HMD’s Nokia has continued to roll out serviceable but unremarkable smartphones for the last few years. Forgoing attempts to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Samsung and Apple, it’s settled into a groove of releasing solid mid-range and entry-level smartphones, wireless headphones and even tablets. Now it’s announced a new subscription plan that it says will “reward users” for keeping their phone for longer.

Its new Circular subscription, launching in the UK and Germany to begin with, centers around the environment and sustainability. It’ll appear alongside four new devices, including what HMD calls its most eco-friendly smartphone yet. The Nokia X30 is made of 100% recycled aluminum, including both the frame of the device and speaker grills, and uses 65% recycled plastic.

The X30, which for now isn’t coming to the US, has a 6.54-inch screen and a 50-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization (OIS). However, despite those recycled material bona fides, HMD confirmed that there’s still no removable battery, one of (several) issues when it comes to electronics waste.

The Circular service itself is more interesting than the phones. The subscription fee will cover the phone itself, and any accidental damage, loss or theft will be taken care of without a separate monthly cost. The monthly pricing is reasonable, if not groundbreaking. For now, two devices (and they’re not even the new Nokia phones) will join Circular; The Nokia XR20 will cost £20 (roughly $23) per month with a £30 (around $35) setup fee. It’s a ruggedized 6.67-inch 5G smartphone with dual cameras, including a 48-megapixel primary sensor.

There is also the Nokia T10 LTE, an entry-level 8-inch tablet, for £10 (roughly $12) a month with the same £30 (around $35) setup fee.

While the aforementioned X30 won’t be on Circular at launch, those concerns about a reduced footprint when the battery isn’t removable are at least partially addressed. When you return a phone to them, either when you upgrade or leave the service, the company will recycle or refurbish the device. It will also donate devices that can’t be resold to charitable causes, although details were scant on what these would be. There will be longevity incentives for holding onto your Nokia phone for longer too, it’s just not a financial one. Instead, you’ll gain credits for every six months you continue to use your phone, with these increasing the older the handset gets. These can then be put towards ‘buying’ some tree saplings, or carbon offset credits.

Given the structure (and power) of US mobile carriers, this model is unlikely to carry over with similar prices, if at all, but the company said it will roll Circular out globally in the coming months.

Sony has unveiled a smartphone with both gaming and photo-taking powers that's (a bit) less expensive than its last few models. The Xperia 5 IV comes with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform and 120Hz 6.1-inch 21:9 OLED display, while offering photo features from the Xperia 1 IV flagship like real-time eye AF and real-time tracking on all three rear cameras. 

Taking advantage of its strong reputation in photography with models like the Alpha A7 IV, Sony is pitching the Xperia 5 IV as a content creation device. To that end, it comes with no less then four 12-megapixel cameras with three on the back (a 16mm 1/2.5-inch f/2.2 ultra-wide, 24mm f/1.7 1/1.7-inch wide and 60mm f/2.4 1/3.5-inch portrait) and one up front for selfies (1/2.9-inch). 

The real-time eye AF promises that your subjects' eyes rather than their nose will stay in focus, and the real-time AI-powered tracking feature keeps fast-moving subjects in focus. It supports shooting speeds of 20 fps with AF and auto exposure for all lenses. The relatively large pixels (1.9 microns) on the main camera should allow for decent low-light shooting, too.

Sony

All three rear sensors have 120fps read-out speeds, letting you record 4K HDR at up to 120fps. Sony is also promising 4K HDR with "outstanding contrast grading" and the ability to take selfies or vlog in high glare or dark environments. As with the Xperia I IV, it comes with the Videography Pro feature that lets you livestream your content to YouTube and other streaming services.

The screen looks to be up to the job for creators as well. It's HDR10 capable (though doesn't support Dolby Vision) and supposedly 50 percent brighter than the last model. It also offers something called "Real Time HDR Drive" that can increase image quality by filling in details on over- and underexposed shots. Users of Bravia Core will also be able to access Sony's latest releases and classic films. 

