Dear Samsung, it’s time to make a Galaxy Z Flip “Fan Edition” with a cheaper price tag

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.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is Samsung's latest foldable flip phone, now upgraded with a better camera, better battery life, and a new chipset.

Buy from Samsung

What are your thoughts on Samsung potentially making a cheaper foldable? Let us know by dropping a line in the comments below. 

The post Dear Samsung, it’s time to make a Galaxy Z Flip “Fan Edition” with a cheaper price tag appeared first on XDA.

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Dear Samsung, it’s time to make a Galaxy Z Flip “Fan Edition” with a cheaper price tag

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.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is Samsung's latest foldable flip phone, now upgraded with a better camera, better battery life, and a new chipset.

Buy from Samsung

What are your thoughts on Samsung potentially making a cheaper foldable? Let us know by dropping a line in the comments below. 

The post Dear Samsung, it’s time to make a Galaxy Z Flip “Fan Edition” with a cheaper price tag appeared first on XDA.

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Honor 70 Review: Great photos, mid-range everything else

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.

Honor 70

The Honor 70 is a mid-range smartphone with some decent specifications, though it's a costly smartphone that you may find better alternatives for.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Honor

	Honor 70
CPU	Snapdragon 778G Plus 5G
Dimensions and weight	161.4 mm x 73.3 mm x 7.91 mm 178g
Display	6.67 inches OLED 58°curved punch Display4 1.07 Billion colors, 100% DCI-P3, HDR 10+ 120Hz
Camera	54MP wide, IMX8000, f/1.9 50MP ultra-wide, f/2.2 2MP depth sensor 32MP front-facing camera
Memory	8GB RAM, 128GB
Battery	4,800mAh
Network	LTE: Enhanced 4X4 MIMO, 7CA, LAA, LTE Cat. 20 5G
Sensors	Optical in-display fingerprint sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro sensor, Geomagnetic sensor, Hall sensor (analog), Proximity sensor, Light sensor, Wacom layer for stylus input
Ports	USB-C
OS	Android 12 with MagicUI 6.1 on top
Colors	Midnight Black, Emerald Green, Icelandic Frost
Price	Starts at £479.99

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Honor 70

The Honor 70 is a mid-range smartphone with some decent specifications, though it's a costly smartphone that you may find better alternatives for.

See at Honor UK

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.

The post Honor 70 Review: Great photos, mid-range everything else appeared first on XDA.

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Honor 70 Review: Great photos, mid-range everything else

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.

Honor 70

The Honor 70 is a mid-range smartphone with some decent specifications, though it's a costly smartphone that you may find better alternatives for.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Honor

	Honor 70
CPU	Snapdragon 778G Plus 5G
Dimensions and weight	161.4 mm x 73.3 mm x 7.91 mm 178g
Display	6.67 inches OLED 58°curved punch Display4 1.07 Billion colors, 100% DCI-P3, HDR 10+ 120Hz
Camera	54MP wide, IMX8000, f/1.9 50MP ultra-wide, f/2.2 2MP depth sensor 32MP front-facing camera
Memory	8GB RAM, 128GB
Battery	4,800mAh
Network	LTE: Enhanced 4X4 MIMO, 7CA, LAA, LTE Cat. 20 5G
Sensors	Optical in-display fingerprint sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro sensor, Geomagnetic sensor, Hall sensor (analog), Proximity sensor, Light sensor, Wacom layer for stylus input
Ports	USB-C
OS	Android 12 with MagicUI 6.1 on top
Colors	Midnight Black, Emerald Green, Icelandic Frost
Price	Starts at £479.99

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Honor 70

The Honor 70 is a mid-range smartphone with some decent specifications, though it's a costly smartphone that you may find better alternatives for.

See at Honor UK

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.

The post Honor 70 Review: Great photos, mid-range everything else appeared first on XDA.

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How to factory reset the Google Pixel 6a

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.

Google Pixel 6a

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.

Purchase at Best Buy

Purchase at Amazon

So what are you going to do with your newly reset smartphone? Let us know! And for all of you around, we do recommend using a Google Pixel 6a case.

The post How to factory reset the Google Pixel 6a appeared first on XDA.

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via IFTTT

How to factory reset the Google Pixel 6a

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.

Google Pixel 6a

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.

Purchase at Best Buy

Purchase at Amazon

So what are you going to do with your newly reset smartphone? Let us know! And for all of you around, we do recommend using a Google Pixel 6a case.

The post How to factory reset the Google Pixel 6a appeared first on XDA.

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