Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 4): one with the lot (review)

8.8

Packed with future-proofing upgrades, the new Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 4) is moving with the times in the fight for pride of place in Australian lounge rooms.

The Fetch TV Mighty is a Personal Video Recorder, meaning it can automatically record your favourite shows each week and even record several channels at once. The onscreen TV guide is much more reliable than the one embedded in the broadcast signal.

The box can also perform time-bending tricks like letting you watch the start of a show while you’re still recording the end – which is handy if you want to watch something on delay and fast-forward through the ads.

As an added bonus, if you’ve got a Fetch TV Mini in the bedroom, you can stream recordings from the hard drive of the Fetch TV Mighty in the lounge room. There’s also access to the five free-to-air catch up services.

Admittedly, many households don’t watch a lot of free-to-air television these days, apart from sport. The Fetch TV Mighty also has a range of streaming subscription channels, including Optus Sport, although you miss out on some of the top shelf content that’s limited to Foxtel.

On top of this, the Fetch TV Mighty is also a respectable 4K streaming video box, with access to movie rentals and purchases as well as a range of streaming services. As such, it’s pretty much a one-stop entertainment shop.

Review: Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 4)

Australian website	here
Price	$449 RRP
Warranty	2 years
Other	You can read other GadgetGuy Fetch TV news and reviews here

The voice-enabled remote control makes it easy to seatch for content.

First impressions

At first glance, you wouldn’t pick the difference between the new Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 4) M681T model and the (Gen 3) M616T it replaces. Realistically, Fetch TV isn’t really expecting people to go out and replace their existing Mighty, instead this is a hardware refresh going forward to make the most of today’s technology as well as what’s on the roadmap.

Most of the improvements are under the bonnet, designed to bring the Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 4) into line with the Fetch TV Mini 4K released last year. It’s a major hardware refresh which impacts almost every aspect of the box.

For starters, the Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 4) gets a major performance upgrade. It doubles the performance of the processor, bumps up the RAM from 3 to 4 GB and doubles the flash storage to 8 GB. There’s still a 1 TB hard drive for storing recordings.

The four built-in TV tuners support the new DVB-T2 standard, while there’s also support for the new AV1 codec favoured by many streaming services. In terms of connectivity, the box steps up to Bluetooth 5.0, HDMI V2.1 with HDCP 2.3, and Wi-Fi 6.

In the short term, perhaps the most significant upgrade is that, like the Mini 4K, the Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 4) now supports Dolby Vision – which looks better than standard HDR10. The Gen 3’s lack of Dolby Vision meant that, when watching services like Netflix, I’d typically favour the streaming app but into my Dolby Vision-capable LG OLED. The Gen 4 now closes that gap.

The only drawback in the upgrade is that the new box loses a USB port, going from 2 x USB3.0 to only 1 x USB2.0. Realistically, that’s unlikely to bother many people. If you want to tap into your own media library, apart from playing content via USB the box supports DLNA streaming and features the Plex app.

You’re certainly not short of things to watch, with Fetch TV further expanding its range of streaming services in the last few months.

All Fetch TV boxes support the top tier services in Netflix, Stan, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube, along with niche services like Hayu, BritBox, Acorn, Vevo, Paramount+, Vimeo and others. The notable exceptions from this list are Disney+, Apple TV+ and Foxtel’s Kayo/Binge. 

Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 4) specs

Tuners	4 x DVB-T2
Storage	1 TB (up to 585 hours of television)
Video output	HDMI V2.1 with HDCP 2.3
Audio codecs	MPEG4 AAC, MPEG 4 HE-AAC v2
Audio formats	Stereo, Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 (AC3) and Dolby Digital Plus (Enhanced AC3), Dolby Atmos
Video codecs	MPEG 4 HD, H.264 AVC, H.265 HEVC, VP9, AV1
HDR	HDR10, Dolby Vision
Connectivity	Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 (BLE), 1 x USB2.0

Performance

The extra grunt under the bonnet of the Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 4) shines through in slightly faster load times for menus and the onscreen TV guide. The box also feels a tad faster when changing free-to-air channels, but there isn’t a noticeable difference when launching streaming apps like Netlifx.

