Key Features: 6-inch 1,920 x 1,080 pixel IPS screen; HiSilicon Kirin 925 CPU; 13-megapixel main camera with LED flash
Manufacturer: Huawei

What is the Huawei Ascend Mate 7?

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is a very large phone, one whose display is close to tablet-like proportions. Gamers and those who like to watch videos on the way to work should have an instant interest in such a phone.

And, contrary to what the name suggests, it’s definitely phone-sized: the screen is six inches across, not seven.

As is so often the case with Huawei phones, you need to fiddle with the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 to iron out a few weird tweaks that have been applied. But with a little effort, this is one of the best large-screen phones money can buy. At £400, it’s a good lower-cost alternative to the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

Huawei Ascend Mate 7: Design

Huawei is not a master of design. Often its inspirations are all-too apparent, and the original motifs it devises tend to be a little wonky. But it’s getting better, and the Mate 7 is certainly one of the best Huawei phones yet.

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 has a look very similar to the HTC One Max. It’s imposing, mostly metal and has a fingerprint scanner on the back. A paragon of simplicity it is not.

However, aside from a slight lack of originality the design is remarkably good. Here’s the important bit – for a 6-inch screen phone, it’s very easy to use.

A handful of clever choices ensure this, and while not exactly a surprise, it is a relief after the Huawei Ascend P7, which seemed to value being thin over being enjoyable to use day-to-day. That phone missed the point. This one gets it, or at least seems to.

The first important bit is that the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is clearly as much all-screen as the company could manage. Bezels are super-thin and there’s very little expanse above or below the display. 

For empirical evidence – the Mate 7 is just 0.5mm wider than the 5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Granted, you’ll find much greater differences compared to phones of 2014 such as the LG G3, but clear effort has been put into making the phone as manageable as possible.

It’s not just the width, but the height too. This phone is thinner, shorter and less wide than its predecessor the Ascend Mate 2.

To make this possible, the soft keys are built into the software, and despite the current trend for front speakers, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 keeps its one on the rear to ensure it doesn’t add more bulk. The result is a phone that's 7.5mm less tall than the HTC One Max, a phone we found to be flat-out too big at the time.

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is big, but not too big. Now that phones are that bit thinner, bezels that bit smaller, we’re at last finding 6-inch phones that we don’t wish we could shrink down.

Huawei has also put the soft keys towards the centre of the screen to make them easier to reach, and it works. Obviously, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 remains a handful, but this is among the most accessible 6-inch phones to date.

It also feels good. About 85 per cent of the back is anodised aluminium, with just a couple of plastic bungs on the end to house the antennas, which would have trouble transmitting through metal. Build quality isn’t quite Apple-grade on closer inspection – in our sample the ‘volume up’ key lost its clickiness after a few days of use, but we assume this is an unfortunate fault with our sample (it is labelled an Engineering Sample, so this seems likely).

Much like the soft keys, the power button is placed within reach of your digit (right thumb in this case), and the phone’s super-slim 7.9mm body adds to how breezy this phone feels to use. Yes, we’ve complained about Huawei’s obsession with slimness in the past, but in a 6-inch phone, cuts to every dimension are appreciated.

Huawei Ascend Mate 7: Fingerprint scanner

After first noticing the similarities with the HTC One Max, we were worried about the Huawei Ascend Mate 7’s fingerprint scanner. The HTC’s was so particular it became a nightmare to use.

In another unexpected win for Huawei, the Mate 7’s fingerprint scanner is, as of October 2014, the best you’ll find in a phone outside of the Apple Touch ID sensor. It’s miles better than HTC’s fingerprint scanner and far better than the Samsung one used in phones like the Note 4 and Galaxy S5.

First, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 does not make you move a finger over the scanner, just place it on there. And it scans your entire fingerprint when calibrating, rather than just the central part.

As such it’s able to be much more forgiving of fingerprints placed at an angle or non-centrally. I still experienced plenty of ‘non-recognised fingerprint’ messages, but it automatically rescans without any extra interaction required within a fraction of a second. It easily achieves the main fingerprint scanner goal of outpacing a typed-in passcode, which the HTC One Max and Samsung Galaxy S5 fail at, in our experience.

The scanner also sits in just about the perfect position for your forefinger, and is recessed by a full millimetre or so, making blind operation a doddle. It works without getting near the power button too. Huawei rarely shows the big players of Android how things are done, but it certainly has with the Ascend Mate 7’s fingerprint scanner.

Other less interesting aspects of the phone still worth noting include that it uses dual pop-out trays for microSIM and microSD cards on the left edge. You get a reasonable 16GB of storage in the phone, but a memory card slot boosts up its media cred several notches. 

Huawei Ascend Mate 7: Screen

The lead attraction of the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is its screen. More specifically, its screen size.

While the screens of ‘standard’ high-end phones have teetered over the 5-inch mark, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7’s 6-inch model still seems huge.

This is also the first Mate-series phone to really impress with its screen quality as well as size. Previous Mate models used 720p resolution displays, but the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 has a Full HD one.

While this resolution has been surpassed by a small handful of phones including the LG G3, the 368ppi pixel density this affords the Huawei Ascend Mate is easily enough to appear very sharp indeed.

The IPS LCD screen type used here gives a fairly similar screen character to LG’s best too. You get pretty decent colour accuracy, enough to convince the eye if not a professional colour calibration tool. There’s some control over the colour too. You can choose how warm or cool it looks using an easy slider in the Settings menu, giving the display a yellower (warm) or bluer (cool) character.

Viewing angles are great as well, with more-than-acceptable brightness loss from an off-angle perspective. There’s a bit of backlight bleed in the top millimetre of the screen, which may be a result of cutting down the area above the screen, but it’s minor and not too distracting.

The potential elephant in the room here is the Galaxy Note 4. Its display offers better blacks and far greater pixel density thanks to its QHD-resolution panel. We also expect it to bring slightly better colour accuracy in the right mode. But with an RRP £230 higher, these comparisons breeze past the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 without denting our opinion of it.

It is a fantastic canvas for games and video, better than 5-inch phones by virtue of its size. An extra inch may not sound like a lot on paper, but it’s a big difference in person.

We can’t give this praise without emphasising that we’re happy to dole it out because the phone hardware isn’t a pain in the backside to use, unlike so many earlier giant-screen phones. Finally, 6-inch phones are starting to make sense.

Huawei supplies the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 with a plastic screen protector attached, one that’s guaranteed to be bubble-free unlike the one you might try to apply yourself. It’s rather good as it doesn’t have the mottling effect so many screen protectors can burden your phone with. But it’s arguably a bit unnecessary.

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 uses Gorilla Glass 3, the same scratch-resistant layer used in many (or even most) high-end phones. It’s less likely to get scratched than the phone’s aluminium back.

As the protector appears to cause zero image quality compromise, you might as well leave it on until it starts looking tatty. We’d given it a few little nicks within a week, mind.

Add fairly good outdoors visibility to the Huawei Ascend Mate 7’s good image quality and you have a great little media phone. One of the best at the price.

Huawei Ascend Mate 7: Speaker

Speaker quality is also surprisingly decent given the phone only has a single mono speaker outlet on the back. It tries much more than most to provide a bit of mid-range body, avoiding the quite reedy sound that often comes out of single-speaker phones.

We put the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 up against the Samsung Galaxy S5, which has a similar single, rear-mounted speaker and found Huawei’s phone to be beefier-sounding, less tinny and better-equipped to deal with ambient noise.

A good deal of this seems to be down to Digital Sound Processing (DSP). There’s clear evidence of compression in quieter bits of audio – to be clear we’re talking about a ‘studio’ compression effect, not the kind of compression that turns a CD into a 64kbps MP3. It’s can be used to alter the perception of loudness of audio to good effect, especially when dealing with cruddy speaker drivers, as it is here.

It’s loud enough, but the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 falls down a bit when you switch it to silent mode. The vibrate function is unusually weak, meaning you’ll need to manually check your phone to ensure you don’t miss anything if you turn the volume down.

Huawei Ascend Mate 7 – Software and apps

If you’ve read the earlier parts of this Huawei Ascend Mate 7 review, it’ll sound like we’re onto a winner. However, that’s not the impression you get when first booting up the phone.

Its default interface is dreadful, possibly the worst we’ve seen from a ‘known’ phone maker. Its incredibly tacky-looking, decked out in gold ‘bling’ icons and wallpapers. Software is frequently the worst element of Huawei’s phones, and at least to begin with it is here.

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 uses Emotion UI, the custom Android interface seen in most other Huawei phones. It’s one of our least-favourite custom takes on Android because it alters a lot in 'normal' Android, but generally doesn’t demonstrate good taste in doing so.

The default UI is a prime example.

However, finally Huawei has got off its backside and properly implemented its themes system for a Western audience. Emotion UI has supported themes for years, but in the phones we’ve seen you’ve only had direct access to a few inbuilt ones, needing to scout out others from an obscure Chinese (and Chinese-language) web portal.

In the Huawei Ascend Mate 7, the ability to download new ones has finally been properly integrated. You have access to loads, and the majority are better than that which the phone uses by default. Wonders never cease etc.

