Technology

Samsung Galaxy A25 Review

Published

3 months ago

28/01/2024

pouyan

Samsung Galaxy A25 review. Checking the camera, hardware, software, battery, design, screen and charging speed of the Galaxy A25 phone.

Samsung Galaxy A25 review, price and specifications

Just when it’s all about the Galaxy S24 series, we bring you our Galaxy A25 review. It’s true that it’s not the right time to introduce this phone, and Samsung has taken its time to review the S24, but in the meantime – we have another important device – the Galaxy A25. Important for Samsung and value-oriented users alike. Flagships are in the headlines, but mid-range phones also have a special value.

The Galaxy A25 is also a globally available device. It is currently sold in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and India. So, it basically competes in the mid-range on all fronts. And Samsung has made sure it’s ready.

The new Galaxy A25 may be safe and hasn’t deviated too much from the established formula of the Galaxy A series, so the design has had few changes but there are plenty of updates.

Samsung Galaxy A25 specifications at a glance:

Body: 161.0 x 76.5 x 8.3mm, 197g; Plastic back and frame, glass front.
Display: 6.50 inch Super AMOLED, 120 Hz, 1000 nits (HBM), resolution 1080x2340px, aspect ratio 19.5:9, 396ppi.
Chipset: Exynos 1280 (5 nm): Octa-core (2×2.4 GHz Cortex-A78 & 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G68.
Memory: 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM; microSDXC (uses a shared SIM card slot).
OS/Software: Android 14, One UI 6.
Rear Camera: Wide (main) : 50 MP, f/1.8, PDAF, OIS; Very wide angle : 8 megapixels, f/2.2, 120 degrees; Macro : 2 megapixels, f/2.4.
Front camera: 13 MP, f/2.2, (wide).
Videography: Rear camera : 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS. Front camera : 1080p@30fps.
Battery: 5000 mAh; 25 watts wired
Connectivity: 5G; hybrid of two SIM cards; Wi-Fi 5; BT 5.3; NFC; 3.5 mm jack
Other features: Fingerprint reader (mounted on the side). stereo speakers; Virtual proximity sensor

There are some notable hardware upgrades over the A24. For example, it’s a 5G headset thanks to Samsung’s built-in Exynos 1280 chipset. This actually addresses one of the key criticisms against last year’s Galaxy A24, which only came in a 4G version. Considering that the lower-end Galaxy A14 had a 5G variant, it’s a strange choice indeed.

Samsung is also upping the refresh rate of the familiar 6.5-inch Super AMOLED panel to 120Hz, up from 90Hz on devices like the Galaxy A24 and Galaxy A15.

While the camera setup on the Galaxy A25 is largely unchanged, Samsung is introducing an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera as a replacement for the 5-megapixel camera, which should result in better-quality photos and videos. Speaking of video, thanks to the new chipset, the Galaxy A25 can shoot 4K@30fps on its main camera. There is also gyroscopic EIS support. Unlike its predecessor, the Galaxy A25 also offers a stereo speaker setup.

All these upgrades certainly bring the A25 closer than ever to the A3X series devices, especially the excellent Galaxy A34. You still don’t get an official IP rating with the Galaxy A25, though some of its design elements, like the larger display bezels, still hint at its more budget-friendly nature.

With all that said, we’re very interested to see how well the new Galaxy A25 stacks up against the competition at its very competitive price point, including some other Samsung devices like the Galaxy A34 we mentioned.

Unboxing

The Galaxy A25 comes in a simple sliding cardboard box. Nothing too fancy. The cardboard material is not too bulky, however, the phone does not sit directly underneath it and is well protected. There’s no plastic in the packaging, but you still get a nice cardboard stand for the phone itself, which works well enough.

The accessories package is just as basic. Samsung only provides a white USB Type-C to Type-C cable with the phone and nothing else. If it’s good enough for the S Series, we guess it’s good enough for the A Series. Although we can’t say, we especially like this fact.

Design

That being said, Samsung hasn’t made any major changes to the overall design of the phone. The middle bezel of this generation has a distinctive sculpted shape, which is the easiest way to distinguish the Galaxy A25 from, say, the Galaxy A24.

We find that the new frame is nicer to the touch and better in terms of feel and handling than the previous design. Although the difference is not much.

Other than that, you’ll still have the familiar vertical triple camera cluster on the back, with no discernible camera island or “area” on the back. The back panel itself is completely flat.

The same goes for the front, which is covered by a smooth piece of glass. The display bezels are still on the larger end, detracting from the affordable nature of the device. The rounded teardrop notch for the selfie camera is also something we tend to associate with Samsung’s lower-end offerings.

The Galaxy A25 is available in a total of four colors. There’s the eye-catching Personality Yellow variant that we have for review, but there are also lesser options: Black, Fantasy Blue, and Blue.

The back panel has a very subtle pattern. Something like very fine checkers. You can’t really feel the pattern because it’s not at a high level and is barely visible from a distance. It is very delicate.

Build Quality

The Galaxy A25 is mostly made of plastic. It includes the back panel and the middle frame. Both look great and feel great to the touch as well.

We have embraced plastic as a phone material in the past and will continue to do so. It doesn’t quite scratch or dent like metal and it doesn’t quite shatter like glass.

While the Galaxy A25 is definitely closer to the Galaxy A3X line than ever, a decent intrusion protection rating is still missing from the Galaxy A25.

There’s no visible gasket on the SIM tray, which you sometimes see on devices even without an official IP rating. We recommend not submerging the A25. Anyway, the SIM tray is a hybrid affair. It holds two nano SIM cards or one can be replaced with a microSD memory card.

Handling and Control

We found the Galaxy A25 to fit well in the palm. It is not particularly slippery and offers good grip. Neither the back nor the frame shows fingerprints. The 6.5-inch screen is relatively large but still manageable with one hand. Although this reviewer has rather large hands.

There is nothing special about the control set and layout of the Galaxy A25. Well, maybe apart from the fact that the fingerprint sensor is mounted on the side instead of on the screen. This is another small segment that Samsung is still saving for the Galaxy A3X line.

On the plus side, the side-mounted capacitive reader works very well – quite accurate and very solid.

Speaking of the Galaxy A3X series and specifically the A34, it lacks a 3.5mm audio jack. The Galaxy A25 still has one.

It is located right next to the Type-C port and the bottom speaker on the bottom of the device.

As for the speakers, the A25 has a stereo speaker setup.

6.5-inch display now with 120 Hz refresh rate

Samsung continues to make some of the best panels in the industry and tends to equip even its cheaper devices with decent models. The Galaxy A25 is a great example. It has a Super AMOLED screen, just like its predecessor, which is still 6.5 inches in diameter.

The resolution is 1080 x 2340 pixels with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9 with a pixel density of about 396 ppi. We found it quite obvious in person.

The display bezels are still on the larger end, detracting from the affordable nature of the device.

The 120Hz refresh rate is up from 90Hz on last year’s Galaxy A24 and is now more in line with the 120Hz found on the Galaxy A3X family, especially the A34.

Before we talk more about the refresh rate, we need to say a few words about the performance of the display. Samsung says the Galaxy A25 should have a maximum brightness of 1,000 nits on its display – essentially the same as last year’s A24. We measured 434 nits with the manual slider maxed out, and the phone hit 1,030 nits in auto-max mode, basically confirming the market’s claims. These numbers are more in line with last year’s Galaxy A24 numbers.

In terms of color, the display depth is 8 bits. Samsung offers two color profiles – Vivid and Natural with a color temperature slider and separate RGB channel settings in Live mode.

The Galaxy A25 lacks HDR support. The phone itself can decode HDR10 and HLG, but not Dolby Vision or HDR10+, but the display can’t display HDR content at all. On the plus side, the phone has the highest Widevine L1 DRM certification, which allows apps like Netflix to deliver FullHD streams and saturate the display’s resolution.

High rate control

The refresh rate of the Galaxy A25 is 120 Hz, which is 90 Hz higher than last year’s A24 model. This is a great addition in itself, but unfortunately, just like the Galaxy A34, there’s virtually no automatic refresh rate switching. There are two “motion smoothness” options in the settings – High and Standard. The first runs at a fixed frequency of 120 Hz and the second at a fixed frequency of 60 Hz.

There’s no logic to automatically switching from 120Hz to 90Hz or 60Hz, as you might find on many competitors. This means you’re constantly wasting at least some power in 120Hz mode. On the plus side, at least high refresh rate gaming works as expected, with titles that support rendering above 60fps more than enough for the Exynos 1280.

Battery Life

The Galaxy A25 packs a hefty 5,000 mAh battery – a capacity that most users today expect. This phone uses the mentioned battery sufficiently and manages an active use score of 10:19 hours. We would ideally like to see better results in browsing and gaming.

Charging

The Galaxy A25 supports Samsung’s 25W fast charging standard. It’s based on Power Delivery, but it’s still best to buy one of Samsung’s chargers to ensure you get the best possible charging speeds and PPS charging profiles. As we mentioned, there’s no charger in the box, so you’ll need to get your own.

