tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43376148113851044852024-03-19T02:10:33.811-07:00The ProAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490361263394168851noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337614811385104485.post-68053353501906571912017-07-30T10:14:00.001-07:002017-07-30T10:14:50.554-07:00Boku No Hero Academia Season 2 -- Midorya<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QcdZk0whjuc" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen=""></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490361263394168851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337614811385104485.post-76628376086592244132017-04-08T11:00:00.001-07:002017-04-08T11:00:22.185-07:00Shingeki no kyojin "Attack On Titan" : My Demons [AMV]<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y7S77WOwoto" width="480"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490361263394168851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337614811385104485.post-53173926040545692232016-12-29T12:14:00.002-08:002016-12-29T12:14:27.115-08:00IMO Q review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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OUR VERDIC</h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The IMO Q is eye-catchingly affordable, but that comes at a cost, as headache-inducing performance, a rubbish screen and poor battery life turns this cheap phone from a bargain to a bad investment.T</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The IMO Q is the sort of phone you might buy for your kids, for a festival or a mad holiday you think your iPhone might not survive, as it's cheap enough to be almost disposable for many buyers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Given its tiny price, undercutting even the likes of the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/moto-e3" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Moto E3</a>, the IMO Q is predictably basic. It’s slow, the screen is ugly and it’s one of the few handsets this year to use a microSIM rather than a nanoSIM.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Phones a little more expensive than this have improved massively in the last few years, while the IMO Q is a trial to use, just like the ultra-cheap phones of old.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">But, y’know, that’s just IMO. And at this end of the market even a small difference in price can be significant, so despite its failings is the IMO Q still worth considering?</span></div>
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<u>IMO Q price and release date </u></h3>
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<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Out now in the UK</span></span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">RRP of £49.99 but often available for less</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The IMO Q is available now in the UK and its RRP is just £49.99. But as cheap as that is you can already find it for less online.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">And you will have to venture online, as this isn't a phone you'll find in high street stores or on the shelves at the big networks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Shop around and it can be yours for free on tariffs from £10 which include 1GB of data - ensuring the IMO Q is affordable however you decide to purchase it.</span></div>
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<u>Key features and design </u></h3>
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<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Very low price</span></span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Bland design</span></span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">No 4G</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">From one angle, the IMO Q is a phone for the common person, for those who can’t afford or can't justify mobiles encased in glass and the type of aluminium we always hear called “aircraft grade”.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 597px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">You could daydream a meeting where the people behind IMO got together, incensed by the amount of cash Samsung and Apple expect people to pay for a phone. And so, the IMO Q was born.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This never happened, as far as we know. But if we started by describing the IMO Q in plain terms, you might have stopped reading already. It’s plastic, grey and dull-looking, a classic low-cost, low-effort design that could have been picked at random out of the great big catalogue of Chinese handsets.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwTjjW7N-dONZfDN6C47RnjxTooEuQkoiJ_YuED7Yy1i8R9dHGgY8jPgrAXTJcwZkYv1mjHu3_ln9ps1vmFBvbZKwGTc4kj1DjK3rSMZXxad8FsFsV8nhBeX6qK0RkZigRsLI9nTt2SpM/s1600/mm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwTjjW7N-dONZfDN6C47RnjxTooEuQkoiJ_YuED7Yy1i8R9dHGgY8jPgrAXTJcwZkYv1mjHu3_ln9ps1vmFBvbZKwGTc4kj1DjK3rSMZXxad8FsFsV8nhBeX6qK0RkZigRsLI9nTt2SpM/s640/mm.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The IMO Q is the sort of phone that could have been released any time in the past 5 years. We’d have perhaps been impressed in 2010. Now? Not so much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">However, it’s small, it’s comfy to hold and unlike some dire old budget phones the top layer of the screen is glass rather than plastic. It doesn’t have a fingerprint-resisting oleophobic coating and doesn’t use brand-name toughened glass, but we’ve not managed to scratch it yet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This is a style of phone we don’t see too often anymore, one whose back is a single piece of plastic you can pull off to get access to the battery, the SIM slot and so on. It takes us back to 2012, and there’s really nothing wrong with this build other than that it’s not ‘fancy’. At this price we don’t expect fancy.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH0cOziI2DRgq7znqWOH3ZroENTWZAZ7rUOEvy-CoT-0NvSBTdxWww-welR_NZ7g57_b0B6Om50gy6gBVVK4lzPLFG1VgSWWBI8rXKKNAIgygH_IeQ6bOpn8zWa2ZkW27uCQ_tsdKoaSY/s1600/jk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH0cOziI2DRgq7znqWOH3ZroENTWZAZ7rUOEvy-CoT-0NvSBTdxWww-welR_NZ7g57_b0B6Om50gy6gBVVK4lzPLFG1VgSWWBI8rXKKNAIgygH_IeQ6bOpn8zWa2ZkW27uCQ_tsdKoaSY/s640/jk.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">t almost goes without saying that you don’t get water resistance, a fingerprint scanner or other such flashy bits. The most serious omission is 4G, as this is one of the few new non-4G phones. Whether this is a problem or not really depends on the quality of your network’s 3G.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Contrary to 4G’s messaging, 3G internet can be decently fast, but it certainly isn’t a lot of the time. If you have a 4G phone at the moment, you can give 3G a test drive by switching off 4G in the settings menu. Our Three UK test connection was passable, but a clear step down from 4G.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The IMO Q has a few big holes, but there are some notable elements. It has 8GB of storage, which doesn’t sound like a lot but gives you a few spare gigabytes to play with, thanks to the relatively slimline Android install used here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It’ll fit a few storage-chomping games or a reasonable on-the-go music library. Older phones at this price used to have just 4GB: truly piddly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Under the back panel there’s also a microSD card slot, so you can upgrade the memory banks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The IMO Q also has dedicated pads for the soft keys below the screen, rather than pure software ones. It’s a good job they’re here, as with a 4-inch screen there’s much less display space than most of us are used to.</span></div>
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<u>Display </u></h3>
