Amazon Mega Electronics Days Sale is now live on the e-commerce platform and customers can avail of massive discounts on several electronics products. During the ongoing sale, buyers can avail of discounts of up to 80 percent on several products. Meanwhile, if you have an SBI credit card, ICICI Bank credit card HDFC credit or debit card, and J&K Bank credit or debit card, you can also avail of additional discounts to further lower the prices of electronics products during the ongoing sale.
Amazon Mega Electronics Days Sale timeline, discounts
The ongoing Amazon Mega Electronics Days Sale will end on April 18, according to the e-commerce platform. During the sale, customers can avail of discounts on laptops, headphones, tablets, smartwatches, cameras, and other products that are on sale at lowered prices. It is advisable to compare the regular price of products that are discounted with their sale price, in order to identify the best deal for the product you are looking for during the sale.
Several bank offers can help you lower the cost of your next electronics purchase Photo Credit: Amazon
While several products are on sale at discounted prices during the sale, you can also use an SBI credit card or ICICI Bank credit card and credit card EMI transactions to lower the price of your purchase by 10 percent. This 10 percent discount is also applicable on J&K credit and debit cards, while HDFC Bank customers will get a discount up to Rs. 5,000 on credit card and debit card EMI transactions.
Amazon Mega Electronics Days Sale: Best deals and offers
During the Amazon Mega Electronics Days Sale, you can purchase gaming laptops at discounted prices. For example, the HP Victus gaming laptop with a 15.6-inch IPS screen and a 12th generation Intel Core i5 processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU is currently available for Rs. 68,900 while the laptop was originally listed on Amazon for Rs. 888,646. Similarly, the Asus TUF F17 gaming laptop with a 11th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU and an RTX 2050 GPU is priced at Rs. 49,990, down from its listed price of Rs. 77,990.
If you’re looking for a regular laptop, you can also pick up the HP 15s with a 12th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU and 16GB of RAM that is priced at Rs. 53,990, instead of the MRP of Rs. 68,223. Similarly, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 with a 11th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU and a 512GB SSD can be bought at Rs. 59,990 instead of Amazon’s previously listed price of Rs. 79,690.
Those looking to purchase an iPad or upgrade their existing one can consider the iPad Air (5th generation) with an M1 chip and a Liquid Retina display that is priced at Rs. 53,999 instead of Rs. 59,900. Similarly, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite that ships with an S Pen, is now available at Rs. 22,999 instead of Rs. 30,999.
The GoPro Hero 12 that was launched in India at Rs. 45,000 is now priced at Rs. 37,990 during the ongoing Amazon Mega Electronics Days Sale. Xiaomi’s Mi 360 Home Security Camera 2K with AI-based motion detection and night vision support currently costs Rs. 2,999, which is lower than its MRP of Rs. 4,999.
Meanwhile, Sony’s popular WH-1000XM4 headphones with 30 hours of battery life and active noise cancellation is priced at Rs. 19,990 instead of Rs. 22,990. You can also consider the Bose QuietComfort 45 which is available at the same price as Sony’s headphones, down from its listed price of Rs. 29,900. If you’re looking for a pair of true wireless stereo earphones, the JBL Wave Flex is priced at Rs. 2,998, which is lower than its listed price of Rs. 4,999.
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It may seem like 4K Blu-ray (and physical media in general) is dying, but many still like to collect their favorite movies in physical format. That’s not surprising since streaming sites are not only raising their prices, meaning people have to resort to ‘subscription hopping’ (subscribing to streaming sites for certain shows and movies each month before canceling) to save money, but they can’t be relied upon to keep movies on their platforms. How many times does Spider-Man (the 2002 version with Tobey Maguire) have to change from Netflix to Prime Video before it settles?
If you have bought one of the best TVs, it’s a shame not to feed it the best quality. But what does that mean? 4K Blu-ray and 4K streaming are both the same, right? Sadly, that’s not the case. With 4K streaming, data is transferred at a rate of 17-25 Mbps whereas 4K Blu-ray can transfer data at 128 Mbps. That means with 4K Blu-ray you’re getting a more detailed picture thanks to substantially lower data compression.
If you’re getting into 4K Blu-ray, you’ll need one of the best 4K Blu-ray players. Below, I’ve listed two players I recommend, along with five movies I believe can be the perfect launch pad for your new addiction: 4K Blu-ray collecting.
4K Blu-ray player: Panasonic DP-UB150/154
The Panasonic DP-UB154 (pictured) is easily one of the best budget 4K Blu-ray players on the market. (Image credit: Future)
Panasonic makes some of the best 4K Blu-ray players on the market, and these can vary in price dramatically. The first player I recommend checking out is the Panasonic DP-UB150/154, one of its budget models. (The UB150 and UB154 are identical and their availability depends on your region.)
Even though the UB150/154 is a budget model, you’ll still be getting HDR10 and HDR10+ HDR support and effective upscaling for lower-resolution sources. Performance is also fantastic, with excellent contrast and a natural, life-like quality to images.
