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Google Replaces Millions of Intel’s CPUs With Its Own Homegrown Chips

(Image credit: Intel)

Google has designed its own new processors, the Argos video (trans)coding units (VCU), that have one solitary purpose: processing video. The highly efficient new chips have allowed the technology giant to replace tens of millions of Intel CPUs with its own silicon.

For many years Intel’s video decoding/encoding engines that come built into its CPUs have dominated the market both because they offered leading-edge performance and capabilities and because they were easy to use. But custom-built application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) tend to outperform general-purpose hardware because they are designed for one workload only. As such, Google turned to developing its own specialized hardware for video processing tasks for YouTube, and to great effect.

However, Intel may have a trick up its sleeve with its latest tech that could win back Google’s specialized video processing business.

Loads of Videos Require New Hardware

Users upload more than 500 hours of video content in various formats every minute to YouTube. Google needs to quickly transcode that content to multiple resolutions (including 144p, 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, 1440p, 2160p, and 4320p) and data-efficient formats (e.g., H.264, VP9 or AV1), which requires formidable encoding horsepower.

Historically, Google had two options for transcoding/encoding content. The first option was Intel’s Visual Computing Accelerator (VCA) that packed three Xeon E3 CPUs with built-in Iris Pro P6300/P580 GT4e integrated graphics cores with leading-edge hardware encoders. The second option was to use software encoding and general-purpose Intel Xeon processors.

Google decided that neither option was power-efficient enough for emerging YouTube workloads – the Visual Computing Accelerator was rather power hungry itself, whereas scaling the number of Xeon CPUs essentially meant increasing the number of servers, which means additional power and datacenter footprint. As a result, Google decided to go with custom in-house hardware.

(Image credit: Google)

Google’s first-generation Argos VCU does not replace Intel’s central processors completely as the servers still need to run the OS and manage storage drives and network connectivity. To a large degree, Google’s Argos VCU resembles a GPU that always needs an accompanying CPU.

Instead of stream processors like we see in GPUs, Google’s VCU integrates ten H.264/VP9 encoder engines, several decoder cores, four LPDDR4-3200 memory channels (featuring 4×32-bit interfaces), a PCIe interface, a DMA engine, and a small general-purpose core for scheduling purposes. Most of the IP, except the in-house designed encoders/transcoders, were licensed from third parties to cut down on development costs. Each VCU is also equipped with 8GB of usable ECC LPDDR4 memory.

The main idea behind Google’s VCU is to put as many high-performance encoders/transcoders into a single piece of silicon as possible (while remaining power efficient) and then scale the number of VCUs separately from the number of servers needed. Google places two VCUs on a board and then installs 10 cards per dual-socket Intel Xeon server, greatly increasing the company’s decoding/transcoding performance per rack.

Increasing Efficiency Leads to Migration from Xeon

Google says that its VCU-based machines have seen up to 7x (H.264) and up to 33x (VP9) improvements in performance/TCO compute efficiency compared to Intel Skylake-powered server systems. This improvement accounts for the cost of the VCUs (vs. Intel’s CPUs) and three years of operational expenses, which makes VCUs an easy choice for video behemoth YouTube.

Offline Two-Pass Single Output (SOT) Throughput in CPU, GPU, and VCU-Equipped Systems

System	Throughput (MPix/s)	Throughput (MPix/s)	Performance/TCO	Performance/TCO
	H.264	VP9	H.264	VP9
2-way Skylake	714	154	1x	1x
4x Nvidia T4	2,484	–	1.5x	–
8x Google Argos VCUs	5,973	6,122	4.4x	20.8x
20x Google Argos VCUs	14,932	15,306	7x	33.3x

From performance numbers shared by Google, it is evident that a single Argos VCU is barely faster than a 2-way Intel Skylake server in H.264. However, since 20 VCUs can be installed into such a server, VCU wins from an efficiency perspective. But when it comes to the more demanding VP9 codec, Google’s VCU appears to be five times faster than Intel’s dual-socket Xeon and therefore offers impressive efficiency advantages.

Since Google has been using its Argos VCUs for several years now, it clearly replaced many of its Xeon-based YouTube servers with machines running its own silicon. It is extremely hard to estimate how many Xeon systems that Google actually replaced, but some analysts believe the technology giant could have swapped from four to 33 million Intel CPUs for its own VC. Even if the second number is an overestimate, we are still talking about millions of units.

(Image credit: Google)

Since Google needs loads of processors for its other services, it is likely that the number of CPUs that the company buys from AMD or Intel is still very high and is not going to decrease any time soon as it will be years before Google’s own datacenter-grade system-on-chips (SoCs) will be ready.

