The first season of HBO’s The Last of Uswrapped up on Sunday night, and the show's creators are already looking ahead to the challenge of adapting the second game. HBO swiftly greenlit a second season after the show became an immediate success, but that won't be enough to contain the events of The Last of Us Part II, as Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann confirmed.
"No. No way," Mazin said when GQasked if the second season would explore the entire story of Part II (the interview contains spoilers for the season one finale). "It’s more than one season," Druckmann added, though Mazin declined to say whether they'd need two or three seasons to cover the events of Naughty Dog's sequel. In any case, The Last of Us is only officially renewed for season two, not a third or fourth one as yet.
As if the task of adapting the long, ambitious Part II didn’t already seem daunting enough, Mazin and Druckmann have an enormous new audience to appease. The show has been a huge hit so far. HBO said last week that almost 30 million viewers have watched the first five episodes across all platforms. We'll have to wait and see if those folks stick around after [spoiler] in the chalet basement, but the show's creators aren't too concerned.
"I don't care. How they react is how they react, that is completely outside of our control," Druckmann told GQ in response to a question about the TV audience's reaction to the events of Part II. "So how do we make the best TV show version of that story? That's the problem that we wrestle with every day." Mazin added that he'd rather viewers have a strong emotional response than an indifferent one.
Meanwhile (and here's where we'll get into some mild spoilers), the pivotal opening scene of the finale was originally conceived as part of an animated short, which didn't come to pass. According to The Verge, Druckmann said he then spoke with an external studio about making a separate game focusing on Ellie's mother, Anna, but that fell through as well. The show gave him a chance to revisit that part of the story, which features Ashley Johnson (who stars as Ellie in the games) as Anna.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-last-of-us-creators-wont-restrict-part-ii-to-one-season-of-the-hbo-show-150530168.html?src=rss
Calling anyone who has been wanting an Apple Watch but not wanting to break the bank. The Apple Watch SE 2nd gen is already the cheapest option on the market, but it's currently at an all-time low price. The 40mm model is down 12 percent, to $219 from it's usual $249. Comparatively, currently the Series 8 is $329 (also on sale) and the Ultra is $769.
The Apple Watch SE has most of the same features of its counterparts for a much lower price tag. It's swimproof, has fall and crash detection, and provides heart rate notifications — to name a few. The SE is available in midnight, starlight, and silver colorways with matching bands. It's a good choice for someone who wants the look and benefit of a smart watch without paying for any extras. Plus, you can use your savings to get an Apple Watch screen protector or case.
Depending on what you want an Apple Watch for, you may never even notice the few perks missing from the SE. Unlike the Series 8 or Ultra, it doesn't have a blood oxygen or ECG app. The two higher level watches also offer temperature sensing and IP6X dust resistance.
Editor's note: This article contains heavy spoilers for season one of The Last of Us and minor spoilers for the game The Last of Us Part II.
Last night’s finale of the first season of HBO’s The Last of Us turned out to be a microcosm of everything that worked across the nine episodes, as well as a reminder of what showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann will want to work on when they pick things up for season two. Throughout the season, The Last of Us has been exceedingly faithful to the original story — but Mazin and Druckmann smartly expanded on the stories of everyone surrounding Joel and Ellie to make the world much richer. In a perhaps too-tight 44 minutes (the shortest episode of the season), the show wrapped up the first part of the story, ending with Ellie’s “Okay,” just like the game.
That single word that tells us Ellie accepts Joel’s lies about what happened between him and the Fireflies, that he’s being honest when he says that they stopped looking for a cure and that her immunity doesn’t mean anything. Joel’s ostensibly off the hook for his murderous rampage through the Salt Lake City hospital to save Ellie from having her brain dissected by the Fireflies. Of course, Ellie being a cure for the cordyceps infection was the whole point of their journey — but not the point for Joel. And the look on Ellie’s face throughout the episode’s coda tells us she’s not convinced, despite what she says before everything cuts to black.
Really, there was no other place it could have stopped. Throughout the season, Mazin and Druckmann made plenty of deviations from the game’s main story, but things always came back to the most important beats in the relationship between Joel and Ellie. The importance of these events in the Salt Lake City hospital cannot be overstated, as they form the basis for everything that follows in the game The Last of Us Part II. As such, some expected to get some hints of how the hospital bloodbath will tie into events to come, but the show stayed firmly focused on the events in the first game. That’s for the best, as Part II has a sprawling, complicated story of its own; shoehorning in a few teases of what’s to come probably would have taken away from the immediacy of what happened between Joel and Ellie.
Before Joel’s killing spree and Ellie’s acceptance of his lies, we were treated to another of the flashbacks that Mazin and Druckmann have masterfully dropped throughout the season, this one going all the way back to Ellie’s birth. People who checked out the many collectibles in the game surely found Ellie’s letter in her backpack from her mother, Anna, who writes to her newborn knowing that her life is about to be cut short.