Realistically, Dolby Vision is the only improvement that you’re likely to notice for now, compared to the Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 3). If you have a Wi-Fi 6 router, the Gen 4’s new-found support for Wi-Fi 6 might help if you struggle to stream reliably.

Support for the more efficient AV1 codec will also help with smoother streaming in bandwidth-challenged homes, as the streaming services slowly make more use of it.

Looking to the future, DVB-T2 tuners are ready for the day Australia embraces the new terrestrial free-to-air broadcast standard, which is more spectrum efficient and resilient against certain types of interference. The broadcasters have already trialled DVB-T2 and Free TV Australia says it’s on the road map but doesn’t have a definite timetable.

Moving to DVB-T2 would lay the groundwork for 4K terrestrial broadcasts, although the free-to-air broadcasters haven’t shown any interest in 4K and Foxtel has only dipped its toe in the water.

These days, we’re seeing more innovation from the streaming services. Support for HDMI V2.1 with HDCP 2.3 opens up support for 4K at 120 frames per second ‘High Frame Rate’ content. That could pay off in the long term, even though Netflix has only just started dabbling in 60 fps with short films like Meridian.

GadgetGuy’s take

If you’re after a Personal Video Recorder, then the Fetch TV Mighty is by far the best option in Australia. If Foxtel is a must in your home, then you might look to Foxtel’s iQ5 instead. If you’d never use the PVR features and are just interested in streaming, the Fetch TV Mini 4K is a worthy competitor to the Google Chromecast, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV stick.

The new Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 4) lays the groundwork for what lies ahead. The extra grunt leaves headroom to handle new formats and more demanding apps. DVB-T2 tuners are ready when needed, while Wi-Fi 6 and AV1 will help on the streaming front.

Would I buy it?

Probably not as an upgrade, but yes if I didn’t already own a Fetch TV Mighty.

Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 4): one with the lot (review)

Packed with future-proofing upgrades, the Fetch TV Mighty (Gen 4) is an entertianment powerhouse.

Features

9

Value for money

8

Performance

9

Ease of use

9

Design

9

Positives

Record free-to-air and subscription channels

4K streaming

Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos

Negatives

Lacks Foxtel channels

Lacks a few key streaming services

8.8

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Protect your digital life on World Backup Day

Do you back up regularly? 31 March is World Backup Day, a yearly reminder to check that your data – from precious photos to essential info – is safely backed up and secure. It might not sound like a big deal, but have you thought about what you stand to lose?

A backup is a second copy of a file or piece of data, stored on a device separate from your computer, mobile, or tablet. You can create a backup in the cloud using an online service, but for full control, you need a backup you can keep for yourself. That means using a device like an external hard drive (HDD), solid-state-drive (SSD), or a slim portable flash drive.

What is World Backup Day?

World Backup Day (website here) is an initiative supported by many manufacturers of backup devices, but why is backup so important? Because data is never 100% safe from mechanical and electrical failure or ransomware. The best solution is effective backup.

Why everyone needs backup

Once, the idea of ‘personal data’ maybe just meant a few photos, a couple of old uni or school assignments, and not much else. Today though, more and more of our lives rely on digital records that we keep ourselves. Sure, you can get another copy of your birth certificate, or pay to have your licence reissued, should you lose either. But what about your contacts list? Or years of precious memories in the form of your photographs? Even losing your emails can be a major inconvenience, if not a total disaster.

There are plenty of ways you can lose data. Your computer or mobile device is very reliable, but hardware failures still happen. Most of all though, is the risk of a hack. Even with antivirus software, all it takes is a moment of inattention and clicking on the wrong link: some malicious actors can delete all your data just for the thrill of it. But none of this means disaster if you keep a regular backup. It means copying your data to a separate device, not just once, but on a schedule you set for yourself. That means new files, new photos, and new data is saved too.

Bad things happen, even when you’re careful. Toshiba backup devices help protect your digital life should your computer or mobile device become lost, stolen or compromised.

