This Week at Mark Ellis Reviews

👉 A jam-packed week of releases all covered below with my thoughts on the M3 iPad Air, the excellent Xiaomi 15, the remarkably well-priced M4 MacBook Air and the Nothing Phone 3a!

Before we start, a big welcome to all the new subscribers who have joined us in recent weeks! Thank you and I hope you enjoy the newsletter. If you haven’t entered my 200k subscriber giveaway yet, then make sure you do before it closes!

TOP STORY

Xiaomi 15 Review - Is Apple in trouble?

I’m not going to beat around the bush here, I love the Xiaomi 15. Xiaomi has worked some kind of magic to cram a load of excellent hardware into what is the best feeling phone I’ve used for a long time. It gives serious iPhone 13 mini vibes (even though it is obviously larger).

Another thing; rarely do black-coloured phones impress me but the Xiaomi 15 just looks so premium. It’s a masterstroke in design. Here’s the other things I love about it:

• Brilliantly dynamic camera system with particularly impressive low-light and macro capabilities

• Super vibrant and top-spec display

• At $999/£899, it isn’t too far off the top-spec iPhone 16e and you get a lot more for your money here

Interested? I would seriously recommend checking one of these out!

Nothing Phone 3a & 3a Pro review: Wow!

I told you there were a lot of releases this week, and they mostly came in the form of mid-range smartphones. Nothing added to that list with the Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro which, it has to be said, only adds to their reputation for unique designs and value for money. There’s no question that the visual design of these new phones is divisive but I love the look of both of them.

Beyond that, there’s a lot to like such as solid-if-not-world-beating cameras, a 120Hz display and, my favourite thing, Nothing OS. If you hate Android but want to give it a go, Nothing offers something different that could be your answer. And for $450/£450 (yes, I’m going to mention it again), it blows the iPhone 16e out of the water in most areas.

Samsung launches Galaxy A56 with triple camera system to take on the iPhone 16e

More you say?! Well, at the end of last week, Samsung released their latest mid-to-budget range update in the form of the Galaxy A56, A36 and A26 phones. In truth, these phones don’t have a lot of new stuff going for them beyond a chip upgrade and some minor alterations to the camera systems.

The A56 gets some of the Galaxy AI features from the S-series phones and, across the board, the A-series looks and feels more premium than ever before. Whether they are comparable to the cheaper Nothing Phone 3a series remains to be seen, but you can read all about the A-series below!

Essential Tech News

OPINION

I have a problem with the new iPads…

This week, Apple introduced a new iPad Air (in both 11- and 13-inch form) and a new entry-level iPad. And I’ve got a bit of an issue with both of these updates: I’m not sure how to review them.

This isn’t because I’m throwing my toys out of the pram in a why-don’t-you-innovate-anymore-Tim tantrum - it’s because my job is to review the latest tech and provide buying guidance for my audience. It’s also because, for years, I’ve focused heavily on Apple-related content. Therefore, when Apple releases such a seemingly tepid, iterative update to an already brilliant product, it’s tough to suss out my next step, even though I know I need to do something.

The new iPad Air features an M3 chip, which is one generational step forward from what was there previously - the M2. Consequently, that’s not a huge leap, unless you’re coming from an M1 iPad Air (although both upgrade paths are unlikely, for most people), where the difference in performance is nearly 2x. The chip upgrade also brings with it improved graphics with ray tracing and mesh shading. The design is identical, the colours remain the same, and the pricing is unchanged. The only other difference is the new Magic Keyboard for the iPad Air which has received the same function key row and larger trackpad updates as the one designed for the iPad Pro.

The entry-level iPad? Well, it now has an A16 chip which is 30% faster than the outgoing model and the base storage has been doubled to 128GB. That’s it, but it’s still a killer option in the lineup, given the price, and for anyone who just wants an iPad. The absence of Apple Intelligence support, however, is puzzling, given Apple’s constant chest-beating about their take on AI.

Back to my conundrum - how do I cover these iPads as an Apple-centric tech reviewer? Well, I’m going to do what any self-respecting (or otherwise) content creator would do and make a video about it to help me decide. And you can watch that video on my Tech Diary channel 😉

TOP FINDS

What I watched on YouTube this week

I spent most of this week at MWC in Barcelona which meant downtime for watching YouTube was very limited. But here’s what I managed to catch!

🚙 Richard Hammond Thrashes a £140,000 700bhp Supercharged Defender!  (DRIVETRIBE) - Kicking off with car content. Again. But if you’re into cars, one look at the title of this video should be all you need to click through.

▶️ YouTube CEO Announces Big YouTube Changes for 2025 (TubeBuddy) - YouTube is doing some interesting stuff for creators this year, including adding more ways to earn money from your hard work. Definitely worth a watch if you do what I do.

💍 UltraHuman Creator Meet in Abu Dhabi (VLOG) (LoKan Sardari) - I made friends with Lokan on a recent press trip to Abu Dhabi and apart from being an utterly lovely fellow creator, he’s also a brilliant vlogger. He publishes videos in his French native language, but if that isn’t yours, it’s definitely worth turning on subtitles to see what we got up to in the UAE last week.

‘GRAM OF THE WEEK

Xiaomi just announced the Watch S4 in Barcelona, which means you can now buy it outside of China.

This is GOOD NEWS, because it’s a rather pretty and impressive watch - particularly from a battery standpoint (when on EARTH will the Apple Watch catch up?!).

I’ve been wearing it for the last few days and this is what you need to know…

🔥 1.43” AMOLED display with 2,200 nits peak brightness
🏃‍♂️ 150+ sports modes
🔋 15-day battery life
💡 Xiaomi HyperOS 2
📡 Dual-frequency GPS
🩺 One-tap health insights


PRICE: £129 👀

Oh, and it’s not just a fitness tracker. The interchangeable bezels and straps make it look the part too – whether you’re at the gym or a fancy dinner. That’s a hard thing to pull off in the smartwatch world.

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. The giveaway ends in four days so make sure to enter if you haven’t already! And stay tuned for all the upcoming reviews of whatever new Apple products I can get my hands on.

Until next time,

~ Mark