With the launch of the Galaxy S24 family, Samsung is boldly declaring an end to the smartphone camera wars as it moves into the AI era. And the $1,300 S24 Ultra is its torchbearer for this new age of mobile design.

While it may not look like a ton has changed on the S24 Ultra, there’s one major design update along with a handful of smaller tweaks. The move to a titanium frame (available in four colors: titanium yellow, violet, gray and black) apes what Apple did for the iPhone 15 Pro last fall. The big difference is that, because Samsung’s previous flagship featured an aluminum chassis unlike the heavier stainless steel build on the iPhone 14 Pro, the S24 Ultra’s weight (8.22 ounces) is largely unchanged from last year’s device (8.25 ounces). That means aside from some very slight changes to the texture, there aren’t a ton of outward signs hinting at the S24’s increased durability which includes the same IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.

More subtle upgrades include a new Corning Gorilla Armor panel in back (instead of Gorilla Glass Victus 2 like on the standard S24/S24+), even thinner bezels (42 percent slimmer than before) and a slightly boxier feel. The latter might not be something most people notice, but it’s part of an ongoing trend for Samsung as it’s moved towards phones with flatter screens. On the S24 Ultra, aside from some faint rounding at the perimeter of its display, it’s almost completely rectangular. So for all the people who hate screens with curvy edges, congratulations, you’ve won.

Inside, the S24 Ultra features a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip along with 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. Samsung says it’s installed a larger vapor chamber that’s almost twice the size of what’s in the previous model to help keep the phone’s thermals in check. The Ultra’s screen is also slightly brighter with a peak of 2,600 nits for its 120Hz 6.8-inch OLED screen. There’s still a storage slot for the Ultra’s S Pen with a springy magnetic attachment system and its core functionality hasn’t changed, so you can expect the same super responsive stylus input.

It’s important to note that the S24 Ultra’s camera setup is largely unchanged. You still get a 200-MP main sensor and a 12-MP ultra-wide, but instead of a 10x lens, the S24’s telephoto camera is now based on a 50-MP sensor (up from 10-MP) with a 5x optical zoom. Samsung says this change was made based on customer feedback and usage patterns, which saw 5x being the most frequently used focal length. While its overall reach has seemingly decreased, the phone uses pixel-binning and AI to achieve what the company is calling a “10x optical quality” zoom while still delivering up to a total 100x Space Zoom. In our limited hands-on time, the Ultra’s telephoto camera still looked sharp even with the shorter focal length, though as before image quality begins to deteriorate quickly past 20x.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Of course, the Ultra’s zoom is just one small application of AI. The entire S24 family has a full suite of machine learning-based features. Similar to what’s available on the Pixel 8, Samsung is using AI to help you edit photos and create new slow-mo footage. You can use the S24 Ultra’s stylus (or your finger on the other models) to draw a lasso around a subject before touching and holding to move it whenever you want. Then, all you have to do is hit the generate button, and the phone uses AI to fill in any missing elements. And this isn’t limited just to moving things around either, as you can delete objects, resize, recompose and more.

Samsung’s photo app can also detect things like shadows and reflections and will ask if you would like to remove them from your shot. This might be my favorite application of AI, as this helps streamline editing while also making more complicated fixes incredibly easy. And while I only got to test this out using sample photos provided by Samsung, it worked astonishingly well. After finding a photo in the gallery app, all I had to do was hit the info button to see a list of suggested edits, which almost instantly transformed a mediocre image into something I would be proud to share on social media.

Samsung’s slow-mo feature was also quite impressive. It works on practically any local clip, not just footage shot by an S24. When playing back a video, you can simply touch and hold. Then the phone looks at the framerate of the footage, multiplies it by four (e.g. from 30fps to 120fps) and uses AI to create additional frames — all on the fly and on-device, so nothing is being sent to the cloud.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

It’s not all photo tricks, though. The S24 uses its AI powers to help you communicate both on the phone, via the new live-translation feature, and in text, with improved proofreading, summarization and tone-correction abilities. During calls, activating translation is as simple as tapping a button. From there, it will recognize your speech and automatically convert it into whatever the other person is speaking (or you can save a tiny bit of time and select the language yourself). Granted, this does mean that conversations will take a touch longer since you’ll need to pause to give the phone a chance to process and translate what you say. But if you’re in a pinch while traveling, I wouldn’t hesitate to try this out.

