TECNO Spark 50 5G

We’ve just gotten our hands on the TECNO Spark 50 5G, the latest addition to the brand’s Spark series, aimed squarely at the entry-level market. Right from the packaging, it’s clear this device is packing some impressive specs for its class. A massive 6,150mAh battery, 45W fast charging, a 50MP camera, and IP64-rated protection are just a few of the highlights that make this budget-friendly 5G smartphone stand out.

Design and Build: A Distinctive Look That Commands Attention

The TECNO Spark 50 5G arrives in minimalist packaging. Inside the box, you’ll find the essentials: a 45W fast charger, a USB cable, a protective case, and the usual documentation.

When it comes to design, this smartphone makes a bold statement. The most eye-catching element is the unique, oversized rear camera module. Laid out in a horizontal, rectangular glass panel reminiscent of a traditional camera, the main camera lens is accentuated by a stylish two-tone star ring design. This detail gives the phone a distinctive identity that’s instantly recognizable in a sea of similar-looking devices.

The back panel features a matte, premium-feeling composite material in a sophisticated, warm beige hue. Not only does this finish feel smooth to the touch and resist fingerprints effectively, but it also subtly shifts in tone under different lighting conditions, adding a layer of visual depth. Combined with rounded corners and a flat-edged frame, the phone offers a comfortable grip that balances a sturdy feel with ergonomic comfort. Attention to detail is evident in the neatly finished bottom edge, which houses a speaker grille and a USB-C port, alongside a 3.5mm headphone jack—a welcome addition for audio enthusiasts.

The minimalist side-mounted buttons further refine the overall aesthetic. With its modern colorway and distinctive design language, the Spark 50 5G exudes a youthful, trendy, and unapologetically unique vibe.

The phone features a 6.78-inch LCD display with a 120Hz refresh rate, delivering smooth visuals for scrolling and UI navigation. Brightness levels are also commendably high, ensuring good legibility even in well-lit conditions.

Performance: Capable 5G Power for Everyday Tasks

Under the hood, the TECNO Spark 50 5G is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 6400 5G system-on-chip (SoC). This is a strategic and sensible choice for a budget-conscious device, as MediaTek’s offerings in this segment often deliver a more balanced performance compared to their competitors. The Dimensity 6400 handles day-to-day tasks with ease—scrolling through social media, browsing the web, streaming video, and handling document editing are all smooth and responsive experiences.

However, when it comes to more demanding applications like gaming, performance aligns with expectations for this tier. To achieve consistently playable frame rates in graphically intensive games, users will likely need to lower the in-game graphics settings. The chipset is optimized for efficiency and everyday reliability rather than high-end gaming prowess.

Camera: An Entry-Level Experience for Everyday Shots

Given its market positioning, the Spark 50 5G’s camera system is designed to deliver a straightforward, entry-level photography experience. The overall performance is adequate for basic shooting needs—capturing casual moments, scanning documents, or video calls—but it won’t necessarily excite users looking for high dynamic range, exceptional low-light performance, or intricate detail. The hardware specifications for the camera system don’t particularly stand out from the competition in this price bracket, reinforcing its role as a functional, rather than feature-leading, component.

Battery: A True Endurance Champion

One of the undisputed highlights of the TECNO Spark 50 5G is its battery performance. The device houses a substantial 6,150mAh battery, a standout feature that promises exceptional longevity. Combined with system-level power optimizations, this large capacity ensures the phone can comfortably handle extended periods of use—easily lasting a full day or more for most users, even with heavy screen-on time. The inclusion of 45W fast charging technology is another significant advantage, allowing the large battery to be replenished quickly, minimizing downtime and keeping you connected longer.

Connectivity and Ports: Modern Standards with a Classic Touch
Connectivity options are comprehensive for the segment. The USB-C port on the bottom supports 480Mbps data transfer speeds. Notably, the phone retains a 3.5mm headphone jack, offering convenience for users who prefer wired audio accessories without needing an adapter.
Verdict: A Stylish Entry-Level 5G Contender with Exceptional Battery Life
In summary, the TECNO Spark 50 5G offers improvements that go beyond its distinctive exterior. The enhancements in both the software experience and core performance contribute to a notably refined user experience compared to its predecessors. The combination of a standout design, a smooth 120Hz display, robust battery life with a massive 6,150mAh cell, and the convenience of 45W fast charging makes it a compelling option in the entry-level 5G smartphone market.

While the camera and gaming performance are in line with its price point, the phone’s core strengths—endurance, unique aesthetics, and essential 5G connectivity—make it a strong candidate for users prioritizing these features. If you’re in the market for a smartphone that balances a unique tech-forward style with dependable battery life and everyday performance, the TECNO Spark 50 5G certainly warrants a closer look.

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LENOVO Y700 Gen 5 (2026)

This is the Lenovo Legion Y700 Gen 5, which was officially unveiled at MWC 2026 earlier this month. At first glance, its specs don’t seem to This is the Lenovo Legion Y700 Gen 5, officially unveiled at MWC 2026 earlier this month. At first glance, its specs don’t differ much from the previous Gen 4 model—the most noticeable upgrades are the new processor and a larger battery. However, the Chinese launch of the tablet comes with an all-new accessory – Y700 Arcade Dock, which can easily turn this compact tablet into a retro arcade machine. This Dock is exclusive to the Chinese version and unavailable globally. There are also limited-edition variants co-branded with The King of Fighters ’97 GM and Metal Slug 3. Currently, you can purchase the tablet and this accessory via GeekWills, and it is compatible with both the Y700 Gen 4 and Gen 5.

Design

In terms of design, the Y700 Gen 5 carries forward the classic styling of the Y700 series. It features a unibody aluminum alloy build, delivering a solid in-hand feel, and the back panel maintains its seamless integrity as always. For color options, besides the classic black and white, there are two new shades: purple and green. Judging from official renders, the green finish looks incredibly distinctive for a gaming tablet.

However, these two new colorways will hit the market at a later date. The newly added co-branded dock is currently only sold in China. What’s more, Lenovo does not pre-install any emulators or games on the tablet, so you will need extra setup and debugging to get it fully functional.The tablet is slightly thicker than its predecessor, with its weight increased to 360g. This makes the grip feel heavier and more substantial.

The rear fill light has also been redesigned from the previous linear strip to an RGB circular light, which can automatically turn on during gameplay.The external I/O ports and physical buttons remain unchanged from the last generation. The port next to the speaker only supports USB 2.0 and does not offer video output functionality. The other port supports a 10Gbps transfer speed, alongside DP video output that can handle up to 4K 144Hz. It also supports microSD card expansion for up to 2TB of extra storage.

The tablet retains the same 8.8-inch LCD screen with 408PPI, but its brightness and touch sampling rate have both been upgraded. If you’ve been following the Y700 tablet series, you’ve probably noticed that Lenovo has been continuously improving the touch experience across recent generations. This time, the touch sampling rate has been boosted to 480Hz. I can’t fully put into words how powerful this spec is, but I can tell you this: the Y700 Gen 5 is far more responsive to touch inputs.

Gaming Performance

The Y700 Gen 5 still boasts top-tier hardware specifications in the current market: a flagship processor, high-frequency memory, and high-speed storage are all included. Lenovo has even enhanced the cooling system further this time around. That brings me back to last year’s tests: the Y700 Gen 4 had powerful hardware too, and it performed well in various short-term performance benchmarks. But it suffered from unstable performance during long-term stress tests.

So, will the Gen 5 model repeat the same flaws?First off, in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test, the Y700 Gen 5 achieved an average score of 6173 with a stability rate of 80.6%—a massive improvement over the Gen 4’s 67% stability score from last year. We also ran the lighter Wild Life Stress Test, and the stability result was nearly identical. During testing, the tablet’s peak power draw approached 20W at one point. After a 20-minute test run, the maximum body temperature reached 45°C, which is also lower than the Gen 4’s temperature performance.

Starting with Honkai: Star Rail, we ran map tests at the Golden Hour scene. The tablet delivered excellent performance, achieving near-perfect frame rates without any manual in-tablet settings adjustments. Its power consumption was also much better than the Gen 4. Over the entire test, it only consumed 5% battery, and its temperature performance was impressive too—peak temperature stayed under 41°C, with heat concentrated mostly around the logo. This ensures long-term gaming comfort.

In the more demanding Wuthering Waves, the tablet showed clear performance improvements as well. It can run at nearly full frame rates without any extra tweaks. Plus, its operating temperature during long gaming sessions is 6°C lower than the previous generation.

We also tested the newly released Arknights: Endfield, and the tablet performed flawlessly. It ran smoothly even during fast in-game movement, with no noticeable issues at all. As a dedicated gaming tablet, it can handle every game we threw at it without a hitch.

Battery Life & Charging

The battery is one of the biggest upgrades this time around, jumping from the Gen 4’s 29Wh to 34.7Wh—an increase of roughly 20%, which is definitely exciting news. However, the charging power has not been upgraded accordingly; the package still comes with the same 68W charger.

If you want faster charging speeds, I recommend placing the tablet in an air-conditioned room—just as we did with the Gen 4—as this can extend the duration of fast charging. The bypass charging function is still present and doesn’t have overly strict charger requirements; it only supports PD or PPS chargers. As for real-world battery life, we ran a continuous usage test: one hour of Honkai: Star Rail drained 20% of the battery, 30 minutes of Wuthering Waves drained 16%, and two hours of movie playback consumed 18%. After all that, the tablet still had 46% battery remaining.

Cons & Conclusion

To be honest, the performance of the Y700 Gen 5 took me by surprise. When I tested the Gen 4 last year, I acknowledged its solid performance but felt it fell short of being a “perfect gaming tablet”—issues like screen ghosting, thermal throttling during extended sessions, and mediocre battery life held it back. The Gen 5, however, has fixed nearly all of its predecessor’s flaws. You no longer have to worry about overheating or unresponsive touch controls. The only real concern is the price: it retails for up to €699 in Europe and starts at $849 in the US. If you’re a die-hard fan of small-screen gaming or have strict portable gaming needs, this is currently the best option on the market. RedMagic and Xiaomi are set to launch competing products soon, but I believe their biggest challenge will be the same as the Y700’s: pricing.

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Introduction

This is the all-new HONOR Magic V6, the brand’s latest foldable flagship. What caught me off guard immediately was its release timeline. Launching a full quarter earlier than last year’s Magic V5 and making a global debut at MWC 2026, HONOR is clearly playing a different game this year. This raises an interesting question: Why is HONOR doubling down on the foldable market with such aggressive timing? Today, we’re diving deep to see what this device is truly capable of.

Design

From a design perspective, the Magic V6 doesn’t reinvent the wheel. It confidently refines the brand’s signature, unified design language with targeted upgrades. Our review unit features a sophisticated Champagne Gold finish—a subtle blend of gold and light brown that exudes understated elegance. It’s a color that prioritizes premium tactility over flashy, limited-edition hues, and personally, I find it far more appealing.

