Technology

Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro Review

Published

4 months ago

22/01/2024

pouyan

Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro review. Review of the camera, hardware, software, battery, design, screen, and charging speed of Poco M6 Pro phone.

Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro Review

The Poco M6 Pro confused us, and this isn’t the first time Xiaomi has pulled this trick on us. There is currently a Poco M6 Pro 5G that was announced on August 5, 2023. This is an India-only model and a 5G device.

The Poco M6 Pro has the exact same hardware as the Redmi Note 13 Pro 4G , save for the main camera.

What we have in the office to review today is the all-new Poco M6 Pro for global markets, and it has nothing to do with any of the aforementioned phones. Its specs are significantly different and it’s much more premium than the Indian version in some ways and not so much in others. For example, the global Poco M6 Pro has a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, but lacks 5G.

Specifications of Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro at a glance:

Body: 161.1×75.0x8.0mm, 179g; plastic frame; IP54, resistant to dust and water splash.
Display: 6.67 inches AMOLED, 120 Hz, 1000 nits (HBM), 1300 nits (peak), resolution 1080 x 2400 pixels, aspect ratio 20:9, 395ppi.
Chipset: Mediatek Helio G99 Ultra: Octa-core (2×2.2 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G57 MC2.
Memory: 256 GB 8 GB RAM, 512 GB RAM 12 GB; UFS 2.2; microSDXC (uses a shared SIM card slot).
OS/Software: Android 13, MIUI 14, planned upgrade to Android 14, HyperOS.
Rear Camera: Wide (main) : 64MP, f/1.8, 25mm, 1/2″ 0.7µm, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle : 8 MP, f/2.2; Macro : 2 megapixels, f/2.4.
Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.5, (wide).
Video recording: rear camera : 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS. Front camera : 1080p@30/60fps.
Battery: 5000 mAh; 67 watts wired, 100% in 44 minutes (advertised).
Connectivity: LTE; hybrid of two SIM cards; Wi-Fi 5; BT 5.2; NFC; infrared port; 3.5 mm jack
Other features: fingerprint reader (under the display, optical); Dual speakers

In the camera department, the Poco M6 Pro Global has an extra ultra-wide camera for a total of three cameras on the back. The global model also features 67W fast charging for its 5,000mAh battery. You even get a compatible fast charger in the box.

Poco M6 Pro Unboxing

Speaking of the charger, let’s take a quick look at the retail package. Like many other Poco devices , the Poco M6 Pro comes in a bright yellow two-piece cardboard box. There’s no plastic phone stand inside the box, but the phone itself is still well-placed and protected.

The accessory package provided is indeed quite complete. As mentioned earlier, there is a 67W Xiaomi fast charger in the box. It is sometimes called a fast turbo charger. This charger is compatible with USB Type-A to Type-C charging cable. It’s a proprietary cable, so it’s best to hold on to it to charge at maximum speed.

Our retail box for the Poco M6 Pro also includes a nice soft TPU case for the phone, so you can start using it right away.

Designing

Poco M6 Pro has a very modern and mostly quiet design. Square edges are kind of in now. However, the corners are well rounded and feel nice and comfortable in the hand.

Nowadays, the only way a modern “slab” phone can realistically stand out is to have an interesting camera design, and we have to say that the Poco M6 Pro mentally looks to do just that. There’s no real camera island, instead the entire top of the phone is split into its own with a slightly different color (though not the finish).

The cameras themselves are displayed very well. They protrude somewhat from the body of the phone, perhaps even further than it should be placed, and convey the feeling of a powerful camera.

We also enjoy the relative symmetry of the camera, flash and camera text. We’re not saying we necessarily welcome the number of megapixels or “POCOs” on the back of the phone, but at least the symmetry is nice.

You can get Poco M6 Pro in black, blue or purple colors. We have the latter, which happens to have a color-matched center bezel. The other two variants both have a black frame, which makes the blue somewhat two-toned. We like the look, at least in the pictures.

As for our purple unit – the color is not vibrant at all and looks very subtle in person.

Build Quality

Poco M6 Pro is mostly made of plastic. Its dimensions are 161.1 x 74.95 x 7.98 mm and its weight reaches 179 grams , which is mostly thanks to its plastic construction. We have already defined plastic and will continue to do so. Not only is it lightweight, it’s also quite sturdy. It also doesn’t scratch and dent like metal and doesn’t shatter like glass.

Xiaomi has done a great job with finishing the plastic frame of the Poco M6 Pro. From a distance it almost looks like sandblasted metal.

This phone also has no flex to it. There are no annoying hollows either. It feels very solid and well made.

Xiaomi is not clear on this in the official specifications, but the back of the Poco M6 Pro seems to be made of glass. The front of the phone is covered with Gorilla Glass 5, which honestly offers a lot of comfort.

The Poco M6 Pro has IP54 ingress protection, which is pretty basic but still better than nothing.

Controls

The Poco M6 Pro has what we call a very standard control layout. However, as mentioned, it is somewhat “loaded” in this section with components such as a 3.5 mm audio jack and an IR blaster. Both of these are located at the top of the phone. Also, there, we find one of the device’s two stereo speakers. True, the M6 Pro has a stereo speaker setup, although it appears to be a hybrid speaker. More on that in the speaker section. There’s also a hole for a secondary noise-canceling microphone at the top.

The other speaker of the M6 Pro is located at the bottom. It is placed next to the main microphone and USB Type-C jack.

The left side of the device has only one SIM card tray. It’s a hybrid affair, with a dedicated 4G nano SIM slot and a second hybrid slot that can take a second nano SIM or microSD card. We don’t particularly like the fact that you have to choose between the two, but we’d still consider a development gap over not having it.

The SIM tray has a small gasket around its edge, suggesting that the Poco M6 Pro potentially has decent ingress protection, perhaps even beyond its IP54 standard. Not that we are in any way intentionally exposing it to the elements.

We have volume buttons and power button on the right side of the phone. These buttons are well placed in terms of height. They don’t necessarily have the best tactile feedback, but they aren’t too bad either.

Finally, at the end of the controls tour, we should mention that the Poco M6 Pro has an under-display fingerprint sensor, a first for the Poco M family of devices. The sensor itself is a standard optical unit.

These have really come a long way and are now quite reliable and fast. We have no complaints about one here.

Connectivity

The global Poco M6 Pro lacks 5G connectivity, which is a bit of a bummer. It has dual 4G/LTE support with Cat. 13. The download speed is commendable. The MediaTek G99 chipset offers GPS, QZSS, Galileo, BeiDou and NAVIC for positioning.

Local connectivity includes dual-band Wi-Fi 5 (ac) and Bluetooth 5.2 with LE support.

As mentioned earlier, our Poco M6 Pro universal unit has a 3.5mm audio jack and an IR blaster. It also has NFC on board as well as FM radio.

There is nothing special about the Type-C port on the Poco M6 Pro . Well, beyond supporting 67W fast charging, which is a first for the Poco M family. This port is backed up by a USB 2.0 connection, which means a theoretical data transfer of up to 480 Mbps. USB/OTG host is supported. There is no video output or anything fancy on the port.

