Author: Admin

Let’s face it, most of us fall into one of two camps when it comes to our files and data. There are those who save everything with little to no organization, and those who don’t think about backing up work until something catastrophic happens and we lose some of our most important data. While this issue was both understandable and sometimes unavoidable in the past if we didn’t have a flash drive on hand, cloud storage now makes it easy to back up our data and access our files from anywhere.

Right now at StackSocial, you can get lifetime access to a whopping 10TB of cloud storage for just $90, saving you hundreds compared to the usual price. This deal on a lifetime subscription expires tonight, May 31, so be sure to get signed up soon if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.

Clearing space on your drive after every big project can be a hassle, and getting to the office only to find you’ve left your external storage or USB drive at home can be a nightmare if you have an important meeting or presentation. That’s why investing in a cloud storage service is so convenient. Degoo lets you upload everything from images, videos and music to software, files and other data, keeping your information safe and secure with 256-bit AES encryption.

With Degoo, you can access your data via your phone, tablet or web browser. And secure file sharing with friends or colleagues is easy, too. Now, one thing to note is that this base plan does have a 1GB file size limit, but there are additional features available through in-app purchases, including a 50GB file size limit upgrade — which might be worth it if you have large files to keep up. Just keep in mind that those add-ons are at additional cost. Still, whether you’re working from home, the office or on the go, you won’t have to worry about losing files just because your hardware fails, and that peace of mind is well worth the investment.

Read more: The Best Home Office Essentials for 2023

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RedMagic 8 Pro

$899 at Amazon

You’re receiving price alerts for RedMagic 8 Pro

Like

• Vibrant screen lacks camera cutout
• Ample storage
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip
• Affordable price

Don’t like

• Short commitment to software updates
• Photos are mixed to bad
• Frustrating settings and default apps

On the surface, the RedMagic Pro 8 has a lot to offer for its $649 ( 579, roughly AU$1,100) price. It runs on Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, comes with plenty of storage and memory, and has a bright 6.8-inch display with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. The RedMagic’s new processor and other media-friendly specs come at a price that undercuts phones like the $800 Galaxy S23 and $699 OnePlus 11 5G.

But look a little deeper, and you begin to realize why the RedMagic 8 Pro is cheaper than the competition. It only gets one Android version upgrade and two years of security updates, making it hard to recommend. The software skin RedMagic provides on top of Android 13 makes a number of choices that you’ll definitely want to tweak, like changing your default browser and removing a watermark added to every photo by default. The front-facing camera — despite being placed underneath the screen — leaves a lot to be desired.

Watch this: RedMagic 8 Pro Review: What to Know About This Lower-Priced Gaming Phone

05:28

While the RedMagic 8 Pro has a stunning screen, an eye-catching design and other perks that gamers will appreciate, its shortcomings could make everyday usability difficult. These issues become especially glaring compared with gaming phone rival Asus, whose ROG Phone 7 line includes beefy specs along with double the length of software and security update support.

RedMagic 8 Pro design, display, specs

The RedMagic 8 Pro comes in three models: a traditional matte black along with transparent models that show off the inside of the phone. That includes being able to see the phone’s internal cooling fan and the Snapdragon chip.

I tested both the Matte model, which includes 12GB of memory and 256GB of storage, and the step-up $799 Titanium model with a huge 16GB of memory and 512GB of space. That’s a lot of storage and memory for the price, especially when compared to a phone like the OnePlus 11 5G which has 256GB of storage and 16GB of memory for $799. When used in conjunction with the Snapdragon chip, I am able to load multiple games and apps easily.

The 6.8-inch display can be set to a very bright 1,300-nit max brightness, which made the screen easy to see outside. Like other gaming phones, the RedMagic 8 Pro has a responsive display with this screen including a 960Hz touch sampling rate. This means it responds very quickly to taps and swipes, which I find are helpful for shooting and fighting games.

You can also program two sensors on the corners of the phone to act like shoulder buttons when playing a game horizontally — for instance when I play Fortnite I use the left for aiming and the right for shooting.

