oppo f1s review

Design and build
It would be easy to mistake the F1s for the F1 Plus since they look virtually identical from the front. The mildly curved edges of the display offer a pleasant feeling when you hold this phone, and the slim bezel adds a bit of style. The phone has a pre-installed screen guard which attracts scratches fairly easily, and we think this could have been done away with since there is Gorilla Glass 4 for protection.

The 5.5-inch IPS display produces rich colours, and the maximum brightness level is much better than the Oppo F1 could manage. We had no trouble with the display under direct sunlight. Even though the panel is good, we're not happy about the HD resolution, which is a bit too coarse for a screen of this size. Even though pixellation isn't all that apparent, it would have been nice to have text and icons just a bit sharper, and that isn't asking for too much considering this phone's price point.

The F1s gets a fingerprint sensor, which was missing on the F1, and it works very well. Just like the F1 Plus, the screen unlocks instantly. The sensor is flanked by two backlit capacitive buttons. Oppo also throws in a notification LED near the top. The all-metal body looks really good and the glossy gold trim that runs along the edges of the phone adds to the device's premium aesthetic.

Button placement is ergonomic although we would have liked better spacing between the volume buttons so we could distinguish them better. The headphones socket is on the bottom, along with a Micro-USB port and mono speaker. Once again, the headphones socket would have been better on the top as cable tend to get in the way while you're trying to type.

Around the back, we have the 13-megapixel camera and LED flash. The battery is sealed inside and is non-removable. The SIM tray sits on the right and we appreciate the fact that it's not a hybrid Dual-SIM solution. Along with the two Nano-SIM cutouts, you also get a dedicated microSD card slot which can accommodate a 128GB card.

The package includes a 10W power adapter, data cable, silicon case, SIM ejector tool, headset, and some reading material. Overall, the F1s gets a much-needed cosmetic upgrade, which makes it feel relevant among the competition. The fast fingerprint sensor and dedicated microSD card slot are added bonuses. It doesn't feel too heavy at 160 gram and is fairly slim at 7.3mm.

Specifications and features
Oppo has gone with MediaTek's MT6750 octa-core SoC which features eight ARM Cortex-A53 cores running at 1.5GHz. This chip is part of MediaTek's new entry-level lineup with integrated LTE which was announced earlier this year. We got 41,244 points in AnTuTu and 21fps in GFXbench.

Other specifications include 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, USB OTG, GPS, and FM radio. There's no NFC or Wi-Fi ac. The F1s supports 4G LTE on Indian bands along with VoLTE support.

Just like the F1 Plus, the Oppo F1s runs on Colour OS 3.0, which makes Android look somewhat like Apple's iOS. This is fine by us, but what we don't like is that fact that OEMs are still serving up Android Lollipop today, which is now almost two generations old. We might see Marshmallow as an update down the line but it's always nice to have the latest version at launch.

We did find a few kinks in the software that need ironing out. Notifications from some third-party apps, especially Telegram, would intermittently refuse to show up in the notifications shade even though we would hear the alert. Barring this, the interface is quite smooth and relatively lag-free for the most part. The recent apps are displayed as stacked cards, which you swipe up to dismiss.

Oppo has added some tweaks of its own to the settings app. The display submenu gets a blue light filter whose intensity can be varied; Lockscreen Magazine changes the lock-screen wallpaper each time you unlock the phone. You also get a bunch of gestures including one-handed mode, however this didn't work well in our experience.

The phone comes with Google's suite of apps along with others like Theme Store, Kingsoft Office, Security Centre, File Manager, and a video player. O-Cloud is also present, and lets you back up your SMS messages and contacts to Oppo's cloud.

Performance
The Oppo F1s is a very good phone to live with and after using it for more than a week, we did not find any glaring problems. It handled most tasks that we threw at it easily, including 3D games, and didn't heat up too much either. There were instances where it got a bit warm but nothing too alarming. 4G connectivity was good and the earpiece was sufficiently loud even during a chaotic commute. There's only the TouchPal keyboard installed, which works well. This is one slippery device, though.

The phone handled HD media files well, including some of our high resolution test files at up to 1080p resolution. Oppo also adds its Dirac software enhancement for the speaker and headphones, which does a fair job at boosting the lower frequencies. The mono speaker gets quite loud for alerts, but the effect isn't that good when watching media.

One of the reasons you'd pick this phone over the more obvious choices is its camera performance. We begin with the front camera, which is the highlight of the phone. You get a 16-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture that manages pretty detailed selfies in even less-than-ideal lighting conditions. Beautify 4.0 software lets you get rid of any 'blemishes'. You can vary its effect on the final picture or not use it at all.