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<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Low resolution</span></span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Weak viewing angles</span></span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Washed out colours</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This is among the smallest-screen Android phones you can buy, and the technology the IMO Q features is quite basic. The majority of phones sold today have IPS LCD screens, a panel type designed to stop displays looking weird when viewed from an angle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The IMO Q has a more basic TN (twisted nematic) display that only looks right dead-on. Tilt it back and the image appears washed out, tilt it forwards and a shadow creeps over the screen. This is called contrast shift, and it’s an ugly effect we don’t see very often in phones these days.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We doubt many people after a phone this cheap are hardcore mobile gamers or looking to watch Netflix on their handset, but this panel type spoils enjoyment of these activities.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS9X3ifXya5uUsbCHKxvH8MedD50ziNho-cBGcbFe56Pa5mnEpkQfb48Sk4OW8fyxrfdXV-D5WBaYjq4ri8cq5TCZF0dEWDd7Whnm0trGIb1siAIfw1XwXA3g2n-vWhjf0c7D3orm4l7s/s1600/hg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS9X3ifXya5uUsbCHKxvH8MedD50ziNho-cBGcbFe56Pa5mnEpkQfb48Sk4OW8fyxrfdXV-D5WBaYjq4ri8cq5TCZF0dEWDd7Whnm0trGIb1siAIfw1XwXA3g2n-vWhjf0c7D3orm4l7s/s640/hg.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Even dead-on, the IMO Q’s image quality is quite a lot worse than some phones just a little pricier. Colours are cold-looking and washed out, and the resolution is low at 480 x 800 pixels.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We notice the other issues more than the low pixel density, but if you’re ‘upgrading’ from a busted 720p phone this is a major downgrade. It also lacks an auto brightness setting, meaning you have to manually play with the brightness slider as you head outside.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 597px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">One alternative phone to consider at the bottom end of the market is the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/moto-e3" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Moto E3</a>. It has a higher-quality IPS LCD screen with much better colour and resolution.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzGt_Y1D9gn0PIFgacyIE5NVs-GbTALXdmWlbk1GM0YloY99YDswr_5PAoppBC3yE8dlFdLsKgBSm1KxsynyapCc6L2-A3ir4nddbOBoJsaSI2sX_xNh4H46pJMLM3qoEmWw6hN1db6zI/s1600/fg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzGt_Y1D9gn0PIFgacyIE5NVs-GbTALXdmWlbk1GM0YloY99YDswr_5PAoppBC3yE8dlFdLsKgBSm1KxsynyapCc6L2-A3ir4nddbOBoJsaSI2sX_xNh4H46pJMLM3qoEmWw6hN1db6zI/s640/fg.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Unless you’re used to typing on a tiny screen, you’ll find typing on the IMO Q a chore too. We knew it was going to be a struggle, our fingers more accustomed to 5-inch-plus displays these days, but there also seems to be issues with where the touchscreen registers presses towards the edge of the display, and it mistakes fast taps between characters as swipes.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 597px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">All-but-forgotten cheap Windows Lumia phones like the ancient <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/nokia-lumia-520-1133192/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lumia 520</a> really nailed typing on tiny screens, but it’s borderline painful here. There is a solution, though: swipe typing. This is where you draw a line between characters rather than tapping on them individually.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">However, you need a bit of know-how to get this working, as you need to install a different keyboard from Google Play and turn the feature on. We doubt whether many prospective buyers would necessarily have read enough of our tips and tricks articles to know this.</span></div>
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<u>Interface and reliability </u></h3>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Dated version of Android</span></span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Slow at moving between apps and screens</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The IMO Q runs <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/android-5-0-lollipop-1271651/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Android 5.1 Lollipop</a>. This is a very dated release at this point, and is more prone to slowdown than Android 6.0 when dealing with limited RAM.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 597px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">You can guess what the IMO Q has. That’s right, limited RAM. It’s slow throughout. Slow to turn on, slow to load apps, slow to make the keyboard pop-up and even a little slow to skip between the home screens and apps menu at times.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span class="empty-widget" data-reactroot="" style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">If you’re low on patience, this probably isn’t the right phone for you.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYBGzdutRomRqFNtZkKyAaQcKn9EpDK3vJTrqUfdihY8bNm-4YzjupKEeqOEy4hAhwbFjz6Gtk6K3dY8uRoTiEAGuxLWDMEeKpUyV8AQUE5KgDd7qipThY5CTgxsYoIyGOTrORnyijd0Y/s1600/az.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYBGzdutRomRqFNtZkKyAaQcKn9EpDK3vJTrqUfdihY8bNm-4YzjupKEeqOEy4hAhwbFjz6Gtk6K3dY8uRoTiEAGuxLWDMEeKpUyV8AQUE5KgDd7qipThY5CTgxsYoIyGOTrORnyijd0Y/s640/az.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The interface is similar to vanilla Android 5.1 in a very broad sense, but the IMO Q has a custom skin that changes the look.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">For example, the icons are different and where normal Android has an apps drawer backed by a blank ‘sheet’ of white, this one uses a slightly dimmed version of the home screen background, and pages rather than a vertical scroll of icons.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKdYx0HCCI54XY4AK1PE1HLJC00LVXaulVzWY8EE0VdRoDbsbYZ8Mxwjfxf9jcYZjVSuNqYLdfNMf0pw1ZNk9mL7OVQvmE68A33czWGeUwAwcsSSxQPbqI55kW8gLzrMUQt5XmE99Skf8/s1600/aze.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKdYx0HCCI54XY4AK1PE1HLJC00LVXaulVzWY8EE0VdRoDbsbYZ8Mxwjfxf9jcYZjVSuNqYLdfNMf0pw1ZNk9mL7OVQvmE68A33czWGeUwAwcsSSxQPbqI55kW8gLzrMUQt5XmE99Skf8/s640/aze.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It’s a mostly inoffensive alteration. We’d prefer the generic Material UI look of standard Android 5.1, but we’d be happy enough if it wasn’t for the headache-inducing performance. This is compounded by quite how tricky we find typing on the tiny, possibly poorly calibrated touchscreen.</span></div>
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<u>Movies, music and gaming </u></h3>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Few pre-installed apps</span></span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Flat sound</span></span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Weak display makes it rubbish for games and video</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The IMO Q is not a great phone for movies or gaming, this should come as no surprise. Its screen is small and is not of great quality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It’ll do the job in a pinch, of course, but we honestly can’t imagine watching a whole film on this screen. The display also has an impact on gaming. While the resolution isn’t a huge issue thanks to the teeny display size, the poor colour and limited contrast are. And as you’ll see in the next section, there’s not enough power on tap for high-end titles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Speaker quality is nothing special either. While the sound doesn’t distort at max volume, the IMO Q isn’t very loud and the tone can charitably be described as basic. It’s flat and crude.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ7y2x5EOPEBWQf1RJDDGBKehblFu_5fFXyAXv6eCw8pfg8Q7RZPN6bdDEUFvFGl_pV3dAqPNQhHeSaVmDJSvp-aOTxirlPCVIAt0xRPL1Y_Y3pI_DsS1NJAhHnZL78uWp4u7tC8uU8tM/s1600/za.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ7y2x5EOPEBWQf1RJDDGBKehblFu_5fFXyAXv6eCw8pfg8Q7RZPN6bdDEUFvFGl_pV3dAqPNQhHeSaVmDJSvp-aOTxirlPCVIAt0xRPL1Y_Y3pI_DsS1NJAhHnZL78uWp4u7tC8uU8tM/s640/za.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">If you do want to play music or video, you’ll have to find your own apps to do so. The IMO Q even lacks the ‘Gallery’ app that is so often the default barebones media player.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This is really a better outcome than its polar opposite: a phone so rammed with ‘complimentary’ apps it resembles a rubbish dump. Downloading a few extra apps from Google Play only takes a couple of minutes, so this is no major problem.</span></div>
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<u>Specs and benchmark performance </u></h3>
<ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Poor gaming performance</span></span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Very low Geekbench 4 score</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The IMO Q has a Spreadtrum chipset. This isn’t a hugely popular or well-known brand, but even Samsung has used some of its chips in low-end phones.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 597px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It’s a quad-core 1.2GHz SoC using dated Cortex-A7 cores. While we primarily blame the limited 1GB of RAM for the phone’s dire day-to-day performance, this chip is also not quite strong enough to do justice to Android’s more taxing games, despite the low 480 x 800 screen resolution.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmcPQVBuZpB_On8y-QAF7U-g-8z85YeedJN8mShBQAJJqk5yJA3xaq_2YhZ3UBVH10E6PUMU0WcGfbY04Wkzo-vpEH9Q9zwF54ko0l36U0SPQJJLgSpnQStkCIOo6B4Pn5chBSlY2iopI/s1600/sq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmcPQVBuZpB_On8y-QAF7U-g-8z85YeedJN8mShBQAJJqk5yJA3xaq_2YhZ3UBVH10E6PUMU0WcGfbY04Wkzo-vpEH9Q9zwF54ko0l36U0SPQJJLgSpnQStkCIOo6B4Pn5chBSlY2iopI/s640/sq.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There’s enough chug in 3D racer Asphalt 8 to dilute your enjoyment. Casual games run passably well, but they’re still tripped-up by very slow load times, a finicky touchscreen and the low display quality. The IMO Q zaps some of the fun out of mobile gaming, so spend a little more if you play a lot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In Geekbench 4, the IMO Q achieves a multi-core score of 982, and that says it all. This is a very low score, almost doubled by other ‘budget’ phones.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">For the hardcore techies out there, the CPU is a 32-bit chipset made using a 28nm process. Both of these are rather out of date at this point, although to give Spreadtrum some credit, the latest low-end Snapdragon 212 is still 32-bit/28nm.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490361263394168851noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337614811385104485.post-75665605742656622902016-12-29T11:58:00.004-08:002016-12-29T11:58:33.264-08:00Year in review: Cameras<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">2016 has proved itself to being a busy year for camera manufacturers, with many flagship models replaced and a plethora of more junior cameras arrive with the latest technology.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Here’s a quick look at what we saw from each manufacturer and few thoughts on what we may see coming in 2017.</span></div>
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<u>Canon </u></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Canon has thoroughly refreshed its DSLR line at all levels this year, from the baby <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs-hybrids/canon-eos-1300d-1322657/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">EOS Rebel T6 / 1300D</a> through to the enthusiast <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs-hybrids/canon-eos-80d-1315060/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">EOS 80D</a>, and culminating at its flagship <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs-hybrids/canon-eos-1d-x-mk-ii-1314141/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">EOS-1D X Mark II</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Arguably the most significant release, however, was August’s launch of 4K-toting <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/canon-eos-5d-mark-iv-1326906/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">EOS 5D Mark IV</a>, a camera that’s already fast being adopted by well-heeled enthusiasts and professionals shooting stills and video.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Outside of its DSLR line, the Japanese company has also managed to address the main criticisms of the PowerShot G7 X with a <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/compact-cameras/canon-powershot-g7-x-ii-1321935/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mark II</a> model, which it no doubt hopes will win over those otherwise drawn to Sony’s RX100 series. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It’s also done what many were hoping for by updating its mirrorless EOS M series with its most enthusiast-focused model yet, the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/canon-eos-m5-dummy" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">EOS M5</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">With so much going on it’ll be interesting to see what 2017 brings. Perhaps an update to the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs-hybrids/canon-7d-mark-ii-1264977/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">EOS 7D Mark II</a>? More lenses for the EOS M series? Whatever we see, the company leaves 2016 with an impressive assortment of cameras for novice and professional users alike. </span></div>
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<u>Nikon </u></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Like its rival Canon, Nikon has also had a busy year rejuvenating its DSLR stable, with the entry-level <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/nikon-d3400-1329573/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">D3400</a> and mid-range D5600 through to the superb <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs-hybrids/nikon-d5-1312739/review/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs-hybrids/nikon-d5-1312739/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">D5</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">And, like Canon, one of its models stood out from the others. The <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs-hybrids/nikon-d500-1312621/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">D500</a> DSLR, a true successor to the ageing D300s, has already won much acclaim for its excellent autofocus capabilities and the quality of both images and 4K videos. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Elsewhere, the company has also made clear its intentions to crash the action camera market with three KeyMission models. While early impressions from the lucky few that have managed to get their hands on them have been mixed, Nikon has promised to update their firmware and the corresponding app to iron out some of these issues. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Those patiently waiting for the long-promised DL compact cameras, however, will have to wait a little longer due to the impact of the Kumamoto earthquakes (and, potentially, reported issues with the technology too). Hopefully 2017 will welcome these to the market. </span></div>
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<u>Pentax </u></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">n contrast to the abundance of options from Canon and Nikon’s corners, Ricoh Imaging has only unveiled two Pentax-branded DSLRs this year – but both have been well received. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Crucially, it finally delivered on its promise of a full-frame DSLR in the shape of the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs-hybrids/pentax-k-1-1315157/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pentax K-1</a>. Its superb feature-to-price ratio and laudable image quality unquestionably make it one of this year’s highlights. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The other release, the K-70, has only just come out but it’s already impressed reviewers and a few early users. Its tempting asking price should also ensure it continues to be popular in the new year.</span><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span></div>
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<u>Fujifilm </u></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">What a year for Fujifilm. Not content with the dual smashes of the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs-hybrids/fuji-x-pro2-1311694/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">X-Pro2</a> and the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/fujifilm-x-t2-1324463/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">X-T2</a>, it also used this year’s Photokina trade show in Cologne to announce the medium-format <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/fuji-gfx-50s" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">GFX 50S</a> mirrorless camera. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The GFX 50S is set to enter the marketplace in January, and will be an interesting challenger to the Hasselblad X1D that was announced earlier in the year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">All of this came alongside a mildly refreshed X-E2 model, the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs-hybrids/fuji-x-e2s-1316245/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">X-E2S</a>, as well as a fixed-focal length <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/compact-cameras/fuji-x70-1313133/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">X70</a> compact camera. Impressively, it’s maintained focus on the junior end of the market too, with the X-A3 and X-A10 compact system cameras targeting novice users looking for their first interchangeable-lens camera. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">All of this, and it still managed to find time to update its colourful waterproof compact line with the XP90. So, a fruitful year all round for Fujifilm – but there’s plenty of potential for 2017. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The X-M strand of mirrorless cameras hasn't seen any love since the debut X-M1 back in 2013, and we’ve also not had any updates to the X100 line since the X100T back in 2014. If we’re lucky, 2017 may even play host to a refreshed version of the excellent X-T10.</span></div>
