Wednesday 6 November 2024

Motorola G85

The obvious way to tackle this G85 review is as a three-way comparison. Firstly, with the phone it replaces, the G84 from the year before, but more importantly in my view, the newer Edge 50 Neo - the big question being, is the extra £100 justified for the benefits that the latter brings. 

One caveat to remember here is to also check prices - as always Motorola phones are often on deals and sales, so shop around. At time of writing, for example, the Edge 50 Neo is £329 and the G85, £249 - making the difference a mere £70. But still, to many folk, even £70 is a significant difference when money is tight, so let's look at it.

Firstly the unboxing and the G85 comes in a minimalist box, all buff-coloured and eco-friendly, plastic-free as is their standard now, no charging brick, a USB-C to USB-C cable, some papers, a lovely soft, clear, simple, grippy TPU case (well done Moto) and a pokey-tool for the SIM Card tray. This is a PR unit, kindly loaned by MotorolaUK, which has been in the hands of other reviewers, so I can't tell you if the box is 'perfumed' in the way that others have been recently - I can't detect it! Be aware that depending on your region, contents of retail boxes may differ.

It's beautifully designed. Yeah, I know, I'm one of the few who really still likes the very-slightly curved screens. I'm not talking about waterfall edges, but just slightly - makes it feel classy and premium to me whilst being fairly minimalist, not interfering with screen touches. No surprises on layout of functions, nanoSIM Card tray with reverse for microSD but no second SIM option on this unit (apart from eSIM), USB-C port, speaker at the bottom, volume/power on the right, nothing left and top but microphones and the front panel has a secondary speaker for stereo, doubling up as the earpiece for calls in the usual way - and below that, a punch-hole Selfie cutout. The back is made of what they call eco-leather, well actually it's Silicone Polymer - plastic, but it does have a nice velvety feel to it and affords more grip, for those who don't want to use the case, than shiny plastic or glass.

I never had a G84 in-hand, so can only compare in terms of specs as I start to look at the G85, which arrived just under a year later, in June 2024. They both have the more budget-friendly plastic frame, same back options as mentioned above and the G85 is slightly bigger all-round with a 6.67" screen instead of the G84's 6.5" (which doesn't feel as big because of those curves), so a tad taller and wider, but about the same thickness and not far off the same weight. The older phone seems to have had an IP5/4 rating whereas the G85 is now back to the typical Moto nano-coating arrangements, officially at least. They may have just been saving some cash on the certification costs.

The Gorilla Glass 5 screen is up to Moto's usual standard, being a gorgeous, bright, colourful pOLED, as it was last year I'm told, both of them refreshing at up to 120Hz. The newer phone peaks out for brightness at 1600nits over 1300, for anyone who can tell! Both phones have 1080p screens with a 20:9 ratio, returning about 400ppi. The G85's screen really is nice to use, especially with that slight curve around the left and right - and is a joy to look at, too. I'm still not sure if these panels remain LG-supplied, but they make a big difference to usage and often defy the price-point as Moto are including them lower and lower down the range.

The chipsets used in the two phones are also comparable - the G85's SnapDragon 6s Gen 3 is apparently a slightly beefed up version of the G84's SnapDragon 695. The G85 performs well enough in my tests here taking it through the usual array of car-racing games, heavy loading in terms of copying files, reading/writing to microSD and so on. I detected no heating up even during the most intensive tasks. These chipsets are never going to perform like the latest/greatest industry leaders, but for Joe Public, they are just fine and the slight slowdown that might be detected by the user is so minimal that the vast majority of users' expectations will not be challenged.

This supplied Cobalt Blue unit has got 256GB Storage and 12GB RAM, but it's also available with 8GB RAM in 256GB and 128GB versions. Again, I have thrown many tasks at the system and yes, opening and closing apps, starting up the phone, is not as instant as more well-specified phones, but I certainly don't see any problematic shutting down of apps - they can be recalled from Recents from some way back. Both phones have got a microSD Card slot, so whichever base-model you get, you can expand up - and this one is playing very nicely with my 1TB microSD Card for read/write speeds. Incidentally, apart from this colour, you can also get it in Olive Green, Urban Grey and Magenta.

One of the differences between the two phones is that with the new one, Moto have stepped up their game with promises of longer support. The G84 arrived on Android 13 and it was pretty much unspecified as to how long it would be supported (though I understand that it does have Android 14 now) - but the G85 gets the promise of 2 OS updates (so to Android 16 following Google's release - which at time of writing sounds like it might be in mid-2025 now) and 4 years of Security updates (so to June 2028). Yes, it looks like this is not going to be supported terribly long-term, but at least it's specified and not at the whim of what they fancy doing at the time.

Another difference between the two phones is that the older phone had a 3.5mm audio-out socket which has been removed for the G85. Not sure how much that will impact people but to be honest, I'm mostly using Bluetooth these days as it's so good and convenient - so perhaps the legacy crowd will all eventually have to settle on Sony! The G84's audio also had 24-bit, high-res output but again, with Bluetooth, the G85 sounds great to my ears, good quality and volume - as always, depending on the quality of attached gear.

The speakers are up to Motorola's usual decent standards in my tests here, even at this cheaper price-point. Yes, at full volume they can get a little tinny, but playing with the Dolby Atmos equaliser settings and installing Wavelet sorts that out nicely. What you lose in a little volume you can make up for in quality. No, it's no Sony Xperia, but the stereo effect is good and soundstage wide and impactful 18" from the face. The vast majority of users will have no complains about the sound.

