I’m a big fan of the comedian Dara O’Briain. He never fails to illicit full belly laughs from me. He’s got a fantastic joke (that we can probably all relate to) about a friend of his who just got Sky HD and an HD TV. I’ll never do the joke justice here, so check it out below. As fun as it is to laugh at this well-intentioned but tech-illiterate friend, I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I had an experience similar to this one the other week with my PS5. The thing is, however, I’m sure I’m not the only one.
As Marty pointed out last week, the PS5 doesn’t have a huge amount going for it at the moment. In fact, apart from Demon’s Souls, I can’t think of a single game that would make me wholeheartedly recommend the upgrade. One thing that the PS5 does have over the PS4 though, is the ability to play games at higher resolutions, higher framerates, and with the oh-so-lovely Dualsense controller. This was certainly a draw to the estimated 25% of PS5 owners who didn’t have a PS4. However, it probably wasn’t enough on its own to make all but the most hardcore gamers buy into the system (for the record I don’t fit into either of those categories, I’m just a sucker for new tech).
Not all Games are Created Equal
The basic gist is pretty simple; on both the PS5 and the Xbox Series you can get a free upgrade to the next-gen version of a game if you own the previous-gen version (so if I bought the PS4 version of Assassin’s Creed I’d essentially be able to get the PS5 version free of charge). Not all games support this, however, but any that don’t will, more than likely, run smoother and have fewer performance issues on the newer tech. It’s a win-win in all scenarios.
On the Xbox Series, this is all handled in the background. You pop your game in and when you go to play it, you’re prompted to upgrade to the next-gen version. The update downloads, installs, and you’re good to go. Not so for the PlayStation. If you own a PS4 game that’s been given the “re-release” treatment you have to go to the tab for the game, find the store tile for the game you already own, and “rebuy” it. This will start the update and it will bring you over to the newer version of the game. Now, this doesn’t cost any money, but it’s such an awkward way of doing things. Even at the best of times, it’s tough to know which version of the game you’re playing. Some games like Final Fantasy VII Remake are a whole other kettle of fish.
Owning up to my shame
I was caught out by this last week. In a previous article, I wanted to include a picture of Crash Bandicoot in his Pirate outfit from It’s About Time. “Great,” I thought, “the game just got a free upgrade to the PS5 version, so I bet it’ll look deadly!”. I loaded up what I thought was the PS5 version of the game and took a couple of screenshots. They didn’t come out too well. When I went through the palaver of importing them to my PC, they were blurry, I lost a lot of detail as I zoomed in. Nothing seemed to add up. I went back to try and take some better shots and I noticed a tile on the PS5 home screen that was offering me a digital copy of Crash Bandicoot for free. Turns out this was the upgrade file that I thought had downloaded automatically! Well, I never felt like more of a fool. There was I playing through the final frustrating levels of the game following a normal update thinking “Well I guess it kind of looks better, and it loads a little faster”. All a placebo effect induced by the tall white trickster! I became that friend who was obsessing about his not-actually-HD HD TV.
How to Avoid the Trap
If this happens to you, or if you want a free upgrade to the game be sure to do a little search in the game’s page and download the file marked as “Free” from the store. After that installs, make sure you’re playing the PS5 version of the game by opening the options page from the Game-Launch tile. This will let you know which version of the game you’ve currently got loaded up. Why Sony didn’t make this a seamless, automatic process I’ll never know. Who would actively choose to play a lesser version of a game? Who doesn’t want to play at a guaranteed 60fps or 4K if they can? Even when I loaded up the new version of Crash 4 all the button prompts had changed to match the Dualsense buttons, just compounding the shame I felt.
No gaming experience should be this complicated
Look, in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t a major problem. It’s not even a first-world problem. It’s a 1% problem. But it’s just one more thing that’s disappointing about the overall experience of the PS5. Now to go and download the PS5 versions of Ratchet and Clank and Horizon: Zero Dawn before the sequels come out…
It’s been a rollercoaster year for new social media kid on the block, TikTok. The platform has, for me at least, kept me incredibly entertained during the many various versions of lockdown that we’ve had. It’s not just about silly dances, trends and music though. TikTok is an incredibly diverse and accessibility-focused social media app. Today, its just released the long-awaited text-to-speech functionality in Ireland. Here’s how to use it.
How To Use Text To Voice With TikTok In Ireland
This isn’t a stupid workaround guide, of which there are plenty online. This is the real deal. Before you start, make sure you’re using the latest and most up to date version of the TikTok app.
I’ve tested this on both Android and iPhone so both should work.
