For most, a charger is something that just comes with your device, and you never really think about it again. But for others, it’s an opportunity to explore a world of third-party accessories that could rival or surpass first-party offerings. Anker is a company that has built quite a reputation, selling mobile charging solutions online and even in retail stores. Today, the firm announced a series of new GaN chargers under its GaNPrime banner.
GaNPrime will be an extension of what the company has been building over the past few years, combining GaN, with proprietary Anker technology. The combination will make way for safer, more sustainable, and faster-charging solutions. GaNPrime will achieve the previous points by focusing on energy conservation, the ability to channel power where needed, when it’s needed, improved active heat monitoring, and compact charger designs.
GaN or Gallium Nitride is a chemical compound used since the 1990s and has more recently found its way into mobile chargers. The compound offers many benefits, mainly its ability to operate at higher temperatures. Anker has harnessed this technology, delivering chargers that can far surpass the abilities of your standard charger. While the additional charging power is welcome, some might not be as keen on the price, with the base Anker GaN charger costing far more than your stock charger. Although it might be a steep price, it does have many advantages, especially for those with multiple devices.
If you are interested in Anker’s new GaNPrime mobile charging solutions, you can hit the links above to order. Anker’s more powerful GaNPrime charging solutions like the 120W Anker 737 charger, 733 Power Bank, and 150W 747 charger are not currently available for pre-order from Amazon. They will begin shipping sometime in Q3 2022. The pre-order links will be added when they become available. You can also head to the source link to order directly from Anker.
OnePlus is currently in the process of shaping up its OxygenOS 13 skin based on Android 13. At the same time, the company is also trying to keep its older devices up to date with the latest security patches, but the amount of delay is quite intimidating. Case in point: While we’re about a week away from moving into August, OnePlus has now started rolling out the July 2022 security patches through the stable channel, starting with the OnePlus Nord N10 5G.
OxygenOS 11.0.7 for the OnePlus Nord N10 5G’s global model is currently rolling out to users. According to screenshots shared by users over on the OnePlus Community Forums, a similar update is also available for the T-Mobile variant of the same device. Note that the new build is still based on the Android 11 base, as the device is eligible for only one major OS update.
Here’s the full changelog for the update:
System
[Updated] Android security patch to 2022.07
OnePlus is yet to announce the rollout on its forums, so it might be a while before the OTA notification pops up on your device. If you don’t wish to wait, you can download the incremental update package from the link provided below and flash the update manually. OnePlus typically releases software updates in a phased manner in order to catch any bugs in the release ahead of the wider rollout. Therefore, we don’t recommend installing the update manually if you’re using your OnePlus Nord N10 5G as your daily driver.
Download OxygenOS 11.0.7 for the OnePlus Nord N10 5G
As mentioned above, we currently have access to the incremental update package from OxygenOS 11.0.6 for the global model only. We’ll update this post with links to the full OTA package as soon as it becomes available.
Google has slowly been updating its apps to offer a better experience on Android tablets and other large-screen devices. Since the Android 12L debut, the company has updated several apps in its portfolio with new features and optimizations to make better use of the extra screen real estate. Now, it has detailed some upcoming changes for Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Keep, which will improve usability on Android tablets and other large-screen devices.
In a recent blog post, Google highlighted all of the large-screen optimizations that will roll out to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Keep in the coming weeks. The first, and most important, change coming to Google’s Workspace apps is drag and drop support. The feature will let users easily drag text and images from apps like Chrome or Sheets and drop it into an existing document or spreadsheet.
Drag and drop from Google Sheets to Google Docs
The new drag and drop functionality will also let users quickly upload files to Google Drive and add a link to Drive files in Google Keep. Furthermore, the functionality will also let users insert images saved in Keep notes or Google Photos into other apps.
Along with the drag and drop functionality, Google will also bring a new side-by-side layout for Google Drive. The new layout will let users open two Drive windows side-by-side. To use this feature, users will have to select the three-dot menu on any Drive file and tap on the new “Open in new window” option.