(Tap for full size Oppo F1s sample image)

Like earlier F-series phones, you can take a selfie with a palm gesture or a voice command. Thanks to the brighter display, the screen flash is a lot more effective. However, it's still a bit weak in pitch darkness. The front camera can record 1080p video and there are some additional shooting modes like gif, filters, and double exposure.

(Tap for full size Oppo F1s sample images)

The 13-megapixel rear camera also gets the same shooting modes, along with additional ones like Expert mode. The latter lets you control the shutter, ISO, exposure and white balance, and even save in RAW format. We would have liked better controls though, for instance, you can't select a fast shutter speed other than Auto. You only get to choose from 1 second to 16 seconds. Image quality is pretty good for landscapes and macro shots. There is slight artefacting in the dark areas of shots taken in low light, but not too much colour noise, which is good.

The rear sensor gets phase detection autofocus (PDAF) which helps in locking in on your subject better. We like the simplicity of the camera app and the placement of the toggle switches.

Battery life
Coming to battery life, we managed to get 10 hours and 11 minutes of continuous video playback from the 3075mAh battery. Under regular use, we found ourselves going a little more than a day before reaching for the charger. However, we wish the F1s had the VOOC fast charging feature that its bigger brother does, as even with the 10W adapter, it takes a painfully ling time to fully charge the phone.

Verdict
The F1s is yet another good product from Oppo but we really wish the company had paid a bit more attention to the little details, which could have made it really competitive. We're talking about things like fast charging, Wi-Fi ac and NFC, which probably won't be missed by many but are features we've come to expect in this price range.

The F1s does have a charm of its own and we can see why some would opt for it over the usual suspects. It has a classy design, is built very well, and offers quite a few modern features. The display is also good (although full-HD resolution wouldn't have hurt) and the cameras tend to deliver on their claim.

The launch price is currently this phone's biggest problem. The original F1 has no place in the market anymore, so the most logical thing would have been to swap the F1s in at the same price, which would be the right price segment to be in. However, 4800 isn't competitive enough given the phone's specifications, as there more powerful and feature-rich smartphones available for under  4800 these days

البرنامج الاقواء ف السيطره ع ال wifi Selfishnet

تحميل برنامج تقسيم النت على المشتركين برابط مباشر

selfishnet win 7: هو برنامج مختص في تحديد سرعة الإنترنت للمتصلين على الشبكة وحظر الأجهزة من استعمالها كما يعمل على تقسيم سرعة الإنترنت بين المتصلين على الشبكة. سيلفيش نيت برنامج مفيد لكل من يعاني من ضعف صبيب الإنترنت بسبب مشاركة الإنترنت مع شخص أو أشخاص آخرين.

ويرجع السبب الرئيس في بطء الإنترنت الذي يَتَشَارَكُهُ مجموعة من الأشخاص إلى استعمال أحدهم برامج التورنت أو مشاهدة مقاطع الفيديو بصورة مستمرة أو  تنزيل الملفات بكثرة من الإنترنت .

مع برنامج Selfishnet كل شيء ممكن. لا يتطلب البرنامج التسطيب ويعمل على أغلب اصدارات الويندوز win 7 win xp ، win 8، win 10، وهو برنامج مجاني. وتجدر الإشارة إلى أن برنامج سحب سرعة الإنترنت Selfishnet صدر سنة 2007 ولم يتم تحديثه منذ ذاك الحين من قبل مطوريه، ولهذا لا تُضَيِّع وقتك في البحث عن اصدرات جديدة في المواقع الأخرى. وعلى العموم، يظل برنامجا رائعا وبسيطا لا يتطلب من المستخدم أي معرفة تقنية للعمل به.

ومن خلال استعمال هذا البرنامج سنقدم لكم إن شاء الله شرحا مفصلا عن كيفية عمل البرنامج وكيفية استخدامه من أجل التحكم في صبيب الإنترنت للإجهزة المتصلة معك على نفس الشبكة. وإليك فيما يلي شرح البرنامج ورابط تحميله:

تثبيت برنامج selfishnet

الخطوة الأولى:

1. اولا قم بتنزيل برنامج Selfishnet من الرابط  الموجود في أسفل المقال ثم تابع الخطوات.

2. بعد فك الضغط، يصبح لك مجلد به جميع الملفات الخاصة بالبرنامج يمكنك حفظها في مكان يسهل الوصول إليه في حالة استعمال البرنامج مرة أخرى.

