Review - Page 17 of 153

Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo review: In a wonderful world of its own

(Pocket-lint) – During a week where the sun had non-stop been blinking between the clouds – almost teasing a glimpse of summer – it was perhaps inevitable, from the moment we arrived at Porsche HQ in Reading, UK, that the heavens opened. And didn’t stop properly pissing it down thereafter.

But perhaps the car gods knew we were about to test drive the Cross Turismo, Porsche’s crossover – think all-roader with a bit of estate form thrown into the mix – because this more rugged and spacious version of the Taycan is at ease with such unfavourable conditions.

Indeed, once sat behind the wheel of the Taycan Cross Turismo, it was all internal sunshine and smiles. For this Panamera-esque all-electric is comfortable yet powerful and accomplished in equal measure.

Design & Interior

As you can see from our pictures, complete with blurry raindrops in motion, it wasn’t exactly the most favourable conditions to shoot the Cross Turismo. But even covered in droplets of water the Taycan crossover is undeniably attractive – especially from its front quarters.

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The original Taycan was a real vision of new design from Porsche, one that the Cross Turismo grabs ahold of and tinkers with as applicable to its form and function. Front-on and you might not spot the difference, really, those trademark headlights – yes, the ‘sad eyes’, it’s really like the rain is making the mascara run – giving a real distiction to Porsche’s all-electric range.

The Cross Turismo is built upon the same platform as the Taycan, adding more to the hind quarters, which is where the visual style shifts the most. It’s chunkier, more estate-like – although not with all the practicality, as the 405 litre boot attests by not being class-leading by any means – and permits an extra 47mm of headroom to rear passengers. That might not sound like a lot, but it is if you’re intending to cart around growing teenagers. That’s the key appeal of this model.

Inside, the Taycan Cross Turismo is more or less a mirror image of the Taycan (in our experience we mean that literally: we’ve driven a left-hand-drive German import of the former, right-hand-drive UK model of the latter). There’s some classic Porsche finishing touches such as stitched leather, but it’s the abundance of screens in the layout that gives it real future-facing appeal.

There’s a driver’s display and a head-up display (HUD) to catch a glimpse of the most immediate facts and figures, but that driver display is an expansive 16.8-inch panel where the protruding edges are used for touch-control of various settings, from suspension/ride height, to headlights adjustment, traction control, and more.

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Extending beyond this is a dash screen, which continues onward into a second passenger dash screen. You can tailor which screen shows what, but it’s great the driver can be left to concentrate on the road, giving the passenger their own direct controls to make various (non-disruptive to driving) adjustments.

Below the centre tunnel houses yet another screen to present climate controls for left and right passengers. Cupholders sit where you might expect to find some kind of gearstick – but the Taycan Cross Turismo doesn’t have one of those, instead it’s a little R/N/D toggle just to the left side of the wheel – which we find very strangely positioned and out of eyeshot.

The seats are finished in a super comfy leather, while matte carbon edging to various panels adds a touch of high-end flare. It’s a wonderfully comfortable place to sit, those seats being firm yet cushioned just enough to ensure you’re not thrown about when throwing the car about. As we said of the original Taycan: “it’s not quite as cradling a feeling as, say, you’ll get from a Lexus LC500C” – but you’ll only get two people in the latter anyway.

Drive & Range

A fundamental difference between the Cross Turismo and the Taycan is the former’s ride height. It always sits higher, which changes its ride style, giving that greater ground clearance and better all-road credentials.

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Not that it’s a high ride, as such, because rotate the Drive Mode dial and the car’s adaptive suspension reacts, sinking the car to a lowered level when in Sport Plus, for example, where despite seated on a raft of power the car still elegantly glides along like few other electric vehicles can.

That it can feel so effortless while hurtling you towards 62mph in just 3.1 seconds is real testament to this car’s credentials. It’s like beauty and the beast all rolled into one. Just not the Disney version.

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Want more? Launch control can hit 125mph in just 10.7 seconds, the kind of time it takes a normal estate car to pull away from a set of traffic lights. Well, unless you’re talking Audi RS6. Whichever wheel you’re sat behind, both will make you giddy and giggly in equal measure – the Taycan in near silence, though, unlike Audi’s boisterous V8 brute.

Despite all this power just waiting to be untapped, however, you needn’t be on it 100 per cent of the time. The Taycan Cross Turismo is remarkably delicate when it wants to be. Motorway speeds give the sensation of driving at residential road speeds. Comfort is always at the fore.

The best electric cars 2021: Top battery-powered vehicles available on UK roads

By Chris Hall
·
2 January 2021

See our list of the best electric cars available to buy. Top battery-powered cars suitable for UK roads.

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As an electric car, the Taycan Cross Turismo is, of course, dependent on today’s battery technology. That’s part of the reason it weighs over 2.3 tonnes. It has one of the largest battery capacities, at 93.4kWh, which is only really topped by some Tesla models and Mercedes’ EQS.

However, despite such battery cohones, the official range (well, from WLTP) is 395km/250m at its minimum. That can, allegedly, be stretched to 510km/315m. However, in our hands, our fully charged Cross Turismo was offering up 222 miles – before setting off. Once driving and testing out some of that insane acceleration, our calculations meant it’d accomplish sub-200 miles overall. Not great, not bad – but not nearly as poor as an Audi e-tron S.

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So will all that add up to range anxiety? Well, it’ll depend on what you’re doing and where you’re going. Besides, with super fast-charging possible up to 270kW you could charge from near zero to over 80 per cent in just 22 minutes. If – and it’s a big if – the UK charging networks will catch up to that kind of rate. Think of it more as ready for the future than the here and now.

Verdict

The Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo truly lives in a world of its own. And we don’t mean that in a negative way. Quite the contrary: this crossover – part-estate, part-sports car – doesn’t have an all-electric equivalent to rival it. Because nothing else like it exists. Yet, anyway, as Audi might come a-knocking with the e-tron GT.

No, the Cross Turismo crossover isn’t quite as maniacal or visually fierce as the original Taycan, but with that extra headroom in the back it’s got enough practicality added to its repertoire to genuinely cater to a family of four. Not to estate car levels, though, which is where just a whisper of confusion comes into play.

But it’s sat behind the wheel of the Taycan Cross Turismo where Porsche’s pedigree can be truly felt. An elegant yet ferocious drive can soothe and thrill in equal measure; the cabin is wonderfully appointed with plush finishes and heaps of integrated tech; and the range isn’t too sad considering the all-round capabilities on show.

Writing by Mike Lowe.

Oppo Find X3 Lite review: A solid mid-ranger

(Pocket-lint) – Oppo has enjoyed some successes recently; with some players faltering, such as Huawei, it’s clear that Oppo is attempting to step into the vacuum that’s been left behind.

The Oppo Find X3 Pro received rave reviews as a flagship. It’s also flanked by a couple of devices that share its name: the Find X3 Neo is, basically, built on the previous year’s flagship hardware, while the cheapest of the bunch is this, the Find X3 Lite.

Despite the ‘Lite’ name, however, good performance continues, with plenty that’s enjoy in this mid-range phone.

Design & Build

Dimensions: 159.1 x 73.4 x 7.9mm / Weight: 172g
3.5mm headphone socket

If you’re a follower of Oppo phones, you might get caught off guard but the shuffle in naming convention. The Find X3 Lite effectively rivals much of what the Find X2 Neo offered, but does make a couple of sacrifices to achieve its price point.

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One area that doesn’t seem to have been sacrificed, however, is the build. The Find X3 Lite is a quality device, with Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and rear to help protect against scratches, and an aluminium frame holding everything together. There’s a clear case in the box too, to keep things looking fresh.

As is often the case on affordable devices there’s a 3.5mm headphone socket. However, there’s no stereo speaker offering: it’s a mono affair, with the speaker on the bottom of the phone providing the power – and it’s easily blocked when holding the phone in landscape orientation, such as when playing games.

The Oppo Find X3 family have differing designs, so there’s no sculpted bump on the rear for the Lite’s cameras, it’s a lot more conventional – but we like the looks, especially on this Starry Black version where it’s slightly less prominent than some.

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In line with the Lite name there’s no waterproofing on this model, as you’ll find elsewhere in the range.

Display

6.4-inch AMOLED panel, 2400 x 1080 resolution, 90Hz refresh

There’s a flat display on the Find X3 Lite, with minimal bezels for a smart look. A punch-hole sits in the top left-hand corner for the front camera, a convenient position for those playing games in landscape, as this corner generally is covered by your left hand, so you don’t have a hole getting in the way of your game.

It’s an AMOLED display, measuring 6.4-inches on the diagonal, with a Full HD+ resolution That’s become the average for this size and type of device, with many flagships now sticking to similar resolution for the sake of battery life.

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There’s a 90Hz refresh rate, helping to smooth out some of your scrolling content, with the option to switch back to 60Hz if you prefer – although this is fairly buried within the settings so we doubt that anyone will bother to make that change. Again, it’s a typical setting for this level of device, with an increasing number of devices over the past 12 months offering a faster refresh.

You’ll note that the touch sampling rate is 180Hz, slower than many of the top devices, and while this doesn’t matter to a lot of people, it’s one area where Oppo is keeping a tight check on things to deliver at this price point.

The display is vibrant, delivering a great palette of colours, looking great whether you’re browsing online, gaming or watching movies. It’s not the brightest display around, so it struggles a little in brighter outdoor conditions and you may have to bump the brightness up or down a little to suit the conditions you’re in.

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There’s a fingerprint scanner under the display too, which provides fast unlocking and has proven generally reliable, although it only takes a little dust or water to disturb it.

Hardware and performance

Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G 5G, 8GB RAM
4,300mAh battery, 65W fast-charging
128GB storage

The hardware loadout fits with those great mid-range devices from 2020. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G found here is good solid hardware that’s delivered many great phones in the recent past. Technically, that’s now been replaced with the Snapdragon 780G, but the Find X3 Lite was launched before that hardware was available.

That’s not a huge loss: while there might be some incremental improvements to performance, you’re still getting a great device for the asking price. Indeed, the Motorola Moto G100 uses that newer hardware, but is quite a bit more expensive than the X3 Lite.