As for the S24’s summarizing capabilities, it’s similar to what you get on the Pixel or in services like ChapGPT, Bard and others. You can direct the phone to a website or a file (including those in Samsung Notes) and the phone will condense things into a handful of major bullet points. But the potentially more useful tool is the tone-correcting feature, which in addition to basic stuff like highlighting typos, also gives you some options to rephrase things to make them seem more positive or encouraging.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Notably, because you get a handful of options and the choice to ignore or implement things as you see fit, it feels like less policing yourself and more like adjusting language to get your message across in a more effective manner. Honestly, this is something everyone could probably use from time to time, even if it’s just to prevent sending out an angry text or email.

The one aspect of the S24’s AI powers that isn’t handled locally is a new circle-to-search tool. Developed in partnership with Google, the feature allows you to highlight both text and images before sending a query off to the cloud and returning results. In practice, it feels like combining traditional search and visual lookup aids like the Google Lens app into a single thing. It’s a nice upgrade in terms of general usability standpoint even if it doesn’t revolutionize the way the phone works.

Photo by Sam Rutheford/Engadget

Finally, following a similar move Google made last year with the Pixel 8, Samsung will now provide a full seven years of regular OS and security updates. This is something I’m hoping to see from every Android handset maker, so I’m glad Samsung is stepping up now.

The two gripes I have are that, for a device that starts at $1,300, I think the S24 Ultra’s design is rather plain. It’s just 6.8-inches of phone with a bunch of sensors and camera lenses on the back. Not to mention I don’t think Samsung’s special titanium-hued paint jobs stand out as much as the company hopes they do.

The other issue is the lack of Qi 2 support. The S24 falls in the second half of Samsung’s two-year product cycle, which means we probably weren’t going to get any big facelifts or design changes until next year. But as the largest Android phone maker, it’s pretty disappointing to see a new flagship not adopt what could be an incredibly important multi-platform wireless charging standard.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Honestly I was kind of taken aback by how good its AI features are. I actually had to stop myself multiple times from writing how one of the phone’s latest tools was a pleasant surprise. Unlike Google who has been beating the drum about machine learning for more than a decade, Samsung’s mobile expertise always felt like it lay more in hardware than software. But with the S24, Samsung is showing that it’s taking the transition to the AI era incredibly seriously.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will start at $1,300. Pre-orders go live today and on Samsung.com will include a free upgrade that doubles the phone’s storage, while official sales are slated for January 31.

Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S24 devices at its first Unpacked of the year. As expected, the three smartphones have a heavy focus on artificial intelligence-powered features, from the likes of live translations to image editing.

Galaxy AI, as Samsung is calling the devices’ overarching AI system, is behind a number of communication-focused functions. For one thing, Galaxy S24 devices will natively support live, two-way translations on phone calls without the need for a third-party app, Samsung says. Since processing for most AI features is handled on-device with the help of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Chipset and its neural processing unit, the conversations will stay private (well, aside from eavesdroppers who might catch one half of the chat). You'll have the option to entirely disable online processing of data for any AI features.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

On a similar note, on-device processing also means that you won’t need cellular data or Wi-Fi connections to use AI features such as Interpreter. This enables you to display split-screen translations of an in-person conversation. Your device will also be able to generate transcripts of recordings — these can be summarized or translated as needed.

When it comes to dashing off text-based messages, Samsung says its Chat Assist feature can help you find the right tone. Samsung Keyboard can translate messages between 13 languages too. A Note Assist function in Samsung Notes can summarize texts, generate templates and create covers to help you identify the note you’re looking for.

Meanwhile, as you’re driving, Android Auto can summarize incoming messages and suggest relevant responses and actions for you to approve via voice command. These could include things like telling someone your estimated time of arrival.

A new search experience means that you'll be able to draw a circle around something on your screen and see related results from Google. Depending on your location and the search query, you may see an AI-generated overview that pulls information from the web to offer context and more details.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

AI will be a driving force behind the Galaxy S24 lineup's camera systems too. Samsung suggests it will help with digital zoom, image stabilization and when capturing photos and videos in low-light. A Super HDR feature is designed to help you see a lifelike preview of an image before pressing the shutter button.

When it comes to image editing, the suite of AI tools might come in useful. Galaxy AI will offer suggested tweaks to improve a photo, while the Generative Edit function can fill in parts of an image's background. This may prove handy if a shot is crooked and you want to straighten it, as the feature should let you move the subject and fix the background. Of note, you will need a network connection to use Generative Fill. Also, whenever you use generative AI to modify a photo, your phone will apply a watermark to the image and its metadata.

If you want to slow down a video that has a lot of activity, the Instant Slow-mo feature might help out. Samsung says this can generate extra frames based on movements in the original video to slow down the action smoothly. Last but not least, the camera systems in certain Galaxy S models feature HDR integration with third-party social apps. This means that when you look up an image in Gallery or your Instagram feed or reels, you'll see photos and videos in Super HDR.

