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Dreo MC710S Air Purifier Tower Fan review

6:00 pm | September 13, 2024

Dreo MC710S air purifier: two-minute review

The Dreo MC710S is part tower fan, part air purifier. It promises both cleaner air and a cooler room with a host of smart features thrown in for good measure. It’s definitely on the larger, heavier side, and its industrial grey/silver plastic finish may not win any beauty contests. But, its height and build are practical and deliberate to make sure it offers the range of features and power needed.

One such feature is its dual DC motors. These motors push air at a speed of up to 27 feet per second, meaning you can put it at one end of a large-to-medium-sized room and still feel a breeze at the other. The oscillation option, which covers up to 120 degrees, then makes sure this air reaches into the corners of the room (albeit at an oscillating speed that's much slower than I'd like).

The fan operates in four modes: Normal, Sleep, Auto, and Breeze. The Sleep mode lowers the fan speed and noise, making it barely noticeable at night. The Auto mode adjusts the fan speed based on the room's temperature. As its name suggests, Breeze mode creates a gentle flow of air; this is the default setting for when the purifier is running. Note that you can run the fan without the purifier, but not the purifier without the fan. This is a little annoying when you just want to clear, and not cool the air, but it's a minor complaint. Overall, it compares well to the rest of the best fans on the market.

Dreo MC710S air purifier and fan — (Image credit: Future)

Speaking of the purifier, the MC710S' dual filtration system includes a pre-filter and a True HEPA filter. This combo captures 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns, making it great for reducing allergens, dust, and other pollutants. During my review, I noticed a significant drop in dust and pollen, and my hayfever was noticeably more manageable.

There are three purification settings – Low (1), Medium (2) and High (3) – plus an Auto mode that automatically adjusts the power based on the air quality. In tests, the low setting was pretty slow and poor at clearing particulates from the air, yet the high setting was fantastic, clearing dirty air in minutes. The purifier is not as great at getting rid of smells as other, cheaper purifiers I've used like the Levoit 300S, though, so if you’re cooking or have pets, you might still notice some lingering odors.

One of my favorite things about the MC710S is its smart features and remote controls. You can change the settings on the MC710S using the Dreo app, remote control, or through voice commands with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Setting this up is straightforward, and I loved the convenience of being able to adjust settings without getting up. The app shows near-live air quality data and lets you set schedules, which is a nice touch.

The LED touch display on the fan itself is also intuitive, showing all your selected settings at a glance. The unit also features a color-coded light strip that indicates air quality: blue for Excellent, green for Good, orange for Moderate, and red for Poor. This visual cue is handy for quickly seeing the air quality in your room but I'd like the option to enable alerts that warn me when levels are higher than they should be in case I'm not in the room.

If you’re looking for a multi-purpose appliance that improves your home's air quality and keeps you cool, the MC710S is definitely worth considering. While it's not the most aesthetically pleasing of appliances and lacks some finesse, its performance, smart features, and ease of use make it a worthwhile investment.

Dreo MC710S air purifier tower fan review: price and availability

List price: $299.99
Available in the US

The MC710S is available in the US from Dreo, Amazon and Walmart.

At first glance, the Dreo MC710S's $300 price looks to be on the expensive side. Especially when no other Dreo tower fans exceed $150, and its standalone purifiers top out at $210, for the Macro Max S . In fact, the MC701S is the most expensive product across Dreo's product range.

However, this price looks more reasonable when you consider that you effectively get two appliances in one; rival products such as Dyson's $649.99 TP07 Purifier Cool or the $550 LG AeroTower Air Purifying Fan are around twice the price; and the MC710S is full of the latest motor and smart tech.

The most like-for-like alternatives to the Dreo MC710S are the $299.99 Shark HC450, and the $239.99 Hunter HPF500. The Shark model offers a heater function, but lacks Dreo's dual-motor, while the Hunter fan is cheaper because it has fewer speed settings – 9 versus 12 – and lacks Dreo's smart features, but offers the same HEPA protection.

While $299.99 is far from cheap, it represents good value for money in terms of features, protection, versatility and tech. The smart controls elevate it above many competitors, and with its multi-function design, you don't have to buy or store multiple products.

Value for money score: 4 out of 5

Dreo MC710S Air Purifier Tower Fan specs

Dreo MC710S Air Purifier Tower Fan review: design

Bulky, industrial design
Digital, color-coded controls

No matter how you look at it, the Dreo MC710S is large, bulky and bordering on ugly with its industrial-looking grey/silver plastic finish. Measuring 46.46 inches x 118cm tall, it's much taller than I was expecting and looks like a tower fan balanced on top of a purifier... which it technically is. The top half of the appliance is where you'll find the controls, LED display and the tower fan portion of the MC710S. Below the tower fan section is a transparent cylinder where the MC710S' dual-motors can be seen spinning, and this cylinder sits on top of the purifier element.

The touch control icons, and the corresponding remote control buttons, are relatively self-explanatory and (moving anti-clockwise) represent:

Timer: This button lets you set a timer. Once the allotted time has passed, the fan will automatically turn off.
Info: This button get you access to the fan's settings.
Minus symbol: Used to reduce the fan speed.
Power button
Plus symbol: Used to increase fan speed.
Purification mode: This button is used to select what level of purification you need, ranging from Auto up to Level 3.
Oscillation: Used to set the oscillation range of the tower fan, from 0° to 120°

All of your selected settings are then shown on the LED display located at the top of the tower fan, below the touch panel. This display lets you see, at a glance, the room temperature, which purifying and fan modes are enabled, the lifespan of your filter, and the fan speed (when adjusted manually).

It also features a thin strip of light that changes color based on your room's air quality. A blue light means the air quality is Excellent; green means it's Good; orange warns you when particulate levels are Moderate and higher than they should be; while a red light is an indication that your air quality is Poor.

The remote control features the same icons found on the touch panel. Alternatively, you can control the MC710S using the Dreo app, or via your voice by connecting the air purifier tower fan to your Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant.

Setup of these smart features is quick and easy. In fact, setup of the appliance generally takes less than five minutes, including getting it out of the box and removing the plastic cover from the filter. The only slightly lengthy task in the whole process is setting up a Dreo account, but even this is painless.

Elsewhere, there is a carry handle on the rear of the appliance to make it easy to move around, but the bulky shape and hefty, 17.8lbs / 8.1kg weight don't lend themselves well to portability so you're unlikely to move the fan after you've got it in place.

I typically like to move my purifier into different rooms, depending on my needs i.e I put it in the kitchen when I'm cooking steak or fajitas, or I put it in my youngest son's room at night when the pollen count is high. This is nigh-on impossible with the MC710S. To put this weight into perspective, the Dyson Purifier Hot+Cool Formaldehyde HP09 which is often seen as one of the bulkiest on the market weighs less, at 12.6lbs / 5.5kg.

With the MC710S, it's clear Dreo has prioritized function over form. It doesn't win any points for subtlety, nor does it blend seamlessly into the background, but it is incredibly easy to set up and use and the extra height and weight helps maximize its performance.

Design score: 3 out of 5

Dreo MC710S Air Purifier Tower Fan review: performance

Powerful airflow
Doesn't reduce odors as well as expected
Purification speeds vary

The Dreo MC710S aims to hit the sweet spot between being a powerful fan and an effective air purifier and it almost manages it.

As a fan, the Dreo MC710S works well. It's powered by dual DC motors and pushes air at a speed of up 27 feet per second. This means that if you place it at one end of a large-to-medium-sized room, you’ll feel a breeze all the way across the room, even on the lower speeds. The oscillation feature, which swings up to 120 degrees, then helps make sure the cool air reaches the corners of the room. The fan comes with four modes – Normal, Sleep, Auto and Breeze.

The Sleep setting lowers the fan speed, and noise. The Breeze setting reduces the power of the air flow, and the Auto setting sees the fan automatically adjusting its speed setting based on the room's ambient temperature. The fan isn't as powerful or effective as an air conditioner, and the oscillation speed is slower than I'd like, but it does a decent job of making a room feel cooler by moving the air around efficiently.

The downside is that the blast of air is almost icy and this can feel a little uncomfortable if you get the angle, speed or distance slightly wrong. It took a fair amount of tweaking and experimenting to find the optimum settings. Talking of settings, the fan can be on without the purifier, but the purifier can't be on without the fan. As soon as your turn the purifier on, the fan runs gently on 'Breeze' mode and oscillates at a default 30 degrees. You can't disable these features.

I assume that this helps to improve the effectiveness of the purifier, because I don't know why else this would be the case, but it's not always needed and meant that I had to be particular about where I placed the unit so I wasn't cold while the purifier was running. On Breeze mode, as well as on the lower fan settings the fan is whisper quiet. I barely even realised it was on. The noise does increase considerably on higher settings – as high as 69dB on the top speed, which is around the sound of a car running – and this makes it difficult to have on when you're watching TV or similar. Especially if you're the one sat closest to it.

When it comes to air purification, the Dreo MC710S uses a dual filtration system that includes a pre-filter, which traps larger particles like dust and hair, as well as a True HEPA filter. The MC710S promises to captures 99.97% of tiny particles as small as 0.3 microns and this means it can reduce allergens, dust, and other pollutants in the air. My son and I both suffer from hayfever and even on days when there were so-called 'pollen bombs' in my local area, neither of us experienced symptoms to the extent we normally would. This makes it great for people with asthma, allergies or other respiratory problems.

