Pixel Experience 12 Hands-On: This is what you get with the official builds

For many smartphone enthusiasts, the software on the Google Pixel devices is the epitome of the vanilla Android experience. Compared to a barebone AOSP build, it has a number of innovative features that are hard to port to other devices. This is where the Pixel Experience custom ROM comes in.

Originally started as an experimental project by XDA Recognized Developer jhenrique09 back in 2017, the custom ROM has grown in popularity quite exponentially, thanks to the desire of users to mimic the software experience of the Google Pixel lineup. jhenrique09 decided to open-source the codebase so that other developers could contribute and port Pixel Experience (often stylized as “PixelExperience” and “PE”) to more devices. Now, the project strives to be a custom ROM on the level of an OEM ROM, providing reliability, stability, and improving on existing features on a device with polish and care.

For this hands-on, we tried out Pixel Experience 12 based on Android 12L primarily on the Redmi Note 7 Pro, a device that stopped receiving updates with Android 10. This shows how an aftermarket ROM can easily extend the lifespan of a device, which is long abandoned by its maker.

Pixel Experience: Installation

The Pixel Experience project offers device-specific installation packages in the form of ROM ZIP files, which can be sideloaded using a custom recovery like TWRP after unlocking the bootloader of the target device.

In case you don’t want to use TWRP, or there’s no official TWRP build available for your device yet, you can also opt for the Pixel Experience recovery image. It’s not as feature-rich as TWRP, but it’s enough to get the job done. The PE recovery is specifically useful for installing Android 12(L)-based OTAs, as TWRP has yet to support Android’s new encryption scheme.

Unlike most other custom ROM distributions, Pixel Experience comes with the essential set of Google apps and services preinstalled. As a result, you don’t need to flash a GApps package separately.

Pixel Experience: First boot and setup wizard

After a successful installation, you should be greeted with the Pixel-styled boot animation as soon as you reboot your phone. The setup wizard on the first run is Pixel-themed as well, and it guides you through selecting your preferred UI language, the time zone, and configuring security settings (e.g. enrolling your fingerprint). Since the Google Play Services are available out of the box, you will also go through the setup process of restoring your Google account and your apps.

Pixel Experience: Launcher and preinstalled apps

The first thing you notice after booting up the ROM is the launcher app. For Pixel Experience, it’s the vanilla Pixel Launcher app right from Google. Not only the launcher, but the wallpapers, icons, font, and many other Pixel goodies are also preinstalled. For a veteran Android modder, it might not be the most customizable experience, but for the vast majority of users, it’s likely more than fine.

Talking about preinstalled apps, you won’t find many. Pixel Experience developers don’t ship any in-house apps for basic productivity tasks, as Google’s offerings will eventually make them redundant. Apart from an actual Pixel’s standard suite of apps, you will find very few third-party apps. The official maintainers’ code of conduct provides strict guidelines in this regard.

For the camera app, though, some device maintainers include a known Google Camera port in their releases. This is because the untouched Google Camera APK is very likely incompatible with the camera sensors found on the particular non-Pixel smartphone. If a suitable stock camera port exists for a particular OEM, you may find it inside as the default camera app on the Pixel Experience ROM for your device as well.

The ROM supports OTA updates. The built-in updater periodically queries the PE download servers and notifies you after finding a newer build than the installed one. As mentioned earlier, if you have the PE recovery installed, then you can install the OTAs just like a regular Pixel smartphone.

Pixel Experience: Plus variant

The original goal of Pixel Experience was to offer a custom ROM that was stable while also including the features that are available on Pixel devices. However, some modding community members have avoided it due to it not having some core custom ROM features that people have grown to expect. This led to the creation of Pixel Experience Plus — an official variant that features some additional functionalities.

The “Plus” edition offers per-app volume settings, network traffic monitor, notch hiding support, and several other UI enhancements. You can use additional gestures like three fingers swipe for taking a screenshot. There is a dedicated LiveDisplay panel too, for tweaking color profile, display mode, reading mode, and color calibration.

In terms of granular customizability, Pixel Experience Plus is way ahead of the vanilla variant. For example, you can easily modify the status bar icons without the help of an additional SystemUI tuner app. The volume and power button actions are customizable as well, thanks to a number of built-in templates. You can also tweak various aspects of the lock screen, e.g. toggle media cover art, music visualizer, device controls, and a plethora of other details.

Pixel Experience: SafetyNet

The Device Requirements charter for the Pixel Experience project prohibits official maintainers to spoof the device fingerprint. As a result, you won’t find a custom Pixel-derived fingerprint on non-Pixel hardware.

Although the ROM doesn’t ship any su binary, there are plenty of factors (stock firmware cross-flashing, the unlocked bootloader state on modern devices etc.) that can lead to SafetyNet failure. With that said, an untouched instance of this custom ROM should pass SafetyNet out of the box on officially supported phones.

