Intel is a name that’s almost synonymous with the CPUs that power some of the best PCs and best laptops around today. Alongside AMD, Intel dominates a market that many argue it first cornered 45 years ago with the launch of its 8088 Micro-processor.
Released in 1979, this was the first major CPU that Intel produced that propelled the x86 architecture to the fore – and was ironically a successor to the first x86 CPU, called the 8086 Micro-processor, that had been made some years before.
Although only a minor improvement on the 8086, the 8088 Micro-processor has gone down in history – and is arguably what fuelled Intel’s rise to dominate a market for so many decades, according to IEEE Spectrum.
An iconic processor for an iconic PC
The Intel 8088 Micro-processor ran at 5MHz, representing a 50-times speed boost against the 4004 chip eight years before, and it included 29,000 transistors – which was more than 12 times the number in the former chip.
Nowadays, of course, the transistor count in chips – including the best graphics cards – is much, much higher. Nvidida’s H200 GPU, for example, which is used to train AI models, has 80 billion transistors. Elsewhere, the key innovation in the 8088 versus the 8086 was the use of a full 16-bit internal architecture but mated with an 8-bit data bus.
Without the 8088 we wouldn’t have the likes of the IBM Model 5150 – commonly known as the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) – which was one of the first machines to use it when it launched in 1981. The iconic IBM PC attributed its prominence to the power afforded by Intel’s then-powerful CPU, and paired it with 16KB or 64KB RAM, which was expandable to 640KB. IBM selected the Intel 8088 because Intel offered a much better price and could offer many more units, according to InfoWorld (1982).
The first microcomputer in the world – the Q1 – which is widely considered to have inspired modern PCs – also used the Intel 8088 Micro-processor. This machine had 16KB of memory and ran at 800kHz, and boasted a zany built-in orange flat-panel plasma display.
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Readers of a certain age will for the rest of their lives be haunted by a specific string of bleeps, boops, fuzzes, and machine noises. It’s a far cry from the buttery smooth connections we have grown used to today – but indeed our our first interfacing with the World Wide Web was through a dial-up connection that boasted blistering speeds of 56.6 kilobits per second if you used a specific modem.
Eventually, thanks to a rather special chip – known as the Amati Communications Overture ADSL Chip Set – we transcended. Gone was the age of torrid speeds and images that took an age to load up, and we ushered in a new age in which maximum speeds were almost 2,000 times faster to up to 100 megabits per second. This paved the way for a new kind of internet full of multimedia.
Digital Subscriber Line/Loop (DSL) was the technology that gave us access to the web by taking advantage of existing phone lines to transmit data through a modem – and many companies were working on competing standards for DSL. For the standard that emerged, we owe everything to Amati Communications – a startup that emerged from Stanford.
The chip that started the web boom
Amati Communications was one of many that were working to develop a new approach to accessing the internet when they devised the DSL modulation approach known as discrete multitone (DMT). This is a way of making a phone line resemble hundreds of subchannels and improving transmission by robbing bits from the poorest channels and donating them to the wealthiest channels, according to IEEE Spectrum. It eventually became a global standard for DSL and the chipset became universally adopted many years later.
The company continued to promote its iconic chipset throughout the 90s, selling in very modest amounts at the start — but enjoying a fast rise as the decade drew to a close and we neared the dot-com bubble.
Then, in 1997, Texas Instruments acquired the firm for $395 million – which was the company’s first deal in the hardware segment. The semiconductor manufacturer, based in Texas, was keen to deliver broadband multimedia services – including high-speed internet access and real-time video – over phone lines using the DSL technology that Amati had pioneered.
By the 2000s, the chipset was shipping in the millions, and zippier broadband access was gradually making its way throughout homes and offices around the developed world. While we may be relishing in its demise now – with the rise of full-fibre broadband – it’s worth appreciating just how significant that initial jump away from the dreaded dial-up tone was, and the possibilities it opened up across society.
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We’re seeing a steady stream of iPhone 16 leaks now, and the latest one comes from a tried and trusted source of advance information: case designs. A newly leaked case molding looks to have once again revealed the rear camera redesign heading to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus.