These themes alter the wallpaper, the icon style and the Huawei Ascend Mate 7’s lock screen, changing its personality quite radically at times. There’s plenty of fiddling to do if you fancy. Within a few minutes we found a nice and simple one.

However, all of them get rid of the separate apps menu you normally see in Android. Everything app and game you download has to be arranged on your homescreens, demanding a bit more active curation than most other phones.

We’ve complained about this style many times in the past, and it remains contentious. However, it’s not as bad in a 6-inch phone like the Huawei Ascend Mate 7.

25 icons fit comfortably on each homescreen, meaning everyone should be able to fit their daily-use apps within a homescreen or two. The phone also supports folders, further cutting down how much you have to juggle homescreens. 

Huawei Ascend Mate 7 – Performance

The biggest point to note, though, is that the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 does not suffer from the frequent performance glitches we see in the Huawei Ascend P7.

It really is quite nippy, something we’ve not been able to say about recent Huawei flagships.

We hope that part of this is down to improved optimisation in the often-faulty Emotion UI, but the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 also has a seriously fast processor. It’s a HiSilicon chip, produced by a Huawei subsidiary.

The HiSilicon chips we’ve seen to date have routinely underperformed next to Qualcomm Snapdragon rivals, but the Kirin 925 chip here is arguably competing with the Snapdragon 805 – which we’re yet to experience in a phone, as of October 2014.

The Hisilicon Kirin 925 has four Cortex-A15 performance cores clocked at 1.8GHz and four Cortex-A7 cores at 1.3GHz. In true Hisilicon fashion, this is not a particularly up-to-date setup. The Exynos version of the Galaxy Note 4 uses a similar setup but with the newer A53/57 64-bit cores.

In six months, the Hisilicon Kirin 925 is going to be looking quite musty, but for the moment it offers very compelling performance. For example, in the Geekbench benchmark the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 scores 3285. That compares favourably with the Snapdragon 805 and Snapdragon 801 scores we’ve seen – the Snapdragon 801 Galaxy S5 scored 2843 when tested concurrently.

It has loads of power, especially when you consider it’s significantly cheaper than the smaller-screen flagships from the biggest names. It's roughly on-par with what we expect to see from upcoming Snapdragon 805 phones.

If there is going to be a 64-bit Android app revolution, the Ascend Mate 7 won’t really be part of it (it's a 32-bit CPU), but to be honest it probably won’t kick in until this phone is starting to look very old anyway.

Native 64-bit support is only coming to Android with Android L. The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 uses Android 4.4.2 at present.

Huawei Ascend Mate 7 – Apps and Games

The GPU used by the phone is the Mali T-628 MP6, the same GPU used in the Exynos version of the Galaxy Note 3. AnTuTu reported the GPU as a much weaker Mali T-624, but results suggest this is a mis-reporting. Despite the high benchmark scores, the Mali T-628 is actually a bit less powerful than the Adreno 330 used in the Snapdragon equivalents.

Just as important as raw power is the extra ultra low power chip that monitors the phone's sensors while the screen is off. It's this chip that means you can use the fingerprint scanner without turning on the phone, without causing serious battery drain. Of couse, lots of power comes in handy when gaming too.

We’ve been gaming even more than usual with this phone – that screen positively wills you to – and have found that the Ascend Mate 7 has enough power to tackle top-end 3D games. Ramping Dead Trigger 3 up to it highest graphical setting still brings good performance (the game now offers a user-selected graphics setting).

The real big-hitting benefit for gaming, though, is the screen. A good 6-inch display is much more involving for the sorts of games that can feel a little cramped on a 4.5-inch display. It also gives your thumbs much more room to move without cramping the screen in games that use virtual sticks.

In a slightly old-fashioned move, Huawei has teamed-up with Gameloft and pre-installed five of its games on the Huawei Ascend Mate 7. However, you’re not really getting something for nothing – they are either demos or free games anyway, often requiring extra assets to be downloaded.

A few essential apps come pre-loaded too, things like Facebook and Twitter. However, aside from a bunch of little utilities apps there’s not much bloat.

You get things like an FM radio, a ‘mirror’ app and a magnifier, which uses the rear camera set to close-up focus in order to work as a sort of digital magnifying glass. The quirkier bits are automatically filed away into a Tools folder, though.

Huawei Ascend Mate 7 – Camera

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 has a 13-megapixel camera main camera with a chunky LED flash.

It’s a pretty good setup that’ll do the job for day-to-day photography out on the street. You get pretty good levels of detail in sunlight and even in darker conditions – despite lacking HDR, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 manages to hold onto detail fairly well in lower-light conditions.

While there’s clear processing/sharpening going on at pixel level and the edges of the frame get a bit scrappy-looking, you can get great levels of fine detail in the right conditions.

However, it’s not perfect. We did notice that in tricky higher-light conditions, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7’s photos can end up looking quite desaturated – almost monochrome in the worst cases.

While things like this are common in phone cameras, we’ve come to rely on HDR modes a bit to patch them up. The Huawei Ascend Mate 7’s is far from the most effective we’ve seen, though. It’s not the go-to fix-all it is in the best examples.

This phone is a middleweight contender in the phone camera world, but when the Huawei Ascend Mate 7’s camera is far from its star feature, that’s not a bad result.

Huawei has kept the modes on offer fairly simple too. You get Panorama, Beauty mode (which de-wrinkles your crows’ feet), HDR, burst mode and Watermark. There aren’t too many crazy processing filters, as you get in Sony’s phones.

It has a go at the post-focus modes attempted by other phones at present too, and this gets a spot as one of the main camera modes – right on the front page. However, as is generally the case with this kind of shooting, you’re much better off just taking normal photos in the vast majority of cases.

On the front is a much better-than-average 5-megapixel camera. With good light you'll get loads of detail in your selfies. However, for low-light indoors shots, that the camera uses a pretty tiny sensor is very evident – the noise is much clearer than in a high-grade 2-megapixel selfie cam.

Huawei Ascend Mate 7 – Battery Life

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 has a gigantic 4,100mAh battery. For some extra context, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 ‘only’ has a 3,220mAh unit.

As you’d hope from a unit of this size, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7’s stamina is very good. You don’t need to be terribly careful to get two days’ use out of the phone, and for a spot of purely anecdotal evidence, the battery was at around 50 per cent at 11:30pm on one night, which got me through to about 5:30pm the next day before needing a charge – with some web browsing in-between too.

It does seem as though Huawei has taken a rather ‘brute force’ approach to the Huawei Ascend Mate 7’s battery efficiency, probably because the HiSilicon Kirin 925 isn’t all that power-efficient by itself compared to the best from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon range.

For example, you actually have to specify apps that can run when the screen’s turned off. Everything else will be blocked. This may become a problem for those not intending to take a diploma course in how to use the phone’s settings menu, as it’ll limit what apps will be able to ping you push notifications.

Our standard video test supports this too. You'll get 12 hours of 720p MP4 video playback off a charge, with the backlight set to mid-level.

That's a great result, but not the sort of earth-shattering one you might expect of a phone with such a giant battery. We got more out of the Sony Xperia Z2, for example.

Huawei Ascend Mate 7 – Call Quality and Connectivity

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 HiSilicon Kirin 925 processor may need some concessions to bring great battery life, but the phone's core hardware otherwise covers most of the connectivity basics we expect from a £400 phone.

You get 4G, with wide-spanning support for the UK’s networks. In the OnePlus One (also Chinese), band 800 support was missing, but it is here, ensuring you can get 4G from all the main networks. It’s Cat 6-compliant too, meaning it can handle speeds of 300Mbps.

NFC is here too, along with the standards of Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and Wi-Fi Direct. There are a couple of missing bits, though. Wi-Fi support only goes up to N standard, not AC, and there’s no IR transmitter.

What is NFC, and why is it in your phone?

This means those who rely on ac to get Wi-FI coverage in the further reaches of their lofty mansions (or those with poor quality routers), may notice patchy Wi-Fi, and you can’t use the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 as a universal remote.

Should I buy the Huawei Ascend Mate 7?

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is one of the first phones we’ve tested that justifies having a giant 6-inch screen. It’s not that the software offers extra functionality to make those extra inches work – it’s not Galaxy Note 4-grade in that regard.

Rather, the screen is high-quality enough to seem better all-round than the 5-inch screens of more expensive phones, and the body isn’t so big and awkward it feels like wielding a chopping board as a phone.

You still need to consider whether you’ll appreciate the larger screen size over a smaller body, though. Things like games and films look fantastic on the Huawei Ascend Mate 7, while offering the phone-style convenience that you don’t get with something like the Nexus 7. But pulling the phone out for a quick snap really doesn’t feel as nimble as it would with a smaller phone.

It’s all about where your priorities sit. Screen size needs to be near the top. But if it is, this is one of the best-value options. There are no serious compromises in the hardware by current standards, and while there are plenty of Huawei quirks to raise an eyebrow at, many can be patched up. And when the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 costs more than £200 less than the Galaxy Note 4, that’s not a bad compromise.

Verdict

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is one of the first 6-inch phones that avoids being a royal pain to use. The software is quirkier than a French art house film, but good performance elsewhere makes up for it.