It's little surprise that Samsung is going all in on AI with its latest Galaxy phones. The company previewed its AI models at the tail end of 2023, and word at the time suggested Samsung would deploy those functions broadly in the following months. Moreover, Samsung needs to keep pace with Google, which has been focusing more on AI features on Pixel phones for the last few years. Recent Pixel models are able to handle AI processing on-device too.

Like clockwork, the new year has brought new Samsung Galaxy smartphones. The company announced the new Galaxy S24 lineup today, which includes the flagship S24 Ultra along with the Galaxy S24+ and S24. The handsets will look familiar to Samsung diehards, and the company spent most of its launch event hyping AI features rather than hardware upgrades. The new phones boast AI perks like an enhanced photo editor, a “circle to search” feature, quick summarization tools and more. If you're on the market for a new smartphone, here’s how you can pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, S24+ and S24, along with everything else announced at Samsung Unpacked 2024.

I’ve never thought of Samsung as a software company, let alone as a name to pay attention to in the AI race. But with the launch of the Galaxy S24 series today, the company is eager to have us associate it with the year’s hottest tech trend. The new flagship phones look largely the same as last year’s models, but on the inside, change is afoot. At a hands-on session during CES 2024 in Las Vegas last week, I was more focused on checking out the new software on the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus.

Thanks to a new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor (in the US) customized “for Galaxy,” the S24 series are capable of a handful of new AI-powered tasks that seem very familiar. In fact, if you’ve used Microsoft’s CoPilot, Google’s Bard AI or ChatGPT, a lot of these tools won’t feel new. What is new is the fact that they’re showing up on the S24s, and are mostly processed on-device by Samsung’s recently announced Gauss generative AI model, which it has been quietly building out.

Samsung’s Galaxy AI features on the S24

There are five main areas where generative AI Is making a big difference in the Galaxy S24 lineup — search, translations, note creation, message composition and photo editing and processing. Aside from the notes and composition features, most of these updates seem like versions of existing Google products. In fact, the new Circle to Search feature is a Google service that is debuting on the S24 series, in addition to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

Circle to Search

With Circle to Search, you basically press the middle of the screen’s bottom edge, the Google logo and a search bar pop up, and you can draw a ring around anything on the display. Well, almost anything. DRMed content or things protected from screenshots, like your banking app, are off limits. Once you’ve made your selection, a panel slides up showing your selection, along with results from Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE).

You can scroll down to see image matches, followed by shopping, text, website and other types of listings that SGE thought were relevant. I circled the Samsung clock widget, a picture of beef wellington and a lemon, and each time I was given pretty accurate results. I was also impressed by how quickly Google correctly identified a grill that I circled on an Engadget article featuring a Weber Searwood, especially since the picture I drew around was at an off angle.

This is basically image search via Google or Lens, except it saves you from having to open another app (and take screenshots). You’ll be able to circle items in YouTube videos, your friend’s Instagram Stories (or, let’s be honest, ads). Though I was intrigued by the feature and its accuracy, I’m not sure how often I’d use it in the real world. The long-press gesture to launch Circle to Search works whether you use a gesture-based navigation or if you have the three-button layout. The latter might be slightly confusing, since you pretty much hold your finger down on the home button, but not exactly.

Circle to Search is launching on January 31st, and though it’s reserved for the Galaxy S24s and Pixel 8s for now, it’s not clear whether older devices might get the feature.

Chat Assist to tweak the tone of your messages

The rest of Samsung’s AI features are actually powered by the company’s own language models, not Google’s. This part is worth making clear, because when you use the S24 to translate a message from, say, Portuguese to Mandarin, you’ll be using Samsung’s database, not Google’s. I really just want you to direct your anger at the right target when something inevitably goes wrong.

I will say, I was a little worried when I first heard about Samsung’s new Chat Assist feature. It uses generative AI to help reword a message you’ve composed to change up the tone. Say you’re in a hurry, firing off a reply to a friend whom you know can get anxious and misinterpret texts. The S24 can take your sentences, like “On my way back now what do you need” and make it less curt. The options I saw were “casual,” “emojify,” “polite,” “professional” and “social,” which is a hashtag-filled caption presumably for your social media posts.

I typed “Hey there. Where can I get some delicious barbecue? Also, how are you?” Then I tapped the AI icon above the keyboard and selected the “Writing Style” option. After about one or two seconds, the system returned variations of what I wrote.

