Modern Love (2019-2021)

I was only drawn to this really because of the cast, not genre, but actually I got pulled in regardless. It's a charming anthology series which explores love in all of its complicated and beautiful forms.

Each episode is a standalone story inspired by the Modern Love column (whatever that is). It starts off with a blinder of an episode starring Cristin Milioti as she tries to navigate life alone in New York, looking for love, getting pregnant and only really connecting with the doorman of the building she lives in - with emotional and moving outcomes. I was hooked!

They're not all up to that standard, but they certainly are very good and, as I say, with a plethora of stars/cameos including Anne Hathaway, Andy Garcia, Dev Patel, Julia Garner, Olivia Cooke, Sofia Boutella, Shea Whigham, Andrew Scott and even Ed Sheeran what's not to like!

All sorts of little stories from different writers, directors and produces make it up into a delightful little series, beautifully acted by all, designed generally to tug at the heartstrings. And it does. In the final episode it is nicely pulled together with little catch-ups regarding each of the stories that have gone before it - it really is ever so nicely packaged.

I've only seen the first series and according to reviewers the second and final series takes a bit of a dive, so I'm shying away - but with the continued cast line-up it's hard to see how it can be that bad! Coming up are Minnie Driver, Anna Paquin, Miranda Richardson and loads more. What could go wrong!

Anyway, Season 1 is certainly recommended and it's on Amazon Prime Video. The episodes are 30-minute bite-sized too and there's 8 in each season. I guess many will pass it off as 'one for the ladies' but if so, their loss. I must have got in touch with my feminine side!

Arcadian (2024)

This Nicolas Cage 'monster horror' from last year has just now made it to various streaming services so I thought I'd give it a go. It's another post-apocalyptic world setting where nobody seems to know what happened, short of an opening sequence years before as our main man legs it out of the city and holds aloft his twin baby sons, Lion King style!

Skip ahead 15 years to the current and still nobody seems to know what happened to the world apart from there being no contact with the society outside of their valley (of 23 houses) and a bunch of creatures who roam outside during the hours of darkness. Much like in the series From (2022) everyone locks up and barricades themselves in their houses from dusk 'til dawn every day. The creatures bang and crash each night to try and get in, but (up to now) the vigilant inhabitants' measures have repelled their attempts.

Until one fateful day when headstrong son Thomas (who is chasing the teenage girl, Charlotte, at the next farm along, bending the rules that his brother, Joseph, sticks to - as defined by dad, Paul), falls into a crevice, whacks his head and is out, cold for a time. Joseph heads back to the house in time for darkness but loving dad heads out, dark or not, to rescue Thomas. This is the point at which we get a first viewing and interaction with the 'monsters' but unfortunately, in doing so, dad gets injured badly and Thomas and Joseph have to carry him back on their makeshift buggy.

Dad needs medicines to stop him dying, Charlotte's family have some, so Thomas heads over to talk them into sharing - but they won't. Or even help by giving them shelter. Everyone is clearly very frightened and focused on survival of their own folk. So it's back to their own house to board-up again. Charlotte, against the wishes of her family, however, secretly gives Thomas some tablets and this action, in one way or another leads to chaos at Charlotte's house with a major creature-attack. So all four of them head for Paul's house, where the creatures are burrowing underground by now to get in.

It's all good fun and actually, the creatures are very nicely imagined and created for the story with some very funny quirky behaviours just prior to launching their attack on humans! I'm sure it's not supposed to be funny, but as usual with this genre of film, it looks it to me! (In fact if they dispensed with it, they probably have a much better hit rate!) By the way, the creatures only seem to be interested in humans and not dogs, cows, sheep which these families seem to keep. Lucky animals, then!

The main players in the cast, Nic Cage (Face/Off, Leaving Las Vegas), Maxwell Jenkins (Lost in Space), Jaeden Martell (Knives Out) and Sadi Soverall (Saltburn, Little Bone Lodge) all do a good-enough job, though without a huge amount of character injected into their roles. In actual fact, Nic Cage's character isn't really in it that much as unconscious - so most of the focus is actually on the three teens, giving it something of a Disney feel at some points.

The most tedious part of the film without a doubt is the hugely widespread use of handheld camerawork. Makes you feel sick by the end of the 90 minutes. Perhaps that's the idea! It feels like a bit of an excuse to get a film out there to make some money with nobody really trying very hard, apart from the creature creations team - which are very much the stars of the show. When they are on screen it's rip-roaring fun!

Moto Watch Fit - A Smart Dumbwatch!

Having had a meander away from WearOS with the CMF Watch Pro 2 recently, with pretty positive results, I thought I'd give Motorola a try with their new one, the Moto Watch Fit. It's an oblong, Apple-style shape I guess, rather than the circular that CMF (and many others) went for with their take on what is, really, more of a Smart Dumbwatch!

It's an attractive-looking device which comes with a green/yellow fabric strap, they call it Trekking Green (a Pantone colour of course), which uses Velcro-type stuff to attach and wrap around the wrist. Works well and the design accommodates for very large and small wrists. If you don't like that, though, you can swap it for another one (from Moto or anywhere else) as the lugs are a standard 22mm, so well done Moto.

One of the huge advantages of not being baked into the WearOS platform is battery life - and as with the CMF watch, it can last weeks instead of hours (or just about a day or two with some of them if you're lucky) with WearOS. Moto claim here 16 days, which I shall be putting to the test of course. The downside is that unlike WearOS it doesn't plug into an ecosystem with universal apps, app store and open nature that developers can write for and make available. What you get here is what Moto (will) serve up and make available.

So the first casualty of that is no access to the million and one watch faces that are available for WearOS, but to be fair, Moto supply 80 choices, so surely something to suit everyone! In fact, one could say that a million and one is far too much choice, flexible an option as it is! Most people, in my experience, are going to pick one they like and stick with it anyway. There's also an option to use Moto AI, inside the companion app (so not relying on any particular (Moto) phone), to create your own watch face using text prompts - so we are back to a million and one after all!

It's £89.99 in the UK at time of writing and has, up to now, been quite hard to get from mainstream stockists. I got mine direct from MotorolaUK's website and it was delivered for free, and promptly by UPS. For the purposes of this review, I have paired it up with my Moto Razr 50, but as it's completely universal and controlled entirely by the app, it will work just the same on any Android phone. And just to prove it, I also set it up on my Pixel 9. The box it arrives in is white, 3" x 3" x 2". Inside you get a USB-C to proprietary cable (don't lose it as there's no other way to charge the watch) and a couple of 'lug adapters' in case, as I said above, you don't want to use their supplied strap and prefer another 22mm one. The supplied one is also a little elasticated. Not hugely, but enough to ensure that once you have it set for the size of your wrist, it can be wrenched off over the hand without having to undo it every time. Just.

Physically, it measures 44.46mm high, 37.9mm wide and is 9.5mm fat (in the middle). It weighs 25g which is not surprising as per the aluminium frame, and it feels/looks stealth-like on the wrist. You hardly know it's there really, light as a feather. Alongside my Pixel Watch 3 (45mm version) it feels/looks positively dinky, the latter being fatter and bigger in every direction. But then, as above, it does a lot more, so probably not surprising - and the Pixel also has a gorgeous domed screen glass which is a step up really in terms of class - again, not surprising at significantly more cash - in fact about three times as much! The very slightly curved (at the edges) screen is smooth and lovely under the fingers - and the surrounding aluminium gives it a polished look/feel too. On the right side is a button sitting slightly proud of the flat, which largely functions as a 'get home' or power-functions button. There's no sensor in it. On the back it's black with a central island housing sensors and to one edge, the release for the strap lug assembly.

