The wraps are finally off the OnePlus 9 Pro and OnePlus 9 smartphones and the features are very much what we would expect of a pair of 5G flagship Android handsets seeking to impress on the audio and video front.
The more premium OnePlus 9 Pro looks to be the one to choose for movies on the move with its 6.7in QHD+ (1440x3216px) gently curved, 1300nit, AMOLED display, including LTPO power saving technology. It is capable of 10-bit colour depth and a dynamic refresh rate up to 120Hz, but that can be controlled automatically to bring the speed down to something kinder on battery life when not gaming.
The 6.55in OnePlus 9 is a little lower-specified, but it still offers a healthy-sounding 2400x1080px, 1100nit, flat display with a pixel density of 402ppi (compared with 525ppi). There’s no LTPO with the AMOLED screen this time, and although there is the 120Hz refresh rate, there’s no dynamic switching.
Both units support HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos sound which should add some AV appeal. They support playback of MKV, MOV, MP4, H.265 (HEVC), AVI and other video formats, with both Apple lossless and FLAC enabled on the audio side.
Both phones will allow 8K video capture at 30fps, 4K video at 120fps (60fps with the OnePlus 9) and Super Slow Motion at 720p as well for those looking to make movies of their own.
OnePlus, like most manufacturers, continues its stance against the 3.5mm headphones socket. Instead, wired listening is done through the USB-C port, as is wired charging, via the OnePlus Warp Charge 65T power adaptor that’s included in the box. It allows a complete recharge of the 4500mAh battery in the OnePlus 9Pro and OnePlus 9 in just a claimed 29 minutes. The Warp Charge 50 Wireless charger (£70) is available to buy for both and should do the job in 43 minutes.
For wireless audio, there’s Bluetooth 5.2 with aptX and aptX HD included as well as LDAC technology which allows hi-res audio streaming over Bluetooth at up 24-bit/96 kHz.
Running the show for both mobiles is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip and either 8GB or 12GB of RAM depending on whether you opt for the 128 or 256GB storage version respectively.
(Image credit: OnePlus)
Expect that space to disappear pretty quickly too if the Hasselblad cameras on these phones are as good as OnePlus is hoping. The OnePlus 9 range is the first of a three-year partnership between the two companies.
The 9 Pro features a four-camera array with the 48MP Sony IMX789 behind the main lens, a 50MP ultra-wide shooter, an 8MP telephoto with 3.3x optical zoom and a monochrome lens specially tweaked by Hasselblad to capture even more black and white information. The Swedish optical company has calibrated all of the cameras to provide what it feels are the best and most natural colours possible. Both phones get a 16MP front facing camera too but the OnePlus 9 doesn’t get the telephoto lens.
(Image credit: OnePlus)
The camera bumps on these devices have been designed to be more streamlined and in tune with the bodies of the phones than on previous OnePlus models. The 197g chassis on the 9 Pro is made of an aluminium frame and measures 163 x 74 x 9mm. It’s also IP68-rated for water and dust resistance. The OnePlus 9 is a 182g fibre glass infused polymer build of 160 x 74 x 9mm.
Both phones run Android 11 with the OnePlus Oxygen OS interface on top. They’re available to buy now in Astral Black, Arctic Sky or Winter Mist (OnePlus 9) and Stellar Black, Morning Mist or Pine Green (OnePlus 9 Pro). The Morning Mist and Astral Black 9 Pros come with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage and cost £829/$969/€899. The souped-up Pine Green is the 12GB/256GB version and comes in at £929/$1069/€999.
As for the OnePlus 9, the Winter Mist colour (£729/$829/€799) indicates the better-specified phone, with 12GB RAM and 258GB of storage. The other two finishes are 8GB/128GB phones and cost £629/$729/€699.
The phones are available to pre-order from 3.30pm GMT today at OnePlus.com, Amazon, John Lewis and Three, with open sales from 31st March (OnePlus 9 Pro) and 26th April (OnePlus 9).
MORE:
Take a look at the best Android phones 2021: Google-powered smarties for budgets big and small.
And how about a pair of the very best headphones to go with them?
OnePlus has released its new batch of phones, the OnePlus 9 and the 9 Pro. As is the tradition with OnePlus, the phones are equipped with the latest high-end Snapdragon chips and are priced lower than most of the competition.
Both phones also include charging features that Apple and Samsung don’t match: they wirelessly charge at a super-fast 50W and can charge at 65W over wired charging. They also both have Hasselblad’s camera tuning and software.
The OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro are very similar, but there are a few differences to watch out for:
The Pro has a bigger screen
The Pro includes a telephoto camera and mmWave 5G
The unlocked and T-Mobile versions of the Pro have IP68 certification — only the T-Mobile version of the regular phone is IP68 certified
The Pro includes “Hyper Touch” where it polls for finger input at 360Hz
At retail prices, the regular OnePlus 9 is $70 cheaper than Samsung’s regular Galaxy S21 and $100 cheaper than the iPhone 12. Both of those phones include mmWave and IP68 water resistance. But if those aren’t features you care about, it may be worth the savings to you.
The 9 Pro can’t quite match the all-out specs and features of the Galaxy S21 Ultra, but it’s also priced well below it, too. For fun, we also threw in Oppo’s latest flagship phone, which isn’t available for purchase in the US but is pretty similar to the Pro.
It’s taken years, but OnePlus is finally getting in the smartwatch game with the newly announced OnePlus Watch, starting at $159. The new watch (as was revealed last week) has a round design that looks similar to a regular wristwatch, instead of the oblong rectangle popularized by the Apple Watch and its imitators, like the Oppo Watch.
The case itself is stainless steel, measures 46mm, and features two buttons on the side (one of which features the OnePlus logo). It’ll be available in two colors: silver and black. The display is a 1.39-inch OLED panel at 326ppi, with sapphire glass.
The watch will also feature a version of OnePlus’ Warp Charge system (promising a week of battery life off a 20-minute charge). OnePlus promises that the watch should last up to two weeks on a single charge or up to one week for heavier users.
Specs-wise, the OnePlus Watch features 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, and integrated speakers. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS are all built in, but there’s no cellular option. If you want connectivity on the watch, you’ll have to be connected to a nearby phone.
Image: OnePlus
Fitness is also a big part of the OnePlus Watch. It’ll offer over 110 workout modes, offer built-in GPS, and feature IP68 water and dust resistance. Additionally, the OnePlus Watch features internal storage for music, which allows users to store up to 500 songs to listen to over their Bluetooth headphones when out on a run, even if they don’t have their phone with them. The OnePlus Watch can also automatically detect and track workouts as well as monitor sleep, stress, blood oxygen saturation, and heart rate.
OnePlus isn’t using Wear OS for the OnePlus Watch, though. As the company had announced before the event, it’ll use RTOS-style software setup (similar to companies like Fitbit), with a companion app that will allow it to connect to your phone to receive calls and notifications. (An iOS app for Apple users is promised for the future, too.)
That means things like app selection and custom watchfaces will be largely limited to whatever OnePlus can build in-house — so no third-party apps, at least for now. That said, to start, there’ll be dozens of watchface options to choose from (with additional customization choices to add more style options), so users will have some flexibility.
The OnePlus Watch can also be connected to a OnePlus TV (where available), allowing it to be used as a remote. And if you happen to fall asleep when you’re watching TV on OnePlus’ set, the watch can automatically turn off the TV after it detects that you’ve fallen asleep.
Image: OnePlus
The company also announced a limited edition model made out of a cobalt alloy, which it says is twice as hard as stainless steel. OnePlus says that the Cobalt Limited Edition will be “coming soon,” but the company isn’t providing a price yet.
The OnePlus Watch will start at $159 and will be available starting on April 14th from OnePlus’ website.
Google is expanding efforts to design its own chips with the hiring of Uri Frank, an Intel veteran with over two decades of experience in custom CPU design, the company has announced. Frank will head up a new Isreal-based team for Google, and will serve as the company’s VP of Engineering for server chip design. “I look forward to growing a team here in Israel while accelerating Google Cloud’s innovations in compute infrastructure,” Frank wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing the move.
As Google and other tech giants have sought more performance and power efficiency, they’ve increasingly turned towards custom chip designs tailored towards specific use cases. Google has already introduced several custom chips including its Tensor Processing Unit (to help with tasks like voice search and photo object recognition), Video Processing Units, and OpenTitan, an open-source security-focused chip.
On the consumer side, Google already designs custom chips like the Titan M and Pixel Neural Core for its phones. There have also been reports that Google is designing processors that could eventually power its Pixel phones and Chromebooks.
Despite the hire, Google cautions that it’s not planning on building every server chip itself. “We buy where it makes sense, build it ourselves where we have to, and aim to build ecosystems that benefit the entire industry,” the company explains. But the big change will be trying to integrate these different pieces of hardware on a single system on chip (SoC), rather than via a motherboard where they’re separated by “inches of wires” that introduce latency and reduce bandwidth. “The SoC is the new motherboard,” Google says.
Other tech giants have similar custom chip ambitions. Amazon has its ARM-based Graviton server chips while Facebook has announced data center chip designs of its own. Microsoft is also thought to be working on designing its own server chips, as well as processors for its lineup of Surface PCs. Apple has several chip designs to its credit, and is currently in the process of transitioning its Mac lineup from Intel to its own ARM-based processors.