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Performance wise, there’s little to complain about. We’ve been playing a full run of games on the Find X3 Lite and they play perfectly smoothly, while everything else is slick and fast. There’s not really anything in performance terms that fits with the Lite name – it’s a great experience.

There’s no microSD card support, however, so you’re looking at 128GB storage being your all.

Where Oppo is adding some excitement is with 65W charging. That’s thanks to the SuperVOOC 2.0 technology and the chunky charger that you’ll find in the box. What this means is you’ll be able to recharge the phone’s battery at blistering speed – from zero to full in around 35 minutes.

There is battery management software that will attempt to control the charging speeds to preserve battery health though, so that short time-frame isn’t always feasible. This software monitors your usage patterns and will charge the battery slowly as applicable, if you’re in the habit of charging overnight, to ensure it’ll last longer over an extended period of ownership.

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However, this can be irritating at times – especially if you only have time for a short charge overnight, because the automatic system doesn’t seem to recognise the difference between you plugging it on at the normal time, or 6 hours later, meaning you can wake up with a phone that’s not charged if you don’t have the, for example, full 8 hours on the charger that you’d normally get.

We also found that this setting had a habit of turning itself back on, even when we’d turned it off. The best solution, in reality, is a short quick charge during the day and leaving your phone off the charger at night. That should work out for most people, because the battery life of the Find X3 Lite is good, easily lasting through the day, including a few hours of gaming.

Motorola’s new Moto G9 Plus is a stunner of a phone – find out why, right here

By Pocket-lint Promotion
·
9 May 2021

Cameras

Quad rear camera system:
- Main: 64-megapixel, f/1.7 aperture
- Ultra-wide: 8MP, f/2.4
- Macro: 2MP, f/2.4
- Mono: 2MP, f/2.4
Front: 32MP, f/2.4

Oppo plays the typical 2021 mid-range phone game, plastering the rear of the camera with sensors so it can claim it’s a “quad camera”. There’s the appearance of the low-resolution macro sensor – which isn’t anything to get excited about – and there’s also a 2-megapixel “mono camera”.

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This mono lens notionally feeds data into the portrait system to improve its performance. Portrait is offered on the front camera from a single lens, suggesting to us that it’s simply an unnecessary feature.

The portrait performance isn’t especially good anyway, with the edge detection a little crude. The bokeh effect needs to be set at the time of taking the photo because you can’t adjust it once the picture is taken. Yes, there are options to increase the blur, but unlike the options from Samsung or Google Pixel, for example, you can’t reduce the level of the blur if you find the effect too strong.

The Lite’s front camera is reasonable: we can’t fathom why it’s a 32-megapixel sensor as that doesn’t really deliver any benefits. There’s no pixel binning, as it pumps out 32-megapixel images which just take up more storage and need more data to share. It will give you a decent shot in good conditions, but you’ll need to use the night mode in low-light as it gets noisy rather quickly in less than perfect situations.

The rear camera sees a headline 64-megapixel main, which is par for the course. This is very much about appearing to keep up with rivals than actually delivering better images – but again, it’s typical for this level of phone.

Here there is some pixel binning, with 16-megapixel images as a result by default. If you want to shoot at full 64-megapixel resolution you have the option to turn that on in normal photo mode; there’s also an Extra HD mode which oversamples to give a 108-megapixel image.

Visually, those images basically look the same (the Extra HD mode loses the AI scene optimisation), but greater resolution gives the potential to zoom and crop – although the detail is rather mushy and we can’t see anyone really wanting to do this.

With all that said, the main camera puts in a decent performance for this price of phone and you’ll get decent photos from it in most conditions. There’s no zoom, however, which is a slight limitation, only offering digital zoom.

The ultra-wide camera puts in an average performance, although we like the options this introduces from a usability perspective. However, there is a colour shift between this and the main camera, as well as blurring as you move out of the centre of the frame.

As with many phones in this price category, the Lite will probably do everything you want it to do – as well as a whole load of stuff you don’t want it to do. Just don’t fall for the “quad camera” system marketing and stick to main lens and there’s a perfectly usable single camera on the rear.

Software

Google Android 11 OS
Oppo ColorOS 11

Like many brands, Oppo goes to town customising Google’s Android operating system with its own ColorOS setup. ColorOS has seen great improvements over recent years to make it a lot more usable and approachable – and the offering on the Find X3 Lite isn’t too bad.

There isn’t too much bloat or duplication – except for photos, music, and an app to help you relax you’ll likely never use – but with Google Messages, Gboard and Chrome all in place, there’s not too much messing around needed to get to the services you want. Access to Google Discover from the home screen is welcomed too.

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But beneath this, ColorOS changes the look and feel of many areas of Android 11. It gives you plenty of options for customisation, but some things fall down the cracks too.

Notifications seem to be particularly irksome: some applications have failed to deliver notifications consistently, we’ve also found that “bedtime mode” – part of the digital wellbeing suite – took about a week to figure out how to run to the schedule we gave it.

Some of these might just be teething troubles, but the experience doesn’t feel quite as slick as the software on the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G, which is a close rival to this phone.

At the same time, we’ve not found the software to get in the way: once you’re in your favourite app or game things run very much as they should.

Verdict

There’s a lot that’s interesting about the Oppo Find X3 Lite: the core hardware is solid, the display is good, and fast battery charging is a real benefit.

The niggles are also fairly minor: the over-sell on the cameras, the single speaker that’s easily blocked, and some software quirks that seem to block notifications. Despite this running on year-old hardware, it’s still a capable phone, and the Lite naming is perhaps an undersell considering how much you get for your money.

But over the past 12 months, this has emerged as the most competitive smartphone segment: there are better camera performers on this hardware (Pixel 4a 5G), there are better displays in this position (Samsung Galaxy A52 5G) and lots of options besides.

Also consider

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Samsung Galaxy A52 5G

Samsung’s budget offering sits a little lower in the hardware stakes, but offers waterproofing – which is rare at this level – as well as a great 120Hz display.

Read our full review

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Redmi Note 10 Pro

Redmi offers blistering value for money, although this is a 4G model only and on slightly lower hardware – but you still get a lot of phone for your money.

Read our full review

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Writing by Chris Hall. Editing by Mike Lowe.

Elon Musk on Saturday Night Live, explained

Who is Elon Musk?

Oh, come on.

Seriously!

Fine. He’s the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, the founder of The Boring Company and Neuralink, a certified member of the PayPal Mafia, and a well-known internet troll.

He sounds rich.

He is. Depending on where the market closes on Friday, he’s either the first or the second richest person in the world. The other contender is Jeff Bezos. A substantial part of both men’s net worth is tied up in their company stock.

Okay. What is Saturday Night Live?

Saturday Night Live is an American television show that has been on the air since 1975. It is in a sketch comedy format. There is usually at least one good sketch in each 90-minute episode, and it is often the digital short.

SNL features a guest host, usually an actor with a movie to promote, and a musical guest, usually promoting a recently released album. After the “cold open,” a topical sketch about current events, the host gives a monologue.

What is Elon Musk doing on SNL, though?

Selling Teslas and getting richer.

Musk’s sales acumen is a running theme in Ashlee Vance’s biography of him and in the lore Musk loves to promote about himself: arbitraging Easter eggs with his cousins, running a nightclub out of his frat house, writing a computer program at age 12 and sending it to PC Magazine for $500. A major component of sales, of course, is advertising, and the most powerful form of advertising is “earned media,” or mentions you don’t have to pay for. You know, like the kind you get by guest-hosting Saturday Night Live.

Tesla famously doesn’t do paid advertisements. It doesn’t need to. Appearing on PewDiePie’s Meme Review is free. So is getting papped in a Cybertruck at Nobu. So is squiring musician Grimes to the Met Gala. Parties for people who own Teslas, Boring Company Flamethrowers, or who are just big fans have been part of his promotional efforts for years. He has a spicy Twitter account — spicy enough to earn Jack Dorsey’s endorsement and piss off the Securities and Exchange Commission — and his tweets often make headlines. This is to say nothing of the infamous Joe Rogan blunt-smoking episode.

This isn’t Musk’s first foray into Hollywood, either. He was an executive producer of Thank You for Smoking. He’s also appeared in Rick and Morty, Big Bang Theory, South Park, The Simpsons, and Iron Man 2.

Most CEOs don’t do this. Tesla gets compared to Apple a lot, and I would like you, for lols, to just visualize Tim Cook appearing on Joe Rogan’s show at all. Okay. Can you even see him drinking whiskey? He’s certainly not gonna pass that dutch. Steve Jobs appeared in only one movie, a 1988 documentary about Bruce Springsteen.

SNL promises to be an hour and a half of Elon-friendly writing, with goofs that burnish his reputation and let him laugh at himself. Plus, he gets to remind everyone Tesla exists and basically re-created the electric car market at a time when a lot of his competitors have jumped into EVs. My only real unanswered question about this is: Why isn’t the musical guest Grimes, tho?

Do you think he’ll pump Dogecoin?

I mean, yes, probably? One hedge fund made very good returns on the GameStonk debacle by selling immediately after Elon Musk pumped GameStop, so that’s something to consider.

Is Tesla involved in Dogecoin?

Not as far as I know, and I love reading their financial documents. Tesla is involved, however, in bitcoin. You can even buy a Tesla with bitcoin.

Why has Elon gotten involved in Dogecoin and GameStonk?

They’re popular online, and he, famously, loves memes — even if he often arrives at them late.

It also seems like he really wants to be liked. Musk has spent a lot of time courting an online fan base — some of his media appearances, like on Rick and Morty and Meme Review, seem designed to appeal to that fan base. While those fans may or may not convert into actual Tesla purchases, they help keep Musk relevant and are useful in hassling his critics online.

Okay, but what matters more to Musk, money or popularity?

Ahahahaha you are asking me to read Elon Musk’s mind? Fine, great, hold on, let me concentrate. I see… an army of angry squirrels.

No, seriously, though — Musk has been consistent about his admiration for humorists. He considered buying The Onion’s parent company in 2014 but ultimately didn’t put in a bid. Later, he funded a humor effort called Thud, which he briefly suggested would be part of his “intergalactic media empire.” Thud crashed and burned shortly after it launched.