This particular leak comes from serial tipster @SonnyDickson (via MacRumors), and shows the vertical pill-shaped look Apple is apparently going for this year when it comes to the two lenses on the back of the cheaper iPhone models.
It’s a rumor that we’ve come across before, but the more leaks we see along the same lines, the more inclined we are to believe they’re accurate – though nothing is certain until Apple gets around to an official launch (likely in September).
As well as renders showing the new design, we’ve also seen leaked schematics, and case molds, and dummy units revealing the new camera alignment, so that’s a lot of leaks that need to be wrong if this isn’t the design approach Apple is taking this year.
More spatial video?
First Cases for iPhone 16 pic.twitter.com/xCUOldA8I2March 29, 2024
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Recent iPhones have put the two rear cameras diagonally on a square bump. The vertical alignment we’re seeing in these new leaks has been used by Apple before, but you need to go back to the iPhone 12 in 2020 to find it.
As for why the switch back could be made, it seems spatial video might be the reason: while the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max can record this special 3D-enhanced video format (viewable on the Apple Vision Pro), the two cheaper 2023 models can’t.
Having the dual cameras aligned vertically might enable the recording of spatial video, bringing it to more handsets and more people. Maybe Apple engineers just like the look of the new alignment too, and feel it’s time for a change.
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The three cameras we’re expecting around the back of the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max don’t appear to be shifting their position, and will most likely arrive in the standard triangle formation that’s used on the current models.
SK Hynix, Samsung‘s chief competitor and the world’s number two memory maker, has begun its audacious plan to build the largest chip production facility on the planet.
The construction at SK Hynix’s giant Yongin Semiconductor Cluster in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, will comprise four units. Work on the first unit, which is intended to be the world’s biggest three-story fabrication plant, is anticipated to commence in March 2025.
The Korea Economic Daily reports that the project is estimated to cost over 120 trillion won ($90.7 billion) and will span over two decades, with completion expected by 2046.
Government backing
The plan was first announced in 2019 but ran into delays due to Covid and licensing procedures. It received a boost in 2022 following an agreement between the government, municipalities, and companies, according to SK Hynix. The site of the first unit is now 35% prepared.
Trade Minister Ahn Deokgeun visited the site recently, promising government support for Korea’s chip industry. “All ministries will work together to ensure that Korean companies won’t lag behind global players in semiconductor manufacturing speed. We will actively support high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to achieve more than $120 billion in semiconductor exports this year,” he said.
The Korea Economic Daily says the government will unveil strategies to accelerate artificial intelligence chip exports and bolster semiconductor equipment by the end of June.
Creating the world’s largest chip factory is just part of SK Hynix’s future plans. The manufacturing giant is also intending to invest $4 billion to build an advanced chip packaging facility in West Lafayette, Indiana.
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The rising cost of living has led to some holding onto their phones longer than ever. Coupled with the steady rises in the price of phones, we’re buying phones less often but expecting longer hardware and software lifespans.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 and Google Pixel 8 series have addressed the software side by providing support cycles of seven years of OS updates. This extended software support seems appealing at first glance, but I’m not so sure. Instead, I feel that the promise of longevity via continued updates is just another marketing strategy to convince you to buy an expensive flagship device.
Call me cynical, but holding on to a phone for seven years and expecting it to run seamlessly seems unrealistic. Even if the software is updated, the outdated hardware will struggle with modern apps’ increasing complexity and demands. If you want your phone for anything more than light use, this could be a problem.
What’s more, older hardware could miss new features applied in future software updates. For instance, the seven-year-old Google Pixel 2 lacks 5G support, and older Samsung devices may not run the latest Galaxy AI features.
Extended OS support made me think about what it would be like to use my hopelessly outdated Samsung Galaxy S8 from seven years ago today. Not that it was a bad phone, it’s just that technology has advanced rapidly in the past few years, particularly in processor, battery, and camera technology, and many devices begin to feel sluggish and old long before their software support period is up.
Instead of returning to a seven-year-old device and tearing my hair out waiting for it to load, I switched to my relatively newer and more capable, four-year-old Samsung Galaxy S20 to see if it could still hold its own among the newest smartphones.
