Author: News Room
Once you’re in the Sonos ecosystem, understandably drawn to the beautifully-designed hardware and excellent sound, you’re willing to look past little niggles that are commonplace with WiFi-tethered gear, even if it’s a Bluetooth speaker too. The Sonos Roam is the company’s first proper portable speaker, even if the Sonos Move would like to claim that title. The the sheer heft and size of the latter make it very low down on our list of speakers that we’d sling in the satchel for a weekend away or a jaunt to the park. Not so with the far more sensible Roam. Being both WiFi and…
HMD announced a new set of earbuds today with a case that doubles as a backup phone battery. The aptly named wireless Amped Buds come in a Qi2 charging case that uses reverse wireless charging to boost your phone’s charge. With a slim design and a 1,600mAh battery, it’s a portable case that offers just enough charge to get through the end of the day. They’re priced at €199 (about $206) and will launch in April. We don’t yet know if they’ll come to the US.The Amped Buds include active noise cancellation and environmental noise cancellation. The case is rated…
After two years telling anyone who’d listen that Chinese manufacturer Vivo made the best cameras in any smartphone, last year’s Xiaomi 14 Ultra changed my tune. It became my favorite phone and camera, handling everything from holiday snaps to product review photoshoots. With the 15 Ultra, Xiaomi took the best and made it better with a new 200-megapixel periscope lens to complement the other (largely unchanged) cameras.The downside? The 14 Ultra was never much of a looker, and the 15 Ultra’s enormous, asymmetrical camera module has taken a bad design and made it worse. I’m willing to put up with…
Introduction There’s more than one way to make an incredible camera phone. Some brands prefer pixel count. Others are all-in on algorithms. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra? It takes the brute force approach. This no-holds-barred flagship has what’s arguably the most capable set of snappers ever squeezed into a single handset. No other 2025 front runner has a one inch lead sensor, and this one is paired with two high pixel count zoom lenses. It also builds on the outgoing Xiaomi 14 Ultra with more advanced colour science from imaging expert Leica. But that’s not to say this mobile has a…
It’s ironic coming from a tech writer, but I think we all spend a bit too much time focused on our phones these days. That’s why dumb phones are coming back in style. HMD’s latest release is a smartphone made for teens, helping them develop a better relationship with technology. And even though it isn’t made for me, I want it anyway. HMD wants the Fusion X1 to be the ideal first smartphone for teens. Though, whether they’ll actually be thrilled about that is another question. But I am! Designed in partnership with Xplora, it gives parents full control via…
After a couple of weeks in which we got a new iPhone, we’re turning our attention to the wider world of mobile in the form of Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress show, aka MWC 2025. As always at the show, plenty of the best phones, tablets and wearables break cover. We’re on the ground in Barcelona for the next few days. The focus at this event is typically on smartphones, but in recent years, we’ve seen more announcements in different areas such as laptops and smart home. MWC is always a bit of a weird hybrid of a show. Not only…
Introduction Jaecoo is the latest Chinese car maker looking to make a positive impression with UK buyers. Alongside partner brand Omoda, I’ve not been able to turn the TV on lately without seeing ads for models like this: the Jaecoo 7. The family SUV has landed in a variety of trims and powertrains, including pure petrol and the SHS plug-in hybrid tested here. The Super Hybrid System piqued my interest as I’ve got a home charger, which should make the combination of a 1.5-litre petrol engine, lithium-ion battery pack and automatic transmission a proposition that’ll work well for me –…
I’m someone that does a fair bit of travelling. This article is coming from Barcelona, where I am for the MWC 2025 expo. One of my big gripes is packing tech accessories, adapters, and chargers. But this new travel wireless charger from Belkin is going to simplify my travel packing – it’s some top travel tech. This compact charger can lie flat or fold into a stand, making it versatile enough for any setup. It delivers 15W wireless charging for iPhones (or any Qi2-compatible devices), along with 5W for an Apple Watch and 5W for earbuds. Thanks to Qi2 magnetic…
Samsung is bringing even more AI to its line of budget-friendly phones. The new Galaxy A56, A36, and A26 now come with what the company calls “awesome intelligence,” enabling an array of new AI-powered image editing features already available with Samsung’s pricier S25 lineup.One of these features is Best Face, an AI tool that lets you swap the facial expressions of up to five people in a motion photo in case someone blinks or looks away from the camera. It’s similar to Google Pixel’s Best Take and launched with the Galaxy S25 in January.Besides new AI features, Samsung made some…
Samsung knows not to mess with a good thing. The Galaxy A series has long been an affordable phone heavyweight, diluting down a lot of what makes the higher tier Galaxy S so great in order to hit a keener price point; this year’s Galaxy A56 is more of the same. Only it lands just as arch-rival Apple has started charging considerably more for its economical effort. At £499 (US pricing and availability was TBC at the time of writing), the Galaxy A56 undercuts the iPhone 16e by a significant £100 – yet tops it on screen size and camera…
Ikea has registered its first Thread device, a new Matter-supporting temperature and humidity sensor called the “Timmerflotte,” with the FCC, reports HomeKit News. A diagram from the filing, which was spotted by CybermodStudios, shows a circular device that’s powered by two AAA batteries and features a QR code and 11-digit number for Matter setup.The Timmerflotte doesn’t appear to use any other wireless protocol other than Thread, HomeKit News notes. That means Ikea, which tends to use the Zigbee or Wi-Fi protocols for its devices, doesn’t offer a hub that this device could natively integrate with. Ikea’s Dirigera hub lacks both…
Since its founding in 2007, the Mumbai-based collaborative studio CAMP has used surveillance, TV networks, and digital archives to examine how we move through and record the world. In addition to their film and video projects, the wildly prolific studio runs a rooftop cinema in Mumbai and maintains several online video archives, including the largest digital archive of Indian film.CAMP’s first major US museum exhibition is on view now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York through July 20th and includes three video projects spanning two decades of work. The exhibit’s three films repurposed private television sets into…