Judging by his past beef with the SEC and his history with Thud, which was never meant to make money, I would argue the thing that matters most to Musk is neither money nor popularity. It’s his ability to do whatever he damn pleases. Arguably, that’s part of what makes him popular — popular enough to host SNL, even. Now the question is, will he send the ratings to the Moon?

We may never know the exact toll of the pandemic

This pandemic has taken millions of lives around the world — and researchers are realizing that the true death toll may be much higher than the official numbers we see every day.

As of May 3rd, the death toll in the US officially stood at 574,043, but a new analysis published this week by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimates that the actual toll is 905,289. IHME is a health research center based at the University of Washington that specializes in measuring global health on a population level. Its new analysis estimates that the global death toll due to COVID-19 stands at 6.93 million, not 3.24 million.

The key word here is “estimate.” The researchers looked at countries around the world that reported deaths on a weekly or monthly basis. They compared that with COVID-19 testing data and many other variables to build a computer model that could estimate the death toll from COVID-19, taking into account that people died of other causes. Using that method, they found that almost every country was undercounting their deaths due to the pandemic and that their actual death tolls were much higher.

That lines up with other analyses from around the world that have found that some areas are drastically undercounting their COVID dead. But it’s also important to note that not everyone agrees with the shockingly high numbers found in the new analysis. Other studies into excess deaths have found much lower totals.

“Their estimate of excess deaths is enormous and inconsistent with our research and others,” Steven Woolf told NPR’s Becky Sullivan. Woolf led a study that found that excess deaths in the US were around 20 percent higher than they should have been. “There are a lot of assumptions and educated guesses built into their model.”

The problem isn’t unique to deaths. Back in April 2020, Nicole Wetsman wrote about how it’s impossible for us to track every case of COVID-19. That’s still true. Public health officials can only track the people who notice symptoms or seek out treatment or testing. And that’s in places where treatments or testing is available, which isn’t the case everywhere.

It’s always hard to count every case and even every death in any large outbreak, much less a pandemic. People aren’t perfect record-keepers, even when it comes to life and death. Often, our records come down to what the person writing thought was important — and whether they happened to record that information in a way that future generations could understand. Historians are still arguing over the death toll for the Black Plague, which killed anywhere from 25 million to 200 million people, depending on who you ask.

Things got a little better last century when we were wrestling with the 1918 flu. The US did keep tabs on deaths throughout the states — well, most of them. Mortality statistics in 1918 were only gathered for 31 “registration” states that represented about 75 percent of the population at the time, according to a fascinating blog in Health Affairs. To get the estimated death toll, they took the death tolls in the registration states and just added 25 percent to the total. But the population in those registration states wasn’t exactly the same as the population of the rest of the country. People in registration states were more likely to be white and live in urban areas than people living in non-registration states. 1918’s estimate was certainly better than the information that we have for the Black Plague, but it’s not a full picture of that death toll either.

Today, we gather a lot more data, but we’re still not perfect. That’s why it’s taking models to estimate the still-growing toll of the pandemic. Not everyone who dies gets tested for COVID, and in some parts of the world, testing and treatments remain inconsistent. Even the dead we know about slip through the cracks. In New York, refrigerated trucks are still being used to hold people who have died of COVID as they await burial.

Tracking a slow-rolling disaster like a pandemic is brutally hard. It means looking at the names and birthdates and death dates and adding all those lives together into a faceless number too big for our brains to wrestle with. It can feel easier to push it away and wrestle with the things we can control instead and just let the numbers pile up uncounted, shoved in a cold truck on a pier.

But ignoring the costs and accepting our statistical shortcomings won’t help us in the long run. A more accurate accounting of our dead might help people understand more about how this disease can overtake our defenses.

“We need to better understand the impact of COVID across the globe so that countries can understand the trajectory of the pandemic and figure out where to deploy additional resources, like testing supplies and vaccines to stop the spread,” epidemiologist Jennifer Nuzzo told NPR.

Maybe — just maybe — we can learn from our mistakes — or at the very least, maybe we can stop making the same ones over and over.

Research

As the Covid-19 crisis ebbs in the U.S., experts brace for some to experience psychological fallout

One of the side effects of the pandemic has been people’s mental health (see below). But experts are also bracing for a new set of problems that may hit when the pandemic ends. (Andrew Joseph / STAT)

If Your Brain Feels Foggy And You’re Tired All The Time, You’re Not Alone

The trauma of the pandemic has caused a lot of people to struggle with feelings of exhaustion and “brain fog.” Here are a few reasons why — and how people feeling fatigue can cope. (Rhitu Chatterjee / NPR)

We reviewed three at-home covid tests. The results were mixed.

You can now get a COVID-19 test at home. But should you? MIT Tech Review took a look at three to find out how well they worked. (Antonio Regalado / MIT Tech Review)

Development

US supports lifting patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines

In an about-face, the Biden administration has decided to support an effort to lift patent protections on vaccines. Advocates have pushed for the move as a way to increase vaccine supplies, especially in developing countries. (Mary Beth Griggs / The Verge)

China’s Vaccine Diplomacy Just Got a Big Win. But Can the Country Deliver?

On Friday, the WHO approved Sinopharm, a COVID-19 vaccine developed in China for emergency use. It could increase the availability of shots in places where it is desperately needed. (Sui-Lee Wee / The New York Times)

Pfizer, BioNTech ask FDA for full approval of COVID-19 vaccine

Pfizer and BioNTech have formally asked the FDA to fully approve their COVID-19 vaccine. We won’t know the FDA’s decision for some time. But if the approval goes through, it would be the first vaccine to reach that milestone. (Erika Edwards / NBC News)

More than numbers

To the people who have received the 1.24 billion vaccine doses distributed so far — thank you.

To the more than 156,305,852 people worldwide who have tested positive, may your road to recovery be smooth.

To the families and friends of the more than 3,260,511 people who have died worldwide — at least 580,574 of those in the US — your loved ones are not forgotten.

Stay safe, everyone.

Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Pro AX Review: Premium Mid-Range

Our Verdict

The Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Pro AX is a full-featured Z590 motherboard that includes robust power delivery, premium audio, four M.2 sockets, and 13 USB ports on the rear IO. This $290 board is a good value, especially for those who would like lots of M.2 and USB ports.

For

+ 13 rear USB ports. including Type-C Gen 2×2
+ Robust 90A, 12-Phase VRM
+ Four M.2 sockets
+ Latest-gen audio solution

Against

– Integrated Wi-Fi lacks 6E capability

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Features and Specifications

The Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Pro AX positions itself as a mid-range SKU with a modest (for recent motherboard generations) price of $289.99. For that price, you get the most USB ports — thirteen, including USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port — we’ve seen on any motherboard in quite a while. Additionally, the board includes the latest audio codec, extreme overclocking-capable power delivery and four M.2 sockets. This, coupled with a reasonable price tag, yields a great option fory new Intel-based builds.

Gigabyte’s current Z590 product stack consists of 13 models. There are familiar SKUs and a couple of new ones. Starting with the Aorus line, we have the Aorus Xtreme (and potentially a Waterforce version), Aorus Master, Aorus Ultra, and the Aorus Elite. Gigabyte brings back the Vision boards (for creators) and their familiar white shrouds. The Z590 Gaming X and a couple of boards from the budget Ultra Durable (UD) series are also listed. New for Z590 is the Pro AX board, which looks to slot somewhere in the middle. Gigabyte also released the Z590 Aorus Tachyon (review coming soon), an overbuilt motherboard designed for extreme overclocking.

Overall, performance on the Aorus Pro AX was inconsistent in our testing. Some results were below the average, while others were right there or faster than the pack. For example, the 3D/game testing showed above-average results, while some synthetic tests were slower than others. This board is performant out of the box, with settings that go beyond Intel specifications.

The mid-priced Aorus Pro AX brings users premium features, including 90A MOSFETs, Realtek 4000 series audio, a staggering four M.2 sockets and a slew of USB ports. Gigabyte updated the appearance from the last generation as well. So between the modern appearance and updated hardware, there’s a lot to take in. We’ll cover those and other features in more detail Below. But right out of the gate this looks like a strong contender for our best motherboards list. First, let’s take a look at the full specs list from Gigabyte.

Specifications – Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Pro AX

Socket	LGA 1200
Chipset	Z590
Form Factor	ATX
Voltage Regulator	12 Phase (12+1+1+2, 90A MOSFETs)
Video Ports	(1) DisplayPort
USB Ports	(1) USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, Type-C (20 Gbps)
	(4) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-A (10 Gbps)
	(4) USB 3.2 Gen 1, Type-A (5 Gbps)
	(4) USB 2.0 (480 Mbps)
Network Jacks	(1) 2.5 GbE
Audio Jacks	(5) Analog + SPDIF
Legacy Ports/Jacks	✗
Other Ports/Jack	✗
PCIe x16	(1) v4.0 x16
	(2) v3.0 x4
PCIe x8	✗
PCIe x4	✗
PCIe x1	✗
CrossFire/SLI	AMD Quad-GPU Crossfire and 2-Way AMD Crossfire
DIMM slots	(4) DDR4 5400(OC), 128GB Capacity
M.2 slots	(1) PCIe 4.0 x4 / PCIe (up to 80mm)
	(2) PCIe 4.0 x4 / PCIe (up to 110mm)
	(1) PCIe 3.0 x4 / PCIe and SATA (up to 110mm)
U.2 Ports	✗
SATA Ports	(6) SATA3 6 Gbps (RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10)
USB Headers	(1) USB v3.2 Gen 2 (Front Panel Type-C)
	(1) USB v3.2 Gen 1
	(2) USB v2.0
	(2) Thunderbolt AIC headers
Fan/Pump Headers	(8) 4-Pin
RGB Headers	(2) aRGB Gen 2 (3-pin)
	(2) Aura RGB (4-pin)
Legacy Interfaces	✗
Other Interfaces	FP-Audio, TPM
Diagnostics Panel	4-LED ‘Status LED’ display
Internal Button/Switch	✗
SATA Controllers	✗
Ethernet Controller(s)	(1) Intel I225-V (2.5 GbE)
Wi-Fi / Bluetooth	Intel WiFi AX200 (802.11ax, 160 Hz, BT 5.1)
USB Controllers	Realtek RTS5411E
HD Audio Codec	SupremeFX ALC4080
DDL/DTS Connect	✗ / ✗
Warranty	3 Years

Inside the box along with the motherboard are a slew of accessories. While certainly not the most inclusive we’ve seen, the SATA cables, Wi-Fi Antenna, screws and more, are plenty to get your system build moving along. Here’s everything that Gigabyte includes in the box.