The cameras on the two phones are very similar as well. The main shooter being a 50MP one with OIS, a supporting 8MP wide-angle with autofocus, 1080p video at 60fps - although the Selfie has been upped in spec, now being a 32MP unit instead of 16MP. The test shots that I have taken here all seem perfectly good enough for the 98% of users who are going to post photos to social media and share with friends, leaving the 2% pixel-peepers no doubt to zoom in and tut-tut! That autofocus in the wide-angle camera allows for nice and close so-called Macro shots and shooting in Night Vision seems to pull out shareable photos even when the human eye sees pitch blackness! The camera software looks exactly the same to me as it is in various recent Motorola phones, so perhaps I'll point you now to my coverage in those. ThinkPhone, Edge 50 Pro, Edge 50 Neo, Edge 40, Edge 40 Neo, G Stylus (2024) and so on! There's oodles of Moto stuff on my blog here. You'll have gathered that I'm a fan!

Connectivity
in my tests here is good. All boxes ticked and appear to be working well, for Wi-Fi, tested on 3 networks, Bluetooth, with good range and holding on well - again depending on attached gear, GPS for mapping applications - locking on quickly and staying so - and also NFC talking to other gear and payment terminals in shops. Again, check your region for what's included/supplied/working with all this stuff.

Security seems good with an under-glass optical fingerprint scanner and face unlock working together well, or indeed in isolation, in all-but the darkest conditions for face. Fingerprint scanning software, though never going to be as good as ultrasonic in my experience, makes registering easy/quick and in use, reliable. All this was, again, available on the G84 so I can assume that it worked as well.

The 5000mAh battery is the same in both units, but anything like the fast charging of Moto's more expensive models is not present. No chance of the 125W charging of the high-end units or even the 68W of the mid-range. No, here, we have 30W wired and no wireless. I guess something has to give and personally, I'm OK with the 30W wired charging but have really come to rely on wireless (overnight) charging, inefficient and bad for the planet as I'm told it is. 30W wired is no slouch however and certainly better than it used to be with these lower-mid-range phones - and this one can be charged up in under an hour and a half. But the 5000mAh battery is sound as a pound! Really well-performing, getting through 2 days of moderate/light use. The 10% Reading Test I do returned excellent result at well over 2 hours. You can always add a 3rd party Qi coil for a fiver from Amazon as long as you're OK wielding a case.

HelloUI
is the new-look MyUI from Moto and every phone released by them now comes with it. Even, yes, down here at this price-point. And it's very pretty, been redesigned in terms of front-end, colours, display options, all those great Moto Gestures which I have written about so much - all present and correct. The UI is very Vanilla - like a Pixel in many ways sticking to the tried and tested, but with Moto's sprinkling of genuinely useful additions, including some AI sneaking into some settings like CrystalTalk for reducing background noise on VOIP calls and whatever Google make available, like Gemini Live! It goes deeper than ever now as Moto prioritises security in keeping with what Google are doing as they evolve Android. As I say, I have written loads about HelloUI now, so check out my linked-to reviews above, especially the recent ones where I dig into the nitty-gritty of it all.

Moto's Smart Connect works brilliantly with the G85, wirelessly of course - only the very top phones get wired support, but actually, wireless is so good, I really don't think, armed with a reliable network connection in your space, wired is becoming unnecessary. Never thought I'd hear myself say that, being a big HDMI-Out fan for so long! Now of course sometimes a situation may arise where a network can't be relied on, then a cable becomes like gold dust. But networks are generally getting very good these days and the hospitality sector gearing themselves up generally for customer's needs. Anyway, it works perfectly here. I shall point you to my Smart Connect Review and Features piece on my Blog as all the details are there, so click on through and see what's so great about it! And it's amazing that Moto are including all the hooks to make it work in even their lower-end phones now. Kudos.

So now back to the original question about the Motorola Edge 50 Neo which is my current darling of the range! What do you get extra over the G85 here by paying the extra £100 (or, as I say, just now £70)? Well, for starters you get wireless charging - admittedly it's only at 15W but that's perfectly good enough for overnighters like me. You also get 68W charging (though still no brick in the box in this region) so significantly faster charging when needed. You get a much smaller phone, which, for one-handed use, is much better than the G85's bigger display for me - though some would argue this the other way as you can see more! There's also no premium-look/feel edges on the Edge 50 Neo, rather a flat screen. Because it's smaller, you get a smaller battery - though in my testing these two really are as good as each other. You do get Moto's first promise of 5 Android OS updates on the Neo and Security patches to 2029, unlike here. You also get IP6/8 dust/water resistance as well as MIL-STD-810H compliancy, which is just amazing. It's becoming a hard act to beat already, don't you think, for the price difference? But I haven't finished yet! One of the big ones for me on the Neo is a proper Always on Display (the same as was introduced for the Razr 50 Ultra), not present on the G85. It's been a long time coming, but hurrah - perhaps we've turned the corner now, grown out of the (in some way excellent) Peek Display and arrived with this much more useful standard, sipping lightly at the battery via the efficient chipset. You also get another camera stuffed in there with OIS and 3x optical zoom and 512GB/12GB RAM as standard on the Neo (though no microSD). It really feels like a tough act to follow, for the price-difference, but do click through above to my full review.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing much wrong with the G85, a mid-range phone at a decent price with an amazing pOLED screen, great build quality with a premium feel, a very (what we used to call) stock Android experience in terms of software, microSD for loads of storage, the whole Moto secure stuff built right in as well as the excellent Smart Connect, very well-performing speakers, long-lasting battery - the list goes on. Trouble is, that in my opinion, if you have the extra £70/£100 to spare, you can get so much more for the bit more cash with the Edge 50 Neo. This G85 is still recommended however, especially if someone likes the styling and wants a screen that's a bit bigger. Spoiled for choice by Moto!

