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Tag: reviews and first looks

  • Zoom Uncomfortably Close With Oppo’s Crazy New Telephoto Lens

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    For several years, the top Chinese smartphone brands have been duking it out for photography dominance. Even though year-over-year changes are often minuscule, these companies try to one-up one another. Take Oppo’s latest flagship, the Find X9 Pro, as an example.

    It boasts a 200-megapixel telephoto lens developed with camera manufacturer Hasselblad, so you can zoom in on a subject from afar. If that wasn’t enough, Oppo sells a bonkers Hasselblad Teleconverter Kit, a proper 3.28X telephoto lens that slots onto a special case providing more optical zoom than I’ve ever seen in a smartphone.

    The Find X9 Pro, launching alongside the slightly more modest Find X9, already launched in China, but will soon be landing in the UK and Europe (not the US). As you might expect, it is an absolute unit in terms of specs. Alongside the versatile camera system with pro software tools, there’s a lovely 6.78-inch screen, and a truly enormous 7,500 mAh silicon-carbon battery.

    Close Up

    Photograph: Simon Hill

    I love a telephoto lens in my phone. While I rarely bother with the ultrawide, the option to zoom in from a distance often proves useful. You can get close-ups at gigs and other stage-based events, pick up on cool architectural details, and sometimes figure out what the hell that distant thing is. Aptly-named zoomers don’t realize how good they’ve got it; you used to need a DSLR with a huge lens to get as close as your average phone can now.

    The Oppo Find X9 Pro has a 200-megapixel telephoto lens that supports 3X optical zoom, and it can take excellent shots at 6X zoom by cropping 200-megapixel images down to 50 megapixels. Oppo claims it’s capable of 13.2X lossless zoom using computational photography; I’m not sure about that number, but the Find X9 Pro certainly takes great photos of any distant subject. Technically, the digital zoom goes up to 120X, but anything beyond 30X starts to look like an oil painting.

    Impressive as it is, there have been other phones with 200-megapixel telephoto lenses, so Oppo kicked things up a notch with the optional Hasselblad Teleconverter Kit. Used in conjunction with its Magnetic Photographer Case, there’s a sliding attachment that slots over the camera module, then the lens twists and clicks securely into place over the telephoto lens, adding another 3.28X zoom.

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    Simon Hill

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  • Xiaomi’s New Phone One-Ups Apple’s iPhone Redesign With a Second Screen

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    Bearing in mind this is the Chinese model (there’s no word on a global edition yet), I was unable to test all of the functionality, but I have a good idea what will work here and what doesn’t. I love the time and notifications, because I don’t have to pick up my phone as much when it’s face down on the desk and I’m working.

    The customizable themes and pets are fun. It’s an opportunity to add a little more personality to your phone. While the real-time updates work only with select Chinese apps right now, the utility is clear, and the music controls are very handy. The selfie preview is an obvious benefit, as the photos you can take with the main camera far surpass those taken with any front-facing camera.

    Photograph: Simon Hill

    I’m also excited about the pin function. You know that awkward dance you do when you’re queuing? You have the QR code that they’ll scan in a minute open on your phone, but you want to continue reading or messaging. Well, this allows you to pin it on the back display and get on with what you’re doing. While I wasn’t able to test it, I know this will be handy.

    As a big retro gaming fan, I love the look and feel of the case, and it automatically connects via Bluetooth and triggers the game mode. But once I got over the novelty, I was left wondering why I would ever want to play a game on a tiny screen interrupted by camera lenses when I have one of the most gorgeous 6.7-inch phone displays I’ve ever used in my hand. I tried Angry Birds 2, and it’s totally playable on the back display, but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

    And the Rest

    Xiaomi 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max Specs Release Date Price Features

    Naturally, the 17 Pro Max is a specs beast, and the 17 Pro isn’t far behind. Both are powered by Qualcomm’s brand-new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, and my review unit has 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage. The displays feature Xiaomi’s new M10 display technology, and it is sharp and power-efficient, and it gets very bright.

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    Simon Hill

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  • It’s Time for Nothing to Do Something

    It’s Time for Nothing to Do Something

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    From having no products, the Cayman-Islands registered company was able to assemble a device with off-the-shelf components (the first generation Ear 1 didn’t even have custom drivers) quickly and sell it, drawing on connections the co-founders had made while at OnePlus, another brand with similar strategy.

    Nothing’s initial product had a good marriage of hardware and software, and the headphones sounded pretty solid compared to others. We liked them on review, though not enough that they’re a top pick for us.

    The second generation of earbuds, the Ear (Stick) (7/10, WIRED Review) and Ear (2) (8/10, WIRED Review) brought custom drivers and a better case, although they still look, feel, and sound very similar to the vast majority of earbuds that I call “AirPods but”. You probably get the idea: Airpods but with color. AirPods but with better eartips. AirPods but with LDAC lossless audio or noise canceling. Nearly every brand has them, nearly all of them are pretty decent. LG doesn’t even make cell phones anymore and yet it has a pair of AirPod clones. The fruit hangs to the ground.

    The new Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a) appear to once again offer incremental performance increases. I say appear to because though the company asked WIRED to announce these new products to the world, it has yet to provide us with usable images, battery life, a release date, or pricing, despite repeated inquiries. All the brand would supply was the picture you see at the top of this article.

    Nothing did provide us with a bit of info about the inside of the headphones, which we have to assume will resemble the older models until proven otherwise. The brand claims a new ceramic driver will make crisper, clearer sound up high, and a new internal architecture will offer deeper bass. It also touts new adaptive noise canceling tech in the Nothing Ear (a) as being now 5db quieter overall (from 40db to 45db of reduction between generations). That’s fine, but it’s not staggering.

    I’m not sure whether these incremental innovations are enough to put the brand on the top tier of consumer audio, but at least they keep it from falling behind. Apple itself has incrementally updated the AirPods and AirPods Pro for generations—but it also has the world’s best-selling product.

    No Solid State for Nothing

    It’s not like Nothing doesn’t have the capacity to develop new things. When it released its first headphones, it had a combined staff of 30 on audio. That staff is now up to 300, according to Evangelidis, including five dedicated acoustic engineers, and a team of 30 folks alone to debug the new active noise canceling. That’s significantly more brainpower, which is exactly the kind of stuff that might lead to noticable innovation either in these new models or down the line.

    Once again: I haven’t yet heard or seen a pair, and I have no idea what they’ll cost. They are set to release later this year, with samples coming to reviewers in short order. On paper, and without the vital information of pricing (but knowing that historically Nothing’s buds have cost $100-150), they seem like they’ll be competitive buds that will likely offer many of the same features as options from JLab, Jabra, Oneplus, Samsung, and countless others.

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    Parker Hall

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