The Galaxy S22 Ultra is Samsung’s new Note. That’s the simplest way to put it. With a different design to the rest of the S22 family — which admittedly looks a little dated in comparison — and the return of the S Pen, this is the power-user flagship many Samsung fans have been waiting for.
Reviews Editor Cherlynn Low spent a week testing the S22 Ultra, and its familiarity means many users will feel totally at home with Samsung’s biggest new phone. The S22 Ultra is the best premium Android flagship around, with an excellent display, solid cameras and useful software. Nothing here is revolutionary, but with the onboard S Pen, the spirit of the Galaxy Note lives on. We scored it 89 — read on for why.
Apple commissioned famous Korean director Park Chan-wook to create a short film as part of its Shot on iPhone campaign. Park, perhaps best known for the action thriller flick Oldboy, used an iPhone 13 Pro to shoot a 20-minute fantasy martial arts movie entitled Life is But a Dream, which the tech giant has released on YouTube. Take a look for yourself.
The company’s cloud GPUs will come later this year.
As previously announced, Intel’s Arc gaming GPUs will debut in laptops from partner companies this quarter, presumably alongside 12th-gen Alder Lake CPUs. However, desktop gamers will need to wait a little longer before they can plug Arc GPUs into their rigs. Intel says those graphics cards will ship in Q2. At an investor meeting, Intel also revealed plans for a service that will enable access to Arc GPUs via the cloud. It says Project Endgame, which will be available later this year, is "an always-accessible, low-latency computing experience."
Horizon Forbidden West developer Guerrilla was well aware of the PS5 and much of its capabilities when it started working on Forbidden West in 2018. But, the company also planned to make the game work on the PS4, a console that turns nine this fall. In an interview with the creators, we learn exactly how they were able to make a game that works well on both platforms. Two factors that helped? COVID-19 and game streaming.
Reliability and ease of use gave Ford's EV the edge.
Tesla's Model 3 has been Consumer Reports' top EV choice for the past two years, but the publication is ready to declare a new champion. CR has revealed that Ford's Mustang Mach-E has ousted the Model 3 as its EV Top Pick.
The Mustang crossover is not only "more practical," according to editors, but has better first-year reliability and a "far easier" infotainment system, which doesn't require multiple steps for basic tasks.
You might be used to pinning text conversations on your phone, and now you can pin your Twitter chats in much the same way. Twitter's DM conversation pinning is now available to everyone on Android, iOS and the web without requiring a Blue subscription. The functionality is familiar — on mobile, you just have to slide a favorite conversation to the right and tap button to float it to the top of your inbox. You can pin up to six threads this way.
The expansion comes just a few months after DM conversation pins came to Blue users in November 2021. Not that it's a shock, however. Twitter said it would use Blue to offer early access to features, and DM pinning was one of the first.
This broader release mainly gives a rough sense of how long it might take for Blue-first features to reach a general audience. While the timing is likely to vary based on the feature, the wait for this DM upgrade might just line up with what you'd expect. The months-long interval may have helped Blue members justify their $3 monthly outlay, but it wasn't extreme.
Keep your fave DM convos easily accessible by pinning them! You can now pin up to six conversations that will stay at the top of your DM inbox.
Intel has shed more light on the roadmap for its Arc gaming GPUs, including more clarity about when consumers can expect to get their hands on them. As previously announced, the GPUs will debut in laptops from Intel's OEM partners this quarter, presumably alongside 12th-gen Alder Lake CPUs.
However, desktop gamers will need to wait a little longer before they can plug Arc GPUs into their rigs. Intel says those graphics cards will ship in Q2. It previously said those would arrive in Q1 as well. As for add-in GPUs for workstations, those will be available in Q3.
The first-gen Alchemist GPUs will have support for hardware-based ray-tracing, mesh shading, variable rate shading and DirectX 12 Ultimate. Gamers can expect to harness Intel's AI-driven super sampling tech too.
Intel says its Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group (AXG) expects to ship more than 4 million discrete GPUs this year. Elsewhere, the company has started architecture work on the third generation of Arc GPUs, which are codenamed Celestial. Those will be geared toward the "ultra-enthusiast segment." The second-gen GPUs, codenamed Battlemage, are also in development.