Easy peasy

It used to be that backing up was a bit of a fiddle, and meant wrestling with your computer’s file explorer or finder. Drive letters, directories, drag-and-drop, ugh! Fortunately, backing up has never been easier, with a new generation of products that come with software that helps you back up what you want, when you want, and will even remind you when your next backup is due.

So, what should you be looking for in a backup device? Your needs will be slightly different, when backing up from your computer versus a mobile device, such as a phone or tablet. Let’s take a look at what you need, starting with your computer.

Backing up on computer

Computers are broadly split into Windows and Mac these days, but the following advice applies to both. If you use a computer regularly, chances are it has become the main repository for all your essential data. Your emails and contacts of course, but also passwords for websites and government services, and even your phone contacts, if you use a cloud service such as Google or iCloud. This means your computer holds a lot of data, measured in gigabytes. And in the age of 4K video and other high-resolution file formats, the amount of data is only increasing.

So, you need a high-capacity device, such as a portable hard disk drive. This can be either a mechanical drive, which is usually cheaper and holds more, or a solid-state drive which can be more expensive but does backups faster, though you might have to trade off on capacity. These devices have capacities ranging from 500GB (gigabytes) up to 5TB (terabytes), so they have plenty of space for all your stuff.

The Toshiba Canvio Advance HDD range comes in different colours and capacities, from 1TB all the way up to 4TB.

You don’t have all day to sit around waiting for backups to complete, of course, so a portable HDD or SSD should also use the latest interface technology. Right now, that’s USB-C, which is supported by most new computers and some older ones. This can turn an hour-long backup into one that only takes a few minutes, even if you’re transferring several gigabytes.

And let’s not forget the importance of security and encryption. In the unfortunate event a portable device is lost or stolen, you want no-one to get anything of value from it. Devices now come with powerful encryption technology, enabled by a password you can select, and can also connect to cloud services such as Google Drive and Dropbox for the ultimate in backup peace of mind.

Many drives also come with backup software preinstalled, to help you organise and schedule backups and make the whole experience plug-and-play… or in this case, plug and save. Backing up on computer doesn’t have to be a chore, but you should think of it as essential. Here’s a quick checklist to make sure you’re keeping your data safe:

Toshiba’s Canvio portable hard drives can store more than 25 games per terabyte.

Essential backup habits for computer

Backup regularly. Whether once a fortnight or once a month, choose a schedule that suits you. Remember: files change, and everything is precious. Losing a month’s worth of photos or documents can be as bad as losing it all.

Password-protect your device. The encryption technology in portable hard drives is powerful, but it only works if you set a password! Make it something easy for you to remember, but difficult for others to guess, and avoid birthdays!

Use backup software. Make backing up easy on yourself. Set it up once, choose the files and folders you want to back up, so every time from then on, backing up is just plug and play.

Make use of automatic backups. Scheduling is one thing, but do you trust yourself when it comes to something so important? Automatic backups can be set up using backup software, so you’ll get a reminder to backup. Or if you leave your external hard drive plugged in, the backup will just happen all by itself.

Backing up on mobile device

For many of us, the mobile phone is becoming our central data repository. Photos, information, passwords, and of course contacts – it’s all there inside that tiny, slim, droppable, smashable, losable device. Horrors!

Backing up a mobile device is a bit different to backing up on computer. Most importantly, because the internal storage of your mobile is much smaller in capacity than your computer. The average Windows PC might have an internal hard drive that’s 500GB to 2TB in size, but even today’s mobiles have 128GB models. That’s nothing!

So, backing up a mobile device (and this applies to tablets too) doesn’t just mean creating a second copy of files and data, it means moving that data onto the device, and deleting from your mobile to free up space.

This creates conditions for you to make a terrible mistake: deleting something you thought you had already backed up. That’s where a device such as an SSD or flash drive supported by a backup app becomes so important.

Back up smartphones and tablets with ultra-fast and lightweight Toshiba SSD storage. Pictured: SSD XC10 and SSD XC20 Pro.

