The Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE (Fan Edition) could be officially launching soon according to a new German product page spotted by WinFuture. The tablet appears to be a renamed version of the previously leaked “Galaxy Tab S7 Plus Lite” that first made the rounds in March 2021. The Galaxy Tab S7 FE is the first Fan Edition of one of Samsung’s tablets, a tweaked version of the earlier iPad Pro-inspired 12.4-inch Tab S7 Plus.
While the Tab S7 FE shares the same 12.4-inch screen size as the older Tab S7 Plus, it appears to be using a TFT LCD display, like the 11-inch Tab S7, rather than the OLED found in the Tab S7 Plus. Another cost-saving measure is found in the processor: the Tab S7 FE has a Snapdragon 750G octa-core processor and 4GB of RAM. For storage, the tablet comes with 64GB of UFS memory, which is partially used by the device’s One UI skinned version of Android 11, and expandable with a microSD card. The Tab S7 FE hangs on to the optional 5G support of its more expensive siblings.
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7 Fan Edition with optional S Pen stylus.Image: Samsung
If you happen to be a tablet photographer, the Tab S7 FE includes an 8-megapixel back camera and a 5-megapixel front camera. In a plus for anyone who’s complained about camera orientation on the iPad Pro, the Tab S7 FE’s front-facing camera is in landscape orientation, perfect for long Zoom calls. To get the device through those long calls, the FE has a 10,090mAh battery, which Samsung claims should last up to 12 hours on LTE (oddly, no estimate is given for 5G), and 13 hours specifically for video playback.
The silver Galaxy Tab S7 FE with S Pen stylus.
Image: Samsung
The black Galaxy Tab S7 FE.
Image: Samsung
The FE can come with an optional S Pen for note-taking tricks like converting handwriting to text. The tablet also has Samsung DeX, which can add Windows-esque interface elements like a taskbar, window-ing, and a “Start menu” automatically when you attach a keyboard. Whether any of those tablet features can elevate the FE into a true productivity device for you is harder to say. We found the Tab S7 and S7 Plus to still work best for simpler tablet tasks like video watching and web browsing rather a whole day of work. Nothing about the Fan Edition suggests that will be different.
The Galaxy Tab S7 Fan Edition currently isn’t for sale in Germany (you can sign up to be notified when it’s available) and is priced at €649 (approximately $792) for either the silver or black version. That’s less than the typical price of a base Galaxy Tab S7 in Germany (€698) and for the larger screen size of a €979 S7 Plus. Should the Tab S7 FE come to the US, it will likely cost less than the rough conversion of the German price to US dollars. We’ve reached out to Samsung and will update if we hear back.
WinFuture says Samsung has other colors and models with different specs in the works as well. We’ll keep an eye out for an official announcement in the future.
The Raspberry Pi has a knack for bridging the gap between different technologies but, in this project, it’s combining the power of multiple routers into one connection point. This setup is referred to as a bonded router by its creator, Jona, and operates using a platform called Speedify.
The best Raspberry Pi projects tend to come out of necessity—often providing a solution to a specific problem. According to Jona, he was tired of the bandwidth limitations of rural internet and decided to merge multiple sources into one, stacking the available speed. Before this project, his network speed was capping around 2 – 5 Mbps but now it reaches up to 120 Mbps.
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(Image credit: Jona)
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(Image credit: Jona)
The Raspberry Pi is responsible for distributing network traffic between four individual internet access points (in this case, two LTE lines and two 5G lines). Jona also included a DSL failsafe to act as a backup in the event the bonded router connection drops.
If you’d like to recreate this project, you can download Speedify from the official website. It’s available for Linux machines like the Raspberry Pi but also on Windows, Mac, iPad and Android devices. In Jona’s setup, he’s using an 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 with a 4G LTE HAT. It also has a USB hub connected to a 4-four gigabit Ethernet adaptor and a 5-port Netgear gigabit switch.
Read more about this project in detail on the project thread at Reddit and be sure to follow Jona for more cool Pi projects.
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The Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G is a rugged phone that doesn’t require you to give up too many modern conveniences to gain the benefits of extreme durability. It’s common for rugged phones to feature older processors and lack modern features — these phones often have specialized uses, like barcode scanning or taking payments, and more or less just need to keep working in harsh environments.
The DuraForce Ultra 5G includes both the durability of a rugged phone and modern features like 5G, wireless charging, a high-quality processor, and dual rear cameras. At $899, it’s an expensive phone — you can buy a very nice non-rugged phone for that much — but if durability is a must and you don’t want to sacrifice performance or convenient features, the DuraForce 5G is (quite literally) a solid choice.
Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G rugged features
Pick up the DuraForce Ultra 5G and you’ll know right away that you have a rugged device in your hands. The top and bottom of the phone are wrapped in thick plastic bumpers, the sides feature a texturized finish, and at 278g (9.8oz) it’s much heavier than your standard smartphone. The screen itself isn’t very big — just a 5.45-inch 1080p LCD panel — but the sizable bezels and thick chin make it a chunky device overall.
Despite its dimensions it’s actually easy to use one-handed, since the screen itself is relatively small. The phone will fit in a jacket pocket, but it’s too bulky for any of my jeans pockets. Haptics are aggressive, even at the “medium” default setting, which is a good thing in a phone you might be using with gloves. Otherwise, you can turn touch vibrations down to low or off.
The phone is both IP65 and IP68 rated, meaning there’s generous protection against water intrusion both from jets and immersion (up to 6.5 feet for up to 30 minutes). The DuraForce Ultra 5G meets the Military Standard 810H specifications and includes protection against vibration, blowing dust and sand, extreme temperatures, drops from five feet onto concrete, high altitudes, and plenty of other hostile conditions.
I couldn’t test it against all of those conditions, but I did subject the phone to plenty of abuse including an hourlong stay in the freezer, water immersion for 30 minutes in the kitchen sink, exposure to sand, and a drop from about five feet onto driveway asphalt. Aside from some minor scuffs acquired in the driveway test, the DuraForce Ultra 5G merely shrugged at my efforts and kept on working just fine. Kyocera does include a two-year warranty with purchase, so as long as you use the phone within the conditions it’s rated to withstand, you shouldn’t be putting your purchase at risk.
In addition to rugged features, the DuraForce Ultra 5G is just loaded with buttons. There’s a power button with embedded fingerprint sensor, three programmable keys, and a large volume rocker that’s easy to press with gloves on. I frequently pressed one of the programmable buttons accidentally when I grabbed the phone — they’re in easy reach when you’re using the phone, but that unfortunately means a lot of unintentional presses, too. These buttons do require a long press to bring up whatever shortcut function you’ve assigned to them, so a brief press won’t do anything. You can also assign any of them to “do nothing” when pressed if you’d rather not use them.
Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G screen, performance, and battery
Aside from the obvious difference in appearance and ergonomics, the DuraForce Ultra 5G handles pretty much the way any other Android device does. The screen looks a little low on contrast in comparison to your standard display — likely because the panel is optimized for viewability in bright sunlight. That’s probably more important to the phone’s target user than a rich multimedia viewing experience, and the panel is indeed usable even in very bright direct light.
The screen’s protective “Sapphire Shield” remained free of scratches during my testing, but it does pick up reflections easily outside, more so than other phones with Gorilla Glass. It wasn’t enough to bother me, but someone planning to use the phone outside in bright light often might find it distracting.
The DuraForce Ultra 5G ships with Android 10; Kyocera says it will provide an update to 11, but that the timeframe is still being determined. Android 10 is fine for now, but given that Google is readying Android 12 for the public, it’s definitely a step behind. Kyocera says it will provide a minimum of two years of security updates, which is a common if not terribly generous policy.
The DuraForce Ultra 5G uses a Snapdragon 765G processor with 6GB RAM, which puts overall performance on par with a midrange phone. There’s some slight stuttering when scrolling quickly through screens with lots of images and video, and a noticeable pause after taking a photo in the camera app, but other than that it keeps up well — especially considering the lower performance bar in the rugged class.
There’s a 4,500mAh battery built into the DuraForce Ultra 5G. It’s a comparatively large battery for the class, and it got me through a full day of moderate to heavy use. The phone supports Qi wireless charging, which is uncommon among rugged phones. The phone was a little finicky on my stand-style Belkin wireless charger, but it eventually worked when set on the charger in landscape orientation.
And of course, there’s one of the DuraForce Ultra 5G’s namesake features: 5G. This model works with both widely available sub-6GHz frequencies and hard-to-find but much faster mmWave spectrum (also called Ultra Wideband by Verizon, hence the UW in the phone’s name). It’s only sold through Verizon in the US, which makes sense: the company has been pushing mmWave much harder than the other major carriers and does offer more coverage, though it’s still relatively scarce. Verizon’s 5G network is kind of lackluster overall at this point, though it will improve over the next couple of years. It’s a good feature to have on a phone you’re going to hang onto for a while, but definitely don’t buy this (or any phone, really) just for mmWave since you’ll probably have a hard time finding a signal anyway.
Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G camera
The DuraForce Ultra’s rear camera array consists of a 24-megapixel f/1.8 standard wide and a 16-megapixel f/2.2 ultrawide, plus a time-of-flight sensor. Around front, there’s an 8-megapixel f/2.0 selfie camera. That’s a cut above what’s offered on many rugged phones. Picture-taking likely isn’t a high priority for prospective DuraForce Ultra owners, and image quality is certainly not up to what you’d find on conventional $900 phones, but it does the job.
Taken with ultrawide camera.
Taken with ultrawide camera.
Photos in good light look fine, if a bit on the low-contrast, washed-out side. Exposure and color can shift noticeably between two images taken with the same camera at slightly different angles, and I noticed some odd misses here and there, like a blurry shot of a static subject where it looked like the camera had tried to apply too much HDR. But most of the time in bright light, photos are perfectly fine, and a cut above what I’d expect from a rugged phone.
There’s also a mode that will overlay live information on your still image or video about whatever extreme situation you happen to be in, including location, altitude, speed, and G-force. Extreme activities are generally not recommended in your second trimester of pregnancy, so I didn’t really test this out. I imagine if you’re into something like mountain biking or climbing and you want to record that kind of information with your activity, you probably have a better way of doing so already. In any case, it’s there, and it’s definitely more of a casual, fun feature than it is practical.
If you’re merely curious about living a rugged phone lifestyle, the DuraForce Ultra 5G isn’t for you. The phone’s extremely hardy specifications would be appealing to anyone who’s nervous about dropping their phone or occasionally brings their phone to rough environments like beaches or backcountry camping. If that’s you, spend your $900 on a good standard phone (many are IP68 rated) and a rugged case. You’ll get better performance, a better camera, timelier software updates — basically, a lot more for the money.
If you need a rugged phone on the job as a frontline worker, first responder, or construction worker, for example, then the DuraForce Ultra 5G makes a lot more sense — especially if it’s going to be your primary phone off the job and you’d really like some extra bells and whistles. The inclusion of 5G, wireless charging, and processing power that’s a cut above the rest of the class makes it a good tool on and off the job site.
However, $900 is an awful lot to spend on a phone, and I think that very specific kind of customer for this phone is a pretty small group. You could buy a less expensive rugged phone with more limited functionality like Kyocera’s own DuraForce model from last year and a darn good midrange phone for around the same price. You probably can’t get mmWave 5G that way, but that’s no great loss.
Still, the DuraForce Ultra 5G represents a convenient option for a particular type of person if two phones feels like too much fuss. It certainly handled everything I threw it at, and functioned well as a daily companion for more pedestrian tasks like scrolling social media and navigating trips across town. If extreme durability is a must and you don’t want to give up too much to get it, then the DuraForce Ultra 5G is a good choice.
Snap’s new Spectacles glasses are its most ambitious yet. But there’s a big catch: you can’t buy them.
On Thursday, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel unveiled the company’s first true augmented reality glasses, technology that he and rivals like Facebook think will one day be as ubiquitous as mobile phones. A demo showed virtual butterflies fluttering over colorful plants and landing in Spiegel’s extended hand.
The new Spectacles have dual waveguide displays capable of superimposing AR effects made with Snapchat’s software tools. The frame features four built-in microphones, two stereo speakers, and a built-in touchpad. Front-facing cameras help the glasses detect objects and surfaces you’re looking at so that graphics more naturally interact with the world around you.
These Spectacles, however, aren’t ready for the mass market. Unlike past models, Snap isn’t selling them. Instead, it’s giving them directly to an undisclosed number of AR effects creators through an application program online. (Another indication they aren’t ready for everyday use: the battery only lasts 30 minutes.)
The idea is to encourage a small portion of the 200,000 people who already make AR effects in Snapchat to experiment with creating experiences for the new Spectacles, according to Spiegel. Like the bright yellow vending machines Snap used to sell the first version of Spectacles several years ago, the approach could end up being a clever way to build buzz for the glasses ahead of their wide release. Spiegel has said that AR glasses will take roughly a decade to reach mainstream adoption.
“I don’t believe the phone is going away,” he told The Verge in an interview this week. “I just think that the next generation of Spectacles can help unlock a new way to use AR hands-free, and the ability to really roam around with your eyes looking up at the horizon, out at the world.”
The first two generations of Spectacles, released in 2016 and 2018, looked like sunglasses with a single camera in the corner of the frame. They let you snap videos (and later photos) in a unique, spherical format that could then be transferred to your phone and posted to Snapchat or another social network.
Above: Snap’s new fourth-generation Spectacles. Lower: the Spectacles in their case, and a side-view showing their touch panel. Images: Snap
Snap, which calls itself a camera company, started moving more toward AR in 2019 with the launch of its third-generation Spectacles. That model added a second camera to detect depth in videos, allowing for more advanced effects to be applied afterward. But they lacked displays. You had to shoot a video, import it to Snapchat, and then apply AR effects — which Snap calls Lenses — later.
The new fourth generation of Spectacles come from a secretive hardware division of the company called Snap Lab, which is also working on a camera drone. They weigh 134 grams, more than double the weight of the previous version but far less than Microsoft’s Hololens AR headset. They’re designed to be worn indoors or outdoors with up to 2,000 nits of display brightness, a tradeoff the company clearly made to favor display richness at the expense of battery life.
Two front-facing cameras use the software Snap built for its mobile phone Lenses to automatically detect physical surfaces and place effects in a way that doesn’t obstruct the real world. Two stereo speakers capture audio and allow for the wearer to control them by voice. A touchpad on the side of the frame operates an interface in the displays that Snap calls the Lens Carousel, allowing the wearer to switch AR effects they’re seeing.
Above: two images show AR effects as seen through the new glasses. Lower: the lens carousel interface lets you select different AR effects. Images: Snap
The new Spectacles were announced Thursday at Snap’s virtual Partner Summit for developers, where the company previewed a number of new augmented reality features for Snapchat. Its AR clothing try-on tech can now handle watches and glasses, and businesses will be able to more easily add AR versions of their online catalogs for Snapchat’s 500 million monthly users to try and purchase.
A new feature, called Connected Lenses, allows multiple people to see and interact with the same scene in AR. Snap is also launching an AR “innovation lab” called Ghost and is committing $3.5 million to support creators making effects, with another $1 million in funding with Verizon to fund AR experiences used over 5G.
While Snap is known primarily for the Snapchat app now, these Spectacles indicate how the company’s ambition is to be a major player in the race to build AR glasses. Facebook, Apple, and other tech giants are currently working on their competing devices. Facebook plans to debut its own pair of smart glasses in partnership with RayBan later this year, though they won’t feature AR displays.
According to Spiegel, head-worn devices like these new Spectacles will create a big shift in how we interact with computers. While Snap is betting that millions of people will eventually want to wear Spectacles, the company is content for now to build in public alongside its creators.
“You have to invent a whole new way of interacting with computing when it’s volumetric and integrated with the space around you,” Spiegel said. “So I don’t see Snapchat transitioning to wearables that directly, but one of the things that’s really fun is to think about what the new interaction paradigms can look like.”
(Pocket-lint) – The OnePlus 8 Pro was one of 2020’s best phones, offering flagship specs and premium design at cheaper price than the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy S20 range.
While both series of phones are a little older now, they still make great purchase options purely because you can now get them cheaper than they were at launch.
So how does the OnePlus 8 Pro compare to Samsung’s top-of-the-range Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy S20+? Here are the specifications up against each other.
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Design
OnePlus 8 Pro: 165.3 x 74.4 x 8.5mm, 199g
Samsung S20+: 161.9 x 73.7 x 7.8mm, 186g
Samsung S20 Ultra: 166.9 x 76 x 8.8mm, 220g
The OnePlus 8 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S20+ and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra all offer premium designs with metal cores and glass rears, though OnePlus offers matte options, while Samsung offers gloss only. The frosted glass is both lovely to look at, and does a better job of resisting smudges from fingerprint grease.
The Samsung S20+ and S20 Ultra both have punch hole cameras centralised at the top of their displays, while the OnePlus 8 Pro has a punch hole camera positioned in the top left corner of its display.
On the back, the OnePlus 8 Pro has a slightly neater design with a pill-shaped vertical camera housing positioned in the middle, while the Samsung Galaxy S20+ and S20 Ultra both have more prominent rectangular camera housings in the top left corner of their rears.
Size wise, the OnePlus sits right in the middle of the two Samsung phones. It’s a little wider and thicker than the S20+, but narrower and thinner than the S20 Ultra. That means, in the hand, the S20+ is slightly more comfortable, but in truth all phones are pretty big.