The phone’s included 65-watt fast charger can quickly recharge its 6,000mAh battery, which in my testing took the phone from 3% to 97% in 38 minutes. A headphone jack is also included.

RedMagic 8 Pro gaming performance

The RedMagic 8 Pro, like with prior models, includes a dedicated hardware switch that boots the phone into a gaming-focused launcher. It uses a number of settings to help you stay focused on games, including tweaks to the phone’s performance and turning off notifications. Many of these features will also turn on should you decide to launch a game from the standard Android launcher.

I typically select the balanced performance option, which still allows me to set most Android games to their highest graphics settings. You can choose performance settings that prioritize using more power, or prioritize battery life. It’s always fun to load up Fortnite and select the highest frames per second option, the highest graphics option and know that the game will run smoothly.

While the RedMagic 8 Pro offers smooth gameplay, it does get warm when playing for 20 minutes or longer. The phone has a cooling system that includes a physical cooling fan to help keep the temperature down, but I recommend putting the RedMagic 8 Pro into a case when using it for longer play sessions. By comparison, I find the $1,000 Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate to be more comfortable during a longer gameplay session, even though it lacks a fan. I should note that an earlier RedMagic 8 Pro review unit did overheat on me several times during my testing, leading to the phone powering itself off. That issue didn’t repeat itself on the replacement unit RedMagic lent me.

During game play, you can swipe in a menu overlay for other tweaks without having to boot back to the phone’s menu, like performance settings and recording tools. You can also use the charger just to power the phone rather than replenishing its battery during gameplay, helping you save battery when you’re away from an outlet.

Our benchmark tests put the RedMagic 8 Pro and the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate roughly on par with each other using the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme tool for comparing graphics on mobile devices.

Shifting over to Geekbench 6 testing, which focuses on general processing power, the RedMagic pulls ahead of the Asus but both remain in close range of each other.

RedMagic 8 Pro cameras

The RedMagic 8 Pro has a main 50-megapixel camera, an 8-megapixel wide angle lens and a 2-megapixel macro lens. However — like with other gaming phones — the cameras on their own aren’t a reason to buy this phone. The rear camera setup is decent enough to provide OK photos in most situations. But its images aren’t as good as those taken on phones like the Pixel 7A or Galaxy S23.

The camera app includes a Night mode, which did a decent job of capturing CNET’s very dark TV testing lab, and a Portrait mode that only works on this rear camera setup.

I took the phone on my first journey into Grand Central Station’s Long Island Rail Road terminal, documenting the new indoor corridors, a very long escalator and eventually the main terminal floor. There were definitely moments where the cameras blurred moving subjects, such as people walking by. There was also some blur from shaky hands as I was taking quick shots while exploring the terminal.

But for still subjects, such as the architecture of the Grand Central Station’s main concourse, the cameras handle the details quite well.

My low-light dinner photography also varied. With the right lighting, the cameras got a clear shot of my beef curry and chicken dishes.

A photo of my friend Mark, whom I was eating with, makes him look OK but you can also see that the camera struggled with smoothing out people moving behind him, leading to blurriness.

The RedMagic 8 Pro also lost out in my photo test against the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. In my comparison photos below using a grass wall in CNET’s office, I found the RedMagic 8 Pro made the entire wall look like a similar shade of green, while the Asus did a better job at differentiating between different shades while showing the white flowers more clearly.

The rear cameras can also shoot video at 8K resolution and 30 frames per second, or 4K resolution and 60 frames per second.

While the rear camera is a mixed bag, the 16-megapixel front-facing camera’s best feature is its ability to stay hidden behind the phone’s screen. The photo quality is so bad, it’s like RedMagic wants you to forget it’s even there.

But the ability for the camera to function at all from behind a display is still very cool. Even though the image quality is scratchy and reminiscent of flip phone cameras from 10 years ago, this is an area that I absolutely expect will improve in the coming years. If phone makers can find a way to include a decent selfie camera underneath the display, that would rid us of the various display notches and cutouts currently required to squeeze a camera inside of a screen.

