The iPhone 12 Mini delivers a hugely satisfying iOS experience in a tiny package
For
Excellent OLED picture
Entertaining sound
iOS as slick as ever
Against
Battery life not outstanding
No charger supplied
If you have big hands, big pockets and a ‘bigger is better’ outlook on life, then the iPhone 12 Mini probably isn’t for you.
This is a smartphone for those who prefer a more subtle and discreet design, where pocket space is at a premium and you’d rather not pull a thumb muscle every time you attempt to write and send a text one-handed.
But, just because it’s been shrunk in the wash, doesn’t mean all its features have been diluted. On paper, you’re looking at virtually all the same ingredients that make the standard iPhone 12 so great, including the OLED screen tech and excellent camera. If the iPhone 12 Mini turns out the same way, we could quite easily be looking at another five-star performer.
Pricing
The iPhone 12 Mini might not be the cheapest iPhone Apple currently makes (that honour goes to the iPhone SE (2020)) but it is the most affordable handset in the current ‘12’ range.
The iPhone 12 Mini costs £699 ($699, AU$1199) for the 64GB model, and £749 ($749, AU$1479) for the 128GB model, while the range-topping 256GB variant will set you back £849 ($849, AU$1449). This makes it around £100 ($100, AU$150) cheaper than the equivalent iPhone 12.
Features
(Image credit: Apple)
If you’re used to wielding a standard iPhone 11 or a Pro or Pro Max, the iPhone 12 Mini appears almost toy-like when you take it out of the packaging. It’s the smallest and lightest iPhone in Apple’s current line-up and in your hand, it feels like it.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If you’re looking to downsize or want a premium iPhone experience in a device that won’t take up a huge amount of space, then this could be at the top of your shopping list.
The beauty of the iPhone 12 Mini is that it gets the same flat-edged design as its bigger siblings, such as the standard iPhone 12. This means it not only feels premium, but it’s easy to get a grip of the aerospace-grade aluminium enclosure even if the curved edges of the iPhone 11 sit more comfortably.
Apple iPhone 12 Mini tech specs
(Image credit: Apple)
Screen size 5.4in
Type OLED
Resolution 2340 x 1080
Operating system iOS 14
Finishes x5
Battery life 15hrs video, 50hrs audio
Dimensions (hwd) 13.2 x 6.4 x 0.7cm
Weight 133g
Thankfully, the iPhone 12 Mini gives off the same premium impression as the other models in the line-up whether it’s in the black finish of our review sample or the alternative white, blue, green or Product Red options.
The big attraction of the iPhone 12 Mini is the fact that it shares virtually the same features as the standard iPhone 12. This includes the OLED Super Retina XDR display, which measures 5.4in across the diagonal. By contrast, the standard model measures 6.1in.
Looking through the specs, you’ll also see that the 12 Mini is shorter and narrower than the cheaper iPhone SE (2020) but its screen is actually bigger (5.4in versus 4.7in), thanks to black bars encroaching into the top and bottom of the SE’s screen. The SE has to accommodate a Touch ID sensor, while the 12 Mini uses Apple’s Face ID tech, like the rest of the iPhone 12 range.
The resolution of the Mini is 2340 x 1080 with an accompanying pixel density of 476ppi (pixels per inch). This compares to 2532 x 1170 and 460ppi on the iPhone 12. It’s a True Tone and Wide colour display and there’s HDR support for HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG content. As a result, it’s possible for the iPhone 12 Mini to reach a peak brightness of 1200 nits (compared with 625 nits for SDR content).
As is the case with the standard 12, the Mini’s screen also features Apple’s Ceramic Shield front cover, which Apple claims boosts the phone’s durability by making it less likely to crack on impact with hard surfaces. However, it attracts fingerprints and dust, a fact that’s regularly highlighted on the darker finishes.
The iPhone 12 Mini may not have the bulk and heft of the other iPhone 12 models, but it doesn’t sacrifice any power under the hood. It gets Apple’s new A14 Bionic chip and next-gen Neural Engine. We find it provides a wonderfully quick and satisfying user experience in both the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Max, and the same can be said for the iPhone 12 Mini.
If you’re familiar with Apple iOS, it won’t take long to get to grips with the Mini. It takes multi-tasking in its stride and never puts up any resistance to having a large number of apps open all at once. Whether you’re opening and streaming from Apple apps, such as Apple Music and Podcasts, or third-party services, including Netflix or Amazon Music, the iPhone 12 Mini fires them all up and gets the ball rolling with minimal fuss.
(Image credit: Apple)
Apple has also squeezed in the exact same camera set-up on the Mini as on the standard 12. That means a 12MP dual-lens set-up on the back that’s perfect for those who want to point and shoot high good quality pictures with minimal fuss in both decent and sub-optimal lighting conditions. The iPhone 12 Mini can also record video in Dolby Vision at 30 frames per second, which gives the phone an extra string to its bow for those who do the occasional bout of vlogging.
So far, it’s been pretty much plain sailing for the iPhone 12 Mini, but there is one drawback to this tiny iPhone. To get that smaller, more pocketable design, Apple has had to sacrifice battery life. Apple refrains from quoting the actual size of its batteries, but a quick look at its website reveals a drop in both video playback (15 hours versus 17 hours) and audio playback (50 hours versus 65 hours) compared with the iPhone 12.
On an average day, using a mix of video streaming, audio streaming, web browsing and taking calls, the battery regularly drops below the level of our iPhone 12. Though never in danger of running out completely, it’s worth bearing in mind that regular charging will be required.
A dedicated charger could come in handy here but, disappointingly, Apple ships its latest iPhones with just a USB-C to Lightning cable. There are no Earpods in the box, either, which is at least a good excuse to check out our guide to the best wireless headphones.
Screen
(Image credit: Apple / Tredstone, Amazon Prime)
We play Stranger Things Season 3 and, as the Soviet scientists try to open a gate to the Upside Down, their laboratory is lit up as their mighty machinery spins into life. As all the components start to move, the iPhone’s screen bursts bright with huge sparks of bright white electricity that contrast nicely against the darkness of the dingy-looking lab.
As the Soviet general watches on, the iPhone 12 Mini manages to dig out plenty of detail in his face and uniform, from his pock-marked skin to the fine stitching on his uniform. The balance the iPhone strikes makes video inviting and watchable. The picture mimics that of the iPhone 12 and, despite the slight drop in resolution, the increased pixel density means you never feel as though you’re missing out on detail.
As the episode shifts location to the Starcourt Mall with its neon exterior and brightly lit interior, the iPhone 12 Mini treats this burst of colour confidently and fairly. Colours burst into view as the camera pans through the mall, but they’re also perfectly judged, whether it’s the striking shade of blue that dominates the Scoops Ahoy sign or the colourful 80s clothing worn by the hoards of shoppers.
Sound
(Image credit: Apple)
Like its bigger sibling, the iPhone 12 Mini supports Dolby Atmos and Apple’s own spatial Audio processing, which you can experience if you own a pair of AirPods Pro or AirPods Max headphones.
Unsurprisingly, the Mini sounds like a slightly smaller-scale version of the iPhone 12. The balance is similar – you don’t notice any real reduction in quality or tone apart from a slight drop in solidity and weight. It also starts to sound stressed a little sooner when you start to ramp up the volume. What you get, though, is still a perfectly listenable performance by smartphone standards.
During the Stranger Things scene in the Russian lab, as the machine whirs and spins into life, the mechanics sound crisp and there’s a good sense of detail and spread of sound. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand and the phone will easily dispatch an episode of your favourite Netflix series or a quick Spotify stream without issue.
Hook up a pair of wireless headphones and the Mini sounds mighty. We start with a Tidal stream of Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy and the bassline and drums stomp along with power and intent. But it also captures the delicacy and fine detail from Eilish’s vocals. The claps and clicks are crisp and refined too. We tend to find iPhones talented when it comes to timing and following rhythms and the 12 Mini is no different.
Switching to Dual Of The Fates from Star Wars The Phantom Menace soundtrack, the iPhone handles its speed and sprightly nature with confidence and composure. All the different orchestral elements can be picked apart, but the listener can also bask in the music as all the strands come together as a wonderfully cohesive whole.
The phone has multiple changes of pace to contend with and also sudden shifts in dynamics from quiet moments to huge crescendos, but none of these fluster the iPhone 12 Mini.
Verdict
If a super-sized handset is out of the equation, but you still want a premium Apple experience, the iPhone 12 Mini could be the smartphone for you. It offers all the top features of the iPhone 12, but in a smaller, more pocket-friendly package.
It is smooth and speedy to use, camera quality is great and picture and sound performance are both excellent for the money. The battery life takes a small hit, but that doesn’t really detract from this hugely talented tiny iPhone.
The iPhone 12s Pro gets a renewed screen with a smaller notch and an under-display Touch ID sensor. Renders show the new Apple smartphone in detail.
New Apple smartphones are being released every year around September. The iPhone 12 series was introduced last year. Relatively minor changes are expected in 2021, therefore Apple may decide not use the name “iPhone 13”, but will opt for “iPhone 12s” instead. Regardless of which model name Apple chooses, there seem to be four models in the planning. Just like last year, a mini, a base model, a Pro and a Pro Max is expected.
Although it will take several months before Apple will announce the new models, a lot of information has already appeared online about the iPhone 12s series. One of the most frequently heard changes compared to 2020; the notch finally seems to be getting smaller. In this publication we will limit ourselves to the Pro model.
iPhone 12s Pro with updated screen and Touch ID under the display
The design will remain almost identical, after all, the design of the iPhone 12 series has already been renewed. The display size of the iPhone 12s Pro will probably remain the same, however the 6.1-inch OLED display will be improved. The new Pro models will support a high 120 Hertz refresh rate for the first time. It is an LTPO display, which enables an adaptive refresh rate. This allows considerable savings on battery consumption.
Another important change from previous years; Apple will likely implement an under-display fingerprint sensor. The Touch ID functionality that Apple incorporated in the home button for years was praised for a long time. Afterwards, Apple started to focus on advanced 3D Face ID technology. As a result no iPhone models have been released with a fingerprint sensor since 2017 – except for the iPhone SE 2020.
The iPhone 12s Pro / Pro Max will likely be the first smartphones from the US manufacturer to feature a fingerprint sensor under the screen. Apple will probably use a sensor from chip manufacturer Qualcomm. The 5G modems that Apple uses also come from Qualcomm. The Face ID functionality will be maintained, which will simply give users additional options to secure and unlock their smartphone.
The Dutch designer Jermaine Smit, aka Concept Creator, has made a new YouTube video in collaboration with LetsGoDigital in which the expected iPhone 12s Pro can be seen from all sides. The product renders used for this publication are also designed by Jermaine.
Improved camera and new hardware
Apple also seems to make the necessary changes when it comes to the camera. Industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported some time ago that the two Pro models will have a greatly improved ultra-wide angle lens (f / 1.8) with autofocus. In addition, Apple seems to want to use larger image sensors this time.
In terms of design, no major changes are expected, although the camera system may be slightly thicker. In addition, in contrary to last year Apple will not make any difference between the camera system of the iPhone 12s Pro and that of the Pro Max. Thus, these two models will mainly differ in display size and battery capacity.
It goes without saying that the new models will also be equipped with the latest hardware and software. The Silicon Valley company seems to integrate a 5nm A15 Bionic chipset this time that makes 5G and WiFi 6th support possible. The iPhone 12 models already offered 5G support, but WiFi 6E is new.
The recently introduced Samsung Galaxy S21 smartphones also support the new WiFi 6E technology. As with WiFi 6, this allows you to achieve higher performance, lower latency and faster data rates. The improved WiFi 6th variant uses the 6Ghz band, which offers more space than the existing 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequency bands.
With the new 6Ghz band it is easier to send a lot of data in one go, but the range is more limited than with the already existing 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequency bands. The latter bands also remain available with WiFi 6e.
Battery and MagSafe charging accessory
As for the battery, last year the Pro model was equipped with a 3,046mAh battery. This guarantees 17 hours of video watching or 11 hours of video streaming. The device supports 20W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. The 12s Pro will probably have similar battery specs.
It has long been rumored that Apple wants to introduce at least one phone model without a charging port. This device will only support wireless charging. This is where the new MagSafe charging system comes in handy, which was announced at the time of the iPhone 12 series. With this accessory you can charge the device wirelessly with a maximum charging power of 15W.
Incidentally, it recently became known that both the iPhone 12 smartphones and the MagSafe accessories can pose a danger to people with a pacemaker or other medical implants. The many magnets can create an electromagnetic field, which disrupts pacemakers and defibrillators.
Apple therefore advises to keep a minimum distance of 15 cm between the pacemaker and the mentioned Apple products at all times. A minimum distance of 30cm is recommended during wireless charging. Obviously, it is not only iPhones that suffer from this. Electronic products are increasingly fitted with magnets, all of which can pose a hazard to medical devices.
You will probably have heard that since the launch of the iPhone 12, Apple does not include a charger or EarPods in the sales package. Now that Samsung has also decided to no longer supply a charger or earplugs with the Galaxy S21 series, this trend seems to be continuing. Despite this decision, Apple can look back on a very successful launch, the sales numbers of the 12 series are significantly higher than in previous years.
