Although it doesn’t yet have the clout of well-established European brands, Hyundai’s upscale Genesis spinoff division is off to a strong start with its G90 flagship. This full-size sedan is elegant and plush enough to make you forget that it comes from a luxury-brand upstart. Genesis has smartly eschewed sporting pretensions and instead focuses on the G90’s cosseting nature. Smooth and satisfying V-6 and V-8 powertrains prioritize refinement over excitement. The G90’s interior is richly appointed, and its exterior design is sophisticated but not ostentatious. The G90’s most compelling feature, however, is its sensational value proposition. If you can handle the not-quite-there-yet image, the G90 offers a lot of luxury for much less money than the established high-end brands.
2018 Subaru Crosstrek Manual
Granola! Now with More Fiber!
For 2018, Subaru has moved the Crosstrek (and the Impreza) to its new Global Platform, and the results are immediately apparent. Although the 2018 model has gained only 93 pounds over the last stick-shift Crosstrek we tested, the car feels significantly more substantial. The doors close with a reassuring heft, rather than the cheapoid, tin-can feeling of the previous version.
Engine output has increased a bit, too, up 4 horsepower over the old car’s 148. But we managed just 17 seconds flat in the quarter-mile, which is a half-second slower than the old car. And the new Crosstrek also was 1.1 seconds slower from zero to 60 mph, needing 9.2 seconds to attain that mark.
One item the new Crosstrek doesn’t share with the Impreza is that car’s absolutely abysmal five-speed manual transmission (the old Crosstrek also used a five-speed manual). The Crosstrek’s six-speed is a peach, with none of the rubbery jankiness that makes the Impreza’s unit unpleasant. The shifter’s action is positive and smooth, while the clutch is communicative and linear in engagement.
And yet the Lineartronic continuously variable automatic, with its stepped “ratios,” seems to do a better job keeping the overworked 2.0-liter boxer four on the boil and yields almost identical results at the test track. It also gets better gas mileage: 29 mpg combined versus 25 for the stick-shift model, according to the EPA. Our 75-mph highway fuel-economy test also showed an advantage for the CVT: 32 mpg to the manual’s 31. But overall, in our testing, the manual returned 25 mpg to the CVT’s 23.
Which leaves us with a conundrum. Naturally, we encourage you to save the manuals, but the better overall car can trace its roots to Subaru’s tiny Justy, back through DAF’s zany Variomatic, and on to your French granddad’s old Mobylette. Yeah, we’re scratching our heads a bit, too.
Comfortable Frugality
The manual gearbox also is restricted to the Crosstrek’s two lower trim levels—2.0i and 2.0i Premium—since top-spec Limited models are CVT only. At $23,510 as tested, our Premium manual model features an interior that puts the previous Crosstrek’s to shame and finally feels segment appropriate (admittedly, not much of a task). The comfortable cloth seats are nicely stitched together with orange thread, which also is found on the leather shifter and the steering wheel to add a spot of playful fun. The Starlink infotainment system features a 6.5-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality, and although it isn’t a standout in the world of in-car multimedia, it at least manages not to engender bouts of woeful frustration.
With this latest Crosstrek, Subaru has clearly opted to tune the chassis for comfort, and paired with the extra solidity of the structure, the decision pays dividends. The new machine offers excellent ride quality without sacrificing everyday handling. Push the small crossover to the max, however, and things come unstuck in the form of excessive understeer. We managed 0.81 g on the skidpad, which puts it ahead of the Jeep Renegade Trailhawk’s 0.72 g and the Nissan Rogue Sport’s 0.79 g; it’s on par with the Kia Soul Turbo but is 0.03 g behind our lower-riding Impreza hatchback long-termer.
Given that shoppers in the segment are more likely to be entranced by the thought of knocking over an REI than dodging cones on an autocross course, the cornering performance certainly is competent for the segment. What’s more, up to the limit, the Crosstrek feels perfectly content to zip down a country lane, soaking up imperfections without isolating the pilot from the business of driving. And even though the steering is low on feel, it’s at least accurate, and the chassis does its darnedest to hold the driver’s desired line.
