Dolby Vision gaming is arriving on the Xbox Series X and S for testers who are a part of the Xbox Insider’s “alpha ring” group. This HDR format offers an upgraded set of features like support for dynamic metadata. Microsoft says the feature means “brighter highlights, sharper contrast, and more vibrant colors” in games when you’re playing on a Dolby Vision-compatible TV, offering “better clarity in both light and dark scenes.” The consoles currently support HDR via the less advanced HDR10 standard.
We’ve known Microsoft’s current generation of Xboxes would support Dolby’s HDR standard since before the consoles’ release. Last September, Dolby announced that they’d be “the first consoles to support the Dolby Vision HDR format with dynamic metadata for gaming.” Sony’s PS5, meanwhile, currently does not support Dolby Vision.
Get ready to transform your gaming experience with full-spectrum visuals! Rolling out to Xbox Insiders this week: Dolby Vision for gaming on Xbox Series X|S. pic.twitter.com/iU2RktHvPG
— Larry Hryb ☁ (@majornelson) May 14, 2021
As well as improvements in picture quality, Microsoft says Dolby Vision support should be easier to configure for users. “Dolby Vision games automatically map to any display with Dolby Vision, you’re always seeing the best possible picture available,” the company says. “This means … no more sliders to adjust your picture settings.” However, it advises that testers might need to update their TV’s firmware to take full advantage of the technology.
During an earlier test of the feature in March, Forbes notes that users reported that all HDR games appeared to be outputting in Dolby Vision, rather than needing to specifically support the upgraded format. However, it’s unclear if this will be the case when the feature officially releases. As part of today’s announcement, Microsoft said it will be sharing more about the games that will take “full advantage” of the standard “soon.”
An earlier limited test of the feature got a positive reception. Forbessays alpha testers reported improvements to brightness, black levels, and color saturation in HDR games. At the time the feature seemed to be limited to 60Hz, but Forbes has more recently reported that Dolby is working with TV manufacturers to enable the standard to work at 120Hz.
In order to benefit from the feature, your TV will need to be Dolby Vision-compatible, as an increasing number of 4K TVs now are. But always be careful and check your specs. For example, Samsung — the largest TV manufacturer globally — doesn’t support the format.
Microsoft didn’t provide a timeline for when it expects the feature to roll out to everyone, noting only that it will be available “once we’ve completed testing.”
Qualcomm has announced that it will skip Mobile World Congress’ in-person show in Barcelona this year, making it the latest major company to announce that it will miss the potential COVID-19 superspreader event in June in favor of an online presence at the show.
“While we appreciate the health and safety measures being put into place by the GSMA for MWC Barcelona, we have decided that it is in the best interest of our employees and customers for Qualcomm’s participation to be virtual this year,” the company said in a statement obtained by TechCrunch.
Qualcomm is by no means the only major company opting for a digital appearance at MWC this year: Google, Nokia, Ericsson, Sony, and Oracle have all pulled out of this year’s show entirely, while Samsung and Lenovo have announced that they will also attend digitally instead of their traditional in-person appearances.
MWC 2020 was one of the first major conferences to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the GSMA’s attempts to try to put on the show, even with rapidly increasing case numbers around the world and new travel restrictions.
The GSMA is still insisting on holding this year’s event with only minimal COVID-19 mitigation policies, including asking attendees to have had a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their arrival and plans for “controlling crowd density” — neither of which is expected to be enough to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at an event this large.
In 2020, MWC was only canceled after numerous major companies (like LG, ZTE, Sony, and Amazon) pulled out of the event. And while the GSMA has given no indication that it’ll be looking to adjust its plans for this year’s show yet, it’s possible the increasing number of exhibitors that won’t be attending could change that.
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Amazon’s new second-generation Echo Buds are the company’s second crack at true wireless earbuds. They’re smaller, lighter, and more comfortable than before, and now have more effective noise cancellation. The first time around, Amazon borrowed some of Bose’s tech to help the original Echo Buds block outside noise, but version two was built completely in-house. Hands-free Alexa voice commands still get top billing, but the most compelling thing about the Echo Buds is still their aggressive price — and the solid mix of features you get in exchange.
The Echo Buds cost $99.99 or $119.99 (with wireless charging case) for a limited time, after which the prices will rise to $119 and $139.99, respectively. Not only is Amazon undercutting premium noise-canceling buds from Apple, Bose, Sony, and others, but it’s also seemingly trying to obliterate mid-range options like the Anker Liberty Air 2 Pros.
The revamped Echo Buds are 20 percent smaller in footprint and have a shortened nozzle, so they protrude from the ears a bit less. They ditch the glossy outer touchpad for a matte design (though the side facing your ear is glossy) The Amazon “smile” logo is present on both earbuds, but it’s not as obnoxious as I assumed it’d be. It’s matte and printed onto the buds instead of being embossed or given a different texture to stand out, so the logo doesn’t really call attention. Still, I’d have preferred it not to be there at all. The charging case is far more understated; there, the smile logo is on the underside — where most people are never even going to see it.
Amazon’s blatant logo is unfortunate, but doesn’t call much attention.
That case has also been downsized and is roughly 40 percent smaller than the last gen, but still carries enough juice to provide the earbuds with two full recharges. The Echo Buds last for five hours with ANC enabled, which is extremely par for the course in 2021. This stretches to 6.5 hours if you disable noise canceling and hands-free Alexa. Oh, and the case does charging LEDs right: you get separate indicators for the case’s charge and both earbuds also have their own.
Amazon includes a plethora of ear tips and wing tips to help you get a perfect fit.
