This Week at Mark Ellis Reviews

👋 Hi all! I spent most of last week in India taking a look at the CMF Phone Pro 2 which has utterly blown me away. I also revisited the M4 MacBook Air to try and find something bad about it. Besides that, I’m becoming increasingly alarmed about how little I’ve been missing the iPhone 16 Pro Max…and how much I like the simplicity of the 16e.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

The iPhone 16e saga continues

I’m going to film a quite silly video for Mark Ellis Reviews this week. The working title for the video is iPhone 16e vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: A STUPID COMPARISON (but we might tweak that to make it even more click-baity), and it will do exactly what it says on the tin: I’ll compare Apple’s flagship phone with its entry-level device.

I’m allowed to do this for two reasons. Firstly, I’ve made the switch from the 16 Pro Max to the 16e (my full review of which is here), and secondly, it’s my YouTube channel, so I can do whatever I like. Regardless, I know it’ll go down about as well as a fart in a crowded lift with certain folk.

Beyond the tongue-in-cheek narrative that’ll inevitably be laced throughout that video, I hope people see it for what it is - an honest appraisal of where we are with smartphones in 2025. 

I’ve noted on a couple of occasions in this newsletter that I’m not the only one making the leap from a Pro Max to the 16e - I continue to receive comments from people who have done the same. This got me thinking: what is it that’s encouraging people to downgrade? Why is the lure of a cheaper and considerably hampered smartphone taking both those commenters and me away from the huge, bright, overly-capable lights of Apple’s flagship smartphone?

The answer might lie in my last sentence above, but I thought I’d make a video about it to try and get to the bottom of this fascinating and entirely unexpected turn of events. If that video isn’t live on Mark Ellis Reviews by the time you read this, it will be very soon!

VIDEO DIARY

Having said all that about the iPhone 16e, I also don’t think it’s a brilliant device in the context of the wider smartphone market. I mean, you just have to look at any phone released in the last three months, like the Pixel 9a or Galaxy A56, and you’ll see how much better they are. And the CMF Phone Pro 2 has come along and beaten them all when it comes to value for money.

HAVE YOUR SAY

BYTE-SIZED NEWS

This Week’s Top Tech Headlines

👀 Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic Spotted in Certification Listings
It seems like the return of the rotating bezel and Samsung’s classiest smartwatch design is upon us.

♊️ iOS 19 Might Use Google Gemini For AI Functionality
Can you imagine Apple relying on Google for software functionality? Well it looks a very likely outcome now…

⌚️ Apple Watch SE 3 Might Be Larger Than Predecessors
An updated Apple Watch SE would be greatly appreciated, as would the leaked increase in display size.

TOP FINDS

What Had Me Glued to YouTube…

📹 The IMPOSSIBLE Camera (CaseyNeistat) - Yet another Insta360-sponsored video, or a defining example of YouTube storytelling? I’ll let you be the judge.

🎶 AlphaTheta DDJ-FLX2 Review - The best DJ controller for beginners? (Crossfader) - I’m researching portable DJ controllers at the moment for a new venture, and this video reminded me that it is now ridiculously easy (and affordable) to get into DJing if you fancy a spin on the ones and twos.

🧟‍♂️ Does Michael Jackson's Thriller Really Have 7 Basslines? Greg Phillinganes Explains (Anthony Marinelli Music) - If you know who Greg is - watch this. If you don’t know who he is but love music - watch this.

NEED TO KNOW

Tip Of The Week

👉 iOS tip: Set a sleep timer for audio – Want your podcast, YouTube video, or Spotify playlist to stop playing automatically? Open the Clock app, set a timer, and under When Timer Ends, select Stop Playing. Your audio will turn off when the timer runs out.

ICYMI

M4 MacBook Air – Addressing The Haters! (1 Month Later)

Is the M4 MacBook Air the perfect laptop? Nearly. I managed to find five things (well, four really) that I don’t like about it. And one of those is incredibly nitpicky. Take a look and see if you think any of my points are worthy of criticism, the comments section is always open!

CMF Phone 2 Pro review - How Is This Possible?!

Sometimes, Nothing’s take on tech might seem a bit flashy and all about the ‘vibes’ as the kids say, but you can’t deny that they consistently produce quality stuff. And they’ve taken it up a notch with the CMF Phone Pro 2. For the price, it really is unbeatable. Would you buy it?

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter! We’re coming up to a busy period in May with lots of rumoured releases from Samsung in the works, so stay tuned!

~ Mark