Value, Utility, Zazz
Those concerned with maximum lifted-compact-wagon enjoyment might find themselves tempted by Volkswagen’s Golf Alltrack, but the manual-equipped German’s base price is almost $4000 north of the Subie’s. Put another way, for the price of an Alltrack, you could buy a Crosstrek and a really nice used dirtbike. Bonus? Among other colors, the Subaru can be ordered in a KTM-esque orange or a Yamaha-adjacent blue, for those who prize vehicular color coordination.
The new Crosstrek continues the previous car’s tradition of value, utility, and flannel-flyin’, millennial-baiting pizzazz, and its second iteration is better in just about every conceivable way (except for at the drag strip). And while we do think the CVT powertrain works a bit better than the manual in this application, by opting to shift your own gears you’ll save a thousand bucks and find yourself rewarded by a genuinely well-executed and pleasant gearbox. Pay your money and take your choice. It’s hard to lose either way.
DxOMark Mobile report: BlackBerry Priv
DxOMark Mobile report: BlackBerry Priv
Summary
The BlackBerry Priv combines Google's Android operating system with BlackBerry's security features and a slider form factor with hardware qwerty-keyboard. In the camera module an 18MP sensor works together with a Schneider Kreuznach designed lens and optical image stabilization. The camera is capable of recording 4K video and there is also a dual-tone LED flash. 32GB of built-in storage can be expanded via a microSD-slot.
With a DxOMark Mobile score of 82, the BlackBerry Priv performs on the same level as Apple's iPhone 6s or the Sony Xperia Z3+ and occupies a joint eleventh place in the DxOMark smartphone rankings. The DxOMark testers liked the 'very good exposure with wide dynamic range, generally accurate and fast autofocus, well-preserved detail, especially in bright light, pleasant colors and good overall flash performance'. Points of criticism included the 'sometimes inaccurate white balance, strong ringing, comparatively high noise levels in bright light and over-saturated colors when shooting with flash'.
In video mode the DxO team liked the 'very good noise reduction, good detail preservation in bright light and the accurate and smooth autofocus'. On the downside, 'stabilization causes visible frame shifts and rotations, a pink cast is visible in low light and the lens sometimes refocuses unnecessarily'.
Still Photography
Color, Exposure and Contrast
The DxOMark team found that the BlackBerry Priv images showed 'very good exposure with wide dynamic range and pleasant colors'. As negatives they noted that the 'white balance is sometimes inaccurate, with a yellow, pink or blue cast in bright light'. They also noted 'some color shading in outdoor and low light conditions' and a 'pinkish cast in low tungsten light'.
Overall DxOMark awarded the BlackBerry Priv scores of:
- 4.7 out of 5 for Exposure
- 4.1 out of 5 for White Balance accuracy
- 3.3 out of 5 for Color shading in low light*
- 4.1 out of 5 for Color shading in bright light*
- 3.0 out of 5 for Color Rendering in low light
- 4.5 out of 5 for Color Rendering in bright light
Noise and Details
DxOMark's engineers reported that the BlackBerry Priv images show 'well preserved detail, especially in bright light' but 'compared to other smartphones noise levels are high in bright light'.
Texture Acutance
Texture acutance is a way of measuring the ability of a camera to capture images that preserve fine details, particularly the kind of low contrast detail (such as fine foliage, hair or fur) that can be blurred away by noise reduction or obliterated by excessive sharpening.
Sharpness is an important part of the quality of an image, but while it's easy to look at an image and decide visually whether it's sharp or not, the objective measurement of sharpness is less straightforward.
An image can be defined as 'sharp' if edges are sharp and if fine details are visible. In-camera processing means that it's possible to have one of these (sharp edges) but not the other (fine details). Conventional MTF measurements tell us how sharp an edge is, but have drawbacks when it comes to measuring fine detail preservation. Image processing algorithms can detect edges and enhance their sharpness, but they can also find homogeneous areas and smooth them out to reduce noise.
Texture acutance, on the other hand, can qualify sharpness in terms of preservation of fine details, without being fooled by edge enhancement algorithms.
Sharpness is an important part of the quality of an image, but while it's easy to look at an image and decide visually whether it's sharp or not, the objective measurement of sharpness is less straightforward.