So yes, the 1.9" screen is an OLED one, fronted with Gorilla Glass 3 (so watch out for micro-scratches or get some sort of protector, I guess), the watch is certified as IP6/8 and to 5 ATM so should be good for wearing pretty much all the time, whatever you're doing, going by that. I wore it in the shower last night - hopefully I haven't knackered it! They say it's not 'waterproof' and only certified for 'fresh water' so maybe not soap and shampoo! As with Moto phones, the OLED panel is gorgeous. Bright and colourful and vibrant. Don't know if it's the same P-OLED as the phones, but it looks like it might well be. The screen can be set to always-on, or not, timed and adjusted for brightness. The always on display is not the watch face that you choose but rather, after the screen timeout length you set, goes to the same Moto-stylised AoD clock that is present on the modern Razr phones - which is very nice. But there's no way to change that.

The watch doesn't have a speaker or microphone, so notifications are visual and vibration-based only and making/taking phone calls directly on it are right out! The Moto Watch App, on any Android 12 or newer phone, connected via Bluetooth 5.3, controls all of this and is almost as littered with options as a WearOS companion app. The vibration motor has 3 levels of intensity and I have it on the top one, which feels right for me. Not enough to wake or annoy, but enough to make me notice. You can then have a dot on the screen when something has come in, if you like.

There's a 'tiled' UI which the user can add/remove stuff from (via the watch or app), such as weather, fitness, sleep, music controls, steps, heart rate, blood/oxygen - much of the stuff you'd expect on higher-end smartwatch systems really. The UI is a swiping one of course and you swipe right from the home screen for a list of the Moto 'apps' - yes, each 'function' is considered an 'app'. Music controls, weather, Heart rate, torch, workout and so on. Swipe left for whatever tiles you've set up in rotation, up for notifications and down for 'quick settings' (which you can assign/add/remove in the app. Here is where you will also see the current state of battery (if you don't have it in your watch face) and confirmation that Bluetooth is connected.

I have to admit that I'm not much of a fitness fanatic, so testing here will be about the basics, not going down the gym! The first thing I noticed was how badly I sleep! As you can see from my screenshot here, I keep waking up and most of my sleep is of the 'light' variety! I've never done any sleep tracking much before because 'smart' watches have batteries that I always feel that I need to charge overnight, along with my phone. Yes, I know, it could be charged fairly quickly each morning, but I like to wake in the morning knowing that my devices are ready to go! With a 16-day battery (potentially) this goes away and lets me leave the watch on as I sleep. The blood/oxygen seems to work as it should, usually offering me a reading of about 98%, so I must be healthy (at least in that respect!), heart rate, which can be set to how often you want it 'measuring', there's a 'stress' measure which seems to tell me that I'm calm(!) - and other stuff, hooked up to Health Connect (Google's replacement for their Google Fit app) if you let it, before heading into all the 'workout' type stuff.

There are over 100 'sports modes' for those who want to use them, which you can select on the watch and start things going manually. It's not smart enough to detect what you're doing automatically, but when you're done it does write the data to the app (which, if you sign into a Moto account, will save the data for you in their cloud too). I guess that if you're serious about fitness you'd likely have a more up-market, less budget device than this anyway which will detect more. Bu there's outdoor walking, indoor walking, skipping, cycling, swimming, rowing, badminton, calories burnt - all the usual stuff you'd expect from a fitness app/watch. There's GPS built into the watch, so you can get distance tracking within the data too. You can set goals and track progress then review it all in the app.

Testing the battery now and the claim for 'up to 16 days'. This, of course, will be an estimate based on someone using the watch without an always on display running constantly - or spending 8 hours a day in the gym - or getting 200 vibrating notifications a day - or constantly running music (and thus controlling it), and so on. You get the idea. Probably 16 days under very strict conditions. However, we'll see I shall fully charge it now, wear it and not take it off, then see what happens. Motorola don't seem to quote anywhere how long it takes to charge from 0% to 100% but rather confirm on their website that users will "get power for the day with a 5-minute charge" - whatever that means! Observing now as I charge from 50% - it's taken 20 minutes to get to 75% - then another 40 minutes to get to 100% (an hour from 50% to full). So I guess that (based on the second half being generally longer to charge than the first with these devices' batteries), maybe an hour and a half, start to finish. Which is no investment in time at all if it does, indeed, last 16 days! I'll come back here and update this when tested fully.

But overall, it's a great watch for the (relatively) simple life. I think it does more than the average fitness band type device - and certainly feels much more like a 'watch' than a 'band'. Does most of what I need it to do - and seems to do it well, with more functionality than I had hoped for - and an app which is very detailed and has oodles of settings and options to play with. I hope they bring more watch faces along as time goes - as more than 80 as there may be, many of them are kind of cartoony/childish - and maybe that's where Moto think that they're pitching this watch. But I think it's neat and very good value for money for those who are happy to trade a deeper ecosystem functions for battery life and something a bit simpler. Recommended.

PodHubUK Podcasts for the Month of May 2025

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

The Phones Show Chat Podcast

Episode 852 - Trapped!

Sunday 4th May

Ian Furlong joins Steve and I again this week as we delve into a whole ton of mobile-related topics and a couple not! OneUI 7, CMF, Samsung EcoSystem, Moto (of course), keyboards, powerbanks - and even Lego 3D printing! Something for everyone, so do join us for an hour.

Whatever Works

Episode 225 - Flexible Pole Erection!
Monday 5th May
Aidan and I are back with another Therapeutic Hour to smash the middle-aged irritation out of anyone! Oodles of fabric-sized Hiplocks, Muc-Off Puppy Leads and Ivy-flavoured Wheat Bran - all making Miniml sense! Available in the usual places now so get stuck in. Oh, and don't live alone - and cheer up, you miseries!

Projector Room

Episode 185 - The Cherry Cleaner
Wednesday 7th May

Gareth, Allan and I are back again with another peep into all things film, cinema and TV. This time we Cherry pick some Thunderbolts, Take the Money and Run, have a Cleaner attack on The Bayou and visit The Last Man on Earth as he moves From The Eternaut to a Sleeper! Available in the usual places, so go get it!

The Phones Show Chat Podcast

Episode 853 - Ted and the iPhone 16!

Saturday 10th May

Steve and I are here with something of an Apple Special as he lends me his unit and I try to get my head round it, coming from a long and happy 15 years of Android and 20 of Google! Some other bits squeezed in too, though, including our look forward to the new Sony stuff coming this week!

The Phones Show Chat Podcast

Episode 854 - Motovator!

Sunday 18th May

Steve and I are joined, virtually, by Wilkin Lee this week as he and James Raeburn chatted to him about all things Moto at a Show'n'Tell in the week! Good to get an insight direct from Moto Marketing about what they're up to and for us to see the latest hardware. Also time to chew over The Android Show, Sony's new Xperia and Headphones - and Steve's look/see at the iPhone 16 which we covered in-depth last week. Plus all the other usual stuff. So do join us.

Projector Room

Episode 186 - Deep Space Super Shark
Wednesday 21st May

Gareth, Allan and I are here again with our fortnightly roundup of film, cinema and TV. This time we face the End Times with Heart Eyes, check out The Tomb in a Prison Ship, hop aboard the Avalanche Express and all shout NORM! together.

