This week, we’re adding 14 new mobile camera hardware scores, from Sony phones that cost $1199 down to $160 for the Oppo A33 (2020) as we need to cover all price points if we are to help as many people as possible navigate the maze of camera options.
But first, a few words about our mobile camera HardWare benchmark called Uber HW Camera, since it is how we estimate how powerful these camera systems are and rank them.
With every console generation, companies tend to make changes to the design and features of its gaming controllers, and the Sony PS5’s DualSense controllers are no exception. They come with adaptive triggers which EA is taking advantage of with its FIFA 21 game, where the controls will actually “tighten” as the players in the game get fatigued.
Some might have criticized sports games in the past for being unrealistic as players don’t get tired or suffer from injury, but with these changes, players will now have a sense of when their characters in the game start to tire and might take it as a sign to swap out players. It also adds a sense of strategy to the game where they’ll need to ensure that their characters are always playing at optimal levels if they don’t want to start lagging behind their opponent.
If you are having a tough time getting your hands on Sony’s PS5 console, then you have scalpers to blame. This is because according to a report from Business Insider, it appears that a UK based scalper group calling themselves CrepChiefNotify have managed to nab as many as 3,500 units in total and are reselling them at premium prices.
According to the report, the group relied on a variety of tools to help them nab all these units, including communications over Discord, retail-scalping bots, and also inside information to give them an advantage over regular shoppers. Sony has attempted to combat scalpers by limiting the number of units that customers can purchase per household, but it seems that whatever measures they put into place did not help as it is clear that the group managed to find a way around it.
Valve has announced over the weekend that they’ve added support for the DualSense controller. What this means is that games that support controller input will also support the DualSense, although given that the DualSense wasn’t designed for PC gaming in mind, and PC games weren’t necessarily created around it, you might miss out on certain features that would otherwise be available for the PS5.
However, for the most part it should still be more than capable of playing games, so if you’re just looking for controller support, you’ll have an additional option in the form of the DualSense controller. Right now, Steam supports a multitude of different controllers made by various companies, including the PS4’s controller, the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, and more.
Sony is pushing out the November 2020 Android security patch for its flagship Xperia 1 II (Mark 2). The new update arrives with build number 58.0.A.3.224 in the form of a 108.6MB OTA update. As usual, frustratingly there is no changelog so we cannot say definitively if there are other changes. If you've updated please let know your impressions below.
While it is tempting to rush out and get the latest gadget, sometimes it might be better to wait. This is because as much testing and prototyping a company does, it’s hard to predict how a device behaves when it gets put into the hands of thousands of users who are doing all kinds of things with them, some of which might result in unintended consequences.
This seems to be the case with some early PS5 adopters who are reporting a variety of issues with their consoles, such as loud, buzzing sounds, and in some instances of unlucky gamers, their consoles are getting bricked which usually means that they’ll need to send it back to Sony to get it fixed.
Despite Sony’s best attempts, the PS5 was too hyped where initial stocks ran out in a very short amount of time. This means that gamers who failed to secure themselves a unit will have to wait until new units are back in stock, but some people are betting that there are gamers out there who probably can’t wait.
So much so that according to sightings on eBay, it seems that there are some people who are reselling PS5 units for crazy amounts of money, where some are being sold for $2,000. We can’t be sure if all these listings are legit to begin with, and we’re pretty sure that there are bound to be a few scammers who are trying to make a quick buck.
It appears that for the Nord N10 5G and N100, OnePlus will only be giving users one major Android update. You might be thinking at the very least it’ll get up to Android 12, right? Unfortunately no. This is because the phone actually ships with Android 10, 2019’s update, which means that the next major update will be Android 11 which was already released not too long ago.
Yup, your brand new smartphone will only get 2020’s Android update before calling it a day. OnePlus will also only provide two years of security updates, which for context, other companies typically give 2-3 years.
Autonomous or self-driving cars appear to be something we can look forward to in the future, but in case you didn’t know, there are actually different levels to autonomy. For the most part, a lot of self-driving cars being developed today and are on the streets, like those made by Tesla, are considered a level 2.
These cars can drive by themselves, but will still require a human behind the wheel. They can steer, brake, and accelerate on their own as well. However, level 3 is where it gets interesting and is a goal that companies are working towards, and it is also something that Honda hopes they’ll be the first to achieve in terms of mass production.
If you were to ask Sony Xperia fans to pick one iconic colour that has adorned their smartphone stable over the last decade, there is a good chance that Purple would be high up on that list. We've not seen the colour used in more recent Xperia phones, but the good news is that it will make a return in its latest Xperia 5 II. The bad news is that the Purple Xperia 5 II is exclusive to NTT docomo in Japan.
Sony has released firmware updates for a few of its 2020 smartphones. The recently released Xperia 5 II has been updated to build number 58.0.A.22.21, which adds October 2020 Android security patches. In addition, its budget Xperia L4 has seen an update to 57.0.A.2.258, which also adds October 2020 patches.
Back in the early days of Sony Ericsson's Android adventure, it decided to launch its new smartphones under the ‘Xperia' brand. The Xperia brand was the umbrella that was used for all of its smartphones, regardless of shape/size and form factor. The models that came with the keyboard carried the ‘Pro' moniker, but they all sat under Xperia.
Speaking to The Washington Post in an interview, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Senior Art Director Yujin Morisawa revealed that had the engineering team not tell him, he would have made the console even larger than what it is at the moment. He was quoted as saying, “In the beginning, when I started drawing, it was much larger even though I didn’t know what engineering was going to do. It’s kind of funny that engineering actually told me it’s too big. So, I actually had to shrink it down a little bit from the first drawing.”
The reason why Sony made the PS5 as large as it is, is because of the powerful hardware packed inside of it. According to Morisawa, he knew at the jump that the console had to be even more powerful than its predecessor, and because of all that power, he also knew that it needed even more space to accommodate a larger heatsink and to offer better thermals.
Right now, the current standard of video game prices is set at $60 for triple-A titles, not taking into account deluxe editions or collector editions. This has been the standard for years, but with next-gen consoles, we’re starting to see some publishers move towards pricing games at around the $70 mark which is expected to become the new standard.
However, according to a report from Bloomberg, it seems that even $70 wasn’t enough for Sony, so much so that the report claimed that Sony was in discussions to possibly increase the price of games beyond the $70 mark. The report does not mention when these talks took place or if they’re still in discussion.