DEVICE REVIEW: ONEPLUS ONE

The OnePlus one is an unusual device, it’s maker’s, OnePlus labelled it the ‘Flagship Killer’ back at it’s release in early 2014, because of it’s high spec and low price that massive undercut competitor flagships which had the same, if not worse internals. It also ran the popular 3rd party ROM, Cyanogenmod out of the box and was praised by critics.

Unfortunately, due to OnePlus’ limited production abilities the manufacturer adopted an invite-only system which prevented the phone from being available to the masses, even now as we approach the phones one year anniversary users still can’t buy the handset without some sort of invite or competition entry.

After having used the OnePlus One for over 3 months as our daily driver find out below if we feel the new startup has truly created a flagship killer that allows it’s users to, as OnePlus says, ‘Never Settle’.

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DESIGN: CHEAP MATERIALS, BUT NOT A CHEAP FEEL.

For a phone that costs from as little £229 you’d be forgiven for thinking the OnePlus One would suffer from a low build quality and a cheap overall feeling to the handset. Fortunately, due to some clever considerations about materials and design, OnePlus has managed to create a stylish handset that doesn’t feel like it’s makers have skimped on it’s build.

From the front the OnePlus has a pretty nondescript design, with nothing but a black slap of glass and slight silver trim around the edges (which sadly isn’t made of metal, more like the faux-metal Samsung device used to be so fond of using). The right side of the phone houses a slightly-too-flush-for-our-liking home button and the left side it’s volume rocker. However, turn the phone over and that’s where the phone’s design gets really interesting…Whether it’s the Silk White model or the Sandstone Black the OnePlus One’s design really comes to life on the rear of the phone. During our time with the phone we’ve been using the black Sandstone Black version and it’s a strange material that we can only describe as a soft sandpaper feel. It allows for excellent grip and makes the handling of the 5.5-inch screen that much easier. Only when you hold the phone can you properly understand the handsets unique feel, but when you do we think you’ll love it. OnePlus have found a great way to create a phone that doesn’t feel cheap but still manages to use less than premium materials for it’s build.

The OnePlus, out of the box, adopts a very stock ‘vanilla’ Android look, and we like it.

That infamous ‘Sandstone’ back of the OnePlus One.

With a 5.5 inch screen, the phone is most definitely a phablet.

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SCREEN: A GOOD ALL ROUNDER.

The OnePlus One has 5.5 inch, 1080p screen that’s coated with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 in order to prevent scratches and scuffs on the display. The handset also boast TOL (touch-on-lense) technology which OnePlus claims will allow for faster responses from touches.

We’ve been impressed with the screen on the OnePlus as it’s able to put out some incredibly sharp images and is surprisingly bright for a low cost handset.  If you’re a pixel junkie, there’s definitely better screens out there such as Samsung’s Galaxy S6 or Note 4 but the higher pixel density often comes at a price of battery life and performance, and as such we’ve found the 1080p screen is more than enough and during out time with the OPO we’ve generally been impressed with it’s display.

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SOFTWARE: CYANOGENMOD IS A BEAUTY.

Another one of the uniques features the OnePlus One boasts is it’s OS. Out of the box the phone runs Cyanogenmod, a modified version of Android which is heavily customisable and feature packed, this alone attracted masses of hardcore Android fanboys to the phone and generated a serious of amount hype. Having used the OS for the past few months we can completely understand why. Android enthusiasts (like ourselves) often frustrated at OEMs when a new flagship is released with the newest bleeding edge specs only for the phone to run heavily skinned version of Android which results in the device lagging and performing poorer than it should. Fortunately, Cyanogenmod keeps it’s OS as close to stock as possible whilst adding in useful and worthwhile features which add to the phones offerings, rather than bogging it down with gimmicky unwanted extras.

With Cyanogenmod on the OnePlus One, users can customise their lockscreen, quick settings, choose whether to use on screen nav-buttons or capacitive ones,  change the entire look of the OS through a community driven theme store,  use customisable swipe gestures, double tap to wake the device and use many other features as well as the native Android ones. If you’re into customising your phone and really making it your own, then you’ll love the OnePlus as it allows a level of customisation thats not readily available on most flagships…we might even say it’s the One for you…(sorry, we couldn’t resist).

As for performance, thanks to Cyanogen keeping the OS close to that of stock Android, the OnePlus absolutely flies. You’d be hard pressed to find lag on this phone and even now after it nears it’s first birthday the OPO is incredibly snappy.

