Just a year ago, Apple announced the biggest software update the iPad has ever seen. iPadOS 16 ushered in Stage Manager, a completely revamped multitasking mode that brought overlapping, resizable windows to the iPad, along with robust external display support (provided you had compatible hardware).

There were a host of other new features, as usual, but Stage Manager in particular brought the iPad closer than ever to a Mac or Windows PC experience. iPadOS 17, on the other hand, is a more subtle update. That’s usually the case, with one year bringing big new features and the next offering tweaks and stability improvements. And while there isn’t one singular headline feature in iPadOS 17, the totality of myriad smaller changes definitely adds up. I’ve been using iPadOS 17 in beta for a few weeks, and now that the public beta is live, you can do the same.

A note on stability: Even though this is a public beta, the “beta” still applies. It’s probably not ideal to install on a machine you rely on for daily use, as you’ll surely run into some bugs and crashes. And it’s always a bit of a crapshoot how well third-party apps work on a beta. All that said, I haven’t run into anything particularly severe. Occasionally, an app will just toss me back to the Home Screen, or you might find some weird UI issues where apps haven’t quite been optimized yet. But over the last few years, Apple has gained a reputation for releasing public betas in solid, usable states, and that’s the case here as well. Just remember that “downgrading” to iPadOS 16 final releases isn’t exactly a simple process.

Stage Manager updates

While Stage Manager opened up some major new multitasking features for the iPad, it was also a lot more rigid than the windows management system you’d find on a Mac. This year, Apple has tweaked things to make it easier to set up your ideal workspace. Previously, apps would snap to a handful of predetermined sizes to fit your display, and the specific placement of each individual window was up to iPadOS to decide. Now, app windows have a lot more granularity in how you can size and place them. For example, I can make the Notes app that I’m typing into right now a tiny window half of my screen’s height and about a quarter of its width. From there, I can make it as tall or wide as I want; there are still specific sizes that it snaps to, but there’s far more flexibility than there was last year.

iPadOS 17 is also a lot more flexible about how you arrange multiple apps, something that wasn’t the case last year. When you added a second app to a space, iPadOS automatically decided where the two windows should go. You could resize them both as you wanted, but it was basically impossible to show two apps side-by-side without any overlap, for example. That’s no longer the case. Now, it’s a simple matter of grabbing the top of a window and dropping it where you want.

These basic controls have been available on Windows and macOS for decades, but it’s still a new paradigm for the iPad. I’m definitely glad that Apple seems to be trusting its users more by giving them more flexibility rather than letting iPadOS make major decisions about how you lay out your screen. Stage Manager is still somewhat of a niche feature, given that lots of iPads can’t run it, but people who want to push their iPads further will definitely appreciate these updates.

Lock Screen and interactive widgets

Probably the most obvious user-facing update is the revamped Lock Screen. It should also be very familiar, because Apple first introduced it on the iPhone a year ago. Basically, you can now set up multiple lock screens, each with its own wallpaper, widgets and design elements (like fonts and color filters). To jump between different styles you’ve set up, you can just press and hold on the Lock Screen and then choose what suits you. Finally, you can also set a specific Focus setting for each Lock Screen, so you can set up a whole profile for work mode or vacation time.

There’s also a great new wallpaper picker – this, too, borrowed from the iPhone. There are some new styles here specifically for the iPad, though, including striking views of every planet in the solar system stem. And in a nod to the iPad’s history, they brought back the original Pyramid Lake wallpaper (shot by photographer Richard Misrach) from the first iPad back in 2010. I’m a sucker for nostalgia and love the photo, so Apple won me over here.

Beyond the aesthetics, having widgets on the Lock Screen makes the iPad’s large display more useful — there’s a ton of space, so why not show more than just the time and your notifications? But widgets are getting a big improvement beyond just being able to drop them on the Lock Screen. At long last, they’re interactive. That means if you have a Reminders widget, you can tap a specific item to check it off without having to open the app. Or, with the Apple Music widget, you can automatically start playing an album or playlist.

Previously, widgets let you tap specific parts to jump to that place in the app, so they weren’t just static information displays, but this takes their functionality a lot further. We’re going to need third-party developers to add this functionality to their widgets to really take full advantage of the feature, but I’m looking forward to seeing how apps incorporate it when iPadOS 17 is out in the wild.

