Review: Vodafone Smart Ultra 7

Introduction and design

The Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 hits the market at an interesting time. Here in the middle of 2016, we've reached the point where it's no longer a surprise when a really good, really cheap phone comes along.

The Moto G family set the tone several years ago, and we've since seen a whole bunch of top-value Chinese phones flood the low-end market.

Not to be undercut, UK mobile networks like EE and Vodafone have stepped up with surprisingly decent cheap efforts of their own. In fact, last year's Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 was one of the better sub-£150 phones of the year.

So how does its successor fare in an even more competitive market?

Costing just £135 on Pay As You Go, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 appears well equipped for the fight. It's got a decent lower-mid-range processor, a large and bright display, and a well-spec'd camera.

But as I've already said, this is an incredibly competitive market, with the Moto G4 resetting the parameters for what we expect from our affordable smartphones.

Vodafone's going to need to do something special once again with this year's effort - especially if it requires you to switch to the network from your current provider.

Design

Vodafone's Smart Ultra 7 looks quite different to last year's model, despite essentially boiling down to the same combination of plastic and glass.

You get those faux-metal-effect plastic edges that are bafflingly common on this kind of phone. They're fine, and hard-wearing enough, but they can only ever really disappoint whenever you get within touching distance of the handset.

Around back, Vodafone has opted for a curious textured plastic finish. It's slightly pearlescent from a distance, and more than a little odd to look at close-up. The truth is, I'm still not sure whether I like it or not a week into my time with the phone - but at least it's a bit different from the norm.

The side power and volume buttons are pleasantly - or at least usefully - textured, so they're easy to distinguish and activate quickly by feel alone. Meanwhile, around front there are more changes from the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6.

It's pretty similar in a blank-slate, black-slab-of-glass kind of way, but the key area to focus on is just below the display. Whereas last year's model had a set of dedicated capacitive keys, the Smart Ultra 7 adds a physical home button.

In shape and function it's quite similar to the home button on the Samsung Galaxy S range - albeit with a slightly less satisfying click. It's a shame there's no similar double-click camera shortcut, though.

Either side of this home button you get the familiar back and recent apps capacitive keys. This serves to remove the functions from the UI itself, which means a diversion from the default setup for stock Android. Both approaches have their merits, and I can't say I have a massive preference either way.

At 150g the Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 sits nicely in the hand, and is actually 9g lighter than the Smart Ultra 6. However, a thickness of 8.7mm means it's a fraction chunkier. Still, it's both lighter and thinner than its big rival, the Moto G4 (which is 155g and 9.8mm thick).

On the bottom of the phone you get the standard micro USB port and a solitary, somewhat tinny speaker. The top edge simply contains a 3.5mm headphone jack.

And that's about it for external features. It's simultaneously a rather plain and slightly curious design, and one that fails to ignite much in the way of admiration. But it's perfectly functional, which is all you can really ask for in an affordable phone.

Key features

Just as the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 distinguished itself with a fine screen at a low price, so does the Vodafone Smart Ultra 7.

Once again, we're looking at a large (albeit pretty standard for Android) 5.5-inch display with a Full HD 1080p resolution (that's 1080 x 1920). Those are the same basic vital statistics as the Moto G4, as well as the OnePlus 3 - and the latter is a £329 phone.

Of course, the OnePlus 3 display is a bold AMOLED example, whereas the Smart Ultra 7 relies on IPS LCD panel technology. As a result, it's not the most vibrant or contrasty display we've ever seen. Indeed, it's not even a matter of the technology used - it's notably more washed out when held up against more premium IPS LCD displays like the iPhone 6S.

Maximum brightness isn't all that bright, and viewing angles, too, aren't quite at the same level as the best IPS LCD displays. That's typically one of this display technology's strengths, and the fact that the Smart Ultra 7 isn't quite up to speed (although far from bad) is possibly because the screen isn't positioned right near the surface glass like in higher end phones.

But we have to return, once again, to that price. For just £135 you're getting a crisp display where you'll struggle to pick out the individual pixels in general usage.

Another key selling point for the Smart Ultra 7 is its near-stock Android OS. I've always appreciated the fact that Vodafone doesn't attempt to create or commission a heavy custom skin for its phones. It's a clever move, as by simply not meddling, Vodafone's phones often feel sharper, fresher, and more responsive than many phones at twice the price.

