Although it’s one of the more inoffensive topics on Polymarket, this news typifies the Wild West of prediction markets and betting sites. A hairdryer was allegedly used to rig Polymarket bets on temperatures at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, according to a report by The Telegraph. French authorities noted that the official temperature readings at the airport spiked twice in the past month. On both occasions, gamblers betting on those temperature fluctuations on Polymarket appear to have walked away with thousands upon thousands of dollars.
There is no indication that Polymarket forced anyone to return winnings, but the temperature sensor has been moved to a new location. The site is also still running bets on the daily temperature in and around Paris.
In a more serious development, a US soldier was arrested for allegedly making over $400,000 on Polymarket using information he had about the plans to capture the former Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro.
Gannon Ken Van Dyke was arrested and charged with using classified military information to place bets on the prediction marketplace Polymarket. Van Dyke created a Polymarket account around December 26, 2025, and made 13 bets related to Maduro from December 27 to January 2.
The soldier has also been charged with one count of wire fraud, carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and one count of unlawful monetary transaction, carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years. It’s a lot heavier than hairdryer shenanigans.
DJI is taking another stab at the budget drone market with the new Lito series. The Lito 1 and Lito X1 are both under $400 and weigh less than 249 grams — they’re ideal for beginners. Both replace DJI’s Mini series, but they offer things those models lacked, like LiDAR and 360-degree obstacle avoidance. After testing both models, I believe they offer unbeatable value and performance at these prices, by a long shot. However, due to DJI’s standing in the US, you might not see either.
As suggested by recent comments by the new boss of Xbox, Microsoft’s gaming arm is cutting the prices of both Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, effective immediately, but there’s one big caveat. New Call of Duty games will no longer be available on Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass on day one. They’ll eventually hit those tiers about a year later, during the following holiday season.
Anker, of battery-pack and cable fame, has announced its own AI chip that it will integrate into its future headphones and other devices. The company is planning to debut the chip, called Thus, on a new model of headphones to be unveiled at its Anker Day event in May.
Anker’s Thus chip integrates computing power directly into NOR flash memory cells, which offer faster read speeds than NAND. Anker says headphones are a particularly challenging environment to demonstrate what a new chip can do because “hardly any other device places higher demands on an AI chip.” Anker announced one particular feature to showcase its silicon. Clear Calls will cancel noise “with a large neural network running entirely on the device, supported by eight MEMS microphones and two bone conduction sensors.”
The logo of the prediction market online platform Polymarket is seen outside their new location called "The Situation Room" during its opening day in Washington, DC, on March 20, 2026. Prediction market platforms have rapidly broken into the mainstream in the United States, positioning themselves as an alternative to both traditional polling and licensed sports betting. Platforms like Polymarket and its biggest rival Kalshi, remain illegal or unregulated in most countries outside the US, where regulators have generally classified them as unlicensed gambling. (Photo by Théo MARIE-COURTOIS / AFP via Getty Images)
Elbowing for attention alongside Vivo and Xiaomi, Oppo has finally launched its long-teased “ultra” version of its flagship smartphone. The Find X9 Ultra is another camera-first smartphone from Oppo, with an even more impressive spec sheet and a new array of accessories. We’re not even halfway through 2026 and we’ve been spoiled with choices, whether it’s the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra (with or without Leica livery) or Vivo’s X300 Ultra.
The Find X9 Pro was already a powerful, capable camera phone. So, what’s changed with the Ultra? We’ve had the base device for over a week, but we’re waiting on the upgraded telephoto converter kit to land before we tackle a more in-depth review.
There are several design changes, starting with the two color options. Canyon Orange looks similar to Oppo’s recent flagship phones, with a subtle etched finish meant to replicate the Grand Canyon. Meanwhile, Hasselblad fans might prefer the other option: a woodland-themed Tundra Umber, inspired by the camera maker’s X2D. Oppo says this colorway channels “Scandinavian minimalism and the raw elegance of glaciers.” Together at last.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Perhaps due to all the camera hardware, it’s a big, thick phone with the camera unit protruding noticeably from the back. The camera array on the Ultra now has a subtle hexagonal design, apparently a nod to camera history — and that Hasselblad partnership. That area has a circular, metal frame, like many of Oppo’s rivals. The edges of the camera unit are knurled, which helps you to grip the device when taking photos. Unlike Xiaomi’s recent Ultra phone, the ring doesn’t act as a zoom control, but Oppo and Hasselblad’s “Earth Explorer Kit” for the Find X9 Ultra adds a very understated camera grip with a zoom lever.
Putting last year’s Find X9 Pro next to the X9 Ultra, the Ultra model looks more modern, more advanced and more powerful. And it is. The Ultra has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, a notable step up from the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chip found on last year’s Find 9 Pro.