We measured the chassis thickness at precisely 9.6mm. While it’s marginally thicker than its predecessor, the Magic V5, the ergonomic, rounded frame makes this difference virtually imperceptible in daily use. Holding it feels remarkably close to a traditional slab flagship, shedding the bulk and heft typically associated with foldables. This is a significant achievement.

The rear camera module retains the iconic “Octagonal Star Track” design language first seen on the Magic V5. This year, the metal decorative ring has been slimmed down, creating a smoother, more seamless transition between the module and the back cover. As you tilt the device, light catches the precision-machined details on the module, showcasing a mechanical accuracy befitting its flagship status. Subjectively, the camera bump feels more restrained than the V5’s, contributing to a stronger sense of backplate unity and a cleaner, more modern aesthetic from every angle.

Weight distribution remains a highlight. Coupled with those rounded edges, the Magic V6 is supremely comfortable for one-handed use and disappears into a pocket during your daily commute. Furthermore, HONOR has addressed a previous shortcoming by introducing comprehensive water resistance. Whether it’s an unexpected splash or use in light rain, the Magic V6 offers enhanced durability and peace of mind.

Display

Both the internal and external displays on the Magic V6 boast top-tier flagship specifications. The main foldable screen is a expansive panel with a 2352×2172 resolution, constructed from UTG (Ultra-Thin Glass). It features a 1-120Hz LTPO adaptive refresh rate, intelligently adjusting to the on-screen content. It scales down for static documents to conserve battery and ramps up to a buttery-smooth 120Hz for videos and gaming, striking an excellent balance between visual fluidity and power efficiency.

Regarding the crease—a primary concern for any foldable—the Magic V6 has genuinely exceeded my expectations. After a week of intensive use, and comparing it to our unboxing footage, the crease remains remarkably shallow, even when viewed under harsh, angled light. During normal, head-on use, it’s virtually invisible. This durability is noticeably superior to other mainstream foldables after a similar period of use.

HONOR continues to lead in eye comfort technology. Both displays support ultra-high frequency PWM dimming. In extremely low-light conditions, it automatically switches to a high-frequency dimming mode, effectively reducing eye strain caused by screen flicker. For users sensitive to PWM, the Magic V6’s display offers a significantly more comfortable viewing experience.

Camera System

The most surprising upgrade on the Magic V6 is arguably its camera system, which completely shatters the notion that foldable phones require compromise in photography.

Leading the charge is a powerful 200MP main sensor. Its exceptional resolving power captures an incredible amount of detail. Even after significant cropping during post-processing, images remain sharp and crisp. In low-light scenarios, the large sensor’s light-gathering prowess is fully utilized, enhanced by OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). The resulting night shots are clean, bright, and remarkably free of visible noise.

The periscope telephoto lens supports multiple levels of optical zoom, delivering outstanding image quality even at 3x and 6x zoom. However, at the 6x zoom level, AI processing becomes quite prominent. For landscapes or architectural shots, the results are excellent. But when photographing text, especially indoors, the processing can introduce minor artifacts.

Compared to the class-leading rear cameras, the front-facing camera performs adequately, meeting the needs of daily video calls and online meetings with clear imaging, in line with the standard for foldable devices.

Performance & Battery

Performance follows a predictable yet powerful upgrade path. The Magic V6 is powered by the latest Qualcomm flagship processor, the Snapdragon® 8 Elite Gen 5. Standard memory and storage configurations have also been bumped up from 12+256GB to a more generous 16+512GB.

Powering the device is a massive 7150mAh “Qinghai Lake” high-density battery, making it one of the highest-capacity batteries found in any foldable smartphone globally. It’s worth noting that the international version sees a slight reduction in capacity. Even so, it will still offer a significant capacity advantage over competitors like Samsung. However, charging speeds remain largely unchanged from the previous generation, supporting 80W wired fast charging and 50W wireless charging.

Conclusion: The All-Rounder to Beat

In my view, the HONOR Magic V6 stands out as a foldable flagship with virtually no weaknesses. It is arguably one of the most compelling foldable devices on the market in early 2026. While its surprise early launch caught some off guard and the body is marginally thicker than its predecessor, the overall package is incredibly solid and refined.

With competitors like OPPO and Samsung set to launch their own new foldables, the current leaks and rumors suggest they will have a tough time beating this “all-rounder” device. The Magic V6’s greatest strength is its uncompromised, holistic user experience. The final, and perhaps only, variable left is the pricing strategy. Based on HONOR’s track record, they are unlikely to disappoint.

The post Honor Magic V6 Experience: The New King of Foldables? appeared first on Gizmochina.

Introduction 

Compared to the significant changes in the Pro series, the standard Xiaomi 17’s design hasn’t undergone major alterations from its predecessors—the 13, 14, and 15. It primarily unifies the color scheme, get rid of the prominent black accent modules seen in earlier models.

Yet, the Pro Max version currently dominates China’s bestseller ranks. So, is the standard Xiaomi 17 truly unworthy of purchase due to its ordinary appearance? After a complete test, I have a clear answer.

Design and Appearance 

As mentioned earlier, the Xiaomi 17’s changes are subtle. Yet in actual use, I found its overall build quality rivals that of the iPhone 17 Pro. From the texture of the rear glass and frame finish, to the logo design and even the rounded corners of the display, it closely mirrors the iPhone. However, the Xiaomi 17 boasts a highly practical advantage: there isn’t a side button, and camera control button.

For users who always mount their phones on stands, this is a very thoughtful design. You no longer need to adjust the balance position like with iPhones, nor worry about accidental button presses.

Display and Speaker 

Although the standard model’s screen doesn’t have the new pixel arrangement used in the Pro Max version, it still holds certain advantages. Compared to the Pro Max, the standard model’s screen is slightly smaller but maintains the same resolution. So its pixel density surpasses the Pro Max and aligns more closely with the iPhone 17 Pro.

However, this display has a notable drawback: it lacks an anti-reflective coating. In bright outdoor environments, the iPhone’s display offers clearer visibility.

For users prioritizing speaker audio quality, the Xiaomi 17 may disappoint you. To show the actual differences more clearly, I will include a sound quality comparison clip with other models in this review.

Performance and Gaming 

Performance-wise, you don’t need to worry too much. Both the standard and Pro Max versions share nearly identical core hardware specs, featuring the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 processor, LPDDR5X RAM, and UFS 4.1 flash storage.

However, during testing, we saw an odd thing: our standard edition achieved approximately 3.5 million points on AnTuTu, while the Pro Max scored only 3.2 million. Yet, AnTuTu’s official benchmark results show a score of 3.7 million. This difference clearly indicates an issue.

After many testing and comparisons, we finally pinpointed the cause: the 3.7 million score could indeed be achieved on our standard Xiaomi 17—but only by putting the phone in a fridge for extreme cooling. Temperature curves in the Antutu benchmark records confirmed that the official score was obtained through fridge cooling. Even when cooled in a fridge, our Pro Max unit could only reach a maximum of 3.5 million points. At the same time, we monitored power consumption during benchmarking: under identical conditions, the Pro Max model consistently consumed less power than the standard version. This performance difference likely stems from two factors: different internal performance scheduling strategies within the system, and the physical difference of Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 processor.

Fortunately, this benchmark gap doesn’t fully translate to real-world gaming performance. In Genshin Impact, the 17 performed nearly identically to the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, with only slightly lower average power consumption. However, in Honkai: Star Rail, both the 17 and 17 Pro Max began throttling after three minutes of gameplay, with the devices becoming extremely hot to the touch.

Monitoring tools revealed that GPU and memory temperatures remained low during gameplay. This indicates the upgraded vapor chamber effectively dissipates heat. However, the issue lies in Xiaomi’s design redirecting processor heat toward the battery . So when running relatively low-load games like Genshin Impact, internal heat doesn’t yet trigger the battery’s thermal throttling. Conversely, high-load games like Honkai: Star Rail would trigger that quite fast. For smoother gameplay, you must either add external cooling solutions or adjust graphics settings downward.

Additionally, when running Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, we saw subtle differences in maximum graphics settings between the Xiaomi 17 series and other phones. Comparing it to the OnePlus 13, you won’t see the difference at first glance. However, if we zoom in to check character details or ground textures, the OnePlus 13 preserves more visual fidelity.

Imaging System 

The Xiaomi 17 hasn’t seen big upgrades in its cameras. Among the four cameras on the front and back, only the main camera and front-facing camera have been upgraded. The main camera performs exceptionally well in well-lit daytime conditions, with image quality just as good as the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max.

For instance, when taking a photo of a lightbox, I captured three shots, there are noticeable color banding. The shots from the telephoto camera remains unchanged.

However, it makes mistakes in low-light or extreme lighting conditions.

The ultra-wide camera has even regressed in performance. Watch this: Opening the camera app defaults to the main lens. When switching to 0.7x zoom, did you notice anything? Now let’s focus on the carpet area and compare multiple transitions—the difference should be very clear. Worst of all, this ultra-wide lens offers a mere 17mm field of view, which feels severely cramped in today’s market.

Battery Life & Charging 

The Xiaomi 17 features a 7000mAh battery and supports 100W fast charging. This means most PPS-compatible chargers on the market can deliver 100W charging power to the device. However, in real-world testing, the peak charging speed doesn’t last long.

While initial charging power can reach 75W, it typically stabilizes around 30W for most of the charging session.

My biggest concern is rumors suggesting the global version may have a smaller battery capacity. If the global Xiaomi 17 fails to meet your endurance needs, you can purchase the Chinese version via the link in the video description.

Conclusion 

After testing the Xiaomi 17, I found it isn’t a standard flagship with defined strengths and weaknesses. Compared to last year’s model, it maintains the same price, not like the Pros that have seen a price increase. The Xiaomi 17 isn’t “mediocre” either, it’s a practical flagship focused on performance and battery life.

If these two aspects are your top priorities and you can accept compromises in its imaging system, audio quality, and other details, it delivers a solid, value-driven experience. But if you seek uncompromising, top-tier imaging capabilities, the Pro series remains the better choice. Alright, this is the review of the Xiaomi 17, hope you like it, and don’t forget to like and subscribe. This is Will from Gizmochina, see you soon.

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Introduction

Gizmochina Review has been looking for systems suitable for building an all-flash SSD NAS. My needs were clear: at least 4 U.2 NVMe slots with expandable self-contained 10GbE and above network ports. However, if anyone like us searches in the market so hard, he/she knows that this is not easy. Many manufacturers are still producing all-flash systems with 2.5GbE ports. Therefore, we expect a lot from the LincPlus LincStation N2, which will be reviewed soon. It features 4 quick-release M.2 ports, 2 2.5″ SATA disks, and, crucially, a 10GbE RJ45 port. The article will be a detailed story of reviewing the LincStation N2.

