Those of you who own Philips smart LED lights would probably be familiar with the Philips Hue mobile app. The companion app lets you organize, control, and customize your smart lights and accessories. The app received a big visual overhaul last year that greatly simplified the user interface by bringing quick access to scenes, brightness, controls, and toggles on the home screen. Now it’s picking up a new update that adds a couple of new features.
Philips Hue app version 4.11 is rolling out (via Android Police) on the Google Play Store and App Store and it introduces two new scene categories: “Futuristic” and “Lush.” The Futuristic category has six scenes: Soho, Magneto, Disturbia, Vapor, wave, Tyrell, and Hal. Meanwhile, under the Lush category, you’ll find seven scenes: Amber bloom, Painted sky, Orange fields, Blue planet, Lily, Winter Beauty, and Forest adventure.
Philips Hue app v4.11 brings the following changes:
Futuristic: Get an otherworldly look with scenes that flood your space with rich, saturated colors.
Lush: Vibrant, lively and bright. These scenes look great outside, but you can use them anywhere you like.
Philips Hue app version 4.11 is live on the Google Play Store and App Store. If you’re an Android user, you can follow the link below to grab the latest update, while iOS users can get it from here.
In September last year, Philips expanded its Hue product range with a bunch of new products, including new gradient lighting strips and tubes, new floor and table lamps, and brighter bulbs that can output up to 1,100 lumens. Philips has also teamed up with Spotify to develop a new algorithm that allows Hue owners to sync their smart lights to music. You can try out the feature by linking your Philips Hue account with Spotify from within the companion app.
The Pixel 6 is one of the best Android phones around. Although the buggy software experience has been giving us second thoughts as of late, there’s no denying that the Pixel 6 is the best phone Google has ever produced. And it’s doing pretty good in terms of sales as well, according to Google.
During Alphabet’s Q4 2021 earning call on Tuesday (via ArsTechnica), Sundar Pichai described the Pixel 6 as a commercial success, stating that the latest Pixel phones “set an all-time quarterly sales record.”
“In Q4, we set an all time quarterly sales record for Pixel. This came in spite of an extremely challenging supply chain environment. The response to Pixel 6 from our customers and carrier partners was incredibly positive,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google.
Unfortunately, the company didn’t share any sales figures so we don’t know exactly how many units of the Pixel 6 series Google was able to ship. In any case, it’s unlikely these numbers would be anywhere close to those of Samsung’s and Apple’s. This is mainly because the new series was only launched in nine markets, with most of Asia and a large chunk of Europe left out. It’s also unclear whether the Pixel 6 was able to surpass sales records of prior Pixel models. Considering it went on sale just in October, it’s less likely it would have been able to pull off that feat in such a short time.
The Pixel 6 series marks Google’s return to the flagship segment, with both the regular Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro featuring premium designs, gorgeous displays, and top-of-the-line internals. The new phones also pack Google’s first in-house Tensor SoC.
While a Pixel 7 isn’t coming out any time soon, Google is reportedly gearing up to launch an affordable smartphone in the Pixel 6a. As per leaks, the phone will feature a design similar to the vanilla Pixel 6 and will be powered by the Tensor GS101 chipset.
WhatsApp has been working on iMessage/Instagram-style message reactions for a while now. We first learned about it all the way back in August last year. At the time, the feature was in early development. A few months later, WhatsApp rolled out a half-baked version of the feature to some users, only to remove it later on. But it appears message reactions will finally be making their way to WhatsApp users soon.
WABetainfo has shared some screenshots of WhatsApp reactions, giving us an early preview of what the feature would look like once it goes live. As you can see in the images attached below, WhatsApp users will see a row of emoji just above the message. It’s unclear whether users will have to long-press on a message or there will be a dedicated button next to the message to add a reaction. In any case, it looks like you’ll be able to choose from up to six emoji reactions. The reaction you choose will be attached at the bottom of the message.