A Google Pixel 4a running official Pixel Experience ROM passes SafetyNet

Pixel Experience: Download

If you’d like to try Pixel Experience (or its Plus variant) on your device, you can download the ROM from the project’s official download portal linked below. There are more than a hundred entries in the current roster — each having its own wiki page detailing flashing prerequisites and installation instructions.

Pixel Experience Download Portal

Just because your device isn’t listed there does not mean that you can’t get to enjoy Pixel Experience by now. Because of its open-source nature, there are a number of unofficial builds for many devices on our forums, many of which will eventually end up becoming official builds as development progresses. Most of them are, by now, perfectly stable as daily drivers, with the occasional minor quirk.

Last but not least, XDA Recognized Developer ponces maintains an unofficial GSI port of Pixel Experience. In case you have a Project Treble-compliant device, which has yet to receive official PE support, you can give the GSI a try.

Support Pixel Experience

When building a custom ROM, it’s very tempting to include a truckload of features in it. The problem is, that can often affect the stability of the ROM. Pixel Experience strikes the right balance between user experience and reliability without compromising the overall speed and stability of the phone, which makes it a popular choice among custom ROM enthusiasts.

The project is and has always been a community effort, riding on the back of volunteers dedicating their own resources for the general good of the community. If you want to help the team translate the custom ROM into your language, you can do so by following the instructions here. You can also contribute towards infrastructural costs by donating to them.

The post Pixel Experience 12 Hands-On: This is what you get with the official builds appeared first on XDA.

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How to block spam messages on your Android phone or your iPhone: A step-by-step guide

We all receive unsolicited pings every once in a while from spammers and random, unknown numbers. Even if you have one of the best Android phones or the best iPhones on the market, it’s inevitable that you’ll receive spam messages. While text messages aren’t as annoying as telemarketing calls, they can still get on your nerves by cluttering your inbox with their sheer volume. Not to mention, a lot of these spam messages pose a security threat as they often carry a link that they want you to click.

It’s always best to delete these spam messages as you receive them. But if you don’t want to go through the hassle of dealing with them all the time, then there are ways with which you can filter these spam messages and even block them from getting through to your phone. In this article, we’ll tell you how to block spam messages on your phone, both for Android and for iPhones.

Navigate this article:

• How to block spam messages on Android
• How to block spam messages on iPhone
• Third-party apps to block spam messages on your phone
• Closing Thoughts

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How to block spam messages on Android

Blocking spam messages on Android phones is more difficult than it is on iPhones. We say that because of the sheer number of Android phones out there with customized skins on top of the vanilla Android experience. We will, however, try to simplify the process and present an easy and reliable workaround to block spam messages effectively on Android phones.

The first thing we recommend you to do is download the Google Messages app on Android. This particular application is pre-installed on Pixel devices, but you’ll have to download it manually from the Google Play Store on other devices from the likes of Samsung, Vivo, and more. Google Messages app comes with a Spam Protection feature that works surprisingly well to keep spam messages at bay.

Messages (Free, Google Play) →

There are a few different ways to get rid of spam messages using the Google Messages app, so let’s take a look:

• Once you’ve downloaded the latest version of Google Messages from the Play Store, open the app and tap on the Account button, and look for an option names Messages settings.
• Now, scroll down until you find the Spam protection option.
• Tap on it and toggle Enable spam protection on.

This particular option will start flagging spam messages and even blocking them from spamming you in the future. It works for the most part but there are times when some numbers can get past Google Messages’ spam filter. Luckily, you can catch these numbers rather easily thanks to the spam filter doing the heavy lifting to keep your inbox clutter-free. If a particular number bypasses the built-in spam filter or if you happen to receive spam messages from a specific unknown number, then here’s how you can report spam texts on Android:

How to report spam text on Android phones

• Simply locate the spam text in your inbox and tap and hold that particular message.
• Once selected, tap on the three dots icon to open the menu in the top right corner of the screen.
• From here, tap on the Block option.

Google Messages will automatically move the message to the ‘Spam and blocked’ list, preventing it from sending text messages or calling you in the future. Additionally, you can check the ‘Report as spam’ option to send that particular number to Google as well as your operator.

If you don’t want to use Google Messages on, say, a Samsung phone, then we suggest you explore your native messaging app and look for an option to block spam messages. Almost all custom skins including Samsung’s One UI come with built-in Spam protection features to prevent spam messages from getting through to your inbox. Samsung’s Galaxy S22 running One UI 4.1 comes with a feature that lets you block numbers and spam within the Messages app. Here’s how you can access it:

• Tap on the three-dot menu on the top right corner of the screen to open a list of menu items.
• Now, tap Settings and look for an option named Block numbers and spam and enable Caller ID and spam protection. You can also use this option to block spam calls.

