It has a larger battery and screen compared to the Galaxy S24.

Samsung’s Plus is the most overlooked mid-range model in the Galaxy S lineup. For most people, the Galaxy S24+ is simply a Galaxy S24 with a bigger display and battery. Most people will spend more and opt for the better Galaxy S24 Ultra. But the Galaxy S24+ is so much more. Sure, it has almost the same specs as the Galaxy S24, but bigger is better, and that’s what I realized after using the Galaxy S24+ for about a week.

Should you consider the Galaxy S24+ instead of the Galaxy S24 or Galaxy S24 Ultra? Find out below.

Samsung Galaxy S24+ Price in India

The Galaxy S24+ is pricey! It is available in two versions in India – the 12GB + 256GB option priced at Rs 99,999 and the 12GB + 512GB version at Rs 1,09,999 .

The Galaxy S24+ supports 45W fast charging, but no charger is included.

In terms of colour options, the Galaxy S24+ is available in Cobalt Violet and Onyx Black, while online buyers can also get the phone in exclusive finishes like Sapphire Blue and Jade Green. We received the Cobalt Violet option with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage.

Inside the box you’ll find the phone, documentation, a SIM eject tool, and a USB Type-C to Type-C cable.

Samsung Galaxy S24+ 5G Review: Design

Design-wise, it’s basically a larger version of the Galaxy S24, or the Galaxy S23/Galaxy S22. The design hasn’t changed in years, but the materials are better and stronger. Compared to the Galaxy S23+, the new Galaxy S24+ has a stronger Armor 2 aluminum frame. Despite the larger footprint compared to the standard Galaxy S24, if you have larger hands, this phone can be held comfortably in one hand. It weighs 197 grams, but is 7.7mm thick, almost the same as the Galaxy S24. The phone feels premium and can withstand impacts (not tested).

The Galaxy S24+ features an Armor 2 aluminum frame.

The front features slim display bezels that are uniform throughout, even slimmer than last year’s. At the top are slits for the speaker/earpiece and an in-display ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. The Galaxy S24+ has the same Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection and IP68 rating as its smaller sibling. At the back, there’s the familiar triple-camera system, with each camera housed in a separate metal ring. The LED flash is next to the three vertically-aligned sensors, but is positioned lower than on the Galaxy S23+.

Samsung Galaxy S24+ Review: Specs and Software

In terms of specifications, the only difference between the Galaxy S24+ and the Galaxy S24 is the larger battery. It’s powered by a 4nm Exynos 2400 SoC with an Xclipse 940 GPU, up to 12GB of RAM (up from 8GB on the Galaxy S23+), and up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. There’s no expandable storage on the phone. For communications, you get tri-band Wi-Fi 6E, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3 LE, a USB Type-C 3.2 port, and the usual GPS satellite support.

Samsung’s ultrasonic fingerprint reader is also reliable, and I honestly think more smartphone brands should adopt this technology instead of optical sensors. It’s faster and more accurate, and I’ve never had any issues with it.

Samsung has promised to provide software updates for the Galaxy S24+ for seven years.

The Galaxy S24+ comes with a 4,900mAh battery, much larger than the 4,000mAh cell in the Galaxy S24 and slightly larger than the 4,700mAh unit in the older Galaxy S23+, but the phone still only supports 45W fast charging and 15W wireless charging, which is the same as last year.

What’s different this year is the promised software support. Samsung now offers seven years of Android OS and security updates. The Galaxy S24+ runs Android 14-based One UI 6.1 out of the box. It also gets the new Galaxy AI suite of features, which you can read more about in our Galaxy S24 review.

Samsung Galaxy S24+ Review: Performance

Talking about performance, the Exynos 2400 SoC in the Galaxy S24+ offers flagship performance in all scenarios. Looking at the benchmark numbers, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the Galaxy SoC is better, but you won’t notice the difference in everyday use or gaming. We ran some tests on the Galaxy S24+ and its scores were almost the same as the Galaxy S24. In AnTuTu, the phone scored 1,457,608 points, and in Geekbench, it had a single-core score of 1987 and a multi-core score of 6137. The AnTuTu score was slightly lower than that of the Galaxy S24, but the Geekbench score was higher. This is probably due to the larger area for cooling in the Plus model. The results were similar in GFXbench as well.

The Galaxy S24+ display has a peak brightness of 2,600 nits.

Now, let’s talk about the display, where you’ll find the changes. The Galaxy S24+ comes with a 6.7-inch display, which is slightly larger compared to last year’s Galaxy S23+ (6.6 inches). The display also has slimmer bezels and is now a brighter LTPO AMOLED 2x panel with 2,600 nits peak brightness and QHD+ resolution. It still offers a 120Hz refresh rate. The display is bright enough and easy to read even outdoors.

The phone comes with a hybrid dual speaker setup that delivers loud volume and decent bass, and the call quality is also excellent.

Gaming on the Galaxy S24+ is a similar experience to gaming on the smaller S24. All games run at maximum settings and there is no noticeable lag. What you do notice is heat. During extended gaming sessions, the phone gets a little warm. We also noticed that the phone heats up quickly when running benchmark tests.

My phone gets hot while charging or playing games.

Talking about the battery performance, the phone lasted for 19 hours and 17 minutes in the HD loop test with the screen resolution set to QHD+. High resolution screens drain the battery, but you can extend the battery life by lowering the resolution. With normal usage, the phone easily lasted more than a day. But with heavy usage, it needed to be charged at the end of the day. With a 45W+ charger and a higher rated cable, the phone takes around 1 hour and 15 minutes to charge. The phone comes with a 3A rated cable that only supports 25W fast charging. We used a 125W charger for the charging tests.

Samsung Galaxy S24+ Review: Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S24+ features the same camera setup as the smaller Galaxy S24 we’ve already reviewed: a 50-megapixel main rear camera with OIS, a 10-megapixel telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom, and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle unit with a 120-degree FoV. For selfies, it has a 12-megapixel sensor with autofocus support.

The Galaxy S24+ can take great photos even in daylight.

To be honest, there is no difference in the photo and video performance of these two smartphones. However, compared to last year’s Galaxy S23+, there is slightly less saturation and more contrast. Ultra-wide shots are good, but the lack of autofocus results in blurry shots, especially in low light. Night shots from the main camera are good in low light. Below are some sample shots to gauge the camera performance.

Samsung Galaxy S24+ Review: Verdict

Before making a final decision, let’s talk about the alternatives. The OnePlus 12 (Review) is a great choice with a larger screen, slightly better camera, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, a bigger battery, and faster charging. It’s also cheaper than the Galaxy S24+. The Google Pixel 8 Pro (Review) offers better stills camera performance, added AI features, and an equal or better software experience. Again, the Pixel 8 Pro is also cheaper and has a better telephoto camera. You could also switch to the iPhone 15 Plus . It doesn’t have a telephoto camera, but it has better battery life and performance. Finally, you could try the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It has better performance, a similar display size, S Pen support, a bigger battery, and a better camera. You could probably get the phone for about the same price as the Galaxy S24+.

As mentioned at the beginning, the Galaxy Plus is often ignored by consumers because it only has a larger screen and battery compared to the smaller S. That may have been the case for the past few years, but the Galaxy S24+ changes things. It offers a better and brighter display, improved build quality, 12GB RAM as standard, and 7 years of software updates. It’s closer to the Galaxy S24 Ultra in terms of specifications, so it’s the better buy if you’re looking to save money, aren’t particularly interested in the better camera that the Ultra offers, and want a bigger display and battery.

The post Samsung Galaxy S24+ Review: Bigger is Better appeared first on Review Products.

Xiaomi’s Redmi 13C 5G offers 5G connectivity at an affordable price, but leaves out a lot.

Xiaomi’s Redmi 13C aims to offer a solid 5G experience combined with an attractive design and good battery life. Moreover, it also comes with a large display, which makes it a good choice for content consumption. The design is not only stylish but also dust- and splash-proof. Indeed, the Redmi 13C 5G seems like the perfect starter phone for those upgrading from an entry-level smartphone with a focus on battery life. Or for those buying their first smartphone after years of using a feature phone. With this criteria in mind, let’s see if the Redmi 13C 5G meets the basic smartphone requirements of such users.

Xiaomi Redmi 13C 5G Review: Price in India

The Xiaomi Redmi 13C 5G price in India starts at Rs 10,499. For this price, you get 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. This is essentially the entry-level hardware for a smooth software experience and running apps. But it’s nice to have 128GB of base storage, which should be enough to meet most app requirements of smartphone buyers in this price range. The phone also comes in a more future-proof 6GB RAM model, attractively priced at Rs 11,999.

Of the three, the 6GB RAM is the best value for money as it helps with basic multitasking and storing apps in memory. Finally, there is the 8GB RAM model with 256GB storage. This model is not costly at Rs 13,999, but in this price range, you will find more attractive and competitively priced options from Samsung and other brands.

Xiaomi Redmi 13C 5G Review: Design

The Xiaomi 13C 5G has a sleek design with straight lines and flat sides. The back panel of the phone is made from polycarbonate, as is the frame and chassis. But it feels well-built and very sturdy.

The phone has a 6.74-inch display with a waterdrop notch on top for the selfie camera. Overall it has a modern look, but when the display is on, the waterdrop notch makes it look a bit dated.

The back panel of the Xiaomi Redmi 13C 5Gs has a flat mint green appearance from a distance.

Most premium devices have such large displays, but these panels also have thin black borders. As this is a budget smartphone, the Redmi 13C 5G does not have such a border. Therefore, the large panel and thick bezels make it a bit too large to handle with one hand. It is also heavy at 192 grams, but this is not unusual considering its size.

I’m not a fan of flashy back panels, but the Startrail Green finish (which is similar to the Startrail Silver finish) is a nice understated touch. Thin lines run from side to side on the back panel, giving it an animated look. These lines animate when light hits the phone at an angle. Otherwise, the phone looks like a mostly flat, monochromatic green finish. If you don’t like animated back panels, Starlight Black is a more understated option.

If you hold it near a bright light source, you’ll see lines running from side to side.

This modern, minimalist design also offers basic water and dust resistance, although Xiaomi hasn’t confirmed these ratings on its website so they’re not official, so we wouldn’t recommend submerging this phone in water or taking it out in the rain.

