Headphones brand Soundpeats has announced its latest flagship true wireless earbuds, the H3, featuring a triple-driver configuration designed to deliver what the company describes as "hi-fi performance that rivals wired alternatives".

That’s a fairly bold claim which we’ve yet to verify with our own ears, but according to the company, it’s got plenty under the hood to make good on its promise.

The Soundpeats H3 earbuds contain two balanced armature drivers alongside a 12mm composite dynamic driver, aiming to provide full-range audio balance and detail.

This driver arrangement is supported by Qualcomm's QCC3091 chipset with Snapdragon Sound technology, offering compatibility with high-quality Bluetooth codecs including LDAC and aptX Lossless for enhanced wireless audio transmission.

Building on the foundation established by SoundPeats' previous H1 model and Opera series, the H3 also incorporates a hybrid active noise cancellation system, powered by six microphones.

The setup combines feedforward and feedback designs to achieve up to 55dB of ambient noise reduction, which SoundPeats claims represents some of the strongest ANC performance among its earbud range.

Users can select from four different ANC modes through the accompanying PeatsAudio app.

Adaptive Mode uses AI to automatically adjust noise cancellation based on environmental conditions, while dedicated Indoor, Outdoor, and Traffic modes provide tailored noise control for specific scenarios.

A Transparency Mode maintains awareness of surroundings without requiring earbud removal, and the six-microphone array also supports clear call quality through AI noise reduction and Qualcomm’s cVc (clear voice capture) 8.0 tech.

Five different ear tip sizes are included to get the best fit, while notable design elements include an anodised aluminium nozzle intended to enhance treble clarity The H3 also feature a flashy semi-transparent housing and metallic accents that reveal the internal structure.

Practical features include fast charging that delivers two hours of playback from a 10-minute charge. Total battery life extends to seven hours per charge, with a respectable 37 hours when combined with the charging case.

Dual-device connectivity enables switching between smartphone and computer, while a 60ms low-latency Game Mode targets smooth audio-visual synchronisation for gaming and streaming shenanigans.

The H3 earbuds also offer IPX5 water resistance for workout and outdoor use, and the PeatsAudio app provides a nine-band equaliser for real-time sound customisation.

The SoundPeats H3 is priced at $130 / £140 / AU$143, and are available to purchase now on Amazon.

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Google has teased its latest generation of smartphones, including a full reveal of the Pixel 10's design. The latest iterations of the Android-powered handset are set to launch next month, with a launch event scheduled for 20th August.

The Pixel 10, which is designed in-house at Google and will be powered by the company's Tensor processor, appears to be practically identical to the outgoing Pixel 9 series in the early teaser images.

That being said, we're expecting to see numerous under-the-hood upgrades. Namely, a new version of the Tensor processor and likely a handful of new AI features; Google has been pushing its Gemini AI service on several of its products, including the Google TV Streamer.

Little else is known about what the Pixel 10 series will bring to the table, and we are yet to hear any rumblings about its AV potential.

However, if it's anything like the Pixel 9 series, which featured OLED panels with HDR10+ support and Qualcomm's aptX HD Bluetooth codec for high-quality wireless audio, then we could be in for a treat.

We'll have to wait until 20th August to find out more, with a full livestreamed unveiling expected. No timings have been confirmed as of yet, but we will provide full coverage of the event, so stay tuned.

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Check out our picks for the best smartphones

As well as our Google Pixel 8 review

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Next-generation wireless headphones and mobile devices will be able to deliver significantly improved, scalable, hi-res audio in “the next few years,” according to one of the biggest chipmakers in the industry.

Qualcomm vice president of mixed signal solutions and wearables, Dino Bekis, said the brand’s Expanded Personal Area Network (XPAN) technology will be able to deliver fully scalable, 24-bit/192kHz audio wirelessly to headphones "soon", during an interview with What Hi-Fi?.

“We're very committed to developing wi-fi and Bluetooth. We believe that that gives us the necessary headroom we need to get to the 24-bit/192kHz lossless,” he said.

“When can we achieve that? It’s important that we can not only achieve the data rate, but then offer the scalability aspects as well. So I think it's a natural evolution from what we're doing today. The core technologies we've built on top of right, allow us to get there. So, yeah, I'd say give it a few years and we’ll deliver it.”

Bluetooth is currently universally used for wireless headphones. But the technology has limited bandwidth so it cannot deliver hi-res audio without a lot of compression.

This is a key reason why new technologies – over wi-fi – are being explored (such as XPAN) to work alongside Bluetooth in a hybrid fashion to offer better quality when in wi-fi environments.

The figures quoted by Bekis are a significant improvement on the current Bluetooth codecs commonly used by wireless headphones.

Apple's AAC taps out at 24-bit/44.1kHz audio files, with a bitrate of up to 320kbps, while Qualcomm's aptX HD tech offers 24-bit/48kHz at 576kbps and Sony's LDAC offers up to 32-bit/96kHz at 990kbps over Bluetooth, for example.

If paired with well-tuned headphones and a solid source, Qualcomm's new XPAN solution could lead to significantly improved audio, especially when streaming over a solid wi-fi connection, if the claims prove true.

This will largely depend on the specific hardware and implementation, however. The firm unveiled its first wi-fi headphone chip alongside partner Xiaomi’s Buds 5 Pro wi-fi earbuds in March. The Buds 5 Pro are the first earbuds we have seen using XPAN.

We haven’t had a chance to test the hardware yet, but Qualcomm quotes it as offering 24-bit/96kHz lossless audio at a bandwidth of up to 4.2Mbps. This is double the speed that Bluetooth 5.0 can handle.

Bekis added that the platform will offer complete scalability, letting it adjust the quality of the stream depending on its network conditions, both over Bluetooth and wi-fi.

“We can go from a very low resolution on Bluetooth with a basic codec all the way up to 24-bit/96kHz based on the conditions,” he explained.

“The codec will modulate and scale up, or scale down. [It will] really be looking for the best, sustained quality that you can take and run over the existing network connection or conditions.”

Bekis confirmed this includes when switching between different wi-fi networks and even when having to switch to slower 4G, or even 3G, network connections. He added it will also do this “without radically spiking" your power consumption and draining your battery.

Other companies are trying to do this too

Qualcomm is one of many companies working on higher quality, scalable codecs for wireless headphones.

MQA’s Airia transmission codec, which is the latest version of the SCL6 prototype codec we heard in 2022, aims to offer similar scalability and power efficiency.

The codec is designed to be “technologically agnostic” and will let listeners stream PCM/FLAC or MQA formats wirelessly. MQA’s parent company, Lenbrook, has already secured a partnership with hi-res streaming service HDTracks to use the technology.

Bekis clarified that Qualcomm will be able to achieve the highest quality available only when future wireless headphones with its technology are connected to a compatible device running a high enough resolution streaming service.

Currently, there are only a select few services that offer 24-bit/192kHz streams. We currently recommend Tidal, Apple Music and Qobuz in our best music streaming services guide in part due to the functionality.

Spotify is expected to launch a new Spotify HiFi tier that adds 24-bit hi-res streaming, but currently caps at 16-bit CD quality.

When asked about what’s next, Bekis flagged two things to look out for in the future from Qualcomm.

The first is a potential move into streaming “dongles” designed to add XPAN and Snapdragon Audio (the name for its entire sound platform) to older devices.

“We want to unleash the power of our audio to a much broader set of endpoints. We want to expand the limits of existing source devices, maybe with a dongle or something of that nature and let people use them to transmit with high fidelity to older endpoint devices.”

The second are wider improvements to wi-fi and Bluetooth, which could potentially allow for even higher bitrate streams and significant improvements to general network stability.

“There's plenty of headroom in wi-fi and Bluetooth. There’s a new version of Bluetooth coming. It’s called high data throughput (HDT), and that's going to have a standard approach to being able to deliver lossless CD quality," he said as an example.

“And when you look at wi-fi, it is already a very scalable technology that's ubiquitous and everywhere. What place doesn't have wi-fi? As this grows, we’ll be able to take advantage of existing infrastructure, existing capabilities, and all these source devices much more.”

He added that Qualcomm will announce new headphone and earbud partners set to use its existing wi-fi chips “very soon”.

Are you excited about Qualcomm's performance claims? Let us know in the comments below, on our forums, or on social media!

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Samsung has launched two new devices in its Galaxy Z series of foldable handsets in the form of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6. These devices continue the established form factors, with updated designs, more powerful internal components and Samsung's Galaxy AI which was a standout feature in its S24 Ultra smartphone earlier this year.

Starting with the Galaxy Z Fold 6, the latest iteration of this phone continues the half-phone, half-tablet concept with a book-style folding functionality. It features two screens in total; a cover screen that functions like a regular handset and a larger interior screen that is indicative of a small tablet. Samsung has actually increased the size of the display of this year's Z Fold while also making the phone more compact, which sounds like an oxymoron, but we can assure you it's not. The screen is actually wider and shorter, with more squared-off bezels around the corner, leading to a sleeker look and more screen real estate.

• Hands on: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 review

Speaking of the screens, Samsung has outfitted the new Fold with a 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, with a resolution of 2160 x 1856 (an unusual figure given the screen size, but it's practically Quad HD), HDR10+ support, and a 1Hz to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. The cover display is a lower resolution 6.3-inch HD+ affair, although it's still a Dynamic AMOLED with a 1Hz to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. It also supports Dolby Atmos audio via headphones and the built-in speaker system.

The Z Fold 6 is also thinner and lighter than last year's model, down to just 5.6mm when unfolded and weighing only 239g (14g later than the Z Fold 5). Samsung claims that this makes the phone more comfortable in the hand and pocket alike. Internally Samsung has bought the Fold up to speed with the Galaxy S24 Ultra, with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy processor (this special Samsung variant apparently has a slightly higher clock speed) and 12GB of RAM. Storage comes in either 256GB, 512GB or 1TB capacities and the battery is rated at 4400mAh – the same as the Fold 5. It's also running Android 14 with Samsung's One UI 6.1.1 skin over the top.

Camera performance is also indicative of last year's model, with a trio of rear shooters. The main lens is a 50MP wide-angle camera, which is backed up with a 12MP ultra-wide and 10MP telephoto lens, as well as a 4MP under-display front-facing camera on the main display, and a 10MP front-facing lens on the cover display.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 comes in three bold finishes: silver shadow, pink and navy. It starts at £1799 with pre-orders starting today.

Following up with the Galaxy Z Flip 6, as the name suggests this is Samsung's modern take on the flip phone. Samsung gave this phone a fairly hefty update last year, so this appears to be a spec bump above all else. It features the newer Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, an upgraded 50MP main camera that it shares with the Galaxy S24 Ultra and a 6.7-inch Full HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a 1Hz to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. It also gets a boost in battery life with a new 4000mAh cell (up from 3700mAh on its predecessor) and either 256GB or 512GB of storage backed by 12GB of RAM.

Available in four finishes – blue, yellow, silver shadow and mint – the Galaxy Z Flip 6 starts at £1049 with pre-orders starting today.

As expected, both devices are deeply integrated with Samsung's new AI features which launched alongside the Galaxy S24 series earlier this year. This includes the rather handy circle to search with Google feature, the AI generative fill photo editing tools, smart suggestions for message responses and live translation for texts and phone calls. Both devices will launch fully on the 24th of July alongside the new Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro and a pair of new Galaxy Watch devices.

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Hands on: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 review

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Check out our Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro hands-on review

Samsung's AirPods-rivalling wireless earbuds go big on AI – but can they compete sonically?

Sony has unleashed its latest pair of Xperia smartphones for 2024. It is continuing the Roman numeral naming convention with the Xperia 1 VI and Xperia 10 VI – however, there's a controversial change on one of these devices that is sure to upset movie fans.

Starting with the Xperia 1 VI, this handset is a follow-up to the excellent Xperia 1 V from last year. This is Sony's flagship device in the new Xperia lineup. It has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset inside and 12GB RAM, with either 256GB or 512GB of internal storage. This is the same specification as the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra which was a mighty powerful device crammed full of features; so expectations are high for this new handset. 

The camera has also received an upgrade over last year's model. The Exmoor T module that made its debut on the Xperia 1 V returns, with a new 7.1 times optical zoom lens alongside it, and a new telephoto macro mode for capturing subjects up close. The Pro Camera and Pro Video apps have also been consolidated into a single app, meaning you can access professional shooting modes in one convenient place. 

Sony is also touting the power of its AI integration, with new human pose estimation technology, which will track a subject with points attached to each part of their body and allow for smoother tracked video, as well as more accurate focus. Much like the Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Xperia 1 VI will now apply HDR to your viewfinder within the camera apps, meaning you will be able to preview exactly what your camera will capture. 

It is with the display that things get controversial. As the rumours foreshadowed, two iconic aspects of the Xperia 1 series smartphones have been removed from this generation. First is the 4K resolution, which isn't immediately a problem – very few apps support 4K streaming on mobile. However, Sony has instead opted for a Full HD+ (2220 x 1080) display, which makes this downgrade feel especially jarring; many other handsets use a Quad HD display (2560 x 1440). Sony highlights a few benefits of dropping this display resolution down to 1080p though – namely better battery performance and display brightness. 

Next to go is the 21:9 aspect ratio. Sony is now using a more conventional 19.5:9 display on the 1 VI. The 21:9 display was a unique feature on the Xperia phones which made them ideal for watching movies, as content would fill the screen without any black letterboxing bars. The more commonly used aspect ratio (also used on the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, once again) will probably make day-to-day usability better, as the tall and skinny screen wasn't without its flaws.

Thankfully, it's by no means all bad news when it comes to the display. The 6.5-inch screen is a "new and smarter OLED display" according to Sony, and it has Bravia pedigree to back it up. Sony claims that the display on this smartphone is "powered by Bravia", meaning Sony's TV division may well have had a hand in tweaking the performance. Sony claims that the built-in AI remastering feature will improve colour, contrast and clarity on both your own videos and on streaming services. 

It is also 50 per cent brighter than the Xperia 1 V for enhanced outdoor viewing and it has a variable refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz; that's quite the step up, so we look forward to seeing how this new model compares with its predecessor. 

Thankfully, there are far fewer compromises where sound features are concerned. The Xperia 1 VI has a new full-stage stereo speaker system, which pairs a symmetrically placed loudspeaker and earpiece for a more balanced performance and less distortion at higher volumes. And we are delighted to see that Sony is keeping the headphone jack alive for yet another year, although Bluetooth audio with LDAC is also supported if you prefer to use wireless headphones. Dolby Atmos is also on board if you want to take advantage of the immersive format for watching movies or streaming music from Tidal, Apple Music or Amazon Music Unlimited. 

Design-wise, Sony is keeping things familiar, as the Xperia 1 VI looks nearly identical to the model it's replacing. Internally it has the same 5000mAh battery which Sony claims will last for two days, and on the outside, the textured back panel and ribbed side rails return which is a plus in our books. It even comes in the same three colours as the Xperia 1 V – Black, Platinum Silver and Khaki. 

The Sony Xperia 1 VI goes on sale in early June, and it will cost around £1299 – which is the same price the Xperia 1 V launched at. As is the case with its predecessor, there are no plans to launch it in Australia or the US.

Moving away from the flagship space and looking at Sony's new budget offering, the Xperia 10 VI has rather large shoes to fill. The last two iterations of this device earned themselves What Hi-Fi? Awards for best smartphone under £500, so all eyes are on the Xperia 10 VI to deliver an equally good, or ideally an even better, AV experience. 

A fair few features are cut back from the Xperia 1 VI, including the metal and glass construction. Instead, the new Xperia 10 features an all-plastic build, with a translucent back panel and smoothed-out camera module. It's also a touch heavier than its predecessor, weighing 164g up from the Xperia 10 V's 159g weight. It will launch in three finishes: Black, White or Blue. 

As expected, camera upgrades are at the forefront of this new model. Sony has included three new focal lengths to the dual camera, meaning one lens has been dropped from last year's model. There are a few new software features to compensate though, including automatic camera modes and colour settings, as well as a clever video editing app that allows you to tweak a video for social media in around a minute – both tools here are powered by Sony AI. 

Sony has opted for a particular strategy for the Xperia 10 VI's display. While the 21:9 has been dropped on the Xperia 1 (arguably the more enthusiast-focused device), the aspect ratio has been retained on the cheaper handset. The Xperia 10 VI has a 21:9 OLED screen, which Sony says is brighter this year, although it's still tipped to be 1080p and 60Hz. It is a Triluminous Display for mobile, which Sony claims will leverage "technology cultivated for Bravia TVs", so picture performance expectations for this budget handset is high. 

The improved stereo speakers from the last model return, although Sony claims they are louder this year. We hope Sony has addressed the issue that means the Xperia 10's frame rattles and vibrates when the speakers are in use, although most people should stick to headphone audio on this device anyway. Once again the headphone jack returns, and wireless audio is supported over Bluetooth with LDAC support.

Internally, the Xperia 10 VI has a few surprises too. Thankfully, Sony has upgraded the processor, using the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chip inside the Xperia 10. This won't be a life-changing update over the Snapdragon 695 5G from the previous two generations, but the underpowered internals of the Xperia 10 V were an issue so we are glad to see it addressed. Sony is once again touting a two-day battery life on this phone much like its more expensive counterpart. 

The Xperia 10 VI launches in mid-June, and it will cost £349 – the same price as its predecessor. Unfortunately, it will not launch in the US or Australia, much like nearly all of the recent Xperia handsets.

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Read our full Sony Xperia 5 V review

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Sennheiser will be hoping its Momentum True Wireless 4 continue its recent trend of getting high praise and five-star reviews for its premium wireless earbuds.

The company claims a raft of improvements have been made to this new model, with user experience, features and sound quality all being tweaked to boost performance. We know from our experience with Sennheiser’s older Momentum earbuds they have always been competitive and quality performers, but can this pair finally overthrow the class leaders from Bose and Sony? 

Price

The Momentum True Wireless 4 are a premium pair of wireless earbuds and are priced accordingly. They come in at £260 ( $299.95 / AU$499.95) which is a slight jump in price compared with their predecessors but is still in the same ballpark as their closest competition, including the Sony WF-1000XM5 (£259 / $299 / AU$419), Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (£300 / $299 / AU$450) and the Apple AirPods Pro 2 (£249 / $249 / AU$399). The Apple and Sony pairs do get regular price drops which are worth keeping an eye out for.

Design

Aesthetically, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 look virtually identical to the Momentum True Wireless 3. The ovular shape returns, as do the touch-sensitive surfaces. The biggest news externally is that the earbuds now come in three new colours: metallic silver, black graphite (pictured), or black copper (also pictured in this review).

Inside each earpiece, though, there are plenty of changes. The antennae have been redesigned to improve stability, while the headphones now use something called dynamic-load switching, which is designed to improve the consistency of sound quality. The closest bud to your smartphone is always connected to it and the pair will switch during use to maintain the best sound quality.

The drivers found in the Momentum True Wireless 4 are similar to those used in Sennheiser’s IE 600 and IE 900 in-ear headphones, although they have undergone some extra tuning for this wireless model. 

There is also a slight change to the eartips for 2024. They are now washable and feature a new plastic guard at the end to keep the ear tubes clear of unwanted debris.

Sennheiser’s now trademark fabric-wrapped charging casing returns with the Momentum True Wireless 4, looking identical to the previous iteration; both wireless and USB-C charging are supported. There are a couple of new interesting features on the charging front, which we shall discuss later.

Features

The headline news for the new Sennheiser Momentum 4 True Wireless is that they feature Qualcomm's S5 Sound Gen 2 processor and Snapdragon Sound Technology. These will allow you to stream losslessly not only 16-bit/44kHz audio but also (following an update to the Qualcomm chip) 24-bit/48kHz.

It’s claimed the new chip extends Bluetooth range and improves stability, so you should experience fewer dropouts in crowded areas.

• 6 sound settings you shouldn’t ignore on the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4

The Sennheisers also support Bluetooth 5.4, aptX Lossless and LE Audio should you own a compatible device, while Auracast support will also be added via a future firmware update. Auracast will allow users to receive audio simultaneously through separate channels or stream to two pairs of compatible earbuds from one device.

While they are not being pitched specifically as gaming headphones, Sennheiser also points out that latency as low as 20ms is possible with the earbuds via a Bluetooth dongle and you can listen in stereo while chatting in mono to players online.

Battery life is a claimed seven and a half hours per charge, with the case providing three extra charges and extending the life to 30 hours.

The big news for these buds and the way they charge is that, for the first time, Sennheiser has introduced intelligent charging to its premium earbuds. In a bid to extend the life of the headphones, the case will slow down the speed of charge the closer it gets to maximum capacity.

There’s also a new battery-protect mode which you can enable or disable through Sennheiser’s control app – this can optimise charging to extend the lifespan of the battery. The trade-off is that charging times get a little longer and maximum battery life is reduced a little.

All of these features and more can be accessed through Sennheiser’s Smart Control app. It’s packed with various settings and customisation options which, at times, can seem quite overwhelming but will be useful to some depending on how involved you want to be.

There’s also a five-band graphic equaliser, and the option of using Sennheiser’s Sound Personalisation tech to reach your ideal sound balance through a series of test tracks.

There’s even the option to create up to 20 ‘Sound Zones’ where the earbuds will automatically apply specific sound settings when you enter or leave certain areas.

The touch controls on the earbuds can also be customised to carry out most demands, whether it’s controlling playback and volume or switching between noise-cancelling and transparency modes. This does help simplify things; the touch controls are responsive and you can assign virtually any combination of commands, which can’t be said for a lot of pairs of wireless earbuds.

Noise cancelling

For those who like to use their earbuds out and about, Sennheiser claims improved active noise cancelling (ANC) and call quality for the Momentum True Wireless 4. To start with, the three microphones on each earbud have been upgraded from the previous model. Also, built-in AI from the Qualcomm chip will not only help with noise-cancelling but also learn how your voice sounds and be able to reduce background noise and lower background voices while keeping you audible. This element will come via a future firmware update.

While the noise-cancelling is of a good standard, it doesn’t quite block out quite as much external noise as the very best-in-class. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds smother a wider range of frequencies and ambient sounds. We tested the Sennheisers in a busy pub environment and more noises (particularly in the upper frequencies) were audible through the Momentum True Wireless 4 compared to the Bose. We found the Sennheisers to be on a more similar level to the AirPods Pro 2.

Using the adaptive noise cancelling we were impressed with the Anti Wind setting which helps to minimise the effects of wind blowing around the earpieces. The slightly scratchy sound that you can get from the odd gust is nicely subdued. We also find the mode helps minimise the noise created by, say, a jacket hood rubbing against the outside of the buds.

Call quality

During our product briefing from Sennheiser, the company was keen to get over the fact it’s done a lot to improve call quality through the Momentum True Wireless 4. And we were impressed with some aspects of how they performed.

When you are having a conversation, the person on the other end sounds clear and direct, although during testing we do sound more muffled than when being heard through the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. We find the Sennheisers stop outside noise from intruding into your calls better than the Bose but they still aren’t quite as accomplished at subduing ambient noise during calls as the Sony WF-1000XM5.

Sound

Before you fire up your favourite playlist we’d recommend opening the app and taking Sennheiser’s ear adapter fit test, just to make sure you’ve got a good seal.

Once you’re good to go, you’ll find listening to the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 is like slipping your feet into a comfy pair of slippers.

They’re a satisfying, easy listen straight out of the box. Their rich, mature presentation is an attractive proposition (and also means they don’t need hours upon hours of running in to sound good) – there’s sophistication across the frequency ranges with a smooth, refined treble and midrange and weighty, full-bodied bass.

Play I Dare You by The XX and the Sennheisers poke you with deep, probing lows and also caress you with detailed and rich vocals from Oliver Sims and Romy Madley Croft. Both of their soothing tones make for an engaging, enjoyable listen.

The headphones still fire out the track’s pacey tempo with ease and the Sennheisers’ good sense of timing keeps all the elements organised and flowing effortlessly. We switch between various genres during testing and their easygoing nature and rhythmic qualities come over whether you’re listening to ’90s house music or noughties hip-hop.

We swap the chilled vibe of the XX for the drama of The Battle taken from the Gladiator OST and the Sennheisers put in a powerful performance. The weighty drumbeats start building a sense of atmosphere and the Sennheisers add all the extra layers, from the swaying, soaring strings to the wind instruments that add punctuation. All the elements come together in an accomplished performance that does this epic track justice.

We listen to the Sennheisers against the Sony WF-1000XM5 and it’s apparent the balance of each pair is hugely different. While the Momentums favour richness and luxury, the Sonys have a more neutral overall balance and dig out even more detail with even greater precision. The Bose QC Ultra Earbuds also sound a little clearer, especially in the midrange, but are a little peaky in the bass in comparison.

Verdict

We’re talking about the Sennheisers in the same breath as our favourite Sonys and Bose, which shows you just how competitive the Momentum True Wireless 4 are.

They offer a very different flavour of sound to their closest rivals, but it’s just as engaging and enjoyable and this makes them very easy to recommend. Yes, there’s still a little room for improvement when it comes to noise-cancelling and call quality, but we still think their all-round appeal easily warrants a five-star recommendation. Prepare yourselves for hours of sonic enjoyment.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Comfort 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony WF-1000XM5

Also consider the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds

6 sound settings you shouldn’t ignore on the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4

Best wireless earbuds: top pairs tested by our experts

Samsung has officially unveiled its latest trio of Galaxy S smartphones during its Unpacked 2024 event in San Jose. The Galaxy S24, S24 Plus and S24 Ultra are set to release at the end of this month, and this year it's all about AI.