In terms of sensors, the Poco M6 Pro has an lsm6dso accelerometer and gyroscope combination. There is also an mmc5603 magnetometer. You also get a tsl2522 light sensor. Normally, the latter comes with a proximity reader, but unfortunately, the Poco M6 Pro seems to have a virtual proximity reader instead of a hardware one. It doesn’t work well and is very dependent on the surrounding conditions. There’s no barometer on it either, but that’s to be expected in a budget phone.

Large 6.67-inch AMOLED 120Hz display

The display is undoubtedly one of the outstanding features of the Poco M6 Pro . It is very large with a diameter of 6.67 inches . It has a standard aspect ratio of 20:9 with FullHD resolution (1080 x 2400 pixels) . The clear pixel density is around 395 ppi .

Despite the hole-punch selfie camera, the display looks pretty good. It is an AMOLED panel that Xiaomi calls “Flow AMOLED DotDisplay”. Xiaomi advertises a contrast of 5,000,000:1 , but in practice, it’s almost infinite due to the pitch black.

Before we get into the 120Hz refresh rate, let’s talk about some of the display’s performance characteristics we tested, such as brightness. We measured 493 decent, if unremarkable, nits of brightness on the slider. The Poco M6 Pro has a decent light sensor (as opposed to proximity) and it automatically adjusts the brightness well. In our standard test, it was able to reach a maximum of 1053 nits . This is impressive for this class and is enough to comfortably use the Poco M6 Pro outdoors in most scenarios. However, don’t expect the display to be clearly legible under direct sunlight.

The display supports 1920Hz PWM dimming at lower brightness levels, which should reduce eye strain for sensitive people.

The Poco M6 Pro does not support HDR on its display. It can decode HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision at the software level. Everything but HDR10+. On the plus side, the M6 Pro has the highest Widevine L1 DRM certification, which allows apps like Netflix to deliver FullHD streams and saturate the display’s resolution.

HDR decoder • DRM information • Netflix playback capability

High refresh rate control

Poco M6 Pro has a refresh rate of 120 Hz on its screen. The phone manages that by offering multiple refresh rate modes in the settings – 60Hz, 120Hz, and a default mode that promises to switch between refresh rates automatically. The phone can actually operate in one of three refresh rate modes – 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz.

Refresh rate settings

60Hz mode works as expected. It just locks the refresh rate to 60 Hz and that’s it. For higher refresh rate performance, you can choose between choosing a “custom” 120Hz mode or going with the default mode. Custom 120Hz mode provides a list of per-app settings that determine which apps can go to 120Hz and which should just stay at 60Hz. This is a really useful thing.

120 Hz mode settings for each application

120Hz mode is not “locked” like 60Hz mode. It does some automatic switching, i.e. it drops to 60Hz when there is no movement on the screen or you are not interacting with the screen. This is generally not a bad way to handle things, but it does mean that video playback is usually done at 120Hz, which is a waste of power.

Operation in 120 Hz mode

Fortunately, there is a “default” mode that seems to have the same logic of movement and interaction as the 120Hz mode for changing its refresh rate. However, the default mode is smart enough to detect video playback and downscale to 60Hz as it should.

Performance in default mode

We should note that while the Poco M6 Pro technically supports 90Hz refresh rate mode, we never saw 90Hz mode engage during our testing. Only changed between 120Hz and 60Hz. It’s not a huge loss, but it’s still significant.

Naturally, we tried high refresh rate gaming on the Poco M6 Pro and had surprisingly great success. The titles we tested that we know can push past the 60fps mark all performed as expected at default and 120Hz.

Game with high refresh rate

You may still want to use the latter, as we found it kept the refresh rate a bit longer, with certain games like Alto’s Adventure dropping to 60Hz when we weren’t tapping the screen to jump, which was quite annoying. . The default refresh rate mode had no such problem.

In general, we must say that Xiaomi’s system for managing switching with a high refresh rate is reliable and comprehensive. Between the default mode and 120Hz with each app’s settings, you should be able to achieve the resolution you want at any point in time. As for general use, just leave the phone in Default mode and don’t worry about it.

Before we close the refresh rate section, we should mention that the Poco M6 Pro supports an instant touch sampling rate of 2160 Hz .

Battery Life

Poco M6 Pro has a very heavy 5000 mAh battery . The Poco M6 Pro performed very well in our battery test. Nothing spectacular, but still a strong show. This is about the same as other recent budget devices with the same 5000 mAh capacity. In fact, it has a better overall active usage score than the Poco C65 and Poco F5. However, individual test distributions on these phones are kind of all over the place. The Poco F5 has a Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chipset, while the Poco F5 has a MediaTek chipset, just like the M6 Pro, but a more efficient MediaTek G85 model. The G99 uses a very modern TSMC 6nm process.

Looking at the individual test components, we should note that the Poco M6 Pro does not stand out in any particular test. Fits all around, but nothing to call home.

Charging Speed

Poco M6 Pro is equipped with very fast 67W Xiaomi Super Charge technology. This is actually the first for the Poco M family. The charging technology itself is quite familiar, as we’ve seen many times in the past with the Poco X and F series phones. It is sometimes called Turbo Quick Charge and is rated for output between 5V and 20V at 3.25A to 6.2A.

Xiaomi includes a compatible charger in the box along with a dedicated USB Type-A to Type-C cable with an extra pin. For the best charging speed, you should probably use both.

According to Xiaomi, these should be quite impressive. According to official information, the Poco M6 Pro should be fully charged in 44 minutes. Our tests mostly confirm this number.

We took our review unit from off to 15 percent charge in 40 minutes, then to 71 percent in 30 minutes, taming a full charge in about 48 minutes. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, especially for a budget device from the Poco M family. It should be noted, however, that we’ve seen faster charging than Xiaomi’s 67W technology in other models. Not much, but still worth mentioning.

Speakers

The Poco M6 Pro has a stereo speaker setup. This phone actually has a speaker grill in both the top and bottom frames. However, as far as we can tell, there aren’t two dedicated speakers. This setup is actually a hybrid, with one amplified headphone acting as a second speaker. Xiaomi has recently decided to add an additional “path” for the phone’s audio output. This makes this side of the speaker setup much more difficult to accidentally cover with your palm.

On the other hand, it cannot be said that these two speakers have a good balance. Make no mistake though, the setup still sounds miles better than a single speaker.

In terms of loudness, the Poco M6 Pro had a very respectable -25.0 LUFS.

In terms of quality, the M6 Pro is very good. There are definitely highs and vocals at maximum volume, but the bass, on the other hand, is quite prominent and the songs sound full throughout.

Despite its affordable price, the Poco M6 Pro uses the Dolby Atmos setting, which opens up the sound stage a bit and gives songs a more spatial feel. It doesn’t seem to degrade the sound quality overall.

Dolby Atmos and Equalizer

On top of the Dolby Atmos switch, you also have a full-featured equalizer to play with.