User’s Manual / Installation Guide
Q-connector
Aorus sticker
Graphics card holder
Wi-Fi Antenna
(4) SATA cables
(3) Screw packages for M.2 sockets
(1) RGB extension cable

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(Image credit: Gigabyte)

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(Image credit: Gigabyte)

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(Image credit: Gigabyte)

Once we removed the Pro AX from the box, we noticed a few design changes from the Z490 version. The first,the direction of the lines and brushed-aluminum finish on the M.2 and the chipset heatsinks go the other way. Outside of that, the rear IO cover with its single RGB LED strip, VRM heatsinks, matte-black PCB and reinforced slots are familiar carryovers. The audio shroud illuminates the “Amp Up Audio” branding towards the bottom with RGB LED. Those looking for an RGB light show will have to add their own to the internal headers, but what’s here does give off a nice saturated glow, even if it isn’t a disco.

Overall, this board looks good for the price and should fit in with most build themes. The brushed-aluminum accents give this board a more premium appearance than others around the same price point.

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

Starting in the upper left, we get a closer look at the shroud with the Aorus branding, along with the “Team Up, Fight On” motto. Between this is a plastic diffuser to thin the light out from the RGB LEDs below. If that shroud looks familiar, it’s because it’s a carryover from the Z490 Pro AX. Moving to the right, we see an 8-pin EPS connector (required) with an optional 4-pin next to it. Also located in this area, curiously, is the first of eight 4-pin fan headers.

The VRM heatsink is the same as Z490, using a large metal sink on the top bank and a finned heatsink over the left bank. As you’ll see later on, this solution does a good job cooling the chips below. Just to the right, above the DRAM slots, are two more fan headers (CPU_OPT and CPU_FAN). All fan headers on this board support both 3-pin and 4-pin fans. Each header outputs up to 2A/24W, which should be plenty for piggybacking a couple of fans, as well as supporting most water pumps.

Just below these headers are the four DRAM slots. Gigabyte reinforces the slots with its Ultra Durable Memory Armor, which improves the appearance, but in general isn’t all that useful — on any motherboard. The board supports up to 128 GB of RAM with speeds listed up to DDR4 5400, some of the fastest we’ve seen. As always, your mileage may vary as you’ll need the right CPU and memory kit to reach those speeds.

To the right of the DRAM slots are the first set of 3-pin ARGB and 4-pin RGB headers. A little higher up the board than usual is the 24-pin ATX connector for primary power. Below this is a system fan header, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 header and a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C header.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The Pro AX uses a 12+1(+1+2) configuration for the Vcore and System Agent. The EPS connector sends power to a Renesas ISL69269 12-channel (X+Y+Z=12) controller. It’s then fed directly (no phase doublers or teaming here!) to 12 Renesas ISL99390 90A Smart Power Stages. This setup yields 1080A available for the CPU. In short, you’ll be limited by the CPU cooling well before the power delivery lets you down here.

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

As we move to the bottom half of the board, we’re greeted by plastic shrouds and heatsinks covering most of the PCB. On the left side is a plastic shroud that covers a majority of the audio bits. On top is the second and final RGB LED location that lights up the Amp Up Audio branding. Hidden below is the latest generation Realtek ALC4080 codec, along with WIMA audio capacitors for the rear outputs (Gigabyte says 120dB SNR for that output). Also visible are several yellow Nichicon audio capacitors and the audio separation line from the rest of the board. Most users will find this audio solution satisfactory.

In the middle of the board resides the four M.2 sockets and three PCIe slots. To prevent shearing and EMI protection (for what it’s worth), Gigabyte reinforced the top PCIe slot. The top slot is wired directly to the CPU and runs at PCIe 4.0 x16. The two other slots are sourced from the chipset and run at PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds. This configuration supports AMD Quad-GPU Crossfire and 2-Way AMD Crossfire. Since no other slots run at x8 speeds, NVIDIA SLI is not possible. I would like to have seen an additional x1 slot for additional peripherals, but the two full-length slots should be enough for most people.

Laced between and above the PCIe slots are all four M.2 sockets. The top three M.2 sockets are connected via the CPU. The top, M2A_CPU, supports up to 80mm PCIe devices at PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds. The following two sockets, M2B_CPU and M2C_CPU, support up to 110mm PCIe modules at PCIe x4 speeds. The bottom M.2 socket, M2P_SB, is attached to the chipset and runs both SATA and PCIe modules (PCIe 3.0 x4). On this board, SATA port 1 gets disabled when a SATA-based M.2 drive is installed. Not too much to worry about there. The worst case is that you can have four M.2 modules and five or six SATA ports available (depending on what type of module is installed in M2P_SB). That’s a lot of storage without much lane sharing.

To the right of the PCIe/M.2 area is the chipset heatsink with the Aorus falcon on top. To the right of it are six horizontally affixed SATA ports. This board supports RAID0, 1, 5 and 10 modes. Last but not least, just below that next to the CMOS battery are the Thunderbolt 4 AIC headers.

Across the board’s bottom are several headers, including fan and USB, a QFlash button and more. The Aorus Pro AX also has a temperature header on the bottom and includes a sensor for it. This is a good value add for users who would like to ramp up/down fan speeds based on internal chassis temperature. Additionally, in the right-hand corner is the Dr.Debug display. This 4-LED area lights up during the POST process and displays the current stage (Boot, CPU, DRAM and VGA). If there is a problem during this process, the corresponding LED stays lit. Below is the full list of headers and buttons, from left to right:

Front-panel audio
RGB and ARGB headers
TPM header
(2) USB 2.0 headers
2-pin Temperature header
Q-Flash button
(3) System fan headers
Clear CMOS jumper
Front panel header

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

The rear IO area is dominated by a menagerie of USB ports. From USB 2.0 to USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C, you’ll find it here on one of the 13 ports. The IO plate itself comes preinstalled, and its black background and Aorus branding match the rest of the board. There’s a total of four USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, four USB 2.0 ports and finally, The 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port. If you run out of USB ports on this board, you may want to reevaluate your life/peripheral choices–or you could just plug into one of the two previously mentioned USB-C front-panel headers. Video output (when using the integrated graphics on the CPU) comes from a single DisplayPort Port. In addition to the 2.5 GbE port are Wi-Fi antenna connections, and finally, the 5-plug plus SPDIF audio stack.

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ZTE Blade 11 Prime review: wireless charging for under $200

The Blade 11 Prime offers a 6.5-inch screen and Qi wireless charging in a well-priced budget device.

If you’re already invested in a wireless charging lifestyle, the Blade 11 Prime is a budget phone to match it

The ZTE Blade 11 Prime offers one standout feature in a field of largely similar sub-$200 phones: wireless charging.

In the smartphone trickle-down economy, wireless charging is basically guaranteed on any flagship-level phone, but it’s still hit-and-miss among midrange phones and all but absent from the budget class. You’re much more likely to find a really big battery on a sub-$200 phone than wireless charging.

Outside of that feature, the $192 Blade 11 Prime’s specs are much the same as competing models like the Galaxy A12 and Moto G Play. Like those models, it offers a 6.5-inch 720p LCD, though it includes a little more RAM (4GB compared to 3GB) and a little less battery capacity (4,000mAh compared to 5,000mAh).

Choosing a phone that’s priced under $500 means you need to pick your priorities carefully, and that’s even more true of a $200 phone. If wireless charging is your chosen priority, then I have good news: the ZTE Blade 11 Prime is the budget-priced phone for you. If it’s not a major priority and more of a nice-to-have item, then I’d suggest looking elsewhere. You won’t do a lot better on any individual feature, like a better screen or camera, but you can do a little better.

The Blade 11 Prime supports the Qi wireless charging standard at 5W.

ZTE Blade 11 Prime screen, battery, and performance

The Blade 11 Prime is on the bigger side with a 6.5-inch display. Its 720p resolution is stretched a little thin here, and you’ll notice certain images looking a little pixelated if you look closely. The screen gets nice and bright, but its auto-brightness setting kept bringing the level down a little too dim for my liking. I also noticed faint repeating vertical lines on dark parts of the screen indicative of a low-quality panel — not a huge distraction but visible.

It doesn’t have the biggest battery in its class, but the Blade 11’s battery performance is generally good anyway. I got about two days of light, mostly Wi-Fi use on a single charge. Spending a full day out and about on LTE would drain the battery faster, but most people could expect to get through at least a full day of heavy use before needing to charge up again.

The Blade 11 Prime’s marquee feature, wireless charging, works well if a little slowly; the phone supports Qi charging at 5W. Taking it from 50 percent to a full charge took almost exactly two hours, during which the phone got warm but not worryingly so. As long as you don’t expect incredible speeds, wireless charging is a convenient option on the Blade 11 Prime, particularly if you’re the type of person who charges your phone overnight.

We don’t expect dazzling processing speed from a $200 phone, but the ZTE Blade 11 Prime falls a little short even considering its price. It uses a MediaTek MT6762 Helio P22 chipset with a relatively healthy 4GB of RAM, but this combination struggles with even light tasks like scrolling through Instagram or Twitter.

Apps open quickly enough, but there was significant stuttering and hesitation just browsing my usual social media timelines or scrolling through the home screen app drawer. Some slowness is expected in this price bracket, but I didn’t see as much consistent stuttering using the Motorola Moto G Play recently.

The ZTE Blade 11 Prime ships with Android 11, which is nice — some of its slightly less recent competitors are still on 10 waiting for an update. ZTE says there’s no plan to offer any additional Android OS upgrades, only that it will offer security patches as needed. That’s not too surprising given the phone’s price point; the Blade 11 Prime just isn’t built for longevity past a couple of years of use. There’s also 64GB of built-in storage, which isn’t a lot. If you don’t download too many apps or store too many photos on your device, you’ll be able to get by, otherwise adding a microSD card for additional storage to your purchase is a good idea.

