It’s Prime Day times, and one of my favorite sonic surprises of 2025 is getting a sweet discount. The Sony Bravia Theater System 6 is one of the best soundbar setups I’ve tested this year, offering a unique mix of components that serve up some of the most thrilling and musical surround sound you can get for the money. There aren’t a ton of fancy features here, but you’ll get everything you need in one box to take your TV setup from boring to bodacious.
The Bravia Theater System 6 comes in a rather large box, with its hefty subwoofer taking up most of the real estate. The large cabinet serves as both the sonic foundation and the primary hub of the 5.1-channel system, offering all inputs and connecting to the slim soundbar via a small flat cable. Inputs include HDMI eARC for seamless TV connection, as well as digital optical and 3.5-mm analog input for legacy sources.
A small amplifier box connects to the subwoofer wirelessly, while two more flat cables connect the tall surround speakers. It’s a lot of wires for a single-box surround system in 2025, but the payoff is performance that gets refreshingly close to more complex multi-speaker setups. You’ll get punch and verve in the bass, smooth musicality and poised dialog from the bar, and clear and fluid surround channels from the back speakers. While there aren’t any upfiring speakers for 3D sound formats like Dolby Atmos, the System 6 does a commendable job virtualizing Atmos.
One thing you won’t get in the package is Wi-Fi support, which means you’ll be confined to Bluetooth streaming, and any updates need to be done manually with a USB drive, yet another callback to older Home Theater in a Box (HTiB) systems.
A bit of awkwardness in setup is worth it for the sheer cinematic performance the Bravia Theater System 6 serves up. It’s worth the splurge for many at full price, but this discount makes it a much easier choice for anyone looking to take their basic TV setup to the next level. If you want to be fully immersed in your films and TV shows, this setup delivers.
Amazon’s latest October Prime Day sale is underway, and a selection of highly-rated TVs from LG, Samsung, Sony and others are discounted for the occasion. If you can’t wait until Black Friday to upgrade, we’re rounding up the best Prime Day TV deals on the sets worth your time below. We’ve also thrown in a few discounts on streaming players we like. Just keep in mind that Amazon’s “Prime Big Deal Days” event runs through October 8, and you may need to be a Prime member to see some of the discounts.
Best Prime Day TV deals
TCL
The TCL QM6K is widely regarded by reviewers we trust as one of the year’s better TV bargains. It’s a value-oriented model, so it won’t get you the same level of contrast, color volume or brightness as more expensive sets, nor will it be ideal for HDR content (especially in well-lit rooms). Still, its quantum-dot color, mini-LED backlighting and full-array local dimming more than hold their own for the price, and it runs on the useful Google TV platform. It’s also a nice buy for gaming on a budget, since its input lag is relatively low and it has a native 144Hz refresh rate that can reach as high as 288Hz at 1080p.
This discount is only a dollar more than the lowest price we’ve seen for the 55-inch version. Other sizes are available for all-time lows, including the 65-inch model for $548 and the 75-inch model for $750.
TCL QM7K 55-inch Mini-LED TV for $570 ($330 off MSRP): If you’re willing to stretch your budget a little further, the TCL QM7K is a fairly comprehensive step up, with noticeably improved contrast, brightness and color volume. It has a 144Hz refresh rate with 288Hz support at 1080p, too, though it’s still limited to two HDMI 2.1 ports. (As with the QM6K, however, neither of those is an eARC port, so hooking up a soundbar won’t block a game console if you have multiple systems.) This discount represents a new low, beating the previous best mark we’ve seen by roughly $30.
Hisense U8QG 65-inch Mini-LED TV for $998 ($500 off):Several reviewssuggestthatthe Hisense U8QG ticks most of the requisite boxes for a LCD TV in 2025: robust local dimming and mini-LED backlighting, exceptionally high brightness, vibrant quantum-dot colors, a fast refresh rate (165Hz in this case), support for the major HDR formats and so on. It’s a higher-end option than something like the TCL QM6K or QM7K with superior brightness and contrast, though it still falls short of a good OLED TV when it comes to the latter. Like most LCD panels, it’ll also look a bit washed out if you view it from an angle. It has three HDMI 2.1 ports, which is one fewer than many other TVs in this price range, though it uniquely includes a USB-C video input if you want to hook up a gaming laptop or Nintendo Switch. (Just note that you won’t get VRR or HDR when using that.) You’d mainly get it over an OLED TV if you’re willing to trade some picture quality for something better-suited in a bright room. This deal on the 65-inch model matches the best price we’ve tracked.
Samsung S90F 55-inch QD-OLED TV for $1,100 ($498 off): The Samsung S90F is an upper-tier model with a QD-OLED panel, which blends the usual perks of a quality OLED set — near-perfect contrast, wide viewing angles, clear motion, low input lag — with a layer of quantum dots. This helps it produce a wider gamut of more vivid colors compared to traditional WOLED TVs. It also comes with four HDMI 2.1 ports and has a fast refresh rate of 144Hz. It doesn’t support Dolby Vision HDR, however, and reviews we trust say that the LG C5, a competing WOLED model, retains darker black levels in a bright room. This deal marks a new low for the 55-inch model, while the 65-inch and 77-inch versions are also at all-time lows of $1,598 and $2,298, respectively. Just make sure you only buy the 55-, 65- or 77-inch model, as every other size in the US uses a lesser WOLED panel. Shady, we know.
LG C5 65-inch OLED TV for $1,373 ($1,324 off): The LG C5 can’t produce the same bold colors as a QD-OLED display like the Samsung S90F, but reviewsalmostuniversallyagree that it’s an exceptional OLED TV otherwise. It should get brighter with non-HDR content, and as noted above it should produce deeper blacks in well-lit environments. It also has just about all the essential gaming features, plus it supports the popular Dolby Vision HDR format (but not HDR10+). If you need that, or if you want an OLED set in this price range for a bright-ish room, it’s well worth a look. This is nearly an all-time low for the 65-inch model, beating its typical street price by about $125. Other sizes are also on sale, but note that the 42- and 48-inch models can’t get as bright as the larger versions.
LG B5 55-inch OLED TV for $997 ($100 off): The B5 is LG’s entry-level OLED TV for 2025, and as such it’s a level below the C5 in terms of brightness and color performance. It’s technically limited to a 120Hz refresh rate instead of 144Hz as well, though that isn’t a huge deal right now unless you plan on hooking up a gaming PC. If anything, last year’s LG C4 — which isn’t seriously discounted as of this writing — is a better value for most on the whole. But if you just want to save cash, the B5 still provides most of the core benefits of an OLED display at a lower price. This is a new all-time low for the 55-inch variant.
Samsung S95F 55-inch QD-OLED TV for $1,998 ($200 off): If you’re willing to pay for a top-of-the-line OLED TV, the Samsung S95F should fit the bill. Reviewsaroundthewebpraise itfor being especially bright for an OLED TV while retaining the bold colors and superb contrast you’d want from a high-end QD-OLED panel. That brightness combined with the screen’s matte finish means it’s particularly adept at fending off glare, so it’ll be effective in either a dark or bright room. It’s also loaded with gaming features, including a 165Hz refresh rate. That said, the matte coating means black levels won’t be as deep in a well-lit environment, and there’s still no Dolby Vision support. This is the lowest price we’ve seen for the 55-inch model.
LG G5 55-inch OLED TV for $1,768 ($732 off): The LG G5 competes with the Samsung S95F in the top end of the OLED TV market. Most reviewssayit cangeteven brighter than Samsung’s model, it supports Dolby Vision and its lack of a matte coating means it won’t lose its inky black levels in a bright room. That said, having a glossy finish also means that it’s more susceptible to direct reflections. And while its picture is a level above most other WOLED TVs, it isn’t quite on par with the S95F when it comes to color volume. Still, if you’re mainly going to watch things in the dark, it might be the better buy. This is a new low for the 55-inch variant.
Sony Bravia 8 II 65-inch QD-OLED TV for $2,798 ($702 off): It’s certainly not cheap, but the Sony Bravia 8 II has earnedplaudits for its excellent image processing, upscaling and overall accuracy alongside the expected color, contrast and motion benefits of its QD-OLED display. This should help it make lots of movies and shows look closer to their original intent. It also uses the handy Google TV interface. This deal marks the best price to date for the 65-inch version. That said, if you can’t stomach the high price, other reviewsnote that the older Sony A95L offers similar performance a bit less, while more recent competitors like the LG G5 and Samsung S95F can get noticeably brighter (even if they’re not always as accurate). Those two should be better for gaming as well, as the Bravia 8 II only has two HDMI 2.1 ports — one of which is an eARC port for soundbars — and its input lag is slightly higher.
Samsung The Frame (2024) 55-inch LED TV for $798 ($700 off): Samsung’s The Frame series has always been for people who care about their TV’s aesthetic more than its picture quality, since it’s designed to resemble a framed piece of wall art. It’s still overpriced for a TV with no local dimming or Dolby Vision HDR, but this deal ties the lowest price we’ve seen for the 55-inch model, making it at least a little more reasonable. Other sizes are also on sale. Note that this deal is for the 2024 model — this year’s version is discounted as well, but its panel still isn’t great for the price. We’d recommend saving as much cash as possible if you really want one of these things.
Google
The Google TV Streamer 4K is the top recommendation in our guide to the best streaming devices. It’s bigger and much more expensive than the old Chromecast even with this discount, but it blends faster hardware with a helpful interface that pulls together content from across services and regularly makes it easy to find (or jump back into) things you might actually watch. It can also work as a smart home hub with support for the Matter and Matter-over-Thread protocols. It’s limited to Wi-Fi 5 and lacks hands-free voice control, however. This deal is only $1 more than the lowest price we’ve seen.
