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The AirPods Pro’s force sensor is a more comfortable way to control audio

Apple’s AirPods Pro cleverly solve one of the trickiest parts of earbud design with a unique button — even if it’s not technically a button at all.

Officially referred to as the “force sensor” (a title that makes the button sound far more interesting than it actually is), it’s technically nothing more than an indented portion of the AirPods Pro’s stems, with some fancy hardware that measures not just capacitive touch but also pressure. But the faux-buttons solve one of the most annoying things about earbuds: how to control them.

The issue of controlling truly wireless earbuds is a relatively new one. Older in-ear headphones often included a row of buttons on their wires, which allowed for volume and playback controls to be placed in a spot that’s easy to reach and find. But in-ear wireless earbuds don’t leave a lot of space for buttons, joysticks, or control wheels to manipulate playback, forcing manufacturers to come up with alternate solutions.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Touch controls, employed by headphones like the Galaxy Buds or the regular AirPods, have emerged as the most common answer. Tap, double tap, or triple tap your earbuds, and you’ll be able to play, pause, and skip around your tracks.

The problem, though, is that in-ear headphones — as the name suggests — are already nestled pretty firmly into your ear. And tap controls mean that you’re either shoving those earbuds further into your ear (painfully so, sometimes) or dislodging them entirely, at which point you’re risking loss or damage when your expensive buds plummet to the ground.

Apple avoids both of those problems with the force sensor. Instead of putting pressure on your ear, Apple has users squeeze the stem of the AirPod. It’s a far gentler movement that doesn’t move the earbud as much, reducing both the risk of discomfort and dislodging.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Its controls are pretty similar to the other methods of headphone control: one squeeze to toggle play / pause, two to skip forward a track, and three to skip back. There’s also a fourth long press, which toggles the various noise cancellation modes.

The whole design guides you through how to use them, too. The indented pad makes it clear where to press to activate the “button,” while the requirement for some slight force makes it hard to trigger unintentionally.

And while there’s no physical haptic feedback from the force sensor, Apple does some masterful work in tricking your brain that there is, through clever clicking sound effects relayed through the earbuds to make it feel like you’re pressing a button.

The controls might not be long for this world — Apple is rumored to be testing a new version of the AirPods Pro that would remove the stem (and the force sensor) entirely. It’d be a disappointing change, given that the force sensor isn’t just a great control method; the AirPod stems are one of the more recognizable parts of the product, so much so that it’s the main thing copycat designs tend to replicate.

Is it a lot of engineering work for a relatively simple function? Undoubtedly. But it makes a crucial part of operating the AirPods a seamless, aesthetically pleasing, and comfortable process. And what more can you ask than that?

The best phones to buy if you’re a phone enthusiast

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There are plenty of buying guides for figuring out the best phone to buy at a given time, across a wide variety of prices. We have two of them, in fact. But if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool phone enthusiast, you don’t need a guide that’s going to give you the best rational recommendation. You need something that’s going to help you scratch your new gadget itch in the most satisfying way.

I’m here for you because, well, I’m one of you. This is the internet’s premiere buying guide for phone enthusiasts. We’re not going to focus on practical, rational choices, nor are we going to concern ourselves with budgets. These are the dream phones, the ones you buy not as a utilitarian tool, but for the fun of playing with a new piece of tech that you’ll probably sell or trade in for a loss in six months. I’m not even going to single out a specific model that you should buy, because you’re likely buying a new phone every year (or maybe more!) anyway. This is all about throwing caution to the wind, diving deep into a hobby, and buying something you don’t need but absolutely want. Budgets be damned.

Grab your cargo shorts, we’re going shopping.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

1. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G

The best folding phone because you know you need one in your collection

Folding phones are the future, right? You can’t call yourself a Real Phone Enthusiast without one in your life. Hands down, the best folding phone you can buy right now is Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G. It’s got everything you might want from a modern smartphone, but it also opens up into a tablet-sized screen that lets you put more than one app side-by-side or look at a giant version of Google Maps. It’s easy to justify because you can tell yourself that you will get SO MUCH WORK done on it, right after you finish watching that YouTube video. Promise.

The Fold 2 costs more than most laptops, you have to baby it, and there’s a really good chance the screen will crack or break on you even if you are careful, but that’s just the price you have to pay to be on the bleeding edge.

Apple iPhone 12 Mini

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

2. Apple iPhone 12 Mini

The best iPhone for when you’re double-fisting an Android phone

Look, I know that you know that everyone in the world has an iPhone and it’s the farthest thing from an “interesting” phone. But at the same time, it’s hard to ignore what Apple’s doing, and really, iMessage and the Apple Watch are pretty great. Lots of people carry an iPhone alongside an Android phone, and you could be one of them.

The best iPhone for doing this is the iPhone 12 Mini. It does everything its bigger siblings can do, but it can easily fit in a secondary pocket and isn’t a burden to carry around. The battery life is kinda lousy, but who cares, that’s why you have a second phone on you anyway, right?

The Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate comes with a clip-on fan and has 18GB of RAM.

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

3. Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate

The best phone for seeing what this “gaming phone” trend is all about

Gaming phones are so hot right now (unless they’ve got a great cooling system) — it seems like a new model is released every three months. You can’t call yourself a true phone enthusiast without being up on this trend, and the best one to dip your toes into it with is the Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate.

The ROG Phone 5 Ultimate has a ton of features that can make any mobile accomplisher swoon. A massive battery. A ridiculously high refresh screen. An OLED screen on the back you can customize to show whatever you want. A bunch of accessories to make gaming better. 18GB of RAM! How could you not buy this phone?

Asus ROG Phone 5

$1,000

Prices taken at time of publishing.

The Asus ROG Phone 5 is the quintessential example of a modern gaming phone. It has over-the-top specs, lots of gaming accessories, and a head-turning design.

$1,000

at Asus

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

4. Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

The best phone for pretending you’re going to use a stylus

Writing on a phone screen with a pen is so cool! It feels futuristic and is just so natural. At least, it is for the first week until you forget about it and it never leaves the little garage built into the side of the phone again.

If you’ve been telling yourself that little “I’m gonna be a stylus person” lie, you need a phone that supports one and it’s hard to see buying anything other than Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20. It’s got a low latency S Pen, a bunch of software features that can utilize the stylus, and all of the other bells and whistles of a modern smartphone, which means it works quite well long after you’ve forgotten about the stylus.

The Google Pixel 4A

5. Google Pixel 4A

The best phone for messing around with the Android 12 beta

Okay, I said I wasn’t going to recommend anything rational in this guide, but this is perhaps the recommendation that makes the most sense: if you want to mess around with the Android 12 beta but don’t want to install it on your main phone, you should just buy a Google Pixel 4A. It’s only $350 (that’s just $20 more than it costs to fix a broken screen on an iPhone 12 Pro Max) and can work with Google’s latest and greatest software even before it’s released to the public.

You know the Android betas are going to be messy — battery life is going to be bad, there will be lots of bugs, certain apps might not work correctly — so you don’t want to put it on a device you actually need to rely on. Once the beta period is over, the Pixel 4A is a great device for experimenting with the aftermarket ROM world. Get a Pixel 4A and flash those ROMs to your heart’s content.

The Microsoft Surface Duo

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

6. Microsoft Surface Duo

The best phone for making people go “Whoa, is that a phone?”

As a phone enthusiast, you already know this harsh truth: the Microsoft Surface Duo is not a good phone. It has an old processor. The camera is worse than any iPhone of the past five years. The battery life is decidedly Not Great. It gets hot doing simple tasks. There are SO MANY software bugs. It’s got a generation-old version of Android. It doesn’t even support wireless charging or NFC payments! Oh yeah, and there’s that questionable build quality to worry about.

But there’s something undeniably cool about the Surface Duo, like it’s a device from the future coming here to bless us in the early 21st century. It’s so thin, it has two screens, the hinge is incredibly neat. Open it up in public and you’re sure to get someone to ask “wow, is that a phone?” which we all know is the ultimate goal here. You can then show them all of its cool features, right after it’s done rebooting itself for the fifth time that day.

Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

7. Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max

The best phone for telling yourself that you don’t need an actual camera

For years now we’ve been told that phone cameras are so good that you don’t need an actual camera. The iPhone 12 Pro Max might be the best example of that yet. It’s got a bigger sensor! It’s got three focal lengths! It can shoot video in Dolby Vision HDR!