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<u>Sony </u></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Having successfully introduced mark II versions of its three full-frame A7 mirrorless models over the previous two years, Sony spent 2016 largely focusing on the enthusiast user with a string of APS-C and 1in-sensor-based offerings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/sony-a6300-1314326/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A6300</a> received rave reviews, although this has already been followed up by the A6500, while the popular RX100 line welcomed the stellar – if pricey – <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/sony-rx100-v" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">RX100 V</a> compact. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There was also the third iteration to the company’s RX10 line of superzoom compact cameras, the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/compact-cameras/sony-rx10-iii-1324033/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">RX10 III</a>, a camera that’s currently vying for the attention of the travelling photographer (albeit one with £1,500 / $1,800 to spend). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There was one somewhat unexpected full-frame arrival, namely the Alpha A99 II. Its arrival quashed the idea of that Sony had abandoned its full-frame SLT line, and provided existing SLT users a more up-to-date alternative to the four-year-old Alpha A99. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Hopefully 2017 will see more full-frame offerings from Sony, perhaps even third-generation A7 models. </span></div>
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<u>Panasonic </u></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This year, Panasonic bolstered its popular Micro Four Thirds system with the Lumix <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/panasonic-lumix-g80-g85" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">G80/G85</a> and Lumix <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs-hybrids/panasonic-gx80-gx85-1318254/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">GX80/GX85</a>, and also catered for a more junior crowd with the stylish Lumix GF8, but it was the announcement of the forthcoming flagship Lumix GH5 that got many excited.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The model, which arrives at the start of the new year, builds on the success of the GH4, and is set to feature a 28MP sensor for the very first time inside a Micro Four Thirds model. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 602px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">With 10bit, 4K video recording at 60p and the option to extract 18MP frames from footage, it will be a refreshing challenger to the many DSLRs and mirrorless cameras that have caught up in offering 4K video in recent years. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 602px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There’s been plenty of action in the Lumix compact line too. 2016 saw Panasonic introduce the first pocketable superzoom camera with a 1in sensor, the Lumix <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/compact-cameras/panasonic-tz100-zs100-1312056/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">TZ100/SZ100</a>, as well as the 1in-sensor-based <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/panasonic-lumix-lx10-lx15" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LX10/LX15</a>, the company’s first proper alternative to the likes of the Sony RX100 and Canon PowerShot G7 X lines. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The Lumix FZ2000/FZ2500 also made a welcome appearance. This updated the respected, but ageing, FZ1000 with a slew of advancements that included a fresh optic. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Apart from a few promised lenses to go alongside the Lumix GH5, its difficult to know what Panasonic might update in the coming year, given how much it’s refreshed over the past couple of years. A successor to the Lumix LX100 compact would be very welcome though.</span></div>
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<u>Olympus </u></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSv_fnzTZ5x5sWW1TpYaJ54_g2UkuZ4_uyX5r86ZBBQ5i2wvMeWnKTUodZgmoz3zyBQjdhgNCwddfWbfoURQfM0kNqR8rTH9aouaYxtIzW12UIDu2xuo95vcsc_R09OjvwZNQefaB8mXg/s1600/oo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSv_fnzTZ5x5sWW1TpYaJ54_g2UkuZ4_uyX5r86ZBBQ5i2wvMeWnKTUodZgmoz3zyBQjdhgNCwddfWbfoURQfM0kNqR8rTH9aouaYxtIzW12UIDu2xuo95vcsc_R09OjvwZNQefaB8mXg/s640/oo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Just a handful of releases this year from Olympus, with the jewel of these being the flagship <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/olympus-om-d-e-m1-mark-ii" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">O-MD E-M1 Mark II</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">With a revamped AF system, 4K video (for the first time on an Olympus camera) and a staggering 60fps burst-shooting option, the camera appears to be far more significant upgrade than many were expecting. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Elsewhere, the company twice updated its PEN line, first with the beautiful PEN F and subsequently with the PEN E-PL8, the latter joining a raft of options targeted towards bloggers and first-time users looking for a selfie-friendly, interchangeable lens camera. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Hopefully both the OM-D and PEN lines will see new arrivals in 2017, ones which will no doubt pack superior video functionality. An update to the OM-D E-M5 II would no doubt please many.</span></div>
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<u>Leica </u></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcb2zxOxQRR2Kf7lJYEV9f3G9Epx1by_JJHXmbdPsBxQmes52MeTnuR4YH6eku4xbjf-PLF4a4E9KPmKxPIP0uQvNWXCK8SNR83fljqsAWsEBxCOlQCI0MJI8wcDu-97XBwqLMAIiby84/s1600/zz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcb2zxOxQRR2Kf7lJYEV9f3G9Epx1by_JJHXmbdPsBxQmes52MeTnuR4YH6eku4xbjf-PLF4a4E9KPmKxPIP0uQvNWXCK8SNR83fljqsAWsEBxCOlQCI0MJI8wcDu-97XBwqLMAIiby84/s640/zz.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Following a busy 2015, Leica made just two additions to its various camera lines in 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The waterproof X-U arrived at the start of the year, and the beautifully minimal TL model reared its head just a few weeks ago. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We’d love to see a new APS-C based X-series model and potentially another addition to the SL camp over the next year, but we’ll just have to wait and see what the German company has in the wings for us.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490361263394168851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337614811385104485.post-78477208419001571322016-12-29T11:34:00.003-08:002016-12-29T11:34:38.023-08:00Best photo editing software in 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 28px;"> </span><u><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best photo editing software in 2016</span></i></u></h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There's more to image-editing than Photoshop, and we check out some smart and affordable alternatives</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_tGnH6hmSL5LhkuFan_e5nmhWD4C8mo1-8QhNO07-ferXQ5Z3PEwYCC293VZENz6_gWpnqBi1a5cFtDMEIK2acC_iXhTEJMZL4ncQtl7_KPScXEcpbnuTbNnplRpIGYZdyTfBOYVkDU/s1600/kZw7YvJHTZ4tsfEwunaanh-970-80.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_tGnH6hmSL5LhkuFan_e5nmhWD4C8mo1-8QhNO07-ferXQ5Z3PEwYCC293VZENz6_gWpnqBi1a5cFtDMEIK2acC_iXhTEJMZL4ncQtl7_KPScXEcpbnuTbNnplRpIGYZdyTfBOYVkDU/s640/kZw7YvJHTZ4tsfEwunaanh-970-80.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Once upon a time, if you asked anyone which was the best photo editing software, they'd always say Photoshop. OK, so Photoshop is still the most powerful program there is at what it does, but what we want to do as photographers has changed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Photoshop is not much good if you need creative inspiration – it can create any effect you ask of it, but you have to know what you want. If you need creative inspiration, there are better places to look.</span></div>
