02 Oct
Blog

Samsung Can’t Make the Tab S7 a Realistic Laptop Replacement

Android tablets are not good overall. The hardware on offer in the market is solid, the specs are strong, and the prices are accessible and competitive. The problem is the software – especially the app support or lack thereof.

Samsung is making the most of this dire situation with the new Galaxy Tab S7 with tons of improvements including its DeX desktop interface and window apps. However, in many ways, the overall experience with an Android tablet is still insufficient. Very short.

I've been using a Galaxy Tab S7 with the optional $ 200 book cover keyboard accessory for a few weeks now. The S7's smaller 11-inch form factor compared to the giant S7 Plus tempted me to think it was a highly portable secondary machine that I can work and type on when I have less workload than my MacBook Pro necessary for .

In typical tech reviewer trope form, I wrote and edited the entire article on the S7 tab. I also took as many opportunities as possible to shut down my MacBook Pro or just leave home with the Tab S7 to see how much I can really do with it. I found a lot of good things and, unfortunately, a lot of bad things too, as Samsung makes the most of this bad situation.

Samsung does (almost) everything it can

Samsung is doing so much right in the hardware of the Tab S7. The metal body is superbly processed and looks and feels great too. It's exactly the luxury experience that an iPad Pro offers. The 120 Hz display is great in every way and is complemented by nice and loud speakers. The front camera is ideal for video calls and, unlike the iPad in landscape mode, is positioned correctly at the top of the screen. The battery life is exceptional, even if you squeeze the tablet hard in DeX mode.

And you are using DeX mode as it is the only way to use the Tab S7 as a potential laptop replacement or productivity device. I've tried using the normal "tablet" interface with the keyboard attached like I do on my iPad and it's rough. The vast majority of Android apps do not scale to a large screen, fewer change the user interface to take advantage of a large screen, and some do not even rotate to landscape. Trying to use an Android tablet for more than just light surfing or watching videos in full screen is downright frustrating.

DeX mode is the only thing that makes this Android tablet a competent laptop replacement.

DeX uses a brute force trick by implementing Windows apps like Windows and macOS. Now your apps can be viewed in phone-sized windows that you can move around. Even the most stubborn of apps like Instagram will appear in a window and at least be usable. You can still create apps in full screen mode and split the screen for two apps. You can also open multiple windows at the top.

The rest of the user interface improves too. You get a desktop-style dock that shows you which apps are running (or have recently run), and you can pin apps to stay up to date. Your status bar and notifications are now in the lower right corner. You get some desktop keyboard shortcuts like Alt + Tab for multitasking, Ctrl + Tab in apps, and Cut / Copy / Paste. In DeX mode, everything becomes a bit more predictable – and like a laptop.

I suddenly feel productive. I can use one full screen app and go to another to quickly send a message or read something without being redirected to a huge, blown up phone app. I can open an app from a notification and just have it open a new window. I can use a mouse pointer with a touchpad to press small keys and keep my hands on the keyboard.

An incomplete productivity experience

While DeX can fix many of the endemic problems associated with using Android as a tablet operating system, it doesn't fix everything. Forcing apps designed by phones in Windows helps, but it doesn't fully take into account the reality that Android apps are terrible on tablets.

There are still a lot of apps out there that shouldn't be put in full screen mode. Samsung must therefore force them to do so. Every time you switch between full screen and windowed mode, the app needs to be restarted. Other apps look fine in a window, but the window cannot be resized. Some apps just crash when switching between size and mode.

And ultimately, most apps simply scale the contents of a phone app to fill the screen – aka, everything is enlarged, huge, and not useful. So you have a choice of "using a phone app in a window" or "using a phone app that appears in full screen" – pick your poison.

Samsung is doing what it can here as it doesn't control the Play Store and can't force developers to make apps for tablets better. But it makes more casual mistakes that hurt the experience.

Samsung does what it can in the software, but it also makes mistakes with the keyboard hardware.

I want to love this keyboard. I can not. The typing experience is really great; The keys have spring travel but are springy and the layout is very spacious. But everything else is a mess. It attaches to the tablet with magnets, but has that wobbly faux leather strip between the connector and the keyboard that makes this setup completely unusable on your lap. That flexibility is, of course, such that the keyboard can be flipped over to cover the screen, but it doesn't have to be that thin. Why am I carrying an ultra-portable machine when I can only work on it when I have a table to put it on?

The biggest thing that interested me about the Tab S7 was that the keyboard has a trackpad. I am disappointed once again. The size is okay, but you can't track with a finger while your thumb is resting. Any laptop can do this. Clicking and dragging works inconsistently between apps. You can't turn off tap-to-click or change the two-finger scroll direction. These are all very basic settings that you would expect from a laptop. And then come back to app support. Each app treats a cursor differently, and text boxes on websites rarely work as you'd expect from a proper desktop browser.

It's just not enough to justify this price

The Galaxy Tab S7 is priced at $ 650 plus an additional $ 200 for the keyboard. $ 850 is a steep price tag for a device that feels incomplete and incapable of doing its job as a productivity tool near a laptop. Android apps are still terrible on tablets, even with a dramatically better DeX interface. The keyboard and trackpad fit a cheap Chromebook that you can buy from Best Buy.

Samsung charges laptop money for a tablet that is neither a good laptop nor a good tablet.

This is the same amount you would pay for a Surface Pro 7 with a keyboard – an actual experience with laptop software in a very similar form factor. (And I say this as someone who is far from a Windows fan.) Yes, it's a bad standalone tablet experience, but any large Android tablet gets used too. And as a tablet, it should go without saying that your $ 600 dollars will be much better spent on a new iPad Air. Future keyboard use can be accomplished with a keyboard accessory worth $ 159. Your total investment is less than what Samsung required for the Tab S7 combo.

I know it seems like I'm really not pecking on the Galaxy Tab S7. That depends on a hard love. I want to use the Tab S7, and it's so good, but it's a promise that is not being fulfilled. Every step of the way I struggle to get the Tab S7 to do something it wasn't intended for. and pay way too much for it.

Editor's recommendations




30 Sep
Blog

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE Review: The Phone to Beat Under $700

Samsung Galaxy S20 Fe review 1

"Most of the great Galaxy S20 experience for hundreds of dollars less – it's a winning combination."

  • Colorful design

  • Great display with 120Hz refresh rate

  • Great camera

  • 5G connectivity (in the US)

  • Low price for the specs

  • Mediocre battery

  • Plastic back

There is no getting around it – phones are becoming very expensive. However, as flagship devices are becoming more and more expensive, a completely new market segment has emerged: the premium midrange. This is exactly where the Samsung Galaxy S20 Fan Edition lives. If you're looking for a premium Samsung experience without paying an arm and a leg, this is the way to go.

The name "Fan Edition" doesn't really describe what the phone really is. A better name would be the Galaxy S20 Lite. You don't really get all that the Galaxy S20 has to offer. But you get all the essentials with a few extra bonus features and a tempting price cut.

Hardware, design and display

It's clear that the Galaxy S20 FE is a derivative of the original Galaxy S20 – it looks just like the standard device. But it also consists of slightly different materials. Gone is the glass back in favor of the standard Galaxy Note 20's plastic back. Though it's not that high quality in theory, I like the soft-touch feel it offers and I didn't really miss the glass.

The device also differs from the standard Galaxy S20 in that it is available in a wider range of colors. I'm reviewing the Cloud Navy model, but it's also available in more interesting colors like Cloud Red, Cloud Lavender, and Cloud Orange. Safe to say there should be something for everyone.

The rest of the phone design is pretty normal. There is a USB-C port at the bottom, a volume rocker and a power switch on the right, and a rectangular camera module at the top left on the back of the phone. It's not as thick as the Galaxy S20 Ultra or the Note 20 Ultra, which is nice to see, but of course you don't get the same camera specs as the more expensive phone, either. We'll get into that later.

The Galaxy S20 FE is actually a bit larger than the standard Galaxy S20. While the original device has a 6.2-inch display, the S20 FE has a larger 6.5-inch display. Also in contrast to the Galaxy S20, this phone has a resolution of 1080p. It seems that the high resolution is a feature that Samsung wants to reserve for its more expensive devices.

It still looks good. It's a Super AMOLED display with an impressive 120Hz refresh rate, just like the other S20's. The result is an extremely smooth experience and a display that responds very well to touch. We hope to see more high refresh rate phones showing up in the next year, but by then it's pretty impressive to see a $ 700 phone running at 120Hz. It also beats competitors, if only marginally.

The most obvious competitor here is the OnePlus 8, which also has a resolution of 1080p but limits the refresh rate to 90 Hz. (The upcoming Google Pixel 5 will also have a 1080p 90Hz display.) To be clear, the difference between 60Hz and 90Hz is much more obvious than the difference between 90Hz and 120Hz. But for those who can notice a difference, 120Hz is estimated.

It should also be noted that the display is flat and not curved. I like the look of curved displays, but others disagree. With the flat panel display in mind, there is no way you should run into so many problems related to accidentally squeezing your palm.

Performance and specifications

Samsung has made clear compromises in design and display, but not really under the hood. You still get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor in the US 5G version, or an Exynos 990 outside of the US, coupled with 6GB or 8GB of RAM – and as a result, the phone can easily handle anything you can throw at it in 2020 and beyond. This includes productivity apps, mobile games, etc.

Predictably, the phone handled games like Call of Duty: Mobile with no problem, and multitasking with even four or five apps is no problem. The benchmark results confirm the excellent performance in daily use. Here is an overview of the results we have achieved.

  • AnTuTu: 550,800
  • GeekBench 5: 889 single-core, 3,101 multi-core

These results don't quite get as high as we got with the OnePlus 8, but they are close and in real life you won't really miss the extra 20 single-core points on GeekBench 5, check the 6GB RAM model in the lower price range. So, if you really care about this performance benefit, upgrading your RAM might be the way to go.

Cameras

Gone are the days when incredible cameras were reserved for the best of the best phones. With devices like the Google Pixel 4a, it is becoming increasingly clear to phone makers that those who spend $ 450 or more on a phone should be able to get a premium camera experience. While you don't get the same zoom quality as the Galaxy Note 20 or the same main resolution sensor as the Galaxy S20 Ultra, the Galaxy S20 FE still offers a versatile, high-quality camera experience.

The phone offers three camera sensors, including a 12-megapixel standard sensor, an 8-megapixel sensor with a telephoto lens, and a 12-megapixel sensor with an ultra-wide-angle lens. I really appreciate that, and while some might prefer either a telephoto or an ultra-wide device to the other, simply having both means the camera will be useful in all sorts of situations.

On paper, the specs don't quite match the standard Galaxy S20, but the photos seemed pretty good in everyday use. They're still colorful and crisp, with enough dynamism to create a punchy photo, but not so much that they wander into unnatural territory. These days, photo quality may have more to do with post-processing than sensor quality. So it makes sense that the slightly worse specs don't really result in worse photos than the Galaxy S20.

The photos are pretty good in low light. As you would expect, photos can get noisy in very low light. However, in general, the phone can capture enough detail to get decent shots. The same goes for really enlarged photos. The telephoto camera offers 3x optical zoom and up to 10x digital zoom – and the result is up to 30x hybrid zoom. Photos at this zoom level aren't that sharp, of course, but Samsung has invested seriously in cleaning up zoomed footage from its photos, and it shows. The 3-10x shots are solid, but you'll rarely want to use 30x.

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The selfie cam looks pretty solid too. The front-facing camera is 32 MP and doesn't have the dual-phase detection autofocus of the original Galaxy S20, but it still captured colorful selfies with more than enough detail. The higher resolution selfie camera is here for a reason – if you're not using the wide angle sensor, the picture is really just being cropped, and therefore the photo is only at a lower resolution.

One feature that the Galaxy S20 FE lacks is the ability to record videos in 8K. This is because you will need a higher resolution camera to do this. Even so, the camera can record 4K video at 60 frames per second, which should be more than enough for most, and saves you the maximum storage capacity.

Battery life and charging

Power is supplied by a 4,500 mAh battery, which apparently can be used for a whole day without any problems. I ended a heavy use day with about 20% battery remaining, which is not a ton but is still okay. If you are used to charging your phone every night, you shouldn't have any problems.

Fortunately, the phone is easy to charge too. Unlike the OnePlus 8, this phone supports wireless charging. You also get 25W wired fast charging. At this point I was distributing wireless chargers around my house so it was nice to be able to use them while testing this phone.

software

As expected, the Galaxy S20 FE comes with the Samsung One UI 2.5 (Android 10). I'm not going to go into the specifics of the Android customizations – you can read extensive settings in our Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Note 20 reviews – but I'll say that the bloatware on this phone seems to have been reduced a bit compared to some others . This is mainly due to the fact that you can instantly choose which apps are installed on your device. While all of the additional Samsung apps and Microsoft apps are enabled by default, just take the extra moments to adjust the pre-installs when you set up your phone, it's worth it.

In general, the software was responsive and smooth. Love or hate One user interface, Samsung has done a great job of making the entire user interface coherent and easy to use with one hand. Samsung wins for customizability too. So if you really enjoy optimizing and thematizing, you will enjoy the experience here.

Our opinion

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE offers the flagship cell phone in a $ 700 cell phone. You really don't miss much here. Sure, a screen resolution of 1440p is always good, and some of the camera specs don't reach the height of the standard Galaxy S20 or Note 20. But with a premium processor, still awesome display, premium feel, and great camera system, you are it can't do much better in the price range.

I would have liked Samsung to have brought out this phone along with the rest of the Galaxy S20 lineup, but it makes sense why it didn't in order to get those high sales first. However, if Samsung continues to bring out phones of this quality in this price range, companies like OnePlus should be very concerned.

Is there a better alternative?

It depends on what you are looking for. The OnePlus 8 is the main competitor here. While it's a great phone, it doesn't have the same camera quality, it doesn't hit the 120Hz refresh rate, and it doesn't charge wirelessly. However, OnePlus offers a cleaner and arguably better software experience.

If you are really on a budget then you should also consider the Pixel 4a or wait for the Pixel 4a 5G. They have amazing cameras and simpler software, although the specs and performance don't match the Galaxy S20 FE or the displays.

Of course, if you're not married to Android, then you should also consider the iPhone 11, which is available at a similar price, has even better performance, and a fantastic camera. However, you will not get the same ad. You also don't get 5G and have to deal with the iPhone notch.

How long it will take?