It is also noteworthy that in an attempt to use innovative encoding technologies (e.g., AV1) right now, Google needs to use general-purpose CPUs even for YouTube as the Argos does not support the codec. Furthermore, as more efficient codecs emerge (and these tend to be more demanding in terms of compute horsepower), Google will have to continue to use CPUs for initial deployments. Ironically, the advantage of dedicated hardware will only grow in the future.

Google is already working on its second-gen VCU that supports AV1, H.264, and VP9 codecs as its needs to further increase the efficiency of its encoding technologies. It is unclear when the new VCUs will be deployed, but it is clear that the company wants to use its own SoCs instead of general-purpose processors where possible.

Intel Isn’t Standing Still

Intel isn’t standing still, though. The company’s DG1 Xe-LP-based quad-chip SG1 server card can decode up to 28 4Kp60 streams as well as transcode up to 12 simultaneous streams. Essentially, Intel’s SG1 does exactly what Google’s Argos VCU does: scale video decoding and transcoding performance separately from the server count and thus reduce the number of general-purpose processors required in a data center used for video applications.

(Image credit: Intel)

With its upcoming single-tile Xe-HP GPU, Intel will offer transcoding of 10 high-quality 4Kp60 streams simultaneously. Keeping in mind that some of Xe-HP GPUs will scale to four tiles, and more than one GPU can be installed per system, Intel’s market-leading media decoding and encoding capabilities will only become even more solid.

Summary

Google has managed to build a remarkable H.264 and VP9-supporting video (trans)coding unit (VCU) that can offer significantly higher efficiency in video encoding/transcoding workloads than Intel’s existing CPUs. Furthermore, VCUs enable Google to scale its video encoding/transcoding performance independently from the number of servers.

Yet, Intel already has its Xe-LP GPUs and SG1 cards that offer some serious video decoding and encoding capabilities, too, so Intel will still be successful in datacenters with heavy video streaming workloads. Furthermore, with the emergence of Intel’s Xe-HP GPUs, the company promises to solidify its position in this market.

How to watch E3 2021

After being canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, E3 is back for 2021 in an all-digital format, kicking off on June 12th. And with Microsoft and Nintendo finally having announced the dates and times for their big showcase presentations, the event schedule is starting to fall into place.

If you want to attend the virtual event as a fan, you can now register to attend on E3’s website so that you can get access to the E3 portal and app. But if you want to follow along with the press conferences and announcements, we’ve put together a rough timeline of events with everything that we’re aware of. (Note that the exact times of some presentations haven’t been announced yet.)

When is E3?

E3 technically takes place from Saturday, June 12th, to Tuesday, June 15th, but you can expect some big announcements a couple days before E3 at Summer Game Fest’s Kickoff Live event.

Thursday, June 10th

2PM ET: Summer Game Fest’s Kickoff Live event hosted by Geoff Keighley

Saturday, June 12th

11AM ET: Guerrilla Collective (note that this is the second Guerrilla Collective show — the first takes place on June 5th)
1PM ET: E3 broadcast pre-show
3PM ET: Ubisoft Forward
TBA time: Gearbox press conference, Devolver Digital show

Sunday, June 13th

11:45AM ET: E3 broadcast pre-show
1PM ET: Microsoft’s Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase
3:15PM ET: Square Enix Presents
TBA time: “Special presentations” from the PC Gaming Show and the Future Games Show. E3 parent company ESA also says that Warner Bros. Games & Back4Blood and 24 Entertainment “will be featured” on the E3 broadcast on Sunday.

Monday, June 14th

11AM ET: E3 broadcast pre-show
TBA time: “Press conferences from several indie developers” and “presentations from Take-Two Interactive, Mythical Games, Freedom Games, Razer and Capcom.” Verizon and Intellivision will also be “featured,” the ESA says.

Tuesday, June 15th

11AM ET: E3 broadcast pre-show
12PM ET: Nintendo’s Nintendo Direct, which will have “roughly” 40 minutes of information about upcoming games, followed by a Treehouse Live with about three hours of gameplay demoed.
TBA time: “Focused events” from Bandai Namco, Yooreka Games, and GameSpot
The day will close out with the Official E3 2021 Awards Show

How can I watch E3?

E3 will be airing its broadcast on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. For the presentations hosted by individual companies, you may be able to find official streams on their social platforms.

Update June 3rd, 11:18AM ET: Added Square Enix Presents.

How to watch Netflix’s Geeked Week

Netflix is holding its first “Geeked” virtual event starting on June 7th, an entire week dedicated to genre stories across film and TV. That means sci-fi and fantasy, and shows based on comic books and video games.

The company says that more than 50 projects will be featured, including big names like The Witcher, Sandman, Lucifer, Cowboy Bebop, Arcane (the League of Legends animated series), The Cuphead Show, and more. In addition to big announcements and trailers, the event will also include “first looks, behind-the-scenes footage, cast interviews, celebrity games, script table reads, live performances, and much more,” according to Netflix.

