Alexa Amazon Review

The Amazon Echo was a clumsy implementation for what ended up being an idea with legs. People have an appetite for a seamless voice-controlled assistant. The Star Trek Computer! Jarvis! Hal! Except not evil! It’s legitimately cool how easy it is to ask this gadget something and get answers. Yet the Echo didn’t do much, and the unvarnished tubular design that required outlet power didn’t seamlessly slide into your life like a voice assistant ought to.
All Images: Alex Cranz/Gizmodo
AU Editor’s Note: The Amazon Echo and its Dot and Tap counterparts aren’t yet available in Australia, although you can hack them to work just fine. — Cam
But it’s always-on listening trick turned out to be quite compelling, and so Amazon’s at it again.
With the Alexa-enabled Echo Dot and Tap devices, Amazon explores how exactly its voice assistant might more conveniently fit into our lives. The $US90 ($116) Dot is a hockey puck-sized version of the Echo (sans giant speaker), which needs outlet power and is always listening for your commands. You can use it on its own, or plug it into your existing sound system. The Tap is a variation on a cylindrical portable Bluetooth speaker, like the UE Boom, with Alexa powers built in. The catch is that the Tap requires that you activate the Alexa’s listening by touching a button — no always-on listening here.
As with the Echo, setup is very simple. Download Amazon’s Alexa app, and you’re quickly guided through connecting the devices to wi-fi. Since the Tap isn’t theoretically always in your home, you can also connect it to your phone’s data connection, but it’s a pain to do that on the fly and no one would ever bother.
The Echo Dot is wonderful and the Tap is a mess. They’re the best and worst prototypes of what a personalised voice-assistant might one day be.

The Dot’s become part of my daily routine as a glorified alarm clock that sits on the table next to my bed. At night as I’m dozing off, I bark at it that I want to be woken up at 6:45, and it dutifully sets the alarm and wakes me up with a soothing melody. Once out of the shower, I ask it for my “flash briefing” and it plays me the headlines from NPR News, and tells me what the weather’s like.
All of this, mind you, is stuff the Echo could do, but whereas the Echo is an unwieldy tube that blocks the light from my lamp, the Dot’s compact size makes it a convenient nightstand accessory I can easily shift around.
In theory, the Dot is designed to plug into another speaker system via little aux cable or Bluetooth, but I actually prefer to use the dinky speaker built into it. When I want to play music, I use something else.

Though I’ve managed to effortlessly slide the Dot into my life, the Tap mostly just sits on my desk in its charging dock unused. I don’t want to have to wake it up for it to work. Having to push the little microphone button creates just enough friction that I don’t use it. It’s a paperweight.
On the surface, the Tap seems to be a logical evolution of the Echo. The Echo kind of looked like a portable Bluetooth speaker, but it wasn’t portable. Moreover, it makes sense to have a portable assistant: I’m only in my bedroom or my kitchen at certain times of day, and it would be great if I could just carry it around everywhere I go. In practice, the Tap doesn’t really work like that. It’s nonsensical to carry the thing around everywhere I go. I’m not going to lug around a whole speaker on the off chance that I might need a voice assistant. The tech makes more sense built into a phone, and unfortunately, Amazon’s really, really bad at making phones.

The Tap’s also not a good enough speaker for playing music. It’s fine, sure, and at very low volume its playback is even and balanced. Yet turn it up even a little bit and the detail in your tunes gets muddled. Television’s swirly guitar solos got all bright — the high-end shredding your ears with a shimmery sheen.

Setting aside the design of the Dot and the Tap, the Alexa assistant itself suffers from many of the same frustrating limitations as the Echo. Amazon has spent the last year integrating more and more services you actually use into the Echo — you can use it to order Domino’s, call an Uber, and even to play music from Spotify — but the voice assistant still doesn’t do nearly enough. I can ask some very easily Googleable questions like “How tall is Barack Obama,” and I can call an Uber, but Alexa doesn’t know what time the dinner party is (unless I attach it to a very specific Google calendar), or what my friend’s cross streets are.
Also, the execution of the assistant powers is still clunky. The natural language recognition isn’t quite there yet. I can say “Alexa Play Nirvana from Spotify” and it will play top tracks from the band, but if I say “play Nirvana Nevermind from Spotify” it stalls, failing to recognise that I’m looking for the legendary record.