Xiaomi Redmi 13C 5G Review: Specs and Software

The Xiaomi Redmi 13C 5G is equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ SoC, which is also found in some budget smartphones at a slightly higher price point. This chipset is not performance-focused. It is not made for gaming, but it is efficient when running everyday apps and offers a stable 5G connection. It also supports a number of 5G bands (both NSA and SA), dual-band Wi-Fi for a decent data connection in the home, and Bluetooth 5.3, which is more than enough to connect to TWS earphones and other accessories. There is also support for the regular GPS navigation system, so you won’t have any problems using the Maps app for navigation. The phone has a 5,000mAh battery and comes with a 10W charger in the box. It also offers microSD card storage expansion up to 1TB for those who need extra space. Finally, there is a fingerprint reader for secure biometric authentication, which worked reliably during the testing phase of this review.

The Redmi 13C 5G comes preloaded with a large number of third-party apps and games.

What really disappoints me (even at this price point) is the sheer number of pre-installed apps. Moreover, there are a lot of duplicate apps, such as two web browsers (Chrome + Opera), two gallery apps (Gallery + Photos), and two file managers (File Manager + Google Files). You can uninstall and clean up the unnecessary apps, but for a first-time smartphone user, it can be confusing and overwhelming. Add to this several daily spam notifications from apps like GetApp, Game Center, Theme Store, and more, and your software experience will be ruined.

The phone runs MIUI 14, which is based on Android 13. It feels a bit outdated for a budget phone in 2024. The software experience is typical MIUI and a bit outdated, but upcoming HyperOS updates should improve this experience.

Xiaomi Redmi 13C 5G Review: Performance

As for software performance, it worked very smoothly and without any issues on the 8GB RAM + 256GB model, and apps even stayed in memory, but we couldn’t say the same for the 4GB base model as we weren’t able to test it.

The 6.74-inch HD+ LCD display isn’t the sharpest we’ve seen at this price point. Performance is adequate and it shows the best colors in the standard display color scheme, but we did notice a yellowish tint to the bottom half of the panel when viewing indoors.

The Redmi 13C 5G’s LCD panel has a waterdrop notch on the top and thick bezels around the display.

Since this is an LCD panel, it cannot reproduce the deep blacks that an AMOLED display can, so you might find yourself squinting at the display when viewing content in dark scenes. Surprisingly, there are phones like the Samsung Galaxy M34 5G that offer AMOLED displays at this price point.

The Redmi 13C 5G’s display is bright enough indoors, but I found it lacking outdoors, especially in direct sunlight. Content looks dim and colors look a bit washed out. If you spend most of your time outdoors or in the field (rather than in the office), this might not be the phone for you.

Aside from making software animations and transitions look smooth, the 90Hz screen refresh rate doesn’t do much else with games running mostly at medium graphics settings, and while watching movies, this refresh rate is fixed at 60Hz and rarely drops to 30Hz.

We’re pleased that the phone supports Widevine L1, which means streaming content is displayed in full HD quality, with everything appearing sharp and clear. However, the single speaker, while clear enough, wasn’t loud enough and we often found ourselves cranking the volume all the way up, which also introduced noticeable distortion.

The Redmi 13C 5G’s bottom speaker isn’t loud enough for hands-free listening.

Battery life is pretty good, thanks to the power-efficient processor, HD+ display, and large battery. The phone will easily last a day and a half, and two days with normal usage. Though Xiaomi offers 18W wired charging, you only get a 10W charger in the box, which takes a very long time to charge this phone. The charger charges to 21% in 30 minutes, reaches 40% in an hour, and is fully charged in just 2 hours and 37 minutes. So, if you’re buying this phone, make sure you add the optional 18W charger to your shopping cart.

Xiaomi Redmi 13C 5G Review: Camera

Photos taken in sunlight with the 50MP main camera don’t have much high-resolution detail or sharpness: Objects in any scene lack definition, making everything look a bit blurry, and the HDR system doesn’t have good control over bright and dark areas, so highlights in photos were often clipped.

The phone has two rear cameras, but only one of them is available to the user.

Shooting with 2x digital zoom makes the situation even worse, as most images look like paintings. Selfies taken with the 5MP camera are only passable in terms of overall quality, with portrait mode not showing the edges of the subject in the frame very well. Shooting in low light or using the dedicated night mode makes the situation even worse, as most images are unusable.

The second camera is only used to gather depth data for the main camera when using portrait mode, but edge detection isn’t very good here either, and the same goes for the overall quality of the image. This means that despite having dual cameras and a selfie camera, you can only really use one selfie camera and one rear camera.

Xiaomi Redmi 13C 5G camera samples: Top: Main camera in daylight, Bottom: Main camera in low light (tap image to enlarge)

The Redmi 13C 5G can record videos at up to 1080p 30fps. The quality of these videos is about average, with decent dynamic range and saturated colors. There’s little detail, and the frame rate is choppy and there’s no stabilization, making panning look quite shaky.

Xiaomi Redmi 13C 5G Review: Verdict

In fact, Xiaomi has cut some costs with the Redmi 13C 5G, bringing 5G connectivity (often referred to as the “5G tax”) to a price of under Rs 11,000, which includes an extremely bloated and spammy software experience, poor camera performance (for a budget phone) and painfully slow charging.

At the same time, it ticks some boxes when it comes to style, content streaming (clearer video), battery life, and a smooth (but outdated) software experience. But it’s very hard to recommend it, especially when you consider the existence of phones like the Motorola Moto G34, which offers a smoother display, a cleaner software interface (updated to Android 14), stereo sound, and faster charging. That’s if you can ignore the average camera performance.

If you’re looking for better value and don’t mind spending Rs 13,999, the Samsung Galaxy M34 5G is a strong contender, with a much better and higher-resolution Full HD+ 120Hz AMOLED panel, updated software with OneUI 6.0 (Android 14), better camera options, and a 6,000mAh battery.

The post Xiaomi Redmi 13C 5G Review: 5G on a Budget appeared first on Review Products.

The price of this phone in India starts at Rs 13,999.

As per schedule, Motorola launched a new G-series smartphone last month to enter the premium budget segment. I am talking about the Moto G64 5G, the successor to last year’s Moto G54. The new smartphone is the world’s first smartphone to feature the MediaTek Dimensity 7025 SoC , but the design has barely changed and is only a marginal improvement over its predecessor.

Here are my thoughts on the Moto G64 5G after using the phone thoroughly for about two weeks: If you’re considering this as your next budget phone purchase, make sure you read this review.

Moto G64 5G Price in India

First, a quick word on pricing: The Moto G64 5G is currently available in India for Rs 13,999 for the 8GB + 128GB storage model and Rs 15,999 for the 12GB + 256GB model. Our review unit comes with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.

The Moto G64 5G comes in three color options: Ice Lilac, Mint Green, and Pearl Blue. I received the Mint Green model.

The Moto G64 5G also comes with a case.

Motorola continues to be mindful of environmental issues and ships the Moto G64 in a plastic-free box, but inside the box is a plastic/silicone case. Besides the case, the box also contains the usual paperwork, a SIM ejector tool, a USB Type-A to Type-C cable, and a 33W fast charging adapter.

Moto G64 5G Review: Design

As mentioned at the beginning, the new Moto G64 5G doesn’t have any major design changes compared to the Moto G54 5G. The only difference is that this year, the black color option is gone, with Motorola taking a colorful turn. The phone has a plastic frame with the power and volume buttons on the right edge, the SIM tray on the left edge, and a microphone on the top. The bottom frame houses the 3.5mm headphone port, USB Type-C port, second microphone, and speaker.

The plastic back panel has a glossy finish that reveals a pattern when light hits it. The top left corner of the back has the familiar rectangular camera module, which protrudes and causes the phone to wobble when laid flat on its back. The front now has a Gorilla Glass panel to protect the display, but there are still thick bezels all around, especially at the bottom. There’s a hole at the top to house the front camera.

The phone features hybrid dual speakers with Dolby Atmos support.

Overall, the Moto G64 5G feels similar to last year’s phone. It weighs 192g and is 8.9mm thick, roughly the same as the Moto G54. The phone is IP52 rated for dust and water resistance, but we don’t recommend exposing the phone to water or rain.

Moto G64 5G Review: Specs and Software

The Moto G64 5G is equipped with the world’s first MediaTek Dimensity 7025 SoC, a slight improvement over last year’s model. The chipset is paired with an IMG BXM-8-256 GPU, up to 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and 256GB UFS 2.2 storage that’s expandable via microSD card.

In terms of connectivity, the Moto G64 supports 14 5G bands with three carrier aggregation, dual SIM support with a hybrid SIM tray, Bluetooth 5.3, dual-band Wi-Fi, GPS, A-GPS, LTEPP, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, NFC support, a 3.5mm headphone port, FM radio, and a USB Type-C (USB 2.0) port.

The Moto G64 5G comes with some bloatware, but you can uninstall it.

The phone comes with a side-mounted fingerprint scanner housed within the power/wake button, it’s a capacitive sensor and it worked flawlessly during the review period – we found it to be flawless and fast.

Like last year’s Moto G54 5G, the new phone comes with a 6,000mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging.

Talking about the software, the Moto G64 5G comes with Android 14 based My UX. You get the latest software, but Motorola will only provide the Android 15 update on the phone. However, it will provide three years of security updates. In terms of features, the phone comes with Motorola features like Family Space 2.0, Moto Secure, Game Mode, and several Moto apps. You also get a lot of bloatware in the form of pre-installed apps, GamesHub, entertainment, and shopping apps. Luckily, most of the bloatware on the phone can be uninstalled.

Moto G64 5G Review: Performance

The Moto G64 5G is equipped with a slightly better MediaTek Dimensity 7025 SoC compared to its predecessor the Dimensity 7020. Motorola claims the phone has achieved a score of 500k+ on AnTuTu and in my testing it scored 4,94,364 points. On Geekbench, the phone scored 1012 points in the single-core CPU test and 2403 points in the multi-core test. Overall, the phone performed reasonably well in day-to-day usage and I hardly encountered any lag or stuttering while doing app launches, system animations etc. This is also thanks to the screen.

This Phone Supports Widevine L1

Motorola has equipped the G64 with a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display. The panel offers up to 120Hz refresh rate, Full HD+ resolution, 240Hz sampling rate, and HDR10 support. In terms of brightness, the display is rated at 560 nits peak brightness , which isn’t very high. Indoors, the display is bright enough without using maximum brightness, but outdoors it’s hard to read. The display has Natural and Saturated color modes and has good viewing angles, although colors appear washed out at certain angles.

The Moto G64 5G has a hybrid dual-speaker setup, with the earpiece acting as the second speaker. Audio quality is adequate, but it lacks bass and isn’t very loud. Call quality, on the other hand, is excellent. The phone has two microphones.

You can play most games and your phone won’t heat up too much.