One important note about the camera, which I learned when reviewing last year’s RedMagic 7: Go into the settings and turn off the watermark that is set by default. Otherwise every photo you take will feature an advertisement for the phone.

RedMagic 8 Pro software

That photo watermark issue leads me into my biggest qualms about the RedMagic 8 Pro. Even though RedMagic runs on Android 13, the UI that the company makes has an unintuitive settings menu and makes strange default app choices, such as using the NextWord browser, which I immediately swapped out for Firefox. Fortunately, all default apps can be swapped out for your preferred options.

By default, the phone doesn’t have the app drawer turned on, instead placing all apps across various homescreen panels. I toggled that on so I can keep the majority of my apps hidden from the homescreen to make it appear less cluttered. This might not be an issue for a mobile phone gamer who already prefers to set up their own launchers and customize an Android phone toward their exact needs. But it’s worth calling out that this isn’t a great phone for Android novices or someone that prefers to use a device straight out of the box.

My biggest problem with the RedMagic 8 Pro is its short commitment to software and security updates compared to rival phones. Currently, the phone is only set to get one major software update to Android 14 and its security update commitment is only for about one and a half to two years. Asus on the other hand is now committing to two years of software updates and four years of security updates for its ROG Phone 7 line. Even cheaper phones like the $499 Pixel 7A are getting three years of software updates and five years of security updates.

This means that someone who buys the RedMagic 8 Pro should do so with the understanding that they should upgrade their device within two years. Perhaps the phone is meant for a gamer who knows that they will want the latest and greatest chip in two years anyway, but it’s a shortcoming that’s important to understand when other comparable phones are getting four or more years of security updates.

RedMagic 8 Pro bottom line

The RedMagic 8 Pro gets a lot right with its design, display and specs for gaming, but its performance as a phone is where things start to fall apart. Even though games look and play great on the RedMagic, its confusing customization of Android 13 combined with its short software and security update commitment make the phone hard to recommend.

If you buy the RedMagic 8 Pro to use as a phone, you will need to make adjustments to its settings in order to turn off or remove junk, and the less you use the front-facing camera the better.

Because of these software issues and the short support commitment, I generally recommend the $1,000 Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate instead, even with its higher price. Its Android UI has a much lighter touch than what RedMagic provides, its gaming modes are stacked with options, it has comparable specs, photography is better and the phone offers a longer support cycle.

How we test phones

Every phone tested by CNET’s reviews team was actually used in the real world. We test a phone’s features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it’s bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP-rating for water resistance. We push the processor’s performance to the extremes using both standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.

All the cameras are tested in a variety of conditions from bright sunlight to dark indoor scenes. We try out special features like night mode and portrait mode and compare our findings against similarly priced competing phones. We also check out the battery life by using it daily as well as running a series of battery drain tests.

We take into account additional features like support for 5G, satellite connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus support, fast charging speeds, foldable displays among others that can be useful. And we balance all of this against the price to give you the verdict on whether that phone, whatever price it is, actually represents good value.

A pair of everyday headphones is a solid investment for most people. Whether you work from home or just want some privacy to immerse yourself in your favorite content in your down time, over-ear headphones tend to be more comfortable than their in-ear counterparts. However, top-notch models can get pretty pricey. If you’re looking to get a solid pair of headphones at a decent price, Amazon has marked down Sony’s WH-CH720N headphones, so you can grab a pair for just $128 right now (save $22). We don’t know how long this offer will last, so we recommend making your purchase sooner rather than later.

While these headphones don’t have as many features as the more powerful WH-1000XM5 headphones from Sony, they do have have a lot going for them — especially at their more affordable price point. In addition to good sound quality, these headphones have 30mm drivers and come equipped with Sony’s V1 chip for solid active noise cancellation. They also have an ambient sound mode and robust EQ settings you can customize to taste.

