The Other Side – Episode 1: GadgetMatch

Tech360.tv is trying out something new and we’re calling it The Other Side, where we talk about the latest news in the tech world. Today’s episode is with a special guest, Michael Josh from GadgetMatch.

Michael Josh is a tech journalist based in New York, who started GadgetMatch in 2015.

Phones

It’s the second half of the year, which officially starts the next wave of flagship smartphones from Samsung, Apple, Huawei and more. The Samsung Note 10 is coming out on 8 August, there’s a new gaming phone from ASUS, the Google Pixel 4 and of course, the new iPhone.

Let’s talk about the iPhone first, Michael Josh and Bobby are pretty sure the leaked renders out there with the square camera bump are quite accurate as to what the phone will look like, and can’t wait to see what the triple camera setup will be able to do.

There’s also a new Snapdragon processor, the 855+ which should be the norm amongst all these phones.

The ASUS ROG phone sets itself apart by including a 6,000 mAh battery that can last around 7 hours of continuous PUBG playback, which still being reasonably sized. There’s two USB-C ports for users to plug in controllers on either side, similar to how the Nintendo Switch does it.

The screen even has a 120hz refresh rate, which has only been seen on the Razer phones before. But the interesting part is that the screen is an AMOLED display with a 1ms response time, which means rich blacks and nice colours.

Mid-range smartphones are also all the rage now, with the Redmi K20 Pro (also known as the Xiaomi Mi 9T) having really great specs at a low price points. The Pixel 3A is another gamechanger, using the same great cameras from the Pixel 3 but without the higher end processor to lower the price significantly.

Cameras

With smartphones having better and better cameras each year, what’s the state of mirrorless cameras now? Michael Josh is a full-frame purist, and was only willing to bite the bullet when Sony’s full-frame mirrorless range came out.

Nikon and Canon have finally joined the race but it only means that there’ll be even more competition, and that’s always good on the end of the consumers since that means more innovation and better products.

While Sony has been regularly updating their range of products, with the A7R IV the most recently announced, some are still holding out for the A7S III, which has been a long time coming. Most recent rumours have it pegged as delayed till September 2019, but we’ll see.

Bobby thinks Panasonic could be the unexpected dark horse for the year, with the upcoming S1H coming out soon. The only issue is the high pricing that needs to be tweaked to be more competitive with the rest of the market.

Huawei

This is probably one of the hottest issues in tech right now. Are we going to see a Mate 30? Will it be running Android or Huawei’s own OS, Hongmeng?

Huawei has come out with plenty of innovations in their smartphones at a time when other brands were sluggishly moving along, with stuff like handheld long exposure photos. From the P20 to the Mate 20 and now P30, Huawei has consistently been outdoing themselves, but now they’ve been thrown a curveball.

They’re being used as a negotiating chip in the trade war between the USA and China, which doesn’t bode well for Huawei’s future and possible entry into the States, since much of their software would most likely not be allowed.

At least the Android issue seems to now be resolved, with Huawei allowed to continue using it for their phones’ operating systems. But as always, it’s a developing situation that demands attention over the coming months.