Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 review: Solid value, but a lot of compromises

One of the great things about AMD Ryzen processors in laptops is that given the right use case, you can get some really premium performance for a relatively inexpensive price. Indeed, for just over $1,200, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 comes with a QHD+ 120Hz display, a Ryzen 7, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD. That’s pretty sweet.

Of course, Ryzen processors come with significant compromises, mainly that performance suffers significantly when not connected to a power source. Also, it would be really great to see Lenovo push the limits of design a bit more than it has, as its laptops feel a bit bland.

Still, you really can’t beat the value here. For a creator laptop, it offers the things you want, like performance, a great display, and more.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16

Lenovo's IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro offers a Ryzen 7 processor, RTX graphics, a 120Hz screen, and more for a heck of a bargain.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Lenovo

About this review: Lenovo loaned the IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 to XDA Developers for the purposes of this review. It had no input into the contents of this article.

Navigate this review:

• Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 price and availability
• Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 specs
• Design: The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 is silver, and frankly bland
• Display: The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 has a 120Hz QHD+ screen
• Keyboard: If a number pad is what you want, Lenovo has you covered
• Performance: AMD Ryzen 5000 is great when plugged in, but not on battery life
• Who should buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16?

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 price and availability

• The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 is only sold on Lenovo.com, and this model costs $1,232.

Announced in September of 2021, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 has been available since late last year. Of course, the word “available” is a tricky one here, because even while I’m reviewing it, you can’t seem to buy it.

This particular unit that Lenovo sent me comes in at $1,232, and it’s sold on Lenovo.com, when it’s in stock. Lenovo has confirmed to me that it’s not selling this laptop through any other vendors, so if you don’t see it on Lenovo.com, there’s nowhere to get it.

Interestingly, when Lenovo announced the product, it said it would start at $1,449, so it’s selling for less than that.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 specs

Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050
Display	16” (16:10) OLED WQXGA (2560×1600), 100% sRGB, 500 nits, Display HDR 400, 120Hz refresh rate, touchscreen
Body	17.4-19.99mm x 247.42 mm x 356.81mm (.69-.79” x 9.74” x 14.05”) Starting at 2.08 kg (4.59 lbs)
Storage	1TB M.2 PCIe SSD
Memory	16GB Dual Channel DDR4-3200
Battery	75Wh, supports Rapid Charge Boost
Ports	1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Always On) 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (support data transfer, Power Delivery 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.4) 1x HDMI 1.4b 1x Card reader 1x Headphone / microphone combo jack (3.5mm) 1x Power connector
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6, 802.11ax 2×2 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.1
Audio	2 x 2W user-facing Dolby Atmos Speaker System
Keyboard	6-row, multimedia Fn keys, LED backlight
Camera	IR Camera & 720p, with ToF sensor, fixed focus
Color	Cloud Grey or Storm Grey
Material	Top/Bottom: Aluminum
OS	Windows 11 Pro
Price	$1,232

Design: The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 is silver, and frankly bland

• The laptop comes in silver, and has little to differentiate in terms of style.
• There’s no Thunderbolt or USB4.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro comes in two colors: Cloud Grey and Storm Grey. While those sound similar, both being called Grey and named after weather, they’re not. Cloud Grey is just another name for silver, which is totally normal, while Storm Grey is more of a gunmetal grey.

Personally, I think the design is too bland. It’s silver, big, and boring. And to be fair, there are plenty of people that want exactly that from a laptop, and I get it. All I’m saying is that there are laptops on the market that will catch some eyeballs when you take them into a Starbucks, and the IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 is not one of them.

Made of all aluminum, it weighs in at just over four and a half pounds. This is pretty standard fir a machine like this. After all, it’s a 16-inch laptop with a 45W processor and dedicated graphics. You’ll definitely feel it in your bag. It’s big too, although that goes without saying for a 16-inch laptop.

Without Thunderbolt or USB4, you might want to wait for the next generation.

Also as you’d expect from a large product like this, there are lots of ports. On the left side, you’ll find a power port that looks like a USB Type-A port, but it’s not. There’s also HDMI 1.4b, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, and a headphone jack. That USB port does support DisplayPort 1.4, but it’s a shame that the HDMI port is 1.4b, because HDMI 1.4b doesn’t support a decent refresh rate on 4K monitors. And without Thunderbolt or USB4, your options are limited when it comes to output.

