Friday, January 31, 2020

Realme Buds Air TWS Review: Desirable truly wireless audio meets Realme’s reliability

Realme has barely spent two years old as an independent smartphone brand. While we cannot overlook the benefits of being backed by parent OPPO in terms of manufacturing, distribution, and marketing dollars, Realme has been one of the fastest-growing smartphone brands because of its super-affordable products. Just when we thought smartphones couldn’t be cheaper than what Xiaomi sells them for, Realme proved us wrong by bringing exceedingly powerful specs at great prices. After its fair share of success as a smartphone company, Realme wants to forge a lifestyle brand persona for itself. With this decision, Realme has plunged into a new category of tech products – truly wireless stereo earphones. The Realme Buds Air are unmistakably inspired by the Apple AirPods, but they cost only ₹3,999 (~$60) and thus, cater to an entirely different audience.

Buy: Realme Buds Air on Flipkart (₹3,999) || Realme online store

realme buds air truly wireless stereo tws earbuds airpods

Realme’s TWS earbuds come with wireless charging, a dynamic bass boost sound profile, and a low-latency gaming mode. All of these features along with their affordability make the Realme Buds Air a lucrative choice for a large demographic of young users who want great-looking and feature-rich tech products.

Specifications

Specification Realme Buds Air
Drivers 12mm
Battery 400mAh (charging case)
Charging
  • USB Type-C
  • Up to 10W wireless charging
Connectivity
  • Bluetooth 5.0
  • Google Fast Pair support
  • Range: up to 10m
IP rating NA
Dimensions Charging case:
  • 51.3 x 45.3 x 25.3 mm
  • 42.3 grams

Earbud:

  • 4.16 grams
Controls
  • Pairing button on the case
  • Touch controls on earbuds
    • Double-tap: play/pause and to accept calls
    • Triple-tap: Forward track
    • Long press on single earbud: End calls and trigger voice assistant
    • Long press on both earbuds together: Enter/exit gaming mode

I used the Realme Buds Air for about a month and both – the earbuds and the Realme 10W wireless charger – were loaned to us by Realme India. These are my observations about the Realme Buds Air after a month of usage.

Appearance / Looks

I will start with the first apparent observation about the Realme Buds Air i.e. their unmistakable resemblance to the Apple AirPods. Undeniably, the Realme Buds Air seem to be drawing some inspiration from the AirPods but that’s not surprising considering Apple was among the quickest to jump into the TWS ring. Even though Apple was not the first brand to launch truly wireless stereo earphones, its entry in the segment definitely diverted the world’s attention towards the category and inspired other brands to dive in.

realme buds air truly wireless stereo tws earbuds airpods

The carrying case also looks similar but nuances such as the placement of the button for pairing, the LED indicator, a USB-C port at the bottom instead of a Lightning port, and lastly, a “Designed by realme” branding on the back add to its identity. The lid has a magnetic latching mechanism and it also acts like an on/off switch for the earbuds. The inner side of the lid is inscribed with details about the battery capacity besides some regulatory information. The LED light on the front is the only indicator on the carrying case of the Realme Buds Air and it glows in three colors to indicate the battery life and the connectivity status.

realme buds air truly wireless stereo tws earbuds airpods

Looking closely at the Realme Buds Air, you can notice more nuances that help discern the Realme Buds Air from Apple AirPods or the latter’s clones. The stem on each of the earbuds is flatter on two sides and rounded on the other two, and this makes it looks sleeker than AirPods’ stems. Each earbud carries a proximity sensor which helps pause the media automatically when you pull either of the earphones out of your ear and then resume it when you put them on again. Electrodes at the bottom of the stems are used to charge the earbuds with the help of the pogo pins inside the carrying case. The earbuds lodge instantly into their sockets with the help of magnets which also keep them held even when you hold the case upside down with its lid open.

realme buds air truly wireless stereo tws earbuds airpods realme buds air truly wireless stereo tws earbuds airpods

Forming a virtual triangle along with these electrodes is a small opening for the primary microphone. The secondary microphone for canceling environmental noise lies on the outer side just below the juncture between the stem and the earbud. There’s another opening on the inner face but its utility is unclear.

One cannot deny the direct AirPods inspiration but subtleties such as the flattened stem and different placements of the microphones and the proximity sensors save it the disgrace of bring called a direct and absolute rip-off. The inspiration from AirPods, however, will guarantee you bragging rights for the truly wireless design, especially if you’ve been seen with wired or Bluetooth neckbands. I would recommend buying the black variant of the Realme Buds Air over the white or the yellow ones since I’ve witnessed gunk accumulate along the joints in the plastic housing of the earbuds over time. This deposition makes the earbuds look dirty and warrants regular cleaning even though the plastic appears rigid and durable.

Comfort & Ergonomics

The Realme Buds Air are plagued with the same discomfort issues as most other earbuds that come with rigid shells. That, to be clear, is a subjective opinion and the fit might vary with the size of your ear as well as your previous experience with rigid shell earphones. For me, the Realme Buds Air don’t fit as snuggly as I would like them to and seem prone to falling off even if there’s a gentle smack on the earlobe. You can remedy the issue to some extent by choosing ear hooks or ear tips made of silicone or a similar cushiony material. You can find a wide variety of these online.

realme buds air truly wireless stereo tws earbuds airpods

Because of the unconvincing fit, the Realme Buds Air might also stir up some reluctance when you have to move around. I found myself fearing the possibility that either one or both of the earbuds will be knocked off my ear while walking outside in a public space, taking off for a jog, or boarding public transport. For the same reason, the usability of the Realme Buds Air is pretty much limited to indoor spaces – unless of course, you’re willing to pay for a replacement. If it’s any help, Realme will be selling single earbuds individually if you lose one of the two – or want the two earbuds in two different colors for some reason.

Owing to the shape, the Realme Buds Air don’t seal the ear canal perfectly and you can hear ambient noises. Music being played at high volume cuts off the outside noise almost entirely, but the music also bleeds out at high volumes.

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Notably, Realme does not talk about an official IP rating or protection from splashes or sweat which means there’s no surety it will survive in rain or during your workouts.

The good thing is that each earbud weighs just a little of 4 grams and for the most part, the weight does not seem to bother. While the weight does not spell any trouble, the thickness of the earbud did cause me much discomfort when using the earbuds for over a couple of hours. If you tend to use earphones while sleeping – I do since listening to music or binaural beats helps me unwind more easily at night – then the Realme Buds Air do not feel very gentle and can pain the part of the ear surrounding the air canal.