Side-by-side view in Google Drive
Lastly, Google is also bringing keyboard shortcut support to Drive, Docs, and Slides. Thanks to this, users will be able to perform functions like select, cut, copy, paste, undo, and redo using familiar keyboard shortcuts. Note that Google had already released cut, copy, and paste keyboard shortcut support to Google Drive in May this year.
All the aforementioned changes will roll out to Google Workspace and personal Google account users over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, Google has not shared a definite timeline for the rollout.
Intel has announced the first major customer partnership for its foundry services, that being MediaTek. MediaTek is mostly known for developing smartphone processors based on Arm technology, as well as chips for other smart edge devices, and the partnership should enable the company to have a more resilient supply chain across the world, specifically in the United States and Europe. In turn, this should make it easier for more devices to use MediaTek processors without supply constraints.
Intel launched its Foundry Services (IFS) last year as part of a new strategy, which sees the company opening up its manufacturing facilities to other companies, with MediaTek being one of the first to jump on board. Intel typically only designs x86 processors, but the foundry services can build Arm processors too.
“As one of the world’s leading fabless chip designers powering more than 2 billion devices a year, MediaTek is a terrific partner for IFS as we enter our next phase of growth,” said IFS President Randhir Thakur. “We have the right combination of advanced process technology and geographically diverse capacity to help MediaTek deliver the next billion connected devices across a range of applications.”
Intel has been making major investments in order to strengthen its manufacturing capabilities. The company recently finalized the expansion of its manufacturing facility in Oregon, and it announced an investment of $20 billion to build another facility in Licking County, Ohio. Plus, over in Europe, over $36 billion are being invested to expand existing facilities and build new ones, all with the goal of making Intel a manufacturing powerhouse, not just for its own processors, but for third parties as well.
This is all part of the company’s IDM 2.0 strategy, which not only sees Intel becoming a major foundry partner for other chip designers, but also the opposite – Intel relying on other foundries for the manufacturing of certain chips. This should allow for a more open and fluid ecosystem and hopefully result in greater manufacturing capacity across the industry.
OnePlus is gearing up to launch a new flagship smartphone early next month. The company recently announced that the upcoming OnePlus 10T will be unveiled at an event in New York City on August 3. In addition, it confirmed that the device would pack Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 flagship chipset. While we expect to learn all about the OnePlus 10T at the upcoming event, OnePlus has already started sharing teasers revealing a few more details about the device.
Hope Liu, Chief Designer at OnePlus, has shared official renders of the OnePlus 10T in a recent interview with The Verge. The renders give us an early look at the device, confirming that it will follow the same design language as the OnePlus 10 Pro.
As you can see in the attached images, the OnePlus 10T features a square camera island that overflows over the left edge of the device. It features four circular cutouts, with three housing camera sensors and the fourth packing an LED flash. The OnePlus 10T features minimal branding on the back panel, a volume rocker on the left edge, and a power button on the right edge. Surprisingly, it doesn’t feature any Hasselblad branding, and Liu confirms that that’s a trade-off OnePlus had to make to offer the device at a specific, likely more affordable, price point.
While the OnePlus 10T won’t feature cameras tuned by Hasselblad, its primary camera will only be a minor step down from the 48MP Sony IMX789 sensor on the Pro model. Liu says that the device will pack a 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor instead, which will offer support for shooting in 10-bit color, “improved HDR photography,” and OnePlus’ night photography mode.
The renders also confirm that the OnePlus 10T won’t feature the iconic alert slider. Liu says that OnePlus had to remove the slider to make room for “high wattage charging, a large battery capacity, and better antenna signal.” Although Liu doesn’t reveal the fast charging capabilities of the OnePlus 10T, previous leaks suggest that the device could feature 150W wired fast charging support. Liu partially confirms this theory by revealing that the OnePlus 10T packs two “charging pumps.” In contrast, the OnePlus 10 Pro’s 80W wired fast charging solution only used one charging pump.