So, I begrudgingly removed my SIM card from my cutting-edge OnePlus 12 and slapped it back into my old Galaxy S20, transporting myself back to 2020…
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Design
The first thing that struck me about the Samsung Galaxy S20 was how compact and light it is compared to many modern phones. I’m also a big fan of the curved design that has been mostly replaced by a thicker, flat body in many recent flagships.
The compact size feels so comfortable and much more pocketable than many of today’s phones, bar the base iPhone 15. Still, this more compact design comes at the cost of a smaller screen, which makes watching films and videos and gaming a little harder, but not impossible.
On my second day using the Galaxy S20, I accidentally dropped it in the sink. Thankfully, I discovered it is more water resistant than my OnePlus 12, with an IP68 rating compared to the IP65 on that device, meaning I can honestly say “they don’t make them like they used to”.
(Image credit: Future)
Display
The screen on the Galaxy S20 holds up the best to its modern contemporary. The 6.2-inch AMOLED display supports HDR10+, a fast 120Hz refresh rate, and 1,200 nits peak brightness, which is respectable even four years later.
It’s also a pixel powerhouse due to its high resolution of 1440 x 3200, which makes it better than its successors, the Galaxy S21, S22, and even the S23. It’s even slightly higher resolution than my OnePlus 12’s 1440 x 3168; it really is incredibly sharp.
Samsung is known for its vibrant displays and the Galaxy S20 is no exception, offering rich, saturated colors. That said, gaming felt a little cramped and slightly less responsive on this screen, which led to more than a few untimely deaths.
Performance and gaming
The Galaxy S20 uses a Samsung Exynos 990 processor, and I had low expectations for this older chip. I needn’t have worried: it was much snappier than I predicted, with most apps booting up quickly and feeling responsive.
It could just about run demanding games like COD Mobile and Genshin Impact at mid-to-high settings, albeit with a few issues. For instance, I did notice the odd stutter, and it couldn’t seem to maintain high performance. The phone also became noticeably warm when running games, and despite running the battery down very quickly, I was too worried to plug it in while playing due to the heat build-up.
The Galaxy S20’s performance was confirmed with benchmarking software. It received a decent score of 1,260 for Single-Core processing and 3,287 for Multi-Core, outperforming newer mid-rangers such as the Google Pixel 7a and Samsung Galaxy A54.
My Galaxy S20 came with 8GB RAM, but this can be boosted by up to an additional 8GB of virtual RAM, another feature I assumed was a more recent development but was pleased to see included. This allows you to run more apps in the background simultaneously.
However, the version I used had only 128GB of storage, which seems small until you consider it comes with expandable memory via a microSD slot. This feature is almost extinct in modern smartphones and certainly doesn’t appear in flagship phones these days. I had forgotten how easy microSD slots made transferring files such as photos and music to and from my PC, and I wish this feature would return to premium handsets.
Camera
(Image credit: Future)
The S20’s camera system isn’t much to look at; the phone’s compact size means it has to use smaller sensors than some contemporary camera modules. However, it does still have a triple camera system, which consists of a 12MP main, a 12MP ultra-wide, and a 64MP telephoto.
In use, it was decent enough – but not a patch on the best camera phones available today. Like chipsets, cameras have developed incredibly quickly over the past five years, so while the Galaxy S20 still takes sharp and good-quality pictures in ideal lighting conditions, it lacks some modern features that I take for granted.
One of the modern features I missed most was the periscope zoom from my OnePlus 12; the S20’s 64MP telephoto loses image quality as soon as you get a little over three times zoom. Its low-light performance wasn’t nearly as clear or detailed as some modern phones, either, and it was also harder to take pictures with a nicely blurred-out background.
(Image credit: Future / James Ide)
The colors were inconsistent, sometimes appearing quite bright, but other items looked dull. Neither seemed as accurate as those on the newer Google Pixel or OnePlus 12. Oh, and the dynamic range was slightly more limited than with my OnePlus 12, with some details blown out in highlights or lost in dark corners.
Battery
The S20’s 4,000mAh capacity battery can’t compete against the latest phones, which generally hold a larger charge and support faster charging, usually aided by much more efficient hardware.
