Bucket Tech: HUAWEI MatePad T10s

The HUAWEI MatePad T 10s 64GB, a lightweight and powerful 10.1-inch tablet that offers best-in-class multimedia capabilities, is now available in South Africa. The tablet’s Full HD display with HUAWEI ClariVu Display Enhancement Technology ensures the finest detail comes through with incredible colour vibrancy, working alongside a powerful dual-speaker audio system to deliver an immersive experience, whether the tablet is used for watching movies or gaming. Embedded in the tablet is the Kirin 710A, which supports powerful performance and a range of smart and family-friendly features that EMUI 10.1 has on offer.

The new HUAWEI MatePad T 10s is built for entertaining the whole family. It features a simple yet practical design that incorporates a premium metal body, and is light enough for the kids in the family to use. The tablet utilises a strong geometric design language with slim bezels surrounding the display, creating perfect symmetry on the front. The sides of the tablet are curved to fit comfortably in the hand, and reinforced edges provide additional protection against drop damage and shock from minor impacts.  

The HUAWEI MatePad T 10s features a Full HD IPS panel supporting a resolution of 1920x1200 and 70 percent of the NTSC colour gamut (typical value). At 10.1 inches, the 16:10 display has a high pixel density of 224ppi to ensure detail in any image or video is presented with impeccable sharpness. The display also supports HUAWEI ClariVu Display Enhancement technology, which dynamically optimises colour, brightness and saturation, as well as a Huawei-developed Super Resolution algorithm that scales up lower-res content for a more immersive experience. 

From an audio perspective, Harman Kardon amplitude speakers are located symmetrically on the sides of the HUAWEI MatePad T 10s. The speakers have been redesigned to allow for a longer stroke path than traditional audio systems in tablets, ensuring the tablet can achieve a higher audio volume with low distortion. HUAWEI Histen 6.1 enables the support of 9.1-channel 3D surround sound with options for users to configure the audio experience according to their preference, as well as Bass Booster, which offers smart optimisation that enhances the bass.

The HUAWEI MatePad T 10s comes with EMUI 10.1, which adds versatility to the media-centric tablet with a range of smart features in an intuitive and responsive UI. HUAWEI App Multiplier lets users make the most of the horizontal orientation with a smart split screen view. Users can also transfer photos, videos and documents more quickly with Huawei Share from their Huawei mobile phones or Huawei laptops, which supports data transfer speeds of up to 150MB/s.

The HUAWEI MatePad T 10s also includes eye protection features, which can be enabled with the TÜV Rheinland-certified Eye Comfort mode to protect user’s eyesight. An eBook mode is also available, where the tablet adjusts the colours on display to offer a paper-like reading experience. In addition, a new Dark Mode, which has been developed from intense research, offers users a more comfortable experience when using the tablet in the dark.

Designed to offer a fun experience for users of all ages, the HUAWEI MatePad T 10s includes Kids Corner, a virtual space that offers a safe environment for children to explore the digital world, even when unsupervised. Parental control options embedded in the feature lets parents easily set usage limits and control the content and apps that are available for their children. Also included in the Kids Corner are six-layer intelligent eye protection features, including blue light filter, posture alerts, distance alerts, brightness alerts, bumpy road alerts, and eBook mode, to add extra protection to children’s eyes.

Available in Deepsea Blue, the HUAWEI MatePad T 10s, with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, can now be purchased for just R4,499 from the Huawei Store (Online) or Incredible Connection. The HUAWEI MatePad T 10s is also available from MTN, Vodacom, Telkom and Cell C on a 24-month or 36-month contract. The tablet comes with a free flip cover valued at R699.

Bucket Seat: KIA Cerato - First Impressions

The compact sedan market is hotting up as the luxury sedan segment pricing seems to be rocketing up, consumers, especially the middle class earners are looking for affordable family vehicles but also should look good and have most of the bells and whistles that you would expect from a compact sedan. For years Toyota have dominated this aspect in the market with their Corolla, and to this day remains one of the best selling vehicles in its class, worldwide! But over the recent years, the Korean's have come to the fight and they got the weapons to match. A little over 10 years ago I watched an interview and interview of the President of Toyota, of which he was asked if he fears the competition from VW, and he replied, no, its the Korean car-makers which he worries about .Fast forward to present day, and you will see what he was talking about. The likes of Hyundai and KIA have stormed the market with their variety of vehicles and exceptional service and guarantees. 