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How to block spam messages on iPhone

It’s relatively easier to restrict spam messages on iPhones. That’s because ‘Messages’ is the default messaging app across all iOS devices. It also helps that enabling a simple message filtering option on iPhones can stop spam messages from getting through to your primary inbox. Here’s how to block spam messages on your iPhone with the Message filtering option:

• Open the Settings app and go to Messages.
• In the Messages option, look for an option named Filter Unknown Senders and enable it.
• Now, go back to your Messages app to see a bunch of options that let you select which messages you want to see. Select Known Senders to only see messages from your saved contacts or the ones you’ve texted before.

You can always come back to this menu and choose to see messages from unknown senders too. We suggest you keep an eye on this particular tab because it also includes messages from banks and other organizations that might send important messages like a transaction alert or a verification code. So if you’re expecting an important notification from an unknown sender, then keep an eye on this tab. You can also choose to view All Messages at once too, but this view will also include all the spam messages.

Alternatively, you can also block individual numbers on iOS to entirely stop receiving messages or phone calls from that particular number. Here’s how you can do this:

• Firstly, locate a conversation with the contact you want to block.
• Now, tap on the contact at the top, then tap the Info button, scroll down, and tap Block this Caller. Once blocked, you won’t get notifications when they spam you with text messages.

Well, that pretty much wraps up this tutorial explaining how to block spam messages on your Android phone or an iPhone. Before we share our closing thoughts on this topic, however, there’s one last thing we wanted to highlight — using third-party apps to block spam messages.

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Third-party apps to block spam messages on your phone

There’s no shortage of third-party apps on both Android as well as iOS that lets you block spam messages on your phone. Apps like Truecaller, RoboKiller, and SMS Shield are some of the names that are quite popular among users out there. Many of these third-party apps do a better job of filtering and blocking unsolicited messages, but they also seek permission to access your call logs, messages, contacts, and more. That’s one of the reasons why we haven’t recommended any third-party application to block spam messages in this tutorial. If that doesn’t bother you then feel free to check out some third-party apps that’ll help you filter spam messages more effectively.

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Closing Thoughts

Both Android and iOS have improved a lot over the years and are more effective now when it comes to filtering and blocking spam messages. There’s always more room for improvement but we’re expecting to see more ways to filter and block spam messages in the future versions of both Android and iOS. We’ll try to revisit this article once we get our hands on the final versions of Android 13 and iOS 16, so keep your peeled.

In the meantime let us know how you filter and block spam messages on your phone? We’ll take a look at your comments and try to include some of the more effective methods in this post in the future.

The post How to block spam messages on your Android phone or your iPhone: A step-by-step guide appeared first on XDA.

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One-Netbook T1 review: A cheaper Surface Pro in every sense of the word

The Windows 11 tablet market isn’t exactly crowded, and most of the options that do exist are either budget entry-level options or premium flagships like the Surface Pro 8. One-Netbook, the company behind the One Xplayer Mini we reviewed a few months ago, wants to offer a high-end experience for a more reasonable price with the T1 tablet.

While it appears to have a lot of promise, the One-Netbook T1 ultimately fails to deliver on most of the fronts where you’d expect a tablet to succeed, and even some of the basics aren’t quite there. It stands out for its performance, being the only tablet around with Intel’s P-series processors, but everything else just falls short of expectations in almost every way. If you’re reading this hoping to be convinced it’s worth the investment, you can safely turn back now.

One-Netbook T1

The One-Netbook T1 is a 13-inch Windows 11 tablet with 12th-generation Intel P-series processors.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at One-Netbook

• One-Netbook T1: Pricing and availability
• One-Netbook T1: Specs
• Design: It looks good, but the build quality could be better
• Display and sound: It’s sharp, but the speakers are terrible
• Keyboard and touchpad: Typing is fine, but the touchpad is atrocious
• Performance: It’s fast, but at what cost?
• Should you buy the One-Netbook T1?

One-Netbook T1: Pricing and availability

• The One-Netbook T1 officially starts at $719 with an Intel Pentium 8505 and 8GB of RAM
• The Intel Core i5 model costs $1,119, and the Core i7 versions start at $1,399

As One-Netbook often does, the T1 tablet launched first on Indiegogo, and early adopters could get a discount during the first month of pre-orders. After the Indiegogo campaign ends, you can buy the laptop directly from One-Netbook’s website.

The official price starts at $719, and it comes with a weaker Intel Pentium 8505 processor. There are also models with Intel P-series processors, which are significantly more powerful. The Core i5 model, which also includes 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, costs $1,119. There’s a Core i7 model with the 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for $1,399, or you can go up to a 2TB SSD for $1,499 in total.