Another feature these headphones offer is multipoint connectivity, which means you can connect to your computer or phone at the same time. And they are a good option for voice-calling as well. Additionally, Alexa is built in, making it easy to ask for a specific song, control compatible smart home devices and more. As for battery life, you should get up to 35 hours per charge, or as much as 50 hours if you have noise cancellation turned off.

In his review, CNET’s David Carnoy noted that Sony’s WH-CH720N “offers the appealing combination of a lightweight, comfortable design with respectable performance,” which makes this an ideal deal for people who don’t want to splurge on a premium headset. And for other budget-friendly listening options, be sure to check out our roundup of the best headphone and earbuds deals currently available.

You don’t need to spend $200 or more to get a decent pair of earbuds these days. There are plenty of worthwhile options under $100, and right now, you can snag some for even less. Today only, Woot is offering up to 87% off select Skullcandy earbuds, with prices starting at just $10. These deals are only available until 9:59 p.m. PT (12:59 a.m. ET) tonight, so be sure to get your order in before then if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.

There are a few different pairs of earbuds to choose from at this sale. At just $10, or $69 off the usual price, the Vert Clip-Anywhere earbuds are the most affordable option available. They connect to your devices wirelessly via Bluetooth, but have a cord connecting the buds to a large clip-on dial that makes it easy to adjust volume and skip songs on the fly.

Or if you want a pair of true-wireless earbuds that are completely cordless, you can snag these Indy Evo earbuds for just $15, which saves you $65 compared to the usual price. They feature an IP55 water and dust resistance rating and 30 hours of battery life and are equipped with Tile tracking tech so you never have to worry about losing track of them. And for just $5 more, you can upgrade to the Indy Fuel earbuds, which boast the same specs but also add support for wireless charging.

If you want a seriously rugged pair of earbuds, you can get these Push Ultra buds for $20, saving you $80 compared to the usual price. They’re equipped with flexible ear hooks to keep them in place during workouts, are protected against water and sweat with an IP67 resistance rating and boast an impressive 40-hour battery life.

And you can check out our full roundup of all the best headphone and earbuds deals for even more bargains.

The anticipated fall 2023 release of Apple’s iPhone 15 series has a thriving rumor mill touting a slew of new features. Those rumors, plus the recent EU ruling mandating USB-C charging on phones sold within Europe, might mean a number of departures from Apple’s traditional design. Will the iPhone 15 have a USB-C port? Will Apple increase iPhone prices in 2023? Will it even be called the “iPhone 15”? No one outside of Apple knows for sure, but these reports will certainly feed our curiosity until Apple throws the next iPhone event (probably in September). Here are some of the biggest and most credible rumors we’ve seen so far, to paint a picture of what we may see from the iPhone 15.

iPhone 15: Wireless charging upgrade

According to a May report by ChargerLab, a power specialist website with a steady track record, all iPhone 15 models will support 15W wireless charging using the Qi2 open standard. If this turns out to be true, it’ll mean the iPhone 15 could open up a whole new world of wireless charging devices that can replenish the device at its full speed. Apple had previously limited open wireless charing standards to 7.5W, leaving the full 15W charge speed for Apple MagSafe licensed accessories.

iPhone 15 camera: Periscope-style telephoto lens arrives

Noted Apple observer Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with TF International Securities, forecasts that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will receive a periscope-style telephoto lens. This sort of telephoto lens allows for higher optical zoom levels, with Kuo forecasting a 6x optical zoom could arrive in the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The optical zoom on the iPhone 14 Pro Max is limited to 3x, which lags rivals such as the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra‘s 10x optical zoom. This rumor was recently bolstered by well-known leak source and Twitter user Unknownz21, who stated that the Pro Max model will come with the special lens.

Read more: iPhone 14 Pro Cameras Are a Major Upgrade

iPhone 15 design: Hello USB-C, goodbye Lightning

This one has been in the rumor mill for years now, but in 2023 the switch from a Lightning Port to a USB-C port could finally happen. That’s possibly due to pressure from the European Union, which has been pushing for a common charging standard for years. In 2022, the bloc managed to pass legislation requiring Apple to equip its iPhones with USB-C ports by 2024 if it wants to sell them in the EU.

