If you have been hunting for a low priced 5G phone, then you probably already know they are priced north of US $140. Some good news here: that’s about to change.
Essentially, these are the phones that someone would upgrade to from a feature phone. Think itel A70, Redmi 13, Tecno Pop 8, Samsung Galaxy A05s and entry level smartphones.
The chips will be on some new Xiaomi smartphones launching for the Indian market later this year. Of course, these phones will their way to Africa and we’ll be able to buy them too.
This new Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 chipset is a toned down version of the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset which is already in slightly more expensive phones like the Redmi 13 5G, Poco M6 5G Plus (Poco is Xiaomi spin-off brand), and some Vivo Y series phones.
Here are the key features that phones with the new Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 chipset will have:
Qualcomm’s 5G Modem-RF System with 1 Gbps peak internet speeds (theoretically 7x faster compared to LTE peak speeds)
Ability for 40W fast-charging
Camera quality of up to 84 megapixels
Support for FHD+ displays at 90 FPS (generally brighter display than your average $100 phone)
Dual-frequency GPS with NavIC L1+L5 for improved location accuracy (just me struggling with GPS accuracy in Google Maps on these entry level phones?)
Ability to switch easily from 5G to Qualcomm Wi-Fi 5
It’s all good celebrating faster and better technology coming to low cost entry level phones, but the question remains – is not having 5G a deal breaker right now when buying a phone? Is this just hype you should cast aside?
We think having a 5G phone doesn’t matter much yet. It’s ok to have one, yes, but with all of 27 5G base stations the whole country, the number of times you’ll be able to get 5G is really insignificant right now. And it’s not like Zimbabwe is thriving economically that number will increase rapidly anytime soon.
I don’t think anyone can dispute that Apple makes some really good devices. The iPhone has been a solid device since its inception and the MacBook is as good as it’s ever been.
I’m not sold on either the Apple Watch or the iPad. However, they are well built.
Apple also makes sleek and well thought out software for those devices. iOS for the iPhone, MacOS for the Macs and so on.
That’s a really good position Apple finds itself in. Controlling both the hardware and software allows for some crazy level integration not possible otherwise.
All that talk of the Apple ecosystem hinges on this. Apparently, if you still want to exercise your right to pick devices you want, limit yourself to one or just two Apple devices. If you collect all, you will struggle to leave Apple’s garden.
Mowing down the garden
Speaking of the garden, the European Union (EU) wants to set some goats loose in it. The EU has been on a tear lately, forcing Big Tech to play nice. They have been tearing down all the carefully built walled gardens Big Tech gatekeepers had erected.
Gatekeepers are important market players that hold considerable market power and provide at least one core platform service in the EU’s book.
They designated Apple’s App Store a “gatekeeper service” because it acts as an important gateway between businesses and consumers.
That makes sense to me. I am a consumer of music (or more accurately, Spotify’s excellent recommendation algorithms) and the App Store is the gateway to all the Spotify goodness I need in my life (I have no time for Apple Music).
The only way to listen to Spotify on my iPhone is by downloading it from the App Store. So, I am forced to go through Apple’s App Store when my arrangement with Spotify has nothing to do with them.
To add a little insult, Apple takes a huge portion, 30%, of the money I pay Spotify for their service. “Kuripwa kugara,” as that guy used to say.
The EU looked at this and said it couldn’t stand. People should be able to deal directly with the businesses they want to deal with.
They should be able to download apps from outside the App Store and make their own payment arrangements that cut Apple out.
In short, the European Union aimed to enable users of Apple’s hardware to download apps from different app stores and allow developers to utilise their own payment systems, thus avoiding Apple’s fees.
The Mafia responds
We talked about Apple’s brilliant devices but what can’t be disputed too is that Apple rules with an iron fist. They have been called the “Mafia” by developers for years.
They believe it’s their devices and their operating systems and so they get to set whatever rules they want. I believe Apple hates that we download apps they did not make themselves. We should be happy with the excellence they give us, we don’t need anything else.
So, when the EU forced their hand, Apple still found a way to comply with the letter of the EU’s regulations whilst completely undermining the spirit.
Apple released some new business terms that those seeking to use alternative app stores or payment systems would use and they are ridiculous.
Apple introduced what they call a “core technology fee” and developers would have to pay 50c per user after the first 1 million installs. That’s the price you pay for your alternative app store.
This works out for truly small developers but once you cross that 1 million mark, like Spotify, it gets very expensive that you’re better off sticking with the old App Store rules.
Apple also had a smackdown for those looking at alternative payment system. First off, you need to apply for this priviledge and if granted said priviledge, you will need to pay 27% to Apple, instead of 30% like in the old terms. It’s 12% instead of 15% for small developers.
Well, it’s only a 3% drop. It’s small but it’s something, I guess. Except, that’s before you pay your third-party payment processor. That payment works out to about 3% or just over in most cases. So, you end up paying 30%, or a little more in the new deal.
Apple is trolling people now. They made sure the maths works out like that.
Developers mad mad
Of course, developers are mad about this. As they should be. Apple made a bad faith effort to comply with EU regulations.
A group of app developers that call themselves The Coalition for App Fairness said, “These changes do nothing to enhance consumer choice, lower prices for in-app purchases or inject competition into Apple’s walled garden. It is precisely this type of abusive, monopolistic behavior that makes it imperative for Congress to pass the Open App Markets Act.”
Spotify said, Apple “will stop at nothing to protect the profits they exact on the backs of developers and consumers under their app store monopoly.”
Some smaller developers said stuff like, “What they came up with is the best proof that they are massively abusing their market dominance. Apple is basically behaving like a dictator.”
“If I was the European Commission, I would probably look at this as an insult,” said Proton CEO and I agree, this is an insult.
These developers are pressuring the EU to not accept Apple’s bad faith compliance. The developers have raised up such a stink that the EU is not going to accept this, I’m almost certain of it.
I think Apple might have overplayed their hand here. This is not going to work. The developers have some power for the first time ever because they have the ear of the regulators.
Apple has until the 7th of March to comply. Yes, they technically complied but after March 7 I think they are going to be forced to properly comply.
Crazy story indeed. I’ll leave you with a quote from some small developer, “Apple holds app providers ransom like the Mafia. Anyone wanting to provide an iOS app must pay a ransom to Apple; there’s no way around it.”
We’ll see how long they can hold on to their Mafia ways.
Yep, for just $140 Itel is promising a 5G experience in the form of an Itel P55 5G and this is just 1 of the 4 smartphones of this series that Itel has just launched. The other 3 are the P55, P55+, and P55T however the last one is not making its way into Zim even though it’s the one with the biggest battery fitted to it. A bit odd innit?
All 4 of them use the same 50MP main camera, and, excluding the P55 T with its 6000mAh battery, the rest sport a slightly smaller 5000mAh unit. In terms of processors, all of them are using the Unisoc T606 chipset except for the 5G version which goes for the Mediatek Dimensity 6080 5G. Storage starts at 128GB on all models with the top models having 256GB and RAM starting at 4GB going up to 8GB. This can further be expanded to 24GB on the 8+16GB models.
Itel went the route of Tecno when it came to model specifications. They just shuffle up the specs on every device such that there really isn’t a clear-cut hierarchy of which one is objectively the better device than the other.
Itel P55 – Up to 24GB of RAM
This is the cheapest one at a recommended retail price of $110. It’s got the basic specs that will come in the rest of the P55s in terms of the camera, the battery, and the storage and memory options. Its main selling point is its price.
In its top configuration, it will have 128GB of internal storage and up to 24GB of RAM via memory fusion (8GB + 16GB memory fusion). Charging occurs at a maximum of 18W and the display now goes up to 90Hz refresh with a punch hole for the selfie camera.
Itel P55
OS
Android 13
ItelOS 13
CPU
Unisoc T606
Octa Core
GPU
Mali-G57 MP1
Display
6.6″ 1612×720 pixels
HD+ IPS
90Hz refresh rate
Rear Camera
50MP main camera
1080p video recording
Front Camera
8MP
Storage
8GB RAM+16GB MemoryFusion
128GB Internal
MicroSD card support
Connectivity
Dual Sim
2G, 3G, 4G
Bluetooth 5.0
Sensors
Accelerometer
Step counter
Battery
5000mAh
18W charging
Price
US$110
Itel P55 Plus – 45W charging
The P55+ was getting all the attention, even the launch event invite was talking about the $130 Itel P55+. It builds from the baseline set up by the standard P55. Same camera, processor, battery, and 90Hz punchole display.
The only part where the P55+ falls short is the memory fusion. While the standard P55 can expand its 8GB of RAM by another 16GB, the P55+ can only expand its RAM by 8GB giving it a maximum of 16GB RAM vs the 24GB maximum on the standard P55. I don’t know about you but I am sure this is a software limitation that just exists to make the decision-making process harder. Otherwise, nothing about the hardware stops the P55+ from expanding its RAM by 16GB as well.
The party trick that the P55+ has is the superfast 45W charging capable of raising a dead battery to 65% in 30 minutes and a full charge in an hour. Charging rapidly does affect the longevity of the battery over time so they also have a 33W mode that charges the phone at a more relaxed pace which is still much faster than the 18W on the standard P55. Speaking of 18W, as a safety measure, if the temps of the P55+ rise above 35 degrees it will switch to 18W to reduce the temps.
On the design side of things, it will also have a soft textured back similar to the one we saw on the Tecno Camon 20 Premier 5G.
Itel P55+
OS
Android 13
ItelOS 13
CPU
Unisoc T606
Octa Core
GPU
Mali-G57 MP1
Display
6.6″ 1612×720 pixels
HD+ IPS
90Hz refresh rate
Rear Camera
50MP main camera
1080p video recording
Front Camera
8MP
Storage
8GB RAM+8GB MemoryFusion
128GB Internal
MicroSD card support
Connectivity
Dual Sim
2G, 3G, 4G
Bluetooth 5.0
Sensors
Accelerometer
Step counter
Battery
5000mAh
45W charging
Price
US$120
Itel P55 5G – Well…5G!
The P55 5G is a $140 5G capable smartphone. That’s probably as low as 5G capable smartphones go and Itel quotes the download speed at a maximum of 1Gbps. This is the limit of the 5G modem in this phone. The actual speeds you will experience will depend on what Econet gives you since they are the only operator in Zimbabwe offering 5G right now.
Yes, you gain 5G but here is what you lose. Charging speed drops back to the standard 18W and you also lose the punchole in favor of the traditional waterdrop notch. There is a 256GB version with 16GB of RAM (8GB + 8GB memory fusion) but the one going for $140 is the model with 128GB of storage and 12GB of RAM (6GB + 6GB memory fusion)
That said, thanks to it having 5G, you also get the most powerful and most efficient processor in the whole Itel range, the Mediatek Dimesity 6080 5G. If I am to give a guess, if you don’t use 5G on the P55 5G, you will get better battery performance than you’d get from the rest of the P55s using the Unisoc T606 chipset.
This chipset also comes naturally with a beefier GPU so it will provide the best gaming experience of the whole P55 range. I think the benefits of the performance coming from having that Dimensity 6080 chip alone are a bigger selling point than 5G purely from a day-to-day usage point of view.
Itel P55 5G
OS
Android 13
ItelOS 13
CPU
Mediatek Dimensity 6080
Octa Core
GPU
Mali-G57 MC2
Display
6.6″ 1612×720 pixels
HD+ IPS
90Hz refresh rate
Rear Camera
50MP main camera
1080p video recording
Front Camera
8MP
Storage
6/8GB RAM+6/8GB MemoryFusion
128/256GB Internal
MicroSD card support
Connectivity
Dual Sim
2G, 3G, 4G, 5G
Bluetooth 5.0
Sensors
Accelerometer
Step counter
Battery
5000mAh
18W charging
Price
US$140
Itel P55T – Big Battery
This one will not be coming to Zimbabwe but for the sake of the markets where it will be launched, I’ll talk about it as well. It gets the least amount of RAM (4GB + 4GB memory fusion) but maintains the same camera, chipset, and 128GB of storage as the standard P55 and P55+.
The biggest highlight for this one is the bigger 6000mAh battery and it still baffles me as to why the phone with the bigger battery is not coming to Zim given our power situation. It will also use the basic 18W charging meaning it will take longer than the other P55s to charge from empty.
The P55T will also be running Android 14 Go out of the box, most likely with version 14 of Itel OS on top of it.
Itel P55T
OS
Android 14 Go Edition
ItelOS 14
CPU
Unisoc T606
Octa Core
GPU
Mali-G57 MP1
Display
6.6″ 1612×720 pixels
HD+ IPS
90Hz refresh rate
Rear Camera
50MP main camera
1080p video recording
Front Camera
8MP
Storage
4GB RAM+4GB MemoryFusion
128GB Internal
MicroSD card support
Connectivity
Dual Sim
2G, 3G, 4G
Bluetooth 5.0
Sensors
Accelerometer
Step counter
Battery
6000mAh
18W charging
Price
n/a
Itel’s Rebrand and ecosystem of products
Apart from it being a new smartphone launch, Itel also took the opportunity to splash a fresh coat of paint on its brand. They rebranded and made changes to their logo and shade of red. It’s now a lot more modern looking and they are using one of my favorite fonts, Sans Gothic.
They also took the opportunity to showcase a number of subdivisions within their business focusing on different classes of products.
Hair care and beauty products under the Sundaze brand
Audio and wearables under the Sones brand
Power & backup solutions under the Power Master brand
Children-friendly tech under the KeeKid brand
They are also serious about green home energy solutions that they are pushing under Itel ESS (Energy Storage Solutions). This division focuses on products like solar generators, solar panels, lithium batteries for solar systems, and solar power inverters.
Itel says this is not just a rebrand but also a shift in how they do things. A more mature approach is what they are after and they are on a quest to provide the most expansive ecosystem of products under the Transsion group whilst also keeping tech accessible to the masses.