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BlackBerry is trying a new tactic to lure customers back — by paying them to switch phones.

The Waterloo, Ont.-based smartphone maker says it will pay iPhone users as much as $600 to switch to a BlackBerry Passport phone.

Canadian iPhone users with iPhone 4s or later makes are eligible for up to $400 in trade-in value, depending on the model of the iPhone, plus a $200 top-up from BlackBerry.

U.S. users are eligible for up to the same amount, plus a $150 US top-up. Users with the newest iPhone 6 model are eligible for the highest trade-in value, up to $400.

Only North American users are eligible for the trade-in program, and the iPhone must be in working condition.

Anyone trading in iPhones must purchase a new BlackBerry from ShopBlackBerry.com or from Amazon.com. The money will be provided on a prepaid Visa gift card and mailed to users within six weeks of receiving the iPhone and proof of purchase of a Passport, according to a blog post by BlackBerry.The promotion starts Dec. 1 and runs to Feb. 13, 2015.

On Monday, BlackBerry and CEO John Chen announced the Passport phone is available in new colours, white and red, in addition to black.

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Side by side on a table, the two nearly identical rectangular handsets look innocuous enough and extremely familiar. Yet two things quietly make the Samsung Galaxy A3 and Samsung Galaxy A5 stand out: their all-aluminum material and their unibody construction. Following the metal-framed (and plastic-backed) Samsung Galaxy Alpha and Galaxy Note 4, the Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3 represent Samsung's first stab at an all-metal build, and the first of its smartphones to seal in the battery completely.

The square-sided handsets look and feel good, similar to Galaxy Alpha, or like smaller, more maneuverable versions of the Note 4. They're also on the light side and are noticeably slim - in fact, they're the most svelte Galaxy phones yet. Don't look for any real standout textures or design elements to show off the move to metal; these smooth-backed specimens are understated as far as that goes.

Since the back cover isn't removable, you'll find the SIM-card and microSD-card slots on the right edge. In some countries, a hybrid slot will accommodate either a second SIM or a storage card, just not both at the same time. As midrange phones, you won't find a heart-rate monitor built in with the camera module; Samsung says that sensor is reserved for more premium phones like the Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 4, and Galaxy Alpha.

Midrange specs

You might think that luxe metal casings like these would house equally high-end specs, but the A series is actually defined by midrange specs that target a more youthful demographic. Samsung's market studies revealed that this group isn't fussy about top-flight hardware, but is turning toward the metal trend in a serious way.

Samsung also points out that the Galaxy A5 ad Galaxy A3 emphasize sound quality, with adjustable audio that increases volume when it detects competing background noise. Another feature, called Wise Voice, helps keep volume levels constant for the receiver even if you're holding the phone away from your face. Sounds good in theory, though I didn't get a chance to test out either enhancement.

In terms of color, both the Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 will come in six shades. There's the usual black and white, gold and silver metallics, and the same blossom pink and light blue as the Note 4. As usual, not every color will be available in every country.

Extra themes

Android 4.4 KitKat is the OS standard for these phones, with Samsung's TouchWiz interface on top. In a nod to self-expression, a new take on the UI lets you apply four new themes -- such as "nature" -- that applies pre-selected images and ringtones. The Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 also have their own unique touch sounds that other Galaxy phones don't.

Supercharged selfies

The Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 may fall in the middle of the hardware spectrum, but they have a few fun new camera features dedicated to selfies, another huge trend we're seeing in smartphones.

It all starts with wide-angle selfies that shoot up to 100 degrees in portrait and a 120-degree landscape/panorama mode. The Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 also get the same rear-camera selfie feature first seen on the Note 4. In addition, the airbrushing Beauty mode found in pretty much every Samsung and LG front-facing camera goes a step further here with effects to correct your skin tone and slim your face, plus one to enlarge your eyes. If you prefer to send your selfies au naturel, you'll have the option to turn this off.

You can trigger selfies with a voice prompt as before, and Samsung also adds the ability to launch a count-down by holding your hand in front of the camera. You'll have 3 seconds to get your palm out of the way before the shutter snaps to life.

Also brand-new is an animated GIF mode, which combines up to 20 pictures you capture by pressing and holding the shutter button. You can adjust the frame rate for 1-to-10 frames per second, and also tweak the GIF quality using a sliding scale. You'll also be able to reorder frames and adjust the settings before saving your animated GIF.

It's a cute idea, but one that's clearly still in its infancy. Quality on my GIF was choppy in my hands-on demo, and that's because it caps off at a 640x480-pixel video resolution. Sharing is also limited. While animated GIFS are shareable through a messaging app, it wasn't clear if you could upload them to social networks like Facebook.

Where can I get Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3, and for how much?

The Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 will launch in Asia first in November (including China), followed by rest of the world. While Samsung hasn't released pricing or distribution details yet (carriers will likely do that on their own), look for costs of unlocked models to come in significantly lower than the Note 4.

Outlook

Once again, Samsung's approach of aiming its first fully metal devices to the middle of the market rather than the tippy-top is a different strategy than I'd have expected from the smartphone leader. It isn't an unreasonable position, however. Appearances matter, and with midrange specs largely on par with competing devices, the more premium metal may very well help the Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 stand out against rival phones.

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The latest iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have the best cameras yet from Apple. Despite going with an 8MP sensor for three years now, the Cupertino company gave its latest set of handsets faster phase-detect autofocus and even optical image stabilization on the larger phablet. Similarly iOS 8 brings a host of improvements to the default camera app, with new timelapse tool and ability to shoot slow motion movies - plus all the OS level editing tools.

While Apple's prepacked imaging tools are great and all. The iPhoneography only truly sings when with a collection of apps to expand the capabilities of smartphone photography. With this in mind we've rounded up the 10 best camera apps letting you pull off all sorts of new tricks including toy box images, camera shake free videos and fixing lens distortion.

1. Manual

One of the biggest new camera features of iOS 8 was the ability to finally adjust your exposure settings. Although you can manually brighten and darken the frame with the basic built-in camera app, the Manual app adds some more granular control over settings such as ISO and shutter speed.

You could use this added flexibility to capture a long exposure by decreasing the ISO while lengthening the shutter speed. Alternatively when you want to shoot fast moving action in dark conditions, raise the ISO and shoot at a faster shutter speed. What's more, the app also gives you access to more features such as exposure compensation, manual focus and white balance.

The only thing you won't be doing in Manual is editing your images afterwards. Manual is strictly a camera shooting app, focused purely on transmuting moments into pictures.

2. Photoshop Touch

While Manual might not have any editing options whatsoever, look to Photoshop Touch for all your post processing needs. This versatile post processing tool lets you tweak your images for everything from brightness, contrast, saturation to toning down the highlights (otherwise known as the bright parts of the frame).

Beyond some basic adjustments, the mobile Adobe workshop comes with layers and many of the same filtering effects from the full fledged desktop app. With these tools you could apply a blur to one layer and blend another image into the frame, all while adding a grainy texture to to create the effect of double exposed film.

It might sound like overkill for the everyday iPhone snapshot, but it's crucial to have a fully featured image editor when more and more of the best DSLR cameras can wirelessly transfer images over to a smartphone. Like Lightroom Mobile for the iPad, Photoshop Touch also lets you remotely edit images you have stored on Adobe's Creative Cloud.

3. Hyperlapse

iPhones don't just take good pictures, they're also excellent video cameras in a pinch. The only problem is camera shake (vibrations caused by unsteady hands) can make just about any short film unwatchable and its unavoidable unless users have the steadiest of hands, brought a stabilizer rig of some sort or got an iPhone 6 Plus with OIS.

Luckily for you, Hyperlapse is a new video app from the minds behind Instagram. The app was initially introduced as a tool to create cinematic timelapses, but its best feature is actually to create extremely smooth video.

Even with this video of me jogging through the Union Square subway station, Hyperlapse manages to wrangle most of the camera shake as I'm moving. This vibration smoothing feature becomes even better when you shooting a short clip while standing in place. Soon enough all your videos of your kids to amusements you find on the street will be completely shake free.

4. SimplyB&W

Color photography is modern and all that, but black and white photography still has it place in the world. Going with a monochromatic image is great for accentuating the lighting or capturing emotion in a photo by removing any distracting hues.With this in mind we're nominating SimplyB&W as the best camera app to make black and white images.

This app can take any image you take and convert it into a grayscale image. For the best looking black and white images, you'll also want to mess around with the color levels by darkening reds or brightening the yellows. Luckily SimplyB&W includes a few templates, which darkens and lightens certain colors. You can also apply filters and add a vignette (dark circular border) to the image to make it a really classic looking image.

5. VSCO Cam

While we're still on the topic of classical film looks, there's no other app that comes with as many excellent film simulations as VSCO Cam. With the app you can add little desaturating and color shifting filters just like Hipstamatic and other apps. VSCO Cam, however, also has a few more options for tweaking the exposure and adding film grain. If you want a simple image editor that also offers some great filter effects, VSCO Cam is it.