With Snapdragon 865 water resistance and IP68, the Galaxy S20 FE should easily survive a normal two year phone cycle and longer if you want or need it. Again, the plastic back helps here – while it doesn't feel premium, it helps keep the phone more likely to remain crack-free throughout its lifespan.

Should you buy it?

Yes. Sure, you could spend an additional $ 300 on a slightly better phone, but if you want flagship quality for $ 700 this is the phone to beat right now.

Editor's recommendations




18 Sep
Blog

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus Review: Awesome Tablet For Video

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 plus review

"Once you watch videos on the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus tablet, you don't want to go back to anything else."

  • Amazing screen for video

  • Very powerful

  • Long battery life

  • S pen pen included

  • No wireless charging

  • Android still doesn't do very well on tablets

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus is a terrible trailblazer for bad habits. Look away now when trying to cut down your TV time as you will want to see a lot more after you buy. It doesn't matter what you want to see as pretty much everything looks and sounds amazing.

However, super video quality is just one reason to buy an expensive tablet and compete against the best high-priced tablet right now, the 2020 iPad Pro, there is much more that needs to be done. Because of this, I start the same way I did my iPad Pro review by writing this review on the Galaxy S7 Plus.

Hardware and design

The Galaxy Tab S7 Plus is huge and has a 12.4-inch screen. With the keyboard accessories attached, it's the size of a laptop and much larger than the 11.9-inch iPad Pro with the Magic keyboard we tested. It is a widescreen tablet with an aspect ratio of 16:10, so it is considerably wider in landscape mode. It's a device that always feels happier in landscape mode than it does in portrait mode. In practice this means that it is much better to watch movies horizontally than to browse books vertically or to read while lying in bed.

At just 5.7mm, it's very thin and the angular edges give it a modern and stylish look. The weight of 575 grams (1.27 pounds) is manageable and evenly distributed across the tablet so that it does not become unwieldy or tiresome. If the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus is used exclusively as a tablet, it makes more sense, as it becomes uncomfortable with the keyboard cover attached.

When you hold it in portrait orientation, the volume rocker and power button are on the right side, top and bottom are speakers and a USB-C port. It doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the back, a black stripe extends under the camera module, which hides a magnetized holder for the S Pen, which serves as a wireless charging point for the device. It's a neat solution, but it prevents the tablet from laying flat on your back when you attach it. But kudos to Samsung for including the S Pen in the box.

I like the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus. It looks ultra-modern, the brushed metal case is classy and high quality, the screen bezels are slim, and everything is beautifully built as you'd expect. Tablets don't have to turn heads with their design, but they do need to look stylish and modern on a coffee table or when pulled out of the pocket, and the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus delivers it with ease.

Screen and video

The 12.4-inch Super AMOLED screen has a resolution of 2800 x 1752, a dynamic refresh rate of 120 Hz, HDR10 + support and, to absolutely no surprise, is insane. There is life, vibrancy, color and detail everywhere, and the high refresh rate makes it very easy on your eyes.

In the media, the Tab S7 Plus excels, and the resolution allows you to watch videos at 1440p, which I miss a lot when watching videos on the iPad Pro. I've found that I've been using Samsung's Video Enhancer mode for brightness and color more on the tablet than on the Note 20 Ultra because it really makes videos disappear from the screen.

This is how the carfection test of the Porsche 911 Targa looks fabulous. Such razor-sharp whites, eye-catching greens and with a resolution of 1440p also breathtaking levels of detail. The already atomic colors in Red Velvet's monster video are enhanced, and the amazing graphics look practically beyond the world at 1440p.

It almost didn't matter what I saw on the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, it's a great viewing experience. The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime? Dreamy. Paranormal Lockdown with its monochrome, loud night vision shots? Crisp and atmospheric. Even a relatively low-resolution episode of Wheeler Dealers from 2018 looked fine, despite not benefiting at all from the Video Enhancer mode.

Four speakers on the edge of the tablet ensure an impressive, surprisingly centered sound. Tuned by Samsung's own audio experts AKG, the vocals and speech are clear and defined, but the sound lacks deep bass. This is a minor point of contention, however, and the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus's ability as a video entertainment device is top-notch.

Other media? I found the tablet a bit too big for reading e-books lying down – it's like putting a small TV in bed – but good for more visual media like comics. After watching my regular rotation of videos on the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, I no longer wanted to watch them on my laptop or iPad. It really is that good.

software

Samsung's OneUI 2.5 installs alongside Android 10 and is very similar to the software found on the latest phones. This means that it is colorful with big icons, a very recognizable design, and a neat settings menu. The usual Android functions – for example a dark mode, gestures and the notification shadow – are all available and work quickly and reliably.

Problems arise with app support, as many (daring most) Android apps don't scale very well on a tablet screen and others don't work very well with the Tab S7 Plus keyboard or multi-windowing support. Twitter, Pocket Casts, Amazon, Google Drive, Strava, and so many other popular apps look terrifyingly bad in the landscape. They either enlarge the content dramatically to fit the screen, or slide it to one side with an unused blank surface next to it. Some apps even force you into portrait mode, which is incredibly frustrating.

The keyboard accessory trackpad is not fully supported by major productivity apps like Google Docs. For example, double-clicking text to highlight words does not work. In some cases, it's better to just reach up and touch what you need. With this full-featured keyboard and trackpad, you can get by with more web-based workflows. If you want to do all of your work on the tablet, it helps to be in the Microsoft ecosystem. It syncs Samsung Notes with OneNote and Outlook, for example, and the Outlook app actually looks pretty good here. Since I use a Mac with Pages and sometimes Apple's Notes app, the iPad fits my workflow better.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 plus review screenshot 20200917 165011 Twitter

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 plus review screenshot 20200917 164843 Twitter

Multitasking is strong and offers the ability to run three apps at the same time. Everything looks simple thanks to the power of the tablet. Chrome and Gmail work very well even when YouTube is running in a small pop-up window. If you're running an app in full screen mode, you can drag a multitasking app launcher to a tab on the right edge of the screen with the click of a mouse and drag out the app you want. It can be dragged to the left or right for a 50/50 split, or floated in the middle to make it a pop-up window. However, not every app supports split view or popup. So it is a bit of trial and error until you remember who can do what.

The 50/50 split view fixes many of the app scaling issues and brings them into the phone-like aspect ratio that you would expect. You can also drag the handle between the apps to resize them to whatever compromise you want. On such a large screen, you can easily do a 70/30 split and have a smaller tablet-sized app alongside a phone-sized app without feeling cramped.

Entering multiscreen mode is more tedious than multitasking activation in iOS, but I like the little icon that appears on the screen when you gently exit a pop-up and are ready to bring it back to front when required. It's great for playing YouTube in the background and still accessing it quickly when needed.

If you want a more focused work mode, there's Samsung DeX, which turns the tablet into a laptop environment with a familiar desktop layout, customizable windows, and a distinctly Windows 10-like design. The performance is great too without slowing down multiple apps running. Despite warnings, the tablet may get warm, but I didn't notice it. However, you need a really good keyboard and trackpad to take advantage of DeX.

I couldn't be satisfied with working on the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus. At least not for long periods of time, and I'd only go for the iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard if I thought my tasks were going to take more than 30 minutes. Most of this is due to apps that don't perform very well and keyboard issues, which I'll talk about below.

camera

It is a dual-lens camera on the back of the tablet with a 13MP main lens with a f / 2.0 aperture and an ultra wide-angle lens with 5MP f / 2.2. This is a tablet. So don't expect camera performance to be the same as the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra or even phones that cost half the price like the Pixel 4a. The photos taken are acceptable, but cannot handle shadows or low-light conditions well, tend to be oversaturated, and indoor photos may lack detail. However, it doesn't matter how often the camera is used for anything beyond the basics.

The selfie camera is 8 MP and performs well on video calls. Plus, the Live Focus portrait mode took decent bokeh-style photos. Placing it above the screen in landscape mode works well for zoom conferencing and video calls with friends because the angle is more natural than when the lens is placed on the side bezel. Overall, the camera does a good job for a tablet.

Performance, safety and battery

The Galaxy Tab S7 Plus has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus chip and either 6 or 8 GB of RAM, depending on whether you buy the basic version with 128 GB or the more powerful model with 256 GB or 512 GB.

Here are the benchmark tests:

3DMark Sling Shot Extreme: 6343 (volcano)

Geekbench 5: 961 single core / 2758 multi core

These are above the results of the Galaxy Tab S6, but slightly below the Asus ROG Phone 3, which also uses the Snapdragon 865 Plus chip. Playing on the tablet is great in terms of performance, but the size of the tablet means the case will dig into your palms after a short while, and I never wanted to play for hours. This is where the tablet's Xbox Gaming Pass feature comes in, which allows you to pair an Xbox controller and use the tablet as a screen. Given the stunning looks of the Tab S7 Plus screen, it can be a powerful gaming tablet, but only if you're willing to spend on the Xbox Pass and controller if you don't already have one.

An optical fingerprint sensor in the display is the most important biometric security measure, but not reliable enough. Almost every time I use it, it takes two or three times for the tablet to potentially unlock. The size of the tablet makes it quite difficult to aim the selfie camera when trying to use face unlock, which adds further delays. Accessing the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus is frustrating, and most of the time I had to use my PIN number to unlock it because the biometric methods failed. Interestingly, the smaller Tab S7 uses a side-mounted capacitive fingerprint sensor instead.

It's a massive 10,090 mAh battery that powers the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus. With medium to heavy use, it lasts two days. This includes light work, hours of video, some reading, and some games. The included 15W charger takes at least two hours to go from around 5% to full, and unfortunately there is no wireless charging, a feature I liked on the Huawei MatePad Pro. It is compatible with a 45W charger for faster charging. However, you have to buy one from Samsung.

Bookcover keyboard and S Pen

The so-called "book cover keyboard" is an optional accessory for the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus. So should you pick her up? First, let's talk about the good things. The book cover area attaches to the back of the tablet with magnets, remains very secure and has a very versatile pull-out stand and convenient compartment to keep the S Pen pen securely while charging. The hinge holds at every angle and perfectly matches the brilliant media capabilities of the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus.

The keyboard also locks into place with magnets, but is separate from the book cover. Key travel is judged well, and the keys are well spaced for touch input, and the trackpad is a decent size. If you're just typing at one desk or table at a time, that's fine. If you want to type with the tablet on your lap, it is no good at all. The keyboard area is too floppy because it is attached to the tablet with some cloth rather than a hard hinge. And while the bookcover's angled stand is set so that the screen is facing you, the entire setup is just too big unless your thighs are about 3 feet long.

In that respect, it doesn't compare to the surprisingly compact 11.9-inch iPad Pro and Magic keyboard. The trackpad also isn't very responsive and can get confused easily if your finger is still on it when you click. I also found the buttons and trackpad quite loud. So not good? It's about what I expect from the average tablet keyboard case. It's great for brief flashes of light sitting at a desk or table, but not for pronouncing thousands of words in a variety of environments. The two-piece design is a winner, however, as you can remove the keyboard and still retain the ability to prop the tablet.

If you only want to use the Tab S7 Plus for media consumption, the $ 80 book cover is a good buy as it comes in a slightly different configuration with a screen cover if you don't receive the keyboard. However, at a whopping $ 230, the Bookcover Keyboard is a tough sell. That puts the entire package north of $ 1,000, right in the range of high-end laptops, without a keyboard experience that matches the laptop.

The S Pen comes with the tablet and does not need to be purchased separately. It works the same as the S Pen does on the Galaxy Note series phones, and connects to Bluetooth for a variety of functions, including activating the shutter button in the camera. The S Pen is mostly great. The menu is easy to use, the response time of 9 milliseconds makes typing on the screen very pleasant and the note taking system is really useful.

However, some features are difficult to activate. Writing screen-off memos requires a precise combination of pressing the S Pen button and tapping the screen. The fact that the S Pen has to be placed on its flat edge in order to properly attach to the back of the tablet and charge is annoying. That said, the palm rejection is top notch, and I could put my hand on the screen and still write with ease, which makes it suitable for artists too.

Price and availability

The Wi-Fi Galaxy Tab S7 Plus can now be pre-ordered from Samsung and Amazon. Shipping begins September 18th and starts at $ 850 or £ 799. If you want 5G, pay $ 1,050, or £ 999, and only get by with the 128GB model. The keyboard bookcover is priced at $ 115 when pre-ordered, but has a normal retail price of $ 230. The book cover alone costs $ 80.

Our opinion

If you are worried about video, gaming, online shopping or other fun activities while viewing the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, just put your money down and enjoy the great giant Samsung tablet. The book cover is worth the extra, but the keyboard implies that you might want to do some work and that, despite its size and high price, isn't really its forte.

Is there a better alternative?

The 2020 iPad Pro was the main competitor of the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus and a better alternative until the 2020 iPad Air arrived with the new Apple A14 Bionic processor and compatibility with the Magic Keyboard. It costs $ 599, which is $ 200 less than the $ 799 iPad Pro. There are major differences between the two, but both share the same great iOS 14 software and app selection.

Another thing to note is the smaller $ 650 Galaxy Tab S7. It's cheaper but doesn't have the S7 Plus' AMOLED screen, but an LCD. The bigger question is, do you have to spend that much on a tablet in the first place? The new 8th generation iPad costs $ 329 and has everything that the more expensive models can do, but with fewer high-tech features. For most, simply hooking up with a phone and laptop is probably more than enough.

How long it will take?

Age. The Galaxy Tab S7 Plus offers the same performance as a top smartphone without the same requirements being placed on it. Therefore it will last for many years. When you take it out into the world, note that it doesn't have a rugged body or any form of water resistance. You can also buy the 5G version of the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus if you envision your future usage changing.

Should you buy it?

Yes. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus is a fantastic media-focused tablet. All you have to do is settle for the starting price of $ 850 and pay an additional $ 115 (or $ 230 if you buy from MSRP) for a keyboard.

Editor's recommendations




14 Sep
Blog

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G Review: Fully Functional Foldable

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G

"The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the best foldable device you can buy right now."

  • The foldable screen opens up new possibilities

  • Excellent hardware quality

  • Soothing hinge and screen durability

  • Very good triple camera

  • Top-end specs and core features

  • Difficult and awkward to operate with one hand

  • Many apps are not optimized for leaflets

  • Much more expensive than most phones

Foldable devices will play a role in the future of smartphones. Even if they seem expensive, fragile, and compromised right now, they won't be forever. Just the evolution of quality from the first Galaxy Fold, which got off to a terrible start, to the quality of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 shows that the industry is on the right track.