Can I play graphic intensive games on the Moto G64 5G? Definitely, but not at full settings. I was able to play Asphalt 9 at very high graphics, but it gave me a warning that this mode is not supported on the phone. Casual games are fine though, I can play BGMI and Call of Duty at medium settings too.

In terms of heat management, Motorola has done a good job: the phone didn’t heat up while gaming, using apps like the camera, or even while charging.

The phone has a large 6,000mAh battery that can easily last for two days with normal usage. In our HD video loop test, the phone delivered about 16 hours of screen-on time. Even with heavy usage, the Moto G64 5G can last for about a day and a half. Despite supporting 33W fast charging, charging is slow. It took about an hour and 50 minutes to fully charge the battery from 0%.

Moto G64 5G Review: Camera

Now, let’s talk about the camera. The Moto G64 5G has a dual rear camera with a 50-megapixel primary sensor with f/1.8 aperture, quad pixel binning, and optical image stabilization. It also has an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with autofocus, macro mode, and a 118-degree field of view. For selfies, it has a 16-megapixel sensor with f/2.4 aperture. The phone has an easy-to-use camera app with several modes, including Pro and Night modes.

The 50MP main rear camera takes good photos even in daylight.

The main rear camera’s image quality is good in daylight. The colors are a bit oversaturated and you lose detail when you zoom in. The ultra-wide camera also takes good photos in good light, but there is inconsistency in the colors between the main and ultra-wide cameras. You’ll also notice less detail in the photos. The phone offers 2x digital zoom, which is basically a crop of the main sensor, and produces good images when the sun is out. The selfie camera also takes good images in daylight, but it’s not the sharpest and can be blurry at times.

In low light, enabling Night Mode on the main camera takes decent photos. Without Night Mode, photos are washed out with lots of noise and artifacts. The same goes for the ultra-wide camera, where even photos taken in Night Mode aren’t that great. Check out the samples below.

Video performance in sunlight is not bad, but not great either. Colors look oversaturated, panning is not smooth, and stabilization is also so-so. The phone can only shoot in 1080p resolution with a maximum frame rate of 60fps. Videos in low light lack detail and are noisy.

Moto G64 5G Review: Verdict

The Moto G64 5G has a lot of competition in this segment. The recently launched Realme P1 (Review) has a more powerful processor but only 8GB of RAM, no ultra-wide camera and a tiny 5,000mAh battery. There’s also the Redmi Note 13, Vivo T3x and Samsung Galaxy A15, all of which are around the same price but inferior in most ways to the Moto G64 5G. The Vivo T3x has a better processor and the same size battery, but falls behind in other key areas like camera and RAM.

If you’re looking for a budget phone with great battery life, a great display, and a decent camera, the Moto G64 5G is a great choice. You might not get the best gaming performance on this phone, but you can still play all your favorite games with lower graphics settings. Motorola has only slightly improved the specs on the Moto G64 5G, but it’s still an easy phone to recommend.

The post Moto G64 5G Review: Just Better Specs appeared first on Review Products.

With Samsung promising four years of Android OS updates, are these the phones worth buying and holding onto until 2027? Here’s our review.

Samsung’s Galaxy A series brings some of the company’s premium software features to the mid-range segment at a slightly higher cost compared to the Galaxy M and Galaxy F series. The company launched the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 smartphones in India earlier this year, priced at under Rs 40,000 and Rs 30,000 respectively. These devices are powered by the company’s Exynos chip and come with four years of OS updates up to Android 18. But how do they compare to smartphones in the same price range? I’ve been using both the handsets for a while now and here are my impressions.

Samsung Galaxy A55 vs Galaxy A35 Price in India

The Samsung Galaxy A55 is priced at Rs 39,999 for the 8GB+128GB RAM and storage model. The phone also comes in 8GB+256GB and 12GB+256GB memory models, priced at Rs 42,999 and Rs 45,999 respectively.

Meanwhile, prices of the Samsung Galaxy A35 start at Rs 30,999 for the base model with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, while the 8GB+256GB storage variant is also available for Rs 33,999.

The Samsung Galaxy A55 has a flat display, flat edges and a flat back panel.

The Galaxy A55 comes in Ice Blue and Navy, while the Galaxy A35 comes in Ice Blue, Lilac and Navy. Samsung sent us both the Ice Blue (Galaxy A55) and Lilac (Galaxy A35) devices for review.

Both devices are sold in a slim box that includes a charging cable, a SIM ejector tool, and some documentation, but they don’t come with a clear TPU cover or charging brick, so you’ll need to buy those separately.

Samsung Galaxy A55 vs Galaxy A35 Review: Design

The Samsung Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 share a striking similarity in appearance, with the SIM tray location, USB Type-C port, triple rear camera layout, and bottom speaker grille. The Boost device also features a new key island for the volume and power buttons, which are also in the same location. If you look at both the devices together, you’ll be indistinguishable.

Among Samsung’s mid-range smartphones, the Galaxy A series is known as the most premium looking smartphones, and the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 are no exception. The back panel is very similar to this year’s Galaxy S24 (review) device, which is a premium smartphone. In my experience, both the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 have a glossy back panel that is less susceptible to fingerprints.

Samsung Galaxy A55 (left) and Galaxy A35

On the front, these devices come with a Super AMOLED screen with up to 120Hz refresh rate and Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection. The display bezels are quite thick and the selfie camera is located in a center-aligned punch-hole cutout.

The Galaxy A55 has flat brushed aluminum edges, while the Galaxy A35 also has flat matte-finished aluminum edges. Neither phone came with a TPU case, so we used them without a cover during the review.

Samsung Galaxy A55 vs Galaxy A35 Review: Specs and Software

Both the Samsung Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 feature 6.6-inch Full HD+ (1,080 x 2,408 pixels) Super AMOLED displays with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of up to 1,000 nits. Protected by Gorilla Glass Victus+, these screens are flat with somewhat thicker bezels compared to other devices in their price range.

Samsung is promising four OS upgrades and five years of security updates for the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35, meaning these devices running Android 14-based One UI 6 will be supported until 2028. That’s far better than any other mid-range smartphone, even by today’s standards.

The phone comes with a few pre-installed apps, including Spotify, but you can uninstall them. The Galaxy A35 also downloaded Candy Crush Saga via the pre-installed AppCloud service, but there doesn’t appear to be an opt-out option. And both phones periodically prompt you to enable the built-in Glance lock screen feature after every software update, requiring a few taps to skip through this menu.

Samsung’s One UI 6.1 Interface

However, the software experience is largely clean, which is to be expected of Samsung’s One UI interface, which has matured over the years since it was introduced in 2018. These Galaxy A- series smartphones also come with features like Samsung Wallet for contactless payments and secure document storage, advanced Link to Windows integration, and Good Lock for further customization and theming options.

The devices also come with Samsung’s Object Eraser feature, which uses machine learning to remove unwanted objects in photos.In terms of connectivity, both the devices have 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, GPS, a USB Type-C port for charging, data transfer, and audio output, but no 3.5mm audio jack.

Samsung Galaxy A55 vs Galaxy A35 Review: Performance

The Galaxy is powered by a 4nm Exynos 1480 chip with up to 12GB of RAM, while the Galaxy A35 5G is powered by a 5nm Exynos 1380 processor with 8GB of RAM. In theory, these devices should have enough performance overhead to stay fast for a few years, and they’ll handle everyday tasks like web browsing, social media apps, light gaming, and photo and video capture without a hitch.

Most games were playable on the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35, with titles like Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) and Asphalt 9 running well without throttling even after around 30 minutes of gameplay. However, slightly heavier titles like Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile couldn’t run without noticeable lag, and even the Galaxy A55 struggled with MiHoYo’s graphics-intensive Genshin Impact.

Android 14-based One UI 6 offers a polished software experience on the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35, with a few exceptions. RAM management is excellent, and your most used apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, Gmail, Outlook, X (formerly Twitter), Threads, etc. remain in memory even when you switch between apps.

Samsung should follow Motorola and Nothing’s lead and stop annoying users with prompts to enable features like Glance on their Galaxy A series phones with every software update, especially after the user has explicitly opted out once. On both devices, updates were available after the initial setup process. Additionally, Samsung has finally added support for system A/B updates (Galaxy A55 only), making it much faster to use your phone after an update.

The displays on the Samsung Galaxy A55 (left) and Galaxy A35 offer decent outdoor visibility.

We also ran synthetic benchmark tests, and both the Samsung Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 lagged behind the competition: the Galaxy A55 scored 1,132 points and 3,346 points in Geekbench 6’s single-core and multi-core CPU tests, respectively, while the Galaxy A35 scored 1,013 points in the single-core test and 2,805 points in the multi-core test.

In the AnTuTu v10 benchmark test, the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 scored 678,167 and 606,767 points respectively. Interestingly, the Galaxy A55’s PCMark Work 3.0 score of 13,315 is only slightly higher than the Galaxy A35, which scored 13,176 points.

For comparison, the iQoo Z9 I recently reviewed had a single-core score of 1,151 points and a multi-core score of 2,669 points. It also scored 687,545 points in AnTuTu v10. The Dimensity 7200 chip in iQoo devices performs better than the Exynos chips in these devices. The AnTuTu score and Geekbench single-core score of the iQoo Z9 is higher than both the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35, and the price of this device starts at Rs 19,999.

Both the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 feature 6.6-inch Super AMOLED screens with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of up to 1,000 nits. These screens are bright enough to be used outdoors during the day, as long as auto-brightness is enabled. One UI also has an Extra Dim mode that can be enabled via a quick settings toggle. This mode allows you to dim the screen even further to reduce eye strain.

Equipped with 5,000mAh batteries, the devices are highly optimized, and in our HD video loop battery playback test, the Galaxy A55 lasted 28 hours 14 minutes on a single charge, while the Galaxy A35 lasted 26 hours 34 minutes. In real-world usage, with moderate usage, they didn’t need to be charged more than once every 30-35 hours.

Samsung doesn’t include a 25W charger with the Galaxy A55 or Galaxy A35, so you’ll need to buy one separately. My Belkin USB PD 3.0 charger charged both devices up to 50 percent in about 45 minutes, but it took an average of an hour and 25 minutes to charge from 0 to 100 percent. Both devices are IP67-rated for dust and water resistance, which means they shouldn’t be damaged if you accidentally drop them in water, which is good for a mid-range device.

Samsung Galaxy A55 vs Galaxy A35 Review: Camera

Both the Samsung Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 have a 50-megapixel main camera with f/1.8 aperture, a 5-megapixel macro camera with f/2.4 aperture, and a 12-megapixel and 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with f/2.2 aperture, respectively. The Galaxy A55 has a 32-megapixel front-facing camera, while the Galaxy A35 has a 13-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video calling.