Hardware Configuration

• CPU: Intel N100 (Alder Lake-N), 4-core, 4-thread, up to 3.4 GHz, 6W TDP, integrated Intel UHD Graphics, 24 EU, 750 MHz.
• Memory: 16GB, 4800MT/s LPDDR5, single-channel.
• Internal Storage: 128GB Samsung 5.0 eMMC.
• Storage Interfaces: 2x SATA 3.0 (supports 2.5″ HDD), 4x M.2 2280 NVMe (PCIe 3.0 X1).
• Network port: 1x Aquantia AQC113C 10GbE RJ45 network port.
• USB ports: 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C (5Gbps) on the front, 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (10Gbps) on the rear, 2 USB 2.0 Type-A (480Mbps).
• Audio/video ports: 3.5mm audio port, 1x HDMI 2.0b (supports 4K 60Hz).
• Dimensions: 3.98 x 21.0 x 15.1cm.
• Power supply: DC5.5 x 2.1 12V 5A 60W external power supply.
  

The Intel N100 was released in 2023, and while it may seem a bit old, its successors, the N150, N200, and N250, have only increased their operating frequency, with the architecture and number of threads remaining unchanged. With UNRAID, you can enable core SR-IOV virtualization to take full advantage of the performance. Memory is limited by the CPU, up to 16GB LPDDR5 4800MT/s, which is larger and faster than traditional manufacturers and can easily run a large number of Docker containers with a lower crash probability than the ZimaBoard 2.

Intel N100 Soc has only 9 Pci-e peripherals, and the LincStation N2 offers 4 NVMe slots, 2 SATA slots, and Aquantech N150, N200, and N250 offer 4 NVMe slots, 2 SATA slots, and 4 NVMe slots, and 2 SATA slots. The LincStation N2 offers 4 NVMe slots, 2 SATA slots, 2 for the Aquantia AQC113C, and 1 for the built-in eMMC. Theoretically, it supports WLAN and Bluetooth but only supports Intel WLAN cards with CNVio channels.

Design

There are 7 LEDs in the center of the front that correspond to the 6 hard drives and network statuses, and all 7 will blink at the same time if they are not driven correctly.

The top cover is frosted plastic, which feels good to the touch but is prone to fingerprints. The bottom half is an aluminum alloy panel with 4 M2 slots with thermal spacers to help dissipate heat. Open the front cover, there is one SATA slot on each side, no quick-release design, and installation requires the included screws and screwdriver. These two 2.5″ SATA slots support 15 mm-thick disks such as high-capacity HDDs.

System experience

Comes with a one-year UNRAID subscription. UNRAID offers flexibility in array formation, allowing you to form data-protected arrays like HDDs with different capacities.

It’s easy to configure Docker. For example, to deploy Docker for LAN speed testing, you just need to search for it in the APPS search results and install it with the default template to test it. It’s also easy to create a DACINVI collaborative database with PostgreSQL. The store is rich in application data, with 3600 APPs in the Downloaders category.

Performance

Two Intel® Solid-State Drive DC S3500 Series 800 GB are installed in 2.5-inch disk space, with one set as a checksum disk and the other as a data disk, allowing the unRAID to synchronize checksums to simulate 784 GB writes.

At the end of the test, the SATA SSD temperature peaked at 68° and stabilized at 44° after standby, which is an average temperature performance.

Toshiba GX7 NVME SSD was installed in the M2 slot, and the maximum temperature was 48° after writing 2TB of data continuously, with an operating power of 8.35W, which is a better temperature performance than the SATA disk.

Using IPerf3 to test the performance of the NIC, the uplink and downlink speed can reach 9.5Gbps, and it is ready to run at 10000Mbps.

Enable SMB sharing, and change the MTU of the PC and N2 NIC to 9000. The read speed is full of 10Gbps due to cache, and the write speed is only 1000MB/s due to Gen3 X1 bandwidth limitation. Set up 3 SSD RAID-Z1 arrays to test, and found that the performance of ZFS arrays is weaker than that of direct read/write, but it is still close to the limit of 10Gbps transmission, which is probably due to the internal bus bandwidth of the Alder Lake-N series processors. This may be due to the small internal bus bandwidth of the Alder Lake-N series processors.

Summarize

The actual performance of the LincPlus LincStation N2 is a good match for my ideal 10Gb all-flash NAS. As one of the few entry-level NAS products with 10Gb RJ45 ports, the NIC has an excellent power consumption ratio, and the N100 processor is powerful enough to support 10Gb network transfers. The device is quiet, with the fan barely audible except during the boot-up detection phase, and the NVMe NAS have excellent heat dissipation, so it’s ideal for noise-sensitive scenarios such as desktops or bedrooms.

However, there is some controversy over the SATA slot. If an SSD is inserted, it may overheat during long-term reading and writing; if an HDD is inserted, there is no obvious advantage in terms of speed and capacity compared to an SSD. If LincPlus comes out with a next-generation LincStation, it would be a nice innovation to replace the SATA drive with a U.2 drive.

We’ll be using this product for a long time to come, and I’ll be on the lookout for similar products that are even better.

The post Review: Looking for an All-Flash NAS System? LincPlus LincStation N2 Could be a Good Answer appeared first on Gizmochina.

Introduction

‘USB4 supported’ has almost become the standard for the latest computers. Whether it is a PC or a Mac, users can easily realize super-fast data transfer. But the question is, with so many external SSD enclosures on the market, can they keep up with the TRUE speed of USB4? Then let’s torture the candidate of this review, the TERRAMASTER D1 SSD Plus, one of the most impressive portable high-speed SSD enclosures. We will take a closer look at it from several aspects – performance, cooling, and even disassembly.

Gizmochina Review is going to give away a new D1 Plus enclosure (SSD not included) to one lucky winner: Please check the giveaway out here.

Unboxing, Exterior Design

Now let’s start by checking the packaging accessories. First up are a set of instructions interspersed with 0.4mm thermal pads. The most notable note in the pile is this indemnification promise. TERRAMASTER promises an additional 6-month warranty if you are not satisfied with the performance of the D1 SSD Plus within 30 days of purchase. Sounds good.

The other thing is a protective pouch, a cable with 80Gbps support, and a screwdriver. Here, we weigh the hard disk enclosure, which now weighs around 240g without the SSD installed.

Lastly, there’s this hard disk case. As you can see, the whole box is quite different from other enclosures; the TERRAMASTER casing is more like a heatsink with cooling fins. The heatsink has a low-density design: the fins are thicker and more widely spaced, taking into account the heat dissipation area and air flow to improve natural convection efficiency. Because there are no moving parts, it operates without noise and with improved reliability.

Installation and Disassembly

I’ll call the side with the feet the back side. Unscrewing this screw on the back allows us to open the SSD case. You don’t have to worry about losing this screw either, TERRAMASTER has made a limit for it. After unscrewing it, it still snaps onto the screw hole, so it won’t be easily lost. The left side of the case already has pre-installed thermal pads on it, so the thinner one that was just there, I think, is supposed to serve as padding for other thinner SSDs.

The drive caddy utilizes the M-Key slot, which is a mainstream NVMe SSD interface type that supports up to the PCIe 4.0×4 specification. Some of you here may regret that the D1 SSD PLUS only supports 2280 specification SSDs, but the mainstream SSDs on the market are still of that specification. So I don’t think the lack of 30, 42, and 60 specs will cause too much of a problem. Instead, the ability to install SSDs with double-sided NAND flash particles is more important here. SSDs with this double-sided layout are more common in 4T and up SSDs, and the D1 SSD PLUS is fully adaptable to them.

But here I was looking at it, and the four screws on top of the PCB are not protected in any way (bad joke). So I figured we could take it apart together and continue to find out. After removing the PCB, I was shocked by the large number of SMD capacitors on it. Generally speaking, a large number of chip capacitors will be used on top of enterprise SSDs to stabilize the voltage, provide power failure protection, and ensure data safety. The large number of chip capacitors used here corresponds to the security protection advertised by TERRAMSTER.
The chip underneath the capacitor is an old acquaintance. The ASM2464PD is the same chip we used to add a NIC to the Mac earlier, and it’s capable of delivering transfer speeds of up to USB4/Thunderbolt 20Gbps x2, and is compatible with existing USB 3.2 ports and Thunderbolt 3.

To deal with the heat that high-speed chip generates, Terramster has also CNC’ed out the case chassis and uses a thermal pad to fill the gap between the chip and the case to enhance heat dissipation.

Performance Test

Next, let’s see how it performs. Here we have two SSDs with different speeds, one is a mainstream PCIe Gen4 SSD and the other is a relatively old PCIe-3 SSD.

First, we ran a simple test using AmorphousDiskMark on a MacBook Air. The TERRAMASTER easily hit the package claim of 3200MB/s read and write. Read speeds even reached 3400MB/s. When switching to a Gen3 SSD, both read and write speeds dropped a bit. The same trend was seen in the BlackMagic Disk Speed Test. What’s more interesting is that TERRAMASTER is using both Gen3 SSD and Gen4 SSD. It performs faster than the built-in SSD.

On the PC, the TERRAMASTER breaks out to 3800MB/s for sequential reads. But it is only faster on sequential reads and writes. It’s quite a bit slower with a direct PC install. The SSDs switched to Gen3 performed the same.

Cooling Test

Performance-wise, I think we should all be satisfied. But I was more interested in the thermal performance of this portable SSD hard disk enclosure, after all, this is one of the few products that seriously does a good job of cooling. So we decided to go ahead and use this Gen4 SSD to write all over this 1900 GB hard disk at 27 degrees room temperature.

At the beginning of the test, as the amount of writes increases, the temperature rises rapidly, which shows that TERRAMASTER needs time to adapt and dissipate heat effectively in the initial stage; in the middle of the test, the temperature stabilizes, and TERRAMSTER has already reached the optimal working condition and can control the temperature consistently and effectively; and in the late stage of the test, as the amount of writes decreases, the temperature begins to drop gradually. This reflects the TERRAMSTER’s ability to maintain efficient heat dissipation after a long period of time, ensuring that the SSD cools down safely at the end of a write operation.

At the same time, we have also recorded the performance of the case temperature at several nodes of writing, and we can find that the case temperature will keep rising with the increase of writing volume. And the later it gets, the slower it rises. At the end of the test, the casing was still slowly dissipating heat, but the SSD temperature dropped from 73 to 60° in less than a minute.

So what if we replace this high-heat generating SSD with a lower-heat generating Gen3 SSD? See, isn’t this result exciting? We just need to slow down a little bit to get a very nice temperature performance. Although we only have 1T on hand with this SSD, I think for the most part. There is no need to write 1T consistently.

So overall, the D1 SSD Plus dissipates heat very well. Whether you’re dealing with a high heat Gen4 SSD or a low heat Gen3 SSD. It handles it well.

ProRes Recording

Well, for a portable storage device, you can certainly use it with an iPhone to record video.
So we tested it on this iPhone 16 Pro. At the beginning, the SSD was not recognized by the iPhone, and after checking, we found that Apple recommends that external storage devices consume less than 4.5W when connecting an SSD to the iPhone, so that should be the reason why we couldn’t recognize it correctly. The typical power consumption of this SSD is 8W, which is far more than the iPhone’s limit.