6. SKRWT

Distortion is big problem with mobile phones because they all tend to come equipped with a wide-angle lens. If you've ever taken an image of a brick wall or a buildings head on, you might have noticed the center of the frame bulges out causing lines to curve into a bowl shape. It's a small but unmistakable problem all smartphones cameras suffer - that is until SKRWT showed up in the app store.

This vowel-deficient app corrects (or adds more) distortion letting me square up this image above of the Brooklyn Bridge. SKRWT is also a great iPhone camera app if you want to change the perspective of an photo. For example you could take a photo of building looking upward to capture the whole thing. Then make a few adjustments to create a final picture that look like it was taken while looking at the building head on.

7. TiltshiftGen2

Enough talk about fixing images, now it's time to do something fun with our photography again. Creating toy box (or miniature) pictures is something you can normally only do with a special and very expensive tilt-shift lens. Well, there are plenty of ways to replicate the same effect with some software trickery including the TiltshiftGen2 camera app.

Making a toy box image is a little tricky but TiltshiftGen 2 simplifies the process into position the center of the blur area and picking the shape of the blur. For the best results it's a good idea to bump up the saturation to make the colors pop and look more cartoonish. Also keep in mind that not every image works well with the miniature effect. The best images that work with this type of photography are often birds-eye of a scene below.

8. Brushstroke

There's more than one way to create a beautiful image and the Brushstroke app will turn your real life stills into gorgeous watercolor paintings. The process is as simple as picking an image to convert and hitting the go button. After a few seconds Brushstroke will pop out a freshly painted image that can be further customized with different brush styles, colored paints and differently textured canvases.

There are a handful of other painting conversion apps like Waterlogue and Popsicolor, but Brushstroke has always been the fastest app on the draw. Unlike the other apps, Brushstroke also lets you tweak the image with settings like saturation and brightness.

9. VividHDR

Smartphone cameras are notorious for capturing poor dynamic range, where the overall image looks flat and lifeless between the brightest and darkest parts of the frame. It's a problem that really extends to all cameras and it's caused by the imaging sensor only capturing a single instance of light.

One way of correcting for this is taking a bracketed exposure (one underexposed, one normal exposure and one that's overexposed) and combining it into a single high-dynamic range image. The iOS camera comes with built-in HDR shooting mode, but it's results can vary with strange color effects to adding no benefit at all.

iPhonegraphers seeking more control and better images should pick up VividHDR. It takes multiple images and splices them together just like the built-in camera app, but VividHDR also has more options letting you choose whether the final picture looks true to life or ventures into the world of surreal imagery.

Once again there are other apps that produce the same effect including Pro HDR and True HDR. In our experience, though, VividHDR produces the least amount of ghosting and processes images faster.

10. Slow Fast Slow

One of the neatest video tricks the iPhone 5S camera introduced was the ability to shoot slow motion videos. But watching balloons pop or skaters pull tricks in just slow motion by itself is gets old really fast. This is where the Slow Fast Slow video editing app comes to let you manipulate the tempo of your video.

Speed up slow motion back to regular speed or put motion into fast forwards. Alternatively, you could take a regular movie clip and alter the frame rate in multiple sections. Slow Fast Slow can even take a video and turn it on its head to play backwards.

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While Apple isn't always super forthcoming about the specs of its handsets, it does at least tend to fill you in on their features, but with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus it neglected to mention one - the fact that it can play 4K videos.

Tuaw.com reports that the developers of the WALTR video upload app made the discovery while testing their app. Unfortunately you can't transfer 4K files using iTunes, so you'll have to use an alternative service to get them on your phone, but once there they seemingly play without a hitch.

Of course the quality will be limited by the resolution of the screen, so the larger and higher resolution iPhone 6 Plus is a better bet for viewing them than the iPhone 6.

4K future

Given the hoops you have to jump through and the fact that the iPhone 6 can't shoot 4K video this obviously isn't a big feature for Apple, or not yet anyway, but we've heard reports that the iPhone 7 will be getting a huge camera boost, which may allow it to shoot 4K video.

Then of course there's the iMac with Retina 5K which recently arrived, so it's clear that Apple has its eye on higher resolutions. Plus since the A8 clearly supports 4K video it's always possible that Apple will add the feature to a new version of Apple TV.

We're not optimistic that Apple will bring official 4K support to the iPhone 6 though, or not until an iPhone which can also shoot 4K arrives anyway, but it's nice to know the feature is there in some capacity.

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Microsoft has revealed its next big Windows Phone update is nearly ready, codenamed ‘Denim’.

The firm’s Lumia Twitter page responded to a fan that enquired as to why the update still hadn’t landed, despite promises for a Q4 2014 launch.

The post read: “It will roll out soon following testing and operator approvals.”

New features expected to ship with the software update include improved Cortana functionality, as well as 4K video support.

There’s no telling when Microsoft is actually going to release the update however, with the ‘roll out soon’ tip frustratingly vague.

Whatever the case, the Windows Phone moniker for Microsoft’s mobile operating system is running out of time.

At an unspecified time next year, Microsoft plans to drop Windows Phone entirely, instead opting for the Windows 10 tag across all platforms.

Microsoft’s platform-unified Windows 10 will bring a one-for-all app store and better cross-device functionality.

Unfortunately, we still don’t know when the big Windows 10 change-up will happen either, although we’re expecting a pseudo-unveiling at Microsoft’s Build conference in the middle of 2015.

Other features of the new unified OS include desktop-friendly Cortana and the return of the Smart Menu.

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Emoji may not be the only pictures appearing in your iOS 8 messages from now on, following the launch of the DrawType keyboard app.

The 99c/69p third-party app allows users to sketch out texts from within the Messages app and post them directly to friends, family and colleagues.

In order to access the app, it must be installed as an iOS 8 keyboard in the settings menu and then selected from the in-app keyboard options. Users can then complete their drawing and paste it into the iPhone or iPad's compose field.

Of course, users have been able to paste items from other apps before, but this fully integrated solution may appeal to doodling iOS 8 fans.

DrawType’s creator Theo Watson said the app is designed for a multitude of purposes, for example, replying to a “what’s for dinner?” message with a pizza as shown in the screenshot above, or simply enacting the age old tradition of sending crude phallic doodles to one’s friends.

Watson says the functionality of the app may be expanded to allow users to upload animated GIF files or even to allow users to sketch on top of photographs and other images.

The app is available to download and currently represents the biggest threat to those 722 emoji sitting on your iPhone or iPad.

Read iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus tips and tricks

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Some were dismayed to find that the Nexus 6 doesn't have an LED notification light, but as it turns out, the phone does — it just hasn't been enabled by the device's software.

The hidden hardware easter egg was found by an XDA Developer forums tinkerer, who discovered a multi-colour LED that sits right in the middle of the Nexus 6's top speaker bar.

Forum user JMUT stumbled on the Nexus 6's hidden LED when using the Light Flow app, which lets you manually fiddle about with your phone's LED light.

Before you get too excited, this little hack requires a rooted phone, as apps don't have access to the Nexus 6's LED without the deeper control rooting provides.

Secret flasher

It could do with the LED, though, as the Nexus 6 does not use the Active Display feature seen in other Motorola phones — for those not dangerously obsessed with all things Android, Motorola makes the Nexus 6 for Google.

Instead, it lets you see notifications from your lock screen. It's good, but not quite as immediate as either Active Display or an LED light.

Active Display shows notifications before you even turn your phone on. You'll find it in the 2014 Moto X.

According to the creator of Light Flow, the app used to discover the Nexus 6's LED, the unit refuses to flash/pulsate, suggesting that even after a hack or two we may not be able to get the full LED notification effect some people are after. But this is still one to keep an eye on.

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Key Features: Wi-Fi and 4G versions; 8.9-inch 2560 x 1600 resolution display; Quad-core Snapdragon 805 CPU; Family Sharing and Firefly support; Stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos Manufacturer: Amazon

What is the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (2014)?

2014's Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is an Android tablet that, on the surface, looks identical to the third-generation Kindle Fire HDX 8.9. The changes actually lie beneath the magnesium alloy surface.

Amazon's added a more powerful processor, Dolby Atmos-optimised speakers, faster Wi-Fi and the new Fire OS 4 operating system, which now includes the new Firefly software first introduced with the Amazon Fire phone.

Priced at £329 for the 16GB model, it’s up against the likes of the Nexus 9 (£319), the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.4 (£319) and the first-generation iPad Air, which you can now pick up for around the same price. We were fans of the first HDX 8.9, but some of the software quirks still haven't been resolved in the 2014 model, meaning it's still a great device for video but not quite the premier Android tablet.

Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (2014) – Design

If you sat last year’s Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 and this year’s model side by side, like we did, you’d be hard pressed to find any changes. That’s because the two tablets are identical. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, because Amazon was on the money the first time, especially with how comfortable it is to use for a larger tablet.

There’s the same black magnesium finish that’s now beginning to find its way onto Amazon’s range of e-readers like the Kindle Voyage. Amazon keeps things light without compromising on the impressive build quality. Staying at the same 374g for the Wi-Fi-only model, it’s still lighter than the iPad Air 2 (437g), and whether you use it in one hand or two hands, you're not going to find it a strain to hold for long periods.

