Lenovo announced several new business laptops and hybrids at this year’s MWC conference, including refreshes in the ThinkPad T-series and the ThinkBook line. The company’s calling them “AI PCs” because they all feature a dedicated Microsoft Copilot button that offers immediate access to the digital assistant.

The just-announced models include the ThinkPad T14 Gen 5, ThinkPad T16 Gen 3, ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2 and ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4. These computers are powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra processors, which has come to be expected with new Lenovo computers.

Lenovo

The ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2 boasts a durable 3:2 display with Corning Gorilla Glass and the whole thing’s powered by an Intel Core Ultra U processor. You can spec this tablet/laptop hybrid with up to 32GB of RAM, for multitasking. The detachable backlit folio keyboard boasts a three-button TrackPad and the tablet includes a front-facing 5MP camera and an 8MP rear-facing camera.

The redesigned ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4 features an ultra-thin 16.85mm profile, which is slightly thinner than the previous generation. It’s also light, weighing just over 3.5 pounds. The 14-inch display boasts a 16:10 aspect ratio and the keyboard includes a larger touchpad that has been crafted with glass-like Mylar. It also ships with the new Magnetic Slim Pen for more nuanced touchscreen controls.

Lenovo

In addition to the Core Ultra processors and the near-instantaneous Copilot integration, the ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 and T16 Gen 3 have been built for DIY repairs. The iFixit team was on-hand to advise the overall design, so there are plenty of customer replaceable parts, making it easy to swap out the DIMM, SSD, WWAN card and battery, among other components. With this in mind, iFixit has proactively rated these laptops with a repairability score of 9.3 out of 10. That’s a whole lot better than products from many rival companies.

The ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 goes on sale this April and will be available in several SKUs, starting at $950. The ThinkPad T16 Gen 3 also goes on sale this April and will start at $1,220. The ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2 will be available the same month and will feature a starting price of $1,400. Finally, the ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4 goes on sale this March with a starting price of $1,170.

Catch up on all of the news from MWC 2024 right here!

If you were wondering when brands will finally stop trying to cash in on the Barbie craze, the answer is, somehow, not yet. HMD (or Human Mobile Devices), which has been making Nokia phones for the past few years, announced for MWC that it’s partnered with Mattel to release an official Barbie Flip Phone this summer. It’ll be pink, obviously, with a dash of “sparkle.”

Aesthetically, it sounds a lot like the original hot pink Motorola Razr of the aughts. But while that phone eventually got rebooted as a smartphone for the era of modern foldables, the Barbie phone is keeping things pretty basic. It’ll be a feature phone, not a smartphone, with HMD marketing it as an accessory geared toward “style, nostalgia and a much-needed digital detox.” HMD hasn’t revealed much else about it yet, like pricing or actual photos, but the company says it plans to unveil the Barbie Flip Phone at MWC, so we'll likely see more of it as the week unfolds. 

Most people may not be ready to ditch their smartphones entirely just yet, but if you’re looking for a burner, this is probably one of the cutest you could get.

HMD

Catch up on all of the news from MWC 2024 right here!

We’re about to get our first real look at Samsung’s Galaxy Ring. In a blog post this weekend ahead of Mobile World Congress, the company revealed it’ll have the Galaxy Ring on display at its booth at the Barcelona convention, which starts tomorrow. Samsung hasn’t said much yet about what the Galaxy Ring will be capable of since teasing it at the end of its Unpacked event in January, but we do know it’s a wellness-oriented wearable positioned to rival the likes of Oura.

Samsung today described the Galaxy Ring as “a new health form factor that simplifies everyday wellness, supporting smarter and healthier living via a more connected digital wellness platform.” All we’ve really seen of it so far is a rendering, though. 

