Samsung Galaxy Watch

This is a running commentary piece as I invite you to join me as I set up my first SmartWatch, work out what it does, how to do it and what I initially conclude about the whole concept. I have recently been playing with Samsung phones, for which I endure a love/hate relationship and have done for years. Loving the oodles of bells and whistles that the Samsung World offers users of their gear, but hating the way that it's not the same clean, AOSP-based experience which others get close to, such as Sony, Motorola, Fairphone, Nokia and (to some degree still) Pixel.

So the best place to start (maybe) is with a Galaxy Watch. I have an S23, S22 Ultra and Z Flip4 here to test it with, so thought I'd get stuck in. Before I do, however, I do also acknowledge that there are other, simpler smartwatches out there which might, given what I have said about love/hate, ultimately suit me better as I switch between devices ad infinitum!

The first hurdle for me is having a watch on my wrist at all. I used to love wearing watches when I was a kid back in the 60's/70's as I viewed them as a (relatively) cheap way to get some interesting tech to play with (and stopped me unscrewing transistor radios to see how they worked)! Remember those red-display LED watches? The Casio calculator watches? I loved them - alongside my film cameras. Stuff to fiddle with! Since about the time that I got into Psion Organisers, I ditched the watch, so my wrist has been free of restrictions for now about half my life, 30 years.

I did struggle with it at first, but a watch strap which arrived with my loan Galaxy Watch4 made the transition and re-introduction to the tethering surprisingly tolerable. I amazed myself at how quickly I got used to it and how comfortable it is. The silicone strap which comes in the box, incidentally, is nasty and intolerable to my skin (as I understand it to be for many, many people). These straps are also too short for me. I'm a big bloke with big everything(!) including wrists - and they simply don't go round it. The cheap and cheerful strap from Amazon in question is elasticated, made from some cloth material and is just excellent. Recommended. Many thanks, incidentally, to Tim Evans of our Phones Show Chat Podcast supporting MeWe Group for the loan of watch/strap for testing.

Please remember that this is a running commentary of my thoughts and findings as I launch into this. It's not a review and my thoughts and recordings of findings may, because of this, be disjointed. I say here what I find, in the order I find it!

First things first, then, and install Samsung's 'Wear' app on the phone. Turn the watch on and let them start talking to each other. You can sign into your Samsung account (if you want to and are not already) to get various backup/restore functions and some other 'joined up' data-sharing stuff. But you don't have to. It nags me to buy an eSIM contract from my cellular provider (EE) a couple of times, but eventually stops and lets me use it just via the phone. If you want to, you can use the watch away from the phone and this is how you'd do it. Essentially, another SIM contract. I didn't want to as I couldn't see that I'd likely be separated from my phone at any point (and certainly don't want the financial burden of another contract)!

I initially connected the watch to the Galaxy S23. As an aside, I was able to use DeX on my PC to open the app and make it easier to set-up, using big screen, keyboard and mouse. From watch, to phone to computer! Here, I was able to learn about how the UI works, what services I can add, which functions to choose, which I have no interest in - and to get things going. It is clear that Samsung want users to have their own software installed, which is obvious I guess, as that's how users will get the most from the watch/phone combination.

I tried to install various Google apps and use them instead of Samsung's and some play ball, some don't. Some pre-installed apps of Samsung's can be uninstalled, some disabled, some only force-stopped. The following is a list of my findings detailing which you can do what with!

The Apps that you can’t uninstall (but bold ones in my list here can be Disabled, the rest only Force-stopped) - Accessibility, Alarm, Bixby, Calendar, Compass, Samsung Contacts, Customisation Service, Find my Mobile, Find my Phone, Gallery, Health Platform, Google Maps, Media Controller, Google Messages, Outlook, Samsung Global Goals, Buds Controller, Calculator, Samsung music, Voice recorder, Samsung Messages, Samsung Phone, Google Play Store, Recent Apps, Reminder, Samsung Health, Samsung Health Monitor, Samsung Keyboard, Samsung Pay, Samsung Text-to-speech engine, Settings, Stopwatch, Timer, Samsung Weather and World Clock.

You can't install Google's Phone app but when making or receiving calls it uses the Samsung Phone app on the watch. However, I was using the Google Phone App on the phone and it all seemed to work fine, apps talking to apps while humans talk to humans! On my test calls, both parties could hear each other well and the distance away from the phone seemed like a good range. You can install Google's Contacts App but Samsung's own one sits there on the watch anyway. Some of the time I wasn't 100% sure which of these apps the watch was actually using but the handshaking all seems to work fine, whatever it's up to!

The 'puck' charger in the box has a concave magnetic disk at one end and a USB-C plug on the other. This can be plugged into any outlet to charge and the watch 'sits' on the 'puck' to do so 'wirelessly'. You can also plug the USB-C end into a phone (at least, you can with a Galaxy phone - not tested others) and draw power to charge the watch from there. In my tests here it seemed to take about 90 minutes to charge from a mains charger, but as it seems to last through the day (with a normal pattern of 'companion-device' activity) most people will just charge overnight and start afresh in the morning. Those who don't want to do sleep-tracking, that is! For those folk, you'd better enjoy a long shower and leisurely breakfast while it catches up! Worth noting also that you can charge it with a Galaxy phone's Reverse Wireless charging if you don't have the 'puck' with you. In general use with me, even with tinkering around and testing, it’s no problem lasting a day. The series-5 is tempting me now though as it has an even bigger battery! And better glass for less scratching etc. on the front.

There was a system update waiting, so I allowed it to continue. This can be controlled by the app on the phone, though I'm still not quite sure which device does what in the loop/stages. I'm assuming that the phone downloads the update via wifi and then transfers the update file to the watch by bluetooth (as that part of the process seems to take a long time). It works itself out though, turns the watch off and on a couple of times, then all done. It's slow, but works fine.

If I lift up my arm sharply, the screen goes on, otherwise it seems to be off. I did read somewhere that it knows if you're looking at it and it stays on, but that doesn't seem to be the case for me as, after a few seconds, it goes off again. The time-out period can be set, but there's probably an even deeper-buried setting which I have not found yet which controls the stay-on-if-looking bit. You can set the watch screen to be always-on (if you want to charge it back up multiple times a day).

The heart rate monitor seems to be pretty accurate. I know very well how to take my heart rate reading manually, so have been able to check this. You can set it to check every 10 minutes, manually or constantly, depending on how you get on with battery. I'm not really in this project for the health stuff, but it does seem to do stuff that (even) the Apple Watch doesn't (as I understand it) like measuring Blood Pressure (although I read that the initial set-up needs to be calibrated by the use of 'proper' BP monitoring apparatus). Then there's all the exercise stuff which, again, I'm really not interested in and one reason why I think ultimately, a simpler smartwatch which is more about notifications and communication might end up being my preferred route. But each to their own and as I understand it from 'proper' reviews, the fitness stuff is smart and clever, with extensive useful data for those who want to launch into a life full of monitoring their fitness, body health, sleeping patterns and so forth. Check out reviews on YouTube for oodles of stuff about that.

I didn't try using the watch to pay for stuff, but ignoring Samsung Pay, I installed Google Wallet on the watch, using Play Store on the watch and others report that yes, you can then use it on a till at Tesco like you can a phone. For me, I'll just use my phone. Which will be in my pocket anyway! I guess that if I buy a ‘mobile plan’ from EE I could do this with the phone left at home. The watch let me add my Debit Card but only after contacting my bank, like it would for a new phone - so the bank is considering the watch a separate device from the phone it seems.

