Tech Advisor Dell XPS 13 9370 Powerful, portable and stylish Windows laptop June 2018 pdf pdf
FROM IDG
Dell XPS 13 9370
Powerful, portable and stylish Windows laptop
J U N E 2 0 1 8 REVIEW: Samsung Galaxy S9 Stunning new flagship that’s hard to beat BUILD YOUR OWN COMPUTER
12 NEWS
4 Windows 10 S to evolve into a mode in 2019
7 Sets to reappear in autumn Insider builds
Oculus releases fix after worldwide blackout
10 REVIEWS
25
12 Dell XPS 13 9370 (2018)
25 Samsung Galaxy S9
41 Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
52 Honor 9 Lite
62 Vodafone Smart N8
72 Best DIY computer kits
BUYING GUIDE ROUND-UP
72 Best PC games
81 Set up two monitors for your PC 104
Connect your phone to Windows 10
106
81
HOW TO
Windows 10 S to evolve into a mode in 2019
MARK HACHMAN
Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore tweeted the news. reports
eports that Windows 10 S will become a ‘mode’ of Windows 10 were confirmed recently by Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, who stated that the
R transition will occur next year.
Belfiore, a corporate vice president in the Operating System Group within Windows, tweeted his statement in response to this author’s own comment that Microsoft had neglected to mention 10 S in a recent blog post touting the success of Windows devices in schools.
Microsoft launched the OS in 2017 as a standalone version of Windows, partly to provide a secure, manageable version of Windows to those schools.
Currently, Microsoft sells Windows 10 S and 10 as separate versions. Windows 10 S works only with the UWP apps Microsoft itself provides from the app store. Its users may also switch to Windows 10 Pro via an upgrade found within the Microsoft Store.
However, Windows 10 S hasn’t appeared in anything more than the Surface Laptop and a handful of education devices. A representative of FutureSource, the author of the report, said that the company could not provide data on the number of Windows 10 S devices, given that “few have been available until recently.” Reports surfaced recently that Microsoft would combine Windows 10 S and Windows 10, making the former a ‘mode’ of the Windows 10 OS.
Microsoft had declined to confirm the substance of those reports until now, and hadn’t said when the transition would take place, if ever. Belfiore’s tweet has revealed that the reports are true, and when the transition will take place.
“We use Win10S as an option for schools or businesses that want the ‘low-hassle’/ guaranteed performance version,” Belfiore tweeted. “Next year
10S will be a ‘mode’ of existing versions, not a distinct version. SO … I think it’s totally fine/good that it’s not mentioned,” he said of the report’s omission of Windows 10.
Whether Microsoft will offer Windows 10 S by default is not clear. One report by Thurrott.com has said that users will be able to upgrade from an ‘S’ version of Windows 10 Home S to full-fledged Windows 10 Home NEWS
for free, but Pro users going from the ‘S’ version to the full version will be charged $49 (around £35).
While it’s not clear why the Windows 10 S transition will take place in 2019 – development time, or just a chance for the Windows 10 S to succeed on its own? – we do know now that Windows 10 S will be the ‘low-hassle’ version of Windows. Windows
10 Home/Pro, with its legacy Win32 support, will be the more powerful version. Guess we’ll know in a year how this will change the status of Windows 10 S in the marketplace. Sets to reappear in autumn Insider builds If you’ve been pining for a tabbed File Explorer app, your wait
MARK HACHMAN
is almost over. Sets is returning, reveals
f you’re a fan of Windows 10’s tabbed Sets interface, you may want to sign up for the Windows Insider program this autumn, because Sets is back.
I Microsoft has announced Windows 10 Insider Build
17618, a closed beta for the ‘Skip Ahead’ portion of the Windows Insider program. Most Insiders follow the developer team working on the current build; that team is wrapping up the spring update (Redstone 4) that’s due in the next few weeks. The ‘Skip Ahead’ Insiders follow another team of developers working on the next update, due in the autumn.
It’s in the autumn update, known as Redstone 5, where Sets will reappear. We tested Sets late last year, which replaces the traditional ‘one app, one window’ user interface with something that looks more like a web browser. Last autumn, the beta Sets interface allowed you to tack on an app as another tab, using UWP apps like Calendar, Edge, and Mail.
Now, the ‘Skip Ahead’ Insiders get to play with a beefed-up version of Sets, where support for some legacy Win32 apps has been added in. In a month or so, the current Insiders will get it, too. Now File Explorer, Notepad, Command Prompt, and PowerShell are also tabbed – great news for those who’ve been hoping for a tabbed File Explorer interface for years.
Microsoft also announced that Sets will be integrated once again with Timeline, Microsoft’s replacement for the virtual-machine-like Task View. Timeline sees each disparate app you’re using for a project as an ‘activity’, and it gathers all your activities into one virtual place. “When restoring your projects you’ll be prompted to restore related apps and web pages,” Microsoft said in a blog post. “In Timeline you’ll see when a project has multiple activities associated with it.”