We used Samsung’s 25W charger for our testing, and the A25 performed perfectly well. Pretty much what we’ve come to expect from a recent 5000mAh Samsung device with 25W charging.

In terms of actual numbers, we managed to get our A25 from 0% to 27% in 15 minutes and up to 49% in half an hour. It took 84 minutes to fully charge.

Speakers

The Galaxy A25 has a hybrid stereo speaker setup. This is a new feature this year. A24 mono speaker upgrade and more in line with A34 settings. A dedicated speaker is located at the bottom of the phone and an amplified speaker controls the other channel. Naturally, this means that the balance between the two is not perfect. The bottom speaker is definitely louder and clearer. However, the stereo effect that the two produce together is very convincing and pleasing for multimedia consumption.

In terms of loudness, our Galaxy A25 unit managed -26 LUFS, which barely qualifies for our “Very Good” grade. This is a significant improvement over the Galaxy A24’s average score, and fully in line with the Galaxy A34’s performance.

The actual sound quality is also very good and very similar to the Galaxy A34. There’s nothing noticeable even at high volumes, and the soundstage is fairly rich. The mids could be a little better, but the highs are great, and there’s even some bass. It has Dolby Atmos, a full-featured equalizer, and UHQ upscaling.

Connectivity

As mentioned earlier, the Galaxy A25 is a 5G device. It offers 5G dual standby mode in both nano SIM card slots. The second gap is a hybrid affair. It can use a nano SIM card or a microSD card for expandable storage. We have information that there is also a single-SIM variant of the Galaxy A25, but almost every store listing we’ve seen is for the dual-SIM.

For local connectivity, the A25 has dual-band Wi-Fi 6/ac and Bluetooth 5.3. Some regions have NFC, while FM radio doesn’t seem to be available anywhere. However, it’s still worth checking with your local retailer.

There’s no IR blaster on board, but as we mentioned earlier there is a 3.5mm audio jack.

You support GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, and QZSS for positioning. The onboard Type-C port has USB Host/OTG capability, but nothing else interesting in terms of features like video output. The Type-C port is backed up by a USB 2.0 connection, which means a theoretical maximum data transfer speed of 480Mbps.

The Galaxy A25 has a decent array of sensors but unfortunately lacks a proper hardware proximity sensor. You get a virtual proximity sensor which is mostly responsible for turning off the screen during incoming calls. Although not ideal. Other than that, you get an ICM42632M accelerometer and gyroscope combo, an STK31610 light sensor, and an AK09918C magnetometer. There is no barometer.

One UI 6 on top of Android 14

The Galaxy A25 runs on Samsung’s current One UI 6 on top of the latest Android 14. It’s One UI instead of the core version found on some low-end Galaxy devices. This means fewer features are removed.

The Galaxy A25 is eligible for four years or four major OS and One UI updates and a total of five years of security patches over its life cycle.

You get the same general UX and even more features of the Galaxy S series, which is great to see on a mid-range device. The good news for all Galaxy users is that the list of software features reserved for flagships has dwindled in recent years and now includes niche items like Samsung DeX.

Despite the big leap in version, OneUI 6.0 remains visually and functionally very familiar without many obvious changes. Visual features include more freedom to move the clock widget on the lock screen, a new button layout in the quick panel, and an improved notification layout in the notification shade.

The home screen has simplified icon labels, and you can now drag and drop icons from one screen to another by holding the icon with one hand and swiping between screens with the other. There’s a new Weather insights widget and a custom camera widget that can launch the camera directly in the selected camera mode.

There are also some small behavioral changes with settings. For example, Airplane Mode has gotten smarter and now remembers the last time you turned on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi alongside Airplane Mode and automatically restores that mode. Battery settings now get their own top-level menu for easier access. The Digital Wellbeing menu has been redesigned to be more readable.

Samsung’s new Auto Blocker is a one-stop shop for all your privacy and security needs. You get automatic checks for things like malware and suggestions, and some neat optional features like preventing the installation of unknown apps, preventing malicious ADB commands from running on the phone, and scanning images for malicious content.

As for Samsung apps, you get a handful of the company’s in-house developed solutions, such as Samsung Messages, Phone, Contacts, Gallery, Notes, Health, Files, Internet, and Store, often associated with Google’s “duplicate” apps.

There aren’t many preloaded apps that we’d consider outright bloatware, but our Galaxy A25 unit came with TikTok, Spotify, Netflix, Facebook, Temu, Happy Color, and WoW. Fortunately, something you can’t quickly remove and get rid of.

We didn’t notice any ads in One UI 6 on the Galaxy A25, as is usually the case.

Performance

Galaxy A25 is based on Samsung’s Exynos 1280 chipset. It’s a fairly modern piece from 2022, made with the 5nm LPE (EUV) manufacturing process. We have already seen the proper performance of this chipset in devices such as Galaxy A53 5G and Galaxy A33 5G. It has an octa-core CPU configuration with two ARM Cortex-A78 cores clocked at up to 2.4GHz and another six Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 2.0GHz. The internal GPU is a Mali-G68 unit.

The Exynos 1280 is paired with 6 or 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128 or 256 GB of internal storage. The test unit that we ran the benchmarks on is a 128GB/6GB base unit.

Let’s start with GeekBench and some CPU tests. First of all, it’s encouraging to see that Samsung seems to have squeezed more performance out of the Exynos 1280, as it clearly performs better inside the Galaxy A25 compared to the Galaxy A53 5G. This could be related to many things, including faster memory or memory and OS improvements. However, this is a welcome finding.

In the grand scheme of things, the Exynos 1280 seems to outperform the Snapdragon 695 and Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 in both single and multi-core CPU tasks. The Dimensity 6080 as well as the Dimensity 7050 mostly hit back and forth with it. Anything from MediaTek’s 80xx line is superior, and so is the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 in the Poco X6.

The Dimensity 1080 seems to be slightly better in overall performance – a fact supported by AnTuTu and its much more complex set of tests that also take into account things like storage and memory speed. The Galaxy A34 is slightly ahead of the A25, and the A54 is still ahead.

However, none are anywhere near the top in this price range in terms of overall performance. That honor seems to go to the Motorola Edge 40 and the Infinix GT 10 Pro, beating the MediaTek 8020 and 8050, respectively. However, the Galaxy A25 certainly holds its own, offering a slightly lower AnTuTu score than its predecessor, the A24.

3Dmark shows pretty much the same picture as AnTuTu, with Motorola Edge 40 and Infinix GT 10 Pro topping the charts. When it comes to GPU performance, the Mali-G68 in the Galaxy A25 seems to be roughly on par with the Dimensity 1080 and Dimensity 7050, as these chips all have the same graphics settings. And said setup is a head start on the Mali-G57 MC2, as found in the Helio G99, Dimensity 6080, and Dimensity 700, as well as Adreno 619 on Qualcomm’s part.

On a more practical note, we found the Galaxy A25 to run without any noticeable issues or slowdowns. It has plenty of power for daily tasks as well as some casual gaming.

The Galaxy A25 never overheats to the touch even after intense stress testing. The passive cooling solution found in the Exynos 1280 also seems to manage the heat output well.

Introducing the familiar triple camera now with ultra-higher resolution

The Galaxy A25 mainly carries forward the camera setup of its Galaxy A24 predecessor.

It includes a 50-megapixel primary camera with OIS, a 2-megapixel macro camera on the back, and a 13-megapixel selfie camera with fixed focus. One upgrade here is the move to an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera on the back, up from the 5-megapixel unit on the Galaxy A24.

Samsung Galaxy A25 camera specifications

Wide (primary) : 50MP Samsung ISOCELL (S5K)JN1, f/1.8, 27mm, 1/2.76in, 0.64μm, PDAF, OIS; 2160p@30fps
Ultra-wide : 8 MP Samsung ISOCELL (S5K) 4HA, f/2.2, 120°, 1/4 inch, 1.12 µm, fixed focus; 1080p@30fps
Macro : 2MP GalaxyCore GC02M1, f/2.4, fixed focus.
Front camera: 13 MP Hynix Hi-1339, f/2.2, 1/3.06″ 1.12 µm, fixed focus; 1080p@30fps

Overall, we can say that Samsung hasn’t changed the camera that much. One new addition to the mix is gyro-EIS – a nice feature to have and previously unavailable on the Galaxy A24.

The camera app is what you find on every Samsung phone these days. You only get Pro mode on the main camera, while Night mode can be used on the main, ultra-wide, and selfie cameras.

Camera quality in daylight

The main camera saves 12.5MP photos by default. We’ve already seen this particular camera perform very well on other devices like last year’s Galaxy A24.

The resolved detail is good, the noise reduction did a great job, the contrast is excellent, and the dynamic range is wide. In typical Samsung fashion, the colors have a little extra ‘pop’ to them. Overall, though, photos don’t look over-processed or over-sharpened, which is great.