In spite of Realme’s pep talk about optimizing the angles between the stem and the earbud to ensure comfort, I have had to take the earphones off almost every hour or so. With that said, I must also repeat I am not a fan of earbuds shaped like wine glasses and the Realme Buds Air don’t contribute to changing that opinion. I would instead prefer a silicone tip and a design similar to something like the Sennheiser Momentum TWS earbuds or the new AirPods Pro even if there’s a price to be paid in the form of heft.

Features

The Realme Buds Air may not check all boxes when it comes to your requirements for comfort but they do on the tally of features. The most interesting set of features for me are the touch controls on each of the earbuds. The area on top of the secondary noise-canceling microphone registers touches which can be used for actions such as playing or pausing media, switching to the next track, invoking the voice assistant on your device, and switching to a low-latency gaming mode. Keeping in mind that unintended touches or taps can accidentally stop media playback unintentionally, Realme’s product team has assigned double-tap for play/play or for accepting calls. Additionally, a triple tap can forward the track to the next one but there’s no control to let you switch to the previous track. By long pressing on either of the earbuds at a time, you can activate the voice assistant on your device and the feature works fine with Google Assistant and Alexa on Android devices as well as Siri with Apple devices. The same action can also be used to disconnect calls. All of these touch controls work with taps on any one of the earbuds.

The Realme Buds Air also come with a low-latency Gaming mode, which can be triggered by long-pressing the touch area on both the earbuds simultaneously. It is designed to make communications more effective while gaming by reducing the latency in audio. The reduction in latency comes at the expense of bitrate – which is directly related to the quality of the audio. I will discuss the extent of this reduction in the section dedicated to audio quality.

realme buds air truly wireless stereo tws earbuds airpods

Another quirky feature of the Realme Buds Air is its support for wireless charging. The company showcased its 10W wireless charger at the launch event but did not launch it. However, you can use any Qi-compliant charger to charge the Realme Buds Air wirelessly.

Also mentioned previously, the Realme Buds Air automatically connects to the device they were last paired with when the lid open. Similarly, the earbuds disconnect when the lid is shut. Realme’s TWS earbuds support Android’s Fast Pair protocol. For me, however, Fast Pair only worked with certain Realme devices. Pairing a new device requires you to place the earbuds inside the case with the lid opened – since the case and the earbuds cannot communicate otherwise – and pressing and holding the button on the front until the LED starts breathing in green color.

Sound quality

Before coming to perhaps the most crucial part of this review, the sound quality of the Realme Buds Air, I would like to clarify that human interpretation of audio is largely subjective. Further, the judgment for sound quality also depends on your preferred genres of music.

The Realme Buds Air support audio data transfer through AAC besides the standard SBC protocol. Relatively newer and more refined than SBC, AAC offers better quality than SBC but the transfer rate is slower as compared to SBC. The earbuds lack support for Qualcomm’s aptX or aptX HD, both of which offer slightly better audio than AAC, and with lower latency. The audio is output in the form of a 44.1kHz / 16-bit audio which is compared to standard CD-quality sound. You can read this detailed explainer on Bluetooth codes to learn more.

realme buds air truly wireless stereo tws earbuds airpods

The Realme Buds Air utilize 12mm drivers and the company vouches for its dynamic bass boost profile. Holistically speaking, the earbuds have a warm tone, primarily with an emphasis on the bass and lower mids. Typically, while the lower frequencies can be heard louder, the highs feel diminished in comparison. The Indian variant of the Realme Buds Air is optimized for Bollywood music, which majorly comprises of bass and groove, so if you fancy similar music, you should enjoy the sound output.

Coming to the nuances, if you’re used to streaming most of your music online or have a stock of lossy compressed audio files – e.g. a 128kbps MP3 – alongside a knack for discerning one musical instrument from another, you’re going to have a hard time with the Realme Buds Air. As expected, the audio quality tends to get much better if you choose a better quality file, say 320kbps. However, due to the output limitations of the earbuds, a higher bitrate will not make an observable difference unless you use a lossless format such as FLAC or ALAC. As you would expect, toggling AAC on and off in Bluetooth settings will also alter the quality of the audio playback.

Staring with my dosage of music, I feel there’s no satisfying way of tagging music with specific genres. While this may seem like an attempt to be politically correct, I’d rather choose some of the tracks from the regular playlist that I chose to test the earphones. Here are the tracks I used to make my observations:

Sound quality analysis

(MP3, 44.1kHz, 271kbps)

The majority of the track is padded with vocals along and a bright acoustic guitar tone in the background. I hear James LaBrie’s energetic voice overpowering the strumming in the background and while for the most part, the guitar is audible, it is only heard distinctly in the absence of the vocals. The synth solo in the middle is dampened by the strums of the guitar, especially at higher volumes. At about 60% volume, the audio is much clearer but the vigor of the strong message and impactful music seem to get lost.

Sound quality rating – 5/10


(MP3, 44.1kHz, 270kbps)

Majority of the parts in the song sail above the 100BPM mark. If you’re in for the sick beats played by Chris Adler, the Realme Buds Air will definitely get you to headbang vehemently. While the double bass pedal is constantly heard very distinctly – although not very clearly – the snare is almost muted by the rhythm guitar high-gain distortion. The riffs played on the lead guitar are also softened by the rhythm guitar. Randy Blythe shrieks and Adler’s constant hits on the ride are very much cut through all the sounds.

Sound quality rating – 7/10


(MP3, 44.1kHz, 320kbps)

The clean arpeggio that constantly rings in the intro and the verses, as well as the punchy bass guitar, easily pour through Mikael Akerfeldt’s clean vocals. The restfully driven drums, especially the snare, help paint the remorseful picture that the song for most of the first half; even the soft piano and the classical guitar can be heard very easily. However, as more instruments mingle in the melody, the audio tends to feel crowded, hushing out the softer sounding instruments. The guitar solo just before the breakdown brings back the normalcy, as certain instruments fade out and the piano picks up. While the re-emergence of all the instruments at the bridge does compromise the clarity to some extent, the serenity of the outro restores the quality. The higher bitrate can be endorsed as the primary reason behind the improvement in the timbre.

Sound quality rating – 8.5/10


(FLAC, 44.1kHz, 920kbps)

Black Sabbath’s 1970 ode resenting the “war machine” sounds utterly beautiful – as opposed to the scene that the lyrics compel you to visualize. Ozzy Osbourne’s punchy vocals strike as a divine message while Tony Iomy’s ravaging guitar tone teleport you amidst soldiers marching their way towards the conflict. The constant high-hat leading into the eruption of a hard-to-collate drum pattern in the pre-chorus and the chorus can be heard through other louder instruments. The classic heavy metal tone oozes out of every single note and sounds refreshing. The first guitar solo in the song utilizes two different guitars, out of which one is panning right and left while one is at rest. Not only are both the guitars heard distinctly, but the perceivable panning of the guitar also adds spatial sense to the music.