It also means that you're getting Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. That's the latest version of Google's OS, whilst you'll find that some phones (particularly from China) are still launching with Android 5.1 Lollipop.

This means that straight away you get additional built-in features like Doze and Google Now on Tap. Or rather, you should. I found that Google Now on Tap, which typically gives you contextual information on whatever you're doing with a press and hold of the home button, wasn't active out of the box.

What's more, while there's an option to activate it in the settings menu, it didn't seem to work. Rather, it simply jumped to the plain old Google Now screen when I held down the home button.

Still, Google Now on Tap isn't quite where it needs to be as a service right now, so it's not a massive loss.

More irritating by far is the presence of Vodafone's own ugly apps. Many of these are optional at setup, so you don't have to install the likes of Vodafone's Wallet or Protect apps.

But you still have to put up with Vodafone's own Call+ and Message+ apps, as well as an Accessories app for flogging you more stuff, a Vodafone Start widget, and a Vodafone Expert Tips screen to the left of the primary home screen.

Of course, this being Android you can replace those default messaging and dialler apps, and removing the widget is as simple as pressing, holding, and dragging to the Remove option. You can also deactivate the annoying tips notifications you'll receive from Vodafone in the aforementioned Expert Tips screen, so it's useful for one thing at least.

Overall, though, this is just about the stock-est Android UI this side of a Nexus or Moto phone.

Another key feature Vodafone is pushing with the Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 is perhaps predictable coming from a mobile network - 4G connectivity.

In truth, though, this is less of a boast than it used to be. It's quite normal for entry-level smartphones to be able to connect to super-fast mobile networks these days. For example, the Moto E (2015) launched back at the beginning of 2015 with just such LTE support - and that only cost £100 at launch.

Then again, 4G was arguably somewhat superfluous on such early cheap-and-cheerful 4G phones. What's the point of being able to stream rock-solid Full HD video on the move when all you've got is a 4.5-inch 540 x 960 display?

As such, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 succeeds by combining 4G connectivity with that large and sharp 5.5-inch 1080p display. It's a great entry point for serial YouTube or Netflix addicts.

Performance and battery

Traditionally, if you're paying less than £200 for a smartphone, you can generally expect a noticeable hit to performance. Or at least, those who have experience with high-end phones will notice it.

It's true that the Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 doesn't set the pulse racing with its MediaTek MT6755M CPU and 2GB of RAM. Taiwanese chip maker MediaTek doesn't have the experience or cachet of Qualcomm and its Snapdragon range, but its processors are improving all the time - and they're cheap.

Sure enough, the Smart Ultra 7 performs reasonably well in general day to day tasks. Flicking through home screens is quick, notification menu animations are smooth, and opening the camera app is appreciably snappy.

Starting up apps can bring a bit of a pause, though, and I have to say that Chrome performance wasn't too snappy during my time with the phone.

Gaming was a bit of a mixed bag too. Dead Trigger 2 ran well even on high settings, but Vainglory - whilst relatively smooth graphically - experienced some curious sound issues. This is the trouble with using a more obscure chipset, I guess.

Geekbench 3 tests confirm that the Smart Ultra 7 is a respectable performer compared to its contemporaries. An average multi-core score of 3076 pitches it at a similar level to the Moto G4, which scored 3104 with its more mainstream Snapdragon 617 CPU.

It's also considerably faster than the Smart Ultra 6 and its Snapdragon 615, which scored 2091.

While we're talking about specs, now would be a good time to note that the Smart Ultra 7 comes with 16GB of internal storage. No, that's not an awful lot, and it's the same as the Smart Ultra 6 before it.

But it's hopefully an indicator that we've left the dark days of 8GB, where just installing your regular selection of apps and games would bring a phone to its knees, behind.

Besides, you can also expand that storage via a microSD slot, handily stashed behind that peel-off rear cover.

Battery life

With a 2960mAh (non-removable) battery, the Smart Ultra 7 drops a little behind its predecessor and the Moto G4, both of which are powered by 3000mAh units. But it's a pretty insignificant difference, all things told.

This sizeable battery, combined with the big.LITTLE architecture of that MediaTek MT6755M CPU (which means it efficiently switches between two sets of four cores according to the task) and a less demanding Full HD display, mean that you'd expect the Smart Ultra 7's battery life to be pretty decent. You'd be right, too.

Very light usage will see you through the best part of two days, as Vodafone claims, but most moderate-to-heavy users will last comfortably through a single day of use without having to rush to a wall socket.