What's more, my kitchen was undergoing a renovation during my review period and the purifier helped remove a noticeable amount of the dust in the air. Even though it wasn't in the kitchen itself, and was in the living room on the other side of the house. It performed less admirably in removing odors, compared to some other air purifiers I've tested such as the Levoit 300S.

There are three purification settings – Low (1), Medium (2) and High (3) – plus an Auto mode that automatically adjusts the power based on the air quality. To test these purifying capabilities, I sprayed deodorant directly at the purifier for five seconds and timed how long it took for the air quality to return to normal on the lowest, and highest settings.

During the first test, on the lowest setting, the particulate level rose to 880ug/m3. It then took an hour and 15 minutes to return the air quality to normal/excellent. By comparison, on the highest setting it took just 15 minutes to go from Poor (960ug/m3) to Excellent. Interestingly, the purifier continues to take air quality readings even when it's not on, and this is useful for identifying trends and tracking air-quality changes based on certain events.

I just wish that it would alert me when air quality reached dangerous levels so I could turn the purifier on and clear the room. Or even better, it turned on automatically – from being plugged in but switched off – cleared the particulates and turned off again. I found myself regularly asking "Alexa, what is the PM2.5 of Tower Fan" and becoming almost obsessive about it. A little more automation would give me peace of mind.

Speaking of voice controls, this soon became my favorite way to control the fan. If I heard a lot of drilling going on downstairs, I could ask Alexa to turn the purifier on and off while upstairs. It let me set timers and adjust the fan remotely, so the room was cool for when my sons got home from school, and I could then track all of these settings on the Dreo app. This convenience goes a long way towards mitigating some of the minor complaints I have about the unit.

I didn't have the purifier on constantly during the four-week review period. I would use it twice a day – once in the morning and once in the evening – to clear the room, occasionally turning it on at other times, when we had friends over or when the building work was particularly busy. The filter only dropped to 98% during this time. A replacement filter costs $39.99 and Dreo recommends replacing it at least every six months so you need to factor this cost in.

Overall, the Dreo Air Purifier Tower Fan MC710S does a decent job as both a fan and a purifier. It has its flaws, and there are features that could elevate it from decent to good, or even great, but it works as you'd expect and does what you need it to do.

Performance score: 4 out of 5

Dreo MC710S Air Purifier Tower Fan review: voice control

Easy to set up
Adds an extra level of control and personalization
Perfect when juggling work or the kids

One of the standout features of the Dreo MC710S is the ability to control it using voice commands via your smart speaker. I have Amazon Echos in a number of rooms across my house and being able to check on the air quality, and control the purifier and fan no matter where I was in my home, was great.

Once the purifier is connected to your home Wi-Fi, it can connect to any Amazon Echo or Google Home device on the same network at the press of a button through the Dreo app. This app also gives you voice command prompts to get you started, which can be found via Settings and clicking the voice assistant you've connected it to – either Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant.

You can ask Google or Alexa to turn the purifier on and off and adjust the fan speed – either by asking it to select a specific speed, increasing or decreasing the speed, or setting it to maximum/minimum. You can also ask your smart speaker to set the MC710S to a specific mode – Normal, Auto, Sleep, or Breeze. By connecting to Alexa, you can also access basic controls via the Alexa app – on/off, fan speed, mode, and display options.

Dreo MC710S Air Purifier Tower Fan review: app

Offers a range of control options
Color-coded design is intuitive and simple to use
Near-live air quality data

The app, as well as using voice commands, is one of my favorite features of the Dreo MC710S. It's intuitive, and everything is well-labelled and clear. An image of the fan sits in the center of the app's home page. If you have multiple Dreo devices you can swipe left and right to access each. Below this image on the left is a clock icon, where you can quickly set the fan to turn on after a set amount of time, plus the on/off button on the right.

Below the clock icon is the Climate widget that shows the live air-quality levels above the ambient temperature, next to a Schedules widget. In the next row is your current filter life, and the settings menu.

When the device is on, you can see which mode it's on and whether both the fan and purifier are enabled, or just the fan. Clicking either of these icons takes you to detailed controls page which shows:

Mode
Temperature
A live air quality reading with corresponding color
Purification on/off button
Fan on/off button
Fan mode controls and speed slider
Oscillation controls
Preferences

Clicking the Climate widget shows you air quality and temperature readings for the past 24 hours, and 30 days. These readings are shown on a color-coded chart – red for Poor, orange for Moderate, green for Good, and blue for Excellent. As the air quality changes, so does this number and the screen's color.

Despite the fact these charts deal with some complex information and could be confusing, Dreo makes them easy to navigate and read by carrying through its color-coded system and keeping details to a minimum.

There's a delay of around five minutes in this chart being updated following an air quality change, so it's not hugely useful in the moment, but it's interesting and useful to check after the fact. It's also reassuring to see how the levels change over the day and how well the purifier responds.

App score: 5 out of 5

Should I buy the Dreo MC710S Air Purifier Tower Fan?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

You're on a budget
At $299.99, the Dreo MC710S is pricey compared to other standalone fans and purifiers on the market.

How I tested the Dreo MC710S Air Purifier Tower Fan

I used the Dreo MC710S Air Purifier Tower Fan and its partner app for 4 weeks
Stress testing different substances
Experimented with different speeds, modes and settings

I used the Dreo MC710S Air Purifier Tower Fan in the living room of my home for four weeks in peak hayfever season. During which time my kitchen was also being renovated and builders were in the house every day.

Every morning and evening I used the device to track and manage the air quality, and used the fan on a range of speeds and settings in different scenarios, including when I had friends over. I also experimented with controlling the device using the Dreo app, the physical remote control, and via my Amazon Alexa speaker.

To test the air purification monitoring and speed, I sprayed a heavy particulate aerosol (deodorant) on the purifier for five seconds while it was in different purification modes and timed how long it took for the air to clear. I also measured the volume with a mobile phone decibel meter.

One-minute review

How can you unlock a door? Let me count the ways. That's the ethos of the current generation of best smart locks, including the new Lockly Visage Zeno Series smart deadbolt. It will happily let you gain access with an old-fashioned key, fingerprint, pin code, your face, your smartphone, and even your smartwatch.

This is the second Lockly smart lock I’ve brought into my home and, if I'm being honest, I didn't have high hopes. My last Lockly worked well enough, but it also ate through AA batteries as if they were candy (eight at a time!), needed a dedicated and finicky Wi-Fi hub, and seemed incapable of remembering fingerprints for more than a week. It was also large, loud, and – as my wife often told me – ugly.

The Lockly Visage, though, is a welcome change of pace. Not only is it 35% smaller and more attractive-looking on both sides of the door, it finally uses a rechargeable battery pack, and it even ships with two batteries so that when one drains, you have another fully-charged one ready to go.

It's got built-in Wi-Fi (and Bluetooth), which means you no longer need to have a separate hub and, perhaps best of all, it's Apple Home Key-compatible, which means you can unlock your door with one of the best iPhones.

Unlike my last Lockly, the Visage does not include a video doorbell, but that's fine, since that only worked half the time with my old lock. Instead, there's a camera on the front that lets you use your face (once you've registered it) to unlock the door. While I got so tired of the various quirks of my previous Lockly that I didn’t bother to change out the batteries, so we were basically using it as a dumb deadbolt, the new Lockly Visage feels like its first truly smart lock.

In particular, the integration with Apple Home Key allows us to do proximity unlocking. When we pull into our driveway, the home network sees that we’re there and asks if we want to run the unlock routine before we even set foot on the front porch. I could get used to this.

Lockly Visage Zeno Series review: price and availability

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List price: $349
Available at Home Dept starting September 5
Not currently for sale on Amazon
US only

At $349, the Lockly Visage Zeno Series smart deadbolt ranks as one of the more expensive smart locks. The August Smart Lock Pro, which lacks features like facial recognition, and fingerprint unlocking (like the Lockly, it does support Apple HomeKit, Alexa, and Google) might run you a hundred less. Such is the price of versatility.

Along with the two control units (for the front and back of the door), the Lockly Visage ships with a pair of rechargeable batteries, the deadbolt, door-open sensors, and two keys.

The smart deadbolt is only available in the US for now. Lockly says: "The Zeno Series of locks will launch in the US first. The company will continue to bring new products to the global audience, including the Zeno Series, at a later date."

Value: 4/5

Lockly Visage Zeno Series review: specifications

Lockly Visage Zeno Series review: design and installation

Helpful video guide
Drops the ball on wiring storage
Solid construction

Even under the best circumstances, deadbolt installation can be difficult. While much of the hardware is standardized, I’ve found that you often must make small adjustments to compensate for differences in hardware. Sometimes, this involves chipping away a bit of wood to make space for slightly different-shaped deadbolt plates, while other times you might need to carve out space for a sensor.

I was lucky, though. My previous Lockly smart deadbolt installation meant that most of the pieces of the Lockly Visage just fit. I didn’t even have to cut a new space for the magnet side of the deadbolt sensor; I just left the old one in place in my door frame and lined up the new sensor with it on the door side.

This is not to say there were no installation issues. Smartlocks use DC electricity and a bundle of wiring to make their magic and I found that while most of Lockly's installation instructions were clear, when I had to fit a cluster of cables behind the interior side lock and battery pack, they didn’t fit. It took me a bit of trial and error to realize that some of that wiring had to be shoved back inside the lock housing to properly seat the interior lock on my door.