MIUI 14 with HyperOS is around the corner

A rather interesting development is that the Poco M6 Pro does not come with Xiaomi’s latest and greatest operating system. Our review unit runs MIUI 14 instead of HyperOS, and it does so on top of Android 13 instead of 14. In its press release, Xiaomi promises that the HyperOS update will be delivered “ASAP”. However, in the meantime, we have no choice but to check the existing and familiar environment of MIUI 14.

As we mentioned earlier, we are quite familiar with the combination of MIUI 14 and Android 13. We even have a dedicated guide that you should check out if you want more software details.

Of course, since this is a low-end smartphone with limited hardware capabilities, some basic MIUI functions are missing. However, many are available, even multitasking features such as the floating windows feature.

We noticed that some ads are scattered in some places in the UI like inside the app installer, which can be a bit annoying. There’s also a lot of “bloat” preinstalled on our unit, mostly in the way of games and a separate app store separate from the Google Play store. Not something you can’t get rid of by uninstalling, but still worth mentioning.

We’ll still quickly go over some basics. The split between Notifications and Control Center is enabled by default, and that’s probably a good thing. We found this to be very convenient and a way to teach users about MIUI’s unique approach to the user interface. And if you’re not a fan, you can always switch back to standard notifications by swiping in a location.

General settings

Home screen, recent apps and general settings remain unchanged. The app drawer is also enabled by default, and we like that Xiaomi has placed the search bar at the bottom of the screen for easier access. There are custom and preset app categories for faster navigation.

Home screen, recent apps, notification shade, control center

Unlike the standard app menu of late, the MIUI menu lists apps vertically (you can switch to the standard horizontal alignment) and offers several useful shortcuts. This is where you can open apps in floating windows. However, you can keep a maximum of one application open at a time. If you want a faster shortcut for apps that support open windows, just enable the sidebar.

Sidebar and floating windows

Themes have always been a big part of MIUI and they are available in MIUI 14 as well. You can download new ones from the theme store, and they can change wallpapers, ringtones, system icons, and even the always-on display style.

Theme program and other customizations

Of course, in addition to the preset settings, there is also an always-on display setting. When new notifications arrive, the Notification effect lights up the edges of the display. This effect can work with or without AOD.

Display options always on

Moving towards privacy and security, MIUI comes with a pre-installed system security app. Aside from the extra layer of malware protection it provides, the app keeps many of the app’s settings and privacy features in one place. It can manage your blacklist, manage or limit your data usage, configure battery behavior and free up some RAM.

Security application

It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps, define the battery behavior of selected apps, and apply restrictions to specific apps only.

Performance and Metrics

Poco M6 Pro is based on MediaTek Helio G99 chipset. However, it appears to be running a special variant of the said chipset, marketed as the Helio G99-Ultra. The model number of this particular chip is MT6789G . This joins the rather long list of known Helio G99 modifications – MT6789, MT6789V/CD, MT8781V/CA, and MT8781V/NA. We’re not exactly sure what marks this particular chip as “Ultra” or what makes it different.

From what we can tell from a combination of spec sheets and a review unit, the Helio G99 Ultra still uses TSMC’s 6nm manufacturing process. It also still has two “big” ARM Cortex-A76 cores, with a maximum frequency of 2.2 GHz, and six other “small” CPU Cortex-A55 cores, up to 2.0 GHz. Apparently nothing is left hanging on the GPU front either, where the chipset features a mid-range Mali-G57 MC2 GPU.

The Poco M6 Pro is available in two storage configurations at the time of writing – 8GB/256GB and 12GB/512GB. The storage space can be expanded through the microSD slot. The RAM runs at LPDDR4X speeds, while the storage chips are UFS 2.2, and we can’t complain about speed on a budget. Xiaomi also has its own implementation of software virtual memory that runs on the M6 Pro. It’s called Memory Extension 3.0, and by default, on our 12/512GB review unit, it’s supposed to add an extra 4GB of virtual memory. You can also set it to 6 or 8 GB or turn it off completely.

Let’s get to some real benchmarks, starting with GeekBench and its CPU. Once again, while we’re not sure exactly what the G99 Ultra chipset in the Poco M6 Pro is showing, we can clearly see it leading the G99 pack in both the single-core and multi-core tests. It’s not a huge difference, but in both cases, the slight performance boost puts the chip and the M6 Pro roughly on par with chips like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 in the Redmi Note 12 5G.

MIUI 14 with HyperOS is around the corner

A rather interesting development is that the Poco M6 Pro does not come with Xiaomi’s latest and greatest operating system. Our review unit runs MIUI 14 instead of HyperOS, and it does so on top of Android 13 instead of 14. In its press materials, Xiaomi promises that the HyperOS update will be delivered “ASAP”. However, in the meantime, we have no choice but to check the existing and familiar environment of MIUI 14.

As we mentioned earlier, we are quite familiar with the combination of MIUI 14 and Android 13. We even have a dedicated guide that you should check out if you want more software details.

General settings

Home screen, recent apps, and general settings remain unchanged. The app drawer is also enabled by default, and we like that Xiaomi has placed the search bar at the bottom of the screen for easier access. There are custom and preset app categories for faster navigation.

Home screen, recent apps, notification shade, control center

Sidebar and floating windows

Theme program and other customizations

Display options always on

Security application

It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps, define the battery behavior of selected apps, and apply restrictions to specific apps only.

Performance and Benchmarks

Poco M6 Pro is based on MediaTek Helio G99 chipset. However, it appears to be running a special variant of the said chipset, marketed as the Helio G99-Ultra . The model number of this particular chip is MT6789G . This joins the rather long list of known Helio G99 modifications – MT6789, MT6789V/CD, MT8781V/CA, and MT8781V/NA. We’re not exactly sure what marks this particular chip as “Ultra” or what makes it different.

Furthermore, we can expect the G99 Ultra to beat just about any MediaTek Dimension chip. The Snapdragon 695 also seems to have slightly more CPU power, as does the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2. All results are quite expected.

AnTuTu is a much more complex benchmark that also takes things like memory and storage into account. It seems generally kinder to the Poco M6 Pro, and we suspect the phone’s choice of fast LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage has something to do with the good scores.

Not only does the Poco M6 Pro with its Helio G99 Ultra fare slightly better than many of its regular G99 counterparts, but AnTuTu puts the G99 Ultra and M6 Pro above its Redmi Note 12 5G and Snapdragon 4 Gen 1, and slightly below the Redmi 12 5G and its Snapdragon 4 Gen 2.

We had issues running GFXBench on our Poco M6 Pro review unit. Xiaomi has blocked this benchmark for some reason, so we had to jump through major hoops to get results. As expected, the Mali-G57 MC2 GPU in the Helio G99 Ultra hasn’t been tampered with in terms of performance, and the Poco M6 Pro’s scores are right in line with other Helio G99 devices. That is, we can expect better performance than Helio G88 and Snapdragon 685 and 680.

On the other hand, many affordable chips offer more powerful GPUs such as Dimensity 6080, 7020, 1080, 7050, 8020, 8050 or Snapdragon 695.