The Phones Show Chat Podcast

Episode 855 - Battling Entropy

Sunday 25th May

Malcolm Bryant joins Steve and I this week as we deep-dive into all sorts of developer stuff that Malcolm's been, well, developing! A Podcatcher App for starters for SmartWatch and Phone. I've had first hands-on with the Moto Edge 60 - but find my SIM Card in a Nothing Phone - while Steve's creating YouTube Shorts galore on all sorts of topics - and has even found the budget, bargain Sammy of the year! All now available in the usual nooks and crannies, so do join us!

Whatever Works

Episode 226 - Crocs Clock Shock!
Tuesday 27th May
Aidan and I are here again with another roundup of Whatever Works for us and you! This time we're driving spikes into the ground (possibly from a pen), alarming doors, burning weeds, remembering proper bulbs, squeezing toothpaste, designing amphibious cars and juicing with war babies! So do join us for another hour of hoots!

The Phones Show Chat Podcast

Episode 856 - The Ultimate Phone!

Saturday 31st May

Joe Hickey joins Steve and I this week as we delve in, once again, to all things phone! Joe's been playing with loads of Honor phones, Steve's rekindled Bygone Beauties with the Nokia N96 whilst switching between different sized iPhones and as for me, I'm Mostly Thinking Moto!

The Podcasts

PodHubUK - Phones Show Chat - The Phones Show - Whatever Works - Chewing Gum for the Ears - Projector Room - Tech Addicts

The MeWe Community Groups (follow the links to join up)
Phones Show Chat & The Phones Show - Whatever Works - Chewing Gum for the Ears - Projector Room - PSC Photos - PSC Videos - PSC Classifieds - Tech Addicts

The Team
Ted Salmon - Steve Litchfield - Aidan Bell - Gareth Myles - Allan Gildea

The Salt Path (2024) - A Guest Review by Chad Dixon

The Salt Path (12a) is the film adaptation of the international best selling memoir of the same name by Raynor Winn. It covers a transformative period in her and her husband, Moth's, life after being swindled out of their home and farm in Staffordshire - and at the same time, Moth getting a devastating diagnosis of CBD or Corticobasal Degeneration Disease. A rare and progressive neurodegenerative condition which is characterized by gradually worsening problems with movement, speech, and memory.

As they are finally evicted from their beloved home, they decide the best antidote to all this terrible circumstance is to go walking. With the small amount of money they have remaining, Raynor (Gillian Anderson) and Moth (Jason Isaacs) buy a decent quality tent, a pair of sleeping bags, a few other camping essentials and head off to the South West Coast Path starting in Minehead, Somerset.

The core of this incredible story is the bond of this couple who, "For richer, for poorer. In sickness and in health" truly live up to those traditional marriage vows and they are a strength greater than the sum of their union. Anderson and Isaac's performances are spellbinding as the intrepid couple, as we see them tackling the beautiful and varied topography of Britain's South West coastline. Slowly traversing down steep hills, along rocky beaches and climbing endless steps hewn into the cliff sides - camping wherever they can (as Moth's condition occasionally flares up) and sometimes encountering the wrath of locals walking their dogs - "You Can't Camp Here!" they cry!

The long walk is punctuated with short flashbacks to events that led to their homelessness. The only slightly fortunate coincidence was that their son and daughter were both of the age that university and a gap year, funded by their own meagre savings, were just on the horizon as they packed up their family house. Otherwise the couple received a weekly benefit of £48 provided by a government tax credit due to Moth's inability to work. This was supplemented by the kindness of strangers along the path and some timely public performance speaking in towns.

The rugged landscape combined with the ever-changing British weather could be thought of as a character in its own right here - and on occasion, seemed to be tormenting our main protagonists. At other times, different natural elements uplifted their entire outlook. Most of all, this is a tale of love, courage, togetherness and the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. As the credits rolled on the 1h 55m film, it left me with a feeling of pure joy!

What I use my Smartphone for...

I've been reflecting on this question recently, considering the rising cost of flagship phones, the amazing feature-sets of Android mid-range phones and super prices and capabilities of even the cheapest budget ones. So could I live with a cheaper, simpler phone, I wondered, leaving all the AI-shenanigans and top-end, expensive, best-of-everything to those who really need it all (or have plenty of cash).

So, what do I use my Smartphone for? My daily routine is depicted here, bit of a simple brainstorm really, along with headings to describe my use and verdict at the end, answering my own question!

In bed in the morning
Checking GMail
Checking MeWe
Checking Inoreader
Checking Google News
Using Instapaper (for use later on PC)

In bed at night
TikTok until tired enough to sleep
Smart Audiobook Player - sending me to sleep

Exclusively used on phone
Phone
SMS/RCS (and backup/restore)
Tapo - for Smart Home Light Plugs
Camera
Podcast Addict
AA (vehicle rescue service - if ever needed)
What3words (if ever needed)
Google Wallet - for paying in shops and loyalty cards
Google Authenticator
Counting Steps (when I'm on a health kick)!
Smart Watch stuff

Exclusively used on PC
Audacity
Amolto
MSPublisher
Plex

Can use on a phone (if needed, if away from PC) but always on PC if I can
Google Drive
Playing Music
Watching video/film
Gemini/Chrome
Checking weather
Social Media
Calculator
Calendar
Location Sharing in Google Maps
File Management
Find Hub (formerly Find My Device)
Google Keep
IMDb
MSTeams
Thunderbird
Google Meet
Google Lens
Banking

Google Photos

Photo editing
Amazon shopping
Royal Mail stuff
Clock/alarms/alerts/Notifications
Wikipedia
Reading news
…and more, I'm sure!

Verdict
I’m sure there are gaps, but pretty much as many services I can, I access routinely via my PC, not phone. Yes, no doubt a reflection of not having much of a life (as others might see it!) but also that it just seems so much better to me, all round, to use a big monitor, keyboard and mouse if I can, over squinting at a tiny screen that I need glasses to see! Much else of what I do seems to be for TechToy or Phone Reviewing purposes/tinkering. I think that smartphones, for me, have just become playthings - which means that I really can - if I choose - use a very simple, cheap phone which will meet pretty much all I want to do. After that, it’s unnecessary, but desirable preferences - like macro, good speakers, AoD, PC Modes etc. Not that I don't want to play with phones - I love doing that and it's great to see what's going on in the evolving techsphere, so don't think that this reflective piece/brainstorm means that I've lost interest - more a stock-taking exercise!

Little Bone Lodge (2023)

Also known as The Last Exit for an American release, this 90-minute film has a fair bit going for it. Directed by Matthias Hoene (Cockneys vs Zombies) it's classified as a horror/thriller, but the horror is more about body-horror than anything that will scare the living daylights out of the viewer. It's more subtle than that and has some nice twists and turns along the way.

Vanessa Redgrave's daughter Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck, Anonymous) plays the lead amongst a British cast including Sadie Soverall (Saltburn, Arcadian), Neil Linpow (who also wrote the story) and Harry Cadby - these forming the main key figures in the story. The story is about an isolated Scottish house in which Mama (Richardson), daughter Maisy (Soverall) and Pa (Roger Ajogbe) live. One wild stormy night, two men, Jack (Linpow) and Matty (Cadby), turn up on the doorstep asking for help as they'd had a car accident. Mama was very reluctant to let them in, but did in the end.

