Home Up / 5 columns

This is the widest Galaxy foldable yet, but for some reason the cover screen is locked to 4 apps per row (which doesn't make sense), especially given that the narrower Ultra has 5. So let's fix that. In your Galaxy, find Good Lock and install it. Now install the Home Up add-on and enable the home screen. Now change "home cover screen grid "to 5 by 5. Job done.

Home Up / pop-up folder large

Ok, staying in the Home Up Module of Goodlock, scroll to the bottom of the page, and here you'll find "pop up folder" Now, when you're using the unfolded display, instead of the folders filling the entire screen. They will pop up in a smaller window, which you might find more convenient.

Home Up / Large folder

So we're going to stay at home for one more custom setting. This time, scroll down to "Large Folder" and set this to custom. So now your folders can be shapeless, formless- because now you have unlocked the ability to take any folder and reshape it with much more freedom. Helping you make the most of your screen space.

4. Register Back tap / to go back

So, I don't think it's a stretch to say that if you have this phone, you might struggle to get back within apps. If you are the type of person who prefers swipe gestures. Unless you have been gifted with giant hands… In a good way. There are two quick solutions to this. Here's the first one. In Good Lock, add the Registar module, enable side-key, and map the double tap to "back button. Of course, this method overrides the Gemini shortcut. And if you can't live without that, then don't worry (I got you, homie). We'll get to that shortly.

5. Theme Park / Glass Icon

Ok, so if you're a fan of Apple's Liquid Glass, you may have used it before and miss it. Or you want to try it out. Well, good news (you can do it). Here is how. Back in Goodlock, add the Theme Park module, select the icon at the bottom, then create a new go-to effect, select glass, then tap the download button, give it a new name, and apply this effect. Now your icons are apparently transparent.

6. 24 MP mode

Ok, this is a trick I showed in my tips & tricks deep dive guides. It's an important one if you care about taking better pictures than your friends, even if they have the same phone. Again, in Goodlock, installing Camera Assistant enables 24MP resolution. Before, you could only jump between 24 and 50 (meme); now you have unlocked the middle ground 24MP mode. Doubling your detail in well-lit environments. But remember to use 12MP in low-light environments.

7. Nice shot / add delete button

Have you ever accidentally taken a screenshot whilst trying to shut your phone down? It's annoying, isn't it? Here's a trick that will help you with that. In Good Lock, install Nice Shot. Enable the "add delete button" now so you accidentally capture a screenshot. You delete it instantly.

8. Theme park / Life up / Parallax

Ok, so might be quietly admiring my depth effect wallpaper. If you want this particular one, drop me a comment; I'll send you a link. Here's how you can unlock this effect. There are a few important steps to make this look perfect. Most people won't take the time to show you this…but I'm not most people. So first, find the image you want to use. Hold your finger down on the subject to select it as an image; that's step one. Now hit your AI sparkle, use the AI eraser to remove the subject from the background, and save this as a copy.

And now, within Goodlocks, add Wonderland, create a moving wallpaper, hit the plus, choose the clear background image you just created, then hit the gallery icon with the plus, select image, choose the cutout subject, then image settings, apply a small amount of movement.  Now, click on the background, go to image settings, enable the motion effect, and apply a higher number so the background moves more than the foreground. It'll take some fine-tuning to get this perfect. And if you want to, you could even add a particle effect.

9. One-handed plus / Diagonal swipe to go back

Alright, remember that wide problem: it's difficult to go back. Here's the second hidden technique. In GoodLock, this time add the One Handed Plus module. Switch off the left handle; this will leave it as is. Switch on the right handle & map the diagonal down to the back key.

Now, in the future, whenever you need to go back, you can perform this diagonal downwards swipe to go back. And a little bonus tip. If you want a custom animation for when you perform this trick,  Go to "Advanced settings", then tap animation. Here you can customise the colours and style of your brand secret, hidden shortcut.

10. Quick Button creation

Does your phone ever keep going off annoyingly to the point where you're like, "shut up"? Well, there are many solutions, but all else being equal, the simplest tends to be the best. So do this: go to modes and routines, select routines at the bottom, and then the plus at the top. Under the if statement, select "start manually ", under the Then statement, under notifications, select Do Not Disturb. And when the routine ends, make sure "return to status before routine ran" is enabled and active.

Now you can pinch the homescreen, add a widget, add a single routine widget, and now you have an instant Do Not Disturb button. And if you want to, back under the then statement, you can select a custom wallpaper for when "Do Not Disturb" is active.

11. Bonus / Gallery PDF

Alright, I know I said it would be 10 tips, but if you know my channel. Here's one more bonus tip you may find useful. Open your Samsung Gallery, go to Settings> About Gallery, and tap the version number repeatedly. This unlocks the hidden Galaxy Labs.

Now, back in the settings, you'll find Save as PDF. So let's say you've captured intentional screenshots of documents or receipts. You can hold your finger down, select them all, then hit create. And here you'll see the new hidden feature, which lets you combine them all into a single PDF.

These are an upgraded version of KEF's very popular LS50 Wireless 2 speakers. They have a ton of upgrades and interesting tech… and that is exactly what you'd expect given that 6 years of development have gone into these. You get a lot of sound for your pounds… or other currency, and we'll come back to the price, don't worry. There's no question these are luxury 2-speaker systems. And while most wireless speakers promise high-end audio, a lot of them cut corners on quality when it comes to how you actually stream your music. But the LS Luxe does not. And on the hardware & design side. There are a few things that I think you'll find very interesting about the all-new drivers, a new type of Meta Material used and something that might be a massive eye-opener for you when it comes to the delivery of audio to these very unique wireless luxury speakers.

Design & Build

So a little background, just in case KEF is new to you. KEF are a British high-end audio company, and they've been pioneering audio tech and building premium speakers since 1961. Their name and quality hold a lot of prestige, and anyone who has experienced their products already knows they live up to the high expectations… And these speakers have been designed with living spaces in mind. For desktop workspaces, please check out my LSX II review.

So with their all-new LS Luxe, KEF didn't just build a box with drivers stuffed inside… every curve, cabinet shape, and finish feels intentional. And it is; KEF has once again teamed up with renowned designer Ross Lovegrove to sculpt the LUXE into a shape that looks as good as it sounds. Now what you might find interesting about the LX Luxe shape is how its curved cabinet performs compared to your standard boxy speaker. The LS LUXE's design mimics the acoustic behaviour of a perfect sphere, the gold standard for sound dispersion. Which (paradoxically) gives it an edge over box-shaped speakers…

So by ditching those sharp edges, KEF has managed to virtually eliminate the diffraction issues that normally muddy up your audio. And this represents a massive step up and brings you much closer to that ideal, clean sonic presentation. So, right, be like ok great, it's got a nice shape. But there's more to it than that. Kef is using a very specific material for the cabinet to improve audio precision and aesthetics. 

It's a bespoke glass-fibre BMC (Bulk Moulded Compound) engineered specifically for this product. If that sounds familiar, it's because it's the same high-tech composite KEF utilises for the front baffles on the LS50 Meta and Wireless II models. But the difference here is that the LUXE is encapsulated within it, to ensure the chassis remains as acoustically solid and as stiff as it needs to be whilst keeping sleek and good-looking. And KEF's unique UNI Q drivers are maybe some of the best-looking out there. Still, again they've managed to deliver impressive design with high-end audio engineering, and the upgrades they've made behind the scenes here are very interesting.

But first, let's flip to the back because this design aspect is important too. The back of most speakers is probably an afterthought on most speaker designs. But here KEF has added a pretty substantial aluminium heatsink. You might not realise this about drivers, but when driven for long periods, they heat up, which can affect the speaker's acoustic performance. Put very simply, It's designed to draw heat away from the internal electronics, keeping everything cool so the speaker runs reliably during long listening sessions… and I must admit it looks cool too. And the provided remote is a nice premium too. It's quite minimalist and self-explanatory, and you can program a favourite input mode here. But the real magic is hidden in the KEF Connect App, which I'll come back to towards the end of this video.

The Tech Under the Hood (Uni-Q, MAT & DSP)

Alright, let's talk about this—the 12 Gen UNI Q Driver array. If you know KEF, you already know about these. But for those of you who are new to this tech. Here's what makes the UNI Q drivers special. Instead of placing the tweeter and woofer in separate spots, KEF places the tweeter directly at the acoustic centre of the midrange cone. And that little waveguide at the centre isn't just for looks. They call it the Tangerine Waveguide, and it helps improve the smoothness of sound dispersion. And the entire array, because it's designed in this way, creates a single point source, giving you an ultra-wide sweet spot so the sound stays consistent no matter where you sit in the room.

And this is the latest and greatest 12th-Gen Uni-Q Driver Array. And here are the upgrades that KEF has made since the last gen used on the LS50 models. The Aluminium cone is larger and improves low- and mid-range frequencies. Plus an improved Tweeter Gap Damper and Cone Neck Decoupler designed to eliminate unwanted resonances and keep your high frequencies incredibly pure.

There's a new shock-absorbing metal structure that reduces vibrations even more than before at higher volumes. They used a supercomputer to test millions of designs. The computer showed them exactly where the frame needed to be soft, and where it needed to be strong. That computer testing is called FEA. Thanks to this computer-designed pillow, you only hear the clean, crisp music without any of the ugly box-shaking! KEF has also integrated micro sensors, which we'll come back to and remember that Metamaterial I mentioned earlier.

Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT)

They call it MAT. Hidden behind this 12 Gen UNI Q driver is a complex, labyrinth-like structure that traps and absorbs 99% of unwanted sound waves emanating from the back of the tweeter. And this innovative material drastically reduces distortion and helps deliver a much cleaner presentation. And little for shadowing… clean is a keyword.

Of course, just like other KEF speakers, they are using their Music Integrity Engine, but it's a customised version for this new hardware. This is KEF's custom DSP running the show behind the scenes, keeping the time alignment precise and ensuring the built-in amplifiers drive each frequency effortlessly. 

VECO

And before I show you the connectivity options, we have to talk about VECO. What is VECO, I hear you say. Well, let me break this down for you. The driver bounces with the sound waves, but as I mentioned earlier, the properties may change with heat. So KEF has added tiny sensors to the UNI Q driver that monitor movement and instantly correct the cone's position on the fly, which prevents the cone from wobbling and producing blurry or muddy sound. This is important when it comes to heavy bass and loud sounds. And for audio consistency over longer listening sessions. LS LUXE is the very first ported KEF speaker to integrate VECO technology. And this has allowed the sound engineers to have fun when precisely tuning the low-end performance. Which we'll talk about in the sound quality section shortly.

I/O & Connectivity 

But first, let me give you a guided tour of the ports on the back.

• HDMI ARC (for connecting to a TV): 24-bit, 192 kHz, but this speaker is capable of more; there's only one way to do it.

• Optical (TOSLINK input): 24 Bit, 192 kHz

• Coaxial (Digital coaxial input) 24 Bit 192Khz

• 3.5 mm Aux (Analog audio input); both speakers have this

• Subwoofer Out (RCA output for connecting a subwoofer)

• Interspeaker Port (RJ45 Ethernet port to link the primary and secondary speakers): jumps from 24-bit 96 kHz to 24-bit 192 kHz

• Network Port (RJ45 Ethernet port for wired network connection): using this improves streaming stability. But both this and the WIFI connectivity support a maximum of 24-bit, 384 kHz. Which, yes, means that these speakers will reach peak performance when streaming audio. But remember how I mentioned the importance of the delivery methods. Brace yourself for that.

• Power Input (AC power connector)

• No USB-C connectivity

Sound Impressions (Midrange & Highs)

Ok, sound is subjective. So I will offer my opinion. But it's probably worth mentioning I spent a lot of time working in Harrods' technology department, where I spent hours having my ears pounded like Captain America's punching bag by extremely expensive speakers. So, I have some experience in this area. So, here are my personal bullet points on this. The midrange clarity is so clean. Vocals come through super clear and precise, and it will likely ruin how you think about a lot of your older audio products. There's clear and distinct separation between vocals and high-frequency instruments. So nothing feels drowned out/ 

And the high-frequency details feel airy and precise. Cymbals and higher notes hit with crisp definition, but without being overly sharp or ear-piercing. There's no harshness, which makes listening for longer sessions very comfortable. As for the bass response, It's powerful and stands alone. It's really quite impressive given the size of the LS Luxe. And this is likely thanks to that VECO tech I mentioned earlier/I'd describe it as deep, punchy, and tightly controlled. It gives you that satisfying, deep low-end weight without destroying the midrange or compromising the overall balance.

For most music and for watching TV and movies, the integrated bass will be more than enough for most people. But if you're a big movie fan and plan to hook these up to your TV, you'll definitely want to consider adding a dedicated sub to get that full cinematic impact. Normally I'd say something like, "These are great for a certain type of music," but honestly. Everything sounds so clean here. As I said before, I love these speakers. They deliver Sound, Style & more importantly. They make me happy.

Streaming Quality Tiers (AirPlay 2 vs Cast vs Native App)

Ok, now that bombshell regarding audio streaming. These speakers support all file formats, Apple AirPlay 2, and Google Cast. But when it comes to reaching the LS Luxes' full audio potential. There are actually three distinct tiers of streaming quality you need to know about:

Tier 1 (AirPlay 2): This is your entry point. AirPlay 2 tops out at 16-bit / 44.1 kHz (standard CD quality). It's convenient, but you aren't getting the most out of these speakers.

Tier 2 (Google Cast): Yes, Google Cast is in fact better than Apple's AirPlay. Use this instead here, and you'll be stepping up to 24-bit/48 kHz, which offers better fidelity and dynamic range.

Tier 3 (KEF Connect App / Native Streaming): To get the absolute peak performance, you'll want to stream directly through the KEF app or via UPnP to deliver the full resolution these drivers were built for.

App Features & Factory EQ

And the good news is, regardless of which device you use. Inside the KEF Connect app, you'll find integration with the most popular Hi-Res streaming services, as well as the ability to stream UPnP. Making it easy to get the best out of LUXE speakers. There are also some new speaker EQ settings, which offer both Normal and Expert modes to tweak the sound based on your room acoustics. You can tune them for tabletop or TV stand setups, or for the official KEF stands, which are sold separately.

That said, keep in mind these speakers come with KEF's professional factory tuning right out of the box. Unless you really know your way around room correction and acoustic EQ, leaving them on the default preset is usually the best move to hear the sound exactly as the engineers intended." Ok, the price is three bags of sand plus a monkey. That's cockney rhyming slang for 3 and a half grand. Yes, that is expensive, but remember the best things in life are free, and the second-best are very expensive. And maybe it'll be worth it for you. 

And I will be doing a similar guided tour of the Z Fold 8 Ultra as well, so stick around at the end if you're interested in seeing that. But for now, let's get this out of the box. So, it turns out, this one right here is the lavender colour. Probably my least favourite. But I'm just grateful to have one at all. Let's do the peel on this thing. So here's what you need to know about this phone. It is the world's lightest foldable at the time of this video. It is 201g. At its thinnest point, it is just 4.1mm thick. And when it's closed, just for context, this is how thick it is compared to the Galaxy S20 Ultra, which I'm currently using as my main phone. And according to my calliper right here, it is 9.96mm thick.

It does have what Samsung calls their Armor Flex Hinge, and it's got a nice little snap to it when you open it up. It does have an Armour Aluminium frame all the way around, and they have actually managed to widen the gap here on this side. So when it comes to opening it, it's much easier to do. It's got Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back and Corning Gorilla Ceramic Glass on the front. The outer display is technically 4.5 inches across, slightly smaller if you account for the rounded corners. The bezels are nice and slim. The aspect ratio on the cover screen is four by five, and when you flip it over, five by four.

For now, the inner display is where it gets interesting. This is a brand-new-sized display, the first of its kind. Technically, the display is 7.6 inches, and when held landscape like this, it's a four-by-three aspect ratio. When you flip it up into portrait, it is three by four. The portrait aspect ratio is much better for social media content and web pages. And then the landscape is actually much better for movie and video content. And this has what Samsung calls their Titanium Flex Display. So there is a titanium layer underneath this display, which actually reduces the crease. And you can barely see it, even with the reflections here. So this is a massive improvement, in my opinion. And not only does it flatten out the crease, it actually improves the shock absorption on the display.

And it's also got an anti-reflective inner screen as well. So behind it is the Z Fold seven. And this is the Z Fold eight. You can see the difference there in the reflections. It's pretty dramatic. Peak brightness on the outer display is up to 3000 nits, and it is also 3000 nits on the inner display too. Now here's one of the areas where you may have to compromise. If you like this form factor over the Ultra form factor, it is in regard to the camera. So the main camera here is 50 megapixels. When you compare that to the 200-megapixel sensor on the Ultra, yeah, you'll definitely see a little difference in quality there. The second camera is an ultra-wide. It's also 50 megapixels. And then the in-display selfie cameras on the inside and the outside are both ten megapixels.

Inside is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 for Galaxy. It’s an overclocked version of the chip. You get 12 gigs of RAM as standard, but you can get up to 16 gigs if you get the one-terabyte version of this phone. There are four colours of this phone. There's the cream, the graphite, which I think is the best one. There's this one, the lavender, and an online-exclusive pistachio colour as well.

And when it comes to design changes other than the form factor, obviously, they have managed to round out the camera module a little bit. It is kind of clear if you look at it from the side, but it's still got the colour to it. It's just got more of a sort of pillow finish to it. It looks softer and less angular than the previous model. The battery size is also pretty decent here at 4800 milliamp hours. It charges at 45W wired and 25W wirelessly. Now, here are my first thoughts on the Galaxy Z Fold 8. When I first saw this thing, I did think that getting used to the wider aspect ratio would be a bit of a feeling-out process, but it's actually only a tiny bit wider than the phone that I use right now, the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

And actually, the fact that it is, in fact, wider than my previous phone, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, is an advantage. Typing on the cover screen is so much better. And yes, it is shorter, which means less can be shown at once when scrolling vertically on a social media app, for example. But the upside to the shorter display is that now it's very easy to reach the top of the display one-handed, and that is super convenient. And if your main reason for getting a foldable is because you want that big screen for movies and social media and maybe gaming, there is a case to be made that the inner display on the Fold eight is more well suited to that over the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's inner display, which might be more well suited for power users who might be doing more multitasking and workflow types of stuff on the inner screens.

And I have a sneaking suspicion that Samsung is testing out the waters with this new design. And if this new Fold eight design does end up being wildly popular, we could see them ramp up the camera specs and battery specs, maybe quite significantly next year. And there are a ton of new features on this phone, which I will be deep-diving into in my tips and tricks guide. So keep an eye out for those. And if you guys want to check out the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which is the upgraded version of the 7, check out my unboxing video on this phone. And if you want to see how these two phones compare, if you're trying to decide between the two, I am working on a separate video all about that, so that video is coming soon.

Is this ‘banned’ trick enough to finally destroy the dominance of OLED? I’m going to look at the hardware, the physics, and how this screen fits into a dream movie setup alongside Sony’s new Bravia Theatre Bar 7 and the Theatre Sub 8. So stick around, because I’m going to reveal exactly how Sony is getting away with this backlight loophole—and why other TV manufacturers are scrambling to copy it.

Right, let’s address this massive elephant in the room. What is this ‘banned’ backlight trick? To meet the incredibly tough energy efficiency rules, most manufacturers have had to limit how hard they can drive their backlights. If a TV draws too much power, it literally cannot be sold. This is why many modern TVs look slightly dim out of the box until you dig deep into the menus to find the ‘eco-saving’ toggles—and even then, they are restricted.

But Sony’s Bravia 7 II bypasses this bottleneck entirely thanks to its True RGB Mini-LED architecture. In a standard Mini-LED TV, blue LEDs shine through a quantum dot sheet to create red and green light, losing a massive amount of light energy and efficiency in the process. But Sony’s new design drives native, highly efficient RGB LEDs directly. Because the panel doesn’t have to waste energy filtering light, it is astronomically more efficient. It draws a fraction of the power of a standard screen, easily cruising under the legal power limits. But because it’s so efficient, Sony can legally unlock the shackles and drive the panel to a staggering, eye-melting peak brightness on HDR content.

