XIAOMI MI A2 Review

XIAOMI MI A2 Introduction Second time's the charm, right? That's certainly what Xiaomi would have you believe. The second coming of its Android One line is here, but is it any good? You still might not be very used to the concept of pairing Xiaomi hardware with unadulterated Google software - after all, the company's MIUI is one of the heaviest Android skins you can find. But there's no trace of that in the Mi A2, and this device is definitely as intriguing as its predecessor, which was Xiaomi's debut album in the Android One collection. So we have a handset that is unashamedly borrowing looks from other Xiaomi mid-rangers (and is obviously "inspired" in the design of its rear camera island by a company with a fruity name), but it eschews the meme-worthy Snapdragon 625 chipset to go with the more modern and more potent SD660. That seems like a winning combo on paper, especially at this price point. Sometimes though, things that sound good in theory turn out to be letdowns in practice.

That's where this long-term review comes in - to tell you whether Xiaomi has a winner on its hands or not. Despite how obvious the answer to that question may seem, there are always things that can show up when you live with a device for a long period of time, things that can't be anticipated by a spec sheet or that don't come up in our normal, lab test-driven review process. If you join us over the next few pages you'll find out if the Mi A2 lives up to the huge expectations placed onto its shoulders by die-hard stock Android fans across the globe. We'll tell you what it was like to use every single day as our one and only smartphone for an extended duration that allowed us to both fully appreciate the phone's qualities and become very frustrated with its issues. Design The Mi A2 is a mid-range Xiaomi smartphone, and these have all looked quite similar for a while now. It's clear that the same general design language is used throughout the roster, which might help speed up development of new models and cut on some costs. We're not here to argue with that concept, but we will note that there's nothing incredibly impressive about the way the phone looks. That's not to say it has a bad design. The metal unibody is still used by many devices at this price point, which can't afford to go with the more expensive and heavier glass backs that are so very trendy at the high-end of the market at the moment. Since you get a metal back there's no wireless charging support as these two don't go well together. If you're looking for a 3.5mm headset jack, here's some bad news - it's nowhere to be found. We aren't going to debate how much sense that makes, but device makers' penchant for removing the port is slowly but surely making its way to mid-range handsets too. You do get a dongle in the box, for what it's worth, and it... works. Of course, if you're a die-hard peruser of wired headsets the sheer inconvenience of not being able to listen and charge the phone at the same time might drive you away from this device, unfortunately. On the bottom side of the phone there are two grilles, but only one actually has a speaker behind it. The other is there just to house the microphone, and for the sake of symmetry. Up top you'll notice something that isn't a staple on every smartphone out there - an IR blaster. You can use this to control your electronic devices at home, such as TVs, air con units, DVDs, set top boxes, and pretty much anything that accepts IR input. That's pretty cool and everything works very well with the included Mi Remote app. Overall, the Mi A2's design isn't revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination but it looks nice and it works. The black model has an understated elegance to it that will feel right at home in any office setting. It also comes with a slightly grippier texture on the back compared to the gold one, and because of that it feels much nicer to touch. However, it does show more fingerprints - though not as bad as glass back phones do.

