The ability to wirelessly cast a smartphone’s screen to other devices like a TV isn’t that difficult of an endeavor these days. In fact, when it comes to casting a YouTube video from your phone or tablet to your Smart TV, the little icon takes care of everything — from device discovery to seamless context switching. But in case you’re a command-line lover, you might want to see behind the curtain and take control of the whole casting routine through CLI. This is exactly what Marco Lucidi did and came up with a handy tool called ytcast.
What is ytcast?
Marco, a self-described twenty-something years old computer science enthusiast, who goes by the alias MarcoLucidi01 on GitHub, has coded the ytcast utility as a standalone replacement of the cast button. According to the developer, anyone can use the program to replicate the functionality of the “Play on TV” button right from the command-line interface. It is written in Go and you can run it on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
How ytcast works
Under the hood, ytcast uses the DIAL (DIscovery And Launch) protocol developed by Netflix and Google to handle the device discovery and app launching events. For targets that no longer use the DIAL protocol (e.g. Chromecast), the program also offers a manual pairing option powered by the “link with code” functionality of the YouTube on TV app. Next comes the screen identification part, for which the developer relied on the reverse-engineered YouTube Lounge API. Finally, it passes the video URL from the source device to the target screen.
Limitations
Since the project is in its infancy, there are a couple of shortcomings. The session handling is sometimes a hit or miss, especially due to the usage of undocumented APIs. The developer has yet to find a reliable way to pass YouTube playlist URLs through ytcast, but there’s a workaround that involves the youtube-dl executable. Last but not least, you may not find ytcast under the Settings > Linked devices menu.
Needless to say, the ytcast project is incredibly useful for power users. There’s a ton of potential, and we have to remember that it is clearly a beta quality software at this point. Once it reaches the stable milestone, it might be the best casting option for anyone who’s into scripting and automation.
Download ytcast
You can get started with ytcast by visiting the project’s GitHub repository. There are pre-compiled binaries hosted under the “Releases” section. Be sure to provide some feedback to help Marco perfect this program.
Generally speaking, even the flagship smartphone market is filled with compromises. If you want to pick up one of the best smartphones in the business, typically you’re going to end up foregoing something that another user may have felt was a dealbreaker. For some people, it’s the lack of a headphone jack, for some gamers, it’s the lack of game-related design choices, and for some enthusiasts, it’s compromises made in the performance. What if I told you that the RedMagic 7 is the ultimate smartphone and cuts virtually no corners?
For context, RedMagic is a gaming-oriented smartphone brand that aims to make the best gaming phones on the market, and the RedMagic 7 is the next iteration of that with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 powering the entire setup. It packs a built-in fan, shoulder triggers that can be mapped to the screen, and it even has a headphone jack atop the massive 6.8-inch 165Hz screen.
This phone really does seemingly have everything, but what’s the catch? Well as is typically the case with RedMagic phones, it’s a combination of software quality and software updates. If you don’t care about either of those things though (and it’s difficult to really get past the frustration at times), then honestly, I don’t really think there’s much of a catch at all. There’s also the lack of a physical retail distribution setup in most major markets of the world, but you should be able to buy the phone from the online store and have it shipped globally.
About this review: I received the RedMagic 7 for review from the company on the 26th of January, 2022. RedMagic did not have any inputs into the contents of this review.
RedMagic 7: Display
Big and bright AMOLED display
165Hz refresh rate
No notch, no punch holes
The RedMagic 7 features a full HD 165Hz 6.8-inch AMOLED panel, and it is huge. It’s completely unimpeded by a notch or punch hole, and it gets plenty bright. It’s fantastic for gaming or media consumption thanks to its size and the fact that nothing encroaches on the display, but it’s really hard to convey just how big it is. It makes total sense for a gaming phone though.
The RedMagic 7 is fantastic for gaming or media consumption thanks to its size and the fact that nothing encroaches on the display
As for the display quality itself, this is my first time ever experiencing 165Hz, and the difference over even a 144Hz display is slightly noticeable. There is definitely an element of diminishing returns as you increase in refresh rates, but 165Hz is great in its own right. There are also multiple options to choose from as you can choose 165Hz, 120Hz, 90Hz, or 60Hz, in order to decrease power consumption.
The display is surrounded by minimal bezel, with a small amount of space for the selfie camera and a small amount of space at the bottom of the display. It’s a completely flat panel, too, and comes with a pre-applied screen protector.
RedMagic 7: Design
Headphone jack
Shoulder triggers
Built-in fan
The RedMagic 7 packs basically everything you could want in a gaming smartphone. There’s a headphone jack at the top, shoulder-triggers at the top and bottom of the right-hand side, and a slider on the top left that enters your phone into gaming mode. The back features a very RGB-heavy faux-transparent design, while also displaying multiple pieces of marketing information.
I'm a big fan of the RedMagic 7's design
I’m a big fan of the RedMagic 7’s design, but I can definitely understand that it’s a polarising one. The three cameras are in line with the curved back of the phone so as to not stand out which is a plus, and the phone doesn’t really rock on a table.
The one issue that I had with this phone’s design is that the fan intake on the back of the phone can still be blocked if the phone is down on a table. It’s admittedly unlikely you’d be playing games while not holding your phone upright, though. The presence of the fan also means that the phone is not IP rated for water or dust resistance, which can be a dealbreaker for people considering several smartphones in the market now tout water resistance as a marketing feature.