The P55 series of smartphones will be available in stores starting January 2024 and you can get them on easy credit on Pindula Market by clicking here.
I have thought about this one for quite a long time. Is it really necessary to upgrade to a new device every year? And is it necessary for device manufacturers to release a new iteration of a product every year? Because flagship computers and smartphones are now so good and so powerful most people cannot see a difference in everyday performance year on year.
Let’s be real. It’s more than powerful enough
Those of you who know me know that I am a lover of high-performance devices, and also, the latest and greatest stuff that’s there on the market. So you can imagine me using a Core i9 laptop and a Core i7 as a backup is normal for a person like me.
So in terms of performance that’s been the case but in terms of the latest and greatest not so much. I mean I’m using an 11th-generation Core i9 and an 8th-gen Core i7. I’m also using a Google Pixel 6 from like 2021. So par for the course when it comes to me not having the absolute latest and greatest.
There is the reality that buying a new smartphone is quite expensive feet nowadays. I could be using a Pixel 8 but a 256 gig version costs US$1,059 before shipping it to the motherland, which Is a lot of money.
And so that has been the trend. It’s expensive. But that is not really the biggest reason why I’m not upgrading to the latest and greatest. The biggest reason, why I’m not upgrading to the latest and greatest is the simple fact that a device from 2021, still has enough performance for 99% of what I need the device to do.
So if a device from 2021 is doing 99% of the job that I expect it to do and yet I’m a high-performance user, then it’s probably going to do a spectacular job with bags of performance headroom for someone who is not as high of a performance user as me.
Performance is sufficient and the market is saturated
And that boys and girls, is a big problem for chip manufacturers. So over the years, chip manufacturers have really been struggling to meet demand because of just how quickly the electronics industry was at churning out new products. At some point, Sony was turning out brand-new flagships twice a year which was crazy. An Xperia Z2 in April and an Xperia Z3 in November of the same year.
They did revert back to a single flagship a year but that is how crazy it was back in the day. Crazy as it was, you still saw tangible performance gains in everyday use with each new model and this is before running benchmark figures.
Nowadays, the biggest emphasis is on benchmark figures, which really are increasing by very small percentage points year on year. However, the perceived performance of these devices is quite minuscule. There are very small differences in performance between a device from 2021. and the device from 2023 in terms of perceivable everyday performance especially when looking at flagships, in fact, I’m going to focus this whole conversation on flagship PCs and smartphones.
In terms of day-to-day usage, the biggest improvements in the past couple of years, have largely been in battery technology and efficiency rather than in performance. Improvements are in how much performance you can get per watt rather than overall performance because of just how powerful the overall chipset already is. Performance has peaked for now and the market is trying to show this.
The ripple effect on the chip market
If you have been watching or reading the news this year, it’s been about the semiconductor industry, facing a slowdown. And quite a lot of it revolves around Qualcomm who are reported to be looking to cut off 1200 jobs because of the forecasted slump in demand for chips.
There is an impending price war that is coming from electronics manufacturers especially those of Computers and smartphones to try and deal with the huge pile-up of inventory they have because not many consumers are buying new devices that frequently. And if old stock does not move, it will mean they will slow down production of new devices which is going to reduce their orders for new chips.
Qualcomm is the largest chip manufacturer for mobile phone processors and also makes modems used in high-performance routers as well as high-performance and premium laptops. The same sort of products that are gathering dust on the shelves of many warehouses.
The trend of upgrading yearly is now a trend most have thrown to the wayside. There is just so much performance headroom with flagship computers and smartphones which has greatly extended their useful life. The battery is now probably the biggest weakness and reason you might be forced to upgrade the device.
The same performance demands I had in 2017 are largely the same performance demands I have right now. Since the PC I got in 2017 had more performance than I needed from it back then, it still does a flawless job today. Begging the question of why I need to upgrade it. You’re now upgrading just to have the latest and greatest not because you need more performance that your current device cannot provide.
Support is now better than ever. Great for us, bad for the Chip makers
Support for these flagship devices is now actually better than ever. Apple has maintained its 5-year support for OS and security updates. Samsung also matched that for its flagship devices and Google, with the Pixel 8 promising an astonishing 7 years of OS and security patch support.
With such extensive levels of support, you can theoretically have the same flagship device for 5 or 7 years before the OEM renders it obsolete. And it’s even worse with computers as these usually have support of up to 10 years in OS and security updates.
The battery as I mentioned before is the weakest link in a flagship device and in a lot of cases is the reason why one ends up buying a brand new phone. On average, the cycle life of a battery used in electronic devices is 3 years if you take care of it. It might be less, the more frequently you charge your device. However, the EU has been going hard on portable electronics with its most recent push for all smartphones to use USB-C ports being their most recent achievement. Welcome to the other side iPhone 15.
Next on the agenda for the EU is making smartphones as easy and cheap as possible to repair. One might remember that at some point just replacing the back glass on an iPhone 14 Pro Max was $549 mainly because of just how hard it was to replace. The EU has passed a law that smartphones should come with replaceable batteries by 2027. A typical smartphone battery costs between $20 and $100 depending on the brand and model of the phone. But instead of buying a new $1,000 flagship prematurely, you can breathe new life into it for as much as a 10th of the cost of purchasing a new device, further extending the usable life of such a device. The same is also true for laptops.
Oh, Huawei is back to making its own chips
Now something that’s also happened quite recently is Huawei’s announcement of the new Mate 60 series of smartphones, and how it’s coming in with Huawei’s own Kirin processor. It’s a bit of a headache for Mediatek and Qualcomm because this is a customer they will potentially be using. Let me explain.
In 2019 Huawei was put on sanctions by the US which forced a heap of companies to stop providing services to Huawei. Google pulled the plug on Google services for Huawei devices and TSMC, the company with the technology to produce Huawei’s custom Kirin chips was forced to stop making chips for Huawei.
This forced Huawei to buy chips from Qualcomm but with the most ridiculous of terms. They were only allowed to use chipsets that were at least a year or a generation older than what was available on the market. So if the latest chip from Qualcomm is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 then the best Huawei could get is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Now that means the latest Huawei device would be a generation behind in performance than its competition.
As if that was not bad enough, Huawei was also banned from using 5G. So even though all the Snapdragon processors it used were 5G capable, the Snapdragon chipsets they got from Qualcomm were the 4G versions with 5G disabled.
Then a month ago, Huawei pulled a shocker after silently releasing the Mate 60 series of smartphones with the headlines being that the chipset in them is Huawei’s very own Kirin 9000s and that even though it will not show the 5G logo, it can connect to 5G and will have 5G download speeds.
The chipset itself is built on an older 7nm manufacturing process, the same one they used in the Kirin 980 from 2019. So not as efficient nor as powerful as the latest chips from Qualcomm and Apple Silicon but still powerful enough to be used in a flagship Huawei device. In fact, its performance is slightly ahead of the Snapdragon 888 released in 2021.
History lesson done, how it then further affects Qualcomm is that since the Huawei P50 series, Huawei is estimated to have been selling 10 million units of these flagship smartphones running Snapdragon chipsets.
Not only is Snapdragon losing revenue of at least 10 million chips due to Huawei manufacturing its own, but the potential loss of revenue growth from supplying chips for the Mate 60 series which is now being projected to sell close to 20 million units. Double the units of the Mate 50 Pro running the Snapdragon 8 gen 1 chip.
One would think that if the beef between America and China continues, China might possibly push Chinese electronics manufacturers to switch to chipsets manufactured in China the moment they achieve a technology and manufacturing process comparable to Qualcomm, Samsung, and Apple. That’s a possible 35% of Qualcomm’s business lost to a Chinese chipset manufacturer. A worst-case scenario for Qualcomm to lose some of its biggest clients to HiSilicon, Huawei’s in-house chipset division.
I’m calling this one a wakeup call
It’s a wake-up call to the industry. The whole value chain needs to rethink how it does business because frankly, we have reached a point where flagship devices are so good and almighty powerful that only the 1% can actually extract maximum performance out of them. The rest of us, yes me included, will be very happy with the performance of a 3-year-old flagship today for any and all day-to-day tasks.
We are covered on OS updates of up to 7 years and the inconveniences brought about by batteries giving in when the rest of the device is still pushing great performance are potentially going to be a thing of the past come 2027.
And I genuinely think OEMs need to reduce their flagship upgrade cycles for 2 major reasons. Number 1 is so that they have more time to bring truly innovative and groundbreaking features to flagship smartphones. We can’t be excited about a new USB port on the latest iPhone and some cool new software features in the latest Pixel that can clearly come to every pixel via a software update but are restricted to the new device because nothing else really stands out about them.
The second biggest reason for the chipset makers, they will have time to actually develop chipsets that bring perceivable performance gains that you can see without the help of numbers in a benchmark. Because if you take a flagship from 3 years ago and one from today, you will actually need to play with them side by side to see which one is actually performing better in every regard.
Here are what I think are the most legitimate reasons to upgrade from one flagship device to another in order of how reasonable the reason is.
Your current flagship smartphone or computer has been stolen or damaged beyond repair.
It’s now at least 3 years old for smartphones and 5 years old for computers.
New communication standards like the next version of Bluetooth, Mobile data, or Wi-Fi connectivity if you are an enthusiast like me.
You want to switch brands for whatever reason.
Give me some of the reasons you would have to buy a new flagship smartphone or computer.
I used a phone with no Google mobile services for a year so I try and answer the question of whether or not it is possible. I’ll be honest when I started this I never thought I would survive a whole year, and if I did make it, I expected it to either be a resounding yes or no. But it is actually more nuanced than that.
Huawei trade ban 2019
Ok, so a little back story. Huawei was put under trade sanctions by the US in 2019 and one of the effects of this was that they were denied Google Mobile Services. Google Mobile Services are essentially background software features in Android that make it very easy for Android services to seamlessly be integrated into 3rd party apps. An example is a ride-hailing app like Hwindi getting access to Google Maps for directions instead of Hwindi developing its own maps and keeping them up to date.
Since I am a stubborn Huawei fanatic, I went in head first and bought a Huawei Mate 40 Pro. A very high-end Huawei smartphone that does not support Google Mobile Services. And the first thing you do with a new phone is download all your favorite apps. Without GMS you don’t have access to Google Play Store. So how do you get your apps?
Getting some of your apps
Huawei already had its own app store called Huawei App Gallery so this became the default place to get your apps. You can get most of the popular apps on it like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok but beyond these, things start to get tricky.
Huawei’s app gallery is severely understocked and to further add to the shortage of apps, some mainstream apps were actually disappearing from the Huawei App Gallery. The ones I remember vividly are Spotify, Zoom, and Duolingo. These are just some of the apps I use, I am sure there were plenty of other apps that went the way of the ghost.
3rd party app store and Petal search
Huawei was aware of this and they developed 2 very interesting workarounds. Workaround number one involved 3rd party app stores. How this worked is that, for the popular apps that are not available in the App Gallery, Huawei will give the option to download or update the app but via a link to a 3rd party app store like APK Pure. So when you click on the app to download it or update it, you will be clicking a link that will take you to the 3rd party store where the app is located.
Workaround number 2 is a Huawei app called petal search. This one has a better collection of apps that it can natively download and update. But it still does require a 3rd party app store for some apps just like the App Gallery.
Local apps are a nightmare
The situation was very much a disaster when it came to local apps. They are not popular enough to be listed even on 3rd party app stores so finding your local bank’s app or local ride-hailing app was near impossible. Some of the sites I ended up downloading these apps did not feel safe at all. This sideloading process is also not recommended because you may actually download a virus instead of the app you intended to download in the 1st place.
Some apps just won’t work
A good number of Android apps rely on Google Mobile Services for them to work correctly. So the sort of apps that you will find and download within Huawei’s App Gallery are apps that do not require Google Mobile Services for them to run. Spoiler alert. Is a very short list.
Local bank apps, local food delivery apps, and Google apps all did not work. They would all give the error “This app cannot run without google play services”. Some apps would even be dramatic and fail to install. Which then was complicated when it came time for me to test out an app that relied on Google Mobile Services.
You can get Google Services working. But there is a catch
There is however a solution for about 95% of the problems arising from a lack of GMS. It’s an app called Gbox which is a virtual machine running on top of the phone’s OS. If you have ever used Bluestacks, it’s the exact same concept. If you have not used bluestacks then let me describe Gbox for you.
It’s an app that operates like a virtual smartphone running on your actual phone. It will mimic a random smartphone with GMS giving you access to the google play store which will allow you to install and run all the Google apps and almost all the apps that require GMS.
I say almost because, as much as I got apps like food delivery services and ride-hailing apps to work perfectly with this tool, somehow banking apps still refused to work. The Google Play Services error disappeared but some banking apps preferred getting the OTP code from the notifications instead of me entering it manually which didn’t work because Gbox could not read the contents of the notifications.
App notifications of all the apps running in Gbox were also not working properly. This was not a deal breaker at all but it did reduce the quality of experience I had with the apps. Sometimes I would get notifications late or they would not arrive at all.
Some stuff Gbox can’t do and the workarounds
Then we have certain Google services that just did not work at all even with Gbox. Google Assistant prefers being installed at the system level but since it is running in Gbox which does not have that level of access to the system, it could not be set up. Nearby share also did not work for the same reasons so I had to then look for alternatives.
The alternative assistant apps were Huawei’s Celia and Amazon’s Alexa. I have to say Huawei’s Celia is VERY far from being useful at all. Alexa is much better and quite useful with IoT hardware like my smart bulb and smart home security system but when operating my headphones it was utterly useless versus what I could do with Google Assistant. I love how with google assistant, my headphones can read out notifications and I can respond to them through voice prompts on the headphones without touching my phone. It’s like I am operating Ironman’s suit. Far beyond what Alexa can do.
The alternative for Nearby Share was Shareit which I am not much of a fan of with the many ads. In the odd case that I found someone using a Huawei as well, I used Huawei Share to send or receive files.