Furthermore, Liu confirms that the OnePlus 10T will pack a 6.7-inch display. The renders suggest it would be a flat panel, unlike the OnePlus 10 Pro. However, we don’t have any information on its resolution and refresh rate at the moment. Lastly, the renders reveal that the device will come in two colorways — matte black and glossy green.
We expect OnePlus to share more details about the OnePlus 10T in the days leading up to the launch. We’ll make sure to let you know as soon as we learn more.
Smartphone companies that are on top of their software update game are far and few between. Luckily, Google Pixel users not only get major updates before everyone, they can also test out the upcoming version of Android through a public beta program. It has been some time since Google released Android 13 through the beta channel for eligible Pixel devices and while the update has received generally favorable reviews, we can’t forget the fact that it is still just a beta quality software, not a daily driver like Android 12.
If you have accidentally installed a developer preview/beta build and you have been wondering how to downgrade your Google Pixel back to the stable Android release, then this guide is for you.
Downgrading your Google Pixel smartphone to stable Android version
While the developer preview and beta builds are usually meant to help app developers find and solve problems with newer Android releases, anyone can flash them on a compatible device. If you have not already and want to check it out, here is how you can install Android 13 on your Google Pixel phone. Nonetheless, one should also learn about the downgrading process from the beta to the stable channel for the sake of usability. We all can deal with some bugs better than others, and if an update brings one of the bugs you can’t deal with, you might look for the option of going back.
Luckily, restoring your Google Pixel device to a stable version of Android is actually quite easy. You can either ask Google to send you a special OTA to perform the transition or manually flash the stable build on your device yourself. The only catch is that reverting back the OS to an older version requires it to be reset to factory settings during the process, which wipes all your data and settings from the device. So make sure to back up your personal data before going to the next step.
Downgrading from developer preview/beta channel to the stable version usually requires a full data wipe.
You can downgrade your Google Pixel phone with or without using a computer.
Reverting back to the beta channel doesn’t need a data wipe.
Method 1: Leave the beta program
This is the direct opposite of enrolling in Google’s Android developer preview/beta initiative. All you need to do is detach the target Pixel device from the beta program. Google will then issue a specially crafted OTA package that will erase the beta build and install the latest stable Android version on your device. Notably, this process doesn’t require an unlocked bootloader.
Click or tap View your eligible devices to see the beta-enrolled Pixel devices.
In case you can’t find your device, make sure that you are signed into the Google account linked to device(s) you wish to rollback.
Select the Opt-out option for the listed devices you need to remove from the beta program.
The target device will receive a new update within 24 hours. You can also navigate to Settings > System > System update > Check for update on your phone to see if the update is available.
Once the OTA arrives, install it.
That’s it!
As mentioned earlier, the OTA will wipe out all data on the device during the flashing process. Although you don’t need an unlocked bootloader to start with, it is always better to keep the bootloader unlocked when you’re dealing with beta builds.
With the release of Android 12, Google started offering “a window of opportunity” to unenroll from the beta without wiping a beta participant’s device:
When you apply the stable release update for the version you’re beta testing, you can opt out without a data wipe for a limited time until you apply the next beta update.
The server-side switching will only be offered at the completion of a beta cycle. Since this is quite unclear how much time will be given before a new preview/beta build starts up, this is a bit more unreliable than manual enrollment cancellation.
Method 2: Manual downgrade
If you don’t want to wait for Google to issue the rollback update, then you have the option to flash the latest stable Android build yourself. However, you will need a PC/Mac/Chromebook to execute the flashing operation. The target device also needs to bootloader unlocked.
Using Android Flash Tool
Google’s Android Flash Tool (as its name would suggest) is essentially a flasher-in-a-browser-tab. It streamlines the whole process of flashing Pixel devices by wrapping everything into a web app, thanks to the WebUSB API. There is no need to download images, configure CLI platform tools, install drivers, and execute the flashing commands — Android Flash Tool can take care of them all.
Make sure you have a browser on your PC/Mac/Chromebook that is compliant with the WebUSB UPI. Chromium-based browsers, such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, are recommended.