When you pair that RGB efficiency with Sony’s XR Processor and their XR Backlight Master Drive, the results are… Truly stunning & and so natural and life-like. Whilst watching the game, Sony’s RGB tech and picture processing really shine. You don’t even need to adjust the picture settings, and everything looks so clean. The grass doesn’t look like a luminous billiards table; it looks like real natural grass. Skin tones are as close to perfect straight out of the box as I’ve seen on any TV to date.

But does it destroy OLED?

Well, OLED still holds the crown for absolute pixel-level black precision. If you are watching a movie in a pitch-black room, those self-emissive pixels will always look perfectly ink-black. However, Sony’s local dimming algorithm on the Bravia 7 II is so advanced that blooming is almost entirely non-existent. And as someone who is very familiar with Sony Bravia OLEDs. I can honestly say that what you gain in colour accuracy and brightness, combined with how good the precision and depth of the black levels are on this RGB TV. I believe it is enough to beat almost all of the TVs out there at this price point.

And that’s when watching regular TV. But when you see this Bravia playing 4K HDR content via Pure Stream on Sony’s Pictures Core. It’s hard to beat. So what would it be like if you chose this Bravia RGB as the crown jewel of your Living room? Well, here’s what you can expect from a high-end Sony set. It runs Google TV, which is fast, fluid, and brilliantly organised. And because this is a Sony setup, it features the ‘Perfect for PlayStation 5’ suite. The second you boot up a PS5 console, the TV automatically configures Auto HDR Tone Mapping and switches to its low-latency Game Mode, giving you incredibly responsive, ultra-vibrant gameplay.

And of course Sony knows game consoles better than all the other TV manufacturers, so you can really rely on the quality of all the automated settings that fall in place for you when gaming. I also really like the quick settings categories that Sony has added. It makes finding what you’re looking for that much easier. And, Google added some icing to the Bravia’s user interface cake. This TV has Gemini, one of the greatest AI platforms on the planet, and it’s right here. You want to find something to watch, you fancy a chat, you get a random question… yeh you can just hit Gemini for that.

Now listen, before I wrap up, we have to talk about how you can build a home cinema around it. Directly underneath the screen, I’ve got the new Bravia Theatre Bar 7. It has a clever 2-way system with 9 physical drivers, including dedicated up-firing and side-firing speakers. But the real magic is Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping, which literally projects ‘phantom’ speakers around your living room to make a single bar sound like a surround-sound array. And I’ve paired it with the Bravia Theatre Sub 8. Don’t let its relatively slim cabinet fool you. This is a 300-watt beast with a massive 200mm driver.

And Sony has really stepped up their app software when it comes to managing your audio. They’ve really made. So, what is the final verdict? Sony’s ‘banned’ trick isn’t a cheat code—it’s just pure, brilliant engineering. By designing a native RGB Mini-LED backlight that is incredibly energy efficient, they have unlocked a level of blinding, HDR-popping brightness that stays completely within the rules while giving OLED a run for its money.

When you combine the Bravia 7 II with the spatial audio of the Theatre Bar 7 and the deep, rich rumble of the Sub 8, you aren’t just buying a TV setup. You are building a home cinema powerhouse that is hard to beat. What do you guys think? Has Sony’s efficiency loop-hole officially made OLED obsolete for your living room? Let me know in the comments down below.

But before we look at a single pixel, there is one major difference - beside the panel tech - that could have you considering the upstart TCL over the established LG. Historically, Mini-LED was just the 'budget alternative' to OLED. But this year, the C8L has gone full premium. Yet, it still costs substantially less than the LG. In fact, if we compare like-for-like at 65 inches, the price gap is so massive you could buy the TCL and use the leftover cash to fund a holiday in the sun.

So do me a favor: watch this breakdown, look at the hardware, and by the end of the video, tell me if the OLED is truly worth the extra premium—or if this new SQD tech is the ultimate TV for your living room. Let’s kick off with the physical hardware.

When you look at the LG C6, it’s exactly what you’d expect from a flagship OLED. It is mind-blowingly thin at just four and a half centimeters. It’s elegant, it’s premium, but you do have to be a bit gentle with it when you're setting it up. If you’re looking to wall mount it, the 65-inch model I have here weighs a surprisingly light 16.6kg.

The TCL C8L, on the other hand, is far more robust. It’s five and a half centimeters thick, and the 65-inch panel tips the scales at 21.1kg - although interestingly the 55-inch model weighs almost 1kg less than the equivalently sized LG.

But there's a reason for that bulk: it houses a highly sophisticated backlight system with thousands of precise dimming zones. What is impressive about the C8L's design is the 'ZeroBorder' look I’ve loved on previous TCL TVs, keeping you completely immersed.

Looking at the two TVs head on, the biggest difference between them is that the TCL has a slightly more prominent stand and a premium looking brushed metal frame. And they've also added these nice little metal accents blades across the top.

Both have very subtle branding and round the back TCL has made some marked improvements to their cable management. Also the TCL stand does offer up the option to mount it a little higher if you want to make space for a soundbar. TCL has also made some 

Meanwhile, the connectivity battlefield has completely changed. In previous years, TCL may have cut corners on ports a little . Not anymore. Both the LG C6 and the TCL C8L come equipped with four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports. That means full 4K gaming at high refresh rates on either panel. However, if you are a hardcore PC gamer, the TCL panel can push all the way up to a staggering 288Hz VRR at HD resolutions, giving it a slight competitive edge to you PC gamers out there.

That thicker frame on the TCL C8L also hides another bonus - a premium sound system co-engineered by audio icons Bang & Olufsen, complete with their 'Beosonic' tuning interface. It boasts four independent sound chips, Hi-END grade acoustics and a separate ‘sky channel’ for the experience of a plane flying overhead. Compare that to LG’s 2.2 channel, 40W speaker system, and on paper it’s advantage TCL. Let’s put them to the test.

So I wrote down my first impressions of the sound difference and here's what I thought. When you compare it to a soundbar obviously TV doesn't sound great.

But actually LGs built-in speakers have come a long way and they have depth and clarity. Although the TCL B&O speaker setup clearly offers a wider sound stage, it also gets a lot louder. And voices seem clearer without having to adjust the sound mode. And the low frequencies, for example bass in music tracks and rumbles during explosions and things like that are also noticeably deeper.

Now don't get me wrong the LG is still shockingly impressive especially given how thin it is. But with that extra frame depth on the C8L you do get more audio depth.

Now for the main event: picture quality. This is the classic trade-off of raw brightness versus infinite contrast.

The TCL C8L features their new SQD—or Super Quantum Dot—Mini-LED technology. In the 65-inch model, you are looking at over 2,000 precise dimming zones. But the headline figure is its peak brightness: a blinding 5,000 nits on the 65-inch model, and up to 6,000 nits on the 98 and 85 models. Compared to the 1,500 nits peak brightness on the LG C6, the TCL can get nearly three times brighter on fullscreen images. 

Plus, it covers 100% of the ultra-wide BT.2020 color gamut, making HDR colors incredibly punchy and vivid. Both sets support Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG formats, but the TCL can also handle HDR10+.

And TCL’s All-domain Halo Control Technology delivers deeper blacks and higher brightness than previous models, for a marked improvement in picture quality. So again I wrote down a few notes when I fired these two formidable TVs up for the first time and here are my initial impressions.

Honestly I'm quite shocked at how good the black levels are now on this MiniLED TV. In scenes where there's a single light source the difference in black levels are almost identical. It's only when there are multiple light sources for example a sky full of stars where the OLED tech shows it's black level advantages.

So the LG OLED is still king of the darkness But on the flip side, the TCL is truly the master of bright light. White highlights noticeably much brighter and you can notice this clearly when watching England's football team playing in the white shirts.

Also out of the box the TCL Colours pop much more. Of course some colour calibration on LG can get close but the C6 won't get close to the brightness.

Also thanks to the very wide colour gamut supported here. Skin tones do look more natural with the out of the box settings on the TCL.

Now if you are going to be watching a lot of sports. One tip for you if you do get the TCL is to dial back the colour saturation to 33. Because this panel is so bright and vibrant and power behind the bright green grass and brightly coloured shirts is maybe a little overpowered ... .but this is a good problem to have. Especially if your TV lives in a bright room.

Now let's jump over to the LG C6 OLED. It can’t match that raw, daytime-slaying brightness - even with its Brightness Booster feature - but frankly, it doesn't need to. Because of the nature of self-emissive OLED pixels, it can turn completely off. This means you get true, infinite blacks right next to bright highlights with absolutely zero blooming or halo effects around subtitles. 

And for the gamers among you, the C6 offers the world's first 4K 120Hz HDR cloud gaming via NVIDIA GeForce NOW, and it’s the first TV to support Bluetooth Ultra Low Latency Controllers. No console required - just your TV, a controller, and an internet connection.

There's no doubt that the LG C6 is a beast when it comes to control, black levels and refresh rates. Colours in film maker mode are close to perfect when watching movies in a dark room. But on the other hand TCL do offer their own 

And this wouldn’t be a consumer tech video in 2026 without the mention of AI. Both sets boast their own AI chips. TCL has its TSR AiPQ Processor, which integrates proprietary image-tuning algorithms with the firm’s own AI model to deliver pixel-level optimization for visuals.

The C6 isn’t one to be outdone, and comes with LG’s alpha 11 AI Processor 4K Gen3 with Dual AI Engine. That name is a bit of a mouthful, but LG says it can refine sharpness and texture simultaneously, for sharper and more natural 4K picture quality.

Both look great but the real test for the Ai chips is their ability to upscale lower resolution content to make them appear closer to 4K. This could be handy when watching live sports and feed is only HD. And again I tested these with some of the world cup action  and it's an extremely close contest.

Out of the box, both sets come with feature-packed systems. So what do they actually like to live with day-to-day?

The TCL C8L runs on Google TV, offering a mega app ecosystem to keep you well entertained, whatever content and streaming services you want to watch. There’s support for Google Cast, AirPlay 2, and Chromecast too, making it easy to wirelessly beam content from your phone or laptop to the display. But the TCL does have a pretty significant UI advantage this year.

LG sticks with their proprietary webOS 26 on the C6. It’s highly customizable with quick-access cards, but it does feel a bit more cluttered with sponsored content out of the box.

However, LG still has its handheld weapon: the AI Magic Remote. It acts like a wireless pointer on the screen, making typing passwords or navigating menus an absolute breeze compared to a traditional D-pad. The ‘AI’ part of the name means you can converse with the TV’s AI Chatbot, and use your voice to search for content. Meanwhile the AI Concierge works in the background to understand your viewing habits and offer up relevant content without you having to ask.

But they huge advantage for the TCL is that now Google's Gemini is built right into the TV. It's incredibly smart, and can help you get to what you want to watch in an instant. Also it has the advantage of being more knowledgeable, being that is one of the largest Ai platforms on the planet right now.

You can even use it to answer general questions, create images and help you navigate the UI. And it sounds far more human than LGs ai assistant.

Alright, let's talk numbers , because this is where our showdown gets really interesting.

Remember that holiday I mentioned at the start? At launch prices, choosing the 65-inch TCL C8L over the 65-inch LG C6 saves you roughly £700. That is literally enough cash to book a trip to Ibiza. So, what’s it going to be? Are you staying home with the flawless pixel precision of the OLED, or are you buying the TCL SQD powerhouse and heading straight to the beach?

You should buy the LG C6 OLED if you primarily watch TV in darker rooms, absolutely demand flawless, ink-black contrast, love the ultra-thin aesthetic, and want that effortless pointer remote experience. But remember, you are paying a massive premium for it.

On the flip side, you should buy the TCL C8L if you have a bright living room, want incredible built-in Bang & Olufsen audio without buying a soundbar, need that high-impact 5,000-nit brightness, and want the absolute best value for your money.

If you're a solo content creator, vlogger, or mobile filmmaker, you're going to want to pay close attention to this video, because DJI have ruled the pocket gimbal space for years. But now, Insta360 has just dropped a device that might completely blow the competition out of the water. And it's this: the brand-new Insta360 Lunar Ultra, co-engineered with Leica. This gimbal can shoot spectacular 8K video, and it packs a massive one-inch sensor alongside a dedicated 3x telephoto lens.

But here is the killer feature. See these two little red buttons next to the controls? When you squeeze these, the entire front display and the controls come off. You can now set the Luna down somewhere using its built-in feet to stabilise it. Or, of course, you could thread it onto a proper tripod. You can now walk right across the room and use the built-in controls and display for a live preview of what the Luna can see.

But here's the catch: does this insane modular ecosystem make it the ultimate all-in-one production studio, or is it just another expensive addition to your collection of tech gadgets? Well, let's find out. And do me a favour: stick around to the end, because I'm going to show you guys an accessory combination that will definitely turn a few heads, but completely changes how you can film first-person video. So first things first, let's talk about the hardware. The Insta360 Lunar feels very premium, exactly what you'd expect at the price point that this comes in at. It's not flimsy; it's well built, and it's got a bit of heft to it as well. Weighing in at just over 200g, it sits on a highly responsive three-axis mechanical gimbal that keeps your footage buttery smooth, giving you that floating Hollywood Steadicam look, even if you don't know how to use a proper camera.

And even if you're running down the street, or even down the sideline of a football pitch, when it comes to controllable range, you've got pan, tilt, and it's even got roll flexibility. Tucked into the top of the gimbal is a dual-lens system co-engineered with Leica. The main lens features a wide 20mm equivalent-angle lens with a bright f/1.8 aperture, paired with a massive one-inch sensor underneath, which means you get a nice, natural shallow depth-of-field effect from this, and incredible low-light performance, especially when you use the PureVideo mode.

And this supports Dolby Vision. And right next to it, you've got a 1/1.3-inch sensor driving a 60mm pro-grade telephoto lens, which gives the Lunar Ultra a 3x optical lossless zoom and up to 12x digitally. And on a pocket gimbal, this is an absolute game-changer when it comes to shooting B-roll. And get this: both of the lenses can shoot up to 8K at 30 frames per second, or even 4K at up to 120 frames per second.

There is, of course, AI deep tracking. All you need to do to activate it is click down the little joystick, and it will lock onto your subject. You can now move the gimbal around, or if the person moves around, it will stay locked on. There's also active zoom tracking, smart framing, and rapid focus to keep everything in frame and in focus. And it has a triple AI chip system for supreme picture processing and enhanced low-light performance all the way up to 4K 60. And if you just want to make people silky smooth — and this one's for me — well, then you're going to love this feature. If you swipe from the right-hand side inwards, here is where you can find the beauty effects and filters, which can be added to your recordings without having to do them in post.

Yeah, I think I'm going to need some of this. So the Insta360 Lunar Ultra is definitely a top contender in the pocketable gimbal space right now. And I've done so many camera comparisons on this channel with smartphones, and the specs on this thing basically kill them all. And that Leica branding isn't just for show. That is a mark of approval from one of the best lens makers in the business. And the reason this is so important is because when you have good lenses that have been professionally chosen and calibrated, you're going to see way less ghosting, less chromatic aberration, and better low-light performance. But we're not done there, because Insta360 has made this absolutely genius design choice when it comes to this. This is a two-inch OLED touchscreen.

Even if it didn't detach, I'd still be impressed by it. It's high quality, it's nice and bright, but the fact that it can simply click off the body and be used as a wireless remote with HD transmission up to 20m makes this thing an absolute game-changer. And DJI aren't doing this. And this is why I said, if you are a solo creator, this could be an absolute game-changer, and it will make your life so much easier when setting up a shot, because you won't have to keep running back and forth to check the framing. And not only that, it has a built-in microphone hidden behind the display, which means not only can you control and monitor the camera from a distance, but you can also record audio at a distance.

If you guys only knew how much time I could have saved with a little gadget like this when it comes to making my videos. Honestly, I think this might be the most revolutionary feature added to one of these gimbals to date. And of course, when you're out and about shooting video content, if you're going to film in 8K at 30 frames per second, the battery life on this standalone will last up to two hours. But let's be real, most people won't shoot 8K because of the file sizes, and the fact that pretty much no one's phone or TV supports it at this point. And if you're happy to film in 1080p, you can double the battery life up to four hours. And if that still isn't enough, well, that's where this comes in: the Insta360 battery handle. This does exactly what you think it does. It clicks onto the base of the camera just like this, and this will give you that extra boost when it comes to battery life.

Also, it makes it a bit easier to grip and control as well. So your thumb kind of rests a bit more naturally on the controls here. So the Lunar Ultra provides everything you need to create some brilliant video content. But brilliant video content with bad audio is not good, no matter how nicely you filmed it. And of course, you could use the remote as a microphone, but that might not look so pro. And that's where this comes in. This is the official Insta360 Pro Mic. And check this out: it features a customisable ink display on the front. So I've uploaded my WhatGear logo right here onto the transmitter, and tell me that this doesn't look professional. And this little transmitter packs a three-mic array, allowing you to switch between four different directional pickup patterns, including a super-directional mode that acts like a shotgun mic to isolate your voice in a crowded space.

Plus, it records 32-bit float internally, which results in you not having to worry about clipping your audio. Also, if you need to boost it up in post, it will still sound great. Now, if you want a more streamlined, budget-friendly audio setup, you can check out the Insta360 Mic Air, which I also did an unboxing video for. This is a super-lightweight alternative, and very competitively priced too. This can connect directly to the Lunar, and it can connect via Bluetooth to a phone. And if you get the USB dongle, you can make use of a 2.4GHz connection from any USB-C device for audio. And this thing is tiny. It's about the size of a pound coin.

It's a little bit thicker, but it is very lightweight, as the name would suggest. And if you have a favourite third-party microphone that you simply refuse to leave the house without, Insta360 has launched the Mic Pro USB-C to 3.5mm jack adapter, allowing you to plug any traditional wired mic straight into this system seamlessly. So, of course, I could sit here and talk about all the microphone capabilities, or I could show you how they sound in the real world.

All right, so I'm here in a pretty noisy spot right now. This tunnel is around 300m long. Actually, it's a bit longer than that. There are quite a few people in the way, but there is a direct line of sight, and this mic can actually go all the way up to 400m. So we're about to test it out now. Let's see how clear the quality is at that distance. I'm here at the end of the tunnel, roughly around 300, maybe 310m away. There are lots of people in the line of sight, so if it's not that clear, I won't be that surprised.

Now remember that ridiculous-looking accessory setup I mentioned at the start of this video? Well, this is it. So check this out. First, we slide on the Insta360 neck mount. This gives you a stable, completely hands-free, chest-height view. But normally, chest mounts are fixed, so wherever your body points, the camera also points. Enter the Insta360 POV Head Tracker. This device sits right on your ear, and through the power of the Luna's triple AI chip, the three-axis gimbal automatically syncs with your natural head movements. So if I turn my head to look at something on my left, the gimbal smoothly pans over to the left. If I look up at a building, it tilts up. It creates an incredibly immersive, stabilised first-person perspective without needing an extra camera operator. Again, another game-changer for content creators, and this will literally make you look like a pro, even if you don't have much experience using a classic camera. And you know what else you can do whilst using the head tracker? You can actually detach the controls and the monitor, so you can actually see what's going on.

It's pretty impressive. When you've got all this stuff strapped to you and this earpiece on, you do get a few funny looks, but let me know if the video quality is worth it. Here you go. So I've just realised I haven't shown you guys the app. You can connect the Lunar to your phone and import all your videos from it directly onto your device. And then you can, of course, share to social media or edit it on your phone and do things like that. And check this out: if you want another preview, you can also preview what the camera sees on your phone as well. So you've got the ball control with the display, and if you want, you can use your phone as a monitor as well.