Amazon has included everything but the kitchen sink to help guarantee a good seal and snug fit. There are four sizes of silicone tips in the box — S, M, L, XL — and three different pairs of optional wing tips. The ear tips are color coded, which makes it much easier to tell the different sizes apart without having to squint at them. The wing tips might prove useful if you’re going to use the Echo Buds for intense workouts, but they weren’t necessary for everyday use or outdoor runs in my ears; the reduced size of the earbuds was enough to keep them locked in place for me.
The new Echo Buds now feature a vented design to cut down on ear pressure, similar to Apple’s AirPods Pro and recent Samsung Galaxy Buds models. But the flipside of this change means if you turn off ANC in the Alexa app (or with a voice command), you’re going to hear a fair mix of ambient noise. If you want to hear more, Amazon gets credit for its passthrough mode, which nearly matches the AirPods Pro and Bose in how natural sound it sounds. If you crank it up all the way, it almost feels like superpower hearing — but there’s a very noticeable hiss at max passthrough.
Amazon claims that the second-gen Echo Buds cancel out “twice as much noise” as the original pair, and the improvements are most concentrated in lower sound frequencies — exactly what you’d want for flights or bothersome hums around the house or office. But remember that the original Echo Buds utilized Bose’s noise reduction technology, which isn’t the same as full-blown active noise cancellation. (Even at the time, Bose said it could do better.) So while Amazon is advertising significant gains over the prior model, you won’t hear any claims that it’s outperforming earbuds from Apple, Bose, Jabra, or other companies. Those are different goalposts.
And the Echo Buds objectively aren’t as effective as the AirPods Pro or Bose QuietComfort Earbuds at turning down the volume knob on the outside world. You might assume that it’s because of the vented design — but the AirPods Pro have that design trait too — so it’s really just that Amazon’s proprietary noise cancellation tech doesn’t yet measure up to the best out there. Occasionally when holding the Echo Buds in my hands, I’d hear a high-pitched whine or squeal coming out of them. This has happened with other earbuds, and Amazon tells me it’s due to an ANC-related feedback loop. Amusingly, I’m also told there’s a “squeal detection algorithm” that’s meant to suppress this. The noise is never really a bother when they’re in your ears, thankfully, but it does pop up from time to time.
The new Echo Buds are 20 percent smaller than Amazon’s first-gen earbuds.Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Passable ANC aside, the Echo Buds do sound good. They handily beat out the AirPods Pro at bass, which is becoming a regular occurrence at this point. Amazon says the 5.7mm drivers are “optimized for increased fidelity in bass and treble,” and they make for easy listening when you’re playing spoken word content like podcasts, audiobooks, or watching videos. All of this proves out as true when using them. The bass has ample kick and the treble is well contained and never gets earsplitting. Tracks like Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” or Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” are perfect demonstration of what the Echo Buds are good at. I get the impression that Amazon has tuned these with modern hits in mind.
But they do lack a layer of depth and texture that you’ll find in the higher price tiers of true wireless earbuds. Acoustic-heavy tunes aren’t as warm as they could be, and tracks like Phoebe Bridgers’ “Graceland Too” don’t have as wide of a soundstage. The powerful bottom end can make up for that somewhat on songs like “Chinatown” by Bleachers, where the bassline never gets lost to the synths, vocals, and guitars.
The earbuds have a vented design to reduce ear pressure.
So even before you get to the Alexa part of the equation, the Echo Buds establish themselves as worthy contenders at a hard-to-resist price. They also offer IPX4 water and sweat resistance, and voice call quality has improved some over the first-gen buds. Audio automatically pauses when either bud is removed, and each side can be used independently. Like most earbuds (save for those from Jabra), the Echo Buds lack multipoint Bluetooth pairing. Both AAC and SBC codecs are supported. Connection stability has been rock solid in my review period so far with only the rarest blip or dropout.
But how does Amazon’s voice assistant fare? Alexa can aptly handle music requests (“play my Release Radar on Spotify”), weather checks, smart home commands, and other activities that are normally smooth sailing on Echo speakers. Amazon says “later this year” the Echo Buds will get the same VIP Filter as its Echo Frames, which lets you pick which notifications you want to hear.
But on the whole, Alexa noticeably lags behind Siri and Google Assistant at more on-the-go requests. If you ask for directions, Alexa responds that you must tap a notification on your iPhone for those directions to actually open up in Apple Maps. It’s not a huge inconvenience, and some of this — like SMS messaging being limited to Android — boils down to platform restrictions, but there are often middle steps that don’t exist if you’re making the same ask of Siri or Google Assistant. (You also must grant the Alexa app full-time location access for directions to work.) It’s nice that I can ask these earbuds where the nearest COVID-19 vaccine site is or inquire about the status of a given subway line, but these are the kind of things that I’m always going to use my phone for. Getting people to change that default behavior is no small hurdle.
There were also bugs where I didn’t expect them. When I would say, “Alexa, turn on noise canceling,” it would often respond “sorry, what device?” Apparently “noise cancellation” is the term you’ve got to use, but it seems obvious that both should get you there. This was never an issue with voice commands asking to enable or switch off passthrough mode, which worked every time.
Amazon says it has built in a number of privacy-minded features to limit how often the microphones are listening for the “Alexa” wake word. At least one of the earbuds needs to actually be in your ear for the mics to function — they’re automatically muted when both are removed — and there must be an active Bluetooth connection to your phone. You can also manually mute the mics with the Alexa app or by customizing a long-press to do that.
The Echo Buds package together a lot of good for less.