The Samsung Galaxy A55’s Auto (left) and Portrait modes produce images with vibrant, punchy colors.

The Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 feature the same camera interface as the more expensive Galaxy S series smartphones, which includes a Pro mode that lets you tweak various settings, including white balance, focus, and exposure. You can also access these settings when shooting video using the Pro Video mode, which is great. Both devices also support Samsung’s Super Steady (stabilization), Slow-Mo, and Super Slow-Mo modes for video recording.

The main cameras on the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 are capable of taking detailed images, and both devices support 2x in-sensor zoom, which allows you to take clearer images of objects at a distance. These cameras work very well outdoors when there is sufficient natural light, and tend to provide somewhat more vibrant colors in images. These devices can also take high-quality portrait shots, which work best in natural light.

The Galaxy A55’s ultra-wide-angle camera is slightly better than the one on the Galaxy A35, but both are significantly worse than the main camera, especially in low light. They can be used to take photos of nearby buildings and other subjects, but images taken with these cameras are a bit distorted around the edges and color accuracy isn’t as reliable as with the more advanced 50-megapixel main camera.

Samsung’s Camera app takes long exposure photos by default in low-light conditions (Night Shot), but you can manually disable it with a tap to capture darker but less blurry images of moving subjects. For very dark scenarios, the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 come with a dedicated Night mode that delivers very bright images that are smoothly processed to reduce noise.

The 5-megapixel macro cameras on the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 were able to capture images of the subject well, but only when there was enough natural light. Also, I had to tap the subject in the viewfinder to take multiple images of the subject to ensure the image was in focus. Selfies taken using the front cameras on both phones are clear, but selfies taken with the Galaxy A55, which has a higher-resolution 32-megapixel camera, have more detail.

Samsung Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 Take Nearly Identical Macro Photos

Both the Samsung Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 support video recording at 4K/30fps or 1080p at 30fps and 60fps. The rear cameras’ gyroscope-enabled Super Steady mode provides excellent stabilization in most lighting conditions. The selfie cameras on both phones offer 4K/30fps and 1080p/30fps, while the Galaxy A55 also offers 1080p/60fps video recording from the selfie camera.

Samsung Galaxy A55 vs Galaxy A35 review: Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 have great cameras and processors, but are they the best mid-range smartphones you can buy right now? The answer depends on what you want from a smartphone. Subjectively speaking, these are good-looking smartphones that are promised to receive Android OS updates for four years, plus one year of security updates.

It’s also nice to see that these phones are IP67 rated, and battery performance is excellent, despite Samsung sticking to support for 25W charging and not including an adapter in the box.

On the other hand, if you want a smartphone with pure performance, you’re better off looking at the Nothing Phone 2 (Review), OnePlus 12R (Review), or iQoo Neo 9 Pro (Review) rather than the Galaxy A55. Similarly, the OnePlus Nord CE 4 5G (Review), Redmi Note 13 Pro, Infinix GT 20 Pro, or iQoo Neo 7 Pro (Review) offer better CPU performance at a similar price point.

If you’re looking for a smartphone with good camera performance under Rs 40,000, Samsung’s Galaxy S23 FE (Review) is a good choice. It has more versatile cameras, including a good telephoto camera, and a more powerful Exynos chip. As an alternative to the Galaxy A55, you could also consider the Google Pixel 7a (Review). Other alternatives to the Galaxy A35 include the Galaxy M55 (Review), Vivo V30e, and Oppo Reno 11 5G.

The post Samsung Galaxy A55 vs Galaxy A35 Review: Mid-Range Performance, Impressive Battery Life appeared first on Review Products.

The Redmi Buds 5A comes with a traditional in-ear design and is available in three different ear tip size options.

The Redmi Buds 5A were launched in India alongside the Redmi Pad SE at Xiaomi’s “Smarter Living & More” launch event in April this year. The audio wearable comes with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Google Fast Pair support, an IPX4 rating, and a companion app. These truly wireless earbuds (TWS) are the cheapest wireless audio product the company has offered in India so far. After using them for about two weeks, I’ll tell you why this is a good choice if you’re on a budget and looking for an ANC TWS.

Redmi Buds 5A review: Design and Features

The Redmi Buds 5A features a traditional in-ear design and comes with three different ear tip size options. Inside the box, you get a pair of medium sized tips attached to the earbuds, as well as two pairs of silicone tips, small and large. Of these ear tips, the largest one fit me best. However, there is no charging cable included in the box. The only other item in the box is information/instructions.

Redmi Buds 5A Supports Google Fast Pair

The charging port is located at the bottom of the stem of the Redmi Buds 5A earphones, which does not come into direct contact with the skin, so there is no need to worry about metal allergies. The touch control area is located at the top of the stem.

The sleek and slim Redmi Buds 5A charging case has a “polished pebble” design, according to the company. Of course, it’s hard to mistake the oval case for cobblestones on a lakeside, but it’s small enough to stand up to the comparison, making it a convenient accessory to carry around. What makes it convenient to carry around is the weight, which is about 41.2g including two earbuds and the charging case. Each earbud weighs about 3.6g.

The Redmi Buds 5A charging case has a USB Type-C port at the bottom. A white light will be on next to the port when the case is charging and will turn off when fully charged. This light will also be on when the earbuds are powered on, i.e. when the case is open. When powered on, the earbuds will have two identical indicator white lights on the top.

Redmi Buds 5A Review: Apps and Specs

The Redmi Buds 5A comes with support for the Xiaomi Earbuds application, but the control features are few and far between. Once you connect the earbuds to your smartphone, you’ll be prompted to download the app. Once the app has been successfully installed and the earbuds are recognised, you’ll see a very simple and straightforward layout. Under the image of the earbuds in their case, the battery level for the left and right earbuds is displayed separately, as well as the battery level for the charging case. This last option disappears as soon as you close the case after taking out the individual earbuds.

Controls for the Redmi Buds 5A as seen in the Xiaomi Earbuds Android App

One of the controls the application offers is the ability to select the ANC mode (Transparent, Noise Cancellation, ANC Off). Once selected, the particular mode will be marked in blue. Just below the ANC controls is the “Additional Settings” option, which reveals a tab with three more features: At the bottom of the screen is the “Remove Earbuds” option, which allows users to remove the controls for the Redmi Buds 5A earbuds from the app.

There is also a “Rename Earbuds” option, which allows you to change the name of your TWS earbuds as it is recognized by connected devices. The third option is a toggle to turn on/off the “Low Latency” mode. The low latency mode is said to provide users with a smoother gaming and video watching experience, but we’ll discuss its effectiveness later.

However, the ANC and latency modes on the Redmi Buds 5A are accessible through simple touch controls, so the app isn’t important to me – some people may find it easier to control these features through the app, so it’s not completely redundant.

The Redmi Buds 5A features 12mm dynamic drivers, up to 25dB ANC, IPX4 rating for splash-proof earbuds, AI-assisted Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC), support for Google Fast Pair and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity. The earbuds only support the SBC codec and in this review, we will discuss how it impacts the user’s hearing experience.

The Redmi Buds 5A is said to offer up to 30 hours of battery life.

Redmi Buds 5A Review: Performance and Battery Life

Budget ANC-enabled TWS earphones are known for convenience. In a nutshell, that’s what Redmi Buds 5A offers. ANC for under Rs 1,500. Easy to carry and lasts all day. They’re made for casual use and convenience, and in these categories, they live up to expectations. Perfect when you want to drown out traffic noise or light noises and immerse yourself in your favorite podcast or music.

Touch controls on the Redmi Buds 5A are straightforward: double tap to play/pause or answer a call, triple tap to reject/end a call or change tracks. Users can switch between ANC modes by pressing and holding each for two seconds, while changing latency modes requires long pressing the touch zone on both earbuds simultaneously for 1.5 seconds. The lack of single-tap controls reduces the chance of accidentally entering commands when adjusting the fit of the earbuds or for long hair.

Considering the price, I don’t expect any soaring in terms of sound quality. When I played Stealers Wheel’s Stuck in the Middle With You on the Redmi Buds 5A, I didn’t expect to hear the details of the arrangement. I didn’t. It was what I expected. The bass-heavy sound still provided a good enough experience to enjoy the song. However, if you turn up the volume to 60-70 percent, it sounds muffled. Hozier’s Too Sweet, with more guitar and piano, at 50 percent, offers the same hidden overture. If you like the “lo-fi, Hozier playing in another room while you study” vibe, you’re in luck.

But at 70 to 80 percent volume, most tracks start to distort noticeably — not ideal, but not catastrophic.

Take the Kinks’ “Sunny Afternoon,” for example, and the slightly muffled bass sound does little to drown out Ray Davies’ lament about unfair tax rates. It even makes songs like Fall Out Boy’s “Immortals” and Gorillaz’s “Feel Good Inc.” feel lighter and more fun than the honking and screeching of city traffic.

The Redmi Buds 5A only supports the SBC Bluetooth codec, which compromises sound quality a bit. It provides a stable connection but degrades sound processing. It also doesn’t support the AAC codec, which is preferred by most iOS smartphones and tablets.

Even with 60ms latency, I still felt a fair amount of lag on the Redmi Buds 5A in games like Battlegrounds Mobile India, which is not unexpected – even with the low latency mode switched on it didn’t make much of a difference, however the latency was not noticeable during online or offline video playback, proving once again that it’s best suited only for casual use.

Redmi Buds 5A does not come with a charging cable

With ANC off, the Redmi Buds 5A earbuds are said to offer up to five hours of battery life on a single charge and up to 30 hours of total playback time with the storage case. With just the earbuds, ANC off and at 50 percent volume, I was able to listen for around five hours. For reference, that’s the first four episodes of Heeramandi, or four and a half episodes of The 8 Show.

However, turning on ANC drains the Redmi Buds 5A’s battery significantly faster. Using just the earbuds with ANC on only got me about three hours of use, even with the volume set to 50%. A 10-minute quick charge gave me another hour or so of use out of the earbuds at a similar volume and noise cancellation setting.

The Redmi Buds 5A charging case houses a 4.40mAh battery, while each earbud has a 34mAh battery. It takes about an hour and a half to fully charge the case using a 67W Redmi adapter and a USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable. It takes about 45 minutes to charge the earbuds from 0 to 100 in the case.

Finally, on the subject of phone calls. The AI-powered ENC on the Redmi Buds 5A does a good job of suppressing alleyway noise in residential areas, but not on busy roadsides. When you use these earbuds for calls, the microphone is as clear as the surrounding sounds. If you hate the idea of yelling your completely wrong ETA to your punctual and impatient friends in public, avoid using these earbuds for calls. Instead, get hands-on with your phone. But with a stable connection, the voice you hear on the other end of a call using these TWS wearables is clear enough, if characteristically muffled.