Unfortunately, if you look closely, the photos look quite soft.

Samsung Galaxy A25: 12.5MP main camera samples

Even in the absence of a dedicated depth sensor, the main camera takes perfectly decent portrait photos. Subjects with pleasant skin tones look detailed. The subject detection and separation is quite accurate and the background blur quality is excellent.

Samsung Galaxy A25: 12.5MP main camera samples

Samsung Galaxy A25: 12.5MP main camera portrait examples

The Galaxy A25 lacks a dedicated telephoto camera, but it can still take 2x zoom photos with its main camera. These are very comparable in quality to 1x photos, meaning they look good if you don’t zoom too close.

Samsung Galaxy A25: 12.5MP main camera samples with 2x zoom

The new 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera is a slight upgrade over last year’s 5-megapixel unit. Contrast and dynamic range are all right. We welcome camera color interpretation. It’s not natural, but it matches the slightly saturated look of the main camera.

Blended details are over-sharpened. The quality of the photos reminds us of what good-grade CCTV cameras produce, meaning they capture the scene, but the quality isn’t great by phone camera standards.

Samsung Galaxy A25: 8MP ultra-wide camera samples

The 2MP macro camera’s focus is fixed at 4cm, and it may take a few tries to get it right. Once you’ve done that, you can save some usable close-ups that you can post on your Instagram. The colors and dynamic range are good, but the resolved detail is fairly unremarkable.

Samsung Galaxy A25: 2MP macro camera samples

The 13MP selfies we took on the Galaxy A25 are excellent – there’s plenty of resolved detail and a balanced overall display, accurate colors, and wide dynamic range. We’ve seen worse selfies from more expensive phones, so kudos to Samsung for building a decent selfie camera into such an affordable device.

Samsung Galaxy A25: 13MP selfie camera samples

Camera quality in low light

The Galaxy A25’s main camera takes decent, but largely unremarkable photos in low light. While there is little detail, most surfaces look smooth and a bit noisy. Both shadows and highlights are well developed, and light sources are well present, though still not quite. Dynamic range and contrast are good. The colors are a bit cold but overall good.

Samsung Galaxy A25: 12.5MP main camera samples in low light

The Galaxy A25 does some automatic night mode on its own, but there’s also a manual night mode that takes longer exposure times and stacks more images. The resulting images are slightly clearer, with less noise and cleaner surfaces. Light sources are also significantly better managed.

Samsung Galaxy A25: night mode examples of the 12.5-megapixel main camera

2x zoom photos from the main camera are expected to look noisier and softer than 1x photos. They are still very usable though.

Samsung Galaxy A25: 12.5MP main camera samples with 2x zoom in low light

Night mode doesn’t seem to do much for these photos. The exposure is higher, which can lead to some clipped highlights and doesn’t help the shadows much, and that’s it.

Samsung Galaxy A25: 12.5MP main camera samples 2x night mode

Considering its poor performance in daylight, we didn’t expect much from the new ultra-wide 8MP in low light. Low-light photos are quite soft and noisy and don’t have a lot of detail. However, the dynamic range is quite decent for this type of camera.

Samsung Galaxy A25: 8MP ultra-wide camera samples in low light

Night mode boosts the exposure a bit and brightens things up, but doesn’t really help develop darker areas or better light sources. The amount of detail captured remains pretty much the same, with a little extra sharpening applied to what’s already there. This creates a cleaner overall look but is quite artificial.

Samsung Galaxy A25: night mode examples of the 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera

The selfie camera cannot be affected in low light conditions either. Faces look soft and muddy most of the time, even if you nail a fixed focal plane. On a more positive note, at least the skin tone looks believable most of the time.

Samsung Galaxy A25: 13 MP selfie camera examples in low light

Video Quality

One of the upgrades offered by the Exynos 1280 chipset over the Mediatek Helio G99 in last year’s Galaxy A24 is the ability to record 4K@30fps video. The Galaxy A25 can do this on its main camera and only in 1x mode. The 2x zoom mode of the main camera, the ultrawide camera, and the selfie camera are all limited to 1080p.

By default, video is stored in the h.264/AVC stream at approximately 49 Mbps in 4K and 17 Mbps in FullHD. The audio is also standard AAC 48kHz stereo, and both fit together inside a standard MP4 container. There is also an option to save some space and capture in h.265/HEVC instead.

4K video from the main camera looks very detailed, with virtually no noise, good contrast, and great dynamic range. Colors, just like still photos, are a little on the saturated side, but not overly so. The contrast is also tweaked a bit to give it that extra “poppy” look.

That said, the video is limited to 1080p at 2x zoom and looks pretty unremarkable by comparison. Not bad, but the level of detail is definitely lacking. The same can be said about the ultra-wide camera and its 1080p videos in general. While definitely usable, they are soft, especially around the edges of the frame. We like that the colors are reasonably consistent with the original camera.

Bucking the trend, 1080p videos from the selfie camera look great. There is excellent skin texture detail. Skin tones also look great. The contrast is pleasant, as well as slightly saturated colors. Overall, a great show.

Another new addition to the Galaxy A25 mix is gyroscope-based electronic image stabilization (EIS). Available in two flavors or levels. One of them is primary stabilization, which can be changed through the camera’s settings menu. It drops the resolution to 1080p, but it can work on all cameras (except the 2MP macro) and does a pretty decent job of smoothing out small shakes and bumps. Then there’s Super Steady, which only works in 1080p and on the ultra-wide camera. This is intended for sports and other action shots and offers better overall stabilization at the cost of cropping more of the frame.

Low-light footage from the main camera is surprisingly clean and accurate. The details are there and the colors look nice too. Dynamic range could be better, however, with blown-out light sources and often crushed shadows. Shooting at 2x zoom from the main camera is worse with less detail as the 1080p resolution is also softer and a bit noisy. 1080p video from Ultrawide is very disappointing. It is dark, muddy, and noisy.

Check Competitors

At the time of writing, the base 6GB/128GB Galaxy A25 will set you back around $250 / €285 / £250 / INR 27,000, and the top-end 8GB / 256GB is $399 / €330 / INR 30,000 It will come back to you. It’s a competitive price bracket with plenty of viable options.

While we’re still not sure what Samsung has in store for the Galaxy A35, last year’s Galaxy A34 has been pretty well discounted. You can get a 6GB/128GB base unit for around $250 / €250 / £190 / INR 25,500. Of course, since the A34 is technically “last generation” and came with Android 13 and One UI 5.1, there’s a shorter support window left after four years of major updates and five years of Samsung’s promising security patches.

In terms of upgrades over the A25, the A34 has decent IP67 protection, 4K video recording on the selfie camera, and a slightly more powerful Dimensity 1080 chipset. Other specifications are a kind of washing of two devices. You even forego the 3.5mm audio jack that the A25 has. However, the A34 might suit you better.

Samsung Galaxy A34 • Xiaomi Poco X6 • Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro

We have many models of the latest Xiaomi products. There is the ever-popular Redmi Note series specifically the vanilla Redmi Note 13. It is currently priced slightly lower than the Galaxy A25 and offers quite comparable specs. Its Dimensity 6080 is a bit more powerful, but you’ll have to make do with 1080p video, despite the phone’s 108-megapixel primary camera having enough resolution.

Enter the Xiaomi Poco X6. It seems to be the most reasonable alternative to the Galaxy A25. Of course, it seems to cost a little more, but you get a better, brighter, and HDR 12-bit AMOLED display, a more powerful Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, IP54 ingress protection, and Gorilla Glass Victus, 256GB base memory, and 8GB. RAM and 67W faster charging with the onboard 5100 mAh battery, just to name a few. According to our tests, if you have just a little more to spend, you can go for the Poco X6 Pro with faster UFS 4.0 storage and better overall battery life.

If you’re looking to save money instead, there’s the Poco M6 Pro 4G, which is sort of the same as the Redmi Note 13 Pro 4G, only slightly cheaper. Next to the Galaxy A25, it has a very comparable display and a slightly more powerful chipset. You’ll have to live with 1080p video recording, but you won’t forgo other features like a stereo speaker setup, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC, or FM radio. As a bonus, the Poco M6 Pro also offers 67W fast charging and official IP54 protection.

Summary

Last year, Samsung made a rather confusing choice by introducing the Galaxy A24 only in the 4G/LTE version. All along, the A34 was 5G and even the A15 had a 5G variant. That’s no longer the case with the new Galaxy A25, and it’s not the only sensible upgrade to the formula.

The move from 90Hz to 120Hz refresh rate may be relatively small, but it’s meaningful and helps the phone feel smoother and more responsive overall. You can probably get longer battery life by disabling the high refresh rate, so the choice is up to you.

The leap from MediaTek’s Helio G99 to the Exynos 1280 may not be huge in terms of raw performance either, but beyond the aforementioned 5G connectivity, it also brings 4K video recording to the Galaxy A25, another small but significant upgrade.

