; expandable up to 2TB with microSD card |
| Battery | 2650mAh |
| Rear Camera | 16 MP PixelMaster 3.0 camera | f/2.0 aperture | Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) | Dual-LED real tone flash |
| Front Camera | 8MP | f/2.0 aperture | 84˚ field of view |
| Dimesions | 146.87 x 73.98 x 7.69 mm |
| Weight | 144 grams |
Gallery
Pricing and final thoughts
At $320 (₹21,999) in India, the ASUS ZenFone 3 is not cheap. The higher spec’d variant is in fact priced at roughly $409 (₹27,999) which is very similar to the OnePlus 3. Yet, there are a lot of things going for the ZenFone 3. One, ASUS serves broader audience by virtue of being available both online and offline and secondly, it looks so damn good.
It’s a reliable daily driver and doesn’t break a sweat while pushing for performance or gaming. The camera is very good, and the battery life is exemplary.
It looks modest on the specifications sheet, but it’s a mistake to judge the ZenFone 3 purely on its specs list
. Once you take it for a spin, it impresses, even if we wish the price could’ve been a little lower. In fact, the lower spec’d variant, because it performs very well, offers more value for money and is the recommended buy, as long as you’re happy with the smaller display.
Asus isn’t officially selling the regular Zenfone 3 in the US but it is already available via a marketplace seller on Amazon if you’d rather have the regular Zenfone 3 over the more illustrious (and higher priced) Zenfone 3 Deluxe. What do you think of the Asus Zenfone 3 and do you plan to buy one? Let us know your views in the comments below!
LeEco Le Pro3 review
LeEco is making it abundantly clear – they are here and are looking to really disrupt multiple segments of the tech world. They have a car concept that turned heads, bought Vizio so that they could really capture the television market, and even a smart bike that runs Android. But it all ties back – as it should – to a phone.
In Jan this year, the LeEco Le Max Pro made a splash as one of the very first phones to sport the latest Snapdragon 820 processor of the time, but now their latest outing claims to be more than just a phone and more of an ecosystem in and of itself. Does the result spell greatness for this burgeoning brand? Let’s find out in our review of the LeEco Le Pro 3.
Design
To any avid smartphone fans, the Le Pro3 may look a little too familiar – it is honestly just too hard not to think that this phone greatly resembles the OnePlus 3, right down to the antenna lines and the lens popping out at the top. Users might actually mistake the two if they happen to have them lying side by side. We just really felt the need to call that out, so with that out of the way, we can step back and explore the cues.
LeEco’s phone has a metal body with a very glossy look and feel, which puts a fingerprint reader on the back in lieu of capacitive buttons underneath the screen. With a 5.5 inch screen, the phone is not at all hard to manoeuvre in one hand and it helps that the body is a bit thicker than most of the slim profiles we’ve gotten this past year. The glossy material does take to fingerprints rather quickly, but not egregiously.
One main aspect to note is that there is no headphone jack found on this phone – an adapter has to be used in order to port the USB-C. Speaking of audio, a bottom mounted speaker is accompanied by the phone speaker that works double time for calls and media.
Overall, it is good looking phone that is mostly hindered by the fact that the design is a bit too much like something that we have seen before. It begs the question – besides the different ‘Le’ logos that are on the back and serves as the home capacitive button, what defines LeEco’s design language in this smartphone cycle? Granted, the phone looks and feels quite good, but starting things off with a derivative style may foreshadow the rest of the story that is the Le Pro3.
Display
A 5.5 inch screen helps in the handling experience, though an affordable phone like this had to cut a few corners to keep the costs down. As such, this is an IPS display that comes with an unsurprising 1080p resolution. As an IPS display, it does get plenty bright even in broad daylight, but it seems a bit muted in its colors, noticeably lacking in vibrancy and saturation. This is in the standard LeEco color mode found in the display settings, even though there is a vivid mode that is available for that extra bit of punch.
The easiest problem to see at first glance is the sizeable bezel that is around the entire display. It can almost be considered the mark of a budgeted phone and it is plain to see in the Le Pro3. Pixel density is obviously not as high as it would have been if this were a Quad HD screen, but it is still plenty for text and general sharpness. Reading text and websites is not difficult, and games are still fun to play despite the need for a little better coloration.
That all said, this display is about as standard as you can get. In the grand scheme of affordable flagship phones, there are definitely better display experiences. For its affordable price point, general users won’t find too much to hate about the Le Pro3’s screen, aside from maybe the bezel.
Performance
We have to preference the performance aspect of this review by saying that the EUI LeEco put as the software is mostly to blame for the hiccups experienced on this device. The Snapdragon 821 has already proven itself a few times over as a powerful and reliable processing package, meaning that high performance tasks from productivity to gaming are actually about as good as they should be. Unfortunately, that is assuming the software can stably get from one place to another without messing up.
I did play some good games on the Le Pro 3 that included The Trail, one of the more lag-prone gaming experiences available right now, and it was not any worse than on other Snapdragon 821 performers like the Pixel. 4GB of RAM in the base model is adequate for general multitasking, though a 6GB model is available at a premium and should help the phone along a bit more. That said, jumping in and out of applications using the recent apps screen is smooth, as is going through the multitudes of homescreens that users will inevitably have because there is no app drawer.