Unfortunately, what’s not quite as snappy is the phones software updates…At the time of writing the OnePlus One has still hasn’t received the Android Lollipop update, (however it is scheduled for later this month) and so this has led to frustration amongst users who’ve had to watch idly as OEMs such as Samsung, LG and HTC have managed to push out their heavily skinner versions of the OS to their customers. Not only that but there’s trouble on the horizon as OnePlus and software provider Cyanogen have publicly shown their disputes online forcing OnePlus to develop it’s own in-house OS from the makers of other popular ROM, Paranoid Android, which is also expected to drop later this month when customers will be able to choose which version of the OS to run on the phone.

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CAMERA: PLEASANTLY SUPRISING.

The OnePlus One is equipped with a rear 13-megapixel camera and duel LED flash and front facing 5-megapixel front facing camera, and we’ve found that results are a bit of a mixed bag…

As with most 13 megapixel cameras the OnePlus’ snapper delivers some high quality shots and thanks to it’s custom software users can save RAW images rather than standard JPEGs for better post-editing control. Unfortunately the OnePlus has a pretty slow shutter speed and so images can often appear slightly smudged or blurry around the edges. Generally, if you take the time for a shot, you’ll get some nice images but it’s not like the iPhone 6’s perfect-in-every-shot camera. What we will say however is that thanks to folks over at XDA forums, a modified version of the Color OS Camera app (which comes natively on the Indian version of the OPO) boasts a much faster shutter resulting in sharper images and so if you’re having the same issues that we are with the OnePlus One we’d advise checking it out!

We’ve also found that front facing camera is rather underwhelming unfortunately and whilst it delivers a high level of detail with it’s 5 megapixels, images are often washed out and undersaturated.

OnePlus like many other OEMs have included a number of preinstalled modes on the stock camera app in order to enable users to take better images in certain certain scenarios such as ‘Action,’ ‘Clear Image,’ ‘Steady Shot’ and ‘Beauty Mode,’ which can be activated by swiping from the viewfinder.

In terms of video capture, the OnePlus One is capable of taking 4k video and slo-mo, unfortunately, when compared to the increasing number handsets equipped with optical image stabilisation the OPO isn’t able to keep up with it’s competitors as video footage is often far too shaky for our liking.

Check out our samples from the OnePlus One below:

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BATTERY: 3100mAh GOES A LONG WAY.

The OPO is loaded with a 3100mAh battery that manages to do a pretty good job of powering the device and we’ve found battery performance to be generally solid with us easily getting a full days usage out of the phone with no usage.

Our typical day involves medium to high usage and usually leave us with around 50-40% by the end of the day.  Unfortunately the OPO isn’t equipped with wireless charing and so if you do plan on going that extra mile with the handset then you might want to invest in an external battery pack.

Basically, it’s pretty good. Not amazing, but pretty good.

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CONCLUSION: MAYBE NOT A FLAGSHIP KILLER, BUT DEFINITELY A COMPETITOR.

During our time with the One we’ve been really impressed. Forgetting the price, the phone is easily on-par with many of the 2014 flagship devices, granted in some areas it may lag but in others it’s actually better; comparing the speed of the One next to the Galaxy S5, for example, is no content with OnePlus complete leaving Samsung in the dust.  Cyanogenmod’s highly customisable nature allow for users to completely change the look of their handset with just a few taps, and the OS adds a slew of add-ons to stock Android that are genuinely worthwhile and add value to the end user. Hopefully the dev team over at Cyanogenmod won’t take much longer in their pushing out of the Android Lollipop update and so OnePlus customer’s frustrations will be eased. The camera of the One could also be a little better, but on such an affordable handset it’s not surprising that it has it’s shortcomings.

When you do consider the phone’s price however you realise that this phone is an absolute steal and it’s no wonder Android users flocked to OnePlus in the hopes of obtaining this phone. It’s also great to see a startup doing so well and we’ve really bought in to the OnePlus’s vision and aims, we truly wish them all the best after they’ve put so much time into the debut handset.