And I'll be honest with you guys, if you do rock the camera on your chest like this, you are going to turn a few heads. And if you turn your head, you can look right back at them and catch the exact expression on their face if you're using one of these. So what is my final verdict on the Insta360 Lunar Ultra? Well, Insta360 hasn't just built a pocket camera here. They've built an absolute powerhouse of a modular production suite. The dual Leica lenses are incredible. The sensors used here are very premium and fantastic for shooting high-quality video in daylight and in low light, which is an area where some other gimbals struggle.

The detachable screen with the built-in mic is the absolute game-changer, in my opinion, and this feature alone really makes this a unique offering. And when you pair this up with the Mic Pro, your audio game also goes up another level in line with this camera system. And both the Pro Mic and the Lunar Ultra have their own onboard memory, so if you forget your SD cards, you'll have a backup. And that point-of-view head tracker opens up incredible creative angles that, frankly, were impossible for a solo creator to shoot before. I do see myself using this a lot for my hands-on demos of products, although keep in mind, this isn't cheap. It is still brand new, but it may go on sale at some point. Right now, the full ecosystem of accessories will cost you a fair bit of coin, but for the sheer flexibility and the quality on offer, it's hard to argue against this being the best pocket gimbal out there right now.

I tested out the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro & Pro Max in London, at King's Cross—one of the busiest train stations at rush hour—to test the World Record-holding Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro earbuds. The record is for voice call quality, and these were tested against 13 big-name competitors and came out on top! So I wonder whether this is the only area in which the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro excels? Let’s test out how good the ANC feature works on trains.

Watch the video so see how the ANC comparison vs Airpods Pro turned out - HERE

​So, when commuting or travelling, active noise cancelling becomes invaluable. The ability to block out ambient noise and reduce chatter and people's voices allows you to focus on your music or movie content with fewer distractions. And Soundcore say that their ANC is now 100% better than their previous model, the Liberty 4 Pro. These buds support adaptive ANC, so they can adjust the levels on the fly based on the surrounding environmental noise, and you can manually select from 5 levels. From my personal experience, whilst travelling, the one sound that seems to cut through most noise-cancelling is a crying baby. So I tested that… and you can see that test in the video.

​Noise cancelling is one important part of the story; another is transparency mode. When you’re on a train platform or a busy street, it is important to be aware of your surroundings. This is where you’d probably want to use it. ​So the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro ANC buds are perfect for commuting, but they have an absolute game-changing feature you will love if you travel abroad. It’s an exceptional feature. We’ll come back to that when we get to the software.

Design & Controls Earbuds

​Alright, so let me give you a guided tour of the design and the hardware that allows Soundcore to achieve this incredible ANC and passthrough. So both the Pro and Pro Max models are identical. There are 10 sensors in total on the buds. Each bud has 4 mics and 1 bone-conduction sensor, specifically designed for voice pickup and noise cancellation. That’s more than most, but the brains behind the scenes are what truly take the Liberty 5 Pro to the next level. They call it the Thus AI chip. More on that in a minute.

​Back to the design. Soundcore has gone to great lengths to make these buds comfy and secure; they provide a nice selection of eartips and a software feature to find the exact right size for your ears. If you plan to use the Liberty 5 Pro for running, cycling, or at the gym, they also offer supportive wings for extra stability. They are IP55-rated for dust and water resistance, which is a higher rating than the AirPods'.

​There are also capacitive controls built into the backs of both buds. They recognise taps and slides for volume control. And when you can’t use your hands, you can make use of voice controls, perfect for activities; these commands even work when you’re not connected to your phone.

​The enclosure is quite substantial, which definitely helps improve sound quality, and the drivers are also large. Soundcore uses 9.2mm dynamic drivers, which are larger than those in most earbuds. I’ll share my opinions on the sound quality and how it compares to the AirPods next, so stick around for that.​

Case Design & Case Controls

So this is one of the biggest differences between the Pro and Pro Max models. While both the Pro and Pro Max have a touchscreen display, the display on the Pro Max version is significantly larger; there's also a software feature exclusive to the Pro Max and another world's first found on the Pro Max. I shall explain. Both displays are nice, bright, and sharp & give you the ability to switch between ANC modes and EQs, control audio, and customise wallpapers.

​The advantage of this feature is that you can control everything independently, even when disconnected from your phone. In some scenarios, that makes it more convenient, or even safer, not to use your phone.

​Battery & Charging

​So, let’s talk about power and charging. The Liberty 5 Pro deliver up to 28 hours of battery life with ANC on. 6.5 hours in the buds with ANC on. And when the buds are out of power, a quick 5-minute charge in the case will give you up to 4 hours of playback.

​The buds themselves also have wear-detection sensors, which make them even more power-efficient. When you take them out, they stop playing and eventually power down if left idle.

​Here’s another slight difference between the Pro and Pro Max: while both support wireless charging, the Pro Max's case has built-in magnets. So, MagSafe accessories can lock the case in place.

​Sound Quality Opinions

​Alright, let's talk about sound. ANC, build quality, case features, and usability are all top-notch…but what about sound? Well, both Pro and Pro Max have exactly the same capabilities in this area. You got BT.61, LDAC for HiRes Audio, Dolby Atmos, Dolby head tracking. There’s even a software feature that helps you tailor the perfect sound for yourself. But to get a good sense of how Soundcore wants these to sound, I tested them initially with the default settings.

Watch the video for my ​Opinion on sound vs AirPods

​Okay, after extensive testing, here’s how the audio experience of the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro stacks up against the AirPods Pro 2. The first thing that hits you is a more powerful, immersive performance. These buds get louder, and the soundstage feels wider—a big advantage when listening to classical or theatrical music.

​While AirPods tend to favour the mids and highs, the Liberty 5 Pro defaults to the bass, delivering a punchier low end. Even with that bass, the vocal clarity is crisper. When you switch to the LDAC Hi-Res codec, the detail is exceptional. You can hear the natural ambience of the room in live recordings, and subtle details like breaths or fingers sliding across guitar frets—nuances often lost on the AirPods. The difference in depth is genuinely that big.

​Okay, so I was using the Soundcore signature sound to formulate my opinions. But not everyone will instantly appreciate the powerful bass levels. So now, let me show you how easy it is to create the perfect audio profile to suit your tastes.

App Features

​This is the official Soundcore app, and they’ve done a fantastic job of keeping the UI easy to use without watering down the advanced features. On the home screen, you get your battery levels and ANC modes front and centre, along with the wind reduction setting, which is honestly very impressive for both sound quality and ANC.

​And here is where you’ll find the Soundcore HearID feature. Put simply, it's an A/B test with a generic reference track. It’s designed to help you decide what kind of sound you actually want, and then it creates a custom EQ curve around that. Interestingly, my HearID boosted the vocals, most likely because the bass levels are already so powerful and, in my opinion, didn’t need boosting.

​Once you’ve created one, you can of course save it, and when you tap on the HearID profile, you’ll see all of the other EQs to choose from, as well as Soundcore's AI audio upscaler for more compressed and lower quality recordings, and the certified Dolby Audio toggle. This can only be used when you’re not using the LDAC connectivity.

​And here you can also manually create your own curve using the built-in 8-band EQ. There is a "Find My" feature for locating the buds & another for finding the perfect-fit ear tips.

​The onboard controls are, of course, completely customizable on both sides, and this is where it gets interesting. Here are some of the features I consider exceptional.

​Exceptional Features

​Within the controls menu, you can remap the long press to Anker’s own AI voice assistant, your phone's AI assistant, or AI translation. This is the feature I mentioned as a game-changer for anyone who travels a lot. The AI translation allows you to listen to what people are saying to you, even if they aren’t speaking your language. I’m sure you can see how useful this could be.

​Also on the homescreen, at the bottom of the page, you’ll find the smart voice controls. This is where you can enable Anker's own AI model for voice controls. Again, this is an impressive feature that can be handy when you can’t use the case or capacitive controls on the buds. It can also be used to answer general questions or just to have a conversation about anything.

​The Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max also support triple-point pairing and auto-switching. So if you wanted to, you could have your laptop, your phone and your watch all connected simultaneously to the buds, and they will intelligently switch to the correct audio source on the fly.

​And here is the world's first. I mentioned this is exclusive to the Pro Max model. This case has a built-in AI note-taking feature. So, next time you’re in a meeting or lesson, and you need to pay attention, you can use this to record, transcribe and summarise everything that was said. This could be extremely useful for a number of reasons.

​There’s so much to like about the Liberty 5 Pro, and it’s important you know why and how they are this good. It is largely thanks to another world's first on these earbuds. It’s Soundcore's world's first computer-in-memory AI Chip. They call it the Anker THUS. This chip enables the Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max to deliver 150X more computing power than the previous generation. And it’s this that unlocks next-level voice pickup, ANC, and sound quality, as well as the standout AI features these buds offer.

​I honestly think Soundcore has raised the bar with these earbuds, and they are very easy to recommend. Especially given the price.

The Pro model comes in at £149 and is available in Black, White, Blue, and Pink Gold. Regarding sound quality, ANC, and voice pickup, they’re exactly the same as the PRO Max. But if you are willing to spend an extra £50. What you get is an upgraded case with a larger display, magnets for MagSafe chargers, and built-in AI note-taking capabilities. And this one is a titanium gold and midnight black.

​And one thing is for sure, no matter which one you get, when it comes to sound quality, ANC, and voice pickup, I think they’re going to impress. If you’re looking for the most up-to-date pricing, I will do my best to get you a discount if I can. Here’s a link!

Get to grips with the Glyph

So I've added the settings to the home screen just for quick access. If you want to get to it, you can swipe down and swipe down again to get to it here. You can also swipe up and get to it from your app drawer. Right at the top of the settings page, you will see the Glyph Interface, so tap on that. Here we want to switch on the Glyph Interface. Now, on this page, when you scroll down, you'll see the ringtones. This is where you can customise, as you would expect, the ringtones, but it also customises the Glyph notification on the back when your phone rings. So if you tap where it says “Nothing Signals”, you will find the ten different presets for Nothing Signals.

When you find one that you like, this will become your ringtone, and that will be the animation. Now, if we go back and go to “My Sounds”, you can actually add your own ringtones. You, of course, need to have some sounds on your device in order to do it. One of the apps that I like to use is Zedge. You might want to check that out. There are a lot of ads on there that you have to navigate around, but there’s some cool stuff you can find there. Now there is a really nice feature here which is quite smart, really. It’s called Generative Ringtone. This will actually use AI to create custom animations and ringtones, and then automatically assign them to certain contacts in your phonebook. So the more you use your phone, the more familiar you will become with which ringtones and Glyph animations are associated with which people.

Flippin Glyphs

Here’s another Glyph trick. Back within the settings, back into the Glyph Interface. If you swipe down a little bit, you will find “Flip to Glyph”. Enable this. So whenever you put your phone face down, this mode will kick in. So if you don't want to hear the ringtone or the notifications, you can use this feature, and now you'll just see the Glyphs. You can also filter all your essential notifications. But here is what I really want to show you guys: the Always-On Glyph Toy.

So if you enable this and then tap here, this is where you'll find some hidden features for the Glyph Matrix that allow it to stay on all the time. It’s essentially an always-on display for the Glyph Matrix. With this enabled, whenever the phone is face down on a table and you’re blocking the light sensor at the front, it will show whatever you've chosen for your Glyph Toy.

Visual Volume Level

Do you ever listen to podcasts or music on your phone or put your phone on loudspeaker? If so, I think you're going to like this one. Back into the Glyph Interface, scroll down until you see the Volume Indicator and enable this. Now, whenever you adjust the volume on your phone, that will be reflected on the back with this kind of expanding circle.

Advanced Glyph Customisation

If you're not new to Nothing, those last few tips were probably pretty standard, really, so let’s get a little more advanced. Now, here's a trick to help you identify phone calls and other things very quickly, whilst your phone is face down. So if we go into the settings again and go to Glyph Interface again, this time we're going to go to Essential Notifications. On this page, you can create routines for what the phone does when it receives certain notifications that meet certain requirements. You do have to tap to allow permissions on this first. Once you've done that, you can go to “New Rule” and call it whatever you want.

You can then choose the app that you want to set this up for. So just for example, I'm going to choose Gmail. If there are specific emails that I really want to keep an eye on, I can actually add the contact and even keywords that might feature in that email, which will then trigger this particular animation. Once that’s set up, you can then customise the Glyph, and you have this library of Glyphs to choose from. And if you really want to, you can create a custom Glyph pattern. Once you're happy with that, just hit the tick and there we go. We've created a custom Glyph animation for specific notifications.

THE LIT FUSE

Here’s a question for you: do you use Google Calendar, or have you ever used Uber or Zomato? If your answer was yes to any of those, you'll want to activate this feature. Back into the settings on your phone, back to Glyph Interface. Scroll down to where you see Glyph Progress and tap here. If you have these apps installed, they will be available to activate. I only have Calendar at this point in time because the phone has been reset. Essentially, what this does is it activates a Glyph timer on the back of the device for when things are about to arrive, whether that’s your Uber or your Zomato order. Then you'll see this progress bar on the back of your phone that lets you know when it’s time to go or when it’s time to head to the door to pick up your order.

IT’S LIKE LOOKING IN THE MIRROR

Now, let me tell you something you already know. The sensor behind your selfie camera is small, and the lenses are also small, whereas the image sensors and lenses on the back are far bigger and far superior. So wouldn’t it be nice if somehow you could use your best camera to take selfies? Well, you can, and you can frame yourself up nicely using this tool. So if you open up the camera, do not flip to the selfie camera. Just hit the downward arrow, and then here you will see the Glyph Mirror. With this activity, you can get a basic idea as to whether you're framed up nicely or not. And if the lighting is good, you can pretty much see the outline and shape of your face.

This should give you a basic idea of what the camera can actually see. Now, while we're here, there is another camera setting that you should be aware of. If you hit the dropdown menu at the top, the camera will default to 12MP photos, which is perfect for lower-lighting settings and even daytime settings. But in a well-lit scenario, you might occasionally want to switch from 12MP to 50MP to get even more detail in your photos. I don’t recommend leaving it on all the time, but just be aware of where you can find it.

DON’T WATCH THE CLOCK

Have you ever found yourself staring at the clock just waiting for your shift to be over whilst at work? I know that feeling all too well, and in those scenarios, it really feels like time slows down. Well, what if I told you there’s a better way to pass the time? So check this one out. Let’s jump back into the Glyph Interface settings. Scroll down again and go to Glyph Timer. Here, activate this setting: “Always open Glyph Timer popup”. This allows you to access it from your home screen pretty easily.

Another place you can access it is from your quick settings. Here you can dial in a custom time, and if you want, you can use one of the presets. Then, when you place your phone face down, this will start the timer. So instead of the ticking clock of doom, now you have this kind of hourglass-type animation that visually represents time passing in a slightly different and maybe less painful way. And once the Glyph Matrix timer has run out, it will alert you. And just so you know, you don’t have to go into the settings each and every time you want to use the Glyph Timer. You can bring down your quick settings, swipe across, and it will be there.

DAYS TO THE DAY

Now, I don't know about you, but when I book a holiday, quite often I count the days until I can finally sign off for a little bit. So let me show you a nice way you can count down the days to your holiday, for example, or anything else you want, so you don’t have to constantly look at your calendar and figure it out. To do this, you want to find a gap on one of your home screens, hold your finger down, and then go to Widgets. These are the pre-installed Nothing widgets, which have been designed exclusively for Nothing phones. You'll see one called Countdown. Activate this. Here you can customise the shape, give it a name, and set the date for when the event is.

I’m going with 2125 — that’s probably the same time I’ll hit a million subscribers here on the channel. If you do have something recurring that you want to track, you can go to Recurring and set it there. Once you've done that, it creates the countdown widget, and you can tap on it and choose the specific countdown you want to use. Right underneath it, it will show how many days and years are left. For some reason, it’s saying “Please subscribe today”. I think it’s a sign.

THE HIDDEN GLYPHS

So we’ve covered most of the stuff you can do with the Glyph at this point, and you might think there really isn’t anything else you need to know about, but in fact, there is an ever-growing library of customisation options for the Glyph Interface available to you — but only if you know where to find it. Hold your finger down on an empty part of the screen and go to Widgets. If you swipe across the default widgets, you’ll see all of your other app widgets. But if you swipe the other way, this is where you can find some more customised widget animations. And this is thanks to the Nothing community because here is where you'll find Essential Apps Beta.

These are community-created features for Nothing phones. If you hit the little hamburger menu here and go to Glyph Toys, you will find a bunch of Glyphs that you might prefer over the default ones. For example, that phone animation is pretty cool. And do keep in mind that some of the animations have been designed for the Nothing Phone 3, so a good way to filter them is by selecting your device at the top and filtering to the Phone 4 Pro. Then you'll only see compatible animations. And I want to give a shoutout to the people within the Nothing community who have taken the time to make these. So definitely check out Nothing’s Playground because there’s more than just Glyph animations here.

THIS KEY IS ESSENTIAL

We're going to escape from the matrix for a little while because here's an essential and exclusive feature that you need to know how to use. See this pill-shaped button on the side of the phone? This would look good in red, but more importantly, it is your shortcut to a very powerful tool. But it’s only powerful if you know how to use it, and there are a few steps you need to take when setting it up. So the first time you double-press the Essential Key, it should bring you to your Essential settings page. Now, here, if you scroll down, you'll likely find that Essential Memory is switched off straight out of the box. So switch this on. Something else you might want to consider, if you use Google Calendar as your main calendar, is enabling the Google Calendar integration. You’ll see why this is important in a minute. So now your Essential Key and Essential Space are set up and ready to go. Here’s how you use them. Let’s say, for example, someone sent you a concert ticket, a boarding pass, or some really important piece of information. What you can now do is hit the Essential Key. That will grab a screenshot of that ticket or pass. If you want to, you can crop in just by dragging the corners. If you press it again, it saves it to Essential Memory. Something else you can do is make a little voice recording explaining why you’re saving that particular screenshot or ticket.

Another good use case is researching a topic. You can navigate through multiple websites, hit the Essential Key on each page, and build a collection within Essential Space. AI will then extract the important information from all of those screen grabs. Now, something very important you need to know is that you can access Essential Space from your app drawer, or by double-pressing the Essential Key. This jumps you straight into your library. If you have captured anything with dates and times on it, if you go to the “For You” page, it will appear there. And this is where the Google Calendar integration comes into play. It detects the date, time, and even location. If you tap on it, it gives you the option to instantly add it to your calendar. And if you enabled the countdown widget feature earlier, this will also work with that. Now, just so you can see how the information is presented, I’m going to open my library where I’ve captured loads of stuff about the moon landing. Earlier on, I was also researching the Nothing Headphones 1. Within Essential Space, AI will recognise when there are related topics connected to the screenshot you’re viewing. For example, this screenshot up here is related to these others, which I grabbed from different websites. When you tap on one, it gives you a summary of the article and even pulls key information like prices, deals, dates, and times. And if you recorded any audio notes, you can play them back here, too. If you want to manually organise everything, you can also create separate folders at the bottom.

KEY TO BETTER MEMORY

Alright, so you’ve made it to the end of the list, but there are a couple more things I want to show you guys. Think of these as a bonus for sticking around until the end. So this tip involves the Essential Key again, but this one brings us back into the matrix a little bit. When your phone is face down on a surface, if you press and hold the Essential Key for around four seconds, this activates the Essential Recorder. You’ll also notice the recording light blinking as well, indicating that it’s capturing audio. Now, let’s say you're in a lesson, a meeting, or something like that, and something really important was said. You can tap the Essential Key again to add a marker to that recording. Once you've finished recording, just hold the button again for four seconds, and it stops the recording.

Because this feature is called Essential Recorder, the recordings automatically go to Essential Space. If you double-tap the Essential Key, you’ll find it right at the top. If you tap on that recording, you’ll then see the option to start AI analysis. This will transcribe the recording into text and even summarise what the meeting or lecture was about. There is a cap on how much you can use this feature, so you do need to be mindful of how many minutes you’re recording. I believe it’s around 300 minutes per month. So this feature will definitely be essential for you if you find yourself fading and struggling to pay attention during long lectures or meetings.