Tuesday 5 November 2024

The Arctic Convoy (2023)

This is a WWII drama based on some fact but expanded to a degree, in order to add dramatic extension. It's 1942 and Hitler is successfully invading Russia. In order to help the Russians, the allies are providing arms and supplies across the top of the Atlantic, towards the Arctic sea. Our story follows one such ship, part of a convoy, and the events of their journey from Iceland to Murmansk in Russia with supplies.

It's a Danish film, originally called Konvoi. The ship we're onboard is run by a civilian sailor crew, not military, so they are not really trained for combat and rely on the allied forces to protect them from the air and sea via escorting, within the convoy. Due to some dodgy intelligence on the part of the British it seems, the convoy was dispersed mid-way across, leaving each to their own devices, for fear that the Germans were launching an indefensible attack from their bases in Norway with U-Boats and bombers. Turns out in the end that this was not true.

The captain, Skar, played well by Anders Baasmo, had to deal with a frightened and inexperienced crew, including a first mate, Mork, who had been previously traumatised by losing his own ship when he, too, was a captain. He was played by Tobias Santelmann and the pair of them were clearly the acting talent, along with radio operator/coder Ragnhild, played by Heidi Ruud Ellingsen. The three of them did a convincing job.

Skar was highly motivated to get the supplies through at any cost, or die trying, to give the best chance to the Russians to put an end to the German advance north - thus protecting his Norway and the rest of Europe. Mork's motivation was to keep the crew safe at any cost, for nobody to die - and therein lay the conflict between them, with Ragnhild often playing mediator/referee.

How much of the drama onboard was based on fact, I'm not sure - we'd need to consult an historian to find out - but it plays out well. The building of tension has been done well and scene after scene of perilous, harrowing incident keeps the eyes wide and mouth open! There's a hairy scene where the untrained crew are hanging off the side of the ship with poles, pushing mines away from the vessel and others with the stress of isolation waiting for bombers to see if they land one on them.

It sometimes comes across as a kind of low-budget, made-for-TV film, but that doesn't take anything away from the depth of the thriller - its trump card being that it's generally based on truth. At the end of the film there are summaries of the facts put on the screen which depicts the event in history and acknowledges the 4000 lives lost overall due to these kinds of convoy operations. I'd suggest that people watch it to learn about what was going on up there and how ordinary folk had to deal with the dreadful perils of war. It's doing the rounds on various streaming channels as I write.

Monday 4 November 2024

Thanatomorphose (2012)

Well, if last night's The Substance was bonkers, tonight's film was crazy ape-shit bonkers! Streaming on various channels (including for free on Roku) this is a low-budget body-horror written and directed by Éric Falardeau and, what looks like, a group of his mates! If you watch the credits at the end, most is revealed!

Apparently it's become a bit of a cult movie and has won various awards, coming out of Canadian art-house. It stars Kayden Rose as a girl out for a good time, who has just rented a flat and has a night of sex with her abusive boyfriend.

She wakes up in the morning and her skin is starting to rot. Apparently that's what the French titular word means - decomposition. From thereon in, each day is the same, only a bit worse. It all takes place in her apartment and the viewer is never allowed out, so claustrophobic. As she decays and decays, various parts of her body and bodily fluids escape, fall off, seep and flow out. You get the idea - it's all about gore and (for some, no doubt) stomach-churning special effects. Seems like I'm immune!

Even before any of this starts, she does like to be naked, spends almost the whole film with nothing on and the viewer is able to see pretty much all of her. Inside and out. She likes her sex and even when she's falling apart later on she finds time and energy enough to get herself off fantasising about smashing in the boyfriend's skull with a hammer! (He gets his comeuppance in the end, by the way!)

They seem to have some mate also who's got a violin who pops up on a regular basis, between the silence and sound effects of the body-gore, to squeak a haunting string composition or two. Most of the camerawork is handheld as it sweeps around following our main character, who is called Laura. Apparently! All of the actors seem to be pretty second-rate, wooden, and the script is diabolical - but maybe that's part of the point of the creation too.

I'm not really quite sure if there's any kind of message in there - I think more so a lot of fun that this crowd have had putting it together, playing with special effects and creating a gore-fest. As usual, I tend to find this kind of film quite funny these days, but I'm sure many will be queasy! That's about it really. If you can't watch without feeling sick, then best not to. Great Halloween fun!

Sunday 3 November 2024

The Substance (2024)

This is completely bonkers, shock, gore-horror mixed up with comedy and insanity! And through all that, I really enjoyed it and thought it was great entertainment. Coralie Fargeat has done a great job pulling it together and getting the right actors and effects in the mix to make it worth watching.