As for banking apps, I was using USSD banking to access those services which is a process that lacks finesse but given network challenges in Zimbabwe, it was the more reliable option anyway so there was at least an upside.
Can you survive without Google Services? Yes, No, Maybe?
So can you survive without Google Mobile Services? Because personally, I feel Huawei’s hardware is top-tier. But is it top-tier enough to compel you to ignore the shortcomings in software? I would say there are 3 levels to this.
Level 1: You won’t even notice
You are a general user and you won’t even notice. A typical smartphone user really is looking for general social media apps and some casual games. They will use the phone for WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, and the like. Those are working flawlessly since such a user’s smartphone habits do not revolve around Google Mobile services. Such a smartphone user will be very happy with the device and will not even notice something is missing in the software.
Level 2: You’ll notice but the workarounds are sufficient
You will face an issue here and there but it’s not a deal breaker given the workarounds. You have the option of accessing some of the services via the browser. This can be google docs or YouTube. It is not the ideal experience but it works and it’s not a deal breaker. And don’t forget Gbox which again will make plenty more apps available further making life easier. You can feel it that getting some stuff to work takes just a bit more effort but it’s within your tolerance limits.
Level 3: You cannot function without Google Services
You cannot function without GMS. So you rely heavily on GMS because it is a work device requirement, it’s where your game progress is saved, Google Assistant is your way of life and you are big on mobile and internet banking. You are not invested in any particular brand and you want something that works fuss-free. I would say for this person it is a complete deal breaker. They just cannot invest in the mental capacity to figure out these workarounds when a Google Pixel or Samsung can just have everything set up for them fuss-free.
It is possible to live without GMS but at the end of the day, it will all depend on your software needs and habits. I could live with it…but to a point. And now I am using a Google Pixel 6.
Let’s talk about InDrive. It’s on billboards, on the radio, and even in all our YouTube videos in the form of ads. It’s the latest addition to ride-hailing services in Zimbabwe but is it better than the established players?
Pay what you feel is fair
InDrive runs on the model of paying what you feel is fair. It is a negotiation between you and the driver. As is with any service that requires payment in Zimbabwe, there is always some room to haggle. In the app, you have a recommended fare for the trip to give you a starting point. You can then go over or under depending on what you as the commuter feel is fair.
The driver will also see these offers and only accept an offer that seems fair to them. So your success rate at getting a driver to accept your request is very much dependent on how liberal you are with your funds. It can be an advantage if let’s say you are in a hurry. You can double the recommended fare for your trip and secure a ride a lot quicker. And if you are too cheap you might fail to secure a ride.
Versus the competition
So versus other competing ride-hailing apps, it’s very much in the middle when it comes to pricing. InDriver seems to be undercutting the likes of Hwindi and Vaya but the gap is very small. And also, on payments, InDrive will most certainly solve the change issue. Rides that cost dollars and cents can just be rounded off during negotiations.
Where they will be caught lacking is the flexibility of payment. Hwindi and Vaya allow both USD and ZW$ as payment options. InDriver is strictly USD. That said, paying in Z$ is quite expensive. At the time of writing this article, Hwindi was using a rate of ZW$2000 to the dollar and Vaya ZW$2287 to the dollar.
Their global footprint
In terms of scale, InDrive has Vaya and Hwindi beat. Their service is global and available in 47 countries whereas Vaya is limited to Africa covering 12 countries and Hwindi is local covering only one country. The global nature of InDrive means you use a familiar app in more countries. Yes, they will now also be facing stiff competition from Uber, Bolt, and Lyft however in countries like Zimbabwe where these big names do not have a presence, InDrive will be the go-to.
Another niche feature in favor of InDrive is that it is one of the very few ride-hailing apps available in Huawei’s App Gallery and works on Huawei devices with no Google services. The rest are only available exclusively on iOS or Google play store.
List of features?
On features, Indrive offers ride-hailing and courier services. Just the essentials. Hwindi says it is a super app for ride-hailing, ordering food, deliveries, and grocery shopping however at the moment only deliveries and ride-hailing are what’s working. Vaya has the biggest complement of features including ambulance, cross boarder buses, airplane charter, and safari tours amongst the regular ride-hailing and courier stuff.
That’s pretty much the overview of InDrive. If you are using ride-hailing apps in Zimbabwe, how would you rank them? Let me know in the comments.
So a year ago my HP Envy that I got in 2018 died and I only got it repaired about a month ago. When it died it was running Windows 11. But now I saw in my windows update settings that it was saying my PC is not eligible for Windows 11, the reason being Secure Boot is not enabled on my PC. Basically Secure Boot is a security measure that boots windows in an isolated state just in case there are any malicious apps or viruses that can attack your computer during boot-up.
So since it was just a simple case of enabling secure boot, I restarted my PC and went into the BIOS settings. I switched from Legacy to UEFI simply because Legacy does not support secure boot. Once Secure Soot was enabled I saved the changes and restarted my PC and guess what, it was not detecting the hard drive and the bootable flash I had plugged in.
Nothing I tried worked so I had to switch back from UEFI to Legacy. Used Windows 10 for about 3 weeks and decided to go to the dark side. Finding an unofficial way to install Windows 11. I will give you a fair warning. Doing this will make your computer vulnerable to attacks.
What you need for it to work
So first you will need to download a clean Windows 11 ISO file. I recommend you download it straight from the Microsoft website. After all, it’s free. But more crucially you are sure that it will not come with any embedded malware that can compromise your security. Next, you download Rufus v3.16. This version of Rufus will allow us to disable TPM and Secure Boot checks in the bootable drive we will create.
Once the Windows 11 ISO is ready, plug in an 8GB USB stick or bigger and launch Rufus. Select the USB stick and the Windows 11 ISO. Then under the image option select the option with No TPM and No Secure boot. Then on the partition scheme, you select one that your system supports. Mine is not detecting the hard drive in UEFI so I am forced to use Legacy mode. And Legacy mode recognizes the MBR partition. If your system supports UEFI then you will go with the GPT partition option. Maybe your system already has Secure Boot enabled and is only lacking TPM. In such a scenario it’s not necessary to use Legacy mode. Mine is a special case.
Now all you do is click start and Rufus will start the process of converting the USB stick to a bootable disk. Once the process is complete, you restart your computer, enter boot setup (F9 on HP), and select USB disk. This will take you to the Windows setup screen and you can just follow the steps. If you already had Windows installed on the drive, it will be moved to a Windows Old folder with everything that was on the computer but I recommend you make sure you backup all important files before performing this process.
This is probably the cleanest and easiest way to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. But remember we are bypassing Windows 11 security features so it’s not a recommended way of getting Windows 11. The best is just getting it directly from Windows Update. Speaking of Windows updates, I am still getting all the security updates and Windows Updates normally with no errors or warnings and everything is just as stable as it was before I went through this process. So for the 2 weeks, I have been running this Windows 11 I have had absolutely no issues with it. It’s good.
Did you know that Samsung makes the displays on iPhones and Sony makes the cameras used by most top-tier smartphones? Heck, the Snapdragon 8 Gen-1 series of processors, the most potent Android processors out right now were being made by Samsung. Smartphone manufacturers or OEMs do not manufacture every component found in their phones in-house but instead, do design work and outsource production of some components to different suppliers. And for some they just buy them off the shelf. To understand why, we need a little refresher on how the tech world works.
We’ve been partnering with Sony for over a decade to create the world’s leading camera sensors for iPhone. Thanks to Ken and everyone on the team for showing me around the cutting-edge facility in Kumamoto today.
We’ve been partnering with Sony for over a decade to create the world’s leading camera sensors for iPhone. Thanks to Ken and everyone on the team for showing me around the cutting-edge facility in Kumamoto today. pic.twitter.com/462SEkUbhi
Back in the day when electronics started, different companies decided to specialize in different fields. As they put money into research in the tech they developed, they also collected patents for the tech they developed. The patents part is its own topic but picture this. Companies like these spent decades investing time and money into improving the tech they produce and more crucially fine tuning the process they use to make the tech.
These early adopters got so deep into the tech they were making and are so far ahead to the point that it is monumentally more expensive for anyone to start now, catch up and still produce the same products at a competitive price. Also, patents protect these early adopters from the risk that any other person can replicate the product or process.
Cost
We as consumers want the best value for money. And in the same breath, the product manufacturer (OEM) wants to make as much profit as they can. But for them to stand out they have to make a compelling and attractive product.
An OEM will not be able to make every component in-house at a high level of quality for their smartphones. It’s just way too many machines, time, and R&D work which is all quite expensive. Buying off-the-shelf components for as many parts as possible is the way. After all, they are cheaper, of higher quality, and also reduce the turnaround time of producing a finished product. Time is money.
Saving time. Outsourcing manufacturing
In the industry work is done at some very large scale. So large that some companies make a living off selling a production process. Not even a finished product but a process. The main reason being that an efficient enough process saves on time and money.
OEMs will invest a lot of resources in the design of their smartphone hardware and software such that the final product is one that is unique and desirable to their target market. This comes with it’s own complexities. The several different components going into making a phone will constitute different kinds of boards and chips which again will all need a heap of manufacturing equipment and processes. A big cost for plenty of manufacturers.
But there already exists a heap of companies specializing in manufacturing chips and boards who have already done the investment in the tools and the processes to produce quality products at a low cost with a good turnaround time. These are the companies that OEMs will work with whenever they are designing a new smartphone. Let’s look at the major components of smartphones and who actually makes them.
CPU/SOC – The brains of every smartphone
Mediatek, Qualcomm and Apple are the top 3 names in smartphone processors with a market share of 35%, 31% and 16% respectively as of Q3 2022. Mediatek processors are used in a number of Android smartphones. They focus on powering low, mid and upper-mid tier smartphones which are the majority especially in emerging markets like Asia and Africa.
Qualcomm is well known for making the most cutting edge processors for the Android market and is the undisputed Android Flagship processor of choice. Whatever top-tier Android smartphone you have is most likely powered by a Qualcomm CPU.
Mediatek and Qualcomm share the same building blocks within their processors. The processing cores, the ones that assign processors names like Quad Core or Octa Core, are all designs from a company called ARM. This company does not manufacture anything. They just design the processing cores of smartphone CPUs and give them to Mediatek, Qualcomm, Samsung (Exynos), Google (Tensor) and Huawei (Kirin).
What these companies then do is add their own stuff to these cores like AI processing chips, Image processing cores for the cameras, display drivers and whatever number of sensors they want forming the final form SOC (System On Chip)
Apple is the only smartphone manufacturer that designs all aspects of their SOC in-house. They do not use ARM designs for their CPU cores but use their own. Same goes for their smartphone GPUs.
However, with the exception of Samsung’s Exynos, no one else on this list of companies actually manufactures their own processors. Rather they send their designs to TSMC (Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) who then take these designs and produces the physical chips that go into smartphones. TSMC has the most advanced equipment, production process and the largest capacity allowing them to mass produce these chips with the highest yield rate (ratio of working chips to defective ones per 100 made).
Display – Your primary interaction with your smartphone
Samsung Display produces OLED panels for Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo, ZTE, Hisense just to name a few. BOE produces OLED panels for Huawei, Apple, Oppo and Vivo and LG Display produces panels for Apple, Nokia and Samsung.
Things got a bit confusing there now didn’t they? These 3 display makers are independent businesses whose sole purpose is to manufacture displays. OEMs like Apple who have a substantial demand for smartphone displays can overwhelm a single display maker so they all share the load. Hense why we see Apple on everyone’s supply list.
The display makers themselves are also segmented. Samsung Display mainly focuses on high-end displays for flagship smartphones. LG mainly focuses on displays for mid to upper-midrange smartphones and BOE mainly focuses on lower-mid to upper-mid tier smartphones.
Device manufacturers will often send specifications to these companies particularly for their flagship smartphones. When they receive the panels they then caliberate them to suit the hardware they are putting them on as well as meeting their performance parameters. So even though one OEM can use multiple suppliers, the performance of the displays will be the same.
Sony cameras are used in Sony, Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Pocophone, RealMe, Oppo, Vivo and ZTE smartphones amongst others. Samsung camera are being used in Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, ZTE, Google and Tecno smartphones and OMNIVISION can be found in Xiaomi, Realme, Motorola, Poco, Realme, Oppo, Huawei, OnePlus, Honor, Sharp amongst others.
Just like on displays, a single OEM can use cameras from multiple manufacturers and with how smartphones are now coming with multiple cameras of different focal lengths slapped on the back, each smartphone might have different sensors from different manufacturers based on the specifications they drafted for that particular phone.
RAM & Storage
Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron are the 3 biggest smartphone DRAM and NAND Flash Memory manufacturers with a combined 95.4% and 86% market share respectively. Samsung is ontop with a smartphone RAM market share of 43.5% and a smartphone storage market share of 49%.
SK Hynix comes second in both categories with a 27.4% market share in smartphone RAM and 23% market share in smartphone storage. Micron comes in 3rd in both categories with a smartphone RAM market share of 24.5% and a smartphone storage market share of 14%.
So every smartphone maker buys their RAM and storage chips mostly from any of these 3 manufacturers. And there is close to a 50% chance that your phone is using Samsung RAM or storage chips regardless of what brand it is. iOS or Android.
Samsung is one of the few electronics companies with a business in every major component that comes in smartphones. They decided to double down on the consumables but also play a hand in the smartphone game.
However the key takeaways are these. Smartphone makers do not manufacture in-house all the components that go into a smartphone. What they do is they design a smartphone and work with suppliers to streamline the production process so that production time and costs are cut.
High-end flagships will use more custom components than lower tier smartphones. They may either use a higher proportion of components manufactured in-house or will send out a lot more custom designs for their components to 3rd party manufacturers. Thats why high-end smartphones are expensive.
And lastly, these processes are true in manufacturing accross the board for consumer products that you and me buy. Computers, cars, laptops, TVs, they are all made in a similar way. You have a company that fabricates or produces individual/discrete components. Then you have the OEMs which are the brands we interface with, your Samsung, Apple, Mercedes, Toyota, which take these individual/discrete components and combine them to form an appealing product for you and me to buy.