Overall, having the Snapdragon 821 as the processor on this phone, which is meant to be quite affordable, is definitely one of the better aspects of the Le Pro 3, even if the hardware and software experience doesn’t quite live up to that offered by other Snapdragon 821-powered smartphones.
Hardware
Which brings us to the hardware, where we’ll start with the good parts of the experience. Calls on the Le Pro3 are adequately good, with no real problems on either end of the call and with few dropped calls on the T-Mobile network. Sound, in general, is actually a bright spot for this phone because of the dual speakers – when watching YouTube or playing games, we didn’t feel too bad about the lack of a headphone jack because the audio coming out of the phone was pretty dang decent to begin with.
Speaking of the headphone jack, it does suffer from the iPhone 7 or Moto Z problem in that an adapter has to be used in order to connect wired headphones to the phone. This adapter is really small and can be easily misplaced, which is something that already happened to me on a couple of occasions. Bluetooth headsets are probably the best way to go for the sake of convenience, though it is an adjustment that many still have to get used to.
On a somewhat related note, getting certain Bluetooth speakers and other peripherals connected to the Le Pro3 ranged from decent to anger-inducing experiences. The main issue was with NFC connections, which were highly inconsistent and had trouble connecting to my Bluetooth speakers. Even then, the Bluetooth connection to one of my speakers cut out a few times, which was frustrating.
Another point of real contention is that the Le Pro 3 wasn’t able to work with Android Auto in my car. Connecting the phone using a USB-C cord took multiple tries because the phone kept trying to connect via Mirrorlink rather than Android Auto, but that is yet another mark against the software, admittedly. However, even when I did get Android Auto to work, it would lose connection every couple of minutes to the point of it being completely useless for my driving. As an everyday user of Android Auto, this took away a key portion of my daily requirements for any phone.
One last inconsistency came from the fingerprint reader. It often felt like I needed to hit it multiple times just to get it to trigger, making it a little annoying to wake and unlock the phone on more than a few occasions. It may be fixed with a future update but the fingerprint sensor definitely requires refining further and doesn’t have the responsiveness offered by other OEMs.
32GB of storage is available with the base model of the LeEco Le Pro 3, but 64GB and 128GB are also available at a further premium. Our unit has 64GB, which gives enough space for plenty of applications and media, but without expandable storage, you’ll want to ensure you pick up the right storage option for you. If you opt for the variant with 4GB of RAM, you can choose from either 32GB or 64GB storage while for those wanting 6GB of RAM, you storage options are doubled to 64GB and 128GB.
Battery life is dependant on the 4070mAh battery, which is a higher capacity than found on most flagship devices. Our Android Authority battery testing app showed a possible screen on time of 9 hours, with the gaming test managing to bring the phone from 100 to single digits in about 7 hours. While on paper it certainly seems like the battery can go the distance, using the phone as my daily driver made the battery life range from 3 and a half hours of screen on time to an upper limit of 5.
That is pretty good battery life, even if it is not particularly overachieving and that upper limit is somewhat expected for a 4000+ mAh unit. If users are itching for power despite the possibility of a solid full day of battery with some change, Quick Charge 3.0 is able to get the phone up to 50% battery in around half an hour.
Camera
The camera of the Le Pro3 is a 16MP shooter capable of 4k video recording and has a few different modes available. Before we get to that, the front facing camera does have a beauty mode that is on by default and smooths out details in selfies taken using the 8MP sensor. Selfies taken on the Le Pro3 are decent enough, though even at the middle setting, the beauty mode is a little too aggressive and makes pictures look a bit too soft. It is also quite slow to focus, which takes away from the selfie experience.
The app in general is not the fastest one out there, mainly in the sense that the shutter-to-file time is a little too long for our tastes. There is no problem changing to the different modes and activating different features, but the one big issue we have with it is that HDR is not a setting but rather a feature. This means that users would have to actively open it up in order to give pictures a little more punch and better highlight and shadow rendering.
As such, the pictures coming from the Le Pro3 are actually not all that bad. Though they won’t really blow anyone away, the pictures are all very serviceable with a good amount of detail in the right lighting situations. The noise, of course, comes out more in the lower light shots but at least it doesn’t look incredibly smudgy. All in all, it is a camera experience that you would expect from a sub-$400 handset.
LeEco Le Pro3 camera samples:
The colors are what make us give the camera a nod, with a slight bump up in saturation making pictures look more vivid and pleasing to the eye. Interestingly enough, this didn’t seem to be the case when looking at the pictures on the screen of the phone itself. This is likely due to the screen being a bit muted, as we mentioned in the display section earlier on. General users will be able to enjoy their smartphone photography on the Le Pro3, though prosumers will probably wish that there was more speed in the app and a few more options to get even better shots.
Software
And finally, in software, the EUI brings its Asian styled flavor of Android; this means no app drawer and potentially a few different features that aren’t typically found in western versions of Google’s OS. EUI starts off pleasantly enough, with good design cues that are decidedly smaller in overall elements than other Chinese operating systems, perhaps as a way to avoid anything bleeding over their boundaries (as is rather common with overtly long translations in localized versions of Color OS and such).