Though Amazon promotes hands-free Alexa as a flagship feature of the Echo Buds, I think it’ll be a negligible value add for some buyers: the price, comfort, and sound are still enough to make these earbuds quite enticing. You’ve also got the choice of using your phone’s native assistant instead of Alexa, which is another option for the long-press command on the outside of a bud. So at least Amazon isn’t forcing anything on you.
If you don’t have an inherent resistance towards Amazon products (and some people certainly do), the 2021 Echo Buds strike a balance of features that’s downright impressive at their selling price. They’re a considerable upgrade from the first-gen earbuds in comfort with improved noise cancellation to boot — even if it’s not close to best in class. You can do better if you’re willing to spend upwards of $50 to $70 more. If you don’t want to go that high, the Echo Buds won’t disappoint.
ZTE announced the Axon 30 Ultra alongside two other devices last month, and today reveals that the Ultra will go on sale June 4th starting at $749 / €749. Preorders begin directly through ZTE’s website on May 27th and include a free pair of ZTE’s Livebuds TWS earbuds.
While ZTE has tried some more adventurous things in its other devices that have missed the mark — an early attempt at a dual-screen phone and the world’s first under-display selfie camera for starters — the company is playing it straight with the Axon 30 Ultra. The phone is outfitted with cameras aplenty and high-end features, including a top-shelf Snapdragon 888 processor and a large 144Hz fast refresh rate display.
The Axon 30 Ultra’s sub-$800 price tag positions it to undercut the $800 Samsung S21 and $1000 S21 Plus by a little or a lot, depending on which model you’re looking at and how deeply it’s discounted. Buyers in the US should be aware, though — the Axon 30 Ultra will only work on AT&T and T-Mobile, not Verizon, and its 5G connectivity is limited to one band (B41) on T-Mobile.
The security researcher who discovered the Krack Wi-Fi vulnerability has discovered a slew of other flaws with the wireless protocol most of us use to power our online lives (via Gizmodo). The vulnerabilities relate to how Wi-Fi handles large chunks of data, with some being related to the Wi-Fi standard itself, and some being related to how it’s implemented by device manufacturers.
The researcher, Mathy Vanhoef, calls the collection of vulnerabilities “FragAttacks,” with the name being a mashup of “fragmentation” and “aggregation.” He also says the vulnerabilities could be exploited by hackers, allowing them to intercept sensitive data, or show users fake websites, even if they’re using Wi-Fi networks secured with WPA2 or even WPA3. They could also theoretically exploit other devices on your home network.
There are twelve different attack vectors that fall under the classification, which all work in different ways. One exploits routers accepting plaintext during handshakes, one exploits routers caching data in certain types of networks, etc. If you want to read all the technical details on how exactly they work, you can check out Vanhoef’s website.
According to The Record, Vanhoef informed the WiFi Alliance about the vulnerabilities that were baked-in to the way Wi-Fi works so they could be corrected before he disclosed them to the public. Vanhoef says that he’s not aware of the vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild. While he points out in a video that some of the vulnerabilities aren’t particularly easy to exploit, he says others would be “trivial” to take advantage of.
Vanhoef points out that some of the flaws can be exploited on networks using the WEP security protocol, indicating that they’ve been around since Wi-Fi was first implemented in 1997 (though if you’re still using WEP, these attacks should be the least of your concerns).
Vanhoef says that the flaws are wide-spread, affecting many devices, meaning that there’s a lot of updating to do.
The thing about updating Wi-Fi infrastructure is that it’s always a pain. For example, before writing this article I went to check if my router had any updates, and realized that I had forgotten my login information (and I suspect I won’t be alone in that experience). There’s also devices that are just plain old, whose manufacturers are either gone or not releasing patches anymore. If you can, though, you should keep an eye on your router manufacturer’s website for any updates that are rolling out, especially if they’re in the advisory list.
Some vendors have already released patches for some of their products, including:
Microsoft
Eero
Aruba
Cisco
Ruckus
Intel
Juniper
Lancom
Lenovo
Linux Wireless
Mist
Netgear
Samsung
Synology
Zyxel
As for anything else you need to do, Vanhoef recommends the usual steps: keep your computers updated, use strong, unique passwords, don’t visit shady sites, and make sure you’re using HTTPS as often as possible. Other than that, it’s mostly being thankful that you’re not in charge of widespread IT infrastructure (my deepest condolences if you, in fact, are).
(Pocket-lint) – Gaming phones have become something of a fixture in the Android space; while many flagship devices push their gaming prowess, for a select few, gaming is their raison d’être, their everything.
The ROG Phone is one such device, pushing Asus’ Republic of Gamers brand and weaving into that the experience Asus has gained from its regular phones. And in the fourth-generation of this phone Asus is more ambitious than ever.
Here’s why the Asus ROG Phone 5 is not only a great gaming phone, it’s a great phone outside of that too.
Design & Build
Dimensions: 173 x 77 x 9.9mm / Weight: 239g
Under-display optical fingerprint scanner
3.5mm headphone jack
ROG Vision rear display
Gaming phones often show their colours when it comes to the design. Aside from being large – which the ROG Phone 5 definitely is – you’ll often find more overt graphics and emotive finishes rather than just being a safe black or grey.
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The ROG Phone 5 doesn’t go to an extreme though: from the front it just looks like a normal phone. Flip it over and you’re treated to subtle design touches etched into the rear glass, which also gives some indicator of where the touch points are for the AirTriggers (which Asus describes as “ultrasonic sensor zones that can be customised to perform different functions, such as reproducing actions in specific games and launching specific apps”. We touch upon these in more detail in the last section of this review).