Apple has been using Lightning since the iPhone 5 which is quite a long while back. During that time, most Android and even Blackberry devices were using MicroUSB and later migrated to USB-C. Apple has been nothing but lightning. This is something that the EU is not happy with saying it’s inconveniencing consumers and contributing to e-waste.
These new obligations will lead to more re-use of chargers and will help consumers save up to 250 million euro a year on unnecessary charger purchases. Disposed of and unused chargers are estimated to represent about 11,000 tonnes of e-waste annually.
They are focusing on 2 subject matters: E-waste and convenience. With e-waste, it is said that each new device purchase is coming in with the need for a new charger leading to the old one getting tossed. I do not think this is the biggest reason why old chargers a tossed. My thinking is it’s mostly worn out and dead cables as well as the variety of charging standards that exist. Bringing me to the convenience side.
Almost every manufacturer has a charging standard that only provides maximum charging speed if the device is using a specific charger and cable combination. This does pose some inconvenience for some users. An example is that a Huawei Mate 40 Pro can charge rapidly at 66W if you use the specific Huawei charger and cable. If you use any other charger and cable it will default to 10W which is considered basic to slow charge speed. In some cases, it may even refuse to charge.
Another reverse case is when I tried using a OnePlus DashCharge USB-C cable with a Samsung fast charger on an LG G6. It actually didn’t even charge. It would charge in pulses which didn’t add any juice to the battery. Pretty inconvenient even amongst fellow Android devices. So they are on to something on convenience. Even though it looks like Apple has the most to lose here, it’s a piece of legislation that will impact the whole portable electronics industry.
We have reached a deal on the common charger! 🔌👏
✔️mobile phones, tablets, e-readers, digital cameras & more #USBtypeC ✔️harmonised fast-charging technology ✔️unbundling of sale of chargers from the sale of device
— IMCO Committee Press (@EP_SingleMarket) June 7, 2022
Breaking down the USB-C directive
Basically, the EU commission wishes to achieve 2 things. Ensure all portable consumer electronic devices that support wired charging will use a USB-C connector and that they will support USB-PD (USB-PowerDelivery) as the charging protocol.
The first requirement is pretty simple. Let’s all use the USB-C port for charging and data transfer. It’s not a big deal because a majority of electronics manufacturers had already switched to the USB-C port apart from the iPhone and a number of Digital Cameras. The list of devices expected to switch to USB-C looks like this.
As for the second requirement, we are looking at the charging protocol/standard. On top of USB-C ports, all these devices should support the USB-C PowerDelivery standard. What this will help with is ensuring that any charger and cable can adequately deliver power to any of the USB-C devices for charging. This will apply to all devices that meet or exceed these specifications. Charging voltage of 5V, Charging current of 3A, or charging power of 15W or more.
The charging speed is also harmonised for devices that support fast charging, allowing users to charge their devices at the same speed with any compatible charger.
Right now we have a cocktail of charging standards that are not interoperable across different manufacturers.
Qualcomm QuickCharge
Oppo VOOC/OnePlus DashCharge
Huawei SuperCharge
Xiaomi HyperCharge
USB Power Delivery
RealMe UltraDart charge
Tecno Super Charge
So almost every manufacturer has some proprietary tech for fast charging meaning if you switch brands you will most likely need a new charger. The EU Commission is pushing for all of them to support Power Delivery. But they are being flexible in that they are not restricting any manufacturer to the USB Power Delivery standard so innovation in ridiculously fast charging tech can remain as it were.
Interesting though that some OEMs already switched to USB-PD a while back. Sony and Google in particular.
Chargers will be absent in a lot more boxes
Let’s look at the elements of the matter. All portable electronic devices will be using:
The same port (USB-C)
The same charging standard (USB PowerDelivery)
The same charging speed (Universal protocol and standard)
All this means is that these devices will use the exact charger. And because they will be using the same charger, they will work with any device. Once this becomes the case then smartphones are not going to be the only devices sold without chargers. Everything else on the list of devices forced to switch to USB-C will come with nothing but the device you bought.
The transition is going to be painful. I mean in Africa, some consumers are still livid at the fact that some smartphones are no longer coming with earphones in the box and are utterly enraged that on top of that some smartphones don’t even come with a charger in the box! In Brazil, the government even stepped in telling apple that it is not allowed to sell a single smartphone until it puts the charger back in the box.
Not everyone is convinced of the e-waste issue, especially on chargers and cables. I honestly think a majority of charger-specific e-waste is more of a result of cables and chargers dying than it is of people binning their old chargers when they buy a new gadget. If these new set of regulations also included durability specifications of charging bricks and cables I think that could provide a much bigger impact on e-waste.
How bad is this for Apple?
It’s actually not that bad. The iPhone and AirPods are the only devices that still make do with their proprietary lighting port. iPads and MacBooks already use the USB-C port. So they are familiar with working with it. The biggest problem is that lightning is such an old standard and for 2022 the data transfer speeds are now falling behind the competition. Not that it matters to those in the Apple ecosystem because of Airdrop.
Which seems to be Apple’s focus right now. They have been working on removing ports and any sort of holes on their smartphones for a while now. They never used SDcards and so they never had a memory card slot. On the iPhone 7, they eliminated the headphone jack, and just this year they eliminated the sim tray altogether making all US iPhone 14s e-sim only.
So it won’t be a surprise if the iPhone 16 comes without any ports and exclusively uses MagSafe wireless charging. Since they already have a very efficient wireless data transfer system in the form of Airdrop, as well as a wireless charging solution that performs just as well as their wired option, it’s not a future that is that far off for them. But the EU is also coming for wireless charging standards.
Xiaomi announced their concept, the 12s Ultra, with the highlight being their partnership with Leica. Outside of professional camera circles, Leica’s popularity was brought about by its collaboration with Huawei for the camera system. That partnership has since ended thanks to a lack of Google services destroying sales of Huawei devices globally. So Xiaomi came to the rescue and the Xiaomi 12s Ultra concept is a very compelling concept.
Evolution of smartphone cameras
A smartphone camera 5 years ahead of its time
Cameras have been a pivotal part of smartphones and over the past decade, a lot of things have happened. In 2012, Nokia unleashed its 5-year long project in the form of the Nokia 808 Pureview. A smartphone with a 41MP camera at a time when 13MP sensors were considered cutting edge. And for 5 years after that, the rest of the industry was using this camera as a benchmark.
In it were technologies like lossless digital zoom, pixel binning, and oversampling, technologies that at the time were only found in flagship-grade photography cameras. The physical size of the sensor itself was the largest ever fitted to a smartphone and because of its sheer size, it had one substantial camera bump.
This quickly became undesirable as the push for smartphone design went towards sleek, slim, and compact designs. The engineering problem now is that the more thin and compact you make a phone, the less space there is for powerful hardware. And with camera hardware, you cannot run away from having physically large elements when powerful imaging chops are required. You need a large sensor to capture sufficient light and gather good image data at the sensor level before processing comes into play.
The impossible made possible
In 2019, Huawei introduced the P30 Pro which had the largest sensor ever fitted in a smartphone. Physically larger than the one in the Nokia even though it had a lower pixel count. I will point out that pixel count does not equate to better overall photos but rather the quality per pixel and the subsequent image processing is what give you the best results.
The larger sensor on the P30 Pro meant it had the ability to gather a lot more light in photos making life easier for the image processing to do its job without too much strain. And it did, and probably still does take some of the best-looking photos day and night. However, it also kicked things off the camera zoom race. It was capable of providing a 5x optical zoom. Meaning they fitted inside this phone some physical lenses with a magnification of up to 5x.
So many give and takes. So many compromises
Whilst this was one amazing feat given the complexities behind fitting all that hardware in such a slim smartphone, it’s not a perfect way of delivering some zoom. Firstly, the zoom lens uses an inferior-quality imaging sensor which does not deliver images of the same brilliant quality as the main sensor. Photos taken with the zoom camera have less vibrant color, are not as sharp and generally look bland compared to those from the main camera.
The second issue is that the P30 Pro and other smartphone cameras making use of this periscope implementation have a fixed zoom or fixed focal length. This then limits the number of scenarios you can use the zoom because in most cases it’s zooming in too close or too far for it to be of any use.
Very recently, the Sony Xperia 1 IV added continuous zoom to their telephoto lens from 3.5x to 5.2x which brings a whole lot of utility when fine-tuning your zoom. It’s brilliant. But they did not address the issue of image quality because it still uses a less superior quality imaging sensor to the one used on the main lens. Xiaomi’s 12s Ultra concept wants to bring in a very fresh solution to that problem which I like a lot.
Just slap a DSLR lens on it!
So when the Xiaomi 12s Ultra was launched it carried some big camera numbers. A 1-inch sensor, (The same physical size as sensors in professional cameras), 50MP meaning huge, quality pixels, a Leica collab that they snubbed Huawei, and a very substantial camera circle that actually looks like a DSLR lens.
Since Leica already makes some really good and REALLY EXPENSIVE cameras, Xiaomi thought, what if they make a Leica lens-compatible attachment on their camera ring so that you can use the main camera of the smartphone for everything? A portrait shot gets a portrait lens. A zoom shot gets a telephoto lens and so forth.
It won’t matter which scenario of photo or video you are taking. You will be using the best lens on the smartphone every time. And I see the utility of this as I used to use binoculars as a telephoto lens with my phone when I was out in the wild taking photos of wildlife. You got the zoom and the best image quality.
Is this the right approach?
Glass is pricier than bodies
All camera nerds reading this will know that glass is more expensive than the body. What this means is that when you get a professional camera like a DSLR or a mirrorless camera, the body is not that expensive. The lenses however are a whole different story. This is because image processing on these cameras is not as sophisticated as that on smartphones. To get the best possible image you have to have a very good lens and a very good lens is expensive.
Having less sophisticated image processing is by design. Professional photographers have different tastes and looks they seek when taking photos. So they prefer to have just the bare minimum image processing for the sake of more creative freedom during the shoot and in post-production.
Not all of us are pros
But there is a demography consisting of enthusiasts. Enthusiasts who either cannot afford a DSLR or do not have the skill to get the most out of such cameras. A demography that is overwhelmed by the sheer number of buttons and adjustments involved with professional cameras. I know we will keep an eye on this concept.
Versatility and ease of use over bells and whistles
Another reason why this Xiaomi would be appealing is its versatility and ease of use. It’s versatile because when you want to use it as a phone you can. It will maintain its sleek and compact design and work as well as any other flagship. When you need it to be a serious photography tool you just pull out a lens and attach it to the back camera and you have a camera system closer to a professional camera than it is to a good smartphone camera.
And when it comes to ease of use we look at workflow. You can have really professional-looking photos for social media without involving a computer for file transfer. It’s convenient for editing as well. The Xiaomi 12s Ultra can shoot RAW images which you can quickly import into Lightroom or Snapseed on the same device. And when editing is done you can use this same device to share the files. Essentially the workflow just becomes more streamlined.
The Xiaomi 12s Ultra. A concept I hope makes it to market
When we look at all previous camera-centric smartphones we see a common trend. A tradeoff of some sort is always experienced. Either you gain good quality zoom at the expense of portability and versatility (Samsung Galaxy K Zoom). Or you get portability at the expense of continuous optical zoom adjustment (Every smartphone with a zoom lens except for the Sony Xperia 1 IV). Or you get portability and the versatility of the zoom lens at the expense of pure image quality (Sony Xperia 1 IV).
With the Xiaomi 12s Ultra, this is probably as good as the best of both worlds can get. Not only is it quality zoom because of it making use of the superior main camera, but also you get to use quality glass too in the form of the lens attachments. And I also think it is the best use of that frankly massive 1-inch sensor. It’s doing justice to the hardware.
Sony made a special edition, a camera-focused smartphone called the Xperia Pro-i and it was the first smartphone with a 1-inch sensor. But I feel it was wasted because that is where they ended. Xiaomi with the 12s Ultra will definitely make a much better case for it having that 1-inch sensor largely because of this lens attachment. Whilst it won’t result in an explosion of Xiaomi smartphone sales, it surely will make us enthusiast shutterbugs VERY happy.
Chrome has decided to end support for older Windows versions that include Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. This makes Chrome version 109 the final version of the world’s most-used browser to support these older versions of Windows. In a blog post on Google Chrome Support, they stated that this end of support falls in line with the end of Windows Extended Security Updates (ESU). Since Microsoft will stop sending security patches and updates for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 on the 10th of January 2023, Chrome will also follow suit.
Google Chrome Support blog post
Hey all,
Chrome 109 is the last version of Chrome that will support Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1. Chrome 110 (tentatively scheduled for release on February 7th, 2023) is the first version of Chrome that requires Windows 10 or later. You’ll need to ensure your device is running Windows 10 or later to continue receiving future Chrome releases. This matches Microsoft’s end of support for Windows 7 ESU and Windows 8.1 extended support on January 10th, 2023.
Older versions of Chrome will continue to work, but there will be no further updates released for users on these operating systems. If you are currently on Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1, we encourage you to move to a supported Windows version to ensure you continue to receive the latest security updates and Chrome features.
As always, please feel free to send us feedback using these instructions. Note: This post was updated on October 26th, 2022 to clarify timelines and include Windows 8, and again on October 27th to further clarify milestone release numbers.
Just to be clear, Google Chrome will still work on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 devices even after support has ended. What users on these older versions of Windows will be missing out on are the new visual and security features that will come baked into newer versions of Google Chrome.
In Zimbabwe, Google Chrome accounts for 70.9% of desktop browsers which is slightly higher than the 65% global market share. Of that 70.9%, about 13% of these desktop devices are running the soon-to-be unsupported versions of Windows.
How to update your PC to stay supported
Windows offers a free license for every user which comes with Windows home. You can upgrade your Windows version through the Microsoft website. You can either choose between downloading an image file of Windows 10 that you can install via a USB drive or using installation media.