Meanwhile, at an investor meeting, Intel revealed plans for a service that will enable access to Arc GPUs via the cloud. It says Project Endgame, which will be available later this year, is "an always-accessible, low-latency computing experience," but it hasn't shared additional details as yet.
Tandem Diabetes Care says the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its smartphone app to program and cancel insulin doses from the t:slim X2 insulin pump. The company claims it's the first time the FDA has cleared a phone app for such a purpose.
The t:connect mobile app on iOS and Android will enable users to program and cancel bolus insulin doses from the pump, according to Tandem Diabetes Care. When connected to the pump, the app can display information about the last 24 hours of a user's glucose trends, changes in status (including alerts and alarms) and insulin therapy data.
Pumps typically require users to dial in insulin doses manually. Given that they are often able to view glucose readings on their handset, patients will be able to use their phone to determine how much insulin they need and then program their dose.
The FDA clearance could be a step toward a more convenient way for diabetes patients to administer insulin doses. Tandem Diabetes Care plans to offer the feature at no extra cost to new and in-warranty t:slim X2 insulin pump customers via a software update. The plan is to grant access to a limited number of users in the spring ahead of a broader rollout this summer.
The S22 Ultra is, for all intents and purposes, a new Galaxy Note. It has the same rectangular silhouette, the same onboard S Pen and the same list of top-tier specs. With the S22 Ultra, Samsung is introducing a more mainstream audience to the S Pen that’s long been the hallmark of the Note series. By merging the two lines, Samsung is consolidating its top-tier products, bringing together the most popular features across its portfolio. That’s not to say there’s nothing new about the S22 Ultra — Samsung brought updated camera, display and software features this year as well.
It’s strange to review a phone that’s supposed to be new, but feels so familiar. If you’ve been missing the Note series, that familiarity will be welcome. But for those simply considering a new Galaxy S flagship, the S Pen alone won’t be enough of an upgrade. Thankfully, though, Samsung promises display and camera improvements that might make the S22 Ultra even better than its predecessor.
Design
The difference between the S22 Ultra and last year’s model starts with their design. The S22 Ultra is pretty much a Note 20 Ultra clone, which makes it a departure from the S21 Ultra’s rounder silhouette. With the same rectangular shape, curved edges and matte brushed metal finish, the two handsets look and feel almost identical. The S Pen slot is even in the same location at the left side of the bottom edge. If I didn’t give you the exact dimensions, you probably wouldn’t even be able to tell that the S22 Ultra is slightly wider, shorter and thicker than the Note. You might notice, though, that the S22 Ultra is about 21 grams (or 0.74 ounces) heavier.
The phone weighs more than the Pixel 6 Pro, too, though the iPhone 13 Pro Max still beats it at 240 grams. Google’s premium flagship already reminded me of the Note 20 Ultra, aside from its colorful two-tone design and camera bar. Instead of a rectangular module at the top left corner housing the array of sensors, the S22 Ultra’s cameras are neatly laid out in two columns on the back with no boundaries containing them. I prefer this streamlined, less cluttered look to the Note 20 and S21 Ultra’s versions.
I also appreciated the S22 Ultra’s Gorilla Glass Victus+ covering, especially after it fell from the top of a cabinet and survived without a scratch. I was somewhat disappointed that the review unit I received was the boring black version, not one of the other three color options. If I were shopping for myself, I’d choose either the green or burgundy, which I got to see in person at a recent Samsung hands-on event.
Display and audio
As is usually the case with Samsung's devices, the S22 Ultra's screen is sumptuous. Its 6.8-inch Super AMOLED panel is colorful, bright and easy to read in the sun, thanks to its peak brightness of 1,750 nits. Like previous Galaxy flagships, the S22 Ultra also refreshes at 120Hz, making for a smooth scrolling experience.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
To ensure users can see what's on their phones regardless of the lighting conditions, Samsung this year introduced what it's calling "Vision Booster." The feature is meant to kick in when it detects you're in direct sunlight or in super dim environments, adjusting not only the display brightness but also its color and contrast. You'll need to have adaptive brightness on for it to work.