Health

There aren’t many Apple apps on the iPhone that you can’t also get on the iPad. Health was one, but that’s been remedied this year. It’s just what you’d expect: Health data tracked from your iPhone and Apple Watch is available for you to review on the iPad, with a design that’s better suited to the larger screen. While there’s nothing revolutionary here, the Health app can include so much data that it’s actually a bit easier to dig through everything here.

Everything syncs from your iPhone, but so far that sync process hasn’t been the most reliable. Even though the Health app on my iPad says it synced two minutes ago, it hasn't pulled in updated steps data since 7AM this morning. My activity rings from my Apple Watch are similarly hours out of date. I wager this will get settled before iPadOS 17 is finished, though.

Apple announced a handful of features relating to mental health as part of the latest iPad and iOS updates, including a dedicated journaling app and mood trackers in the health app. While the journal app isn’t coming until “later this year,” sometime after iPadOS 17 and iOS 17 officially launch, the mood tracking features are available in the Health app. I’ve long been in the habit of tracking my daily mood, and this isn’t a bad place to do it. It’s pretty simple, with a slider to pick your overall mood and a few follow-up questions, but the idea is for it to be quick and painless so you do it repeatedly. There’s also a mental health questionnaire you can take that claims to assess your anxiety and depression levels that reminds me of questions I’ve answered from a doctor in the past. I did reach out to Apple to find out where they’re sourcing this set of questions from so we can know more about their validity and approach.

Safari, Messages, Notes and more

As always, Apple’s core apps are getting lots of little but potentially meaningful updates. Safari’s biggest new feature is arguably the ability to set up multiple profiles. Each profile can access all your bookmarks, saved passwords and reading list, but it keeps things like logins to sites and tab groups separate. I did the basic “personal and work” profiles, with logins to work-specific tools kept separate. It’s also pretty easy to move things between profiles if you accidentally open windows in your personal profile that you’d rather have with your work tabs. And, of course, this all syncs via iCloud to other devices — I have the macOS Sonoma beta installed as well, and things were shared seamlessly.

Messages is possibly Apple’s most important app, and every year it gets usability tweaks and new features. A bunch of those are focused around audio messages, which I haven’t really had a chance to check out much. One thing I do like, though, is that replying in a thread is a lot easier than it used to be. Now, swiping right on a message opens the reply interface, which is definitely quicker than holding down on a message, waiting for the menu to pop up and selecting the “reply” option.

The search experience has also been upgraded with filters. For example, you can first search for a specific contact, and then search just their conversation for keywords. The results naturally include specific messages as well as relevant links, images and more.

But the update I’ve had the most fun with so far is definitely Stickers. You can now easily create your own stickers from images in your photo gallery. If you tap on a subject in a photo, you can pull it out from the background and save it as a sticker, so you can easily use it again. Live Photos can be turned into live stickers — and let me tell you, the live sticker I made of my dog laying down is adorable and I will spam everyone with it.

Your own stickers can live alongside sticker packs from other apps, emoji and Memoji. And the stickers you’ve created will be available to use in third-party apps, as well. Basically, stickers you create as well as those from apps should be easier to share outside of just Apple’s Messages app, which is a nice change from the previously walled-off approach Apple took.

Notes, quietly one of Apple’s most useful apps, has gotten more improvements this year too. You can now embed PDFs right into a Notes doc and they display full-width, so you can easily browse through a PDF and make notes on it below. You can also naturally mark it up with an Apple Pencil or collaborate on it in a note shared with other people.

PDF support system-wide has been improved. For example, opening a PDF document from the Files app will open it in its own window, provided you’re running Stage Manager. This makes it easier to put a PDF side-by-side with another app while still having full access to the Files app. Auto-filling fields in PDFs has also been improved system-wide; Apple says it’s using an on-device neural network to identify documents that have fields that need to be filled in across the system, and you’ll be able to AutoFill details like names and addresses the same way you can on websites.

Another useful trick is the ability to link directly to a specific note in your library. Other note-taking apps like Bear have had this feature for a while, but it’s undeniably handy to link related notes together so you can easily jump between them instead of having to go back to the sidebar and search for the one you’re looking for.

The rest

This just scratches the surface of iPadOS 17. Lots of new features, like the changes to Messages, work best when other people you know are also running the new software. And other things, like the journal app, won’t be available to try for months to come. Finally, there are plenty of iOS 17 features like Facetime updates and a smarter keyboard will be in iPadOS 17 as well. If you want to give this all a shot months before Apple finalizes everything, you can install the iPadOS 17 public beta now. But as always, think hard about whether you’re up for some instability before you take the plunge.

