With four movies under its belt, the Toy Story franchise remains the undeniable crown jewel in Pixar's portfolio. But after Toy Story 4 put something of a boy on Woody's story, the focus is now shifting to Buzz Lightyear. The first trailer for Lightyear just arrived, and it sure paints a different picture than what we're used to in the Toy Story universe. For one, the titular character isn't a toy, but a real flesh-and-blood human who appears to be the inspiration for the Buzz Lightyear figure we know so well. 

The trailer definitely gives off origin story vibes, as it looks like Buzz makes the journey from pilot to intergalactic explorer in his signature spacesuit. How he gets from there to a beloved toy in the Toy Story world remains to be seen — but since this is Pixar, we're expecting the two stories to collide in a way that's fairly unexpected. 

Lightyear is set to hit theaters on June 17th, 2022, with Chris Evans voicing Buzz for the first time. Unfortunately for those of us who have gotten used to watching new Pixar films on Disney+, it seems like you'll have to head out into the world if you want to see this during that summer release window.

The Xperia 1 III looks a lot like the smartphones that came before it. If it wasn’t for the matte finish, it would be almost identical to last year’s Xperia 1 II. Sony has stuck to its unusual elongated smartphone form factor while upgrading the screen itself, as well as the cameras.

Yet again, this phone is pitched at a particular kind of smartphone shopper. That’s no bad thing, especially in a time where most smartphones — if they don’t fold — lack anything particularly unique. At $1,300, the Xperia 1 III is also an expensive phone. That’s several hundred dollars more than an iPhone 13 Pro Max and creeping closer to prices typically held for Samsung’s flagship foldables. (Edit: Just as I wrapped up this review, Sony unveiled a new flagship smartphone, the Xperia Pro-1 with a bigger imaging sensor, several attachments and a $1,800 price tag.)

If you're tempted by the potential of unrivaled smartphone camera control — or just love the aesthetic of Sony’s hardware— there’s a lot to like here. 

Hardware

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I’m not sure whether it’s the similarities with Sony’s camera series or simply how sleek and understated the Mk.III is, but I love how this phone looks. A black oblong is far from exotic, but it’s definitely attractive. And that’s despite the unusual screen ratio (21:9), which makes the device more elongated than pretty much all other smartphones. In addition, a new almost-matte finish adds to the premium feel, something the Xperia 1 III demands at this price.

The Mk.III lays claim to being the world’s first 4K phone with a 120Hz refresh rate. I’m splitting hairs here, but it’s 1644 x 3840 — so it’s not quite 4K like your TV would show, which would be 2160 x 3840. Predictably, everything on the screen looked incredibly crisp, and my interactions with the phone were also buttery smooth.

The 6.5-inch OLED display continues to show Sony’s obsession with displays, and given the specs, you’d expect it to look as good, if not better, than Samsung and Apple’s top devices. If you decide to switch the high refresh rate on, the Xperia won’t dynamically change refresh rates to maximize battery life. There are a lot of times when you’re simply looking at the screen that you don’t need 120Hz refresh rates.

Whether it’s Samsung’s Galaxy S 21 and its dynamic refresh rates, or the iPhone 13 Pro’s ProMotion, both of those phones flit between refresh rates as needed, reducing the toll on the battery. Unfortunately, once set, the Xperia 1 III’s screen stays at 120Hz.

The phone houses front-facing stereo speakers, which sound good. That’s still a rarity for smartphones. As you might expect from Sony, there’s support for nearly all the cutting-edge audio formats, including its own 360 Reality Audio, Hi-Resolution audio, and Dolby Atmos.

You’ll have to figure out which apps and services offer these upgraded audio experiences, as it’s still a labyrinth of discovering out exactly how to play the highest-quality music files. On that subject, Sony is clinging onto the 3.5mm audio jack for one more year.

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There’s a fingerprint sensor built into the phone’s power button on the right edge of the phone, a volume rocker, a two-stage camera shutter button and then yet another button, just because Sony could. It summons the Google Assistant but sadly can’t be assigned to other (more useful functions). In the early stages of using the phone, I’d often press the wrong one, power up the screen instead of launching the camera. Sometimes, I’d do the reverse.

Four buttons on one side is too many and while I eventually got used to it, a dedicated voice assistant button seems entirely redundant.