An image can be defined as 'sharp' if edges are sharp and if fine details are visible. In-camera processing means that it's possible to have one of these (sharp edges) but not the other (fine details). Conventional MTF measurements tell us how sharp an edge is, but have drawbacks when it comes to measuring fine detail preservation. Image processing algorithms can detect edges and enhance their sharpness, but they can also find homogeneous areas and smooth them out to reduce noise.
Texture acutance, on the other hand, can qualify sharpness in terms of preservation of fine details, without being fooled by edge enhancement algorithms.
Quick review: Nextbit Robin camera
Quick review: Nextbit Robin camera
The Nextbit Robin is a brand new smartphone that started its life as a Kickstarter project. The first units are now shipping to project backers, and the device is now available for order to other consumers as well. On the surface the Robin looks like any other Android phone, albeit one with a pretty pleasing design. However, both the Android operating system and the Nextbit hardware have been optimized to make the Robin the first real cloud phone.
When the device is connected to Wi-Fi and plugged into the charger it automatically backs up apps and photos to the cloud. When you start running out of local storage space on the device, files and apps you haven't used in a while are archived. This means they are deleted from the device but grayed out app icons and image thumbnails are still visible. When you tap on an archived app or photo it is downloaded from the cloud, so you can access it again from your device. Depending on file size and internet connection this can take a short while. On my home Wi-Fi an app typically took around 30 seconds to restore. If you prefer you can also 'pin' an app to ensure it is never archived.
In the few days I've spent testing device, the archiving and restoring process worked without any problems, making the Nextbit Robin and interesting option for those who like installing large numbers of imaging apps and/or like to keep all their images accessible through the device's gallery app. That said, at DPReview we are of course most of all interested in the Nextbit Robin's camera performance. Read on to find out how it performs in the imaging department.
Key Specifications:
- 13MP camera with phase detection AF
- F2.2 aperture
- Dual-tone LED flash
- 4K video
- 5MP front camera
- 5.2-inch IPS LCD 1080p display with Gorilla Glass 4
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset
- 3GB RAM
- 32GB onboard storage
- 100GB online storage
- Stereo speakers
- Fingerprint reader
- Quick charging
- 2680 mAh battery
Camera app
The Nextbit Robin comes with a basic but intuitive camera app that offers a nicely designed user interface, in line with the Nextbit Android launcher. By default it's on full Auto which gives you very little control. A tap on the '+' symbol at the bottom opens up flash, controls, a timer, grid and HDR switch. A dot grid icon lets you switch between Auto camera, Manual camera and video mode. Having to press two controls before being able to record a video seems a little longwinded though, maybe a better solution can be implemented with a future update.
The Manual mode gives you control over AF, ISO and white balance and an exposure compensation slider but you cannot set shutter speed manually. There is currently no panorama mode but the team is planning to add one at a later stage. Overall the Nextbit camera app works reasonably well but is designed for point-and-shoot operation. Photographers who want more control over the image capture process should not have any trouble finding plenty of third-party camera apps on Google Play, though.
Image Quality
We took a range of sample shots to have a look at the Nexbit Robin's camera performance in different light conditions. The Robin delivers good exposure across the ISO range, with punchy colors. The auto white balance produces natural results in most situations. The two images below were taken in bright sun light. As you can see in those conditions the camera does a god job at resolving fine detail. Some smearing of low contrast detail is visible but overall textures are very good for a camera in the 13MP class. Sharpness is decent across the frame but softness is noticeable around the edges. Shadow noise is fairly well controlled as well.
Google Pixel XL camera review
Google Pixel XL camera review
For its latest smartphone generation, Google has dropped the Nexus moniker of previous models and used Pixel branding borrowed from the company's top-end Chromebooks and tablets. The Pixel XL is the larger of two models and comes with a 5.5" QHD-screen that uses AMOLED technology.
In terms of technical camera specifications, not much has changed compared to last year's Nexus devices. A 1/2.3" 12MP sensor is paired with an F2.0 aperture but offers no optical image stabilization. However, Google has flexed its muscles on the software side of things and added a new gyroscope-based video stabilization system that reads gyro data 200 times per second for smoother panning and shake-free handheld video recording.
Additionally, thanks to more powerful processing and zero shutter lag the excellent HDR+ mode is now on by default, using an image stacking approach to reduce noise, capture better detail and increase dynamic range. While the Pixel XL's camera hardware looks promising, it is these innovative algorithms that make the Google device one of the most interesting smartphones for photography released this year.