The build is very solid, with no creaks whatsoever. It's a very slim device and in the hand, it actually seems to be even thinner than it is because of the way the back tapers into the sides. Display The Mi A2 manages to be just a tad narrower than the Mi A1 while packing a larger screen. Don't judge the size difference by the diagonal as the Mi A2 has jumped onto the tall 18:9 aspect ratio bandwagon, which is fitting for 2018 but doesn't make it easy to compare to phones with 16:9 screens. The screen surface area numbers paint the more accurate picture: 82.6 cm2 for the Mi A1, 92.6 cm2 for the Mi A2. Somehow we were spared the notch, and that's something to be praised right now since even cheap(er) phones are starting to sport that 'feature'. On the other hand, the Mi A2's bezels are looking pretty retro even though they've been substantially reduced compared to its predecessor. The mobile world is currently working to eradicate as much of the bezels as possible at a breakneck pace, and only a few months after its release the Mi A2 already looks a bit dated from this point of view. The fingerprint scanner is on the back, and it's well placed but we can't help wonder why it wasn't built into the bottom screen bezel instead since it's definitely large enough to accommodate such a sensor with no issue. Xiaomi's Android One phone for 2018 goes with 1080x2160px resolution. That gives you plenty of pixels, especially considering how much the Mi A2 costs. The display has rounded corners because that's trendy. The panel is very good but not the best we've seen, by a long shot. Indoors it offers plenty of brightness and punchy blacks despite being an LCD, but sunlight legibility isn't its strong suit, to put it mildly. Squinting will be required. Also note that with polarized sunglasses on, the screen is only visible when you hold the phone in landscape orientation - baffling but true, given that most people use their phones in portrait orientation most times. Long story short: it's a mid-range LCD on a mid-range phone. It's fine but won't win any awards. Its pixel density is high enough that you're unlikely to be bothered by seeing individual pixels, and it gets the job done. Unless you have a device with a top of the line panel right next to your Mi A2, you won't be able to tell the difference. Two additional things to keep in mind: first, at the moment the auto brightness doesn't learn from your manual adjustments, but that should be coming with the Android 9 Pie update. Second, the oleophobic coating on top of the screen glass either isn't very good or it isn't there at all. You'll definitely see more oil accumulate faster on it than with other phones. Of course, that's a moot point if you use a screen protector of any kind. Camera app The Mi A2's camera app will look quite familiar if you've used any recent smartphone. Camera app design seems to have become very similar regardless of which manufacturer made it. So you get the viewfinder with swipe-able modes, the last of which is Manual if you want to tweak every possible setting before your shot. You can double tap the power button to quickly launch the camera app. The camera settings aren't that many. If you shoot in anything but the Manual mode you won't even have direct control over the resolution - you can just pick between High, Standard, and Low for Picture quality, and whether you want the frame's aspect ratio to be 4:3, 16:9, or 18:9.

Also in Settings you can toggle the viewfinder gridlines and choose whether to have low light photos automatically enhanced. Though the latter sounds good in theory, we really weren't able to figure out what it does. Conversely, in the 'More' hamburger menu in the viewfinder you can enable the HHT mode which will take multiple photos in low light and then create a shot with minimal noise by stitching those together - we've seen that feature on many Xiaomi phones already. However, even with this setting manually turned on for every single one of our nighttime camera samples (which you can see below), HHT never actually triggered on our Mi A2 for some reason. The viewfinder in the app doesn't offer you a 2x zoom toggle even though the secondary rear camera is reminiscent of the one in the OnePlus 6/6T, which does give you that option. Truth be told, it is perhaps better that this was left out since the secondary cam isn't a telephoto unit anyway. As it is, it seems like its role is simply to capture depth information for portrait mode shots and enhance low-light photos... allegedly. The camera app has been fast and reliable every single time throughout this long-term review process. We've used it for weeks on end and never saw it crashing, freezing, not starting, or anything like that. So while the shots it creates may not be the best in the smartphone world today, at least you know it's always at your disposal to quickly snap something.