This week saw KIA launch their 3rd generation Cerato sedan, a car which has done reasonably well in SA, well not so much the actual sedan but rather the variants with the hatch and Koup being the popular ones from the line-up. Not sure what the reason for that was, maybe the styling? If that was indeed the case, then this new Cerato shouldn't have the same problem as it looks great! Unlike the Rio and Picanto we tested last year, the design of the front is more on the lines of the new Sportage with a similar angled grille and elongated headlamps. The rear ties in quite nicely with the car as well and also similar to the Sportage rear with the straight-line tailgate linking the both rear lights. From the pictures, it looks like they're LED lights as well. 

Moving on to the interior, it is very similar to the Rio, slightly more spacious though. Interesting to note is that it comes standard with the 8" touchscreen with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, as this was an optional extra or model dependent in the Rio and Picanto, it however for the US market, I'm hoping it also applies to the local market. I did mention in my review of either car that it is a must as it integrates so well with your smart phone, from navigation, to phone calls, it even reads out sms's and whatsapp messages to you. The Cerato has some nice options for the interior, like a wireless charging tray and a 320-watt sound system that has been developed with Harman Kardon! I'm liking this car already. In terms of safety, the car comes with the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) which is offered in many of the other premium models and now is featured in the Cerato. It has blind-spot collision warning, lane keeping assist, it also comes with forward collision avoidance assist and smart cruise control which maintains a specific distance to the car in front of you. 

Performance wise, the new Cerato comes powered with a 2.0L Nu four-cylinder engine that benefits from Atkinson Cycle technology and cooled EGR system. They have eliminated the CVT transmission and developed the IVT with adaptive style shift logic with a chain-type belt instead of a push belt, which is a first in the compact class.They have also reduced engine noise by wrapping the transmission case in a sound-insulated cover to help minimise the "drone" associated with this technology. The engine pushes out the same figures as the current Cerato, with 110kW and 179Nm of torque but efficiency levels have been bettered with an approximate 6.7L/100km. KIA's have some of the best Eco figures from the host of cars I've test so I can only imagine this must be just as good. 

Overall this looks like a very exciting new addition to the compact sedan market, certainly has a more premium feel to it than its competitors. While the battle for the top spot may be dominated by Toyota with its Corolla, Hyundai's Elantra might have some good competition with the Cerato for the battle of second place.

love this cheeky little advert from KIA comparing the Cerato to the Aventador 

Bucket Seat: KIA Soul

Korean Motor manufacturer KIA has been in the market long enough to be considered a major player when it comes to contributing to vehicle sales in South Africa. They offer a wide range of vehicles, from compact hatch-backs, small sedans to large SUV and small trucks. While I always felt KIA did have the edge in terms of design and quality from the other Korean brands, as most models of theirs were straight cut and formal, but they had something quirky up their sleeves when they made today's reviewed car, the Soul. When it comes to the Soul, there's generally two reactions you get from people when they see it, either they wonder what the hell is that thing or they love it, for my I fall in the latter half as I do quite like the design. As I said, KIA had it's aim on attacking the market that most luxury German manufacturers have and with this car, it shows they're also have a playful side to them as it incorporates a lot of fun elements which makes the car pretty cool and trendy. 

STYLE

The big thing about the the Soul is how it looks, as the interior apart from one or two rad designs is pretty much stock standard to any other KIA out there. The design of the Soul is big and bold which not only makes the car look great but in tern transpires into a very spacious and roomy cabin for its passengers. The design while bold is also quite clever with acute angles and bulges in the right place to enhance the cars aesthetics which gives it a mixture between a city car and a sport hatch. Yes, I know you probably looking at the car and saying "there's nothing sporty about it" but you would be wrong, while the car sits rather high, the roof has a slant to it which is matched with the window line giving it that sleek finish and the rear wheel arches protrude the body almost giving it that rally car feel, The rear lights are quite funky as well with it being quite large and trying into the rear with thick black outlines. Some might consider the Soul to be something funky but it's more of a modern day city car/ MPV.