However, the Galaxy S20 lasted almost a full day during the time I was using it, as long as I didn’t play intense games, watch lots of videos, or attempt to do anything fun. Otherwise, it dropped to under 5 hours. It supports 24W wired charging, which isn’t great – but on the flip side, the iPhone 15 only gets 20W charging, so it isn’t terrible either.
One big difference I noticed is was that the Galaxy S20 took over an hour to charge, which seems too long these. Then again, maybe I’ve been spoilt by the OnePlus 12’s fast charging, which is truly incredible; that phone takes just 26 minutes to juice up in full.
Admitting defeat?
So, did my time with the Samsung Galaxy S20 prove my point that older hardware will never stand up to the test of time and be worth continued software support? Well, yes and no.
First, the good: the S20 is an exceptional phone with hardware that held up much better than I had expected.
However, it still has some fundamental problems related to its age that a slick design and an exceptional screen couldn’t help me overlook. For example, it has a less efficient chipset, weaker battery and slower charging, and mixed photo quality. These drawbacks made it harder for me to rely on for day-to-day use, and I was ultimately relieved to return to my OnePlus 12.
The fact is, I wouldn’t keep it as my daily driver even if this model were still supported for another three years. What’s more, I suspect most phones won’t age as gracefully as the four-year-old Galaxy S20 has. And in another three years, it will truly be an anachronism.
So while I don’t consider long software support commitments to be a bad thing in themselves, I really don’t see the likes of the Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24 Ultra being able to keep up in the far-flung year of 2031, and I suspect I’ll have my eye on the Pixel 15 or Galaxy S31 by then.
No Man’s Sky is still getting major updates. Developer Hello Games’ “Orbital” update, due Wednesday, adds procedurally generated space stations (so they’ll be different every time), a ship editor and a Guild system to the nearly eight-year-old space exploration sim.
Up until now, space stations have been one of the few parts of No Man’s Sky that weren’t created and randomized by algorithms as something truly unique. That changes with today’s update, which uses game engine upgrades to “create vast interior spaces and exterior spaces, with improved reflection and metallic surfaces.”
The stations’ broader scale will be evident from the outside, while their interiors will include new shops, gameplay and things to do. Hello Games describes them as being “uniquely customized” based on their virtual inhabitants’ system, race and locale.
Hello Games
Inside the stations, you’ll find the new ship editor. Hello Games says it previously withheld ship customization to maintain the title’s focus on exploration. (If players could build any ship they wanted at any time, it could ruin some of the fun of scouting out existing ones to buy in-game.) In that spirit, you’ll still need to collect, trade and salvage the parts to build yours how you like it.
The game’s upgraded Guild system, also in today’s update, makes factions a bigger part of the experience. You can find new Guild envoys on space stations, where you can join the club, get supplies and precious commodities and donate to boost your status in the group.
Fleets are getting better, too. With today’s update, you can send your frigate fleet on away missions — and if they run into trouble, you can swoop in and save the day. It sounds like a fun nuance to help scratch anyone’s space fantasy itch.
No Man’s Sky owners can install the Orbital update — also including engine improvements, a UI refresh and “much more” — today.
I vividly remember Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone on January 9, 2007, a device he dubbed a touchscreen iPod, mobile phone and “internet communicator” all in one product. I immediately looked at my Motorola Razr with a burning sense of hatred. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s pretty easy to say the iPhone launch was the most transformative event in the last 20 years of consumer technology. Even though the original model was lacking in a lot of important ways, its impact was so immediate and monumental that the history of consumer technology was instantly split into two eras: PreiPhone and Post iPhone.
Take the personal computer revolution, for example. Moving room-sized computers from research institutes into something a regular person could buy and use in their home was undoubtedly a huge advance, but there were multiple inflection points in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s that helped usher in modern computing. The trinity of the Apple II, Tandy TRS-80 and Commodore PET 2001 in the ’70s represented the first wave, followed by the rise of the IBM PC and Macintosh in the ’80s. Things really took hold in the ’90s with the dominance of Microsoft Windows; the arrival of Windows 95 was a particularly transformative moment. In more recent history, the laptop became a viable and then dominant in the late ’90s and 2000s, which changed how most people think about computing. These were all events that moved the personal computing marketplace forward, but it’s hard to say one was more important than the others. It was more of a gradual rise and fall of various technologies that brought us to the modern era.