Up front you'll find the same black bezel, while the back is still soft-touch plastic with a glossy black trim that has a habit of picking up greasy fingerprints. This is where you'll find three slightly concave buttons, which put the tablet in standby or adjust volume, sitting within easy reach when you're holding it landscape-wise. Cameras on both the front and rear sit up top, which again promotes more landscape use with the 8.9.

Around the trim, you’ll find the micro-USB charging port that's still a tight squeeze when fitting in the charging cable. The headphones socket's on the right and, for those hoping for HDMI and microSD card support, sadly you're out of luck again. It’s no real surprise here, though. If you want more storage then you're relying on Amazon's cloud storage service, and for mirroring content there's Miracast support plus the ability to throw content to the Amazon Fire TV streaming box, so it's not all bad.

Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (2014) – Screen and Speakers

There’s no change to screen quality, either. It’s still an 8.9-inch IPS LCD panel with a 2560 x 1600 resolution and impressive 339ppi pixel density. That’s the same resolution as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 tablet, and while the Fire HDX 8.9 might lack the exceptional black levels and punchier colours you associate with an AMOLED display, this is still a gorgeous screen.

Testing it out with the steadily improving Amazon Instant Prime Video streaming service, video looks sharp, contrast performance really impresses and the colour accuracy, especially the trickier natural tones in faces, really impresses. The screen's also brighter than its predecessor's and viewing angles are strong as well. Crucially, there's no sign of the same blue tint that last year's 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX 7 tablet suffered from. This is largely down to Amazon’s decision to use blue LEDs instead of white LEDS in its displays to create what it claims is "100% sRGB colour accuracy."

Another feature that’s been added to the 8.9 is the inclusion of Dynamic Light Control. This was first seen on the HDX 7 and is a feature squarely aimed at making it more comfortable to tuck into your favourite Kindle ebooks, whatever the lighting conditions. It essentially adjusts the tone and colour of the pixels according to the ambient lighting. It’s something that’s difficult to notice, but we’d say that as a tablet for reading, it does a fine job – although it still struggles a little with glare outdoors.

Joining the pretty impressive display are arguably the best speakers on any tablet. If you're after depth, warmth and the audio qualities you’d want for watching films and flicking through YouTube videos, these will sate your aural appetite.

To increase its film-friendly credentials, Amazon's now added Dolby Atmos support. This won't make much difference when you're simply listening through the speakers, but when you plug in a pair of headphones you'll be able to appreciate the benefit of Atmos. It's a relatively recent phenomenon in surround sound technology that you can find in your local cinema. The aim is to create a better, more immersive sense of directional sound. So if a car's driving past in a scene or there's a sudden downpour of rain, it sounds like it's going past you or dropping from above.

Dolby Atmos is still not massively widespread and the films to use it in recent years include Godzilla, The Expendables 3 and Taken 2, which is currently available on Amazon Instant Prime video. We watched Liam Neeson's second outing as retired CIA agent Bryan Mills on the older third-generation Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 and then on the fourth-gen 8.9, and we didn't really find any truly distinguishing differences in directional sound. There's surely going to be films that make better use of Atmos, so it's maybe nice to have as a future-proofing measure.

Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (2014) – Software

The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 runs on Amazon’s own Fire OS which is such a heavily skinned version of the Android operating system that it's barely recognisable from something like the Nexus 9. While Google goes for dessert-based names for its updates, Amazon is opting for a drinks theme instead – after Mojito we now have Sangria.

Again, it’s one of those operating systems that’s going to divide a lot of people. It’s becoming easier to use, even if you're not already locked into the Amazon ecosystem, but it certainly helps if you are. You do still have to make some compromises with elements of the software, such as a native web browser that's certainly not as slick as something like Chrome, and dealing with some high-profile omissions in the Amazon Appstore.

The new Fire OS 4 is built on top of Android 4.4.3 KitKat, and at a glance the UI hasn't been drastically overhauled. There’s still the main navigation bar at the top to take you into the different content sections, a stream of recently viewed content at the centre of the screen, and a line of apps at the bottom of the screen which, when swiped down, reveals the app tray.

Key features introduced with the last tablet, like Mayday, X-ray for movies and music and Freetime, are all still there. There's also Goodreads integration, the ASAP queuing feature taken from Fire TV and closer PS4 support so you can send content such as movies to Sony's next-gen console.

Icons and text appear smaller, but the biggest, most notable changes can be found inside the settings menu. You can now adjust font sizes and there’s new power-management features, so you can turn off wireless connectivity when you're not using the tablet or even schedule times to switch it off.

There’s bigger changes on the sharing front, too, with the new Family Library feature. This means you can now share books and other content bought through Amazon apart from music, film and TV programmes. Up to six people can take advantage of the Family Library, and it will work with other Kindle tablets and the Kindle Fire phone, as well as third-party tablets and phones that have the Amazon app installed.

If you're planning to do some work on the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, it's not really something it excels at in the same way that an iPad or something like the Surface Pro 3 does. What you do now get within the Docs section is the ability to create and edit documents and spreadsheets through its WPS Office software.

Doing that is made easier if you invest in the additional Bluetooth keyboard. It costs around the £20 mark from Amazon and is roughly the same size as the 8.9, with a similar soft-touch finish on the back. It’s very basic, with nice big keys and a rough-feeling trackpad. It offers decent travel and we managed to make notes for this review without any frustration of hitting the wrong keys. You'd need Amazon's origami case or a tablet stand to get the best typing experience, which does mean spending more money, of course.

Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (2014) – Apps and Firefly

One of the most contentious aspects of Amazon’s Fire OS is the app support. The HDX 8.9, like the rest of Amazon’s tablet range, supports Android apps which are all accessed from Amazon’s own Appstore. What that means is you're not getting the same catalogue of content you can find in Google Play. It's getting better, but it's unbelievable to think there's still not an official YouTube app.

Comparing the top 10 best sellers in the Google Play store and the Amazon Appstore, most were present aside from Worms 3 and a slightly more expensive version of Goat Simulator. It’s £3.07 on the AppStore, in case you were wondering.

On the native application front, Amazon doesn't pack in a lot of bloatware. There's a pretty standard email app, along with one for the weather and a calendar. Then there's Firefly. First seen on the Amazon Fire phone, this is a feature where you can scan items using the tablet's rear camera to find out product information or additional details. It also works with music and TV programmes and will help you to purchase them through the Amazon shopping portal.

It sounds like a fun feature, if not something entirely new, but at the moment it simply doesn't work. While it managed to identify an episode of The Big Bang Theory and lead us to more information about the episode on IMDb, it failed to recognise an episode of Family Guy and actually thought a Tefal iron was a kettle.

Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (2014) – Performance

Powering the Fire HDX 8.9 is a new 2.5GHz Snapdragon 805 processor with an Adreno 430 GPU to ramp up its gaming prowess, although it has the same 2GB of RAM as its predecessor. That gives it roughly the same specs as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. The first HDX 8.9 was by no means slow, and while there's some slight improvements for gaming, it's much the same everywhere else.

Running it side by side with last year's Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, there’s not a discernible difference in the way it handles everyday tasks. Apps launch swiftly and there’s no lag when you're swiping through homescreens or rifling through settings from the notification bar.

The benchmark suggests there’s a greater gap between this year’s and last year’s tablet. In a Geekbench 3 multi-core test, the 2014 edition scores a 3169, while the last generation manages a still impressive 2771. In reality and away from the numbers, this is up there with the best for overall performance.

Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (2014) – Camera

If you have to be that person who takes photos with a tablet, then the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is well equipped. The front-facing camera shoots 720p HD, while the 8-megapixel main camera has an LED flash and is capable of Full HD 1080p video recording. For a tablet camera, it actually performs reasonably well.

Whether indoors or outdoors, you do still get some image noise in the background, but colours are decent even it lacks the kind of sharpness or detail you get with top-end smartphone cameras. It has the same camera modes as the third-generation 8.9, so you'll get an HDR mode and the ability to take panoramic photos.

Overall image quality is more than suitable for sharing over Facebook and Twitter, if that's what you're mostly going to use it for.

Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (2014) – Battery Life

With all the changes underneath the magnesium alloy surface, Amazon claims around the same 11 hours as the 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX, and 18 hours if you're only planning to read ebooks on it.

In general use it more than meets that target. As long as you're not delving too much into video streaming and don't have that screen on full blast continually, you can get up towards that mark. You can get more if you tap into the power-management settings, which aren't as comprehensive as you’ll find on, for instance, Sony’s tablets, but they will still help push things a little further.

In more intensive testing, running Dark Knight Rises downloaded from the Amazon Prime Instant Video at 50 per cent brightness, you can get to around the 10-hour mark, which might not be best in class, but it still makes a good showing.

Disappointingly, despite having a Snapdragon 805 processor, which supports quick-charge technology, it’s clearly not included here. You do have the option of investing in Amazon’s 9W PowerFast Adapter but that still takes around five hours to get up to a full charge.

Should I buy the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (2014)?

The 2014 Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, much like last year’s model, is a great tablet for entertainment. That's really where it excels. It ticks those all-important boxes you want in a larger tablet as well: it’s light and comfortable to use, has fantastic speakers and a gorgeous screen.

