2022 In Tech: From ChatGPT to 200MP smartphone cameras, here are the most vital developments of the year

The rate at which tech as a whole has been growing annually has been phenomenal. 2022, however, was in a league of its own. There have been some magnificent pieces of tech that have gone mainstream this year. From Generative AI bots like ChatGPT and DALL-E to an all-screen laptop that can actually be folded or flattened out like a tablet, consumer tech saw a lot of things.

We take a look at some of the best pieces of tech that the tech industry had to offer this year. Clearly, these things have the potential to impact the tech industry for a long time to come.

Generative AI – Dall E and ChatGPT
Several organisations have been working on Generative AI for almost a decade now, but the advances we saw this year were simply phenomenal. Image Generators like DALL-E were wildly popular earlier this year. However, nothing beats the notoriety that ChatGPT got.

Finally, we have an AI language Model that actually works as it should. And while it may not be the perfect substitute for a Google search yet, we just can’t wait to see what happens with ChatGPT, when it finally gets trained on data sets from after 2021, and can actually start pulling results off of the internet as.

Hybrid Architecture in CPUs
Intel introduced the concept of hybrid architecture in desktop and laptop CPUs with their 12the Gen processors. With the 13th Gen Intel CPUs, they elevated hybrid architecture to a whole new level.

Not only are the modern CPUs much more powerful and steady when dealing with high-intensity tasks, but the 13th Gen Intel CPUs are also more power efficient as well. Hybrid Architectures, from Intel as well as AMD, will be a key feature in CPU designing for years to come.

Nothing Phone (1)
Smartphone manufacturers have started to play it safe with the design of their devices. As a result, smartphone designs have become rather boring. Apart from making a pretty great phone, Nothing Company took a massive leap forward in terms of design with their first phone, the Nothing Phone (1).

The glyph interface that they implemented on Phone (1) may not seem that big a deal initially. However, it is by far, the most innovative thing a smartphone manufacturer has done in terms of design, in years. We can only imagine how Nothing Phone (2) or the spiritual successor to the Nothing Phone (1) will be like.

Insta360 Link UHD 4K AI Webcam
There are webcams and then there is the Insta360 Link UHD AI webcam. The Insta360 Link is an AI-powered 4K webcam mounted on a 3-axis gimbal. It comes with a range of capture modes and capabilities, like AI movement tracking, that will appeal to video makers.

It also has exceptionally amazing auto-exposure and colour reproduction. Sure, it is very expensive and overkill for most people, but for streamers, it is totally worth the price. The Insta360 Link has set the benchmark for what webcams are supposed to be. 

Samsung’s 200MP smartphone camera sensor
This year saw the first 200MP camera sensor in a smartphone. The sensor in question was the Samsung ISOCELL HP1 sensor, which has been featured in a bunch of smartphones this year, and we bet in 2023, we will see many more smartphone manufacturers taking this route.

Samsung has already started working on a 400MP camera sensor and is likely to launch it by 2024, or 2025. The South Korean giant has already revised the existing 200MP ISOCELL HP1 sensor, and launched the ISOCELL HP3 sensor earlier this year. The HP3 is a much more refined sensor and will be first seen in Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED
Foldable screens have been around for quite some time. However, laptops, with foldable screens are surely going to take the concept mainstream. Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED in this regard, might very well be a game changer, for it’s a whole new form factor for a laptop. You can either use the laptop with its 17.3-inch 2560 x 1920 screen fully unfolded and paired with a Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad.

Or you can bend the screen to get two 12.5-inch 1920 x 1280 displays. The lower display can either be used as a touchscreen keyboard or covered with the magnetically attached keyboard for a more traditional laptop-style experience. We bet, that in 2023, we will see even more laptops of this form factor. 

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Business As Usual: China’s Huawei raked in $91.5 billion in revenue despite sanctions by US, and others

Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies shared an estimate on Friday that predicted that its 2022 revenue remained flat. This means that despite the increasing sanctions on China, and Huawei in particular, the decline in sales that Huawei and other Chinese companies had seen, has come to a halt.

In fact, Huawei’s sales for this year grew by only 0.02 per cent. And, despite rotating chairman Eric Xu struck an upbeat tone in the company’s annual New Year’s letter, where he revealed the figure.

“US restrictions are now our new normal, and we’re back to business as usual,” Xu wrote in the letter that was addressed to staff and released to the media.