I might love how the Mk. III looks, but that tall screen will be a struggle for some smaller hands. I find it a bit of a reach for icons at the top of the screen, and drop-down menus usually demand two hands. This form-factor does feel more comfortable in my hands, though, and slides into pockets easier than Apple’s bigger Pro phones, or the Pixel 4a 5G.

Rounding out the list of specs you’d expect to see in a premium smartphone, the Xperia 1 III is running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 chipset, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It is also a little bit more 5G-friendly, working this time around with T-Mobile and Verizon bands. However, there is no mmWave support nor will it work on AT&T’s 5G offering.

Sony has increased the battery size to 4,500mAh, making it notably bigger than its predecessor. Unfortunately, the Xperia 1 III struggles to last an entire day, if you keep the screen running at 120Hz, at least. On days of heavy use, I’d have to recharge the phone by early evening. After dropping the settings down from 120Hz I was typically getting just shy of a day and a half of use, which is a pretty standard figure for most high-end Android devices. The battery is big, yes, but so is the screen.

The cameras

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It’s an open secret that Sony makes camera sensors for a lot of smartphone makers. But until recently, that didn’t translate to killer smartphone cameras for its own phones. So if the Xperia 1 II was Sony getting serious about its phone cameras, then the Xperia 1 III is Sony getting serious, focused and business-like, all at once.

As with the screen, Sony is taking its own approach with three 12-megapixel cameras of varying focal lengths. That includes a new telephoto lens that can switch between 70mm and 105mm equivalent zoom. Sony says the variable zoom lens helps it to focus faster, which was true in my experience, although I did find there was a little bit too much blur when using the optical zoom at its maximum.

With the Mk.III, Sony also added dual-phase-detection-autofocus pixels, which, paired with 20 frames per second shooting, should offer a better chance of catching crisp shots in hectic settings. You can tap to focus and the camera will track moving subjects, just like a digital camera touchscreen.

Sony has pulled together an intriguing mix of (relatively) low-megapixel sensors and infused it with what it’s learned from its camera series. Compared to what iPhones and Pixel phones do with computational photography and post-processing, Sony offers a more technical approach to capturing shots.

While testing out the phone, I leaned heavily on the “auto” shooting mode, which acts like any camera app on any smartphone. But like the Xperia 1 phones before it, the Mark III comes with a pretty expansive Photography Pro app. Beyond the basic mode, you can tinker with shutter speeds, ISO, color balance and pretty much anything else.

I’ll confess that I’m not the best photographer, and so anything that helps me get a better shot, whether that’s software assistance or higher light sensitivity, is appreciated. Outside of the automatic, simplified camera mode, the Xperia 1 III has a learning curve. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite match the experience of a Sony camera. I fumbled around for an aperture priority mode (so I could maximize bokeh effect at low f stops), but it doesn’t exist. I was tricked into thinking the Mk.III would work like a camera, but it’s still just a smartphone camera. You can adjust shooting speed and ISO, but not aperture. At times, I felt I wasn’t skilled enough to get the most from the Mk.III. I can take better photos on other flagship phones, but I think that’s due to my own photographic shortcomings.

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The Xperia 1 III does great with face detection and often latches onto fast-moving people and pets. However, when you’re using the telephoto lens, the phone seems to hop between fore and background details a little too often. The usual curse of smartphone photography doesn’t escape Sony, either. Low light conditions will still mess up autofocus, no matter how smart Sony has made it. There’s no night shoot mode, either, which is curious in 2021.

Mat Smith/Engadget

Video captured by the Mk.III was a pleasant surprise, whether shooting in 4K or 1080p. I took the phone with me during a trip to Amsterdam and recorded video both in daylight and night-time. The lack of rolling shutter, on a moving tram, and the accurate lighting as I recorded dark streets both impressed me. The footage wasn’t overly noisy or blurry either, which is something you often see from many smartphone cameras when they’re trying to accommodate a lack of light.

If you’re looking for finer control with video, Sony's Cinema Pro app returns again, offering equivalent pro controls but for video. You can select shooting modes like 10-bit color and high frame-rates while toying with built-in filters, shutter speed and even manual focus. You’ll need to come to Cinema Pro with at least a passing understanding of what all those things do. I found it a little too complicated, but at least the Mk.III offers enough screen space to tap between settings and adjust everything.

And a quick note on the front-facing camera: It’s terrible. Blurry, noisy and shockingly under-specced, at a time when we’re using selfie-cams more than ever. It’s an unusual camera miss for Sony.

