Samsung’s latest flagship foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 4, launched with a new version of One UI based on Android 12L. The release included several features and optimizations for large-screen devices, including a Taskbar, new multitasking gestures, first-party app optimizations, and more. Towards the end of last month, Samsung released the update for its flagship Galaxy Tab S8 series. Now, it’s releasing the update for older foldables.
Samsung has started rolling out One UI 4.1.1 based on Android 12L to the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, and it should reach all users over the coming days. The older Galaxy Z Fold 2, Galaxy Z Flip, and Galaxy Z Fold will also receive the update, but Samsung has not provided a release timeline for these devices.
As part of the update, users will receive the new Taskbar feature that Samsung showcased at its Galaxy Unpacked event last month. It gives you quick access to frequently used apps, lets you open apps in split-screen mode or a pop-up window, and you can also use it to open frequently-used app pairs in split-screen mode.
Along with the Taskbar, One UI 4.1.1 brings a new two-finger gesture to help you quickly switch between full-screen and split-screen views, a new option to set custom call backgrounds for contacts, and optimizations for the My Files and Samsung Internet apps. Furthermore, the update includes tweaks for the ability to take selfies using the cover screen, better camera controls on the Galaxy Z Flip 3’s Cover Screen, and access to additional Quick Setting options.
One UI 4.1.1 for the Galaxy Z Flip series also includes a Direct Dial feature that lets you quickly call your favorite contacts and dial back missed calls. It also brings the ability to reply to messages with voice-to-text or emoji.
Have you received One UI 4.1.1 based on Android 12L on your Galaxy Z Fold 3 or Galaxy Z Flip 3? What’s your favorite new feature? Let us know in the comments section below.
The factory reset option on Android phones comes in handy in various circumstances. You can use it to clear all your data from your device before selling it off or if you want to set up your device from scratch. Factory resetting deletes everything from your device and restores the software to factory settings, just like it was when you first pulled it out of the box. If you’re considering giving your OnePlus 10T the same treatment, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ve outlined the steps you need to follow to factory reset the OnePlus 10T.
Before you factory reset your OnePlus 10T, ensure you’ve backed up all your data. As mentioned previously, factory resetting deletes everything from your device, including saved accounts, apps and app data, music, images, videos, documents, settings, etc. So it’s important for you to take a backup of your data before wiping your device. If you’re not sure how to do that, check out our in-depth guide on how to back up an Android phone. Once you’ve backed up your data, follow the steps provided below to factory reset your OnePlus 10T.
Here’s how you can factory reset your OnePlus 10T
Follow these steps to factory reset your OnePlus 10T and restore it to its brand-new state.
Navigate to the device settings by swiping down on the home screen to open the notification shade and tapping on the settings cog. Alternatively, you can open the app drawer and select the Settings app to open device settings.
Scroll all the way down in the device settings and select the System settings option.
At the bottom of the System settings menu, you’ll find the Back up and reset option. Select it to open the Back up and reset menu.
Select the Reset phone option in the Back up and reset menu.
On the following page, select the Erase all data option to factory reset your OnePlus 10T.
Pick the Erase data option in the following pop-up to clear all your data and restore your device to factory settings.
Your OnePlus 10T should now automatically power off and reboot to factory settings. During the process, the phone may reboot a few times, but there’s no need to worry. Resetting your device to factory settings usually takes a few minutes, and you should be greeted with the setup wizard once it’s complete. You can now set up your OnePlus 10T as a brand-new device or restore your backed-up data.
Once again, factory resetting removes all data from your device. If you only want to clear app data and restore your device to factory settings without losing the data stored in the internal storage, choose the Reset all settings option in the Reset phone menu instead of the Erase all data option. This will reset all the device settings, including network settings. In case you only want to reset the network settings, you can pick the Reset network settings option instead.
If you’ve just bought yourself a OnePlus 10T, check out our collection of the best OnePlus 10T cases to add a layer of protection to your device. In case you’re still mulling over the purchase, you might want to check out our roundup of the best OnePlus 10T deals to save big on your purchase.
Ecosystem lock-ins aren’t always bad, but when it comes to smart homes, the landscape is messy. Currently, there are different standards, countless brands, and even platform plays like Alexa, Google Home, and HomeKit. It seems everyone wants a piece of your home, but rarely does all this tech play nicely together.
That’s why Matter, er, matters.
There are ways and means of making all your smart home tech work sort of together. You can go all in on Alexa, for example, allowing Amazon’s assistant to act as the go-between. But you can’t use something that supports Alexa with something that supports HomeKit and not Alexa. Projects like the excellent Home Assistant exist to get you some of the ways towards a cohesive smart home, but it’s not the most consumer-friendly solution.