With no smart features or Wi-Fi capabilities, the UB150/154 may not be as feature-packed as more premium 4K Blu-ray players, but it can still pass through Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks. For budding home theater enthusiasts on a budget, the UB150/154 is a great place to start – you can expect to pay under £160/$200 for this brilliant 4K Blu-ray player.
4K Blu-ray player: Panasonic DP-UB820
The Panasonic DP-UB820 (pictured), the best 4K Blu-ray player, balances features for price perfectly. (Image credit: Future)
The Panasonic DP-UB820 is the gold standard of value for money in a 4K Blu-ray player. It offers outstanding picture reproduction, with refined details and textures, punchy colors and contrast, and effective upscaling of regular Blu-ray discs and DVDs.
It also comes brimming with features, including both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support. That means no matter what TV you have, the UB820 has you covered when it comes to HDR, whereas other players around this price such as the Sony UBP-X800m2 only support Dolby Vision and not HDR10+. It also features 7.1-channel analog, optical digital and dedicated HDMI audio outputs plus smart features such as streaming.
You’ll need to stretch the budget a bit further on the DP-UB820 – you can expect to pay $449/£349, though we’ve seen it lower – but it is a significant step up over more budget players and even rivals in its price category.
4K Blu-ray disc 1: Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun: Maverick (pictured on the Panasonic MZ1500 TV) is great for motion and textures. (Image credit: Future)
Top Gun: Maverick (2022), starring Tom Cruise, is a phenomenal 4K Blu-ray disc, and one that will show you the capabilities of your 4K Blu-ray player. Stacked with plenty of fast-paced action and quick, panning shots as jets zoom through the air, Maverick is an excellent resource for evaluating motion handling in any home theater setup and will quickly reveal any display-induced picture judder or blur.
Maverick is also a great reference disc for evaluating skin tones and textures. With its many well-lit close-up shots of characters’ faces, both in the cockpit and in the California sun, it will effectively demonstrate the level of detail you can get from a 4K Blu-ray disc.
Thanks to its many flight sequences, Maverick also showcases 4K Blu-ray audio, and how well the best soundbars or home theater systems handle lossless soundtracks on disc. When I did a comparative test of Blu-ray vs streaming, audio was an area where Blu-ray shined.
4K Blu-ray disc 2: The Batman
The Batman (pictured on the Philips OLED808 TV) is fantastic for showing shadow detail and black levels. (Image credit: Future)
One movie I find essential for testing TVs at TechRadar and for showcasing what 4K Blu-ray can do is The Batman (2022) starring Robert Pattinson. A dark, grainy movie with plenty of muted colors, The Batman is perfect for evaluating a TV’s black depth and shadow detail.
Throughout the movie, there are long sequences with low light or near darkness, and only the best TVs and 4K Blu-ray players can handle these darker tones without losing detail. Mastered at 400 nits instead of the more typical 1,000 nits, The Batman can easily reveal any imperfections in an LED-based TV’s backlight. The Panasonic players mentioned above do an excellent job with The Batman. Plus, it’s the best Batman movie ever made in my opinion.
4K Blu-ray disc 3: Blade Runner: 2049
Blade Runner: 2049 (pictured on a 98-inch TCL C805 TV) is an extremely popular 4K Blu-ray. (Image credit: Future)
Wonderfully shot and beautifully detailed, Blade Runner: 2049, released in 2017 and starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, is another fantastic disc for demonstrating 4K Blu-ray’s potential. Directed by Denis Villenueve and with cinematography by the legendary Roger Deakins, Blade Runner: 2049 was destined to look incredible on a 4K disc.
The movie is packed with scenes that have changing lighting conditions, which makes it perfect for evaluating contrast and color. The night market scene is perfect for testing contrast and the Dolby Atmos soundtrack is powerful. Blade Runner: 2049 is a slam-dunk disc to add to your collection if you want to see the benefits of 4K Blu-ray.
4K Blu-ray disc 4: Alien
Alien on the Panasonic MZ1500 TV (pictured) shows how older movies can be given new life on 4K Blu-ray. (Image credit: Future)
The sci-fi/horror classic movie Alien (1979), starring Sigourney Weaver, is an example of an older movie getting new life through a proper 4K treatment on disc. On 4K Blu-ray, Alien gains refinement and detail, which enhances the tired and almost ghostlike complexions of the Nostromo crew.
A recent spate of James Cameron-directed 4K Blu-ray releases including Aliens met with mixed reception, as people felt the color palette was heavily altered and the movies looked too digitized and clean. The 4K Blu-ray of Alien, on the other hand, demonstrates how an older movie can be cleaned up and revitalized without going too far. Alien on 4K Blu-ray lacks a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, but its DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is nonetheless an excellent example of atmospheric and tension-inducing movie sound.