Twenty years ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs poached Ron Okamoto away from Adobe to become vice president of developer relations and later help build the App Store. Now, we’re learning he has retired — less than a couple months before Apple’s App Store is set to go on trial.
The eagle-eyed Mark Gurman at Bloomberg spotted that not only was Okamoto listed as a potential witness in that trial, but that court documents describe him as the former VP of worldwide developer relations, not the current one. Bloomberg is now reporting that he’s been replaced by Susan Prescott, a product marketing exec who started becoming one of the public faces of the company in 2015.
Okamoto’s still set to be deposed in the trial, but perhaps for less than an hour. He’ll seemingly be testifying about the App Store’s policies, business model, how it compares to developing for macOS, and the “transformation of the application software business.”
A new partnership between Fitbit and Tile will now let users of Fitbit’s Inspire 2 locate their devices with Tile’s Bluetooth tracking, the companies announced Monday.
The free update is available starting Monday. Users will just have to update their device software in the Fitbit app to add Bluetooth tracking, then download and activate the Tile app. Once the Tile app is enabled, Inspire 2 users should be able to locate their misplaced device (it happens to the best of us) via its most recent location, or they can use Tile’s global crowdsourced network to try to find it.
Fitbit Inspire 2 users can also sign up for Tile Premium to get smart alerts and other premium content at a price of $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year.
It’s the first official partnership between Tile and a wearable device company (although Tile does count headphone manufacturers like Bose, Skullcandy, and Sennheiser among its partners). The lost-item-tracking field is growing crowded as more companies develop products to compete with Tile. Samsung unveiled its Galaxy SmartTag earlier this year, and Apple’s AirTags have been expected for some time. Both are expected to have both Bluetooth and ultra-wideband (UWB) versions.
Also starting Monday, Fitbit’s Charge 4 devices will get an update that adds SpO2 blood oxygen saturation tracking, skin temperature tracking, and Fitbit’s health metrics dashboard.
Apple could release an iMac featuring its own chip sooner rather than later. MacRumors reported that several configurations of the all-in-one computer have been removed from the company’s website, which suggests that they have been discontinued.
MacRumors said the 512GB and 1TB SSD options have disappeared from the 21.5-inch iMac’s page on the Apple website. Those options were previously greyed out, so there was a fair chance they would return, but now they seem to be gone for good.
These aren’t the first iMac models to be discontinued—Apple said earlier this month that it would no longer offer the iMac Pro after it sold through its current inventory. Now it seems the company’s making its way through the rest of the iMac lineup.
Why? Probably because Apple said when it introduced the M1 chip in November 2020 that it expected to equip all of its Macs with custom silicon in about two years. So far it’s updated the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini product lines.
The iMac would be the logical next step. The all-in-ones already sit in between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro when it comes to cost and performance. It would make sense for Apple to put its own chips in the iMac before moving on to the Mac Pro.
The company also hasn’t given the iMac a meaningful update in years. They’ve had a few spec bumps, sure, but for the most part, it reserved the big new features for the iMac Pro. (And even that only received modest upgrades after its 2017 debut.)
Bloomberg reported in January that Apple plans to change that by announcing redesigned iMacs featuring its own silicon later this year. Discontinuing the iMac Pro and these two models of the 21.5-inch iMac could help the company make that shift.
That doesn’t mean the current iMac‘s already gone: Apple still lists several configurations of the 21.5- and 27-inch models on its website. Just don’t be surprised if more of them disappear in the weeks leading up to the company’s next event.
There’s a new iPad on the way. Or, rather, four to be exact.
Apple is said to be about to launch a new iPad Pro next month. While most range refreshes include minor tweaks, this one should bring some major new screen technology into play – and it’s tech that could really improve the user experience.
Not only that, but Apple is also thought to be working on a new iPad Mini that’s bigger than the current model, as well as a refresh to the standard iPad; both of those should launch this year. Add them to the two different-sized Pro models, and that makes four new iPads in the pipeline.
Excited? You should be. Here’s why.
Check out the current range: Best iPads: big, small, budget and premium
Apple iPad Pro 2021: release date
The next iPad Pro refresh could happen very soon indeed. That’s according to Bloomberg, which carried a report recently detailing the new models.
Its sources say that the new Pro models will launch in April. There’s no firm date set, and Apple is yet to announce any events for the coming weeks. But it usually gives at least two weeks’ notice, so expect a mid-April launch at the earliest.
Once they have been announced, however, the new iPads could go on sale just days later, or even immediately.
