A lot of gadgets operate on a "tick-tock" development cycle, with the most well-known being past iPhones that sported fresh designs, only to be replaced 12 months later by more refined but similar-looking S variants. And after Samsung ticked the box with a fresh new design for last year's S21, now the company has returned with the more polished Galaxy S22 and S22+. While they might look a lot like last year's phones, there have been some notable upgrades, especially on the S22's display, performance and camera.

Design

Even though I'm still not sure how much I love Samsung's Contour Cut camera design, the Galaxy S22 very much looks and feels like a high-end device. The outside of the phone features Samsung's Armor Aluminum alloy that's been polished to a near-mirror finish, with the S22 also being one of the first phones equipped with Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus+ to protect the phone from drops and scratches — both in front and in back.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

To add a little spice to the mixture, the S22's backside sports a lovely matte texture – which does a surprisingly good job of resisting fingerprints. And for 2022, Samsung also spruced up the S22's color options with new shades of green, pink and white, along with good ole black.

Like previous Galaxy S phones, the S22 comes with an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint reader, and after years of tweaking its algorithm and improving the tech, this time it feels seriously fast. In my experience, unlocking the phone was practically instant, and I never really ran into recognition issues unless my fingers were legit wet or greasy. (Keep your grubby hands away from my phone if you're eating pizza, k thnx.)

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The one thing avid movie watchers should be aware of though is the color-matched frames on the pink and white models. If you're the kind of person that might be bothered by a glint or sparkle around the edge of the phone while watching videos, you may want to go with one of the darker color options.

And while it's not really a surprise at this point, the S22 doesn't feature a microSD card slot or a headphone jack. With the Galaxy S line now being three generations removed from the last device to include both of those features, it's pretty clear they're not coming back.

Display

Samsung has had a lock on the crown when it comes to making the best mobile displays in the business for a while now. But on the S22, the company has outdone itself once again with displays that can hit a peak brightness of 1,300 nits on the S22, or an astounding 1,750 nits on the S22+. Suffice to say any fears of the S22's screen being hard to read even in direct sunlight are unfounded.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Then, to make things look even better, Samsung created a new feature called Vision Booster designed to amp up things like contrast and color saturation in very bright or dim conditions. While there's no indicator or pop-up that lets you know it's working, I found the effect most pronounced when I used the phone outdoors, with more subtle changes in the dark when compared to phones like the Pixel 6 Pro. I found Vision Booster made dark scenes easier to parse, but even when viewed side-by-side, I basically had to press my face up against the phones to really see the differences.

But regardless of where you are, the end result is a display that lives in technicolor, pumping out vivid shades and hues, along with the perfectly dark inky blacks that make OLED screens so enthralling. Plus, thanks to a 2,340 x 1,080 resolution and a variable 120Hz refresh rate, everything from photos to gifs look sharp and crisp.

Performance

The Galaxy S22 line is one of the first phones to feature Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, which when combined with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (or 256GB if you opt for the upgrade) results in a phone that feels blisteringly fast. In my experience, there isn't really anything you can throw at the S22 that makes it even sweat, aside from stuff like hardcore multitasking when connected to an external monitor via Samsung Dex (which is still very much a thing).

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

And while some reports claim that Qualcomm's Snapdragon Gen 8 Gen 1 has a proclivity for running hot, S22's built-in vapor chamber cooling system seems effective at keeping throttling to a minimum. Compared to the S21 FE, which features an older Snapdragon 888 chip, our S22+ posted scores in Geekbench 5's Compute test around 25 percent higher (4,708 vs 5,999). And while the gap wasn't quite as large in Geekbench 5's CPU test, the S22+ still posted a significantly higher single-core score of 1,213 compared to 1,061 for the S21 FE.

As for wireless connectivity, all versions of the S22 and S22+ support all the important flavors of 5G, including Verizon and AT&T's new C-band spectrum.