This is aided, no doubt, by the presence of Android 6.0 and Doze. This means that when your phone isn't in use for a prolonged spell (and I mean left completely alone), the phone will kick into a light power-saving mode without interrupting any notification frequencies or core functions.

It means that when you return to your phone in the morning, or after a long meeting, you shouldn't have lost a significant amount of power.

In the standard comparative TechRadar battery test, which consists of a 90 minute looped 720p video with the screen brightness cranked up to max and full connectivity, the Smart Ultra 7 consumed a more-than-respectable 17 percent on average.

That's identical to the result we obtained with the Moto G4. Unlike the Moto G4, however, you don't get any sort of quick-charging function here.

Camera

Smartphone camera technology has come on in leaps and bounds over the years, and that includes among affordable handsets. The Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 packs an impressive-sounding 13MP rear camera with phase detection autofocus (PDAF), while the front camera is a 5MP unit.

Those are the kind of basic specs you'd have expected to find on a flagship phone not too long ago.

Of course, when you come down to the nitty gritty of taking pictures, the cheaper components soon tell. There's a slight pause when taking snaps, and an even longer one when you select HDR mode (yes, it's a manual process).

The results are just OK. Colours are reasonably accurate and well balanced and close-ups in particular look good from a detail point of view. But in more general shots, focus seems a little erratic, with odd background areas blurry whilst others retain their sharpness.

HDR mode, meanwhile, doesn't yield great results. Not only is it slow to take shots, but the results have that hyper-real bleached-out look that cheap phones have long struggled with.

Using the camera in less than optimal lighting won't yield great results either, with a noisy and washed-out look. But then, you'll find similar issues with all but the most expensive of phones.

In general you're getting a perfectly adequate camera for the money. There's also the small matter of a front-facing snapper with a dedicated LED flash. Vodafone clearly knows its young selfie-loving audience here.

The camera UI is one of the stronger ones we've encountered, with a nod to iOS in its stark simplicity, yet a simultaneous nod to Android with its manual mode. The latter lets you take direct control of ISO, shutter speed, white balance, and focus, which is something you don't get with the Moto G4.

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Verdict

While 'competent and cheap' isn't exactly the most thrilling of endorsements, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 undoubtedly ticks a lot of boxes for its keen £135 price.

We liked

The Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 has the kind of sharp display and decent performance that enables it to mix with the Moto G4, which is the current standard-bearer for affordable phones.

You're also getting a crisp near-stock version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, with most of the benefits that entails.

All of this and it's available for a good chunk of change less than Motorola's latest cut-price phone.

We disliked

It might be cheaper than the Moto G4, but the Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 certainly feels it. I'm not a huge fan of the faux metal edges or weirdly glitzy plastic back.

While the UI is pretty much pure Android, you do need to put up with a little Vodafone meddling in terms of apps and services, too.

Finally, while we should always temper expectations given the price, the camera doesn't quite live up to its promising specs.

Verdict

Vodafone has done it again, creating a well-balanced and highly capable smartphone for just £135 on Pay As You Go.

It's well-built, if a little ugly, and it performs well in most scenarios. With this power, combined with 4G connectivity and a large and sharp display, the Smart Ultra 7 is great for portable media consumption on a budget.

And it's that price that really stands out here. The Smart Ultra 7 isn't quite as accomplished a phone as the Moto G4, but it's £35 cheaper. If every penny counts for you, this is a worthy alternative.

First reviewed: July 2016

July 28, 2016 at 10:24PM
Jon Mundy

Review: BQ Aquaris M5

Introduction and design

The smartphone boom has been the cause of many success stories across the world. In the USA, China, Korea, Japan and elsewhere the thirst for phones has led to exponential growth for keen manufacturers.

In Europe though, oddly, the picture is somewhat different. With the closure of Nokia's devices division in 2014, the largest handset manufacturer on the continent was laid to rest. And with seemingly no domestic offering to take its place, competitors from outside have moved in.

Some small manufacturers have sprung up, and are beginning to make meaningful strides towards success however. Kazam and Wileyfox in the UK are two such examples, while BQ has been gaining particular traction in Spain, expanding significantly.

This firm has now landed on UK shores, a modern and markedly more low-key Spanish conquest, with a suite of budget to mid-range devices aimed at a variety of different tastes and budgets. Of these, the Aquaris M5 is the flagship, but with a starting price of £210 and against the likes of the Moto G4, OnePlus X and others can it really compete?