4K Blu-ray disc 5: Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (pictured on the Philips OLED808 TV) is good for testing colors, particularly the throne room fight scene. (Image credit: Future)
Now, hear me out. Despite its polarizing nature (most opinions fall on the side of bad), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) looks very good on 4K Blu-ray, and so do all of the sequel Star Warsmovies for that matter. There are plenty of reference scenes here for testing different aspects of a 4K Blu-ray player and TV, but there’s one sequence in particular that I frequently return to.
The throne room fight scene in Star Wars: TLJ is punctuated with plenty of vibrant reds – a lightsaber, the walls, the guards’ uniforms – and in 4K this scene has a dynamic, punchy look. It’s also a good example of how sharpness and subtlety can combine, with plenty of refined detail in objects and faces. Star Wars: TLJ may not be to everyone’s tastes, but it’s an excellent ambassador for the 4K Blu-ray format.
Final thoughts
Collecting 4K Blu-ray can be expensive and all those discs can be a real space-stealer, but it offers the best video and audio quality most people can get in a home theater setup. For any movie fan, adding a 4K Blu-ray player to your 4K TV is a no-brainer.
With pressure increasing on healthcare systems globally and many countries still struggling to clear the backlog from the pandemic, Microsoft believes AI holds the key to addressing both administrative burdens and improving the clinician-patient experience.
A new study from the company of 13,500 patients across 11 countries, including 2,000 from the UK, found patients are prepared to let AI handle some of their clinicians’ work to free up more interpersonal time, seeing it as a natural progression of existing digitalization efforts.
Currently, two in five (39%) UK respondents are concerned that their doctor does not give them their full attention during treatment, thanks to the computer-based administrative work that goes hand-in-hand with consultations.
AI is a gamechanger for healthcare
From the patient’s point of view, artificial intelligence is simply an extension of existing systems. Half of the UK participants in Microsoft’s study already have access to private or health insurance-provided online platforms where documents and prescriptions are shared.
For the clinician, an injection of AI represents a considerable time saving – the extra hours typically put in by a doctor to tackle medical documentation have fuelled widespread job dissatisfaction and burnout.
Dr Simon Wallace, Chief Clinical Information Office at Microsoft Health and Life Sciences UK, highlighted the significant effect that AI could have on patient care: “The role of digital technology is to support the clinician to return to the art of practicing medicine and give back time both for patients and their personal well-being.”
Mr Markus Vogel, Chief Medical Information Officer for Microsoft, commented on AI’s role in personalizing healthcare for patients: “With automated processes and patient-driven chatbots providing assistance, AI becomes a catalyst for enhanced participation, language translation and personalized treatment modalities.”
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With its continued emphasis on safe and responsible AI, Microsoft is calling for education, training, and communication about the benefits, impact, and even risks of artificial intelligence in healthcare. It has also become clear that international and multi-sector collaboration play an important role in ensuring that communities are served.
Looking forward, it’s clear that time-saving technologies like artificial intelligence and automation play a pivotal part in how nations address some of the most pressing social issues, and Microsoft’s findings regarding public sentiment surrounding the technology spell out a pretty positive outlook.
As for the challenges, industry experts have expressed concerns that practitioners may not be so keen to adapt to yet another new technology.
However, speaking about the clinician-led nature of NHS England, National Digital Primary Care Nurse Lead Helen Crowther affirmed: “If you give us a new product and tell us that it’s going to transform and change our lives for ourselves, colleagues, and patients, we’re more than happy to adapt to it.”
As healthcare and artificial intelligence become increasingly entwined, Crowther noted the importance of involving nurses at all levels of digital transformation in order to ensure that they are clinically focused from concept.
This sentiment aligns with the broader feeling that collaboration in all aspects of technology can only be beneficial, both for the customer and for competition.
In 2024, Samsung is introducing its first OLED TVs smaller than 55-inches, as part of the Samsung S90D model range. These 42-inch (US only) and 48-inch (US & UK) TVs won’t use the bright QD-OLED panel type that earned the Samsung S90C our TV of the Year Award for 2023, but instead will use the same kind of OLED panel you’ll find in LG’s OLEDs. And as with all Samsung TVs, these models will lack Dolby Vision HDR, which is a real concern for us, because Dolby Vision’s biggest advantage is making HDR look great on less bright screens.
After spending some time the 48-inch Samsung S90D, I needn’t have worried. Not only do its images feel bright and rich, the screen seems to be able to handle challenging HDR scenes well, and even offers impressive sound. Given the other impressive specs on offer as well, it looks like it could be an extremely strong challenger to the best 48-inch TVs.
I was able to test the 48-inch S90D armed with my own own choice of movies, plus the Spears & Munsill test disc that we can’t live without when testing TVs. Throwing on Alien, I could immediately see that the TV has a lot of talent with nuance in dark scenes. As Kane descends into the threatening bowels of the alien spaceship, the parts that should be truly inky black hit that mark (as you’d expect from an OLED), but you can subtle, very dark texture in the areas near the light patches.