Roku Streaming Stick 4K for $30 ($20 off): The Streaming Stick 4K is worth considering if you prefer a stick-style streamer that plugs directly into your TV, or if you’re partial to Roku’s app-centric interface, which many find simpler to navigate than the content-heavy UIs pushed by Google and Amazon. It supports Apple AirPlay and the major HDR formats, and its performance remains quick enough for most. You’ll have to deal with some ads, though, and no Roku player supports the Twitch app. This deal is $5 more than the device’s all-time low but ties the best price we’ve seen in several years.
Roku Streaming Stick Plus for $24 ($16 off): The Streaming Stick Plus is cheaper alternative to the Streaming Stick 4K with no Dolby Vision support and no long-range Wi-Fi extender built in. The latter means it may be less reliable if you don’t get a consistent connection in your TV’s room. (Both sticks are limited to Wi-Fi 5, though.) That said, this model can typically be powered straight from a TV’s USB port instead of requiring a separate power supply. If you can live with the sacrifices, it may not be worth paying extra. This deal represents a new all-time low.
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K for $25 ($25 off): The standard Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K offers the same core experience as the pricier Fire TV Stick 4K Max, only it comes with a slightly slower processor, half the storage (8GB) and Wi-Fi 6 instead of Wi-Fi 6E. For most people just looking for a casual streamer on the cheap, those shouldn’t be huge losses. This model is also more powerful than the just-announced Fire TV 4K Select, though its Fire OS interface can still be messy and ad-heavy, with special emphasis on Amazon’s own services. This deal is $3 more than the stick’s all-time low, though it matches the best price we’ve seen since Black Friday last year.
Amazon Fire TV Stick HD for $18 ($17 off): The Fire TV Stick HD is the budget pick in our guide to the best streaming devices. It can only stream up to 1080p, and it can run a bit choppier than the 4K models since it has a slower chipset and half the RAM (1GB). The usual issues with the Fire TV interface still apply here too. But if you just want to add streaming apps to an aging TV or basic monitor for as little cash as possible, it should get the job done. This discount ties the device’s lowest price to date.
Five years into the console’s life cycle, the latest PlayStation 5 is more expensive than ever. If that wasn’t enough, Sony is now offering customers less bang for their buck than if they had bought the hardware just a few months ago. The version of the PlayStation 5 without a disc drive costs $500 and has far less internal storage than before. It’s such a big downgrade; you’re better off hunting for an older or used console if you hoped to play Ghost of Yotei before the end of the year.
Earlier this month, Sony started shipping a 500-euro version of the slim PS5 with less storage—825GB—than the previous slim version’s 1TB to Europe. With the standard storage requirements for the system’s operating system, that means the new system only has 667GB for you to download your games to. It didn’t take long for that version to make its way to the U.S. The PlayStation Direct online store now sells the $500 “PlayStation 5 Digital Edition Console – 825GB.” It’s the same amount that shipped with the original PS5 in 2020. The PlayStation 5 with a disc drive still comes with 1TB of storage and demands $550 from your wallet. The PlayStation 5 Pro comes with 2TB of storage but now costs $750 after the recent price hikes.
New PlayStation 5 Model Changes:
-Model CFI-2116
-825 GB, Less Storage, 667.2 GB Useable Same As Launch PS5
-All Matte Console
-USB Colours On The Back Now Blue
-2,433 Grams Compared To The 2,556 Grams Of The 2000 Model, 3,800 Grams Of Launch PS5
Gizmodo reached out to Sony for comment on the switch to the older storage option, but we did not immediately hear back. Anybody who has tried to wrangle multiple digital games on their system knows how fast 667GB of storage will get eaten up by storage-hungry games. Less storage only means players will need to go out and spend even more money on new SSD upgrades they need to install themselves. (Admittedly, that’s a very easy process.)
This is not how things are supposed to unfurl. Gaming and computing hardware normally cheapens over time. In the case of Sony’s gaming brand, consoles also improve over time. Hardware aficionados have made a game of opening up new PlayStation 5 consoles over the years to see how Sony has minimized excesses and improved thermals. For example, the CFI-12XX version of the non-slim PS5 from 2022 was significantly lighter than the 2020 edition. It sports a new heatsink and lighter cooling fans to help reduce weight. The latest version clocks in at 2,433g, or about 5.3 pounds. That’s around 100g lighter than before. Sony didn’t touch the SoC, or system on a chip. It’s getting the same power draw as before and will be practically equivalent in performance compared to previous editions. The only cosmetic change is the black plastic between the two white plates is matte instead of glossy.
This is a bad time to try and get into gaming. Last month, Xbox hiked prices for its Xbox Series S and X consoles for the second time in a year. Now, a brand-new Series X with a disc drive costs $650. The digital-only version asks for $600, but at least it comes with the full 1TB of storage. Last week, Xbox raised the price of its Game Pass Ultimate subscription to $30 a month, or $360 a year. While Netflix and other streaming services have trained consumers to expect subscriptions to get more expensive and worse with time, Sony is setting us up to anticipate the same with hardware.
It’s time for another October Prime Day sale, and that means Amazon is selling a number of well-regarded TVs for lower prices than usual. Not every deal is exclusive to the event, and it’s still more than possible that these sets drop even further as we get closer to Black Friday. For now, though, a few recommended sets from the likes of TCL, Hisense, Samsung and Sony are on sale. We’ve rounded up all the best October Prime Day TV deals we’ve seen thus far below, and we’ll update this post as more arise. Just note that you may need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber to access some of the discounts.
Best Prime Day TV deals
TCL
The TCL QM6K is widely regarded by reviewers we trust as one of the year’s better TV bargains. It’s a budget-oriented model, so it won’t get you the same level of contrast, color volume or brightness as more expensive sets, nor will it be ideal for HDR content (especially in well-lit rooms). Still, its quantum-dot color, mini-LED backlighting and full-array local dimming more than hold their own for the price, plus it runs on the useful Google TV platform. It’s also a nice buy for gaming on the cheap, since its input lag is relatively low and it has a native 144Hz refresh rate that can reach as high as 288Hz at 1080p. This discount ties the lowest price we’ve seen for the 75-inch model.
Hisense U8QG 65-inch Mini-LED TV for $1,082 ($416 off):Several reviewssuggestthatthe Hisense U8QG ticks most of the requisite boxes for a LCD TV in 2025: robust local dimming and mini-LED backlighting, exceptionally high brightness, vibrant quantum-dot colors, a fast refresh rate (165Hz in this case), support for the major HDR formats and so on. It’s a higher-end option than something like the TCL QM6K with much better brightness and contrast, though it still falls short of a good OLED TV when it comes to the latter. Like most LCD panels, it’ll also look a bit washed out if you view it from an angle. It has three HDMI 2.1 ports, which is one fewer than many other TVs in this price range, though it uniquely includes a USB-C video input if you want to hook up a gaming laptop or Nintendo Switch. (Just note that you won’t get VRR or HDR when using that.) You’d mainly get it over an OLED TV if you’re willing to trade some picture quality for something that’s better-suited in a bright room. This deal on the 65-inch model isn’t an all-time low, but it matches the best price we’ve tracked since July.
Samsung S90F 55-inch QD-OLED TV for $1,498 ($100 off): The Samsung S90F is an upper-tier model with a QD-OLED panel, which blends the usual perks of a quality OLED set — near-perfect contrast, wide viewing angles, clear motion, low input lag — with a layer of quantum dots. This helps it produce a wider gamut of more vivid colors compared to traditional WOLED TVs. It also comes with four HDMI 2.1 ports and has a fast refresh rate of 144Hz. It doesn’t support Dolby Vision HDR, however, and reviews we trust say that the LG C5, a competing WOLED model, retains darker black levels in a bright room. (The S90F has a more colorful image, though.) We saw this 55-inch model go for $100 less earlier in the month, but this deal matches the best price we’ve tracked otherwise. The 65-inch version is similarly discounted. Just make sure you only buy the 55-, 65- or 77-inch model, as every other size in the US uses a lesser WOLED panel. Shady, we know.
Sony Bravia 8 II 65-inch QD-OLED TV for $2,998 ($502 off): It’s certainly not cheap, but the Sony Bravia 8 II has earnedplaudits for its excellent image processing, upscaling and overall accuracy alongside the expected color, contrast and motion benefits of its QD-OLED display. This should help it make lots of movies and shows look closer to their original intent. It also uses the handy Google TV interface. Outside of an extremely brief dip in June, this deal matches the best price to date for the 65-inch version. That said, if you can’t stomach the high price, other reviewsnote that the older Sony A95L offers similar performance a bit less, while more recent competitors like the LG G5 and Samsung S95F can get noticeably brighter (even if they’re not always as accurate). Those two should be better for gaming as well, as the Bravia 8 II only has two HDMI 2.1 ports — one of which is an eARC port for soundbars — and its input lag is slightly higher.
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K for $25 ($25 off): The standard Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K offers the same core experience as the pricier Fire TV Stick 4K Max, only it comes with a slightly slower processor, half the storage (8GB) and Wi-Fi 6 instead of Wi-Fi 6E. For most people just looking for a casual streamer on the cheap, those shouldn’t be huge losses. This model is also more powerful than the just-announced Fire TV 4K Select, though its Fire OS interface can still be messy and ad-heavy, with special emphasis on Amazon’s own services. This deal is $3 more than the stick’s all-time low, though it matches the best price we’ve seen since Black Friday last year.