Recently published quarterly figures show that the sales numbers of the 12 series are no less than 17% higher than those of the 11 series, in the same period a year earlier. Consumers have therefore not punished Apple for omitting the charger and earphones. In contrast, the addition of 5G seems to have been a reason for many to buy a new iPhone.
iPhone 13 or iPhone 12s series?
When it comes to the naming, earlier this month Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman reported that Apple is considering opting for an “s” upgrade this year as no major changes are being made. This is partly due to COVID-19, due to the continuing pandemic Apple engineers can only be found a few days a week, in limited numbers, at the Silicon Valley offices. This makes product development a lot more complicated.
Shortly after the publication of Gurman, Apple analyst Jon Prosser confirmed that this time the name will indeed be iPhone 12s. Obviously nothing has been confirmed yet, but it does not sound entirely unlikely. After all, Apple has used the addition “s” more often when it came to minor upgrades. Consider, for example, the iPhone 6s / 6s Plus and the more recently introduced iPhone Xs / Xs Max.
Jon Prosser also claims that Apple will probably never release an iPhone 13 series. Superstition would play an important role in this. Because “13” is an unlucky number in Western countries, Apple would immediately want to opt for iPhone 14 next year.
No concrete information is yet known about the price of the new iPhone models. The iPhone XS, the one year later announced iPhone 11 Pro and the even more recent iPhone 12 Pro all came at a starting price of € 1,160. With the latter model, the minimum storage capacity was doubled to 128GB.
The iPhone 12s Pro will probably have a similar suggested retail price and will also be offered in the same memory variants: 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. Apple is expected to announce the four new smartphone models in September 2021.
Note to editors : The product images in this publication are created in collaboration with Jermaine Smit, aka Concept Creator. These 3D renders are for illustrative purposes only. This product is not for sale, Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 2021 series in September. The images are copyright protected. Feel free to use these materials on your own website, please be so respectful to include a source link into your publication.
Choosing the best motherboard is in many ways the most integral part of your PC build, although choosing the best graphics card and best CPU often get more attention. Every part of your PC plugs into the motherboard you choose. Its form factor dictates the size of your computer and how much you can plug into it, and the chipset / CPU socket define what kind of processor you can install.
Motherboards (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Motherboards—particularly high-end models—are often made up of a confusing collection of features, and can range in price from sub-$60 (£50) budget boards to as much as $1,000 or more. We’re here to help untangle the complexities and make sure you pick the right model for your needs, without blowing too much of your build budget for other parts.
Speaking build budgets, if you’re looking to save some money while shopping , you should check out our feature about the eight features you probably don’t need on a motherboard.
And if you’re after a brand-new board from Intel’s new Z590 or AMD’s X570 linuep, note that motherboard prices for both platforms have increased over previous generations, at least in part due to support for PCIe 4.0. Just note that while AMD’s B550 boards support PCIe 4.0 now with a Zen 2/3-based processor, the Intel Z490 boards that list PCIe 4.0 support (and all new Z590 boards) will only activate that support when paired with a next-generation Rocket Lake-S CPU. Those processors aren’t quite here yet, but should arrive in the next few months.
TLDR
Get the right socket for your CPU: You can find great CPUs from either Intel or AMD, but whatever CPU you buy, make sure that your board has the correct socket to support it. The latest mainstream AMD chips use AM4 sockets while current Intel 10th and upcoming 11th Gen Core CPUs work in LGA 1200 sockets.
Smaller boards = fewer slots and features. Motherboards come in three main sizes, from largest to smallest: ATX, Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX (Yes, Mini is smaller than Micro). You can use a smaller chassis with the micro or mini boards, but you’ll have to settle for fewer PCIe slots, RAM slots and other connectors.
You can spend under $150: You can often find a decent motherboard for less than $150. But if you want to overclock an Intel chip, you want PCIe 4.0 or you need a lot of ports, you will have to spend more, often more than $200. High-end desktop chips like AMD Threadripper require expensive $200-plus motherboards.
Pay for built-in Wi-Fi, high-end ports only if you need them. Don’t spend extra for wireless if you are using a wired connection. You can futureproof your PC by getting USB 3.1 Gen 2 and / or Thunderbolt 3 support, as well as PCIe 4.0.
The Basics: Chipsets, Board Size, Connectors & Ports
If you’re after a refresher on motherboard basics, including the differences between chipsets, motherboard sizes, connector and port features, and RAM slots, you can find them in our Motherboard Basics feature. There we dive deep into the complexities of board design and features, so you’ll know exactly what to look for (or ignore) when shopping for a motherboard.
Motherboards
How much can you spend on a motherboard?
Prices range from below $50 (£40) on the low-end to above $1000 (£772) for premium boards that support HEDT (High-End Desktop) chips like Core X and Threadripper. Here’s roughly what you get at each price range:
Up to $100/£80: You can get overclockable boards for AMD chips (even with the premium, last-generation X370 chipset) in this range. But with Intel, you’re stuck with stock speeds (though that may change with Intel’s upcoming B560 and H570 boards). Depending on sale prices, you can get a host of features, including onboard Wi-Fi, although Wi-Fi-equipped boards usually start above $80/£60.
Sub $150/£140: Boards with Intel’s Z490 and chipset, which you’ll need for overclocking, start at the low end of this range. You also start to see more AMD boards with higher-end chipsets (X570) and premium features such as RGB lights lights and Wi-Fi. Note that, when we wrote this, pricing for the full range of Intel’s latest Z590 motherboards was still very much up in the air.
Sub $200/£180: As you start to climb into the premium tier, you’ll see more RGB lights, beefier heatsinks and better power phases and VRMs (voltage regulation modules)–which are important for competitive overclocking. You’ll also find a better selection of ports at this level, including a greater number of USB 3.0/3.1 Gen 2 connectors. The bulk of Intel’s Z490 boards also start in this range, right around or above $150.
$200/£180+: For mainstream platforms, before Z490 and X570, this was the truly premium price range, where you’d see the best board components, giant (often very stylized) heatsinks, and I/O covers designed to deliver a slick, premium look. Extreme overclocking features, which mainstream builders don’t need, are also often a key feature set.
For more recent chipsets like Z490 and Z590, the truly premium boards start above about $250.
Also in this price tier, you’ll find HEDT motherboards for CPUs with very high core counts (Intel Core X and AMD Threadripper). Threadripper boards in particular start at around $300 (£250).
What CPU are you using with your motherboard?
The CPU you’re planning on pairing with your board will narrow down your options, since the CPU socket on a given motherboard will only work with the chip line it was designed for.
For instance, if you’re buying an Intel 10th or 11th Generation Core processor, you’ll need a board with an LGA 1200 socket. Older 9th Generation processors need boards with an LGA 1151 socket. AMD makes this process a bit less confusing because (for now at least) the company uses the same AM4 socket for all of its mainstream current-gen chips, from Athlons all the way up to 16-core Ryzen 9 parts, although you may run into complications installing newer CPUs on previous-generation motherboards. Intel, on the other hand, has a tendency in recent years to switch sockets (or at least socket compatibility) from one generation to the next, although that’s not the case this generation, with Socket 1200 sticking around for two generations.
For the true high-end, both Intel (LGA 2066) and AMD (TR4) have different sockets to accommodate the larger size and power draw of their Core X and Threadripper processors. For more on processor considerations, see our CPU Buying Guide.
Sockets
Enthusiast/Mainstream
HEDT
Intel
LGA 1200
LGA 2066
AMD
AM4
TR4
What size motherboard do you want?
We’ve covered this in detail in our Motherboard Diagram feature. But most modern motherboards come in three sizes.
ATX is the de facto standard and offers the most space for plugs and slots.
Micro-ATX is 2.4-inches shorter, which means less room for expansion slots.
Mini-ITX can make for a tiny PC, but you’ll usually only have room for one add-in card (like a graphics card), and fewer connectors for storage and RAM.
What ports do you need?
It’s always important to check the I/O area on a motherboard to make sure it has the external connection options you’re after, but also check for USB headers on the motherboard. These will let you add more ports via front-panel connection on your PC case, or via inexpensive expansion slot brackets at the back.
Here’s a list of common ports, and our take on each:
USB 3 / USB 3.1 Gen1: You can never have too many of these, because they work with most peripherals.
USB 2: Slower than USB 3 / 3.1, but more than adequate for keyboards, mice and many other devices.
USB 3.1/3.2 Gen2: Not many peripherals take advantage of this standard yet, but it delivers 10 Gbps of bandwidth, which is double what you get with USB 3.1 Gen 1 / USB 3.0. USB 3.2 Gen2 2×2 doubles that bandwidth again, with two 10 Gbps lanes. You’ll often only find one of these ports on mid- and high-end boards.
USB Type-C: These ports could be either USB 3.1 Gen1 or USB 3.1 Gen2 compatible and are designed for newer devices such as phones. A few are also just USB 2.0, and often get labeled as Audio USB-C ports, aimed at connecting USB-C headsets.
HDMI / DisplayPort Video out: You only need these if you plan to use integrated graphics. Discrete cards have their own ports.
Audio ports: Important if you plan to connect analog speakers or headphones.
PS/2 ports: Give you compatibility with really old keyboards and mice.
Thunderbolt: Very rare to find this built into motherboards, but some boards support it through dedicated add-on cards. Provides the fastest possible connections, up to 40 Gbps.
While you may not need many USB 3.1 Gen 2 or Type-C ports today, they are good ways to future-proof your PC.
How many RAM slots do you need?
Most mainstream boards these days have four RAM slots, although compact Mini-ITX models often have just two, and high-end HEDT boards (like the one pictured below) frequently offer eight. The amount of slots of course limits the amount of RAM you can install.
But for mainstream tasks and games, 16GB is sufficient and 32GB is ample. And even with just two slots, you can install as much as 64GB of RAM. Note, though, that you will often pay a premium for denser 64 and 32GB kit that uses two sticks, rather than a kit that’s spread across four sticks.
What expansion slots do you need?
You’re most likely to come across just two types these days: the short PCIe x1 shot (often used for things like USB and SATA expansion), and the longer PCIe x16 slot (used for graphics cards, RAID cards, and extremely fast PCIe storage like Intel’s Optane 905 SSD). If you’re just planning on installing a single graphics card, a couple of SATA/M.2 drives, and perhaps a video capture or sound card, you should be fine with most ATX or Micro-ATX boards, which offer at least one x16 slot and one or two x1 slots.
But note that recent X570 and B550 as well as upcoming Intel Rocket Lake-S boards (and, confusingly, some previous-generation Z490 boards) also support PCIe 4.0 rather than the 3.0 that’s been standard for the past several years. PCIe 4.0 technically doubles the available bandwidth of every PCIe lane. But outside of PCIe 4.0 SSDs, most devices haven’t taken major advantage of PCIe 4.0 yet. So think of it as some future-proofing on your board.
However, figuring out how many drives and cards you can install is tricky, because no matter how many physical slots you have, there’s a limited number of HSIO (high-speed input/output) lanes and PCIe lanes that all of your components must share. We could spend 3,000 words trying to explain how these lanes work, but the bottom line is that many mainstream motherboards compensate for bandwidth limitations by switching some connections off when you install hardware in specific slots.
For example, adding a PCIe M.2 drive may disable some SATA ports, or installing a card in a third PCIe slot may disable a second (or third) M.2 slot, etc. These issues vary greatly by motherboard model, so you’ll need to consult online manuals before buying–especially if you’re planning on loading up your board with lots of components.
That said, if you are planning on plugging lots of drives and cards into your PC, it’s worth considering one of the high-end HEDT platforms, as they have more PCIe lanes to work with. All of AMD’s Threadripper processors have 64 lanes (60 from the CPU, 4 from the chipset), while Intel’s competing Core X platform provides up to 44 lanes, depending on the CPU, and up to 24 more from the chipset. So if you’re planning on plugging, for instance, multiple graphics cards and a RAID array of PCIe/NVMe storage, or other bandwidth-hungry hardware into your system, these higher-end platforms are definitely the way to go.
Which chipset should you get?
Your CPU choice will dictate your compatible chipset options, and if you opt for the highest-end consumer Intel or AMD chips (Core X or Threadripper), you’ll only have one choice (X299 for Intel or X399 for AMD). But for mainstream users who just want to install a single graphics card and a few drives, you can often get the features you’re after by opting for a chipset below Intel’s Z590 or X570 for AMD.
Previously, if you chose, say, an H470, B460, or H410 board on the Intel side, you’d lose the option to overclock, though only a handful of mainstream Intel chips are unlocked for overclocking anyway (those with product names that end in the letter “K”). But that looks to be changing with upcoming Intel 500-series boards. Stay tuned to our motherboard reviews for more info there as we get to test a new round of mainstream Intel boards.
On the AMD side, the B550/X570 (as well as older B450, B350 and B300) chipsets still support overclocking. Although you will lose some fast USB and SATA ports and PCIe lanes over the X570 chipset, enough of those connectivity options remain to support most mainstream computing tasks. If you need more ports and drives, stepping up to an X570 board is worth the money, especially considering that many higher-priced B550 boars are just as (if not more) expensive than many X570 offerings.
