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. 

Bucket Tech: Huawei Ascend Mate 7

When I get a test phone to review, I very rarely use it as my primary phone, reason being its normally a schelp to transfer contacts, calenders, syncing emails etc. But when Huawei sent me the Mate 7 to review, I had an unfortunate accident with my own phone which saw it shipped off for repairs, which till this day hasn't been fixed as yet...no pressure MTN High Volume Repair Center. In any case it served to be a blessing in disguise, it was my opportunity to use the Mate 7 as an everyday phone and thus helped me discover what an absolute gem of a phone this is. 

Dimensions & Accessibility 

The Mate being the bigger brother of the P, comes into the market as direct competition to phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, iPhone 6 Plus and other larger screen devices. Yes the phone is big, measuring 157 x 81 x 7.9mm but with the ergonomic design, it fits in your palm quite comfortably. The 6" screen is a marvel in its self as the crisp clarity of the 368dpi 1080 x 1920 resolution is truly astounding. Now with such a big phone, it would be awkward to operate it with one hand, thankfully the guys at Huawei thought of this and with a simple change in the settings can gear the phone into use for a left or right handed person by moving the icons closer to the preferred side. The phone also comes with a finger print scanner at the back which is six times faster than any other device on the market, to make unlocking the phone as easy as putting your finger on it. 

Display

As I mentioned above, it has a 6" screen which is crisp and clear as they come, with 16M colours and finished off in Corning Gorilla Glass 3 which is damn tough, trust me I unintentionally tested it. It has an IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen which translated into simple english, a type of LCD that increases the viewing angle of the screen so you can view it from pretty much any angle as well as increase the colour. The touch screen is one of the better ones in terms of response time and very easy to type with. The notifications drop down menu is pretty neat, most other brands have the setting and notifications tied into one but with the Mate 7, drag down from the left of the screen to access notifications whilst dragging from the right shows you quick settings, uncluttered and really smart.

Camera

Like most smart phones, it comes with a primary and secondary camera. Primary being a 13 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, capable of HDR shooting and many other options. It takes pretty decent pictures as you can see with the same pictures below. The front facing camera is a 5 megapixel camera, with 720p recording capabilities which is quite something. Also it seems manufacturers are taking selfies pretty seriously with added advancements in phones to make them take selfies more easily. On the Mate7, when the front facing camera is activated, it recognises a face and asks for that person to smile. That persons smile then serves as a trigger to take the picture. Very simple, very practical and making selfies extremely easy to take. Probably one of my favourite things about that phone...yes I like taking selfies. 

Performance

The phone is a beast when it comes to performance, multiple apps open at the same time, social media streams running and it's still smooth as ever. It's powered by a HiSilicon Kirin 925 chipset and has a  Quad-core 1.8GHz Cortex - A15 & quad-core 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 CPU...yup it has 2 quad-core processors. Memory wise, it has 16gig internal memory but can support up to 128gig MicroSD with 3gig of RAM. It's perfect the business man on the go, needing a fast phone that can complete any task that is required. 

Battery

One of the biggest concerns with new smart phones is the battery life, most new phones can't get a full days use with many needing to be on life support after 8 hours of use. The Mate 7 on the other hand comes with a Li-Po 4100 mAh battery that can last up to 658 hours on standby, but if you like me are non stop on the phone, it last me on average 13-14 hours on a single charge which is damn incredible. Many a time if I were going out and I see my phone sitting on 20%, I would normally carry my battery pack but with the Mate 7 I know that was more than adequate for my night out even if I was going to stream Bluetooth and take pictures. When the battery reaches critical level, it switches into a power saving mode, which converts the entire screen black and only allows you to make phone calls.

Overall

I said I used this phone as an everyday phone, besides the long battery life, the strong build quality and amazing screen, the phone really wowed me in terms of what the brand Huawei can do. The phone is available in 3 metallic colours, all very classy and upmarket. I said how most other devices make it to sync things such as contacts and calenders but with the Mate 7 it had an option to transfer contacts between two devices with bluetooh, I swear it took under 10 seconds and was effortless. People would be wary with the brand as they many haven't heard of them before but what they fail to realise is that most of our mobile devices have parts that are manufactured by Huawei. It's great to see them come to the party and produce such a quality product. I fell in love with my Mate 7 and didn't want to give it back. 