While Windows users can switch from browser tab to browser tab using Ctrl + PgUp/PgDn, Windows users can switch from application tab to application tab using Ctrl + Win + Tab, or use Ctrl + Win + T to open a new tab. (To open a Win32 app in a new tab, hold down Ctrl as you launch it; otherwise, it will launch in a new window.) Unfortunately, you can’t use drag-and-drop to reorder tabs at this time, Microsoft said.
Remember, Sets is a long-term revision for Microsoft. Microsoft tested Sets within the upcoming Redstone 4 version for Windows Insiders, then yanked it to polish it behind the scenes. Microsoft has said it could take years for Sets to roll out in a final form, with support for all of Microsoft’s own apps as well as legacy applications from third-party developers.
Previously, Sets was an optional experience that could be toggled on and off, and that may be the case here, too. It’s very possible you’ll like Sets; it’s very possible you won’t. Microsoft’s expended a lot of effort, though, in making Windows work for a variety of users, from those who prefer using Windows tablets with pens, to differently abled users, and hardcore gamers.
Interested in trying out Sets as part of the Insider program? Go to Settings > Update and Security > Windows Insider Program to get started.
Just remember that you won’t see Sets until April sometime, when the Insider program and the current Skip Ahead development track will merge.
Oculus releases fix after
worldwide blackoutThe good news is that it’s fixable. But it probably shouldn’t have
HAYDEN DINGMAN
happened in the first place, reports
f you want a hint of how fragile our tech-reliant world is, look no further than the Oculus Rift. Rift owners the world over recently discovered that their £399 virtual
I
reality headset had become a paperweight overnight – at least temporarily.
It seems as though Oculus forgot (?) to issue an updated Windows certificate, the security feature that confirms that, yes, Oculus’s software is actually Oculus’s software. As Microsoft’s decade-old primer puts it, “Digital certificates function similarly to identification cards such as passports and drivers’ licenses.” That’s a pretty good analogy.
When the certificate expired, Windows stopped recognizing Oculus Runtime Service and thus stopped allowing it to run – for good reason, I might add. As the end user though, this manifests as a pretty opaque ‘Can’t reach Oculus Runtime Service’ error.
On the plus side, it’s a relatively easy fix. According to Oculus: ”To patch your Oculus software, you’ll need to download ‘OculusPatchMarch2018.exe’ at
fave.co/2HwSMxN
. Run the executable, and select ‘Repair’. When the update is finished, launch the Oculus desktop app to continue the update process. Once the update is complete, you’ll be able to use your Rift.” On the other hand, this should not have happened.
Windows certificates are a basic part of modern software, and it’s embarrassing for a company as big as Oculus – with the backing of Facebook – to let this happen. It’s understandable, and as Reddit user TrefoilHat pointed out, Oculus’s certificate was generated in 2015 prior to the Rift’s actual public release, when the company was a lot more rough and tumble than it is now. But it’s still embarrassing.
Dell XPS 13 9370 (2018)
£1,249 inc VAT from
fave.co/2HuFrpL
ell‘s XPS line has always been good, but this year it is now certainly great. The 2018 XPS 13 is the best laptop Dell has ever made, and boy
D has it made a few. Comparing it to the MacBook is
lazy – the XPS 13 is more powerful by some distance than Apple’s MacBook, the 12in rival of a similar price. In fact, the Core i7 XPS 13 we tested is the smoothest, fastest XPS ever and worthy of your consideration if you have the money to spend on a high-end laptop.
Design
Barely had the press release been flung to every corner of the earth before the XPS 13 was bestowed with a CES Innovation Award. Just like last year. It seems Dell has cut a niche for building a high-end Windows laptop that looks good on an executive’s desk as well as performing well in all conditions.
And to be fair it does look the part. Whether or not you like the rose gold and white model is a matter of taste, but at least it stands out from the crowd compared to the uniform black version that is by now very familiar with its carbon fibre finish on the inside and slick silver exterior.
The casing is now 23 percent smaller, which is always good so long as it doesn’t affect performance, and the XPS 13 still feels as close to the premium build of MacBooks that a Windows machine has come, albeit with a more practical, less space-age design.
With simple lines, that just-about-subtle-enough carbon fibre effect on the inside and a sleek, completely flush 4mm bezel round the screen, it’s a good-looking piece of kit. The white model has a UV coating on it too, and Dell claims you can wipe permanent marker off either one should you have a frantic boardroom accident.
The bottom of the laptop (yes it matters) look much nicer than previous years, with Dell getting rid of all the legal text and other odd stickers to give a sleeker feel to the machine. When you’re spending this much, that stuff matters, so well done Dell, for leaving just the fan grates and the XPS logo.