Camera hardware is modest: on the rear panel, you’ll find a 16-megapixel main and 8-megapixel ultrawide camera.

ZTE Blade 11 Prime camera

The rear camera system on the Blade 11 Prime includes a 16-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel ultrawide, plus a 2-megapixel depth sensor. It’s a basic setup, and it does fine in good lighting conditions. It’s a little more prone to clipping very bright spots in photos than other systems I’ve used recently, but it does a nice job overall with exposures of high-contrast scenes. In moderate indoor lighting, some detail-smoothing noise reduction is visible, and low-light photos look smeary even at the reduced image sizes used for social sharing.

Taken with ultrawide
Taken with ultrawide
Taken with ultrawide

As for the other cameras, they’re just fine. The ultrawide doesn’t handle high-contrast scenes as well as the main camera, with some noticeable noise appearing in shadows. There’s also a short delay after pressing the shutter button before you can take another photo that isn’t present when using the main camera. The selfie camera thankfully avoids over-smoothing faces, and photos look good as long as there’s plenty of available light.

If you aren’t already a wireless charging devotee, it would be best to look elsewhere in the budget phone class.

If your budget is strict and wireless charging is a must-have, then the ZTE Blade 11 Prime is the right phone for you. But if you can make do without wireless charging, I’d strongly encourage you to look elsewhere. Iffy performance with basic tasks will be more of an inconvenience in the long run than having to plug in your phone every night to charge it.

This year’s Motorola Moto G Power would be a worthwhile alternative if you can spend a little more; you’ll get a faster processor and better battery life, though you should definitely plan on buying a microSD card to supplement its meager 32GB of storage. The G Play is a good alternative, too, even with a processor that’s a bit slower than the G Power’s.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Linux Foundation Issues Frosty Final Judgment in UMN Scandal

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board has released its findings regarding the University of Minnesota’s (UMN) contributions to the Linux kernel—including those related to the research projects that got the university banned from working on that kernel. The group also explained how the school might be able to earn some forgiveness, but it won’t be easy.

A quick refresher: In mid-April, the Linux developer who oversees the kernel’s stable channel, Greg Kroah-Hartman, banned the entire UMN system from contributing to the Linux kernel in response to a couple of the university’s research projects that centered on purposefully introducing faulty code to the kernel. The situation quickly became a point of contention to many in the Linux developer community.

UMN’s Department of Computer Science & Engineering apologized for the research, as did the assistant professor and the graduate students who conducted it, in the days following Kroah-Hartman’s announcement. But the Technical Advisory Board still had to double-check every UMN-related contribution to the Linux kernel.

The board released its findings on Wednesday in an email to the Linux kernel mailing list. In the email, board member Kees Cook said the group had to re-review 435 commits, or code contributions, to the Linux kernel that were associated with UMN. Here’s how Cook summarized the quality of those commits:

– commits found to be correct (349)

– commits found to be incorrect and in need of fixing (39)

– commits already fixed by later commits (25)

– commits that no longer matter (12)

– commits made before the research group existed (9)

– commits the author asked to have removed (1)

That means the vast majority of commits associated with UMN were benign—but that doesn’t change the fact that the Technical Advisory Board had to devote a significant amount of time to re-reviewing that code. That time could have been better spent doing almost literally anything else related to the Linux kernel.

Cook also said “UMN must improve the quality of the changes that are proposed for inclusion into the kernel” following this controversy, and that the Technical Advisory Board “will create a document explaining best practices for all research groups to follow when working with the kernel (and open-source projects in general).”

The board recommended that the UMN CSE find an experienced developer who can help it improve the quality of its code, better understand the Linux community, and prevent controversial research from “getting beyond the idea stage.” It also recommended a more thorough review process for proposed research projects.

“Until such a review process is put into place, it will be difficult to re-establish the trust between UMN and the kernel community, and patches from UMN will continue to find a chilly reception,” Cook said in the email. “If UMN needs help to find such a developer or to set up an internal review process, the TAB will be glad to assist. This is a role the TAB has played with many groups in the past.”

Lexar SL200 Portable SSD 1 TB Review

Introduction

Lexar has made a name for itself in the portable storage market. They are very well known for their SD cards and USB sticks, so it’s natural for them to expand into other areas of flash storage, like consumer SSDs. Lexar was founded as a subsidiary of Micron, but was sold to Longsys in 2017 and has been operating quite independently since.

The Lexar SL200 is a USB-C-based, portable SSD that uses the USB 3.1 interface with speeds of up to 500 MB/s. Traditionally, most large-capacity external storage has been based on hard drives, which come at very low cost per TB but have several drawbacks. First, since they are mechanical components, they are sensitive to shock—if you drop one, it’s very likely broken. SSDs, on the other hand, are almost immune to external damage. Another plus of SSDs is that they don’t use any mechanical components to transfer data, so their seek times are much lower than on HDDs, and transfer rates are higher, too.

Internally, the Lexar SL200 uses a Lexar DM918 controller paired with 3D TLC NAND flash and a USB-to-SATA bridge chip from ASMedia.

Sonos Move review: Should you buy it over Roam?

(Pocket-lint) – Sonos offers multiple speakers within its portfolio, but as great as they are, none had been portable, none had been water-resistant, and none had offered Bluetooth audio support. The Sonos Move, however, changed all of that.

While Sonos previously focused on offering speakers designed for the home that require mains power and use a mesh Wi-Fi network to talk to each other, the Sonos Move was the first portable Bluetooth smart speaker marking the beginning of Sonos outside of the home.

Move was first, but since its release, there is also now the smaller, and more portable Sonos Roam to consider if you’re in the market for a Bluetooth Sonos speaker. You can read our full Sonos Roam review separately, but here we are focusing on the larger, more powerful, Sonos Move.

Sonos Move vs Sonos Roam: What’s the difference?

Design

IP56 water- and dust-resistant design
Capacitive touch controls
Integrated handle
Measures: 240 x 160 x 126mm
Weighs: 3kg

Sonos plays close attention to design and all its latest speakers – from the 2015 Play:5 to the Sonos Arc – share similar design features, like capacitive touch controls, black and white colour options and plastic detailing.

Pocket-lint

The Sonos Move has the same design ethos as these newer Sonos speakers, with rounded edges, capacitive controls and an almost identical top to the Sonos One – albeit oval shaped and with repositioned controls – but it raises the stakes when it comes to durability.

While the design of the Sonos Move clearly resembles the Sonos portfolio, it offers an IP56 water and dust resistance and it is one tough little cookie – although it’s not actually that little. Sonos says the Move can withstand pretty much every obstacle life might throw at it, whether that be sand, water or a drop on concrete, and while we didn’t fancy testing the last of those, it’s clear this speaker is able to hold its own.

To achieve this, the bottom of the device is silicone with a clear coat of paint over the top to deter dust. Everything inside has been considered, too, from a custom-made polycarbonate basket case reinforced with glass for the mid-woofer, to the colour of the Move itself – it is Shadow Black and not just plain, absorbant black to take UV exposure into account. We had it outside in 25C with the sun shining directly on it for several hours but it didn’t feel too hot as a result. There’s a Lunar White model too, which are the same colour offerings as the Sonos Roam.

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As we say, though, this portable speaker is not small. It’s wider and taller than the Sonos One and it weighs a hefty 3kg – so you’ll need a pretty decent-sized backpack to lug it around. The point is that you can bring it wherever you want, whether that’s your garden, the beach or a camping trip. At this scale we suspect it’ll be nearer to the home, for a garden party, while the smaller Sonos Roam is more suited to the park or beach.

On the rear of the Move is a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth toggle switch, a power button and a pairing button – the last of which all Sonos speakers except the Roam offer. The buttons are all positioned on an inward slant that allows for the convenient integrated handle – which is built into the design, rather than a separate strap or handle – to exist within this design format.

When the Sonos Move is on its Loop Dock charging cradle it looks like any other Sonos speaker and blends into the home. You’d never know it was portable from the front, giving it an element of surprise about it. If you’re thinking about buying a permanent in-home Sonos speaker but might want to occasionally take it out and about then we can see why this design makes perfect sense, though the same can definitely be said for the Roam too.

Pocket-lint

A USB Type-C port sits below the integrated handle and the buttons, as well as two charging pins below that for the Loop Dock – which the Sonos Move snaps into place on.

Hardware & Specs

Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy
AirPlay 2 support
45W power

The Sonos Move delivers 45W of power, coupled with Bluetooth for audio streaming capabilities rather than needing a mesh-connected device. The Sonos One, by comparison, doesn’t offer Bluetooth for audio streaming (only for quick setup), making the Move the first Sonos speaker to offer the technology, followed by the Roam.

Pocket-lint

The Sonos Move also supports Apple’s AirPlay 2 – as per the Roam, Arc, Beam, One, Play:5, and the Sonos One SL (the voiceless version of the Sonos One) – which allows for easy streaming from an Apple device without the need to open the Sonos app. It’s quick, convenient and it offers Apple users integration with Siri for voice control too.

The Wi-Fi/Bluetooth toggle switch on the rear of the Sonos Move allows users to switch the speaker between modes – something the Roam does automatically. When the Move is ready to pair, the LED light on the top flashes blue then goes solid blue when pairing is successful. We paired our Apple iPhone 11 at the time of review with it in a matter of seconds and switching between the two modes is virtually instant, making it pain-free, even if the Roam does make this element more seamless.

Pocket-lint

The power button, meanwhile, allows users to switch the Sonos Move off entirely, otherwise it will stay in a low power mode when not being used – useful for quick wake-up if it’s grouped with another Sonos speaker or an alarm is set, for example.

Features

Automatic Trueplay
Alexa and Google voice control

The Sonos Move functions as a typical Bluetooth speaker when in Bluetooth mode, allowing users to send music to it via a paired device, as you would the Ultimate Ears UE Megaboom 3, for example. In Bluetooth mode, the Move isn’t controlled via the Sonos app, with the control shifted to your device and the streaming service you are using instead.

When not in Bluetooth mode, the Move functions as a traditional Sonos speaker, but it appears with a battery indicator in the Sonos app. Functioning as a traditional Sonos speaker means you can group it with other Sonos speakers, control it through the Sonos app and access all the features that come with that app, including compatibility with over 100 music streaming services, stereo pairing and customisation of equalisation levels (EQ).