Cameras

After recent advancements from competitors like the iPhone 13 and Pixel 6, Samsung is now playing catchup to Apple and Google in the camera department. And while Samsung is touting a bunch of new camera features for the S22 and S22+ like Adaptive Pixel and various "Nightography" improvements, the real upgrades are the S22's new sensors — particularly the one for its 50MP main cam.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Thanks to that significantly higher resolution (up from 12MP on the S21), photos from the S22's main wide-angle camera are just flat-out sharper than before. But more importantly, the S22's primary camera offers wider dynamic range and big improvements for low-light photos. In darker scenes, the S22 uses a four-to-one pixel binning technique that combines four adjacent pixels into one big pixel, which allows for improved light sensitivity. The result is brighter photos with richer colors, especially at night. And even though Google's Night Sight still has a slight advantage over Samsung's Night Mode, the S22 has seriously narrowed the gap.

Elsewhere, you also get a solid 12MP ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field of view, and a 10MP telephoto camera with a 3x optical zoom, the latter of which is important because neither the standard iPhone 13 or Pixel 6 comes with a dedicated zoom lens. So once again, the base S22 is the most well-rounded camera phone for the money. And in front, the 10MP selfie camera captured crisp pictures of my face including my many pores and blemishes, though you can always play around with Samsung's beauty settings if you want to put on a smoother face for social media.

Where things get frustrating is that some of the S22's new camera features are often hard to use, or even tell when they're working — with the main offender being Samsung's Adaptive Pixel feature. Adaptive Pixel uses multi-frame image capture to shoot pics using the main sensor's full resolution along with lower-res pixel-binned shots, before merging them together to create a higher-quality composite final image. The issue is that Adaptive Pixel isn't turned on by default, and searching the phone's settings for it doesn't return any matches.

To even activate this, you need to first make sure Samsung's scene optimizer is on, then you have to turn on the camera app's full 50MP capture mode, make sure the Detail Enhancer setting is disabled, and then point the S22 at a dark scene and hope Adaptive Pixel kicks in. And I do mean hope, because there's no pop-up or notification that lets you know when the feature is activated. Even when you do get it to work, while the pictures are a bit sharper and feature a more neutral color profile (which is better for anyone who wants to edit their pics later), Adaptive Pixel doesn't really produce magically superior images like Samsung's marketing may have led you to believe.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

That's kind of a shame after all the attention Adaptive Pixel got during the S22's debut at Samsung's recent Unpacked event. Thankfully, other new camera features like Auto Framing work as advertised, allowing the phone to track up to 10 people's faces when capturing video, while Samsung's Advanced OIS ensures that your clips look smooth and shake-free. The company's AI Stereo Depth Map technique also makes the phone a bit better at differentiating between your subject's face and the background in portrait mode, though you may have to do some serious zooming in to really see the difference.

In short, I like a lot of the changes Samsung has made to the S22's camera setup, raising its general photo prowess, even if some of the phone's new software don't quite live up to expectations.

Software

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The Galaxy S22 line comes with Samsung's One UI 4.0, which is based on Android 12. That means because it has long supported features like scrolling screenshots, the main upgrades in Samsung's latest Android skin are the new Privacy Dashboard and customization options for your home screen, app icons and the phone's UI. Similar to what's available in Google's Pixel phones, the customizations allow you to set a consistent color palette across your phone's menu, while new mic and camera notifications make sure you know when apps are accessing critical hardware components.

Other software upgrades include Live Sharing in Google Duo, which is a Samsung-exclusive feature that lets you share your screen during video chats. It's simple and effective, even if it's not quite as full-featured as Apple's SharePlay in iOS 15. And for those looking to keep better track of digital documents like your ID, credit cards, and even digital car keys, Samsung also made a new Digital Wallet that can securely store all those things in one place.

Battery life

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Featuring 3,700 and 4,500 mAh batteries respectively, both the S22 and S22+ have respectable longevity. But if lasting a long time between charges is really important for you, the S22+ is definitely the better pick as it lasted 17 hours and 33 minutes on our local video rundown test, compared to just 14 hours and 47 minutes for the standard S22. And thanks to its 45W wired charging (up from 25W charging on the S22), the S22+ juices up way faster too. In both cases though, you'll need to make sure you have the proper power brick, as neither phone comes with a charging adapter in the box.

S22 vs S22+

Aside from the obvious differences in screen size (6.1 inches vs. 6.6 inches) and overall dimensions (5.8 x 2.8 x 0.3 inches and 5.9 ounces vs. 6.2 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches and 6.9 ounces), there are a few other features that separate the S22 and S22+. The S22 is limited to 25-watt wired charging while the S22+ gets 45-watt wired charging, with both phones also featuring 15W Qi wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging (aka wireless power share).