After this, we replaced it with a lower-power Gen3 SSD, and it could be recognized correctly. The iPhone was used to record 4K 120P ProRes video, but after only 18 minutes of recording, the iPhone overheated and shut down automatically. We tested it again after beefing up the iPhone cooling. This time, no one overheated, but ultimately, the performance of this SSD was the problem. It caused the recording to abort. So TERRAMASTER can be used for ProRes recording, but you need to pay attention to the power consumption, as well as the continuous write performance of the SSD.

Or you can check out the compatibility with tested SSD models here. The D1 Plus has good compatibility with most latest SSD models, while only a couple of models with high power inputs may not be supported.

Compatibility Test

Earlier, we tested it using a high-speed interface on a computer. Both Mac and PC worked and performed well. However, most computers are not fully equipped with USB4/Thunderbolt 4 ports, so you may need to downgrade to 10Gbps or 5Gbps ports for actual use.
The 10Gbps USB port was tested here first, and the performance was strong. It drained the entire bandwidth of the 10Gbps interface. Then we moved down to the 5Gbps USB interface, which also performed very well.

What about USB 2.0, which has a bandwidth of only 480Mbps? Again, it was recognized and used properly. It’s just that the speed is limited by the interface, and it’s very slow.

Finally, we tested it again on a USB 3.2 Gen2×2 interface, which has very poor compatibility. Luckily, it was recognized correctly. But once we ran the test, we realized that it was far from performing at 20Gbps. Write speeds were even about the same as the 5Gbps interface.

To summarize

After a series of tests, the TERRAMASTER D1 SSD Plus is undoubtedly an excellent external hard drive enclosure in terms of performance, heat dissipation, and compatibility. It is not only amazing in terms of speed, easily reaching or even exceeding the nominal speed of 3200MB/s and up to 3800MB/s, which perfectly meets the needs of 4K/8K video editing and a large amount of data transfer. Its unique aluminum casing and fanless design not only achieves 0dB silent operation, but also keeps the temperature within a safe range even under prolonged high-load usage, ensuring the stability and reliability of the device.

Overall, the TERRAMASTER D1 SSD Plus is a highly competitive external SSD enclosure. Its outstanding performance, heat dissipation, and compatibility make it a great choice for users seeking efficient data transfer and stable storage solutions. If you are looking for an external hard disk enclosure that can fulfill your dual needs for speed and stability, then the TERRAMASTER D1 SSD Plus is worth your consideration.

Please do not miss the giveaway here.

The post TerraMaster D1 Plus Portable SSD Enclosure Review: Our Personal High-speed Storage Preferred appeared first on Gizmochina.

The headphones we’re going to talk about today, may change the way you think about open headphones – it’s the Huawei FreeArc, Huawei’s brand new take on open headphones, that not only breaks through stereotypes in terms of sound quality, but also brings a lot of surprises in terms of the wearing experience. I’ve reviewed many similar products before, but the FreeArc’s performance really surprised me. Next, I will bring you a comprehensive review of these headphones from the design, sound quality, features, and also the actual experience.

Design

As the latest addition to Huawei’s audio lineup, the FreeArc opts for the more revered on-ear design. The main part hangs on the outside of the ear and is secured to the ear by an S-shaped memory alloy. The memory alloy is wrapped in ultra-lightweight liquid silicone, which provides excellent comfort for long periods of wearing. The memory metal also conforms the headphones to the ear over time. Ensure that the headphones can be firmly ‘hooked’ to the ear, they won’t come off even with intense exercise.

The fit is very good, neither pressing on the ear canal like in-ear headphones, nor creating a pinching like ear clip type of headphones. It claims to fit 99% of ear shapes, with our tests, it shows that both users with larger and smaller ears can find a stable wearing angle. I got the Green, it’s a light green color that gives a fresh and quiet look, suitable for users who are looking for individuality. If you want something a little more understated, you can also choose Ceramic White or Obsidian Black.

The FreeArc is also Huawei’s first headphones to support IP57-rated dust and water resistance, meaning they can withstand rain and sweat. So here I put them inside a glass of water for half an hour, after taking them out and drying them off, they still worked fine. However, it should be noted that the charging case is not waterproof, so remember to dry your headphones after exercise before putting them back in the case.

Sound Quality

This time Huawei has included a huge speaker on the FreeArc, they are over 200 square millimeters, that’s even bigger than some cell phone speakers, which enables the headphones to give better low-frequency response as well as dynamic range. But it’s not without any drawbacks, the headphone does get a bit bulkier and heavier. So next, let’s put on the headphones to hear how these performs.

Overall, the FreeArc is very well balanced, with a low-frequency dive that comes close to what you’d hear on some in-ear headphones. The overall performance is more consistent with the frequency response curve we tested. The better low-frequency response makes them suitable for music that requires a strong sense of rhythm and deep bass, such as electronic music, dance music and rock. The mid-range frequencies reproduce vocals and most instruments well, making it suitable for pop, folk, and jazz music, which is dominated by vocals and instruments. High frequency performance is more natural, suitable for listening to music that requires clear high-frequency details, such as classical music and instrumental solos.

Of course, these sound quality reviews are only for the default EQ settings. You also have the option of switching to Voices, to make the headphones accentuate vocals, and make podcast vocals stand out more. Or switch to Treble boost to hear more detail in the high frequencies of classical music. The Elevate allows the headphones to produce a deeper, more powerful and richer low frequency response. Those times when listening to electronic music, dance music, rock while doing workout.

Sound Leakage Test

Open headphones have been basically criticized for sound leakage. But this time, Huawei’s, seems to have solved this problem. They introduced the Reverse Sound Wave system in FreeArc, to minimize sound leakage and enhance the listening experience. This directional sound transmission technology directs audio to the ear canal, while eliminating external sound waves to ensure clear and private listening. So we put this feature to the test. Please put on your headphones and let’s experience how powerful this technology really is.

Through the test, we found that if you listen to ASMR while taking the subway or elevator, and the sound is as loud as the test just now, or even louder, the people next to you is likely to hear the weird “chewing sound” or “whispering sound”. But if you turn the sound down to maybe below 40%, they won’t hear anything. Or if people are 1 meter away, they can hear nothing. But of course, if you are in a noisy metro, you have to turn the volume up, to mask the ambient noise.

Endurance

It claims to support 7 hours of playtime on a single charge, 28 hours with the charging case, and it supports 10w fast charging. We played lossless streaming music in AAC connection mode, with 50% volume setting. After 2 hours of continuous use, it only consumed 33% of the battery. That’s actually about 6 hours of battery life, which is pretty close to the 7 hours claimed. If you really use them until it’s completely dead, in time of making a cup of coffee, the FreeArc will get 2-3 hours of battery life from fast charging. However, the charging case only supports USB-C wired charging, and it’s a slight pity that wireless charging is not included.

Stable connection is always Huawei’s strong point. the FreeArc comes with a self-developed Bluetooth 5.3 chip, that supports multi-device switching for super terminals. For those who have Huawei’s family bucket, the headphones can connect to both cell phones and tablets, and automatically switch the audio source when an incoming call comes in, which is very practical in both office and entertainment scenarios.

This time, there are also some changes in touch operation. Compared to the common double-click, long-press, they also support a slide to adjust the volume. Fingers need to slide precisely along the groove on the outside of the earhook, it takes time to get used to it, but later on you will know that it’s better than physical buttons. Unfortunately, the headphones do not support wear detection, I hope that the a firmware update can enable such feature.

Conclusion

So honestly, the Huawei FreeArc isn’t perfect – it lacks wear detection and there’s still room for improvement in high-frequency resolution. But these do not take the fact away that they are one of the best open headphones available. Huawei has found a good balance between sound quality, wearing comfort, and sports compatibility. So I think the test results answers the question at the beginning.

The post Huawei FreeArc Review: Could change your ideas about open earbuds appeared first on Gizmochina.

Last year, while the Chinese mobile device makers were releasing products with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, there was the disappointing Y700 Gen3, which didn’t feature the latest chipset, no TF card slot, and a smaller battery. And crucially, the screen is slow and unresponsive. However, the new Y700 Gen4 has a new look, the TF card slot is back, with the latest flagship processor, a sharper screen, and a larger battery.

Design

The Gen 4 doesn’t differ much from its predecessors in terms of design. It features a one-piece aluminum body, making the entire back cover complete, both to the touch and to the eye. It’s still available in white or black, and although I’m holding the black version, I recommend the white. The black version, like the previous model, is prone to fingerprints.

On top of that, Lenovo has removed a camera to make it more of a gaming tablet. It would have been nice to make the camera bump smaller. The thickness of the body has been reduced to 7mm, while not much has changed in terms of weight.

The body comes with a Type-C port on the bottom and right side, both of which are capable of supporting 68W PPS fast charging. The port on the side supports up to 10 Gbps transfer rates and even has DP video output. According to our tests, it can connect up to a 4K 144Hz display. While it offers a 4K 160Hz option, the display will go black in that case. Also, the Y700 doesn’t recognize devices plugged into the USB-HUB that comes with the monitor at the same time. The USB-C recognizes devices, but it only has a rate of 480Mbps and doesn’t allow for video output.

Another thing I like is the TF card slot, which supports microSD cards up to 2 TB. I inserted a Samsung V30 microSD card here and tested the read and write speeds. When compared to the built-in UFS storage, the speeds are slow for this SD card.

On the front, the screen is still the same 8.8-inch LCD, not the more advanced OLED, but its resolution has been improved a bit, with a PPI of 408, and the display is more detailed than the iPad mini. So let’s put them together for comparison and see the difference. Playing an HDR video first, you can see that the Y700 has a lower contrast ratio and looks a bit gray, while the iPad is a bit better.

In terms of speakers, I don’t think there’s much improvement. So, here is a comparison: we can hear that it has fewer details in the background, like wind and sand sounds, compared to the iPad mini. While playing music, the sound is a bit harsh.

Gaming Performance The performance-related hardware on the

Every hardware on this Gen4 is, without exception, powerful. It packs a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, LPDDR5X 9600MHz of RAM, and UFS 4.1 flash storage. This is basically the most powerful hardware combo available, so none of its scores are bad. Whether it’s 3DMark or Geekbench, it gets good scores. But as a gaming tablet, you can’t afford to lose frames and lag while you’re playing. So we ran 20 consecutive rounds of performance tests using 3DMark, and the Y700 was 77% stable against the Wild Life test at 2K resolution. If we move up to 4K, it drops to 67%.

Now let’s do some gaming tests. First up is Hongkai: Star Rail, running in Golden Hour. When we run it at 25 degrees Celsius room temp, with Performance Mode on, the frame rate is nearly perfect. But it was a bit of a power hog here, consuming 10% of the battery in a 15-minute test.