But the mobile phone market was completely reshaped by the iPhone, even if it took a few years for the effects to play out. Companies like BlackBerry, Palm and Nokia clung to the pre-iPhone conception of a smartphone for too long, focusing on business users and physical keyboards and not materially improving the software experience. Those companies are gone or irrelevant to mainstream consumers now. Palm’s introduction of its own webOS and Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia to push Windows Phone forward were reasonable efforts to challenge the iPhone, but they were far too little, too late. Hardware and software quality was hit or miss in both cases, but the main issue was that developers never embraced either platform, largely because consumers adopted iPhone and Android so quickly. The best iPhone apps usually never hit those devices, leading to inevitable doom.
On the other hand, Google and Samsung went all-in on Android almost immediately and quickly reaped the rewards of having an alternative to the iPhone. Android had enough similarities to iOS while also offering enough differentiation to capture a new part of the market. That’s particularly true internationally, where the massive variety of price points and devices was a huge advantage in markets where most people were priced out of Apple’s products. And given that Android arrived just a few months after Apple launched the iPhone App Store meant developers quickly started writing apps for both platforms, giving Android the support it needed. Essentially, everyone either followed in Apple’s footsteps or quickly went extinct.
It goes without saying that the iPhone reshaped a number of other businesses as well. The late aughts were awash with single-function gadgets, from obvious things like digital cameras, portable gaming devices and the iPod. (Also consider what phones have done to watches, paper calendars, lists and address books.) In the Post iPhone Era, consumer-grade digital cameras and portable music players are extremely niche — the iPhone’s camera is more than good enough for most people, and the iPhone itself quickly cannibalized the iPod.
Portable gaming systems are enjoying a bit of a resurgence, but the popularity of games on a phone that anyone can pick up and play is unmatched. If Nintendo’s Wii made its mark by offering casual gaming, the iPhone and the App Store quickly took that concept on the go. Both Call of Duty Mobile and Candy Crush Saga have peaked at about 500 million players, while Minecraft is the top-selling game of all time, with 300 million copies sold. Most AAA blockbuster titles don’t crack 50 million copies sold.
Moving from that Razr to an iPhone was a breath of fresh air. Watching YouTube and movies I had purchased via iTunes transformed my plane rides or commutes. Being able to browse real web pages and use a solid enough email client on the go made me more productive (and began my crippling information addiction). The “touchscreen iPod” felt like a futuristic and intuitive way to navigate my music library. It took until the iPhone 4 in 2010 for Apple to really focus on camera and image quality, but that didn’t stop people from shooting tons of photos and uploading them to Facebook. Even 2009’s iPhone 3GS took respectable enough snapshots and videos that my photo library started growing exponentially, and I’m glad to have a lot of those old, grainy shots from my late 20s.
And about a year after the first iPhone, the App Store blew open the doors on what was possible. Games, productivity tools, better messaging apps, social media, streaming music and everything else we associate with a modern smartphone quickly burst forth. Some people didn’t really consider the first iPhone a “smartphone” since you couldn’t install third-party apps, and Apple wisely saw the writing on the wall and fixed that glaring omission.
Whether all of the changes that followed the iPhone’s rise are a good thing is debatable. Having near-unlimited access to the internet at all times often feels like more than we can handle, and smartphones have enabled all kinds of digital abuse. Our privacy has gone out the window as these devices log vast amounts of data about our movements and desires and spending habits and search histories on behalf of the biggest companies in the world, who monetize it and try to keep us addicted. Steve Jobs almost certainly did not have all of this in mind when he pulled the iPhone out of his pocket in 2007, and the technology advanced so quickly we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into.
The ramifications of all this will take decades to fully play out, and to some degree, many of us are already pulling back from the “always connected, sharing everything” mindset the iPhone enabled. The specter of government regulation, at least from the EU, coming for companies like Apple and Google is impossible to ignore, though it’s hard to imagine much happening to loosen their dominance in the near term. Regardless of what changes, there’s no doubt we live in a world where, thanks to the iPhone, the most important computer in people’s lives is the one in their pocket.
