BenQ DesignVue PD3220U – 32″ of perfect 4K Pantone and Calman certified colour

BenQ DesignVue PD3220U – 32" of perfect 4K Pantone and Calman certified colour

5.0Overall Score

Name: BenQ DesignVue PD3220U monitor
Price (RRP): $2199
Manufacturer: Benq

The name BenQ DesignVue PD3220U should tell you it is a pretty special monitor. It is for ‘creators’ and others that want 100% sRGB, 95% P3 and HDR10 colour accuracy. But there is a lot more to it.

I don’t want to spoil the BenQ DesignVue PD3220U review, but it is Thunderbolt 3 as well as HDMI and DisplayPort and even comes with a desktop ‘hockey puck’ to activate the on-screen menu and Display Pilot software.

It is for Mac or Windows users – creators, photographers, videographers, animators, designers and those need what appears on the screen to be reproduced accurately on Web, print or video.

Australian review: BenQ DesignVue PD3220U

Also comes in a 27″ Model PD2720U (not reviewed but is Thunderbolt 3, 350 nits and 96% DCI-P3, 100% sRGB and 99% Adobe RGB).

First impression – EXCEED

The BenQ DesignVue PD3220U is a big black/grey monitor, even if it is only 32″. You see it is a 32″ 4K, 3840 x 2160, 140ppi, flat panel with a 16:9 ratio meaning the screen is 715mm wide. It is flat because creators want perfectly straight lines (no parallax) that a curved monitor cannot present.

It is also big because 4K curved monitors of this size tend to have a 21:9 ratio and a resolution of 3840 x 1600 – wide and not as tall. These monitors are better for immersive games – not dedicated to creator use.

By the time you add the base, it is 448/628mm (150mm adjustable height), 715mm (wide) and 186mm deep weighing 10.4kg.

The bezels are tiny, but there is about a 6mm mask all around. It would be great for dual monitors, but we will come to that later.

The screen itself is deep because it has LED backlighting (number of zones not stated).

And something we were surprised to find – a built-in Thunderbolt 3 dock and a KVM switch – more later.

As it is for creators let’s look at the colour gamut – EXCEED

Where do you start? Each creative media has a different standard.

If you are a web designer, you want colours that accurately match sRGB (standard Red Green Blue). In 1996 HP and Microsoft, created this RGB colour space for consumer monitors, printers, and the Web. That is not overly hard to achieve as it is a subset of other higher range gamuts and most quality monitors can get close.

If you use Adobe Creative apps and design for print or other physical reproduction, you want Adobe RGB and Pantone validation. This means if you specify a Pantone (ink) colour the Pantone Matching System (PMS) ensures it comes out the same from a PMS certified offset or digital printer. It is the difference between getting say, Pantone 200c blood red and something resembling tomato sauce.

If you are a photographer or videographer, you may need the Display P3 or DCI-P3 calibration and perhaps HDR10. Need more? Look at BenQ’s PhotoVue series.

If you are editing for TV, movies or advertisements, then DCI-P3 and Rec. 709 space are for you. If you need more look at BenQ’s VideoVue series.

A CAD/CAM operator wants high eyecare levels and the ability to adjust the screen temperature from warm to cool white as well as keep fine detail in drawings. If you use Pro/E, SOLIDWORKS, AutoCAD, CATIA, and more it emphasises spider lines and details.

An animator uses generally uses a far lower colour gamut, but these are far more intense. You can have ten levels of display brightness for better contrast of lines and shapes.

Designers and offset printers will recognise a colour swatch

It won’t surprise you to know that this monitor (and the 27″) covers all gamuts. 

It also throws in Darkroom (adjustment for no/low ambient light), M-book (Mac Book screen gamut), DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine, e.g., X-Ray, MRI, scans), and User settable modes. After all, it is a 10-bit panel (8-bit plus 2-bit FRC) capable of displaying over 1.07 billion colours or tones.

Technically is meets 100% sRGB, 80% Adobe RGB, 95% DCI-P3. These are not all 100%, but few monitors are and are many times more expensive. And as the human eye can’t see 1.07 billion colours and shades this monitor is better than our eyes.

It is HDR10 certified, which means capable of 1000nits. Compared to regular SDR (Standard Dynamic Range), HDR10 can display images twice as bright at twice the contrast.

Each monitor is Calman, and AQColor calibrated to approx. a Delta E of 1. Anything below 4 is indistinguishable to the human eye.

In words, this is as close to perfect as you can get without spending much, much more.

ICCsync – PASS+

ICCsync is the ability to match the ICC (International Color Consortium) colour space profiles between monitors and computers. Control it through the Display Pilot software or the monitor itself. This is really important if you are using, say a laptop and a separate monitor or two.

Dual View – PASS+

Using Display Pilot you can set each half of the screen to a different calibration, e.g. sRGB and CAD

KVM – Exceed

The KVM function allows control from two different computer systems with just one keyboard and mouse. This is vital for those that use both Windows and Mac.

Brightness and contrast – EXCEED

Brightness (nits) is a measurement of the amount of light that one candle gives off in one square meter of area.

This is a 300-nit panel and its perfect for use at around one metre from your eyes under office light of 400-500 lumens (about 115-145 nits).

By comparison, TVs may quote say, 1000 nits but that is for viewing at 2-4 metres away in high ambient light (daylight can be over 120,000 lumen or 35,000 nits).

Contrast is 1000:1 – that is the difference between the blackest black and the purest white the monitor can display. If the screen were LG W-OLED (and cost several times as much) it would have an infinite ∞:1 ratio because each pixel can be turned off (pure black) or on (pure white).

But the screen is also capable in HDR10 mode increasing a small percentage of the screen to 20 million:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio. Speaking of HDR, it will try to add emulated HDR to SDR content.

Screen – EXCEED

This is an a-Si, TFT-LCD, IPS screen made by LG (LM315WR1-SSB1). It is backlit using WLED (white LED). BTW – WLED has a half-life of 30,000 hours which is over ten years at eight hours a day.

The number of dimming zones is not specified (it is four strings x 2CN) we calculate around 4 x 10 LEDs or 40. That is far greater control than an edge-lit panel.

The native panel can achieve 350 nits and 1300:1 contrast (which is what less scrupulous monitor makers quote) but by the time BenQ adds the Antiglare (Haze 25%), Hard coating (3H) outer layer it reduces a little.

The screen has an 89/89/89/89 viewing angle which really means 89° off-angle in any plane before colours and details are materially affected. That is the theory, but we feel its more like 45° off-angle.

The colour temperature defaults to 6500° Kelvin. What this means is that 2700-3300K is warm, 3300-5300 is cool – and 6500K is daylight. Cooler temperatures can affect circadian sleep rhythms.

It is also flicker-free and has low blue light settings.