It's about a woman who is a TV star, Elisabeth, played by Demi Moore, who is about to get fired because she is 'too old' for the ratings war and they need a 'younger model'. As she flees the studio, she ends up in an RTA, then A&E where a doctor slips her a thumb-drive. When she gets home she fires it up and it's an advert for The Substance, which claims to regenerate the body of the person who enters into the treatment, creating a new-them, younger, better looking, stronger etc. She takes it on!

The opening gore-scene is then a transformation, where 'Sue', played by Margaret Qualley, appears from the spine of the (now naked) Elisabeth and she is, indeed, a younger version. The catch in the treatment, which involves all sorts of injecting of serums and drawing off of bodily fluids throughout, is that the two 'people' have to share the 'consciousness' time, a week each. While the other one rests and gets injected with food, the other can play. So Sue goes after the now vacant job that Elisabeth had - and guess what? She gets it!

This is where it all gets a bit tricky because the two individuals when it's their turn to be out and about, don't want to take a turn not being out and about - so start to not follow the rules that the treatment dictates they must, in order for it to work properly. So this is the point at which it goes pear-shaped and the treatment starts to go wrong, having a negative impact, ultimately on both of their bodies. Keeping up?!

Then the film races into a ludicrous gore-fest, off and on, whilst making some statements about fame, fortune, publicity, the media and hype, focussed on the vanity of a star who can't accept that her time has come and the 'system' dictating that she gracefully moves over for a younger replacement - because 'that is what the public want'. As spelled out by studio boss Harvey, played with great fun and ruthlessness by Dennis Quaid.

Through all this silliness, the film seems to be able to maintain a tragic seriousness about the tale, somehow! The stage is set for a battle between two 'characters' who don't seem able to co-exist, follow the rules and know what's good for them. They just want the fame and limelight for themselves. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley play their parts brilliantly well throughout (and we certainly see plenty of both of them, as most of the transformation/treatment scenes are done in the buff)!

It's also mostly shot in an art-farty way with cinematography interesting and sets supporting that with bright colours, decor and premises layouts being mostly a feast for the eyes. There's so much here to unpick in the 2 hours 20 minutes, which absolutely flew by for me, that you really should try to unpick it yourself. It's often silly, but always interesting and often jaw-dropping in tone. The finale is complete bonkers and great fun, so don't give up! Loved it. It's just arrived on Mubi, or you can still see it at the cinema - and I imagine that it would be great on the big screen!

Friday 1 November 2024

PodHubUK Podcasts for the Month of October 2024

  ...a roundup of our month of podcasting. Links to the team, communities and podcast homes on the net at the foot, so scroll down!

Projector Room
Episode 171 - Lee's Beaver
Wednesday 2nd October

Gareth, Allan and I are back again with another roundup of the film, cinema and TV stuff we've been watching - along with yourselves. Demons destruct Halos, Munich meets M3gan, Knives Out for Stath in his Flats, there's No Exit to Tulsa but there is a Jawsathon!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 822 - Pump up the Power, Fire up the Diagnostics!
Saturday 5th October

It's just Steve and I this week as we catch up with stuff hangin' about! Cables that tell you charging info, Gemini Live, live(!), Xperia vs Pixel 8 sound, resetting and Beta testing, Anti-Theft from Google and a Treo of looks back at the Golden Age of Smartphones! It's all here - good job there wasn't a guest really!

Whatever Works
Episode 213 - A Scones and Scons QuickMix!
Monday 7th October

Aidan and I are back once more with a veritable feast of fortnightly fumblings! This time we offer a Lazy Susan to Hazel's BeeLink, whisk up some interest in British Egg Week, firk around with French Butter, purify Epoxy Resin and tons more besides. Do join us for an hour and you won't regret it. Well, you might. Try anyway - YOLO!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 823 - N950 to Clicks!
Saturday 5th October

Steve and I are joined this week by Liangchen Chen, the man behind the f(x)tec Pro1 and Clicks Keyboard. We chat about his work, how his projects evolved and what he thinks about the current state of mobile. Plus lots of the usual stuff including a brand new Moto, Beta dabblings and Shorts galore from Steve.

Projector Room
Episode 172 - A Wednesday Kipperbang
Wednesday 16th October

Gareth, Allan and I are back again with our regular look at all things film, cinema and TV. We Outrun a Beetlejuice or two, leap to Level 16 with Eyes of Fire, focus on Denzel Washington - the Unstoppable Bone Collector - and even fire off the Odd Angry Shot in 1992! Loads more as always, so do join us!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 824 - Updates and Accessibility!
Sunday 20th October

Michael Hell was our guest on the pod this week. Steve and I find out what he's been up to for the last few years. We chat Pixel a lot, for 'tis his leaning, but also indulge in a Eulogy for the Surface Duo, an Android 15 drill-down, more on Moto's Flip's screen vs Samsung's and we even have time for a look back at the first Android phone in Bygone Beauties.

Whatever Works
Episode 214 - Gnasher Basher!
Monday 21st October

Aidan and I are here again to slag stuff off, raise some up and treat the rest with amused tolerance! We invite you to an hour of the usual mayhem as we think about Whatever Works for us and you, stroking our well-waxed and groomed beards as we do! It'll be kickin' about it the usual corners of t'internet!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 825 - Special Edition Incoming
Sunday 27th October

Steve and I welcome Alan Newton back this week, I think the PSC record-holder for numbers of device-switches in the shortest time! We find out about what he's using now, a bit Sammy, a bit Pixel, a bit iPhone, chat about Sony's Music Pro app update, Moto's Smart Connect, Special Editions, importing phones and even have time for Photo of the Month for September.