Sound quality rating – 9.5/10


(FLAC, 44.1kHz, 961kbps)

The prime highlight of this ballad is Brent Smith’s grunge-ish voice, which surpasses the intro on keys and stays on top despite high-gain distortion used in the majority of the song. The voice doesn’t muffle or smother other instruments, which can be heard clearly and distinctly. The drums, especially the snare, are heard perfectly despite the intensity of the song while the bass guitar constantly keeps the audio dense and hearty.

Sound quality rating – 9/10


(Spotify, Very High quality)

The steady loop of bass in Godzilla, which is currently the top track in Spotify’s Global Top 5 playlist, is funky but does not sound as lofty as some RnB might like it to. Eminem’s rap is in the spotlight most of the sound but the lyrics are easier to interpret with fewer beats in the background.

Sound quality rating – 6/10


(Spotify, Very High quality)

Camila Cabello’s vocals can be heard clearly in harmony with the bass, the classical guitar, the synth loop, and the beats. However, when Shawn Mendes’ vocals enter the track, the legibility of the softer instruments reduces – even though you can still hear the strums on the guitar strings wherever Mendes takes a break. The bass is resonating throughout the song but the exact notes are heard better only in the absence of vocals.

Sound quality rating – 7/10


(Spotify, Very High quality)

Translating to “Bass Queen”, the track by the Indian electronica producer is rife with bass, as the name suggests. This is the only song in which the bass played out of the Realme Buds Air rattles my ears, even when the volume is not set to max. The vocals on the track are masked with a flanger-like effect but the track has been deftly programmed to prevent elements crowding your audio perception and this is precisely why it feels so good on the earbuds.

Sound quality rating – 9/10

Overall good but not great

Overall, the sound of the Realme Buds Air is greatly suited for music utilizing fewer instruments (or sound sources). With more than three or four instruments in the track playing at the same time, the audio channels sound flooded and tend to lose clarity of individual instruments. As mentioned previously, the frequency response of the Realme Buds Air has been optimized to boost the loudness of vocals along and other sounds roughly in the 100 – 2000kHz frequency range. Audios comprising sounds in this range can be heard louder as compared to the higher frequencies, for which the response is more or less flat. You can, however, fix that to quite an extent using an equalizer (per music app) or something like the DVC controller built into apps like Poweramp.

Poweramp Music Player (Trial) (Free, Google Play) →

Likewise, when you’re watching a show or a movie on, say Netflix, the background score could overpower the dialogues if it is too strong. Fortunately for Realme X2 Pro users, the Dolby Atmos sound optimization feature can be used to equalize for system-wide sound output via not just wired headsets but also Bluetooth ones like the Realme Buds Air.

Low-latency Gaming mode

Latency for Bluetooth audio can be defined as the time difference between the moment the signal is sent out of the device and the moment when it reaches your ears. Realme says that usual latency in with Realme Buds Air in the standard mode is around 245ms, which isn’t too much for Android devices, whereas it is reduced by 51% to less than 120ms.

Ideally, for a lossy format (MP3, M4A, etc.), the latency on playback from an Android device can range from 200ms to 400ms and this includes the time taken by the DSP to process the audio signal, the OpenSL ES or AAudio APIs to render this processed signal, and then the transmission via hardware – i.e. a dedicated chip – from the device to the earbuds.

Another important aspect is what is commonly called signal “buffers” which work on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis such that the audio data which has entered the chain will exit first irrespective of any gap or playback issues. Buffers are used to regulate the audio signal and make sure there are no jitters while playback. The addition of buffers adds to the latency of the audio playback but it also ensures a smoother output. If the rate at which an audio signal is processed and rendered by a device is lower than the rate of Bluetooth transfer, then the output audio can be jittery.

Bluetooth codec latency chart; Source: SoundGuys

Realme’s gaming mode, by definition, reduces the latency of playback and entering into this mode is characterized by the sound of a car engine being started and revved initially. To be able to make use of the feature, there should be sufficient buffer of the audio signal so that there is enough backlog for the earbuds to catch up to. If you’re listening to audio which uses a lossless format such as FLAC or ALAC, the Gaming mode will not lead to glitches but when the audio is in real-time, such as in the case of gaming, the lower latency might actually lead to the choppiness of the audio. Here’s a good explainer on Android’s Bluetooth latency by SoundGuys.

Testing Bluetooth latency

To verify Realme Buds Air’s claims for low latency playback, I played certain music files and looked for any tendency of glitches by manually varying the latency duration of the DSP + OpenSL ES API (i.e. the buffer) in Poweramp music player. Drops in audio playback can be heard if the buffer is shorter than the time taken for Bluetooth transfer. Here are the observations I made:

  • Starting an MP3 file with a 128kbps bitrate on the OnePlus 7T about a meter away from the earbuds,
    • I could still experience frequent glitches (one every five seconds) in the audio when the buffer size was set to about 130ms.
    • At about 150ms using the same 128kbps file, the glitches are less frequent (almost one per 20 seconds).
    • The glitches seem to go away when the buffer is set to 180ms.
    • This implies that the latency of the Bluetooth connection using the gaming mode on the Realme Buds Air for audio with a bitrate of 128kbps is somewhere around the 180ms mark.
  • Next, moving to a 320kbps file, the glitches at 110ms and 130ms buffer settings are fewer than the file with a lower bitrate but there is a minor change in the quality of the playback. This can be explained by the fact that the DSP is taking longer to process the file with higher quality.
  • Do note these arbitrary values should not be treated as the absolute latency values for the Realme Buds Air.

In conclusion, Realme’s gaming mode may reduce the latency, but it also increases the tendency for choppiness. So, it’s not very useful. Realme could have rather added support for aptX codec, which would have intrinsically reduced the audio latency.

Connectivity

The Realme Buds Air use Bluetooth 5.0 to connect with input devices. Each of the earbuds connects individually to the device instead of the master-slave configuration. Furthermore, the carrying case has no further role to play after the connection is established. The range of connectivity for the Realme Buds Air is around 10 meters, and that can be reduced if there are walls or other physical obstructions in between. In low-latency Gaming mode, the range remains about the same.

The Realme Buds Air support all major OS platforms and I’ve tested them with Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows 10. At present, the earbuds cannot connect to more than a single device at a time.

Battery

Realme does not talk much about the battery capacity of the Realme Buds Air but fine text inside the lid of the carrying case reveals that there’s a 400mAh battery and that most likely applies only to the carrying case. Each of the earbuds also have smaller batteries inside them but the exact rating is unknown. The battery life of the Realme Buds Air is just about 2.5 hours per earbud when you’re listening at full volume. The battery life claimed by Realme is 3 hours but that is tested at 50% volume. This just isn’t good enough, especially if you have to travel or stay outdoors for a long period. Do note that the drainage of the battery may vary with conditions like the kind of content you’re consuming, your distance from the earbuds, your indulgence in gaming, and the usage of the two microphones.