There’s also a 7,050mAh silicon-carbon battery that supports 100W SUPERVOOC charging. Oppo says it has included the “industry’s first” encapsulated thermal unit to keep temperatures under control when pushing the device hard, such as recording high-resolution video for extended periods. The display screams expensive Android flagship, too. The 6.82-inch 144Hz display can reach up to 3,600 nits of peak HDR brightness and drop to 1 nit in low-lit situations.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
It’s all about the cameras, however. The Find X9 Ultra’s main camera is a 200-megapixel sensor. At 1/1.12 inches, Oppo says it’s the largest 200MP sensor in a phone yet. It has a low f/1.5 aperture, too. This was my ‘main’ camera when I first started taking the X9 Ultra out to shoot sample photos. After all, bigger sensors mean more detail, and more ability to crop for tighter zoomed shots. With a mixture of streetlights, neon signs and more, I was impressed by the color accuracy. Oppo has embedded a new True Color Camera into the Find X9 Ultra’s camera module, which works across stills and video. Still, if you’re demanding punchy, high-contrast images, there’s an array of Hasselblad filters and effects for playing with, too.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
There’s also a 3x Telephoto camera, with another (different!) 200MP sensor and f/2.2 aperture. This is the camera that the new teleconverter lens attaches to. There’s something appealing about having an instant 3x zoom camera, even though it gets a little lost among the cropped focal-length equivalents in the camera app. In fact, Oppo claims that the Find X9 Ultra offers the equivalent of eight focal lengths. Sadly, I noticed some differences in color temperature and light sensitivity as the Find X9 Ultra hopped between all those camera sensors while I tested different zoom levels.
Images by Mat Smith for Engadget
The next camera is another telephoto, with an impressive 10x zoom with a 50 megapixel sensor. We’ve seen 10x zoom on phones before, like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, but never at such high resolution. Oppo added support for its Portrait mode here, even at full zoom. You can also crop in for a 20x zoom, but the results didn’t blow me away in early testing. At 10x zoom, though, I was impressed. That’s a lot of zoom before even thinking about attaching a teleconverter.
Oppo isn’t going quite as hard on video as its rival (and distant corporate relative) Vivo, but the Find X9 Ultra can capture 4K 60 fps video with Dolby Vision. It’s also the first Oppo smartphone capable of recording 8K video at 30 fps. For those looking to dig into video detail, Oppo has launched a new log profile, O-Log2. The company says this will help reveal greater shadow detail and reduce image smearing — it’s something else I’m itching to try once the teleconverter lands.
Images by Mat Smith for Engadget
Like Vivo's X300 Ultra, Oppo’s newest phone is certified for the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES), so videographers can integrate its footage into professional workflows. You can also load third-party LUTs (look-up tables) directly onto the device to monitor custom color grades in real time and see how they look in the on-device preview.
As is often the case with Chinese phone makers, there’s a lavish accessory kit to build on the smartphone’s shooting talents. Oppo’s Hasselblad Explorer case adds a two-stage focus button and the aforementioned zoom controls. The case has the same muted black and clay colors as the Tundra Umber edition of the Find X9 Ultra. Then there’s the new Hasselblad 300mm Explorer Teleconverter. The magnification ratio of the teleconverter has been increased from 3.28x on Find X9 Pro to around 4.3x on the Find X9 Ultra. The lens mounts directly onto the 200-megapixel 3x telephoto lens, upgrading it to a heady 13x optical zoom.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
This is also the biggest smartphone telephoto lens yet, dwarfing both the Find X9 Pro’s add-on and Vivo’s not-petite 400mm teleconverter. The companies chose different combinations of camera sensors and lenses, making spec sheet comparisons a little trickier, but Oppo’s latest accessory is certainly the largest thus far. I can’t wait to see how the Find X9 Ultra’s photos fare against images from the Vivo X300 Ultra, though. In the Find X9 Ultra’s favor, it has an iPhone 17 Pro-like touch-sensitive button for quickly launching the camera, something I missed on Vivo’s new flagship.
Unfortunately, there is no cross-compatibility among previous Oppo teleconverters and phones. The company says this is to ensure optimal image quality, but it’ll disappoint faithful Oppo fans hoping to carry over the expensive camera accessories from previous years. The company has learned some lessons from the Find X9 Pro, with a new telephoto adapter that can be left mounted on the phone without obscuring the other camera lenses.
On first impression, the Find X9 Ultra is shaping up to be another powerful camera phone, with another hard-to-actually-buy caveat. The Find X9 Ultra will arrive in parts of Asia and Europe. In the UK, it’s set to launch on May 8th, priced at £1,449 (roughly $1,959). While there’s no US release planned, we’ll update this story when we hear more details on the global launch. Once the telephoto add-on arrives, I’m excited to put it through its paces. I’ve got its rival from Vivo too, so it’s time for the battle of the teleconverters.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/oppo-find-x9-ultra--50mp-10x-optical-zoom-telephoto-release-date-price-170052539.html?src=rss
Apple’s current SVP of hardware engineering John Ternus will take over as the new CEO when Tim Cook steps down this September. Cook said in a statement: “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company.”