Projector Room
Episode 173 - An Exorcistic Oddity
Wednesday 30th October

Gareth, Allan and I are back again with another fortnightly roundup of all things film, cinema and TV - this time with a Halloween leaning as we pick a film each for The Main Feature that scared the shit out of us years ago! We give The Gift of Robin Hood to Carol as we focus on Cate Blanchett in Themed Treats, grab some thrills and scares in Coming Soon and conclude that You'll Never Find Me if I keep Moving!

Wednesday 30 October 2024

HMD Skyline

In the wake of the FairPhone, HMD have come along with a similar scheme to enable users of their Skyline phone to repair it themselves when components break, wear out or go wrong. This is laudable on an eco-friendly basis, undoubtedly, as more OEMs take looking after the planet seriously, from packaging, boxes, distribution and more. But it's also got to be a contender as a phone - and worth considering for the shortlist along other devices, especially similarly-priced. I hope to see here if HMD have cracked the equation.

The box doesn't have a power charger in it, for 'tis the trend, you know, more eco-claims, but it is colour-coordinated with the shade of the device. (Maybe there was a charger supplied in some regions.) Presumably those with the 'twisted black' colour got a black box! This Neon Pink is much more preferable, though I guess your average Exec. wouldn't think so in their Boardroom! There is a colour-matched USB-C to USB-C cable, however, which is cute, and a SIM Card Tray tool.

The phone itself bears a clear resemblance to various of the Nokia phones from the past, particularly those Lumia ones - and especially (and spookily) the MeeGo-running N9 of 2011. It's not made of the same polycarbonate (which was lovely) and certainly not the dinky little size in the hand of pocket. The Skyline is big, feeling heavy (at 209.5g), clunky, hefty and lumpish. But that N9 design is lovely - and part of that heft is likely to do with getting the back off, which you had no chance of doing with the N9. But beware, the Skyline is not small! But it is beautifully made.

The sides being ‘rounded’ is nice (very comfortable to hold - though very slippery) but the corners being so sharp is just styling (like the N9) and not needed - they dig into one’s palms. Especially as this phone is that much bigger. The N9 got away with that one, being so small and poly, not metal, as here. But then most phones, 13 years on, are big! The size here is 159.8mm x 76mm x 8.9mm and compares decently closely, in this respect, to my Motorola Edge 50 Pro. It's just that the latter is more 'screen' than 'corner-styling'!

The 6.55", 1080p, 20:9, 402ppi P-OLED screen has a thick bezel all around and very rounded corners (obviously not in keeping with the corners of the device) as style again. The screen is nice and bright, peaking at 1000nits - well, until I put it alongside a Motorola - then it doesn't look so bright and suffers with mushy colours and muted tones - but away from that, it looks just fine. Most people won't be comparing phones next to each other, so won't be disappointed - I'm being picky! You can also use a slider in settings to adjust the White Balance, which is a nice (if basic compared to many others) option. It has a 144Hz refresh rate which can be set to that all the time, 120Hz all the time, 60Hz all the time or to Adaptive, making its mind up for itself, up to 120Hz. It all looks perfectly smooth to me, however its set - by then my eyes aren't 18 years old!

The Gorilla Glass 3 protected (all-but) front panel eases - and very, very slightly curves - into the aluminium of the frame on all four sides and looks/feels premium. There's a selfie punch-hole up-top and centre, which is not too intrusive, under the earpiece/second of the stereo speakers. Around the phone's aluminium perimeter there are aerial cutouts of course and microphones. On the bottom, there's the other of the stereo speaker pair, USB-C port, SIM Card/microSD Card Tray and a T4 Torx screw to get the glass back off (which I'll come to). There's an IP5/4 rating for the phone, so not the best (presumably because of taking it apart) but certainly good enough for light splashing and a bit of dust!

Taking the back off the phone is not trivial. Once the Torx screw is out (for which the user will need a driver which most households are unlikely to have, I contend), using a plectrum (or similar) one needs to slide it along in the gap 'popping' it out/off as it goes along. Always remembering that it's glass of course and could break - eventually bit by bit, it pops off. Putting it back is nearly as hairy as it needs pressure applied to 'pop' it back into the various housing points. Well, I didn't break it - but couldn't help thinking that it might have been better if was plastic! HMD will sell you an iFixit kit for £90 which gives you more tools than a plectrum that you might have hanging around - which would certainly make the job easier.

Anyway, once off, the repairability kicks into the agenda and HMD will then sell you a SIM Card Tray for £14, loudspeaker for £14, back cover (for those who break it getting it off!) for £28, charging port for £19, battery for £23 and some adhesive (in order to tackle the battery). In order to get the components out and new ones in, there's more tiny screws. Here's a link to a YouTube video by HMD showing how you do all this. The whole thing feels very much less of a user-accessible route than the FairPhone for example, but rather one that most people might want someone else to do this stuff for them! But kudos to HMD - at least there are options - you can get it apart and get the spare parts to repair it. Even if someone needs to help you. It's back together again now. Phew!