Software 

Aside from the camera app, Sony has played it relatively safe in its customization of Android software in recent years. While there are a few homemade apps that you won’t touch (like the news feed one), there are some tricks you won’t find on other phones, like the ability to use Xperia 1 III as an external monitor. The feature works with cameras capable of USB Video Class (UVC) output (such as, conveniently, Sony’s Alpha camera series), but it’s very much a simple, expansive display for your camera. Having said that, this 6.5-inch 4K display is almost definitely better than whatever’s on the back of your camera.

Sony has also simplified connecting a PS4 DualShock controller to the Mk.III, with a prominent connection option within the settings app. You will probably need to pick up some kind of mount to keep the Xperia 1 III attached to your controller. Oddly, as of the time of writing, you can’t pair the PS5’s DualSense controller.

Wrap-up

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The Xperia 1 III is not for everyone, but for devoted smartphone camera (or Sony) fans, it’s another intriguing device, despite the prohibitive price. I can’t unequivocally say it’s the best smartphone camera, but, like its predecessors, it does things its own way, whether that’s the camera array, deeply customizable camera app or the slick, sharp 4K 120Hz screen. Does anyone need a 4K phone screen? I’m not sure, but Sony makes a better argument for it with its external display app.

The Mk.III, with its almost matte finish, looks and feels more like Sony’s family of alpha cameras, or perhaps more accurately, its high-end RX point-and-shoots, and when most other phones are backed with glass or glossy plastic, I think the Xperia 1 III has its own unique charm. Barring the iffy selfie camera, the latest Xperia 1 doesn’t do anything poorly and if you have the patience and the skill to master it, the Mk.III can take some stunning shots. For a lot of people, however, letting Apple, Google or Samsung's software take up some of the slack will lead to better pictures, no matter how technically impressive Sony’s proposition is.

One of the main complaints players had about Returnal, aside from the high level of difficulty, is that, until now, there was no real way to save your game in the middle of a run. Sure, you could leave your PS5 on or put it in rest mode, but if there was a power outage or an overnight automatic system software update, you'd lose all of your progress. Given that runs can last several hours, not having any kind of save state option wasn't great.

Housemarque, now a PlayStation-owned studio, has finally attempted to remedy that problem in Returnal's 2.0 patch. With the Suspend Cycle option, you can pause your run, create a suspend point and close the game without worrying too much about losing progress. 

There are some caveats, though. You'll only be able to resume your run from any suspend point one time. So, don't expect to return to that point if (or more likely when) Selene dies. It's a smart way to introduce a save system and let players take a break without disrupting the game's start-over-when-you-die roguelite structure.

You won't be able to create a suspend point in certain scenarios either. If you're in the midst of a boss battle, intense combat sequence, cinematic or first-person section, you'll need to see it through, one way or another. "We felt there are certain moments in Returnal that are best experienced unfragmented to preserve the intended challenge and flow," game director Harry Krueger wrote in a PlayStation blog post.

As deadly as the biomes of Atropos are, they're often gorgeous too. To help you capture the sights, another feature that Returnal players have been clamoring for is now in the game — Photo Mode. Other than in certain situations (such as first-person sections), you can pause the PS5 exclusive and enter Photo Mode.

You have a selection of tools at your disposal, including settings like focal distance, aperture, color gradient, saturation and contrast, as well as a way to change the scene's lighting. There are also filters, effects, frames, coloring options and other ways to jazz up your image before you capture it.

Meanwhile, Sony is set to host its next State of Play stream on Wednesday. The showcase will run for around 20 minutes and primarily focus on third-party games, but don't be surprised if Sony sneaks a first-party game or two in there.

At the start of 2021, Sony introduced the $2,500 Xperia Pro. It was a phone the company made for video professionals. Now, Sony is back with a second professional-grade smartphone designed to appeal to photography enthusiasts. The headline feature of the Xperia Pro-I is a 1-inch sensor borrowed from the company's RX100 VII point-and-shoot camera. That's a much larger sensor than you'll find on most phones. 

To put things in perspective, the primary sensor on the Pixel 6 Pro features a pixel pitch of 1.2µm. By contrast, the main sensor on the Pro-I has 2.4µm-sized pixels, making it much better in low light. It can also shoot 12-bit RAW files and native 4K video at 120 frames per second with eye-detection auto-focus. Speaking of auto-focus, it comes with 315 points that cover 90 percent of the frame.