Flash drive backup

These devices are also slim and rugged, so you can take them with you. They include connectors for your mobile, either USB-C, or Apple’s proprietary lightning connector for iPhone. And they are designed so these connectors are protected while you’re not using the device.

Backing up your mobile device’s data can feel almost overwhelmingly complicated at times, but it doesn’t have to be that way. With the right device, backing up is easy. Here’s a checklist to help you keep your data safe:

Essential backup habits for mobile devices

Regularly backup. Not just your photos, but also your contacts, email, and other data such as passwords. You use your mobile every day, so data changes quickly.

Be aware of capacity. Your mobile phone especially has a pretty tiny amount of storage, by today’s standards. Use your phone’s settings app to keep an eye on how much capacity you still have. There’s nothing worse than being unable to capture a precious moment in a photo, because your phone is “full”!

Backing up turns a disaster into an inconvenience. Take the pledge to backup regularly as part of World Backup Day, on 31 March.

Use a backup app. Mobile backup devices come with handy apps to help you streamline the backup process. Install these apps from your mobile’s app store, and turn back up into a simple, plug-and-play process.

Set a password. Like backup devices for computer, flash drives also have powerful encryption. Take advantage of this by setting a password that you can remember easily, but which others will struggle to guess. And as always, avoid using birthdays or other personal details to make a password!

Set reminders. Your mobile device can remind you to back up, either using the reminder system that comes with your phone, or the backup device’s app.

And most of all, remember to back up regularly!

Buy now at Officeworks or read more Toshiba news and reviews.

World Backup Day, World Backup Day, World Backup Day

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Apple mulls iPhone subscription service

A monthly iPhone subscription service, offering free handset upgrades when new models are released, is reportedly on the cards as Apple looks to expand its suite of services.

With the subscription model already reshaping the way people consume music, movies and games, Apple is reportedly looking to take the same approach to offering hardware.

For those who don’t want to pay a lump sum upfront for a new iPhone, Apple and the mobile carriers already offer instalment plans – typically designed to spread the cost of the handset across a 12, 24 or 36-month contract.

An iPhone subscription service would likely charge more per month than paying off the handset in instalments. In return, Apple fans will benefit from always having the latest iPhone in their pocket, handing the old model back to Apple – likely to be refurbished or used for spare parts.

The downside is that, like subscribing to Spotify rather than buying music outright, when iPhone subscribers cancel their subscription they will be left with nothing.

Another potential downside is that, should a subscriber break their iPhone, they may be required to pay a significant fee for a replacement.

Along with the latest handset, the iPhone subscription service will also likely include other Apple subscription services such as Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Fitness+ and iCloud.

Google offers a similar service in the US, with its Pixel Pass program letting subscribers choose between a Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro bundled with Google’s own services for US$45 to US$55 per month.

Apple’s iPhone-as-a-service hardware subscription model is expected to launch at the end of 2022, according to Bloomberg. It could be tied to its Apple One software bundles and AppleCare technical support plans.

The scheme may eventually expand to include more of Apple’s hardware lineup, including iPads, Apple Watches and MacBooks.

More Apple news on GadgetGuy.

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra – standing still (review)

7.8

It’s difficult to get excited about yet another slab phone. Other than incremental improvements to the display, camera and processing speeds – is there anything left to do with this form factor? Foldables are clearly the future, giving phone makers a relative blank canvas to innovate exciting new features and use cases. 

The S22 Ultra merges the S-Pen equipped Note line and the Galaxy S line together. While some might miss the Note, creating a hybrid device with the S line’s traditionally excellent camera sounds like a good thing. Also, this reduces Samsung’s ‘slab phone’ flagships down to a single yearly release so it can give its foldables a larger runway. 

At $2,000 for the 256GB model, even Samsung’s pricing strategy for the S22 Ultra seems to nudge people towards its flagship foldable Galaxy Z Fold 3. While priced at $2,499 you can pick up a Z Fold 3 for $2,049 with a trade in from Samsung, or similar price from online retailers.