3Dmark paints the same general picture.

The Poco M6 Pro is not a powerful device, but it is not limited in performance either. In practice, the MIUI environment runs smoothly, with only a slowdown. Good enough for daily tasks and some light gaming.

One of the benefits of running a relatively low-power chipset is that you don’t have to deal with major passive cooling issues. The Poco M6 Pro handles heat admirably. It never gets hot to the touch, even with extreme testing, and the CPU.

Triple camera setup

Unlike the Indian variant of the Poco M6 Pro, our global model here has a triple camera setup, complete with an ultra-wide camera, making for a more versatile camera setup.

The main camera of the Poco M6 Pro is a 64-megapixel camera based on the OmniVision OV64B sensor. It’s a 1/2-inch sensor with 0.7 µm individual pixels. The main camera has OIS which is great to see. It has an f/1.8 lens.

Next, we have the ultra-wide camera. It has an 8-megapixel resolution and is behind an f/2.2 lens. The sensor used here is the OmniVision OV08D. It measures 1/4 inch with 1.12 µm pixels. The ultra-wide lacks autofocus, so it can’t double as a macro photographer.

It’s not really necessary though, as the Poco M6 Pro has a dedicated 2MP macro camera. It’s also not special at all. It has a fixed focus and f/2.4 aperture. The sensor is based on the OmniVision OV02B sensor, which has a 1/5-inch optical format and 1.75 µm pixels.

Finally, we have the 16-megapixel selfie camera. It is also fixed focus with f/2.4 aperture. It uses either a GalaxyCore gc16b3 (1/3.1″ 1.0μm) or OmniVision OV16A (1/1.306″ 1.0μm) sensor.

Camera App

The camera app is a simple implementation, though it has its own quirks. First, the basic operation of switching modes works using sideswipes, and you can also tap on the modes you see to go directly to the modes.

Up and down swipes do not work to switch between front and rear cameras. Only the button next to the shutter does this.

You can add, remove, and reset modes in the main Rolodex by going to the More tab and clicking the Edit button, and you can also access it from the Settings menu. Unused modes will still be in that More tab.

Camera user interface

There’s a pull-out menu for additional options, including macro mode. Next to that, you have the sliding flash, a flash mode switch, an HDR switch, and a shortcut for Google Lens.

Camera settings

At the near end, you have the camera’s zoom switch, which operates in one of two modes. The first is as simple as tapping one of the three dots representing the Ultra Wide, Prime, and Double Digital options. Or you can tap and drag the active zoom to reveal even higher zoom levels – 2x and 5x, plus a slider for medium zooms. There is also a magic wand around with beauty effects and filters.

There is a well-featured professional mode where you can change the shooting parameters yourself. Here you can use primary and ultra-wide cameras. You can choose from 4 white balance presets or dial in the light temperature with a slider. There’s a manual focus and shutter speed slider (1/4000s to 30s) and ISO control with ranges depending on the camera you’re using. Maximum focus is available.

As expected, there are additional modes, including Long Exposure with a selection of different presets – moving crowd, neon trails, oil painting, light painting, starry sky, and star trails.

Night mode is available on the main, ultra-wide, and even selfie cameras.

Camera quality during the day

First, we start with the main 64-megapixel camera. The camera uses a Quad Bayer sensor, which means it takes 16MP photos by default.

The photos barely do it justice because it’s so bland overall. The level of detail captured isn’t great and some heavy sharpening is applied in an attempt to improve things.

Colors are slightly saturated but still look nice, especially on the phone’s OLED display. Dynamic range is a bit tricky because the applied contrast adjustment is too much in its favor.

Poco M6 Pro: 16MP main camera samples

M6 Pro takes very good portrait photos with its main camera. Detection and separation of the subject is almost always done point by point. We also like the skin tone and overall color execution. The background blur quality is also good.

Poco M6 Pro: 16MP main camera portrait examples

You can take pictures with the full resolution of 64 megapixels of the main camera. These don’t really have any advantage for detail and still look softer, as less sharpness is applied by the processing algorithms. However, since they have less contrast, they have good dynamic range and you may prefer a more natural look.

Poco M6 Pro: 64MP main camera samples

Here’s how the flagship camera stacks up against the competition in our extensive photo comparison database.

Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro vs Xiaomi Poco X6 Pro and Xiaomi Poco X6 in our photo comparison tool

64MP: Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro vs Xiaomi Poco X6 Pro and Xiaomi Poco X6 in our photo comparison tool

The Poco M6 Pro lacks a dedicated telephoto camera, but you can still capture digital zooms with the main camera. The user interface has a 2x zoom key. These photos look exactly like normal 1x photos. They have a lower level of detail – soft and overly sharp. They are also overly contrasty, resulting in limited dynamic range.

Poco M6 Pro: 16 MP main camera samples with 2x zoom

The 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera is largely unimpressed. It’s not great in terms of detail and tends to overexpose photos. The dynamic range is also not very good and there is visible frame noise.

Poco M6 Pro: 8MP ultra-wide camera samples

Distortion correction near the edges of the frame varies from decent to really poor in photos. At least there isn’t much in the way of cornering softness.

Rounding out the rear cameras of the Poco M6 Pro, we have a 2-megapixel macro camera. It has a fixed focus, but it also has a very wide and significant focal surface. In general, according to the available hardware, it takes quite decent photos. These have lots of detail and beautiful colors.

Poco M6 Pro: 2MP macro camera samples

The 16-megapixel selfie camera is decent for the class, but nothing to rave about. It also captures a lot of detail and skin texture with beautiful skin tone.

Poco M6 Pro: 16MP selfie camera samples

The camera only has fixed focus, which is quite expected for a budget phone, but the focal plane isn’t as wide as we’d like, and it doesn’t often result in perfectly sharp selfies.

Video Quality

The Poco M6 Pro shoots 1080p video. There is no 4K available, which is too bad. Videos from both the main and ultra-wide cameras are stored in a standard h.264/AVC video at around 20Mbps and 48kHz AAC stereo audio in an MP4 container. Alternatively, you can choose to shoot in h.265/HEVC and save some space.

The main camera captures decent but unremarkable 1080p video. Details are insufficient. They are too contrasty and too sharp, but the colors look good.

Dynamic range is a bit limited, but not unexpected.

Video stabilization on the main camera is limited, but it does quite well with small shakes and bumps.

Here’s how the flagship camera stacks up against the competition in our extensive video comparison database.

Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy A05s and Xiaomi Poco C65 in our video comparison tool

At 2x zoom, videos look a little softer, but not by much. Colors are still great

The ultra-wide camera captures very smooth videos. Details could be better. At least the colors look nice.

The selfie camera takes very decent 1080p videos. Colors look nice and natural, especially skin tones. A large amount of skin texture is being recorded. The dynamic range isn’t that bad and the videos aren’t even that shaky.

Camera quality in low light

The main camera of Poco M6 Pro performs amazingly in low light. There’s a lot of detail – even if it’s not very clean. Dark areas are well exposed and light sources are well contained. The colors look nice too. It’s a great display for a budget phone.