Specifications

• Display: 6" FHD IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours, 368ppi
• Processor: HiSilicon Kirin 925, (Quad-core 1,8GHz, Quad-core 1,3GHz), 3gig of RAM
• Camera: 13mp primary, 5mp secondary
• OS: Android 4.4.2 KitKat
• Finger print sensor: 1 second soft touch

Some pics taken with the cameras on the Mate 7, all unedited and in HDR.

the Socialite, my trusty selfie testing partner.

  

Bucket Tech: LG G3 - Review

Even the box is fancy

When people are due for an upgrade for their smart phone, natural instincts will direct them to the internet to read reviews on the latest gadgets that's thrown out their by the various brands. Most reviews are long and filled with technical mumbo jumbo that you don't understand but boast to your friends anyway because it makes your phone sound cool. A few weeks ago I was given the LG G3 to review but I'm putting a twist to this one, instead of regurgitating what everyone else is writing about, I'm going to take a leaf from the brand's marketing slogan for the phone "simple is the new smart" and give you a simplified, first hand experience with the phone and how it will affect your life on a daily basis.

Looks

Having attended the launch and seeing what the phone was capable of, I was pretty excited to get this phone for reviewing purposes. Playing with it for 30 minutes is one thing but having it a part of your daily routine makes a big difference and that is where the true test comes in. Lets start of with the cosmetics, the phone definitely looks the part, with its brushed aluminium finish available in various colours, 5.5" LCD screen and no buttons on the front make the phone sleek and sexy in appearance. The main power button and volume buttons are quote oddly located on the back of the phone, LG says it makes them more accessible when using the phone with one hand...yeah, didn't really do it for me. There are also flap covers available for the phone with a first of its kind round cut out for a display interface. I highly recommend the cover as I found the phone if dropped, can scratch easily.

Quad HD display is phenomenal

Display

Undoubtly one of the main talking points about the LG G3 is its screen, I kid you not when I say this, it will leave you speechless. It's the first phone to use Quad HD technology, what is Quad HD? Well precisely what the name says, four times HD. The screen has pixel density of 538ppi, which basically means the quality of the images view are true-to-life. LG is setting the standard with this one for future brands to follow and I'm glad they're settled for a 5,5" screen. It seems the norm size but it keeps the phones physical size to a respectable level and you won't feel like you're carrying around a phablet. Of course there is a catch to this phenomenal screen, with the clarity and brightness being so high, it uses a massive amount of battery life. Just over 30% to be exact!

Picture taken at night, on Auto mode with low light

Camera

With many of our current smart phones, the camera's are good but not great. The guys at LG took this into consideration when deciding on the camera that came with the G3. In the end what they've created is nothing short of magical, a 13 megapixel camera with optical image stabilizer and laser focus which translates to the end user take almost perfect pictures all the time, every time, anytime, anywhere and in any lighting conditions. Laser focus enables the phone to focus on the object in milli seconds, allowing the user to snap almost real time pictures, therefore not missing a second of the action. Couple this with the optical image stabilizer and blurred pictures are a thing of the past. There are occasions it does take a while to focus but when I say a while, its still way faster than any phone out there. It also has dual flashes which make pictures much more clearer and adds more detail to whats being captured. 

Taking selfies with help from Chia of the Socialite

Selfies Made Easy

The front camera is pretty decent at 2.1 megapixels, the clarity difference is very noticeable but one of the key features of it has to be the selfie detection. We live in an era where taking a selfie is becoming as important as breathing for some and with one having to press a button to capture it, it often moves the phone and you end up taking 50 selfies before chosing one to post to instagram. With the LG G3, it has a built in gesture control to activate the camera. It's quite neat to use as I demonstrated with many during the time in which I had the phone, simply activate the front facing camera, get everyone in the frame, open your palm and make sure it is visible in the screen, when ready to take a picture, clench your first to capture. It will give you a 3 second countdown and capture the perfect selfie every time. This will save you plenty of time in the future and make you look less of a nana. 

Smart Notice

Operating System

The make or break thing for me on a phone is the OS, Android has flooded the market with the various brands but many of them choose not to customise it too much which leaves me and others feeling that there is just too much to the thing. Not saying that it's bad, some people do feel like they want to be operating the Starship Enterprise when using their smart phone but for others, they just want something simple to operate, hence they keep going back to Apple. LG however have taken the step to customise Android's KitKat v4.4.2 to their phone. Simplifying the OS to the devices needs and cutting out all the other junk that you would find on a standard Android device. It makes the device much more user friendly to operate for everyone. I guess that's what they meant by "simple is the new smart" because at the end of the day, your cellphones primary use is to make and receive phone calls, well and now to receive whatsapp messages. 

