Bucket Tech: iPhone X - First Impressions

The lead up to this week's Apple Event was all about the new iPhone, with the current available model on the market being the 7, in natural Apple progression, the next model to be released would be the 7s but with the 10 year anniversary of the iPhone being this year many in the know said that Apple would skip the S model and unveil the 8. They were bang on the money with that prediction but in true Steve Jobs fashion, Tim Cook and Apple had "One More Thing" up his sleeve for the night... the iPhone X.

Now I know many, when I say many I mean people other than fans of Apple, might be thinking what is this all about? Well, essentially the iPhone X is the iPhone 10, it pays tribute to 10 years of iPhone and it is the baddest one they've made to date. I mean I normally am a bit skeptical of the products they make, sure they're built well, work well but it's more often over hyped and more likely to cost you an arm and both legs. I'm pretty sure the same could be said about the X but the technology being showcased in this phone is great. Fair enough most Android phones have had these features for a while now and when the iPhone 7 was launched I spoke about how we were so used to Apple coming up with these great features but now it's time for them to play catch and that isn't always a bad thing. Sure the technology is out there but with anything, there will be problems, so if someone has invented it, you can borrow and perfect it. I'm pretty sure that is what Tim and his staff did. Lets take a look at some of the key features into this ultimate iPhone.

First thing that strikes you is the display, in previous generations of the iPhone, the displays always have had borders around them and the standard home key which doubled as a finger print reader. Well with the iPhone X, that got tossed out. The entire front of the device is a screen, yip, with a minimalistic frame which houses the 5.8inch super retina display, only a small portion at the top houses some sophisticated tech which includes sensors, a front facing camera and face ID technology. I know what you're thinking, what does it need face ID recognition for? Well remember how I said they phased out the home button, that button also served as a finger print reader for the phone, now with this gone, the iPhone X uses face recognition software to unlock your phone! Now while there have been many memes that's done the rounds making fun of this feature, you got to admit, that is pretty cool. 

Lets talk about the build quality now, I think we can all agree that the iPhones are made pretty well. Can't say the same about the screens but overall when you hold an iPhone is feels like a well made device, not some cheap tacky mobile you bought from a dodgy corner shop. The iPhone X will be manufactured with surgical stainless steel, yes normal steel just wasn't good enough, that they using a high grade class steel to made this device. Here's the kicker though, both the front and the back of the phone will have "durable" glass on the front and the back. Not sure they're going to be using Corningware Gorilla Glass for this or they've developed their own but for the sake of prospective buyers, I hope it's pretty strong stuff. The glass front and back does give the device a super premium look if I could say so oh and the iPhone X will be dust and splash proof, just in case you spill some Apple juice on it. 

Now the most important feature on an iPhone, the camera! The iPhone X like the 7 and 8 will have a dual lens camera configuration but Apple wanted to make it different and rotated the lens, how this helps, I don't really know but long as it takes awesome pictures of food, sunsets and craft beer right? The camera is a larger and faster 12MP sensor. A new colour filter with deeper pixels and new telephoto camera with OIS. It has depth-sensing cameras and precise facial mapping creating striking studio quality lighting effects. Both rear cameras have optical image stabilization and fast lenses for outstanding photos and videos even in low light. With the wide angle and telephoto cameras on the device, this enables optical zoom as well as digital zoom of up to 10 x for photos and 6 x for videos. 

Overall this phone looks the business and really outshone the iPhone 8 which was also launched on the same night, was that a stupid move from Apple though? Killing off their own product with another one of theirs? Well yes and no, the iPhone X is a special device, so it will have a special price tag. It also has the fastest chipset and CPU than any other of their devices so it really depends on what the consumer needs and how much they can afford. Pricing has only been made available in dollars which is pretty useless to us because simply converting it won't give us a true indication of how much the phone will cost us. We will just have to wait and see along with when it will reach our shores. 

Bucket Tech: Google Pixel - First Impressions

I would have thought yesterdays presentation by Google would have kicked up more of a fuss on the interwebs as we saw the internet giant unveil a whole bunch of new toys to the world once of which was particularly intriguing, as the most of us in the tech world has been waiting for it for some time now. Google's first custom made mobile phone. Meet the Pixel, created by Google from scratch to offer the user seamless integration with their Google ecosystem. As most phones on the current market run on Android operating systems which is developed by Google, many have now become accustomed to their integrated network within your one account. How will the Pixel differ to those you may ask?