One-Netbook T1: Specs

CPU	Intel Core i5-1240P (12 cores (4P + 8E), 16 threads, up to 4.7GHz, 18MB cache)
Graphics	Intel Iris Xe Graphics (80 execution units)
Display	13-inch IPS, 2160 x 1440 , 200 DPI, 72% NTSC, up to 500 nits, 500:1 contrast ratio, touch
Body	306 x 217 x 9.8 mm (12.05 x 8.54 x 0.39 in), 975g (2.15lbs)
Memory	16GB LPDDR5 5200MHz
Storage	512GB NVMe PCIe SSD
Battery	46.2Wh battery
Ports	1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C (with Power Delivery and display out) 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A 1 x mini-HDMI 1 x microSD card reader 1 x combo audio jack
Audio	Dual 1W speakers
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.0
Camera	2MP/1080p Full HD webcam
Color	Silver
Material	Aluminum
OS	Windows 11 Home
Price	$1,199.99

Design: It looks good, but the build quality could be better

• The One-Netbook T1 is made from aluminum and weighs under 2.2lbs
• It has a wide range of ports for a tablet

The design is one of the areas where I have fewer complaints about the One-Netbook T1, but that doesn’t mean it’s fantastic, either. The whole chassis is made from aluminum, and it feels solid for the most. It comes in a silver colorway, which is fine if a bit generic. Most laptops are silver, even from more reputable brands, so this isn’t a huge deal. It weighs less than 2.2lbs, which isn’t that light for a tablet, but it’s still portable enough.

The tablet has a built-in kickstand, which I always prefer, and it works well enough. It uses an exposed hinge design that actually adds a bit of character, and I like the way it looks. However, I do think the hinge should be tighter, and it can be a little too easy for the hinge to open further when I’m trying to press the power button at the top. I also noticed that if I opened the kickstand past a certain point while mounting my webcam on the tablet, it would open all the way by itself. One-Netbook tells me production units will have tighter tolerances and better build quality, so hopefully that’s something that’s addressed.

One advantage this tablet touts over others is the selection of ports, and indeed, there are a few here. On the left side, you’ll find one USB Type-A port, mini-HDMI, and a USB Type-C port supporting power, data, and display output. The inclusion of mini-HDMI seems like an attempt at being more convenient than USB-C, but in reality, you’re still going to need an adapter because most monitors don’t include a mini-HDMI cable, and at that point, a USB-C to HDMI adapter will be useful on far more devices.

On the right side, there’s another USB Type-A port, a microSD card reader, and a headphone jack. I have to give One-Netbook credit, the inclusion of USB Type-A can certainly be useful, and something most modern tablets don’t have since they’re so thin. Also on this side, there’s a volume rocker, which feels very satisfying to click, though the buttons do jostle around in their place and can feel a bit cheap. On both sides, you’ll also find the speaker grills, but we’ll talk more about that later.

Along the top, there are numerous vents for fan exhaust, which are very needed considering this is a relatively small device packing P-series processors. The power button is also here, and just like the volume rocker, it’s satisfying to press, though it does require a bit of force.

Finally, on the bottom, there’s the physical connector for the keyboard cover, which I appreciate. It would have been easy to use a Bluetooth keyboard, but that would be far less convenient, in my opinion, so I’m glad it uses a physical connection.

All in all, the design is alright, but it’s certainly not special, and it’s actually pretty big for a 13-inch tablet. That’s also thanks to the huge bezels around the display, which make this tablet look positively out-of-date.

Display and sound: It’s sharp, but the speakers are terrible

• The 13-inch display comes in a 3:2 aspect ratio and sharp 2160 x 1440 resolution
• However, the speakers are incredibly quiet and thin, even at max volume

Speaking of the display, the One-Netbook T1 comes with a 13-inch display and it has a 3:2 aspect ratio, which is fairly common for Windows tablets, including Microsoft’s Surface family. As we’ve mentioned, it’s surrounded by large bezels, but the screen itself is plenty sharp with the 2160 x 1440 resolution, which is basically like taking a Quad HD 16:9 display and cropping it to have a 3:2 aspect ratio.

One-Netbook says the contrast ratio is 500:1, and that’s very low. It’s fairly noticeable, too, as the black levels aren’t all that dark. And when you switch from a mostly dark image to a mostly white one, the screen needs to adjust every time, as it just looks too dark. The display also covers 72% of the NTSC color space, which isn’t all that impressive. While I can’t measure those claims myself, the colors did look fine for the most part with this display.

...this is one of the worst webcams I've used.

One subtle thing I’ve noticed with this display is that the display cover doesn’t look clean. It’s hard to explain, and it can be hard to see, but when you look closely, it looks like there’s some noise on the image because of the display cover. The screen also seems to hold on to dirt and natural skin moisture very easily, and it doesn’t feel great to the touch, either.