This would be the fifth generation of iPad Pro. The current model launched last March, a year ago almost to the day. But a spring launch isn’t a given for iPad Pros. The third generation launched in October 2018, while the second gen landed in June 2017. The first model was announced in September 2015 and launched in November of the same year. Fingers crossed it becomes a new spring regular.
OS agnostic? Read our guide to the best tablets covering both iOS and Android
iPad Pro 2021: price
(Image credit: Apple)
The iPad Pro is the daddy of the iPad family, a stylus-equipped tablet that’s superpowered for work and play. Want the best games? The crispest movies? Need it for work, be it illustrating, animating, video editing or music production? It’s the tablet for you.
Of course, all this power doesn’t come cheap. Here’s how the current Pro models stack up.
iPad Pro 11in: from £769 ($799, AU$1329)
iPad Pro 12.9in: from £969 ($999, AU$1649)
With all that natty new screen tech at hand to go with all the usual improvements, we can’t see Apple dropping the price of the new models. Expect them to be in keeping with the current price tags.
iPad Pro 2021: screen
(Image credit: Apple)
We’re expecting two new models of iPad Pro, in the same sizes as the current models (11in and 12.9in). And it’s the bigger of the two that’s really got our attention.
That’s because it is said to boast a Mini LED screen. Like OLED, this technology is used in TVs, but it has better contrast ratios than the current Pro’s OLED panel. It is also less susceptible to burn-in, so if you accidentally leave your tablet on YouTube over the weekend you won’t have to worry about the logo being forever etched in the screen.
We don’t have only Bloomberg‘s word for it. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said back in 2019 that he expected Apple to start using Mini LED screens in its tablets and laptops. He even predicted that Apple would launch the tech in the 12.9in iPad Pro. When two such reputable sources say the same thing, the odds are that it’s true.
Mini LED has a lot going for it. It’s pitched as a more affordable version of OLED, though it works similarly to LCD tech. Essentially, the LEDs on a Mini LED panel’s backlight are much, much smaller than those used on a traditional LCD screen – and therefore there are a great many more of them; we’re talking tens of thousands rather than tens of hundreds. The idea is that the more LEDs used, the greater control the device has over over local dimming – i.e. how bright or dim parts of the screen can go. Theoretically as a result, Mini LEDs can produce pictures with better contrast, pictures with more precise shading and, in turn, better colour reproduction than your average LCD screen.
With a backlight, Mini LED TVs can reach a higher peak brightness than an OLED screen is capable of, and as there is greater control over what portions of the screen are dark it’s easier to achieve deeper blacks. That said, as there is still a backlight in the mix and the LEDs can’t turn completely off, as the self-emissive diodes in OLEDs can, it’s doubtful they’ll be able to produce quite the lights-off blacks that OLEDs can.
Still, we can’t wait to see the technology in action on an iPad. And it sounds as though we won’t have to, for long.
iPad Pro 2021: design
While the screen may be all new, it doesn’t sound as if the design of the device will change much, if at all. According to Bloomberg‘s report, the new Pro models will look similar to the current models. But that’s no bad thing.
The current iPad Pro, after all, is about as sleek as tablets come. Thanks to its narrow bezel, it’s basically all screen, making movies, games and TV shows all the more immersive. Sticking to this design will only serve to better show off the new screen tech, too – when the device is all screen, it really enhances those popping colours and sharply defined edges.
The current models are super slim and light, too. The 11in model sizes up at 24.7 x 17.8 x 0.6cm, while the 12.9in version comes in at 28 x 21.5 x 0.6cm. The smaller model weighs 473g, while the larger tips the scales at 643g – that’s lighter than a squeezy bottle of ketchup.
Unlike some other tablets, the Pro features speakers on both its top and bottom. This means that, when watching a film with the tablet in landscape orientation, you benefit from stereo sound, in contrast to those tablets with speakers in only one place.
The Pro also features a USB-C connection, but the new models have reportedly been tested with Apple’s Thunderbolt connectors. It’s not clear at this point whether they will ship with Thunderbolt or USB-C.
Apple is also reportedly testing its MagSafe connector for laptops. MagSafe is a magnetic connector – because it connects using magnets, the connection breaks if the cable is yanked out, and your device won’t tumble to the floor (say if someone trips over the cable). It was first used in Apple’s laptops, but recently made a return in the iPhone 12 as a way of snapping on accessories. With Apple mulling over MagSafe for MacBooks, could the next iPads also use it?
iPad Pro 2021: specs
(Image credit: Apple)
While the new iPad Pros might look almost identical to the current models, they should be much more powerful. So powerful, in fact, that performance should reportedly be “on a par” with Apple’s M1 MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros and Max Mini.