At the top of the results was my original, followed by the Professional version, which I honestly found hilarious. It said “Hello, I would like to inquire about the availability of delectable barbecue options in the vicinity. Additionally, I hope this message finds you well. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

It reminded me of an episode of Friends where Joey uses a thesaurus to sound smarter. Samsung’s AI seems to have simply replaced every word with a slightly bigger word, while also adding some formal greetings. I don’t think “inquire about the availability of delectable barbecue options in the vicinity” is anything a human would write.

That said, the casual option was a fairly competent rewording of what I’d written, as was the polite version. I cannot imagine a scenario where I’d pick the “emojify” option, except for the sake of novelty. And while the social option pained me to read, at least the hashtags of #Foodie and #BBQLover seemed appropriate.

Samsung Translate

You can also use Samsung’s AI to translate messages into one of 13 languages in real-time, which is fairly similar to a feature Google launched on the Pixel 6 in 2021. The S24’s interface looks reminiscent of the Pixel’s, too, with both offering two text input fields. Like Google, Samsung also has a field at the top for you to select your target language, though the system is capable of automatically recognizing the language being used. I never got this to work correctly in a foreign language that I understand, and have no real way of confirming how accurate the S24 was in Portuguese.

Samsung’s translation engine is also used for a new feature called Live Translate, which basically acts as an interpreter for you during phone calls made via the native dialer app. I tried this by calling one of a few actors Samsung had on standby, masquerading as managers of foreign-language hotels or restaurants. After I dialed the number and turned on the Live Translate option, Samsung’s AI read out a brief disclaimer explaining to the “manager at a Spanish restaurant” that I was using a computerized system for translation. Then, when I said “Hello,” I heard a disembodied voice say “Hola” a few seconds later.

The lag was pretty bad and it threw off the cadence of my demo, as the person on the other end of the call clearly understood English and would answer in Spanish before my translated request was even sent over. So instead of:

Me: Can I make a reservation please?

S24: … ¿Puedo hacer una reserva por favor?

Restaurant: Si, cuantas personas y a que hora?

S24 (to me): … Yes, for how many people and at what time?

My demo actually went:

Me: Can I make a reservation please?

pause

Restaurant: Si, cuantas personas y a que hora?

S24: ¿Puedo hacer una reserva por favor?

pause

S24 (to me): Yes, for how many people and at what time?

It was slightly confusing. Do I think this is representative of all Live Translate calls in the real world? No, but Samsung will need to work on cutting down lag if it wants to be helpful and not confusing.

Galaxy AI reorganizing your notes

I was most taken by what Samsung’s AI can do in its Notes app, which historically has had some pretty impressive handwriting recognition and indexing. With the AI’s assistance, you can quickly reformat your large blocks of text into easy-to-read headers, paragraphs and bullets. You can also swipe sideways to see different themes, with various colors and font styles.

Notes can also generate summaries for you, though most of the summaries on the demo units didn’t appear very astute or coherent. After it auto-formatted a note titled “An Exploration of the Celestial Bodies in Our Solar System,” the first section was aptly titled “Introduction,” but the first bullet point under that was, confusingly, “The Solar System.” The second bullet point was two sentences, starting with “The Solar System is filled with an array of celestial bodies.”

Samsung also borrowed another feature from the Pixel ecosystem, using its speech-to-text software to transcribe, summarize and translate recordings. The transcription of my short monologue was accurate enough, but the speaker labels weren’t. Summaries of the transcriptions were similar to those in Notes, in that they’re not quite what I’d personally highlight.

Photo by Sam Rutherford / Engadget

That’s already a lot to cover, and I haven’t even gotten to the photo editing updates yet. My colleague Sam Rutherford goes into a lot more detail on those in his hands-on with the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which has the more-sophisticated camera system. In short though, Samsung offers edit suggestions, generative background filling and an instant slow-mo tool that fills in frames when you choose to slow down a video.

Samsung Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus hardware updates

That brings me to the hardware. On the regular Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus, you’ll be getting a 50-megapixel main sensor, 12MP wide camera and 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. Up front is a 12MP selfie camera. So, basically, the same setup as last year. The S24 has a 6.2-inch Full HD+ screen, while the S24 Plus sports a 6.7-inch Quad HD+ panel and both offer adaptive refresh rates that can go between 1 and 120Hz. In the US, all three S24 models use a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy processor, with the base S24 starting out with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Both the S24 and S24 Plus have slightly larger batteries than their predecessors, with their respective 4,000mAh and 4,900mAh cells coming in at 100mAh and 200mAh bigger than before.