Samsung has coined the term 'Galaxy AI' which pertains to a lengthy set of new AI-powered features and tools on these new devices, with other upgrades regarding internal specs, screen brightness and camera performance also coming with this new generation of Galaxy devices. 

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Taking a closer look at the three devices, we'll start with the flagship S24 Ultra. This sits at the top of the new range, featuring the largest screen and most cameras out of all the new handsets. With a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED QHD+ display, the S24 Ultra is looking to continue its tenure as the most mainstream, big-screen Android smartphone on the market. Featuring a dynamic refresh rate of 1Hz to 120Hz and an upgraded brightness that now peaks at 2600 nits, the S24 Ultra looks to be a modest but meaningful upgrade over the Galaxy S23 Ultra it's replacing. 

So what's new with this phone? First of all, Samsung is ditching the curved screen (something it pioneered with the Note Edge and Galaxy S6 Edge nearly 10 years ago) in favour of a flat display, something we're certainly happy to see. It's also got thinner bezels for a more immersive, all-screen experience; considering the S23 Ultra has fairly slender bezels, this is quite impressive. 

The S24 Ultra also uses the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy processor, which should provide top-notch day-to-day performance, as well handling the new AI features and Ray Tracing support for mobile gaming. Speaking of gaming, the S24 Ultra gets enhanced cooling via an upgraded vapour chamber, which should ensure better gaming performance and less risk of overheating for more graphically demanding titles. 

While the camera layout is mostly the same this year, Samsung has swapped one of the 10MP telephoto lenses for a 50MP zoom lens, capable of reaching five times optical zoom, which it claims will result in sharper zoomed-in shots. Nightography, otherwise known as low light photography, gets a boost too, thanks to the 1.6 times bigger pixels that should allow for more light into the sensor. 

Finally, Samsung looks to have taken a leaf from Apple's iPhone 15 Pro Max book, as the S24 Ultra features a titanium frame. Paired with Corning's Gorilla Armour glass on the front and rear of the device, this phone is set to be four times as resistant to bumps and scratches as the S23 Ultra. 

The Galaxy S24 Ultra will come in four colours, with additional finishes coming exclusively to Samsung's web store. These colours are Titanium Grey, Titanium Black, Titanium Yellow and Titanium Violet. It will also feature 12GB of RAM across the board, with three storage options available. You'll need to pay more for upgraded storage, but the good news is that (at least in the UK) the S24 Ultra will launch at the same price as the S23 Ultra did in 2023. Storage and pricing are as follows:

• 256GB: £1249 / $TBC / AU$TBC
• 512GB: £1349 / $TBC / AU$TBC
• 1TB: £1549 / $TBC / AU$TBC

Samsung Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus

Moving onto the S24 and S24 Plus, these devices also bear a strong resemblance to the models they are replacing. 

Both phones feature Dynamic AMOLED displays with variable refresh rates, however, the S24's 6.2-inch display is Full HD+, whereas the S24 Plus' 6.7-inch display is Quad HD+. These phones also differ in internal specifications, with the S24 featuring 8GB of RAM, whereas the S24 Plus receives 12GB. Storage options and pricing are as follows:

The good news here is that both of these models are cheaper than their predecessors in the UK; £100 cheaper for the S24 and £50 cheaper for the S24 Plus. Both phones also feature the same camera arrangements, with a 50MP main lens, 12MP ultra-wide camera and 10MP telephoto lens, as well as a 12MP front-facing shooter, which appears to be the same arrangement as last year's S23 and S23 Plus.

Frustratingly, Samsung has opted to use its own Exynos chipset on the non-Ultra models. While they should be roughly equal in power, and they do support the same features, we often find the Exynos chips don't perform as well in gaming, or age quite as well, as the Snapdragon chips. We are hopeful Samsung may have ironed this out with its latest release but we can't confirm that until we've had more time with the handsets.

The Galaxy S24 and S24 Ultra will come in the same finishes as the S24 Ultra (Grey/Black/Violet/Yellow), although they will feature strengthened aluminium frames instead of the titanium found on the Ultra. 

Galaxy AI

The main draw of these new devices is Galaxy AI, a set of new tools shared across the whole S24 lineup. AI is slowly creeping into the world of TVs (just look at LG's newest models for proof), but it's been used in phones for a while with things like Google's Magic Eraser camera feature.

• Live Translate: translates two-way phone conversations in real-time using AI, with 13 supported languages at launch (more expected to be included in future updates).
• Chat Assist: can translate text conversations much like Live Translate, as well as amend messages with the ability to re-write them based on different tone presets. Some examples include professional, casual and social, with language and format changing with each preset. 
• Transcript Assist: allows for smart transcription of voice recordings with the option to identify different speakers, as well as format write-ups and summarise longer voice notes to important bullet points. This also works for written notes as Galaxy AI will intelligently format and summarise them as requested. 
• Circle to Search with Google; holding down the home button will allow you to draw a ring around a subject on the screen. This can be a person, an item, a building or even an animal. From there, Galaxy AI will conduct a Google search to bring up relevant information, directions and shopping suggestions based on what you have searched for. 
• Photo editing: Galaxy AI can create generative fill backgrounds to fill blank space when straightening an image, or empty space when moving a subject within an image. You can also add instant slow-motion playback to videos with additional frames created by AI for smoother slow-motion playback. Finally, you can view a full HDR image from within the camera viewfinder for a more accurate representation of how your image will turn out.

Samsung says its mission is to "democratise AI" by creating an accessible and user-friendly set of tools that anyone with a Galaxy S24 device can take advantage of, and while we're still apprehensive about AI, we can't deny that these features do look quite appealing. 

Pre-orders for the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus and S24 Ultra start today (17th January), with devices shipping on the 31st of January. If you pre-order through Samsung's web store you can receive double the storage at no extra cost.

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Read our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra hands-on review

As well as our full Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review

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Sennheiser has made quite the splash at CES 2024, treating us to a trio of brand new products: the Momentum True Wireless 4 wireless earbuds, the Accentum Plus over-ear headphones and the Momentum Sport running in-ears.

We're most excited about the arrival of the Momentum True Wireless 4 flagship buds, truth be told. The current Momentum True Wireless 3 are excellent performers, earning five stars in our review but finding strong rivals in the Sony WF-1000XM5 and Bose QC Ultra Earbuds premium buds. This year's sequel promises "more than a dozen enhancements" alongside "larger-than-life sound" over the previous model. If they can match or better their predecessors, this could be another win for Sennheiser.

Those enhancements include support for Qualcomm's S5 Sound Gen 2 platform and Snapdragon Sound Technology for aptX lossless codec and ultra-low latency capabilities. They're also equipped with Bluetooth 5.4, Auracast support and promise improved ANC, not to mention a battery life offering 7.5 hours of listening on a single charge, extending to 30 hours with the charging case.

Arriving alongside these much-anticipated wireless earbuds are the new Accentum Plus over-ear headphones (pictured below). Designed as a step up from the Sennheiser Accentum Wireless (which were released September 2023), the Bluetooth 5.2-enabled cans aim to "emphasise outstanding sound quality, battery life and versatile connectivity", all while supporting aptX Adaptive codec. They also provide up to 50 hours of listening per charge, as well as touch controls on the earcups and adaptive ANC for adjusting noise cancelling depending on the environment.

We weren't too impressed with the mid-range Accentum Wireless model, criticising their lack of a carry case and the somewhat bland, soulless sonic performance. The new Accentum Plus cans cost around £50 more than the base model and do come with a case, so here's hoping they rectify some of those sonic issues, too.

The final member of the new trio may actually be the most interesting. We love a good pair of running headphones and the new fitness-focused Momentum Sport is designed to provide "pulse-pounding Sennheiser sound" while integrating both heart rate and body rate sensors, so that you can send data directly from the buds to your favourite health monitoring and fitness apps and trackers. You'll even be able to use the Polar Flow app to get insight into your own data analytics and biological metrics. Cool stuff. 

To minimise noise from things like footsteps and heavy breathing, the sporty buds' acoustic chamber allows for environmental awareness without distractions, as well as transparency mode, anti-wind mode and standard ANC. They're IP55 water-resistant and shock-proof for greater durability, with a total of 24 hours of battery life from the case.

All three new models will be available in the following colourways and prices:  

• Momentum True Wireless 4: Available to pre-order on February 15th in black copper, metallic silver and graphite, and will cost £260 / €300 / $299.95 / AU$499.95.
• Accentum Plus: Available from February 20th in black or white, costing £200 / €230 / $229.95 / AU$399.95.
• Momentum Sport: Available from April 9th in black, olive or graphite and will cost £260 / €330 / $329.95 / AU$529.95.

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Check out our guide to the best running earbuds too

Read our Sennheiser Accentum review 

And our Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 review

Final has released a new and improved version of its flagship ZE8000 wireless earbuds. The ZE8000 MK2 promise a comfier fit, more features and more detailed '8K Sound'.

This 8K Sound also featured in the original ZE8000 (which were only released in February 2023), and uses digital signal processing to calibrate every element of the audio. Final claims it gives the buds the "fullest possible portrayal of sound texture and detail." This version has an improved signal-to-noise ratio to give a clearer sound with more detail and nuance, while reproducing musical instruments more faithfully.

While the design remains similar, the fit has been improved too. New 'Shield Fin' eartips aim to keep the buds more securely in your ears, which in turn should improve the sound isolation by 32 per cent, claims Final, by keeping your earholes plugged. These eartips come in five different sizes. Coupled with improvements to the active noise-cancelling (ANC) algorithm, they should mean less outside sound impinging on your listening, making the music sound clearer. 

Like their predecessors, the MK2 come with four listening modes, but they have added the ability to deactivate the ANC. Final says this was based on feedback from the original pair, and that deactivating ANC "provides users with an unfiltered experience of the Final ZE8000 MK2 and '8K Sound'". Yet with the original ZE8000, Final said that ANC "does not degrade the audio in any way." We're not sure how those two claims stack up, but we'll compare the two once we get review samples of the new model in.

ANC does usually affect the sound quality a little – we would always advise turning it off if you're somewhere quiet.

The ZE8000 MK2 are up to 5dB louder than the originals, and they have finer volume adjustments thanks to a tweak within the mobile app. Like their predecessors, they support Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sound platform, along with aptX and aptX Adaptive codec support – the latter brings 'hi-res' audio with low latency over Bluetooth. Battery life has gone up to five hours on a single charge, with a total of 15 hours available from the charging case.

The Final ZE8000 MK2 are on sale now and cost £289 / $399 / €329 (around AU$550). That's more than the Award-winning Sony WF-1000XM5, so they'll certainly have their work cut out.

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Audio sharing has become a bit of a buzz term in the headphones space of late, as an increasing number of phones, tablets and headphones (including AirPods) have gained the ability to allow two pairs of wireless headphones to simultaneously receive music from one source device. Apple calls its version Audio Sharing, Samsung has Dual Audio, and so on. Indeed, audio sharing looks set to play an increasingly significant role in the portable audio market, with audio sharing in the extreme being brought in the near future by a Bluetooth technology called Auracast.  

You can read everything you need to know about Auracast here, but essentially the coming-soon technology allows an infinite number of Bluetooth LE Audio-supporting headphones to 'tune into' and receive audio from compatible transmitter sources such as TVs or PA systems beaming out audio content, allowing people to choose which audio stream(s) they want their listening device to play back. So if, for example, an airport sports bar had four Auracast-featuring TVs playing different games, you could choose which one you wanted to hear commentary for through your Auracast-featuring headphones, and even switch between them. You could do a similar thing in, say, the gym or at a doctor's waiting room. Tours and exhibitions could offer multi-language audio streams so that you could simply pick the language you want and hear it through your own headphones. And it could allow hearing aid users to access assistive audio in public locations to hear, for example, train station announcements. Pretty cool, huh?

At the annual Snapdragon Summit hosted by Qualcomm, who helped define the Bluetooth LE Audio standard of which Auracast is a feature, I was finally able to see the audio-sharing technology in action...

Again, for Auracast to work you need both the source (transmitter) and headphones (receiver) to support LE Audio, the Bluetooth standard delivering it. Products supporting Bluetooth 5.2 (which introduced LE Audio) can support it with a software update, while all Bluetooth 5.3 devices will by default support LE Audio and Auracast. It's important to note that Auracast is an optional feature within LE Audio for manufacturers, so you'll want to check that a product supports it. 

Compatible Auracast devices are currently thin on the ground – the Auracast section on Bluetooth.com flags 'Find a product' as 'coming soon'. On the source side are select 2023 Neo QLED 8K and Micro LED TVs and the Galaxy S23 and latest Fold phones from Samsung, as well as the Google Pixel 7, to give a few examples. And I imagine future plug-in Auracast transmitters will be a popular way of delivering the technology. Meanwhile, compatible headphones include the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and Philips Fidelio L4 and Fidelio T2. 

So I was given a compatible phone and an unspecified pair of earbuds. The phone was running an Auracast application for demo purposes, which simply listed the various 'available broadcasts' to tune into, as you can see in the photo above. (I believe the idea – and ideal – is that Auracast will be integrated into a device's OS user experience, like Bluetooth and wi-fi, though perhaps audio/service apps will be Auracast-'aware' too.) In front of me were two Auracast-supporting Samsung TVs side by side, each playing different content (of, if you must know, two different styles of ukelele and guitar – the summit is held in Hawaii).

Audio streams can be password-protected for more private broadcasts – that of a music playlist or movie with a handful of friends on a train, say – though these were open and accessible, as I imagine most in public spaces would be. So it was simply a case of selecting one TV or the other in the app, just as you would select a wi-fi network (scanning a QR code could also be a future gateway into broadcasts), and 'waiting' about two seconds for the audio channel to dutifully switch in the earbuds – pretty easy. 

I didn't walk around much but from where I stood the audio was clear and stable – important on both fronts. Here, only two broadcasts were available and about 15 people were tuning into each at once, however as Auracast is completely a one-way technology, a greater number of available broadcast channels and/or receivers tuning in shouldn't impact the experience.

Latency between audio and video could be a problem for use cases involving screens, but that didn't appear to be an issue here: as far as I could tell, during the slower strumming that was easier to track, there didn't seem to be any delay.

The Auracast demo worked just as I'd imagined it would when I first heard about the technology last year, providing a dead-simple way to tune your earbuds into different audio streams. It may be some time before Auracast is adopted and used on a meaningful level – fingers crossed it'll pick up steam in 2024 – but when it is it will no doubt revolutionise audio sharing.

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You don’t need me to tell you how the internet has opened up a world of possibilities. We're living in an era of space-based satellites and virtual hospitals, for heaven’s sake. Internet access is in our homes, phones, TVs and, in the case of the most connected (arguably eccentric!) population, perhaps toilets, toasters and (presuming anyone has bought them) diapers and cat litter trays.

So it was always going to be only a matter of time before it hit headphones, despite their inherent portability and predominant use outside wi-fi’s biggest hub (the home). It’s for that portability reason that we didn’t really expect the internet to infiltrate the portable wireless speaker market when it did; but then in came the Sonos Bluetooth/wi-fi hybrid Roam and Move. And such an implementation is seemingly also what's coming for wireless headphones.

The possibility of future wi-fi-supporting headphones has stolen a few headlines in recent years, with MQA, PSB and hearables start-up Sonical promising to deliver a wi-fi-toting pair next year via ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, and Sonos and Apple (never far from consumer tech hearsay) rumoured to be looking into similar propositions as Bluetooth alternatives. Qualcomm has just announced that its latest flagship audio platform for headphones (the S7 Pro Gen 1) supports wi-fi implementation and will begin appearing in pairs next year too.

The sonic advantage: greater bandwidth

There are some obvious advantages to wi-fi hopping aboard headphones in hybrid fashion alongside Bluetooth, from the greater range and stability it will offer to the much bigger bandwidth capability it has.

On that latter point, the audiophiles in us want to hope for the best when it comes to the sonic improvements it could bring. After all, wi-fi technology’s significantly greater bandwidth than even the best Bluetooth solution means that high-resolution and thus high-quality (i.e. large!) files and streams can be passed through a device chain easily without detrimental compression. "What you'll be able to do with wi-fi," says Qualcomm's Dino Bekis, "is be able to have a step-function in terms of throughput and latency improvement. So we’ve now announced 24-bit/96kHz – true lossless audio. Just from a raw data rate perspective, you're not going to be able to get true lossless audio out of Bluetooth."

It's something music streamers and wireless speakers (any networked audio component really) already deliver over wi-fi connections, of course. And will this opportunity to improve audio be limited to the home? Not necessarily, providing hotspotting with a phone isn't too impractical or data-hogging, though Bluetooth can of course step in for environments out of network range.

The aforementioned trio collaborative will no doubt have sound quality high on its list of priorities through PSB’s audio engineering expertise and MQA’s SLC6 technology, while Qualcomm’s audio platform will offer headphone manufacturers the opportunity to facilitate 24-bit/96kHz audio passthrough over wi-fi courtesy of its XPAN (Expanded Area Network) technology.

It’s important to remember that the hardware itself will have to be good (read: transparent) enough for hi-res transmission to make sense – there’s little point in 24-bit/96kHz passthrough if the hardware isn't mature enough to reveal those extra details offered by such a hi-res file/stream. A pair of well-engineered, premium over-ear wireless headphones may well be revealing enough, but will everyday earbuds? Unlikely. Still, they will benefit from the extra range, other audio (spatial or multi-channel, say) that requires big data rates, and any wi-fi-powered AI features.

And the practical ones: freedom from your phone

To go back to an earlier point, you might think 'wi-fi' and 'headphones' don't go hand in hand – headphones are predominantly used out and about, and wi-fi isn't exactly lacing every street. That's one of the reasons wi-fi will be supported alongside, rather than instead of, Bluetooth, of course. But one practical advantage it has over Bluetooth is greater range – how a wi-fi connection won't tether you and your headphones to your phone (or other source device).

"So you can have a direct connection between the phone and earbud that follows the same paradigm as what you have today with Bluetooth," explains Bekis. "But I think that the real breakthrough – because people have mesh networks, whether it's an enterprise or in a home – is the ability to go anywhere in the home or anywhere in the building.

"On the [wi-fi-enabled] Qualcomm campus, there's nothing that says I can't leave my phone in my office when I’m on a call [through earbuds]. I can go to the cafeteria to get a salad, and then come back to my office, never having the phone in my hand but being on the call the whole time."

The phone will primarily be a necessary control device, and one supporting Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip is necessary to unlock the wi-fi connectivity over the first wave of compatible headphones anyway. But how about taking the phone out of the equation altogether? That's the next step, according to Bekis: "The bigger idea for us long-term, and a path we're still marching down, is ‘why do you need to connect to any device when I can just connect to the cloud?'.

If you have wi-fi built into your earbuds, it has an access point into a cloud service. So then you have Spotify, Amazon Music or whatever you like streaming directly [to them]. Because they have an IP address, the same way your phone does. The issue is perhaps more about the control plane, though you can use voice assistant to change tracks. Or taps, or whatever manufacturers may think of! So that's the next generation, the capability is there in the chipset."

One of the inherent impracticalities of wireless headphones – anything powered by rechargeable batteries – is that they have a 'battery life', even if this is an area that is improving all the time. Now, streaming high-res audio over wi-fi sounds rather power-hungry, don't you think? But Qualcomm says its execution on the S7 Pro Gen 1 chip doesn't actually affect battery life.

"Rewind the clock back to 2007 when Apple launched their iPhone, with wi-fi on a smartphone for the first time, and people said, ‘why do I need that?’, recalls Bekis. "Now, I don't think anyone questions that!"

"With GPS, you only turned it on when you needed it because it drew a lot of power; you only turned the wi-fi on when you needed it because it also consumed battery life. But that went away. No one thinks about that – every radio is on continuously on in your smartphone.  So how do we do that on the earbud? With a phone, you're talking about something that has maybe a 1500 or 2000mAh battery, but an earbud has a 60 or 80mAh one. [Headphones typically have batteries two to three times bigger.]

"You have to fundamentally redesign the guts, the core, of that wi-fi chip. So we've been able to figure out a way to do that. It's a really unique innovation and 100 per cent standards compliant."

Qualcomm's Sarah McMurray explains that the team carried out a couple of internal tests, in which 16-bit/44.1kHz audio over Bluetooth could be streamed losslessly for 10 hours... and 24-bit/96kHz audio over wi-fi could also be streamed for 10 hours. "That’s the breakthrough," she says. "You can get the same experience and no compromise on battery life."

But will it open Pandora’s box?

But going back to the AI opportunities that wi-fi opens up, will there be distractions away from sound quality – not necessarily from every headphone manufacturer; we will always, thank goodness, have those that prioritise sound quality – but generally speaking? Because wi-fi headphones are poised to become more than vehicles for music listening as they become increasingly integrated into our daily lives – for work calls, for their assistants.

Will the focus on sound quality be diluted as a) manufacturers spend more resources on implementing smarter, AI-powered features, and b) more 'connected' technology is crammed into small spaces? There's the potential for sound degradation through wi-fi interference and packaging issues, though manufacturers have accommodated these things with phones already so, with that logic, implementation into a headphone design shouldn't be much of a barrier.

RIP Bluetooth?

Not exactly. I asked Bekis whether he thought Bluetooth still had a long future ahead of it or whether wi-fi would replace it altogether.

"Look at some of the proposed enhancements to the [Bluetooth] standard – they're trying to go up to 8Mbps," he says. "That's pretty healthy. But if you think about what we can do with wi-fi, we can go up to almost 30Mbps. So when you have something that requires, let's say, many channels, all at lossless quality or super high-fidelity, or maybe if you're doing something complex like spatial audio where you may want to do a lot of the compute rendering on another device versus having the earbud run everything, that's just going to drive a step-function in the amount of data you need to transfer.

"But I see the two coexisting. There are new Bluetooth features being worked on, like trying to bring it into other frequency spectrums like 5GHz. [Higher frequencies can support faster data rates]. And there's an initiative for something they call HDT (High Data Throughput) [which aims to offer what the name suggests]. So there's a number of enhancements to Bluetooth which we're going to continue supporting and developing. We offered the ability to stream at higher data rates [over Bluetooth], but because the standard wasn't available, we said ‘Well, the need is there, so how do we deliver that with our products first and then adopt the standard as it becomes mainstream?'

"So I think there's still a very long future [for Bluetooth]. Some of those innovations [coming] are going to take us all the way up to 2027/28, and then I'm sure, as with any other standard, new enhancements are going to be made. So I see wi-fi as more of a parallel path."

Ultimately, I think the wi-fi-powered headphones concept is very promising. There's hi-res support opening the door for better sound quality as well as on-earbud AI for improved functionality – neither of which can be delivered by our current crop of wireless (Bluetooth) headphones.

We are probably still a few years away from a market flooded with wi-fi headphones, and perhaps even further away from a phone-less, direct-to-the-cloud headphones experience. But the internet is going to open up a world of possibilities for personal listening just as it has most areas of the technology market; and the benefits for sound quality look good too.

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Qualcomm has just announced its latest flagship chipset which is set to power several next-generation flagship Android phones in 2024 – and its specification includes one significant audio feature.

The new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, which is touted to power next-gen flagship Android phones “expected to be available in the coming weeks” and likely to be adopted by phone brands including Samsung, Sony, OnePlus, Oppo and Honor, has an audio specification that caught our eye during the announcement: support for Qualcomm’s XPAN (Expanded Area Network) technology. This will allow for the wireless playback of hi-res audio (up to 24-bit/96kHz) between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip-toting devices and wireless headphones and speakers featuring the company’s latest S7 Pro Gen 1 audio chip.

Hi-res audio playback over an internet connection is already possible between phones and wireless speakers, of course, though the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and S7 Pro Gen 1 chips working in conjunction with one another could see a phone transmit hi-res streams to wireless headphones for the first time. Unless it is pipped to the post by a rival technology, of course. We expect the first product announcements on both sides to follow in the coming weeks, with eyes on the Samsung S24 lineup expected in January.

Aside from this new addition to Snapdragon Sound (Qualcomm’s umbrella term for its latest package of audio technologies), the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip promises 30 per cent faster performance and increased efficiency by 20 per cent as well as 25 per cent gains in graphics (GPU) speed and power efficiency compared with last year’s (Gen 2) chipset. It is also the company’s first mobile platform “designed with generative AI in mind”. To that end, Qualcomm has built into it an AI ‘subsystem’ called ‘AI Stack’ which will allow manufacturers to leverage and develop AI software features.

One of the neat AI phone camera features that can be facilitated by the latest chip is the ability to expand a photo, offering a much wider image than is ‘captured’. So if, say, you wanted to make a portrait shot a landscape one, you could, with AI filling in the ‘missing’ details. There’s also the potential for two of today’s most innovative camera features to be applied to video capture: magic eraser (which removes undesirable objects in a frame at the user’s request) and night vision (which enhances details in darkly lit environments). 'On-device' AI assistants integrated into phones will be designed to more naturally interact with your everyday usage and tasks, too, whether that's suggesting local restaurants based on dinner plans in your calendar, generating an image, or taking headline notes from voice calls.

Elsewhere, an enhanced graphics engine makes 240fps gaming (on 240Hz displays) possible, while support for the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard, with its maximum data speed of 5.8Gbps and data rate more than four times that of Wi-Fi 6, could unlock 8K video streaming.

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If any company (other than Apple) is in a position to define the future of headphones, earbuds and phones, it’s Qualcomm. The telecom giant manufactures the chipsets at the heart of many of today’s portable devices, and today it has announced two audio platforms that could lay the foundations for smarter, better-sounding wireless headphones to arrive in 2024 and beyond.