Matter is, apparently, just around the corner and it should completely change the smart home landscape for the better. Here’s the brief rundown on the what, the why, and hopefully the when.
So what is Matter?
Currently, there are different protocols, standards, and companies doing their own thing in the smart home space without much thought to supporting others. Matter is the smart home industry’s big play to come together behind a single standard, making for better interoperability between hardware. It was formerly known as Connected Home over IP (CHIP). Matter is also designed to be open, so you can pop along to its GitHub repository and have a nose around for yourself.
Matter truly is a joint effort to unify the industry with over 170 different brands involved including the biggest names. Amazon, Google, Apple, Samsung, Philips, Huawei, and even Zigbee, are all involved in Matter. Google is one of the biggest drivers alongside Amazon, and Apple has committed to full HomeKit integration into Matter. It isn’t an entirely new protocol though, instead focusing on being a connectivity standard to make it easier for devices to communicate.
Right now you can’t directly communicate a HomeKit device with something such as an Amazon Echo. The cloud can do some of the lifting, but the idea behind Matter is that all these devices will “just work” together natively. Your HomeKit sensor could trigger your regular old Wi-Fi light bulb, for example. Or your Ring doorbell could trigger an action on your Google Nest hardware. Or that’s the plan at least. This is how Matter is described on its official website:
Matter is a unifying, IP-based connectivity protocol built on proven technologies, helping you connect to and build reliable, secure IoT ecosystems.
Products from companies supporting Matter should all operate seamlessly with each other. Until Matter actually launches we won’t see how easy (or not) it is, but the theory is sound.
Support for hardware old and new
Matter won’t just apply to new hardware, either. Some, not all, existing hardware may well be updated to support Matter. Amazon, for example, will be updating the latest Echo devices. Likewise, Google’s Nest products will support Matter, too, going right back to the original Google Home speaker. Samsung has also committed support to its SmartThings ecosystem. Likewise, you would expect a good outlook for current HomeKit devices.
Because Matter is being developed as an IP-based connectivity standard, there is more scope to backport it to existing hardware. In theory, if a smart home device can connect to a wireless network it could be compatible with Matter.
You shouldn’t presume that all your existing hardware will be updated to support Matter, but there’s also a good chance it might.
How will Matter work?
Initially, Matter will use Wi-Fi and the Thread protocol to connect between devices. Thread is a low-power wireless protocol that creates a mesh network and allows devices to talk to each other. It’s already in use in some of the most popular products out there, including the HomePod Mini and the Google Nest Hub Max. To you, it won’t really matter, you shouldn’t see any difference in the end result. But it shows how Matter is embracing already established technology to make everything work a little easier.
Bluetooth Low Energy will also be a part of Matter to help with commissioning. Future plans seem to include making Matter and Zigbee talk to each other as well, with the Zigbee Alliance already involved in the cooperation. Zigbee isn’t an IP-based protocol, so there’s work to be done on making it talk to Matter.
Why should Matter matter to you?
From a consumer perspective, we’ve seen glimpses of how setting up Matter-enabled devices could be getting improved. Google’s Fast Pair feature in Android is set to be updated to add support for Matter. It looks like a HomeKit-esque setup process could be in order, where simply scanning the QR code on your smart home device will initiate a swift setup process.
Existing voice assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant will still be a hands-free way to interact with Matter devices. Apple is also completely rebuilding its Home app for Mac and iOS, with Matter support to be a part of that once the standard has officially launched. All-in-all, this will vastly simplify the process of building and maintaining a smart home, with consumers no longer needing to be bogged down by compatibility issues between their devices, in an ideal world.
When will Matter be available?
The $64,000 dollar question. Right now everyone is told to expect Matter in the latter portion of 2022. Beyond that, there is nothing much to go on. Once it gets the go-ahead you can expect to see a slew of new products, alongside updates for existing ones.
The good news is that you don’t really need to wait. Assuming you buy from a company committed to supporting Matter you can get going at any time and everything should fall into place after launch.
The Dynabook Portége X40L-K is a high-end business laptop that isn’t trying to do anything too fancy, and instead, it focuses on nailing the basics. To that extent, it does its job. It’s a super light laptop that offers almost everything you really need for a good experience. I really like a lot about this laptop. It has a nice display, the keyboard is phenomenal, and it manages to look good while still being subdued and professional. Even the speakers are really loud and great for media consumption or calls.
There are some downsides, and I’d say the biggest of them is that it still has a 720p webcam – a decision I can’t really get behind in 2022. I also wish the touchpad was a bit better, but on the whole, this is a really solid experience. The base price is also not too bad compared to other business laptops, so I’d say it’s certainly worth checking out.
