Gigaset is not the first manufacturer name that comes to your mind when you think of buying a new  smartphone but I came across a beautiful and powerful Gigaset ME device. It was designed in Germany, it’s an official partner Munchen Bayern football club and the phone costs just $140. In fact, the Gigaset ME used to cost over $500 when it was just released, which was simply too much. Learn more in the full review.

Gigaset Me Review: VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a4f3ie9s90[/embedyt]

Gigaset Me Review: UNBOXING

The phone comes in a premium packaging and inside of it, you can find the all the usual stuff. Some extras include a pair of earphones that actually sound pretty good.

Gigaset Me Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

Honestly, the Gigaset Me looks and feels like a much more expensive phone. It uses a high-quality stainless steel chassis, tactile metal buttons and a sheet of Gorilla Glass 3 on the front and rear.

The phone is compact due to it’s 5” 1080p display, which is sharp and vibrant. Just above the display we have an 8MP camera and a notification LED light.

I don’t like the fact that there are only the on-screen navigation keys but at least you can change the position of the buttons.

The back looks really nice but obviously, it is a huge fingerprint magnet as most of the glass surfaces, and the phone is quite slippery.

Besides the beefy 16MP camera, dual tone dual-LED flash, you can find some other sensors since the phone has quite a few fitness-oriented features.

You can track your heart rate, check the UV level using a dedicated sensor if you need to, track your steps with the built-in pedometer and once you finish your workout, control devices like TVs with the help of the IR blaster.

The fingerprint scanner is very accurate and it unlocks the phone straight from the standby mode. However, sometimes the display lights up slower than expected.

The phone is being advertised for the good sound but I would rate the loudspeaker quality as above average. Also, you will usually end up covering it up if you hold the phone in the landscape mode. The sound via the headset jack is great and I have no complaints here.

Gigaset Me Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

Since the Gigaset ME was released quite while ago, it sports a little outdated but still pretty good specs that include an octa-core Snapdragon 810 chip, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.

The Snapdragon 810 chip was used in the last year’s flagships for a reason. The phone can handle anything you throw at it without any issues. There is no stutter or skipped frames once you play the most demanding 3D games. Finally, the phone gets quite warm when gaming but it does not overheat.

Gigaset Me Review: BENCHMARKS

Gigaset Me Review: USER INTERFACE

The phone runs on the outdated Android 5.1 with the Gigaset’s skin on top it.

There are not too many features to talk about except for the fact that there are some redesigned icons and the app tray has been removed for some reason.

Most importantly, the UI runs fast and I didn’t have any stutter even after installing quite a few apps.

Gigaset Me Review: IMAGE QUALITY

IT IS HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED TO DOWNLOAD FULL RESOLUTION CAMERA SAMPLES TO SEE THE ACTUAL IMAGE QUALITY. THE PICTURES UPLOADED ON THE WEBSITE ARE 50% SMALLER IN RESOLUTION.

When it comes to the image quality, the Gigaset Me is definitely one of the best $150 camera phones you can buy. The images come out sharp, detailed and the color reproduction is accurate even though I took all the daylight pictures during the cloudy and foggy day.

The night photos don’t look that great but you will still be to take some usable images. Obviously, the pictures looks quite grainy buy my biggest complaint is a visible purple tint in most of the shots.

The selfies look kind of mediocre. All the images I took have quite a soft focus.

The phone can shoot videos at the resolution of 2k or 1080p. Either way, the quality of footage is just mediocre. My biggest complaint is a very poor sound recording quality.

Download full resolution camera samples

Gigaset Me Review: CONNECTIVITY

The phone ships with the hybrid SIM card tray where you can either put 2 nano SIM cards or a combo of 1 SIM and the microSD card.

I didn’t have any connectivity issues with this phone except for the fact that the sound quality from the earpiece is kind of mediocre.

Gigaset Me Review: BATTERY LIFE

The 3000mAh battery performs great. It will easily get you through the day and that translates to about 5 hours of screen-on time on a mixed use.

Also, the phone supports the Quick Charge 2.0 and you can fully charge the phone in about 1h 30 mins.

Gigaset Me Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, the Gigaset ME, the phone you’ve probably never considered buying.

Obviously, it was simply too expensive at the time of the release but for the current price of just $150, I think that it is a pretty good deal.

The phone looks and feels expensive, the display is pretty sharp and vibrant and the Gigaset Me has the specs that can still handle even the most demanding tasks like 3D games.

The camera can take some really nice and sharp pictures in daylight but it struggles in lower-lit situations. Also, the sound quality in the video recording mode is just horrible.

If you decide to buy this phone, you will probably be stuck with the Android 5.1. On the other hand, the day-to-day performance of the UI is good.