Record your video. You can either upload a video you’ve already recorded or record natively within the TikTok app. Again, I’ve tested both.
Once you’ve finished capturing, hit the red tick for final editing.
At the bottom, select text and type the text you would like to end up as speech. You might need to play around with some of the spellings to strike a balance between how it looks and sounds. TikTok will make mistakes and remember. We’re speaking Irish-English here people.
Once you’ve finished writing your text, tap away from the text and then tap on it again to edit it.
Where you used to see “Set Duration” and “Edit”, you’ll now see “text-to-speech” too.
Tap this option and TikTok will take a second to do it’s best to convert your text to speech.
If you edit the text, you’ll need to regenerate the sound again. You can add several to a single video clip by editing the duration of the text like you did before.
Why Is TikTok’s Text To Speech So Popular?
There are two big reasons this is important. First, and foremost, it encourages all users to add subtitles to their videos. This makes the entertainment accessible for more users, for example, people who are hearing impaired.
The other reason is down to the world slowly but surely opening back up again. As we get back on buses or sitting in public places without headphones in general, people will start gobbling down TikTok videos again and won’t always be able to listen. Text-to-speech makes it far more likely that videos will have text.
So, if you’ve jumped into TikTok in the past year, there’s some fun news for you. Go forth and create funny videos with robotic voiceovers. If you’re new, we’ve already pulled together a list of the best people to follow on TikTok. If we’ve missed some people let us know.
That’s the review. Easily one of the worst films I’ve ever watched. I’m not reviewing it because it’s awful. If you still want to watch it on your head may it be.
Spotify enjoyed the lions-share of the music streaming market for many years. Most recent data shows that they sit in second place to Apple Music. It’s not a bad place to be for the platform, but how do they continue to grow and make more money without losing subscribers. Well, they take a leaf out of Apple’s book. Apple, a hardware company, is making money by moving into software, or services. Spotify, a service, is moving into hardware with the Car Thing. It’s actually free, but unfortunately, not available in Ireland.
What Is Spotify Car Thing?
The idea of the Spotify Car Thing has actually been around for a few years. The original gadget was designed to be a voice-controlled in-car music control, much like the latest iteration is. The difference is that the original was to learn from users. This new Car Thing is very much shifting focus towards generating revenue from hardware units.
Car Thing lets you play music from your Spotify Premium account while driving without the need to take out your phone. Not everyone has Android Auto or Apple Car Play or even a young enough car for such technology, making a retrofit gadget like this a very popular idea. To play some tunes, you just have to say “Hey Spotify” followed by the track or playlist you’re after. You’ll then be able to control what’s on your Car Thing with your voice or the physical dial on the front, along with the generously sized touchscreen.
Is Spotify’s Car Thing Free?
Yep. The weird thing is that the Car Thing is free. Spotify is looking to make money by giving away free hardware. You’ll need to fork out for delivery, but the device itself won’t cost you a penny. It’s exclusively available for Spotify Premium customers and can only be requested. You’re not at all guaranteed to get it. See that. FOMO, just like what Sony is doing with PlayStation 5 right now.
Spotify themselves say their “focus remains on becoming the world’s number one audio platform—not on creating hardware” but this is a clever move. There is a massive surge in interest from customers who want a better in-car audio experience. The likelihood is that Car Thing is going to drive new customers to abandon Apple Music or other streaming platforms, jumping ship for Spotify and some neat hardware delivering a “seamless and personalised in-car listening experience”.
All of those new customers are not only bringing new revenue but because of the hardware commitment, they’ll be unlikely to leave the platform either. Genius.
Does Car Thing Need Data?
Yes. To work, Spotify’s Car Thing needs a WiFi or data connection. The latter being the more likely for when your out and about in your car. It doesn’t have to many smarts inside it either and will need to retain a connection to a smartphone too.
Is Car Thing Coming To Ireland?
No. Spotify has not provided any information on further plans to provide or sell the Car Thing outside the United States. For now, the Car Thing will only be available in the U.S. and is available on an invite-only basis.
If you’re in the United States and like the sound of this, you can sign up for Car Thing with Spotify. Best of luck with requesting your invite!
There’s a beautiful irony about the whole zombie genre. It’s been done to death and keeps coming back for more. Netflix has released two trailers for the upcoming Army of the Dead movie. The first trailer left me feeling like the end of Season 3 of The Walking Dead. The second, longer trailer released this week which reveals a bit more depth of the story is much more exciting. It looks like some genuinely new takes on the classic zombie category.
What’s The Plot?