Just note that the core of the Windows operating system changed from Windows 7 and 8 to 8.1 which wipes the hard drive when upgrading the OS. You definitely need to do a full backup of your data before going through with the upgrade and you will need to reinstall everything from scratch once the upgrade is done.
I am a tech head which naturally means I am also a tinkerer. I literally repair all my stuff and I have been for a while now. This little toolkit has been a big help. My trusty screwdriver set since 2016. I’m not gonna lie it was super cheap, something like 5 dollars or so and the quality was dodgy but regardless it did the job.
Then there’s this one. A Xiaomi electric precision screwdriver kit and the box is heavy for its size. There is real metal in there. Essentially it’s a case with 24 bits for 24 different kinds of screws and a 2-speed electric screwdriver.
So to test it out we will be taking apart some stuff. Essentially 3 phones, one from the late 90s, another from 2007, and another from 2012. I’m going to start with the new one. Because why not?
The toolkit
353g is the weight of the contents of the box which is a bit more than the 258g of the Huawei Mate 40 Pro, a pretty heavy smartphone. As much as this set has 24 tips which are plenty, my old one has 32 which is 8 more tips than Xiaomi so I can definitely unscrew more screws with my old toolkit.
All these tips are enclosed in a metal casing and the storage itself is a plastic compartment with a push-release mechanism to get it out. There are built-in magnets to ensure the bits stay in position and don’t fall out. Even if the whole thing is upside down.
Buttons & features
The screwdriver itself has 2 buttons for screwing and unscrewing as well as a switch right at the top for switching the speeds of the screwdriver or locking it so you can use it with pure muscle in the event that either the torque needed is greater than what the screwdriver can provide or the battery has run out. Then there is a USB-C port for charging it right at the top.
Taking apart the Microsoft Lumia 540. Piece of cake
Let’s take apart the Microsoft Lumia 540. It has seen better days for sure but it seems it was sent for repair sometime in its life and a bad job was done on it. Some screws in here are not the original screws that come with this phone and some are even missing entirely.
So it’s a combination of T4 and Phillips screws which most of you call star. Nothing the Xiaomi screwdriver cannot handle so far. The motor and gearbox are producing enough torque to make this look easy. As easy as taking this phone apart as well.
Just a couple of screws. 2 ribbon cables and an antenna cable. And it’s all done. Gone are the days when phones were this easy to repair. Now everything is put back together and it’s all working now. The battery is dead but plugging it into the Redmi power bank shows us that it turns on. It’s alive.
Now let’s wind the clock back to 2007 with the Nokia 5000d.
Taking apart the Nokia 5000d. No sweat
Interesting how we are also using the T4 screws here, the same as the ones Microsoft was using on the Lumia 540. Yes again we have a missing screw on this one but regardless it’s a walk in the park for the Xiaomi screwdriver.
This was peak engineering during its time. Brick phones were getting more and more undesirable with thin and compact being the sexy trend of the time. This was one of the most compact phones on the market but it was also very densely packed inside.
For all my ama2ks this was the phone to have. After putting everything back together it looks like the Nokia still lives. Amazing. Easy. Time for something a bit more challenging.
Taking apart the Siemens C10. A little too much to handle
As for the brick, the charger is long gone. This is the Siemens C10 and my millennials from the teapot-shaped country of sadza eaters you will remember mango. Bricks are phones people remember when we talk of mango. During this era, phones came with interchangeable housings instead of the cases we have now.
This was also one of the slimmest bricks you could get at the time. It could fit in a pocket and the antenna didn’t need to be pulled out anymore when making calls. Battery life was horrible and on top of that it took an eternity to charge. And all it did was call and SMS. Only. You didn’t even get an alarm on it.
Taking it apart was a bit harder. It’s the only phone of the 3 I had never opened before. The screws require more torque than in the previous phones and it’s here where we see 2 things. The first is this little guy is now breaking a sweat but the second one is how it’s dealing with it.
It seems to have a built-in torque sensor. So if the torque exceeds a certain level it will only operate in bursts until the screw is loose enough to be unfastened continuously. It’s really fascinating to watch and also feel that impulse torque at work.
It’s crazy how the tiny Nokia 5000d is half the size of the Siemens but orders of magnitude more powerful. And there are roughly 10 years between these 2. Tech moves at a seriously rapid pace shown by the sheer size of the components on this phone. The large chips in the Siemens are 10 to 20x smaller than what we have in modern smartphones. The size of those capacitors, they are a lot bigger than what comes in modern-day laptops. These sorts of capacitors are what you might find in a power supply. It’s wild.
Halfway through putting everything back together, I realized I forgot to put back the display interface. This sends display information from the motherboard to the display. What does not help is I had already put in 60% of the screws. Normally I could have just left this for another day but lazy as I can be I have something to help with that. So everything is taken apart again then we painstakingly try to align the display bus in its slot.
Now we can throw all the bits as they were for a 100% restoration process. The last 4 screws definitely needed more torque than what this screwdriver could handle. So I put the dial into manual mode and went in with pure muscle.
This did get the job done but all the time I was sweating bullets because when you put it on this mode it locks everything in place using the internal gearbox. The problem is I have no idea how much torque this gearbox is rated for so pure muscle from a sadza eater like me could break things inside it. Thankfully that was not the case. The operation of these 3 casualties went smoothly with zero disasters to speak of.
Battery life
Battery life? I think it’s good enough seeing I was able to go through all the 3 phones with whatever battery this screwdriver came with out of the box. Charging is alright. It took it about an hour to go from a red pulsating charging light to a white solid one.
Really I like the build quality of this, the torque is good for electronics and I doubt it will be able to handle anything more heavy-duty than that, it’s designed really well and so it looks good. I just need a bit more confidence with how much torque it can handle when I use muscle with it.
Is it worth US$30?
This cool piece of tech goes for US$30. Now let me say if your job is opening up stuff all day every day you rapidly suffer some wrist fatigue. Something that this electric screwdriver really helps with. It’s worth the money in my book. For my fellow technicians, this is something you need to give a try. I also really want to hear your thoughts on this. You can reach out to Mi Store by clicking here.
This one is for my tech heads. When you are looking for a performance PC, you would know that the more serious the machine is, the less integrated the system is. What do I mean? Well, lower-tier computers will have one processor handling everything. By everything I mean the computation tasks and the graphics stuff.
When you start getting 2 processors dedicated to their individual tasks that’s where you know your system means all the business. A powerful processor for computational tasks like compiling code and a separate powerful processor just for graphics for those running 3D rendering software like architectures and 3D animators.
The GPU side of things is where we see the difference between a powerful computer and a very powerful machine with the 2 names to look out for being AMD Radeon and Nvidia GeForce. And it’s been like this for the longest time. Intel made some great processors. AMD made good enough processors, until recently when they started making some pretty desirable ones, and Nvidia made the best GPUs with AMD again also making good enough GPUs.
Intel has been making dedicated GPUs for some time
So you can bet I dropped everything when I heard that Intel is now making actual GPUs to take a straight fight at Nvidia and AMD. What? To be clear, Intel has been making GPUs for Ultrabooks for quite a while now. You may have seen a laptop with a core i5 or i7 sticker plus another one written Intel Xe graphics. That part right there was Intel’s first step in its quest to make GPUs. The graphics performance of the Xe graphics in these laptops is a lot better than the Intel integrated HD or UHD graphics we were used to getting. In fact, it’s comparable to Nvidia’s power-efficient MX series of GPUs used in these same laptops.
Intel Arc
The names. They are calling them Intel Arc and there are 3 versions. Arc 3, Arc 5, and Arc 7. If you are paying attention the nomenclature they are using is pretty much the same as their CPUs and if that is so maybe there will be an all-conquering Arc 9? Maybe.
So Arc 3 will be the entry-level card with Arc 7 being the most powerful. And there are 2 variants of the Arc 7 an A750 and an A770 with the A770 being more powerful than the A750 with an added option of doubling the video memory from 8GB to 16GB.
Performance: Intel Arc A750 vs Nvidia GeForce RTX3060
How does it perform compared to the biggest name in GPUs? Nvidia. Seems to hold its own actually. The Arc 7 A750 ran some benchmarks against the GeForce RTX 3060 and it’s consistently performing better than the establishment. Looking at frame rates in a selection of games that Intel used as benchmarks, the A750 was pushing out about 12% more performance than the RTX3060. The RTX3060 is a solid card for gaming at QHD resolution and 120fps with quality settings on high AND ray tracing so on the side of user experience Intel is definitely here to play.
Where things get a bit interesting is power consumption. The performance gains that the A750 brings onto the table come with a hefty price to pay on power consumption. Nvidia quotes power consumption for the RTX3060 at 170W whilst Intel quotes the power draw of the A750 at 225W. So you are getting a 12% boost in performance at the price of a 24% higher power consumption. And if we are to guess that the top tier A770 will have similar performance to the RTX3070 the difference in power draw is more negligible with Nvidia drawing 5W less than Intel.
Something to note is that across the range, the Nvidia cards are coming with more vRAM than Intel cards. In the tests Intel performed, it seems like the vRAM deficit they have is not introducing any performance variations in gaming scenarios. The A750 Intel benchmarked had 8GB of onboard video memory vs 12GB on Nvidia’s RTX3060. I suspect in memory-heavy applications like 3D rendering in architectural software or 3D animation the extra vRAM in the RTX3060 will reap more dividends over the A750.
Intel focuses on the masses
So here is my thinking about Intel’s GPUs. If the A750 is being benchmarked against the RTX3060, a lower-mid tier GPU, the A770 should be similar in performance to the RTX3070 which is a mid-tier GPU. That then makes the A580 an RTX3050 level card and the A380 a lower performer than the RTX3050.
So, at least for the time being, Intel looks to be targeting low to mid-tier systems with their cards and offering more options for someone looking for a dedicated card for their system at a budget. AMD could be sweating right now because not only is their Ray tracing not yet up to scratch with Nvidia but also they recently decided to price their cards higher than Nvidia.
Pricing
Speaking of pricing, The A380 seems to be the one that’s available to the public right now going for US$140 on NewEgg. Some rumors suggest that the A580 will go for around US$280, the A750 for around US$350, and the A770 for around US$400. Not too bad now is it? Oh, and there are some laptops that are already shipping with the mobile variant of Intel’s Arc GPUs but all of them listed on Intel’s website are running the lower-tier laptop GPUs, the A350s and A370s. A5 and A7 series GPUs are not yet available both on desktop and laptop variants.
What a time to be alive. Intel making competitive GPUs. Who would have guessed? Let me know what you think about this move. Will Intel overtake AMD?
We had a collection of Apple devices announced last week and if you missed it we had the latest heap of iPhones with the highlight being that US versions of the iPhones are ditching the physical sim slot. So it’s only a matter of time till other regions get the same treatment as well as other smartphone makers jumping onto that bandwagon.
Another one is that the iPhone 14s also came out of the box with iOS 16 with a bunch of new software stuff, again the biggest one being the new lock screen and its ability to interact with elements of the wallpaper to add depth to it. More customization.
What’s also some really good news for Zimbabweans is that iPhones that are capable of 5G connectivity will be receiving the long-awaited 5G option in the mobile internet settings. This is being made possible through iOS 16 so for those who have iPhone 12s, and 13s and for those living on the bleeding edge of technology the iPhone 14s, the 5G option is now available.
Note that this does not mean your phone can get 5G via a software update. Your phone has to have the hardware to connect to a 5G signal. So for iPhones in Zimbabwe, only those that already have 5G hardware in them will get a 5G option made available to them through this update. It’s just making the option available for a feature that the phone was already capable of doing.
We are yet to get a chance to run some 5G tests of our own in Zim so stay tuned for those. Also for some Apple users with the Apple Watch Series 7 in Zimbabwe, you’ll be happy to know that iOS 16 finally brings the ECG feature to the Zimbabwean region. A little update if you had not seen that one.
Right. You are a Xiaomi fanatic and you are thinking about which is the best speaker to buy. Well, I have 3 of them for 3 different types of people, and all of them each go for less than US$70. And I am able to play with these thanks to the really nice people at the Mi Store so do me a solid and check them out on their socials.
Xiaomi Portable Bluetooth Speaker: US$25
Exterior and design
Let’s kick things off with the Xiaomi Portable Bluetooth speaker. It’s about the size of a tin of canned tuna with the body being mostly a matte plastic with some fabric on top covering the speaker itself. The base is made of a really grippy rubber that does a good job of gripping onto surfaces.
Whilst at the bottom you’ll see the power button smack in the middle and that’s the only button you’ll find on this speaker. There is this orange loop that just helps you carry it around or hang it on stuff like your backpack or window or a hook on the ceiling. Don’t ask.
Below this convenience loop is a rubber cover that hides the USB-C port which you can use to charge the speaker and they also include a cable in the box. Very nice. On the opposite side is where the LED indicator light is at. This will show you what’s going on with the speaker like if it’s in pairing mode, if the battery is empty or if there is an incoming call, and more.
In terms of features, it is IP67 dust and water-resistant so it can handle some bit of rough riding. It also supports stereo pairing, meaning you can grab two of these and connect them together to make double the noise or to simulate some stereo separation of left and right channels when listening to audio or watching videos. It makes your entertainment more immersive.
Pairing and controls
It’s really easy to pair. Just turn it on, search for it via Bluetooth on your phone, tablet, or laptop and when it pops up just click pair. A single press of the power button will pause or play your music and the same function can be used to answer or end a call. A long press of the button will switch the speaker on or off and a double press will mute a call if you are on one or it will enable Truly Wireless Stereo mode so you can connect another speaker for that truly wireless stereo I mentioned earlier.
Sound performance
The sound quality is good. It’s not an A+ but still an A. The frequency range is decent with really defined mids and highs. So if you are listening to orchestral tracks with a lot of instruments or watching something with dialogue it does a very good job there.