Qualcomm says the S7 and S7 Pro Gen 1 chips offer improvements in battery life and active noise cancellation, and expand the opportunities for sound personalisation and other AI-powered functionality, compared with its previous platform (via more powerful and efficient processing power), though the last of those benefits is the gateway to the more interesting and innovative features we could see in headphones in the coming months. 

The S7 Pro Gen 1 introduces ‘micro-power’ wi-fi support in conjunction with Qualcomm’s XPAN (Expanded Personal Area Network) technology, opening a door to better sound quality (via increased audio bandwidth) and whole-home range for portable devices, compared with what Bluetooth connectivity currently offers.

The idea is that headphones with this S7 Pro Gen 1 chip will be able to connect to a home’s wireless network to offer ‘lossless’ hi-res audio up to 192kHz, without their headphones having to be within close proximity of the source device. Qualcomm’s highest audio support claims over a Bluetooth connection is 16-bit CD-quality ‘losslessly’, while Bluetooth range maxes out around 200m. Due to the immobility, if you like, of internet connections, however, Bluetooth isn’t off the menu for future headphones; Bluetooth (inclusive of 5.4 and LE) can step in when a wi-fi connection isn’t available, a switch that Qualcomm says can happen automatically and seamlessly.

Qualcomm says wi-fi connectivity in headphones will “extend the range of audio devices far beyond what is possible today using only Bluetooth – allowing users to walk around a home, building or campus while listening to music or making a call.” And, importantly, the company says listening over wi-fi won’t compromise battery life, claiming that the S7 Pro Gen 1 platform can offer up to 10 hours of ‘lossless’ 96kHz music streaming. The features of S7 and S7 Pro Gen 1 will work only between headphones, earbuds and speakers using the chipset, and phones or other devices powered by Qualcomm’s just-announced Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip.

It isn’t surprising that ‘AI’ is being bandied around in this announcement, and Qualcomm says its two S7 platforms will employ on-device AI to allow manufacturers to offer enhanced user experiences. For example, a headphones’ active noise cancellation feature could detect where the user is and automatically switch modes accordingly. It could perhaps recognise a voice call in an open-office location and work to drown out surrounding voices while homing in on yours.

One of the findings of Qualcomm’s recently published annual The State of Sound report was that people are wearing their earbuds more frequently and for longer periods of time, across more use cases. With this in mind, we can expect headphone companies to deliver more intelligent and multi-purpose headsets for everyday (and all day!) listening – and wi-fi functionality will no doubt be a big driver in facilitating that.

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The Samsung Galaxy S24 is official. As expected, there are three variants: the standard S24, S24 Plus and Galaxy S24 Ultra. They're filled to the brim with AI-focused features, camera upgrades and a brighter, flatter screen on the flagship Ultra model.

There's a lot to get stuck into, so here's everything you need to know about these new Samsung smartphones. 

Samsung Galaxy S24 series at a glance

• Available now (released on 31st January 2024)
• Three models: Samsung Galaxy S24, S24 Plus and S24 Ultra
• Dynamic refresh rate OLED displays on all models (1Hz to 120Hz)
• QHD+ on the S24 Plus and Ultra, FHD+ on the S24
• S24 Ultra cuts analogue zoom from 10x to 5x, but retains 100x digital zoom
• Samsung Exynos 2400 / Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (depending on device and region)
• Prices start at £799/ $800 / AU$1349

Samsung Galaxy S24: release date

Pre-orders for all three Galaxy S24 models opened during Samsung Unpacked on 17th January. Shipping began on 31st January.

• Hands on: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review
• Samsung Galaxy S23 vs iPhone 14: which is better?
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: battle of the big boys

Samsung Galaxy S24: price 

After years of prices slowly creeping up across the smartphone market, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the Samsung S24 series doesn't follow this trend. The S24 and S24 Plus are cheaper than last year's models, while the S24 Ultra stays at the same price. 

Pricing for all three models is as follows:

It's worth noting that the S24 comes with 8GB of RAM for all storage options, whereas the S24 Plus and Ultra feature 12GB of RAM. 

We anticipate the outgoing S23 series will remain on sale for the foreseeable future too, and we hope at a cheaper price than launch. You can find the best deals on the S23 Ultra below. 

Samsung Galaxy S24: specifications 

Samsung has outfitted the S24 Ultra with the latest and greatest processor from Qualcomm. This is the first mainstream phone we've seen with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, and as was the case with the S23 Series, it's a special "For Galaxy" version with a slightly higher clock speed for enhanced software performance. We expect more phones from the likes of OnePlus and Sony to also feature this processor later in the year.

Unfortunately, the S24 and S24 Plus won't be getting this processor, at least in the UK, which is a step back from last year as all S23 models were given the Snapdragon treatment. Instead, the S24 (and S24 Plus) get the latest Exynos processor directly from Samsung; we'll have to test for ourselves if there are any noticeable differences in day to day performance.

Samsung Galaxy S24: design

Samsung is sticking to a close design formula for its new devices, although some appreciated tweaks have been made. There are two big developments for the S24 Ultra, the first being a flat display. Samsung's flagship phones have featured curved screens that melt over the edges for nearly a decade now, but that trend has finished. Instead, you'll find a flat 6.8-inch display; more on this shortly.

It's also thinner and tougher this year, with Corning Gorilla Armour featuring on the display to provide four times improved scratch resistance, and a claimed 75 per cent reduction in reflectivity. 

It also uses upgraded materials in its build, with a new titanium frame wrapping around the edges of the device. Samsung really wants you to know that it's using titanium on this phone, which is why it's named its colours accordingly. You'll be able to get the S24 Ultra in four colours: Titanium Black, Titanium Grey, Titanium Yellow and Titanium Violet, as well as Samsung web store exclusive colours: Titanium Blue, Titanium Green and Titanium Orange. 

The S24 and S24 Plus instead use an Aluminium Armour frame and One Mass design with a smooth gapless design between the frame and glass panels. It comes in Onyx Black, Marble Grey, Amber Yellow and Cobalt Violet as well as the Samsung-exclusive Sapphire Blue, Jade Green and Sandstone Orange.

This year's devices ditch the glossy frame in favour of a flat, matte finish with a satin glass rear panel. It isn't miles away from the iPhone 14 in design. 

Samsung Galaxy S24: display

Samsung has given all three models in the lineup the same dynamic refresh rate capabilities, with a range of 1Hz to 120Hz. Each model uses a Dynamic AMOLED display, meaning black depths should be a highlight, although it's worth mentioning that the S24 uses a Full HD screen, while the Plus and Ultra get a boost to Quad HD.

Brightness also gets a major boost, up to 2600 nits to be exact. Samsung highlights the benefit of better outdoor visibility, but our mind shot straight to improved picture performance. Highlights should have a boost, while the punchy, saturated nature of Samsung's displays should also benefit here.

Samsung Galaxy S24: camera 

The S23 Ultra has one of the best cameras on any smartphone. In our review, we called it "brilliant, fusing top-notch performance with intuitive software, meaning even the most amateur of photographers can snap a quality image."

In a shocking twist, Samsung will tweak the camera specs for the S24, and will actually downgrade it in one respect. However, it's for a good reason, as the S24 Ultra will replace the 10x optical zoom with a 5x mechanism. This shouldn't diminish its zooming abilities too much, as it will keep the 100x digital zoom, as well as allowing for enhanced stabilisation for zoomed-in shots without the need for a tripod. 

Otherwise, the same 200MP main lens, 12MP ultrawide and 10MP telephoto lens remain. The second 10MP telephoto lens on the S23 Ultra has been replaced with an enhanced 50MP sensor on the S24 Ultra for enhanced zoomed performance. 

Samsung Galaxy S24: early verdict

It's been another year of iterative updates for the S24 series, although the AI enhancements are certainly proving to be interesting additions. In our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review, we noted that a couple of these are genuinely useful, but others less so.

Just like Samsung's TVs, the S24 Ultra is bright and bold, but could do with more subtlety in the picture. And it's sonically impressive, though not quite as good as the Sony Xperia 1 V. How will it compare to the iPhone 16? We'll have to wait and see...

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Chipset giant Qualcomm has published its annual The State of Sound report, and its findings suggest there are two key areas of improvement for wireless earbuds.

The report is based on a survey sample of 7000 smartphone users from the US, UK, Germany, China, India, Japan, and South Korea, focusing on consumer trends and behaviours around audio, particularly headphone usage. 

For headphone aficionados, the most interesting finding was that discomfort and insufficient battery life were the biggest ‘pain points’ of wireless earbuds. Comfort was also flagged as being the most important factor for people when seeking a new pair.

This ties in with another of the report's findings: people are wearing their earbuds more frequently and for longer periods of time. Specifically, 58 per cent of participants stated they used them on a daily basis compared to 26 per cent in 2022 – an increase which is no doubt in part due to the increased nature of hybrid working, as many take calls on the go and in non-office environments. Naturally, the more you want to wear something, the more comfortable it has to be. Similarly, if you're using something for longer periods, you'll care more about battery life.

The battery lives of true wireless earbuds have generally been heading in the right direction, based on our testing.  Even budget pairs these days tend to offer a combined 20 hours from the earbuds and charging case, and many premium pairs extend this well past 24 hours. We've come some way since the three-hour earbud capacity of the first-ever true wireless pair, Onkyo's W800BT.

But while earbud comfort has improved in recent years, with sets becoming smaller and lighter, the majority of earbuds sport a familiar eartip design, carried over from the line of wired and wireless earbuds before them, for that secure fit and direct listening experience. Apple bucks that trend with its AirPods, of course, but then their fit hardly has universal appeal. Sony has arguably been the biggest player to think outside the box with its open-design, tip-less LinkBuds. 

"Those of you who hate the feeling of silicone or memory foam burrowing into your ears will be delighted to learn Sony has deliberately designed the LinkBuds to not do this," we said in our Sony LinksBuds review.

The focus was on delivering a headphones experience that wasn't so isolated, but the lighter, less intrusive fit also helped with long-term comfort. The open design had sonic repercussions, but getting around the intrinsically intrusive fit of traditional earbud designs is certainly something I'd like to see headphone manufacturers toy with. Wouldn't it be great if in the future we saw sets that offer the best balance of comfort and sound quality? Qualcomm's survey respondents certainly think so.

What's pleasing to read in Qualcomm's report is that there's been a sustained interest in sound quality, with 73 per cent (compared to 67 per cent in 2022) stating they "make sure that sound quality on my devices gets better and better with every purchase”.

On a similar – and final – note, the report unsurprisingly revealed a growing trend in ‘lossless' audio and ‘spatial’ audio, with 60 per cent of survey-takers stating it would influence the purchase of their next true wireless earbuds/headphones. This is no doubt thanks to tech giants like Apple having ramped up their promotion of the technologies over the past year or two.

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Well, hasn’t Bose been busy? Following recent reports which pointed to a brand new pair of premium wireless over-ears and earbuds being readied for launch, Bose has officially whipped off the covers for the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds.

Available in Black or White Smoke, the former replace the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, while the latter take the place of the five-star QuietComfort Earbuds II.

Bose Immersive Audio makes its debut on both Ultra pairs. The tech is designed to make “spatial audio accessible to all” thanks to some powerful new onboard processing. According to Bose, the mode reveals music’s “true depth, spatialising what you're hearing by virtually placing it in front of you” and “virtually seating you in the acoustic sweet spot.”

• Hands On: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones review

There are two modes of Immersive Audio to switch between – Still and Motion. Still is recommended for when you are stationary and you want your music to be in a fixed position. Motion “allows the audio to move with you, so it’s always out in front of you - great for staying immersed on the go,” according to Bose.

The Ultra models also get Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound Technology suite which gives them both aptX Adaptive support.

On top of the new spatial audio processing and aptX Adaptive, the QuietComfort Ultra models also feature Bose’s CustomTune calibration and Bose Aware Mode with ActiveSense which automatically adjusts the amount of ANC being used automatically, so your music isn’t drowned out by particularly loud noises

Bose claims to have improved the call quality of the over-ears too, with more advanced microphones in a beamform array that reduces the impact of external noise.

The QuietComfort Ultra Headphones fold flat like the old 700 model but they have been given a cleaner design. On the right earcup there is a button for power/Bluetooth pairing, a capacitive touch strip for volume and accessing shortcuts, and a multifunctional button which can be used for various tasks, including switching listening modes, answering calls or playing your music.

The left earcup has an LED indicator, 2.5mm jack, and USB-C charging port. Bose claims battery life is up to 24 hours with Immersive Audio turned off and 18 hours with it turned on.

So what do the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones cost? Well, the pricing makes for interesting reading. They are more expensive than their predecessors and will cost £450 / $429 / AU$649 when they go on sale in October. This places them at a higher price point than the excellent Sony WH-1000XM5 £380 / $399 / AU$550 but still keeps a decent amount of distance between themselves and the Apple AirPods Max £549 / $549 / AU$899.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds get Immersive Audio, CustomTune, touch controls and an IPX4 rating. Again, Bose claims to have improved call quality in tricky environments – the headphones can prioritise the mic on each bud that is experiencing the least noise, and also filter noise out so your voice sounds clearer.

Look closely and you will see that the buds have a new metallic treatment, while the fit of the stability bands that wrap around the edge of each earbud has been tweaked too.

Battery life comes in at an average of six hours when Bose Immersive Audio is turned off and this drops to four hours when it’s turned on. This seems like quite a sacrifice – hopefully the experience will be worth it.

The new earbuds are also getting a price increase over the outgoing model. They will be available for £300 / $299 / AU$450 from early October. In comparison, the Sony WF-1000XM5 cost £259 / $299 / AU$419 and Apple AirPods Pro 2 £249 / $249 / AU$399 at launch.

Bose also now offers a £50 / $49 optional wireless charging case for the earbuds cover which slips over the normal case. It goes on sale on the 20th October and is also compatible with the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II.

But two new headphone models aren’t enough for Bose. It has also launched another pair of over-ear headphones that do without ‘Ultra’ status and their associated features. They are simply called the Bose QuietComfort Headphones. They replace the QuietComfort 45 and add the ability to adjust levels of ANC and set custom noise-cancelling modes. There’s also multipoint Bluetooth and up to 24 hours of battery life.

They are available in Black and White Smoke and a limited edition Cypress Green colourway and will launch on September 21st for £350 / $349 / AU$550.

Well, that’s quite a lot to take in. We have to say it’s a little surprising that Bose is replacing the QuietComfort Earbuds II so soon. They are barely 12 months old, but launching the complete ‘Ultra’ range in one go does make sense.

When it comes to the over-ears, it always seemed a little strange that Bose had a flagship model without QuietComfort in the title given the rich history of the sub-brand. And given the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 launched way back in 2019, a new flagship pair has arguably been a long time coming.

We will hopefully be going hands-on with all the new pairs in the near future, so stay tuned to What Hi-Fi? for our first impressions.

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Our pick of the best wireless headphones

After launching the upgraded Xperia 1 V and 10 V earlier this year, Sony has followed up with its middle-of-the-range (but by no means mid-range) Xperia 5 which has now also been given the Mark V treatment. 

Ridiculous name aside (Xperia Five five?), Sony's latest premium Android phone packs in plenty of AV upgrades alongside the already strong suite found on its predecessor, the Xperia 5 IV. Sony's usual smartphone staples like the 21:9 OLED display, headphone jack and front-firing stereo speakers are all present and correct here, although there are various upgrades for this 2023 model.

Starting with sound, the biggest news on the Xperia 5 V is its upgraded speaker amplifier which Sony says will provide more powerful and deeper bass. Combined with the direct front-facing drivers, Sony claims that you'll get cinematic sound without the need for an external speaker. However, if you do decide to pair the phone with some headphones wirelessly, then you can take advantage of Bluetooth 5.3 for Hi-res audio as well as Dolby Atmos, Qualcomm aptX, DSEE Ultimate and Sony 360 Reality Audio support.

We'd be remiss not to mention the headphone jack, something we celebrate with each and every Sony smartphone as it remains practically the only premium smartphone manufacturer to continue to include it on its devices. Hi-res wired audio will of course be the best way to listen to content and Sony is once again committed to supporting this without the need for a dongle.

Moving onto the device's screen, it seems to be a very similar, if not the same display that was used on last year's model. The 21:9 OLED panel is synonymous with Sony phones now, and here it's a 6.1-inch Full-HD panel with a 120Hz refresh rate; while we would like to see Sony step up to Quad-HD on a phone of this stature, we found this spec to be more than capable on last year's device. 

Sony has included some features from its Bravia TV division once again, with the X1 for mobile image processing, real-time HDR and even the Bravia Core streaming app which claims to be the highest bitrate service on the market right now. Ultimately, this phone is designed with watching content in mind, and if it's anything like its bigger and more expensive sibling, the Xperia 1 V, then we should be in for a treat.

Speaking of the 1 V, the 5 V is getting the same headlining camera feature as found on the flagship model. Xmoor T for mobile makes its way down to the cheaper model, meaning the 5 V goes up to a 52MP main shooter, up from 12MP on the previous model. The tradeoff is that it drops down to two lenses with the telephoto lens appearing to take leave on this latest Xperia. 

Sony claims that the camera performance is the biggest draw for the 5V however, with crisper and more detailed images as well as improved bokeh effects. Its mission to create phones for both creatives and consumers alike seems to still be its main objective.

Rounding things off with the specs of the device, it uses the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor from Qualcomm, the same one found on the Xperia 1 V and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. This is backed up by 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage; this is the only configuration available with expandable memory available up to 1TB via the microSD expansion slot. Running the show will be Android 13, likely with Sony's skin over the top which changes some functionality and design aspects.

Available in three finishes - Black, Blue and Platinum Silver, the Xperia 5 V is set for a late September release date. It's actually set to be cheaper than last year's model with pricing currently set at £849 (around £1080 / AU$1660), which is £100 cheaper than the Xperia 5 IV. You can pre-order it right now through Sony's official online store.

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Shure has launched the second generation of its over-ear Aonic 50 wireless headphones at IFA 2023. Building on the foundation laid by the first iteration, the second-gen model has a host of new and improved features including hybrid ANC, improved audio and up to 50 per cent more battery life. 

Crafted from premium materials and delivering what Shure promises will be “studio-quality” sound via 50mm dynamic drivers, the Aonic 50 Gen 2 headphones integrate Snapdragon Sound Technology for “consistent, crystal clear and captivating audio”. 

Central to the Aonic 50 Gen 2 is the inclusion of spatialised audio, powered by a proprietary algorithm that uses acoustic modelling to provide that immersive, spatial experience without sacrificing the fidelity of the original sound. The new tech features three modes – Music, Cinema and Podcast – enhancing or reducing different frequencies to optimise your listening experience depending on the audio source. 

Equally exciting is the arrival of hybrid active noise cancellation, improving the original model’s ANC by more effectively reducing external noise for increased immersion. There are four selectable modes to choose from – Light, Moderate, Max and MaxAware – so you can pick the option that best suits your environment, preferences and needs.

A customisable EQ via the ShurePlus PLAY app lets you tweak your audio to your liking, while beamforming microphone technology, boosted by six mics, minimises surrounding noise and enhances the clarity of voice calls.

Battery life has been extended, too. Shure promises up to two times more life than before, with the Gen 2 offering up to 45 hours of battery life. The Gen 2’s quick charge feature, meanwhile, gives you five hours of juice from a 15-minute charge.

Snapdragon Sound with Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive codec and LDAC codec for higher quality streams over Bluetooth are included, as well as support for the standard AAC and SBC codecs. A two-year warranty, carrying case, 3.5mm audio cable and USB-C charging/audio cable are also included in the box.

The Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 wireless headphones will be available in black in September 2023 and will cost £349 / $349 / €399.

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Just holding the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra has triggered very vocal responses from everyone that we’ve shown it to. “That tablet is massive,” or “What on earth is that?” is usually the first thing we hear when someone unfamiliar with the Ultra first lays eyes on it. And we can’t blame them – it’s quite the sight. 

The Tab S9 Ultra is Samsung’s take on the tablet formula dialled up to 11, and its flagship specs and an extensive list of features should support this claim. That being said, Apple still seems to own the tablet space, especially in the premium sector, so does the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra compare? And should you buy one over an iPad? 

Price

Serving as the crown jewel in Samsung’s current trio of Tab S9 tablets, the S9 Ultra sits above the standard and Plus model variants. The base model Ultra will set you back £1199 / $1200 / AU$1999 and comes with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. You can step up to the 512GB/12GB model for £1299 / $1320 / AU$2199 if you need the extra storage, or go for the top end 1TB/16GB version for £1549 / $1620 / AU$2699 if you need this tablet for serious productivity and creative tasks.

For the price, your S9 Ultra comes equipped with the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor as the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, with that “for Galaxy” suffix supposedly alluding to Samsung’s exclusive skew of the widely used chip that runs at a slightly higher clock speed. 

You also get the S Pen included in the box, which is a very nice touch as Apple makes you spend an additional £139 / $129 / AU$219 if you want a stylus. What you don’t get in the box, however, is a USB wall adapter for charging, which is incredibly frustrating. We’ve come to terms with the fact that most manufacturers don’t include a charger in the box with their phones, but tablets have much higher capacity batteries that require more powerful chargers, so not including one in the box (especially with a tablet this expensive) is a poor show on Samsung’s part.

Contextualising the price of the Tab S9 Ultra is tricky as it resides at the top end of the tablet market. However, its main competitor seems to be the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Apple’s flagship tablet starts at £1249 / $1099 / AU$1899, and while it gets you a Mini LED-powered XDR display and Apple’s powerful M2 chip, it only comes with a relatively measly 128GB of storage. 

Build

If you scrubbed the Samsung branding off the back of this tablet and stamped its competitor’s logo on the back, we’d have no trouble believing that this is a new iPad. This new Samsung tablet treads uncanny grounds with its flat metal edges and dual camera lenses on the rear, and flipping the device around will even reveal a notch in the display – something that Samsung mocked relentlessly when Apple debuted it on the iPhone X five years ago.

Comparisons aside, the Samsung feels premium and its razer thin edges (just 5.5mm) help the tablet to remain slender and lightweight, despite its size. Speaking of, have we mentioned the size of this tablet? To put it bluntly, this tablet is absolutely massive. Its 14.6-inch display dwarfs even the largest iPad, and that, of course, has its own pros and cons. The expansive canvas is ideal for giving you more room to work, draw and watch – but in turn you have to sacrifice some portability.

Despite its large footprint, the Tab S9 Ultra only weighs 732g, making it only slightly heavier than the iPad Pro. It’s also surprisingly rugged, with an IP68 rating meaning it's dust-resistant and water-resistant up to 1.5m for up to 30 minutes; we still wouldn’t endorse jumping into a swimming pool with it however, just in case you were considering that.

The S9 Ultra comes in two finishes, Graphite and Beige. Our review unit is the latter; however, we personally question Samsung’s definition of “beige” as it is most definitely silver. We did get to see the Graphite finish in person at a hands-on event prior to the Tab S9 Ultra’s release, and we thoroughly approve of the stealthy dark matte finish of that model.

Features

As tablets go, the Tab S9 Ultra is practically the definition of feature-packed. Starting with the main event, the tablet’s aforementioned 14.6-inch display has plenty of excellent features to match its sheer size. It's a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with a 1848 x 2960 resolution, a pixel density of 239ppi, a variable refresh rate of 48Hz to 120Hz, and HDR10+ support. This screen is covered in Corning Gorilla Glass, which should allow for added protection against cracks and scratches. However, our review unit has picked up some unfortunate marks on the screen with normal use; thankfully these are not visible while the tablet is in use. 

Moving to the edges of the tablet, here is where you’ll find the quad loudspeakers. They’re Dolby Atmos-certified and tuned by AKG, which Samsung acquired when it bought Harman back in 2016. While we’re pleased to see four speakers on this tablet, we can’t help feeling that they could have been positioned slightly better, as holding the tablet in a landscape orientation without careful consideration results in the bottom pair of speakers being totally blocked by your hands. You can avoid this by adjusting your grip, but doing so makes the tablet less comfortable to hold. 

The Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is filled to the brim with cameras, sporting four in total. There’s a 13MP main lens and an 8MP ultrawide on the rear, and wide and ultrawide front-facing cameras which are both 12MP. In use, these cameras are perfectly serviceable, with the duo of front snappers being ideal for video calls. The cameras produce sharp and clear images and are perfectly usable in a pinch, however, your phone is probably still a better option than whipping out a slab the size of a bathroom tile in order to take a quick photo or video.

As for the various miscellaneous features of the tablet, it features two types of biometric authentication including an under-display fingerprint scanner and face unlock, both of which are quick and mostly reliable. It also has an impressively large 11200mAh battery which can be juiced up via a 45 watt fast charger if you have one lying around or plan to buy one separately. The S Pen is also a handy tool for power users and digital artists, and it sits neatly in a magnetic groove on the back of the device for storage and charging. You also have the opportunity to convert the S9 Ultra into a full laptop-style set-up if you plan on using it for fully-fledged productivity tasks, with access to wireless DeX (Samsung’s desktop user interface experience) and a keyboard case that’s sold separately for the rather steep price of £339 / $350 / AU$549.

Picture

In many ways, the Tab S9 Ultra feels like a handheld Samsung TV, both down to its picture characteristics and sheer size. Samsung’s AMOLED panel is as punchy as ever and blacks are impressively authentic, but it seems to struggle when it comes to subtlety and authenticity. 

