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DS 3 Crossback E-Tense review: Electric with a touch of flair

(Pocket-lint) – The DS 3 Crossback E-Tense name might be something of a mouthful, but hidden behind the nomenclature is a nice compact hatchback, boosted to give it crossover appeal, while retaining the charms of the regular DS 3.

The E-Tense is the first fully electric car from DS Automobiles, arriving in full DS style, with options for lavish design and something that’s just a bit different to everything else on the road. But it’s a bit expensive considering, so does it offer true appeal?

A unique design

Being different is often enough to make you stand out when you’re a car. If it wasn’t for the super Honda e – which is even more different – the DS 3 Crossback E-Tense might be the most distinctive EV on the road, from the interior at least.

From the outside there are some quirks – such as that shark fin behind the B pillar – but you can feel the DS 3 heritage getting inflated, riding a little higher, slightly more accentuated. Otherwise the general positioning of the car as a practical hatchback remains the same.

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But this is a unique DS model. While it sits on the same platform as some rivals – the Peugeot e-2008, Vauxhall Corsa e, Citroën eC4 – nothing carries these looks. There’s no old Citroën model that looks the same, and no petrol version that’s just been converted – so there is something special about this model.

There’s a huge grille on the front, while areas that look like they might have been somewhere to put other vents on a combustion car sport the same look, resulting in a car that isn’t a hugely electric-looking EV.

But that does lend some sporty charm to things, while the recessed doorhandles – which pop out as you approach the car – bring a premium sense of occasion.

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The stance on the road is pretty good, but some of those styling points do start to get in the way. The fins on the side reduce the window space for the rear passengers, while the rear window looks smaller from the inside than it needs to be – a chunk of the rearview is eaten up by plastic bodywork across the bottom of the window, which we don’t really think needs to be there.

A distinctively designed interior

Since the separation of DS Automobiles from Citroën, DS has pursued a design line based around offering something inspired by French fashion. It wants to be unique and it wants to give you a higher quality experience. That’s seen heavily in the interior design, with the use of textures you might associate more with prestige watchmaking than in a car.

Up at the top level, on the Prestige Ultra model (as reviewed), that results in a sumptuous finish. It’s not just leather, it’s hand stitched in places, using special pearl stitching and – importantly – uniquely different to the premium German marques that DS Automobiles wants to compete with.

At the same time, that commitment to design can see impracticalities. We know why DS chose to put the dash buttons into diamond shapes, but they are larger than they need to be – and the couple of blank spaces are what you notice the most.

But there are choices to be made, with the DS 3 Crossback E-Tense available in five different trims, affecting the wheel size, paint colours and interior options.

To give the E-Tense its due, though, it is comfortable. We like the finish on the seats and it’s nice to be in a cabin that isn’t just the same as a whole family of cars elsewhere. Front passenger and driver get plenty of room, but the rear is a little short on knee space, just like many other hatchbacks.

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The boot offers 350 litres of space, which is typical for this size of car, meaning you can stuff in a large family shop or enough baggage for a weekend away.

Interior tech

When it comes to the interior tech offering, the DS 3 Crossback E-Tense again suffers from that heavy design ethic. We’ve commented on this before – especially on the DS 7 Crossback – that some of that styling in the graphical interface isn’t especially helpful.

The DS 3 is clearer, however, with a smaller digital driver display having the benefit of not giving the software designers too much space to fiddle around. There are several views you can scroll through to customise the information – and on our review model, a heads-up display (HUD) to provide pertinent information while on the road.

In the centre of the car is a larger display, 7-inches on lower trims and a 10.3-inch on higher trims. The expansion to the larger models seems to result in empty space at the edges, or once you’ve made your selection, permanently visible cabin temperature, so it’s not a huge gain.

The infotainment system is easy enough to use, offering touchscreen interaction, working with those big buttons on the dash to work through the mainstays of music, climate control, navigation, car settings, and phone.

We found the navigation and mapping to be pretty good, although you can’t zoom and manipulate the maps to the same sort of extent that you can a smartphone, so it does have some limitations – likely to be addressed in the new system being introduced in the DS 4.

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Perhaps the thing that’s the most irksome is having to dig to find charging stations through the points of interest options. Again, as this is an EV, that sort of option should be front and centre.

Where things get a bit questionable are diving into the details of power consumption. As this is an electric car, efficiency and performance is ever more important, and getting access to that information is useful for a driver. There’s a dedicated button which is good, but the information you get could be better.

The E-Tense will present stats for your journey, giving you a sensible miles per kWh which is useful, but it also presents a graph. The Y axis on this graph has a scale that runs up to 120miles per kWh, which is utterly useless, seeing as the average is going to be around 4 – so it’s literally wasted space, unless you’re just rolling down hills.

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On the Prestige Ultra there’s a Qi charging pad for your phone, but it also supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, so you can use a phone-based system if you want.

We found the sound quality to be good from the speakers within the car, although it’s always a pleasure listening to music in an electric car when you’re not fighting with any engine noise.

Equipped with cameras, there’s fancy parking assistance, able to view the car’s surroundings on the screen, making it really easy to put yourself into a tight parking space – especially useful for reversing into awkward EV charging locations.

Driving, battery size and range

The DS 3 Crossback E-Tense is a nice car to drive. It rides pretty high, so there’s a sense of road domination which is great from a smaller car. The ride is pretty quiet, too, so you don’t hear too much noise coming into the cabin – extending the feeling that this is just a little better than average.

The suspension is perhaps a little on the hard side – while we didn’t have a problem with it on broken suburban roads, it could just be a little softer. The steering is a little light, probably designed to suit the urban driver that’s likely to buy this car, rather than the B-road racer who might want something a little heavier.

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One of the advantages of electric cars is that they offer instant torque for a spritely drive and the E-Tense is no different in that regard. There’s a D and B position on the gear selector, with the B (battery) option giving you a stronger regeneration when lifting off the pedal. This goes some way to offering one-pedal driving, although the car won’t come to a complete standstill in this mode, it will just slow down and then creep along the road.

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

By Chris Hall
·
24 March 2021

There are also driving modes which have a bigger impact on the setup of the car – eco, normal, sport – with the names very much revealing what they do. Eco cuts the throttle response so you don’t expend so much energy in acceleration. It works well, we just wish you could have the car startup in these modes, rather than having to select it every time.

Turning to the important range, and the DS 3 Crossback E-Tense is equipped with a 50kWh battery and a 100kW motor. That gives you a larger battery than the Mini Electric, a smaller battery than the Kia e-Niro – and that’s generally reflected in the resulting range.

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The range, on paper, is 191-206 miles. In our driving we found we could, with a little effort (aircon off, eco mode, infotainment off), get averages of around 4.7 miles per kWh around town, which would bring it in at 235 miles. Casually nipping to the supermarket sat closer to 3.2 m/kWh, which would give you 160 miles. We couldn’t find long-term averages for the car during our review.

It also supports up to 100kW charging, which will take it to 80 per cent in 30 minutes. Home charging on a 7.2kW will take about seven-and-a-half hours to completely charge it.

That sits the E-Tense in a reasonable position, although the Kia e-Niro gives you more range for your money in a similar size car, while the Peugeot e-2008 is a healthy chunk cheaper for much the same setup. There is a premium to pay for all that prestige, it seems.

Verdict

There are some elements of the DS 3 Crossback E-Tense that we really like. It’s a nice car to drive and the performance is pretty good, making it a practical electric car, sizeable enough to seat a small family, so great for everyday use.

The range sits in the middle of the pack and you can get a little more range for around the same price elsewhere – it’s hard to ignore the offerings from Peugeot which are also more affordable.

Ultimately, the DS 3 Crossback E-Tense again delivers something a little different. Stylistically that interior is like nothing else on the road. That could make the E-Tense stand apart – but at the same time, there are things that could be done to make it a more attractive buy too.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Kia e-Niro

It’s one of the top rated electric cars and that comes down to value for money, efficiency of the drive, and the option for a pretty big battery.

Read our review

Pocket-lint

Nissan Leaf

Nissan has been in this game a long time and that shows in the Leaf. There’s efficiency and the option for bigger batteries to provide a useful range.

Read our review

Writing by Chris Hall. Editing by Mike Lowe.

You can now buy a Tesla with bitcoin in the US

Tesla now accepts bitcoin as payment for its cars in the US, CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter. The option to pay using the cryptocurrency now appears on the company’s US website, where it’s available alongside the traditional card payment option. Musk said that the option to pay with bitcoin will be available to other countries “later this year.”