So we got zombies. Somehow, the zombie outbreak seems to have been limited to Las Vegas. The gambling capital of the world is walled off from the rest of humanity and all that remains inside are zombies. The simply massive Scott Ward, played by (Dave Bautista) manages to fit himself in behind a burger frier and works in a cafe. He’s a veteran of the zombie war, one of those types who could tell you a few things about what went on.
He’s approached by a casino boss who wants to get some his $200 million dollars that sitting in his casino’s vault back before Las Vegas is levelled by a nuke to finish off the whole zombie thing.
The movie seems to be offering the classics. We have limited time to get everything done, a vault that’s impossible to crack and some pretty fast zombies.
What Kind Of Zombies Are In Army Of The Dead?
They’re fast “28 days later” zombies. And no, I don’t know if they’ve actually died and been reanimated which still begs the question whether or not we can even call them zombies. All that’s to be decided still. The more recent trailer does give us lots of insight into the zombies behaviour beyond them being bloody fast.
They seem to be a lot more intelligent than your average reanimated dead. There’s a power hierarchy and even seems to be zombie leadership. Two of the zombies share a moment of passion together too.
There’s also some great contextual zombie stuff to enjoy purely because we’re in Vegas baby. For example, there is a reanimated Elvis impersonator, or at least I’m assuming an impersonator and not the real deal. We also get to see a rarity for the genre in animals being effected too, all thanks to a cameo from a zombie tiger.
Is Army of the Dead a sequel to Dawn of the Dead?
No. While close in name, Army of the Dead is a standalone movie. For now.
Army of the Dead isn’t Zack Snyder’s first rodeo when it comes to zombie flicks. Snyder, who has been in the news recently for his darker cut of Justice League, had his breakthrough directorial moment with “Dawn of the Dead” 17-years ago. But we have to remember that as brilliant as Dawn of the Dead is, that’s actually a remake from the 1978 original directed by the godfather of zombie movies, George A Romero.
Army of the Dead is unlikely to be a stand alone movie with many tipping it to be the start of a whole franchise for Netflix.
Who Is In The Movie?
Army of the Dead features Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana De La Reguera, Matthias Schweighöfer, Theo Rossi, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Garret Dillahunt, Tig Notaro, Raúl Castillo, Huma S. Qureshi, Samantha Win, Richard Cetrone, Michael Cassidy.
The big news for this movie is that Dave Bautista gets a leading role. He bloody well deserves is after years of being a supporting actor doing a lot of heavy lifting. It’s also great to see Matthias Schweighöfer playing the German safecracker. I’ve seen him in loads of German stuff and find him hilarious.
What Is The Release Date For Army of the Dead?
Army of the Dead is streaming on Netflix from May 21 2021. Follow the latest news on social media using #ARMYOFTHEDEAD
Did I fit enough puns into that title? For those of you who don’t know her, Aloy is the star of 2017’s Horizon: Zero Dawn, one of the best games of that year (and it was an exceptionally good year!). The game itself centered around Aloy, an orphan of unknown origins finding the true history of her parentage and (inevitably) leading her people to combat a world-ending threat. Everything about it was sublime from the way you handled your bow, to the stunning design of the techno-animals to the way it handled the incredible graphical fidelity. It even had a brilliant marketing campaign showing what each city it was being marketed in would look like if it were in the game.
O’Connell Street after the third lockdown
Recently there’s been a lot of buzz around Aloy for a few good reasons, and I’m here to break them down and hopefully get you as excited as I am to see her get here long-overdue time in the sun.
The Battle Bus launches today
Anyone under the age of 18 will probably be well aware of the news that Aloy will be making an appearance in Fortnite later this week. That’s right, the bow-slinging, robo-dinosaur slaying heroine is paragliding in on her own custom Glinthawk glider. If you buy the skin, you’ll not only get her and her custom glider, but you’ll also get a skin for your pickaxe to make it look like Aloy’s spear.
Aloy always thanks the driver
It gets even better if you’re playing on a PS4 or PS5. Starting now, there’s an event that will allow you to unlock the Aloy skin by eliminating other players and getting as many of those coveted Victory Royals as you can. Every elimination will earn you points, with bonus points being awarded depending on how well you do in the game. Fittingly, if you get any eliminations with a bow, you’ll get even more bonus points! If you’re playing on European servers, you just have to finish in the top 800 players after 10 matches and you’ll unlock all the goodies.
But wait, there’s even more! If you’re playing on a PS5 you can unlock an extra skin for free. Any early adopters out there can get the Banuk Ice Hunter character skin for Aloy as well. So what are you waiting for?