All devices being compared here offer IP68 water and dust resistance and they all have in-display fingerprint sensors. So there’s a lot of parity here. In terms of build and looks, you’re not getting a less premium device by going with OnePlus.
Display
OnePlus 8 Pro: 6.78-inch, Quad HD+, 120Hz
Samsung S20+: 6.7-inch, Quad HD+, 120Hz
Samsung S20 Ultra: 6.9-inch, Quad HD+, 120Hz
The OnePlus 8 Pro has a 6.78-inch display with a Quad HD+ resolution offering a pixel density of 513ppi. It offers an aspect ratio of 19.8:9 and a refresh rate of 120Hz.
The Samsung Galaxy S20+ has a 6.7-inch display with a Quad HD+ resolution and 525ppi, putting it at a similar size to the OnePlus 8 Pro, while the Ultra is larger at 6.9-inches. It too has a Quad HD+ resolution though, with a pixel density of 511ppi.
While both Galaxy devices have 120Hz refresh rate displays – just like OnePlus – Samsung currently only allows you to have it switched on if the resolution is set to full HD+. That means you have to choose between sharpness, and fast animations. OnePlus allows you to have both switched on at the same time, without compromise.
Still, despite this, all three displays are truly excellent and easily the best currently available on any smartphone. They’re sharp, vibrant and responsive.
All devices being compared in this feature have a AMOLED panel and offer HDR10+ support.
The camera department is perhaps the area these devices differ the most.
The OnePlus 8 Pro has a quad rear camera, made up of a 48-megapixel main sensor, 8-megapixel telephoto sensor, 48-megapixel ultra-wide angle sensor and a 5-megapixel colour filter sensor. There’s a dual LED flash and a range of features including Video HDR, Smart Pet Capture mode and 3x hybrid zoom.
The Samsung Galaxy S20+ has a quad rear camera too, made up of a 12-megapixel main sensor, 64-megapixel telephoto sensor, 12-megapixel ultra wide sensor and a Depth Vision time of flight sensor.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra meanwhile, has a 108-megapixel main sensor, 48-megapixel telephoto sensor, which is a 10x hybrid optic periscope lens, 12-megapixel ultra wide sensor and a DepthVision sensor.
Despite having the impressive-sounding 100x Space Zoom, in our testing, we had a few issues with the S20 Ultra’s camera. Apart from that ultra-zoom being not much more than a gimmick at its extreme focal lengths, there were other problems with focussing on items up close. The S20+ may have the less jaw-dropping spec sheet here, but it gave us fewer issues overall and performs well. As does OnePlus.
The 8 Pro’s primary and ultra-wide cameras are excellent, and the zoom is useful, even if the colours and detail don’t quite match up with the other two main cameras. As for that colour filter camera, that’s a little weird and lets you be creative, but doesn’t offer anything distinctly wortwhile.
The OnePlus 8 Pro runs on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor with a choice of 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage or 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There is no microSD support for further storage expansion.
The Samsung Galaxy S20+ and S20 Ultra both run on either the Exynos 990 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, depending on the region. Both have 12GB of RAM as standard but the Ultra also comes in a 16GB option. There are various storage options, with 128GB, 256GB and 512GB models available, all of which offer microSD storage expansion up to 1TB.
In terms of everyday speed and performance, the OnePlus and Samsung phones will all offer you a speedy, responsive experience. We didn’t notice any significant difference between the three. It’s no surprise really given the similar specifications and power available in all of them.
In terms of battery capacities, the OnePlus 8 Pro has a 4510mAh battery, the Samsung Galaxy S20+ has a 4500mAh battery and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has a 5000mAh battery. IN testing, the OnePlus was the one that’s likely to last a little bit longer, but again, there’s not a huge amount in it. Samsung has really upped its battery longevity game this year.
The one place you will notice a difference is in charging speeds. With its 30W wireless charging, OnePlus will refill much quicker on its charging stand than either of the Samsung phones will while wireless charging.
All three also offer reverse wireless charging too, so you can top up your wireless charging compatible earphones or smartwatch from any of the phones.
All three devices being compared here are 5G enabled.
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Conclusion
The OnePlus 8 Pro sits in the middle of both the Samsung Galaxy S20+ and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra but it is quite a bit cheaper than both models, coming in around the same price as the standard Galaxy S20 instead.
There’s plenty of similarities between the three devices too, despite the price difference. All have large displays, premium designs, powerful hardware and good software experiences, albeit different.
You get microSD support on the Samsung devices, along with some interesting camera functionality, especially on the S20 Ultra, but you pay more for these attributes – a lot more in the case of the Ultra – so the decision between these handsets will come down to your budget and what features matter to you most.
On the whole, we don’t think you’ll be losing a whole lot at all in real daily performance and capabilities by going with the OnePlus 8 Pro instead of either of these two Samsung phones.
Qualcomm has announced a new 700-series chipset for mobile devices: the Snapdragon 778G 5G. It will start appearing in premium midrange phones from manufacturers including Motorola, Xiaomi, Realme, Honor, Oppo, and iQOO in the next few months, bringing with it some video capture and AI capabilities borrowed from the Snapdragon 888, the current chipset of choice for flagship Android phones. The company has also made a couple of other announcements today designed to get 5G connectivity into more tech.
The Snapdragon 778G offers three image-signal processors, or ISPs — a feature Qualcomm touted in its flagship 888 chipset, and also appears in the higher-end 780G. This makes it possible to capture photos and video from three different cameras at once. You can easily switch between different cameras’ video feeds during recording ala Samsung’s director view on the Snapdragon 888-powered S21 series.
The processor also supports cameras with staggered HDR sensors like the 50-megapixel chip in the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra for better HDR video recording. The 778G also includes some improvements for more GPU-efficient mobile gaming, and things like better noise suppression and camera experiences on video calls. Both mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G are supported, as well as Wi-Fi 6.
In “more 5G in more places” news, Qualcomm is also making M.2 reference designs available for current OEM customers of its X65 and X62 5G modems. This makes it easier for laptop, desktop, gaming, and IoT manufacturers to incorporate 5G connectivity into their products. The company is also debuting a new X65 5G modem, which Qualcomm says is more energy efficient and offers wider support of mmWave frequencies. It will start appearing in commercial mobile devices later this year, the company says.
(Pocket-lint) – A lot has happened in the world since the launch of the iPad Pro 12.9-inch in 2020, yet the need for us to work on the go is still an key factor for many people.
Apple’s 2021 iPad Pro looks to up the ante once again, bringing a new processor, a new screen, 5G connectivity, as well as improvements to the camera and elsewhere.
So, is this the year that the Apple iPad Pro will finally – yes finally – let you ditch the laptop altogether? We’ve been using the iPad Pro 2021 with M1 processor to find out.
Design gets heavier
Same design as 2020 model
Finishes: Silver or Space Grey
Dimensions: 281 x 215 x 6.4mm
Weight: 682g (Wi-Fi), 685g (5G)
Having launched previously with a much squarer design, which has since been adopted by the iPhone, the iPad Pro keeps an almost identical design to its previous offering.
For 2021 the 12.9-inch model is ever so slightly thicker than previous versions, thanks to new Mini LED screen technology, but it will still fit your previous cases (albeit snugly), including the Apple Magic Keyboard that launched in 2020.
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That extra thickness also means it’s a bit heavier, with around 40g extra. While that’s not hugely noticeable over the previous version, it does mean that the Pro is getting heavier and heavier – which is something to bear in mind.
To put it in perspective, though, the 2021 Pro is actually the same weight as the original iPad from way back in 2010. And while no one will begrudge that this iPad is considerably more powerful, it’s interesting that all that tech, and batteries to power it, means that the days of a thin-and-light iPad have come to an end – well, certainly at the top-end of this market.
Why’s that important? Because it is no longer a slip-in-your-bag-and-not-notice-it device any more. Add in the Magic Keyboard – which is another 710g – and you’ve got a device that’s 1.395kg. That’s roughly the same as the company’s M1 13-inch MacBook Pro or many other Windows-based laptops – indeed it’s actually not too difficult to find sub-1kg laptops.
Display gets brighter
12.9-inch ‘Liquid Retina XDR’ Mini LED display
2732 x 2048 resolution (264ppi)
1600-nit peak brightness
120Hz refresh rate
The 2021 iPad Pro gets an updated display technology – called Mini LED – which makes it considerably brighter than older models. It’s a relatively new panel technology that’s only just making its way into the latest TVs.
What is Mini LED? The display technology explained
In the case of this 12.9-inch model that means over 10,000 LEDs are positioned behind the screen to create, at times, a much brighter display that is also more nuanced to what is happening on the screen.
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The enhanced technology is instantly noticeable. The screen is physically brighter for starters, and has the ability to increase that brightness further depending on what is required. Previously the peak brightness was 600 nits, now that can go up to 1600 nits for those high dynamic range (HDR) moments.