The new stereo speaker setup is also a big deal in our books. The speaker may not shine at all compared to the competition, but it’s still miles better than the single speaker offered on the Galaxy A24.

All these small updates add up and probably bring the Galaxy A25 closer to Galaxy A3X territory in terms of features than ever before. Upgrades aside, the Galaxy A25 still has a solid build, now with a slightly tweaked design, which we found offered a more comfortable grip. Both battery life and performance are reliable, and the same can be said for the camera settings. Well, at least in daylight. Low-light photography is a little disappointing, though it’s still not that bad.

We would have liked to see a decent intrusion protection rating like the Galaxy A25’s larger counterparts, but maybe next year. We don’t really see anything major to complain about in the Galaxy A25. It’s a solid Samsung device with everything you need for a decent price, and we’re sure it’ll be a hit.

Why should we buy the Galaxy A25 phone?

Attractive and solid design.
The Super AMOLED screen is now 120Hz.
Good quality stereo speakers
The latest version of Android and One UI.
Good performance for this price range and excellent thermal behavior.
Now great photo and video quality with 4K video recording, 2x lossless zoom, and great selfie photos and videos.
5G, NFC, microSD.

Why should we avoid buying the Galaxy A25 phone?

No charger inside the box
There is no official ingress protection rating yet.
There is no change in the auto-removal rate and no support for HDR.
Video stabilization is only available at 1080p.
Very poor performance of the omnidirectional camera in low light.
Virtual proximity sensor

Source: GSMARENA.COM

Technology

MacBook Air M3 review; Lovely, powerful and economical

Published

4 days ago

06/05/2024

pouyan

The MacBook Air M3, with all its performance improvements, adds to the value and economic justification of the MacBook Air M1, rather than being an ideal purchase.

MacBook Air M3 review; Lovely, powerful and economical

If you are looking for a compact, well-made and high-quality laptop that can be used in daily and light use, the MacBook Air M3 review is not for you; So close the preceding article, visit the Zomit products section and choose one of the stores to buy MacBook Air M1 ; But if you, like me, are excited to read about the developments in the world of hardware and are curious to know about the performance of the M3 chip in the Dell MacBook Air 2024 , then stay with Zoomit.

The design is a copy of the original from the last generation

Almost two years have passed since Apple said goodbye to the familiar and wedge-shaped MacBook Air design; A different design that accompanied this ultrabook from the first day of its birth in 2008; But finally in 2022, with the aim of harmonizing the design language of the Apple laptop family, it was abandoned so that the MacBook Air 2022 will have a similar appearance to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro.

The new MacBook Air is uniform in thickness; But it was slimmer, the screen was bigger, the edges were narrower and the corners were rounded, and a relatively large notch was added to it, whose only existence was to host the device’s 1080p webcam. MacBook Air 2022 also marked the return of the MagSafe magnetic charging port to Apple’s popular Ultrabook.

Previously, in the review of the MacBook Air 2022 with the M2 chip, we have talked comprehensively and deeply about its design and its positive and negative points. I suggest that if you haven’t read the article, you must visit it; Because the MacBook Air M3 is no different from the MacBook Air M2 in terms of appearance, display, or ports.

We also see the same incredibly well-made and metal body of MacBook Air 2022 in the new generation of Apple Ultrabooks; A body that, like the rest of Apple laptops, is carved from an aluminum block instead of the usual method of using aluminum sheets, and for this reason, it has a strong and dense structure so that we do not see the body sinking when pressing the keyboard area or the screen frame swinging.

The rounded corners of the MacBook Air M2

All the parts of the MacBook Air 2024 are assembled with the utmost care; So that there is no gap between them. As expected, the hinge of the laptop is also well-adjusted so that you don’t need to use two hands to open the laptop door. All in all, the combination of the quality of components and Apple’s exemplary engineering precision, brings an extremely enjoyable and unique feeling to the user while using the MacBook Air.

Just like the previous generation, the new MacBook Air is sold in four colors: gray, silver, dark blue, and cream. One of the flaws that could be found in the design of the MacBook Air 2022 was that fingerprints and grease remained on the body; The item that was more noticeable in dark blue color. Apple says this year it has used a new coating that reduces the severity of this problem. We did not have the 2022 model available for comparison at the time of writing the following review, But traces of fat and finger still remain on the body of the MacBook Air 2024.

Grease and fingerprints on the laptop body

MacBook Air keyboard is among the best examples in the market in terms of arrangement and dimensions, feedback, and key stability; But the matte coating on the keys absorbs the fat of the fingers very quickly, and on the other hand, like other MacBooks, there is a possibility that the matte coating will disappear and the keys will become shiny. Depending on your usage, this can happen very quickly or over time; For example, for me, who is constantly writing, the keys on my MacBook Pro M1 burned out in less than a year.

Apparently, the buyers of used laptops are very sensitive about the keys being electrocuted; Therefore, if you plan to replace your Macbook with another laptop after one or two years, be sure to keep this in mind and use an external keyboard for long typing.

As always, the trackpad is one of the main strengths of any MacBook, and the MacBook Air M3 follows the same rule. The glass trackpad of the device is large in size and has little friction on its surface, it offers flawless, accurate, and smooth performance, and its Fortouch mechanism, which makes it possible to click on the entire surface of the trackpad, is so efficient that after the MacBook, it is impossible to work with the trackpad of any laptop. Another enjoyed.

MacBook Air 2022

The set of MacBook Air 2024 ports is limited and has not changed; On the right side of the device, there is a headphone jack, and the left side of the device hosts two USB4 ports and a MagSafe magnetic charging port. Along with the basic model, Apple provides a relatively small 30-watt adapter with a cloth cable of the same color as the device’s body; But you can also get the laptop with a more powerful 35 or 70-watt adapter, which charges the battery up to 50% within half an hour.

USB4 ports support Thunderbolt 3 standard with a bandwidth of 40 Gbps, But it is not possible to connect external graphics. Both ports also transmit the image signal with the DisplayPort standard. In the new MacBook, if you close the laptop door, you can connect a 6K monitor and a 5K monitor (both 60Hz) to the device at the same time; But with the laptop’s screen on, just like the MacBook Air M2, the image output is limited to a 6K monitor; It is interesting that the Intel version of MacBook Air could output images to two 4K monitors at the same time as its own screen is on!

As in the previous generation, Apple uses Bluetooth version 5.3 in its Ultrabook; But the Wi-Fi module has upgraded the device from Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 6E, which incompatible networks can increase the communication bandwidth of MacBook Air 2024 with the router and the rest of the devices in the network from 1.2 to 2.4 Gbps.

Attractive display with more attractive competitors

Like most parts of the device, the screen of the new MacBook Air does not change; Of course, in this field, you can’t criticize Apple much, since 2018, when the MacBook Air screen became Retina, it has always been among the best; However, today, with OLED competitors with stunning colors and infinite contrast, Apple’s Retina display no longer has its former glory.

MacBook Air M3 can be purchased just like the previous generation in two 13.6-inch and 15.3-inch models. The pixel density of both versions is a very good number of 224 pixels. With this density, the MacBook Air screen produces a very clear image. So that it is difficult to distinguish the pixels from each other. We have the 13.6-inch MacBook Air M3 with a resolution of 2560 x 1664 pixels available for review.

Unfortunately, unlike the expensive models of MacBook Pro or even Windows Ultrabooks with the same price as Zenbook, the panel of the MacBook Air is 60 Hz and it does not have amazing technologies such as OLED and MiniLED to produce 1000 nits of brightness and extraordinary colors. MacBook Air uses an 8-bit IPS LCD panel with back exposure, which, by using FRC technology, can give the user the feeling of 10-bit panels with a billion colors.

MacBook Air covers the wide DCI P3 color space with high accuracy. The Apple Ultrabook covers 98.4% of this space with an error of 1.9 (an error of less than 3 is ideal), perhaps the only color weakness of the panel can be considered a slight tendency to be cold; However, thanks to the True Tone feature, the device evaluates the ambient light temperature with high accuracy and adjusts the color temperature accordingly to give you a satisfying visual experience.

In our measurements, with a 50% raster standard, we reached a maximum brightness of 443 nits, which in itself is a very good number, and thanks to the anti-reflective coating on the panel surface, in environments with different light conditions, it brings a satisfactory experience of working with a laptop. Without the appearance of the shadow of the environment on the panel, the user will not be bothered.