Now, tablets tend to have better cameras than laptops – just looking at the Surface lineup, you can see how the Surface Pro family had a 5MP webcam for years, and even today, none of the clamshell-style Surface devices have reached that level. I was expecting that logic to apply with the One-Netbook T1, but instead, this is one of the worst webcams I’ve ever used. The full resolution is actually close to 2MP (photos go up to 1600 x 1200), but the quality itself is so bad it’s almost funny. Just take a look at this:

To be clear, the Asus ROG Flow X13 doesn’t have a great webcam either, but it looks fantastic next to the T1. And that’s even more egregious when you consider the webcam doesn’t even sit flush under the display cover, and it actually protrudes slightly from it.  The ROG laptop has a lower resolution and the camera itself is much smaller, yet it still comes out ahead. On top of that, there’s no rear camera here, though I’d say that’s probably fine for a lot of people.

And equally disappointing is the sound. That’s another area where tablets are often better than laptops, since they’re more geared towards media consumption. But just like the webcam, these speakers are terrible. They’re incredibly quiet and thin. Almost every time I watch a video or movie on this tablet, I have to check to make sure I’ve maxed out the volume, and most of the time, I have – it’s just still quiet. I get far better audio from my phone, or any of the laptops I’ve tried.

Ultimately, this tablet fails at the things you expect a tablet to succeed in the most, and that makes it very hard to recommend. But let’s move on for now.

Keyboard and touchpad: Typing is fine, but the touchpad is atrocious

• The One-Netbook T1 comes with a keyboard cover similar to the Surface Pro family
• The touchpad is almost impossible to use

Being a tablet meant to compete with the Surface Pro 8, the One-Netbook T1 also comes with a detachable cover, which includes the keyboard and touchpad. Unlike Microsoft’s tablet, this one is actually included in the box, which is a plus. It attaches magnetically and uses contact pins to connect to the tablet, plus it even has extra magnets that allow you to raise the keyboard slightly by snapping it under the screen, just like the Surface family.

In terms of build quality, the keyboard cover feels somewhat flimsy in some ways. All the flexible parts of the keyboard feel a little too flexible, which makes it feel cheap. Also, the magnet that helps raise the keyboard up isn’t all that strong, so you can sometimes feel it pull away from the screen if you apply pressure near the top. While typing, that’s not too noticeable, though, so it doesn’t affect usability, it just doesn’t feel that great.

But like I said, typing does work fine, and after getting used to the keyboard, I didn’t have a ton of issues using it. The keys travel enough considering the available space, and I didn’t run into major problems per se. However, there’s no backlight on the keyboard, so using this in the dark probably won’t be the best experience.

What’s really bad here, though, is the touchpad. For starters, it’s pretty small, but worse than that, it has a pretty bad grainy texture, unlike the smooth touchpads you’d find basically anywhere else. But the biggest problem of all is that it simply can’t handle using two fingers at once. If you want to drag something by clicking the touchpad with one finger and dragging with the other, you just can’t. One-Netbook says you’re supposed to do it with just one finger, but this is simply awful.

Also, there’s basically no form of palm rejection on this touchpad. For how small it is, it’s kind of incredible how often I moved my cursor to a different place while typing, resulting in a lot of lost time. Generally, I try to use laptops without my own accessories when I review them, but I simply couldn’t live with this touchpad, and I had to use my own mouse.

Performance: It’s fast, but at what cost?

Getting past the numerous hardware flaws of the One-Netbook T1, we come to the big selling point of the tablet, and that’s performance. One-Netbook claims this is the world’s most powerful tablet, and if you look at the Core i7 model, that’s probably true. No other tablet is using Intel’s 28W P-series processors, and that certainly gives the One-Netbook T1 an advantage here. The Surface Pro 8 is still using 11th-generation 15W processors, and other upcoming tablets like the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 go further down to 9W processors.

Battery life is terrible

Naturally, that results in a performance advantage for the One-Netbook T1. I got the model with an Intel Core i5-1240P, along with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, and it performs really well for the most part. Looking at benchmarks, though, it’s not that much faster than a last-gen 15W Core i7, and in some cases, it’s slower. That’s because P-series processors use more power and generate more heat, so they start to throttle after a while, especially when you try to put them in a thin chassis like this. That’s especially noticeable with more intensive benchmarks like 3DMark and Cinebench.

	One-Netbook T1 Intel Core i5-1240P	Surface Pro 8 Intel Core i7-1185G7	Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 7 Intel Core i7-1260P
PCMark 10	4,735	4,988	5,168
3DMark: Time Spy	1,175	1,852	1,458
Cinebench	1,421 / 4,617	1,438 / 5,423	1,375 / 6,831
Geekbench	1,552 / 6,164	1,431 / 5,505	1,419 / 6,915

But the worst part about having a 28W processor in a tablet is battery life. As we’ve mentioned, these processors use a lot more power than typical 15W processors, and with the One-Netbook T1, it truly shows. Battery life is terrible, and in my testing, it lasted me 3 hours and 53 minutes at the very most, and 2 hours and 42 minutes at the lowest. It lasted at least 3 hours most of the time, but that’s still terrible. I’ve been able to drain the battery from 100% until the tablet turned off twice in a single day.