While the average user will benefit from watching high-resolution content from their favourite streaming service – even the end credits of a movie look stunning – creatives will certainly enjoy the ability to see all that extra detail in their images or video, especially if they are working within the realms of HDR or Dolby Vision.
Combine that with the Pro’s usual array of screen tech – such as P3 wide colour gamut, ProMotion (120Hz refresh rate), and True Tone – and you won’t find much to complain about when it comes to the screen.
What is Apple’s True Tone display?
Front-facing camera gets more intelligent
Improved front-facing camera: 12-megapixel, 122-degree field of view
New ‘Center Stage’ technology (for subject tracking)
If you’re like us, you’ll have spent a lot of time in 2020 on video calls talking to colleagues, friends, and family. So for 2021, the iPad Pro celebrates video calling by adding a new front-facing TrueDepth Camera.
It’s unique to the iPad (at launch anyway – we suspect that will change in the future) and for the most part you won’t notice that it’s ultra-wide. That’s because of a new feature Apple has introduced specifically for the iPad Pro: Center Stage.
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No doubt inspired by devices like the Facebook Portal and Amazon Echo Show 10, the idea is that the front-facing camera can now follow you as you move about so you’re always “centre stage”.
By cropping into the captured image to deliver the same image crop iPad users are used to, nothing physically moves within the iPad itself. Instead Applehas opted to emulate that movement by digitally cropping in on the image as it follows you.
The feature, which works just as well in Apple FaceTime as it does in Zoom and other video calling apps, can be fun, but it can become jarring.
Anything with a head and shoulders is automatically picked up and the frame will resize to fit them in. Add more people and the feature zooms out to make sure everyone is in the frame. That’s fantastic for a family catch-ups with the kids trying to jostle around the iPad Pro screen, or for ensuring you’re fully in the shot.
The 122-degree viewpoint is wide enough to catch most of you, wide enough to track you around the room, and wide enough to still move if you’ve stepped some distance from the camera (we got to around 5 metres away).
Where things get tricky is if you move around when using it and the iPad Pro is stationary on the desk. Not because it doesn’t follow you, but because of the fluidity to the follow. You move and the camera slowly moves with you.
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The resulting affect is as if Apple has applied a Ken Burns effect to dramatise your video call. Or, as we found when being fairly close to the camera, it looks a bit like being on a boat and bobbing up and down with the tide. It can, at times, be very nauseating.
Best tablet 2021: Top tablets to buy today
By Britta O’Boyle
·
However, go hands-free and the technology helps stabilise your movement – making it a much better experience as the tracking is kept to a minimum and less pronounced.
It’s probably why business calls from our desk garnered plenty of complaints, but family calls resulted in much more positive feedback with the grandparents in awe of the technology in action, and a chance to see everyone for the first time without us having to stand miles away from the screen.
Performance: Everything is faster
Apple M1 processor, 8GB/16GB RAM
Options for 128GB to 2TB storage
Apple Pencil support (2nd Gen)
LiDAR sensor on back
Thunderbolt / USB4
With every iteration the iPad Pro gets a faster processor, normally on par with the iPhone. This year, rather than trying to keep pace with the iPhone, the iPad keeps pace with the Mac.
Pocket-lint
Because now you’ll find Apple’s new M1 processor instead of an upgraded iPhone processor powering the pro tablet. Yes, the same chip that powers the MacBook Air or iMac or MacBook Pro now powers the 2021 iPad Pro. We’ll let that sink in for a moment.
According to Apple that results in a 50 per cent boost in performance without compromising the battery – so you’ll still get around 10 hours per charge. Although, just like a Mac, the battery life widely varies in performance depending on what you do and how bright that screen is.
Also just like a Mac, there are now RAM options for the first time on the iPad Pro, all the way up to 16GB – although that option is restricted to the 1TB or 2TB storage options (you guessed it, that means pricey pricey), whereas it’s 8GB RAM for the 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB storage capacities (and more reasonable price points).
Pocket-lint
The M1 processing power means the iPad Pro whizzes along with any various tasks that you’ll throw at it, just in the same way we find apps on the M1 MacBook Pro perform.
Whether that’s photo editing in Adobe Lightroom, drawing in Procreate, or designing in Affinity Designer, we had no problem loading, importing, editing, or saving large files on any of the ‘pro’ apps we use.
Working with large sound and video files proved little stress to the new 2021 iPad Pro either, while power hungry games like Asphalt 9, Call of Duty, or NBA2K21 loaded almost instantly – and, yes, noticeably faster than on previous iPad Pro models.
And if the M1 isn’t enough to keep that workflow process happy, the iPad Pro 12.9-inch now also comes in a 5G flavour for those who want speedy connectivity on the go. An afternoon hot-spotting via an EE SIM proved just as productive as being on the Wi-Fi in the home office.
Pocket-lint
Elsewhere there’s an improved Thunderbolt / USB4 port for transferring files to and from the device even faster – it’s up to 40Gbps, whereas previously it was USB-C and therefore 10Gbps.
You still get the dual camera and LiDAR sensor setup on the back for taking pictures, video, or playing with AR too. It’s the same 12-megapixel main and 10-megapixel wider-angle as on the previous generation.
iPadOS needs to offer more
Software: iPadOS 14.5
Given that the iPad Pro has the same technical power of a MacBook Air but running iPadOS, it can at times feel a little underwhelming in terms of what you can do – especially given the sheer power under the hood.
Apple broke iPadOS away from iOS a number of years ago to be able to offer things like file transfer and track support. But now with the more powerful innards it feels like it needs to do more than just offer a series of app icons on the Home Screen.
Pocket-lint
Of course Apple watchers will know that we’re due an announcement for iPadOS 15 at WWDC in June 2021, so we’re hoping that a greater emphasis on multi-tasking, a more useful Home Screen option, and other features will come to the experience later this year. That could be a game-changer.
It’s not that the iPad Pro 2021 isn’t capable – far from it – it’s just at we can feel that there’s something much bigger coming that’s just around the corner to help capitalise on that new found power within.
Verdict
When Steve Jobs first revealed the iPad back in 2010 it was all about casual reading and surfing from the sofa, about access to apps to empower, entertain, and educate us.
More than a decade on and the 2021 iPad Pro still embraces those principles. But for today’s creative types who want more than just basic typing and surfing it’s a more empowering experience – largely thanks to the M1 processor – bringing greater opportunity for both work and play.
For all intents and purposes the 2021 iPad Pro 12.9-inch is like a touchscreen-enabled MacBook Pro with 5G connectivity that runs iPadOS instead of macOS. It’s the closest to a laptop-replacement that Apple has ever taken the iPad.
Yet the iPad Pro is still in transition. It doesn’t completely replace the laptop just yet, because Apple hasn’t quite cracked the software. So if that’s what you’re after then let’s hope iPadOS 15 changes that later in 2021.
Also consider
Pocket-lint
iPad Air (2020)
The ‘non-pro’ iPad will be good enough for many. So unless you want the higher storage, ProMotion higher refresh rate, or dual cameras, you’re just as well getting the iPad Air as the iPad Pro 11.
The HP Elite Folio is a long-lasting, quiet laptop/tablet combo, but it offers a middling performance for a high price.
For
+ Versatile design
+ Runs very cool and quiet
+ 3:2 Display
+ Full-sized stylus charges in keyboard
+ Long battery life
Against
– Display could be brighter
– Windows on Arm has app compatibility issues
– Middling performance
– Few ports
– Pricey
There are a few laptops that fall into what I call an “executive notebook.” These are high-end, sometimes overly designed business laptops that you rarely see the rank-and-file office worker use. The new HP Elite Folio ($1,747.20 to start, $2,063.36 as tested) seems destined, with its vegan leather exterior and high price tag, for the C-suite.
HP has gone with Windows on Arm here, which means that the laptop runs quiet and has excellent battery life. But even as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors get more powerful and Windows on Arm slowly improves, there are still compatibility and performance sacrifices, so it’s not always fitting for the
best ultrabooks
.
But for those who rely on a stylus for writing on-screen or want a versatile form factor for various situations, you may be able to overlook that as long as you don’t use compute-heavy software. And if you value style, of course.
Design of HP Elite Folio
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HP’s new Folio means business. Or at least, it looks like it. The HP Elite Folio is a new, more professional take
on a previous design
. This laptop isn’t clad in metal, but rather polyurethane vinyl — or, as you might call it, vegan leather. Or as I call it, “
pleather
.” Unlike the old
Spectre x360 13
, which used real leather and came in brown, this is a more subdued black.
The result is a notebook that looks a bit like a briefcase, minus the handle, of course. If it didn’t have an HP logo on the lid under some stitching, I’d expect to see an intern carrying their resume in it. There’s no place to put your thumb to easily open the laptop, so I typically found myself requiring two hands to do so, which was a pain.