Fingers crossed that OnePlus are able to deliver another great handset in 2015, which after the recent MWC announcements from Samsung and HTC, will definitely be needed if the start-up hopes to establish themselves further in the ever-growing Android ecosystem/

DEVICE REVIEW: MOTO 360

Having been announced in March 2014, the Moto 360 quickly became the most hyped and popular Android Wear handset of the year before it’s September release. After this time critics opinions were divided on the handset with some critiquing the Android Wear OS as whole with it’s lack of feature set and poor battery life whilst others praised the 360’s premium design and stylish coupling of steel and leather.

Now having used Motorola’s debut smartwatch for over 3 months we delve deeper to discover where the once-owned Google company has created a timeless classic or whether they need to go back to the drawing board and spend a little more time on the fine details…

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DESIGN: STEEL, LEATHER AND MORE GLASS.

Say what you want about the Moto 360, but it’s hard to deny it’s got style. Part of  In fact all of the interest and hype surrounding the 360 has come from it’s unique high quality design. Compared to the offerings available at the time such as LG’s G Watch and Samsung’s Gear Live, Motorola was leaps and bounds ahead of competitors. Even more recent releases such as the LG G Watch R we don’t feel look as nice or premium.

The Moto 360, available in both black and silver stainless steel provides a subtle and understated design that doesn’t stick out on your wrist. We’ve worn the numerous times and shocked people when they’ve realised that we’ve actually been wearing a smartwatch. By comparison other OEM’s offerings are far less stylish and almost look and feel like you’re wearing a mini computer strapped to you wrist.  Motorola’s use of Horween leather adds further beauty to the smartwatch and we’ve found that as our time with the watch has continued the worn leather only improves.

As well the leather band options Motorola have released a series of all metal watch straps if you seeking a more professional look for your 360, we haven’t been able to test these but even if you’re not keen on Motorola’s bands you can still order 3rd party ones as the 360 features standard watch strap sizes.

All in all we’ve been really impressed with the Moto 360’s design, our only gripe is it’s ‘flat tyre’ display where the ambient light sensor is housed, but given the watch’s small bezels we can soon over look the small imperfection and hope for an improvement in the next iteration of the smartwatch.

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SOFTWARE: ANDROID WEAR HAS IT’S ISSUES.

As with any new market product, they are a number of initial bugs and issues shortly after release, now many months after, Android Wear has seen various updates all of which have continued to improve it’s performance and add several new features to the platform. The most recent update was welcomed by Wear users and added third party watch faces, quick settings, UI improvements and bug fixes. Thankfully having not used the 360 since release we never exposed to the performance and battery life issues that initial critics claimed plagued the device.

When it comes the the watch’s actual OS it’s pretty much identical to all current Android Wear watches (since Google currently prevents OEMs from altering or skinning the OS) however whether that’s a good or bad thing is still up for discussion… Navigation occurs via scrolling vertically through lists of notifications, swiping right to dismiss and left to cycle through a number actions, and swiping down to reveal quick settings. As well as this you can also raise the watch and say ‘Ok Google,’ to activate a voice search. We’ve actually found that the voice search works pretty well and is as accurate as Google Now on our Android phone, serving up answers when available on the watch itself or instead redirecting your phone to a specific action such as opening a webpage or calling someone. It’s the feature we used most on the Moto 360 and is pretty handy if you’ve got your hands full or caked in food as your mid cooking and want to set a timer for example.

We understand other critic’s gripes about the platform’s limited feature set but as we’ve said earlier this is a brand new OS, which is very much in it’s youth having not even been available to the masses for over a year. It’s likely we’ll see some further improvements at Google IO later this year and so fingers crossed the OS sees continued development and with Apple’s smartwatch release just around the corner Google will likely be forced to step up their game to compete, which may actually be a good thing for the platform.

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BATTERY LIFE.

After’s it’s initial release the 360 was highly criticised for poor battery life with many users complaining they weren’t able to even get through a day with the watch, fortunately a few updates down the road and these woes have gone.

Without fail you should certainly be able to get through one day with the watch, perhaps not on your initial few days where users will undoubtedly be tinkering and testing every feature, but once you start using the watch as watch, to check notifications, skip or pause the occasional track on your phone, and the odd Google search you should have no issues with the battery life. We still recommend charging the device every night but at a pinch you should be able to get almost 2 days out of it (provided you turn off the always on display and the tilt to wake function). Motorola should also be praised for making the charging experience as painless as possible by including a sleep wireless charging dock that used Qi technology. Once you’ve placed you 360 into the holder you’ll notice the display changes to that of a subtle bedside clock which also displays the watches battery charge.