Design

Modern smartphone design has clearly started to lean towards certain trends. Straight edges and hard lines, clean examples of industrial design, have given way to curves and bends. Plastics have become metals, even at ever lower price points, and the public has become used to a certain shape.

With this in mind, the Aquaris M5 is positively retro. Long straight lines abound, and the design is very much industrial. The device is also coated in a pleasant matte soft touch plastic, which is very comfortable to hold.

At 8.4mm thick, and weighing in at 144g, the Aquaris M5 is neither the most svelte or the lightest handset out there, but it is acceptable nonetheless. The trade-off in weight and dimensions has been for a little extra battery, which is almost always a welcome compromise.

The top of the device houses the 3.5mm headphone jack while on the right side you'll find – in descending order - the microSD tray, the volume rocker and the power key.

As for the left side, it is flush, sporting two microSIM trays and at the bottom you'll find the micro USB port and downward-firing speakers.

On the rear there's a subtle silver BQ logo, along with a square cut out for the 13MP rear camera and a dual-LED flash.

Lastly, the front is home to the 5-inch Full HD display, a 5MP wide-angle front-facing selfie camera, a single LED flash, the call speaker, an ambient brightness sensor, three capacitive buttons (the usual triangle, circle and square) and the call microphone

Especially in white, this is a phone that looks the part, being elegant, minimal and clean. It brings to mind the kind of plastic construction that defined the Lumia range, feeling sturdy as well as premium, especially for the £210 price tag (which can already be dropped to roughly £150 if you shop around). BQ is clearly on to something here.

Key features

The screen is an area where BQ Aquaris M5 excels. At 440ppi it is sufficiently pixel-dense to please all but the most anal of pixel-peepers. Watching videos, reading on the go, viewing images and the rest are all a highly enjoyable experience.

The world may be shifting towards 4K and virtual reality, but for the average person the full HD resolution is a ceiling that never needs to be broken.

This focus on the little things and user experience have led to a few other nice touches, such as the ability of the screen to get super-sensitive to touch, working even with gloves. Or take the ability to get extra bright in direct sunlight, this phone can work well in most conditions.

One slight concern might be the colour reproduction. BQ has tried to circumvent the traditional weakness of LCD screens (undercooked colours), with its 'Quantum Colour +' technology, which boosts saturation. Though the standard screen temperature can be changed, I found it a little red for my tastes, with whites becoming quite pinkish.

Regardless, as one might expect from an IPS panel, viewing angles are solid.

Another slight detraction from the experience is the layer of Dragontrail glass used for screen protection. This competitor to Gorilla Glass has been used by many Japanese companies, but here it just screams of compromise, lacking the signature 'oleophobic' coating of Gorilla Glass clad phones that makes them so pleasant to use.

The average user will likely not notice, but the difference can initially be a little jarring.

Mellow Marshmallow

As well as taking an active hand in designing distinctive hardware, BQ has made a name for itself through strong customer service. What this means for the end user is a commitment to delivering the latest updates to all of its handsets, an admirable commitment. The company keeps regular updates on its progress on an official blog.

Out of the box, the Aquaris M5 comes with Android 5.1 Lollipop pre-installed, however during the setup of the device the user is prompted to upgrade to Android Marshmallow, and the difference is immediate.

More user friendly, battery friendly and less performance intensive than Lollipop, Marshmallow is Android as it should have been at the beginning.

Paired with the Snapdragon 615 running internally, along with 2GB of RAM, going through the OS is a very fluid experience, as is opening and closing apps. Indeed, only the most intensive games will prove to be much of an obstacle for the device in this regard.

BQ offers a few apps of its own of course. A bare-bones Gallery app holds all of your photos, while the (improved) camera app offers an iOS-like shooting experience. BQ Plus is a portal to purchase (seemingly quite comprehensive) device insurance, and is the last of the pre-installed apps.

Dolby Digital delight

When it comes to audio, many manufacturers cheap out. Tinny, weedy little drivers are paired with poor software, delivering an underwhelming experience that generally screams of compromise.

Typically, it is now the preferred tactic of canny manufacturers to promote the audio capabilities of their handsets through software partnerships with known audio brands. The likes of Harman Kardon and JBL in particular have been used on many occasions.

Here it is cinematic audio firm Dolby that has been shoehorned in, providing its "Atmos" technology. When activated, this gives an audible boost to the volume, and a greater richness to the tone across all levels, treble to bass.