Do you plan to overclock?
As we noted in the chipset section above, if you plan to overlock on the Intel side, for older boards, you’ll need to opt for a Z490 chipset and a CPU with a “K” in its model name (like the Core i7-8700K), or step up to the high-end X299 platform and a Skylake X chip. It looks like lesser Intel 500 series boards will also make overclocking possible, though you’ll still need an unlocked “K” processor. On the AMD side, things are a lot simpler, with nearly all current-generation Ryzen chips supporting overclocking, and all but the lowest-end chipsets (A320 and A300) supporting overclocking as well.
But that doesn’t mean that mainstream users should overclock their processors. As we said in our CPU Buying Guide, in order to make your CPU achieve higher clock speeds than it’s rated for out of the box, you’ll likely spend extra on an enhanced cooling system and a high-end motherboard. By the time you factor in all these extra costs, you may be better off budgeting another $50-$100 (£40-80) for a CPU that comes with higher clock speeds out of the box.
Now, if you already have a top-of-the-line chip and want to push it even further, or you just enjoy the challenge, by all means, spend the extra money and time to squeeze out that extra speed.
What about audio?
Unless you’re a serious audiophile, you happen to get faulty hardware, or you opt for the lowest-end motherboard possible while still expecting exquisite sound, you should get by with on-board audio these days just fine.
Motherboard audio quality is primarily defined by the audio codec (aka the audio processing chip) a given board uses. So, if you’re a stickler for sound quality, you can look up the codec a given board uses before buying and see if it’s a mid-range or high-end model. Alternatively, you can, of course, still opt for a dedicated sound card, or USB speakers that move the DAC (digital-to-analog converter) hardware outside of the PC altogether, like the Audioengine A2+.
Given the sheer number of features that board makers sometimes slap on motherboards–particularly high-end models–it’s impossible to discuss them all. But here are a few to keep an eye on:
On-board on/off switches: These can be handy in the initial build process, or if your system is being housed in an open case for benchmarking/component testing. But for the average user, on-board buttons (which sometimes also include buttons to clear the CMOS or do basic overclocking) aren’t necessary.
LED diagnostic readouts: The tiny speaker that plugs into motherboard headers to provide diagnostic beeps when something goes wrong is going the way of the dodo. In its place, many mid-to-high-end boards now include a two-or-three-digit display for the same purpose, giving you an alpha-numeric code when something goes wrong. This can be a real help when building a PC or upgrading and you either forget to plug something in, something isn’t seated properly, or one of your components turns out to be faulty.
Wi-Fi Card: If you don’t have Ethernet near your computer, you want this. And if you plan on keeping your PC around for years to come, look into a board with Wi-Fi 6.
Dual Ethernet ports: A single Gigabit Ethernet port has plenty of bandwidth for Internet traffic, so this is helpful mainly if you plan to use the computer as a server and the board can aggregate the two connections into one. For those with heavy-duty wired network needs, look for a board with 2.5Gb or 10Gb Ethernet.
For more on what features you don’t need, see our 8 Motherboard Features You Probably Don’t Need.
How important are aesthetics to you?
If the only time you’re going to see your system’s innards is when it’s powered down with the side panel off, there’s no reason to opt for RGB lights or flashy I/O covers and heatsinks. However, if your case has a window, you should get a board that you like looking at–with lights if you like them.
Just keep in mind that, particularly if you’re a novice builder, a dark motherboard can make building or updating your system more difficult, as on-board labels will be harder to see. Also, if you are building a system that you want to look as clean as possible (that is, with few visible wires snaking around the motherboard), look for a board with its fan and USB headers placed around the edges, and SATA and USB 3 header ports that point to the side, rather than sticking up vertically. This will make accomplishing a clean build much easier.
MORE: Best Motherboards
MORE: All Motherboard Content
MORE: How to Sell Your Used PC Components
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With the superb construction, elegant design and perfectly natural sound of the Michi P5 and S5 combo from Rotel, the only question left to ask is ‘how much?’ The pair offer awesomely low noise with huge output and do so in a gorgeous package.
For
Superb sound
Prestige appearance
Great built-in DAC
Against
No AES/EBU input
Cross-talk between each unit’s remote
Incredibly heavy and bulky
Aus Hi-Fi mag review
(Image credit: Future)
This review and test originally appeared in Australian Hi-Fi magazine, one of What Hi-Fi?’s sister titles from Down Under. Click here for more information about Australian Hi-Fi, including links to buy individual digital editions and details on how to subscribe.
Rotel Michi S5 tested at £3299 (AU$5999). Rotel Michi P5 tested at £5399 (AU$10,399).
Can a famous brand be a victim of its own success? Ask any professional marketing person that question and their answer will be a resounding “Yes!” Take, for example, one of the world’s most famous motor vehicle manufacturers, Toyota.
Toyota is not only one of the most famous car companies in the world, it also sells more passenger vehicles than any other car manufacturer. But when it first tried to enter the luxury vehicle market to compete against the likes of Rolls Royce, Mercedes Benz and Daimler, with its fabulous – and famous – Century model, it could not gain any traction on the world market.
No-one wanted to buy one, despite its technical superiority and the provision of luxury fittings no other vehicle had, such as reclining rear seats with built-in massage systems, and doors that opened and closed electronically at the touch of a button. Still in production, the Toyota Century is the vehicle that is used to transport both the Japanese Emperor Naruhito and the former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzō Abe.
It wasn’t the money that stopped those who could afford it from buying a Toyota Century (the current model will set you back more than AU$250,000), it was the badge on the bonnet. Because anyone could own a Toyota, it seems that the rich didn’t want to be seen in one. Motoring enthusiasts didn’t want to be seen in one either. Imagine if, when asked what type of exotic vehicle they drove, they had to answer “a Toyota”.
So what did Toyota do? It started building luxury vehicles that didn’t have the Toyota badge on them, but another one. That name?
You know it already: Lexus. And they sold like hot cakes (and still do), because, quite frankly, not everyone can own a Lexus.
Which brings us to Rotel.
At the start of the hi-fi era, in the 70s, Rotel was by far and away the best-selling hi-fi component manufacturer in Japan and, indeed, in all probability the best-selling hi-fi brand right around the world, with a well-deserved reputation for delivering top quality at reasonable prices.
However, as more and more manufacturers entered its particular niche in the hi-fi market, Rotel’s market share diminished, so that in the early 90s, the company decided to start building high-powered, high-performance ‘luxury’ models to compete against the likes of Luxman and Accuphase in its home market, and against the likes of McIntosh and Audio Research on the world stage.
The models it built were undeniably fabulous and were certainly completely different visually from all other Rotel products, exemplified by the appearance of the RHC-10 preamplifier and RHB-10 dual mono power amplifier, to name but two. The company also learned from Toyota’s marketing faux pas and branded the models ‘Michi’, which is often translated from the Japanese as meaning ‘Righteous Way’. But instead of leaving it at that, it marketed the brand as ‘Michi by Rotel’. You can guess the rest.
This time around, twenty years into a new century, the Michi brand name is just ‘Michi’, the marketing is for ‘Michi’ and the brand writ large on the front panels is also just ‘Michi’. It’s only if you look around the back that you’ll find small lettering that says ‘By Rotel’. “Michi is taking Rotel’s values of excellent performance and value into the high-end segment with models that offer new levels of engineering, build and design while setting new reference standards for audio performance,” says managing director Peter Kao. “We have used all of our 55 years of design and manufacturing experience to create our best-ever products.”
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Michi S5 preamplifier
The front panel of the Michi S5 Control Preamplifier’s austere exterior, with its black glass plate and two large rotary controls gives absolutely no clue as to the complexity of what’s inside it… at least it doesn’t until you switch it on and its brilliant full-colour OLED panel springs into life.
Then, if you spin the left-most control to see what sources might be on offer, you’ll discover that the P5 has no fewer than six line level inputs, four of which are unbalanced (via RCA inputs) and two of which are balanced (via XLR) plus a single phono input which you can switch between being most suitable for either moving-coil or moving-magnet cartridges.
On the digital side, you get six SPDIF inputs, three optical and three coaxial, as well as USB and Bluetooth. Curiously, there is no AES/EBU input.
The Michi S5’s extensive menu system allows owners sophisticated customisation options for all inputs, so you can switch off the ones you’re not using so they don’t appear when you’re scrolling through inputs, rename any or all of the inputs to more accurately reflect whatever component you have connected to them, plus you can use the Michi’s bass and treble controls to make specific tonal modifications attach to the specific input you’re using.
You can also fix a specific volume level to each input that will override any other volume setting and cannot itself by changed using the front panel volume control or the infra-red remote control’s up/down buttons. Michi says of this feature: “This is useful for input sources that include their own volume setting like common Apps on phones or tablets.”
Look around the rear of the amplifier and you’ll find some additional digital connections, but the network port is only for firmware updates and control over IP, and that USB-A socket is only there to power external devices. It has no digital signal capability. The RS232 connector is there, of course, to facilitate custom installation integration.
Also on the rear panel are six pairs of stereo line outputs, labelled ‘Line Out’, ‘Mono Sub Out’, ‘Pre Out1’ and ‘Pre Out2’, ‘Balanced Out1’ and ‘Balanced Out2’. The ‘left’ and ‘right’ subwoofer outputs are not stereo: as the labelling suggests, each one outputs a summed signal derived from both channels. You also get two digital outputs, one coaxial and the other optical.
The USB input supports 16-bit and 24-bit PCM from 44.1kHz up to 384kHz as well as DSD64 and DSD128, but to do this via a PC, you’ll have to load a Windows Driver, which Michi helpfully supplies on a USB stick. Mac users, of course, don’t need a driver: their computers will just work properly with the Michi. The SPDIF inputs support 16/24 PCM up to 192kHz. Digital decoding is accomplished using an AKM4490EQ 32-bit/768 kHz dual DAC, one of the best of the currently available devices.
Whereas Rotel equipment was once manufactured in Japan, like the great majority of Japanese hi-fi manufacturers (and many other hi-fi manufacturers around the world), it is now manufactured in China, and the same is true for components bearing the Michi name. However, Rotel retains a point of difference from most manufacturers because it owns its own factory in Zhuhai in China, which it established in 2005. Rotel says that although Michi components are manufactured at that same facility, they are made in a separate section of one of the factories.
(Image credit: Rotel)
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Michi P5 power amplifier
Me saying earlier on that the front panel of the Michi S5 was austere doesn’t leave me much to say about the Michi P5 stereo power amplifier’s front panel because, as you can see for yourself, it’s even more umm… austere.
There’s just a single button at the bottom centre of its front panel, which is actually a standby power switch, since the main power switch is on the rear panel. Since power amplifiers consume a lot of power even when they’re not being used, and particularly so in the case of the Michi P5, which is rated with a power output of 500-watts per channel into 8Ω, you can choose to have the Michi P5 switch itself off automatically after a no-signal period of 20 minutes, 1, hour, 2 hours, 5 hours or 10 hours. Alternatively, you can disable the automatic power-down circuit completely so it never switches off.
As with the S5, the P5 has a very bright OLED display whose primary feature is its ability to act as a spectrum analyser, showing the spectrum of the music being played in your choice of 8, 12 or 16 bands, or you can choose to have the display act as a VU meter, for which there are four different options (VU/x2/x4/x8). For either setting you can choose between four different brightness levels, or you can choose to switch the display off entirely.
The display also shows the input voltage at the top right of the display and the temperature of the heatsinks at the top left. The voltage shown on the display (240V) didn’t actually reflect the mains voltage in my home at the time, which was 244V, so it might just show the intended operating voltage, rather than the actual voltage being delivered to the amplifier.
Being a power amplifier, all the action is around the rear, and you should be able to see from the photograph that the Michi P5 has two sets of inputs, one balanced (XLR) and the other unbalanced (gold-plated RCA). The rocker switch that selects which of the two will be active is located above them, with a network port and RS232 to its left, and 12V trigger inputs and outputs to its right.
There are two pairs of high-quality speaker terminals that are colour-coded and have collars that make it very easy for the knobs to get a grip on bare wire, plus you can also use banana plugs. In a really welcome move, the knobs are completely removable, so you can use ultra-secure insulated eye terminal terminations on your speaker cables if you like.
As you might have guessed from the size of the Michi P5’s chassis, the rated power output into 4Ω (800-watts) and the relatively limited amount of heatsinking – along with the fact that the heatsinks are covered by a protective layer of aluminium – the output devices are fan-cooled, for which purpose there are two large (90mm diameter) holes in either side of the rear panel.
These holes are the exits for air-cooling ducts at the other end of which are located ultra-quiet, low-speed fans that switch on when the output transistors reach a temperature of 39°C. These fans are so quiet that when they’re operating you’ll only be able to hear them by putting your ear up to the duct exit, and even then you’ll hear only a very soft sound; one that sounds uncannily as if someone is exhaling softly through their fully opened mouth.