Revenue for the year is expected to be 636.9 billion yuan or $91.53 billion, according to Xu.

That represents a tiny increase from 2021, when revenue hit 636.8 billion yuan, and marked a 30 per cent year-on-year sales decline, as the US-issued sanctions on the company took effect.

The timing and contents of Xu’s letter were a little unusual. First, the letter or the issued statements made no mention of Huawei’s profitability, whether it had grown or declices. Secondly, the company typically discloses its full annual results in the following year’s first quarter, which means on this particular occasion, they have announced their results pre-emptively. 

Things haven’t gone completely back to normal for Huawei though. Revenue for 2022 still remained well below the company’s record of $122 billion in 2019. Back in 2018-2019, the company was at its peak as the top Android smartphone vendor globally.  

In 2019, the US administration led by President Trump, imposed a trade ban on Huawei, citing national security concerns, which barred the company from using Google’s Android operating system for its new smartphones. Huawei basically got cut off from using some seriously other critical and crucial technologies that originated in the US.

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New York becomes the first US state to pass a 'Right-to-Repair' legislation, but in a very watered down manner

New York became the first US state to pass right-to-repair legislation earlier this week. A few months after being enacted by resounding bipartisan majorities in both chambers of the state legislature in New York, Governor Kathy Hochul finally signed the Digital Fair Repair Act into law.

Although the passing of this legislation is being hailed as “precedent-setting” by right-to-repair advocacy groups, the bill, in the form that it was passed, is heavily watered down. The new law requires companies to provide the same diagnostic tools, repair manuals, and parts to the public that they provide to their own repair technicians at authorised service centres.

However, because of lobbying from special interest groups backed by the tech lobby, the legislation in its current form has been significantly weakened. The bill as signed by Hochul contains even more conditions and exceptions, which mask what the tech lobbyists were concerned about, namely technical issues that could put safety and security at risk, as well as heighten the risk of injury from physical repair projects.

One of the biggest ways by which the legislation was watered down, was by the condition that it will only apply to devices manufactured and sold in New York on or after July 1, 2023 – older devices, need not be covered under this legislation, which, frankly sort of defeats the purpose of the law.

Another manner in which the law was compromised, was that business-to-business and business-to-government equipment that isn’t sold to consumers has also been excluded from the legislation. American farmers have been a major proponents of the right-to-repair movement in the US, and this particular section of the legislation that excludes business-to-business machines will be a major setback for them. 

Farmers in the US have been fighting against tractor manufacturers like John Deere, for making it impossible for farmers to repair or work on their own machines in any way, without having to visit the service centres and repair shops where they are often charged an exorbitant fee.

Manufacturers have also been given the right to provide assemblies of parts instead of parts by themselves when the risk of improper installation heightens the risk of injury. This means that although a customer can get their phone or any tech device repaired at a third-party repair shop, they may be forced to buy parts that don’t need to be replaced. 

Moreover, because the assemblies have been defined vaguely, it is possible that if a customer just needs to replace the battery of his device, he will be forced to buy a new charging port and get it installed as well. 

These compromises are stacked on top of some broad exemptions already in the original bill, which exclude medical devices, motor vehicles, off-road equipment, or home appliances.

Right-to-repair activists praised the passage of the bill while acknowledging that the compromises make it weaker than it ought to be.

“This is a huge victory for consumers and a major step forward for the right to repair movement,” wrote iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens, one of the biggest backers of the movement. “New York has set a precedent for other states to follow, and I hope to see more states passing similar legislation in the near future.”

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2022 was the year of Koo, India’s own social media platform. Where is the platform headed in 2023?

2022 was not a great year for most social media platforms. Starting from Twitter and the entire takeover fiasco and the shenanigans of Elon Musk after he took charge, to the shocking tumble that Meta and all its platforms like Facebook and Instagram, took this year, most social media companies saw negative growth.

On the other hand, Koo, India’s very own social media platform saw unprecedented growth. Not only did they launch in a bunch of new languages and markets, this year also saw Koo cross 50 million users. Hitting that sort of milestone within just two years of being launched, is a huge deal; not many social media platforms can boast of such an achievement.