It also goes some way to provide something of a soundscape, although it is more successful when linked to a good set of headphones.

The speakers themselves are actually rather decent, turning out a clean, balanced sound that can easily fill a room. They handily beat a noisy shower, and as such should be perfectly adequate for partying down to banging jams in a nice domestic setting.

Serious camera chops

The wider understanding of camera jargon among the public is generally quite poor. For years, marketing teams have been able to keenly exploit this, all in an effort to sell as many phones as possible.

Initially, it was having a flash that set phones apart, then having a front-facing camera. Then the megapixel war began (won resoundingly by Nokia with the 41MP Lumia 1020), and ended. Now, it is the battle of the apertures.

For those who do not know, the aperture is essentially the opening that lets light into the camera. The smaller the opening, the more focused the light, and vice versa. Traditionally, unintuitively, a smaller 'f' number means a bigger aperture, and the bigger the aperture, the better.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 comes with an aperture of f1.7, and the LG G5 is close behind with f1.8, allowing both of these phones to capture a relatively high amount of background blur ('bokeh') for such small camera sensors.

In this respect, the Aquaris M5 is fairly well equipped, with both sensors sporting a relatively wide aperture of f2.0. This means more light in darker situations, and likely a better general performance all around.

The M5 also benefits from an embarrassment of flashes, one on the front and a dual effort on the back, all helping even further to make the most of low-light situations.

Performance and battery life

I tested the 16GB version of the M5, running a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor with 2GB of RAM, and overall I was very impressed.

Running a pretty much stock version of Android, and aided by the performance enhancements brought by Marshmallow, this phone flies through the operating system without a fuss. Apps open and close quickly, and multi-tasking is a breeze.

This extends to gaming too. Predictably, titles like Crossy Road, Magazine Mogul and the like ran flawlessly, while more demanding games like Dead Trigger 2 and Asphalt 8 ran well on lower graphics settings.

As for benchmarks, the Aquaris M5 managed a single core score of 654 on Geekbench 3, achieving a score similar to the Samsung Galaxy S4. The multi-core score is slightly more promising, coming to 2492, which comfortably tops the S4.

It is always worth bearing in mind with benchmark tests that they only tell half the story. Though the best performing phones will indeed come out on top, even lower scoring phones will often still provide an excellent overall experience, that is to say being perfectly acceptable in day-to-day use for 99% of people, and the Aquaris M5 definitely falls into this bracket.

I did experience slightly more bugs and app crashes than I'd have expected, but hopefully this will be sorted out with a software update.

Several storage options are available for the BQ Aquaris M5, from 16GB to 32GB, with the higher priced versions coming with extra RAM to boot, a whole 1GB. With a microSD card, this internal memory can be boosted considerably, as the M5 supports adoptable storage, allowing apps to be installed to the microSD card.

Battery life

As for battery life, with a 3120mAh cell tucked away inside its mostly petite frame, the Aquaris M5 has enough stamina to make it through a full day, perhaps even more for light users.

Starting the day at 7am, browsing Twitter briefly, listening to music through a 40-minute commute, browsing articles during lunch and listening to music over Bluetooth throughout the evening, along with some light gaming and sending and receiving messages throughout the day, plus around half an hour of calls, I found that the Aquaris M5 could make it to midnight with roughly 30% to spare, which is a very respectable result.

Running the techradar battery test (playing a Full HD video at full brightness, with Wi-Fi on and all accounts syncing in the background), the battery dropped 22%, from 100% to 78%, which is quite a respectable score. Though not an amazing one, with the Moto G4 for example dropping just 17% in the same test.

As a bonus, standby times are pretty decent too, a result of the Doze feature present in Android Marshmallow. In all, though it doesn't reach the same heights as the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, it is nonetheless a strong performer.

Camera

As was hinted at earlier, BQ has clearly invested a bit in the camera of the M5. It comes with an army of LEDs, a decent megapixel count and a wide aperture, facts that also apply to the front-facing effort. The real question is, do these specifications translate into real-life performance?

The answer? Somewhat. With a 13MP 1/3.06 sensor, the M5 was never going to win any awards for image quality, but surprisingly, the images produced are really quite decent, at least in good light.

In the sun, the BQ manages nice punchy colours, decent detail and no evidence of over-sharpening. This situation quickly degrades in low-light, helped in no small part by the lack of OIS and the sluggish autofocus, but still, it is far from the worst phone I have tested for this.