Sadly, you can’t use two Sonos Move speakers in a surround setup, as you can with all other Sonos speakers except the Sonos Roam, which also doesn’t offer the feature. Read our Sonos tips and tricks to learn more about the features offered by the Sonos system as a whole.

The Sonos Move also offers a feature called Automatic Trueplay. Trueplay is a software feature Sonos introduced with the Play:5 in 2015 and it allows users to tune their Sonos speakers according to its surroundings using an Apple iOS device. You can read all about it in our seperate feature.

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Automatic Trueplay uses the four built-in microphones on the Sonos Move to listen to the sound produced by the speaker and tune it automatically according to its surroundings, making for a much simpler process than the original (where you had to walk around the room waving your iOS device up and down slowly, yep, really).

Pocket-lint

The Automatic Trueplay feature was introduced on the Move to combat the issues of moving a speaker from outside to inside and still ensuring it sounds good. An accelerometer helps the Sonos Move detect when it has been moved, allowing it to adjust itself within around 30 seconds to what it deems as the best for its new surroundings. You can turn it off in the Sonos app if you don’t want it though.

Additionally, the Sonos Move supports Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa voice control. As with the One, Beam, Arc and Roam, which offer the same control, you can’t have both assistants setup at the same time – but you will be able to switch between them as you please, as well as turn the microphone off (an LED light on the top of the Move indicates when the microphones are on). You can also choose to have Alexa on one compatible Sonos speaker and Google Assistant on another if you want.

When the voice assistants are setup, you get almost all the same features you would an Amazon Echo or Google Home or Nest speaker device, bar a couple, meaning you’ll be able to ask Alexa or Google anything you like, such as set a timer or alarm, control compatible smart home devices, or find out about your day or commute.

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Voice control is only available when in Wi-Fi mode (AKA standard Sonos mode), but don’t mistake this for only when docked on the Loop Dock. For us, we get Wi-Fi in our garden at home and therefore we could use Google Assistant on the Move in the garden during a BBQ with friends, which was great.

Sound and performance

Two Class-D digital amplifiers, tweeter and mid-woofer
10 hours battery life
Replaceable battery

The Sonos Move has a downward-firing tweeter at the top of the speaker, coupled with a mid-range woofer inside. For those wondering why the company has used a downward-facing tweeter, Sonos told us it was to achieve evenly dispersed sound; there’s what the company calls a Wave Guide inside to enable this to happen.

Pocket-lint

Based on our experience at review and continued experience, the Sonos Move offers a great sound quality for its size and the sound is evenly dispersed. It’s on the bassy side, which is typical of Sonos speakers, but we see that as a good thing compared to other portables that can’t deliver in this regard.

There’s plenty of volume too – which you definitely need when outdoors – and the Move copes well with mid-range, treble and vocals. You don’t get as wide a soundscape as per the Play:5, but the Move sounds better than the Sonos One to our ears. That gives you an idea of its positioning in the range. It’s also more powerful than the Roam, which you would expect.

Sonos claims the battery will deliver 10 hours of music playback. We had the Sonos Move outside on Wi-Fi, on mid-volume for four hours and we only managed to drain the battery to 80 per cent, so we suspect this figure is based on use at louder volumes, thus you might get more out of it.

Pocket-lint

The battery can be replaced too – it will last around 900 charging cycles, which is around three years on average – after which it is recommended to replace it to continue to get longevity out of the device. Sonos offers a battery replacement kit that allows you to do this yourself.

Verdict

We waited a long time to see Sonos launch a portable speaker with Bluetooth streaming before Move was finally revealed. In fact, we asked co-founder Tom Cullen about a portable speaker back in 2015, so it’s something we’ve been pining after for a while and now we have two choices.

The Move is bigger and heavier than we expected, and certainly not cheap, but with its price and size comes durability, toughness and performance – and that’s no bad thing, especially if you actually plan to make use of the Move’s portability. We also suspect many will use it as a sometime portable, not as a constant cart-around speaker.

There are other great portable Bluetooth speakers out there – including Sonos’ own Roam that is far smaller and better designed for constant portability – but there are none quite like the Sonos Move in terms of sound output and features, especially not for those already invested in the Sonos system. It’s the Bluetooth speaker Sonos fans were waiting for.

^{This article was first published on 5 September 2019 and has been republished to represent its full review status.}

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Sonos Roam

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The Sonos Roam is the second portable, Bluetooth speaker from Sonos. It’s much smaller than the Move and while it isn’t as powerful, it offers some great features like automatic switching between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as a feature called Sound Swap.

Sonos Roam review

Pocket-lint

Sonos One

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The Sonos One isn’t portable like the Move, nor does it offer Bluetooth audio capabilities, but it is cheaper, it has built-in Google Assistant and Alexa capabilities, and it offers a good sound for its size. Two Sonos One speakers can also be used in a surround setup with a Sonos Arc, Sonos Beam and Sonos Sub.

Sonos One review

Pocket-lint

Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3

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The Megaboom 3 is quite a bit smaller and cheaper than the Sonos Move and it doesn’t offer the soundscape as a result of this, but it is completely waterproof, it offers decent bass for its size, and it is more portable than the Move. It’s that last point that’s a big sell here.

Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3 review

Pocket-lint

JBL Link Portable

Smaller and more compact than the Move, the Link Portable doesn’t deliver the same sound experience as a result, but there are plenty of features, including Google Assistant, AirPlay 2, Chromecast support and both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

JBL Link Portable review

Writing by Britta O’Boyle.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review: Ultimate flagship or ultra disappointment?

(Pocket-lint) – When the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra touched down at Pocket-lint HQ it made for a moment of genuine excitement. This flagship, which has more features than, well, any other handset we’ve seen in recent times, is one of those rare moments of a company trying to be different; to standout for the right reasons.

Not only does the Mi 11 Ultra have one of the boldest screens on the market, it has a second screen on its rear too. It’s one of those unusual double-screen devices – we’ve seen other different implementations before, from the Vivo NEX Dual Display to the Meizu Pro 7 and beyond – with the Xiaomi’s smaller touchscreen integrated into the camera unit to act as a notification and control centre. You can see why the tech nerd in us got all excited, right?

Except, having used the Mi 11 Ultra for two full weeks as our own device, it’s stood out for too many of the wrong reasons. The camera bump is huge, the second screen adds nothing of genuine use (and sometimes actively gets in the way), the screen’s touch-responsiveness is unacceptably bad, and the MIUI software continues to deliver irks that, at this high-end level, simply don’t add up to the ‘Ultra’ experience we were expecting.

Design

Dimensions: 164.3 x 74.6 x 8.4mm / Weight: 234g
IP68 dust- and water-resistant (1.5m for 30 mins)
Finish options: Cosmic White, Cosmic Black
Build: Ceramic back in aluminium frame
Under-display fingerprint scanner

Upon pulling the Mi 11 Ultra from its box, it was impossible to not continually stare at the rear camera unit. That protruding bump is huge – the biggest we can ever recall seeing on a phone. At least it’s wide enough that the device doesn’t rock around when laid flat (well, flat-ish) on a desk.

Pocket-lint

The build quality is second to none, though, especially standout if you’re seeking high-end details such as a ceramic rear, aluminium frame, water-protection, and curved screen edges. It’s every bit the flagship in such regards.

Odd, then, that the included transparent case does an assured job of undoing much of that high-end look. It’s an essential for protection, though, so we’ve had it wrapped around the phone’s body the majority of the time. But it’s just a budget translucent bit of plastic.

The reason it’s ultra-light plastic is likely to avoid adding too much additional weight to the Mi 11 Ultra’s already hefty frame. We thought the Poco X3 Pro, at 215g, was one chunky monkey. The Xiaomi tops that, at 234g. It’s not as though it’s going to hurt your wrist during use or anything, but it’s an undoubtedly heavy phone to be carting around and using day to day.

In addition to offering face unlock sign-in, the Mi 11 Ultra also has an under-display fingerprint scanner – which we’ve found generally ok, but occasionally to falter. We actually prefer the Mi 11 Lite 5G’s side-positioned one.

Pocket-lint

Thinking about it, we actually prefer the Lite model for its overall lightweight design and eye-catching colour finish. Which really isn’t the position this Ultra should be in – being somewhat usurped by the baby in the Mi 11 range.

Displays

Main: 6.81-inch AMOLED, 1440 x 3200 resolution, 20:9 ratio, 120Hz refresh
Rear (within camera unit): 1.1-inch AMOLED, 126 x 294 resolution

The Mi 11 Ultra’s 6.81-inch AMOLED display has some truly flagship specifications. It’s got a WQHD+ resolution, for starters, which means more pixels are packed onto its surface than you’ll find in many competitors these days. There’s also a 120Hz refresh rate to up the smoothness, which is particularly noticeable when scrolling or in some faster moving games.

Pocket-lint

There are other headline features here, too, such as Dolby Vision for HDR (high dynamic range) playback and a peak 1700 nits brightness – meaning the maximum punch this screen can output is really, very bright. But you’re not likely to have it cranked up to the max much of the time and, actually, when it’s in lower-light conditions and the brightness falls it begins to crush black levels – a problem others, such as the Oppo Find X3, can also suffer. It’s subtle, but it’s there, and can affect those Netflix sessions.

The screen is also curved, which might look nice to the eyes, because it helps diminish the appearance of edge bezel, but in the case of the Mi 11 Ultra is an often fatal flaw. Why? Because the screen’s touch responsiveness is terrible. By this we don’t mean touch sampling rate, rather the simple fact that the software will often think the screen in being accidentally touched and ignore your input. Even really prominent input, such as when scrolling through pages, often stutters or ignores input.

There’s a software section to choose between the degree of accidental edge touch that’s permissible, or even custom adjust it, but whatever we’ve done it’s been an ongoing issue. Furthermore the screen seems to time-out – such as when watching an advert in a game, for example – and isn’t actively ready for input immediately afterwards. It can take two, three or more taps to get the device to re-engage. And that’s nothing to do with the standard 15/30/60-second auto-timeout. No, this is different. And it goes a good way in breaking the Mi 11 Ultra’s potential.