MacBook Air 2024 screen performance against other laptops
Laptop / test	White image		Black image	contrast ratio	AdobeRGB		sRGB		DCI-P3
Laptop / test	Maximum brightness	Minimum brightness	Average brightness	Native	cover	Average error	cover	Average error	cover	Average error
MacBook Air 2024	443 intentions	0.00 nits	0.67 nits	661	87.9	—	100	2.4	98.4	1.9
Zenbook 14	512 intention (788 nits HDR)	0.27 nits	0 intentions	∞	89.6	2.6	100	0.6	99.7	1.3
MacBook Pro 2022	437 intentions	0.00 nits	0.5 nits	874	86.3	—	99.8	2.7	97.5	—
MacBook Air 2022	447 intentions	0.1 nit	0.65 nits	693	87.5	—	100	2.5	98.1	—
Galaxy Book 3 Ultra	441 intentions	4 intentions	0 intentions	∞	97.3	3.7	99.6	1.9	99.8	2.3
MacBook Pro M1 Max	455 intentions (1497 nits HDR)	0 intentions	0 intentions	∞	85	—	121.6	—	97.3	2.5

In addition to the reasonable maximum brightness of 442 nits in bright images, unlike most laptops with IPS LCD screens, the black color brightness is also very low in the MacBook Air display; So that the device achieves a very high contrast. On the other hand, the minimum brightness of the display was 0 nits even with the 0.01 nits accuracy of the Zoomit luminance meter; In the sense that while using the laptop, there will be a little pressure on your eyes.

The attractive screen of the MacBook Air is completed by a set of 4 speakers; Speakers that have a very large sound volume compared to the size of a laptop, produce clear sound, and at high volumes, they are confused and distorted. MacBook Air speakers support Dolby Atmos and are easily ahead of most Windows laptops.

M3 chip and championship called TSMC

The main changes of MacBook Air 2024 have happened in its heart; Where it hosts the M3 chip as the beating heart of the device. Next, before we put the performance of the M3 under the microscope, we take a look at the details of the technical specifications of this chip.

The M3 chip is manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm-based manufacturing process known as N3B, hosts 25 billion transistors on its surface, and uses the same layout and configuration as the M2 for the CPU and GPU cores. Apple says the processor and graphics used in the M3 are about 35 and 65 percent faster than the M1, respectively.

Technical specifications of M3 against M2 and M1
parameters/chip	Apple M3	Apple M2	Apple M1
manufacturing process	3 nanometer N3B TSMC	TSMC’s second-generation 5nm	5 nm N5 TSMC
CPU	4 powerful cores with a maximum frequency of 4.05 GHz 4 low-power cores with a maximum frequency of 2.75 GHz	4 Avalanche cores with a maximum frequency of 3.5 GHz 4 Blizzard cores with a maximum frequency of 2.4 GHz	4 Firestorm cores with a maximum frequency of 3.2 GHz 4 Icestorm cores with a maximum frequency of 2.0 GHz
cache memory	16 MB shared L2 cache and 320 KB L1 cache for each of the powerful cores 4 megabytes of shared L2 cache and 192 kilobytes of L1 cache for each low-power core 8 MB system cache for the entire chip	16 MB shared L2 cache and 320 KB L1 cache for each of the powerful cores 4 megabytes of shared L2 cache and 192 kilobytes of L1 cache for each low-power core 8 MB system cache for the entire chip	12MB shared L2 cache and 320KB L1 cache for each Firestorm core 4 MB shared L2 cache and 192 KB L1 cache for each Icestorm core 8 MB system cache for the entire chip
memory bass	128 bits	128 bits	128 bits
DRAM	8 to 24 GB LPDDR5-6400	8 to 24 GB LPDDR5-6400	8 or 16 GB LPDDR4x-4266
Memory bandwidth	100 GB per second	100 GB per second	68.2 gigabytes per second
GPU	8 or 10 cores with hardware support of ray tracing	8 or 10 cores	7 or 8 cores

Like the last two generations, the M3 chip uses a combination of 4 high-power cores and 4 low-power cores, respectively, with maximum frequencies of 4.05 and 2.75 GHz as CPU. Apple has made minor changes in the architecture of the cores, and the main difference of the cores is the 15% increase in frequency compared to the M2 cores.

Apple has not even changed the amount of cache memory of the M3 chip compared to the M2; Each of the high-power and low-power cores have access to 320 and 192 KB of ultra-fast L1 cache, respectively, the set of four high-power and low-power cores also have access to 16 and 4 MB of L2 cache, respectively, while the system cache is 8 MB for the set of chip processing blocks. GPU and CPU are included.

Multitasking and multitasking with MacBook Air

The M3 chip is used in Apple laptops in two versions with 8- and 10-core graphics processors. We had the MacBook Air with 8-core graphics available for review, which in total, just like the last generation, has 128 execution units with 1024 calculation and logic units in its heart, which operate at an almost identical frequency of 1.38 GHz.

The main difference between the M3 graphics compared to the previous generation is the addition of the Ray Tracing hardware accelerator, Mesh shading, and Dynamic Caching technology, the latter of which allows the chip to provide the memory required by the GPU in real-time and based on the type of processing. Thus, it optimizes the amount of memory consumption.

The M3 chip uses a 16-core neural processing unit (NPU) with a computing power of 18 trillion operations per second, and in addition to ProRes and ProRes Raw videos, it now has a separate engine for AV1 video codec decoding. Due to its two 64-bit channels and support for LPDDR5X-6400 RAM, this chip can achieve a bandwidth of 102 GB/s for data exchange with its integrated RAM.

Performance of the MacBook Air M3 in benchmarks while plugged in
Laptop/benchmark	Technical Specifications	Web browsing	Performance in graphics	CPU performance in rendering	CPU computing power	GPU computing power
		Web browsing	3 Dark	CineBench R23	GeekBench 6	GeekBench 6
		Speedometer 2.1	TimeSpy	Single Multi	Single Multi	OpenCL Metal/Vulkan
		Speedometer 2.1	DirectX 12	Single Multi	Single Multi	OpenCL Metal/Vulkan
MacBook Air 2024	Apple M3 8 core GPU	680	—	1897 9872	3143 2008	25845 41671
Zenbook 14	Core Ultra 7 155H Intel Arc GPU	396	3453	1637 13367	2290 12256	34889 38268
MacBook Pro 2022	Apple M2 10-core GPU	407	—	1579 8730	2581 9641	28852 42673
MacBook Air 2022	Apple M2 8 core GPU	405	—	1577 8476	2578 9655	27846 39735
MacBook Pro 2020	Apple M1 8 core GPU	209	—	1512 7778	2335 8315	21646 32743
MacBook Pro 14-inch 2021	M1 Max 24Core GPU	300	—	1549 12508	2378 12239	65432 101045

MacBook M3 appears about 20-25% faster than M2 in single-core and multi-core benchmarks, and in comparison with M1, it increases its superiority to about 35-45%; Therefore, considering the 15% increase in frequency and the improvement of TSMC’s manufacturing process, it seems that Apple has not changed much in the architecture; But in any case, CPU performance on par with the M1 Pro is a surprising result for the M3.

Compared to the new Asus ultrabook with the Core Ultra 7 155H chip, MacBook Air M3 leads by 15-35% in single-core benchmarks; But in multi-core benchmarks, it loses the field to the competitor with a single-digit difference of up to 25%. We will talk more about the difference between the two chips in productivity and power consumption.

Apple laptops have a stunning performance in terms of web surfing experience and M3 has taken this performance to a whole new level; MacBook Air 2024 outperforms Asus Ultrabook 2024 with a 65% difference in the Zoomit web browsing test. The stunning superiority of the MacBook Air shows that Apple’s laptop offers faster and smoother performance on the web.

Apple’s new ultrabook appears in almost the same level of computing processing as the last generation. It seems that M3 remains behind its Intel competitor by 25% in the processes that take place on the basis of the OpenCL framework; But instead, thanks to Apple’s exclusive Metal framework, it surpasses the performance of Core Ultra 7 in processes based on Vulkan, with a difference of 10%.

Let’s skip the benchmarks and talk about how the MacBook Air 2024 performs in professional software and games. For this, we considered Photoshop and Premiere Pro software, Python code execution, and the Rise of the Tomb Raider game.

The set of games available for macOS is much more limited than for Windows; However, thanks to the tool that Apple introduced at WWDC 2023 for porting Windows games (Game Porting Toolkit), some were able to run titles such as Medium and Cyberpunk 2077 on Macs with powerful graphics processors such as the M2 Max, and it is hoped that in the future, this same tool, pave the way for more games to be released.

We were able to run the old game Rise of the Tomb Raider at 1200p resolution, High graphics settings and an average frame rate of 50.5 fps, which shows an advantage of about 25 percent of the M3 compared to the M2.

MacBook Air M3 performance while playing Rise of the Tomb Raider game

MacBook Air M3 works about 10 to 20 percent faster than its two previous generations and ZenBook 14 while using Photoshop software for tasks such as resizing large photos and implementing the blur effect or lens correction.

MacBook Air M3 performance in Photoshop software

In Premier Pro software, while performing tasks such as blur effect implementation, image sharpening, or 4K video output, the performance of the device is 20-30% better than the MacBook Air M2 and Zenbook 14.

Performance of MacBook Air M3 in Premier Pro software

Note that in software such as Premiere Pro, where we are dealing with heavy projects, the low RAM overshadows the performance level and you may even get stuck in scenarios like editing 4K videos. Next, we will talk about the MacBook Air M3 RAM.