So that's all good then, a step in the right direction to keep phones lasting longer and out of landfill - except, hang on - HMD are only offering 2 Android OS updates to buyers! It arrives on Android 14 and will get 15 and 16. So, last update sometime following Google's release in the autumn of 2025, which isn't really very far away. And yet the phone is geared up with repairability like it's going to be around for a long time to be repaired when needed. Feels like it doesn't quite match up somehow - and arguably at odds with the philosophy. They are also only promising Google Security patches until July 2027, 3 years from release. I guess that part of this reflects a lot of phone here (which I'll come to) for the (now) £349 but something feels a bit skewed. Anyway, for the moment, it's pretty well up to date as I write in October 2024, as it has September's patches. Make sure that you update it as soon as you can because I did find plenty of bugs before this was done, which HMD have now largely fixed.

Under the hood it's equipped with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 (4nm) which feels perfectly adequate here in testing, copying large amounts of data from a PC, for example, initial setup as it's bombarded with all sorts of tasks like installing over 100 apps, sorting out updates, setting up the system. Prior to this September update, some of this was making the phone very hot by the way, but now, not. I've tried some car-racing tasks for gaming and again, now, it breezes through them without a judder. I'm not a heavy gamer so do check other reviewers' experiences on YouTube, but I'm guessing that if you're really into gaming in a big way you're much more likely to have a beefier, more expensive gaming phone anyway. There's 8GB RAM onboard which can be 'extended' making use of some of the storage by up to 8GB, with a restart of the system. However, we have found that this option is not particularly worth doing - 8GB RAM is really plenty for today's Android, proven by the fact that I have not noticed here, even with heavy multi-tasking, any problematic app shut-downs. Applications and services sit happily in RAM from way back!

The storage on this phone is 256GB, but there's also a 12GB RAM version and a 128GB/8GB RAM one out there, too. The storage is to some degree a moot point, however, as on the flip side of the nanoSIM Card tray there's an option for those who only want to use one SIM Card, to put a microSD Card in as portable storage (or to extend the internal). I have a 1TB card in there with tons of data on it and it's reading/writing perfectly well, no lag in evidence at all. HMD seem to be saying that it's only supported up to 512GB but not here - 1TB is fine - and no, I didn't format the card in the phone. Nice to see the Memory Card surviving in certain quarters of the Android world. This unit does have dual-SIM support (in place of that microSD Card side of the tray) and also for eSIM, but check for your regional variations.

The stereo speakers are very loud. Furthermore, there's an OZO Boost available if you fancy the challenge! This hikes up the volume up, if you have the setting turned on in Audio Settings, past 100% with a second press on the volume-up key. It then gets even louder! However, in my tests here, it becomes, with most music files and services I've tried, pretty much unusable when engaged. System sounds seem to make decent use of the function as ringtones and notifications are very loud, but for media playback, music and video, it's blowing the bass out when in use and top-end frequencies are made even more shrill than when dialling it back down a bit.

It's a shame there's no built-in equaliser here - no Dolby Atmos for example - but I have found that if you turn off the OZO boost, put it on 100%, then engage our oft' referred to super audio app Wavelet, you get the best reproduction possible from the hardware. A slight payoff on volume in the process but the phone has enough to compensate as it's so loud to start with. Your mileage may vary of course, depending on music genre, file encoding or service accessed, but this what I have found. The stereo effect is decently pronounced even holding the phone as far away from the face as 2 feet. Using test video from YouTube which also play around with audio and soundstage, the phone does indeed throw the audio around making good use of its speakers. No complaints.

There's no 3.5mm ear/headphone audio socket (which would have really then felt like a Lumia/Nokia) but USB-C out (with and adapter for legacy or as-is for newer gear) works just fine and actually sounds loud and with good quality. All these tests are clearly based on using specific equipment, so again, test with yours if you can first. I'm using a pair of Google's own wired USB-C earphones for this first test. Incidentally, the OZO Boost doesn't work with ear/headphones - for obvious reasons! Second test is with a pair of Fiio FF1 Beryllium wired earbuds and 'dumb' 3.5mm-USB-C adapter, which makes the sound even louder and even better! Replacing the 'dumb' adapter with a DAC-enabled Razer one and, as you might expect, the test is then more about the adapter than the phone - and yes, it blows to ears away for volume (and quality). So plenty of options, even without that legacy port! Stereo separation is great again, soundstage present, depending again on source. Testing here with YouTube video and music. Really no complaints about audio reproduction for all-but audiophiles. Bluetooth (v5.2) sound, as you again would expect these days, is just excellent - again depending on attached gear. Testing here with a Sony WH-1000XM4 (with LDAC support) unit and also various buds. I can't see how anyone could complain about the output if this is their chosen route.

The phone has a 4,600mAh battery inside which can be charged at 33W with a wire or at 15W using wireless and the world's first (as far as I know) phone that supports the Qi2 standard, so kudos to HMD for getting in on that ahead of others! This emulates to a large degree what Apple have been doing with magnets, so that the phone can 'find' accessory charging devices quickly and lock into place without effort. Personally, I can't see the point really (except for maybe in-car on the dashboard) as I've never had any problems with Qi coils finding devices. Well, until now!