I’m really not sure that I understand what all this is doing, with particular regard to Play Stores and Apps, between ‘linked’ phone and on-watch. I decided that gBoard was a bit pointless on the watch with tiny, weeny QWERTY keyboard, so went to uninstall it from (what I thought was) the 'Watch' area on the phone but it then uninstalled it on the phone as well as the watch! So that all seems a bit lost on me. I do get the impression that I'm just misunderstanding though and more time with this would no doubt open my eyes as to what's what.

Incidentally, I switched phones to the S22 Ultra in the middle of all the above and it seemed to get very confused. First thing to say is that every time you switch phones you have to factory reset the watch, which is really annoying as I didn’t realise (I thought it was only Pixel Watch that did this) and set up banking on the watch first time. So then I had to do all the banking again - and my bank complains when I get to 9 registrations and I have to call them. (I thought this was one of the advantages Samsung had, not to do this reset. I know it won’t impact most people with one phone, but still.) I also know that there’s a Samsung ‘backup/restore’ function, but that doesn’t cover banking apps. Then, when I get to the second phone, it tells me that a bunch of (in my case Google) apps are installed already, but actually they are not and I have to go to each one and reinstall. So why is it telling me that they are already installed? The system does seem to get very confused when switching between phones. I guess they don’t want people to.

I am finding lots of buried settings as usual with Samsung, for example, under Advanced Features>Custom Keys - to change the long-press on the Home Button to be Google Assistant (instead of Bixby) after it has been installed of course. What is able to use the watch’s own speaker is a bit hit and miss, too. So for example, Samsung Music can, YouTube Music can’t, Pocket Casts can’t, Amazon Music can’t - those which can’t simply route the output to the phone (or connected bluetooth device, headphones, speaker or whatever).

There’s no sign of the Galaxy Store (that I can see) and (unlike Samsung usually) it’s routing all the watch stuff through Google’s Play Store - even the watch faces. I’m guessing this must be something to do with them having adopted WearOS and trying to get into bed with Google more? Talking of Watch Faces, there's thousands of them, many free! They have opened this up to anyone to develop (and charge if they like) in the Play Store. An unfathomable amount of choice which you could spend weeks negotiating!

I really quite like the notifications - a quick chirp (or vibrate or silent), glance down at the wrist, see what it is, take action or ignore and move on. I have the screen-off set to the maximum of 1 minute, so not enough time to get glasses, but I can usually work out what it says. There is a font option in settings to make it all bigger, but of course if you do this, there’s less on the screen without scrolling. Notification sounds and vibration patterns can be adjusted from a bunch of choices, too, which is great that users are not just stuck with one.

I’m trying to work out whether having this wrist-based notification facility encourages me to then have a dinky phone linked (S23, Flip4) tucked away in the pocket, accessed less - or that it gives me permission to have a BIG phone linked (S22U), so that it, too, can be tucked away, but when it’s out and in use, one has all the advantages of a big screen, S-Pen, more power etc. I guess part of that depends on size of pocket and if one wants one-handed use!

So laying aside all the biometrics, fitness and exercise, the benefits for me seem to be firstly the fun-factor - it’s another gadget to tinker with and explore - and a very useful echo for Notifications and telling the time! I have got used to using it quickly - and setting up efficiently - with Tiles etc. It will also save getting the phone out to control Home devices (SmartThings), control music playback on the phone, a remote control for the TV, quick check on the weather, appointments - certainly time and date.

What would be interesting, given that I really don’t need to use all the fancy biometrics, is to see what kind of functionality one would get with, say, a Sony or Moto phone. Trouble is, that to test that, I’d have to (yet again) factory reset it! “Advanced health and fitness tracking features, including ECG and blood pressure monitoring, tracking your heart rate and blood pressure on demand are exclusive to Samsung phones. Also remote camera control and AR Emoji watch faces. But you'll still be able to receive notifications, track your workouts and sleep, and more.”

Using with a Non-Galaxy Phone involves the following, which I did... Watch factory reset. Motorola Edge 30 Ultra on. I did not sign into my Samsung account, just skipped it. Skipped offer for eSIM again. Skipped offer to install their suggested apps. Had to install the Wear app on the Moto in order to make it do anything, even pair up, so now have the UI as-if it’s a Galaxy on the phone. I was able to use the same ‘Digital Dashboard’ Watch Face. The Health monitor (for BP and ECG) seem to work. The Heart Rate monitor seems to work.

My first observation is that it’s much faster doing stuff around the UI, like installing apps, for example - is all that Samsung bloat slowing it down horribly when using a Samsung phone? Checking everything through Knox? I can’t really see anything on the Moto that I want and is missing, which goes to show that it works fine (for me at least) with any Android phone with the only tedious caveat being that it has to be set up from scratch each time.

I tried all this again using the Samsung Cloud and a backup I made from the previously used watch. The restore, though it seemed to go through the procedure, did not restore the apps that I had installed, like YouTube Music for example amongst a list of others, and I had to go through to the Play Store on the watch and install them all again. Maybe this is a Galaxy-only feature - so I tried again with a Galaxy phone but the same thing happened. All those apps that should have been a part of the backup were simply not restored and I had to start again - even though, as I say, the restore process seemed to go through the paces.

You can invert the watch display for use on the other arm, to make the buttons on the ‘outside’ nearest to hand. There is a setting to control gestures (Quick Launch) - one of which is to double-dip a clenched fist to launch whatever app you like. If you set it to Torch, you can also tap it to get an SOS sequence when lit.

The physically rotating bezel from the 4 Classic (not this standard one) has gone in the 5-series (but has now returned with the 6 Pro after much complaint, it seems). The way that those without do navigation, is by swipes on the screen and a ‘virtual’ bezel around the circumference - so part of the OLED - which works OK but I can see how a physical bezel would be better for moving between menus and reducing screen-swiping which makes one clean it often.

The Super AMOLED screen is bright, colourful and sharp enough for my eyes! 1.4” and 450x450 pixels. I thought I preferred the oblong shape of the Apple watch but now, on reflection, I’m not so sure. This feels more like a real watch, being round. IP6/8 is present and MIL-grade aluminium build. There’s only 16GB storage here - but then I guess the question is, apart from apps, what is one likely to want to store on a watch? Or maybe I’m missing the point? You can download music to it, but if you have your phone handy anyway, might as well use that and control it from the watch? Perhaps greater impact on those who use it away from the phone with an eSIM.

The Samsung Camera app is really an echo for the phone’s camera app so you can see on the watch screen what the phone is seeing, fire the shutter, timer (or instant), start video recording and (with nimble-enough fingers on the watch screen) zoom in and out by pinch/splay. There is a very slight delay between the two, but nothing unusable - it’s not for panning at F1 meets!

Here’s a scenario I’m been complaining about for aeons - lovely Sony headphones on head, YouTube Music playing a playlist of stuff (I do this a lot to let it introduce me to stuff I don’t know), the only way to check to see what the unknown track is - look at the phone (which could be in another room, if busy with chores). Now, a quick look at the wrist will tell me (if using the Media Playback app) what's playing. Also full control for skipping etc. (which I know you can do with the controls on the Sony headphones, but this is arguably quicker/easier). It seems happy to pair with the phone and headphones at the same time - due to the multi-connect of the Sony headphones, perhaps - or maybe that's Samsung's doing too.

It's been great playing with the watch and seeing what it can do. I've been very surprised at how comfortable it has been on my arm (with that strap) but I think that you need to have a reason for wanting the burden/lump on your arm at all times (and thinking about something else to charge every bleedin’ day) - or more likely for me, it becomes an interesting tech-toy.

I’m sure others will say how incredibly productive it is for them in terms of notifications and not having to get their phone out for quick-checking (and probably 101 other reasons), but even back in the day when I was working, I really don’t see that it would have helped me much. I really don’t need (or want) the exercise and health stuff (interesting as it is to see in passing), but can’t deny that it would be useful to have in the drawer, set up with a phone, for bouts of illness. It would have been really useful, for example, when I had Covid, though having said that, an £8 pulse/BP monitor thingie from Amazon did all I ended up needing.

