Music - Page 24 of 73

Polk React soundbar + React Sub review: An injection of bass

(Pocket-lint) – If your TV audio isn’t up to snuff then there are a bevy of options on the market to help step things up a notch. Among these is Polk Audio’s React soundbar, which is available for less cash than many a rival.

But just because you’re paying less doesn’t mean you’ll get less in terms of raw sound capability. Especially if, as we have for this review, you opt for the bundled React soundbar and React Sub package.

That said, the Polk React doesn’t offer any fancy object-based sound decoding, it doesn’t even play pretend – as there’s no Dolby Atmos surround output here from the bar itself – instead sticking to Dolby Digital and DTS surround formats.

You can later invest in Polk’s RS2 surround speakers, which are simply paired at the touch of a button, to create a fully fledged 5.1 system (if you have the Sub) in smaller steps rather than forking our a massive chunk of change up front. That, we think, is a big part of this soundbar’s wider appeal.

Design & Setup

Ports: 1x HDMI (ARC) output; 1x optical input
Controls: Included remote / four-button top-of-‘bar panel
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Alexa voice control integrated
Dimensions (soundbar): 56mm (H) x 864mm (W) x 121mm (D)
Dimensions (sub): 348mm (H) x 218mm (W) x 419mm (D); 7.5kg

Having recently reviewed the JBL Bar 5.0 MultiBeam – which is an all-in-one box solution that can’t ever be connected to separates – it was interesting to dig into the Polk React for its points of difference. The Polk is a longer soundbar – at 864mm it’s 160mm longer by comparison – so even sat against a 55-inch telly, as pictured, it’s fairly good at covering the majority of the screen width, which is handy for a wide soundscape to help match the action on screen.

The Polk is simpler than the JBL in terms of core specification, though, as there’s no HDMI input, just the one HDMI input – the latter of which is ARC (audio return channel) capable. For us this meant a slight rejig of our TV’s four HDMI ports, as we couldn’t passthrough using the soundbar itself, ensuring the HDMI ARC cable provided was running from TV to React ‘bar.

Thing is, our ARC port is one of the two 4K resolution capable HDMI ports on the TV (every maker does this at present), so our BT TV box for telly had to be relegated to HDMI 4 (running Full HD maximum – which, in fairness, is how majority content from there is streamed) to save HDMI 1 for our PlayStation 5 (our source of Blu-ray and 4K streaming apps such as Netflix). ARC does its job though: once the TV is switched on the audio handshakes between device and soundbar.

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Well, it didn’t at very first. For a brief period of time we were in a no man’s land of having both TV audio and soundbar audio outputting simultaneously. That’s because the setup is, to our mind, a little finicky. The soundbar needed an update out of the box, that much it told us (by voice alert), but having advised us to install the Polk Connect app – which we did on our Google Android phone – it then didn’t like it, forcing a handover to Amazon Alexa instead. But the Alexa app initially failed to get things talking successfully.

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Success did come after a few attempts, after which there’s been no issues, but it very much points to this Polk’s intentions: it’s an Alexa voice control soundbar through and through. There’s even an Alexa button pride of place on the included remote control. There’s not even a proper off button – as your main TV remote will take over for that duty anyway – and there’s always a glowing light of some colour to the front of the ‘bar, which we think is a design downside when watching movies in darkened rooms.

Oh, and Alexa shouts crazily loud for some reason too – almost to the point of distorting – and there’s no simple way that we can find to turn this down, which is irksome.

The included remote isn’t the prettiest, but it’s well appointed, able to switch between TV and Bluetooth audio sources. There are adjustments for bass up/down on the left, volume up/down in the middle, voice up/down on the right, four quick-select movie presets below this, and surround sound volume/balance adjustment to the bottom of the controller.

That surround sound adjustment won’t do anything unless you’ve bought into the Polk’s expandable options though. As the React soundbar itself is a straight forward left, centre, right speaker arrangement. But if you buy the RS2 surround speakers – not on test here – then you can easily sync them at the touch of a button on the back of the soundbar and boost things to a 5-channel system.

Go with the subwoofer – paired in the same way, using the same button to quickly sync without extra wires – and that brings 5.1 channel potential into your living room. The sub is pretty beefy in terms of scale – and deeper than it is either wide or tall – but the addition of true bass at the lower end of the spectrum is transformative to the sound profile. We think it’s an essential addition to make the React ‘bar deliver its potential.

Sound Quality

Soundbar: 2x 96x69mm mid-range drivers; 2x 25mm tweeters; 2x passive radiators
Adjustment: Bass +/-, Voice +/-, Volume +/-, Surround balance & volume
Mode presets: Movie, Music, Sport, Night
Sub: 1x 7-inch woofer

Which brings us to the whole reason to buy a soundbar: to enhance audio quality, notching up TV audio to new heights. And the Polk React does a generally decent job, although given its positioning to the base of a screen (inevitable, of course) and lack of object-based sound control it lacks any distinct verticality – so on larger screens voice parts might not give the impression they’re coming from the person speaking with the greatest of precision.

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Otherwise there’s a lot of tweaking that can be done with ease, so it’s great to have all that control directly to hand. The presets are particularly useful, selecting Movie to enhance that extra bass – there’s always a good down-pitched “wommm” in an action flick – or Night to quieten such frequencies and allow your family/neighbours/whoever to get some shut-eye when you’re having a late night session.

The independent controls for bass and voice are handy too, the latter really adjusting the mid-to-high-end of the frequency range to give more curvature to vocal output. So if you’re finding the bass balance is a bit too high, then this can help voices to cut through the mix with greater clarity. We like that it’s a simple system, too, not over-complex in how many ways it can all be adjusted.

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However, bass-wise we’ve heard soundbars with chunkier capability. Which is why, once paired with the React Sub, you’ll really hear and feel the difference. With the React subwoofer linked up the sound has a much more rooted appeal, delivered with gusto. It’s got great musicality too, to the point we’ve ceased using our Marshall standalone speaker in the living room and instead just tuck into the Polk React and Sub on Music mode for the best possible listen.

Through the Alexa app it’s simple enough to get the soundbar to register as part of your home network. With Google Home open it’s easily identified (although not directly controllable here, as Alexa rules the way), so Spotify plays nice – and you can ask Alexa by voice to load your favourites.

We suspect that adding a pair of RS2 speakers would add to the expanse of the overall sound as, like we said up top, the Polk React doesn’t support object-based audio, so you’re not going to get any Dolby Atmos pseudo height and all-around sense from this soundbar. But, really, given how such systems can sometimes fly off the handle in weird (and not always wonderful) ways, we think Polk delivers here exactly what people will want – enhanced sound on a smaller budget.