The keyboard has a superb clacky yet springy feel to it, while maintaining the slimmer profile of the base – there are no low travel butterfly keys you might find on a new MacBook or MacBook Pro. Add to that a fingerprint sensor in the power key and you have a mighty fine design, refined for 2018 needs.
Less fun is the webcam placement, now under the Dell logo on the bottom of the screen. Even if it is a space saver, it’s still annoying but Dell told us it’s working to fitting one into the top bezel on future models. Although it’s easier to stick a piece of tape over it where it is now, and you probably should.
And at 1.21kg with those slim bezels, the laptop is as compact and portable as you could hope for. This is an excellently made ultrabook, niggles aside. Most of the Tech Advisor staff when asked would select this as their preferred Windows laptop. So how do the specs hold up?
Hardware
8th-generation Intel chips are making their way into many high-end laptops in 2018 and the XPS line is no exception. We tested how they run day to day and against the current crop of competing products.
Processor, RAM and storage
Dell has added these 8th-gen Intel Core i5-8250U and i7-8550U processors to the XPS 13, depending on your needs and budget, while all models have the Intel UHD Graphics 620 GPU. Note that Coffee Lake chips are reserved for desktop only – here the silicon is 8th-gen, but is technically a refreshed Kaby Lake architecture.
Other options for you are a minimum of 128GB and a maximum of 1TB storage and 4/8/16GB RAM. Our high end 16GB RAM model performed outstandingly, but you can expect slower multitasking speeds in the 4/8GB versions.
Display
You can choose between a non-touch 1920x1080 FHD or a touchscreen 3840x2160 4K Ultra HD. Again, we were given the high-end touchscreen version and it looks incredible. The insanely high resolution looks amazing on a 13in panel and colour reproduction is a pleasant level of saturated.
Brightness is also outstanding, and there’s very little occasion you’ll want to have it on 100 percent. Under halfway is usually fine.
Touchscreen input is still odd on Windows 10, but here the experience is the best it can be. Unlike on cheaper laptops with the same feature you don’t have to prod the screen really hard, and it’s a good thing seeing as the XPS’s lid is so thin. With minimum wobble from interaction, we found ourselves using it more, as much down to the quality of the hardware build as the software interaction.
While the 4K touchscreen looks truly phenomenal, it’s not necessary for many. Touchscreen on full Windows 10 is still a hindrance to productivity in some cases where using the trackpad or a mouse is simply easier, and the non-touchscreen version is still HD and fully adequate for all work and play uses and still bears a great resolution.
Keyboard and trackpad
The keyboard is brilliant, with a great level of physical resistance for longer typing sessions. Keys are well spaced with a textured finish and a two-level backlight.
The trackpad is smaller than we are used to on a MacBook but aside from Apple’s masterful control input, it’s the best Windows trackpad we’ve ever used – responsive, smooth and accurate.
Its central position is preferable as the carbon fibre texture either side proves a comfortable palm rest. The cursor doesn’t randomly shake or fire off in the wrong direction in problems that plague other laptops.
Connectivity
For connectivity needs are 2x Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports and a further USB-C 3.1. All share responsibilities for PowerShare, DC-In and DisplayPort.
Dell has removed the SD card slot and all USB-A slots. We are going to all have to get used to USB-C as it turns up on the phones in our pockets and the laptops on our desks. One day it will hopefully be standardized well enough that we’ll all only need one charger for all our gadgets.
Unlike Apple, Dell puts a USB-A adapter in the box, acknowledging the annoying transition. There is a microSD card reader built in though, so if you have an Android phone with expandable storage or digital camera this might come in useful to transfer media. Otherwise it’s a new standard to adjust to in 2018.
Performance
The 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-8550U CPU is overkill for most people, as most likely is the 16GB LPDDR3 2133MHz RAM. 8GB RAM should be enough for you even if you stick with the i7 model.
If you’re looking for the most powerful Dell ultrabook, note that the U-series processor used here is potentially less powerful than the quad-core HQ CPU used in the last generation of XPS 15. That said, speed increases thanks to 8th-gen are decent and reflected in our benchmarking.
The below results are encouraging for the new XPS
13. Its score in Geekbench 4, which measures raw processing power (CPU, GPU and RAM) was only just shy of the 2017 15in MacBook Pro.
The XPS notably outperformed the HP Spectre x360’s i7 set up, though aside from the lower Surface Pro results, all these scores are comparable. The performance between the Dell XPS 13 and the latest 8th-gen Lenovo Yoga 920 is also very similar.
The PC Mark 10 score for the XPS is also decent, with good results for Cinebench against the Surface Book 2, but considerably lower in 3D Mark, meaning the XPS 13 is still not quite the machine you want to opt for if you want to indulge in very high-end graphical
3DMark Sky Diver Cinebench R15 Geekbench 4
PCMark 10PC gaming. But for most gaming needs it’s not far off the competition.