Amazon Fire TV Stick HD for $18 ($17 off): The Fire TV Stick HD is the budget pick in our guide to the best streaming devices. It can only stream up to 1080p, and it can run a bit choppier than the 4K models since it has a slower chipset and half the RAM (1GB). The usual issues with the Fire TV interface still apply here too. But if you just want to add streaming apps to an aging TV or basic monitor for as little cash as possible, it should get the job done. This discount ties the device’s lowest price to date.
Black Friday remains the best time to grab a new TV at a discount, but Amazon’s latest October Prime Day sale should be a decent time to take the plunge if you need to upgrade right away. While the two-day Prime Big Deal Days event doesn’t officially start until October 7, a small handful of well-regarded TVs from the likes of TCL, Hisense, Sony and Samsung are cheaper than usual right now. You can find our full list of the best October Prime Day TV deals below. We’ll update this roundup as prices change and new offers arise in the days ahead.
Best Prime Day TV deals
TCL
The TCL QM6K is widely regarded by reviewers we trust as one of the year’s better TV bargains. It’s a budget-oriented model, so it won’t get you the same level of contrast, color volume or brightness as more expensive sets, nor will it be ideal for HDR content (especially in well-lit rooms). Still, its quantum-dot color, mini-LED backlighting and full-array local dimming more than hold their own for the price, plus it runs on the useful Google TV platform. It’s also a nice buy for gaming on the cheap, since its input lag is relatively low and it has a native 144Hz refresh rate that can reach as high as 288Hz at 1080p. This discount ties the lowest price we’ve seen for the 75-inch model.
Hisense U8QG 65-inch Mini-LED TV for $1,082 ($416 off):Several reviewssuggestthatthe Hisense U8QG ticks most of the requisite boxes for a LCD TV in 2025: robust local dimming and mini-LED backlighting, exceptionally high brightness, vibrant quantum-dot colors, a fast refresh rate (165Hz in this case), support for the major HDR formats and so on. It’s a higher-end option than something like the TCL QM6K with much better brightness and contrast, though it still falls short of a good OLED TV when it comes to the latter. Like most LCD panels, it’ll also look a bit washed out if you view it from an angle. It has three HDMI 2.1 ports, which is one fewer than many other TVs in this price range, though it uniquely includes a USB-C video input if you want to hook up a gaming laptop or Nintendo Switch. (Just note that you won’t get VRR or HDR when using that.) You’d mainly get it over an OLED TV if you’re willing to trade some picture quality for something that’s better-suited in a bright room. This deal on the 65-inch model isn’t an all-time low, but it matches the best price we’ve tracked since July.
Samsung S90F 55-inch QD-OLED TV for $1,498 ($100 off): The Samsung S90F is an upper-tier model with a QD-OLED panel, which blends the usual perks of a quality OLED set — near-perfect contrast, wide viewing angles, clear motion, low input lag — with a layer of quantum dots. This helps it produce a wider gamut of more vivid colors compared to traditional WOLED TVs. It also comes with four HDMI 2.1 ports and has a fast refresh rate of 144Hz. It doesn’t support Dolby Vision HDR, however, and reviews we trust say that the LG C5, a competing WOLED model, retains darker black levels in a bright room. (The S90F has a more colorful image, though.) We saw this 55-inch model go for $100 less earlier in the month, but this deal matches the best price we’ve tracked otherwise. The 65-inch version is similarly discounted. Just make sure you only buy the 55-, 65- or 77-inch model, as every other size in the US uses a lesser WOLED panel. Shady, we know.
Sony Bravia 8 II 65-inch QD-OLED TV for $2,998 ($502 off): It’s certainly not cheap, but the Sony Bravia 8 II has earnedplaudits for its excellent image processing, upscaling and overall accuracy alongside the expected color, contrast and motion benefits of its QD-OLED display. This should help it make lots of movies and shows look closer to their original intent. It also uses the handy Google TV interface. Outside of an extremely brief dip in June, this deal matches the best price to date for the 65-inch version. That said, if you can’t stomach the high price, other reviewsnote that the older Sony A95L offers similar performance a bit less, while more recent competitors like the LG G5 and Samsung S95F can get noticeably brighter (even if they’re not always as accurate). Those two should be better for gaming as well, as the Bravia 8 II only has two HDMI 2.1 ports — one of which is an eARC port for soundbars — and its input lag is slightly higher.
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K for $25 ($25 off): The standard Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K offers the same core experience as the pricier Fire TV Stick 4K Max, only it comes with a slightly slower processor, half the storage (8GB) and Wi-Fi 6 instead of Wi-Fi 6E. For most people just looking for a casual streamer on the cheap, those shouldn’t be huge losses. This model is also more powerful than the just-announced Fire TV 4K Select, though its Fire OS interface can still be messy and ad-heavy, with special emphasis on Amazon’s own services. This deal is $3 more than the stick’s all-time low, though it matches the best price we’ve seen since Black Friday last year.
Amazon Fire TV Stick HD for $18 ($17 off): The Fire TV Stick HD is the budget pick in our guide to the best streaming devices. It can only stream up to 1080p, and it can run a bit choppier than the 4K models since it has a slower chipset and half the RAM (1GB). The usual issues with the Fire TV interface still apply here too. But if you just want to add streaming apps to an aging TV or basic monitor for as little cash as possible, it should get the job done. This discount ties the device’s lowest price to date.
Sony has been on a roll lately with lots of gaming peripherals (including the Inzone H9 II gaming headset that may actually justify its big price tag), and it’s apparently not ready to stop just yet. PlayStation just announced its Pulse Elevate wireless speakers, which support PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, and the PlayStation Portal, and they may potentially be useful for anyone who doesn’t love constantly wearing a headset.
Inside the Pulse Elevate, Sony says it’s including “studio-inspired planar magnetic drivers” that are designed to give you “lifelike sound across the entire audible spectrum.” I can’t say for sure what that sounds like yet, but if it’s anything close to the audio quality of the H9 II, it’ll be a hit for me. There are built-in woofers, too, so you’ll still get some low end. On top of that, there are also built-in mics with “AI-enhanced noise rejection,” which is just a fancy way of saying the speakers will cancel environmental noise while you’re talking. If this feature actually works as advertised, it should be good news for anyone who plans to substitute a gaming headset with these speakers, either fully or partially.
Another nice addition is PlayStation Link compatibility, which means you’ll be able to get low-latency sound on PS5, PC, Mac, and PlayStation Portal. As always, you’ll need to use the provided dongle for Link, which transmits audio faster and at higher fidelity than a standard Bluetooth connection. One last twist here is that Sony is building in some portability to the Pulse Elevate. The wireless speakers have rechargeable batteries, so you can take them elsewhere to use with your Portal (again, if you have one of those) and then charge them in a provided dock when you’re done. If you want to connect a phone or another device with a standard Bluetooth connection, you can do that, too.
One thing we don’t know is how much the Pule Elevate speakers will cost, but Sony says they’ll be available in Midnight Black and White when they’re released sometime next year. PlayStation gaming peripherals have been pricey as of late, so I would expect a decent-sized price tag. That being said, if they sound as good as the H9 II, they might be worth every penny.
Sony’s lineup of gaming-focused audio devices is growing with the addition of the PlayStation Pulse Elevate wireless speakers. They work with PC, Mac, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation Portal, and they support Bluetooth and Sony’s proprietary PlayStation Link Wireless connection scheme. The Pulse Elevate speakers come in white or black, and they’re due to hit the market in 2026. There’s no word on price just yet.
The Pulse Elevate speakers can be set on charging stands when playing at your desk, or they can be disconnected and used in portable mode. When not docked, they have (an unspecified number of) “hours of battery life,” according to Sony’s hype trailer. The speakers support 3D audio, they can be tilted back, and they have planar magnetic drivers, built-in woofers and an integrated mic with noise reduction.
The PlayStation Pulse Elevate speakers join Sony’s Pulse Elite gaming headset and Pulse Explore earbuds. The earbuds retail for $200 and the headset goes for $150, so feel free to use these price points as the foundation of indiscriminate speculation about how much the Elevate speakers will cost when they land next year.
Microsoft is bring yet another of its formerly exclusive games to PlayStation. During Sony’s latest State of Play, the company announced that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is coming to PS5 on December 8, 2025.
Based on the trailer showed during Sony’s event, the PS5 version of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, will carry over the same graphical detail and giant commercial aircraft of the original, along with support for the PS VR 2 headset for even more immersive cockpit gameplay. Along with accurately simulating real-life airplanes, Flight Simulator also uses real geographical and weather data for its maps, making flight as peaceful or difficult as they would be in real life.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 joins a growing collection of former Xbox and PC exclusives that Microsoft has brought to Sony’s console. The company started with games like Sea of Thieves and Pentiment, but now even bigger titles like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle come to PS5 eventually.
It’s all part of Microsoft ongoing Game Pass and game streaming strategy, but it’s also working for Sony, too. Helldivers 2 was originally a PS5-exclusive, but when it came to Xbox it almost immediately became one of the best-selling games on the platform.
The late summer box office has delivered an unlikely juggernaut: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle. The anime epic has stormed past $555 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time and the top-earning anime feature ever released. In North America, where anime movies were once relegated to the margins, Infinity Castle has stunned with $104 million in two weekends — by far the biggest U.S. theatrical run ever for a Japanese title. Given anime fandom’s penchant for repeat viewings — and a planned China release still in the works — there’s no telling just how rich Infinity Castle’s worldwide haul might become.
Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) is based on a wildly popular manga by Japanese artist Koyoharu Gotouge. After the release of an initial TV series adaptation in 2019, the property quickly became one of Japan’s most beloved pop culture exports. The saga follows Tanjiro Kamado, a kind-hearted boy who must transform into a “demon slayer” after his family is slaughtered and his younger sister Nezuko is turned into a demon herself. With lavish animation from Tokyo studio Ufotable, and an emotionally resonant mix of family bonds, heroism and dark fantasy, the series grew even bigger with its first feature installment, Mugen Train, which grossed over $500 million worldwide — in 2020, at a time when the theatrical business was already heavily challenged by the pandemic.
For longtime followers of anime’s rise, the scale of Demon Slayer’s latest success with Infinity Castle is the culmination of trends that have been slowly building for decades. What was once niche otaku culture has become a mainstream global force, embraced by Gen Z and Gen Alpha but increasingly multigenerational, multiracial and borderless in its appeal. Sony, perhaps not surprisingly, recognized this potential sooner than most. Since acquiring anime specialty service Crunchyroll from AT&T in 2020 for $1.18 billion — and merging it with its earlier anime platform buy, Funimation — the Japanese conglomerate has steadily transformed anime from a promising vertical into a core strategic pillar. Today, Crunchyroll spans far more than a subscription platform: it’s also North America’s leading distributor of anime films, a global licensing and merchandising operation, an anime fandom events business and an emerging hub for music and games. At CES earlier this year, Sony executives described anime as one of the group’s central growth bets, with the sector forecast to become a $60 billion global industry by 2030.
That corporate realignment has been vindicated by Infinity Castle. Sony Pictures handled the release in the U.S. and most markets outside Japan, Aniplex co-produced in Tokyo with Ufotable and Crunchyroll activated its deep ties with fandom worldwide. The close collaboration across Sony’s far-flung units helped turn the Japanese animated feature into a global tentpole of Pixar scale — something that might have seemed unimaginable a decade ago, even for the genre’s most revered hitmaker, Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli. In an internal memo circulated after Infinity Castle’s record-breaking opening, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Ravi Ahuja told staff: “The incredible results of this film show the growing global appeal of anime — it wasn’t just dedicated fans who came out to theaters, but a wide range of moviegoers. Contributing in no small part to the success is the strong partnership between Aniplex, Crunchyroll and Motion Picture Group, along with the cross-functional collaboration within our teams.”
For Rahul Purini, the architect of much of Crunchyroll’s expansion, Infinity Castle represents a professional milestone as well as a watershed for anime’s community of artisans. A veteran of Funimation since 2015, Purini helped oversee the Sony-led consolidation of anime streaming in North America before being elevated to president in 2022. His mandate has been to scale Crunchyroll into a global player while staying true to the authenticity of anime culture.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Purini in the wake of Infinity Castle’s record-smashing North American opening.
What has surprised you and not surprised you about Infinity Castle’s performance so far, particularly in North America?
Well, we knew this brand was huge, and that the IP was something fans loved and would turn out for in large numbers with their friends. We also had a sense of the quality of animation that Ufotable and our partners at Aniplex would produce. Basically, we knew the film was going to be a truly amazing show. If there was anything surprising, it was how many fans turned up that first weekend. We didn’t expect to hit $70 million within the first three days. Now we know there is going to be repeat viewing — the question is just how many times and how many people.
How big do you think the movie’s box office total will get?
We believe it will have longer legs than most. We’ve seen this in Southeast Asia, where we released it in the middle of August. We continue to see fans coming out even after about a month in cinemas. The box office total there is still growing. We’re not sharing any total projections, but we have high expectations.
What does this success tell you about how the audience for anime is changing? Were there any four-quadrant surprises in the results?
I’ve been saying for three or four years now that anime fandom is no longer niche — it’s mainstream and gigantic. What this movie did was show that to the world in a way where there’s a lot of historical context to compare against. At Crunchyroll, we’ve had data and research showing how big and broad anime has become, and we could show it in the context of other shows on our platform. But Infinity Castle’s success is the perfect way to demonstrate this to the broader entertainment world, because it’s happening at the box office, where there are 100 years’ worth of benchmarks. It’s now undeniable how big anime has become.
Another thing we’ve known about — which again showed up in the North American box office — is how wrong many of the myths about anime fandom are. Many people have always said, “Oh, this is a Japanese medium, so it must be heavily indexed toward an Asian audience.” We’ve known for a while that this isn’t the case. It’s a very diverse audience. It overindexes across all different ethnicities. Whether it’s Hispanic, African American, or South Asian, it overindexes. Again, this has been in our data for a long time, but this box office success has been the perfect opportunity for other parties to see it firsthand, via exit polling and more traditional metrics.
(L-R) Crunchyroll CEO Rahul Purini, Channing Tatum and Ravi Ahuja, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, attend the English premiere of ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle’ at TCL Chinese Theatres.
Getty
Another narrative that gets attached to anime’s growing success is that it’s especially popular among the young — Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Was that true for this film? And if so, what could others potentially learn from your success here? For example, what are some of your most efficient marketing channels for reaching that coveted young consumer?
In terms of your first question, it’s absolutely true. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are a huge part of this fandom. But that doesn’t mean they’re the only age groups. We saw a lot of parents coming to see Infinity Castle with their kids, and there were many fans in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. Anime fandom does over-index among the young, though.
We’ve been cultivating these relationships with young adults for a long time. So, it’s all of the things you would imagine — TikTok, Reddit AMAs, and Discord; hosting real-world events for young fans and influencers to attend; and engaging the celebrity anime fans that young people follow and listen to. It’s also about being very present on YouTube, Roblox, and Fortnite, and in the various other places where this young audience spends time and participates.
Regarding the theatrical release, did Crunchyroll bring any strategies to the table that were different from the traditional way Sony Pictures markets and distributes movies? How did the collaboration work?
One of the things we’re most excited about was how successful the cross-Sony collaboration was on this movie. This is something Sony is uniquely equipped to do, right? We have our partners at Sony’s Aniplex in Japan, who produced the movie, and Sony Pictures in the U.S., who released it. What I tell our anime partners in Japan all the time is that Sony Pictures has over 100 years of experience taking Hollywood stories global — and now the company can do that for Japanese anime too.
We really demonstrated that with this movie, because in every region where Infinity Castle has been released, we broke records. But at every step in the process, it was a true collaboration. We sat down with those distribution teams and they told us about their strengths — how they market, book theaters, and everything they’ve learned. Then we told them what we are uniquely good at — the connections we have with anime fans, our ability to use our own platform to reach this community, and the power of our live events and other channels. Then we all rolled up our sleeves and developed strategies so that one plus one would equal three.
It’s interesting to zoom out and consider this moment within Sony’s corporate history. In the years after Sony acquired Columbia Pictures in 1989, there were some infamous integration pains, as the culture of the Japanese electronics conglomerate struggled to come to grips with Hollywood’s ways. It almost feels like the Demon Slayer phenomenon perhaps marks the moment, all these decades later, when Sony has finally, truly become a culturally integrated U.S.-Japanese entertainment entity. Because Infinity Castle’s success feels like something only a true Hollywood-Japanese fusion could have pulled off.
Well, there have been great examples of other cross-Sony collaborations — something like The Last of Us, which brings together the best of Sony PlayStation with Sony Pictures Television, or Uncharted in the theatrical film world. But I get what you’re saying. Infinity Castle really brings the Japanese cultural aspect into the mix. So yes, I agree; it’s unique. We hope this provides a tailwind not just for Crunchyroll, but for the entire anime ecosystem.
So this is a phenomenal start for the first film in a trilogy. When are the next two films expected to be released? And is there any sense of urgency now about getting them out a bit sooner?
Well, we’ve announced that it will be a trilogy of movies, but our partners at Aniplex and Ufotable haven’t decided on dates yet. But look, there’s definitely urgency for all of us to bring more Demon Slayer to fans as soon as we can — because we know the urgency is there among the fanbase.
Is it likely that the blockbuster success of the first installment will mean that you go even bigger with the next two, in terms of budget and spectacle?
Well, we’re still in the midst of the first one’s release, so all I can say for now is that we’re working closely with our partners to make sure the next two movies are going to be just as amazing — if not better.
What do you anticipate the material benefits of this theatrical success will be for Crunchyroll’s streaming business, merchandising arm and the other facets of your platform?
We’ve always talked about wanting to be everything for someone — that anime fan — rather than something for everyone. This theatrical success creates a halo and momentum for the other parts of that flywheel, whether it’s merchandise, games, anime music, or the streaming service itself. For example, in August, we created a promotion that allowed people to watch an entire season of the Demon Slayer series outside of our subscription service. We’re continuing that offer now. So people who’ve heard about this movie, or went to check it out with friends, can now come and experience the full TV show too. Our goal is to make sure these new viewers have an amazing experience. Hopefully, we can then introduce them to a few more shows they’ll enjoy — and then there’s a whole universe of fandom waiting for them.
Is it possible that Crunchyroll will end up having the exclusive streaming rights to Infinity Castle?
We always love to give our members something unique, so we’d absolutely want to have that conversation with our partners. But it’s up to Ufotable, Aniplex, and the production committee to make the right decision in terms of what’s best for the brand and the IP.