Things haven’t been exactly easy for the platform, and yet, Koo seems to be on an upwards trajectory. We had a chat with Mayank Bidawatka, Co-founder of Koo and asked him where he sees the second largest micro-blogging platform in the world go in 2023. Following are the edited excerpts from our conversation:

How was 2022 for social media companies? How is it that Koo fared better than almost all other social media platforms?
I think one word to define the year for social platforms in 2022 is “turmoil”. There have been many developments that users have dunked. Broadly you’ll see new ownership followed by aggressive unpopular policies and changes at Twitter and mass layoffs at Meta. There’s competitive pressure from TikTok and talks of it being banned in the US. Meanwhile, Koo is spreading its wings and will continue to do so. 

A lot of these changes show us that it doesn’t take long for the chips to fall and for the mighty to tumble in the tech world. It also shows how resilient network effects can be where no matter how bad your decisions are, a strong community network is not easy to disrupt. I think this has been a period of soul-searching for many employees at these companies and also for users of such platforms on what’s right and wrong. 

Meta faced competitive pressures from TikTok affecting revenues and Twitter faces a huge debt burden leading to them wanting to charge users for basic services. 

Clearly, users don’t want to pay for basic services like a verification tick and edit functionality that platforms like Koo will offer for free. Platforms will realize that stability in policies, transparency, neutrality and giving users control is the best way to run a public social platform. The power of choice needs to be given back to the users and platforms should just be enablers and exercise control in exceptions for dispute resolution. The more the platforms play this role, with a strong focus on user happiness, the better our online experience will be.

How has the reception been for Koo in international markets?
We have just about started our global expansion journey. We have started with Brazil. Koo is a cult brand there with high awareness, huge adoption in a very short span and a lot of love for the brand and what we stand for. 

We will keep expanding to multiple countries from here on. We have launched many new global languages and this too will keep expanding to accommodate more languages in due time. Koo is now available in over 20 languages including English, French, German, Italian, Indonesian, Spanish, Portuguese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Turkish and Hindi with users from 100+ countries.

What users love about Koo is the fact that it’s a friendly, approachable and non-toxic platform.

Which of Koo’s features has been a massive favourite among users? What additional features can we hope to see Koo integrate into the platform?
Koo’s vision is to unite a world divided by languages. We have enabled users to create posts in multiple languages on one screen thus, helping them get a read around the world. No social platform has this capability. Many eminent personalities and users around the world create their posts in multiple languages. 

Dalai Lama is a good example of this. You will see that he’s a lot more active on Koo and creates posts in English, Portuguese, Hindi and Spanish. You won’t see this behaviour from him on any other platform. That’s really what we stand for.

Apart from this, we have multiple features like the option to edit Koos, free self-verification which gets approved within 15 seconds, multiple profile photos, allowing 10+ media attachments, support for longer videos, the option of saving a Koo, scheduling a Koo, saving drafts. 

We also recently launched a migration option for users to import their tweets and find their Twitter followers on Koo, eliminating the need to start from ground zero. 

Koo is a feature-rich platform and we will keep adding many new features in the near future such as Favoriting a profile to see their posts on priority, Stories, Toxic/Hate speech feedback to commenters, enabling creators to pin their favourite comments, detailed analytics for creators etc.

We will update the community as and when these go live. Broadly we want to give the power and control to users and creators to create a world they want to live in. Koo is one of the most friendly social platforms out there and people love the fact that it’s non-toxic. We will keep enabling the community to connect better in a safe environment while they make new friends and strengthen their social graph.

Twitter has been disastrous because of its conduct with over half of its users. How are other social media platforms capitalizing on this, and how does Koo plan to leverage its position?
Many users are looking for alternatives aggressively. We just have to increase awareness about our platform in multiple countries. We already provide for free all the tools that users will be charged for on Twitter. 

We’ve also made it easy for users to migrate by importing their Tweets and finding their Twitter following on Koo, eliminating the need to start from ground zero. Our proposition resonates with users that adopt us. They love how friendly and transparent we are as a platform.

Content moderation on social media has been a hot topic for some time now. Should platforms be allowed to moderate content on their own, or should they be under government oversight? Or, will an independent body chosen for this task, truly be independent and actually functional?
Many governments around the world have policies around ways social platforms should deal with content moderation. It’s important for all platforms to respect local laws and cultures, as we do. In addition to these guidelines, we have our own community guidelines to ensure that Koo is a safe space.