Click on the Get Started button. Next, allow the web-based flash tool to communicate with the target device through ADB by accepting the popup that says Grant Android Flash Tool access to its ADB keys in order for it to communicate to connected devices.
Click Add new device.
Select the target Pixel device from the list and click Connect.
On your Pixel’s screen, select Always allow from this computer and click OK to accept the USB debugging connection.
Select the connected device in your browser.
Select the build that says “Back to Public” from the list. You can then select options, such as wiping the device, relocking the bootloader, or force flashing all partitions.
Click on Install build to start the process.
After the flashing process completes, disconnect the device from the USB cable.
If everything goes right, then your Pixel device will reboot to the latest stable build of Android. It should now start the device setup process, allowing you to sign up and enjoy the stable Android software.
Using Fastboot
In case you prefer to take full control of the flashing operation, then opt for the Fastboot flashing method.
Optionally, relock the bootloader of your Pixel phone:
After restoring the stable Android firmware, reboot the device to the bootloader mode using ADB:
adb reboot bootloader
Execute the following command to relock the bootloader:
fastboot flashing lock
On your Pixel phone, scroll to the “lock the bootloader” option using the volume keys, and accept the option using the power button.
The phone will reboot and once again wipes itself.
That’s what you need to know as far as how to downgrade your Google Pixel smartphone from beta/developer preview to the stable Android version. Are you going to opt for a rollback? Let us know your reasons in the comment section below!
If you’re looking for a gaming laptop that’s powerful, but is also thin and light, look no further than the Alienware x15 R2. With a new quad-fan thermal design, it weighs five pounds and it’s under two thirds of an inch thin, and yet it still comes with up to a Core i9 and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
There are a few flaws, one of which is that it does get hot enough to affect performance after a time at heavy load. Also, while I love the design, I don’t like the way the ports are laid out, as they’re hard to see on the back with the lighting around the perimeter.
But I do love that design. This laptop feels modern and unique, something that I like to see in a gaming laptop. If you want portability to go with your gaming, this seems like the best choice.
The Alienware x15 R2 is available now, and it starts at $2,149.99
The Alienware x15 R2 is available now, and you can find it at the usual places. Obviously, Dell.com is offering it, and it’s also available on Best Buy and Amazon. However, Best Buy and Amazon both have a much more limited SKU selection than Dell does.
It starts at $2,149.99, and that will get you an Intel Core i7-12700H, 16GB LPDDR5 memory, a 512GB SSD, a 15.6-inch FHD 165Hz display, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060. While the base model is fairly expensive, it’s still pretty beefy, which is nice. Other gaming laptops will start at 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, and a GTX 1660, but not this one.
The model that Dell sent me packs a Core i7, 32GB LPSSR5, a 2TB SSD, a 15.6-inch QHD 240Hz display, and an RTX 3070 Ti. That model, priced out on Dell.com, is $2,909.99.
Alienware x15 R2 specs
Processor
12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H (24 MB cache, 14 cores, 20 threads, up to 4.70 GHz Turbo)
1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 port with PowerShare
1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with DisplayPort and Power Delivery
1 Thunderbolt 4 port with DisplayPort and Power Delivery
1 Universal Audio Jack
1 HDMI 2.1 port
1 power-adapter port
1 microSD-card slot
Alienware HD (1280×720 resolution) camera with dual-array microphones and Windows Hello IR support
Audio
Stereo speakers, stereo tweeter 2 W x 2 = 4 W total
AlienFX Lighting Zones
Programmable with up to 16.8 million distinct colors
Input
Alienware xSeries keyboard with per-key RGB LED AlienFX lighting
Includes N-key rollover technology
Multi-touch gesture Premium Precision glass touchpad with integrated scrolling
Connectivity
Killer Wi-Fi 6 (6E* Pre-certified) AX1675 802.11ax 2×2 Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 5.2
Case and color
Lunar Light with High Endurance Clear Coat designed for stain resistance
OS
Windows 11 Home
Price
$2,909.99
These are the specs for the unit that Dell sent me. The base model is $2,149.99.