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Lockly also shipped me an optional smart deadbolt insert that I could've used to get rid of the external door-closed sensors. Unfortunately, the installation would have entailed dismantling a sealed part of the Lockly Visage's interior housing, and I didn‘t feel comfortable doing that (at least not yet).

Once I had everything seated properly, both sides of the lock fit snugly against my door. The exterior plate is smaller and less cluttered than my old Lockly. I like that it no longer has what I saw as an unnecessary metal cover over the keyhole.

The interior cover now slips off easily to access a battery compartment that takes one palm-sized battery pack. As soon as I put it in and pressed the program key for four seconds, the Lockly Visage began a self-check. I noticed that the battery was only 60% charged. I plugged the other one into a USB-C charger just to make sure it would be ready for when this one died. One of the benefits of using Apple HomeKit is that I can run the Lockly without Wi-Fi access and save a significant amount of battery life. I've left it on to see how quickly the battery drains and, after almost a week of use, its down to 58%, just 2% lower than where it started.

Design and installation: 4.5/5

Lockly Visage Zeno Series review: control

Decent app with a lot of options (sometimes hidden)
The best use of Apple HomeKit
Unlock the way you want

The app setup was easy, and integration with Apple HomeKit was a matter of scanning the code on the lock and then adding it to my Home.

Apple HomeKit and the Home app controller turned out to be a highlight of the Lockly Visage experience. The Home app asked me if I wanted to automate unlocking using my iPhone and I said yes. All four of my family members are registered as part of my Apple iCloud Family account, which means that now all of them can unlock the door with their phones.

To unlock, you need to hold your phone near the lock and using FaceID to confirm your identity.

Lockly Visage Zeno Series smart lock on Apple Home — Lockly Visage Zeno Series on Apple Home (Image credit: Future)

My wife, ever the skeptic about all things smart-home, was impressed that the system just worked. And when she found that she could set up the system to unlock when she arrived home she admitted, "That might be useful." And when it actually worked she called it "amazing." That's high praise indeed from someone who expressed outright hatred for our previous Lockly smart lock.

While I was happy to continue using my phone and watch to unlock the door, I did set up fingerprint recognition, which let me register multiple fingers in succession. I like that the fingerprint scanner is now on the front of the external lock instead of the side.

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For FaceID unlocking, I registered my face by looking at the lock from different angles as the app on the phone guided me through the process. Such operations require Bluetooth, which means I need to keep my phone close to the lock for face unlock to work.

I am a bit disappointed that Lockly went with Bluetooth 4.2 instead of the longer-range BLE 5.0. Similarly, it's unfortunate that the Lockly Visage only supports 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi and not 5GHz Wi-Fi.

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Lockly Visage Zeno Series smart deadbolt — The smart lock with the deadbolt extended (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

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To unlock with my face, I need to tap a small circle on the Lockly Visage outside unit’s screen. It worked pretty much instantly. Both Lockly and Apple's Home App will notify me when the door is locked, unlocked, or jammed. I turned off the notifications from Apple's Home app because it was becoming too much.

Another nice but not immediately obvious upgrade is that this smart deadbolt is a lot quieter than my last Lockly. I can still hear the motor locking and unlocking but, it's noticeably quieter.

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Performance: 4.5/5

Should I buy the Lockly Visage Zeno Series ?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Lockly Visage Zeno Series review: Also consider

Lockly Visage Zeno Series not for you? Try out one of these alternatives...

How I tested the Lockly Visage Zeno Series smart deadbolt

I installed it in my home's front door
We use it every day

I installed the Lockely Visage Zeno Series smart deadbolt in my home’s front door, which is our primary point of access.

We tested and continue to use all the features of the lock, especially the HomeKit-enabled automation features.

DJI Neo: release date and price

Released September 5 2024
The base kit costs just $199 / £169 / AU$299
Fly More Bundle costs £299 / AU$539 but not available in the US

The DJI Neo was announced and is available for sale in the DJI Store and other retailers on September 5 2024. Despite the multiple ways the Neo can be controlled, there are two main kits available with the base kit including the drone, battery and accessories costing $199 / £169 / AU$299.

This kit allows for controller-free and app-controlled flight, while the Fly More Bundle includes the drone, a DJI RC-N3 Controller, three Smart Batteries and a Battery Charging Hub. This kit costs $289 (DJI Neo Combo in US which doesn't include the controller) / £299 / AU$539.

The Fly More Bundle allows for controller-free, app control and to fly the Neo like a camera drone using the RC-N3 Controller. The Neo can also be paired with the DJI FPV Remote Controller 3 and DJI Goggles 3 for manual FPV flight, or the goggles and the DJI RC Motion 3 for intuitive FPV control.

If you don’t already own these devices, they will drive up the cost of the Neo substantially to the point where the DJI Avata 2 could be the better option if FPV is your thing.

DJI Neo on stone at an angle — (Image credit: James Abbott)

DJI Neo: design and handling

Micro whoop design
Enclosed propellers
Single axis gimbal

To cut a corner or two, the easiest way to describe the Neo is to say it’s a little like a mini DJI Avata 2; it has propeller guards, but with top and bottom guards to protect people during autonomous flight, and the camera sits at the front and moves and stabilizes mechanically on a single axis. Horizontal stabilization is applied electronically in-camera.

DJI Neo key specs

Camera: 12MP 1/2-inch sensor
Video resolution: Up to 4K
Frame rates: 4K 30fps / FHD up to 60fps
Video transmission range: 6.2 miles (FCC), 3.7 miles (CE/SRRC/MIC)
Flight modes: Sport, Normal, Cine (Manual with the FPV Controller 3)
Battery: 1435mAh / up to 18 minutes flight time
Charger type: USB-C / Battery Charging Hub
Weight: 4.76oz / 135g
Dimensions: 5.12x6.18x1.90in / 130×157×48.5mm

In DJI’s signature light grey that’s used for the Mini series of drones, the Neo is incredibly small and lightweight. It’s essentially slightly larger than the palm of your hand, which is ideal for palm take-off and landing, and weighs in at a mere 4.76oz / 135g. This makes it regulator-friendly in most regions since it’s below the all-important 250g threshold, but remember to check local rules if it’s your first drone.

Despite the low weight, the Neo is built to a high quality and feels robust in the hand. The top-mounted propeller guards are removable to allow the propellers to be changed when necessary, but the main propeller guards are part of the airframe. This suggests that home repairs won’t be possible if damage occurs in a crash so if you plan on using the Neo for FPV, taking out DJI Care Refresh would be a good choice.

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DJI Neo top view — (Image credit: James Abbott)

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DJI Neo bottom view — (Image credit: James Abbott)

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DJI Neo downward vision sensors — (Image credit: James Abbott)

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DJI Neo propeller guards — (Image credit: James Abbott)

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DJI RC-N3 Controller for the DJI Neo — (Image credit: James Abbott)

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DJI Neo Battery Charging Hub — (Image credit: James Abbott)

I’ve already listed all of the controller options so I won’t go into detail again, but will instead focus on the DJI Fly app and the RC-N3 Controller, which are part of the standard kits and are likely to be the most commonly used control methods.

The Neo can be flown without an app, using just the mode button on the top to initiate autonomous flight, using the DJI Fly app as a ground station for autonomous flight or using the on-screen controls.

The Fly More bundle include the DJI RC-N3 Controller, which extends the transmission distance from 50m when using the app with the Neo’s WiFi to standard camera drone distances.

These are, of course, governed by the aviation authority where you live. The RC-N3 Controller also makes the Neo behave like a camera drone, with standard controls and features such as Return to Home.

DJI Neo: features and performance

Unremarkable flight speeds
Intelligent flight modes
AI subject tracking

The Neo is pretty pedestrian in terms of flight speed at just 1.11mph in Cine mode, 13.42mph in Normal mode and 17.89mph in Sport mode when flying autonomously or using the RC-N3 Controller. It feels slow but is certainly fast enough to track most subjects, including cyclists, with that top speed.

Flight speed is doubled to 35.79mph when using the DJI FPV Remote Controller 3 in Manual mode, so it does have some grunt tucked up its sleeve if you have the right controller and DJI Goggles 3. Not to mention, the skills and ability to fly in this mode alongside the cash available to purchase the controller and goggles if you don’t already own a set.

For beginners though, these speeds won’t cause any issues and the ability to fly the Neo with or without any other device, through voice control or manually like a camera drone using the DJI Fly app controls or the RC-N3 Controller is ideal. For drone-only use of the Neo, it can take off and land in the palm of your hand once the selected intelligent flight mode has completed, except for Follow mode.

DJI Neo close-up of flight mode options on the drone — (Image credit: James Abbott)

Intelligent flight modes include Follow, Dronie, Circle, Rocket, Spotlight and Custom (Omni, Helix, and Boomerang). AI subject tracking also aims to keep the subject in the centre of the frame during photo and video capture, so if you’re taking a group photo with the Neo, for example, you’d have to make sure you’re standing centre front.

The overall design of the Neo has safety in mind, and when used with the RC-N3 Controller you can enjoy GPS, an on-screen map and Return to Home. There’s no collision avoidance, but there are downward vision positioning sensors with a precision range of 0.5-10m. Plus, the Neo offers up to level 4 wind resistance, which is 18mph.