20 best things to buy on Black Friday

These are the 20 best things to buy on Black Friday

With Black Friday comes a fury of discounts. But sorting out which are actually good deals — and which are just hype — can be tricky. Personal finance website WalletHub analyzed deals happening on Black Friday, Nov. 23. The report highlights not only this year's top categories but also the top product deals overall. For its analysis, WalletHub looked at the prices of a variety of items on Amazon between Oct. 19 and Nov. 15. Then, it analyzed the advertised Black Friday 2018 prices for the same items to determine the "Black Friday Price." Deals that didn't have calculable percentage markdowns were excluded. Items were ranked by the overall difference in their prices between the dates. Overall, it found that the best categories for deals on Black Friday are jewelry; books, movies and music; consumer packaged goods (items like food and cosmetics); video games for software and furniture. Meanwhile, the worst product categories for Black Friday deals are apparel and accessories, appliances, consumers electronics and computers and phones. These items — from headphones to computers and toys — are the best Black Friday deals overall, according to WalletHub (in no particular order): Kef Porsche design over-ear noise canceling headphones Store: Newegg Pre-Black Friday price: $669 Black Friday price after discount: $100 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $569 HP Envy desktop computer Store: HP Pre-Black Friday price: $1,390 Black Friday price after discount: $1,100 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $290 ASUS- TUF gaming laptop Store: Best Buy Pre-Black Friday price: $1,200 Black Friday price after discount: $1,000 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $200 Samsung 7.4 ft. electric dryer Store: JC Penn Pre-Black Friday price: $1,060 Black Friday price after discount: $695 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $365 Samsung 55" smart TV Store: Meijer Pre-Black Friday price: $621 Black Friday price after discount: $400 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $221 CAP Barbell Olympic grip weight set Store: Academy Sports + Outdoors Pre-Black Friday price: $399 Black Friday price after discount: $140 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $259 HP Pavilion convertible laptop Store: Staples Pre-Black Friday price: $831 Black Friday price after discount: $590 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $241 Xbox One Minecraft Creators bundle Store: Microsoft Pre-Black Friday price: $300 Black Friday price after discount: $199 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $101 WWE 2K19 Xbox One Store: Best Buy Pre-Black Friday price: $54 Black Friday price after discount: $30 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $24 Kenmore Elite microwave Store: Sears Pre-Black Friday price: $759 Black Friday price after discount: $430 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $329 Apple iPad (6th generation) 32GB Store: Walmart Pre-Black Friday price: $349 Black Friday price after discount: $249 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $100 Shark Rocket ultra light deluxe vacuum Store: Shopko Pre-Black Friday price: $348 Black Friday price after discount: $230 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $118 Netgear Nighthawk smart Wi-Fi router Store: Costco Pre-Black Friday price: $249 Black Friday price after discount: $130 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $119 Seiko Men's Solar Chronograph stainless steel bracelet watch Store: Macy's Pre-Black Friday price: $281 Black Friday price after discount: $149 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $132 Realspace Tresswell bonded leather high-back chair Store: Office Depot and OfficeMax Pre-Black Friday price: $198 Black Friday price after discount: $80 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $118 Bissell little green portable deep cleaner Store: Target Pre-Black Friday price: $160 Black Friday price after discount: $50 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $110 24V Disney princess carriage ride on Store: Walmart Pre-Black Friday price: $425 Black Friday price after discount: $298 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $127 Lifetime 20' x 8' outdoor storage shed building Store: Sam's Club Pre-Black Friday price: $3,000 Black Friday price after discount: $1,999 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $1,001 Osaki OS-4000 massage chair Store: BJ's Pre-Black Friday price: $1,999 Black Friday price after discount: $1,600 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $399 Werner 20 ft. extension ladder Store: Ace Hardware Pre-Black Friday price: $366 Black Friday price after discount: $120 Additional discount for waiting until Black Friday: $246

Reviewtech

dual screen smartphone 2018

ZTE Axon M Smartphone Review

ZTE delivers the first “foldable” smartphone. While we would have imagined something else, the statement is right in principle. With its two displays and hinge in between, the Axon M reminds us a little of the old Nokia Communicator, but it can do so much more. If we are honest, smartphones hardly differ from each other externally: a large display, buttons left and right, and connections on the top and bottom. That is it. So it is refreshing if a manufacturer finally implements a concept announced a long time ago. Even though ZTE did not introduce a “real” foldable smartphone in the sense of a bendable display, its concept with the two screens is still special. Of course, there were other phones with several screens, such as the Yota Phone with e-Ink display, but in this form, there has not been anything like this available on the European market. Until now, ZTE has always shown itself as a solid manufacturer in our tests with classical smartphones, which promised good features on paper, but at the end of the test came in slightly below our expectations, as for example the ZTE Blade V8. Since the dual screen of the Axon M is a unique feature, this would of course be the decisive factor for interested buyers. Yet, we still want to know what performance we can expect from the built-in Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro SoC with an Adreno 530 graphics unit, and how well the 20-MP camera works in the front and back. In our test, we compare the Axon M with similarly equipped smartphones to reach a comparative evaluation leaving the double screen aside. The competitors in this test include the HTC U Ultra and the LG G6, since these two devices are equipped with the same SoC. However, to reflect its price point, the ZTE Axon also has to compete against more expensive smartphones, such as the Google Pixel 2 and Huawei's Mate 10 Pro.