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<ul style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style: disc inside none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">What better way to edit photos than with a brand-new <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops-and-netbooks/macbook-1287806/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MacBook</a>?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It's not much good at organising your photos, either. It does come with Adobe Bridge, but that's just a glorified folder/photo browser, not an image cataloguing tool.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">And while many photography experts understand the value of shooting unprocessed raw files and processing them later on the computer, very few are aware that not all raw converters are the same and that Adobe Camera Raw – as used by Photoshop – is not necessarily the best.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">So can Photoshop hang on as the best photo-editing software on the market, and which are the rival apps you should be looking at too? Read on to find out.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTMYLKpvnLVd3iRs_LQzhRTDm1v-vSwEJCKTmJn82ug_m4mmzMbqcOQo8gDE2kAWmJvIHUtALum4WcNIYlM1kSghg31tdUCvDtjLu0tEtAdYSc3kbDboSPZHlMeG7kSlWmo2FYyHPaZCA/s1600/a439aa6217c8f65460e3c2a693c1b4d0-650-80.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTMYLKpvnLVd3iRs_LQzhRTDm1v-vSwEJCKTmJn82ug_m4mmzMbqcOQo8gDE2kAWmJvIHUtALum4WcNIYlM1kSghg31tdUCvDtjLu0tEtAdYSc3kbDboSPZHlMeG7kSlWmo2FYyHPaZCA/s640/a439aa6217c8f65460e3c2a693c1b4d0-650-80.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: large;">1. Adobe Photography plan :</span></u></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Get Photoshop and Lightroom for a single and surprisingly affordable subscription</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Platform:</span> Mac and PC |<span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Image-editing:</span> Yes | <span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cataloguing:</span> Yes | <span style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Raw conversion:</span> Yes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Adobe caused a storm when it moved over to a subscription system for its software, and it did initially look like a pretty pricey deal. But the price has dropped, the dust has settled and the world has carried on turning on its axis. Now, if you take out an annual subscription, you can get Photoshop and Lightroom for just £8.57/$9.99 per month.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">And you do need both programs. Photoshop is sophisticated but limited. For layers, masks, selections, retouching and complex, multi-step imaging processes, it's impossible to beat, and it manages to present these tools in a remarkably clean, fast and efficient interface. On the downside, it doesn't offer a library of single-click creative effects or any way of organising a large and growing photo collection. Photoshop is like a giant box of spanners – it has all the tools you could possibly want, but it's not going to show you how to fix your car.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9XtakTGkpdEw9jLtqsyATAfDNBgl_jDxkY9uYIlOERdQdovD-9qNVIp-3iojpdFkfrO3oeu8OhvI7PruNM2Pg3Qc-ePgamUSEiAHMbNMGZuaxeTamLN0WMjBRHmntvQcvpiXUBJimzQY/s1600/kk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="387" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9XtakTGkpdEw9jLtqsyATAfDNBgl_jDxkY9uYIlOERdQdovD-9qNVIp-3iojpdFkfrO3oeu8OhvI7PruNM2Pg3Qc-ePgamUSEiAHMbNMGZuaxeTamLN0WMjBRHmntvQcvpiXUBJimzQY/s640/kk.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">That's why Lightroom is an indispensable part of the Adobe double-act. Lightroom combines an image cataloguing database with Adobe Camera Raw's 'non-destructive' editing tools in a slicker interface. It means that you can make non-permanent adjustments to an image which you can change later – and your original photos are never modified. These tools can't do everything – for selections, layers, masks and many more complex effects you'll need Photoshop. But that's OK, because you get both programs in the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan and they complement each other really well.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490361263394168851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337614811385104485.post-2251325494616870802016-12-29T09:34:00.002-08:002016-12-29T09:34:33.512-08:00Xiaomi Air 12 Laptop<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #227da8;"> </span><u><span style="color: red;">Xiaomi Air 12 Laptop</span></u></h1>
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<u style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">OUR VERDICT :</span></u></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: #ededed; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A very stylish laptop let down by a few design and component issues. Still, this is a great first attempt by Xiaomi and one that will entice punters who want a MacBook Air look without paying the Apple price.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rumours about Xiaomi, the big Chinese smartphone vendor, launching a laptop have been going around <a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/a-laptop-that-could-change-the-pc-market-forever-has-just-gone-on-preorder-1312244" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">for a few months already</a>. Turns out that the company had not one, but two laptops in the pipeline.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Xiaomi is known for producing very nice looking smartphones for not a lot of money, the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/xiaomi-mi5-1315657/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mi5</a> being an excellent example of what the company can achieve, so anything emerging from its design team is likely to get heads turning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And this was the case when the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/xiaomi-s-first-laptop-is-an-affordable-macbook-air-clone-for-windows-fans-1325480" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Xiaomi Air 12</a> and its bigger brother, the Xiaomi Air 13, were launched in August 2016. Both of them have an air of familiarity that can't merely be coincidental.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Even the name alludes to another laptop produced by a firm based in Cupertino, California – the MacBook Air is the model we're referring to and there are a lot of similarities here as we'll find out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Note that the <a class="hawk-link-parsed" data-hl-processed="hawklinks" data-href-on-the-fly="//click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=kXQk6%2AivFEQ&mid=40842&u1=hawk-custom-tracking&murl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gearbest.com%2Flaptops%2Fpp_416105.html%3Fwid%3D21" data-label="Xiaomi Air 12" data-merchant="Gearbest" href="http://www.gearbest.com/laptops/pp_416105.html?wid=21" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Xiaomi Air 12</a> was sent to us by Gearbest and costs £471 ($590 for the US, which is around AU$780) at the time of writing. Because it caters for a Chinese audience only, everything is Chinese-focused including the plug and the accompanying literature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's worth noting as well that the laptop currently comes with Windows 10 Home Edition (Chinese version) – Gearbest optionally offers a trial version (non-activated) Windows 10 HE allowing you to buy a license. This isn't ideal as it adds to the cost of the machine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Also if you're thinking of a purchase, we strongly advise you to read our article on the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/want-to-buy-tech-from-online-chinese-retailers-read-this-first-1324890" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">pros and cons of buying from Chinese retailers</a> (and generally speaking, outside of the UK).</span></div>
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<u>Design :</u></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Before you even see the laptop, one thing you cannot help notice is the box. As a reviewer, we're used to laptops coming in BBBs (boring brown boxes).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This one is different, on par with far more expensive, premium laptops that try to differentiate themselves from cheaper alternatives by making an impression before the product is actually unboxed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The next thing you'll notice is that the box contains a charger, an envelope and a laptop; nothing else. The 45W white charger is very much MacBook-esque with the plug and the power supply unit integrated as one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That's all good and well, but just bear in mind that you will need clearance around the power socket as the charger is a tad bulky. And you will need an adaptor to use it outside China. The cable, which is a USB Type-C affair, is about 150cm long, another point to bear in mind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As for the Xiaomi Air 12 itself, the laptop looks like a metallic roof tile, almost uniform in thickness and, surprise, surprise, devoid of any logo or logotype on the cover.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At 292 x 202 x 12.9mm, it is smaller than an A4 sheet and its thickness is reasonable for a device of this size. Its weight – 1.08kg – puts it bang in between Apple's MacBook and the Dell XPS 13.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rather than drawing from the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/macbook-air-2016-news-release-date-and-rumours-1318167" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MacBook Air</a> or the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops-and-netbooks/macbook-1287806/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MacBook</a>, Xiaomi seems to have sought inspiration from the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops-and-netbooks/macbook-pro-13-inch-with-retina-display-early-2015-1290626/review" style="border: 0px; color: #0099cc; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MacBook Pro</a>. The machine has a similar black bezel and an almost constant thickness – there's no wedge here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You'll also notice the same brushed aluminium finish, the same chamfered cut in front and that single, long hinge which connects the base to the screen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The keyboard – which is backlit – has a shorter travel compared to the MacBook Pro, and is on par with the Dell XPS 13 with rather mushy feedback. There's a bit of flex when touch typing but nothing deal-breaking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Surprisingly, the letter keys on the Xiaomi Air 12 are actually bigger than on the MacBook Pro (16mm compared to 15mm). Note that the power button is located on the right-hand top corner of the laptop which can cause some issues since it is located near the delete button.