When used with the DJI RC Motion 3 Controller, as well as enjoying intuitive motion controls for FPV flight, you can also take advantage of Easy ACRO where you can Flip, Roll and 180° Drift the Neo. It’s an easy way to enjoy acro flight without advanced manual flight skills and is inherited from the Avata 2 when paired with the Motion 3. This is by far the easiest way to fly FPV flight.

DJI Neo: image and video quality

1/2-inch sensor
Up to 4K 30fps video
12MP JPEG photos

The Neo features a 12MP 1/2-inch sensor which allows for 45 degrees of horizontal tilt when using Image Stabilization with either Rocksteady or HorizonBalancing modes. The camera provides a 117.6-degree field of view, with a full-frame equivalent focal length of 13mm, so nice and wide for close-to-subject tracking.

Keeping things simple, the aperture is fixed at f/2.8 with fixed focus providing focus from 60cm to infinity. The ISO range extends from ISO 100 to 6400 in both Manual and Auto shooting modes, with the shutter speed ranging from 1/8000 to 1/10 sec for photos and 1/8000 to 1/30 sec for video.

DJI Neo close up of the camera — (Image credit: James Abbott)

Photo and video functionality is pretty basic, but you get everything you need at a consumer level with 4K video locked at 30fps with a bitrate of 75Mbps, so it’s reasonably compressed but not too much.

The color profile is Standard for straight-out-of-camera footage, with no flat profile available for color grading within a professional workflow. Looking at the design of the Neo and the camera, it doesn’t look like it would support ND filters to control shutter speed, but I could be wrong.

Photos can only be captured in JPEG format, which is a shame but no big deal since DJI’s JPEG processing is respectable. Photos can be captured in 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, with Single and Timed Shot available, so once again basic but adequate for a beginner drone.

There’s no microSD card slot on the Neo, but you do get 22GB of on-board storage which DJI says equates to 40 minutes of 4K 30fps video or 55 minutes of 1080p 60fps video. This can be transferred to the the DJI Fly App when connected to the Neo’s WiFi using Quick Transfer, or downloaded to your computer when the Neo is connected via the included USB-C PD cable.

How I tested the DJI Neo

Limited access to features due to pre-release issues
Flown with the DJI RC-N3 Controller
DJI Fly app options checked

I was flying a pre-release version of the DJI Neo and faced several issues between my phone and the pre-release version of the DJI Fly app, which meant that the camera feed wasn’t showing in the app.

This made simple autonomous flight impossible because the drone needs to see a face before it will take off. It was, however, possible to fly the Neo with my phone connected to the DJI RC-N3 Controller.

There was still no camera feed and capturing photos and video was impossible, but with GPS available and standard flight controls, I was able to test the flight performance. Plus, with the propeller guards.

I was able to confidently fly close to and through tight gaps; it wasn’t FPV, but it was still a clear advantage of the Neo’s design that provided enjoyable flights.

First reviewed September 2024

Honor Magic V3 review: raising the foldable bar

4:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Honor Phones Phones | Tags: Europe, Google Pixel, UK, US | Comments: Off

Honor Magic V3: two-minute review

Honor already offered the world’s slimmest folding phone with its impressively sleek Honor Magic V2, but rather than resting on its laurels, the brand is back with an even skinnier book-style foldable: the Honor Magic V3.

It's hard to overstate just how slim this phone is – the rear section barely has enough room for its USB-C port. You could easily mistake the Magic V3 for a non-foldable device, and plenty of candy bar phones are actually thicker than Honor’s latest foldable (indeed, the Magic V3 is almost as thin as the iPhone 15 Pro Max).

Of course, dimensions are only one part of the puzzle, and with premium pricing, you want performance to match. On that front, Honor has stuffed the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor into the Magic V3, along with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a sizable 5,150mAh battery.

The cameras look to impress, too, with large sensors, wide apertures, and high resolutions across the board. The amazing Studio Harcourt portrait effects that debuted on the Honor 200 Pro are also available on this phone. It's a serious contender for the best foldable camera phone.

Review image of the Honor Magic V3 — (Image credit: Future / Luke Baker)

Of course, in 2024, there's more competition than ever in the foldable space. Google, Samsung, OnePlus, and Vivo all offer very compelling options, but the Honor Magic V3 still has one of the most stacked spec sheets around, as well as wider availability than much of its Chinese competition.

However, it's not perfect. Despite having a large battery pack, the Magic V3's longevity failed to impress. It's serviceable, but even with all the extra milliamp hours, it doesn't seem to last any longer than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. On the flip side, it charges a lot quicker, which makes it easier to live with.

Then there's the software, which takes a very different approach to Android with many iOS-inspired choices. It definitely won't be for everyone, and multitasking could use some work, but there are a lot of cool features built-in, and I have grown quite fond of it.

On the whole, I've loved living with the Honor Magic V3. If you're keen on a big screen foldable, but find their typical size and weight off-putting, this is the device for you. It's a real feat of engineering that feels premium through and through.

Honor Magic V3 review: price and availability

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Costs £1,699
Available in the UK and Europe; no release for the US or Australia

Honor Magic V3 was originally launched in China on July 12, 2024, before being released globally at IFA 2024 on September 5. It's now available to pre-order in most regions across the world, but as usual, that list excludes the United States.

In the UK, it costs £1,699 and is available in Tundra Green, Velvet Black and Red color options. There's also a Snow (white) version with a unique textured rear panel, but that one's only available in China.

Honor Magic V3 review: specs

Here’s a look at the Honor Magic V3’s key specs:

Honor Magic V3 review: design

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The slimmest foldable so far
Velvety-feeling matte glass back
IPX8 water resistant

The most striking thing about the Honor Magic V3's design is how slim it is. The phone measures just 9.2mm thick when folded, which is almost 3mm slimmer than the Galaxy Z Fold 6 – Samsung's slimmest foldable to date. It's also one of the lightest large-format foldables around, tipping the scales at just 226g. For reference, that's a couple of grams lighter than Honor's own non-folding flagship, the Honor Magic 6 Pro.

Combine these dimensions with some smooth curved edges, and you have a device that feels impossibly thin. It's especially apparent when unfolded, as there's barely room for the USB-C port on the phone's 4.35mm frame.

Unlike some of the competition, the Magic V3's cover display has fairly typical smartphone dimensions, and this makes it feel very natural to use folded down. It's one of the only foldables that I’ve repeatedly mistaken for one of my non-folding phones; the dimensions are so similar that it's easy to get confused at a glance.

While the phone remains slim elsewhere, there's a very sizable centrally-placed camera bump on the rear. It effectively doubles the thickness of the phone in that specific area. However, it does so for good reason, as there are some serious sensors on this device.

The camera island is a circular number finished with black glass, and it has a smooth octagonal aluminum bezel around its perimeter. I'm a big fan of the positioning, as it gives me a nice shelf to rest more of my forefinger on when I'm holding the phone one-handed.

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The volume rocker and power button are placed on opposite sides of the phone when unfolded, and this means that they're staggered by a few millimeters when the phone is shut. It didn't bother me when I was using the cover display, but it takes some getting used to when it's unfolded, as most other foldables place these buttons on the same side. It's easy enough to adapt to, and if you're coming from the Honor Magic V2, you're all set, as they're in the exact same place.

The global version of the V3 comes in three color options, and I've had hands-on time with the black and green variants. Both of these versions have a similar velvety-feeling matte finish on the rear glass and dark gray metallic accents around the camera and frame. If you opt for the red model, you'll get a faux leather rear and golden accents; it's easily the flashiest of the bunch.

There's a very nice vegan leather case included in the box, and it comes in a matching hue. It's the kind of case you'd expect to pay a premium for; it feels luxurious, and it's well-designed. This case is more protective than most, too. There's a section that protects the hinge, a thick metal ring to keep the lenses safe and even an adhesive bumper to protect the front section.

The metal ring that surrounds the cameras can be folded out and doubles up as a kickstand; it's a very smart design. It's not always the most sturdy stand, depending on the angle you choose, but the subtlety makes up for it and it's certainly better than having no kickstand. I also found myself flicking it out and using it like a pop socket on occasion – I'm not sure if that's an intended use, but it works fairly well for one-handed use of the Magic V3’s main display.

Design score: 5 / 5

Honor Magic V3 review: display

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6.43-inch 120Hz OLED cover display
7.92-inch 120Hz foldable main display
5000-nit cover display, 1800-nit main display

If you're looking at foldable phones, then you obviously care about displays, and Honor aims to impress with both of the panels on the Magic V3.

On the outside, there's a 6.43-inch OLED display with a 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate and an ample 1060 x 2376 resolution. It's an extremely bright display, able to output up to 5000 nits at peak, and it's protected by Honor's super tough NanoCrystal 2.0 glass tech. I've been daily driving the Honor Magic 6 Pro for a while now, which has a similar coating, and I've been impressed by the lack of scratches despite using it without a protector. Hopefully, the Magic V3 fares just as well in the long term.

Honor reckons its glass is up to 40 times more impact-resistant than the glass on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. I didn't fancy whacking it with a hammer, though, so I'll just have to take the company’s word for it.

The glass has symmetrical, subtly curved edges on three sides, and slightly less of a curve on the hinge side. The curves are small enough to avoid creating distracting reflections, but they still make gesture controls feel super smooth; it's a great middle ground.