YOUR OWN PERSONAL REPORTER

Let me show you a newer exclusive feature for Nothing phones. It comes in the form of a widget. To find it, locate an empty space on your home screen, hold your finger down, and go to Widgets. Now scroll down until you see Essential News and add this to your home screen. When you first activate it, you can choose the topics you're most interested in. I’ve just chosen entertainment and technology. Once you’re happy with the setup, hit back and it will appear on your home screen.

What this does is use AI to collect the latest news from online and read it aloud to you. Think of it like your own personal news reporter. And the good thing about this is that it actually has a good sense of humour. So definitely try this out — it’s actually very good and surprisingly entertaining.

Sony has just taken their best ANC headphones to date, the XM6 and have gone super sayan on them. And have transformed them into their final form, the Sony WH-1000X The Collexion codenamed WH-1000XX. The X in the name represents the 10-year celebration and evolution of this line of headphones.  So if you’re a Sony fan or you already know how good the XM6 is, as soon as the new Collexions go on sale, you might be like ( do you accept cash? ) But my guess is that there will be some of you watching this, and looking at the £550 price tag and thinking…

- What's the more than £200 price gap all about between these and the XM6?

- What do you actually get for the money

- & How different are they really, from the XM6? Is it just a new skin?

Well, I can tell you right now, there’s a number of unseen upgrades, including a couple of world firsts & some very visible style improvements… But there’s one addition which I think could be the biggest game changer for you…depending on how you use your headphones, you’ll see.  Now listen here, real quick… Don't worry, I’m going to answer all those questions for you & show you all the upgrades. And to do this review justice and in an attempt to make my content not like the others, I’ve put in over 70 hours of playtime with the Collexion. So the drivers are properly burnt-in, loosened up, firing on all cylinders and sounding their best. And this also means I can also give you a good idea of the real world idea of the battery life.  I’ll also be doing a little side-by-side ANC test versus the XM6. It'll be interesting to see if you can hear any differences there. So stick around. It's going to be interesting.

Design 

Let’s start with the design changes and upgrades. So, something that’s held Sony back with the XM6 is budget constraints. They had to keep the design within budget to meet the price point….But that was not the case here with the WH-1000XX. Which means Sony took a more focused approach to style and comfort. But, not just that, there are also a lot of improvements across the board and a few exclusives & world firsts, which we will get into.

New Materials 

So some of the extra money goes towards the much more luxurious design, starting with more premium materials used on the earcup housing, pads and headband. I’m told that 2 years of R&D invested went into the development of these materials. So it’s entirely wrapped in this unique faux leather, which means no animals were killed in the making… so that’s good. The material could easily be mistaken for real leather; it feels nicer to the touch, which comes into play when using the gesture controls on the right earcups. With taps allowing you to play, pause & pick up calls, and swipes to skip tracks and lower and raise volume, and yes, it still has the very useful palm over the earcup to activate the talk-through mode… perfect for when you need to order another Gin and tonic on a plane.  In comparison to the padding material on the XM6, which is a smoother material, The Collexion pads use this new material, and they’re quite a bit more plush and softer on the skin. ( Pads are replaceable via customer service. )

The battery is also replaceable via the service centre. And a huge one up for the Collexion over the XM6 is that the materials are much more resistant to oils, which means they don't show any fingerprints. It’s kind of a big deal, if you’re familiar with black XM6 headphones… but maybe not so much for the new Sandstone colour they just released. Anyway… The cup sizes are slightly larger, the headband is slightly wider & the clamping force applies less side pressure. These are all upgrades to the comfort, also the padding up top is fuller and kind of fits the shape of your head and creates a wider surface area to better distribute the weight.  I can tell you right now, I thought the XM6 were some of the most comfy headphones I own…but these are noticeably more comfortable. Which is even more impressive because they are slightly heavier than the XM6, but there’s a good explanation for why.

New Button

Sony has also reinforced the USB-C port and headphone jack with metal, and that audio jack has some premium Sony Walkman tech behind it. That includes a Low-phase-noise crystal oscillator and advanced Gold solder. Put simply, Sony has optimised the components and circuitry to reduce the signal-to-noise ratio. Which is great news if you’re going to use the analogue cable a lot, and especially if you’re an audio purist who likes to use a separate HiRes DAC. They're also using metal for the power button, and noise cancelling button and the all-new listening mode button, which doesn’t exist on the XM6. And it’s this that could be the game changer, I mentioned, as it unlocks some unique features. I’ll explain that properly when we get to the app. Going back to the design, Sony has also managed to slim down the depth of the ear cups by 5.3mm without compromising the sound quality or comfort. They did this by splitting the battery to free up space. With the Collexion delivering up to 24 hours of battery life with ANC on, the XM6 are listed as up to 30 hours. Interestingly, I was actually able to get more than that, in fact, closer to 30 hours. And with noise cancelling off, you can get significantly more and if you’re not using Bluetooth and have ANC off, yes, even more. Yes, it’s slightly less than the XM5’s battery life, but 30hours in reality is more than enough for most people.

New Sound

And what might impress you the most is that Sony has made the comfort and style improvements, and at the same time has upgraded the sound. They’ve done this by fitting the Collexion headphones with all-new Bespoke 30mm Sony drivers. This is one of the two most significant upgrades to audio. Compared to the XM6 drivers that already sound amazing, the Collexion drivers have a softer edge, which increases flexibility, resulting in more bass when you need it. The centre of the driver is now firmer. They’re using a unidirectional carbon composite material on the dome, which is said to result in better responsiveness in the higher frequencies.  I’ll let you guys know my honest thoughts on the sound quality differences between these and the XM6 after the Mic & ANC test vs XM6. The second audio upgrade is unseen to the naked eye, but it’s the world's first, I mentioned, as these over-ear headphones are Sony’s first to use their new integrated V3 processor. This gives Collexion a better ability to process audio onboard the headphones without having to be connected to the app. All shall be revealed once we get to the new app features. Trust me, this is all good stuff, but the main difference to keep in mind here is that there are more options available. Another upgrade delivered by the new V3 processor is the introduction of DSEE Ultimate. It’s the first time Sony has used it on their ANC headphones. DSEE Ultimate is Sony’s latest and greatest AI audio upscaling algorithm, which comes into play when listening to lower-res compressed audio or older music recordings, or old movies. Put very simply, it’s designed to improve the audio and upscale it by filling in the missing gaps, and DSEE is also not app-dependent; it all happens inside the headphones. 

New Metal

And I’m sure you notice the most significant visible change. The upgraded and quite interesting metal hanger and stronger metal hinges. The headband has a matte sandblasted texture to it, which is true, but it’s the manufacturing of the hangers that’s most interesting. Each one is hand-polished and individually finished by skilled craftspeople.  Which sounds crazy, I’d love to know how long that process takes. Because they must have to shine the metal to a high gloss finish, then mask the Sony logo and then sandblast around it without marking up the hinge and sides of the hinge. It’s really quite impressive how they’ve done this. And they think that this is a finish that machines cannot achieve. Making this a good job to have when AI finally takes over the world. And like the XM6, the hinges do allow the earcups to swivel inwards and outwards, or you could have them halfway like I do. It’s great for hiding the double chin.

But one thing that’s different is that they don’t collapse down to fit into the case, and that's the reason why the case itself is different.  There are a couple of ways you can look at this redesign. You could say it’s like a little handbag, but I prefer to describe it as a giant knuckle duster. Either way, it's a hard shell case with a kind of denim texture. The handle makes it great for grabbing quickly or pulling it out of a backpack; it’s nice and slim, so it can slot into an aeroplane seat pocket. It’s got that nice magnetic buckle just like the XM6. Inside is a little cutout for your cables…It’s good, it's a good case. And just before we get into the mic and ANC tests. You should probably know that there are a total of 12 mics onboard that use multi-sensing technology. 4 Inside and 8 outside. And 6 of the beam-forming mics can be used for voice call pickup & of course, there are AI algorithms in place to isolate your voice and remove background noise & wind. So let’s test them out, and you let me know what you think.

Watch the video fro Mic Quality Test & the ANC test versus the XM6

App Features

Ok, now this is where the fun begins. The App, so on the face of things, the options are very similar to XM6. It shows the battery levels and codec being used. If you're on Android, it'll show LDAC for HiRes; you may need to switch that on in the BT settings manually, depending on your phone. You'll also see DSEE ultimate here when it's in use. However, it’s here in the listening modes section where you’ll find some new and exclusive features. This brings me nicely back to the new listening mode button. This button activates 360 upmix for music, movies, and games. Only the 360 Movie upmix was available on the XM6.  Essentially, the 360 upmix creates an effect that makes audio sound like it’s being played live in the room in front of you, and the movie mode gives you that feeling of actually sitting in a movie, and gaming upmix boosts frequencies so you get a better sense of direction when it comes to audio cues and makes everything sound more immersive. And it really works.

If you are the type of person who likes live music performances or watches a lot of movies on a plane, you’ll love this.  And it’s important you can go to all settings, controls and  ‘listening mode’ settings to pick and choose the ones you want mapped to the new button. Also, you should know adaptive ANC is available here, so the level of noise cancelling can adjust on the fly. So when things are extremely loud, it can adjust for that and turn down the ANC when it’s not needed so much. It’s effortless, as all good tech should be. Multipoint pairing is also available when you're not using LDAC, and you can customise wear detect and other power saving settings. There’s also the adaptive sound control feature that, if enabled, can learn about the normal noise levels in places you often visit and intelligently adjust for those locations. And there are lots of customisation options available when it comes to remapping the inputs, and quick access shortcuts can be mapped to double and triple pushes of the ANC button.

Now, something really important to know is that when you see that the EQ is turned off. That right there is the EQ that’s been tuned by Sony Koji Takamura, an acoustic engineer, in collaboration with Grammy award-winning sound engineers. I do wish they’d give this a more fitting name as opposed to ‘OFF’, where there are lots more options here, and of course, there is a manual EQ 10 Band to play with.

Sound Quality Vs XM6 Opinions

Ok, I literally A/B tested the XM6 with the Collexion. Here's my own opinion on the noticeable differences. First, I tried it out with a true Hi-Res Daft Punk FLAC track, not from streaming. Instantly, vocals sound cleaner and clearer, and there's no doubt there's more power in the bass. These are likely due to the new drivers that have a wider frequency response range. I then tested some very bass-heavy tracks, and there's no doubt the bass levels are deeper and more well-rounded, which is even more impressive when considering the XM6 bass output is one of the best out there. The best way to explain it is that you can feel the difference in bass straight away.

I then tried them both with an opera track, and while the soundstage and vocals are fantastic on both. You can definitely hear a much better separation between the vocalists and instruments on the Collexion, and honestly, the new Music 360 up-mix feature works amazingly well here. I genuinely think it can improve. the listening experience for live, less synthesised performances. It's surprisingly good. It seems to add even more separation between the orchestra and singers and significantly opens up the soundstage. I tried a few tracks without vocals and really focused on listening to the different instruments. There's a marked improvement in regards to definition, detail and bass. For live performances, I couldn't notice much clearer instrumental sounds, and breaths. And yeah, I had to test out a classic old school nineties dance track from the Prodigy. Which, when it drops, can get quite noisy. And again, the better range and separation don't blend all the sounds together as much.

So Sony says these are their best ANC Sony headphones to date. And I agree. Are worth the extra two hundred plus pounds. Well, here's what I think. If you are the type of person who buys a pair of headphones and keeps them for 3 or more years, when you break it down, they'll cost you just 20p per day. In exchange, you get a more classy-looking, more comfortable-fitting pair of headphones. With equally capable and arguably market-leading noise-cancelling. Noticeably better sound in regards to soundstage, clarity and bass. And you get the new sound modes, which are much better than I thought they'd be. DSEE Ultimate is onboard the headphones that work even when you're not listening on your phone. And of course, the Sony world’s first knuckle duster case, and just so you know, they’re available in platinum black and platinum white. But you know I would have wanted to see a midnight blue 

Welcome to WhatGear Reviews for a side-by-side comparison between the Poco X8 Pro Max and the Poco X8 Pro. You might be trying to decide which one of these would be better for you. And by the end of this video, you will know. So let's start with price. The Poco X8 Pro starts at £289 and goes all the way up to £349 if you need that additional storage. The X8 Pro Max is, of course, a bit more expensive. It starts at £359 and goes all the way up to £400.

Colourways available here are white, black, and blue, and Poco have very kindly sent me the X8 Pro Max in white and the regular Pro in black. So both phones have metal frames, which is quite surprising, especially on the more affordable one. But there is a difference when it comes to the material on the back. So the Pro model actually has a glass back. Again, this is quite a surprise for a phone at this price, but the back on the more expensive Pro Max is, in fact, fibreglass.

When it comes to dimensions, the X8 Pro Max is slightly wider. It's also slightly taller. But interestingly, the Pro Max, with the natural metal frame that you see here, is a tiny bit thinner than the Pro. And Poco have done a really good job of keeping the build quality and the design language pretty much the same on both phones despite the price gap. Both phones have this really nice red accent colour on the power button. I think it looks really nice on the black model. Both models have this rounded corner design, which is pretty much identical. So you'll notice the camera modules are pretty much identical. However, there is an additional flash here on the Pro Max. And also, if you look closely at the Pro Max, there are these really nice and subtle racing lines embedded underneath the surface that you can only really see when the light hits it a certain way, whereas the Pro is just completely matte black, or one colour. And actually, just looking at the two phones right now, I do kind of prefer the look of this one with the black and red accent on the side.

Now, here's an interesting difference. This is the top of the phone. You'll notice on the Pro Max that there is a speaker grille and a mic hole. On the Pro, there's in fact an IR blaster and a mic hole. And despite the fact that it doesn't have a speaker grille, it does still have stereo speakers. The difference here on the Pro is, of course, the fact that the speaker is the earpiece, whereas the Pro Max does have that dedicated element.Now, on the base of the phone, you'll notice there is another speaker grille, and both phones have this. They both have the same USB-C port and the same SIM tray. However, there is a difference on the Pro Max because this phone does support eSIM, whereas the Pro doesn't. And there's a really awesome design feature here built into the camera module on both phones. It is the RGB backlighting system that can be customised with eight different colours. It can work with notifications when you're gaming, and they can even keep in rhythm with music playing on the device.

And big props to Poco because both of these phones are very durable. They have the SGS five-star rating for crush, bend, and drop tests. So here is a significant difference that you need to know about. On the Pro Max model, you do get an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner, which is much more secure and superior to the optical scanner used on the Pro model. Also, when you look at the two devices, you'll notice the optical scanner on the Pro is much lower down, whereas the ultrasonic scanner is higher up. Also, I have noticed that the ultrasonic seems a bit quicker and a bit more reliable than the optical scanner in the Pro. Let's talk about the displays. Straight away, you'll notice there is, of course, a difference in screen size. Also, you'll notice the bezels on the Pro model are slightly wider, especially near the lower end of the phone, where the chin is just a little bit thicker than everywhere else. Of course, there's a difference in screen size: 6.83 inches on the Pro Max and 6.59 inches on the Pro model. Surprisingly to me, both displays are 12-bit with 68 billion colours supported. And check this out — both panels are 120Hz. They both support HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and 3500 nits when measured in a 25% window.

And when it comes to eye strain, there are a bunch of TÜV Rheinland certifications, as well as 3840Hz PWM dimming, and they also support Wet Touch 2.0. So if your hands are wet and you're trying to touch the screen, there is some software to counteract any mistakes on the display. I have heard some people say that off-axis viewing is different on the two phones, but I personally haven't noticed that on either of these devices. And both of these are M10 displays, which boast a 20% efficiency boost over other AMOLEDs, which, to be honest, these phones probably don't need that much because the batteries are insane. Poco are using silicon carbon batteries here, and the Pro model has a 6500mAh battery, which is impressive, but it's a little less impressive when you compare it to the 8500mAh silicon-carbon battery in the Pro Max, which is just mind-blowing.

Now, just for context, so you know how impressive the battery size is in here, right here, I have a dedicated power bank. This one is 5300mAh. And yeah, that's significantly less than what's in this phone. And look how chunky this is. And it's also pretty damn heavy, too. And this is why silicon-carbon batteries are so good. They can pack so much power into such a thin frame. And we're literally at the point where phone batteries are rivalling dedicated power banks. Now, here are some more similarities. Both phones support 100W fast charging and 27W wired reverse charging. However, it is a little bit unfortunate that neither phone supports wireless charging. I guess that's one of the things they had to scale back in order to keep the costs low. So it's been a pretty close contest at this point, but this is where the Pro Max starts to widen the gap, and it is in regard to the chipset. So the Pro Max uses the MediaTek 9500S, which is second from the top, I believe, in MediaTek's lineup right now. It is a 3nm chip with a clock speed of 3.75GHz. The Poco X8 Pro uses the MediaTek 8500 Ultra. This is a 4nm chip and is still very powerful and very efficient, but the clock speed is significantly lower at 3.4GHz.

And to give you a better understanding of the difference between the two chips, the Pro Max performs 36% better in an AnTuTu benchmark, and on a single core, it is 56% faster than the Pro's chip. Also, the GPU in the Pro Max is considerably better, and it also has a better name. It's called Immortalis. Now hidden from the human eye is the same LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 4.1 storage. Also, beneath the surface, there is a difference which probably nobody's told you about yet, but I'm going to show you with this. The 3D IceLoop cooling system on both these phones is the same. However, the Pro Max 3D cooling loop is around 9.4% bigger. So what I'm going to do is run a 3DMark 20-minute benchmark test on both of these phones at exactly the same time, and then do a thermal scan afterwards so you can see the difference in heat dissipation.

Now, something to keep in mind is that the more powerful chip will likely get hotter because it is more powerful. So maybe the slightly lower performance on the Pro model will balance out the results when it comes to thermals. But yeah, there's only one way to find out. Let's run the benchmark. Okay, so with the thermal readout on the Pro Max phone, it did get very, very hot — 47.6 degrees — and heat is spreading down, but not as quickly as you would want. But of course, it did still outperform the Pro model. Now let's get a look at the thermals on the Pro. So interestingly, the temperature didn't rise quite as high on the Pro model. It reached just 43 degrees, and the heat seems to be spreading down a bit quicker. Also, you'll notice when you look at the graphs here, after the second loop, the Pro actually throttled the performance, and then again around the ninth or tenth loop it throttled again to keep the heat as low as possible, whereas the Pro Max was running consistently faster and therefore generating more heat.

Something else that might have played into this is the different material used on the back. Maybe the glass dissipates heat better than fiberglass. So long story short, the Pro Max is definitely more powerful, and it can run faster. However, it does run hotter than the Pro. Now let's talk about the cameras. So there is a difference. Even though both phones have 50MP sensors on the primary camera and both have an aperture of f/1.56 with six plastic lenses, and both can shoot 4K 60fps video with that main camera, the actual sensor itself is different. So on the Pro Max it's a more premium Light Fusion 600 image sensor. The image sensor on the Pro is the same size, same aperture, same number of lenses; it is the Sony IMX882. The selfie cameras on both phones are 20MP. And something else you need to keep in mind is the chipsets actually play a part in the image processing, so that can affect the camera performance.

So here are a couple of side-by-side shots with these two phones so you can see the difference for yourself.

Now, when it comes to software, out of the box, both phones are rocking HyperOS 3, which is running on Android 16. And both phones will get four years of OS updates and six years of security patches, which means you could keep either one for a pretty long time without ever having to worry about security or missing out on some of the latest features. And if you'd like to see a more in-depth camera test with these phones versus other phones, do let me know about that in the comments, and I will try my best to make them for you. Now, here are my final thoughts when it comes to deciding between these two phones. The price gap is £80 at the low end, but just £50 at the top end. And for that extra £50 you get better performance, a much bigger battery, better cameras, and a slightly more refined design. However, something you won't get with the more expensive phone, which you do get with the more affordable one, is this: the 100W charging brick. So you might want to factor the cost of one of those into your decision. I like both these phones. I'm really impressed with what Poco have done with the design.