That’s worth keeping in mind too. New Ryzen 6000 laptops include USB4, which is similar to Thunderbolt 3; prior to that, you pretty much get standard USB ports. In other word, it’s a real shortcoming in Ryzen 5000 and earlier, but it’s fixed in future generations.

On the other side, there are two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, so you only get 5Gbps speeds, and there’s a full-size SD card reader. Personally, I’m a big fan of the full-size SD card reader, and I’m pleased to see it with so many companies omitting it.

Ultimately, the design is…fine. Nothing about it stands out, as it’s just a bland, silver laptop that’s made out of aluminum. It’s got the ports you need, but there are some limitations as outlined above. Of course, as I mentioned right out of the gate, there’s a lot of value for the price here.

Display: The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 has a 120Hz QHD+ screen

• The 120Hz refresh rate makes for smooth animations.
• The webcam is still 720p.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 has a 16-inch 16:10 QHD+ 120Hz display, so it’s pretty good. It’s bigger at 16 inches, and while it only sounds a little larger than 15.6 inches, it’s measured diagonally, and it’s 16:10 now. That means that it’s taller and has a larger surface area.

The 120Hz refresh rate is pretty, but it affects battery life.

Personally, I think QHD is the sweet spot for resolution, at least in most cases. It doesn’t suck down power in the same way that a 4K display would, and at the same time, you don’t get the pixellation that you would on an FHD screen. I think most would agree that FHD simply isn’t enough pixels for a screen this big.

The refresh rate is 120Hz, which is nice, making for smooth animations. The problem is that if you turn this on, it does affect battery life. This is something that’s been solved in other products with dynamic refresh rates, which I’d love to see in the PC space so you don’t have to choose between nice, smooth animations and a boring old 60Hz screen.

Testing results are good, but not great. As you can see, it supports 100% sRGB, which is great, but it supports 72% NTSC, 77% Adobe RGB, and 78% P3, which as I said, is good but not quite as good as say, a Dell XPS 15.

In my testing, brightness maxed out at 465.4 nits, which falls a bit short of Lenovo’s promised 500 nits. Still, I really have to say, I was impressed with the brightness on this screen. In some lighting conditions, I found it uncomfortable to use at full brightness, and that’s a good thing. This also makes it great for outdoor use.

As you’d expect, there are narrow bezels on all sizes. The reverse notch at the top houses and IR camera for Windows Hello, along with a 720p webcam. Indeed, in the era of working from home, you’ll probably wish you had 1080p. This is something I’d expect to see changed in the next generation of the product.

Keyboard: If a number pad is what you want, Lenovo has you covered

Once again, Lenovo has produced a premium backlit keyboard, which is both accurate and comfortable to type on. Thanks to the size, it also has a number pad to the right of the main QWERTY keyboard. Obviously, this is something that’s a bit polarizing. you either want the number pad or you don’t, but it is there.

The keys are shallower than what you’d get on a ThinkPad, but they’re pretty standard for a consumer laptop, which is good.

It comes with a Microsoft Precision touchpad, just as you’d expect from any modern laptop. That means that it’s fast, responsive, and supports the gestures that you’re used to.

Above the keyboard, you’ll find the Dolby Atmos system, which consists of dual 2W speakers. They sound fantastic, for anything from calls to listening to music at your desk.

Performance: AMD Ryzen 5000 is great when plugged in, but not on battery life

• Once again, Ryzen performance suffers when the machine isn’t connected to power.
• Battery life on the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 is bad enough that you’ll always need to bring a charger.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 packs a Ryzen 7 H-series processor and dedicated graphics in the form of an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, and considering the other perks it has (it even comes with Windows 11 Pro), it’s a bargain at just over $1,200. As I mentioned right out of the gate, using an AMD Ruyzen processor is a great way to deliver premium performance at a more reasonable price point.