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Opening the device up, you're greeted with a spacious 7.92-inch foldable display and one of the shallowest creases I've seen on a phone like this. It's still present, of course, but it's miles ahead of the groove that runs through the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6’s display, and the far less glossy screen protector serves to hide it even more. This protector is supposedly tougher, too – Honor says it's up to five times more scratch-resistant than previous versions.

The foldable display also boasts a 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate and has a resolution of 2156 x 2344 pixels. It's not as bright as the outer display, maxing out at just 1800 nits, but I never had trouble seeing it, even outside on bright sunny days.

The only thing that I don't love about the main display on the Magic V3 is the positioning of the selfie camera cutout. It matches the outer screen and is centrally placed on the right-hand side of the display. This means that when you're watching letterboxed 16:9 content, the selfie camera will often cut into the image. I still prefer it over Samsung's distracting under-display unit, but I wish it was positioned in the corner, as on the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Both screens look excellent in use with vibrant, accurate colors and smooth motion. Watching HDR content on Netflix and YouTube really lets the panels show what they're made of, with dazzling highlights and tons of shadow detail.

If you're concerned about eye health, Honor has arguably done more in this department than any other brand. For starters, this phone has some of the highest PWM dimming rates of any foldable phone, with 3840Hz supported on the inside and 4320Hz on the outside. Then, there are all the usual low blue light and adaptive brightness features, plus a brand new feature called AI Defocus Display.

To be completely honest, this feature is a little beyond my understanding, but it uses AI to simulate a myopic defocus lens. The goal is to reduce eye strain when using the display for long periods. As someone who stares at screens all day anyway, I didn't notice a huge difference, but it's probably a good thing in the long term.

Display score: 5 / 5

Honor Magic V3 review: cameras

50MP main (f/1.6)
50MP 3.5x telephoto (f/3.0)
40MP ultra-wide with PDAF (f/2.2)

As the chunky camera bump suggests, the Honor Magic V3 has some impressive imaging hardware on the inside. There's a 50MP main snapper with a wide f/1.6 aperture and a 1/1.56-inch sensor, a 50MP 3.5x telephoto, and a 40MP ultrawide with macro capabilities.

Each screen gets its own 20MP f/2.2 punch-hole selfie camera, but since this is a foldable phone, you can easily use the rear trio for selfie snaps as well.

The Honor Magic V3 produces poppy sharp images with vibrant colors and excellent dynamic range. It finds focus quickly, and just like the Magic 6 Pro, it's great at freezing motion for action shots in the daytime. At night, the phone continues to impress with its sharp visuals and wide dynamic range, but motion blur and noise become more of an issue, particularly when using the ultra-wide.

The main camera produces the cleanest shots, especially in the dark, but I found myself using the 3.5x telephoto just as much, if not more. It's roughly equivalent to a 90mm lens on a full-frame camera, and it's a great focal length for portraiture and street photography.

You can digitally zoom all the way up to 100x in the camera app, but you shouldn't, as your images will look like an AI-generated mess if you do. Having said that, I was pleasantly surprised by the results up to around 15-20x zoom, where you can capture very usable images.

The ultra-wide isn't quite as sharp as the other lenses, but it's a useful focal length for architecture, landscapes, and group shots. I was pleased to see that it has autofocus, as well as macro shooting capabilities, which makes it all the more useful – take notes, Samsung.

The selfie cameras are decent but unremarkable. You get an identical unit on both displays and they're great for video calls and casual snaps, but if you're looking to impress, it's well worth flipping the phone around and using one of the rear lenses.

That becomes even more true when you activate the new Studio Harcourt portrait mode, which only works on the rear lenses. This is a feature that was introduced with the Honor 200 Pro recently, and the results are just as impressive here. The big difference is that it's easy to use these effects for selfies, thanks to the folding form factor.

Honor has also added a new AI eraser to the suite of editing tools, so you can easily remove unwanted items or people from your photos. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it works well.

When it comes to video, you can shoot at up to 4K 60fps on every rear camera, and up to 4K 30fps on the selfie cameras. The stabilization is solid and the microphones sound decent but the videos are a little more contrasty than I'd like as standard. Thankfully, this is easily remedied by applying one of the built-in filters, and if you switch to Pro Video mode, you can even add your own LUT.

Camera score: 4 / 5

Honor Magic V3 camera samples

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Honor Magic V3 review: performance and software

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Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset
16GB RAM and 512GB storage
Magic OS 8.0, based on Android 14

The Honor Magic V3 is powered by Qualcomm’s top-performing chip in 2024, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and it's paired with a generous 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

Unsurprisingly, this results in zippy performance in all situations and it games like a champ, too. I put a few hours into my current favorite timesink, the graphically challenging Zenless Zone Zero, and it happily ran at max settings with very few frame drops.

After a while, the phone does get pretty hot to the touch, but that’s to be expected with such a powerful chip in a slim chassis. On the plus side, it never became concerningly warm, and performance didn't seem to take too much of a hit, either.

The Magic V3 runs the same software as Honor’s other recent devices, MagicOS 8.0. It's a heavily modified version of Android 14 that takes a lot of inspiration from iOS, and it's guaranteed to divide opinion.

I’ve spent a lot of time using Honor phones lately, and though it took a while to adapt, I have grown quite fond of MagicOS. I particularly like Honor's Dynamic Island clone, Magic Capsule, as it gives you quick access to timers and playback controls no matter what you have running in the foreground.

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Another standout feature is Magic Portal, which lets you drag images and text from one app to another, as a contextually aware menu pops up at the side of the display. I mainly use it to quickly reverse image search with Google and drag addresses into Google Maps, but it can do a lot more than that, as there are now over 150 apps that support Magic Portal.

Honor is continually adding more AI-powered features to Magic OS, too. It can now reduce background noise on your voice calls in both directions, live translate text and audio using Google's Cloud AI, and soon, it'll be able to detect deepfakes in video calls to protect you from scammers.

Since this is a large-screen foldable, multitasking is quite important, and I feel like Honor could have done more with the Magic V3. You get a quick-access taskbar, and you can split the display or use floating windows, but there's not a whole lot added compared to default Android options.

Comparatively, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a much more intuitive layout, while the OnePlus Open stands out with its awesome Open Canvas mode. The Magic V3 is perfectly capable of multitasking, but it could be so much better.

Performance & software score: 4 / 5

Honor Magic V3 review: battery

5,150mAh silicon-carbon battery
66W wired charging
50W wireless charging

The Honor Magic V3 uses silicon-carbon tech to cram a sizable 5,150 mAh battery into its tiny chassis, and it also uses AI-based battery enhancements to increase efficiency. These two factors gave me high hopes about this device's stamina, but the reality was slightly more underwhelming.

The phone never failed to make it to the end of the day, but it would often cut it fine. Generally speaking, I found the battery performance to be quite similar to that of the Galaxy Z Fold 6, with its comparatively small 4,400 mAh pack. In fairness, the majority of my testing was done on pre-release firmware; there's every chance battery life could improve as updates roll out.

Where this phone does have the edge, though, is with its charging speed. The Magic V3 charges at up to 66W with a wire or 50W using Honor's Wireless SuperCharger. Yep, that's double the Galaxy Z Fold 6's wired charging speed without needing to plug in – impressive stuff.

I found I was able to go from flat to fully charged in under an hour, which makes keeping this device topped up very convenient. What's more, the 66W wall adapter comes included in the box, so you can enjoy the top speeds from day one. Nice work, Honor.

Battery score: 3 / 5

Should you buy the Honor Magic V3?

Buy it if...

You want the slimmest, lightest book-style foldable
Simply put, if you're looking for a skinny book-style foldable, they don't come slimmer than this. Plus, there's the fact that the Magic V3 is lighter than some of its non-folding competition. It's a big-screen delight without the usual drawbacks.

You don't want to compromise on cameras
Surprisingly, despite having such a slim frame, there's no compromise in the imaging department. An array of speedy cameras with relatively large sensors keeps you well-equipped for all kinds of photography.

You hate the crease
Of course, creases are inevitable with folding displays, but the Magic V3 has one of the shallowest and least noticeable creases of the current crop. It's easy to forget about, which is exactly what you want.

Don't buy it if...

You need ultra-long battery life
The Magic V3 may boast a relatively large capacity battery, but in practice, it's less impressive. It should still get you through the day, but it doesn't have the stamina of some rivals.

You want a vanilla Android experience
Magic OS 8.0 is a heavily modified Android skin that starts to resemble iOS more than stock Android. It's not a bad system, but it's certainly not for everyone.

Honor Magic V3 review: Also consider

The Honor Magic V3 is a powerful large-format foldable with speedy performance and impressive displays, but there's plenty to be said for its competition, too.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold
If Honor's Magic OS 8.0 software sounds a bit too Apple-influenced for your tastes, then consider the antithesis, Google's Pixel 9 Pro Fold, which has the most Android-y Android software available. It also boasts a bigger main display and a fetching flat-sided design.

Read our Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold review

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6
Samsung's latest foldable goes all in on AI features, and while Honor has some tricks of its own, it can't come close to matching Samsung's comprehensive suite of tools. You'll have to be OK with a smaller cover screen and a pretty significant screen crease, though.

Read our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 review

How I tested the Honor Magic V3

Review test period: Two weeks
Testing included: everyday use including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback
Tools used: Geekbench 6, 3DMark, GFXBench, native Android stats, included charger and Honor Wireless SuperCharge stand

I used the Honor Magic V3 as my main handset for around two weeks before reaching any conclusions. I used it exactly as I would use any other phone, taking lots of pictures, gaming, messaging, working, streaming video and navigating with Google Maps. It even accompanied me on an international flight.

