Danielle, Author at Gigarefurb Refurbished Laptops News

Privacy.com review: Burner debit cards made easy

The internet can be a dangerous place for your debit card. When a phishing site isn’t enticing you to hand over your account info, credit card databases are getting hacked. Privacy.com from Pay With Privacy, Inc. offers a solution to these issues that’s not just hoping for the best. Instead of putting your actual debit card number out there, the site lets you create “burner” debit cards that are locked to a single vendor, or meant to be used just one time. These aren’t physical cards for use at a local store, but digital cards for use online.

It’s kind of like a VPN for your bank account. Instead of using a bank card, you give websites an intermediary card. If that burner card should ever get caught in a database breach, it can be disabled or deleted with a few clicks. Even if the bad guys do use it, the card won’t work anywhere except at the vendor it was stolen from.

privacycom1 — What Privacy.com looks like when you first sign up.

Contrast that with canceling a debit card, which usually requires a phone call, and then waiting for the bank to issue a new one. Plus, if that canceling doesn’t happen quickly enough, the pilfered card could be used anywhere until the bank notices odd activity.

Privacy.com started out four years ago as a startup with a mix of technologists and veterans of the finance industry. Today, it’s still going strong with some minor changes to its product in that time. Overall, it’s an excellent web service that is easy to use and provides a good service for those concerned about protecting their bank accounts.

Getting started

Signing up for Privacy.com is just like any other web service, with a request for an email and password. After that, you fill out some personal information, and then connect a funding source via either your debit card or banking details. The latter requires entering your online banking details via Plaid, a company that specializes in connecting bank accounts to mobile and desktop applications.

For entering a bank login, Plaid throws up what looks like a mobile login for each bank it works with—it covers more than 15,000 banks.

privacycomfunding — Privacy.com lets you choose between a debit card or bank account details for your funding source.

Once Privacy.com validates the funding source, you’re ready to create cards. Privacy.com makes its money off of the transaction fees that merchants pay to debit card providers such as Visa and MasterCard. It does, however, offer several paid plans for its services as well.

Most people will do fine with the free plan, which includes the ability to create up to 12 cards per month. These can be single-use cards for special purchases, or cards locked to a single merchant. The cards can also have narrow spending limits such as $100 or less. The free plan also covers use of the browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox.

A Pro plan costs $10 per month and adds the ability to create up to 36 cards per month, priority support, and 1 percent cashback on the first $4,500 spent each month. There’s also a feature called Discreet merchants that lets users hide transaction information.

There is also a Teams plan that costs $25 per month and lets users create up to 60 cards per month, provides dedicated account management, and adds more customizable transaction limits. Privacy.com plans to add multi-user support in the coming months thereby putting the team in Teams.

Using the service

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Creating cards is simple on Privacy.com.

Once an account is validated, creating a new card is easy. Click on New Card towards the top of the page, and give it a nickname. Normally the cards are named after the vendor where it will be used. Using a mainstream vendor name gives you the option to use an icon with the the company’s logo on it.

Then it comes time to adjust the spending limit. Each card can have a spend limit on a per-transaction basis, or monthly or annual spend limits. Here we can also activate the Single-use slider, or choose to have no limit at all. By default, Privacy.com suggests a $100 monthly limit.

We’re fans of the per-transaction limit, especially for services like Netflix or Spotify where the cost will always be the same. There will obviously have to be adjustments when the services increase their monthly fees, but that isn’t a frequent occurrence. Once a card is created, it can also be paused so it will not authorize any further transactions until the pause is removed.

Privacy.com cards don’t lock to a vendor until they’re used for the first time. If a card named Netflix is used on Amazon it will be tied to Amazon, not Netflix.

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For some vendors, Privacy.com offers multiple card icons.

One issue with Privacy.com is that sometimes its anti-fraud filters can flag an account for unusual behavior. This happened during testing when we tried to make a purchase from a popular online bookseller (not Amazon). Privacy.com’s filters paused the entire account, which made it impossible to make purchases.