The lack of an app drawer is a polarizing choice, with some users really hating the omission and others finding it rather refreshing. I am the former, but I understand that it doesn’t truly change the overall Android experience that much. LeEco, to their credit, tries a few different things in their skin, with the quick settings showing up above the recent apps screen, and the notification shade showing only notifications and a large button on the bottom to manage said notifications, even if it won’t be pressed all that often anyway.
Where LeEco hopes that the EUI will separate itself is through its ties to the LeEco streaming services. LeEco did well to get quite a few different partnerships with networks like SeeSo and Showtime to bring a lot of content to the masses, but it requires subscription and monthly payments to the EcoPass, which has its own digital currency called the EcoPoints which can be used in lieu of cash towards options in the LeMall.
Take a deep breath.
A lot of that content is found in the Le app, but in place of where the app drawer button would be is a wholly different application called Le Live, which brings users to a 3×3 grid of content distributors that all stream content straight to the phone on an ongoing basis. This can include the aforementioned SeeSo but also includes some Asian channels, Vice, and a few smaller outlets like TasteMade, which you might recognize from their Facebook ads or Snapchat. Basically content is consistently played and scheduled at certain time intervals, and is a portal to a lot of different streaming content that is curated, only somewhat expansive, and honestly a little hard to make sense of – the average user will probably be a bit confused and overwhelmed by the experience, especially considering there isn’t a whole lot of documentation or even built-in advertisement-style tutorials to guide the user.
What if users want an affordable Android phone, but aren’t open to getting inundated with Le’s all over the place?
SeeSo, Netflix, and Showtime are examples of subscription-based services that are all a part of the Le ecosystem, but they are paid addons on top of the already existing subscription service. While there are a few perks like 5TB of photo and video storage included, it is a little tough to recommend a whole new bill payment just to enjoy what is supposed to be the biggest part of the Le Pro3. What if users want an affordable Android phone, but aren’t open to getting inundated with Le’s all over the place? Of course, they can install a new launcher but the question bears statement.
Gallery
Specifications
| Display | 5.5-inch IPS LCD display 1080p resolution, 403 ppi |
| Processor | 2.35 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 Adreno 530 GPU |
| RAM | 4/6 GB |
| Storage | 32/64GB (4GB RAM) 64/128 GB (6GB RAM) non-expandable |
| Camera | 16 MP rear camera, 1.12µm pixel size, f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, dual LED flash 8 MP front-facing camera, 1.4µm pixel size |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.1 GPS + GLONASS NFC IR FM radio USB Type-C 1.0 |
| Battery | 4,070 mAh non-removable Quick Charge 3.0 |
| Software | Android 6.0 Marshmallow eUI 5.8 |
| Dimensions | 151.4 x 73.9 x 7.5 mm 175 grams |
Price & Final Thoughts
Another perk of being part of the LeMall and the Le ecosystem is that members can get the Le Pro3 at a pretty deep discount that makes this phone one of the most affordable devices available today. Starting at $399, the phone can be put on flash sales resulting in discounts of $100, making the phone potentially $299 if you wait for those days to come. This is undoubtedly a wonderful price, but as we have found in this review, you kind of get what you pay for.
And so, there you have it. The LeEco LePro3 – a phone that has all of the tools to be competitive but is bogged down by inconsistent performance that we only really see in phones at its price point. This doesn’t come at much of a surprise, but the phone does prove to be a reminder that value and money can sometimes be an inverse proportion. For it’s price, the LeEco Le Pro 3 is a solid device, but it only really makes sense as a recommendation if acquired at the $299 price, which we haven’t seen since the days of the OnePlus One.
- Coming to America: LeEco to formally launch US presence in October
- LeEco Le S3 hands-on
- (Update: Netflix denies any partnership) LeEco’s grand plans to take over the world
And for its full price, there is competition like the OnePlus 3 to consider – it is, after all, the phone that the Le Pro3 somehow manages to look incredibly similar to. It brings an inconsistent experience overall with Le features and software that aren’t particularly useful for anyone that just wants a reliable Android experience at a good price.
Bonavita BV01002US Coffee Maker review – CNET
The Good The Bonavita BV01002US coffee maker brews as well as premium machines but costs much less. It’s also compact and easy to use and clean.
The Bad With mostly plastic parts, the Bonavita BV01002US is less attractive and feels less durable than its more-expensive competition. Instead of a thermal carafe, this coffee brewer comes with a glass pitcher and electric hot plate.
The Bottom Line Those who crave an outstanding coffee brewer at an attractive price should look to the Bonavita BV01002US, but only if plastic parts aren’t an eyesore.
Automatic drip coffee makers worth your money tend to cost an arm and a leg, typically two to three hundred dollars. Our Editors’ Choice winner, the $190 Bonavita BV1900TS, came in just under that price barrier, brewing pot after pot of fantastically good coffee. Now the company has a new model, the $140 BV01002US, which Bonavita promises will make java every bit as good yet is even more affordable.
True to Bonavita’s word, this coffee machine whips up superb batches of drip that are in line with those of its fancy sibling. Bonavita had to cut corners somewhere though, and here you’ll find a cheaper build as well as a hot plate and glass pitcher rather than a thermal carafe. All this makes Bonavita’s latest coffee maker perfect for frugal shoppers who seek quality drip coffee. If you’d like a machine with more elegance plus brewing chops, a $299 Technivorm Moccamaster KBT 741 or Bonavita BV1900TS will be more your speed.