RedMagic 7: Performance
Latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset
Great sustained performance
The Red Magic 6R packs the latest and greatest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which we would expect to see in a gaming phone. It has all the generational leaps over its predecessors and a 4nm node size for better performance without a substantial increase in power draw. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 retains the 1+3+4 configuration which Qualcomm has been running for a while, with the single Prime core being based on ARM’s new Cortex-X2.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the RedMagic 7 performs just as well as you would expect
The Kryo cores are based on the ARMv9 architecture. The first CPU designs to be announced using the new technology were the Cortex-X2, Cortex-A710, and Cortex-A510, and those are the exact CPU designs that form the basis for Qualcomm’s Kryo chips. The Cortex-A710 promises a 30% boost in efficiency and a 10% performance uplift over its predecessor, the A78. The Cortex-A710 cores are clocked at 2.5GHz. As for the three Kryo Efficiency cores, they are based on the new Cortex-A510 design. A major criticism of last year’s Efficiency cores in the Snapdragon 888 surrounded the use of the aging Cortex-A55 cores, so now we should see a nice efficiency boost this year. The Cortex-A510 boasts a 35% increase in performance over the A55, with a 20% efficiency improvement, too. These cores are clocked at 1.79GHz.
We will be analyzing the performance of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 to a greater level of detail in a future article. However, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the RedMagic 7 performs just as well as you would expect, and I’ve found its performance in gaming (including in emulation through AetherSX2 and Dolphin Emulator) to be excellent.
Benchmarks: Geekbench 5 & AndroBench
The RedMagic 7 performs well in both storage speed and in Geekbench 5. Storage speed is important for gaming as it ensures fast, consistent load times in your games, as slower storage speed will act as a bottleneck.
Sustained performance is one of the most important metrics to pay attention to when using a gaming smartphone. If the sustained performance is poor, then you’ll have greatly reduced performance after what could potentially be a short period of time. I used the CPU Throttling Test app on the Google Play Store for half an hour to test the thermal throttling on the RedMagic 7, and I was impressed by the results. I ran the test twice; one with the fan off, and one with the fan on.
Both results were pretty good, especially with the fan enabled. The only problem was that I found the phone became too hot to touch towards the end of the test. That’s not what you want from a gaming phone, and was quite alarming even when thinking of what could potentially be the long-term health of the phone’s internals, particularly the battery.
RedMagic 7: Software
Bad software
Buggy
Poor translations
Software on RedMagic devices is where they really fall down, and this is no exception. It leaves a lot to be desired in the sense that, really, it’s just a poor experience. Inaccurate or strange translations plague the operating system and make it an interesting experience at times, and a lot of the design of the operating system is also very “gamery”. Furthermore, Google Pay doesn’t work, as it fails to pass Google’s Compatibility Test Suite when running a SafetyNet check.
The software on the RedMagic 7 leaves a lot to be desired
Despite all of that, I don’t mind a lot of the UX design of RedMagic OS, and I would be a lot more comfortable with it if it wasn’t so buggy. The launcher is terrible (and I can’t find a way to set a custom launcher of my own), I often can’t actually read notifications after unlocking my phone (it says that notifications are hidden as if I were on the lock screen), and it just feels very unpolished.
The sad thing is, this is the one major compromise I have found with the RedMagic 7. I genuinely love all of the other aspects of this phone, but somehow, it’s been completely screwed up by software. I couldn’t import my contacts in the Dialer (it told me “No vCard file found in storage”), and the always-on display can’t be set to be “always-on” — you need to choose a start time and an end time, which you can set one minute apart.
The only compliment I can really pass to the software is that it’s smooth and games run well, but that’s kind of the entire point of the phone. The most work has clearly been put into the company’s game space, which can be entered by flicking a red switch at the top left.
RedMagic OS Game Space
While it’s still filled with dodgy translations (and the occasional bugs), RedMagic’s game space is a lot better of an experience than anything else with this phone. It generally makes sense with a lot of useful features and attention to detail, something that you’d really be looking for from a gaming phone.
Game Space on the RedMagic 7 is one of the best gaming modes I've seen on a smartphone
Is it perfect? No, but it’s one of the best gaming modes I’ve seen on a smartphone. It will automatically enable the fans on your phone when you enter a game, and there are loads of features to engage with and try out while you’re gaming. It’s a pretty simple process to configure the shoulder triggers too, with special care taken towards helping users with PUBG Mobile in particular.
Is the RedMagic 7 worth your money?
Software issues are the biggest problem with the RedMagic 7, and I don’t just mean what I’ve outlined above. The company has a bit of a difficult history when it comes to consistently updating its smartphones, so you should judge the phone on what it is right now as against what it could become with a software update or two. You almost certainly will get some updates, but I would also be afraid of further bugs and other problems being introduced that it isn’t possible to roll back from. In an era when companies have polished UX and promise as many as four generations of Android updates, it is a bummer to get the experience that you get on the RedMagic 7.
As a result, unless you’re a die-hard gamer, this can be a hard phone to recommend. It’s the ultimate phone hardware — in that, it packs literally everything and the kitchen sink into one robust package — but it isn’t the ultimate phone because of that minute detail that the software is a completely poor experience. If you think you can get over that and all you want is a relatively inexpensive gaming phone, then by all means, the RedMagic 7 might well be worth your money.
The RedMagic 7 will go on sale starting March 10 from Nubia’s global website. It will be available in three colors: Obsidian, Pulsar, and Supernova. The base 12GB/128GB model is priced at $629 / €629 / £529 while the 16GB/256GB variant will set you back $729 / €729 / £619. Finally, the top model with 18GB RAM and 256GB will retail at $799 / €799 / £679. Nubia says it plans to launch the RedMagic 7 Pro globally in Q2 2022. For €629, this would be a good deal if you can get past the software, but that is a fair bit to ask.