Accidental touch is something that also affects that rear display. So often we’ll have Spotify running and pick the phone up, only to accidentally skip back to the beginning of the current track. We get that having such controls available for a quick tap could be useful, but most of the time it’s just been a hindrance. And quite often the notifications, owed to poor servicing from the MIUI software, will say things like “checking for messages” from WhatsApp, for example, without delivering anything of actual use.

We’ve already said the tech nerd in us was excited about the prospect of this small second screen to the rear, as it seemed like a smart way of getting quick notifications that you could then pay further attention to. In reality, however, that’s what a full-size always-on display can do already – which the Mi 11 Ultra offers.

Plus, as we’ve come to learn when trying to watch shows in near black-out darkness, having this second screen means you don’t get to “hide” your phone from alerting you and lighting the room in one way or another – unless, of course, you turn the feature off entirely.

Pocket-lint

Oh, but what about selfies, surely that’s where this screen comes into its own? Well, you’d think so. But to use the main cameras to shoot you’ll need to select the ‘Rear display preview’ from within the camera app, which will show you all selfie ready in that small display, but then there’s no logical way to shoot the shot. Fumble too much and you’ll likely end up clicking out of the main camera app with your fingers touching around the phone anyway. So, no, it just adds layers of confusion that needn’t be there.

Overall, then, this second screen has served as little more than a because-it-can gimmick.

Performance

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform, 12GB RAM
67W fast-charging (wired and Qi wireless)
5,000mAh battery capacity
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e
24-bit/192kHz audio
5G connectivity

Being a true flagship, Xiaomi has gone all-out when it comes to top-tier specification. The Mi 11 Ultra is kitted out with the Snapdragon 888 platform and 12GB RAM, so no current app is going to be a bother to run.

Pocket-lint

What is a bother, however, is as we’ve highlighted above: the screen’s response. Load up a game like South Park: Phone Destroyer and because the screen will often not register touch input, you’re left with the frequent possibility of losing during play as a direct result of this hardware/software combination. PUBG Mobile? Forget about it.

So while the Mi 11 Ultra has the capacity to deliver these games at their very best – the smoothest frame-rates and so forth – it’s irrelevant. It’s not a gamers’ phone by any means as a result.

The battery capacity, at 5,000mAh, is relatively large. Depending on how you approach using this phone that can mean decent longevity. However, given all the available features – WQHD+ resolution at 120Hz – there’s greater likelihood that it’ll be a stretch to get through the day. We’ve been just about managing it, but often with 20 per cent left after around 13 hours of use.

Pocket-lint

Using the phone in this way will see the software suggest doing a large number of things that dumb the features down. Resolution drop. Refresh rate drop. Dark mode activation. Quicker screen auto-off. Always-on display deactivation. Disallowing apps to auto-start. The kind of things that you would otherwise want to always keep operational for that true flagship feel in use. So, in many ways, it’s as though the Mi 11 Ultra’s software is keen to hamper its performance potential.

We’ve seen Xiaomi’s MIUI software in numerous iterations and it’s often varied in its success – sometimes for no apparent reason. In the Mi 11 Lite 5G, which is our favourite in this series, we had no issues with receiving app notifications. In the Mi 11 Ultra, however, it can be temperamental. As we’ve said in many other Xiaomi/Poco/Redmi reviews (multiple brands under one roof) you’ll need to dig into the software and tinker with whether an app has no restrictions to ‘Battery Saver’ – otherwise it may not always be readily available.

Pocket-lint

One clear positive we can highlight about the Mi 11 Ultra is the fast-charging. It’s got a 67W charger, which is among the fastest you’ll find anywhere, and makes for rapid top-ups. It’s the same for wireless charging apparently – although we haven’t been able to test and verify this. Good job, really, as that quick-to-deplete battery has a way to help keep it juiced up in little time.

Cameras

Triple rear camera array:
- Main (24mm): 50-megapixel, f/2.0 aperture, 1.4µm pixel size, optical image stabilisation (OIS)
- 5x optical zoom (120mm): 48MP, f/4.1, 0.8µm, OIS
- Wide (12mm): 48MP, f/2.2, 0.8µm
Front-facing punch-hole (27mm):
- 20-megapixel, f/2.2 aperture, 0.8µm pixel size

Given the prominence of place given to the camera unit on the rear of the Mi 11 Ultra, it’s safe to say that it’s the most prominent feature of this flagship. It’s here that the Xiaomi often pulls its (considerable) weight, delivering images that are high quality and frequently outclass the competition.

Pocket-lint

As a quick summary, the rear unit houses three cameras: the main wide-angle, a 24mm equivalent wide-angle with 50-megapixel resolution; a 0.5x ultra-wide with 48-megapixel resolution; and a periscope zoom, also 48-megapixel, that delivers 5x optical zoom (so a 120mm equivalent).

There’s no gimmicky lenses, no useless macro or dedicated mono sensor, just the core of what you’re really likely to want. Now, the 5x zoom is quite a ‘steep’ jump from the main sensor, but it is possible to pinch-zoom between the two with results of varying quality. You can even do this when live-recording video, which is pretty impressive in result.

As we’ve seen from pretty much every maker with multi-faceted cameras, there’s a slight disparity between the colour balance and quality from each lens though. There’s also a delay when ‘jumping’ between the available lenses – select between the main optic and 5x, for example, and you’ll first see a digital zoom from that main sensor before it suddenly updates with a different fill from the true optical zoom sensor. Not a major drama, but it’s not 100 per cent immediate when selecting between the lenses.

Pocket-lint

: Main cameraMain camera

The Mi 11 Ultra’s ultra-wide lens is also a bit too wide-angle – we think it should be 0.6x to avoid some of the more considerable barrel distortion really. But, unlike typical 8-megapixel ultra-wide sensors, this one is capable of delivering decent quality at 12-megapixels (using four-in-one processing technology, as the Mi 11 Ultra does on all its shots).

It has to be said that the Mi 11 Ultra’s 5x optical zoom delivers crisp and clear shots. It’s particularly apparent here, because so many competitors use digital or hybrid zooms and talk them up to such an extent that you almost believe the results will be good – but nothing can beat a true optical zoom as Xiaomi has graced the Mi 11 Ultra with here.

Epic v Apple, future of projectors and more – Pocket-lint Podcast 102

By Rik Henderson
·
7 May 2021

The main sensor is equipped with on-sensor phase detection autofocus, there’s laser autofocus too, and optical image stabilisation to keep everything smooth and sharp. It’s a well equipped sensor that delivers fine results indeed – whether in daylight, low-light, backlit or really any given set of conditions.

Pocket-lint

: Main cameraMain camera

In short: the Ultra’s forte really is found in its photography prowess. Whether it’s worth having such a giant hunk of a camera unit to the rear for the sake of that, however, is another question.

Verdict

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra does a really good job of shouting “shiny, shiny!” from the rooftops and being undoubtedly alluring for all the bells, whistles, and other embellishments that make it an altogether different and standout device. It wants you to look at it and think “that’s more exciting than the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra” – because, from a pure features and spec point of view, it really is.

But once you brush away what are frankly excess features – some of which, such as the second rear screen, are nothing but gimmicky – you’re left with a device that fails to get many of the basics right. The screen response is unacceptably bad. The camera bump is huge – and not really worth it for the sake of that second rear screen. The MIUI software has various moments of failing to send notifications too.

The Mi 11 Ultra is a rare moment from Xiaomi. One that’s excited us more than any other phone of late. Yet, when it comes to the crunch, it’s the one Mi 11 device that’s left us ultra disappointed. The promise is huge, but it just hasn’t lived up to the potential.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

A neater camera integration, better software, and fewer irks make the Samsung the phone that Xiaomi should have beaten – but failed to do so.

Read our review

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Pocket-lint

Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G

This, our favourite of the whole Mi 11 range, is everything the Ultra isn’t: it’s lightweight, its colour finish is more eye-catching, its battery lasts longer (despite being less capacious), and, for whatever reason, the software implementation here hasn’t been problematic. You don’t get outstanding cameras by comparison, of course, but you do save two-thirds on the Ultra’s asking price. And you still get 5G connectivity!

Read our review

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Writing by Mike Lowe.

Noctua NH-L9x65 Review: Noctua Nano?

Our Verdict

The NH-L9x65 provides all the impressive Noctua engineering you’d expect in an exceptionally tiny footprint. And while it’s expensive, unlike other compact downdraft cooler designs, it boasts 100% PCI-e card and memory compatibility on Intel platforms.

For

+ Quality build and design
+ Simple to install
+ 100% memory and graphics cards clearance on ITX platforms

Against

– Price
– Fan noise at 100% PWM

Go to page:

Features and Specifications

Noctua is held in high regard due to exceptional build quality and some of the best large heatpipe air coolers money can buy. But armed with a 14mm thin fan at just 90mm in diameter, how does the compact Noctua NH-L9x65 sibling perform on small system builds while squeezing into a space only 95mm x 95mm square and just 65mm (3.74 x 3.74 x 2.56 inches) tall? The majority of Noctua’s line focuses on large, nearly silent cooling behemoths like the NH-D15, but is the same possible in a pint-sized package?

Specifications

Height	2.0″ / 51mm
	(2.55″ / 65mm w/fan)
Width	3.75″ / 95mm
Depth	3.75″ / 95mm
Memory Clearance	No Limit
Assy. Offset	0
Cooling Fans	(1x) 90mm x 14mm
Connectors	(1x) 4-pin PWM
Weight	15.0 oz / 425g
Intel Sockets	115x, 1200,
	2011x (square ILM), 2066
AMD Sockets	AM2(+), AM3(+), AM4,
	FM1, FM2(+)
	(some AMD sockets may require backplate)
Warranty	6-years
Web Price	$55

Feature

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The Noctua NH-L9x65 might be incredibly compact, but the boxed contents include a wide array of components to allow for most Intel and AMD desktop processor sockets, although some AMD chips might require an applicable backplate (see Noctua’s product site for details). Most of the mounting hardware is nickel plated, and a 4-pin PWM speed reduction cable and angled screwdriver are included in the box.