The problem was we didn’t see any kind of notification within the account detailing what went wrong. The company also didn’t send an email with a fraud alert. Everything just went dark with a small toast notification telling us to contact support. Not a particularly good customer communication on the company’s part.

Privacy.com’s support desk was very responsive, however, and the company corrected the issue within hours.

When it comes time to pay online, the debit card is just like any other. Fill out the card number, expiration date, CVV code, and home address if required. To make this process easier, install Privacy.com’s browser add-ons, which let you copy card numbers, as well as view the card expiry date and CVV number.

That’s really about all there is to Privacy.com. It makes creating cards easy, and allows you to use them with numerous vendors online.

Like any good card issuer, Privacy.com offers a few rebate plans. There’s the aforementioned 1 percent cashback for Pro users. Privacy also offers a referral plan where users get $5 for every friend that signs up and makes at least one purchase with a Privacy card.

Privacy.com is available for the desktop using the web app; there are apps for Android and iOS in addition to the Chrome and Firefox extensions.

Security

Privacy.com says it is PCI-DSS compliant (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), which are the same security standards that banks comply with.

Privacy.com says it hashes account passwords using PBKDF2 (Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2) with 100,000 iterations. The hash is then salted to make it even harder to figure out what the actual password is.

Privacy also uses TLS and HSTS when logging in and using the website, and its internal systems communicate using IPsec with AES-256 encryption. You can read all about Privacy.com’s security measure on this dedicated page.

Conclusion

Privacy.com is easy to use, it works almost everywhere, and the idea of protecting a debit card with a card number that can be easily deleted or paused is an excellent concept.

Like anything with computer security, it all comes down to whether you trust the company. Given that Privacy.com has been in business for four years now with no major complaints, we see no reason not to trust it.

Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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PS5 loading times are so fast, Epic had to rework Unreal Engine 5

The PS5 SSD storage system is fast – that much is clear from the focus being put on it by Sony during its piecemeal console reveal, and the feedback developers of upcoming PlayStation 5 games have already stated.

But according to Epic, the team behind the Unreal Engine (and its forthcoming update, Unreal Engine 5), the framework many games are built upon, that storage solution is so speedy that it’s in fact altered the way they make the tools that games are made with.

“The ability to stream in content at extreme speeds enables developers to create denser and more detailed environments, changing how we think about streaming content. It’s so impactful that we’ve rewritten our core I/O subsystems for Unreal Engine with the PlayStation 5 in mind,” Epic’s VP of engineering, Nick Penwarden said to VG247.

Best PS4 games: the most essential PlayStation 4 releases
PS5 vs Xbox Series X: what we know so far
Xbox Series X: all the games rumored and confirmed

Faster than Xbox Series X?

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has clarified that both the PS5 and Xbox Series X will both benefit from the advances made in relation to the PS5 tweaks, but Sony’s console seem to have a clear advantage here.

Though both machines make use of NVMe SSDs, Sony’s PS5 system’s bespoke solution matches, and even outclasses, top of the line SSDs offered to consumers today.

The Xbox Series X however, has more raw horsepower under the hood, particularly in terms of CPU power. How this will balance out in terms of game experiences across both remains to be seen, but the strengths and weaknesses of both consoles are certainly not identical.

PS5: everything we know so far

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Tens of thousands of malicious Android apps flooding user devices

Tens of thousands of dangerous Android apps are putting mobile users at heightened risk of fraud and cyberattack, a report has claimed.

Mobile security firm Upstream identified over 29,000 malicious Android apps in active use during Q1 2020, double the number logged in the same quarter last year (just over 14,500).

The investigation also showed that almost all (90%) of the ten most malicious apps were – or are still – present on the official Google Play Store. This suggests, according to Upstream, that hackers consistently found ways to dance their way through Google’s vetting system.

In line with this trend, this time period also saw a 55% rise in fraudulent transactions on Android platforms, as well as a spike in the number of malware-infected devices.

Malicious Android apps

The dramatic rise in the number of malicious Android apps in circulation has been put down to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the way users consume content and utilise mobile platforms.

