Here is one of the pictures featuring the Samsung One Box. Numerous images associated with the Samsung One Box can be utilized as your point of reference. Below, you'll find some additional pictures related to the Samsung One Box.
Samsung One UI 5.0 Beta Goes Live For Some Galaxy S22 Owners
Samsung One UI 5.0 Beta Goes Live For Some Galaxy S22 Owners
Samsung's giving early adopters a first look of its next operating system update with the One UI 5.0 beta, but it's only available in Germany so far, according to reports.
What's more, only owners of the Samsung Galaxy S22 series released earlier this year can access the One UI 5.0 beta, as SamMobile reported, stymying older Samsung handset owners.
One UI 5.0 brings new features set to come out in the upcoming release of Android 13 later this year. The beta will eventually be available to users in China, India, Poland, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to the beta's official website. It's unclear when the beta will expand to these countries, though it could be in the coming days as 9to5Google predicts. It's also not apparent if other Samsung phones will be included in the beta.
Interested users can register for the beta program in general within the Samsung Members app available on the Google Play Store and Galaxy Store -- once registered, they'll be able to download the free beta update using the usual OS route (Settings > Software Update > Download and Install).
Samsung did not respond to request for comment by time of publication.
Read more: Download the Final Android 13 Beta on Your Phone Right Now
Vivo's X60 Pro Plus has a Snapdragon 888 and a 55-watt charger in the box
Vivo's X60 Pro Plus has a Snapdragon 888 and a 55-watt charger in the box
Vivo is one of China's biggest phone brands, and now it's teaming up with German lensmaker Zeiss to level up its photography game. Those boosted cameras, plus a gorgeous display and impressive battery features, make Vivo's newest phones worthy of your attention.
Vivo unveiled its inaugural global flagship phones for this year, announcing the X60, X60 Pro, and the X60 Pro Plus, on Thursday. Positioning the X60 Pro Plus as a "professional photography flagship," Vivo is flexing its maiden collaboration with Zeiss, which co-engineered the device's image system. Although Vivo is relatively unknown in the West, the Chinese company is one of the world's top 10 phone manufacturers by market share -- and it's used by several Avengers too.
I spent a couple of days with the highest-end X60 Pro Plus, and can say it delivers on a premium Android experience complete with some extra bells and whistles you may not expect. There's a 6.56-inch AMOLED display, a speedy refresh rate (120Hz), the newest Qualcomm processor available (Snapdragon 888), fast charging (55-watt bundled charger) and a periscope-style telephoto camera seen on ultra-premium flagships such as Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Apart from the Zeiss collaboration and the incremental upgrades, new to the series is the X60 Pro Plus' so-called extended RAM technology. Vivo claims 3GB of the phone's "idle" storage can be used as RAM to "achieve a +3GB RAM effect," promising to boost the device's performance.
Missing in the X60 Pro Plus are things like an IP rating for water resistance, which many phones of this class have, and expandable storage. That will be forgivable for most since the one variant of this phone has 256GB storage.
At the time of this writing, Vivo didn't share how much these phones will cost internationally, but we can look at the X60's pricing in its native China as a reference point (although prices tend to vary depending on country). The base X60 Pro starts at 4,498 yuan (converts to about $690, £500 or AU$910), and the X60 Pro Plus starts at 5,998 yuan (about $920, £670 or AU$1,210). Unfortunately, Vivo currently has no US rollout plans, but it shouldn't be too difficult to import. It's being released in more than 20 markets worldwide including the UK, India, the Middle East and Europe over the next few months.
The X60 Pro Plus has periscope lens bragging rights
The Vivo X60 Pro Plus has four rear cameras, consisting of a standard lens, ultra-wide lens, portrait lens, and a periscope-style telephoto lens (just like its predecessor). Huawei's P30 Pro was the first phone to include a Periscopic lens, which allows for insane long zooming, and it's since been picked up by Samsung on its Ultra phones. Apple is rumored to adopt the technology late next year. Compared to regular telephoto cameras that offer 2x or 3x optical zoom, periscope-style cameras can typically do 5x or even 10x optical zoom by using more than one lens along with the camera sensor. For its part, the X60 Pro Plus boasts 5x optical zoom, and 60x digital zoom.