Gone are the days when you contort yourself to try the latest iOS version before its official debut. Apple has released the iOS 17 public beta, and it’s easy to install the preview on your iPhone. So long as you know what you’re getting into, you can explore major features months before the finished software arrives this fall. These instructions should also work for the iPadOS 17 beta, too.

Before you start: iOS 17 beta requirements and risks

Apple

To begin, you’ll need to be sure your hardware supports iOS 17. Apple requires at least a 2018 or newer iPhone, including the XR, XS and second-generation SE. Notably, this release ends support for the iPhone 8 and X — if you own one of these older models, you’ll simply have to buy a new handset to run the updated platform.

The iPadOS 17 public beta clearly has different requirements. You’ll need at least a sixth-generation iPad, third-generation iPad Air, fifth-generation iPad mini, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro, any 11-inch iPad Pro or the second-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Whatever you’re installing, remember that this is pre-release code. The iOS 17 public beta is better-suited to everyday use than earlier developer versions, but you may still run into bugs, odd behavior or app compatibility issues. You’ll want to wait for the finished software if your phone has apps or data you simply can’t afford to lose. If you’re willing to accept the risks, it’s still a very good idea to backup your data through iTunes or a cloud service (such as iCloud) in case you need to restore your phone at some stage.

How to install the iOS 17 public beta

Apple

Be sure you’ve updated to iOS 16.4 or newer, as you’ll need it to walk through the public beta installation process. You can upgrade through the Settings app, choosing General, and then tapping Software Update. This screen will also tell you which version you’re running.

Once ready, you’ll want to sign up for the Apple Beta Software Program using the Safari web browser on your iPhone. Membership is free; you’ll need to log in using the main Apple ID you use on your phone and enroll that device in the program. Follow prompts, and be sure to read the agreement when it appears.

After that, installing the iOS 17 test is almost as simple as installing ordinary updates. You just have to visit Settings, tap General, tap Software Update and then select a new Beta Updates item underneath Automatic Updates. Be sure that the Apple ID displayed at the bottom is the one you used to join the beta program. You should see the option to install “iOS 17 Public Beta” from that screen. Go back one screen and you should get an offer to download and install the beta.

As with any other iOS upgrade, the installation may take a few minutes to complete and will involve restarts. At the end, the beta will add a Feedback Assistant app to your home screen that helps report bugs.

What you do (and don’t) get with the iOS 17 public beta

Apple

Apple revealed many of iOS 17’s features at the WWDC 2023 keynote in June. However, not all of those elements will be available in the public beta.

Most improvements are intact. Notably, there’s a redesigned phone experience that includes custom contact cards and live voicemail transcripts. A Messages app revamp includes a new sticker interface, simpler replies, audio message transcripts and location-based check-ins. Sharing is easier as well. You can share content just by bringing iPhones close together, and you can now share contacts. The keyboard has improved autocorrection, predictions and voice dictation. You can document your mood in the Health app, and StandBy turns your iPhone into an ad hoc smart display.

However, a few features won’t be present until after iOS 17 arrives. The life-logging Journal app isn’t in the public beta. You’ll also have to wait for AirDrop transfers that continue over the internet, and collaborative Apple Music playlists aren’t yet ready. We’d also expect Apple to make minor interface tweaks and additions in later revisions, and it won’t be surprising if one or two iOS 17 features will only be announced alongside future iPhones that use them.

Elon Musk has a new AI company. A website has appeared for xAI, which will embark on the self-described mission to “understand the true nature of the universe.” The announcement comes after filing documents revealed the existence of a company called “X.AI Corp” earlier this year. Musk also said in an April interview that he wanted to start a venture for “maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe” that “hopefully does more good than harm.”

Not much else is known yet about Musk’s latest venture. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO and Twitter Chairman tweeted today, “Announcing formation of @xAI to understand reality.” The company webpage notes that the team will host a Twitter Spaces chat on Friday, July 14th.

Musk’s previous comments about an AI startup were aimed at creating “a third option” to challenge ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Google. He reportedly bought thousands of GPUs earlier this year for a Twitter-related AI project. It isn’t yet clear whether the two projects are related.