We are an extremely user-focused platform and ensure that everything that’s good for the user is done. What people want is a safe environment in which their thoughts and relationships can thrive. They want to feel enriched and happy after using a platform. That’s what we endeavour to deliver.

Elon Musk and Twitter recently suspended the accounts of a few users for sharing links to their social media profiles on other platforms, before undoing it. Were those bans a good idea, and what do you infer about Musk overlooking a social media platform based on the episode?
Social media platforms are known to give a stage to billions of voices. It is imperative to adopt a user-first approach rather than a platform-first. Any moves or changes done in the platform should not impede self-expression. 

We feel that some decisions being taken at Twitter are going against some philosophies we hold in high regard. Users should have the freedom to discuss anything without restrictions, within agreed-upon community guidelines. Even if it’s against the platform itself. That’s the true test of a platform’s belief in free speech.

In what direction will we see the platform go in 2023?
Koo will keep giving power to the people in the form of features, tools, new languages, and more controls and choices. We will continue our global outreach and expansion to make India’s tech shine and be celebrated in multiple countries. We will work towards empowering creators with insights, tools and monetization capabilities and help users discover and connect with their favourite content creators easily. 2023 will be a monumental year for Koo.

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Best flagship smartphones of 2022: Apple iPhone 14 Pro, Google Pixel 7 Pro and more

We look back at the year gone by and pick the best flagship smartphones across various budgets ranging from Rs 50,000 to infinity. Here’s the best of the best that 2022 had to offer in the smartphone segment.

Best flagship smartphones of 2022

Budget: I am too rich to bother

Apple iPhone 14 Pro/ Pro Max
No surprises here. If you have the money to splurge, the premium-most models from the latest iPhone 14 series are the ones to get. The Apple iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are essentially the same phones in different sizes. By same we mean with identical processing hardware, storage, cameras, design and everything else except screen size and battery capacity. I personally like the Pro for its compact size, but if you prefer a larger screen, by all means go for the Max by paying a small 10K premium.

Both phones are powered by Apple’s A16 Bionic chip which is more powerful yet more energy efficient as compared to its predecessor. You have storage options ranging from 128 GB to 1 TB. You either get a 6.1-inch or 6.7-inch LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED display with 120 Hz refresh rate and compliance with Dolby Vision. The displays are sharp courtesy of 460 PPI pixel density and can get up to 2000 nits bright. The outdated notch on top of the screen is finally replaced by a… let’s just call it Dynamic Island. Only Apple can make an aberration sound cool.

Photography department at the back is loaded starting with a 48MP primary camera with dual-pixel PDAF and sensor shift optical image stabilisation (OIS), a 12MP telephoto camera with OIS for up to 3X optical zoom and a 12MP ultra-wide camera with dual-pixel PDAF and 120-degrees FOV. Collectively they capture some great shots in different modes and lighting. As for video recording, the iPhone 14 Pro phones take the pole position with a capability of capturing extremely high quality and stabilised 4K footage up to 60 fps. You also get support for 10-bit HDR and Dolby Vision. We can go on, but you get the point, right?

Budget: Can we have something closer to a Lakh Rupees?

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G
Can we ever have a list of best flagship phones of the year without a Samsung? The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G is the new Samsung Galaxy Note; unofficially, of course. But what’s in the name when it has all the traits of the legendary Note series including the S Pen. Add to that a large 6.8-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2x display with HDR10+ compliance and 120 Hz refresh rate. It is powered by Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and offers a generous 12 GB RAM and either 256 GB or 512 GB storage options.

The photography department here is even more packed than the iPhone 14 Pro phones, helmed by a 108MP camera with laser auto-focus and OIS. Giving it company are a couple of 10MP telephoto cameras with OIS, one with 3X optical zoom and the other with a periscope telephoto lens for 10X optical zoom. And lastly there’s a 12MP ultra-wide camera with dual-pixel PDAF. The cameras do a stellar job across the board. Though quite a large device, it is a one stop shop for most of your needs.

Budget: Is there something as awesome around Rs 75,000?

Google Pixel 7 Pro
Google’s current flagship smartphone can be purchased for Rs 74,999 using HDFC cards on Flipkart. But hey, we aren’t here to talk about deals. The Pixel 7 Pro walks into this list mainly for two reasons – the best Android experience on smartphones and the renowned Pixel cameras. The pure, unadulterated Android 13 OS on this device along with the Material You design language is fluid and free of bloatware. On top of that, you get useful utilities like object recognition using Google Lens or speech recognition/ voice typing, and let’s not forget some cool image editing tools like Magic Eraser.