It’s a lot to spread across five days. Here’s how you can keep up with everything.

What time is Netflix’s Geeked Week?

The event takes place from June 7th to the 11th, and Netflix says that things will kick off at 9AM PT / 12PM ET. The company will also be posting daily recaps at 10AM PT / 1PM ET, suggesting that things will last around an hour each day. There isn’t an exact schedule, but Netflix says that “each day will be broadly themed to different genres: film, comic books, fantasy, anime / animation, and gaming.”

Where can I watch the event?

If you want to watch everything, it seems like it’ll be hard to miss, as Netflix will be utilizing just about every video platform imaginable. That means you can watch and follow the daily events on YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, Facebook, and TikTok. And be sure to stay tuned to The Verge for coverage of the biggest announcements.

I broke off a tiny piece of the world with a self-flying drone

With photogrammetry, hundreds of still photos can be transformed into an incredibly realistic 3D model of a real place on Earth — assuming you capture them all.

This Memorial Day weekend, a self-flying robot cameraman did that entire job for me. I simply designated where to fly and where not to fly, kicked back in a chair, and a Skydio 2 drone nabbed those photos all by itself.

Today, Skydio is launching Skydio 3D Scan, an optional software suite for its self-flying drones that lets them build incredibly detailed models for far more important tasks than my holiday backyard BBQ. We’re talking about scanning bridges that might be in need of structural repair, accident reporting at crash sites, and allowing clients to inspect construction sites from most any angle, anywhere in the world, during and after structures are built.

Those aren’t theoretical, by the way: Skydio says the North Carolina Department of Transportation is using it for bridges; the Boston Police Department for crime and accident scene reconstruction; and, below, you can see an real-life interactive 3D example of a water treatment plant for an upcoming semiconductor facility being built in Chandler, Arizona by Sundt Construction, presumably for Intel. (Skydio says it doesn’t know for sure.)

As you can imagine with that kind of clientele, the feature doesn’t come cheap: $2,999 per year, per drone, for the ability to autonomously grab all those photos given a designated volume that you’d like to capture. That also doesn’t include the drone, a controller, or the software you’ll need to actually stitch the images together: $99+ a month for DroneDeploy, or several thousand dollars per year for Bentley Systems’ ContextCapture, as a couple examples — the embedded Sketchfab models in this post use Bentley’s solution. 3D Scan will come to the company’s $10,999-and-up Skydio X2 drone later this summer as well.

Though it’s aimed at professionals with money to spend, a few short sessions showed me you don’t need to be a pro to use 3D Scan, or necessarily even know how to fly a drone. Assuming you’re following all local drone laws, it’s simply a matter of powering up a standard Skydio 2 drone (with two high-capacity microSD cards) and a Skydio controller, then following a series of prompts on a phone. You fly the drone to the top, bottom, and corners of the area you’d like to capture, pick how much detail you want, and then it does the rest on its own — taking pictures with its 12-megapixel front camera while the drone’s other six eyes and navigation system keep it from crashing.

The larger and more detailed your scan, the longer it’ll take, but you can resume after a battery swap — Skydio recommends you don’t stay out longer than four batteries.

Like I wrote in our Skydio 2 review, you can trust this drone not to crash, and the 3D Scan mode adds a geofencing feature that can help you keep it from flying into unwanted areas, too. Frankly, I didn’t feel a pressing need to hang onto the controller during my backyard patio scan, so I left it on a table while I watched. The only thing that confused me was knowing when the scan was done: it turns out you have to land the drone, then leave it powered on to finish processing. Then, it was a matter of uploading a couple gigabytes of photos to DroneDeploy or Bentley and waiting for them to process.

There’s an AR mode where you can keep track of a virtual Skydio drone as it makes its rounds.

As you’ll no doubt see in the 3D models (or failing that, YouTube), they’re not quite seamless yet — not something you’d want to explore in virtual reality, for instance. (I tried.) Even though I can make out the exact texture of the cement slab and tiles in my backyard, and the metal carnage in this Swiss cheese of a busted helicopter, here are loads of holes and smudges that photogrammetry is just failing to provide.

Skydio CEO and co-founder Adam Bry admits that 3D isn’t everything, and that some clients will simply use 3D as a guide to all of the individual high-res photos that Skydio also provides. “If you set the closest resolution, you’re talking about something like .5mm per pixel … it’s enough to see fine cracks in concrete, it’s enough to see rust on a bolt, it’s enough to see details of a skid mark on the ground.” And while he says the system works in indoor environments, it’s currently optimized for flying around an object you’d like to capture instead of capturing the world around the drone, like you might for an indoor tour. (Skydio is “fairly active” in pursuing inside-out capture as well.)