The website lists veterans of DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Tesla and the University of Toronto as working on the project. “Collectively we contributed some of the most widely used methods in the field, in particular the Adam optimizer, Batch Normalization, Layer Normalization, and the discovery of adversarial examples,” the xAI website reads. “We further introduced innovative techniques and analyses such as Transformer-XL, Autoformalization, the Memorizing Transformer, Batch Size Scaling, and μTransfer. We have worked on and led the development of some of the largest breakthroughs in the field including AlphaStar, AlphaCode, Inception, Minerva, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4.”

In addition to Musk, the listed team members include Igor Babuschkin, Manuel Kroiss, Yuhuai (Tony) Wu, Christian Szegedy, Jimmy Ba, Toby Pohlen, Ross Nordeen, Kyle Kosic, Greg Yang, Guodong Zhang and Zihang Dai.

There's something exciting about trying out new versions of an operating system, especially when it's a test build. Suddenly a device you've gotten to know well becomes fresh again and useful (or at the very least entertaining) in all new ways. Now is that time for eager Apple users, with the company's iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10 and macOS Sonoma public betas finally available to download.

The new iOS 17 will include a slew of updates from design to practical. You can customize what people see when you call them — whether it's a cute cartoon or your favorite selfie, put the call to voicemail with a live transcription across your screen and send someone a video or audio message if they don't pick up your FaceTime call. Plus, you can mute and unmute yourself right from your AirPods. "Ducking" should also be a thing of the past on iOS 17 with an improved autocorrect and you can utilize sentence predictions for quicker responses. Additional features include automatically checking in to let your friends know you've arrived home, locating real-time charging stations along your route on Maps and the ability to say how you're feeling on the Health app (so and so is pleasant does feel very early Facebook days).

iPadOS 17 is, to a degree, a catch-up release that adds a customizable lock screen, the Health app and interactive widgets. WatchOS 10 is a substantial Apple Watch revamp that revives the emphasis on widgets while overhauling core apps and improving fitness features. MacOS Sonoma, meanwhile, brings widgets to the Mac desktop while upgrading Safari, video calls and gaming.

Apple first announced these upgrades at its Worldwide Developers Conference and subsequently released the iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and macOS Sonoma betas for developers. Unlike in previous years, though, the developer betas were available free for anyone to try — developer accounts typically cost about $100 per year. The iOS 17 public beta should be a bit more polished than the developer builds, given the extra time to work out bugs and compatibility problems. The official versions will launch this fall, but you can sign up for the Apple Beta Software Program if you want to try the previews now.

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has announced this year's Emmy nominations and there's lots of good news for the team behind The Last of Us. HBO's massively successful series scored 24 nominations, more than any other show this year except Succession (27). The White Lotus (23) and Apple TV+ comedy Ted Lasso (21) followed closely behind.

The Last of Us is the first live-action video game adaptation for film or TV to make a serious dent at a major awards ceremony (League of Legends series Arcanewon the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program last year). It's up for Outstanding Drama Series alongside Andor, Better Call Saul, House of the Dragon, Succession, The White Lotus and Yellowjackets.

Pedro Pascal (who has three nods in total this year) and Bella Ramsay picked up nominations for their lead roles in The Last of Us. So did guest stars Melanie Lynskey, Storm Reid, Anna Torv, Murray Bartlett, Lamar Johnson, Nick Offerman and Keivonn Montreal Woodard. Craig Mazin, the show's co-creator, and Peter Hoar are, respectively, nominated for writing and directing the show's stellar third episode, "Long, Long Time."

Elsewhere, reigning champ Ted Lasso will compete against Abbott Elementary, Barry, The Bear, Jury Duty, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Only Murders In The Building and Wednesday in the Outstanding Comedy Series category. On the Star Wars front, Andor scooped up eight nominations and The Mandalorian got nine. Obi-Wan Kenobi snagged five, including one for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.

Disney+ film Hocus Pocus 2 (three nominations in total) and Roku's Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (eight nods overall) are up for Outstanding Television Movie. Amazon's big-budget The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power landed six nominations, mostly in technical categories. 

Stranger Things, which isn't eligible for top honors this year, also has six nods in down-the-line categories. Meanwhile, Peacock's Poker Face snagged four nominatons, Star Trek: Picard has two in makeup categories and Netflix's brilliant I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson snagged a pair of nods.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given how many nominations Succession, The Last of Us and The White Lotus racked up, HBO leads the pack this year with 127 nominations overall. According to Deadline's tally, Netflix has the most of any streaming-only network with 103, followed by Apple (52), Amazon (46 between Prime Video and Freevee), Hulu (42 or 64 if you include FX shows), Disney+ (40), Peacock (eight) and Paramount+ (seven). By contrast, broadcast networks earned 86 nods between them.