The PCI Express, or PCIe, continues to remain a crucial part of computing devices. PCIe, which stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, is one of the two main interconnects that allows you to connect various peripherals including GPUs, SSDs, capture cards, and more to your computing device. If you’ve ever built a PC before, you’ll recognize the PCIe slots running horizontally across your mainboard. If you haven’t been keeping track of PCIe advancements, then allow us to remind you that we’ve now moved to the fifth generation of PCI Express with the launch of Intel’s new Alder Lake platform. But what is PCIe 5, and how is it different from Gen 4? Also, do you really need to upgrade from PCIe Gen 4? Well, there’s a lot to unpack when it comes to PCI Express 5.0, so here’s everything you need to know about the new standard.
PCIe 5 is essentially just a new standard of the PCI Express that brings a set of advancements over the last one i.e. PCIe 4.0. PCIe Gen 5 is the next big thing for computer peripherals. You’re going to be hearing a lot of PCIe 5.0 in 2022 and beyond as Intel already has the Alder Lake platform to support it. AMD’s upcoming Ryzen 7000 series that’s said to arrive before the end of 2022 will also support PCIe 5.0. The preliminary specification of PCIe 5.0 was announced in 2017, but it was formally announced in May of 2019.
One of the main differences between each PCIe generation is speed and bandwidth. We’ve seen that with each passing generation and PCIe Gen 5 is also expected to bring massive improvements in those departments. PCIe Gen 1 kicked things off with a bandwidth of 8 GB/s and a transfer rate of 2.5 GT/s (gigatransfer per second). With PCIe 5.0, we’re looking at transfer speeds that are as high as 32 GT/s and up to 128GB/s bandwidth over an x16 configuration. This should give you an idea of how much the standard has evolved.
When it comes to PCIe 5.0 support on Intel Alder Lake, we’re looking at 64GB/s throughput across an x16 lane connection. The high-end AlderLake-S chips support an x16 PCIe 5.0 connection along with an additional x4 PCIe 4.0 connection. Another interesting problem that PCIe 5.0 is designated to solve is one of the biggest problems with the current graphics cards — power delivery. That’s right, they’ll actually be able to supply enough power for high-end graphics cards. The existing 8-pin connectors can only supply up to 150W each. That’s why you need two or sometimes even three of those connectors. The new 16-pin PCIe 5.- connector, however, will be able to deliver enough power.
The PCI-SIG states that each pin in the main block can support up to 9.2A. That adds up to 55.2A for the entire connector, with a maximum supported power load of 662.4W. And with tolerances, you end up with 600W, which is plenty. We say plenty because even the most demanding Nvidia GPU out there, the GeForce RTX 3090, tops out at 350W. We also have PCIe 5.0 supported PSU on the market now that comes with the updated 16-pin PCIe 5.0 power connector. We’re not entirely sure if the new connector will be a requirement for PCIe 5.0 graphics certification, but we hope it is because of how compact and powerful it really is.
PCIe Gen 5 vs PCIe Gen 4
PCIe Gen 4 is the current standard that’s supported by a majority of processors and motherboards out there. This is also why PCIe 4.0 devices are also readily available on the market. When it comes to speed and bandwidth, PCIe 4.0 is also quite impressive. Each generation of PCIe, as we mentioned earlier, is twice as fast, and doubles the bandwidth as the predecessor. While PCIe 3.0 had a data transfer rate of 8 gigatransfers per second, PCIe 4.0 transfers the data at 16GT/s. That changes once again with PCIe 5.0 as it now hits 32GT/s transfer speed.
The PCIe 4.0 itself is quite crazy when it comes to data rates, and it translates to some impressive speeds in real-world usage too. The best M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSDs, for instance, have transfer speeds of up to 7,000MB/s, which is incredible. And to think that PCIe 5.0 will be twice as fast over the same number of lanes is quite amazing, to say the least.
Here’s a quick look at all the generations of PCIe standards that have come out over the years:
PCIe Generations
Bandwidth
Gigatransfer
Frequency
PCIe 1.0
8GB/s
2.5GT/s
2.5GHz
PCIe 2.0
16GB/s
5GT/s
5GHz
PCIe 3.0
32GB/s
8GT/s
8GHz
PCIe 4.0
64GB/s
16GT/s
16GHz
PCIe 5.0
128GB/s
32GT/s
32GHz
Should you upgrade?
So should you really be upgrading to PCIe 5 if you are already on PCIe 4.0? Well, there are many use cases in which the PCIe 5.0 standard may prove to be extremely useful. Even if a particular device doesn’t need any more speed benefits, it can still hugely benefit from having to use fewer lanes, or simply having more bandwidth. This is true for a lot of both consumers as well as professional use cases. That being said, we don’t think the arrival of PCIe 5.0 is going to render your PCIe 4.0 peripherals useless.
We say that because PCIe 3.0 peripherals are still alive and kicking. In fact, we think a lot of the PCIe 3.0 peripherals will be thriving for at least of couple years. So it’s safe to say that there will be no immediate requirement to upgrade to PCIe 5.0 unless you want to experience the best, of course. Even the most powerful graphics card out there, the GeForce RTX 3090, only manages to saturate a PCIe 4 x16 connection. We’ll definitely be seeing some compatible GPUs and blazing fast SSDs but they’ll be available in limited quantities and will also be quite expensive.
Outside of the consumer space, however, PCIe Gen 5 will have some major advantages. We expect the new standard to be an important part of the data centers. They’ll play a huge role in enabling high-speed networking for communication. PCIe 5 x16 link can easily handle a 400GbE networking connection, which will be a huge transition for many.
PCIe Gen 5 Release Date
PCI Express 5 standard, as we mentioned earlier, has already been released. The specifications for PCIe Gen 5 were officially announced back in 2019. As for the compatible peripherals, they’re expected to hit the shelves later this year. As of now, only Intel’s new Alder Lake CPUs and compatible motherboards have PCIe 5.0 support. AMD’s upcoming 7000 series processors will also bring PCIe 5.0 support later this year and that’s when we expect more consumer-grade PCIe Gen 5 peripherals to hit the market.