On the gaming side, the 120Hz display should allow for smooth gaming, and a 240Hz touch scanning rate allowing for rapid inputs. The Plus Game enhancer lets you customize picture and sound, and it offers live streaming on Sony's Social Networking Service (SNS), with high-frame recording up to 120fps. You can use it to check viewer's comments in real time and implement game commentary.

On the audio side, it supports both Dolby Atmos and Sony's 360 Reality audio, either via a wired 3.5mm jack or wireless Bluetooth LE. Other features include a 5,000mAh battery, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of memory and 5G capabilities. The Xperia 5 IV will be available at the end of October 2022 for $1,000 in black or a green color variation. If you pre-order starting today at 11AM ET, you'll be eligible to receive the WF-1000XM4 wireless earbuds, a $280 value. 

When you search for "Philips Hue" on your phone's app store, a few options will pop out. Now, Signify has announced that it's making things a bit less confusing by merging the Philips Hue sync app into the main Hue app sometime in the fourth quarter. The Philips Hue sync app controls the ecosystem's sync box, which you can use to connect four devices to your setup via HDMI. That box is what you need if, say, you want to sync your smart lights with what's playing on your TV. 

With the sync app's integration, you can set up the sync box, as well as enable features such as voice control for it, within the main Hue app. Signify said it will phase out the standalone sync app, though it didn't say when exactly it would be pulled out from app stores.

In addition to announcing the applications' merging, Signify has also added a handful of new smart lighting products to its Philips Hue lineup. The new Lightguide bulbs have a distinct inner tube that can diffuse light in any color. They will be available in thee different shapes, namely large globe, ellipsis and triangular, and can be sold with a black or white fabric-wrapped cord and holder. Not including the cords, the bulbs will be available in the fourth quarter of 2022 for prices starting at £75 (US$87). 

Signify has also launched a new vintage-style Philips Hue Filament candle bulb that's capable of diffusing dimmable warm-to-cool white light, as well as a new gradient lightstrip for PC that will be available on September 13th in the UK for prices starting at £130 (US$151). Speaking of PC lighting, the company has teamed up with Corsair to give you a way to sync the lighting on your peripherals with your Hue lights via the Corsair iCUE software. Finally, in the fourth quarter of this year, the company will roll out the capability to sync your smart lights with songs playing out of a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet. The Music Sync feature will be available through a future update for Samsung's SmartThings app.

Signify

Like many other tech companies this week, Lenovo is at IFA Berlin sharing details about what it has in store for the end of the year. The company’s 2022 holiday lineup includes the first-ever 16-inch Chromebook. You can configure the IdeaPad 5i with a 2.5K 16:10 LCD that features a 120Hz refresh rate and a modest 350 nits of brightness. Thanks to its larger size, the IdeaPad 5i also comes with a full-sized keyboard.

Internally, the base model features an Intel Pentium 8505 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage. That said, you can upgrade the IdeaPad with a 12th-gen Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM and a proper SSD with up to 512GB of storage. It also sports plenty of ports, including a MicroSD slot, four total USB-C and USB-A ports, an audio jack, Bluetooth 5.0 and WiFi 6E connectivity. Additionally, the Chromebook comes standard with a 1080p web camera. Lenovo claims it’s possible to get up to 12 hours of use on a single charge from the built-in battery. The company said it would share US pricing and availability at a later date. In Europe, the IdeaPad 5i will start at €549 when it arrives on the continent sometime next month.

Lenovo

Alongside the IdeaPad 5i, Lenovo refreshed the Tab P11 and Tab P11 Pro. Now in their second generation, the two Android tablets feature updated internals and displays. The Pro is the more interesting of the two, boasting an 11.2-inch OLED with 600 nits of brightness, a 120Hz refresh rate, a 360Hz touch response rate and support for both HDR10 and Dolby Vision. With 8GB of RAM and a new MediaTek Kompanio 1300T chipset, Lenovo says the Tab P11 Pro offers 120 percent more processing power than its predecessor. You can pair the tablet with the company’s Precision Pen 3. Like the second-generation Apple Pencil, Lenovo’s stylus magnetically attaches to the tablet, allowing it to charge wirelessly when not in use.