The MacBook Air was able to run Zoomit’s Python code in about 45 seconds, which is about 13 seconds faster than the M2 and 33 percent faster than the M1.

MacBook Air M3 performance while running Python code

One of the most attractive features of MacBooks is that they work equally well, whether connected to electricity or relying on batteries; For example, when running Python code while plugged in, the MacBook Air M3 beats the ZenBook 14 by just 4 seconds; But by disconnecting the laptops from the electricity and Zenbook’s performance drop, the time difference reaches 11 seconds!

In addition to running Python code, the MacBook Air also displays similar performance in other software in both plugged-in and battery-powered states; In the table below, you can see the difference in performance of MacBook Air M3 in Plugged and UnPlugged modes in a number of users:

Performance of MacBook Air 2024 when connected to electricity and with battery
Test/Performance	Plugged result	Result UnPlugged
CineBench 2024 (MultiCore)	574	573
Speedometer 2.1	680	681
Photoshop	6488	6588
Premiere Pro	3868	3881
Python	44.6 seconds	44.7 seconds

In the MacBook Air 2022 review, we said that the lack of an active cooling system (fan) makes this ultrabook unable to provide stable performance under continuous processing loads. Now it’s time for MacBook Air 2024 with the same cooling system; But this time with a more optimized chip, it will be wider. Does the MacBook Air M3 offer stable performance?

To evaluate the cooling system, the performance stability level and measure the power consumption and other parameters of the MacBook Air M3, we first ran the CineBench R23 multi-core test on the device for 30 minutes consecutively in both power-connected and battery-based modes; Then we went to the 20-minute Wild Life Extreme test.

MacBook Air 2024 laptop performance under continuous processing load
Laptop status	CPU score at first	CPU score after 30 minutes	GPU score first	GPU score after 20 minutes
Connected to electricity	9872	7841	6989	5207
with battery	9833	8322	6996	5271

MacBook Air M3 shows more or less the same behavior whether in Plugged or UnPlugged mode; After 30 minutes, the CPU performance drops by about 15-20%, and in a 20-minute graphics processing load, the GPU drops by 25%.

Contrary to the numbers stated in the technical specifications of the M3 chip, the MacBook Air 2024, whether in multi-core or single-core processing, never reaches the frequency of 4.05 GHz in powerful cores; In my measurements, the frequency of the most powerful cores in the multi-core test remained at 3.7 GHz for a few seconds; But it immediately begins the gradual process of decline and reaches below 2.5 GHz from the 10th minute, which is lower than the stable 2.75 GHz frequency of low-power cores!

CPU frequency in MacBook Air M3

The frequency drop process starts when the temperature of the hottest point of the chip reaches 103 degrees Celsius; It seems that Apple has adopted a more conservative strategy this year; Because in MacBook Air M2, the maximum temperature of the chip reaches 109 degrees Celsius. The temperature of 103 degrees of the chip continues for 5-6 minutes and then, thanks to the frequency drop, it decreases to the range below 90 degrees Celsius.

CPU temperature on MacBook Air M3

The temperature of the laptop body rises to 46-47 degrees Celsius, especially in the upper area of the keyboard; But in general, the body heat is not such that you cannot continue working with the laptop.

CPU consumption in MacBook Air M3

As you can see in the power consumption graph, the CPU consumes about 21 watts in the first few seconds; But as the body heats up, the power consumption gradually decreases and after a few minutes it reaches below 10 watts and reaches the range of 7-8 watts.

As you can see from the graphs below, the M3 GPU also follows a similar path to performance degradation from overheating the device.

GPU consumption in MacBook Air M3

GPU temperature on MacBook Air M3

GPU frequency on MacBook Air M3

About 2-3 minutes after the start of graphic processing, in order to prevent the chip temperature from exceeding 103 degrees Celsius, the frequency of the GPU drops from about 1350 MHz and its power consumption from about 14 watts to 1000 MHz and below 8 watts. is approaching

My tests show that the MacBook Air M3 uses its powerful core stably with a frequency of about 3,750 MHz in single-core processing, this number is about 3,200 and 2,980 MHz in the MacBook Air M2 and MacBook Air M1 laptops, respectively.

In order to have a general outline and limits of architecture changes and IPC (the number of instructions executed per processing cycle), we can divide GeekBench’s single-core score by the chips’ single-core frequency; Note that this measure is not exact and only provides a general picture of the state of architectural changes. To accurately measure IPC, one should go to an expensive tool such as SPECView, which unfortunately is not available in Iran.

Ratio of performance to CPU frequency

To be more precise, what you see in the graph above is the ratio of single-core performance to CPU frequency in three generations of MacBook Air laptops with M1, M2, and M3 chips. In this chart, I have considered the MacBook Air M1 as a benchmark so that we can compare the other two chips relatively. The numbers say that the architectural changes in M3 have a 4 and 7 percent impact on the performance of this chip compared to M2 and M1, which is not a significant improvement.

In the graph below, you can see the ratio of M3’s performance to its power consumption compared to previous generations and the Core Ultra 7 155H chip. Note that the amount of power consumed by the chips is not stable and after a few seconds, it deviates from its maximum value; Therefore, the graph below was created by running CineBench R23 once and based on the average power consumption during the benchmark execution period, so that we can obtain the ratio of performance to power consumption in the best performance condition of the laptop.

The ratio of performance to CPU power consumption

My measurements show that the M3 consumes an average of 4.9 and 19.1 watts when running the CineBench R23 single-core and multi-core benchmarks, respectively; While these numbers are equal to 8 and 20.2 watts for the M2 and 23 and 37.8 watts for the Core Ultra 7 155H, respectively, this shows the stunning efficiency of the M3; But if you consider the numbers obtained in the previous chart, you will realize that TSMC’s optimized manufacturing process has more influence on this amazing productivity than IPC and Apple’s architecture improvements.

The M3’s incredible efficiency also contributes to the MacBook Air M3’s excellent charging performance. Apple uses the same 52.6-watt-hour battery as the MacBook Air M2 in its new ultrabook and says that this laptop can charge for about 18 hours, just like the previous generation.

MacBook Air 2024 battery life compared to other laptops
Laptop/Test	Functional profile	hardware	Display	Battery capacity	Play offline video	Everyday use
		Processor and graphics	Dimensions, resolution, and refresh rate	watt-hours	720p Video	PCMark 10
		Processor and graphics	Dimensions, resolution, and refresh rate	watt-hours	minute: hour	minute: hour
MacBook Air 2024	—	Apple M3 8 core GPU	13.6 inches and 60 Hz 1664 x 2560 pixels	52.6	14:13	—
Zenbook 14	Performance	Core Ultra 7-155H Intel Arc	14 inches and 120 Hz 1800 x 2880 pixels	75	17:25	9:09
Galaxy Book 3 Ultra	Performance	Core i7-13700H RTX 4050	16 inches and 120 Hz 1880 x 2880 pixels	76	11:00	6:21
MacBook Pro 2022	—	Apple M2 10-core GPU	13.3 inches and 60 Hz 1600 x 2560 pixels	58.2	26:18	—
MacBook Air 2022	—	Apple M2 8 core GPU	13.6 inches and 60 Hz 1664 x 2560 pixels	52.6	14:11	—
MacBook Pro 2020	—	Apple M1 8 core GPU	13.3 inches and 60 Hz 1600 x 2560 pixels	58.2	16:47	—
MacBook Pro 14-inch 2021	—	M1 Max 24Core GPU	14.2 inches and 120 Hz 1964 x 3024 pixels	70	18:14	—

The MacBook Air 2024 was able to play our benchmark HD video for a little over 14 hours, just like the previous generation, in standard Zoomit conditions, which includes 200 nits brightness (about 70% brightness) and flight mode activation, which is an impressive result; But it is about 3 hours less than the Asus Zenbook 14 Ultrabook with a larger 75 watt-hour battery.

… and 8GB RAM for everyone

Unfortunately, this year Apple did not fall short either, and in 2024, it released the basic version of its $1,100 ultrabook with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD. If you buy from Apple’s website, you can order 16GB or 24GB of RAM and 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB of SSD; Of course, to go to each higher step, you have to pay 200 dollars more; For example, the MacBook Air 2024 with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD will cost you about $1,500.

If the base version of the 8GB MacBook Air disappointed you, you can be glad that Apple has moved away from the cowardly strategy of using a NAND chip for the SSD of the base version of the MacBook Air, which ended up halving the read and write speeds, and this year all models with 2 sells NAND chips; The maximum speed of 4 and 3.5 GB/s for reading and writing is lower than Windows competitors; But it’s not bad either.