And speaking of the light patches, the 48-inch S90D certainly felt bright enough to deliver high-quality HDR. Typically, 42- and 48-inch OLEDs are always less bright than 55-inch and larger OLEDs, due the tight fit of the pixels – but we’ve already heard that the smaller models in this year’s LG C4 OLED TV will be brighter than previous years, and given that the Samsung uses the same screen, I’m guessing this is similarly bright.
It’s rich in color with big, bold tones – but the colors also feel controlled and realistic. Vibrant and punchy, but comfortably on the right side of natural – skin tones in Oppenheimer looked true-to-life, and the level of detail did justice to that 70mm original film.
(Image credit: Future)
No Dolby Vision, no problem?
I really worried about the lack of Dolby Vision on this TVs, but I threw some especially challenging HDR video at it to try to show its flaws, and it borderline made a fool of me.
First, some background on why Dolby Vision is important, and what I was worrying about in the first place. When films are mastered for release, the look is perfected for a particular brightness. This can be as high as 10,000 nits, though 1,000 nits is the most common for home video release. What this means is that if you have a video mastered for 1,000 nits playing on a screen capable of 1,000 nits of brightness, you’ll see the video’s HDR as was intended.
(Image credit: Future)
So what happens if you play a video mastered for 1,000 nits on TV with a maximum brightness of around 700 nits (which is probably roughly what we’re talking for this Samsung)? The full HDR range has to be compressed into a smaller HDR range, and this process is called ‘tone mapping’.
Tone mapping can be done smartly, or dumbly. The dumb version would be to just take everything above a certain HDR level and squish it all down to the maximum of what the TV can handle. This results in lots of lost nuance in highlights – so, for example, what should be a fluffy, layered cloud becomes just a big smear of uniform white.
The smart approach is adjust down the brightness of tones across the whole range, but it’s easy to get this wrong and end up with lost detail in dark tones, or to still lose convincing highlights. The most advanced processing in the best TVs can actually adjust tone mapping on different parts of the screen at the same time, to avoid these problems.
A huge advantage of Dolby Vision, HDR10+ (which the Samsung S90D supports, but is less commonly used) and HDR formats is that they include tone mapping data, to ensure results closer to the original intention. That’s why we’ve always considered it so important to have Dolby Vision on the best OLED TVs – because most models still struggle to hit 1,000 nits of brightness, so they’ll need to perform tone mapping with more HDR content.
(Image credit: Future)
Which is a lot of build-up for me to say: from my experience so far, the tone mapping on the S90D appears to be so good, Dolby Vision is unnecessary. I tested it with the same video being shown in 10,000-nit HDR10 (which requires aggressive tone mapping), 1,000-nit HDR10 (which requires more gentle tone mapping), and 10,000-nit HDR10+ (where the tone mapping is handled by the HDR format for best results).
The difference between all three was minimal. Not quite zero – the 10,000-nit HDR10 video did has slightly more washed out white tones in difficult circumstances (like the clouds example above, or snowy scenes) – but close enough to quell my concerns about this aspect of the TVs.
Obviously, we’ll reserve final judgment until we can get this model in for an in-depth review, and ideally we’ll compare it directly with the Dolby Vision-supporting LG C4 at the same size, since they use the same underlying screen tech. But for me, the lack of Dolby Vision doesn’t seem to be an issue at all.
It all sounds good
I was also impressed with the sound of the TV. It doesn’t have a fancy array of speakers around the edge, in the way that the larger S90D models, or the Samsung S95D and Samsung QN90D, do – but I found it to be capable of impressive height, solid chest-out depth, and a surprising dynamic range with the ‘Amplify’ mode turned on, while still feeling fairly natural. It didn’t have a ton of width, but that’s forgivable. It certainly felt like you could get away without a soundbar from my first listen.
(Image credit: Future)
Other useful info to know about the Samsung S90D includes that it has a 144Hz screen, with support for 4K 120Hz or 144Hz gaming on all four HDMI ports, as well as variable refresh rate and auto low latency mode. It has Samsung’s Game Bar menu to make it easy to customizing the settings, too – it will likely be a strong contender for our list of the best gaming TVs.
Samsung’s new processor is included, and it supports a wireless connection to certain Samsung Dolby Atmos soundbars, and includes Samsung Q-Symphony support to combine its speakers with the soundbar’s, if you do choose to add one.
We don’t have prices yet – it appears that this size is launching a little after the larger models in the range. But I’m looking forward to spending more time with it.
We’ve been dreaming of listening to lossless audio through Spotify ever since the music streaming service announced plans for Spotify HiFi all the way back in February 2021. More than three years on, the upgrade might finally be arriving, with a new name.
Thanks to some diligent digging into the Spotify for Android code by the user Hypixely on Reddit (via The Verge), we now have evidence for an as-yet-unannounced Spotify feature called Music Pro, which Spotify is describing as an add-on.
With mentions of “16-bit and 24-bit high-fidelity sound” and “Lossless listening” in the code though, this sure sounds like Spotify HiFi. Apparently, advanced mixing tools and playlist filtering features are going to be included too.