The thing that gives the game away is the ROG Vision display on the rear of the phone. There are two different versions of the display, with a dot display on the regular ROG Phone models and a slightly smaller but more sophisticated display panel on the Pro and Ultimate models – the Pro is shown in this review.
ROG Phone 5 comes in regular, Pro and Ultimate editions
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That blows the subtlety out of the water, allowing you to have RBG illumination on the back of the phone – with the Pro and Ultimate models offering a wider range of graphics and animations – all of which can be controlled through the Armoury Crate app on the phone, just like Asus PC components.
That control includes turning the Vision display off if you don’t want it – but you’ll soon forget it’s there until people mention it. It’s on the back of the phone and it’s rare to be looking at the back of the phone when you’re doing something, so let’s not dwell on it.
There are a couple of other quirks around the body: The USB-C on the base of the phone is offset to one side rather than central (and we don’t know exactly why), while there’s a secondary USB-C on the side of the phone. This secondary USB sits alongside the contact point to power the AeroActive Cooler 5 – the clip-on fan – and both have a rubber seal that presses into the side to keep out dust.
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This cover is probably the worst piece of design implementation on the ROG Phone 5. The fact that there are a couple of spares in the box tell you everything you need to know: you’re going to lose this cover, because it’s a separate piece of rubber.
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We’ve found it flapping off when pulling the phone from a pocket, and just when handling the device. We’re constantly pushing it back into place and a couple of times we’ve found it missing and then located it in the bottom of a pocket.
An out of box experience all phones can learn from
One of the great things about gaming phones is what you get for your money. There are a whole range of phones on offer and none are really expensive compared to flagships from brands like Samsung and Apple. The ROG Phone 5 starts at £799 in the UK – and that’s for a 12GB RAM model with 256GB storage, not the bottom of the range loadout.
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But it’s not just about the core device, it’s about the rest of the experience. Lavishly packaged, opening the ROG Phone 5 is an event. From the cool comic book graphics of inside of the box, that flow through into the startup process for the phone, there’s a sense of theatre. It’s a reward for your custom and it’s so much better than just sliding a phone out of a box.
You also get more in the box: the 65W charger that will deliver a fast charge; the case that brings some grip to what is, admittedly, a slippery phone given its massive size; and the clip-on AeroActive Cooler 5 fan, which integrates a kickstand, two physical buttons, and another RGB logo.
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Some might baulk at this as more landfill, but some companies will make you pay for the charger – and here you’re getting a powerful charger you can use with your other devices too.
Display
6.78-inch AMOLED panel
Up to 144Hz refresh rate
2448 x 1080 resolution
There’s a 6.78-inch display in the ROG Phone 5. It’s big by any standard, with Asus hanging onto the bezels top and bottom. The top bezel integrates the front-facing camera, so there’s no need for a notch or punch-hole.
It’s also a flat display, all practical design decisions made to give you the best gaming experience, ensuring that you get as much visual space as possible. Given how problematic we found the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s display, we’re just fine with the ROG Phone 5 going flat.
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The ROG Phone 5 models all stick to a Full HD resolution and while devices like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra can technically produce finer detail, generally speaking that makes little difference. We can’t fault the ROG Phone’s display for detail.
It also offers refresh rates up to 144Hz (if you have any games that support that, there’s a full list on the ROG website), with options to select 60 or 120Hz – or Auto, which will pick the refresh rate based on the content.
HDR 10+ is supported to bring pop to the visuals for high dynamic range content, while that AMOLED panel provides rich colour visuals, with the option to tune that to your preferences.
It’s a great display and about the only thing that separates it from the best displays on the market is the peak brightness. It offers 800 nits, which is still bright enough for most, but Samsung’s top-end offerings will outshine this model – most notable when outside in sunny conditions.
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Flanking the display top and bottom are dual stereo speakers, while there’s also a 3.5mm headphone socket for those wanting to go wired. The speaker performance is stellar, amongst the best you’ll find on a smartphone. It’s rich and immersive, with substantial bass and volume that means you don’t need headphones to get the most from your content.
Hardware & Performance
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform
8GB-18GB RAM, 128GB-512GB storage
6000mAh battery, dual USB-C 65W wired charging
The fact the ROG Phone 5 houses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 platform makes it especially good value for money – as you’re getting the latest flagship hardware that will embarrass some other phones.
Of course it comes in at different price points, with RAM and storage leveraging the price, although not all models will be available in all regions. We actually tested the 16GB/512GB model (the ROG Phone 5 Pro – a model that isn’t planned for the UK; although there’s a 16GB/512GB version of the standard ROG Phone 5, the only difference being the type of display you get on the back of the phone).
The performance is also exemplary. There are a number of elements to this. It’s got that great hardware and, as a result, we’ve found the gaming performance to be outstanding.
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This is a phone that eats hours of Call of Duty Mobile or PUBG Mobile, giving solid gameplay, combined with those design elements and some software enhancements that feel like they give you edge, or at least give you the opportunity to establish new preferences thanks to the bespoke gaming options offered.
We also didn’t find the ROG Phone 5 to get excessively hot under load, despite the option of the clip-on fan.
But the important point about performance is that the ROG Phone 5 also runs fast and smooth outside of gaming. We’ve seen gaming phones that drop the ball when it comes to simple tasks, because of poor software. The ROG Phone 5 is stable, which makes for a great experience.
There’s a huge 6000mAh battery, which is fitting for a phone of this size, again with Asus splitting the battery and enabling 65W wired charging. That makes for really fast charging, with the option to bypass charging – and just have the power used for the system rather than recharging the battery.