The whole thing feels a bit like a toy to me, yes. Great fun to play with but as with most toys, the novelty wears off - and for me at least, comfortable as Tim’s strap made the experience beyond what I had feared, I’m done with it. After all this Samsung stuff, it's been a great ride but is a relief to get back to Moto, Sony, Nokia, Pixel, Fairphone - and the simpler life! Maybe what I need to do is explore a non-Samsung Galaxy SmartWatch so as to get the stuff I want to use but not feel hemmed-in by stuff I don't. Funnily enough, the exact same place I end up at with Galaxy Phones!

Samsung's S-View Flip Cover

I'm testing this Samsung original case here with my Galaxy S22 Ultra, but there's also a version for the S23 Ultra that I know of, and maybe more models. It's certainly an impressive sounding piece of kit, but I've always hated flip-cases and wallet cases! What sort of chance will it stand with narrow-minded me?! Will the smarts on offer outsmart my tiny brain?

This premium-feeling case is soft and velvety to the touch but is actually hard plastic underneath. Like most of these kind of 'flip' cases there's a firm plastic shell inside where the phone is placed, though in this example the case colouring (in mine, Burgundy) continues around that shell. Many feel like a glued-in afterthought. It needs to be pushed/clipped in there and it does so reassuringly firmly. There are no 'gaps' for volume/power buttons but supplied plastic ones which also feel premium, firm to the touch and clicky.

The cutouts on the back for the camera elements are perfect and even protect the 'naked' edges, making the phone lie flat on the desk - no more rocking! The soft, velvety feel continues around the curves, edges, bottom and top. On the front there's a 'slot' cutout for the top speaker/earpiece so that you can take calls and listen to music, unimpeded.

When I first picked it up, I thought that the 'front' cover was sloppy. It kind of slides around when moved. I thought I wasn't going to like this, because of that. However, the reason for this becomes clear soon enough as you realise it's designed so that the 'flap' is 'loose' enough to sweep right around the back (like a Kindle Cover) so it doesn't get in the way if the user wants to use the phone with it around the back, getting the 'flap' out of the way. There's also another benefit to this arrangement and design, which I'll come to.

Unlike many Kindle cases, the 'flap' doesn't come together when closed with any kind of magnet. It will just open with gravity, though it's nicely 'weighted' and 'snaps' closed with gravity, when you go past the 90-degree angle. When this happens, the phone knows it's happened. It knows that you have an S-View on, and shuts down the screen. Well, most of it. Another tease!

On the bottom, there are oversized cutouts for USB-C cables to connect and to get the S-Pen out. They both work well for me, taking all sorts of sizes of charging cable-ends into the former and allowing my fingers to get the S-Pen out easily enough with the latter. The whole case in the hand feels like a premium outfit and easily justifies the £45 RRP (though shop around as it's often cheaper of course). And we haven't even got to the primary function yet!

OK then so we've got here - yes, in the top-right (portrait) corner of the front of the case, there's a cutout. An oblong one. It's about and inch wide and two inches high. When the case is closed is when this leaps into action driven by a menu item in Settings (Cover Screen) which pops up when the case is fitted, becoming very similar to the one which adorns the Galaxy Z Flip-series phones. And the similarities don't end there - the resulting 'virtual' window which appears behind the oblong 'gap' in the front of the case produces a bunch of functionality not dissimilar.

By default, you get a battery icon and percentage readout above a 'tall' digital clock (so 2 digits above another 2), under that, day and day of the month and top-left, an orange 'dot' to tell you if you have Notifications waiting. Like the Flip, if you double-tap it (or press the power button on the side), the virtual display leaps into action. If you single-tap it or try to swipe it without double-tapping first, again like the Flip, nothing happens. I shall get fed up with saying "like the Flip" so perhaps from now on I'll just point out when it's different to it! One last word though, that clearly unlike the Flip, it's in portrait, not landscape.

By default, if you (after double-tapping) swipe right, you get a list of Notifications waiting which you can scroll up and down. If you tap on any of them you are invited to open up the phone to read further details or there's a 'clear' button. So no chance of any reply by voice or tiny keyboard! Leave the display alone for a few seconds with any of these actions and it returns to the base-clock etc. Swipe left instead of right and (by default) it gives you the Music Player (when first invoked it asks you which you'd like to use - much like Samsung's Edge Panel for Music Player). You then get information about what's playing - artist, title and service being used, with Pause/Play and Skip forward/back a track buttons. Unlike the Flip, you can't swipe down to get various Brightness, WiFi, Cellular, Bluetooth (and so on) Quick Toggle controls.

Before I dive into Settings and menus, I'll go back to the design for a second and highlight the other feature invoked because of that 'floppy flap' cover. The oblong, when flipped around the back, lines up perfectly with the whole of the camera array, so unlike many, many of these 'flip' or 'wallet' cases which completely prevent to use of the camera (when open/flapped back), this makes it work brilliantly well. Fiendish. Anyone would think it had been designed for the purpose!

If you open the flap up and head into the phone's main Settings, you'll now see, as mentioned earlier, a new item called Cover Screen which is where all the rest of the fiddling around can be done to make the exterior display how you want it. Most of the action is in the Clock Style option, where you can choose from 12 different clock faces and within each one, customise how it might look/behave. Depending on which one you select there are different levels of customisation, colours, text, movement of daft-looking cartoon creatures and so forth (I'm getting too old for this)! If you want to change the background colour, you can select that from any of your photos on the phone, too. The usual Samsung-style playground, though this doesn't appear to have been opened up to people to 'theme' like AoD on the main screen, via the Galaxy Store.

There are also some baseline toggles - one to tell it to open the phone's screen up when you open the flap (which will work in collusion with whatever other biometrics you have in place), show Notifications on/off (though I can't imagine why you'd want them off) and to turn on the mini-screen (brighten it up) when Notifications come in (or not). I can't find any controls for anything further, like for someone who doesn't want Music Player to the right - or like with the Flip phones, a further choice or Weather, Calendar, Agenda or the whole bunch of stuff supplied there. So yes, it's a dumbed-down version of what you get on the Z Flip phones.

In my testing here, wireless (and reverse wireless) charging still seem to work through the case, even when the flap is folded back but I guess that your mileage may vary depending on the strength/quality of the charger.

The S-Pen doesn't interact with the Cover Screen at all - you can't write on it, even if you extract the pen when the case is closed. However, if you take the pen out, then open the flap, you will then be presented with the Note Taking screen (assuming that's how the phone has been set up to have done that when there's no cover in place). Furthermore, if you scribble a note and close the flap back up, the Cover Screen will go back to doing what it always does but the screen underneath will retain your scribbled note (unless you had saved or deleted it previously). So yes, on the fly note taking on the flip of a flap!

Timers, alarms and phone calls can be handled by the system too. If you have a timer or alarm set, you get a control up to stop/restart/snooze by 'swiping' one of the icons up across the screen. However, there is a caveat here - you have to use Samsung's own Clock app! All you get with, for example, Google's Clock App is a link to the App pop up and no other option but to open up the flap and deal with it on the phone's screen in full.

As for phone calls, you can receive calls by long-swiping the green 'answer' circle, or reject them by swiping the red 'end call' circle but there's way to make calls that I can see. But, you guessed it - the caveat is the same. The coding for the control of the outside screen only works if you use Samsung's own Phone app, not Google's Phone App. Incoming text messages if using Google Messages really confuses the display, which starts flashing around(!), but using Samsung Messages it works fine like any other Notification.