It just needs to be plugged in. I’ll tell you right now that the PCMark 10 score dropped from 5,956 when it was plugged in, to 4,193 when it wasn’t. That’s a 29.6% drop in performance. Note that both tests were taken with the power slider set to best performance. I edited a lot of photos in Photoshop and Lightroom, both when connected to power and when not, and you can feel the difference.

Performance dropped by 29% when the laptop wasn't plugged in.

Battery life leaves much to be desired as well. I only got two to three hours out of it when the screen was set to 120Hz, and when it was set to 60Hz, maybe I could stretch it to four hours, but that’s still unlikely. Battery life is simply not good. You cannot plan on bringing this laptop anywhere without having a charger with you.

But like I said, when it’s plugged in, performance is fantastic. For benchmarks, I used PCMark 10, 3DMark, Geekbench 5, and Cinebench R23. The laptop was plugged in for all of these.

	IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 Ryzen 7 5800H, RTX 3050	Dell XPS 15 9510 Core i7-11800H, RTX 3050 Ti	Surface Laptop Studio Core i7-11370H, RTX A2000
PCMark 10	5,956	5,988	5,573
3DMark: Time Spy	4,299	4,801	5,075
Geekbench	1,423 / 7,368	1,538 / 7,514	1,546 / 5,826
Cinebench	1,371 / 10,587	1,491 / 9,399	1,504 / 6,283

As you can see, the benchmark scores, when the laptop is plugged in, are pretty much comparable to Intel’s 11th-gen processors.

Who should buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16?

Obviously, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16 is not for everyone. In fact, this is aimed at creators, or at least people that need the power of dedicated graphics.

Who should buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16:

• Creators that need to get a lot for their money
• People that will be connected to power most of the time, or at least when doing power-intensive tasks

Who should not buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Pro 16:

• Users that are on battery power most of the time
• Creators that can afford to not make so many compromises
• People who are on a lot of video calls and care about webcam quality

Here’s the deal. If you’re looking for a laptop that’s aimed at creators, you have to think about what you want to spend. If you’re a professional that can afford to spend a bit more, you should buy something with an Intel processor. If you’re a hobbyist or just starting out, AMD Ryzen could be better for you. The big thing to consider is that performance takes nearly a 30% hit when you’re not connected to power.

 

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Insta360 One RS Review: A modular action camera that can capture literally everything

When you think of action cameras — those small, cube-shaped wide-angle cameras that extreme sports enthusiasts attach on top of their helmets, shoulder, backpacks, and more — the first brand that comes to mind is probably GoPro. But in recent years, GoPro has seen major competition from Insta360, the Chinese upstart brand best known for its highly popular 360-degree cameras. Insta360’s latest product, the One RS is a camera that can transform from a standard action camera to a 360-degree camera via modularity. The concept is original, the hardware well-built, but perhaps more than anything, it’s the brilliant software features that make Insta360 cameras (not just the One RS) so much fun to use.

About this review: Instas360 sent me a One RS Twin Edition to review in early March. Insta360 did not have input in this review.

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Insta360 One RS: Pricing and Availability

Insta360 One RS is a modular camera whose pieces can be sold separately or in various combinations. The most common package will be the $549 “Twin Edition,” which includes the core, battery base, and both 4K action lens and 360 camera lenses, along with a mounting bracket. There’s also a $299 “4K Edition” that includes all of the above but omits the 360 lens (which means you’re essentially buying only an action camera); and a $549 “1-inch Edition” that includes the core, battery base and a Leica-branded action lens with a 1-inch sensor.

All of these packages are available for order now on Insta360’s website or Amazon.

Insta360 One RS

The Insta360 One RS is a modular camera that can turn from an action cam to a 360 camera in under 30 seconds

Pros:

Cons:

View at Amazon

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Design and Hardware

The Insta360 One RS consists of three parts:

• A core that houses an undisclosed processor, a 1.5-inch screen, microphone, MicroSD card slot, and USB-C port
• A 1,445 mAh battery base
• The camera lens (there are three options)

The trio of lens options includes a 4K wide-angle action lens (officially named 4K Boost lens) that can shoot an equivalent of 16mm focal length; a 360 lens (consisting of two 5.7K fisheye lens each with 180-degree FoV); and a Leica-branded wide-angle 1-inch sensor (this is essentially a superior version of the 4K Boost Lens with a larger sensor that takes in more light).