Following the death of co-founder Steve Jobs, Cook led the charge for Apple’s post-iPhone and iPad era, launching the AirPods, Apple Watch and Vision Pro. He also turned the company into a service provider with the launch of Apple TV, Apple Music and several other subscription services. Cook will transition to a new role as executive chairman of Apple’s Board of Directors.
Ternus joined Apple in 2001 and became VP of hardware engineering in 2013, later transitioning to a senior executive role in 2021. You might have spotted Ternus being prominently featured at the MacBook Neo launch a few months ago. Expect to see a lot more of him.
We’ve seen a few beautiful moments from the Artemis II crew’s history-making trip around the Moon. Now, Reid Wiseman, the mission’s commander, has something to share. While mission specialist Christina Koch was using a Nikon camera to snap stunning still images of the Earthset, Wiseman used an iPhone 17 Pro Max to film the moment. “I could barely see the Moon through the docking hatch window, but the iPhone was the perfect size to catch the view.”
This was the first time that human eyes had witnessed an Earthset in 54 years, since the Apollo 17 mission.
This year's edition of the robot half-marathon hosted more than 100 competitors, with first place going to Honor and its red-clad robot named Lightning. Last year's event featured many bipedal robots receiving assistance from human operators who ran alongside them, along with some comical mishaps. According to the BBC, around 40 percent of the robots competed autonomously this year, while the rest were remote-controlled.
The PencilVac is light, mobile and easy to use, making it great for smaller living spaces and quick clean-ups. However, it struggles with thicker carpet and rugs. It could be perfect for a future-forward witch costume next Halloween, though.
The big deal with Dyson’s new vacuum is how small it is. While “pencil” is certainly an ambitious noun to compare a floor vacuum to, the slender body of the PencilVac Fluffycones ($600) brings to mind mops and brooms rather than hulking cyclone-suction tech and connected cleaning. As we described it last year, it’s the company's most stick-like stick vacuum yet. Dyson has been repurposing its engine tech into smaller form factors for years, such as its hair dryers. However, this is the first time it’s been utilized for floor cleaning.
Dyson recently launched the PencilVac Fluffy, with a more traditional dual-roller system, but I’m focusing on the Fluffycones iteration and will call it simply the PencilVac for brevity. It combines several delightful design features, and while surprisingly potent, it’s — predictably — not quite able to match the power of its bigger brothers. The entire vacuum weighs under four pounds, which adds to its ease of use. That said, it’s heavier than it looks, as the rod shape holds everything inside.
With a 40mm-diameter (almost 1.6-inch) handle, it’s usable even with a single hand, if you want to be extra casual in your cleaning habits. It’s also a delight to use. As with several previous Dysons, like the OmniGlide, the dual-roller system seems to help the PencilVac glide across hard floors. It can be pulled and coaxed around furniture, table legs, under low-profile credenzas and more.
When at rest, the PencilVac sits on four central wheels, but once you start cleaning, the suction creates a sort of floating effect. Those four Fluffycone heads are designed to resist hair tangles, with any captured hair bundled like yarn at the tips of each cone for easier cleaning at the center of the PencilVac. The tips of each cone mean the vacuum can reach the edges of my flooring, too. The Fluffycones aren’t really able to dig into the pile, meaning that while they can certainly pull and lift a layer of dirt and dust, anything deeper will stay there.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
That said, the PencilVac is a dedicated hard floor cleaner. If your home is entirely hardwood or has lots of tile, then it’s not an issue. But if you have carpeted rooms (or large rugs), you might want to consider other models. Also, at higher suction levels, the PencilVac’s rollers would occasionally cut out while vacuuming carpets and rugs.
The PencilVac is also equipped with front and back Dyson Detect lasers, making it easier to see where you’ve missed (and how terrible your floor cleaning habits are). Compared to bigger, more powerful models like the V15 Detect, the PencilVac had a greater tendency to spit out dirt when overwhelmed by larger amounts of debris. This only happened for me when I pushed the limits of what the PencilVac could handle: a handful of garden soil on my hardwood floor.
Because it’s 2026, of course, it’s a connected vacuum, too. When I put together and charged the PencilVac, the first thing it does is project a QR code for pairing. A quick firmware update later and it was ready for use. The only feature in the MyDyson app that you might find useful is maintenance reminders (i.e., when to clean the filter). Everything else, including a battery readout, is built into the handle.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Everything else is built into the handle. Compared to Dyson’s other stick vacs, there is no removable dust canister or battery block. The collection bin is cleverly integrated, drawing in dirt and using the same suction to compact it with force. When you need to empty the compartment — which holds a surprising amount (0.8 liters, according to Dyson) — you remove the cleaning head, point the body at your garbage can and ‘slide’ the dust (compacting it further in the process) into your trash can. The collection area is also see-through, so you can see everything you’re pulling into the PencilVac build up like a sort of gauge. When emptying the stick vac, I also noticed it doesn’t produce the dust cloud you often get with vacuums, which is another nice improvement.