Battery life
Dell claims the 52Wh battery can run in some conditions for up to 19 hours. Bear in mind that Dell has cut this down from 60Wh from the previous generation. This is to save on weight and component space, while the next-gen processors should make the smaller capacity more efficient.
It certainly excels in battery life and charges remarkably fast with the supplied charger, but in our standard video test it didn’t hit 19 hours.
With a 720p video looping and with screen 2 brightness at 120cd/m (40 percent in this case) the XPS 13 managed 10 hours and 51 minutes. This is highly respectable, but less than the 12 hours 30 minutes the previous generation model did.
The latest HP Spectre x360 13 lasted 10 hours 32 minutes with a 60Wh battery, so the latest XPS 13 wins in this regard with a lower capacity battery.
By far the best performing laptop we’ve tested for battery life is the Lenovo Yoga 920. It lasted 16 hours 45 minutes in the same test, which is utterly amazing. It also costs less pound for pound when you compare similarly specified models to the XPS. It’ll come down to which design you prefer and if battery life matters that much to you (and it generally should).
Part of the reason for the difference is the Dell’s
52Wh battery in comparison to 70Wh, and its 4K resolution display. We are still at the stage where most mainstream streamed content is not 4K, but the XPS will have used more power even when playing 720p video. Unless you need 4K< you can spend less on the lower end XPS 13, though we haven’t received this model to see the presumed improvement in battery life.
A laptop that can go a full nine-hour work day away from the plug is a luxury, but Dell is still near the top of the pack, despite the XPS 13’s drop in battery longevity here.
Audio
With a headphone jack present, you’re able to plug in whenever. But the speakers are pretty decent too, with Waves MaxxAudio improving the clarity of streamed and downloaded video content. Paired with the 4K screen of our review unit, it makes for a very enjoyable
Netflix experience. Like practically any laptop speaker though it has its downsides, and we haven’t yet reached the point where a laptop speaker should keep the party going. But there’s little to no distortion here at all, so even the highest volumes are acceptable if needed.
Software
In our time with the XPS 13 2018, there’s not a lot to report other than you, of course, get Windows 10 Home. Business purchasers can opt for Windows 10 Pro.
Having said this, Windows 10 has never looked – or performed – better on a Dell XPS. The combination of 4K display, fluid processing power and best-in-class keyboard and trackpad interaction mean this is the best compact laptop Windows 10 experience going. Even if you buy the entry level Core i5 model, you’re getting the benefits, minus the 4K.
As mentioned before, touchscreen interaction is a surprisingly good one here, but it’s not necessary. It’s down to the clean feel afforded by the trackpad and the excellent use of RAM to mean the XPS 13’s software feels truly part of the machine in a way only the truly best laptops do. It’s as good as you’ll find on a Microsoft Surface product.
Verdict
If you need a compact, high performance Windows laptop, the 2018 Dell XPS 13 is the best laptop you can buy alongside the 8th-gen Lenovo Yoga 920. It is competitively priced, and even the high-end touchscreen Core i7 model at £1,649 is at least £300 cheaper than the same spec 13in MacBook Pro.
In fact, for value for money, it is a better purchase than the Microsoft Surface Laptop as you get Windows 10 Home rather than Windows 10S, as well as saving at least £500.
For all but the most hardcore gamers (for whom this laptop is not the target audience) and those who really do want USB-A connectivity, there is not a better
Henry Burrell Windows laptop on the market.
Specifications
13.3in UltraSharp 4K Ultra HD (3840x2160)
- InfinityEdge touch display or 13.3in FHD (1920x1080) InfinityEdge display Windows 10 Home or Pro
- 8th Generation Intel Quad Core i5-8250U processor
- or Intel Quad Core i7-8550U processor Intel UHD Graphics 620 >LPDDR3 4- to 8GB Dual Channel SDRAM at 186
- PCIe SSD
52WHr battery (built in)
- 2x Thunderbolt 3 with PowerShare, DC-In &
- DisplayPort 1x USB-C 3.1 with PowerShareDC-In and DisplayPort
- microSD card reader
- 4 Digital Array Microphones
- Full size, backlit chiclet keyboard 1.3mm travel
- Optional Windows Hello compliant fingerprint reader
- in power button Bluetooth 4.1
- Miracast capable
- 7.8-11.6302x199mm >1.
£739 inc VAT from fave.co/2sXJKXV amsung’s Galaxy S9 is the first flagship to hit the market in 2018. The S8 was almost a perfect
S
phone so can Samsung really make it even better? Read on to find out.
Design
It’s immediately clear that the Galaxy S9 is very much a new version of the S8, rather than a radically new device. Like a point upgrade in software terms if you like, so this is essentially the Galaxy S8.1. With an almost identical design to its predecessor you’d be hard pressed to notice the difference, especially from the front – the bezels above and below the screen are a fraction smaller. The device is also a little shorter than the S8 and it’s a bit thicker and heavier at 8.5mm and 163g, but none of these are things you’ll really notice.