I didn't notice much of a difference when I was playing Two Dots in bed one night, even when I pulled up the same scene on my Pixel 6 Pro to compare. Samsung says the effect is more noticeable in sunlight, but I still didn’t observe a significant difference as the sun shone on the S22 Ultra’s screen when I made my way to the office. Perhaps this is something where the effect is so subtle that it’s hard to notice, but I never had trouble reading things on the S22 Ultra, regardless of the lighting around me.
I don’t generally play music through my phone, but one night when my WiFi went out and I couldn’t use my speakers, I had to resort to streaming Spotify on the S22 Ultra and it provided decent audio quality. It was loud enough to deliver the background noise I was looking for, though songs like Heartbreaker by Wabisabi sounded hollow and were lacking in bass. It was, however, better at handling mid-heavy sounds like the audio cues for games like Two Dots.
S Pen
Another aspect of the S22 Ultra that’s more than a little reminiscent of the Note is the onboard S Pen. The main difference between the S Pens on the S22 Ultra and the Note 20 Ultra is the improved latency of 2.8 milliseconds this year (down from 9ms). This means you'll be getting a slightly better version of an already responsive writing experience, along with Samsung's nifty handwriting recognition software in its Notes app. If you use Samsung's keyboard instead of switching to Gboard, you'll also be able to use the S Pen to scrawl text into search fields and URL boxes throughout the system.
Samsung also provides a list of suggested functions when you pop the S Pen out of its slot, so you can quickly do things like create a note or select a portion of your screen to take a screenshot of and immediately draw on it.
Engadget (Screenshot)
There's not much I can say about the S Pen now that we haven't already covered in previous reviews. Samsung's stylus is competent, if a bit of a blunt object for those looking to create finer works of art. But as a pencil for jotting down a quick list, or signing documents on the fly or as a cursor for the big screen, the S Pen is more than adequate. In fact, in more mainstream functions like acting as a remote control for your camera or music playback, it's perfectly capable. The only issue is whether you're the sort of person who would pull out a stylus to interact with your phone, as opposed to simply using your hands. Either way, the S Pen is a nice accessory to have when you need it, and it stays out of your way when you don’t.
Cameras
The S22 Ultra shares the same camera setup as the S21 Ultra, with a 108-megapixel main sensor, a 12-MP ultrawide option and a pair of 10-MP telephoto lenses. What's new this year are features like auto-framing and improved video stabilization in videos, better stereo depth mapping for more accurate portrait blur and something Samsung is calling Adaptive Pixel. This stitches together high-res images from the 108-MP sensor and a photo taken with nona-binning for bigger pixels to capture more light, supposedly resulting in brighter pictures that retain crisp detail.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
In reality, Adaptive Pixel is tricky to figure out, and its results might not be worth the effort. First, you have to set the S22 Ultra to shoot at the highest resolution and then, when the system detects you're shooting in low light, it performs the stitching in the background. There's no way you can be certain Adaptive Pixel is at work; there are no user-facing indicators. I shot a few photos of the New York City nightscape with the S22 Ultra both at the default 12-MP and at 108-MP, and they were mostly indistinguishable from each other. When I zoomed in to see more detail, buildings looked equally muddy, mostly due to flares from the various lights in the image.
I took more pictures in low light with the camera set to default resolution and 108-MP, and honestly the effects were incredibly subtle. The high-res shots were sometimes better exposed, but not always. And any improvement in clarity was so subtle that you wouldn’t notice unless you were extremely zoomed in.
Either way, though, Samsung's photos held their own against those from the iPhone 13 Pro and Pixel 6 Pro. Google continues to deliver superior pictures in low light thanks to its Night Sight mode, but Apple and Samsung's offerings are closing the gap. In daylight, the S22 Ultra produced slightly more saturated pictures than the Pixel 6 Pro, which generally renders a more neutral tone. Which camera suits you better ultimately boils down to your preference: Do you like richer-looking pictures, even if they're not the most realistic? Meanwhile, the iPhone 13 series offers Photographic Styles that let you select a default color temperature and contrast setting so all your shots come out tuned to your tastes.