Though the S24s look very similar to last year’s S23s, my first thought on seeing them was how much they looked like iPhones. That’s neither a compliment nor an indictment. And to be clear, I’m only talking about the S24 and S24 Plus, not the Ultra, which still has the distinctive look of a Note.

Photo by Sam Rutherford / Engadget

It feels like Samsung spent so much time upgrading the software and focusing on joining the AI race this year that it completely overlooked the S24’s design. Plus, unlike the latest iPhones, the S24s are also missing support for the newer Qi 2 wireless charging standard, which includes magnetic support, a la Apple’s MagSafe.

Wrap-up

I know it’s just marketing-speak and empty catchphrases, but I’m very much over Samsung’s use of what it thinks is trendy to appeal to people. Don’t forget, this is the company that had an “Awesome Unpacked” event in 2021 filled to the brim with cringeworthy moments and an embarrassingly large number of utterances of the words “squad” and “iconic”.

That doesn’t mean what Samsung’s done with the Galaxy S24 series is completely meaningless. Some of these features could genuinely be useful, like summarizing transcriptions or translating messages in foreign languages. But after watching the company follow trend after trend (like introducing Bixby after the rise of digital assistants, or bringing scene optimizers to its camera app after Chinese phone makers did), launching generative AI features feels hauntingly familiar. My annoyance at Samsung’s penchant for #trendy #hashtags aside, the bigger issue here is that if the company is simply jumping on a fad instead of actually thoughtfully developing meaningful features, then consumers run the risk of losing support for tools in the future. Just look at what happened to Bixby.

After making a cameo appearance in the Osmo Pocket 3 camera, DJI's Mic 2 wireless microphone system has officially arrived with some nice upgrades over its popular predecessor. It can now connect directly to your smartphone via Bluetooth, while also offering improved internal recording quality, AI noise reduction, a bigger touchscreen, easier control and more. 

The transmitters come in grey with a new see-through design and DJI introduced a white color option as well. They're slightly smaller than before, but largely resemble their predecessors with a clip, magnetic mount and 3.5mm mic input. The power and link buttons are now on the same side and round instead of oblong, with the record button and USB-C input on the other side. 

DJI

In one welcome change, DJI moved the power-on LED to the sides, rather than near the front as before, where it would annoyingly appear on camera. The DJI logo is front and center, though, so you'll still need a piece of black tape to cover that up. 

The receiver has changed substantially, with a larger 1.1-inch touchscreen and a new thumbwheel to make adjustments easier. DJI has made connecting the transmitter directly to your phone simpler as well via included USB-C and Lightning adapters. 

A big plus of the Mic 2 over other kits like the Rode wireless Go 2 is the charging case that's sold with the two-transmitter kit. It now supports up to 18 hours of use on a charge, up from 15 before, and the transmitters have been upgraded from 5.5 to six hours.

DJI

Topping the list of new features is direct Bluetooth connection support, letting you pair a transmitter mic to your phone (or DJI's Osmo Pocket 3 and Action Cam 4) without the need for a receiver. That'll allow creators on a budget to purchase a transmitter mic by itself for $99, or add DJI's Lavalier Mic for an additional $35. 

Linking a phone is relatively easy — hold the record button for three seconds to put it in Bluetooth mode, then press and hold the link button for two seconds. From there, your phone should detect the transmitter. It worked great with my Pixel 7a, even though it's not on the approved list, and I was able to start recording video with much better quality audio, to say the least. 

There are a couple of caveats: the AI noise cancelling feature doesn't work when connected to a smartphone and you can only use one transmitter at a time. If you have the transmitter/receiver combo, though, you can also get audio by connecting the receiver directly to your phone as before. 

DJI

Speaking of, the Mic 2 has a couple of improvements in audio quality. It promises "brighter and more natural sounding voices" for the interviews or standup work where it's mainly used. And though the original DJI Mic supported internal recording as a backup to camera files, it now captures that at higher 32-bit float quality, letting you max out gain without fearing distortion. It also supports a higher acoustic overload point (AOP), up to 120 dB from 114 dB, meaning you'll see less distortion on higher audio levels. 

The other quality trick is AI noise cancelling, allowing the Mic 2 to lower the environmental noise so vocals stand out better. DJI promises that it works in "complex and noisy environments, such as streets and restaurants." 

A full review is to come, but I tried out the Mic 2 in a variety of situations, including inside a car, riding on a bicycle and in a howling wind. It performed well in nearly all those situations, with all distracting noise blocked in the car and bike shots, leaving just some pleasant environmental sound. However, it was unable to block out a direct 30-40 MPH wind on a sand dune, even with the included wind muff installed. It still worked well enough for me to get the shot, though, which was impressive.