Power – PASS+

Power ranges from .5W standby, 37W typical but if it is using Thunderbolt 3 power pass through that heads up to 220W. If you are paying 50 cents per KWh, then it about 10 cents an hour.

HotKey Puck G2 – PASS+

Allocate menu functions to three single-function keys and a rotation key. Adjust brightness, contrast, and volume of the monitor. Simply press the return button to go back to earlier settings.

Sound – PASS

It has 2 x 2W speakers for 2.0 stereo. These have no bass and late mid/early treble, so it is more for dialogue that music. Perfect for video calls. You can take audio/mic out via the 3.5mm combo jack or use BT to connect to the computer source. The only way to get sound into the monitor is HDMI or TB3/USB-C.

Stand – EXCEED

It is precisely what you need. Forward/backward tilt of -5 to 20°m left/right swivel of +/-30° and height 150mm adjustable. It can also do portrait mode.

You can 100x100mm VESA wall mount it.

Ports – EXCEED

• Thunderbolt 3 upstream* ALT PD with 85W downstream (5V/3A, 9V/3A, 15V/3A and 20V/4.25A power from the monitor)
• Thunderbolt 3 downstream ALT DP 5V/3A/15W power to another monitor or device
• Display Port 1.4 in
• 2 x HDMI 2.0 (4K@60Hz) in
• Hockey Puck
• USB 3.0 Hub upstream (not connected if using TB3 or USB-C upstream)
• 3 x USB A downstream
• 1 x USB-C downstream with 15W
• 1 x 3.5mm audio combo
• Kensington lock slot

Note that the TB3 upstream port also supports USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 5Gbps Alt DP, but functionality reduces.

These ports and upstream power eliminate the need for a separate TB3 dock.

Cables – EXCEED

• Mini-DP to DP
• USB-B 3.0 to USB A (if required for Hub)
• HDMI
• TB3 x 70cm

I have one gripe, and it happens with all TB3 cables that are usually from 50-70cm to support TB3 40Gbps speeds. It is not long enough!

Use as a content viewer – PASS

BenQ says it is for pleasure as well. It does reproduce HRD10 content well.

It has HDCP 2.2, which means it can display most copyright video content.

A 5MS GtG response is great, but gamers will not use it as it is a fixed 60Hz refresh and does not have any specific games support.

PiP or four video sources – PASS+

You can split the different video inputs into up to four screen segments.

Backlight bleed and IPS glow – PASS+

It has a low IPS glow (when the screen in black idle) and over four weeks of the test did not show signs of image retention in the Windows 10 taskbar.

The screen is uniformly lit with no perceptible bright spots.

Thunderbolt 3 daisy chain

Depending on your computer, you should be able to support two 4K@60Hz screens plus a third – your laptop or another monitor.

Caveats

We tested on a 2019 HP x360 Spectre Intel i7 model. It was able to keep up with typical design loads. But if you are a serious creator, you will be using an external TB3 graphics card, or a beefed-up NVIDIA or Radeon card.

GadgetGuy’s take – I wish I had a pair of 32″ (or 27) BenQ DesignVue PD3220U

No, I don’t have a lazy $2199 each ($4398 pair) or $1799 for the 27″ version.  But for Joe and Jane Average who bash out a Word Document or browse the Web, this would be severe overkill.

Mind you; my production monitors are 4K, 98% sRGB and they make it so much easier to help publish GadgetGuy reviews and articles.

Back to the BenQ DesignVue 3220U and the 2720U. Any ‘creator’ that wants as close to true colours for their production device need look no further. From my perspective, I saw so much detail that I had never seen before as I ran through our library of smartphone test shots. But as we publish to the Web and only need sRGB that is not an issue to readers.

It’s really strong point is TB3 dock you can connect an external SSD like the Samsung TB3 X5 (tested) and get 3500Mbps sequential read.

It is the best overall creators flat panel monitor I have seen, perhaps only eclipsed by BenQ’s dedicated photography or video monitors. Unfortunately, these lack the BenQ DesignVue PD3220U flexibility.

Rating rationale

A PASS mark is 4/5. This scored PASS+ or EXCEED on every possible test parameter so it may as well be 5/5.

But its flexibility is also its Achilles heel. Use the wrong mode for the job, and you may see nits and contrast drop off enormously. MacBook users will select M-Book and not worry but for the rest using the mode that suits your work is very important.

And Apple Fanboys will point to 138ppi being below 220ppi for a Retina screen. They forget that the MacBook screen is 13-15″ and only Apple’s 6K screen has >200ppi.

Fast Facts – BenQ DesignVue PD3220U

• Website here
• Manual here (it is a PDF so check downloads)
• Price: $2199
• Warranty: 3-years ACL
• Elevator pitch: There is no better 32″ (or 27″) monitor for creators
• Country of manufacture: China
• BenQ Corporation (Bɛn Q spun out of Acer in 2001) is a Taiwanese company that designs and markets technology products, consumer electronics, computing and communications devices under the “BenQ” brand name (Bringing Enjoyment N Quality to life). Its main products include monitors, projectors, cameras, and mobile computing devices.
• You can read other BenQ news and reviews here.

BenQ DesignVue PD3220U – 32" of perfect 4K Pantone and Calman certified colour

Name: BenQ DesignVue PD3220U monitor Price (RRP): $2199 Manufacturer: Benq

Factory calibrated for outstanding colour accuracyFully adjustable landscape and portrait standHockey Puck flexibility if you use itA large degree of connectivity including TB3Huge range of gamut selections

None really – weak speakers

Features

Value for money

Performance

Ease of Use

Design

5.0Overall Score

The post BenQ DesignVue PD3220U – 32″ of perfect 4K Pantone and Calman certified colour appeared first on Gadget Guy Australia.

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Apple iPad Air (4th Gen) – the new tablet king?

Apple iPad Air (4th Gen) - the new tablet king?

4.6Overall Score

Name: iPad Air (4th Generation)
Price (RRP): $899 (Wi-Fi / 64GB), $1099 (Wi-Fi + Cellular / 64GB)
Manufacturer: Apple

While the iPhone 12 may have grabbed the spotlight recently, Apple’s latest iPad is now available. Apart from a refreshed look, the ‘new’ Air boasts improvements to its screen, cameras, connectivity and even a new chip that places it tantalisingly close to the range-topping iPad Pro. So has the new Air stolen the iPad Pro’s thunder, only for less money?

First, let’s have a quick refresher on which iPads are available. The range consists of 4 models. Apart from the Air, there’s the iPad Pro (2 sizes), iPad (8^th generation) and iPad Mini (5^th generation). Here’s a handy summary of all iPad models.

iPad Air, now in five subtle colours

A fresh look

The revamped Air dons the nouveau square-edged design found on the iPad Pro and iPhone 12. It now comes in five rather nice finishes too: there’s Space Gray, Silver, Rose Gold, Green and Sky Blue. We had the Sky Blue model for our review, and it should be said that all of the finishes are stylishly muted rather than overpowering. The blue, for example, is more silver with a hint of blue, which can change depending on the light.