PCI-SIG, a general body that defines PCIe standards, expects PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 standards to co-exist for a couple of years. This is similar to how PCIe 3.0 continues to remain relevant even after the arrival of PCIe 4.0 peripherals on the market.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is PCI Express?
PCI Express is essentially an interface that connects high-speed components to a computing device. Every motherboard has a couple of PCIe slots that are used to connect PCIe peripherals like GPU, SSD, capture card, etc.
What are the different PCIe slot configurations?
PCIe slots come in different configurations — x1, x4, x8, x16, x32. The number after the “x” tells you how many lanes that PCIe slot has. A PCIe x4 slot, for instance, has 4 lanes and can move data at four bits per cycle.
Can I insert an old PCIe 4.0 compatible peripheral into a Gen 5 slot?
Yes, PCIe 5 slots are backward compatible which means you can insert older generation peripherals into the new slot.
What is the maximum bandwidth of PCIe 5.0?
We’re looking at a maximum bandwidth of 128GB/s with 32 GT/s of gigatransfer speeds.
Suggested Reading Links
In case you are interested in exploring PCIe 5.0 and learn more about the standard and its peripherals, then we recommend checking out our coverage around the standard by checking out the links below:
PCIe 5.0, as you can tell, is still in its infancy. While Intel’s Alder Lake platform supports this new standard and its peripherals, we think there’s still some time before we see the new peripherals on the market. They’re expected to show up just in time for the arrival of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series chips, although it goes without saying that PCIe 5.0 peripherals will be quit expensive. We think most consumers looking to dish out even a high-end enthusiast PC will be better off sticking to Gen 4 products until the new products hit the mainstream market.
That being said, we’ll continue to update this page with more PCIe Gen 5 information as they become available. We’ll also add some compatible PCIe 5.0 peripherals here, so be sure to keep an eye. In the meantime if you are looking to build a new PC, then be sure to check out our collection of the best CPUs, and best motherboards to keep a track on PCIe 5.0 compatoble processors and motherboards for your new rig.
Ever since the original Surface tablets were released back in 2012, I’ve felt like they have an Achilles’ Heel. They’re tablets that can be used as laptops, but they’re not particularly good at either. Brydge fixes that with its SP Plus keyboard.
With the Brydge SP Plus, the Surface Pro 8 fits snugly into two clamps, which have a hinge that feels much tighter than a floppy Surface Keyboard. It makes a big difference, and to use a word that was made up by Microsoft’s own Panos Panay, it’s much more lappable.
And indeed, even in its eighth generation of the product, Microsoft doesn’t do a great job of making a lappable product on its own. With all first-party products, you have to use a Surface with the built-in kickstand and the attachable keyboard. It’s not comfortable on your lap. With the Brydge SP Plus, on the other hand, there’s weight in the base, so it feels just like using a proper laptop, right up until you pull the tablet out of the clamps.
Moreover, it comes with Designed for Surface branding, meaning that Brydge actually worked with Microsoft on this.
The Brydge SP Plus is available now for $139.99, and you can get it from either Amazon or Brydge’s own website. You can get it in either Platinum or Black, just like the Surface Pro 8, so it’s up to you if you want to match or if you want a two-tone look.
While this is a Bluetooth keyboard that will technically work with any device that supports Bluetooth 5.0, it’s worth remembering that it’s designed for the Surface Pro 8 and only that. The Surface Pro X is a very similar device, and out of its three dimensions, two of them are the same, but it’s thinner. That means that the Pro X will fall out of the clamps on the SP Plus. The good news is that if you’re using a Surface Pro X, Brydge also makes a keyboard called that, aptly called the SPX Plus, which is also on Amazon.
Brydge SP Plus: Specs
Compatibility
Surface Pro 8
Size and weight
Length: 11.3 in (287.5 mm)
Width: 8.2 in (208.5 mm)
Height: 0.77 in (19.5 mm)
Weight: 1.5 lb (678 g)
Model numbers and colors
BRY70312 – Platinum
BRY70322 – Black
Backlit keys
Yes – 3 Levels
Connectivity
Bluetooth 5.0
USB-C (charging)
Battery life
6 months (@ 2hrs use per day w/no backlight use) or 40 hrs per charge (when running consistent backlight)
Rechargeable via USB-C cable
Material
Aluminum
Warranty
1-Year Limited Warranty
What’s in the box
1 x Brydge SP+ Keyboard
1 x User Manual
Price
$139.99
About this review: Brydge sent us the SP Plus for review. It did not have any input in the contents of this review.
Brydge SP Plus: What I like
The Brydge SP Plus adds a new dynamic to the Surface Pro 8 by giving it a laptop feel.
It’s backlit and it has a Microsoft Precision touchpad, so it’s an overall great experience.
The best part of the Brydge SP Plus is that it just feels like using a laptop. It opens up like a laptop, you can use it on your lap comfortably, and it’s comfortable to type on. The company also makes other keyboards for the rest of the Surface tablet lineup, as well as for Apple’s iPads. They’re all great.
It doesn’t take anything away from the tablet experience either. As you can see from the image above, the tablet just sits in a pair of clamps, and those clamps are attached to the hinge that holds the device up. The inside of those clamps are padded, so you can easily remove the tablet and use it as such. After all, if you weren’t going to remove it at all, you’d probably just have purchased a Surface Laptop, or even the more comparably-sized Surface Laptop Go.
The Brydge SP Plus fundamentally changes the form factor of the Surface Pro 8, in a good way.