Ultimately it boils down to what you expect from a watch. Want a watch with 5+ days of battery life off one charge? Go with something less flashy like the Pebble. Otherwise, if you’re not bothered about charging your watch every night then the Moto 360 will suit you just fine.

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CONCLUSIONS

We’ve spent a lot of time (pun fully intended) with the Moto 360 and we’ve grown very fond of it’s subtle design and high quality build. It’s never once looked out of place (even in the gym) and others who have seen the watch have continually commented on it. It’s not perfect, but what smart device is these days, and the number of pros far out way the cons.

As it stands the 360 is the best Android Wear watch on the market, however, whether Android Wear itself or even the smartwatch market is for you is an entirely different question. The platform has come along way since it’s initial release last year but it’s also got a long way to go and some users might have concerns justifying the price or even need for a smartwatch at this stage, if however you feel you can justify the price and are interested then you really can’t go wrong.

Right now the future and direction of the platform is unsure and Apple’s foray into the market is likely to have a huge effect forcing Google to advanced the platform who knows where…one thing we can say is though, only time will tell.

APP REVIEW: NOZBE

In a time when there are dozens upon dozens of To-Do List apps available, Nozbe seeks to stand out from the crowd with a muti-platform application and a ‘Getting Things Done’ approach to task and project management.

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GETTING THINGS DONE?

Nozbe takes a different stance on to-do lists and adopts the ‘Getting Things Done’ methodology, a time management technique that’s risen to popularity of late which in layman’s terms tries to make an individual record their to-do’s or tasks externally, allowing them to focus on other things until their tasks because more of a priority…if this doesn’t really make sense read on and hopefully you’ll get a better idea! (We could go much more into detail on the approach but for the purposes of the review we suggest Googling Getting Things Done for more information!)

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FUNCTIONALITY

Launch Nozbe and you’re instantly thrown into the ‘Inbox’section where you can quickly enter a task and save it. From there you can either leave the task as is or add more information to it. Adding additional information takes the form of either making the task a priority – which means the app will always appear in your inbox regardless of when the tasks deadline is. You can then decide which Project to add the task to i.e. Personal, Work etc. Then there’s Category, which is basically another sub-group you can add for more granularity. Once you categorised the task you can choose a deadline date and time and an estimated duration. Finally you can add a recurrence to the task so it repeats for whenever you set.

Once you’ve added your tasks in fully they’ll hide away within the respective Projects and Category folder until they near their deadline date, you’ll also get a notification when this happens.

In addition to the above you can also collaborate with other Nozbe users and assign tasks, this is a feature we’ve found works really well! There’s a calendar baked into the app which gives a monthly view to users and lets you view tasks needed for each day and finally a comment section which allows you to add notes to particular tasks.

There’s definitely a learning curve to get past but once you get used to navigating around the app and have tailored it to your needs we’ve actually Nozbe to be far more effective than most to-do list apps!

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MULTI – PLATFORM

Perhaps Nozbe’s strongest feature is it’s availability.  There’s a Mac desktop app, Windows desktop app, Android app, iPhone app, iPad app and even a web app meaning not matter what platform you’re using, you’re not going to be left out of the Nozbe fun. We’ve been using the Mac, Android and iPad app during out time using Nozbe and they all work seamlessly – there’s no delay or lagging in updates and unlike many developers there appears to be no preference to any platform meaning that all the apps have the same feature set.

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CONCLUSION

As we mentioned before, there’s a plethora of to-do list apps available on the various ecosystems whatever platform you’re using, but with Nozbe I’ve actually found this app to genuinely help in many aspects of my life; be it my personal life, academic studies or just simple to-do’s. It’s a robust, well designed and well thoughtout app that deserves a lot more praise and recognition than it’s gotten. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for the app (and are holding a fingers crossed for the inclusion of a widget on the android version!).

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DEVICE REVIEW: HTC ONE M8 REVIEW.

  “…there’s an obvious and clear thought process which seems to have given to almost every aspect of the handset”

Having gained positive reviews both from critics and users alike the HTC One M8, released back in March, has quickly become one of the best Android handsets money can buy…But as we reach the midway point of 2014, how does the M8 fair now the honeymoon period has ended? Can the sleek metallic unibody build still impress as the smartphone market continues to grow? Are infamous Boomsound speakers still leaps and bounds ahead of the crowd? And how about the not-so-lauded 4 Ultrapixel camera? 