According to Geoffrey Cleaves, who leads Upstream’s anti-fraud offering, the rise in dangerous apps correlates directly with the introduction of coronavirus lockdown measures.

“With the majority of the world having shifted indoors, there were some darker forces acting to make a profit from the lockdown situation,” he explained.

“We’ve seen a sharp increase in bad actors publishing ‘leisure’ apps on the Google Play Store, which trick users into subscribing for premium services.”

The firm claims six of the top ten most dangerous apps of the quarter fall under “leisure” – a broad category that includes video and audio, news media, games and social apps. Hackers and fraudsters, it seems, pounced on the opportunity presented by a renewed appetite for ways to pass the time and connect with friends.

The most potent Android app of the quarter was Snaptube, which allows users to download video content to their devices and has been installed more than 40 million times worldwide.

Upstream published a report on the threat posed by Snaptube in October 2019, but the app remains available via a number of third party Android app stores to this day.

Although some dangerous apps make their way onto Google Play Store, Android users are still advised to refrain from downloading software via third party app stores, which likely subject app submissions to a lower level of scrutiny.

Here’s our list of the best Android antivirus apps on the market

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Nikon Z5 and Z30 could soon be its new affordable mirrorless cameras

A pair of entry-level mirrorless cameras called the Nikon Z5 and Nikon Z30 could be launching soon, according to some credible new rumors.

While there are still no leaked specs or images of the new models, the super-reliable Nokishita spotted that two new unannounced cameras (with the codenames N1929 and N1932) have been registered in Russia.

And around the same time Nikon Rumors suggested that these two cameras could indeed be the rumored full-frame Nikon Z5 and an entry-level APS-C model called the Nikon Z30.

Nikon Rumors went on to suggest that the two cameras, which would sensibly fill two holes in Nikon’s mirrorless line-up, will be launched “in the next three months”.

Naturally, these rumors should be treated with an element of caution – the Nikon Z5 was originally rumored to be launching in 2019, when we instead got the Nikon Z50.

But looking at Nikon’s Z Series mirrorless line-up, there are good reasons to believe that the two cameras will be the company’s next launches.

At the full-frame end, Nikon currently has the Nikon Z6 – an all-rounder that currently sits at the top of our best cameras list – and the high-resolution Nikon Z7. But it doesn’t currently a full-frame mirrorless camera that provides the sheer value offered by the Canon EOS RP.

How exactly Nikon will make the Z5 its full-frame mirrorless bargain isn’t yet clear, but Canon achieved this on the EOS RP by using an inferior viewfinder and screen that nevertheless helped give fans an affordable route into its RF lens system. It’s also possible that Nikon, in a bolder move, could remove the viewfinder entirely.

The Nikon Z30, meanwhile, is rumored to be a viewfinder-less APS-C camera with a fixed screen that will sit below the excellent Nikon Z50 and be the entry-level choice for those looking to upgrade from their smartphones.

Nikon Z30

Taking a different view

A viewfinder-less Nikon mirrorless Z series camera has been rumored for about a year now, when it was originally thought to be called the Nikon Z3.

While the lack of a viewfinder might be deal-breaker for some traditional photographers, a Nikon Z30 could make sense as an option for those coming from smartphones or any video shooters looking for a compact hybrid camera.

We were impressed by the Canon EOS M6 Mark II, which similarly doesn’t come with a viewfinder, as it offers similar power to the Canon 90D, only in a much smaller package.

A Nikon Z30 could bring the additional advantage of having the same Z-mount as cameras like the Nikon Z6, allowing you to use newer Z-mount lenses as well as existing F-mount lenses via an adaptor.

The only downside for vloggers could be that, like the Nikon Z50, the Z30’s body would likely be too small for in-body image stabilization, which would make a gimbal a must for walking scenes.

Still, right now this is all speculation – we’ll bring you more official news on these two promising Nikon Z series cameras as soon as we get it.

These are the best mirrorless cameras you can buy right now

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Why you can’t get a 1440p laptop: Blame 4K TVs

If you’ve tried to buy a nice Windows laptop in the past few years, there’s a good chance you’ve agonized over display resolutions.