Key Photographic / Video Specifications
- 1/2.3” 12MP CMOS sensor with 1.55µm pixels
- F2.0 aperture
- AF with on-sensor phase detection and laser-assistance
- Dual-tone LED flash
- 4K video at 30 fps
- 1080p slow-motion at 120fps, 720p at 240fps
- Manual controls and Raw-support with third-party camera apps
- Gyroscope-based video stabilization
- 8MP front camera, 1/3.2" sensor, 1.4 µm pixels, F2.4, 1080p video
- Unlimited cloud storage for full-resolution images and videos
Other Specifications
- 5.5-inch Quad-HD AMOLED screen
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset
- 4GB RAM
- 32/128GB storage
- 3,450mAh battery
- Splash and dust resistant
- Fingerprint reader
OnePlus 3T camera review
OnePlus 3T camera review
OnePlus is a relatively new player in the mobile device market, but following the launch of the OnePlus One in 2014 it has very quickly gained a lot of momentum through a simple strategy: offer high-end hardware at mid-range prices.
The latest model, the OnePlus 3T, is no exception. At a current price of $439 you get Qualcomm's top-end chipset Snapdragon 821 and a whopping 6GB of RAM in the processing department. Add 64GB of internal storage in the base model to the mix and the 3T does not have to worry about comparisons to the flagship models from Samsung, Sony, Apple and the rest of the bunch.
On paper, the camera module is not quite on the same level as the powerful processing components but still looks very promising. A 1/2.8" 16MP sensor is combined with an F2.0 aperture, phase detection and optical image stabilization. DNG Raw support, 4K video and manual control over shutter speed are all on board as well and selfie-shooters will be interested in the front camera that offers a whopping 16MP resolution.
Key Photographic / Video Specifications
- 1/2.8” 16MP CMOS sensor with 1.12µm pixels
- F2.0 aperture
- AF with on-sensor phase detection
- Optical image stabilization
- LED flash
- 4K video at 30 fps
- 720p slow-motion at 120fps
- Manual controls and Raw-support
- 16MP front camera, 1.0 µm pixels, F2.0, 1080p video
Other Specifications
- 5.5" 1080p Full-HD AMOLED screen
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset
- 6GB RAM
- 64/128GB storage
- 3,400mAh battery
- Fingerprint reader
Huawei P10 camera review
The P10 is Huawei's latest high-end smartphone in a more compact form factor compared to the company's Mate 9 phablet. A 5.1" Full-HD display with very thin bezels allows for a design that easily fits into even small pockets. On the inside, top-end components, including Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 960 octa-core chipset and 4GB of RAM, provide top-end performance.
The Leica-branded camera comes with the same specification as its equivalent in the Mate 9 and combines a 12MP color sensor with a 20MP monochrome chip. Both lenses have an F2.2 aperture and the color variant also features optical image stabilization. As before, color and monochrome image information is combined for better image detail, higher dynamic range and lower noise levels. Other features include laser-assisted autofocus, a two-tone LED flash and 4K video recording.
On the software side of things a new 'Leica-style' portrait mode uses 3D face detection and applies a combination of fake bokeh, adjustable illumination and 'beautification' effects to your portrait subjects. We've put the hardware and software through its paces for our full camera review. Read on on the following pages to find out how the P10 performed.
Key Photographic / Video Specifications
- Leica-branded dual-camera with 12MP color and 20MP monochrome sensors
- F2.2 aperture
- OIS on the color sensor
- 27mm equivalent focal length
- On-sensor phase detection and laser-assisted AF
- Dual-tone LED flash
- 4K video
- 8MP front camera with F1.9 aperture
- Manual camera control and DNR Raw capture
Other Specifications
- 5.1" IPS display with 1080p resolution
- Android 7.0
- HiSilicon Kirin 960 octa-core chipset
- 4GB RAM and 64GB storage
- microSD support up to 256GB
- 3200 mAh battery
- Stereo speakers
- Fingerprint reader
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OnePlus 3T camera review OnePlus is a relatively new player in the mobile device market, but following the launch of the OnePlus O... -
Although it doesn’t yet have the clout of well-established European brands, Hyundai’s upscale Genesis spinoff division is off to a strong...