The 4K Boost lens (left) and 360 lens (right).

Insta360 will sell all of the above parts separately as well as in packages that include either just one or a combination of lenses. I tested the “Twin Edition,” which includes the 4K Boost lens and 360 lens, along with a mounting bracket.

All of these parts connect via pin slots (similar to those in 80s/90s Nintendo cartridges) and snap into place with ease. Once connected, the whole kit feels sturdy, as if it’s one piece. When properly connected, the One RS is actually rated IPX8 for water resistance up to 16 feet underwater.

When connected, the Insta360 One RS weighs 121g (4.3oz) and measures 70.1 x 49.1 x 32.6mm. This is a bit bigger and heavier than a standalone action camera like the GoPro Hero 10 Black and DJI Action.

The core features two physical buttons for power and shutter; slots for USB-C and Micro-SD card (both covered by a water-proof flap; a microphone; and a 1.5-inch LCD screen that supports touch and swipes, to navigate through the camera’s UI. Users can directly control the camera by interacting with the touchscreen, or via the Insta360 companion app on their phone. I will talk more about the app in the software section. The screen also serves as a viewfinder, and due to its modular nature, it can be positioned on the same side as the lens (for selfies and vlogs) or on the opposite side (for capturing footage in front of the user).

The 4K Boost lens can snap 48MP still photos or record video up to 4K/60fps under normal mode or 6K/24fps in an anamorphic-like ultra wide-screen mode. The 360 lens, meanwhile, can record 360-degree video up to 5.7K at 30fps, or a lower resolution at up to 100fps.

The 1,445 mAh battery base allows the Insta360 One RS to shoot for around 70 minutes on a single charge.

The One RS, being cube-shaped, can obviously stand up right on surfaces on its own, but most users will want to pair it with a mounting bracket, which is included with the Twin Edition. It’s a quick-release bracket, meaning a press of a button will open a flap through which the Insta360 One RS will slide in and out. The bottom of the mount has a quarter-inch thread, which is the widely used standard for selfie sticks, tripod mounts, etc.

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Using the Insta360 One RS

With a built-in mic and a touchscreen that allows easy navigation to all shooting modes, the Insta360 One RS is almost ready to begin filming out of the box — it just needs a MicroSD card, which is a separate purchase. Once that is taken care of, the Insta360 One RS can operate independently as a standalone camera without ever needing a smartphone. You can preview the scene with the built-in screen, record with the press of a button, review the footage captured on the screen and transfer files over to a computer via the MicroSD card.

However, pairing the Insta360 One RS with a smartphone via the Insta360 companion app (available on iOS and Android) make the experience far easier. You get a much larger screen to preview and review footage, for example. The app also offers advanced camera settings like tweaking exposure and white balance, and perhaps most useful of all, you can control the Insta360 One RS remotely with the phone. You don’t have to touch the camera itself to change shooting modes or begin recording. I will talk about the Insta360 app more in the software section right after this one.

Insta360 One RS connected to an iPhone 13 Mini

With the 4K Boost lens, the One RS is a fairly typical action camera, meaning it captures a sweeping field-of-view with everything in focus. There’s optical stabilization inside the lens, but Insta360’s software stabilization is excellent too, as footage comes out mostly stable and smooth even when I’m walking, riding a bicycle, or running full speed. Because of the ultra-wide 16mm focal length, I can hold the One RS with my hands, arm extended, and still get my entire head and shoulder in the frame for vlogs. Adding a selfie stick obviously helps matters and make for a wider framing that shows not just me, but my background. The internal mic does a decent job capturing my voice, and Insta360’s software will automatically apply a de-noising algorithm to remove background sounds — although this leaves my voice sounding digitalized.

Below is a collection of 4K Boost lens footage, captured in daytime and nighttime. Notice how the stabilization is really good even as I’m running full speed. Dynamic range is excellent during the daytime footage too. At night, obviously, video quality takes a hit, with noticeable noise.

