This Week at Mark Ellis Reviews

👋 Happy Friday! This week, I finally called myself out on a misguided MacBook Air purchase. After travelling around a lot with my 15-inch model, I have realised I keep making the same mistake when I buy a laptop. My full thoughts on that are below! I also have two new phone reviews for you. The first is the Samsung Galaxy Flip7, and the second is the enigma that is the Sony Xperia 1 VII. It’s an often overlooked option, but one you should certainly check out.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

My M4 MacBook Air mistake

This isn’t one of those YouTuber ‘I Made A Mistake!’ clickbait titles. I genuinely made a poor choice when I bought my M4 MacBook Air earlier this year. And it’s a mistake I keep making whenever I buy a new laptop. No, it’s not buying too little memory or storage; it’s display size.

You don’t realise until you use one, but a 15-inch MacBook is noticeably bigger in more ways than one compared to a 13-inch MacBook. It’s heavier, which is annoying to carry around, and so much more cumbersome. Try fitting a 15-inch laptop on one of the tiny tray tables you get on British trains. It’s like a £1100 game of Jenga.

I realised this after my trip to New York to see Samsung Unpacked. Pretty much every content creator or journalist I saw was using a 13-inch MacBook Air. And there was me, for some reason, with my M3 Max MacBook Pro. So I’m genuinely switching. No more big displays, most people, including me, just don’t need them. Don’t believe me? Watch the video!

SPONSORED

Kinesis mWave Mechanical Keyboard

As an Apple fan, you quickly realise how bad membrane keyboards are; the Magic Keyboard is a spongy mess. As such, I’ve used my fair share of mechanical keyboards across the years and got a good idea of what works best. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been using the Kinesis mWave, which is not only mechanical (meaning you get that satisfying clacking sound) but also designed with ergonomics in mind. 

The wave design and palm cushion means your wrists are kept in a straighter position, reducing the risk of fatigue or strain, and the responsive keys are far more satisfying to type on. On top of that, it’s wireless, unlike the Microsoft Sculpt of old (bonus points if you know what that is), comes configured with all the necessary Mac (or Windows!) hot keys, and it’s backlit. You can watch my short about it here. Use the code MARKSPICK for 10% off!

BYTE-SIZED NEWS

This Week’s Top Tech Headlines

🎧 OneOdio Focus A6 Bring Their Budget A-Game
Might these be the best headphones under $70/£70?

👨‍💻 Blender Is Coming To iPad, We Just Don’t Know When
Could this be an M5 iPad tie-in?

PODCAST

Not PC with Mark and Rob

Good news, we’ve relaunched our podcast! Long-time listeners will know that it used to be called ‘Eight or Sixteen’, in reference to the choice between buying 8GB or 16GB of memory on a MacBook. That choice is gone now, so we’ve renamed it Not PC!

The new bi-monthly format involves rambly discussions and rants about the latest tech news and releases between me, my good friend Rob and a special guest. This week, we cover whether foldables are worth buying now, Rob’s accidental Z Fold7 purchase and the ‘new’ Commodore 64. It’s like chatting about slightly nerdy tech stuff with your mates at the pub. Have a listen and leave us a rating!

ICYMI

Samsung Z Flip 7 review 1 week later – My Big Dilemma!

The Flip7 is the Fold7’s little brother. And boy, is it good. As flip phones go, I’m not sure there’s a better one out there at the moment when you’re talking about the complete package. The Motorola Razr 60 Ultra is maybe on a par with this, but there’s so much to like about the Samsung.

The build quality is phenomenal, the camera is solid and the front display is dazzlingly large. But I do still have my reservations about flip phones. You can watch to find out if I'd actually ever buy one of these things!

Sony Xperia 1 VII - ONE MONTH LATER!

Every year, people forget about Sony when it comes to smartphones. And then they pop up again, almost out of nowhere, to release the next version of the Xperia. I am a Sony fan across pretty much all of their devices, so I get quite interested when I check out their phones.

When was the last time you saw someone actually using a Sony Xperia out in the wild? The only time I see them is at tech conventions or…well that’s about it. But I think you’d like this phone for quite a few reasons!

TOP FINDS

What I Watched On YouTube This Week

👋 The TechRadar Podcast Mark Ellis Edition! (TechRadar) - I appeared on the TechRadar podcast this week, which was good fun, and we chatted about a range of stuff, so take a look!

🪟 iOS 26 Hands-On: Liquid Glass! (MKBHD) - My reaction to the iOS 26 Beta ruffled some feathers because I was criticising an unreleased piece of software. But now the real thing is seemingly here with Marques getting an early look. Convinced?

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. Make sure to enter our giveaway if you haven’t already and check out the podcast!

~ Mark