I also compared my experience of playing graphically demanding games like Zenless Zone Zero, Genshin Impact, and PUBG Mobile to my experience with other Android foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Vivo X Fold 3 Pro. To confirm my findings, I ran a suite of benchmarks on the handset including 3DMark, GFXbench and Geekbench to compare stats across models.

Battery performance was assessed based on my real-world usage and charging times were measured using the included wall adapter and cable. I also tested the wireless charging using Honor’s Wireless 100W SuperCharge stand.

Eureka J20 robot vacuum two-minute review

The Eureka J20 provides the next generation of mopping technology thanks to its RollRenew mopping system. This is one of the best mopping solutions I’ve seen on any robot vacuum. It achieves superior performance by not only mounting the mop pad onto a roller but also spraying fresh water onto it as it rotates around. This helps to ensure the mop is always cleaning the floor with a clean pad. This leaves oscillating mopping solutions in its wake and seems likely to become become the go-to option for customers prepared to pay a premium for the best robot vacuum.

As well as excellent mopping capabilities, the J20 is also very capable when it comes to vacuuming. My tests with crushed digestives biscuits, flour, and oats were adequately dealt with when I increased the suction power to either Turbo or Super Strong. There were times when I needed to carry out a small follow-up sweep, but this was only on larger and more stubborn debris. All in all, the vacuuming performance of the J20 is up there with the best.

LiDAR mapping and AI obstacle detection performed incredibly well, leading to an accurate and reliable map of our house. It handled table legs and other furniture with ease, although this did add to the amount of time required to map the space. Eureka’s app is equally good, with outstanding mapping technology and customizable cleaning schedules.

Eureka J20 robot vacuum in its base station — (Image credit: Future)

The robot vacuum is only half the story, though. The J20 is backed up by an impressive base station that fulfils a range of duties, including charging, self-emptying, and refilling the vacuum water tank. It carries all of these out with very little fuss; all you have to concern yourself with is making sure the base station is filled up with water and the debris receptacle is emptied every so often. The station is a little on the large side, however, so you’ll want to make sure you have enough room for it before investing in this product.

The design of every part of the vacuum and base station is well considered and perfectly engineered. Premium materials are found throughout, helping not only to improve the user experience but also increase the longevity of the device.

There’s little not to love about the J20. This is a premium robot vacuum solution that delivers great vacuuming and mopping performance. The €1,399 price point will put a lot of people off but if you have the money to cover the investment, there aren’t many better alternatives on the market.

Eureka J20 robot vacuum review: price & availability

Launched: Summer / fall 2024
Price EU $1,399 / $1,399 (equivalent to £1,100 / AU$2,075)
Available in Europe, US and Australia launches to follow, no launch date for UK

At the time of writing the Eureka J20 is available in four European countries: Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. The €1,399 price tag puts it at the higher end of robot vacuum cleaners and TechRadar's premium price bracket, but that's reflected in the feature set. Robot vacuums do tend to attract discounts around major shopping events like the Black Friday sales, though, so there's a chance you might be able to avoid paying that full list price.

In North America the J20 will be available on eureka.com with a retail price of $1,399, although during the US launch period there will be a $300 coupon, making the final price $1,099. An Australian launch is expected but there's no word on pricing, and so far there's no mention of a UK launch from Eureka.

Value score: 4 out of 5

Eureka J20 robot vacuum specs

Eureka J20 robot vacuum review: design & features

8,000 PA vacuum
RollRenew mopping system
Bagless self-emptying base station

The Eureka J20 vacuum and base station are relatively compact, especially considering the overall functionality and number of features. That doesn’t mean it’s particularly small, though. With dimensions of 423 x 462 x 452.5mm, you’ll need a fairly good amount of space to keep it out of the way. I was fortunate to have a space in my utility room that meant it wasn’t in the way of foot traffic. If you’re tight on space and have a small hallway or kitchen, you’ll need to look for a smaller unit.

Everything was safely packaged, guaranteeing nothing was harmed in transit. After unboxing everything, I plugged the base station in, placed the robot inside, and waited for it to be fully charged. The robot connects to the charging point through two metal plates, which automatically line up without any requirement for human intervention.

In the meantime, I downloaded the Eureka app, which is essential for use as well as for maximizing all the features. Connecting the robot to the app was a breeze, and my phone was able to find it with no problems at all.

While the robot is off mapping your house, the app displays all the progress in a simple and straightforward floor map. It is only after mapping the whole space that rooms can be labelled and zones specified. All in all, the app is incredibly intuitive and easy to navigate. If you’ve never owned a robot vacuum before, then controlling it from a phone will take a bit of getting used to, but you’ll soon get the hang of it.

Controls on the Eureka J20 robot vacuum base station — (Image credit: Future)

All parts look and feel premium, helping to ensure durability when moving around the house. The reality is that at times it might have to interact with children or pets, but there are no concerns that the J20 won’t be able to withstand the test. The units are made from powder-coated dark grey plastic, helping to hide any scuffs and marks that will inevitably come their way. All parts of the robot and base station are easy to wipe clean.

The robot itself is fairly simple in design, with two buttons located on the top of the unit. One is for sending the robot back to its base station for charging, while the other starts and pauses the cleaning process. The same two buttons are also located on the base station for ease of access.

Underside of the Eureka J20 robot vacuum — (Image credit: Future)

Underneath the robot is where all the magic happens. Sensors and brushes help to keep the robot on track as well as pick up dirt. The mop assembly is the crowning feature of the vacuum. Engineering it onto a belt means the mop pad stays cleaner for longer and that fresh water is regularly applied to the surface being cleaned. This sets it apart from a lot of traditional robot vacuums that only vibrate a mop pad across the surface.

Water tank for the Eureka J20 robot vacuum — (Image credit: Future)

One of the best things about the base station design is how easy it is to remove and insert the various tanks, including the clean water and waste water tanks. These fit seamlessly into the casing and are super easy to fill up/empty.

Design score: 4 out of 5

Eureka J20 robot vacuum review: performance

Great vacuuming capabilities
Roller mop picks up spills nicely
Fantastic mapping technology

The biggest evolution for Eureka and for the industry as a whole is the proprietary RollRenew mopping system. This did a fantastic job of cleaning up spills, as long as you got the vacuum to work on them pretty quickly; if it was left for a while, the J20 found it harder to take care of them in the time it was gliding over them. More water would have helped but that’s not usually desired, especially on real-wood floors. The J20 performed better than the Eureka E10s, thanks to the roller mop functionality.

Moving onto vacuuming, my tests involved sprinkling a mix of crushed digestives and flour, as well as oats, onto my carpet and hard floor before seeing how the Eureka J20 performed on its Quiet, Standard, Turbo, and Super Strong suction strengths. The lower settings didn't pick up anywhere near enough debris to make them worthwhile, either on carpet or hard floors.

The Turbo and Super Strong settings were much more capable of picking up the flour and biscuits to a satisfactory standard, although you’ll have to be prepared to put up with nearly 70dB of noise while it’s happening.

Eureka J20 robot vacuum on a carpet — (Image credit: Future)

After testing the core elements of vacuuming and mopping, I turned my attention to the amount of noise the device was making. This is important because the quieter the vacuum, the more likely users are going to be able to utilize it at the end of each day without the fear of interrupting a quiet night in.

The audio volume of the J20 increases from 60dB on its lowest suction to 70dB on its highest. This is comparable with Eureka’s other models, such as the E10s, which had an almost identical audio range. The audio levels are not particularly comfortable, especially if you’re trying to relax at the same time. I prefer to put the robot to work either while I’m out during the day or when I’m doing other jobs.

After performing a clean, the J20 will return to its base station and empty its contents. The advertised capacity of the base station receptacle is 75 days, a length of time that is obviously dependent upon your home and how much dirt needs cleaning. In reality, it will need emptying as regularly as any standard upright vacuum would.

Eureka J20 base station opened to show the dust bag — (Image credit: Future)

Eureka has always done a fantastic job of integrating state-of-the-art mapping and navigation technology into its robot vacuums. The same is true for its J20 model. Despite taking a while to map out our home and making a number of wrong turns in the process, the resulting map was incredibly accurate. Our rooms have a lot of table legs, which I thought would confuse the robot, but instead it gradually and methodically worked its way around.

The overall performance of the J20 among the best I have ever seen. It effectively picks up dirt, mops up spills, and requires very little human intervention to finish cleaning tasks.

Performance score: 4.5 out of 5

Eureka J20 robot vacuum review: app

Intuitive to use
Specific room and zone mapping
Ability to schedule cleans

Eureka has managed to create an app that is not only remarkably easy to use but also offers a lot of functionality. Having used the app with the Eureka E10s, I continued to be impressed by all that the app offers.

Downloading and installing the app was an absolute breeze. After connecting the vacuum, I proceeded to carry out an initial mapping of the space. The vacuum and app linked seamlessly to provide a usable scan of the house, including a map of scanned rooms. Each of these can be labelled for easier navigation and customization as well as the ability to set no-go or no-mop zones, perfect for carpeted floors.

Eureka E10s App — (Image credit: Future)

Eureka provides a number of different ways to get your space cleaned. The first is to select specific rooms on the map and hit the clean button. This is ideal if you know you have mess in a set number of rooms but don’t want to carry out a full clean. Alternatively, zones can be specified, which is perfect for cleaning those high-use areas.