So yes, if you want to make full use of all the functions, use the Samsung apps! I'm used to working with Google's Apps as default, so are the rest of the functions still worth the money for me? They certainly are. It's a super case with lots of great functionality. For someone who is happy to make even more use of it by using Samsung's communication Apps, it's a no-brainer. Go and buy one!

Sony Xperia 10 Mk.V

It's so very tempting to compare the Sony Xperia 10 Mk.V with my Xperia 5 Mk.IV as I have it here, but that really would be quite unfair as they are different beasts, so I shall focus instead on the 10 Mk.V with the 10 Mk.IV instead. But forgive me if I slide into the former here and there!

Thanks to Sony's UK PR for sending this one over for review which on release in June was pitched in the market at £399. The Mk.IV, the year before, was £429, so a slight reduction in fact with some key improvements. It's less than half the price of the 5-series and aimed at a different buyer altogether with a list of top-end functions and capabilities not making it across the divide in cost/value.

The question is whether or not it represents value, for that target buyer, compared to other handsets doing similar things - so mid-range. It's going to be hard for Sony to beat the likes of Xiaomi, Moto and Redmi, feature-for-feature on pricing, but Sony also has a very clear fan-base and customer loyalty who like the styling, class and quality of their hardware.

The phone is slightly taller and wider than last year's model but about the same thickness, but to be honest, unless you have the two next to each other you'd hardly notice. Ever so slightly bigger screen at 6.1" over 6" but retaining that now-signature 21:9 aspect ratio, so good for wide-screen content. The panel is also much the same - a very bright and colourful Triluminos display with Gorilla Glass Victus protection against impact and scratching. Likewise, it retains the IP6/8 rating against dust and water, which you often do not get with many of the aforementioned Chinese-based challengers.

The similarities go on, with the more-than-capable (for target audience) SnapDragon 695 chipset (so very well-performing as I found on my Motorola Edge 30 Neo), the almost unique now microSD Card tray slot and 128GB storage in the base model and 6GB RAM (though there is a variant of the new model with 8GB RAM). The very same plastic frame and back are in attendance with pros and cons, as always, and weight is almost identical. It doesn't feel 'cheap' being plastic but it does feel light and not so substantial as the 5-series units (at a very similar size). It actually feels very nice in the hand, with one-handed use easily executable and fine pocketability, too. You won't know it's there!

One of the big changes for me is certainly the inclusion of stereo speakers, which is a much better idea than the previous model's mono bottom-firing one. The not-so-good news is that it really isn't a patch on the quality or volume of the pair in the 5-series and although yes, they are both front-firing, in my tests here I have found them far from providing the latter's room-filling sound. On a desk in front of you, fine. Held in front of the face, watching video is fine, too, though the stereo separation and balance between the speakers is, again, not like the 5-series, more like the faux-stereo we often speak of here at the Phones Show Chat Podcast (now, incidentally well on the way to 1000 shows)! Still, a very clear improvement from last year's 10-series model. The 3.5mm audio-out socket has also been retained, like the rest of the Xperia range, which can continue to be used with the 24-bit audio processing and sounds great with headphones, wired or not, as there's also the same Bluetooth 5.1 here as before. Note that there's no Dolby Atmos here, only a couple of Sony's own tools like DSEE Ultimate, 360RA and Upmix.

Android 13 comes installed on the phone with the same thin layer on top of the OS. Some tweaks and changes to the core, but nothing radical. People familiar with AOSP will feel very much at home and new users of Sony hardware won't be too bamboozled by having to learn about how to negotiate a heavy skin. Sony remain tight-lipped about how many OS updates their phones will get but my guess is, based on previous for this low-to-mid-range it'll be one more. Android 14 but probably not 15. The Google Security updates have the same story, really, being under the control of the OEM - at time of writing in July 2023, I have June's patches on this review unit.

The main camera has been bumped to 48MP from 12 but as with all these quad-bayer units, the software defaults to shooting at 12MP anyway. I can't seem to find any way to force the camera to shoot at the full 48MP resolution which is an odd omission as it's usually included by OEMs within these kinds of arrangements. Again, target audience and all that. The kind of user who doesn't actually want to use, nor understand, the fancy tools available in the rest of the Xperia range but rather have a point-and-shoot for well-generated outcomes. And for that it's great - with good results in decent light but may disappoint when light is low with some noise and pixilation if pushed (for anyone with their sights on anything other than social media posting and family-snap sharing). There's no optical zoom here but again, users will be happy with the digital version, even if photographers would frown! Modes in photo and video are available to tinker with (if people fancy a dive into manual settings) but not too many so as to confuse the aforementioned user and target audience. My guess is that not one of them is going to realise that video shooting is 1080p only!

There's no wireless charging still, again, something for further up the range, but what you do get is a mind-numbingly good battery life! It's the same 5000mAh as last year's unit, but Sony seem to have worked even more magic with the phone making the already super battery from before now even better, stronger and longer-lasting. For me in light use mode, I can certainly consider this a two-day battery (in fact maybe some way into Day 3). But even for heavier use, there's somewhere between little and no chance of killing it before bedtime! This is a good thing because the charging speed is not a fast one, whatever charger you use - there's not one in the box - and certainly seems to take a couple of hours to do so. But most users could charge this overnight every second night, I reckon.

The rest of it is pretty much as-was last year. Not huge changes, which seems to be the Xperia way. Sony making little changes each year to each of their devices in the range. Nothing radical, evolutional. And that's good in many ways as users can be familiar with their hardware, software and services.

For those looking for more, there is the 5-series, as I said, for significantly more money where you'll get a hardware shutter button, an Always on Display, an optical zoom, all those 'specialist' Sony apps (Photography Pro, Cinema Pro, Videography Pro and Music Pro), a more up-to-date, faster and more efficient chipset, Dynamic Vibration, HDMI (Display Port) functionality, wireless charging, aluminium frame and more. For the rest of the undemanding users out there, this is a super little everyday phone, does 95% of what the target audience will appreciate - and provide them with the class of Sony products that they have got used to having around them.

Yes, you could get a different feature-set in another phone for £50 or even £100 less, but I think that Sony know what they're doing here. There's a huge number of people out there who will appreciate what they are doing with this and without hesitation, would be going for this phone over 101 other cheaper ones. People who like Sony style, are somewhat budget-conscious, don't want the flagship features of a much more expensive Xperia, but still want (to be seen with, maybe) a Sony-branded product in their bag or pocket.

Je t'aime moi non plus (1976)

In the wake of the death of Jane Birkin I decided to watch one of the films she was in, a controversial one from 1976 which was directed and written by her husband Serge Gainsbourg - I Love You, I Don't. Controversial thematically (for the time), fairly graphic sexual scenes and nudity.

Birkin was very thin at this time and the director exploited this, staging her as a waitress in a bar in France, the abusive owner Boris (Reinhard Kolldehoff) of which had decided that should be called ‘Johnny’ - as in his view she looked thin, flat-chested, short-haired and much like a boy. She’s seeking something in life more than her dull existence working in a bar and first stop would be a meaningful relationship it seems.

Along comes muscular gay couple Krass (Joe Dallesandro) and Padovan (Hugues Quester), who are working on a truck moving rubbish they collect to a landfill. Krass instantly assumes that Johnny is a boy but then it’s too late for him as it was love/lust at first sight. The boss warns her that he’s gay and jealous Padovan goes to great lengths to derail his intentions towards her, but neither of them are to put off. We then enter a phase of the film where the pair of them are trying to find a way round his lack of interest in females physically, her frustration in that she can’t arouse him and the resulting graphically delivered compromise they come to, you can imagine, as she cries out in pain during sex.

Birkin's character is abused in most ways by all around her throughout the length of this twisted romantic film, which is largely why it became controversial back in the day. It comes across as very low-budget (which maybe it was) and says much more about the abusive relationships on show than anything else. Johnny doesn’t care about all this because she’s fallen in love. Krass is also in love with her (and Padovan, maybe) but just can’t find a way to throw himself into the relationship fully when sexual satisfaction remains aloof.