At the end of the day, it’s still a phone camera and can’t really hold a candle to the image quality or creative control you get with a larger mirrorless camera. But hey, it’s fun to live in that lie and you can totally see the difference between the 12 Pro Max images and other phones. When you blow them up on a big screen. And zoom in.

Oppo Find X3 Pro

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge

8. Oppo Find X3 Pro

The best phone for saying “you can’t get this in the US”

Perhaps the ultimate phone flex is pulling a phone out of your pocket that nobody else is going to have. If you’re in the US, the Oppo Find X3 Pro is that phone. It’s got features you can’t get on any American phone and a design you won’t see everywhere, like a microscope camera and softly rounded camera bump. Sure, it won’t really work great on the cellular networks here, importing it is an expensive hassle, and you won’t have any warranty whatsoever. But just think of the envy on your friends’ faces when you tell them they can’t have this phone.

Oppo Find X3 Pro

$1,178

Prices taken at time of publishing.

Oppo’s Find X3 Pro is the company’s latest flagship and it’s not sold in the US. It has a unique camera system and head-turning design that you won’t see on American phones.

$1,178

at Amazon

OnePlus 9 Pro

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

9. OnePlus 9 Pro

The best phone for when you realize that Pixel phones aren’t great, but you don’t want a Samsung either

Google’s Pixel phones have such great software and then… mediocre everything else. Samsung phones have incredible hardware but are laden with heavy software and actual ads inside of the stock apps. The OnePlus 9 Pro splits that difference — it has software that’s similar to Google’s on hardware that’s virtually a Samsung with a different logo on it.

The 9 Pro is just what the phone enthusiast ordered: a high-end, bells-and-whistles device with All Of The Specs but none of the cruft.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

10. Samsung Z Flip 5G

The best weekend phone for when you’re “disconnecting”

Here comes the weekend, with all of its promises of relaxation and enjoyment. You don’t need a phone that’s going to make you more productive, you need something that’s going to slip into your pocket and won’t distract you with a colorful display unless you absolutely need it to.

The Z Flip 5G is this phone. You can flip it closed to ignore it and then pop it open and have a full smartphone inside, complete with every feature you get on non-flippy phones. You’re making a compromise without really making a compromise, because we all know that you had no intention of actually disconnecting for the weekend.

Pimoroni Pico LiPo Review: Pico Pinout with Plenty of Extras

Our Verdict

This is the Raspberry Pi Pico on steroids. The power of the RP2040 with the extra conveniences that make creating projects a breeze.

For

+ Identical Pico pinout
+ Battery charging
+ Stemma QT / Qwiic connector
+ Large flash memory
+ USB C

Against

– Costs much more than a Pico

There are now a slew of RP2040 powered boards on the market. From the smallest, Adafruit’s QT Py RP2040 and Pimoroni’s Tiny 2040, to the largest, Adafruit’s Feather RP2040 and our Editor’s Choice Cytron Maker Pi Pico. The Raspberry Pi Pico itself is a $4 microcontroller, that offers lots of GPIO pins and a programmable IO which can be used to simulate many types of interfaces, even full retro computer systems.

The Raspberry Pi Pico form factor, a DIP package, is at home in a breadboard, protoboard or surface mount soldered into your project, and Pimoroni’s $17 Pico LiPo shares that same form factor but adds many more features. The board is three times the price of a typical Raspberry Pi Pico, but that extra money is well spent as it provides a drop in replacement for an existing Pico project with added features such as battery charging, a USB-C port, 16MB of Flash memory and a Stemma QT / Qwiic connector. All of these extras make this board a joy to use. And use it we did!

Pimoroni Pico LiPo Hardware Specifications

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

System on Chip	RP2040 microcontroller chip designed by Raspberry Pi in the United Kingdom.
	Dual-core Arm Cortex M0+ processor, flexible clock running up to 133 MHz.
	264KB of SRAM, and 4 / 16MB of on-board Flash memory
GPIO	26 × multi-function 3.3V GPIO pins
	2 × SPI, 2 × I2C, 2 × UART, 3 × 12-bit ADC, 16 × controllable PWM channels
	1 x User LED (GPIO 25)
	8 × Programmable I/O (PIO) state machines for custom peripheral support.
	Stemma QT / Qwiic connector
	SWD debug breakout
	Castellated module allows soldering directly to carrier boards.
Power	USB C for data and power
	2 pin JST connector for LiPo / Li lon batteries. Onboard battery monitoring and LED status indicator.

Design and Use of the Pimoroni Pico LiPo

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Pico LiPo works great with MicroPython. Pimoroni have their own spin which comes with modules for the range of boards. To get the best from Pico LiPo we need to use CircuitPython, especially when using Stemma QT / Qwiic components. If you really need MicroPython, but want to use Stemma QT / Qwiic devices then you can try our Adafruit’s latest project which merges the two. Pimoroni even has a download ready to go which works with the Pico LiPo.

Pimoroni’s Pico LiPo is the Raspberry Pi Pico on steroids. It shares the same size and form factor along with the same GPIO pinout, but we also get battery charging, Stemma QT / Qwiic and a toggle power button. The most important feature on this board is the battery charging. Controlled using an MCP73831 charge controller, it uses a steady 215mA charging current which easily charged our LiPo battery as we tested the board.

The XB6096I2S battery protector prevents the battery from straying into voltages which may harm its health. There is no MicroPython or CircuitPython module for monitoring the battery in code, but GPIO 24 is used to detect charging, and GPIO 29 can be used to monitor the battery voltage. This does mean that we only have three analog inputs, the same as the Raspberry Pi Pico but less than Adafruit’s Feather RP2040. The sacrifice of an analog input is worth it when we consider that the pin can be used to monitor our battery status, a key feature of Pico LiPo.

A great feature of the battery is that it can act as a basic UPS. Our project can be powered via the USB C interface, but should the power drop out, it switches to battery with zero downtime. Pico LiPo shares the same GPIO as the Raspberry Pi Pico which means we get all the pins, unlike other boards such as Adafruit’s Feather RP2040. But what the Pico LiPo shares with Adafruit’s and SparkFun’s boards is a Stemma QT connector (Qwiic on SparkFun boards) which makes connecting compatible devices exceptionally easy.

Stemma QT / Qwiic is really a bespoke breakout for I2C devices, and both Adafruit and SparkFun have a slew of compatible components such as temperature sensors, screens and capacitive inputs. Using our trusty MPR121 12 point capacitive touch sensor and the latest version of CircuitPython 7 for the Pico LiPo, we quickly hacked up a demo to test the Stemma QT connector.

Everything worked splendidly and we can see Stemma QT / Qwiic being adopted by many makers. Just next to the Stemma QT / Qwiic connector is a three pin JST-SH connector which breaks out the three debug pins, typically at the base of the Raspberry Pi Pico. These pins are used to pull data from a running RP2040 without cluttering the default UART port. Using these pins and another Raspberry Pi Pico as a debug host we can interactively work with the SRAM, CPU and memory mapped IO directly from our chosen development environment. If you are building mission critical RP2040 applications, then this is a key feature. For most of us, this is a fun feature to explore.

The power button is a toggle switch. That may not sound exciting straight away, but hear us out. The power button can fully turn off the board; it is not a momentary switch that merely resets the SoC. So in the field, with a battery powered project, we can conserve battery by simply pressing a button. When we need the board, press the power button to restart your project. Simple yet effective.

The BOOT button is normally used to put the Pico LiPo into a mode where the firmware can be installed, but Pico LiPo can also use that button in your code, a trend started by Pimoroni’s Tiny 2040 board. There are three LEDs present on the board, power (lightning icon), battery charging status (battery icon) and a user LED (exclamation point) connected to GPIO 25. All of these LEDs offer an at-a-glance status update.

As we mentioned earlier, the Pico LiPo shares the same pinout, and castellations as a Raspberry Pi Pico which means we can drop this board into an existing project and benefit from the extra features present on the board. We tested this by reusing our CircuitPython weather station project along with Pimoroni’s Pico Wireless pack. It worked exceptionally well and we queried the API, returned the data and stored it to the micro SD. We tested the project on battery, with a green LED informing us that the data collection was complete, and it worked with no issues.