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The touchpad's dimensions (103 x 62mm) make it just a tad smaller than the XPS 13. As expected, there are no physical buttons and its surface is as smooth as that of the aforementioned Dell laptop.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Flip the laptop over to expose the belly of the beast: there are five grey rubber feet, two speaker vents and a sticker that can be peeled away. The bottom cover is secured using eight screws, one of which is hidden – compared to some of its competitors, the Xiaomi Air 12 is particularly upgrade-friendly.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As for connectors, there's a grand total of four: one HDMI port, one full-sized USB 3.0, a USB Type-C port which doubles as the power connection and an audio jack. This is better than the Apple MacBook but falls short of the XPS 13 which has an extra USB port plus a card reader (yes, there's no card reader here).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once you open it up, perhaps the most distinctive part of the Xiaomi Air is the screen. It has edge-to-edge glass covering most of it, which scores a 7 on the Mohs hardness scale. In comparison, the popular Gorilla Glass 3 scores 6.8.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sadly, the Air 12 is not touchscreen-enabled – adding the glass may therefore be confusing and introduces a significant amount of glare for no reason, and that's despite being fully laminated. Sure, it looks great but expect a few customers to be befuddled by the lack of response when they try to touch the screen.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490361263394168851noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337614811385104485.post-71816241856516953942016-12-29T08:50:00.003-08:002016-12-29T08:50:40.345-08:00WHAT IS THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S7?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "open sans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><u style="background-color: cyan;">WHAT IS THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S7?</u></i></span></h2>
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To use a tired cliche, Samsung has had a year of two halves. After the release of both the Galaxy S7 and <a href="http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-edge-review" style="color: #2581d0; text-decoration: none;">Galaxy S7 Edge</a>, things were looking strong. It had a phone that was better than the <a href="http://www.trustedreviews.com/htc-10-review" style="color: #2581d0; text-decoration: none;">HTC 10</a>, better than the <a href="http://www.trustedreviews.com/huawei-p9-review" style="color: #2581d0; text-decoration: none;">Huawei P9</a> and it’s still better than the <a href="http://www.trustedreviews.com/iphone-7-review" style="color: #2581d0; text-decoration: none;">iPhone 7</a>.</div>
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But then the exploding <a href="http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-galaxy-note-7-review" style="color: #2581d0; text-decoration: none;">Galaxy Note 7</a> landed and Samsung took a bit of a hit. Is it enough to make you think twice about buying a Samsung device?</div>
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In a word, no. The Galaxy S7 is still the best phone we’ve reviewed this year. Maybe the <a href="http://www.trustedreviews.com/google-pixel-review" style="color: #2581d0; text-decoration: none;">Google Pixel phone</a> will have something to say about that though?</div>
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After the massive, and much needed, change in design direction Samsung took with the Galaxy S6 and <a href="http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-galaxy-s6-edge-review" style="color: #2581d0; text-decoration: none;" title="Galaxy S6 Edge review">Galaxy S6 Edge</a> in 2015, all rumours pointed to things staying pretty much the same for the Galaxy S7.</div>
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Well, it’s not like Apple, HTC or Sony make drastic changes to their industrial design every year.</div>
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And that’s exactly the case here. Place the Galaxy S7 next to the S6 and you’d be hard pushed to instantly pick which one is which. Frankly, this doesn’t bother me in the slightest. The S6 was already one of the best-looking phones around, and the Galaxy S7 follows suit.</div>
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Both the front and back are covered in Gorilla Glass 4, while a metal rim snakes in between. Two volume buttons sit on one side, with a lock/standby switch on the other. It’s a clean look, with the back free from any markings aside from a Samsung logo.</div>
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The camera lens now sits just about flush with the glass body too. This might seem a small change, but it makes a big difference. I can now tap out an email with the phone flat on my desk without it jumping and rocking from side to side.</div>
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There is one notable design change on the back – the sides now curve ever so slightly, just like they did on the larger <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="color: #2581d0;">Galaxy Note 5</a>, and it makes a huge change to how the Galaxy S7 feels. While the S6 felt harsh and rigid, the Galaxy S7 slips softly into my palm. It’s so much more ergonomic and makes picking it up off a flat surface much easier.</div>
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And the way the sides almost melt into the glass just looks damn cool. Good job, Samsung.</div>
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Close to perfection. That’s the best way to describe the display on Samsung’s Galaxy S7.</div>
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Not much has really changed from the outgoing S6, but this still holds up as the best screen on a smartphone.</div>
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It’s still a 5.1-inch QHD panel with a 2560 x 1440 resolution, and just like every Galaxy flagship so far, it uses Samsung’s Super AMOLED tech, rather than the more common LCD.</div>
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AMOLED displays are a lot better at showing off blacks than LCDs. Instead of looking slightly grey and washed out, the blacks here are inky deep. Some say AMOLED screens produce colours that are too oversaturated, so reds will look way brighter than they should, but that isn’t much of an issue here. And if you really prefer things toned down, there’s a picture setting for that.</div>
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Having so many pixels jammed into a relatively small space means you can’t really spot one pixel from another, and that sharpness makes everything from gaming to watching YouTube an absolute pleasure. Play a round of Alto’s Adventure or Monument Valley on this display and you’ll instantly be drawn in by the crisp details and vivid colour reproduction.</div>