This year's Emmy Awards ceremony is scheduled to take place on September 18th. However, amid the WGA writers' strike and pending action by the actors' union, reports suggest it may be delayed until November or even January.

At Google I/O in May, the company revealed its plans to go all-in on AI with the likes of PaLM 2, Bard, and a whole host of intelligent enhancement features for its myriad products. Tucked into that cavalcade of consumerism was a brief discussion of Google's Project Tailwind, an experimental product geared towards students as an "AI-first notebook" to help them stay organized. On Wednesday, Project Tailwind graduated development to become NotebookLM (NLM).

NLM is essentially note taking software with a large language model tacked onto the side, which is "paired with your existing content to gain critical insights, faster." Basically, it's a chatbot that is continually tuned to your specific data set, so when you ask it a question it pulls from just that information rather than the collective knowledge of whatever the underlying model was built with. This process of "source-grounding" ensures that the virtual assistant stays on topic and provides more relevant responses.

That virtual assistant can do all of the normal chatbot tasks including summarizing newly added documents, deeply answering questions about the text corpus, and generating new content from that information. NLM is being made immediately available to a small cadre of beta testers in the US to provide feedback for further development, though there's no word yet on when it will be made available to the general public. If you want to try it early for yourself, sign up on the waitlist.

It’s hard to believe, but the James Webb Space Telescope started sending out stunning images of the universe one full year ago. To commemorate the milestone, NASA's letting the telescope do what it does best, showing us obscenely cool space shots. The latest and greatest image depicts a (relatively) nearby region of space that’s a galactic nursery of sorts, with 50 young stars that could one day form systems that resemble our own.

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is approximately 390 light years from Earth, which is peanuts when compared to the vastness of space, though it would still take 14,500,000 years of travel to get there using current technology. The stars shown in the image are mostly similar in mass to our beloved sun and some even boast the beginnings of circumstellar disks, which are the swirling rings of gas and dust where planets are born.

NASA

So what are those gorgeous red swirls? Those are huge jets of molecular hydrogen, which occur when a star bursts through its natal envelope of cosmic dust and stretches out into the universe for the very time. New life is beautiful, and red. Mostly red.

“Webb’s image of Rho Ophiuchi allows us to witness a very brief period in the stellar life cycle with new clarity. Our own sun experienced a phase like this, long ago, and now we have the technology to see the beginning of another’s star’s story,” said project scientist Klaus Pontoppidan.

The James Webb Space Telescope has been dropping hit after hit throughout this past year. There was the first image of an interstellar asteroid belt, a harrowing scene depicting the Pillars of Creation, a picture of an early-universe galaxy cluster and so much more. It still hasn’t found aliens though. What’s up with that?

Broadcom just took a big step toward clinching its $61 billion purchase of VMware, albeit with some requirements attached. The EU's European Commission has approved the merger following a months-long investigation of the potential competitive harm. Officials found that Broadcom only had limited opportunities to abuse its power, and that some remedies could ensure healthy competition going forward.

The Commission determined that Broadcom doesn't have a "strong position" that could hurt competition in network and storage adapters, and that it wouldn't have an incentive to limit a networking partnership with AMD and NVIDIA. It also couldn't bundle VMware with its own software. Broadcom would, however have the motivation to squeeze its longtime rival Marvell by limiting the compatibility of that company's Fiber Channel adapters with VMware.

To address this, the EU regulator will require that Broadcom offer third parties the tools to make compatible Fiber Channel adapters. The firm will also have to provide source code for the drivers that run those adapters. Ideally, companies will know that their equipment works properly with VMware's server virtualization technology.

In a statement, Broadcom says that it "continue[s] to make progress" in getting approvals for the merger, and points to similar arrangements in countries like Australia, Canada and South Africa. It's still facing reviews from the US Federal Trade Commission and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority.

If the deal closes, it will represent one of the largest tech acquisitions yet. Only Dell's purchase of EMC ($67 billion) and Microsoft's tentative buyout of Activision Blizzard ($68.7 billion) are larger. For Broadcom, this would also be a pivotal expansion — it would make a deep dive into enterprise software that could help it control more of the business world. To some degree, it would also help Broadcom make up for its failed takeover of Qualcomm in 2018.