Unlike its other stick vacuums, Dyson’s PencilVac comes with a free-standing charging dock, instead of a wall mount. This makes storage a little more versatile. If you’re a renter, there’s no need for any drilling. I think this also speaks to how it’s meant to be used: briefly, in bursts.
To that point, battery life seemed to be around 20 minutes, depending on the power level used and how dirty the surfaces were. Running entirely on boost, I got under 10 minutes of use. This weakness is exacerbated by a sluggish charging time of over three hours. For smaller spaces and not-too-messy lives, that’s more than enough clean time, though.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
The PencilVac also comes with that Dyson premium, too, priced at $600. That’s still less than the company’s other recent stick vacuums. For example, that’s $50 less than the aforementioned V15 Detect. If your home has a lot of carpeting or rugs to clean, the bigger, more powerful models might be a better choice. The newer PencilVac Fluffy has a more traditional dual-roller system and it's also $150 cheaper.
With its minimalist form factor, the PencilVac is still an engineering marvel. Its high degree of mobility makes it easy to clean in tight corners and between furniture. I just wish it were slightly more powerful.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/dyson-pencilvac-fluffycones-review-almost-the-perfect-floor-cleaner-for-tiny-apartments-154550089.html?src=rss
We heard all about GoPro's new action camera series last week, but the company is now unveiling the pricing across its Mission 1, Mission 1 Pro and Mission 1 Pro ILS cameras. The entry-level Mission 1 ($600) features GoPro's new 50-megapixel 1-inch sensor, which the company says will offer a major leap in image quality and low-light performance over the Hero 13 line. While largely looking the same as the Hero series (and still waterproof), the Mission 1 can record 8K video at 30fps and 4K at 120fps. It lacks the higher frame rates of the other Mission 1 cameras, but supports 10-bit GP-Log2 color and 32-bit float audio.
The Mission 1 Pro ($700) is the flagship fixed-lens model this year, aimed at the professional (or semi-pro) videographer. It has upgraded frame-rate capture to 8K at 60 fps and 4K at 240 fps, along with an extreme "burst" slow-motion mode that hits 960 fps at 1080p. It also captures 4:3 "Open Gate" recordings at 8K/30fps and 4K/120fps, covering the entire sensor area, enabling more versatile editing and cropping across different screen sizes, including vertical video.
Steve Dent for Engadget
Then there's the beastly Mission 1 Pro ILS (Interchangeable Lens System). It swaps the standard GoPro lens for a Micro Four Thirds (MFT) mount lens. It otherwise shares the same 1-inch sensor and high-speed 8K/60fps video specs as the Pro model. It also matches the Pro model's $700 price, with an additional $100 discount for GoPro subscribers. However, it won't be launching until Q3 2026.
All of the Mission 1 Series accessories will be available on a rolling basis beginning May 28, with GoPro's own wireless mic system (take note, Rode and DJI) priced at $160. If you preorder a Mission 1 or Mission 1 Pro directly from GoPro now, you'll get the point-and-shoot grip bundled for free. The company still doesn't have an official release date for the cameras.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/gopros-mission-1-camera-series-will-start-at-600-130044898.html?src=rss
You’ve probably seen DJI’s stick vlogging cameras everywhere. At trade shows and tech events I’ve attended, it’s often the de facto video camera used by reporters and influencers alike. The Osmo Pocket 3 was easy to use, had sharp focus, potent image stabilization and handled vertical and horizontal video recording with minimal compromises.
That was two years ago, so naturally it’s time for an update. According to our review by James Trew, the Osmo Pocket 4 is the one to beat. It’s still incredibly easy to record with, whether you’re doing talk-to-camera vlogs or ambitious, more cinematic-quality videos. With a new 1-inch sensor, improved framerate capture and an extended battery, it’s better than its predecessor in every way. (Except the $605 price.)
There’s a new dedicated zoom button, and you can assign up to three controls to this button through single, double and triple clicks. There’s also 107GB of internal storage, so you don’t need to add storage — that’s plenty to get started with.
There are some things on our wishlist: we’d love some optical zoom, and the lack of dust- and water-protection might give you pause before more ambitious video shoots.
You can ditch the barrage of short-form videos from your YouTube feed if you don’t want to see them. YouTube has rolled out the capability to set your Shorts feed limit to zero minutes. The video-sharing platform originally launched a Shorts feed limit back in October last year, but the lowest option you could choose was 15 minutes. The priority placement of shorts I didn’t want to watch has rankled me for a while — this could be the solution.