To celebrate Engadget’s 20th anniversary, we’re taking a look back at the products and services that have changed the industry since March 2, 2004.
If you were impressed by Samsung’s commitment to providing OS and security updates to the Galaxy S24 lineup for seven years, wait till you hear about what the company has in store for enterprise editions of Galaxy tablets.
Eight years of OS and security updates for enterprise edition tablets
A Samsung executive from the Netherlands has revealed on LinkedIn that the enterprise edition of the Galaxy Tab Active 5 will get OS and security updates for eight years! The Galaxy Tab Active 5 went official in early January this year, and the standard non-enterprise model is only guaranteed four major OS updates and five years of security updates.
Samsung is no stranger to supporting enterprise devices for longer. A few years back, when it extended support for security updates to four years for flagship and select mid-range phones and tablets, Samsung promised five years of security updates to enterprise editions of those devices.
But this is the first time the company is committing to both extended OS and security updates for enterprise edition devices. The commitment is also limited to tablets – phones, like the recently launched Galaxy Xcover 7, get the same seven-year policy as the Galaxy S24.
Devices launched before 2024 are excluded as well, so the Galaxy Tab Active 5 Enterprise Edition is the only device on the eligibility list for now. Since Samsung doesn’t launch many enterprise variants of its devices anymore, that list will likely remain small even a few years from now. We’ll let you know if anything changes, though, so stay tuned!
The Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro (Ring Battery Pro) is a smart doorbell that gives you the ability to remotely monitor and talk to visitors outside your property via your phone or desktop using Wi-Fi. If it seems a bit familiar, that’s because it looks almost identical to many of the best video doorbells from Ring, but in particular it boasts many of the same features and functionality as the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (Ring Battery Plus), which was released in April 2023.
There are a lot of similarities with the Ring Battery Plus, given this is just a slightly improved iteration with a higher price tag. The Ring Battery Pro once again is a wireless device with head-to-toe visibility thanks to its 1536p camera, which also offers night vision with color. It’s got decent battery life, although Amazon doesn’t tend to commit to confirming just what that is; it’s all very dependent on how much motion occurs around your home and how it is configured. However, in my experience, it doesn’t need recharging more often than once every couple of months.
The Ring Battery Pro can detect motion within a user-defined zone to alert you to any movement or packages that have been delivered even if the doorbell button has not been pressed, as well as notify you when someone comes knocking so you can quickly speak with them – even if you’re away from home.
(Image credit: Future)
I’ve been using the Ring Battery Plus for several months and was perfectly content with its performance and features, except for one thing this year’s Pro model addresses; notification fatigue. The detection zone that I set up for the Plus model included my parked car which is a much larger detection zone than just the path to my front door. Unfortunately, the camera-based motion detector initially detected everything that went past the house; cars, bicycles, deer, cats, and dogs, and after a while, I began to just filter out the notification sounds.
Although the Ring app provides a means of adjusting the detection sensitivity, it proved difficult to find a good compromise between detecting movement around my car that I might object to and detecting any other moving object. On the other hand, the radar-powered 3D motion detection of the Ring Battery Pro is a significant improvement in this respect, resulting in far fewer unnecessary alerts and notifications.
The feed from the camera also includes a moveable Bird’s eye view overlay window on which it plots markers to indicate where the motion was detected and what path was taken. A cool feature? Absolutely, but it feels a bit redundant when you can use the pre-roll feature instead to see what happened in the seconds before the motion was detected or the doorbell was pressed. It also remains to be seen if the feature is of any use at all once the free trial subscription period expires and there is no video to replay.
The only other differences between the Ring Battery Pro and its predecessor are that the Pro also features:
Audio+ (improved microphones and speakers for two-way communication – though I haven’t noticed much of a difference).
Low-Light Sight, a feature presently exclusive to this model that offers low light compensation settings for color, glare and for situations where the camera is used through glass thanks to the enhanced imaging sensors.
The Ring Battery Pro is a bit more expensive than the older Plus model, and while I do think it’s an improvement, in these cost-conscious times, it’s not enough to justify the price difference.