Liane Hentscher/HBO
The game doesn’t make it explicit, but here we see that Anna (played by Ashley Johnson, who plays Elle in the games) is both infected and about to give birth. We also get to see Firefly leader Marlene promise to keep Ellie safe before ending her friend’s life. (Also, we now know that Anna gave Ellie her trademark switchblade, something I always assumed but wasn't explicit in the game.) Given how important Marlene’s presence is in this episode, it was the right time to see the very beginnings of her relationship with Ellie. And, as with every other supporting actor on the show, Johnson crushes her limited time onscreen – she’s much more than an easter egg for fans of the game. The glimpses of lives beyond just Joel and Ellie that we’ve seen throughout the season have made the world of The Last of Us feel far richer, whether they take up a whole episode (like Bill and Frank in “Long, Long Time” or Riley in “Left Behind”) or just a few minutes.
My only complaint about this flashback is that Johnson’s story eats into the precious little time we have left for Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey to share the screen together. Throughout the season, the two actors have had marvelous chemistry – but in episodes seven and eight, the story dictates that they spend very little time together. In the finale they share some of the strongest moments of the entire season, but there are so many plot points to get to that I wished for even just an extra five minutes to let things breathe a bit. But moments like the famous giraffe scene and Joel telling Ellie how he really got that scar on his head were just a couple more emotional high points between the two characters (and actors) in a season full of them.
With the first season (and adaptation of the first game) now in our rear-view, I can’t help but wonder how Mazin, Druckmann and the rest of their team will set about adapting The Last of Us Part II. While the first game told a fairly linear story, Part II is full of twists, flashbacks and changes in perspective – without getting too much into spoilers, the game devotes a third or more of its 24-ish hour playtime to a totally new set of characters. It’s an essential part of the story, but it should also present a major challenge for the showrunners to integrate it and keep the story’s emotional impact without leaving behind familiar characters for hours at a time.
Fortunately, Mazin showed his narrative chops in the first season, skillfully deploying a number of flashbacks — some new to the story and some straight from the game. As for the divergent stories, I’d have to imagine there will be a lot more intercutting between them than there is in the game. A good example is what director Peter Jackson did in The Two Towers and Return of the King. The original books both split time between two ongoing stories, and you stay with one set of characters for half the book before catching up with another group in the second half. Rather than leave Frodo and Sam for major chunks of screen time, he cross-cut between the stories as they progressed.
If Mazin does something similar, it’ll require some major re-thinking about how to make the game’s dramatic moments land, but that comes with the territory of being showrunner. Whether he can pull it off or not will be critical for future seasons of The Last of Us – the acting, set design, effects and everything else should continue to be top-notch, but it won’t matter if the narrative doesn’t hold up. Of course, a vocal subset of those who played Part II were intensely negative about the game’s story, so we’re likely to see future seasons be significantly more divisive than the first.
It’s also worth considering how the show will treat Ellie’s quest for revenge that makes up the bulk of Part II’s story. In the game, she’s as much an unstoppable killing machine as Joel is in the original game. But in season one, human-on-human violence was significantly curtailed compared to the game. That doesn’t mean Joel is shy about using violence to protect Ellie (see the infamous torture scene in episode eight or his calm dispatch of the Fireflies in the finale), but he's not an invincible video game superhero, a necessary change to ground the show more in reality. It seems inevitable that Ellie’s body count will be similarly scaled down once the show hits her John Wick phase, but it’s still going to be a tricky balance between showing her how far she is willing to go without the violence losing its emotional weight.
Regardless of how it all plays out, it’s going to be a while before we get to see how the HBO adaptation takes on the second game. Pascal recently said there was “a chance” filming starts before the end of 2023, and Mazin has hinted that the “remaining story” that they’re looking to adapt will take more than a season to tell. That means we’re likely to get a serious cliffhanger at the end of season two – even though I know where the story is going, I’m already preparing to yell at the screen when things cut to black.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-last-of-us-finale-sums-up-everything-the-shows-first-season-did-right-134544926.html?src=rss
Unlike the iOS ecosystem, where Apple is the only game in town, one of the best things about the Android phone market is the wide range of different devices and manufacturers to choose from. That said, when it actually comes time to upgrade, that wealth of options can make it a bit more difficult to choose the right handset for you. If you’re looking for a new phone and don’t know where to start, we’ve got you covered with a selection of the best Android phones for every budget.
What to look for in a new Android phone
Performance
When it comes to picking our favorite Android phones, the main things we look for are pretty straightforward: good performance (both compute and AI), a nice display, solid design, sharp cameras, long battery life and a significant commitment to ongoing software support. For performance, not only do we look at benchmarks and other metrics, but we also evaluate phones based on responsiveness. Regardless of whether you’re reading, browsing social media or playing a game, no one wants a device that feels sluggish.
Display
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
When it comes to displays, we generally prefer OLED panels that can produce rich, saturated colors with at least 600 nits of brightness, though many of our top mid-range and high-end phones can hit 1,000 nits or more. And more recently, most of our favorite devices also support screens with fast refresh rates of 90Hz or 120Hz, which adds an extra level of smoothness and fluidity.