The charging point for the Redmi Buds 5A is located at the bottom of the stem.

Redmi Buds 5A: Verdict

If you are on a very tight budget and looking for a pair of ANC-enabled TWS earphones, then the Redmi Buds 5A at Rs 1,499 is a good choice. At this price, these earphones are perfect for everyday use. They don’t promise anything that they can’t deliver on. There is a clear lack of sound detail compared to mid-range TWS products or those with higher specs. But the power and bass these earphones offer make them worth the price. The lack of a charging cable in the box is not something to be concerned about as you can easily charge them using any old USB Type-C cable. Even a 60ms delay is barely noticeable if you’re not using them primarily for heavy mobile gaming.

However, if you have a bit more room in your budget, you could consider the Noise Buds Venus TWS Earphones (Review), which are currently priced at Rs 1,699 in India and offer slightly better noise cancellation, lower latency, and longer battery life. For Rs 400 more than the Redmi Buds 5A, you can also get the Honor Choice Earbuds X5 TWS Earphones (Review), which were launched in India earlier this year and are IP54-rated for dust and water resistance, as well as equalizer controls in the accompanying app.

The post Redmi Buds 5A Review: Performance meets expectations appeared first on Review Products.

Sorry, Apple fans, but the iPhone 13 Pro Max is no longer the best iPhone on the market – you’re going to want to upgrade to the newer iPhone 14 Pro Max for that. The new device has an always-on display, 48MP main camera, no notch and newer chipset, making for an all-around better package.

That’s not to say the 14 Pro Max’s predecessor is bad, though. It’s got incredible battery life, cameras that can do pretty much anything you’d need on a smartphone, and is available in a range of muted, but classy, colors. Simply put, this is one of the leading contenders for the best smartphone in the world right now.

It now also appears with a 1TB storage option (not available on the iPhone 12), so if you’re a budding (or professional) film maker, you can fill this handset with content to your heart’s content.

It’s also got a ‘Pro’ price, starting at $1,099 / £1,049 / AU$1,849 and going all the way up to $1,599 / £1,549 / AU$2,719.

Yes, it’s a bit of a tired trope to moan about how expensive the iPhone can get at the top end, but Apple has charged top dollar for its best iPhone year on year, and yet they still remain among the most popular models, meaning ‘too expensive’ is starting to become rather subjective when it comes to reviewing.

That said, if you’re considering the iPhone 13 Pro Max then you’re probably after the best iPhone, and in that case you might want to wait a little longer, as we’re expecting to see the iPhone 14 Pro Max along with the rest of the iPhone 14 line on September 7. That’s sure to be an upgrade in a number of ways, and even if it doesn’t appeal it’s likely to mean price drops for this model.

In any case, ‘best’ is heavily subjective here, but if you can handle the gargantuan proportions of a phone with a 6.7-inch screen, then this is easily the best iPhone Apple has ever made… until the aforementioned iPhone 14 makes an appearance.

The design is almost identical to that of the 12 Pro Max that appeared in 2020, with the flat, industrial-looking stainless steel frame surrounding the massive OLED screen.

The large camera protrusion at the rear is noticeable (and it now sticks out even further to enable greater photography prowess). The new Pro comes in a fetching Sierra Blue too this year, which is a nice-looking, powdery color to enjoy.

The screen has been improved to not only include a 120Hz refresh rate, called ProMotion (which iPhone users have been asking for for years, but which to our eyes adds very little) but also higher maximum brightness and a smaller notch.

The shrinking of the notch is good, but it’s not game-changing – Apple needs to shrink it out of existence. However, the overall screen quality is stunning, whatever you’re looking at.

The key thing you’d buy the iPhone 13 Pro Max for, in our opinion, is its battery life. Apple has improved this again over the 12 Pro Max, which offered pretty good longevity, to the point where it’s no longer an issue.

Most of the time we’d make it into a second day before needing a charger, and even on a day of high-intensity use it was around 9pm before the phone totally died.

It remains a shame that Apple doesn’t bundle its higher-power iPhone charger in the box, though, so you’ll need to pay $19 / £19 / AU$29 for that speedy juicing.

The cameras, as we’ve alluded to, enable you to take a huge variety of snaps in a wider range of scenarios than ever. Apple has made a big deal about adding improved low-light capability and Night Mode to all of the three 12MP sensors on the rear, and the iPhone 13 Pro Max also comes with a nifty macrophotography mode.

This means the handset will automatically shift to the ultrawide camera when you get close to objects, and the effects are stellar.

Apple has balanced an impressive amount of power with ease of use, so you can take great snaps in auto mode, but you’re also easily able to play around with various settings for a more hands-on experience.

However, we’re not taken with the new Cinematic mode, which will automatically shift focus depending on where people are looking – it’s cool, but it doesn’t really add much.

Finally, another reason to save up and buy the iPhone 13 Pro Max is its performance – it’s ridiculously powerful, and is able to play games to a high graphical standard and perform intensive tasks like encoding video at a pretty nifty rate.

Most people buying this phone will never scratch the surface of what it can truly do, but videographers will really appreciate the increased storage, the number of shooting options and speed at which it can process edits.

Want more than a two-minute review? Read on to find out how the iPhone 13 Pro Max performed in our in-depth testing – the results of our battery life and camera tests in particular are pretty impressive.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max was unveiled on September 14, and you’ve been able to buy the handset from September 24.  The 13 Pro Max is the most expensive iPhone you can buy right now, with the cheapest model (128GB of storage) costing $1,099 / £1,049 / AU$1,849.

The 256GB model costs $1,199 / £1,149 / AU$2,019, the 512GB variant costs $1,399 / £1,349 / AU$2,369, and the 1TB model costs $1,599 / £1,549 / AU$2,719.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a 1TB smartphone, but it is the first time Apple has offered that much storage – and it’s going to cost you, so think carefully about whether you really need that much space.

Really, 1TB is only for those who are going to be using the iPhone 13 Pro Max for movie making and generating reams of 4K video at 60 frames per second, or thousands of maximum-resolution photos; most people won’t need more than 512GB.

Compare the best iPhone 13 Pro Max deals available

Design – more of the same

We’ll get this out of the way now: if you’re looking at the iPhone 13 Pro Max as your next phone, you surely have to know you’re getting a massive handset. And it is massive. This is not a phone for those wanting something that you can wrap a hand around or even reach a thumb the whole way across – you want screen, you want battery, and you’re ready to sacrifice the feel in the hand for it.

Let’s start by looking at how it’s put together. The stainless steel outer band, first seen on the iPhone 12 range last year, is back again, aping the design of the iPad Pro range for the last few years.

Even after a year, we’re still missing the curved back of the previous iPhone models, first seen on the iPhone 6. Yes, there’s a nice grippiness to the sharper, more industrial-looking edges of the new iPhone 13 Pro Max, and change is always welcome in the world of smartphone design, but it just feels less comfortable to hold.

Speaking of comfort, while we assume that you’re okay with the idea of the larger handset if you’re plumping for the iPhone 13 Pro Max, unless you’ve got very large hands it can be a bit of a challenge to wield.

We’ve noticed that using the phone for extended periods can stretch the fingers a little further than normal, and that can lead to some slight aches; our digits adapted over time, but it’s worth being aware of if you’ve decided you just want ‘that iPhone with the really long-lasting battery’.

The Lightning connector remains at the base of the phone, flanked by the speaker (well, one of them – the other is in the earpiece, and does a thoroughly good job of dispensing sound when you’re watching movies or listening to music).

While there would be numerous advantages to Apple switching the iPhone to USB-C at the bottom (faster charging and data transmission for one) it would clearly incur the wrath of a lot of people with iPhone chargers kicking around, so the miss isn’t really that strongly felt at this time.

We were sent the Sierra Blue version of the iPhone 13 Pro Max and, like the other colors in the range (graphite, gold and silver), it’s on the muted side to allow those who need to do more ‘professional’ things (like carry briefcases and have a weekly lunch with Tomi from Accounts) to have the phone in meetings and the like.

The blue is a strong addition to the line-up in the iPhone Pro range, but despite the phone having Apple’s super-tough Ceramic Shield on the front, we would still suggest you pop this thing in a case.

We still managed to dull the edges off the iPhone 12 Pro Max, as well as scratching the front screen, over the course of a few months’ use – so while the 13 Pro Max is a more robust phone than iPhones from years ago, we still think it’s worth protecting your investment.

MagSafe, the magnetic connection on the back of the new iPhone range that allows you to wirelessly connect chargers and other accessories, also returns – and it’s becoming more of a selling point.

We’re still not seeing swathes of MagSafe accessories on the market just yet, but that makes sense given that, other than the new iPhones, only the iPhone 12 range supports it.

Now there are four more phones that use MagSafe, expect more cases, stands, controllers and gimbals to appear – and it’s really cool to just slip on the round metal disc and see your phone start charging instantly.

iPhone 13 Pro Max Display – Brighter, But 120Hz Misses

There are three key changes to the 6.7-inch display on the iPhone 13 Pro Max that are worth discussing: the smaller notch, a screen that refreshes at up to 120Hz (meaning smoother scrolling and transitions throughout) and improved brightness when frolicking outdoors in the sunny sunshine.

The reduced size of the notch is the most obvious of the three, and while it’s welcome it doesn’t really change a lot in terms of the iPhone design – there’s still a notch encroaching on your movies and games, where other brands are playing with smaller punch-holes and even completely invisible cameras.

That said, we’re not saying the notch is without its merits – when you find that you’re able to unlock your phone with your face from a surprising angle (where you think ‘surely it can’t pick my face up from here’), you can forgive the need for multiple sensors to be wedged in at the top of the screen.

We’d like to see Apple miniaturize this a little more though, and get the cameras and sensors into the rim of the phone – or at least let us see the battery percentage shown constantly, rather than having to swipe down. When we heard word of a smaller notch coming, we had hoped that the little beacon of battery life would be a constant option, but sadly no.

Apple’s 120Hz display technology is called ProMotion, and has been used on the iPad Pro range for years. It’s surprising that it’s taken this long to appear on an iPhone, simply because the technology clearly exists within Apple, and because most rivals have had it on flagship and even some mid-range phones for a while now.

However, we can also see why Apple has eschewed its presence until now – it comes at the cost of battery life, and, to our eyes, doesn’t always add a lot to the browsing experience.

A quick explainer if you need it: the refresh rate is the amount of time your screen will show a new image per second – 120Hz means you’ll see 120 images per second, which means that scrolling a web page or flipping through Twitter will be smoother.