Still, the Gigaset ME is definitely worth $140 as it is a solid and nice-looking phone if you don’t mind the previously mentioned shortcomings and the fact that it will attract all the fingerprints and smudges once you use it.

The post Gigaset Me Review – Designed in Germany and Premium for $140! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Last year we finally saw Samsung doing the right thing with its design. The company made the phones that look premium and expensive. This year we have the upgraded Galaxies and the S7 Edge is one of them. Will it once again be one of the best smartphones on the market?

This review is brought to you by TechLineHD.

VIDEO REVIEW:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEfBGXWe5zg[/embedyt]

Samsung Galaxy S7 Review:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKx1VmuOl_c[/embedyt]

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

When it comes to the design, we are looking at the device that has a gorgeous 5.5” 2K display. We all know that Samsung have had one of the best screens on the market and the S7 Edge is no exception. The panel that is covered by the Gorilla Glass 5, is sharp, vibrant, bright and definitely on of the best on any smartphone. 

You will be able to see this great screen even under water as the Galaxy S7 edge is IP68-certified, meaning that it can be used for 30 mins up to 1.5m under water. Also, it can survive a little bit of dust, too. I would say that is a huge advantage over the majority of the competition.

We have a really cool innovation – always-on display and this feature is really neat. Basically, what it does, it shows the clock, calendar and some useful stuff, and this feature uses a very low amount of energy. To be honest, it took me a few days to get used to it as I wanted to turn the display off manually but I really love this feature. 

As the name implies, the display has edges on both sides and it adds a lot of character to the design. Sometimes it even makes an impression that the display is bezel-less.

Of course, there is a functional part of those edges. For example, you can create shortcuts to some tasks, quickly access contacts, news, apps and so on. 

If you swipe your finger along the edge screen while the display is off, you’ll get some other useful info too.

On the front, we have a 5MP selfie shooter, notification LED and other usual stuff. On the bottom, there is a classic Samsung’s button layout – nicely backlit capacitive keys and the physical home button, which also doubles as a fingerprint scanner.

Speaking of which, it is very fast and accurate but I am disappointed that it does not work straight from the standby mode, meaning that you should press the home or power key first.

The back is made of another sheet of Gorilla Glass 5 and the edges of it are also slightly curved. I gotta tell you that those curves make a huge difference in terms of comfort and ergonomics while holding the phone in the hand. 

The camera has 12MP, which sounds like a downgrade but we have all sorts of tech going on here. It has a dual-pixel tech to assure crazy fast auto-focus and believe me, it is the fastest I’ve seen. Also, the camera has OIS, PDAF and a whopping very bright f/1.7 aperture. 

Next to the camera we have the LED flash and a heart rate monitor to help you track your exercise routines.  

The power button, which is on the right along with volume keys, which are on the left, are very clicky and responsive. 

On the bottom, we have the regular ports, the loudspeaker, and neither of them are covered by flaps despite waterproof properties of the phone. 

On the top, there is a secondary mic and the nano SIM and microSD card tray. Yes, Samsung finally brought a cheap storage expansion option and you can add up to 200GB of local storage.

It is quite an interesting choice that we don’t have the IR blaster anymore. Well, I’ve never used it anyway but it was cool knowing it was there on the Galaxy S6. 

Overall, the phone looks amazing and I love the design ot it. It screams premium and it sits comfortably in the hand despite being a device with 5.5”display. However, keep in mind that the glass back attracts fingerprints and smudges very quickly.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: UI

See the video review for the UI performance.

When it comes to the UI, we have Samsung’s Touchwiz, which is built on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. 

If you’ve used a Samsung device before, you will feel pretty familiar with the user interface. Most importantly, everything is running smoothly most of the times and I didn’t have any lags.

We have a bit cartoonish looking icons, a lot of quick settings toggles and what has become usual to the South-Korean manufacturer, quite a lot of features and customisation options.

Just to name a few, you can quickly launch the camera by double clicking the home button. Also, you can trigger one handed operation if click the home button three times.

There is pop-up window mode or split-screen feature for those who can’t live without multitasking.

There are some other features too. Some of them may sound gimmicky, while others are even called experimental. 

Finally, you can customise your Galaxy device with a variety of different themes, wallpapers and so on.

All in all, the Touchwiz UI runs fast and fluid and I had a pleasant overall experience. However, it uses around 8GB of internal storage, which is too much I would say. 

Also, the RAM management is not yet perfect. Seriously, this is 4GB RAM phone and there is only 1.2GB of RAM free after killing all the background tasks? Hopefully, this is what Samsung is going to fix with the software update soon.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: BENCHMARKS

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge has a few hardware modifications but you can be rest assured that either model will have bleeding edge specifications.

My review unit is the EU model and it sports a home-brewed octa-core Exynos 8890 chip with the clock speeds of up to 2.6GHz, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. 