Play at Home
This time last year, Sony decided to do their bit to help those of us who were in lockdown with the Play at Home initiative. The idea behind this was to provide 2 free PS4 games to help alleviate some of the boredom that comes from being cooped up indoors. These games were completely free with no PS Now or PS+. These weren’t the games that Sony didn’t mind giving away, either. The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey were up for grabs. Not exactly obscure gems. Play at Home returned this year with Ratchet and Clank being offered to everyone regardless of their subscription level. A fantastic game that I would recommend to everyone. Get it quickly though, because it’s being replaced with, you guessed it, Horizon: Zero Dawn Complete Edition.
If you own a PlayStation, you owe it to yourself to play this game. As I said, it was one of the best games of the year it came out. The story is brilliant, with natural dialogue and fantastic acting from some big names. The gameplay is engaging and strikes a perfect balance of challenge and reward. The visuals are revolutionary in the way it allows even base PS4 systems to render stunning scenery and intricate monster models in exquisite detail. There’s no better time than now to pick up this masterpiece, especially considering…
Horizon: Forbidden West
We can still be hopeful that Horizon: Forbidden West will make an appearance in 2021. The Pandemic has played havoc with the development of any number of movies, games, and TV shows. In fact, Phil Spence of Xbox said last year that 2021 is when we’d see releases slow down, not 2020. It’s fair to say that Sony was ambitious with their projected release windows for some games they announced back at their PS5 reveal event. God of War: Ragnarök, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Ratchet and Clank were all given 2021 release dates. This would be a tall order in any year given all three would require enormous teams putting in a herculean effort to hit the expected standard. In a pandemic, this goal seemed downright insane. Thankfully, Ratchet and Clank has been given a June 2021 release date, so I’m extremely excited about that. God of War hasn’t been mentioned since so I think it’s fair to say we won’t see that until the back end of 2022 at the earliest.
So where does that leave Aloy’s latest adventure? Well according to PlayStation Europe CEO Jim Ryan we can rest assured that HFW will be out this side of Christmas. This is still only a target, mind, and still subject to change but there’s always hope that we’ll be able to catch up with Aloy and find out what she’s been up to later this year.
The Data Protection Commission has today launched an “own volition inquiry” into Facebook following reports of a massive data leak. Last week, it emerged that there had been a leak of personal data belonging to approximately 533 million Facebook users worldwide. Within this group were over one million Irish social media users.
In response, the social media giant believed “the information in the data-set released this weekend was publicly available and scraped prior to changes made to the platform in 2018 and 2019” and had not reported anything to the DPC. Following a short period of consideration, the DPC today confirmed that “having considered the information provided by Facebook Ireland regarding this matter to date, is of the opinion that one or more provisions of the GDPR and/or the Data Protection Act 2018 may have been, and/or are being, infringed in relation to Facebook Users’ personal data”.
Own volition means the DPC may not have necessarily received an official complaint or has received a complaint and is first looking at the situation more broadly, as is the case with my own complaint against the Church’s handling of data under GDPR.
The ultimate goal of this action by the DPC is to determine whether or not Facebook Ireland “complied with its obligations, as data controller, in connection with the processing of personal data of its users” on any Facebook platform, including Instagram and whether or not the platform has not met the requirements of GDPR.
I don’t often get to write about music, but I do love a good tune. I love a good tune making a point more than anything. Lil Nas X recently released MONTERO, but now it’s apparently being pulled from streaming platforms. Is it really about to be pulled from the public or is this all a bit of a marketing ploy by the American rapper?
Is MONTERO Being Pulled From Streaming Platforms?
Today, the rapper took to Twitter to break the news that his latest track might be about to be pulled from streaming platforms, thanking his fans for the support he’s received to date.
not even joking. everybody stream call me by your name hard today because it may no longer be available tomorrow and there’s nothing i can really do about it. thanks for all the support tho! 🤍
Now, my first reaction was “this is a genius marketing ploy”, something this song has not been short of. The rapper followed up with another tweet encouraging his followers to “screen record” the track so at least they still have it in their gallery.
everybody screen record the audio/video on youtube so you will have the song in your gallery worst case scenario https://t.co/pjGd1CP2tw
A call to pirate the track is hardly a regular request from a music artist. At the same time, this would could inspire millions to fully stream the track on YouTube or another streaming platform. The result would be the track racking up play numbers and sending positive signals to ranking algorithms.
It’s unclear why exactly the track would be vanishing, but MONTERO is not without some “holy Joe” controversy.