However, often you don’t need that high refresh rate if you’re just looking at a static image, so Apple has made the feature dynamic, with the phone intelligently deciding the refresh rate, and dropping down to 10Hz when needed to save battery life.

A 120Hz display is definitely a luxury extra rather than a must-have feature, and in our scrolling tests we noticed that things didn’t always look that much smoother compared to the screen on the 11 Pro Max – when you peer closely you can see the difference, but in reality it isn’t a huge change.

What was noticeable was that the screen scrolled in a far more ‘stable’ way, meaning that our finger flicks were far more accurate, and we didn’t send the rows of text flying around with the merest quiver of a digit. Text was also clearer as it flew by, showing that there is a benefit here, even if it’s a modest one.

While we have called this a luxury feature, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is presented as one of the most luxurious phones on the market, so a 120Hz screen is something that Apple really should have added by now, and its presence feels more like a box-tick than an impressive new feature.

Another purported advantage of a 120Hz screen is for gaming – the increased frame rate is supposed to yield superior play thanks to smoother motion and the ability to react that much quicker in games – but quite honestly, we couldn’t see a difference compared to older screens.

We chose Aldo’s Odyssey and Grid Autosport to test the feature out, and both looked – and played – identically to on the 11 Pro Max, with the smoothness and graphical performance appearing to be exactly the same.

Do 120Hz Refresh Rates Matter?

Don’t get us wrong, it looks good, but it’s hard to see what 120Hz is adding here other than a touch more fluidity. Developers will likely need to optimize some games to make full use of the slickness of 120Hz, so perhaps that’s what we’re seeing here – we’ve asked for more clarification.

Apple is also touting greater outdoor brightness on the iPhone 13 Pro Max, with higher peak levels of 1200 nits (read: brighter than a lot of other smartphones out there). Compared to the 11 Pro Max, it was easier to see what was on the screen in brighter conditions, although it’s still something of a squint-fest when you’re trying to watch a movie in direct sunlight.

However, that screen brightness increase makes the 13 Pro Max more usable than any iPhone before it and a good example of Apple focusing on the changes that really will make a difference in day-to-day use.

Underpinning all these changes is the fact the iPhone 13 Pro Max has a stunning OLED display, with incredibly rich color reproduction and great use of things like Dolby Vision playback for when you want to watch movies with that extra level of detail and clarity.

The effect is pretty stunning – even though it’s not that new, as the iPhone and many other smartphones have had great screens for many years – and it’s worth remembering that you’re getting a phone that’s a genuine alternative to watching on the big screen when it comes to quality.

We noticed that Apple’s changes to the brightness of the screen are minor, but noticeable when you place the iPhone 13 Pro Max alongside an older phone. Interestingly Apple has wandered more towards more saturated colors with the latest display – particularly when showing off red elements of the image.

This is something that Samsung has always been famed for, so it’s intriguing to see Apple decide to add a little more artificial ‘pop’ to its displays with the iPhone 13 Pro range.

Battery Life – Finally Good

Let’s not beat around the bush here – you’ve already seen us say it, but the battery life of the iPhone 13 Pro Max is the biggest reason why you’d buy this phone.

Sure, you like the larger display to watch all your fancy movies and TikTok clips on, but in reality the notion of owning an iPhone with actually decent battery life is going to attract hordes of people to this model.

Why is everyone proclaiming that the iPhone 13 Pro Max battery life is so good? Well, it just feels robust. On a day of ‘middling’ use – mostly consisting of web browsing and music streaming over Wi-Fi, with three trips out for running and picking up kids from school – we took the phone off charge at 7:30am, and only managed to kill it by 4am the next day by downloading two huge games… that’s 35 hours of battery life.

We performed a side-by-side test with the iPhone 11 Pro Max, starting with both phones at 100% battery, streaming two hours and 20 minutes of YouTube on full brightness. The older model (which, we must stress, has been used for over a year, so there will be some battery degradation) fell to 81% in that time, where the new Pro Max only dropped to 91%.

Even if you were feeling generous to the older iPhone, that’s a massive gulf in battery management.

We’re not claiming that the iPhone 13 Pro Max has bulletproof battery life – on a super-hard day of testing, which saw us using the camera for hours, running around with Spotify playing in the background, and going in and out of signal, making phone calls, running a YouTube test and generally fiddling about with the phone, we only managed to get 14 hours of use before reaching for the charger.

But don’t get us wrong: in day-to-day use, you’ll regularly find that you’ve got a good third of the battery left by the time you go to bed, even with a few heavier tasks like music streaming or navigating using Google Maps for a few hours, so you’re less likely to need a power bank with this new phone.

In our lab testing we saw a score of 12 hours and 16 minutes for continuously browsing the web over a 5G connection until the battery was flat, which is pretty impressive, and the best we’ve seen from a flagship phone – the handsets that have performed better are usually cheaper phones that don’t have things like fast-charging capability.

Oh, while we’re on that subject… we’re still strongly of the opinion that Apple is being unfair by not including a charging block in the box with the iPhone 13 Pro Max. Yes, it definitely does save on waste from people having unnecessary chargers when many iPhone users likely have a few Lightning leads kicking around.

We also get why there’s a USB-C to Lightning cable in the box – so that users can connect easily to one of the new MacBooks or other laptops on the market. But that lead also facilitates the faster charging this phone is capable of, meaning you’ll want to buy the 20W charging block to get that sweet juice into your phone quickly.

It would be better if Apple gave you the option of whether or not to have a charger at purchase – either giving you a small discount for not having one, or just a general sense of being a good person and helping the planet. (Although, in fairness, keeping the cost of the phone the same as last year is a pretty good move when there are some decent hardware upgrades in the mix).

Why would you want that faster charger? Well, if you suddenly remember that you’re useless at life and have let your phone run out of battery, we found that in 15 minutes we could replenish the phone to a third full – enough for up to 10 hours of use, based on our testing.

Another 15 minutes on the charger got the phone up to 53%, showing that the fast charger is definitely worth it. However, the rate of charging slows down after that, with the phone getting to around 80% after an hour, and then requiring another 80 minutes to get to 100%.

The larger iPhones have always been the longest-lasting in each range, obviously, but this battery performance is a level above for a phone made by Apple.

It finally removes ‘Yes, but it hasn’t got very good battery life’ from the equation if you’re deciding between Apple and Android devices, as it’ll be more than serviceable for anyone who regularly charges nightly, and will save the bacon of those ‘forgetful chargers’ who don’t top up each night and then constantly pester you for a charger.

Camera – Making Tiny Things Amazing

While we think the battery life is the real selling point of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, a close second is the camera offering – while the improvements here are only tweaks from the iPhone 12 Pro Max, those tweaks are useful and impressive in a number of ways and make it one of the best camera phones around.

Let’s run through the changes quickly: the main camera (which Apple calls the Wide camera, confusingly) has a 12MP sensor, with larger 1.9μm pixels placed on the largest sensor Apple’s ever put in a smartphone in order to absorb even more light, which combined with an f/1.5 aperture enables you to capture some seriously impressive low-light images, as you’ll see in the samples below.

The Ultra Wide sensor (which zooms out from the main image) has also been upgraded – the megapixel count here is also 12MP which is the same as last year, but it now packs Apple’s Night Mode functionality, with the phone able to take some breathtaking photos in near-pitch black situations, as long as you’re able to hold the handset perfectly still for the necessary amount of time.

The Telephoto lens, the one that can zoom in on distant objects, has been upgraded to be able to zoom in three times optically – meaning that it’s physically magnifying the image, rather than doing so digitally and creating a grainier shot. That’s a useful addition, but it’s a shame you can’t also do 2x zoom optically – as sometimes that would be preferable.

Sadly, the zoom distance is fixed, so you’ll need to make do – although the iPhone’s chipset does a pretty good job of cleaning up the digital zoom.

When it comes to the quality of the photos the iPhone 13 Pro Max is capable of producing day to day, there’s a clear and obvious improvement over last year’s model.

What’s interesting is that it appears to be in the processing of images that the improvements have been made – in some shots the subject was clearer and brighter where a strong backlight was present (which is tricky to manage on a smartphone camera), while in others it was clear that the 13 Pro Max had decided to darken the photo in order to preserve more detail.

This is useful to prevent overexposure, and leads to more attractive shots overall – although the improvements aren’t huge over the 12 Pro Max, or even the 11 Pro Max, they’re noticeable and welcome.

Macrophotography

One of the key changes to the iPhone 13 Pro Max camera setup comes in the shape of the new macrophotography mode, which activates instantly when you move the phone closer to a subject. It’s quite a jarring jump, but suddenly a world of blur becomes clear, and you can take some fantastic pictures.

In fact, it’s only the shadow of the phone falling on some subjects, due to the camera being so close, that causes any issue with the photos – we took some stunning snaps, and we can see the macro mode being something we play with for hours, as all kinds of subjects can look fascinatingly different when viewed ultra-close.

Low-light and Night Mode

Apple has improved all three rear camera sensors for the iPhone 13 Pro Max to make them more effective in low light, and the results are pretty spectacular in a number of ways.

The first is that, generally, low-light shots (not using the long-exposure, hold-still method of Night Mode) look far brighter. Everything we shot looked clear, sharp and bright, and while there was a fair amount of grain in images we definitely got the best low-light photos we’ve seen from any iPhone.

This is partly to do with the new sensor, but also the use of the LiDAR function (which uses lasers to spot where surfaces are) as well as excellent stabilization on board – these mean that the autofocus was superb and sometimes yielded photos that looked brighter than the subject did in real life without losing definition to keep the shutter open for longer.

a night scene of a garden, with trees at the top and sweeping lawn

One interesting quirk of the multi-lens setup of the new phone: in low light, the iPhone 13 Pro Max once again, when using the telephoto lens and instead of using the optical sensor, defaults to the main wide camera and crops in digitally.

It’s not a huge issue, as the picture quality still gets processed to a decent level, but it’s annoying that it’s not highlighted in the process, and Apple has been doing this for years now.

The other enhancement the new, more sensitive sensor has brought with it is that Night Mode doesn’t activate as often. While the results from Night Mode can be incredible (see the samples below) it’s annoying to have to hold the phone steady for a second or two when you just want to take a quick snap in the evening, and the new sensor often negates the need for that.

Photographic Styles

We were surprised when Apple came out with Photographic Styles as a Big New Feature () on the iPhone 13 range – while there are five pre-programmed settings (standard, rich contrast, vibrant, warm and cool) to make the image more vibrant or alter the color temperature, we didn’t see how this was really different from a filter.