Last year, I showed you how far you can zoom in with 60x zoom on the Vivo X50 Pro, so you can take a look at that to get a sense of this phone's digital zoom capabilities.
The X60 Pro Plus has a periscope-style telephoto camera capable of 10x optical zoom and 60x digital zoom.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET
Vivo X60 Pro Plus cameras in action
Whether I was attempting to snap the perfect portrait of my dog napping in our living room or action shots of Rocky running on a hiking trail, the five cameras on this phone, along with the many accompanying modes, made it easy to take wonderful and versatile shots. Night-time imaging was impressive too, with the X60 Pro Plus taking crisp, detailed photos. There is also night mode for video on the main camera.
Even when I took pictures facing bright, sunlit windows, the camera managed to capture punched-up images of the indoor surroundings. Below you can see what I'm talking about, especially when juxtaposed with iPhone 12 Pro Max photo, which took more true-to-life, albeit less saturated photos. Whatever you prefer is likely a matter of personal preference. I realize this might not be an apples-to-apples comparison (pun intended), but my hope is that it gives you an indication of where the X60 Pro Plus stands on the spectrum of phone cameras.
Taken with the Vivo X60 Pro Plus. The furniture looks more saturated here than in the image below taken with the iPhone 12 Pro Max below.
The X60 Pro Plus features a design similar to a number of high-end Android phones we've seen in recent years. On the front is a curved display with a centrally located punch-hole notch, and on the back there's a "vegan" leather rear that reminds me of last year's Oppo's Find X2 Pro.There's a camera bump on the back and a blue Zeiss label emblazoned on its right side. I realize Vivo wants to flex its partnership with the 175-year-old German lensmaker, but I think it could have achieved a similar result with more subtle labelling.
Speaking of the display, the X60 Pro Plus relied on a high-res AMOLED display (made by Samsung). It has a speedy refresh rate of 120Hz, but you can dial it back to 60Hz if you want to save on battery life. Most phones have refresh rates of 60Hz, which means the screen refreshes 60 times in a second. 120Hz displays can look a lot smoother when scrolling through webpages.
Vivo
Vivo X60 Pro Plus has 55-watt bundled charger
The X60 Pro Plus astounded me with its blazing-fast charging speeds. In fact, this was probably one of my favorite features because you only need 20 minutes for your phone to get enough charge to last you between a half or full day. Within 20-25 minutes, the 55-watt in-box charger juiced up the phone from 0% to around 70%, and within 45 minutes the 4,200-mAh battery was fully revitalized.
The X60 Pro Plus runs on the Snapdragon 888, Qualcomm's latest processor found in a number of Android flagships including Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra and Xiaomi's Mi 11. This chipset is backed by 12GB RAM and 256 GB of storage. Vivo claims 3GB of the phone's storage can be used as RAM, giving you that extra dose of power when multiple apps are running in the background. Vivo claims its new memory management relies on algorithms to lets 3GB of idle storage to "assume the function" of RAM, resulting a boost in memory usage efficiency by 37%. You probably won't notice a difference at first, but in theory it should mean better performance when your phone is loaded with apps.
Vivo X60 Pro Plus vs. X60 Pro
Vivo X60 Pro Plus
Vivo X60 Pro
Display size, resolution
6.56-inch AMOLED "flexible screen", FHD+ (1080 x 2400 pixels)
6.56-inch AMOLED "flexible screen", FHD+ (1080 x 2400 pixels)
Midnight black: 158.58x73.24x7.59 mm and shimmer blue: 158.58x73.24x7.69 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams)
191 grams
177 grams for midnight black, 179 grams for shimmer blue
Mobile software
Android 11
Android 11
Video capture
4K
4K
Processor
Snapdragon 888
Snapdragon 870
Storage
256GB
256GB
RAM
12GB
12GB
Expandable storage
No
No
Battery
4,200 mAh
4,200 mAh
Special features
55-watt fast charging (in box charger), 120Hz, 60x hybrid zoom, 5x optical zoom, dual SIM
33-watt fast charging (in box charger), dual SIM, 120 Hz screen
Price off-contract (USD)
N/A
N/A
Price (GBP)
N/A
N/A
Price (AUD)
N/A
N/A
§
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says in a research note that iPhones will likely get a periscope-style telephoto camera lens in 2022 if lens suppliers Semco and Sunny Optical join the Apple supply chain this year, according to reports from MacRumors and 9-to-5 Mac. This means that a much better camera could be coming to iPhones, with lenses similar to those used in some Huaweiphones today.