WhatsApp is readying message reactions (secured by end-to-end encryption) in a new upcoming update of WhatsApp beta for Android and iOS. pic.twitter.com/o9CMW6pnsN
According to WABetainfo, WhatsApp plans to add message reactions in an upcoming WhatsApp beta update for iOS and Android. It also notes that reactions will be end-to-end encrypted, just like text messages and backups.
Meta’s other messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and Instagram already support message reactions. So it’s only natural that the feature is now making its way to WhatsApp.
As mentioned above, the feature hasn’t rolled out to WhatsApp users just yet. If you want to be one of the first to try it out, you can sign for WhatsApp beta program here.
If you think Instagram’s 60-sec time cap on Reels is a bit limiting, you would be glad to know that the company is reportedly planning to increase the video length for its TikTok rival.
According to the frequent Instagram tipster Alessandro Paluzzi, Instagram is exploring the possibility of creating longer Reels. Right now Instagram users can create Reels that are up to 60 seconds long. But in the near future users may be able to shoot 90-second or one and a half minute long Reels.
The screenshot shared by the tipster shows there’ll be a toggle within the Reels video shooting mode that will quickly allow users to set the video limit to 90 seconds.
Note that the 90-sec option hasn’t rolled out to users yet nor Instagram has officially confirmed any plans to extend the Reels video length.
Instagram Reels originally launched with a 15-sec time cap, which was doubled to 30 seconds. This length was doubled once again in July last year, allowing users to create minute-long Reels.
Should Instagram increase the video length limit for Reels, it wouldn’t come as surprise. Instagram’s archrival TikTok already allows users to shoot much longer videos. The service increased the limit from 60 seconds to three minutes back in July last year.
We don’t know when Instagram plans to increase the video length for Reels. We’ll keep an eye out and let you know if we learn any new details.
Reels has gained a lot of traction since its launch in 2020. The service has especially become quite popular in India, where the ban on TikTok allowed it to quickly emerge as the perfect alternative.
Instagram recently added support for “Avatars” to compete with Snap’s Bitmoji feature. The feature, which allows users to share their 3D Avataras in Stories and DMs, is currently available in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
After rolling out its gaming service worldwide late last year, Netflix is now focusing on expanding its game catalog. Today, the company has added two new titles from Riot Games — Dungeon Dwarves and Hextech Mayhem — to its lineup. If you’re a League of Legends fan, you should definitely check them out and kill some time while you’re waiting in queue for your next match.
According to The Verge, Dungeon Dwarves is an idle dungeon crawler that surprisingly doesn’t feature any familiar characters. In the game, you control a team of five dwarves whose main task is to keep digging to advance to the next dungeon. The Dwarves also have special abilities that you can use to clear out your path faster or take down bosses.
The abilities range from heavy weapon strikes that take down all objects in your way to area-of-effect attacks that are great for multiple enemies. You can even level up your team of dwarves as the game progresses to take on increasingly treacherous terrain and powerful monsters. Interestingly, the dwarves keep digging even when you’re not playing the game and reward you with new gear whenever you return.
Unlike Dungeon Dwarves, Hextech Mayhem features two champions from the League of Legends universe — Ziggs and Heimerdinger. It’s a rhythm runner in which you control Ziggs as he runs through the streets of Piltover while causing musical explosions and collecting gears to create the biggest bomb ever. Heimerdinger doesn’t really play an active part in the game and he only serves as a foil to Ziggs.
Hextech Mayhem first launched on the Nintendo Switch and PC back in November last year, and you can now enjoy it on mobile if you have a Netflix subscription. Both games are completely free to play and ad-free. You can download them by following the Play Store links below.
YouTube mobile app is rolling out a new design that makes it easier to access controls when you’re watching videos in full-screen mode.
The new interface adds a row of buttons in the bottom left corner (via The Verge). Buttons are revealed when you pause the video or tap anywhere on the screen and let you like or dislike a video, open comments in the right sidebar, share, and save to playlist. There’s also a new “More Videos” section in the bottom right corner.