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That will raise the question, however, as to whether you want something smaller and more technologically complete, such as the JBL Bar 5 MultiBeam that we mentioned at the beginning of this review. It can’t match the smacking bass of the subwoofer by any means, but if you don’t have the space then it might be a better fit to your needs – and the Atmos found there is impressive given the right source material.

Verdict

While the Polk React doesn’t have object-based sound decoding bells and whistles – that’s to say there’s no vertical channels for pseudo surround – as a standalone large ‘bar with decent output and control, for a very fair price, it’s got a lot going for it. Especially if you’re keen on Alexa integration for voice control.

But things really step up a notch when you add a React Sub as part of the package. That’s when the sound becomes extra full, deep and rich – to the point that it’s taken preference as our living room music speaker when the telly is out of use. Now if that’s not high praise, then what is? Keep your expectations in check in terms of technological prowess and Polk delivers strong at this end of the market.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

JBL Bar 5.0 MultiBeam

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It’s a different prospect, as it’s a single box solution – so you’ll never be able to add extras or a sub – but that might better suit your space restrictions. However, it permits passthrough (thanks to HDMI in and out ports with eARC) and offers Dolby Atmos decoding, which with the right source delivers a more complete sound. That said, the Polk’s React Sub, if you want to fork out the extra cash, takes impactful sound to the next step where the JBL simply cannot reach.

Read our review

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Yamaha SR-C20A

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Looking for something smaller? If what you need is a bit of everything from your soundbar – ignoring that, at this price point, you can’t expect surround sound – you can’t go far wrong with this little Yamaha. It’s a one-box solution (so, like the JBL above, there there’s no subwoofer here) and can turn its hand to pretty much anything, without ever making itself the centre of attention. A different prospect, but a nice neat little package.

Read our review

Writing by Mike Lowe.

Oppo Find X3 Pro review: Standout for all the right reasons

(Pocket-lint) – Oppo is on the move, gaining popularity in its home market where it’s even overtaken Huawei. But it’s not just gaining at home: it’s now undoubtedly a top contender in the world of smartphones, make it the most likely challenger to Apple and Samsung’s dominance.

Oppo’s latest effort, the Find X3 Pro, is seeking to go toe-to-toe with the likes of the Galaxy S21 Ultra and iPhone 12 Pro Max, offering a big and premium flagship experience that, as we’ve found, is stunning in almost every way.

Distinctive design

Glass and metal design; curved glass around rear camera enclosure
Dimensions: 163.6 x 74.0 x 8.26mm / Weight: 193g
IP68 water and dust resistance

For the past few years we’ve seen smartphone makers all use the same tired design and – for 2021 so far – thankfully we’re seeing some new takes. Samsung kicked things off with its odd, but purposeful, camera hump in the S21 series – the one that wrapped around the edge of the phone to form a more deliberate part of the design.

Now the Find X3 Pro delivers what we think is an even more refined finish. Rather than have a separate unit for the camera, Oppo made the camera protrusion part of the same piece of glass as the rest of the phone’s back, forming this completely seamless curve. The company says it took 2000 attempts to get this right, and nearly gave up on the idea, but the effect is really unique.

The result is a lot more subtle and refined than just having a rectangle sticking out of the back fo the phone. It’s also unique, unlike anything else currently on the market. It’s really lovely to look at – and far better looking than the odd digital renders that leaked ahead of the phone’s launch – although the camera arrangement definitely has some iPhone-like vibes.

The rest of the Find X3 Pro’s back is one smooth surface with gradual curves towards the edges, while this blue model features a lovely frosted soft glass finish that’s really nice to the touch. The branding is minimal too, giving this phone a look and feel that’s highly polished and befitting of its high price tag.

It’s slimmer than its predecessor, the Oppo Find X2 Pro, too. In fact, it’s a more than a 1mm thinner than the vegan leather model of old and noticeably lighter too – although there’s no denying the Find X3 Pro is still quite a large phone. It doesn’t have the bulk or weight of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra though.

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It’s skinny bezels all the way around on the front and nothing cuts into that display panel except for a small selfie camera punched into the top corner.

Aligning itself slightly with recent trends, the curves around the edges of the display are less extreme than we’ve seen in the past, but are very much still there. It seems the trend of ‘waterfall displays’ died before it began. Unsurprising, really, given how easy it is to perform accidental touches on those things.

Another positive is that Oppo has built in some stereo speakers, so if the phone is close enough to your face, you get that left and right channel effect while watching movies and listening to music. The loudspeaker at the bottom is definitely the louder of the two, however, and can be quite easy to cover with a hand by accident – especially during landscape gaming – leaving you with quite a quiet left channel only.

Brilliant display

6.7-inch AMOLED panel, QHD+ resolution (3216 x 1440 pixels)
120Hz refresh rate (with adaptive frame rate)
1300 nits peak brightness
ColorOS 11 (based on Android 11)

Oppo has made something of a name for itself by putting fantastic screens on its phones this past couple of years. For 2021, that’s no different. With a high-resolution and fast refresh rate panel – with adaptive refresh up to 120Hz – the Find X3 Pro delivers on that sharp and smooth experience.

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As if that wasn’t enough, it can display up to a billion colours, is HDR10+ compatible, and has a peak brightness of 1300 nits. The display spec sheet is enough to make any tech nerd’s mouth water.

But it’s not just read it and imagine stuff, it’s great in reality too. It’s bright, it’s sharp, it’s dynamic, and the colours are rich. It’s set to FHD+ resolution by default, but it’s easy enough to change to QHD within the settings and get the full effect of its sharpness (inevitably minus some battery life).

We don’t find that it over-eggs the contrast too much either, so while blacks are really deep and dark, they don’t cause the screen to feature that overly contrasty or ‘black crush’ look we sometimes found with the Find X2 Pro or OnePlus 8.

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Oppo’s ColorOS software is great in a lot of ways too. As Android skins go, it’s worked itself into the position of being one of the cleanest, most fluid and attractive options out there. It doesn’t go crazy with colourful icons and trasitions like Samsung’s One UI, and has attractive rounded corners on the notification bubbles.

It’s come a very long way since it was effectively just a clone of Apple’s iOS back in the day – before Oppo’s launch in Europe (well, relaunch). There are some quirks though. Mainly around notifications.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of consistency in how notifications are handled. For instance, we could have a little icon showing we have a notification on the always-on display, but then there’s nothing displaying on the Lock Screen. Or there coule be a little red dot on the app icon, but nothing showing up in the status bar or notification shade when we dropped it down.