Jack was unconscious and had something pole-like sticking out of his torso which Mama proceeded to remove - and stitch up the hole (claiming to be an anaesthetist by profession) to save his life. They had no phone. Or TV. Or anything to connect them with the outside world much and Mama was strangely overprotective of Maisy - who came across throughout as a childlike figure defying her chronological age. Pa is in a wheelchair and Mama has to inject him with something every few hours to keep him comfortable. As you can see, it's a very odd little house and family, the truth about which comes out later!

Everything is not all as it seems with Jack and Matty, either - as Matty also comes across as childlike and sometimes uncontrolled, with Jack having to calm him. Turns out that they are brothers and Jack's role is to look after Matty as he's had a background of mental health issues. Mama takes Jack to his overturned car to collect something that will help calm Matty and when they are there, she sees a dead body in the back of it. Jack whips out a gun and here starts the outflow of the truth about the brothers and their criminal activity - they're basically on-the-run from the law.

So, that's about all the setup you need to know in order to enjoy the unfolding of what's going on, what has gone on and what's going happen as we head towards the grand finale. It's nicely paced with reveals coming out on a well-timed schedule, keeping interest high, edge-of-the-seat often, tense, dark and suspenseful - no silly jump-scares. It's certainly character-driven with a small cast and mostly shot in one location. There are some lovely visuals of the eerie Scottish landscape and backdrop, through the wild weather.

The central performances are very good indeed, particularly the two female leads who turn their delivery of shock, horror, thrills and anxiety well as the story unfolds and twists arrive. And the story is quite nicely crafted - a bit far-fetched ultimately but there's a satisfying outcome for those who stick around. And you should. Few would be disappointed. It's out there on various streaming services, but don't forget the alternative title.

Motorola Edge 60

The first thing that struck me when opening the box holding the Edge 60 is how remarkably similar it is to the Edge 60 Fusion. On checking the specifications for the two models, the similarities are clearly not just physical. Furthermore, third-party case-makers are actually listing their cases as suitable for both phones. So I guess it's clear! I was thinking that this would be a comparison with last year's Edge 50, but maybe not!

The second thing that struck me was the quite significant perfumy smell (present even actually before opening the box), which I think has been made stronger than it used to be! I guess people must like this as they've been doing it for some years now. Can't say I'm a fan, but perhaps as a chap in his 60's I'm not the appreciative target demographic!

The third thing to strike me was the quad-curved screen. We've seen left/right curves of course over the years - some waterfall outrageous curves - but more recently subtle, lending a classy and premium feel. I was expecting the top/bottom curves to be the same as left/right but they're not - they're more subtle and I, for one, find them very attractive and lovely to use as the finger slides over them with various swipes. But we'll come to the screen in due course.

MotorolaUK PR have sent this over for to us at Phones Show Chat to review, incidentally, but I've not been dictated to in any way regarding my opinion of what I find and will say here exactly that - as I'm sure that they, and more importantly, you, would have me do. But anyway, the box is first as always and it's a white one! Inside is a USB-C to USB-C cable, a hard semi-cut-out case for protection (which is very nice, colour-matched with the phone, but very slippery - much more so than the back of the phone), pokey SIM Card tool, papers, Energy Rating sticker and that's about it. No charger.

I used my Motorola Razr 50 as the source for setup/restore, which it did wirelessly over my home network, no offer of a cable option this time. Coming from another Moto, as one might expect, home screen layouts are all in place, as many apps as Google's system allows signed in (excluding financials of course, understandably for security), settings preferences all the same, toggles thrown as they were on the Razr - it really is very impressive these days (especially when doing this from two devices from the same firm).

The dimensions of the phone are 161.2 x 73.1 x 7.9mm and weighing 179g it's stealth-like! It's beautifully slim around the plastic frame as the glass edges come round to meet it with a nicely razor-thin volume rocker and power button on the right and USB-C port, one of the stereo pair of speakers and SIM Card Tray on the bottom edge. And Edge is the word. Without a case on, it's all edge. I know there's divided opinion about the pragmatics around curved screens and flat these days, but I fail to see how anyone can not be impressed by the look, feel and finish of the Edge 60's styling here. By the way, there's no dedicated left-side Moto AI key on this phone (like these is on some other 2025 models) but I'll come to the whole AI thing later! This Pantone Gibraltar Sea colour they describe as a canvas-inspired silicone finish or nylon-like texture. To me it feels like some sort of cloth, but it would seem not! It's very nice to the touch though and does afford (certainly more) grip (than the supplied case). There's also a kind of bright green - Shamrock (which has a leather-like silicone back) and a purple-like Plum Perfect (with sandpaper-like texture).

We have got used to Moto knocking it out of the park with their P-OLED screens and this is no exception. Once again a gorgeously bright, colourful and vibrant screen which is capable of reaching 4,500nits in auto mode out in the sun. It has a refresh rate of 120Hz, ratio of 20:9 and pixel count of 1220 x 2712 - which makes for 446ppi. It's a 6.67" panel but the phone feels smaller than that because of the quad-curving. To me, it feels more like a 6.5" screened device. It's protected by Gorilla Glass 7i from Corning, which seems to be a poor man's Victus but certainly a mid-tier leg-up from Gorilla Glass 3 and 5. Improved drop performance, enhanced scratch resistance - on top of any benefits brought to the phone by IP-ratings and more which I'll come to in a minute.

The phone arrived with Android 15 in charge with a Moto promise of 3 OS updates, so up to and including Android 18. Google Security patches swiftly updated to March 2025 and Moto promises 4 years of those, taking users to April 2029. Sadly, this is one of the devices where you can expect Motorola to auto-install various applications from their partners when the phone gets any kind of update. Bloat, we call it. Presumably keeping the price of the hardware down. On this occasion it was Ball Sort Puzzle, Amazon Music, Temu Shopping, Happy Color, Solitaire and Monopoly Go! Fortunately, these were all uninstallable, but you have to keep an eye open for more. Pre-installed on the phone (with no choice during setup) were Opera, Booking (dot) com, LinkedIn, Perplexity and Adobe Scan AI PDF. These are also uninstallable, but in actual fact, the last two might be useful to leave as they are to some degree baked into some of the other Moto apps. Depending on whether or not you have any interest in or intention to use AI!

Whipping out the SIM Card Tray using the provided tool, it was clear that there was some resistance, reassuringly 'sealed' around the edges to meet with the ingress protection which feels like is becoming standard for Moto candybar phones these days, budget, mid-tier or flagship. Yes, we have IP6/8 rating, IP6/9 and to top it all off, the phone is also MIL-STD-810H compliant. So pretty much whatever you're likely to throw at it - or indeed it, at! Surprisingly, inside the back of the SIM Card Tray is a space for a second nanoSIM Card or microSD Card so users can mix and match as they like, especially given that the phone can also be used with an eSIM. The world is your oyster!

The Edge 60 can be bought in various storage/RAM configurations - this one supplied has 512GB storage and 12GB RAM, which is the top one. There's also 256GB/8GB and 256GB/12GB depending on market and/or operator (if buying on contract). 256GB being the baseline storage is just great and 512GB, at least for me, is oodles more than enough! Added to which, this phone has a microSD Card slot, as I said earlier, meaning that you can expand the storage yet again - I'm sitting here on 1.5TB all-in! Data transfer speeds to/from the internal storage utilise UFS 4 and in my tests here it flies - even compared to my (much more expensive) champ - Sony Xperia 1 Mk VI.

