Microsoft has unveiled a major update for its Edge browser, introducing new features that include sleeping tabs, new themes, and improvements to performance. The latest features arrive a year after the Chromium-powered version of Microsoft Edge was released.
Likely the most exciting features from a consumer standpoint is the introduction of new themes in Edge. Microsoft said it created 24 new themes, giving users plenty of options to personalize their browser experience. Some of the themes are straight from Xbox, including Halo, Gears, Forza, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Sea of Thieves, and more.
The themes apply a new background on the new tab page, while tabs, address bar, and other parts of the browser also take on the look of the theme. Support is also available for vertical tabs in the Dev channel, which the company has recently been testing.
Speaking of design, Microsoft is incorporating more elements of its Fluent design system into Edge, beginning with the browser’s icons, which now take on a rounder and softer appearance. Microsoft said it plans to bring more of its Fluent design system to more of its products, but didn’t share details.
The next thing people will notice in Edge is sleeping tabs. Microsoft said the feature will boost browser performance by improving memory and CPU resource usage. “When you have several tabs open, it will release system resources for inactive tabs to help power new or existing tabs as well as other applications, preventing slowdowns and sluggishness.”
Microsoft is also rolling out new password manager features to Edge. One of the features is a password generator. The new will automatically suggest a secure password when you’re signing up for a new online account or changing an existing password. The password generator arrives ahead of other security features, including a password monitor, which will tell you if one of your passwords is part of a list of leaked credentials on the dark web.
In terms of improved privacy, Microsoft said Edge will include extra transparency to help users manage specific site permissions. Users will be able to control which sites you share location, camera, and microphone access. You can also review, edit, and reset site permissions if you change your mind.
These features are part of a much larger update to Edge, which is also rolling out history and tab sync to all users. The feature was previously made available to certain countries earlier this month.
Smartening up your house can cost a lot… unless you’re keeping an eye on deals (or looking at our smart home gifts under $100), of course! Sales on smart items are pretty common if you know where to look. A few retailers, like Amazon and Best Buy, tend to have regular discounts on the smart home items you probably need the most. Today, Best Buy has an incredible deal for those looking to expand their smart home–a Lenovo Smart Clock bundle for just $30!
Normally $95, you’ll get the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential and a 4-pack of GE Soft White Smart Bulbs. Anyone who has looked at the prices of smart bulbs in the past knows that they’re expensive, and the GE bulbs usually retail at $45 alone. You can buy them separately on sale for $20 right now as well, but for just $10 more you also get the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential!
Arguably the star of the Lenovo Smart Clock bundle, the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential is probably my favorite smart clock yet. It’s very simple, as it’s mostly just… a clock, with nice big display that’ll let you easily see the time from anywhere in the room. However, you can also use the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential to control other smart devices around the house. Like, you know, the smart bulbs you get with the bundle!
The Lenovo Smart Clock Essential does not have a screen like other smart clocks, but if you already have something like the standard Lenovo Smart Clock, you may not need it! The Essential is perfect for rooms where you just need a clock and a speaker, not all the features of a smart clock with a screen. Honestly, I think it’s a perfect blend of simplicity and functionality.
The only catch of this awesome Lenovo Smart Clock bundle? You’ll have to pick it up from your local Best Buy! For just $30, though, I’d say the curbside pick-up is worth it.
For just 430, get the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential and a 4-pack of GE Soft White Smart Bulbs! That's an incredible deal on two very useful smart home items.
If the Lenovo Smart Clock bundle is not available in your area, don’t fret, as you can still buy the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential and GE Smart Bulbs separately online for delivery. It won’t be at the same low price, but a bit of a discount is always better than no discount at all!
I’ve had the Samsung Galaxy S21 series in my possession for 72 hours now. During this time, most of my attention has been focused on the top dog, the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Three days isn’t quite long enough for a full review, but enough time to form a lot of opinions. Here are my five key takeaways from Samsung’s latest flagship.
Wacom Stylus and S Pen support (sold separately and stored externally)
MST support in some regions
Colors
Phantom Violet
Phantom Gray
Phantom White
Phantom Pink
Phantom Violet
Phantom Gray
Phantom White
Samsung.com Exclusive:
Phantom Gold
Phantom Red
Phantom Gray
Phantom White
Samsung.com Exclusive:
Phantom Titanium
Phantom Navy
Phantom Brown
Note: I received a retail, Snapdragon 888 variant of the Galaxy S21 Ultra on loan from Samsung Hong Kong. Samsung did not have any inputs in this article
Zoom Lock is a gamechanger
By now, you’re probably aware that the Galaxy S21 Ultra sports a 10x optical zoom camera, a jump from the 5x optical lens of the Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Samsung allows the Galaxy S21 Ultra to zoom all the way up to 100x magnification digitally. While 100x shots are sometimes useable, the more practical use case for the zoom lens is to capture 10x, 20x, even 30x shots that are surprisingly sharp and Instagram-ready. For example, see the 30x zoom samples below.