Design and features
Those who’ve used previous Bonavita brewers should find the BV01002US very familiar. Its shape is similar to the company’s previous BV1800 line right down to the tall, rectangular tower and trapezoidal water tank that both products share. Unlike the BV1900TS, this appliance is equipped with a glass carafe and not an insulated thermal container. That’s another characteristic in common with the base BV1800 brewer model.
This Bonavita has a shape similar to the BV1800 series.
Chris Monroe/CNET
To keep the carafe’s contents warm, the coffee maker relies on an electrically heated metal hot plate. The plate itself sits on top of the machine’s thick base. Additionally, the filter basket here is conical and designed to accept Type-4 paper filters. Again, this matches the filter setup of Bonavita’s BV1800 series brewers, but not the BV1900 series which use flat-bottom filters.
The button layout on the BV01002US, however, is entirely new. Up until now, Bonavita coffee makers came with just one button or switch to control brewing. Outside of other keys for programming a brew in advance, this button turned the machine on and off. The BV1900TS’ power switch also enables and disables its presoak function.
The button layout is slightly different.
Chris Monroe/CNET
This brewer has a dedicated presoak button in addition to one for power and another labelled “Clean.” Hitting presoak before the power button tells the device to drip just enough hot water into the filter basket to saturate your coffee grounds. After the presoak cycle completes, roughly one minute, brewing begins in earnest.
As you might have guessed, the clean button kicks the coffee maker into descaling mode to help scour away any lime deposits that may have built up over time. The button is linked to an internal cycle counter, too, and will glow red when it thinks you’re due for a descale. Keep in mind you must use special descaling agent for the task, sold in a powder or liquid solution.
Other than these differences, the Bonavita BV01002US is cut from the same cloth as the company’s other products. The coffee maker is an eight-cup brewer and accepts a maximum of 1.3 liters (44 ounces) of water. Depending on what coffee you use and your preferred grind size, you can expect between 38 and 40 ounces (1.1 to 1.2 liters) of coffee in each pot.
The water reservoir holds up to 1.3 liters (44 ounces).
Chris Monroe/CNET
Final Fantasy XV Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Square Enix
Some clueless gamers weren’t impressed by Final Fantasy XV, with Conan O’Brien calling it a “a waste of time” in his preview. But fear not gamers, I come with good news. I got to play the first three hours of Square Enix’s upcoming epic, and it’s looking like a lot of fun.
Be warned, there may be some minor spoilers ahead.
Final Fantasy XV takes place in an open world called Eos. From what I could see, it looks to be a sprawling world, with plenty to see and do.
But before we get to the good stuff, there’s just one negative thing I have to point out. The real-time combat can be clunky. This is especially true with warping, a mechanic that lets Noctis, the royal protagonist, jump around to various points on the map mid-battle.
To perform a warp, you’re supposed to look at a possible warp point and hit circle (on the PS4), but sometimes, even when I’m staring at the warp point and hitting circle, instead of making the jump, I found Noctis blinking straight ahead instead into more monsters. It made the whole experience frustrating to say the least.
As with most Final Fantasy games, you don’t go at it with monsters alone. This time around, Noctis comes with three other AI-controlled buddies, Ignis, Gladiolus and Prompto, who he can team up with to perform special devastating combos. Like with many good modern RPGs, each partner performs a different role. Ignis is damage, Gladiolus is the tank and Promptus is the stupid range damage-dealer in your party that keeps running up to die instead of hiding in the backlines.
It may be that the combat system takes a while to get used to, but honestly, even after three hours I didn’t feel very comfortable with it. Then again, the game offers an extensive combat tutorial, which I didn’t get to finish due to time constraints.
Square Enix
But it’s not all about combat. Final Fantasy XV is really the big beautiful new world of Eos. You get a fancy convertible to drive around in, and you’ll need to, unless you want to walk everywhere (which I don’t recommend at all). You can also go off the beaten path to find treasures or just check things out, but the game doesn’t want you driving around at night because that’s when the scary demons spawn.
And spawn they do. I was less than 30 minutes into the game, driving around at night, and met an Iron Giant, which killed my party in two hits. Having learned my lesson, I made sure to rest for the night until I got a bit stronger, which leads me to the leveling up system…
Unlike most RPGs, which level up after you fight, you only level up in the game when you rest, and depending on where you spend the night (the swankier, the better), you get percentage bonuses to your earned XP. Of course, the nicer places that give you more XP aren’t cheap to sleep over, so you’ll have to find ways to earn money.
There’s a variety of ways to do this, mainly fetch quests, killing monsters or exploring the map for gems and ores. Leveling up gives you points you can put into various skills that affect combat and world exploration. You can chose to ignore the main story and do a whole bunch of side quests before finishing up, and you can also go fishing if you’re feeling up for it.
Square Enix
The story starts picking up after the first chapter, because that’s where the bad things happen to Noctis’ dad, the king of Eos. Noctis is now the new guy on the throne and inherits a power up. This was where I had to stop, because my allocated time had run out.