The film reflects attitudes by some men towards women and the way in which women can end up accepting whatever is thrown at them being driven by other motivators. A kind of Stockholm Syndrome, I guess. The film is all in French with subtitles, but there’s really not a massive amount of dialogue. The music is interesting for sure, with sequences accompanied by banjo, slightly mistuned piano - and with the setting of a hot, dusty, rural France in summer, it has the feel of a Western about it.

The actors, especially Birkin, do really well as they portray this savage story. She’s very pretty and the viewer really gets onside with her, rooting for a positive outcome for her, which seems mostly throughout the film very unlikely to arrive.

In the middle of all this, a very young-looking Gerard Depardieu pops up in a cameo and there’s a bizarre ‘Saturday Night Dance’ sequence which turns from a dance into a striptease competition for the local girls, orchestrated by the decidedly seedy-behaving Boris!

I’m not sure that I get all the tones and underlying messages or themes going on here from Gainsbourg but it certainly was a very interesting watch and if you can stomach the abuse, sexual activity and nudity, there’s a sad and sweet story here at the core, which Birkin portrays extremely competently.

PodHubUK Podcasts for the Month of June 2023

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

Phones Show Chat
Episode 751 - Admirable Restraint
Saturday 3rd June
Steve and I welcome a podcast newcomer this week in the shape of Ben Barling who tells us all about his mobile path of devices, what he uses now and how he makes the most of not needing the latest and greatest. So Jelly, Oppo, older Pixels and the like. We also major on new headphones from Fairphone, Samsung S-Series and some App suggestions.

Phones Show Chat
Episode 752 - CarPlay, S23 and Shorts Creation
Saturday 10th June
Why not join Steve, Yogesh Puri and I for an hour as we catch up on all things mobile phone in our weekly audio podcast. We find out what gear Yogesh uses, review the week's Apple stuff, chat about the lastest Android Beta and loads more, including May's PSC Photo of the Month. Available in all the usual places, so enjoy.

Tech Addicts Podcast
Extreme Tablets from Space
Sunday 11th June
Gareth and I chat about Garmin, solar power, LG StanbyME, Lenovo Tab Extreme, Nothing Phone, Pixel 8 leaks and rumours, Sightful Spacetop, Apple’s Vision Pro, Evercade Vs Atomic Edition and much more! So why not join us for a fortnightly slice of tech twaddle (we're getting better at pretending we know what the feck we're on about)!

Whatever Works
Episode 187 - The Coffee Break!
Wednesday 14th May
Aidan and I are back with another hour of chaos as we plough through Whatever Works and what doesn't! We have a special drop-in guest this time, too - in the form of our very own Chris Kelly who gives us a deep-dive masterclass on all things coffee, beans, machines, filters and even how to roast-your-own! So why not join us, grab a fresh brew and put your feet up! Available via https://whateverworks.works/ and your podder as always.

Projector Room
Episode 140 - Ghosted Silo
Wednesday 14th June
Gareth, Allan and I return for another roundup of all things film, cinema and TV in our latest pod. Why not join us as we share our thoughts and scoop up yours, too. Themed Treat is David McCallum, Private Screening takes us to Japan, we maintain our Poker Face whilst wearing an Iron Mask and One Ranger has a Last Shift! Loads more as always, available now from the usual places, so enjoy!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 753 - Happy in the Heat
Saturday 17th June
Steve and I are joined this week by another first-timer on the show, Godfrey Lisk, who gives us an overview of his mobile path of devices, what he's using now and hopes for the future. Plenty more besides including more Duo discussion, Pixel pontification, Samsung scrutiny and Apple analysis! Available in all the usual places, so do join us for an hour.

Phones Show Chat
Episode 754 - iPhone Battery in a Samsung Sandwich
Saturday 24th June
Steve and I are back to chat about what's been happening in our mobile phone worlds this week. And yours! The Razr 40 Ultra, Replaceable Batteries, Zenfone 10, Intel Unison, the S23, the S22 Ultra, flip, fold and loads more! So do join us for an hour as we attack it all!

Tech Addicts Podcast
Vodafone and Three Up a Tree
Sunday 25th June
Gareth and I storm your Sunday again with samples of sanity amongst the senility! We go Splicing the S23FE with Synology, Jolly along the new Jelly, frustrate with the Fold, applaud Anker antics, get jovial with joysticks and enjoy JCB japes! Join us, why not! Or else.

Projector Room
Episode 141 - Red Sun Extraction
Wednesday 28th June
Gareth, Allan and I are back again with another fortnightly roundup of all things film, cinema and TV. This time we focus on the work of Steve Buscemi, deep-dive into Severance, consider an Extraction or II, pick up on a great 1971 Western and at the end of the evening, Climb Out of the Window! Loads of natter as always, loads of topics. Enjoy.

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

Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola

Anyone remember the IBM ThinkPad before Lenovo got their hands on the firm? And those dinky red accents, particularly the tiny Nippleflick in the middle of the keyboard? Well, apart from Nokia (and others) having got there before them with a red-button utility on a phone, Lenovo seem to have got their partners Motorola to create a similarly ‘Think’ business-centric and styled, ruggedised Android smartphone. For organisations, for their workforces (particularly in the USA) or those with deep pockets it seems (for the rest of us). It’s an interesting idea and I’m happy to have one in for review which I intend to put up against last year’s cream of the Motorola crop, the Edge 30 Ultra. Is this business phone any good for consumers? Are consumer-based phones better for the rest of us?

The box is a simple brown one, eco-friendly materials, with a pokey SIM tool inside, USB-C to USB-C cable, 68W TurboPower charger (the same one as supplied with the Edge 30 Neo) and a hard plastic protective case, much like the one supplied with other recent Moto phones. I’d rather have a simple soft TPU like you used to do Moto, please - but at least there’s one in the box so I shouldn’t complain.

Physically, particularly compared to the Edge 30 Ultra, it feels much more robust. Not in a ‘build quality’ kind of way (as the Ultra is very well put together) but rather in terms of ‘blocky’ design, industrial, with no vulnerable curved, glass edges (lovely as they are on the Ultra) waiting to crunch into a door frame and crack. The Aramid Fibre back adds to this perception even before looking at the aircraft-grade aluminium frame. The material is strong, heat-resistant, used in aerospace and for the military. Much like the Kevlar back we had on various Moto phones over the years - the RAZRi from 2012 springs to mind. And it’s again, the design language of those ‘ThinkPad’ devices down the years. All very business-targeted, designed to reassure employers that it doesn’t matter if their staff treat them badly. It’s kind of grippy and slightly rubbery, so to some degree it could be used with no case (or TPU) at all.

Motorola has a track record of either not saying anything about water/dust protection in recent years (‘internal components are Nano-coated’) or more recently getting certification for ‘splash’ at IP5/2 or 4. This time, however, with the other claims for ruggedness in the mix, they have grabbed IP6/8 (fresh water, 1m for 30 mins) certification, so now up there with most of the leaders. Furthermore, it has MIL-STD-810H compliance which then includes protection against drop-to-concrete from 1.3m, so much like the Nokia XR20 (and now XR21). Along with Gorilla Glass Victus (very good for impact, maybe not good for scratching, but we’ll see) on the front, there should be few claims for damage, no doubt Lenovorola hope! It certainly feels like it would survive a drop or a dunk, but I ain’t trying it for review purposes! Talking of which, a big thank you to Ben Wood of The Mobile Phone Museum for sending this unit over for review. Do check out his website and find out how you can help to support his museum.