As for the Tab P11, it now comes with an 11.5-inch LCD that features a variable 120Hz refresh rate, 400 nits of brightness and a 2,000 by 1,200 resolution. According to Lenovo, the tablet’s new MediaTek Helio G99 processor is 50 percent faster than the chipset found on its predecessor. The P11 Pro will cost $400 when it arrives next month. Meanwhile, Lenovo expects the $250 P11 to hit store shelves at the start of 2023.

In addition to the above mobile devices, Lenovo showed off a new flagship gaming monitor. The Legion Y32p-30 features a 31.5-inch LCD panel with a 4K resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio, 144Hz refresh rate and claimed 0.2ms response rate. Notably, it also comes with two HDMI 2.1 ports so you can connect it to your PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles. The Y32p-30 will cost $750 when it becomes available at the end of the year.

Lenovo

No Lenovo announcement is complete without at least one offbeat gadget thrown into the mix. At IFA 2022, that came in the form of the Glasses T1, a wearable Lenovo is pitching as a private display for on-the-go professionals. You can connect them to your Windows, Android or macOS device over USB-C to create a virtual monitor. Using them with an iPhone or iPad is also possible, provided you get a separate Lightning adapter. Either way, the Glasses T1 will display content from your device on a pair of micro OLED panels. Lenovo suggests you can use its new wearable to prevent prying eyes from seeing what’s on your screen. The Glasses T1 will arrive in China at the end of 2022 before arriving in other markets in 2023.

As the first laptop to feature a flexible OLED display, the original ThinkPad X1 Fold was incredibly ambitious. It was also very experimental. While the concept showed potential, its software, performance and design clearly weren’t ready for prime time. But almost two years later, Lenovo is back with a second attempt, sporting some serious generational leaps.

The first major upgrade on the new X1 Fold is a bigger 16.3-inch OLED display from Sharp. Not only does it have a slightly higher 2.5K resolution, but the larger size also means you have significantly more screen space. But more importantly, when folded up, you now get a device that’s closer to a 12-inch laptop instead of a 10-inch system like the previous model. This should make the X1 Fold a lot more practical anytime space is an issue, like when you’re working on an airplane without feeling cramped.

On top of that, Lenovo redesigned the X1 Fold’s Bluetooth keyboard. Now it uses the same keys as the ThinkPad X1 Nano, so you get a longer and cushier actuation, it also has a new fingerprint sensor that works with Windows Hello. And while you can still lay the keyboard on top of the bottom half of the Fold in laptop mode, it also attaches magnetically to the base of the system when it's resting on its included stand, which supports both landscape and portrait orientation.

Another big change is that instead of storing the keyboard inside the Fold, it magnetically attaches to the stand to become a single piece that’s easier to manage. So when you need to pack up, all you have to do is tilt the stand forward until it docks with the keyboard, bend the Fold in half, and then just slam everything together. Lenovo says this change was made in response to feedback from customers who prefer using the system more like a portable all-in-one instead of a convertible laptop. And because there isn’t a space inside the system for the keyboard anymore, Lenovo was able to install a new fold-flat hinge, so everything is sleeker and more compact. It’s almost like the X1 Fold has spent the last two years going to the gym and put on a fresh, custom-tailored suit.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

For the new generation, Lenovo also wanted to improve the Fold’s serviceability, so it's easier to replace things like its SSD, batteries and other components in the field. Unfortunately, the X1 Fold still isn’t water resistant, but it should still be pretty rugged, as the Fold remains subject to the same mil-spec 810G testing required on other ThinkPads. And despite a significantly bigger screen than before, the new X1 Fold only weighs around 2.8 pounds, though you’re looking at a kit that’s closer to 4.2 pounds when you factor in the revamped stand and keyboard.