Not only does it add a new dynamic to the product, but I feel like it fundamentally changes the form factor in a good way. It’s reminiscent of a Surface Book form factor, but thinner, lighter, and without dedicated graphics. You still get a full laptop form factor, with the detachable display, but without it being crazy expensive or being more powerful than you need.
In using it, I actually wonder if Brydge ever considered a single hinge in the middle instead of dual hinges on the sides. A single hinge in the middle would allow you to place the Surface Pro 8 in portrait orientation. Still, this is the general design of all of Brydge’s keyboard products.
Battery life is great too. Brydge’s metrics on this are a bit all over the place, because there’s one stat for not using the backlight and one for using it, and they’re measured differently. If the backlight is on, Brydge promises 40 hours, which is five full workdays. Without the backlight on, the company promises six months, but only at two hours a day, so that should work out to about 365 hours.
I can tell you that I did not do any battery testing with this. It’s a Bluetooth keyboard, and it always had a charge when I went to use it. And if you need a charge, there’s a USB Type-C port right on the side, so you can always top it up whenever you need to.
That’s how I look at these types of devices, that get weeks of battery life. It’s a non-issue at that point. Since you have to charge it so rarely, you might forget to, but then you can just juice it up when you need to, and you can always use it while it’s charging.
There are just a few other things that are pretty great about the Brydge SP Plus. The keyboard is backlit at three different brightness levels, which is great for a Bluetooth keyboard. It’s also got a Microsoft Precision touchpad, so it supports all of those gestures that you’re used to.
This product is officially Designed for Surface, meaning that it’s certified by Microsoft. That’s a big deal for a third-party accessory.
Brydge SP Plus: What I don’t like
There’s no method of pen storage or charging.
My biggest issue with the Brydge SP Plus is that there’s no method for pen storage. In fact, this was my issue with the Brydge SPX Plus too. In previous generations of the Surface Pro, the Surface Pen magnetically attached to the side of the tablet, and it used AAAA batteries. With the Surface Pro 8 (and the Surface Pro X) and the Slim Pen or Slim Pen 2, the pen is actually stored inside of the Surface Keyboard, where it also wirelessly charges.
Microsoft does sell a Slim Pen 2 with a separate charger. Still, you’ll have to carry it with you.
With the Brydge SP Plus, there's no place to store or charge the pen.
Another thing I’d really like to see from Brydge is a keyboard is for it to connect to the Surface’s own keyboard connectors. Sure, a Bluetooth keyboard is fine, but wired is always better than wireless. To be clear, I didn’t have any connectivity issues with this excellent product. Sometimes though, it takes a bit to connect when I first start using it. Also, if it as physically connected, you wouldn’t have to charge it.
I mentioned earlier that I thought a singular clamp in the center would make more sense than the two on the sides, because it would allow you to use the tablet vertically. With that, you’d be able to connect to the keyboard ports when it’s used horizontally too, assuming that functionality was added. Obviously, vertical orientation will always be Bluetooth.
Finally, I’m not a fan of how thick the clamps are. Laptops and tablets are generally flat, so it’s not a problem to put something else that’s flat next to them in a bag. These clamps are thick enough that it’s not really flat anymore, and it’s worth noting. I’d never put a tablet next to it with the glass facing the back of the Surface Pro 8, for obvious reasons.
Who should buy it?
I broke this review up into sections for what I like and what I don’t like because while the Brydge SP Plus is a wonderful product, it’s not for everyone.
Who should buy the Brydge SP Plus:
People who want to use the Surface Pro 8 primarily as a laptop without giving up the tablet experience
People who just want a great keyboard for the Surface Pro 8
Who should not buy the Brydge SP Plus:
Users that draw, take notes, or do anything else regularly with the Slim Pen
Like I said, the Brydge SP Plus is a great product for numerous reasons. Not only does is change the form factor of the Surface Pro 8 in a good way, but it’s also just a great keyboard. I like using it a lot more than a Surface Keyboard, and I think it’s great for most users.
Part of the struggle for our readers looking to purchase Samsung’s latest and greatest flagship device — the Galaxy S22 series — is the fact that these devices are quite difficult to tinker about, especially when it comes to avoiding tripping security flags. While Knox tends to break a lot of things if you root, users in the U.S. and Canada can’t even unlock the bootloader of the Samsung Galaxy flagships to run third-party codes in the first place. Moreover, when the OEM started killing the camera after bootloader unlocking, many of us feared the worst. Fortunately, Samsung discontinued that practice, and it seems that the owners of the Galaxy S22 series have absolutely no reason to worry about broken camera access with an unlocked bootloader as well.
For context, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 was the only device where Samsung implemented the kill switch on Android 11-based builds. The company eventually removed the obstacle during the beta testing phase of One UI 4, and the stable Android 12 update for the device doesn’t carry the camera-breaking routine. Given the fact that the Galaxy S22 comes with One UI 4.1 out of the box, the devices are theoretically immune to the draconian security measure, but a concrete confirmation is definitely preferred.
Nonetheless, solely depending on such theories is no longer necessary. XDA member pschmitt111 has now confirmed the working status of the camera after unlocking the bootloader of the Exynos variant of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (model number SM-S908B):
All cameras work fine with the stock app, including saving pictures to the disk, zooming/camera switch and night mode
This is indeed good news for the aftermarket development community. Losing Samsung’s Knox security is one thing, but having to deal with a broken camera is a trade-off that many users are unwilling to make, especially on a phone that has the camera as one of its biggest talking points. We’re not sure why Samsung felt the need to limit access to the camera features for users who unlock the bootloader at some point, but we hope the Korean OEM will not repeat the anti-modding stance in the coming days.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 is the entry flagship for 2022, bringing over top of the line performance and camera capabilities in a form that fits many pockets and budgets.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus is the mid flagship for 2022, bringing over top of the line performance, display and camera capabilities in a larger housing for those that need to do more.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the top flagship for 2022, bringing over top of the line performance, display and camera capabilities alongside S Pen capabilities to deliver an ultra experience for power users.