Poco M6 Pro: 16 MP main camera examples in low light

At 2x zoom, photos from the main camera understandably look a little softer and a little noisier, a little more processed. However, they are quite usable.

Poco M6 Pro: 16MP main camera samples with 2x zoom in low light

The output of the ultra-wide camera is very poor in low-light conditions. Surfaces look soft and noisy, dark areas are completely crushed, and light sources are slightly lost. That being said, we couldn’t have expected better from an 8MP ultrawide camera.

Poco M6 Pro: 8MP ultra-wide camera samples in low light

The normal photo mode on the Poco M6 Pro automatically applies some night mode processing. Beyond that, there is also a dedicated night mode.

Enabling manual night mode on the main camera doesn’t really do much. It brightens photos a bit and removes a small amount of noise on certain flat surfaces. However, it’s certainly not worth the extra wait for additional recording and processing time.

Poco M6 Pro: 16MP main camera night mode samples

The night mode algorithm works a little harder on photos with 2x zoom than the main camera. In an effort to reduce noise and smoothness, it tends to introduce some sharpening artifacts. From a distance, these make the shot look a little sharper subjectively, but we can’t say we prefer the look. It’s probably best to stay away from night mode for the main camera altogether.

Poco M6 Pro: night mode samples of the 16MP main camera with 2x zoom

Undoubtedly, the ultra-wide camera benefits the most from enabling the dedicated night mode. We didn’t see much of a change in the amount of detail in the frame, but the night mode brings out the darker areas somewhat, making everything more visible and pleasant. Light sources and colors are almost identical.

Poco M6 Pro: 8MP ultra-wide camera night mode samples

Videos from the main camera look mostly unremarkable. They are quite dark and soft. Surprisingly, it’s not that noisy, but there’s very little detail, and the light sources are pretty blown out.

Videos look 2x worse in zoom. The frame has a lot of noise and vibration, and most surfaces look more like an oil painting than a real picture.

Ultra-wide camera videos are very dark and noisy.

Poco M6 Pro competitor review

Let’s quickly clear up some potential confusion here. Currently, there are two very different devices under the Poco M6 Pro brand. One of them is the Poco M6 Pro 5G model from August 2023, which seems to be an India-exclusive model. Another one is the all-new Poco M6 Pro which is made for global markets that we are reviewing today. While it’s a 4G-only device, it’s an upgrade over its namesake in many other respects. Either way, we’re looking at budget devices here.

The global Poco M6 Pro is available in different variants – 8GB/256GB and 12GB/512GB with suggested MSRPs of $ 199 and $249 respectively. You may even be able to get a better deal by pricing early.

The price point is quite competitive, but there are some interesting alternatives. In Xiaomi’s own camp, there is the ever-popular Redmi Note 12 family. Now that the Redmi Note 13 line is out, it only makes sense to go that route, and the vanilla Redmi Note 13 4G stands out as a great alternative to the Poco M6 Pro. In fact, the two devices seem to share a lot of design and specs similarities, such as a 6.67-inch 120Hz AMOLED display and a large 5,000mAh battery. Redmi Note 13 is still a little different. Xiaomi doesn’t advertise its display as bright as the Poco M6 Pro’s. While it has a higher-resolution 108-megapixel primary camera, it lacks OIS, and while the Dimensity 6080 may be slightly faster than the Helio G99 in most tasks, it still lacks some features like 4K video recording. The Redmi also has only one speaker and slower 33W charging.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 • Samsung Galaxy A24 4G • Tecno Pova 5 Pro

Samsung also has interesting offers in the price section. If you’re looking to save money, then maybe consider the Galaxy 05s we recently reviewed. Instead of OLED, you’ll have to settle for LCD, a single speaker, and a decent camera setup. The worst thing about the A05s is arguably the eMMC memory, which drags down performance. The Galaxy A15 offers a nice step up and addresses many of the aforementioned shortcomings, but its availability is limited.

Enter the Galaxy A24 4G. As the name suggests, this device is a 4G device like the Poco M6 Pro. Other than that, the A24 4G offers a 90Hz AMOLED display, a Poco-comparable camera setup with OIS on the main camera, and 25W charging with its 5000mAh battery. You only get one speaker and you’re stuck with the same Helio G99 chipset, which also means the 1080p video cap.

Finally, we’d like to mention some good budget offers from Tecno such as the Spark 10 Pro and, probably better, the Tecno Pova 5 Pro. The latter is a very interesting device, especially in terms of design, with a bad design and multiple LED lights on the back. For that, you’ll have to settle for a 120Hz LCD and no OIS on the main camera. You still get stereo speakers, though, and the MediaTek Dimensity 6080 chipset is pretty decent, even capable of offering 1440p video on the device. Also, its 5000 mAh battery has 68W fast charging. And finally, if the Tecno is available in your market, you should get all this at the current price of around $150.

Summary

It’s hard to say anything particularly or catastrophic about the Poco M6 Pro because it really is a budget device. If we still had to wish, there’d probably be a better chipset out there. While the Helio G99 isn’t necessarily needed for power, it does have things like 4G connectivity and 1080p video recording.

Other than that, we weren’t impressed with the Poco M6 Pro’s camera capabilities. The same goes for the removal of HyperOS and the latest Android 14, both of which Xiaomi has promised to deliver as soon as possible, be that as it may.

On the other hand, we enjoyed the 120Hz AMOLED display on the Poco M6 Pro. It gets a lot brighter, especially for a budget device, and Xiaomi’s software update rate control is pretty good. The hybrid stereo speaker setup is also generally quite decent, and we appreciate the inclusion of a 3.5mm audio jack as well as an IR blaster. We know this is an increasingly important and outdated feature, but we still think it’s a nice added value, just like the built-in FM tuner. The Poco M6 Pro also managed solid battery life and very fast charging.

As we said, it’s hard not to like the Poco M6 Pro as an overall package, as it offers solid value and a solid product for the price. Xiaomi’s confusing naming scheme aside, we’re sure the Poco M6 Pro will find its audience.

Why should we buy Poco M6 Pro?

Xiaomi Turbo Fast Charger is included in the box.
Beautiful design with good build quality. Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the front and IP54.
Very bright and clear AMOLED 120 Hz with good automatic refresh rate control.
Good battery life
67-watt fast battery charging.
Proper tuning of hybrid stereo speakers.
Good camera performance in daylight
expandable storage; A 3.5 mm audio jack and an IR blaster.

Why should we avoid buying Poco M6 Pro?

No 5G connection
Hybrid instead of a dedicated microSD card slot./li>
Virtual proximity sensor
It doesn’t come with Xiaomi’s latest HyperOS, but it does offer MIUI 14 and Android 13 with plenty of UI ads.
Relatively poor performance of the camera in low light.
Video recording is limited to 1080p.

Source: GSMARENA.COM

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Technology

Unveiling of OpenAI new artificial intelligence capabilities

Published

2 days ago

14/05/2024

pouyan

OpenAI claims that its free GPT-4o model can talk, laugh, sing, and see like a human. The company is also releasing a desktop version of ChatGPT’s large language model.