Aside from the Galaxy Ring, Samsung’s booth will heavily promote its Galaxy AI, with a hands-on interactive experience. The company also says it’s expanding Galaxy AI to more of its products, including the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5 and Tab S9 series, plus the Galaxy Watch 6, Galaxy S23 series and S23 FE. It's also got plans for Galaxy AI applications in its new Galaxy Book 4 series and, of course, the Galaxy Ring we still know next to nothing about.

Catch up on all of the news from MWC 2024 right here!

No one is suggesting that Microsoft should stop making video game hardware. What we've been considering, here in the dark and twisted Engadget Slack channels, is whether Microsoft should keep making generationally distinct consoles in the traditional hardware cycle. Basically, does Xbox need a box? Microsoft has been busy building the foundation of a platform-agnostic, cloud-first future for video games, and it consistently falls behind both Sony and Nintendo in the console race. So why are executives trying to get us excited about a superpowered 10th-gen Xbox?

Maybe Microsoft is hesitant to reveal a drastic ecosystem change after the chaos around the Xbox One and its always-on DRM features in 2013. After an outpouring of negative feedback at the idea of a persistently online console, Xbox had to rapidly reverse its launch plans, while Sony took the PlayStation 4 on an early victory lap. This fumble set the stage for the next decade of console sales, and it's a lesson that would stick with any studio — especially one that's trying to make streaming and cloud gaming the norm.

That's understandable, but it doesn't change the fact that accessible, affordable (and probably handheld) hardware makes a lot of sense for Microsoft's current vision and investments. More than an expensive console, at least.

This week's stories

A delicious Elden Ring entrée

Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion will come to PlayStation, Xbox and PC on June 21. This one has been a long time coming: FromSoftware announced the DLC in February 2023, leaving plenty of time for players to get super psyched for more masochism. A new, three-minute trailer for Shadow of the Erdtree shows off sprawling locations and epic bosses inspired by chaotic combinations of animals, insects and elements. The expansion costs $40 and pre-orders are live now.

Borderlands by Cate Blanchett

I’m just gonna come out and say it: I think Cate Blanchett makes a great Lilith. The first trailer for this summer’s Borderlands movie is out and it looks like Mad Max meets Guardians of the Galaxy — which is Borderlands in a nutshell anyway. The film stars Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Ariana Greenblatt, it’s directed by Eli Roth, and it’s due to hit theaters on August 9.

Xbox should exit the console business

Last Thursday, Xbox executives made it clear that they weren’t about to abandon the traditional hardware market, and they teased a next-generation console that will represent “the largest technical leap you will have ever seen.” That’s cool, but considering Microsoft’s position in the industry, it doesn’t feel like Xbox needs to be making consoles any more.

After acquiring half of the industry, Microsoft is now a mega-publisher of games, with over 30 in-house studios. Many of these development teams are world-renowned, with rich, multi-platform histories. It’s also the operator of one of the largest game subscription services in the world, Game Pass.

Game Pass grew wildly during the pandemic, but subscriptions have stagnated. In court documents from April 2022, Microsoft revealed it had 21.9 million Game Pass subscribers and 11.7 million Xbox Live Gold members across its consoles, for a total user base of 33.6 million. Last week, Microsoft revealed Game Pass has 34 million subscribers, which includes PC Game Pass and Game Pass Core, the new name for Xbox Live Gold. Even assuming PC Game Pass had zero subscribers in 2022, this means Game Pass subscriptions grew just 1 percent over the past 22 months. The more likely scenario is that the total number of subscriptions actually shrank over this period — though it’s at least possible that more people are paying for the full-price service than before.

Microsoft’s plan for this console generation was clear for all to see: Sell hardware and upsell a subscription service populated by its own games. Turns out, it’s tough to sell Game Pass to someone without an Xbox, and not enough people are buying Xboxes. Microsoft stopped reporting hardware numbers during the Xbox One era, but analysts peg the combined sales of the Xbox Series consoles at around 25 million. Meanwhile, Sony has sold more than 50 million PS5s, and Nintendo has sold around 140 million Switches. This gap appears to be growing every day, and it’s far more pronounced in Japan and Europe than in the United States. If Microsoft wants to grow Game Pass, it seems like it’ll have to be on platforms outside of Xbox.