As for the 5MP selfie camera, it is decent for a budget effort, but auto-portrait lovers will likely be far better served by the likes of the selfie-obsessed OPPO F1 Plus.

When compared to previous iterations, the camera app produced by BQ has improved considerably. Although the layout is still relatively unintuitive, it is far quicker to operate than it has been on previous devices. The HDR mode too produces a nice effect, serving as something more than a 'shadow-brightening' mode.

As for video, well the less said the better, as the results are full of artefacts and digital noise.

In all, this is a dependable workhorse for the average person, not a tool for the pros. In most situations, the M5 will produce something shareable, in others it will cough up something you can be proud of, and really that's something of a compliment to its overall competence.

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Verdict

It has a strong feature set and an attractive price point, but with almost no name recognition in the UK, can the BQ Aquaris M5 really hope to make any headway against the better funded competition?

We liked

This is a phone that feels good from the moment it is picked up. The soft-touch plastic and clean design set it apart from the rest of the budget blowers kicking around, and one-handed use is perfectly achievable.

With a Full HD resolution, the screen on the M5 is pin sharp, with nice colours, strong viewing angles and acceptable sunlight legibility.

Sporting a large battery for the size, and with a power sipping processor and the efficient Android Marshmallow, the battery life on display is really rather decent.

We disliked

Although the camera sensor promises greatness on paper, in reality it is only decent, with other devices such as the Moto G4 performing better at a similar price point.

While the update to Marshmallow brings many welcome improvements, the build I used needed a little more testing, as I came across more bugs and crashing apps than I was otherwise used to.

Though it is possible to get a good deal on the price of this device, it is too expensive directly from BQ and requires a little shopping around.

Verdict

BQ has seen rapid growth in its homeland, and now has grander ambitions across the rest of Europe.

The Aquaris M5 is the spearhead of a new mid-range crusade, and it has a lot going for it. With a big battery, Android Marshmallow, a good processor, a healthy serving of RAM and a lovely screen, it compares well to most of the competition.

Yet with a camera that is mostly average and some bugs and other issues on the software side, it needs a little more polish. Moreover, if BQ wants to make any real headway in the UK, it will need to adjust its pricing. The Aquaris M5 can be had for as little as £150, but it takes some effort to find it at this price.

Despite these drawbacks, this is an excellent budget handset, and recommendable to almost everyone. Devices like this are proof that the 'flagship' class of smartphone is no longer necessary for the common man.

First reviewed: July 2016

July 28, 2016 at 10:01PM
Sean Cameron

Summer update rolls out to deliver Cortana to your Xbox One

Windows 10 Week: Why Xbox Play Anywhere is important for developers and gamers alike

Xbox Play Anywhere

At E3 2016, it came as little shock that Microsoft would be introducing, for the first time ever, a cross-buy program between Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs. After a year of showing strong support for the Universal Windows Platform, Microsoft's software consolidation push, it was high time for the company to start thinking about gaming on PCs.

With Xbox Play Anywhere, Microsoft is giving PC gaming another shot for the first time since the ill-fated Games for Windows Live. Instead of simply publishing PC games, this new initiative lets you buy a game once and own it on both the Xbox One and PC plus transferring saves, achievements and DLC content between both.

Though some gamers see it as the death of Xbox One exclusives, it seems like an obvious win for others. Knowing it couldn't remain complacent in Sony's backseat, Microsoft had to make like Apple and think different. And it did so while taking into account what was at its disposal all along: Windows.

We Happy Microsoft

Play Anywhere, in Microsoft's director of program management for Xbox Mike Ybarra own words, "is designed to give players the ability to play on Windows 10 PCs or on consoles – for convenience, bigger multiplayer pools and more." More earnestly, this means that if you buy a game digitally on your Xbox, you'll automatically gain access to the same title on your PC, tablet or 2-in-1 – whatever's sporting Windows 10.

For developers it's a little more complicated than that, but surprisingly not by much.

From Microsoft's viewpoint, game creators have little to worry about in regards to its cross-buy initiative. Obviously, games published by the company's own studios will participate in the program by default, but for third-parties, cooperation is entirely optional.

"Xbox Play Anywhere is an opt-in program for developers, meaning there are no requirements of any sort and the decision is up to them," Ybarra told us. "There's minimal added work for developers to make their title an Xbox Play Anywhere title."