3 افتح البرنامج المسمى بــ SelfishNet.exe

ملاحظة: بالنسبة لمستخدمي Windows 7 فما فوق، إن واجهتكم أي مشكلة، يُرجى فتح البرنامج بصفة المدير وذلك من خلال الضغط بيمين الفأرة على برنامج Selfishnet ثم اختر من القائمة “افتح كمدير” (Run as Administrator). وبهذا يشتغل البرنامج بدون مشاكل.

4. إذا ظهرت لك رسالة عند تشغيل البرنامج كهذه “problem registering the driver” أو “problem installing the drivers”، قم بتثبيت برنامج WinPcap فهو ضروري لالتقاط الحزم التي تمر عبر شبكة الاتصال. بمجرد تثبيت WinPcap وإعادة تشغيل جهاز الكمبيوتر، أعد فتح ملف SelfishNet.exe.

الخطوة الثانية:

الآن، ستظهر لك واجهة البرنامج، في هذه المرحلة اختر بطاقة الشبكة التي تستخدمها في مشاركة الإنترنت. وللإشارة، تختلف بطاقة الشبكة من شخص لآخر.

طريقة معرفة الأجهزة المتصلة على الشبكة

1. اختر شبكة الاتصال الخاصة بك من القائمة المنسدلة ثم اضغط على “Ok”.

22. اضغط على أيقونة كشف شبكة الاتصال، وسيتم سرد جميع الأجهزة المتصلة على شبكتك بما فيها جهازك الخاص، بحيث يظهر في أول القائمة.

33. حدد سرعة الانترنت المسموح بها لأي شخص متصل معك على الشبكة وذلك بإدخال سرعة الانترنت مقابل اسم الحاسوب اذا كان متوفرا أو عنوان الـ إي بي. كمثال: تضع 30 في خانة Download cap و6 في خانة Upload cap ثم اضغط على أيقونة الفلاش التي تظهر باللون الأصفر. والمثير في برنامج selfish net أنه يمكنك أيضا قطع أو إيقاف تدفق الانترت بشكل كامل على أي جهاز، وذلك من خلال وضع علامة مقابل الجهاز المستهدف في خانة ‘Block’ ثم اضغط على أيقونة الفلاش.

إلى هنا نكون قد قدمنا شرحا مبسطا لكيفية التحكم في سرعة الانترنت بالنسبة للأشخاص  المتصلين على الشبكة الخاصة بنا، ونسمح لهم فقط باستعمال الصبيب الذي حددناه لهم، وذلك من أجل تفادي بطء سرعة الانترنت. وكما أشرنا إلى ذلك سابقا فإن السبب في ثقل الانترنت يرجع في الأساس إلى استعمال هؤلاء الأشخاص المتصلين بشبكتك لبرامج تستهلك الانترنت بصورة رهيبة وخاصة برامج التحميل كـ “التورنت” او “Internet Download Manger” أو أنهم يشاهدون مقاطع الفيديو بشكل مستمر وخصوصا أثناء استخدامك للإنترنت.

مميزات برنامج سيلفش نت

• معرفة المتصلين بالشبكة.
• معرفة الإي بي ip والماك للأجهزة المتصلة على الراوتر.
• تقسيم سرعة الأنترنت على جميع الأجهزة المتصلة بالراوتر.
• تحديد سرعة النت للمتصلين على الشبكة.
• قطع النت على المشتركين.

كيفية الغاء تحديد الانترنت للمشتركين

من أجل إلغاء محدودية الانترنت أو التحكم فيه، انقر على الأيقونة الحمراء على شكل X ثم  أغلق البرنامج. دمتم في رعاية الله، الى ان نلتقي بكم في شرح جديد.

Samsung Galaxy S8 & S8+ UNBOXING

s8 unboxing From another blog because of poor possibilities

Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro review

Design

Thanks to the 6-inch display, the Galaxy C9 Pro is a big and heavy device. It’s not as heavy as the A9 Pro as it has a smaller (4,000 mAh) battery, and it’s not as thick, either. In fact, the Galaxy C9 Pro is a slim device for what it offers. The back of the device is metal, lending it a premium feel that is different than what you get on the glass backs on other Samsung devices. The metal back curves at the sides to improve grip, but its slippery nature does make ergonomics an issue, especially for single-handed usage. Of course, a 6-inch device isn’t really made for single-handed usage, so we can let the slippery back slide in this case.

As you can see in the pictures, the C9 Pro resembles other Samsung phones in terms of the overall look. The only new design element is at the back, where three lines run across the device above the camera and near the bottom. It certainly adds a character that is missing from other Samsung devices, although it doesn’t add too much to the phone’s visual appeal when everything is said and done, as you won’t be looking at the back of the device very often.