These M1 devices are the first to feature Apple’s own processors. That’s because last year the firm stopped using Intel chips in favour of its own, homegrown ones, known as Apple silicon. With Apple making both the hardware and software, it is able to optimise performance – these chips are made specifically for Apple devices, after all, as opposed to off-the-shelf processors that power all manner of desktops, laptops and tablets.
Reviews have praised Apple silicon devices, due to their notably improved performance. They have also shown big improvements in battery life.
For example, the latest Apple MacBook Air boasts up to 15 hours of wireless web performance, and up to 18 hours of movie streaming via the Apple TV app. The current iPad Pros manage only about 10 hours of power before needing a recharge, so it’s quite possible that the new models will see a significant battery bump.
The new Pros are also said to have new cameras, but here details are a bit thin on the ground.
Tablets’ cameras are usually a bit of an afterthought; but not on the Pro. This is a device built for creative professionals, after all, and imaging technology is likely to be high on their priority list. It has two rear cameras (a 12MP wide-angle lens, and a 10MP ultra-wide), with 2x optical zoom and 5x digital zoom. It also allows for 4K video recording at 24fps, 30fps or 60fps, 1080p HD video recording at 30fps or 60fps, and 720p HD video recording at 30fps.
The 7MP front-facing camera also has 1080p HD video recording at 30fps or 60fps.
Any upgrade on these would be most welcome, especially to the filmmakers eyeing up a new tablet to help make their movies.
Other new iPads for 2021
(Image credit: Apple)
As we said, the new Pros aren’t the only iPads in the Apple pipeline. The firm is also reportedly working on a new iPad Mini and a refresh of the standard iPad.
The Mini should have a slightly larger screen than the current 7.9in iPad Mini. This follows the trend in mobiles, which has been for bigger screens in recent years. Though it would still carry the Mini moniker, so don’t expect it to supersize anytime soon.
The standard iPad will reportedly be slimmer and lighter than the current model. The current iPad measures 25 x 17 x 0.7cm, so cutting down these dimensions will be no mean feat.
Expect minor spec bumps for these two devices, too.
Both of these iPads are expected to launch later in the year, possibly around September. That would be a year on from the last iPad range refresh. It’s also when we’re expecting the new iPhone 13. Could be a busy month.
MORE:
Read our in-depth Apple iPad (2020) review
Find the perfect Apple tablet for you: the best iPads 2021
Apple’s first over-ear headphones rated: read our AirPods Max review
Everything we know so far about the rumoured AirPods 3
A judge has certified a class action suit against Apple for its fragile butterfly keyboard design. The suit covers anyone who purchased an Apple MacBook with a butterfly keyboard in seven states: California, New York, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, and Michigan. That includes people who bought a MacBook model dating between 2015 and 2017, a MacBook Pro model between 2016 and 2019, or a MacBook Air between 2018 and 2019.
Judge Edward Davila certified the case with seven subclasses on March 8th in California, but the order remained sealed until late last week. It raises the stakes for a suit that was first filed in 2018, three years after Apple added the controversial butterfly switches to its laptops.
The butterfly keyboard was slimmer than Apple’s previous design, which used industry-standard scissor switches. But many disgruntled MacBook users found that Apple’s revamped keyboard failed when even tiny particles of dust accumulated around the switches. That resulted in keys that felt “sticky,” failed to register keypresses, or registered multiple presses with a single hit. Apple tweaked its butterfly keyboard multiple times, but after continued complaints, it abandoned the switches in 2020.
This suit claims Apple knew for years that its butterfly switches were defective — and that its incremental changes weren’t fixing the core problem. It cites internal communications inside Apple, including an executive who wrote that “no matter how much lipstick you try to put on this pig [referring to the butterfly keyboard] . . . it’s still ugly.”
The plaintiffs accuse Apple of violating several laws across the seven states mentioned above, including California’s Unfair Competition Law, the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, and the Michigan Consumer Protection Act. They aren’t asking for a nationwide certification at this time, but the law firm behind the suit has invited any US buyer of an affected MacBook to complete a survey.
Apple argued against class action certification, saying one consolidated suit shouldn’t cover multiple tweaks to the butterfly keyboard. But the plaintiffs successfully argued that all butterfly keyboards may have the same fundamental problems due to their shallow design and narrow gaps between keys. “None of the design differences that Apple points to changed the tight spaces between the keys, nor the low-travel aspect of the design,” the order reads. Apple will have to argue later, in court, that these basic features didn’t actually make the design unreliable — and that it didn’t spend years knowingly making defective keyboards.