Dynabook provided the Portégé X40L-K for the purposes of this review. However, the company didn’t have any input in its content or provide any sort of compensation for its production.
The Dynabook Portégé X40L-K is available at Amazon or directly from Dynabook and its partner resellers
Pricing officially starts at $1799.99, but this configuration is priced at $2,219.99
Dynabook first announced the Portégé X40L-K in March, and it launched a few months later with prices starting at $1,799.99 with an Intel Core i5-1250P processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. That price also includes three years of warranty with On-site support, which comes standard with most Dynabook laptops.
Pre-built configurations of the laptop can be found at Amazon or on Dynabook’s website, and you should also be able to get specific configurations built to order.
Dynabook Portégé X40L-K: Specs
CPU
Intel Core i7-1270P vPro (28W, 12 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.8GHz, 18MB cache)
Graphics
Integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics (96 EUs)
Display
14-inch IPS, WUXGA (1920 x 1200), 161 DPI, up to 400 nits, EyeSafe
Dimensions
312.4 x 224 x 15.9 mm (12.3 x 8.8 x 0.63 in)
1.05 kg (2.31 lbs)
Memory
16GB LPDDR5
Storage
512GB NVMe PCIe 4 SSD
Battery
65Wh battery
Ports
2 x Thunderbolt 4/USB4 Type-C ports (40Gbps)
2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (one supporting Sleep & Charge)
1 x HDMI
1 x RJ45 Ethernet
1 x microSD card reader
3.5mm headphone jack
Audio
Quad speakers with Dolby Atmos
Dual 360-degree microphones
Connectivity
Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211
Bluetooth 5.2
Camera
720p webcam with privacy shutter
Color
Tech Blue Metallic
Material
Magnesium Alloy
OS
Windows 11 Pro
Price
$2,219.99
Design: It’s super light and it looks great
The Dynabook Portégé X40L-K comes in a dark blue color that’s subdued, but unique enough to stand out
It uses a magnesium chassis that’s very light, making it easy to carry around
Business laptops always have a tendency to look a little bit boring, and in my past experience, Dynabook didn’t do a whole lot to change that perception. Thankfully, with this model, things are a bit different. The Dynabook Portégé X40L-K comes in “Tech Blue Metallic”, which is to say it’s dark blue. It’s light enough that you won’t really be confused and think it’s black, but it’s dark enough for it to still be a great fit in an office environment and not get any weird looks.
Honestly, I think it looks great. It’s not exciting, but I appreciate little changes that help a laptop feel more unique. There’s a bit of sparkle to the surface when bright lights shine on it, too, which adds a bit of extra flair, but you wouldn’t notice it unless you look closely and you have a very bright light source. When you’re indoors, it’s not flashy at all.
Magnesium is very light, but it can feel cheap.
Another thing that’s great about this design is just how light it is, at 2.3lbs. It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a laptop this light, and it’s great to have something you can pick up so easily and take anywhere. That’s all thanks to the magnesium chassis, which is a very interesting material because it can offer the same durability as aluminum while being much thinner.
It comes with a downside, though, and that’s how it feels. While the build quality of the Dynabook Portégé X40L-K is good and it feels solid, aluminum just gives you that reassuring feeling of heft and sturdiness that’s really hard to match with magnesium. It’s a very superficial thing – this laptop still meets MIL-STD-810H standards for durability – but for some people, it also matters how a laptop feels. Personally, I’d rather have the added portability, but that may not be the case for everyone. There’s a reason why Apple refuses to stop using aluminum for the MacBook Air.
As for ports, you get quite a lot here for such a thin and light chassis. On the left side, there are two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one USB Type-A port, and HDMI. On the left, you get another USB Type-A port, RJ45 Ethernet, and a headphone jack, plus a microSD card reader, too. It’s hard to imagine a more complete setup than this, though I sort of wish there was a Thunderbolt port on each side.
Display and sound: The screen is sharp enough, and the speakers are loud
The Dynabook Portégé X40L-K has a WUXGA display, which is sarp enough and doesn’t use a lot of power
The quad-speaker system can pack a punch for media consumption
Dynabook has always been strangely conservative with its laptop displays. Even today, some of its laptops start with 1366 x 768 resolution, and you won’t find anything sharper than Full HD, or in this case, WUXGA, which is essentially the same as Full HD but with a 16:10 aspect ratio. This is totally fine, though, and it seems like Dynabook is really focused on just delivering a solid experience without overly fancy configurations, which is totally respectable.
A benefit of sticking with this resolution is that this panel doesn’t eat up the battery very quickly, which is especially beneficial when you use Intel P-series processors. We’ll get to battery life later, though.