I would recommend getting the black version of the Galaxy C9 Pro if you care about how your smartphone looks. The all-white front on the gold version looks rather boring, with only the home button getting golden accents. It’s disappointing that Samsung didn’t use the same color on all sides of the device as it has done on the new Galaxy A series handsets.

Display

The Full HD AMOLED display on the C9 Pro offers an attractive viewing experience. The colors pop, the blacks are deep, and the viewing angles are pretty wide. Legibility under harsh sunlight didn’t prove to be a problem, either. It’s not the best AMOLED panel, as those are reserved for Samsung’s flagships, but it’s still a great display that can take on competing devices with AMOLED displays (including high-end phones like the Google Pixel). The color tone is on the cooler side, which means there’s a bluish tinge to it, but you can switch to the basic display mode to tone things down a notch.

It’s unclear what version of Gorilla Glass Samsung is using on the Galaxy C9 Pro. This is the first time a Samsung phone has come with a screen protector applied out of the box, which made me think that the phone might be using a regular glass panel. It’s very resistant to scratches as I haven’t noticed any in two weeks of usage, but it did make me wonder if Samsung is now cutting costs by using standard glass on the front rather than something like Gorilla Glass.

Audio Quality

Since the C9 Pro is the first Samsung smartphone to offer stereo speakers, let’s talk about its audio quality. Well, you will be disappointed to hear that the audio output on the C9 Pro’s speakers isn’t that great. The primary reason here is that Samsung is simply using the earpiece as the second speaker, so it isn’t a true stereo speaker setup. The earpiece seems to be the standard earpiece found on other Samsung phones but with its volume increased by a couple of notches, so you can see why the stereo speakers aren’t very impressive.

But the C9 Pro does sound better than other Samsung devices, especially when you’re gaming or watching videos. The output is deeper, slightly fuller, and since some of the audio comes out of the earpiece, the sound isn’t fully directed away from you like it on Samsung devices with a single bottom-firing speaker. Even the regular speaker on this phone sounds better than the one on Samsung’s flagships – both the water-resistant and regular ones like the S7 edge and Note 5 – once you disable stereo mode (possible from the settings menu), so overall sound quality is only disappointing because it looks like Samsung didn’t do all it should have done to make the experience stand out.

As for the supplied earphones, they have the same quality as the earphones Samsung offers with its flagships. The earphones are geared towards the higher frequencies (treble) so there isn’t a lot of bass, although you can rectify that by playing around with the sound settings. The equalizer offers a UHQ upscaler option that results in clearer sound from high-quality tracks, and a surround sound toggle to, well, emulate the effect of “rich surround soud.”

Camera

So, let’s talk about the front camera – or the selfie camera as it is now called – first. A 16-megapixel sensor for selfies sounds great, right? Sadly, it sounds great but isn’t really effective in practice, at least on the C9 Pro. Like the A (2017) series, Samsung’s 16-megapixel front camera on the C9 Pro doesn’t use the increased megapixel count to good effect. Selfies come out all soft and without much detail, and the camera also fails to properly resolve skin tone. In fact, the S7 and S7 edge with their 5-megapixel front cameras resolve more detail than the 16 MP sensor on the C9 Pro.

But those flagships no doubt have better software processing and therefore offer higher quality selfies overall. Of course, it’s not entirely surprising. The megapixel count is only part of what makes a camera good. It also needs a good sensor and intelligent software algorithms to capture quality pictures, both of which lack on the front-facing camera Samsung has employed for the C9 pro. It’s quite frustrating, actually, since there seems to be no real advantage to the increased megapixels here, leaving them to act only as marketing fluff.

Here are selfies from the C9 Pro and the S7 edge side by side (S7 edge on the right). Notice how the former’s picture is smoother than the S7 edge’s? The beauty mode presets were fully disabled, so it’s clear there is some form of softening going on. The colors are slightly off as well, with slightly higher contrast on the reds than the actual scene.

Below are a few regular selfie samples from the device. For a 16-megapixel camera, this is far from sufficient.

Thankfully, the 16 MP rear camera saves the day here (no pun intended), at least when it comes to daylight photography. There’s plenty of detail in images and the colors are quite close to their real-life counterparts. Samsung seems to have made some improvements here, as the 16 MP rear camera on the A9 Pro wasn’t as good. Macro shots don’t come out great, however, with the phone failing to capture enough detail when you get too close to the subject.