DJI

Key features carrying over from the last model include the option for a safety track recorded at a lower -6 dB (in case you accidentally blow out the levels), an 820 foot range with the transmitter/receiver combo (524 feet in the EU), magnetic clips and a muff for each transmitter. For the receiver, DJI has also included preset gains for different cameras so that it'll work relatively well out of the box. It doesn't include all recent cameras, so hopefully firmware updates will address that. 

With the new options, particularly the smartphone Bluetooth connectivity and Osmo Pocket 3/Action 4 support, the Mic 2 is again likely to strike a chord with creators. It's now available for $349 with two transmitters, a receiver and charging case, $219 for a transmitter and receiver and $99 for individual transmitters. You can also purchase the charging case separately for $69. 

With pre-orders opening later this week, Engadget experienced a more in-depth demo of Apple's mixed-reality headset. Editor-in-chief Dana Wollman and deputy editor Cherlynn Low were fitted with the Vision Pro for some more extensive demos, including immersive video, a little bit of Disney+ and attempts to type in thin air on the Vision Pro’s floating keyboard.

Apple

They discuss the fitting process, the attention to detail in Disney+’s viewer app and where there's room for improvement with keyboards, comfort and utility. This is the company’s first new product for a while — and I had strong feelings about its last one. Early impressions suggest Apple seems to have made a fluid, intelligent headset experience — but are you willing to spend $3,499 on it?

— Mat Smith

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A new roguelike No Return mode steals the show.

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Yamaha

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If you own a copy of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition or Minecraft: Education Edition, you can now grab a free expansion pack based on the BBC's Planet Earth III. Much like the previous Frozen Planet II experience, this new wildlife documentary DLC lets players explore five scenarios through the lens of animals — arctic wolves, ocelots, musk oxen, leopards, Cape fur seals, great white sharks, impalas and more. 

Basically, be the hunter or be hunted; you get to play both sides on locations ranging from the Arctic tundra to the Okavango Delta. In the case of the lily-trotter, you're either the father protecting your chicks from crocodiles, or you're one of the chicks following your father's signals. There's also an activity involving the fascinating interaction between unlikely insect allies: the tree hopper and the stingless bee, with the latter in charge of shooing ants and assassin bugs away from the tree hoppers' nest.

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The latest generation of Samsung’s snazzy Frame TVs are on sale via Woot with discounts up to 37 percent off the MSRP. Each and every size of this TV gets a discount, though some are more robust than others. For instance, the relatively diminutive 43-inch model is on sale for around $730 instead of $1,000. That’s a discount of 27 percent.

The best deal of the bunch is for the massive 85-inch Frame TV, which is available for around $2,700 instead of the original MSRP of $4,300. This is a savings of $1,600 or 37 percent. The discounts on the other models fall somewhere in the middle of this range. Check them all out at the Woot splash page.

If you haven’t heard of the Samsung Frame, here’s a quick refresher. It’s a TV that doubles as a frame for digital art. You can hang it on the wall like an actual work of art and it’ll display whatever you want it to. However, it’s also a smart TV so you can stream trashy reality shows once you get tired of looking at classic works of art. A true win/win.

We gave it a glowing write-up and admired the ultra-thin QLED panel, the picture-frame edges and a mounting system that places it flush against the wall. In other words, it really and truly does look like a piece of art, until you start streaming Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon and ruin the whole thing.

We also liked the addition of Samsung’s Tizen OS and the fact that it only requires one thin wire to connect to an external receiver. This wire can even be dropped behind drywall and popped out somewhere else to further the illusion. The only downside is that this TV is, by its very nature, always on, as long as it’s displaying art. This leads to a monthly power consumption of around 50 watts, though there is a setting that’ll turn the whole thing off when you go to sleep for the night.

It's worth noting that this sale is for the 2023 models and not for the just-announced 2024 versions that were unveiled at CES last week. The newest refresh isn't out yet.

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Life's busy enough for many of us without having to get bogged down in day-to-day home maintenance. So, if you have some cash to spare, why not make things easier for yourself by splurging on a robot vacuum? Several iRobot Roomba models are up to 50 percent off in a sale on Amazon. Some have dropped to record low prices, including the iRobot Roomba 694. At $160, that model is 42 percent off its usual price of $275.

Although it's not the first time the 694 has dropped to this price, it's always worth calling out since this is our top pick for the best budget robot vacuum. It's easy to use thanks to the three onboard buttons and connected iRobot app. There's Alexa and Google Assistant support too, so you can instruct the vacuum to start cleaning with a voice command.