Up front, the S22 Ultra's 40-MP camera is also similar to the S21 Ultra's. Samsung says it improved its stereo depth mapping system for more accurate bokeh effects in portraits, though, and from my experience it seems effective. Compared to selfies I took with the iPhone 13 Pro and Pixel 6 Pro, Samsung's flagship was just as accurate at differentiating my hair from my background, blurring out exactly the same areas as the other two did. Previous Samsung cameras delivered somewhat artificial and awkward-looking portraits, but this time around the S22 Ultra produces more natural-looking bokeh.
The S22 Ultra’s other updates are around video recording. Specifically, Samsung added an auto-framing feature that will detect faces in view and keep up to 10 subjects centered in the scene. You can also select the people you want to prioritize, and the system will follow them around. This was generally effective in my testing, and though I held the S22 Ultra still from a fixed point, the camera followed our video producer Brian around as he strolled around our office. But as he got to the extreme sides of its field of view, the scene started to show noticeable fisheye distortion, warping Brian’s face.
There are plenty of other features Samsung carried over from its previous flagships, but breaking them down here would take forever. Suffice to say that most features you’ve enjoyed on the S21 Ultra or older, like capable image stabilization and Director’s View for recording with both the front and rear cameras, are there. And if you’re one of the people who enjoyed the 100x Space Zoom feature from before, you can still use the S22 Ultra to get super up close to faraway objects. Though I generally found this feature slightly creepy, in some cases the results were actually clear enough to read. For the most part, though, I found Space Zoom most useful at up to 30x zoom. Anything beyond that was usually muddy and unusable.
Samsung software exclusives
Thanks to a collaboration with Google, the S22 series gets a custom version of the Duo video calling app that exclusively enables new screen sharing and auto framing features.
When my colleague Sam and I called each other on our review units, I was able to show him a game I was playing by selecting the new screen share button in Duo. As I launched other apps while on the call, a small icon appeared on the left side of the screen to remind me I was still sharing my screen.
Engadget (Screenshot)
This integration isn’t as sophisticated as Apple’s SharePlay, which has thoughtful limitations on what notifications can be seen while you’re sharing your screen. Meanwhile, another S22 Ultra reviewer I called could see the message alerts that popped up during our chat. Samsung and Google’s Live Sharing feature also doesn’t natively support streaming apps like Netflix or Hulu, meaning you won’t be able to watch shows together with your friends (unless it’s on YouTube).
Samsung also added the auto-framing feature it introduced in its camera app to Duo, so you can make sure your face is centered while you’re on your call. When I enabled this feature, the app automatically switched to a wider angle shot via the front camera, zooming in to keep me in view as I moved around my living room. It’s helpful if you want to leave your phone propped up somewhere while you’re talking, but it does nothing if you’re just going to hold your phone up or remain stationary, which is how I take most of my video calls. This feature is more useful on smart displays, since you can’t move them around as easily as phones.
Samsung also offers a “collaboration view” feature that allows you to use your S22 handset as a second screen for a Tab S8. For example, if you open Samsung Notes on the tablet and click the phone icon on the top right (after both devices are connected to the same WiFi), you can use your S22 as a secondary menu or control panel for paintbrush options. We don’t have a Tab S8 in for review yet, so I unfortunately couldn’t test this feature.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
As with older Samsung flagships, you can also quickly share content to other nearby Galaxy devices and use Link To Windows to connect to your laptop. One UI 4.0 also offers new color palettes and themes that permeate the entire system, a la Material You on Android 12, which lets you refresh your interface any time you get bored.
Performance and battery life
The S22 series are among the first flagships to use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processors, and in general you’ll get the expected speedy performance from the premium processors. My S22 Ultra didn’t break a sweat when I was jumping between reading Reddit and playing a spot-the-difference game while using it as a hotspot for my other devices while my internet was out. I’m actually surprised I never noticed the handset running warm during my time with it, and I have to give credit to Samsung for its improved thermal system here.