After a couple years of Xbox and PlayStation stock shortages, it's now fairly easy to get your hands on a current gaming console. Now might be the ideal time to snap up the Xbox Series X, Microsoft's most powerful console, as it's on sale. You can pick up an Xbox Series X for $450, which is $50 off the regular price.

When the Xbox Series X debuted in late 2020, we gave it a score of 87 in our review, though Microsoft has improved the experience since then with new features and updates. At the time, we appreciated the power of the hardware and the console's ability to run demanding games while keeping the fan quiet. With the help of a solid state drive, load times are minimal and the useful Quick Resume feature swiftly helps you keep playing from where you left off. Backward compatibility with hundreds of previous-generation Xbox games is a major plus, as is the addition of HDR to older titles.

One of our key complaints at the time of our review was the lack of compelling games. That's less of a problem these days, as Microsoft has just about something for everyone on Xbox Series X/S, with titles such as Forza Horizon 5, Hi-Fi Rush and Microsoft Flight Simulator in the lineup. The highly anticipated Starfield will arrive in September, and there are a ton of other intriguing games from both Xbox's studios and external developers in the pipeline.

One of the Xbox Series X's strongest selling points is Xbox Game Pass integration. Although Microsoft just increased the price of the subscription service, it includes access to every single Xbox first-party game on the day it's released. The library includes an extensive selection of third-party games as well, meaning players have hundreds of titles at their fingertips. Grand Theft Auto V just returned to the service, for one thing.

Opt for a Game Pass Ultimate membership and you'll get all of that along with access to a bunch more EA titles and the option to play the service's games via the cloud and on PC. Thanks to save data that's stored in the cloud, you'll be able to play a game on your Series X and continue where you left off on your phone, tablet or computer. You can try Game Pass Ultimate for $1 for your first month.

There are some drawbacks to the Series X compared with the competition. You have limited options for expanding the storage, as Microsoft opted for a proprietary card that only two manufacturers are making. The PlayStation 5 has a more immersive controller due to features like adaptive triggers and the remarkable haptic feedback. Unless you have a PS5 as well, you'll also need to consider which of each console's exclusive games are more compelling to you before taking the plunge on a Series X.

Amazon Prime Day is looking like a good time to pick up a new phone, so long as you prefer Android. While you won't find any iPhone deals among Amazon’s sales barrage, several of the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Google Pixel devices we recommend in our smartphone buying guides are down to the lowest prices we’ve seen. If you’ve been waiting to pick up a new handset (and don't mind buying unlocked), here are the best Prime Day phone deals we can find. Remember that you’ll need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber to see some of the discounts.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

The 256GB Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is on sale for $850, which is the lowest price we’ve seen for this factory unlocked model and more than $200 off the phone’s usual price. If you need more storage space, the 512GB model is $400 off its list price at $980.

The S23 Ultra earned a review score of 89 this past February, and it’s currently the top Android pick in our smartphone buying guide. It has just about everything you’d expect from a high-end handheld: a gorgeous 6.8-inch OLED display with a fast 120Hz refresh rate, a snappy Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, top-notch build quality, more than all-day battery life and a powerful camera system. It comes with an S Pen stylus, and Samsung will support the device with five years of security patches and four years of OS updates. You may need to put in a little extra work to unlock the full potential of those cameras, and Samsung’s software is still somewhat bloaty, but the S23 Ultra is a decidedly premium device. The biggest knock against it is that it’s expensive, but this deal helps with that.

Samsung Galaxy S23

The base Galaxy S23 is down to $600 for a 128GB model and $660 for a 256GB unit. Both of these deals represent a roughly $140 discount and match the lowest prices we’ve tracked. The Galaxy S23 trails the S23 Ultra in terms of battery life, camera hardware and charging speed, but that still leaves room for a fast and vibrant device that’ll receive updates for years to come. Apart from the lower cost, the biggest reason to consider it is because it’s one of the smallest high-end phones on the market, with a 6.1-inch display that should be easy for many people to use with one hand.

Samsung Galaxy S23+

The 256GB Samsung Galaxy S23+ is available for $750, which is another all-time low for an unlocked model and about $150 off this model’s typical going rate. The 512GB variant is on sale for $70 more. The S23+ is the middle child between the Galaxy S23 and S23 Ultra. It has the same processor, triple-camera system and 1080p resolution as the former, but it offers a larger 6.6-inch OLED display without adding the weight of the latter. It also supports faster charging speeds than the S23, with a maximum of 45W instead of 25W. Deputy Editor Cherlynn Low gave the Galaxy S23+ a score of 86 in her review this past February.

