Sony unveils Project Leonardo: a modular PS5 controller designed for players with disabilities

During its CES presentation Sony showed off the Mocopi system for full-body tracking for use in games and the metaverse. The company also revealed Project Leonardo, a new modular controller designed to help players with disabilities. The controller has a big, round base that is designed to lie flat on a table, there are several mounting options as well. A player can use a single Project Leonardo controller or two, a DualSense controller can be added to the mix as well. This way, one, two or three controllers can be combined into a single virtual controller. Each Project Leonardo...

Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 series begin global journey in India

Xiaomi held a big event in India today, where the Redmi Note 12 series' international debut was marked. In a refreshing change of pace the Redmi Note 12, Redmi Note 12 Pro, and Redmi Note 12 Pro+ that will be sold in India are identical to their namesakes available in China. The launch event was for the “Redmi Note 12 Series 5G”, suggesting Xiaomi may introduce an LTE-only member to the Redmi Note 12 family in the near future. The Redmi Note 12 comes with a 6.67” AMOLED with 120Hz refresh rate and a Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chipset. It has two cameras on the back, of which only one can...

Carrier-locked Samsung Galaxy A32 5G receives Android 13-based One UI 5 in the US

Samsung released the Android 13-based One UI 5.0 update for the Galaxy A32 5G's international variant last month, and now it's the carrier-locked model (SM-A326U) in the US that's getting the One UI 5.0 upgrade. The update comes with firmware version A326USQU8CVK5 and the usual One UI 5.0 goodies, but you get the November 2022 Android security patch with it instead of the January 2023 or even the December 2022 patch. If you haven't received One UI 5.0 on your carrier-locked Samsung Galaxy A32 5G in the US yet, you can check for it manually by navigating to your phone's Settings >...

OnePlus 11 breaks pre-sales records in China, OnePlus 11 Pro won't exist

The OnePlus 11 got official for the Chinese market less than 24 hours ago, ahead of its global introduction next month. And it seems like it's already incredibly successful, more so in fact than any previous OnePlus device before it. According to OnePlus China President Li Jie, the OnePlus 11 broke pre-sales records for the brand after just two hours. The first actual sale will take place on January 9, and at this rate we assume it will be a glaring success - expect many units to be purchased in mere minutes, and a "sold out" notice to be put up soon after, as is customary in the Chinese...

Panasonic announces LUMIX S5II and S5IIX cameras with phase detection autofocus

Panasonic has announced the LUMIX S5II and the S5IIX, the company's newest full-frame mirrorless hybrid cameras with focus on video recording functionality. These are the company's first cameras to feature PDAF or phase detection autofocus, moving away from the longstanding contrast detection based DFD or depth from defocusing technology. While usable for photos, this method was often slow and unreliable for video, and produced constant pulsing within the out of focus areas. The S5II and S5II solve this by having a completely revamped focusing system courtesy of a new 24.2MP 35mm...

New wireless standard Qi2 announced with magnetic chargers in mind

The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) announced a new Qi2 wireless charging standard today. Developed by Apple and other members of the organization it should enable wireless charger to become faster and more efficient. The Qi2 (pronounced chee-two) standard is set to replace the current Qi. The main difference is the new one is developed with a new Magnetic Power Profile, allowing devices to align to the charger perfectly, providing improved charging rates and lower losses. Paul Struhsaker, executive director of the WPC, said consumers have concerns about which devices are...

Samsung Galaxy F04 announced, sales start on January 12

The Samsung Galaxy F04 is here with little in the way of surprises. It's clad in Jade Purple and Opal Green. Inside, there's a MediaTek Helio P35 12nm chipset paired with 4GB of RAM. You get 64GB of base storage that can go up to 1TB through the microSD card slot. The Galaxy F04 runs Android 12 with OneUI on top. Samsung Galaxy F04 The meat of the specs are a 6.5-inch 1600x720px PLS LCD of standard 60Hz refresh rate, a 13MP f/2.2 main camera with a 2MP depth sensor alongside. There's a 5MP selfie camera on the other side, but no fingerprint scanner on board. Finally,...

Google's January Android update is going out to Pixels now with support for Spatial Audio

Google's first Android update of the year is now starting to roll out to supported Pixels, and as usual it will take a few weeks for it to reach all of the devices out there in the wild. On the security side, there are around 40 fixes. There are also a few bug fixes and feature additions. Static Spatial Audio, for example, is now live for the Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 7, and Pixel 7 Pro. This will provide surround sound for any connected headset. The Pixel Buds Pro will receive an update "in the coming weeks" that will enable Spatial Audio with head tracking. Fingerprint...