What I’ve played so far has convinced me this game won’t be like Final Fantasy XIII, which forced you to run endless linear corridors. As with most Japanese RPGs, there’s not much hand-holding, you’re pretty much left to your own devices to figure things out, which I like. I’m just crossing my fingers that the combat gets tighter further into the game.
Check back soon for our full review.
GE PHB920SJSS review – CNET
The Good You can use voice control to operate some parts of the Wi-Fi-enabled $2,000 GE PHB920SJSS induction range thanks to compatibility with the Amazon Alexa digital assistant. The induction cooktop cooks food fast, and the oven bakes and roasts evenly.
The Bad The voice commands can get convoluted, and the wrong wording choice throws off Alexa.
The Bottom Line The GE PHB920SJSS is a good oven on its own, and its Wi-Fi connectivity and integration with Alexa make this appliance a great choice, especially if you’re interested in smart home technology.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
You’re oiling down your Thanksgiving turkey, and the recipe you’re using calls for you to adjust the oven temperature right before you put the turkey in. This salmonella-laden scenario typically means you’ll have to stop what you’re doing and wash your hands to make the adjustment. But what if you could just yell at a virtual assistant to preheat your oven without a pause in turkey prep? It’s possible with the GE PHB920SJSS induction range.
This $2,000 stove is one of GE Appliances’ Wi-Fi-enabled products that works with Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant. Thanks to a new Alexa “Skill,” you can tell Alexa what you want your oven to do, and she’ll handle the rest. For the most part, Alexa followed my voice commands and controlled the GE PHB920SJSS. The stove’s integration with Alexa did create some frustrating moments, though. You have to be very specific with your voice commands; variations of the same statement can leave the virtual assistant stumped. Alexa can’t control certain parts of the oven, such as the broiler or cooktop burners. And you have to hit a “Remote Enable” button on the oven’s control panel before you use voice commands, which undercuts some of the hands-free appeal.
Fortunately, the GE PHB920SJSS is a great stove, even without the flashy Wi-Fi features. The induction burners can boil water quickly and the oven circulates heat evenly. At $2,000, it’s one of the least expensive induction ranges we’ve tested (the $1,700 Kenmore 95073 takes top honor for lowest-cost induction range).
If you’re in search of an electric range, buy the GE PHB920SJSS. GE’s integration with Alexa is a useful addition that helps rather than hinders (as we’ve seen with some smart stoves and ovens). But most importantly, this stove’s cooking performance borders on flawless.
GE and Alexa live happily ever after in this…
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GE loads this oven up with useful features
The GE PHB920SJSS is a humble-looking oven that’s more powerful than it appears at first glance. Its profile is pretty standard: 30 inches wide, stainless-steel finish, freestanding, smooth glass cooktop. But its specs are impressive.
The GE PHB920SJSS’s Wi-Fi and integration with Alexa is, by far, the most notable part of this range. The oven works with a GE app where you can set and monitor its temperature without any help from Alexa. But if you want to voice control the range, you have to use an Alexa “Skill” (sort of like an app for Alexa that connects the platform’s voice capabilities to smart devices and apps) called Geneva.
To do so, you’ll first connect your oven to your home’s Wi-Fi network (the company’s app walks you through the simple process). Then, you have to download the Geneva Skill from the Alexa app and enter your GE online log-in information. I had to attempt this several times before my accounts linked. After you complete set-up, you hit the “Remote Enable” button on the stove’s control panel. If you have an Alexa-enabled device such as an Echo smart speaker, you’ll be able to tell Alexa to tell Geneva to complete a task or provide you with a status update. So, if you want to preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, you’d say, “Alexa, tell Geneva to preheat the oven to 350.”
Lenovo Phab 2 Pro review: Stumbling out of the gate
I just spent 15 minutes wandering around the office, trying to shoot ghouls in the face with lightning. Before that, I dropped a virtual rococo sofa into the empty space next to my desk, just to see if it would fit. And before that, I measured… well, everything. Welcome to the augmented life, courtesy of Google and Lenovo. Google has spent more than two years taking its “Tango” technology from project to full-blown product. The goal: to help our gadgets examine the world around them and overlay information — or even whole new worlds — on top of the reality we already know. Along the way, Google tapped Lenovo to help craft the first consumer-ready Tango device: an enormous slab of a phone called the Phab 2 Pro. And now it’s here.
If the Tango stuff alone didn’t make the Phab 2 Pro a groundbreaking device, this is also the first Lenovo-branded smartphone to land in the United States. Too bad it’s not quite ready for primetime.
Hardware
I can’t emphasize this enough: The Phab 2 Pro ($500) is enormous. Then again, how could it be anything but? We have plenty of things to thank for that, from the phone’s 6.4-inch IPS LCD screen to the bank of capacitive buttons below it, to the massive 4,050mAh battery under the hood. Of course, the real reason the Phab 2 Pro is so big is because of all the Tango tech Google helped squeeze inside. It’s worth remembering that Google’s Tango reference device for developers was a tablet with a 7-inch screen, one of NVIDIA’s Tegra K1 chipsets and two — two! — batteries.