Is it the best 9-inch tablet available? We’d be inclined to say no. That’s largely down to some of the quirks with an improving operating system that’s primary intention is to sell you things. First-time tablet users will find it a more daunting place than an iPad or a tablet running pure Android.

If you want a tablet that’s made for movies and ebooks, then this is a good fit. For something that offers a good balance of productivity and entertainment features, you're better off aiming for last year's now similarly priced first-generation iPad Air or the slightly cheaper Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 (£319).



Verdict

The new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 sticks with much of the same great hardware but with a few improvements that make it a fantastic tablet for video and reading. Its only downfall is an operating system that still needs some fine-tuning.

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Key Features: 8-inch, 1,280 x 720 screen; Android 4.4.2; 16GB storage; microSD
Manufacturer: Hisense

What is the Hisense Sero 8?

What we have here is yet another budget Android tablet with an 8-inch screen. Produced by Chinese firm Hisense – a bigger name in Australia than it is here in the UK – the Sero 8 is being launched alongside the Sero 5, the company's attempt to crack the increasingly crowded low-cost smartphone sector. The Sero 8 packs in a 1,4GHz quad-core chipset, a bright, colourful screen, front and rear cameras and the ability to expand its 16GB of storage, and all for just £70.

Hisense Sero 8: Design & Screen

Despite its all-plastic build, the Sero 8 doesn't feel cheap and nasty. The casing is solid and doesn't creak under pressure, and the textured rear panel helps improve grip.

Aside from the volume rocker – which is situated on the right-hand edge of the device when held in portrait orientation – all of the Sero 8's other buttons and ports are located on the top edge. This includes the power button, 3.5mm headphone socket, MicroSD card slot and Micro USB port.

There's quite a large bezel surrounding the tablet's screen, and this makes it feel rather wide when compared to some of the smaller Android slates we've seen lately. It also makes it somewhat difficult to grip the device in one hand if you possess exceptionally small paws.

The screen itself has a resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels, which means that close-up text looks a little blocky. On the plus side, it's bright and boasts decent colour reproduction. Viewing angles – so often an issue with cheaper slates – are also impressive. No matter how you twist and turn the tablet in your hands, the image remains rock-steady. The only issue is that deep blacks have a tendency to look brighter when viewed at a share angle.

Hisense Sero 8: Features & Software

It's taken a while, but hardware manufacturers are finally seeing the benefit of equipping their devices with "stock" Android. What this means is the version of Android installed on tablets like the Sero 8 is largely untouched; companies like Samsung, Sony and LG are fond of covering Google's OS with custom user interface skins and loading them up with "bloatware" apps that no one uses but cannot be removed. Devices with custom skins usually have to wait longer for software updates, too.

The Sero 8 is mercifully free of both manufacturer interference and pointless applications. In fact, aside from Hisense's TV remote app (which only works with WiFi-ready televisions) and a custom video player, the only other pre-installed item is Kingsoft Office, which can be uninstalled if you so wish.

As a result, you're essentially getting a tablet running Android 4.4.2, which is close to Google's own Nexus line -- "pure" Android devices which run the operating system as its creator intended.

Hisense Sero 8: Performance & Camera

While the Sero 8 is more than capable of standing toe-to-toe with many of its more expensive Android rivals in almost every other regard, it's clear that corners have been cut when it comes to power. The Sero 8 uses a Rockchip RK3188T quad-core chipset clocked at 1.4GHz, and it's noticeably slower than the likes of the Nexus 7 (2013), Nvidia Shield Tablet and LG G-Pad 8.3.

General tasks are swift enough, but when there's a lot going on in tandem the device becomes noticeably sluggish. Even moving around the home screens is a rather jerky affair, and not as smooth as we've seen on Google's Nexus line. It's by no means a deal breaker and in general the experience is still perfectly acceptable, but it's worth noting that for a little more cash you can pick up a slate with a bit more processing strength.

Gaming on the Sero 8 isn't as bad as we were anticipating, given the slightly slow hardware. Intense 3D titles like Ridge Racer Slipstream and RoboCop ran well enough, with erratic frame rates rearing their ugly heads only occasionally. Less demanding 2D games – such as the critically acclaimed Monument Valley – run buttery-smooth.

Cameras on tablets are still something of a Marmite feature, with some leading devices even going as far as to remove the rear-facing snappers entirely. The Sero 8 comes with a 2-megapixel rear-facing camera and a front-facing VGA camera, neither of which produce images of any note. They're fine for video calling or posting pictures up on social networks, but they won't have you shelving your dedicated digital camera any time soon.

Hisense Sero 8: Battery Life & Memory

The Sero 8 comes with a 4,000mAh battery that, according to the manufacturer, is good for 7 hours of web surfing and 4 hours of HD video. Our tests show that in reality, the device actually comes in slightly below those figures.

A combination of general activities – browsing the web, replying to emails, watching YouTube and playing games – drained the battery in less than 5 hours. By Android tablet standards, that's quite poor. If you're a heavy user, you can expect to charge the Sero 8 on an almost daily basis.

There's 16GB of storage included on the device, with 12.55GB being available to the end user. That's going to fill up pretty quickly if you're downloading games, apps, movies and music, but thankfully it's possible to introduce additional space using the MicroSD card slot, located on the top edge. The Sero 8 will accept cards of up to 32GB in size, and these aren't expensive.

Should I buy the Hisense Sero 8?

If you're counting the pennies and can't stretch to one of the pricier Android tablets, then the Sero 8 is worth considering. While it's underpowered compared to rival 8-inch slates, it offers incredible value for money given the low asking price and is competent enough.

That said, we’d recommend looking at other options first. The Asus Memo Pad 7 has a faster processor and much better battery life and is now available for a similar price. Moreover, if you have enough Tesco Clubcard points then you can buy the vastly superior Tesco Hudl 2 for just £65. Indeed, even at its standard £129 asking price we’d recommend saving up for it if you can.

Verdict

A competent ultra-cheap tablet, but there are better ones if you can find the best deals.

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The smartphone space has come a long way in the seven months since the HTC One M8 launched back in March, and now the Taiwanese manufacturer looks ready to respond.

A handset which could return the company to smartphone supremacy, the HTC One M9 specs sheet has leaked with a bounty of high-end components in tow.

Surfacing courtesy of claimed insiders, it has been suggested that the HTC One M9 will mimic the LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 in adopting a QHD display.

According to reports, the stunning 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution will be stretched over a 5.2-inch form resulting in a sharp, 564 pixels-per-inch image density.

Further echoing the Note 4, HTC’s future flagship has also been tipped to run a 2.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor. Based on recent leaks, this could be the same chipset as that heading to the Sony Xperia Z4.

The early reports have added that the iPhone 6 rival will touch down towards the start of 2015, possibly around Barcelona’s MWC gathering in early March.

What else can you expect from the HTC One M9? Well, given HTC’s success in the field, a stunningly sleek, brushed metal uni-body design is all but guaranteed. As is the addition of Google’s latest Android 5.0 Lollipop mobile OS.

Given the less than official avenues which have seen these M9 specs come to light, we suggest you have that trusty pinch of salt at the ready.

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Instagram is a social network that allows its members to use it as a platform for sharing their content with others in order to gain money. This is perhaps the only social network that provides such a wonderful facility. But you should know how to exploit the opportunity.

There are thousands of instagram account holders; but those who know the social network as a potential money making mechanism are very few. This program called Instaprofitgram teaches you ways and means to earn an extra income.

The technique used here is to share the photographs you take with others. This will generate money for the user. The successful users claim that they are able to earn a minimum of $50 per day by sharing their photographs.

The greatest advantage of this program is that you do not need to strain too much to earn a profit. If you are a photography buff, all you have to do is to pursue your hobby and then upload the end product of this hobby, so that you can share it with the world.

It does not matter very much what type of photograph you upload. There is always a great demand for photographs. A lot of agencies and individuals use photographs for different purposes.

These photographs you upload can be a source of income for you for unlimited time. Once these are on the social platform, every time someone downloads them, your bank account will be ticking. This is a scalable income.

You can upload any number of photos anytime from anywhere in the world. If you have an internet connection, you can do it 24/7. Another important feature of this program is that you need not worry about your advancing age or your lack of computer skills.

This lucrative system is designed for helping its members to earn unlimited amount of money for unlimited time. The users need not even have to spend a large sum in order to get started. All they need is an ordinary camera and an aesthetic mind-set as investments.

InstaProfitGram - What is in it for you?

• On buying the system you can immediately download the eBook which contains all the valuable instructions and necessary training to use the system properly. With this you will be able to get started immediately without any hassle.
• From this you will get easily comprehensible step-by-step lessons in order to optimize your Instagram account to earn money. This is an all-inclusive instruction manual.
• You will also be given tutorials on how to click beautiful photos. It contains a number of tips and tricks which are time-tested by professionals. It will teach you all about the photographic angles, light effects and formats.
• Moreover, you will get to read real life experiences of successful members. This will help to a great extent to inspire confidence and optimism in you.
• You will be given tips and secret techniques for directing traffic to your picture gallery. Thus, while sharing your pictures with others you will get a chance to earn money.
• You will learn the techniques of tweaking your photos in the most impressive way so that they attract maximum number of your followers.

