Steve Litchfield
(Rants, Raves, Reviews)

I recently declared that a phone needs to be lifeproof to be... well, Steve-proof, and that this partly means a decent degree off waterproofing, for use when it's raining (this is the UK!) and for surviving the occasional dunk in washing up water or similar. Which largely precludes the use of 'folding' phones, as in devices which unfold along their length to reveal a mini-tablet. However, there are some subtleties here, if we look at specifications and review materials. So I thought a brief table might be helpful. Device Official IP rating Notes Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 IPX8 No official dust rating, though brushed hinges seem to keep most dirt out in JerryRigEverything tests. Oppo Find N2 none Advertised as 'dust and water resistant'. So OK for use in the rain, for example, but it won't survive a dunking. Vivo X Fold 2 none Teardowns have shown water gaskets and various protections, so again probably fine in the rain, even down the be

Time after time I hear myself on-air complaining about a late or missing update to a smartphone. In the grand scheme it doesn't matter that much, surely? Why should it matter to a phone user whether their device is on 'March 2023 Android security' or err... 'April'? Or indeed 'February'? Well, it normally doesn't. Certainly most phone users have no awareness of the security status of their devices.  The security-smart answer is that users need protecting from themselves. All operating systems have some bugs, some vulnerabilities, due to their complexity, and exploiting (and fixing) these is a perpetual game of 'whack a mole' played between hackers and software developers.  But if a serious vulnerability is found in Android OS then simply going to a booby-trapped web page or being tricked into downloading and installing something dodgy, let alone knowingly downloading 'cracked' commercial apps and games from the dark web, then the phone ca

Yes, yes, manufacturers usually quote durability specs (materials, IP rating, etc.) when advertising their phones, but for me it comes down to a certain minimum - if a device is man enough (or, I guess, woman enough!) to survive real world daily use. So, for example, I have my iPhone 14 Pro Max. It: has a stainless steel chassis has 'Ceramic Shield' glass is IP68-rated for dust and water, so is essentially waterproof to the nth degree, you can wash it under the tap or in the bath if it gets dirty is encased in tough clear TPU (and belt-holstered ) Then, to one side, the other smartphone I'm captivated by, the Microsoft Surface Duo, two displays, 360 degree hinge, and so forth. Amazing potential for productivity, a folding tablet in the pocket, effectively. It: has two Gorilla Glass Victus displays, with Gorilla Glass backs has no IP rating, thanks mainly to the 360 degree hinge mechanism and likely ingress of dust and water can't be cased due to the need to fold closed

I did want to plug my friend Juan Carlos Bagnell's YouTube video here, as I'm essentially repurposing his bullet points, but in written prose rather than on camera! You see, the move to larger camera sensors in smartphones has been something I've been tracking for one and a half decades . And in each case, sensors getting larger has been a very.good.thing . Except that good 'ol physics, the same physics I've been touting as a benefit as sensors have gotten larger and more and more light is being gathered, and photos have thus got better even in dim lighting conditions - that same physics has meant that the trend has passed a tipping point and we're now starting to see real world issues in real world phones. Too shallow depth of field Starting off with something that's perhaps subjective, since it depends on exactly what you want your phone to photograph. But a larger (1") sensor means a larger aperture feeding it light, and the larger the aperture, the

The story so far... I can't live without a belt case for my PDA/smartphone/whatever. Really. I've tried, and I kept leaving it behind. And don't talk to me about pockets - these are fine when I have a jacket or coat, but I find today's giant phones uncomfortable in a trouser front pocket. I'm clearly in a worldwide minority here - maybe I'm just too slender!  So belt case it is. And my go to for the last decade has been PDAir - I won't link to their web site because it's effectively dead now. Either coronavirus or just market forces or mis-management caused their demise. Which was a great shame, since their slender vertical belt pouches were/are perfect for me. Here's an early sample, from 2013 for the Lumia 1020: Since then I've managed to get half a dozen (gradually larger) PDAir belt pouches and these have done my various Android and then iPhones right up to date. In each case, I like to have the phone in a slimline TPU case (for grip) and the

Now, don't get me wrong, the camera on the Surface Duo is pretty bad. By modern standards (take it back to 2008 and it would be doing well). Though in fairness, Microsoft never pitched the Duo as a consumer phone and only ever talked about its one camera, above the right screen, as suitable for video/Skype?Team calls. However, I've talked about 'GCam' before - essentially Google's Pixel Camera software extracted from updates and adapted for other phones. This combines images taken fast, one after the other, to reduce noise and improve detail (plus other enhancement tricks). It was created originally for the Google Glass project. This original wearable had such a tiny (and thus relatively 'bad') camera that Google called on the software expertise of its imaging department to work miracles, pulling usable images from digital soup. So, unsurprisingly, it can work wonders too on the unspectacular camera hardware of today - in this case, the aforementioned Surfac