Naturally, taking images at night is also problematic. The C9 Pro loses detail in low-light shots and isn’t very quick to focus or save images. The slow focusing speeds combine with the lack of optical image stabilization (OIS) to make for quite a few blurry shots in low light. The same goes for video recording. The C9 Pro does a good job during the day, but the quality takes a dive at night and in low-light conditions. The lack of OIS becomes a problem during video recording as well, as you have to keep your hands steady to avoid taking videos with too much shake.

In terms of camera modes, you get the usual list. There are dedicated night and HDR modes, and modes like Panorama, Food, and Continuous Shot. A Pro mode is offered as well, but like every other non-flagship Samsung phone, it’s a basic mode that doesn’t let you change shutter speed or shoot in RAW. I should note that the night mode is quite handy in low-light situations where you aren’t taking photos of moving objects, as it can wring out quite a bit of detail that you wouldn’t otherwise get.

Below are a few samples from the rear camera.

Performance

The Snapdragon 653 chipset and 6GB of RAM ensure that the Galaxy C9 Pro offers fast performance at all times. I don’t recall a time when the phone hung up or stuttered enough to be noticeable, and rightly so, as the Snapdragon 653 is equivalent in power to the Snapdragon 810 (without the overheating nature of the latter). Apps launch quickly, and animations are smooth throughout. The only time you might notice a hiccup is when you go to the home screen from an app, but such hiccups were few and far between.

The C9 Pro also handles every game with aplomb, including titles like Modern Combat 5 and Asphalt 8 at the highest graphics settings. The phone tends to heat up during prolonged gaming sessions and while charging, but it stays cool at other times. As for multitasking, the 6GB of RAM seems to keep slightly more apps in memory than devices with 4GB of RAM. Samsung has been employing heavy-handed memory management in its devices since the Galaxy S6 was launched with the modernized TouchWiz interface, but the C9 Pro doesn’t suffer from the same thanks to the two extra gigs of RAM.

It’s important to note that the Galaxy C9 Pro comes with 64GB of internal storage, the highest we have seen on any non-flagship Samsung phone. MicroSD cards of up to 256 GB are supported as well, and the phone also comes with two SIM slots. It’s not a hybrid SIM slot, so you can be connected to two networks and have a microSD card in the phone to make it your go-to connectivity and multimedia device.

The fingerprint sensor on the C9 Pro is probably its most disappointing aspect as far as performance is concerned. I can’t recount just how much the sensor managed to fail at recognizing my fingerprint. It’s fast when it works, but when it doesn’t, I was forced to re-position my finger a few times before it would be properly detected. For a device priced north of $500, the iffy fingerprint sensor is hard to overlook, especially when devices that cost four times less now offer accurate and fast fingerprint scanning.

To be fair, Samsung’s fingerprint sensors have been left behind by the competition even in the flagship range, and most of it comes down to the fact that Samsung’s home button offers lesser surface area than rear-mounted fingerprint sensors or the iPhone’s circular home button. Most people use their thumb for the fingerprint sensor, which means Samsung’s home button is usually smaller than the finger being used and is more prone to failing recognition.

For those wondering, the fingerprint sensor on the C9 Pro also works with a touch when the screen is off instead of needing a press of the home button. It doesn’t always work properly, though, but it is a nice feature to have that is still missing from Samsung’s flagships even after the Nougat update.

Software

The Galaxy C9 Pro runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box, and Samsung is using the same interface like the one on the new Galaxy A series handsets. It’s not Nougat, but a lot of the features that debuted on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge with Nougat are available here, such as blue light filter and Samsung Cloud. Well, these actually debuted on the Galaxy Note 7, but the gist is that Samsung is offering a lot of its latest new features despite the C9 Pro not running the latest version of Android. Not yet anyway; an upgrade to Nougat should be offered at some point in the future.

For a full rundown on how the C9 Pro’s software works, read the software section of our Galaxy A5 (2017) review, as both handsets are similar on the software front.

Battery Life

I’m not sure if it was an issue with my particular unit, but for a phone with a 4,000 mAh battery, the C9 Pro’s battery life is disappointing. In the first week of use, I was connecting the phone to the charger by 8 in the evening, after around 2.5 to 3 hours of screen on time. This was with Always On Display enabled, but even after turning off the feature, I didn’t see much improvement. The phone managed to last until the next day in the second week, but I never managed to get even 5 hours of screen time. I’m sure battery life will improve over time, but I wasn’t impressed with the battery endurance I saw during the review period.

It’s one thing if a smartphone has a Quad HD display, but a device with Full HD display should be making great use of a 4,000 mAh battery, but the C9 Pro doesn’t do so. It can certainly last until the evening with heavy usage, and you can extract an hour or so of additional battery life by using the power saving mode. Speaking of power saving modes, the Indian variant comes with features like S power planning and a couple of modes that extend battery life for calls. I would suggest reading up on our Galaxy J7 Prime review’s battery section for details on these modes, as they work in the same way on the C9 Pro.