Android smartphone brands usually treat new releases the way Hollywood studios approach franchise sequels: put more of everything. More cameras, more RAM, more battery capacity, more pixels, etc. OPPO’s Find X series is the first flagship line I can remember that doesn’t follow this path. In fact, for a second year running, OPPO has inexplicably removed a useful cameralens that was present in the last edition.
The OPPO Find X2 Pro was one of the first phones to rock a Periscope zoom lens that could produce lossless 5x zoom, but the Find X3 Pro removed it in favor of a conventional 2x telephoto zoom lens whose zoom prowess was average at best. But OPPO compensated by adding a new microscope lens that could take some gnarly close-up macro images — shots that no phone before or since could do. Well, that micro-lens is no more in the Find X5 Pro (the line skipped a number because the number “4” can be considered bad luck in Chinese culture), replaced by … nothing. The Find X5 Pro actually has one less camera than last year’s quad-camera setup.
Thankfully, the Find X5 Pro’s main camera is really good — mostly thanks to a new self-developed imaging chip — and its ultra-wide camera is arguably the best in the business. But I would have liked to have an awesome wide and ultra-wide, plus a Periscope or microscope lens. Instead, the third camera here is still a 2x telephoto zoom, and by 2022’s standards, it’s just not impressive.
That’s a shame because the OPPO Find X5 Pro is a very polished device. It’s got a unique ceramic backplate that, along with the curvy nature of the phone, makes for a very comfortable in-hand feel — I certainly prefer holding it over the Galaxy S22 Ultra or iPhone 13 Pro. There’s also a gorgeous screen that’s among the best screens on the market, and the intuitive software in the form of ColorOS is full of useful shortcut gestures.
But I can’t help but feel the phone is missing that oomph. That best-in-class ultra-wide camera was already in the Find X3 Pro, and a new imaging chip isn’t immediately noticeable or marketable. This means the Find X5 Pro doesn’t have a new feature to grab headlines, like the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s world-beating zoom or Vivo’s gimbal camera system. Instead, the OPPO Find X5 Pro is “just” a refined, well-rounded phone that could be considered unexciting. Especially considering the original OPPO Find X was a show-stopper that stood out among the crowd at the time of release.
The OPPO Find X5 Pro is a beautiful phone with a classy ceramic body and a great screen
Pros:
Cons:
OPPO Find X5 Pro: Pricing and Availability
The OPPO Find X5 Pro is available to preorder today, with sales beginning from March 14 onwards. Prices are:
€1,299 in the EU
£1,049 in the UK
OPPO Find X5 Pro: Specifications
Specification
OPPO Find X5 Pro
Build
Ceramic frame back, aluminum chassis, Gorilla Glass Victus front
Dimensions & Weight
163.7 x 73.9 x 8.5 mm
218g
Display
6.7-inch WQHD+ OLED
Second-gen LTPO calibration: 1Hz to 120Hz
3216 x 1440
SoC
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
RAM & Storage
12GB LPDDR5 RAM
256GB UFS 3.1 storage
Battery & Charging
5,000 mAh
80W SuperVOOC wired fast charging
50W AirVOOC wireless fast charging
Reverse wireless charging support
Security
In-display fingerprint sensor
Rear Camera(s)
Primary: 50MP, Sony IMX766, f/1.7, 1/1.56-inch, 5-Axis OIS
Secondary: 50MP, Ultra-wide angle, Sony IMX766, f/2.2, 1/1.56-inch
Tertiary: 13MP, 2x telephoto, f/2.4
Front Camera(s)
32MP, Sony IMX709
Port(s)
USB Type-C 3.1
Audio
Dual Stereo Speakers
Connectivity
NFC
Bluetooth 5.2
Software
ColorOS 12.1 based on Android 12
Other Features
X-axis Linear Motor
MariSilicon X Imaging Processor
About this review: OPPO provided me with a review unit of the Find X5 Pro on Feb 14. This review was written after about ten days of using the Find X5 Pro as my main phone. OPPO did not have any input in this review.
OPPO Find X5 Pro: Hardware and Design
Unique back design in which the camera bump is covered by a single piece of ceramic
Very good in-hand feel: the entire phone feels rounded, smooth and dense
First OPPO device to run on company’s self-developed MariSilicon X imaging chip
The OPPO Find X5 Pro brings back the unique design language of the Find X3 Pro — it features a ceramic back that also covers the camera bump, so the entire backside including the camera module feels like it’s a single piece. The bump also eases into the back in a slope, instead of having an abrupt “end” the way most camera islands do. It looks odd in renders, but good in photos, and feels better in the hand. Because the ceramic back and the glass front both curve slightly at the ends to blend into the frame, this is a phone without hard corners. I certainly find the OPPO Find X5 Pro more comfortable to hold than the Galaxy S22 Ultra or iPhone 13 Pro, both with hard edges or pointy corners.
I certainly find the OPPO Find X5 Pro more comfortable to hold than the Galaxy S22 Ultra or iPhone 13 Pro
The OLED display measures 6.7-inches, with a resolution of 3216 x 1440 resolution, and is a second-gen LTPO panel meaning its refresh rate can vary between 1Hz and 120Hz at the blink of an eye. I have used the Find X5 Pro side-by-side with the Galaxy S22 Ultra for days, and other than Samsung’s flagship getting noticeably brighter, there isn’t another area in which I can say Samsung’s display is flat out “better.” The Find X5 Pro’s screen is every bit as good in terms of sharpness, color reproduction, viewing angles, and vibrancy, and that says a lot because Samsung sets a very high bar to clear.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra (left) and OPPO Find X5 Pro (right).