There's also a RAM Boost function which uses some of your storage as RAM if you want it to. Here, it arrived with 12GB+4GB turned on and something I'd not seen before - AI Auto (using AI learning, optimise RAM use by up to 12GB) which I guess means that it works out for itself, depending on what demands you put on the system, how much it switches. Not quite sure how this works, however, as this system has never been on-the-fly, rather having to reboot the phone after any changes made. Anyway, with 12GB here I contend that nobody needs to be engaging this function as the system keeps many more tasks open than the vast majority of people are going to readily use or notice if it didn't!

Driving the operation is a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 (4nm) which was the same as last year's Edge 50 Neo. It feels snappy enough in operation and those who seem to know, compare it with a SnapDragon 7-series, maybe the Gen 3. I don't see any slowdown here and unless a person is pushing gaming to the limits, it will be just fine for 95% of uses for 95% of people. For those demanding that extra 5% performance, they certainly would be looking somewhere other than mid-tier devices in this price range anyway. I've been testing car racing games here and pressing the AI functions (which I'll come to) and it doesn't appear to flinch.

The speakers seem decent enough for the majority of users. They are not the loudest, but unlike other phones which push volume so as to make music sound distorted and tinny, these don't. They cap the volume to keep the quality good. Playing around with Dolby Atmos I have found that the best sound for most of the music I like to listen to is with Spatial Audio selected - but others make prefer to use Smart Audio, Music, Film, Game or Podcast settings instead, or the Custom option, within which there are frequency sliders to manually adjust/tweak. I think the bottom line here is that the volume won't blow out the quality, as I say - and the phone has found a good balance in that approach.

There's no 3.5mm audio-jack so head/earphones by wire are out of the USB-C port or via Bluetooth. Tested with Google's own USB-C wired earphones here and it sounds excellent. Bluetooth v5.4 is here and as you'd expect, it sounds great, particularly when paired up with Moto's own Buds+ which I reviewed along with the Edge 50 Pro last year or better still, as you might expect, Sony's WH-1000XM4 headphones! No complaints with audio via cans either with wire or BT.

As for HelloUI, Moto's software layer over Android, it remains as attractive in so many ways. The ways in which most other OEMs just seem to get it wrong but Moto retains enough of a flavour of AOSP from back in the AndroidOne days, whilst adding genuinely useful functions and gestures that don't bog the system down or get in the way. Kudos to them. Stuff like 3-finger screenshot, chop-chop to turn on the torch, swivel-swivel to turn on the camera, attentive display that stays on when you're looking at it, edge-lighting for notifications, control panel in gaming, themes, fonts, personalisation of elements - there are loads of them to play around with in the Moto-dedicated app and settings. Some of which have been borrowed from others, some of which others have borrowed - between them all I think Moto gets the balance right. Adding enough but not confusing the user.

I'm going to throw in one gripe, one complaint, into that mix, however - and that's the Always on Display - or lack of here. It's a deal-breaker for me, personally and sends me off to the Play Store to find a 3rd party one - but I guess most won't really care. I thought that with the arrival of a 'proper' AoD with the Razr phones, and even on last year's much cheaper Edge 50 Neo, we'd turned a corner and away from Moto's Peek Display. Super as it was - I want an AoD now. And a good bright one like with the two aforementioned devices - not a wishy-washy one (as per Pixel phones and many others) - which similarly sips at the battery, doesn't gulp. I wrote about Peek Display time and time again in amongst my loads of Motorola reviews over the years - search my blog and you'll find them (short summary below). It was great in its day - but please Moto - let's move on. You have proved you can do AoD brilliantly well now.

So anyway, gripe over, Motorola's 'Peek' arrangement really is decent-enough (for most). It wakes up with movement of any kind and shows the incoming notifications as a badge. If you touch/hold each of them you get a deep-dive summary of what the notification is about. Let go and it goes away. Drag your finger to the fingerprint scanner area and the phone opens up the notification source and takes you directly to the app/service to read it. I loved this system for years and was surprised that nobody emulated it. And if Moto hadn't teased us by showing that there's a better way, I'd have been OK with it. But they have. And there is. And it should be here!

The lock screen arrangements are present and as last reported - with the user able to adjust content, clock size and style, shortcuts to various widgets, style of notifications, shuffle it around, resize, add elements and so on. It's a system that works well and following a double-tap on the sleeping screen, you can get straight to the lock screen with all this stuff. There's also lift to wake and coupled with the very good face recognition the phone has, you can be straight in. The face recognition, incidentally, is quick and easy to set up, unlike the old days! So yes, there's lift to wake, nudge to wake, tap to wake - no doubt all influencing elements that made Moto exclude a proper Always on Display! (I won't start on that again!)

Smart Connect (formerly Ready For) works as perfectly as it does with any modern Moto phone, by cable or wirelessly here. Use a cable method to keep the battery topped up too. You get all the usual activities and services - App Streaming, Mobile Desktop, Phone on PC, Webcam, Files (manager), Hotspot, Smart Clipboard, Cross Control with unified mouse, keyboard, tablet or any other connected device and their own Share Hub. I've written about Smart Connect on my blog for a deeper dive and yes, it all works beautifully (particularly for the hot-desking multi/Windows PC user). Nobody else is doing this like Moto is. Not even Samsung's DeX now (though it will be interesting to see what Samsung and Google do with Android 16's Desktop mode as they collaborate).

I was mentioning earlier that there's no Moto AI Key on the left of the phone. Some of the 2025 devices do have this and it seems to be a hardware feature that the firm is adding to their more premium handsets. Razr 60 Ultra, Edge 60 Pro. The AI functionality seems to be similar, however, on most of these 2025 unit, but it's just a case of how you get into it. Those without a button need to access it by an on-screen optional button, an optional double-press of the power key, double-tap on the back of the phone or by voice. Those with a button can use it much like Nothing's Essential Key button with press and long-press. So that brings us nicely into Moto AI then! I think most of the tools are present on the phone as are on my Razr 50 and which I summarised in a blog post a while ago, so no need to repeat it all here - feel free to click through. There's loads to unpack!

Since that summary, Moto have added extra functionality to Moto AI however and changed a thing or two. In the App Tray, up the top, there are some tabs. One is the standard Apps listing, the second is Newsfeed, again, summarised in my post, above, but the Journal which was present then has disappeared - I think in lieu of the new Moto Notes app. So now, when you take a screenshot, make a recording, photo, text or whatever via the Moto AI UI, it gets saved into Memories. Finding Memories (because the Journal is now gone) is then tricky - by voice, search or eventually I found a section in the Moto AI app's Settings under Responses>Memory. That Memory area needs a shortcut (or app of its own). I get the feeling that Moto AI is certainly a work in progress and they're sorting out what should go where and how it all interacts. But most of it really is as I described via that link above, so do please click through and digest all the goodness. Inside the Moto Notes app, there's also an Auto-sync with Google Drive option and it then seems to upload to a newly-made folder called Moto Notes. Seems to do what it is supposed to though - of course one has to give Moto permissions to write to one's Google Drive account etc. which might not suit some. As I say, I think it's a learning time for Moto and I am certainly feeding back to them on my findings, frustrations and fumblings!

Everyone's favourite topic it seems with phones these days is cameras - and my least favourite! Which is why I usually hand this one off to GSMArena. They deep dive the whole camera thing in every review they write, littered with helpful examples, samples and insights. I openly admit that I don't really understand digital photography, being much more of a film user back in the day, and count myself now among the many, many phone users out there who reckon that (pretty much) any modern phone's camera will do pretty much everything that is needed - and that results, at best, are going to be posted to social media - not blown up to A3 poster and put on a wall. However, I do like to run through what I find in the camera UI when I review, so here we go.