What about charging, you ask? Well, there’s support for fast charging here, and I think the phone reaches 100 percent charge from 0 in a little under two hours. Don’t mind the USB Type-C port; the phone works with any regular fast charger with Quick Charge 2.0 support, and Samsung offers a Type-C to microUSB converter in the box so your existing microUSB cables won’t become outdated if you bring home a Galaxy C9 Pro.

Wrap Up

I don’t know what to say about the Galaxy C9 Pro. There isn’t anything wrong with it – it’s got a beautiful display, better speakers than any previous Samsung phone, a premium design, and impressive software performance. But it also fails to do well with what should be its highlight features. The 16 MP front camera is a downright disappointment, and the rear camera can only take good pictures in daylight. The stereo speakers don’t elevate the audio experience by a huge margin compared to existing Samsung smartphones, and battery life is nowhere near as good as it should be with a 4,000 mAh battery and a Full HD display.

With a price tag of Rs. 36,900 (roughly $560) in the Indian market, the Galaxy C9 Pro has the task of competing with a lot of value-for-money devices, including the Snapdragon 821-powered OnePlus 3T. In fact, the OnePlus 3T is almost $100 cheaper, yet features top-of-the-line specs that match the C9 Pro’s in many respects, such as the 16 MP front camera (both use a Samsung sensor) and 6GB of RAM. Huawei can also offer tough competition with devices like the Honor 8, which are considerably cheaper than the C9 Pro yet provides a high-end experience. Even the Galaxy A9 Pro is a better buy, as it offers outstanding battery life and manages to match the C9 Pro in most other aspects. It doesn’t have stereo speakers, but you can easily get around the fact by using a good pair of headphones.

But I wouldn’t say that you shouldn’t buy the Galaxy C9 Pro. It’s a good device overall, with draws like the excellent 6-inch AMOLED display, stereo speakers, and the quality assurance that comes with Samsung smartphones (not counting the Galaxy Note 7). It’s just that in the markets that Samsung is trying to sell it, there are a multitude of smartphones offering better value, and Samsung could have a tough time trying to tell consumers why they should spend upwards of $500 on the C9 Pro.

ASUS Announces Designo Curve MX38VQ review

ASUS Announces Designo Curve MX38VQ 

ASUS has introduced its largest Designo Curve display to date that weds style with a sophisticated feature set. The new MX38VQ uses a UWQHD-class (3840x1600) IPS panel and is equipped with a Qi wireless charging pad, as well as a Harman/Kardon-designed audio sub-system. The product will hit the market in the second half of this year and its price will not be very high for its size and features.

ASUS introduced its first Designo-series display eight or nine years ago in an attempt to address customers looking for an elegant design as well as premium specifications. Today, the lineup includes ten 23” to 34” monitors with eye-catching aesthetics that use high-resolution IPS panels and built-in audio co-designed with brands like Bang & Olufsen or Harman/Kardon. The Designo Curve is a relatively new addition to the Designo family as the first monitor in the sub-series was announced in mid-2016. At CES, ASUS introduced the second curved Designo display that will also be the largest monitor in the company’s stylish lineup and among the largest ultra-wide displays on the market in general.

The ASUS Designo Curve MX38VQ is based on a 37.5” IPS panel with a 3840×1600 resolution, a 24:10 aspect ratio and 2300R curvature. The rather distinctive specs of the panel may point to the fact that it was sourced from LG and we already know what it is capable of. The resolution of the display is well suited for displaying UHD content filmed in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 or 2.40:1 (a lot of movies are shot in such aspect ratios). Like the smaller curved Designo model, the MX38VQ uses a stereo audio sub-system co-designed with Harman/Kardon that features two 8 W speakers and software enhancements. As for connectivity, the new monitor has DisplayPort and HDMI inputs, just like many contemporary products.

ASUS Designo Curve MX38VQ

Panel37.5" IPS

Resolution 3840 × 1600

Refresh Rate 60 Hz

Response Time 5 ms gray-to-gray 14 md standard

Brightness 300 c d/m²

Contrast 1000:1

Viewing Angles 178°/178° horizontal/vertical

Color Saturation 100% sRGB 10-bit (8-bit + FRC)

Pixel Pitch 0.23 mm

Pixel Density1 10 ppiInputs1 x DisplayPort 1.22 x HDMI 2.0

Qi Wireless Charging 5W/1A with aurora lighting

Audio 8 W × 2 Harmon /Kardon

Galaxy A7 (2017) Review

Galaxy A7 (2017) Review: A force to be reckoned with

Samsung added some much-needed substance to its mid-range lineup with the revamped Galaxy A series last year, and it proved to be a winning formula for the company. It’s no surprise that we saw Samsung further refine that formula with the new Galaxy A (2017) series that it launched last month. The Galaxy A7 (2017) is the top-of-the-line model in this new lineup and while it may look the same as the Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5 (2017), it’s in a league of its own.