The design differences would likely be minimal, since periscope-style telephoto lenses don't extend out from the body of a phone, but rather within it, according to the reports. Apple previously adopted 2x telephoto lenses in its 2016 iPhone 7 Plus, but a shift to periscope-style lenses could bring that zoom power up to 5x or more. The improved range and depth of the lens would bring its cameras into competition with the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and Huawei P40 Pro Plus, both of which have cameras with up to 10x zoom.
Kuo said he believes the new lenses will be featured in the iPhone 12 in 2022.
Apple didn't immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.
Asus Zenfone 7 Pro is a flipping cool phone, but you'll have to pay for it
Asus Zenfone 7 Pro is a flipping cool phone, but you'll have to pay for it
Like
Flipping camera
Uninterrupted display
Long lasting battery
Refresh rates
Don't Like
Not water resistant
Phone gets hot
No support for wireless charging
Steep increase in price
More than a year after Asus impressed with a flipping camera on its flagship Zenfone 6, the company is back with the Zenfone 7 Pro. The phone's standout feature is a swiveling camera that smoothly flips over the top of the phone to take selfies. It also sports a large uninterrupted display, 5G connectivity, a blazing-fast processor, fast refresh rates and a massive battery. Alongside the 7 Pro, Asus launched a base variant called the Zenfone 7.
With these updated features, Asus bumped up prices significantly from the $499 Zenfone 6 to levels that are tough to justify. The higher-end Zenfone 7 Pro (the phone I received for review) costs approximately $960 (roughly £715 or AU$1,290) when converted from euros, whereas the Zenfone 7 starts at around $840 (about £625 or AU$1,130). Although the Zenfone 7 Pro comes with improved features like Qualcomm's most advanced chipset and a better flip camera, you aren't getting the value for money that made the Zenfone 6 such an excellent purchase.
The phone comes with some drawbacks too. For example, it's not water resistant and there's no support for wireless charging. Plus the phone can get uncomfortably hot when charging or performing demanding tasks. If you're dead-set on showing off a flip-camera phone to your friends, then I'd recommend going for the more affordable Zenfone 7. The former looks identical to the 7 Pro and serves up most of its core features, but has less storage (128 GB versus 256GB), a different chipset (Snapdragon 865 versus Snapdragon 865 Plus) and no optical image stabilization in the camera. Meanwhile, the Zenfone 6's launch price was $499. If an IP rating is important to you, the OnePlus 8 Pro is a good Android alternative within a similar price bracket.
Unfortunately, Asus doesn't currently have plans to officially rollout the phone in the US. But the Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro are expected to be released in parts of Europe in late September for 699 euros and 799 euros respectively, so they'll be reasonably easy to import.
Asus added a third telephoto lens to the Zenfone 7 and 7 Pro (pictured here).
Sareena Dayaram/CNET
Asus doubles down on that flip camera
Since the flip camera influences many parts of the Zenfone 7 Pro's aesthetic, it's difficult to talk about design without first addressing its most distinctive physical feature. The camera unit is composed of three lenses that flip from back to front over the top of the phone (and vice versa) with a click of a button. This allows you to use its higher resolution cameras, which are normally reserved for the back of the phone, as front-facing shooters. Because of this, Asus eliminated the front camera altogether and as a result delivered a completely uninterrupted display, free of any notches or cut-outs that would typically house a lens.