The lock screen’s inconsistency was particularly unusual. Even when we’d set notifications to wake up the phone we’d see the notification light up the lock screen, but upon picking up the phone to check again, the notification would vanish – despite being unread and still showing as an icon on the always-on display.

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All of these quirks were despite having set notifications to have the ability to show everywhere (status bar/app icon/lock screen), and despite setting our most-used apps to ignore any battery optimisations that might push them to background status or send them to sleep.

Still, there’s some other fun and good points to ColorOS, such as the Relax app to help you get to sleep at night by playing some calming ambient noise. And we like the customisation options available for the interface and the always-on display.

Performance & battery life

Snapdragon 888 processor, 12GB RAM
256GB storage, no microSD expansion
4,500mAh battery capacity
- 65W Super VOOC 2.0 flash charging
- 30W Air VOOC wireless charging
5G connectivity

As far as pure power goes, the Find X3 Pro is up there with the best of them, featuring the top-end for 2021 Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 series. Here that means the Snapdragon 888 with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.

Load up your favourite games and the phone handles them without breaking a sweat, keeping up with fast animations and transitions. It doesn’t stutter or lag anywhere, so it really doesn’t matter what you try to do with it, it’ll handle it just fine. It didn’t even get particularly warm, even after a 30 minute gaming session.

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Battery management is similarly efficient. We struggled to drain the full battery in a single day, even at a weekend with three hours of gaming and then some camera testing we still finished the day with 30 per cent left over.

On quiter days with only a little dabbling with news sites, maybe an hour of gaming and some social media, we could easily finish the day with more than 50 per cent left at bed time. So we have no doubt this could easily be a two-day phone for light to moderate users.

Then when the battery does eventually empty, it has Oppo’s trademark flash charging technology in both wired and wireless forms. With the wired adapter, it can full refill in under 40 minutes. With the proprietary AirVOOC tech – which OnePlus also uses in its Wireless Warp Charge stand – you can fill it up pretty quickly with the wireless charger too.

Under the microscope

3-megapixel ‘Micro lens’

Where to start with the camera. Let’s go with the gimmick bit first. Because, actually, it’s rather fun.

In its quad camera system, the Find X3 Pro has a so-called ‘Micro lens’. This gives you the effect of zooming in up to 60x and has its own little LED light ring around it. That’s an essential addition because it’s for shooting really, really close-up shots, allowing you to see detail you just can’t with the naked eye.

Launch the microscope mode in the camera and a curtain goes from being just about able to see a weave pattern to being able to see the individual threads and weaves in the construction. It’s a similar effect with a weaved nylon watch strap or a clothbound book. Hold it to a screen and you’ll see the sub pixels in the panel. It’s pretty cool.

Yes, it’s a gimmick – and with a low 3-megapixel resolution – so it’s not particularly sharp, but it is fun and definitely adds a different edge to your photography.

It also takes some concentration and very steady hands. Holding the camera 1-3mm away from a subject is hard enough without the extreme magnification also making every tiny hand movement or shake exagerated.

It has a macro mode too, which thankfully isn’t handled by this low-resolution sensor. It instead uses the same sensor as the ultra-wide camera – which we’ll come to later.

What that means for photos – examples of which you can see in the gallery above – is that your images retain colour, detail and a natural blur that you generally don’t get with a seperate, low-resolution macro camera. It can get you great results, although its automatic activation can take a little while to get used to.

With the camera set to its default 1x mode it’ll automatically switch to macro mode as soon as you get close to a subject. Sounds great, except it switches to the ultra-wide lens – and because that’s in a physically different position you have to then adjust and re-frame.

Our only real criticism here is that sometimes with the macro mode the background blur causes edges to appear to have a outline glow, which is kind of odd.

Flagship cameras

Main: 50-megapixel, f/1.7 aperture, phase detection autofocus (PDAF), optical image stabilisation (OIS)
Zoom (2x optical): 13MP, f/3.0, PDAF, OIS
Ultra-wide: 50MP, f/2.2, PDAF

As for the other cameras, it’s pretty much all good here. Pictures have detail and a lot of vibrancy and life, especially when shooting in daylight. One of the best things is that both the ultra-wide and primary camera use exactly the same 50-megapixel sensor.

That means – since they make use of the same image processing tech too – that the balance of colour, dynamic range and detail between the two is pretty much identical. It helps photos taken from those two camera appear consistent, which isn’t the case on a lot of other phones.

The phone cameras seem to handle harsh lighting conditions pretty well too, balancing out highlights and shadows nicely. It’s a really reliable system.

One thing we did notice – in both daylight and night modes – is that the camera produces quite a warm colour balance. We like the look, but it isn’t necessarily the neutral and clean finish some will like. Saying that, there is a ‘Pro’ mode which will let you adjust all manner of settings, including the white balance.

There’s also a telephoto zoom camera with 2x optical zoom, 5x hybrid zoom, and up to 20x digital zoom, giving you that extra range you might want to shoot subjects further away.

Images from this camera don’t have that same quality look of the two primary cameras, but they hold up well – up to about 5x anyway. Zoom beyond that and the detail falls off quite rapidly. At 20x the picture looks quite ropey, with details somewhat jagged and blurry.

With night mode activated the phone performs well in low-light conditions too. To our surprise we found that both the primary and ultra-wide cameras perform well in night mode, drawing in a lot of light. Although, with its wider aperture, the primary is noticeably better.

We took the Find X3 Pro out to compare with the iPhone 12 and Google Pixel 5 at night and found that its images were warmer than the other two. It doesn’t seem as heavy-handed with contrast and highlights like the iPhone, but isn’t quite as realistic looking as the Pixel in our view.

Night mode doesn’t just apply to photos either. Tapping an AI enhancing button boosts the video performance at night too. This does effect the optical stabilisation a little negatively, but results in some pretty colour and hyper-realistic scenery, but it’s impressive to see the difference in really low-light situations.

Best smartphones 2021 rated: The top mobile phones available to buy today

By Chris Hall
·
12 March 2021

Verdict

When it comes to display, battery life and overall speed, the Oppo Find X3 Pro is undoubtedly one of the best flagships on the market right now – and will likely remain a strong choice throughout 2021.

While the camera does have a habit of warming up pictures’ colour balance and sometimes making them a bit oversaturated, the whole system is immensely versatile and gets great results, regardless of lighting conditions.

The only other negative relates to quirks with notifications from the ColorOS software. Otherwise it’s hard to find much fault with Oppo’s top-tier flagship.