The aluminium frame which I reference above looks gorgeous in this Carbon Black (the only colour available). It looks super, as it sweeps around the perimeter, very slightly curving back to meet the Aramid Fibre back. On the front edge it’s very slightly chamfered as it meets the flat glass too. On the right side we have the usual three buttons for volume up/down and power. These are solid, robust and firm in use, though I am aware that some other users have complained about their review units having a more squishy feel. Not so here. They are very thin, however, which will suit me but others maybe not - and I think I might have preferred all three a tad lower on the side.

On the bottom we have the SIM Card Tray, which has a Dual 5G Data and Voice SIM Capability, but no microSD Card space, even as an option. In the centre, the USB-C port and to the right, one of the pair of stereo speakers. Up on the top we have nothing except for antenna bands and microphones, as all around, but on the left (not far from the top) we have the ‘Red Key’ which I’ll come to later. Finishing off around the back, there’s a stylish-looking camera island, top-left in portrait, with nicely curved glass slopes down to the base - a more subtle version of what Oppo have been doing with various Find models. In the bottom right corner (portrait) there’s a diagonally emblazoned ‘ThinkPhone by Motorola’ logo with a red dot-accent over the ‘i’, beautifully embossed into the fibre. It’s a class act - feels, looks and is - premium. Very nice.

In terms of size, it sits somewhere between the Motorola Edge 30 Neo and Motorola Edge 30 Ultra (my reviews linked). The two biggest have (all-but) the same sized screens but the Ultra ends up being slightly narrower because part of the screen is wrapped around the edges left and right. The ThinkPhone is slightly less tall and all-but the same thickness (if, again, you ignore the Ultra’s curves). The Neo is significantly smaller - great as it is in many ways, it’s not in quite the same class here. The phone balances well in the hand and as it’s thin and light (188g) it feels more than manageable/pocketable. My big hand can just about (at a stretch) reach the far corners of the screen, but we’re just about creeping into two-handed use for some actions.

The front screen is surrounded by a symmetrically-sized bezel. It’s not the thinnest out there, but also far from the thickest - and looks just fine. The ‘selfie’ punch-hole is top and centre, just underneath the other of the stereo pair of speakers doubling up as the earpiece for calls in the usual way. The 6.6” 1080p, 20:9 (399ppi) panel itself is the same gorgeous pOLED which is on the other two Edge devices here, made by LG and every bit as good, if not better, than the best of Samsung’s screens in my opinion. I really like the pOLED and it’s a great selling point for Motorola. It’s exceptionally bright, colourful, sharp with deeper than black blacks and simply a joy to look at. I can’t praise the auto-brightness algorithm in the same way however, as much like many other phones (particularly on Android 13) it just always seems to be wrong and is taking a long time to ‘learn’ my corrections. Hopeful it’ll get there in the end without me throwing in the towel like I did with Sony and switching it to manual!

The screen can be switched between ‘Natural’ and ‘Saturated’ (default) and there’s a colour temperature slider between ‘cool’ and ‘warm’. I haven’t felt the need to change any of these, sticking with how it arrived. The display refresh rate can be adjusted between the fixed 60Hz, 120Hz or 144Hz - or set to Auto, which works out what you’re likely to need ‘up to 120Hz’ depending on how you’re using the screen. I haven’t seen it drop to below 60Hz in my tests here, so I guess that’s the limit downwards. Many will be delighted with the 144 setting/capability, but I’m afraid I can’t tell the difference still, so save battery (not that I need to, which I’ll come to later) and fix it on 60 (or Auto). There are all the usual tools to adjust for Dark/light, a basic font/size adjuster (though I’ll come to Moto’s Theming later) and other baked-into Android options like Google’s Screen Saver. This is particularly useful at night as there’s no (true) always on display.

The Always on Display as usual with Moto phones is replaced with their own Peek Display (should you wish to use it). I’ve covered this at length before and it really is (and remains) a great idea (for those who can live without a truly AoD) and enjoy the other features. Being able to Peek at Notifications as they come in and light the screen (or after listing/moving it) and being presented with an overview of the data from the application in question. Then hold and slide the finger for more information, to open the app, dismiss, delete (in some cases) and other actions. It’s really smart and I’ve loved it for years. The only bit missing which I do think Moto should add, is for it to just be on the whole time. You’ll see later how good the battery is to support this notion, but Moto seem frightened to make this change. Anyway, laying that aside, it’s just great! You do get Attentive Display, which means that all the time you’re looking at the phone it stays on (so think desktop stand) but that doesn’t apply to the Peek Display, rather assuming you’re inside the phone with something being worked on.

There is evidence that this phone has been in the making for quite some time, but arguments either way. Gorilla Glass Victus on the front screen could have now been v2, the chipset could have been a later one (which I’ll come to) but counter to that is the fact that it’s arrived on Android 13, still not available for the Ultra which remains on 12. But there is a promise of 3 OS updates (taking it to Android 16) and 4 years of security (up to January 2027). This is the same promise that was applied to the Ultra but as that came out on Android 12 and launched in 2022, the update extent and ‘window’ will be proportionately shorter/less now. But good for Moto trying to keep up with this. They have had a bad reputation in this area, so hopefully 2022/2023 includes some corner-turning! Next stop, making the updates timely - not months-on-end late!

The chipset is the SnapDragon 8+ Gen 1 (4nm), the exact same as the Ultra from last year, and although some will say that this is now behind the curve, I see no problem with that. Technically of course Gen 2 will be ‘better’ - more efficient, faster and so forth - but we’re surely talking about degrees here and as far as my testing has proved both with the Ultra and ThinkPhone, they process tasks blazingly fast even when I have been throwing somewhat demanding games at them (car racing for testing purposes via Moto’s usually included now Gametime utility). I have noticed no slowdown or struggles to keep up with what’s going on and the only time I noticed any heat was during setup as I bombarded the phone with huge amounts of copy-data, downloads and updates to the system. Since then, it’s been as cool as a cucumber.

The unit I have here has 256GB storage and 8GB RAM, though there are (in various markets, so check locally - that is if you can find one of these on sale at all!) 128GB/8GB, 256GB/12GB and 512GB/12GB versions in production. They are all supported by UFS3.1 for data transfer speeds of up to 1,200MB/s. With no microSD I’d strongly recommend the 256GB version, but I guess businesses will be cutting costs, so the majority of corporate deals will be done with the base unit. As for having ‘only’ 8GB RAM, I really don’t feel the need for more. True, the Ultra here has 12GB but I notice no difference between them in terms of what is held open for revisiting quickly or numbers of tasks closing down eventually. Maybe I don’t push that enough during my review process, but it feels perfectly good even when pushing the unit with Ready For (which I’ll come to) and connection to multiple sources.

In terms of biometrics and security, the phone offers an under-glass optical fingerprint scanner which was fast and efficient to register and set up, then became pretty reliable in use. I don’t think optical is as good as Samsung’s ultrasonic or good ol’ fashioned capacitive, but it’s certainly good enough here - especially when teamed up with Face Unlock. That is, when I could get my face registered! I always have this hoo-har with Motorola phones and I still can’t work out what the problem is - as it just keeps failing and failing to progress through the registration for my face. I sometimes have a full, bushy beard - but at the moment I do not have - so I don’t think there’s really any excuse. I tried and tried, then asked an elderly female relative of mine to have a go - and boom! First time in and done! I persevered, tried every angle, every lighting condition - in the end, I purposely did not include the top/crown of my head in the ‘circle’ and boom! Again, straight in! So I don’t know if the beard is a red herring or Moto just doesn’t like the size/shape of my head, but I always have this trouble! Anyway, once done, as I say, that and the finger work together very nicely, quick access - done and dusted.