With the laptop open, it looks more traditional. There’s a 13.5-inch, 1920 x 1280 display in a 3:2 aspect ratio with a surprisingly thick bezel on the top. The deck features a backlit keyboard and also includes a spot to store and charge the included HP Slim Pen. This is a page straight out of the playbook Microsoft used with the
Surface Pro X
.
But the Surface Pro X is a true 2-in-1 detachable, and the Elite Folio has a different trick up its sleeve. The screen is on a hinge, and it can be brought forward into an easel mode that covers the keyboard but leaves the touchpad clear. You can also slide it further forward to be a tablet. (You could, if you wanted, also flip the screen upside down on the back of the device and use the display to watch videos or give presentations. This isn’t listed among HP’s options, but it works.)
The laptop looks like leather, but it doesn’t feel like it. It’s soft to the touch but definitely has a plasticky feel. For those wondering, yes, I did smell the laptop. While it pulls off a leather look, it can’t match the real thing’s fragrance.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
I can’t speak to how well this will hold up over months and years of use. In the immediate sense, it did manage to pick up minor scuffs or schmutz on my desk, but I could wipe it off with a damp cloth.
Port selection is extremely minimal, with a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port on either side of the laptop and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the right side.
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HP’s notebook is 2.92 pounds and measures 11.75 x 9.03 x 0.63 inches. That’s similar to the Lenovo Flex 5G (2.9 pounds, 12.7 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches), a convertible 2-in-1. The Microsoft Surface Pro X is 2.4 pounds (with the keyboard attached) and 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.3 inches. An Intel-based clamshell, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano, is 2 pounds and 12.7 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches.
HP Elite Folio Specifications
CPU
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2
Graphics
Qualcomm Adreno 690 (integrated)
Memory
16GB LPDDR4-4266 SDRAM
Storage
512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
Display
13.5-inch, 1920 x 1280 touchscreen
Networking
Qualcomm QCA639X Wi-Fi 6 Dual Band and Bluetooth 5, Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 LTE Cat 16
Ports
2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack, nano SIM card slot
Camera
720p IR
Battery
46 WHr
Power Adapter
65 W
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro
Dimensions(WxDxH)
11.75 x 9.03 x 0.63 inches / 298.45 x 229.36 x 16 mm
Weight
2.92 pounds / 1.32 kg
Price (as configured)
$1,998.72
Windows 10 on Arm
The HP Elite Folio uses the latest Windows on Arm platform, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2. That comes with its benefits (long battery life, quiet), but in terms of performance and app compatibility, it’s certainly lacking.
To be clear, that’s the case on all Windows on Arm laptops at the moment. Apple has used Arm too on its most recent laptops with its
M1
chips, with far greater success.
Windows on Arm can run 32-bit apps, but not 64-bit apps. That functionality is coming but is currently limited to Windows Insider builds, which you’re unlikely to see in a business environment. An increasing number of apps are running natively on Windows on Arm, including Office, browsers like Edge and Firefox, and some of Adobe’s, but the rest require emulation. Others that run natively include the popular media player VLC, Netflix, Twitter, Skype, and Windows Terminal.
Perhaps the most reliable place to get apps that work on the processor, native or not, is through the Windows store, which largely filters apps that don’t work with Arm.
Productivity Performance of HP Elite Folio
Here, we’re comparing the Folio, which has an 8cx Gen 2, with two other Arm laptops, the Lenovo Flex 5G with the last-gen Snapdragon, and the Microsoft Surface Pro X with SQ1, Microsoft’s entry-level offering. We also tossed the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano in the mix for a business notebook using an x86 platform, namely Intel’s 11th Gen processors.
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On Geekbench 5, which measures overall system performance, the HP Elite Folio notched a single-core score of 792 and a dual-core score of 3,115. The Lenovo Flex 5G’s 729/2,923 suggest the newer chip has its advantage in multi-core workloads, though this test is run through emulation, which has to be kept in mind. The Surface Pro X isn’t in this test, as we were still running Geekbench 4 when we tested it. The ThinkPad X1 Nano’s scores were 1,473/5,155, with the test running natively.
The Elite Folio transferred 25GB of files at 666.5 MBps, faster than both the Flex 5G and ThinkPad X1 Nano. The Surface Pro X was run on an older, 5GB version of the test, and that was the slowest of the batch.
Our Handbrake test currently doesn’t run on Arm chips, though it is starting to be included in early “nightly” builds. Our Cinebench R23 stress test is also incompatible with Arm. These will change when 64-bit support becomes a finalized part of Windows 10.
Display on HP Elite Folio
I’m glad that HP went with a 3:2 display on the Elite Folio. Simply put, 3:2 is the best aspect ratio for productivity laptop displays because the extra height lets you see more content on your screen at once. This 13.5-inch touchscreen has a resolution of 1920 x 1280.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
I found the laptop to be bright enough for productivity, but when you switch to multimedia, it’s a mixed bag. In the trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the color red popped in car paint, lights and a number of outfits. But a series of dim scenes in a montage made me wish I could turn up the brightness (though the dimness made for great contrast in a scene with purple backlighting).
HP’s screen covers 70.7% of the
DCI-P3
color gamut, which is just about in line with the Surface Pro X and ThinkPad X1 Nano. The Lenovo Flex 5G was more vivid at 81.4%
The Folio was the dimmest of the bunch with an average of 390 nits. The Surface Pro X was the brightest, measuring 448 nits.
Keyboard, Touchpad and Stylus on HP Elite Folio
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HP has implemented a keyboard with 1.3mm of travel into this small device. I didn’t have any issues with travel, but when I typed, I felt that the keys were a bit too stiff. It didn’t stop me from typing quickly; I hit 110 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test. But accuracy suffered slightly.
The 4.2 x 2.6-inch touchpad uses Windows precision drivers, and with a smooth, metal surface, I found it responsive and easy to glide my fingers against. Simple navigation and more complex gestures worked on the first try. It clicks a bit louder than some other touchpads, but I can get over that.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
HP’s Slim Pen lives in a dock above the keyboard, which also keeps it charged. It’s long and flat, more like a carpenter’s pencil than your standard writing instrument. It has a rocker on the side, which can be unwieldy because of how thin the buttons are. The button on the top, however, is easy to access. That comes at the expense of using it as an eraser like the Surface Pen, however.
I found that the Elite Folio’s screen offered solid palm rejection. The Pen uses Wacom drivers and offers 4,096 degrees of pressure sensitivity. HP claims it fast charges in 30 minutes, though in my use, it’s home in the laptop meant it was always topped off.
Audio on HP Elite Folio
HP’s partnership with Bang & Olufsen on its speakers continues to bear fruit. While there’s no software to tune the speakers yourself, they sound decent considering how thin this device is.
For instance, when I listened to Chvrches’ “He Said She Said,” the crashing drums, synths melodies and vocals were loud, clear and crisp. There was, however, a distinct lack of bass, which is a problem on many laptops.
One downside, however, is that the speakers vibrate a lot, and I could feel it under my hands on the touchpad and keyboard. While this isn’t unique to this laptop, it was far more distracting on the Folio than other devices.
Upgradeability of HP Elite Folio
In theory, the HP Elite Folio is upgradeable. HP has a video showing the process:
This is aimed at service technicians, and for good reason. The design means you have to do things in a weird order, like removing the pen slot from the keyboard before opening the
chassis
.
The RAM is soldered to the motherboard, but the SSD is upgradeable. The only rub there is that to actually change out the storage, you have to remove the entire thermal system. Some enthusiasts may be comfortable with that, but for most people, that’s a step too far.
Battery Life
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The Elite Folio’s Arm processor excels in the one place you would expect it: battery life. On our test, which involves browsing the web, running OpenGL tests and streaming video over Wi-Fi, all at 150 nits, the Folio lasted for 15 hours and 21 minutes. It was outclassed only by the Lenovo Flex 5G, using a last-gen Snapdragon processor, which ran for 17:30.
Microsoft’s Surface Pro X with the SQ1 ran for 9:30, while the Intel-based ThinkPad X1 Nano lasted for 12 hours flat.
Heat on HP Elite Folio
Because we couldn’t run our Cinebench R23 workload due to compatibility issues, we took the HP Elite Folio’s skin temperatures following 15 minutes of streaming video from YouTube. The fanless system was quiet and kept very cool.
The center of the keyboard, between the G and H keys, measured 27.8 degrees Celsius (82.04 degrees Fahrenheit). The touchpad was cooler at 26 degrees Celsius (78.8 degrees Fahrenheit).
The hottest point on the bottom of the laptop measured 30.3 degrees Celsius.
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A
720p
webcam in an executive notebook after more than a year of white-collar workers have been doing their jobs from home? Excuse me?
Stills and trial video from my desk, even in good lighting, were grainy. And colors, like a blue shirt I was wearing, were overly dark.