Interestingly enough, Compulsion Games' (Contrast, We Happy Few) chief operating Sam Abbott had a similar stance on the matter but added one major detail that contradicts Microsoft's messaging.

Too early to tell

When asked if Play Anywhere is opt-in, Abbott said, "Yeah, I think it is. For us, we kind of take the Valve approach, the idea that games should be playable anywhere. We love to make them available, and UWP is not super difficult to make it happen."

While this aligns almost seamlessly with what Microsoft told us, at the bottom of the Play Anywhere website rests a worrying disclaimer:

"Xbox Play Anywhere functionality will be enabled once the game is released on both Xbox One and in the Windows 10 Store."

That leads us to Sam's biggest qualm with the service. Even with the imminent launch of Microsoft's major Anniversary Update to Windows 10, there's still no sign of early access support. So, for those of us who purchase We Happy Few now on Xbox One as part of the Preview Program, it's unclear whether it'll pop up in our Windows 10 libraries upon the game's hard launch.

"We spoke to Microsoft about early access on the Windows Store, UWP basically," Abbott told us. "And they said, 'Well, we don't really want to support that right now.'"

For that reason, Windows 10 is more of an afterthought for Compulsion rather than a feature at launch, with Sam likening it to platforms with little market reach in gaming.

"What it means is that UWP is going to be something that we look at a little bit later on," he said, "probably around the same time we look at Mac and Linux."

Microsoft, on the other hand, seems to have acknowledged the lack of early access on the Windows Store as a widespread complaint, though in traditional corporate format, they "have nothing new to share around early access programs on the Windows Store at this time."

What's interesting is that Sam, COO of Compulsion Games, doesn't know whether We Happy Few will cost money once it releases on the Windows 10 Store for those buying it now on Xbox One.

If I bought the game today for my Xbox as part of the Xbox One Preview Program, would I be able to boot it up on my PC later this year when it inevitably reaches the Windows 10 Store? We don't know yet, but then again, neither do its creators.

Although porting games over to Windows 10 doesn't necessitate more than a few lines of code, converting it from the age-old Win32 standard to a more closed-off, tile-like Windows 10 app, Microsoft's communication with developers has been muddled by PR rhetoric.

Xbox One S, Project Scorpio and beyond

Perhaps one of the most shocking happenings at E3 this year was when Microsoft decided to reveal two different consoles less than 90 minutes apart from each other.

The Xbox One S, set to rollout this August, promises a form factor that's 40% smaller than the current Xbox One, 4K HDR video output and, perhaps less commonly known, a Bluetooth controller with native support for Windows 10 PCs. Project Scorpio, on the other hand, is being boasted as "the most powerful console ever built," complete with native 4K and VR gaming capabilities made possible by a whopping six teraflops of graphical performance.

If Xbox One S is the elegant Lunar White controller, Project Scorpio is an exorbitant Elite. Unfortunately, while more power is more than welcome in a world where consoles are rapidly falling behind high-end PCs in terms of graphics, the addition of Xbox One S and Project Scorpio to the Universal Windows Platform only complicates things for developers.

For We Happy Few in particular, Sam Abbott isn't too keen on adding a whole lot of glitz to the upcoming pair of consoles. When asked about Xbox One S, he wasn't sure if optimizing for the shiny white slim was even possible. For Project Scorpio, on the other hand, you can expect little more than a higher resolution.

"I think what we're probably going to end up doing is still design for the baseline model, and with reasonably high-res assets," he surmised. "So our pictures would all be at least 4K and that sort of thing."

"Once we have it optimized and running really well on the base model," he said. "We then spend some time bumping all of the various things that we can."

For the more powerful variants of the Xbox One, Abbot explained they could tweak the lighting significantly and change the post processing effects, but ultimately the biggest change users could expect is an upscaled version of the game's default resolution.

Catching up at a cost

Microsoft, on the other hand, offers a separate, but equally valid point. Developers have been making games for hardware with a wide range of disparate specs for years now on PC. The only difference is that now they'll have to do the same thing for consoles.

"Today, developers already often author their content at 4K resolutions or higher to take advantage of high-performance PCs or consoles and then they scale the content down for mid-range or lower PCs and devices," Ybarra told us.

Although that's not completely accurate, at least according to Sam Abbott, it comes pretty damn close to the truth. Because consoles have been lagging behind in the performance department as of late, it's more probable that developers are "authoring their content" to leverage the mid-range or lower hardware.