Design
Now we will admit there is a bit of subjectivity when deciding which phones look the best, but there are other design aspects like dust and water resistance or screen durability that can make a big difference to long-term survival. It’s also important to consider things like support for wireless charging, power sharing (aka reverse wireless charging) and UWB connectivity, which can have an impact on how your phone interacts with your other devices.
Cameras
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Obviously, for photos we’re looking for sharp, colorful shots in both bright and low-light conditions. And we want video clips with high dynamic range, rich audio and smooth image stabilization. Extra cameras for ultra-wide and zoom lenses are a plus. It’s also important to consider features like dedicated night modes, support for various video recording resolutions, and additional photo modes like timelapse, slow motion and more.
Battery and software
Finally, in terms of battery life, we’re looking for all-day longevity on devices that also delivered great results on our local video rundown test (at least 16 hours on a charge, but more is obviously better). And with people holding onto their phones longer than ever, we like to see companies commit to at least three years of software support and regular security patches.
Best Android phone overall: Google Pixel 7 Pro
The Pixel 7 Pro and the standard Pixel 7 might not be the absolute fastest phones on the market, but what they lack in pure performance they make up for with thoughtful software. Thanks to Google’s Tensor G2 chip, the Pixel 7 series features powerful AI and machine learning capabilities that support things like on-device language recognition and real-time translation. You also get gorgeous OLED displays and the best overall camera quality of any smartphone available today. And with the standard Pixel 7 starting at just $600, Google’s latest flagship is an incredible value too. The main differences between the two are that the Pixel 7 Pro has a larger 6.7-inch screen and features a third rear camera with a 5x optical zoom. But regardless of whether you prefer a smaller or larger device, you can’t really go wrong with either the Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro.
Best mid-range Android phone: OnePlus 11
For those who want a phone with a big screen, solid cameras and great performance, but for less than a traditional flagship, the OnePlus 11 strikes a good balance between budget phones and more premium devices. In a lot of ways, the OnePlus 11 is like a more affordable Galaxy S23+. Not only do you get a similar 6.7-inch 120Hz display, it also features a speedy Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip and a big 5,000 mAh battery. Meanwhile, thanks to OnePlus’ blazing 100-watt wired charging, it juices up faster than any phone from Google or Samsung. And on the camera side, the company’s ongoing partnership with Hasselblad has resulted in notable improvements in image quality.
The main shortcomings of the OP11 are that its IP64 rating for dust and water resistance falls short of what you get from competing devices, and the camera’s 2x optical zoom lens feels a bit on the short side. But with OnePlus adding wider carrier compatibility and committing four years of OS upgrades and five years of security patches, the OP11 is a well-equipped option that costs significantly less than its rivals.
Best budget Android phone: Google Pixel 6a
If you just want a simple phone for a good price, the Pixel 6a can’t be beat. Starting at just $449, you get a vibrant 6.1-inch OLED and Google’s Tensor chip along with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. But the thing that separates the Pixel 6a from other budget phones are its cameras which, thanks to Google’s superior image processing, produce pictures that are sharper and more accurate than competitors twice its price. Meanwhile, Google’s commitment to software updates means you should get at least three years of OS support and five years of security patches. And thanks to all of the Pixel-specific software features like Call Screener, Hold For Me and the Pixel Recorder app, you can get a very affordable device with a ton of smarts.
Best premium Android phone: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
Starting at $1,200, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is very expensive, but it has practically everything you could ever want or need in a smartphone. It has a huge 6.8-inch OLED display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, a total of five cameras (main, ultra-wide, 3x zoom, 10x zoom and a selfie shooter) and a built-in S Pen for drawing and note-taking. It also features a huge 5,000 mAh battery that delivers some of the longest runtime we’ve seen on any phone. And with Samsung’s renewed commitment to software support, you can expect a minimum of four major OS upgrades and five years of regular security patches.
Best foldable Android phone: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
While the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is arguably the most stylish and compact phone on the market, the bigger and more expensive Z Fold 4 is like three devices in one, which makes it a unicorn among mobile devices. When you just need to respond to a text or look up an address quickly, its 6.2-inch exterior cover screen makes that a cinch. But when you want to sit down to watch a movie or play a game, you can open up the Fold to reveal a stunning 7.8-inch flexible display. It’s compact when you need it to be, while providing an immersive viewing experience when you don’t. And thanks to support for stylus input, you even can use one of Samsung’s S Pens designed specifically for the Fold to quickly draw or jot down a note. On top of all that, its OLED display makes the Z Fold 4 great for reading books and comics. And unlike practically any other non-Samsung foldable, the Fold also has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. In a lot of ways, this thing is the Swiss Army knife of phones. Sure, it’s a bit bulky, and at $1,800 it’s not what anyone would call affordable. But its ability to serve as a phone, a tablet, an e-reader and more depending on the situation puts the Z Fold 4 in a category of its own.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-android-phone-130030805.html?src=rss
Netflix took home six Oscars last night, besting all the other streaming services, but a single film, Everything, Everywhere All at Once, dominated the biggest awards. It claimed three of four of the acting awards, along with Best Director and Best Picture.
Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front won Oscars for Best International Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design and, perhaps surprisingly, Best Original Score. Netflix also claimed Best Animated Feature trophy for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, while Apple TV+ – the only other streaming service to win anything – claimed Best Animated Short Film with The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse. However, it’ll be a muted celebration compared to last year, when Apple won the first-ever Best Picture Oscar for a streaming service with CODA.
– Mat Smith
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He's trying to build a company town for Tesla, Boring and SpaceX workers in Texas.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk is attempting to build a company town for Tesla, Boring and SpaceX workers. The mooted town, around 35 miles from Austin, Texas, would likely be called Snailbrook. The plan would encompass 110 homes next to Boring and SpaceX facilities in Bastrop County. The report states Boring employees were invited last year to apply for housing, with rents expected to start at around $800 per month for a two- or three-bedroom home. The median rent in nearby Bastrop is around $2,200 a month.
Audi is the latest automaker to dip into upscale e-bikes, with a pricey electric mountain bike that takes design cues from its RS Q E-tron E2 electric Dakar Rally racer. Built by Italy's Fantic, it combines a 250W Brose motor with a 720Wh battery, but Audi hasn’t announced the range or top speeds yet. Like other Brose-powered e-bikes, the ride has four levels of electric assistance ranging from a mild Eco through to the all-out Boost mode. The Audi electric mountain bike comes in three sizes, but you'll need to act quickly and have a large bank balance. The bike is only available as a "limited run" model priced at £8,499 (about $10,200) in the UK.
Companies like Etsy and Roku will gain immediate access to their funds.
US regulators have announced they're acting to "fully" protect all deposits at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). The institution is home to many startups and established companies, like Roku and Etsy, which will have full access to their funds as of today. At the same time, officials said there will be "no bailouts." On top of SVB, regulators closed Signature Bank on the weekend. It's one of the largest banks used by cryptocurrency companies, and Crypto exchange Coinbase had $240 million in deposits at the bank. In a joint statement, federal regulators said, "all depositors of this institution will [also] be made whole."
SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission has safely returned to Earth. On Saturday evening, the company’s Endurance Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Florida, following a five-month stay at the International Space Station. The capsule was carrying NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, Japan’s Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina. Not on the flight was NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who flew to the ISS on MS-22, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that sprung a coolant leak late last year following an apparent micrometeoroid strike. The Endurance crew temporarily retrofitted their ride to carry Rubio in case of an emergency evacuation from the ISS after Roscomos determined MS-22 could only safely transport two people. Fortunately, there’s now a replacement craft at the ISS.
The History of Arduino Part 1: Introducing Arduino
The Italian Renaissance was an incredible two-hundred-year period of human history marked by remarkable advancement in both the arts as well as science and technology. Names like Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, and Sandro Botticelli are but a few of the great minds that gifted the world with incredible knowledge, art, and inventions (Figure 1). A few centuries later, a renaissance in electronics would emerge from a small town in Italy named Ivrea.
An hour north of Marseille sits Château La Coste, a winery, hotel and art gallery nestled in the heart of a beautiful Provincial valley. In its grounds is a Renzo Piano-designed steel and glass oubliette, buried in a knife wound carved out of the undulating vineyards. It’s here that Lexus has gathered the world’s press to show off its latest vision for the future of driving. Lexus believes the new RZ 450e is a new dawn for electric vehicles, but also for the way that we control them. That’s because several of the prototypes on show utilize the company’s long in development steer-by-wire system that threatens to upend more than a century of technology.
The RZ 450e is Lexus’ first battery electric vehicle, so long as you forget about all of the other ones it's sold over the years. Unlike its predecessors, this is the first to be conceived as an EV from the get-go, rather than as a variation of a model built to accommodate an engine. It sits atop Toyota’s E-TNGA platform, the same underpinning both the bZ4X and Subaru’s Solterra. As much as the platform is common, however, Lexus was keen to point out that this is not just a rebadged bZ4X, and is very much its own vehicle. Whereas that car was designed to be more friendly when going off-road, this car is built exclusively for town-and-city living.
Given both are midsize crossover SUVs built on the same platform, there are many similarities between the two. But Lexus’ design language makes the RZ look less bland than its cheaper sibling, with sharper side lines and a more aggressive nose. Unlike the Toyota, the Lexus is only available in a four-wheel-drive, dual-motor system that outputs a combined 230kW power (150kW from the front, 80kW back). But that translates into a quoted brake horsepower of 309, so it won’t be as quick as some of its would-be rivals in raw speed. The company would probably point out, however, that its Direct4 system, which uses a variety of digital control units to monitor where force needs to be distributed to ensure the car remains planted on the road, potentially offers a far better sense of driving than its rivals.