Ironically, I've had much trouble with this phone sitting it on bedside/desktop cradles. You know, the ones that sit-up and look at you (so that you can, for example, use the phone as a clock). I have four different models here which all work perfectly well with every other Android phone I've ever tried on them - and I've reviewed hundreds of phones - but here, all four of them fail to find the coil on this phone. From the image (above) you can see that coil appears to be in a decent enough central place, but clearly it's not. I have to place something under the phone, about 1cm high, for it to work (or turn it sideways and find the spot). Which is nuts - if this then renders every Qi charger stand out there produced for decades now, defunct! Lay it down flat on a charger and it's fine - and the charging works fine - so I guess that the coil in this phone is exceptionally 'low' in the back. Maybe that's something to do with repairability too. Still, at least it has Qi charging at this price-point, which many don't, and Qi2 it is, too! In addition to this, again, good at this price-point, the phone has Reverse Qi, which it executes at 5W - so top-ups for your earbuds or friend's phone!

Anyway, back to the battery and in my tests here I find that it takes about half an hour to half fill the battery from empty and almost an hour and a half for a full charge. This perfectly workable for most people, I think, even though a long way from, for example, the amazing speed Moto's 125W will do it. My 10% Reading Test returned a respectable enough 110 minutes and for most people, using the phone moderately, they'll just about get to lunchtime of Day 2 if pushed - at least it does for me and my average use. As always, it depends so much on what you're doing with your phone, so I quote here in my reviews based on the level playing field of my usage. Might not be much use to you, but if you read enough of my reviews you'll get the picture. Clinical it might not be, but hopefully you'll find the benchmark useful. Best idea is to charge at night. On a Qi stand. If you can find one that works!

Connectivity seems decent enough. I've tested all the usual elements and find that Bluetooth range is decent, WiFi 6e (if you can get it) is good and strong, tested here with 3 different networks, GPS for mapping and other dependencies seems good for locking on and holding on, NFC I have tested in local shops to pay and it seems to find the spot very quickly and the 5G cellular (I have a very good EE network here) processes data nicely, reliably and without fuss. I did have a bit of trouble with phone calls where the person the other end had trouble hearing me and vice-versa, but these tests are always network-dependent for both parties on multiple networks, so I'm not concerned about those blips. Repeat testing with other people/networks and things seem to be fine. You can also switch to WiFi calling if you prefer.

Along with the September Update and bug-fixes came one new feature, emulating others from various OEMs, that being what they're calling Detox Mode. It's actually very nicely implemented with a pleasant front-end and gives the user the options to 
control how much their apps and notifications can alert them. Chilling out away from social media and irritating calls/messages! It shows up as a (self-removing) widget if you place it on the homescreen and selecting it gives you plenty of options to customise how long you want to be left in peace for, who or what is allowed to get through the barrier, whether or not you want it on until you turn it off (soft, for quick breaks) or on until you reboot the phone (hard) and even change the wallpaper to a gently, calming image. It's not unique as I say, as others are doing it, but I do think that has been well thought out and is clear, easy to understand as well as useful for those who want/need it.

Security options are plentiful too, with a very nicely functioning Face Unlock which is quick and easy to set up, capacitive fingerprint scanner which works perfectly to get in, within the side-mounted power button which is just under the volume rocker on the left, the usual PIN/Pattern options, lift-to-wake, now Google's Theft Protection, Play Protection and Find My Device as well as (what I thought was Moto's) PIN Pad Scramble. So if you use PIN for opening up the phone, the system scrambles the numbers each time so that if someone's looking over your shoulder it's harder for them to clock your code. My only complaint in amongst all this is that there's no option on the power button to force the user to 'press' the power button to acknowledge the fingerprint, only 'touch', so accidental touches are frequent any annoying. Hopefully HMD will add that in an update soon.

Setting the phone up using Google's Backup and Restore using another phone was great. It gets better and better, but even for someone not using that tool, the process here is clear and straightforward. I guess it's not surprising that HMD are going to do some software-inclusion deals when pushing out hardware at this price and sure enough the usual bloaty offenders are present, booking dot com, LinkedIn, FaceBook and Kindred (whatever that is). All four, fortunately, are uninstallable. In fact the only one I found that wasn't was the now-lingering Meet from Google, which, as a standalone app, is now defunct. Still, at this price, for this hardware, we'll forgive them (in a way we won't with Sony, for example, doing similar and still charging £1200 for the phone)!

The homescreen layout is all-but (what we used to call) stock Android. But not quite. The At A Glance which Pixels have baked into the top of the screen is not there, though there is an option to add it as a widget, but the Google Search Bar at the foot of the screen is unremovable, just like Pixel. The only way to get round this one is to install another launcher, I guess - which would be a shame because otherwise it's nice here. Very much like the Nokia is, in fact, on, for example, the XR20, but modernised and with added benefits. It's also ported the Nokia's Always on Display which again, at this place in the market is a real bonus and unexpected.

The Always on Display shows the c
lock, day, date, weather, Notification (by icon only), charging status at the bottom and the artist name of any playing music under the date. Before the September update the track title was also present on the AoD, but they both seem to now be AWOL. The clock is fixed, big and bold, digital, 24 hour, but does suffer from the same auto-brightness issue that most Android phones do - it just gets the algorithm wrong and sometimes, in some lighting, it can't be seen. Typically, subdued lighting. Turning off Adaptive Brightness system-wide helps, but then most users won't want that off all the time and have adjust manually. Samsung seem to be the only OEM that has this sorted (and even then, via a Good Lock Module) but hopefully more will realise that it's not good and doesn't do the job well enough. Maybe HMD will be first to fix this, too, in a coming update.