This is an IPS panel and it goes up to 400 nits of brightness (officially), which is honestly very good. Outdoor visibility isn’t a problem at all, and indoors, I’ve mostly been comfortable with it sitting below 20% brightness, even during the day. As you can see below, the display is fairly consistent at different levels of brightness, and it can actually go a bit higher than the advertised 400 nits.
As for colors, I found this screen to work very well. Colors looked great, though I noticed the display looks a little cooler than some other laptops I have on me. On to more technical measurements, it covers 97% of the sRGB color space, so it’s certainly good for the kind of work this laptop is meant for. Other color spectrums aren’t as impressive, but this laptop really isn’t meant for creative work, so it’s not a big deal.
What I really like about this laptop is the quad-speaker setup, which I didn’t really expect from a business laptop. This is only a 14-inch laptop, but there are still top-firing speakers (two fire upwards, two fire downwards), and they get really loud. They still sound great at max volume, with no significant amount of distortion as far as I can tell. Voices still sound very clear and crisp.
Keyboard and touchpad: Typing is extremely comfortable
The keyboard on the Dynabook Portégé X40L-K feels great to type on
It has a large touchpad, but the surface is a little grippy
One of my favorite things about the Dynabook Portégé X40L-K is the keyboard. I’ve used some good laptop keyboards, with the recent Lenovo ThinkBook 13s being one of my favorites, but I think I might actually prefer this one. The keys have a nice and comfortable amount of travel, and they don’t feel harsh when they bottom out. It feels like it requires a bit more actuation force than other laptops, but I actually prefer that. It feels great to type on this keyboard, and it’s definitely one of the best I’ve ever used. On a side note, the power button is an odd exception to this – it feels mushy and kind of difficult to press, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen something like it.
Even with the somewhat cramped 14-inch size and already having speaker grills on the sides on the keyboard, Dynabook also managed to stick a few extra keys in here that I haven’t seen in a lot of laptops recently. The arrow keys have an inverted T layout instead of the typical setup where both vertical keys are sandwiched between left and right arrows, and you get dedicated keys for Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End. I use these somewhat often, and most laptops require me to press the Fn key along with one of the arrow keys, but not here. These are small things, but the fact that Dynabook still decided to include them make them all the more special.
Below the keyboard, there’s a very large trackpad, and again, I have to commend the great use of space by Dynabook with this laptop. It’s about as tall as it could reasonably be, and it’s great to have a large area for my fingers to move around.
It would have been even better if it felt a bit nicer to use, though. The surface of this touchpad is strangely grippy, so my fingers don’t glide around very smoothly, and that really hampers the experience. After a couple of weeks of use, I think skin moisture has helped smoothen it a bit, so maybe it’s something that actually gets better the more you use it. My impression has definitely become a bit more positive over time.
Performance: What we’ve come to expect from Intel’s P series
This model is powered by an Intel Core i7-1270P processor and 16GB of RAM, so performance is great
Intel’s P-series processors continue to take a toll on battery life
As you’d probably expect for a top-tier business laptop, performance is pretty great on this machine. It’s powered by an Intel Core i7-1270P processor, which means it has a 28W TDP, and it comes with 12 cores and 16 threads, and the P cores can boost up to 4.8GHz. That gets you plenty of performance for all kinds of work-related tasks, and having 16GB of RAM to back that up also helps, though it’s worth noting that RAM is soldered onto the motherboard, so you can’t upgrade it. I’ve never really wished for faster performance with this machine. You can see how it compares to similar machines below.
You also get integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, so it can handle some lighter GPU workloads, including some light gaming if that’s something you’re interested in. This isn’t a big upgrade from the previous generation, though.
Battery life isn't great, but it could be worse.
The problem with these processors, as usual, is how much heat they generate, which affects battery life and sustained performance. A lot of these laptops coming with 28W processors are upgrading from CPUs that had a 15W TDP, but they aren’t really doing enough to accommodate the increased power consumption and heat output. Performance can vary a lot with Intel P-series processors, and this laptop gets hot, so getting consistent measurements is difficult.
And for battery life, well, it’s not great, but it could be worse. In general, I’ve managed anywhere between 4 hours and 21 minutes, and roughly 6 hours and 6 minutes with the screen on. There was one time where I only got about 3 hours and 38 minutes, but that was an off-shoot, and I never got anywhere near that low again. For the most part, battery life hovered around 5 hours, and oftentimes, a bit more than that. That’s not amazing, but it’s much better than laptops like the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s or the Acer Swift 3, because those had Quad HD displays. Using a Full HD panel works out in Dynabook’s favor here, and you could actually consider taking this laptop with you to get some work done on the go. If it’s a full day of work, you’ll still need to plug in, but the bar has been set so low for me that this is still kind of good in comparison.
Should you buy the Dynabook Portégé X40L-K?