This week, Xbox confirmed plans to bring four formerly exclusive games to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles, and for years executives have been pitching an ecosystem where Xbox — and Game Pass — is playable on anything with a screen. Microsoft has a powerful cloud network that even Sony uses for game streaming, plus it owns more than 30 studios. Long-term, Microsoft is positioning Xbox to be a platform-agnostic, software-publishing powerhouse with the industry’s most stable streaming network at its back.

In this landscape, it’s surprising to hear Xbox talk about building a hyper-powered console for the next generation. I’m not advocating for Microsoft to ditch the hardware market — it makes sense for the company to focus on handheld devices and affordable streaming boxes that support Game Pass and cloud play. Xbox is working toward a future where its games and Game Pass are available everywhere, which raises a clear question about its current plans: Why bring an expensive next-gen console to a war that is actually about software, subscriptions and streaming?

Bonus Content

• Sony president Hiroki Totoki told investors last week that the company would be more aggressive in bringing its PlayStation titles to PC.

• Xbox has confirmed which of its games are coming to other consoles: Grounded and Pentiment will come to PlayStation and Switch, while Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush will only arrive on PS5. Both Sea of Thieves and Grounded will support crossplay across all platforms.

• Now for a totally different port: The Pokémon Company has scheduled an anniversary stream for next Tuesday at 9AM ET. It might be a bit early for a gen-10 reveal, but a Switch remake of Black & White seems like a safe bet.

Now Playing

If you’re a Switch or PlayStation player curious about all of these Xbox games coming to your consoles, I have one easy and clear recommendation: play Pentiment. Obsidian’s narrative-driven, tapestry-looking game is a surprise and a delight, and I’ve had a lot of fun playing it on Game Pass recently. It's out now on PS4, PS5 and Switch, and I’m sure it’s just as great on those platforms.

X is slowly rolling out audio and video calling to users that don't pay for its premium subscription service that's formerly known as Twitter Blue. Enrique Barragan, an engineer for the company, has shared the news on the platform. The company initially launched the feature for iOS users last year, giving paying subscribers the option to call other people through the app, and was a step towards making X the "everything" application Elon Musk wants it to be. Earlier this year, the capability made its way to Android devices, but the ability to make calls remained limited to Premium subscribers only.

By the end of January, Musk said that X will make audio-video calling available to everyone as soon as the company is confident that it's robust. We're still being asked to subscribe to X Premium to be able to make calls when we hit the phone icon in DMs, but those who get the update will be able to make calls even if they're not a paying subscriber. The official X support page for the feature now says that all accounts are able to make and receive calls, though both parties must have been in contact via Direct Messaging at least once. In the past, it said only "Premium subscribers have the ability to make audio and video calls."

In addition to announcing the capability's rollout, Barragan revealed that users will now also be able to receive calls from everyone on the app if they want to. Audio and video calls were automatically switched on for us when we checked our DMs' Settings menu, configured so that we can (thankfully) only receive calls from people we follow. We're already seeing the "Everyone" option in there, though, ready to be picked by the most intrepid X users. 

Picture the scene: you've had an enjoyable day of playing around in mixed reality using Apple's Vision Pro headset. Once you're done for the night, you carefully pack the Vision Pro away while leaving the battery pack connected and soft front cover attached. But when you wake up to begin a new day of work while wearing the $3,500 headset, you spot a problem: a hairline crack has formed on the front cover glass.

That's a problem that at least a few users have encountered, according to a handful of reports on Reddit. It's unclear how many units have been affected, though MacRumors suggests it's a small number. The issue occurred on Engadget's review unit as well. 