The question is whether Apple will switch all iPhone models to USB-C or just those sold in the EU. Apple already modifies iPhone models regionally, as it has done with the iPhone 14: The US version has an electronic SIM, while other variants retain the SIM slot. However, there are good reasons to move all iPhones to USB-C moving forward, according to Avi Greengart, analyst at Techsponential.

“…There are larger ecosystem, security, and accessory considerations with the power/data connector, so I think it is more likely that Apple moves all iPhones [globally] to USB-C in the iPhone 16 timeframe to comply with European regulations,” he told CNET in an email.

Read more: Your Next iPhone Will Probably Need a Different Charging Cable

iPhone 15 design: Dynamic Island expands to all models

Apple is likely to continue selling four iPhone models with the iPhone 15 lineup. Rumors point to a generally similar design across the board, except that the iPhone 14 Pro’s shape-shifting cutout, known as Dynamic Island, is set to make its way across all models.

That rumor comes from display analyst Ross Young, who also said in a September tweet that he’s not expecting base iPhone 15 models to have a higher refresh rate like Apple’s Pro iPhones because the supply chain can’t support it.

Read more: iPhone 14 Pro’s Most Eye-Catching Feature Feels Like It’s Winking at Something Else

iPhone 15: Solid-state buttons come to pro iPhone 15 models

Yet another Kuo prediction has been making the rounds, but this time the analyst expects Apple to differentiate further between its base and Pro models in the coming years. One way he’s expecting that to happen is by giving the iPhone 15 Pro models solid-state volume and power buttons instead of the standard keys present on today’s devices, he wrote in a tweet in October.

The solid-state buttons, which Kuo says will be similar to the home button found on the iPhone SE and iPhone 7, mimic the tactile feel of pressing a button with the help of haptic feedback. The apparent advantage of this type of button is that it also protects against water getting in.

Watch this: No Real Buttons on iPhone 15 Pro? This Rumor Has Me Worried

06:06

iPhone 15 Power: Increased RAM for pro models

According to Taiwanese research firm TrendForce, Pro models of the iPhone 15 lineup will get a bump up in RAM to 8GB from 6GB to complement the anticipated A17 Bionic chipset. Base models will continue to receive 6GB RAM, according to TrendForce. This rumor is also apparently backed up by a research report from analyst Jeff Pu of Haitong International Securities, according to a MacRumors article, which referenced Pu’s report.

Watch this: iPhone 14 and 14 Pro 3-Month Review: More to Offer

08:28

iPhone 15 price: Up, up and away?

Prices have dramatically increased since the original iPhone arrived in 2007. And that may happen again in 2023 with the iPhone 15, except not in the way you might think. The price of the regular iPhone 15 is currently expected to remain the same, according to analysts who previously spoke with CNET.

However, the upper limit of the price range could be pushed higher if rumors about a luxe iPhone 15 Ultra turn out to be true. The rumored Ultra model could potentially replace the iPhone 15 Pro Max next year, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes. This falls in line with predictions from Kuo, who expects Apple to differentiate further between the iPhone Pro and iPhone Pro Max models. However, other rumors suggest that the iPhone 15 Ultra as a step up from the iPhone 15 Pro Max. US prices currently range from $829 for the entry-level iPhone 14 model (128GB) all the way up to $1,599 for the highest-end iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1TB of storage. According to tipster Revengus, the iPhone 15 Ultra will feature a telephoto camera with a variable zoom lens, which is the camera setup rumored to feature on Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Read more: What Apple Could Do With iPhone 15 Prices in 2023

iPhone 15 Ultra camera: Variable zoom

According to tipster Revengus, the iPhone 15 Ultra will feature a telephoto camera with a variable zoom lens, which is the camera setup rumored to feature on Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra. Variable optical zoom (continuous zoom) cameras aren’t commonly found on smartphones for a variety of reasons including the size and design of phone cameras restricts the type of lenses that can be used.

iPhone 15: Launch and release timeline

Apple holds its annual iPhone event in September almost every year, so we’d expect the timeline to remain the same for the iPhone 15. New iPhones typically get released shortly thereafter, usually the Friday of the following week. Sometimes Apple will stagger release dates for specific models, especially when introducing a new design or size. So it’s possible that the iPhone 15 lineup will have more than one release date.