As for those output transistors, there’s quite a few of them to be cooled – 32 of them, in fact. The power delivered to them issues from a pair of 2.2kVA transformers made in-house by Rotel itself. This is not surprising, because Rotel has been making its own mains power transformers for many years. What is rather surprising is that the four 47,000µF capacitors linked (two each via regulators) to each of these transformers are made in the UK.
I say “surprising” because Rotel is also famous for making its own capacitors, but its website informed me that it “always sources the best capacitor for each specific application”, which means that in the case of its Michi components, it uses slit-foil and T-Network electrolytic capacitors from the UK; Rubycon electrolytic capacitors from Japan; and LCR polystyrene capacitors from Wales. The integrated circuits come from Analog Devices, Texas Instruments and Burr-Brown, companies that are all domiciled in the USA.
Can I warn you in advance not to attempt to lift – or even manoeuvre – a Michi S5 on your own? Its dimensions (485x238x465mm) would make it an awkward lift at the best of times, but no matter what its dimensions, its dead weight of 60kg would make it impossible… unless you’re an Olympic weightlifter.
Performance
Rather unusually these days, Michi includes interconnects with its components. I say “unusually” because most manufacturers try to cull favour with their retailers by not including interconnects, so those retailers can make additional profit by adding interconnects to the sale.
While I have to admire Michi for doing this, the quality of the interconnects it supplies would have me asking my friendly retailer what other interconnects he might have available. The quality is, however, a moot point, because Michi provides only unbalanced interconnects, and given the choice between using balanced or unbalanced connectors to link a pre-amplifier with a power amplifier, I’d choose balanced connectors every time, so that means I’d have to spring for balanced interconnects anyway.
Each component comes with its own remote control, but the two are identical, so you can keep one for a spare. The remotes are of extremely high quality and very attractive. If only Michi had seen fit to supply high-quality name-brand alkaline (or even lithium) batteries to install in them rather than the ones it does provide. I didn’t chance it, and used my own Eveready batteries instead. Why Eveready? Because the company guarantees that its batteries will not leak, and a remote control can be ruined by a leaking battery as, to my chagrin, I once discovered.
Both units not only have identical remote controls, those controls also use identical infra-red remote codes. This has the advantage that the same remote signal turns both units on and off, and adjusts display brightness, for example. But in this case it also introduces a curious quirk so that when you’re using the remote to tell the P5 to do something, the same remote signal will tell the S5 to do something completely different… which may be, for example, to switch the display from spectrum analysis to VU.
Since any changes implemented on the P5 by this behaviour are completely benign (i.e. they have absolutely no affect on the amplifier’s sound quality or its performance or, in fact, anything that could affect the music playing at the time) I didn’t worry about it and just regarded it as a quirk. However, if you’re particularly bothered by it, you could just obscure the P5’s IR receiver so it couldn’t receive the signal.
Set-up is quite intuitive, so you are unlikely to have reason to have recourse to either of the two Owners’ Manuals, but if you do you’ll be pleased to find that they’re well-written, well-illustrated and highly informative. During set-up please resist the temptation to place the P5 on top of the S5, despite the obvious physical and visual temptations to do so. Both devices will return better performance if they’re placed side by side, or one above the other on separate racks of a proper hi-fi component shelving system.
My review units were obviously relatively new, so I made sure to burn them in continuously for several days using pink noise at relatively high volume to do so, avoiding any sonic annoyances by wiring one of the two speakers out of phase then facing it directly in front of the other loudspeaker so almost everything cancelled out. (If you haven’t ever tried this, it’s not only a great burn-in aid, but also a great party trick!)
After the long wait I was pretty eager by the time the listening sessions were scheduled and I’m here to tell you it was well worth the wait. The sound was absolutely enthralling, totally realistic and completely captivating.
I knew I was in for a treat because there was no need to acclimatise myself to anything or work my way into the listening session. Right from the outset it was all just wide smiles and toes a-tapping and allowing tracks to play right through, rather than switching to other tracks to evaluate different areas of performance.
The result of all this was that I spent rather more time listening to the Michis than I really should have given the time constraints involved in preparing a review for this issue, but there were no complaints from me. If the Michis had been performers, I would would certainly have been on my feet calling for an encore.
This same high level of performance proved true for whatever input I used, because the Michi P5’s digital and phono stages are truly excellent. If you’re a true vinylista you’ll want to use an external phono stage that enables greater precision with cartridge matching than the P5’s ‘one input fits all’ phono stage, but if you play vinyl only irregularly, I think you’ll be more than happy with the sound of the phono stage… I certainly was. I couldn’t fault the digital inputs either, whether I used SPDIF or USB. They’re so good that there would be absolutely no need to invest in an external DAC unless you’re one of those audiophiles that actually likes fiddling with different filter settings and oversampling rates. So full marks to Michi here as well.
What did I find so enthralling about the sound? Everything really. But overall, I’d have to say that what’s most impressive is the totality of the very real and tangible feeling that a musical event is taking place right there in your own room. The sonic presentation is so lively and so true-to-life it will take your breath away.
And if you’re into trying to achieve true-to-life listening levels, then the Michi S5 is amongst those very few amplifiers that will be able to realise this for you effortlessly, without stress, without distortion, without impacting on your mains power bill… and without its chassis becoming so hot you need to ruin the ambience by turning on the air-conditioning.
That said, the Michi S5’s chassis can become warm if you work it very, very hard, so do give it some room to breathe, but that said, I found that it runs far cooler than most amps of its ilk.
‘Massive’ would be the best descriptor for the bass I heard from this Michi combo, but it was at the same time delicate and tuneful. I can think of no better demonstration of these twin virtues than to suggest that you listen to the tympani in the second movement of Beethoven’s Ninth, the famous Choral Symphony.
Yes, their sound is impactful, impressive and thunderous, but many high-end amplifiers can do this. What most can’t do is reveal that there’s only two being played, or that they’re tuned an octave apart. But using this Michi duo, I could hear this instantly… and that’s a metric I’d call not just revealing, but a revelation.
But if the Michi’s ability to reveal minutiae in the bass regions is impressive, its ability is equally impressive across the midrange… if not more so. And if you want to check the midrange ability of any component, one of the best albums to use is the one that debuted Chick Corea on electric keyboard but also has two of my favourites, Joe Farrell and Flora Plurim. Despite being recorded in 1972 (or perhaps because of it), the recording is stunningly good, whether it’s Plurim’s rich scat singing or the clarity with which Corea’s staggeringly lyrical electric piano playing is revealed, and the Michis revealed everything with crystal clarity.
On this album, you can really hear how an amplifier’s ability to deliver air in the midrange aids one’s ability to hear multiple instruments clearly, no matter how closely they compete for space. Whereas I think that many of the once-revered jazz fusion albums now sound dated, ‘Return to Forever’ sounds as though it could have been recorded yesterday.
The Michis’ high-frequency performance didn’t disappoint either. I’m generally a great fan of Ludovico Einaudi (though perhaps not of his more minimalist stuff) and his album ‘Elements’ from 2015 is one of my favourites for testing the extreme highs, and most particularly the second track, Night. Just listen to that ethereal opening synth as it loops and then the way Einaudi layers all the other sounds over it. The stabbing piano notes are interjected at the perfect moments. It’s a great example of why timing is everything, and why component-chain timing is crucial for an authentic high-fidelity listening experience.
Great stereo separation and magnificent stereo imaging are crucial to tricking the ear and the brain into imagining the reproduced sound is ‘live’, and the Michis demonstrated both to perfection when replaying Canadian chanteuse Holly Cole’s Train Song, from her 1995 Tom Waits tribute album ‘Temptation’. Although it’s also a great tester of bass, I prefer to use the myriad sounds of Cyro Baptista’s tinkly percussion to evaluate high-frequency reproduction, stereo imaging and, for amplifiers, channel separation. And what I heard from the Michis was as good as I’ve ever heard from any pre/power combo. Bravo!
(Image credit: Rotel)
Final verdict
You need to see the Michi P5 and M5 in the flesh to see how superbly they’re built. Words can’t really begin to describe that. But you also need to hear for yourself how music that’s played through them sounds, because words can’t even begin to describe that… though if you started off by saying “totally and completely natural”, you’d be off to a very good start.
This Michi P5/S5 combo gets it right. Really nails it, in fact. If you want good looks, insanely high power output, low noise, superb performance and, most importantly, great sound, you’ve arrived at your destination.
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Laboratory test report
Before going into detail about the results of Newport Test Labs’ test results, it’s extremely important to note that for the purposes of this test, Australian Hi-Fi specified that all tests had to be conducted with both the Michi S5 and Michi P5 in the ‘test loop’. Therefore there are very few results that can be compared with Michi’s own specifications, which are gained by testing the components individually, or indeed against the results from any other audio test laboratory that has not tested the two amplifiers as a ‘combo’.
It means that, in effect, we’re reporting ‘worst case’ results because for results such as distortion, the inherent distortion of the Michi S5 are here added to that of the Michi P5, which obviously does not occur if the components are tested individually.
One of the few outcomes that would not change is power output, of course, and Newport Test Labs measured the power output of the Michi S5 at 612-watts per channel (27.8dBw), both channels driven into 8Ω, when it was delivering a 1kHz test signal. It was also able to deliver this exact same power when delivering a 20Hz test signal.
However, when Newport Test Labs used a 20kHz signal to test power output, the Michi P5’s protection circuitry kicked in when the output voltage reached 45 volts RMS, which is around 253-watts (24.0dBW) into 8Ω, and around 506-watts (27.0dBW) into 4Ω. The fact that the protection circuit kicked in was not a surprise in itself, because 20kHz is a very high frequency to use for testing power output, and the power spectrum of music is such the Michi P5’s rated output power (500-watts into 8Ω) would never be required at this frequency.
But because the protection kicked in a little earlier than we expected, we checked with Michi, which told us: “The S5 has been engineered and tested for continuous power output of 20Hz–20kHz but as you noticed we have protection circuitry to monitor what is considered abnormal operating conditions including short circuit, d.c. voltage on the outputs and over-current. As normal operations would not typically have a signal of this type (frequency/power) we do shut down the unit into protection at high power outputs at high frequency. We found it best practice to monitor and use an abundance of caution with the power output generated by the S5.”
When Newport Test Labs tested the power output of the Michi S5 into 4Ω loads, the same protection circuitry kicked in with 20kHz test signals, but the Michi S5 easily delivered 1052-watts (30.2dBW) per channel with 1kHz test signals, both channels driven into 4Ω and 1,024-watts (30.1dBW) per channel with 20Hz test signals (both channels driven into 4Ω). These independent laboratory test results at 1kHz and 20Hz show power output levels that are well above Michi’s power output specification for both loads.
It should also be noted that if Newport Test Labs had tested dynamic (short-term) power output, the Michi S5 would have delivered its rated power output, because the test signal used for this purpose is so short-term that it would not have triggered the protection circuitry, but the Australian amplifier power measurement standard specifies that the power output of high fidelity audio amplifiers must be measured (and stated) on a continuous, rather than a dynamic basis.
Frequency response is one test that would certainly be impacted by measuring both the P5 and S5 as a combo, yet as you can see from the tabulated results, the Michi combo delivered superlative performance, with Newport Test Labs measuring a response of 5Hz to 480kHz –3dB. The Michi combo’s frequency response across the audio band, which is shown in Graph 7, was measured as 20Hz to 20kHz ±0.18dB, which is self-evidently an excellent result.
The frequency response measured when the Michi S5 was driving a test load that simulates the load that would be presented to it by a typical hi-fi loudspeaker system is shown by the black trace on Graph 7, below.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
You can see that it tracks the response gained with a non-inductive load almost perfectly, which shows that the Michi S5 will sound the same no matter what speakers you connect to it, and will also be able to perfectly control the back-emf from speakers that have large bass drivers. Although the Michi S5’s damping factor was more than will be required by any speaker system, it’s not overly high, with Newport Test Labs reporting it as DF61, on the back of an output impedance (at 1kHz) of 0.13Ω.
Channel separation was outstanding at low and midrange frequencies, as shown in the tabulated results, with the Michi combination returning test results of 105dB at 20Hz and 98dB at 1kHz. The 72dB result at 20kHz is excellent, and more than will ever be required in order to deliver perfect stereo imaging and separation, but a little short of what I might have expected.
However, this could easily have been influenced by where the amplifiers were placed on the test bench relative to each other, as well as by the interconnects connecting the two, so even-better results might be achieved under different conditions. The same could be said for the inter-channel phase results, even though these, too, are really excellent results.
Channel balance was amazingly good. Taken merely on its value of 0.019dB, no-one would ever have guessed this would be the result of testing a pre/power combination; It’s more like you’d get by testing a state-of-the-art stereo power amplifier on its own. This is a superb achievement by the engineers responsible for designing the Michis.