Google Now tracking my where abouts

Google Intergration

Being Android, the phone is fully Google functional, what I found pretty cool was the voice activated Google search, by use of a trigger sentence "Okay Google", it will open up the search menu, awaiting your search instruction. So you can search for something on the internet without having to type anything! Google has integrated itself well and the phone also comes with Google Now, which pretty much is like a PA for you, or a creepy stalker that tracks your every move. No really it does, it will gather that the place you stayed at over night is home, and track your daily travel routes, notifying you if there are any delays on the route. It even tracks your location to bring you precise weather reports of the area you're in! The phone has access to Google's play store which has thousands of applications to chose from, besides the social media apps, one can find almost anything that they might find interesting. LG also have a store of their own but that is mainly for applications realted to the phone. 

Accessories

As mentioned before, the phone will have LG covers available for it, LG have also released a wireless charging mat for the G3, the downside to it is that is has to be plugged in to charge, so I don't really see the point. With Nokia's it worked as a portable battery pack. The main accessory for the G3 would have to be it's watch, what makes it different and miles apart from its competitors devices is that you can use it on any android device and is not limited to LG products. The watch also makes use of Googles voice activated menu which makes usability effortless. 

Verdict

While there may be some flaws with the phone, such as build quality and battery life, there is no phone out there at the moment that is perfect but I'd like to say that this one is almost near perfect. Most of the features and key aspects of the phone is revolutionary which is basically setting standards for others to follow. Add to that the good looks and simplified Android user interface LG have modified and you really do have a winning phone. The only other phone that came come close to this is the Oneplus Plus but with limited stock and only available to purchase via invite, LG is sure to have that part of the market sorted. Many times I get asked the question on which is the best phone on the market and I always tell people that the answer is based on user preference because we were flooded with similar devices but at long last there is a device that stands out from the rest of the crowd and while LG might not be very popular with the main crowd, they sure do have a great product out.

Specifications

Processor: Quad-core 2.5GHz Krait 400

Memory: 16gig onboard with 2 gigs of RAM

Screen: 5.5" Quad HD LCD, 16 million colours, 1440 x 2560 resolution

Camera: Back - 13 megapixel with optical image stabiliser & laser autofocus, Front - 2.1 megapixel

Battery life: Talk time - 19 hours, Standby - 565 hours

Some pics taken with the phone

Bucket Tech: LG G3 - First Impressions

Last week I was invited to the Durban leg of the official lauch for the LG G3 mobile phone. The venue, one of Durban's finest 5 star hotels, the Osyter Box. With such an extravagent venue, one would be inclined to think that the device that was due to be launched was equally elegant and fancy and we were not disappointed! After the brief meet and greet with the folk from LG and formalities it was onto the business, what is so special about this phone?

Taking off from the success of the previous models, the G2 and G Flex, the G3 embodies most of those those qualities that made the previous devices so great but with a lot more added to make it probably the best phone on the market right now. I know, that is a pretty bold statement to make but after taking everything into consideration, and seeing what it can do, I can't see any other competitor in the market right now to rival it. 

Simplicity

The tag line for the phone "Simple is the new smart", which may appeal to the the average Android user. You see many of the brands that use the Android OS on their devices tend to make the user interface a bit too expansive, with various menus, side menus, drop down menus, flick menus, widget menus, god knows what menus but with the LG it's much less complicated and cluttered. Everything you need is easily accessible and in front of you, with LG's smart notice it displays various updates and calendar events at different times of the day, it also incoperates Google Now which tracks your various activities during the day and is like your PA. 

The Screen

The screen has become one of the most key features of the mobile device of recent as many manufacturers opting to do away with the keyboard for the touch screen option. It offers the user a bigger display to use and more freedom for applications. On the G3, it is the first phone to have a Quad HD LCD display, technology that is just new to televions are now on this phone! Thats 4 x HD = 2,560 x 1,440 at 538ppi. The clarity and picture definition on the 5.5" screen is incredible, seeing is really believing with this one. 

The Camera

The phone comes with a 13 megapixel rear camera with OIS+ and a 2.1 megapixel front facing camera. Though the stand out feature of the primary camera is the focus speed, it has auto laser focus which enables the camera to focus and capture almost instantly. It takes 0.278 seconds to focus and then snap, thus eliminating blurred, out of focus pics. Also with the dual flash it makes the pictures much brighter and clearer. The front facing camera is nothing special but also has a cool feature to it. We are living in the selfie generation at the moment so knowing this, LG have devised a way for the user to taake a self with just hand gestures. Open palm to signal to take the picture and then close it to snap. 