However, you are not buying a foldable phone, especially a $ 2,000 phone, as it is part of an advancement of new technology. You buy it based on what it does for you and what it offers beyond what you get from a regular smartphone. Here's everything the Galaxy Z Fold 2 brings to the table to justify its sky-high price tag.

Hardware, design and ads

The new Galaxy Z Fold 2 follows the same concept as its predecessor: a device the size of a mini tablet that is halved by a large hinge, with a folding screen on the inside and an additional "cover display" on the outside. However, it is no exaggeration to say that Samsung has touched the implementation of this concept for this generation in every way. And it's all for the better.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2

Samsung knows how to make high-end phones that look and feel like they're worth the money, and that carries over to this huge device. The two-tone matte glass and shiny metal pieces add some flair to the Z Fold 2, and while I like it (you'll never be able to hide this phone anyway), black is an option too. The execution is flawless. Every angle is perfect, every gap is consistent, and all the details are spot on.

The redesigned hinge is most responsible for the Z Fold 2's rugged feel. It is no longer loose or thin at any point in its operation, as it sticks at every angle, e.g. B. a laptop screen or a Microsoft Surface stand. You can adjust the screen angle to whatever you want and it just stays there – but it retains a satisfactory lock when opened flat. With the screen open, you can hold the phone in one hand, shake it around, hold it vertically or upside down and it will not move.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2

It's also relatively easy to return it to a folded position with one hand – as long as you comfortably press your thumb on the screen. It closes with a solid, satisfying "click" while the bezels snap together with magnets. Regardless of whether you open or close, hardly a sound can be heard. Of course, if you hold your ear to the screen, you'll notice the various layers unfold and the little dusty bristles in the hinge, but this is an almost silent operation.

Samsung has revised the hardware design and brought both displays to a new level.

Even if Samsung had kept the exterior design identical to that of its predecessor, I would still welcome the improved display. The cover display used to be weirdly small, but like any other smartphone, it is now 6.2 inches and has small frames. Major changes have been made inside. The 7.6-inch foldable panel is now surrounded by 25% smaller bezels and a simple pinhole camera instead of the huge notch with multiple cameras before. The edges of the bezel aren't raised nearly as much, and you hardly notice them even if you're using the Android 10's gesture navigation system.

The display looks great. Of course, it's a Samsung display. The colors are saturated, the brightness is excellent even outdoors and there are no deviations when viewed at an angle. It even runs at a refresh rate of 120Hz, just like the S20 series, so the movement is buttery smooth. With the flexible display levels, the clarity is not on par with the glass covers of the iPhone 11 Pro Max or the Samsung Note 20 Ultra. That slight visual change aside, this display is indistinguishable from the best in the business – it's only twice that size and randomly folds in half. No compromise here.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2

Let's talk about the crease. It is there and yes you will notice. Sometimes. This is most noticeable on a screen with low brightness and on a white or light background. Even so, after a few days I noticed that my eyes were ignoring it. And since you mostly use the phone in portrait orientation – the display has a very wide aspect ratio anyway – rarely touch or swipe the crease.

However, most people are more concerned about the shelf life. I only used the Z Fold 2 for this test for two weeks. So I can't say how well it will hold up over time. But I'm pretty confident, especially since we've now seen people use the original crease (well, the revised original crease) for a year with little deterioration. This new model has the Samsung display "UTG" or Ultra Thin Glass for the display and is much more resistant to scratches and bumps. There's also a pre-installed screen protector made from the typical thin flexible plastic that I'm not a huge fan of, but it's another layer of protection.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2

The crease will definitely change its shape a little, and over months of folding it will absorb some aberrations. And yes, if you dig your fingernail into the screen or drop it while it's open, it will look worse for wear and tear. However, most of the phones get damaged in the latter scenario. The biggest advantage of the Z Fold 2 is that the foldable screen is closed and cannot be compromised when you are not using it. With a large foldable phone like this one, there are user-friendliness concerns, but for me they don't relate to the durability of the screen and the hinge.

With a big foldable phone

Samsung has made strides to make this hardware as slim and compact as current technology allows. However, it is still a giant compared to single non-collapsible screens. That starts with a weight of 282 grams, which is about 25% heavier than an iPhone 11 Pro Max and 35% heavier than a Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. It's nearly 17mm thick, roughly twice that of a typical phone (as expected).

It adds up to a cumbersome device. It's big and heavy, and you never forget that – neither in your hand nor in your pocket. The phone is nowhere near so small that I can use it as a music source for my headphones in any kind of bag or holder. It's not waterproof either, so I wouldn't take the risk anyway.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G

The weight is most noticeable when it is closed. This is how you will use it a lot. Fortunately, the new, larger cover display is big enough to get most of your chores done, and gives you full access to a typical lock screen, notifications, a home screen, and all of your apps. The screen is a bit narrow which can make typing awkward (this can be fixed with a swipe keyboard), but the main problem is getting to the top of this very tall screen while balancing out a beefy and thick phone.

The other problem you will encounter is app compatibility. Some apps just don't scale to full screen because they're so big. This is more annoying than a real usability problem, but it's there. Most of these buggy apps are the same ones that will inevitably have to be restarted if you open the phone while it is running. This is an odd odd thing about resizing Android apps (or not).

You don't use the outside display more than necessary, however, as you can open up the Z Fold 2 and get the gorgeous control panel instead. The use cases are all easy to understand. It starts with just getting more of everything. More map area, more webpage before scrolling, more photos in larger size, more of each message in a list, more book before turning the page, and so on. This is great because you never feel cramped on the Z Fold 2 – there is always enough space to do what you want.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G

However, that again requires the apps that you play ball with. Many apps, including all apps from Google and Microsoft, make good use of this additional real estate when run in full screen mode. You get an additional appropriately sized panel or user interface controls, which gives you more content and less chrome. Other apps are just bad. Twitter, Seamless, Venmo, Strava, Telegram, Lyft, American Express, the list goes on. All of them just stretch out the UI and no longer offer you any content or viewing space as they were not designed for large screens. Instagram is notoriously bad at filling the screen, and now Samsung has just packed it with pillars to make it at least reasonably usable. (It's still bad.)

Samsung also uses the stiff hinge to prop the phone at an angle in "flex mode," which triggers a different user interface in a handful of apps – YouTube, Google Duo, Camera, and a few others. it's not very useful. Why cut the screen in half? I only used it for video calls when I didn't want to hold the phone or for photos where I used it as a de facto tripod.

Most of the time, you're running a single app on the Z Fold 2 and it feels clunky and like a waste of space. You really need to find and stick to the handful of apps that make good use of that space. Of course, you can also run apps side by side, which greatly improves the experience. It's instantly intuitive and extremely useful. Run Twitter while messaging, check the status of an order while viewing your credit card charge, and do a Wikipedia search while watching a YouTube video. Check your calendar while reading an email.

It is this dual app that makes the Z Fold 2 shine and really justifies its size. You can set up pairs of apps (or groups of three if you really want to) to start automatically together with the press of a button. If you already have a full screen app open, you can always drag a second, third, or floating app with a small handle on the side of the screen. About 90% of my apps ran side by side – not perfect, but close.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G

If you don't open the Z Fold 2 regularly and use multiple apps at the same time, then you really are missing the point of this phone. You don't pay that much and bother with this great device just to use the cover display or a single app inside. You need to use its features.

Samsung offers the Z Fold 2 more than enough power to run three apps at the same time. You don't have to think for a moment that the phone has a Snapdragon 865+, 12GB of RAM, or 5GB – it all works like any high-end phone should and will do for years to come. However, you will appreciate the 256GB of storage as well as the useful features like stereo speakers, fast charging, fast wireless charging, and reverse wireless charging. There are no compromises in terms of technical data and functions compared to non-foldable telephones, which is currently not a matter of course for foldable telephones.

Unless you regularly use multiple apps at the same time, then you really lack the point of this phone.

Battery life is almost the same as leading single monitors, but how long it lasts depends a lot on how you use them. With a lot of main screen use and multitasking, you can chew through the 4,500mAh battery (like the Note 20 Ultra) before you know it. It's not surprising that allowing yourself to watch videos more often and keep two apps running all the time will drain your resources. In my typical use, where I put what I normally do on the bigger screen, I lasted a full day on 10 to 20% battery life.

Cameras

In contrast to the Microsoft Surface Duo, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 fortunately does not have any major compromises when it comes to the camera. You get a triumvirate of cameras loosely based on the Galaxy S20: the same 12 megapixel main camera with OIS (optical image stabilization) is combined with two smaller 12MP sensors for zoom and ultrawide applications.

It's a little disappointing that this $ 2,000 phone doesn't include a copy of the Galaxy S20 + (or Note 20 Ultra) camera setup. But where things matter most, the main camera, you get an identical experience. These photos speak for themselves folks: this is a really good camera.

Just like Samsung's 2020 flagships, the Z Fold 2 takes expressive, colorful, and engaging photos. I've never taken a really bad shot, and the camera is completely reliable and consistent every time I hit the power button twice to start it. There tends to be too much saturation and sometimes the sky can be blown out or strong halos around objects, but these are minor issues.

The zoom camera is a bit of a let down as it is a smaller sensor and there is no OIS in the main camera (and in the zoom camera on the Galaxy S20). You can easily see that zoom shots are softer than the main camera even if the resolution is only 2x, and in low light conditions the software switches back completely to the main sensor. This zoom camera dates back to the Galaxy S10 series and today's midrange phones, and that's not a good thing to see at this price point. The ultrawide camera absolutely does the job, even if it's not exactly the same as that of the S20 and Note 20 series.

Regardless of the camera chosen, shooting with a huge viewfinder with the screen open is even better than a typical phone.

Perhaps the biggest camera win of all is for selfies. You can flip the Z-fold 2 over and use the rear camera as a selfie shooter with the cover display as the viewfinder. Whether you want a high quality main camera shot or an ultrawide shot for a group of friends (or a backdrop for yourself), that typical front camera will blow away – especially in low light.

Our opinion

The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is a huge evolution of the original. The hardware is perfectly made and exudes quality, while the functionality of the screens and the hinge has been dramatically improved. All of this without compromising the core smartphone experience – you get good cameras and most of the nice-to-have features of a regular phone.

The downsides are ease of use, size, and price. The Z Fold 2 is huge, which makes it difficult to operate with one hand at times – and if you don't use that large display all the time, it's a chore to carry this massive device around with you. At the same time, many of the software experiences when you have this screen open leave much to be desired. And then there is the price. At $ 2,000, you need a lot of cash to spend twice as much money as a typical high-end phone, but not twice as many functions or features.

This is an amazing technological feat, but it still requires understanding that you are buying a collapsible smartphone that is on the cutting edge of innovation. That means there is compromise, and that's not what most people want (or need).

Is there a better alternative?

There really isn't a direct alternative to the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Some will say the Microsoft Surface Duo is a loose competitor, but really offers a different experience with its separate displays – and ultimately the Surface Duo falls far short of the mark in terms of smartphone functionality and usability.

Elsewhere in the foldable space you have a choice Samsung's own Galaxy Z Flip or the upcoming Motorola Razr, both of which offer completely different experiences. Realistically, your choice is: Are you doing this? Buy a Galaxy Z Fold 2or spend top dollars on a "traditional" high-end phone like this Galaxy Note 20 Ultra or upcoming iPhone 12 Pro Max? It's a personal choice.

How long it will take?

I'm not particularly concerned about the long-term durability of the Z Fold 2's hinge and display. Samsung clearly put a lot of work into fixing early hardware bugs, and even last year's Fold has proven to be quite durable over time. Samsung also offers good warranty protection and screen replacement if necessary. The Z Fold 2 also receives at least two major software upgrades and regular security patches that keep it going for about as long as someone actually uses the phone.

Should you buy it?

Yes. People will make fun of the $ 2,000 price tag for the Z Fold 2, and rightly so. However, if you are ready to part with that huge sum of money on the latest technology, then you are probably also interested in being an early adopter of foldable phones. The Z Fold 2 is currently the best foldable one on the (small) market.

However, if you do buy it, please do not fund the phone for more than four years as Samsung suggests on its website.

Editor's recommendations




04 Sep
Blog

Samsung HW-Q800T Review: Amazon Alexa, Can You Say Wow?

Samsung Q800T soundbar

"The Q800T offers great sound, smart home connectivity and loads of convenience."

  • Easy setup

  • Built-in Amazon Alexa

  • Impressive low end

  • Support Dolby Atmos and DTS: X

  • No rear speakers

  • Several Samsung TV exclusive features

The race for the soundbar's sweet spot is on. Vizio may have had a head start over the past few years in making sound bars that offer great audio and functionality at a manageable price. But LG, Samsung, and others are hot on the heels of Vizio.

Samsung's new HW-Q800T soundbar, a 3.1.2 system with built-in Amazon Alexa, appears to be a competitor at $ 750. The proof, however, lies in the performance. So let's see what the latest version of Samsung is made of.

design

The Q800T has similar dimensions to several other soundbars I've tested in this price range. The length of 38.6 inches and the height of 2.4 inches is very close to the LG SN7Y and the Sony HT-G700. For some reason this seems to be the agreed size for midrange drivers.

Samsung Q800T soundbarNick Woodard / Digital Trends

Actually, there's a reason for these long bars – and a good one at that. With Dolby Atmos firmly entrenched as the buzzword for home audio, these companies need to add more drivers to the compact body that is their standard soundbar. The Q800T has drivers that represent each channel of the typical sound stage from left to right and right, as well as drivers that provide the height channels of its 3.1.2 setup. So yes, bars of this size are warranted.

The included wireless subwoofer is pretty hefty at 21.6 pounds, slightly dwarfing the smaller woofers from LG (17 pounds) and Sony (16 pounds). Four or five pounds of difference might not sound like much, but it matters for reasons that I'll explain later in this review.

This package does not include rear speakers. However, you can buy a $ 130 pair from Samsung to complete your surround sound setup. As much as I want to be able to run this slide, the traditional theater snob in me has to point out that ideally, $ 750 worth of equipment should arrive with rocking rear speakers. Granted, you can technically spend more and still get less – the $ 799 you'd spend on a Sonos Arc will only blow you away (no subwoofer or wireless surround speakers), though that may not be the fairest comparison with all coming features is with a Sonos product. At the same time, Vizio's incredibly powerful 5.1.4 soundbar system lets you spend $ 700 less and score more from a component standpoint.