Long term, Bry thinks the automated aerial scanning might come in handy for digitizing the world for other reasons, like augmented and virtual reality, but for now it seemed like simple, detailed 3D structure modeling was a problem Skydio could solve. “There are countless examples of the world’s best drone pilots keeping this mental model of the path they’ve flown,” says Bry. Now, scanning may not need to be about flying, or even programming a path on a map. It’s just another app on your phone.

Skydio’s holding a special live webinar at the US Space and Rocket Center today at 9AM PT / 12PM ET to show a bit more of what 3D Scan can do. They’ll be scanning some exhibits inside the center, Bry tells me.

Razer Kraken V3 X Review: Light Weight, Heavy Sound

Our Verdict

The Razer Kraken V3 X will keep you satisfied with an excellent microphone and solid rich audio reproduction.

For

+ Lightweight
+ Solid audio reproduction and thump
+ Great, microphone
+ Succulently soft ear cups

Against

– ll-plastic design

Designed to compete with the best gaming headsets, without breaking the bank, Razer’s Kraken V3 X combines a comfortable ear cup design with strong audio output, an excellent microphone and software that greatly enhances the experience. This $69 set of USB cans are thumpy thanks to Razer’s patented Triforce 40mm drivers while offering a dash of RGB style in-the-ear cups.

Razer Kraken V3 X Specs

Driver Type	40mm neodymium magnet
Impedance	32 Ohms
Frequency Response	12 Hz – 28kHz
Microphone Type	Cardioid Hyperclear Unidirectional
Connectivity	USB Type-A (PC)
Weight	0.6 pounds (285g)
Cord Length	USB Type-A cable: 6 feet
Lighting	RGB on Earcups
Software	Razer Synapse and 7.1 Surround Sound

Design and Comfort of Razer Kraken V3 X

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

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Though it’s made from lightweight plastic, the Razer Kraken V3 X feels very sturdy. The unit’s Hybrid-Fabric memory foam ear cups are succulently soft and the headband is highly adjustable, fitting comfortably on my obnoxiously large head. When I plugged it in, the three-headed snake logo on each ear cup illuminated in RGB.

On the left earcup, you will find the flexible Razer Hyper Clear cardioid microphone, which is quite bendy, with a volume knob and a mute button. The Razer Kraken V3 X is fine to wear for long periods of time as they do not tend to get very hot or warm with long usage, unlike many other over-the-ear styled gaming headphones I have previously reviewed.

Audio Performance of Razer Kraken V3 X

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The headset uses a pair of 40mm Triforce drivers that are designed by Razer and they pump out thunderous distortion-free bass and sweet sound throughout the audio spectrum. From sweet, warm, throaty lows, to angelic highs, the rich sound on the Razer Kraken V3 X surprised me.

First, I went to Youtube to listen to Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See,” because the thick bold bassline would be an excellent test of the Kraken V3 X’s capabilities. The unit came through with flying colors as they pushed out clear, loud, thunderous bass that Thor Odinson would be proud of.

My favorite moment came while listening to Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.” At the beginning of the song, the Razer Kraken V3 X reproduced the softer tones of the finger snaps and guitar melody sweetly. When the horn section takes over with its powerful rhythm, the Krakens proved they were audio titans.

The Razer Kraken V3 X also has plenty of gaming prowess. While playing Borderlands 2, the 7.1 spatial surround sound helped me hear some creeps off to my right and I was able to turn around swiftly with my sniper’s rifle and blow a villain’s head off before he could roast me with a flamethrower. The sound of explosions was exquisite when I shot out a barrel filled with chemicals, taking out three enemies.

After I was done with Borderlands 2, I decided to knock some heads and so I launched Batman Arkham Knight and again the spatial sound software helped me as I heard footsteps to my left and I bataranged a would-be attacker. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the bone-crunching punches, and then my favorite sound, the thruster on the Batmobile firing, was bombastically reproduced, as it launched me across off a bridge and onto a rooftop.

To test the movie viewing experience, I watched Avengers Infinity War via Disney Plus. The audio captured the thunderous bass and every nuance so well that it sounded like it did when I watched this film in an IMAX theater.

During the scene where Starlord is feeling insecure about Thor’s presence and starts deepening his voice, I picked up the subtle difference in tone from the moment when Chris Pratt starts his impression. Every fight scene and explosion was so realistic. When Iron Man is battling Thanos and he roots his armor’s feet and then double punches Thanos and he slams against the debris, I literally could hear individual rocks fling off and land elsewhere.

Microphone on Razer Kraken V3 X

The Razer Kraken V3 X comes with Razer’s HyperClear cardioid microphone, which has a rated frequency response that ranges from 100Hz-10Hz with a sensitivity of -42dB. It’s very flexible and bendy and really does a nice job when recording audio.