Buy a laptop with a 4K display, and you’ll get a picture so sharp that individual pixels become indiscernible, but both battery life and performance will suffer as a result. Get a 1080p laptop instead, and you’ll get more battery life at the expense of that glorious picture.

There is, of course, a middle ground in the form of 1440p (2560×1440) displays, also known as QHD. You just wouldn’t know it from today’s selection of laptops. Even though 1440p hits the sweet spot between a crisp picture and long battery life, most laptops instead make you choose between extremes.

We asked some PC makers why, and the answers were illuminating. In short, 4K TV marketing has blinded laptop shoppers to the benefits of 1440p displays, so display manufacturers and laptop makers seldom bother to produce them. There is, however, some hope that this might change over the next few years, especially as PC screens come in different shapes and sizes that look less like your TV.

4K laptops: Mostly for marketing

Tom Butler, Lenovo’s executive director of commercial portfolio and product management, said the prevalence of 1080p laptops (also known as Full HD or FHD) is easy to explain. Panels with 1920×1080 resolution are inexpensive, look decent on smaller screens, and are battery-efficient. IT departments also appreciate 1080p because it generally works with any application, with no scaling issues. That makes it a safe bet for the commercial laptop market.

“FHD, that’s the easy one,” Butler said in an interview. “That has become the industry sweet spot.”

But as laptop makers have moved into higher resolutions, they’ve gravitated toward 3840×2160, or 4K resolution, skipping over anything in between. That’s largely because of the hype that TV manufacturers have created around 4K. “The TV industry has really trained consumers to look for 4K,” Butler said.

The problem is that 4K displays affect laptops in a way that users don’t experience with 4K TVs. “TVs aren’t bound by battery life,” Butler pointed out. Compared to 1080p, 4K panels have four times as many pixels. Lighting them up requires much more powerful backlighting. The laptop’s processor also has to work harder to render images with all those extra pixels.

The results are clear: In review after review, we’ve found that 4K displays create a serious drag on battery life. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon 7th Gen, for instance, lasted just 6 hours and 9 minutes in our battery rundown test with a 4K display. The previous version of the X1 Carbon, with a 1080p display, lasted 8 hours and 48 minutes in the same test. In terms of advertised battery life, Lenovo’s Yoga C940 14 promises 15 hours with a 1080p display, and just 10 hours with 4K. (In real-world use, you can expect battery life to be roughly cut in half.)

PCWorld has also found that Intel’s integrated graphics can struggle with 4K displays, making otherwise nice laptops like the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 exhibit jumpy scrolling and choppy animations. Discrete graphics cards do a better job, but they put an even bigger strain on battery life. Most laptop graphics cards can’t really handle 4K gaming anyway.

Despite those deficiencies, display manufacturers have focused more on 4K than other middle-ground resolutions, such as 1440p. While 1440p panels are still less expensive to produce than 4K ones, the cost difference isn’t so great that PC makers are willing to sacrifice 4K’s marketing benefits.

“You’re basically jumping into a premium tier panel, and then once you’re there, you’re like, ‘hey, for a little bit more of a jump, I’m at a 4K, which is sort of a market-recognized resolution,’” Butler said.

That’s not to say 4K is worthless in laptops. Stefan Peana, the CTO for display engineering at Dell Technologies, pointed out that most content exists in 1080p or 4K, so for content creators, the latter resolution might make sense.

“Interestingly, QHD was actually quite popular in laptops many years ago until television became big on 4K,” Peana said via email. “We see a trend in content creators preferring to work on 4K panels and most consumers finding 1080p sufficient for their daily content consumption needs.”

Still, it’s reasonable to wonder how many creative types are working on 4K content using a device like Dell’s XPS 13, a thin-and-light laptop with a 13-inch screen and integrated graphics. For those kinds of machines, might it make sense to offer a crisper display resolution without 4K’s trade-offs? Peana allowed for the possibility.