InstaProfitGram pros

• You do not need an initial investment for earning money. An ordinary camera and an internet connection, combined with a love for photography should do the trick.
• You do not need to spend your time in trying to get people to like your photographs.
• You can operate the system from anywhere at any time. Even when you are on vacation in another country, you can upload the photos in order to earn money.
• It is fun. Since all the time you are doing what you enjoy most and what you are good at it is real fun.
• To use this system you need not be a computer wizard. Since it involves very little technology and with the logical explanations and steps provided to you by the eBook, you will be able to function perfectly.
• The eBook is easily downloadable.
• The ideas are presented in layman’s language which can be understood perfectly by anybody.
• These techniques are easy to apply with amazing outcomes.
• The system works for you as long as you decide to use it. Your age is no bar for using the program.
• Since the eBook concentrates on the basics at first, even the newbies are able to perform with it.
• Apart from the tutorials on how to use the system to earn money, it also gives you a lot of tips to enhance your expertise in photography.
• Your earning is scalable as time passes. You can upload countless photos. As you upload more and more photos, your income also increases.
• You do not contact any risk in buying this product, as it guarantees 100% money back if it fails to satisfy you.

This program helps you to earn while you are engaged in your favorite activity. Together with the income, you get the pleasure of sharing.

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After over a year of rumors, YouTube today lays out details of its Music Key subscription service. So, what does it look like? Essentially it comes in two parts. Starting today, web and Android (iOS is coming soon) users will see a new music hub in YouTube. Here you'll find playlists, recommendations, trending songs/artists or just a quick route to that one darn track you can't (but please) stop playing -- all that usual stuff. Over the coming days, this will grow to include the ability to find, and play, artist discographies and full albums. This is the free part available globally, and mostly an attempt to organize what is already available on YouTube. It's the second part you're likely more curious about.

YouTube Music Key is the paid service we've been hearing about, and launches as a beta today in the US (plus Spain, Italy, Portugal, Finland and the UK). The service costs $10 (or £10/10€) a month, and gives you ad-free playback, the ability to listen in the background (essential for mobile users), offline music, endless playlists (like Spotify song-based radio stations) and -- most significantly -- access to the entire Google Play Music library.

In short, one subscription gets you in to both of Google's large music platforms (video and audio). An update to the Play Music app will soon let you watch the official video for a song without having to break out to YouTube, and recommendations will now be based on your listening habits across both platforms (so be careful who uses devices where you're logged-in to YouTube!). This also means you'll be able to listen/watch via compatible services (like Sonos), and stream over Chromecast -- so it's going to be fairly versatile.

If you're already coughing up the monthly fee for Play Music, this is clearly good news. The only problem is -- despite the big launch -- Music Key is launching as an invite-only beta. Exactly how you get on the list is unclear (you can try here), with YouTube saying it's inviting "our biggest music fans first." Those lucky listeners will get six months free, followed by a promotional lifetime price of eight dollars/pounds/euros. If there's nothing in your inbox/app alerts, perhaps there's still time to rack up a few more listens of that favorite B-side ("hundreds" of Indies are apparently signed up, despite early troubles) and bag yourself a place? If not, you'll have to wait at the velvet rope with the rest of us for the full launch in 2015.

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Which is easier to juggle on your daily commute: a small smartphone and tablet together, or a 6-inch phone that merges features from both? Consumers once leaned toward the former, but many have lately changed their minds. The so-called phablet has come a long way since Samsung came out with the first Galaxy Note in 2011, and now it's not uncommon to see several of them as you walk down the street. Nearly every manufacturer has at least one or two such devices in their lineup, so it's about time Google stepped in with some outsized hardware of its own.

The company just launched the Nexus 6, a 6-inch phone made in collaboration Motorola that comes with a winning feature list and is just as glorious as the Moto X it shares a likeness with. Aside from being a strong handset in its own right, it's meant to be a blueprint to inspire Google's partners as they work on their own devices. It's not as affordable as Nexus phones from the past two years, but at $649 it's still less than most premium-grade flagships of similar size. With that in mind, let's find out if the Nexus 6 serves as an encouragement... or a disappointment.

Motorola Nexus 6 - Hardware

The Nexus 6 is not only named for its nearly 6-inch screen size, but also its order in the series. It joins a prestigious lineup of devices Google has crafted as examples to its Android partners, each one acting as a physical manifestation of the company's mobile vision for the coming year. It only takes a quick look at the Nexus 6 to figure out what Google's focusing on this time around: phablets and premium quality. It's a jarring contrast to last year's Nexus 5, which fit the mold for an affordable, yet high-end phone; at $349, it was the best smartphone you could buy (it's still among the best, a full year later), whereas the Nexus 6, which starts at $649, comes with an even better spec sheet and looks much fancier and... well, more expensive. Both are good options, but you aren't going to be buying the new Nexus on a whim.

Google's new phone doesn't look anything like its predecessors, but it has a rather uncanny resemblance to the Moto X. In fact, it looks almost exactly like a blown-up version of Motorola's flagship, with only a few exceptions. That's a good move on Google's part, because the X is beautifully designed and well-built. It didn't become a doppelgänger by accident -- the N6 was built in collaboration with Motorola, and was announced just six weeks after the X debuted. It's fashioned with the same metal frame and curved (fingerprint-friendly) polycarbonate back, albeit without the vast array of customizable color options; no bamboo or wood, just dark blue and white for now.

Another key difference between the X and the N6 is the dimple on the back. The former features a metallic ring that distractingly screams for your attention, while the latter uses a soft depression that's indented in the plastic back itself (like the original Moto X) in a way that doesn't interrupt the design. It could be argued that this point is rendered moot by the mammoth Nexus logo underneath, as well as Motorola's signature "M," but at least the dimple looks better.

The front of the phone comes with stereo speakers, another improvement over the X; they remind me of HTC's BoomSound, and are just as loud as the audio on the One M8. Smart move, since large phones should come with stellar media experiences; if you have a big, Quad HD display, you don't want to ruin a good movie by having horrible audio.

At 10.1mm thick, the Nexus 6 is thicker than the average phone, but it doesn't look or feel like it. That's because it's a curvaceous phone that starts out thick in the middle and tapers down to incredibly thin edges.Whereas the iPhone 6 Plus and Nokia Lumia 1520 have thin, rounded (and thus sharp) edges, the Nexus 6 comes with flat sides, providing a comfortable fit and feel because they aren't digging into my fingers every time I grab onto the device. A big phone like the Nexus is also going to be heavier than most: The N6 is 6.49 ounces (184g), more than the 6.07-ounce iPhone 6 Plus or Samsung's 6.21-ounce Galaxy Note 4.

Yet for some reason -- perhaps the way that weight is distributed -- I've never given this stat a second thought. It's no lightweight, but the extra grams won't be a discouraging factor for most.

I'm not going to knock Google for creating a large-screened phone, because there's a huge market for it. For every person that gives me a weird look for using one, there's another who pines for a larger screen to view more text, watch videos on Netflix and to look at pictures. Personally, I like big phones as long as I can use them efficiently in one-handed scenarios (I find myself in those situations a lot). And unfortunately, this is an area where the Nexus 6 suffers. Each time I used it with one hand it turned into an exercise in maintaining balance. The plastic is slick and I simply can't reach my thumb everywhere it needs to go without contorting my hands. If you buy the phone, go in with the expectation that you'll handle it with both paws most of the time.

The screen isn't just big -- it's as high-definition as you can get these days, thanks to the Quad HD AMOLED panel. That's 2,560 x 1,440 pixels spread over the 5.96-inch display, which comes out to a pixel density of 493 ppi. It's technically not as dense as the Galaxy Note 4, which uses the same number of pixels on a smaller screen, but you'll be hard-pressed to notice a difference in quality between the two. As with the Note 4, it's a beautiful sight, but the improvement over 1080p isn't as significant as it would be on, say, a TV.

As long as the higher resolution doesn't impair the battery life, I have no problem with that spec; if it involves a trade-off of power efficiency, however, it's not worth it. The display itself is a little on the saturated side, though not as heavy on the extra color as the Note 4. Then again, Samsung might go more overboard with the saturation, but it at least includes various display modes allowing you to adjust the color. Moving on, darks are just as dark, though the whites seem to have a warmer temperature and aren't as bright (though it's at least much better than the Nexus 5's LCD panel, which bleeds light like crazy). Viewing angles are good, and I can see it reasonably well in direct sunlight.

Android 5.0

You'll forgive me for leaving this section a tad shorter than normal. Continuing its history of releasing new firmware in tandem with new hardware, Google has introduced Android 5.0 Lollipop, building it into the Nexus 6 and the Nexus 9 tablet. Since we already spent some time with the Nexus 9, I was able to take a close look at the OS in my preview, so wander over there to get the full lowdown on what's new.

