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Connecting people through setups and products you love. This is where you have an overview of all communities.
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News & Discussion
Let the leaks begin! New images of the upcoming 2020 iPhone have been released. The phone is described as "iPhone 4 meets the iPhone 11." It looks much like you'd expect all iPhones to look, which is a good thing, I think. There isn't much info on the hardware, but it's still early. I'm excited for further information to be released in the near future.
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It can be confusing to talk about the last few and probably coming OnePlus T phones. For one thing, it’s phonetically weird. For example, the excellent OnePlus 6T phone from last year makes you sound like you’re saying 60. The newly announced OnePlus 7T is no different. It sounds like you’re saying 70 instead of 7T. But make no mistake about it, the OnePlus 7T is going to be one of the most distinct smartphones out there for years to come.
The confusion surrounding this new phone is even more compounded by a slight reshuffle of their devices. For most of its existence, these T versions served as iterative upgrades to their base models. This automatically makes them the company’s flagship upon release.
Not this year though.
Just a few months ago, they released the OnePlus 7 Pro. It’s most certainly OnePlus’ undisputed flagship for 2019. It’s got all the bells and whistles that the company can offer its customers. The OnePlus 7T, however, has got things up its sleeves that make it a compelling option without cannibalizing potential sales of its bigger brother.
So, right now, it sits all by its lonesome in a category that’s quite not in the league of the OnePlus 7 Pro but not quite your average midrange either.
If you’re a smartphone nut, you’re not going to be confused with the OnePlus 7T. It’s just so unique in its execution in terms of features.
But to give you a better view into what the 7T is capable of, it’s probably best to just dive right into the review.
90Hz + HDR 10 Goodness
On the surface, especially if you’re only looking at it from the front, there’s almost no difference with this year’s base OnePlus 7. They’re both almost fully free of bezels except for a tiny teardrop notch at the top for the selfie shooter. It’s quite literally just below that glass surface where the magic happens. You see, the OnePlus 7T comes with a 90Hz screen.
It doesn’t seem like a huge feature on paper. Even on video reviews, it probably doesn’t look like much too. But in person, the high-refresh rate makes staring at the screen for long periods such a breeze. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking at moving objects in a game or just reading on your phone, this feature just makes it so much easier on the eyes. These days, both work and play has starting to migrate from PC screens to our smartphone screens. Having a screen that doesn't give you headache after a couple of hours of use is a feature that we would want.
Another bleeding-edge screen tech that the OnePlus 7T is going to ship with is its HDR 10+ compatibility. While HDR displays have been around for a long time now, smartphone companies have been slow to adopt the technology. HDR content just wasn’t abundant enough to justify buying hardware for it.
Things have turned around though. Amazon Prime and Netflix, for example, have started to roll out HDR videos onto their platforms. This means more content at its best possible video quality to consume on your OnePlus 7T.
Don’t think that OnePlus is screwing with people who already own the 7 Pro, though. Despite all the bleeding edge tech embedded in the screen, it’s still got a lesser panel. It has a slight color-shifting going if you view it just a little off-axis. But, it’s nothing to be alarmed about. It does not take much away from the user experience. HDR content is still very nice to look at.
There’s another polarizing screen feature that might point you towards the 7T instead of the Pro. In the 7T, OnePlus decided not to bend the display over to the side of the device.
This omission may be a downgrade for some people, but for many, this is a huge plus. For them, the Samsung-style curved edges were nothing more than a gimmick. Sometimes it was a gimmick that intruded with their experience due to accidental touches.
Slightly Improved Hardware
While it loses out on the OnePlus 7 Pro’s screen design, the OnePlus 7T takes after the Pro in a lot of other ways in term so hardware. In some respects, it may even outclass the more expensive phone.
One of the more important upgrades of the 7T versus the Pro is that it has a oh so slightly better processor. While the Pro is equipped with the beefy Snapdragon 855, the 7T has an 855 Plus. It’s an iterative upgrade, yes, but it’s an upgrade all the same.
This processor, aside from the slight speed bump, enables the phone to charge faster. They call this feature the Warp Charge 30T.