But what’s actually happening here is that the color and contrast of the photo are being altered when you take it, rather than an effect being applied post-capture, and which you can undo.

This means you can choose to shoot in richer contrast every time if that’s your style, or take a set of photos that are a little less warm if that’s what the project calls for.

It’s more akin to the photo style options on DSLRs and mirrorless cameras than an Instagram filter, and, while we didn’t really use it that much, it does add another interesting new layer of functionality.

Cinematic Mode

Apple’s other new feature is Cinematic Mode, where the ‘rack focus’ (as in, which part of the shot in a movie is in focus) will change automatically depending on where the focus of the viewer should be.

This means that if the protagonist in your movie looks at someone else and stops speaking, the focus will shift to them and blur out the original speaker- it certainly looks dynamic and more movie-like. You can even alter the focus after the movie has been taken in the on-phone editing suite, if someone speaking doesn’t quite look as sharp as you want.

You might assume that this is a mode designed for professionals so that they don’t have to worry about rack focus when shooting movies, but given that it’s also appearing on the regular iPhone 13 and 13 mini, as well as the 13 Pro, it’s clear that this isn’t exclusively a pro feature, and something the everyday user can play with.

While it’s a fun tool, it seems odd that Apple’s made such a big deal of this. Yes, we can see that it will yield some cool videos if you want to film your friends talking about something or everyone having fun at a party, but that’s quite rare for home footage.

It feels more like you’d need to remember to use Cinematic Mode when the conditions are just right, where the focus of your movie is constantly shifting – and we’re not sure how often most people will make ‘proper’ movies’ at home, rather than just capturing a video of their dog doing a backflip for a treat or similar.

Portrait Mode

Another enhancement Apple has made is, once again, refining the background-blurring Portrait mode on both the front and back cameras.

The forward-facing TrueDepth camera can take some truly stunning selfies (well, subject dependent, of course…) and the blurred-background pictures you can get with the rear-facing camera was something we enjoyed playing with, getting some impressive shots.

It’s the foundational elements of the Portrait-mode shots that have been upgraded: the lighting is more natural, the lighting is more natural, and the depth-of-field or ‘bokeh’ effects have been improved so that the things that should be in focus are in focus – the edges of someone’s head for example (and even their stray hairs).

You can even use Portrait mode to capture stationary objects that aren’t human or animal – being able to a heavy depth of field to a trail or forest leads to some lovely pictures when you’re out and about.

We’re a bit sad that Portrait mode only works in 1x or 3x zoom though – on the 11 Pro Max, 2x zoom was the perfect length to capture a subject, and we found that we constantly had to move the camera forward and back to get the right image with the 13 Pro Max. The 12 Pro Max increased this to 2.5x zoom, but now we’ve gone even further.ProRAW

ProRAW is back again on the iPhone 13 Pro Max (and it’s now available on the iPhone 13 Pro too) – and it’s a bit of a gateway drug to ‘proper’ photography.

A quick overview: most phones shoot in the JPEG format, with images processed in-camera to tweak things like color and contrast, and do a jolly good job of it; however, the images are also compressed, and much of the image data discarded, which leaves you with less latitude to edit your shots later.

Most modern cameras also enable you to shoot in raw mode, which captures unprocessed and uncompressed (but very large) image files, giving you plenty of leeway to fine-tune the exposure, color, contrast and more in post-processing.

ProRAW gives you the best of both formats, allowing the user to get an enhanced and ready-to-go snap using the smarts of Apple’s A15 image processor, but retaining all the information to allow you to edit the photo afterwards if you want – this is easily doable in a program such as LightRoom, and we really enjoyed playing with the ability to raise or drop shadows and get some really cool extra effects by altering the exposure and sharpness, thanks to having more image data to play with..

iPhone 13 Pro Max photo showing a long forest trail

A ProRAW photo taken and edited on the iPhone itself from the inbuilt editing app (Image credit: TechRadar)

Now this really is the kind of thing that we’d expect from a ‘Pro’ handset, and it’s a feature that’s really fun to explore and play with.

Speaking of pro modes that videographers will want to use, there’s also ProRes support here, which is a high-quality, lossy video compression format that Apple created to let creative types manage video up to 8K, and which is used regularly throughout the industry now.

The inclusion of support for this format on an iPhone is going to be useful to those who want to shoot commercials or high-end video and send off the edited results from the field – that’s not something that most of us will do regularly, but such additions show that Apple wants to make it clear that the iPhone 13 Pro range is a step above the ‘basic’ models.

iOS 15 and Supreme Power

Apple is making some bold claims about the iPhone 13 Pro Max, selling it as one of the most powerful smartphones out there right now – and the claims seem pretty justified based on our testing.

While the numbers that we saw in our benchmarking absolutely back Apple up (and we’ll get onto that in a minute), the real-world performance is what matters. The ‘issue’ is that smartphones are already more than powerful enough to handle most things you want to throw at them, and the fact the 13 Pro Max is lightning-fast at switching between apps is no surprising thing.

When it comes to raw figures the results speak for themselves: this phone is twice as fast (nearly) at transcoding Adobe video from 4K to 1080p) as the 11 Pro Max, and a second faster than the 12 Pro Max from last year. Apple’s claims that the new A15 chipset is powering things along more efficiently than ever before really do stack up.

But we were surprised to see that some high-power games, like Grid Autosport, didn’t load that much faster – the game’s high levels of detail and graphical fidelity mean it’s going to take a few seconds to load on any device, but we expected it to be a lot quicker on the iPhone 13 Pro Max compared to a phone from two years ago.

That’s splitting hairs somewhat though, as there’s no doubt that when it comes to things like editing photos, saving video and performing the heavy tasks the iPhone 13 Pro Max is more than adept. In fact, it’s only bettered by the iPad Pro range in our testing – which is a far more expensive device, and arguably more likely to be picked up by those looking for a high-power device.

Let’s quickly look at those benchmarks: the iPhone 13 Pro Max scored far better in terms of framerate, multi-core capability and speed of video transcoding when compared to the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra – almost twice as fast in some cases.

However, keeping in mind what we said above about real-world use, we wouldn’t read too much into that performance, as both phones operate sublimely well; but if you’re a creative looking for a phone that can help you record high-quality video or work on high-power tasks, this is your phone.

The upgraded iOS 15 is coming to most iPhones, so the new capabilities aren’t too much to get excited about on the new iPhone 13 Pro Max, as you can get the same tricks on older models.

That said, there are a few improvements that you can look forward to: the new Weather app is hugely enhanced, with more accurate location tracking, improved animations and things that are genuinely useful, like radar maps to show heat and rainfall patterns.

Apple is making a big deal about Focus Mode, which allows you to turn off certain distractions when you need them. This feels like a powerful tool, but in our testing we didn’t really get much from it. Perhaps it’s something that needs to be perfected over a few months, allowing you to work out who you want to hear from and in what scenarios, but we found we kept cancelling the settings.

Perhaps we just need more discipline here – but it would be nice to see a few more default modes, or more in-depth tutorials to see how useful this can be.

Another change that’s worth noting is to notifications – it’s great to be able to lump together non-time-sensitive updates, and only see them each morning and afternoon. We instantly found we didn’t care about most of them, and just switched them off in the menu, and having a moment to perform that cleaning was handy.

We do like the new ‘Cards’ used to show images in Messages too – it’s a small change, but they were fun to scroll through.

The post iPhone 13 Pro Max Review appeared first on Review Products.

A fiery design and surprising gaming chops.

Even for Motorola, the champion of cheap Android phones, the Moto G84 is an above-average handset. It excels above its weight class for gaming power, its battery lasts ages, it has some surprisingly top-end features and, if those traits weren’t all enough, it comes in an eye-catching and vibrant red tone that we can’t get enough of.

Pros

• +Lively red color
• +Impressive performance for price
• +Snappy fingerprint scanner

Cons

• -Two other colorways are dull
• -Unimpressive cameras
• -Very similar to cheaper G73

MOTO G84 TWO-MINUTE REVIEW

Another day, another Moto G phone…

…and as usual, the Moto G84 is a surprisingly adept and reliable Android handset from one of the world’s most dedicated phone manufacturers, with Motorola continuing its forcible takeover of our round-up of the best cheap phones.

The latest entry in Motorola’s ever-growing G-line of low-cost mobiles, the G84 brings a few clear and concise arguments as to why it should be your next purchase, as well as a few wardrobes that it hopes you won’t be checking for skeletons.

First up, the Moto G84 is the company’s latest collaboration between Motorola and paint company Pantone, with one of its three colors designed by color experts. This is the Viva Magenta one that you can see pictured above, adorned in the shade that Pantone decided was its Color Of The Year 2023.

It’s a distinctive shade (which may put some people off), and we’re big enough fans to add the vibrant and striking look to the ‘Pros’ list above. But for some reason, Moto decided to release two other color options, silver and black, which look pretty boring by comparison.

We go from one of the phone’s touted selling points to something Motorola is barely mentioning: the G84 is a powerhouse for gaming. While I’ve been disappointed by other mobiles brandishing the same Snapdragon 695 chipset used here, the Moto chews through gaming and other intensive tasks. If you’re a gamer on a budget, this is definitely a solid pick.

It’s at this point in the review (less than a minute into the ‘two-minute review’, so pretty early on) that I should mention the Moto G73. This mobile, released in early 2023 and still ranged by most retailers including Moto itself, has lots of specs in common with the G84.

It has a lower price and the same camera array, same rough design, same software, same battery size, same charging speed and same screen size. Admittedly it’s screen quality is worse, it doesn’t have an under-display fingerprint scanner, it’s less powerful and it doesn’t catch the eye quite like this Viva Magenta-clad beast. But if you want to save some cash and don’t mind these tweaked features, it’s a very real competitor that may sway your attention.

‘Close competition’ is nothing new for Moto phones, given how many similar-looking budget mobiles it releases each year. Neither is my other major gripe with the handset: its cameras are anything but impressive, with photos that look a little dull and unexciting.

Picking up a Motorola phone and being surprised that its cameras aren’t amazing, is like picking up a dumbbell and being surprised it’s heavy – that trait is just par for the course. The cameras aren’t terrible either, they just won’t suit passionate smartphone-centric photographers.

And overall, the Moto G84 is a terribly impressive phone, when you consider its feisty look, gaming power and low price; it’ll just fit some users better than others.

MOTO G84 REVIEW: PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

• Released in September 2023
• Costs £249.99 (roughly $315, AU$475)
• Not for sale in US or Australia

The Moto G84 was released in the UK in mid-September 2023, after coming out in India and Europe in the weeks prior. It was joined by the low-end Moto G54 and premium-leaning Moto Edge 40 Neo.