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I wouldn’t normally watch a film on a screen this size, but the panel here is so gorgeous that I can’t help getting lost in it.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490361263394168851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337614811385104485.post-88268258826100804372016-12-29T08:49:00.000-08:002016-12-31T01:52:40.181-08:00iPhone 7 Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: red; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">⧭</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>iPhone 7 Review</u></span><span style="font-family: oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">⧭</span></span></i></span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">he iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are deeply unusual devices. They are full of aggressive breaks from convention while wrapped in cases that look almost exactly like their two direct predecessors. Even that continuity of design is a break from convention; after almost a decade of Apple’s steady two-year iPhone update pattern, merely retaining the same design for a third straight year plays against expectations.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">Inside that case, everything else about the iPhone 7 is a decisive statement about the future. The dual cameras on the iPhone 7 Plus promise to usher in a new era in mobile photography. The iconic iPhone home button is no longer a physical button, but instead a sophisticated ballet of pressure sensors and haptic vibration motors that simulate the feel of a button. The new A10 Fusion processor blends two high-power cores that rival laptop performance with two low-power cores that combine with a much larger battery to extend run time by up to two hours.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">And, yes, Apple has removed the headphone jack.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">Removing the headphone jack is an act of pure confidence from Apple, which is the only company in tech that can set off a sea changes in the industry by aggressively dropping various technologies from its products. Floppy drives, optical drives, its own proprietary 30-pin iPod connector, flash, even USB — Apple decides that it’s time to move on, and it has a massive installed base of customers that love and trust the company who make it happen. And now it’s decided that — yikes — the headphone jack is over.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">After using the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus for about a week, it’s clear to me that Apple has forceful, but considered opinions about how the next generation of phones should fit into our lives. But it’s also clear that the iPhone 7 is a transitional step to that vision of the future, not a complete expression of it. The question for would-be upgraders is simple: is all of the latent promise in this phone worth the inconvenience of that transition?</span></div>
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<i><u><span style="background-color: yellow; color: red; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">DESIGN</span></u></i></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKSsUvEbzOesrxCWlNhLBaj2XDd1_MRn0XvjX7WRNql1sznWBeS-ZKSDIZFaWImSR4D7K1d6PjL9lWuVM3v17pEE0LTzxEoMIvmILFIqQcTKuPdyf0dO0haSihn2R6zAn5D2jZIaWKOaE/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKSsUvEbzOesrxCWlNhLBaj2XDd1_MRn0XvjX7WRNql1sznWBeS-ZKSDIZFaWImSR4D7K1d6PjL9lWuVM3v17pEE0LTzxEoMIvmILFIqQcTKuPdyf0dO0haSihn2R6zAn5D2jZIaWKOaE/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> </a><b style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16.5px;">here’s really no getting around it: the iPh</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16.5px;">the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus from 2014. They are now water resistant, which is nice, although they’re not fully water</span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: inherit;">proof</em><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16.5px;"> — keep them submerged in a meter of water for more than 30 minutes and things might not go your way. Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and Note 7 are technically even more water resistant, but I think it’s basically a push — you can get these </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16.5px;">one 7 and 7 Plus look more or less exactly like </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16.5px;">phones casually wet now without catastrophe, and that’s a big win. If you want to go snorkeling with your iPhone, you should probably get a case anyhow</span></b></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><i><b>Apart from the water resistance, there are three main external differences between the 6 and 7: first, the antenna lines on the back have been tweaked and colored to blend into the body on the matte black and glossy jet black models, which is a welcome refinement. (The antennas remain a dull gray color on the silver, gold, and rose gold variants; Apple says there are limits on what colors can be applied.) Second, the camera bump has been enlarged and more artfully curved into the rear casing, which looks particularly handsome on the smaller phone with a single camera.</b></i></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><i><b>And third — here it is again — there’s no headphone jack.</b></i></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><i><b>But really, once you put the iPhone 7 in a case, it looks exactly like an iPhone 6. And if you get a jet black model, you’ll want to get it into a case immediately — my jet black review unit scratched and scuffed almost instantly, and the only time it’s remained fingerprint-free is when we literally handled it with white gloves for the photo and video shoots accompanying this review. Apple is being unusually open about the propensity of the jet black finish to scratch, but beyond that, I’d get the matte black anyway — it just looks meaner.</b></i></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><i><b>The iPhone 6 has always been one of the more utilitarian designs in Apple history, and a smoothed-out camera bump and less visible antennas don’t really change that. Apple’s competition is getting better at making beautiful phones, and nothing about the iPhone 7’s design exceeds the rest of the industry. The iPhone 7 Plus in particular is actually falling behind its large-screened competition; the 6 Plus was always a bit of a surfboard, and new devices like the Galaxy Note 7 fit enormous displays into much smaller, tighter packages. (Too bad about <span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">the explosions</span>, though.) This is still a phone that looks best in a case.</b></i></span></h4>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: red; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">please subscribe </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">HERE </span><span style="background-color: white; color: red; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">Thank you my friend</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490361263394168851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337614811385104485.post-25105318902518045642016-12-29T08:38:00.001-08:002016-12-29T08:38:54.168-08:00Steep review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-weight: 500;"> </span><i><u style="background-color: lime;">Steep review</u></i></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "open sans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: large;">Available on PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One, PC</span></u></i></b></span></div>
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SSX, Amped, Shaun White Snowboarding or Cool Boarders and Steep will still give you some things to cheer about but fail to deliver what you’re really looking for. To really get to grips with Ubisoft Annecy’s game you have to understand where it’s coming from. With its open world structure it’s firmly in the established Ubi game mould, doing for extreme alpine sports what The Crew did for driving and Far Cry 2 for the FPS. Yet when I think about its feel, I keep coming back to a more unexpected influence: Nintendo’s Pilotwings 64. For all its stunts, thrills and breakneck racing, Steep is at its best when you chill out, have fun and just explore.</div>
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It helps that snowboarding is just one of four pursuits on offer (or five if you include the odd hike). Don the wingsuit and you can launch yourself off cliff edges and platforms, swooping through rings to rack up points or speeding perilously close to the ground. Open up your paraglider and you can soar over mountains, descending through trees and gullies or using thermals to climb upwards and reach new peaks. Then, of course, you have the skiing and snowboarding, both keyed into the same race and trick showcase challenges, but each having their own moves and feel.</div>
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Then there’s the map. Ubisoft Annecy has compressed the scenic highlights of four alpine regions into one winter sports wonderland, putting Mont Blanc within easy reach of the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa just around the corner. You’re free to explore the whole area, but to get to certain peaks you’ll need to unlock a ‘drop zone’ first, entailing getting close to them by air or land or checking them out with your binoculars from less than 1Km away. Unlock a drop zone and you also unlock the related challenges, which might be races, stunt trails, wingsuit events, paragliding challenges or cross-country time trials. You’ll even find rather surreal mountain story events, where the mountain itself will reveal objectives that will help you get to know it better.</div>
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It’s a great map to explore, partly because the alpine scenery is so beautiful and also the actual feel of skiing and snowboarding is so brilliant. While there’s a little scenery pop-in, the odd rough texture and the occasional dropped frame, Steep often looks stunning, particularly if you’re lucky enough to be playing it on a 4K screen with the PS4 Pro. There’s a convincing – even stomach-churning – sense of speed, and the handling on both skis and snowboard just feels right, to the extent that the way your snowboard cuts through the powder, the edge gripping as you turn, is almost tangible. Based at a major centre of the winter sports world, Ubisoft Annecy has created a game that’s clearly based on years of real experience.</div>