I was positively surprised at a lot of what Dynabook did with the Portégé X40L-K. It’s a very nice-looking laptop that’s also very light and easy to carry, it has a tall display perfectly suited for productivity work, and one of the best keyboards I’ve used. It even has a very loud speaker system, which I did;t expect to be a focus on a business laptop. Performance is also solid, and battery life, while not great, is a bit more tolerable than other machines I’ve reviewed.
You should buy the Dynabook Portégé X40L-K if you:
Want a lightweight laptop you can easily take with you anywhere
Spend a lot of time typing on your PC
Watch or listen to a lot of media
Want a laptop with great performance
You shouldn’t buy the Dynabook Portégé X40L-K if you:
Need all-day battery life
Use your webcam often
One of the biggest downsides with this laptop is definitely the webcam, though you can work around that if you’re ok with buying one separately. The battery life is also not amazing, but I’d say five hours is still acceptable for a lot of people, so it’s not necessarily a reason to reject it right away. Still, you can always check out the best laptops you can buy today if you want to look at some alternatives.
The Galaxy Z Flip 4 and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 are the latest additions to Samsung’s foldable lineup. The Galaxy Z Folds continue to remain the premium, flagship-grade phones in Samsung’s foldable lineup, whereas the Galaxy Z Flips have established themselves as supremely fun phones for those who are dipping their toes into the world of foldables. The $999 price tag — compared to an eye-watering $1,800 for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 — also makes them more accessible. Add some kick-ass deals on top to make it significantly easy to purchase the new flipping phone compared to a lot of other foldables on the market right now.
But that’s not to say the Galaxy Z Flip 4 isn’t expensive (unless you opt for the wonderful trade-in deals that Samsung offers during pre-orders). Standalone, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 still starts at $999 which may be affordable by foldable standards but it very much belongs to the upper echelons of smartphone pricing. The company may not have an option but to keep its prices static. A “Fan Edition” phone with a relatively affordable price tag, however, would turn more buyers into foldable lifers. Hear me out on this one!
Samsung’s “entry-device” to foldables needs to be cheaper
Samsung’s Galaxy S20 “Fan Edition” phone arrived during the unfortunate times of a global pandemic. But it was arguably the right time for a phone with differentiated features for the price people were looking to pay during a pandemic with less purchasing power. None of Samsung’s “Fan Edition” phones established themselves as one of the best phones to buy, but they offered a lot of bang for the buck. A similar approach in the foldable space might just turn the tide for Samsung and attract a lot of new customers.
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 carries a sky-high $1,800 price tag, making it one of the most expensive smartphones you can buy right now. Only those with deep pockets can afford the Galaxy Z Fold 4, an exclusivity that makes it more exciting in the smartphone space. It essentially generates a lot of buzz and attracts eyeballs toward its foldable lineup, which can then be converted into potential customers. So what Samsung is cooking behind the scenes right now seems to be perfect — use the more expensive and niche device that’s out of reach for all but the deep-pocketed consumers to spur interest and sell the exciting proposition of using a unique device to make people buy the entry-level foldable.
Getting an “entry-level device” at the hands of consumers now will potentially turn them into foldable stans who would eventually upgrade to more premium options in the lineup. Samsung is dominating the foldable space right now, and getting as many people into its ecosystem will only help it cement itself in a category that others will find difficult to break into. But this “entry device” needs to be something a bit more attainable than the Galaxy Z Flip 4, especially in markets where Chinese phone makers are delivering excellent phones at a significantly lower price.
This is why a Galaxy Z Flip FE makes more sense to enter the foldable scene with cheaper parts. A more affordable Galaxy A series foldable would mean the world to economical shoppers, but it seems too early to expect an “affordable” foldable as most OEMs are still playing catch up to Samsung’s dominance in this space. But how do you go from a $1,000 Flip to, say, a $600 or even a $700 Flip FE?
Cutting the right corners on foldables
The supply chain plays a big role in adding numbers to a price tag. You can’t make a cheaper phone if the parts that go into making that phone aren’t cheaper themselves. If you know anything about supply chains then you probably already know that the parts can’t get cheaper until they’re made at scale. Samsung is selling more foldables than it used to but they definitely don’t sell nearly as many foldables as, say, a normal Galaxy S series flagship. That’s one of the reasons why it can’t cut down the price of its existing foldables.
Samsung can, however, build a new foldable by cutting the right corners. It’s one of those things that is easier said than done, but I’d only rely on a big player like Samsung to get the job done. A lot of Android OEMs lead by example when it comes to making quality phones without demanding a lot of money. This includes almost all the Chinese smartphone manufacturers with a laundry list of phones capable of delivering an incredible experience for a fraction of the price. Samsung itself makes a lot of great phones that don’t cost you an arm and a leg, so it’s no stranger to cutting corners when the product demands for it.