Inside, the Find X5 Pro is the premium flagship that you’d expect it to be — Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 5,000 mAh battery that can be charged at up to 80W speeds. Yes, the charging brick is included with the packaging. OPPO advertises a full charge in 24 minutes, but my own testing falls a bit short of those speeds. In my own testing, a 0-100 charge took just about 26 and half minutes. This is still really fast.
OPPO Find X5 Pro: Cameras
OPPO has developed a new chip, the MariSilicon X, to handle image process
Main and ultra-wide cameras are excellent — the latter arguably is the best in the business
Video stabilization is very good but falls short of the standards set by the Galaxy S22 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro
The Find X5 Pro brings back mostly the same camera sensors as last year’s Find X3 Pro, except it’s missing the aforementioned micro-lens. We have a pair of 50MP cameras covering the wide and ultra-wide focal length along with a 13MP 2x telephoto zoom lens, plus a 32MP selfie camera. The aperture of the main 50MP camera and the selfie camera is slightly faster than last year, but otherwise, there is minimal upgrades in terms of camera lenses. However, OPPO is promising new camera breakthroughs because of what’s inside the phone — a new self-developed chip named MariSilicon X.
Built on 6nm architecture, the MariSilicon X is a NPU (Neural Processing Engine) that, according to OPPO, can handle up to 18 trillion operations per second, and most of this power is used to handle efficient machine learning algorithms for shooting videos. More on this in the video section a few paragraphs down. Let’s focus on still photography first.
Hasselblad “color calibration”
The OPPO Find X5 Pro has taken on the Hasselblad partnership that had previously been announced with OnePlus since last year. OPPO is claiming the same things from this partnership that OnePlus claimed — the Swedish camera maker apparently helped OPPO calibrate its imaging colors and designed some filters. To that end, the Find X5 Pro’s camera app also got the orange shutter button that debuted with the OnePlus 9 camera app, and there are some filters.
Main camera
The Find X5 Pro’s main camera is excellent — it has a relatively large 1/1.56-inch image sensor and a responsive shutter. The aperture is slightly faster this year at f/1.7, which helps it take in more light. This main camera also doesn’t need to resort to night mode often. As can be seen in the photo of the cat below, there’s a natural bokeh that separates close subjects/objects from the background.
Low light performance is excellent, with accurate colors and relatively low noise. The below shot of the tree was particularly impressive, as the scene was quite dark in real life.
The Find X5 Pro’s main camera holds up well against the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The below samples are too close to really declare a winner — OPPO’s shots consistently have slightly better HDR — notice it doesn’t blow out the neon lights like Samsung’s shots — but it can also look a bit more processed.
The Find X5 Pro's main camera holds up well against the Galaxy S22 Ultra
Here’s a really challenging shot — in a room with all lights turned off, with the only light source coming from screens and windows. We can see the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s shot is better illuminated all around but blows out some lights; the Find X5 Pro shot has better HDR all around.
Just to show how challenging the scene was to shoot, here’s a shot from the Microsoft Surface Duo 2, a $1,500 phone from a trillion-dollar tech giant.
Surface Duo 2, main camera.
So yeah, the Find X5 Pro main camera is really good — neck and neck with the Galaxy S22 Ultra. What you get here is a top dog through and through.
Ultra-wide
Last year, I called the Find X3 Pro’s ultra-wide camera the best of any smartphone because it managed to produce a wider framing without losing many details from the standard main camera’s shot. If I use the Find X3 Pro to snap an ultra-wide and a standard wide (aka main camera) shot, and I compare the two images, the details, color science and dynamic range are remarkably similar. The Find X5 Pro continues this trend, because the ultra-wide camera uses the exact same image sensor and sensor size as the main camera.
The above images are very close in terms of lighting and dynamic range. Let’s crop into the ultra-wide and set it to roughly the same framing as the main camera shot.
Find X5 Pro, ultra-wide, cropped in (left); main camera
When you crop in this much, you can see the main camera shot is sharper, but the difference isn’t jarring. Now let’s see the same test with the iPhone 13 Pro’s cameras.
Even without cropping in we can see the iPhone’s ultra-wide is significantly dimmer. If we zoom into the ultra-wide and we can see it’s a significantly inferior image, with much softer details and noticeable noise.
iPhone 13 Pro ultra-wide, cropped in (left); main camera
The Find X5 Pro beats the Galaxy S22 Ultra in this same test too — although Samsung keeps it closer.
And here’s the cropped-in collages.
Find X5 Pro, ultra-wide, cropped in (left); main camera (right)
S22 Ultra, ultra-wide, cropped in (left); main camera (right)
Below are more Find X5 Pro samples, with an ultra-wide shot juxtaposed next to the main camera shot. I think it’s safe to say the Find X5 Pro still has the best ultra-wide camera on the market.
Zoom lens
The Find X5 Pro only has a single 13MP, 2x telephoto camera. It’s an ideal focal length for portraits and 2x zoom photos are sharp and well detailed.