I was also slightly taken aback to see the S22 Ultra’s battery life drop from 75 percent when I took it out of its box at noon to just 20 percent by the evening. I initially chalked that up to power used during setup, but in general the S22 Ultra never made it through a full 24 hours. On our video rundown battery test, the S22 Ultra’s result of 17 hours and 16 minutes beat the Pixel 6 Pro by just three minutes, but was hours behind the S21 Ultra, which lasted 21 hours and 42 minutes. It’s possible that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is not as power efficient as its predecessor, and Samsung also confirmed to Engadget that the S Pen draws power from the S22 Ultra while inside its slot, which might be why the S21 Ultra has a longer runtime.
Wrap-up
I have to confess: While writing this review, I kept typing “the Note 22 Ultra” and had to correct my mistake at least a dozen times. Those of you who are Note fans will find this a pleasant reunion. The main upgrades for those coming from a Note 20 Ultra will be in the cameras and software, and considering that phone is about two years old by now, you’ll probably be thankful for the updated specs.
But if you’ve never held a Galaxy Note before, the change could be a welcome refresh. With the addition of the S Pen, too, the S22 Ultra is, more than ever, the phone for the most demanding of power users.
If you want a premium Android flagship but don't need extras like the S Pen or a second telephoto lens, you'll probably find the S22+ good enough. The only real complaints I have with the S22 Ultra are that the display and camera updates Samsung added this year are a little underwhelming. Minor gripes aside, the S22 Ultra is still an excellent phone and the best premium Android flagship you can buy.
Key specs
Spec
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Display
6.8-inch 3,088 x 1,440 (19.3:9) curved AMOLED, up to 120Hz, with Vision Booster and 240Hz touch sampling in Game Mode
Dimensions
6.43 x 3.06 x 0.4 inches / 163.3 x 77.9 x 8.9 mm; 8.07 oz / 229 grams
It's no secret that the built-in speakers in most TVs are trash. They don't project enough sound out to the front so you can hear well — especially subtle details. Thankfully, you don't have to splurge for a five-speaker (or more) surround-sound setup to fix the problem. In most living rooms, a single soundbar and maybe a subwoofer will suffice. To help guide your shopping spree, we've compiled a list of everything you need to look for when searching for the best soundbar for you, along with a list of the top picks for a range of budgets.
What to look for in a soundbar
Features
When it comes to features, the more you pay the more you're going to get. Most affordable options ($150 or less) will improve your television's audio, but that's about it. Step into the $300 to $400 range and you'll find things like built-in voice control, wireless connectivity, Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and even options like Android TV. They're all helpful when you want to avoid looking for the remote, but the best audio quality is usually only in the top tier and the formats those premium devices support. I’m talking about things like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and other audio standards. These are what you'll want to look for if truly immersive sound is what you crave for your living room setup. And not all Atmos soundbars are equal, so you'll need to look at the finer details carefully before you break into the savings account.
Ports
Sony
This is a big one. A lot of the more affordable soundbars have limited options when it comes to connectivity. They either offer an optical port or one HDMI jack and, if you're lucky, both. Things get slightly better in the mid-range section, but that's not always the case. The Sonos Beam, for example, is $449, but only has a single HDMI port. If you want to connect your set-top box, gaming console and more directly to your soundbar for the best possible audio, you'll likely want to look for an option with at least two HDMI (eARC) inputs. HDMI connections are essential for things like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and other high-res and immersive audio formats. And with the new HDMI 2.1 spec, soundbars can support HDR, 8K and 4K/120 passthrough to make these speakers an even better companion for a game console.
Channels
Another big thing you’ll want to pay attention to is channels. That’s the 2.1, 7.1.2 or other decimal number that companies include in product descriptions. The first figure corresponds to the number of channels. A 2 would just be left and right while a more robust Atmos system, especially one with rear satellite speakers, could be 5 or 7 (left, right, center and upward). The second number refers to the subwoofer, so if your soundbar comes with one or has them built in, you’ll see a 1 here. The third numeral is upfiring speakers, important for the immersive effect of Dolby Atmos. Not all Atmos-enabled units have them, but if they do, the third number will tell you how many are in play.