Apple’s HomePod mini smart speaker has an as-yet-undisclosed temperature and humidity sensor in its casing, Bloomberg reports. The sensor’s exact location was confirmed by iFixit, and it appears to be placed away from the speaker’s internal components so it can measure the external temperature. The exact sensor used is a 1.5 x 1.5mm HDC2010 Humidity and Temperature Digital Sensor from Texas Instruments.
Although the sensor isn’t currently usable by HomePod mini owners, according to Bloomberg, Apple has internally discussed allowing the sensor to provide information to other smart home devices like thermostats or fans. This could give smart heating equipment more information about how warm a room is or allow the speaker to trigger a device like a fan if it senses a room has reached a certain temperature. The functionality could work via HomeKit, Apple’s smart home ecosystem, which currently integrates with dozens of internet-connected thermostats.
Amazon has previously included temperature sensors in Echo speakers like its 2020 model, where the sensor can be used to trigger other devices via Alexa routines. Meanwhile, Google sells standalone sensors via its Nest sub-brand, and its Nest Hub announced last week also includes a similar built-in sensor to help monitor your room’s temperature while you sleep.
Although Apple declined to comment to Bloomberg on its report (and did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment), on at least one occasion, it’s included hardware in a device that’s only been officially activated months later. Its 2008 iPod touch included a Bluetooth chip, Bloomberg notes, but it wasn’t able to connect with Bluetooth devices until the year after its release. The hope is that a similar software update may be on the way for the HomePod mini. For those keeping track, major new HomePod firmware tends to release in the fall of each year.
Sony has announced that from 6th April 2021, customers in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain can enjoy 360 Reality Audio immersive, object-based content on Sony’s premium home wireless speakers when using Amazon’s CD-quality streaming service Amazon Music HD.
The two models receiving 360 Reality Audio support (aka Sony’s proprietary spatial sound technology to rival Dolby Atmos or Apple’s Spatial Audio) via Amazon Cast are the RA5000 and RA3000 – Sony’s January 2021-launch high-end immersive wireless home speaker propositions.
360 Reality Audio tracks are streamed over wi-fi through Amazon’s premium Amazon Music HD service, to incorporate three-dimensional sound location data and boast an “all-encompassing sound” when played on the RA5000 or RA3000.
In addition, Immersive Audio Enhancement, a unique algorithm from Sony, promises to enhance the audio experience of any two-channel stereo track to create ambient room-filling sound.
(Image credit: Sony)
Andre Stapleton, global head of artist and label relations at Amazon Music said: “We believe sound quality matters, and by expanding Amazon Music HD’s audio experience to Sony’s new home wireless speakers, more people than ever will be able to enjoy music in its highest quality.”
Richard Palk, head of product marketing and product planning at Sony Europe said: “We’re proud to continually evolve the 360 Reality Audio ecosystem, are thrilled to have Amazon Music HD as a new streaming partner for our new premium home speakers.”
Introduced in 2019 with 1000 tracks, Sony’s 360 Reality Audio now boasts approximately 4000 songs from artists such as Megan Thee Stallion, Noah Cyrus, Zara Larsson, Paloma Faith and more. Sony 360 Audio makes it possible for artists and creators to produce music by mapping sound sources such as vocals, chorus and instruments with positional information and placing them within a spherical space. This revolutionary musical experience, powered by Sony’s spatial sound technologies, promises to evoke feelings of being in a music studio or live concert venue – all without leaving the comfort of home.
Don’t have an Amazon Music HD account? It’s OK. In addition to Amazon Music HD, 360 Reality Audio is available to stream using Tidal, Deezer and the streaming service for live gigs, nugs.net (Deezer coming summer 2021 via Chromecast built-in) on the RA5000 and RA3000 speakers.
We’ve not yet had the pleasure of welcoming Sony’s premium wireless home speakers to our testing facility (The RA5000 boasts Alexa/Google Assistant built in, three upfiring speakers, three mid-drivers and a subwoofer and retails for £499, the RA3000 is priced £299) but for more information, you can visit Sony’s website.
MORE:
See the best smart speakers 2021: the best voice assistant speakers
Read all our Sony reviews
Check out our pick of the best music streaming services 2021: free streams to hi-res audio
Apple has been ordered to pay $308.5 million to Personalized Media Communications after a federal jury in Texas found the company had infringed on a technology patent related to digital rights management, Bloomberg reported. PMC had sued Apple over its FairPlay technology, used to distribute encrypted content from iTunes, Apple Music, and its App Store.
PMC, which is a patent licensing firm, originally sued Apple in 2015, claiming the tech giant had infringed seven of its patents. Apple successfully challenged the case to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, but an appeals court reversed the patent board’s decision last March, and the case went to trial.
Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Verge on Sunday, but told Bloomberg it would appeal the ruling. “Cases like this, brought by companies that don’t make or sell any products, stifle innovation and ultimately harm consumers,” Apple’s statement reads.