In the streaming space, you’ve already seen plenty of competition from the big platforms — Netflix, Amazon and Disney. They’ve long been aware of the power of anime to build their global subscriber bases and they’ve been spending big accordingly. In the wake of Infinity Castle’s theatrical success, do you expect to see other U.S. studio players attempt to compete in this arena on big screens in North America? And what do you think their chances of success are?
For sure, there will be more people who want to serve this audience. It will be the same among the theatrically focused studios soon enough. We’ve always said that’s good because the audience is already big, and as it grows, we feel strongly that we’re well-positioned to take advantage of that expansion. We feel very good about our place and strength in the ecosystem.
So, Infinity Castle is the year’s biggest animated film of any kind at the North American box office so far. Next comes the awards strategy. Do you plan to campaign for best animated feature and other categories at the Oscars?
We think the movie is incredible — the animation, the story, the quality on all fronts. So yes, the fans absolutely deserve for the movie to be considered for awards. We’ll do our part to make sure it gets the right level of support to be considered in all of the categories it could be eligible for.
In Sony‘s quest to deliver original movies in an IP laden box office, their $50M+ negative global acquisition of the Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell fantasy romance drama, A Big Bold Beautiful Journeyfrom Korean filmmaker Kogonada, embarked on a road to nowhere at the box office with a $3.5M domestic and $8M global opening, this after critics sliced the pic’s tires with a 37% Rotten Tomatoes score.
CinemaScore was a B-, but the Screen Engine/Comscore PostTrak exits were worse at 2 1/2 stars, 64% positive and a low 44% definite recommend, overall a complete rejection by audiences.
Overall for the weekend, per PostTrak, women showed up at 59% giving A Big Bold Beautiful Journey a low 64% score. Those few who showed up had their boyfriends, partners or hubbies with them (close to 40% having a +1). Women under 25 (who showed up for Barbie at 39%) were only 14% in attendance with no patience for Robbie and Farrell’s romantic one hour-49 minutes chit-chat (and hardly any love scenes) with a 42% rating.
Anecdotally, yesterday I attended a 4:10 PM showtime at the Regal North Hollywood where I was one of ten people watching the movie. There were more people at the Saturday matinee I attended for Vertical Entertainment’s Ron Howard period thriller Eden at the AMC Universal Citywalk on that movie’s opening weekend (which bowed to $1M domestic).
Quite often studios will tell the media, if we keep writing negative things about original movies, then they’ll stop making them. Not true. When originality is great, and word of mouth is brilliant, and the marketing engines are in force, the creme rises to the top, again and again, even in a theatrical landscape that’s curbed by streaming.
For Robbie and Farrell, though A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, isn’t their lowest opening stateside, it’s certainly one of them. For the Barbie star, the movie is under the starts of such misfires Babylon ($3.6M) and Amsterdam ($6.4M) and for Farrell it’s under Seven Psychopaths ($4.2M opening) and above Voyagers ($1.4M). Some will argue that both actors are capped in their box office openings when it comes to original movies, but again, it goes back to reviews on A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. Non-starry vehicles like Weapons rallied to a $43.5M opening juiced by 94% certified fresh RT reviews (and, yes, that was horror).
Sony Pictures Releasing /Courtesy Everett Collection
Comparing A Big Bold Beautiful Journey to Sony/Wayfarer’s dark romance It Ends With Us is apples and oranges given that the latter is based on a popular Colleen Hoover penned source material, and the former a surrealist fantasy. It Ends With Us bucked its bad reviews at 54%, and overcame any box office handicaps in its stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, the movie providing box office stamina to both with a $50M U.S./Canada start.
If Sony anticipated great reviews on this romance drama, you bet A Big Bold Beautiful Journey in its lush cinematography (shot on Highway 5 in the state of California by the way; let’s give the production praise for that at least) and great Robbie-Farrell chemistry (they’re both great in the movie) would have found its way to a fall film festival, which is the type of launch this movie requires during a competitive adult Q3 and Q4 marketplace. Knock on wood for Warner Bros’ $130M budgeted Paul Thomas Anderson directed, Leonardo DiCaprio starring anarchist western One Battle After Another next weekend, which literally plays like Keanu Reeves’ Speed in pacing, has a current domestic projection around $20M, and skipped festivals. But, we’ve wrote this till we’re blue in the face: moviemaking is an art, not a science, and these packaged feature auctions are so fevered, that it’s to a movie’s detriment in the final accounting: The art once it’s hung on the wall doesn’t add up to the frenzy. And if you’re going to pull off an original risky movie, keep your costs as low as possible. In the same breath, any studio would have snapped at the Big Bold Beautiful Journey package: it was the project Robbie chose after delivering Warner Bros their highest grossing movie ever in Barbie ($1.44 billion worldwide) in addition to eight Oscar noms and one win. Big Bold Beautiful Journey also had a fellow Oscar nominated star in Farrell, and a hot, up-and-coming filmmaker was attached. While Robbie is known to produce most of what she stars in via her LuckyChap label, the 3x Oscar nominee preferred to simply act this time around, and backed a director she believed in.
Sony went as frugal as they could with a net $45M production cost, with co-financing of 30% from TSG after buying A Big Bold Beautiful Journey from 30West (U.S. rights) and NEON (foreign rights). Global marketing spend was under $20M. I understand it was an eight-week shoot with no complications in the spring-to-early summer of 2024, with additional photography in an attempt to make the move more commercial (more on that in a bit).
The screenplay by Seth Reiss which landed on the 2020 Black List with 14 votes (in a year when the top s script had 29 votes), was described by myriad sources as “beautiful.” Other studios passed because of the budget, observing its arthouse patina — which at the end of the day, is what this movie is: It’s more Sony Pictures Classics than Sony in its sophisticated discussion on two potential newfound lovers deliberating whether to roll the dice, and take the risk on a relationship after meeting at a wedding. At one point, I hear, Elisabeth Moss kicked the tires on the project, indicative of its indie sensibility. Farrell was attached before Robbie boarded as he had worked with Kogonada on A24’s 2021 A.I. sci-fi title After Yang (which made under $50K stateside, just over $745K worldwide).
The vital deal point at auction for this movie was that Kogonada received final cut. Some sources have told us that he was over his skis in making what was hoped to be a mass female-appealing film, but others greatly assert that the director is an epic visionary, and was supported by all, including Sony, in his deliberate choices. “He’s a painter,” praised one source.
Testing indicated that audiences had a problem with the pacing, it’s arguable chilly tone (though I thought it was quite warm), and the approach to the pic’s ending. Originally the movie had a May 9 release date before it was pushed to this weekend since it wasn’t ready. I’m told that Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group Chairman Tom Rothman and Kogonada teamed amicably to make the best edit possible; there wasn’t a contentious studio boss vs. filmmaker struggle going on.
The end result with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey was that it was a philosophically mired, meditative, stage-play-like-movie, not a happy-go-lucky Nancy Meyers-like mainstream romance movie which female moviegoers could sink their teeth into, evident in the pic’s exits. It even feels like a specialty title you’d see in Cannes. Many also argue that fantasy dramas are hard to pull off at the box office, and walk a fine line, read the Robin Williams 1998 bomb What Dreams May Come ($85 production cost, $55.3M domestic, $71.4M worldwide take) and Tim Burton’s 2003 Big Fish ($70M budget, $66M domestic, $122M-plus global take).
The joys of falling in love was a theme sold in the Sony trailer, complete with the Gracie Abrams “I Miss You, I’m Sorry” with the campaign echoing The Umbrellas of Cherbourg in its one-sheets. While Sony pulled off a great social media campaign for the darkly toned It Ends With Us with Ryan Reynolds bombing junkets, flower pop stores at the Century City Mall, and Lively arranging flowers, again, many say that A Big Bold Beautiful Journey isn’t a comp to the Hoover movie given that title’s immediate TikTok faithful.
For Robbie and Farrell, who aren’t active on social media, Sony paired them up as they’ve done before with other co-stars (Zendaya and Tom Holland on Spider-Man, Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney on Anyone But You) to banter. It unfortunately didn’t set the world on fire.
Farrell appeared with Dude With a Sign at the movie’s NYC premiere.
Despite the movie having a social media reach per RelishMix at 266 million across TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube, 57% ahead of other romance movies, it was 21% behind It Ends With Us‘ 377 million reach, not to mention, a suspicious word of mouth was out there. Sadly, when a movie opens this low and is anticipated to be rejected by audiences, there’s no marketing solve.
Better days lie around the corner for Robbie and Farrell. She has Emerald Fennell’s smoldering feature take of classic Wuthering Heights with Jacob Elordi out around Valentine’s Day, while Farrell is already winning critical praise for his turn in Edward Berger’s Netflix title Ballad of a Small Player in the early awards season.
Meanwhile, Sony isn’t giving up on original movies aimed at women.
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castlecame to the United States this weekend, and it’s doing numbers well ahead of projections.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, the film—the first of a trilogy meant to bring the shonen fantasy series to a close—made an estimated $70 million domestic, double the $35-40 million predicted by analysts. But Sony’s been aggressive with marketing it, not to mention the anime itself is pretty popular on its own. It’s the biggest opening ever for an anime film in North America, the biggest-ever animated debut for a September film, and with an additional $30 million from international audiences, brings Infinity’s box office to an estimated $468 million worldwide.
Being a money maker isn’t new for Demon Slayer: in 2022, Sony released the film adaptation of the Mugen Train arc, which was the most succssful opening for a foreign film at the time. While it wasn’t the top movie that weekend, it helped reinvigorate U.S. theaters in the aftermath of the early COVID-19 pandemic and was 2020’s highest-grossing film.