In a nutshell, though, Lollipop comes with a fresh new look known as Material Design, which attempts to apply physical rules to a digital interface. It's clean, minimal and alive, thanks to a litany of animations that react to your touch. It seeks to eliminate as many distractions as possible so you can concentrate on the task at hand. Google accomplishes this in a couple ways: through actionable notifications that drop down from the top of the screen, and a do not disturb mode with imposable time limits and white lists. Lollipop also brings performance and battery life enhancements, as well as a Smart Lock feature that lets you bypass the lock screen as long as your Bluetooth device is nearby. It's definitely one of the biggest updates Android has ever seen. And I like it: It's fun to use and easy on the eyes.

But despite Lollipop's fancy new design and useful features, its presence on the Nexus 6 highlights one of the update's few weaknesses: the one-handed experience. Unless your hands are much larger than mine (I believe I'm in the average category), the new Nexus is nigh impossible to operate without the assistance of a second set of phalanges; the curved back helps somewhat, but the slippery polycarbonate doesn't. You could argue that this is a problem with most large phones, and that it's just one of the compromises you'll have to make in exchange for a tablet-like experience. But several manufacturers have found ways to enhance one-handed use; the 5.7-inch Note 4, for instance, comes with extra menus that make the phone easier to operate when you only have one hand free. Stock Android on the Nexus 6 lacks these kinds of handy features. This is definitely something you'll need to overlook if you're interested in getting the latest and greatest Nexus.

Lollipop also doesn't do much to take advantage of the additional space. Having a larger screen makes it so you can read more text at a time from a book or Chrome page, but the new update lacks features like split-screen mode and floating apps, which can be incredibly useful when you're trying to multitask. Additionally, none of Android's native apps come with extra panes when you turn the phone onto its side and use it in landscape mode. You can't even convert the home screen into landscape, which can be slightly annoying if you're trying to move from one app to another (at least Overview works this way, but that's only helpful if you're switching to an app or Chrome tab that you've recently used).

Just like on the original Moto X, the Nexus 6 (and any Lollipop-supported device with the right hardware) comes with voice activation, allowing you to use "OK Google" as the voice trigger. However, you don't get the chance to make up your own phrase, as you can on the Moto X; it's unfortunate that Motorola didn't work with Google to incorporate the feature this time around. In general, too, the voice activation still needs a little more work on the N6 -- it didn't always hear my voice.

The strangest part of the Nexus 6 is that the double-tap-to-wake feature, which was shown off in early hands-on demos, is now nowhere to be seen. I've asked Google for comment, and a company rep simply responded that the feature is not included on the device right now. It seems odd that it got left out of the final product, as it would've made it a little easier to handle the phone with one hand.

Motorola Nexus 6 - Camera

The Nexus lineup is designed to express Google's hardware vision for Android manufacturers. Historically, however, we'd have to take its imaging "vision" with a grain of salt: The past few Nexus' cameras have been mediocre at best. Combine this tradition with the subpar shooters on Motorola's latest phones, and you'll understand why I didn't have high expectations for the Nexus 6's camera going into this review. Its 13-megapixel rear module means you'll at least get a higher resolution than the 8MP Nexus 5, and it also comes with optical image stabilization, a pleasant addition. It should also be better than its predecessor at taking low-light shots thanks to its f/2.0 aperture (a bump up from f/2.4 on the N5).

If you've used the latest stock Android camera app, you'll feel at home on the N6. You can pull up a camera mode menu by swiping out from the left edge; this lets you choose among camera, video, panorama, lens blur and Photo Sphere (yep, it's still supported). Like Motorola's other phones, it's missing some manual options; you can change resolution and exposure, but not white balance, ISO, shutter speed or anything else.

You can do a ton of tweaks after the fact, though it's best not to rely on that every time you take a cruddy shot. Also, you can still access the camera directly from the lock screen, as you've been able to do in previous versions of Android, with one difference: You have to swipe directly left from the camera icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen in order to activate it. (Same goes for the phone dialer, which requires swiping directly right.)

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Nexus 6 did at taking daylight shots. Google did a better job with the imaging experience overall, compared to the Nexus 5. Most of my images were well detailed and crisp.

What it lacks in manual controls it makes up for in the default experience -- much like the iPhone experience, you can take a shot without worrying about how it's going to turn out. HDR mode is subtle yet effective, white balance is good and colors are a tad saturated in some situations but are kept within reason. I'd see blown-out highlights on occasion as well, but never was it so blatant that it completely ruined the photo.

A camera with such a large aperture should bode well for nighttime shots, but unless you use the dual-LED flash to brighten up your subjects, you're not going to see much of anything. This comes as a bit of a surprise, especially since even the Nexus 5 did a better job of picking up light in dark settings (albeit with a lot of noise). If you're going to be taking a lot of pictures at night, this isn't going to work out for you. The camera also typically chooses a slower shutter time when light becomes scarce, so fast-moving kids and other objects can turn into the Blur. Taking pictures using HDR mode requires a bit of patience; it takes a few seconds to switch into HDR from regular mode, and once you fire off a shot, it takes an unusually long time to process. This can be frustrating when compared to many other devices capable of processing HDR in real-time, so you can even see what the photo will look like before you've even taken it. Not so here.

Motorola Nexus 6 - Performance and battery life

The new Nexus comes with the best chipset you can get on any Android device right now: The Qualcomm Snapdragon 805. This is the same SoC found on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Note Edge and Motorola Droid Turbo (Moto Maxx), and comes with four 2.65GHz Krait 450 cores and a top-of-the-line Adreno 420 graphics processor. If you want the power without having to futz around with TouchWiz or availability restrictions, the Nexus 6 is going to take very good care of you.

The N6 is among the most capable smartphones on the market, at least from a real-use perspective. (Some benchmarks don't agree, as you'll see below, but it's a mixed bag.) Sure, it doesn't come with 64-bit support, but this wasn't a problem for me; everything from the mundane tasks to the graphic-intensive games like NOVA 3, Modern Combat 5 and Asphalt 8 ran as smoothly as possible on a smartphone -- and for a phone that has such a large screen pushing a Quad HD resolution, that's never a sure thing. With the Nexus 6, that combination of power and display makes the gaming experience even better than it normally is on a flagship smartphone.

Of course, that combo may be great for gaming, but it's normally a death sentence for your beloved battery life. The N6's 3,220mAh cell is identical in size to the Note 4, but the Nexus is burdened with far greater expectations; it comes with stock Android (read: no TouchWiz) and makes use of Project Volta, Google's new effort to make Android more power efficient.

But Project Volta needs some work. The Nexus 6 doesn't have terrible battery life, but it's definitely not as good as many similarly sized phones. I used the device extensively last weekend, and I was lucky if the phone got more than 13 or 14 hours. A battery of that size and supposed power efficiency should still have juice left over after a full day of heavy use, and the 6 just wasn't up to the task. Most days, I could only get around four hours of screen-on time. As you'd expect, moderate to light usage will get you through two days, but it's much more likely that you'll be taking advantage of the large screen for both normal smartphone use and tablet-like consumption as well, and it needs to get through a full day at minimum with that kind of use.

The competition

While the Nexus 5 was in a class all its own last fall, the same can't be said about the 6 -- not in price or size. The 32GB model costs $649 unlocked and 64GB is an extra $50 (both of which are a better deal storage-wise than the iPhones 6). That puts it in direct competition with most flagship devices currently on the market. To be fair, most big-screened devices -- anything larger than 5.5-inches -- sell for even more, which means the N6 is one of the best deals you'll find for a top-of-the-line smartphone of that size and quality. The Note 4, which is slightly smaller, but comes with 32GB internal storage, microSD support, a removable battery and an S Pen, is unlocked on Amazon for around $820. Additionally, the iPhone 6 Plus starts at $749 for 16GB ($849 for 64GB and $949 for 128GB).

Those may be the most popular options, but there are less expensive large-screened devices: The Huawei Ascend Mate 2 is $300 and has a 6.1-inch 720p display, Snapdragon 400 chipset and much larger 4,050mAh battery. There's also the 5.5-inch LG G3, which has a Quad HD display, Snapdragon 801 and slightly smaller battery than the N6; it's now going for around $500 unlocked online. It's a tough market for big phones right now, and Google's new Nexus fits right in the middle of them all. For what it's worth, if you need something larger than the Note 4, the N6 is your best premium option.

Wrap-up

In general, Google's first shot at a large-screened device (not to mention its first Nexus collaboration with Motorola) is a good one. The Nexus 6 comes with features that the Moto X should have had in the first place, including a powerful next-gen Snapdragon processor, improved camera, new version of Android and a premium design. Watching movies on the N6 is a treat, with loud, front-facing stereo speakers and a Quad HD display. And while the $649 price may seem high, it's actually lower than the Note 4, iPhone 6 Plus and other large phones with top-notch specs.

What it lacks is a little more telling. Its mediocre battery life indicates that Google's Project Volta could use some TLC. Additionally, if you're buying the phone because it has a big screen and you want to use it as a phone/tablet hybrid, you're not only trading off a comfortable one-handed experience, but you're also doing so without features that take advantage of the extra real estate, like Multi Window or dual-pane mode for when the phone is in landscape. These may be small misses that likely won't affect your purchase decision, but they suggest Google still has room for improvement when it comes to making a large-screened smartphone.

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