Next, we tried the more difficult game, Wuthering Waves. Right off the bat, the machine ran at 16W, which is pretty close to the power consumption we saw during the 3DMark test. But after about 6 minutes, it started to lag a bit. Occasionally, the frame rate would go back up to 60 fps. But as soon as we hit a complex scene again, the frame rate would still drop. The temperature peaked at 48 degrees, but it was mainly in the center of the back, so it wasn’t too uncomfortable.

We also found a few other interesting things during our testing. For example, turning off LENOVO’s Gaming Assistant may result in a better gaming experience. Normally, when playing Wuthering Waves in Balanced Mode, the Game Assistant will control the power consumption of the whole machine to around 7W. Although the temperature of the machine is much lower, this will bring the problem of dropped frames. So we tried turning off the Game Assistant and letting the system take over. We found that it performed better than Performance Mode, and at the same time, produced less heat. So sometimes, turning off the Gaming Assistant may be a better option.

Also, the Y700’s previous generations had a fatal flaw for gamers. While the screen’s touch sampling rate was advertised as “high”, the actual performance was not as good as some flagship phones. However, we found that the Gen4 performed much better compared to the Gen3.

If you’re using an emulator to play a game, but have to use a joystick. You can try turning on the peripheral mode and setting up mapping. But if your game or the emulator itself supports the joystick, such as Genshin Impact, ZZZ, and Wuthering Heights. Then I’d recommend turning it off, otherwise, it can cause some 1conflicts, resulting in the joystick being unavailable.

Battery Life Charging, Wi-Fi

The battery has been upgraded to 29Wh (7600mAh), from the previous 25.3Wh (6550mAh). It may just add 20 to 30 minutes of playtime. It doesn’t use the higher energy density silicon carbide cells. This may sound like bad news, but it could also be good news. That’s because while silicon carbide batteries can achieve larger battery capacity for the same size, they don’t last as long as regular lithium batteries. Still, Lenovo has kept several good settings to optimize battery life to protect the battery.

One of the best things about it is the bypass charging. Unlike the OnePlus Ace 5 Pro, which needs a stock charger to do that, the Y700 only requires a PD or PPS charger.

Charging power hasn’t changed much, remaining at 68 W. In real-world testing, it maxed out at 60 W, but only for two minutes, and reached 80 percent at 40 minutes, eventually charging to 90 percent in 61 minutes. If you charge it in a cooler place, say 25 degrees room temperature, it extends the maximum power input to 10 minutes, and reaches 80 percent in 35 minutes, eventually filling up in 58 minutes.

But it’s a deal that doesn’t seem particularly good value, it doesn’t charge much faster after all. If you use a third-party charger that only supports the PD protocol, it’ll reach 80 percent after 65 minutes and eventually take 93 minutes to a full charge.

In terms of battery life, we tested it with the following settings: one hour of Hong Kong Star Rail, half an hour of Wuthering Waves, and two hours of a movie. Eventually, 22 percent battery left.

In terms of WiFi, it supports the latest 802.11be standard, also known as WiFi 7. However, due to the impact of China’s 6G construction, the Gen4 only supports up to 160 MHz of bandwidth under WiFi 7. Therefore, its Wi-Fi can only handshake up to 2882Mbps, while the actual rate can reach more than 2000Mbps.

Cons & Summary

The launch price of the Y700 Gen4 is the same as the Gen3, but this time around, it is more like a gaming tablet. The larger heat dissipation plate and new chip layout make it hard to overheat and downclock during gaming. Performance is basically impeccable, and the new screen and new touch ICs have solved the previous touch latency issues.

However, it’s not without any drawbacks. The LCD screen, for example, can be a bit outdated against competitors like the iPad mini, or even the future Redmi and Red Magic. It only tops out at 600 nits of brightness, the contrast isn’t great, and it even drags down the Y700’s battery life to some extent. The Xiaomi Tablet 7 Ultra, for example, which we’re testing, is a 14-inch tablet, but the gaming power consumption is lower than that of the 8.8-inch Y700.

We have discussed all the pros and cons of the Y700 Gen4. Do you think it’s a better gaming tablet now?

The post LENOVO LEGION Y700 2025 Review (Gen 4): All You Should Know about The Best Gaming Tablet appeared first on Gizmochina.

ZimaBoard 2

We recently received an update from Zima Space. The ZimaBoard, which we’ve used and reviewed before, is still using a 14nm embedded CPU. This time, it upgraded its processor to Intel’s 7-process N150, which is Intel’s latest low-power embedded CPU. They also updated the exterior design this time, making the ZimaBoard 2 more geeky. In this post, we will be reviewing the ZimaBoard 2.

Unboxing\Design

The package of ZimaBoard 2 doesn’t include many accessories inside, it is mainly divided into ZimaBoard 2 and a handful of important Accessories. Inside the Accessory box, there is, first of all, a miniDP-to-HDMI cable, supporting 4K 60Hz.

There is an AC-DC power supply that supports a wide voltage input of 100- 240V with an output at 12V 3A, and great news is that it comes with 3 different standard AC plugs.

In addition, this small box is equipped with a SATA Y-Cable inside, which can connect two SATA disks to the ZimaBoard 2 at the same time.

When you open the main box of the ZimaBoard 2, there is a thank-you letter as well as a quick guide inside, in addition to the ZimaBoard 2 itself. what’s interesting is that Zima developed the box into a chassis stand that gives zimaboard firmly supports with 2 extra disks.

Expandability\Performance

The N150 chip used in the ZimaBoard 2 is a 4-core, 4-thread Alder Lake-N architecture processor with a maximum Core frequency of 3.6 GHz. Compared to the previous N3450 with Goldmont architecture, the performance is a huge improvement (CPU-Z single-core 1216/multi-core 337, single-core 621/multi-core 152; R15 single-core 458/multi-core 154, single-core 140/multi-core 45). It’s equal to the same 4-core, 4-thread Intel Core I3 8100 on the desktop side, but the N150’s TDP is just 6W.

Upon disassembling the ZimaBoard 2, we discovered that it utilizes a Samsung K3LK7K70BM-BGCP memory chip, which is an 8GB 6400MHz LPDDR5 memory module. However, when we checked the memory in the BIOS, we found that it operates at a speed of only 4800 MHz. This limitation is due to the processor’s memory controller, which only supports a maximum speed of 4800 MHz. Moreover, since the memory is installed using a BGA (Ball Grid Array) method, it cannot be upgraded or expanded. As a result, if you plan to run virtual machines or a large number of Docker services, the 8GB memory capacity may significantly restrict your performance.

There is 32 GB of eMMC flash memory built into the body. Based on our teardown, we can see that it’s a FORESEE EMMC 5.1 chip, with sequential reads and writes at 346/217 MB/s. Unfortunately, your FORESEE doesn’t mention whether it’s an MLC chip or a TLC chip in the datasheet.

Next to the CPU are two Ethernet controllers from Intel. Here we get the exact model number of this chip with the lspci command, which is Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I226-V (rev 04). It’s a 28nm nanometer network controller, and while it sounds like a backwards process, it only has a TDP of 1.3W, and it fixes a hardware bug that breaks the flow of traffic compared to the more familiar 225-V. This allows the ZimaBoard 2 to be more stable when transferring files.

There are also two 5 Gbps USB-A ports and a miniDP port that can output 4K 60Hz. Also, this new set of molds is the same size as the previous ZimaBoard with the N3450. So there are some conflicts when you are plugging in a network card, graphics card, or other expansion card with a PCI-E bezel.

On the other side, it comes with two 6Gb/s rate SATA protocol ports, and both are native to the CPU. The center socket provides a 5V or 12V power output for SATA drives.

To do this, we connected two 3T 7200 HDDs from Seagate using the included SATA cables, as well as a 1TB NVMe SSD using the PCI-E 3.0 X4 connector on the side, but after we finished installing it and powering it up, something weird happened. We noticed that the ZimaBoard 2 was constantly rebooting. After our inspection, we realized that the cause of this problem was that the power consumption of the two HDDs exceeded the upper limit of the power supply (36W) while booting. So the power adapter activated the overcurrent protection, causing this problem.

Since I don’t have a power supply with the same connector and more power around, I removed one HDD for testing here. But even if only one HDD was activated, the power required in the process was still beyond the range of the power adapter. It didn’t trigger the overcurrent protection, but that’s still not a good sign. So while you’re using this machine to deploy servers, I’d recommend replacing the stock adapter with a higher specification one. But if you’re using a lower power 2.5″ HDD or SSD, then this system won’t run into this problem when booting both drives at the same time.

System Support

ZimaBoard 2 supports unRAID, PVE, OMV, ZimaOS, TrueNAS, Debian, Windows, OpenWRT, and more. However, we would like to deploy a system that is not supported by ZimaBoard 2: fnOS.

It is a NAS system developed by a Chinese company based on Debian and compatible with mainstream x86 hardware. It has been featured on the Chinese version of YouTube, Bilibili, with many video testimonials and demos. From the information we have received so far, this system will be a strong competitor to other NAS systems in the future. I say “future” because they are in public beta right now, and there is no English version. That didn’t stop me from trying it out, though.

Deployments

First, when we turn on the computer, we press DEL according to the on-screen prompts, enter the BIOS, and select the USB flash drive.

We can then follow the prompts to install the system directly onto the motherboard’s built-in eMMC flash memory.

After that, we can proceed with the boot system installation. After setting the management IP address, open the browser on the computer and enter the IP address displayed on the screen to access the WEBUI management interface.

Then, follow the prompts to set the device name, super administrator account, and password. Finally, enter the system.

Next, we copied a 25 GB video file from the PC to the ZimaBoard 2. The speed was steady at over 270 MB/s and as fast as 500 MB/s.

Now, let’s try out FNOS’s movie and TV features. Of the eight movies I copied for testing, FNOS recognized the movie titles perfectly and automatically matched them to the metadata.

The cast list is quite complete and provides an IMDb link for further information about the movies.

During playback, the ZimaBoard 2 quickly converted the HDR movie to SDR. We can also see in FNOS Explorer that it’s using the N150’s GPU for transcoding. However, when we turned on the third transcoded 4K HDR video, we encountered some performance issues.

A look through Explorer reveals that the performance bottleneck occurs in RAM at this point. The RAM is full, so the system starts to use SWAP, while the CPU and GPU appear to be free-loaded.

While the third transcode works fine at first, if you let it run a little longer. It will start crashing, meanwhile, the CPU temperature of the ZimaBoard 2 is a bit lower compared to the beginning, but the case temperature is not.