After a short teaser dropped last year, we’ve finally got a full trailer for the newest attempt to bring Street Fighter to cinemas. The good news, to me, is that it’s going to be silly, fun and high camp. Ken and Ryu are squabbling, and M. Bison is still, bafflingly, a head of an international crime org. And Chun-Li plans to take him down. Jason Momoa is playing Blanka and Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson is portraying Balrog, while mask-toting Orville Peck will don another mask as Vega.
Nothing takes a different tack with its phone series. For the second time in a row, its midrange entry-level A-series smartphones debuted ahead of its next flagship device. The company has even warned that we won’t be getting the Nothing Phone 4 until next year. Until then, the Phone 4a Pro is here to make an impact, with a more restrained design, a less obtrusive camera bump and specs that beat out last year’s Nothing Phone 3 — all for $499. In 2026, Nothing is truly aiming to dethrone the Pixel 10a.
Hardware
Mat Smith for Engadget
It’s a new look. That’s often the case with Nothing’s smartphones as the company typically reimagines or rejigs what you can see through the clear back panel. This year, however, Nothing is making bigger changes: this is its first metal (aluminum) unibody phone.
With a new periscope telephoto camera design, the jarringly thick camera bump of last year’s Phone 3a Pro is thankfully gone, resulting in a slice of smartphone that feels — and to some, looks — more premium and more refined than Nothing’s “flagship” Phone 3.
However, compared to the Nothing phones that came before, it also feels muted, and a little safe. The playfulness of Nothing has been hemmed in a little. You might prefer it, but I’m not sure I do.
Those identifiable Nothing design flourishes — red details, visible screens, lots and lots of circles — are now squeezed into a camera panel. This oblong area with curved corners houses a trio of cameras, a “Now Recording” red light and a tweaked Glyph Matrix, which we last saw on the Nothing Phone 3.
This new Glyph Matrix is bigger and brighter, but at a lower “resolution,” that’s made of 137 mini-LEDs. That’s fewer than the Nothing Phone 3’s 489-strong dot-matrix, but the LEDs here are 100 percent brighter. So bright, in fact, that I had to turn them down to their lowest brightness when I was using them.The 4a Pro, however, lacks the rear button on the Phone 3 that lets you cycle through Glyph functions. Does this mean the company has made it easy to switch between Glyph toys and notifications in the phone’s UI? Sadly not.
You can dip into the Glyph options through the main settings menu, but to change what the Glyph displays is hidden in a sub-tab. I also noticed that the offering of “toys” was limited, with fewer items than even the Nothing Phone 3 had at launch. Hopefully, this will expand once the phone officially launches.
The 4a Pro packs a bigger screen than the company’s flagship, with a 6.83-inch AMOLED screen running at 1.5K resolution. It also has a higher refresh rate than the 6.67-inch Phone 3. And on top of that, the Phone 4a Pro’s display has a peak brightness of 5,000 nits, making it Nothing’s brightest smartphone yet.
I’ve handled so many phones over the last four weeks that it’s often hard to discern the difference between brighter displays. Fortunately, I have the Nothing Phone 3 (and 3a Pro) to compare against the Phone 4a Pro. It’s noticeably brighter, and as we slowly get into sunnier weather, a smartphone that’s easier to read outdoors is always very welcome.
The Phone 4a Pro also has improved IP65 water and dust resistance, while Nothing says it's 42 percent more bend-resistant than the Phone 3a Pro as well. It’s also almost 0.5mm thinner, if you ignore the camera bump for those measurements. Factor that in and the Phone 4a Pro is almost 1.5mm thinner than its predecessor. This design change also makes Nothing’s newest phone feel far less top-heavy than the 3a Pro. Regardless of the aesthetic changes, this is unmistakably refined hardware.
Cameras
Mat Smith for Engadget
Besides the streamlined camera unit, with a new tetraprism periscopic lens that takes up less space, the Phone 4a Pro has improved imaging capabilities (almost) across the board. The new 50-megapixel periscope telephoto lens (which Nothing says also uses less power) has a 3.5x optical zoom, plus computational photography magic that can now crank it up to a (mostly unusable) 140x hybrid zoom.
The main 50MP sensor also features a bigger sensor for improved low-light performance. With an f/1.88 lens though, it doesn’t quite match the Phone 3’s main camera (f/1.68), both on paper and in practice. The array is rounded out with an 8MP ultrawide camera, which sounds like the weakest link, but I rarely use the ultrawide cameras on any phone aside from review testing. Oddly, the selfie camera is a technical downgrade in resolution, with a 32MP sensor on the 4a Pro, down from 50MP on the 3a Pro.
Mat Smith for Engadget
One new addition was co-developed by Google. Ultra XDR blends Android’s native HDR processing with Nothing’s own approach, capturing 13 RAW frames at different exposures and combining them to deliver greater dynamic range and detail. However, as proof of how new they are, your Ultra XDR images can’t be shared as easily. They do work with Google Photos and Instagram, at least. If it’s any consolation, Ultra XDR so far doesn’t seem hugely far away from typical HDR capture. I’ll keep testing the cameras and if I figure out where it really shines, I’ll update this review.