North American consumers will likely be blown away by the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s zooming prowess, but those in Asia who have easy access to devices like the Huawei P40 Pro, Huawei Mate 40 Pro, or the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra know there are other phones that can do these same shots.
Where Samsung one-ups the others is a feature called “zoom lock,” which uses AI smarts to lock onto a target area once the zoom goes beyond 20x. Once locked on, minor hand movements like trembling and shaking won’t affect the viewfinder’s shots.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra at 30x with zoom lock enabled (in the upper left corner box).
The zoom locked visuals in the viewfinder resemble a camera on a gimbal, in that it floats steadily with minimal movement unless the camera-holder make drastic hand movements. See the video below of zoom lock in action — I’m holding the Galaxy S21 Ultra with one hand at 100x zoom and the viewfinder is more stable than a Huawei Mate 40 Pro at 30x zoom or iPhone 12 Pro at 10x zoom.
Significant video camera improvements
Speaking of cameras, the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s video capabilities have gotten a big improvement. For years, I and other reviewers have said the iPhone’s video camera performance is superior to Android offerings. This was most noticeable in areas like video stabilization, dynamic range, and adjusting to sudden shifts in lighting.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra excels in all three areas, particularly finding the correct lighting balance even in drastic exposure shifts. In fact, in a night video shot in neon light-drenched Hong Kong streets, the Galaxy S21 Ultra exposed the myriad of lights better than the iPhone 12 Pro Max. It’s still too early to say if the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s video camera is better than the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s, but it’s as close as any Android brand has ever gotten to toppling Apple. See for yourself in this side-by-side footage below.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra also brings other tricks, such as the ability to record with both the front-facing and rear-facing cameras at the same time, bokeh video, and one of my favorite features — the ability to use a Galaxy Buds Pro or Buds Live as a Bluetooth wireless mic.
The screen curvature is just right
I’ve spoken to enough industry peers and have read and watched enough reviews to know that many (most?) of them do not like curved screens. Whether it’s arguably the most influential mobile tech YouTuber in the world, tech site editors, or XDA’s own COO, there’ve been open calls for brands to stop with the curved screens and stick with flat displays.
Their complaints range from accidental palm touches to color distortion at the edges to increased fragility. And I think those gripes are mostly fair, but despite all of that I would still prefer a curved screen personally because they look good and feel good to use. I find curved screens more aesthetically pleasing to look at, and the curvature makes for a more comfortable grip due to the rounded, narrower form factor. I’d also like to add that some brands, like Huawei, have completely made accidental touches on the edges a non-issue.
Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra seems to have found the middle ground. Its 6.8-inch screen is curved ever so subtly — just enough that the Galaxy S21 Ultra still keeps that premium “there are no sharp edges anywhere” in-hand feel that Samsung practically invented, and its side bezels are noticeably slimmer than the ones of the flat-screened Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus. But the curves are also subtle enough that accidental touches increased fragility shouldn’t be an issue. And in my opinion, the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus’ flat sides and sharp corners feel less-than-premium.
Personally, I still think a phone with a more dramatic curve like a Huawei P40 Pro looks much more mesmerizing, but Samsung seems to have found the middle ground to please most people.
One UI 3.1 moves further away from Bixby and Samsung’s quirks
The Galaxy S21 Ultra runs One UI 3.1 over Android 11 out of the box. Visually, One UI 3.1 is very similar the One UI 2.5 that shipped with the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. I mostly notice that some of Android 11’s subtle visual changes such as rounded notification boxes in the panel have carried over. And other One UI 3.1 features that had leaked earlier such as S-Pen support and video bokeh work fine on my Galaxy S21 Ultra. Our editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman also wrote an in-depth breakdown of what’s new to One UI 3.0 for those interested.
For me, I notice that the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s software doesn’t push Samsung’s own software on the user as much. For example, my device comes out of the box with Google’s Discover feed instead of Samsung’s own feed. When I press the power button, it also brings back the power off menu, instead of trying to launch Bixby.
You can now double tap the screen to turn it on or to lock it — a feature I have loved ever since the LG G2, and if I open an app via the “edge panel” (the swipe-over menu), apps now open in a split-screen view if I already have another app opened. The “app pairing” section will also remember the last two apps you opened in case you need to open that combination again.