I took part in an afternoon Google Meet, and everyone said that my voice came in loud and clear, my natural deep timbre was nicely picked up by the microphone and when I made an appearance on my friend’s baseball podcast, he commented that the mic had an excellent pickup and recorded very nicely.

Features and Software of Razer Kraken V3 X

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The Razer Kraken V3 X is a solid performer on its own but, I highly, recommend you download Razer’s Synapse software which will allow you to configure the RGB lighting effects, create lighting profiles, and adjust the volume.

The real winner here is Razer’s 7.1 Surround Sound download; it is the game changer and takes the sound quality up many notches. The normal audio performance as previously mentioned is solid. However, the truly thunderous, high-quality audio that makes these cans worth their weight, is when the unit is paired with the software. They go from sounding like $69 headphones to sounding like a pair of $200 headphones.

Bottom Line

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

For $69.99 you get an excellent pair of sounding headphones, especially if you remember to download Razer’s 7.1 surround sound software. Yes, they’re plastic, but they’re very stylish with the RGB lighting adding a little panache and flair. The Kraken V3 X is also super lightweight, the hybrid cloth and memory foam cups will cradle your ears in soft comfort.

With the excellent microphone performance, you will be able to bark orders out to your friends during games or even host a podcast with crystal clear audio. If you don’t mind spending a bit more money and want a headset with a 3.5mm jack, you should consider the HyperX Cloud Alpha, but if you want a high-quality, affordable USB gaming headset, the Razer Kraken V3 X is a great choice.

Flamethrowing Raspberry Pi Roomba Project Balances Danger and Fun

(Image credit: Alfredo Sequeida)

With many Raspberry Pi projects, it’s common to wonder why makers would choose to use a Raspberry Pi, but today we’re asking Alfredo Sequieda why he has done this project at all. In a hilarious yet dangerous burst of creativity, Sequieda has created a Raspberry Pi-powered flamethrowing Roomba.

This isn’t the first creation from Sequida we’ve covered before, he previously had us on the edge of our seats with his awesome Nerf Gun controller, but this flamethrowing Roomba project is in an entirely different tier of engineering. The best Raspberry Pi projects are interactive, and this one is piloted with an Xbox One controller.

It doesn’t take much to power this vacuum of terror — Sequieda controlled all of the operations with a Raspberry Pi Zero W. Thanks to the help of 3D-printed supports, he mounted the Pi to the top of the Roomba along with a bottle of butane.

The servo motors activate the butane via a custom Python script. The Roomba is also controlled by a Python script using serial communication. With this setup, users can steer and operate the flamethrowing Roomba using the wireless Xbox One controller.

Good news for aspiring pyrotechnic engineers—this project is entirely open source. Users can find the code and STL files for 3D printing components on the project’s GitHub page. You can also follow Alfredo Sequeida on YouTube for more cool projects and any updates to this one.

Intel’s Xe-HPG DG2 Graphics Card Pictured: Big, Green and Power Hungry

(Image credit: Intel)

YouTube channel Moore’s Law Is Dead has published what it claims to be one of the first images of Intel’s upcoming enthusiast-grade DG2-series graphics card based on the Xe-HPG architecture (possibly codenamed ‘Niagara Falls’). The board does look like a graphics card, but it doesn’t have any Intel logotypes (they might have been removed to protect the source) or any other clear indication this is a DG2 GPU, so we should view any gleaned information with some skepticism.

Intel’s upcoming DG2 lineup is projected to include at least two graphics cards with either 384 or 512 execution units (EUs) and up to 16GB of memory that communicates over a 256-bit interface. The YouTube channel has published an image of Intel’s alleged DG2 graphics card and shared some additional information about Intel’s possible plans. The report says that while Intel might formally introduce its DG2-series graphics cards in Q4 2021, the cards won’t be widely available until Q1 2022.

Performance-wise, the top-of-the-range DG2 is projected to be slightly slower than Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080. Still, Intel is reportedly pricing the product ‘aggressively’ and is looking at a ‘sweet spot’ in the $349 to $499 range to grab market share.

(Image credit: YouTube/Moore’s Law Is Dead )

The picture of the board also gives us a few points to chew over. First, the board has DisplayPort and HDMI interfaces and houses memory chips, so this is definitely a graphics card. The memory chips are installed in a pattern previously attributed to Intel’s upcoming high-end graphics cards with Xe-HPG GPUs, so this may indeed be Intel’s DG2.

Secondly, Intel’s high-end Xe-HPG GPU has a rather sophisticated multi-phase (10+) voltage regulating module (VRM). The VRM consists of two blocks on both sides of the GPU with a power management controller located near the display outputs. Such a VRM may imply the complexity and dimension of the graphics processor. In any case, this is an early sample and not a commercial product. Since this is a development board, some elements might be installed on the PCB merely for testing purposes.