Like its predecessor, the Zenfone 7 Pro has a notch-less display.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET
For the Zenfone 7 phones, Asus upgraded the flip-cameras's motor from the Zenfone 6, to one that it says is smoother, more durable and more versatile due to the addition of a new angle sensor. The company says the flip-cam can endure 200,000 flips, lasting you about five years or twice as long as the Zenfone 6. In the week or so that I've spent with this phone, I've had fun using the flip camera. I think it's a creative, clever and well-thought out solution that actually integrates with useful features. But, despite Asus' claims, I worry the constant emerging and re-emerging of the camera unit may make it prone to more wear and tear. For its part, Asus has added an auto-retract protection feature to its flip camera, which can sense when the handset is in a freefall. I tested this by dropping it on to a bed from a height of approximately four feet and can confirm it works.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET
The Zenfone 7 Pro is bulky, but has a great screen
Apart from the avant-garde flip camera setup, the sheer size and weight of the Zenfone 7 Pro was the next thing I noticed about it. It's one of the heaviest phones I've used and I often found myself navigating it with two hands. The phone I was given for review was entirely black except for the back which featured a dark green sheen. Overall, the color scheme was a bit too dark for my taste, but I can see why people would appreciate this finish. (The bundled charger and cable are black too.) On the right side of the handset, there are two buttons, namely, a volume control fingerprint reader that doubles up as a power button, which can be customised. The side fingerprint worked seamlessly and was easy to get accustomed to, but I do prefer an in-display reader.
The Zenfone 7 Pro features a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with speedy 90Hz refresh rates. Most phones have a 60Hz display, which means the screen refreshes 60 times a second. But it's not as high as the 120Hz screens on the OnePlus 8 Pro and Galaxy S20. With the faster screen, the animations look smoother, while text and images are crisper. The phone runs on Android 10 out of the box and has a customized skin known as Zen UI. It reminds me of stock Android, but overall I found it clean, simple and easy to navigate.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET
The Zenfone 7 Pro's three cameras
This camera took sharp and vibrant pictures in the sunlight and even in overcast weather conditions. Low light imaging was mostly good too and it did well brightening up some environments, especially when I used Night Mode. At times, however, pictures looked slightly artificially sharpened.
Out of the Zenfone 7 Pro's tri-camera module, it's the telephoto lens that is a new addition. It allows for 3x optical zoom and up to 12x digital zoom. At this level, pictures were blurry and grainy. If you intend on using zoom to capture details of faraway subjects, you won't achieve that with this phone, unfortunately. At 3x optical zoom, photos look crisp in sunny conditions, but tended to look grainy in trickier lighting environments. Overall, this camera definitely wasn't best-in-class, but then again this phone appeals to people who want a flipping camera and not necessarily the best camera.
As for video, there was support for up to 8K video at 30 frames per second with EIS. It makes for massive file sizes and isn't a video feature I expect to use much. But thanks to the flip cam, you have the option of making use of this high-tech feature from the phone's front.
Example of ultra-wide shot taken in daylight.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET
Taken on default settings.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET
Example of 3x optical zoom. The photo turned out crisp, vibrant, and true-to-life.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET
This photograph was captured using the Zenfone 7 Pro's dedicated night mode setting. You can see that it's been brightened compared to the photo below that was taken without night mode.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET Sareena Dayaram/CNET
Taken indoors with natural light pouring through the window. The camera did a good job of taking a detailed and color-accurate photo.
Sareena Dayaram/CNET
The Zenfone 7 Pro's 5,000-mah battery lasts well
Asus prides itself on the "unbeatable endurance" of its Zenfone batteries, so I was looking forward to experiencing its seemingly endless battery life and it didn't disappoint. It lasted me nearly 23 hours with what I would describe as moderate usage. Meaning I used my phone for about an hour of Zoom video calls, WhatsApp messaging, reading news on various social media apps and taking some photos. When I went to bed, I muted the phone and didn't switch on airplane mode, which would have preserved battery life even more. Also, when I continuously played an HD video on Airplane mode for battery tests, the phone lasted for more than 15 hours at 50% brightness.