There are other differences: The boot is larger, 522 liters in the main boot, plus an extra 58 liters under the false floor, compared to the bZ4X’s 452 liters. The interior options are nicer, and for more cash you can get Alcantara-esque trims and nicer metallic paint jobs. The interior plastics are all high quality, with all the surfaces you come into contact with feeling thicker and nicer than some vehicles I could mention. Which is to say that this is still a Lexus.
Unlike other EVs, Lexus will sell you just one battery size, with each RZ coming with a 71.4kWh battery, of which 64kWh is available to drive. Lexus says that rather than messing with different battery sizes, it’s worked instead to squeeze a lot of performance and efficiency out of this cell. You should expect to wring 245 miles from a charge with 20-inch wheels, and get closer to 265 miles if you opt instead for the 18-inchers. I have an urge to castigate the company for not even breaching the 300 mile range limit given that, to many, it might feel like a dealbreaker. That said, I’m not sure I could drive from my house to Liverpool (4 hours, 42 minutes, 254 miles) without stopping for a comfort break.
And despite its obvious weight and size, Lexus said that it has made the RZ 450e as efficient as it can be. It should be able to get between 3.4 and 3.7 miles per kWh, although another midsize SUV, Hyundai’s Kona Electric, has it beat in the on-paper efficiency stakes. There’s an 11kW charger on board that, Lexus promises, will harness enough DC fast charging to re-juice the 450e’s battery to 80 percent within half an hour. None of those figures are eye-grabbing on their own, but speak to a package that’s solid, uncontroversial and hopefully reliable on the longer term. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping that, since Toyota and Lexus have lagged so far behind the rest of the industry, that its new generation of EVs would have performance figures to make it stand out against its high-priced competition.
Lexus is already taking orders for the 450e in select territories, but you can only pick it up with the standard electrically-assisted rack and pinion steering system. At the launch I attended, Lexus also equipped some of the trial vehicles with its One Motion Grip (OMG) steer-by-wire system which will be available as an additional option at some point in 2025. OMG removes the mechanical link between steering wheel and wheels, replacing it with a torque actuator on the driver’s end, which is connected by wire to a control actuator on the axles. Rather than turning the wheel directly, you’re issuing instructions which are transmitted to the wheels for it to carry out. A bit like when you play any video game, come to think of it.
Lexus pre-programmed our test vehicles with routes designed to take advantage of Provence’s twisty, scenery-filled roads. But it was on one mercifully straight highway that I wondered how much of this system will be the last straw for purists craving connection to the road. Even with so many aids added to steering systems as they presently exist, there’s still a physical sense that you turn a wheel, and the vehicle obeys. This ever-so-slightly feels like the beginning of the end for mechanical steering, the drawing of a veil over the last century plus of driving.
Daniel Cooper
With any new technology, there is the inevitable culture shock as you get to grips with the change. Spending a few hours with it does not constitute enough time for endorsement or indictment, but I do have some initial thoughts. Driving with One Motion Grip is a lot more alive and active than you may expect from a stately SUV, especially one from Lexus. The system does demand your attention, and going around my first roundabout I needed to make lots of fine-tuned adjustments to my steering. I can see why the press who tested a very early version of this system a few years back described it as “twitchy.” It’s not the right word, but you get a sense that you need to recalibrate your sense of turning, which is hampered by the fact that the turning will change depending on the speed you’re traveling at.
It has taken the better part of twelve years for Lexus to develop this system, although it’s not the first to the idea. Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury car marque, launched the 2014 Q50 with Direct Adaptive Steering, albeit it remained a mechanical connection to the wheels as well. Lexus is going all in on wires, but to reassure wary would-be purchasers about reliability, also added redundant actuators at both ends, as well as a back-up battery, to ensure steering never loses power. That means there’s no great weight saving (vital for BEVs) compared to “real” steering, but you still get all of the other potential benefits of switching to the technology.
With One Motion Grip, the 450e can offer the same level of dynamism for driving as seen in other parts of the car. The Direct4 system can already alter the torque put to each wheel to balance the ride, and you get a similar level of dynamic-alteration when driving. For instance, the system will adjust how much turn you get depending on the speed you’re driving at, with tricky car-park maneuvers more dramatic than switching lanes on a highway. And for that, we come to Lexus’ most eye-catching, controversial and interesting change, ditching the steering wheel for a yoke in a quest to end “hand-over-hand” driving.
Ditching the steering wheel also means that Lexus can reduce clutter and make it easier for drivers to see the instrument binnacle. This is a great idea in theory, but falls victim to the problem that more than a few Toyota and Lexus vehicles have suffered from over the last few years. I don’t know why, but many models (including the 2014 Mirai, 2015 Prius, 2012 and 2018 Corolla, amongst others) have their infotainment displays too low down in the center console. So when you want driving directions, you need to physically take your eyes off the road to look at the screen. At least in the bZ4X, the display is at the same height as the steering wheel, but here, the 14-inch infotainment display is buried below the air vents. Maybe it’s all a clever ploy to ensure everyone opts for a heads-up display, but it’s a persistent bugbear of mine.