Summary:

The ZimaBoard 2 boasts significantly improved performance thanks to its upgraded processor and sleek exterior design. Its memory is high-performance and energy-efficient, but it is not expandable, which may limit application scenarios that require a lot of memory. The built-in eMMC flash memory performs decently, but the chip type is unknown. In terms of networking, the Ethernet controller is stable and has low power consumption. The network interface rate performance is in line with expectations, but the link aggregation effect is poor. There are abundant expansion interfaces, but some expansion cards are incompatible, and the original power adapter may be underpowered when connecting multiple hard disks. Taking FnOS as an example, the system supports fnOS deployments well and has impressive movie and TV features. However, memory tends to become a bottleneck when multitasking with transcoding. Overall, the ZimaBoard 2 is an excellent, feature-rich device. But, a note for pro-users here – it might leave something to be desired in terms of memory expandability and power adapter power.

The zimaboard 2 clearly has many more applications to enjoy in the hands of professional users. Perhaps you’ll give it even more creative and productive application scenarios, so click here to check it out on Kickstarter and become an early adopter.

The post ZimaBoard 2 Full Analysis: A New Exploration of Performance, Design and Functionality appeared first on Gizmochina.

Ever wondered which Ultra phone takes the best photos? Join me as we compare the latest camera-focused phones from Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi! In this story – we’ll cover four main camera sections: main camera, ultra-wide, telephoto, and ultra-telephoto.

Meet Our Camera Competitors

Let’s check out the three phones we’re comparing! Each one comes with impressive camera hardware, but as we’ll soon see, specs on paper don’t tell the whole story.

Interestingly, while Xiaomi and Oppo boast four cameras each, Vivo takes a different approach. Their fourth lens? It’s actually available as a separate $233 photography kit, almost like downloadable content for a premium game!

Since we want a fair fight, we won’t be discussing it in this comparison.

Curious about telephoto capabilities? Let’s start with those specs first.

Xiaomi and Oppo both have two telephoto lenses, while Vivo has just one 200MP 85mm telephoto that crops the image to zoom in further. Does this put Vivo at a disadvantage? With its smaller aperture and sensor, low-light performance might not be as good as its rivals—but let’s see what the actual photos show!

What about main cameras? Vivo zigs where others zag with a straight-up 35mm F1.7 lens, while Xiaomi and Oppo offer versatile 23mm defaults that can shift to 28mm and 35mm. This creates an interesting dilemma for our comparison: at 35mm, Vivo enjoys its native focal length advantage, while the others must crop. The same applies when we test 50mm and 70mm focal lengths—Vivo’s camera has to crop less from its 35mm starting point.

For wide-angle enthusiasts, Vivo provides a slightly wider 14mm view compared to the 15mm offered by competitors. Is one millimeter really noticeable? Take a look at these comparison shots from the Vivo X200 Ultra at 14mm versus 15mm:

When it comes to the wide-angle lens, Vivo offers a 14mm angle of view. Though it doesn’t seem like much of an advantage compared to the others’ 15mm, I’ll use Vivo to take a 14mm and 15mm view and simply compare the integrity of the object at the edges. It becomes clear that even though there is only a 1mm difference, the difference in viewing angle is still significant.

But in terms of pixels and aperture, the three competitors are identical.

The final spec here is still missing a focus distance. Unfortunately, most of the competitors didn’t mention it. So we placed a hard disk at the end of the tape measure to test the focus distance. It can be noticed that although Vivo didn’t say they support macro, the wide-angle and telephoto can still achieve some macro effect. But with Oppo’s periscope telephoto, the focusing distance is very long, so sometimes when you use 6x, you have to turn on macro mode to get it in focus.

Lets Test the Main Camera and Ultra-Wide

We shot the photo of the building using a 35mm focal length during the daytime. Overall, the difference between them is not too significant. Each phone can provide high definition and rich details, with natural color reproduction and moderate contrast. Only the Vivo X200 Ultra uses the native focal length, while Xiaomi and Oppo use a cropped 1-inch main camera. Overall, all three phones meet high standards during the day.

What happens if it’s pure greenery? In the first group, Xiaomi has the highest saturation and more layers. It stands out when put together with the other two photos. But if you observe some out-of-focus greenery around the periphery, it can be a bit eye-catching. This also happens with the Vivo photos, but Oppo doesn’t have this problem. But overall, every photo is excellent. It’s three different styles. So, which one would you prefer? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.

Let’s take a normal shot. Xiaomi’s image still clearly shows the plant details, with natural colors but a bit yellowish. The layering from the background bokeh is still as rich as ever, but it’s not as easy on the eyes as before. Vivo maintains the plant details while keeping the noise under better control, and the color performance is soft. Oppo offers clear plant details and good color reproduction, and the background bokeh is more pronounced, but the layering is still a bit weak.

When we switch to wide-angle, we can see bigger differences between the phones. Oppo’s photos look most like what I saw with my own eyes. But when you look at tree branches against the bright sky, you can see some unwanted green and purple edges, which makes the photo look less natural. Vivo’s photos have patches of green that look artificial and change too suddenly from one shade to another.

Xiaomi does the best job here, avoiding these problems.

In the Golden Hour, the native 35mm of Vivo’s has an obvious advantage. The picture performance is very solid, basically restoring the scene as I saw it with my eyes. The noise control is also very good. Xiaomi’s image, on the other hand, is very bright and unnatural, with the most serious smearing. Oppo, which also has a 1-inch sensor, is much more normal. But it also has varying degrees of flare, just like Xiaomi.

If you also switch to wide angle, everyone is different again. The best performer here is Oppo, with the image brightness in the middle of the three phones. Xiaomi is fairly good, but not as blue. Vivo has eliminated the presence of blue light. Also, notice that Vivo’s overall image is on the saturated side, but with the greenish white balance, it makes the whole image look very dirty.

If we go a little wider, things look a little different. Xiaomi is a little less bright overall, with the crowd below in pitch black and a bit of flare. However, the color reproduction is good, highlighting the main body of the building. Vivo maintains the details of the building while providing better brightness and clarity, but its white balance is still a little greenish. Oppo uses the same sensor as Xiaomi, but its overall performance is a little better than Xiaomi’s. The flare control is weaker than Xiaomi’s, with a bit of flare in front of each step light.

Ultra-Wide

In daylight, all the three models perform well. But if the YouTube image quality is sharp enough, it’s still obvious that Vivo is the sharpest and Xiaomi is the worst. It’s because at 85mm, only Xiaomi is not using a native focal length. But I’m not very satisfied with all three of them here. Oppo is clear enough, but its picture is a little yellowish. Oppo is relatively good at reproducing the scene I saw when I was shooting, but the contrast is not enough.

Next, let’s switch to another scene with contrasting lighting to check it out. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra shows excellent detail capture and background bokeh, with its larger aperture and lower ISO. But it still suffers from the same problem of color dispersion with the heavy tree roots above. The Vivo, on the other hand, has high color saturation but is slightly lacking in detail performance and foreground bokeh. In contrast, Oppo strikes a good balance between color reproduction, detail sharpness, and background bokeh, showing balanced imaging performance.

If we get to nighttime, all three don’t perform too well, in my opinion. It’s similar to the previous wide-angle photos at night. The difference is that Xiaomi is still using cropping here, which results in some degradation of image quality. Vivo, on the other hand, is affected by the white balance and a highly saturated filter, which makes the image look very dirty.

If we go longer to 135mm, Xiaomi and Vivo use cropping, while Oppo uses a native lens. The situation is a bit surprising. I like Vivo the most in this set of photos. The whole image is quite sharp, and the brightness is well balanced. Xiaomi still doesn’t do so well here, with a lot of dead blacks, off-color issues, and the island in front is also black.

Both Vivo and Oppo can see the green lawn on the island, but Vivo seems to have captured something else on the strip of lights, with a patch of yellow and orange.

If we start getting AI involved in the telephoto processing, most people will prefer Xiaomi’s high-contrast images if we don’t look closely. But let’s zoom in a bit, and we’ll see that although the strolling phones don’t see much noise, they all have some smearing. Vivo’s performance here is average. Although it retained the details of the office below, its contrast is the lowest. Oppo’s sharpness is a little worse, but it is balanced in brightness and color.

Portrait Test

Let’s move on and try to shoot portraits. Indoors, we used professional lighting and shot in the portrait mode that comes with the phone. The first was a telephoto shot. The sharpness of all three shots is very good. Among them, the Vivo’s effect may look more eye-catching at first glance, but a closer comparison will reveal that the eyes of the characters shot by the Vivo are missing some vividness, making Holly look a bit dull and robot-like. Although we did not intentionally create eye light when lighting, in the final shooting effect, Oppo handled the best.

Observing the transition between the background and the edges of the character again, we can see that both Xiaomi and Oppo transitioned naturally. The vivo, on the other hand, is not fine enough to deal with the hair details, and is directly defocused. After enlarging the photo, we can find that the three phones are different in skin detailing. Xiaomi adds more shine and brightening effects to the skin, but I’m a bit puzzled as to why it sharpens the flawed details of the skin. Vivo’s skin has too much of a matte look, but instead, it balances out the brightness of the original left and right sides, and lacks a sense of three-dimensionality. It even hides quite a bit of detail.

After switching to 85mm, the three shots are similar to the telephoto. The Xiaomi still retains the same CCD-like color and contrast. But there are some more problems encountered with the processor on the edges of the background and people. After we adjusted the aperture to the same F1.4, we found that the background bokeh of all three phones is not quite right. Vivo and Xiaomi look like that, but Oppo has too much force, showing not very natural.

By the time we get to mid-focus here, Xiaomi has some more problems with edge transitions. As with the 85 in the previous set, there is a very obvious raw transition. But compared to the previous set of images, this set of images can more directly see the three phones’ styles of portrait processing: the waxing Xiaomi, the AI sense of vivo, and Oppo is the most consistent in terms of character detail and color. However, the algorithm in the background of Bokeh still shows some problems.

But when we shoot in a poor lighting environment, the result seems to be a little different. Xiaomi performs the best here instead, with a prominent subject and natural color reproduction. Vivo counts something strange on the edges of the clothes and hair, Oppo is relatively restored to the scene, separating the subject from the background very well compared to the first two.

Telephoto Macro and Wide-Angle Macro

All three phones can render the spines and texture of the cactus, but the color and contrast performance vary. Xiaomi’s more vivid colors and higher contrast make the details of the cactus more prominent. Vivo’s colors are more natural, and the details are more balanced. Oppo looks more realistic in color reproduction, and the detail capture is equally good.

In terms of macro performance, all three phones managed to capture more details of the cactus, such as the texture on the leaves and the jagged edges. Xiaomi still stands out in terms of detail. Vivo maintains its natural color style. Oppo is quite balanced in terms of both detail and color.

Summary: Which phone has the worst camera?

That’s actually not a fair question! Each of these phones has strengths and weaknesses. During daylight, all three take excellent photos – you really have to look closely to spot the differences. It’s more about which phone’s style you prefer rather than which one is objectively better or worse.

Vivo shows its great ability in low-light situations in terms of photography, especially in telephoto shooting, with proper noise control and natural color reproduction. Its 35mm native lens delivers crisp and colorful images in daytime shots. While the white balance may be on the cool side in some cases, overall, Vivo offers a soft and appealing color style. The wide-angle only offers a 14mm viewing angle, but it offers a subtle advantage in terms of viewing angle width compared to the competition.