“While demand for QHD displays is relatively low, there is a niche group of consumers we’re seeing with interest in QHD laptop panels because of better power consumption and lower pricing as compared to 4K laptops,” Peana said. “This mid-ground between high-resolution quality and battery life may make QHD an appealing option to those customers who do not require best-in-class displays.”

Changes on the horizon

Lenovo’s Tom Butler is more willing to bet that laptop displays will hit a sweet spot between 1080p and 4K. In the coming years, he foresees a shift away from laptops with the same widescreen 16:9 aspect ratios used by televisions. Taller aspect ratios such as 16:10 or 3:2 give users more space for editing documents and browsing the web.

“Most of us are not just sitting there consuming content all day,” Butler said. “We’re actually working. We’re creating, or we’re editing, or reviewing, so the extra real estate is welcomed.”

That push, in turn, may open the door to resolutions other than 4K. Once laptops break out of the widescreen paradigm, Butler said, “you won’t have this gravitational pull to perhaps over-indexing on the resolution.”

We’re already seeing some laptops do this. Microsoft, for instance, has rejected 4K in its Surface lineup, whose displays all use 3:2 aspect ratios. The 12.3-inch Surface Pro 7 has a resolution of 2736×1824, while its 13.5-inch Surface Book 3 has a resolution of 3000×2000. Meanwhile, Apple’s MacBooks use a 16:10 aspect ratio, and the 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pro both have resolutions of 2560×1600, hovering between 1080p and 4K.

Other PC makers may still face challenges stepping back from 4K. As Butler noted, coming up with savvy marketing terms that customers will remember, akin to Apple’s “Retina Display” branding, isn’t easy. “I think part of the challenge is, Lenovo can come out with a brand name, HP can come out with something different, Dell can come out with something different,” he said.

Still, he’s optimistic that within within one to three years, sub-4K resolutions will become more popular. Despite what PC makers might say about the benefits of 4K, the truth is that they’re not happy with just mimicking the shape and resolution of televisions. They’re starting to push manufacturers to produce panels in more shapes and sizes.

“The PC manufacturers kind of went kicking and screaming from 16:10 to 16:9,” Butler said. “So we like the fact that the aperture’s reopening.”

Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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Tens of thousands of malicious Android apps flooding Google Play Store

Tens of thousands of dangerous Android apps are putting mobile users at heightened risk of fraud and cyberattack, a report has claimed.

Mobile security firm Upstream identified over 29,000 malicious Android apps in active use during Q1 2020, double the number logged in the same quarter last year (just over 14,500).

In line with this trend, this time period also saw a 55% rise in fraudulent transactions on Android platforms, as well as a spike in the number of malware-infected devices.

Malicious Android apps

The dramatic rise in the number of malicious Android apps in circulation has been put down to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the way users consume content and utilise mobile platforms.

According to Geoffrey Cleaves, who leads Upstream’s anti-fraud offering, the rise in dangerous apps correlates directly with the introduction of coronavirus lockdown measures.

“With the majority of the world having shifted indoors, there were some darker forces acting to make a profit from the lockdown situation,” he explained.

“We’ve seen a sharp increase in bad actors publishing ‘leisure’ apps on the Google Play Store, which trick users into subscribing for premium services.”

The most potent Android app of the quarter was Snaptube, which allows users to download video content to their devices and has been installed more than 40 million times worldwide.

Upstream published a report on the threat posed by Snaptube in October 2019, but the app remains available via a number of third party Android app stores to this day.

Here’s our list of the best Android antivirus apps on the market

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The best smartphone of 2020: Top phones in the UAE, Saudi and Middle East

Our best smartphone list brings you the best phones available right now in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East. If you already have your mobile OS alliance set you’ll want to check out either our ranking of the best Android phone or best iPhone.

If what’s on offer in our best smartphone list is a little too pricey for your taste, then don’t fear, as we’ve also got a list of the best cheap phones available right now.

The first half of 2020 months has meant big changes to this list. Our best phone ranking witnessed a big shake-up with a whole bunch of new entries appearing in the list including the OnePlus 8 Pro, iPhone SE, Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and many more.