At the rear, the change is more obvious with the fingerprint scanner moving to below the camera. Samsung clearly listened to feedback on this, so not only does it look nicer, it’s also much easier to reach and use. You might still smudge the camera up occasionally but it’s bound to happen far less.
Initially there will be three colours to choose from: Midnight Black, Coral Blue and a new Lilac Purple. We’ve also spotted what looks like Samsung’s Orchid Grey (see below) colour in some images, so perhaps this will arrive at a later date. Hardware
As we’ve touched upon, the Galaxy S9’s design isn’t very different in design from its predecessor, so is it a big jump in specs and new technology? Well not really, but Samsung has made improvement to what was already a very impressive smartphone.
Display
The screen is one area that hasn’t changed since the Galaxy S8, so it’s still 5.8in on the regular model and jumps to 6.2in if you get the S9+ (page 21). Both phones have the curved Infinity Display, so you only need to choose which size you want.
Samsung is sticking to its 18.5:9 aspect ratio, Quad HD+ resolution and Super AMOLED technology. It’s still one of the best screens on the market and compared to our S8, looks a little brighter.
As previously, you can take advantage of features such as the Edge screen, where you can swipe in from the side and flick through various panels of things like popular contacts, apps and more. There’s also the always on feature which displays important information on the lock screen when the phone is off.
There are plenty more smaller features, many of which have been around a long time, hidden away in the settings menu, so it’s worth exploring what the S9 can do, especially if this is your first Galaxy device.
Processor, memory and storage
With a new flagship comes a new processor and Samsung has fitted the Galaxy S9 with a new Exynos 8910 processor. It’s still an octa-core chip with four
1.7GHz efficiency cores, but the faster four have jumped from 2.4- to 2.7GHz.
As you can see from the benchmark results, the Exynos outpaces the Snapdragon 845 a little bit (figures via Qualcomm’s reference design), but neither can match the raw power of the iPhone’s A11. We’ve included the OnePlus 5T so you can get an idea of the performance on offer at a much lower price.
It’s important to note that performance isn’t an issue here and the S9 is clearly capable of handling all you can throw at it.
Like the Galaxy S8, you get 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, and although you can find more elsewhere (even in cheaper phones like the OnePlus 5T) it should be enough for most people. If it’s not enough storage, then there’s a 256GB option and a microSD
Geekbench 4
GFXBench Manhattan GFXBench T-Rex
JetStream
card slot that can now take up to 400GB. If you are more of a power user, then the S9+ has 6GB of RAM with the same storage options.
Connectivity and Audio
There’s not much Samsung or other manufacturers can do to improve connectivity on a 2018 flagship smartphone. Like the S8, the S9 has all the things you’d expect including 11ac dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, GPS, USB-C and a headphone port.
Unlike most, Samsung continues to offer heart rate monitor. The S9 can reach 4G speeds of 1.2Gb/s, which is impressive, but in real life you’re not going to see that kind of grunt. There’s no Quad DAC for better headphone audio like the LG V30, but Samsung has improved the speakers on the S9. There are now stereo speakers with the usual down firing one on the bottom and now one where the earpiece is above the screen.
It’s the same setup Apple uses for recent iPhones, and also one Sony has adopted with the XZ2. It might sound a little odd with both firing in different directions, but we’ll take it over a mono speaker any day. There’s still tuning from AKG and this time Samsung has also added Dolby Atmos, which you can toggle for a bigger, more spacious soundscape.
There’s a noticeable improvement compared to the S8, particularly in the on-board speakers. They’ve got a lot more power but aren’t flawless with the audio quality getting a bit rough at higher volumes. We do like the optional Dolby Atmos mode, which can make content a lot more immersive, especially video.
It’s worth noting that the supplied AKG headphones are very good, so most users won’t be rushing out to find a replacement pair.
Samsung’s upgrades in the audio department are welcome, but the S9 isn’t the best phone around for audio – that’s still the LG V30.
Fingerprint and Iris scanners
The fingerprint scanner has been moved to a more convenient location below the camera. It’s also easier to register each new finger according to Samsung with only three swipes rather than many more touches needed previously. We actually managed to register two fingers in just two swipes each. The fingerprint scanner is quick (not the fastest around, but plenty fast enough) and accurate and can now Facial recognition
be used to pull the notification panel down – just switch it on in the settings.
We’d rather the Galaxy S9 had the fingerprint scanner embedded in the screen as the tech is out there but it seems we’ll have to wait.
Samsung hasn’t explicitly said the iris scanner is better than before, which is a shame, but the firm is keen to point out that it’s embedded in the front of the phone without a notch like the iPhone X. There’s also a new Intelligent Scan option, which combines iris and facial scanning.