Newport Test Labs measured the A-weighted signal-to-noise ratio of the Michi P5/S5 combination as 76dB referenced to an output of 1-watt, and 103dB referenced to rated output. The 103dB result is excellent, but further suggests that the result at 1-watt, although good, could be further improved by careful component placement and interconnect routing.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
Graph 1 shows the total harmonic distortion measured by Newport Test Labs when the Michi combo was delivering 1-watt into an 8Ω load. You can see there’s a second harmonic component at –95dB (0.00177%) and a fourth harmonic at –110dB (0.00031%) and that’s it: otherwise the noise floor above the fundamental is perfectly clean, and also sitting right down at –115dB (referred to one-watt). This is an excellent result, as both harmonics are harmonically related to the fundamental, which will ensure good sound.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
Graph 2 shows the total harmonic distortion measured by Newport Test Labs when the Michi combo was delivering 1-watt into a 4Ω load. You can see the second harmonic component has increased slightly, to –88dB (0.00398%), and the fourth to –112dB (0.00025%) plus a third harmonic has appeared at –108dB (0.00039%) and a fifth at –113dB (0.00022%). Once again, this is excellent performance.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
Graph 3 shows the total harmonic distortion measured by Newport Test Labs when the Michi combo was delivering 20-watts into an 8Ω load. As you’d have expected given the increase in power output, additional distortion components have been introduced, but the essential structure of the lower-order components is maintained, with the second harmonic component at –93dB (0.00223%), the third at –110dB (0.00031%), the fourth at –112dB (0.00025%) and the fifth at –115dB (0.00017%).
The difference in the visual appearance of the graph is due to the noise floor of the amplifier having dropped down to around –130dB, which speaks for itself.
You can see that the noise that contributed to the overall result mentioned previously and tabulated in the results is low-frequency in nature, as evidenced by the spikes at the extreme left of the graph.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
Graph 4 shows the total harmonic distortion measured by Newport Test Labs when the Michi combo was delivering 20-watts into a 4Ω load.
Essentially the distortion components are the same as when driving an 8Ω load, but interestingly, there’s a slight increase in the noise floor. This, together with the one-watt results, would seem to suggest you should prefer 6Ω or 8Ω designs when choosing loudspeakers to partner with the Michis.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
CCIF-IMD distortion (19kHz and 20kHz test signals at equal levels) into an 8Ω load is shown in Graph 5. As you can see, there’s nothing to be seen at all. Sensational performance! Not only are there not any of the side-bands around the high-frequency test signals I normally expect to see, there’s also no sign at all of a regenerated difference signal down at 1kHz.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
When Newport Test Labs used the same CCIF-IMD test signal, but increased the power output to 20-watts (Graph 6, above), both the side bands and the regenerated signal were introduced into the output, but at very low levels: around –90dB (0.00316%) for the two primary side bands at 18kHz and 21kHz, and at around –105dB (0.00056%) for the regenerated signal. Once again, these are all outstandingly good results.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
The tone control action of the Michi P5 is shown in Graph 8. You can see the bass control delivers around 11dB of boost that is nicely shelved at 20Hz, then rolls off below this, which is excellent design. It delivers rather more cut: around 17dB. This same graph also shows the action of the treble control, and you can see it offers 9dB of boost that shelves nicely at 20kHz. Again, this is excellent design.
As with the bass control, the treble control offers rather less high-frequency attenuation, but still a more-than-adequate 13dB at 20kHz. If you attenuate both bass and treble you will also reduce the overall volume slightly across the midrange, but this is of no import, as it could be easily corrected by increasing the volume slightly.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
The Michi combo’s distortion at the S5’s rated power output (500-watts per channel into 8Ω) is shown in Graph 9. Once again, Michi’s engineers have excelled themselves, with distortion completely under control, such that the second-order component is at 93dB (0.00223%), all the even-order components are more than 100dB (0.001% down, and all the odd-order components are more than 120dB down (0.0001%).
All these distortion components are too low in level to be audible, but even if they were, even-order distortion is pleasing to the ear, so it wouldn’t be an issue. Note on this graph that the noise floor right across the audio spectrum is now down at –140dB, and even the low-frequency noise at the left of the graph, which is higher in level, is still more than 110dB down. Once again, excellent performance.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
Square wave testing using a 100Hz square wave revealed what the frequency response already showed, with the tilt on the waveform indicating the Michi combo’s frequency response rolls off at low frequencies and does not extend to d.c. The slight curvature in the tilt also shows a tiny amount of group delay.
The overshoot on the leading edge shows that there is a rise in the Michi’s frequency response at an ultrasonic frequency. Further investigation into this by Newport Test Labs revealed that the rise was 3dB, and that the frequency of the peak was at 302kHz. This is interesting, and obviously measurable, but will have zero affect on the amplifier’s sound quality.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
The 1kHz square wave shows the same h.f. overshoot, and some slight tilt on the horizontals, so it’s not a perfect result, but it’s so close to perfect as really doesn’t matter.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
The 10kHz square wave’s horizontals are on the other hand, perfectly flat, and the rise-time is super-quick, so if it were not for the overshoot caused by the high-frequency rise to 302kHz, it would be a perfect result.
(Image credit: Australian Hi-Fi Magazine)
Newport Test Labs determines amplifier stability by placing a 2µF capacitor in parallel with an 8Ω load and driving the amplifier into this load using a 1kHz square wave as the test signal. As you can see from the oscillogram, the Michi was beautifully behaved, with just a quarter wave height overshoot that was completely damped within three cycles, so I can say that the S5 will be completely stable into even the most highly reactive loudspeakers.
When both units are in standby mode, they will still draw 2.41-watts from your mains power supply, which is rather higher than the Australian Government’s mandate for standby power consumption, but low enough that it would have almost zero effect on your utility bill.
When you’re using this Michi combo to listen to very loud music, the two will pull somewhere around 200-watts from your power supply, which is surprisingly modest considering the S5’s power rating. Combined power factor was measured at +0.627.
Overall, Newport Test Labs measured outstandingly good performance from this high-powered, low-distortion pre/power combination.
Philips has produced a brilliant OLED television, but the partnering soundbar isn’t quite at the same level
For
Tidy and appealing build
Punchy HDR and SDR pictures
Fabulous 4K detail
Against
UI a little dated
Mediocre motion processing
Sonically short on dynamics
Combining a television with an integrated soundbar can be a double-edged sword. It’s the height of TV sound convenience, but unless the soundbar is top quality, then you’re stuck with it. Enter the Philips 65OLED935 – a sleek, powerful television that aims to get around this inherent pitfall by having hi-fi specialist Bowers & Wilkins design and build the speaker system.
This isn’t Philips’s first combined television and soundbar. The company’s 2019 flagship OLED, the OLED934, was a similar creature, but with a far bigger Bowers bar built into a large floor stand. It proved to be a match made in AV heaven, so why break up the partnership?
This time, looks and price tag are considerably more modest, but its fresh take on the 3.1.2ch Dolby Atmos soundbar design makes this a tempting solution for those who like to keep things simple to use and easy on the eye.
But to describe the Philips 65OLED935 in those terms alone is doing it a disservice. Underneath that sculpted steel exterior, there is a TV with impressive specs that could even outperform its soundbar-less sibling, the five-star-rated Philips 65OLED805.
Now with a dual AI engine inside its top-of-the-line P5 processor, Philips is confident enough to describe the performance of the 935 as “OLED+”.
Build
(Image credit: Future)
Philips 65OLED935 tech specs
(Image credit: Future / Modern Love, Amazon Prime)
The Philips 65OLED935 is a classy looking set. It comes with a choice of two different chrome brackets in the box, one for wall-mounting and the other to use as a stand. The cable tidying system means that the join between the soundbar and the TV itself is seamless, leaving only your HDMI cables and power lines to tuck neatly away behind.
The stand and bracket are pretty heavy and highly polished, so take care they don’t slip out of your grasp when you’re putting this together. Fortunately, the wafer-thin OLED panel is nice and light. The stand needs a surface that’s at least 88cm wide and 26cm deep to accommodate it and if you choose to use the bracket, it stands 15cm proud of the wall.
There’s little to no bezel, just an even 2mm metal bead around the edge of the glass. On the back of the panel, you’ll find four HDMI sockets. Next-gen HDMI features are thin on the ground, though: there’s no support for 4K@120Hz (also known as HFR), VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) or eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel), although standard ARC and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) do feature.
As well as the HDMIs there’s an optical audio-out, ports for connecting headphones and an external subwoofer, plus two USB slots. It’s Bluetooth-enabled for audio, too.
The soundbar houses ten separate drive units. There are two 5cm midrange cones plus a 19mm titanium-dome tweeter for the centre channel, one of the same cones and tweeters each for the left and right, and then a single racetrack-style 10cm x 6.5cm subwoofer unit on the top surface, ported to the rear. Also along that top edge are the two 5cm height speakers facing upwards for that Dolby Atmos effect.
The tweeters are decoupled from the main enclosure, with the centre one in a metal case of its own in B&W’s tweeter-on-top style. There’s a micromesh to protect those drivers on the upper surface and Philips’s acoustically transparent wool blend cloth, Kvadrat, across the front of the array.
Made from glass fibre-reinforced polycarbonate ABS, the enclosure is braced with internal rib sections to control resonance. It’s mounted to the TV with a stiff metal plate. If that sounds like an appealing level of attention to detail, you’ll also be pleased with the remote control, which is backed in Muirhead leather and feels very much the part for a premium OLED TV.
Features
(Image credit: Future)
Functionally, the remote is the same as we’ve had from Philips over the last few years. Much like the Android 9.0 operating system itself, all the right options are there but they’re not presented in a particularly wonderful, intuitive or user-friendly fashion.
Other manufacturers such as Samsung and LG are slicker and more progressive on this front and while it’s just about acceptable here, we’d expect to see the company up its game on this front before it falls too far behind the promised UI advances from Google TV and LG’s webOS 6.0.
The benefit of the Android OS is its app offering. All the UK catch-up services are present, along with Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. During testing, we experienced a little bit of crackling through the speakers when using the Netflix app, but restarting the app sorted that out.
There’s no Apple TV or Apple Music on Android TV. For that, you’ll need to add an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV or other media streamer. Instead, your pay-as-you-go film and TV options are Rakuten and Google Play Movies & TV, neither of which is up there with the Apple TV app. You’re better covered for sport, though, with BT Sport and Now TV both on board.
In terms of picture technology, the OLED935 gets one or two bumps over the soundbar-less OLED805 thanks to the improved Philips P5 processor with its AI dual picture engine. The big one is AI Machine Learn Sharpness, a local level picture sharpening tool that enhances the textures and patterns of specific parts of the image, rather than applying a blanket tightening up across the whole display.
Another is AI Smart Bit Enhanced 2.0, which should remove colour banding without sacrificing detail. Last, but not least, is a boost for the Philips Perfect Natural Reality processing which aims to boost standard-def material so it looks more like Full HD.
The other picture tech of note is an anti-burn-in logo detection feature, which recognises permanent screen logos, such as those of TV networks, and dampens their effect. In testing, this works very well – we try out a Dolby Atmos test disc and the bright white intensity of the Dolby logo in the corner of the screen is dropped to a level that won’t tire the pixels so rapidly.
On the sound front, the big news is the 3.1.2 speaker arrangement, the Dolby Atmos support and upmixing, and the involvement of hi-fi specialist Bowers & Wilkins. The TV is also compatible with the DTS Play-Fi hi-res streaming standard, meaning you can set-up your soundbar to work as part of a multi-room system along with any other Play-Fi-enabled kit you might own.
No review of a top-end Philips TV is complete without a tip of the hat to Ambilight. The company’s delightful LED lightshow tech comes in its four-sided variety for the OLED935. You can set it to change colour according to the on-screen image, to music or even to mimic a national flag for sporting events. It’s a great feature and long may it last.
Picture
(Image credit: Future / Modern Love, Amazon Prime)
The Philips 65OLED935 supports both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ alongside HDR10 and HLG. We see what it makes of the first of these by slotting Spider-Man: Homecoming into our 4K Blu-ray player and the results are impressive.
Using the Dolby Vision Bright setting, the upgrades to the picture quality over the Philips OLED805 are small but clear. The scene where Peter gets stuck in the Deep Storage Vault has plenty of monochrome textures, bright colours and a large depth of field, but right from the off, the Philips AI processing works alongside the Dolby metadata to make a brilliantly punchy and vivid HDR picture.
The spidey suit really pops against a nicely detailed and defined set of greys in the background. The AI Machine Learn sharpening tech enhances the textural differences between the rough raw concrete slabs of the hangar entrance, without doing the same to the soft marbling of the polished floor. There’s a strong sense of colour precision to the hero’s mustard yellow backpack and the different red and blue shades of his outfit.
All the same, we prefer Philips’ take on the film with the TV’s HDR AI preset, which is an excellent quick-fix solution for getting the most out of Dolby Vision films. This setting keeps things simple but leaves the user with the five main Philips processing modes to experiment with. Keep the Perfect Motion and Perfect Contrast settings at a minimum and you won’t go far wrong.
The HDR Personal mode squeezes every last drop of the excellent picture performance from this TV. Once balanced for brightness, the OLED Contrast slider offers the best customisation. The higher you go, the more zing you’ll add to the colours, however, you lose a little of the sense of depth to the picture.