You have to really think about the commands you’re giving the device, and if you stall in the middle of giving a command it gets confused. If I say “Alexa play, er, um,” the devices just start playing some playlist from Prime Music I might like. Sure I like Tame Impala — but it’s not Nevermind, dammit.
In short, Alexa lacks the functionality and polish to really be part of my life in a meaningful way. At best, Amazon’s new gadgets, like the Echo before, are fun toys. At $US90 ($116), the Echo Dot is cheap enough, and offers enough that I would buy it just for fun. The Tap on the other hand isn’t good at much of anything, and I wouldn’t bother with it.
Amazon’s concept for smart gadgets still feels like the future. It’s a future based on some smart ideas, too. For now, you should probably wait for the future to buy in.

Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Review

No time for the pageantries, let’s cut straight to the chase. The Galaxy Note 5 is the best Note device Samsung has released up to this date. Featuring a completely reworked design in addition to top tier specifications, if a big phone is something you want, it is likely you will end up purchasing the Galaxy Note 5. But hey, don’t be so surprised, this is a very good choice you are making.
A redesigned exterior is something we have seen coming, thanks to the massive overhaul we saw in the Galaxy S lineup, and frankly, it is super nice. With the combination of a sexy look, ridiculously awesome display, superior camera, and a few added benefits of TouchWiz, the Galaxy Note 5 is “Phone of the Year” material in its purest form. But enough with the small talk, let’s get into it.
This is our Galaxy Note 5 review. 

---

The Good

Specs
For specs, we never expect anything but the best from Samsung for Note devices. Naturally, they stuck to their guns, outfitting the device with a crazy-good list of specs that all of us Android nerds can appreciate. The device features a 5.7″ QHD Super AMOLED display (2560×1440, 518ppi), Exynos 7420 64-bit 14nm octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB or 64GB storage configurations, NFC, MST, 16MP rear-facing camera with OIS, 5MP front-facing camera, 3,000mAh battery, Fast Charging, Fast Wireless Charging (wireless charger sold separately), a ton of sensors, and Android 5.1+ with TouchWiz. You will notice that the spec sheet does not include a microSD card slot, removable battery, or IR blaster. Don’t worry, we get into those topics down below.
Display
The 5.7″ QHD Super AMOLED beast of a display found on the Galaxy Note 5 is gorgeous. The blacks are black, images are crispy, and “4K” content streamed from various sources look fantastic. What helps make the display really “pop” is the lack of bezel surrounding it, at least in my opinion. Yes, this focuses more on the “design” aspect of the phone, but it’s something you can’t help but appreciate when starring at the device.
For all of you pixels fanatics, you will be happy to know it features a pixels-per-inch of 518, an incredible number spread just over 5.7″. Even when you are squinting really hard right next to the display, it’s impossible to make out individual pixels. With this device, Samsung continues its triumphant success in the world of mobile displays.

Macros for fun

Battery
While I can’t sit here and tell you the Galaxy Note 5 will last you multiple days without a charge, there is no doubt that in my time with the phone, it lasted much longer than that of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge – the two phones I have been using most of this year. While using the Note 5, I got a solid day of use out of the phone, even while traveling out of town and jumping from WiFi to cellular countless times. I was mostly impressed with how long the device kept ticking. But you should note, this is my experience. It’s likely that I use my phone differently from everyone here, and the same goes for you, but don’t be afraid thinking that Samsung can’t make a smartphone last a full day on the battery. As an added bonus, the device features Fast Charging along with Wireless Fast Charging, so even if you are pounding your battery, you can get a charge quickly for the remainder of the day.