The cause of the problem is not yet known. But the similar appearance of the cracks and apparently small number of impacted units suggests that it's down to a manufacturing flaw. Engadget has contacted Apple for comment.

If Apple doesn't officially recognize the issue as a manufacturing defect, it may not cover the crack under the device's warranty. That's reportedly been the case for some of the affected users. As such, they're been put on the hook for $300 to repair the cover glass if they have AppleCare coverage. Otherwise, the cost is a stinging $800.

As MacRumors notes, Apple often offers special repair programs for recognized hardware issues, but that's only likely to happen if there are enough reports to warrant the company fully investigating the matter and identifying a common problem. Still, this gives more credence to the maxim that maybe you shouldn't buy a first-generation Apple product.

This isn't the first time an Apple device has been susceptible to scratches in its first generation. Many users of the first iPod nano found that it scratched very easily. A lawsuit ensued, and Apple agreed to pay a $22.5 million settlement.

Apple’s newest iPad mini is on sale for $120 off. You can get the 256GB version of the 6th-generation iPad mini (2021) for $529 on Amazon — a record low. If that’s more storage than you need, you can also get the 64GB model (usually $500) is $100 off.

Apple refreshed the iPad mini in 2021 with an “all-screen” Liquid Retina design, ditching the Home button and aligning the mini-tablet with the larger iPad Air’s modern design language. The iPad mini has an 8.3-inch display that supports TrueTone and covers the P3 color gamut. It has a 2266 x 1488 resolution (326 ppi).

This model runs on the A15 Bionic chip, also found in the iPhone 13 series. This tablet eschews Face ID for a Touch ID sensor on its power and sleep button. The iPad mini has a USB-C port for versatile charging and data transfers, and it works with the second-generation Apple Pencil for scribbling notes or digital sketching. Apple estimates up to 10 hours of battery life, which can vary depending on how you use it.

Photo by Valentina Palladino / Engadget

Apple will reportedly update its entire iPad lineup this year, and the latest rumors point to a possible late 2024 launch for a new iPad mini. If those reported plans pan out, this model may only be the newest for another six to eight months.

If you want a full-sized tablet, Walmart has the 5th-generation (10.9-inch) iPad Air for $120 off, too. You’ll pay only $449 for the 64GB variant. This model runs on an M1 chip with a 2360 x 1640 resolution (264 ppi) and an estimated 10 hours of battery life.

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Bluetooth trackers are handy little devices that can help you find things you've misplaced. If you're deep in the Apple ecosystem (or at least have an iPhone), AirTags are perhaps your best choice. If you've been meaning to pick some up, there's some good news for you as a four-pack of AirTags is on sale. The pack has dropped by $20 to $79. That's close to the lowest price we've seen for them, so it's a solid deal.

It's easy to set up an AirTag with your iPhone or iPad as it's a one-tap process. Once you've done that and attached an AirTag to an item, you'll be able to keep track of that alongside your family and friends in the Mind My app. AirTags don't store location data or history and their communications with the Find My network are encrypted and anonymous, Apple says.

You can play a sound on the AirTag's built-in speaker to help you find a misplaced item (useful for, say, a remote that's fallen down the side of a couch), and you can ask Siri for help finding your things. If you have a recent iPhone (11 or later), you'll be able to make use of a second-gen Ultra Wideband chip that powers precision finding — this will give you pinpoint directions to your AirTag once you're within range.

If you've lost an item away from home, you can put its accompanying AirTag into Lost Mode. This means you'll be notified whenever it pops up in the Find My network. In other words, when it is picked up by one of the hundreds of millions of Apple devices in the Find My network. The AirTag is a rugged little thing (it's IP67 water and dust resistant and the replaceable battery lasts over a year), which should give you some time to find your missing item.

To make sure it's securely fastened to your item, you might want to pick up some AirTag accessories. These enable you to attach an AirTag to various fabrics, keys or anything with a strap. There are also cases with adhesive mounts, meaning you can stick an AirTag to just about anything.