Towards the end of my time with the setup, it got easier, and I suspect that it’ll only take a few days of regular use before it becomes second nature. It’s almost tragic that, for all of the effort, this technology will eventually pass unremarked into everyone’s daily driving habits. But I will admit that, when it came time for our last trip, driving the 450e back to the airport, me and my driving partner James both said we’d prefer driving the version with the wheel. But then, it’s always easier to run screaming back toward the comfort of the familiar when you’re pressured for time.
Lexus has been in the process of building electrified vehicles for the better part of two decades but it’s only now that it has launched its first clean-sheet EV. Toyota may have been the first to make a partially-electric vehicle work as a mass-market proposition, but it always had hydrogen as its north star of its strategy. It, in tandem with fuel companies and the Japanese government, opted to pursue hydrogen as the wonder-fuel of the future. Company officials frequently cited the cost and weight of batteries, and the speedy refueling times of hydrogen, as justification to avoid following the market. Inch-by-inch, sector-by-sector, the corporation has ceded more and more of the ground it initially cultivated to upstart rivals. The only evidence the company still clings to the hope of re-litigating the last decade of auto industry evolution was in a clearing across from the chateau’s polished concrete garage.
There, surrounded by metal barriers clad in Toyota-branded banners, was a hydrogen generator used to feed power into the facility necessary to charge so many cars all at once. But for my own pessimism, there remains hopeful shoots that Toyota’s fuel cells may finally find their place. The company recently announced a deal to sell hardware to Hyliko, a French trucking startup, to build the sort of heavy-duty equipment that hydrogen power is ideal for. Similarly, BMW has started showing off its iX5 Hydrogen, a prototype hydrogen EV that uses Toyota’s technology. But these are still little more than green shoots of hope that hydrogen hasn’t become a technological cul-de-sac the company has driven itself down into. Especially given the natural benefits of generation, transport and efficiency that electricity has always had over its rival.
As for the RZ 450e, it’s an EV that makes a better case for your head than perhaps it does your heart. Perhaps it’s because all EVs are a little more bloodless than their gas-powered rivals, and that the company has spent so long refining its offering. It’s powerful enough that you’ll feel a real kick when you put your foot to the floor, and the steering is a lot more active and direct than you would expect from a big, heavy, Lexus-branded SUV. But there’s also something sterile about the whole thing, the seriousness of the machine stripping out some of the fun. But that’s flimsy criticism of a grown-up vehicle that gets the fundamentals right, and should leave you with no doubts about the reliability of its hardware.
The Lexus RZ 450e is available to order in the UK for £62,000, with the most expensive Takumi variation costing £72,100. Deliveries for the vehicle are expected to begin at the end of May.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lexus-teases-the-future-of-driving-with-the-rz-450e-110046496.html?src=rss
An hour north of Marseille sits Château La Coste, a winery, hotel and art gallery nestled in the heart of a beautiful Provincial valley. In its grounds is a Renzo Piano-designed steel and glass oubliette, buried in a knife wound carved out of the undulating vineyards. It’s here that Lexus has gathered the world’s press to show off its latest vision for the future of driving. Lexus believes the new RZ 450e is a new dawn for electric vehicles, but also for the way that we control them. That’s because several of the prototypes on show utilize the company’s long in development steer-by-wire system that threatens to upend more than a century of technology.
The RZ 450e is Lexus’ first battery electric vehicle, so long as you forget about all of the other ones it's sold over the years. Unlike its predecessors, this is the first to be conceived as an EV from the get-go, rather than as a variation of a model built to accommodate an engine. It sits atop Toyota’s E-TNGA platform, the same underpinning both the bZ4X and Subaru’s Solterra. As much as the platform is common, however, Lexus was keen to point out that this is not just a rebadged bZ4X, and is very much its own vehicle. Whereas that car was designed to be more friendly when going off-road, this car is built exclusively for town-and-city living.
Given both are midsize crossover SUVs built on the same platform, there are many similarities between the two. But Lexus’ design language makes the RZ look less bland than its cheaper sibling, with sharper side lines and a more aggressive nose. Unlike the Toyota, the Lexus is only available in a four-wheel-drive, dual-motor system that outputs a combined 230kW power (150kW from the front, 80kW back). But that translates into a quoted brake horsepower of 309, so it won’t be as quick as some of its would-be rivals in raw speed. The company would probably point out, however, that its Direct4 system, which uses a variety of digital control units to monitor where force needs to be distributed to ensure the car remains planted on the road, potentially offers a far better sense of driving than its rivals.
There are other differences: The boot is larger, 522 liters in the main boot, plus an extra 58 liters under the false floor, compared to the bZ4X’s 452 liters. The interior options are nicer, and for more cash you can get Alcantara-esque trims and nicer metallic paint jobs. The interior plastics are all high quality, with all the surfaces you come into contact with feeling thicker and nicer than some vehicles I could mention. Which is to say that this is still a Lexus.