That Google and Lenovo managed to squeeze all the requisite bits into a mostly pocketable smartphone is a feat unto itself. There are, after all, plenty of non-standard parts here. Just look at the Phab 2’s back if you don’t believe me. Nestled between the 16-megapixel camera and the fingerprint sensor are two more cameras — one has an infrared emitter to determine how far things are from the phone, and the other is a wide-angle camera with a fisheye lens that works as part of Tango’s motion tracking system. Turns out, Lenovo had to punch a hole in the phone’s main circuit board to make room for all those sensors.
Those cameras and sensors work in tandem with a customized version of Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 652 processor. We’ve seen more conventional versions of this mid-range chip pop up in devices like ASUS’s new ZenFone, but the version we have here has been tuned to more accurately timestamp the data captured by all of the phone’s sensors. Why? To keep the phone’s location in lockstep with all the crazy AR stuff you’ll see on screen. Also onboard are 4GB of RAM, an Adreno 510 GPU, 64GB of storage, a micro-USB port and a tray that takes either two SIM cards or a SIM card and a microSD card as big as 128GB.
So, long story short, the Phab 2 Pro is massive, and for good reason. The last time I played with a non-Phab phone this big was three years ago, when Sony launched a version of its Xperia Z Ultra running a clean version Android in the Google Play Store. Since then, the market has coalesced around big smartphones with screens about 5.5 inches big. Years of similarly sized devices, then, means the Phab 2 Pro feels extra unwieldy.
It would’ve been more of a problem if Lenovo hadn’t done such a good job putting the Phab 2 Pro together; the body is carved out of a single block of aluminum and the screen is covered by a sheet of Gorilla Glass that’s ever-so-slightly curved around the edges for that subtle “2.5D” effect everyone seems to love. The aesthetic is pleasant enough if you’re into minimalist design, and big-phone fans are probably going to drool too. If you’re thinking of getting one, though, best if you can get hands-on before taking the plunge.
Display and sound
The 6.4-inch screen on the Phab 2 Pro is indeed massive, but mostly unremarkable. Lenovo went with an “assertive” IPS LCD screen, which basically means the panel can optimize colors and contrast on the pixel level. It’s a handy trick for when you’re traipsing around outdoors — it’s excellent under direct sunlight — but the screen is otherwise forgettable.
Don’t get me wrong: Its 2,560 x 1,440 resolution means it’s still plenty crisp, even if it isn’t as pixel dense as other devices because of how big the panel is. Color reproduction is accurate too, though it’ll definitely feel a little flat if you’re coming from a device with an AMOLED screen like the Galaxy S7. What’s more, brightness is respectable — this screen is just a touch dimmer than the iPhone 7 Plus’ — and viewing angles are also pretty great. I half-expected the screen to be worse since it would have been a likely place for Lenovo to cut corners on a $500 phone.
The sound quality lags behind screen quality, but that’s no surprise. The Phab 2 Pro has a single speaker carved into its bottom edge, which makes for anemic, muddy sounding music, with bass notes utterly lacking in oomph. It’s fine for sound effects in Tango-enabled games, but headphones are otherwise a must. It helps that the Phab 2 Pro ships with a Dolby Atmos app that launches automatically when headphones are plugged in. Included are presets for music, movies, games and voices (say, for podcasts), and in general they added a decent amount of oomph to my audio. Music in particular felt a little punchier and more expansive, though the results seemed to vary from song to song.
Software
Motorola has long been a fan of near-stock Android, and I’m glad its parent company Lenovo seems just as fond of it. The Phab 2 Pro ships with a build of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow that has been left almost completely untouched. Seriously, there are no extra widgets, no visual junk, no bloatware. If you put the Tango-specific stuff aside, there are but a few add-ons: an app for simple file sharing, another for cloud backups, a sound recorder, a Dolby Atmos app for audio tuning and Accuweather. The rest of Lenovo’s work on the software front is much subtler, and largely meant to make using such a big phone easier.
Rather than picking up the phone to see what time it is, for instance, you can toggle an option to wake the device by double-tapping the screen. Still another option causes the lock screen’s PIN input pad and the phone’s dialer pad to slide to the left or right depending on how the Phab 2 is tilted so you don’t have to stretch your thumbs across the screen.
And if you’re in luck if you’ve been looking for a smarter alternative to the traditional home button. There’s an option for a floating on-screen button that provides quick access to all three traditional Android navigation keys, plus the screen lock, calculator, audio recorder and flashlight. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need to whip out a calculator all that often, so the inability to change any of those shortcuts is a little frustrating. You can add a second page of app shortcuts too, though the resulting grid of icons looks pretty ugly.
Lenovo’s light touch with software is appreciated, but it’s far from perfect. Certain apps (here’s looking at you, Gmail) offer notifications that are hard to read because some of the text is too dark against the translucent gray notification shade. The problem is even worse when you’re using a dark wallpaper, and surprise: a good chunk of the included wallpapers, including the one that’s on by default, do indeed fall into that category.
Life with Tango
As I write this, there are 35 Tango apps available in the Google Play Store, and broadly speaking they fall into one of two categories: tools and games. I’m not going to dissect all of them — not unless you all really, really want me to — but there are recurring themes across these apps that speak to the larger experience of living with Tango.