As well as confirming the availability of the new payment option, Musk offered some details on how Tesla is handling the cryptocurrency. “Tesla is using only internal & open source software & operates Bitcoin nodes directly,” he said in a followup tweet, “Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.”

Pay by Bitcoin capability available outside US later this year

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021

Tesla lays out how the bitcoin payment process works in an FAQ on its site, where it notes that users will have the option of scanning a QR code or copying and pasting its bitcoin wallet address to initiate the payment. It adds that trying to send any other form of cryptocurrency to its wallet means it “will not receive the transaction and it will likely result in a loss of funds for you.” According to Tesla’s bitcoin payment terms and conditions, its cars will continue to be priced in US dollars, and customers who choose to will pay the equivalent value in bitcoin. Tesla estimates that a $100 deposit paid today equals 0.00183659 BTC, for example.

Tesla’s terms and conditions also caution that customers need to be careful when inputting both the bitcoin address and amount to be paid. It notes in all caps that “bitcoin transactions cannot be reversed” and “if you input the bitcoin address incorrectly, your bitcoin may be irretrievably lost or destroyed.” Customers are also responsible for directly paying all bitcoin transaction fees associated with their purchase, and Tesla warns that although bitcoin payments typically take less than an hour to complete, this can extend to up to “one day or more.” And because of bitcoin volatility, Tesla warns that the value of any refund “might be significantly less” than the value of bitcoin relative to US dollars at the time of purchase.

Tesla announced its intention to start accepting bitcoin as payment a little over a month ago in its annual 10-K report, when it said it would be adding the option in the “near future.” In the same filing, the company said it had also invested a total of $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency. The news sent the price of bitcoin up to over $43,000, an all-time high at the time. As of this writing, 1 bitcoin is now worth a little over $56,000.

OnePlus 9 Pro review: More hassle than Hasselblad?

(Pocket-lint) – OnePlus started off as that limited, small batch phone-maker that only insiders knew about, before growing into a proper big-time brand. And yet, despite being available through proper partner carriers and in real stores, it’s still not a company you’d consider hugely mainstream. It certainly doesn’t have that mindshare that Apple and Samsung have enjoyed for years.

Counting all the ‘T’ versions, however, we’re now into the 13th generation OnePlus flagship. And in all of those generations it’s always nailed the speed, performance and fluidity. The cameras, however, have always raised questions, never quite delivering to the same degree as the competition. To try and conquer this final frontier OnePlus has brought in some outside help from a partnership with Hasselblad.

So does the OnePlus 9 Pro, Hasselblad riposte at the ready, succeed in flying us to the moon and back?

So shiny

Finishes: Morning Mist, Forest Green, Stellar Black
Dimensions: 163.2 x 73.6 x 8.7mm / Weight: 197g
IP68 water- and dust-resistant rating
Stereo speakers

OnePlus has three different finishes for the OnePlus 9 Pro. We’ve been using the silver coloured Morning Mist version, which is oh so shiny. At least, the bottom third of the back is. It’s reflective enough that you can see your face in it (which also makes photographing it a real pain – not that this would be a concern to 99 per cent of the people who buy one).

This reflective surface subtly gradients into a more misty, foggy look at the top. The surface of the glass on the outside is glossy and slippery, so attracts fingerprints like nobody’s business. All in all meaning you may just want to use the case, or pick up the frosted glass Forest Green variant instead.

Still, there’s plenty to like about the 9 Pro’s design. For one, the camera housing has a look about it that says the designers really cared about how it turned out. It’s not just a characterless rectangle stuck onto the back. It’s colour-matched to the back and each of the two main cameras has a metallic ring around the lens, making it stand out against the background. It’ll certainly make it stand out from the crowd.

The rest of the design is very familiar for anyone who’s used a OnePlus phone over the past year. The glass curves on the back towards the edges, making an otherwise quite large phone feel a bit more comfortable than it would if it were completely flat and square.

It’s not the lightest phone around, but in its size category, squeezing in below 200 grams is a good thing. It makes it perfectly bearable to use day in day out. Plus, all the buttons being within easy thumb reach means there’s not too much over-stretching going on to locate the alert slider or the volume rocker.

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While we’re on the subject of practicality, the Pro has IP68 rating against water and dust ingress. So when this slippery fish does inevitably slip out of your hand into a sink full of water, it won’t get damaged (well, not from the water anyway!).

Unlike the standard ‘non-Pro’ version, the OnePlus 9 Pro doesn’t have a completely flat panel, but the curves on the screen are definitely smaller than in previous iterations. That does mean the phone feels a bit chunkier than 7 Pro from two years ago, but it means it’s less prone to accidental touches. Plus, the bezels are really skinny, giving an almost edge-to-edge screen with only a neat little selfie camera punching its way through the top corner.

Display and software

6.7-inch AMOLED display
- QHD+ resolution (1440 x 3216 pixels; 525ppi)
- Adaptive frame rate up to 120Hz
Oxygen OS 11 (over Android 11)

It’s not just in physical button placement where OnePlus has attempted to make its large phone comfortable to use. The software, Oxygen OS, went through a massive refresh for its Android 11-based version – which first launched on the OnePlus 8T. This update didn’t just radically change the entire look and feel of the previously Google stock-like experience, it was designed so that the bits you need to reach with your thumb are easy to get to. Buttons and controls are shifted down, so you don’t have to awkwardly stretch across to the top corner.

The thing that works against this somewhat is that OnePlus has fewer of its own apps than it used to. It’s gone all-in with Google, so apps like Messages and the Phone app are Google; similarly, as we saw with the 8T in 2020, the Shelf that used to live on the left of the Home Screen has been replaced by Google’s Discover feed.

None of these moves are bad, as Google’s Discover is far more useful and more relevant than Shelf. That in itself hasn’t disappeared completely, though, as you can get to it by swiping down on the Home Screen. It could be useful for things like getting quick access to favourite contacts, or remembering where you parked the car. We didn’t find it all that useful, so we just changed the setting so that a swipe on the Home Screen dropped down notifications instead.

As for the screen, it’s one of the best available on the market. It’s a 6.7-inch AMOLED panel that has a top refresh rate of 120Hz, meaning it cycles through 120 refreshes per second to give the sense of smoothness.

Like Samsung’s latest flagships – the Galaxy S21 Ultra at the top of the stack – the OnePlus also has adaptive refresh rate capabilities. Here, however it can go all the way down to just 1Hz when it detects a static page, which will help save battery life. It also means it’s pretty much identical to the screen on the Oppo Find X3 Pro.

It’s really bright and vivid, and – once you’ve enabled its maximum sharpness within the settings – it’s crisp to the eyes too. One clever little feature actually enables you to toggle on a battery saver mode when you choose the QHD+ resolution, which means the screen can switch to a lower resolution if it’s appropriate to do so.

As usual, there are plenty of additional features, such as the ability to tune the appearance to your preferences: be that dark mode for night time, comfort tone for automatically adjusting the white balance based on the ambient light, or reading mode for, um, you guessed it, reading.

On the whole, it’s a mighty fine display. Colours pop, bright areas are almost searing, and animations are smooth. There’s perhaps a bit too much contrast, while auto-brightness dims the output a bit much – as to not retain balance of highlights, shadows and colours – but most of the time we were impressed by it.

For those who want it there’s plenty of customisability too. The display settings menu lets you adjust the overall look of the screen, making it more or less vibrant and adjusting colours and white balance.

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More hassle than Hasselblad?

Quad camera system:
- Main: 48-megapixel, f/1.8 aperture, 1/1.43in sensor (Sony IMX789), optical stabilisation (OIS)
- Ultra-wide: 50MP, f2.2, 1/1.56″ (Sony IMX766)
- Tele (3.3x): 8MP f/2.4
- Mono: 2MP
Front-facing camera: 16-megapixel
Video: 8K30p / 4K120p

So to the all-important cameras. Both the primary and ultra-wide cameras use high-end Sony sensors – which is OnePlus showing off that it’s sourcing the best core kit for the job. For the most part, these sensors deliver good pictures.

The primary sensor looks like it’s had the most love from Hasselblad’s partnership, delivering natural-looking colours with good detail. Likewise, the ultra-wide sensor can take great pictures – and that’s no surprise given it’s the same sensor used by the Oppo Find X3 Pro in both of its two main cameras.