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The latest Apple HomePod speaker is on sale for $285 at B&H Photo, which is $14 less than buying from Apple directly. This isn't the largest cash discount we've seen, and Apple previously bundled the device with a $50 gift card during Black Friday. But deals of any kind on the home speaker have been uncommon since it arrived in early 2023, so this modest drop still represents the lowest price we've seen in the last few months. The discount applies to both the black and white versions of the speaker.

We gave the second-generation HomePod a score of 84 in our review last year. It'll make the most sense if you're a particularly dedicated Apple user who prioritizes audio quality. It still works easily with other Apple devices and services, from iPhones to Apple TVs to Apple Music, and we generally find it to sound richer and clearer than competing smart speakers from Amazon and Google. As a smart home device, it's compatible with Matter and Thread on top of Apple's own HomeKit protocol, so you can use it to control a growing range of security cameras, thermostats, plugs and other smart home accessories. It also has built-in temperature and humidity sensors, and its included mics do well to pick out your voice through noise.

To be clear, this is still a pricey and relatively niche device. Speakers like the Sonos Five and Sonos Era 300 cost more but offer louder and more dynamic sound quality, while the Sonos Era 100 may be a better value if you want to conserve a little more cash. Apple's own HomePod Mini has nearly all of the same smart home features if that's your main concern, while Google Assistant and Alexa users should still look to Google's Nest Audio or an Amazon Echo device. The HomePod has its own issues, too: Siri isn't the most capable voice assistant, there's no Bluetooth audio, you can't customize its EQ and you need a workaround to control Spotify via voice. Rumors of a touchscreen-enabled HomePod have also floated around over the past year. All that said, if you're all-in on Apple, this is a decent chance to save on the company's highest-end home speaker.

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Every gram counts in commercial flight. Material scientists from Kobe University have discovered “nanospheres” that are near-invisible silicone crystals. The particles can reflect light thanks to very large and efficient scattering, research published in the ACS Applied Nano Matter journal details. The result could mean covering a surface in vibrant color while only adding 10 percent of the weight of painting an aircraft for the same effect.

Minoru and Hiroshi’s discovery focuses on structural rather than pigment color to exhibit and maintain hues. The former absorbs wavelengths while reflecting those the human eye picks up. Structural colors, on the other hand, are intense and bright as light interacts with micro- and nanostructures. While the headline commercial benefits are for planes, the paint could have many more uses simply for its brightness.

— Mat Smith

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Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth review

The open-world tour.

Engadget

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth takes the characters and world reintroduced with Remake and does a better job at scaling it all up. Instead of playing in a single metropolis, Midgar, this time, it’s a world tour. There’s also an expanded roster of playable characters, almost doubling Remake’s total, each with a unique play style, once again. But does Aerith survive?

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Xiaomi 14 Ultra combines a 1-inch camera sensor with 4 AI imaging models

It also supports satellite calling and texting.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is the latest Leica-branded smartphone, featuring a second-gen one-inch camera sensor. Xiaomi is finally catching up with the competition by picking up Sony’s newest mobile camera sensor, the LYT-900. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a slight edge on rival phones with the same sensor, with its faster main variable aperture at up to f/1.63, beating the Oppo Find X7 Ultra’s f/1.8 — on paper, at least.

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Framework’s new sub-$500 modular laptop has no RAM, storage or OS

Pick the parts you want and install them yourself.

Framework is selling its cheapest modular laptop. It has dropped the price of its B-stock Factory Seconds systems (which are built with excess parts and new components). As such, it’s now offering a Framework Laptop 13 barebones configuration for under $500 for the very first time. The 13-inch machine comes with an 11th-gen Intel Core i7 processor with Iris Xe graphics. So the CPU should be sufficient for most basic tasks and some moderate gaming. However, you’ll need to add RAM, storage, a power supply, an operating system and (probably) even a Wi-Fi card.

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