Despite all the whimsical, weird stuff we’ve seen Tango do in the past, Google is making it clear the tech can help you get stuff done too. The Phab 2 Pro ships with Google’s Measure app, for one, which does exactly what its name suggests. Fire up the app, point at something, tap to drop an anchor, then tap to drop an anchor at that something’s endpoint. Congratulations, you just measured something without having to grab a tape measure. The Lowe’s Vision app has a similar trick, and when Tango’s sensors cooperate, the results can be very accurate indeed.
That’s definitely not a given, though. Let’s say you’re measuring the edge of a box or a desk. The depth sensor sometimes has trouble figuring out where the edge begins, and you have to maneuver just right to tap on the correct spot. (To Google’s credit, Measure says it offers estimates instead of hard numbers.)
Tango recurring theme #1: The Phab 2 Pro occasionally fails at figuring out what it’s pointed at, even in bright conditions.
Speaking of, we’ve seen Lowe’s app used in Tango demos for ages now. In fact, the Phab 2 Pro will even be sold in select Lowe’s stores. Even so, it’s still fun filling an empty room with virtual ovens, sofas and end tables. Online retailer Wayfair has a similar app, which generally seems to work much better; the dressers and couches and cabinets I’ve dropped into the world around me were faster to load and didn’t randomly appear right on top of me as in the Lowe’s app. In fact, the Wayfair app is a joy to use at least partially because it doesn’t try to do too much — just plop furniture down and that’s it. Same goes for Amazon’s Product Preview app, which lets you see how different TVs would look on your wall. It does one thing, and does it well.
Tango recurring theme #2: When it comes to augmented reality apps, the simpler the better.
Tango’s tools aren’t just about seeing how junk fits in your home, by the way. One of my early favorites is Signal Mapper, which prompts you to wander around and visualize how strong your WiFi signal is (future versions will support cellular networks too). Keep at it long enough and you’re left with a signal strength heat map that doubles as a rough blueprint of… wherever you happened to be. Then there are apps like Cydalion, meant to help the visually impaired get around more easily. In brief, these apps provide audio and touch feedback when they start getting too close to a nearby object.
Tango recurring theme #3: The technology might not be perfect yet, but the potential here is just astounding.
So yes, there are plenty of Tango utilities for you to play with. But let’s be real: The first thing I did after receiving the Phab 2 Pro was load up a handful of games. As it turns out, though, games are where Tango’s shortcomings become most apparent. We’ve seen some of these augmented reality games before, like Domino World, which scans your surroundings and lets you build convoluted structures out of those tiny tiles. But there’s a tendency for the app to think a flat surface like a tabletop goes on longer than it does, so you’ll often build a long string of dominos that jut out the air, just waiting to be knocked over.
Other games, like Woorld, are heavier on the whimsy. Designed in part by Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, Woorld turns the space around you into a playground where the only real goal is figuring out how to find new pieces — like a sun, clouds, sprouts and picnic tables — to add your tiny domain. It’s cute, it’s fun and I blew the better part of an afternoon on it. Woorld is, by the way, the one game I played that really threw the Phab 2 Pro for a loop. It was the second time I had fired up the game, and less than 10 minutes after I started plopping cottages and clouds and sprouts on a conference room desk, the real-world view provided by the RGB camera nearly ground to a halt.
I’m not exactly sure what caused the issue — maybe a memory leak somewhere — but it hasn’t happened again. Suffice to say, this sort of laggy behavior was an exception, not the rule. I’m actually still surprised that the Phab 2 Pro performed these AR tasks as well as it did, but I probably shouldn’t have been: This phone was supposed to launch at the end of the summer, and it’s clear Google and Lenovo used the extra time to to tighten up
Even so, the software is buggy. Playing Phantogeist, the ghost-blasting game I mentioned in the beginning of this review, was great until said ghost spookily hunkered down inside a wall, rendering my lightning-gun-thing useless. When it wandered back into the field, I nuked it from a distance and continued doing that to all its nasty, non-corporeal friends.
Tango recurring theme #4: When everything works the way it’s supposed to, Tango can feel like magic.
These past two years have turned Tango into a functional product, but it’s a long way from seamlessly good. There were, however, plenty of those moments where everything came together just so and I felt I like I was playing with a tricorder pulled out of storage on the USS Enterprise. Some of these issues will be addressed in future Tango hardware — Google’s Tango program lead Johnny Lee has said more is coming — but here’s hoping software fixes patch up some of these early troubles. The potential benefits are just too great to give up on.
Camera
Since the Phab 2 Pro’s 16-megapixel camera plays such an important role in making Tango’s augmented reality work, you’d think Lenovo would’ve chosen a top-flight sensor. Not quite, but it has its moments. When the conditions are right — by which I mean there’s plenty of light — the camera yields detailed shots with colors that are mostly true to life. Pro tip: You’ll probably want HDR mode on all the time to give your photos a dose of verve that would otherwise be missing.
My biggest gripe so far has been the finicky autofocus, an issue that only gets more bothersome in low light. Our office already has a Christmas tree in the lobby, and it posed no problem for the iPhone 7 Plus or the Galaxy S7. The Phab 2 Pro, on the other hand, refused to lock onto the tree no matter how many times I tapped to focus on the screen. This doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s a pervasive enough issue that Lenovo should really issue a software update to address it.