Unlike other EVs, Lexus will sell you just one battery size, with each RZ coming with a 71.4kWh battery, of which 64kWh is available to drive. Lexus says that rather than messing with different battery sizes, it’s worked instead to squeeze a lot of performance and efficiency out of this cell. You should expect to wring 245 miles from a charge with 20-inch wheels, and get closer to 265 miles if you opt instead for the 18-inchers. I have an urge to castigate the company for not even breaching the 300 mile range limit given that, to many, it might feel like a dealbreaker. That said, I’m not sure I could drive from my house to Liverpool (4 hours, 42 minutes, 254 miles) without stopping for a comfort break.
And despite its obvious weight and size, Lexus said that it has made the RZ 450e as efficient as it can be. It should be able to get between 3.4 and 3.7 miles per kWh, although another midsize SUV, Hyundai’s Kona Electric, has it beat in the on-paper efficiency stakes. There’s an 11kW charger on board that, Lexus promises, will harness enough DC fast charging to re-juice the 450e’s battery to 80 percent within half an hour. None of those figures are eye-grabbing on their own, but speak to a package that’s solid, uncontroversial and hopefully reliable on the longer term. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping that, since Toyota and Lexus have lagged so far behind the rest of the industry, that its new generation of EVs would have performance figures to make it stand out against its high-priced competition.
Lexus is already taking orders for the 450e in select territories, but you can only pick it up with the standard electrically-assisted rack and pinion steering system. At the launch I attended, Lexus also equipped some of the trial vehicles with its One Motion Grip (OMG) steer-by-wire system which will be available as an additional option at some point in 2025. OMG removes the mechanical link between steering wheel and wheels, replacing it with a torque actuator on the driver’s end, which is connected by wire to a control actuator on the axles. Rather than turning the wheel directly, you’re issuing instructions which are transmitted to the wheels for it to carry out. A bit like when you play any video game, come to think of it.
Lexus pre-programmed our test vehicles with routes designed to take advantage of Provence’s twisty, scenery-filled roads. But it was on one mercifully straight highway that I wondered how much of this system will be the last straw for purists craving connection to the road. Even with so many aids added to steering systems as they presently exist, there’s still a physical sense that you turn a wheel, and the vehicle obeys. This ever-so-slightly feels like the beginning of the end for mechanical steering, the drawing of a veil over the last century plus of driving.
Daniel Cooper
With any new technology, there is the inevitable culture shock as you get to grips with the change. Spending a few hours with it does not constitute enough time for endorsement or indictment, but I do have some initial thoughts. Driving with One Motion Grip is a lot more alive and active than you may expect from a stately SUV, especially one from Lexus. The system does demand your attention, and going around my first roundabout I needed to make lots of fine-tuned adjustments to my steering. I can see why the press who tested a very early version of this system a few years back described it as “twitchy.” It’s not the right word, but you get a sense that you need to recalibrate your sense of turning, which is hampered by the fact that the turning will change depending on the speed you’re traveling at.
It has taken the better part of twelve years for Lexus to develop this system, although it’s not the first to the idea. Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury car marque, launched the 2014 Q50 with Direct Adaptive Steering, albeit it remained a mechanical connection to the wheels as well. Lexus is going all in on wires, but to reassure wary would-be purchasers about reliability, also added redundant actuators at both ends, as well as a back-up battery, to ensure steering never loses power. That means there’s no great weight saving (vital for BEVs) compared to “real” steering, but you still get all of the other potential benefits of switching to the technology.
With One Motion Grip, the 450e can offer the same level of dynamism for driving as seen in other parts of the car. The Direct4 system can already alter the torque put to each wheel to balance the ride, and you get a similar level of dynamic-alteration when driving. For instance, the system will adjust how much turn you get depending on the speed you’re driving at, with tricky car-park maneuvers more dramatic than switching lanes on a highway. And for that, we come to Lexus’ most eye-catching, controversial and interesting change, ditching the steering wheel for a yoke in a quest to end “hand-over-hand” driving.
Ditching the steering wheel also means that Lexus can reduce clutter and make it easier for drivers to see the instrument binnacle. This is a great idea in theory, but falls victim to the problem that more than a few Toyota and Lexus vehicles have suffered from over the last few years. I don’t know why, but many models (including the 2014 Mirai, 2015 Prius, 2012 and 2018 Corolla, amongst others) have their infotainment displays too low down in the center console. So when you want driving directions, you need to physically take your eyes off the road to look at the screen. At least in the bZ4X, the display is at the same height as the steering wheel, but here, the 14-inch infotainment display is buried below the air vents. Maybe it’s all a clever ploy to ensure everyone opts for a heads-up display, but it’s a persistent bugbear of mine.
Towards the end of my time with the setup, it got easier, and I suspect that it’ll only take a few days of regular use before it becomes second nature. It’s almost tragic that, for all of the effort, this technology will eventually pass unremarked into everyone’s daily driving habits. But I will admit that, when it came time for our last trip, driving the 450e back to the airport, me and my driving partner James both said we’d prefer driving the version with the wheel. But then, it’s always easier to run screaming back toward the comfort of the familiar when you’re pressured for time.