Reuters notes that Sugarland, Texas-based PMC also has infringement cases pending against Netflix, Google, and Amazon.
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Apple’s AirPods Max just might have ushered in a new norm of $500-plus wireless headphones. My argument in support of this? V-Moda’s new M-200 ANC headphones, which sell for $499.99 and, as the name makes obvious, are the company’s first headphones to include active noise cancellation. V-Moda is a company that’s well-known in the DJ world, and prior headphones like the original M100s and Crossfade 2 Wireless have earned it some fans in the audiophile crowd. With the M-200 ANCs, V-Moda is trying to compete in a higher price bracket than ever before — but the results are a little uneven.
If there’s one thing that V-Moda has never wavered on, it’s durability. Like past models, the M-200 ANC headphones feel phenomenally strong and reassuring no matter how harshly you handle them. These things are built like tanks. My old pair of M100s must be at least seven or eight years old at this point, but the folding joints and other core hardware have never given out — even long after the headband material has started to wear and show its age. I still use ‘em as a gaming headset with V-Moda’s add-on boom mic.
I think it’s fair to question whether this is the same V-Moda that it used to be; before the company was sold to Roland, I’d regularly sit down with founder Val Kolton, who seemed to hold the brand to an obsessive level of quality assurance. But so far, I don’t see any reason to question the robustness of these new headphones.
The M-200 ANCs stick with the usual V-Moda aesthetic: it’s mostly a mix of metal and artificial leather. They also still fold down into the company’s signature carrying case. However, the size of the shield plates on each ear cup has changed. So if you’ve got old, customized plates, those will no longer fit. The ear pads (filled with memory foam) now attach magnetically and feel nice and cushiony. It used to be that you had to buy V-Moda’s aftermarket “XL” earpads for the best extended comfort, but not so this time around. I’m also glad they’re so easy to replace. Magnets!
There are buttons at the top of the right ear cup for play / pause and volume controls, and this is where the M-200 ANCs start to betray their asking price. The buttons are mushy, which I can understand since that means they don’t click loudly as you’re listening to music. It can still feel a bit cheap. Aside from this, their location so far at the top can make them awkward to reach when you’re actually wearing the headphones. Maybe it’s just my enormous head, but I struggled at times. The buttons at the bottom for power and noise cancellation are much simpler to reach (and for some reason, they’re clickier, too).
Out of the box with EQ settings left untouched, the M-200 ANCs have an extremely neutral sound profile. I don’t know that I’d call them reference studio monitors, but they’re very flat. This can make for a jarring change if you’re switching over from other headphones like the AirPods Max or Sennheiser’s Momentum Wireless cans, which try to show you everything they’re sonically worth right off the bat without any adjustments. In this case, you’ll want to immediately explore the EQ presets (V-Moda’s app lets you take full manual control) to find something that sounds the best to you. Even if you crank the low-frequency sliders, the M-200 ANCs won’t rattle your brain. But you can get them to a point where EDM and hip-hop don’t underwhelm, which they can if you stick with the default, balanced EQ.
When you do take the time to nail the EQ, the M-200 ANCs sound very good. V-Moda downsized to 40-millimeter drivers (from 50mm in the original M-200), but these headphones do a terrific job of preserving the mids through all sorts of EQ adjustments. “$500 noise-canceling headphones with neutral sound” strikes me as an odd zone to be playing in, but V-Moda can certainly paint itself as a standout here. They support aptX HD, aptX, AAC, and SBC Bluetooth codecs, so they’re well-rounded for wireless audio. I also tested them wired with my Apple Lossless files and streaming Amazon Music HD, and the M-200 ANCs proved wonderfully layered and rich. (They don’t seem to pass audio over USB-C, unfortunately, so that port is just for charging.)
I’ve noticed that V-Moda’s app can be buggy; sometimes it’ll display a spinning loading indicator that never goes anywhere. The M-200 ANCs have also given me “iPhone can no longer connect to this device” errors, which required me to pair the headphones all over again. Roland needs to put more work into its software. Most frustrating of all is that the M-200 ANCs can only store two paired devices in memory. If you add a third, the first one will be overwritten. Want to switch between a phone, tablet, and PC without much fuss? Sorry.
The M-200 ANC ear pads attach to the headphones magnetically. Underneath them are these 40mm drivers.
These headphones don’t have a dedicated transparency mode that you can toggle on for hearing outside noise. But V-Moda did blatantly steal a trick from Sony: you can hold a hand on the left ear cup, the music will drop in volume, and ambient noise will be piped in using the built-in microphones. Once you remove your hand, your music volume and ANC return to normal. That’s a useful feature for quick interactions or listening to an announcement at an airport or on a train, but at $500, I would’ve liked to see some way of keeping transparency mode enabled for as long as desired — no arm-lifting required.