There are no hints on price or when we might see this, but all the indications are that there’ll be a new Music Pro add-on available for Spotify soon, including goodies such as lossless audio and the advanced remixing tools we reported on yesterday.
Spotify takes its time
So it won’t be called Spotify HiFi any more… (Image credit: Spotify)
In the words of the Beatles, it’s been a long and winding road to get to this point. Since Spotify HiFi was originally announced in 2021 (and promised for later that year), we’ve had so little official news about it that we were prepared to declare the project dead.
However, leaks from insiders and hidden code spotted in the Spotify apps have previously rekindled our hopes. In the past there’s been mention of a new ‘Supremium’ plan, which now seems to have morphed into Music Pro.
Code discovered in September 2023 pointed to a fee of $20 (about £16 / AU$31) per month, with extras such as AI playlist generation (since launched in beta for Premium subscribers), new ways to sort through your playlists, and more personalized music recaps.
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Spotify is clearly keen to get more money out of its users, and audiophiles may well be tempted into splashing out on Music Pro, if it has enough appeal. This should all be made official sooner rather than later… we hope.
My iPhone is one of the best cameras I’ve ever owned, but it’s also incredibly boring compared to a Leica M11 – and that feeling has been rammed home by the arrival of Leica’s new Leitz Phone 3, its third and most interesting smartphone so far.
The Leitz Phone 3’s allure has, I admit, been enhanced by its Leica red dot and the fact that it’s also only available in Japan. This has naturally made me want it more, but even from a distance, I can see it’s packed with little touches that make me wish smartphones weren’t all functional, grey rectangles that take technically ‘perfect’ photos.
(Image credit: Leica)
For a start, there’s its design. The Leitz Phone 3 is probably a rebranded Sharp Aquos R8 Pro (another Japan-only phone), but it’s also the closest thing to a cross between a phone and a Leica M-series camera. Leica’s given the phone a lovely textured finish and, yes, a lens cap. It’s ridiculous, and I’d lose it in ten minutes – but it’s also a lot of fun.
On a more practical level, the Leitz Phone 3 also has a lot of new software touches. You get an exclusive Golden Hour widget, to tell you when to dash out and get that landscape shot. As much as I love Photopills and its iPhone widget, Leica’s one looks particularly classy and it’s great that it’s built-in. The feature I really like the sound of, though, is the lens simulations.
Glass master
The Leitz Phone 3’s best, and most interesting, new feature is the virtual camera lenses in its Leitz Looks camera mode. These simulate the various aperture stops of three of Leica’s most popular lenses; the Noctilux-M 50mm f/1.2, the Summilux-M 28mm f/1.4, and Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4.
The combined cost of those three lenses is $21,085 / £18,220 / AU$35,070. The Leitz Phone 3 doesn’t have a hope of getting anywhere close to the image quality they can produce – its lenses are likely mostly made from plastic. But I find the concept of software-simulated lenses fascinating, and it’d be great to have the character of Leica-tuned bokeh and vignetting, plus color simulation, in my phone by default.
Image 1 of 4
A sample photo shot taken with a Leica Leitz Phone 3(Image credit: Leica)
A sample photo shot taken with a Leica Leitz Phone 3(Image credit: Leica)
A sample photo shot taken with a Leica Leitz Phone 3(Image credit: Leica)
A sample photo shot taken with a Leica Leitz Phone 3(Image credit: Leica)
It wasn’t long ago that smartphone portrait modes were artifact-ridden nightmares, but according to Leica, the Leitz Phone 3 can simulate the look of those three classic lenses at each aperture stop, from f/1.2 to f/8. Film simulations, like those on Fujifilm cameras, are now pretty common (in this phone they’re called Leica Tones), but software that can simulate the character of specific lenses is something else.
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That doesn’t mean the Leitz Phone 3 is a replacement for an M11, but it does make it way more interesting than my iPhone’s Camera app.
What about the actual cameras?
As you’d hope from a Leica-branded camera, the camera hardware itself is pretty strong too – on paper.
Like the Leitz Phone 2, which landed in 2022, you get a main camera with a 47.2MP 1-inch sensor that’s combined with a 19mm f/1.9 lens. Hardware-wise, that’s comparable to the iPhone 15‘s 48MP 1/1.28-inch sensor.
You also get a fairly standard front-facing 12.6MP camera with an f/2.3 aperture, which isn’t much to write home about. But like a ‘proper’ camera, you do get a microSD card slot to help boost the 512GB of onboard memory, and there’s also the rare inclusion of a headphone/microphone jack.
(Image credit: Leica)
This is all backed up by some other interesting software features, too. For the first time on a phone, the Leitz Phone 3 has a feature called ‘Leica Perspective Control’ which comes from its cameras. This is particularly handy for architectural photography and helps you make sure buildings are standing up straight.