Other differences include slightly faster WiFi speeds on the S22+ thanks to support for WiFi 6E (compared to standard WiFi 6 for the S22). The S22+ also has built-in UWB connectivity, which isn't available on the S22. UWB is one of many protocols used to send files to other devices wirelessly via Nearby Share, though that's not really a big deal since Nearby Share still works, albeit less swiftly, over WiFi and Bluetooth. The other consideration is that for people looking to use digital car keys from automakers like BMW and others, those often work better and have longer ranges using UWB compared to NFC, which might make the S22+ a better choice for more tech-savvy new car buyers.

Wrap-up

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The Galaxy S22 isn't a huge improvement or departure from last year's phone, but just like an "S-year" iPhone, Samsung has tweaked and elevated all the phone's most critical components. You're getting a more refined design, improved performance, a sharper main cam with better low-light photography and an even brighter screen. And that's saying something from the king of mobile displays.

Sure, some features like Vision Booster and Adaptive Pixel are more subtle or harder to use than I'd like, but putting all this in a chassis sporting excellent build quality and other premium features like IP68 dust and water resistance, reverse wireless charging and more is a formula that's hard not to like. And with a starting price of $800 for the standard S22, you're getting more phone for the money than anything you can buy from Apple or Google.

Following its release back in 2020, the Moto G Stylus quickly became one of the company’s most popular phones. But now, Motorola is stepping up its ambitions with the new Edge+, which is essentially a more affordable take on a Galaxy Note.

With a starting price of $1,000 (or $900 at launch thanks to a limited-time discount), the Moto Edge+ combines strong performance from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip with native stylus support. That said, unlike a Galaxy Note or the new Galaxy S22 Ultra, Motorola’s Smart Stylus is an optional extra that will come bundled with a folio cover, the latter of which addresses the phone’s lack of built-in stylus storage. Meanwhile, recharging the stylus is taken care of using the phone’s 5-watt reverse wireless charging.

Elsewhere, the Edge+ comes with a number of premium features including a 6.7-inch 2400 x 1080 OLED with a 144Hz refresh rate, 15-watt Qi wireless charging and dual stereo speakers with support for Dolby Atmos. Base specs include 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and a 4,800 mAh battery, though you can bump that up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage if you like. And while Motorola’s software and security support still doesn’t match what you get from Google or Samsung, the company has committed to two years of Android OS upgrades and three years of bi-monthly security updates.

Motorola

The Moto Edge+ also sports a decent selection of cameras headlined by its 50MP main cam and 50MP ultra-wide cam which also pulls double duty for macro photography, with an even higher-res 60MP selfie camera in front. Unfortunately, because the phone’s third rear “camera” is merely a 2MP depth sensor, that means you don’t get a dedicated zoom lens like you do on Samsung’s latest Galaxy S handsets.

In addition to serving as your mobile drawing and notetaking device, Moto envisions the Edge+ as a part-time work device thanks to support for the company’s Ready For platform. When the phone is connected to a nearby TV or monitor (either over USB-C or wirelessly), Ready For provides a more desktop-like UI similar to Samsung’s Dex mode, while the company’s Thinkshield security platform helps protect any potentially sensitive data.

As an added bonus, the Edge+’s rear cameras can even be used as webcams during video calls when connected to a nearby PC, with Motorola also claiming the device is the first phone to support Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces VR platform when paired with Lenovo’s A3 Think Reality smart glasses.

All told, the Edge+ looks like an intriguing mix of specs and features for the price, especially when compared to the $1,200 S22 Ultra. The one thing I’m not quite sure about its is design, most notably that camera module and its surrounding pebble-like glass housing. But for anyone who’s fancied a Galaxy Note but couldn’t stomach Samsung’s super premium price tags, it’s definitely nice to see Motorola offer a more affordable alternative.

The new Moto Edge+ is available today as an unlocked device from Motorola and third-party retailers including Best Buy and Amazon, followed by wider availability from carriers such as Verizon, Boost Mobile and Republic Wireless sometime later this spring.

Reddit’s app now has another feed to endlessly scroll. The company introduced a new “Discover” section that will surface a personalized stream of photos, GIFs and videos.