In the old interface, like, dislike, share and save buttons were hidden behind a gesture. You had to swipe up from the bottom to reveal them. The interface displayed relevant videos on a vertically scrollable bar with buttons shown at the bottom, as you can see in the image below. This gesture wasn’t the best implementation as it conflicted with system navigation gestures, with users often accidentally triggering the home button gesture while swiping up from the bottom.
This new video player UI should address this issue. Not only that, but it also lets you open comments in the landscape mode (in the right sidebar) without interrupting the video playback. Previously, you had to switch to portrait mode to see comments.
The new video player UI has started rolling out on Android and iOS. It’s not widely available as of yet (I’m not seeing it on any of my phones), but should be gradually making its way to everyone in the coming days/weeks.
YouTube is also testing the ability to loop video chapters. This will allow users to view a single video chapter on repeat without having to manually pull the slider or loop the whole video.
Have you received YouTube’s redesigned video player? Let us know in the comments below.
After opting to release its 2021 foldable phone, the Huawei Mate X2, in mainland China only, Huawei is back on the global stage (that would be Europe and chunks of Asia) with a new foldable, the Huwei P50 Pocket. Just like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 3, it is a clamshell-style foldable that transforms from a small makeup compactor-shaped square to a rectangular slab.
As expected by those familiar with Huawei flagships, the hardware craftsmanship is impeccable: the screen doesn’t show signs of creasing; the hinge folds completely flat; and the main camera on this phone is almost on par with the excellent Huawei P50 Pro main camera — which makes it better than the Galaxy Z Flip 3’s cameras in my opinion. But there are the usual US sanctions-caused shortcomings that have plagued Huawei’s international releases in the past couple of years: there’s no Google Mobile Services support and the phone runs on a 4G version of Snapdragon 888.
Factor in the relatively high price of €1,299 in Europe (which converts to $1,466) and about a hundred dollars cheaper in Asian regions like Singapore and Hong Kong, the Huawei P50 Pocket can be seen as a niche luxury or collector’s item. In fact, there is a “Premium Edition,” with a gold-colored design by Dutch haute couture designer Iris van Herpen that retails for €1599 ($1,750). Clearly, Huawei is aiming at a specific market. That’s wise, because to average consumers in the west, the P50 Pocket has a very tough case to make against the cheaper, 5G and Google-ready Galaxy Z Flip 3.
Huawei's newest foldable is stylish and ultra-sleek with a strong main camera to boot. But the usual caveats apply...
Pros:
Cons:
Huawei P50 Pocket: Price and Availability
The Huawei P50 Pocket was released in China last December, but its international launch is just beginning now alongside the Huawei P50 Pro in markets including the UK, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, among others. Check Huawei’s consumer website to find out if and when it will be available in your region. The Huawei P50 comes in black, white, or gold options — with the latter being the aforementioned pricier “Premium Edition.” The black and white models come with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, while the gold comes in 12GB RAM and 512GB storage.
Huawei P50 Pocket: €1299
Huawei P50 Pocket Premium Edition: €1599
Huawei P50 Pocket: Specifications
Specification
Huawei P50 Pocket
Build
Aluminum mid-frame, Glass back
Dimensions & Weight
Unfolded: 170 x 75.5 x 7.2 mm
Folded: 87.3 x 75.5 x 15.2 mm
190g
Display
Main: 6.9-inch 120Hz AMOLED, 1188 x 2790
Secondary: 1.04-inch AMOLED, 340 x 340
SoC
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 4G
RAM & Storage
Black, white model: 8GB RAM; 256GB UFS 3.1 storage
About this review: Huawei sent me a P50 Pocket in white to test on January 18th. Huawei did not have input in this article.