This Samsung device is anything but a thorn in the side and should blend in well with most rooms.

Aesthetically, I don't have much to say about the Q800T, and that's certainly not a bad thing. If you're an avid reader, you know that my colleagues and I generally work with soundbars under a "Low Profile is a Good Profile" motto. The Q800T is the epitome of this, a black bar with a corresponding black subwoofer, which is only distinguished by its size in a room. I might prefer the sleeker finish on this year's LG bars, but that's a matter of personal preference. This Samsung device is anything but a thorn in the side and should blend in well with most rooms.

configuration

By now, most sound bar manufacturers have cut the fat out of the set up process and reduced it to a fairly straightforward plug and play process where literally all you have to do to get up and running is your bar and To power your sub. Then add the connection from your display to your soundbar. In that regard, the Q800T is no different from a similar product I tested this year.

Samsung Q800T soundbarNick Woodard / Digital Trends

All in all, I had the Q800T crank out the disgustingly loud theme song from The Office within 10 minutes of opening the box, and it only took that long because I had to be careful unpacking the review unit. I assume the average person, who may not have to worry about maintaining the structural integrity of the packaging, can get their Q800T back in half that time.

If you want, you can wrap the setup right there. However, since this is a network soundbar, it's worth downloading the Samsung SmartThings app on your mobile device and taking the time to connect your bar to Wi-Fi and link your Amazon and Spotify accounts. Trust me, even if you don't see the point of this soundbar on your network yet, it's worth the extra step.

I will notice a small hiccup I had during the setup process, although this was mainly due to user error. I turned on the subwoofer in front of the soundbar and left the subwoofer's automatic pairing function aimlessly looking for a soundbar that was virtually nonexistent. After powering the bar, I had to go back and follow Samsung's directions to manually pair the sub. The moral of the story here is to get your soundbar up and running before turning on the sub. Hopefully I'm making these simple mistakes so you don't have to.

links

Before I discuss the Q800T's connections, I want to confirm that I am about to sound like a broken record but will move on anyway. Like so many bars before and probably so many, the Q800T doesn't have a sufficient number of HDMI ports. It's not something I can officially hold against soundbars right now as it has been proven common practice in the industry, but you should get multiple capable connections when spending that kind of money.

Samsung Q800T soundbar remote controlNick Woodard / Digital Trends

Now that I've got that mini-rant out of the way, the Q800T has an HDMI input and a corresponding HDMI output with the bonus of eARC. There's also a single optical input which, while useful in some cases, should put the HDMI option in the background if possible. Visually, it limits the audio format you can experience, while HDMI supports all of the 3D sound your ears can handle.

The Q800T has built-in Bluetooth that allows you to easily pair your mobile device and stream music. However, depending on your situation, it is usually better to stream audio into the bar over WiFi to eliminate the failure and quality issues that can affect a Bluetooth connection. The Q800T goes one step further thanks to its built-in Amazon Alexa integration. Asking the soundbar to play music was as rational as possible, and the voice assistant seemed decently responsive to my commands, even when music was playing from the bar.

Being in an environment with other connected smart devices can also improve your viewing experience. I routinely asked my soundbar to turn on the TV, selected a YouTube video to broadcast to the TV, and adjusted the volume accordingly with another voice command. No remote controls were required.

Asking the soundbar to play music was as rational as possible, and the voice assistant seemed decently responsive to my commands, even when music was playing from the bar.

There are some connection options that are unique to Samsung TVs and mobile devices. You can technically connect the Q800T to a Samsung TV via WiFi, although I must imagine a wired connection is more reliable. Samsung mobile devices have an option called "Tap Sound" that allows you to tap the top of the soundbar with your device to play the content. That sounds like a decent, if somewhat unnecessary, benefit, and I didn't have a Samsung device on hand to test this out.

Sound quality

I'm not going to dance around here: the Q800T sounds very good. This may seem like an easy judgment, but don't be fooled – there's a lot that went into this five-word conclusion.

Samsung Q800T soundbarNick Woodard / Digital Trends

First, it's important to consider all of the audio features built into this bar. The Q800T features Samsung's Acoustic Beam technology, which the company says mixes the sound to create the impression that it is "right where the action is on the screen." This works well in conjunction with the bar's Dolby Atmos and DTS: X support, not to mention the Q800T's various sound modes (Surround Sound Expansion, Game Pro, Standard, and Adaptive). Incidentally, of these sound modes, I opted for Adaptive, which, according to Samsung, should optimize the sound for each scene. There have been a few movies where I had to turn up the volume for quiet moments with little dialogue and then quickly climb down when louder action was introduced. But for the most part, Adaptive seemed to be the most useful of the modes.

When all of these functions are tied together, the resulting sound is truly outstanding when you watch movies and TV. The bar provided a wider soundstage than I thought possible and helped create an experience that was just below real surround sound but still had a reasonably inclusive effect. The subwoofer almost stole the show and produced some of the best low-end songs I've heard from a soundbar woofer this year. In films like The Lighthouse, where sound plays such an important role in dictating the tone of the story, it really added depth to the audio and rocked scenes like one from Capone when a deteriorating mob boss was played insane by Tom Hardy rattles rounds from his golden machine gun.

After the tragic news of Chadwick Boseman's death, I queued some standout Marvel products such as Black Panther and Avengers: Endgame to allay my grief and test the Q800T's 3D sound capabilities. I found the audio to be on par with the Atmos sound on the LG SN7Y. The advantage of the Q800T lay with the Q800T as the rest of the drivers in the ensemble (especially the subwoofer) helped create a bigger, more cinematic sound than the bar, with uploaded speakers nicely added. I don't think Samsung or LG can compete with properly placed speakers in a traditional speaker setup, but I'm sufficiently convinced of the capabilities of these well-executed Atmos bars. And I think most consumers will be too.

I am confident that this soundbar will provide an exceptional listening experience for most ears.

Music playback was solid too, thanks in part to the soundbar's support for a variety of formats including FLAC, WAV, and ALAC. I think watching movies with this bar is the more remarkable experience, but I'd be lying if I said the way Harry Styles' Watermelon Sugar or Chris Stapleton's Starting Over sounded on this system didn't sound to me liked. I feel like I am criticizing soundbars for not being able to create the stereo separation that is critical to the music. While it's well documented that I still prefer the classic theater setup, the Q800T sells its stereo sound very well.

I am confident that with all the settings available, from setting the mid and high channel levels to adjusting the equalizer in the SmartThings app, this soundbar will provide an exceptional listening experience for most ears. For me, the missing piece of this puzzle is the lack of rear speakers, which would have completed a compelling movie theater experience. Sure, you can spend the extra $ 130 on the wireless environment, and some that might be worth it. But for this price, it wouldn't have been inconceivable for Samsung to add rear speakers to elevate the already great sound to the level of excellence. The fact that Vizio did it for $ 50 less only makes this point worse.

Just like the Samsung-specific connections, the Q800T also has an audio function that harmonizes with Samsung QLED televisions. According to Samsung, the Q-Symphony technology is supposed to synchronize the speakers in the QLED TV with the soundbar speakers in order to achieve a “fuller, more haunting” sound. Unfortunately, I have a Sony TV, which means I was unable to test this particular feature.

Our opinion

At $ 750, the Q800T isn't cheap, especially when you factor in the lack of surround speakers. Even without them, Samsung's new Dolby Atmos soundbar offers great sound and a wealth of convenience, especially for those who have already invested in the brand.

Are there any better alternatives?

For $ 500, you can get a similar 3.1.2 experience on the LG SN7Y, even though it lacks the Wi-Fi capabilities. The Vizio SB36514-G6 is a great option that offers 5.1.4 sound for $ 700. However, the setup is more complicated and not quite comparable in the lower area.

How long it will take?

From a technical point of view, the Q800T is relatively future-proof with HDMI eARC, 4K and HDR 10+ passthrough as well as Dolby Atmos / DTS: X support. A one-year guarantee doesn't hurt either.

Should you buy it?

Yes. The HW-Q800T has proven to be a great sounding system that is easy to set up and use thanks to features like Wi-Fi and Amazon Alexa integration. It's expensive, but it won't disappoint.

Editor's recommendations




03 Sep
Blog

Samsung Galaxy Buds Live Review: A Step Backward

Samsung Galaxy Buds Live Rating 5

"Samsung took a risk with Buds Live, but not all risks pay off."

  • Unique, comfortable design

  • Good battery life

  • Good call quality

  • Overall poor audio quality

  • Ineffective noise cancellation

  • Lack of physical adjustment

  • No noise isolation

The most useful product review isn't necessarily the first, nor is it the longest. It's the most honest and thorough – and quality can take time, especially in the audio world. To review such products, we examine their sound quality with an experienced ear and reconsider the execution of the promised functions. It's easy to get lost in the hype surrounding the newest, shiniest product. But does it do what it says it does? And does it do well?

We went one step further with the Galaxy Buds Live and tested it with a group of editors. We talked together about expectations and performance and tormented each other over the details. We know these buds will polarize because they are so different. Samsung took some serious risks here, deviated from the very good Galaxy Buds +, and given us something completely new. The Galaxy Buds Live have a unique shape and the promise of a more comfortable fit. I went into my time with Buds Live openly and ready to switch to outer ear design.

With a long list of specs that offer formidable features for their $ 170 dollar price tag, the Galaxy Buds Live are a fascinating option in the highly competitive personal audio space. How are you? Let's get into that.

What's in the box?

Similar to the Apple AirPods Pro, the Galaxy Buds Live are packaged very simply. You will receive the buds, the charging case, a charging cable, a pair of earplugs and some literature. It is, and that feels especially weird in a segment that has more materials with earbuds, not less.

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As a result, no adjustment is offered for these buds, but it is purely by design. Rather than including a set of earbuds like all earbuds these days, the design of the buds is specifically designed to be used with each ear. We will go into this further below.

Aside from a few small strips of clear plastic, the box and its contents appear to be completely recyclable. I don't know the little plastic strips were necessary, but they seem to be in almost every high-end product these days. We want these to go away.

Design and fit

Let's talk about the design of these buds as it is very different from almost everything else on the market.

After some adjustment and time, I found them to be quite comfortable.

Instead of sitting in your ear canal, the Galaxy Buds Live rest outside of the canal and on the inside of your concha. For those who find it uncomfortable to have silicone earplugs in your ear canal, the Buds Live are a great alternative.

Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

The way the buds sit in your ear is strange at first and takes some getting used to. But after some adjustment and time, I found them to be quite comfortable.

It's hard to say whether this design choice is more or less comfortable overall than a traditional earbud shape. In some ways, it is certainly less stressful on your ear canal since it is not used at all. However, it still puts pressure on your ear, just in a different place. For me, I could wear these for about as long as I can wear the AirPods Pro before I feel some fatigue. It's not the same tiredness, but it's still there.

As mentioned earlier, the Buds Live cannot be customized for your particular ear as Samsung designed it to work with any ear. This was a risky move, and while they seem to work for everyone I know who have tried them so far, I have to think that there is no way they will work for everyone. Until then, this particular risk will probably pay off.

The touch-sensitive area is located directly around this small point. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

The Buds Live have a touch sensitive area where you can play / pause / skip music, adjust the volume, call a voice assistant, and take and hang up calls. You can customize the functionality of the touch controls through the Galaxy Wear app on Samsung devices and the Galaxy Buds app on iOS. More on that in a moment.

Unfortunately, the tiny size of the buds makes it very easy to accidentally hit this touch-sensitive area as it takes up a large chunk of the outside surface. If you ever need to adjust them while listening to music, rest assured that you will accidentally pause the sound. If you put them in your ear, the chances are good that you will start the game while you are getting them into position. You can of course turn off the touch controls via the app. However, you won't have to turn them back on until later, when you want to use the earbuds to control what you are listening to (what you want to be, to be honest).

properties

What should be the Galaxy Buds Live's standout feature on paper is Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). The Buds Live's biggest competitor is the Apple AirPods Pro, and the ANC in those buds is our favorite on the market right now. If Samsung is looking to turn customers away from Apple, adding ANC was an absolute must. So it was extremely important that it be included in Live.

Unfortunately, the ANC on Galaxy Buds Live is a crushing disappointment. Since the buds don't isolate the sound very well – since the design doesn't seal in your ear canal – it means any ANC technician is in a losing battle with sounds simply going around the buds bypassing any work they would do. The result is ANC that in many situations will make you wonder if it's even working.

samsung galaxy buds live review 4 "class =" m-carousel - image dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/samsung-galaxy-buds-live-review-4 - 640x640.jpg "srcset =" https://www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAJaron Schneider / Digital Trends

Samsung Galaxy Buds Live Rating 3 "class =" m-carousel - image dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn3.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/samsung-galaxy-buds-live-review-3 -640x640.jpg "srcset =" https://www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAJaron Schneider / Digital Trends

There are some cases where a soft sound is slightly reduced, but running water, the noise that a car makes on the highway, or a fan or air conditioner is not reduced at all. Compared to the worst noise cancellation we've tested in other earbuds, the Galaxy Buds Live offers even less performance: this is the new low.

On the positive side, Buds Live, as mentioned earlier, has app support for iOS and Android. You can use this app to make minor adjustments to the sound of the Buds Live project. There are six equalizer options: Normal, Bass Boost, Soft, Dynamic, Clear and Treble Boost. I've tried all six and Dynamic was my personal favorite.

You can also use the Find My Earbuds feature, which makes Buds Live chirp out loud and a breeze to see if you've misplaced them (which is simple: they're very small).

Audio quality

I'll just come out and say it: I'm unimpressed with the Galaxy Buds Live when it comes to sound quality. While they have a surprising amount of bass for buds that can't sit in your ear canal, that's about all they are reasonably good at. Although you can hear music and movies clearly, the sound reproduction lacks depth and warmth. The soundstage is narrow and flat, so you feel like something is definitely missing in the EQ mix.

I have bad news: the Galaxy Buds Live sounds very similar to the standard speakers on a laptop from 2009.

The buds work best when you are alone in a quiet room. In these cases, you may actually find the music comfortable, especially if your expectations are low. If you were okay with the sound of music coming from the original Apple earbuds or AirPods, then chances are you won't be shut off from what you're hearing from Buds Live.

Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

But if you're like me and you've never liked the flat and hollow music playback on these headphones, I have bad news: the Galaxy Buds Live sounds very similar to the standard speakers on a laptop from 2009.