One thing is for sure, there’s a dramatic improvement over previous iterations. Generally it works quite well, but it’s not as consistent compared to rival phones just doing face unlock. Even switching to just facial scanning it’s not as good as phones like the iPhone X and OnePlus 5T.
Cameras
The biggest change on the S9 comes in the camera tech, as teased by Samsung before the launch with its ‘The Camera. Reimagined’ campaign.
Sadly, it’s the S9 that’s not as impressive as you’ll have to get the S9+ to get a dual-camera setup. We’d like to see dual-cameras as standard on both phones, but it’s understandable that Samsung wants more than just size to differentiate the two.
Still, the S9’s camera is improved from before even though it remains at 12Mp with 1.4µm pixels and OIS. The main upgrade is an adjustable aperture that can go down to f/1.5 – the best of any phone on the market.
Huawei temporarily had the fastest lenses (on the Mate 10 Pro) at f/1.6, but the S9’s lens now lets in 28 percent more light than on the S8.
The iris is mechanical like a DSLR camera and should mean better results in both daylight and low light. What Samsung calls the ‘Super Speed Dual Pixel’ package now has DRAM, so it can do things faster and more intelligently. The camera now takes 12 shots together instead of 3 to improve noise by 30 percent.
DxO has awarded the Galaxy S9+ a score of 99 for the camera, the highest of a phone to date. The regular model might not have the telephoto lens but it’s still excellent on its own.
You can see a landscape image and a photo taken in low light overleaf. The Galaxy S9 might not be doing the same level of clever software processing Landscape Low light Macro shot
that makes images look great on the Pixel 2 phones, but it’s still very impressive.Overall, the S9 has a camera that can achieve excellent results in all conditions partly thanks to that dual aperture. You get crisp shots in decent light – although some can be a little washed out like our shot of St. Pancras – stunning detail in macro and most noteworthy is how well it copes in low light, without excessive levels of noise.
We’re still not totally convinced by Bixby, but the camera part, Bixby Vision, has been improved and can now do live translation, better place recognition and more food features, such as calories and recipes. The latter will be market dependant.
Super slow motion
Furthermore, the S9 can now match Sony’s flagship Xperia phones and shoot super slow motion video at a whopping 960fps. That means 0.2 seconds in real life becomes six seconds of video and Samsung has some clever tech to make it easier to make great slow motion videos.
With Sony’s phones we found it hard to press the super slow-mo button at the right time while recording a video of something that happens very quickly such as a balloon popping. Since 960fps can only be switched on in a short burst, it’s easy to miss the moment.
The S9 has an auto detect function, so you can tell the phone where within the shot to watch for movement. As soon as it does, it will kick into the super slow motion. You can then share as a gif, do things like reverse the video and even set it as a moving lock screen wallpaper. You can also shoot in manual mode, selecting when you want to do the slow motion shooting which is easier for some situations. In either mode, you can shoot 20 different slow-mo sections within one video.
Sony’s new Xperia XZ2 phones might be able to do 960fps in 1080p, but we’d rather have the functionality offered by the S9 to make better content in 720p.
AR Emoji
There’s more to talk about with the front camera, which remains at 8Mp with an f/1.7 aperture, but on the software side Samsung has created AR Emoji to provide users with something similar to Apple’s Animoji feature.
Instead of the phone tracking your face to animate various animals and the like (although there are some to
AR Emoji choose from), you take a photo of yourself and the S9 will create an emoji that looks like you.
It’s quick and easy, though we’re not exactly blown away with the likeness (and it cannot handle beards at all) – the three men we got to try it were all given very similar characters. You can edit them a bit to help and choose from one that incorporates the selfie you took or a more cartoon option.
Once you’re done 18 animated gifs are automatically generated and you can send them to anyone, not just those who also happen to have an S9. They’re pretty cool and easy to access via the default keyboard.
However, one of the ideas is that you can animate the character yourself, but doing this is extremely glitchy and the emoji of you spends most of the time flinching. The tracking on the iPhone X is leagues ahead. It might be fun but let’s face it, this is another gimmick feature just like Animoji.
Battery life
It’s a shame the battery remains at 3,000mAh and Samsung has not made any claims on the subject. The Galaxy S9 will offer fast charging via the USB-C port and with wireless charging, though. With the supplied charger, we managed to charge the S9 from 0- to 36 percent in 30 minutes. That’s pretty good, although the HTC U11+ beats it slightly at 38 percent.
With no change in battery capacity, it’s no surprise that the phone isn’t going to last you any longer than before. The S9 will last a day of average usage and perhaps a little bit longer for light users. Fast wired and wireless charging will help you keep it topped up. Software
As you would expect, the Galaxy S9 phones come with Android 8 Oreo and Samsung’s own user interface. There’s not a huge change in the way things work compared to before, but that’s to be expected.