Hardware and Design
6.9-inch 120Hz OLED screen that doesn’t show a harsh crease like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3
Unfolded, it’s ultra-thin at 7.2mm
The outside screen can be used as a camera viewfinder
Snapdragon 888 is more than enough power even in 2022, and the lack of 5G won’t be a huge deal to many
When it’s unfolded, the Huawei P50 Pocket — at least my white color model — looks similar to the Huawei P50 Pocket, with the same striking double-ring camera module design and an immersive screen with a small hole-punch wrapped by minimal bezels. The 6.9-inch, 21:9 display is slightly more elongated than a typical slab smartphone, but for the most part, it feels very similar, unlike larger foldables like Huawei’s own Mate X2 or the Samsung Z Fold 3 which feels like an entirely different beast in the hand.
Despite the fold, the Huawei P50 Pocket’s screen has a very hard-to-see/find crease. From most angles, you won’t be able to see it, and when you run your finger through the folding part of the screen, you only feel a slight indentation. This is a major improvement over the Galaxy Z Flip 3, whose crease is noticeable when viewed at even a slightly off-angle, and has a deep groove that can be felt at all times.
The 120Hz display looks great — bright enough to use under direct sunlight, with zippy animations and colors that pop. Just like the Huawei Mate X2, the P50 Pocket also has a hinge that can fold completely flat, without leaving a gap like the Galaxy Z Flip 3. This allows the P50 Pocket to be slightly thinner than the Galaxy Z Flip 3 when folded (15.2mm to 15.9mm). There’s a side-mounted fingerprint reader on the right side, along with a volume rocker.
Just like the Huawei Mate X2, the P50 Pocket also has a hinge that can fold completely flat, without leaving a gap like the the Galaxy Z Flip 3
That aforementioned double-ring camera module is actually just one camera module, the bottom circle is actually a 1-inch secondary screen that allows the phone to be used even when folded. Unfortunately, because the screen is so small, it is not as useful as the Galaxy Z Flip 3’s larger screen. Here on the P50 Pocket, you can use the screen as a camera viewfinder so you can take selfies with the main camera system; as well as check things like calendar, notifications, and control music playback. Ultimately, because of the size and shape, you can only get limited utility out of this, similar to the issues we had on the earlier generation of clamshell foldables.
The P50 Pocket is just well constructed all around, the hinge is sturdy and can stay in place mid-fold into this laptop-shaped setup with half of the screen upright. The P50 Pocket’s software really only takes advantage of this setup in the camera app, as the viewfinder will move up to the top half of the screen, with the bottom half showing camera controls. This allows for hands-free selfies or time-lapse videos.
Cameras
Great primary camera that works at par with glass slab flagships
Ultra-wide camera washes out colors
The P50 Pocket’s main camera system consists of a 40MP “True-Chroma” main camera, a 13MP ultra-wide camera, and a 32MP “Super Spectrum” camera. The main camera is named after Huawei’s True-Chroma Image Engine, a software/hardware solution that supposedly allows the phone to recreate accurate colors that are seen by the human eye. Meanwhile, the Super Spectrum camera is a color temperature sensor that helps the XD Fusion Pro Image Engine, which helps the phone produce shots with more depth and image information.
Does any of this XD and Chroma marketing speak really mean anything in the real world? Yes, the Huawei P50 Pro’s main camera produces shots with punchy colors and great sharpness. Let’s take a look at some samples.
The Huawei P50 Pro's main camera produces sharp shots with punchy colors
Here’s a shot with a tricky light situation: there’s a relatively bright light coming through the window on the right side, but there’s also a section of the shot covered in shadows — under the table, the part of the table underneath the computer monitor and behind a curtain. Now, can I say the P50 Pocket’s shot is 100% accurate to real life? No, it’s a bit cooler than the scene at the time. But the iPhone’s shot is, as usual, overly warm. And if we zoom in to the actual size and look at 100% crops, we can see the P50 Pocket’s 10MP shot is more detailed and less noisy than the iPhone 13’s 12MP shot.