While Oppo might not be a familiar name to everyone, the Find X3 Pro is so fantastic in nearly every way that it’ll put the brand name on the map. It simply stands out from the crowd for all the right reasons.

Also consider

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Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

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Oppo is competiting with the big names, and Samsung’s latest ultra-premium device has a lot going for it. The screen is fab and it has a super camera system. Oh, and that Phantom Black colour is stunning too.

Read our review

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iPhone 12 Pro Max

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It’s Apple’s latest all-singing all-dancing flagship and offers many of the same hardware features. It’s a very polished experience all-round if you’re not up for Google’s Android OS.

Read our review

Writing by Cam Bunton.

Yamaha SR-C20A

Our Verdict

For those simply looking to improve on the sound of their TV for just a couple of hundred pounds, the Yamaha SR-C20A is a great option

For

Focused, clear presentation
Rich tone
Great size

Against

Could be more expressive

As with any market that becomes congested, manufacturers are trying every trick in the book to make their soundbar stand out. For only a few hundred pounds these days you can have it all: mile-long bar, massive sub and every 3D sound technology so far invented.

Sound quality, however, is often secondary. After all, if you can sell a cheap soundbar before anybody’s heard it then you’re unlikely to get many returns – unless it sounds absolutely atrocious.

Build

(Image credit: Yamaha)

It’s almost a relief, then, when we receive an affordable product such as the SR-C20A and find it to be free of frills, almost basic. It suggests Yamaha has focused on designing a great-sounding compact soundbar that will improve your TV’s sound with little fuss. And if you take a look at our 2020 Award winners, you’ll see that is an approach we like a lot.

At only 60cm wide and 6.4cm tall, the SR-C20A will have little trouble sitting beneath any TV (a 32-inch set is about 70cm in width) or, as Yamaha suggests, a computer monitor for more immersive gaming. Not that it is content sounding that small.

Features

(Image credit: Yamaha)

The SR-C20A promises volumes and depth belying its stature thanks to its pair of 46mm full-range drivers and integrated 75mm subwoofer with dual passive radiators. Though there is no attempt made here to deliver counterfeit height channels, it does use Yamaha’s Virtual Surround Technology to help create room-filling sound you might not readily associate with a soundbar of its size.

Yamaha SR-C20A tech specs

(Image credit: Yamaha)

Bluetooth version 5.0

Output power 100W

AirPlay No

Dolby Audio Yes

Inputs/outputs HDMI, optical x2, analogue audio

Dimensions (hwd) 6.4 x 60 x 9.4cm

Weight 1.8kg

Things are kept simple at the back of the unit, too. Between the keyholes for wall mounting are two optical inputs, one 3.5mm analogue in and an HDMI ARC out – there is also a USB socket, for updates only. And if you don’t want to connect your new soundbar to anything but the power, Bluetooth 5.0 is on board for wireless streaming.

You’ll also find a few touch controls on top of the SR-C20A for source selection, power and volume, and LEDs at the front signifying the source in use, but otherwise, this is a pleasingly clean soundbar. In fact, you’ll find much more going on with the remote than the unit itself.

Yamaha has its own Sound Bar Remote App from which you can control all aspects of the SR-C20A, but we’re pleased to have a physical controller in the box as well. As well as the basics, you can use this remote to tweak subwoofer levels and select from four sound modes: Stereo, Standard, Movie and Game.

There are also buttons for Bass Extension, should you want to give more emphasis to the lower frequencies, and Clear Voice, which picks out dialogue and allows it to be more audible when otherwise it may get lost in a busy scene.

All potentially useful, though inevitably the SR-C20A sounds its best in its standard settings, with the bass dialled back depending on the surface the unit is placed on. Leave it to do its work in its most basic mode, and this is a cost-effective soundbar well worth your attention.

Sound

(Image credit: Yamaha)

The SR-C20A delivers that rich Yamaha tone, immediately promising a performance it’d be difficult to dislike. The midrange in particular is full-bodied and clear, the SR-C20A’s woofer making itself known by providing solid foundations, if not exactly rumbling the walls of the room.

There is a commendable level of detail on offer for a soundbar at this price, too, and overall clarity is good. Yamaha is clever enough to know why people buy products such as these, and has succeeded in delivering a clear and focused presentation that will improve on that of any regular flat-screen TV. The SR-C20A’s dimensions mean the sound is a little closed in at times – when scenes become particularly busy and at higher volumes – but never to the extent it becomes messy or unintelligible.

The main area in which it lacks a little something is in terms of dynamic expression. This Yamaha is indeed quite interesting – you couldn’t go as far as to accuse it of being flat – but it doesn’t quite convey the lilts and emphases of dialogue in a way we’d want in order to give it a full five stars.

That affects its use as a wireless speaker for music too, or for watching music shows on TV, as does a slightly pedestrian sense of timing. It’d be harsh to compare the SR-C20A directly with a sole-purpose speaker at the same price, but rhythmically we’d still like a little more energy and impetus. It’s why the Sonos Beam is well worth the extra outlay if you can afford it.

Verdict

But that doesn’t mean this soundbar is unworthy of our recommendation. It is still a clear step up from the sound of most TVs, while its price and dimensions make it easy to accommodate in just about every way.

Of course, there are better soundbars out there, but you’d have to be willing to spend a chunk more. At this price, the Yamaha SR-C20A is a worthy contender for a spot in your living room.

SCORES

Sound 4
Features 5
Build 5

MORE:

Read our guide to the best soundbars

Read our Sonos Beam review

Read our Yamaha SR-B20A review

Read our JBL Bar 5.0 MultiBeam review

Go listen to Spotify’s podcast about itself that ignores the existence of iTunes

Spotify is making a podcast about its own history, and the first two episodes are well worth a listen for the details on the jump from piracy to streaming, how the company decided to build its business, and the technical details of how it did so. There are also some fun interviews included, with the podcast featuring stories from Sean Parker, inventor of Napster, and Lars Ulrich of Metallica.

In the podcast, the Spotify founders discuss the history of piracy in Spotify’s home country, Sweden, to give context about its development environment. It goes into the existence of Sweden’s Pirate Party, an actual political party that once held several seats in the country’s parliament. The founders also discuss how they wanted to take the ease of pirating music but make it legitimate.

If talk about being easier than piracy sounds familiar, it’s probably because that was part of the pitch for the iTunes Music Store, too. It seems, for the most part, that iTunes and the iPod are pretty much completely ignored. The podcast presents music distribution as going from CD stores to Napster to Spotify. Apple and Spotify aren’t the best of friends, but it’s honestly somewhat hilarious to hear how the story completely ignores the fact that people could, in fact, buy digital music (an option that was around even before Spotify launched).