By far the easiest and most hassle-free option is to set up scheduled cleans and let the vacuum just crack on with doing what it does best. The app lets you specify a time, a repeat schedule, and a number of cleaning cycles. Each scheduled clean can also include the rooms that you want cleaned.

I found all of these features to be incredibly easy to use but I would understand if someone less tech-savvy needed a little bit of help getting everything set up. There were also occasions when troubleshooting was required and if you weren’t able to work through these problems yourself, then I could see how it could become a little frustrating.

App score: 4.5 out of 5

Eureka J20 robot vacuum review: battery life

Battery lasts up to three hours
Takes around three to four hours to recharge

The 6,400mAh battery is advertised as lasting 180 minutes. This running time is only remotely achievable when used with the lowest level of suction power. You can expect this to reduce by as much as half when using the highest power setting.

Given the fact that this level of suction is required almost all the time, you’ll want to weigh up whether you’re happy with this battery performance. Measuring your space is a good start. I found the robot able to cover in the region of 750-850 square feet per charge.

Recharging the robot from empty takes around three to four hours, which is more than easily achieved between cleans. The robot is also intelligent enough to know when it needs a boost and will return to the base station accordingly.

Battery life score: 3.5 out of 5

Should you buy the Eureka J20 robot vacuum?

Buy it if...

You want a roller mop

The selling-point of the Eureka J20 is the mop that is mounted to a roller. This helps to ensure that fresh water is applied to each new stain, thereby improving the overall performance of the mop.

You want a self-emptying base

The J20 robot vacuum transfers all of its debris into the base station every time it returns. This reduces the number of times the main dustbin needs to be emptied.

You love great design

The J20 really looks the part. Every individual element has been expertly designed and crafted to provide a beautiful looking unit.

Don't buy it if...

You are on a budget

At €1,399, the Eureka J20 is far from affordable for most people. The benefit of paying this much money is that you’ll get to enjoy a range of premium features that are not available on cheaper alternatives.

You need a long battery life

The J20 provides a reasonable battery life but at the highest suction power, the battery does begin to struggle a little. If you have a particularly large home and want to complete it in one charge, you might run into some problems.

You want a tried and tested model

The J20 is a relatively new entry into the world of robot vacuums and despite the great features, it hasn’t built up a sufficient track record to make it one of the greats.

How I tested the Eureka J20 robot vacuum

Tested with several full cleans of my home
Used all vacuum and mopping settings
All floor types, including carpet and hardwood

My 600-foot home was perfect for testing the Eureka J20. The mix of carpets, hardwood floors, and a low-pile rug meant I could test all the features of this impressive robot vacuum. After setting it up and mapping the space, I endeavored to let the robot get on with its cleaning, independent of my involvement. There’s no use having a robot vacuum if you’re always going to have to intervene.

More specifically, I included a fine dust and larger debris test to check its vacuuming capabilities. The former was made up of crushed digestives and flour, with the latter consisting of oats. These helped me see how well the vacuum was able to handle different types of mess.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed: July 2024

US version of HMD Barbie to feature a better camera, extra memory

8:55 am | August 29, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: US | Comments: Off

Yesterday, HMD announced the Barbie phone – a customized variant of the Nokia 2660 Flip with bright pink design and a new theme. We already knew the global version that is already on sale runs a different OS compared to the US, which is coming in October, but it turns out there are more changes in there. The changes include more RAM and storage, better camera, a domestic chipset and even Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) connectivity. The US version of HMD Barbie comes with Qualcomm 215 chip running KaiOS 3.1 on top, instead of the Shanghai-made Unisoc chip with the basic S30+ operating system....

Fairphone 5 review: the premium eco-friendly smartphone

5:00 pm | August 26, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Phones | Tags: Google Pixel, US | Comments: Off

Fairphone 5 two-minute review

Android phone maker Fairphone has long enjoyed thriving in a niche it built for itself: its mobiles are second to none in terms of their eco-friendly credentials, with each and every model boasting sustainably sourced materials in their respective designs, upgrade-preventing longevity, and recyclable packaging.

The Fairphone 5 brings all that and more – perhaps too much more, given that it’s the brand’s most premium smartphone yet with a price tag that fits.

Released two years after the Fairphone 4 in 2021, this new Android phone continues Fairphone’s schedule of biennial device updates, though there was no Fairphone 4 Plus, so the brand’s usual trend wasn’t strictly followed.

All of Fairphone’s typical promises are back here in force: the fifth-gen mobile is easily repairable, with parts you can remove with a screwdriver and replace with equivalents bought via the brand’s store. The company is set to support the Fairphone 5 with at least five years of software updates, too, so you can keep using it for half a decade, at least. Plus, many of the parts used in the Fairphone 5's design are from renewable sources, or reused from recycled phones.

So, for the Fairphone 5 – more so than any other mobile on the market – you can rest assured that you’re picking the greenest option.

The Fairphone 5 in a hand — (Image credit: Future)

That’s important because, besides the eco credentials, the Fairphone 5 is like its predecessors in that it’s not very competitive for its price. You can spend the same amount on another Android phone and get better cameras, a more powerful processor, or a bigger screen. So, you do need to balance these factors when considering this device.

What’s new here, and slightly surprising, is that Fairphone is eschewing its previous design choices. Previous phones from the brand have typically had specs on par with low-end or mid-range rivals, but the Fairphone 5 is grasping up towards the top end – a move it partly, but not wholly, pulls off.

That’s best illustrated with the cameras, as the front-facing and both rear sensors each sport a 50MP resolution, and you can see clear improvements in the handset’s AI scene optimization too. But the latter goes much too far on one of the cameras, resulting in ultra-wide snaps that are a hideous mess.

Not all of Fairphone’s premium attempts are as mixed a bag: the screen has seen a significant spec improvement, making it wonderful to watch content on, while the chipset is also a lot more powerful than we've typically seen in previous Fairphone handsets; you can finally play games without taxing the hardware too much.

The improvements across the board are matched with a fairly significant price hike over the Fairphone 4, to shift the Fairphone 5 into the premium territory.

It feels as though Fairphone is trying to court a new audience with its latest mobile, one which typically picks the new iPhone or Samsung Galaxy and wants top-end phones. This may work out, though it means some fans of the brand, those with limited funding, might be left behind.

Fairphone 5 review: price and availability

The Fairphone 5 on the ground — (Image credit: Future)

Went on sale in the UK & Europe in September 2023
£649 (roughly $800 / AU$1,250) for 8GB RAM & 256GB storage
US availability is unlikely

The Fairphone 5 was announced at the end of August 2023 and released in September, roughly two years on from its predecessor. That follows Fairphone’s biennial cycle.

The handset costs £649 (roughly $800 / AU$1,250), which is a fair step up over the £499 (around $670, AU$930) entry price of the Fairphone 4, though that entry had a £569 (about $770, AU$1,060) equivalent with a more comparable 8GB RAM capacity and 256GB storage (this mobile received a price cut when the 5 was announced). Either way, you’re paying more for this phone than for its predecessor.

That price hike puts the Fairphone 5 much closer to – but not quite on par with – the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S23 and iPhone 15. It lives in a no-man’s land between premium and mid-range mobiles, a category that doesn’t see as many entries as it should. As a result, this feels like a cost-saver’s alternative to the current batch of premium smartphones.

There's no word on a US or Australian release date, but the Fairphone 4 was released in the US two years after it came out in Europe, so there is a chance that its successor could repeat that approach.

Value score: 3.5 / 5

Fairphone 5 review: Specs

The Fairphone 5 provides some spec increases over its predecessor, for a mixed bag of mid-range and premium features.

Fairphone 5 review: design

Repairable and moddable design
Made from sustainable and recycled materials
Fairly chunky in the hand

Fairphone is harking back to the noughties with the design of its newest phone. The Fairphone 5 unit that we tested has a see-through back, so you can peer into the inner workings of the device (well, to its battery mainly, but that’s still something!). To my judgemental eyes, this isn’t quite as attractive a look as the olive green of the Fairphone 4 we previously tested, but luckily there are black and blue versions of the phone on sale too.

It’s fair to give Fairphone devices quite a lot of leeway when it comes to design, and that’s because they’re doing something quite different. The Fairphone 5 has a modular design that lets you remove and replace broken components, and it’s really simple to do, whether or not you’re an expert engineer. Plus, you can remove the back of the phone and battery with your hand (remember when all smartphones let you do that?).

This is a rugged phone too, one that’ll survive tough bumps or drops. It has a MIL-810H durability rating – that’s a military-grade standard, so you know it’s solid – and the phone also has IP55 certification against splashes and dust ingress. So, don’t take it for a dive, but this handset will survive all of life’s unexpected accidents otherwise.

I say all this to acknowledge the justification behind some of my issues with the phone’s design.

The Fairphone 5 is big and heavy, perhaps big and heavy enough to put off users with smaller hands. Measuring 161.6 x 75.8 x 9.6mm, and weighing 212g, this handset is surprisingly hefty, and we can imagine that some might not like the way it feels in the hand.

The phone has a USB-C port – no 3.5mm headphone jack, as Fairphone is one of the many brands to drop this – and on its right edge, it has two volume keys as well as a power button embedded in a fingerprint scanner. The sensor for this scanner is hair-pullingly unreliable, mind, and I often found myself rubbing my thumb on it as though it was a magic lamp about to grant me a wish.