The feed, the first time a new section has been added to the Reddit app in more than two years, is meant to help drive Redditors to corners of the site they might not encounter on the front page or in r/popular, according to Jason Costa, the director of product for content and communities a Reddit.

“Discover is more meant to solve the breadth problem and really help people traverse the wide corpus of Reddit,” Costa tells Engadget. He notes that early testing of the feature shows that one out of five users have joined “at least one subreddit as a result of Discover.”

Reddit

Discover also gives Reddit the chance to showcase the vast catalog of memes and GIFs and videos that are shared every day, but aren’t always front and center in the app. While much of Reddit remains a “text-based experience,” the new Discover feed could help draw in people who would rather aimlessly scroll rather than read.

The feed itself is meant to be personalized to each user much the way Instagram’s Explore section would be. New users or people who aren’t logged in will see popular content that may be trending on the service or getting a lot of engagement. While existing users will see recommendations based on subreddits they follow and the types of content they spend the most time viewing.

For now, the Discover fee is limited just to Instagram’s mobile apps, but Costa says that if Redditors like the feature it could influence more aspects of the service. “ I could absolutely see it impacting other surface areas and maybe impacting the design language of Reddit,” he said.

Oppo’s latest phone looks and sounds like an expensive, powerful flagship. With a 6.7-inch WQHD+ screen that can hit 1,300 nits of brightness, adaptive refresh rates, and a new AI chip, made in-house to amp up low light camera performance – even at 4K. There are also two 50-megapixel primary camera sensors, a new (but familiar-sounding) Hasselblad collaboration and, well, just look at this beautiful thing.

So far this year, Oppo already announced its MariSilicon X neural processing unit (NPU), its intriguing attempt at foldables, but not a new flagship phone. But that’s where MWC comes in, which so far is shaping up to be a relatively quiet mobile show. It’s good news for Oppo. Barring any leftfield surprises (Samsung and Huawei both have press events this week) it can take center stage. Fortunately, Oppo has provided a device ahead of the public reveal, so I’ve got some early impressions and thoughts to add to proceedings.

The Find X5 Pro borrows heavily from the Find X3 Pro’s shape and style from last year, but I think it looks even better. The camera unit now has a diagonal slope at the bottom, so it should fit in your hand better. There’s no space-age, hyper-reflective silver color option this time, just glossy black or ceramic white. It was a bit much.

Mat Smith/Engadget

This black one picks up fingerprints and smudges with a little too much ease, but I didn’t fear scratching it before I had to film this preview or grab photos for my story. Oppo says the ceramic body is actually nanometer microcrystalline ceramics. The material takes 168 hours to produce but Oppo says results in a phone that can resist scratches over 1200 HV – Vickers Pyramid number that registers hardness. For comparison, stainless steel scores 200 HV, while diamond reaches around 10,000 HV. In summary, you might not need the protective case that also comes in the box. There’s also Gorilla Glass Victus on the screen.

I think it looks great. And while it might not be quite as unique as the Pixel 6’s cyclops look, it at least looks different to the army of phones with their squarish camera arrays. There’s a little originality to the design here. There are also some (reliably?) familiar specs. It’s another phone arriving with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip – arguably the most powerful Android phone chip available in phones at this moment. There’s also a 5,000mAh battery – bigger than the one found in its predecessor. Bigger batteries are always better in my opinion.

Cameras seem to be Oppo’s focus with the Find X5 Pro. The company has made changes across camera hardware, processing, user interfaces and everything in between. Like its last Find X device, the X5 Pro has dual 50-megapixel primary sensors, but each has a few different specs, lens layouts and even materials.

The ultrawide camera, at the top of the Find 5X, includes a freeform lens. Oppo says this should reduce image distortion – that weird stretched effect at the edges of an image – when putting those wide angles to use. It has a f/2.2 aperture and can cover a 110-degree field of view. It’s a 50-megapixel sensor, which uses pixel binning techniques to offer what Oppo says is “2um binned pixel size”.