The first thing we do, before we begin watching anything, is switch the display’s colour profile from vivid to natural in the settings menu. While this does draw a little bit of punch out of the image, we find it preferable to the overdone colours in the vivid picture mode. Now we can get into some serious watching, and we begin with Dune on Amazon Prime Video in HDR10+. A blockbuster of this calibre is well suited to the large screen and feels adequately cinematic by tablet standards, and as the display doesn’t support Dolby Vision, it’s also a good way to test HDR performance. 

In the opening scenes of the film, we’re met with a mixed bag of pros and cons. The key strength here is how punchy the display is, even knocked back into the natural picture mode, with the rich golden sands of Arrakis, and fiery explosions as laser beams connect with spaceships that pop with violent vibrancy. On the flip side, black depth is excellent, with the infinite void of space looking appropriately imposing on this screen. 

However, the image looks noticeably soft and lacking in detail here. This extends to the edges of subjects on screen, which unfortunately has a knock-on effect on the solidity and impact of the image. Compared to the 5th Generation iPad Air, which happens to be roughly half the price of the Samsung, we find Apple’s tablet offers a sharper and more detailed image. We do, in part, put this down to the Prime Video app, which seems to struggle on Android with playing back content at high definition.

It's also not the most subtle display we’ve seen. In a scene in which Paul Atredies and Lady Jessica eat breakfast together, we see that the light coming in through a nearby window appears to hit the subjects like a solid beam. While we know that the intention in the film is to create some dramatic and varied lighting, the Samsung presents this more like a spotlight directed towards these subjects on screen, completely drowning out any facial details. The iPad, on the other hand, seems to take a more considered approach with greater control over brighter highlights and more detail retained in the parts of their faces still covered in shadow.

Switching to Netflix’s The Gray Man we do see the tablet regain some composure when it comes to the clarity and solidity of the image. Edges seem better defined, while skin and clothing textures are noticeably more detailed, although it's certainly not perfect. Skin tones have some warmth and liveliness, although they can verge into ruddy and overdone territory at times. That all being said, Netflix certainly has the cleaner and sharper images of the two services on this device.

As the action kicks into high gear, we thankfully see the Tab is adept with motion, which is crucial for a display this big as judder would be much more noticeable. A sweeping shot taking place over a fight scene moves fluidly, and Ryan Gosling’s ‘Six’ takes out the baddies in fast-paced beatdowns that don’t appear to stutter. 

Switching to some older SDR content, the first episode of Peep Show streaming on Netflix looks clean and punchy. The colours are perhaps slightly exaggerated, but it looks plenty sharp enough while still retaining the slightly fuzzy, low-budget aesthetic that it sets out to achieve. 

When we play the same on the considerably cheaper iPad, we can’t help but be drawn in by the iPad’s more subtle and refined picture. Its much more thoughtful approach to handling contrast means that there’s more perceivable three-dimensional depth to the image. The iPad pays closer attention to skin textures too, as well as offering richer and more accurate colours, making the Samsung seem a little bit messy in comparison. 

Sound

The Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra’s audio performance is also a bit of a mixed bag. Starting with its quad-speaker array, the Samsung sounds good when playing audio out loud. The speakers are clear and detailed when we use them to watch Dune, with crisp vocals and even some depth when it comes to lower frequencies, such as when Paul uses his gift of the Voice.

Switching to music, we listen to Taylor Swift and Bon Iver’s collaboration Exile from the Folklore album on Tidal. What takes us by surprise is how spacious the tablet sounds, likely aided by the physical separation between the left and right channels thanks to the sheer size of the display. The vocals sound clear and have a hint of sparkle, but they can’t quite match the iPad when it comes to authenticity.

The Apple tablet has a touch more in the way of expressiveness to the singers’ voices, but the Samsung certainly has more presence and sounds more full-bodied. In fact the Apple can sound slightly thin in comparison, with its comparatively weak speakers. 

Headphone performance is a different story, unfortunately, with the Samsung delivering a less enthusiastic show once we plug some cans in. Using the same song, we don’t hear the rich, textured piano that underpins the start of the track in the same way that the iPad conveys it. Here the piano sounds noticeably flatter and that extends to the rest of the song, as the vocals also lose some character. 

Using Fred Again’s Delilah (Pull Me Out Of This) as a more energetic alternative to Exile, we find that the pacing of the track seems to be slightly sluggish and lacks the desired drive that the iPad does, the Apple device invoking an involuntary tapping of the foot that the Samsung can’t seem to initiate. Overall, the Samsung doesn’t get much wrong in the headphone audio department, we just wish it tried a bit harder to uplift what we play through it. Much like its picture performance, it could do with a touch more in the way of subtlety and authenticity.

Verdict

While it isn’t perfect, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is a lot of fun. Having a portable screen of this size and quality to take your movies on the go is an exciting prospect, and while it may not be practical, it's about as close to a portable OLED TV as we’ve seen. 

It’s a little rough around the edges, with a screen that seems to trade detail for scale, but its uncompromising approach to being the biggest and boldest tablet still has appeal.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 5

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Samsung has unveiled a host of new devices at its Galaxy Unpacked event today, including two new smartphones, a pair of smartwatches and a trio of tablets. As expected, two new foldable phones have been revealed in the form of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5; and Samsung has also refreshed its Tab series with the Galaxy Tab S9, S9+ and S9 Ultra.

Let's take a closer look at all of the new reveals, starting with the new folding Galaxy smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5

Starting off with the Galaxy Z Fold 5, this device is a modest upgrade over last year's Galaxy Z Fold 4, as found in our hands-on review that you can read right now. It shares most of its design and features with last year's model, albeit with a thinner and lighter chassis. 

It has a 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X main display with a resolution of 2176 x 1812, and a 6.2-inch cover display (also Dynamic AMOLED 2X) that features a resolution of 2316 x 904. If you're wondering what the "Dynamic" part is in reference to, it's the refresh rate, as both of these displays feature adaptive refresh rate technology; the cover display goes from 48Hz to 120Hz, and the main display can go as low as just 1Hz and up to 120Hz.

It's HDR10+ compatible, not Dolby Vision much like Samsung's TVs, and it has Dolby Atmos support for both its speaker audio and its headphones, as is the case with its predecessor. It also looks like Samsung has equipped with the same camera arrangement as last year, consisting of 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP telephoto, 4MP under-display front-facing and 10MP cover, that's a whopping five cameras all in. It's also using the same 4400mAh battery as last year, although Samsung says its optimised performance this year resulted in improved battery life. Samsung is even offering the same storage and RAM configurations as last year with 256GB, 512GB and 1TB options all backed up by 12GB of RAM.

So what's new then? Well first of all it's using the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor, which is the same one found in the Galaxy S23 Ultra. This means performance should be extremely smooth, as these are proper flagship internal specs. It's also available in a new colour called Icy Blue (pictured above), although the Phantom Black and Cream colourways of last year return.

The biggest difference this year is the size and weight of the Fold, as it's been on a pretty big diet over the last year. Samsung has shaved 10g off the weight of the Fold 4, meaning the new Fold 5 weighs in at 253g. It's also thinner when folded, now at just 13.4mm, making this the most pocket-friendly Fold to date.

Unfortunately, it's not wallet-friendly, as the Fold 5 now starts at £1749, £100 more than the Z Fold 4 at launch. That's for the base configuration of 256GB; the 512GB model is £1849 and the 1TB model (exclusive to Samsung's online store) is £2049.

Moving onto the Galaxy Z Flip 5, which has more in the way of new features and design elements compared to the Fold. The Flip has a bigger 3.4-inch Super AMOLED 60Hz cover display and a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X main screen, which also features an adaptive frame rate (1Hz to 120Hz). It has a FullHD+ display resolution of 2640 x 1080 and, much like the Fold, it's HDR10+ compatible. Both foldable phones are supposedly brighter than their predecessors, however, no specific figure has been given quite yet.

The expanded cover screen features swappable lock screens with different widget setups and wallpapers, as well as live dynamic mini-sized apps designed to be used on the cover screen. You'll also find a pair of cameras on the outer surface (a 12MP ultra-wide and a 12MP main shooter), as well as a single front-facing snapper (10MP).

Much like its bigger counterpart, the Flip 5 is lighter, thinner when folded (or should we say flipped?) and has an improved battery life, despite using the same 3700mAh cell. It's also using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor and 8GB of RAM, paired with either 256GB or 512GB of storage; Samsung has done away with the 128GB base model. It's available in Lavender, Cream, Graphite and Mint - all hues are pleasingly pastel and we're especially fans of the Lavender and Mint colours.

But how much does it cost? Well, due to the removal of the smallest storage option, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 now starts at £1049, up from the Fold 4's starting price of £999, and the 512GB model bumps that price up to £1149. 

As for miscellaneous shared features, both phones run on the latest Android 13 version, with plenty of foldable accommodations built into Samsung's One UI skin. They also both utilise Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and Samsung's Armour Aluminium for enhanced durability and drop protection. Both devices are also IPX8 water resistant, meaning they can be submerged in fresh water for up to 30 minutes.

Pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 begin today, and it goes on sale on 11th August. 

Samsung Galaxy Tab S9, S9+ and S9 Ultra

It's not just about the phones today, as Samsung has unveiled its new lineup of flagship tablets. Introducing the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 series, which includes the Tab S9, Tab S9+ and Tab S9 Ultra, a trio of tabs aimed at those who want to take their entertainment and productivity apps on the go. 

All three tablets feature a new rear design that's more reminiscent of the Galaxy S23 smartphones, with a magnetic strip to connect the included S Pen as seen in the previous models now colour-matched to the aluminium backing. The whole Tab S9 series uses Dynamic AMOLED 2X screens with adaptive refresh rates of 60Hz to 120Hz, as well as featuring a 16:10 aspect ratio and HDR10+ support, and Dolby Atmos support for both speaker and headphone audio.

Each model is also using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy Processor, the same chip found in the two folding phones backed with an efficient vapour cooling chamber and two-way heat dissipation system, making this the "most heat efficient Galaxy Tab lineup ever". All three tablets are IP68 dust and water-resistant too if you plan on using them in outdoor environments that require additional ruggedness. However, there are a few key differences between them, so let's take a closer look at each tablet.

Starting with the smallest and working our way up, we have the Galaxy Tab S9. It features an 11-inch 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, although we aren't quite sure of the resolution as Samsung hasn't shared quite as much in the way of specs compared to the phones. It'll come in two configurations; 128GB storage with 8GB of RAM version and a 256GB with 12GB of RAM version. Each model is also available in either Wi-Fi only or 5G equipped for portable connectivity, however, an additional SIM plan is required for the 5G variant. 

It also features a single 13MP rear camera and a front-facing ultra-wide 12MP camera for selfies and video calling. Finally, the Tab S9 features an impressive 8400mAh battery, and that's just on the standard model.

Pricing for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 is as follows:

• Galaxy Tab S9 (Wi-Fi) 128GB: £799
• Galaxy Tab S9 (Wi-Fi) 256GB: £1099
• Galaxy Tab S9 (5G) 128GB: £949
• Galaxy Tab S9 (5G) 256GB: £1049

Moving onto the Galaxy Tab S9+, as the name suggests, it's a bigger and slightly higher-specked Tab S9. The screen size gets bumped up to 12.4 inches, the battery is increased to a 10,090mAh cell, and it comes with 12GB of RAM as standard for both the 256GB and 512GB models. The Tab S9+ also gets an additional rear camera in the form of an 8MP ultra-wide lens; otherwise, its camera configuration is the same as the standard Tab S9.

Pricing for the Galaxy Tab S9+ starts at £999 (full price breakdown below), meaning the 5G 128GB version of the standard S9 and the 256GB Wi-Fi model of the S9+ are just £50 apart. Full pricing for the Tab S9+ is as follows:

• Galaxy Tab S9+ (Wi-Fi) 256GB: £999
• Galaxy Tab S9+ (Wi-Fi) 512GB: £1099
• Galaxy Tab S9+ (5G) 256GB: £1149
• Galaxy Tab S9+ (5G) 512GB: £1249

Rounding things out with the biggest and most powerful tablet of the range, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. While it's using the same processor as the other two tablets, it comes with 12GB as standard (for the 256GB and 512GB models) or a whopping 16GB of RAM if you opt for the 1TB version. Samsung is angling this towards the prosumer market, and we can see why, as it's designed for both work and play.

The display specs should prove this, as it features an enormous (by tablet standards) 14.6-inch 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, with thinner bezels than the other two devices and, controversially, a small notch cutout in the centre of the top bezel when it held in landscape orientation. The display supports HDR10+, and sound should be equally as impressive as it supports Dolby Atmos through its quad speakers.

As for cameras, it has the same setup as the S9+ on the rear, however, it gets an additional 12MP front-facing camera, meaning there are four total cameras on the S9 Ultra. It also comes with a heft 11,200mAh battery inside, which should keep the tablet juiced up for quite some time.

Pricing for the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is below:

• Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (Wi-Fi) 256GB: £1199
• Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (Wi-Fi) 512GB: £1299
• Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (Wi-Fi) 1TB: £1549
• Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (5G) 256GB: £1349
• Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (5G) 512GB: £1449
• Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (5G) 1TB: £1699 

All three models come in two finishes; Beige and Graphite. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 series is available to pre-order today, and it's expected to go on sale on 11th August.

MORE:

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review

As well as our picks for the best smartphones

And our list of the best tablets

FiiO's new FW3 true wireless earbuds are here, and they might just shake up the established market with a strong list of features and, potentially, a very affordable price tag.

The new buds come equipped with a high-performance DAC and Qualcomm’s latest QCC5141 Bluetooth chipset, alongside Bluetooth 5.2. The buds support higher-quality codecs including LDAC, LHDC and aptX Adaptive (which support 24-bit streams over Bluetooth), as well as the more standard aptX, AAC and SBC. Each bud has a 10mm carbon-based dynamic driver unit, which FiiO claims will deliver "impressive musicality with excellent bass, clear midrange, and a detailed treble response".

Better news comes if you happen to be a gamer. Thanks to the integration of Qualcomms' Snapdragon Sound chip, the new buds are able to boast Low-Latency Gaming Mode which drops transmission lag to less than 100ms. We've personally sampled Qualcomm's latest Bluetooth tech courtesy of the Snapdragon S3 Gen 2 platform, so this could be a unique USP for FiiO's upcoming earbuds.

More general features are also on the table for non-gamers and gamers alike. Adjustable 10-band EQ settings, manual Bluetooth codec selection, left/right channel balance adjustment and four filter modes could give the FW3 the edge over its established rivals. 

FiiO has eschewed touch controls for physical buttons. The FW3 come with four physical buttons — two on each earbud — meaning you can play, pause, skip tracks and adjust volume from the buds themselves, as well as answer phone calls or activate voice assistants such as Siri. 

What about battery life? The earbuds hold seven hours of full charge, with an additional 14 hours from the supplied charging case, and take around an hour to charge. There are two styles of ear tips (silicon and balanced) that come in three sizes (small, medium and large) each.

The FiiO FW3 are available now, priced at a very competitive £95 / $99 / €110 (Australian prices pending). It's a tempting price tag, although it's worth noting these buds don't come with any active noise-cancelling features like Panasonic, Technics, JBL rivals at this price point. Their direct rival in price and features, the Huawei FreeBuds 5i, does include ANC, which makes the omission here a little sad.

FiiO claims the reason for the lack of ANC is that it is focusing on sound, though. The biggest question as a result is, will the FW3 be good enough to beat class leaders in this segment of the market, such as the five-star Sony WF-C700N? We'll have to wait until we review them to find out.

MORE:

I used a DAC for the first time and it’s a game-changer

Confused about codecs? Our explainer might help you out

Check out our guide for the best wireless earbuds

There are no two ways about it, smartphone prices are skyrocketing, with no sign of slowing down any time soon. I still remember the day Apple announced the iPhone X in 2017, with its thousand pound/dollar price tag - and since then we've seen Samsung, Sony and Oppo all release phones that exceed that figure. 

Thankfully, there are plenty of brilliant budget phones that buck this inflated price trend, with Google's Pixel a-Series, Sony's Xperia 10, and newcomer Nothing Phone (1) that don't compromise too much when it comes to pivotal aspects like the screen, sound and performance. So why mention these phones when we're hotly anticipating the iPhone 15 and Xperia 1 V? Well, it looks like 2023 might be a big year for budget phones, with Google and Sony unveiling their respective devices just hours apart. 

Last week, Google held its annual I/O event, which was mostly focused on AI and Android upgrades, however, we did see some new hardware. This includes the ludicrously expensive Pixel Fold and versatile smart display/tablet hybrid, imaginatively titled the Pixel Tablet. While the latter is worth keeping an eye on, the real star of the show in my eyes is the new Pixel 7a, which seems to offer a majority of what the regular Pixel 7 does, with £100 knocked off the price.  

The Pixel 7a gets a 1080p/90Hz OLED display, the same specification as the Pixel 7 but it's a tad smaller at 6.1 inches compared to the regular 7's 6.3-inch screen. The 7a also gets wireless charging, more RAM, face unlock and a much higher resolution camera system when compared to last year's Pixel 6a. The 7a even gets the latest Tensor G2 processor that's found in the Pixel 7 Pro, meaning performance should be buttery smooth. Overall, the 7a is looking like a pretty enticing budget smartphone for most people; but there's an even better-looking option for AV enthusiasts.

Introducing the Sony Xperia 10 V, which also debuted last week. If the name sounds familiar, then you may recognise its predecessor from the 2022 What Hi-Fi? Awards Best Smartphone category as the 10 IV wowed us with its stellar AV performance at a very reasonable price. I seriously respect Sony's commitment to AV performance with its smartphones, with the 21:9 aspect ratio on all its devices and dedication to keeping the 3.5mm headphone jack alive after every other smartphone manufacturer kicked it to the curb. 

The 10 V carries over many of its predecessor's best features, including that 1080p 21:9 OLED display, which wowed us last year, and hi-res audio support for both wired and wireless headphones. It's getting some AV-focused updates, however, including a brighter display and better loudspeakers - the latter is especially exciting as the 10 IV's speakers were my biggest gripe with the device. 

The only caveat is that it's not getting much in the way of internal upgrades, with the same Snapdragon 695 5G chip powering the device. I would've preferred a more up-to-date processor in this latest-generation smartphone, considering that the 10 IV did stutter occasionally, but I can look past it - especially if the picture and sound performance are as good as last year's model.

Ultimately, both the latest Google and Sony announcements prove that you can get a lot of smartphone, for not a whole lot of money. That's why I've got my eye on the Xperia 10 V, as it could be the next great movie-focused phone that doesn't break the bank.,

MORE:

Get your first look at the Sony Xperia 1 V and 10 V

Read our full Sony Xperia 10 IV review

And check out our picks for the best Android smartphones

The beauty of portable music players is their simplicity. Load them up with music, pair them with decent audiophile headphones, and away you go – into the revered sonic realms of portable hi-fi that are often only reached by speaker-fronted systems costing significantly more.

With the FiiO M11S, there is, however, an additional accessory and slight cost you need to factor into its £489 / $499 / AU$819 price tag – a microSD card. While many owners of music players might end up purchasing a storage card to boost internal storage capacity, it’s almost a requirement of buying the M11S, which has a mere 32GB built in – half as many gigabytes offered by the pricier but most entry-level player in Astell & Kern’s catalogue, the SR25 MkII. As that would accommodate roughly 1,000 CD-quality songs, those who have modest libraries, who perhaps also rely on a streaming service, may believe they could get by on that. But when you fire up the player and get stuck into the menus, you soon realise that half of that internal storage is already eaten up by various functions of the player’s Android 10 operating system. And if you want to download any apps such as Tidal (100MB) or Apple Music (45MB) from the Google Play Store, that will leave even less room for your music files. So do budget a little extra for that microSD card, whether it’s a 128GB or 2TB (the maximum supported) one you need.

Features

Because then you really will have everything required to nurture a serious-sounding digital music library and player. FiiO players we have tested in the past often major on features, and built-in storage aside the M11S is no different. It has all the mod cons of a music player in 2023 – file support that extends to 32-bit/384kHz, DSD256 and MQA; access to music streaming services (plus every other app available on Android); and even a choice of 3.5mm, balanced 2.5mm and balanced 4.4mm headphone outputs. But it also goes the extra mile to become a bigger part of your music-listening life if you so wish, thanks to its extracurricular duty as a USB DAC for your computer/laptop, not to mention its ability to stream music to wireless headphones and speakers via Bluetooth (LDAC, aptX HD, LHDC) or AirPlay.

Considering the reliability of Android and the fact the M11S is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 660 chip (the same used in FiiO's flagship M17), we weren’t surprised that every task we asked of the player was performed with haste and without issue.

What you use and how you use it will determine how much action the FiiO can deliver from a single charge, though the claimed figure is 14 hours for single-ended use. During our testing, we found that it ran for around 11 hours continuously playing 16-bit to 24-bit files at a middling volume – not bad for real-world use, though bettered by the aforementioned Astell & Kern player. So long as you don’t want a player to loudly blast music into your ears for the entire length of a long transatlantic flight, the M11S’s battery life should be satisfactory for most use cases, whether that’s at the heart of your home desktop or hi-fi system or accompanying you on your daily commute.

Build

You’re certainly getting a lot of player for your money here, with the player measuring  12.5 x 7.4 x 1.9cm (hwd). To put that into perspective, it’s just shorter than a Samsung Galaxy phone but wider and almost three times the depth. Indeed that makes it more coat pocket than jeans pocket-sized, though more desktop-suitable than both. The headphone output's position at the bottom of the player emphasises this too.

It’s suitably heavy for such dimensions, presenting a reassuring sense of build quality, though the fact that the chassis corners are pointed and much of the player’s front is a 5-inch touchscreen display (albeit with a factory-fitted tempered glass protector) wouldn’t leave us in any doubt as to whether or not to use the supplied clear case. It’s not pretty exactly, but neither is scratched aluminium.

The FiiO saves itself from being a boring rectangular chassis by being almost a boring rectangular chassis, save for its left-hand side angled protrusion, on the outer edge of which you’ll find power and multi-purpose buttons as well as a nicely sized, slightly textured volume pad. Our eyes lit up at the sight of the latter, presuming it would be a slider control to allow for one-finger volume adjustment when the player is sat on a surface. Disappointingly it isn’t, but like the rest of the controls (pause/play and skip tracks on the player’s right-hand edge) it is reliably responsive and ergonomic while in the hand.

FiiO has been in the game long enough to know how to produce an intuitive music player both from hardware and software perspectives. The FiiO Music app gives a positive first impression – open it up and it prompts you to scan local files on the device (which are easy to copy across from a computer using a free third-party software such as Android File Transfer) and any networked files you may have on a NAS device. And it builds on that during our testing with a logically laid out and pleasantly attractive interface that most people will get to grips with within minutes. Album artwork takes up most of the playback screen’s real estate, though we are equally pleased to see full format and size information for every track just below it.

Sound

Android device users will be comfortable with the familiar interface and dropdown shortcut menu, though we would encourage owners to set aside time to deep-dive into the menus to explore player-specific settings. We found, for example, that switching on all ‘All To DSD’ (conversion) and Pure Music Mode (which restricts operation to the FiiO Music app only) enhanced the sound quality, pulling everything into focus a little more thanks to an extra dose of clarity and precision.

Those two adjectives are two of the M11S’s strengths, existing below the player’s two most dominant characteristics – smoothness and openness – on its CV. This all makes for a very comfortable listen that invites you to sink into an armchair, relax and switch off the outside world. Its soundstage has that lovely balance of being wide-open enough for music to feel dimensional and spacious while also having the sheer clarity to pull everything into direct audible focus. Add to that a tonality on the richer side of neutral, and a particular lushness in the midrange, and we come back to its sonic comfort. It’s very likeable.

Playing The National’s I Need My Girl, the FiiO conveys the guitar melody and Matt Berninger’s baritone vocal with just the right amount of weight and body to allow the track to soothe, with the extent of the lilts in his delivery intact and evidence too of the M11S’s expression. Over to Ocean Alley’s Yellow Mellow (Tidal) and that funkadelic instrumentation has enough space to bop around in, with everything nicely balanced from top to bottom and a forward treble bite it just about gets away with.

While you are forgetting about the outside world, though, you might also forget how dynamically punchy or driven a song is, such is the FiiO’s easygoing nature. It’s not a slouch exactly, but a low priority given to timing means it struggles to underpin the rhythmic elements of a song, as its rendition of Elvis Costello’s charged Lipstick Vogue opener lays bare. For all of its impressive articulacy, it’s too laid back to be considered particularly fun – and, depending on what kind of music you tend to listen to, that could be a reason to choose an alternative. Indeed, the Astell & Kern SR25 MkII (and MKI, actually) is a better timekeeper and consequently a more musically gifted component.

Verdict

That would inevitably require upping your budget, considering the FiiO more or less occupies a barren segment of the market that can now firmly be considered ‘entry-level’. But for its asking price (plus a little more for a storage card), it’s a very fine option and, needless to say, a huge upgrade on a smartphone. Prioritising maturity over merriment, the M11S might not be the most thrilling performer. But it’s more sophisticated in other ways – sonic clarity and openness, and feature-set – than this level has demanded in the past, and for that it deserves an audience.

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 4
• Build 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Astell & Kern A&norma SR25 MKII

Best portable MP3 players: budget to hi-res music players

Japanese headphones specialist Final has announced its flagship true wireless earbuds, the Final ZE8000.

Costing £299 / $349, the premium pricing puts the new earbuds up against the class-leaders Apple AirPods Pro 2, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II and Sony WF-1000XM4 in this highly competitive market – but Final has made some bold claims when it comes to its sound technology. 