To recharge the earbuds you have to place them in the carrying case and each charge takes about 30 minutes if the earbuds are fully drained. It would be wiser to place the earbuds back in the case if you’re not using them because that ensures you’ll have 100% battery every time you start using them, as long as the case is charged too.

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In my usage, the carrying case can charge the Realme Buds Air from about 10% to 100% five to six times. Therefore, the total battery life of the earbuds along with the carrying case will be around 16 hours. The quantity of the charge in the case is denoted by the blinking LED with red indicating low, green indicating an (unknown but) healthy amount and amber anywhere between them.

The carrying case takes about 2 hours and 40 minutes to charge fully using the USB-C port at the bottom. When the carrying case is fully charged, the LED indicator glows in green continuously (not pulsing). Furthermore, using Realme’s 10W wireless charger, I could charge the Realme Buds Air faster, in just about 2 hours 10 minutes. Using a Qi-rated wireless charger could take longer since Qi standard is limited to 5W.

On the battery front, the Realme Buds Air fail to impress and but the advantage of wireless charging is something to cherish, especially if you’ve already invested in a wireless charger.

Realme Buds Air: Coupling affordable truly wireless experience with exciting features

Realme Buds Air definitely get the advantage of the company’s popularity. The audio quality may not be the best but it is good enough for the price. You can extract the most value by using lossless audio formats and equalizing sound to your preferences. Further, the touch controls make the Realme Buds Air interesting for me and the choice of excluding single-tap controls feels thoughtful and useful.

However, when it comes to comfort, the Realme Buds Air may not please everyone. Sure, you can find silicone ear tips or hooks online for pretty cheap but I would personally prefer an earbud design over the rigid body as the former feels more secure. As I said earlier, the Realme Buds Air feel well suited for indoor usage but not as much for outdoor applications.

Lastly, features like wireless charging are something I really like but I wish the carrying case had a better battery indicator. Overall, Realme’s first attempt at truly wireless stereo earbuds feels ambitious, and the attractive price will definitely compel a lot of users to buy them — most should not regret that decision.

Buy: Realme Buds Air on Flipkart (₹3,999) || Realme online store

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Developers have exploited the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Note 9 to get root access on the Snapdragon models

Samsung phones sold in the U.S. are notoriously difficult to root. Samsung Knox makes rooting especially annoying, and it tends to break a lot of things if you do manage to get root. Users in the U.S. can’t even unlock the bootloader to root their devices in the first place. Every once in awhile, though, developers figure out an exploit that allows us to root. The Snapdragon Galaxy S7, Snapdragon Galaxy S8, and Snapdragon Galaxy Note 8 were possible to root using exploits, for example. The same developers behind the SamPWND exploit for the S8/Note 8 are back again with exploits that allow for root access on the Snapdragon Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+ and Galaxy Note 9 — although there is a catch.

Samsung Galaxy S9 XDA Forums ||| Samsung Galaxy S9+ XDA Forums
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 XDA Forums

The catch is that rooting the Snapdragon Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+ and Galaxy Note 9 requires a certain Android version being installed on the devices. Root isn’t available for the devices on the up-to-date firmware at this point in time. Currently, you are only able to root the Snapdragon Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+ and Galaxy Note 9 if you’re running Android 8.0 or 8.1 Oreo. This is two major versions of Android behind the current release based on Android 10. You also need to be running what’s called a combination firmware — firmware that Samsung uses in the factory for testing. The combination firmware is the only reason root is possible, but it also has its own limitation: Flashing it will cap the battery charging to a max 80%, unfortunately. On the other hand, Samsung Knox is still working (because you aren’t unlocking the bootloader), so apps like Secure Folder or Samsung Pay continue to work. Plus, you get to keep your warranty in countries where software modifications may void it.

Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 root access Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 root access

Another peculiarity with this root method for the Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+, and Note 9 is that it does not use Magisk, meaning this isn’t systemless root. Instead, it’s using SuperSU. Since the bootloader is still locked, there is no way to patch the boot image for Magisk to work. So with SuperSU, we get an entirely system-based root solution. That also means that, unfortunately, SafetyNet Attestation will not pass, which means apps like Google Pay and Pokémon Go won’t work.

What’s more is that there is also no TWRP available due to Safestrap causing a kernel panic. You will also need to use a specific button combination every time you boot your phone to make sure to disable write protection. Fortunately, you can install the Xposed Framework. This allows for a lot of functionality and customization given the plethora of modules out there. Although most custom ROMs can’t be flashed because of the locked bootloader, it possible to install a GSI. The developers have already tested and booted an AOSP Android 9 Pie GSI on the Galaxy S9+, as shown below.

All the instructions you need have been posted in the forum posts linked below. The process requires some Odin flashing along with running some scripts from your computer and in the FlashFire app. Instructions for flashing the GSI are also linked in the forum post.

Root for Galaxy S9 (G960U/U1) ||| Root for Galaxy S9+ (G965U/U1) ||| Root for Galaxy Note 9 (N960U/U1)

We want to give a shout out to the developers behind the Extreme Syndicate root project. Team Syndicate is composed of XDA Recognized Developer/Retired Forum Moderator elliwigy, Recognized Contributor jrkruse, Senior Member klabit87, Senior Member me2151, and Member GSM-CHEN. They all spent countless hours working on getting root access for these devices.

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[Update: Fixed] Google changes how Play Store changelogs are previewed, resulting in some awkward phrasing

Update 1 (5:08 PM EST): Google has confirmed that this issue has now been fixed on the Play Store.

The Google Play Store has received a number of updates over the last few months. Google added one-tap buttons to leave betas and more, the Google Play Pass subscription, and a brand new Material Theme redesign. That new design gave us (eventually) a Dark Theme that works with the Android 10 system setting, but it also brought a strange change to the changelog previews.

The “What’s new” section on an app listing is where developers can share any new features or fixes that were included in the update. Some developers use this better than others, but that’s a different topic. One strange decision that Google made with the Material Theme redesign was to shorten changelogs by removing text from the middle of the excerpt. The beginning and the end of the changelog are smushed together with ellipsis separating the text. Here are two examples:

As you can see, this is a messy solution to shortening the excerpt. The text is combined in different spots depending on screen size, font scaling, and screen orientation. It would make much more sense to truncate the excerpt from the end. One side effect of Google’s method is some humorous and NSFW text combinations showing up in the Play Store. Here are two examples:

PayPal

New in this version: Improvements and bug… so you’ve always got the latest and greatest.

HotStar

We regularly update our app to provide you a…ss a thing, just keep your Updates turned on.