As the Air is just 6.1mm thin and 460 grams, it’s quite comfortable to hold or tote around. This is thanks to its 100 percent aluminium body, which is carved from a single billet to to add strength and rigidity. The body can even be completely recycled into new aluminium things when the time comes.

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Liquid Retina

The Air gets an upsized 10.9 inch ‘Liquid Retina’ display, which means more screen to look at than the 10.5in version on its predecessor. However, by using thinner bezels and ditching the traditional ‘Home’ button, the dimensions are still about the same as the previous model.

The display technology is the IPS (LCD) type, as OLED hasn’t made it to any of the iPads as of yet. Still, the new screen is extremely crisp and pin-sharp thanks to a 2360-by-1640 resolution that packs in 264 pixels per inch.

The screen is also much better for showing colours, with Wide Colour (P3) and True Tone support. It can also pair with the Apple Pencil 2, which is much nicer to use.

Compared to the Liquid Retina displays found on our reference 12.9in iPad Pro, we found that the Air displayed a slightly warmer white but was about the same in brightness. Otherwise, the Air doesn’t get the iPad Pro’s luxuruious ProMotion feature, which is essentially a 120Hz screen that is noticeably smoother when scrolling web pages and drawing canvases. It can also play ultra-high frame rate videos and games – if you can find any.

The display gets both fingerprint-resistant and anti-reflective coatings. The AR coating is rated to have the lowest reflectivity in the business, according to Apple, although both won’t completely eliminate reflections or fingerprints.

A new touch

The new fingerprint-sensing ‘Home’ button has undergone a complete redesign, thanks to being removed from the iPad’s front. The button/sensor is now located on top outer edge, and is now a rectangle, not a circle. You’d think that its shape and position would cause problems, however, the Air’s TouchID is one of the best in the business. It unlocks incredibly quickly and doesn’t seem to care how you position your finger – lengthwise or widthwise.

Still, it’s odd that Apple didn’t switch to the FaceID (facial recognition) system found on the iPad Pro and iPhones instead of engineering a completely new sensor. We’d guess that the button must still be cheaper than the advanced cameras needed for Face ID, or otherwise, they wanted to leave this exclusively on the iPad Pros.

Air power

At its heart, the Air gets Apple’s latest chip taken right from the new iPhone 12. The A14 Bionic is Apple’s ‘most advanced chip ever’ and benefits from the latest 5-nanometre manufacturing process. This means that the chip can be made smaller, so it’s faster and takes less power to run. As a result, the 6-core CPU (computing) and 4-core GPU (graphics) are 40 and 30 percent respectively more powerful than the previous iPad Air.

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• 

The A14 Bionic drives 4K video editing and ‘on device’ AI in the form of facial recognition

In addition, the A14 Bionic uses a next-gen 16-core Neural Engine, which doubles the cores of the old design. It can handle 11 trillion operations per second or twice the machine learning (ML) performance. While this all sounds very fancy, it enables a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ capabilities for better app experiences. For example, machine learning can help identify your friends’s faces out of thousands of photos. It can recognise your Apple Pencil handwriting and seamlessly transform it into text. Or it can understand your voice and meaning when speaking to Siri.

Most importantly, this type of complex processing happens imperceptibly on the iPad itself. In the past, machine learning would need to be ‘off device’ where the data would be transmitted to a more powerful computer in the cloud for processing and then wait for the results to be sent back.

The Air vs the Pro

As the iPad Pro uses the older A12Z Bionic chip versus the new A14 Bionic in the Air, we thought it would worthwhile comparing the two. Surprisingly, the iPad Air beat the iPad Pro in all but one multi-core test on our GeekBench5 Pro benchmarks.

GeekBench 5 Pro Test	CPU – Single Core	CPU – Multi-Core	Compute
iPad Pro 12.9in (4th Generation)	1,120	4,645	11,680
iPad Air (4th Generation)	1,578	4,210	12,488
iPad Air (3rd Generation)	1,112	2,831	5,255

A higher number is better – the iPad Air wins all but the CPU Multi Core test

The bottom line is that the new iPad Air gets a massive power bump, meaning it can handle very complex and processor-intensive tasks. This could be editing 4K videos, creating multi-layered and highly detailed designs and drawings, composing multi-track music or playing immersive, high-resolution games. The new A14 Bionic chip even pushes past the most powerful iPad to date, according to our benchmarks.

Camera angles

For snapping photos and shooting video, the Air gets improved front and rear cameras. The rear 12 megapixel camera is now the same F1.8 standard lens unit from the iPad Pro. It’s designed for snaps, panoramas, time-lapses and filming Slo-mo videos up to 240 frames per second (fps) and 4K videos up to 60 fps. Other notable enhancements include digital image stabilisation and Smart High Dynamic Range (HDR) support.

The front-facing 7 megapixel ‘FaceTime HD’ camera now has an F2.2 aperture and can capture 1080P videos at 60 fps. It also comes with Retina Flash for brightening your selfies using the screen along with Auto image stabilisation and Smart HDR.

We compared the Air’s photo and video results with the iPad Pro’s cameras. Generally, the footage was quite similar in terms of colour, sharpness and noise reduction. The Air’s F1.8 camera produced noticeably less distortion (noise) in darker scenes than the iPad Pro’s wide lens. However, as expected, it matched the Pro’s identical F1.8 lens system.

The Pro’s cameras have a few extras including Portrait Mode photos and a LiDAR sensor, which is able to create a 3D map of the surrounding space. This also enables superior auto-focus speeds, especially in dark environments, and unmatched augmented reality scene-mapping.

In stereo

The iPad’s shape and size make it a great device for watching videos. Films looked bright and sharp on the Liquid Retina display, and it also supports the Dolby Vision video standard. In addition, there’s a new ‘Wide Stereo’ speaker system with the speakers placed on the right and left edges. When testing, we were able to discern a reasonable amount of separation between each side. The audio was not excessively ‘tinny’ either and there was reasonable bass for a small device. Volume was surprising loud too and didn’t distort at high volumes.

New speakers and the USB-C connector

Making connections

The Air, thankfully, gets a fast USB-C connector and supports the latest Bluetooth 5.0 wireless standard. As you’ll probably be connected to the internet via Wi-Fi most of the time, the Air gets the new Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) version that can reach speeds of 1.2Gbps. Interestingly, we discovered that transfers on our office Wi-Fi were fastest on the Air when compared to the iPad Pro and even our iPhone 12 Pro.

Gigabit class LTE is present for making calls and browsing the internet via Australian networks. While it’s not 5G, you should still be able to get over 100Mbps speeds when connected in metropolitan areas with a strong signal.

Unlike the iPhone 12, you get a 20 Watt charger in the box

Lastly, for those who travel, it’s good to see both a standard SIM and eSIM included on the Wi-Fi + Cellular (LTE) models. 