And it looks like this. So what I'm getting at is, if you don't consider yourself a master of the AI Select tool yet, don't worry, because if you stick around to the end of this video, you will be. You will be. Now, if you don't have the Edge panel, you don't see it. Here's how you activate it. Go into the Settings on your phone, scroll down to Display, and then on this page, about halfway down, you will see Edge panels right here. Make sure this is switched on. And now you should see this little line at the edge of the screen. And if you're wondering why my line is purple, that's because I customised it. I do explain how to do that in my Customisation Tips and Tricks guide. I'll link that at the end anyway. Now, let's get into tip number one.

TEMPORARY TICKETS

Have you ever had to use an app that creates a QR code or a barcode, for example, like a boarding pass from an airline app? However, at the very moment when you need to show it to get through, the app doesn't load, you have no data, and for whatever reason, you can't bring up the pass. And now everybody in the queue is getting mad at you. Well, you can avoid all of that with this tip. So ahead of time, you can bring up that QR code, barcode or ticket for an event within the app. With it open, if you hold your finger down on the Edge panel, this is a quick shortcut to activate AI Select. Now you can select the pass that you need, and at the bottom of the page, you will see a little pin icon. So if you tap that, that pops that bit of information out of the app. Now, as you can see, it's taking up half of my screen, and it's getting in the way of everything.

And obviously, I'm not going to be using my phone like this. So what I'm going to do is tap on the image and hit the two inward arrows down here. And that shrinks it right down into this little floating bubble. This can then be easily moved out of the way and placed anywhere on your home screen. And when you get to the gate, and you need to show the ticket, you can just expand it very quickly, scan it, and get through without all the extra stress. Now, when you're finished with it, you can tap on it again and hit the little cross at the bottom to get rid of it forever. If you want to keep it, you can hit the download icon just here to save it to your gallery.

QUICK MARK-UPS

In some scenarios, you might need to elaborate on a point or highlight a key piece of information. Now you could spend some time writing out a full explanation, but don't you know a picture is worth a thousand words? So next time you need to convey a message, you could do this instead. Bring up an image related to the information you want to convey. Bring out the AI Select tool. Once you've done that, select the area, and at the bottom, you'll see the little crop tool with a pen next to it.

If you tap on that, you will then see the marker tool, and when you tap on this, you get a full selection of pens and paintbrushes to use, and you can select all the colours and even open up the colour spectrum. So choose your pen, choose your colour, and then mark up the image. You can then share this piece of information using the share button down here with whoever you like.

EXTRACT THE UNEXTRACTABLE

Now, the problem with images sometimes is that they hold important details, and sometimes the text within the image cannot be copied because the image is flat. Now, while you could screenshot the image, import it into your gallery, and extract the text that way, there is a much easier way with AI Select. So once again, I'm going to hold my finger down on the Edge panel right here to activate the AI Select button very quickly. I'm going to select the image that has the text in it. And in the top left corner, right here, you'll see the little “T” icon. If you tap on that, that highlights all of the text in the image. You can then select a smaller area if you want to. But let's say all of the information here is what I need. What I can now do is hit the copy button down here. And once you do that, it copies it to your clipboard, and it can then be pasted anywhere else on your device.

UN-DOWNLOADABLE WALLPAPERS

Have you ever been looking online for the perfect wallpaper for your phone, and when you finally find it, it won't let you download it unless you pay for it, or watch a thousand ads first? Well, that problem is solved with AI Select, because you can just do this. So once you've found an image that you want to use as a wallpaper — for example, let's say this one right here

you can activate AI Select, select the image, and straight away, if the image can be cropped into the right size for your phone screen, you can hit the three dots in the top right corner here and set it as your wallpaper. And it really is that simple. Now, this next use case is quite similar to the wallpaper trick that I just showed you. But let's say you don't want to set it as a wallpaper and you just want the image for later. Well, here's how you can do that.

GRAB ANYTHING FROM ANYWHERE

So let's say you found an image that you want to keep on your device. Again, we can either swipe out and tap AI Select, or hold our finger down on the Edge panel. This will highlight the screen. Select the image that you want, and instead of setting it as a wallpaper this time, you can just hit the little download button. That then saves that image to the Gallery. And this works even if the image is undownloadable.

RE-WRITE ANYTHING

Now, have you ever been online and read a phrase in an online article, or a paragraph in an e-book, or found a quote that you really like, and maybe you thought about including it in your own writing somehow? Well, here's a smart way to grab text from anywhere and modify it without ever having to write a single word. And it's so easy, it almost seems unfair. Let's take this quote here from Winston Churchill. If we hold our finger down on the Edge panel again and select the image that holds the quote, you can then hit the little text tool in the top left corner.

This will highlight the text. Now you'll see the Writing Assist option pop up above the image. Tap on this, and this brings up all of the writing tools that Galaxy AI has to offer. Now you can go to Writing Style, and it will analyse that text and give you other ways to say the same thing. Once you're happy with the selected text, you can either edit it down here and add your own spin, or you can just hit copy and paste it into your own work. And I'm sure you can see how this could be useful.

IMPROVE ANYONE’S PHOTOS

Now here is a fun one. Let's say a family member or friend sends you a nice photo. But the problem is that there are a bunch of photobombers in the image, or there are objects in the image which are distracting. Now, while you could save that image to your Gallery, go to the editing tools, go to the AI tools, and go from there — that, to me, sounds like a lot of work, especially if I don't even want to keep the image on my device. So here's an alternative way to do that very quickly and then send the improved image back to them. So once again, bring out the AI Select tool — that will analyse this picture. At the top of the image, you should see Photo Assist. This activates all of the Photo Assist tools that are normally only available within your Samsung Gallery app. But now you can make modifications to this image in an instant without ever having to save it to your device.

At the top of the screen here, you'll see the suggested erases. This will analyse the picture and detect things that it thinks are distracting. And as you can see, all of the people have been highlighted. I can then hit Erase, and there we go — they are gone. Now, let's say I want to make this image a bit more dramatic. If I go to Keep editing, I can then use the Create tool down here, which is similar to another tool that I'm going to show you in a minute, where you can write whatever you want in the text box underneath. And there we go — it has added an elephant in front of Five Guys. Now, if I wanted to, I could save this to my device and store it in my Gallery. But if I don't want to do that, I could just hit Share and then send it straight back to them.

Artistic Renditions

Let's say you want to create a meme or something like that, or you just want to make somebody laugh. Here's a quick way you can create some unique artwork from just about anything online in an instant. So let's take this picture of Samuel L. Jackson with this very tasty burger. Activate AI Select and choose the image that we want to recreate. Above the image, you should see the Creative Studio tool. Tap on this.

So within Creative Studio, you can tap where it says 3D Cartoon, which is the default, and change the style if you want to. I'm just going to go with 3D Cartoon for this one and hit Generate. And there we go — we have a custom version of that image, which we can use to create our own meme or share with someone just for a laugh. And if, for whatever reason, you're not happy with the result here, if you swipe across, you can give it another go.

Insert images

So sometimes it's useful to add infographics to your work. But the problem with this is that some apps make it pretty difficult to do. So let me show you how you can quickly add an infographic or an image into your work very easily using AI Select. So let's say, for example, this image right here — this was the face that I pulled when I found out I couldn't go to Five Guys before going to see Project Hail Mary in the cinema, and instead had to go to a healthy restaurant.

Anyway, what you can do is activate the AI Select tool, tap the image that you want to import into your own work, hit the little copy button underneath, and save the image to the clipboard. Now you can go back to your own work, select an area where you want to paste it, and then you should see the Paste option right here. And there we go — that's how you can add images and infographics into your own work very easily.

Location Detection

Now, has anyone ever sent you a screenshot of an address, or a picture with an address in it that you need to get to? If so, instead of copying and pasting or trying to extract the text, there is actually a quicker way to start your navigation straight from there. What you can do is open up the image that has the address in it, activate AI Select to highlight the bit of the image that has the address, and I think somewhere down here it says London Wembley.

So I'm just going to tap there. And even though it hasn't got the full address, it intelligently knows where Wembley Stadium is. And straight away, above it, you see the little map icon. If you tap on this, that will prompt you to then open up your navigation app of choice. So straight away, you can navigate to that location.

Send them a GIF

I did show this in part four of my five-part Galaxy S26 Tips and Tricks series, but it's so good I figured I might as well show you again since it does relate to the AI Select tool. So let's say you want to send a meme to someone, but you can't find the exact one you're looking for. Aligned with AI Select, you can just create one. For example, let's take this one right here. If we open up the video, activate AI Select, go to the video window and hit the three dots on the right side, you'll then see the option to create a GIF.

You'll now see the record button underneath, and you can even adjust the quality of the capture as well. Now, just before the scene is about to start, you need to hit the record button — so you have to time this right. Tap the record button, and once the meme has been captured, hit Stop. And there we go — we've created the Terminator smile meme. We can then hit the download button, or share it, or even copy and paste it into another app.

Extract & Create a Table

Alright, so remember how I showed you how you could paste images into your work — for example, infographics and things like that — to add to your own work? Only this time, we're going to show you how to do it in a table format, which could be extremely useful in certain scenarios. So, for example, right here, it might be the greatest jerk chicken recipe that you can find online. And in this scenario, let's say I want to keep a record of this in a nice, tidy format. What I can do is use AI Select, select all of the text for the recipe right here, use the text tool right here to select everything, and then I'm going to go to the Writing Assist tools.

Now you'll see the option underneath to create a table with the extracted text. And as you can see, it's created this really nice table, which I can paste into my own notes or a Word doc or whatever. And there's a little bonus feature here that I want to show you guys. When you select stuff like this, if the measurements are not what you're used to, with the AI Select tool, if there are certain measurements — for example, in this case it's using pounds instead of grams — you might see the convert option here to show you the conversions of what you actually need for this particular recipe.

Send Location

Here is a question for you. Has anyone ever sent you an invitation, and on the invitation, it has a date and time and location, but again, because it's a flat image, you can't instantly extract the text very easily? Well, with the AI Select tool, you can do this super simply. And just for example, let's go back to this. There are loads of dates and locations on here, so I'm going to try and pick one using the AI Select tool.

So I'm going to highlight the whole screen, I'm going to choose one of these down here, and straight away you'll see there's the option to add to calendar. This will automatically grab that date and that location in some scenarios, and also the time if it's listed, and give you the option to add it instantly to your calendar of choice. Obviously, this works a lot better when there aren't like 20 different locations and 20 different dates. But yeah, you get the idea.

Make it Make Sense

Alright, here is another very useful tool. When you're abroad, or someone sends you a flyer or an event poster or something that has loads of foreign text on it, and again, without importing it into your Gallery or using Gemini or ChatGPT to decode it, you can just use the AI Select tool to do this. So let's say, for example, this is what someone has sent me. I have no idea what all this stuff says. What I need to do is use the AI Select tool that highlights the whole screen, and straight away, you'll see the Translate option pop up at the bottom that overlays the English text on top of where the foreign text was. And in this case, Korean text. It's super simple, it's quick, and it's very effective.

Freeze Frame Trick

This might be the most unknown and underutilised feature of them all, and it works great with short-form content. So next time you're binge-watching short-form stuff and melting your mind, if you happen to see a funny frame within that video that you want to capture — maybe you want to turn it into a meme, or you just find it particularly eye-catching — you can use this. We have a video playing. Go past the point where you spotted the image that you want to grab, then hold the AI Select button here, and at the bottom, you will see the rewind tool. It will pause the video, and if you tap the rewind button, you will see a bunch of frames that you can grab and instantly extract from that short-form video.

It does work on long-form video — you do need to turn your phone sideways if you want to do that. Once you find the image that you want, you can just select it, and that then grabs the image and brings up the rest of the tools for you to play with, like Photo Assist, Creative Studio, the editing markup tools, the download, the share, the copy — all of the stuff that I've shown you in this video. And if you really want to, you could even create a GIF right here.

​This phone is designed for Sony fans. If you use a Sony camera as I do, you’ll appreciate it even more. And if you’re a content creator, Sony has a few secret weapons for you, too. Which I think you’ll want to see. And let’s not forget how Sony became the multi-billion-dollar corporation they are: it was originally due to their audio game… and that expertise comes into play here on the Xperia 1 Mark 8 too. And I will say now, there is one thing that’s really surprised me whilst dailying the Xperia 1 Mark 8 over the last ten days… we’ll get to that shortly.

​Design

​So let’s talk about the evolution of the Xperia 1 design. Previous models had this kind of dimpled back glass and ridged metal frame. This has been overhauled with what they are calling their Ore design, which is texture-inspired by natural materials and raw gemstones.  

​The back is still glass, but you wouldn’t know it by touch. It almost feels like suede when you run your fingers across it. It’s really nice… and check this out. It’s not a fingerprint magnet at all, and if you scratch it, the marks simply wipe off. And something you might only notice if you’re a true Xperia fan is that there’s no NFC logo this year… but don’t worry, it is still here.

​This same texture is carried over to the maybe biggest change to the Xperia 1's design: the new square camera module. When I saw the early leaks, I wasn’t sure I liked them. But, seeing it in real life… I really like it.

​You got a nice bit of subtle Sony branding here. It still has the rear-facing mic, which is fantastic for video, as you probably already know, and the rear-facing luminance sensor is still here. I’ll explain why this is kind of a big deal later in the video. And of course, there’s a good reason for this bigger camera module, and it's because there’s one big change to the telephoto camera this year.

​The Mark 7 had a 12MP sensor with a shifting optical lens for telephotos. The sensor is now larger and 48MP, with a prime fixed-focal-length lens. You will see it in action at the London Zoo, so definitely stick around for the camera test if you want to see how good it is.

Going back to the design, Impressively, somehow Sony has managed to apply the same Ore texture to the aluminium frame. So unlike most phones, which usually have two-tone textures, this one just has a unified, very unique feel. And something I’ve never seen before on an Xperia is this area just above the volume rocker, which I had initially hoped was a mappable capacitive touch area. However, I do believe it might be part of the newly improved antenna setup. As Sony mentioned, there has been a marked improvement in wireless signal strengths.

​Of course it’s still IP68 rated and all the Sony fan favourite features are still, like the tool-less hybrid sim tray that allows you to add up to 2TB of SD memory expansion, the side-mounted fingerprint scanner, which is also the power button, the dedicated camera button, which a lot of brands seem to be copying these days. As well as the Walkman tech headphone jack with gold solder for peak, latency-free audio performance via a wire. Front-facing full-stage stereo speakers only. Sony says that they’re 12% louder than the Mark 7’s and have more bass. I ran a little experiment against the iPhone 17 Pro Max in the video

​Something else that makes it uncommon among ordinary phones is its uninterrupted display, no notch and no punch holes. Just one beautifully Bravia-calibrated display.

Display

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Which is, I'm told, the same 6.5” FHD+ 120Hz LTPO panel that was used on the Mark 7. They haven’t gone back to 21:9; they’ve stuck with the 19.5:9 ratio that we first saw on the Mark 6. Sony doesn’t disclose the official peak brightness stats; we do know that the highest brightness measured on the  Xperia 1 Mark 7 is 1520 nits. That’s only achieved when the luminance light sensor recognises an extremely bright light condition. And because there's one on the front and one on the back, this makes the phone display vastly more energy efficient, and even more so because it’s an LTPO display that can dim to just 1Hz when idle.

​And something that Sony is a specialist at is their display colours and picture processing. And that brings me on to the display features, which use an all-new AI colour table. The Bravia Creator Mode is still here, perfectly calibrated for movies and for shooting photos and videos on the phone or with a Sony camera. The real-time HDR drive and video image enhancement features are here. If you choose to turn off the adaptive colours, you can calibrate your own.

​While there are certainly more dense and faster displays out there right now. There are really three big wins for Sony here. Power efficiency, accurate colours, and an uninterrupted panel are a big part of the viewing experience in most cases, and with this one, because the speakers face you, it’s very difficult to accidentally mute them with your hands.

​Camera

​Let’s clarify the main camera changes: The primary camera now uses a larger 1/1.28” 52MP sensor with a 48MP effective area and improved stabilisation. The ultra-wide lens remains a 16mm lens with a 1/1.56” sensor, a major upgrade from last year. The telephoto lens now features a new 48MP sensor, larger than before and a fixed focal length for better detail.

​The sensor size is, in fact, the same as the current iPhone flagship primary camera. However, the 16mm Ultra-wide. Is 167% larger than the iPhone's ultrawide sensor, with its size of 1/1.56”. This was the big camera upgrade Sony made to the Mark 7 last year.

​The big upgrade this year is a new 48MP telephoto sensor. Unlike the previous Mark 7’s smaller, shifting lens setup, this telephoto is the same size as the ultra-wide sensor and is four times larger than before, offering better quality and detail.

​Alright, now it’s time to head to London Zoo to get a look. And I’ll throw in a few cheeky side-by-side shots with the iPhone so you can judge the camera quality for yourself. Loop 1 close

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24mm Wide / 48mm Standard: This primary lens uses an Exmor T™ for mobile 1/1.28-inch sensor with 48MP resolution and a brighter f/1.9 aperture.

​16mm Ultra-wide: Equipped with an Exmor RS™ for mobile 1/1.56-inch sensor, featuring 48MP resolution and an f/2.0 aperture.

​70mm/140mm Telephoto Zoom: Features the new Exmor RS™ for mobile 1/1.56-inch sensor (48MP) with an f/2.8aperture.

​Optics: The lenses continue to feature ZEISS T* coating to reduce reflections and improve contrast.

​

Thanks to the upgraded ISP, the Xperia can now use RAW multi-frame technology for much better HDR performance and better noise reduction in low light.  Also, the Macro mode is now available on all lenses, and the macro range goes from 15cm down to just 4cm if you need it. Also, Sony says it's improved the bokeh effect, making it more natural.

Let me know in the comments what you thought of the camera quality on the Xperia 1 Mark 8. Does it exceed your expectations? Ultimately, does it make the Xperia a true contender for your next phone? Your feedback will help others decide if this phone stands out from the competition.

​There’s definitely a part of me that would have liked to see how that new telephoto sensor would perform with the sliding lens setup on the previous model…but, instead of the 140mm zoom with sensor crop. I guess maybe Sony is saving that for the next one. If you’re wondering about the selfie camera, it is the exact same sensor and lens used on the Mark. Actually, it hasn’t changed for a while now. While some might wish for updates, Sony clearly believes the current setup delivers consistent quality.

​Now, something really nice and new regarding the camera UI is Sony’s new AI assistant, which appears as this little pop-up window. Essentially, when you’re lining up a shot, you can choose the perfect colour profile that you want. So you can quickly select the most realistic colours based on what your eyes can see, or, on the flip side, stylise it.

​Something else that’s really nice about the auto mode is that at any point you can hit this little icon to access the colour controls and use the sliders to get everything perfect, and once you’ve done that, you can even register that profile for quick recall later on. So if you’re doing lots of shots in a single location with consistent lighting, this could be very useful.

​You’ve also got the AI camera work feature that lets you film a wide and vertical video at the same time, and the phone will create two separate files. This is created for short-form creators. And there’s also the Auto framing feature, which allows the phone to track a subject by cropping to parts of the video to keep the subject perfectly framed in the centre. Again, another awesome creator tool.

​The pro photo and video modes are still here, which I’m sure anyone who's used a Sony camera will be very familiar with. You can shoot in 4K 120Hz on all three rear cameras. Focus peaking, face and eye autofocus, HDR, and even Sony's exclusive S-Cinetone are all available here & also work across all the cameras.

​In the Photo Pro app, you have a ton of settings to play with. And something quite nice is that you can turn off computational photography. So if you are more of a purist, I think you might appreciate that feature. We don't often get this option on phones these days. And of course, the continuous shooting modes are available for rapid-fire shots. Eye and face tracking do work with the fastest Hi+ drive mode.