Heading to the film’s climax, there are some healthy levels of dark detail on show alongside some lusciously deep OLED blacks. We can still make out the folds and the feel of the material of the Vulture’s leather jacket and sheepskin collar. Those details are just shy of the best LED-backed TVs, but the trade-off for those blacks is worth it here.
(Image credit: Future / Modern Love, Amazon Prime)
Philips has upped its motion processing game for its most recent TVs by adding a couple of extra modes. All the same, the actual quality of the underlying tech is similar to what we’ve found in previous years – perfectly decent, but not in the same league as the likes of Sony and Panasonic.
We prefer the light touches of either Pure Cinema or Movie mode, although many will prefer to turn the processing off altogether. Watching Peter rush to the rescue of his friends in the Washington Monument, we’re happy to put up with some judder in the faster panning shots in order to avoid the soap-opera aesthetic.
That decision is harder when watching SDR, where judder can be more significant. Viewing the opening scenes of Jack Reacher in Full HD on Blu-ray, there’s a case for setting the motion to Standard to avoid the over-processed look, although there are plenty of artefacts every time the car disappears and emerges again under overhead freeway signs.
Philips recommends its Vivid preset as a good starting point for SDR material, but you’ll need to step back quite far on most settings to get the right blend. Colour, Brightness and Sharpness should be below their halfway marks and the Perfect Natural Reality (fake HDR) and Perfect Contrast filters are best switched off.
Once stripped back, you’ll achieve a watchable picture. The overhead shot of the riverside crime scene is excellently handled. There’s a good feel to the paving stones, a believable colour palette to the nearby flowerbeds and plenty of dark detail as the uniformed SWAT team arrives on the scene. For SDR, it has a remarkably punchy look.
Watching standard-def material is obviously less of a treat, and you’ll struggle to pick up Philips’ good work on colour blending and image sharpening. No TV can work miracles, of course, but watching BBC News, the colour of the clothing appears faithful and the newsreader’s skin tone retains a natural feel.
Sound
(Image credit: Future)
Our expectations of TV sound are usually tempered, but here things are different. While there are small picture quality advantages of the OLED935 over the OLED805, the integrated soundbar makes up most of the difference in price.
There are plenty of sound presets to choose from, including Personal mode, which allows access to an EQ. ‘Movie’ gets our vote for the majority of our viewing. It’s not quite as clear as the AI or Original modes, but this is a speaker array with plenty of precision and we’re happy to sacrifice a little of that for the extra spatial boost.
We watch the bombing raid sequence of Unbroken in Dolby Atmos and the B&W soundbar projects an excellent soundstage, adding plenty of height and breadth to the sound. Even with our eyes closed, it’s easy to picture the planes flying across the screen and the bullets zipping by.
The agility of the drivers makes for a good separation of the effects, unveiling all the details in the clicks and clinks of the military equipment, and the creaks of the pilots’ leather jackets. But clarity isn’t quite everything when it comes to great TV sound and this set-up is missing one of the other crucial ingredients – excitement.
Dynamically, there just isn’t enough going on, with differences in scale between the various sounds too small to deliver much in the way of drama. Everything’s rather flat and lacking in impact. We hear the bombers fly over our heads, but without that level of involvement, we’ve no urge to duck whatsoever. The bullets offer little threat from our perspective, even as the cockpit becomes riddled with bullet holes.
Similarly, voices lack expression, which sells short the tension of the sequence. The young servicemen seem all too relaxed on their mission deep into the heart of enemy territory, rocked by the lifeless pops of flack exploding just inches from their heads.
The audio from the OLED935 is clearly superior to the OLED805. You won’t struggle to hear dialogue or appreciate music with more rhythm, but the results are far less enthralling than those of even a relatively affordable soundbar, such as the Sonos Beam. Compared with a more expensive Dolby Atmos-supporting soundbar, such as the Sonos Arc, the contrast is even less flattering.
Verdict
Philips has done a superb job to make improvements on what was already a first-class picture performance with this OLED+ TV. Watch 4K material on this set, whether Dolby Vision or otherwise, and it looks stunning. The picture is sharp and colourful with deep blacks and a great level of tonal detail – however, you can get almost all of that joy with the far more affordable OLED805.
Integrating a soundbar into the design of a TV brings the expectation of audio excellence and the OLED935 doesn’t quite deliver that. While there are plenty of plus points for the spatial smarts and the coherence and clarity of the sound, there just isn’t enough impact or drama.
Ultimately, while the price gap between the two TVs remains this wide, there’s a strong case for recommending opting for the OLED805 and investing in a dedicated soundbar, such as the Sonos Arc or even the much cheaper Beam. The 935 is clearly a more elegant solution and a step up in picture quality but, currently, that comes at too high a premium.
If you are in the market for a new pair of wireless earbuds and want something with an unconventional design, Master & Dynamic’s MW07 Go true wireless earbuds are $120 at Best Buy today. That’s $80 off their usual price of $200.
At first glance, the MW07 Go look like they might be uncomfortable inside your ears, but don’t let the looks fool you. The Verge’s Cameron Faulkner reviewed these earbuds in 2019 and noted they are much more comfortable than their appearance suggests. These buds also have great sound, last up to 10 hours on a single charge, and include a USB-C charging case.
Amazon is currently selling Samsung’s 980 Pro NVMe M.2 SSD with 500GB for $112 today. Normally $150, this is the lowest price we have seen this internal SSD marked down yet.
If you are planning to buy this SSD, there are a few things to keep in mind: it’s PCIe 4.0-ready (but fully compatible with PCIe 3.0 motherboards), so if you want to take full advantage of this SSD, you will need to have cutting-edge PC parts in your build. Secondly, if you own a PS5 and are hoping to expand your internal storage, the PS5 has a slot for an M.2 drive like this, but Sony doesn’t support expandable SSD storage yet. But because the 980 Pro is PCIe 4.0-ready, it will likely be a solid contender once the PS5 does add support.
B&H Photo is once again selling a 64GB unlocked Google Pixel 3 XL for only $300. Even though this phone is nearly three years old, it’s still a solid contender for those looking for a solid stock Android device with powerful front and rear cameras. This phone comes equipped with Android 11, and Google has confirmed it will receive Android 12, which will arrive later this year.
Google Pixel 3 XL
$300
$800
63% off
Prices taken at time of publishing.
Released in 2018 alongside the Google Pixel 3, the Pixel 3 XL is a solid contender for smartphones that include great cameras at a competitive price.
$300
at B&H Photo
At Best Buy, you can grab a Lenovo Smart Clock plus four LED smart bulbs for just $30, which is $65 off its usual price of $95. This bundle will allow you to take full advantage of Google Assistant and add some smarts to a specific room in your home.
Focal has enjoyed indisputable success with its wired headphones in recent years, most notably with its Elegia and Stellia closed-back models. And it’s looking to carry on that momentum with a new closed-back offering. The Focal Celestee sit between those two existing models in price, on sale from this month for £999 ($990), and have been inspired by their engineering and design.
While the Celestee will be instantly recognisable as Focal headphones to those familiar with the French brand’s previous fare, owing mostly to the ornate ear cup design and thick microfibre leather headband, they introduce a new navy blue and copper aesthetic. Like their siblings, they also come with matching cables and thermoformed woven carrying case.
(Image credit: Focal )
Focal’s engineers have drawn from their experience in making the Elegia and introduced an acoustic treatment inside the Celestee ear cups. They also use the 40mm Aluminium/Magnesium ‘M’-shaped dome full-range drivers also found inside their closed-back cousins. Impedance is a lowly 35 ohms, which should make them suitable partners for phones and portable audio players.
While speakers are very much the Saint-Étienne-based brand’s heritage and vocation, headphones seem to be becoming a bigger part of its focus. Only recently our colleagues Down Under at our sister title, Australian Hi-Fi magazine, were impressed by the Focal Arche DAC and headphone amp. Will the Celestee be yet another Focal pair to find itself on our best audiophile headphones list? We hope to find out very soon.
MORE:
Best headphones 2021
Best DACs 2021: USB, portable and desktop DACs
Get killer on-the-go sound quality with this portable phone package
Apple is now selling replacement ear cushions for the class-leading AirPods Max wireless noise-cancelling headphones. In the US they cost $69 and are available now, while the rest of the world will get them soon.
The cushions come in all the same colours as the headphones themselves – silver, black, green, blue and red – so you can simply buy a replacement pair (not that you should need to yet…) or choose to mix and match the colours of your headband and ear cushions for a more customised look.
The cushions attach to the ear cups using magnets so are easy to swap in and out without any fiddly parts or screws. According to a recent teardown, Apple has shied away from using glues and other tricky to disassemble parts, making the AirPods Max the most repairable AirPods ever.
The AirPods Max are Apple’s first on-ear headphones – and what a debut they have proven to be. In our five-star AirPods Max review, we praised their sound quality, stating that “sonically, the AirPods Max don’t put a foot wrong”. Not only that, we lauded them as “hands-down the best wireless noise-cancellers you can buy”. High praise indeed.
But they don’t come cheap. They cost £549 ($549, AU$899), which is a lot more than rivals such as the Sony WH-1000XM4 and Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700. But then the best never does come cheap, does it?
MORE:
Put off? Here’s why the Apple AirPods Max price makes perfect sense
Spec off! AirPods Max vs Sony XM4 vs Bose 700: which are better?
These are the best noise-cancelling headphones money can buy
A real-life trading floor is noisy. You can find traders shouting at each other, especially when the markets are volatile and stock is moving fast. That same environment has been replicated online this week, thanks to Discord.
Getting inside offers a surreal look at an emerging virtual trade floor where people are yelling at each other to invest into GameStop or AMC stocks. Dozens of people join the server every second, and one channel has a stream of memes that looks like pure chaos.
Welcome to the world of r/WallStreetBets.
The r/WallStreetBets Discord server.
Discord is usually the tool of choice for gamers to communicate with friends, Twitch streamers to grow a community, or just small groups of people to share similar interests. It’s a hugely popular app, with more than 100 million monthly active users. The Reddit community r/WallStreetBets has turned to Discord in recent weeks to organize and communicate in real time, as it seeks to force hedge funds into losing millions of dollars on their bets against struggling retail companies like GameStop and AMC.
Amateur traders are flocking to the Discord server to discuss stock movements, share memes, and participate in what feels like an online game. Every post is littered with emoji reactions that fly off the page within seconds, and the calls are full of people shouting “buy GameStop” or “hold GMC” as stock prices go up and down throughout the day.
At times it feels like it only takes one person to shout something on a call or spam a meme enough times for it to catch on and everyone to run with it. I witnessed hundreds of people hit Twitch yesterday to spam “save AMC” in a variety of live streams. Rapper Soulja Boy’s Twitch stream was swarmed with the messages, after calls to visit his stream. But the group failed to convince him to tweet about the struggling theater chain.
The Discord calls and many of the memes are often full of profanity or racial slurs, leading Discord to ban the r/WallStreetBets server last night. It quickly came back to life a few hours later, though, and has already amassed 200,000 members.
“Can we just get one minute of therapeutic silence,” asked someone on the main Discord call yesterday. A few seconds of silence passed before the ask was met with fart sounds, high-pitched music, and sound boards. The members often joke about the FBI or SEC listening in, which prompts many to spam the “FBI, open up!” audio meme.
After last night’s Discord server ban, r/WallStreetBets is rebuilding its Discord community, but a split has emerged. There are now two Discord servers, with an unofficial one at 88,000 members.
Misinformation is common throughout these Discord servers. In the official one, a discussion broke out about the potential for a US-led war to impact stock markets. “There is going to be a war, 100 percent,” claimed one Discord user. “I’m going to bring my gaming chair into the war,” joked another. Fake Elon Musk memes are also as popular as the man himself among this group. “The only thing I want in life is for Elon Musk to tell me I’m beautiful,” said one Discord user praising the Tesla CEO.
Among all the chaos and fake Elon Musk memes, there is some relative organization on the server with calmer heads providing tips to amateur traders. “Only put money in that you can afford to lose,” is a common piece of advice. New members often join and want to know what stock to invest in, but are quickly met with “we are not financial advisors” or “buy what you feel like buying” responses.
I’ve also witnessed what sound like day traders teaching people the basics of options, market retracements, and how to create charts with technical indicators and overlays. Robinhood has made buying and selling stocks as easy as posting a photo to Instagram, and those new to this experiment are eager to learn more.
Others, who have clearly been part of the r/WallStreetBets community for more than a few days, are also quick to advise new members not to try trial broker accounts with fake money for too long. “You need to get used to the emotional reality of a market open,” said one Discord member.
The advice is often interrupted by excitement as GameStop or AMC shares reach new highs. At one point this morning GameStop hit $420 a share in premarket trading, which was met by cheers and surprise on the Discord call.
I personally spend large parts of my day on Discord, but I’ve still never seen anything quite like the r/WallStreetBets server — even in groups with 300,000 members. Dozens of people join every second, and at times it has forced Discord to crash on my high-end gaming PC or take up lots of CPU resources. Even on my iPhone it kills my battery and makes my phone hot to touch.