Unveiling of OpenAI new artificial intelligence capabilities

Yesterday, OpenAI introduced the GPT-4o artificial intelligence model, which is a completely new model of the company’s artificial intelligence, which according to OpenAI is a step closer to a much more natural human-computer interaction.

This new model accepts any combination of text, audio, and image as input and can produce output in all three formats. It can also detect emotions, allow the user to interrupt it mid-speech, and respond almost as quickly as a human during a conversation.

In the live broadcast of the introduction of this new model, Meera Moratti, Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI, said: “The special thing about GPT-4o is that GPT-4 level intelligence has been made available to everyone, including our free users. This is the first time we’ve taken a big step forward in ease of use.

During the unveiling of the model, OpenAI demonstrated the GPT-4o, which translates live between English and Italian, with its intuitive ability to help a researcher solve a linear equation on paper in an instant, just by listening to The breaths of an OpenAI executive give him advice on deep breathing.

The letter “o” in the name of the GPT-4o model stands for the word “Omni”, which is a reference to the multifaceted capabilities of this model.

OpenAI said that GPT-4o is trained with text, images, and audio, meaning all input and output is processed by a neural network. This differs from the company’s previous models, including the GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, which allowed users to ask questions just by speaking, but then converted the speech to text. This would cause tone and emotion to be lost and interactions to slow down.

OpenAI will make this new model available for free to everyone, including ChatGPT users, over the next few weeks, and will also initially release a desktop version of ChatGPT for Apple computers (Mac) for users who have purchased a subscription, starting today. They will have access to it. The introduction of the new OpenAI model took place one day before the Google I/O event, which is the company’s annual developer conference.

It should be noted that shortly after OpenAI introduced GPT-4o, Google also presented a version of its artificial intelligence known as Gemini with similar capabilities.

While the GPT-4 model excelled at tasks related to image and text analysis, the GPT-4o model integrates speech processing and expands its range of capabilities.

Natural human-computer interaction

According to OpenAI, the GPT-4o model is a step towards a much more natural human-computer interaction that accepts any combination of text, audio, and image as input and produces any combination of text, audio and image.

This model can respond to voice inputs in less than 232 milliseconds, with an average speed of 320 milliseconds, which is similar to the response time of humans in a conversation.

This model matches the performance of the GPT-4 Turbo model on English text and code with a significant improvement in converting text to non-English languages while being much faster and 50% cheaper via application programming interface (API). The GPT-4o model is especially better in visual and audio understanding compared to existing models.

What exactly does the introduction of this model mean for users?

The GPT-4o model significantly enhances the experience of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s wildly popular AI chatbot. Users can now interact with ChatGPT like a personal assistant, ask it questions and even hang it up wherever they want.

Additionally, as mentioned, OpenAI is introducing a desktop version of ChatGPT along with a revamped user interface.

“We recognize the increasing complexity of these models, but our goal is to make the interaction experience more intuitive and seamless,” Moratti emphasized. We want users to focus on working with GPT instead of being distracted by the UI. Our new model can reason text, audio, and video in real-time. This model is versatile, fun to work with, and a step toward a much more natural form of human-computer interaction, and even human-computer-computer interaction.

The GPT-4o model has also been extensively reviewed by more than 70 experts in areas such as social psychology, bias and fairness, and misinformation to identify risks introduced or enhanced by the newly added methods. OpenAI has used these learnings to develop safety interventions to improve the safety of interacting with GPT-4o. The members of the OpenAI team demonstrated their audio skills during the public presentation of this new model. A researcher named Mark Chen emphasized its ability to gauge emotions and noted its adaptability to user interruptions.

Chen demonstrated the model’s versatility by requesting a bedtime story in a variety of tones, from dramatic to robotic, and even had it read to him. As mentioned, this new model is available for free to all ChatGPT users. Until now, GPT-4 class models were only available to people who paid a monthly subscription.

“This is important to us because we want to make great AI tools available to everyone,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Strong market for generative artificial intelligence

OpenAI is leading the way in productive AI alongside Microsoft and Google, as companies across sectors rush to integrate AI-powered chatbots into their services to stay competitive.

For example, Anthropic, a competitor of OpenAI, recently unveiled its first corporate proposal to Apple to provide a free program for iPhones.

“We recognize that GPT-4o audio presentations present new risks,” OpenAI said in a statement. Today we’re publicly releasing text and image inputs and text outputs, and in the coming weeks and months, we’ll be working on the technical infrastructure, post-training usability, and security necessary to release other methods. For example, at startup, audio outputs are limited to a set of predefined sounds and adhere to our existing security policies. We will share more details about the full range of GPT-4o methods in a future system.

According to the report, the generative AI market saw a staggering $29.1 billion in investment across nearly 700 deals in 2023, up more than 260 percent from the previous year. Predictions indicate that the yield of this market will exceed one trillion dollars in the next decade. However, there are concerns about the rapid deployment of untested services by academics and ethicists who are troubled by the technology’s potential to perpetuate prejudice.

Since launching in November 2022, ChatGPT’s chatbot has broken records as the fastest-growing user base in history, with nearly 100 million weekly active users. OpenAI reports that more than 92% of the world’s top 500 companies use it.

At the presentation event last night, Moratti answered some questions from the audience and when he spoke in fluent Italian and the artificial intelligence translated his words into English, the hall was filled with excitement.

There is more. This means the next time you take a selfie, OpenAI’s artificial intelligence can assess your exact emotions. All you have to do is select a selfie and ask ChatGPT to tell you how you feel.

It should be said that OpenAI employees were so happy that ChatGPT asked them why they were so happy!

Technology

Samsung S95B OLED TV review

Published

2 days ago

14/05/2024

pouyan

The S95B TV is Samsung’s serious attempt to enter the OLED TV market after a decade of hiatus; But can it take back the OLED throne from LG?

Samsung S95B OLED TV review

What can be placed in a container with a depth of 4 mm? For example, 40 sheets of paper or 5 bank cards; But to think that Samsung has successfully packed a large 4K OLED panel into a depth of less than 4mm that can produce more than 2000 nits of brightness is amazing. Join me as I review the Samsung S95B TV.

Samsung has a very active presence in the smartphone OLED display market, and by the way, it also has some of the best and most stunning small OLED panels in its repertoire; But surprisingly, it has been a little more than a year since he seriously entered the OLED TV market; Of course, Samsung launched its first OLED TV in 2013 and quickly withdrew from the large-size OLED market and left the field to its traditional and long-standing rival, LG.

In the years after withdrawing from the OLED TV market, Samsung focused on the evolution of LCD TVs with technologies such as Quantum Dot and MiniLED; But after almost 10 years, Samsung decided to once again try its luck in the world of OLEDs, and thus, in 2022, it launched the S95B TV in two 55-inch and 65-inch models.

In 2023, Samsung introduced the S95C TV as a successor to the S95B and unveiled the S95D model at CES 2024; While Samsung’s 2024 TV has just been launched in international markets a few months after its launch, it is still hard to find its 2023 model in the Iranian market. Accordingly, we have prepared the 65-inch S95B model from 2022 for review. It is more numerous than the 2023 model in the market of the country.