HMD provide a bunch of their own widgets. Twenty four of them, actually! They have a Nothing Phone kind of feel about them, all black/white (though not pixelated)! A ton of clock and Weather options, Media controllers (the bigger ones even showing AlbumArt - take note, Sony) and Quick Settings too. The Quick Settings ones mostly create what look like folders on the homescreen with assignable shortcuts to various Settings you choose, from whatever you have in the top pull-down Notification shade. A shortcut of shortcuts, then! Talking of Settings, I note, as an aside, that the screen timeout doesn't support the 30-minute option, like Pixels do, but is rather capped at 10-minutes, like Samsung and certainly not the 'no limit' of TCL. I did hope that HMD were going to fix this in the September update so it was back to the usual 30-minutes, but not yet.

The Custom Button on the left of the phone can be, like the Nokia XR20's red button, assigned to a whole bunch of s
ettings, functions or apps. A long-press for something, a double press for something else and a single press for settings. It's flush with the side of the phone and slightly knurled on the surface. I have it assigned to play/pause media on the long-press and torch on double-press. When you're done on the left, you can, using the same UI switch to the power button on the right and assign what you like to a double-press. I have Google Wallet on that for convenience in shops, but the options to customise/assign what you like to both these buttons are only limited to what you have installed - and HMD's core functions. It's a great addition to the hardware and genuinely useful for quick-access. This was something else that HMD bug-fixed as before the September update, use of this left button often froze the phone up and needed rebooting to get back to normal. So again, good for them for attending to this stuff.

The main camera on the back of the phone is surprisingly a 108MP f1.8 unit with OIS. The user can force the phone to use all those pixels but by default resulting photos are 'pixel binned' down to 12MP. The results from this are pleasing to me with nice colours, good detail and will be absolutely perfect for the target users. They will be equally pleased with the ability to shoot with the 2x optical zoom from the secondary 50MP f2 camera to get closer in on the subject. There's a 13MP wide-angle lens, thirdly, again providing the user with another option to open up and get more into the frame, though there's no AF for really, really close shots. The camera app is decent and simple enough compared to many - and even has a handheld Astro mode built in! In low light, the 'night' mode copes well enough creating images from situations all-but invisible to the human eye, portrait mode does a good job isolating subjects and creating shallow depth of field for bokeh, there's a Pro mode for fine control and a bunch of other modes to play with. Video can be shot at 4K@30fps, there's a very nicely-performing 50MP Selfie which will also shoot video at 1080p@30fps.

Impressively the camera software in the HMD skyline has focus peaking - something which you normally only find on higher end phones and cameras. This means that when the camera is viewing something, the exact items in the shot which were at the same focal distance (and specifically in focus) are highlighted in an extra colour so you can see at a glance whether thing you are trying to photograph is perfectly in focus or not. Nice touch. Thanks to Steve Litchfield my co-host on the Phones Show Chat weekly Podcast for explaining that and posting a couple of YouTube Shorts about this HMD Skyline which I'll link to here. HMD Skyline - Speakers, Custom Button and Focus Peaking and HMD Skyline - Self-Repair and Qi2. Furthermore, for a deep-dive on the HMD Camera with analysis and tons of samples, I'm going to do my usual trick and point you to our friends over at GSMArena and their coverage which starts here. Please do visit and support them as they do really useful work.

I forgot to mention that the vibration motor is wild! HMD should implement Sony's Dynamic Vibration with the Skyline as it would be a complete winner! I remember that the Nokia XR20's motor was similarly strong and loud, so maybe it's the same component.

In summary I'd say that this is a lovely handset. It's really nicely designed and with a premium-feeling fit'n'finish. The value-for-money equation is just about as it should be given what's on offer here, not silly expensive for the sake of the market, not cheaper than it should be to push sales. It has some really interesting features, ideas and a great nostalgia feel about it. It's big enough for those who like their phones big these days, has innovative Qi2, regardless of my complaint about older cradles, a nice-enough OLED panel, very loud speakers, custom-buttons, microSD support, good onboard storage too, a perfectly adequate chipset, RAM and good biometrics. The pearl here though for them is the repairability - if only they would match that ethos with the length of support on offer with OS and security updates. There are still bugs to fix, but certainly that September update was an encouraging and far-reaching resolution for many more before it. As always there's room for improvement but generally this is a good job at, now £349, a great price. Highly recommended.

Monday 28 October 2024

Don't Move (2024)

Just a quick one about this decent-enough little thriller, now on Netflix. Kelsey Asbille (who played the fruit-loop cowgirl in Fargo 4) played it pretty well, though didn't have a lot to say as she was drugged for most of it!

It was quite tense in places with some situational atmosphere created nicely, as we get alongside our grieving girl, reflecting on life whilst fending off the serial killer, played by Finn Wittrock having fun!

It's kinda predictable in some ways and a bit unbelievable in others, so plot holes and handy co-incidences all-round! But the ticking time-bomb makes for a bit of a suspenseful thrill-ride and there's a few nicely staged gory scenes thrown in for good measure. There's some lovely scenery to look at and it's nicely shot. Certainly worth a look.

Motorola G85

The obvious way to tackle this G85 review is as a three-way comparison. Firstly, with the phone it replaces, the G84 from the year before, b...