Just below it, the second 50MP camera taps into the same pixel binning techniques but has an f/1.7 aperture with a glass and resin combination lens. Using glass in just a part of the lens array should improve color accuracy up to 77 percent, according to Oppo. This camera also features five-axis optical image stabilization to boost your chances of a clear shot, and improve imaging performance across low-light settings. All of those axes of stabilization mean this sensor takes up a lot more space inside the Find X5 Pro, but there was still room for a 13-megapixel telephoto camera with f/2.4 aperture and a new 13-channel spectral sensor. Last year’s Oppo flagship had a mere 5-channel sensor, but this upgrade will improve color accuracy and the precision of white balance settings.

Mat Smith/Engadget

On the front, there’s a 32-megapixel selfie cam, with a new RGBW sensor that should offer, again, more accurate color capture and improved dynamic range. The selfie camera will also monitor whether you’re looking at your phone, keeping the screen lit if you’re still watching or reading.

That’s half the hardware story. Oppo is debuting its Marisilicon X NPU chip in its new phone. During my briefing, the company walked through how the chip enables a new “night-mode” video recording, even at 4K resolution with HDR enabled. There’s a barrage of specs and numbers to explain what Oppo’s homemade NPU is adding, but a lot of it distills down to better and faster signal processing and even improved power efficiency, which could be important if you’re capturing a lot of 4K content.

I briefly tested out 4K Ultra Night Video, Oppo’s take on low-light video recording. While it does certainly help to amplify detail in the dimmest situations, at least when I’ve used it so far, the NPU hasn’t translated to 4K video notably better than its competition.

I tried filming last night with the Find X5 Pro and Pixel 6 Pro, and Google’s footage seemed more natural and less harsh than what Oppo’s processing produced. Foliage detail was a little too excessively blown-out to the point of turning gray – it appeared to tune out the green.

There’s also the new collaboration with Hasselblad. Which isn’t quite so new. We’ve already written about it when OnePlus revealed its Hasselblad-infused camera software in the 10 Pro.

But for the sake of consistency, let’s go over what Hasselblad is adding, aside from cachet.

The phone’s Pro mode offers users some Hasselblad-seasoned fine-grain controls. That means a big orange shutter button and three Hasselblad approved filters for stills and videos. I can’t explain why, but I really liked what each of these ‘special’ filters did to my video and photos. You even get Xpan Mode, where you can shoot video in 65:24 ratio. If you don’t care to do the math, it’s just a very wide, cinematic aspect ratio. For reasons I can’t fully explain, I loved this too.

Mat Smith/Engadget

Now OnePlus and Oppo are more tightly aligned, it’s not surprising to see software overlap like this. Yes, you also get Hasselblad’s natural color solution, where the company has tried to replicate the color accuracy of its very expensive cameras into these smartphone camera sensors.

Oppo is saving a little bit of spectacle for its MWC show, and said spectacle, unfortunately, includes pricing and availability. I’ll update this story once Oppo spills those all-important details. However, you’re unlikely to see the Find X5 Pro in the US – something you may hear several times during Europe’s big mobile show.

Astell & Kern is still best known for keeping high-end MP3 players alive, but it's now branching out into Bluetooth speakers — and there might be reason to take notice. The Iriver (now Dreamus) brand's new Acro BE100 includes a 32-bit DAC to preserve the audio quality regardless of the source. Accordingly, it's also billed as the first Bluetooth speaker to support both the aptX HD and LDAC 24-bit codecs — you might not have to lose audio fidelity or limit your collection to one audio format.

The BE100 centers on a 55W class-D amp and boasts both a four-inch Kevlar woofer as well as two silk dome tweeters. A 3.5mm aux input jack provides wired audio if wireless just isn't pristine enough.

Not surprisingly, you can expect to pay for the extra quality. Astell & Kern will ship the Acro BE100 for $499 in black and white models when it ships on March 7th, with pre-orders starting February 25th. That's a huge outlay, but the BE100 also exists in a relatively niche space. Most wireless speakers approaching this price range are either party-oriented models like UE's Hyperboom or convenience-focused smart speakers like the Sonos Five. This might do the job if you're more interested in appreciating the subtle nuances of a classical piece than blasting audio around the house.

Sony is gradually rolling out an option to let PS5 players access captured screenshots and clips from the PS App on iOS and Android. The company started testing the feature in Canada and Japan in October.

At the outset, players in the Americas will be able to view and share their PS5 captures on the mobile app. Folks in the US, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay should gain access in the coming days.