The question now is how long this mass organized movement can continue on Discord, and the amount of time left in the grand GameStop stock price game. After a ban for “hateful and discriminatory content,” the official r/WallStreetBets Discord server seems less chaotic. But r/WallStreetBets describes itself as “like 4chan found a Bloomberg Terminal,” and a lot of the Reddit comments contain offensive language.
r/WallStreetBets feels like The Button, an online meta-game that first appeared on Reddit for April Fools’ Day in 2015. Redditors rushed to push a button on a 60-second timer that would reset every time it was clicked. It inspired devotion and obsession much like this GameStop stock rally, and even spawned religions and cults.
The Button ended more than two months after its introduction when the timer finally hit zero with no attempts to reset it. There’s no timer here on this Discord and Reddit trade floor experiment, and nobody really knows exactly how and when it’s going to end.
(Pocket-lint) – Philips frequently refreshes its TV lineup, with new designs and updates, and 2021 will be no different.
A new range of Philips OLED TVs are coming soon. While, at the top end of its LED TV range, it will also introduce Mini LED tech for the first time.
Here then are Philips’ top TVs, from the new 2021 models to 2020 sets you can still buy now – sometimes at a discount.
We’re not covering all of them, just those that stand out based on their features and positioning.
Philips OLED TVs
TP Vision
Philips OLED 806/856
Available: TBC
Screen sizes: 48in, 55in, 65in, 77in
OLED, 3840 x 2160 pixels, HRD10+ Adaptive, Dolby Vision, HLG, Filmmaker Mode, Dolby Atmos, DTS Play-Fi, Android TV
Philips will stick with its OLED+ 935 as the flagship model for the foreseeable future, but last year’s 805 and 855 will be replaced with OLED TVs with a few new features and improved picture processing.
The difference between the 806 and 856 is largely aesthetic – coming with different stands, basically. In addition, the 856 will only be available in 55 and 65-inches. The 806, on the other hand, adds 48 and 77-inch variants – the latter being the largest OLED TV from the Philips brand yet.
One of the main additions is the P5 AI Intelligent Picture Engine – a processor that analyses images and cross references different picture situations to apply the best settings. It also has a superb anti-screen burn technology that recognises and dims static logos on screen.
In addition, each of the new OLEDs come with 4K 120Hz and variable refresh rate (VRR) technology for gaming. Those combined with ALLM (auto low latency mode) ensure that those with next-gen consoles get the most from their machines. HDMI eARC and Dolby Atmos are on board too, for audio support.
The final string to each set’s bow is four-sided Ambilight.
While it has been around for a while, the current flagship comes with many of the tech functionality of the newer models above. That includes the anti-screen burn technology that can greatly help to reduce screen retention.
This TV also comes with a class-leading Bowers & Wilkins sound system that provides a 3.1.2 surround effect, including two Dolby Atmos elevation speakers that heighten audio.
Like the 806/856, the 935 has Filmmaker Mode. It is also DTS Play-Fi enabled, which means it can link to other Philips Wireless Home System speakers to either create a wider home theatre (with rear channels) or sync music around the home.
Philips Mini LED TVs
TP Vision
Philips MiniLED 9506
Available: TBC
Screen sizes: 65in, 75in
Mini LED, 3840 x 2160 pixels, HRD10+ Adaptive, Dolby Vision, HLG, Filmmaker Mode, Dolby Atmos, DTS Play-Fi, Android TV
Philips has embraced Mini LED technology for its top-end LCD/LED TVs this year. That means the backlight uses thousands of tiny LEDs in its backlight, which are grouped into 1,000 zones. These zones can be turned off, brightened or dimmed idependently, leading to more accurate colours and better contrast than previous LED panels.
ALso, thanks to the size of the LEDs, there is less light bleed, so black levels can be much deeper and darker than ever before. It’s the closest the tech can get to OLED, yet remains more affordable.
The MiniLED 9506 comes with four-sided Ambilight and the same P5 AI Intelligent Picture Engine as the 2021 top-end OLEDs. It is also 4K 120Hz, so is capable of playing PS5 and Xbox Series X games at their best. VRR and ALLM are on board too.
HDR10+ Adaptive is added to the HDR suite of standards, which adapts the picture depending on lighting conditions.
TP Vision
Philips MiniLED 9636
Available: TBC
Screen sizes: 65in, 75in
Mini LED, 3840 x 2160 pixels, HRD10+ Adaptive, Dolby Vision, HLG, Filmmaker Mode, Dolby Atmos, DTS Play-Fi, Android TV
The MiniLED 9636 is almost identical to the 9506 above, apart from the fact that it also comes with a Bowers & Wilkins sound system built into its stand.
This 3.1.2 system provides 70W of power across all channels, while two upfiring units provide extra height for Dolby Atmos tracks.
Like all of Philips premium models in 2021, it comes with DTS Play-Fi so can hook up to other wireless speakers around the home and become part of a multiroom audio setup.
Recently, I reviewed the Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 2 (reviewed here), a $40 analogue gaming headset with excellent value for the money. The F.R.E.Q. 4 is only slightly more expensive, coming in at $53 if you’re buying it in the US. For European customers, the price gap is currently wider as the F.R.E.Q. 2 goes for €38, while the F.R.E.Q. 4 costs €61. The differences between these two headsets boil down to connectivity—instead of a 3.5-mm analogue connection, the F.R.E.Q. 4 sports USB connectivity and boasts some extras that come along with it.
The Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 4 is based on a pair of 50-mm dynamic speaker drivers (compared to 40-mm drivers on the F.R.E.Q 2). According to the manufacturer, these are “tuned for gaming,” promising a remarkable bass and crisp highs. The USB connectivity brings three features which don’t exist on the F.R.E.Q. 2: RGB lighting effects, Xear 7.1 virtual surround sound, and a software driver for tweaking. The microphone didn’t change. As such, it’s still omnidirectional, retractable, and equipped with ENC (Environmental Noise Cancellation) technology used to suppress external noise.
Specifications
50-mm dynamic drivers (neodymium magnet)
32 Ω impedance
20–20,000 Hz frequency response (specified by the manufacturer)
Closed-back, over-ear design
Retractable, omnidirectional microphone
Customizable RGB lighting system
Xear 7.1 virtual surround sound
2.2 m rubberized USB cable
In-line remote control with volume, microphone, and surround sound controls
Reddit traders who have successfully profited off GameStop (GME) stock are now turning their attention to struggling movie theater chain AMC. Reddit board r/wallstreetbets has helped push GameStop stock to record levels in recent days, with the stock closing up 92 percent yesterday alone. It’s part of a chaotic, meme-fueled effort to create an organized short squeeze, and force traditional hedge funds into losing millions of dollars on their bets against struggling companies.
AMC appears to be next on the list. Overnight, online traders at r/wallstreetbets’ Discord server spent hours creating memes and spamming AMC emoji in an effort to convince thousands of people to buy AMC stock. Hundreds swarmed rapper Soulja Boy’s live Twitch stream in a failed endeavor to get him to tweet about AMC. At one point in an ongoing Discord call — with dozens of participants shouting profanity and racial slurs — traders thought Elon Musk was on the call. After many called for quiet and to “let Elon speak,” everyone soon realized it was just a prankster using a fake Elon Musk sound board.
It was a surreal moment in what has become the hottest online game.
AMC stock up more than 400 percent in pre-market trading.
The AMC memes appear to be working, though. During pre-market trading, AMC was up more than 400 percent at one point before opening up more than 250 percent. The movie theater chain has struggled with pandemic-related losses, but it did raise more than $400 million in financing on Monday to help it stay afloat through 2021.
The mob of investors are taking part in this incredibly high-risk game in an attempt to punish hedge funds and professional financiers and make some quick cash. Thousands are buying into the idea of pummeling Wall Street professionals, and they’re using Reddit, Discord, Twitter, and Twitch to sell more people on gaming the system.
It works by targeting stocks that have a high amount of short selling attached to them, which is why GameStop and AMC are great targets after struggling through the pandemic. Short selling is a process that lets traders borrow shares for a fee and then sell them for a high price, and buy them back at a lower price to return them. Reddit is trying to force the price up so that investors, and especially hedge funds, that are short selling will lose lots of money as the stock rises. Read our full explainer on how Redditors are gaming GameStop stock.
It’s a risky game that highlights a bigger battle over the future of finance, and the idea that you can do anything online. The vast majority of Reddit investors are young and see hedge funds as the old school controlling stocks and shares and bullying companies into administration through their positions. As one poster on r/wallstreetbets put it, it’s “a tug of war between tradition and the future” that has gotten really personal. “We need to take the wealth back from these boomers,” said one member of the Discord call encouraging investment in AMC.
Investing and trading has also become incredibly easy for amateurs, thanks to apps like Robinhood. Millions have used Robinhood to make commission-free trades, and it’s a practice that has become popular during the pandemic with millions stuck at home.
This online trade game also has real life consequences. One big hedge fund, Melvin Capital, has been forced to close out of its GameStop position today with a huge loss expected, likely in the millions of dollars. It’s not clear if we’ll see the same sequence of events with AMC, but Reddit is trying to make it happen.
It can be clunky, but a chilling, gruesome atmosphere makes it work
The Medium is a game about a person who is able to live in two worlds, experiencing the realms of the living and the dead at the same time. Developed by the same team behind the 2019 adaptation of Blair Witch, it’s not an especially original concept, as games have toyed with light and dark worlds as far back as the early Zelda titles. But it’s presented in a way that’s just aboutperfect for a video game: you can wander through both realms simultaneously, controlling two versions of the character as if you were in split-screen multiplayer. It’s a clever and fascinating way of experiencing the story, and — alongside a truly haunting atmosphere — it elevates what would otherwise be a relatively trite and clunky psychological horror experience.
At the outset, Marianne is mourning the loss of her adoptive father in a way specific to her particular skill set as a medium: she not only helps with funeral arrangements, she also guides his spirit so he’s able to cross over. It’s a great setup that immediately shows how she’s able to somehow be in two places at once. Almost immediately after, she receives a phone call from a strange man urging her to visit an abandoned hotel, where it’s rumored a horrific massacre happened. Totally normal request. Trusting her gut, Marianne decides to check things out.
At its most basic, The Medium plays like a third-person adventure game. You explore small, incredibly detailed spaces, collecting items and solving puzzles. It’s the kind of game where most doors are locked or missing handles, so you can’t get through until you find the right item. Many of the puzzles are fairly simple — at any given point, you only have a handful of items in your inventory — and movement can be clunky and slow, reminiscent of the original Resident Evil games. It’s also the rare big-budget game that’s light on action: even though you’re thrown into plenty of dangerous situations, you won’t have a gun or other weapons for defense.
It may sound a bit dry, but there are a few things that elevate The Medium. The first is the dual-world conceit. At times, you’re in the normal world, and at other times, you’re in the spirit realm — but when the game is at its best, you’re in both. The two worlds are mirrors of each other: the basic layout is the same, but the vibe is very different. A regular hotel lobby might be filled with pulsating tentacles in the spirit world or maybe there’s a door made out of human skin.
But while the two spaces are largely the same, there are some slight differences. This is where most of the puzzles come in, as you have to figure out how to bypass an obstacle in one world in order to progress in both. For instance, one of the earliest has you trying to get to the second floor of a hotel even though, in the human world, the stairs have been destroyed and the elevator’s out. In order to do this, Marianne has to gather up some energy from the spirit realm — she has a handful of very convenient abilities — and use it to power the elevator.
Things start out simple like this, but they get more complex as the game moves along. Later, you’ll be swapping between worlds, using magical mirrors and other mystical objects to manipulate the space around you. My favorite puzzle has you moving objects around a dollhouse to navigate the remains of a crumbling home in the real world. The Medium also uses the split screens to great effect in cutscenes, as you can see the story playing out in both worlds; sometimes when Marianne confronts a spirit or monster, her real-world avatar does the same actions without anyone else present, Tyler Durden style.
Really, the entirety of The Medium has this slow burn. For the first few hours, it verges on generic, with a confusing story and simple puzzles. But as the narrative starts to pick up, the game becomes much more interesting. Marianne learns more about her past and the origins of her spiritual powers, and there are lots of great “ah-ha!” moments when things click into place. Likewise, the puzzles become more complex as you become adjusted to the reality of parallel worlds.
But while the story and puzzles take a while to get going, the one consistent in The Medium is its chilling atmosphere. This isn’t an action game where monsters are constantly coming after you. Instead, it’s more of a creeping dread. Almost all of the areas you’ll be exploring are small and oppressive — even the real-world versions. That could be the burned-out skeletal remains of a home, with only a few surviving objects — naturally, there are lots of creepy dolls — or an underworld with twisted bodies fused to the wall.
It can be fascinating wandering around and seeing how the two worlds differ. Other times, it’s just gruesome. And adding to the sense of dread is the only real enemy, a giant monster that stalks you throughout the game, leading to a number of tense stealth sequences. (In a nice touch, there’s a button to make Marianne hold her breath and be quiet, and you can actually feel her thumping heartbeat through the controller.)