While it’s possible to do this in post-production in apps like Lightroom (or by using tilt-shift lenses, if you have them) the benefit of Leica’s software is that it shows you where in the photo it’ll need to crop to correct the vertical lines. It does this by combining gyroscopic measurements and algorithms, making it another handy feature that I don’t have on my iPhone (without third-party apps, at least).
These kinds of touches, combined with the LFU widget which cycles through images from the Leica Fotografie International Gallery, make the Leitz Phone 3 look like a proper photography tool with a distinct character. But this also comes with big downsides.
Reality check
Just as with the Leica M11, I’m likely romanticizing the Leitz Phone 3 and overlooking the practical annoyances that, outside of photography, probably don’t make it a fun phone to live with.
It runs on Android 14 and it isn’t clear how many years of software updates it’s likely to get. More importantly, it’s only on sale in Japan and seems unlikely to launch outside of that region, given that neither the Leitz Phone 1 or 2 ever got an international release.
(Image credit: Leica)
I’ve also never really seriously entertained getting a Sony Xperia 1 V (which new leaks suggest will get a Sony Xperia 1 VI successor soon), even though it also offers some very interesting camera features and software touches.
The reality is that the iPhone 16 Pro, which I’ll probably upgrade to this year, will almost certainly be the Canon EOS R5 or Sony A7 IV of the phone world when it comes to smartphone photography. In other words, the solid, sensible choice – but I’m still glad that phones like the Leitz Phone 3 exist and hope to see more of its kind arrive outside of the Japan.
Rumors emerged this week that the Apple Watch 10 would arrive with a more power-efficient OLED display, which offers more control over the screen’s power draw than the Liquid Retina OLED displays used by the best Apple Watches in previous years.
This could place much less demand on the battery than the current screen and might just lead to a longer-lasting battery. For me, that’s the single biggest change Apple could make that would convince me to take the plunge and wear an Apple Watch as my main timepiece.
For context, I’ve worn many watches during my role as Fitness and Wearables Editor, but every time a review unit circulates off my wrist, I have just a few I tend to go back to as my standard picks. If I’m in the middle of an intense training block (at the time of writing, the London marathon is a little over a week away) I’ll wear a Garmin Epix Pro, which can last up to two weeks between charges, or even an Apple Watch Ultra 2 if I’m using an iPhone, which gives me 36 hours – just shy of two days.
If I’m taking things easy – with training largely restricted to yoga, the gym, and the climbing center – I’ll probably revert to my beloved Casio digital watches, such as the one our editor-at-large Lance Ulanoff has been wearing recently. Cheap and cheerful with a timer, alarm, and stopwatch, they also crucially have a seven-year battery life. If I want to track sleep or other metrics, I’ll pair that with one of the best smart rings such as an Oura ring, which likewise lasts a full week between charges.
(Image credit: Future)
Notice anything here? It’s all about battery life. While testing the Apple Watch Series 9, I found the 18-hour battery life to be a bugbear compared to the Apple Watch Ultra 2. When testing an Apple Watch that isn’t an Ultra, I’ll often go to bed wearing it, and wake up cursing that my wrist-mounted squircle has transformed from one of the best smartwatches into a useless piece of metal and plastic.
As someone who enjoys running, I use the battery-sucking GPS workout function four to five times a week during a training block, often for long periods, so keeping a spare charger at work has become a necessity during testing.
If something makes you swear more than smile, it isn’t fit for purpose. It’s long past time the Apple Watch had a decent battery upgrade. The OnePlus Watch 2 can reach 100 hours with some clever dual-OS wrangling, and even the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 range, Apple’s nearest Android rival, is now cresting 40 hours. Although the Apple Watch is still the best-selling smartwatch by a huge margin, having a battery performance still stuck at 18 hours simply isn’t good enough in 2024.
(Image credit: Samsungh 6)
Now the Samsung Galaxy Ring is on the horizon, alternative wearable formats are reaching the mainstream, and the era of peak smartwatch may very well be over. Wearable tech is getting slimmer and less obtrusive, and this trend lets them last longer, becoming less of an inconvenience to users.
Health and wellness wearables are also redoubling their focus on sleep: the Galaxy Ring briefing I attended was almost entirely focused on rest and recovery, and Fitbit’s just redesigned the Sleep page on its excellent app. As it stands, Apple can’t compete in this arena, because so many users have to charge their watches overnight.
To remain at the head of the pack, Apple needs to evolve. Bringing the Ultra’s 36-hour battery life to the flagship Apple Watch 10 would be the single biggest quality-of-life change an Apple Watch user could wish for. Every power-saving initiative Apple has implemented in previous years has been plowed right back into powering the watch’s new tricks, such as the Series 9’s double-tap functionality.
This year, I don’t want anything flashy – I want Apple to focus on giving us more time with its watches.
Oppo A3 Pro was launched in China on Friday as the successor to the company’s A2 Pro that arrived in the country in Q3 2023. The smartphone maker has equipped its latest A series handset with a MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chipset, paired with up to 12GB of RAM. The Oppo A3 Pro comes with an IP69 rating and is claimed to sport a 360-degree anti-fall body. It runs on Android 14-based ColorOS 14 out-of-the-box, features a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 64-megapixel primary rear camera, and packs a 5,000mAh battery with support for 67W fast charging.