The average SSD speed of the base model MacBook Air 2024 compared to other MacBooks
Models / Performance	Sequential reading rate (UK gigabytes)	Sequential write rate (UK gigabytes)
MacBook Air M3	2.63	2.58
MacBook Air M2	1.03	2.32
MacBook Pro M1	2.28	2.46

There is a lot of debate on social networks about whether 8GB of RAM is sufficient or not. A number of Apple fans, with the logic that “MacBook RAM has high speed and memory swap technology is available to help SSD as RAM”, say that in many applications, 8 GB of RAM is enough; But you should pay attention to several points:

1. The data is not just traveling between the chip and RAM, which can compensate for the low capacity of the RAM by just having a high data exchange rate; In some applications, such as modeling or graphic work, several gigabytes of data may be stored in RAM for a relatively long time. Let’s say that the data exchange rate between the RAM and the M3 or M2 chip is no longer the best, and some chips such as the Core Ultra 7 155H offer a higher rate.

2. Memory swap is not a magical and new technology; The rest of the operating systems, such as Windows, also have similar technology; But it should be noted that swap memory reduces the useful life of SSD and the speed of SSD is not at the level of RAM that can fully play its role; For example, in MacBook Air M3, the data exchange rate between RAM and chip also reaches 102 GB/s; While the Mac SSD read and write rate is maybe one twentieth of this number.

3. Software tools are constantly developing, and their need for hardware resources, including RAM, also increases day by day. On the other hand, the user also buys the MacBook for a few years of use; Therefore, due to the lack of ability to upgrade RAM, one may face problems over time.

Aside from all the talk about Rome, a number of domestic sellers are also taking advantage of the opportunity; For example, Apple charges the same amount for a MacBook Air with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD as for an 8 | 512 GB considered; But in Iran, configuring MacBook with more RAM is much more expensive than configuring with more SSD.

MacBook Air M3; Attractive and not very valuable

The MacBook Air M3 is by no means a bad product; But what makes buying this ultrabook illogical is the great value of its predecessors, especially the MacBook Air M1, especially if we consider their significant price difference.

For a person who does not have a laptop and is looking for a compact and well-made ultrabook for daily and light use, the base model of MacBook Air M1, which is currently sold at a price of 47-48 million Tomans, is a very desirable option; A device with an integrated metal body, a high-quality display, a very good keyboard and trackpad, excellent charging and fast performance that meets all the needs of an individual with daily use, journalism or light content production; Without the need to take an irrational action, about 25 million Tomans more will be spent to buy M3.

A person who already has a MacBook Air M2 and uses it for daily use should not go for the MacBook Air M3; Because it will not experience any significant changes; Except for the faster SSD, which is hardly noticeable in everyday use. For a current Mac M1 user, it might make more sense to upgrade to the M3.

For people who use laptops for tasks such as programming or video editing, the 8GB version of the MacBook Air M3 is not really a rational choice. If these people prefer macOS, it is better to go for used models with a budget of 70-75 million tomans, such as M1 Pro with 16 GB RAM, or if they are comfortable with Windows, high-quality options such as HP Envy with Core i9-13900H processor. And 16 GB of RAM will be a reasonable option for them.

Technology

How to connect to the TV with a Samsung phone?

Published

1 week ago

30/04/2024

pouyan

In the following article, you will learn how to connect the Samsung phone to the TV using practical methods.

How to connect to the TV with a Samsung phone?

It doesn’t matter if you have a Samsung TV or you are using a Sony TV or an Xvision TV, in this article we will teach you how to connect your Samsung phone to the TV so that you can view the contents of your phone on the TV.

Table of Contents

Connecting Samsung phone to Samsung TV

Connecting a Samsung phone to a Samsung TV with Screen Mirroring technology

Connecting a Samsung phone to a Samsung TV with an HDMI converter

Connecting Samsung phone to Samsung TV with Samsung DeX

Connecting Samsung phone to Samsung TV with Wi-Fi Direct

Connecting Samsung phone to LG TV

Connecting Samsung phone to LG TV with Smart View

Connecting Samsung phone to LG TV through USB-C to HDMI converter

Connecting a Samsung phone to a Sony TV

Connecting a Samsung phone to a Sony TV through Screen Mirroring

Connecting a Samsung phone to a Sony TV with a cable

Connecting Samsung phone to Android TV

Connecting Samsung phone to Samsung TV

Connecting a Samsung phone to a Samsung TV with Screen Mirroring technology

Screen Mirroring is a technology that allows the screen of your phone to be transferred to the TV screen as it is so that you can view the content on the big screen. The SmartThings app and Smart View feature allow you to quickly and easily connect to your Samsung Smart TV.

To wirelessly connect your phone screen to your TV, your TV needs a Wi-Fi connection. For non-smart TVs, connecting via cable will be an easy and practical method that we will explain below.

Connecting Samsung phone to Samsung TV with Smart View

With the Smart View feature, you can view your phone’s screen wirelessly on a large TV screen. Follow the steps below to use Smart View on your Samsung phone:

First of all, make sure your phone and TV are connected to a Wi-Fi network and VPN is not connected.
Now on your phone, swipe down twice to open the Quick Settings panel and select Smart View.
If you don’t see Smart View, please move it to the left or right or tap the edit button and then add Smart View.
Select the desired TV to connect to the phone and then click Start Now.
Finally, select Allow if displayed on the TV screen.

Steps to connect Samsung phone to Samsung TV

Selecting the desired TV to connect to the Smart View feature

Tap on Start Now on the Samsung phone to connect to the Smart view feature

Note: If the TV refuses to connect to the phone, do the following steps to activate the connection:

Go to Settings, and click on All Settings.
Tap Connections and then External Device Manager.
Select Device Connect Manager.
Select the desired mobile device from the Device List and change the status to Allow.

To disable Smart View, disconnect from your phone or press the Return Button on the TV remote.

The device menus may be different depending on the model and software version. Please read the TV manual for more information.

Connecting Samsung phone to Samsung TV with SmartThings application

SmartThings is a remote control application for Samsung products that can be installed on Android phones and iPhone phones. SmartThings enables automatic connection to most Samsung TVs manufactured from 2016 onwards.

Connect your Samsung Smart TV and Samsung phone to a Wi-Fi network.
Download and install the SmartThings app on your phone. If you already have the SmartThings app installed, update it.
Open the SmartThings app.
Tap Add Device.
All devices in SmartThings will be displayed. If you can’t see your device, make sure it’s turned on. If it still doesn’t show up, try turning it off and on again and restarting the SmartThings app.
Select or scan your TV.
Tap on the TV name and connect to your phone.
Now your TV is connected to SmartThings and you can use your phone as a second remote control for your TV. You can also use Smart View to display photos, videos, and music from your phone.
To do this, tap on the name of your connected TV at the top of the application and select More Options or the three-dot icon.
Select Mirror Screens (Smart View). Make sure your phone is close to the TV to connect successfully.

Connecting a Samsung phone to a Samsung TV with an HDMI converter

If you have trouble connecting wirelessly, you can use an HDMI converter to connect your device to your TV. Original Samsung HDMI converters support devices with USB-C ports.

If you’re using an older device without a USB-C port, you may be able to find a compatible interface cable, but functionality cannot be guaranteed.

Connect an HDMI cable to the HDMI converter.
Connect the other end of the HDMI cable to the HDMI port of the TV.
Connect the HDMI converter to the USB port of your phone.
Turn on the TV and change the input to the HDMI port you are using.

Connecting Samsung phone to Samsung TV with Samsung DeX

Swipe your phone down twice to open the quick settings menu. Note that this feature may not be available on some phones.
Tap the DeX button to activate this feature.
Select DeX on the TV or monitor option.
Accept the connection request on the TV.
Then follow the instructions on the screen. Once completed, the Samsung DeX screen will appear on the target TV.

Note that the function of this function will be different depending on the type of TV for wireless connection. We recommend using Samsung Smart TVs 2019 or newer.

Connecting a Samsung phone to a Samsung TV using Samsung DeX

Connecting Samsung phone to Samsung TV with Wi-Fi Direct

With Wi-Fi Direct, you can directly connect your phone to the TV without an existing Wi-Fi network. With this, your favorite images and videos will be displayed on the TV screen. Note that both the TV and phone must have Wi-Fi direct capability for this feature to work.

To check whether the Wi-Fi direct feature is equipped on the TV, go to the settings. Now follow the steps below to use Wi-Fi Direct on Samsung TV:

First, open the TV menu to enable Wi-Fi Direct. Then go to Network and Wi-Fi Direct.
Now activate the phone’s Wi-Fi Direct. To enable Wi-Fi Direct on your Samsung phone, go to Settings, then Connections, enter the Wi-Fi section, tap the three-dot icon at the top, and enable the Wi-Fi Direct option. After scanning, the phone will display a list of available devices. The name of the phone also appears on the TV.
Select the device from the list to start the connection. If a connection request is made by the phone, a message will appear on the TV and vice versa. Accept the request to connect the phone to the TV.

Connecting Samsung phone to LG TV

Connecting Samsung phone to LG TV with Smart View

You can also use the Smart View feature on LG TVs like Samsung TVs. Here is the step-by-step guide to enable this feature:

Swipe down on your phone screen and select Smart View.
Make sure your TV and phone are both connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
Select your TV from the list of available devices.
Thus, your phone screen should be reflected on the TV in a few moments.