Sony will expand the feature to more territories next month. Some people outside of Canada and Japan had access to the feature as of late January, according to reports, which hinted that a broader rollout was imminent.

To use the feature, you'll need to switch it on manually on PS5 by going to the Captures tab of the settings menu and enabling Auto-Upload. On the PS App, you'll need to enable the Captures option under Library. You'll then be able to download the clips and screenshots to your phone or tablet.

Your PS5 will upload all clips lasting under three minutes, as long as they're not in 4K. All screenshots taken with the Create button or Create Menu shortcuts will be uploaded too. Your screenshots and clips will only only stay on Sony's servers for 14 days after you capture them, though they'll remain on your console's storage.

While that's a bit of an odd limitation, this is a useful way to get your screenshots and clips on your phone. You'll be able to share them on social media and with your friends without using the PS5's limited sharing options or transferring captures to a computer using a USB drive.

Acer isn't wasting any time in making use of Intel's 12th-gen ultraportable processors. The PC maker has unveiled new versions of its Swift 5 and Swift 3 laptops that not only make use of new 12th-gen Core chips, but include a handful of upgrades of their own. Most notably, the new Swift 5 (pictured above) has switched to a 16:10 2,560 x 1,600 display whose taller ratio not only helps with vertical content like documents and websites, but helps eliminate the "chin" present on its 16:9 predecessor. The two-tone aluminum shell gives it a more premium look, too, for those moments when you want to impress executives.

The revamped Swift 5 includes up to a 12-core CPU, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 2TB of SSD storage. It also meets Intel's Evo specs for 10 hours of real battery life and fast charging that delivers four hours of use from a 30-minute top-up. Two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports and HDMI 2.1 offer solid connectivity, too. The system is heavier than its predecessor at 2.65lbs, but you might not mind given the upgraded cooling (improved twin fans and D6 heat pipes), a low-noise 1080p webcam and a trackpad made from ocean-bound plastic waste.

Acer

The Swift 3 (shown at middle) is a more modest upgrade. You'll have to make do with a 16:9 display (1080p or 1440p) in this 14-inch system, but you can have up to 2TB of SSD space, 30-minute fast charging and a mix of USB-C, USB-A and HDMI 2.1 ports. The 1080p low-noise webcam also makes the leap to this lower-priced model, and you'll have your choice of more colorful bodies.

Be ready to wait. Acer ships both systems in June, with the Swift 5 starting at $1,499 and the Swift 3 at $850. The Swift 5's price is a steep hike from the $1,000 you would have paid for the late 2020 model, but Acer also appears to be targeting a more upscale audience — there don't appear to be many compromises.

Mark Zuckerberg may still be explaining exactly what the metaverse is, but the Meta CEO just showed off another technology he says will be crucial to the company’s vision of creating immersive environments. Meta's AI researchers are working on a voice-powered bot that allows users to change their virtual surroundings with voice commands. 

Zuckerberg demoed an early version of the concept, called Builder Bot, at a virtual event detailing the company’s latest AI research.

“It enables you to describe a world and then it will generate aspects of that world for you,” Zuckerberg said. In his demo, he and another Meta employee used voice commands to create a very basic beach scene with a picnic table, clouds, and, yes, Zuckerberg’s signature hydrofoil. They also added some sound effects of seagulls and ocean waves.

Facebook

For now though, the technology seems to be in a relatively early stage. The environment Zuckerberg generated looked much flatter and lower-res than past metaverse demos, though his legless avatar was present much like other recent demos. “As we advance this technology further, you're going to be able to create nuanced worlds to explore and share experiences with others with just your voice,” he said.

The builder bot is part of a larger AI project called Project CAIRaoke that aims to create the kind of conversational AI necessary to create these virtual worlds. Facebook isn’t the first to experiment with this type of research. OpenAI showed off a neural network capable of generating images from text last year. But Zuckerberg said that project CAIRaoke would be central for the Meta’s future.

“In the metaverse, we're going to need AI that is built around helping people navigate virtual worlds as well as our physical world with augmented reality,” Zuckerberg said. “When we have glasses on our faces, that will be the first time that an AI system will be able to really see the world from our perspective: See what we see, hear what we hear and more.”