In other aspects, both the 7T and the Pro are similar. It’s going to have 128GB or 256GB 3.0 UFS storage paired with 8GB on both versions.
All of these paired with a near-stock Android 10 experience with the Oxygen OS makes this one of the most buttery-smooth smartphones you can use. It should crush whatever task you put up to it.
Camera Tech
If you look at the camera spec sheet, you’d think that OnePlus merely copy pasted the page from the OnePlus 7 Pro to the OnePlus 7T. From the surface, the only difference between the two would be the layout. The Pro has them arranged vertically while the 7T has lines them up horizontally.
But upon closer inspection, you’d quickly realize that the 7T has a significantly improved macro mode. This enables you to bring the camera up to 2.5 cm from the subject and keep focus perfectly. This allows you to take interesting perspectives that not a lot of smartphone cameras can take.
It’s important to consider that OnePlus phones has never been known have top-notch camera quality. You can expect this reputation to follow it into this new phone again. The images should be decent but not on par with the Google Pixel 3s of the world. At a base price of $600, though, you it would be unfair to expect that they would go toe-to-toe on this respect.
In general, the OnePlus 7T has got a lot going for it. The cutting-edge display can be huge draw for general smartphone users. It’s not a niche feature. Which makes one think, is OnePlus still a fringe brand? It’s starting to look like one of the best and most popular Android smartphones out there. This new OnePlus 7T might just cement its place in the pantheon of great Android smartphone manufacturers and its piece of the pie in the global smartphone market.
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The #OnePlus7T is the slightly smaller, slightly less advanced, and slightly cheaper version in the lineup. It doesn't have the popup camera, but it's a good phone at a fantastic price. In a landscape where thousand-dollar phones are the norm, this one is a pleasant surprise. #smartphones #smartphone #OnePlus #Android #mobile #mobilephone #budgetphone #budgetsmartphone #value
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Google and Amazon will continue battling for smart assistant supremacy. How would you compare the Echo Dot versus Google Home Mini? I hadn't paid much attention to the generic digital clock but now I agree that there is a compromise on the Dot's uniformity.
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News & Discussion
AT&T's intentions when launching 5G Evolution might have been good, but the company seems to have courted more trouble, as a result. Many people could have fallen victim to assuming that they were on the 5G network already.
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#Huawei's latest phone was inspired by the #Porsche and it's very sleek indeed. It's a #smartphone that's sure to get noticed thanks to its posh exterior. Just don't look under the metaphorical hood because there's not much there in terms of software. #sleek #HuaweiMate30 #professional #highend #high-end #leather #sexy
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I love photography, and my assumption has always been that anyone is better off with a DSLR. The review of the iPhone 11 Pro has made me consider purchasing a smartphone that 'feels like a phone, and much more a camera.'
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Apple's streaming service comes out on the first day of November. You can stream Apple TV Plus from many different devices which makes it a convenient entertainment option. Will you subscribe?
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I would rather Apple retained the lightning port in current and future models, even though this is a subjective topic. I agree with the article's argument that apart from a polished product, consumers are looking for devices with more battery life, excellent camera functions, among other specifics.
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We will have to get used to large screen sizes when talking about the #iPhone and future #Applesmartphone flagship models. Like many enthusiasts, I did not expect a lot of deviation from last years iPhone XS, in terms of design. I can't wait for the launch for the first-ever #iPhone 5G phone.
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Google’s Pixel devices have been experiencing its day in the light for a couple of years now. Some reports claim that it's the fastest-growing smartphone in the U.S.
While the OG Pixel had a lukewarm reception, the follow-up Pixel 2 told a different story. It was, aside from the nit-pickers that gnawed on the blue tilt of the screens, one of the best-loved phones of its cycle. The Pixel 3, on the other hand, had a brief scuffle with scandal. Specifically, the Pixel 3 XL had a humungous notch that became the butt of all jokes for quite a while. The smaller, more conservative version, however, was among the best-reviewed phones compared to its peers.
