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Showing posts with the label jamie.richards@futurenet.com (Jamie Richards)

Oppo Reno 12 FS review: a colorful budget contender

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Oppo Reno 12 FS 5G: Two-minute review The Oppo Reno 12 FS 5G is a budget phone done the Oppo way – better-than-average specs, a great sense of style, and cost-cutting decisions that mostly land on the side of confusion rather than frustration. This is a phone that, despite its shortcomings, punches well above its weight, most obviously with its great 6.67-inch display. Though far from perfect, this is a capable budget handset that handles 90% of what we use our phones for every day without complaint. At a fixed price point of £299, the biggest selling point the Reno 12 FS has is its excellent value for money. There are few other models on the market that offer this much utility for so little money, and a combination of 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage is almost unheard of in this price bracket. The Reno 12 FS continues to impress with its software experience – that is, once you get clear of the awful bloatware the phone ships with. ColorOS 14 is otherwise a swift and snappy experie...

Oppo Find X8 Pro review: don't call it an iPhone

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Oppo Find X8 Pro: Two-minute review The Oppo Find X8 Pro is built on truly excellent hardware. It sports a sleek premium design, a luxurious 6.78-inch display, and the best mobile camera system I’ve ever used. Its snappy performance and innovative UI animations also make it one of the smoothest-feeling phones on the market, and this combination of great hardware and slick software is reflected in the Find X8 Pro's high (but arguably competitive) retail price. However, the Find X8 Pro has clearly taken one or two (or ten) design cues from the iPhone 16 Pro , and at several points during this review, I found myself asking how much originality counts for. In many ways, the Find X8 Pro blazes past its inspiration, with smoother software, more powerful cameras, and – to my eye – a more interesting design. But Oppo can only take so much credit for a phone so substantially built on another phone maker’s ideas. Philosophizing aside, the Oppo Find X8 Pro is full to the brim with impress...

Xiaomi 14T review: considered compromises

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Xiaomi 14T: Two-minute review The Xiaomi 14T offers the design language and beautiful display of a current ultra-premium smartphone in a more affordable package, giving users a simply stunning screen and reliable performance for around half the price of a typical flagship. The compromises, notably in the camera department, are clear, but the 14T's display, battery life, and performance show Xiaomi isn’t just skimping, but making considered choices to deliver excellence in key areas. The gorgeous 6.67-inch AMOLED display is the star of the show here. Photo and video content looks amazing on this panel, which packs a punch in terms of both contrast and detail. The tall, high-resolution screen makes the lightweight 14T a reliable and portable gaming machine – I found it could sustain demanding games like Call Of Duty: Mobile and Race The Sun with no drops in performance and without overly depleting the battery. In day-to-day use, performance is snappy across the OS, though the p...