Reuse old smartphone chips
Judging by what Samsung has managed to achieve with its “Fan Edition” phones, they don’t necessarily have to compromise with the chipset. All the “Fan Edition” phones in the past drew power from the same chipset used in their flagship counterpart. That being said, there’s no shortage of reliable chipsets in 2022. Older chipsets may not get the same attention as the new Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 or the latest Exynos processors, but there’s still plenty of value to be found in those chips.
Older chipsets may not get the same attention as the new ones do, but there's still plenty of value to be found in those chips.
A Snapdragon 778G or the slightly altered version of it powering the Nothing Phone 1 is a great example to consider. Qualcomm has also repurposed many of its older chips in the past. The Snapdragon 870 SoC, for instance, is really just a better-optimized version of the Snapdragon 865 SoC. Many of these chips are at the forefront, powering some solid devices in the Android space in 2022. Samsung can also turn to some of its older Exynos chipsets to clear its inventory, something which we’ve already seen a lot of manufacturers do.
Cheaper build materials
The rumors about Samsung making a cheaper foldable can be dated back to 2020 when the company was said to be working on a Galaxy Fold Lite. It was said to have a non-UTG folding display, which costs less. This cheaper foldable never became a reality but Samsung can always use cheaper materials for the other parts of its phone. The Galaxy S20 FE’s plastic back with the matte finish mimicked the look and feel of premium devices, and the same playbook can be applied here too.
The Galaxy S21 is also an excellent phone to mention here which I think looks just as good as its siblings with a glass back. There’s also the Pixel 6a which easily ranks among the best-looking phones of 2022 in my books. There are so many other phones I can think of with a plastic back that looks more expensive than what their price tag may suggest.
Ditch the less important features
Ditching the less important features like wireless charging to cut down the price is a textbook move that Samsung has used in the past. It’s a trade-off that I think a lot of users would be willing to take in exchange for more important features. Samsung hasn’t made any strides in the battery department, so it’s not like they have some huge expectations to meet, especially on a cheaper phone. In fact, I don’t mind going back to the 15W charging speeds of the Galaxy Z Flip 3 if I don’t have to spend that much money. It’ll become an easier pill to swallow in the case of a relatively cheaper phone.
While this doesn’t look like an exhaustive list of changes to make to the existing foldables to make them more affordable, it’s enough for Samsung to set things in motion. The truth is — Samsung doesn’t really have to put a lot of effort to make a great affordable foldable. They already have some solid budget phones and affordable flagships, and it’s only a matter of time till we see something similar in the foldable space. Perhaps global competition in the foldable space is what they need to make some moves. Not only will it allow Samsung to acquire a bigger piece of the pie, but it might just help generate more demand and make more expensive parts for the foldables at scale.
Honor has been making a bit of a resurgence in recent times, launching the flagship Honor Magic 4 Pro in the west back in May. That came after the company’s first solo western venture in the form of the Honor 50, which was a mid-range phone with not a lot else to offer. The Honor 70 is now available in the west, having launched in China a few months back. It packs a Snapdragon 778G Plus, a 120Hz AMOLED screen, and a 54MP Sony IMX800 primary camera, meaning that it’s certainly no slouch. There’s a kicker though — this phone comes in at €549.
The Honor 70 is a really good phone that I think anyone can love, but the problem is that there are so many other options available for less. The company’s Magic UI is pretty polarising, and the rest of the hardware, while good, isn’t revolutionary, The Snapdragon 778G Plus is a great performer, but it’s roughly on par with a Dimensity 1300 or even Tensor if you want to go the Pixel 6a route.
Is the Honor 70 worth buying? To be honest, probably not. It costs a lot of money, and you don’t get much bang for your buck. €549 is a tall asking price for a smartphone that has a worse camera experience than the Google Pixel 6a, a chipset on par with it, and a worse software experience. The only thing the Honor 70 has up its sleeves is the display, and if that’s something that draws you in, then you should probably just get something like the Nothing Phone 1 instead as it has basically the same specs for less. Unless you really love Honor or want some of the talked-about video features, the Honor 70 doesn’t have a great value proposition.
About this review: I received the Honor 70 for review from the company on the 9th of August, 2022. While the company provided us a unit for review, it had no input into the contents of this review.
Honor 70: Design
The Honor 70 is quite similar in design to the Honor 50 and is also quite reminiscent of some Huawei devices like the Huwaei P50 Pro. Obviously, an element of that goes out to the fact that it’s clear that Honor was beginning to work on these designs when it was a part of Huawei, but it only tends to give naysayers of the company more ammo in accusing it of making use of Huawei’s resources.