I mentioned that I stayed with Dynamic EQ after going through all of the options and that's because the mix feels particularly empty without the added oomph of bass that you can find there or in Bass Boost. Treble Boost, for example, is almost painful to hear as the entire backbone of the audio is removed.

Aside from the fact that the audio doesn't sound great, it's not particularly loud either. You really need to turn up the volume to nearly block out outside noise, and when you do you run into another big problem: if you can hear what the Galaxy Buds Live is playing, so can everyone around you.

Another downside to poor isolation is that those buds sound worse than any other earbud I've ever come across. I have a tendency to listen to the same songs over and over again through the headphones I review, and that's why my wife is so fed up with the "circles" of Of Monsters and Men. Unfortunately, when evaluating Buds Live, if the buds were in my ears she could hear every word from the song as clearly as if she were carrying them herself. This has created tension in the “office”.

If you plan to use these in any work environment (home or office), be prepared to share whatever you hear with everyone around you.

Battery life

Battery life can be wild as it can change dramatically when you take advantage of all of the features available. If you go for Bixby Wake Word – and we have no idea why you'd want to – and for noise cancellation, you can expect around 5 hours of battery out of the buds and 19 hours including the charging case.

Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

If you turn both things off, you can get around 8 hours and almost 29 hours total of the case, but with only ANC on, you can listen for about 6 hours and 20 minutes or so, and with the case, it's only 21 hours.

Since the ANC, as mentioned, basically doesn't do anything and, to be honest, you won't be using Bixby, we recommend turning both features off to get the most miles out of Buds Live.

Call quality

Making calls with the Galaxy Buds Live is a good overall experience. Sound quality isn't as good as other earbuds like the Apple AirPods Pro, but for $ 80 less, they might not have to be. It is important that those listening on the other end of the line can hear your voice clearly. It may not sound great. One person I spoke to said that my voice sounds more echoing than other headphones I've used.

If you hear louder background noise than normal, e.g. For example, if you run a sink while doing the dishes, I can tell you that the person on the other end of the line won't hear anything. The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live does an exceptional job eliminating background noise when making calls.

In the end, everything is as clear as it should be. The inclination of the buds to higher registers actually helps make the vocals clearer. Even in noisy environments, you shouldn't have trouble hearing conversations.

Our opinion

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live will polarize. There are many people who refer to these as their favorite, or near-favorite, buds in the market. You probably like the look, the small size, the feel of the fit of the buds, and the battery life (especially with the Bixby wake-up word off). If these things are great, that's all you're looking for.

But here at Digital Trends, we mostly judge earbuds by audio quality as you will be listening to music. When Buds offer ANC, we expect it to work. Since the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live falls short on both points, I find it hard to love them.

Is there a better alternative?

If you really want solid Samsung integration, I recommend the Samsung Galaxy Buds +. Though they lack ANC, they are great earbuds that work just as well with your Galaxy device as they do with the Live, and with even better battery life. If you want the same sleek look as the Buds Live but want better sound quality, then the Jabra Elite 75t are great. We also recommend Google Pixel Buds 2.

How long will they last?

Samsung grants a standard one-year warranty on the Galaxy Buds Live. The build quality is solid though, so I'm not particularly concerned about these breaks.

Should you buy it?

If you ask me and senior editor Caleb Denison (who made an excellent video comparing Buds Live and AirPods Pro) the answer is no. We just can't justify the $ 170 price tag when the ANC is worthless and the sound quality lags well behind the cheaper buds. However, if all you're into is a slim profile, Samsung integration, and long battery life, then you will likely love the Galaxy Buds Live.

Editor's recommendations




29 Aug
Blog

Samsung Odyssey G7 Monitor Review: Incredible Immersion

Samsung Odyssey G7 review dsc01546

"Samsung's Odyssey G7 should be the ultimate gaming monitor, but the flickering problem with G-Sync is holding it back."

  • Excellent color rendering

  • Beautiful design

  • Great curve for immersing yourself in games

  • Fast refresh rate of 240 Hz

  • Defective adaptive synchronization

  • Low static contrast performance

  • Curve off-center

Curved gaming monitors are not a gimmick. These wraparound screens offer a fun way to immerse yourself in game worlds without the need for clumsy VR headsets.

The new Odyssey G7 from Samsung extends the technology even further. For the first time, the screen curve, now 1000R, finally matches the curvature of the human eye. It is true immersion in games at its best.

I looked at the 32-inch version of the Odyssey G7 monitor, which has a native resolution of 1440p and a refresh rate of 240 Hz. It's certainly a one-of-a-kind gaming monitor, but with a widespread G-Sync flicker problem and $ 800 price tag, the Odyssey G7 has a lot to prove. Is the Samsung Odyssey G7 worth a spot on your desk?

design

When it comes to design, Samsung has done an admirable job. The first thing you need to do when unpacking the monitor is to attach the triangle base to the neck of the stand. Then insert the top of the neck into the back of the monitor, attach four screws, and lift the entire assembly out of the packaging. You will then be greeted with an absolute giant of an ad.

While 32-inch monitors are initially large, the 32-inch G7 from Samsung sets new standards. The stand is huge and the curve seriously brings the ends of the monitor far forward. Pushed all the way back on our desk, the sides of the panel protrude about a full foot forward so you really want to make sure you have plenty of room for the G7.

The intense curve of the G7 makes it a real centerpiece on your desk.

If you do, you will be pampered. The intense curve is a wonderful eye-catcher, and with the display so far forward it becomes a real centerpiece. The stand itself may be large, but it uses long, slender legs to give it a spacious feel and to leave plenty of room. The stand also has tilt and height adjustments. It can even turn into a portrait, though I can't think of any reason why anyone would want to do this.

The curve in our example was a bit uneven, with the sharpest point being a little off-center on the left. However, when you are immersed in a game, you forget about everything.

Cables can be run through the inside of the stand to keep things tidy. A headphone hook keeps your cans off your desk when you're not playing.

On the back of the display is Samsung's Infinity Core lighting that extends to the lower corners on the front. This doesn't really add much to the display, but it's implemented in a somewhat subtle way so it's not a problem – the front lighting elements aren't really visible from most seating positions.

Connections and controls

The connectivity of the G7 is minimal, but in a good way. It has two DisplayPort inputs and an HDMI connection as well as an integrated USB 3.0 hub with two connections. Power is supplied by a large power supply module that you want to hide somewhere under your desk.

Your only control mechanism is a directional button at the bottom of the display. Click it once to bring up the first selection screen, where you can choose between input source, picture-in-picture mode, and main menu.

In the main menu, the two most interesting submenus are the game menu and the picture menu. The game menu offers settings for the refresh rate, the black equalizer, the response time, the adaptive synchronization and the low input delay. You'll want to make sure you're set to 240Hz, and you can easily set the Response Time setting to "faster" with little entry delay as these settings don't seem to go beyond the control panel.

The black equalizer is set to 13 at the factory, which you might want to lower to around 10 for more accurate performance. By the age of 13, dark elements turn black a little too early, which gives a deeper picture but puts you at a competitive disadvantage in gaming as you cannot see details in the dark.

The Picture menu provides settings for managing colors, including settings for brightness, contrast, sharpness, and color adjustments.

picture quality

The panel used by Samsung is of the VA type and has a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels. This is a bit low for a 32-inch panel, but not a problem when gaming as higher frame rates are possible. In my tests, the color reproduction was also good, covering 100% of the sRGB storage space, 85% of the AdobeRGB storage space and 90% of the DCI-P3 storage space.

With support for 1.07 billion colors and a tested Delta-E (color deviation from real) of 1.25, this panel offers surprisingly good performance in terms of color space and accuracy. Note, however, that I only measured the center of the screen. There is a noticeable color shift at the edges, probably due to the curve that the VA panel bends to its limits.

I tested the maximum brightness of the display without HDR and recorded a number of 392 nits. This is above the typical brightness of 350 nits specified by Samsung, but is sufficient for brightly lit rooms.

Calibrating the display resulted in better colors but less brightness.

Where the monitor suffers a disappointment is the contrast performance. Samsung claims a static contrast ratio of 2500: 1, which is lower than the 3000: 1 VA panels normally produce. This is likely because it is bent to within an inch of its life, so I can forgive that. However, the example I have available doesn't provide a contrast ratio close to the Samsung numbers, with the highest number recorded ending up at 1480: 1 when dynamic brightness is turned off. These are very low values ​​for a VA panel, although it would appear that these numbers vary significantly from sample to sample.

Calibrating the display resulted in a slightly better color reproduction with a Delta-E of 1.09, but that decreased slightly from peak brightness to 370 nits, and the peak contrast ratio dropped to 1330: 1 – almost half what Samsung is promising.

The G7 also supports DisplayHDR 600, which means it should achieve a peak brightness of up to 600 nits. However, this only happens when the rest of the display is dark. With just eight vertical lighting zones, HDR performance is modest at best. It is best to leave it deactivated.

Overall, the image quality of the G7 can be rated as quite good, especially when you consider that it is a gaming monitor with a panel curved to 1000R.

Sacrifice practicality for game skills

I use a 32-inch 4K monitor as my own daily driver, so you can imagine the step from this to QHD with the same panel size being quite a success. I tried switching from the 32-inch Samsung G7 in my main work setup but to no avail. While the color reproduction is impressively good, especially for a gaming monitor, the resolution isn't high enough to work on, especially considering the distance the monitor is due to its large base. The curve also causes distortion which makes photo editing confusing.

While the Samsung G7 falls short when it comes to productivity tasks, the display changes to its original element as soon as you start a game. This is where the lower QHD resolution becomes an advantage as driving is much easier than 4K and high frame rates are provided for this monitor. I equipped the display with an RTX 2070 super graphics card, with which the frame rates in competitive games could be increased significantly to 150 frames per second (fps) and higher. And yes, that makes you a better player.

I don't know how Samsung did it, but the VA panel continues to deliver sharp, smudge-free images even at higher frame rates and extremely fast movements on the screen, making it very easy to track fast-moving subjects from competitive shooters. In Destiny 2, I was suddenly able to track fast-moving subjects with a sniper rifle and successfully land headshots at moving targets over and over again – which I couldn't reproduce on my 60 Hz 4K monitor.

Start the BLJR Busters UFO test and see three UFOs flying across your screen, one at 240 Hz (top), one at 120 Hz (center), and one at 60 Hz (bottom). The 60 Hz alien always runs a few pixels behind the 120 fps and 240 fps aliens. The 120 and 240 Hz aliens are practically neck to neck for on-screen position, but where the 120 Hz UFO is slightly blurry in its rapid movement, the 240 Hz alien is crystal clear.

The image provided is from a video taken with the camera to track the aliens, which makes a pretty good impression – but I couldn't capture how dramatic the difference is with my camera. The 240Hz alien is so crystal clear at high speed that you wonder why anyone would care about a 120Hz display.

The G7's 1000R curve makes games incredibly impressive.

I also launched Horizon Zero Dawn which recently launched on PC. At the highest settings, my PC only pushed around 70 fps into the G7, but the game ran incredibly smoothly and the curve just pulled me in and held me in place. The G7's 1000R curve might not work for productivity, but it makes gaming oh so impressive.

The deep black of the VA panel as well as the vivid colors and high brightness draw you further into the game. If you want to perform well in competitive games, then you should only look at the 27-inch version. However, this 32-inch panel is great for balancing the power of competitive gaming with the immersion in slow single-player gaming, story-driven games.

Address of the elephant in the room: G-Sync Flicker

As many people report on the internet, the G-Sync flicker problem also occurs. The Samsung G7 is technically not a true G-Sync monitor. Instead of using a G-Sync module developed by Nvidia, it is based on the adaptive synchronization protocol implemented in the VESA DisplayPort 1.4 standard.

This is not a problem in and of itself as many displays work well this way. But not the G7. Turn on adaptive sync. While you usually won't notice any problems using the desktop, problems do arise as soon as you start a game.

You'll notice the black flicker in game menus and loading screens the most. It's also present when playing games at high frame rates, although it does so at lower frame rates too. On my panel, it was worst on the left and right edges of the screen, like a black vignette that keeps popping up.

This made adaptive synchronization unusable. Despite everything the G7 does to immerse you in the game, the flickering was so intense with adaptive sync enabled that it felt like I had a twitch in my eye. I searched the internet for a solution ranging from new cables to various settings to a firmware update, but nothing solved the problem. I also tested two 27-inch G7s, both of which had the problem, albeit to a lesser extent. It is best known and known as a known problem with this 32-inch sample.

The only solution for crack-free gameplay was to turn off adaptive sync and enable V-sync instead. Usually this is a sub-optimal solution as it may fix the tearing. However, stuttering and input lag become an issue as the display cannot adjust the screen refresh rate to match your frame timings.

When adaptive sync is enabled, the monitor waits for the GPU to shift a frame out, then immediately updates it to display it, and waits for the next full frame. Without this option, the display is updated 240 times per second, regardless of whether a new frame is to be displayed or not. When V-Sync is disabled and the GPU is halfway through rendering a frame, the display will show that half the frame, causing quick responses, but with cracks visible. With V-Sync enabled, the PC waits for the entire frame to be rendered and the panel to reach an update interval, resulting in tear-free images but also a short delay.

Samsung should take responsibility for the G-Sync flicker issue.

The monitor can display up to 240 fps evenly spaced apart from one second, even when running at much lower frame rates, so the images are displayed at almost the exact speed that the GPU is pushing them out. The lag caused by V-Sync is much shorter compared to a 60Hz, 120Hz, or 144Hz monitor, even if your game is running at relatively low frame rates.

In some ways, the G7 is so fast that it doesn't need adaptive sync, and most people would barely notice the difference between V-sync and unbroken adaptive sync on a 240Hz monitor. But that doesn't change the facts: the 32-inch Samsung G7's adaptive sync is broken, and that's just not acceptable for a $ 800 gaming monitor when so many cheaper displays get it right. Given that price, I would love to see Samsung take responsibility for this issue and either come out with a solution, issue a recall, or remove G-Sync certification and lower the price.

Digital Trends has contacted Samsung for a comment and we will update this review as soon as we hear about it.

Our opinion

The 32-inch Samsung Odyssey G7 is an excellent gaming monitor with a curve that draws you into gaming like no other display. However, the problem with G-Sync flicker is hard to miss.

Classic V-Sync can still solve the problems. With a refresh rate of 240 Hz, you don't necessarily need G-Sync for smooth gameplay. However, it's a second-rate solution that is hard to accept when asked to pay $ 800 for a monitor. Until it is repaired, the Odyssey G7 remains faulty.