There is a physical webcam privacy switch, which covers the camera but doesn’t cut power to the hardware like some other HP laptops. It’s very small, and you need to use your fingernail to move it in either direction.
There are also IR sensors to log in to Windows 10 with facial recognition. This worked well, with the exception that you need both the cameras and the IR sensor for this to work. If you close the privacy cover, you can’t use it to log in. That’s a choice you have to make between privacy and convenience.
HP has limited the amount of software it includes on this laptop, which is a benefit, especially on an enterprise laptop. There are no crappy antivirus software trials or ports of phone games.
The two big pieces of software are HP Pen Settings, which lets you pair the included stylus and customize its functionality; and HP QuickDrop, which lets you send files and photos across your laptop and smartphone.
HP Pen Settings has a number of clever options, including assigning commands that would be useful to go through slides or play media while giving presentations. There’s also a way to get a virtual dial on the screen when holding a button down.
While this laptop has Microsoft Office preinstalled, at least it doesn’t include links to sponsored Microsoft Store applications.
HP sells the Elite Folio with a 1-year warranty. It can be boosted to three years for an extra $75.
As of this writing, HP is selling the Elite Folio in both a ready-to-ship configuration and customizable configurations.
The quick-ship one is $1,889 with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2, 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSD, as well as an LTE modem.
We reviewed it with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB storage and an LTE modem. That runs for $2,063.36.
If you want a 1,000-nit display with HP’s Sure View privacy, that’s an extra $169. A 4G modem is $201, while a 5G modem is $444.
The base model, with Windows 10 Home instead of Pro, 8GB of RAM, 128GB SSD and no mobile connection is $1,747.20.
Prices on the Folio seem to be fluctuating on HP’s website, so they may vary after this article was published.
Bottom Line
The HP Elite Folio review has a versatile design and, if you’re into the office chair aesthetic, a fake leather exterior that fits in any office.
HP’s Slim Pen is nice, and the fact that it is full-sized and can still charge by sitting in the system is a big plus for anyone who does a lot of writing on screen. The different screen modes will also be helpful for people who use touch screens a lot.
But while relying on the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 means long battery life and quiet operation, there are a series of small sacrifices that are made, largely based on Windows on Arm and app compatibility. Some apps work, some are emulated and 64-bit apps, while coming, aren’t ready for prime time right now, without downloading a beta version of the OS. These aren’t problems unique to the Elite Folio — they’re the same on the Lenovo Flex 5G and the Microsoft Surface Pro X.
If the chassis, touch screen and functionality allowed by the display-on-a-hinge design will make your job easier, this is worth considering. But for many, an x86 business notebook, like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano with an Intel processor, can run more software, do it faster, and is cheaper in some configurations.
The foldable computer is almost here, and there will be a version of Windows 10 for it. But maybe not exactly the one you know. It’s called Windows 10X, and it is the operating system that will power dual-screen laptops and folding PCs.
Update, May 18, 2021: Microsoft has officially shelved Windows 10X, with plans to integrate some of its features into Windows 10. Microsoft mentioned the change in a blog post following reports of the change in early May.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
The operating system, which was codenamed Santorini internally, is based on the little-spoken of Windows Core OS. The brief version of Core OS is that it’s a stripped-down, simplified version of Windows that can be expanded or shrunk down to meet the needs of different devices.
Is Windows 10X like Windows 10 S?
No. Additions can be made to that Core, and Windows 10X offers “newly implemented support for running Win32 applications in a container.” wrote Windows and education corporate vice president Eran Meggido in a blog post.
That means that with Windows 10X, you won’t be limited to Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps. What we don’t know yet is if there are further limitations to a stripped down version of Windows 10.
When will Windows 10X be available? What devices will it be on?
Windows 10X was put on the back burner in May 2021 to integrate some of its features into Windows 10.
Windows 10X was at one point scheduled to launch in the fall 2020. It will power Microsoft’s own Surface Neo, as well as computers from partners including Lenovo, Dell, Asus and HP. Each of the devices were to be powered by Intel (Surface Neo, specifically, will use one of Intel’s Lakefield chips).
Lenovo confirmed to Tom’s Hardware that its foldable ThinkPad X1 device would use Windows 10X, though it launched with Windows 10 Pro prior to Microsoft changing its plans.. Asus would neither confirm nor deny if it planned to use Windows 10X for Project Precog. We have seen Concept Ori and Concept Duet — one with a foldable OLED panel and one with a hinge.
What can Windows 10X do?
Editors’ note: It’s unclear which Windows 10X features will be brought to Windows 10. The below summarizes what we knew about Windows 10X as its own operating system.
Frankly, we’re still in the dark on many of the specifics, though at its October event, Microsoft showed off some neat features that should make using a dual-screen device easier.
One of them was easy access to search. Another was that programs that are opened will show up on the side of the device in which it was invoked. And if you want it on two screens, you can pinch it and drag it to the center, which Microsoft referred to as “spanning.”
With the a Bluetooth keyboard (the Surface Neo has a magnetic one that covers part of one display), the “WonderBar” is invoked, with room for a touchbar, emojis, smaller screens or other menus.
Additionally, the extra space can be put to good use, like having Outlook in one window and opening new calendar invites or emails in the other without having to switch back and forth.
Microsoft has said that updates to Windows 10X will download and install in 90 seconds, which would be far faster than regular Windows 10.
There may be a little more we know. At Computex, Microsoft corporate vice president of operating systems Roanne Sones detailed a vision for a more modern Windows. That included seamless updates, security, 5G and LTE and sustained performance. She also discussed cloud connectivity, the ability to fit on several form factors, and inputs from pens, touch and even gaze.
Per leaks, the Start Menu will be referred to as the “Launcher,” which sounds more like a phone. Additionally, facial recognition with Windows Hello may be faster, with users skipping the step to dismiss the lock screen before going to the desktop.
Other leaked features include a modernized File Explorer, a quicker Action Center and a focus on Win32 apps and Progressive Web App (PWA) version of Office rather than UWP from its own store.
When will developers get their hands on Windows 10X?
Windows 10X is currently available through emulation with the Microsoft Emulator. You can see our hands-on with it here. You can get the emulator and image from the Microsoft Store. It requires Windows 10 Pro and the latest version of the Windows Insider build.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Microsoft chief product Panos Panay said that part of the reason for debuting the Surface Neo early was to empower developers to build experiences for its two screens. Perhaps we’ll hear more about it at the next Microsoft Build, which will take place between May 19 and May 21 in Seattle in 2020.
Photo Credits: Microsoft
This article is part of the Tom’s Hardware Glossary.
The Sony Xperia 10 III (£399) is now available to pre-order in the UK, and it comes with a tempting freebie: a pair of wireless noise-cancelling headphones from Sony’s excellent stable.
The Sony WH-CH710N (£100) are the follow-ups to the four-star WH-CH700N. They boast advanced noise-cancelling tech that automatically adjusts based on how noisy your surroundings are. And when you do want to hear what the outside world has to offer, just use the Ambient Sound pass-through mode to let in external noise.
That aside, they’re very similar to their predecessors and serve as a more wallet-friendly alternative to the premium Sony WH-1000XM4. They have the same 35-hour battery life as the 700N, Bluetooth with NFC pairing, and mirror their predecessor’s design, voice assistant button and even same colour options. But considering how good the 700N are, that’s no bad thing.
So what of the Xperia 10 III? It’s a mid-range smartphone with a 6in 1080 x 2520 OLED screen. Inside, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 5G chip takes care of business alongside 6GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage. There’s also a triple rear camera system (comprising a 12MP main snapper, 8MP ultrawide and 8MP 2x telephoto), an 8MP front-facer, and a 4500mAh battery with 30W fast charging. Android 11 comes as standard.
It won’t be quite as impressive as the company’s flagship (and much more costly) Xperia 1 II, which currently tops our list of best smartphones. But the also excellent Xperia 5 II shows that Sony can do excellent phones at (slightly) cheaper levels, so we wouldn’t bet against it offering value for money at the budget end either.
The Sony Xperia 10 III will ship on 11th June, priced £399.
MORE:
These are the best smartphones for music and movies
The best noise-cancelling headphones of all styles, for all budgets
Find out how active noise-cancelling headphones work
Apple might have bigger plans for next week than initially thought. The new iMac, iPad Pro, and Apple TV 4K are all set to start shipping to early preorder customers on or around May 21st, but now it seems there could be two surprise announcements: a hi-fi streaming tier of Apple Music, and maybe even AirPods 3.
The Apple Music part seems extremely likely when you factor in a report from 9to5Google. Digging into the latest Apple Music for Android beta app, they discovered direct references to high-resolution audio that didn’t exist previously
These are the prompts found in the app’s code, though they’re not user-facing quite yet:
Lossless audio files preserve every detail of the original file. Turning this on will consume significantly more data.