There are still preloaded apps from Google and Microsoft, but Samsung has made a few tweaks here and there to tighten up the experience.
For those using various different Samsung apps for other devices, you’ll be pleased to know that there’s now one app to rule them all. SmartThings is now the one place where you can manage all your devices and it will also do useful things like provide your new Samsung TV, for example, with the Wi-Fi details and logins to all your services.
There are improvements to Bixby – you can, for example, use the phone in landscape mode, whether you’re browsing the home screen panels or your apps. When you are, notifications will pop up at the top, but in an unintrusive way.
There’s also a new DeX dock (pictured opposite), so you can connect the phone to a monitor and use it like a PC. This time it’s flat, so you can use the screen as a trackpad or even keyboard.
Verdict
We’re going to have to wait for big jumps in technology, but although the Galaxy S9 only brings a disappointingly small bunch of minor improvements it’s still an amazing smartphone that will be hard to beat in 2018. Samsung has expertly combined design, hardware and software to make a phone that will The new DeX dock
appeal to all kinds of users. The incremental updates will mean S8 users might struggle to justify upgrading. However, those on an S7 or earlier Galaxy will notice a huge difference. But might want to simply grab the S8 at a lower price. Chris Martin
Specifications
5.8in (2960x1440, 570ppi) Super AMOLED
- capacitive display Android 8.0 Oreo
- Exynos 9810 Octa processor
- Octa-core 4x 2.8GHz Mongoose M3 and 4x 1.7GHz
- Cortex-A55 CPU Mali-G72 MP18 GPU
- 4GB RAM
- 64/128/256GB storage, microSD up to 256GB >Iris/fingerprint sca
12Mp rear-facing camera: f/1.5-2.4, 26mm,
- 1/2.5in, 1.4µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, phase detection autofocus, OIS, LED flash
8Mp front-facing camera: f/1.7, autofocus, 1440p,
- dual video call, Auto HDR 802.11ac Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth 5.0
- A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
- Micro-USB 3.1 Type-C
- Non-removable lithium-ion 3,000mAh battery
- 147.7x68.7x8.5mm >
£379 inc VAT from
fave.co/2pb7hk9
ony makes good phones. Even some great phones. But it cannot escape criticism for its
S design language and large bezels.
This isn’t because the bezels are actually that much of an issue. Big bezels do not a bad phone make. It’s because Sony releases so many phones with such regularity that we, and other tech reviewers and consumers, end up getting disappointed at seeing the same design every three to six months. The design itself isn’t much of a problem.
But if you just hate on bezels (and many do), the Xperia XA2 Ultra won’t make you happy. It’s a pricier version of the XA2 that has more battery, a larger display and dual selfie cameras. Is that enough to ignore its unwieldy size?
Design
At the front, the Xperia XA2 Ultra looks pretty much identical to the previous model. The main giveaway that it’s new comes via the two camera lenses in the top bezel. Looking at the phone from the top or bottom sees a subtle slight curved design, complete with bevelled edges. However, the remainder of the XA2 Ultra looks distinctly average and even dated. Granted, the screen goes right to the edges at either side but the phone has hefty bezels above and below. The wait for an 18:9 bezel- free Xperia goes on.
Unless you have huge hands (and pockets) or simply love physically huge phones then the XA2 Ultra is too big. Previously, having a large 6in screen would justify its massive size but we’ve rightly come to expect slim and light handsets, even in the mid-range.
The Samsung Galaxy A8 is in the same price range with a bezel-less design similar to the Galaxy S8, making the XA2 Ultra look fairly ridiculous by comparison. It’s not just about the looks though, it’s also impossible to use one-handed. The Xperia XZ1 had big bezels but was slim, light and packed stereo front-facing speakers. The XA2 Ultra is very heavy and uses only its top bezel effectively, housing the headline dual selfie cameras.
The build quality on show is premium, and the metal design is robust though the back is a textured plastic. Volume rocker, power key and the excellent dedicated shutter button are on the right side, while Sony has moved the fingerprint sensor to the rear for the first time, under the camera lens.
Thankfully for American Sony fans, the fingerprint sensor now actually works thanks to the end of a weird long running legal battle. The camera also had a flash, as do the two front facing sensors. A speaker on the bottom edge accompanies a modern USB-C port. The XA2 Ultra amounts to a monolithic slab of smartphone, an unashamed brick of a thing.
It comes in the blue of our review unit, as well as black, gold and silver.
Hardware
As you’d expect, the XA2 Ultra is a bigger version of the regular model. However, there’s more differences here than just a larger screen. The screen is exactly the same as the XA1 Ultra at 6in with a Full HD 1080p resolution resulting is a fairly poor 367ppi. That’s a decent chunk bigger than the 5.2in XA2.