In good light you’ll get sharp mostly noise-free pictures, while the freeform ultra-wide lens will ensure you don’t get lots of curving and distortion at the edges. In fact, it’s very level and doesn’t suffer from that fish-eye effect you sometimes see from such lenses. It’s not as good in low-light situations as the primary sensor, neither is perfect once light levels drop. You’ll start to see image noise introduced when it gets a bit darker, particularly in greys and blues in any shadows.

The only inescapable problem isn’t with either camera individually. It’s when you compare them to each other. At some points it looks like results are from two different phones. Not in terms of angle of view, as that’s inevitable, but with the final aesthetic. The ultra-wide often boosts warmth and saturation to give a really vivid (almost more orange feel), while the primary lens delivers a more neutral, cooler image where blues are more standout.

You can see this difference when switching to Macro mode – which automatically switches to the ultra-wide sensor to perform the close-up shot – as well as when you shoot at night time using the Nightscape mode.

Nighstscape mode seems to have improved from previous generations of OnePlus phones, though, with the 9 Pro able to draw in decent light. We did sometimes struggle to get results looking sharp though, with finer details and edges blurring – not an out-of-focus blur, more like a motion blur as if the camera’s optical stabilisation can’t quite compensate for hand-shake enough.

It wasn’t the only time the phone’s camera struggled with detail either. Using the telephoto zoom lens – which is 3.3x that of the main camera, and can reach up to 30x digitally – we found that detail simply lacked. It’s not a great optical zoom.

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: Ultra-wideUltra-wide

If you scroll through the gallery above – which cycles through the cameras at ultra-wide, 1x, 3.3x, 5x, 10x and 30x – you’ll see how the tree branches in the 3.3x shot turn into a weird-looking mush. And once you zoom past 3.3x the detail becomes increasingly ropey with the images at the top end looking more like an oil painting than a photograph.

As for macro mode, that’s pretty strong in good light. Details are sharp and in-focus, while the background blur adds depth and doesn’t suffer from unnatural and nauseating bokeh like some dedicated macro lenses do. That’s likely down to the fact the OnePlus 9 Pro is using the ultra-wide sensor, rather than have a poor low-resolution macro camera.

On the whole, then, the 9 Pro’s cameras are a bit of a mixed bag. It performs well, but the difference in colour balance between the primary and ultra-wide is confusing, especially given OnePlus’ insistence on using Hasselblad’s ‘strict’ tuning standards. The optical zoom lens is quite poor when it comes to detail, and night mode suffers a little with motion blur.

The primary lens is great for the most part, but we’d just love to see that consistency between the different lenses. It’d turn this system into one that truly competes with the market leaders. The hardware is obviously there, we just need to see attention to detail on balance still.

Speed, I am speed

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform, 5G connectivity
RAM: 8GB/12GB LPDDR5
Storage: 128GB/256GB (UFS3.1)
4,500mAh battery (2x 2250mAh cells)
Warp Charge 65T flash charging (1-100% in 28 minutes)
Warp Charge 50 wireless charging (1-100% in 43 minutes)

If there’s one thing you can virtually guarantee from OnePlus when it comes to its flagship phones: they’re all fast and fluid. For years the company has used whichever is Qualcomm’s latest top-tier processor. For 2021 that’s the Snapdragon 888.

In all areas, the OnePlus 9 Pro performs like a proper flagship should. It’s fast and smooth, loading any games and apps without stopping to think about it. We had no instances of stutter or delay. Part of that is also down to the screen’s refresh rate, but also its touch sampling rate – which can read your fingers taps and swipes at a rate of 240 times per second. The animation on screen responds virtually immediately, making it feel nimble and instant.

Even simple and mundane tasks like refreshing a Twitter feed or loading a web page is hassle-free. Plus, if you live in an area with 5G signal, you get that goodness too, for speedy cellular downloads.

During our testing there were moments where – after an hour or so of gaming – the phone became a little warm, but it didn’t feel uncomfortable. That’s likely down to having an efficient vapour chamber and graphite-based cooling system inside, making this the most non-gamer gamer phone on the market.

As for battery life, with the screen cranked up to its highest resolution and frame rate settings, the 4500mAh capacity is more than capable of pushing through a full day. Even on quieter ones, however, we never quite got the sense it’d make it through two full days.

On our heavier days with a three or more hours of screen time, we got to bed with somewhere around the 30 per cent mark left over. Here’s the thing though: battery anxiety is never an issue because when it comes to charging few phones compare to the OnePlus 9 Pro.

If you use the included 65W wired charger, you can get the battery from dead to 100 per cent in just 28 minutes. That’s a full charge in less than half an hour, which is mind-boggling. Plug the phone in for 10 minutes and that’ll provide enough to get you through a good few hours.

But there’s more: it charges fast wirelessly too. Using OnePlus’ latest Warp Charge Wireless stand (an optional extra, at your expense), you can get a full charge in 43 minutes. Of course, if it’s by your bed and you charge overnight you don’t need those speeds, but it can be programmed to go into bedtime mode which charges slower and, crucially, quieter. The fan it uses to keep itself cool during the faster charging speeds is shut off to allow you to get to sleep.

The Warp Charge Wireless is so quick that we’d often just leave the 9 Pro off charge at night, then put it on the stand while getting ready in the morning. It’s a bit of a game-changer.

It’s worth noting that – even though it charges quickly – OnePlus has kept its battery optimisation features in play, which ensure the device’s battery isn’t harmed by such speedy refills. It learns your charging routine and does the first chunk of charging quickly, before leaving it and then finishing the charge right before you wake up in the morning – which is good for battery health and longevity over an extended period of time.

Verdict

The OnePlus 9 Pro attemps to address the series’ historically biggest issue: the cameras. However, even with support from Hasselblad, it still doesn’t quite hit the mark in that regard. But the core of the phone impresses, with fast wireless charging a truly brilliant feature, and the display being top notch too.

While it’s possible to get great photos from the 9 Pro’s cameras, the imbalance of colour between the two main sensors – with photos often looking like they’ve come from two different phones – and the poor results from the telephoto zoom just don’t quite add up to what we’d expect. More hassle than Hasselblad, eh?

It’s also worth pointing out that the 9 Pro’s price has crept higher still, edging ever closer to the four-figure mark and, in so doing, sitting closer to other premium flagship competitors. That does mean it’s still more affordable than some of the other top tier phones out there, but it’s no longer the instant buy the series once was.

Overall, the OnePlus 9 Pro continues to deliver on the series’ well-established strengths. Its fast and fluid, has a cracking screen, mind-boggling impressive fast-charging, and all for a price that undercuts the established elite. But it continues the series’ ongoing weaknesses too, as those cameras still just aren’t class-leading.

Also consider

Oppo Find X3 Pro

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In a lot of ways, the Oppo is very similar to the 9 Pro, offering similar hardware in terms of screen, battery size, charging and processing power. Where it differs is with a more consistent camera experience and a more refined designed.

Read our review

Samsung Galaxy S21+

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Pricing isn’t all that much between Samsung’s S21+ and OnePlus’ latest top tier phone. It may have a plastic back, but its performance is strong in all the important ways. The cameras are a tad disappointing however.

Read our review

Writing by Cam Bunton.

Qualcomm’s Next-Gen Snapdragon 8cx Rivals Intel 11th Gen Tiger Lake in Early Benchmarks

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The first benchmark results for Qualcomm’s 3rd Generation Snapdragon 8cx system-on-chip (SoC) for always-connected PCs has been posted to the Geekbench 5 database. The numbers show the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 beating its predecessors and even competing with Intel’s latest 11th Gen Core i7 “Tiger Lake” mobile chip in multi-threaded workloads.

Qualcomm has been fairly consistent in updating its Snapdragon 8cx family of SoCs for notebooks annually. This year, the company is expected to launch its third-generation Snapdragon 8cx chip, which is rumored to significantly change its architecture. Instead of integrating four high-performance CPU cores and four low-power ones, the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 is expected to pack eight high-performance cores working at different clock speeds, omitting low-power cores. This should improve performance, but it’s unclear whether the chip will match its predecessor’s 7W thermal envelope.

Qualcomm yet has to formally announce its Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, but someone has already submitted test results of a Qualcomm Reference Design (QRD) platform running the new SoC to the Geekbench database, as spotted by NotebookCheck.