Meanwhile, The Conjuring: Last Ritesfrom September 5 fell by 69% domestically and came in behind Infinity Castle. With a new domestic total of $131.1 million and an extra $60.5 million overseas, its latest total is $332.9 million. It’s now the second highes-grossing movie in the franchise behind the first Nun movie ($366 million) and ahead of The Conjuring 2 ($322.8 million).
As for The Long Walk, the weekend’s other big genre release, it made an estimated $11.5 million domestic. Based on Stephen King’s 1979 novel, the Francis Lawrence-directed film stars Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, and Mark Hamill, and has had eavy marketing in recent weeks. Compared to other adaptations of King’s work, that domestic open is below The Monkey and Doctor Sleep, according to Deadline. But at time of writing, its international numbers aren’t out, and we’ll update when they’re disclosed.
Update (9/13/2025 @ 4:23 PM ET): This story has been updated with more recent numbers for Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle.
Google has accidentally leaked its new Nest security cameras and video doorbell line. Setup options appeared in the Google Home app for wired versions of the Nest Cam Indoor (3rd gen), Nest Cam Outdoor (2nd gen), and Nest Doorbell (3rd gen), as reported by Android Authority. The options now appear to have been removed, but an eagle-eyed Redditor also found the new products locked up at Home Depot, ready to go on sale.
Google has already confirmed that it plans to unveil new information about the infusion of its Gemini voice assistant into Google Home on October 1, replacing Google Assistant. That’s likely when we’ll see the new hardware, too. These overdue updates are rumored to include a resolution bump to 2K, a new zoom and crop feature, fresh colors, and a switch to Gemini for Home. There’s also talk of a new subscription option as Nest Aware turns into Google Home Premium, and a new Google Home Premium Advanced plan. Details haven’t been confirmed, so take all of this with a pinch of salt.
As for the design of the new lineup, they look almost identical to the existing range, aside from the colors, which include an eye-catching red. Perhaps in preparation for the new releases, the Nest team recently updated the Home app to provide preview images from the last event before the live view loads, swiping between timeline and events, and better notifications with a static thumbnail expandable to a large animated preview. There was also a raft of performance improvements and some much-needed polish. —Simon Hill
Sony’s Xperia 10 VII Won’t Launch in the US
Courtesy of Sony
Sony stopped selling its flagship Xperia phones in the US last year, and that seems to be continuing with the latest midrange Xperia 10 VII, announced on Friday. It’ll launch in Asia, Europe, and the UK, and it debuts a fresh design language with a horizontal camera bar, much like Google’s Pixel phones (and even the iPhone Air).
It has a 6.1-inch screen, which may sound nice and compact, but it’s slightly bigger than the 6.1-inch iPhone 16. That’s probably because the bezels at the top and bottom of the screen are a little chunky for a modern phone. Still, you get a 120-Hz refresh rate, and some folks will be excited to see the 3.5-mm headphone jack and microSD card slot. It’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chip with a 5,000-mAh battery in tow, and no wireless charging.
As for the cameras, Sony has a 50-megapixel main camera paired with a 13-MP ultrawide, and you can use the dedicated shutter button on the side to snap pics. It’ll cost £399 or €449 in the UK and Europe and goes on sale September 19, the same day as the latest iPhone 17 lineup.
Qualcomm Debuts Quick Charge 5+
This week, Qualcomm announced the next evolution of its fast-charging technology, known as Quick Charge 5+. Qualcomm calls it its “fastest and most versatile charging solution,” which can recharge phones from 0 to 50 percent in five minutes. That was true of the original version of Quick Charge 5, though, which is now more than 5 years old. The advances in Quick Charge 5+ revolve around “advanced thermal control” and “intelligent power delivery” to the standard. It’s less about increasing charging speed and more about maintaining that speed sustainably.
For example, Quick Charge 5+ doesn’t just flow all that juice to the device uninhibited; instead, it “dynamically” regulates that power using a “reduced-voltage approach.” This means it can lower the voltage on the fly to prevent overheating while charging, without impacting performance or battery health.
Qualcomm says its fast-charging technology powers over 1 billion devices, but we’ll have to see if Quick Charge 5+ picks up more mainstream adoption in phones and accessories in the US. Qualcomm’s annual Snapdragon Summit is coming up on September 23, and the company says devices announced at the conference will support Quick Charge 5+. —Luke Larsen
Ultraloq Enables NFC Unlock for Android Phones
Courtesy of Ultraloq
Smart-lock brand Ultraloq is adept at adding support for the latest smart-home standards into its devices, from Matter to HomeKit. Now, Android users can share a similar experience to Apple Home Key users with an update to its Bolt NFC smart lock ($200), allowing it to work with NFC-enabled Android devices for a tap-to-unlock feature, much like how you tap to pay. It’s a feature often touted for iPhones, and usually, you can’t switch between ecosystems when a device is compatible with both. The Bolt NFC lock will allow for both Apple and Android devices to wirelessly unlock this smart lock with a tap.
“Midaq Alley” (“El Callejón de los Milagros”), the Jorge Fons 1995 gem that launched Salma Hayek’s career, is being re-released by Sony Pictures across Mexico and Latin America, thanks to an agreement between Sony Pictures International Productions and its producer, Alameda Films.
News comes after Spain’s San Sebastian Film Fest announced that it would close the festival’s Classics (Klasikoak) section.
The newly restored 4K version celebrates the 30th anniversary of the iconic film, considered one of the most consequential Mexican films of all time. It won a raft of awards worldwide and represented Mexico at the 68th Academy Awards.
Based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz, with a screenplay by Vicente Leñero, the film was produced by the legendary Alfredo Ripstein, whose Alameda Films is now run by his grandson, Daniel Birman Ripstein.
Set in a downtown Mexico City backstreet whose inhabitants’ lives are closely interwoven, the film is split into four clear parts. The first three are named after main characters, and the last one brings the story to an end. Each part begins at the same moment, showing the same game of dominoes, and covers the same time period, but from a different character’s point of view.
“Bringing ‘Midaq Alley’ back to theaters with the support of Sony is a testament to the film’s enduring impact and cultural importance,” said Birman Ripstein, adding: “This new release will allow a new generation of audiences to discover this magical film in a way it has never been seen before.” Restoring the classic to its new restored version took four years, he revealed.
“We are delighted to be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime milestone cinematic celebration,” said Philip Alexander, VP and general manager of Sony Pictures Releasing México.
Aside from being the screen debut of Salma Hayek, “Midaq Alley” features a notable ensemble cast of lauded Mexican actors that include Bruno Bichir (“Ozark”) Daniel Giménez Cacho (“Zama”), Juan Manuel Bernal (“Monarch”), Ernesto Gómez Cruz (“The Crime of Father Amaro”), María Rojo (“Valentine’s Wedding”), Tiaré Scanda (“No Man’s Land”) and Margarita Sanz (“Frida”).
The theatrical run of “Midaq Alley” is slated to kick off on Oct. 23 with Sony handling distribution across Mexico and Latin America.
A contingent of right-wing online figures and their followers have been using the recent assassination of conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk to punish people they don’t like. That includes a developer at Ghost of Yotei maker Sucker Punch Productions who Sony confirms it has parted ways with after she made a joke on social media about the shooting.
“I hope the shooter’s name is Mario so that Luigi knows his bro got his back,” Drew Harrison, a nearly 10-year veteran of the PlayStation studio, posted in the evening after Kirk was shot and killed during a speaking event at Utah Valley University. A few hours later, the post was screen-grabbed and shared by anti-woke crusader Mark “Grummz” Kern.
“Suckerpunch Senior Dev celebrates Charlie Kirk’s death,” he wrote. “Ghost of Yotei is dead to me now.” A streamer who goes by Madamsavvy responded, “No more. Cowards keep quiet. The studio deserves to go under.” Kern replied, “No mercy.”
Harrison subsequently shared on social media that people had been contacting her employer angrily trying to get her fired, and posted a screenshot of a barrage of missed calls from anonymous numbers as evidence of an ongoing harassment campaign. Less than 24 hours later, she was fired.
“If standing up against fascism is what cost me my dream job I held for 10 years, I would do it again 100x stronger,” she wrote.
Sony confirmed her departure in an email to Kotaku but declined to comment further. “Drew Harrison is no longer an employee of Sucker Punch Productions,” a spokesperson from Sony Interactive Entertainment wrote.
1 It’s a game. An entertainment. A story a team of creators believes in. They want to make this.
2 it’s a game. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. In fact, why not make the game you want yourself?
A loosely aligned “Gamergate 2.0” movement that grew out of conspiracy theories claiming DEI was ruining gaming has been hoping for this sort of outcome for months. The big PS5 exclusive has been in anti-woke activists’ firing line ever since Ghost of Yotei revealed the open-world samurai series’ latest entry would star a woman named Atsu, played by Erika Ishii.
Fed by an algorithmically juiced YouTube rage factory, certain online culture content creators latched onto one of Ishii’s past comments about abolishing the police as a way to attack the game. Videos with titles like “Ghost of Yōtei DOOMED? Radical Activist Erika Ishii Brings Woke Chaos!” later changed to things like “Ghost Of Yotei New Trailer Sparks BACKLASH, Hiring Activists Backfires For Sony & Sucker Punch” as YouTubers combed LinkedIn for evidence proving that people with opinions they disagreed with were ruining games.