Join us below as we breakdown the M8 and discuss how we’ve found the phone now some post release buzz has died down…

BUILD QUALITY

Even before it’s release Android enthusiasts (myself included) were highly anticipating to see what HTC would pull out of the bag for their 2014 flagship to match up against last year’s critically acclaimed M7…They did not disappoint. A clear evolution from it’s predecessor, the M8 has a design unlike any other Android handset on the market. The phone is made of 90% metal and has a unibody design that still has yet to be match in terms of build quality, it gives a fit and finish to the product that can only be described as ‘premium’. Even now after having the phone for over 3 months we’re still blown away when we take the M8 out it’s case with just how well built the phone is and when you’re spending £500/$700+ on a handset that’s the sort of feeling you should be getting when you handle your phone, not something like, by comparison the Galaxy S5, which feels rather cheap and low cost with plastic body and frame. 

Having said that the M8’s all metal design does also have some…disadvantages. The gun-metal grey variant we’ve been using is crazy slippy, and we mean crazy slippy – at times when handling the phone we found ourselves being overly worried about dropping the handset, the M8 itself is quite a big phone so coupled with a slippery metallic rear it means the phone’s ridiculously easy to drop…and drop it we did. Our model has gathered at least 3 scuffs on it’s chamfered edges which we feel wouldn’t normally look so noticeable on a phone such as the Galaxy S5 which has a more plastic build, but due to the M8’s gorgeous design slight scuffs can really stick out like a sore thumb. 

It’s a choice that is ultimately the consumers decision: buy a handset with a premium but fragile design or buy a handset that’s likely to be a little more durable but doesn’t feel so great in hand. We know our choice but like we said, the decision’s yours. As such we’ve opted for switching between a vinyl skin on our M8 and a TPU slip on case for protection.

SOFTWARE & SENSE 6

Like many other OEM’s, HTC has opted for skinning there handsets with their own proprietary software, namely Sense 6. When we first used the M8 we were impressed with how snappy and smooth the phone operated compared to other handsets on the market, HTC had clearly made the choice to keep their additions to Android to A minimum (although not as much as Motorola) and so maintain the quickness and speed often found on vanilla Android handsets. The story three months on is pretty much the same, the phone still as snappy as ever and we really have yet to experience any lag on the phone whatsoever. On top of that HTC have been able to push software updates out quickly to their users by placing their own apps on the Google Play Store, meaning M8 users aren’t waiting for carriers to push OTA updates. 

The folks over at HTC have also gone out on a limb and announced they’ll update the handset to the the next version of android, Android L (previewed at Google I/O 2014) within 90 days of receiving the final code from Google. Kudos to HTC for investing in their handsets and customer retention – other OEM’s should really make note!

Due to HTC’s updates and the silky smoothness of Sense 6 we’ve not been able to fault the M8’s software, and we’ve really enjoyed some of quirks you get with the handset such as a 3-finger-swipe-up gesture, which launches media streaming when you’re displaying content on your phone, or the way you’re able to link up contact to their social media sites to view a stream of updates when you pull up their contact card. We’ve even found Blinkfeed to be pretty impressive by aggregating all the relevant news we might want in a quick, intuitive and stylish way. 

BATTERY LIFE

Battery life is something that we feel plagues all handsets, regardless of OS or make and model. We’ve used a variety of handsets in our time reviewing phones and the M8 manages to keep up with some of the best, in fact coming from the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 we’d say there’s a definite improvement. The M8’s most impressive feature in terms off battery life is standby time, where we’d previous find handsets might drop between 10-15% in a couple hours of standby we’re seeing the M8 drop around just 2-3%, it might not sound that impressive, but compared to other handsets on the market we’ve used we’re happy with it. 

As such we’ve seen the M8 battery generally last a day for us with medium – heavy usage and it’s pretty rare that we’ve been worried about having to recharge the device. And even if we were worried, that’s before we’ve even take advantage of the Power Saving Mode and Extreme Power Saving Mode the latter of which allows users to literally dumb the phone down to it’s most basic features such as text, calls, calculator, calendar and then conserve battery and HTC even boasts that just 15% of battery will last over 24 hours – if we’re honest we’ve used this feature about three times, purely because the M8’s battery has never really dropped below 15% for us!