You can pick up the phone for £249.99 (roughly $315, AU$475), which lodges it firmly in the category of ‘cheap Android phone’, perfect for people on a budget who want a reliable mobile. That’s Moto’s whole schtick, after all. There’s no information on a US or Australian launch, but they seem unlikely even several months after the phone’s release.

Rivals at that price include Samsung’s Galaxy A23 5G, Redmi’s Note 12 5G, OnePlus’ Nord CE 3 Lite and several of Motorola’s own mobiles, like the Moto G73 5G and Edge 40 Neo, which are all at roughly the same price point. But for its price and the performance it offers, the G84 is solidly good value.

Value score: 4 / 5

MOTO G84 REVIEW: SPECS

The Moto G84 has many traits in common with other budget phones, but it exceeds its class in a few areas too.

Moto G84 Specs:

• Dimensions: 160 x 74.4 x 7.6mm
• Weight: 166.8g
• Screen :6.5-inch 20:9 FHD+ (2400×1080) 120Hz p-OLED
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 695
• RAM: 12GB
• Storage: 256GB
• OS: Android 13
• Primary camera: 50MP, f/1.9
• Ultra-wide camera: 8MP f/2.2
• Front camera: 16MP f/2.5
• Audio: Stereo speakers, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Battery: 5,000mAh
• Charging: 30W wired
• Colors: Viva Magenta, Marshmallow Blue, Midnight Blue

MOTO G84 REVIEW:DESIGN

• Vibrant Pantone-designed red shell
• Repositioned under-display fingerprint scanner
• 3.5mm headphone jack and USB-C port

Motorola isn’t exactly in the business of revolutionizing smartphone design (well, at least for its budget mobiles, though you can say what you like about the Moto Razr). So if you’ve seen a Moto G in the last few years you’ve seen the G84.

It’s a standard Android mobile measuring 160 x 74.4 x 7.6 mm – a few years ago we could’ve called it “a little on the big side” though you could probably consider it average now. It’s surprisingly light at 166.8g, which means the phone sits a little comfier in the hand than most phones with a flat edge.

You’ve got the usual accouterments of a Moto: a USB-C port and 3.5mm headphone jack underneath, a power button and volume rocker on the right edge. But Motorola has made one big adjustment in its budget phones of late, and that’s in replacing the side-mounted fingerprint scanner with a more premium under-display one. And it’s a great change too, as unlocking the phone is much easier than in previous Motos. The scanner is a bit lower down the phone than on most others, but it’s something I got used to.

There are three different color options for the Moto G84: a silver and a black option, and also an eye-catching red version called Viva Magenta. This latter was created by paint company Pantone, and it’d make the phone very attractive if it wasn’t for the big Pantone-logo color swatch on the bottom. You can’t remove this, it’s part of the phone.

Still, if the G84 was in a line-up of 10 random other phones, it’d be the most attractive one the vast majority of the time – its red is a little richer than Apple’s Product Red and the glossy alternatives some Chinese phones offer.

In terms of protection, you’re looking at IP54: it’s partly dust proofed but not against all solids, and is splash-proof but can’t be dunked in water. That’s all to be expected at this price.

Design score: 3.5 / 5

MOTO G84 REVIEW: DISPLAY

• Big 6.5-inch screen
• FHD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh
• Automatic brightness issues

The Moto G84 has a 6.5-inch display, which is pretty average for a smartphone these days, but the Moto’s specs are anything but average.

The phone packs an FHD+ display (that’s 1080 x 2400) and a 120Hz refresh rate, which means the display updates its image 120 times per second, over the old standard of 60Hz. Lots of budget mobiles tout this spec now but certainly not all of them, and it brings a marked improvement when you’re scrolling around the menus.

Another unusual trait is the use of the DCI-P3 color gamut with over 1 billion colors – this was designed for use in movies and it makes videos look that little bit better than on another budget phone.

One other display feature worth flagging is that the punch-hole that houses the front-facing camera is very small, reducing the amount of screen space you’re losing from it.

A small issue I had with the phone was with its display and the automatic brightness features. Often, the phone would default to a screen brightness that was just too low, and I frequently had to manually adjust it to be able to make out the display.

Display score: 3.5 / 5

MOTO G84 REVIEW: SOFTWARE

• Stock Android 13 is clean
• Useful Moto Actions return
• Plenty of customization options

When you boot up the Moto G84, it’ll come running stock Android 13 – that was the current OS when the mobile launched, though Android 14 started rolling out just weeks later. The G84 is only confirmed for one software update too, so Android 14 is all you’ll definitely get, though you’ll be able to enjoy at least three years’ security updates.

Stock Android is always fairly clean, at least compared to some other Android forks, but some bloatware has snuck into the Moto. There’s TikTok, LinkedIn and three simple games – it’s nothing too offensive, and if you’ve used one of the budget phones from another brand you might have used something a lot worse, but it’s still not ideal.

Moto phones have always been great for software customization, even before Google made it an official Android feature, and there’s no difference here. You have plenty of choice in terms of font, color scheme, icon shape, animations and more – if you like diving into the settings and then tweaking the nitty-gritty of how your phone looks, you’ll love this phone.

A returning feature exclusive to Moto phones are Moto Actions, which are easy navigation tricks that I find myself using a lot. Examples include a double karate-chop motion to quickly turn on the torch and a twisting shake to open the camera app. They take a little getting used to, but once you’ve got the knack for them, they’re incredibly handy.

Software score: 4 / 5

MOTO G84: CAMERAS

• 50MP main and 8MP ultra-wide cameras
• Some extra features like Spot Color
• 16MP front-facing camera for selfies

The camera department is an area that Motorola phones rarely excel in, and there’s no exception here. The phone uses up its ‘color’ budget on its exterior shell and there’s none left for its photos…

The main snapper is a 50MP f/1.9 unit and it’s joined by a single 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide companion. On the front, you’re looking at a 16MP f/2.5 selfie camera. That’s not exactly a revolutionary combo for Moto, which used the exact same line-up in the Moto G73 from earlier in the year.

Pictures taken on the main camera looked fine – that nondescript word is the best way to describe them – with fair sharpness but a lack of vibrancy or color that made me miss Samsung’s or Xiaomi’s handsets.

Flip onto the ultra-wide camera and you’re getting pretty grainy pictures – it’s an 8MP sensor, what did you expect – though not straight away. No, the secondary snapper was surprisingly slow to focus when I pressed the icon in the camera app, and I often found myself waiting a few moments for it to sharpen the image.

You can also use the ultra-wide camera for macro (close-up) shots, but this suffers from the issue that all wide-angle-macro phone photos do: it’s rounded and distorted thanks to the lens type. No thanks!

There’s no zoom lens on the Moto G84, so you have to use its 8x digital zoom to get closer to a subject. But I’d really recommend you don’t, unless you want your photo to be as grainy as spot art.

Grainy is also the word to use for pictures captured on the front camera, which is a surprising twist as some Motos redeem themselves on their selfie abilities. They’ll be fine for sending between phones, especially with bokeh working well in Portrait mode, but if you look at selfies on any bigger screen you’ll see the pixels clearly.

When capturing video, you can shoot at 1080p, with no 4K option. There’s also a slow-mo option as well as dual capture (front and back cameras at once) and Spot Color, which lets you isolate a single color in your recording. These latter two options are also available for photography.

MOTO G84: PERFORMANCE AND AUDIO

• Snapdragon 695 chip exceeds expectations
• 12GB RAM and 256GB storage
• 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth 5.1

The Moto G84 packs the Snapdragon 695, and anyone who’s used a phone using this chipset knows what to expect: fine everyday performance, but a lackluster showing when used for gaming or intensive processes. That’s how this exact same chip worked in the recent OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite, and gaming was a slog.

In a pleasantly surprising plot twist, the G84 bucks expectations: it runs a lot faster than you’d think. In fact, through our rigorous gaming tests, it proved itself as one of the most reliable low-budget phones for gaming.

When playing titles like Call of Duty: Mobile and PUBG Mobile, the phone could be relied on to get through a match without lags, stutters or freezes – in fact, the G84 beat many gaming phones in that it didn’t even overheat!

This may be thanks to the 12GB RAM you’re getting, a surprising amount for a phone at this price. The 256GB storage is also laudable – this is a phone that’ll last you a long time, and even if you do manage to fill the device’s onboard storage, the microSD card slot will keep you going for even longer.

If you’re into your facts and figures, a benchmark test through Geekbench 6 returned a multi-core average score of 2,037. That middling score shows that this phone is no supercomputer that’ll land a spaceship on the sun or predict the future, but for the price, I was very surprised.

Onto audio – this is par for the course for a Moto phone. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired music and Bluetooth 5.1 for wireless. The onboard stereo speaker is nothing to write home about, but it’s not so tinny that voice calls or memos are affected.

Performance Score: 4 / 5

MOTO G84 REVIEW: BATTERY LIFE

• Large 5,000mAh battery
• Over a day’s use from a single charge
• 30W charging isn’t particularly fast

If there’s one thing a Motorola phone can be relied on to have, even more than a confusing name, great customization or that distinctive sound when you first boot it up, it’s a long-lasting battery life.

No surprise, then, that the Moto G84’s 5,000mAh battery lasts a long time. You can use it to get through a day of use with no issue, and in our tests it lasted well into a second day before the charging cable needed to come out.

That charging cable gets you powering at 30W, so it’s not particularly fast, not when rival budget mobiles hit 50W, 67W or higher. You’re looking at charging times just shy of an hour, or more if you’re using the thing as you power it.

There’s no wireless charging here, but at that price, no-one should be surprised.

Battery Score: 3.5 / 5

HOW I TESTED THE MOTO G84

Review test period = 2 week

Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback

Tools used = Geekbench 5, Geekbench 6, Geekbench ML, GFXBench, native Android stats

As you can tell from my review and the images, I tested the Moto G84 in its Pantone-endorsed Viva Magenta colorway. It felt fitting to test this festive-looking mobile during winter, hence the Christmas baking images!

Before true testing commenced I set up the phone to let the battery use settle, then used it as a standard mobile for two weeks. This included all the tasks you’d use your mobile for: social media, photography and streaming.

I also used it for gaming a lot. In fact, it was so snappy and fast for this task, alongside its lovely display, that I was loathe to move onto the next handset I’m testing for TechRadar!

My tech review history spans five years for TechRadar, and more for other brands. I used to work as an editor and writer for the site, covering phones, tablets and wearables (as well as a wide range of other gadgets), and continue to write freelance reviews across many types of gadget.

The post Motorola Moto G84 Review appeared first on Review Products.