I also appreciate some of Lenovo’s little touches, like the addition of a third USB-C port (two of which support Thunderbolt 4) and an improved location for the Fold’s 5MP IR webcam, so that it’s more useful. Lenovo even added a third speaker so that regardless of orientation, you still get full stereo audio with support for Dolby Atmos.

As for performance, we’re looking at a serious jump in processing power, with the Fold supporting up to a 12th-gen Intel Core i7 U-series CPU, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, while still featuring a completely fanless design. For those worried about the short battery life on the previous model, Lenovo has made room for an optional 16 Wh power cell to supplement the standard 48Wh battery. And because Windows 11 has much better support for various layouts and window snapping compared to Windows 10, from my brief time with the new X1 Fold, everything felt significantly smoother and more responsive.

So while I should mention that this is still a pre-production device, I’m really liking what I’ve seen so far from the new X1 Fold. But to get a real sense of how this thing is going to hold up, we’re going to have to wait a bit longer until it goes on sometime in Q4 starting at around $2,800.

Apple has released an iOS 12 update users of older iPhone and iPad devices should download as soon as possible. The new version of the company’s 2018 operating system addresses a major vulnerability that Apple recently patched within iOS 15. According to a support document, the WebKit flaw could have allowed a website to run malicious code on your device. In its usual terse manner, Apple notes it is “aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.”

For that reason, you should download the update as soon as possible if you’re still using an iOS 12 device. That’s a list that includes the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, as well as iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and iPad mini 3. You can download iOS 12.5.6 by opening the Settings app, tapping on “General” and then selecting “Software Update.”

A serious vulnerability found by Microsoft in the TikTok Android app could have allowed hackers to hijack millions of accounts. On Wednesday, the company’s 365 Defender Research Team detailed a one-click exploit it informed TikTok of in February. The good news is that the social media company promptly patched the vulnerability before today’s disclosure and Microsoft says it has no evidence of someone using it out in the wild.

“We gave them information about the vulnerability and collaborated to help fix this issue,” Microsoft’s Tanmay Ganacharya told The Verge. “TikTok responded quickly, and we commend the efficient and professional resolution from the security team.”

According to Microsoft, the vulnerability involved an oversight with TikTok’s deep linking functionality. On Android, developers can program their apps to handle certain URLs in specific ways. For instance, when you tap on a Twitter embed in Chrome and the Twitter app automatically opens on your phone as a result, that’s an example of the deep linking feature working as intended.

However, Microsoft found a way to bypass the verification process TikTok had in place to restrict deep links from executing certain actions. They then discovered they could use that vulnerability to access all the primary functions of an account, including the ability to post content and message other TikTok users. The flaw was present in both global versions of TikTok’s Android app. The two releases have more than 1.5 billion downloads between them, meaning the potential impact of someone discovering the vulnerability before it was patched could have been massive.

Microsoft recommends all TikTok users on Android download the latest version of the app as soon as they can. More broadly, you can protect yourself in the future from similar exploits by not clicking on sketchy links. It’s also good practice to avoid sideloading apps as you don’t know how someone could have altered the APK.

Earlier this year, the first gaming monitor with a Samsung QD-OLED panel arrived. We called the Alienware AW3423DW an ultrawide marvel, praising it for its bright and beautiful screen. When Samsung showed off QD-OLED at CES 2022, it promised the new panels would be available in more than one monitor, and now the company is making good on that pledge with the announcement of the Odyssey OLED G8.

If you’re familiar with the AW3423DW, you won’t find many surprises on the G8’s spec sheet. It features a 34-inch QD-OLED panel with a 21:9 aspect ratio and 1800R curvature. The 3,440 by 1,440 screen covers 99.3 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and has a blazing fast 0.1ms response time and 175Hz refresh rate. It’s also DisplayHDR 400 True Black- and FreeSync Premium-certified – though there’s no mention of G-Sync compatibility. 