Just like other notebook development platforms, QRD platforms are meant for developers of hardware and software, so performance usually differs from that of retail products. Nonetheless, such platforms still tend to give a good hint of what to expect from new chips.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 Benchmarks

CPU	Single-Core	Multi-Core	Cores/Threads, uArch	Cache	Clocks	TDP
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3*	982	4,918	4C Kryo Gold+ + 4C Kryo Gold	? MB	2.69 GHz	?
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2	795	3,050	4C Kryo 495 Gold + 4C Kryo 495 Silver	? MB	3.15 GHz + 2.42 GHz	7W
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 1	725	2,884	4C Kryo 495 Gold + 4C Kryo 495 Silver	? MB	2.84 GHz + 1.80 GHz	7W
AMD Ryzen 9 5980HS	1,540	8,225	8C/16T, Zen 3	16MB	3.30 ~ 4.53 GHz	35W
AMD Ryzen 9 4900H	1,230	7,125	8C/16T, Zen 2	8MB	3.30 ~ 4.44 GHz	35~54W
Intel Core i7-1160G7	1,400	5,000	4C/8T, Willow Cove	12MB	2.10 ~ 4.40 GHz	15W
Intel Core i7-1185G7	1,550	5,600	4C/8T, Willow Cove	12MB	3.0 ~ 4.80 GHz	28W
Apple M1	1,710	7,660	4C Firestorm + 4C Icestorm	12MB + 4MB	3.20 GHz	20~24W

*Chip not confirmed by Qualcomm

The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 showed notably higher results in single-thread workloads when compared to previous generations. It was 35% faster than the 8cx Gen 1 and 24% faster than the 8cx Gen 2. We don’t yet know the frequency of the 8cx Gen 3’s cores for sure, but it appears that the 8cx Gen 3 packs something better than Qualcomm’s Kryo 495 Gold (a custom version of Arm’s Cortex-A76).

On the other hand, the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3’s performance paled in comparison to chips from AMD and Intel competing with the best CPUs for desktops. The latest Zen 3 and Willow Core microarchitectures can run at higher clocks and consume more power. Meanwhile, Apple’s M1 beat Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 (at least in its current form) in single-threaded workloads by 74%.

When it came to performance in multi-threaded workloads, the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 clearly benefits from eight high-performance cores (albeit running at different clocks) inside. The new SoC outperformed the 8cx Gen 2 by over 60% and is on par with Intel’s four-core, eight-thread Core i7-1160G7, a 15W SoC.

The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 tested couldn’t compete with the higher-wattage Apple M1 and AMD’s Ryzen SoCs, but systems based on Qualcomm’s 8cx platforms are not really meant to compete against higher-end machines in terms of performance.

Overall, the benchmark results show the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 demonstrating single-thread and multi-thread performance improvements in a synthetic benchmark. Of course, it remains to be seen how commercial devices based on the new SoC will stack up against rivals in real-world applications.

Zoom now has an SDK for putting Zoom into other things

Zoom has released a new SDK (software development kit) to help developers build Zoom into their software. According to the company, you can now build your own “video-based applications and websites” on top of Zoom’s platform and can more easily incorporate Zoom’s video and audio features directly into your apps.

The company envisions developers utilizing Zoom’s chat functions in a number of different settings, from social media and gaming platforms to virtual retail apps.

“Using our Video SDK, developers can drive customer engagement and provide new opportunities for revenue without being tied to the Zoom Meetings user interface,” writes Zoom product marketing manager Natalie Mullin in a company blog post.

The SDK is part of a broader push to get Zoom’s tools into developers’ hands. The company is also rolling out a centralized portal where developers can learn about and access available developer tools. “We want to be able to have a single point where developers can go to learn about all of the tools and resources that are available for them in the Zoom platform for their work in development,” Zoom CTO Brendan Ittelson told TechCrunch. And there’s a new analytics dashboard where developers can monitor how their users are interacting with the new Zoom features.

Zoom has had to significantly scale up its operations since COVID-19 led to an increase in remote work and remote learning early last year. The company says it added an “unprecedented number of free participants” in the first few months of the pandemic alone. It’s consistently added new tools to keep pace with competitors like Google Meet, including expanded accessibility features, facial effects, and security improvements.

1More ComfoBuds Pro review: comfortably sound

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1More has absolutely flooded the true wireless earbud market, and it’s confident enough in its new ComfoBuds Pro noise-canceling earbuds to proclaim them as superior to the AirPods Pro — for a fraction of the price. They slot in between the company’s flagship True Wireless ANC earbuds ($200) and less expensive options like the $50 PistonsBuds and the standard ComfoBuds, the latter of which has an open-style design. 1More says with the Pro model, it’s “sure to bring the fight to Apple and give their loyal fanbase a serious dilemma in choosing what pair of earbuds are right for them.”

I don’t think forcing such a direct comparison was the right move because, despite 1More claiming that it offers “so much more” than Apple’s flagship buds, the ComfoBuds Pro can’t match up with the AirPods Pro in all areas — as is expected with such a price discrepancy — but they’re still an excellent product in their own right. The sound is fantastic for the money, they have several useful noise cancellation modes to switch between, and the fit certainly delivers on the “comfort” part of their name.

The ComfoBuds come in either gunmetal gray or white, and they lay flat in their elongated, capsule-shaped carrying case. This makes for a compact, pocketable design, but the trade-off is that removing them from the case isn’t so simple: you’ve got to press down on the stem, which pushes up the main earbud portion, and then pluck that out of the case. Once you’ve done it a few times, you’ll have it down.

Removing the ComfoBuds Pro from the case takes a bit more effort than some other earbuds.

LEDs hidden at the bottom of the teardrop stem indicate pairing and charge status, and there’s also a light on the case’s exterior so you know when they’re fully topped off. Battery life is rated at 6 hours with ANC enabled, which outlasts the 4.5-hour AirPods Pro. The case has enough extra juice for you to reach 20 hours of total listening time. It charges over USB-C but doesn’t offer wireless charging.

1More also beats out Apple on the scale, with each ComfoBud Pro weighing 5.2 grams compared to the 5.4-gram AirPods Pro. In your ears, they feel similarly light and barely there. This results in comfort that lasts over extended stretches, which can’t always be said of heavier options like the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (8.5 grams) and Jabra Elite 85t (7 grams). Four sets of silicone tips come in the box, with an extra small size thrown in alongside the standard small, medium, and large. I’d have appreciated an XL option, as even the largest size took some adjustment for a snug seal.

Instead of any actual buttons, the ComfoBuds Pro have a touch-sensitive area on the outer stem. It works well enough, even if it’s not obvious exactly where you should be tapping. The most confounding thing about 1More’s controls is there’s no single-tap action. You can choose what happens with a double tap, long press, or triple tap, but the single-press option — commonly used by other manufacturers to play / pause — just doesn’t exist here. So although 1More lets you customize the controls that are here, you’re a bit limited.

By default, two taps is pause, three activates a voice assistant, and a long press toggles between the noise-canceling modes. I ended up switching the three-tap gesture to track controls, but that meant settling for no direct volume access. Each earbud has an IR sensor on the outside for auto-pause if you remove them. They reliably resumed the music whenever I put them back in my ears.

1More has a good reputation for delivering on sound quality, and I think the ComfoBuds Pro might set a new bar for what to expect if you’re on a $100 budget. They’ve got excellent clarity without the bass bloat that’s common in this price bracket. Everything gets its ample space in the mix; the many layered vocal tracks by Taylor Swift and Justin Vernon on “Exile” are all distinct and come through with clarity. The funky groove of Lake Street Dive’s “Hypotheticals” is a good demo for the punchy bass these earbuds are capable of. Usually, there’s one genre or even a style of music production that will expose the weaknesses of a particular set of earbuds, but I struggled to find that with the ComfoBuds Pro. They can adapt to pretty much anything without coming off as harsh or thin. 1More doesn’t include any options for EQ customization, so what you get is what you get. Either earbud can be used standalone.

You control the ComfoBuds Pro with tap gestures on the stem.

But do they sound better than the AirPods Pro? You could make the case they do, yeah. I think some people will prefer the deeper low tones and how much wider 1More’s earbuds can feel; vocals stay planted in the center, but you’ll hear a ton of detail out of the left and right channels. Still, there’s something to be said for the no-nonsense, straightforward audio reproduction of the AirPods Pro that so many people find pleasing across all sorts of different audio. 1More’s pricier True Wireless ANC also sound a bit fuller and more precise since they have a dual-driver design compared to the single 13.4-millimeter driver in the ComfoBuds Pro.