Are there alternatives?

If you want a 32-inch QHD monitor that is as fast as this one, with such a tight curve, with the deep black levels and vibrant colors that this VA panel offers, there isn't one.

The closest alternative is the Asus ROG Strix XG32VQ, but it's not that fast at only 144 Hz and doesn't have such a tight curve. Similarly, MSI's Optix MAG321CQR offers a monitor of the same size, resolution, but not as fast or curvy, despite being less than half the price.

How long it will take?

Samsung's monitors don't usually develop crazy problems, so I expect this to work for as long as you can expect from most monitors: at least five years. However, Samsung only gives a one-year warranty on the monitor, which is below the industry standard.

Monitor technology is also advancing rapidly, and I doubt it will be long before a competitor conjures up a product that performs similarly for less money. Combine that with the G-Sync issue, which likely can't be fixed and you can expect a sharp drop in value in your first year.

Should I buy it?

Not in its current state. The Odyssey G7's curve is still a great sight, but G-Sync's problematic implementation is a deal breaker.

There's one major caveat: if Samsung rolls out an update that fixes this issue, the Odyssey G7 will be back worth the $ 800 it costs.

Editor's recommendations




19 Aug
Blog

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 Review: The Other Smartwatch to Buy

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 review case

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 Review: The (Different) Smartwatch You Should Buy

"The Galaxy Watch 3 is the smartwatch you can buy if you have an Android phone."

  • Stylish, traditional watch look

  • Attractive, reliable software

  • The brilliant rotating bezel supports the control system

  • Comprehensive health monitoring functions

  • Solid battery life

  • Questionable fitness tracking accuracy

  • Slow charging of the battery

If you own an Android phone, which smartwatch should you buy? The answer isn't as obvious as you might think. You can't use the shoe-in option, the iOS-based Apple Watch, which is the undisputed top of our smartwatch recommendation list.

Samsung hopes the new Galaxy Watch 3 can take on the role. After all, it shares many of the appealing aspects of the Apple Watch. It comes in two sizes and has a good design, strong software and a unique control system.

That makes it an easy recommendation for Android phone owners – with one caveat. You have to be happy to spend a pretty large sum to get one, weaknesses and all.

design

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

I wore the 45mm Galaxy Watch 3 which has a chronograph style and is a little more masculine than the 41mm model. It also has softer design features for a less sporty look. It weighs 53 grams (0.12 pounds) and is 11 mm (0.43 inches) thick. Due to its overall size, I initially chose the 41mm version as my preferred model, but the larger of the two models has proven to be handy and has established itself as a comfortable companion.

The roundness of the Galaxy Watch 3 makes it less obvious that you're wearing a smartwatch, and I really like that. The 1.4-inch Super AMOLED screen has a resolution of 360 x 360 pixels and is sharp and very colorful. You can choose an always-on screen that, unlike most WearOS watches, doesn't minimize the watch face much. It lowers the brightness and removes all animation like a second hand, but the overall design stays on the screen. This makes it look like a normal watch.

The party piece of the watch is the bezel, which physically rotates to move through the software.

Made of stainless steel, the Galaxy Watch 3 has Gorilla Glass DX above the screen and also looks like a glass showcase. Two buttons are separated by a protective piece on the right side of the housing, with the upper one being used to secure a step in the menu and the lower one being used for the app menu. Long press the top button activates Samsung Pay, and long press the bottom button brings up the Bixby voice assistant. If you look closely at the top button you'll see the words "Galaxy Watch" engraved on it, which is a really nice touch.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The watch's party piece is the bezel as it physically rotates to move through the software rather than having to swipe the screen or play around with a rotating crown.

Not only is this convenient and intuitive, but it also doesn't obstruct your view of the screen when you interact with the software. I really like the neatly dampened rotary motion and the quiet clicks when moving. The software's response is also very quick, so you can turn it one way or another without the clock getting stuck. In reality, you should be using it with care and precision, which shows how high-quality the action feels. If you're not touching the screen, less greasy prints are printed on it, a nice bonus, and the bezel's subtle texture makes it rotate naturally.

My test model has a black leather strap with white stitching that softens shortly after it is put on and is attached to the case with 22mm quick release pins. Switching to almost any other strap is easy, but the Galaxy Watch doesn't offer the same third-party support as the Apple Watch, which means you have to turn to traditional watch accessory manufacturers. That's not a problem, but not as new to newbies as buying custom-made Apple Watch straps.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Like all all-round smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch 3 is closely based on a traditional watch design, so you may not be immediately recognized as a “smartwatch wearer” if you don't want to. However, this comes with a certain degree of anonymity.

The uniqueness of the Galaxy Watch 3 is based more on its ease of use than its looks. I appreciate its presence on my wrist, but Samsung still hasn't found a way to make my heart beat faster when I look at it.

software

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Samsung uses its own Tizen software for the Galaxy Watch 3 and not Google's WearOS for Fossil, Mobvoi or Motorola smartwatches. While WearOS is better than it was, it can be frustrating to use. Tizen on the Galaxy Watch is nifty and mature and much closer to WatchOS than WearOS in terms of usability, but still has some weaknesses of its own, including the complete departure from Google Apps.

First the good things. I'll keep going but the rotating bezel is a work of genius. It's simple and cleverly implemented, and it's key to the Galaxy Watch's quality of life. 3. Turn left to view your notifications. Turn right to view fitness data, workouts, weather, shortcut buttons, and more. These widgets can easily be customized so that they remain relevant to you.

To its disadvantage, the Galaxy Watch 3 uses Bixby for voice control and not the Google Assistant.

Samsung does an excellent job of displaying data on the Watch 3's small screen. The text is clear, large, and legible in sunlight. Because the widget array can be personalized, you rarely need to go to the main menu of the app. Find what you want quickly. It's all very pretty too, with lots of pictures and graphics, right down to large profile pictures to be used with WhatsApp messages and bold colors to distinguish modes, icons, and menu options. It's fun and friendly without being cheap and off-putting. I like the choice of watch faces as there are hundreds available on the Galaxy Store if you don't like the pre-installed Samsung watch faces.

The feel is strong and noticeable, but you have to raise your wrist significantly for the notification to appear on the screen, which can be annoying. Notifications allow you to interact with predefined responses or emoji, speech or a small alphanumeric keyboard. The keyboard is a bit fiddly, but voice control is surprisingly accurate when dictating answers.

To its disadvantage, the Galaxy Watch 3 uses Bixby for voice control and not the Google Assistant. Bixby is in no hurry, and even the command "Hey, Bixby" means pausing for several seconds while he decides whether to listen or not. This mostly makes it useless and nowhere near as good as the Google Assistant on a wearable.

The lack of Google Apps is a problem. You will miss Google Maps the most. I find maps on my wrist helpful in areas I am unfamiliar with as I don't have to stare at my phone like a tourist, but the Galaxy Watch 3 has no pre-installed map option at all. The decent Here Maps app is available from the Galaxy Store, but Google Maps isn't. Samsung brings you into your own ecosystem with the Galaxy Watch. For example, you use Samsung Health instead of Google Fit and Samsung Pay instead of Google Pay.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

I used the Galaxy Watch 3 connected to the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and it worked fine. It's easy and quick to set up, it connects and reconnects with ease even if you turn the watch off overnight, and it even displays a small haptic reminder when you are out of range of your phone. If you're using another Android phone or iPhone, you'll need to install the Samsung Galaxy Wear app in order to use the watch.

The big thing for me is that Tizen isn't annoying on the Galaxy Watch 3, which WearOS almost always is. After the notifications are sorted out during setup, it just sits back, gets on with its work, and isn't irritating when I have to interact with it. This is part of the success of the Apple Watch, and it's great to see it replicated for Android phone owners.

health and fitness

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Galaxy Watch 3 has all the usual fitness monitoring tools on board as well as a heart rate monitor, sleep tracking, automatic fall detection, VO2 max data and blood oxygen monitoring. Like the rest of the software information, it is displayed in a colorful, easy-to-read manner. It has meaningful reminders to keep you moving, and even little stretch routines that are easy and fun to follow – or shut up if you don't have time.

The automatic workout tracking is a little overzealous, however. It occurred while I was vacuuming and painting a door. The Galaxy Watch 3 will now track your sleep when you wear it overnight. The results were different from my Withings Sleep Analyzer – where the Withings tracked deep sleep, the Watch 3 seemed to classify it as light sleep instead.

The Galaxy Watch 3 covers everything I want in a fitness tracker, but there are some accuracy concerns.

Outside of the basics, it's not particularly informative. Personally, since I don't find wearing a watch very comfortable while I sleep, the dates didn't inspire me to wear it often. Heart rate is not measured at night, so battery life is not significantly affected. About 6% was used during seven hours of rest, which means that the watch is having trouble getting through a second day of heavy use without charging.

The data is synced with the Samsung Health app on your phone. In addition to basic information such as number of steps, calorie consumption and training data, you can also add food and water intake there. There is also a stress measurement tool that is linked to a breathing exercise program. The app is informative and attractive, and it has some basic explanations as to why you want to track features like stress.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 evaluation training app "class =" m-carousel - image dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn8.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/samsung-galaxy-watch-3-workout- app-640x640.jpg "srcset =" https://www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP//yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEASamsung Health is used for health and fitness tracking Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 rating sleep app "class =" m-carousel - image dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn9.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/samsung-galaxy-watch-3-sleep- app -640x640.jpg "srcset =" https://www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP//yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAThe Galaxy Watch 3 supports sleep tracking Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 evaluation blood oxygen "class =" m-carousel - image dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn1.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/samsung-galaxy-watch-3-blood- oxygen- 640x640.jpg "srcset =" https://www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP//yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAThe Galaxy Watch 3's blood oxygen measurement Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 rating stress "class =" m-carousel - image dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/samsung-galaxy-watch-3-stress-640x640. jpg "srcset =" https://www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7The voltage meter of the Galaxy Watch 3 Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Galaxy Watch 3 covers everything I want in an everyday fitness tracker, but there are some accuracy concerns. I noticed that some of the data points appeared to be on the low side compared to what I normally see, and I wore them next to the Apple Watch for comparison. During a set period of time, there were big differences in the steps taken, with the Apple Watch 940 and Galaxy Watch 3 recording just 380 over an hour of comparison.

Wearing both for a simple workout also made a massive difference in calorie consumption. The Galaxy Watch estimated 283 calories for a 64-minute session, which seemed low with an average heart rate of 133 beats per minute (beats per minute). The Apple Watch delivered an average heart rate of 127 beats per minute for the same session and an active calorie consumption of 471. However, the resting heart rates were identical.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

While neither may be absolutely correct, the Apple Watch results always match other wearables I've tested. Cause for concern? It's not a medical device, so not really. I'm also using a pre-release version of Galaxy Watch 3, so a software update may arrive before it starts to optimize the data collection algorithms.

Unfortunately, if you need the Galaxy Watch 3 for EKG or blood pressure monitoring, these functions are not yet available. Both must be approved by the local authorities before starting. Although the Food and Drug Administration has now approved the Galaxy Watch 3's EKG feature, it has not yet been enabled in my review model.

battery

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

With moderate use. The battery of the Galaxy Watch 3 lasts two working days if it is switched off overnight with the display active. Introduce GPS, continuous heart rate and stress level tracking, and additional fitness tracking, and that will drop to a little over a day. As I tracked my sleep, the battery dropped from 48% when I went to bed to 42% in the morning.

I find the battery life of the Galaxy Watch 3 acceptable, but certainly not desirable. It improves on many WearOS watches, which often can't make two full days even with light use, but the charging process is very slow. The magnetic puck sticks pretty loosely to the back of the watch 3, and regardless of which charging block I used, the charging time from 5% to 100% was at least two hours and 15 minutes.

I wore the Galaxy Watch 3 next to the Apple Watch for a few days to compare the battery consumption. Between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., the Galaxy Watch 3's battery dropped to 66%, while the Apple Watch's battery dropped to 75%. I turned the clocks off at midnight and back on at 9 a.m., then followed an hour's workout, and then continued using it all day. The Galaxy Watch 3 showed 5% at 10 p.m. while the Apple Watch had 10%. When it hit 15% and 5%, the Galaxy Watch 3 suggested turning on a battery saver that only shows the time to extend usage.

Using the Galaxy Watch 3 with other Android phones and the iPhone

The Galaxy Wearable app, which is required to connect the Galaxy Watch 3 to your phone, is available on Google Play and the iOS App Store. I tested it on a Samsung phone, but what is the experience like with a third-party device? I'll be updating this over the next few weeks as I use the Watch 3 with different phones. I will add the results to this story

Price and availability

The Galaxy Watch 3 is $ 399 for the 41mm WiFi model or $ 429 for the 45mm WiFi model. Samsung is also making a 41mm 4G LTE version for $ 449 and a 45mm 4G LTE version for $ 479. Both are compatible with all major US airlines. All Wi-Fi models will be released on August 20th and 4G models in September.

In the UK, the 41mm WiFi model is £ 399 and the 45mm WiFi clock is £ 419. The 4G LTE units cost £ 439 for the 41mm model and £ 459 for the 45mm model.

Our opinion

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 isn't perfect, but it's the best smartwatch you can buy if you own an Android phone. The software is reliable and pretty to look at, the control system is an absolute winner, there is a choice for small and large wrists, and it has extensive health features too.

However, they pay a heavy price. It's twice what you'd spend on some WearOS watches, and since smartwatches are more of a nice addition than an essential one, you really have to be sold for the concept to spend that much. Apart from the Apple Watch, the Galaxy Watch 3 is the only modern smartwatch that I still like to wear after the reporting period. I think that's a strong recommendation.

Is there a better alternative?

The Galaxy Watch 3's biggest rival is the Galaxy Watch Active 2. It's cheaper and has the same software but a touch-based version of the rotating bezel and a less interesting design. It's a good buy if you don't have the budget for the Galaxy Watch 3. If you want WearOS for Google's apps, the Fossil Gen 5 and Moto 360 are good. The Mobvoi TicWatch C2 Plus is still cheaper. Keep in mind that WearOS isn't as sophisticated or as easy to use as Tizen.

If you own an iPhone, there's nothing here to turn you off of the Apple Watch. Even if the experience is good, only the Apple Watch can be integrated with Apple's messaging system and apps. If you have an iPhone, you should still buy the Apple Watch.

How long it will take?