"You can design for the people that buy the highest end graphics card, but the market is not that big," he explained. "All of the optimizations that we do for the Xbox One make the game run faster on higher end PC cards; they make the game actually run on lower end PC cards, which is really, really good for everybody."

The thing is, Microsoft made a promise at E3 that even with the launch of new hardware, no one Xbox One owner will be left in the dust amid all the excitement. Instead, it looks as if games will still be authored for the original Xbox One, opting only for higher resolutions on its successor.

The requirement of ensuring that every game runs on every system in accordance with UWP guidelines will not only complicate development but minimize the need to upgrade for gamers who couldn't care less about 4K.

This differs from previous console cycles as the need to latch onto old tech was negated by games pushing the graphical limit on newer hardware to . Then again, this is a four-year console cycle we're talking about and not the eight years we spent with the Xbox 360.

Play Anywhere, but not everywhere

As it stands currently, Play Anywhere is a well intended effort to bring Xbox and PC gamers together. As part of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, you can now see what your friends are playing on PC (regardless of whether it's a UWP game or not) and vice versa.

Of course, in the end, it's important to recognize that playing triple-A games on a PC is simply out of reach or interest for many gamers. It's unlikely that the vast majority will even want to swap between and Xbox One and PC to play their games, but for whatever reason, if they do, Play Anywhere now makes that possible by way of the Universal Windows Platform.

It's important to keep in mind that Microsoft isn't shooting itself in the foot by porting its first-party lineup to PC. The company still takes a 30% cut from Windows 10 app purchases, and it wasn't making much off each console anyway. After all, PC and Xbox target two very different audiences, a fact Microsoft is intently aware of.

"Some will want a high-end gaming PC that allows them to optimize the fidelity of their experience, while others will want the curated benefits of the console enjoyed in front of the largest screen in the home," Ybarra explained.

"Our goal is to bridge these communities in a way that extends and builds on the best of what they do," he said. This is about uniting players not dividing them by the platform they choose to play on."

As a result, Microsoft is effectively paving the way for the Steam Machine Valve never could by making PC gaming more accessible than ever, even if it is through a console.

This article is part of TechRadar's Windows 10 week. Microsoft's latest operating system turns from a free to a paid upgrade on July 29, and we're looking to answer the question of whether it's good for you.

July 30, 2016 at 02:00AM
Gabe Carey

This is how much space you'll need to use PlayStation VR

Sony has revealed how much space will be required to use PS VR, while a premature blog post has announced that Driveclub VR will be a launch title in Japan.

The parameters for using PlayStation VR can be seen on the PlayStation Asia site, recommending that the PlayStation Camera is given a play area of 3m (9.8 feet) by 1.9m (6.2 feet) - so about 60 square feet of space in total.

"Limit your use of PS VR to within the Play Area," it reads. "Clear an area larger than the Play Area of all obstacles before using PS VR and remain seated whenever possible.

"If the application requires you to stand while wearing the VR headset, follow the application instructions carefully, and maintain awareness of your surroundings."

Sony also states that the height of the play area "depends on the range captured by the camera".

It's a bit surprising to see Sony setting these space requirements on PS VR, despite all of our demos so far requiring little movement (and most involving us being sat in a chair).

In fact, the HTC Vive requires a minimum space of 5ft by 6.5ft, but it's recommended you use a bigger area.

But safety is going to be a key concern with VR, so Sony could just be being overly cautious here. Don't sell your sofa just yet.

Space oddity

In other PS VR news, a post from PlayStation Japan- now pulled - announced that Driveclub VR, the virtual reality adaptation of the existing PS4 game, will be a launch title for PlayStation VR on October 13.

It's not clear if this will apply to Japan only. Sony told us in a statement: "We have nothing to announce with regard to Driveclub VR at this time".

The post was followed up by a tweet from Driveclub director Paul Rustchynsky, who confirmed that the VR version of the game will come with a "collection of brand new tracks", however he didn't say anything on release date.

When Driveclub developer Evolution Studios was shuttered by Sony earlier this year, many of the team were snapped up by Codemasters, leaving the development of the VR adaptation a bit of a mystery.

We knew it was still happening, but it's unclear how many of the original team have been involved.

• Check out the best PlayStation VR deals

July 29, 2016 at 09:42PM
Hugh Langley