Use Cases for the Pimoroni Pico LiPo

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Pico LiPo provides the power of the Raspberry Pi Pico, and gives us so much more. The battery features alone make this board worth the money. Expect to see this board in portable projects such as props (NeoPixel lightsaber?), data collection projects using sensors and when joined to the Pico Wireless we have a battery powered Wi-Fi enabled data collection device. Pico LiPo would also be useful in robotics projects but an external power source would be needed for the motors and motor controller as the GPIO can only provide 3.3V at a maximum 600mA.

Bottom Line

Pimoroni’s Pico LiPo costs more than a typical Pico, but for the extra money we get a fully featured product. We get the power of the RP2040, all of the GPIO pins and icing on the cake are the Stemma QT / Qwiic connector and battery charging. This is a truly excellent board that should be in your projects!

Tesla starts using in-car camera for Autopilot driver monitoring

Tesla is starting to use the camera above the rear-view mirror in the Model 3 and Model Y to help make sure people pay attention to the road while using Autopilot, the company’s advanced driver assistance system.

Until now, the main way Tesla’s cars measure driver attention is through torque sensors in the steering wheel that look for resistance — a crude way of ensuring drivers keep their hands on the wheel. If it doesn’t register enough feedback, the car performs a series of escalating visual and audible warnings.

The change comes after regulators and safety experts spent years begging Tesla to add better driver monitoring to its cars. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has even admitted that crashes involving Autopilot stem from complacency. But he previously rejected his own engineers’ calls to add more robust driver monitoring to the company’s cars. Musk said at the time that the tech was “ineffective.” Companies like General Motors and Ford currently sell cars with camera-based eye-tracking systems that are meant to make sure drivers pay attention while using hands-free driving features.

A Twitter user who says they just took delivery of a new Model Y posted an image Thursday that shows software release notes describing the new safety feature:

The cabin camera above your rearview mirror can now detect and alert driver inattentiveness while Autopilot is engaged. Camera data does not leave the car itself, which means the system cannot save or transmit information unless data sharing is enabled.

In subsequent tweets, the Model Y owner said the steering wheel sensor alerts were still active.

Electrek has also seen the release notes.

Model S and Model X vehicles made before 2021 do not have a cabin camera, though the redesigned versions announced in January (which have still not shipped) are supposed to have them.

Tesla doesn’t define the term “driver inattentiveness” that it uses in the release notes, or what happens if it decides someone isn’t paying sufficient attention. Earlier this year, hacker @greentheonly and an accomplice were able to tease out what a work-in-progress version of the camera-based driver monitoring system could see. It was particularly good at noticing when the driver looked down at a phone, though it struggled in low light.

The in-car camera was pretty much benign in the early going with the Model 3 and Model Y, though Tesla started using it to make sure that drivers in the beta test of its “Full Self-Driving” version of Autopilot were paying attention to the road. Musk said in March that Tesla removed some beta testers from the program because they “did not pay sufficient attention.”

The addition of camera-based driver monitoring feature also follows a fresh wave of scrutiny on Autopilot, which rose up after a pair of fatal crashes where it initially appeared the driver assistance system may have been involved — though, in one case, officials walked back the claim that Autopilot was active, and in the other, an early report from the National Transportation Safety Board made it seem unlikely that the system was in use. There have also been a number of recently documented cases of social media users posting videos that show them fooling Autopilot into thinking someone is still in the driver’s seat.

ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G review: Seriously good value

(Pocket-lint) – When ZTE told us the Axon 30 Ultra 5G was en route for review, we got that fuzzy feeling inside. That’s because the older Axon 20 5G was the first device we’d ever seen with an under-display selfie camera – so surely the Axon 30 Ultra would take this technology to the next level?

Um, nope. Instead the Axon 30 Ultra instead has a more traditional punch-hole selfie camera front and centre, so that fuzzy feeling quickly dissipated. Without such a ‘magic camera’ on board what then is the appeal of this flagship?

The Axon 30 Ultra is all about power and affordability. It crams a top-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor into a slender body with a 6.67-inch AMOLED display that can push its refresh rate to a class-leading 144Hz. All for just £649 in the UK and $749 in the USA. So is that as exceptional value as it sounds or are there hidden compromises?

Design & Display

6.67-inch AMOLED, 1080 x 2400 resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 144Hz refresh rate
Dimensions: 162 x 73 x 8mm / Weight: 188g
Finishes: Black, White, Blue, Light Brown
Under display fingerprint scanner
No 3.5mm port

Having moved out of the gigantic Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, the ZTE’s more slender frame and trim 20:9 aspect ratio felt like a revelation by comparison. It’s not that the Axon 30 Ultra is small, per se, but it’s a well balanced scale.

Pocket-lint

The model we have in review is apparently black – that’s what the box says anyway – but the phone’s rear has a much softer metallic appearance about it, with some degree of blue to its colour balance. Really we’d call it a metallic grey. It looks pleasant, while fingerprint smears aren’t a massive problem thanks to the soft-touch material.

The camera unit on the rear is a fairly chunky protrusion, but that’s because there’s a 5x zoom periscope housed within that frame. It’s a relatively elegant block of cameras, though, and even with the phone flat against a desk it doesn’t rock about unwantedly.

The screen is the big selling point though. It’s a 6.67-inch AMOLED panel, the kind we’ve seen in the Redmi Note 10 Pro, for example, except the ZTE goes all-out when it comes to refresh rate by offering up to 144Hz. You can pick from 60Hz/90Hz/120Hz too, with the option to display the refresh rate in the upper left corner.

Pocket-lint

Having a faster refresh rate means smoother visuals, especially when it comes to moving content. You’re more likely to notice it when scrolling through emails than much else, though, so we’ve found our preference for balancing rate to battery life has meant settling on 90Hz. A more dynamic software approach would be better, or the option to designate specific apps to function at specific frame rates – especially games.

Are you really going to tell the difference between 144Hz and 120Hz? No. But the simple fact the Axon 30 Ultra can do this is to show its worth; to show that it’s got more power credentials than many less adept phones at this price point.

Otherwise the screen hits all the right notes. It’s got ample resolution. Colours pop. Blacks are rich thanks to the AMOLED technology. It’s slightly curved to the edges too, but only subtly to help hide away the edge bezel from direct view – and we haven’t found this to adversely affect use due to accidental touches and such like.

Pocket-lint

There’s also an under-display fingerprint scanner tucked beneath the screen’s surface, which we’ve found to be suitably responsive for sign-ins. Or you can sign-up to face unlock instead to make things even easier.

Having that scanner in such a position, rather than over the power button, leaves the Axon 30 Ultra’s edges to be rather neat. Other than the on/off and volume up/down rocker to the one side, and USB-C port, single speaker and SIM tray to the bottom edge, there’s nothing to disrupt the phone’s form. That keeps it looking neat and tidy. It also means no 3.5mm headphone jack, but that’s hardly a surprise.

Performance & Battery

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, 8GB/12GB RAM
Storage: 128GB/256GB/1TB, no microSD card slot
Battery: 4600mAh, 66W fast-charging
Software: ZTE MyOS 11 (Android 11)

Elegant looks complement an elegant operation, too, largely down to the power that’s available on tap. With Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 processor on board, couple with 8GB RAM, there’s little else more powerful that you can buy. Indeed, the Axon 30 Ultra is knocking on the door of gaming phone territory given that 144Hz refresh rate screen.

Pocket-lint

Navigating around the interface is super smooth and speedy, apps open quickly, and there’s no downturn in performance if you happen to open a whole bunch. Games are a breeze, too, as you’d expect from this kind of hardware – although we’d like a game centre to prevent over-screen notifications and such like.

But it’s not perfectly smooth sailing on account of ZTE’s own software, which here is MyOS 11 over the top of Google’s Android 11 operating system. It’s a common problem among Chinese makers, so we probably sound like a broken record, but there are definitely issues with notifications. WhatsApp might take a couple of hours to notify you of a message, for example, but there’s never a fixed period of time – and other times it’s immediate. The mail app Outlook rarely to never notified of new mails in the inbox either.

A lot of this is down to software management. Because there’s rather a lot of it in MyOS. Under battery settings is an ‘Apps AI-control’, which is said to intelligently manage apps to save power. Except, as we’ve highlighted above, this can stifle some apps inappropriately. It can be turned off for manual control, where individual apps can have their auto-start and background running characteristics specified.

All of this is an attempt to aid the overall battery life. Because, as you can imagine, cranking out gaming sessions using the 144Hz and top-end engine from Qualcomm’s SD888 definitely eats away at the supply pretty rapidly. The 4,600mAh cell on board isn’t as capacious as some competitors we’ve seen and that, as a result, can see a heavy use day only just about scrape through a 15 hours day. It’ll manage, but only just.