One developer has taken matters into their own hands and created a script that generates multiple possible shortened text results based on your changelog. The script then automatically checks for bad words and tells you if it finds anything. Admittedly, this is a pretty strange problem, but it’s something that people are noticing on the Play Store. If you’d like to avoid having your changelog chopped up into unfortunate phrasing, check out the project on GitHub below.

Source: GitHub


Update: Fixed

On the Google Issue Tracker, a Google employee confirmed that the issue has now been resolved. Play Store changelogs should no longer be awkwardly split in the middle.

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Hands-on with the Honor V30 Pro 5G [VIDEO]

The Honor V30 Pro was announced back in November as the company’s latest flagship device. The phone is only available in China right now, but we expect a global launch (as the Honor View 30) to be announced at MWC. XDA TV’s TK Bay got his hands on the 5G model ahead of the event and gave us a good rundown of the device.

There is a non-Pro version of the Honor V30 as well, but TK has his hands on the Pro 5G model. The main difference between the two devices is the rear-facing camera setup. While both the devices feature triple cameras, the Honor V30 Pro adds OIS to the primary 40MP sensor. It also has a 12MP secondary wide-angle sensor with auto-focus and an 8MP telephoto sensor with auto-focus.

Honor V30 XDA Forums

The front features a double-wide hole punch, which houses the 32MP and 8MP wide-angle lens. The Honor V30 Pro has 8GB of RAM with both 128GB and 256GB storage options. Another difference between the devices, which is quite unusual, is that the base Honor V30 features a larger 4,200mAh battery, while the V30 Pro packs in a 4,100 battery. Also, keep in mind that you will need to sideload Google services on this device. Check out TK’s video below to see the hands-on in full.

The post Hands-on with the Honor V30 Pro 5G [VIDEO] appeared first on xda-developers.



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[Update: Voted Passed, Law Pending] The EU will vote to force all smartphones to adopt USB-C

Update (1/31/20 @ 3:35 PM ET): To reduce e-waste, the European parliament has voted in favor of standardizing charging.

Since smartphones with USB-C started coming out in 2015, the standard has come a long way. Nowadays, it has become, well, the standard connector for almost all Android smartphones out there, from flagship phones to budget devices. With the exception of certain, really cheap phones and accessories, micro-USB is, for most intents and purposes, pretty much dead as of 2020. Even dirt-cheap smartphones like the Redmi 8A have started to come out with USB-C support. But there are still some odd ducks out there. Particularly Apple, which still clings onto their proprietary Lightning port because of revenue purposes as well as certain Android OEMs that, for some reason, are still not done with the old micro-USB port.

The whole point of standards is to have something that everyone uses: you should be able to plug the same cable on any phone you want to charge. And for this reason, the European Union wants to change that. This is not the first time they tried to intervene here, but previous legislation has made it so that they would strongly encourage, yet not mandate, USB-C adoption. If this law is passed, then all smartphone manufacturers, no matter how big or small, would be obligated to use USB-C on their devices if they want to sell their phones within the European economic area.

This would include Apple which does sell their phones in Europe. Although the upcoming iPhone 11S/12 lineup is rumored to come with USB-C, it is still just a rumor and other rumored devices, such as the iPhone SE2, are set to carry a Lightning connector–the passing of this legislation could affect the launch of this device, and potentially even other Apple devices currently in the market.

An initial draft of this law has been approved by a majority of voting members, but it still needs to receive approval from the EU Council in order to become law.

Source: European Parliament | Via: 9to5Google


Update: Voted Passed, Law Pending

The EU Parliament has voted in favor of a resolution that calls for much tougher action to reduce e-waste. They are calling for the European Commission to come up with stricter rules by July 2020. As of now, nothing is changed, but parliament is making it clear that something must be done.

One of the ways the Commission has attempted to reduce waste is to reduce “unnecessary variety.” This is where USB-C comes into play. Back in 2009, there were over 30 charger types on the market. Today there are only 3. Still, Apple, one of the biggest players in this space, continues to use a proprietary charging standard. Apple claims a universal standard would “stifle innovation.” All of the dongles that Apple and 3rd-parties sell create tons of e-waste.

The resolution says consumers shouldn’t need to buy new chargers/adapters with each new device. Parliament wants the Commission to introduce a strategy to decouple the purchase of chargers from a new device. The Commission has said they welcome the resolution and acknowledged its current approach has not met expectations. The next step is to come up with the actual legislation, which is planned for Q3 2020.

Via: TechCrunch

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Source: Here are the Moto G Stylus specifications and stylus features

Motorola just celebrated selling 100 million total Moto G smartphones since the first Moto G was announced back in 2013. The Moto G line has expanded significantly since its initial debut and with the 7th generation, the company released 4 different smartphones in the series: the regular, Play, Power, and Plus. In late 2019, Motorola introduced its first two 8th generation Moto G devices, the Moto G8 Play and Moto G8 Plus. It’s become clear that Motorola is preparing to launch the regular Moto G8 and the Moto G8 Power, but we’ve also recently learned that Motorola will introduce an entirely new phone to the G line: the Moto G Stylus. We have obtained what are very likely the device’s specifications as well as the possible uses for its signature feature, the stylus pen.

Last week, famed leaker Evan Blass published an image of an upcoming Motorola phone that, at the time, he was unable to identify. The image, which is featured at the top of this article, depicts a phone with a stylus and a single punch-hole display. This week, the same phone was leaked on 3 separate occasions. The first leak, by 91Mobiles, was of another render of the device, this time showing the back. The second leak, by Mexican blog Xataka, showed live photos of the device alongside its stylus. Finally, 91Mobiles published another look at the device, this time showing off the front and back of the device in real-world images. From these 3 separate leaks, we learned about the basic design and some hardware specifications, but thanks to our source, we can fill in the rest of the blanks.

Motorola stylus phone

The first thing we wanted to confirm is the name. This phone will indeed be called the Moto G Stylus, as was first revealed by Evan Blass on his Twitter account. We can independently confirm this name, though thanks to Canada’s Radio Equipment List, the name isn’t really in doubt.

As I suspected, the device will be fairly similar to the upcoming Motorola Moto G8 Power in terms of specifications. The key differences between the Moto G Stylus and the Moto G8 Power are in the rear camera sensors and, of course, the existence of the stylus on the former. The basic specifications of the Moto G Stylus include its 6.36-inch 2300×1080 single hole-punch display, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665, 4GB of RAM, at least 64GB of internal storage, a 4000mAh battery with 10W charging, Android 10, and a rear-mounted physical fingerprint scanner. In some regions, the phone will support NFC and/or dual nano-SIM cards.