The only reason why the S22 Ultra exists is to capture those who aren’t yet ready to make the jump to foldables and to ward off increasing competition from Chinese brands like Oppo and OnePlus. There’s also Google’s own best bang for buck Pixel 6 series to consider, with the flagship Pixel 6 Pro costing just $1,299

With this in mind, does the S22 Ultra do enough to entice? 

Display and design

The 6.8-inch OLED screen is sharp, saturated and smooth, with up to a 120Hz refresh rate and an extremely high peak brightness of 1,750nits (a standard measure of screen brightness). The result is a display that remains visible under any lighting conditions while also giving HDR content a bit more pop thanks to brighter peak highlights.  

It’s worth noting that Samsung is still using an 8-bit panel as opposed to the native 10-bit displays that we’ve seen on the likes of the OnePlus 9 Pro and Oppo Find X3 Pro. This means that the screen is limited to 16.7 million colours as opposed to the 1.07 billion colours available on a 10-bit panel. For the price, this is a box that Samsung should’ve checked, but unless you’re comparing screens closely side by side, it’s difficult to notice the difference.

The sides of the 6.8-inch display are gently curved, which adds some aesthetic appeal without leading to accidental screen presses while holding the edges of the phone. The styling adopts the same boxy body and squared off edges that the Note line has been rocking since the Note 10 in 2019. 

The most notable physical change is on the rear, where the five camera lenses are no longer housed in a honking hump, and simply poke out of the frosted glass back. It reminds me of the camera ring design from the LG Velvet phone. The new design collects dust and pocket lint very easily and still rocks back and forth when placed on a table. This makes using the S Pen with the phone lying flat on a desk or table a no go unless you slap on a case. 

Powering the S22 Ultra is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, which is what you’ll expect to find on most Android flagships released this year. Interestingly, Samsung has opted not to use its own Exynos 2200 chip for the Australian market. While last year’s S21 Ultra offered 12GB of RAM for the base 128GB model, Samsung is reserving this extra memory for the higher memory tier models this time around. 

Sadly, there’s no microSD card slot for expandable storage or a headphone jack – features that were a Note line staple. 

The S22 Ultra has one of the brightest display’s on the market

Software 

The S22 Ultra runs Samsung’s OneUI 4.1 which is based on Android 12, but you’ll hardly know it since the software experience is littered with Samsung’s own apps and services. For some reason, Samsung phones still default to the ancient three-button layout for navigation as opposed to the gesture based method that smartphone users have become accustomed to for years. You’ll need to dig deep into the settings to change it.  

Similarly, the display’s resolution out of the box is set to the same FHD+ resolution as the step down S22+ and regular S22 models rather than the display’s native QHD+ resolution of 3,088 x 1,440. If people are paying the premium for the larger higher resolution display that the S22 Ultra offers, shouldn’t they be able to see all those pixels on the screen from the outset? Again you’ll need to dive into the settings to change it.   

Then there’s the age old Samsung issue of duplicate apps that clutter the user interface and make it downright confusing to use at times. From the jump you’ll be greeted with a Samsung-made alternative of apps and services that Google already includes with Android. 

This includes everything from app stores (Google Play Store or Galaxy App store), web browsers (Chrome or Samsung Internet), text messaging (Samsung Messages or Google Messages), virtual assistants (Bixby or Google Assistant), payments (Google Pay or Samsung Pay), Photos (Google Photos or Samsung Gallery), Calendar (Google Calendar or Samsung Calendar), Cloud backup (Samsung Cloud or Google Drive) and the list goes on. Then there’s the bundled third party software from the likes of Microsoft that provides even more duplicate services and apps. 

Samsung won’t let you uninstall any of these apps and services either, and in some cases, you’re forced to use them. For example, while you can change your default assistant to be Google’s, Bixby will remain active in the background and will wake up when you hold down the power button. Worse still is that some of Samsung’s apps such as the Galaxy Store are littered with ads. 

I expect a much better user experience for a premium smartphone that costs almost $2,000. 

I personally prefer to use Samsung’s Internet browser, as Chrome doesn’t support the use of plug-ins such as ad blockers. Samsung Health also offers far more detailed metrics than Google Fit, but again, I should have the choice of what I want to use and have the option of removing things that I don’t. 