Lossless audio files will use significantly more space on your device. 10 GB of space could store approximately: – 3000 songs at high quality – 1000 songs with lossless – 200 songs with hi-res lossless
Lossless streaming will consume significantly more data. A 3-minute song will be approximately: – 1.5 MB with high efficiency- 6 MB with high quality at 256 kbps- 36 MB with lossless at 24-bit/48 kHz- 145 MB with hi-res lossless at 24-bit/192 kHzSupport varies and depends on song availability, network conditions, and connected speaker or headphone capability.
It doesn’t get much more direct and clear than that, with Apple warning about both the higher data consumption of streaming lossless music and the added storage space that will be necessary to download it for offline listening. The fact that Apple has now added this data to its Android app suggests that this could all be happening sooner than later. I say that because Apple’s Apple One bundle showed up in Apple Music for Android just days before its public announcement.
The Android app code also reveals that Apple Music will offer two choices for lossless playback:
Lossless ALAC up to 24-bit/48 kHz
High-Res Lossless ALAC up to 24-bit/192 kHz
So it sounds like Apple has every intention of matching what Tidal, Amazon Music HD, and services like Qobuz currently deliver. It’s also worth noting that there’ve been recent references to Dolby Atmos spatial audio in Apple Music on iOS, according to 9to5Mac.
Apple has for years stuck to its customary 256kbps AAC files for both iTunes and Apple Music. When iTunes Plus debuted all the way back in 2007, that was a substantial upgrade over heavily compressed MP3s that people were downloading from peer-to-peer apps like Napster and Limewire during the height of music piracy. And it’s still perfectly adequate. Mastering of tracks has just as much influence on the listening experience as encoding details do, and Apple has tried to play to this aspect with its “Apple Digital Masters,” which aim to get the most dynamic range and detail from songs on its platform.
But in terms of pure music fidelity, Apple has objectively been surpassed by companies like Tidal and Amazon over the last several years. My friend Micah Singleton has a great piece over at Billboard about how we’re entering the hi-fi era of the streaming music wars. Amazon Music HD is performing strongly, with subscriptions up 100 percent year over year. Spotify has also promised the launch of “Spotify HiFi” for later this year.
There’s money to be made, and the ingredients are all there: Apple now sells premium headphones in the AirPods Max, and wireless carriers continue to talk up the promise and speeds of their growing 5G networks. I can’t imagine 5G will be required for lossless Apple Music streaming, but it’s a nice flex of the technology right in the middle of the iPhone 12 cycle.
What about those AirPods 3, though?
There have already been quite a few leaks that revealed details about Apple’s next iteration of AirPods, but the real question has been around release timing. Yesterday, a report from a site called AppleTrack suggested that the new AirPods could be announced alongside this new lossless tier of Apple Music. I don’t quite follow the logic, myself; no one really thinks of regular AirPods as the right choice for audiophile listening, but maybe Apple just wants new hardware of some sort to launch in tandem with the new service.
Taken on its own, the AirPods rumor seems “sketchy” as 9to5Mac said. But the sudden discoveries about lossless audio in Apple Music for Android seem to add some fuel to the fire.
A new batch of leaked images shows what could become Samsung’s least expensive 5G phone yet: the Galaxy A22 5G. The Galaxy A32 5G currently holds that title at an already low $279. The images come from 91mobiles and match up with previous leaks hinting that the phone might be on its way with a 200,000 KRW price (~$180), though it may be only destined for India and parts of Asia in the immediate future.
The leaked images show two variants — 5G and 4G versions — with two slightly varied sets of specs. The 5G model will allegedly have a 6.4-inch LCD and a rear triple-camera array (probably a 48-megapixel main / macro / depth sensor combo). A MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset looks likely, thanks to a previous Geekbench leak, plus a substantial 6GB of RAM. The 4G model includes one additional rear camera and an OLED rather than LCD. They’re both expected to offer large 5,000mAh batteries.
Leaks suggest that the A22 5G will offer a 6.4-inch LCD, rear triple-camera array, and 5,000mAh battery.Image: 91mobiles
There are a few other budget phones between the $200 and $300 mark offering 5G, including the Realme 8 5G for €199 (~$240) and the OnePlus Nord N10 5G for $300, but the A22 5G stands to become one of the first in the sub-$200 range, depending on how things shake out. In the US, 5G is still in a sorry state, but wireless carriers are racing to improve their networks and may be eager to stock their shelves with more aggressively priced 5G devices like the A22 5G soon.
Samsung spent tens of billions of dollars annually on its various chip businesses for several years now. On Thursday the company announced that its renewed semiconductor investment plan includes spending $150 billion on R&D and CapEx for its LSI and foundry businesses by 2030.
$15 Billion per Year
About two years ago Samsung announced plans to spend $115 billion through 2030 (i.e., $9.51 billion a year) on its LSI and foundry businesses, which includes R&D of new process technologies and materials, chip design, and actual fabs. $9.51 billion a year is a lot of money, but from now on the company is committed to spending $15 billion a year on its LSI and semiconductor production operations. The increase is motivated by the growing demand for chips and semiconductor fabrication services driven by megatrends like 5G, AI, and HPC.
Samsung Electronics has been outspending all other semiconductor producers in the world in recent years. Just last year it invested around $28.1 billion in production facilities that are used by its Samsung Foundry and memory (3D NAND, DRAM) businesses. With an increased commitment to foundry business, Samsung will almost certainly increase the general CapEx of its semiconductor division to well beyond $30 billion a year.
“The entire semiconductor industry is facing a watershed moment and now is the time to chart out a plan for long-term strategy and investment,” said Dr. Kinam Kim, Vice Chairman and Head of Device Solutions Division at Samsung Electronics.
Samsung P3: A Fab for DRAM and Logic
In an interesting turn of events, Samsung also announced that it had begun construction of its new P3 fab near Pyeongtaek, South Korea, that will be used to produce both DRAM and logic chips using process technologies that rely on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Normally, Samsung uses different fabs to make DRAM and logic chips, but it looks like with next-generation EUV tools it makes sense to use one fab for both types of products.
Samsung’s P3 is expected to be completed in the second half of 2022. Initially, it will produce chips using Samsung’s 14 nm technology for DRAMs as well as 5 nm node for SoCs. Looks like leading-edge fabrication technologies, including 4nm and 3nm, will continue to be initially used at Samsung Foundry’s V1 fab near Hwaseong, South Korea.
“For the memory business, where Samsung has maintained its undisputed leadership position, the company will continue to make preemptive investments to lead the industry,” said Dr. Kinam Kim.
Google I/O, the company’s big developer conference, is back after being canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The keynote kicks off on Tuesday, May 18th, at 1PM ET / 10AM PT, and it will likely be packed with news about Google products.
In the keynote’s official description, Google is unsurprisingly coy about what might be announced: “Tune in to find out about how we’re furthering our mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” But we can make a few educated guesses about what could be shown off at the event. Read on to find out what to expect from the big show.
We’ll likely learn a lot more about Android 12
Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge
Google often uses its Google I/O keynotes to exhaustively detail its next major version of Android, and we expect the same for this year’s release, Android 12.
Google has already released a few developer previews of Android 12, which have mostly brought a lot of small tweaks and developer-focused features. But at I/O, Google will likely reveal some of Android 12’s biggest user-facing features — including some significant UI changes that are rumored to be in the works, like stacked widgets and a new lock screen with larger clock text.
Android 12 seems poised to be a big upgrade, and Google will likely share a whole lot about it.
Major Google services should get some spotlight, too
Google also likes to use I/O to showcase major updates to its services and software, and this year’s event will likely be no different. In previous years, we’ve seen Google use I/O to announce things like Google Maps’ incognito mode, new Assistant voices, and the Google Duplex demo, where the Google Assistant called a hair salon to book an appointment. Google could plan to take the wraps off some similarly exciting new features.
Maybe Google will announce the Pixel Buds A-Series for real this time
We already know the company is working on a new model of its Pixel Buds true wireless headphones — thanks in large part to a couple of huge leaks from Google itself — and perhaps they’ll make their debut (again) at I/O.
Here’s the timeline of what’s been revealed so far:
In March, two devices that seem very likely to be new Buds appeared in Federal Communications Commission filings — a sign that can indicate that a product will go on sale sometime soon
In April, Google included an image of an unreleased pair of olive green Pixel Buds in an email
Earlier this month, Google tweeted an announcement for the “Pixel Buds A-Series” from the Android Twitter account before quickly removing the post
Google’s official tweet about the “Pixel Buds A-Series,” before it was deleted.Image: 9to5Google
These leaks don’t tell us all that much about the buds, but the “A-Series” moniker seems to indicate they’ll be a more affordable model of the company’s true wireless headphones, similar to how the lower-cost Pixel models are identified with “A” names like the Pixel 4A. And speaking of “A” phones…
We likely won’t see the Pixel 5A, even though it has already been announced
Google officially announced the Pixel 5A 5G in April in reaction to a rumor that the phone had been canceled, but we probably won’t see more of it at Google I/O this year.