Power & Performance

​Alright, let's talk about power and performance. As many suspected, this Xperia 1 Mark 8 is using the latest Qualcomm Flagship at the time of release. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. 12GB of RAM is standard. The storage is 256GB, which is ok…but if you need more, there’s another option. The Gold model comes with 1TB & 16GB RAM, but you know how much you’ll need if you want that one it’ll cost an extra £350.

​Performance has been very good here. I’ve had no issues with it at all. And that Snapdragon 8 Elite is enough to blitz through almost any game without breaking a sweat. And Sony has equipped it with a vapour cooling chamber for good measure. This also helps during those longer 4K shooting sessions.

​The game enhancer is also a bit of a game changer with lots of tools to improve your gameplay. I do wish Sony would allow for the shutter button to be mapped to a trigger action here, but that's unfortunately not possible. However, it can take screenshots. HS power passthrough is definitely handy for longer gaming sessions, as you can run the phone on mains power without charging, which keeps it cooler for longer.

​Battery

​This brings me nicely to what surprised me about the Xperia 1VIII. The battery is 5000 mAh, a pretty standard size for smartphones these days. The charging speed is 30 Watts, and the wireless charging is 15 Watts; it’s not the fastest. However, the battery life is crazy. I’ve gone nearly two full days without having to worry about recharging. Screen on time easily over 6 hours. And I’ve not had issues with the phone overly dimming the screen to save power or anything like that. So yeah, I’m impressed. Loop 2 close

​And the argument for the slower charging speed, which takes around an hour and a half to recharge, is that it’s better for battery health in the long run. And on top of that, Sony promises 4 years of healthy battery life (80% capacity) & 4 years of Android updates and 6 years of security patches.

​

Software

​If you’ve watched other stuff on my channel, you’ll know I do like my software features. There are some good little gems here. But I will say Sony doesn't seem to be leaning into its AI tools much. Things like generative image tools and the fun little AI feature. If you want that kind of stuff, I guess you’ll just have to create those via your preferred AI apps here. They’ve kept the operating system very clean and very stock Android.

​A couple of differences here are that the shutter button can be used to take screenshots, unlike the annoying button on the combo that most phones use. I like the squared quick settings buttons, and there are some interesting options here that I haven't seen on other Androids. Including this select-to-speak option, where you can highlight text and have it read to you.

​You can remap the double-tap on the power button to open the wallet. I did that straight away. The side sense is an interesting one; there's a bit of technique to it, but it’s pretty good. You can create an app shortcut here with a swipe down, and it also allows you to create pop-up windows, split screens, and get quick access to Sony’s Sound Connect app controls.

​And on the topic of audio, I’ve been testing this phone with a device that I think you guys will be very interested in discussing. I can say no more on that at this point… but trust me, I think you’re going to like it. So definitely subscribe with notifications on, if you’re intrigued.

​Oh, and that bit of good news about the price: at the time of this video, if you decide to buy the Mark 8, Sony is throwing in their incredible noise-cancelling headphones, the WH1000-XM6, for free. They retail for £329 on Sony's website right now. So that's. And do let me know in the comments if you want to see a dedicated camera comparison with the Xperia 1VIII and which phones you’d like to see it up against.

NO PEEKING

You don't want people to be able to read your private notifications and messages, right? Well, if that's the case, then you definitely want to do this. Go into your Settings and then scroll down to Notifications. Right near the top, you will find Hide content when locked. Tap on this and make sure you enable Hide when locked. With this on, you'll still be alerted to notifications, although they won't be able to be read until you unlock your device.

DON’T BECOME PHISH FOOD

So I'm assuming you do know that whenever you connect to someone else's Wi-Fi or a public hotspot, your data can easily be intercepted by anyone else on that same network. Well, it is true, but it won't be if you use this pre-installed Samsung security feature. Here's how you access it. Go into your Settings. Scroll down to Security and Privacy. On this page, scroll all the way down until you see More security settings, and right at the top of this page, you will see Secure Wi-Fi. If you tap on this, essentially, what this is is an official Samsung VPN that's free to use. Although this is completely free to use for Samsung owners, there is a data cap, and that data cap is 1GB. And it's for that reason I don't recommend you turn on the Auto Protect Wi-Fi feature, because you'll burn through that 1GB super quickly.

So what I recommend you do is bring down the quick settings, hit the pen at the top, and at the bottom of this screen, you will see Add control. If you tap on this, scroll down until you see the Connection section, and here you will find the Secure Wi-Fi button. Add this to your quick settings. If this sounds like it's going to be a feature that you're going to be using a lot, you could make it bigger, and you could drag it near the top of your quick settings. That way, it's much easier to find in the future. And then next time, whenever you connect to a coffee shop hotspot or Wi-Fi hotspot or anything like that, you can switch on your Secure Wi-Fi very quickly from your quick settings. Essentially, what this does with your private data when you are using these Wi-Fi networks is that it will KEEP IT SECRET.

LOCK THE DOOR

Do you have important documents, for example, backup codes or other sensitive information, on your phone? If the answer to that is yes, then you absolutely, positively need to be using this. Jump into your Settings again. We're going to scroll down to the Security and Privacy section. Again, we're going to scroll down till we see More security settings. And then right here you will find this: the Secure Folder. This essentially creates a folder on your device which has a secondary PIN number that adds an extra layer of security to your most private and personal files. Now, once you've entered an exclusive PIN number for your Secure Folder, what I recommend you do at the top is enable biometrics. This will just make it much easier to access in the future, so make sure you enable that. And then once you've done that, come back to your home screen. Now you might be wondering, how do I access the Secure Folder? How do I put files into the Secure Folder? Well, there are a couple of ways to do it. The easiest way by far, in my opinion, is this: just like we did before with Secure Wi-Fi, if you bring down your quick settings, hit the pen here, and go to Add control. Within this list of quick buttons, you should see the Security section. If you keep scrolling down, you will eventually find it, and you will find the Secure Folder quick setting. Again, you can make this a bit bigger and move it around on your quick settings page so that it's easy to get to. Once you've done that, hit Done.

Now that you've set up the Secure Folder, here's how you can move things into it. So there are a couple of methods. Let's say it's a photo or video. What you can do is go into your Gallery, find that photo or video, and hit the three dots in the top right corner, and then go to Move to Secure Folder. And it now exists behind lock and key within that folder. Now, let's say it's a document you want to move, like a PDF or a text file that has code on it. What you need to do is use Samsung's My Files app. It will look like this. It is pre-installed on your device. You might want to add it to one of your home screens. Jump into this. So, for example, let's say it's a document like this, a PDF. What you need to do is hold your finger down on that PDF, and then at the bottom, you'll see the three dots. Hit that, and here you will see the option to Move to Secure Folder. Very important: you know that if you copy to the Secure Folder, the original stays in place. But if you move it, it actually moves the file entirely into the Secure Folder so that it's not accessible through the regular My Files app anymore. And via the same app, you can actually move photos and videos as well. You can locate them via the browser or by tapping on internal storage.

COPY ALERTS

Have you ever copied a passcode or a PIN code to paste it into an app or web page to log in again? If you've answered yes, you need to take a look at this. Go into your Settings. Once again, we're going to go down to Security and Privacy. And this time, we're going to scroll all the way to the bottom to where you see Controls and Alerts.

Some people might not know this, but when you copy stuff to your clipboard, it actually remains there for a while. And this can pose a risk if someone can access that copied data. And that's exactly why you might want to switch this on. In fact, I don't see any downside to switching this on: Alert when clipboard is accessed.

STAY READY

Have you ever heard the saying that you need to stay ready so that you don't have to get ready? Well, here's a serious question for you. I think what I'm saying is that sometimes shit happens. Someone has to deal with it. And who are you going to call? So here is how to get ready and be prepared for the worst, so that in the blink of an eye, you can send out the bat signal when you need some backup. Go to your Settings and then scroll down to Safety and Emergency. Go to Emergency SOS. At the bottom of this page, you'll see Send SOS to emergency contacts. Now, I don't know what country you're watching this in, but if you're in the UK, you probably know you're more likely to get arrested for a social media post than for the police to show up and help you if there is an actual emergency. So you might want to add more than one contact here.

So to do this, you just need to go to Emergency Contacts. Add all your contacts here, where it says Add emergency contacts. Also, if you scroll down, you'll see the option to Share during emergency calls and texts. Essentially, what this does is it sends all your medical information to your emergency contacts. Let's say you've taken a fall or you've been in a car crash or something like that — that's when that could be handy. Now, if we go back, there are some more steps to this, which are optional. So if you want to, you can add Attach pictures. So when you trigger this SOS feature, it will capture photos and even recordings if you switch these two on. You do have to give it permissions, so definitely think about doing that if you are more security-conscious. Now, most important of all is that you know how to activate this SOS feature. You can do it by simply pushing the power key five times in a row in quick succession. So familiarise yourself with how to activate this, and also have a think about who you are going to call.

ARE YOU BEING TRACKED?

Now, there was a time when location trackers were huge and not hard to find, but nowadays they're so small and discreet, and they're commonly used by professional car thieves to track down and steal expensive vehicles. But did you know there is a Galaxy feature that could give you an early heads-up if someone is trying to track you or your vehicle? And, of course, any other property that could be stolen. Here's how to check that the tool is active, and how to activate it if it's off. Now, this one is so well hidden that the easiest way to find it is to use the search bar at the bottom and type in Unknown trackers.

This will reveal a shortcut to the Unknown tracker alerts feature, which you should definitely switch on. Now, the great thing about this feature is you can also scan around you if you're worried and you think someone is trying to track you. You can literally trigger this manual scan to find out if there are any unknown trackers in your vicinity.

ENCRYPT EVERYTHING

Nowadays, data is one of the most valuable commodities on the planet. That's why people are always trying to steal it from you. Here's a way to add an extra layer of encryption to your Galaxy data backups. Within Settings, go back to Security and Privacy, scroll down to More security settings, and then go to Enhanced data protection.

Here you'll see two options: one to encrypt your backup data and one to encrypt your sync data. You might want to switch both of these on if you are very security-conscious. You will need to put in your Samsung ID password to enable it.

PREPARED FOR THE WORST

Here is another way to stay ready so you don't have to get ready. And this is for those scenarios where disaster strikes and somehow you manage to lock yourself out of your device. So at the top of your Settings page, you will see your Samsung account and your little icon. Go and hit that. That jumps into your Samsung account settings. On this page, if you go to Account security, make sure these are all green. If they're not, you need to look at each one of them. But the most important one for when you get locked out of your device is this: the Account recovery methods.

So on the next page, what you can do is enter a backup method, which could be another email address that you will have access to if you do lose your phone. This would allow you to get access again to your Samsung account in the event of an emergency, and you will need this account for tracking down your phone if someone does nick it. There's a pretty high probability, if you are in London, that you may need to.

A PARTICULAR SET OF SKILLS

Okay, here's a bonus tip that you will really appreciate if your phone does get stolen one day. What I do is I add the Samsung Find app to my Edge panel. You can find it just by searching within your app drawer if you need to. But anyway, once you go into the Samsung Find app, make sure you set this up. Hit the three dots on the right-hand side here and go to Settings. And then here you want to go to Allow device to be found. Make sure Offline finding is enabled. And if you want to, you can encrypt the offline location. This just adds a bit more protection to your location data.

Now, if you go back to the main settings page here, what I recommend you do is go to this Samsung Find website. Copy the web address and email it to yourself, or save it in a note that you would have access to on another computer or device that you have access to. That way, if your phone gets stolen, you can go straight to this web page and locate where your device is, because who knows — maybe you just left it somewhere and someone didn't steal it. And if someone has stolen it, there's an affiliate link to a baseball bat below this video. Okay, I'm only joking. Seriously, though, don't take the law into your own hands because you'll be more likely to get arrested for that than the phone thief is for stealing your phone. At least that's how it works in England.

DIG A MOAT

So if you have followed along with all the security steps so far, your device is fast becoming a fortress. Here's another step that can metaphorically dig a moat around your impenetrable fortress that is your smartphone. And this one is slightly harder to find, so pay attention. Go into your Settings, scroll down to Google services. At the top of this page, you will see all services. Go to that. On this page, you've got to scroll down quite far until you find Advanced protection. So this feature is off straight out of the box. And as you just saw, it's pretty hard to find. Switch this on.

This gives you an extra layer of protection when on more vulnerable data networks, for example, 2G networks and things like that. And if you scroll down, you'll see all of the things that it does. It protects against a whole bunch of risks. And this acts on top of all of the stuff that is already in place on Samsung phones. So yeah, this is a great way to level up your security a little bit more.

ADD SOME BARBED WIRE

Okay, so now let's add some more barbed wire around the edge of the moat we've just created. So once again, within Settings, scroll down to where you see Security and Privacy. On this page, scroll down to Auto Blocker. This should be on. If it isn't on, switch it on and then tap on it. And then if you scroll down, you will see this section called Maximum restrictions. This is really for those of you who are the most security-conscious.

If you tap on this, it adds even more protection to your device. They do suggest that this is ideal for people who have very sensitive information on their phone, so if that is you, switch it on. And if you are, just like I said before, very security-conscious, you might also want to switch it on. Have a little read-through, though, as to what it actually does before you enable this, because it will restrict some of your phone's features.

PING LESS DATA

Did you know that your phone is constantly pinging data right under your nose? And while this is normally quite harmless, it can potentially leave the door open for some bad actors, right? I didn't mean literally bad acting. What I really meant was people with bad intentions. So here's a way you can stop the bleed of your data. So if you go back to Security and Privacy again, on this page, scroll all the way down to More privacy settings. And right here, you see Send diagnostic data.

If this is switched on, this probably means you skipped past it when you were setting your phone up for the first time. If you switch this off, your phone will no longer be sending diagnostics about how you're using your phone, what you're using, what features you're using, and all of this kind of stuff — and it won't affect the performance of your device in any way.

ANALYSE THIS

Here's another little hidden layer of protection that prevents data from leaving your device without your permission. And this is kind of harmless, but if it falls into the wrong hands, well, then, you know. So to access this, go into your Settings. Scroll down to the Google services menu. Go to All services. Scroll down to Usage and diagnostics and switch this off.

This reduces the amount of data leaving your device for diagnostic purposes. And if you want to read a bit more about what data they're actually capturing, you can tap on this link down here.

ANTI-CAPTURE TOOL

So one of the most likely ways that people can capture your data without your permission is via a web browser. There are so many ad platforms, some of which you might not be that familiar with, that collect data on you in order to sell it to advertisers, in order to encourage you to spend money when you don't necessarily intend to. So if you want to prevent this from happening, there's a really nice tool within Samsung's Security and Privacy menu. If you scroll down, you will find the Internet privacy protection menu.

Jump in here, and you'll see right now that the device's privacy and security is moderate. Now, if you really want to maximise this, here's something you can do. Just below this little graph here, you'll see the Smart anti-tracking feature is set to Standard. If you jump into this settings menu, you can set this to Strict. And if you really want to, you can set up automatic verification. Setting this to Strict will reduce the number of tailored ads that you get, but it also reduces the amount of data that websites are allowed to collect from your device.

STREAMLINE YOUR PASSWORDS

Question: When you got your phone for the first time, were you so excited to get up and running that you rushed through the setup process? If the answer was yes, well, then there's a very good chance your passwords will be stored in a number of places, making it harder for you to locate them quickly and easily. So let me show you how to streamline this. Once again, if we jump into Security and Privacy, then More security settings — not the more privacy settings — scroll down to Passwords, passkeys and autofill.

And at the top, you will see your preferred service. If you just rushed through the setup process, you might default to Samsung Pass. But what you might find more useful is the Google Password Manager, because it stores all your passwords from Chrome. So just make sure that it is switched on and then select it here. And that way, this one service will be handling all of the autofill and passwords on your device. And I recommend you switch off all the other ones that you're not using. And if you guys do want to try out NordPass, which is what I'm currently using, I'll have an affiliate link to that below this video where you can get it with a discount and possibly an extended free trial to test it out.

PASSWORD SHORTCUT

Alright. Have you ever been in a situation where an app or website has prompted you to change your password, so you did, and then you almost immediately forgot what you changed it to? This happens to me all the time. But here's how to solve this problem in the future very quickly. Once again, we're going to go to Security and Privacy. And this really applies to those of you using the Google Password Manager, which I think is one of the best free ones out there. So, within your Settings, if you go to Google services right here, go to All services, then Autofill with Google.

Here you'll find the Google Password Manager. If you open this now, on this page, if you hit the Settings in the bottom right corner, scroll down, and you will see this: Add shortcut to home screen. And this will add this little icon to one of your home screens in the free space. Now this will give you a very quick way to jump into your password manager right from your home screen, without having to go through all the steps that I just showed you to get to the password manager. And this will definitely save you time.

ANTI TEA-LEAF

Okay, here's one more bonus tip for you guys. If you go back into Settings, and again back to the Google services menu, go back to All services. Right near the bottom here, you will find the Theft protection feature. Tap on that. And then right here, you will see Theft Detection Lock.

So if someone does grab your phone and rides off with it on a bike or something like that, your phone will be able to detect that this has happened and that it is quickly moving away from you, and it will automatically lock the device. Therefore, they won't be able to get into your apps, Gallery, messages, and all that kind of stuff. So you might want to think about switching this on.

MAKE YOUR MEMES COME TRUE

One of the most powerful, hidden, exclusive Samsung tools that not that many people know about is this. When you swipe out the sidebar, right at the top here is Samsung’s AI Select. So this is kind of a more advanced version of the Circle to Search tool, because it doesn’t just search for things — it can actually extract information and even create content. So let me show you how you can use it to create your own GIFs. So right here on YouTube, I’ve loaded up the classic Picard facepalm scene, and what I recommend you do is, when you load up a video you want to create a meme from, hit the little settings in the top right corner,go to More, and put it into loop. That way, the video keeps looping round and around. Now, once you’ve done that, here’s a little trick to access the AI Select tool much more quickly. See the sidebar? Instead of dragging it out and then tapping AI Select, what you can do is hold your finger down on the sidebar, and that automatically opens AI Select. If you tap the area that you want to capture, it will expand to that area.

You can drag the corners if you want to as well. Now that you’ve selected the part of the screen that you want to capture, hit the three dots at the side, and you will see the option to create a GIF. If you find a photo or image that you can’t download, you can actually extract that image and set it as wallpaper using this same method. But anyway, let me show you the GIF. Tap “Create GIF” — that starts the content playing in the background. Now all you have to do is hit the record button at the right time. Wait for it to start again… hit record… then stop. There we go — we’ve created a facepalm meme that we can now send to pretty much anyone. And that expression right there is exactly how I felt when I realised over 90% of people watching this channel are not yet subscribed.

THAT NOISE

In one of the previous videos, I showed you how to eliminate background noise when watching content. But here’s how to remove noise from your own videos. For example, here’s a noisy clip. If you open that video in your Gallery, hit the little sparkle icon at the bottom, and the phone will analyse the audio. Then you can reduce specific noise types like wind, road noise, etc. You can dial them all the way down or just hit Auto. Once you’re happy, hit save edits — this creates a new clean version while keeping the original.

CUSTOM ANIMATED WALLPAPERS

If you want to create your own animated wallpaper, Galaxy phones make it super easy. Open your Gallery, select an image, swipe up, and tap Live Effects. This separates the subject from the background and creates a motion effect when you tilt your phone. You can instantly set it as wallpaper — perfect for pets or portraits.

ENGLISH…DO YOU SPEAK IT?

Now, let’s improve how your phone works as a phone.

Go to the Phone app → settings.

• Enable Call Screening

• Turn on Text Call

• Use Live Translate for calls abroad

You can even mute your voice and let AI translate it for the other person, and vice versa.

DE-CLUTTER

Hidden storage tools. Settings → Device Care → Storage

Here you can:

• Delete unused apps

• clear old files

• clean junk

• empty recycle bin

You can even add a shortcut to your home screen.

TIME SAVING TEXT TRICK

Time-saving keyboard shortcuts. Go to Samsung Keyboard settings → Text shortcuts

Create a shortcut phrase (like “++”) → link it to a full sentence. Now typing two characters fills an entire paragraph instantly.