WOw! This smartphone has 5 cameras

This smartphone has 5 cameras

The LG V40 ThinQ is the latest flagship smartphone from LG. In order to compete with Samsung, Apple, and Google LG has packed a ton of features into this device. The V40 ThinQ has 5 cameras — two front-facing cameras and a triple camera system on the back. There's also a 6.4-inch screen, headphone jack, and Hi-Fi amp. Antonio Villas-Boas: I've been using LG's brand new V40 ThinQ smartphone for the last few days and I've come away so far pretty impressed. It has a really sort of very premium-looking glass back and it looks great but it is, as with all phones with glass backs, a total fingerprint magnet. One thing in particular about this phone that is actually really, really impressive is how light it is. It's absolutely lighter than the Galaxy Note9 which is a pretty hefty, heavy phone. The LG V40 is just a really nice light phone to hold and use. And just because it's light, again, it doesn't mean that it's not premium. The phone feels solid. One of the reasons I think the phone is so light is because the phone actually has a very small battery. The V40 has a 3,300 mAh battery. It's a little on the low side for a phone this big and this powerful. Battery life isn't superb, it's fine. It's not as good as the Note9. It has quick charge which obviously is very useful. It has wireless charging which is very useful.

In true LG fashion, this is LG's signature thing, they have a sort of high-end, Hi-Fi amp inside the phone which makes audio sound a lot better through wired headphones. Now again, the key here is wired headphones. Yup, the LG V40 has a headphone jack. But, the real reason this phone stands out, the biggest unique feature here is the cameras. All five of them, to be exact. So, that's three on the back and two on the front. One of the cameras is just a regular wide-angle normal lens that almost every smartphone comes with. The other lens or one of the other lenses is LG's sort of signature ultra-wide angle lens so that means it captures a really wide version of what you're seeing. It's really good. It has less of that fisheye effect that we saw in previous LG phones so it's actually a pretty great thing to have. And now, the third lens is ta-da, it's a 2X zoom lens. Now, LG is incorporating all those lenses into one phone and you don't have to choose anymore. So, now for the front, we have two cameras like I mentioned earlier. One of them is, again, a normal wide-angle lens that all selfie cameras are. And the other camera is also an ultra-wide angle lens so that means bigger, broader selfies with more people inside. This is a great move by LG, for sure, and just including so many options and so much versatility in this phone and with the cameras, there's just something for everyone there. I've taken some test shots. This is nothing like definitive or anything but it looks good to me. It looks really good to me. LG's cameras on their smartphones have kinda always disappointed me in the past. One thing that the triple-lens system does which is pretty cool is you can take a photo with all three lenses at the same time. The photo quality on that sort of triple shot feature isn't great yet. I'm wondering if maybe it has to get a couple of updates from LG to get it improved but for now it's kinda just blowing out lights. It's not setting the aperture correctly enough and the photos don't look very good. Perhaps it's something LG can fix with a software update. Now, here's another thing that's pretty impressive. Three cameras, no bump. Pretty amazing there when you consider other phones like I don't know, iPhone, and its massive camera bump on the back. I've been saying this word, ThinQ, along with the LG V40's name. So, the ThinQ part is the sort of smart part of the LG V40 and LG put the smarts into the camera. So, it's what they call AI cam. So artificial intelligence cam. What it does is you point the camera at something and the camera sort of recognizes what you're pointing at. So, you're pointing at flowers, for example, it'll say a little flowers icon on the bottom right of the screen and it'll adjust the settings automatically for flowers. Does it work? Uhhh, I don't know. I took a photo of flowers yesterday and it said flowers on the little, on the bottom right there of the screen, and the flowers looked terrible. They look absolutely awful compared to the regular flower shot I took with the sort of auto mode of the phone. I think it's - sure, fine, but the auto mode on smartphones and the LG V40 is fine too. It takes great photos. Actually, I probably prefer just using the auto mode to be honest. So, let's talk about software a little bit. LG, like a lot of other smartphone makers, they put their own skins or layers of software like kind of a user interface on top of Android. And this one's pretty good. Usually I'm not a fan of LG's sort of extra layer on top of Android but this is pretty nice, pretty minimal. You do get a bunch of LG apps on there but it's not too offensive, really. Turning the wheels inside the LG V40 ThinQ is a Snapdragon 845 and that means great performance. The phone just glides through my day, has no problem switching through apps, and just multitasking is not a problem either. Great performing phone. The V40 has an OLED display and that means really, really nice colors, deep, deep blacks. It's just a really nice screen, it's sharp too at 1440p and it's also one of those taller displays with an aspect ratio around 19:9, I believe. It's also a large screen at 6.4 inches. Now, that's exactly the same size as the Galaxy Note9. It's actually a smaller phone than the Galaxy Note9 despite having the same screen size. Inescapable these days is the notch. I'm sorry notch haters, the notch is here to stay, and it's fine to be honest. Actually, it works quite well on Android phones. It means you can get the notification bar up there around the notch and it's out of the way of your apps. The great thing about Android is you can kind of hide the notch, right? You can turn it off or turn the colors black so it looks like just a notification bar up there. LG made a great phone with the V40 ThinQ. If you're getting tired of those really heavy phones, the LG V40 will totally cater to you. It's a really nice light phone to hold and use. It's especially appealing to audiophiles out there or if you just like music, or if you use wired headphones. But, the real reason this phone stands out, the biggest unique feature here is the cameras. If you like having a lot of options for the cameras, LG V40 is definitely for you. After moving from the Note9 to the V40, is Google home. I have Google Home again when I swipe left, not Bixby Home.