Another thing that catches the eye are the two eight-pin auxiliary PCIe power connectors that can deliver up to 300W of power to the GPU and its memory. Additionally, the card can draw another 75W from the motherboard. That means we’re looking at a power-hungry graphics card. It’s noteworthy that the power connectors face the front side of the PC, which increases the actual length of the card. In contrast, modern AMD and Nvidia graphics cards feature power connectors on their top edge near the back. It is noteworthy that previously leaked pictures of an alleged Intel DG2 card showed the board with power connectors on top. Since we don’t know how old either sample is, it’s impossible to draw any conclusions here.

Finally, just like the latest AMD Radeon and Nvidia GeForce graphics cards, the alleged Intel DG2 desktop board seems to be slightly taller than the bracket, which is logical as its developers needed to accommodate the sophisticated power supply circuitry somewhere. It still isn’t as tall as Nvidia’s GA102-based reference designs, though.

Keeping in mind that Intel’s higher-end Xe-HPG graphics cards seem to be quite a bit out on the horizon, even accurate information about their current state should be considered preliminary – hardware gets more mature, and plans tend to change during the design process.

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.

Go watch this incredible web series about a Cyberpunk Salad Merchant

After three years of production, Ian Hubert, king of the one-minute Blender tutorial, has uploaded the first episode of his sci-fi series, Dynamo Dream. And it’s been worth the wait. The series is a mix of live-action and CGI that follows a salad merchant on a seemingly normal day through the dense streets of the Sunset District, a futuristic metropolis filled with fax machine drones, giant mutant crabs blocking traffic, and flying assassin bots.

The episode is visually stunning and seems to be endlessly filled with details. Every frame can be paused and observed, each containing hints to an expansive world that stretches beyond the camera’s frame. The world is convincing and surprisingly charming.

While bearing resemblance to other gritty dystopias, the folky music, calm atmosphere, and moments of pause let you know that humanity isn’t totally lost in the world of Dynamo Dream. There are still small joys to be found in the hustle and bustle. This continues into the protagonist, a merchant with a green thumb who sells salads in mugs. She’s a flower growing out of the cracks of the concrete, though things may not stay peaceful for long. Hopefully it won’t take another three years to find out.

Over the years, Hubert has shared behind-the-scenes looks at this project and has become a well-known figure in the 3D art community — namely, for making impressive work with ingenious animation methods spotlighted in his Lazy Tutorials series on his YouTube channel. His videos show you how to make a lot out of a little, often in under a minute’s time. Even more impressively, all 3D models used in this series were created using Blender, a free 3D package. Compositing was done using Adobe’s After Effects.

You can check out a few of those tutorials below and support Hubert through his Patreon, where he shares tutorials and 3D assets with his patrons.

Charlie bit us all, if you really think about it

It’s hard to describe the absolute chaos around NFTs (non-fungible tokens) right now; tech reporters’ inboxes are flooded with the latest and stupidest additions to this trend of digital certificates for memes and other pieces of digital memorabilia. Disaster Girl sold for around $500,000, Keyboard Cat went for about $64,400, and Nyan Cat brought in around $590,000. But most NFTs aren’t all that noteworthy, and we can’t possibly write about every single one (despite this sentence, my inbox will now be flooded with NFT pitches for the next two months). But despite our attempts to be judicious and write about newsworthy topics, we can’t win them all.

We wrote about the Charlie Bit Me NFT auction because it had a twist the others did not: the seller said it would be leaving the internet “forever,” deleted from YouTube where it currently has more than 880 million views once the auction ended. But according to Quartz, there’s another surprise twist: Howard Davies-Carr, the father of the children in the 14-year-old clip, which sold for about $761,000, says it will stay on YouTube after all.

“After the auction we connected with the buyer, who ended up deciding to keep the video on YouTube,” Davies-Carr told Quartz. “The buyer felt that the video is an important part of popular culture and shouldn’t be taken down. It will now live on YouTube for the masses to continue enjoying as well as memorialized as an NFT on the blockchain.”

I guess that’s nice and all but if you didn’t want to abide by the rules you could have simply— not bid on it in the first place?

Okay so, listen, internet. We try to accept that things change and opinions shift and nothing is forever, but we have to lay down some rules about NFTs, in my humble Gen X opinion. Charlie and his brother are really cute (or were in 2007), but this isn’t even one of the most clever or interesting memes on the internet if we’re being brutally honest. Spend your money on whatever you like, but if the seller says the meme will be gone forever to attract buyers and eyeballs, they’re setting certain expectations, and when you change the rules last minute it leads to chaos and confusion and grumpy editors. Not to mention the confusion you’re creating among buyers. Now instead of one Charlie, you’ve increased the supply to infinite Charlies — something the other prospective buyers might have liked to know before they decided to bid.