In this review, we’ll ascertain just how good the Galaxy A7 (2017) is, how it stacks up against its siblings, and if the claimed specifications and functionality is as good as Samsung makes it out to be.

Design

Samsung’s Galaxy A series pushes the envelope on design as it boasts a robust metal and glass build that’s similar to flagship handsets like the Galaxy S7. The Galaxy A7 (2017)’s metal frame feels really nice and the slight curve on the 3D glass back makes it very comfortable to hold the device despite its 5.7-inch display and 156.8 x 77.6 x 7.9 mm dimensions.

The Galaxy A7 (2016) had a 5.5-inch display while its successor bumps it up a notch to a 5.7-inch display; it is also slightly heavier at 186 grams compared to 172 grams. Make no mistake, this is a big phone and it does have a notable heft, but that doesn’t make it hard to live with on a daily basis. However, since the bezels are very slim, the front of the device basically looks like one big chunk of glass. The slightly curved back does wonders for the grip, but given the amount of glass this phone has, you won’t need any extra effort to drop it and shatter the glass. Yes, you may have concerns about the device scratching easily but that’s to be expected on a phone with a metal and glass build.

The color we chose for this review is called Black Sky and it does justice to the name. It’s a really nice, rich black color that will fade away when you’re using the phone in bed late at night with the lights turned off. You’re basically left with a big display and that makes it a treat to watch YouTube when you can’t go to sleep.

All of the buttons are in the same place as the Galaxy A7 (2016) so do check out that review as well. I will point out here that Samsung has re-positioned the speaker to the right corner above the power button, a move it first made with the Galaxy J7 Prime (read our review here). I didn’t like that because I often found myself inadvertently covering the speaker when holding the device in landscape mode for watching videos. It’s how I hold all devices but the Galaxy A7 (2017)’s speaker kept getting in the way, so to speak, as I consciously had to make an effort to hold the phone in a way that my finger did not cover the speaker.

That being said, Samsung has refined the design to a great extent. We said that its predecessor had the best design you could get on any mid-range phone last year, and that endorsement stands with the Galaxy A7 (2017).

Display

The Galaxy A7 (2017) features a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED Full HD display with a 386 ppi pixel density. You’ll find that the colors pop very nicely and that the display has respectable viewing angles. A pleasant viewing experience is made possibly by higher contrast ratios and deep blacks. The Adaptive Display mode is enabled by default and it can be changed to basic, AMOLED photo and AMOLED cinema modes. It’s really a matter of going with what appeals to you the most - perhaps you’d like a more popping look or one that appears to be more like an LCD display. The display is nice and bright even under direct sunlight so using it outdoors isn’t an issue at all.

The Always On Display feature is a nice addition to this mid-range smartphone. It displays the date, time, day of the week and can even be configured to display the time in another time zone. It’s also capable of displaying notifications from native apps and you can double tap on a notification to view it. There is also support for third-party app notifications on the Always On Display.

Camera

We told you in our Galaxy A7 (2016) review that the handset’s camera left a lot to be desired. Samsung seems to have paid attention as the successor touts significantly improved cameras. It has a 16-megapixel f/1.9 camera with LED flash on the back and a 16-megapixel f/1.9 camera on the front. If you’re looking to upgrade from last year’s Galaxy A7, the new handset’s camera performance is going to be a pleasant surprise. The rear camera can shoot at 4:3 aspect ratio on full resolution while 16:9 is available at the 12-megapixel setting. It’s the same story with the front camera.

The camera performance is very respectable in daylight and you’ll find that the pictures have good color reproduction and detail. Pictures taken indoors with nice lighting come out just fine but I found that the camera leaves the user wanting for more when taking pictures in low-light conditions. They just don’t have the sharpness or detail so the quality isn’t something to write home about. Samsung has addressed some pain points that we highlighted in its predecessor: focusing is much faster, and color reproduction has been improved as well. Aside from Auto, the camera provides a Pro mode with advanced settings, Panorama, Hyperlapse, HDR, Night, and Food modes by default.