The Pro-I also includes one of Sony's BIONZ X imaging processors, giving it the ability to shoot up to 20 frames per second with both auto-focus and auto-exposure enabled. The fast readout speed of the sensor allows it to avoid a rolling shutter effect, a feature Sony says helps the Pro-I stand out from other phones with 1-inch sensors like the Mi 11 Ultra. Those handsets also don't have phase-detection autofocus like the Pro-I does.

Complimenting the 1-inch sensor is a 24mm lens made from glass that can switch between f/2.0 and f/4.0 apertures. Sony went with an aspherical design to make the optics as small as possible. Flanking the primary camera is a 16mm ultrawide camera and a 50mm telephoto camera. Sony says it chose that lens arrangement after consulting with photographers who told the company they wanted a setup that matched their collection of prime lenses.

Once you get past its camera, the Xperia Pro-I is essentially a souped-up Xperia 1 III. Internally, the phone features a Snapdragon 888 supported by 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. You can add up to 1TB of additional storage with the help of a microSD card. Powering everything is a 4,500mAh battery Sony claims will allow you to use the Pro-I for a full day on a single charge. Inside the box is a 30W power adapter that can charge the phone to 50 percent in 30 minutes.

The Pro-I also features the same 6.5-inch OLED that came on the Xperia 1 III. It's a 4K display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 21:9 aspect ratio. On the audio front, the Pro-I not only comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack, but it also includes Sony's LDAC and DSEE technologies.

All of those capabilities come with a hefty price tag. In the US, Sony plans to sell the Xperia Pro-I for the eye-watering price of $1,800. The way the company sees it, you're effectively getting a flagship phone and RX100 VII for less than the price of buying those devices separately. However, the Xperia Pro-I isn't a one-to-one replacement for the RX100 VII. Sony's point-and-camera outputs images at 20.1-megapixel, using the full readout from its sensor. The Pro-I uses a crop because taking advantage of the entire sensor would necessitate a much larger lens than would be feasible to include on a smartphone. 

Pre-orders for the Xperia Pro-I open on October 28th, with general availability to follow in December.  

If you’ve ever damaged your phone, you may have run into a situation where you found it difficult to find a place that can repair it. Samsung is trying to help owners of its flagship devices avoid that situation with a newly announced Best Buy partnership. Starting on October 26th, more than 100 Best Buy stores across the US will begin offering Galaxy S and Galaxy Note repairs. Then, early next month, those same locations will start repairing Samsung’s Galaxy Z foldables.

If you bring your phone into one of the stores, they’ll be able to help with front and back screen replacements, battery swaps as well as port and camera repairs. Best Buy’s Geek Squad will complete the repairs with parts and training provided by Samsung.

For the South Korean company, this partnership is all about expanding its repair footprint. The 100 Best Buy stores add to the more than 550 in-person authorized care locations the company already has in place across the US. They won’t help you if you own a more affordable Samsung device like the Galaxy A52 (and you may not like the idea of the Geek Squad handling your device), but it’s still a step in the right direction. Outside of Apple, most tech companies have struggled to make it easy for their customers to find in-person support, and that's something that can have a significant impact on someone's relationship with a brand.

With Halo Infinite’sDecember 8th release date fast approaching, Microsoft has shared a new six-minute trailer that offers an in-depth look at the game’s single-player component. The last time the company provided an extended preview of Infinite’s campaign was during its Xbox showcase in 2020. That trailer was poorly received, with most fans agreeing the game’s visuals looked dated. In the aftermath of that reveal, developer 343 Industries said they had work to do, and Microsoft subsequently delayed the game to 2021.

In this latest preview, you can see the visuals have gotten an update (look at Craig the Brute). But what hasn’t changed too much is the emphasis on sandbox gameplay. During a community Q&A back in March, 343 Industries said they were inspired by levels like The Silent Cartographer from Halo: Combat Evolved to design the game in a way that would allow players to accomplish objectives with creativity. 

You see that ethos on display in the second half of the trailer. Master Chief stumbles upon a Banished outpost he has to take out. You can use his grappling hook to move around the facility quickly and pull enemy weapons and explosives to augment your current arsenal. Vehicles play an important part in the overall gameplay loop, as do abilities you can purchase for Master Chief. 