Mat Smith for Engadget
If one thing disappoints on the 4a Pro, it’s recording video. Switching between zoom levels will often completely derail exposure settings. Even if you record on a single camera at the same focal length, exposure levels seem extremely sensitive and struggle to stay locked. Footage is often muddy and low-light performance isn’t great, even if using the Ultra XDR video mode. You aren’t forced to endure this with the Pixel 10a, but then again, there’s no zoom on Google’s mid-range phone — just a lossless crop. In more forgiving lighting, video is adequate, but quality drops off beyond the 3.5x optical zoom. Still, the versatility and quality of the still images from both the main camera and the telephoto lens put it above every other smartphone at this price.
Performance and software
The Phone 4a Pro is now powered by a more capable processor: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 4. Nothing claims that, in addition to its own on-device optimizations, it improved CPU performance by 27 percent, GPU performance by 30 percent and AI performance by 65 percent compared to the Phone 3a series.
There’s certainly a big difference in performance while gaming. While the 3a series struggled with more complex games, the 4a Pro kept up with Red Dead Redemption and Diablo Immortal. It’s not the most polished interpretation of Decard Cain and the lands of Sanctuary, but it's responsive and playable, even at 60 fps, with only a few frame drops.
The Phone 4a has a 5,080mAh battery, roughly equivalent to its predecessor. It supports up to 50W fast charging, a tad faster than the Pixel 10a, though it lacks wireless charging support, unlike Google’s midranger. It’s one of the few signs that this isn’t Nothing’s “true” flagship, even if it looks the part.
I was pleasantly surprised by the battery life, too. Typically, phones are getting increasingly bigger batteries, but as I mentioned, that’s not the case here.. However, the 4a Pro lasted 24 hours in our battery rundown test, five hours more than last year’s model.
The Phone 4a Pro has all the software features either present or teased in older Nothing Phones. Essential Search is a system-wide search that can find terms in messages, files and the rest of your phone. There’s also a new Breathing Break widget; we definitely need that in 2026.
Essential Memory is Nothing’s name for its background algorithms and analysis, scrutinizing your phone’s contents as well as whatever’s saved in Essential Space. Nothing has added cloud storage for Space, aimed at devoted upgraders, meaning everything you saved on older compatible Nothing phones can be transferred over. Sure, it’s a little niche, but it was an early frustration while testing the Phone 3 after the 3a series. If, for some reason, you have to reset your device, keeping everything in Space backed up elsewhere is a boon.
Mat Smith for Engadget
Also, while it’s technically a hardware tweak, Nothing has also moved the Essential Key to the left edge of the phone, making it far less likely to be triggered when you’re adjusting the volume and more in line with other phones and my own smartphone muscle memory.
One caveat from previous Nothing devices remains. The company says it will deliver three years of Android updates and an additional three years of security patches. Compare that to Samsung’s seven years of Android updates for this year’s S26 series (and Google’s Pixel 10a), and you can see how it falls short.
Wrap-up
The Phone 4a Pro punches well above its $499 price tag. Nothing has successfully refined its hardware into a more premium, all-metal unibody, losing the jarring camera bump of its predecessor in favor of a sleek design that houses a genuinely impressive camera. The improved camera versatility, coupled with its class-leading 24-hour battery life and a more capable processor, makes this a serious threat to the Pixel 10a.
However, some of Nothing's signature playfulness has been dialed back. The Glyph Matrix, while brighter, is lower-resolution and its “toys” are disappointingly limited at launch. The lack of wireless charging is another nod to its midrange status.
Nothing’s Phone 4a Pro is a device with a clear identity, delivering on the essentials for half the price of many rivals.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/nothing-phone-4a-pro-review-glyph-matrix-130042005.html?src=rss
Oppo is back with another high-spec foldable phone you may never see outside a tech journalist's hands. The Find N6 is its new, sub-9mm device that is headed to Asian markets and, for now, not many other places. That means no US or European availability. So why write about it? With its build quality, hardware specs and camera array, not only is it a very good phone, but it's also proof that another device maker can go toe-to-toe with Samsung’s dominance in flagship foldable phones.
Hardware
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Oppo is obsessed with the foldable crease. More than me, more than most of you, more than it should, probably. A focus of its presentation last month in London detailed all the effort put into its “zero-feel crease.” The idea is that you can’t really feel where the device folds, with 3D liquid printing and laser scanning used to fill the hinge's surface precisely. The company says this reduces hinge height variance from 0.2mm to only 0.05mm.
Oppo has improved the glass used on the foldable display, and according to TÜV Rheinland testing (again), the Find N6 reduces long-term crease formation by up to 82 percent compared to last year’s Oppo model. It apparently takes a lot of engineering to make a foldable that looks pristine for longer. It’s definitely still early days, but after a few weeks of use, the crease does seem perceptibly shallower than that of other devices, especially the older Find N5. However, there is still a crease. You might not feel it as much, but you can see it.