Connecting Samsung phone to LG TV through USB-C to HDMI converter

You can connect your phone to the TV using a USB-C to HDMI converter. The steps are as follows:

Connect the USB-C end of the adapter to your phone.
Connect the HDMI end to the HDMI port on your TV.
Tap “Accept” when the connection request appears on your phone
After connecting, your phone screen will be mirrored on the TV screen.

This method is simple and hassle-free to use, especially when wireless options are not available.

Connecting a Samsung phone to a Sony TV

Connecting a Samsung phone to a Sony TV through Screen Mirroring

Fortunately, you can use the same Smart View feature of Samsung phones to connect to Sony TV. Thus, it becomes easy for you to seamlessly connect to any of the devices.

Swipe down twice to reveal the Quick Panel.
Select the Smart View icon.
From there, you should see a list of devices compatible with the display. Click on your Sony TV.
You should get a message asking if you are ready to connect. Select “Start Now”.

If your TV does not appear in the list of devices, you need to make sure that the TV is compatible. Note that only Sony Bravia TVs manufactured between 2013-2020 have Screen Mirroring capability.

Connecting a Samsung phone to a Sony TV with a cable

MHL technology provides the possibility of connecting the phone to the Sony TV with a cable. Phones and tablets compatible with this feature can be connected to the TV through an MHL to HDMI cable. If you can’t use wireless to connect your phone to the TV, then a wireless connection and HDMI conversion is another way you will have.

Connecting Samsung phone to Android TV

Snowva SSD-55 55 inch TV from the front view

If you are looking for a wireless connection between your phone and TV, the Smart View feature on Samsung phones is the best way to share data on Android TVs, especially Iranian smart TVs. We have explained the activation method in the above sections.

On the other hand, if your TV is not smart, using cable will help you. As mentioned, you’ll need an HDMI cable and a USB-C to HDMI converter for this. Connect the USB-C end to your phone and then connect an HDMI cable between the converter and your TV. After connecting the converter and cable, the screen of your Samsung phone will appear on the TV.

Connecting a Samsung phone to a TV is not particularly complicated, especially when both devices are in the Android ecosystem. Earlier, we also checked the method of connecting the iPhone to Samsung TV; In addition, you can use the best programs to connect the iPhone to the TV so that more options are available to you.

Space

The strangest things that can happen to humans in space

Published

2 weeks ago

28/04/2024

pouyan

Leaving the Earth’s atmosphere is not just the experience of floating in the environment. There are also other amazing and troublesome events that can only be experienced in space. In this article, we will talk about the strangest things that can happen to humans in space.

The strangest things that can happen to humans in space

When it comes to space and astronautics, we all remember very interesting movies in which strange things happen to astronauts. Movies with exciting stories, most of which are nothing but the authors’ imaginations; But there are other very amazing stories happening in space that are completely real and have nothing to do with human imagination. In this article, we try to discuss some examples of these events and introduce you to the wonders of space travel.

Strange things that happen to humans in space

The human heart changes shape in space

It may seem a bit strange and even unbelievable that traveling to space can change the shape of the heart, But such a thing happens in reality and scientific studies have proven it. Less work of the heart and less pumping of blood leads to a decrease in the volume of the muscles of this organ, and this ultimately causes the hearts of astronauts to become more spherical by about 9.4%.

Despite the temporary nature of these conditions, some doctors believe that the reduction in the volume of the human heart during space travel may have serious consequences. According to NASA, researchers are researching this issue, and the results of this study will not only help astronauts but will also affect ordinary people and the inhabitants of the planet.

There is a possibility of mental problems in space

Living in the extraterrestrial atmosphere is associated with many problems. Changing living conditions and experiencing a completely different environment with very specific conditions imposes many psychological pressures on astronauts. These issues cause astronauts to experience special psychological conditions and are susceptible to various problems such as anxiety and depression.

Being away from family, lack of simple facilities such as sunlight or even fresh food, and heavy work are among the reasons that expose astronauts to various mental illnesses.

Human vision decreases in space

Visual impairment caused by intracranial pressure or VIIP is another space travel wonder faced by astronauts. This problem was observed for the first time in 2005 and in an astronaut named John Phillips. The Washington Post investigates this issue in an article and states that Phillips experienced a significant loss of vision after returning from his space trip. This incident prepared the groundwork for the researchers’ research for further investigations.

Additional research showed the changes in the appearance of the astronauts’ eyes and the loss of their vision after returning from space travel. Currently, the only possible reason that has been proposed for the occurrence of such conditions is the lack of gravity and the creating double pressure on the astronauts’ skulls; Of course, the research in this field continues and it is still not possible to say with certainty a specific reason for the occurrence of these conditions.

The body’s immune system weakens in space

Traveling to space, along with its excitement and surprises, also brings many problems for humans. One of these problems is the weakening of the body’s immune system in space, which was first discovered by astronauts during the Apollo mission. The story was that the astronauts in this mission experienced problems such as irregular heartbeat, dehydration, and inner ear disorder, and faced many problems after returning from the mission.

Studies conducted in this field have shown that after leaving the Earth’s atmosphere, the immune system of astronauts weakens, in part due to the abnormal activation of a type of immune cells called T-regulatory lymphocytes. This weakening is sometimes so severe that it causes astronauts to deal with latent viruses such as chicken pox in addition to simple infectious diseases such as colds after returning from space travel.

Astronauts can lose their fingernails

As you know, astronauts wear special clothes to carry out their missions in space, which includes astronaut gloves. These gloves are designed in such a way that they put a lot of pressure on the astronauts’ hands and nails; This will eventually lead to their nails falling off.

It is true that the fall of fingernails or their swelling is not a simple matter that can be easily passed over, But it seems that doing more research to design more suitable gloves can minimize the possibility of this problem and astronauts will not face such a problem in the future.

Human height grows taller in space

Another wonder of space travel, which makes it one of the favorite trips of ordinary people, is the increase in height that occurs during this trip. As soon as you leave the Earth’s atmosphere, the gravity is close to zero, and this causes the pressure on the spine to decrease significantly. The reduction of this pressure, in turn, causes the height of the astronauts to grow a few centimeters.

One of the studies that confirms the truth of this issue is the research that NASA scientists conducted on two twin brothers. In this study, one of the twins had a 342-day trip to space and the other brother was examined on Earth. The results of this and other research determined that the height of astronauts increases by 2 to 5 cm on average after space travel.

Mark Kelly (left) and Scott Kelly (right) made it possible for researchers to study the health effects of long-duration space travel by studying NASA twins.

Traveling to space leads to weakening of muscles

Another strange thing that happens to astronauts in space and affects their health is the weakening of muscles or atrophy. Long space travel causes muscle wasting in astronauts, so they are trained to exercise continuously during their journey.

NASA is working on this issue to find solutions to prevent the problem of muscle wasting. The reason for the importance of this issue is the need for astronauts to have strong muscles and a healthy body so that they can perform their difficult missions in space in the best possible way.

Space swells astronauts’ faces

A large volume of our body is made up of liquid. On Earth, gravity pulls this fluid down and collects some of it in the lower limbs; But in space, where microgravity prevails, our body fluids are more evenly distributed; As a result, astronauts’ faces look puffier than normal, and on the other hand, their legs appear thinner than when they are on Earth.

According to the Washington Post, “the phenomenon of puffy-faced bird’s legs” appears when blood and other body fluids accumulate on the side of the upper body due to low gravity and stay there; As a result, the heads swell and the legs shrink. In this situation, the appearance of the astronauts can change by swelling their faces. Astronauts may experience excessive blood pooling; As if their head is constantly cold. However, after a few weeks in space, your body will adjust to the change in gravity and some of the facial puff will fall asleep.

Space travel may increase the risk of cancer

Astronauts who spend 6 months in space are exposed to almost as much radiation as a thousand chest X-rays. Exposure to different types of radiation exposes the body to the risk of cancer, damage to the central nervous system, bone loss, and some cardiovascular diseases. However, it has been difficult to accurately calculate the level of risk so far. Also, scientists’ information about the impact of radiation in long-duration space missions to deep space destinations such as the Moon and Mars is still limited.

The more time a person spends in space, the more radiation they are exposed to and, theoretically, the more DNA damage they accumulate. It is not possible to say with certainty whether this DNA damage actually increases the risk of cancer; Because cancer is affected by many environmental and genetic factors. For example, it’s probably fair to say that today’s astronauts are probably some of the fittest people on the planet. They probably eat a healthy diet, exercise a lot, and don’t smoke or drink much alcohol. All these things reduce the possibility of getting cancer.

Strange events for astronauts during space travel have always been one of the most fascinating topics for ordinary people. The wonders of space travel are not limited to the things we have mentioned, and at the same time as science advances and the scope of research increases, we will definitely see more interesting news in this field in the near future.