I guess it’s not all that surprising that a blockchain-related product might overpromise and then under-deliver, but I’m fairly certain this last-minute switcheroo will just encourage ever more ridiculous stunts for people to get coverage and buyers for their NFTs. Which will probably result in less coverage in tech media because no one wants to get burned — or in this case, bitten — by a story that doesn’t live up to the hype.

Charlie, good going, my young friend. In the end, you bit us all.

Hands On: Acer’s RGB-Everything Predator Helios 500 Is a Disco Gaming Animal

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

It’s been a couple of years now since Acer overhauled its big-screen Helios 500 desktop replacement rig. But the laptop is back in a 17-inch shell that’s a bit of a departure from

the 2018 model

. As expected, it brings current top-end 11th Gen Intel/Nvidia components, plus perhaps more RGB than I’ve ever seen on a portable PC. Aside from the per-key RGB keyboard, there are light bars that run along all four edges of the laptop (yes, even the back). And the light show can be set to dynamically react to sound playing from the system’s speakers, or even what’s on the screen.

Acer sent us a pre-production sample in the days before its announcement to get some hands-on time with the new gaming flagship. Sadly, one of the most intriguing options of the new laptop wasn’t included in the sample they shipped. There will be an optional Mini LED 4K panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate and full-array local dimming, which Acer says is “comparable to VESA Display HDR 1000.” If you’re a top-end competitive gamer, the crazy-fast 360 Hz 1080p screen that came with our unit is undoubtedly the better option. But my slow reflexes and HDR-happy eyeballs would love to see what a bright, pixel-dense display with 512 backlight zones looks like on a laptop.

Design of the Acer Predator Helios 500 (2021)

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

First off, Acer would probably like me to reiterate that what it sent us was a pre-production unit, and some things will change. For instance, the Predator logo on the lid will be RGB-lit, rather than the basic blue seen here. And while the light bar at the back will remain, there are lights in the rear exhaust that will go away (which is good because they’re very bright). Also, as this was a pre-production unit, we were not allowed to test performance or battery life. The laptop is expected to arrive in August, with a starting price of $2,499.

Also note that, as this is a configuration with both a Core i9-11980HK and an Nvidia RTX 3080, the laptop does ship with two large power bricks. You’ll want to keep both plugged in for long gaming sessions, but with the system asleep or while doing basic productivity, one brick was more than enough to keep the laptop charged.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

If you’re expecting something approaching a thin-and-light gaming experience, you should look elsewhere (and expect less performance). At 8.59 pounds and approximately 12.6 x 15.75 x 1.75 inches, the Helios 500 is unapologetically a high-end desktop replacement.

And the black metal shell with silver and blue accents back up the ‘gaming’ looks–accented nicely by the blue-metal heatsinks that can be seen from the rear sides and back of the laptop.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

As noted earlier, the stand-out visual element here is the sheer abundance of RGB, in the form of diffused light bars that run along most of the front, about two-thirds of both sides, and nearly the entire back edge. The Helios 500 is a light show in a box, if ever there was one.

And if you’re into light shows, the laptop makes good use of all the RGB here. Aside from being able to choose from the usual number of presets or individually select the color of each key, the company’s PredatorSense software’s Pulsar Lighting tab has an Interactive section, which lets you set the keyboard and bars to react to audio being piped through the laptop. You can choose between four presets for this, and there’s also a Screen Sync feature that tends to mimic what’s on the lower portion of the screen.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The Screen Sync option is a bit crude. For instance, when I went to YouTube and an ad for YouTube Premium popped up in the bottom-left corner, the keys below it turned red and a purplish-white, mirroring the ad. But when watching trailers (and ads) for action movies, the flashing keys echoing gunshots did add something to the effect–I’m just not sure it’s something I like.

Having the lights and keyboard echoing what’s on the screen is distracting when you’re trying to watch a TV show or movie, but it could add to the level of immersion when gaming in the dark. And for music, the light show that the Helios 500 kicks out is almost like a party in and of itself. That said, I was not impressed with the sound output of the laptop, at least for music.

Acer bills the Helios 500 as having “True 5.1 channel surround sound” with a subwoofer, and licensed DTS X software is included for audio tweaking. But out of the box, highs and mids sounded harsh, while lows were minimized and there was little in the way of bass, especially for a laptop that literally says Subwoofer on the bottom. To be fair, this audio may be pre-tweaked for gaming, bringing key strategic elements up in the mix, but it certainly doesn’t make music sound good.