Ghost of Yotei is far from the only high-profile blockbuster game to be dragged into this culture war quicksand. Kern and others attacked Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows as well for featuring an African samurai as one of its two main characters. Developers on the game were reportedly told not to comment on the harassment campaign when the game launched earlier this year.
While Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot condemned attacks targeting employees, he also said at the time the company was working on “tackling the dynamics behind the polarized comments around Ubisoft so as to protect the Group’s reputation and maximize our game’s sales potential.”
Members of the harassment campaign to get Harrison fired from Sucker Punch are already targeting individuals at other game studios and publishers over their social media comments. “Every single studio is compromised,” one of them wrote. “And it’s all American leftists doing this.”
Sony is finally catching up to something Nintendo and Microsoft have had for years. The new PlayStation Family app mainly serves as a mobile extension of on-console parental controls. However, parents also get a few extra perks in the mobile version.
The app includes a “thoughtfully guided” onboarding process. (I imagine many people will prefer their phone or tablet over the console for that.) Once things are set up, parents can do everything they already could on the console. This includes setting playtime limits, viewing activity reports (daily and weekly), managing spending and creating content filters. Parents can also use the app to configure privacy settings for social features.
One of the mobile app’s nicer perks is real-time notifications of what the child is playing. Parents can also approve or deny requests from their children for extra playtime or access to restricted games from within the app. That feature will likely get a lot of use.
The original PlayStation hit U.S. shores 30 years ago today, helping usher in a disc-based gaming revolution that reshaped the industry. Four new consoles and lots of hardware iterations later, PlayStation is the undisputed winner in the high-end console gaming space. What were the top-selling games that helped it get there? A newly released list of the top all-time performers across all PlayStation platformers in the States tells part of the story, and it’s a pretty depressing one.
Circana gaming research director Mat Piscatella released the list of the top 20 games across PlayStation’s history in the U.S. by unit sales to commemorate the PS1’s birthday. Here they are:
Grand Theft Auto V
Minecraft
Red Dead Redemption II
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
Marvel’s Spider-Man
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
The Last of Us God of War (2018)
God of War (2018)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Rainbow Six: Siege
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Call of Duty: WWII
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
The top spots aren’t shocking. GTA 5 and Minecraft are the two best-selling game ever across any platform. Red Dead Redemption II is the fifth-best. Sony’s critically acclaimed first-party blockbusters also rank highly. And then it’s just a sea of Call of Duty. Modern Warfare, Black Ops, good ones, bad ones, it doesn’t matter, they all rank, smothering any greater sense of the breadth, variety, and whimsy of the games released on PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, and PS5 over the years.
“Man, this list makes me sad,” Digital Foundry‘s John Linneman opined. “Most people playing games really only play the same few titles huh.” Big sigh. Much agree. Cultural PlayStation juggernauts that didn’t make the list include but are not limited to: WipeOut, Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid 2, Tekken 3, Street Fighter 4, Dark Souls, Nier: Automata, The Witcher 3, Persona 5, and Cyberpunk 2077.
Even now, annualized Call of Duty sequels remain yearly best-sellers, cannibalizing much of the remaining market for big-budget console releases. I keep waiting for the wheels to fall off the Activision military shooter machine, not because the games are terrible or I want anyone to lose their jobs but because I think we have enough Call of Duty to last us another quarter century and I bet all of those developers could make new, original stuff that’s really cool, too.
Some people always want the newest version, but if you’re willing to compromise a little, you can have Sony’s noise-canceling WH-1000XM5 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) for just $300 from Amazon, a steep discount on their usual price. Even though their successor is available, they still offer an extremely good value and number among our favorite active noise-canceling headphones, particularly when you can save $100.
Photograph: Sony
For years now, Sony has been pumping out generation after generation of the WH-1000XM Series headphones with active noise-canceling. Depending on the year, and the most recently released Bose headset, they typically land at or near the top of our roundup of the best noise-canceling headphones.
Not only do they have excellent noise-canceling performance, they also sound amazing. Our reviewer described them as “spacious and well defined, and consequently each and every individual strand of a recording is simple to identify and isolate.” They work well with a variety of different musical styles, thanks to a high level of detail, particularly in the midrange where other headphones sometimes struggle. The highs and lows are clear and deep too, allowing for top-tier sharpness and responsiveness.
They’re consistently light at just 250 grams and extremely comfortable, making them a great option for frequent flyers and noisy commutes, although they might be a little sweaty for working out. They have both Bluetooth and 3.5-mm connection options, and pair up capacitive touch controls with a great app. While not mandatory, the free app for both iOS and Android has settings for tweaking both the equalizer and the active noise-canceling settings.
The biggest difference that most folks will notice between the older XM5 and the newer XM6 is the foldable design, which helps the newer model squeeze into more compact carry-on bags. The XM5 include a compact carrying case though, which should be fine for medium-size backpacks and briefcases.
When we reviewed the Sony WH-1000XM5, we noted that the price relative to other models was the biggest downside, a complaint we’ve made about several iterations of the WH-1000XM headsets. Thankfully, the healthy discount here makes them a much more appealing option, particularly with the newer WH-1000XM6 (9/10, WIRED Review) still priced around $448.
Wow, are we really here again? Already? It’s almost September, folks, and Gizmodo’s consumer tech team is firmly fixed on upcoming events like IFA 2025 in Berlin and Apple’s impending annual iPhone extravaganza (Meta Connect 2025 is mid-month, too!). That being said, there are still a lot of cool gadgets we reviewed in August that deserve one final look back before we dive face-first into a torrential run towards (gulps) CES 2026.
ICYMI (make sure it never happens again), I’m rounding up this month’s best gadgets, which include some wholly unexpected entrants from Lenovo, some not-so-unexpected Pixel 10 drops from Google, and the strongest pair of ANC wireless earbuds I’ve ever shoved in my ears. Bon appétit.
I know, a new Pixel, big whoop, right? In some ways, the eye roll may be deserved, since hardware upgrades weren’t a particularly big focus this year in the new Pixel lineup, but there’s a lot going on under the hood of the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro / 10 Pro XL that may have moved the needle in other ways.
One of those ways, as you may have guessed, is Gemini, which is in every nook and cranny of the new Pixel 10 phones. Some of that phone-focused AI is still finding a purpose, but as Gizmodo’s Senior Editor, Consumer Tech, Ray Wong, noted, there are glimmers of what could be the AI phone to beat. It may be a while until we all actually retrain ourselves to use said features (if we ever do), but on paper, automatically editing photos with AI or helpful, personalized suggestions in Google Maps via Gemini are a palpable shift in the smartphone experience. An additional telephoto camera in the regular Pixel 10 is nice, too, but it’s clear that Google is leaning fully into an AI-powered phone, whether you like it or not.
Okay, picture this: a laptop, but loooooong. Not just long, but rollable, with a screen that extends out like a space-age scroll. This is the type of out-there thinking I love to see in the gadget world. Maybe it’s not the most practical, but damn is it fun. Watching Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable is about as unique an experience as you’ll get in laptops—nay, gadgets in general—and that wild experience is buoyed by what is otherwise a solid machine with strong audio and a great feel.
It’s expensive, at $3,300, and battery life leaves something to be desired, but this is the future we’re talking about here. Long live the long laptop, even if it costs an arm and an oversized leg, and is technically totally unnecessary.
I had no expectations going into testing out Technics EAH-AZ100, but when I put those suckers in my ears, I knew that they were the hi-fi earbuds I’ve been waiting for. As with any hi-fi audio product, they’re expensive at $300, but when you start to hear nuances of songs you’ve heard 1,000 times before (even compressed music played on Spotify), you realize that all those extra pennies are worth it.
Luckily, the EAH-AZ100 also nails another major aspect of wireless earbuds: battery life. With 10 hours of life with active noise cancellation on, these wireless earbuds outlast midrange counterparts by a long margin, and that’s a good thing because once you put these earbuds in, you’re not going to want to take them out.
As long as we’re talking about premo audio, it’s worth mentioning Sony’s new Inzone H9 II. This gaming headset is the counterpart to Sony’s excellent WH-1000XM6 headphones in a lot of ways, delivering excellent sound quality and comfort. Sony also took steps to improve the mic quality over the last generation, which means clearer comms in high-stress games like Counter-Strike 2. Yes, this gaming headset is pricey at $350, but Sony made big strides gen-over-gen, even if the battery life (30 hours) and some of the preset EQ options are somewhat lacking.
If there are two things I love in gadgets and gaming, it’s modularity and nostalgia, and the 8BitDo Pro 3 has those in spades. If you weren’t immediately charmed by this controller’s GameCube-coded look, its many customization options might do the trick.
You can swap A,B,X,Y buttons with colored and gray versions and map everything to your liking. There’s also a USB-C dongle for low-latency gaming, in case you’re getting really serious. Anyone who’s scarred by controller drift will be happy to know that it uses an iteration of Hall effect joysticks that are pretty much immune to the wear and tear that causes drift in the first place. Unfortunately, you can’t wake your Switch 2 with this controller, or most third-party controllers right now, thanks to a shift in the protocol used by Nintendo, but if you’re looking for an all-around great experience for Nintendo or PC, the 8BitDo Pro 3 should be on your radar.
ANC isn’t always the most important aspect of earbuds, but sometimes it can be. And when noise cancellation is a priority (on a plane with a screaming baby), you’re going to want a pair of buds that does it right. Bose’s second-gen QuietComfort Ultra 2 are exactly that, and they improve year-over-year with support for wireless charging, better adaptive ANC, and the ability to see the battery life of your case via the Bose app, so you never have to be without a safeguard against annoying noise.