Battery life is a potential concern
The Galaxy S21 Ultra has a 5,000 mAh battery, which is normally considered fairly adequate capacity, but the phone also packs a gorgeous 6.8-inch, 3,200 x 1,400 WQHD+ display that refreshes up to 120Hz and can reach 1,500 nits of brightness.
In other words, the 5,000mAh cell is just about adequate for a heavy user like myself. Over the past three days, I saw the battery dip below 20% near the end of a 13-hour day, with about five hours of screen on time.
Today was slightly alarming: I unplugged a fully charged S21 Ultra at 7:00 am to check some emails and texts, then went back to sleep without plugging the phone back in. I woke up at noon (I work late into the night!) and noticed the phone’s battery sat at 93% — it suffered a chunky 7% battery drain in five hours of standby time.
I then took the phone out for an afternoon of photo and video tests, streamed an hour-long podcast on Spotify, and right now as of time of this writing (midnight, almost exactly 16 hours hours after I first unplugged the phone but just 12 hours of really using it), the battery sits at 18% with 4 hours 23 minutes of screen-on time.
This isn’t bad battery life, but it’s not great. And in non-Covid times, I could very well still have another two to three hours out before I return home to a charger. To be fair, I am a heavy power user: I set the screen resolution to the maximum setting (it comes out of the box at 2,400 x 1,080), and used “adaptive” refresh rate (which can get up to 120Hz). I also shot more videos than usual today.
Three days is still too early to judge a phone’s endurance — but I don’t think the Galaxy S21 Ultra is a phone I know will always last me an entire day the way a Huawei or Xiaomi phone can.
That’s it for my five takeaways after 72 hours with the Galaxy S21 Ultra. I think Samsung has made an apex slab phone that will be hard to top this year, but I’ll confirm that in my full review coming next week. Other members of the XDA team will also test the phone in other areas, so stay tuned to XDA for our in-depth coverage of the Galaxy S21 series.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the ultimate overkill in the new 2021 flagship series, packing in a flagship SoC, a premium build, a great display, and an amazing camera setup, as well as all the extras expected on a premium flagship.
Microsoft has finally brought the Surface Laptop Go to India after it was introduced last year in October. The notebook comes with a traditional clamshell design and with a fairly compact size. It is also the lightest Surface Laptop weighing just 1.1kgs with a thickness of 15.9mm. According to Microsoft, the Surface Laptop Go offers up to 13 hours of battery life.
The new Surface Laptop Go will be available with the 10th-gen Intel Core i5-1035G1 Ice Lake processor with up to 16GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 256GB of SSD storage. Notably, the base variant of the notebook features a 64GB eMMC instead of an SSD. The display includes a 12.4-inch touchscreen panel with a 1536 x 1024-pixels resolution and a 3:2 aspect ratio. The notebook also comes with a full-size keyboard with a 1.3mm key travel, while users can also sign-in using the inbuilt fingerprint reader via Windows Hello (not available on the base variant). Other features include a 720p webcam, omnisonic speakers with Dolby Audio, and high-quality studio mics.
On the connectivity front, the notebook features Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 and for I/O the notebook features a USB Type-C port, a USB Type-A, 3.5 mm headphone jack and the Surface Connect port that lets you charge and attach docks to the notebook. The notebook will only be available in a single Platinum color option, although it was originally announced in Ice Blue, and Sandstone colors as well.
Pricing and Availability
The pricing for the Surface Laptop Go starts at ₹63,499 for the variant that features an Intel Core i5 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. There is also an 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant which will be available for ₹71,999, an 8GB RAM and 256GB storage variant priced at ₹91,999, and the top config with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage at ₹1,10,999. According to the press release shared by Microsoft India, the consumer SKUs do not include the base and top variants as they will fall under commercial SKUs.The laptop will be available via authorized resellers, authorized retailers, and e-commerce websites including Amazon and Reliance Digital starting January 22.
Samsung is occupying news headlines this month for the Samsung Galaxy S21 series, but the company makes a lot of smartphones every year across practically all price ranges. Moving past the flagships, the South Korean company is gearing up to launch two budget smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy M12 and the Samsung Galaxy F12, with Exynos 850 and Android 11.
According to Ishan Agarwal as well as through Google Play Console’s Device Catalog, we have a fair idea of what we can expect from the upcoming budget devices. While Ishan is unsure whether the information with them is for the Samsung Galaxy M12 or the Galaxy F12, the Google Play Console mentions both of them as separate devices although with the same set of specifications.