First up is "8K Sound". What is that, you ask? It's what Final calls the innovative technology used in the driver, DSP and amplification to deliver the best possible sound quality in the ZE8000. Final says: "Instead of focusing only on [the] fine-tuning of particular frequencies, the time element of every single bit of sound is also carefully calibrated with digital signal processing". This is also aided by using a new ‘f-CORE for 8K Sound’ ultra-low distortion driver with a large 13mm diaphragm, which is powered by Class AB amplification in each bud. Final says the "impressively low total harmonic distortion (THD) from this driver is unique" and delivers the "highest precision in digital signal processing results and allowing the fullest possible portrayal of sound texture and detail." 

Bold claims indeed.

Next on the specs list is wireless technology support. Bluetooth 5.2 is onboard, as is support for the higher-quality aptX and aptX Adaptive codecs in addition to standard SBC and AAC.

Final also says the ZE8000 is "fully compatible" with phones and devices that support Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon Sound technology, such as the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. This package of audio technologies aims to enhance the Bluetooth experience with, for example, more robust connectivity, lower latency and wideband voice call quality. But while the Snapdragon Sound platform also supports aptX Lossless for lossless Bluetooth transmission of 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD-quality) – an unprecedented feat for Bluetooth technology – the Final earbuds do not have the very latest chip to support that particular audio feature, or indeed spatial audio with dynamic head tracking. Still, they are hardly lacking in the features department...

In terms of active noise cancelling, Final has promised that sound quality will "always be the focus of the ZE8000" and that ANC "does not degrade the audio in any way." That's certainly music to our ears. 

The ZE8000 has four listening modes: noise cancelling (full ANC), wind-cut (eliminates wind noise captured by the microphones), ambient (lets you be aware of surroundings) and voice through (lets you have conversations without removing the earbuds).

You can cycle through these modes using the Final Connect app, which also has a Volume Step Optimizer – this lets you fine-tune the volume at a higher precision than a smartphone's standard control will allow.

The earbuds each hold four hours of charge, going up to a total of 15 hours with the charging case. It's decent, but not the class-leading numbers we're used to seeing, with rivals Apple and Sony respectively offering six and eight hours in the buds, and totals of 30 and 24 hours with their cases.

The buds themselves sport an unusual "division" design, which Final says is "shaped in a way to suit all ear shapes and sizes" for comfort and stability. The earbuds are available in black or white finishes and, from the press images, it seems they have the same speckly texture we found in the UX3000 over-ear headphones.

The Final ZE8000 wireless earbuds will be available from today, priced at £299 / €329 / $349 from selected retailers, including Amazon, Selfridges, Harrods, and Audio46.

MORE:

What is lossless audio? Is it worth it and do you need it?

Read our Final UX3000 review

Here's our guide to the best wireless earbuds you can buy

2022 signified an evolutionary year for Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone line, as the brand unified the S and Note devices into one smartphone, dubbed the Galaxy S22 Ultra. With a huge AMOLED display, S-Pen support and top-of-the-line specs and build quality, it really lived up to its Ultra name.

A year on, Samsung has followed up on its former flagship with the Galaxy S23 Ultra; a phone that is equally massive and fully featured, that basically represents the no-compromise approach for Android phones. But with minimal upgrades over last year’s model accompanied by an increase in price, does the S23 Ultra still represent the ultimate Android phone?

Price

There’s no escaping the slow creep-up of prices we’ve seen on many smartphones this release cycle, and the Galaxy S23 Ultra is no exception – unless you live in the States. The S23 Ultra starts at £1249 / $1199 / AU$1949; that places it well above the iPhone 14 Pro Max and even its predecessor in the UK and Australia; however, the price stays the same as last year in the US. It is slightly cheaper than the Sony Xperia 1 IV, our current favourite Android phone, although if you shop around you may be able to find the Xperia has dropped in price since its launch in June of last year.

For your money, you get the new and exclusive Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor (more on that later), 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There are also 512GB and 1TB storage configurations, with the latter serving as a Samsung.com store exclusive. 

Build

The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s build is fantastic, but it's also almost identical to that of its predecessor. Its casework is solid and high quality, making it look as good as it feels in the hand, with smooth aluminium rails around the edge of the device, and a matte glass rear panel that makes the phone less likely to slip out of your hand or off the side of a table. 

The added grip to the rear panel is necessary with this phone, as it takes some fairly intense hand-gymnastics to navigate if you’re using it one-handed. We find ourselves shuffling the phone around in a slightly awkward (and dangerous) fashion when going from the navigation controls at the bottom to the notification panel at the top. Thankfully, Samsung has built in some one-handed mode functionality and smart software tricks that make it more manageable at times, such as being able to swipe up anywhere on the home screen to get to the apps menu or down anywhere to expand the notification panel. Still, there’s no way of getting around the fact that this phone is massive. 

To be precise, its screen is 6.8 inches diagonally and the handset weighs 234g in total – making it very similar to the iPhone 14 Pro Max in stature and heft. Against its nearest Android rival, the Xperia 1 IV, it's practically identical in height, but the Sony’s 21:9 aspect ratio makes it the skinnier of the two devices. 

Features

The Galaxy S23 Ultra is practically the definition of feature-packed – but then so was its predecessor. So what’s new here? The main feature that Samsung is advertising with the Ultra is its advanced camera system, with the main sensor coming in at 200MP, an increase from the S22 Ultra’s 108MP main camera. This is backed up with a 10MP periscope telephoto lens, a 10MP telephoto lens and finally a 12MP ultrawide camera. In practice, the camera on the S23 Ultra is brilliant, fusing top-notch performance with intuitive software, meaning even the most amateur of photographers can snap a quality image.

Elsewhere, little has changed for the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It features a very similar 120Hz 1440p screen as did year's model, for example. Not that that's an issue in general use, though, as it's still a joy to interact with. Whether it’s swiping and tapping through the One UI 5.1 operating system or scrolling through social media and news feeds, the S23 Ultra’s display is just as silky smooth and sharp as you’d want it to be. On the topic of One UI, Samsung is shipping its latest software on the S23 Ultra, adding a few new quality-of-life improvements and camera shooting modes, but otherwise, there doesn’t appear to be any drastic changes to the OS this year.

Underneath that display is a fingerprint sensor for biometric unlocking and authentication. It's lightning fast, unlocking the device with just a quick tap, making it much quicker and more accurate than the likes of the Google Pixel 7. There is also a 12MP hole-punch-style front-facing camera that can be used for facial recognition as an alternative. 

Another feature that is becoming synonymous with the Galaxy Ultra line is the S-Pen, the stylus formerly affiliated with Samsung’s now-extinct Galaxy Note series. It pops in and out of the frame with a satisfying click and vibration, and is a useful (if slightly gimmicky) addition that allows you to scrawl notes on the screen and even control some of the phone’s functionality remotely. 

Getting on to what we’re most interested in, the phone’s AV features, the S23 Ultra supports HDR in the HDR10+ format, meaning content from Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and Google Play should get a boost, but since the phone lacks support for Dolby Vision, Disney Plus and Netflix won’t get as much love as the aforementioned services. However, Dolby is featured on the audio side of things, with Dolby Atmos support for both the phone’s speakers and via both wired and wireless headphones.

Finally, the S23 Ultra is powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, although the S23 receives a unique “for Galaxy” variant here. The suffix doesn’t allude to much, and in reality, it just means that this version of the 8 Gen 2 has a slightly higher clock speed than on other devices. Putting it into practice, the S23 Ultra is blisteringly fast and responsive in day-to-day use, with no noticeable stuttering or lag when opening apps.

Picture

With Samsung’s pedigree when it comes to TVs and history of providing excellent displays on its smartphones, it's no surprise that the picture performance on the S23 Ultra is mostly very good. Movies feel right at home on the expansive AMOLED display, leaning towards the vibrant and punchy colours that have become synonymous with Samsung up to this point. 

This leads to some slightly warmer-looking skin tones and reddish complexions at times, but it's by no means unpleasant, and there is an option to knock the display’s warmth back in the settings menu. Watching a section of Le Mans 66 (or Ford v Ferrari for US readers), the slightly punchier colours are appreciated when it comes to the golden Californian skies and glistening supercars. Switching over to the opening of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, we can see where colours begin to look a bit overdone, though, with the foliage within the opening scene verging on neon green.

Black levels are an immediate highlight thanks to the OLED technology, and there’s a good amount of dark detail during a young Jyn Erso’s escape to the sanctuary of a secluded cave during the Empire’s raid. A decent amount of detail can be seen on the rocks despite them being mostly cast in shadow. Overall, the Ultra’s display manages to capture a good amount of detail in environmental, skin and clothing textures, avoiding the sometimes overly etched effect of the generally superb Sony Xperia 1 IV.

Side by side, we prefer the Samsung’s slightly more subtle and balanced approach in some cases, with its softer display making the Xperia seem sometimes overly sharp. However we can’t deny that the Sony’s 4K display takes the edge when it comes to capturing extra detail, and it also trumps the Samsung when it comes to motion, as some blur is noticeable when it comes to fast-moving spacecraft and character movements in this Star Wars flick.

The real thorn in the Galaxy’s side is Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max. Side by side we prefer the iPhone in practically every picture aspect. The iPhone’s Dolby Vision-equipped display provides much more natural and realistic colours and skin tones. This is thanks to its slightly less vibrant display and more balanced approach to contrast, which adds more subtle detailing even in brightly coloured objects. The motion blur found on the S23 Ultra is also not an issue for the iPhone and it retains its strengths when it comes to black depth thanks to its own OLED panel. 

The iPhone clearly betters the S23 Ultra when it comes to picture, and considering Samsung has made no real effort to upgrade the viewing experience on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, it slips behind the 14 Pro Max – which now also costs less.

Sound

Sound performance on the S23 Ultra is actually the opposite of what we find with many of the smartphones we test, as here the speaker audio is possibly more impressive than that of the headphones. Not that the S23 Ultra actually sounds better via the speakers than it does with headphones, but that its speaker performance is better than that of most rivals and its headphone performance isn't.

With Dolby Atmos support for the speakers, we find that the Samsung provides a surprisingly wide and well-organised audio presentation. This likely benefits from the Samsung’s large frame, which allows for more physical separation and therefore a wider soundstage, but we also feel that there is a slight additional warmth and naturalness to the Samsung’s speakers. Voices appear to correspond well to the subject’s position on the screen, and there is a touch more depth than is offered by iPhone, which sounds a bit flatter and less spacious in comparison. It’s worth noting that the iPhone’s speakers can go louder than the Samsung’s, but the S23 Ultra’s speakers are more than adequate in most scenarios. 

Headphone performance, on the other hand, is not quite as good as that of the iPhone. That’s not to say it's unpleasant, as the Samsung offers a detailed and clear delivery when we throw our favourite tricky test track Limit To Your Love by James Blake at it, but it lacks the warmth and natural tone that it seems to possess with its speakers. The Samsung sounds slightly mechanical and analytical when compared to the iPhone’s rich and natural presentation. The iPhone also exceeds the Samsung when it comes to dynamics, with the former providing more impact.

One area where the Samsung does excel is with spatial audio playback, as streaming the Atmos version of Supercut by Lorde on Tidal makes for an impressive show of immersive audio – though it has to be said that the iPhone also handles this very well.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is another case of the iterative phone cycle we have found ourselves in within the past year. Not much has changed from last year’s model apart from the camera and processor, and while both are good additions, we’re not sure if they justify such a steep rise in pricing.

And when it comes to a phone that costs this much offering little to no upgrades in the AV department, it leaves us feeling a little bit disappointed – especially now that Apple has upped its game even further with the iPhone 14 Pro Max. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is still a great daily handset, and it provides a solid picture and sound experience – but for the money, it needs to be outstanding.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony Xperia 1 IV

Also consider the iPhone 14

Read our iPhone 14 Pro Max review

The best smartphones for music and movies

Once upon a time, a rebellious company by the name of OnePlus sought to challenge the likes of Samsung, Apple and Sony to prove that you can get flagship performance without the flagship price tag. However, in the words of The Dark Knight’s Harvey Dent, “you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”.

With OnePlus phones now sporting price tags to rival those of iPhones, who will champion those that want to stick it to the man and tread the path less travelled when it comes to inexpensive and experimental smartphones? Ironically, it’s OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei who's come to the rescue, with a new brand that invokes the ethos of the early days of OnePlus.

It’s called Nothing, and you might be familiar with the company as we reviewed its first product, the Ear (1) wireless earbuds, back in 2021. Its first Android smartphone, the Phone (1), retains the naming convention and aesthetics of the company’s earphones, but can it deliver a quality AV performance at a genuinely competitive price point?

Price

The Phone (1) is a truly affordable smartphone that starts at just £399 / AU$749. Unfortunately, the Nothing Phone (1) is not available to purchase in the States via conventional means. You can sign up for Nothing’s Beta testing scheme, and for $299 you can become an early adopter of Nothing in the States – the brand is thankfully intending on bringing its mooted Nothing Phone (2) to the USA when it launches.

If you are lucky enough to live in a region that the Phone (1) is available in, then you can expect a Snapdragon 778G+ processor – arguably Qualcomm’s best Snapdragon processor for mid-range phones – equipped with 5G and admirable performance to keep the phone running smoothly. The base model comes with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage, while 8GB / 256GB and 12GB / 256GB models are also available. 

At its price point, the Nothing is an extremely competitively priced phone – but maybe not competitive enough. The Award-winning Sony Xperia 10 IV undercuts it by a fair amount, and its proven five-star AV performance will certainly give the Nothing a run for its money.

Build

The Phone (1) looks and feels much more expensive than its price may suggest. Upon first glance, you would be forgiven for confusing it for an iPhone 12, with its flat aluminium rails and dual vertical-stacked cameras on the back. That's where the similarities end, though, with both the iPhone and any other phone we’ve seen before, as the Nothing’s unique design might be its biggest selling point.

The back features a transparent glass panel that lets you take a peek at some of the internal components of the phone, as well as housing the Glyph system, more on which later. The device’s aesthetics certainly turn heads, and if you want a phone that doubles as a conversation piece, the Nothing might be right up your alley.

Features

Despite the low cost of the Nothing, it doesn’t disappoint when it comes to the feature set. As previously mentioned, the most unique feature of the phone is the Glyph interface – a series of LED light strips on the back of the phone that can act as a notification light, a camera flash and even a battery charging indicator. While we find it to be fairly gimmicky, we can’t dispute the fact that it also looks pretty cool.

On the subject of the rear of the phone, you’ll find two cameras, both 50MP, with one standard main lens and a secondary ultra-wide lens. The Phone (1) is a decent snapper, but with many Android phones toting three or more lenses these days, a telephoto zoom lens wouldn’t go amiss. You’ll also find a 16MP “hole-punch” style single front camera nestled in the top left corner of the display, which allows for unlocking via facial recognition.

On to the main event – the Nothing’s surprisingly high-spec display. The phone sports a 6.55-inch OLED display, with a resolution of 1080p (and a pixel density of 402ppi), and a buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rate. It’s a big, bright and responsive display that feels like the sweet spot at this price. The OLED means convincing blacks, while the 120Hz refresh rate should get the attention of mobile gamers. The display also supports HDR via the HDR10+ format, ideal for streaming on Amazon Prime Video; however, the likes of Netflix and Disney Plus are on team Dolby Vision which doesn’t feature here.

The Nothing Phone (1) runs Android 12 (dubbed Nothing OS) out of the box; though an update to Android 13 is just around the corner. It's a fairly stripped-back version of the Google operating system, but it takes on a lot of Nothing’s edgy aesthetic. It’s easy to navigate and runs smoothly, and the visual changes are easy to adapt to.

Picture

As the aforementioned screen specs might suggest, the Nothing’s display is impressive. There are certainly sharper displays on the market, but Nothing’s price-to-performance ratio is impressive. With its deep inky OLED blacks and considered handling of contrast, the Nothing gets a lot right.

Firing up Thor: Love And Thunder, it's immediately obvious that the Nothing is capable when it comes to contrast. Edges are well-defined and characters are placed firmly in the foreground of scenes, creating a tangible depth to the image. This is down to the OLED display’s commendable handling of contrast

Detail is solid across the board, with skin and environmental textures all looking adequately resolved. Skin tones also look mostly spot on. At times they can look a little too punchy, but this doesn’t detract too much from the display's overall strengths. In fact, the Nothing’s display leans towards the bolder side overall, with the vivid visuals found in the latest Thor flick bursting to life on the Nothing’s screen.

The OLED display brings its expected strengths when it comes to black levels, with the deep, dark vacuum of space looking convincingly black in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Distant stars do punch through the expansive black canvas, but we’ve seen this shot handled better on other phone displays, most notably that of the Sony Xperia 10 IV, which just manages to grab that extra bit of detail. The Sony also just edges out the Nothing when it comes to contrast here.

Overall, while the Nothing holds its own against the Sony Xperia 10 IV in many regards and provides a punchy and entertaining picture in its own right, it can’t quite rival the cinematic quality achieved by the Sony’s 21:9 display, which is literally made to watch movies on. 

Sound

The Nothing uses a combination loudspeaker and earpiece stereo pairing that has become commonplace in the smartphone world. And, much like many other smartphones, they’re not exactly the best way to listen to content. There’s a definite lack of bass and overall sharpness that makes the Nothing’s speakers only really useful in a pinch. We certainly wouldn’t recommend using them to stream your favourite songs.

Headphone performance is thankfully a different story. Connecting a pair of over-ears via a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter (did we mention the lack of headphone jack on the Nothing?), we’re met with a much fuller presentation, with heartier bass and even some detail in the upper range. Throwing our usual test track, James Blake’s Limit To Your Love, at the Nothing yields mostly positive results, with decent clarity to vocals and authenticity to the instrumentation.

In the dynamics, though, the Nothing somewhat drops the ball. The brief moments of silence before each new verse of crashing pianos and vocals kicks in feels lacklustre, not quite hitting as convincingly as they do from the Xperia 10 IV. Overall, the Sony provides the slightly more considered performance out of the two, with a touch more detail and clarity, as well as snappier timing, making it the better pick when it comes to headphone audio.

That being said, the Nothing still produces a mostly positive headphone experience; but with tough competition from the Xperia, we’re sticking by our favourite budget smartphone this time.

Verdict

The Nothing Phone (1) is a welcome oddity in the current smartphone scene. With iterative yearly updates from Apple, Samsung and Sony, it feels like the days when each new phone would have groundbreaking new features are slowly fading. 

Nothing, conversely, provides a phone with a unique aesthetic and feature set, sturdy build and 120Hz OLED display – all for less than half the price of the latest iPhone. If you want a smartphone that will turn heads, alongside providing a pretty solid AV experience overall, the Nothing Phone (1) might be the rebellious new alternative for you.

SCORES

• Features 4
• Picture 4
• Sound 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony Xperia 10 IV

Also consider the Google Pixel 7

Read our OnePlus 10 Pro review

These are the best smart phones for music and movies

Samsung has unveiled the latest iteration of its Galaxy S flagship smartphones with the S23, S23+ and S23 Ultra. The three devices were unveiled at the company's Unpacked live-streamed event which gave us a first look at these next-generation Android smartphones.

We start with the Galaxy S23, the smallest and most affordable in the range and likely to be the most popular. It features a redesigned camera module, a 6.1-inch AMOLED display and Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor.

It treads a lot of familiar ground covered by last year's Galaxy S22, with its 1080p 120Hz display, central "hole-punch" selfie camera cutout and under-display fingerprint sensor. Once again, the display supports HDR10+, although Samsung hasn't confirmed if this display is identical to the S22's.

Samsung hasn't revealed much about the S23's audio capabilities. All we know currently is that it doesn't have a headphone jack and that it does support Dolby Atmos via its stereo speakers and headphones.

The S23's biggest upgrades centre around performance, battery and camera. It uses the latest flagship processor from Qualcomm, here tuned for a slightly higher clock speed as denoted by the "for Galaxy" addition to the title. Samsung claims that the S23 will be the best-performing Android phone on the market, and with 8GB of RAM and One UI 5.1 adding a host of new software features, the Galaxy S23 is promising plenty on paper.

The camera also gets a boost, although the main sensor appears to be the same 50MP as seen in last year's model. Instead, it looks like software will be doing the majority of the heavy lifting when it comes to camera improvements. This includes upgrades to Samsung's Nightography mode (low light photography to you and me) with a new Astrophoto mode for capturing extra detail in night sky shots. The selfie camera does get an all-around boost, going up to 12MP and gaining the ability to record in Super HDR 60FPS.

Finally, the S23 gets a boost in the battery department, upping the capacity to 3900mAh, an increase from the S22's 3700mAh battery. You'll notice that updates to the AV performance of the S22 are slight, so video streaming and audio enthusiasts might not get a huge jump forward in performance.

While it looks like not a lot has changed with the S23, one thing that certainly has is the price, as Samsung has made the S23 more expensive in the UK. It now starts at £849 / $799 for the 128GB model and £899 for 256GB of storage. That's an increase of £80 for both configurations over the S22.

Looking at the S23+ now, it's a fairly self-explanatory device, sharing practically all the same specs as its smaller sibling, just with a bigger screen and battery. The S23+ goes up to a 6.6-inch AMOLED screen, still at 1080p 120Hz, with an increased battery capacity of 4700mAh - also an increase of 200mAh over last year's model.

The S23+ also sees a significant increase in price in the UK. It now starts at £1049 / $999 for the 128GB configuration and £1149 for 512GB. The S22+ started at £949, meaning the S23+ is £100 more expensive this year.

Last but certainly not least is the Galaxy S23 Ultra, Samsung's top-of-the-line flagship smartphone for 2023. Continuing last year's trend of combining the Galaxy S and Note series into one all-powerful device, this S-Pen-equipped titan features the largest screen, battery and camera of the trio. 

Spec wise it features the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor as its smaller counterparts, although Samsung is ditching the 128GB model in favour of the 256GB version, meaning we should see 12GB of RAM for all configurations. It also features an almost identical design to last year's S22 Ultra, with an expansive 6.8-inch AMOLED display running at 1440p (2K) with a 120Hz refresh rate.

The S23 Ultra's design looks to be practically unchanged from last year's S22 Ultra, although Samsung says that the front glass on the display curves slightly more over the edges of the device for a more futuristic appearance and slimmer side bezels.

The main draw for the S23 Ultra is the ludicrous 200MP main camera, an upgrade over the 108MP on the S22 Ultra - so almost double the megapixel count. It's capable of recording 8K video and boasts a new Astrophotography Hyperlapse mode for stunning long exposure shots of the night sky. 

Like the other devices in the S23 range, the Ultra has not escaped a price increase, with the 256GB model starting at £1249 / $1199, the 512GB version £1399, and an exclusive Samsung.com 1TB edition for £1599.

All three devices come in four colours: Phantom Black, Cream, Lavender and Green and will be the first devices equipped with the latest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 glass for enhanced durability. The Samsung Galaxy S23, S23+ and S23 Ultra are available to pre-order now and will hit stores on February 17th. Samsung is also running a pre-order promotion that doubles your storage, meaning if you preorder the 256GB S23 Ultra or S23+, Samsung will upgrade you to the 512GB model, and if you pre-order the 128GB S23, you can upgrade to the 256GB model at no extra cost. You can pre-order the Galaxy S23 range on Samsung's official web store.  

MORE:

Read our early hands-on review of the Samsung Galaxy S23, S23+ and S23 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S23 vs Galaxy S22

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs iPhone 14 Pro Max

Samsung Galaxy S23 vs iPhone 14

We're just under two weeks away from Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, in which the Korean tech giant will likely unveil the latest generation of Galaxy S smartphones - however, thanks to an onslaught of leaks, we may already know everything about the Galaxy S23.

A spec sheet for all models in the S23 series has leaked online, posted on Twitter by leaker billbil-kun (via The Verge ), which has revealed practically all the specs and features that we expect to see on the Galaxy S23, S23 Plus and S23 Ultra. This includes a powerful new camera, battery and charging upgrades, and further details on the devices' displays.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra looks like it will include Samsung's latest and greatest camera system, with a whopping 200-megapixel main shooter headlining the setup. This is joined by an additional 12-megapixel ultra-wide, a 10-megapixel telephoto with 3x optical zoom and finally, another 10-megapixel telephoto this time with a 10x optical zoom. While the standard S23 and S23 Plus won't include the top-of-the-range cameras seen on the S23 Ultra, they still include a triple camera arrangement comprised of a 50-megapixel main camera, as well as the 12-megapixel ultra-wide and 10-megapixel telephoto with 3x optical zoom as found on the S23 Ultra.

Moving onto the displays, we've already seen plenty of leaks relating to the S23 range's screens, however, these new leaks certainly add fuel to the fire. Previous reports of the S23 Ultra sporting a 6.8-inch 1440p display at 120Hz are backed up here, as well as the S23 and S23 Plus receiving 6.1-inch and 6.6-displays respectively, running at 1080p and 120Hz. All three phones in the S23 series will retain the central hole punch style camera cutout as seen on the S22, S21 and S20; housing a 12-megapixel selfie camera. 

Previous spec leaks have also pointed towards Samsung ditching its Exenyos in-house chipset, and this leak backs that up too. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 makes an appearance once again, this time specified in French and German models of the S23, meaning European models are almost guaranteed to be using the flagship Qualcomm processor. Storage and RAM configurations look to be the following:

• Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus: 8GB RAM, 128GB/256GB/512GB onboard storage.
• Galaxy S23 Ultra: 8GB/12GB RAM, 256GB/512GB/1TB onboard storage.