Pocket-lint

Another oddity we’ve experienced with the Axon 30 Ultra is Wi-Fi connectivity seems to be a little up and down. With less strong signal our Zwift Companion app was very choppy in its updating of data – something that hasn’t been an issue with other phones we’ve compared in the same environment. We suspect that’s because the ‘a/b/g/n/ac/6e’ designation is catering for higher frequencies (‘ac’ is 5GHz only, for example, whereas ‘ax’ caters for both 2.6GHz and 5GHz, while the newly adopted ‘6e’, i.e. 6GHz, isn’t widely supported yet).

Cameras

Quad rear camera array:
- Main (25mm): 64-megapixel, f/1.6 aperture, 0.8µm pixel size, optical stabilisation (OIS)
- Portrait (35mm): 64MP, f/1.9, 0.7µm
- Wide (13mm): 64MP, f/2.2, 0.7µm
- Zoom (123mm): 8MP, f/3.4, OIS
Front-facing selfie camera: 16MP

On the rear the Axon 30 Ultra houses an apparent four lenses: a 64-megapixel main; a 0.5x ultra-wide (also 64MP); a 5x periscope zoom lens (just 8MP); and what we would call a ‘portrait lens’ with 2x zoom (also 64MP).

It’s a bit of a mish-mash when it comes to results though. The main camera, at its best, is really great. It snaps into focus quickly, reveals heaps of detail – as you can see from the main flower shot below – but isn’t the most subtle when you look in detail, as images are over-sharpened.

The ability to zoom in the camera app is actioned on a slider to the side, but you don’t really ever know which lens you’re using – until there’s a clear ‘jump’ between one visualisation and the next, because, for example, the 5x periscope zoom is far poorer in its delivery. It’s only 8-megapixels, for starters, so there’s not nearly the same clarity revealed in its images. Plus the colour balance looks far out of sync with the main lens. Really this periscope is overoptimistic.

The 2x portrait zoom lens we also can’t really work out. Sometimes zoom shots are great, sometimes they’re quite the opposite – all mushy and, again, over-sharpened. It seems to depend which sensor/lens the camera is using at that particular moment – because the image of a horse in a field that we captured (within gallery above) looks fine, whereas the sheep in a field (shown in our wide-to-main-to-zoom-to-periscope gallery, below) is miles off the mark.

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

By Pocket-lint Promotion
·
27 May 2021

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: Ultra-wide lensUltra-wide lens

There’s potential here overall. The specifications read rather well, but somehow the Axon 30 Ultra gets away from itself a little. It needs to rein in the offering really, simplify things, and deliver a more detailed app that explains specifically what kit you’re shooting with. That said, the main lens will please plenty, while close-up macro work – with the artificial intelligence ‘AI’ activated – snaps into focus really well.

Verdict

To answer our opening question: what compromises do you have to accept if looking to buy the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G? Relatively few at this price point. There are some irks, though, such as the software causing notification problems (by which we mean absences), the battery being a little stretched, and the cameras get away from their potential somewhat – despite the main lens being perfectly decent.

Otherwise ZTE has crammed one heck of a lot into the Axon 30 Ultra. Its screen is commendable and having that headline-grabbing 144Hz refresh rate is sure to bring attention. The subtlety of the design is elegant, too, delivering a well-balanced scale that’s comfortable to hold and fairly fingerprint-resistant on the rear. And there’s bundles of power from the top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform, ensuring apps and games run a treat.

There might be less ‘wow factor’ than if there was an under-display front-facing camera to captivate prospective customers (like there was in the Axon 20), but given the Axon 30 Ultra 5G’s price point undercuts the big-dog Samsung, that’ll be enough of a lure to many.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE

The ‘Fan Edition’ Galaxy might be a year older than the ZTE, but it’s a similar price, has more stable software in our experience – and that makes all the difference to everyday use.

Read our review

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Writing by Mike Lowe.

Acer Joins the Polling Rate Race With 2,000 Hz Predator Cestus 335 Gaming Mouse

(Image credit: Acer)

Acer is joining the likes of Razer and Corsair in pushing gaming peripherals that changes the rate at which your mouse sends data to your PC. Most gaming mice offer polling rates of 1,000 Hz max, meaning it sends a report to your PC telling it of your mouse’s position 1,000 times per second. But the Acer Predator Cestus 335 announced today goes up to 2,000 Hz. While most gamers are still happy with 1,000 Hz, the Predator Cestus 335 may be introducing a happy middle ground for extreme gamers.

Let’s do some (painless) math. When a mouse has a 1,000 Hz polling rate, it can take as little as 0.001 second — or 1ms — to send a report. 1 second divided by 1,000 reports equals 0.001 second per report. With 2,000 Hz, the Cestus 335’s expected delay decreases to 0.5ms (1 second divided by 2,000 reports equals 0.0005 second).

(Image credit: Acer)

The Predator Cestus 335 is extreme in its attempt to deliver twice the number of reports per second than most of the best gaming mouse options today. But there are already more extreme options. This year, the Razer Viper 8K Hz and Corsair Sabre RGB Pro mice came out, as well as the Corsair K70 RGB TKL and Corsair K65 RGB Mini keyboards. Each has an 8,000 Hz polling rate (yes, some of the best gaming keyboards are getting pulled into the trend too) and, therefore, have input delays as low as 0.125ms compared to the Cestus 335’s 0.5ms.

Of course, the question becomes do you really need those extra Hz? In action, I did find the Viper 8K Hz to bring an improvement in tracking. For example, when I moved my mouse around in an oval, I saw more instances of the pointer with the 8,000 Hz mice compared to when using a couple 1,000 Hz mice. I also fared slightly better in anecdotal tests such as the Human Benchmark reaction time test, although mouse comfort and buttons are also a factor. When gaming, however, there was so much going on that I didn’t notice any obvious visual gains or gaming advantages.

According to Razer, the increased polling rate might have been more effective if I had a more powerful PC and a display with a faster refresh rate. Acer hasn’t confirmed yet, but it’s possible that the Predator Cestus 335 will also come with recommended PC and/or monitor specs.

That will be a big factor in if the polling rate race takes off among gamers. When we tested the Corsair Sabre RGB Pro, we noticed a roughly 6-10% spike in CPU usage when using an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X. But we’d expect the 2,000 Hz Predator Cestus 335 to be less taxing than an 8,000 Hz mouse.

Besides a high polling rate, the Predator Cestus 335 is packing a PixArt 3370 sensor with the ability to hit up to 19,000 CPI sensitivity.

(Image credit: Acer)

The mouse should also make it easy to toggle through 5 preset CPI levels and profiles, all customizable via Acer’s QuarterMaster software. That’s also where gamers will be able to program the mouse’s 10 programmable buttons. Photos Acer shared with the press show three side buttons, dedicated macro, CPI and profile buttons and a scroll wheel that can also move left and right. Of course, there’s also a fair amount of RGB here.

(Image credit: Acer)

Ultimately, the Predator Cestus 335 seems to have a decent featureset here, and eSports-level players may jump at the opportunity at cutting input delay — even if by a hair. 2,000 Hz should, hopefully, call for less extreme PC specs, but we’ll have to wait until testing the mouse to know for sure.

Acer doesn’t have a price or release date for the Predator Cestus 335 yet.

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (2021) review: victory lap

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Acer has made three significant upgrades to the best-in-class Chromebook Spin 713. The first is that the device now has Intel’s newest 11th Gen processors. The second is that the USB-C ports both support Thunderbolt 4. And the third is that it now has an optional fingerprint reader.

These aren’t the most revolutionary spec bumps in the world. The rest of the Spin 713 remains the same: it has a fantastic 3:2 touch display, a good backlit keyboard, a smooth touchpad, and good value for its premium components. But the changes add up. And they serve to push the Spin 713 even further ahead of its competition than it was before. It’s very much still the Chromebook to buy.

The Spin 713’s standout feature is its 2256 x 1504 panel. It’s one of the best Chromebook screens I’ve ever used. Colors really pop, details are crisp, and it gets plenty bright. Though the screen is glossy, I rarely saw glare, and what I did see didn’t hinder my work.