Motorola teases ThinkPhone as a 'Business-grade upgrade' ahead of CES 2023 unveiling

Motorola has teased the ThinkPhone we've been hearing about for the past few months. The Lenovo-owned brand posted the smartphone's picture on Twitter with the caption "Business-grade upgrade." The image shared by Motorola officially gives us a glimpse of the ThinkPhone's design. Its back panel flaunts a fiber design and has the "ThinkPhone by Motorola" text at the bottom right corner. The ThinkPhone also has an aluminum frame, with the left-side frame sporting a red-colored button. The picture shared by Motorola doesn't show us the front side of the ThinkPhone, but thanks to...

Intel adds sixteen new locked 13th Gen Core desktop processors starting at $109

Aside from new mobile processors, Intel has also launched a plethora of new desktop processor models as part of its 13th Gen range. Joining the existing six unlocked K-series models are sixteen new locked models, six of which are low power variants for OEMs. Starting with the ten standard variants, we have the Core i9-13900 at the top, which maintains the core and thread count of the 13900K but drops the clocks across the board, with boost clocks dropping by up to 200MHz. The base clocks are also lower, which results in a lower 65W base power, although boost power is only down by...

Google Pixel 7a leaks in a blurry hands-on video, 90 Hz refresh rate confirmed

According to a recent leaked Google smartphone launch roadmap, the Pixel 7a should become official "around April or May" - most likely the announcement will take place at the company's annual developer conference called I/O, which happens in May. As we get ever closer, more and more leaks of the device are starting to pop up - including today's, which is a blurry hands-on video seemingly originating in Vietnam. We're basing that assumption on the fact that the unit depicted has its language set to Vietnamese. Take a look for yourself, but bear in mind, the blur is real: ...

OnePlus 11 camera details officially revealed

Ahead of its official announcement for the Chinese market, which is taking place tomorrow, OnePlus took to Weibo (China's equivalent of Twitter) today to tease some more details about the OnePlus 11, thus staying true to its roots as the company that pioneered the drip-feeding information method of unveiling a product in the mobile world. The focus (excuse the easy pun) is on the cameras this time around, as the company has officially revealed which sensors the phone is using, while bragging that they're all flagship level. The main 50 MP snapper on the back uses Sony's IMX890, and...

The vanilla iPhone 15 models might get a 48MP main camera

The vanilla iPhone 14 pair was a bit of a disappointment as it arrived with the same old 12MP cameras among other complaints. That may change in the next generation as the vanilla iPhone 15 pair will get 48MP 3-stacked sensors in their main cameras, according to a report by Jeff Pu of Haitong Intl Tech Research. This will give the vanilla phones better zooming capabilities, though they still won’t be a match for the Pros as telephoto lenses will remain exclusive to the pricier models (as will the LiDAR). In fact, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is expected to have a 6x periscope lens in addition...

Apple Watch Ultra coming in 2024 with 2.1” micro-LED display

The Apple Watch Ultra boasts the largest screen out of any Apple Watch at 1.92 inches but a new report from Hong Kong investment firm Haitong International Securities suggests its successor will have an even larger panel. Analyst Jeff Pu claims Apple will update the 2024 Apple Watch Ultra with a 2.1-inch micro-LED display. The new display tech will allow for a higher brightness output than the current Apple Watch and its OLED screen. In addition to the updated Apple Watch Ultra, Jeff Pu expects Apple to announce a new pair of lower-priced wireless earbuds dubbed AirPods Lite...

Tecno Phantom X2 is up for pre-order in India, sale begins on January 9

Tecno unveiled the Phantom X2 series in Dubai, UAE in the closing weeks of last year. Now, the vanilla Phantom X2 arrived in India, and it is already up for pre-order on Amazon in both colors - Stardust Gray and Moonlight Silver. Indian customers can have the Phantom X2 with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage for INR39,999, which is about $485 or €455. Tecno proudly announced the Phantom X2 is the first smartphone with Dimensity 9000 in India to cost less than INR40,000. The SoC also has 5G, making the device future-proof for when the next-gen connectivity hits a broader reach than the...

Samsung Galaxy F04's specs, design, and launch date revealed

The Samsung Galaxy F04 we saw in leaked teasers last week will be launched on January 4. This revelation comes from Indian online retailer Flipkart, which set up a promo page on its website revealing the Galaxy F04's specs and design. The Samsung Galaxy F04 will have a starting price of less than INR8,000 ($95/€90). It will be powered by the Helio P35 SoC and run Android 12 out of the box. The smartphone will also get Android 13 and 14 since it will come with the promise of two OS upgrades. The Galaxy F04 will have 8GB RAM with the RAM Plus feature, which lets users virtually...