Why Would MONTERO Be Pulled From Streaming?
There really is no genuinely good reason for the song to be pulled other than some people are finding it offensive.
What Is MONTERO About?
In 2019, Lil Nas X, best known for the hit “Old Town Road”, came out publicly as gay. Big whoop says you. The rapper has described MONTERO as his effort to normalise same-sex lust.
I love that this song, and in particular the video. In the video, the rapper is seen playing all the characters, succumbing to temptation, ending up “in hell”, making love to “the devil” before becoming “the devil” himself. Simple synopsis there. Understandably, it’s super provocative to many. And that’s ok. You’re allowed find it offensive and you can even find the shoes the rapper released offensive. But, you kind of have to accept it’s offensive and get on with your life. Because it’s offensive to you, for your beliefs. Just like some people unfortunately find homosexuality offensive. The world has moved on and the love of two people needs to be celebrated, regardless of orientation.
Basically, MONTERO is all about lust and love between two people, regardless of gender identity or orientation being normal, the video is about showing people that’s going to happen with or without you.
Will MONTERO Be Pulled?
Potentially, this could be the reason the song and video fit into the category of “believable content to be pulled”. At the same time, there’s plenty of more questionable stuff on YouTube and other music streaming platforms. I just can’t bring myself to believe that MONTERO is really going to be pulled because some people are finding it offensive.
This is one of the main reasons I’m using GDPR to tackle the Catholic Church on how they handle my records. People in the church have a right to live life their way. I’ll personally fight for their right to live their way of life, but only as long as it doesn’t impact everyone else. I don’t find “the devil” offensive, because it’s a mythical beast, so I appreciate what Lil Nas X is doing here.
Just because some people are finding the video and song offensive doesn’t mean it should be pulled and it would be very worrying that private tech companies bow to personal beliefs on a micro level.
What’s Really Happening With MONTERO?
To be totally honest, from following Lil Nas X on Tiktok and looking at how this song has generally been marketed, I think this is a stunt. It’s genius if it is.
By getting people to screen record the track, the song is going to be massively boosted with full-length plays, generating revenue for Lil Nas X along with boosting signals that influence these platforms’ algorithms. The song is already topping the charts in many countries, including Saudi Arabia which oppresses homosexuals.
If it’s not a stunt, it’s very worrying to see what content private companies will pull and even more worrying what they’ll leave up. Some on social media are claiming that the song has vanished for them, while others can still see it in their regions, saying it’s disappearing region by region.
It all seems like a stunt to me, but we’ll learn more in the next 48-hours. In one interesting development, Billboard had an article stating the song was not being pulled, but that article itself has been removed. In a new article, Billboard said they “can confirm that the song is not being removed”, but give no reason.
I’ve reached out to streaming platforms for comment.
I’ve been on a bit of a journey with smartphones lately, testing all sorts of shapes and sizes. What I’ve discovered is that I tend to prefer smaller phones now. This is mainly down to them being lighter and easier to operate one-handed. That’s why I was interested to test-drive the new OPPO Find X3 Pro. On paper, it’s big but it’s relatively light. After a few weeks with my SIM-card in the new OPPO phone, here’s what I think about a very nice smartphone.
Say Hello To OPPO
If you want to learn more about OPPO before you make a decision, I’d recommend you read my other article that looks in-depth at the Chinese technology manufacturer. Over the past few years, OPPO has left the relative comfort of the Chinese smartphone market to test the waters of Europe. After a particularly big, and successful, push in the UK, they finally landed in Ireland mid-last year. The Irish launch was just in time for the OPPO Reno Series to hit our shelves to modest fanfare.
But don’t let that quiet introduction to the market decide you. OPPO creates smartphones that challenge norms and push design boundaries. Their phones remind me a lot of Huawei and the high success they enjoyed with phones like the P20 Pro and P30 Pro before the unfortunate US-Google ban.
If that’s weighing on your mind, let me address it immediately. There are no problems with OPPO and Google, nor is it predicted that there will be. Remember, even when the Huawei problems began to arise, phones like the P30 Pro which already had Android were unaffected. You can buy OPPO phones with no concerns over that whole Android thing.
The real question is, should you buy their new flagship OPPO Find X3 Pro.
OPPO Find X3 Pro
The Find series of smartphones is OPPOs big flagship range. This is where you’ll find their biggest and best innovation both in terms of tech and design. One of the most memorable phone designs of recent memory was the OPPO Find X which had a full sliding chassis hiding the camera on the rear.