On the rear of the phone, you’ll find a triple rear camera array consisting of a primary 48MP f/1.7 Samsung sensor (pixel binned down to 12MP), a secondary 16MP f/2.2 117° wide-angle “Action Cam” sensor, and a tertiary 2MP f/2.2 macro camera. The “Action Cam” was first introduced on the Motorola One Action, and it allows you to take horizontal wide-angle videos while you’re holding the phone vertically. This is possible because the camera sensor is mounted perpendicularly in relation to the other sensors. On the front, you’ll find a single 25MP f/2.0 camera under the punch-hole.

The render that’s shown below, which was sent to us by a source, depicts the bottom of the Moto G Stylus. From the render, we can see that there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB Type-C port, a bottom-firing speaker, and a slot for the stylus to be inserted.

Motorola Moto G Stylus bottom

The bottom of the Motorola Moto G Stylus

According to our source, there’s a new app on the device that can be used to do the following:

  • Open an app or launch a shortcut of your choice when the stylus is removed from the body
  • Take notes using “Moto Note.” The user can use their finger as an eraser while using the stylus to draw. The user can insert a watermark with the date on any notes they take.

Motorola will also allow users to keep track of the location of the stylus using the app. The app will record the time and location of the device the last time you removed the stylus from its body. When the stylus hasn’t been reinserted into the device for a period of time, the app can send a notification reminding the user to reinsert the pen.

Specification Motorola Moto G Stylus
Display 6.36″ 2300×1080 single hole-punch
Dimensions* 155mmx75mm (diagonal: 168mm)
SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 665
RAM 4GB
Storage 64GB/128GB
Rear Camera(s) 48MP f/1.7 Samsung S5KGM1 + 2MP f/2.2 macro camera + 16MP f/2.2 117° wide-angle “Action Cam” sensor
Front Camera 25MP f/2.0
Battery and Charging* 4000mAh, 10W wired charging
Connectivity NFC (some regions), Dual SIM (some regions)
Software Android 10
Security Rear-mounted capacitive fingerprint scanner
Models XT2043-4, XT2043-5, XT2043-6
Regions North America, Latin America, China, International

*The exact dimensions and charging speed were lifted from the device’s FCC filing.

Although we don’t know the pricing or the launch date, we’ll likely learn more details as we approach MWC 2020. This device will likely be slightly more expensive than the Moto G8 Power given that it has a better (more marketable) camera configuration and stylus support.

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ASUS rolls out an Android 10 beta to the ZenFone Max Pro M2

Earlier today ASUS rolled out an Android 10 beta to the ZenFone Max Pro M1 and it looks like the company is giving the same treatment to its successor as well. The Android 10 Global Beta is now available for the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 for early testing.

The update carries build number 17.2018.1912.409 and brings along December 2019 security patches. As for what to expect from the new update, users can look forward to features like a system-wide dark mode, Smart Reply for all messaging apps, Focus mode, a new navigation gesture system, more control over the location, sensitive permissions, and much more.

ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 XDA forum

The ZenFone Max Pro M2 users wanting to try out the Android 10 beta can install the update right now using the link given at the end of this article. However, be warned that beta software builds are not suitable as a daily driver as there will likely be bugs and missing functionalities. Also, make sure to take a backup of your important data beforehand as installing the update will most likely wipe all your data.

The ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 is a direct successor to the ZenFone Max Pro M1. It was launched in India in December of 2018. It came running a near-stock version of Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the-box and was updated to Android 9 Pie two months later. At the time of its launch, the device was quite a beast in its segment and was praised for offering a great value for money and setting a new benchmark for budget smartphones to follow. The main highlights of the device include a 6.26-inch full HD‌+ display, Snapdragon 660 SoC, a 5,000 mAh battery and 12MP and 5MP rear cameras.

Download Android 10 beta OTA for ZenFone Max Pro M2


Via: PiunikaWeb

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Motorola celebrates selling 100 million Moto G phones by offering discounts

Despite the changing hands of Motorola’s ownership, the company has managed to endure turmoil and remain relevant ever since 2013. With the Motorola G Stylus and the Motorola G8 series set to arrive on the market, the company seems to be doing better than ever. To celebrate selling 100 million Moto G Phones over the years, the company is offering some mega-discounts and offers on a wide range of options on their website. The Moto G line of smartphones has always focused on being affordable, as its one of its main selling points. Taking that into consideration, it’s no wonder why the company has managed to prevail for so long.

Of course, there are certainly cheaper smartphones available that can offer the same or even more than Motorola’s offerings, but the fact is that Motorola has been a mainstay in most markets for years and years. It’s a brand perceived to be quality, with a lot of staying power in the mind of consumers. That won’t just go away, especially as 100 million devices sold is a huge number of devices for a company to ship, no matter the time period or the number of devices that is included in that sales figure.

Offers range from $100 off of the Moto G7, a buy one get one free offer on the Moto G6 and more. The offers seemingly only apply to the US market, and they can only be applied off-contract through Motorola’s own website. Be sure to check out the link below to see if any of the offers interest you!


Source: Motorola | Via: 9To5Google

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UFS 3.1 announced with improvements in speed and power efficiency for flash storage chips

Universal Flash Storage, known as UFS, is the flash storage standard that is used in flagship phones and upper mid-range phones. The Samsung Galaxy S6 was the first phone to use UFS storage in 2015. In the years since, it has slowly been spreading to lower-cost segments of the market, to the point where the newest lower mid-range phones now also have UFS storage. UFS storage is much faster than the eMMC flash storage standard, which is still used in budget phones. In 2019, the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, which is responsible for the development of standards for the microelectronics industry, announced UFS 3.0. While most 2019 flagships opted to stick with the older UFS 2.1 NAND, some phones such as the OnePlus 7 series, the Samsung Galaxy Fold, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series, and the Realme X2 Pro did opt to use the newer, faster UFS 3.0. Now, JEDEC has announced UFS 3.1, improving the UFS 3.0 standard with speed and power efficiency improvements.

The publication of UFS 3.1, JESD220E, was announced with a new optional new companion standard, JESD220-3: UFS Host Performance Booster (HPB) Extension. Both JESD220E and JESD220-3 are available for download from the JEDEC website.

The UFS 3.1 JESD220E standard brings three key improvements over UFS 3.0. First of all, it has a Write Booster, a SLC non-volatile cache that amplifies write speed. Secondly, new UFS device low power state called DeepSleep targets lower cost systems that share UFS voltage regulators with other functions. Finally, it has a Performance Throttling Notification that allows the UFS device to notify the host when storage performance is throttled to high temperature. The use of an SLC non-volatile cache is probably most crucial feature here, as it will help improve real-world performance. This technology is used in devices that use mobile NVMe SSDs, such as the Apple iPhone and iPad. Also, all of these features are already supported by SSDs, so the inclusion of these features in UFS 3.1 will help close the gap between the two.

