26
Reviews
Do you need advice on what you should buy?
Email us at [email protected]WHAT SHOULD I BUY? We solve your buying dilemmas
Where can I buy a 360-degree camera like the one on TV?
SPECIFICATIONS
Eight-core Snapdragon 888 5G processor •• 8GB
RAM •• 128GB storage •• 6.62in 120Hz 2400x1080-
pixel AMOLED screen •• 50-megapixel rear camera ••
8-megapixel ultrawide camera •• 16-megapixel front-
facing camera •• Wi-Fi 6 •• Bluetooth 5.2 •• Android 12
with Realme UI 3.0 •• 8.6x76x163mm (HxWxD) ••
200g •• One-year warranty http://www.snipca.com/41667VERDICT A great all-round
smartphone, with plenty of power, a
good screen and a decent camera★★★★★
ALTERNATIVE Xiaomi
Poco F3 £309 A cheaper
Android smartphone
that still offers great
performance for the priceQ
I’ve been watching a BBC Four
programme called Yo r k s h i r e
Walks with Shanaz Gulzar.
She uses a 360-degree camera on a
stick, but the camera’s software
‘erases’ the stick from the image. How
much does the camera cost, where
can I get one and how does it work?
Andrew WestA
You should be able to do this
with any 360-degree camera
if you use a narrow selfiestick. These cameras create a 360-degree
view by using two lenses: one on the
front of the camera and one on the back.
Each lens has a view of 180 degrees or
more in every direction.
However, the thickness of
the camera creates a blind
spot, because it separates
the two lenses. If you use a
selfie stick that’s no wider
than the camera, you can hide
it within this blind spot. Then,
when the camera softwarePHONE | £499 from Realme http://www.snipca.com/41667Realme GT 2
Our new Android favourite
Poco F3, but we think its superior
performance and features make it worth
the money. Note that the £499 8GB
version we review here is only available
in black, so make sure you choose these
options when ordering from the website.That’s fine, although it falls behind the
Galaxy S22 and iPhone 13. However, if
you don’t generally use your smartphone
to play graphically intensive games, it
won’t be a problem.
Battery life is good. In everyday use, the
GT 2 lasted all the way to bedtime with
around 25-30 per cent of battery life
remaining. Even better is that its 65W
SuperDart charger can charge the battery
from empty to full in just 45 minutes.
When we reviewed the Poco F3, we
were disappointed by the quality of its
camera. The GT 2 has no such problems.
Photos from its 50-megapixel main
camera looked great, whether taken
outside in bright sunlight or inside in
darker conditions. The night mode
preserved fine details even in very dark
shots. The 8-megapixel ultra-wide
camera was less impressive, producing
grainy images in low light and distorting
photos around the edges.
The Realme GT 2 costs more than theThe Xiaomi Poco F3 has been our
favourite Android smartphone for several
months now, but we’ve found a phone
that knocks it off the top spot.
The Realme GT 2 costs £190 more than
the Poco F3, but it has a more powerful
Snapdragon 888 processor, which
outperforms the Poco F3’s Snapdragon- This was evident in our benchmark
test results, where the GT 2 scored an
admirable 3,562 compared with the Poco
F3’s score of 3,303. The GT 2 performs
better than the £760 Samsung Galaxy
S22 (3,341), too, but couldn’t match the
£780 iPhone 13 (4,436).
Its 6.62in AMOLED screen has a
2400x1080-pixel resolution and a refresh
rate of 120Hz for smooth motion in
videos and apps. It produces a bright,
colourful image, and is the equal of the
Poco F3’s screen in all but size – the F3’s
is slightly larger at 6.67in.
When running games on the GT 2, we
recorded an average frame rate of 35fps.
11 – 24 May 2022 • Issue 631stitches the two images together, the
stick is invisible. For a video explaining
this, visit http://www.snipca.com/41671.
The most popular cameras that can
do this are the GoPro Max (£479 from
http://www.snipca.com/41669, pictured) and
the Insta360 One X2, which you can
buy with Insta360’s ‘Invisible Selfie
Stick’ (just a stick thin enough to
disappear in the blind spot) for £415
(www.snipca.com/41670).