You can set cleaning schedules so that the 694 travels through your home on a regular basis to pick up any dirt and we found that it does a solid job of lifting muck from carpets as well as hard flooring. Battery life varies depending on the type of flooring. According to iRobot, the device will run for up to 90 minutes while cleaning hardwood floors but in our testing the battery lasted around 45 minutes when it was deployed over several types of surfaces. Of course, when it's time to recharge, the Roomba will return to its dock and juice up.

On the downside, you only get the essentials you need to get started — the 694 doesn't come with any replacement filters or brushes. But given that you'd be saving well over $100 on this model thanks to the sale, you might be able to set aside some funds to buy those when the time comes.

Those who are looking for some added features may be more interested in the Roomba j9+, which is also down to a record low. At $599, it's $300 off the regular price. According to iRobot, the Roomba j9+ "sucks up dust and debris better than any other robot vacuum." It also has a Dirt Detective feature through which it can learn the areas of your home that tend to get the dirtiest, so it knows which rooms to prioritize, the level of suction to apply and how many cleaning passes are likely to be needed.

The Roomba j9+ can detect and avoid common obstacles such as cables and socks. Perhaps most importantly, it can spot and stay clear of pet waste. This model will also automatically empty its bin, which means you have even less to worry about.

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Sony and developer Naughty Dog got an earful back in 2022 when they announced The Last of Us Part I, a ground-up PS5 remake of the 2013 title that was originally released on the PS3 (and then remastered a year later for the just-launched PS4). Most of that came down to the $70 price tag. Yes, the game looked incredible, there were some new modes added for super-fans and enemy AI had been upgraded, but the level design and gameplay were identical to the original. Plenty of people fairly called it a money grab.

The good news that The Last of Us Part II Remastered, announced back in November, escapes that tag for two important reasons. One, it’s a $10 upgrade for people who bought the PS4 versions (or $50 outright). Two, there’s a new roguelike game mode called No Return which is easily worth that upgrade price on its own.

Before diving into No Return, though, here’s a high-level overview of what we’re dealing with. The Last of Us Part II Remastered is, as the title suggests, an upgraded version of the 2020 PS4 release. I reviewed that game when it first launched — and nearly everything I said in 2020 still applies here, because the story and gameplay are unchanged.

Sony / Naughty Dog

But, as with any good remaster, the new version looks better than the already-impressive PS4 version. Part II Remastered can run in fidelity or performance modes. The former outputs at 4K and targets 30 fps, while the latter targets 60 fps and renders at 1440p (with output at upscaled 4K or 1440p, depending on your console settings). There’s also an “unlocked framerate” feature for TVs that support variable refresh rates.

I typically opt for performance mode. The difference resolution makes is usually minimal to my eyes, and that’s the case here as well. I’d much rather have the fluidity and precision that comes with a higher frame rate. But fidelity settings with an unlocked frame rate definitely hits above 30 and is a pretty great balance for those with VRR TVs — though if you’re on the ultra-difficult Grounded mode or attempting a permadeath runthrough, you’ll probably want to go straight to the performance setting.

Either way, the game looks stunning, but not wildly different from how the original Part II looked on the PS5. Things are sharper and more vivid across the board, as you’d expect. And the high frame rates in performance mode are great, though it’s worth noting that the original version of Part II can also hit 60 fps when played on a PS5.

Other niceties beyond the visuals include full support for the DualSense controller, including excellent use of haptics throughout. The game’s very first cut scene shows Part I protagonist Joel cleaning the frets on a guitar, and you can feel slight vibrations from left to right as his hand moves across the guitar neck.

There’s also full support for the DualSense adaptive triggers, so you feel different resistance and feedback depending on which weapon you’re using. As in most games, DualSense features aren’t the kind of thing that’ll be in the forefront of your mind as you play, but there’s no question they add a nice level of extra immersion to the experience.

The Last of Us Part II Remastered isn’t just a visual upgrade, though — there’s a bunch of new content. Most significant is No Return, an addictive combat experience which I have poured a ridiculous amount of time into already. The high-level overview for No Return is that it’s a series of randomized encounters with the four main enemy factions in the game: the WLF, Seraphites, Rattlers and, of course, the Infected.

In some encounters, you need to clear three waves of enemies; in others you’re hunted by unending hordes until the timer runs out. There’s also one where you’re challenged to capture a safe from a wave of enemies in limited time, and another where you have to defend an ally against a large swarm of Infected that keep coming. After five levels, you’ll hit a “boss.” There are six total boss levels that you progressively unlock by finishing a run without dying. But if you die at any stage of the run, you’re sent back to the beginning.