We’re now just hoping HTC release their quickcharge 2.0 charger for even speedier recharge times!

THAT ULTRAPIXEL CAMERA…

The M8’s ultrapixel camera has gotten a hell of a lot of bad press over the past few months. When we first reviewed the handset we were actually surprised with just how well the phone can take snaps, however no we’ve gotten to use the camera a little more we’re started exactly why people have had complaints with the device…

For standard users in everyday life have no doubt the M8 camera is definitely sufficient. In fact we’d say it’s more than sufficient – it’s a great camera, the phones shutter is the quickest we’ve seen on any smartphone, period, and there’s also a burst mode available which allows users to take a series of rapid fire shots and then hand pick the best one(s) just by long pressing the shutter icon. Then for sharing the photo for apps like Facebook/Instagram/Twitter the quality and size of the photos should be just fine. However if you’re looking for detail and the ability to zoom and crop your photos then maybe the M8’s camera isn’t for you. The Ultrapixel camera can produce some great shots with really vibrant colours but the low pixel count means you’re not going to get tonnes of detail and a lot of noise when you zoom in to pictures too much. 

Then’s also the fact the M8 overly exposes all of it’s images by default, when taking a photo outside in daylight we’ve often found that the sky in the background has been completely blown out because of this. Sure, you can then manual controls to crank down the exposure but it’s still ideal.  Thankfully, HTC have added in the ability to save custom settings in the camera app in order to allow for really quick, customisable photo taking.

The one blessing that kind saves the M8 is the camera’s software. HTC have allowed some really granular control of the phone’s shooter which, if you the time to tinker with, can really allow you to take some amazing photos. Btekt have produced an in-depth video looking into the camera that shows off some the great results you can get from it.

We must admit we’ve barely used the M8’s Duo Camera feature. It could be it’s a little gimmicky, it could also be that we’ve no need for bokeh effect photos, but it’s mostly likely that effect is just a little unpredictable. For best results we’ve always found a clear subject at the forefront of the image works well, but even then the effect can still appear overly forced and artificial with the phone not being able to correctly identify the borders of objects and so resulting in a bit of a smudgy mess. Hopefully HTC will continue to update their camera software in future to allow for improvements.

Here’s a few sample snaps:

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BOOM…BOOM…BOOMSOUND.

Boomsound has continued to impress us during our time with the M8, enjoying content on the handset has been made even easier due to the full rich audio output the phone gives, it simply can’t be matched and we’ve found ourselves now using our M8 as our go to audio device, before even our standalone bluetooth speakers – we’re not saying that the Boomsound Speakers a better or even match that of a dedicated audio speaker, but they’re defiantly good enough and convenient enough for us to use on an almost daily basis. Thankfully this a feature from the M7 that HTC have managed to reincorporate into their latest flagship and even managed to improve on the audio quality with the M8 reaching up to 30% louder audio than last year’s model. 

There’s also a built in equaliser on the phone, which also goes by the name of Boomsound, and we’ve also grown to love this feature as it provides a sense of fuller and deeper tones to audio. However, we have had minor issues with 3rd party apps where the app has had it’s EQ built in which can result in over bass-y tones (although a few manual settings tweaks and the issue was solved).

VERDICT

Incase you couldn’t tell, we love this phone. Really we do. HTC have crafted a pretty incredible handset here – it’s not perfect by any means *cough* camera *cough* but there’s an obvious and clear thought process which seems to have given to almost every aspect of the handset: Whether it’s stylish accent’s and use of themes throughout Sense 6 or the way in which the slight curvature on back of the phone allows the M8 to rest comfortably in the palm of your hand HTC have proven themselves once again, improving on last year’s incredible M7. 

We’ve no doubt that this phone will stand the test of time, and in fact as the latest version of Android reaches the M8 in not-so-distant future we should even see slight improvements in terms of battery life and speed. We do wish HTC would invest a little more time in developing features such as their themes by opening them up to allow users to create their own, or even by just simply giving is more than 4, but as it stands HTC is doing better than many other OEM’s currently are so we have to give them praise for that. 

Having used the M8 for a few months now we’re more than sure it’s one the best, if not the best Android handset ever. It’s great to a manufacturer taking really pride in their and actually investing in post-sale services that consumer gets. We only hope that the wider smartphone market manufacturers pay attention and learn from HTC, and that HTC themselves are save themselves from their current financial woes with their newest flagship, after all, after producing a handset like the HTC One M8 they really do deserve too.