Design: It’s under two-thirds of an inch thin
The Alienware x15 is designed to be thin and light
It has RGB lighting framed around the rear ports
Like most of the Alienware lineup, the x15 R2 has a unique and futuristic feel about it. It comes in a color called Lunar Light, with an off-white lid and black sides. There’s a stenciled ’15’ on the bottom-right corner of the lid, and you’ll find an Alienware logo right in the middle that lights up with RGB lighting.
It’s also designed with thermals in mind. This thing is 0.63 inches thin and it weighs just five pounds, and that’s all while not sacrificing power. Under the hood, it actually has four fans, using a dual opposite outlet design, so the air is passing through the internals to through the chassis. There’s also a new Element 31 thermal compound that’s meant to provide a 25% boost in thermal resistance.
The Legend 2.0 design looks sleek, futuristic, an unique.
So far, we’ve talked about how it’s stylish, how it’s thin and light, and how it’s designed for innovative thermals, and that leaves two things: ports and lighting. As you can imagine, there’s lots of RGB lighting on this gaming laptop – although it’s not overkill, which is nice – but the ports matter too.
Aside from the power jack, which is on the right, and the headphone jack, which is on the left, all of the ports are on the back. There’s just one USB Type-A port, there are two USB Type-C ports (one of which is Thunderbolt), HDMI 2.1, and a microSD card slot. The whole panel is bordered by an RGB light strip that wraps around it.
Honestly, I hate all of it. The RGB lighting is pretty for sure, but functionally, it’s a mess. Let’s go down with the list. Ports on the rear make a lot of sense when you’ve got things plugged in all of the time, such as an external monitor. Most companies do this leave a port or two on the side so you can plug in occasional peripherals like a controller, headset, or something else that you might not use constantly. What I absolutely don’t understand is having the power port on the side. It gets in the way, an issue that wouldn’t exist if the port was on the back.
Moving back to the ports on the rear, that RGB lighting, while pretty, is a problem. One issue with having ports on the back of a laptop is that you have to know where they are. Lenovo solves this by putting labels above the ports. Not only are there no visible labels, but the light makes the ports hard to see. You just have to sort of feel around back there to find the hole that’s shaped like the one you’re looking for.
Other than that, I absolutely love the design. It’s just a pleasure to experience, and having a gaming laptop that’s so thin and light is fantastic.
Display: QHD, 240Hz, and quality
The display is excellent for a gaming laptop
The webcam, unfortunately, is 720p
The 15.6-inch 16:9 display comes in three options. You can get it at 1080p 165Hz, 1440p 240Hz, or 1080p 360Hz. Dell sent me the 1440p 240Hz model, and I really do like it. I feel like 1440p is the sweet spot for a 15.6-inch screen. At this size, you’ll see pixels with 1080p resolution; however, there are two reasons you might still get FHD. One is that it’s in the least expensive model with a 165Hz refresh rate. The other is that it’s in the model with a 360Hz refresh rate. Indeed, many serious gamers might want to sacrifice resolution for frame rate, and that’s totally understandable.
Personally, I like monitors that look pretty, as well as offer that performance you want for gaming. That’s what I’m finding from the screen on this unit, and it’s something that I’ve found to be a rarity in gaming laptops. Gaming laptops typically sacrifice everything in the name of performance and responsiveness, but this is actually a really good display, even if you’re not gaming at all.
From my testing, it supports 100% sRGB, 90% NTSC, 92% Adobe RGB, and 97% P3. Those are really great results, even for a non-gaming laptop. That means that this is an excellent PC for creators that might be doing photo or video editing, at least as far as the display goes.
Brightness maxed out at 417.9, which is solid, although the contrast ratio only maxed out at 860:1, which definitely seems low.
The Alienware x15 has an excellent display for gaming and anything else.