The laptop also comes with a 65W charger in the box, and when you’re using the tablet at the same time, it will be very slow to charge. The worst part is the charging port can’t actually take more than 65W of power. Using a USB-C dock, I could see that the laptop never drew more than 60W, even if I used a 100W charger. I don’t get this limitation, especially on a power-hungry device like this.

Should you buy the One-Netbook T1?

At the end of the day, the One-Netbook T1 doesn’t succeed at any of the things you’d expect a tablet to succeed at, and its biggest selling point – performance – isn’t all that significant thanks to thermal throttling. Sure, it’s cheaper than competing devices, but you’ll still be spending a big chunk of money, and getting a bad experience in return.

You should buy the One-Netbook T1 if:

• You want a tablet with Intel P-series processors for a lower price than most, and that’s all that matters to you

You shouldn’t buy the One-Netbook T1 if:

• Audio or webcam quality matters at all to you
• You want something that lasts more than a few hours on a charge
• Having a decent touchpad is important
• You appreciate a premium-feeling device

Ultimately, we can’t really recommend this to anyone, unless you’re absolutely determined to get a tablet with Intel P-series processors for some reason. There’s not really any redeeming quality to it. You’re better off checking out the best sub-$1000 laptops you can buy today if you want a reasonably-priced PC, or the best Windows tablets if you’re really interested in this form factor.

The post One-Netbook T1 review: A cheaper Surface Pro in every sense of the word appeared first on XDA.

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Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (2022) review: A mainstream laptop with a lot of value

Dell’s new Inspiron 14 2-in-1 has been a delightful mainstream laptop to use over he last few weeks, and I really like the improvements that have been made over the last one. The screen is 16:10, and there are some neat design changes like a three-sided touchpad. There’s a ton of value too. This unit costs just over $1,000, and that’s the higher-end model. Starting at $849.99, you still get a laptop that has a Full HD webcam.

It’s not perfect though. The biggest issue is that frankly, it doesn’t have a great screen, so if you need a super color-accurate work flow, this is not the laptop for you. It also doesn’t have Thunderbolt, so you’ll have to make sure that USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 is enough for you.

But again, this offers a lot for $1,050. While we’re seeing more and more laptops with 1080p webcams, they’re still somewhat rare at this more mainstream price point, so it’s a real value indicator.

Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1

The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 is a mainstream laptop with a premium build, coming in at a low price point and packing an FHD webcam, a 16:10 display, and 12th-gen processors.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Best Buy

Navigate this review:

• Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (2022) pricing and availability
• Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (2022): Specs
• Design: It has a full-size SD card reader
• Display: It’s 16:10 now, but it needs work
• Keyboard: The touchpad design is unique
• Performance: It has Intel’s 12th-gen U-series processors
• Should you buy the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (2022)?

Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (2022) pricing and availability

• The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 starts at $849.99

The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 only comes in two configurations on Dell.com and Best Buy, which cost $849.99 and $1,049.99. The entry tier comes with a Core i5-1235U, 8GB DDR4, a 512GB SSD, and a 1,920×1,200 display. The other one swaps out the CPU for a Core i7-1255U and swaps out the dual 4GB modules of memory for two 8GB modules.

There should be more configurations coming at some point though. The spec sheet in the reviewer’s guide that Dell sent me promises other options, including Core i3 configurations, up to 32GB memory, and up to a 2TB SSD. It’s possible that Dell is just starting out with some more common configurations, which many companies are doing right now.

Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (2022): Specs

Processor	12th Generation Intel Core i7-1255U (12MB Cache, up to 4.7 GHz, 10 cores)
Graphics	Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Body	0.62” – 0.70” x 12.36” x 8.96” (15.70 – 17.86 x 314 x 227.50mm), 3.61 lbs. (1.63kg) with 54W battery
Display	14.0-inch 16:10 FHD+ (1920 x 1200) Truelife Touch Narrow Border WVA Display
Memory	16GB, 2x8GB, DDR4, 3200MHz
Storage	512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
Ports	1 HDMI out 1.4 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C with PowerDelivery and Video 1 3.5mm Headphone/Microphone combination jack SD Card Reader
Input	Precision Touchpad Spill resistant, backlit
Multimedia	Integrated Widescreen FHD (1080p) Camera with Camera Shutter and Temporal Noise Reduction Stereo Speakers with Waves MaxxAudio Pro tuning Integrated Dual Array Microphones
Battery	4-Cell Battery, 54 Whr (Integrated) 65W Power Adapter (Type-C)
Color	Platinum Silver
Security	Fingerprint Reader with Windows Hello (Optional) Webcam privacy shutter
OS	Windows 11 Home
Price	$1,050