The M-200 ANCs lack sensors for detecting when they’ve been removed from your ears, so they won’t pause audio automatically like other premium noise-canceling headphones. Again, for $500, those extra convenience tricks should be part of the experience. Another would be multipoint Bluetooth pairing, which these headphones don’t give you either. Battery life is rated at 20 hours, which is on par with Bose and Apple but short of Sony.
V-Moda is new to noise cancellation, and it shows. The M-200 ANCs can’t rise to the level of the AirPods Max or even lower-priced options like Sony’s 1000XM4s or the Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700. They’ll cut out a lot of lower-frequency noise, but the overall effect isn’t quite on the level of competitors. The V-Moda app lets you choose between 10 levels of noise cancellation, but even fully dialed up, I never quite felt like I was in that personal bubble of silence that the best ANC headphones provide. On the positive side, V-Moda’s noise cancellation didn’t result in any discomfort, nor did it noticeably alter the sound, which can happen with some headphones.
Who will be next to join the $500 noise-canceling headphones squad?
Along with the headphones and case, V-Moda includes a 3.5-millimeter cable, USB-C charging cable, and an airplane adapter. I really wish the company had bundled its BoomPro microphone — sold separately for $35 — right in the box with the M-200 ANCs. It feels like a missed opportunity, as the BoomPro is truly a great accessory for gaming and Zoom calls. Keep in mind that Apple didn’t even include a headphone cable with the AirPods Max, so I can’t knock V-Moda too hard, but this would’ve been a prime moment to give customers that bonus. It also would’ve helped boost the M-200 ANCs at voice call performance. As is, the built-in microphones are nothing special, and callers might find it difficult to hear you in loud or windy environments.
I genuinely wonder if V-Moda would have priced these things at $500 in a world without the AirPods Max. With Apple’s cans set aside, you’d be looking at an upper echelon of Bluetooth headphones with options like the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 and Sennheiser Momentum 3 that tops out around $400. (No, I haven’t forgotten about those $800 Beoplay H95s, but come on.) The M-200 ANCs are a solid pair of wireless headphones, and they maintain V-Moda’s fantastic build quality. But it’s impossible to overlook what’s missing when a company is asking for this much cash. The balanced sound signature will be a definite win for people who are explicitly looking for that. But these really needed to have a true transparency mode and better ANC to keep up with the pack and to warrant the significant investment.
The consumer protection agency in Brazil’s São Paulo state has fined Apple $2 million for failing to include chargers within iPhone 12 boxes, according to 9to5 Mac. Procon-SP says Apple engaged in “misleading advertising, selling a device without the charger and unfair terms.”
Apple announced in October that the iPhone 12 and would not come with chargers or earbuds in their boxes, citing environmental concerns. By only including a USB-C to Lightning cable with iPhone 12 and other new models, Apple said it would be able to reduce the raw materials for each iPhone it sells, in addition to reducing the size of the phones’ boxes. Critics suggested the change had more to do with allowing Apple to reduce shipping costs, and environmental experts said the impact on the environment would likely be minimal.
Procon said it asked Apple whether the company would reduce the iPhone 12’s price since there were no chargers included, and did not receive a response. The agency also accused the company of failing to help customers who had “problems with some functions” on their iPhones following updates. A spokesman for the agency said Apple “needs to respect these laws and these institutions.”
The fine does not seem like it would be particularly troubling for Apple, which had $111.4 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2021 (that total includes 2020 holiday sales of iPhone 12 models).
Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment Saturday from The Verge.
Apple recently discontinued the iMac Pro, and two configurations of the 21.5-inch iMac are now joining the Pro in retirement. As spotted by MacRumors, the 512GB and 1TB SSD configurations of the 21.5-inch iMac are no longer available for purchase, with only the 256GB SSD and 1TB Fusion drive versions available to buy on Apple’s website.
Both configurations appeared unavailable for purchase on Apple’s website as of last month, but at the time it was not clear if that was a supply issue or a permanent discontinuation of the two options. But now both the 512GB and 1TB SSD options are gone from the iMac configuration page, MacRumors notes.
A big iMac redesign has been rumored in the works for some time. Apple is expected to replace the 27-inch and 21.5-inch versions of the iMac with a redesigned iMac and will likely revamp the Mac Pro sometime this year. In January, Bloomberg reported that the update would have a flat-back design and do away with the “chin” beneath the screen.
The new iMacs are expected to use Apple silicon chips, as the company continues to shift away from Intel chips.
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