The Red Key is up there near the top on the left and behaves very much like Nokia’s version on the XR20. There are three ways to use it - long-press to get to the settings, single-press to launch pretty much whatever app you fancy (or three ‘tools’ - play/pause music, Recorder or Screen record - as chosen by Moto) and double-press to invoke various actions as a part of the Ready For set up. The obvious use for us consumers is Play/Pause for music, but business people might be plumping for voice recorders or launching Microsoft applications, Teams/Meet, video for Skype or whatever for high-brow business meetings! Good to have the choice though and the system works very well, just as it did with Nokia, even surviving a reboot of the phone for music play/pause. It looks very ‘Think’ of course, with the red accent design language and even ‘scored’ surface just like the Nippleflick with ThinkPads et al!

Various elements of the MyUI system are worth another mention as we have all the usual suspects present like chop-chop for torch, twist-twist for camera, three-finger screenshot, double-tap the back for the launch of an assignable app, lift-to-wake, move-to-wake, double-tap-to-wake - the usual goodies, all present and correct including the new-look Side Launcher. This is the same Edge Panels from Samsung, pretty much, including a control in being able to set it so that launched apps (or even the app drawer itself) do so in their own ‘floating’ window (or full screen if wanted). This feature is growing on me, previously assigned as a gimmick, now useful. You can of course assign whatever apps/tools you want to the panel up to a maximum of 7. There’s nowhere near the depth of control and utility you get with Samsung, but it’s still a neat and useful feature. There’s a one-handed mode which you have to swipe-down across the bottom of the screen to invoke, but sadly, again, not as well implemented as Samsung’s which then gives a shrunken full screen to navigate within rather than here, just revealing the top half, leaving the bottom half inaccessible without scrolling. It’s more of a ‘pull down the top half of the screen to the bottom half’ feature really. Home Screen control is much more ‘open’ than Pixels’ (with the fixed elements). You can lay it out pretty much how you like with a bunch of Moto clock/weather widgets, Notification dots, app tray set-up or iPhone-style splayed apps/folders across screens, Google Feed to the left and much more as supplied as part of Android 13 and beyond.

I’ve written about Android 13 (and discussed aplenty on The Phones Show Chat) as I followed Google’s progress with a Pixel on the Beta last year (and am now doing likewise with Android 14), but up to now have not been afforded the opportunity to see what Motorola have done with it. Yes, my very first sight of Android 13 on a Moto! Motorola have a reputation for not messing with baseline Android too much and a lot of what Android 13 brought to the table is nicely integrated here, some of it within Moto MyUI in terms of dedicated areas of UI ‘theming’ - fonts, sizing, colours, hooks into wallpaper and so on - but keeping the good stuff like Google’s own icon-theming if preferred with ‘minimalist’ Material You sets. Yes, the look and style stuff is here, not so clearly (outside of MyUI) in Android 12 on the Ultra. There’s all the enhanced Wellbeing stuff, security prompts (like indication when camera/microphone is being used by an app), enhanced Music Player (with squiggly scrubline) in the Notification shade, Notification control defaults giving user-priority-choice over what gets permission to keep pinging the user, hooks into Chromebooks with the Hub (though not as advanced as what Pixels can do), clipboard across devices, audio enhancements and so on. It all looks and feels good to me and a step up from the Ultra, still wallowing on Android 12! Generally speaking, you do get a very ‘clean’ implementation of Android here, as usual with Moto.

They’ve obviously decided that the mark of a device being business-centric is to do a deal with Microsoft, so out of the box, you get pre-installed apps from them - Outlook, Teams, Microsoft 365, OneDrive, OneNote and MS Authenticator. All of these, one-by-one are instantly uninstallable thankfully, for those who want to make their own choices, though maybe not so if supplied via workplace/business to employees. As usual Moto goes for the baseline of using Google’s own PIM (and other) apps, not doubling up with their own or alternatives, deals done with 3rd parties. Talking of which, it’s great to see no sign of FaceBook installed (which doesn’t often happen now and I guess is not considered ‘business’ enough) but I was surprised that there was no LinkedIn (which clearly is).

What they do have built-in is their own layer of security solutions, including ThinkShield (which, actually seems to be pre-installed on all devices from Moto now - think Samsung’s Knox as it seems like a similar idea - though it doesn’t, like the latter, seem to slow down things horribly - especially with bulk-update of Apps in the Play Store), Think2Think (which hooks up to other ‘Think’ branded Lenovo gear, like laptops for the business sector), Zimperium Threat Defence (which defends against device, network, phishing, malicious app risks and attacks), KeySafe (which apparently walls-off a section of the ROM to keep data safe which should be secure and not open to anything outside the system) and also available to employers (via desktop applications for business) ‘fleet’ management of devices for employers to globally control the activity, connectivity and available apps and services to their staff teams. So yes, all very business-orientated additions and available resources - and presumably this is partly why the phone seems overpriced (for consumers to buy at least) but I’ll come to that later. The consumer, however, can strip a lot of this out, never see it, and just use the phone like any other Android phone, much as I am here. Phew!

Motorola’s Ready For system tends to maybe have the feel of a system which might well be adopted by business people, I guess, and Moto, in case, have wisely decided to make available the whole suite in the ThinkPhone, not just the wireless version. I use my Ready For with phones for fun and leisure (wirelessly and with a cable via the USB-C 3.1 port), but can easily see how a business person on the road might be able to ‘hotdesk’ with dumb-monitors, Windows PCs (as long as the Ready For software can be downloaded onto it), get productive via a hotel room TV, easily arrange demonstrations on big displays at meetings, use a keyboard and mouse setup in various locations - all keeping their data needed on trips on their phone (or in the cloud) and utilise shared/available hardware for ease of working/use. Perhaps take a NexDock with them in a bag, or Android Tablet, so that the brains of the phone can serve other devices and make working easier. And then, when done, armed with an HDMI cable (or going wireless), watch a film or TV show again using the phone’s apps/storage/brains to make it all happen. I have been hooked up with a cable to my TV watching stored films (and Netflix) with my Sony headphones connected to the phone by Bluetooth producing a wonderfully immersive audio/visual experience. There’s only really Motorola and Samsung (with DeX) doing this stuff (to the same degree) and it’s great to see it being ongoingly supported and developed by both firms. I do think that Ready For remains slightly ahead of DeX with a more user-friendly UI (particularly on TV) as an option, with all the benefits of DeX as well. Then there's the counter argument which says that if you're relying on other equipment being available or carrying a NexDock, you might as well just carry a small laptop, tablet or Chromebook. Each to their own!

Another way in which it seems that Motorola has decided the business crowd will or won’t use the device is the quality of output from the phone’s speakers. It’s pretty loud at 100% volume, but in my tests here it is also fairly unstable at 100% volume! It distorts and favours top-end frequencies to such a degree that it sounds, well, a little tinny. Sounds blasting out in terms of ringtones/alerts or whatever are just fine (so for spoken word in meetings), but for media consumption (so back to business emphasis) it’s not a top player. Comparing it with the Ultra here, it’s clear that the latter has been designed with consumers in mind offering a better all-round experience, better stereo separation, more bass and a much more usable top volume sound. Reduce the ThinkPhone’s volume down to 80% and its oodles better! For those happy to take the 20% hit on volume, they will have a much better experience for media, though the soundstage is still not as good. Once again I should apologise for nit-picking and comparing apples with pears, as the vast majority of people (certainly for business applications) would be very happy with the sound - just not audiophiles! It’s certainly loud enough for almost all uses (even at 80%) and unless you’re going to watch films (actually) on the device (without headphones), the stereo issue is probably not huge.