Again, this is an option for gamers, so you’re not charging (which produces heat) and loading the system (which produces heat) and could potentially lead to a drop in performance.
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A big battery means big battery life. In regular use the ROG Phone 5 will easily see you through the day and into the next. It’s not a charge every night type of phone. Even with a couple of hours of gaming thrown in – at top brightness and max settings – battery life isn’t a worry. That’s a great position not just for a gaming phone, but any smartphone.
There are power modes available, with X Mode firing up full power to let things rip, and a Dynamic Mode to keep things balanced. You can customise the power modes to suit your preferences with things like network, display, performance, and other controls all selectable.
There’s an under-display fingerprint scanner that’s fast to unlock, while calls comes through loud and clear too – with no detected problems with Wi-Fi or 5G connectivity.
The camera on any gaming phone is often something of an afterthought. The focus is on the experience of gaming – so the camera is seen as less of a focus. Despite that, Asus is pushing the ROG Phone 5 as having a triple camera system.
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The main camera is a 64-megapixel sensor, using pixel combining to produce a 16-megapixel image as standard. You can shoot in full resolution, but you have to dig into the menu to find that option, which no one is ever going to do.
There’s an ultra-wide lens, giving the equivalent of 0.6x, although the quality isn’t great, with visible blurring around the edges if there’s any detail there – but fine for open shots of expansive landscapes.
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1.0X MAIN CAMERA
The final camera is a macro camera, which we’re generally non-plussed about. As on other devices, macro cameras seem to be thrown in to make up the numbers – and that’s what it feels like here too.
So back the main camera and the performance is reasonable, producing naturally balanced pictures, although perhaps not getting the most out of scenes and not showing as much pop as other cameras we’ve seen can offer.
Low-light shooting offers that slow exposure so you can watch the image get lighter, which we like – and it will take those shots automatically in low light, which means people will actually use it.
There’s a portrait mode for blurring the background that works well enough, although it seems to soften the background with over-exposure which makes results look a little clumsy.
Portrait works on the front and back cameras and we generally prefer the results without portrait mode – and you can’t adjust the levels of blur after the fact, so it’s worth taking a few photos and figuring out what gives you pleasing results so you can change the settings before you take the picture. The selfie camera is generally good, although images quickly get softer in lower light conditions and aren’t good when it gets dark.
There’s no optical zoom on offer here, although you can pinch-to-zoom from the main camera out to 8x. It’s not an especially elegant system and the results are typical of digital zoom, with quality dropping as you increase the “magnification”.
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One of the reasons for the high-resolution sensor – apart from for the benefit of the spec sheet – is to allow 8K video capture, on top of the 4K 60fps option.
The important thing about the camera is that it gets the job done: while other phones will sell themselves on camera features above all else, that’s not really the ethos behind the ROG Phone 5. This phone is all about the power and the gaming experience. So, yes, there are more engaging cameras elsewhere, but at the same time, this Asus will give you perfectly good results in most situations.
Software and custom gaming options
Android 11
Armoury Crate
Custom gaming controls
As we’ve said previously, the software on the ROG Phone 5 runs smooth and fast. We’ve experienced no problems with the tweaks and changes that Asus has made over Google’s Android operating system, and it’s easy to swing in with Google versions of apps rather than supplied alternatives.
It’s running Android 11 too, so the latest version of Google’s OS – although Asus doesn’t quite have the update record that a company like Samsung now offers, so there’s no telling how long it would be before it moves to Android 12 once that’s released later down the line.
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What’s more relevant here is the gaming software and the options that controls. We’ve mentioned Armoury Crate, which will let you control things like the ROG Vision display on the back of the phone, and act as a launch pad for your games.
Within each game you can see how long you’ve spent playing that game, but more usefully you have a record of profiles for that game. You can, for example, restrict background CPU usage when playing a particular game, change the touch performance, turn off background network syncing – all designed to ensure you have the optimal gaming experience.
That you can customise this to each game is great. For something like a shooter where connection and touch matters more, you might want to restrict everything else. For something casual like Pokemon Go, you might be happy to have everything else on your phone happening. It’s freedom to choose, rather than one gaming mode fits all.
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Within games you have access to the Game Genie dashboard too, allowing you to perform essential things, like tweak the brightness, turn off alerts or calls, speed up your phone – and block navigation gestures so you don’t accidentally exit the game.
There’s the option to have stats always showing – CPU and GPU usage, battery, temperature, fps – and you can drag these to anywhere on the screen so they are out of the way.
But it’s the AirTriggers that are the biggest differentiator from other phones, giving you a range of touch zones around the body of the phone that you can customise. That also includes two physical buttons on the AeroActive Cooler accessory too – which might convince some people to use it, as those buttons feel more positive than the touch areas of the phone’s casing.
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The Cooler buttons are great for things like dropshotting in shooters, because you can hit the deck while still firing, and get back to your feet, all without having to touch anything on the screen – which is a real advantage during games.
There are two ultrasonic buttons on the top of the phone, like shoulder buttons, with haptic feedback. These can offer a full range of programmable options – taps, swipes, slides – and they can be divided into two buttons each side, or you can programme and assign a macro to that button for a sequence you might use in a game.
Then there’s motion support, which you can assign to controls in the game – like forward tilt to reload, or whatever you like.
There’s also (on the Pro and Ultimate models only) rear touch zones you can use for slide input for your fingers on the rear of the phone.
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The challenge is how you incorporate all these tools to make things easier for you during games – although setting them up is easy enough and each setup is unique to each game.