S Pen experience 

An area where Samsung outshines the smartphone competition is the integration of the S Pen. Samsung’s been refining the stylus experience on smartphones ever since the release of the original Galaxy Note more than a decade ago. I covered some of the new S Pen features in my recent Galaxy Tab S8+ review which the S22 Ultra inherits. 

However, I still feel that the S22 Ultra’s 6.8-inch display simply isn’t large enough and the included S Pen is too thin and small for it to be useful for serious note takers and artists. It makes much more sense on the 7.6-inch Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Samsung’s tablet line where you have a much larger canvas and the included S Pen resembles the size and heft of a traditional pen.  

That said, I’d rather have the S Pen on a smartphone than not have it at all and at the very least it doubles as a handy little remote for controlling the camera shutter or scrolling through presentation slides or songs in Spotify. 

Camera 

The S22 Ultra’s camera hardware is largely the same as its predecessor with the focus now on image processing to produce slightly better night, zoom and portrait shots. 

Zoom in particular looks surprisingly clear and detailed even as you go beyond 10x while the bokeh effect you get from portrait shots manages tricky details like hair better than any other smartphone camera I’ve tested. It still has a tendency to blur out a little too much of the foreground and I hope Samsung continues to improve this with more updates. 

iPhone 13 Pro Max photo (left) at night vs brighter Galaxy S22 Ultra (right)

Shots have that bright vibrant Samsung pop to them which I actually prefer over the duller but technically more accurate looking shots from the iPhone 13 Pro. The S22 Ultra’s brighter image processing means it lifts the shadows, allowing you to see more detail in dark areas. The downside is that it has a tendency to blow out the highlights and over expose subjects and environments, which is particularly evident when taking shots outdoors on a sunny day. Night time shots also pull in a bit more detail over its predecessor.

Overall, I like the camera on the S22 Ultra, but it is only a minor improvement over what we got last year and Samsung still has some work to do when it comes to handling exposure. 

Battery life

Battery life really isn’t an issue on the S22 Ultra. Most days I would end up on 40 percent left in the tank. Clearly, the large 5,000mAh battery, adaptive refresh rate display and more efficient chip are doing their bit to extend the S22’s charge life. 

Where the S22 Ultra disappoints is in the slow charging. Samsung says that the S22 Ultra supports up to 45W charging for filling up 50% in 20 minutes, but I couldn’t replicate anywhere near those speeds with the two different 45W chargers I tried (both of which support the PPS fast charging standard). In fact, I couldn’t find a meaningful difference in charging speeds between a 45W and a 25W charger. 0 to 100 percent charge took 62 minutes while the 25W charger took 65 minutes. 

It’s unlikely that regular consumers will already own a PPS compliant 45W USB-C charger and as Samsung doesn’t include any charger in the box. Most people will likely default to using slower chargers that would yield significantly longer charge times. It’s a notable omission given that the likes of Oppo, OnePlus and Realme include significantly faster chargers in the boxes for their top models. 

GadgetGuy’s take 

The Galaxy S22 Ultra improves on an already very accomplished package with the S21 Ultra. However, with flagship alternatives from the likes of OnePlus, Oppo and Google offering more for less, as well as Samsung’s own line of compelling foldables to consider, the S22 Ultra is difficult to recommend to all but the most diehard of Note fans. 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

With flagship alternatives from the likes of Oppo, OnePlus and Google offering more for less as well as Samsung's own line of compelling foldables to consider, the S22 Ultra is difficult to recommend to all but the most diehard of Note fans

Features

8.5

Value for money

7

Performance

8

Ease of use

7.5

Design

8

Positives

Nice hardware design

Outstanding battery life

4 years worth of software updates and 5 years of security updates

Good camera with best in class portrait and zoom modes

Negatives

Samsung software is filled with uninstallable bloatware

Small and thin S Pen awkward to use on a smartphone sized display

Expensive

No microSD card slot or headphone jack

Base model now comes with 4GB less ram than last year's model

No charger included in the box

7.8

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