First things first and that excellent Macro functionality via the autofocus in the wide-angle lens. I do enjoy using this and taking photos of close-up objects (which I enjoyed with film back in the day with 1:1 rendering lenses on full-frame 35mm). I digress again! The three lenses/cameras in the phone are a 50MP f/1.8 main unit with OIS, a supporting 10MP f2 telephoto with 3x optical zoom and OIS and that 50MP f/2 wide-angle with the AF/Macro. The main camera can shoot video at 4K@30fps or 1080p@240fps (with gyro-EIS) and round the front there's a 50MP f/2 Selfie which can do the same video at 4K@30fps with a slightly reduced frame rate at 1080p@120fps.

So yes, in the main Photo UI you get buttons for quick-selecting 3x zoom, 2x zoom, 1x normal, o.5x wide-angle and a dedicated Macro button. The Macro can also work automatically if you let it via settings and will switch over when it thinks it is close enough to the subject. There's a whole bunch of filters which can be added pre-shooting. Then there's Portrait mode which in my tests here are very pleasing with various depth of field effects which can be set at 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm for angle of view, Pro Mode gives the user fine control if they want to go manual for focus, white balance, shutter speed, ISO and EV and under the More button we have Scan for documents, Night vision (which in my tests seems to pull light from nowhere!), Panorama, Ultra Res (using the full 50MP with big file sizes resulting), Photo Booth (which is like a passport photo booth giving a user 4 shots, 3 seconds apart (on the right is my mad attempt!), Timelapse and some other stuff for playing about with. Digging deeper into settings we have all sorts of other stuff as you'd expect including AI Audio for video (Audio Zoom), smile/gesture capture, grids, levellers etc. I think that the Moto Camera app's UI is a nice one and, as I say, for the vast majority of people who are not going to pixel-peep (or even know what that means!) it's an enjoyable experience.

I was talking earlier about the very efficient face unlock and this is supported by an under-display, optical fingerprint scanner to get in. Registration is similarly quick and painless and in my experience since testing the phone, even though it's said to be second best to ultrasonic (and certainly capacitive) it works just fine. Never failed for me and quick. In terms of connectivity we have 5G of course, which I've tested for data and voice and works well in my test areas/subjects, WiFi 6 which, although not the latest version works perfectly well for me here in my test with good connectivity for data/streaming, NFC support here for paying with the likes of Google Pay and GPS which seems to lock on to location quickly and holds on well. I covered Bluetooth earlier and yes, excellent range (depending on other gear used of course) and clarity. Anything I've plugged into the USB-C (2.0) seems to work well with OTG functionality - not only the PC mentioned earlier but also SSD storage, headphones (with or without dongle/adapters) and chargers of course.

Speaking of which, the phone has a 5,200mAh battery (for this market) and 68W wired charging capability. Sadly there's no Qi wireless charging which would have been, along with an Always on Display (did I mention that?!), the icing on the cake. I have a 100W GaN charger here and using that I get decent-enough charging speeds - a full charge from flat in well under an hour can't be bad. I do, once again, however, question how much it would have cost to add a Qi coil - especially given that last year's model (Edge 50) had it. Still, I guess Moto have done their research and conclude that not enough people are interested. The battery performs sparklingly well incidentally, as usual with Moto phones, heading for two and a half hours on my standard 10% Reading Test and if pushed without a charge, well into, if not to the end of, day 2.

It's a super little phone, very dinky in the hand, particularly for those brave enough to use without a case, the 512GB/12GB version is £379 in the UK direct from Moto (not made it yet to Amazon at time of writing) and represents super value for money. The screen is gorgeous in every way, the Smart Connect works beautifully, loads of storage and microSD, chipset is perfect good for all-but the most demanding, decent enough promise of support going forward, the speakers sound great on balance, it's got a super camera setup, IP ratings galore - even Military compliance - and the makings of some great AI features which evolve as we go along - which I'm sure will feature in every update. Yes I can whine about lack of Qi Charging and Always on Display but Moto, no doubt, given their research, most likely think I'm in the minority - and these are my only two quibbles. Otherwise, thoroughly recommended at this price. (This final photo is one of mine demonstrating how the phone looks after a 3rd Party Always on Display has been added - in this case, Peek AOD - Always On Display by Dubiaz, available in the Play Store.)

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025) - A Guest Review by Chad Dixon

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (12a) is the latest offering in the iconic film franchise and possibly the last. Even before a second of the film rolls, we are greeted by Mr Cruise himself, talking to camera, thanking the Director, Chris McQuarrie (at the helm of his fourth MI title), the remaining cast and crew - and finally the audience for taking the time to come out to see this on the big screen. Nice!

Following on directly from the final events from the previous outing, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 (2023), we first see Ethan Hunt (Cruise), in the obligatory "This Mission, if you choose to accept it" scene. But this time using a TV/VHS combo unit (which felt quite nostalgic for me) and the message is directly from President of the US, Sloane (Angela Bassett). On the tape she pleads with Hunt to give himself up and bring in the 'Cruciform KEY'.

Ethan initially feels that he has to follow a different plan as he knows Gabriel (Esai Morales), the existential bad guy in this story, is wanting the key back to place "The Entity" Rogue AI under his influence and achieve total dominance over the World's nuclear arsenal.

Starting in London, Ethan begins gathering his usual team but unfortunately loses one in a massive bomb blast under the city. He finds out it was indeed set by Gabriel and that he has also stolen a crucial one-of-a-kind decryption tool from the lab Hunt's deceased colleague was working from.

As it's clear the AI is getting more powerful by the hour, Hunt decides the only plan of action to defeat it is to hand himself, and the key, to the US authorities - as they are the only ones with the hardware he needs to help him and the team succeed - and thus save everyone on the Planet!

Unlike previous outings in this franchise, we don't start with a massive all-out set-piece. Instead, there is quite a bit of exposition in the first half-hour, but it sets up nicely for the second act when the action really ramps up. Sequences are choreographed and edited brilliantly so you are literally on the edge of your seat. The 2 hour 50 minute runtime does sound a bit long - but honestly, it flies!

I don't really know how Mr Cruise does this stuff at all, let alone at 60+ years old! There's an underwater sequence in a submarine wreck that I can't imagine what sort of rig they needed to construct to achieve the constantly-moving interior peril. There's also a particularly jaw dropping sequence on a bi-plane that is partly shown in the official trailer.

Everyone reprises their roles including Hayley Atwell as Grace, who seems to have buffed-up even more since the last film. Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn has grown the most in his now, sixth appearance in the franchise - and really commands your full attention to the screen. There a couple of notable additions. Hannah Waddingham plays Admiral Neely. An uber-professional US Navy aircraft carrier group commander (who looks pretty good in uniform) and Tramell Tillman as cold war loving, submarine Captain Bledsoe, who initially finds Ethan's plan totally bonkers but becomes an important ally to help him complete this virtually impossible mission!

CMF Phone 2 Pro

The new CMF phone is all the buzz at the moment, mainly because of the staggeringly good value-for-money. Here in the UK, it's £219 for the base model (or even £188 at AmazonUK if you also factor in a pair of, admittedly, last generation, Buds 2). Significant improvements have been made since the CMF Phone 1, though also a couple of odd changes to the modular approach.

I was quite surprised to discover that there was no Nothing app to switch from one Nothing/CMF phone to another. I guess that's something for down the line somewhere. Instead, they rely on the 'standard' Android 'setup' procedure which can be done via the 'setup my new device' option in the Google app wirelessly or with a cable. Coming from the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, I thought it would be slicker and in-house. Not that there's anything wrong with Google's procedure at this stage - it's pretty polished.