Accessorise

If you want to use the Air more like a laptop, it works with the Magic Keyboard. This protects both the front and back of the tablet when closed and provides an illuminated keyboard and trackpad. The trackpad is especially useful because it adds a cursor-based interface to iPadOS, as well as swipe gestures and touch.

It’s worth noting that Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps are receiving updates to take full advantage of trackpad support in iPadOS so you can easily highlight a passage of text in Word, select a range of cells in Excel, and move and resize graphics in PowerPoint, etc. Here’s more on how how the new Office updates make working on iPad even easier.

The Magic Keyboard for iPad Air makes it feel like a laptop for a price – $499

The Magic Keyboard adds a second USB-C charging connector beneath the cantilevered stand, and shares power with the Air with the plug-less smart connectors. What’s it cost? An eye-watering $499.

For something a little slimmer and cheaper, you can choose the Smart Keyboard Folio ($269) with full-sized keyboard or Smart Folio ($119) without.

GadgetGuy’s take:

So how does the new iPad Air stack up? The Air’s new screen is great to look at and a comfortable size, there’s an attractive new design and 5 stylish colours, uprated cameras, Apple Pencil 2 support, faster Wi-Fi 6 and gigabit LTE, new speakers and more. But the star of the show has to be the new A14 Bionic chip, which all but beats out the iPad Pro’s ageing A12Z Bionic chip. 

While you won’t get the Pro’s 120Hz ProMotion screen, FaceID camera, rear-wide angle lens or LiDAR scanner, the starting for the Air (64GB Wi-Fi model) is $899, and is a whopping $430 less than the iPad Pro 11-inch’s $1,329.

When compared to arguably the best non-Apple tablet on the market, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7, the Air holds its own too. The 11in Tab S7 model starts from $1,147 but does get a 120Hz LCD screen and a larger 128GB of memory.

For non-Apple users, there’s the impressive Samsung Galaxy S7

All up, if you’re waiting to update your tablet, or maybe add a new device to your collection, the new Air is an excellent choice and priced to compete with the best out there.

iPad Air Pricing ($AU)

Model	Memory	Price ($AU)
iPad Air Wi-Fi	64GB	$899
iPad Air Wi-Fi	256GB	$1,129
iPad Air Wi-Fi + Cellular	64GB	$1,099
iPad Air Wi-Fi + Cellular	256GB	$1,399

iPad Air tech specifications

In the Box	iPad Air USB-C Charge Cable (1 meter) 20W USB-C Power Adapter Documentation
Finish	Space Gray, Silver, Rose Gold
Capacity	64GB, 256GB
Size and Weight	Height: 9.74 inches (247.6 mm) Width: 7 inches (178.5 mm) Depth: 0.24 inch (6.1 mm) Weight, Wi-Fi: 1.0 pound (458 g) Weight, Wi-Fi + Cellular: 1.01 pounds (460 g)
Display	Liquid Retina display 10.9-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit Multi-Touch display with IPS technology 2360-by-1640 resolution at 264 ppi Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating Fully laminated display Antireflective coating Wide color display (P3) True Tone display Supports Apple Pencil (2nd generation)
Chip	A14 Bionic chip with 64-bit desktop-class architecture 16-core Neural Engine ML accelerators
Speakers	Stereo speakers in landscape mode
Camera	12MP Wide camera, ƒ/1.8 aperture Five-element lens Backside illumination sensor Hybrid IR filter Live Photos Autofocus with Focus Pixels Tap to focus with Focus Pixels Wide color capture for photos and Live Photos Panorama (up to 63MP) Exposure control Noise reduction Smart HDR for photos Auto image stabilization Burst mode Timer mode Photo geotagging Image formats captured: HEIF and JPEG
Video Recording	4K video recording at 24 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps 1080p HD video recording at 30 fps or 60 fps Slo-mo video support for 1080p at 120 fps or 240 fps Time-lapse video with stabilization Cinematic video stabilization (1080p and 720p) Continuous autofocus video Noise reduction Take 8MP still photos while recording 4K video Playback zoom Video geotagging Video formats captured: HEVC and H.264
FaceTime HD Camera	7MP photos ƒ/2.2 aperture 1080p HD video recording at 60 fps Wide color capture for photos and Live Photos Smart HDR Retina Flash Backside illumination sensor Auto image stabilization Burst mode Exposure control Timer mode
Microphones	Dual microphones for calls, video recording, and audio recording
Secure Authentication	Touch ID in Top Button
Apple Pay	Pay with your iPad using Touch ID within apps and on the web Send and receive money in Messages
Voice Assistant (Siri)	Use your voice to send messages, set reminders, and more Get proactive suggestions Use hands-free Listen and identify songs
Cellular and Wireless	All models 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6; simultaneous dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz); HT80 with MIMO Bluetooth 5.0 technology Wi-Fi + Cellular models UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) Gigabit-class LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 29, 30, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 46, 48, 66, 71) Data only Wi-Fi calling eSIM nano-SIM (supports Apple SIM
Connector	USB-C Smart Connector (back)
Power and Battery	Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi or watching video Up to 9 hours of surfing the web using cellular data network Charging via power adapter or USB-C to computer system
Sensors	Touch ID Three-axis gyro Accelerometer Ambient light sensor Barometer
Environmental	iPad is designed with the following features to reduce environmental impact: • 100% recyclable aluminum enclosure • 100% recycled tin in the solder of the main logic board • 100% recycled rare earth elements in the speaker magnets • ENERGY STAR® certified • Arsenic-free display glass • Mercury-free • BFR, PVC, and beryllium-free • 100% of virgin wood fiber comes from responsibly managed forests

For the latest GadgetGuy reviews, click here.

Apple iPad Air (4th Gen) - the new tablet king?

Name: iPad Air (4th Generation) Price (RRP): $899 (Wi-Fi / 64GB), $1099 (Wi-Fi + Cellular / 64GB) Manufacturer: Apple

Faster than an iPad Pro on our tests thanks to the new A14 Bionic chip.Larger 10.9 inch screen with more colours (P3 gamut) than the old AirGood value considering its performance and features on offer.

A 128GB memory option would provide more choice

Features

Value for money

Performance

Ease of Use

Design

4.6Overall Score

The post Apple iPad Air (4th Gen) – the new tablet king? appeared first on Gadget Guy Australia.

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Are we on the brink of a China and Australia cold war?

Beijing is aggressively ‘probing’ Australian politicians and anyone associated with them. Analysts are asking ‘Are we on the brink a China and Australia cold war?’

A massive data leak revealed that Australian politicians and their family members were targets of a Chinese company called Shenzhen Zhenhua Data (SZD). Investigations reveal it has strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

A Sky News Australia interview with Chris Balding and Robert Potter (an analyst from Canberra-based Internet 2.0 cybersecurity consultancy) show that the database is from SZD.