In between each encounter, you can craft upgrades for your weapons and buy new gear from the trading post to help you survive the progressively more difficult stages. And there are a ton of different modifications that affect how each level plays out. For example, you might randomly get a mod that gives you health when you land a melee attack, or you might end up with one where Infected enemies are invisible, just shadows in your flashlight. Sometimes, the level might be reversed, crafting an item will give you parts to upgrade a weapon or a dark noir filter will be applied. These mods aren’t on every level, and only two will show up at a time, so it doesn’t feel like there’s too much madness across a run. But, they can definitely shake up what might otherwise be a familiar stage.

Sony / Naughty Dog

I’m just scratching the surface on how much you can customize this experience. There are a total of 10 unlockable characters you can play as from both the Jackson crew (Ellie, Dina, Jesse, Tommy and Joel) and those you meet in Seattle (Abby, Lev, Yara, Manny and Mel). Each has different traits (Ellie gets more supplements, Joel can’t dodge but is more resistant to melee attacks, Lev is focused on stealth, etc.). Between different characters, the different signature weapons they have and all the different weapons and player upgrades you can get through the run, every No Return experience will be wildly different.

There are a ton of details to talk about in No Return, but suffice it to say it’s extremely addictive and easily worth the $10 upgrade. If they just added this mode to the PS4 version of The Last of Us Part II, I would still have no qualms about recommending fans buy it. I’ve seen hosts of extremely impressive combat videos from Part II since the game was released, and I’m sure we’re about to get another wave as people show off their narrow escapes and dominant destruction of hordes of Infect in No Return. It’s a ton of fun — though I will admit that the extremely violent tone requires extended breaks from time to time to get out of the murderous mindset it requires.

Sony / Naughty Dog

No Return is the biggest addition to the game by far, but there is more new content for the hardcore fans. All of the main game’s main cinematics now have optional audio commentary from director Neil Druckmann, writer Hailey Gross and actors Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson and Laura Bailey. The Last of Us Part II has a sprawling, complicated and sometimes controversial storyline, and hearing behind-the-scenes chatter about how it all came together is a great way to dig further into the game’s creation.

Similarly, Naughty Dog included three “lost levels” that are quite rough but show off some ideas that flesh out the world and Ellie’s character a bit, complete with audio commentary from developers on what they were shooting for and why they were ultimately abandoned. My favorite is one that takes place in Jackson before a pivotal scene between Ellie and Dina. In this, Ellie wanders around a festival, having a few drinks, talking with other characters, playing around with kids in the town and trying out some carnival games. The setting repurposes the game’s mechanics, which are usually used for enacting violence, and instead puts them in a totally different light.

These levels are far from finished — the aforementioned Jackson scene doesn’t have any dialog at all, only subtitles. And the textures, facial expressions and mechanics all definitely feel rough. They’re also pretty quick experiences, probably lasting between five and 10 minutes. A treat only for hardcore fans, but still a treat.

Sony / Naughty Dog

Rounding out the package are a bunch of new unlockable character skins, including an adorable one of Ellie in an astronaut suit, complete with a helmet. The already-extensive Photo Mode has gotten a few upgrades, like lights you can place around a scene to enhance the drama. And there’s a goofy but fun “guitar free play” mode, where you can experiment with an enhanced version of the interludes in the game where you strum a guitar to kick off key story beats. Plenty of enterprising players have already made some pretty wild creations using the in-game guitar, and now you can switch between multiple guitar types (acoustic, nylon-string, banjo) and add effects that really open up the creative possibilities.

Sony / Naughty Dog

If you’re someone interested in The Last of Us and haven’t played Part II yet, this is the obvious best way to do so. I still highly recommend the game — it’s an intense, exhausting journey that puts some characters I love through the wringer, but it’s an undeniably epic adventure. It’s not “fun” in the traditional sense, but it is compelling. As I wrote in 2020, so much stands out: moments of extreme tension, moments that made me yell in shock or surprise, thought-provoking drama and even unexpected joy amidst the bleak reality of Ellie and Abby's dual journeys.

But if you’ve played the original, is this remaster worth picking up? If you’re a fan of the series, the $10 upgrade is unquestionably worth it. No Return is worth the price of admission on its own, and all the graphical upgrades, controller improvements and bonus content are things you’ll appreciate. Like I said when I reviewed The Last of Us Part I — if you’re the kind of person who will pick up this game and play it to experience the story every year or two, like I do, this is the best way to do it.