The screen has narrow bezels on three sides, and unfortunately, the webcam is still 720p. If you’re planning to do a lot of streaming, or even if you might use this laptop for video calls, it’s going to be an issue. After all, you probably won’t have separate laptops for gaming and work. It’s just always a shame to see 720p webcams in laptops still. It does, however, have an IR camera for facial recognition, which is awesome. Any kind of biometric authentication seems to never make its way into gaming laptops, so it’s nice to see.
Keyboard: It has all of the RGB lighting
The keyboard comes with per-key RGB lighting
The keyboard uses standard 1.5mm Chiclet-style keys, and that’s fine. It doesn’t feel like it’s designed for typing, so much as gaming, although I am typing this review on it, of course. It feels fine. The big thing to note about the keyboard is the per-key RGB lighting.
Like I said earlier, it really feels like the RGB lighting is just in enough places to feel good about it, but it’s not overkill. There’s the Alienware logo on the lid, the perimeter of the rear ports, and there’s the keyboard. You can control all of this via the Alienware Command Center application, which oddly didn’t come pre-installed. I had to get it from the Microsoft Store.
You can also use Alienware Command Center to make custom power profiles, overclocking the CPU and GPU when you’re playing power-hungry games.
The clickable touchpad is a bit small, and it actually feels undersized for such a large laptop. I’m a big fan of touchpads that make use of all of the available real estate, and this doesn’t really do that. It’s a good touchpad though, and it’s fine.
Performance: It’s crazy powerful for how thin it is
The unit that Dell sent me packs a Core i7-12700H, an RTX 3070 Ti, and 32GB RAM, but it maxes out with a Core i9 and an RTX 3080 Ti
There is a lot of power under the hood of this laptop. And like I said earlier, you can boost the performance even more through Alienware Command Center. I’ll also say that the performance in this laptop is actually better than other similarly specced laptops.
While photo and video editing is fantastic, as you’d expect, I’ll talk about gaming. The main game I played on this unit was Forza Horizon 5 with its new Hot Wheels expansion pack (to be clear, it’s awesome and you should play it). My main issue was sustained performance. Upon launching Forza Horizon 5 for the first time, it suggests extreme graphics, which is no surprise given how powerful this laptop is, and when I first started playing, it was fantastic.
After about a half hour, I ran into significant issues. The game froze and said that it didn’t have the CPU resources to play, a major issue on a gaming laptop. After all, if you’re trying to win, the last thing you want is this kind of disruption. After maybe 30 seconds of a frozen screen, I’d be able to drive again for a short period of time, but once it started, it didn’t stop. By this point, touching any part of the rear section of the laptop is super-clear that this thing is hot.
Powerful performance, and you can still boost it with Alienware Command Center.
There were some workarounds. Like I said, you can boost performance in Alienware Command Center. The other is that you can turn down graphics in the game to a lower setting.
While I could replicate that issue in Forza pretty easily, I didn’t experience it in other games, as I randomly decided to play through all of the campaigns in Halo: The Master Chief Collection again.
The bottom line on performance is that it’s phenomenal, but under heavy load for a period of time, you might have to make some adjustments.
As you can see, it outperforms a similarly specced Lenovo Legion 5i by a bit.
From a CrystalDiskMark test, the Micron 3400 SSD was a bit slower on read speeds than other PCIe 4.0 SSDs that I’ve seen in laptops, and the write speeds were right in the middle. Either way, with PCIe 4.0, you’re really not going to go wrong. It’s way faster than what we’ve seen in the past with PCIe 3.0, and you can look forward to short loading times.
Should you buy the Alienware x15 R2?
The Alienware x15 R2 is a fantastic gaming laptop if you’re looking for something thin and light.
Who should buy the Alienware x15 R2:
Gamers who want power, but are frequently on the go
Gamers that want a laptop with a unique and futuristic design
Who should NOT buy the Alienware x15 R2:
People that want to game on their PC, but won’t be taking their computer on the go much
Anyone that doesn’t need this kind of power
The key benefit to the Alienware x15 R2 is that you get a lot of power that comes in a thin and light package. That means that this laptop is for gaming on the go. If you’re gaming from one place all of the time, you’re probably looking more toward a tower or build.