YOU MIGHT LIKE SWIPE TYPE

Swipe typing + cursor control

Enable Swipe to type

Also, hold spacebar to move the cursor like a trackpad — super useful.

LISTEN, HERE’S SOME SOUND ADVICE

Custom sound profile

Settings → Sound → Adapt Sound

You can:

• use presets

• or create a personalised hearing profile

This balances audio based on your hearing.

APPROPRIATE NOTIFICATION REACTIONS

Colour-coded notifications

Settings → Notifications → Edge lighting

Set colours based on keywords or contacts. So you instantly know what’s important without opening your phone.

MIGHTY S PEN SETTINGS

• Enable Air Command with the button

• Add useful shortcuts (magnify, translate)

• Install PenUp for drawing & creativity

PINNED NOTES

Pull out the S-Pen while the screen is off → write notes instantly

Pin them to your lock screen for quick access

CUSTOM BUTTONS

Create custom buttons using Modes & Routines

You can:

• create “quiet mode”

• change wallpaper automatically

• trigger actions with one tap

PRO CUSTOM BUTTONS

Use Good Lock + Routines+ → Touch Macro

You can automate ANY action

Example:
👉 Press a button → phone rings your SmartTag → find keys instantly

SHARE VIA WIFI

Quick Share over the internet

Enable:
👉 “Share over the internet”

Now you can send files without being nearby

AIR DROP EVERYWHERE

Use the Blip app for cross-platform file sharing

Works between:

• Samsung

• iPhone

• Mac

• Windows

Faster than AirDrop for big files

And what I'm going to do is tier each picture for you and give you a few pointers on things to look out for, and then it's entirely up to you to choose which one you think is the best photo. So right here we have a cast iron crown taken with the three phones at 100 millimetre equivalent zoom, which is around 4 to 5x. And at this range, you actually get some nice natural background blur. So you might want to consider which one delivers the nicest background blur. There's also a lot of shadows here and some bright areas. And when we crop in, you'll notice there's really nice detail and texture on this painted metal. So the key to victory here is, of course, the best balance of everything I just mentioned. So take a close look. Pick your champion.

This one was taken with the ultra-wide cameras. Now, typically, the wide-angle lens and camera sensors are not the top priority for smartphone manufacturers. Now, with that said, I do know Samsung have fitted the S26 Ultra with new, brighter lenses this year, so it'll be interesting to see if that's made a difference in your opinion.

Anyway, there are lots of details here, and it's a very bright scene. And sometimes, when it comes to ultra-wide shots, they can start to distort the image in various places, typically more around the outside. Can you notice any of that happening here? And when you're looking at ultra-wide, you might have also noticed there is quite a big difference when it comes to contrast. Now, this might be just a creative look, but is there one specific look that you like the most?

Okay, so this one is a great test of dynamic range, as this kind of concrete pipe thing in the foreground is in the shadows beneath a tree, and in the distance, it is extremely bright. So firstly, what do you think of the colours in the foreground and in the shadows of this image? And now let's zoom into the bridge way back there in the background and get a good look at those distant details to see which one is winning in this area.

Okay, so let me know so far — have the results surprised you? Is there one phone you think is going to completely outperform the others? Let me know in the comments. Now see that bridge? We were just looking at it through that pipe. Let's head over there for a maximum megapixel test.

So we have three flagship phones, three different-sized primary sensors, with three different megapixel counts. The iPhone has a 48 megapixel sensor. The Pixel has a 50 megapixel sensor. And the Galaxy S26 Ultra has an insane 200 megapixel sensor. But can you tell the difference?

Let me know — did you choose the highest megapixel count, the lowest, or somewhere in between as the best image? And regardless of what you choose, there is something important to learn from this: megapixel counts don't count for much if the sensor sizes are smaller and the lenses and coatings are not high quality. Also, the digital image processing and camera AI play a big part. And often this can actually make up for weaker sensors, rubbish lenses, and coatings. And really, I could talk a lot more on this subject, but ain't nobody got time for that.

So let's move on to the next one. Here is me and The Phantom Menace. Again, a bright sunset in the back, which poses a challenge for the cameras when it comes to handling dark details and shadows, as you see here on the dog. She is notoriously hard to take good photos of because her fur is kind of dark brown/black. So let's get a good look at the dog and see which one has captured the best details. And you could base the win just off that. But if you want to look at the overall image and choose which one looks the best in its entirety, that works too.

So now it's time for me to step out for a minute and grab a cup of tea. Coming up is a video stabilisation test, a zoom test, and then a duck hunt. You'll see what I mean. So I just want to chime in real quick here, because any smartphone can take a photo of a static object like a building and sharpen it up to make it look good. But you might be interested to see which one does the best when it comes to a moving target.

And here is that duck hunt I was talking about. Apologies — the shots aren't exactly the same. They were moving around and they were hard to track.Now, honestly, there is a really clear winner here. However, what I will say is that when you zoom into this picture taken on the Pixel, there are actually two ducks in the shot, and the one closer to the camera has its eye kind of blended into the feathers on the duck behind, which is quite bizarre. Anyway, let me know your thoughts on this and let's keep it moving.

Here is a shot through the trees of a little spooky cabin. This is to see which one has actually gathered the most amount of light and detail. I have noticed that sometimes when the primary camera sensor is so good, it's actually better to crop into an image than use the telephoto camera, because sometimes it gives better results. Anyway, let's pick your winner here. And then we're going to have a closer look at this with a telephoto zoom.

So yeah, I think this is one of those scenarios where the telephoto is definitely going to be better than cropping in on the primary camera. All three look really good, but this little round dial on the front of this building — let's zoom into that and see what we can see there. And let's start that timer.

So, HDR camera tests don't get much more extreme than shooting directly at the sun. And you'll notice there's a really nice cloud pattern back there too, which looks kind of cool. And in the foreground, the shadows cast by the tractor give us a good idea of which phones possibly have the best dynamic range. Again, this one is largely about balance. Because you can expose for the sun and make that look really nice with the clouds, or you could expose for the foreground and let the sun blow out. But I do believe we are seeing both approaches here. So choose your winner.

I feel like I've been talking too much, so we're just going to speed run through the next few photos, then we'll do a nighttime moon zoom, and then I will join you again for the low-light night shots.

So I know this looks well-lit, but trust me, when I was standing there with my own eyes, it was incredibly dark underneath this archway. I'm actually blown away by all three of the phones, just because of how bright these images appear, knowing how dark it actually was. And I do believe there is a clear winner here. One of them just has crazy shadow detail, but sometimes people like things to look more like real life, so maybe you'd prefer the more contrasty look. So you choose and mark it down on your scorecard.

This one is quite interesting. It was a clear night, and there were stars out. And in two of these images, you can actually see some. And in one of them — yeah, not so much. And if you look right at the top of this cathedral, you'll notice the details begin to darken and, in some cases, fade away entirely. Now, there could be two reasons for this: One, the sensor is not sensitive enough, or two, the image processing is better on a couple of the devices. There's also a bit of a colour difference here, but it is subtle. So let's start the timer, and you choose which one wins here.

So honestly, the difference here surprised me a lot. How about you? Let me know in the comments. Now remember how I said the ultra-wide sensor and lenses are usually kind of an afterthought when it comes to camera hardware for smartphone manufacturers? Let’s see which one actually has the most sensitive ultra-wide sensor by taking this extreme night shot of the night sky. I think we could pick a winner just based on which one is seeing the most stars. But when we zoom back out, you'll notice there is some good foreground detail here too, so you might want to factor that in.

So now let me introduce you to the oldest pub in Britain — Ye Olde Fighting. Back in the old days, around 793 AD, they used to bet money on fights, get drunk, and watch fighting. And it's kind of gone full circle because nowadays people get drunk and occasionally watch fights after they've had too many beers. I'm joking — it's actually a really nice family pub. And this is the last photo. So it is time to total up your scorecards to find out which flagship has won this blind camera comparison shootout. And please do let me know in the comments which one won on your scorecard.

I'm genuinely very interested to read those, and I will try my very best to reply. And if you guys enjoyed this blind camera comparison and you've got any tips for me on how to improve it even more, do let me know in the comments! I hope you've enjoyed this unique approach to camera comparisons. I think they're more enjoyable than the classic side-by-side stuff, but they're also much more difficult to make for me. But it's worth it if you guys enjoy it.

If you're the type of gamer who appreciates quality, and if you don't want to miss out on this, it's important that you know how and where to enable this, because it doesn't just happen automatically. And there's also some hidden tools that will help you optimize the speed, which I think you're going to want to see. So if your Portal has been sitting on the shelf for a while, well, this might be the refresh that you've been waiting for.

TIP 1

So let's run through the five UI upgrades first, starting with trophy animations. You may not have noticed this, but they weren't present before — but now they are, including the very nice platinum animations. So if you're watching this and you're thinking about jumping into the world of Sony PlayStation, well, there's never been a better time to do it, because with the PlayStation Portal, you can get access to all of those Sony exclusive games.

And on top of that, they've made it even easier now to onboard with this new QR code. And I know you might be thinking you will only have to use this once, but actually, whenever you get an update, and the system reboots, you will have to sign back in. So it's actually going to save you time. So by scanning this QR code, you can quickly sign into your PlayStation account via the web browser or the app on your phone. And if you don't have an account, you can literally just set it up on your phone instead of on the actual Portal itself.

TIP 2

And here is another little UI improvement. When you receive a game invite while on the PlayStation Portal, that little animation will appear. It didn't happen before. Now I realise that this might not be that exciting an upgrade, especially if you have no friends. But on the plus side, that makes you unbeatable — because how do you kill that which has no life?

TIP 3

If you have purchased a game bundle in the past on the Portal, it may have been a little bit tricky to get to the different games within that bundle. But now they've actually made it a lot easier to do. And just for example, this is how the Uncharted Legacy of Thieves appears now. And if there were more, you would see more of these titles. Again, this is a subtle upgrade, but definitely a welcome one.

TIP 4

Now listen, I know these updates haven't been that exciting yet, but trust me — you will want to see the next one. So this is again very subtle. Whenever there is a text field now, the keyboard pops up automatically. But this little time-saving upgrade might be the key to more victories because it could potentially save you time. And if you've heard the saying, “You never stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing.” I definitely butchered that quote, but you get the idea.

TIP 5

Here's a question for you — why wouldn't you want to play your games in higher resolution? I genuinely think the only answer to that question is if you have some kind of data cap on your internet. But if you're not worried about data usage, well, then you need to be using this on your PlayStation Portal. The next time you load up a game on your PlayStation Portal, just hit the PlayStation button, and it's right here where you will find the brand new Max Resolution feature.

It is still going to be 1080p, but it's going to basically double the bitrate of the stream. Now, there are two things you need to know about this. Once you switch on the Max Resolution mode and set it to high quality, you need to apply and restart the game, so make sure you do it at a good time. For example, like I did, on the starting screen. The Portal will then, of course, have to reconnect to the game server in order to get you back in with that higher speed and higher bitrate, and ultimately higher graphics output. And this immediately looks way better.

Now here's the important thing you need to know about this. Once you set it for cloud streaming, it will remember that setting. But there is a second setting that applies to PlayStation Remote Play. So, of course, you need to reconnect to your PlayStation once again. Just hit the PlayStation button, and on the right side, you will see the Max Resolution option. And when you go into this, you'll notice straight away it's still set to 1080p standard, so you need to set this to high quality. Apply and restart.

And just like before, it's going to reboot, and then it will come back with that enhanced bitrate. And if you were going to ask, “Is it too much to ask for high bitrate on both?” Well, the answer is… no, it isn’t. So it's important that you know this, because otherwise you might be missing out on one or the other.

TIP 6

Now let me show you those hidden tools, which are now less hidden and extremely useful — and even more so now that we have the high resolution mode. So once again, when you're in a game, if you just hit the PlayStation button, you get the quick settings. And now, if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the quick settings, you'll find the troubleshoot section. And this little tool here shows you the network status, so you can see what network you're on. You can see the downstream bitrate — that's the important one. Before, it kind of capped out around 12, like you're seeing now.

And just like you've just seen, when the speed dips to a certain level, the game stream will cut out. So what this does is it gives you some valuable information that you can work with. So the first and easiest thing that you could do would be to move closer to the modem or change the network. And then just underneath, you have all of the tips for how to improve the speed of your connection. And it's broken down into three nice categories: Wi-Fi, connection speed, and resolution. So if the new high-resolution mode isn't working as expected, you can go through these little troubleshooting steps and use the diagnostic tool to figure out exactly what's going on.

Hide Lock Screen Notifications

So here's a question for you: Do you want people to be able to read your private notifications when your phone is locked?. If the answer is no, then you should definitely, definitely do this. Go into your settings, and then go to notifications, and then here you'll see hide content while locked. Just go into this and set it to hide when locked. This doesn't mean you won't see the important notifications; it just means you have to unlock the phone to fully read them.

Private Album

Here's an important feature that you need to be aware of, especially if you are using this phone for work, or if you ever hand your phone to someone to use to play games or watch videos. Go into your gallery and then go to the menu at the bottom. Down here, you'll find the private album. If you go to this, you can create an album which you can lock down with your Pin number or biometrics. What you can then do is go to an image and at the top, hit the three dots and then move it to your private album right here, which can only be accessed by you. Now, if you want to find it again, all you need to do is hit the menu on your gallery, go to the Private album and then unlock it.

App Protection

Now, one of the ways you're most likely to get hacked on your device is if you install an app that opens up a pathway for hackers to get in. There's actually a security feature on your phone that can prevent this from happening, but it's not on. To switch it on, just bring down your settings, go to Security and Privacy. Right here, you see the app security. If you tap on this, you can turn on app protection. This will scan anything that you try to install on your device for potential risk, and it will let you know. Just be aware that this might be a region-specific feature.

Samsung Find

Alright, this next one is very important. If you ever lose your phone or it gets stolen, you'll be happy that you set this up. Bring down the quick settings at the top, and you'll see your account. If you tap on your account icon right here, it jumps into your Samsung account. And if you scroll down, you will see Samsung Find. If you tap on this, make sure this is set up properly. Now, if you do lose your device, you can log in to Samsung Find on the web browser and locate where it is.

Theft Detection Lock

But what if someone has literally just snatched it out of your hand? Well, this new feature here will help you with that. Go into your settings again, go back to security and privacy. Right here, you will see locked device protection. Tap on that. And this is where you'll find the theft protection mode, which isn't active on day one—it's right here: Theft detection lock. Tap on this, turn it on. Now, if someone does snatch your phone out of your hand, your phone will actually lock automatically, so they can't get access to all of your stuff. You'll also find the remote lock feature here as well, which allows you to lock down the phone if it is open and you don't know where it is.

Remaster and Object Eraser

And as I've mentioned in the intro, of course, I've saved some bonus tips and tricks for you guys. So if you've just migrated from an old phone, the pictures from your old phone might not be as good as they are on this phone. There is a nice little trick here to upscale low-res images. So if you choose an image, what you can do is hit the little sparkles at the bottom of the image. This will open up two options: Remaster and Object Eraser. Remaster will upscale that image using AI to make it look a bit cleaner, and Object Eraser will allow you to remove things from the image. You can tap on various parts to select them and then erase them. You can also use the magnetic lasso to draw around the object you want to remove, and it will select that area, and then you can erase it.

Webpage Read Aloud

Something else that is really cool, but not a lot of people know about, is this: if you bring out the edge panel, you should see Samsung's Internet app here. Within this app, instead of reading the web page at the bottom, you can hit the little sparkly stars and then have that page read out loud to you. And you can even lock your phone and walk down the street listening to this website being read to you if you want.

Edge Lighting Effects

Here's a fun little setting which can help you identify notifications very quickly. If you go into your settings, then go to notifications, then go to Pop Up Style and add the lighting effect. On this page, you can choose various effects like the eclipse or spotlight. You can then choose the colour, and if you want, you can go to advanced and change the transparency and the duration. When it comes to colour, if you leave it on auto, the colour of the animation will match the app that is sending you stuff.

Custom Notification Colours

Stay within the pop-up style; there is something really cool you can do here. If you want custom colours for people in your phonebook, you can type their name in here and actually choose a specific colour for their animation. Do keep in mind it is case sensitive, and it has to be exactly how it appears in your phonebook. This can also work with specific apps, as well if you want to customise those colours.

Sports by Google

Right, if you're a sports fan, you're going to love this one. Jump into your settings, go to Lock Screen, and here you'll find Now Bar settings. Go to this and go to see all. If you scroll down, you will see Sports by Google. If you tap on this and go to sports from Google Settings, you can choose your favourite sports teams. Now whenever those teams are playing, you will get live updates on your Now bar on your lock screen. And you can also add the Now bar to the home screen as well if you want, in the form of a widget.

App Pinning

Here's another really useful feature if you are the type of person who lets other people use their phone to play games or watch videos. Go into your settings and then go to Security and Privacy, scroll down to More Security settings, and you'll find Allow apps to be pinned. What you can do whenever you open up an app, now you can open up the background, hit the icon at the top and go to pin this app. This app has now been locked on screen, and whoever's using your phone won't be able to get out of this without your fingerprint.

AI Select

One more tip: see the little edge panel that we set up before?. This is where you can find one of Samsung's unique tools—it's a very powerful one called AI Select. You just hold your finger down on that edge panel there, and that activates AI Select, and now you can draw out anything and extract it, or use the information with other apps on your phone.

They say that when you lose one of your senses, the others become stronger. You know, like Daredevil. But what if you don't have to lose one of your senses in order to get an edge when it comes to hearing things when gaming? Well, that is the advantage that I'm told RIG are bringing to the table with their brand new AR Five Max HD. Now these are still sealed and brand new in the box, so I will give you guys my first impressions. And I have been briefed on these, and there are really three things that, when they told me about them, I was like, really? And I am interested to know if you will be surprised by these things too. Anyway, let's get this out of the box and see what it comes with.

So RIG actually have a few different names for these headphones, and one of them is the AR Five Sphere. And here we have a bit of paperwork where they are referred to as the AR Five Sphere Max HD. If you do buy these, I don't think you're going to get this bit of paper. I think this is exclusively for the press. So first out of the box is this — they are snap-lock mod plates. I will come back to these once we get the headphones out of the box. And we have a box within the box. I believe this will be more like the official retail packaging. Now I really like the black and gold theme that they've used on the packaging here, and these are cross-platform compatible, so you can use them with Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, PC, and even mobile.

And actually, one of the features that surprised me was regarding mobile gaming. You'll see something that I'm quite happy to see, which is this Dolby Atmos support for spatial audio. And if you are a PlayStation fan, you'll be happy to know that these also support Tempest 3D audio. “Audio above all” is the tagline for RIG. So these right here are the official mod plates that you get with this headset. So let's get a little look at them. So these are optional covers for the backs of the earcups. And the idea is that you can get your own ones made or add your own branding to them. So if you're a game streamer, you can kind of interchange the branding whenever you feel like it. You know what? Since we're here, we might as well see what these other ones look like, if they're any different from the ones that you get in the box.

So those have got a completely different style. This is a good example of what you can create. And if you do happen to have a 3D printer, RIG do provide the files that you need in order to create your own RIG mod plates for the headphones. And I really like what RIG have done with these ones. I like the style. Anyway, let's get the headphones out of the box now. So, taking these out of the box for the first time, something I really appreciate is the weight that they have. They're not extremely light, which can make them feel cheap. They're not extremely heavy, which could make them feel uncomfortable. Just like with the packaging, they've got the black and gold theme going on here. And something that's really, really nice about these headphones is the all-metal headband. These apparently have been thrown at the wall — quite literally — to make sure that they can survive rage quits.

So, first impressions are that I really like the look of these headphones. They do kind of look like studio monitor headphones without the mod plates. And when you put the mod plates on, yeah, they take on that gamer look a bit more. hidden away underneath here are a few more things, including one of the things that I mentioned in the intro that really surprised me. So this right here is a magnetic broadcast-grade microphone, and you'll notice it can be detached when you don't want to use it. It's got a flexible arm here. It does use a cardioid pickup pattern. It very simply magnetises onto this little area. And it does have the flip-up-to-mute feature. And there is something else quite special about this microphone, which we're going to come back to in a moment. But let's see what else is in the box first.