Even if you just find one thing that’s useful, then you’re a step ahead. That might be using an additional AirTrigger for an on-screen control you find hard to hit – or that you can then remove from the display so you have less UI in the way of the game.
Verdict
The thing that really hits home about the Asus ROG Phone 5 is that it’s not just a great gaming phone: it’s a great phone full stop.
Yes, you can’t avoid the fact that the majority of phones are now based around the camera experience – and that’s one area that the ROG Phone 5 doesn’t really go to town on. But with huge battery and display, this is a great media phone in addition to a gaming delight.
For keen gamers, there’s a market of phone choices out there – and the ROG Phone 5 should definitely be high up your shortlist. For everyone else, if you can accept that this Asus is designed for gamers first, it’s still an awful lot of phone for the money.
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Nubia Red Magic 6
This gaming phone attempts to steal the show with a 165Hz display. Despite being a powerful device that’s good value for money, it does oversell the cameras and also brings with it some software quirks you’ll need to work around.
One of the things that Samsung’s spring refresh of Galaxy Book laptops did not bring was its highly anticipated notebook powered by its own Exynos 2200 system-on-chip. Industry sources now claim that the first laptop with Exynos inside is due in the second half of the year, and the same sources say Samsung is considering using the SoC in smartphones too.
Samsung’s Exynos 2200 system-on-chip will be the company’s first SoC to use a custom GPU based on AMD’s RDNA architecture. The Exynos 2200 will be made using Samsung’s 5LPE (5nm) fabrication process and will likely rely on numerous technologies already used for the Exynos 2100. Since the Exynos 2100 uses one Cortex-X1, three Cortex-A78, and four Cortex-A55 cores, its designed-for-notebooks counterpart should feature higher general-purpose performance. That will likely come by integrating more X1 cores, or just clocking existing cores higher, as well as some other enhancements.
“The new Exynos will offer improved functions, including extraordinary computing power and battery efficiency, by utilizing a 5-nanometer processing technology,” an industrial source told The Korea Economic Daily. “It’s good for both laptops and smartphones.”
Installing a high-performance laptop-grade SoC into a smartphone has its rationale if one wants to offer ultimate performance in a handset and beat all gaming handsets available on the market today. But this is going to come at a cost and may not bring the desired result.
The Exynos 2200 is optimized for performance, so it’s expected to be considerably larger than the Exynos 2100. That means higher costs and higher power consumption. A larger die size and higher power consumption will make it harder to fit into smartphones, as it will require a more complicated power delivery, which enlarges PCB footprint. Higher power consumption also means less battery life, for the same size battery.
SoCs for notebooks are optimized for burst performance. They typically run at very high clocks for relatively short periods of time, getting the ‘heavy work’ done as quickly as possible, and then go back to sleep. Such ‘bursty’ behavior is possible because notebooks can cool their CPUs down with their relatively powerful cooling systems. By contrast, smartphones have different thermals, so running an SoC at extreme clocks isn’t possible, which to a large degree negates their advantages.
Samsung has not confirmed specifications of its upcoming Exynos 2200 or its plans for the SoC, so take all this unofficial information with a grain of salt.
Gigabyte is announcing seven new laptops featuring the hardware from Intel and Nvidia, two of which are packing Nvidia’s brand new RTX 3050 Ampere mobile GPU.
The new Gigabyte G5 and G7 are the company’s latest budget-friendly offerings for mainstream buyers. Both models are packing Intel’s 11th Gen Core processors, the eight-core i7-11800H or the hexa-core Core i5-11400H based on the Tiger Lake architecture. The G5 and G7 also use Nvidia’s newly released RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti mobile GPUs.
Both notebooks feature dual DDR4-3200 slots supporting a max of 64GB (32GB per DIMM), and dual M.2 slots supporting PCIe with one allowing up to Gen 3 speeds and the other up to Gen 4. Plus, you get one 2.5-inch HDD/SSD slot that supports 7mm (or thinner) SATA drives.
The main difference between the G5 and the G7 is display size. The G5 is a 15-inch notebook while the G7 comes in a larger 17-inch form factor. Despite the changes in size, both laptops will come with the same panel specs, with a 1080p display at 144 Hz.
For connectivity the G5 and G7 come with four USB ports of different variations: You get a single USB 2.0 Type-A, dual USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports with one being type-C, and finally a USB 3.2 Gen 1 type A port.
For wireless connectivity, the G5 and G7 come with Intel’s AX200 or AX201 wireless cards which both support WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. For storage and memory, you get dual M.2 slots with one supporting Gen 3 speeds and the other supporting Gen 4.
The line starts at $1,149 for the lowest-end G5.
Refreshed AERO 15/17
(Image credit: Gigabyte)
Gigabyte is also updating its Aero line of laptops, which are targeted towards creators and gamers alike. Gigabyte is adding two upgraded models to the Aero lineup, the Aero 15 OLED and the Aero 17 HDR with new CPUs.
The main differences between the 15 and 17 will be its size and display type (as the name implies), the Aero 15 will come with a Samsung AMOLED display so you get those very crisply visuals and stunning visuals. Unfortunately, you will not be able to get an AMOLED display for the Aero 17, so Gigabyte has opted for a 4k HDR display instead.
The upgrade you’re getting on the new refreshed Aero 15 and 17 are the CPUs; both the OLED and HDR variants get upgraded to Intel’s 11th Gen Tiger Lake CPUs, specifically the i9-11980HK or the i7-11800H. Giving these laptops a big performance and efficiency boost over previous Comet Lake mobile CPUs.
Like the previous Comet Lake-based Aero 15 and 17, you get options for either an RTX 3070 or RTX 3080 GPU with a 105W TDP.