When the battery did finally run out, it managed to hit a 50 percent charge in 30 minutes and get fully revitalized in 100 minutes or so, which is slightly longer than the quoted 93 minutes. Like the Zenfone 6, Asus decided to stick with a massive 5,000-mAh battery for the Zenfone 7 series. Though the capacity didn't increase with the new iteration, it added more battery-care features and a faster 30-watt charger. What really stood out was the degree of customization Asus provided in terms of battery-care features and charging. One new feature is the option to enable always slow charging, which the company says helps preserve battery capacity in the long run. Another example was the upper limit charging feature, which allows you to limit how much you charge your battery, say to 90% instead of the full hundred. Again, Asus says that's because regularly hitting a 100% charge degrades battery capacity over time.
At the heart of the Zenfone 7 Pro is the new Snapdragon 865 Plus processor, which is supposed to be 10% faster than the 865 processor found on most premium Android phones. In my experience, it was extremely snappy and totally capable. Nothing got in its way. Other fancy phones that use this processor include Samsung's pricier Galaxy Note 20, Note 20 Ultra and Oppo's Find X2 and Find X2 Pro. The Zenfone 7 Pro is backed up by 8GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage, and held up extremely well in benchmark tests.
Zenfone 7 vs. Zenfone 7 Pro
Asus Zenfone 7
Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
Display size, resolution
6.67-inch AMOLED; FHD
6.67-inch AMOLED; FHD
Dimensions (Inches)
6.49 x 3.04 x 0.37 inches
6.49 x 3.04 x 0.37 inches
Dimensions (Millimeters)
165.08 x 77.28 x 9.6 mm
165.08 x 77.28 x 9.6 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams)
8.11 oz; 230g
8.11 oz; 230g
Mobile software
Android 10
Android 10
Camera
64-megapixel (main camera), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide), and (telephoto)
64-megapixel (main camera), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide), and (telephoto)
Concerned about foldable phones' durability? Here's how Motorola tests the Razr hinge
Concerned about foldable phones' durability? Here's how Motorola tests the Razr hinge
For my review of the latest Motorola Razr, which is now available, I tested the updated foldable phone for 10 days in September. Occasionally when I opened or closed the phone, an onlooker would react with disbelief. One woman working behind the register of a coffee shop's to-go window actually gathered her (masked and socially distanced) co-workers and asked me to show them how the Razr folded in half. When I demonstrated the screen folding like paper, her response was: "That is amazing. Where do I get one?"
And that's the "magic" of foldable phones at their core. They seemingly do the impossible by letting you take something rectangular and rigid and fold it into something smaller than a drink coaster. That magic comes from years of design, testing and revisions. And the engineers and designers who worked on the upcoming Motorola Razr know it's anything but magic to make a 6.2-inch phone fold in half.
But all that work can be easily overshadowed. The review units of 2019's Samsung Galaxy Fold raised the flag about how folding screens would work in the real world. A number of them had defects that let dust or other particles get underneath the screen and wreak havoc. Any concerns people had about folding displays were instantly amplified.
Then in February 2020 after months of delays, Motorola released its Razr (2019) with a foldable screen and CNET's video team tested the display's durability. My colleague Chris Parker used a FoldBot and attempted to open and close the phone 100,000 times. After 27,000 folds the Razr (2019) wasn't able to be tested further. Reflecting on that test and how SquareTrade modified its FoldBot to handle the Razr, Parker concluded:
"Does [it] feel like a durable, resilient phone that will stand up to extended real-world use? To me it does."
These incidents might make you wonder if foldable screens are durable. And if so, how do we know? Jeff Snow, general manager of innovation products at Motorola, thinks it's natural to ask durability questions about foldable screens.
"The new thing about the phone is the fact that the screen folds open and you can light it up," said Snow. "People are not used to phones with those folding screens. So the questions in their minds are, 'Is it going to last?' 'How many times can I actually do that action?'"
Motorola claims the screen on its upcoming, updated Razr (2020) can be folded 200,000 times. To give you an idea how many times that is, you could open and close the phone 100 times a day for five years and still not hit that number.