It's a pretty beautiful phone
However, it’s a pretty beautiful phone, feeling light in the hand and showing a more “striped” design on the back when the light hits it in a certain way. It looks good, feels good, and I think that it’s still a unique enough design that differentiates itself from the rest of the market. The two camera circles house the “Super Sensing” IMX 800 camera, along with the 50MP ultra-wide and the 2MP depth camera.
In the display, the Honor 70 doesn’t really do anything super special. It’s curved on each side, and the front-facing camera is a hole in the center of the status bar. It’s a 120Hz AMOLED panel that supports HDR10+, making it pretty good for content consumption. It’s a pretty standard display in that it’s just a glass slab, though it has some pretty good specs that make it one of the most high-end aspects of this smartphone. It’s only full HD, which is one of the biggest sticking points.
However, an even bigger sticking point is the single-firing speaker at the bottom of the phone. I would’ve thought that dual speakers would make sense, especially with the inclusion of an HDR10+ display. That isn’t the case, and in fact, the single-firing speaker isn’t all that high-quality either. It’s a mid-range phone, sure, but I thought that the company was clearly poising this device to be more for media consumption.
The build quality of the phone is nice (even if it is plastic) and the haptics are good. Overall, it’s a nice phone with a good design, but I’m a bit confused as to what the philosophy behind its creation is.
Honor 70: Camera
The Honor 70’s camera is touted as special thanks to the IMX800 that’s included, but to be honest, we’re well past the point of sensors being the most important part of a smartphone photography experience. Smartphones like the Google Pixel 6a can still punch above their weight thanks to the incredible software processing algorithms that are employed, and while a new sensor helps in some aspects, you can use a new sensor and still have terrible photos.
I was greatly impressed with the pictures that I got
With that in mind, it’s important to approach the Honor 70 for what it is: a mid-range smartphone with a flagship sensor. I expected to have poor results, but I was greatly impressed with what I got. Honor did an excellent job with its HDR in particular, and I was surprised with what this phone is capable of. If you want a mid-range phone that’s capable of taking great shots, then this is certainly one of them. The phone may falter in other aspects (or may simply be okay), but this is where it really shines comparatively.
To be clear, the photos shown below are compressed. If you want to see the full uncompressed images, be sure to check out the Flickr album at the bottom of this section.
This first photo was taken at the Gorillaz concert in the 3Arena in Dublin. It does a great job at balancing the bright parts of the image with the dark, without overexposing any particular part of the image. I was impressed by this, as I know a lot of similar mid-range phones would struggle in this instance.
This is one of the most impressive pictures that I took, and it’s because of how the phone handles the reflections off of the building. It has just the right amount of sharpness and contrast without making the photo look unnatural. I expected the phone to struggle, but it did a pretty good job here.
I expected the Honor 70 to struggle with this photo too, and I’m impressed that it didn’t. The sun visible atop the building was actually filling the phone’s viewfinder entirely, and I couldn’t see a lot of the detail captured here until I actually took the photo. The bird in the sky is perfectly shown too, with the photo balancing the brightness from the sun very well with the darkness and shadows in the lower part of the image.
Overall, this phone did a fantastic job. I also tested with a short recording from the concert, and the audio quality is excellent for those who may want to record in loud venues.
Honor’s “Solo Cut” video mode is an important feature of the Honor 70, and it will let you pick out a person in a crowd. You select your subject, and it’ll show the person in an extra cut on the right-hand side, even if they’re in a group of people.
I’m really surprised by the camera here. It’s not the best phone camera that I’ve ever used, but it does a lot better of a job (particularly in HDR) than I expected from a mid-range smartphone. If you want a phone that takes decent photos, then this is a pretty strong contender in its price category. I’m not sure I’d call it a flagship camera, but it’s pretty close.
Honor 70: Performance
The Honor 70 packs a Snapdragon 778G Plus, and to be honest, it’s pretty good. It’s powerful, it’s fast, and I’m impressed by this particular chipset. It’s obviously not a flagship chipset, but that’s not what most people need anyway. For what it’s worth too, this phone feels more fluid than the flagship Honor Magic 4 Pro did, though I demonstrated that Honor was heavily restricting the performance of that smartphone. I don’t have any fluidity issues when it comes to opening the camera or using the launcher, unlike last time.
As for tests and benchmarks, this phone is obviously very powerful. It’s not flagship level, but it’s performant enough (and funnily enough, looks close to being on par with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the Honor Magic 4 Pro) that you won’t notice most of the time that it lacks in flagship performance. The most evident form of that will be when gaming, as the GPU is what will really take a hit. We also tried to run our jank tests, but the app would crash when trying to export the results. Because of that, we can’t scientifically deduce how smooth (or laggy) the phone is, but I will say that it feels fluid in normal usage, and nothing has particularly made it feel like I’m using a mid-range smartphone.