Performance
Thanks to the 64-bit octa-core Exynos processor with 4GB of RAM, I hardly ever noticed any lag, frame rate droppings, or jank. I know, trust me, I am as shocked as you are. While fiddling with multi-window functionality or going in and out of applications, the Note 5 simply flies. And considering how many games and apps I play with on a daily basis, I am usually the first to cry over hiccups in performance. Now, the question is, will this performance stay strong? We saw on the Galaxy S6 that after a few updates and a couple months of daily usage, the performance took a dive, and honestly, all we can do is cross our fingers that the same won’t happen on this device. Android as an OS seems prone lately to getting wrenches caught in the gears, so much so that performance issues can’t be entirely blamed on custom skins from OEMs anymore. From what I have seen so far, I am not too worried about performance suffering in the coming months.
Design
When I say the Note 5 is the best Note device ever, I’m talking about the whole package. There’s no faux leather crap, fake stitching, or any other gaudy gimmicks to make this device look premium. This device is the pinnacle of premium when we are talking Android handsets. It’s weighty, but not overweight, giving off that sense of security and luxury. If you were debating over the Galaxy Note 5, head into a store and pick it up. It’s surprisingly light, even with its full-metal frame and glass adorning the front and back. Plus, the way Samsung curved the back portion, making the device fit snuggly in-hand is a great touch – much better than a squared slab of metal and glass in your hand that might poke you or feel somewhat sharp.
In my opinion, it’s one of the best looking and feeling devices ever made. Of course, design and looks are completely subjective, so what I think looks tasteful and elegant, you could feel otherwise. Just note, if you are switching from an older Note device to the Note 5, get ready for a serious in-hand difference.

Camera
The past few flagship devices from Samsung have featured fantastic shooters, and the Note 5 is no different. With a 16MP rear-facing shooter with OIS, I was able to capture a ton of great shots around the house and while I was up in Washington State for a wedding. Sadly, we have a ton of forest fires going on, so blue skies are somewhat hard to come by. Regardless, the Note 5 captures great detail, as well as fantastic video.

 

Worth noting, I found the Galaxy Note 5 to excel in a few points in particular – landscape shots, macro shots, and lowlight. For macro shots, the amount of detail you can pick up while viewing the photo on a QHD display is remarkable, and the colors are never blown out of proportion. While shooting landscapes, I felt that even if I needed to do a bit of size cropping, details were hardly lost, which is appreciated considering the photos are so massive in size that they do usually need a bit of trimming before hitting social media. Lastly, while I would not go so far as to say the Note 5 beats the G4 in lowlight scenarios, the Note 5 performs quite well. When viewing the shot before you snap, you will see much more noise than your actual finished product. Take the below moon photo for example. During shooting, my screen was filled with noise and other ambient light sources, but once the shot was complete, it actually turned out rather well. And with further tweaking of light settings, I am sure a more skilled photographer could snap excellent shots with this device.

 

Full resolution: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Availability
You know what’s nice about flagship devices from Samsung? You can get them anywhere and everywhere. The Note 5 is available to purchase from all major US carriers, coming in different colors and storage options. For colors, you have Black Sapphire and White, with the 32GB model typically priced at at about $700+ off-contract and the 64GB model going for $780+, depending on your carrier. It can also be purchased on an installment plan, bringing your monthly bill to about $20+ a month depending on which storage model you choose. For specifics on pricing, head to your carrier’s website.
Samsung Pay
Built into the Galaxy Note 5 is Samsung Pay, the company’s brand new mobile solution. As of right now, the service is in a limited beta, but will see a wider release near the end of the month. Since I don’t have a card supported, I can’t use it, but once I can, I plan on using it exclusively. The idea that newer terminals with NFC are not required is what interests me. Simply swiping my phone to pay, no extra steps needed? Sign me up. Once Samsung Pay is officially launched, we plan on giving it a whirl, and will then report our findings. Until then, having Samsung Pay is still listed as a big bonus.

Somewhere in the Middle

---

TouchWiz
TouchWiz has matured substantially since it was first baked onto an Android phone so many years ago, and frankly, it used to totally suck. I would say it reached peak crappiness levels on the Galaxy S5, but it appears Samsung has somewhat heard our cries of, “Jank!” On the Galaxy S6, they announced they had completely trimmed the custom skin, making devices smoother during operation. During my experience on the Galaxy Note 5, with its beefed up Exynos processor and 4GB of RAM, TouchWiz actually flies. The overall look of the skin itself is not all that bad, considering Samsung allows you to apply custom themes through the dedicated Themes app. One thing I can’t stand are Samsung’s custom icons. It’s amazing how terrible they really are. How Samsung intended for these to look good with any 3rd-party app is beyond me.