Best Android phone | Best iPhone | Best budget phone

We know that it’s not all about the high-cost, super spec phones all the time so we’ve made you a handy list of all the top smartphones that you can get on the market right now, assessing what really matters to you.

We test these phones rigorously, making sure that we check every angle and feature – but most importantly, considering whether they’ve got a decent battery, great screen, strong design and a cracking camera.

On top of that, they can’t be too exorbitant in price either – not everyone wants or can afford a supercar of a handset, so we’ve made sure there are plenty of options for you there.

Our best phone list has never looked better, so let’s get started on our list of the top handsets. You can see them quickly below, and then we’re set to talk you through the very best phone in the world right now.

Best phones at a glance

The Samsung Galaxy S20 is the best smartphone available right now. That covers both the S20 and the larger Galaxy S20 Plus, as there’s very little difference between the two handsets aside from size and a couple of specs.

They take the very best of what’s on the smartphone market and put it together in a compelling package that we loved testing.

Screen: Both these devices have phone screens that are a cut above the rest, and each is capable of a 120Hz refresh rate that will allow for far smoother scrolling and gameplay on your phone’s screen.

Battery life: The battery life on the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20 Plus isn’t the best we’ve ever seen on a smartphone, but larger batteries than the S10 series allow these devices to last longer and it’ll be enough for your day.

Both devices come with wireless charging, and there’s also a Reverse Power Share feature that allows you to top up your friend’s phone too.

Camera: Samsung has improved the camera suite on the Galaxy S20 devices compared to the Galaxy S10. It may not look far better on paper, but larger pixels and improved software adds to the flagship experience.

Mini verdict: The S20 and S20 Plus are packed full of the best Samsung has to offer, and it comes together to give you the best smartphone experience around right now. If we had to pick one, we’d go for the bigger screen, larger battery slightly improved rear camera of the Galaxy S20 Plus, but both phones deserve their best phone crown.

Want something a bit more from your iPhone? You’re in luck with the iPhone 11 Pro as it features some improved spec including a more high-end rear camera that can compete with the very best.

It’ll cost more than the iPhone 11 did on the page before, but if you’re after one of the top iPhones this is the best option with a smaller display than the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Screen: It’s not the largest screen on the market, but it looks great compared to the iPhone 11 and will suit you if you’re looking for an iPhone with a smaller display.

Battery life: The battery life is slightly longer than the last few generations of the iPhone, but don’t expect anything game changing here when it comes to the length your phone will last for.

Camera: Apple has put most of its focus into the rear cameras on this device, and while the design of the rear of the phone has been controversial these cameras can create some truly stunning photography that competes with the very best camera phones.

Mini verdict: You’ll have to spend a bit extra to get the iPhone 11 Pro, but it’s well worth it if you want a phone that sports iOS 13 but comes with top-end features.

Read our in-depth iPhone 11 Pro review
Price comparison: The best iPhone 11 Pro deals

The OnePlus 8 Pro blew us away when we reviewed it, and the company is chasing Samsung and Apple on our best phones list for that very reason. While the OnePlus 8 is also an option, it’s missing many of the features we like about the Pro, which we outline below.

Screen: This 6.78-inch has the ability to impress you more than an iPhone for one simple reason: the ‘Fluid Display’ that sets the refresh rate to 120Hz. Not only does it make game look better, but simply scrolling the web looks smoother. You’ll also find nice upscaling and HDR10+ here, though false touches along the screen edges did give us trouble at times.

Battery life: If you need your phone battery to last all day long, the OnePlus 8 Pro achieves that, according to our tests. Its 4,510 battery capacity isn’t the biggest next to what Samsung’s phones are touting, but when setting the resolution to Full HD+, we did get by on a single charge very easily. We also took advantage of OnePlus (finally) adding wireless charging – in fact, it’s the fastest wirelessly charging device we’ve ever tested.

Camera: OnePlus has always lagged behind when it came to its cameras, though the OnePlus 8 Pro closes the gap. Its quad-lens array on the back of the phone allows for fine 48MP photos and a 3x optical zoom along with a 30x digital zoom. We can’t call it the best camera phone on the market, but it’s among the best cameras on an Android in this price range.