But my favorite aspect of this display (and of this Chromebook as a whole) is the 3:2 aspect ratio. You get noticeably more vertical space than you would from a standard 16:9 display of a similar size. Less scrolling, less zooming out, more room for all your tabs and apps. I’m a fan of 3:2, and I’ve been happy to see more laptop models taking it up over the past year.

Screeeeeeeeen.

Another strength (which Acer has strengthened with this model) is the port selection. This is the first Chromebook to support Thunderbolt 4 — many premium Chromebooks don’t even support older Thunderbolt standards. There are not one, but two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left side of the Spin. This makes the Spin 713 one of the most affordable machines in the world to include Thunderbolt 4.

The USB-C ports also support USB 3.2 Gen 1, DisplayPort, and 5V charging. Elsewhere, you get an HDMI port and a microSD reader, in addition to a headphone jack and a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1. The Spin also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.

Flip it around in tent or tablet mode.

The fingerprint reader also helps put the Spin 713 above premium competitors; the lack of biometric authentication was one of our very few knocks against the last model. The sensor lives on the deck, beneath the arrow keys. It’s the same color as the Spin’s finish and is nicely camouflaged.

The Spin’s keyboard and touchpad are also quite good. The keyboard is comfortable and backlit, though I wish the keys didn’t feel quite so plasticky. The touchpad is smooth, accurate, and quite large.

Like its predecessor, this Spin 713 has two main drawbacks. The first is that its audio is thin, and I heard a bit of distortion at maximum volume. The second is that the Spin’s aesthetic is utilitarian. The finish is somewhat drab, and the screen bezels are chunky. I wouldn’t call it ugly, but it’s something that would fit in on a school laptop cart.

That said, the Spin is also fairly sturdy, with an aluminum chassis, and feels better made than many plasticky devices you’ll find at this price point. The 360 hinge is easy to flip around, and I only saw a tiny bit of screen wobble while I was typing.

Performance is the other area where the new Spin 713 is supposed to have gotten major upgrade. My review model is $699.99 for a Core i5, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. This is the primary configuration that Acer will be selling to start, but more will be coming in August with pricing to be announced.

The Spin is the first Chromebook to be certified through Intel’s Evo program, which is meant to recognize the best portable Intel laptops on the market. The Spin did everything I needed it to, including editing big batches of photos and running multiple demanding apps at a time on top of Zoom calls and Spotify streams, quite fast and without any performance issues.

That was also true of last year’s Spin 713. What’s new this year is that I’m hearing the fans. Last year’s model was very quiet, but the fans were almost constantly spinning in this model. The noise wasn’t always annoying, but it was often audible. This makes me anxious about the Spin 713’s ability to cool a Core i7, so even if Acer sells a Core i7 model later this year, I’d recommend that most people stick with a Core i5 model unless you know you need an i7. (The Core i5’s performance here is going to be enough for 90 percent of people.)

I didn’t feel much heat in the keyboard, so the fans were doing their job.

What’s also gotten a bit worse is battery life: I averaged seven hours and 29 minutes of consistent work with the screen at 50 percent brightness, running some trials with a bunch of Android apps and some trials just in Chrome. That’s about an hour worse than what I averaged on the previous model, though both results are respectable for this price. The battery took 55 minutes to juice from zero to 60 percent with light Chrome use, which is a bit slower than last year’s model (but close).

The Spin 713 runs Chrome OS, as all Chromebooks do. It supports all Android apps via Google Play. Everything ran smoothly on this system, in both clamshell and tablet modes. Many Chrome OS apps have improved since I used them on last year’s 713. Slack, for example, was crashing all over the place last year, and is technically usable now. That said, I still generally find that most of my preferred services (Messenger, Slack, Reddit, Instagram, the like) are equivalent or better experiences in browser form. I do like being able to offload distractions like Spotify and Twitter into their own apps so I don’t have them mixed in with my Chrome tabs, but that’s about as far as my typical use of Android apps on a Chromebook goes.

As was the case with its predecessor, the Spin 713 isn’t a perfect Chromebook. It’s also not cheap as far as Chromebooks go. But it offered unbeatable value last year, and its value has gotten even better.

To illustrate just how much this device is offering for its $699 price, look to the premium Google Pixelbook Go. To buy a Pixelbook Go with an 8th Gen Core i5 (which is now an old chip), 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage (half of what you get in this Spin configuration), you’d be paying $849. The Pixelbook does have some advantages over the Spin, of course: you’re getting better build quality, a lighter chassis, and slightly better audio. But the Pixelbook has no biometric authentication, it has very few ports and doesn’t support Thunderbolt 4, it’s 16:9, and it’s not a convertible. It’s miles behind in almost every other way.

In other words, if you don’t mind a laptop-cart look, the Chromebook Spin 713 is an incredible value. The more power-hungry processor has changed the calculus slightly, but so have the new features. And ultimately, the Spin still comes out on top.

Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge

Bird announces its third-generation electric scooter with automatic emergency braking

Bird is out with a new electric scooter that’s designed to be the Santa Monica, California-based company’s most durable and sustainable vehicle yet.

The Bird Three scooter has a longer wheelbase, a dual-sensor throttle, and a “triple braking system” with dual independent handbrakes and an “autonomous emergency braking” system that the company claims is an industry-first.

But specifications aside, the really interesting thing about the Bird Three is the company’s insistence on calling it a “micro-EV.” It’s a clear effort by Bird, which recently announced its intent to go public via a “reverse merger” with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, to capitalize on the current momentum around electric vehicles.

With billions of dollars potentially on the line for the EV industry as part of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, and legacy automakers pouring billions of their own money into the development of EVs, Bird sees an opportunity to align itself with the prevailing winds in the transportation sector.

“In the early days, these were really toys if I’m honest,” said Scott Rushforth, chief vehicle officer at Bird, of the company’s original Xiaomi-manufactured products. “We used off the shelf products that didn’t last as long as we’d like them to.”

But that’s changed with the development of more rugged and longer-lasting scooters, earning them the automotive grade title “micro-EV,” Rushforth said. “It really is an EV that’s been shrunken down into the micro form factor,” he added. “So I love that term and I think that it’s hopefully going to become part of the dialogue.”

One of the most important numbers to consider is the lifespan of each scooter. The more trips and miles a single scooter can cover, the better it is for scooter companies that have to recoup the cost of each vehicle before they can start making money. With the Bird Three, the company thinks it has its longest-lasting scooter yet.

That is partly why the company is staking a position against the use of swappable batteries. Other countries, like China, are embracing battery-swapping technology as a way to expand access to their electric vehicles. But Bird claims that “smaller and swappable batteries lead to higher overall manufacturing emissions and require more vehicle miles traveled to retrieve, replace, and recharge scooters.”

Instead, the Bird Three’s battery has a capacity of “up to 1 kWh,” which the company says means less frequent charging and more miles traveled on a fully charged battery “than any other shared scooter available today.” That’s a significant step above the Bird One scooter’s battery capacity of 473Wh, and about 150 percent more capacity than the Bird Two.

The Bird Three battery is built to outlast the scooter to which it’s attached, with a minimum of 14,000 miles and up to a 20,000-mile lifespan. That’s probably longer than the 24- to 36-month lifespan of the entire vehicle, Rushforth said. And it’s IP68 rated, meaning it’s sealed from any water and dust that may get into the scooter.

“You know what’s better than a swappable battery is a battery that you don’t really need to maintain,” he added.

The scooter can run over 200 diagnostic checks and can relay messages to Bird’s maintenance crew when repairs need to be made. And when there’s a problem that would make the scooter unsafe to ride, the automatic emergency braking will bring the vehicle to a stop. Rushforth likened it to regenerative braking in an electric vehicle, in which the vehicle comes to a stop when the driver takes their foot off the acceleration pedal.

The Bird Three will be deployed in only a handful of markets to start out, including Tel Aviv, Berlin, and New York City (which is kicking off its inaugural scooter sharing pilot in June). After that, the company will begin the process of swapping the new scooter for the older models that need to be retired — which could take a while.

“It doesn’t make any sense for us to recycle a vehicle that’s out there getting rides,” Rushforth noted. “That’s not very green to just like get rid of the vehicles before their lifespan has ended.”

HTC Vive Pro 2 review: The ultimate virtual reality experience

(Pocket-lint) – The HTC Vive Pro 2 has arrived – and you could easily be forgiven for thinking it’s virtually the same VR headset that the company released back in 2018. That’s because outwardly it hasn’t changed much from the original, aside from some colour changes on the front faceplate.