(Image credit: Future)
Price and availability
List price: $229.99 / £199.99
The Ring Battery Pro is available from Ring for $229.99 / £199.99 and is available directly from both Amazon and the Ring website.
The best comparison is to the Ring Battery Plus, which was originally $179.99 / £159.99 but is now available for $149.99 / £129.99. Given that its hardware is only somewhat improved and I’m a little underwhelmed by the utility of some of the new features, that $70 / £70 price difference smarts a little.
There is a great range of accessories and parts for ring doorbells, too; the benefit of a product identity and design that has not changed in years is that there are ample options.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Row 0 – Cell 0
US
UK
AU
Chime
$34.99
£29.99
AU$59.00
Chime Pro
$59.99
£49.99
AU$89.00
Quick Release Battery Pack
$34.99
£24.99
N/A
Charging Station
$29.99
£25.99
AU$65.00
Plug-in Adapter
$24.99
£20.99
N/A
Metallic Interchangeable Faceplate
$24.99
£21.99
AU$40.00
Interchangeable Faceplate
$14.99
£14.99
AU$23.00
Holiday Interchangeable Faceplate
$14.99
£14.99
AU$25.00
Intercom Kit
$17.99
£16.00
N/A
Solar Panel for Doorbells
$39.99
£49.00
AU$59.00
Solar charger 2nd generation for Battery Doorbells
$44.99
£39.99
AU$79.00
Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro review: Specs
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Dimensions
12.8cm x 6.2cm x 2.8cm
Colours
Silver/black
Hub required
No
Smart home compatibility
Amazon Alexa, IFTTT
Connectivity
Wi-Fi 2.5 GHz
Mobile compatibility
iOS, Android
Field of view:
150 degrees x 150 degrees (h x v)
Video resolution:
1536
(Image credit: Future)
Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro review: Design
It’s a ring doorbell, and looks the part
Rechargable and removable battery
Easy installation
There is nothing wrong with the design of the Ring doorbell. I like how the device is packaged, but I am ambivalent about how it looks, and I suppose that’s the point. Split into a black top section housing its 1536p camera and a matte silver bottom section with the doorbell button, it’s neither quasi-iconic nor Quasimodo; I wouldn’t say it’s ugly, but it doesn’t exactly set the pulse racing. Familiarity breeds contempt, and Ring’s design is a victim of its success.
As can be seen in the price and availability section above, there are benefits to keeping things consistent when it comes to accessories and spares. The problem here is that there is now a bewildering array of Ring doorbells available online that all look the same.
It’s straightforward to install and I like the included angled mounting bracket and spare screws; these both make the Ring Battery Pro a far more configurable video doorbell to set up than older models.
Like the Ring Battery Plus, the Pro features a removable battery. Do I often drop the little screw when I remove the battery to charge it? Yes, but is it annoying enough to warrant buying the power adapter and running the cable from inside my home to the doorbell? No. A small magnet on the case to stick the screw onto once you removed it would help. I do like that it comes with its own screwdriver and USB cable, though.
Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro review: Performance
(Image credit: Future)
Once the battery is charged and the doorbell has been attached to your home the next task is to download the Ring app, set up an account and add your new device to the app. This is as straightforward as all of the other steps so far, and Ring has sensibly put the pairing code on the box and the manual as well as on the back of the device itself.
From the app, you can easily check your Ring Battery Pro’s live feed, communicate using two-way audio and set up features like motion and privacy zones. These zones as a feature can be immensely useful, helping to maintain your and your neighbors’ privacy, but as I’ve found in my previous Ring testing experience, editing the motion zones is frustrating. Moving the markers to adjust the area is very hit-or-miss and would sometimes erroneously move the entire zone. I tested this on an iPad as well in the hope that a bigger screen would increase accuracy, but alas, it was just as frustrating.
Much like the Ring Battery Plus, the Pro’s HD+ 1536p camera has HDR and night vision with color, which are switched off by default to increase battery life. It’s worth experimenting with these features to figure out if you need to use them in your home; the battery life could become a real issue if you have a lot of activity outside of your home and keep these features on. I, for one, didn’t find the color night vision particularly illuminating, which says more about where I live (grey and boring) than the usefulness of the color night vision feature.