These earbuds offer a few different levels of noise cancellation intensity. There’s the default “strong” option, which goes the furthest in quieting outside noise. But 1More also includes a less powerful mode it says is suitable for “chatty” environments like cafes and offices, plus another that’s meant to avoid wind noise, which is common with noise-canceling earbuds since they constantly use the exterior microphones to sample ambient sound. If you’re outside on a windy day, that could be a good trick to lean on. (These latter two modes require the 1More mobile app to activate.) Finally, there’s a full-on transparency mode for getting a clear sense of everything happening around you. 1More’s active noise cancellation worked pretty well when I was sitting outside at a Brooklyn coffee shop, but this is one area where the AirPods Pro pull ahead. They don’t have the same variety of modes, but Apple’s premium earbuds do a better overall job of bringing down the volume of the outside world, which is what’s most important.

The case is compact but lacks wireless charging.

Even so, all of these things make the ComfoBuds Pro a great value. But the AirPods Pro still rank above in several respects. First, the ComfoBuds Pro case doesn’t support wireless charging. Second, Apple’s transparency mode still sounds more natural and airy than 1More’s. And 1More can’t match the software flexes (automatic switching, spatial audio, seamless pairing, audio sharing, etc.) that exist between AirPods and other Apple devices. That’s a huge part of what makes them so popular. Again, we’re talking about quality-of-life conveniences that you’d rightfully expect from a $250 product. And these cost nowhere near that. But if 1More is going to make the comparison, the differences are worth pointing out. Despite putting a huge focus on voice mic performance, 1More also winds up behind the AirPods Pro there — as does everyone else. It’s a draw on sweat resistance, with both sets of earbuds rated IPX4.

1More has put together a fantastic pair of budget earbuds with the ComfoBuds Pro. I wish the company had focused on the sheer value you get in exchange for your $99 instead of trying to take down the AirPods Pro, which just isn’t realistic. Despite matching them on comfort and edging them out in other areas like battery life, there are still valid reasons why many iPhone owners will go right for Apple’s buds. It’s hard to put a price on those exclusive Apple ecosystem features and the superior noise cancellation. But if you’ve only got around $100 to put toward earbuds, the ComfoBuds Pro are a standout pair that won’t leave you missing much else. Only thing is, the AirPods are far from the only competition they’ll need to stand out from.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

OnePlus 9 initial review: Two steps forward one step back?

(Pocket-lint) – It’s safe to say OnePlus has been on something of a journey over the past few years. It lifted itself out of that initial ‘plucky upstart’ role and started to become a real smartphone company.

It’s gone from being a company that launched one or two new phones a year to launching six phones in 2020, with varying specs and at different price tiers. In 2021 that output glut looks set to continue – and it starts with the OnePlus 9.

Design

Dimensions: 160 x 74.2 x 8.7mm / Weight: 192 grams
Finish options: Winter Mist, Arctic Sky, Astral Black
3D Corning Gorilla Glass back
Dual stereo speakers

Look at the camera housing and you’ll see an evolution of design when you compare the OnePlus 9 to its most recent predecessors: the OnePlus 8T and OnePlus 8. The 9’s two main cameras have very deliberate metallic ring around them, while the camera housing has been designed to colour-match the rest of the phone’s rear panel.

It’s a classy and minimalist look, now with the addition of a Hasselblad logo. Because, yep, OnePlus is all about a camera partnership with this new series.

It’s in the rest of the build where we’ve seen OnePlus move backwards compared to its previous models though. The 9’s frame is made from a similar shiny plastic to what we first saw on the OnePlus Nord. Or, as OnePlus calls it: “fibreglass infused polymer”. Thankfully, the back is covered in Corning Gorilla Glass for protection.

It’s not the slimmest or lightest phone around either, certainly feeling thicker than previous models, but that’s almost certainly down to the move towards a flat screen. Rather than have those curved edges on both sides of the phone, it only has them on one side, so you lose that more sleek effect. Still, the OnePlus 9 feels noticeably chunkier than the 8T – another flat-screened model – which was thicker than the OnePlus 8 before it.

Of course, there are real benefits to having a flatter screen. There’s very little chance you’ll suffer from accidental touches, because it doesn’t curve around the edges, so that makes the phone a bit easier to use.

Our own review unit is the Winter Mist model, which has a light purple colour, with the rear featuring a gradient refraction effect. That means the bottom part of the phone is really glossy and reflective, but the top is more frosted and gradients between these two finishes. We think some people will like it, but we prefer the softer fully frosted look of some of the blue Arctic Sky model. It’s also a bit of a fingerprint magnet, which diminishes the overall finish effect.

There are all the usual OnePlus buttons and ports though. That means the volume rocker is within easy reach on the left side, with the alert slider switch on the right near the power/sleep button. The dual nano SIM tray is on the bottom edge near the USB-C port and the bottom-firing loudspeaker – which joins with a speaker near the earpiece to form stereo sound that’s boosted by Dolby Atmos tech.

Display

6.55-inch AMOLED panel
- Full HD+ resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels; 402ppi)
- 120Hz refresh rate

OnePlus has focused on having lightweight and fast software for years. Its latest iteration of Oxygen OS is no different, and the display is primed and ready to take full advantage of that fluidity too.

Pocket-lint

The AMOLED screen on the front of the OnePlus 9 isn’t quite as sharp as that of the 9 Pro, but with a pixel density over 400 pixels-per-inch it should be sharp enough for most content you’d want to watch.

What’s more, with a refresh rate peak of 120Hz, it can keep up with any fast frame-rate gaming. OnePlus says it has improved the colour accuracy and the automatic brightness adjustment too – the result of adding in two ambient light sensors, while the brightness has more than 8000 different levels to enable smoother adjustment.

Like Apple’s True Tone, there’s a Comfort Tone feature that adjusts the colour temperature of the display to match your environment, which should be handy when reading ebooks on a white screen, making it seem a bit more like a paper surface.

Brightness itself shouldn’t be a problem either. With a peak of up to 1100nits and HDR10+ certification you should find a very attractive, vivid and bright panel. Of course, we need a bit more time to test it thoroughly, but all early indicators are good.

Hardware and performance

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform
128GB/256GB UFS 3.1 storage
8GB/12GB LPDDR5 RAM
4,500mAh battery capacity
Warp Charge 65W charging
15W Qi wireless charging

With a top OnePlus flagship you know one thing for certain: you’ll always get the latest, most powerful mobile processor. That means the Snapdragon 888 platform for the 9 series, along with suitably quick LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage.

What that means in daily use is that, not only will your apps and games load quickly, but any downloads and installs will be fast too. That’s helped further by 5G support, presuming you’re in an area with 5G coverage, for speedy and low-latency connectivity.

All this power needs cooling for efficiency. For the OnePlus 9 there’s something called the OnePlus Cool Play system. Essentially, the manufacturer has made the vapour chambers larger and added more layers of graphite and copper to dissipate heat when you’re powering your most demanding games.

We’ve not yet experienced a OnePlus phone that under-delivers on speed and performance, so we don’t expect the OnePlus 9 will be any different. Our first few days of use have been pretty much plain sailing.

Regarding the battery and it’s really the charging that sells this phone. You may remember OnePlus saying in the past that it didn’t want to use wireless charging until it was as fast and convenient as its fast wired system. Well, for the non-Pro model in the OnePlus 9 family, it turns out it’s forgotten all about that.

The regular OnePlus 9 does have wireless charging, but it’s not blindingly fast. Instead, it uses a fairly standard 15W Qi-compatible wireless charging. That means it’s nowhere near as quick as the new Warp Charge 65T wired charging capability which can keep those 65W speeds pumping for longer and give you a full charge in under 30 minutes.

Cameras

Triple camera system with Hasselblad tuning:
- Main: 48-megapixel, f/1.8 aperture, Sony IMX689 sensor
- Ultra-wide: 50MP, f/2.2, SonyIMX766 sensor
- Mono: 2MP
Front-facing camera: 16-megapixel
Video: 8K30p / 4K120p

OnePlus has listened to its critics over the past few years and says it’s finally delivering a flagship level camera experience. That’s thanks in part to its new collaboration with Hasselblad, to help tune the image processing to strict standards, ensuring your pictures should come out looking great.

It’s not just that tuning that’s changed though. The regular OnePlus 9 features the same main camera sensor found in the OnePlus 8 Pro from 2020, and has the same sensor in the ultra-wide as found in the excellent (and more expensive) Oppo Find X3 Pro.