Lexus has been in the process of building electrified vehicles for the better part of two decades but it’s only now that it has launched its first clean-sheet EV. Toyota may have been the first to make a partially-electric vehicle work as a mass-market proposition, but it always had hydrogen as its north star of its strategy. It, in tandem with fuel companies and the Japanese government, opted to pursue hydrogen as the wonder-fuel of the future. Company officials frequently cited the cost and weight of batteries, and the speedy refueling times of hydrogen, as justification to avoid following the market. Inch-by-inch, sector-by-sector, the corporation has ceded more and more of the ground it initially cultivated to upstart rivals. The only evidence the company still clings to the hope of re-litigating the last decade of auto industry evolution was in a clearing across from the chateau’s polished concrete garage.
There, surrounded by metal barriers clad in Toyota-branded banners, was a hydrogen generator used to feed power into the facility necessary to charge so many cars all at once. But for my own pessimism, there remains hopeful shoots that Toyota’s fuel cells may finally find their place. The company recently announced a deal to sell hardware to Hyliko, a French trucking startup, to build the sort of heavy-duty equipment that hydrogen power is ideal for. Similarly, BMW has started showing off its iX5 Hydrogen, a prototype hydrogen EV that uses Toyota’s technology. But these are still little more than green shoots of hope that hydrogen hasn’t become a technological cul-de-sac the company has driven itself down into. Especially given the natural benefits of generation, transport and efficiency that electricity has always had over its rival.
As for the RZ 450e, it’s an EV that makes a better case for your head than perhaps it does your heart. Perhaps it’s because all EVs are a little more bloodless than their gas-powered rivals, and that the company has spent so long refining its offering. It’s powerful enough that you’ll feel a real kick when you put your foot to the floor, and the steering is a lot more active and direct than you would expect from a big, heavy, Lexus-branded SUV. But there’s also something sterile about the whole thing, the seriousness of the machine stripping out some of the fun. But that’s flimsy criticism of a grown-up vehicle that gets the fundamentals right, and should leave you with no doubts about the reliability of its hardware.
The Lexus RZ 450e is available to order in the UK for £62,000, with the most expensive Takumi variation costing £72,100. Deliveries for the vehicle are expected to begin at the end of May.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lexus-offers-a-a-glimpse-at-its-ev-future-with-the-rz-450e-110046197.html?src=rss
Engadget rated the Soundcore Motion+ as one of the best portable speakers for 2023 thanks to its level of sound quality for the price. It creates a clear bassy sound while also allowing for customization with six EQ modes controllable from your phone. The Bluetooth 5.0 speaker has a battery life of 12 hours, long enough for any late nights. Plus, it also offers with a 3.5mm AUX input for further listening options. The Motion+ is IPX7 waterproof, meaning it can keep pumping out tunes even if submerged in water for a half hour.
It's round, thin frame certainly makes it one of the sleeker options of the Anker Soundcore family. Though right now only the black style is on sale, with the red and blue editions each available for $111.
Two other Anker Soundcore speakers are also on sale if you're looking for something a bit cheaper. The Anker Soundcore Mini has a small discount, down from $24 to $20. Its features include 15 hours of playtime, FM-radio, and a noise-cancelling microphone. Plus, it's size makes transporting it a little more convenient than the Motion+ if you plan to regularly be on the go.
For a little more money you can get the Anker Soundcore Flare Mini at $30. For an extra $10, it's probably the better option of the two if you plan on having a lot of outdoor parties this summer, especially near water, since this speaker is also IPX7 waterproof. Plus, it has nice LED lights and 360 degree sound.
Apple's Beats Fit Pro wireless earbuds are a good option for folks who dislike the fit of regular AirPods, but don't want to pay the price for AirPods Pro. If you've been waiting for a deal on them, now's the time to act because they're back on sale at an all time low price of $145 (28 percent off) at Woot.
The Beats Fit Pro scored a solid 87 Engadget review score based on their excellent ANC performance, good sound quality and comfort. For the latter, the "fit wing" tip can bend to a wide range of ear shapes while keeping the buds firmly in place. They also offer physical buttons to answer calls, control volume, play/pause music and skip tracks.
The sound quality is "balanced and powerful" with punchy bass as you'd expect with Beats earphones, while also offering great clarity. They support Apple's spatial audio, giving you the ability to listen to Dolby Atmos Music content in Apple Music, or TV/movies on Apple TV. They also have Adaptive EQ that adjusts low- and mid-range frequencies depending on ambient sound to keep audio quality consistent. The ANC is powered by Apple's H1 chip and does a good job of blocking distractions.
The main downside is the $200 price, double that of the regular AirPods, but at $145, they're one of the cheaper wireless ANC earbuds from a major brand. Bear in mind that while Woot is owned by Amazon, it doesn't have the same return policy. If you do want a pair of 2nd-gen Apple AirPods Pro wireless ANC earphones, those are still on sale for $200 at Amazon.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/beats-fit-pro-anc-headphones-fall-back-to-an-all-time-low-of-145-090305318.html?src=rss