The head-to-toe view, much like in the Ring Battery Plus, is an excellent evolution of the older Ring models’ aspect ratio, allowing you to see much more of your entryway and even spot any packages. As I suggested before, I really can’t tell much difference between the Ring Battery Plus and Pro in terms of audio, despite the newer model supposedly featuring enhanced microphones and speakers, meaning the audio can still be a little muffled when visitors aren’t facing the doorbell directly.
There is another similarity between the Ring Battery Plus and the Ring Battery Pro; reliability. I have many smart devices running on 2.5 GHz inside my house and some of them have random connection issues and buggy software. The Ring Battery Pro, however, is on the outside of my house and is relentless in its detection duties.
All in all, the Ring Battery Pro offers excellent performance. As always, though, it’s worth highlighting its full potential is unlocked with an added Ring Protect subscription. As ever, it’s a shame to see some of the most useful features like smart home trigger responses, advanced motion detection, package detection, and recorded video events be so gated, but, unfortunately, that’s the nature of many video doorbells these days.
(Image credit: Future)
Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro review: Should I buy?
Ring Battery Video Doorbell Pro review: How I tested
I have several other Ring devices and compared the settings within the app to find any new features and test them.
I predominantly used the app on an iPhone for changing settings. I also investigated the app on an iPad as well as the Ring website.
I connected the Ring Pro to Apple Homekit via Homebridge.
I installed the Ring Pro next to my home’s front door on the angled bracket and adjusted the motion zone so that I could detect movement at the front of my house and around my car.
To compare what was going on outside with any notifications from the doorbell, I monitored the video output on an ongoing basis using Apple Homekit (via Homebridge) while working on the computer. It is possible to do that via the Ring website, but you won’t find the battery charge information.
I enabled all of the default disabled features to test if the impact on the battery life rendered the features impractical. The battery performed as expected; it drained faster with everything switched on but did not need to be re-charged incessantly.
I set off the default windchimes alert tone in the supermarket to test how many customers had Ring doorbells… I changed the Ring alert tone to something else shortly after.
I’ve been using smart home devices for several years now, and have a whopping 30+ years (gulp) of tech enthusiasm and experience under my belt.
Samsung has announced that it was the world’s biggest soundbar brand in 2023. With another year as the top-ranked soundbar brand globally, the South Korean firm has become the world’s biggest soundbar brand for ten years.
Samsung has been the world’s biggest soundbar brand globally since 2013
According to a report from FutureSource Consulting, Samsung was the world’s biggest soundbar in 2023, and the company has achieved this feat consecutively for the past ten years. The latest market research analysis reveals that Samsung had an 18.8% market share and a 20.3% revenue share globally in 2023.
Year after year, Samsung has continuously pushed the boundaries of soundbars, releasing several top-ranking soundbars and impressive new technologies. Some of the company’s impressive audio technologies include Q-Symphony, which uses the speakers of the soundbar and the paired TV simultaneously for an immersive audio experience.
The South Korean firm also introduced a feature called SpaceFit Sound, which calibrates the soundbar automatically according to the room it is placed in. A couple of years ago, Samsung also introduced Wireless Dolby Atmos, removing the restriction of using wires between the TV and the soundbar to be able to use Dolby Atmos.
Last year, the HW-Q990C was adjudged the world’s best soundbar of 2023, thanks to its impressive 11.1.4-channel audio and 656W of audio output. It also features AirPlay 2, 4K HDR10+ passthrough, built-in Alexa, SpaceFit Sound Pro, Active Voice Amplifier, and Game Mode Pro. It also has Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, and SmartThings.
Earlier this year, the company unveiled a follow-up flagship soundbar model, the HW-Q990D, which will be launched soon.
Cheolgi Kim, EVP of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics, said, “We are thrilled to be once again acknowledged as the market leader in soundbars, a milestone that reflects the positive feedback from our customers over the years. Building on this success, we will continue to push the boundaries of home entertainment with superior sound quality and advanced connectivity features, leveraging AI-based sound technology to strengthen the consumer experience and Samsung’s position in the global market.”