Oppo delivers a balanced and well-rounded performance in photography, both in terms of color reproduction and detail definition. When dealing with high-contrast scenes, Oppo can maintain a good balance of detail and color, especially in street and city architecture shots. Its wide-angle can reproduce the brightness and colors of the scene well, although slight flare is sometimes present. At the telephoto end, the native lens delivers sharp images and balanced brightness at 135mm focal length, showing Oppo’s prowess in telephoto shooting.

The Xiaomi excels in detail capture and background bokeh, especially when using large apertures and low ISO. Its wide-angle offers an angle of view between Vivo and Oppo, with good color reproduction. At the telephoto end, while there may be a drop in image quality in crop mode, contrast and detail performance improve with AI intervention. The Xiaomi performs well in scenes with high saturation and contrast, but sometimes suffers from yellowish or cool white balance issues. Overall, the Xiaomi Mi 15 Ultra is a phone that delivers high-quality images in a wide range of shooting scenarios.

Unfortunately, none of these phone cameras are perfect – they all have some weaknesses. But the good news is that these three options give you choices based on what matters most to you.

You might have also noticed we didn’t talk about video recording in this comparison. That’s because Oppo doesn’t have a proper video LOG profile yet (claimed to be updated soon), so it wouldn’t be a fair comparison. Would you be interested in seeing how these phones compare for video? Let us know in the comments under the video, and we might make a follow-up article just on video capabilities.

The post The Best Camera Phone Battle: vivo X200 Ultra vs OPPO Find X8 Ultra vs Xiaomi 15 Ultra appeared first on Gizmochina.

Among all the flagship models released lately, the Honor Magic 7 Pro is our most anticipated phone. The Chinese version hit the market back in November, but let’s be real—everyone’s been waiting for the global launch. So once the global Magic 7 Pro arrived in the studio, we just couldn’t wait diving into the Honor flagship. The big question on everyone’s mind is: Can this flagship phone really justify its price tag? Let’s break it down.

Design:

The Honor Magic 7 Pro is starting to show some serious continuity in design, just like other top Chinese smartphones. But they’ve really stepped it up with the details.

For example, the metal ring around the camera module is way smaller, making the transition from the camera to the rest of the phone super smooth. It gives the back a more integrated look, and it’s sleek and modern from every angle.

We’ve got the Breeze Blue version here, which is a super fresh and light blue. It just screams peace and elegance. But if blue isn’t your thing, there are other options like Black, White, and Lunar Shadow Grey. The latter has that cool water flow texture we’ve seen before.

On the front, the Magic 7 Pro still packs a 6.8-inch quad curved floating screen. Visually, the bezels are super narrow, and the whole thing feels really rounded. Now, Honor knows a lot of folks aren’t fans of curved screens, so they’ve kept the curvature super subtle. It gives you that curved-screen feel without losing the flat-screen look.

Performance:

When it comes to performance, let’s cut to the chase. Even the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is more than enough for most people. It holds its own in Geekbench 6 tests.

And in games like “Honkai: Star Rail,” even in the most intense scenes, the frame rates stay solid.

Touch response speed is also crucial for gaming, and the Magic 7 Pro doesn’t disappoint. You can see it in the camera playback—it’s super quick. So yeah, performance-wise, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

Audio-Visual Experience:

Screen:

Let’s talk about the screen. It’s a 20:9, 6.8-inch full equal-depth micro-curved screen from Visionox, a top-notch screen manufacturer.

It’s got a 1-120Hz LTPO adaptive refresh rate, which means it adjusts the refresh rate based on what you’re doing, giving you smooth visuals and saving battery life.

The pixel density is a whopping 453PPI, and the screen-to-body ratio is 92.96%. The picture is just crystal clear. Plus, the screen has an HDR peak brightness of 5000 nits and a global peak brightness of 1600 nits.

Honor also added some cool eye-care features. At super low brightness, the screen switches to a 4320Hz PWM dimming mode. That’s way more comfortable than the low-frequency PWM dimming you get on iPhones. If you’re sensitive to screen flicker, the Magic 7 Pro might just be your new best friend.

Speakers:

But here’s what really blew me away: the speakers. Chinese teardowns show this phone’s got two big speakers inside.

With some fancy bass enhancement algorithms and sound compensation, the audio is powerful and balanced. When you’re listening to music or watching videos, the sound is loud, deep, and the bass is just killer.

Imaging:

Now, let’s talk cameras. The Magic 7 Pro has a 50MP wide-angle camera, a 50MP ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 200MP ultra-high-definition telephoto camera.

The wide-angle camera uses a 1/1.3-inch sensor and supports variable aperture, which is awesome for low-light shots.

The ultra-wide-angle camera has a 122° field of view and can do macro shots as close as 2.5cm. The 200MP telephoto camera supports 3x optical zoom and up to 100x digital zoom. That’s like having a 72-2400mm lens!

And let me tell you, I’ve been using that telephoto camera a lot. For example, at 3x zoom, the image quality is outstanding. The colors are vibrant, the textures are detailed, and the background is clear and natural.

Even at 6x zoom, the details are super sharp. You can see the texture of a pigeon’s feathers and the details of its feet. The colors are natural, and the depth of field effect really makes the subject pop. The exposure and white balance are spot-on, and there’s no noticeable noise. Even at night, the camera holds up.

But I’d say stick to zoom levels below 30x; otherwise, the image quality drops. However, if you turn on AI Super Zoom, you’ll be amazed. After a bit of processing, the image quality is just as good as 3x or 6x. You can even preview the before-and-after in the gallery in real-time. It’s seriously impressive.

Battery Life/Charging:

Charging:

This phone packs a 5850mAh battery, which is Honor’s 3rd Gen Silicon Carbon Battery. It supports up to 100W wired charging and 80W wireless charging, but you’ll need the official Honor SuperCharge brick.

Unfortunately, the charger isn’t included in the box, so you’ll have to buy it separately. Just make sure your voltage is between 200-240V; otherwise, you’ll max out at 66W. We tested it with a PPS-compatible charger, and here are the results.

Others:

This phone supports USB 3.2 Gen1, which means it can transfer data at 5Gbps.

In our tests, copying a 19.8GB video file took just 47 seconds at a speed of 431MB/s. It also supports DisplayPort 1.2, so you can hook it up to an external 4K 60Hz monitor and use it in Desktop Mode.

The Magic 7 Pro also has two super convenient features: ultrasonic fingerprint unlocking and 3D face recognition. If you’ve ever used a regular optical face unlock phone, you know that flash can be annoying in the dark. But this phone, with its 3D face solution, doesn’t have that problem.

It runs on MagicOS 9.0, based on Android 15, and gets monthly security updates. We don’t have official info on how many years of OS updates it’ll get, but based on recent trends, the Magic 7 Pro should get at least three major Android upgrades and five years of security patches.

Summary:

So, what’s the verdict? The Honor Magic 7 Pro is a seriously powerful flagship phone. The only downside is that it doesn’t come with a charger.

But other than that, it’s hard to find any flaws. It’s got the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset for performance, a high-dynamic-range screen that’s also friendly for eyes, and it supports IP68/IP69, infrared remote control, NFC, ultrasonic fingerprint, 3D face recognition, symmetrical dual speakers, and Type-C video output. This is one seriously stacked device.

The post Honor Magic 7 Pro Review: This is Honor’s Best Phone yet appeared first on Gizmochina.

Introduction

Getting a pair of ear-cover headphones becomes particularly important as the weather turns cold. Not only do your ears feel warm, but the headset also offers a moment of peace in the chaos. In this artcle, I found a budget option that comes with pretty decent performance – the OneOdio Focus A5. It attactive me first with a stylish appearance, and then excellent sound quality and a comfortable wearing experience help me decide to turn it into a review. It could be your good companion in the winter, whether on your commute or in a noisy workfield. Enjoying a good experience in music is always the correct thing to do, more importantly, at a budget cost.

For Amazon US, use promotion code “FOCUSA5PRO” to get 10% OFF, stackable with the page discount (Valid until Dec. 31).

For Amazon UK, use code ‘PDLQERWD’ to get 10% OFF, also stackable with the page discount (Valid until Dec. 31).

If buy the headset from OneOdio shop, the code ‘XMKGFG’ to get 20% OFF will be a good option.

Design

OneOdio’s consumer products have not been very well-known actually, they are more known for designing and manufacturing monitoring headphones in professional niches, and the A5 is their second product in the wider consumer market.

From the three logos on the packaging, we can see that the A5 has excellent hardware. Get Hi-Res certified, requires the devices to receive high-spec audio data and support a wider frequency response range.

This headphone not only supports conventional AAC and SBC but also supports the lossless digital audio codec LDAC. It thanks to Bluetooth’s lossless audio transmission protocol, which has better compatibility with phones with Qualcomm or MediaTek chips. However, on PCs and iPhones, they only support AAC.

But if you want to use this high-spec audio transmission, there is another way – by plugging in a cable . Through a USB-C cable, the A5 can be transformed into a USB sound card, and then you can select your desired high-quality audio output mode in the output settings.

When I received these headphones, I found that they looked quite similar to SONY, to be honest. However, when I look at them closely, there are still some significant differences.

I believe the button controls are better. I have always hated headphones that use touch control as they are too easy to be accidentally triggered.

The OneOdio Focus A5 uses a lot of physical buttons, and I can easily understand what button I am pressing, and whether it has been pressed based on the feedback. But I think one thing that is not so good here is that these buttons and interfaces are too close together. If I use them wired, it will conflict with the USB-C.

Experience

The thing I do most with headphones is for video editing, while wired headphones generally is the first option. Most wireless headphones would bring some perceptable sound latency, especially when checking the audio correct alligning with the images. If this only happens in editing, it’s not a big deal. But if it happens during gaming, the delay can be fatal. But surprisingly, the OneOdio is usable for both with a gaming mode, though the sound quality could be shift to a less stunning level.

After long pressing to enable ANC and switch to a gaming mode, I could feel that the delay got reduced. So after that, I shift the wired options to the Focus A5 with this mode on, a lot, no matter for relaxing gaming or video editing. But it may still cause confusion when gaming like Call of Duty and PUBG, as these games require super fast response for battle.

And the gaming mode comes at a cost. Please note enabling gaming mode will use a lossy encoding format to transmit audio. However, if you want to retain sound quality, you can use a USB-C cable to connect to your computer and turn it into a wired headset.

Almost all headphones for now always come with ANC regardless of the price. First I thought that the ANC on headphones in this price range would be also ‘cheap’. But after careful comparison, I found that the ANC on this headphone is not bad. It can easily filter out the surrounding and even noise such as rustle of rain outside the window. That feels good, at least it really helps me focus on my work.