Despite that particular obsession, it’s another incredibly thin foldable, measuring 8.93mm (0.35 inches) thick. That means, folded, it seems roughly equivalent to most typical smartphone form factors. For reference, the iPhone 17 Pro is 8.75mm (0.34 inches) thick. Even with its slim profile, it also offers improved protection with IP59 certification against dust and water. The new foldable also picks up a new custom hardware button, like the Find X9, which can be assigned to launch the camera, switch sound profiles and other quick action settings.
The screens are the same size and resolution as its predecessor: a 6.62-inch front display and an 8.12-inch inner screen. There have been notable improvements here, too. Peak brightness has been punched up to 3,500 nits on the front screen and 2,500 nits on the foldable screen, making them brighter than on Oppo’s last foldable, but behind Motorola’s latest, most luminous foldable.
The Find N6 also has another custom 7-core Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor — the flagship processor of the moment. The more impressive spec may be the battery: a huge 6,000mAh Silicon-Carbon power pack. That’s 400mAh more than the Find N5 and 1,600mAh more than the ZFold 7. And it goes and goes: Doing a battery rundown test on the front display playing non-stop video lasted just shy of 30 hours, while using the bigger internal screen still hit 24 hours.
Another area where it bests Samsung is in charge speeds, supporting up to 80W SUPERVOOC wired charging through Oppo’s proprietary adapter and up to 55W with other high-wattage chargers. There’s also 50W AIRVOOC wireless charging — again, only if you have Oppo’s particular flavor of wireless charger, which I do not. Sadly, there are no Qi2/PixelSnap/MagSafe docking magnets.
The cameras
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Oppo has made major improvements to the cameras with several features showcased on the Find X9, now making their way to its foldables. There's a new 200-megapixel main camera with an f/1.8 lens and a new 50MP ultrawide camera that lets in 50 percent more light. The telephoto camera captures 50MP images, with 3X periscope optical zoom and telemacro focus up to 10cm away. All three cameras also support 4K 60 fps Dolby Vision video capture, with the main sensor also capable of 120 fps recording.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Oppo’s new foldable has cameras that rival those of Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold series. The addition of the high-resolution 200MP main sensor adds more detail to images and more versatility, too. The company continues to collaborate with Hasselblad on camera hardware and software. A new Hi-Res mode that captures stills using the full pixel count of each sensor, while other shooting modes from previous devices are still here. That includes the Hasselblad Master Mode, with full control over the camera settings and the iconic XPAN mode for 65:24 panoramic stills and video.
While I was already impressed by Oppo’s recent Find X9, the Find N6 still surprised me. It’s versatile, consistent, and it’s almost the best foldable camera phone — if only its telephoto matched the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s 5x zoom.
Software
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When it comes to multitasking, the Find N6 really wants to deliver, even if the end result is a little messy. You can run a full-screen app, while three Free-Flow Windows each run a different app or web page, all concurrently. Every window is interactive and it almost immediately gave me a stress headache. Oppo has baked in a system of swipes and pinches to aid navigation, but I’d argue that even an 8.1-inch screen isn’t enough for all those windows. Still, for the true power user, there is a lot to tap into. If you’re the kind of person who bounces between work chats in Slack, your calendar and umpteen Chrome tabs — this phone is aimed at you.
Oppo wasn’t done with the productivity bonafides. It’s added a new stylus to its foldable series, which comes with its own holster/case that attaches to the back of the Find N6. In most instances, this would make a chunky foldable too bulky, but the base phone is so slim that it's passable. The case also serves as a charging cradle that can recharge the stylus via reverse wireless charging. I’m not a huge stylus user, but for those who miss the S Pen, this is an option if you live in a country where it’s being sold.
The stylus, officially called the Oppo AI Pen (hate that name), has a button to summon an onscreen palette of tools and features. Double-pressing the button switches between writing and erasing, which is pretty handy. Screen-off note-taking will apparently arrive in a later software update.
Oppo is also continuing to bridge ecosystems with iPhone Connect, which adds AirDrop-style file sharing to Apple phones. Remote PC control is still a cute feature, making the Find N6 into a tiny pocketable PC, if you’re willing to work on your laptop through a tiny screen.
Wrap-up
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
It’s another impressive foldable from Oppo, one that sadly most folks will never be able to buy. What’s stopping Oppo from testing the waters outside of Asia? The Find N6 is an incredibly powerful, technically impressive device. What is Oppo afraid of?
The foldable will arrive in both silver and orange, although the latter is a little more muted than I’d hoped. For now, Oppo is launching the Find N6 on March 20 in China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and other Asian territories. The company just announced that prices will start at ¥9999 in China (approximately $1,450), with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/oppos-find-n6-might-be-the-foldable-of-your-dreams-131036055.html?src=rss
You may have a little Apple fatigue after last week's barrage of Macs, iPhones and iPads. The company wasn't done, however. Surprise! Here is an updated pair of AirPods Max. It's a predictable surprise, perhaps, but one I wasn't expecting after so many other new devices.