When Google announced the upcoming phone, the company said “it will be available later this year in the U.S. and Japan and announced in line with when last year’s a-series phone was introduced.” The Pixel 4A, 4A 5G, and Pixel 5 were all announced in early August last year, so it seems like we might be waiting until some time around then to see an official reveal of Google’s next midrange phone.
Google could share details about its custom processor for Pixels
Google is rumored to be developing a custom-designed system on a chip (SoC) for upcoming Pixel phones, the company’s first, and perhaps Google will discuss some of what that sea change could mean for Android developers and prospective Pixel buyers at I/O.
The so-called “GS101” chip may have a “3 cluster setup with a TPU (Tensor Processing Unit),” which could improve performance for machine learning applications and might also include an integrated Titan M security chip, according to XDA-Developers. And we might first see the chip on board two new Pixel phones that debut this fall, 9to5Google reported.
A Google-designed SoC could bring some major performance benefits to the company’s Pixel lineup, like what Apple sees with its custom A-series chips in iPhones. But there’s also a good chance that Google keeps this rumored chip under wraps until it unveils devices that actually have it on board, so don’t set your expectations too high.
And Google could always surprise us
Although Google has a reputation for being unable to keep its biggest products secret, there’s always the possibility that the company has some totally new and surprising things in store for this year’s I/O. Keep it locked to The Verge during the event to stay up to date on the latest.
Samsung has released a number of Galaxy Books in the last few years. Despite generally being good devices with a recognizable brand name, most of them have remained Samsung-enthusiast purchases; none have truly entered the mainstream conversation.
So it seems fitting that the Galaxy Book Pro 360 isn’t a direct sequel to any preexisting Galaxy Books. Instead, it’s an attempt to combine the best features of Samsung’s previous PCs and create a device that Samsung knows it can do really well.
It worked. The Galaxy Book Pro 360 is targeting a fairly specific audience, but in two areas — its OLED screen and its three-pound weight — it’s a groundbreaking device that has little significant competition across the market. But what’s really exceptional is that you don’t have to sacrifice much to get those standout features. It’s solid in the other areas that matter, it comes with some neat software and has few significant problems. If there’s a device that could bring the Galaxy Book out of the territory of Samsung super-fans and into the mainstream market, this is it.
The 15-inch Galaxy Book Pro 360 starts at $1,299. For the base price, you get a Core i7-1165G7, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. For $200 you can upgrade to the model I’m reviewing, which has 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. The only other difference between these configurations is that the base only comes in “mystic navy” (the color of the unit I have), while the pricier one also comes in “mystic bronze.” There’s also a 13-inch model, starting at $1,399.99, that will support 5G at some point (though it doesn’t yet).
That’s competitive pricing. The Galaxy Book Flex, Samsung’s most recent ultraportable touchscreen convertible, has an MSRP of $1,399 for an 8GB / 512GB model (though it’s often on sale now). Comparable Surface Laptop 4 and Surface Pro 7 Plus models start at $1,499 at the lowest. All Galaxy Book Pro 360 models also ship with an S Pen, which is just like the S Pen on the Galaxy Book Flex except that it’s 2.5 times thicker. As I noted in my initial look at the Book 360, it really does feel like a real pen (especially compared to the S Pens that you get with Galaxy Note phones, which feel like toys in comparison), though I wish there were somewhere in the chassis to store it.
The quad-core Core i7-1165G7 is the same processor that powers a number of the best consumer laptops on the market. The Pro 360 was just fine for the large load of Chrome tabs and apps that I pushed it through during each day of testing. Performance was snappy, and I rarely heard the fans spin up (though I occasionally heard coil whine from the processor). Note that there’s no discrete GPU option, but Iris Xe graphics can lend a hand in some lightweight gaming and graphic work.
Then, there are a number of customization features that you can tweak in the Samsung Settings app. You can swap between cooling profiles, including a “no fan” mode if you want total silence. You can toggle “Studio Mode,” which is supposed to enhance your video quality on calls — while it wasn’t night and day, I did find that this made me look a bit better in low-light settings. One feature I didn’t love was Secret Screen, which purports to be a privacy screen but really just makes the app you’re using either translucent or darker (and it doesn’t work with every app). Maybe this makes it slightly harder to snoop, but it also makes work an odd experience, and you could achieve a similar effect by just dimming your screen. I’d invest in a laptop with a real privacy shield (such as HP’s Elite Dragonfly) if you’ll be viewing highly sensitive material.
And then there are some bonuses for folks who are already Samsung devotees: you can expand your display onto a Galaxy Tab S7 or S7 Plus and quickly move files between Galaxy devices with Samsung’s Quick Share function. And the Pro 360 comes preloaded with some Samsung software, including Samsung Notes (which can sync between devices) and SmartThings.
Most of my (very few) quibbles with the device come from the outside. For one, the blue chassis is a fingerprint magnet (the lid was all smudged up after half a day of use). I also experienced some occasional palm-rejection issues with the touchpad, which improved but didn’t disappear when I bumped it down to the lowest sensitivity. And I know some people like flat keyboards, but this one is too flat for my taste, with just 1mm of travel.
But there are a couple reasons why the Galaxy Book Pro 360 really stands out, and they easily make up for those quibbles. The first is the screen. The 13-inch Galaxy Book Pro 360 will be one of very few 13-inch OLED laptops on the market. OLED is more common in the 15-inch tier, but it’s unusual to see outside of creator-focused workstations with discrete GPUs. The most obvious use for this 15.6-inch OLED panel is likely entertainment, rather than on-the-go creative work. (That’s especially true because it’s just 1920 x 1080 resolution, not 4K.)
The screen is quite sharp, with vibrant colors. (It maxed out our colorimeter, covering 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut). As we’d expect from an OLED panel, it delivers bright whites and unparalleled blacks. If you’re looking for a 15.6-inch laptop with an OLED display, you’re unlikely to find one at a lower price.
That said, there are a few things to note. First, it doesn’t get super bright, maxing out at just 276 nits in my testing. It kicked back some glare outdoors, though I was still able to use it. Second, it’s 16:9, which is an aspect ratio I’ve sworn off forever because it’s cramped for multitasking. And third, there’s some wobble when you type or use the touchscreen. It’s not the worst wobble I’ve ever seen, but it’s there.
Tent mode.
Pretty darn thin.
The touchscreen is glossy, but bright enough.
It’s responsive and generally smooth.
Another standout feature: the Galaxy Book Pro 360 is really darn portable. It’s just a few millimeters thicker than the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (0.46 inches). And at three pounds, it’s easily one of the lightest 15-inch laptops you can buy. The 15-inch Surface Laptop 4 and Galaxy Book Flex, both of which are also known for their lightweight builds, are almost half a pound heavier. I’ve never considered buying a 15-inch laptop myself, due to how much they tend to weigh; this is the first 15-incher I’ve reviewed that I can actually see myself carrying around all day.
The third benefit is one I wasn’t expecting: battery life. This laptop has a 68Wh battery, which isn’t huge for 15-inchers (though it’s bigger than you often see for a 15W processor with integrated graphics). It also has a display that could be a battery suck. Samsung’s last attempt at an OLED laptop had disappointing battery results. So I was pleasantly surprised by how long the Galaxy Book Pro 360 lasted. I averaged 10 hours and 23 minutes to a charge during my testing, which included using around a dozen Chrome tabs and some apps on the side with the screen around 200 nits of brightness. If you’re just using this for entertainment, and not as a primary work driver, you’ll likely get even more.
I’m a fan of the 15-inch Galaxy Book Pro 360, though I do think its audience is fairly specific. This is a laptop worth considering if you’re looking for an excellent big-screen entertainment experience while you’re out and about, and maybe also need to take notes for class or make artwork in your spare time. Bonus points if you’re already plugged into the Samsung ecosystem. Not everyone needs that kind of laptop — but if you do, this is a good one to look at.
The device’s weight is a huge benefit, but what’s even more impressive is that you’re not sacrificing a lot to achieve that weight. You also get a premium build, a capable processor with plenty of RAM and storage, a decent port selection, a nice screen with stylus support, and all-day battery life, all for a competitive price. What ultimately makes this laptop worth its price is that the lightweight chassis is icing on the cake — it’s not a feature you have to compromise on a ton of other things to get.
If you’re a Samsung fan who hasn’t been sold on the Galaxy Book lineup so far, I’d say this is the one to get. I wish the hinge were sturdier, I wish the keyboard wasn’t quite so flat, and I wish the screen got a tad bit brighter. But I don’t see any of those things significantly hindering the overall experience. For once, Samsung has made a tough 2-in-1 to beat.
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