Specific high-profile names include

• Prime Minister Scott Morrison
• former Washington Ambassador Joe Hockey,
• the current Ambassador Arthur Sinodinos
• among thousands of others in positions of power

GadgetGuy asked its resident nation-state security expert Sam Bocetta to tell our readers what the SZD hack means. Sam is an honorary Aussie! He writes:

China and Australia cold war – what do we know so far?

The full name for SZD is Shenzhen Zhenhua Data Information Technology Company. It is a data ‘scraping’ company owned by the China Zhenhua Electronics Group.

It, in turn, is owned by a state-run military research enterprise called The China Electronics Technology Group (CETC). But here is the kicker – CETC had an ‘AI’ association with the University of Technology Sydney until 2019.

SZD has a clear connection to Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – if not outright controlled by them. 

The leak reported in early-September 2020 shows that SZD monitored over 3 million individuals. These are listed in the Overseas Key Information Database (OKIDB). That is a database of influential opinion leaders.

Some analysts claim that OKIDB is nothing more than a purely ‘aspirational venture’ – to see what we can do!

Others go as far as to state that it is an act of hybrid warfare against Australia by the Chinese.

Internet 2.0 says it contains the names and details of more than 250,000 people. This includes over 50,000 prominent Americans and 35,000 Australians.

Those Australian’s include

• State and Federal politicians
• Military officers
• Diplomats
• Academics
• Civil servants
• Business executives
• Engineers
• Journalists
• Lawyers
• Accountants
• Add to that all of the above staff, children and close contacts
• And some 656 have “special interest” or “politically exposed” tags. The military sector appears to be of particular interest to the company. The database tracks the promotion prospects of officers and their political networks.

The database also includes

• US President Donald Trump
• US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
• The US Federal Government
• The British Royal Family
• The UK Government members
• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
• And their staff, family, and close contacts

According to Balding, the massive data leak shows a clear need for improved Australian cyber defence. While automated cloud-based defence tools such as software composition analysis and dynamic application security testing can be effective in catching data leaks, they are not a silver bullet. 

Should we be on the brink of a China and Australia cold war?

Australia is a mid-sized, open, and multicultural democracy. It is a long-standing ally of the United States. It is also economically dependent on China – more so than many other nations.

And it has had over three decades of uninterrupted prosperity, largely due to China’s economic rise.

China has, at times, an insatiable need for Australia’s iron ore, coal, and other raw materials. It buys about 33% of what we export. In return, Australia buys copious Chinese imports (ironically often using its exported materials), sells it’s assets, land, houses and companies to them, and welcomes large numbers of students and tourists.

2108 Agricultural figures excluding resources but gives you an idea of quid-pro-quo

The always delicate relationship between Canberra and Beijing has grown more tempestuous

It started with the Australian Government banning the Chinese-company Huawei from building a 5G network in the country. Rightly so – it is any governments right to use any supplier they are confident with.

It did not help that the Morrison Government called for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic (which by all credible accounts originated in the city of Wuhan).

China typically responded by

• banning (beef), levelling high tariffs (barley/wine) and reducing (coal) and numerous Australian imports
• making public statements criticising Australia as being racist and foolish
• detention threats to Australian media and tourists in China
• China warned its students not to return to Australia for fear of overt racism
• A concerted campaign to discredit any criticism
• Waging social media fake news and disinformation campaigns
• Threats to restrict tourism travel to Australia
• Painting Australia as the obedient lapdog of the US
• Beijing again asserting it was none of Australia’s business to comment on Hong Kong, trade with Taiwan, allow Uighur dissidents here, or the Falun Gong, keep out of the south Pacific nation support…
• And accusing Australia of having an anti-China strategy

Wow – with such eloquent friends as China who needs enemies? Oh, and the US is looking to Australia to be the ‘Canary in the coal mine”. How can it manage to save the relationship without someone dying?

Australian reaction

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the United States and Australia shared a commitment to the rule of law. She reiterated Australia’s commitment to hold countries to account for breaches, such as China’s erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong.

At the same time, she said Australia did not agree on everything with Beijing — or with the United States.

“The relationship we have with China is important. And we have no intention of injuring it. But nor do we intend to do things that are contrary to our interests. We have a strong economic engagement, other engagement, and it works in the interests of both countries.”

We must be on the brink of a China and Australia cold war? Even if it is a de facto cold war

It is not like Beijing can take back what it has said, done or will do. It can’t lose face (diu lien) as the Chinese would put it.

Mianzi: The Importance of Face

The concept of face (mianzi) in Chinese culture is a complex one. It can most closely be defined as “dignity” or “prestige”.

Chinese idiom, ‘Men can’t live without face, as trees can’t live without bark’. Loss of face makes an enemy for life and is the root of many conflicts.

How is Australia supposed to protect its security while simultaneously maintaining economic trade with China?

Many Australian politicians and media figures claim that China spying on Australian citizens constitutes an act of war. There fighting words.

There is a trend here

Beijing has made huge efforts to tighten control of its (and Hong Kongs) population in recent years.

President, Xi Jinping, introduced the country’s first cyber police and cracked down on cryptocurrency trading (as blockchain permits anonymous transactions). You can’t get a mobile phone, internet or much less a phone number without identity verification. You must have un-installable nation-state spyware apps on your phone. The list of the loss of common ‘western’ freedoms goes on.

These towers are all over China

But it’s not just towards its citizens that the CCP has become increasingly coercive.

Data shows a huge escalation in the CCP’s use of coercive diplomacy against Australia since 2018.

For nearly three decades, the Australian Government has pursued an aggressive policy of protecting its robust trade agreements with China. Is that why Australia never had a recession during this time?

But the game has now drastically shifted.

PM Morrison has increased defence spending in the Indo-Pacific region. He has introduced a national security test for all foreign investments. He has very publicly denounced Chinese disinformation campaigns designed to weaken or undermine democracies across the globe. 

The PM has also warned the public repeatedly about the threat of cyber-attacks from China. A warning based in reality following the revelations of the SZD data leak.

And then there are issues of that TikTok. Owned by a Beijing-based technology company ByteDance, it is harvesting Australian data users on behalf of the CCP. 

There’s no question that China remains one of Australia’s most valuable trading partners, with the relationship worth nearly $175 billion. And China is an equally dependent trading partner as well. Largely for iron ore exports that Australia produces in very high volumes.

In other words, Australia and China need one another economically. Escalating tensions between the two nations threaten to upend decades of economic prosperity that Australian citizens have enjoyed. 

GadgetGuy’s take – Are we on the brink of a China and Australia cold war?

As I was reading Sam’s article, I kept wondering how this could end? And I kept wondering if a Tech news/reviews site should cover this. But I think Sam’s coverage is fair. Far more so than if he was covering Chinese influence in his home country – the US of A.