    

Everything on the new Galaxy devices is skinned – Dialer, Contacts, Calendar, Calculator, etc. It’s not that skinning things is bad, it’s that Samsung attempts to make TouchWiz look very unlike stock Android, which as a vanilla lover myself, I don’t care for. But again, themes! I applied the Material Theme as soon as I booted up the device, changing all of the stock application’s look, plus icons. It’s great.
To keep it short, TouchWiz is so much better than it used to be. I mean really, really better. And since Samsung sort of listened and gave the people what they want, I think TouchWiz will only get better from here. No, this isn’t me shunning vanilla Android, it’s just me being able to cope with the fact that I could see myself actually using this skin on a daily basis. And that’s saying a lot.

S Pen
First off, don’t stick it in upside down. Once you have mastered that crucial aspect of the S Pen, everything else will fall into place. Assuming your S Pen is not already stuck, Samsung’s latest S Pen is quite different from models past, with it now featuring a fancy clicker mechanism, the same as you would find on a pen. The clicker does not actually perform any useful features, but it’s fun to click, and that counts for something. In terms of what you can do with the S Pen, not too much is different, but there are a few things worth noting.
When you have your device locked and the display turned off, you can remove your S Pen and begin writing white text on the black screen. Notes you take can be saved as Action Memos for later viewing in the S Note application. In addition, users can create rolling screenshots, of a webpage for example, no longer limiting you to capturing just a display’s worth of information.
The same Air Command prompt appears when you remove the S Pen, allowing for quick note taking, Smart Select, and Screen Write. These same features were built into the Galaxy Note 4. While the S Pen feels solid and the software performs great, I am sorry, I can not give Samsung much credit when all it takes to break your phone is to stick the S Pen in backwards. That’s ridiculous.
See the video below for tips and tricks on how to get the most out of it.

The Not-so-Good

---

Missing microSD Slot and Removable Battery
There seems to be plenty of people up in arms over the fact that Samsung neglected to throw in a microSD slot and removable battery on the Note 5. I, however, am not one of those people. The only thing is, when we are talking “flagship” devices, you sort of expect a few things to be absolute – having expandable storage is one of those. While we may never know the exact reason Samsung decided to leave it out, even though it’s possible margins played a small role, I don’t find myself needing a microSD card all that much. Sure, if you shoot a ton of 4K videos and high definition photos, you may be screwed, but what percentage of buyers actually plan on doing that? And for those of you who download 1,000 apps onto the phone, really? Is that necessary? Thankfully, that’s not up to me to decide, and instead, it’s up to you. If you feel that you need 128GB+ of storage at all times, get a different phone. But if you can manage to keep your goods on-device (not including cloud storage) to just 32GB or 64GB, the Galaxy Note 5 is a great option.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Review

During the decade I have spent reviewing smartphones, I had realized early on that there is no such thing as a perfect smartphone. A running joke in our community used to be that all companies leave out at least one feature willingly in order to be able to sell a better successor or other models in its portfolio. Think about it, how many times have you come across a smartphone with a great camera but pathetic battery? Or one that has everything going for it but it requires you to have palms the size of a gorilla’s in order to comfortably use it (I’m looking at you, iPhone 6s Plus)? But things are changing, and of all companies, it is Samsung that is changing the status quo with the Galaxy S7. I have been using the Samsung Galaxy S7 as my primary smartphone for the last fortnight and my decade long search for the perfect smartphone is finally over. 
Samsung has been the only smartphone vendor that has been able to give any competition to Apple’s iPhones. Its Galaxy S and Galaxy Note range of smartphones have been at the cutting edge of technology but have always let users down with its pricing, design or missing features. Hence, the theory about companies not wanting to build the perfect smartphone. The Galaxy S5 was overpriced, had a really bad plastic build and design that seemed inspired by a bandaid, of all things. To its credit, the Galaxy S5 was waterproof and had a microSD card slot. Needless to say, it couldn’t hold its own against the iPhone 6 that was launched later in the year.