Microsoft Surface Studio 2

Microsoft Surface Studio 2

We have reason to believe Microsoft's 'Surface Studio 2' codenamed Capitola is currently in the works. Here's our wish list for what we hope to see in Microsoft's next Windows 10 all-in-one PC. SURFACE STUDIO 2 SPECS -28-inch, 4500 x 3000-pixel touchscreen -7th Gen quadcore Core i7 7820HQ -16GB or 32GB RAM -1TB or 2TB PCIe NVMe SSD -Nvidia GTX1060 6GB or GTX1070 8GB GPU -Four USB 3.0 Type-A ports -One USB Type-C (non-Thunderbolt 3) port -Gigabit Ethernet -Full-size SD card slot -$3,499 and up..

Microsoft's original Surface Studio is a beautiful yet imperfect Windows 10 AIO. It's been over a year since the original Surface Studio was announced, so now it's time to start thinking about what might be next for Microsoft's unique AIO. Factoring in all the issues the first Surface Studio had, here's my wish list for what I'm hoping Microsoft will address with the Surface Studio 2, which we're hearing could make an appearance at some point this year.

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 REVIEW

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 REVIEW

The Good The best looking console game there’s ever been Easily the most surprising story in open-world history A ludicrous and lovely number of side distractions The Bad Lack of fast travel makes this one long game The ending isn’t as brave as its predecessor There’s no way to say the following without sounding wildly definitive, so here goes…. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best looking video game of all time. Yes, EVER. And that includes Uncharted 4. It’s also the best game of the past five years. Compare this Wild West epic to GTA 3’s blocky Liberty City and its cast of fugly thugs you probably kneecapped on a tiny TV 17 years ago, and the evolution is astounding. At times, it’s scarcely believable how good Rockstar’s latest sandbox looks and feels. Not counting GTA 5’s remaster, this is the first game the studio has properly released this console generation. Unsurprisingly, in the years since the Los Santos sensation launched, Rockstar has built up a wealth of things to say. As such, RDR2 is a game of big themes and even bigger ideas. The evils of creeping capitalism. Corrupt regimes. The loss of long-held beliefs. With its contextual conversations, where its outlaw lead can either greet or antagonise hundreds of bespoke NPCs, the game also tries to move open-worlds forward. Here, your main interactions often involve swapping pleasantries (or devastating, old timey disses), while significant portions of the main story involve quiet, peaceful character-building. Compared to the wanton carousel of slaughter so many other sandboxes choose to ride, RDR2’s more thoughtful, less trigger-happy approach feels like a progressive step. Although that said, you still end up shooting hundreds of dudes. Don’t worry, most of ‘em deserve it. Playing on Xbox One X at 4K, this frontier fable isn’t just incredibly sharp, it boasts the most impressive lighting and weather effects around. Wait until you see a soupy morning mist coat the game’s southerly plantation fields or get caught in a screen-shaking thunderstorm, then try to disagree. If you’re lucky enough to own a high-end 4K TV, the visual splendour RDR2 routinely spits out is a match for even the most cutting-edge games on PC; remarkable seeing as this is running on (slightly) ageing consoles, not an insanely expensive graphics card. Even if you’re ‘only’ playing at 1080p on a standard Xbox One or PS4, this supremely pretty open-world is filled with incredible environments and super expressive character models.