The Galaxy Watch 3 has IP68 water and dust resistance and a toughness rating of MIL-STD-810G, which means it should be suitable for everyday use and in most situations. The design shouldn't age badly. If Samsung continues to support the app, the Galaxy Watch 3 will last as long as you have your current phone.

Should you buy it?

Yes. It's expensive, but if you're connecting to an Android phone, it's worth it.

Editor's recommendations




19 Aug
Blog

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra In-Depth Review: The Conqueror

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Review Camera Module Pen

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

"The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is the largest, most feature-rich Android phone ever made."

  • Massive 120 Hz screen looks great

  • S Pen is unique and handy

  • Versatile camera

  • Future-proof hardware and software

  • All-day battery even with heavy use

  • Big and heavy

  • Security functions are difficult

  • Palm rejection issues

Go big or go home. That has always been Samsung's motto with the Galaxy Note series, and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is the biggest effort yet. The screen is even bigger than last year's Galaxy Note 10 Plus, and there's more power, more features, and more technology – all with the goal of improving productivity and improving media capabilities.

Your wallet should also be bigger, as the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra starts at $ 1,299. Samsung's approach to outperforming the competition is simple: beat them into the submission by offering everything a phone buyer could want in a phone that will last for years.

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable in terms of device size and price, and even outperforms the Galaxy Note 10 Plus – a phone we've named the best Android phone of 2019.

design

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

If the design of the Galaxy Note 10 Plus was a bit ordinary, the Note 20 Ultra is anything but. This is particularly evident in the new Mystic Bronze color of the devices in the photos. The camera module is massive, protrudes several millimeters and dominates the back of the phone. It differs greatly from the dainty module of the Note 10 Plus and is even clearer than the module of the Galaxy S20 Ultra. The glass cover has a strong, bright shine in different lighting conditions.

The mystical bronze itself lies somewhere between gold and pink and is more noble than gaudy. The matte finish has a lot of grip and resists fingerprints, but the glass above the camera module does not. A good wipe was often required before taking photos. Take away the monster camera module, and the Note 20 Ultra has the same basic shape as the Note 10 Plus, where the curved sides taper to a point and are comfortable to grip at the same time.

Samsung has swapped the buttons on the right side of the phone. For me, as a right-hander, this is far more natural than with the Note 10 Plus, which had the buttons on the left. In the new layout, the S Pen pen is on the left side of the phone, the top and bottom of the phone are flat, and there is a single selfie camera with a hole punch on the screen.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

I have average sized hands, and the Note 20 Ultra is almost 77.2 mm (3.04 in) wide, 8.1 mm (0.32 in) thick, and 208 grams (0.46 pounds) too big and too heavy. It's well balanced, but can feel top heavy if you use it while lying down. It's also frustrating to juggle with one hand when all you want to do is check a notification or take a selfie.

It is these quick tasks that can make using the massive Note 20 Ultra a chore, and sometimes I long for a smaller, more manageable device. With the 196 gram, 7.9 mm thick Note 10 Plus, I felt less.

Be prepared for an adjustment period once you get used to the size.

The Note 20 Ultra is a hit with a phone and requires a commitment to wear and use it every day. The reward is well worth the effort. However, if you graduate to a smaller phone (which is just about every other phone available), you should expect some adjustment period as you get used to it.

This also applies if you come from the Note 10 Plus, which feels surprisingly sleek and user-friendly compared to the Note 20 Ultra. I always appreciate an extremely large screen, but the massive chassis that it takes to get it can feel like a step too far.

Screen and audio

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

A dynamic 6.9-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1,440 x 3,088 pixels, a variable refresh rate of 120 Hz and even HDR10 + support will grab your attention. The Note 20 Ultra is the first Samsung phone to use Samsung Display's variable refresh rate technology, which adapts to your phone's activities. For example, 120 Hz is used when playing games that support it, or it is switched to 60 Hz for movies or even to 10 Hz for still images. The aim is to be more energy efficient.

The screen is nice to look at, just like most Samsung phones.

This adaptive refresh rate is set by default, but it is possible to force a refresh rate of 60 Hz to be used all the time. The default resolution is also 2,316 x 1,080 and must be changed manually to 3,088 x 1,440. However, to enjoy this you need to use a refresh rate of 60Hz. It's nice to look at, just like most Samsung phones. I've used it on the default setting most of the time and haven't had any complaints about the quality or sharpness.

Scrolling through some apps is not as smooth as expected. I've noticed some stuttering on Twitter and parts of Chrome that may have more to do with Android than the screen. At the top and bottom of the display there are minimal bezels that curve gently down the sides to create a large viewing area. Even the hole punch for the selfie camera is tiny.

Woyshnis Media's YouTube video with the Lamborghini Huracán Perfomante and Mercedes Benz AMG GTS is a great demonstration of how amazing the screen is and how a display optimization called Video Enhancer works. The green Lamborghini appears off the screen when the mode is active, while the darker AMG stays muted until you approach, and the brightly colored flakes in the paint become noticeable. This good balance isn't common in display enhancement modes and meant I didn't mind leaving the video enhancer on most of the time.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

I put the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra next to the equally impressive Sony Xperia 1 II to test videos and the results are surprising. The Note 20 Ultra does not play a 4K YouTube video like the Sony cell phone, but hardly shows the Porsche Taycan test from Carfection. The screen of the Note 20 Ultra is colorful and yet delivers crisp white tones. The large size really offers a nice viewing experience.

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has stereo speakers, one on top of the screen for calls and one on the bottom of the phone. The sound is full, with lots of mids and clear highs. As you'd expect, there is little low-end bass. While it is loud, and while the sound gets pretty bright, there is no distortion at maximum volume. The Note 20 Ultra also supports Dolby Atmos.

The screen and media experience on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is great, but is hurt by the problematic rejection of palms and fingers on the edges of the screen. I'm using a Prerelease phone so a software update can fix this before it goes on sale. But the way it is now, it's a pain. Because of this, various apps are accidentally opened while others are closed. I accidentally sent voice messages on WhatsApp and many buttons on the sides of the screen don't work until you adjust your grip. It's very frustrating, but I hope an update is available to fix the problem.

camera

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The camera is one of the key improvements that the Note 20 Ultra offers over the Note 10 Plus. The 108-megapixel 1 / 1.33-inch sensor from Samsung is on board and comes from the Galaxy S20 Ultra. In addition, there is a 12 megapixel periscope zoom with 5x optical and 10x hybrid zoom, the maximum room zoom level of which, however, is reduced to 50 times instead of 100 times.

Finally, there is a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, a new laser autofocus system and optical image stabilization for the main and periscope lenses. It can also record video with a resolution of up to 8K at 24 frames per second and 4K at 60 frames per second, with optical and electronic stabilization, as well as HDR10 + support.

Although the specs clearly represent an improvement over the Note 10 Plus, the two main cameras take very similar photos, with the Note 20 Ultra being only slightly more detailed. That changes, however, when you switch to 5x and 10x zoom, with the Note 20 Ultra outperforming the Note 10 Plus' ability to take clear, detailed photos.

However, the Note 10 Plus has a better 2X optical zoom mode, which makes it more user-friendly in some cases, as 5X will actually get you very close to a subject.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Note 20 Ultra's camera is easy to love. The photos you take are full of colors and appear pleasantly off the screen without looking too artificial or over-saturated. At night, the low-light performance is also great as the camera creates a real atmosphere after dark. If you zoom in at 5x and 10x, the footage still has a lot of detail, but 50x is the same pointless endeavor as 100x on the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

The phone has the great single take mode with some minor changes. In this mode, you capture a short video instead of a single still image and the camera does several different edits, including still images, filtered shots, GIFs, and more. You will never regret taking a photo instead of a video.

The new mode lets you choose the length of time you record video – anywhere from five to 15 seconds – and it returns more options than before, even with the most basic of recordings. Not all are gold, but I'd rather have too many choices than not enough.

The 108 megapixel mode and the 8K video mode are gimmicks. The 8K video looks great if you own an 8K TV. If you don't, the footage will just take up a ton of space on your phone.

Take a 108 megapixel still image and you will have difficulty selecting it in the gallery. Once you find it, you can crop it without losing a lot of detail. However, this is a niche feature, especially since you can also use one of the Note 20 Ultra's very powerful zoom settings. These modes work as intended, and 8K video may be more helpful in the future. However, for now they are not a reason to buy this phone.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Review wide angle "class =" m-carousel - image dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn4.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/note-20-ultra-wide-angle -640x640 .jpg "srcset =" https://www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAGalaxy Note 20 ultra wide angle Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Review Standard "class =" m-Karussell - Bild dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn5.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/note-20-ultra-standard-640x640. jpg "srcset =" https://www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP//yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Standard Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Review 5x Zoom "class =" m-Karussell - Bild dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn6.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/note-20-ultra-5x-zoom - 640x640.jpg "srcset =" https://www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAGalaxy Note 20 Ultra 5x zoom Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

How about some selfies? Some may consider them washed out – and they're definitely on the bright side when compared to the iPhone 11 Pro – but I liked the results.

Also worth mentioning is the editing suite in the gallery app as it has all the features and is very easy to use. The auto-enhancement setting is usually useful for making the colors stand out in selfies. Samsung added a Pro mode to the video, and while I like the way you can manually zoom in and out for a cinematic look, Pro modes are complicated and require a certain amount of expert knowledge. I suspect most people will only use Auto mode, but if you are a competent photographer this is very welcome.

The main camera functions of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra – main sensor, periscope zoom, wide angle, night mode, and selfies – are all excellent, and you can snap photos that can be shared instantly in just about any setting or location. Explore more and the Note 20 Ultra's camera really stands out.

S pen

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The S Pen is now on the bottom left of the phone and is the same size and shape as the last one. However, it is easier to remove and replace than the Note 10 Plus. Samsung played a huge role in reducing the latency to 9 milliseconds. So is this noticeable? Not really, no, and maybe it's because I'm used to the Note 10 Plus, but I found my scribbled notes to be a lot neater on this phone. I think the sensitivity needs to be adjusted and the palm rejection issues don't help here either.

The new convert to text feature is very accurate. When converting, an easy-to-edit field will appear on the screen. Although I didn't have to change any words, the formatting was always turned off and needed improvement. The S Pen's air gestures work well. For example, a reverse swipe goes back one step and a Scribble action opens a window for writing on the screen. The button continues to function as a remote release for the camera.

Yes, the S Pen is one reason to buy the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Unless you have a reason other than a pen, you don't have many other options.

Living with the Note 10 Plus on various occasions over the past year has shown me that it can be useful, but you really need to have a use in mind for it. While there are special features, they aren't convincing enough to trick you into using them if you don't already have plans to take notes or draw. The Note 20 Ultra's palm rejection really needs improvement, however, as it affects the pen's response on the screen, in my opinion.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Despite the size and weight of the phone, it's a great slot machine, mostly because the screen is so big and the S Pen is an interesting alternative to using your finger. I played DariusBurst SP, one of my favorite cell phone games, and I was much more precise when dodging bullets with the S Pen instead of my finger in the more difficult later levels.

Playing 1945 and other marksmen worked just as well. The S Pen's new low latency almost certainly helps, although I wouldn't say Scribble Racer 2 felt more precise than before.

Performance and software

Buy the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra in the US and it comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus processor. However, buy the same phone in the UK or elsewhere in Europe and it comes with Samsung's very own Exynos 990 processor. This is the model tested here with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage space. There is a microSD card slot to enhance this if you need more space. Regardless of where you buy the phone, it has 5G connectivity. Here are the benchmark results:

Geekbench 5: 919 single core / 2708 multi core

3DMark Sling Shot Extreme: 5179 (volcano)

These scores are significantly lower than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 in the OnePlus 8 Pro and the Snapdragon 865 Plus in the Asus ROG Phone 3. I didn't experience any performance issues and the benchmark results don't always reflect actual speed, but it's the difference between that Samsung Exynos 990 and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus in these benchmark results can hardly be ignored.

Use the Exynos powered Galaxy Note 20 Ultra pretty hard and it gets a little hot – never to the point where it's uncomfortable to hold it, but you definitely get a sweaty palm. I noticed this is playing Asphalt 9 Legends, but not Hill Climb Racer. So if you never play high-end games or make long calls, you might not even notice.

Android 10 with the OneUI 2.5 from Samsung is installed together with the Android security patch from July 2020 and works just like the software of the Galaxy S20 series devices. It's bold and colorful, with tons of options to customize the look, all the way to an effective dark mode and a helpful screen that is always on. It's fast and reliable, and gesture controls are fluid. I had no problems with the software at all.

Battery and security

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Note 20 Ultra's 4,500 mAh battery has a lot to do. So don't expect it to last more than a day if your screen time is five hours or more. Use it moderately for less time and it will almost crawl through a second day of work. During my time on the phone, it didn't last two full days on a single charge, and with an average screen time of three to four hours per day, it's around 30% by midnight.

Given the technology that the battery has to power the battery, I don't think that's a bad thing, and the phone didn't worry me. I need an emergency charge to get through the day. However, it won't please the hardcore power users that Samsung wants to attract with the Note series. When you use 5G, expect even more battery drain. I don't have 5G near me so I haven't tested this feature. The 4G LTE signals are good and Wi-Fi calling on supported networks is helpful, although I've found the Wi-Fi range to be a bit short. The 25 watt wired charger brings the battery to 50% in 30 minutes, and you can also use wireless charging.

A built-in fingerprint sensor secures the Note 20 Ultra and is unfortunately just as fussy as that of the Note 10 Plus and the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Recognizing your printout isn't as quick as it is with the OnePlus 8 Pro or unlocking the phone. There is a face unlock system, but it is similarly cumbersome and offers an awkward way of activation. As a result, I accidentally turned the screen off and on again while waiting for it to work. Unlocking Samsung phones is generally frustrating compared to almost all the other phones I've used.

So much more

I've been using the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra as my main phone for almost two weeks. There are still many features to discover that I haven't used in a while. This is unusual and shows how much effort Samsung went into making the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra its most powerful, feature-rich smartphone on the market.

One example is the new Wireless DeX system. Samsung DeX takes your phone display onto a monitor or television and turns the software into a desktop system where you can run apps, view photos, watch videos and even play games. DeX used to require an HDMI cable or special dock to function, but the Note 20 Ultra has wireless support. The feature probably works best with Samsung TVs, but has refused to connect to screen mirroring on my Sony Android TV.