However, under the hood things have been beefed up quite significantly. So much so that HTC is now claiming to have the best-in-class display and ‘true’ 120-degree field of view too.

It seems that HTC has abandoned its efforts with the HTC Vive Cosmos – which we found underwhelming – and has chosen to build on the foundations of the frankly awesome HTC Vive Pro instead. A sensible move in our mind.

But is an upgraded Pro enough to handle the now strong competition from HP and Oculus? We’ve been experiencing what the Vive Pro 2 has to offer to virtual reality fans looking for the best of the best.

Best-in-class display?

Fast switch LCD IPS panel, 2448 x 2448 pixels per eye (4896 x 2448 total)
120Hz refresh rate, ‘true’ 120-degree field of view
Dual-stack lens setup with RGB Subpixel design
57 to 72mm IPD (interpupillary) adjustment

The most significant upgrade to the Vive Pro 2 over the previous generation comes in the form of the visuals on offer. This headset has a display featuring the “highest resolution to date” – with 2448 x 2448 pixels per eye, totalling 4896 x 2448 visible pixels.

That’s a significant jump over the previous Vive Pro – which had a 2880 x 1600 pixel display. It’s also superior to the Vive Cosmos (2880 x 1700 pixels), HP Reverb G2 (2160 x 2160), and of course the Oculus Quest 2 (1,832 x 1,920). And it really shows too.

That high pixel count means you get a stunning VR experience. During our gaming sessions, we were struck by how impressive the graphics are on this headset. The screen door effect is essentially a thing of the past, too, and you’ll just find yourself getting lost in the experience.

HTC also has used a dual-stack lens design this time around, with two lenses redirecting the image for a wider field of view. This is said to have a bigger sweet-spot and a more realistic view of the world around you. This is also how the company claims to have a ‘true’ 120-degree field of view.

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There are some niggles though. For some reason, HTC has decided to change the shape of the lenses. Now the top and bottom of the lenses have a flat, straight edge to them, whereas before they were rounded. This means that prescription lens adapters for previous headsets don’t fit the Vive Pro 2. It also means that the view is different. We quickly noticed we could see the edges of the lenses more easily when playing and we sadly found this quite distracting.

Another small gripe is the rubber nose shields at the bottom of the headset. We found these kept flapping up and into the view of the screen while we were gaming, again interfering with our view.

Aside from these minor problems though, there’s no denying the Vive Pro 2 looks great. We revisited classics and our favourite VR games to give it thorough testing. That included Creed Rise to Glory, Space Pirate Trainer, Half-Life: Alyx, Superhot VR, Skyrim VR, LA Noire and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. We soon found that not only do these games look and sound great on the Vive Pro 2, but they also handle well too.

Of course, you need a pretty significant gaming machine in order to run it at this resolution and at the 120Hz available refresh rate, but if you can manage it from that perspective then things will truly look magnificent.

What spec PC do I need to run a HTC Vive Pro 2?

If your PC can’t quite handle such a high-end display then there’s no need to panic. HTC has worked with Nvidia and AMD on something called Display Stream Compression. This is a system that enables the Vive Pro 2 to run at a lesser resolution on less powerful gaming systems, meaning you can still get a great experience. The company says if your PC can run the original Vive Pro, then it can cope with the Vive Pro 2 as well. In other words, it’s backwards-compatible and will work with DisplayPort 1.2.

The minimum required specs to run the Vive Pro 2 headset are:

Processor: Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350 (equivalent or better) / Memory: 8GB RAM (or more)
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX1060 or AMD Radeon RX480 (equivalent or better)
OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 or Windows 10
Video out: DisplayPort 1.2 (or newer)
USB ports: 1x USB 3.0 (or newer)

The recommended specifications for the Vive Pro 2’s full 5K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate are:

Processor: Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350 (equivalent or better) / Memory: 8GB RAM (or more)
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 5700 (equivalent or better)
Video out: DisplayPort 1.4 (or newer)
USB ports: 1x USB 3.0 (or newer)
OS: Microsoft Windows 10

It’s worth noting that you do need a DisplayPort connection on your gaming machine or laptop in order to run this headset. You can use a DisplayPort Mini adapter or DisplayPort-to-USB-C adapter if required, but if you only have HDMI then you might come unstuck.

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Like previous Vive headsets, the Vive Pro 2 connects first to the Vive Link box then to your machine via DisplayPort and USB connection. That box also needs power, so be prepared with lots of empty plug sockets.

New visuals but an old-school setup

G-sensor, gyroscope, proximity, IPD sensor, SteamVR Tracking V2.0
Eye relief with lens distance adjustment
Adjustable Hi-Res certified headphones
Integrated dual microphones

So the HTC Vive Pro 2 has had some serious improvements in terms of graphical performance. It’s essentially the best headset on the market in that department, but in other ways, the Vive Pro 2 is still stuck in the past.

With the Vive Cosmos, HTC tried to take on the Oculus Rift S by adding inside-out tracking cameras to allow users to ditch the classic base stations and opt for an easier setup. Alas, the Vive Cosmos had lacklustre tracking because of it (unlike the Rift S) and so HTC has gone back to what it knows best – SteamVR tracking base stations.

This feels old school at this point – with the need to have tracking stations setup in your play space, preferably in opposite corners of your room, plugged into the mains power and monitoring your movement. These tracking stations ensure accurate tracking and very few problems in that department, but they’re a faff as they have to be mounted up high. Which means either wall-mounting, finding a spare tripod, or precariously balancing on a shelf or something else.

We’re so used to inside-out tracking now that going back to base stations is an unnecessary annoyance in our mind. However, if you’ve been using an original Vive, Vive Cosmos Elite or Vive Pro for all this time then you probably won’t care. There’s also a lot to be said for accurate tracking, but we’d still prefer the freedom offered by inside-out tracking.

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However, the Vive Pro 2’s tracking logic means you can use Vive Tracker 3.0 to track extra things, including your entire body. You can also add on a facial tracker to capture your facial expressions in VR and upgrade to go wireless too (though that’ll mean a hit in resolution and performance).

Still, despite our complaints, there’s a lot of other things the Vive Pro 2 does well.

It’s comfortable for a start. Well, as comfortable as having a large chunk of plastic strapped to your head can be anyway.

HTC has worked to balance the headset to maintain comfort. The overall design is the same as the Vive Pro, but that’s no bad thing as it means you have that easy adjustment wheel at the back, a solid headband design, comfortable padding, and a relatively simple on-off setup too.

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The padding is certainly one of the main features we enjoyed about the design of this one. It’s soft and plush, meaning you don’t have any unnecessary pressure on your face, nose or eyes when playing. It also blocks out a lot of surrounding light and lets you focus on the VR experience instead.

Vive headsets have also come a long way since we first played on the original Vive. The Vive Pro 2 gives you access to a lot more settings right in the headset itself. That includes access to hardware as well.

Those two cameras on its front, for example, can be activated as passthrough cameras. With a couple of clicks on the settings menu you can turn on a camera view that pops out from your controller and lets you see your real world. This means you don’t need to take the headset off to re-orientate yourself or talk to loved ones who have wandered into the room.

A triple-click of the menu button on a controller also activates another passthrough system which enables you to see the room around you with a green haze. These two systems are great for not falling over objects in the real-world and make VR life easier in general.

There’s also the option to click on the menu to see your desktop so you can interact with other apps directly on your PC. Whether that’s checking for emails, recording with OBS Studio, or doing something else.

This is a great improvement as it means you rarely have to take the headset off in order to mess around with your PC to do something simple like launching a new game or agree to a firewall change.

Another feature that hasn’t changed is audio. The Vive Pro 2 has built-in adjustable Hi-Res certified headphones which can be repositioned until they’re in a comfortable spot. They’re nicely padded and deliver a great sound when gaming. You can adjust the volume easily with buttons on the earcup and mute the microphones from there too.

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We have a love-hate relationship with these headphones though. Yes, they offer great sound, are easy to position, and block out a surprising amount of surrounding noise. But we just get a bit hot while using them. We prefer the freedom offered by the back-facing speakers on the Quest 2 or the off-ear speakers on the Reverb G2. Generally speaking, we get hot while gaming in VR anyway, but the Vive Pro 2 is particularly steamy thanks to both the headphones and the copious amounts of comfortable padding.