Image of Find X courtesy of nextpit.com
The OPPO Find X3 Pro lives up to the hype too, delivering loads of great innovation and features to justify you handing over your hard-earned cash.
What’s In The Box
What you get in the box is often a bit of a dull affair, but these days it’s a little more interesting.
The Charger: 65W SuperVOOC Flash Charge
First of all, companies like Apple and Samsung now ship their flagship smartphones without a power-brick in the box. There’s some debate over the motives behind the removal of chargers from your new smartphone, but it’s not something you’ve got to worry about with the OPPO. In fact, one of the highlights of this whole phone is the charger you get.
In the box of your new Find X3 Pro you’ll get what OPPO refers to as a 65W SuperVOOC Flash Charger. This will charge your phone so fast you can actually see it flying along.
Until you’ve used and/or needed really fast charging, it’s hard to appreciate it. Look how fast the OPPO Find X3 Pro is.
This is 65w SuperVOOC Flash Charging. Just did 0% to 70% in less than 20 mins. pic.twitter.com/cDFp4YHnw2
I’ve seen fairly fast charging before, but this really is incredible pace. For the few weeks I was using the Find X3 Pro, I did feel like the battery life wasn’t as impressive as some other phones, like the Huawei P40 Pro. But the big benefit for the Find X3 Pro is that it’s sacrificing that battery power to make the phone lighter. More on that later.
The important thing to note from this part of the review, is that you get a great 65w fast charger in the box with both power brick and cable. You’ll need to have both for the best charging experience.
A Really Nice Case
While one trend has been to remove chargers from the box, many manufacturers have started adding cheap protective cases with new phones. These are usually TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethanes) cases. Transparent and super-cheap looking things that are purely designed to protect your phone if you were to hop it off the ground.
The quality of the case included in the box is great
The OPPO Find X3 Pro actually includes a case that I wouldn’t be mortified to be seen with. Actually, quite the opposite. The case included with your new OPPO phone is so nice I personally wouldn’t go buy another case at all. This is great news given that finding cases for OPPO in Ireland can be tricky, purely down to them being a relative new phone maker on the market here.
Also in the box is a decent, but not amazing, pair of wired USB-C earphones. Nice that you get these because, as is a bit of a norm these days, there is no port for 3.5mm audio accessories.
Phone Design
I mentioned that the OPPO Find Series is where the company’s designers and engineers get free roam to really push the envelope. The Find X3 Pro is a unique looking phone, clearly born from a company trying to push boundaries. One look at the phone, particularly with the case off shows you just how unique the Find X3 Pro is.
The Find X3 Pro has a unique “single pour” cast body which rolls over the camera array
The most striking element of the design, at least visually is the “fluid” casing which flows over the camera. Typically, manufacturer sit the camera into the body, whereas OPPO has created a single unit. While the look is unique, the result is also a sealed smartphone with an IP68 water and dust rating.
Flip the phone over and there’s nothing especially worthy of note. Keeping in with the liquid motif, the display flows over the phone’s edges with a narrow black bezel visible on the forehead and chin of the phone. You’ll spot a small speaker at the top here too, so no in-screen speaker which features with the competition and is really a matter of personal taste.
The display is home to an in-screen fingerprint reader and a cut-out selfie camera. Another added bonus is that the phone comes with a screen protector already applied. Combined with the free case and the overall design of the phone, the Find X3 Pro is incredibly comfortable to hold.
I’ve also been testing the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra at the moment. While that review isn’t quite finished yet, one thing I will say is that the S21 Ultra is a massive, unwieldy phone. Owning to great design and the reduced battery capacity, the Find X3 Pro is, for its size, a remarkably light and easy to handle the phone. Weighing in at just 193g, it easily beats the S21 Ultra (227g) and Huawei P40 Pro (209g). If you want lighter, you’ll need to look at the Samsung Galaxy S21 or iPhone 12 which are both the guts of 30g lighter.
I’ve mentioned the battery quite a bit so far, so let’s take a closer look.
The Battery
I’ve mentioned the reduced battery capacity a few times, but I really have to add some context to that statement. The OPPO Find X3 Pro has a 4500 mAh battery, which is by flagship standards – average. On paper, it beats the Huawei P40 Pros 4200 mAh, but in reality, Huawei’s smart power management means a better battery experience. Typically, I was just about getting a day from the Find X3 Pro when testing it. Even the iPhone 12 that I’m testing feels like the power management just isn’t quite there for OPPO. But this isn’t a problem to be honest.