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

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The best smartphones you can currently buy, covering the best of iPhone and Samsung, and everything Android has to offer

Those two are joined by a low-res monochrome sensor for extra light detail, but that’s it. No macro lens or gimmicky chroma filter camera in sight this time.

What’s more, the video recording capability can reach the heights of 8K resolution at 30fps or – perhaps more impressively – can capture 4K up to 120fps, which should enable some fantastically sharp slow-motion video.

Hasselblad’s partnership has led to some other more inconsequential features, like the orange colour of the shutter button, and a leaf shutter sound when you press it. However, where you’ll see the biggest influence is in the ‘Pro’ camera mode.

Pocket-lint

The user interface has been designed to look like one developed by Hasselblad for some of its cameras. This includes a focus peaking feature that will highlight in-focus areas in orange when you’re using the manual focus.

First Impressions

The OnePlus 9 design may not have wowed us that much, but this company knows its users are all about getting the best performance out of every area of its phones.

So if cutting corners and adding in a plastic frame means being able to stick two flagship cameras on the back, add wireless charging, a capacious battery, and market-leading speed, then we think that’s a compromise worth making.

We can’t quite get out of our heads that the OnePlus 9 is similar to the much cheaper Nord in some respects, and that might still be worth considering, but on the whole – from the spec conscious – this latest OnePlus looks like it will deliver an experience much closer to its Pro-labelled sibling this year.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

OnePlus Nord

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If you’re all about price then the last-gen affordable OnePlus model is a sensible option.

Read our review

Writing by Cam Bunton.

Dolby Vision gaming arrives on Xbox Series X and S, but there’s a catch

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Back in September, Microsoft confirmed that the Xbox Series X and Series S would be the first-ever games consoles to support Dolby Vision, and it now seems that some users are now able to play games in the format, Forbes reports.

Series X/S gamers with compatible TVs have noticed that HDR games have started playing in Dolby Vision following the latest software update. The feature is currently available to a few Alpha Ring users, members of Xbox’s ‘invite only’ preview club, and only works with 4:2:2 60Hz game content.

In a statement to Forbes, Microsoft said: “As we announced last year, we’re excited to be bringing Dolby Vision support for gaming to our new Xbox consoles in 2021. The feature is currently in testing, and we’ll have more to announce on general availability timing and functionality soon.”

While many had previously assumed that Dolby Vision HDR would only feature on titles that use the format in their game engines, players are claiming all HDR games are now being shown in the format. Users are claiming the brightness, black levels, and colour saturation of HDR games now appear more refined compared to playing in HDR10.

This would indicate that the Xbox consoles are forcing Dolby Vision to be applied to all HDR-compatible games, instead of making the most out of games designed for Dolby Vision. But, it’s still early days, so we’ll have to see what happens when the feature rolls out to all Xbox Series X/S consoles later this year.

SEE MORE

HDR 10 vs Dolby Vision: which is better

Best Dolby Vision TVs 2021

Best Xbox Series X games 2021

What’s on your desk, Mitchell Clark?

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There are a lot of topics, both serious and fun, that are out there to be covered by The Verge, and it falls on our news writers to cover them: from coronavirus and space exploration to YouTube and Super Nintendo World. Mitchell Clark is one of those writers; among other articles, he wrote one of the best explanations you can find of what exactly NFTs are. We took a look (remotely via photos) of Mitchell’s desk and asked him some questions about his stuff.

Tell me a little about yourself. What is your background, and what do you do at The Verge?

Like Jay, I’m a news writer, tasked with keeping The Verge’s readers up to date with news about pretty much anything you could think of. Lately, it’s been a lot of NFTs, but it’s really just a grab bag every day I come into work, which keeps it exciting.

I also literally just got here — I started in December. I previously did a little of everything, from slinging fast-food chicken fingers, professionally fixing people’s phone problems, and doing training, testing, and coding for software the government uses. Basically, pretty much anything not related to my degree in video production.

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

How did you decide where and how to set up your workspace?

I live in a relatively small and cheap city, so I’m luxuriating in a two-bedroom apartment. I’ve worked at home ever since we moved here in 2017, so as soon as we got all the moving boxes out of the second room, I claimed it as my office. As for where the desk is: it used to be up against the window, but the sun kept getting in my eyes, so I moved it against the wall instead.

Tell me a little about the desk itself.

It’s called the iMovR Energize, and it’s a motorized standing desk. And yes, I do actually work standing up a lot. I don’t often work sitting at it, though — the cat is banned from the office, but if I’m in here he’ll sit outside the door and scream. So if I’m going to work sitting down, I do it on the couch so he doesn’t guilt-trip me.

Half of the reason why I chose the Energize was because it’s ostensibly made in the US, and the other half is that there are almost no reviews of it, and I wanted to do one and have it stand out. As far as I can tell, I’m still the only person who’s done a video review of it on YouTube, the TL;DR of which is that it’s a good desk. If it lasts for 10 years, it may actually be worth the almost $1,000 price tag.

I think that’s the simplest desk chair I’ve seen so far.

Yeahhhh, it’s an Ikea Trollberget. I went with it over an office chair in the optimistic hope that it would help me not slouch so much. The seat part of it tilts back and forth, so it really requires some core strength to sit up straight, which is great when I actually do that, but honestly I usually just put my elbows on the desk and curve my body into some horrible “S” shape. If I lived somewhere I could find a used Herman Miller, I’d probably give one of those a try.

Tell us a bit about your audio setup. It looks like you’ve put considerable thought into it.

Yes, I have. It’s a Shure Beta 87A microphone, mounted on a Heil PL2T arm and connected to a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 audio interface. The headphones are the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 80 ohms, which aren’t super fun for music (hence the fifth-gen iPod with KZ ES4 earbuds) but are great for accurately reproducing vocals.

The whole setup is optimized for one thing: making sure that my voice is as clear and echo-free as possible. I was tired of having to go into a cave of blankets to record voiceovers, so I got a microphone with a very narrow (supercardioid) pickup pattern, and it works great. I also sometimes use it as an improvised video mic, for which it’s only okay. Usually, it just makes me sound really great on Zoom calls (and lets me pretend I’m going to make more episodes of a podcast I made three episodes of and then gave up on).

Okay, now it’s time to talk about your other tech: your computer, display setup, and other tech stuff.

Alright! My computer is a 13-inch M1 Macbook Pro — I went with the Pro over the Air mainly for the brighter screen. When I’m working from my desk and not the couch, I plonk that on a Twelve South Curve stand, and plug it in to a… *checks B&H order history* Dell U2415 24-inch monitor.

It’s 16:10, which is nice, but unfortunately it’s got a 1920 x 1200 resolution. I seem to be especially sensitive to low resolutions (I can immediately tell the difference between YouTube at 1080p and 720p on my iPhone Mini), so my next big upgrade may be to LG’s 24-inch UltraFine 4K (if I can find one used).

I switch between a Magic Trackpad and Logitech G502 Hero for my mousing needs. Changing which device and hand I use helps stave off wrist pain, and I’ve discovered that any mouse without Logitech’s ratcheting / free-spinning scroll wheel is almost unusable for me. For my keyboard, I use the peculiarly named Ducky One 2 with Cherry MX Browns. The main theme is wired: I’ve always run into weird, annoying issues with Bluetooth keyboards and mice.

The final Big Thing on my desk is an OWC ThunderBay 4. Being into video production and photography (Fujifilm X-T3 for digital, Nikon F3HP for film, by the way), I accumulate a lot of absolutely massive files: I’ve currently got 11TB of data spread out across 17TB of drives.

You mentioned that you had a bit of a cable issue.

Yeah, I just up (down? side-to-side?)-graded from an iMac Pro, which had just enough ports to plug in my five bajillion peripherals. Now my computer has two ports, so I have an absolute nightmare of a situation.

Here’s my current setup: I connect my laptop with Thunderbolt to the ThunderBay 4. Somehow that provides enough power to trickle-charge the laptop, and provides a Thunderbolt pass-through, which I currently have a USB-C Satechi Clamp Hub Pro plugged into. Plugged into that are my mouse and keyboard, and my monitor’s built-in USB hub, which has even more devices plugged into it (notably the scanner and Scarlett). Then I use my laptop’s second Thunderbolt port to plug in the monitor (good thing the ThunderBay can charge the computer, I’m out of ports).

I’ve got an OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock on preorder to save me from this triple-hub chain nightmare, but until then, I’ve just got a mess of wires and am hoping nothing breaks.