Oppo A3 Pro price, availability
Oppo A3 Pro price is set at CNY 1,999 for the base model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of inbuilt storage. The phone is also available in 12GB+256GB and 12GB+512GB configurations that cost CNY 2,199 and CNY 2,499, respectively.
The handset will be available for purchase in China via Oppo’s online store and JD.com starting on April 19, according to the company. It is sold in Azure (glass finish), Cloud Brocade Powder (leather finish), and Mountain Blue (leather finish) colour options — these are translated from Chinese.
Oppo A3 Pro specifications, features
The dual-SIM (Nano) Oppo A3 Pro runs on Android 14 with Oppo’s ColorOS 14 skin on top. It sports a 6.7-inch full-HD+ (2412×1080 pixels) AMOLED curved screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection. The company also claims that the phone has a 360-degree anti-fall body. The Oppo A3 Pro is powered by a Dimensity 7050 chipset from MediaTek with up to 12GB of LPDDR4x RAM.
This smartphone is equipped with a dual rear camera setup, comprising a 64-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.7 aperture along with a 2-megapixel depth sensor with an f/2.2 aperture. There’s an 8-megapixel camera on the front with an f/2.2 aperture for selfies and video chats.
You get up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage on the Oppo A3 Pro. The handset offers support for 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS, and a USB Type-C port. It has an in-display fingerprint scanner for biometric authentication and packs a 5,000mAh battery with 67W wired fast charging. It has an IP69 rating for dust and high temperature water resistance, according to the company.
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The iPhone 16 line – and in particular the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max – are likely to rank among the best camera phones. We can predict that much, as Apple’s high-end phones usually do. But thanks to leaks and rumors we can also predict what the actual camera hardware will be.
Below then, you’ll find a detailed look at the most likely camera specs for each of the four expected iPhone 16 models.
This is based mostly on leaks, with some educated guesses mixed in. So none of these specs are confirmed just yet – and nor will they be until the iPhone 16 line is announced, likely in September – but they’re our best guesses right now.
iPhone 16 camera predictions
The iPhone 15 (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Swipe to scroll horizontally
iPhone 16 camera specs (rumored)
Main camera:
48MP, f/1.6, 1/1.56-inch
Ultra-wide camera:
12MP, f/2.4 (120-degree field of view)
Telephoto camera:
N/A
Front camera:
12MP, f/1.9, 1/3.6-inch
Unfortunately, we’re not expecting any big upgrades for the iPhone 16’s camera. According one leaker, the iPhone 16 will have the same 12MP f/2.4 ultra-wide camera as its predecessor, and will once again have just a dual-lens camera. If it does have that ultra-wide camera, then you can expect a 120-degree field of view. They also add that it will lack the auto-focus and macro mode offered by Pro models.
Various leaked images also show just a dual-lens camera on the iPhone 16, so it looks very unlikely that Apple will add a third lens.
As such, there probably won’t be a dedicated telephoto lens, and while we haven’t heard much about the main sensor, we predict this will be the same 48MP f/1.6 one as the iPhone 15 has, since that was an upgrade last year, and Apple is unlikely to give that camera another upgrade already.
However, one change we could see is to the lens layout, with leaked images suggesting they’ll be arranged vertically rather than diagonally on the iPhone 16. That’s speculated to allow for the recording of spatial videos, which could then be viewed on an Apple Vision Pro.
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As for the front-facing camera, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (who has a good track record for Apple information) this won’t be changing, meaning you can probably expect a 12MP f/1.9 snapper like last year. Given that even the iPhone 15 Pro Max only has a selfie camera with those specs, it’s unlikely that the iPhone 16 would get an upgrade here.
iPhone 16 Plus camera predictions
The iPhone 15 Plus (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Swipe to scroll horizontally
iPhone 16 Plus camera specs (rumored)
Main camera:
48MP, f/1.6, 1/1.56-inch
Ultra-wide camera:
12MP, f/2.4 (120-degree field of view)
Telephoto camera:
N/A
Front camera:
12MP, f/1.9, 1/3.6-inch
We haven’t heard much specifically about the cameras on the iPhone 16 Plus, but based on past form they’ll probably be identical to those on the standard iPhone 16.
You can read our detailed predictions for that above then, but in short, it’s likely to have a dual-lens rear camera with a 48MP f/1.6 main sensor, and a 12MP f/2.4 ultra-wide (with a 120-degree field of view). Those are the same specs as the iPhone 15 Plus, and we’ve also heard that it will inherit the same 12MP f/1.9 selfie snapper.