Wireless
Sony
Most soundbars these days offer either Bluetooth, WiFi or both. When it comes to WiFi, that connectivity affords you luxuries like voice control (either built-in or with a separate device), Chromecast, Spotify Connect and AirPlay 2. Depending on your preferences, you might be able to live without some of these. For me, AirPlay 2 and Chromecast are essentials, but the rest I can live without. Those two give me the ability to beam music and podcasts from my go-to apps without having to settle for — or struggle to pair — a Bluetooth connection.
Size
This one might seem obvious but humor me for a minute. Nothing is more soul-crushing than getting a pricey soundbar in your living room only to discover you have to rearrange everything to find a spot for it. This was my plight when the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar review unit arrived at my door. Yes, that speaker is absurdly large (and heavy), and most soundbars aren't nearly as big. Indeed, I learned a valuable lesson: Make sure the space where you want to put a soundbar will accommodate the thing you're about to spend hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on.
Basically, it all comes down to the TV you have (or are planning to get) and what the primary goal is for your living-room audio. Is it ease of use? Do you want the best possible sound from a single speaker or speaker/sub combo? Do you just want to be able to actually hear your TV better?
Engadget picks
By paying attention to each of those areas, you should have a good idea of what to look for in a soundbar or soundbar/sub combo. With that said, we've put numerous products through their paces at Engadget over the years, and have a few favorites at various price points to get you started.
Best premium soundbar: Sony HT-A7000
The HT-A7000 and optional SA-SW5 subwoofer.
Sony
Sony has a long track record for high-end soundbars and its latest is another great-sounding product. The A7000 is a robust Dolby Atmos device, capable of immersive 7.1.2 audio thanks to Sony’s 360 Sound Mapping, Sound Field Optimization, vertical surround technology and S-Force Pro front surround. There’s a lot of tech at work here, and I haven’t even mentioned 360 Reality Audio or DSEE Extreme upscaling for compression, both handy when it comes to listening to music. Speaking of audio, you’ll have the option of using Chromecast, Spotify Connect or AirPlay 2 to send your tunes to the A7000.
Two HDMI eARC inputs means you can hook up multiple streaming boxes or gaming consoles to this soundbar. Thanks to HDMI 2.1 support, you can expect 8K and 4K/120 passthrough to your television, so the A7000 is a great option for gamers who crave a robust home theater setup. This soundbar is expensive at $1,400 and it doesn’t come with a subwoofer. However, Sony does give you multiple options for both a sub and rear satellite speakers. The SA-SW3 sub is $400 while the SA-SW5 is $700. For rear speakers, the SA-RS3S is $350 while the truly wireless (and much better looking) SA-RS5 set is $600.
The top end of Sonos’ home theater lineup was well overdue for a refresh by the time the company introduced the Arc in 2020. This unit replaced the Playbar that debuted in 2013, offering directional sound via Dolby Atmos as the main upgrade. The Arc sports a more modern design, stellar sound and all of Sonos’ smarts – including the ability to automatically calibrate to your living room and when you add additional speakers.
The $899 price doesn’t include a sub, but the Playbar didn’t come with one either. And sadly, Sonos doesn’t include a second HDMI jack here for directly connecting devices besides your TV. As is typically the case with the company’s wares, expansion gets expensive quickly as the wireless sub is $749 and satellite One speakers are $219 each. However, the combination of the Arc and a sub will get you pretty far sound-wise, even if they are separate purchases.
Solid sound quality? Check. Dolby Atmos? Yep. Compact and easy to set up? Uh huh. Compatible with other Sonos products for a more robust system? You betcha. The first-gen Sonos Beam has been one of our favorites since it arrived in 2018, but there was one thing it didn’t have: Dolby Atmos. With the 2021 model, the company’s big addition was that immersive sound, though it’s a bit limited since the Beam doesn’t have any upward-firing speakers. Sonos manages to make things seem more directional by tweaking audio timing and frequency instead of adding more drivers. The new Beam still only has the one HDMI port which means you won’t be connecting a gaming console or set-top box directly to this. It also means that if you have an older TV with an optical jack, you’ll need an adapter here.