Design: It has a full-size SD card reader

• It’s made out of aluminum and comes in Platinum Silver
• There’s a full-size SD card reader

The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 looks like a Dell laptop. When I say that, I mean that if you had me draw you a picture of what I’d expect a typical Dell laptop to look like, this is what I’d end up with. It’s made out of aluminum and comes in the traditional Platinum Silver color, with the shiny Dell logo stamped in the lid. Given the inexpensive price, it feels really premium.

One thing that’s neat about many Inspiron models is that the hinge is designed so that it lifts up the base. That means that when the lid is open, the base isn’t actually lying flat on your desk. Since it’s lifted up, it allows for better airflow and therefore, better performance.

The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 is part of a dying breed of 14-inch laptops with a full-size SD card slot.

It’s a bit heavy at 3.61 pounds, although frankly, when I looked at the spec sheet, I was a little surprised to see that it weighed so much. It really doesn’t feel heavy, and believe me, I tend to be pretty sensitive when it comes to different weights in laptops. This one felt comfortable to carry around. If it does feel a bit heavy, there’s a lighter option available that does come with a smaller battery.

There’s an interesting port selection on this laptop, including two USB Type-C, one USB Type-A, HDMI, a headphone jack, and an SD card reader. I know; an SD card reader. It seems like full-size SD card readers are so rare these days, and when you do find one, it’s usually on a 15- or 16-inch laptop that’s designed for creators that are going to be editing video. If you’re looking for a 14-inch laptop with a full-size SD card reader, you’ll spend a good amount of time looking before you find another one.

Neither of the two USB Type-C ports are Thunderbolt, which is a shame. Interestingly, they’re USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, which I don’t think I’ve actually seen in a product. To go on a bit of a tangent, here’s the strange and insane way that USB generations work. USB 3.0 supported 5Gbps speeds, and that was rebranded to USB 3.1 Gen 1. When USB 3.1 came out, USB 3.1 Gen 2 was the actual new standard with 10Gbps speeds. Then USB 3.2 came along and, you guessed it, everything got rebranded again. USB 3.1 Gen 1 (originally USB 3.0) became USB 3.2 Gen 1, and USB 3.1 Gen 2 became USB 3.2 Gen 2. The new one was USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, which supports 20Gbps speeds.

USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 has been mostly skipped in favor of USB4, which supports 40Gbps speeds. Still, if it’s not going to be Thunderbolt 4 / USB4, it’s nice that it’s USB 3.2 Gen 2×2. The non-Thunderbolt laptops I usually see aren’t even that.

Display: It’s 16:10 now, but it needs work

• The 14-inch display is now 16:10, but the color gamut isn’t up to par
• The webcam is 1080p

The screen on the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1, as the name suggests, is 14 inches measured diagonally. The big change over last year’s model is that the aspect ratio is 16:10 now, instead of 16:9. That means that it’s taller and has more surface area, which is fantastic. The resolution is 1,920×1,200.

Unfortunately, that’s all that changed. The color gamut tests seem to show almost the exact same results that we saw on the previous model.

It supports 64% sRGB, 46% NTSC, 48% Adobe RGB, and 48% P3. Those numbers are low enough that I’d suspect something was wrong with my sensor, but I went through those rounds of confusion when I reviewed last year’s model. I ran a factory reset, tested other displays to see if I’d get different results, and so on.

The thing is, the display doesn’t seem like it should be that bad, at least if you’re not putting it next to something else. In fact, it feels pretty high-quality with a wide viewing angle. That’s what it is though. There are two key issues here. One is that you’ll value color accuracy if you care about photo and video editing, so if that’s your jam, you’ll want to stay away from this laptop.

Another key issue is that if you use a portable monitor, the experience is kind of jarring. I’m using a 15.6-inch portable OLED monitor next to this and it’s so clear that one is better than the other.

Brightness maxes out at 283 nits, which isn’t particularly bright and will cause issues with outdoor use. In fact, you should be able to see that from a bunch of the images in this article. Contrast maxed out at 1,290:1, which is fine.

One thing that’s really great is the webcam. This laptop comes with a 1080p camera, something that’s still somewhat rare at this price point. It’s really nice to see in the age of working from home and video calls. It’s also got a privacy shutter for when you don’t want it accidentally turning on.

Keyboard: The touchpad design is unique

• It has standard Chiclet-style keys, and there’s a power button in the fingerprint sensor

The keyboard on this laptop is pretty solid, using the same Chiclet-style keys that you’d find on any Dell laptop. I really like the feel of this one; it requires just the right amount of force to press a key, and it’s not too deep. Naturally, it’s backlit as well.