Despite the lack of objectivity about the history of digital music, the technical depth alone makes it well worth a listen. The second episode (labeled 01) gets into how Spotify used the same peer-to-peer tech used by the pirates to build its legitimate music streaming service and how its approach blew people’s minds at the time. Even though the story leaves some pretty important parts out, it’s still worth a listen to hear the origins of the popular music (and, obviously, podcasting) service.

Lip-syncing app Wombo shows the messy, meme-laden potential of deepfakes

You’ve probably already seen a Wombo video floating around your social media. Maybe it was Ryu from Street Fighter singing the “Witch Doctor” or the last three heads of the US Federal Reserve miming in unison to Rick Astley’s “Never Going to Give You Up.” Each clip features exaggerated facial expressions and uncanny, sometimes nightmarish animation. They’re stupid, fun, and offer a useful look at the current state of deepfakes.

It’s certainly getting quicker and easier to make AI-generated fakes, but the more convincing they are, the more work is needed. The realistic Tom Cruise deepfakes that went viral on TikTok, for example, required an experienced VFX artist, a top-flight impersonator, and weeks of preparation to pull off. One-click fakes that can be created with zero effort and expertise, by comparison, still look like those made by the Wombo app and will continue to do so for the immediate future. In the short term, at least, deepfakes are going to be obviously fabricated and instant meme-bait.

The Wombo app launched late last month from Canada after a short development process. “Back in August 2020 I had the idea for Wombo while smoking a joint with my roommate on the roof,” app creator and Wombo CEO Ben-Zion Benkhin tells The Verge. Releasing the product was “an enormous joy,” he says. “I’ve been following the AI space, following the meme space, following the deepfake space, and just saw the opportunity to do something cool.” In just a few weeks, Benkhin estimates the app has seen some 2 million downloads.

Wombo is free and easy to use. Just snap a picture of your face or upload an image from your camera roll, and push a button to have the image lip-sync to one of a handful of meme-adjacent songs. The app’s software will work its magic on anything that even vaguely resembles a face and many things that don’t. Although similar apps in the past have been dogged by privacy fears, Benkhin is adamant users’ data is safe. “We take privacy really seriously,” he says. “All the data gets deleted and we don’t share it or send it to anyone else.”

The app’s name comes from esports slang, specifically Super Smash Bros. Melee. “If a player lands like a crazy combination then the casters will start yelling ‘Wombo Combo! Wombo Combo!’” says Benkhin. True to these origins, Wombo has proved particularly popular with gamers who’ve used it to animate characters from titles like League of Legends, Fallout: New Vegas, and Dragon Age. “I did some digging into [the origins of the slang],” says Benkhin, “and apparently there was some pizza place that started all this, where they would put a shit-ton of toppings on all their pizza and call it a Wombo Combo.”

Benkhin says the app works by morphing faces using predefined choreography. He and his team shot the base video for each song in his studio (“which is really just a room in my apartment”) and then use these to animate each image. “We steal the motions from their face and apply it to your photo,” he says. The app is also an example of the fast-paced world of AI research, where new techniques can become consumer products in a matter of weeks. Benkhin notes that the software is built “on top of existing work” but with subsequent tweaks and improvements that make it “our own proprietary model.”

Currently, Wombo offers just 14 short clips of songs to lip-sync with, but Benkhin says he plans to expand these options soon. When asked whether the app has the proper licenses for the music it uses, he demures to answer but says the team is working on it.

As with TikTok, though, it seems the reach offered by Wombo could help ameliorate license-holders’ worries about rights. Wombo has already been approached by artists wanting to get their music on the app, says Benkhin, and it’s likely this could offer a revenue stream in addition to the current premium tier (which pays for priority processing and no in-app ads). “It’s going to give [artists] a completely new way of engaging audiences,” he says. “It gives them this new viral marketing tool.”

Wombo is far from the first app to use machine learning to create quick and fun deepfakes. Others include ReFace and FaceApp. But it’s the latest example of what will be an ever-more prominent trend, as deepfake apps become the latest meme templates, allowing users to mash together favorite characters, trending songs, choreographed dances, public figures, and so much more. The future of deepfakes will definitely be memeified.

OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro leaked press pics confirm almost everything

(Image credit: winfuture.de)

Two versions of the OnePlus 9 flagship smartphone have been all but confirmed with the leak of a full set of press renders. The pictures purport to show a more premium OnePlus 9 Pro, with what appears to be a gently curved 6.7in screen, and a OnePlus 9 with a flat 6.5in display.

The leak comes courtesy of German website WinFuture and also confirms that both of these smartphone models come with Hasselblad camera arrays. They’re set to be available in three colours each, but there is no sign of the predicted third, cheaper OnePlus 9R device.

Sadly, the pictures don’t show the bottom or top edge of the phones but, judging by recent OnePlus mobiles, it’s not likely we’d find a 3.5mm headphone socket.

OnePlus 9: release date, price, leaks, and all of the news

Previous rumours have marked these slim bezel mobiles down as either Full HD+ or QHD AMOLED displays, with 120Hz refresh rates for better rendering of fast moving images. There’s no intel on HDR support of any kind but hopes are high given that the OnePlus 8 Pro is HDR10+-enabled.

What is clear in the photos is that, as predicted, the OnePlus 9 comes with a triple camera and the OnePlus 9 Pro with a quad set-up, with both including an ultrawide lens with a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 sensor, as confirmed on Twitter by OnePlus CEO, Pete Lau.

(Image credit: winfuture.de)

This leak comes approximately two weeks ahead of the 23rd March launch date for the OnePlus 9 range. Both phones are expected to be 5G-enabled as standard and feature 45W fast charging and reverse wireless charging too.

There are no prices available as yet but the predicated Astral Black, Arctic Sky, and Winter Mist (OnePlus 9) and Forest Green, Morning Mist and Stellar Black (OnePlus 9 Pro) colour options now appear to be confirmed.

MORE

These are the best smartphones for music and movies.

And here are the best Android phones.

Technics Ottava F SC-C70 MK2

Our Verdict

It might work for those who need a CD player and streaming in one box, but there are far better alternatives if you can compromise on features

For

Plenty of weight to sound
Good timing
CD player can be useful

Against

Dynamically uninteresting
Bass detail is poor

With vinyl sales having overtaken those of the CD for the first time in 35 years, and cassette tapes enjoying a similar resurgence to the black disc, it is almost novel to be testing an all-in-one system such as the Technics Ottava F SC-C70 MK2 in 2021.