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It’s no dry sim, either. Drop zones work like fast-travel points, so you never have to waste time wandering to a new event or challenge, and there’s an impressive variety of stuff to try. Some events are almost relaxing, giving you time to explore on a cross-country ski route or enjoy the scenery as you glide from peak to peak. Others are pure adrenaline, pushing you to chain together daredevil flips and rodeos or fly at speed through rock arches, glacial ice fields and narrow passes – all thrilling stuff. Others still go for knockabout comedy, asking you to do little more than reach the bottom of the mountain as quickly as possible, even if that means breaking a few bones on the way.</div>
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Plus Steep is built for social play. Instead of cramming the Alps with CPU-controlled racers or extravagant rivals, Steep has you sharing the mountains with other online players, with a quick ‘group up’ function and options to save your best efforts as challenges and share them with your friends. You can also capture shots and videos, picking camera angles to make you look your best.</div>
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In short, this is a game of freedom and choice, where you can spend whole days just wandering around the map, blazing your own trails, unlocking new drop zones and tackling whatever events you fancy. You can level up gently, opening up new areas and gated challenges, or simply relax and focus on exploration and discovery. It’s also good to see a willingness to be a bit eccentric, whether that means a challenge where you have to find a talking tree or another where you’re doing your best to trace a trail of flowers. In the end, Steep’s Alps are a pretty cool place to hang out.</div>
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Yet this attitude has a downside, and that’s that Steep isn’t all that compelling. There’s nothing to keep you moving forward beyond the pull of more peaks, more drop zones and more events, and with time one area and one event begins to look and feel much like another. The challenges become more difficult, with more awkwardly placed checkpoints or tighter rock arches to glide through, but the actual experience fails to develop. Like so many previous Ubisoft open-worlders, Steep gives you an awful lot of things to do but not enough motivation to keep doing them. As a result, Steep is an enjoyable, amiable sort of game, but not the kind of game that keeps you hooked.</div>
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What’s more, it’s beset by minor niggles. The menus and interface seem over-complicated, making switching or customising characters unnecessarily hard work. The 3D map can be hard to get your head around, and it’s trickier than it should be to find your next event. At times you’ll activate a wingsuit or paraglider challenge, then find your character stuck on the platform, unable to continue, until you manually switch to, say, your snowboard then back to the wingsuit again. Characters will start some challenges facing in entirely the wrong direction, while getting stuck on, behind or even halfway through a rock happens more than it should.</div>
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What that all means is that Steep ends up in the same position as The Crew did two years ago; as a fresh and very different take on a genre which has all the fundamentals in place, but that isn’t quite as polished or rewarding as it should have been. It’s an easy game to recommend to fans of skiing, snowboard and exploration, but a tougher sell for those who are looking for more straight up thrills. With a few tweaks and a good expansion pack Steep could still reach its potential, but right now it has a climb ahead of it and that climb is going to be, well, steep</div>
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Ubisoft Annecy has crafted a gorgeous-looking winter sports game with a strong foundation of exploration, enjoyable gameplay and a feast of events to unlock. What it hasn’t done is create a pathway through that game that will keep you playing through to the end. Despite the variety of events and sports the action and scenery grows repetitive, while some minor issues keep on cropping up. The result is a game that’s close to brilliance, but not quite close enough.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490361263394168851noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337614811385104485.post-49703553963845848232016-12-29T08:38:00.000-08:002016-12-29T08:38:09.390-08:00iMacwear SPARTA M7 Smart Watch Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: cyan;"><span style="color: #f1c232;">iMacwear SPARTA M7 Smart Watch Review</span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Pros</u></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "lora" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 20px;">The touch and overall experience of the device is snappy, it doesn't lags even if you are using heavy apps like Facebook and Twitter.</span></div>
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The feel of the material is also solid metal, it is not like some cheap plastic that is very light. It feels very rigid even the straps. The rubber material is very strong and cannot be easily worn out.</div>
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The sound it is making when playing Youtube videos is unbelievable, many of my friends can't believe it is capable of producing that kind of volume despite its small size.</div>
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<u>Cons</u></h3>
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The common issue with the device of course is, typing. Not only the keyboard is really really hard to get used to, but the problem is, when the keyboard starts to appear, it is occupying the entire screen, making it hard to see the letters you are typing.</div>
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The fact that you have to open the back metal plate just to insert/remove memory card is a big inconvinience.</div>
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One of the annoying things about it is, the small screws can easily get loose-thread making it hard to actually remove the metal cover. So once you had inserted your SIM card/memory card inside, be sure that you don't plan to remove it very soon, since it is very very hard to remove again. In my case, the metal cover suffered several dents just because I had accidentally scratched it with the screw driver.</div>
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One of the problems with the device is, the "thin and crispy" paint coating it have. It can be easily scratched when you are moving your arm through items inside your bag. This resulted into the above appearance on which all the coating on the edges was all scratched off.</div>
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The same is true for the top, the small edges along the touch screen is easily scrathed producing that look. Here is the back of the metal plate cover, all the small screws is all gone, only one is actually left, but as you can see, it doesn't fall off still since even w/o the screws on it, it is very hard to open.</div>
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The most annoying thing about it, is the charger. It is not ordinary charger since its like a clamp on which you have to put the watch inside it and seal it on to make contact with the bottom of the watch.</div>
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The problem is the mechanism on how the watch actually locks in the watch on the cap. There is two small notches that slides in to the main body of the charger, the problem is if one of those two is damaged, the charger cannot press the watch inside anymore. You have to somewhat use some rubber band or something to make a better grip to the charger.</div>
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You cannot usually see if the watch is charging specially when it got battery drained (no physical LED power indicator on both watch and charger), so with loose charger contact and battery drained watch, you cannot charge it for example while inside a car, it has to be still since it can't tolerate too much movement.</div>
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<u>Bottomline</u></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: "lora" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 20px;">M7 Sparta is worth the price, but probably the size itself makes it really hard to have some serious use-case. I can say though that it is really more usefull compared to Samsung Gear or Apple Watch, since it can host its own SIM and thus can faciliate communication even if you don't have a phone. Overall, it is still good to have for emergencies and driving, but will not be a complete replacement for your smartphone.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07490361263394168851noreply@blogger.com0