Samsung

The frame and stand are metal. That’s something you don’t see on many gaming monitors. However, the stand only offers height and tilt adjustment, and as you can see from one of the photos Samsung shared, there’s no option to VESA mount the G85SB due to the built-in RGB lighting at the back of the monitor. That’s not great from a usability standpoint. I’m also not sure what Samsung thought when they decided to include HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 connectivity but went with the Micro and Mini versions of those ports. Here’s hoping the company includes adapters in the box. Naturally, it also comes with Samsung's Gaming Hub and Smart Platform features built in.

The G85SB will go on sale before the end of the year. Samsung didn’t share pricing information, but if the cost of Alienware’s QD-OLED monitor is any indication, expect the Odyssey OLED G8 to fall somewhere in the $1,300 range.

All the way back at CES in January, ASUS revealed a 17.3-inch foldable tablet PC called the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED, which raised a lot of eyebrows. Soon enough, you'll be able to own the device, as long as you have a few thousand dollars to spare. ASUS announced at IFA 2022 that the foldable will start at $3,500 (£3,300 in the UK) and start rolling out globally by the end of the year.

The Zenbook 17 Fold has a 4:3, 2.5K touchscreen with a 180-degree hinge that folds to effectively create dual 12.5-inch, 1920 x 1280 displays with a 3:2 aspect ratio. The screen has a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, a 100 percent DCI-P3 color gamut, 0.2 ms response time, 60 Hz refresh rate, up to 500 nits of brightness and TÜV Rheinland-certified low blue-light emissions (ASUS says it has 70 percent lower blue-light levels than an LCD display).

There's Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support. The Windows tablet has four Harman Kardon-certified speakers. It also has a 5MP webcam, a color sensor and an HD IR camera that will allow you to login with a face scan.

The device comes with a full-size ErgoSense Bluetooth keyboard (with a built-in touchpad) that you can place on top of one half of the folded device. Alternatively, you can place the keyboard on your desk and keep the entire display visible.

The Zenbook 17 Fold is 17.4mm thin. It weighs 1.6 kg (3.5 pounds) without the keyboard and 1.99 kg (4.4 lbs) with the peripheral.

You can configure the system with up to a 12th-gen Intel Core i7 processor with Intel Iris Xe graphics, up to 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of NVMe M.2 SSD storage. Two Thunderbolt 4 ports allow for fast charging of the 75 Wh battery and they'll enable you to connect the tablet to external displays. The only other port is a 3.5 mm audio combo jack.

It's a fairly expensive device that seems to include an early adopter tax. Since we haven't tested the Zenbook 17 Fold yet, it remains to be seen how durable the laptop is in practice. We know all too well the kinds of problems a company can run into when they make an all-screen foldable for the first time, though hopefully ASUS has learned from the issues Samsung had with the first Galaxy Fold.

ASUS

Apple's flagship AirPods Max wireless headphones have much to offer like excellent audio quality, ANC and spatial audio support — but they're definitely not cheap at $549. Now, you can grab a pair in green, pink, silver and sky blue for just $429. That's 22 percent off and tied with the lowest price we've seen to date.

The AirPods Max scored a solid 84 in our Engadget review and made our latest list of favorite headphones, thanks to their high sound quality, effective noise-cancellation and reliable controls. They offer a uniquely Apple-esque design, and despite being slightly heavier than Sony’s WH-1000XM4 cans, are comfortable to wear. Once you get used to it, the rotating crown makes it easy to adjust sound.

Audio quality is more natural than other headphones we've tried with bass that's accurate and not overpowering. Sony's WH-1000XM4 headphones have more effective ANC, but the AirPods Max come close. Meanwhile, the Transparency Mode lets you quickly disable ANC if you need to hear what's going on. The biggest drawback is the lack of lossless audio support, but they work great with Dolby Atmos surround sound on most Apple devices.

The AirPods Max are ideal if you're in the Apple ecosystem, with the H1 chip letting you quickly switch between an iPhone and a Mac, for example. There's no question that they're very expensive at the regular $549 price, so Amazon's latest discount presents a good buying opportunity if you've been eyeing a pair.

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