I see your keyboard is right near your desk. Do you ever take a break to make some music?

I can’t actually play piano to be honest, even though I’ve literally had this keyboard since I was seven years old. I do have it hooked up to my computer through the Scarlett’s MIDI interface, so sometimes if I find a really cool-sounding synth in Logic, I’ll mash at the keyboard until I get something that sounds good. Its main job, though, is to sit there, guilting me until I actually learn even a drop of music theory.

Looks like a great setup for storing your bikes, but I’d be nervous about crashing into them if I push my chair back too hard…

I’d never even thought about that, but thankfully my chair doesn’t have wheels so I’d really have to try for it. The biggest risk with the bikes is that I’ll look out my window, see the paved trail that runs right outside it (and keeps going for 100 miles into a different state), and not be able to resist the temptation to take a ride!

For any other apartment-dwellers, the bike stand is probably a great option: it’s made by a company called Delta Design. I bought mine at Costco, but as always when I find something I like there, it’s no longer available. Amazon still sells it, and REI has a nicer-looking version, too.

Tell us a bit about your decorations: the great collection you’ve got on your bulletin board, the sculptures on your windowsill, etc.

I always want to have things that, as Marie Kondo would put it, spark joy around me while I’m working. So, I try to decorate with things made by creators or friends, or with art that is associated with some sort of memory. Some of the pins are from webcomics or podcasts that I enjoy, some are from Etsy, and the vintage and Michigan-related ones I got from my grandma, who apparently collected them. I’m on the record as absolutely loving Kentucky Route Zero, so I figured I’d get a poster of it, too.

The coolest story, though, goes with the metal bonsai trees. I did karate for about 10 years (and have missed doing it for six), and my sensei had a friend who would make the trees by hand. He’d give them out every year as awards for people who exemplified certain qualities of the Shotokan dojo kun. I don’t remember which I got them for, but they’re good reminders of some pretty good rules.

What’s on the shelving beneath the bulletin board?

A little bit of everything! There’s an Epson Perfection V550 scanner, which I use for everything from the mundane (scanning documents and birthday / holiday cards) to the exciting only to me (scanning all the film negatives I’ve developed). I also keep all my camera gear there, with one of the drawers having a mishmash of GoPro accessories, a Rode VideoMic Go, Zoom H5, and other video gear. The other drawer has “ancient media” like VHS tapes, cassette tapes, and vinyl records.

Oh, and there’s a label maker, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t have any tape left.

Finally — do you often hide under your desk?

Only in the summer, when it’s hot and I need to get out of the sunlight! But I do work from the floor a lot, either just sitting on it or laying down. I’ve been told it’s weird (usually by my wife, who comes home and finds me laying on the floor, with the cat having sprawled himself across my legs), but it works for me.

Here’s how the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro compare to Samsung and Apple’s flagships

OnePlus has released its new batch of phones, the OnePlus 9 and the 9 Pro. As is the tradition with OnePlus, the phones are equipped with the latest high-end Snapdragon chips and are priced lower than most of the competition.

Both phones also include charging features that Apple and Samsung don’t match: they wirelessly charge at a super-fast 50W and can charge at 65W over wired charging. They also both have Hasselblad’s camera tuning and software.

The OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro are very similar, but there are a few differences to watch out for:

The Pro has a bigger screen
The Pro includes a telephoto camera and mmWave 5G
The unlocked and T-Mobile versions of the Pro have IP68 certification — only the T-Mobile version of the regular phone is IP68 certified
The Pro includes “Hyper Touch” where it polls for finger input at 360Hz

At retail prices, the regular OnePlus 9 is $70 cheaper than Samsung’s regular Galaxy S21 and $100 cheaper than the iPhone 12. Both of those phones include mmWave and IP68 water resistance. But if those aren’t features you care about, it may be worth the savings to you.

OnePlus 9 Comparison

Category	OnePlus 9	Samsung Galaxy S21	Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus	iPhone 12
Category	OnePlus 9	Samsung Galaxy S21	Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus	iPhone 12
OS	Oxygen OS (Based on Android 11)	Android 11 (One UI)	Android 11 (One UI)	iOS 14
Display	6.55-inch OLED	6.2-inch OLED	6.7-inch OLED	6.1 inches, OLED
Resolution	2400 x 1080	2400 x 1080	2400 x 1080	2532 x 1170
Refresh rate	up to 120Hz	up to 120Hz	up to 120Hz	60Hz
Dimensions (mm)	NA / EU: 74.2 x 160 x 8.7	71.2 x 151.7 x 7.9	75.6 x 161.5 x 7.8	71.5 x 146.7 x 7.4
Weight	NA / EU: 192g	171g	202g	164g
Battery capacity	4,500mAh	4,000mAh	4,800mAh	2,815mAh
Processor	Snapdragon 888	US: Snapdragon 888	US: Snapdragon 888	A14 Bionic
RAM	8GB, 12GB	8GB	8GB	4GB
Storage	128GB, 256GB	128GB, 256GB	128GB, 256GB	64GB, 128GB, 256GB
Ports	USB-C charging port	USB-C charging port	USB-C charging port	Lightning port
Rear cameras	48MP (f/1.8, all-Pixel AF, 1.12μm) wide angle, 50MP (f/2.2) ultrawide, 2MP monochrome	12MP (f/1.8, OIS, Dual Pixel AF, 1.8µm) wide angle, 12MP (f/2.2, 1.4µm) ultrawide, 64MP (f/2.0, OIS, 0.8µm) 3X hybrid optic telephoto	12MP (f/1.8, OIS, Dual Pixel AF, 1.8µm) wide angle, 12MP (f/2.2, 1.4µm) ultrawide, 64MP (f/2.0, OIS, 0.8µm) 3X hybrid optic telephoto	12MP (f/1.6, OIS, Dual Pixel AF, 1.4µm) wide angle, 12MP (f/2.4) ultrawide
Front cameras	16MP(f/2.4)	10MP (f/2.2, autofocus)	10MP (f/2.2, autofocus)	12MP (f/2.2)
Biometrics	Fingerprint, face recognition	Fingerprint, face recognition	Fingerprint, face recognition	Face ID
Waterproof	No	IP68	IP68	IP68
Wireless charging	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
5G	sub-6GHz	mmWave and sub-6GHz	mmWave and sub-6GHz	mmWave and sub-6GHz
Starting price	$729	$799	$999	$829

The 9 Pro can’t quite match the all-out specs and features of the Galaxy S21 Ultra, but it’s also priced well below it, too. For fun, we also threw in Oppo’s latest flagship phone, which isn’t available for purchase in the US but is pretty similar to the Pro.

OnePlus 9 Pro Comparison

Category	OnePlus 9 Pro	Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra	OPPO Find X3 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro Max
Category	OnePlus 9 Pro	Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra	OPPO Find X3 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro Max
OS	Oxygen OS (Based on Android 11)	Android 11 (One UI)	ColorOS 11 (Based on Android 11)	iOS 14	iOS 14
Display	6.7-inch OLED	6.8-inch OLED	6.7 inches, OLED	6.1 inches, OLED	6.7 inches, OLED
Resolution	3216 x 1400	3200 x 1440	3216 x 1400	2532 x 1170	2778 x 1284
Refresh rate	up to 120Hz	up to 120Hz	up to 120Hz	60Hz	60Hz
Dimensions (mm)	73.6 x 163.2 x 8.7	75.6 x 165.1 x 8.9	74 x 163.6 x 8.26	71.5 x 146.7 x 7.4	78.1 x 160.8 x 7.4
Weight	197g	229g	193g	189g	228g
Battery capacity	4,500mAh	5,000mAh	4500mAh	2,815mAh	3,687mAh
Processor	Snapdragon 888	US: Snapdragon 888	Snapdragon 888	A14 Bionic	A14 Bionic
RAM	8GB, 12GB	12GB / 16GB	12GB	6GB	6GB
Storage	128GB, 256GB	128GB, 256GB / 512GB	256GB	128GB, 256GB, 512GB	128GB, 256GB, 512GB
Ports	USB-C charging port	USB-C charging port	USB-C charging port	Lightning port	Lightning port
Rear cameras	48MP (f/1.8, OIS, all-pixel AF, 1.12 μm) wide angle, 50MP (f/2.2) ultrawide, 8MP (f2.4, OIS) 3.3X telephoto, 2MP monochrome	108MP (f/1.8, OIS, 0.8µm) wide angle, 12MP (f/2.2, Dual Pixel AF, 1.4µm) ultrawide, 10MP (f/2.4, OIS, Dual Pixel AF, 1.22µm) 3X optical telephoto, 10MP (f/4.9, OIS, Dual Pixel AF, 1.22µm) 10X optical telephoto	50MP (f/1.8, OIS, all-pixel AF) wide angle, 50MP (f/2.2) ultrawide, 13MP (f.2.4) 5x hybrid-optical telephoto, 3MP (f/3) 60x magnification microlens	12MP (f/2.4) ultrawide, 12MP (f/1.6, Dual Pixel AF, OIS, 1.4µm) wide, 12MP (f/2.0, OIS, 1.0µm) 2X telephoto	12MP (f/2.4) ultrawide, 12MP (f/1.6, Dual Pixel AF, IBIS) wide, 12MP (f/2.2, OIS, 1.0µm) 2.5X telephoto
Front cameras	16MP(f/2.4)	40MP (f/2.2, autofocus)	32MP (f/2.4)	12MP (f/2.2)	12MP (f/2.2)
Biometrics	Fingerprint, face recognition	Fingerprint, face recognition	Fingerprint, face recognition	Face ID	Face ID
Waterproof	IP68	IP68	IP68	IP68	IP68
Wireless charging	Yes	Yes	Yes (proprietary)	Yes	Yes
5G	mmWave and sub-6GHz	mmWave and sub-6GHz	sub-6Ghz	mmWave and sub-6GHz	mmWave and sub-6GHz
Starting price	$969	$1,199	£1,099 (approx. $1,500)	$999	$1,099