The Medium lasts around 10 hours, which is just the right length for the story to wrap up nicely. It even ends on an Inception-style cliffhanger, where what actually happens is fairly ambiguous. (I can’t wait to have people to talk about it with.) But in terms of gameplay ideas, it does end rather abruptly: just as the game starts finding really interesting ways to play with the dual-world structure, it’s over. The last few hours are far and away the most interesting, and I wish the rest of the game was as inventive. The multiworld premise isn’t quite a game-changer, but it adds just enough to make this psychological thriller worth checking out.
The Medium launches January 28th on PC and Xbox Series X and S, and it’ll also be available to Xbox Game Pass subscribers.
(Pocket-lint) – Feeling all nostalgic? Well, if you want to dabble in a bit of old-school gaming then there’s no need to go digging the PS1 or Dreamcast out of the attic – so many of those machines’ older games have been lovingly picked up and remastered by developers. No scratched CD nightmares or cartridge-blowing attempts required.
Top Xbox Series X and Series S games: Superb next-gen titles
Best PS5 games: Amazing PlayStation 5 titles to pick up
Here, we round up 10 stone-cold classics that have been given a proper update, bringing those early PlayStation, Xbox, SNES, Dreamcast and Saturn crackers into the modern era. If you’re looking for some throwback fun, why not head straight into the past through modern technology, eh?
Demon’s Souls
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Demon’s Souls is probably the best-looking launch game for next-gen, making the most of the PS5 with amazing environments and graphics. Its sound design is unrivaled, and there’s a thrill of discovery throughout whether you’re a returning player or a first-time explorer.
It’s also a perfect remake of a classic game, which launched the Souls-like genre and introduced the world to its challenging combat and unforgiving mechanics. If you have a PS5, you owe it to yourself to try this one out.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
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It’s hard to believe that the original Link’s Awakening released some 27 years ago on the SNES. Nintendo has really dug deep for the Switch remaster, ramping up the graphics to ultra-cute levels, while maintaining the original game’s isometric viewpoint. The thing that will really take you, though, is just how darn good this game still plays – it’s got the story down to keep you hooked and feels like it could have been made yesterday, rather than decades ago.
Read our review
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Just over a decade ago one of the most controversial first-person shooters to ever arrive on the shelves caused all kinds of outrage due to one specific airport mission. And now it’s back, fully intact, and without quite so much fanfare about its questionable level. The graphics have been dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era, giving what was arguably one of the best COD titles ever a remaster that will make you relive the action all over again.
The Last of Us Remastered
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We can think of no other game before it that brought storytelling to Hollywood levels, seamlessly integrated into a wonderfully deep and engrossing action-adventure. The original game appeared on the PlayStation 3 at the very end of its life, so when the PS4 launched soon after this one was a no-brainer to bring back to life (just like a zombie, albeit far more appealing) with all the new hardware could throw at it. Still one of the best games of all time.
Read our review
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
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When Halo arrived as an Xbox exclusive almost two decades ago it gave Microsoft the stamp of approval it needed to become a console-selling winner. It was the title to redefine first-person shooters for a new generation, before Call of Duty and the like got their claws in. Throughout the Xbox and Xbox 360’s lifespan we saw Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4 – all with awe-inspiring titles, we’re sure you’ll agree – which is what makes up this extensive package, in remastered glory.
Read our review
Resident Evil 2
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We know, we know, the remastered Resident Evil 3 is also out now. But there’s just something about the second title in that series that really gets us; something altogether more classic about it. And after 22 years its debut, the remastered Resi almost feels more applicable than ever. In times of lockdown and social isolation there’s something all the more terrifying about this one.
Read our review
Uncharted Trilogy: The Nathan Drake Collection
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Developed by Naughty Dog, Nathan Drake’s escapades throughout the trio of Uncharted games titillated gamers in a series of releases equally spaced over six years. The action-adventure game brought what Naughty Dog does so well: integrating story into really fun video-gaming. Knowing that Uncharted 4 was coming to PS4, Sony did a clever thing in releasing the original trio for that console back in 2015. Even now these games are a step-by-step masterclass in structure, well worth a revisit.
Shadow of the Colossus
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This is an unusual one. The original PS2 went against the grain, delivering an open-world with not a huge amount of direction, places to visit or interaction. Which sounds like a mirror of the lockdown world of today, eh? The goal in Shadow is to take down huge colossi, making it more of a puzzler than many games of the era. And reimagined for PS4 everything looks altogether more, um, colossal in the graphics department.
Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy
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The first three Crash Bandicoot games were a breath of fresh air in an era that took platform games into three-dimensions. Even in the 90s these were immense fun, but if you were to look at the originals now your jaw would drop for the lack of fidelity. Thankfully, Sony has brought the trio right back up to date with N Sane Trilogy – you wouldn’t even know these were over two decades old. And if this is up your street, don’t forget about Spyro Reignited too.
Read our review
Panzer Dragoon
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Some will love it, some will hate it. We’re very much in the former camp, as this classic was the game to introduce us to next-gen playing as it was back in Sega Saturn era 1995. Sure, the PlayStation stomped all over the 3D rendering capabilities, but as Japan-style shooters went, this one always made us think of Star Fox, Sega style. And now you can pick it up, reworked, for the Nintendo Switch. Lovely.
Writing by Mike Lowe. Editing by Max Freeman-Mills.
(Pocket-lint) – Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag is a Bluetooth tracker, looking to extend the reach of SmartThings Find beyond those devices with their own connection, like a phone or a tablet.
It follows very much in the mould of Tile, the company that basically created and has dominated the Bluetooth tracker market up to this point. So does the Galaxy SmartTag impress, or is this a tracker that’s a little lost because it’s locked to Samsung-only phones?
Design & Build
Dimensions: 38 x 38 x 8mm / Weight: 12g
Finishes: Black or Oatmeal
IPX3 water resistance
CR2032 battery
There’s not much to the SmartTag. It’s a squircle, approximately 38mm square, with rounded corners. It’s about 8mm thick at the fattest point, although again it’s rounded towards the edges, so it’s like a smooth pebble.
Coming in two colours, there’s very little to talk about – apart from the important IPX3 water resistance. We left the SmartTag out in the snow over a weekend (accidentally, of course) and found it still to be working come Monday morning, which is exactly what you’d want from it.
Pocket-lint
There’s a hole in one corner so you can attach it to things. The idea is that you put it on your keyring, slip it into a bag or attach it to other valuables, and then essentially forget about it.
One side of the SmartTag features a touch area – which is how you access the device’s features – which is not a physical button. Instead the centre of the device, where the Galaxy SmartTag logo sits, depresses with a satisfying click.
There’s a small on-board beeper that will respond to presses and also acts as the alarm so you can “ring” the tag when you’re trying to find it.
Pocket-lint
You can prise the SmartTag open and inside you’ll find a CR2032 battery – rated for 280 days of use – meaning you can easily replace it, just as you can in a device like the Tile Pro.
How the Galaxy SmartTag works
Bluetooth Low Energy Connection (BLE)
Requires Galaxy smartphone/device
Controlled via the SmartThings app
Inside the Galaxy SmartTag is the battery and Bluetooth Low Energy chip, which is how you connect to the device. Everything is managed through the SmartThings app. Although SmartThings is available across platforms, only Galaxy devices running Android 8 or higher have support for the SmartTag – if you try to connect anything else to it, it won’t work.
Setup will require you to log into the SmartThings app using your Samsung account, then it’s a quick process of pairing with the SmartTag. That establishes a Bluetooth connection, but it also connects your tag into SmartThings, so you’ll see it appear in other devices running the SmartThings app too. That means that once you’ve connected it to one Samsung device, you’ll be able to find it on all Samsung devices (running Android 8 or later), without the need to connect it to each new phone.
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The SmartTag itself has no intelligence itself; any location that is logged, or location finding, comes from the information gathered by your phone and that’s essentially how it works.
Because it is connected to your phone, your phone will know where it is thanks to its own location tracking. While you’re within Bluetooth range of the SmartTag, you’ll always be able to “ring” it via the SmartThings app to find whatever it is attached to.
But when you’re out of range, your phone will be able to tell you the last location that it was connected to the Tag. That will mean, for example, that if you leave your keys in a café, your phone will know that it was last connected to the SmartTag at that café and show you the location via the SmartThings app.
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That side of things is simple, but Samsung is pushing tracking a little further via the Galaxy Find Network. When you lose your SmartTag, you won’t be able to detect it once you’re out of range – which is about 15 metres in our experience. But other Samsung phones will be able to detect it and report the location back to you.
Like Tile, this happens in the background, anonymously and in encrypted form, so you don’t need to worry about your privacy being compromised, whether you’re detecting someone else’s item or have someone else detect yours.
Once your SmartTag has been detected (either by your own phone or by another Galaxy user), you’ll be sent the location, at which point you can use SmartThings Find to show you the location – including getting directions from the map and a precise postcode.
A Galaxy of millions of users
While finding things in your home is much more straightforward – it will be within Bluetooth range so you can “ring” it and then go and find it – it’s the ou-of-home aspect of the SmartTag that has a lot more value.
The ability for a Samsung Galaxy phone to find your lost SmartTag is governed by the Find My Mobile system, which is tied into the Samsung account. So for someone to contribute to the system, they need to be a Samsung account user, first and foremost, which is optional on Samsung phones.
Pocket-lint
It’s within the Find My Mobile settings that you’ll find the option to contribute to “offline finding” which is the part of the system that can anonymously find SmartTags and return information to Samsung’s system to feedback to the original owner.
That makes for millions of potential devices that can locate a SmartTag. The Tile system, on the other hand – while it works with both Apple and Android devices – only works among Tile users. Samsung has the potential to use its massive market presence to deliver a really good system. Unfortunately, you’ll never really know how well that system is working until you lose a tag and have it located by an anonymous Samsung owner.
To a certain extent you’re dependent on Samsung phone owners also using the Find My Mobile option on their devices – but unlike Tile, they won’t have to be SmartTag users or owners to help build the locator network, which is a postitive.
It’s all about SmartThings Find
Works within the SmartThings app
Gives map location and direction
As we’ve mentioned, the SmartTag sits within the SmartThings app on Samsung devices. While it will be registered to your list of SmartThings devices and appear within the app on non-Samsung phones, it will only say that it exists, but that it’s not supported.
On a Samsung phone, however, you’ll see the SmartTag listed with a nearby reading when it’s close at hand. Clicking through you can access details on the Tag, such as the battery level and the ringtone settings.
You can also opt to have the SmartTag detect your phone. This will mean you can double-press the button and have your phone ring, which is useful for finding your phone if you’ve misplaced it.
Pocket-lint
You can also assign other functions to a single- or long-press of that button. This useful feature will let you create routines or actions within SmartThings. For example, you could have it arm the security system when you leave the house, or to open the garage door and turn on the lights when you return home. It’s customisable, so you can get it to do what you want, as long as those actions are within your SmartThings app. It uses a simple ‘If and Then’ system so it’s easy to setup.
Locating the SmartTag is handled by the SmartThings Find side of things. This is the same system that Samsung will let you use to find other Samsung devices you have registered to your Samsung account, including headphones like like Galaxy Buds Pro.
Opening up SmartThings Find will show a map displaying the location, or last connected location of all your devices, including the SmartTag. It’s within the map that you can toggle on the option to be notified when your lost SmartTag is found.
Pocket-lint
You can also tap through to navigation instructions to take you to the location on the map. That will mean that if your missing SmartTag is detected in an unexpected location, you flip right over to Google Maps and travel to that location.
To try and help you find something you can use the Scan Nearby function which will try to move you in closer to that item. However, in the case of the SmartTag, once you’re within Bluetooth range, you’ll get a notification on your phone and you’ll be able to use the ring function so you can track down the sound and find whatever you have lost. We located a hidden tracker at night easily enough after recieving a notification of its location and using the ring function to track it down precisely.
One feature that seems to be missing is the “you’re leaving without” option, which Tile has on its Premium offering, alerting you when you’re leaving something behind. This is the system that would alert you to the fact that you’ve left the café without your keys, for example, because that strongly connected device has now lost connection.
Verdict
The Galaxy SmartTag is Samsung getting into a new area, looking to use the scale of its smartphone network to enable locating a lost item on a massive scale. The SmartTag works exactly as you’d expect it to – the alarm is loud enough to hear and we’ve had no problem with connecting to the device or locating it when we’ve delibrately lost it.
It’s likely to be slightly confusing for some people that it’s only supported on the Samsung network and not the wider SmartThings network – the latter which is universal across Apple and Android devices too. That will mean for the most benefit, everyone you want to be able to find a SmartTag will have to have a Samsung phone – while you’ll also have to stick to using a Samsung phone in the future or you’ll lose the ability to use SmartTags. Samsung says it has no plans to support other devices.
To a certain extent, the existing Tile offering is more attractive – there are more options for device types, universal support across Apple and Android devices, and an existing network of users – as you’re not restricted by Samsung’s walled garden. But for a committed Samsung user, the SmartTag will do much the same, without the need to sign-up to another service.
Also consider
Tile Pro
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It’s no surprise that Tile is the alternative, given that it’s the dominant player in this small market. Universal compatibility and a wider range of products to choose from is a natural advantage.
Read our full review
Writing by Chris Hall. Editing by Mike Lowe.
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