Verdict

That just some of the key aspects that make this phone great, obviously just playing around with it for a few minutes won't tell me much about the phone but we will be getting a test unit soon to put it through its paces and see if it lives up to their hype. Other note worthy things about the phone is it's wireless charging capabilities and a key security feature being the new knock code unlocking method. The phone is available in various colours and has a custom made cover to suite. Look out for the full review later on this year.

Google I/O Keynote

Wednesday marked the opening day of Google I/O 2013, I/O: Input/ Output is a conference held by Google in San Francisco for developers focusing on building web, mobile applications for a better user experience. 

The opening Keynote not gave us a brief rundown on what Google have been doing in the past year and boy were they busy! Here are some of the highlights from the keynote.

All Access

Google's answer to streaming music but being Google this isn't your normal music store it integrates the music you already have in your library and learns from that the type of genres you like. From there is it selects the music of your preference and shows it in your favourites tab. There is a "Listen now" feature where by a click of a button it creates a play list of non stop music from your favourites, the list can be viewed and edited to the listeners choice. This app will set you back about $9.99 a month.

Games

Ever played a game on your PC, completed a certain level but you also have the same game on your mobile/ tablet and have to go complete that level again? Annoying right? Now with Google "Cloud Save" this problem is a thing of the past when have a game on multiple platforms. By saving your accomplishments on the cloud, it recognizes what level you are on next no matter whichever device you use! Another cool feature is creating groups to race your friends, one of the demo's involved a game called "Racer" which is a digital Scalectrix. A group of 5 friends all of which had different devices joined the game to race each other, they lined up their devices and the track was overlayed over ALL devices! 

Google+

There were 40 new features added to Google+ but without doubt the most talked about one was the Photos. Everyone loves to take pictures but not all come out great, with the new auto enhance feature Google have created basically photoshop with a click of a button. One can adjust the settings if you want to do an advanced edit to pictures.

Another feature called "Auto Awesome" searches your album and locates pictures that were either taken consecutively or on a burst mode then creates an animated gif with them! How cool?! It also can detect pics that were taken in sequence to create a perfectly stitched panoramic.

But by the best feature for me is "Auto Highlight", my albums contain thousands of pictures, what this does is select the best pictures from the bunch and group them together. It used advanced algorithms to detect the best quality photos, pictures with landmarks or scenery, pictures with people and it even can detect if a picture of the same thing has been taken twice! It sorts everything out for you!

Hangouts on Google+ has reached a whole new level, like everything else it is available on all platforms and with features like group hangouts with group video and file sharing it is a massive threat to WhatsApp and has beaten Blackberry to its release of BBM on multiple platforms.

Chrome OS

Theres a lot to offer from the operating system but the demo given to us was one that left many speechless. We've seen attempts by many Software companies to make a voice command functions but Google seemed to have overtook them in a flash. To prompt a search the user simply has to say "Okay Google" and tell it to search, it will then search and with a voice prompt tell you the results! One can then do multi and in depth searches.

Google Maps

My field of work requires me to visit some of the not so ventured areas in the province and Google Maps helps me a lot! Google has a host of imagery in its archives by means of satellites and streetview, using measuring tools were able to create 3D models of buildings. Having integrated all of this they are able to give the user a more realistic view of their route. Google Maps will now also be user based where by it adds places of interests that are prefered by you. For example if you like Italian food it will give you recommendations of restaurants near to you and it will also have a brief summary of what it has to offer. The user can also take pictures and upload it to Google's archive and they will then populate the info to that location. To demonstrate they have created a virtual tour of the Vatican by just using user images.

Planning routes has even been taken a step further when you want to travel from A to B, besides giving you the shortest route by route it now also gives you options of public transport in the area, be it taxi, bus or train. It even has schedules for the trains and buses detailing the stops it makes on the route. 

Google Maps is basically transforming to Google Earth as one can also zoom completely out of the atmosphere to view it from space but here where it gets even cooler. The Sun is in its exact position of that current time and if one has to rotate the Earth the side in darkness will have the lights one in the various cities and all the clouds shown are real time! MIND BLOWN!

Google as always didn't disappoint but to see the things they're doing is just amazing, there are over 900 million Android users in the word, over 48 billion Google Play app installs and with their new device the "Pixel" or otherwise known as "Chromebook" which runs Chrome OS, they're sure to keep growing in the market and make known that they are a force to be reckoned with!