For $300, you won’t get comparable sound to the aforementioned Technics EAH-AZ100, but Bose still holds it down. Plus, there’s a great transparency mode for when you actually want to allow the world to engage with you.
To be honest, I can’t remember an Android phone that had people as flustered as Nothing’s Phone 3. First, there’s the look: a divisive cubist take on the Nothing aesthetic with an offset camera sensor that drives some people crazy. There’s also the price, which, at $800, had people philosophically unpacking what a flagship phone even is.
No matter where you sit on that spectrum—love it or hate it—Nothing’s Phone 3 made a statement, and even if features like the Glyph Matrix are a bit of a gimmick, it gave us something to talk about. If the metric was to make a phone that isn’t boring, I’d say Nothing succeeded—older chipset and less-than-flagship camera system be damned.
The Switch 2 is great, but it’s only as great as how long you can play it for, and the battery life leaves something to be desired. If you’re looking to extend your Switch 2 battery life on the go, then Genki’s Attack Vector case does just that. It’s only $50 and has an additional battery pack accessory that’s sold for $70. With the added energy pack, Gizmodo Staff Writer Kyle Barr was able to get 2.5 hours of additional juice while playing Cyberpunk 2077 in handheld mode—that effectively doubles the battery life when you have Genki’s charging case equipped.
This isn’t the case you want for protecting your Switch 2 against drops, since it’s on the thinner side, but if you’re looking for something lightweight that gives you a huge battery boost, you can’t go wrong.
Listen, I’m not a fan of smart locks personally. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve filled my home with janky internet-connected outlets and lights, but locking my door with a product like that just feels like a bridge too far. That being said, there is something about a palm-scanning smart lock that does feel objectively cool. Our smart home expert, Wes Davis, praised the TCL D2 Pro for its speed in reading and unlocking, its simple installation process, and its easily removable battery that can be charged via USB-C.
Wes also knocked off points for a buggy setup process and its lack of support for Apple Home and Matter, though, and obviously, if you’re in a cold-weather part of the world, you’re going to need to slide your glove off to get in or use the lock’s not-so-high-tech numpad. Warts and all, though, palm-based smart locks are some Jedi magic if I’ve ever seen it.
The RX1R III is an incredible camera, capable of capturing stunning photos. However, for something Sony waited nearly a decade to update and is charging $5,100 for, it also feels like a missed opportunity. First, the RX1R III is nearly $2,000 more expensive than its predecessor. Plus, it’s missing a handful of features the company really should have included for it to hold its own against other high-end compact cameras, including Fujifilm’s X100VI and GFX100RF, as well as the Leica Q3 family. I love the RX1R III, but I wish it was easier to recommend.
Sony
The RX1R III offers stunning visual quality, but other parts of the camera, including the rear screen and viewfinder, leave a lot to be desired.
New to the RX1R III is a 61-megapixel full-frame sensor Sony first introduced alongside the A7R IV back in 2019. It might be an old component, but having so much resolution in a camera I could carry everywhere felt like cheating.
What hasn’t changed is the glass on the RX1R III. The camera still has the same fixed 35mm f/2.0 Zeiss lens that debuted on the original RX1R in 2012. With past models, autofocus was often an issue, but it turns out the Zeiss lens wasn’t to blame. It was the focusing algorithms on the older cameras.
Like the A7R V, the RX1R III comes with Sony’s flagship Bionz XR image processor and a dedicated chip for AI-assisted subject detection. At first, I was skeptical of the RX1R III’s autofocus capabilities since the camera doesn’t come with a joystick to make it easy to set a focus point manually. As it turns out, it doesn’t need one. The autofocus on the RX1R III feels magical, thanks to its subject tracking. The seven different recognition modes offered by the RX1R III cover most of the things I like to shoot — including people, pets and birds — and getting the camera to lock onto a subject was simple. All I had to do was press and hold the new “AF-ON” button. The camera can be configured to prioritize specific subjects, but I found that wasn’t necessary to do; I could delegate focusing entirely to the camera.
All of that brings me back to the RX1R III’s Zeiss glass. I know some people will be disappointed Sony didn’t add a new lens, but I’m a fan of the decision. For me, the character of that lens has always been part of the appeal of the series, and it’s my favorite aspect of the new model.
A tortoiseshell cat moves toward the photographer.
With Sony’s 61MP sensor behind it, the Zeiss optics can capture photos with a great amount of detail without ever feeling clinical or overly sharp like with many of the company’s G Master lenses. The best way I can describe the rendering is that it’s Leica-like with beautiful, creamy bokeh. With the right light, the RX1R III can produce images that look almost painterly, and reviewing the photos I snapped with it, they’re among some of the best I’ve captured in the 10 years I’ve been shooting.
At the same time, I think Sony deserves credit for greatly improving the color science of its JPEGs. The company has long offered excellent RAW support, but the older I get, the more I appreciate a camera that can produce great images with minimal editing. With the RX1R III, Sony has delivered that. The camera offers a total of 12 JPEG profiles with six custom slots. Two of the default profiles, Film 2 and Film 3, are borrowed from the FX3, and offer calming, muted tones that are a nice contrast to the more vivid colors Sony is typically known for.
As for video, there’s not much to say. The RX1R III can capture 4K footage at 60 frames per second and 1080p clips at 120 fps. That said, as I’ll get to in a moment, Sony’s new model is missing some features that would have made it a competent video camera. As things stand, I think it’s only suited for capturing home videos you don’t plan to share with the world.
Design and handling
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
The first time I looked through the RX1R III’s viewfinder, I thought Sony had sent me a defective unit. The redesigned EVF is now built into the top left of the camera, but the company seems to have pulled the screen from the parts bin, as it only offers 2.36 million dots of resolution. For context, the A7R V has a 9.44-million-dot OLED EVF, while the older A7R IV has a 5.76-million-dot screen. It’s jarring going from the new rear-panel LCD and viewfinder. It also feels cheap. A $5,100 camera should include a top-of-the-line EVF.
The viewfinder is not the only part of the RX1R III that left me confused about what Sony was thinking. There’s the rear screen I just mentioned, which is both better and worse than the one before. On the one hand, it offers nearly double the resolution, thanks to its 2.36-million-dot panel. On the other hand, it’s no longer articulating, which feels like a major step back since it makes shooting candid shots from the hip a lot harder. And forget about vlogging or taking selfies.
Separately, Sony hasn’t weather-sealed the III. Again, that’s a feature I’d like to see on such an expensive camera. Thankfully, battery life is improved, with the RX1R III supporting Sony’s larger NP-FW50 batteries. I could comfortably get a day of shooting out of the latest model if I was good about powering off the camera when I wasn’t using it.
I could overlook all the complaints I mentioned if Sony had just added in-body image stabilization (IBIS). When I reviewed the Fujifilm X100VI last year, that feature alone felt transformational. More than just improving image quality, it made the X100VI into a camera that could shoot in nearly any light. I understand Sony likely wanted to keep the III small and light, but again, $5,100 is a lot to pay to not have a feature that many high-end cameras offer.
Wrap-up
I’ve mentioned a few of the RX1R III’s competitors in passing, but now I think it makes sense to consider where Sony’s new camera fits in the market. Most people shopping for a premium compact camera will probably start their search with the X100VI. If you can find one in stock, it’s significantly cheaper than the RX1R III, coming in at $1,800. Sure, you’re forgoing a full-frame sensor for a smaller APS-C sensor. But for most people, I think that’s a fair tradeoff, especially when the X100VI also offers IBIS, an articulating screen, an optical viewfinder and Fujifilm’s excellent color simulations.
If you want the largest possible sensor, I’d argue Fujifilm’s GFX100RF, which has a medium-format 100MP sensor, makes more sense — even with all of its faults and a price increase coming at the end of the month. There are also the Leica Q3 and Q3 43 to consider. At $6,735 and $7,380 respectively, both are more expensive than the RX1R III, but come with nicer displays, IBIS and Leica glass.
Like I said at the start, I wish the RX1R III was easier to recommend, but it occupies a strange space where it’s not necessarily better or different enough from its rivals. Inflation and Trump’s tariffs likely tied Sony’s hands to a degree, but the company could have still made the new model more compelling by avoiding some of its questionable design decisions.
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Sony increased the price of its PlayStation 5 consoles in the U.S. by about US$50 from August 21, citing tariff uncertainty and rising costs as the video game industry navigates a slow recovery.
The Japanese electronics giant announced the changes in a blog post on August 20. All three PS5 models will be affected, with the top-end PS5 Pro now priced at $749.99.
The move follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imports from countries including Japan and China, which have sparked fears of supply chain disruptions and higher material costs for electronics manufacturers.
Sony raised console prices in several European markets in April. A month later, Microsoft followed suit, increasing prices for its Xbox consoles and accessories in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and the UK.
Industry analysts had expected 2025 to be a strong year for gaming hardware sales, supported by blockbuster titles like Grand Theft Auto VI from Take-Two Interactive and Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2. But with Sony’s latest hike and the delay of GTA VI to next year, optimism about the industry’s growth trajectory has dimmed.
The PlayStation 5, first launched in late 2020, has been a key driver of Sony’s gaming revenue, though demand has cooled following initial pandemic-era shortages. Analysts say higher price tags could further dampen sales just as new premium games were expected to spark renewed console buying.
Sony stressed that the changes apply only to U.S. consoles. Prices in other global markets, as well as accessories for the PS5, remain unchanged.