P50 Pocket (left); iPhone 13 Pro (right)
Here, I can say the P50 Pro shot does indeed have more accurate colors — the light blue shade of the water bottle and the white sheet of paper on the left side.
Here’s another 100% crop of the same shot on another part of the room.
P50 Pocket (left); iPhone 13 Pro (right), 100% crops.
Everything, from the banana to the brown cardboard coffee cupholder to the tiny bit of ocean in the upper right corner of the shot, has more accurate colors in Huawei’s shot than Apple’s shot.
All three shots are excellent, and it’s really up to nitpicking. The Galaxy S21 Ultra and Pixel 6 Pro are better illuminated overall, with the top quarter of the shot a bit dark in the P50 Pocket image. But then the P50 Pocket’s reds are much more vivid and the lights better exposed, particularly in the lantern and the stop sign near the bottom right quadrant of the shot. Let’s zoom in 100%.
Overall, the P50 Pocket’s main camera is strong and on par with the Huawei P50 Pro, which I tested a few months ago. Notice I said the main camera, because the ultra-wide camera doesn’t bring the same high standards. It’s definitely inferior to the P50 Pro’s ultra-wide sensor. The big problem is colors are inconsistent between main and ultra-wide photos. The below two images were captured back to back within a second apart.
Here’s another set, and if we zoom in 100%, the ultra-wide shot is nowhere near as sharp as the main camera. This is a shame because Huawei arguably pioneered the idea (back in 2019’s Mate 30 Pro) that the ultra-wide camera should not be significantly inferior to the main camera.
P50 Pocket main camera (left); ultra-wide (right), 100% crops.
I took the P50 Pocket on a camping trip over the weekend, which was a good time to test the phone’s low light capabilities. Because Huawei has moved away from its RYYB sensor (where the extra yellow pixel helped it pull in a lot of light), and the 40MP sensor here doesn’t have those huge sensors used in the Huawei P40 Pro, the P50 Pocket really needs night mode to get a great shot in really dark scenes.
As you can see, without night mode, the photo captured blows out the lights, but with night mode, the P50 Pocket was able to churn out a Pixel-like well-balanced shot. Here’s another night mode on/off sample.
And unlike Apple, Google, and Samsung phones, the P50 Pocket does not turn on night mode automatically, you have to switch to the mode yourself. There are pros and cons to phones automating everything, but here, I’d prefer the phone just automatically use night mode if the shot quality is going to differ that much.
Selfies are fine. The actual front-facing camera is a bit soft on details, so if you shoot with the main camera, you get a much sharper shot. And at night, it will be a brighter shot too.
The P50 Pocket’s video capabilities are below par for a phone that costs well into four-digit Euros. Everything from stabilization to dynamic range is below par for Huawei. The P50 Pro, by comparison, has a much, much better video camera.
Software
The Huawei P50 Pocket runs EMUI instead of HarmonyOS and it’s a familiar Huawei UI
No Google Mobile Services is not ideal, but perhaps not an absolute dealbreaker
Petal Search can make finding and installing apps easier
Celia is Huawei’s digital voice assistant and it is the first time I’ve seen it available outside of China
The Huawei P50 Pocket runs on EMUI 12 instead of HarmonyOS. Huawei declined to say why they haven’t rolled out HarmonyOS to its smartphones globally yet, but as someone who has used HarmonyOS on a phone, I can say the general experience won’t be too different. For the most part, EMUI here still behaves like Android, except Huawei has split the notification panel and control center into two separate panes. And there’s no app tray, so all apps sit on the homescreen. But I like the slide-over menu that allows the launch of apps in floating windows quickly.
Speaking of apps — by now most people reading will know that Huawei phones cannot run Google Mobile Services, which include Google’s core apps such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive, etc. Whether or not this makes the phone unusable depends on who you are and what you need. For some, this is a complete non-starter.