Switch to the 360 lens and the Insta360 One RS can capture 360-degree footage up to 5.7K. Like almost all 360 cameras, the footage here is just two 180-degree super fisheye videos stitched together, and Insta360’s software does a good job of hiding the stitch line. This shouldn’t be a surprise, because 360 cameras are ultimately Insta360’s main claim to fame. Its standalone 360 camera, the One X2, is widely considered the best consumer-grade 360 camera on the market. The 360 lens in the One RS is actually identical to the One X2’s lens, so you’re getting the exact same 360-degree footage.

While 360-degree videos can be viewed with a VR headset or on YouTube, I prefer to reframe 360-degree videos into a conventional video for uploading to Instagram. To that end, Insta360 built this creative software trick that lets me pan around an existing 360-degree footage, set framing as I see fit, and then render a regular video with those camera movements. Below is a sample: this was a 360 video I reframed to make it look like there was a cameraman panning around the band (I’m on drums, by the way). In reality, the camera was just stationary in the middle of the band room. Notice the audio, while not amazing, can be considered good, considering audio is being captured by the One RS’ built-in microphone.

Below are more reframed 360 samples, mostly shot at night. While Hong Kong at night is still pretty well lit, it is still considered a low light situation, and the footage remains mostly noise-free.

You’ll notice in some angles of the above video it looks like the camera is floating above me as if it’s mounted on a drone. It wasn’t. The One RS was, in fact, just connected to an extended selfie stick. Insta360’s software automatically erases the selfie stick from the scene. In the stills below, you can see my arms extended, holding something that has been digitally erased.

With both lenses, the Insta360 One RS can shoot videos in time-lapse at varying speeds, as well as slow-motion (up to 8x slowed down speed). For 360 videos, the Insta360 One R’s footage is as crisp as any competing consumer-grade 360 cameras, while 4K action cam footage is good, but bested by the GoPro Hero 10 which can shoot 4K/120fps.

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Insta360 One RS: Software

But it’s the software that really makes the difference. Insta360 has both the aforementioned mobile app for iOS and Android and desktop software for Windows and Mac. To be honest, the mobile app is often easier and more intuitive to use, but the desktop software is needed to render 6K wide-screen footage. I have been using Insta360 products for years and have used the mobile app 99.9% of the time.

The mobile app connects to the One RS wirelessly via a few taps — however, this process is much faster on the iOS app than on the Android app (we’re talking 10 seconds vs up to a minute). Once connected, both versions of the app have the same interface.

Within the app, we can directly see the camera’s viewfinder on the mobile screen, control the camera directly in the app, as well as make edits to footage already shot. The editing suite is quite impressive for a free mobile app — you don’t just get to trim length, switch aspect ratio (16:9, 9:16, 1:1) and render the video to your phone’s storage, you can also apply beauty filters that enlarge eyes or brighten skin (ugh). Color temperature, contrast, overall brightness can be tweaked too, but there’s also a one-stop “Color Plus” button that uses AI to apply tweaks automatically. I find that it works well for the most part.

For 4K Boost lens footage, the editing is straightforward, almost as if you’re fixing up any normal smartphone footage. With 360 footage, however, there are a lot of things we can do, including the aforementioned reframing of a 360 video into a normal video. We can frame the video using our fingers to pinch and swipe through the footage, or by tagging pivot points at which the camera moves.

The above gif is heavily compressed, but in the below screenshots, you can see that the 5.7K 360 footage looks reasonably sharp even when zoomed in. This means 360 footage captured by the Insta360 offers a very diverse playing field. I can zoom all the way out to a tiny planet-like shot, or pull all the way to examine details of the scenery around me.

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Who should buy the Insta360 One RS?

The Twin Edition’s $549 price tag seems like a high price at first glance, but when you consider that you’re getting a high-quality 4K action camera and a 360 camera, the price is justifiable. A GoPro Hero 10 alone costs $500; a standalone 360 camera from GoPro costs $400.

If you are an outdoor adventurer and want a versatile camera that can capture literally everything in the scene, the Insta360 One RS is one of the best options out there

As mentioned, I think the Insta360’s software is superior to competing DJI and GoPro products I’ve tested, especially the reframing feature. To be honest, I often feel like I don’t take full advantage of the Insta360 360 cameras because I’m just using them to walk around streets, or the occasional bike ride. Insta360’s 360 lenses are highly popular for those who participate in extreme outdoor activities like skydiving, dirt bike riding, among others. When I see that footage (often shared by Insta30’s Instagram account), I am left in awe.

