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    Matt Porter

    Matt Porter

  • Electric Cars - High Torque Dreams or Range Anxiety Nightmares?

    Over the past couple of years, I've had the opportunity to test drive over a dozen electric and hybrid cars. During this two year period I was able to experience a market developing in front of my own eyes. From my first experience of the Renault Twizy right through to the 'Insane Mode' of the Tesla Model S P85D, it has been an incredible ride so far, taking me from visiting Tesla's main store in Hounslow to interviewing ex Formula One driver Mark Webber at Silverstone! Before embarking on this adventure, I was under the impression that automobile development was a slow process with development taking years from inception to delivery to the customers. What I in fact found with the electric car market was an industry moving at breakneck speed with cars updating their driving systems 'over the air' and in front of my eyes. I experienced a super-charged 'Moore's Law' with manufacturers on a automotive gold-rush, developing new technologies set to unify our driving and power needs for decades to come. Each of the manufacturers models I tested were different in many ways. Some were designed from existing gas powered models. Their internal combustion engines removed and replaced by electric power plants, lithium-ion batteries hidden under seats or floor panels, aerodynamic wheel designs replacing traditional high end styled alloys. Others were designed as electric or hybrid vehicles from the ground up. So distant from existing designs that they almost brought about an 'uncanny valley' feeling, they were recognisable, but not close enough to feel comfortable viewing them. I was able to see the lightbulb moment when manufacturers realised that hybrids could be BOTH electric and gas powered at the same time and consequently produced the simply awe inspiring Porsche 918 Spyder and McLaren P1 (I didn't drive these sadly). This awesome other worldly technology immediatelty began to filter down to the BMW i8, VW Golf GTE, Audi A3 eTron and Volvo V60 Twin Engine, producing amazing power and torque along with their quirky 'synthesised' engine sound enhancements, added to fill the 'uncanny' void of performance without natural engine roar. I watched as Tesla, the 'small' electric vehicle company from Silicon Valley, showed the world how to build an electric car and then go on to demonstrate that you don't need a V12 engine to reach 60mph in under 3 seconds. Door handles 'presented' themselves to me and I watched as cars charged in 30 minutes. Of course I experienced new breeds of 'Sports' settings, named made things like 'Insane' and 'Ludicrous'. I sat in cars that drove themselves, if not a little unnervingly on London's M25! During those two years, I was able to see the UK charging network evolve from a London centric system to finding rapid charge points in Suffolk villages. I experienced range anxiety a few times, but I never felt alone as the cars seemed more than aware of their rapidly depleting energy reserves than I did, urging me with increasing urgency to provide them with much needed juice and suggesting the closest source in case I didn't know. At one point the Nissan Leaf I was driving was practically sobbing at me to charge it as I neared home. I had many, many conversations at charging points with other 'EV' drivers, exchanging stories and experiences. I was approached at service stations by people wanting to talk about the cars, wanting to sit in them and in some cases they wanting to have their photos taken next to or sitting in them! The most common question was 'What's the range then?', when I answered, it never seemed enough, even for someone commuting 10 miles a day. I would spend time explaining that home and workplace charging mean't that the vehicle was getting topped up all the time, but the range 'thing' will take a while to convince people. The performance of these vehicles is something you are never prepared for, especially pure electric vehicles. Pulling away silently with instant maximum torque is both exciting and in some cases scary. The weight of the cars is generally very low down, so handling is generally excellent even for a two ton car. So, after two years of 'testing', I waved goodbye to the final car (for now) which was a Tesla Model S P85D and went back to my normal life. I was however left safe in the knowledge that the electric and hybrid market are here to stay. Content that very soon all of our journeys in cars will be cleaner, safer and a whole lot more fun!

  • Apple iPhone 6s Plus - The phone that wants to be everything

    The Apple iPhone 6s Plus is a VERY big phone, in fact it falls into the 'phablet' size, such that it's bigger than a phone but smaller than a tablet, this market has been dominated by the Samsung Galaxy Note range for a number of years, but with two handsets currently available Apple are certainly treating the format seriously. I've been testing the iPhone 6s Plus which has a number of performance and functional improvements over the standard 6 Plus, namely the faster A9 and M9 processors and Taptic Engine display with 3d Touch screen functionality. The screen remains at Full HD or 1080 resolution with Apple choosing not to up the resolution of UHD along with it's rival Samsung or even to 4K which can be found in the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium. Instead they stick with the tried and tested 401ppi density 1920 x 1080 display, this actually gives it a performance lead over the higher resolution devices because it doesn't need to paint as many pixels for each frame of video and it's very difficult to tell the difference unless you use these devices in a VR headset such as Google Cardboard where you are looking at the screen millimetres away from your eyes. The screen is very bright with excellent colour balance, it is coated with anti fingerprint smear coating which works surprisingly well. The case is fashioned from a single block of aluminium and feels very comfortable to hold. My device was 'Space Grey' and although quite heavy to hold compared to my current Samung Galaxy 6 Edge, felt really sturdy and nowhere near as slippery as other devices. The fingerprint login worked flawlessly, although being an Android user, I did miss the 'Back' button. Software wise, the iPhone is loaded with lots of useful apps, my only criticism is the inclusion of the Apple Watch app which you can't help but assume was included as a 'nag' to buy their wearable. Apps run very quickly and graphics hungry apps are no match for this brute. It's not surprising that everything runs flawlessly due to Apple's strict rules, but it's still amazing to see mobile apps running on a phone but matching the graphics and sound quality of dedicated gaming devices. The phone comes with a Lightning charger cable, UK plug and Apple Headphones. The sound quality from the external speaker is excellent and the same can be said for the headphones. You will be heavily locked into Apple iTunes and App Store, however I am a subscriber to Google Play Music and was able to run this app along with Google Play Movies that I have purchased over the years, so I didn't feel that these services were completely locked out anymore, you can even download Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox to use as web browsers as an alternative to the included Safari browser which I found useful as I was able to share my bookmarks from my Android phone, PC and iMac. The front and rear facing cameras are excellent as you would expect from an Apple device, the 12mp rear camera (upgraded from 8mp) now supports 'Live Photos', these are photos that contain a short video clip, so they come alive when viewing them in the gallery, this isn't a new idea as it was previous found on HTC devices as 'Zoe', but is a good addition all the same. If you want to shoot video you can now do this in 4K at 30fps with Optical Image Stabilisation. If you want slow motion video, you can shoot at 240fps and 720p resolution. I freely admit, I love the size of the phone, I previously owned a Galaxy Note 3 which is similar in size and I felt right at home with the enormous display. If you are ready to upgrade your phone and are prepared for a higher price contract that usual, the iPhone 6s Plus is definitely worth looking at.