It’s possible that audio will improve with final units, but a few minutes playing with the various DTS presets, first choosing the music preset and then fiddling with the manual EQ, didn’t yield the kind of pleasing sound output I’d like from a laptop this big and expensive.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Unlike the version of the Helios 500 we looked at back in 2018, there are no ports on the back, save for the power connections. The left edge has a pair of tightly packed Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, as well as a USB 3 Type-A, a full-size HDMI port, and an anachronistic Mini Displayport.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The right edge houses separate headphone and mic jacks, two more USB 3 Type-A ports, and a Killer Ethernet E3100G jack. Wi-Fi 6 is also included. Note that Acer has yet to provide us with full specs, so we are unsure of the exact port speeds/specs.

Display on the Acer Predator Helios 500 (2021)

We weren’t able to test the 1080p 360 Hz display (or any other aspect) of our pre-production sample. But elite gamers will no-doubt appreciate the speed. And in casual use and gaming, we didn’t find it to be particularly dull or dim. Acer says it will also offer a 2560 x 1440 display option with a 165 Hz refresh rate.

But the most interesting screen option will be the 3840 x 2160 (4K) IPS screen that supports 120 Hz refresh and has a Mini LED matrix, giving it 512 backlight zones, plus what should be high-brightness HDR support. In short, that should be one dynamic display, with bright lights and dark blacks, which should be great for both AAA gaming and movies. But we’ll have to await a final review unit to say for sure. And we’re very curious to hear how much that panel adds to the laptop’s cost.

Keyboard and Touchpad of the Acer Predator Helios 500 (2021)

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The input devices on the Acer Predator Helios 500 are nothing if not colorful and roomy. With nearly 16 inches of width to play with, the keys are reasonably large, with lots of separation between them. And aside from the per-key backlighting, there’s also an RGB ring that runs around the touchpad, which is about 4.8 inches on the diagonal.

There’s also plenty of travel, in both the keys and touchpad buttons, likely thanks in part to the fact that Acer clearly wasn’t aiming for slimness here. And the WASD keys, apart from being visually offset in translucent blue, also have a stiffer feel than the surrounding keys, helping your fingers find them in the event that you were grabbing a snack and suddenly find yourself in the heat of battle.

All that said, personally I’ve never been a huge fan of these kind of flat keycaps on a gaming keyboard, and the white edges of the keys, while they help the RGB lighting shine through, look a bit garish in the daylight, against the darkness of the rest of the laptop’s design. I really hope more laptop makers shift back to offering mechanical switch options,

like Alienware has recently

Gaming on the Acer Predator Helios 500 (2021)

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

With the limited time I had with the new Acer Predator Helios 500, I didn’t have the luxury of long nights lost in raids and quests. But I did take the laptop through a few rounds of Doom Eternal and the decidedly less-demanding strategy title, Becastled. At the high frame rates that come with an RTX 3080 and an Intel Core i9 on a 1080p display, the 360 Hz screen was buttery smooth, and I found the roomy keyboard a bit more enjoyable for executing the games sometimes complicated jumps that I did for typing.

And while the cartoonish graphics of Becastled weren’t quite as colorful on the Helios’ display as they are on the Sony HDR TV that I use as my primary monitor, things didn’t exactly look dull eiter. Again, I’d love to see what these games (and frankly everything else) would look like on the 4K, 120 Hz HDR display option with localized dimming. And I’m curious to hear how much that screen will add to the price of the laptop.

As far as cooling goes, the Acer Predator Helios 500 was far from silent under load, but we wouldn’t expect that given its pairing of top-end components. But it also didn’t get overtly loud either. And the fans didn’t often fluctuate up and down, which can be more noticeable than a higher-decibel, but more constant whir. We’d need more time with the laptop (and the ability to test temps) to pass final judgement on the cooling system here, but nothing stood out as problematic or bad on that front, not that the laptop was quieter than we’d expect, either.

Final Thoughts

Given that every gaming laptop maker is using the same current core high-end components (though there is more more variety these days, with AMD’s CPUs more in the mix), and those parts have the same thermal requirements, there are only so many ways for a high-end gaming laptop to stand out.

Acer makes an attempt here by tossing in extra RGBs so that the Predator Helios 500 is as much a light show as it is a gaming powerhouse. It also doesn’t look or feel cheap or flimsy, as we’ve seem from some gaming portables in the past, when the aim was to keep costs as low as possible, or keep the chassis as slim as can be.

But really this Predator’s most striking trick might just be its Mini LED 4K display with full-array local dimming and 120 Hz refresh. Sadly, we’ll have to wait for a final version to get our eyes on that impressive-sounding display. The 360 Hz 1080p panel in our sample is certainly impressive in its own right, but its wow factor isn’t apparent unless you spend your time with highly competitive esports titles.