If you are an outdoor adventurer and want a versatile camera that can capture literally everything in the scene, the Insta360 One RS is one of the best options out there. If you don’t need either the 360 lens or the action lens, there are cheaper packages that shave about $100 off the price tag.

Insta360 One RS (Twin Edition)

The best option for those trying an Insta360 product for the first time -- this kit includes the 4K action lens and 360 lens so you can capture wide-angle stabilized 4K footage or 360-degree videos with just a quick swap of lenses.

View at Amazon

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Google Photos tests a new Snippets feature that creates short, shareable clips from your videos

Google Photos is reportedly testing a new feature called Snippets. The feature is currently available for only a handful of users, and Google is yet to share any information about the feature or a wider rollout. Fortunately, users who have received the Snippets feature on their devices reveal that it automatically creates short, shareable clips from longer videos.

First spotted by Reddit user u/CraftSquid426 (via Android Police), the Snippets feature in Google Photos appears to be a new creation category that will join the existing Animations, Collages, Movies, and Cinematic photos categories. Its icon is a short strip of film, suggesting that it will take a small section of a video on your phone to create a short, shareable clip. Like the other Google Photos creations features, Snippets will likely use machine learning to create the short clips.

Credit: u/CraftSquid426

Android Police further reveals that the Photos app will also show Snippets in the main carousel on the home page. These automatically created Snippets look to be trimmed versions of longer videos attempting to highlight the best part of the video. However, the Snippets currently seem to capture a random part of the video, suggesting that the machine learning algorithm needs more training. It’s also worth mentioning that the Snippets feature has only been spotted on videos of pets so far.

Credit: Android Police

At the moment, we don’t have any further information about Google Photos’ new Snippets feature as it’s not available on any of our devices. We’ll make sure to let you know as soon as we have more details.

It’s worth noting that the new Snippets feature comes just a week after Google announced three big changes coming to the Photos app — a Library tab UI overhaul, a Sharing tab design refresh, and new screenshot features.

What do you think of Google Photos’ new Snippets feature? Do you think it’s a useful addition or just a gimmick that you probably won’t use? Let us know in the comments section below.

Google Photos (Free, Google Play) →

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Source: Reddit
Via: Android Police

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Google starts testing Privacy Sandbox in Chrome and announces new user controls

Google’s attempts to replace browser cookies with a new solution have been met with a lot of criticism from privacy advocates and competitors. Google’s first attempt at phasing out cookies came in FLoC, short for Federated Learning of Cohorts, which Google deemed more private and better than cross-site tracking cookies. However, the company abandoned the feature following the backlash, proposing a replacement in the form of Topics API, which categorizes your interests into different topics that advertisers can target. Now Google has started testing the Topics API along with other features such as FLEDGE and Attribution Reporting.

In a blog post on Thursday, Google announced the next stage of testing for Privacy Sandbox features. As part of the trial, developers can now test out Topics, FLEDGE, and Attribution Reporting APIs in Chrome Canary. Google says it will soon expand these features to a limited number of Chrome Beta users, and assuming things go smoothly, the API testing will eventually be made available on the Chrome stable channel.

“Starting today, developers can begin testing globally the Topics, FLEDGE, and Attribution Reporting APIs in the Canary version of Chrome. We’ll progress to a limited number of Chrome Beta users as soon as possible. Once things are working smoothly in Beta, we’ll make API testing available in the stable version of Chrome to expand testing to more Chrome users,” said Vinay Goel, Product Director, Privacy Sandbox, Chrome.

Google says it’ll take into account feedback from developers and companies to further improve the APIs and make them broadly available in Chrome once it’s confident that they’re working as intended.

“Once we’re confident that the APIs are working as designed, we’ll make them broadly available in Chrome, allowing more developers to integrate, evaluate and provide feedback as we continue to optimize them for their use cases.”

Google will also soon start testing updated Privacy Sandbox settings and controls in Chrome, allowing users to see and manage interests collected by the browser based on their history. In addition, users can also opt out of the trials altogether.

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Source: Google Chromium

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