PERFORMANCE

I honestly thought the Soul just came in one engine type but soon did I realise there was actually 7 derivatives available! Starting off from the 1.6 DCT DSL Smart, right up to the range topping 1.6 MT Start. I had the only diesel engine in the line up, the 1.6 Diesel MT Start, it is an in-line 4 cylinder, 16 valve power plant which produces, 94kW and 260Nm of torque. Not bad for a 1.6 litre engine. It features a Common Rail Direct Injection system, better know as CRDi, which really helps performance and keeps the fuel economy at a minimum. The engine is also damn silent compared to most other Diesel engines. Apart from the noise on start-up, the only other way I would have known it was a diesel is when I went to fill up and saw the diesel stickers on the inside of the fuel cap. Suffice to say with the brilliant economy I was getting, I didn't need to fill the car up during my week with it. The car although big, is pretty light so on take-off it is pretty nippy and with it being a manual transmission, this helped me test the peaks of the acceleration but mind you, this is a city car so it won't be competing with any hot hatches. I love the manual gearboxes on the KIA's, they're so smooth and accurate combined with that soft clutch, the gears just flow like a hot knife through butter. 

COMFORT

With its big shell, the Soul does had a lot of interior space, it is extremely spacious in the cabin for all passengers. As mentioned with the sloping roof line, the rear passengers do sit a bit lower than the front to avoid any nasty head bashes but they still have enough leg room in the back. Not quite sure how they managed that but props to the design team! The ride quality is something that I admired on the Soul, with its box like nature I would have imagine it to be a bit difficult to steer on the road but had none such trouble. Even it's maneuverability quite astonishing with it managing to turn the tightest angles and where in some case most cars require a three-point-turn, the Soul does it in one swing!

STORAGE

With there being so much space in the car, you'd expect lots of storage space as well. While the trunk is pretty decent and can load enough luggage for a small getaway, the rest of the car does have it's fare share of compartments to store things in. The glove box is fairly adequate and there are many small storage areas to keep small items safely and securely. Also the sunglasses compartment could actually fit my sunglasses in! Which made me very happy as I normally end up storing them in the side of the door or in the center with keys and other items that might scratch the lens.

VERDICT

Overall the KIA Soul is a very underrated MPV, it's a City Car that works well in the city and doesn't do that badly when doing long distances, obviously this is helped by it's spacious cabin and the very economical diesel engine. The car is perfect for those small but growing families, and can serve many purposes, from being a car for dropping off and picking up the kids from school or sports to going to work in the highly conjested CBD.  It's funky, looks cool and you can spec this car up to your personality with a variety of colours and options, with even some two tone options to really bring out the design of the car. A major plus for the car is that it is very practical which in the end of the has me giving it two thumbs up. 

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine	1.6 liter Diesel 4 cylinder CRDi
Gear Box	6 speed manual
Power	94kW
Torque	260Nm
Top Speed	180km/h
0-100km/h	10.8 seconds
Price	R 329,995*

Bucket Tech: Nokia 6

Nokia, there's a name we haven't heard for a while in the mobile phone market. For most part of the 90's and early 2000's the Finnish cellular phone manufacturer was the market leader. They built their reputation by making great quality phones, being the leaders in technology at the time and of course make phones that were desirable to all types of people, be it the business man or the average college going kid and not to mention they were virtually indestructable. As the years went on, Nokia started to face some stiff competition from the likes of Motorola, Ericsson and Siemens, and with many of those brands teaming up with other technology companies for new ideas and functions on their devices, it was time for Nokia to do so themselves. They made a bold move by teaming up with software giants Microsoft who eventually bought them off in 2015, only for them to let go of the company the next year.

Though much like their phones of the 90's the brand is refusing to die, and have announced their comeback to the market in style with the launch of the Nokia 6. The phone is currently only available in China but it's nice to see they added quite a new twist to what we used to but keeping the standards that we know, personally I think it's great! With the rise in Chinese mobile phone manufacturers in the market, China is the ideal place to test your product out for consumer research, the Nokia 6 sold out after being put on sale online in within a minute! Yes there was limited stocks but that is pretty impressive seeing that Nokia have been out for a while and no one knew what to expect from them. The Nokia 6 is as an Android based phone, it runs on v7.0 (Nougat) and has a Qualcomm MSM8937 Snapdragon 430 chipset with a Octa-core 1.4GHz Cortex-A53 CPU, it also has a Adreno 505 GPU. Memory wise, it's packing big with 64GB internal storage as well as a MicroSD slot which can take up to 256GB card. The phone has 4GB RAM which is well sufficient for a phone of this nature. 

