THE NEW FLAGSHIP

Samsung Galaxy S9+
Price: Rs 64,900 onwards
Rating: 9/10

Samsung played it smart (or safe, depending on who you ask) with this year’s Galaxy S flagships, simply by retaining everything that consumers loved about the S8+, fixing some obvious design flaws and throwing in just enough new features to keep things interesting. The S9+ is, by far, the best big-screen flagship around.

The design takes off from where the S8+ left off — the same gorgeous glass-and-metal design with the screen edges seemingly flowing off the sides — while fixing the issue around the placement of the fingerprint sensor (it’s now under the camera, not beside it). There’s none of the silly notch design that was popular at MWC 2018 — instead, what you have is the best screen in the business, a 6.2-inch Quad HD+ Super AMOLED panel that’s brighter than its predecessor. On the inside, the larger S9+ sports Samsung’s latest Exynos 9810 silicon coupled with 6GB of memory, which keep the Samsung Experience 9 UI (based on Android Oreo 8.0) as snappy as they come. The camera sees some big updates — it can now switch between a super wide-open f/1.5 aperture and an f/2.4 aperture to control how much light is hitting the camera sensor. While the difference the variable aperture makes may only be discernible to pro-mode camera mavens, the f/1.5 aperture allows you to capture images in near-pitch dark situations, where most other cameras would simply fail to register a subject. Other camera bonuses — a 2x zoom for more reach and 960fps super slow-motion video — are handy when you need them, though the latter takes a fair bit of practice (and a lot of patience!) to get right. The stereo speakers sound fantastic and really up the audio ante.

All that glass attracts fingerprints. Intelligent Scan face unlock is faster than previous generations, but fails with sunglasses. AR (augmented reality) Emojis feel half-baked.

PREMIUM PROTECTION 

Kingston DataTraveler 2000
Price: Rs 10,000 for 16GB onwards
Rating: 7/10

If you’re the sort who’s paranoid about your data, ordinary USB flash drives just don’t cut it. Kingston’s DataTraveler 2000 takes security to the next level —it offers a physical keypad for a passcode over and above the hardware encryption that other drives offer. Think of it as a mini computer that secures your data and allows you to unlock/manage the device without it being plugged in — no drivers or software utility needed.

To use the drive, you enter the passcode, and the drive works like an ordinary storage device on any PC/Mac/Android — pull it out of the USB port or press the Key button, and it will lock down your data. You can change the passcode, switch between read-only and read-write modes, and reset the encryption key — all of this happens directly on the device itself. If you leave it lying around and someone tries to guess your passcode, the drive will reset itself after 10 guesses.

It’s large for a pen drive, by any measure, and can block neighbouring USB ports if they’re placed too close to each other. The series of button presses to operate the drive can get overwhelming for a non-technical user. At its price, you’re paying an insane premium for security, not so much for speed.

GO ANYWHERE SHOOTER

GoPro Hero 6 Black
Price: Rs 37,000
Rating: 8/10

Adventure enthusiasts need no introduction to the Hero 6 Black, GoPro’s latest take-anywhere, mount-anywhere rugged camera. It builds on the popular Hero 5 Black, adding in a bunch of new features, and remains the best action camera that money (albeit, lots of it) can buy.

For all its video prowess, the Hero 6 Black remains incredibly tiny, and since it retains the waterproof sealed-in design of its predecessor, it pretty much can go anywhere you can! You can control it via the GoPro app or via voice control, and this version adds 4K recording at up to 60fps and slow-motion 1,080p video at 240fps, though electronic image stabilisation for buttery smooth videos is capped at 4K/30fps. What’s surprising is that the Hero 6 Black turns out decent quality videos in low light and in tricky lighting conditions, the Achilles’ Heel for small action cameras. For Hero 5 owners, this one’s significantly faster to operate, Wi-Fi transfers to your phone/tablet are faster and the dynamic range improvements are well worth the upgrade. For truly cinematic looking videos, pick up the optional Karma Grip if your budget lets you.

Shooting all that 4K video drains the battery in a little less than an hour, so an additional set of batteries is recommended. Pricey, very.

FOR THE RECORD

Sennheiser AMBEO Smart Headset
Price: Rs 19,990
Rating: 8/10

Smartphones these days are capable of recording exceptional video, but their audio capabilities just haven’t kept pace. Sennheiser has a solution, at least for iOS users, in the form of the AMBEO smart headset — a pair of earphones capable of recording binaural, truly spatial audio that you can play back using a regular pair of headphones.

The AMBEO features an omnidirectional microphone on the outside of each earbud, both of which record sound in exactly the same manner as it goes into your ears. It’s designed to work with the iOS camera app (and some other apps), to feed in the mixed audio directly into the video you capture. The results are pretty spectacular — the microphones are incredibly sensitive even to softer sounds around you, and the positional audio effect is quite something as long as you (and your viewers) have a pair of headphones to enjoy it. There’s even a reduced recording level for when you are in loud environments. As a bonus, the AMBEO are a pretty respectable set of earphones for media consumption — they offer active noise cancellation (with a transparent hearing mode for situational awareness), and the sound is detailed across the spectrum.

The in-ear headphones are lightweight, yet some may find them fatiguing over long durations. Only for iOS devices for now. Recording video while wearing headphones is not natural for most.

Tushar Kanwar is a tech columnist and commentator. Follow him on Twitter @2shar. Mail your tech queries to t2onsunday@abp.in