Phone Nuclear

Phone Nuclear There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth...lust. When he is strong...quarrelsomeness. When he is old...covetousness.

One of the coolest things about the Pixel A-series was that it was an inexpensive way to get the very same class-leading...
27/08/2022

One of the coolest things about the Pixel A-series was that it was an inexpensive way to get the very same class-leading camera as the main Pixel models. It’s one of the reasons I bought a Pixel 3A years ago — that, and it was in stock at Best Buy with in-store pickup. It was also one of the top reasons why the Pixel A-series was our go-to recommendation for the best budget Android phone for years. Everything else about the phone — screen, processor, battery — was fine, but the camera was excellent.

That streak comes to an end in the Pixel 6A. Unlike the A-series phones that came before it, the 6A doesn’t include the same camera hardware as the Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro. There’s no headphone jack either, which stinks, too. But rather than a bigger, 50-megapixel sensor behind those devices’ main cameras, the 6A has the same 12-megapixel sensor that the Pixel 5 and 5A used. And the Pixel 4. And the Pixel 3.

GOOGLE WANTS THE PIXEL TO BE THE PHONE THAT DOES REALLY COOL, HELPFUL STUFF FOR YOU
That’s kind of a bummer. But it also tells us a lot about where Google sees the value in its devices going forward. Google doesn’t want the Pixel just to be known as the phone with the really good camera. It wants the Pixel to be the phone that does really cool, helpful stuff for you.

This was probably an inevitable move, too. The 6 and 6 Pro aim higher in the premium category than the Pixel 4 or 5 before them, so there were more decisions to be made about what had to go to make a budget version of the phone. Google’s SVP of devices and services, Rick Osterloh, summed up the challenge thusly:

Google is all about Tensor now.

OnceOnce a sub-brand of Chinese phone giant Huawei, Honor has been going it alone since being spun out in late 2020. So ...
25/08/2022

OnceOnce a sub-brand of Chinese phone giant Huawei, Honor has been going it alone since being spun out in late 2020. So far, it’s released the midrange Honor 50 globally, but various difficulties have prevented the company from coming out with a true flagship smartphone in the west since becoming an independent company. It even went as far as to announce global pricing for the Magic3 last August, but the phone ended up only being available in China.

That changes with this year’s Magic4 Pro, which will be available to preorder in the UK from May 13th and will ship on May 27th from £949.99. (Honor says it currently has no plans to release the phone in the US.) It’s a price point that sees Honor’s phone compete directly with Samsung’s excellent Galaxy S22 Plus, the 256GB storage variant of Google’s accomplished Pixel 6 Pro, and Apple’s ever-reliable iPhone 13 Pro. Those are three excellent choices for prospective phone buyers and represent tough competition for Honor’s latest.

On paper, the Magic4 Pro is competitive. It’s got a trio of high-resolution rear cameras, super-fast 100W wired charging, and support for 100W wireless charging, as well as a big bright, colorful screen with a fast refresh rate. But while I liked a lot of these features individually, Honor’s software struggles to hold up its end of the bargain.

Not quite a fully cohesive package

TCL’sTCL’s entry-level Stylus 5G makes sense for someone on a strict budget who absolutely must have 5G and a built-in s...
23/08/2022

TCL’sTCL’s entry-level Stylus 5G makes sense for someone on a strict budget who absolutely must have 5G and a built-in stylus. That’s quite a specific demographic, and I’m not sure many people meet all of that criteria.

The TCL Stylus 5G is available for $258 from T-Mobile or $269 from Metro by T-Mobile — they’re the exact same model — and for now, those are the only ways to purchase it in the US. The Stylus 5G is also the third notable budget stylus phone to arrive on store shelves in the US this year, alongside the 2022 versions of Motorola’s Moto G Stylus and Moto G Stylus 5G. Got all those product names straight? Good, there’s a quiz later.

OUR REVIEW OF TCL STYLUS 5G
VERGE SCORE
5 OUT OF 10

GOOD STUFF
Inexpensive
Useful pre-downloaded stylus apps
Sub-6GHz 5G support
BAD STUFF
Only two years of security updates
Lackluster screen
Middling overall performance
Buy for $258.00 from T-Mobile Buy for $269.00 from Metro by T-Mobile
TCL’s stylus phone is the least expensive of the three, and its specs reflect that. It doesn’t offer quite as much RAM as the Motorola options or the $282 non-stylus OnePlus Nord N20, its 4,000mAh battery is on the small side for the class, and its 6.81-inch LCD offers neither a faster refresh rate nor the richness of an OLED — options its similarly priced competitors offer.