Selfie lovers will find the 16-megapixel front camera more than capable of indulging their daily dose of vanity, with pictures that offer noticeably more detail than the lower-resolution front cameras on other Samsung devices. The device is capable of recording Full HD video and the result is what you’d expect from a device of this caliber.

Software

The Galaxy A7 (2017) comes with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box. Unlike its predecessor, it doesn’t have the same old TouchWiz. It features the Grace UX instead that Samsung introduced with the Galaxy Note 7 last year. The result is a much simpler and cleaner user interface that feels intuitive and swift. The Grace UX has softer colors and rounded icons so that it’s easier on the eyes. The notification shade gets a splash of white, making it it feel lighter than before. The toggle icons in the shade still light up in the blue “active” color when features like Wi-Fi or NFC are toggled on and off. You’ll also find that the animations are a lot smoother.

Overall, it’s a great user interface that complements this handset well. Software features that are included in the Galaxy A7 (2017) by default include the Secure Folder, S Bike Mode, Device maintenance, Blue light filter, and more. Support for themes makes a return, with thousands of third-party themes available in the Theme Store (you can take a look at our Themes Thursday series to find the best themes each week).

Performance

The Galaxy A7 (2017) is powered by a 1.9GHz Exynos 7880 octa-core processor with 3GB of RAM, Mali-T830MP3 graphics processor, and 32GB of storage. The handset is capable of supporting a microSD card up to 256GB. You’ll find that it lives up to the performance expectations that one can have from a mid-range device. It feels quick and smooth most of the time, but like we noted last year, the performance does seem to go off a bit randomly. It’s not something that happens very often but you’re bound to notice it with daily use, even when you’re not performing any heavy tasks. The aggressive RAM optimization that impacts multitasking is still present. We pointed this out last year, and it appears to have been carried over to the new handset as well.

Given that it has a very big display, the Galaxy A7 (2017) is a great device for gaming on the go. The device performed well even with heavy titles like Need for Speed: No Limits, and during testing, I didn’t feel it running unreasonably hot during extended gameplay sessions.

Audio and Battery Life

The Galaxy A7 (2016) had a 3,300mAh battery and we found that it provided wonderful battery life. Samsung has kicked things up a notch with its successor as it features a 3,600mAh battery. It has the same capacity as the Galaxy S7 edge and will never leave you feeling anxious about running out of charge before the end of the day. The app power monitor feature detects apps that are using the battery in the background and allows users to put them to sleep to extend the battery life.

Those who want to extend the battery life further can use the Medium and Max power saving modes that limit device performance by reducing CPU speed, visual interactions, prevent background data use and turn the screen to grayscale to squeeze the most life possible out of the battery.

As I’ve mentioned above, the speaker has been repositioned to the right corner above the power button and while it’s reasonably powerful, you will have to make a conscious effort to not cover it with your finger when using the phone in landscape mode. You’ll find that the device offers a much better listening experience if you just plug in some headphones. The sound quality and effects menu in the Settings app offers advanced options for those looking to fine tune the experience to their liking.

Water Resistance

One of the features that make the new Galaxy A series stand out from the competition is its IP68 dust and water resistance rating. An IP68 rating means that the device is protected against dust ingress as well as water ingress to a maximum depth of 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes. You don’t have to worry about spilling coffee on this phone and you can even use it to take underwater photos as long as you’re mindful of the limits.

Try to push it beyond the IP68 rating’s limits and you risk damaging the device, but as long as the Galaxy A7 (2017) is subjected to a maximum depth of 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes, it’s going to handle that without breaking a sweat. It’s a great addition to the entire Galaxy A series, one that makes it more useful and sets it apart from the competition.

Wrap up

If you can afford it, the Galaxy A7 (2017) is certainly the one to buy in the new Galaxy A series. The design makes it look and feel like a much more expensive device, it has a great display, and it provides exceptional battery life. The camera performance is good enough and additional features like the fingerprint sensor, Samsung Pay, and IP68 dust and water resistance make it more useful than ever before.

Samsung says that the new Galaxy A series has the same “Galaxy DNA” that you’d find in its premium handsets like the Galaxy S7, and believe me when I say that the company is right on the money. We felt that the Galaxy A7 (2016) was priced too high and that observation stands with this iteration as well. I think the Galaxy A7 (2017) has the potential to be even more successful if it was priced more competitively and made available in more markets; nevertheless, it’s certainly a force to be reckoned with.

Can’t stretch your budget for the Galaxy A7 (2017)? The new Galaxy A3 (2017) and the Galaxy A5 (2017) are great alternatives in that case, and you can look forward to our review of the two in the coming days.