First things first though and the cute-looking box it comes in. I got the orange one though there's also black, white and light green. In the box, there's no power brick of course, but there is a USB-C to USB-C cable, a colour-matched SIM Tray pokey-tool and a beautifully fitting clear and soft TPU case. Love it! And this is no eBay-special from China that just never quite feels like it was designed right - this fits like a glove. Probably only cost them a quid, but made such a difference to me. Well done indeed!

It's slimmer and lighter than last year's model, giving a great feel in the hand - 164 x 78 x 7.8mm and 185g. It's also got an IP rating of 5/4 so certainly better than last year's model which had none, but not up there with the leading pack (outside of this price range). The corners are squared off more than the (2a)'s and it's certainly a big phone, but all the better for seeing, I guess! The footprint reminds me somehow of the Nokia 7 Plus from back in 2018, the first thing that struck me. On the right side, below the power button, is an Essential Key (which I'll come to later). On the left is the volume rocker (which I'm starting to appreciate now over the Android usual position on the right), microphone up top and USB-C port, speaker and microphone down the bottom.

On the back, we have (in the orange colour), a two-tone split (a bit like Pixel phones used to have) with a lighter orange on the top half and darker, below. It feels at first like there's a texture difference between the plastic of the two halves but on closer inspection, I think now not. Like the first phone, there are screws around the back which can be removed and an optional backplate can be added which houses a magnet, MagSafe style. This can be used to clack to MagSafe/Qi2 accessories, some of which CMF are selling. Like the fold-out wallet/stand. I don't have any of these to hand to test so will have to check, along with you, YouTube videos from people who do. And actually, they look pretty good. You can put 2 or 3 credit cards into the folding wallet, then fold it out to provide a desk stand to prop the phone up in portrait.

This whole back cover screw-off thing is different to the first generation, on which you could actually remove the back completely and replace it with other colours. But they didn't have magnets inside. Consequently, with the new phone, if you put a back cover on it, you lose the advantage of thinness and it becomes then thicker than the original. But you do get the benefit of the magnets. But before you get too excited, the phone doesn't have Qi charging - so Qi2/MagSafe charging won't happen! The benefits of the magnets, but not the charging. Oh well. At least you'll be able to mount it to a car dash easily.

It's also got a similar large screw on/off button thingie, bottom right, which can be replaced with a lanyard if desired, to hang the phone around one's neck. Or on a tree! And there's the phone stand which will screw in there too, then fold out for portrait or landscape propping on a desk. You can also buy a power brick from CMF from £39 upwards, depending on which power version you fancy. So yes, to some degree modular still, just different in some ways to the first phone - which seems to be dividing opinion.

Lastly on the tour is the camera cluster, top-right (in landscape), which by design, makes the phone look, along with those screws, kind of industrial - but stylish. And I think that's what they were going for. Style and design. Another couple of accessories are available too for the cameras - but you need to put one of the additional backs on first to use them. When you've done that, there is a fisheye lens and a macro lens which press into place over the additional back, in line with the camera lenses. It's difficult to get hold of these just now, so again, we can only go by those YouTubers who have been sent them for review and the word is that the macro one does indeed get good close-up results, but the fisheye/wide-angle one is not really that much better/different than the wide-angle camera already built-in. Maybe we'll see a telephoto one at some point too.

The phone does look very nicely designed, especially without the additional back on it, fits in my (big) hand very nicely and has a real feeling of something different and classy - but also fun'n'funky - about it!

On firing up the device, it was armed with NothingOS v3 and immediately looks to change that to v3.2 (which I'll come to) with a near-5GB download. Out of the box it has March 2025 Android Security and July 2024 Play System onboard. The latter quickly updated to April 2025 (as most Android phones now seem to have done) and April '25 Security too. The copy/restore (as mentioned above) worked worked beautifully well using the (2a) and a cable, retaining all the settings, layout and apps, Always on Display (which I'll come to), many auto-signed-in (my trust in Google paying off), leaving me to fiddle with the financials!

CMF have done the decent-enough thing here which Motorola could learn from with budget devices, offering 3 Android OS updates (so up Android 18) but more importantly probably, 6 years of Security Patching. So, new in May 2025, this gets users safely supported through to spring 2031. For a £200 phone - that's impressive.

The recurring theme running through my thoughts here is very likely often going to come back to the stock phrase for the price. No more likely than in relation to the screen - the incredibly price-defying 6.77", 1080p, 388ppi, 20:9 ratio, 120Hz AMOLED with 3000 nits of brightness at peak/auto. It's super bright and colourful - not quite up with what Motorola are doing with their screens, but not far off and I can't imagine anyone could complain - even outside in bright conditions. The Achilles Heel might be that it's only Panda Glass and not Gorilla, but CMF have added a factory-fitted screen protector and to be honest, usually the first to rip these things off, I've not even noticed it until now. So maybe I won't, given that it's Panda Glass.

The phone is a 5G one of course and users can choose between two physical nanoSIM slots (though no eSIM support) or use the flip-side for a microSD Card! Hurrah! This is important with the £219 128GB version for sure (which this one is), maybe not so much for the £249 256GB one. If the latter had been available for £30 more, I would likely have paid the extra, but it wasn't. So armed with my 1TB card (and up to 2TB for those who fancy it) I've got 1.128TB (and 256GB buyers, 1.256GB, obviously)! It seems that the vast majority of people are happy to use cloud services these days, not file-manage and carry data like us old farts hoarding our own media, so will be happy with 128GB anyway (and probably not even realise their phone has the slot, let alone even own a microSD Card)! With 128kbps versions of my .mp3 files (instead of the 320kbps versions), some key .mp4 files and a pared-down list of audiobooks, I'm peaking out at about half the 128GB personally. And the rest, along with full-fat versions can, of course, all go on the microSD Card (which it seems to read/write to fast enough for no latency on video tested) with its oodles of space! Copying files from my PC to the phone with a cable to the USB-C port worked fine, as it usually does with Android these days, though as one might expect, not as lightning fast as phones with faster and more powerful chipsets. Oh well - doesn't need doing often here and I'm not in a rush!

The 8GB RAM incidentally, is common to both models and tests so far are showing this to be perfectly adequate, not closing stuff down aggressively in the background and working well with the Mediatek Dimensity 7300 Pro (4nm) chipset. The 'Pro' is an upgrade from last year's non-Pro and CMF are claiming incremental improvements all-round over last year's phone. There seems to be wise money on the new Pro version equating to a SnapDragon 7s Gen 2, used successfully in some of the Motorola Edge, Realme, Poco and Redmi models. The Dimensity feels like it's doing a perfectly good enough job to me - even with some car-racing and certainly 'lighter' games. There's very little impact on speed around the UI, thus proving, again, for everyday use for most people, saving huge amounts of money not buying expensive flagships has little-to-no impact on their use of phones.

Now onto speakers - or in this case, speaker! Yes, there's one, so without head/earphones or peripheral speakers there's no stereo. There's no 3.5mm audio-out socket either (of course) so it's a good job that the Bluetooth v5.3 works beautifully - and indeed wired USB-C earphones, a couple of which I have here to use (without adapter/dongles). Bluetooth is staggeringly good these days even without the higher-level codecs for audio like LDAC (though apparently you can get that if you buy CMF's Buds Pro 2 which I don't have here to test unfortunately, only the non-Pro version). I do have my Sony WH-1000XM4 (Amazon Affiliate Link) headphones, however, which smartly sorts out LDAC for the user and, of course, it reduces all latency and sounds fantastic.