AORUS 17X
(Image credit: Gigabyte)
Gigabyte is also refreshing the Aorus 17X, the companies flagship gaming laptop with a 17.3 display and a thick chassis with vapor chamber cooling to cool Nvidia and Intel’s top tier CPUs and GPUs.
The 17X will come with Intel’s highest-end mobile processor you can get, the i9-11980HK with 8 cores and a max turbo frequency of 5GHz. The chip has a configurable TDP up to 65W. What we don’t know is how Gigabyte configured the TDP for the Aorus 17X.
For graphics, the Aorus 17X will come with an RTX 3080, with a whopping 165W of target graphics power.
This flagship device includes some other top-end specifications, including a 300 Hz display and a mechanical keyboard with Omron gaming switches and RGB backlighting.
This laptop is set to launch in June starting at $2,099.
Samsung representatives won’t show up in person to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, according to a statement obtained by Reuters. The company says it has “made the decision to withdraw from exhibiting in-person” and will instead attend remotely to prioritize the health and safety of its customers and employees. Samsung has yet to announce what its remote presence will look like.
The in-person event is still scheduled to happen in June, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and difficulties with vaccination availability outside the US. The GSM Association, which organizes the event, also fought against shutting down last year’s event early on in 2020 before several big brands dropped out. This year, we’ve already seen Google announce that it won’t be exhibiting, in addition to Samsung’s remote announcement.
We’ve reached out to several other large brands about their attendance plans, including ZTE, Huawei, Sony, and Lenovo. None were immediately available for comment, but we’ll update this article if we hear back.
Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP) — the ambitious smart home partnership that will see Apple, Apple, Google, Samsung, the Zigbee Alliance, and dozens of other companies work together on an open standard — has gotten a new name: Matter.
The rebranding comes ahead of the first Matter certifications, which are set to arrive before the end of 2021. The new branding and logo are designed to help make it easier for customers to tell which devices work with Matter’s unified system, with the logo set to appear on future hardware products.
Image: Connectivity Standards Alliance
The goal of Matter is deceptively simple: make sure you’re able to use your smart home devices with the voice assistant (or assistants) of choice, whether that’s Apple’s Siri / HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant. At launch, Matter will run on Ethernet Wi-Fi, Thread, and Bluetooth Low Energy.
Other big companies, like Philips Hue, are on board: the company has already promised to release a simple software update in the coming months that will make all of its past and present products compatible with Matter once it launches.
It’s an ambitious goal, which could vastly simplify the confusing parts of smart home setup — assuming companies are willing to put in the work to issue software updates and integrate the standard into their current and future products.
As part of the announcement, the Zigbee Alliance (which created the Zigbee standard for interconnected smart home gadgets) has announced that it’ll rename itself to the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) as it expands to focus more on projects like Matter in addition to the existing Zigbee network.
Samsung is never exactly a quiet company when it comes to launching smartphones, but even by its standards, August is looking like a particularly busy month. The firm is plotting three major phone launches that month, according to sources, possibly alongside the Galaxy Buds 2 true wireless earbuds.
The phones in question are the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, Yonhap News Agency reports.
The last two are folding phones, as the names suggest, while the S21 FE is a tweaked version of Samsung’s current range topper, the Galaxy S21. FE stands for Fan Edition – last year’s S20 FE was a more affordable take on the Galaxy S20, but still retained many of the S20’s key features, including a 6.5-inch AMOLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate, a triple-lens rear camera and the same chipset.
The Z Fold 3 is said to be Samsung’s first folding phone with a front-facing camera built under the screen. This design would negate the need for a notch, meaning more screen and an uninterrupted view of whatever you’re watching. It’s also thought to support the S Pen stylus for writing and drawing on screen.
The Z Flip 3 will be a clamshell design, with bigger screens and a lower price than its predecessor.
An August launch would be sooner than expected. Last year, the S20 FE launched in October, and the Z Flip (Samsung is thought to be skipping the Z Flip 2) and Z Fold 2 in September. It’s thought an August launch is to plug the gap left by the lack of a new Galaxy Note handset this year.
Samsung also has a new pair of true wireless earbuds in the works, the Galaxy Buds 2. These are said to be launching in July or August, possibly alongside these phones. So August could be a very busy month for Samsung.
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Nvidia’s RTX 30-series lineup of mobile graphics chips has two new members joining today: the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti and 3050. They sit beneath the GeForce RTX 3060 in terms of specs and performance, with less video memory (4GB) and fewer dedicated Tensor AI and RT cores available to perform ray tracing and handle AI-enhanced effects like DLSS.
Despite this, Nvidia says that the RTX 3050 Ti is capable of going beyond 60fps in games like Call of Duty: Warzone, Outriders, Control, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Minecraft — all with ray tracing settings on. That’s pretty good, considering it’ll show up in gaming laptop starting at $849. The RTX 3050 will appear in laptops starting at $799. We already know that Samsung’s new Galaxy Book Odyssey will feature these graphics chips, starting at $1,399.
There are caveats. To begin with, Nvidia’s benchmark measured this level of performance with graphics set to medium, with medium ray tracing settings enabled, and with DLSS on and set to quality mode. It’s entirely possible that many games set to high graphics settings (and minimal or no ray tracing) might also perform well with the RTX 3050 Ti, but this graphics chip seems best suited for people who don’t mind knocking down some quality settings to get smooth gameplay.