Where it falls short is in the low end. There is some bass in there but just not enough low-end to give you that satisfying rumble in bass-heavy tracks like HipHop or Amapiano. Regardless, the sound quality stays pretty consistent all the way to maximum volume with some negligible distortion.
For just casual listening it does the job. And it can fill up a regular-sized room well but it just falls short on power and bass to light things up outdoors or in larger rooms.
It’s perfect as a louder, better speaker for your smartphone or laptop to enhance your music or video experience. Even for the school kids, it’s a decent speaker to add a vibe to the dorm room on a weekend. The box says it has a long-lasting battery life which is not really specified but I would estimate it will get you about 5 to 6 hours of music playback at around 50% volume.
Pros
Sounds good
Water and dust resistant
USB-C
Great design and build quality especially in black
Truly wireless stereo
Cons
The only feature is BT (No aux, SDcard, FM tuner)
It’s borderline pricey at US$25
Xiaomi Portable Bluetooth Speaker 16W: US$55
Exterior and design
Then there is another Mi portable Bluetooth speaker with a 16W in front of the name. Why? Because it’s bigger with more buttons and more ports. It’s also heavier. I don’t think a lot of people will hang this one on something like a backpack or chuck it in their cargo pants.
The build is still solid and clean but most of it is now fabric which is going to be interesting when it gets dirty. There are 2 rubber pads on the bottom to ensure it will roll off surfaces before it slides off them. The buttons are on top and there are plenty.
A power button to turn it on or off, volume buttons that also double up as track skipping buttons, a play pause button that also answers and ends calls, a dedicated Bluetooth button to pair a new device and quickly disconnect a connected device, and lastly an infinity button which allows you to pair this speaker with another one to create that left and right audio separation. The one I got is the blue one but looking at the box I think I would definitely go for the black one.
It’s also IPX7 rated for water and dust resistance so some water splashes or sandy beaches won’t really upset it. Oh and ports. It has 2 of them. A USB-C port for charging and an aux port for those that still prefer playing with cables. Speaking of, I wish they actually included an aux cable in the box. It’s a shame that all you get is a USB cable to charge the speaker and that’s it.
This one promises up to 13 hours of battery life but only at 50% volume. So at volumes above 50%, it’s going to last less than 13 hours. It’s got a 2600mAh battery inside and it’s odd for me that they did not put a reverse charge feature so I can use it as a power bank to charge my phone or the smaller speaker.
How does it sound?
Yes, it is louder. Much louder. And yes it has more bass. In fact, on some really bass-heavy tracks, the speaker literally shakes and rattles the surface it’s sitting on. Sound quality I give it an A+. It delivers some meaty bass all the way to max volume with the vibrations getting more violent the higher the volume goes. The slight bass bias and high volume does introduce some distortions at the maximum volume. When playing music some higher frequency instruments are a bit less sharp and consistent. But this is me speaking from an audio enthusiast’s point of view.
For a majority of you, this speaker is a great speaker. It can definitely work for a Zumba class or a big room for those that missed this reference. It can even work for a small outdoor thing like a backyard braai, picnic, or small birthday party.
It also has 2 preset equalizers. One is normal and the other is deep bass. You can cycle these through by pressing the play/pause and the plus button at once. I could not tell if there was a difference in bass levels between the 2 modes but what I did notice was the overall volume was louder in Deep Bass mode than in normal mode.
Pros
Volume goes quite high
The sound quality is top-notch with good rich bass
Buttons are plenty and conveniently placed
Stereo pairing
Aux for wired audio
Better dust and water resistance
Good battery life
USB-C
Cons
Pricey at US$55
Lack of power bank feature
No FM radio or SD card slot
Xiaomi Smart Speaker lite: $65
But you are a nerd and you like things. These 2 speakers lack something unique about them and that’s a bit of brains. You want your speaker to be smart. This is where the Xiaomi smart speaker comes in.
Exterior and design
It’s nice and black and it’s got an LED display. Finally. A smart speaker with a display. On top, it’s got 4 mics for better voice detection when issuing out commands and 4 buttons. Play/pause, volume up and down, and a button to enable or disable the mics.
Setting it up takes a bit more effort than with the Bluetooth-only speakers. But that’s because this one does more stuff. So first you need to download the Google Home app. Then open it and plug the speaker into a power point. Once the speaker is on, click the add button in the Google Home app and just follow the prompts to add a smart speaker.
Like any smart speaker, you can do stuff like setting up alarms, playing stuff on your other smart devices, and controlling smart home appliances and even smart home security systems. Call it peak soft life
Performance
As a speaker, it sounds good. In fact, on sound quality, it falls between the smaller Mi portable speaker and the bigger Mi portable speaker 16W. It is certainly producing a richer sound in the low end compared to the smaller speaker but also it’s more clear and crisper at max volume than the bigger 16W Mi speaker.
It does sound like this is a more quality driver that is being used in the Mi smart speaker than the ones in the other Bluetooth speakers but again I am speaking from an audio enthusiast’s point of view. These are the sort of nuances a lot of you will not even notice.
Features
Oh, and it can work as a Bluetooth speaker as well. All you do is ask Google Assistant to switch on Bluetooth and it will give you instructions on how to pair your phone, tablet, or laptop to it. Not everyone is going to be using it for online streaming all the time.
It’s a great smart speaker. It even has a display that shows the time and says hello when you turn it on. Something not very common in a lot of smart speakers including the last Xiaomi smart speaker we played with a little while ago.
The only complaint I have with smart speakers, in general, is that none of them have built-in batteries. You have to keep them plugged in 100% of the time which is not a very African-friendly feature.
And it’s not like they are very power-hungry devices. The speaker uses a max of 12W and if you put a 20 000mAh power bank on it, you can get up to 12 hours of use on it which would make it more versatile. Also, I think it’s about time that all devices that use less than 100W of power should have a USB-C port. There are smartphone chargers that can power this speaker easily.
Nonetheless, if you are in the market for a smart speaker, this one is pretty good. Sound quality alone is better on it than on the Amazon Echo Dot or even the Google home mini. It’s also cheaper than other smart speakers on the market at $65. An Amazon Echo Dot is about $90 for the 3rd gen. The design is fine but I think I am a sucker for that bit of the fabric finish on my speakers. Call me old-fashioned. It’s got the full might of Google Assistant delivering all the smarts and it has something a lot of other smart speakers do not have. An LED display. It only shows the time but still. It’s there.
Pros
That LED clock
Great Sound quality
Sturdy build
Cons
Price of $65
A limited selection of playback sources (Bluetooth/streaming)
Relies 100% on power
Which is the best one?
So this is where these speakers stand. The smallest one is cheap and good-looking but at the price of low-end bass and features. It’s also only 100% Bluetooth.
The biggest one, the 16W, is the loudest with the most bass, has better battery life, and can also do wired audio. However, it’s a bit pricier and at max volume, it loses a bit of quality.
Then the smart speaker. It’s got all the smarts thanks to Google Assistant. It can work on its own without needing a device to be connected to it and it can even control other smart devices in the house. It also sounds the best and when you feel like it, you can use it as a Bluetooth speaker like the other two.
But it’s quite expensive and unless you will fully utilize the smart features you are pretty much paying more for a speaker that does less than the other two. And also it’s not one you can use outdoors because it needs to be plugged in for it to work.
Personally, I’d get the Mi Portable speaker 16W because it suits my situation better. I like my tech to be as versatile as it can be and this speaker seems to do the job. Let me know which one you’d get in the comments.
The latest beta build of Windows 11 which is this one 22593.1 is out and I have been pushing some buttons. Here are all the new bits.
Groove Music Player is dead
RIP to the Groove music player. Say hello to the Media Player. What it does is it curates your audio and video library and puts it all in one place.
You can still do your playlists… yes I have 15 playlists and counting… but some features have been either moved around or eliminated so for example in the music portion you no longer have the now playing list. The full list is now the ‘now playing’ list. Spotify integration button is no more and same goes for the graphic equalizer for those of you that used it.
Microsoft’s streaming service
Movies & TV still exists but now it is more dominated by streaming content with a single tab dedicated to the local library. I wonder who is renting or buying stuff here and not on Netflix or Amazon Prime or Disney+. It still sucks that Microsoft is strict about payment methods matching the location of the device using their services. Some of us in Africa rely on the diaspora to pay for our entertainment. Cut us some slack.
Weather & News widget
The weather widget is back and if your icons are center aligned it’s gonna be at the far left. Hovering over it will launch the widgets panel with even more stuff. Stocks, Football updates, stock market charts and news. And yes you can customize the panel by adding or removing widgets. Some of them can be resized as well to your preference.
QR scanner in the camera
The camera now supports QR code scanning and I secretly love this one because my biggest use case for it will be scanning a wifi login QR code rather than typing the password. I am lazy like that.
New charging icon
On the battery icon you used to see a plug looking thing when a laptop is plugged in. Now that’s been changed to a lightning bolt. I mean I definitely prefer a lightning bolt as a symbol of power rather than a plug. It reminds me of Zeus, yes, but it’s also the universal charging conotation on a lot of other portable devices it only made sense that it be used here as well.
Relocated volume and brightness animations
The volume and screen brightness animations have been moved from the top left corner of the screen down to the bottom center. I actually missed it the first time I was adjusting the screen brightness and had a hard time trying to think if it’s a bug or a feature.
Peek into folders
In the file explorer, folders with media now show a snippet of the media in the folder to sort of make it easier to browse through them without really needing to open them. A cool one would be like a short 3 sec scrub of the media in a folder when you hover the cursor over it. Just a thought.
Dark mode task manager & enhanced Focus Assist
Oh and guess what! The task manager now supports dark mode and it looks rather good on my monitor. It’s probably something that will excite us nerds but I am happy it’s there now. And focus assist mode has added a bunch more features like how long you want it to last and what features or services you want to allow to disturb you when focus mode is running. You know. To get you focused.
These are some bits I found interesting in the Beta. if you have any you have seen as well you can always post them in the comments.
What can one do to kill a bit of time? There are literally thousands of things one can do but how many of those are simple, a bit challenging, not time consuming and can be enjoyed with millions of people across the globe? Well Wordle is all those things.
Wordle is a web-based daily word game that has taken the world by storm. The game is simple enough for everyone to understand but is challenging enough to still enjoy.
Players are given six chances to guess a five-letter word. You input your first guess, which has to be a real English word and if a letter is in the actual word, it will be coloured. If a letter is green, it is in the word of the day and is in the correct position. Then if it is orange, the letter is in the word but is in the wrong position. If it’s grey, it’s not in the word at all.
Like I mentioned, the game is web-based and so you don’t need to download anything. You just visit the website here, on any device capable of loading web pages – phone, tablet or computer and you play. I couldn’t play on my Smart Kambudzi running KaiOS though.
Wordle goes viral
This simple premise has made it a hit. Even Google couldn’t resist the trend, putting Wordle in an easter egg. If you ‘google’ the word ‘wordle’ the Google logo plays around with Wordle boxes and imitates the game.
The developer, a former Reddit employee, somehow managed to make the game more popular by only releasing one puzzle a day. Yes, in this world of game developers perfecting ways to keep fans playing, Wordle can only be played once a day. If you visit the site using a different browser you’ll be able to play again but you will be getting the same puzzle. It flies in the face of modern logic but works in spite of it.
That’s crazy if you think about it. We heard how even Instagram and Facebook are designed to be addictive, making sure you spend as much time using them as you possibly can. The fact that Wordle gives people no opportunity to play more than once a day should not have been a formula for success. Yet it is.
Then the other stroke of genius by the developer was to make it easy to share one’s performance online without revealing the actual word. You may have seen these boxes on social media.
That’s me getting it right in just 3 tries like a boss.
For people who had been conditioned to enjoy life’s pleasures to the excess, some developers created their own clones that deliver as many puzzles as one wants any day. Some of these copycats were removed from app stores but if you find the Wordle itch unscratchable, there are similar games you can enjoy.
Wordle sold for million(s) of dollars
This simple game isn’t even monetised as there are no ads on the site and it’s free to play for everyone. Yet it was bought by the New York Times for a price “in the low seven figures” just a couple of days ago. So at least a million US dollars were paid for the game.
That’s crazy. Even novice developers can recreate this game and so it goes to show that an idea when well executed can be more valuable than technically superior products.
The NY Times says they will keep the game free for both current and new players, for the moment at least. So why even buy it? To bolster their digital subscriptions of course. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if the game eventually went behind the Times paywall.
That won’t be too bad, like Flappy Bird back in the day, copycats will fill the need. But boy does this make one want to pull out a computer and start working on that idea that has been shelved for years.
There is a lot of cool stuff happening around the world and here I talk about some of that. There is no particular theme, just random stuff you might also find cool.
Ya man, Jamaica pon di e-currency
Whilst we drag our feet here in Zimbabwe, Jamaica will be rolling out its digital currency this first quarter of 2022. They completed a pilot project in December 2021 and its success led to the decision to make a full rollout this year.
The ‘RBZ’ of Jamaica says the digital currency will help lower transaction costs. Beautiful isn’t it. I only wish the powers that be in Zimbabwe were similarly repulsed by high transaction costs. You know, instead of actually increasing transaction costs through the 2% IMTT and ignoring banks’ predatory fee structures.
The Jamaicans also believe the digital currency will help bring financial inclusion to the majority of Jamaicans who are not part of the banking system. Man, these Jamaicans are facing the same challenges we face in Zimbabwe.
The Jamaicans won’t be rushing the rollout. They say they hope to replace 5% of Jamaican dollars with the new digital currency each year. Slow and steady just might win this race.
When it comes to digital currencies, Zimbabwe is still in the research phase. Find out what digital currencies are and what the Zimbabwean regulators have said about them here.
Dudes using cars to mine bitcoin
Some fellas had Tesla electric cars and realised that these cars, with their huge batteries, CPUs and GPUs and 12 inch screens were basically mobile, driveable computers. So, naturally, they decided to see if they could use these cars to make them a little money on the side.