Slim design… super slim

What draws attention to Samsung TV at first sight is not its eye-catching image and ear-pleasing sound, but its infinite slimness. The S95B was so slim that when I unboxed and installed it, I experienced the same level of anxiety I had on exam night! Samsung OLED TV is only 3.89 mm thick; For this reason, despite all the company’s efforts in strengthening the body, it still simply shakes and sways.

The very slim design of the Samsung S95B OLED TV

Samsung calls the ultra-slim design of its TV LaserSlim; Because the laser beam is narrow and sharp; So you should be very careful when installing the TV. I wish we knew what is the logic behind the childish efforts of companies to make the world’s thinnest TV. To some extent, the narrowness of the TV helps to make it more modern and better installed on the wall; But the strength of the TV should not be sacrificed to make it thinner.

Samsung designers have not spared even the edges of the TV! The width of the edges around the panel does not exceed 8 mm. The narrowness of the edges helps the user to immerse well in the depth of black and the extraordinary contrast of the OLED TV panel and enjoy the content to the fullest.

The S95B TV has a high-quality and well-made body, the frame of the device is metal, and like most OLED TVs in the market, there is a wide plastic protrusion in the lower half of which parts such as the board, speakers, and power supply are placed. Due to this protrusion, the thickness of the body reaches 4.1 cm in the maximum state.

The bottom edge of the Samsung S95B OLED TV

Unfortunately, just like LG’s OLED TVs, the base of the S95B is also located in the middle of the device; Although the base itself is metal and relatively wide; the large dimensions of the TV and its very small thickness make it not to be firmly and firmly placed on the table and not to wobble; Of course, you can install the TV on the wall with a 300×200 mm VESA mount.

All the ports of the S95B TV, including HDMI and USB, are included in the plastic protrusion on the back of the device. These ports are covered with a plastic screen to integrate and beautify the back of the device. After installing it, surprisingly, you won’t be able to access the ports! Samsung TV ports are as follows:

Four HDMI 2.1 ports with the ability to transfer 4K120 image signal; Two ports facing down and two ports on the side of the frame
Two USB 2.0 ports on the side of the frame
A network port
Internal and external receiver input
An optical audio output

One of the HDMI ports (number 3) has eARC capability and can be used to connect the device to the soundbar. USB ports are also different in terms of current and voltage; One of the ports is limited to 0.5 amps and 5 volts and the other is limited to 1.0 amps and 5 volts; Therefore, it is considered a more reasonable option for connecting an external hard drive.

Stunning brightness and disappointing color accuracy

I mentioned earlier that we had the 65-inch S95B model available for review. With such dimensions, you can enjoy the 4K resolution of the panel the most if you sit at a distance of about 2 meters from the TV; At closer distances, pixels can be separated, and at distances greater than 2 meters, your brain’s perception of a 4K image will be no different from a 1080p image.

Ambient Mode feature in Samsung OLED TV S95B

The Samsung S95B TV uses a 10-bit OLED panel with a resolution of 4K or 2160 x 3840 pixels and can display more than a billion colors. Supporting this number of colors is essential to provide an optimal experience of HDR content playback. In the following, I will explain more about the compatibility of Samsung TVs with HDR standards and the quality of color display.

Unlike LCD panels, where the light needed by the pixels is provided by a number of LED lights on the edge or back of the panel, in OLED panels, each pixel provides its own light; As if instead of a limited number of exposure areas, for example 500-600 in MiniLED TVs, we have more than 8 million exposure areas; Thus, to display the color black, the pixels are turned off, so that instead of a spectrum of gray color, we see a deep black and experience an extremely high contrast.

The absence of any Blooming thanks to the precise control of light in the TV’s OLED panel

The great advantage of self-lit pixels (pixels that provide their own light) in displaying deep black and preventing the Blooming phenomenon (creating a halo around bright subjects in a dark background) thanks to the very precise control of the light distribution, also has some weaknesses; The greater vulnerability to burn-in phenomenon during long-term static image display and the lower level of OLED panel brightness compared to MiniLED samples are among these weaknesses.

Like other OLED TVs, the S95B TV is not immune to the risk of burn-in. In order to reduce the possibility of this phenomenon, the Koreans have considered solutions such as moving the image slightly in different time periods. Unfortunately, we do not have the possibility to examine the TVs for a long time to evaluate their performance in preventing the risk of burn-in; But at least based on RTINGS’ long-term and unrealistic test, the S95B seems to be more vulnerable compared to its competitors; However, in real use, it is unlikely that a user would want to watch TV with such intensity.

To overcome the inherent weakness of OLED panels in achieving higher levels of brightness, Samsung engineers have combined quantum dot technology with OLED panels. Quantum dots are very small crystal particles that are layered in the heart of the display panel. With the help of the quantum dot layer, the panels achieve higher brightness and produce more vivid colors. Samsung calls its combined panel QD-OLED and claims that with the help of the Neural Quantum processor in the heart of the S95B TV, this panel can raise the brightness to a higher level than its competitors.

Samsung S95B 65-inch TV brightness with default settings
Image modes/pattern white percentage		10 percent	50 percent	100 percent
SDR	Dynamic	1065	633	364
	Standard	740	487	281
	Movie	430	399	229
HDR	Dynamic	2094	—	—
	Standard	2179	—	—
	Movie	2179	—	—
	FILMMAKER Mode	2175	—	—

In my measurements, when only 10% of the screen was lit and the device was playing a normal SDR image, the brightness of the S95B panel reached 1100 nits in the highest mode, which is a very good number and better than the brightness of the C2 and C3 TVs in the same conditions, respectively. It is about 300 and 100 nits more.

Aside from the S95B’s excellent performance in SDR image brightness, the real magic happens when the device is playing HDR video. In this situation, when 10% of the screen is lit, the brightness reaches a stunning number of about 2200 nits, which is 700 nits more than the HDR brightness of the C2 and C3 TVs. Achieving such a level of brightness helps the TV to deliver a stunning HDR movie viewing experience.

Comparison of brightness and contrast of S95B with other TVs
TV/parameter (the brightest profile)	Brightness (50% pattern)	contrast
Samsung S95B	633	∞
LG C3	603	∞
LG QNED80	580	116
LG NANO84	295	149
LG C2	525	∞
LG QNED96	470	—

Note that the stunning numbers of 1100 and 2200 nits are obtained when a small part of the screen is bright, which is often the case in movies and series, and the entire image is not full of bright colors; But when the whole screen is lit; For example, consider a scene from The Lord of the Rings where we see Galadriel in the land of the elves, in such a situation, the maximum brightness of the whole screen is about 370 nits, which is still 40 nits higher than the LG TV.

Playing Tamaseh 2 movie on Samsung OLED TV S95B

Thanks to the panel’s excellent brightness and the deep blacks produced by the muted pixels, it’s no surprise that the Samsung TV’s image contrast is superb; Especially since there is an anti-reflective coating on the panel so that you can enjoy the image even in bright environments; Note that unlike what comes from the corners of the panel, you should not remove this anti-reflective layer from the panel; Otherwise, you will face problems like us!