And the SZD evidence is shocking. I know a few of those 35,000 in the innocuously termed Overseas Key Information Database. They have had every aspect of their lives spied upon. Ironically it is how the Government is now able to identify those who may have been coerced or turned. Political names like Shaoquett Moselmane, Sam Dastyari, Andrew Robb, and Daryl Maguire are just the tip of the iceberg.

It is going to take a very cool, strong and stable hand on the tiller to navigate us through this shitstorm. One that is prepared to defend to the utmost Australian values over revenue and political correctness.

Morrison and Payne seem to be the ones to do this. Why? Because they are not swayed by the covert Chinese influence carefully ingratiated into all levels of Government and business here.

Only time will tell if things escalate further.

There is simply no denying that the CCP has become very aggressive in its spying of Australian leaders and citizens.

The SZD data leak hasn’t just definitively proven China’s spying actions; it shows how they do it as well. 

Sam has also written a major article about Privacy and Chinese apps and Chinese clouds. It is fair and well researched, but one fact comes out.

Strong Anti-Chinese sentiment in the US has jumped from less than 20% to well over 70% – an all-time high. A late 2019 Lowry Institute poll found less than 30% of Australians trust China to act responsibly, down from 54%.

Links and images used herein are subject to the Creative Commons use as a scholarly article.

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OPPO Watch – very Applesque for the discerning Android user

OPPO Watch – very Applesque for the discerning Android user

4.3Overall Score

Name: OPPO Watch 41mm and 46mm
Price (RRP): $449/549
Manufacturer: OPPO

The OPPO Watch has design cues suspiciously reminiscent of those from a fruity company. In part, that is because its prime market loves knock-offs, and in part, because it is a unique style in the Android world.

The OPPO Watch comes in two sizes – 41mm and 46mm. Both have Wi-Fi (not LTE – China only) and have 3/5ATM water resistance. Other than that, they are functionally equivalent.

There is a lot to like. WearOS by Google, superb AMOLED screen, VOOC Flash charge, up to 36hr ‘power mode’ and 21-day ‘power saving’ mode, and an assortment of free and paid workout and health tracking apps.

We put the OPPO Watch through its paces and may have found an alternative for all those closet Apple fanboys.

Australian review: OPPO Watch (Review model 46mm Wi-Fi Model OW19W8)

• Website here
• Price: 41/46mm $449/549
• From: OPPO online (41mm or 46mm), JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Bing Lee or shop around. The LTE version is not for Australia.
• Bonus: Currently includes a pair of OPPO Enco W31 Buds
• Warranty: 12 months ACL
• Country of Manufacture: China
• OPPO (Est 2001) is a privately-owned Chinese consumer electronics and mobile communications company headquartered in Dongguan, Guangdong. It is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics Corporation (Est 1995) along with OnePlus, Vivo, and Realme (and other brands including VSun, XTC, and IMOO). Its executives and long-term staff own many of the shares. BBK is currently the second-largest smartphone maker in the world (Source CounterPoint February 2020). It is most definitely not part of the Huawei/ZTE/China spying debate.
• You can read other OPPO news and reviews here

Base specifications OPPO Watch (41mm model is first)

• 41.45 x 36.37 x 11.4 x 30.1g or 46 x 39 x 11.35mm x 40g
• 1.6” 360 x 320, 301ppi flat AMOLED or 1.91” 4767 x 402 326 ppi curved edge AMOLED – both 100% DVCI_P3 colour gamut
• Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 (28 nm) and Adreno 304 GPU
• Second chipset for power-saving mode Ambiq Micro Apollo3 Wireless SoC
• 300/430mAh battery
• Magnetic charger with USB-A male cable – 5V/1A (41mm) and 5V/1.5A (46mm)
• 3/5 ATM water resistance
• 1GB RAM and 8GB eMMC 4.5 storage
• Wi-Fi N, BT 4.2, and A-GPS
• Android Wear OS
• 41mm Gorilla Glass, 6000-series aluminium frame, plastic back or 46mm Schott Glass, aluminium frame, and ceramic/sapphire crystal back
• Colours: 41mm – Black, Glossy Gold, Pink Gold, Silver Mist and 46mm Black and Glossy Gold
• Flurorubber band and proprietary band/case connector
• Speaker, Microphone, 3-axis accelerometer, gyro, optical heart rate, compass, barometer, geomagnetic sensor, capacitance sensor, ambient light sensor, NFC.

We use FAIL, PASS and EXCEED against test paradigms.

First impression – EXCEED

I admit to being a long-term Galaxy Watch and Samsung Health user. So I am going to make inevitable comparisons with the worlds largest selling watch, and OPPOs take.

I love the Samsung Galaxy rotating bezel, which is the most intuitive navigation system on a smartwatch. In my opinion, it beats Apple Watch hands down.

This is a huge AMOLED screen. It is not a traditional round watch design. It gives maximum screen real estate.

This screen is big and bright (you can adjust brightness and font size – I amped it up a notch). It can display nine icons per screen. A little side/top/bottom bar shows if there are more screens.

Navigation is via swiping up, down, left or right, and it does not take long to learn what screens appear.

There are two side buttons – the top is home, and the bottom is a multi-function.

I find the strap difficult. It is a nub/stud/hole style, and it is just not as easy as a clasp. I give this band a big FAIL.

A classy device that sits nicely on your wrist.

Setup – PASS with caveats

Pairing is painless. Although it does insist on a PIN (good) as a watch can access information on your phone.

Download Google Wear OS and pair the Watch. You are subject to Google’s privacy provisions that you have already agreed to as you use a Google Android smartphone.

OPPO requires you to set up a cloud account and accept its terms. Your data is backed up to its cloud. OPPO states, “Access to personal data and security will strictly not processed without user’s authorisation.” I trust OPPO.

Next, it says to download HeyTap, the app that OPPO supplies free for health monitoring. HeyTap is one of many apps you can use with Google Wear OS, so you don’t have to use it.

We have not fully analysed its privacy policy but let’s say it is no worse than any other Wear OS app. However, I denied access to contacts and phone logs (sure to make calls) – but I don’t think a health app needs that.

Be aware that acceptance enables HeyTap to push or notification services of HeyTap Products or third-party content, including Lock Screen Magazine, Quick App, app update and installation, sales, and promotion information, etc. If you no longer wish to receive push notifications, you may opt-out at any time by adjusting the settings on your device. Without consent of users, we will not provide third parties with users’ personal information and behaviour data.

I uninstalled the app at the end of the review – Google Fit is fine.

Wear OS – PASS+

Just like Android for your phone, TV or car, this is for wearables. It is up to V 3.29.24 and supports Google Assistant, Google apps like Pay, Calendar, Mail, Phone, Messaging, Maps. It has a huge range of third-party apps too.  

On the health front Google Fit (probably what I will use), Runtastic, Lifesum, Strava and more.