One guy connected a computer, the Apple M1 Mac mini (you know, the tiny portable computer that can turn any screen into a Mac computer) to the car through its 12V socket. He did this so he could use powerful external graphic cards connected to the Mac mini.
Says with this setup, he was able to net $800 per month mining Ethereum. He is quoted saying, “a mix of hacking into Tesla’s internal computer, plus plugging GPUs directly into the car’s electric motor” is the best way to maximise Teslas’ crypto mining capabilities.
Another guy just straight up connected a Bitmain Antminer S9, one of the best dedicated bitcoin mining hardware out there, directly into his Tesla. Essentially just using the Tesla as a battery pack. For him this made some sense because he has lifetime access to superfast charging which can fully charge the car in less than 30 minutes. Cause if you didn’t know, electricity costs will become significant as your mining operations ramp up.
Our guy also hacked the Tesla’s firmware (software) so he could mine via the car’s screen and browser. Now, this method relies on the car’s own GPUs which are not that powerful. 60hours of mining yielded only $10 worth of bitcoin this way.
With all these methods, these miners say this is all just a proof of concept. They just want to show that it can be done. While you may have thought you could drive the car whilst it pays for itself in the background, it makes no sense to depreciate a $40,000 car this way.
Guy runs Windows 11 on a phone
I know you’re thinking, ‘why?’ Well, why not? My man managed to run Windows 11 on an Android phone natively. He is not emulating Windows like how Bluestack emulates Android, and neither is he running a virtual machine. His OnePlus phone natively runs Windows 11!
How? You might know that Microsoft releases two versions of Windows, based on 2 different processor architectures. One is based on x86 and the other on Arm. The x86 is what we have found in desktops and laptops traditionally and is still used for all powerful Windows computers.
Now, Arm is the same architecture used for Android and iOS chips and you may have seen the always on PCs which have Snapdragon chips. That’s Windows on Arm. So, this Arm link is the one he exploited, especially helped by the fact that Qualcomm develops Arm chips for Windows and Arm chips for Android phones.
Turns outs that some PC drivers are compatible with the phones and that was the starting point. He says the challenge is booting into Windows and goes through how he did it using Project Renegade. This quote on the Renegade Project site tells you what they are all about:
….is a project aimed at providing a custom UEFI environment for Snapdragon 845 in order to boot any fuOS at EL1….we’re only using it as a bootloader. And it’s doing well in booting Windows
So, our guy tinkered with the software until he got everything ready to work with his specific Snapdragon 845 powered phone. Then boom, his phone booted into Windows 11, natively.
He shows off the phone and indeed it is running Windows 11 and our guy even tries to game on it. Spoiler – the phone is too weak for heavy games but I think you would have guessed that.
This guy’s exploits are not going to change your life because it’s all rather pointless for the most part but what can I say, it’s still fun to see.
That is an average of 7.45Km a day. 223Km a month. An inside joke at Techzim states that I am the resident road runner and obviously that comes with a shoe bill worth some hefty chest pains.
Nonetheless 2021 is the year when I got a smartwatch. A Huawei Watch GT2. Naturally. And to be honest it actually came with a bit of some peer pressure. As much as it in essense is a device I wear on my wrist which can tell time, the knowledge that 95% of the features and hardware on it are fitness related made the super user in me want to practically explore all these features in action.
It has built in GPS. It has a heart rate sensor and can measure my stress levels. It has an altitude meter. Finally. I say finally because, when I had the Huawei Mate 9, the chipset included a barometer. Something I found lacking in the Huawei P30 Pro because…well a ‘P’ series Huawei is not as flagship as a ‘Mate’ series Huawei. Imagine that.
See the watch opened my eyes to a wealth of data about my daily life, my daily routines and my fitness habits in a way I had never really seen before. I mean on average I walk around 4500 steps a day when I don’t go out galavanting and when I do go out I walk an average of 15000 steps.
Men have this inherent competitive nature about them and even with no men around to compete with, that nature is very comfortable being in competition with itself. I had a feeling this was the case but that was until I experienced it first hand and I think it’s the darn watch that blew the mist from my eyes.
Total distance. Two kilometers.
Pace for the last kilometer. Ten minutes, twelve seconds.
Heart rate. One hundred and three beats per minute.
Male voice from the watch during the outdoor walk workout routine
“What if I walk a bit faster this km and beat my pace for the last km?” Peer pressure from the data. By 4km I am speed walking and when that 5th km mark came in I knew it was a good km. I literally had been speed walking down the streets in my Power branded sneakers, sweat running down my face and back like I just ran out of the shower. Ding!!!
Total distance. Five kilometers.
Pace for the last kilometer. Eight minutes, fourty nine seconds.
Heart rate. One hundred and twenty five beats per minute
My personal walking record
Naturally walking is an activity I enjoy doing. The creative in me feeds from that but I an also of the conviction that scientifically exercise increases blood flow to the brain and nourishes the brain with an abundance of oxygen. It’s a good way to get new ideas flowing for the videos I then make. However 2489km! I can bet 1000km of that was just the abundance of data from the watch just influencing me to go further. Go longer.
Even when I actually have to be on the desk combing and scrubbing through videos clips and getting lost in scripts, I occassionally get some taps on my wrist. I peek at the watch and there is an animation of a human sitting, then standing up, then stretching. This is a reminder from the piece of tech on my wrist that I have been sitting for too long.
So putting it into context. In 2021 I walked a distance slightly further than Harare to Dar es Salaam and slighlty less than Harare to CapeTown. And I have absolutely no physical gains to show me. It’s crazy I know. But I know having this wrist watch looking fitness tracker on me has morphed my casual therapeutic walks into an internally competitive routine between me and myself. And it’s been fun. 2022 you ask? Maybe I might walk to Cairo. Maybe.
Welcome to 2022 everyone and it’s new year new software update for the Huawei watch GT2. It just got a very major update that’s brought in a collection of visual and functional improvements which I cannot wait to share with you guys so let’s dive right in.
The Huawei boot animation has been upgraded to the one on the latest Huawei devices. Gone is the red shell on top of the Huawei branding.
The drop down menu has a new addition which is the drain icon. Basically if you take the watch swimming or bathing, the watch can fill up with water in the speaker slots and so this button plays a tone to vibrate the water molecules out of this slot. Why would anyone take a bath with their watch though? When do you charge it? Unless you are afraid someone will nick it whilst you are in the shower.
Which is now not a big worry because this update brought pin locking to the watch. So as soon as it detects lack of a pulse or if it’s restarted, it will automatically lock itself. The pin itself is a 6 digit code. You can still check the time with the screen locked but that’s all you’ll be able to do.
Notifications got a well deserved makeover. Instead of a banner notification blanketing the whole screen, notifications only cover the bottom quarter of the screen. They will just briefly show the icon of the app sending the notification and the name of the sender and disappear and leave whatever it is you were doing on the watch uninterrupted. And for me the most AMAZING part is that notifications no longer switch off my flash light when I have it on on the watch. That one used to make me wanna pull my hair out.
Activity rings are now thicker, weather now has a screen for 8 hours worth of outdoor conditions separate from the 7 day weather predictions which themselves are split into 2 screens. Oh and the watch now does navigation. It’s currently limited to Huawei’s in-house Petal maps and also not on iOS but I mean it’s a massive progress. All it does is pretty much turn by turn navigation showing you how far the next corner is.
When you receive a call you can now use the physical buttons to adjust the volume. The top one increases and the bottom one reduces the volume.
These are the striking new additions I saw in the major software update to the Huawei Watch GT2. I’m actually happy that a watch from 2019 is still being given some attention. Probably more attention than my Huawei P30 Pro but story for another day. If I missed any new feature let me know in the comments.
Zimbabwe, like all of Africa, is Android country. Just over 85% of the mobile devices in the country run Google’s Android operating system. That is no surprise, Android is great. It is also helped by the fact that there are many options, at every single price point. Whatever your budget, there is an Android phone for you. You’ve got $30? No problem. Want to spend $1800 on a foldable? Android’s got you.
The problem with this is that you cannot expect much in terms of after sales support for most of the budget options. It’s unreasonable to expect a manufacturer to provide a major software update for a $30 phone. The situation is not much better even at the $200 range. To be honest, even at the flagship level, Android lags way behind iOS by a huge margin when it comes to software updates.
The latest and greatest in terms of Android versions is Android 12 which was released in early October 2021. Being an annual release schedule, it means Android 11 was released in 2020 and Android 10 in 2019.
Most used Android version
Google used to release information on the most popular versions quarterly but stopped in 2018. They recently surprised us and released that information and here is how it’s looking:
Android Version
% Running this version
11 (R)
24.2%
10 (Q)
26.5%
9 (Pie)
18.2%
8 (Oreo)
13.7%
7 (Nougat)
6.3%
6 (Marshmallow)
5.1%
5 (Lollipop)
3.9%
4.4 (Kit Kat)
1.4%
4.0 (Jelly Bean)
0.6%
Android 12 is nowhere to be found as yet. When this data was released it was only a month after release and it appears that this data was collected just a week after Android 12’s release. However, even if we grant that and consider 11 as the latest, it remains that it’s on only 24.2% of devices. That’s not enough to unseat 10, which remains the most popular by a small margin.
Look at Jelly Bean, still holding on. I love that.
On to Zimbabwe
The way Google collected the data above would not produce the most accurate results for Zimbabwean users. I imagine it’s the same for most of Africa too. They look at the number of devices that accessed the Play Store during a 7 day period. A good number of Zimbabweans do not visit the Play Store, like ever. Their smartphones only ever get a WhatsApp bundle and so there will be no Play Store access even in the background.
Now if WhatsApp were to tell us the distribution of Android versions accessing their servers, that would be close to what’s on the ground in Zimbabwe.
So, to see what’s going on in Zimbabwe in November 2021, we look at the data collected by GS Stat Counter.
Android Version
% Running this version
11 (R)
7.34%
10 (Q)
21.89%
9 (Pie)
21.4%
8 (Oreo)
20.71%
7 (Nougat)
4.72%
6 (Marshmallow)
9.02%
5 (Lollipop)
5.84%
4.4 (Kit Kat)
4.92%
Other
4.16%
Not too bad I must say. Over two thirds running Oreo and later versions is acceptable I would say. Local developers must be encouraged by such revelations.
GS Stat Counter analyses the traffic to over 2 million websites it tracks to produce this data. Of course, for phones stuck on WhatsApp only there is not much that can be done.
Security patches
Android has changed over the years to the point where it’s not as much of a big deal that most phones are not running the latest software version. Security patches are now separate from the main feature updates. This means Android phones may have the latest security patches, which protect against vulnerabilities despite not running the latest Android version.
In my case, at the moment I’m stuck on Android 10 which was released in 2019, darn you LG for abandoning us. However, the latest security patch on my phone was released on 1 June 2021. That’s not perfect but at least in terms of security I’m not too far behind.
I wonder which Android versions ya’ll are running. Hopefully not Jelly Bean.
There is no denying it, the Android ecosystem is completely and well broken. Without external help, it’s doubtful that Google and the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in charge of the Android project will ever get it fixed.
I am talking about the issue of updates and patches. Right now everyone does pretty much what they want. Some OEMs update and patch their systems for years while others cobble together a buggy ROM install it on a phone and forget about it. There is no set number of years for when a manufacturer is obliged to push updates at all. As already said some don’t even bother with updates. Some like Google, religiously push the latest Android updates, others like Xiaomi make a half-hearted effort and lag behind and some nameless Chinese brands never even bother to provide bug fixes.
The EU can use it’s cloud to fix this
The days when America and its government used to lead the world in the technology sphere are long gone. The two biggest parties in that country are embroiled in bitter ideological feuds they cannot even pass a budget to keep their country open without bickering and name-calling. In the multipolar world the EU, on matters of technology and business seems to be emerging as the leader.
They have managed, for example, to bring a little bit of sanity to the cookie and privacy world with their GDPR provisions which have reduced some of the power tech companies like Facebook had. That’s just one example:
The right to be forgotten kind of makes sense in some cases and companies like Google have been abiding by it.
Companies like Microsoft were forced to unbundle their browsers and now we don’t have to endure Edge/Internet Explorer as they fell from grace allowing the wider public to sample Google Chrome and embrace other alternatives.
Google which abuses its search monopolies, had to pay steep fines in the EU too. The US government hardly comes down hard on it’s own behemoths choosing to focus on stupid things like “protecting conservative” viewpoints and passing clearly unconstitutional laws as the political bickering continues in various congresses.
New tax laws in the EU will mean the 1% who are hiding behind shell corporations will soon be paying their fair share of taxes soon. This is an ongoing fight.
The recent USB-type C initiative. Some people might whine and complain all they want but we seriously need a charger standard. USB itself has improved our lives a lot. If you used a computer before USB you will understand what I am saying. Some manufacturers actually too the time to include their own ports which you had to add to your PCI slot. A complete waste of resources it was. Hopefully this bring us closer to sanity as my colleague hopes it will.
Making behemoths pay for news links. I don’t fully agree with this but at least someone is trying to change things for the better instead of letting Big Tech run everything.
Mandatory minimum support will fix most of Android’s problems
There used to be a time when I looked forward to every Google, Samsung, Apple and even Xiaomi launch event. There would be exciting new radical devices being introduced. Naturally, most of them went on to be flops but it was still exciting to see these new innovations on offer as companies took bold risks. With the passing of Steve, Jobs Apple is now playing it safe.
We have lame phones being introduced each year with barely any improvements. Instead of the iPod, iPad and iPhone kind of launch we are just getting a bigger screen, better refresh rate, ooh a good new camera, better software, smaller bezels… Frankly, it’s insipid and it’s hard to keep awake at times. The only exciting thing to happen at Apple in recent years is Silicon.