The only rumored change is to the layout of the lenses, from diagonal to horizontal, which might allow the iPhone 16 Plus to record spatial videos for use on the Apple Vision Pro.
iPhone 16 Pro camera predictions
The iPhone 15 Pro (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
Swipe to scroll horizontally
iPhone 16 Pro camera specs (rumored)
Main camera:
48MP, f/1.8, 1/1.14-inch
Ultra-wide camera:
48MP, 1/2.6-inch
Telephoto camera:
12MP, f/2.8, 1/3.06-inch, 120mm (5x optical zoom)
Front camera:
12MP, f/1.9, 1/3.6-inch
While the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus probably won’t be in for any major camera upgrades, the iPhone 16 Pro could be.
The main upgrade here could be the inclusion of a 12MP f/2.8 periscope camera with 5x optical zoom, in place of the iPhone 15 Pro’s 3x telephoto camera. This new sensor would be the one we’ve already seen on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and multiple leaks have pointed to the iPhone 16 Pro getting this periscope camera, so that’s looking likely.
We haven’t heard much about the main camera yet, so for now we’re predicting largely the same as last year – meaning a 48MP f/1.8 main sensor. But the sensor might at least increase in size slightly, up from 1/1.28 inches to 1/1.14 inches according to leaker Digital Chat Station, albeit without a change in the number of megapixels.
The front-facing camera meanwhile will apparently be identical to last year, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (in a post linked above).
iPhone 16 Pro Max camera predictions
The iPhone 15 Pro Max (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
Swipe to scroll horizontally
iPhone 16 Pro Max camera specs (rumored)
Main camera:
48MP, f/1.8, 1/1.14-inch
Ultra-wide camera:
48MP, 1/2.6-inch
Telephoto camera:
300mm super telephoto
Front camera:
12MP, f/1.9, 1/3.6-inch
As impressive as the iPhone 16 Pro’s camera upgrades sound, the iPhone 16 Pro Max could have it beat, as some sources have mentioned the possibility of a ‘super telephoto’ camera for the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which could allow for a focal length of 300mm or more. For comparison, the 5x optical zoom on the iPhone 15 Pro Max is just 120mm.
We would however take this leak with a pinch of salt, as it’s not something we’ve heard about much in a while, and there was some debate over whether this upgrade was planned for the iPhone 16 Pro Max or the rumored iPhone Ultra.
If the iPhone 16 Pro Max doesn’t get this telephoto upgrade then there’s every chance it will stick with the 12MP, f/2.8, 5x zoom camera of its predecessor.
We’re also expecting its other cameras to match the iPhone 16 Pro, which based on leaks (that you can read more about above) could mean a 48MP ultra-wide camera (up from 12MP on the iPhone 15 Pro Max), and improved low light performance for some or all of the lenses.
However, aside from possibly better low light performance and a larger sensor size for the main camera, we’re not currently expecting any significant upgrades to the main or front-facing cameras, which would mean the return of a 48MP f/1.8 main sensor and a 12MP f/1.9 selfie camera.
Fortnite video game maker Epic Games has urged a federal judge in California to force Google to open up its Play Store to greater competition after a jury found the U.S. tech giant had abused its power as a gatekeeper for apps on the Android mobile platform.
Epic made its proposal in a court filing on Thursday to U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco, seeking in part to require Google Play Store to allow users more freedom in how they download apps and to limit Google’s ability to make agreements with device makers to restrict preloading of competing app stores.
Epic said in a statement on Friday it should be allowed to bring its Epic Games Store to Android “without delays and barriers.” The company also said consumers and developers must have greater control over “how they make and offer in-app purchases, free from anticompetitive fees and restrictions.”
Responding to Epic, Google in a statement on Friday said the court filing “shows again that [Epic] simply wants the benefits of Google Play without having to pay for it.” Google said “Android is an open mobile platform that faces fierce competition” from Apple and other competitors.
Donato is not bound to grant Epic’s proposal, and a hard fight is likely before any permanent order on Google is issued. But the new filing sets up the next key test of Google’s ability to impose controls on app developers and consumers.
The jury in December said Google unlawfully impeded developers’ ability to freely distribute their apps outside of Google’s Play Store and kept an overly tight grip on payments for transactions within apps. Google imposes an industry standard 30% commission on many apps and in-app purchases.
Google has defended its app store practices and denied any wrongdoing. The company has a May 3 deadline to respond to Epic’s proposal. Epic’s lawsuit did not demand monetary damages.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has said Google’s December settlement did not go far enough to restore Play Store competition.
North Carolina-based Epic Games is a privately held company, in which China’s Tencent owns a 40% stake and Walt Disney owns a stake of about 9% as of February.
Google separately in December agreed to pay $700 million to resolve state and consumer allegations over its Play Store restrictions.
The company said then it was expanding the ability of app and game developers to provide consumers an alternative billing option for in-app purchases. Google said it had piloted “choice billing” in the U.S. for more than a year.
Google has said it will appeal the December antitrust jury verdict, and it can separately challenge any reforms ordered by Donato, which could stretch the case for years.
A similar case Epic lodged against Apple in 2020, challenging its grip on its App Store, is still being fought after a non-jury trial and appeals.