Finally, Samsung appears to be sticking with the same battery capacities as last year, as well as the high-speed charging performance. The S23 Ultra will include a 5000 mAh, the S23 gets a 3900 mAh cell and the S23 Plus sits between them at 4700 mAh. Both the S23 Ultra and Plus will include 45-watt fast charging - however, Samsung will likely not include a fast charging adapter in the box, so you'll probably have to buy one separately. The regular S23 will not support 45-watt fast charging, instead topping out at 23-watts.

Samsung is set to officially announce these devices in just under two weeks, so stay tuned for our coverage. Despite the extensive leaks we've seen recently, we're still anticipating getting to spend some hands-on time with the device in the near future for a full review. 

MORE:

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review 

Everything you need to know about the Galaxy S23: price, release date, specs

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Earlier this week, after months of rumours, Samsung finally confirmed it will be hosting its Unpacked event on 1st February. 

And while the audiophile readers on this page may meet the news with an unceremonious shrug, with the budget Galaxy Buds 3 earbuds being the only relevant release expected at the event, for most gadget aficionados it's a big deal for one key reason: Samsung’s highly anticipated Galaxy S23 smartphone family of phones is expected to make its debut.

To catch people up who don’t religiously follow the phone market, the Galaxy S23 is expected to be one of the biggest rivals to Apple’s iPhone this year and a direct follow-on from the Galaxy S22, which we gave five stars after thorough testing last year.

And if the pre-release rumours are to be believed, the S23 will be a big step forward featuring a few key changes, the biggest of which are expected to be upgrades to the phone’s zoom capabilities, extended battery life and a move to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon silicon in every market.

To be clear, as a tech fan, these upgrades aren’t to be sniffed at. The Ultra version of the S22 we reviewed last year offered the best zoom photography powers we’ve seen on a smartphone. 

A move to use a flagship Snapdragon CPU should also – based on our time using the Exynos variants Samsung shipped to the UK – pave the way for better battery life and a faster general performance. This has certainly been the case with past Samsung phones I’ve tested, with the Snapdragon models of the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S20 sold in the US all offering superior battery life to the UK Exynos-powered equivalents (Exynos is Samsung's own line of mobile CPUs).

But for me, there’s one gaping hole Samsung needs to plug if it wants to get me interested in the Galaxy S23, based on the pre-release industry rumblings I’ve heard so far.

Specifically, from what I’ve heard, Samsung’s not got any plans to upgrade the audio performance of its Galaxy phones.

This may sound like a small quibble but, for me – an avid Tidal subscriber who due to my budget can’t afford to invest in a dedicated hi-res unit such as the Astell & Kern A&norma SR25 MKII that's sitting in the top spot in our best portable music player guide – it’s a big deal.

All too often I’m forced to use my phone as my primary music player and, having reviewed handsets for over a decade, I can safely tell you that audio quality varies massively between devices.

Last year, this was clearly showcased by the S22 Ultra. Using the phone for over a week just before Christmas I fell in love with the device’s camera, wonderfully accurate screen and solid gaming performance. But after my test period finished I couldn’t wait to swap my sim card out to a different handset because the audio quality simply wasn’t as good as that of competing flagships.

Listening to a variety of tracks on Apple Music, Tidal and Spotify, the S23 Ultra failed to deliver the same cohesion and clarity I experienced using the Apple iPhone 13 and Sony Xperia 1 IV.

This is why I was really hoping that this year Samsung would focus on improving its flagship handset’s audio and would finally deliver a device I could comfortably use long-term.

In an ideal world, for me, personally, this would take the shape of a music-focused variant of the S23 to sit alongside the base model and more expensive Plus and Ultra models Samsung’s expected to launch on 1st Feb.

In my head, this would be a modern version of the Onkyo Grandbeat from 2017, which was basically a portable music player with its own built-in DAC and a specialist circuit design focused on audio quality. Or the five-star LG G5 with Hi-Fi Plus DAC we tested back in 2016.

But truth be told I’d settle for a more modest improvement to the line in general, and that really should be an easy win for Samsung considering how much R&D budget it has and the wealth of audio companies it owns, which includes the Harman Kardon group, home to the likes of AKG, JBL and Arcam.

MORE:

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Samsung has confirmed that it's upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event will take place on February 1st. There has been plenty of speculation and rumours circling around this date, however, Samsung has now confirmed that it will lift the lid on a host of new products at the beginning of next month. 

While no specific products have been confirmed to be making an appearance by Samsung quite yet, we can certainly make some educated guesses as to what we think will debut at this upcoming Unpacked.

We'll be covering everything Samsung Unpacked, from the likely Galaxy S23, and we've even got our hopes up for some new Galaxy Buds, so stay tuned for our coverage. If you want to watch the Galaxy Unpacked event live, you can find a live stream on Samsung's official Galaxy Unpacked website and on YouTube.

Samsung Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23 Plus and Galaxy S23 Ultra

This is a safe bet, as Samsung has refreshed its line of flagship mobile devices at the beginning of the year for the last few generations of Galaxy S smartphones. The S23 line, despite what the name suggests, will be the 14th iteration in the Galaxy S series.

Since the Galaxy S20, we've seen a trio of smartphones from the Korean tech giant; this includes a standard model around the 6.2-inch mark, a "Plus" model that usually sports a 6.7-inch display, and finally, an "Ultra" variant that features the biggest screen in the line-up at around 6.8-inches. We expect to see the same again this year, with rumours and leaks appearing to support this. 

Getting onto the aforementioned rumours and leaks, we've seen varying reports that include everything from the specs to the designs of these new phones. Starting with the design, reports up to this point have pointed towards this year's devices looking nearly identical to the previous models. Instead, the S23 lineup will focus on improving specs, with Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 powering these smartphones. Samsung is reportedly phasing out its in-house Exynos chip which often features in European models, standardizing Qualcomm across the board with these new Galaxy S phones.

Display rumours are equally unmomentous, with the entire S23 lineup expected to retain the specs of the previous generation devices. Current screen speculation from reputable leaker @IceUniverse (via gsmarena) points towards unchanged screen specs, which may not be terribly exciting, but we praised the display in our Galaxy S22 Ultra review, so we're also not complaining. The current Galaxy S23 lineup display predictions are as follows:

• Samsung Galaxy S23:  6.1-inch, 1080x2340 (442ppi)
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus: 6.6-inch, 1080x2340 (390ppi)
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: 6.8-inch, 1440x3080 (500ppi)

Elsewhere, upgrades are expected in the battery and camera departments, although we'll have to wait until February 1st to see if these come to fruition. You can catch up on all the latest Galaxy S23 news before the Unpacked event.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S9, S9 Plus and S9 Ultra

Samsung launched last year's Galaxy Tab S8 lineup alongside the Galaxy S22 last year, so it's possible that we might see a refreshed set of flagship tablets alongside the phones. There has been a significant lack of rumours surrounding the next generation of Samsung Galaxy Tabs, and even some murmurings of Samsung supposedly delaying the development of its upcoming tablet which was supposed to begin in December of last year, according to The Elec (via Android Police ).

Therefore the likelihood of a new major Samsung tablet appearing at the Unpacked event might not be high, however, it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. 

Samsung Galaxy Buds 3

Samsung may have recently updated its Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, but its more budget-friendly earbuds might see an update at this new Unpacked Event. The Galaxy Buds 3, the successor to 2021's Galaxy Buds 2 could make their appearance, although there has been little to no confirmation or rumours to state this is the case.

However, considering the second generation Buds launched two years after the first, we may be due for an upgrade if Samsung intends to keep that product cycle going. The company updated its Buds 2 Pro alongside the launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 in August of last year, so an upgrade to the basic Buds would be most welcome.

But what do we want to see from the Buds 3? Upgrades across the board would be the ideal solution, as Samsung needs to address the lacklustre sound and feature set of the current Buds 2 if it wants to compete with the likes of Apple AirPods 3s and Sony WF-C500s. This includes improvements to the treble and dynamics, better battery life, more ANC controls and compatibility with spatial audio formats. The Buds 2 do get some things right, such as its compact and lightweight design and accessible price point, but a revised set of budget Buds from Samsung could really bring them into the conversation when discussing affordable true wireless earphones. 

Check out more of our predictions and hopes for the Galaxy Buds 3 before Samsung's Unpacked Event on 1st February, so you're all caught up just in case we're surprised with some new Galaxy Buds.

MORE:

Samsung Galaxy S23: release date news, price, features and spec leaks

Read our review of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

As well as our Galaxy Buds 2 review and Galaxy Buds 2 Pro review

CES is done and dusted for another year, which means all eyes turn to Samsung's next big smartphone launch. If this latest leak is correct, it seems Samsung will maintain its usual launch schedule for the Galaxy S23 and will announce the phone on 1st February.

The news comes from Samsung itself. Sources don't come much more reliable. 

The image above was posted on Samsung's Colombian site, according to 9to5Google. The tagline? "Epic moments are approaching". Samsung's Unpacked event usually showcases the firm's latest Galaxy S smartphone range. Add to that the image, which shows what looks like the rear of a phone with three camera lenses, and you've got a very probable launch date of 1st February.

The image has since been pulled.

This Samsung Unpacked event would come almost exactly a year on from the launch of the Galaxy S22, which took place on 9th February 2022.

So far, fewer details of the S23 have leaked than its predecessors. Rumours say that the S23 Ultra will have a 200-megapixel camera, while the standard S23 and S23 Plus will make do with 50-megapixel shooters. We're also expecting all models to feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset (usually Samsung uses its own Exynos chips in its European and Asian models, reserving Qualcomm's chips for its US models).

We're sure we'll see plenty more leaks before 1st February, so stay tuned.

MORE:

Read all about it: Samsung Galaxy S23: release date news, price and spec leaks

Will it be better than the iPhone 14?

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review

FiiO has a brand new hi-res portable music player, the FiiO M11S. The new player boasts extensive audio file compatibility, dual DAC configuration and a new amplification circuit – all for a rather sensible price for a hi-res player.

Following in the footsteps of the widely popular M11 and excellent premium M11 Pro players, the M11S aims to extend the Chinese brand's success.

The M11S features two high-quality ES9038Q2M DAC chips – one for the left channel and one for the right channel. There's support for high-resolution audio files up to 32-bit/384kHz, DSD256 and it can decode MQA tracks from Tidal. 

The M11S is also equipped with a new "innovative" headphone amplifier circuit and FiiO claims to achieve "one of the lowest noise floors" found in portable music players, measuring just 1.9uV. It should be powerful too – the balanced power output measures a claimed 670mW at 32 ohms. There is a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, 2.5mm and 4.4mm balanced headphone outputs, and a dedicated line-out.

Additionally, the M11S can be used as a USB DAC for your laptop – similar to the five-star M11 Pro we tested in 2020 – and as a Bluetooth transmitter/receiver for your smartphone and similar devices.

Powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 660 chip (the same is used in FiiO's flagship M17 model), the new M11S runs on Android 10 OS. 

There are plenty of wireless options offered by the FiiO M11S: along with DLNA and AirPlay streaming, the player supports the LDAC, aptX HD and LHDC Bluetooth codecs for higher-quality streams between compatible devices. You can also install music streaming apps such as Tidal, Qobuz and Apple Music and enjoy their hi-res lossless library in bit-perfect quality.

The M11S sports a 5-inch HD touchscreen display, lasts for 14 hours on battery, and has an onboard storage of 32GB – this can be extended using the micro SD card slot that supports up to 2TB cards. Ideal if you want to carry a significant, hi-res audio library with you at all times.

The FiiO M11S is available now for £489 / $499 (around AU$862). That's a fair bit cheaper than our current 2022 Award-winning Astell & Kern A&norma SR25 MKII player, which offers up similar file compatibility, built-in streaming apps, exquisite design and advanced audio tech for a hefty £699 / $749 / AU$1099. Whether the new FiiO M11S can match A&K's proficiency for impressive sound quality (or indeed match its own M11 Pro) remains to be seen, but we're keen to find out.

MORE:

Read our FiiO M11 Pro review

And the Astell & Kern A&norma SR25 MKII review

Our pick of the best portable music players

Another week, another Galaxy S23 leak. This time it's Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra flagship smartphone in the spotlight, as a new leak claims to feature the Ultra's entire spec list. 

The leak alleges to include everything from the phone's processor to the screen and even the camera. The Chinese telecommunications regulatory board TENAA is the source of the leak here, with documentation regarding the S23 Ultra's specs slipping out, hinting that the phone might be revealed soon. This documentation is available to view here and lists practically all of the S23 Ultra's internal and external specs.

The S23 Ultra kicks things off with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor from Qualcomm, the company's top-of-the-range mobile processor, and that's backed up with either 8GB or 12GB of RAM depending on the configuration. There's no word on the Exynos-powered variant which is usually what we get here in the UK (and in other select markets), although apparently Samsung still plans to ship models with its in-house processor according to other rumours. Storage configurations will apparently be 256GB, 512GB and 1TB, so it's looking like Samsung could be dropping the 128GB base model according to this report. 

All of these specs sound dead on based on what we know from previous devices and recent Samsung trends. The beefed-up Ultra device gets the latest and greatest processor and a healthy amount of memory and storage to back that processor up. But is the S23 business as usual where it counts for us - the screen?

Yes appears to be the answer, with this new Galaxy Ultra sporting a supposed 6.8-inch QHD+ display, with a resolution of 3088 x 1440. This sounds identical to last year's Galaxy S22 Ultra, which means we should anticipate a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support. No huge developments in the display department may disappoint some, but the S22 Ultra's sensational display is one of the reasons it took home a five-star review from us.

The biggest upgrades coming to the Galaxy S23 Ultra appear to be with its new cameras. According to these documents, the S23 Ultra will have a 200MP main camera, alongside a 12MP ultrawide, a 10MP telephoto that features 3x optical zoom and a second 10MP telephoto camera that's capable of 10x optical zoom. 

The dimensions of the device are even part of this certification document, with the Ultra measuring 163.4×78.1×8.9(mm) and weighing 233g. This makes the new Ultra slightly taller and narrower than its predecessor, however it looks like the new Ultra will be even heavier, with the S22 Ultra weighing 228g. 

There isn't any word yet on the official design of the phone, or what colours it will come in, so we'll have to wait to see the phone officially to confirm the device's aesthetics. 

We're holding out for February, which is when the S23 series is expected to launch, to see what Samsung plans to do with the S23 Ultra, however this new leak gives us a pretty good idea as to what to expect from this new flagship mobile. 

MORE:

Read the full Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review

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3D audio has been more of a buzzword than 3D anything else for some years now, and since Apple introduced its own 3D audio technology – called ‘spatial audio’ – in 2021, the term has been bandied around at nearly every Apple device launch event. Apple’s spatial audio has been an enjoyable addition to the iOS and AirPods experience… for iOS and AirPods users. But what about Android users? 

Well, many non-Apple devices support immersive sound technologies like Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio, and from next year we will start seeing other phone and headphones manufacturers launch models with the spatial audio experience. That’s because, as well as Android 13 laying down the framework for an Android spatial audio experience, telecomms giant Qualcomm is launching new chips that support its own version of spatial audio technology – Dynamic Spatial Audio – for the first time, and they will begin finding themselves in devices in the coming months. The new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phone chip will likely come to many of the flagship Android phones, while the new S3 or S5 Gen 2 audio chip is the one headphone and speaker brands will need to snap up (and Bose looks set to be one of those committed brands).

I attended the company’s annual conference and got a taster of what to expect from Qualcomm’s Dynamic Spatial Audio. So firstly, what is it? Well, like any and all 3D audio technologies and formats, Dynamic Spatial Audio delivers audio content – straight-up music, or soundtracks for films or games – in a broader, more dimensional soundscape in an effort to immerse the listener in sound. The ‘Dynamic’ part refers to something rather crucial – that the soundfield can move and adapt as the listener’s head turns so that the audio is always ‘glued’ to the location of the screen. So, if you’re wearing headphones with your phone in front of you while watching a film and you twist your head to the right, the headphones’ soundfield between your ears shifts more to the left earbud – just as, in a real-life situation, your left ear would hear more of what someone in front of you was saying than your right ear if you turned your head to the right. The idea is that it feels more natural.

Now, I’ve heard spatial audio through an iPhone/iPad and AirPods 3/Pro before, so I knew roughly what to expect. It seems a bit strange – redundant even – to have the head-tracking feature for moments when you’re sat comfortably looking straight ahead at a screen, though the adjustments do kick in for even the subtlest head movements – not just when you’re mimicking an owl for demonstration’s sake (or spinning around and around on the spot like some other journalist decided to do for his demonstration…). On previous occasions, I have found the effect more worthwhile when more casually watching something on a screen in a kitchen while moving around it, and I can imagine this being an even better experience through a wireless speaker that detects your body movement across a room as opposed to through headphones when you don’t want the isolation that headphones inherently provide. This could well materialise, though I imagine the spatial audio experience will first and foremost be offered through headphones.

This particular demo was admittedly modest, comprised of a phone in a fixed position on a stand playing an Adele track and then an instructional walk-through video on the technology while I was wearing a pair of non-branded earbuds (which would have had the sensors that are necessary to detect the phone’s position) connected to it over Bluetooth. Swap out the demo material for a blockbuster film, the unbranded earbuds for a pair of commercially available earbuds (or, better yet, over-ear headphones), and the journalist-packed conference room for a living room or train carriage, and you have an idea of an IRL setup and use case that will be available from next year. Is it likely you’ll experience this as soon as next year? That rather depends on how many phone and headphone manufacturers opt to use one of Qualcomm’s new Dynamic Spatial Audio-supporting chips, and whether you’re planning on replacing both your existing phone and earbuds next year. Indeed, both the screen device and headphones need to have the chips (again, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for the phone, and S3 or S5 Gen 2 for the headphones) for them to play ball, so what you’re currently using now is off the menu, I’m sorry to say.

An opinion I apparently share with many people on the internet who have experienced spatial audio songs on Apple Music through headphones or speakers, spatial audio can sound pretty odd with music, and it can sound pretty cool with music. It can depend on the way the song was mixed, or just on your preference really. The Adele song came through a soundstage that sounded as ’spatialised’ as other times I’ve experienced the other variant of the technology: it sounded opened up and her spotlight voice and the sparse instrumental accompaniment had more space around it than what it does in good ol’ (unspatialised) stereo. Anyone who has heard a Dolby Atmos- or 360 Reality Audio-mixed song through headphones should know what I mean. I turned to the left to avoid the event’s photographer snapping my face and the audio moved to keep aligned with the static screen, with Adele’s vocals shifting more into the right ear. It worked, I just don’t know how much that music experience will really catch on.

What’s less up for debate – in my book, at least – is how effective the technology is with film soundtracks (and I would imagine gaming too, due to the similarly cinematic nature of game soundtracks and effects), which is to say that it’s very effective. Indeed, the video clip’s audio had more elements to it than the music, and the spatialising and head-tracking function seemed better suited, even if it was far from the best demo material or advert for the technology. Like everything, its implementation will have varying degrees of effectiveness based on the quality of the devices’ sound capability and perhaps even of their sensors, but if done right this should draw a crowd.

My colleague not long ago wrote about how compelling a movie experience you can get from 'just' an iPad and pair of AirPods Max, partly thanks to the duo’s spatial skills, and this on-the-go movie experience is where I can see spatial audio thriving. Look out for the technology brandished on headphones, earbuds and speakers next year, particularly if you’re someone who watches a lot of TV or films or plays games on portable screens.

MORE:

Award-winning Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II will sound even better in 2023

Dynamic spatial audio is coming to Android phones for more immersive gaming and movie watching

aptX Lossless: what is the breakthrough Bluetooth codec? How can you get it?

aptX Lossless is two things really: it is the first and only Bluetooth codec capable of losslessly (that's important) streaming CD-quality audio, and it is part of a package of Qualcomm audio technologies called Snapdragon Sound that will feature in a number of next year's Android phones and wireless earbuds and speakers.

aptX Lossless was announced in September 2021 and is just starting to appear in the first trickle of devices, with more expected in 2023.

So, what's so good about aptX Lossless? How can you hear it? And what devices are compatible? Let's get to it...

What is aptX Lossless?

While Qualcomm's aptX Bluetooth codecs (aptX, aptX HD and aptX Adaptive, to list them in chronological and capability order) are among the better-sounding methods in which we listen to music over Bluetooth, alongside the likes of Sony's LDAC and Apple's ALAC, the latest aptX Lossless is the first codec that is claimed to transmit CD-quality (or 'lossless') music losslessly, without using a compression method that degrades sound quality. Other Bluetooth codecs 'support' CD-quality and even hi-res audio, but they compress it lossily during transmission in a way that detrimentally affects sound quality. The compression inherent in transmitting audio over Bluetooth has become more efficient over the years, and aptX Lossless is, on paper, a culmination of Qualcomm's progress in this arena so far.

Qualcomm told What Hi-Fi? that CD-quality (16-bit/44.1kHz) audio transmission is achieved between 1.1Mbps and 1.2Mbps (1,100 and 1,200kbps) with aptX Lossless. As a rough reference, aptX Adaptive's maximum bitrate is 420kbps, (the older and less efficient) aptX HD can stream at 576kbps, and LDAC's is 990kbps. A CD audio file is 1,411kbps so you're always losing something here, though these claimed aptX Lossless figures are very close. Qualcomm says that 'no data is lost when audio is encoded and decoded with aptX Lossless'.

The codecs need to dynamically scale the bitrate to adapt to and accommodate busier radio environments without audio reducing in quality or, worse, cutting out, so these maximum bitrates are typically rarely met. Qualcomm says it has had to build a bigger radio data pipe in order to sustain that higher bitrate, though in "challenging" situations it can "back off smoothly".

"It works. We've done it in our office in China – a regular Chinese office where there's lots of wi-fi. We stood 10m away from the phone and it was holding it up," said James Chapman, Qualcomm's vice president and general manager, Voice, Music and Wearables.

With Snapdragon Gen 2 chips supporting Low Energy (LE) Audio, future devices using them will actually transmit losslessly over 48kHz, though this (in absolute terms, modest) jump from 44.1kHz won't likely translate to significant audible improvements.

"Bluetooth is always adapting. People are still trying to build it. We aren't done yet," says Chapman, who hinted that the 48kHz bitrate limit that can be passed through losslessly on the new chips/platforms could inch up higher in the following months.

What devices support aptX Lossless?

aptX Lossless is part of Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sound platform, which is available on phones, headphones and speakers that use the company's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phone chip and S3 and S5 audio chips, and will be available on 2023 and beyond devices boasting the just-announced Gen 2 versions of those chips. Examples of gen-one devices on the market now are the ASUS Zenfone 9 phone and Nura NuraTrue Pro wireless earbuds (pictured) – which we experienced aptX Lossless with recently.

There aren't many aptX Lossless-supporting devices out right now, though, and as it is an end-to-end solution, both your phone and headphones need to support it for you to benefit from it fully – just as you need an LDAC-supporting phone and LDAC-supporting headphones to stream music over the LDAC Bluetooth codec.
That means you aren't likely to have experienced aptX Lossless yet.

Next year could be a different story as more devices come to market, though these evolutions often take two to three years to become meaningfully prevalent on the consumer-facing hardware side. Qualcomm says it doesn't have plans to license out aptX Lossless separately to Snapdragon Sound.

What other features will aptX Lossless devices have?

Because aptX Lossless is being sold as part of a package, future supporting devices will likely support other Snapdragon Sound audio technologies too. One of these is dynamic spatial audio, which offers a 360-degree soundscape into which effects are placed, and which can ‘track’ and adapt the soundfield as you move your head. Similar to how Apple's spatial audio works between compatible iOS devices and AirPods.

Those phones and headphones released with Qualcomm's new S2 chips will support the LE Audio Bluetooth standard (Gen 1 supports only Classic Bluetooth), too – the 'next big thing' from the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) that promises more efficient, low-power transmission. This comes with Auracast, which will enable owners of compatible headphones to zone into a choice of channels that are being broadcast by, say, multiple screens showing different content in a bar or airport.

Qualcomm has also reduced Bluetooth latency by roughly 50 per cent to 48 milliseconds so that the time between seeing the gaming action on your (compatible) phone and hearing it through your (compatible) earbuds will be effectively unnoticeable.

And lastly, active noise cancellation is getting a facelift to enhance wind noise suppression and make for a more natural ANC effect.

MORE:

I tried aptX Lossless Bluetooth – and yes, we can all look forward to it (with caution)

Lossless is coming to Spotify! All you need to know about Spotify HiFi

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Dynamic spatial audio is coming to Android phones for more immersive gaming and movie watching

The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II didn't need to support a high-quality Bluetooth codec in order to win themselves a What Hi-Fi? Award 2022 as the 'Best wireless earbuds over £200', but it was a disappointing omission for such a premium-priced and good-sounding pair of earbuds. Why? Because they could have sounded better!

Well, it's good news for QC Earbuds II owners who own an aptX HD or aptX Adaptive phone (or an extra incentive to choose them for those phone owners in the market for a new pair of wireless earbuds): the wireless earbuds are getting aptX Adaptive support.

At the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit, Bose (who partnered with Qualcomm earlier this year) announced that it will offer a firmware update next spring to bring the codec onboard the buds, alongside low latency.

It could have been better news, had the new codec support been aptX Lossless – Qualcomm's latest and greatest Bluetooth codec which uniquely supports truly lossless transmission. But the buds would have needed an updated chip for that. Still, considering Bose's new partnership with Qualcomm and commitment to use its S5 Audio SoC chip (of which aptX Lossless Bluetooth support is a part), it is very likely we'll see support for it in Bose's 2023-released audio hardware.