Design score: 4 / 5

Fairphone 5 review: display

The Fairphone 5 leaning on a tree stump. — (Image credit: Future)

6.46-inch Full HD+ display
Bright and vibrant screen
Big upgrade over the predecessor

The Fairphone 5 has a 6.46-inch display, so you’ve got more screen real estate than the 6.3 inches of the Fairphone 4, but that size increase is just one of the many improvements.

The display is OLED now, with Fairphone having ditched LCD, and it also has a higher refresh rate at 90Hz. There’s a maximum brightness of 880nits and a higher resolution of 1224 x 2700 too.

All of these changes combine to ensure that the Fairphone 5 is great for watching shows, scrolling through social media and playing games; with a noticeably better viewing experience across the board than its predecessors.

The display is broken up by a ‘punch-hole’ cut-out for the front camera, with Fairphone finally moving into the future and ditching the notch, and while this doesn’t really provide much of a user experience benefit (on this or any other phone!), it does give the Fairphone 5 a more modern look.

Display score: 4 / 5

Fairphone 5 review: software

Stock Android 13 is nice and clean
Five years of software upgrades
8-10 years of security updates

If you’re a fan of clean software, then you’ll like the Fairphone 5. Like the best Pixel phones and Nokia phones, Fairphone’s mobiles use near-stock Android, just as Google intended.

The handset runs Android 13, and the main perks of this most recent version of Android is a remodeled Google Wallet (for all your payments) and improved connectivity with Android tablets. Plus, you’re getting the nice clean look of stock Android with little bloatware, smart circular icons and a handy app drawer.

While many phone makers pledge two or three years' worth of software updates to their new devices, Fairphone wants to make sure you keep using your Fairphone 5 for as long as possible, so it’s bumping that figure up. It’s pledged to update the Fairphone 5 for at least five generations of updates (so, until Android 18 at least) and, between eight and ten years worth of security updates.

So, if you’re the kind of user who really likes to have the newest build of Android, the Fairphone will be perfect for you.

Software score: 4 / 5

Fairphone 5 review: cameras

50MP main + 50MP ultra-wide
50MP front-facer
Noticeable AI processing improvements, but some issues

One upgrade the Fairphone 5 brings over its fourth-gen predecessor comes in the camera department: the two rear cameras are now both 50MP (over 48MP) and the front camera is also 50MP (over 25MP).

An upgrade was needed, as the Fairphone 4’s weak camera performance was one of our main gripes with it. And the fifth-gen model really is an upgrade – as long as you steer clear of one of the three cameras.

Pictures taken on the 50MP f/1.9 main camera don’t quite compare with snaps you’ll take on the best camera phones, but they look decent for the price, and you've likely got the AI processing to thank for this.

The Fairphone 4 didn’t have much to offer in the scene optimization department, but that’s different here. Pictures look rich, vibrant and appealing, and the camera offers sufficient detail too.

By default, snaps are taken at a 12.5MP resolution, but you can bump that up to 50MP if you'd prefer. That’s the case for all the cameras, though we’re not sure you’ll want to do so for the ultra-wide…

Image 1 of 2

A Fairphone 5 camera sample — A 1x zoom picture - swipe along to see how this looks as an ultra-wide (Image credit: Future)

Image 2 of 2

The Fairphone 5’s secondary camera is a 50MP f/2.2 snapper with a 121-degree field of view, and it’s absolutely horrendous for photography. I could – and will – explain why, but checking out the camera samples above will show all.

Many of the ultra-wide pictures taken featured startling amounts of over-smoothing, with significant detail lost in a way that plasters over textures; not to mention, lots of grain in darker (and sometimes even lighter) parts of images.

I took pictures in Starfield’s photo mode that looked more realistic than these photos. It’s possible that these issues are from the Fairphone 5’s AI optimization being a little overzealous, an issue which could be fixed with software updates, but at the time of my testing… well, you can see the results for yourself.

Image 1 of 2

Image 2 of 2

Luckily this isn’t an issue on the front-facing camera; selfies look detailed and reasonably bright. One interesting quirk is that, if you switch to portrait mode, the camera zooms in to 2x – you’ll need to stretch your arm in order to frame your snap well. Portrait shots had impressive depth perception, so the bokeh background blur was accurate, though some of our selfies were a little desaturated compared to non-Portrait alternatives.

Video recording goes up to 4K at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps, and thanks to having the same sensor resolution, the front camera lets you record in 4K too.

There’s a fairly limited selection of other modes on the phone: slow-mo video recording, night mode, pro mode and panorama. No time-lapse, then – a surprising omission, given how commonplace this option is with many other smartphone cameras.

Fairphone 5 camera samples

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Camera score: 3 / 5

Fairphone 5 review: performance and audio

Qualcomm QCM6490 is fit for purpose...
... but no powerhouse for gaming
Stereo speakers but no 3.5mm headphone jack

Fairphone mobiles have never been performance powerhouses, but the Fairphone 5 does at least have a good enough processor to handle light gaming and similarly intensive processes.

The mobile packs the blandly-named Qualcomm QCM6490, a chipset that hasn’t been used on a smartphone before – it’s not one of Qualcomm’s mobile-first offerings, and is actually intended for IoT devices, rather than smartphones.

So, we turn to Geekbench 5 to evaluate the chip: the average multi-core score was 2940, which is on par with a top-end phone from yesteryear (read: 2020) or a mid-range phone nowadays.

When I put the Fairphone 5 through my ‘gaming tests’ (i.e. hours of gaming), it mostly performed well – there was the occasional stutter or lag, but it didn’t have much of an effect on performance. The handset isn't perfect for gaming, but it’ll do.

Unlike its predecessor, there’s only one variant of the phone: it has 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. There is, however, also a microSD card slot to expand that storage, so you don’t need to worry if you're ever running low on space.

The phone has stereo speaker output, though the down-firing one is noticeably louder than its earpiece equivalent. This performs how you expect for a smartphone speaker: fine for gaming or streaming, though missing the soundstage of an actual loudspeaker, and getting tinny at higher volumes.

Performance score: 3 / 5

Fairphone 5 review: battery life

Fairphone devices always seem to have limited battery life on paper, yet they often outperform those figures in practice, and that’s the case here.

You’ll find a 4,200mAh power pack inside the Fairphone 5, which is smaller than the 5,000mAh unit that every new phone and its mother seems to be equipped with these days (though that's nothing to turn your nose up at). However, between the battery-efficient software, small screen and sprinkling of Fairphone magic, the handset does fare better than you'd expect.

In the testing period, the phone generally lasted through a day of ‘standard’ use (i.e. how a non-phone-tester uses their device). If you're an intensive user, you might struggle to get the device to hit the 24-hour mark, but given the chipset, the Fairphone isn't really a phone for that kind of user anyway.

If you're struggling with battery, a lunchtime boost will suffice to see you through to that second evening. It'll have to be left on charge for the entirety of your lunchtime, because the Fairphone 5's recharge speeds aren't exactly rapid. At 30W, there’s technically been a speed boost here over the 20W fourth-gen mobile, but it’s still a far cry from the fast charging you'll find on the latest phones from Xiaomi or Oppo. You’ll have to plug the device in for over an hour to go from empty to full.

Battery score: 3.5 / 5

Should you buy the Fairphone 5?

Buy it if...

You care about the planet
The eco-friendly credentials of Fairphone and its devices make the Fairphone 5 the device to buy if you consider yourself an eco-warrior.

You want a long-lasting phone
Between its durable build, five years of security updates and the fact you can remove and replace parts of the phone, the Fairphone will serve you for years.

A good screen is important
One of the biggest improvements over the Fairphone 4 is the 5's display; it's higher-res, bolder and quicker to refresh than its predecessor.

Don't buy it if...

You're on a budget
Because of its spec upgrades, the Fairphone 5 isn't as affordably priced as its predecessors, which may put off people who want a green yet low-cost handset.

You don't use facial recognition
The Fairphone's fingerprint scanner is fiddly and annoying to use. However, if you use facial recognition unlocking (or a PIN or password) you'll be fine.

The Fairphone 4's specs are okay for you
The Fairphone 4 saw a price drop when its successor was announced, and it has similarly impressive environmental credentials to the Fairphone 5.

Fairphone 5 review: Also consider

The Fairphone 5 is hard to compare to rivals, because of its unique niche, but here are some other mobiles you might want to consider.

Fairphone 4
The Fairphone 5's predecessor is slightly weaker in most areas specs-wise, but it's just as good for the environment and is cheaper too.

Google Pixel 7
At a similar price to the Fairphone 5, the Google Pixel 7 is slightly smaller and doesn't impress in the battery department, but it has a fantastic camera.

How I tested the Fairphone 5

Review test period = 2 weeks
Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, music playback

I've used several Fairphone mobiles before and really respect what the company is doing, so I was excited to test this newest phone. I was given the transparent version in its only configuration: 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. I was also sent the official Fairphone screwdriver, which you can use to remove its parts.

For two weeks I used the phone as my normal driver: I played games on it, took photos with it, texted from it, and so on. Y'know, everything you do every day on your phone!

I worked on TechRadar's phones team for several years and so have lots of experience using smartphones of all shapes and sizes. I conducted the site's review of the phone's predecessor and also spoke to Fairphone about its development. Since leaving TechRadar, I've continued writing freelance reviews of gadgets for the site.

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