See the video review for gaming performance.

If you are wondering what this combo of specs is capable of, all 3D games just fly. There is no stutter or any skipped frames, the graphics look awesome and the games load amazingly fast. 

In addition, there is a dedicated Game Tools app that provides some convenient features like the ability to turn off alerts during the game or record the gameplay.

Also, the phone does not heat up at all even after extensive periods of gaming and that is thanks to the Volcano API and liquid-cooling system. 

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: MULTIMEDIA

When it comes to multimedia consumption, the sound quality via earphones is near excellent and the volume output is loud. However, the external speaker could be slightly louder and it sounds a little bit muffled. I believe that may be due to its waterproof properties. 

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: CAMERA

CHECK OUT IN-DEPTH CAMERA VIDEO REVIEW:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQz47PXFxFk[/embedyt]

Once you fire up the camera app, you will be blown away by the blazing fast auto-focus speeds in any light. 

What we have here is typical Samsung, which brings quite a few settings and shooting modes, and you can even download more modes  if you wish. 

One thing I was really disappointed by is that the sensor uses a native 4:3 aspect ratio, meaning that the images will not be full screen if you shoot at the maximum resolution. 

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: IMAGE QUALITY

When it comes to the actual image quality, it is definitely on of the best in class. The daylight pictures look sharp, have lots of detail, the colour look natural and other aspects like dynamic range and exposure and handled well. 

It is a similar story with indoor and macro shots as the camera manages to capture a great amount of detail despite worse lighting conditions.

The low-light camera performance is fantastic. It not only focuses very fast but also manages to produce great looking photos. Naturally, there is less detail but the level of it is still very good. Also, the noise levels are kept to minimum. The only shortcoming is that the auto post-processing leads to a slight yellow tint in some of the pictures.

The front facing camera takes very good selfies even in low light and that is thanks to the bright aperture.

Both 1080p and 4K videos look stunning. The footage is sharp and very detailed, the OIS does its job very well and the videos are one of the best I’ve seen.

See video review for video samples or see in-depth camera review.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: CONNECTIVITY

All the connectivity options that include Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS are working fine. Also, the signal reception is excellent and the call quality is good.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: BATTERY

The S7 Edge has a 3600mAh battery and I was curious how it performs with the always-on display.

I gotta tell you that I was quite impressed with the results. I could get over 5 hours of screen-on time while taking lots of pictures, shooting a lot 4k videos, gaming, browsing the web and so on. 

If you need to top up the battery, the phone charges up really fast and that is thanks to the fast charging feature. Also, there is an embedded wireless charging feature that helps cut a few wires.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. This is the best Samsung phone ever and definitely on of the best on the market. 

The design is really flashy, the curved screen with the always-on display feature is fantastic, the UI is running fast and the phone has one of the best specs currently available that can handle even the most demanding tasks without a sweat or overheating.

Also, the S7 Edge has awesome camera, a great battery life and yeah, this thing is fully waterproof.

On the other hand, the glass backplate is a huge fingerprint magnet, the UI takes a lot of storage space and uses lots of RAM, and the current state of software does not support Android 6.0’s adaptable storage.  Also, the camera sensor has a native 4:3 aspect ratio and oh boy, this phone is expensive. It costs around $800 and perhaps not everyone is going to buy it.

All in all, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is a fantastic phone and it will be one of the best devices out there for months ahead despite having a few shortcomings. Just remember, premium phone comes at a premium price.

This review is brought to you by TechLineHD.

The post Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: The Best Smartphone Ever? appeared first on Gizmochina.

Samsung has changed their design language in the past several years and the company has also brought some premium materials and great build quality to their midrange phones lineup.

Galaxy A5 2016 year edition is a great example of it but is it any good? Learn more in the full Galaxy A5 2016 review. 

The review is brought to you by TechLineHD.

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Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 VIDEO REVIEW:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPbxXcge_U[/embedyt]

Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

Let’s start by the design as the Galaxy A5 looks and feels like a flagship phone. It uses a quality metal frame around the device along with metal buttons, which are located on the left and right sides and they have excellent tactile feedback. Also, there is a single SIM card slot and the microSD card slot for storage expansion. It’s worth mentioning that you can also opt in for a dual-SIM card model.

The Gorilla Glass 4 protects the 5.2” 1080p Amoled display, which is just gorgeous. It is sharp, vibrant, bright and it has great viewing angles. Also, you can adjust colour temperature to your liking in the settings menu. 

On the top we have a 5MP selfie shooter with a bright f/1.9 aperture. Unfortunately, the phones does not have a notification LED light. 

On the bottom there are typical Samsung capacitive buttons with a nice backlight. The physical home button also doubles as a fingerprint scanner. While it is very accurate and recognises your fingerprint quickly, it does not work straight from the standby mode. For me, it is a huge letdown, because even some cheapest budget phones have this feature. 