The $159 OnePlus Watch is OnePlus’ first smartwatch

It’s taken years, but OnePlus is finally getting in the smartwatch game with the newly announced OnePlus Watch, starting at $159. The new watch (as was revealed last week) has a round design that looks similar to a regular wristwatch, instead of the oblong rectangle popularized by the Apple Watch and its imitators, like the Oppo Watch.

The case itself is stainless steel, measures 46mm, and features two buttons on the side (one of which features the OnePlus logo). It’ll be available in two colors: silver and black. The display is a 1.39-inch OLED panel at 326ppi, with sapphire glass.

The watch will also feature a version of OnePlus’ Warp Charge system (promising a week of battery life off a 20-minute charge). OnePlus promises that the watch should last up to two weeks on a single charge or up to one week for heavier users.

Specs-wise, the OnePlus Watch features 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, and integrated speakers. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS are all built in, but there’s no cellular option. If you want connectivity on the watch, you’ll have to be connected to a nearby phone.

Image: OnePlus

Fitness is also a big part of the OnePlus Watch. It’ll offer over 110 workout modes, offer built-in GPS, and feature IP68 water and dust resistance. Additionally, the OnePlus Watch features internal storage for music, which allows users to store up to 500 songs to listen to over their Bluetooth headphones when out on a run, even if they don’t have their phone with them. The OnePlus Watch can also automatically detect and track workouts as well as monitor sleep, stress, blood oxygen saturation, and heart rate.

OnePlus isn’t using Wear OS for the OnePlus Watch, though. As the company had announced before the event, it’ll use RTOS-style software setup (similar to companies like Fitbit), with a companion app that will allow it to connect to your phone to receive calls and notifications. (An iOS app for Apple users is promised for the future, too.)

That means things like app selection and custom watchfaces will be largely limited to whatever OnePlus can build in-house — so no third-party apps, at least for now. That said, to start, there’ll be dozens of watchface options to choose from (with additional customization choices to add more style options), so users will have some flexibility.

The OnePlus Watch can also be connected to a OnePlus TV (where available), allowing it to be used as a remote. And if you happen to fall asleep when you’re watching TV on OnePlus’ set, the watch can automatically turn off the TV after it detects that you’ve fallen asleep.

Image: OnePlus

The company also announced a limited edition model made out of a cobalt alloy, which it says is twice as hard as stainless steel. OnePlus says that the Cobalt Limited Edition will be “coming soon,” but the company isn’t providing a price yet.

The OnePlus Watch will start at $159 and will be available starting on April 14th from OnePlus’ website.

Corsair MP600 Pro M.2 NVMe SSD Review: Faster Speed, Less Endurance

Our Verdict

Although it’s a pricey drive, Corsair’s MP600 Pro is fast, secure, and keeps its cool with innovative cooling solutions.

For

+ Competitive performance
+ Innovative and functional thermal solutions
+ AES 256-bit encryption
+ 5-year warranty

Against

– Less endurance than the non-Pro model
– Smaller-than-expected SLC cache
– Slow-to-recover SLC cache
– Dated software support
– Costly

Go to page:

Features and Specifications

Powered by Phison’s new PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD controller and Micron’s 96-Layer TLC flash, Corsair’s all-new MP600 Pro is the company’s fastest M.2 NVMe SSD yet. With sequential read/write throughput that stretches up to a blistering 7.1 / 6.5 GBps, the MP600 Pro offers nearly bus-saturating performance and looks brilliant with innovative custom heatsinks, making it a sure contender for our list of Best SSDs. Though the drive is pricey, Corsair offers not only a standard drive cooled with a heatsink but also a Hydro X Edition with a water block for those who want a truly water-cooled M.2 SSD.

Historically, Corsair’s SSDs have a solid design and rank well in both performance and value. Until now, the MP600 served as the company’s top dog, sporting a sleek design, AES 256-bit encryption, and packing top speeds of up to 5 / 4.4 GBps of sequential read/write throughput.

Now, over a year later and just in time for Intel’s Rocket Lake launch, the company has upgraded to faster hardware to create a Pro model for those who want even more speed. Corsair’s MP600 Pro improves upon its predecessor, trading out the Phison E16 controller for the new E18 and interfacing with a faster flash with a 1,200 MTps transfer rate. Those enhancements yield up to 660,000 / 800,000 random read/write IOPS.

Unlike Team Group’s form-over-function attempt at water-cooling an SSD, Corsair’s MP600 Pro Hydro X Edition is the first truly water-cooled M.2 NVMe SSD we’ve seen. With both a heatsink edition and the Hydro X Edition for integrating into your custom watercooled PC, both of the sleek and innovative designs ensure cool operation.

Specifications

Product	Force MP600 Pro 1TB	Force MP600 Pro 2TB	Force MP600 Pro Hydro X 2TB
Pricing	$224.99	$434.99	$259.99
Capacity (User / Raw)	1000GB / 1024GB	2000GB / 2048GB	2000GB / 2048GB
Form Factor	M.2 2280	M.2 2280	M.2 2280
Interface / Protocol	PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4	PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4	PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4
Controller	Phison PS5018-E18	Phison PS5018-E18	Phison PS5018-E18
DRAM	DDR4	DDR4	DDR4
Memory	Micron 96L TLC	Micron 96L TLC	Micron 96L TLC
Sequential Read	7,000 MBps	7,000 MBps	7,000 MBps
Sequential Write	5,500 MBps	6,550 MBps	6,550 MBps
Random Read	360,000 IOPS	660,000 IOPS	660,000 IOPS
Random Write	780,000 IOPS	800,000 IOPS	800,000 IOPS
Security	AES 256-bit encryption	AES 256-bit encryption	AES 256-bit encryption
Endurance (TBW)	700 TB	1,400 TB	1,400 TB
Part Number	CSSD-F1000GBMP600PRO	CSSD-F2000GBMP600PRO	CSSD-F2000GBMP600PROHXE
Warranty	5-Years	5-Years	5-Years

The MP600 Pro is available in capacities of 1TB and 2TB for $225 and $435, respectively. The Hydro X Edition only comes in a 2TB capacity with a slightly higher price tag of $460. Corsair rates the MP600 Pro to deliver speeds of up to 7,000 / 6,550 MBps in sequential read/write transfers and up to 660,000 / 800,000 random read/write IOPS under heavy load.

Corsair didn’t improve the MP600 Pro’s endurance ratings, though. In fact, instead of improving, the Pro has slightly lower endurance than the MP600. Corsair’s MP600 Pro comes backed by a five-year warranty and is rated to endure up to 700TB of written data per 1TB of drive capacity, while the original MP600 carries a much higher 1,800TB-per-1TB of capacity rating.

Corsair supports the MP600 Pro with an SSD Toolbox software, too, but the GUI is dated compared to some of the better SSD Toolbox software like Samsung’s Magician, WD’s SSD Dashboard, or Intel’s Memory and Storage Tool.