2019 really has been the year of the folding phone - and not for the right reasons. The idea of a phone-sized device that unfolds to become a tablet (and vice versa) is such a tempting dream that we've been talking about as an industry for the last three years. Arguably 20 years if you include the Nokia Communicators, which unfolded to become a mini-laptop, in effect. We've seen attempts at a folding phone/tablet from Samsung and Huawei and with concepts from others, yet none of these approach the common sense of what Microsoft was patenting and prototyping back in 2016 for its reputed Surface Phone. So why hasn't someone else designed along similar lines? After all, a twin glass hinged unit would be cheaper and far more durable than bending plastic.
Security and identity theft are major concerns these days, with numerous high profile attacks, making two factor authentication for all your email, PIM, banking, and even social accounts mandatory. But relying on a phone number and SMS codes as the 'second factor' has a huge weakness - 'social attacks' on your phone network, with someone pretending to be you and thus gaining control over your SMS and number via a new SIM card, inserted in their phone of choice. Enter the concept of 'authenticator' apps on your phone, which work well but are a pain to set up more than once. Well, no more, since Microsoft Authenticator can now backup and then restore your established authenticated account keys. Here's how it all works.
Autumn 2015, four years ago, saw Microsoft launch the Lumia 950 as part of an event in New York, with Panos Panay holding up the new phones and Bryan Roper demoing Continuum - all a little brief but there were also Surface devices to announce, so brevity could be forgiven. AAWP has been all over the Lumia 950 and 950 XL ever since, of course, covered in detail from many different angles and in many comparisons. But how well does the Lumia 950/XL hold up today as a smartphone, i.e. as a piece of hardware, perhaps (for once) leaving apps and service compatibility off to one side?
When considering smartphone imaging, there are two end goals, depending on who you talk to. The populist opinion, catered to by the likes of Samsung and Huawei, is that the photos you take should 'pop', with exagerated edges and detail, enhanced colours, and so on. My view, even though I enjoy hyper-real images as much as the next man, is that photos should accurately portray the world you see, and with as little enhancement as possible. In other words, photos from a phone should be natural and with scope for enhancement later in software without worrying about starting from an edge-enhanced, over sharpened base...
Having eschewed zoom completely in my previous feature, it's all in on zoom again for this one(!) With zoom being a big feature of the original Lumia 1020 (albeit at lower output resolution), it's always interesting to see how far the modern 2019 competition have got in terms of bringing subjects 'closer', optically and in software. With the arrival of the 'OPPO Reno 10x Zoom' for review, and armed with the 1020, the also venerable Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, and my Huawei P30 Pro on latest firmware, let the fight begin!
Credit to Huawei (whatever they may or may not be doing to rub Donald Trump up the wrong way), they've been putting a lot of work into the P30 Pro smartphone's camera system, with update after update, each quoting imaging improvements. And for each update ('185' here) I test the phone (quoted by me as 'being what the Lumia 1020 would have been if Nokia had carried on development for the next five years') against some likely contenders. Here it's the benchmark flagship that's the Lumia 950 XL, but in a subtle twist I'm only looking at the main 40MP camera - I'm not involving that periscope 5x zoom. That way, any hyper zoom examples won't skew the scoring. Which of the two phone cameras can produce the high quality output?
This has been mentioned a few times over the last six months - the odd reader would complain that the Office UWP application under Windows 10 Mobile would suddenly start demanding an Office 365 sign-in, when theoretically any device 'with display under 10' should have full creating and editing capability. I have a theory - and a walkthrough for people seeing the titled warning and have qualifying phones or accounts...
The Windows 10 Mobile-powered Alcatel IDOL 4 Pro is one of the strongest media-centric smartphones from the last few years, whatever its other failings (cough - camera, slow fingerprint scanning). And, in my usual line of comparisons, I wanted to pitch it against something modern from the Android world that could match - or even beat - its video and music playback prowess. Enter the Razer Phone 2, belatedly in here for review, and used side by side with my Windows 10 phone for the last week.
In a week of 'tangential' articles for AAWP, here's another - Windows 10 live tiles seem to be on the way out. No, not on Mobile, that UI is fixed in stone and only getting security updates each month. But on the Desktop. A leaked future build of Windows 10 showed a Start menu with simple icons and this does seem to make sense - of all the relatives and friends you've helped set up Windows 10 on a laptop, how many have ever customised their tile layout? Exactly.
Following his intriguing part one, and detailed part two looking at 'Pre-Touch' technology, guest writer Michael 'Mivas_Greece' (surname withheld by request) brings us the third part of a tale of Nokia and Microsoft prototypes (one of which he has access to), focussing on the variations and specifications. And don't miss the 'bonus' part 4, also below.