It all comes back to the 65W SuperVOOC charger. What ever OPPO has done to shave weight off this phone does seem to have done something to their power management. But with a charger as impressive as the one you get in the box, that just doesn’t matter. Pop this phone on charge for just 10 minutes and you will be left with 40% battery from nothing.
Smartphones are a world of compromises these days. Each manufacturer is quickly learning that they need to cut out their own niche instead of just packing phones full of every spec. Big screen, powerful and light is what OPPO went for here, and it really works out for them.
Camera
This is the second smartphone I’ve tested from OPPO, the first being the Reno4 Pro 5G. While this is an impressive smartphone capable of impressing in a new market, one area marked “could improve” was the camera. While impressive, it simply could have been better.
As you might expect, the Find X3 Pro camera is a step up and very much worthy of the flagship title. Without wanting to take it easy on OPPO I put it up against the Samsung S21 Ultra when I was out for the millionth walk of April.
OPPO Find X3 Pro (Left) Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (Right)
The camera is able to stand toe-to-toe with the very best smartphone cameras I’ve tested. OPPO has opted for 4 lenses in total. Some more typical than others. The dual-primary lenses, for day-to-day shooting, are a 50MP Ultra-Wide-Angle Lens and a 50MP Wide-Angle Lens. The main reason I love the camera on the Find X3 Pro is the consistency. Often, when switching between lenses on a smartphone, you gain or lose something. OPPO promises to be different.
You can see the Find X3 Pro delivers great depth of colour regardless of lens, even when using the phones excellent Ultra Wide Angle lens.
One fault I found with during my first OPPO test of the Reno4 Pro 5G was every now and then you’d get a blurry photo. This was a result of a slight movement at the real wrong moment. The Find X3 Pro employs some pretty impressive optical image stabilisation to remove this problem.
While these cameras are excellent, they aren’t as mind-blowing as the 3MP Microlens. Now, will you use this every day? I doubt it, but it does blow my mind that a smartphone can do this. This Microlens, as the name suggests, is like having a microscope in your pocket. I tested this out on some Goosed.ie merch I got recently.
Do I have a really practical use for what I'm about to show you? No. Is it still cool? Hell yes! The new #FindX3Pro from @oppo has a microscope lens. Just look at the high-quality threads in the @goosed_ie merch!
I’m really struggling to play down this feature. I can’t imagine it being a clincher for many people to choose the phone, but give how generally impressive the camera is, it’s a real feature to set it apart from others on the market.
Display
I only touched upon the display earlier, but now it’s time to dive into the detail. As I mentioned, it’s got a curved 6.7-inch screen that flows over the edge of the phone with a 120Hz refresh rate. But that’s all fairly typical features these days. The amount of colour this phone can shoot with its camera and return on its screen, on the other hand, is not quite so typical. The company has gone through a particular effort to make clear the “billion colours” ability of the Find X3 Pro. You can even set the phone up to display colours in a tailored fashion for you by taking a quick test.
Whether you’re browsing through the snaps you took while out for a walk in the park or the latest movie on Netflix, the Find X3 Pro display is fantastic. Combined with the colour-depth, refresh rate, what I believe to be one of the highest screen-to-body ratios I’ve ever seen and Dolby Atmos sound, the phone is an entertainment beast. It’s ideal for gamers, movie buffs and mobile photography and videography enthusiasts.
Other Bits Of The Find X3 Pro
The OPPO Find X3 Pro is not light on eye-watering specs and there are some other features worthy of note. The phone is, again as is becoming a modern standard, 5G. With Ireland’s ever growing network of 5G mobile internet becoming more accessible, this will probably be a big deal in 2022. For now, we’re stuck at home where the Wi-Fi connects automatically anyway. The good news is that the phone also supports Wi-Fi 6, so even that’s lightening fast too.
The OPPO Find X3 Pro with SIM try and Nano SIM card
All of that speed is underpinned by the brainpower of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G and a whopping 12GB RAM and even more impressive 256GB storage for videos, photos, apps, games and more.
OPPO Find X3 Pro: The Verdict
The truth is that when you are picking a phone, it’s an incredibly personal choice. What I love, you may hate. Most of the time, it’s just about trying to make sure you don’t pick the wrong phone and I can nearly guarantee you, you will not regret buying the Find X3 Pro. It’s a premium smartphone packed with enough features and specs to meet and exceed the needs of many.
From the unique design to market-beating specs, the Find X3 Pro does enough to deserve being a part of everyone new phone selection headaches. The edge of the OPPO is that it’s hard to imagine a use case that’s not covered. It’s not failing because of it being a “jack of all trades”, it’s just really good at a lot of things.