So right here is another attachment. And it is another magnetic attachment. And this attachment is purely for those of you who are not into game chat. This one is just for audio. You've got 3.5mm here, and you've got the adapter here if you do have more pro equipment. Of course, there's paperwork in here, including a QR code to some support videos, a quick start guide, and this — because these are Dolby Atmos certified headphones — they do kind of prompt you to download the Dolby Atmos software for PC if you are going to be gaming on PC. And it also shows Xbox here, so Dolby Atmos via Xbox is supported too. Okay, last but maybe most importantly is this — the RIG deck. If you are watching this and you are a more serious gamer, this might be the audio game changer that you've been looking for, and I will show you why.

DESIGN

Let me give you a quick guided tour of the design, and I'll explain what that feature is with the deck. So customisation is a big deal when it comes to these headphones. You can easily interchange the mod plates and change up the look entirely whenever you want. I actually do like them without the mod plates. I think they look, as I said before, like studio monitors. The microphone can be detached, and if you wanted to, you could attach it to the opposite side. This is something that I have never heard of before when it comes to gaming headphones. And this is one of the features that I was like, really?

And when it locks on, it's super secure as well. It's not like you're going to snag that and it's going to get ripped out of the headset whilst gaming. They've really done a fantastic job at making sure that that's really locked in there. And I'm giving this a lot of force now, and it's not detaching. It's only when you pull it straight outwards that it comes off. And the mic does have inline controls built in, so you can adjust the levels there very easily with this nice little slider.

Here's a little mic test for you guys. This is how the mic sounds in a very quiet room. But let's say you're gaming in a coffee shop — here's a coffee shop background noise. And this is how the mic sounds now. Because it is a cardioid mic, you can really point it towards your mouth and away from the sound. Let me know how it sounds in your opinion. For the mic test, please watch the video

The modularity and flexibility of this make it very different from other headphones. And of course, like I said before, if you don't want to use the mic, you can just use the audio cable just like that. Something I know a lot of people will appreciate is the look — the gold accent on the headband — but maybe more so than that is the durability of this headband. I really don't want to damage them before trying them out for the first time, but I've seen you can fully twist these up. You’ve got a bit of subtle branding across the top and a lot of padding across the inside at the top of the headband, which is very nice. And it has very soft padding here, and it's very breathable.

And one of the reasons for that is this — so hopefully you can see this — inside this leatherette area is actually perforated, which means it can breathe better. When you do squash it down, the air can actually escape, and I'm assuming the other way as well. So when you start to get hot, there's some good ventilation built in here. And something else that I know a lot of you guys will appreciate is this — the earcups are magnetically attached, which means you can replace them when they get worn down. And behind them is the second thing that I was like, really? When I heard about it. It is the type of drivers that RIG are using here. One of the big differences between these headphones and all of their similarly priced competitors is the fact that this RIG headset uses graphene 40mm drivers, with the membrane being 45% pure graphene.

Now, the reason this is important is because graphene has a certain amount of stiffness to it, but it's incredibly light. It's also very thermally efficient. And when you push it, it doesn't fall apart like other drivers. And compared to most traditional types of drivers used in competitor headsets, the harmonic distortion is far lower — less than 0.3% with these headphones. Most regular headphones are around 0.5%, and this might seem like a minimal difference, but it's a huge difference when it comes to audio distortion and ultimately clarity.

And because they can be pushed so far without distortion, of course, they do support high-res audio. The frequency response here is 20Hz to 40kHz, which exceeds human hearing. But the fact that it doesn't start to degrade outside of that range means that the accuracy within the hearing range should be much clearer and far more detailed — they say, in fact, maybe twice as detailed compared to other 20Hz to 20kHz headphones.

I show you how you can easily customize and personalise your galaxy, and I even show you a few tricks that only the pros know. You just have to think 14 moves ahead, that's all. Remember us. Welcome to part two of three in this Galaxy A57 Tips and Tricks series. In part one, I showed you how to unlock max performance; here in part two, if you stick around by the end of this video, you'll understand how to customise your phone like a pro. And trust me, it is easier than you think.

Quick Panel Reorganisation

So let's start with the customization of the quick panel. So if you bring down the quick panel top right corner hit the pen here. You can actually resize and reorganize this entire area. So if you want the Wi-Fi button to be a bit smaller, just grab it by the line there and drag it inwards. Just drag the Bluetooth one inwards as well and put it over here. And if you want to, you can expand this quick settings area to be much bigger. And here's a little customization trick that not everybody knows about. If you delete the volume and the brightness slider from here and then go to add at the bottom and then re-add them, it will add them to the bottom here. And you can actually drag this inwards and down so it becomes vertical. We'll do the same with the volume slider into the long shape like that and bring it up. There we go, we got a volume and brightness slider in the vertical format instead of horizontal like everybody else.

Wi-Fi Calling

Here's a quick setting that you absolutely need to know about. If you ever get stuck with bad signal and maybe you're on Wi-Fi, let's say a hotel abroad or something, this will be extremely, extremely useful to you. So bring down the quick settings. Hit the pen here, hit the add control at the bottom. Right near the top, you should see Wi-Fi calling. Tap this and add it as one of your easy-access quick settings. With this active, whenever you have a bad signal, you can make phone calls from your own phone number as usual over Wi-Fi instead.

Home Screen Grid and Icon Size

Now, the Galaxy A57 has a fantastic display and it's a big screen, so I personally do this. This is entirely optional, but you might want to know about this. So if you hold your finger down on an empty port screen and go to settings here. This jumps you to your home screen settings, where you can change the size of the home screen grid. So I actually like to have five by six. This gives me more room per page so now you can have five docked apps and five apps per row.

Yes, the app icons do get a little bit smaller, but if you want to increase them back to the original size when you had less icons per page, I want to show you how to do that right now. So once again on your home screen, hold your finger down on an empty space and go to settings. Right here at the top you'll see this slider. If you want the apps to be larger, you can just slide this to the right and that increases the size of the apps.

Clean Home Screen

Now something else you might want to do, especially if you're very familiar with all of the app icons, is this. Hold your finger down on the home screen, go to the home screen settings again, and then switch off "show app labels on home screen". This cleans up the home screen a lot. I'm personally very familiar with all the app icons—I don't need the text underneath to tell me what they are, and if you feel the same, then definitely switch off the labels.

Folder Styling

Okay, here's an organisational tip. So if you're the type of person who likes to create app folders, I think you'll appreciate this. So let's just drag this into a space like this. If you hold your finger down on a folder, you can enlarge it and make it bigger, of course. And if you hold your finger down on it again and go to settings, you can even colour-code that folder. So let's say all of the Google apps, I want that folder to be green. And we can adjust the transparency here. And if the green isn't quite right, you can just go to the little swatches here and choose the specific colour that you want. And do keep in mind they don't need to be big in order to recolour them—you can have them in the small format as well.

Edge Panel Handlebar

Here's another little colour-coding tip. See the little faint line here on the edge of the screen? That's your edge panel handlebar. You can actually restyle this to contrast nicely with your wallpaper. To do this, just slide out the edge panel real quick, and you see the settings down here. Tap on that before it disappears. Here you see the handle menu; tap on it. And this is where you can customise the colour—so let's make it purple. Actually, just make it a bit more of a bright purple, something like this, and we can change the transparency. So if you want it to be faint or bold you can do that. You can also change the size of the handle and you can adjust the width as well if you want it to be less visible. Keep it thin. And there we go, and you've got these little arrows here to adjust the exact position. I do recommend you keep it higher up the screen, because when you're swiping between pages, you don't want to accidentally hit that handlebar.

Advanced Wallpaper Customisation

Now, I do realise that the first thing you probably will do with your phone is customise the wallpaper, so I might as well show you how to do that. It is very easy to do if you hold your finger down on an empty part of the screen, go to Wallpaper and Style at the bottom. Here you can go to change wallpaper and that will change both of these at the same time. At the top you'll see all of the featured wallpapers. I do like this dynamic one—it actually adjusts this colour throughout the day. You have various other options below as well, like a wallpaper carousel. But if you want one from your photo gallery, this is where you'll find it. So I'm just going to choose the Master Yoda one. This will apply that wallpaper to both of the screens, and if you just want to use it on one of them, you can untick one of the ones down here. And if you're happy with it, you can just hit done.

Now once you've found the wallpaper that you want to use, you can actually customise it on both of these screens independently. So here's how you can do that: hold your finger down onto the screen again, Wallpaper and Style again. This time I'm just going to tap on the home screen wallpaper. If you hit the suggest button, the phone will suggest various layouts for this wallpaper. Sometimes they're good, sometimes not so much. I'm going to hit back and then go to effect. Now here's a bit of advice for your home screen wallpaper: you don't want it to kind of distract you from the apps, or wash any of the apps into the background so they're hard to see. So I like to add a blur effect that just softens the wallpaper and makes the app stand out a bit more. But there are other options here, for example, grayscale colour, where you can adjust the colour of that wallpaper behind and still keep some of the image visible. And you can even change opacity here as well. There's also the dark mode, and you can add a little bit of a tint to that if you want to. Definitely have a little play around with the different effects that you can add to your wallpaper. But like I said before, my favourite by far is just the general blur.

Adaptive Lock Screen Clock

Once you're happy, hit apply. Now let's go to the lock screen. This is where things start to get interesting because you can do a lot of customisation here. If you hit effect again you can do the same thing—you can add these filters. But check this out. If you resize the image, I'm going to make it about that big. I'm going to tap the clock here and choose this one. This is the only clock that can adapt to its surroundings. I'm going to hit style to make it a bit bigger that way. And as you can see, it's kind of shaped around Master Yoda's head. This works best if you have a picture with a person in it; it can separate the foreground from the background. And if you want to watch the weather, you can activate the weather at the top of this clock. I think this is the best one by far. A couple of other things you might want to look at on your lock screen is this: when you tap on the lock screen, you can add various widgets just underneath the time, and you can also remap these shortcuts here at the bottom if you want as well.

Google Search Bar Styling

Here is another customisation to tweak to add a bit more colour to your home screen: see the Google search bar?. This is the bog standard search bar in dark mode. It will be lighter in light mode, but you can actually take full control over how it looks by doing this. Hold your finger down on the Google search bar, go to settings and this jump straight into the customisation settings for the search bar so you can go to custom. Here we can choose a specific colour, let's say green, for example. We can change the transparency of that search bar so the image actually shows through it. And then if you scroll down, you can go to Add shortcut. The two most useful ones, in my opinion, are song search and the AI mode. But you can only have one. Once you're happy with your customisation, you can go back and straight away, that change takes effect. You can also adjust the size of the search bar—it doesn't need to be right across the screen like that. You can shorten it, but it will restrict the number of shortcuts that can be shown.

Modes and Routines Widgets

Let me show you one little customisation tweak that I have recently started to use all the time on my Samsung phone. So if you bring down the settings and then go to Modes and Routines, you will find some recommended routines that you can set up. Sleep is a very good one—we can hit the set-up, go through the setup guide and customise this however you want. I'm going to set my sleep time, and you can choose the days at the bottom. There are various other things you can do, like changing the alarm background. Once you've done that, you can scroll down and choose a different wallpaper for when you're in this mode. Now that this is set up, you'll know whenever you're in this mode because the wallpapers will change on your device.

But here's a little customisation tweak: on your home screen, go to an empty space and go to widgets at the bottom, then go to the Modes and Routines widgets over here and choose the sleep widget and add it to your home screen. Making it much more accessible, and you can just toggle this on and off whenever you want. Now what I do is set up a bunch of different routines and modes for various occasions, and I have them all stacked on top of each other right here. So I can slide between these buttons on the home screen. Now, if you want to do the same, you just hold your finger down on that widget and go to Create Stack, and then you can add more widgets on top of that one.

If you've just picked up a Galaxy A57, I'm here to show you some tips and tricks and chew bubble gum. And I'm all out of bubble. So let's kick this off with some performance upgrades first. Then we'll get into some customisation, and then some of the very important security settings. And if you stick around to the end, I may or may not have some bonus tips and tricks. Kind of hard to find, and most people don't know about. All right, so let's get this off.

Bixby and Perplexity AI Integration

You might not realise this, but Samsung have recently upgraded Bixby, and they've introduced Perplexity, which has been optimised specifically for your Galaxy. However, you won't be able to use it unless you do this. First, go into your settings. So if you swipe down from the top, you can find it here. Scroll all the way down to Advanced Features. Here you will find the voice wake up settings. So if you tap on that, straight out of box, Bixby will be on, but Perplexity will be off. So if you switch this on, it will then prompt you to set it up for the first time by repeating the sentences on the screen. Once you've set up Perplexity, it can now work alongside Bixby and even control functions on your phone.

Camera Tips and Tricks

Megapixel Settings

Here are a couple of camera features that you should be aware of, and not everybody knows about. Open up the camera app. At the top here, you see it says 12M—that's 12 megapixels. If you set it to 50 megapixels, you can capture more detail. However, keep in mind that 50 megapixels is best for well-lit scenarios, and 12 megapixels is much better in low light conditions.

Camera Assistant

If you hit the little folks down here, go to the camera settings. You can unlock some hidden camera settings that might be very useful to you. So on this page, if you scroll down, you should see this right here: Camera Assistant. And you will very likely see a downward arrow indicating that you can download it, and install that app. And once you've done that, you've unlocked this new menu where you can actually tell the phone to prioritise focus over speed. If you find you're getting blurry photos, this will solve that problem for you.

Dual Record

And something else you can unlock here, if you scroll down a little bit, is these two features right here: Single Take, which is great for creating short content, but this one is my favourite: Dual Record. With this enabled on your phone, you can now film picture in picture, which can be located in the more section at the bottom of the screen. So if you go to this, you should see Dual Record. You can actually grab this and then drag it onto the bar at the bottom so you have quick access to it. Now, when you activate Dual Record, you notice you have this little screen up here. And if you tap on this, you can actually make it a bit bigger. And you can also move it around on the screen. This can be a great way for creating content as well, if you want to show how you're reacting to what you're seeing. This is a nice little trick.

Composition Guides

Here's another little camera tip that can improve how you use your camera. If you go into the camera app again, hit the folks over here and then go to settings. On this page, scroll down a little bit, and you will see the composition guide. If you switch this on and then tap on it, you can choose what kind of guide you want. I think the grid lines and the level is obviously the best ones, because now when you use your camera, you have the rule of thirds grid, and you also get this little crosshair when you're doing top-down shots. And when you are taking regular photos, you get a little crosshair in the middle or a little spirit level so you know when you're perfectly level.

Performance Optimization

RAM Plus

Now let me show you how to speed up your device a bit more. I'm assuming you have a lot of free memory since you have a new phone, but you might want to look at this and just be aware of where to find it. So go back into your settings, go to Device Care. Here where it says memory, tap on this. Right now I have eight gigs of RAM. 1.8 gig of it is being used, and the phone is barely out of the box for five minutes. So yeah, you get an idea of how quickly that RAM can be used up. If you want to, you can hit Ram Plus down here and expand it all the way up to eight gigs. This can help with loading times, backgrounding tasks and things like that. And if later on you start to run out of memory, you can always scale it back to 4 or 2 if you prefer.

Auto Optimization

Now on a rare occasion, what you might find is that your phone is running lots and lots of processes in the background without you knowing, and it starts to warm up and slow down the phone's performance. Now, if you want to prevent that from happening, there is a tool within the software that you need to be aware of within the settings. Again, let's go back to Device Care and then this time just below these graphs you'll see auto optimization. If you want to be extra cautious you can go to auto restart and then set this to restart when needed, which if you are a light phone user, will probably be never. But if you switch it on, and the phone does start to do something in the background that drains all of the resources on the phone, well, this will sort that out for you very quickly. And if you prefer, you could set it as a schedule so every night a specific time it can reboot and refresh your device.

Security and Personalisation

Fingerprint Accuracy

My guess is when you set up your phone for the first time, you probably did 1 or 2 fingerprint scans for your unlock, and that's fine. But here's a way to make them even more accurate. If you go into your settings and then go to Security and Privacy, right here. On this page, you should see screen lock and biometrics. Tap on that, tap where it says fingerprints and then tap on the first fingerprint that you registered and then go to improve accuracy.

Now you can re scan that same print again. And this will just expand the amount of detail that the phone holds about your fingerprint. And it's a bit more of a thorough process. But once you've done it, your phone will unlock much, much faster. And if you're the type of person who rushed through the set up process and only did one of your digits, I highly recommend doing three: the thumb and first finger on your dominant hand, and then maybe your thumb on your other hand, and you can just hit the plus here to add those additional fingerprints.

Side Button Remapping

Now if you're a bit old school when you're used to a power button being a power button, or you've just switched from iOS, well, I think you're going to appreciate these settings. So if we go into the settings menu, scroll all the way down to Advanced Features. This is where you'll find the side button menu. It used to be called the power key, but it's not actually your power key anymore; you can make it one if you want it to be. So the long push and hold of the power key right now activates Gemini. But maybe you're not going to use that so much. And if that is the case, you might want to go to long press and then set it to the power menu. That way, when you push the power key, you get the power menu just like the old days.

Wallet Shortcut

And if we go back to the side button menu, you'll notice that the double press of the psyche opens up the camera, which is okay, but if you're coming from an iPhone, you're probably used to double tapping to get to your Apple Wallet. On this phone, you can remap it. So if you have your Google Wallet installed on your phone or any other wallet that you might use, you can go to apps here and then choose it from this list. So with that set up now whenever you need to pay for something, you can just double tap here that will jump straight into your Google Wallet.

Galaxy Store Updates

Now, if your phone is literally box fresh, it's going to look quite similar to this. And something you absolutely need to do straight away is go to your Galaxy Store, because this is where all of your Galaxy apps get updated. If you don't activate the store and update it out of the box, it'll be a while before you get the latest updates for all of your apps, so make sure you go through the original update process for the Galaxy Store. Once you've done that, go to the menu and at the top here if you see any updates, make sure you do all of those on day one. This just guarantees that you get all of the latest Samsung Galaxy features.

Multimedia and Sharing

Dolby Atmos

When it comes to watching content on your phone, you can actually improve the sound quality of the content. Here's how you do that: Go into your settings, go to Sound and Vibration. Scroll down on this page until you see sound quality and effects, and tap here, and you'll notice Dolby Atmos is available at the top.

Whenever you're watching movies, I recommend you use Dolby Atmos, and if you want a quick way to activate it and switch it off when you don't need it, here's the best way to do that. Bring down your quick settings by swiping from the top right corner. Hit the pen and then if you hit the add control at the bottom, scroll to see the sound section. And if you tap where it says Dolby Atmos, this adds it to your quick settings.

And then you can resize the quick setting to be a bit bigger. And now when it comes to using Dolby Atmos, you can just tap this button right here and that will activate it. But if you hold it down, this actually jumps you into another menu, which again, a lot of people don't know about, where you can select the type of content—movie, music or voice—and this will enhance that audio.

Quick Share and Blip

Now, one of the most useful quick settings, in my opinion, is the Quick Share. So if you are on Android and all your friends are on Android, the Quick Share can be found in the quick settings, and it looks like this. This allows you to send files, photos and things back and forth between the devices very quickly.

But here's a little pro tip for you guys. If some of your friends are on iOS, or if you work on an Apple Mac, for example, you'll appreciate this. Go into your Google Play Store—this is your app store for Android phones—and search for this app right here called Blip.

Make sure your friends also get this app, and if they do, you can now use it to send files back and forth between Android and iOS devices seamlessly and very, very quickly. Just to show you how effortless this is, if I go to the photo gallery here, I have this wallpaper of Master Yoda. I just hit the share button and then I hit Blip from the list. Now I can simply send this to an iPhone like this. I've now got access to that image, and it works fantastic for video too.