We’re very much in favour of any physical media inclusion in a sector that is increasingly geared towards streaming, of course; it’s just a pleasant surprise when there’s a wireless speaker asking us to dig into our racks of CDs.

This is actually the second generation of Technics’s most premium Ottava wireless speaker, adding features such as Auto Space Tune along with a complete retune for its new drivers. We didn’t get our hands on the first one, but did spend some time with the four-star Ottava S SC-C30 – the baby of the group – so feel justified in having some high expectations.

That said, you shouldn’t really need any prior knowledge of the range to expect something for the money you’ll have to pay. A price tag of £799 ($999, AU$1649) certainly isn’t the weightiest among the wireless speakers we’ve tested, but it does place the SC-C70 MK2 in a premium bracket.

We’ve heard plenty of speakers that can comfortably account for prices doubling that of this Technics, even without bonuses such as the CD player. But to get an idea of how stiff competition is here, we only dished out one 2020 What Hi-Fi? Award to a wireless speaker costing more than £500, and that one is £50 cheaper than the SC-C70 MK2. Essentially, this is a lot of money to spend, and you’re well within your rights to expect something special in return.

Build

(Image credit: Technics)

There are certainly some aspects of the SC-C70 MK2’s construction that resonate with its price. Opening the packaging reveals a thick aluminium top panel – either grey or black, depending on which of the two finishes you’ve chosen – and the speaker’s weight as you lift it from the box is equally reassuring.

It looks pretty good, too. There’s an industrial stylishness to its straight lines and vent-like grille, which stands out just enough while hopefully not dating it too much into the future; a speaker such as this should have some staying power.

The OLED display is small, but functional, while that top plate also houses a few well-engineered push buttons alongside a row of touch controls for playback. You probably won’t be up this close often, though, thanks to the included remote and ability to work the SC-C70 MK2 via its app.

Around the back, there are inputs for aux-in, optical and USB, alongside connections for the included radio antenna, power and wired internet. These are all sandwiched between a pair of reflex ports that complement a quintet of drivers inside.

Most notably, the SC-C70 MK2’s downward-firing subwoofer, which you’ll feel if you stroke the speaker’s undercarriage. It’s a 12cm driver aiming to add some serious depth to the pair of forward-firing 8cm drivers taking care of the speaker’s midrange.

Technics F Ottava SC-C70 MK2 tech specs

(Image credit: Technics)

Power 30W + 30W (40W sub)

Inputs Aux-in, optical digital, USB-A

Headphone out Yes

Finishes x2

Dimensions (hwd) 14.3 x 45 x 28cm

Weight 8kg

In this second-generation SC-C70, these woofers are said to benefit from the reduced weight of their voice coil, enhanced airflow and increased rigidity of their diaphragm, and aren’t the only component to have undergone a major revamp.

The pair of 2cm dome tweeters are much changed, too, with a lighter silk diaphragm and optimised acoustic lens for improved dispersion. And each section has its own JENO Engine full digital amp unit, delivering 30W to the tweeters and midrange drivers and 40W to the sub.

There’s a lot packed in, and it becomes evident that it’s the SC-C70 MK2’s interior, along with the top plate, providing most of the weight. Unfortunately, the rest of the outside is rather plasticky to the touch. That might not be of great importance, given you’ll rarely touch the speaker’s sides, but it’s a feature that extends to the swiveling CD lid. Our initial hope that this might be glass is soon quashed, and a less than smooth finish on the edge only compounds the disappointment.

Features

(Image credit: Technics)

At least we can’t fault the feature list. Built-in Google Chromecast means the SC-C70 MK2 is primed for multi-room use, while Apple AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth also offer wireless playback options. That is, of course, along with the CD drive, DAB+ and FM radio, and analogue and digital inputs.

Less ordinary, though, is Technics’s Space Tune technology, and more importantly this speaker’s new automatic function. The MK1 offered pre-sets of Free, Near the Wall, and Near the Corner; all of those are present again for quick EQing, depending on where your speaker is placed, but the new Auto function can do that more precisely by using test tones and on-board mics for optimal sound.

You can even go further, using the Technics Audio Center app to adjust settings depending on your listening position. iOS devices can also be used to measure room noise and acoustic conditions as well as further calibrating sound characteristics.

Sound

(Image credit: Technics)

Some tuning could be vital, depending on your room, as there’s a lot of power coming from the SC-C70 MK2 that needs to be kept tame. Most notably in the low end, where that subwoofer proves a sound investment early on for those who like a lot of bass.

The key, of course, is finding a good balance; the Auto Space Tune does a good job of that, and the ability to further tweak is welcome. But you won’t be criticising this Technics speaker for not having enough in the way of bass weight.

Detail levels are generally okay as well, giving enough information to keep that full-bodied presentation from becoming soft – in the upper registers at least. Unfortunately, though, the other side of all that bass is that the mix is a bit of a blunt object and rather bereft of detail.

Despite that slightly corpulent low end, timing is still surprisingly good. It is an aspect with which a lot of really bassy-sounding products often struggle, appearing slow or muddled, but the SC-C70 MK2 is actually rather good at keeping time.

However, because that accurate timing is betrayed by a real dearth of dynamic expression, it fails to deliver any great sense of rhythm. This is our main gripe: there is such a lack of expression it quickly becomes a wearing listen.

(Image credit: Technics)

We sit there willing the SC-C70 MK2 to appear a little more interested in the music we’re sharing with it, but it has made up its mind. It’s even more of a shame when you consider all the power it flaunts delivering those bass frequencies; even if just a little more of that was directed at giving some punch, this would be a more entertaining listen.

And as we noted earlier, the SC-C70 MK2 has entered the market among some seriously talented rivals. If we were underwhelmed with its performance at first, the Technics only loses more ground when we compare it with the Award-winning Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation.

There’s no CD player here, of course, but you should ask yourself whether you really need one; the Naim is leagues ahead in terms of detail, rhythmic sense and excitement. And you can always put the money saved towards a CD transport later on if necessary.

You’d even get a better all-round performance by going for a micro system such as the Denon D-M41DAB. Again there are compromises – the stereo speakers are separate, so it isn’t a on-box solution, and your only wireless streaming is via Bluetooth – but if CD is your main concern, then it’s a no-brainer in terms of sonic performance and value.

For anyone considering buying the Technics SC-C70 MK2, our advice would be to go back to the drawing board and think about what you’re willing to compromise. Our choice would always be features or space, rather than compromising on sound.