According to Nvidia, the 3050 Ti can run Call of Duty: Warzone at well above 60 frames per second if DLSS is on. Image: Activision
The RTX 3050 Ti serves as yet another flex of Nvidia’s DLSS feature that, with the help of its AI cores, is able to run games faster than the hardware normally could. It does this in supported games by turning down the resolution, then using a trained AI model to enhance the picture quality on the fly without a perceptible (in most cases) difference in how the game looks. It promises big gains in performance with little in the way of disadvantages, unless you’re really dissecting pixels.
Again, this is a great argument in favor of these two GPUs, but it only works if your games have been patched to support DLSS. Control, for example, supports DLSS, but its performance without the feature turned on takes almost a 50 percent hit, running at about 35 frames per second at medium settings, according to Nvidia’s testing. That’s playable, but not particularly fluid, and it may be indicative of the kind of experience you might have when playing graphically intensive games that don’t support DLSS.
The performance charts that Nvidia shared with us only showed data on the RTX 3050 Ti’s performance, not the RTX 3050’s. Given that the RTX 3050 is a notch below the RTX 3050 Ti in terms of specs, you can probably expect performance to reflect that. Still, it should deliver good performance for the expected $799 starting price of laptops into which it will be built.
Here’s the performance breakdown of the 3050 Ti in some games.Nvidia
It’s also important to remember that, like with all other RTX 30-series mobile graphics chips, OEMs are free to tweak the total graphics power (TGP) of each RTX 3050 or RTX 3050 Ti in terms of wattage and clock speed to align with their design goals. The TGP range for these chips can be anywhere between 35W and 80W.
Finally, it’s fair to expect less powerful variants in thinner laptops. Conversely, thicker models often allow graphics cards to reach their highest possible power levels. As a result, you may want to keep that in mind when you’re shopping for a gaming laptop equipped with one of these new chips.
In a press release today, Samsung has announced memory modules based on the CXL standard, bringing together PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 for AI and high-performance computing work in data centers.
(Image credit: Samsung)
CXL is an open standard first mooted in 2019, with a view to bringing high-speed, low latency communication between a CPU and its RAM, accelerator cards, and other devices, while expanding memory capacity and bandwidth greatly. CXL is based upon the industry supported PCIe 5.0 interface. With the new standard, which removes the limitations of limited memory channels, Samsung foresees RAM capacity scaling to multiple terabytes.
The Compute Express Link Consortium includes Samsung, AMD, ARM, IBM, Intel, Broadcom, Micron, and Nvidia among many others. It has previously been seen in Agilex FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) made by Intel via its purchase of Altera Corporation.
It’s not just the new standard that marks these new memory modules out. Samsung has added new controller technologies such as memory mapping, interface converting and error management to the mix, and the new module has been successfully validated on next-generation server platforms from Intel.
Dr Debendra Das Sharma, an Intel Fellow and Director of I/O Technology and Standards at Intel, said, “Data center architecture is rapidly evolving to support the growing demand and workloads for AI and ML, and CXL memory is expected to expand the use of memory to a new level. We continue to work with industry companies such as Samsung to develop a robust memory ecosystem around CXL.”
Sony’s WF1000-XM4 are possibly the most eagerly awaited wireless earbuds of the year, and now we’ve got a good look at their new design. Leaked photos posted by The Walkman Blog show the new earbuds and charging case from multiple angles, giving us plenty to dig into – as well as a possible release date.
(Image credit: The Walkman Blog)
The buds pictured are only prototypes, which explains their slightly shabby look, but they give a good idea of the final design. Which, as you can see, is quite different to the WF-1000XM3.
They look smaller than their predecessors with a much rounder design. That’s a new look for Sony’s XM range, but it is reminiscent of countless other true wireless earbuds, like the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2, Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro and Panasonic RZ-S500W, to name but three.
The Sony logo now sits on the edge, whereas the XM3 had it on the side.
Obviously, a new design means a new charging case and it’s thought the new version will also support wireless charging. Its charging output has also supposedly increased, so it should charge them quicker when plugged in.
What is consistent with the XM3 is the black and copper/rose gold colour scheme.
The Walkman Blog got its info from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which approves consumer gadgets before they go on sale. The FCC’s confidentiality request expires on 9th June, so we could be looking at a launch date shortly before then, most likely sometime in early June. Exciting.
The WF-1000XM3 are still the best true wireless earbuds available, with an unparalleled mix of superb sound quality, brilliant noise cancelling and all-day comfort. About all they lacked was wireless charging and water/sweat resistance. It looks like Sony has rectified the former, but will it fix the latter too? We’ll hopefully find out in a month or so.
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Laptops like the recent Samsung Galaxy Book Go run Windows 10 on a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. However, according to reports Samsung will introduce a new Exynos chipset in the second half of this year that will be used to power future laptops.
This chip – tentatively named Exynos 2200 – will feature an AMD Radeon GPU, which will deliver a PC-class graphics performance. The chip will be fabbed at Samsung’s 5nm foundries.
The €450 Galaxy Book Go runs Windows 10 on a Snapdragon 7c chipset
Interestingly, when Samsung and AMD officially announced their collaboration, there was supposed to be no overlap between products using the new Exynos chip and AMD chips. And AMD sure does make laptops. An additional agreement may have been made since then.
Anyway, after making its debut in a laptop, the Exynos 2200 may find its way into Galaxy tablets as well (perhaps even phones). It should support Android as well as Windows.
The Exynos will rival the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2, which Qualcomm unveiled in September, and (of course) Apple’s M1 product line-up, which recently added iPad Pro tablet into the mix. While the Qualcomm chip uses the same Kryo 495 CPU cores as the original 8cx from 2019, the Exynos should benefit from more current ARM Cortex designs.
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