This growth leads us - the fourth iteration of Google’s Pixel. It hasn’t even been announced yet, but the leaks are already giving us a pretty detailed look at Google’s newest smartphone venture. It should be said, however, that Google’s not very protective about the information on its smartphones in general. The Pixel 3 XL’s humungous notch, for example, was seen from a mile away. Tech enthusiasts, therefore, already have plenty to write about this early.
So, what can we expect from this interesting new outing for Google? We’ve gathered the most impactful here, so you don’t have to.
Project Soli
It’s been rumoured for years that Google was working on something called Project Soli. It’s supposed to make touch-less gesture control a lot more accurate. According to leaks, the futuristic tech is ready for primetime and the Pixel 4 if where Google chooses to debut it.
Previous handsets have tried doing this air-based gesture control before. The Galaxy S4, way back in 2014, is one notable example. The latest ones to try it was LG with their LG V50. Both of them, however, used mainly their front cameras.
The intention for those phones was good; the execution, however, was flawed. Changing songs from without having to speak or pick up the phone can be a nice functionality. But doing so, only using the smartphone’s camera, no matter how high-resolution, is frustratingly a bit of a hit or miss.
Project Soli, on the other hand, adds a radar to this mix. This would theoretically improve gesture accuracy. Only time will tell whether it will work any better than the Galaxy S4 and the others that came before it.
Camera
Whether you’re using an expensive mirrorless camera or just your smartphone, taking pictures of objects in motion is a herculean task. A pet that you just can’t get to pose and keep still, for example, takes a lot of work.
The Pixel 4 is rumoured to have a Motion Mode that helps you capture moving objects in your frame. It’s probably going to use a lot of A.I. magic just like how it did with bokeh effects on portraits.
It’s not clear yet what the new camera setup has to do with this feature. Will it be using the all three cameras at once and stitch it together for a great moving photo? Or maybe, they’re just going to use the plain old power of A.I.
Speaking of camera setup, it’s important to note that the Pixel 4 should have a similar square camera module as the newly announced iPhone. It should house 3 of the most common sensor setups namely, the zoom, wide, and ultrawide. This makes the Pixel 4 an even more versatile camera phone.
The Motion Mode and the three-camera setup are going to help make the case for Pixel 4 as the ultimate camera phone out there. It's as if Google intends their new phone to be the only camera that most people would ever buy no matter what the situation.
It's already one of the best night-time cameras with its Night Mode feature and it's also a great portrait camera. The zoom lens is going to be a welcome addition. The motion mode, on the other hand, has the potential to become the next sought-after software feature on a smartphone camera. Much like what Night Mode was for the Pixel 2.
Dropping the Notch and Increasing Refresh Rate
One feature that a lot of people knocked on the Pixel 3XL was the Apple-esque notch. It probably would have been better received if it had some sort of new technology or functionality behind it like the iPhone X. But with nothing, not even a massively improved sound quality behind it, the unapologetic notch was considered by many as a design flaw that’s difficult to ignore.
The Pixel 4, is probably taking a cue from consumer reactions by axing the notch in favour of the full forehead. The bottom bezel where speakers used to be, on the other hand, was removed. Instead, the speakers can be found at the bottom of the phone. The aesthetic result is an imbalanced looking screen.
However, users will probably be able to forgive this one because there’s some actual tech behind the huge forehead. For one thing, it houses the aforementioned radar for Project Soli. The second reason is that it should also house a more secure facial recognition system.
Furthermore, I don't think people will mind the forehead too much because the rumoured panel that they're going to use can go up to 90hz. This means fluid navigation throughout the whole OS. This doesn't mean much in terms of functionality. It does, however, make using the phone for a longer period of time much better optically. If you've ever used Apple's iPad Pros, you'd know how important this update is.
Niche No More
When Google launched the Pixel phone in 2016, it was most definitely a niche product. Samsung, Huawei, and other big names in the Android space were making a killing with their twist on Google's open-sourced OS.
However, people are starting to recognize that those brands aren’t the only players on the Android block. The Google Pixel is no longer just defined as a stock Android phone. It’s become a great phone unto itself.
Overall, the Pixel 4 leaks seem to suggest some major upgrades for the Pixel line of devices. If everything goes according to plan, this particular phone could potentially launch the brand to mainstream status.