Verdict

Regardless of whether or not there is a true like-for-like alternative, the Technics Ottava F SC-C70 MK2 is just too expensive to sound this lifeless. A re-tune may be able to solve its issues – the feature set and building blocks of a good performance are here, but at the moment you’d need some fairly specific requirements to consider this a worthy buy.

SCORES

Sound 3
Features 5
Build 4

MORE:

Read our guide to the best all-in-one systems

Read our Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation review

Read our Denon D-M41DAB review

Compact cassette tape inventor Lou Ottens has died aged 94

(Image credit: Laura Balbarde at Pexels)

As reported by Dutch publication NRC Handelsblad, the inventor of the compact cassette tape, Lou Ottens has died aged 94.

Ottens began working at Philips in 1952 and became the head of product development for the company’s Hasselt division in 1960. Here, he started his journey to bring the reel-to-reel tape format into a more portable and user-friendly form factor.

Cassette renaissance: UK music fans buy a whopping 65,000 tapes in 2020

The first success for Ottens and his team was the Philips EL 3585 – a ‘portable’ tape recorder that ran on batteries, but still used the reel-to-reel format. You can view this delightful piece of history at Johan’s Old Radios.

Frustrated by the bulkiness and clumsiness of the format, Ottens and his team worked to condense the technology, and two years later they unveiled the first compact cassette tape, complete with a plastic housing.

The cassette was debuted at the Berlin Radio Show in 1963, and was marketed as being ‘smaller than a pack of cigarettes’. Soon after, the term “compact cassette tape” was trademarked and Philips had developed a consumer-ready player to handle the new standard format.

A decade later, Ottens would also be involved in the Philips team that collaborated with Sony to develop the CD, yet another industry standard for storing great amounts of audio in an incredibly compact fashion.

When NRC Handelsblad had asked Ottens in 2018 what he thought about the renewed interest that cassette tapes were having in recent years, the pioneer thought it was silly, noting that CDs were unbeatable for audio quality.

Best CD players 2021: CD players for every budget

A long, spoiler-filled chat

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a bold shift for Sega’s long-running series, doing away with beloved protagonist Kazuma Kiryu and shifting to turn-based RPG-style combat. In Kiryu’s place is the wild-haired Ichiban Kasuga, who finds himself homeless in Yokohama after doing 18 years’ hard time for a murder he didn’t commit.

The PlayStation 5 version of Like a Dragon was just released last week, a few months after the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and next-gen Xbox versions. Since then, I’ve played several dozens of hours of Like a Dragon on the Xbox Series X, and it’s become one of my favorite games in the series.

I took the opportunity to ask Masayoshi Yokoyama, Sega’s chief producer and writer on the game, some questions about how the team approached Kasuga as a character and his story from beginning to end.

Warning — there are some pretty heavy spoilers toward the end of this interview.

First, I’d like to ask about Kasuga himself. How involved were you with the character creation process? What were the principles for the character you kept in mind when writing for him?

Basically, I have been in charge of the character settings (such as personalities, speech mannerisms, and the backbone of their action principles) for the main characters that appear in the main story since the first game.

The character, Ichiban Kasuga, was originally born during the development of Ryu Ga Gotoku Online, which is a mobile app title being serviced in Japan.

At the time, we just finished the development of Yakuza 6 and were ideating on a new protagonist to take Kiryu’s place. That’s when we decided on taking apart the indestructible hero image and creating a more “real-world hero.”

Kazuma Kiryu’s personality is representative of characters that appear in “Ninkyo” films, which is a genre of Japanese mafia films that have been around from back in the day. He is generally reserved, stoic, and self-sacrificing, but stronger than anybody and prefers to act alone. In a way, his character embodies qualities that Japanese boys and men would look up to.

Kasuga, on the other hand, was created with the intention of being more “relatable” rather than “admired.” I wanted to create a character whose words and actions would emotionally move us, and someone that you’d want to cheer for and fight alongside.

Since the aforementioned Ryu Ga Gotoku Online was a card battle game in which players form decks with their friends to fight against enemies, I wanted to depict the strength of a “leader” rather than the strength of an “individual,” which became the origin of my idea.

After that, I compiled all of Ichiban Kasuga’s origin and life story into a document and presented to executive director [Toshihiro] Nagoshi and my team members. This led to talks of potentially using this character for the next console game and then eventually became official for Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

Masayoshi Yokoyama of Sega’s Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.

Was there a conscious effort to make him different to Kiryu? What do you think the two characters have in common?

For those that have played both Yakuza and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, you may have noticed that Kazuma Kiryu and Ichiban Kasuga lead a similar path.

Both had a difficult childhood without the love of their immediate family, then felt extreme gratitude and admiration for the ones that took care of them. Unable to suppress these emotions, both set out on the path of yakuza. Right when they’re about to become full-fledged yakuza, they both go to prison for a crime neither committed. What awaited them after their long sentence was an unimaginably cruel reality… This general flow is exactly the same for both of them.

However, just because the two characters’ personalities differ so much, the same general plotline gives off a totally different feel for both. Upon release from prison, Kiryu goes straight to find his mentor Kazama. While Kasuga also tries to find his mentor, Arakawa, before he sets out to do so, he decides to clean himself a bit first and stops by the hair salon to get a botched perm. Both characters follow the same path, but vastly differ in their portrayal.

I actually haven’t had too much difficulty depicting each of the characters. For Yakuza: Like a Dragon, I set out to write the story after fleshing out Ichiban Kasuga as a human being, so while writing, I even surprised myself at times how different these characters acted within very similar circumstances.

Which came first: the idea to make Kasuga an RPG obsessive, or the decision to shift Like a Dragon to RPG-style turn-based combat?

The decision to shift to RPG came first. The character setting that Kasuga loves RPGs came after.

As previously mentioned above, the concept was “to create a new relatable hero,” so we chose the most optimal game system (a party system) that would make Ichiban Kasuga’s story interesting. We wouldn’t have made the same decision for Kiryu, who fights with only his own power.

One of my beliefs in creating games is to “value the core of play.” This involves deciding what the game is supposed to entertain, and then assigning the various components to the right places accordingly.

The story is the core element of the Yakuza series. This game was made to enjoy the story, and the other elements such as the city used as the setting, music, mini-games, and battle action are all there to elevate the story experience.

For Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the most optimal way for players to experience the story and show the battles of Ichiban Kasuga and his friends that gathered around him was the RPG style. So, upon deciding the RPG genre, there were then a few questions that we had to address, such as: How will we make Kasuga relate to the “hero” job class? What is the logic behind the exchanges during these battles within Kasuga’s mind? One way we addressed these was to make Kasuga an RPG enthusiast.