Google Pixel 7 Pro

Google’s trio of Pixel 7 phones are also discounted for Prime Day. First up, the Pixel 7 Pro is down to $649 for a 128GB model, $749 for a 256GB model and $849 for a 512GB model. Each is $250 off Google’s list price and $50 below than the previous lows we’ve seen.

We call the Pixel 7 Pro the best “camera phone” in our smartphone buying guide, as it takes consistently crisp and accurate photos with less fuss than alternatives like the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It also outperforms its peers in low-light settings. Google’s take on Android is generally cleaner than Samsung’s One UI, and both the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro will receive security updates through late 2027. That said, the S23 Ultra’s raw performance is still better for more involved tasks like gaming, and it outpaces Google’s flagship in display quality and battery life. It’s also worth noting that Google will almost certainly launch new Pixel 8 phones later this year. But if camera quality is your top concern, this is still a good value. Senior Writer Sam Rutherford gave the Pixel 7 Pro a review score of 92 last fall.

Google Pixel 7

The 128GB and 256GB versions of the unlocked Pixel 7 are down to $499 and $599, respectively. We’ve seen these SKUs go for $50 less in the past, but each is roughly $70 below their typical street price. While the Pixel 7 Pro has a 6.7-inch 1440p OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, the normal Pixel 7 bumps things down to a 6.3-inch 1080p panel that tops out at 90Hz. There’s no 5x telephoto lens, either, so you won’t get the same level of zoom for photos. That said, the device runs on the same solid Tensor G2 chip and delivers the same software experience, while its camera is still on the shortlist for the best on the market. Its battery lasts a little longer as well. We gave the Pixel 7 a score of 90 last year.

Google Pixel 7a

The Pixel 7a is Google’s latest midrange phone, essentially a Pixel 7 with a slightly smaller 6.1-inch display, marginally slower charging speeds (18W instead of 20W) and a back made from (nice) plastic instead of Gorilla Glass. Most of the other essentials are just about identical, plus the 7a will get an extra year of software and security updates. As of this writing, the unlocked Pixel 7a is available for $449, which is a $50 discount and a new low. If you prefer a smaller handset or just want to save $50, it’s a fantastic value, though the Pixel 7 is still a bit better if you can pay a little extra. We gave the Pixel 7a a score of 90 earlier this year and call it the best midrange Android phone in our buying guide.

Google Pixel 6a

Last year’s Pixel 6a is on sale for $249, a $100 discount that might be hard to top for those shopping in the bargain bin. Yes, the Pixel 6a can’t really touch the Pixel 7a: Its Tensor G1 chip isn’t as fast, it has less RAM (6GB versus 8GB) and a more basic 60Hz refresh rate, there’s no wireless charging, and its camera is slightly worse. But it runs the same pleasant software as other Pixel phones, its hardware is still far from slow or cheap-feeling, and its camera runs circles around other phones in this price range. It won’t last as long as some alternatives, but it's a nice upgrade over the usual budget suspects.

Motorola Moto G Stylus

We list the latest Moto G Stylus as an honorable mention in our guide to the best affordable smartphones, as it’s one of the few budget phones to come with a built-in stylus. If you can afford to step up to even the Pixel 6a, do so; this phone lags far behind in just about every way, from camera performance to charging speed to general peppiness. But if you really can’t spend more than $200 and like to jot down notes with a pen, the Moto G Stylus is a decent buy at $170, which is $30 off its typical going rate. Unlike the Pixel 6a, it also gets you a headphone jack and a microSD card slot.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 + Galaxy Z Fold 4

Both of Samsung’s premier foldable phones, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4, are on sale for Prime Day, with the former available for $800 and the latter down to $1,100. The Flip is about $200 off, while the Fold is around $500 cheaper than usual. These are the foldables we recommend to enthusiasts in our smartphone buying guide, but consider this a PSA more than a recommendation: Samsung has already confirmed that it will unveil new foldable devices at its Unpacked event on July 26. These might be good prices if you don’t care about the latest and greatest, but we advise you to wait and see what Samsung has planned before spending this much on a soon-to-be-outdated device.

Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for the best Amazon Prime Day tech deals. Learn about Prime Day trends on In the Know. Hear from Autoblog’s car experts on must-shop auto-related Prime Day deals and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.