Convenient control

At this point it’s worth us talking about the Vive Pro 2’s two options of purchase:

Just the headset (for upgraders who already own the HTC Vive or Vive Pro) – available to pre-order at a discounted price of £659 / $749 / €739.
The full kit (which includes the headset, base station 2.0, and Vive Wand controllers v2) – available from 4 June for £1299 / $1399 / €1399.

If you’re buying the full package then you’ll get the classic Vive controllers. These now sport a nifty blue colour scheme that matches the Pro 2 headset, but otherwise they control the same as ever. That’s no bad thing though, as we’ve always liked these controllers. They’re solid, durable, easily recognised by most VR games, and have never let us down.

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They have built-in batteries and charge via Micro-USB. One downside, however, is that the controllers only last for a few hours – roughly 5 hours based on our testing – before they need charging again. So you need to make sure you’re charging them between sessions to avoid disappointment. HTC has made a point of saying that the Vive Pro 2 will work with Valve’s Knuckle controllers as an alternative though.

Verdict

There’s no denying that HTC has once again returned to form with the Vive Pro 2. It delivers a high-end VR experience and offers the very best experience thanks to impressive visuals, satisfying audio, and superb comfort. It’s an utter joy to game on.

But it does come at a cost – literally. Its asking price is over three times the Oculus Rift S’s launch price, and about double that of an HP Reverb G2. We also can’t help but begrudge the hassle of the base stations and the setup required.

But if you want best-of-best then you’ve got to pay for it. The HTC Vive Pro 2 is undeniably the current leader in the virtual reality headset space. So if you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket or you’re a Vive fan and want the upgraded experience then there’s nothing else that can compete.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Oculus Quest 2

A much more affordable alternative. Yes, it’s not the best-in-class but this standalone headset still has a lot to offer. Even more so now Oculus is working on adding wireless PCVR support and much more besides.

Read our review

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Pocket-lint

Oculus Rift S

It might be a bit older now, but it’s still a great headset if you can find it at a bargain price. It has all the joy of inside-out tracking, plus all the comfort and convenience to use. Yes, the visuals aren’t as impressive as HP’s headset, but it’s still a worthy contender.

Read our review

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Pocket-lint

HP Reverb G2

This headset offers some serious specs for less money than HTC’s asking price. Its tracking certainly isn’t as good, but there’s no hassle of base stations to setup and it’s also surprisingly comfortable and fun to game on.

Read our review

Writing by Adrian Willings. Editing by Mike Lowe.

Thermaltake ARGENT M5 RGB Review

Introduction

Founded in 1999, Thermaltake is a PC case, power supply, and peripherals company based in Taiwan. The ARGENT M5 RGB is part of an entire line of products consisting of a mouse bungee, mouse pad, headphones, headphone stand, and a wireless variant of the M5 RGB. The ARGENT M5 RGB is symmetrical, which means it has side buttons on both sides, and its button layout can be reversed in the software, enabling left-handers to use it normally. Through the software, several RGB lighting effects can be set up and synchronized with other ARGENT devices, including Razer Chroma enabled ones. The sensor is PixArt’s PMW3389 capable of 16,000 CPI, and the scroll wheel is made out of aluminium for better durability and grip. Though listed in the specifications, 2000 Hz polling rate is not supported by the ARGENT M5 RGB.

Specifications

Thermaltake ARGENT M5 RGB
Size:	128 mm x 64 mm x 37 mm
Size (inches):	5.04″ x 2.52″ x 1.46″
Ambidextrous:	Yes
Weight:	98 g
Number of Buttons:	8 (including wheel click)
Main Switches:	Omron D2FC-F-K (50M) (China)
Wheel Encoder:	Mechanical
Sensor:	PixArt PMW3389
Resolution:	100–16,000 CPI
Polling Rate:	125/250/500/1000 Hz
Cable:	1.80 m, braided
Software:	Yes
Price:	$59.99
Warranty:	2 years

Thermaltake ARGENT M5 RGB Review

Introduction

Specifications

Thermaltake ARGENT M5 RGB
Size:	128 mm x 64 mm x 37 mm
Size (inches):	5.04″ x 2.52″ x 1.46″
Ambidextrous:	Yes
Weight:	98 g
Number of Buttons:	8 (including wheel click)
Main Switches:	Omron D2FC-F-K (50M) (China)
Wheel Encoder:	Mechanical
Sensor:	PixArt PMW3389
Resolution:	100–16,000 CPI
Polling Rate:	125/250/500/1000 Hz
Cable:	1.80 m, braided
Software:	Yes
Price:	$59.99
Warranty:	2 years

3D Printed RP2040 Powered Ring Measures CO2

(Image credit: Guido Burger)

Sometimes a little ingenuity is all it takes to solve a potentially life-threatening problem—such is the case with Guido Burger’s Raspberry Pi RP2040 CO2-detecting ring. This isn’t Burger’s first rodeo with RP2040, we previously covered his homemade Adafruit Feather RP2040 which he managed to assemble before the board officially released.

While precise details on the inner workings of the project have been kept under wraps, we can infer a few things from pictures provided so far. The ring is 3D-printed, features a CO2 sensor and uses an RP2040 to interpret sensor data and trigger LEDs on a NeoPixel ring.

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(Image credit: Guido Burger)

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(Image credit: Guido Burger)

Burger made it clear the NeoPixel LEDs are programmed to respond to specific triggers. He also linked to a Sensirion SCD4x CO2 sensor, the likely source of data used to change the LEDs.

Some of the best Raspberry Pi projects use custom SBCs and this one appears to have just that with a pinout similar to the QT Py RP2040. This board most likely serves as the center of the entire project and is held in place by the custom 3D printer enclosure which also secures the NeoPixel ring.

If you want to check out this project up close, visit the original thread on Twitter and be sure to follow Guido Burger for more updates on this clever RP2040 CO2-detecting NeoPixel Ring.

Google Pixel 6 Pro vs Pixel 6: What’s the rumoured difference?

(Pocket-lint) – Google is rumoured to be working on a few smartphones, including the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro.

Though not due to be official until later in the year – possibly October time – both devices have leaked extensively over the last couple of months giving us a good idea of what to expect.

Here is how the Google Pixel 6 is rumoured to compare to the Google Pixel 6 Pro, based on what we have heard so far.

Design

Pixel 6: 158.6 x 74.8 x 8.9mm, 11.8mm with bump
Pixel 6 Pro: 163.9 x 75.8 x 8.9mm, 11.5mm with bump

The Google Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are expected to share a similar design, though there are some variations between the two models based on the leaked renders.

Both will seemingly have a prominent horizontal camera housing that spans the entire width of the rear, but the Pixel 6 will have dual camera while the 6 Pro will have a triple camera. The flash module is expected to sit on the right of the lenses within the housing.

It seems both will sport an under-display fingerprint sensor, along with a centralised punch hole camera at the top of the display, but the Pixel 6 will apparently have a flat screen, while the 6 Pro will have a slight curve to its display.

No details on IP ratings have been revealed in leaks as yet, but the Pixel 5 is IP68 rated, so we would expect both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro to offer the same. In terms of size, the Pixel 6 Pro is expected to be the larger device.

Display

Pixel 6: 6.4-inch, Full HD+, 90Hz?
Pixel 6 Pro: 6.67-inch, Quad HD+, 120Hz?

The Google Pixel 6 is said to be coming with a 6.4-inch display, which as we mentioned, is said to be flat. There haven’t been any leaked details surrounding display and refresh rate as yet, but we’d expect Full HD+ on the Pixel 6, and at least 90Hz.

The Pixel 6 Pro meanwhile, is expected to come with a 6.67-inch curved display, making it a little bigger and more distinctive than the standard model, if true.

Again, no reports have indicated what we can expect in terms of resolution and refresh rate, though it wouldn’t be too surprising to see a Quad HD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate for the Pro model.

We’re expecting HDR support on both models as the Pixel 5 offers this.

Hardware and specs

Pixel 6: Google own chip?

Pixel 6 Pro: Google own chip?

Rumour has it Google is working on its own system-on-chip, codenamed Whitechapel. Reports suggest it will offer a raw performance somewhere between the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 and the Snapdragon 888.

It’s expected this chip will be on board the Pixel 6 models, though not confirmed.

RAM, storage and battery capacities haven’t been detailed in leaks yet either, though we’d expect the Pixel 6 Pro to be superior in terms of RAM and battery compared to the Pixel 6. We’re expecting at least 4000mAh and 8GB of RAM on the standard model.