This all leaves the TCL Stylus in awkward territory. It’s inexpensive, to be sure, but also thoroughly unremarkable. Even under $300, a phone can offer something that stands out, and the TCL’s combination of a low price, 5G, and a stylus doesn’t add up to a valuable proposition.

Good price, middling performance

It’sIt’s exceedingly rare that a product actually gets better months after it was released. But Microsoft’s oft-forgotte...
21/08/2022

It’sIt’s exceedingly rare that a product actually gets better months after it was released. But Microsoft’s oft-forgotten Surface Duo 2, which launched back in October 2021 with a steep price tag and a laundry list of bugs and issues that made it very frustrating to use, has bucked that trend. In fact, the Duo 2 has improved so much that it’s now one of my favorite mobile devices, even if it’s still weird and unique enough that I can’t exactly recommend it to most people.

In case you’ve forgotten, the Surface Duo 2 is a folding phone with two big screens joined by a hinge. Unlike Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3, which takes a single tablet-sized display and folds it in half to fit in your pocket, the Duo 2’s two screens make it feel more like two large phones attached together and running the same software. You can easily run two apps side by side as if you were holding two phones at the same time, or you can span a single app across both screens to mimic a small tablet. Both halves of the phone are thin enough that it can fold together like a book and fit into a pocket with relative ease. Pair it with Microsoft’s Surface Slim Pen 2, and you have a portable digital notebook that can work just as well for note-taking, reading an ebook, or drafting an email.

When I reviewed the Surface Duo 2 last year, none of its clever design or book-like features mattered. The device was effectively broken, held back by software bugs that made it infuriating to type on, frustrating to use, and ultimately disappointing. It was a $1,500 novelty that could only appeal to the most die-hard Microsoft brand stooges willing to put up with its many faults so they could have the never-launched Courier device they dreamed about over a decade ago.

The rare product that actually got better after launch.

From time to time, I’ll grab a random device out of the Verge reviews closet and spend a week or two with it. It’s mostl...
19/08/2022

From time to time, I’ll grab a random device out of the Verge reviews closet and spend a week or two with it. It’s mostly out of random curiosity and for the sake of comparing “old” products against the latest and greatest. Most recently, I was drawn to Google’s Pixel 5. So I gave it a factory reset, updated the phone to Android 12, and have been using it as my daily driver for the past several days.

The experience has been fantastic. I’ve got very large hands — an iPhone 13 Pro Max doesn’t look out of place in them — and I prefer large screens, so I don’t think I could fully switch over to the Pixel 5. But it’s such a good “small” phone (by 2022 standards) that I’ve certainly been tempted. The Pixel 5 makes it easy to do anything I need one-handed. Its midrange processor performs better than ever on Android 12, and this phone still looks unique next to the competition.

The small, standout Pixel has only gotten better with time.

Prices for flagship phones are higher than ever, and it’s unlikely that they’ll ever come back down. The absolutely prem...
17/08/2022

Prices for flagship phones are higher than ever, and it’s unlikely that they’ll ever come back down. The absolutely premium phones, like the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, now cost well over $1,000, or about the price of a good laptop. But, as the ceiling gets higher, devices in the more reasonable $600 to $800 range have gotten even more capable. In fact, our pick for the best overall phone is the $829 Apple iPhone 13, and Google’s Pixel 6 included here is priced more like a midrange device than all-out flagship.

There’s even more good news: Hot Flagship Fall is just around the corner, and many of the models featured here are soon to be replaced with the next generation. That means it’s high season for phone deals, so you might be able to snag one of the outgoing models for a nice price if you’re lucky.

One good reason to spend this much on a phone is to go as long as possible before you have to buy a new one. All of the devices featured here have great cameras, nice screens, good battery life, and are fast enough to keep up with your day to day. They’ll also generally get more years of software updates than cheaper phones: three years is a bare minimum here, and five is common. Picking the right phone is mostly a matter of preference. Find the one that suits you best, and you’ll be rewarded with many years of use before it’s time to start phone shopping again.

Don’t let buying a new phone become a chore.

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