The list goes on. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has a power sharing mode for wireless charging of the Galaxy Watch 3, the Galaxy Buds Plus or the Galaxy Buds Live. It provides access to Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass to stream console games to your phone and the software update will allow you to run your phone apps on a Windows 10 PC. Samsung Notes is currently syncing with OneNote. There's really a lot to discover on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, and that adds to its longevity.

Price and availability

The 128GB Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is priced at $ 1,299 or $ 1,449 for the 512GB model. In the UK, the 128GB phone costs £ 1,179 and the 512GB phone costs £ 1,279. It is sold through Samsung's own online shop and under contract with the vast majority of network operators. It's available for pre-order now and will be released on August 21st.

Our opinion

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is the biggest, baddest, and hardcore flagship smartphone you can buy today. It has everything you could want in a phone today – and pretty much everything tomorrow, including 5G. With that, it's a safe buy for someone looking for a phone that will last for years. However, Samsung needs to fix the palm rejection and edge detection issues as this is an otherwise excellent continuation of the excellent Galaxy Note 10 Plus. With that in mind, the phone will get a new score if Samsung fixes this issue.

A word about the price. It's expensive, but considering how powerful and capable it is, and how many features it has, the Note 20 Ultra is more durable than many other flagship phones that cost a few hundred dollars less. Samsung says it designed it that way, and it shows. If you do buy it, you might even consider changing your phone for a few years.

Is there a better alternative?

If you want the best specs, a pen, and a brilliant camera, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra stands on its own. If you're not worried about the S Pen pen, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is a decent alternative, although I prefer the Note 20 Ultra's design and camera. At this price point, you should also check out the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max, which has a standout camera and screen.

If you don't want to spend that much money and don't want to worry about the pen, the OnePlus 8 Pro is a great buy with its lovely design, decent camera, and stunning screen. If you really enjoy gaming, the Asus ROG Phone 3 is another highly specialized, focused phone that is worth considering.

Should you upgrade if you own the Galaxy Note 10 Plus? I do not believe that. The camera is definitely an upgrade, but with it comes added bulk and less sophisticated software right now – there aren't any such palm rejection issues on the Note 10 Plus. If you want a Note phone but not at the price of the Note 20 Ultra, buying a Note 10 Plus is a wise decision.

How long it will take?

Age and age. The performance and ability of the Note 20 Ultra means it should still feel fresh two years from now. It's IP68 waterproof, but it's not tough, so you'll want to put it in a pocket anyway. There's 5G for the future too, and you can record 8K video if you buy an 8K TV.

Samsung promises three generations of software updates for its latest smartphones. This means the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra should receive Android updates beyond a two-year contract, which extends its useful life further than most expect. However, Samsung has not committed itself to timeframes. Although Android 11 and above will be available on the phone, you may need to be patient.

Should you buy it?

Yes. You will be spending a lot of money, but you will get a phone that you won't have to think about replacing for years.

Editor's recommendations




13 Aug
Blog

Samsung TU8000 Crystal UHD TV Review: Good Design, Good Enough Performance

Samsung Tu8000 Crystal Led UHD TV Rating 1

"The Samsung TU8000 is roughly on par, which is great for a budget-friendly set."

  • Attractive, slim bezel design

  • Excellent 1080p upscaling

  • Good color rendering

  • HDMI eARC support

  • Aggressive vignette

  • The contrast is clouded in complex scenes

  • Not particularly bright

It might not be QLED, but the Samsung TU8000 Crystal UHD HDR TV promises amazing colors, high contrast ratios, and great HDR playback for just $ 55 for a 55-inch device. That is promising for not a lot of money, especially since the design of this TV features a very attractive thin bezel.

Samsung promises a top-notch 4K upscaling system thanks to its 4K processing and an auto-game mode that is claimed to optimize the screen and minimize input lag. For a clearly budget-friendly television, Samsung met the TU8000 with many expectations. But does it deliver?

Out of the box

I always appreciate a TV that comes with minimal setup, and the TU8000 delivers on that. With just the remote control, batteries, two feet, two cable management locks and a power cable, this Samsung was thankfully easy to take out of the box and assemble. No screwdriver required, the feet simply slide into position and hold in place. These feet are plastic and don't feel particularly great, but from a distance they look nice and definitely get the job done. Once you are on your media stand, the TV feels safe and stable.

Samsung Tu8000 crystal led UHD TV rating 8 "class =" m-carousel - image dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/samsung-tu8000-crystal-uhd-tv -review-8-640x640.jpg "srcset =" https://www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAAAThe feet are simple but effective. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

Samsung Tu8000 crystal led uhd TV rating 5 "class =" m-carousel - image dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn3.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/samsung-tu8000-crystal-uhd-tv -review-5-640x640.jpg "srcset =" https://www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAAAThis removable plastic fastener isn't particularly attractive. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

Samsung Tu8000 crystal led UHD TV rating 4 "class =" m-carousel - image dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn4.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/samsung-tu8000-crystal-uhd-tv -review-4-640x640.jpg "srcset =" https://www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAAAYou can stick the cable in these grooves too, but they don't stay particularly well. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

However, I'm less enthusiastic about the cable management claps mentioned above. They're lightweight plastic clips that sit on the back of the TV's feet and aren't particularly sturdy to the touch. Plus, they're pretty unattractive. This is a bummer considering how good the rest of this TV looks from the front. You can hide the cable and fasteners pretty well, but it's certainly not perfect and I wanted a better solution here. There are also some grooves on the back of the TV for the cable to plug into, but it doesn't stay very well and the power cord is also quite short, which further limits your options here.

Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

The voice remote control supplied with the TU8000, like other modern Samsung remote controls, has a slim and curved profile that only houses the buttons that are absolutely necessary. I appreciate how small it is, yet still give me everything I need to enjoy content. It's a voice remote that works with apps like YouTube when you're in a search bar. It also acts as a smart assistant with Google Assistant, Bixby or Amazon Alexa (depending on what you choose during setup).

Features and design

It's not a top-of-the-range Samsung and definitely a plastic model, but the TU8000 manages to improve the looks of a Samsung for the most part. The back of the TV isn't particularly impressive, with a fully rounded plastic back that doesn't scream "high end," but luckily, you'll rarely look there. From the front, the sleek design of the TV on the left, right, and top is crisp and attractive. The base is a bit thicker, but lined with a silver plastic that blends in well and looks expensive, at least from a distance.

From the front, the sleek design of the TV on the left, right, and top is crisp and attractive.

Like other Samsung televisions, the TU8000 is powered by the Tizen smart TV system. Setup was easy and enjoyable and, thanks to the connection with the Samsung SmartThings app, extremely fast. Although you don't need the app, setup times are significantly reduced as you have access to a full keyboard (instead of having to type in your email address and WiFi password letter by letter with the remote control).

Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

The TU8000 has three integrated HDMI inputs, only one of which has an eARC connection. Samsung has not taken into account the beautiful workmanship of its high-end models like the Q90T, so unfortunately you won't see any reduced artifacts or banding with content with a low bit rate. More on this and further information on image quality in a moment.

The largest bezel is on the bottom of the TV and is still relatively narrow, with a subtle logo placement. Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

user friendliness

The Tizen Smart TV experience is … okay. As we've said before, it's a perfect example of "good enough," though it doesn't always do its best on that particular TV. Oddly enough, navigating to different apps or content in the Tizen UI shows some lag and is therefore slow and fast, but the performance of the apps themselves is snappy and pleasant. While I didn't like turning on the TV and choosing the app I want to use, I liked the user interface when I got to know Netflix, Amazon Prime, or YouTube. The other downside to Tizen is that it isn't as robust as other streaming platforms like Roku or Android TV. For example, there is no Crunchyroll app. This probably won't bother the majority of people as it has a full breakdown of the most popular apps.

While Tizen does the job, it's generally also overflowing with lots of unnecessary and irrelevant suggestions to look at. You can largely avoid this, but due to the input delay in Tizen navigation, I sometimes accidentally hit "down" too many times and was inundated with a full screen of poorly suggested content. Part of what makes Tizen so beautiful is that it generally only takes up a quarter of your screen when switching between apps, changing your source, or adjusting your picture. If Tizen breaks off from it, it shows its mistakes.

And as we have already mentioned with other Samsung Smart TVs and as I mentioned above, while it supports intelligent assistants that are (thankfully) not only Bixby, the voice integration is not as good as, for example, with an Android TV. It's a bit clunky and disjointed here, but it works.

picture quality

It should come as no surprise that if we found screen uniformity issues on a high-end Samsung TV this year, they would also appear in the lower TU8000 range. There is some particularly aggressive vignetting on this TV that is very inconsistent around every corner. For example, the top left corner on my test unit showed some of the worst vignetting, with the bottom left being a little less aggressive. Nevertheless, all four corners clearly have problems here. The vignette was also clearly visible in the mailbox contents.

This television does not use local dimming zones, but is edge-lit. This is an older, cheaper technology that offers less control over brightness and black levels. As a result, there is considerable bloom, predominantly from the lower part of the television, when there is a light subject on a dark background. With particularly high-contrast images, the scenes can be washed out by this flower.

The halo effect also occurs on bright objects, but it's not as bad as I expected. With small sources like subtitles, you can see about half an inch of halo around the letters, while with larger sources it can grow to about an inch and a half. It's not particularly noticeable in most cases, but it's there.

Edge-lighting induced bloom can really wash out what the panel is trying to do and makes for a generally muddy view.

The contrast of the TU8000 is only okay overall. I think the panel is capable of good black levels, but in too many scenes the edge-lit blooming mentioned above really washes out what the panel is trying to do and makes for a generally muddy view. The Mandalorian, with whom I also tested strips with a low bit rate content thanks to the many wide shots in a clear sky, seemed less powerful than I'm used to, since black and white somehow merge into a medium gray. However, it by no means makes the content uncontrollable.

Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

In less challenging scenes where the area between highlights and shadows is more compact, the TU8000 performs much better. There's a 12K aerial video of a night flight over New York that we like to use as a base, and the slow panning of Times Square looked very good on this TV. Darks were well represented, and when the bright lights came in from the top of the screen, the TU8000 did a pretty good job of keeping the image where it should be.

In other challenging scenes, the TU8000 was able to smooth out shadows and bring out details pretty well. It may border washed-out borders again, but the detail has not been lost; At least the TU8000 doesn't crush black people. The quality is not what we expect from top-notch TVs, but for the price I was happy.

Samsung rightly touted 1080p upscaling: it's fantastic.

Out-of-the-box color accuracy is pretty good even in Standard (but stay away from Dynamic). The film mode reduces Samsung's sharpness to zero, which is very easy to see, and the contrast is better in this mode than in standard. In both Standard and Movie, skin tones could use some work as many of the nuances seem lost, but green and blue are pretty nice.

The TU8000 tends to be more yellow and more blue in film mode, while it is sharpened far too much in standard mode. In both cases the balance is thrown off a bit, but is bearable. This can likely be fixed with a special calibration, but since this TV is aimed at the more general consumer and not a pixel peeper, I say, I don't mind. Most will be perfectly happy with this TV in standard (the horror!) Or movie mode, and that's honestly a relief to report. This TV has to look great right away as the average customer doesn't touch a single setting, and I have to say that it works fine in that regard (although you really need to turn motion smoothing off).

Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

The brightness is sufficient, but some of the particularly gritty content like Netflix 'Dark is a challenge during the day. Certainly doable, but I had to squint. However, shows like The Mentalist (via Amazon Prime Video) look fantastic no matter when I've watched them. Speaking of the mentalist: The TU8000 has wonderfully demonstrated its outstanding capabilities there, as this 1080p stream looks fantastic on the 55-inch set. Samsung rightly touted 1080p upscaling: it's fantastic.

Gaming performance

This is a good TV to play with, at least for now. According to Samsung, the TU8000 has gamer functions that reduce latency. However, this TV does not have a variable refresh rate, so it cannot remove the jerking. In addition, the display of content is limited to 60 Hz.

I can confirm that while the input delay is less than most TVs in game mode, it is not as fast as a gamer would want to see in a competition where you need split second response times. It's certainly good enough for the occasional single player game, but still a little slow for more intense, action-oriented online games like Apex Legends, top-tier Fortnite games, or Call of Duty.

The performance here is likely good enough for most current generation console games, but it won't be able to play at maximum specs with the next generation due fall 2020.

Sound quality

We don't usually talk too much about the sound quality of modern flat screen TVs, and I didn't want to consider that at all when I submitted this TV for review. However, I was very impressed with the TU8000. Not only can it get damn loud, but the sound quality is shockingly balanced. I strongly recommend buying a soundbar or sound system for any TV (my personal favorite is The Fives by Klipsch), but honestly, if you forego it, you honestly might not feel bad about this choice.

The sound works best in a smaller room. So if you plan to pick one up for a guest room or bedroom, you will be happy with the audio.

Jaron Schneider / Digital Trends

Our opinion

I used the TU8000 for about a week and became more interested in it than I thought. The thin bezel, mixed with great upscaling and surprisingly good sound quality, made for a really pleasant viewing experience. Sure, it has its downsides and the vignetting can be distracting at times, but overall, it does a very satisfactory job with its laundry list of promises. Samsung really had its job cut out for itself when it set such standards with its marketing, but the company is doing well enough in all of these categories for the most part. It isn't and shouldn't be an industry leader. For a fairly budget-friendly TV, many people will be perfectly happy with the Samsung TU8000, especially if you can find it on sale.

Is there a better alternative?

We're still waiting to test out the 2020 TCL 5 Series which seems to be a real head-turner, but despite being a year old, the 2019 5 Series is still a pretty comparable choice to the TU8000. You may also want to consider the new Vizio M or V series, as both sets offer a price close to or lower than the TU8000 for the same size or larger. We'll update this post when we've had the opportunity to rate the entire competition and provide clearer guidance.

How long it will take?

With three HDMI ports and one of them eARC, I'm confident this TV can get you a lot of work done. It's technologically built to last well into the future, and the quality feels solid.

warranty

Samsung offers a one-year parts and labor warranty for home use and a 90-day parts and labor warranty for commercial use.

Should you buy it?

I will reserve a judgment here. I think this is a good TV that is pretty good value at $ 500 for a 55-inch unit. If I didn't know that Vizio has two potential competitors soon, and if TCL doesn't look really promising with its 2020 5 Series, this could be an easy call. There is a lot of competition for the Samsung TU8000 this fall, however. So if you can wait a little to make your decision, this is probably your best bet right now. We will update this recommendation as soon as we have a chance to fully evaluate the field.

Editor's recommendations




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