However, for anything beyond 2x zoom, the quality drops off. I’ve gotten used to at least getting usable 5x, 10x shots from flagship phones, so there’s no getting around the fact that the Find X5 Pro’s zooming capabilities are lacking. It’s rather disappointing, because OPPO was the first company to tease the idea of a Periscope camera, and was one of the first ones to put a Periscope camera to a commercial release (the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Edition, released in May 2019). Somehow, the company has entirely moved away from the Periscope zoom technology in the last couple of years. Take a look below at how much the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 10x zoom shot is superior to the Find X5 Pro’s
Video
The Find X5 Pro’s main camera produces excellent videos, with vivid colors and capable fidelity even in low light. However, despite the advertised 5-axis stabilization system, the Find X5 Pro’s videos still exhibit micro-shakes and stutter more often than the iPhone 13 Pro and Galaxy S22 Ultra if I walk and film at the same time. It’s not really a big deal, if you just watch the Find X5 Pro’s videos by themselves, you likely wouldn’t have many complaints. But when you see them side by side with video clips captured by iPhone 13 Pro and Galaxy S22 Ultra, you do see the Find X5 Pro’s footage is shakier.
Interestingly, the script flips with the ultra-wide, as the Find X5 Pro’s ultra-wide videos are noticeably more stable than both Apple and Samsung’s top offerings.
As mentioned earlier, MariSilicon X is supposed to help the Find X5 Pro significantly in low-light videos, and it does indeed work. In the below video, I walked into a really dark old Chinese building with most lights off, and you can see the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s footage is noticeably darker and noisier.
Selfies
The Find X5 Pro has a 32MP selfie camera using OPPO’s self-developed RGBW sensor, and … it’s fine. I must confess I am just not a selfie person, but I like that the Find X5 Pro’s software doesn’t force a beauty filter on my skin (although there certainly is one that can be turned on), and dynamic range, colors, all look on point.
Normal selfie.
Overall I’m very happy with the Find X5 Pro’s camera system, but I think OPPO needs to consider bringing back the Periscope zoom next year. I like my 5x and 10x zoom shots. Most of the photos above have been compressed for the website, but if you want to examine the original unedited, uncompressed photos, I have uploaded them to a Flickr gallery.
OPPO Find X5 Pro: Software
The Find X5 Pro runs Android 12 with OPPO’s ColorOS on top
I am a fan of ColorOS, it’s full of very useful shortcut gestures; I want them on other phones
The Find X5 Pro runs on Android 12 with ColorOS 12.1 on top. There are subtle changes to the ColorOS here from the one I tested even just a month ago on a mid-range OPPO Reno 7 Pro. The first is that OPPO has adopted the Google Pixel 6 Pro’s default one-hand mode, which brings the entire screen down to the mid-screen point (it’s a complete copy of iOS’s “Reachability”). I am not a fan of this one-hand mode as I find the previous OPPO method (also the same method used by Samsung, Vivo, Huawei, etc) of shrinking the screen both in height and width into a lower corner is more intuitive. But considering Google has adopted this new iOS-like one-hand mode as the “official” method, I assume OEMs are trying to follow suit. It’s worth mentioning that the Galaxy S22 Ultra, thankfully, sticks to that lower corner method.
Another new feature is the ability to launch “floating window” mode for almost any app with just a single thumb gesture — swipe up higher than usual, then hold for a beat. This method seems natural and intuitive to me, and the animations of the app being swiped up into a floating state even make sense. On a Xiaomi or Samsung device, launching floating windows is a clunky affair requiring three or more steps: swipe up and hold to go into app overview/multi-tasking pane, then long-press on the app icon, then select floating window. Most users are not going to realize those complicated steps will lead to a floating window, so this simpler gesture is much more intuitive and natural.
An exaggerated swipe up and hold will launch the app in floating window mode.
This useful gesture summarizes ColorOS for me — it’s software that is full of useful shortcut gestures. For example: grabbing a screenshot with a three-finger swipe down is easier for me than needing to long-press power and volume down button; off-screen gestures allow me to control music playback or launch the camera without ever waking up the screen.
OPPO Find X5 Pro: Overall Performance and Battery Life
Battery life is decent — not great, not bad
Fast, zippy performance
With top-tier components, the Find X5 Pro performed as expected during my testing period. I enjoyed watching videos with it on the sofa due to its beautiful display, comfortable in-hand feel, and loud stereo speakers. I saw no issues with gaming, although I am admittedly not a heavy mobile gamer. With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in place, you are getting top-tier performance on the device, at par with practically every other top-tier flagship that will come out this year.
Battery life is okay — with display resolution and refresh rate set to maximum, I was able to get about 12-hours of heavy use before the phone drained down to under 5%. In the screenshot below, you can see the Find X5 Pro drained from 100% to 28% in about nine hours away from the charger, with three hours and 24 minutes of screen-use. I am a heavy user who uses the cameras and Bluetooth often. I would say this battery life is acceptable, but not amazing.
OPPO Find X5 Pro: Conclusion
The OPPO Find X5 Pro is an excellent all-rounder flagship
The OPPO Find X5 Pro is an excellent all-rounder flagship. I love its refined, sort of understated design, and the tremendous ultra-wide camera. However, as I said at the beginning, I am disappointed with the phone losing the micro-lens from last year’s edition, as well as having a relatively mediocre zoom. I could forgive this if the device was priced a bit lower than premium flagship territory, but it’s not. The OPPO Find X5 Pro’s €1,299/£1,049 price in Europe/UK makes it more expensive than the Galaxy S22 Ultra. I have no doubt these European prices are due to the usual tariffs, that in Asia the phone will likely be priced lower than the Galaxy S22 Ultra, but it’s still jarring to see the European prices.
While I do think the Find X5 Pro has an objectively better ultra-wide camera than the Galaxy S22 Ultra, Samsung’s flagship has a noticeably brighter screen and a significantly superior zoom camera system. There’s also the S-Pen and Samsung DeX, which while are undeniable bonuses.
Still, if you’re on the market for a premium Android with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and you find the S22 Ultra too unwieldy to hold — or if you don’t care about zooming 10x or beyond — then the OPPO Find X5 Pro is a very worthy alternative.