There is the baseline Dolby Atmos available (so not the enhanced Sony/Razer version) with a bunch of pre-set options in the usual way - Music, Film, Game, Podcast, Smart (auto) or Custom (though actually there’s a ‘custom’ available for all the other settings anyway). Drill down and you get a bunch of manual sliders for bass/treble, a few more presets - Bass Boost, Vocal Boost, Brilliant Treble (depending on which pre-set you’re in) and the most useful toggle of the lot (especially when using headphones), Motos’ Sound Virtualiser. This makes a huge difference to stereo ‘width’ (which they call ‘surround’) and in my experience with Moto phones, is always worth having on. It’s certainly worth playing with these settings (which can’t be turned off completely - only to ‘Smart’) as it can transform (particularly using the speakers) a ‘flat’ sound into something with more character and body - probably more than other phones’ systems. (Incidentally, this all looks identical on the Ultra to me with similar impact in use.)

Bluetooth 5.2 is supplied here and as we would expect, sound via that route using headphones or other connected gear (or even cabled via the USB-C port) sounds fabulous. (There’s no 3.5mm audio-out socket, incidentally.) As good as pretty much any device these days - it seems that this is a quick and cheap way to get great sound out of devices. All the above controls are available in the same array (not dumbed-down for speakers, up for headphones, like some systems). As always, the output depends on the quality of what gear is connected, peripherals having their own smarts and processing hard/software. Testing here with Sony WH-1000XM4 and AKG K701 headphones, wired and bluetooth as available. Few will complain about the quality of sound with headphones, however they connect. For business people I have tested the output with the Anker S3 Conference Speaker I have here and it works perfectly well, sitting on a table, as I imagine a bunch of architects in London liaising with their counterparts in New York!

The 5000mAh battery is staggeringly good. I have tested and retested my 10% screen-on Reading Test and I’m consistently getting two and a half to three hours, never (with my average use) getting to bedtime with less than 50% battery left (which, for me, makes it a genuine two-day phone). Everyone’s use and therefore results will be different, I do realise - for someone on a long day out shooting video or (more likely) attending a weekend conference retreat with colleagues to discuss the production values of their manufacturing plant in Kuala Lumpur, for example! Motorola always seems to excel in this department and this is no exception, up there with various of their models over the years (along with the Pixel 5 and 7 - and even, as recently discovered here, Samsung Galaxy S23 - link to my review). I’m more than happy with the overnight 15W Qi Wireless Charging on my night stand, assuring that I’m never likely to need to use the supplied 68W TurboCharge brick (the same that came with my Motorola Edge 30 Neo) and cable. In my tests, however, with this, I have been able to charge from 0-100% in under an hour (and roughly 75% in half-hour). This is not as fast as the 125W brick supplied with the Ultra but certainly useful all the same as a backup on those long business trips.

The camera setup is purely functional it seems with very few bells’n’whistles, outgunned at every turn by the Ultra. I guess that it is assumed that people at work will be unlikely to be getting creative with a camera in their phone and it will be much more likely to be utilised for activities such as snapshots of paperwork, PDFs, whiteboards and video for Skype/Teams meetings. As I said earlier, the audio capability seems to be very much up to that and (for that purpose) video shooting too. I maintain that the average consumer would be absolutely fine with the setup, however, taking photos for social media and passing round to be viewed on screens, but for those who are now expecting 200MP sensors, 10x Optical Zoom, high resolution wide-angle options and more - they will be sorely disappointed with this basic array. The main camera is a 50MP f1.8 one with OIS, it has a wide-angle 13MP f2.2 secondary and one of those throwaway 2MP f2.4 ‘depth’ cameras which seem to be doled out to every budget phone, even under £100, here assisting with portrait mode. There is 8K video shooting available at 30fps or 4K at 60 - and even 4K@30 in the 32MP f2.5 Selfie around the front. It looks like Moto have worked out that anyone using this phone is much more likely to want half-decent video for their business applications/meetings than to take snaps of uncle for granny - which is fair enough! For me, this is just fine as I don’t care much about taking photos with phones, but I can imagine others being rather nonplussed. The same approach as the phone’s speakers, I guess. Saving money on build by chopping down the quality of the components that the firm think that the target audience/users/buyers won’t be bothering with.

However, having said all that, the Moto camera app has got plenty of fun stuff inside and functionality for those who might want to push it. The Night Vision seems to do a decent enough job pulling light when there is none to be had, practically - at the price of noise (don't zoom in!) in the results (depending on level of darkness). The portrait mode now has 24mm, 35mm and 50mm labelled settings (Sony style) which actually do make a difference to options in my experience here, there’s a so-called Macro across many of the shooting modes (which does tend to hunt around a lot and is not as good as what is found in the Ultra and Neo). Plenty of other stuff we’ve got used to with Moto too, like Spot Colour, decent document scanning, dual capture and so on. You can edit the icons in the menu and deeper-dive into Settings for more bells’n’whistles. Shooting in 50MP Ultra Mode produces file sizes of around 10MB (obviously nothing like the Ultra’s 200MP at 30MP and more)! There’s no OIS for video shooting, so results may vary with the 8K/4K. Anyway, as usual, I’m going to hand over to those who know what they’re talking about with regards to digital photography from phones at GSMArena. Do click through, starting here, to read their excellent deep-dive with samples, videos and much testing. Do be aware though that they pretty much sound out my thoughts - that this is not a photographer’s phone and Moto don’t have that target audience in their sights. It’s perfectly functional for business use (particularly the selfie for meetings) and the rest of us, snapping for social media.

Connectivity seems very good as usual with Moto. Cellular voice calls checked both ways sounding very good, signal firm, and data over cellular as reliable as it is with a broadband router, checked with two here. WiFi 6e is available for those who can make use it. Bluetooth range seems very good as well, with the GPS aerial locking onto location as required and hanging on to it, updating quickly. NFC seems to do the job when paying at Tesco and hooking up quickly with my headphones.

Much as I love this phone - as I really do like what Motorola does with Android - I do wonder about the rationale here. The whole ‘business’ thing. And the vastly overpriced options for consumers. £900 from Lenovo’s website, but we have now seen it for £499 via ‘educational’ routes. Why not just price the thing somewhere in the middle (which would be perfectly valid for what the user gets), let consumers buy it freely, sell a shedload more of them and thereby making it (potentially) a bestseller! The ‘business’ stuff can be ignored (and is actually pretty invisible once the Microsoft apps have been uninstalled anyway) or embraced by employers’ IT departments to make the most of ‘fleet’ services available, as an aside. And let’s not forget that ThinkShield at least is available across the Moto range anyway.

It’s great to have the rugged protection for both business and consumers, though plenty of consumer-grade phones now have IP6/8 too. Are business people really going to utilise the whole Ready For thing widely? I’m guessing that it’s likely to be more of a consumer activity (though to be fair I have not been able to see what the business tools available for companies bring to the table in the system). The Red Button is very handy, of course, but again, not sure how much of a ‘business’ thing that is. More likely an off-roader or elder’s SOS function, I think. Certainly for business the ongoing support (assuming it comes and they are good for their promise) and fabulous battery life are going to be very useful, along with the wireless and nice fast charging - though the camera and speaker setups certainly wouldn’t be considered consumer-friendly these days.

It does make me wonder if most of this is really all about marketing but remains an odd outlook/target. It certainly will be interesting to see how many sell - if the majority are being sold for cut prices to business/education anyway, I’m guessing not that many. Perhaps they haven’t made that many. Unless they do open it up to consumers and roll the dice at, say, £599/£699. However, don’t get me wrong, it’s a perfectly good phone (in fact, I love it) and well spec’d too. Again, I think that Motorola does a great job with Android, keeping it pretty clean yet adding genuinely useful apps/services/functions. I could easily see myself adopting this phone for my personal use and in some ways, as depicted above throughout, the Ultra is arguably better specified - though less rugged of course and certainly more physically vulnerable. The ThinkPhone is very highly recommended if you can get hold of one (or have deep pockets).