When Microsoft teamed up to make the Lumia range, they adopted help from Carl Ziess for the camera technology, it's a pity that partnership didn't continue with the brand but never the less the camera on the Nokia 6 doesn't seem too shabby. it comes with a 16 megapixel primary camera, key features of it include phase detection autofocus, dual-LED flash, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama and HDR. It records videos in 1080@30fps resolution. Front facing camera is an 8 megapixel with 1080 recording capabilities. 

Another key feature of Nokia's of old were their build quality and it seems they didn't take any shortcuts with this one. The entire phone is a solid aluminium shell molded and chiseled into shape, it has nice clean lines with a silver bevel on the edges, the screen has the trusty Corning Gorilla Glass 3 which houses a 5.5" IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 16M colours. In ratio to the phone size, the screen to body ratio is 70.7%, There is is section at the bottom of the phone that houses the key buttons as well as a finger print reader.  

Overall it looks like a pretty good device and while it might not be available worldwide, it's great to see the brand make an emergence into the market. It's not far off from the other high end business type smart phones but they seem to have everything there to take on the bigger fish in the market. For now people might be drawn to the phone due to its heritage but until we have it in our hands for testing, there's only so much we can tell from the stats. 

Bucket Seat: New MINI Countryman - First Impressions

MINI's Countryman, the one that contradicts it's brand as it's not really that mini in size has a new generation heading our way next year. It is the biggest model available from the British brand's stable and with the older one being one of my favourites, I'm quite looking forward to seeing what this one has to offer when it hits our shores. 

With MINI's design philosophy being that to channel the cars of yesteryear, its difficult to play around with the cars overall design and make it look different but with the new Countryman, it's undergone a complete revamp which see's the design change quite a bit a not just a few tweaks here and there. The new model boasts advancements in areas of space, functionality, athletic flair and premium characteristics.

What I like about MINI is that even though their cars are aimed at a certain market, they never comprised on quality of their product. It's always high end finishes with good quality materials in their cars and with the new Countryman, it seems that this trend is continued and improved. Overall the newly developed Countryman see's ten key innovations to it from its predecessor. 

1. Powerful proportions, 20 centimeters longer that its predecessor.
2. Five fully-fledged seats, clear increase in space and versatility.
3. Electrical tailgate control as well as touchless opening and closing of the tailgate.
4. MINI Picnic Bench: fold-out load loading cushion as a comfortable seat on the luggage compartment lid and for general outdoor use. 
5. MINI Cooper S E Countryman ALL5: the first ever MINI with plug-in hybrid drive.
6. New generation of engines and gearboxes, efficiency-optimised all-wheel drive system ALL4. 
7. Central instrument with touchscreen function for the first time. 
8. MINI Country Timer measures driving fun over demanding terrain.
9. MINI Connected App as a personal assistant on a day-to-day basis and when travelling.
10. MINI Find Mate: everything you need on board at all times - or in view.

Quite a number of advancements and a few that grab my attention, although the Countryman is the biggest in the range, it did seem a bit cramped and while 20cm doesn't seem like the biggest space, it would make a vast improvement in cabin space. Other items which are note worthy are the new engines and gearboxes, all MINI's are great fun to drive and with their size and agility, you tend to push the limits of the car more often than not, this has direct implications on your fuel consumption. I've had terrible economy stats on any of the MINI's I've driven but the new engines and gearboxes will help alleviate this. What I'm really looking forward to is the MINI Cooper S E, having driven the Hybrid range from MINI's sister company, BMW, of which they were great, I can only imagine how the first MINI hybrid will be. 

Other first for the new Countryman is the LED headlamp with peripheral daytime driving light ring. The striking profile of the headlamp units deviates from the circular shape that is otherwise typical of the brand. Their distinctive, slightly asymmetrically rounded contour goes together with the radiator grille to produce an unmistakable front view. The parking lights integrated in the air inlets are used for the daytime driving light as standard. In conjunction with the optional LED headlamps, the latter is generated for the first time by a band of light running entirely around each headlamp. 

Overall the new Countryman looks the business, in time we will see if it can deliver on what it says. 

For me the new design looks great, with additional extras such as paints and livery details as well as roof racks, one can customise their Countryman, uniquely and  to their taste. It's great to see MINI getting in with the mobile application buzz as well. Cannot wait to experience this one next year.