The character’s personalities are often expressed in their combat moves — was there discussion between the writing and gameplay teams on specific abilities that would be funny or appropriate?

Here at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, there isn’t much of a clear distinction between the writing and game design teams. I started out in what we call in Japan as a “planning position” (game designer), and I’m now kind of like the boss of the whole planning team [laughs]. All the other writers on the team are selected from among the current planning staff based on their writing skills and put on different projects.

Basically, the game designing and narrative writing are not compartmentalized, so our planning crew meetings always have the mini-game designers, battle action staff, and writers in attendance. Even the voice recording is supervised by the person in charge of each part of the game.

That’s the overall gist of things, so even for anything minor, we discuss and make decisions as a whole team. Ideas are always flowing, but since we value the energy and momentum over the precision of an idea, so we do end up axing a lot of them [laughs].

I don’t know if this is the same for everyone, but Like a Dragon took me a lot longer to finish than other games in the series. This is probably because of the slower-paced combat, but did the longer running time affect your approach to story writing and pacing?

The volume and length of the story is actually not that different from the past games in the series. So, it didn’t affect the story writing and pacing all that much. We look to the general volume of a 10-episode Japanese drama series when creating the Yakuza series.

For this game, I think the reason for the longer playtime was because of the shift to RPG, requiring more time to level up.

The accelerating the battle tempo was something we worked on until the very end of development. We also continued to make adjustments to the time it takes to level up, but the game is designed so it will become difficult to beat the stronger bosses unless you change jobs and collect materials for better weapons.

For those players that are playing this game in the same way you played through the past ones, it might feel a bit longer, but we went with this kind of balancing because we wanted players to discover the fun sights of the city while leveling up their party, instead of simply grinding to level up.

The Yakuza series has a really unique blend of serious and light-hearted subject matter. How do you balance those aspects when writing and make sure everything feels appropriate for the series?

As touched upon earlier, I think the greatest strength of our team is that the narrative, game design, character design, animation, and sound creation staff all have a deep understanding of what the “core” is.

The reason for this isn’t simply how long we’ve known each other or how well we get along. I think that each and every staff member loves Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza) and I think that’s the biggest reason. I personally am in charge of story writing and also am the chief producer and have a hand in ideating and executing on some marketing and PR initiatives, but every decision I make is based on how to reflect the content of the game in any kind of promotion or campaign, and how to make the game itself more interesting.

All staff members that are involved with the game, including those working within the game and outside of the game, such as the sales team, advertising team, and marketing team, are working hard to increase the produce value of the game, so everyone’s accumulated effort is maybe what creates this great balance.

In a past game, someone on the advertising team even wrote and implemented an original story scenario for a real company that appeared in Kamurocho that he was the point person for [laughs], so as you can kind of see what kind of team Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is.

This is the first Yakuza game where you’re accompanied by a party of characters for almost the entire running time, and they all have their own motivations. Was that a challenge compared to previous Yakuza games, where the focus tends to be on the current protagonist?

In the past, when creating games like Yakuza 0, which depicted the past of Yakuza, and other remake titles, I would dig deeper into the characters other than the protagonist, so this wasn’t so much of a challenge for me.

I think Arakawa is probably the most pivotal character in the game. The intro does a good job of making him a sympathetic character before setting him up as the villain, and then he’s revealed to have been on the Tojo Clan’s side all along, before meeting a tragic end. How early on in the writing process was his role decided, and was he always intended to have an arc that spanned most of the game’s story?

This was something that was decided at the start of writing the first chapter. When creating the intro scene of the game, my determination was that “I’m going to depict the life of this man, Masumi Arakawa,” so the game started out on that scene.

The Han Joon-gi twist was particularly unexpected for me given how he died in Yakuza 6. What was the thought behind (sort of) bringing him back as Kim Yeonsu?

This was actually something that was decided around the time I started thinking of Ichiban Kasuga’s story. There wasn’t too much deliberation behind this decision, but my personal thought was that if the Jingweon Mafia were to make an appearance, then Han Joon-gi has to be there, too. In addition, I feel like the Jingweon Mafia would do something like that. Sorry for surprising you [laughs].

Of course, the biggest reveal of the game is the return of Kiryu, although his role is quite minor. Were you planning from the beginning to include him in Like a Dragon, considering how Yakuza 6 seemingly drew a line under his storyline?

This wasn’t decided in the early stages of planning the story. When the main themes of the game were decided to be about the dualities of the front and back — the hypocrisy and justice, the superficiality and the truth of Japanese society — I thought it was impossible not to have him appear in the episode of the underworld, so we decided that he would make an appearance.

I have the same question for Goro Majima, who seems to appear in every Yakuza game to varying degrees now. In Like a Dragon, he’s a difficult boss fight but doesn’t otherwise have a big role in the story — how did you approach his inclusion?

The reason why we decided that he’d make an appearance is the same as for Kazuma Kiryu. However, the big difference is that we cut all ties to the past. This game is unwaveringly seen from Ichiban Kasuga’s perspective, so we got rid of any information or connections that Kasuga has no need of knowing.

This is the beginning of the tale of Ichiban Kasuga, and not a continuation of the Kazuma Kiryu story.

We wanted those players that started the series with Like a Dragon to have the same amount of knowledge and emotions as Kasuga when interacting with Majima and other characters from the past series, so we didn’t include any unnecessarily deep interactions.

I’m sure you can’t say anything specific about potential future games, but I thought it was interesting how Like A Dragon finished on an open-ended note, with Kasuga deciding his friends are what’s most important to him. Is there a direction you’d like to take the character in the future?

I think that Yakuza: Like a Dragon is only the first chapter of Ichiba Kasuga’s life. Since he was in prison for 18 years, he has only just begun his life as an adult man. I’m sure there’s probably many trials and tribulations that await him.

Even Kazuma Kiryu, who was said to be the strongest, had his life turned upside down with his encounter with a little girl. As Kasuga starts out his new life, he will surely encounter challenges that he cannot solve through violence or brute force.

I develop each game with the intention of creating a life of a single person. I’m not sure if I’ll continue to write Ichiban Kasuga’s life or not, but I can totally imagine him in deep trouble somewhere on the face of this Earth [laughs].

Design & Setup

Sound Quality

Also consider

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Distinctive design

Brilliant display

Performance & battery life

Under the microscope

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Our Verdict

For

Against

Build

Features

Sound

Verdict

Our Verdict

For

Against

Build

Features

Sound

Verdict

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