APP REVIEW: Talon (Klinker Apps)

“All in all Talon is a great twitter app, in my opinion it’s currently the best on the Play Store…”

There are no shortage of third party Twitter clients available on Android right and quite frankly the Play Store is flooded with apps offering various different UI designs and various levels of functionality, but Klinker Apps, the developer who brought us the awesome Sliding Messages, have now published Talon, their take on Twitter bringing with a plethora of features, a gorgeous, slick, and customisable UI design and along with real-time push notifications (well kind of…). Read on for our full breakdown and review!

FUNCTIONALITY

Talon features a landscape mode function which looks great.

Over the years there have been a number of Twitter apps which have offerered some really high levels of functionality (think Falcon Pro, Plume for example,) but Talon takes that functionality to the next level…

On the screen shot on the right you can see a basic overview of the settings menu. Firstly there’s theme’s. Theme’s let you assign a light, dark or black mode which simply just changes the colour scheme (it should be noted, they all look superb.) As well as that there’s the ability to apply custom theme’s that change the layout of the app, so for example, there’s a Google Hangouts theme that makes your timeline resemble a message thread from hangouts. There’s a variety of apps available, even a Falcon Pro theme! And on top off all this you can even build your own theme and this had lead to tonne of theme’s appearing on the Play Store,  and so regardless of your tastes you’re sure to find one that suits you liking!

I won’t go through each individual setting as there’s huge number (and I mean huge) of functions and customisable tweaks to play around with! However some really notable features are Talon Pull which basically allows for real time push notifications that matches the speed of the official app, the only slight issue is that it means you’ll have to have the app appear in your notification tray BUT it’s a small price to pay and at least you’re getting your notifications ASAP.

The app’s search functionality could do with some slight improvements as results tend to not be relevant and if you’re search for someone you follow you’ll have to type in their exact twitter name with no predictions listed like you might expect on the normal twitter app. It’s a minor gripe and something that’s like to be fixed in a future update.

UI: LOOK + FEEL

As mentioned above Talon is a gorgeous app. Truly gorgeous. The makes full use of gestures with swiping right and left swapping between your main Timeline, your Timeline’s photo’s, @Mentions and finally Direct Messages. There’s also the ability to pull from the edge of the screen on the right to reveal all of your notifications (i.e New followers, retweets etc.)

The whole app feels snappy also with almost no lag and quick load times despite the variety of animations you’ll find throughout the app which all culminate in a smooth a polished end user experience. You can even alter you font to match something a little more to your own taste.

Unfortunately I’ve found that load times can be quite slow when loading content or user profiles and this can have a detrimental effect on your experience of the app however the wait isn’t usually too long and it’s probably something that can be optimised by the dev in future.

I can imagine that for some users that all of these gestures and settings can take a little getting used to whilst you learn them but after a while you’ll find yourself navigating around the app in a really quick and efficient way, as I said earlier there’s quite a lot to get your head round but moving around the app is pretty intuitive and once you’ve got the hang of using it you’ll find that it just feels right.

Here’s a quick overview of Talon’s settings Menu

This is an example of the Hangouts theme.

Talon boasts a in-app browser.

ROUNDUP

+Lots of functionality and tweakable settings.

+ Smooth, lag free experience.
+ Customisation: colour schemes, fonts and themes!
+ Real time notifications.
+ Relatively new app: likely to improve in future– Search functionality could be improved.
– Some might find ‘Talon Pull’ invasive in the notification tray.
– Load times could do with a nudge.

All in all Talon is a great twitter app, in my opinion it’s currently the best on the Play Store, closely followed by Falcon Pro, but due to Twitter having enforced it’s token Falcon’s pretty much reached it peak of users now (hopefully Talon won’t follow the same fate). The gestures, colour schemes, and huge list of features have resulted in me switching off all notifications from the official Twitter app in favour of this third party client.  Talon is one of those great apps that really sets the bar, not just for Twitter clients, but Android apps in general and a lot of dev’s could take a leaf out of Klinker App’s book. On top of all of this the app is pretty new to the market,  having only been released initially a fewer months ago and so hopefully the dev will continue to support the app, adding and improving features but for now I’m happy and I quite happily will be using Talon as my go to twitter application!

Play Store Link: Talon    Developer Apps: Klinker Apps