The Galaxy M12 / Galaxy F12 is tipped to come with a 6.5″ HD+ TFT LCD. The device runs on Exynos 850, which is a budget processor from Samsung that was launched in May 2020. The Exynos 850 comes with 8x ARM Cortex-A55 cores clocked at up to 2GHz. As for the device(s), it will come with RAM options of 3GB and 4GB, while storage options of 32GB ad 64GB will be available, alongside microSD card support.
The phone is expected to come with a 6,000 mAh battery. The rear quad camera setup will be headed by a 48MP sensor, followed by a 5MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro camera. The front camera is expected to be an 8MP shooter.
It’s possible that Samsung may launch the device as the Galaxy M12 as an “online-exclusive”, and then launch the same phone as the Galaxy F12 for the offline market. That could explain why Ishan is unsure on which device the specifications belong to, because they may be the same device but with different names. We should see the devices launch soon enough in India.
Xiaomi’s Redmi sub-brand is largely known for its stellar Redmi Note series and Redmi series. Spread across the early budget and mid-ranges, these phones are often the epitome of value you can get for every bit of money you spend. Xiaomi reserves the higher end specifications for phones under its Mi branding, but that could change this year, as Redmui’s first gaming smartphone is coming with the new MediaTek Dimensity 1200.
Redmi’s General Manager in China, Mr. Lu Weibing, has revealed on Weibo (via AndroidAuthority) that the brand will launch its first flagship gaming smartphone. The statements were made within the context of the Dimensity 1200 launch and how Redmi will be the first OEM to ship a phone with the new processor, strongly hinting that this is the chip that could be powering the gaming phone. As is the Redmi philosophy, the pricing is expected to be aggressive, making the entire proposition very enticing. It’s unclear if the first phone with Dimensity 1200 would be the gaming smartphone or something within the Redmi K-series lineup.
It’s worth keeping in mind that the Dimensity 1200 features the same GPU (ARM Mali-G77MC9) as the Dimensity 1100, Dimensity 1000 Plus, and Dimensity 1000. There are other changes that do benefit a gaming smartphone, such as support for 168Hz refresh rate at FHD+, as well as support for ray tracing through software. There’s also MediaTek HyperEngine 3.0 support on the new chip, but the company did not specifically detail what this bump up in versioning brings to the table, and if the same could also make its way to the older Dimensity flagship chips as they bear the same GPU.
One thing that becomes abundantly clear is that OEMs have a lot more faith in MediaTek’s Dimensity lineup than ever before, enough to dedicate a few firsts for their brand to the new flagship chips. While it remains to be seen how the Dimensity 1200 measures up to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 and Samsung Exynos 2100, it does appear promising as a value performer.
The new Samsung Galaxy S21 series is about to reach the hands of consumers very soon. Once there, quite a few of those hands will invariably be dropping the phone sooner or later. Unless you have a good case on, chances are that one of those drops will break your really expensive Galaxy S21 Ultra. If you find yourself in such a situation and are comfortable repairing your own phone, you can check out teardown videos of the Galaxy S21 Ultra to get a good look at what can be feasibly repaired and how difficult the process could be.
YouTuber PBKreviews got us one of our first teardown and disassembly videos for the Samsung Galaxy S21, and now they are back with a similar one for the Galaxy S21 Ultra. As expected, the general procedure for teardown is largely the same pattern as most glass and metal sandwich phones, but a few key details differ from the polycarbonate-back Galaxy S21.
Since this is an international model of the Galaxy S21 Ultra, one of the key differences internally is the lack of mmWave antennae on the sides, even though the housing slot exists. The SIM slot is physically capable of reading dual SIMs, but the SIM tray included is a single tray model — it remains unclear if simply inserting a dual SIM tray would get dual SIM working, or if there would be a need for software modifications to enable this function. The camera island is also metallic and separate from the glass back, held together in place with adhesive.
Curiously, the top speaker assembly on the device lacks the white foam balls within. This is different from the standard Galaxy S21 which included the same on the top speaker assembly. The bottom speaker on both of these devices does have them included, so this omission is certainly curious. The battery is tightly glued in without any pull tabs, and you’d likely need isopropyl alcohol to loosen the adhesive to safely remove it. Once you get through the battery, you can take a look at the large 2nd gen ultrasonic fingerprint sensor.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra was given a repairability score of just 6 out of 10, because of the difficulty in removing the battery, and a fixed display cable (likely needed for the S Pen support on the device) instead of a removable cable. The back is also glass, so it is more difficult to open the device without accidentally cracking it, as compared to the Galaxy S21. We hope that you do not need to repair your device, but just in case you need to, this is a handy resource.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the ultimate overkill in the new 2021 flagship series, packing in a flagship SoC, a premium build, a great display, and an amazing camera setup, as well as all the extras expected on a premium flagship.