It's also the first true update. The AirPods Max 2 look identical to their predecessor, but now have an H2 chip. First, the AirPods Pro 2 improve noise cancellation by 50 percent and add support for Adaptive Audio and Live Translation. It's a much-needed update for headphones that, barring a USB-C option, haven't changed since 2020.
What did I just say? Wrapping up the barrage of reviews of all that new Apple hardware (besides those new AirPods), we test out Apple's most powerful new MacBook. The new Pro has an M5 Max chip, plenty of memory and is a beast. Thankfully, it still has all the ports you'd want.
The class action lawsuit says that the lives of three teens have been "shattered."
xAI is facing a class-action lawsuit in California, after its Grok AI reportedly generated sexualized images of children. Three teenagers filed suit, alleging Grok used their photos to create child exploitation material. One teen was alerted in December that AI-generated, sexually explicit images of her and other minors were being shared "in settings with which she was familiar, but morphed into sexually explicit poses." The Center for Countering Digital Hate estimated in January that Grok produced millions of sexualized images, including 23,000 potentially depicting children.
Google is rolling out a new feature for Chrome that will add a bookmark bar to the browser on Android foldables and tablets. Spotted by 9to5Google, this move will make the browsing experience on larger mobile devices more akin to that of laptops and desktops running Chrome. Perfect if you managed to grab Samsung's Galaxy Z TriFold before it disappears forever.
Now that Apple is designing and engineering its own silicon, the updates come fast. It’s been less than two years since the company released the M2-powered iPad Air and we’re already on our third iPad Air iteration, one with the M4 inside. That’s the same chip that was inside the iPad Pro in 2024.
That’s one way of expressing how powerful 2025's iPad Air now is – and it remains a step above the base iPad in most ways. However, there’s room for improvement. Apple has stuck with the same display for another year. The 11-inch iPad Air that Nathan Ingraham reviewed seems to have has the same screen in 2026 as it did when the first no-Home button iPad Air was released in late 2020. (And that’s the one I’m still using!) Also, why still no FaceID?
Qualcomm, which bought microcontroller board manufacturer Arduino last year, just announced a new single-board computer that marries AI with robotics. The Ventuno Q is more sophisticated (and expensive) than Arduino's usual AIO boards, thanks to the Dragonwing IQ8 processor that includes an 8-core ARM Cortex CPU, Adreno Arm Cortex A623 GPU and Hexagon Tensor NPU that can reach up ot 40 TOPs. It also pacs in Arduino App Lab, with pre-trained AI models including LLMs, VLMs, gesture recognition and object tracking, all running offline.
Siri's ongoing AI overhaul could be to blame for the wait.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is back with the latest rumors on new Apple hardware and the company’s continued Siri woes. His sources say that Apple is expected to postpone its smart home display until later in 2026, possibly September, when it often introduces another barrage of new gadgets. The hardware has reportedly been finished for months, but the AI-centric overhaul of Siri is still not done.
Dell’s revamped XPS 14 is more powerful than ever. The XPS series has long been a favorite at Engadget, and this one’s lightweight and features a gorgeous OLED screen. However, Dell’s keyboard this year has a baffling flaw: its keyboard. It somehow forces you to type more slowly to log each key press. And this isn’t a capacitive touchscreen or anything complicated. According to Dell, “a small batch of early XPS units” have these quick typing issues. They also say the issue is currently resolved and doesn’t affect XPS units shipping now. We’ll be checking once a firmware update, meant to fix the issue, lands.
This isn’t a Galaxy Note 7 debacle. Oukitel's WP63 is a ruggedized smartphone that’s meant to set things alight. It has a built-in electric igniter, aimed at emergency response and camping, helping to start fires when you forgot matches, but you brought this beastly phone along for the adventure. It’s got several other notable features, like a 20,000mAH battery, a loudspeaker, and even its own built-in USB-C cable for charging other devices.
Still, the igniter was why I was here. The WP63 has an electric coil that heats up, similar to cigarette lighters in cars circa 1987. This is hidden away behind a protective cover at the top of the device, and once it pops out, you activate it using an app. An Oukitel spokesperson was able to light some rolled-up paper, and I was surprised how gentle and seemingly in control it was. (The paper looked like a cigarette, too.)
Unfortunately, another spokesperson told me that it can’t be used to light candles, although I can’t understand why. I don’t start campfires, but I do light candles.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
The phone will be priced around $500, and completely ignoring the tendency for thinner and thinner phones, it’s 27mm thick. Another outdoor use? If a bear decided to attack you in the woods, you might be able to concuss it with the WP63.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/oukitel-wp630-mwc-2026-smartphone-igniter-101046023.html?src=rss
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