The OPPO Find X3 Pro isn’t a cheap phone and is expected to retail for €1149, but as I said, you get a lot of phone for your money. We’re still waiting for a full list of networks and retailers that will be selling the new OPPO flagship in Ireland. Hit the bell in the bottom left corner to get updates as soon as we know. In the meantime, check out the cheapest SIM plans to see if you might be best off buying the phone outright instead of from a network.
OPPO Find X3 Pro Specs, Pricing And Comparisons
We’ve pulled together the most popular specs, pricing and comparisons with competitors phones.
They call it “The Treaty County”. It’s a gorgeous place, home to one of Ireland’s most impressive sprawling University Campuses and an envious location where you’re only ever a short drive from stunning coastal views. In 2020 alone, the City was shortlisted as a European Capital of Culture and in big national news, was crowned the 2020 All Ireland hurling champions. Limerick is home to ambitious people who want the best for their locality, nation and beyond.
While we all know and love Blindboy Boatclub from the Rubber Bandits, Limerick’s biggest success has to be Stripe. Given the drive and determination that comes from The Treaty County, it’s no wonder that the brother pairing of John and Patrick Collison call Limerick home. They are a product of Limerick’s mentality.
A stunning piece of graffiti in Limerick City, shared on the Embassy of Ireland USA Twitter Account.
Limerick is one of the top places I would want my kids to grow up. The City is buzzing while the countryside is stunning. From the Hunt Museum to the University and beyond you get everything from culture to natural beauty. Sporting success is engrained in Limerick, the spiritual and physical home of Munster Rugby. The Milk Market is where you can find food from around the world. I myself am a product of Limerick City. I was born in Kilkenny and lived most of my life there. I moved to Dublin where I ended up a DCU dropout. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I had a lot of friends who had spent their first year studying in the University of Limerick so I moved. Seven years later and I left Limerick a Master in History with a job in a Dublin phone shop, a transfer from the same chain in Parkway, Limerick. I owe Limerick with my career, my experience and even my partner who I met on Erasmus during my studies.
During my time in UL, I spent some time working in Moyross on placement. Here was the first time in my life, a lived experience showed me just how horrible the media can be with untrue headlines to sell a paper. I worked with excellent kids and locals who took me and my fellow students into the community. It was a rewarding time for me and a massively important part of my development.
Now, as much I would like to compare myself to the Collison brothers, this segue is not to try and do that. The Collison brothers have enjoyed incredible success. I’ve used the company they created in various website builds and personal projects. Stripe is a beautiful integration for websites to accept online payments. It’s beautiful in its simplicity, security and functionality. Stripe was founded in 2010 when the brothers “were appalled by how hard it was to charge for things online”. The fruit of their company’s labours is that I’ve never known how tough that might have been simply because when I went to build my first e-commerce solution, Stripe was on the market.
While Stripe prides itself on both ease of install and day-to-day use, the platform not only processes payments for small business but also billions of dollars of payments for the likes of Amazon, Shopify, Lyft, Booking.com, and Target. Nearly half of all transactions online in the United States last year went through Stripe. Today, when e-commerce companies launch in the States, targeting 1% of the e-commerce market is enough to make the company a fortune.
Now, Stripe is considered to be the most valuable private company in the United States and they have just raised $600 million in funding with a valuation of $95 million. In just 11 years, Limerickonian Collison brothers have become the world’s youngest self-made billionaires ever.
It didn’t simply happen by magic, or happen overnight. Their success comes as a result of hardwork and the place they call home, a mentality that’s quintessentially both “Irish” and “Limerick”. It’s not just something I’m making up either, the brothers themselves agree. When suggested by an inexplicable and terribly incorrect piece of writing in Forbes, which has since been deleted but is still available on the Internet Archive, tried to claim the brothers had clawed and scraped their way out of Limerick to be a success, Patrick Collison disagreed completely. The co-founder of Stripe said “not only mistaken about Limerick but the idea of “overcoming” anything is crazy. We are who we are *because* we grew up where we did”.
Not only mistaken about Limerick but the idea of "overcoming" anything is crazy. We are who we are *because* we grew up where we did.
In what feels unlikely to be a coincidence, the Embassy of Ireland USA Twitter tweeted some stunning images of Limerick, a tweet that was liked by John Collison. Indeed there has been an outpouring of love for Limerick on social media following that article and now #LimerickAndProud is trending.
But rather than focus on what is simply sensationalist and cynical headlines in a poor attempt to be edgy and generate traffic, let’s focus on the two great success stories here, both of Limerick and the Collison brothers.
