Hasta La Gadget!

The Arkansas senator’s latest complaint has a few glaring flaws.

Sony has unveiled a smartphone with both gaming and photo-taking powers that’s (a bit) less expensive than its last few models. The Xperia 5 IV comes with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform and 120Hz 6.1-inch 21:9 OLED display, while offering photo features from the Xperia 1 IV flagship like real-time eye AF and real-time tracking on all three rear cameras. 

Taking advantage of its strong reputation in photography with models like the Alpha A7 IV, Sony is pitching the Xperia 5 IV as a content creation device. To that end, it comes with no less then four 12-megapixel cameras with three on the back (a 16mm 1/2.5-inch f/2.2 ultra-wide, 24mm f/1.7 1/1.7-inch wide and 60mm f/2.4 1/3.5-inch portrait) and one up front for selfies (1/2.9-inch). 

The real-time eye AF promises that your subjects’ eyes rather than their nose will stay in focus, and the real-time AI-powered tracking feature keeps fast-moving subjects in focus. It supports shooting speeds of 20 fps with AF and auto exposure for all lenses. The relatively large pixels (1.9 microns) on the main camera should allow for decent low-light shooting, too.

Sony

All three rear sensors have 120fps read-out speeds, letting you record 4K HDR at up to 120fps. Sony is also promising 4K HDR with “outstanding contrast grading” and the ability to take selfies or vlog in high glare or dark environments. As with the Xperia I IV, it comes with the Videography Pro feature that lets you livestream your content to YouTube and other streaming services.

The screen looks to be up to the job for creators as well. It’s HDR10 capable (though doesn’t support Dolby Vision) and supposedly 50 percent brighter than the last model. It also offers something called “Real Time HDR Drive” that can increase image quality by filling in details on over- and underexposed shots. Users of Bravia Core will also be able to access Sony’s latest releases and classic films. 

On the gaming side, the 120Hz display should allow for smooth gaming, and a 240Hz touch scanning rate allowing for rapid inputs. The Plus Game enhancer lets you customize picture and sound, and it offers live streaming on Sony’s Social Networking Service (SNS), with high-frame recording up to 120fps. You can use it to check viewer’s comments in real time and implement game commentary.

On the audio side, it supports both Dolby Atmos and Sony’s 360 Reality audio, either via a wired 3.5mm jack or wireless Bluetooth LE. Other features include a 5,000mAh battery, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of memory and 5G capabilities. The Xperia 5 IV will be available at the end of October 2022 for $1,000 in black or a green color variation. If you pre-order starting today at 11AM ET, you’ll be eligible to receive the WF-1000XM4 wireless earbuds, a $280 value. 

When you search for “Philips Hue” on your phone’s app store, a few options will pop out. Now, Signify has announced that it’s making things a bit less confusing by merging the Philips Hue sync app into the main Hue app sometime in the fourth quarter. The Philips Hue sync app controls the ecosystem’s sync box, which you can use to connect four devices to your setup via HDMI. That box is what you need if, say, you want to sync your smart lights with what’s playing on your TV. 

With the sync app’s integration, you can set up the sync box, as well as enable features such as voice control for it, within the main Hue app. Signify said it will phase out the standalone sync app, though it didn’t say when exactly it would be pulled out from app stores.

In addition to announcing the applications’ merging, Signify has also added a handful of new smart lighting products to its Philips Hue lineup. The new Lightguide bulbs have a distinct inner tube that can diffuse light in any color. They will be available in thee different shapes, namely large globe, ellipsis and triangular, and can be sold with a black or white fabric-wrapped cord and holder. Not including the cords, the bulbs will be available in the fourth quarter of 2022 for prices starting at £75 (US$87). 

Signify has also launched a new vintage-style Philips Hue Filament candle bulb that’s capable of diffusing dimmable warm-to-cool white light, as well as a new gradient lightstrip for PC that will be available on September 13th in the UK for prices starting at £130 (US$151). Speaking of PC lighting, the company has teamed up with Corsair to give you a way to sync the lighting on your peripherals with your Hue lights via the Corsair iCUE software. Finally, in the fourth quarter of this year, the company will roll out the capability to sync your smart lights with songs playing out of a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet. The Music Sync feature will be available through a future update for Samsung’s SmartThings app.

Signify

The plaque shows a hooded man holding a weapon.

Lenovo just announced the new ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 at IFA 2022 in Berlin. It’s the successor to the ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 1, the world’s first OLED foldable laptop.

This new version brings several powerful upgrades that should transform the usage model (stay tuned for the full review). The first generation was a proof of concept that made it through a complete production cycle. From that data and experience, Lenovo has made huge improvements.

First, the beautiful 2,560×2,024 OLED display is larger, with a 16.3-inch diagonal, versus 13.3-inch. Working with it completely open yields a superior visual experience, unlike any laptop you’ve had recently, because it’s a 4:3 ratio.

If you use the lower half of the screen as a virtual keyboard, you still have a 12-inch 3:2 display that is competitive with ultra-compact laptops.

Lenovo is showing the ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 to the media at IFA 2022 in Berlin (Photo: Eliane Fiolet)

The new ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 is designed to function in Landscape and Portrait mode from the get-go, which is what we suggested during our review of the Gen 1 model. This feature is now truly built-in and is fantastic for anyone working with documents.

Overall, the laptop still looks very compact, like a booklet (in width x height), and would fit in small bags and even large purses (we tried).

The physical keyboard is much improved as well. Thanks to the slightly larger size, Lenovo’s engineers were able to make it feel more comfortable.

Of course, it’s still relatively compact since it has the footprint of a 12-inch laptop’s keyboard, but Lenovo managed to add a fingerprint reader and the iconic TrackPoint.

The computing power should be significantly higher, thanks to Intel’s 12^th CPUs. It remains to be seen exactly which models will make it to retail, but it’s possible to get a Core i7-1260U (speculation) as it is a 9W TDP processor that is incredibly faster than the Gen1’s i5-L16G7 7W CPU.

In theory, users would see a 5X improvement in CPU-heavy benchmarks like Cinebench R23 or Geekbench.

Because the graphics unit is integrated into the CPU, it also benefits from all the improvements made in Intel’s 12^th-generation chips. We’re looking forward to running the benchmarks to shed light on what should be a significant increase in (theoretical) performance as well.

Since it’s an Intel hardware platform, there are three USB-C ports, two of which are Thunderbolt 4 (TB4). These TB4 ports open the door to excellent docking solutions that could turn this small laptop into a fixed (and classy) computer once you get to your desk.

The 5MP webcam should produce significantly better video than most laptop cameras when you join a video call. We’ve seen this on the recent ThinkPad X13s, and it might be the same camera hardware.

Living on the edge is not cheap, and this new ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 comes with a price tag of $2499+, just like its predecessor. This one is better in every single way and might just become the ultimate status symbol in a corporate boardroom.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2: In Our Hands

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.