Samsung Galaxy A03 and Galaxy F12 are the latest to receive Android 13 update

Samsung wanted to finish sending out its update to One UI 5 based on Android 13 by the end of 2022, but it looks like it was too optimistic. We're saying that because the company is still, even today, rolling out the software to more and more devices. In this case, the lucky ones are the Galaxy A03 and the Galaxy F12. While the rollout might not be complete to all eligible devices yet, we sure are getting close, as these two are pretty much at the absolute lowest-end. It's unlikely there will be many other handsets that are yet to get the update. Samsung Galaxy F12 The Galaxy A03...

OnePlus 11 leaks in more live images

OnePlus clearly wants to capitalize as much as it can on those sweet Chinese New Year gifts this time around, and so it's launching the OnePlus 11 in its home market on January 4, with a couple of weeks to go before the grand festival. As we are now incredibly close to the unveiling, more live images of the phone have been leaked from China, shot in what seems to be an official store with official-looking smartphone display desks. OnePlus 11 live hands-on leaked images Unsurprisingly, the leaked design has been confirmed - not that we needed these live shots for that, as...

Xiaomi pushes 300,000 Redmi K60 phones in 5 minutes

The Xiaomi brand Redmi announced a successful first flash sale in China. The company revealed on Weibo that the first batch of 300,000 units of Redmi K60 phones sold in 5 minutes. It said users loved the new features like the 1220p screen, the wireless charging, and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset of the Pro variant. The Redmi K60 series consists of three phones - a premium Redmi K60E with Dimensity 8200, a vanilla flagship Redmi K60 with Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, and the Redmi K60 Pro with a Sony IMX890 sensor behind the 50 MP camera, and 120W fast charging. The number of devices sold...

Most Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chips to be manufactured by TSMC

Qualcomm is expected to source the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 manufacturing to TSMC and Samsung - partnerships that have years of history. However, the latest report is that the Taiwanese manufacturer might get the majority of chip orders built on the 3 nm process because of the incredibly high 80% yield rate. Image credit: Wikipedia The current yield rate from a 3nm GAA wafer is about 60-70%, but TSMC is managing to implement between 75-80% of a single wafer. If we can trust this data, Apple and Qualcomm will not have shipment issues for their next-gen chipsets, the A17 Bionic and Snapdragon...

2022 Winners and losers: OnePlus

A quick search in our database returns 14 OnePlus devices released this year, which is 6 more than last year. Perhaps next year will be different, though it's hard to predict how the new strategic partnership with Oppo will work out. But what about the devices it did release this year? Here are the hots and nots ot 2022. Winner: OnePlus 10T OnePlus made a bit of a mess out of its 10 series. There is no vanilla OnePlus 10 and despite much talk, an Ultra model never materialized. Instead, the OnePlus 10T followed up the OnePlus 10 Pro, but not exactly as another flagship offer, but rather...

Xiaomi Redmi K50i hands-on review

Xiaomi's Redmi launched the Redmi K20 and K20 Pro in India back in 2019 and those were quite popular back in their day. And after a hiatus of three years, the company finally launched a K series smartphone in India, dubbed Redmi K50i. The Redmi K50i is not an entirely new smartphone, though. It's a version of the Poco X4 GT that's available outside India. We already reviewed the Poco X4 GT, and you can read its detailed review here, but let us tell you that there are some differences between the two smartphones since the Redmi K50i isn't an entirely rebadged X4 GT. Read on to find out...

My top 5 phones of 2022 - Ro

Well, 2022 is a wrap and I can say it was a rather... stale year. We can't always have exciting years, of course, but the fact that I've reverted to using a last year's phone, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, speaks for itself. That doesn't mean I didn't have my favorites among this year's crop and here they go in no particular order. Asus Zenfone 9 Just like last year, I would like to kick off this list with an Asus phone. Of course, this year, it's the Zenfone 9. I've always had a thing for compact flagships and I think Asus once again nailed it. In fact, I think the new Zenfone 9 is the...

Top stories of 2022: Q4

Welcome to our recap of the top news articles of 2022. We will now be looking back on the most popular stories from the fourth quarter of the year, having already covered the first nine months. We're now at Q4 of 2022 and the final major announcements of the year. By this time, the rumors of the Galaxy S23 series are pretty much a weekly occurrence and their credibility is getting higher and higher. We now know that Samsung will announce the Galaxy S23, S23+, and Galaxy S23 Ultra in early February, and most of their specs. The trio will be the first to not feature an Exynos chipset at all...

2022 Winners and Losers: Asus

Asus doesn’t make as many phones as it used to but the Taiwanese maker has established itself on two notable fronts in the smartphone world – gaming phones and compact flagships. Zenfone 9 is the mainstream flagship phone from the brand with a focus on one-handed usability, while the ROG Phone 6 lineup is still the benchmark in the gaming phone segment. Let's see what went well and what could be improved. Winner – Zenfone 9 Asus built the best compact phone of the year and it’s not even close. The dimension on the Zenfone 9 are perfect for one-handed handling and you don’t sacrifice...