The JESD220-3 Host Performance Booster (HPB) Extension) provides an option to cache the UFS device logical-to-physical address map in the system’s DRAM. JEDEC states: “For UFS devices with a large density, using system DRAM provides larger and faster caching thereby improving the read performance of the device”.

JEDEC UFS has continued its collaboration with the MIPI Alliance to form its Interconnect Layer. It references the MIPI M-PHY v4.1 physical layer specification and the MIPI UniPro v1.8 transport layer specification.

Now that UFS 3.1 has been announced, it’s probable that it will be adopted by some 2020 flagships. The OnePlus 8 series would be a prime contender, and so would the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series. It’s not as big an update as UFS 3.0 was over UFS 2.1 (as the theoretical top bandwidth speed remains the same at 23.2Gbps), but the real-world improvements in storage performance and battery life for lower cost devices will be welcome. Storage performance has historically been a bottle-neck on mobile devices, so it’s good to see continuing improvements here.


Source: JEDEC

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Nubia’s next Red Magic gaming phone may support 80W fast charging

Nubia is a China-based company that is primarily known for making gaming phones. Previously, it was a subsidiary of ZTE, but since 2017, it’s considered to be an independent associate company after ZTE reduced its stake in it to 49.9%. In 2019, it released the Nubia Red Magic 3 gaming phone (review), which was an affordable Qualcomm Snapdragon 855-powered flagship with a 90Hz AMOLED display. In the second half of the year, it released the Nubia Z20 (review) with dual displays. While Nubia isn’t as well-known as the established market players in China, it’s managed to create its own niche. Earlier this month, its President and co-founder Ni Fei had revealed that its next flagship would have a 144Hz display—a feature supported by the new flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC. Now, Mr. Fei has shared a post on Weibo that reveals another major feature of its upcoming Red Magic flagship: 80W fast charging.

Nubia Red Magic phone featuring 80W fast chargingThe post shared by Mr. Fei shows a photo of an upcoming Nubia phone that is using 9.6A at 8.4V. This means it’s being charged at 80W using the USB Type-C Power Delivery protocol. The phone in question should debut as the Nubia Red Magic 5G. MWC is a probable launch time-frame, although it’s possible that Nubia could skip the event and launch the phone later.

Currently, OPPO has the honor of having the quickest fast charging solution on the market, known as 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 charging. Right now, it’s only used in the OPPO Reno Ace, while the Realme X2 Pro (review) uses a 50W version of SuperVOOC. We expect the upcoming OPPO Find X2 to also feature 65W fast charging, though. Xiaomi’s upcoming flagship, the Mi 10 Pro, will feature 66W fast charging. Both Xiaomi and OPPO have demoed 100W and 120W fast charging solutions in 2019, although they haven’t made their way to any shipping phone yet.

The upcoming Nubia Red Magic 5G flagship phone, therefore, will probably be the fastest charging on the market when it debuts with 80W fast charging. It’s not all good news, though. There are concerns about how this rate of fast charging will quickly deteriorate the life span of the phone’s battery. Vendors such as OPPO and Xiaomi have implemented safety procedures, but we still haven’t got the complete answers. Samsung has chosen to go with USB-C Power Delivery 3.0 standardized fast charging in the Galaxy Note 10 series (and also in the upcoming Galaxy S20 series).

The Nubia Red Magic 5G will feature the Snapdragon 865 SoC and a 144Hz display, but not much is known about the rest of its specifications. We expect to learn more about Nubia’s upcoming flagship in the time frame leading up to its launch.


Source: Nubia | Via: Android Central

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Huami Amazfit T-Rex Review: A Smartwatch that’s Durable in Build and Battery

Hinted by its namesake, Amazfit and its products are all about assisting you in your fitness goals and improving your well-being. Amazfit’s new smartwatch, the T-Rex, is the health-tech company’s rugged offering: it’s meant to be a companion that is capable of withstanding the elements while you’re out on your adventures.

Specification Amazfit T-Rex
Dimensions

47.7 × 47.7 × 13.5 mm

Weight 58g (with strap)
Body Material

Polymer materials

Waterproofing

5ATM, supports swimming

Screen
  • 1.3”AMOLED, 360×360 (392 ppi)
  • Corning Gorilla Glass 3 + anti-fingerprint coating
Sensors
  • BioTrackerTM PPG Bio-Tracking Optical Sensor
  • 3-axis acceleration sensor
  • Geomagnetic sensor
  • Ambient light sensor
Positioning

Dual-Sattelite GPS + GLONASS

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.0/BLE

Battery

390mAh LiPo (Minimum value)

Supported Devices

Android 5.0 or iOS 10.0 and above

Design

The T-Rex has an unmistaken sports-watch design language all around. It has a crafty, durable outer ring bezel, with a stretchy silicone strap that doesn’t irritate my skin. The strap is also easy to replace. The watch body itself is at the larger end, measuring 48mm. And with the included strap, the T-Rex weighs 58g, which I haven’t found to be fatiguing at all. The 1.3-inch display is inset, protected by Gorilla Glass 3, and well-surrounded by the outer ring. The casing has bumpers for impact resistance, and the whole enclosure is sturdy enough to withstand a dozen military-grade tests from the MIL-STD-810G standard. This means that the T-Rex can withstand extreme temperatures and humidity (-40°C to 70°C), can resist some abrasive compounds, and can take a dive down to 50 meters. There are four buttons on the watch to navigate the watch interface, but they feel pretty cheap and are probably my least favorite aspect of the design.

For a $130 rugged watch, the display on the Amazfit T-Rex is quite adequate. It’s an OLED with 360×360 pixels over its 1.3-inch screen, or about 392 pixels-per-inch. The display can get up to 350 nits of brightness, which is decent for the price. This should be fine for quickly checking your watch in all but the sunniest conditions, in which navigating through the T-Rex does become impractical. And for the watch aesthetic, the dial face loses most of its vibrancy when viewed outdoors.

Inspired by G-SHOCK

The aesthetics of the Amazfit T-Rex undeniably take after G-SHOCKs, down to the lettering on the case ring and the style of the available watch faces. While the T-Rex does not look or feel quite as premium as Casio’s offerings, in neither the body nor the strap, I’m okay with the overall look of this thing (besides being too big for my wrists) for street/sportswear. Although, I do feel that it’s being held back by Amazfit’s limited selection of watch faces — few of which I would ever actually use.

The issue with this sporty-style smartwatch is that when the display isn’t active, the whole body aesthetic just looks silly with a blank dial, especially with how big it is. Fortunately, the T-Rex’s OLED display does support an Always On Display, at the cost of a healthy portion of the watch’s extensive battery life. However, Amazfit only offers two Always On watch faces: an analog dial and a digital face, both being disjointed designs from any of the watch face selections. Admittedly I’m rather inept at reading analog clocks, but I found the digital offering for the Always On Display so terrible that I preferred the other option, where awakening the main watch face would be the faster way for me to read the time.