For entertainment, it has Spotify, Pandora and iHeartRadio.

Wear OS watch brands include OPPO, Hublot, Montblanc, Diesel, TAG Heuer, Skagen, SUUNTO, Moto, Puma, Mobvoi, Misfit, Emporio Armani, Fossil, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton and Polar.

You can browse the Wear OS app store here. My comment is that there are few watch faces for this format in comparison to Samsung’s Watch.

Wear OS got off to a shaky start.

Android Wear and its iOS version was deliberately hobbled by Apple’s refusal to integrate Apple notifications into it. Fortunately, the newer user reviews are overwhelmingly positive

The reviews indicate issues with the iPhone (don’t go there!). In part, the poor initial reviews were due to it having to support so many brands and models – just as Android does for smartphones. While Apple and Samsung only have to support a handful of their models.

My take – OPPO and Google work closely on Android so expect the OPPO watch with the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 SoC to be a good implementation.

HeyTap versus Google Fit (both free) PASSable

HeyTap records continuous heart rate (beats per minute), sleep, workouts (running, walking, workout, cycling and swimming) and gives you a readout of distance walked, calories burnt and a percentage of the goal. It has a GPS tracker to integrate with Maps.

Google Fit is very similar, and frankly, it is what I would recommend.

But if you want a fully-featured free health app Samsung Health exclusively for Samsung Galaxy Watch users is the class-leader.

Battery life – PASS but needs tweaking

On the first day with everything enabled it used about 5% per hour and got about 20 hours. On days 2-5 I managed to get a little more. It all depends on use.

OPPO claims a 30% charge in 15 minutes. We hit 40% in that time, and a full charge takes about 1.25 hrs. BTW – it is not wireless charge but uses a magnetic ‘stand’ to hold it in place over four pogo pins.

But I felt you would get a kick out of OPPO’s disclosure

Use times for OPPO Watch products are based on OPPO laboratory tests under typical battery use model. Actual battery life may vary according to factors such as network environment, functions used, frequency of use.

16 hours under typical use model is used as the standard for a full day of watch use. The aforementioned use time applies to the OPPO Watch 46mm Wi-Fi version only. This data originates from OPPO laboratory tests conducted based on a model of typical battery use, in which the Watch retains default factory settings, is paired with a smartphone, and experiences normal Bluetooth connection;

Bluetooth connection is maintained for 14 hours; Wi-Fi is used for 2 hours; GPS is enabled with the screen off during outdoor exercise for 45 minutes; the user lifts their wrist to turn on the screen 120 times; Google Assistant is used 5 times for 20 seconds each time; 240 messages with display notifications and vibration alerts are received; 200 messages without notifications are received; the screen is turned on and operations are performed 24 times for 20 seconds each time; 5 minutes are spent on calls from a Bluetooth-paired device; heart rate is checked 8 times for 30 seconds each time; background heart rate monitoring remains on, and sleep monitoring is used for 8 hours.

Actual use time may vary depending on smartphone data synchronisation, watch settings, app versions, third-party app use, and other factors.

Power save mode – PASS but not tested

In Power Saver mode, you can check the time, track your steps, and monitor your heart rate. It turns off Wi-Fi, BT and GPS and dims the screen.

And the secret is that it runs a proprietary OS on the Ambiq Micro Apollo3 SoC. So, in this mode, it is not a Wear OS device. To switch requires a reboot of the device, so we expect few to use this feature.

A-GPS – Pass

It relies heavily on the paired phone to get assisted GPS co-ordinates. On a cloudy day with Watch out of BT paring range, it took over five minutes to get a signal. This is not unusual for any wearable.

In accuracy terms, it shows slightly fewer steps (pedometer) than the Samsung Galaxy Watch, but the A-GPS is as accurate.

Swimming – PASS with caveats

3 or 5 ATM (30-50M) – The moment you see X ATM, you assume its capable of being used as a diving watch. It is not. Again, the disclosure says it all

OPPO Watch can be worn while swimming in a pool or doing shallow open-water activities but is not suitable for snorkelling, hot showers, hot springs, saunas, diving, scuba diving, surfing, or other water activities in which the device may come in contact with high-pressure water flow.

OPPO later state that the 41mm is not suitable for showering or swimming. The 46mm will withstand short periods of water immersion, such as light swimming. Not suitable for snorkelling or diving.

Continuous Heart rate – PASS

No optical heart rate sensor is accurate. The key is the consistency of the measurement device. Next time you visit your GP for a check-up compare the resting heart rate with its measurement so you can mentally adjust the rate.

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Sleep Tracking – PASS

For reasons unknown it only tracks between 8 PM and 10 AM. It gives awake, light and deep sleep times.

Google Pay – PASS

The one thing it can do over the Samsung watches is use Google Pay NFC PayWave.

Screen responsiveness – EXCEED

I experienced no unresponsive behaviour. The wrist wake is excellent.

Watch Faces – FAIL

The 13 watch faces focus more on art than usability. For example, none give you battery use and only two show weather. OPPO will need to do better here as Samsung has done for its Tizen store.

Now there are many faces on Wear OS, but it’s hard to find them. And in true Google style, some have ads, and very few fit the rectangular face. OPPO should get a curated list together.

Speaker and phone – PASS

No watch speaker has any sound fidelity. It is a transducer with a focus on a narrow clear voice frequency response.

The single mic lacks any noise-cancelling, so it is not great for calls. To hail OK Google, you can set it for OK Google detection or touch the Google app icon and press the microphone button – it is not constantly listening.

Notifications – PASS+

Because the BT connection is constant (not LE or polled) notifications are instant with the smartphone. And so too are deletions or responses.

You can dictate a message, draw an emoji or pick from suggested responses. There is a mini keyboard that is just ‘usable’.

Spotify – PASS

it has a few GB free to store music but the main use of the Spotify client is to access playlists on your phone. You can pair a set of BT buds with this as well.

What is won’t do (in comparison to Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch)

• Falls detection
• Period tracking
• Altimeter
• E-Compass (not sure as it is supposed to have a geomagnetic sensor)
• ECG (and that is not available here at the moment either)

GadgetGuy’s take – The Apple Watch for Android

OPPO has never shied from giving its users what they want. An Apple knock-off it what they want.

Overall, the hardware – apart from the awful band – is very good. Day-long battery life, brilliant screen and a flawless Gear OS implementation.

OPPO needs to address the lack of watch faces. And the privacy terms of HeyTap are a bit overwhelming for paranoid Aussie users (use Google Fit instead) but at least it provides good basic software.

The power-saving mode and the claim of 3 or 5 ATM smell of desperation to stand out in a crowded market place.

For me – it’s a very nice smartwatch that is a challenger to both Apple and Samsung.