All of the different gameplay elements come together to form something that looks like it will offer a classic but more open Halo experience. It’s just too bad you won’t be able to play the campaign with a friend, at least not at launch.

The latest Samsung early Black Friday sale brings The Frame smart TVs down to some of the lowest prices we've seen in a while. Both Amazon and Samsung's own website have the deals right now, which include the 55-inch The Frame 4K smart TV for just under $1,000 — that's $500 off its normal price and the lowest we've seen it. The most affordable of the bunch is the 32-inch set, which is down to $450, and you'll find the 75-inch TV for $2,200 on the high end of the spectrum.

If you aren't familiar, Samsung's The Frame TVs stand out because they aren't basic black voids when you're not watching something. Instead, they use Art Mode to display various pictures and pieces of art, allowing it to blend better into your living room. You can even send your own photos to the screen, turning it into a super-large version of those small, digital photo frames that are quite popular now. Built-in sensors optimize the picture to your environment, and they can tell when you're away, turning the screen off automatically. On top of all that, you're getting a 4K QLED set with 100 percent color volume, 4K AI upscaling and Alexa support.

While a bunch of other Samsung TVs are also on sale right now, the Premiere Projector with a 4.2.2 sound system is noteworthy because it's been discounted to just under $5,000. That's $500 cheaper than it was back in September when it was last on sale, and a total discount of $1,500. Yes, it's still an expensive piece of home theater equipment, but it's a much better buy at this price. It includes separate red, green and blue lasers so it can cover the full Rec.2020 color range, and it supports HDR10+ and up to 2,800 lumens of brightness. If you're willing to compromise a bit on sound, the model with a 2.2 channel system is down to a new low of $2,498 as well.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Rumors have persisted of a flagship Samsung tablet even larger than the Galaxy Tab S7+, and now you might know what it looks like. OnLeaks and 91Mobiles have shared what they claim are images of the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra. The slate would minimize the impact of its huge 14.6-inch display by stuffing the front camera system into a notch — potentially distracting, but better than a conventional design that might be even larger.

The design wouldn't be quite so unusual on the other side. The leak suggests the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra would have dual rear cameras and the familiar magnetic strip to hold your S Pen. The source claimed the imagery was "not 100 percent complete," so there's a chance the design could change slightly no matter how accurate it is as of this writing.

The regular Tab S8 and S8+ models aren't expected to use the notch. They might instead be subtle evolutions of the existing designs, which tuck the front camera into the bezel.

It's not clear just when the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra would arrive. 91Mobiles speculates that Samsung might launch the design in November or December, but it would be odd to wait until the very end of the year to release an important tablet, even if chip shortages weren't a factor. It might be easier for Samsung to wait until early 2022, when it can launch the Tab S8 series alongside the Galaxy S22.

On Tuesday, October 26th, Carli Lloyd will play her final game as part of the US women’s national soccer team when it takes on South Korea in a friendly match. In honor of the event, Fox Sports will stream a dedicated “CarliCam” that will follow Lloyd throughout the contest. You’ll be able to watch the game from that vantage point through the Fox Sports app, as well as the network's Facebook and YouTube accounts. It will also air the first 10 minutes of the match on Twitter.

Back in August, Lloyd announced she would retire from professional soccer by the end of the year. Over her 17-year career, she has been one of the most dominant players in the sport. She scored the gold medal-winning goals in both the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. In 2015 and 2016, she was named the FIFA Player of the Year. More recently, she helped Team USA secure the bronze medal at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo with a pair of goals in a match that ended with a four-three score. While Tuesday will mark Lloyd’s final game with Team USA, she’ll play out the remainder of the NSWL season with Gotham FC before finally hanging up her jersey.

For a while now, Discord has offered a feature called Rich Presence. It’s an API developers can use to connect their games to Discord and make it easier to jump into them from the chat app. We’ve mostly seen studios add the integration to individual titles, but now EA is doing it at the launcher level.

Starting today, its EA app will allow you to connect your Discord account. Once you link the two together, your Discord contacts will not only see that game you’re playing through the EA app but they’ll also know how long you’ve been at it and the specific game mode you’re in at the moment. They’ll also see if you’re ready to group up to play something different. That last point is important since it might help push your friends to play a game they hadn’t planned to when they first launched Discord.

You can connect your accounts by navigating to the settings menu in the EA app, and then clicking on “My account” followed by “Connected accounts.”