Zuckerberg’s comments come as he is trying to pivot the company from social networking to metaverse technology, a move that has so far proved to be incredibly expensive. But as the core Facebook service starts to lose users for the first time ever, Zuckerberg has said “metaverse” experiences like the company’s VR Horizon Worlds will drive future growth.

It took nearly three years, but Apex Legends Mobile is almost here — for some people, at least. Respawn has announced a "limited regional launch" next week for 10 countries that include Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Colombia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines and Singapore. You're likely out of luck if you're reading this, then, but these early adopters will get to play on both Android and iOS.

The small-scale release will last through the spring and help the team refine gameplay and features before a wider launch, Respawn said. The initial mobile character roster mostly sticks to those available when Apex Legends launched in 2019, although the fast-moving Octane will also be an option.

Respawn stressed that you won't see cross-play with non-mobile platforms. You'll need at least an iPhone 6s to play on iOS, while Android users will need 3GB of RAM and OpenGL 3.0 or higher graphics support. The developers have focused their Android optimizations on popular brands like Samsung, Oppo and Xiaomi.

The limited debut might be frustrating if you're eager to play a Fortnite or PUBG alternative. It's easy to understand the cautious approach, however. Apex Legends is one of the few battle royale games to enjoy lasting success, and the mobile debut represents a major opportunity to expand the title's reach. A careful premiere could be key to competing with other heavyweights and keeping Apex in the spotlight for years to come.

After unveiling its beefy H-series 12th-gen laptop chips during CES, Intel is finally ready to shed more light on its new U and P-series CPUs for ultraportables. And, much like AMD's upcoming Ryzen 6000 chips, it looks like Intel is aiming to deliver a huge performance boost, while consuming less power than last year's hardware. 

The big takeaway? It's going to be an interesting year for ultraportable PCs, which could offer enough power to play a few games and give Apple's custom processors some serious competition.

With the Core i7-1280P, Intel's fastest 28-watt P-series CPU, the company claims you'll see up to 70 percent faster multithreaded performance than last year's i7-1195G7. Notably, Intel says it also offers better multithreaded performance than the Core i9-11980HK, one of its fastest processors from 2021, while consuming around half as much power. And of course, that also means it beats out the Ryzen 7 5800U from last year (Intel didn't have access to AMD's new processors for benchmarking, naturally). 

Like the rest of its 12th-gen lineup, Intel's U and P-series chips are a new hybrid design that combines Performance cores (P-cores) and Efficient cores (E-cores) on a single die. The i7-1280P is a 14-core chip (6 P-cores along with 8 E-cores) that maxes out at 4.8GHz on its P-cores. Its 28-watt base power consumption puts it in thin and light territory, but it can scale up to 64-watts to reach Max Turbo speeds. (That's for when you're plugged in and not worrying about energy consumption as much.)

Intel's 12th-gen U-series processors, which are targeted at the slimmest ultraportables, are spearheaded by the Core i7-1265U. That's a 10-core chip (2P and 8E) that also maxes out at 4.8GHz. Its 15-watt base power consumption is on par with previous U-series chips, but it can go up to 55-watts to reach its Max Turbo speed. 

While Intel's hybrid design is clearly a leap forward for the P-series CPUs — the i7-1280P is around 20 percent faster than last year's chips in the Crossmark benchmark — we're still waiting to see how the U-series chips will compare. It's surprising that Intel still isn't saying much about U-series performance, but we'd wager there would be a significant speed bump from the architecture changes alone.

The 12th-gen laptop CPUs will also feature Intel's Xe graphics, though it doesn't seem like much has changed since last year. The P and U-series chips will still offer up to 96EUs (execution units). According to Intel's benchmarks, the i7-1280P hits 82fps in Grand Theft Auto V and 53fps in Chorus while playing with medium graphics settings in 1080p. With high quality settings, it sees up to 115fps in League of Legends and 81 fps in Rocket League—but that's not a huge surprise for less demanding titles.

While we're still waiting to get our hands on new systems with Intel and AMD's latest ultraportable hardware, the landscape feels far more exciting than last year, when Intel's 11th-gen CPUs were a pretty ho-hum upgrade. Perhaps 2022 will finally be the year ultraportables can finally solve most of our gaming needs.