As for aptX Adaptive, that will allow owners of compatible Android phones and the QC Earbuds II to send music between the two in higher quality than they are currently able to over SBC. As aptX Adaptive is backwards-compatible with aptX and aptX HD, owners of a wide variety of Android phones should be able to benefit from a boost in audio quality.

MORE:

I tried aptX Lossless Bluetooth – and yes, we can all look forward to it (with caution)

Dynamic spatial audio is coming to Android phones for more immersive gaming and movie watching

The best phones and best wireless headphones you can buy

Spatial audio could be a feature of your next Android phone. At its annual Snapdragon Summit today, Qualcomm announced its next-generation flagship chip, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and a standout feature of that platform's updated Snapdragon Sound package is spatial audio with head-tracking.

Spatial audio is essentially a 3D audio technology that aims to make the audio of films, music and games more immersive, predominantly through headphones. It ‘spatialises’ the sound, delivering a 360-degree soundscape into which effects are placed, while the ‘dynamic’ part refers to its ability to ‘track’ and adapt the audio as you move your head.

Apple began offering its own 'Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking' through its devices and AirPods and Beats headphones earlier this year, and thanks to Qualcomm’s just-announced 8 Gen 2 platform, a variant of the technology will be available on the 2023 phones that use it.

We have been impressed with the Apple spatial audio experiences we’ve had – not least with movies. We have described it as “...stunningly effective, with voices coming from all round you, and it's predictably impossible for a stereo setup to recreate”. “It’s a much more claustrophobic and affecting experience with spatial audio activated,” we said in our AirPods 3 review. We continued: “as we move our head to the right the soundscape tilts towards the left earbud – subtly but effectively.”

So presuming spatial audio on Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is just as effective, Android users can very much look forward to it.

Snapdragon Sound on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip isn’t just getting an update to deliver dynamic spatial audio, though. Part of Snapdragon Sound is support for aptX Lossless, which allows for truly lossless Bluetooth transmission at 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD quality) – and now Qualcomm is expanding that to 48kHz. Importantly, it is also bringing lossless transmission to the Bluetooth Low Energy standard (previously it only supported Bluetooth Classic).

And lastly, Qualcomm has also reduced Bluetooth latency to 48 milliseconds so that the time between seeing the action on your (compatible) phone and hearing it through your (compatible) earbuds will be effectively unnoticeable.

MORE:

Apple’s Spatial Audio is a music revolution, but try it without the headphones

What Hi-Fi? Awards: 26 Product of the Year winners announced for 2022!

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We’ve reviewed both the bigger and smaller siblings of the Xperia 5 IV, but in a tale as old as time, it's the middle child that gets attention last. The Xperia 5 has a tall ask if it wants to stand out against the Award-winning and incredible value Xperia 10 IV, as well as the 4K-toting, no-compromise Xperia 1 IV.

For some, though, the Xperia 5 IV might actually represent the sweet spot in the range. More premium and feature-rich than the 10 IV but significantly more affordable than the 1 IV, could it be the perfect balance of performance and price?

Price

The Xperia 5 IV might sit in the middle of the current Xperia line-up, but it’s not what most people would think of as a mid-range phone. Its price is the first clear indication of this: starting at £949 / $999 / AU$1399, the Xperia 5 IV is in iPhone 14 and 14 Plus territory.

It undercuts the top of the range 1 IV (£1299 / $1599 / AU$2300) by a fair amount, but it costs more than twice as much as the budget 10 IV, which retails for just £429 (around $495 / AU$733).

The price thankfully brings better specs, with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB (the latter for more money of course) of storage depending on your configuration. The processor is the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which keeps the Android 12 software running buttery smooth.

Build

The Xperia 5 is best described as a shrunken-down Xperia 1. With an aluminium frame sandwiched between a 6.1-inch display and a matte frosted glass back panel, the 5 IV is a sleek device that feels smooth and premium in the hand. It's undoubtedly a more premium in-hand experience than the budget 10 IV, which is comparatively plastic-tastic. It’s heavier, too, at 172g, although the frosted back panel makes the phone easy to grip.

The phone retains the tall and thin build for which the Xperia range is renowned, with the 21:9 aspect ratio making for a narrow and lanky device that's ideal for watching movies, but can make everyday operations, such as swiping down the notifications panel from the top of the screen, a bit awkward.

Features

Sony has trickled many features of its more expensive flagship down to its smaller counterpart, making the Sony Xperia 5 IV a worthy alternative to the 1 IV in terms of features. Starting with the aforementioned 21:9 OLED display, which has become a trademark feature of Sony's Xperia phones. The thin bezels keep the phone pocketable, while the aspect ratio is perfect for watching movies without black bars flanking the screen. The display also supports HDR (in the HDR10 format). 

The only knock to the Xperia’s display is the fact that the 10 IV has a very similar one for half the price. The 5 IV has a 1080 x 2520 (FHD) display that features a pixel density of 449ppi. This is actually lower than the much cheaper Xperia 10 IV, which has a 6-inch display at 457ppi. Rather than upgrade the resolution for the 5 IV, Sony has instead decided to double the refresh rate to 120Hz, so performance is smoother but not any sharper.

One aspect where the Sony doesn’t hold back is battery life. The phone is equipped with a 5000mAh cell, the same size as the one in the Xperia 1 IV, which already had a more than acceptable battery life. Without the need to run a 4K display, the Xperia 5 is a battery titan – easily getting through a day of intense usage. This almost makes up for the fact that the fast charger is an additional extra cost as, much like the 1 IV, there’s no charger to be found in the box.

Elsewhere, Xperias are among the ever-dwindling number of phones that have a 3.5mm headphone jack. If wireless is more your thing, Sony has you covered with Bluetooth LE and aptX HD support for high-quality wireless audio. The phone also sports a stereo loudspeaker set-up, comprising two front-facing speakers, similar to the more expensive 1 IV.

Another one of the 5 IV’s headline features is the excellent camera arrangement, which features some of the best aspects of the 1 IV’s camera set-up. The main 12MP shooter appears to be lifted directly from the 1, alongside the Zeiss-branded camera glass designed to reduce glare. The main camera is backed up by additional 12MP telephoto and 12MP ultra-wide cameras for versatile photography opportunities. Much like its more expensive relation, the Xperia 5 IV is a solid camera companion for budding photographers, and it even includes a more in-depth camera interface for those wanting to try their hand at “professional” photography.

Picture

Both of the Xperia mark IV smartphones we’ve already tested have scored five in the screen department thanks to their sharp, bright and deep pictures. One of the greatest strengths of the Xperia 1 IV is its customisable picture settings, especially the Creator Mode, which the 5 IV inherits. We have this switched on for testing as it provides a 'truer to the creator’s intent' approach to colours; a feature we’d love to see on more phones. 

Watching Thor: Love And Thunder on the Xperia, the bold and punchy colours are certainly at home on the Sony’s display, although it’s a more considered approach than most rival phones offer, which ensures they aren’t overblown or unnatural. The Creator Mode tends to reel in overly saturated scenes for a more cinematic effect, and it’s mostly excellent. However, it does also from time to time produce skin tones that look slightly pale. Overall though, the Sony gets colours right and its handling of HDR content is admirable, generally striking a fine balance between celebrating bold colours and natural hues. 

Contrast is also one of the Xperia’s strengths, as it is with the other phones in the lineup. Sony has found a sweet spot here, allowing subjects on screen to be presented prominently against the background without looking overly etched or cut out. In scenes with sprawling alien planet backdrops, Thor stands firmly in the foreground of the shot, with neatly defined edges and a real sense of three-dimensional depth. The iPhone 14 is actually even better when it comes to the depth and solidity of the image, but it's a close-run thing.

The Xperia 5 IV might lack a QHD resolution, but it’s still sharp enough for movie and TV watching without sacrificing too much fidelity. Environmental surfaces retain detail, and skin tones have enough subtle texture in them to ensure they don’t look overly smoothed.

One thing that is smooth is the motion, especially when the action is kicked into high gear in Thor. Sweeping panning shots and fast-moving subjects are virtually stutter-free, and the bold, flashy fight scene feels right at home on the Xperia’s display.

All told, the Xperia produces an excellent picture that captures the cinematic feel that both of its siblings also display. The only issue is that the cheaper 10 IV punches above its price tag on picture performance, and that means that the 5 IV isn’t quite as much of an upgrade as you might expect, given the price difference.

Sound

Via headphones, the Xperia 5 IV produces a natural and textured rendition of James Blake’s Limit To Your Love, with decent spatial separation and a fair amount of weight behind the bass-heavy segments. Vocals are also given a chance to shine here through said separation, not getting overshadowed by the other elements of the track.

There is room for improvement when it comes to dynamics, though. Moments in the track that are supposed to be clean breaks of silence tend to struggle a little; and while this doesn’t write off the Sony’s overall strong headphone performance, we have heard better from the likes of the iPhone 14. 

The 5 IV also gets a very similar front-firing speaker set-up to the 1 IV, and while you won’t want to listen to whole albums on these speakers, they’re a more than acceptable choice for a quick spot of movie watching. Thor: Love And Thunder is easy to follow, with clear dialogue and enough weight to avoid the tinny and thin sound provided by the loudspeakers of most phones. This is one area in which the Xperia 5 tells a completely different story to the 10, which suffers from a particularly weak loudspeaker.  

Verdict

The Xperia 5 IV really does feel like the middle child of the current Xperia range. It doesn’t get the fanfare of the all-singing, all-dancing Xperia 1, nor does it get the praise of the Award-winning budget performance of the 10. However, when given the chance to shine, the Xperia 5 IV is a really vital addition to the Xperia line for those who want something in between. 

If you want the quality build, audio performance and features of the 1 IV, and could happily live without the costly 4K screen in favour of a still very likeable 1080p alternative, then the Xperia 5 IV deserves your attention.

SCORES

• Features 5
• Picture 5
• Sound 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Apple iPhone 14

Also consider the Sony Xperia 10 IV

Read our Sony Xperia 1 IV review12

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Samsung's next flagship phone – rumoured to be the Galaxy S23 – could have some serious spring in its step, according to a new leak.

A tweet by respected data engineer Yogesh Brar suggests that the S23 will boast a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC chip and a slightly larger 3900mAh battery. 

Earlier rumours suggested that only the top-of-the-line S23 Ultra would get the new Qualcomm chip, so Brar's tweet could be welcome news for those with their eye on the base model...

As it stands, the European version of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra uses Samsung’s own Exynos chipset. However, it seems that Samsung isn't convinced that the next-gen version of the chip will be able to keep up with close rivals such as the Apple iPhone 14.

Indeed, respected leaker Ming-Chi Kuo has already let it be known (via 9to5Google) that Samsung's next Exynos chip likely won't "compete" with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. 

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip is due to be unveiled in November 2022, with the first phones to use it expected in December, so it won't be long before we can get an idea of the S23's potential power.

Elsewhere, Brar tips the entry-level S23 for a 6.1-inch, 120Hz Full HD+ AMOLED display, the Android 13-based One UI 5 OS, and a 50MP main camera. A decent haul on paper, although there's talk of the S23 once again relying on (relatively slow) 25W charging.

We'll bring you all the latest Samsung Galaxy S23 leaks in the run-up to the launch, which is expected to go ahead in February 2023.

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Check out the best Android smartphones

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And the best unlocked phones

Astell & Kern has revealed its latest high-end portable audio player, the A&Ultima SP3000, with a striking design constructed of high-quality 904L stainless steel – the same grade used for Rolex watches.

The A&Ultima SP3000 is the first portable music player to use the new flagship AK4499EX DAC chip from AKM with a HEXA DAC structure that separates digital and analogue signal processing. There’s also independent dual audio circuitry with complete separation of balanced and unbalanced outputs. All of which Astell & Kern says helps the SP3000 produce an authentic, noise-free sound.

Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6125 Octa-Core processor, the SP3000 runs an overhauled version of Astell & Kern’s Android user interface, now in its 4th generation, accessible by a generous 5.46-inch HD touch screen.

With wi-fi connectivity and Bluetooth 5 supporting aptX-HD and LDAC streaming, the SP3000 can handle a comprehensive inventory of audio formats, including FLAC, AIFF, MQA and Native DSD512. There’s also wide-ranging music streaming service compatibility, and it's Roon Ready, meaning the SP3000 can easily be used as a hub for a hi-fi system. But if you do want to take it out and about, there’s a claimed 10 hours of playback for standard content (FLAC, 16-bit, 44.1kHz).

The Astell & Kern A&ultima SP3000 is available for pre-order now, priced at £3800 / AU$5499 (around $4405) in a choice of black and silver finishes, which Astell & Kern say are highly durable and resistant to corrosion. A hand-finished leather case made by French brand Alran is included for a bit of extra protection.

Astell & Kern has also revealed a new collaboration with luxury in-ear monitors (IEMs) brand Empire Ears to produce a pair of wired in-ear headphones designed to partner with its portable players. Combining drivers and technology from Empire Ears with Astell & Kern’s component selection and tuning, the Odyssey IEMs feature a massive 10-driver Quadbrid system. Crammed inside are twin W9+ subwoofers, five balanced armatures, dual electrostatics and a W10 bone conductor for good measure.

Available in a hand-made multi-lamination design, the Odyssey will launch in the final quarter of 2022, priced at £3500 / AU$4999 (around $4057).

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Sony has unveiled the newest addition to the Xperia line-up in the form of the Xperia 5 IV. It joins the Xperia 1 and 10 in getting its Mark IV iteration. 

Sony is pitching this handset as an upper-midrange device centred around creating and consuming content alike, with many features trickling down from the flagship Xperia 1 IV. The 5 IV features a 6.1-inch 1080p HDR OLED display, reminiscent of the 1 IV’s but with a resolution bump down to Full HD+ instead of 4K. Sony claims the new Xperia 5’s display will be 50 per cent brighter than the previous iteration. It will support IMAX Enhanced formats on the 21:9 display – the perfect cinematic aspect ratio for watching films.

Sony has upgraded the sound of the Xperia 5 too, with Dolby Atmos support via either headphones or the full-stage stereo speakers. Headphone users can also rejoice as an increasingly rare 3.5mm headphone jack is proudly punched into the frame of the 5 IV. Wireless audio users can also benefit from “DSEE Ultimate” (Sony’s AI based music quality enhancer) and LDAC, as well as Bluetooth LE for high quality audio. Both wired and wireless headphone users will be able to take advantage of Sony’s 360 Reality Audio through native support in some streaming apps, as well as via upmix processing. 

The specification of the Xperia 5 IV seems solid too. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip lies at the heart of the device, and a 5000mAh battery matches that of its more expensive sibling. The Xperia 1 IV already has admirable battery life, and without the need to keep a 4K screen running constantly, the Xperia 5 IV should be a battery champ. 

The Xperia 5 IV also shares the Xperia 1 IV's live streaming capabilities, its comprehensive camera system and the Music Pro application that Sony claims will provide studio-quality audio recording via the phone's microphones. It has IP68 water and dust resistance and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus on both the front and rear for protection against both the elements and accidental drops. 

The Sony Xperia 5 IV is shaping up, then, to be a slightly more affordable Xperia 1 IV, although it's still by no means a budget phone. The Xperia 5 IV will retail for £949 (around $1101 / AU$1609), putting it in stiff competition from the likes of the iPhone 13 Pro. It comes in three colours – Black, Green or Ecru White – and will be available in late September.  Sony will also be offering a bonus incentive of a free pair of LinkBuds S if you pre-order.

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Read our review of the Xperia 1 IV

Check out our picks for the best smartphones for movies and music

LG has unveiled its latest Tone Free wireless noise cancelling earbuds, including a flagship model that supports Dolby Atmos and Dolby head-tracking for immersive spatial audio.

The T90 Tone Free earbuds sit at the top of LG’s four-strong headphone range, and the brand claims that they are the world’s first wireless earbuds to support Dolby Head Tracking across all content and devices using an audio virtualiser designed by Dolby specifically for earbuds.

Dolby’s head tracking technology, similar to the spatial audio processing featured on the likes of Apple AirPods, Beats Studio Buds, and Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro, Buds Live and Buds 2, aims to create a more enveloping, three-dimensional listening experience by adjusting the sound of movies, music and games as your head moves.

It’s not just Dolby that’s had a helping hand in the T90 earbuds; LG also continues its long association with audio electronics manufacturer Meridian. The headphones include Meridian’s Headphone Spatial Processing (HSP), which the company says presents “a full, more natural sound stage with a clear centre image – making one feel like they’re listening to music played through a real stereo sound system.”

The T90 earbuds can deliver 24-bit/96kHz high-resolution audio courtesy of  Snapdragon Sound and offer active noise cancellation with LG’s Double Step ANC Algorithm and Real-Time ANC Optimiser. LG says the Double Step ANC Algorithm uses a new filter with a higher sampling rate than previous models to cancel out external noises more effectively. Meanwhile, the Real Time ANC Optimiser automatically adjusts the ANC performance by analysing the fit and position of the buds inside the user’s ear via internal microphones.

The new T90 headphones offer up to nine hours of use on a single charge, with the case providing a further 20, and only one hour of charging is needed to get the buds up to full power. As with previous models, LG includes its UVnano charging case, which uses ultraviolet light to help keep the earbuds hygienically clean.

The multi-tasking case can also double as a Bluetooth transmitter using LG’s Plug & Wireless feature, similar to that found on Bowers and Wilkins PI7 headphones. With the included USB-C to AUX cable, users can plug the case into the output of equipment such as radios, treadmills and in-flight entertainment and receive wireless audio to their headphones. 

Also announced were the TF7 and TF8 Free fit models designed for sports with a shape that twists into the ear for secure placement during vigorous workouts and an IP67 rating for sweat and rain resistance.

The Tone Free fit headphones also include ANC, Meridian HSP technology and the UVnano charging case, with a battery life of 10 hours and up to a total of 30 hours with the charging case.

Pricing for LG’s latest range of Tone Free true wireless earbuds headphones is not yet available, but the new models will be rolled out worldwide from the end of August.

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The Sony Xperia Mk IV continues the brand’s reinvigorated take on the smartphone, providing the tools to both create and consume content that verges on professional level. But with the daunting task of outshining its predecessors, both of which received five stars and a smartphone Product of the Year Award from us, has Sony done enough to keep the momentum going?

While it may look strikingly similar to the previous generations, the IV makes meaningful, if not mind blowing improvements on the Sony Xperia 1 III. Upgraded internals and features ensure smooth day-to-day use, and most importantly an awesome AV experience.

Price

If you want the Sony Xperia 1 IV, you'd better be prepared to pay for it, as it is retailing for £1299 / $1599 / around AU$2300. That's an increase of £100 from last year’s Xperia 1 III, which then retailed for £100 more than the Xperia 1 II; we’re sensing a trend. This puts the Xperia 1 IV in an immediate uphill battle, as the likes of the iPhone 13 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra undercut this.

For the asking price you’re getting the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor with 5G support, 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. If you’re in the US, however, you’ll be lucky enough to have a 512GB storage option with the rest of the specs staying the same. With a powerful processor and plenty of RAM, the Xperia 1 IV should hopefully keep things running smoothly under the hood for a while.

Design

If we were to sum up the design of the Xperia 1 IV in one word it would have to be ‘sleek’. It's minimalist, with chunky, squared-off edges that are comfortable to hold, and the rear features a smooth, luxurious finish that wards off fingerprints, giving the illusion of a “new phone look” even after plenty of use. The metal rails and frosted glass rear blend together to make the Xperia feel premium, weighty and comfortable in the hand.

Features

The phone takes the best parts from its predecessor and tacks on some new ones to make a phone that is pretty stacked when it comes to features. This includes the smooth, high resolution 6.5-inch, 21:9 wide 4K OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, as well as the side-mounted fingerprint scanner, wireless charging support and dedicated textured camera shutter button. 

The IV has plenty of new tricks up its sleeve however, with an upgraded stereo speaker system, as well as a comprehensive set of creator tools including what Sony is claiming to be the world’s first true optical zoom lens. The camera is a standout, especially with the zoom lens which keeps things crisp, although the user interface can appear daunting to amateurs at first glance. 

The camera isn’t just your standard point and shoot system however, as it has built in live streaming, eye and object tracking and is capable of recording at 4K HDR 120fps on all lenses. This makes the Xperia 1 IV a powerful tool for those hoping to create video content as well as watch it. This has all been tuned by Alpha, Sony’s camera division, for an incredibly deep and technical camera experience that bridges the gap between smartphone and professional DSLR cameras.

Battery life on the Xperia is also excellent, with a 5000mAh cell stepping up to the all day challenge. Even with constant use throughout the day with video and music consumption, the Xperia soldiers on with plenty of juice left in the tank in the evening. It's just a shame that Sony has gone the way of Apple and Samsung by not including the fast charger in the box.

Sony has also brought a feature down from its best TVs in the form of Bravia Core, a streaming service that is home to a selection of movies produced by Sony. When you purchase an Xperia 1 IV, you are granted five film tokens to redeem on the service, which is an appreciated bonus.

Picture

Picture performance on the Xperia 1 IV is as good as you’d expect it to be. It retains the excellent detail thanks to the 4K resolution and cinematic feel from the widescreen 21:9 widescreen display. Brightness gets a boost on the Xperia 1 IV – Sony claims a whopping 50 per cent more than the Xperia 1 III – and in practice it may be subtle but it does add depth into the lighting of scenes.

Streaming 1917 on Netflix shows what the Xperia 1 IV is capable of. The differences between the IV and III aren’t immediately obvious, but the boost in contrast creates wonderfully dynamic lighting that is impossible to ignore once you notice it. The candle-lit scenes set within the tents at the British front lines look convincingly gloomy, with detail being retained in the shadowy backgrounds. The boost in contrast alongside OLED’s natural strengths when it comes to black levels are an excellent match for scenes like this. 

Colours retain a natural look when needed, especially in 1917, with the pale complexions of the soldiers and the overcast skies looming over the battlefield avoiding looking overblown. To contrast, the neon lit streets of Blade Runner 2049 pop with vibrancy, with sharp detail and natural skin tones and textures of the humans and replicants that inhabit them. Sony’s excellent creator mode screen preset retains the authentic cinematic grandeur of these films even on a 6-inch screen.

K’s car glides through the skies of 2049 Los Angeles smoothly without stuttering or janky motion, as well as providing a sense of three dimensional depth within the image, highlighting the core strengths of the Xperia 1 IV’s display all in one scene. The display excels when it comes to detail, colour, motion and contrast – making it a class-leading device once again.

Sound

The audio performance on the Xperia 1 IV is another highlight, with every track that we listen to through the included 3.5mm headphone jack ticking all the boxes for excellent sound. The most striking feature of the Xperia 1 IV’s sound performance is how natural and textured instruments come across. Guitars sound rich and characterful, while bassy kick drums are tight and defined in Depeche Mode’s iconic Personal Jesus. This song also highlights how on-point the timing is on the Xperia, making it impossible not to tap your foot along with the rhythm. 

Sony has implemented its 360 degree spatial audio system on the Xperia 1 IV, alongside support for Dolby Atmos listening, which results in a spacious, wide soundstage. This gives every instrument and vocal performance room to shine, creating an immersive performance that puts you centre-stage in a convincing three-dimensional space. The Xperia 1 IV also supports high-resolution audio, LDAC and Bluetooth LE.

Another feature to get an upgrade on the IV is the speaker system, which consists of a stereo pair of front-firing speakers for a surprisingly strong audio performance. These speakers are more than acceptable and are a nice surprise when compared to other mobile loudspeakers which are often not an ideal alternative to using headphones.

Verdict

Topping last year’s Sony Xperia 1 III must have been a daunting task, so Sony has potentially taken the easy route by taking the best parts of the III and just making them a bit better. Now while that may sound like a negative, it's really not; the design is sharper, the screen is brighter, the sound is punchier – improvements across the board.

While it may not be the most inspirational generation jump we’ve ever seen, it's still a phone that ticks all the boxes to make it an ideal companion for small screen AV use. The Xperia 1 IV is an excellent enthusiast choice for those looking to squeeze the best AV and music listening performance out of their smartphone.

SCORES

• Features 5
• Picture 5
• Sound 5

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Sony's next flagship phone looks set to launch on 11th May, an official video suggests. And AV fans have good reason to be excited.

The Xperia 1 IV will succeed the Xperia 1 III, which is the best smartphone for music and movies. So we're expecting big things from the Xperia 1 IV.

With the tagline 'Next ONE is coming', the video drops rather a large hint that we will see the Xperia 1 IV at the event on the 11th. But according to GSMArena, we could also see the new Xperia 5 and Xperia 10 announced.

Renders of the Xperia 1 IV leaked last month. They showed a familiar design with slightly flatter sides. The IV is expected to run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, with a 6.5-inch screen and a quad-camera with a periscope module.

The 21:9 aspect ratio is expected to remain, as is the 4K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The renders also show the IV keeping the 3.5mm headphone jack, making it one of the few high-end handsets compatible with standard wired headphones without needing an adapter.

So what of the other handsets rumoured? The Xperia 5 IV is rumoured to have a 6.1-inch OLED screen and triple camera setup, while the Xperia 10 IV should look like Xperia 10 III with a 6-inch OLED screen and triple camera arrangement.

The event starts at 9am CEST (8am BST, 12am PT, 7pm ACT) on 11th May. We'll bring you all the news as it breaks.

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If there is one thing we have learned over the years it’s that plenty of people will happily sacrifice audio quality for convenience – the popularity of music streaming services and wireless headphones are proof of that. Although seldom a match for a well-recorded LP or a refined pair of wired headphones, they sure are handy if you want on-the-go listening without those troublesome wires.