Heads rolled at Samsung after the disaster that was the Galaxy S5 and the company started from scratch with the Galaxy S6. There was a brand new camera sensor that was better than the iPhone 6s‘ that was launched a few months later. The Galaxy S6 was a stunner with the premium glass and metal unibody design, which indeed looked better than the iPhone 6′s flat metal body with ugly antenna lines. But only if looks could kill. In order to get the design right, Samsung had to remove two of the best features from the Galaxy S5 — waterproofing and microSD card slot. When was the last time you saw a flagship smartphone that had lesser features than its predecessor?
The Galaxy S7 is the result of constant fine tuning that has happened over the years and it shows. Samsung had more or less perfected the design with the Galaxy S6 and that has remained mostly untouched. The glass and metal body with curved edges feels great in the hand, though the phone feels slippery initially and takes time getting used to. The back glass is now slightly curved, which offers better grip. What I love the most about it is the thin bezels, which makes the phone comfortable to use with one hand. The 5.1-inch QHD Super AMOLED display is an absolute treat to the eyes. The phone itself is slightly thicker than the Galaxy S6. The rear camera bump is still present, but it is not as pronounced as that on the Galaxy S6. If I were to nitpick, the black variant is a fingerprint magnet, though the gold one looks gorgeous.
With the Galaxy S7, Samsung has managed to keep the design and add some of the most sought after features. The Galaxy S7 finally gives users the option to either use dual-SIM cards or use a microSD card for expandable storage. It is now water resistant too and comes with a bigger 3,000mAh battery compared to the 2,550mAh battery on the Galaxy S6. With the new additions, the Galaxy S7 checks all the features one normally seeks in a flagship smartphone.
Then there is the curious case of the new camera. On paper, the Galaxy S7′s 12-megapixel rear camera might seem a downgrade from the 16-megapixel camera on the Galaxy S6 but the photo results blow away every smartphone camera, the iPhone 6s Plus included. The Galaxy S7 has the same 1/2.6-inch sensor size as the Galaxy S6 but it now has bigger 1.4 micron pixels and a brighter f/1.7 lens. Samsung says it also has a new dual-pixel auto-focus technology where every pixel has two photodiodes that helps in uniform and fast auto-focus.

Specifications aside, during my usage I found the Galaxy S7′s camera to consistently perform far better than the iPhone 6s Plus, especially in low light conditions. The Galaxy S7′s camera had brighter, sharper and overall much better photos than the iPhone 6s Plus. The details it can capture are unparalleled when it comes to shooting with smartphones. Check out the actual crop of the photo clicked in a dark nightclub. Or the photo of the flowers, which I clicked on a windy day and yet the camera managed to focus well, complete with depth of field bokeh effect. Yes, the colors are punchier than real life while the iPhone produced closer to natural colors. Even the front-facing 5-megapixel camera produced bright, crisp and sharp photos.
Samsung has launched the Exynos 8890 octa-core variant of the Galaxy S7 in India and not the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 one. While many were disappointed, during my usage I didn’t find any problems with this variant. Coupled with 4GB of RAM, the phone is fluid no matter what you throw at it. For gamers Samsung has also added a new ‘Game Tools’ feature that blocks alerts, locks recent and back keys, take screenshots and even record the game play. This could come handy for hardcore gamers.
What impressed me the most about the Galaxy S7 is its battery performance. Despite running a high-resolution QHD display and the powerful hardware, I was easily able to see through an entire day consistently with about four hours of screen on time. I always had 4G LTE, Wi-Fi and location services switched on, had a Slack account, two Gmail accounts, about two hours of web browsing and two hours of calls. This is unparalleled performance, especially when you consider the size of the phone — it is not a phablet but a slick, handy device.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 is priced at Rs 48,900 for the 32GB variant. While many might scoff at the pricing considering the likes of Xiaomi Mi 5 offers similar features at almost half the price, the complete package with water resistant capabilities, camera quality, microSD card slot and the battery performance makes the Galaxy S7 the perfect smartphone in my books. If you have the money to spare, the Galaxy S7 is the smartphone to buy.