Despite the low pixels per inch, Netflix binges on the train look pretty decent. But you’ll have to put up with its mad 221g weight, one of the only phones we’ve reviewed recently that tips the scale over 200g. For comparison, the 6in screened Honor 7X is just 165g.
It’s nice to have a big screen but you’ve got to really want it here to live with the size and weight of the phone, as the 16:9 aspect ratio makes it huge. The 6in screen on the recent Honor 7X is a slighter 18:9, looks great and costs £269.99 at the time of writing
- – £100 less than the XA2 Ultra.
The display settings hidden away do improve things though. Usually phones come with the saturation turned up which is less natural but more attractive. You can turn on standard mode to boost it at little, or go all-out with super vivid mode. We prefer standard, but it’s good that the option is there to bring some life to the natural but dull out of the box settings.
Unlike the MediaTek chip in the previous XA1, the XA2 Ultra has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor. A small upgrade on the power-efficient 625, the 630 here proved to give excellent battery life both in real world usage and the Geekbench 4 battery test, where it ran for an excellent nine hours and 57 minutes. The pairing of energy efficient chip and 3,850mAh battery proves solid. There’s also NFC for mobile payments.
There’s a relatively tame 32GB storage on-board, but you can expand with a microSD card up to 256GB. Some regions will get a 64GB option but both versions come with 4GB RAM, an upgrade on the regular XA2’s 3GB.
As is the case for most phones in this price range, there isn’t wireless charging or any form of official water or dust resistance rating. Despite this, the Ultra has a decent set of specs for the price. Cameras
The rear-facing camera is a 23Mp Sony sensor with f/2.0 aperture, but the software processing doesn’t take advantage of the megapixels. Unless you’re in bright sunlight, the results are disappointing and muddy. Colour reproduction is often inaccurate too, though it can handle light well in landscape shots, even if the sky on the below photo is a little blown out.
Sony markets the Ultra as a phone for selfies as the two front facing cameras allow for wide angle group shots, or just a way to get more of the background in. It’s quite good but you get the fish bowl effect often seen at the edges of pictures taken with such a set up. You may also want to turn off the on-by-default skin softening mode.
A real boon here is the selfie cameras’ optical image stabilisation, something the rear camera
Landscape
Wide-angle Low light selfie cam
actually lacks. It means your group selfie shots will be largely blur free, and it’s good to see on the phone considering the price.
If you’re into your selfies you will enjoy the feature, but there are better camera set ups on other mid-range phones.
One nice-to-have feature is 4K video recording, unusual on a mid-range handset. The phone does struggle to process it though and lags considerably during recording. The slo-mo recording feature from Xperia flagships has also been ported over for recording bursts of 120fps footage.
The added AR feature is fun to turn your living room into a prehistoric scene and the timeshift burst mode lets you select the best shot from several, handy if you have a moving pet or child to snap.
We still recommend spending more on a higher- end phone if photography is important to you. Despite Sony’s insistence that the camera tech here is top end, it isn’t quite. A better display and better software processing are needed such as on Google’s Pixel 2 or the Huawei Mate 10 Pro.
Audio
Where the XA2 Ultra does deliver is in its audio delivery. Though it lacks front facing speakers, the wired headphone experience on the phone is great. ClearAudio+ is a software setting that optimizes the sound output, making music and video brighter and more immersive. It’s a surprisingly decent feature, but might not be to your taste if you prefer a compressed sound and isn’t driven by a hardware DAC like on the (admittedly pricier) LG V30.
Software
Pleasingly, the XA2 Ultra comes with Android 8.0 Oreo on-board. This is excellent news for a mid-range device, and Sony has beaten tons of handsets double the price to get it. You can enjoy features like picture in picture and password auto-fill. Sony is also doing a good job at the moment with monthly security updates.
Sony’s Android skin is minimal, with only minor aesthetic changes to Google’s stock version. It’s very crisp and clean and doesn’t make any change for change sake like Honor does with its EMUI skin. Sony still pre-installs and pushes SwiftKey on you, but we prefer to download and use Google’s Gboard.
Performance
Opposite are benchmarks from the XA2 Ultra and some comparable phones. The Ultra is a solid choice for mobile gaming, though if that’s the reason you’re looking to buy you will want to spend a bit more on a high-end phone.
Casual gaming looks great, and the extra money you will pay compared to the Honor 7X (with its Kirin 659 chip) or the Moto G5S Plus (with the older Snapdragon 625) will be worth it.
Multi-tasking is also fluid even when using many apps or when in split screen mode but the phone can lag when shooting and playing 4K video. Geekbench 4 GFXBench Manhattan
GFXBench T-Rex Verdict
The Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra is a weird phone. Sony could have made a svelte mid-range Xperia at a lower cost than its flagships, but has instead made a £379 chunky mess. You can get the XZ1 for £449 in the UK now, and we strongly recommend that Sony phone over this one.