To show me how the company determined and tested the number of times the upcoming Razr's screen could be folded, I visited a lab at Motorola in Chicago -- while wearing a mask and social distancing -- to meet Snow and Tom Gitzinger, director and principal engineer of innovation and architecture for Motorola. I got to see for myself how Motorola tests the screen on the upcoming Razr.
Motorola's screen folding machine lab
In a room that looks like a college black box theater are a number of lights all focused on a roughly 10-foot-wide machine. There is a camera on a tripod pointing at the machine which gives the entire space an odd television show vibe. On the top of the waist-high machine on their backs, are four Razr (2020) phones. The machine fully opens and closes all four phones at the same time over and over.
Here are two of the four phones mid-close on the screen fold test machine.
Patrick Holland/CNET
Throughout the design and manufacturing process, Motorola uses similar machines to test the folds on the Razr (2020). Unlike the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, which is designed to be opened to a variety of positions, the Razr is built to either be fully open and flat or completely closed. And unlike the Foldbot, Motorola's machine uses a wire to open the Razrs perfectly flat and an arm to close them shut. The wire is thin enough to nestle between the two halves of the phone when it's closed.
To recreate those 200,000 folds in less than five years' time, the machine fully opens and closes the phones once every 4 seconds. There is a calming quality to hearing four phones shut closed every 4 seconds. It's like a soft-sounding metronome. It takes Motorola 10 days to fold each phone 200,000 times with this machine.
Owners' feedback helps improve the new Razr
Over the past six months Motorola reached out to people who own the Razr (2019) to learn how they use the phone. According to Snow, Razr owners open and close their phones on average 40 times a day. And "super users" (the 99th percentile), average 100 times a day. Hence, Motorola designed the Razr (2020) to handle 200,000 folds.
"We're not changing the parameters of testing," said Snow. "But we want to make sure that we're understanding people and exceeding their expectations."
The screen and hinge allow the Razr to fold in half
The phone's "zero gap" design, screen and hinge allows the Razr to achieve a high level of screen durability. The newest Razr (2020) largely uses that same design as the Razr (2019) albeit with tweaks. In fact, if you want to learn more about the hinge take a look below at a video I made last year about its design and how it allows the Razr (2019) to fold flat.
The screen itself is made of five different layers and then sprayed with a hard coating. When the layers are combined the screen has a thickness of 355 microns (3.5 millimeters). To give you a sense of how thin that is, the Motorola Edge Plus uses a similar OLED panel stack for the curved edges of its screen which is three times the thickness of the Razr's display stack.
And it's not just the display that is folding in half. There are a number of connections including the four 5G antennas that have to traverse the hinge. And like other foldable phones, the battery in the Razr is actually two batteries, one on each end. Not only does this help with balance, but it adds another level of complexity as both have to connect through the Razr's hinge mechanism.
How Motorola addressed the squeak/creak
When I reviewed the Razr (2019) in February, it suffered from a squeak/creak. It was like a muffled crunching sound but loud. During my time with the updated Razr (2020), the squeak/creak was mostly absent until Friday -- my eighth day with the phone. And when it did squeak, it was a quieter sound, more like breaking in a pair of new leather boots. Gitzinger explained the noise by comparing it to a bag of potato chips.
"You can't possibly open a potato chip bag without making a noise. It's super thin. It's a lot more crunchy and crinkly than something like this [the foldable display]. But the same principle applies," said Gitzinger. "You've got this big, significant surface that moves around, and it's pushing air that creates some of the noises. We were able to eliminate other noises by putting in some old friction adhesives and tapes and surfaces to enable everything to slide past one another a bit more easily."
I asked a friend how they felt about the squeak/creak on the newer Razr (2020) and they said it didn't bother them. I guess when it comes to screen notches, foldable screen creases and now foldable phone squeaks, some people will get used to these things while others will be annoyed.
Only time will tell
With the improvements made, Motorola is confident about the retooled Razr's durability. In fact, the company runs 40 different lab checks to test both the design and quality of the phone during development and manufacturing.
That said, the true indicator for how durable the screen on the Razr (2020) or any foldable phone is time. Until then, just like magic, foldable phones require a bit of faith.
For more details make sure to check out my review of the 2020 Motorola Razr.