Cameras

Pixel 6: Dual camera
Pixel 6 Pro: Triple camera

Based on reports, the Google Pixel 6 will come with a dual camera. Reports have claimed there will be a 50-megapixel main camera, coupled with an ultra wide-angle sensor, though nothing is confirmed.

The Pixel 6 Pro meanwhile, is said to be coming with a triple rear camera, which will apparently offer the same 50-megapixel main sensor and ultra wide-angle sensor as the Pixel 6, but add an 8-megapixel telephoto sensor to the mix.

It’s also been claimed the front camera – resolution not yet detailed in leaks – will support 4K video recording. It’s not clear if this will be on both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, or just the Pro model however.

Conclusion

For now, everything is based on speculation regarding the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. The rumours so far suggest the two devices will sport very similar designs, with the Pro model offering a slightly more premium finish with a curved display, as well as triple rear camera.

The 6 Pro is also expected to have a slightly larger display and we wouldn’t be surprised to see it offer a higher resolution and refresh rate, as well as more RAM and a larger battery capacity. The Pixel 6 is likely to be cheaper than the 6 Pro however, and it’s possible the two devices will run the same hardware.

We’ll update this feature as more rumours come in. For now, you can read all about the Pixel 6 in our separate feature and the Pixel 6 Pro in another feature.

Writing by Britta O’Boyle.

Panasonic launches the LUMIX GH5 II, teases the upcoming GH6

Panasonic today announced an updated version of its venerable LUMIX GH5 camera. The new GH5 Mark II is a relatively modest upgrade over its predecessor but if you look at the other thing Panasonic announced today, you’d realize it’s just a stop-gap.

The GH5M2 features a revised set of specifications, largely due to the upgrade to the newer and latest generation Venus Engine processor. The camera is now capable of internally recording 4K 60p in 10-bit at 4:2:0, which is an improvement over the GH5 that could only do 8-bit internally. The GH5M2 will also be able to simultaneously record in 4K 60p in 10-bit 4:2:2 to an external recorder.

The GH5M2 comes with the Panasonic V-Log L log profile pre-installed, which was an optional paid extra on the GH5. This allows you to color match the camera to other Panasonic cameras using V-Log (S1/S1H) or V-Log L (GH5/GH5S). The GH5M2 also adds two Cinelike presets (D2 and V2) along with MonochromeS and L.ClassicNeo.

The 20.3-megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor is nearly identical to the one on the GH5. The GH5M2 sensor features anti-reflective coating, which should reduce the amount of flare around bright objects.

The use of a faster processor has enabled some improvements to autofocusing. While the GH5M2 still uses the same contrast-based DFD system, it is not faster to lock focus and 2x faster at detecting eyes and faces than the GH5.

The GH5M2 also features improved in-body image stabilizer and is capable of 6.5-stop slower shutter speed.

The GH5M2 features a smaller 3.0-inch display compared to the 3.5-inch display on the GH5. However, this new display has higher 1840k dot resolution and is also brighter outdoors.

The connectivity hasn’t changed much but the microUSB port has been ditched in favor of USB-C with USB-PD charging.

Finally, the GH5M2 is capable of live streaming to YouTube or Facebook directly through the camera. All you need is the camera and an internet connection, either through home Wi-Fi or through your phone’s data connection and the Panasonic app and you’re good to go. Aside from the two services mentioned above, you can also stream to any other RTMP/RTMPS protocol compatible streaming service and stream at 1080p 60fps at 16Mbps. A future update will also add wired IP streaming (RTP/RTSP).

Aside from that, this is basically the same camera as the GH5. All you get to differentiate externally are some red accents and a reassigned F1 button. However, this isn’t a bad thing, as the GH5M2 is being launched at $400 lower than the launch price of the GH5 and starts at $1699.

However, the thing to look out for is Panasonic’s upcoming GH6, which the company also teased today. The camera is said to be in development and will be launched by the end of 2021. The GH6 will be able to do 4:2:2 10-bit DCI 4K 60p internal recording without any time limits and also 10-bit 4K 120p HFR recording. The Gh6 will also be able to do 10-bit 5.7k 60p video with the new Micro Four Thirds sensor.

The Panasonic LUMIX GH6 will be priced around $2500.

Source 1 • Source 2

Lenovo Pad Pro unveiled with 11.5″ 90Hz OLED screen, Plus and vanilla models follow

In addition to the multimedia powerhouse that is the new Lenovo Yoga Pad Pro, Lenovo unveiled three other tablets. The first slate is fairly powerful (though it’s still priced pretty aggresively), the other two focus on affordability (but still have a solid spec sheet).

Lenovo Pad Pro 2021

Like the Yoga model, the Lenovo Pad Pro 2021 is powered by a Snapdragon 870 chipset, but the main focus here is the display – an 11.5” OLED panel with 90Hz refresh rate and 1 ms response time. The display is sharper thanks to its 2,560 x 1,600 px resolution (16:10) and also covers the wider DCI-P3 color space 100%. This is in addition to Dolby Vision and HDR10 support. It has a typical brightness of 420 nits (600 nits peak) and supports DC dimming for a flicker-free experience.

Lenovo Pad Pro 2021

You can buy an optional stylus that can sense 4,096 levels of pressure. This is more of a work tablet though, so it has a pogo pin connector on the bottom where you can easily snap on the optional keyboard cover that also has a trackpad.

The Pad Pro 2021 is quite thin and light, measuring only 5.8mm and 485g. It has an 8,600mAh battery, which is enough for 15 hours of video playback or 8 hours of browsing the web. It supports Quick Charge 3.0 for up to 20W of power.

Speaking of video, you’ll enjoy your movies on four JBL speakers, each with a 2.5 cm³ chamber and 1.5W of power (6W total). There is Dolby Atmos support too.

Lenovo Pad Pro 2021’s top features

The S870 chipset is paired with 6GB of RAM (LPDDR5) and 128GB storage (UFS 3.1). This can be expanded through the microSD slot. Additional features include a USB-C port (3.1), Wi-Fi 6 (MIMO 2×2) and Bluetooth 5.1.

The tablet has a dual camera with a 13MP main module (with autofocus) and a 5MP ultrawide-angle cam (120º). On the front there is an 8MP selfie camera and an ToF camera for authentication (or you could use the fingerprint reader on the side).

The Lenovo Pad Pro 2021 will go on sale in China on May 31 for CNY2,500 ($390/€320).

Lenovo Pad Plus 11

This tablet features an 11” LCD with 2,000 x 1,200 px resolution. It is less impressive with a standard 60Hz refresh rate and no HDR support. You do still get four JBL speakers with Dolby Atmos, though, with a total power of 6W. And the display supports that optional stylus too.

The Lenovo Pad Plus is powered by a Snapdragon 750G chipset with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage. You can add up to 1TB more using the microSD card slot.

Lenovo Pad Plus 11″

The tablet has a 7,700mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support over USB-C. The battery is good for 12 hours of video or 12 hours of web browsing. Wireless connectivity include Wi-Fi 6 (MIMO 2×2), Bluetooth 5.1 and GPS. This tablet is rated IP52, though it’s not quite an outdoorsy tablet.

There’s only one camera on the back, 13MP, but the front keeps the setup of an 8MP front-facing camera and a ToF sensor. This one has pogo pins too, so you can get a keyboard cover if you need to type a lot of text.

Lenovo Pad Plus 11″ feature highlights

Like its sibling, the Pad Plus will go on sale in China on May 31. It will cost CNY1,600 ($250/€200).

Lenovo Pad 11

This one is similar to the Plus model. It has the same 11” 2,000 x 1,200 px LCD and four speakers with Dolby Atmos support (only 4W of power this time around, though). The camera setup is the same as well, 13MP on the back, 8MP + ToF sensor on the front.

Lenovo Pad 11″

The major difference is the Snapdragon 662 chipset and that you only get 4GB of RAM plus 64GB storage. At least there’s still a microSD slot. And the pogo pin connector is on board as is the support for the optional stylus.

The battery is the same, 7,700mAh capacity and Quick Charge 3.0 support (20W) over USB-C (wired for only 2.0 speeds, however). The Wi-Fi is slower, only version 5 is supported (aka ac), but the GPS is still on board as is the IP52 rating.

Lenovo Pad 11″ feature highlights

The Lenovo Pad 11 will be available soon at a price of CNY1,100 ($170/€140).