If you’re looking for a way to improve your TV sound on a budget, Vizio has some solid options. With the V21t-J8, you get a 2.1-channel setup in a compact soundbar and 4.5-inch wireless sub combo. This would be a great choice if you don’t want your add-on TV speaker to take up a lot of space. There’s no WiFi connectivity, but that’s really the only sacrifice when it comes to the basics. HDMI ARC/eARC and optical connections link to your television while a 3.5mm aux jack and Bluetooth allow you to play music from your phone or another device. DTS Virtual:X compatibility offers some of the effect of surround sound without a bigger unit or additional speakers.
Roku has a line of products that not only allow you to improve your television’s sound quality, but they also have a streaming player built right in. For $130, the Streambar gives you all the benefits of a Roku player, including 4K HDR, inside of a soundbar with four 1.9-inch drivers. There are a lot of handy features here too, like the ability to dull the roar of commercials, enhanced speech clarity and compatibility with most voice assistants. Plus, the Streambar supports AirPlay for beaming both video and audio to the device. Roku doesn’t pair a subwoofer with this soundbar, but it does offer one separately for $180.
You have about one more week to pre-order Samsung's latest smartphones before they come out on February 25th. Samsung has a number of offers available to those who pre-order, but now Amazon is matching one of the discounts. The online retailer has knocked up to $100 off the higher-storage variants, so you can essentially get extra onboard space at no additional cost. The 256GB Galaxy S22 Ultra is $1,200 and $100 off, while the 512GB version is also $100 off and down to $1,300. As for the Galaxy S22+ and S22, the 256GB models of those handsets are $50 off and on sale for $1,000 and $800, respectively.
Samsung unveiled the three smartphones last week and the Galaxy S22 Ultra is the most premium of the bunch. It has a mesmerizing 6.8-inch QHD+ OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, an impressive rear camera array, and is outfitted with the highest specs you can get in a Samsung phone — a Qualcomm's 4nm Snapdragon Gen 1 chip, up to 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of onboard storage. Samsung married the designs of its S- and Note-series phones in this new model, and fans of the Note family will be happy to see that the S22 Ultra comes with a built-in S Pen. While we had a bit of time to test out the Galaxy S22 Ultra before Samsung's announcement, stay tuned for a full review coming soon.
The Galaxy S22+ and S22 may not have all the bells and whistles found on the Ultra, but Samsung made important updates to the insides of both smartphones. They share a design that looks similar to last year's flagships, but they're now made partially of post-consumer recycled material and come in new colors. The 6.6-inch S22+ and the 6.1-inch S22 both have FHD+ displays with 120Hz refresh rates, a triple rear camera array, a 40-megapixel selfie camera and a new Vision Booster feature, which adjusts screen settings automatically throughout the day to make it easier to view in different environments. As far as performance goes, both handsets run on Qualcomm’s 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. Keep an eye out on Engadget for our full review in the coming weeks.
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According to Deadline, Forbes Entertainment and EOne are teaming up to produce two projects — a scripted series and a documentary — around bitcoin money launderers Heather "Razzlekhan" Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein. Both projects will lean on Forbes' reporting, but the twist is that Morgan was also a Forbes contributor for several years. It won’t be the only studio working on the story, either. Netflix is already making its documentary on the billion-dollar bitcoin launderers. I look forward to the rap segments.
Sony has launched a contest for the chance to finally get your hands on a PS5. Over the next few weeks, Sony will release 14 unique codes resembling the PlayStation controller across its sites, social media channels and even at high-profile events in sports, gaming, film and music. Finding them doesn't automatically mean you win a console: Each code will only give you the opportunity to enter a draw to win a PS5, but if you’ve been unable to get the new console, perhaps you're willing to jump through all these hoops.
While Alienware’s newest x14 isn’t quite as powerful or configurable as its larger siblings, it offers strong performance and a vibrant 144Hz screen in a deliciously sleek chassis. And if you really like traveling light, the x14 even supports charging over USB-C by default. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, expect short battery life during gameplay. However, the smart move would be to wait a month or two for competitors to release their latest 14-inch laptops. Both Razer and ASUS are coming out with refreshed versions later this spring. We gave it an 85.
It’s admitted to finding purchases for transport routes in Iraq controlled by the terrorist group.