The backplate is also covered by the sheet of the Gorilla Glass 4 and it is a fingerprint magnet but at least it is not that visible on the gold colour unit I have. 

As far as optics, we have optically-stabilised 13MP shooter with a single LED flash and a bright f/1.9 aperture.

The usual set of ports along with the loudspeaker and the mic are located on the bottom.

Overall, the phone feels really solid and if you asked me, I would say it could easily rival even the Galaxy S6. By the way, the full comparison review is just around the corner, so stay tuned to the TechLineHD for that. 

Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 Review: USER INTERFACE

When it comes to software, we are looking at the Samsung’s Touchwiz UI, which is built on top of Android 5.1. 

Although it is not as heavy as it used to be in the past, it is still Samsung’s UI after all. We have a briefing app, which is basically a news feed similar to the Blinkfeed we’ve seen on HTC phones for years. Also, we have redesigned icons, different colour schemes and so on. 

Some of the notable features would be the ability to quickly access the camera app straight from the standby mode by simply double tapping the home button. I have to say this is really good feature and it works well. 

A dedicated theme store allows you to choose from a variety of themes and lets you make the device look your own.

Finally, the Touchwiz UI is fast and snappy, and it’s a pleasure to use it as I didn’t have any hiccups or lags. 

Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 Review: BENCHMARKS

Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

Samsung Galaxy A5 has a mid-range level specs. It uses an octa-core Snapdragon 615 chip with the clock speeds of up to 1.6GHz, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage and only 11GB of it are available to the user.

While the phone will not be your next benchmarks champion, the hardware is definitely enough to run some graphically intensive games like Asphalt 8 at the highest settings without any lags but with just a few skipped frames.

The Snapdragon 615 chip is infamous for its overheating issues. However, I have to tell you that Samsung optimised it well and the phone does not overheat even after extensive periods of gaming. 

Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 Review: MULTIMEDIA

The sound via earphones is actually very good. However, the volume output could be louder. 

The loudspeaker is pretty good too. While it is not the loudest out there, it has quite a balanced sound with a decent amount of depth.

Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 Review: CAMERA

As far as the camera app, we have a typical Samsung interface. There are some settings and shooting modes to play with but most importantly, the app is fast, responsive, easy to use and the capture speeds are very fast. 

Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

The daylight images are near excellent and it is almost on par with most of the flagships. There is a huge amount of details, colours look natural and contrast levels are great. A few flaws that differentiate the Galaxy A5 from the e.g. Galaxy S6 are the dynamic range and exposure adjustment in some shots but these are just minor complaints. Well, the Galaxy A5 is a midrange phone after all. 

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When it comes to indoor and low-light shots, the level of details decreases and more noise kicks in. Still, the phone is capable of producing some good looking images and that is thanks not only to the capable hardware but also to mature post-processing.

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As for selfies, the Galaxy A5 is very good. It produces high-quality images with a good amount of details.

When it comes to the video recording, the phone can shoot up to 1080p videos and they look sharp, have lots of details, and the continuous auto-focus works fine. See a camera video review for various video samples. 

Make sure to check out my dedicated camera review video for more camera samples.

Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 Review: CONNECTIVITY

All the connectivity options that include Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS are working fine. Also, the signal reception is excellent and the call quality is good.

Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 Review: BATTERY LIFE 

The Galaxy A5 has a 2900mAh battery. In short, it performs really well. I could constantly get over 4.5h or even 5 hours of SOT even if used the phone quite intensively with maximum auto brightness setting. Also, the phone features a fast charging feature and I was able to fully charge the phone in less than 1.5 hours. 

Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, the Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 edition. For around $400 you are getting a phone that has a premium design and excellent build quality, great display, fast UI, a fingerprint scanner, great battery life and a very good camera. 

The Snapdragon 615 chip does its job for day-to-day tasks very well and even for some gaming. However, if you are a serious gamer and you love playing the all latest 3D games, the processor along with the GPU will not be powerful enough for you.

Another shortcoming would be a fingerprint scanner. Don’t get me wrong, it is fast and accurate. However, it does not work straight from the standby mode as the majority of even a lot cheaper phones. Cmon Samsung, step up you fingerprint scanner game. 

All in all, the Samsung Galaxy A5 is a great phone despite a few shortcomings and I can definitely recommend it. However, I can’t say there aren’t any other alternatives out there at this price point. E.g. the Galaxy S6, which is still a flagship, can be bought at a similar price right now. It has a much better chipset for gamers but has some other disadvantages like poor battery life. 

At the end of the day, the Galaxy A5 is still an awesome phone and the chipset is the only major shortcoming if you care about gaming.

Buy Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 from Amazon UK 

The post Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 Review – Almost A Flagship Smartphone? appeared first on Gizmochina.