Here’s what we know:

• Apple tends to hold its events on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Apple’s iPhone 14 event was held on Wednesday Sept. 7, while its iPhone 13 event was held on Tuesday, Sept. 14.
• iPhone release dates are typically a week and a half after Apple’s announcements.
• In general, new iPhones are released on a Friday, around the third week of September. For the iPhone 13, preorders began Sept. 17 and the phones went on sale Sept. 24.

Looking for more iPhone advice? Check out our iPhone upgrade guide, our list of the best iPhones and our roundup of the best cases for your iPhone 14 or 14 Pro.

Tablets are ultra portable, making them great options for when you need a larger screen than a phone can offer, but don’t want to deal with the extra bulk of a laptop. Apple’s iPad tends to lead the pack in popularity, but if you’re an Android user or someone looking for a bargain, Amazon has discounted select Samsung Galaxy tablets by up to $220 right now. We don’t know how long this offer will last, so we recommend making your purchase sooner rather than later.

While Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7 FE isn’t the latest model out there, it’s still a great midtier tablet, especially for the price. It remains one of our picks for the best Android tablet for 2023, and right now Amazon has the Wi-Fi model with 256GB of storage available for just $460 — that’s a $220 discount off its usual list price and only $10 more than the lowest price we’ve seen. It has a large, 12.4-inch display, offers all-day life and can handle day-to-day tasks like streaming and browsing. It also comes with an S pen stylus so you can write or draw directly on the screen. And if you need even more storage, don’t fret — you can add up to 1TB of storage with a microSD card (sold separately).

If you’re looking for an even cheaper option, the Wi-Fi-only version of the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is marked down to $105 (save $55). It’s a smaller tablet overall, with an 8.7-inch display, and it comes equipped with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage — but as with the tablet mentioned above, you can expand that storage with a microSD card. It also has Samsung’s One UI technology, which means you can connect across devices and switch from your phone to your tablet while watching content and pick up right where you left off.

Still not sold on these particular models? You can also check out our roundup of the best tablet deals happening now to see other great options worth considering at bargain prices.

Apple devices have long been a favorite of creatives, and if you’re looking to make the most of your MacBook or iPad, then you may want to get your hands on the stunning Apple Studio Display. It’s a cutting-edge 5K monitor designed to work seamlessly with select Apple devices, and right now, you’ve got a rare chance to snag it on sale. Amazon is offering $249 off the entry-level model with standard glass and a tilt-adjustable stand, which drops the price down to $1,350. You can also save $99 on the model with nano-texture glass, dropping it down to $1,800. There’s no set expiration for these deals, but discounts on Apple devices rarely last for long. Get your order in soon if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.

The Apple Studio Display features a 27-inch 5K Retina screen, an A13 chip, a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with Center Stage and a high-fidelity, six-speaker sound system. The three-mic array makes for clear audio on calls and voice recordings. More than 14 million pixels and 1 billion colors at 600 nits of brightness make for a phenomenal display. And an antireflective coating also ensures better readability, while the nano-texture glass option further minimizes glare.

You can use your Studio Display with Mac notebooks and desktops, such as the MacBook Pro or Mac Mini, as well select iPad Pro and iPad Air models. It has one Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port with 96-watt charging capability to connect to the device driving the display, plus three standard USB-C ports for hooking up other peripherals.

It’s important to note that this monitor doesn’t play nicely with Windows computers — but if you’re already an avid Mac or iPad user, these deals at Amazon can help you score a solid monitor for less than you’d pay at the Apple Store.