Recently, however, there has been a conscious push for quality in the wireless space. The vinyl resurgence has demonstrated as much – LPs certainly aren't lauded for their convenience – and so has the rise of high-resolution audio in streaming. So is there a way to enjoy ease of use without sacrificing performance?

The folks at telecommunications giant Qualcomm certainly think so. In January 2016, the tech company launched aptX HD, a Bluetooth codec capable of wirelessly transmitting 24-bit hi-res audio between aptX HD-supporting kit – and the closest-in-quality rival to Sony's high-quality LDAC codec. In a nutshell, Bluetooth devices such as portable speakers, smartphones and wireless headphones can now sound even better because of it.

The 'aptX' family of codecs has also been integral to this shift towards potentially higher wireless quality. aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless and aptX HD have all become hugely prevalent across the more premium tranches of consumer electronics hardware – the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, for instance, offer aptX Adaptive support.

While that might be a lot of codecs to get your head around, fear not. We're here to explain what aptX HD is, what's so good about it, how it relates to other codecs, how you can hear it and the devices with which it's compatible. Let's go.

Firstly, what is aptX Bluetooth?

To understand what aptX HD is, we need to discuss what ‘classic’ aptX is. aptX is an audio-coding algorithm, created in the late 1980s, popular with film studios and radio broadcasters. Steven Spielberg was an early adopter, collaborating to use aptX to record audio for 5.1 digital playback for films including Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List in 1993 and Saving Private Ryan in 1997.

These days, Qualcomm's aptX is synonymous with Bluetooth, which you will find on plenty of computers, smartphones, AV receivers, and lots of other consumer electronics products.

What, then, is the big deal about aptX? Its party trick is the ability to transmit music, full bandwidth, at a ‘CD-like’ 16-bit/44.1kHz. Note that it is ‘CD-like’ and not actual ‘CD-quality’ because aptX uses compression (which helps to reduce audio-coding delays and minimise latency issues) and, like almost every other Bluetooth codec out there, isn't actually lossless.

You can read all about how Bluetooth codecs work in our dedicated Bluetooth codecs explainer. For the simplified version, all you need to know is that the higher a codec's bitrate, the more 'bandwidth' it has, meaning the more efficiently it can carry higher-quality audio without losing information. So as aptX can transmit more bandwidth than 'standard' Bluetooth codecs (SBC and AAC), it is designed to sound better than its rivals. In terms of the nitty-gritty numbers, aptX offers a compression ratio of 4:1 and a data rate of 352kbps.

What is aptX HD?

Now for aptX HD, which is essentially an updated, beefed-up aptX with the ability to transfer music in a way that permits better sound quality.

Released in reaction to the increasing popularity of hi-res audio, aptX HD supports audio up to 24-bit/48kHz. Compression remains at a ratio of 4:1, but the bitrate is higher than that of aptX at 576kbps. It can therefore carry higher-quality audio than aptX without losing as much information, though compression still means you are not getting lossless audio. aptX HD supports 24-bit music files, but cannot transmit it with all of the detail intact.

That said, it is still capable of transmitting much more of an audio file than aptX and, of course, standard SBC and AAC.

Plenty of modern wireless speakers, Bluetooth headphones and hi-fi sources support aptX HD, although newer releases tend to opt for the newer, step-up aptX Adaptive codec (more on that below), which fortunately is backwards compatible with aptX HD.

What do you need in order to hear aptX HD?

There are certain requirements for using aptX HD. First, you need the right hardware. Specifically, we're talking about devices that contain one of Qualcomm's compatible Bluetooth audio SOCs (system on chips).

Not only can they handle end-to-end 24-bit audio, but they also provide greater digital signal processing than their predecessors. Qualcomm promises a lower signal-to-noise ratio through encoding and decoding, as well as less distortion too, particularly in the 10-20kHz range.

The requirement for a specific chipset means you will get aptX HD only if you have the right devices in the first place: there is no option for a software upgrade later, nor is there any scope for any sort of audio ‘upscaling’.

Again, you don’t need to worry about backward/future compatibility, as aptX HD devices are compatible with ‘classic’ aptX headphones and speakers.

Which products support aptX HD?

Android smartphones and tablets were some of the first products to implement aptX HD, with the LG G5 being the very first smartphone to adopt it in 2016. Other LG phones quickly followed – and support is now fairly common across various phones from Sony, OnePlus and Google. Notable exceptions include Apple's iPhones – they don't support the aptX codec at all.

aptX HD isn't just in smartphones, anymore. In fact, it's everywhere, from headphones and wireless systems to music streamers and even a Cambridge Audio turntable!

When it comes to portable music players, Astell & Kern is the most prominent supporter of aptX HD alongside Sony's Walkman. For example, the Award-winning Astell & Kern A&norma SR25 MKII, its newer successor, the A&norma SR35, and A&futura SE200 players are compatible with the codec, as is the Sony Walkman NW-A306.

Adoption on the hi-fi side has been growing too. Supporters include (but aren't limited to) Naim's Uniti Star, Atom and Nova streaming music systems; Cambridge Audio's Edge A and Edge NQ amplifiers and Evo 75 and Evo 150 streaming systems; the Dali Callisto and Oberon all-in-one speaker systems; Bowers and Wilkins' Formation Duo and other Formation products. The Ruark R410 all-in-one system comes with aptX HD built-in, as does the five-star Focal Diva Utopia speaker system.

Want to add aptX HD to your existing set-up? Check out the iFi Zen Blue or cheaper Zen Air Bluetooth receivers, which can easily add offline streaming to your system.

We could go on, but we will leave you to scour the specification sheets of the product(s) you are interested in (or browse the full list of 300+ products that support aptX HD here). The point is, aptX HD is something to look out for.

aptX HD vs LDAC

So how does aptX HD stack up against its close codec rival, LDAC? Sony's LDAC codec is technically the most efficient codec with a higher data rate, letting you stream high-resolution audio up to 32-bit/96kHz over Bluetooth at up to 990kbps compared with aptX HD's 24-bit/48kHz support at 576kbps.

For context, the newer aptX Adaptive supports up to 24-bit/96kHz and scales dynamically between 279kbps and 420kbps, while the latest aptX Lossless (part of Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sound package) promises lossless CD-quality (16-bit/44.1kHz) audio over Bluetooth at a rate of "beyond 1Mbit/s". The latter is, in terms of numbers, better than LDAC.

As is the case with LDAC, you still need the right hardware with the relevant chip to take advantage of the codecs, and the fact that hardware rarely tends to support both LDAC and aptX codecs makes it tricky to compare the two.

It's worth noting that our favourite pairs of wireless noise-cancelling headphones, the Sony WH-1000XM5 over-ears and WF-1000XM5 earbuds, support LDAC but not aptX HD.

What about aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless?

While perhaps still the most commonly supported aptX codec in hardware right now, aptX HD isn't actually the pinnacle of Qualcomm's Bluetooth technologies today. In 2018, Qualcomm unleashed a newer generation of Bluetooth codecs called aptX Adaptive, which is the one you'll now often see supported by new audio product releases.

aptX Adaptive is pretty much replacing aptX HD and essentially combines the current aptX HD with aptX Low Latency. Adaptive is a codec that boasts audio and video syncing with less than 40 milliseconds of latency when you're watching a video or playing a game on your connected device.

Backwards-compatible with aptX and aptX HD, aptX Adaptive takes into account the external RF environment around your aptX Adaptive device, so you shouldn't experience any drop-outs when you are taking your phone out of your pocket or bag. It will automatically optimise audio depending on whether you are making calls or listening to music.

As the name suggests, aptX Adaptive is a codec designed to be capable of adapting. Rather than having a locked bitrate like aptX Classic, Low Latency, and aptX HD, the newest version of the codec can dynamically scale the bitrate to adapt and adjust quality.

A quick glance at the numbers might look disappointing. aptX Adaptive’s bitrate scales between 279kbps and 420kbps for CD and hi-res quality music – much lower than the 352kbps and 576kbps of aptX Classic and HD respectively – but Qualcomm says that the codec is much more efficient than the previous version.

The best part is that while Qualcomm launched aptX Adaptive in 2018 with 48kHz support, the codec is actually capable of wirelessly transmitting 96kHz files – the sampling rate at which studio music is often recorded and, as digital hi-res files, distributed. So far, more than 100 products support aptX Adaptive, including Bowers & Wilkins' latest slew of headphones and Zeppelin wireless speaker; the most recent B&O, Yamaha, Beyerdynamic and PSB headphones; the iFi Zen Blue receiver; and the latest Sony Xperia phones. As mentioned above, the five-star Bose QuietComfort Ultra line – including the Ultra Headphones and Ultra Earbuds – offer aptX Adaptive support.

That's not where this story ends. Qualcomm announced in 2022 that it had gone one better with aptX Lossless. This codec is capable of not only 96kHz support (with transmission bitrate scaling dynamically from 279kbps up to 860kbps) but also lossless transmission at CD quality (16-bit/44.1kHz) over Classic Bluetooth and 48kHz over LE (Low Energy) Bluetooth – both unprecedented feats within the Bluetooth audio world.

aptX Lossless is a new feature of the Snapdragon Sound audio platform and is essentially the result of Qualcomm optimising various wireless connectivity and audio technologies within aptX Adaptive. A currently modest number of aptX Lossless-supporting products are slowly but surely bringing it into the market, including the Sonos Ace headphones, Cambridge Audio Melomania M100 and Denon PerL Pro wireless earbuds alongside the Sony Xperia 1 V and Google Pixel 8 smartphones, among others. aptX HD and aptX Adaptive are more commonly supported right now, though.

Until someone finds a way to transmit hi-res audio losslessly over a Bluetooth alternative, aptX HD (and its later aptX versions) is an excellent and accessible way to stream music between devices in high quality, without the need for an internet connection. Just remember that both the source (phone, say) and output (wireless headphones, for eg) devices must support the codec for you to benefit from it.

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Qualcomm has announced two new feature-packed wireless audio platforms – the S5 (QCC517x) and S3 (QCC307x) – that look to progress audio quality over Bluetooth.

The S5 and S3 are dual-mode, mobile-orientated platforms combining traditional Bluetooth wireless audio with the latest LE Audio technology standard. But what does that actually mean?

Last year, Qualcomm announced Snapdragon Sound, a package of audio-related technologies that promised to take (still slightly compressed) Bluetooth transmission support to 24-bit/96kHz – above the 48kHz 'limit' of its aptX HD technology. The package is now part of these newly announced platforms – and within this announcement, Qualcomm has also detailed support for lossless 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD-quality) Bluetooth transmission.

Lossless and Bluetooth haven't historically gone hand in hand. Supported bit and sample rates have reached 24-bit hi-res levels but compression has always played a part. Now though, Qualcomm claims to have found a way to deliver lossless audio at 16-bit CD quality. Meanwhile, rumour has it that Apple and Sonos are looking at alternative network and optical means to wirelessly transmit music losslessly (see below).

• Is Apple looking to replace Bluetooth with optical audio transmission to AirPods?
• Rumoured Sonos wireless headphones could work over wi-fi

The new Qualcomm platforms essentially offer headphones manufacturers chipsets that can enable such compatibility, as well as other features such as wideband voice call quality for crystal clear calls, stereo recording for creators, robust connectivity even in very busy RF environments, and a gaming mode with 68ms low latency audio and voice backchannel. 

The platforms also promise low-power integration of LE Audio for audio sharing and broadcasting, multipoint Bluetooth wireless connectivity (for virtually seamless and convenient transitions between source devices) and Qualcomm's third-generation Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation, with "natural leak-through capability". 

So, when can we get our hands on it all? Qualcomm says the S5 and S3 Sound Platforms are sampling to customers, with commercial products expected in the second half of this year.

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Lenovo has announced the third generation of its Tab M10 Plus at the Mobile World Conference, and the budget model could be one of the most promising media tablets for the upcoming year.

With an aggressive launch price of only $189 (around £142 / AU$262), the Lenovo Tab M10 Plus (Gen 3) looks set to significantly undercut rivals such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 at £219 / US$299 / AU$320.

For an affordable device, the Lenovo Tab M10 Plus has a well-rounded feature set, including a 2K 10.61-inch IPS display capable of reaching 400 nits and slim bezels for an 85% display-to-body ratio to maximise screen space. Further reinforcing its movie streaming credentials, the tablet supports Dolby Atmos audio delivered over its quad-speaker set-up. Meanwhile, its 7700mAh battery claims to provide a decent 12 hours of battery life for video playback.

Powered by either a MediaTek G80 or Snapdragon SDM680 processor, depending on if the model is Wi-Fi or cellular, respectively, the Tab M10 Plus offers users up to 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage. It will launch using the Android 12 OS with an update to Android 13 expected by 2023. Lenovo says that the tablet is set to receive three years of security updates at present.

Aside from watching videos, the Lenovo Tab M10 Plus has an optimised Reading Mode and grayscale settings as well as freestyle note-taking capabilities with the optional Lenovo Precision Pen 28 providing 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity.

Available in Storm Grey or Frost Blue, the Lenovo Tab M10 Plus (Gen 3) is set to go on sale in June, priced at $189 (around £142 / AU$262).

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It seems Sony is getting back into the swing of things when it comes to smartphones. The Sony Xperia 1 III is the company’s latest flagship phone and while certainly falling in the evolution rather than revolution category compared to its predecessor, is another excellent handset that is well worth considering if audio and video performance are key factors for you when choosing a mobile.

We loved the last-gen Xperia 1 II but here the design has been tweaked, the battery boosted, the 4K display now has a 120Hz refresh rate and there’s an upgraded chipset and GPU. Photography fans will be pleased by the inclusion of a periscope lens, too. 

But crucially for us, Sony has eked out yet more performance from the Xperia 1 III screen and 3.5mm headphone jack (wireless audio is of course an option), which gives us even more reason to recommend it over what was already an Award-winning smartphone.

Design

Put on the spot and asked to identify the Xperia 1 III next to the Xperia 1 II… we’d be sweating. The same 6.5-inch OLED screen and 21:9 aspect ratio ensures once again this feels like a long, slender phone compared to the squatter, 16:9 form that is most common.

Run your eye over the specs and you’ll see it’s ever so slightly thicker and ever so slightly heavier but we’re talking millimetres (this is likely due to the larger battery), and there is Gorilla Glass Victus instead of Gorilla Glass 6 on the front panel. This should decrease still further your chances of scratching the screen, though no doubt it’s more than possible if you try hard enough.

Turn the phones over and the change is more (or should that be less?) glaring, with the previous generation’s glossy finish being replaced by an anti-reflective frosted treatment. This finish helps to make grubby fingerprints a less discernible issue and should be similarly more forgiving when it comes to scratches.

Features

Sony has been shipping its flagship phones with 4K resolution screens since 2015 and the Xperia 1 III is no different. The company remains an outlier in this respect so if you want a 4K display in your hand, your quest for a new phone begins and ends here. 

It’s a 6.5-inch OLED, 21:9 aspect ratio screen, which is designed to maximise your enjoyment of movies “as the creator intended”. There’s a Creator Mode to prove it, as seen on the previous generation. The 1644 x 3840 pixel resolution (643ppi) may be the same but you do now get the benefit of 4K at 60Hz and full HD at 120Hz. In fact, 4K is possible at 120Hz on certain apps. The 120Hz refresh rate screen also helps smooth out scrolling and general navigation around the interface.

The chipset has been upgraded to the Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G, a new Adreno 660 GPU, and 8GB of RAM for speedy operation comparable with any phone on the market. There’s a bigger, 4500mAh battery inside, an increase on the 4000mAh in last year's model.

There’s fast-charging for 50 per cent power in 30 minutes and support for wireless charging too.

The Xperia 1 III has a triple camera set-up with that new 12MP f/2.3 telephoto lens. There’s also a 12MP f/1.7 standard lens, 12MP ultra-wide f/2.2 and an 8MP f/2.0 selfie camera. Sony borrows plenty of technology from its Alpha camera range, with that telephoto set-up offering 2.9x and 4.4x zoom magnifications and optical image stabilisation. 

Crucially, after all those specs, the point and shoot method works just as well thanks to a simple Auto mode that turns out natural, faithful images. Some might miss a Night Mode but low-light photos again prefer to reveal what the naked eye actually saw rather than an artificially-enhanced, smartphone’s representation. No bad thing in our book.

Sound

We’re used to smartphones making incremental improvements; a new model every year, as is the now-standard cycle, means serious upgrades across the board can be hard. This phone’s predecessor delivered Award-winning audio and video performance so any small upgrade would be a bonus. And that’s what we’ve got.

Listening to the Xperia 1 III using Tidal through Beyerdynamic T1 Mk III headphones we’re treated to a sonic performance that manages to deliver a little more punch and a little more detail compared to its predecessor. Comparing the two phones we’d be more than happy to recommend either based on their sound performance but we’re impressed to hear there are marginal gains with the new model.

Bass notes sound a little tighter, meaning more control and agility, and helping tracks such as New Ferrari by Surprise Chef sound like they’re in a particularly good mood. Listening to Black Rainbow by Koreless, the brooding sense of tension is well conveyed and it’s clear the Xperia is capable of dynamics to rival any phone on the market and plenty of dedicated hi-res players.

As well as a wired connection via the headphone jack you can use Sony’s LDAC technology, which allows for hi-res audio transmission and aims to maximise performance over Bluetooth. There’s also support for Sony 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos. It’s an all-round entertainer.

Screen

Talking of entertainment, that’s what it’s all about when it comes to the 4K screen. The world’s first 4K 120Hz phone screen sounds good on paper and it looks even better in reality. The refresh rate really does make scrolling through, well, anything, that much smoother but of course it really comes into its own when playing games or watching video content.

The shape of the phone takes a little getting used to for day to day use but makes perfect sense when using the screen in landscape mode. Sony has really doubled-down on delivering a natural, realistic “as the director intended” image. The 21:9 screen automatically shows you the content in the format it was shot rather than forcing it to fit, though there’s a ‘zoom to fit’ mode if you prefer.

Watching 4K video on YouTube, the Xperia 1 III refuses to ramp up the colours to lure your eyes, instead sticking steadfastly to offering up images that are faithful. Skies are blue, roses are red – and suddenly the previous generation, which we loved, does look to have over-cooked some of the bright colours by comparison. 

Throw in bags of detail, smooth motion and careful handling of black levels and skin tones, and we think it will be hard to beat the video performance on offer here.

Verdict 

It should be no surprise that Sony is capable of making excellent smartphones. The company knows more than a thing or two about audio devices, has plenty of pedigree when it comes to displays, and has a fine reputation when it comes to cameras. And the Xperia 1 III does the job of being more than the sum of those inherently good parts. 

While some of the specs may be overkill, and the shape might take a little getting used to, there’s no denying it will be hard to beat this phone when it comes to audio and video excellence.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Build 5

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Qualcomm has today introduced aptX Lossless, which it says is capable of delivering lossless CD-quality (16-bit.44.1kHz) audio over Bluetooth – an unprecedented feat within the wireless audio world. aptX Lossless is to become a new feature of the Snapdragon Sound audio platform the telecommunications giant introduced earlier this year. 

To achieve lossless audio quality at this level, Qualcomm has optimised a number of wireless connectivity and audio technologies within aptX Adaptive (the firm’s highest-quality Bluetooth codec, capable of transmitting hi-res audio up to 24-bit/96kHz – albeit in a lossy way.) 

Qualcomm claims this new method can produce “mathematically bit-for-bit exact” audio transmission at CD quality between a compatible source and aptX Lossless-supporting pair of headphones, so long as the RF conditions are “suitable”. Compression methods are still used, but these new developments have been designed to ‘scale-up’ to CD lossless audio based on the Bluetooth link quality.

Qualcomm says that wireless transmission rates are “beyond 1Mbit/s yet smoothly scale down to 140kbits/s in congested RF environments to minimise any audio dropouts or glitches for a consistent and reliable listening experience”.

“With many leading music streaming services now offering extensive lossless music libraries, and consumer demand for lossless audio growing, we’re pleased to announce this new support for CD lossless audio streaming for Bluetooth earbuds and headsets which we plan to make available to customers later this year,” said James Chapman, vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd.

Lossless audio has been the talk of the tech town of late, in light of Apple Music recently offering lossless CD quality (and hi-res) audio to subscribers for free. Spotify is set to offer lossless audio later this summer within an all-new Spotify HiFi tier, too. 

While Bluetooth methods, such as Apple’s ALAC and Qualcomm’s aptX HD, are currently all lossy, in that they can support the transmission of lossless audio but do lose some audio file data in the process, Qualcomm claims aptX Lossless will be the first Bluetooth technology for earbuds and headphones capable of retaining every bit of information from the original source. We can expect the first models of their kind to be available by the end of the year.

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Samsung has been a tenacious presence in the premium tablet market. Despite Apple’s domination of a shrinking sector, the Korean giant continues to knock on the door with its pricey flagship Android offerings.

Its latest model is the Galaxy Tab S7+, which comes out all guns blazing with the fastest processor found in an Android tablet (the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus), a substantial 10,090mAh battery that offers up to 14 hours of video playback, and an improved S Pen. So, are we looking at the ultimate Android tablet and a genuine rival to the Apple iPad Pro?

Price

In the UK, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage and costs £799 for the wi-fi variant or £999 for one that supports 5G.

The US gets 6GB RAM and 128GB, 256GB and 512GB storage options for the wi-fi model – priced $850, $930 and $1030 respectively – while the cellular variant comes in 128GB only and costs $1050.

In Australia, the 6GB RAM wi-fi model costs $1149 with 128GB storage or $1349 for 256GB. Simply add AU$200 to those prices for cellular (4G) versions. Whichever storage capacity you choose, it can be expanded by up to 1TB with a microSD card.

Picture

Despite its impressive top-line specifications, the Tab S7+’s crowning jewel is undeniably its screen. The 12.4in Super AMOLED display is among the finest we’ve seen on a handheld slab, with its 16:10 aspect ratio, 120Hz refresh rate and 266 pixel-per-inch density (resolution is 2800 x 1752) combining to produce a smooth, vibrant and ultimately compelling display.

The OLED panel’s inherent qualities give the Tab S7+ the upper hand over LCD tablet displays where black depth is concerned – even the sheer blackness of the bars that frame content is easy to appreciate. It isn’t the cleanest display we’ve seen – the Apple iPad’s whites are brighter – but the naturally toned colour palette is grounded and punchy. The latter plays into the hands of HDR (and HDR10+) support – the colourful palette of The Boys on Amazon Prime Video looks really impressive.

There are a few picture settings worth noting here too; we prefer ‘vivid’ over ‘natural’, and we also favour the cooler colour balance in the custom settings.

Its 16:10 aspect ratio, rather than the more usual 4:3, means that most content more or less fills the screen – great for TV and movie watching – and the S7+’s narrow, uniform bezels and deep-black bars only add to the viewing experience.

Sound

The Tab S7+’s four Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers are arranged with one in each corner, meaning you can achieve stereo sound in either landscape or portrait mode. 

They are capable of surprisingly decent volume, are clear and rich enough to avoid sounding tinny or lacklustre during scenes with more bass, and throw out a broad sound that far extends the screen. One could argue they draw you into a picture more than they need to for a screen of this size.

There is no headphone jack, so if you want a personal listening experience, you will have to do that through Bluetooth headphones or a wired USB-C pair (or a standard 3.5mm-jack and a USB-C adaptor dongle).

Features

Samsung has improved the S Pen, which can now be magnetically attached to a strip on the rear panel of the Tab S7+. When the pen tip is facing towards the camera lens it charges automatically. It’s a neat integration, although we find the pen is easily knocked off when you’re holding the tablet. It’s generally accurate and a joy to use, while the air gestures, which can be selected in settings, offer some clever shortcuts.

There still isn’t the same range of desktop-style apps in Android as for iPadOS, but Samsung’s Dex feature turns the tablet into a more computer-like experience courtesy of a desktop-friendly, landscape-orientated interface. This is recommended if you’re multitasking, and a must if you’re using the Tab S7+ with a mouse and keyboard, such as Samsung’s Keyboard Book Cover. It introduces a taskbar and lets you open multiple windows at once – and the Snapdragon 865 Plus processor accommodates that easily. New for the Tab S7+, too, is the ability to wirelessly connect the tablet to a Screen Mirroring-compatible display.

Should you wish to use the Tab S7+’s camera, its rear array is a 13MP/5MP pairing capable of perfectly clear and richly colourful photos, with much of the software available on Galaxy phones – including Panorama, Night, Live Focus and the Single Take mode introduced on the S20, which captures multiple shots from one take. There’s also 4K 30fps recording capability, while the 8MP front snapper is more than fine for video calls, too.

The S7+’s chassis comprises a single piece of solid aluminium (in Mystic Bronze, Mystic Silver and Mystic Black finish options) with rounded corners and straight-edged sides – giving it a premium feel. Its size makes holding it a two-handed affair, although its modest weight (575g) and surprising thinness (5.7mm) makes it one of the most svelte tablets we’ve held. An in-screen fingerprint sensor, as well as the S Pen functions, means you rarely have to reach around to the sides of the tablet.

Verdict

As a tablet, the Galaxy Tab S7+ delivers on pretty much all fronts: its gorgeous, super-responsive screen and quad speakers are great for watching videos, and its advanced processor, pleasing battery life and useful S Pen all help make Samsung’s flagship tablet a pleasure to live with.

Android doesn’t yet have the sophisticated type of apps required to make the Tab S7+ an ideal replacement for a computer or laptop. However, if you aren’t after a single device for work and play, this is a recommendable, albeit pricey, device for the latter.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

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