If you think that the S95B is the best TV on the market so far, I must say that not everything about the S95B is rosy.

The S95B TV provides the user with the following four color profiles, all of which tend to be very cold by default and do not produce very accurate colors.

Dynamic
Movie
Standard
FILMMAKER Mode

Like most OLED TVs on the market, the S95B TV also covers a wide range of colors. In my tests, the Samsung TV managed to cover about 148% of the sRGB color space, nearly 100% of the DCI P3 wide space, and 75% of the Rec 2020 ultra-wide space. These numbers are great, But the disappointing thing is the very low accuracy of the device in producing the mentioned colors with factory settings.

Samsung S95B 65-inch TV performance in covering color spaces with default settings
Image mode/color space	sRGB		DCI-P3		Rec. 2020
Image mode/color space	cover	mean error	cover	mean error	cover	mean error
Dynamic	146	—	98.6	13.7	77.9	—
Standard	147.7	—	99.7	12.1	78.7	—
Movie	125.4	—	89.5	4.6	65.5	—
FILMMAKER Mode	121.9	—	89.5	4.1	64.6	—

Note that the FILMMAKER mode belongs to the UHD union and most big companies like Samsung, LG and Hisense use it in their TVs. On paper, with FILMMAKER mode, we should see movies as the director intended.

Comparison of Samsung S95B color accuracy with other TVs (default settings)
TV/parameter (the most accurate profile)	DCI P3
TV/parameter (the most accurate profile)	Covering	Color accuracy
Samsung S95B	89.5	4.1
LG C3	96.8	3.0
LG QNED80	90.7	2.7
LG NANO84	82.9	—
LG C2	98.7	2.1
LG QNED96	90.8	3.9

The most accurate colors of the S95B TV are depicted by the FILMMAKER Mode profile with an error of 4.1, in which the TV covers about 90% of the DCI P3 color space; As a comparison, in the review of the C3 TV, the color display error in the same FILMMAKER mode was 3.6 and in the most accurate color profile it was 3.0; Therefore, Samsung TV does not have an interesting performance in terms of factory calibration of colors.

We were so surprised by the results that we returned the TV and got another S95B to review, But the results did not change.

Fortunately, Samsung TV provides you with various settings to change parameters such as gamma, color temperature, color hue, and brightness limiter (ABL) so that you can achieve your desired style and style for displaying colors; For example, I was able to reduce the color display error in the Standard profile from a terrible number of 12.1 to a very good number of 3.0 by making the following changes.

Color accuracy of S95B TV after minor changes in panel settings
Image mode/color space	DCI-P3
Image mode/color space	Settings	Average error (recommended: less than 3)	Color temperature (neutral: 6500 K)
Standard	default settings	12.1	14236
Standard	ABL: Off Contrast Enhancer: Low Gamma: 2.2	3.0	8180

Another weakness of Samsung S95B TV compared to LG OLEDs is that it does not support HDR videos with Dolby Vision standard; The iPhone, for example, records HDR video using the same standard. Samsung TV supports HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG standards.

Wide viewing angle of Samsung S95B OLED TV

Like other OLED TVs, the Samsung S95B TV has wide viewing angles, and even from the corners, it displays colors with the least drop in freshness; So if you use wide furniture at home, you can safely go to S95B.

Samsung has focused a lot on the gaming capabilities of its TV; The device uses a 120 Hz panel with support for FreeSync Premium and G-Sync technologies, and the TV itself provides the user with Game Mode, which, by activating it, significantly reduces Input Lag, makes available a variable refresh rate, and The frames of the games can also be seen.

Samsung compensates for the visual weaknesses of the S95B TV with the amazing listening experience of its powerful speakers; While a TV like the LG C3 uses 40-watt speakers, Samsung engineers have used 60-watt speakers with a 2.2.2 channel combination in the S95B’s slim body; In the sense that two speakers throw the sound down, two speakers throw the sound up, and two woofers are responsible for producing low frequencies.

The S95B TV supports Dolby Atmos surround sound and its sound output is considered excellent for a TV; The volume is high, you can hear the pounding bass, and at high volumes, the distortion is controlled at a reasonable level.

Tizen; The user interface is more limited and different from competitors

Finally, we must avoid the TV user interface; Samsung’s OLED TV, like the rest of the company’s TVs, uses the Tizen operating system. The user interface of the device is smooth and smooth, moving between different menus of the user interface is done without problems, although sometimes with a little slowness; But the device can play most of the video formats.

The Workspace section of Samsung OLED TV S95B

A number of functions are also available, which doubles the enjoyment of the TV experience, provided that the user uses a Samsung phone; For example, you can run the Samsung phone’s desktop mode or Dex on the TV and use the phone’s screen as a trackpad. The phone can even be used as a webcam to make video calls with Google Mate on the TV.

If you want to write a text, you can call Microsoft365 from the Workspace section of the user interface by connecting a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to the Samsung TV and start writing in Microsoft Word software.

Web surfing and Zooming with Samsung OLED TV S95B

Samsung Internet Browser is available in the S95B TV user interface; But the Samsung remote control, despite its compact design and the possibility of being charged with a solar panel or USB-C port, does not have the ability to use a mouse; So you have to browse the web with the arrow keys of the remote control; In my opinion, this is one of the main weaknesses of Samsung TV compared to LG TV with its practical magic remote.

Samsung S95B OLED TV remote control solar panel

Samsung S95B OLED TV remote control USB-C port

As another weakness, we should mention Samsung’s not very rich store; For example, you can’t find some useful apps like Spotify or native apps like Filmo in the Samsung TV store.

Without a doubt, the S95B is one of the most stunning TVs we’ve ever reviewed on Zoomit; An attractive and extremely slim device that will amaze you with its stunning brightness and contrast, impressive gaming capabilities, and very powerful speakers.

In terms of factory color calibration, the S95B appears below expectations and a bit disappointing; So, if you are not very fond of the image and do not know much about color parameters, you will have to start with inaccurate and very cold colors; But if you are aware of the color parameters, you can change them and enjoy the attractive picture of the TV to the fullest.

Dune: Part Two movie streaming on Samsung S95B OLED TV

The S95B TV is one of Samsung’s 2022 flagships, and now its 65-inch model is sold in the price range of 105 million Tomans; In this range, go for the more updated LG C3 TV with more accurate colors, or for a little more money, choose the Sony A80L TV for 2023, which is powered by a more practical Android operating system; In addition, C2 TV is also available at a price of 10 million less than in 2022.

what is your opinion? Do you think the S95B is a reasonable choice or do you prefer other models from LG or Sony?

Pros

Very high brightness
6 powerful speakers
Very modern and attractive design
Deep black and excellent contrast

Cons

Low color accuracy with default settings
Too thin and vulnerable body

Technology

MacBook Air M3 review; Lovely, powerful and economical

Published

1 week 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.