You'll not have any issues whatsoever with using this phone for your normal day-to-day activities
As you can see from the benchmarks above, the phone does a pretty good job both in thermals and in general processing power. It does a great job at pretty much any normal workload you can throw at it and is definitely an argument for not everyone needing a full-on flagship phone. The Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 is a surplus to requirements for most people, and this phone pretty much proves it. You’ll not have any issues whatsoever with using this phone for your normal day-to-day activities.
However, when it comes to gaming, this is absolutely not the chipset that you should use. The Adreno 642L GPU struggles with some pretty basic workloads, and you won’t be getting into any hardcore gaming on this phone as a result. It struggles to run Genshin Impact on the lowest settings at times, so that gives you an idea of the kind of power (or lack thereof) that this phone has in that department.
Battery life and Charging
The battery life of the phone is good though, and it can deal with a whole lot. The Snapdragon 778G Plus is a pretty efficient chipset, and the phone doesn’t heat up a whole lot when using it. I’ve had really good battery life considering what I’ve been putting this phone through, including a litany of tests and other heavy usages. With a ton of CPU Throttling Tests to run down the battery, I still got nearly five hours of screen on time. You can expect this phone to last you all day, and as a daily driver, that’s exactly what it did for me.
As for charging, the 66W charging is pretty fast and aims to get the phone up to 60% in just 20 minutes. That’s really quick, and given the efficiency of the phone as well, it’ll last you a long time if you need to charge your phone in a pinch. With leaving the screen on though, I noticed that it charges nowhere near as quickly. To make use of that 66W charging, it seems that you can’t be using your phone at the same time.
Should you buy the Honor 70?
The Honor 70 is merely just a mid-range phone with some additional extras, and that means it’s not a particularly unique or special smartphone. It does a good job at pretty much everything, but there are phones that are a whole lot better than it at various different tasks. Want a good camera? Get a Pixel 6a. Want cleaner software (though with a bit of an unproven track record)? Then the Nothing Phone 1 might be worth it. Then there’s obviously the likes of the OnePlus Nord 2T and the litany of options from Poco and other device manufacturers, and you end up in a situation where the Honor 70 just seems overpriced.
There’s not a whole lot more to really add, to be honest. The phone is a good one, but it costs a lot for what you get. Why spend so much on a phone that’s only a little bit better than some phones that cost 20% less? If this phone ever goes on sale, I’d consider it then, but otherwise, the other phones that it competes against are already available for a lot lower price. Google services and the echos of a Huawei-driven smartphone aren’t enough to coast off of when commanding a premium price — there needs to be more. Honor does well with what it has, but to charge a price that much higher than the rest of the space, it needs to do more.
As a result, I love the Honor 70, but it’s hard to justify its price. If it goes on sale, then it’s hard to pass up on it. However, there are so many good options that simply cost less, that it’s hard to argue that this is the phone you should get instead.
There’s going to come a time when you’re going to need to reset your Google Pixel 6a. It could be to start fresh, or you might just want to sell it to a friend who doesn’t want to purchase a new Pixel 6a through a deal. Whatever the reason, a factory reset will wipe out all of the data on the phone. This not only includes personal information like pictures and memos but also system settings. Since this will delete everything, you will want to back up your data to an external source, whether on a computer or cloud storage. If you’re unsure how to back up your information, you can check out our guide on how to backup an Android device. With that said, let’s go ahead and walk through the steps of factory resetting your Google Pixel 6a.
The first order of business is getting into your settings menu. You’ll swipe from the top edge of the screen and make sure to pull down twice, as this will expose the settings icon which looks like a cog on the right-hand side. If you’re having trouble finding it, you can see icon is located above the XDA logo in the image above.
Once you are in the settings menu, you need to scroll to the bottom. You will head into the System menu, which again is highlighted by the XDA logo on the image to the right.
Once you are in the System menu, you will want to select the Reset Options menu, then head all the way to the bottom to Erase all data (factory reset). Don’t be afraid to move forward, as you will be prompted a couple more times before your Pixel 6a’s information is actually deleted.
These will be the final two screens that you will see before you erase all of your data. As a last precaution, you’ll want to double-check to make sure that your data has been backed up to an external source. This includes photos, music, videos, and other forms of personal information. If you have a PIN number you will be required to enter it before you tap Erase all data. Once you hit the last button, the phone should reset and you’ll be on the first screen of the setup menu.
The Google Pixel 6a is a very capable device with a flagship SoC and the Pixel experience. It presents itself as one of the top recommendations in the mid-range in the USA.