This headphone has a 600mAh battery, which is only an average level compared to other mainstream ear-covered headphones on the market. But there’s one story I should share here. I forgot to turn off the computer and the headphones for once, and they just kept playing music. When I came to the studio the next day, I was surprised to find that the headphones were still playing music with a significant battery percentage left. Not sure it’s some sort of illusion: the headphones’ battery life could last longer compared to the TWS headsets I’ve tried for the few months.

The first time I used these headphones, I wasn’t listening to music but watching Mad Max. There are a lot of engine roars in that movie, with these headphones, it feels like I was watching a movie in a cinema. However, when listening to music, the low-frequency performance is a bit too much, but after shaping the sound with an equalizer, the performance becomes much better, especially in the mid and high tones.

Conclusion

To be honest, I am not an audio enthusiast, but the performance of this headphone is impressive, especially after shaping the sound with the equalizer. They did not remove the wired connection like most headphones but replaced the 3.5mm with a more widely-used USB-C port. I have tried it with Android, iPhone, PC, and Mac, all of which are functional well.

In summary, its performance and price are well balanced, or even bring you a surprise. If you want to know more about them, it’s informative to check it out on OneOdio shop or their Amazon shop. And during sale season, the headphone is available with using codes to get discount. Again, check the buttons down below.

The post OneOdio Focus A5 ANC Wireless Headset Review: An Unexpected Sonic Companion At Such Price appeared first on Gizmochina.

Introduction

This might be the most elegant solution for creative work on an iPhone. (Picking up the phone, showing the SSD) But is it suitable for use exclusively as an iPhone’s external storage? What advantages does it have compared to conventional USB drives or portable SSDs? So, in the upcoming tests, I will compare this DIGIERA with my DIY solution.

Design

Compared to regular portable SSDs, the LSP2000M is very small. It’s also very light.

The material of glass and stainless steel frame makes it look more like a watch.

However, it would be cooler if it could display the remaining storage space. The bottom is labeled with the model and capacity. If you think 1TB is too small, DIGIERA also offers options up to 4TB, all using TLC NAND chips.

It can also be installed via magnetic if your phone case supports MagSafe. You can directly attach it and connect it to your phone. But if your phone case doesn’t support that, you can use the small kit included to achieve that.

Configuration

Before we get to the tests, let’s look at its configuration. It claims that this portable SSD uses Silicon Motion’s SM2320, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Dual-Lane Portable SSD Controller Solution without a DRAM cache.

Compared to the conventional bridge chip + SSD controller solution, it is theoretically more power-efficient and can make the entire SSD smaller. This makes it more suitable for recording ProRes on the iPhone.

The NAND, according to the FLASH ID provided by MPTool, is a 128-layer NAND chip produced by YMTC.

Later we will use this Huawei MateBook X Pro and GEEKOM for testing.

To test the highest performance, I will also enable the write cache function in Windows. I will use the same cacheless SSD with 40Gbps and 10Gbps rate hard drive boxes for comparison.

We first tested the power consumption of these portable SSDs on the highest rate interfaces they support, followed by the more conventional 10Gbps and 5Gbps. Then we ran CrystalDiskMark to simulate high load power consumption.

You can see that DIGIERA’s single-chip solution has an excellent power consumption performance. If working on a common 5Gbps interface, the idle power consumption is less than 1W. When running CrystalDiskMark for performance testing, it fluctuates around 1.2W. On 10Gbps and 20Gbps interfaces, the idle power consumption is also low, and the power consumption during performance testing is slightly higher than 5Gbps, but it does not exceed 2W. However, the DIY solution we compared is not as environmentally friendly, among which the USB4 DIY solution in idle is higher than the DIGIERA in working, and the power consumption when measuring the speed on the 40Gbps interface is close to 7W.

Fortunately, for all the portable SSDs we compared, whether in idle or high load state, the power supply demand did not exceed the upper limit recommended by Apple.

But there is one thing to note, the current meter we used is not very accurate. If these portable SSDs have shorter peak power consumption, we will not be able to detect it.

Then in use, it is possible to see dropping or SSD not being recognized.

Performance

Here we used CrystalDiskMark to test the peak performance under three usage rates (0%, 50%, 70%) and mixed read and write that represents real use. In the tests, everyone performed very well, basically running at the upper limit of the interface. And LSP2000M also reached the performance they claimed.

Now, it’s time to make it a bit more difficult. In this test, we will use HD True for full disk write to test whether these two devices can hold long-term continuous writing.

In the test, the full disk write performance of LSP2000M was unexpectedly good. It took 14 minutes to fill the entire SSD, and the speed was very stable throughout the process. The test on the 10gbps port was also very stable. Even if the iPhone 17 pro that will be released next year supports 8k 60 ProRes recording, this little guy can easily handle it.

The 40gbps plan was very eye-catching at the beginning, but after writing a large amount of data, the speed suddenly dropped to 300 to 400, and then even dropped to 200. This performance is obviously a bit behind LSP. And the temperature detected by CrystalDiskInfo makes me worry whether it can survive in this test.The performance of the 10gbps plan is very conventional, but like the 40Gbps plan, it will slow down after writing a certain amount of data.

Although I used an infrared camera to check the temperature during the test, the two portable SSDs had abnormal results due to the reflectivity of the material. Also, this test will write a large amount of data in a very short time, which most consumers will never do. The following are the real application scenarios.

Shooting ProRes

Now let’s go back to the real use, using the iPhone to record ProRes video. DIGIERA can be recognized in the file app, and you can watch the recorded video in the file, and there is no tearing or loss. The idle power consumption is similar to what we tested on the PC, and the power consumption in recording is lower than the previous test.

The 40GBPS and 10GBPS DIY solutions are the same as the DIGIERA era in terms of usage, The DIY plan can be recognized and can preview the clips. The power consumption is a bit higher. But it can’t be attached on the iPhone like DIGIERA.

Disadvantages

Finally, we have to face a problem, that is the compatibility problem that these USB3.2 Gen2 X2 products have. If your host has a USB 3.2 Gen2 X2 interface, then you are lucky. Your host can make DIGIERA run at the best state. If it only has a USB4 interface, it depends on the OEM. Because in the USB4 protocol, the USB3.2 Gen2 X2 protocol is optional.

After testing on the Mac Mini M1 and three other PCs, only this MateBook X Pro can run at 20Gbps. Other devices can only run at 10Gbps.

Summary

Now these are the tests we have done on the DIGIERA Meganetic Portable SSD.

Surprisingly, the Digiera SSD was decently stable for various scenario tests, and it can complete a large amount of data writing at the fastest speed throughout the process. And the ultra-high power efficiency can also make it better compatible with mobile devices. So if you are recording videos on iPhones, or need a powerful and stable portable SSD across devices and platforms, the Digiera Portable SSD will be one of the most convenient and portable choise.

The post Digiera Magnetic Portable SSD Review: One Of The Best Ways to Add 1TB For Your iPhone/Android appeared first on Gizmochina.

OnePlus 13

This might be the most un-iPhone-like Android flagship this year, It’s also the most well-rounded flagship of the year. Now let’s take a look and see what it’s all about.

Unboxing

This is the packaging box for the OnePlus 13. Let’s remove the plastic wrap and gently open it. First, we see the “NEVER SETTLE” slogan as always. After removing it, there is the phone.

Let’s power it on and put it aside for now, and see what else is inside the package. Along with the “NEVER SETTLE” slogan, there’s a warranty card and a frosted semi-transparent silicone case.

Compared to regular transparent silicone cases, it feels much better in hand and doesn’t collect fingerprints and oil easily.

Getting back to the phone itself, compared to other brands’ white frosted glass, we can see that the white frosted glass at the back has a slightly rougher texture. Other than that, the camera module is traversed by a line.

Design

This year’s blue variant features a leather-like material, it is named “Blue Hour”. The white and black versions use frosted glass, but with different texture and details. The black looks like wood grain, while the white is more ordinary.

My colleague really likes this kind of frosted, leather-like texture, because the Xiaomi 15 Pro’s shiny silver back panel usually gets ruined by his hands in just a second.

After getting the OnePlus 13, I found that the white has a sand gold effect under certain angles. In terms of the frame, both the blue and white versions are silver polished, which is more prone to fingerprints compared to the black version’s brushed texture.

The traditional three-stage switch is still here, and it still feels great. Sliding it up and down is very satisfying. I also took the OPPO Find X8 for comparison, to see how they feel in hand.

The waterproof rating has been greatly improved, from IP65 to IP69. Compared to the IP68 rating, IP69 can even prevent water impact in some cases. I believe this will be very suitable for gamers, they can run the phone through the tap water when the phone gets too hot. Just joking, I wouldn’t suggest that.This is because the equipment is not covered by the after-sales guarantee if it is damaged by water ingress.

Cameras

The sensor changes in the camera are not very significant. The front camera is 32MP with a Sony IMX615.

For the rear camera, both have the same 50MP main camera, Sony LYT-808, but the ultra-wide and telephoto lenses have changed. The sensors have been replaced with ones from Samsung and Sony, and the pixel count has also increased to 50M.

However, compared to the hardware upgrades, OnePlus has added many interesting software features. For example,

glass glare elimination,

AI removal,

and Live Photos .

Display

Judging from the release event, they are very confident in the screen. It has a 6.82-inch display, QHD+ resolution, 510 PPI, 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, very high peak brightness, 10-bit color, and covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, along with many other features.

There are also some great details in terms of eye protection. There are three levels of eye protection modes in the settings, that allow you to choose between eye protection and smoothness.

Performance and Battery Life

In terms of performance, there’s the Snapdragon 8 Elite, 8533Mbps memory, UFS 4.0 flash storage, nearly 10,000 square millimeters of cooling system,

a 6000mAh battery, and 100W wired and 50W wireless charging.

The hardware specs are as high as ever. In the limited time, we tested the performance of “Honkai: Star Rail” in a Divergent universe. During the test, we found that in most scenes, the frame rate was at 60 FPS.

Most of the frame drop occurred during transitions between game scenes. If I turn off the FPS counter, I might not even notice the lag actually. But what surprised me more was its power efficiency.

In this gaming mode, the power consumption was only an average of 4.44W, and a 21 minutes of gameplay only consumes 7% of the battery, with very little heating. If you lower some of the graphics and turn on the balanced mode, its power efficiency will be even better.

Charging speed has always been a strong point of Chinese phones. So, I tested the OnePlus 13’s compatibility with PD/PPS chargers. In the end, we found that it can charge at a maximum speed of 30W. So, what do you think of this speed?

Conclusion

Finally, let’s talk about its price. When we see the specs, OnePlus seems to focus more on performance and display. The starting price is 4499 RMB, about 631 USD, and the top configuration, the 24G+1T is 5999 RMB, about 842 USD.

This is basically close to the price of the Xiaomi 15 standard version. But considering the bootloader unlock being the easiest one, perhaps the OnePlus 13 is also worth buying. What do you think?

The post OnePlus 13 Unboxing & Quick Review: Going head-to-head with Xiaomi 15? appeared first on Gizmochina.