Well for one, the Pixel will be the first ever device to come with Google Assist built in. Like Apples Siri and Microsofts Cortana, Googles Assist is a lot like them, being your personal assistant and understanding voice commands but with the power of its massive information hub. You can schedule meetings, set reminders, check the weather for the weekend and even see what time a restaurant closes all by simply asking your phone. One really can't even compare it to the others simply because of Google's footprint on the internet, with it being the number used search engine, most things online make themselves Google friendly for this very reason. With Google their data base is always learning, improving and adding information whether its via their technicians or the user. Yes, Google gives the user the opportunity to increase it's information data base. Your device learns from you without you even noticing. It remembers where you parked your car, your route to work, which restaurant you ate at last night and even where you work. Some times Google will prompt you for information about the place you visited which only takes you a couple of seconds and it's by the user updating these for Google is how they are able to generate so much information. 

Anyway, enough about the creepy stalker software Google made, more about the phone. It's available in two sizes, the 5" (Pixel X) or the 5.5" (Pixel XL) and available in three unique colours, Quite Black, Very Silver or Really Blue, now this blue is nothing like any blue you've ever seen before, they literally made a new blue just for this phone. The phone is put together in a seamless glass-aluminium body with smooth surfaces and easy to grip curve edges.  The design is very similar to that of the iPhone, it certain instances they look identical, the obvious give aways would be the lack of a home button, the finger print reader on the back and the G. Yes, the Pixel has a fingerprint sensor on the back of the device, similar to the Huawei's which enables you to unlock your phone quickly. The screen is quite something, as Google say its "A vivid cinematic display, A brilliant AMOLED screen with true blacks and 16.77 million colours". Seems pretty impressive but as we come to know, with great bright screens comes shitty battery life but Google have come to the party with this and have included a battery that they claim can last the whole day, if that is incorporating hevy usage with multiple background apps running, I'm not to sure. The thing about the battery that I like the most is it's fast charging ability, Google say that in just 15 minutes you will be able to get 7 hours of battery life! That is well impressive. 

Both devices come in the metal unibody with Gorilla Glass 4 coating over the screen. Memory wise, they have 4GB LPDDR4 Ram, the display is 100% NTSC with 100000:1 super contrast ratio. Storage, you will have the option of either 32 or 128GB devices but with sync and access to your google drive, this really comes down to how much data you want to physically store on your device. Is has a the Snapdragon 821; MSM8996 pro AB Quad Core 2+2 Kryo 2.15GHz/16GHz processor. Google claims it has the highest rate smartphone camera. ever with the main camera being a 12.3 megapixel. It has the best-ever 89 DxOMark Mobile score and it allows you to take brilliant photos in low light , bright light or any light. Most smartphone cameras fail in one of those 3, so it's great to see someone has come in to remedy this. Videoing can be down in 1080p up to 120fps and can record in 4K at 30fps. The front facing camera is an 8 megapixel with fixed focus for those perfect selfies. 

Google also touches on the experience one gets with the Pixel, they have developed apps that work both on Andoird and iOS devices so you can share moments with uses of any device, one those is Google Duo, you can video call friends and family no matter what device they have. Or if you have an Apple device and you're thinking of converting, Google has make it easy for you to transfer information from your current device to the Pixel with a plug and transfer USB cable, you can choose what information you want to load and transfer onto your device. The phone can be customised with Live Cases available for purchase on their online store with either personal photography or a range of their range from either Google stock photography, Google Maps or wallpaper selection. 

The Pixel is also one of the first devices that is built for VR, and with that Google also launched their Daydream VR case for the Pixel. It is a headset controller by Google that lets you explore new worlds, give you the ability to have your own VR cinema, play games that put you in the center of all the action, It comes with a remote to give the use ease of control with having to fumble and search for buttons on the side of the device. The Daydream is light wait and super comfy which usually is the massive turn off from most of the current VR headsets on the market. 

So far the Pixel looks like a pretty decent device and probably the best Android on the market, simply because it's coming from the company that designs and makes the software. The brains behind the whole shebang! It will be interesting to see what the local prices will be like, the phone is already available for pre-order for the US market but with the costs of data locally it wouldn't be the most feasible option unless you really really want it as soon as its out.