The three-sided touchpad gives it a unique look.

You’ll see in the top-right, the power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Unfortunately, I still have to point out that unlike every other company that puts a fingerprint sensor in the power button, Dell’s don’t scan you when you press the button. This laptop scans you after it boots up, so it’s not quite as seamless as the experience is on other laptops. There’s also no IR camera, so this is your only method for biometric authentication.

The big story here is that touchpad. I’ve never seen another one like it, as it’s a pretty unique design. There’s a slab of glass that spans across the entire palm rest, and as you can see from the image, the touchpad is cut out of it on three sides. It’s pretty neat. It doesn’t seem to affect usage in any way; obviously, you can’t click the top corners, not that you would anyway. It’s pretty cool, and it’s something that looks a little bit different. I like it, and even aside from the three-sides touchpad, I like the glass on the palm rest.

Performance: It has Intel’s 12th-gen U-series processors

• Intel’s new 12th-gen U-series processors are great for productivity

This is a strange time for Intel-powered laptops. If you bought a 14-inch laptop just a year ago, it came with an Intel 15W processor, also known as the U-series. With 12th-gen, there are new 28W P-series parts that are going in some ultrabooks. I’ve seen other laptops that go so far as to include a 45W H-series CPU with no dedicated graphics.

Interestingly, there are trade-offs to all of these. Some of the ones with H-series processors actually don’t benchmark as well as this laptop, which has 15W U-series processors. After all, there’s a lot more power going through a chassis that’s not really designed to handle it. For the ones that get higher wattage CPUs and have better performance, it comes at the cost of battery life. That’s why we’re seeing some laptops, like the new Lenovo Yoga 9i, ship with a 75WHr battery.

Intel's 12th-gen U-series is perfect f productivity.

For productivity, U-series certainly seems like the way to go. It’s the best on battery life, and it doesn’t run into performance issues over time. I will say that for photo and video editing tasks, you should move toward higher-wattage processors. If you ask me, P-series makes sense for photo editing, and H-series paired with dedicated graphics is best for video editing. While I’ve now tested several laptops with H-series processors and integrated graphics, I wouldn’t actually buy any of them.

And yes, I do notice this laptop choke up on certain tasks, like with a Lightroom Classic export. That’s what I mean by a productivity laptop. This thing is great for work in the web browser, Office, Slack, OneNote, and so on.

For benchmarks, I ran PCMark 10, 3DMark: Time Spy, Geekbench, Cinebench, and Crossmark.

	Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 Core i7-1255U	Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 Ryzen 7 5700U	Lenovo Yoga 9i Core i7-1260P
PCMark 10	5,305	5,320	5,616
3DMark: Time Spy	1,507	1,256	1,678
Geekbench 5 (single / multi)	1,711 / 6,700	1,151 / 6,091	1,736 / 9,525
Cinebench R23 (single / multi)	1,724 / 6,797	1,233 / 7,768	1,638 / 7,757
Crossmark (overall / productivity / creativity / response time)	1,428 / 1,450 / 1,464 / 1,265

As you can see, the PCMark 10 score is similar to the previous generation’s AMD model, although those Ryzen 5000 processors took a huge performance hit when they weren’t connected to power. You can also see that this year’s model shows some meaningful gains in other areas, such as single-core CPU tests, which are very important for real-world performance. I also threw in the Lenovo Yoga 9i because I wanted to demonstrate the difference between U-series and P-series processors.

Intel’s 12th-gen processors have a new hybrid architecture, and now has a total of 10 cores and 12 threads, whereas previous generations had four cores and eight threads. That’s a big deal, but one thing that’s changed is that only two of the cores are performance cores, or P-cores. The rest are efficiency cores, or E-cores. If you want more than two P-cores, you’ll have to go to the P-series.

As far as battery life goes, it’s pretty great. With the power set to balanced and the screen on medium brightness, the best I got was six hours and 52 minutes, which is really fantastic. On average, it exceeded five hours, which is still really good when compared with the rest of the market. Of course, this is all while using it for productivity. When I started editing photos, battery life dropped to a little under four hours.

Should you buy the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (2022)?

As I mentioned throughout this review, there are pros and cons to this laptop, and those apply to different use cases, so it’s not for everyone.

You should buy the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (2022) if:

• You’re looking for something that’s great at productivity
• You need a work from home laptop
• Battery life matters to you

You should NOT buy the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 if:

• You need Thunderbolt
• You’re doing creative work like photo and video editing

Probably the biggest factor to consider is the display. If colors really matter to your workflow, then this is not the laptop for you. If you’re looking for something for work, then the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 is pretty sweet.

The post Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (2022) review: A mainstream laptop with a lot of value appeared first on XDA.

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