Software & Features

Compared to some of Amazfit’s previous smartwatches, there isn’t really any difference with T-Rex on the software side. But if this is your first look at an Amazfit watch, they provide some useful features to aid you in your workouts and even in your sleep (if you’re into that kind of thing). Amazfit’s smartwatches run on their own closed Android-based operating system, called Amazfit OS. Sadly, this means that the T-Rex’s software capabilities are limited to what Amazfit can offer in its OS, and that’s it. The interface and touch experience are not the most responsive, but it’s consistent without any major hangups or crashes. A swipe up or down takes between the quick toggles, step counter, and heart rate panel. A swipe right reveals your texts and notifications (given you enable the watch access to this information in the Amazfit App), and a swipe left reveals Amazfit OS’s available apps.

Amazfit OS’s included apps include StatusHeart RateWorkoutActivitiesWeatherMusicAlarmEvent reminderTimer, CountdownFind my phoneCompass, and Settings. Tushar Mehta wrote a thorough rundown of all these apps in his review of the Amazfit GTR.

 

Here’s a rough list of what the T-Rex can do:

  • Continuous heart rate detection, heart rate alert, heart rate sharing, heart rate time graph, & sleep assistant
  • Step counter, calorie & distance tracker
  • Own GPS & Compass
  • Idle alert – Watch will vibrate if you’ve been inactive or sitting for too long
  • Lift wrist to wake
  • Always On Display
  • Alert incoming calls, texts & notifications
  • Reminders
  • Find watch from phone & Find phone from watch
  • Flashlight
  • Do Not Disturb
  • Workout & Activity tracker + logger
  • Weather forecast
  • Music control
  • Timer & stopwatch
  • “SELECT” button shortcut

The Workouts app is the heart of Amazfit’s watches, which can record and track your exercises. Once you begin tracking your workout, the T-Rex will show you information related to the exercise, such as elapsed time, distance traveled, speed, heart rate, and a few others, including graphs of some of the data. Once you finish your workout, you may save it, and it is recorded on the Activities log, which you can also view on the Amazfit app on your phone for a full breakdown. In the Amazfit app, it also allows you to save one long picture of all the workout’s information, which I thought was neat.

The other apps and features themselves are straight-forward, but I found some of them to just be a pain to use. The Workouts selection seems overloaded with too many up-front options for exercises, and many of the selections track the same metrics anyway. When looking up the weather, the T-Rex would sometimes tell me there is no info and to update it in the app when I already have. Lifting the watch doesn’t always work even at the highest sensitivity, and the watch doesn’t wake when I turn my wrist, forcing me to use my other hand or spazz my arm.

The GPS can take anywhere from five-to-fifteen seconds to lock in outdoors, which is longer than I’d like, but I found it to be normal for a smartwatch. In terms of accuracy, I’ve tracked a few runs with both the T-Rex’s “dual-satellite GPS” (which I’m not sure if that’s dual-frequency GNSS) and my OnePlus 7 Pro (which does support dual-frequency GNSS), on a measured loop. The discrepancies weren’t too large — about 0.05 miles difference between the phone and the watch for a couple mile jogs with a good GPS signal. Since the T-Rex does have physical buttons, one cool thing Amazfit provides is assigning a shortcut to the “SELECT” button. When it’s pressed on the main watch face screen, it launches the Amazfit app of your choosing. By default, it launches the Workout app and shows you the variety of exercises that can be tracked. However, I believe it would be helpful if it could launch into one of the specific Workouts instead, or if the Workouts list were re-arrangeable.

No music streaming

What’s vital and missing from the T-Rex as a quasi-fitness watch is music storage and streaming. Right now, the T-Rex can only control the music service running on your phone. But when tracking a workout on the T-Rex, you can’t even change your music from there. Music is an integral part of exercising for many people, and carrying around a phone is not ideal for many physical activities, such as running or swimming. As Huami’s CEO Huang Wang once said, during his announcement of Amazfit’s new products at CES 2020, “No music, no fun.”

A watch made for fitness and adventure is incomplete without its own music streaming capabilities.

Furthermore, if I am to carry my phone on a run, I could just use an app like Runkeeper on my phone instead of using the built-in GPS on the T-Rex. For me, the omission of music streaming relegates the T-Rex as a heart rate detector in most cases since I’d rather utilize my phone for assistance if I have it with me.

Battery

If there’s one thing I’ll boast about for the T-Rex, it’s how long it lasts on a single charge. Amazfit claims 20 days of battery life on the T-Rex with heart rate monitoring always on, Always On Display turned off, and with normal usage. That’s way past my expectations for the battery life of a smartwatch, so I felt confident in turning on the Always On Display purely for the aesthetic. With the feature turned on, I was seeing 5–6 days before the watch would power off. Always On Display was a big hit for the battery, but battery life can be still be classified as excellent. I tested it out without the Always On Display enabled, after 5 full days I ended with 75% battery, right on track for the advertised 20-day juice. I decided to keep it on, despite cutting the T-Rex’s runtime to a quarter of its touted stamina. If you go on a hike and lose your phone, Amazfit says the T-Rex can last up to 66 days without a Bluetooth connection to a phone.

The T-Rex charges with a magnetic pogo pin connector, which I don’t find to be the most user-friendly; the correct docking orientation isn’t immediately obvious, and the charger repels and incorrectly latches while rotating the watch to find the proper charging position. But at least this thing recharges from empty pretty fast — after discharging to zero, it takes just less than 30 minutes to charge to 50% (which is another three, or ten, or thirty-three days battery life), and about another hour to fully top off to 100%.

Final thoughts

I absolutely love the concept of a durable fitness watch. I really do. It gives me peace of mind that the tech exposed on my wrist will be fine when I want to get physical. But I’m not sold on the T-Rex being anything more than a heart rate tracker and step counter. It does sort of match a street/sporty aesthetic, but you’ll need wrists big enough for the T-Rex to not look like a watch from Ben 10. At $130, it’s much cheaper compared to some of the smartwatches from bigger brands, but not “smart” enough to really even compare. This thing is nowhere near a replacement for any of the tools or capabilities of your smartphone — no notification actions, no music streaming, no texts or calls — though I understand that this is not the T-Rex’s aim. It’s an alternate way of doing things that you can already do on your phone while also tracking your heart rate. For me, the T-Rex would have potential as a stand-alone accessory, apart from my phone, if only it had onboard music storage. But without being able to listen to tunes, my workout is lugged down more than just carrying my phone.

Amazfit has provided us a Gun Grey T-Rex for review.

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