For me, I can say that this is definitely not ideal, but it is not unusable. The reality is there are a lot of workarounds to access those Google apps. Gmail, for example, can still work via a third-party mail app like Microsoft Outlook. Google Calendar, too, can sync with Outlook without issues. Google Maps works on the phone outright, with the only exception being you can’t log in so you can’t save locations or write reviews of businesses. But otherwise, if you want to navigate from point A to point B on Google Maps, you can. YouTube can be accessed directly via the web browser — in fact, Huawei’s native web browser has YouTube bookmarked.
Most major apps westerners know, like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter work absolutely fine with zero issues. And while these apps are not available on Huawei’s AppGallery, Huawei has a workaround known as Petal Search. Essentially, Petal Search directs your app search to trusted sources like APK Mirror, APK Pure, or if it’s available, the official source of download like Facebook dot com.
For me, not having Google Mobile Services is definitely not ideal, but it also does not make the phone unusable
The P50 Pocket also has its own voice assistant to make up for not having Google’s. Named Celia, this was introduced a couple of years ago, but as far as I know, I don’t recall Celia being available internationally until recently. This is my first experience using Celia, and the experience is okay. It can be triggered by saying “Hey Celia” or long-pressing the power button. It can help me set an alarm 0r launch a first-party Huawei app without problems. When I ask it to set an alarm she even knows to confirm the time and wait for my response. But Celia misunderstands words more often than Siri or Google Assistant, and sometimes when I ask it a straightforward question (like converting currency), it will bring me to a web search instead of just giving me the answer.
Having Celia is better than having no voice assistant at all, and maybe with time, it will improve. But chances of it ever surpassing Google Assistant, at least in the English-speaking parts of the world, is slim to none.
General Performance and Battery Life
The Huawei P50 Pocket shipping with a 4G version of the Snapdragon 888 in 2022 when the 5G ready Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is around the corner will hurt its appeal, but in a vacuum, is the Snapdragon 888 4G lacking in power? Absolutely not. Throughout my week of use, the Huawei P50 Pocket operated smoothly, and 5G connectivity is still in its infancy and barely offers faster speeds. I have spent the past three months using 5G data plans in Hong Kong and Los Angeles, two major cities with some of the best mobile infrastructure, and I’d be lying if I said 5G really made any practical difference in my life. Yes, this does affect the “futreproof” value of the phone, but if this really does look appetizing to you, there’s a chance that you are willing to look past this.
The 4,000 mAh battery also gives the phone excellent battery life. Huawei has always been able to do wonders if its battery optimization and that 4,000mAh cell can really go far here. On the day I went camping, I was out hiking through mountains and using the phone heavily, and after a 16-hour day, I went to sleep with the P50 Pocket still at 18% battery.
Conclusion
Of course, most of what I said in this review will be moot points without two main considerations: the price, and the GMS situation. The reality is, Huawei’s €1,299 ($1,466) pricing, plus not having access to Google Mobile Services really limit the P50 Pocket’s mainstream appeal.
It’s worth wondering why Huawei didn’t price this phone lower, especially with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 available right now with 5G connectivity, unrestricted software, and a lower price tag. If I have to take a guess, it’s that Huawei’s consumer group isn’t willing to let go of its premium brand status just because of sanctions that are beyond the group’s control. In mainland China, Malaysia, and parts of Hong Kong, Huawei is seen as a luxury brand whose gadgets are a notch above other Chinese manufacturers. “Huawei is considered the Rolex of mobile phones by Chinese people,” a popular phone importer in Hong Kong told me few months ago, when I expressed surprise that all his China model P50 Pros were sold out on day one. Some people will buy Huawei products even if it’s more expensive, even if it doesn’t have Google. The $2,700 Huawei Mate X2, for example, was out of stock for most of 2021.
Can Huawei achieve this same status with European consumers? That it can be seen as a luxury brand whose products deserve to be higher price? Huawei very well was on its way there before the sanctions, when the company’s phones were setting sales record and garnering rave reviews all throughout Europe. Now with obstacles, it’s going to be an uphill battle. But Huawei is nothing if not persistent.