Google’s Pixel 5A is just the something as its Pixel 4A 5G
It’s not even just Apple. Google too. Why did they even make the Pixel 5A? They just took their Pixel 5A 5G and re-christened it as the 5A. They are not the only ones. These days manufacturers are just making small useless tweaks to their phones each year just so they can push the next iteration. It’s as if they are obliged to make a phone each year.
It would not be a problem if their launching new iterations didn’t affect existing customers. In their rush to provide new shiny iterations, they also see it fit to ruin their older devices. Most of the time I swear it’s deliberate sabotage in a bid to force you to upgrade to a new one. Apple, which is not part of Android by no less guilty, was actually caught pushing updates meant to slow your older phone.
Rather than actively sabotaging their phones by pushing dubious updates, the Android Corps have settled for something less active and therefore hard to regulate-abandonment. They simply don’t push updates at all. When you buy a phone there is no minimum set support period. You just get a phone and hope the manufacturer will be kind enough to provide you with patches and updates. When they choose to not do this you just shrug and buy a new phone or keep using the buggy one with publicly known security flaws.
It doesn’t have to be this way. There is another way. Germany, an influential member of the EU, has already provided a sound proposal that could fix this mess. Make it mandatory for phone makers to support their device for at least 7 years after they first announce or launch it. The good news is that the EU is seriously considering this proposal and it might soon come into effect as early as 2023.
Those who cannot abide by this directive would be free to sell their phones elsewhere like in the horned continent where despots are all about passing laws that give them more power and rule forever rather than on protecting their citizens’ rights. However, such a law could also indirectly protect us in Africa. That’s my hope anyway that it becomes something like what eve have seen with the GDPR.
I am banking on the inherent laziness of manufacturers here. They will probably find it cheaper to just provide everyone with uniform service including extended support instead of having one rule for Africa and another for Europe. Without external pressure, they will just keep what they are doing and drag their feet.
Astro decided last year that it was going to do something different with it’s smartphone lineup. The Astro brand was to be dedicated to their premium smartphone offering and the newly announced Logic brand was to focus on the affordable side of things.
We are yet to see something from their premium line of smartphones but on the budget side we have the top dog which is the Logic L63. In the box it comes with a USB-C cable and the charging brick, a silicone pouch, a pair of earphones, some paperwork and a tool you stick on the back of the phone to do stuff with like using it as a stand or a fidget spinner. You can enjoy all the vicuals in the video below.
Exterior
This phone has a 6.3 HD+ IPS display with a notch up top housing the 8MP selfie camera. The buttons are over the right edge, the top edge has the headphone jack with the bottom having the USB-C port for charging and data transfer as well as holes to the left and right of the port hiding the loudspeaker on one side and the primary microphone on the other.
On the back is the triple camera module with a quad led flash as well as the fingerprint scanner right next to it. If you are wondering where the sim tray is, well this phone does not have one. That’s because it has a removable back cover AND a removable battery whose capacity is 3800mAh.
There are also 2 micro sim slots for the sims and a micro SD slot above the sim 2 slot which can handle memory cards of up to 128GB. This should make repairing this phone a whole lot easier than sealed ones, that’s for sure. But it does make it a bit thicker than other smartphones like this Itel P37.
Software & UI
The L63 is running Android 11 and mostly stock Android apps. Response is alright for a phone in this price range and I did not experience any lags or stutters. Even though it takes it’s time reacting when navigating the UI or open apps, it’s consistent. Almost like is a feature. Reacting at a relaxed pace.
For stuff like entering split screen mode you press the recent apps button and then long press on the app icon. This will launch a little menu where you can select split screen on the supported apps.
An interesting observation I made is the phone comes with just 1 wallpaper preinstalled. One. I mean it’s no big deal for a lot of people because they’ll just put a custom one from the gallery and call it a day but it was interesting that this one only comes with just a single wallpaper.
But otherwise the software experience is alright. Nice and clean. Minimal bloatware and not too many bells and whistles that could otherwise compromise the performance. Software side it is focused on being usable with little to no fancy tricks.
Performance
The L63 comes with an octa core processor as well as 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It keeps up well with the daily routine with nothing much to write home about. But that’s just on the software side of things. Both sims support 4G but only one sim at any time can connect to a 4G network. And also ZOL and TelOne sim cards are not supported which is a bummer.
OS
Android 11
CPU
Octa core UNISOC SC9863A
GPU
PowerVR Rogue GE8322
Display
6.3″ HD+ IPS LCD
60Hz
Main Camera
16MP primary
1080p video recording
Secondary Camera
8MP 720p video
Storage
3GB RAM
32GB Internal Storage
MicroSD up to 128GB
Connectivity
Dual Sim
2G, 3G, 4G
Sensors
Accelerometer
Ambient light
Battery
3800mAh removable battery
64% power drain after 3 hour endurance test
Price
US$180
The battery is small by today’s standards. Just 3800mAh which is a lot smaller than the 5000mAh units that come in GTeLs Infinity 9 or Tecno’s Spark 7 which are its main rivals. And that heavily affects the endurance test as well where after an hour each of YouTube streaming, gaming and video recording it lost 64% of it’s battery. Heavy users might struggle getting past a day on a single charge here.
Also the phone heats up a lot under stress. When the video recording portion of the battery test was done, the phone was considerably warmer than all the smartphones that have gone through the same test this year. Making the back cover removable seems to have short changed the L63 on thermal performance as well as battery life.
The display also has very poor visibility in daylight. It is highly reflective even at maximum brightness which makes it hard to use in broad daylight or very well lit environments.
Camera
The main camera is a 16MP unit with a heap of features. One that I love is the pro mode which lets me be more creative with my photos with manual control. Image quality is quite decent. The sharpness and detail is right about in line with what GTeL managed in the Infinity 9 and slightly better than the Spark 7. In some very bright scenes the highlights are a bit blown out but generally it is a capable camera.
The focus however is always hunting and usually can’t lock on what you want to be in focus unless you tap the screen and there were moments when the shutter button just froze. I hope it’s something they can sort out via software updates.
It’s a passable camera. It pretty much sits in the middle of the Infinity 9 and the Spark 7 given the focus does not let you down.
My Thoughts
In isolation the Logic L63 is an average performer. Average battery life, average camera, average performance. It’s a phone you would consider for someone who is not too fussy about tech and just wants a phone that works.
But as a consumer I do not see a product in isolation and with the 180 dollar price tag on the L63 it makes us wonder if it has more value than the competition. And unfortunately it doesn’t both on paper and in the real world.
It has the smallest battery, the worst display and a meh camera compared to The GTeL Infinity 9 or the Tecno Spark 7, both of which are 30 and 35 dollars cheaper than it. In fact. For the same money, you can get the 4GB version of the Tecno Camon 17 which is almost twice the phone in almost every way.
In isolation the Logic L63 is average. Against other products in the market it is a complete blood bath. Even with the credit facility for civil servants it still has to contend with GTeL offering the same service.
On this one, GTeL went with the approach of if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. They improved on one or 2 things from last year’s Infinity 8s and called it a day. You can watch the review and on the Infinity 9 will all the good angles below.
In the box you get a pair of wired earphones, the charging brick and cable, a semi clear silicone pouch, a tempered glass screen protector and the paperwork.
Exterior
The front has a 6.5 inch HD+ IPS display with a notch up top that’s got an 8MP selfie on it. Above it is the earpiece and hidden within the bezel are the usual sensors. On the right edge is the power and volume buttons and on the left is the triple slot sim tray for your dual sim and a memory card for up to 256GB of additional storage.
On the bottom edge is the headphone jack, the primary microphone, a micro USB port for charging and data transfer and the loudspeaker grill. On the back is the triple camera square looking very similar to the iPhone, with the fingerprint scanner just below it.
The whole body is made of plastic but it’s smooth this time and not textured like on the Infinity 8s and also comes in 2 colours. A royal blue and an aqua blue. It’s a pretty standard and clean design. The only big change on the back is the camera cluster which has been moved from the middle to left and that’s about it.
Software and UI
The GTeL is running Android 11 and has a pretty light skin on top. One thing I love is they keep it absolutely clean. The only apps that are not stock Android apps are the FM radio, audio recorder and calculator.
There are also some subtle but nice animations whenever you leave an app. The app icon does a mini dance of sorts. I did feel like the animations were a bit sluggish so I reduced the animation time in the settings to at least make transitions feel snappy.
Transitions aside, the UI is pretty nippy. Apps launch in a speedy fashion and even though some games take just a bit longer to launch it’s nothing to write home about. It is a decently responsive phone. Feels even faster if you reduce the animation times like I did.
You also get some gestures for stuff like split screen where you swipe up with 3 fingers and pick which 2 apps you want to use on the same screen. You can also swipe down with 3 fingers to take a screenshot if the power and volume down combo is too much work. I never use the button combo to be honest.
When you grab the phone out of the box, it has all the apps on the homescreen. If you prefer a clean home screen with your apps tucked away in the app menu, you can change that in the settings. And if you have the app drawer, there is a section right at the top dedicated to the 4 most recently used apps. It can get pretty useful when the list of installed apps gets longer.
When you enable gesture navigation, the bottom left and right corners will be dedicated to summoning Google Assistant and you can summon it from anywhere, even whilst you are in another app.
The software experience is alright. The GTeL keeps everything clean. No bloatware in sight, warm subtle icon animations and no sneaky ads baked into the software which I love a lot. But what happens when we put it through its paces? Let’s see what specs it has.
Performance
OS
Android 11
CPU
MediaTek A22 Quad core CPU
GPU
PowerVR GE8200
Display
6.5″ 720p HD+ IPS LCD, 60Hz
Main Camera
13MP primary
1080p video recording
Secondary Camera
8MP
720p video recording
Storage
3GB RAM
64GB Internal
Connectivity
Dual sim
2G, 3G, 4G
Sensors
Accelerometer
Ambient light
Battery
5000mAh
40% power drain
after 3 hour
endurance test
Price
US$150
The GTeL Infinity 9 puts affordability above anything else which translates to the spec sheet as well. It comes with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage and a pretty low end MediaTek processor. Most of the budget on this GTeL seems to have gone to the 5000mAh battery and the big 6.5 inch display.
Even with such a humble spec sheet, the Infinity 9 did a respectable job. The UI is generally smooth and responsive. It does not let you wait before something happens. There is the occasional stutter when launching split screen, especially when you had a video open in an app like YouTube and in some games where the phone was struggling a bit when too many moving targets were on the screen.
The battery performance was not very impressive. It faced a 40% power drain after an hour each of gaming, video streaming and video recording. So even with a battery that is 20% bigger, the Infinity 9 lasts as long as the Infinity 8s. The price to pay for a big screen
Overall performance is fine. For this price range it’s actually pretty good and will satisfy anyone looking for a cheap phone to handle the day to day routine.
Camera
The Infinity 9 has a 13MP main camera and 2 extra 2MP cameras which essentially just add to the camera count and that’s about it. In terms of image quality though the 13MP unit takes some very good photos in the daylight. The AI scene recognition saturates colours just a little making images look more vivid and vibrant than in real life but it’s just the right amount. I have no complaints about that.
The focus is really good as well. It is very accurate. When I was taking photos it was on a very windy day but by some miracle all images were pin sharp. And when you take close up shots the sensor creates such a good separation of the foreground and the background for some awesome background blur. Very impressive background blur from such a small sensor. It’s a good camera in daylight. There is a night mode but it does absolutely nothing so don’t count on the GTeL for photos in poorly lit environments.
Thoughts
GTeL took some pretty safe bets with the Infinity 9. It’s mostly minor updates from last year’s Infinity 8s. A bigger screen, a bigger battery, more storage and Android 11. These are the new bits GTeL added to the Infinity 9. The price jumped up a bit too by 20 bucks to US$150.
This places the GTeL around some very stiff competition from the likes of the Tecno Spark 7 which was not as good as the Infinity 9 camera wise but better in every other department and all that being 5 bucks cheaper. It’s also in the same league with the Samsung Galaxy A10, Huawei Y7 and Xiaomi Redmi 9 which all have better software and hardware backup than the GTeL.
The competition makes it very hard for the Infinity 9 to really shine. But at least what it has going for it in Zimbabwe’s tight economy is you can pay for it in installments if you are a civil servant.
The question is. Is a good camera and more flexible payment options enough to make you buy the Infinity 9 over its competition? Let me know in the comments.
Most people who use Windows never even stop to think about it, but the fonts you see when you are for example doing graphic design or Word processing are bundled by Microsoft to make sure you have a great out of the box experience. It’s something Ubuntu and most Linux distros never do.
If you want extra fonts from the paltry default collection you have to roll up your sleeves and install them yourself. Yes, just like applications, fonts have to be installed too. Thanks to Google’s wonderful fonts collection it’s now easier to find and install free fonts on Ubuntu in order to augment the few that come installed by default.
Installing Google fonts the easy way
In the olden days installing Google, fonts would involve you going to the Google fonts site, download each font manually and installing it to your computer via the terminal. After that, you had to regenerate the font cache in order to make sure they were picked up by various applications. Such a process can be intimidating and is certainly not beginner-friendly.
All you need to do is visit the app’s Flatpak page. Click on install and you are good to go. All you need to do in order to install a font is:
Launch the app
Search or click on a Google Font you want
The font is downloaded and configured on your computer
You get confirmation that the font has been successfully installed to your computer
Launch the application in which you want to use the font and it should now be available in the list of fonts you can use
And they say Linux is hard? It used to be but no matter what your niche is, there are now easier to use solutions that hardly ever involve you touching the terminal. The biggest drawback here is the size of the application. Just like all Flatpak files if this is your first time installing a Flatpak the download size can be massive i.e. close to 1 GB. This goes down if you already have other Flatpak apps though to just around 2.9 MB in size.
Alternatively, you can install this the old school Linux way. By compiling it from the source. To do so you will have to make sure that you have dependencies installed and use a tool known as ninja to complete the process. I tested this process and I am ashamed to admit I could not do it on Ubuntu 20.04 so I ended up settling for the Flatpak.