The speaker's output is quite loud but as soon as a finger lingers over the grille at the bottom, it's pretty much all gone! Pushed to 100% though and it's a distorted, tinny mess I'm afraid. Made even worse by the Ultra Volume option! A bit like the one found on the HMD Skyline - both of which really need to be left well alone. CMF's version claims to boost the volume by 50% but it's simply unusable. Maybe for spoken word it could be of use in a large room, but with music it's a disaster! Laying that aside and dropping the regular (non-Ultra option) down to about 80% and it's much more usable for music. If ever there was a case for the use of Wavelet though, this is it. Set on the app's 'Dark' EQ setting it's much, much better - and can, in a pinch, be pushed to 100% - but still not Ultra!

Next is the battery and it's a 5,000mAh one, for which the phone offers 33W wired charging. Seems to do what it says it should, for those of us armed with an appropriately-powered charger, with a full charge in just over an hour and a half. CMF claim "...a day's power in 20 minutes" which in real-world use is subjective as everyone's day is different, but it seems that 20 minutes with a 33W charger should take it from zero up to about a third full in my tests here, so a few hours power anyway. There's no Qi Wireless charging on offer but there is 5W Reverse-Wired, which means that you can think of the phone as a powerbank, plug another device into the USB-C port and expect it to charge the other device's battery. Slowly!

Once the phone is charged, in tests here, the battery performs superbly well. The efficient chipset sipping away at it makes it seem to go on and on. With my average use, it's certainly good for a day and a half - and on a light-use day, two of them! Doing my usual 10% Reading Test I am getting about 2 hours, which is not great compared to many and feels like it's not right really - but repeated tests are about the same, wherever I execute them within the battery percentage scale. I shall do more testing on this as it doesn't really seem consistent with the all-day use.

The firm, like everyone else, are going OTT on claims for their camera system (like it's the most important feature on any phone) and highlighting how it's better than last year's model. And to fair, it is. The main camera is much the same - a 50MP f1.9 unit, but they've added a second 50MP f1.9 unit which has 2x optical zoom capability and third 8MP f2.2 unit for wide-angle, dropping the last generation's 2MP f2.4 Depth one. The camera interface is pretty simple, pretty Apple-like, with swipe-across menu highlighting Night, Portrait, Photo, Video and More. Under More there's Slo-Mo, Time Lapse, Panoramic and Expert (Pro). With the latter you can control EV, ISO, Shutter Speed, White Balance and Focus in the usual way. On the main interface you can switch between the three lenses with a swipe - wide-angle ("0.6"), regular ("1") and 2x optical ("2"). Head for the settings and there's  a bunch more controls including forcing 50MP shots (with big file sizes), filters (with my favourite artsy Lenticular!), HDR, Motion Photo, Grid, etc. Nothing new here much if you're used to fiddling with cameras in phones. Oh, and the Selfie is the same 16MP f2 unit as last year.

As for the performance and output of the camera - I really don't understand digital photography. (Bring back film!) Even the cheapest phone's camera seems to make perfectly good-enough pictures to me, for any use I might put them to online. So yes, I shall shuffle you off once again to our friends at GSMArena who drill down, pixel-peep and give their verdict, presumably for those who really want to blow a photo up to A3 and put it on the wall! Their coverage is here and I continue to appreciate them filling the gap for me. The most notable 'miss' on the camera seems to be the lack of OIS anywhere, so it's tripod time! While you're there you can read their review of this phone too.

The Essential Key is a notable addition on the right side of the device, a button under the power button - which, incidentally, is lovely and 'clicky'. This is a (kind of) AI method taking a lead from the Pixel Screenshot app offering the user a quick-snapshot method to press-to-save whatever’s on the screen, add notes and long-press to record voice notes to each for later reference. And it certainly seems to do what it says on the tin - and for the right person, this will be very useful as a (kind of) scrapbook. My problem with it is, much like many Samsung tools, it doesn't integrate out and/or talk to anything outside of the phone. Even a simple webpage support would be nice - and to be fair, even Google doesn't have that (yet) for their Screenshot app. It's designed (at this stage) therefore to be an on-device function for users to then use, on-device. It doesn't even save anything to a cloud anywhere so even if you swap to a new phone, you just have to start again. 

In order to use it, you long-press the button in order to screenshot whatever is on your screen and whilst holding the button, dictate a voice memo to go with it. Or press once to take the screenshot the same but type a message to go with it. Double-press the button to get to the Essential Space where all your saved stuff is kept. You can listen back to any audio notes you've made, get a transcription of them, and even view summaries that the AI has put together in order to organise tasks, events or whatever data it's scooped up - including words from inside images. Screenshot a calendar page and it gives you a rundown of upcoming stuff which you can then add to a Task List or mark as done. You can then organise your clippings and data into Collections if you want to. There's a lot to unpack here and it needs some using, ongoingly, to make the most of it. Maybe with the upcoming launch of the Nothing Phone 3 they will open it up a bit, not have it locked down to the device.

Nothing OS 3.2 (over 3.0/1) launches with the new hardware (though it will come to the older soon - well, apart from the Essential Key stuff presumably)! They’ve added Essential Space Widgets, allowing users to see the content (or rather some of it, presumably) on the lockscreen and AoD (if selected). In other changes, they’ve added some camera presets, made the Macro and Portrait Modes better (more bokeh) and added AI-powered face and scene classification to their Gallery app, smoother animations, Adaptive Brightness tweaks to make it better, improved colour accuracy, clarity and detail in the camera/video, the 'proper' AoD as mentioned, more icon styles, pre-installed Nothing X App for audio products and more. Discovery ongoing!

Connectivity seems pretty good on all-counts really, WiFi 6 is fine, three routers tested, GPS seems good for locking-on and keeping tracking, 5G cellular, similarly, seems good as I test in various places in North Wales - data reliable and voice reported well on both ends of calls - and the new one over last year's model, NFC. Hurrah! So it can hook up with other NFC-enabled gear and (probably) more importantly for most, pay for your grub at Tesco! It was a gap in the last model which thankfully, even keeping the price down, they've fixed.

Security features work very well - fingerprint, under-display, optical, seems to work first time, every time and Face Unlock was fast to register and then quick in execution, working out glasses on or off by itself. Other security arrangements are all under Google's umbrella (so no fancy Samsung Knox or Moto ThinkShield alike) but I guess that's then as secure as any Pixel out there!

It's a terrific phone for the price - quite staggering really - and would suit 95% of the non-geeky/nerd, undemanding population. The screen is great, the accessories/magnets are fun, there's a microSD Card slot and Dual SIM, the chipset is perfectly adequate as is the RAM, decent amount of update support going forward, excellent battery (apart from my 10% test - more tests ongoing as I can't see that it's right) and decent-enough cable charging speed, And similarly, for the price, apparently the cameras too - for the 95% of people again.

Of course, I'd like a better speaker (or even two of them) and Qi Wireless charging, but really those are my only two gripes. Certainly, once again, for the price. You can get 7 of these for the price of the newly-announced Sony Xperia 1 Mk.VII - and although you get a very specialist premium tool for that cash, it's worth lingering for a moment on the fact. I maintain in closing that my 95% would be very happy to use this and enjoy the fun, quirky approach to the often-stuffy design of smartphones out there. Here's my affiliate link in case you want to buy one at Amazon, for which I thank you. Highly recommended.