I wish I could say the 8-megapixel front camera was better, but it has a lot of trouble accurately rendering colors in selfies. Take me, for example: Around this time of year I’m sort of a pale, milky coffee color, an observation backed up by selfies taken with the iPhone 7 Plus and the Galaxy S7. For reasons beyond comprehension, though, the Phab 2 Pro’s front camera made me a deep orange-brown. That’s with the face-smoothing mode off and everything else set to auto too. Seriously disappointing, Lenovo.
The camera app itself isn’t much to write home about, either. Sure, there might not be much in way of manual controls, but there are eight scene modes, a “touchup” mode for cleaning up your face in selfies and some basic white balance and exposure controls. The thing is, they’re tucked away inside a settings menu making them easy to miss. It’s just bad design. (Then again, looking at the interface Lenovo slapped together, is another bit of bad design really a surprise?)
Since the Phab 2 Pro is all about augmenting reality, it’s no shock that there’s an AR mode within the camera app too. Tapping the AR button brings up a live view of what’s in front of you (duh) along with options to turn that space into some sort of bizarre fairy garden (complete with freaky child-fairy) or a playground for a kitty, a puppy or a chubby, oddly designed dragon. Sound familiar? These sorts of AR tricks figured prominently in Sony smartphones like the Xperia X line, where they were just as hokey. They’re good for a chuckle or two, but the novelty doesn’t last long (unless you have kids). At least the Phab 2 Pro does a better job dispelling the heat that tends to build up during intense AR kitty play sessions.
Performance and battery life
We’ve already established that, beyond the occasional hiccup, the Phab 2 Pro can keep Tango apps running at a decent clip. But what about everything else? Even though the Snapdragon 625 is specifically tuned for Tango, the Phab 2 Pro should be able to handle most people’s daily routines without issue. My days, for instance, are filled with lots of frantic app launching and multitasking; I’m constantly bouncing between Slack, Outlook, Spotify, Trello, Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud and more for hours on end.
The Phab 2 Pro took that mild insanity like a champ, with occasional stutters punctuating long stretches of smoothness. Not bad. If your day features a lot of hardcore gaming, however, you might want to look elsewhere. Graphically intense games like Asphalt 8 (with the visual settings cranked to the max) sometimes proved to be a little much for the Phab 2 Pro. In other words, don’t freak out if you see the occasional jerkiness or dropped frame. Though this is an important device, you’re not exactly getting flagship-level power.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
Lenovo Phab 2 Pro
AndEBench Pro
14,941
16,164
13,030
8,930
Vellamo 3.0
5,343
5,800
4,152
4,922
3DMark IS Unlimited
28,645
29,360
26,666
17,711
GFXBench 3.0 1080p Manhattan Offscreen (fps)
46
48
47
14
I was also expecting more from the Phab 2 Pro’s 4,050mAh battery — it’s the biggest I’ve seen in a recent smartphone, after all. The usage time skewed more middle-of-the-road than I expected, but that’s still sort of a win after all the time I’ve spent playing with Tango apps. Since seeing the sun for any appreciable period of time now requires me to be up early, I usually pulled the Phab 2 Pro off its charger at around 6:45AM, then put it through the daily wringer, with lots of time to get acquainted with Tango. I mean, who could resist?
Over the course of a few days like that, the phone settled into a predictable pattern: It’d power through 12-hour workdays just fine with about 10 to 15 percent left in the tank. On weekends where I spent much less time glued to the phone, it generally stuck around for closer to two days on a charge.
Things were a little less promising in Engadget’s standard rundown test, wherein we loop a high-definition video with the phone connected to WiFi and the screen’s brightness fixed at 50 percent. The Phab 2 Pro lasted for 12 hours and 8 minutes — 20 minutes less than the Google Pixel, and a full two hours less than the larger Google Pixel XL. Such is the downside of having to power such a big display.
Wrap-up
The Lenovo Phab 2 Pro is an incredible thing, and it’s just brimming with potential. It’s also unpolished and frustrating to use a lot of the time. When the hardware and software don’t come together as they should, it makes me wish Google and Lenovo spent a little more time ironing out the bugs. But when everything does come together — which happens frequently — I feel like I’m playing with something from the future.
Even so, there’s work to be done. Hardly any of the Tango apps available for the Phab 2 Pro feel like killer apps. As developers continue to get a feel for what Tango is capable of, we’ll see the platform become more useful — at least, I hope so. Part of that growth hinges on people starting to adopt Tango devices like the Phab 2 Pro, but it’s pretty clear that in its current form, no one needs this phone. For all Lenovo’s work cramming Tango into a well-built body, the Phab 2 Pro still feels like a proof of concept. If you’re a developer or an early adopter, then by all means, go get one.
Everyone else should remember that Tango doesn’t end with this phone. It’s special, it’s immersive and I think it could be huge for the future of mobile computing. It just needs time. I’m glad the Phab 2 Pro exists, but if there were ever a phone that wasn’t meant for everyone, this is it. The race is on now, though, and who knows: Maybe the next device with this tech is the one that truly delivers on Tango’s promise
AIVAnet 