Ericsson's CEO told Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri the company may have made payments to the Islamic State (ISIL/ISIS/Daesh) terrorist group for its operations in Iraq. According to Bloomberg, CEO Boörje Ekholm said the telecoms giant has identified "unusual expenses dating back to 2018."
The first major No Man's Sky patch of the year has arrived. Among other things, Hello Games says the Sentinel update improves the space exploration sim's AI and introduces a buildable AI mech. You can put an AI pilot in your Exomech and have it follow you and help out in battles. Players can build a drone companion, too.
New York City has the lowest average rider rating.
Uber riders can now see how many one-star and five-star ratings they're getting. The platform's Privacy Center, which debuted last month, shows riders and drivers a breakdown of their ratings. The company also revealed which major US cities have the highest and lowest average rider ratings. Drivers typically dish out higher ratings in San Antonio, St Louis and Nashville. Riders tend to get the lowest ratings in New York City, followed by Seattle and Washington, DC. If you’ve got a dire rating, Uber offers up a handful of tips, encompassing safety and common decency, to help you bump up your average.
As Apple pushes on with its anti-tracking features on iOS, and Google continues to refine its Privacy Sandbox for serving targeted web ads without third-party cookies, it's time for Android. Google announced today it's starting a "multi-year initiative to build the Privacy Sandbox on Android.” It’s early days, and the company is in the design and testing stage, but it said developers can "review our initial design proposals and share feedback on the Android developer site."
As both the Chrome and Firefox browsers approach their 100th versions, what should be a reason for the developers to celebrate could turn into a bit of a mess. It turns out that much like the Y2K bug, the triple-digit release numbers coded in the browsers' User-Agents (UAs) could cause issues with a small number of sites, Bleeping Computer reported.
Major milestone: Chrome and Firefox will soon reach version 100! 💯
The version number is going up to three digits and both browsers are working on mitigating the potential impact of this change. Learn more about it and pitch in to help with testing ➡️https://t.co/FtPl4CRjfk
Mozilla launched an experiment last year to see if version number 100 would affect sites, and it just released a blog with the results. It did affect a small number of sites (some very big ones, though) that couldn't parse a user-agent string containing a three-digit number. Notable ones still affected included HBO Go, Bethesda and Yahoo, according to a tracking site. The bugs include "browser not supported" messages, site rendering issues, parsing failures, 403 errors and so on.
How could such a silly thing be happening? "Without a single specification to follow, different browsers have different formats for the User-Agent string, and site-specific User-Agent parsing," Mozilla explained in the blog. "It’s possible that some parsing libraries may have hard-coded assumptions or bugs that don’t take into account three-digit major version numbers."
Luckily, developers for both browsers have a plan. If there are issues with sites that can't be resolved before the versions are released, both browsers will freeze the version numbers at 99 in the UA strings or inject code overrides to fix the problems. Both have also asked developers to test their sites with Firefox/Chrome 100 user agents. The browsers are set to arrive on March 29th and May 3rd for Chrome and Firefox respectively — hopefully like Y2K, it'll be much ado about nothing..
Samsung's next hardware event will coincide with Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The company announced today it will host a fully virtual keynote on Sunday, February 27th at 1PM ET. You'll be able to watch the event on Samsung's website and the company's YouTube channel. You'll also find full coverage here at Engadget.
In years past, Mobile World Congress was one of the most important events in Samsung's release calendar. Between 2014 and 2018, the company frequently took to Barcelona to announce its latest Galaxy S phones. However, after it came out with the Galaxy S9 in 2018, the company began instead to unveil those devices at its own Unpacked events. It's easy to see why: while Samsung always dominated the MWC news cycle, it still shared the limelight with other phone makers, including Sony and LG.
As for what we can expect from Samsung, it's hard to say. At its first Unpacked of 2022, the company announced the Galaxy S22 and Tab S8. Judging from the invite Samsung shared, the company could focus on devices like the Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold. The next version of the latter will reportedly take inspiration from the new Galaxy S22 Ultra and add a built-in slot for the company's S Pen Stylus. We won't know the full details until Samsung confirms them come February 27th. Either way, you'll want to visit Engadget that day to see what the company has been working on behind the scenes.