And the Chinese version

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Sony WF-SP800N noise cancelling earphones

Sony WF-SP800N noise cancelling earphones

4.7Overall Score

Name: Sony WF-SP800N noise cancelling earphones
Price (RRP): $249
Manufacturer: Sony

The SP in the model number of the Sony WF-SP800N earphones is for “sport”. These are from Sony’s active line, and come with an exceptional nine-hour battery life. Let’s check them out.

Review: Sony WF-SP800N noise cancelling earphones

• Australian Website here.
• Manual or Support pages here.
• Price: A$249. Seen for $215.85 on Amazon.
• From: Legitimate Sony retailers and direct.
• Warranty: 12 months
• Country of Manufacture: China
• About: Sony is … well,  Sony. You know, that giant company from Japan with a reputation for quality products? Need I say more?

About the Sony WF-SP800N noise cancelling earphones

Sony’s newish – hey, I only received the review units a couple of weeks ago, even though they’ve been out for months – true wireless sports earphones feature active noise cancellation and 360 Reality Audio. Because they’re sports models, they have little wings to help lock them securely into your ears, and they also have an IP55 rating, which means they’re safe against a bit of rain and sweat.

The Sony WF-SP800N earphones are available in four colours which you can see from the pictures on this page. They use 6mm dynamic drivers with Neodymium magnets. Sony rates their music playback time at 9 hours with noise cancellation on. That’s a remarkably long life, presumably enabled by the use of larger batteries. These earphones are relatively large and heavy. Sony says 9.8 grams each, but I weighed them at 9.6 grams each, and that’s with the largest of the four sizes of silicone tips attached.

Note, that 9 hours is with noise cancellation. Without, Sony says 13 hours. And the “continuous communication time” – phone conversations and such – is 7 hours with ANC, 8 hours without. The charge case has just one refill. Which is a little surprising since the norm is two full recharges. The case charges via USB Type-C, as it should. It’s a little on the bulky side at 85mm long by 52mm tall and 34mm thick. It weighs 77.3 grams with the buds, 58.2 grams without.

Listening with the Sony WF-SP800N earphones

Sony has done a nice job balancing up the sound of the Sony WF-SP800N earphones. There’s a five-band EQ slider in the Sony Headphone Connect app, but for normal listening I felt no need to use it. There’s also a “Clear Bass” slider. This is basically a bass level control. I found a fair bit of music benefited from having this pushed up to around +5. Despite the boost, the earphones maintained their control and composure.

For example, right now I’m listening to the 1974 UFO album Phenomenon. With that bass up a bit, the whole rhythm section is considerably more compelling. The cymbals are clear and well-located on “Built for Comfort”, but not excessively bright. The voice is natural, not harsh. I’m enjoying these earphones a great deal.

For Harry Styles’ Fine Line I returned the Clear Bass slider back to the centre position. Modern recordings like this have plenty of bass without artificial assistance. Sometimes I find myself merely tolerating true wireless earbuds with music … better than nothing, but I’m having to overlook many defects. Not these ones. They are highly listenable.

360 Reality Audio

One feature of the Sony WF-SP800N earphones is something called 360 Reality Audio. I wasn’t familiar with this. It turns out not to be an in-phones process, but some kind of encode/decode system that works with a limited range of music offered by some music services. Those supporting it are TIDAL, 360 by Deezer, Artist Connection and nugs.net. I use TIDAL so I stuck with that.

In order to use it you have to optimize the system for you. It apparently uses some model of how real world audio sounds to you as an individual based on the shape of your ears. So optimisation involves taking photos of your ears which are sent off to Sony’s servers. They calculate whatever needs to be calculated and send the information to TIDAL, which then processes the 360 Reality Audio tracks as it streams them. I just searched for 360 Reality Audio in TIDAL and came up with a bunch of tracks. As I’m typing right now, the earphones are playing a live Elvis Presley concert. I’m not a huge Presley fan, but it’s sounding quite decent. Or it did once I tweaked the EQ in the Sony Connect app – dragging down the 2.5kHz band by a few decibels and pushing the bass slider most of the way to the right.

The 360 Reality Audio doesn’t do any kind of weird surround sound. It just adds a respectable degree of spaciousness to the sound. Switching to Blue Oyster Cult, I comparied the 360 version of the track “Subhuman” to the regular version. It reduced bass output, added a peaky midrange – that’s why I had to use the EQ – and limited the maximum volume.

Practicalities

The range and connection reliability was excellent. On my standard walkaway test, there was perfect reception regardless of head orientation out to 25 metres. It seemed to be the left earbud that maintained the connection to the phone, so I was able to go out to forty metres so long as that bud had line-of-sight to my phone.

My phone used the AAC connection (only AAC and SBC are supported by the Sony WF-SP800N earphones). The Sony Headphone Connect app reports which connection you’re using, as well as the charge level of the buds. And, unusually, the charge level of the case. Of course, the case isn’t connected via Bluetooth. It tells the buds its level when they’re charging and then they report it to the phone when they connect.

I found the fit good with the largest silicone tips, and they remained securely locked in despite some pretty vigorous head-shaking.

The touch controls were pretty reliable. They don’t take much of a tap and respond with a quiet ding, so you know your taps have registered. You can’t adjust volume from the buds, but there’s a volume slider in the app. This works independently of the phone’s volume level control. I found it best to max out the app’s slider and then control things with the phone’s volume buttons as required.

Sony WF-SP800N noise cancellation

So, these earphones have active noise cancellation. Yes, it works … a little. It took a slight edge off my aircraft test noise. But it wasn’t a patch on much other Sony noise cancelling gear. Frankly, I was disappointed, given that Sony is probably the best in the business at noise cancellation.

The earphones also offer an ambient mode. A tap on the left bud cycles through ANC, off and ambient. An adaptive mode tries to work out which is appropriate and switches accordingly, learning as it goes. This worked fairly well, but I switched it off because whenever it changed, it partially muted the left earbud to sound a quiet chime to let you know it had done something. Which was frankly irritating when you’re trying to listen to something.

Gadgetguy’s Take – The Sony WF-SP800N earphones are decent sounding performers at a reasonable price

I can’t see myself seeking out too much 360 Reality Audio content. It generally sounded better to me in its vanilla form. But, hey, I’m bit of a purist when it comes to sound. Or maybe a sound processing model based on a 2-D image of your ears simply isn’t going to be that good a match to reality. Still, you may prefer it. Just remember, it will only work with a limited amount of prepared content, and you will need TIDAL or one of the other listed services to use it.

But it doesn’t matter, really. Because in regular mode the Sony WF-SP800N earphones are really rather fine sounding. And at the current price of around $250, they’re also very good value for money.

Sony WF-SP800N noise cancelling earphones

Name: Sony WF-SP800N noise cancelling earphones Price (RRP): $249 Manufacturer: Sony

Excellent range and connection reliabilityHighly listenable soundGreat fit

No aptX supportModest noise cancelling

Features

Value for money

Performance

Ease of use

Design

4.7Overall Score

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