Mini verdict: It’s amazing that with Apple and Samsung’s top phones out of the way, we have the at-one-time-little-known OnePlus doing so well that it’s claimed a spot within the top 5 phones of 2020. While this version is more expensive than prior OnePlus phones, it doesn’t cut corners. You’re getting 5G, a 120Hz screen refresh rate, a great camera with 3x optical zoom, and super fast wireless charging. It’s a bit tall and only comes in one size (with the smaller OnePlus 8 a very different experience), and, to be expected, the camera is good but not good enough to rival the phones ranked ahead of it.

Read more: OnePlus Pro 8 review

Best Android Phone Camera — Image Credit: TechRadar

The Huawei P30 Pro is so close to being the best smartphone right now, and for some it will take top spot in their minds.

It’s the best phone we’ve used when it comes to photography with 5x and 10x zoom capabilities and fantastic low-light performance.

Screen: The large 6.47-inch screen on the P30 Pro may ‘only’ have a Full HD+ resolution, but it’s bright, clear and colorful providing an excellent canvas for your apps and games.

Battery life: There’s no worry when it comes to the P30 Pro potentially running out of juice, the battery life here is excellent. We regularly got to the end of the day with 30% or more left in the tank.

Camera: The cameras are the P30 Pro’s real party piece, providing staggeringly good 5x and 10x zoom, and a digital 50x zoom with gets you insanely close to objects far off in the distance. Its low-light capabilities are also top-notch.

Mini Verdict: The P30 Pro not only sets a new standard for Huawei, it sets a new standard for the entire mobile industry. Its cameras are quite simply astonishing, the design is eye-catching and the power plentiful. It’s a true flagship smartphone.

Read more: Huawei P30 Pro review

The iPhone SE 2020 is the sequel to the one-hand-friendly iPhone from 2016, and it takes the power and specs we loved from the iPhone 11 series and crams them into the design of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8.

Screen: This new iPhone SE has a 4.7-inch screen borrowed from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8, so it’s bigger than the original iPhone SE, but remains one-hand-friendly. That’s become important for people who have been demanding a smaller phone. This is the one to get, even if the resolution and bezel won’t wow anyone.

Battery life: As long as you aren’t a power user (who would likely opt for the iPhone 11 series anyway), then you’ll be OK with what Apple offers in terms of battery life. It’s not going to last you any longer than a day, though, with generally the same amount of power as we saw on the iPhone 8, which had a 1,821mAh battery capacity.

Camera: For the money, the iPhone SE 2020 takes perfectly fine photos in good light. You won’t notice much of a difference outside of it occasionally failing to nail perfect exposure levels and depth of field outdoors during the daytime. Dim the lights, however, and you’ll notice one glaring omission: the night mode that’s on the more powerful iPhones. That requires an upgrade to at least the iPhone 11.

Mini verdict: This isn’t Apple’s most powerful iPhone, but it’s the best value for people who want to stick with iOS 13 without paying through the nose. Its screen technology won’t wow you like an iPhone 11 Pro, and there’s just one camera on the back, but starting £419 means this is hard to be if you’re on a budget and don’t want to switch to Android.

Read more: iPhone SE 2020 review

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus is one of the largest phones there is, but this stylus-toting handset is one of our favorite phone you can buy right now.

It’s expensive, but it features some of the best specs you’ll get on a smartphone in 2019.

Screen: The screen on this phone is huge and the Infinity-O cutout means there’s little interruption to the display here, allowing for an immersive experience.

Battery life: We found the battery life on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus to easily last the whole day, plus the fast charging tech means you’re able to pump it up quickly when you’re nearing 0%.

Camera: The camera setup on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus isn’t the best on the market, but it’s impressive and offers a lot of fun features that you may want to play around with.

Mini Verdict: Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10 Plus is a remarkable device, but it’s only for those who want a large phone and don’t mind spending that bit extra on a device. The S10 Plus will be more suitable for most, but the Note 10 Plus is a great phone too.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus review
Price comparison: The best Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus deals

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