Also per the Noctua norm, an enamel and nickel-plated metal logo badge comes standard, as does a tube of the company’s NT-H1 thermal compound. Noctua covers the NH-L9x65 with a generous 6-year warranty.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The heatsink of the NH-L9x65 features four heatpipes which are tightly angled to wrap into the stack of 50 cooling fins overhead. This design gives the cooler a compact footprint, but also means that due to the 95mm cooler length and width, the overall cooling fin stack has less surface area to dissipate heat than larger downdraft coolers.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Airflow is moved over the NH-L9x65 from NF-A9-x14 PWM fan (90mm x14mm). This small, narrow fan is rated up to 2500 RPM, has built-in rubber mounting pads and utilizes a 4-pin PWM header. A pair of wire clips secure and support the fan during use.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The base of the NH-L9x65 features a milled, nickel-plated base, which clamps each of the four heatpipes against the integrated mounting plate of the cooler. At either side of the mounting plate sits a spring machine screw which is used to properly tension the cooler to the mounting crossbars and simplifies alignment over the CPU during installation.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The base of the NH-L9x65 is milled flat, preventing any lighting from peeking beneath our steel ruler held flat against the base. Also visible from this angle is a view into the small tolerances between the cooler base, heatpipes and the heatsink fins themselves, showing just how compact this component truly is.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Mounting and removing the NH-L9x65 provides us with a universal thermal compound spread of our standard MX-4 testing paste. Concentric circles give us a view into how the cooler is centered and the mount allows for equal tensioning, provided the installer takes their time and applies pressure evenly to each side.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

With the mounting hardware installed and the cooler positioned over the crossbars, getting the Noctua NH-L9x65 into place is as easy as aligning the machine tension screws over the threaded mounting posts. We can also see how the cooler claims an unlimited memory DIMM clearance by lining up just a few millimeters from the installed system RAM.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The fan clips to the heatsink to complete the downdraft airflow design of the NH-L9x65.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Current page:

Features and Specifications

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ASRock Radeon RX 6900 XT OC Formula Review – This Card is Fast

Introduction

We have with us the ASRock Radeon RX 6900 XT OC Formula, the company’s new flagship graphics card, positioned a notch above even the RX 6900 XT Phantom Gaming. This sees the company revive its topmost “OC Formula” brand co-developed by Nick Shih, which represents the company’s boutique range of motherboards and graphics cards for professional overclockers taking a crack at world records of all shapes and sizes. What triggered the company to come out with an RX 6900 XT-based graphics card in particular, is a concerted preemption by AMD to NVIDIA’s rumored GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, an SKU slotted between the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU at the heart of the ASRock RX 6900 XT OC Formula isn’t the same chip as the one in the RX 6900 XT Phantom Gaming. AMD refers to this silicon as the Navi 21 “XTXH”. It is the highest bin of the Navi 21, designed to sustain up to 10% higher clock speeds than the regular RX 6900 XT. With its default “performance” BIOS, the RX 6900 XT OC Formula can now boost up to 2475 MHz, and achieve game clocks of up to 2295 MHz. The reference AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT sustains only up to 2250 MHz boost, and 2015 MHz game clocks, while ASRock’s previous RX 6900 XT-based flagship, the RX 6900 XT Phantom Gaming, does 2340 MHz boost, with 2105 MHz game clocks. Compared to the reference design, that’s exactly a 10 percent OC from ASRock.

The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is AMD’s current-generation flagship graphics card, which, along with the RX 6800 series, propelled the company back to the big leagues of enthusiast-segment graphics cards against NVIDIA. The RX 6900 XT is powered by AMD’s RDNA2 graphics architecture, which is its first to feature full DirectX 12 Ultimate readiness, including real-time raytracing. The RDNA2 architecture transcends platforms, and also powers the latest PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles, which makes it easier for game developers to optimize for the architecture on the PC.

At the heart of the RX 6900 XT is the 7 nm Navi 21 silicon, which it maxes out. This chip features 5,120 stream processors spread across 80 RDNA2 compute units, 80 Ray Accelerators (components that accelerate raytracing), 288 TMUs, 128 ROPs, and an impressive 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. This memory, however, runs across a 256-bit wide memory interface. AMD attempted to shore up bandwidth by using the fastest JEDEC-standard 16 Gbps memory chips, and deploying Infinity Cache, a 128 MB last-level cache on the GPU die, which speeds up transfers between the GPU and the memory, by acting as a scratchpad. Together with the GDDR6 memory, Infinity Fabric unleashes memory bandwidths of up to 2 TB/s.

The ASRock RX 6900 XT features the company’s most opulent custom board design to date, with a large triple-slot, triple fan cooling solution that’s packed with innovations; the company’s most over-the-top power-delivery solution ever on a graphics card; and design optimization for professional overclocking using liquid- or extreme cooling methods. The Navi XTXH silicon not only sustains boost frequencies better, but is also designed for better overclocking headroom than the original Navi 21 XTX powering the reference RX 6900 XT. In this review, we take our first look at this exotic new graphics card to tell you if ASRock has tangibly improved performance of the RX 6900 XT over the reference, and whether it gets any closer to the RTX 3090.

Radeon RX 6900 XT Market Segment Analysis
	Price	Shader Units	ROPs	Core Clock	Boost Clock	Memory Clock	GPU	Transistors	Memory
RTX 2080 Ti	$1000	4352	88	1350 MHz	1545 MHz	1750 MHz	TU102	18600M	11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070	$800	5888	96	1500 MHz	1725 MHz	1750 MHz	GA104	17400M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800	$1000	3840	96	1815 MHz	2105 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT	$1300	4608	128	2015 MHz	2250 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080	$1300	8704	96	1440 MHz	1710 MHz	1188 MHz	GA102	28000M	10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RX 6900 XT	$1500	5120	128	2015 MHz	2250 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
ASRock RX 6900 XT OC Formula	$2000	5120	128	2125 MHz	2475 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3090	$2000	10496	112	1395 MHz	1695 MHz	1219 MHz	GA102	28000M	24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit

EVGA Z15 RGB Gaming Keyboard Review

Introduction

EVGA had launched a whole series of new mice and keyboards earlier this year, with the flagship Z20 offering some neat features not found in other keyboards to date. It impressed us too, offering good value for money, especially if you were an EVGA Elite member. I had also mentioned briefly how the Z20 had come alongside the equally newer, more budget friendly Z15 keyboard. It took some time before we got here, but better late than never as we thank EVGA for sending the review sample to TechPowerUp!

As with the EVGA Z20, this Z15 keyboard is a new ID from the company and a departure from the older Z10 RGB in nearly every way. We have a new case design, dedicated media controls, no LCD display, a nice wrist rest, new switches, and even hot-swappable switch sockets. So yes, the Z15 gets a feature the flagship Z20 does not! Let’s go through the EVGA Z15 in detail by examining all these features in this review beginning with a look at the specifications in the table below.

Specifications

EVGA Z15 RGB Gaming Keyboard
Layout:	>104-key modified US ANSI layout, other language support depending on region
Material:	ABS plastic case and keycaps, steel plate
Macro Support:	Yes
Weight (total):	1.23 kg/2.49 lbs.
Wrist Rest:	Yes, removable
Anti-ghosting:	Full N-Key rollover USB
Media Keys:	Dedicated playback and volume control
Cable Length:	6 ft/1.8 m
Software:	Yes
Switch Type:	Choice of Kailh Speed Silver or Speed Bronze mechanical RGB switch
Backlighting:	Yes, per-key 16.8 M RGB
Interface:	USB
Warranty:	Three years

Android TV updates home screen for Freeview Play viewers

(Image credit: Android TV)

Android TV has rolled out a home screen update for Freeview Play designed to make it easier for viewers to explore content relevant to their tastes.

Users will now have access to a new ‘Discover’ tab that offers personalised suggestions based on viewing history, interests and Google trends. A forthcoming update will add recommendations from the 30,000 hours of on-demand content on Freeview Play.

Additionally, the main interface’s ‘On Now’ row has been simplified to give clearer programme information with a new tile providing quick access to the live TV guide.

To make it easy for viewers to watch Freeview Play’s on-demand programmes, content rows have been updated with player tiles that will link viewers straight to the app they are interested in. 

Previously the integration of Android TV and Freeview Play hasn’t always made for the easiest of combinations, resulting in an interface that felt convoluted. Speaking about the changes Ed Corn, Head of Android TV Partnerships, said: “People in Britain cherish a helpful and smart TV experience.

“We are glad that through our work with Freeview Play, more UK viewers will profit from an updated Android TV experience that makes it easy for them to find and watch their favourite shows.”

MORE

Freeview Play: what is it? How can you get it?

See all our Freeview digital TV box reviews

Read our Humax Aura review: Android TV, Freeview Play and 4K HDR

Product	Gen4 7000s 1TB	Gen4 7000s 2TB
Pricing	$209.99	$389.99
Capacity (User / Raw)	1000GB / 1024GB	2000GB / 2048GB
Form Factor	M.2 2280	M.2 2280
Interface / Protocol	PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4	PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4
Controller	Phison PS5018-E18	Phison PS5018-E18
DRAM	DDR4	DDR4
Memory	Micron 96L TLC	Micron 96L TLC
Sequential Read	7,000 MBps	7,000 MBps
Sequential Write	5,500 MBps	6,850 MBps
Random Read	350,000 IOPS	650,000 IOPS
Random Write	700,000 IOPS	700,000 IOPS
Security	AES 256-bit encryption	AES 256-bit encryption
Endurance (TBW)	700 TB	1,400 TB
Part Number	GP-AG70S1TB	GP-AG70S2TB
Warranty	5-Years	5-Years

Design & Interior

Drive & Range

Design & Build

Display

Hardware and performance

Cameras

Software

Also consider

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G

Redmi Note 10 Pro

Research

Development

More than numbers

Our Verdict

For

Against

Features and Specifications

Specifications – Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Pro AX

ZTE Blade 11 Prime screen, battery, and performance

ZTE Blade 11 Prime camera

Introduction

Design

Hardware & Specs

Features

Sound and performance

Also consider

Sonos Roam

Sonos One

Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3

JBL Link Portable

Design

Displays

Performance

Cameras

Also consider

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G

Our Verdict

For

Against

Features and Specifications

Specifications

Feature

Introduction

Introduction

Specifications

Our Verdict

For

Features and Specifications

Specifications

Software and Accessories

A Closer Look