The Google Pixel 7 Pro is great at photography courtesy of three cameras at the back. You get a 50MP primary camera with OIS, a 48MP telephoto camera with OIS for up to 5X optical zoom and a 12MP ultra-wide camera with auto-focus that doubles up as a macro camera too. They do a great job in different lighting and modes. The 10.8MP front camera does a neat job with selfies and can even click portrait shots.

If that wasn’t good enough, the phone sports a premium design and has IP68 rated ingress protection. The Pixel 7 Pro is powered by Google’s next-gen Tensor G2 processor and offers 12 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage. It sports a 6.7-inch HDR10+ compliant QHD+ AMOLED display with 120 Hz refresh rate and 1500 nits peak brightness. Long story short, this Google flagship is a great all-round device, that’s also a lot more affordable than its two competitors above.

Budget: How about something closer to 60K?

iQOO 9 Pro 5G
The Vivo sub-brand has been in great form this year, and the iQOO 9 Pro 5G is arguably the best all-round phone priced around Rs 60,000 this year. Just like the S22 Ultra, this phone too is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, and you get up to 12 GB RAM and 256 GB internal storage. The phone has a lively 6.78-inch QHD+ HDR10+ compliant AMOLED display with 120 Hz refresh rate and the capability to display over a billion colour shades. 

The rear camera department here is quite versatile too. You get a 50MP primary camera with Gimbal OIS, accompanied by another 50MP ultra-wide camera with auto-focus and 150-degrees FOV. And lastly, there’s a 16MP telephoto camera with OIS for 2.5X optical zoom. Unlike the super-premium phones above, the iQOO 9 Pro is not hamstrung by slow charging. The bundled 120W fast charger claims to charge its 4700 mAh battery fully in just 20 minutes. The phone supports 50W fast wireless charging too.

Budget: Do we get good flagship phones around 50K too? 

Realme GT 2 Pro
Of course you do, and 2022 did present us with a great option in this budget. The Realme GT 2 Pro has features comparable to the more expensive OnePlus 10 Pro at a significantly lower price tag, which translates into great value for money. This phone too is powered by Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC and is accompanied by 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage. The design is different and soothing, thanks to its paper-like biopolymer back. The battery life here is pretty good and the bundled 65W SuperDart charger juices up the 5000 mAh battery fully in just 37 minutes. 

Another striking feature of this phone is its 6.7-inch QHD+ 10-bit LTPO 2.0 AMOLED display with an adaptive refresh rate ranging between 1 to 120 Hz, up to 1400 nits brightness and HDR10+ compliance. The rear camera combination is quite interesting here with two 50MP cameras – the primary with OIS and an ultra-wide shooter with 150-degrees FOV. They do an excellent job in different modes and lighting. One interesting addition here is a 3MP micro camera that provides 20X to 40X magnification, which is quite unique. The 32MP front camera is good enough to impress the selfie crowd.

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Twitter to shut down Seattle office as it faces eviction for not paying rent since Musk took over

After Elon Musk took over Twitter, he introduced a number of cost-cutting measures which included not paying the rent for the various office spaces it occupies. As a result, Twitter is facing the possibility of getting evicted from one of its most iconic offices, the one at Seattle.

As per a report by The New York Times and Platformer, Twitter will not be relocating their Seattle staff to some other property in the city, and has chosen to shut down the office in the city altogether. Staff members from Seattle have apparently been given the option to work from home.

Since 2014, the social media company’s Seattle office has been at Century Square tower downtown in a space that can accommodate 200 workers. Musk had already cut janitorial and security services at Twitter’s Seattle office earlier this week as the staff prepares to get evicted. 

Twitter had laid off 208 Seattle-based employees earlier this year when he terminated about 3700 people of the previous 7200 staff members who worked at Twitter. Prior to Musk owning Twitter, Seattle was the company’s second-largest engineering hub outside of the San Francisco headquarters.

In a bid to cut costs after taking over Twitter, Musk has been on an all out mission to curtail what he sees as “unnecessary spending,” at any cost. First, he got rid of the programme where staffers working from Twitter’s offices would get meals. Then, he started auctioning off several items from Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.

Had Twitter been evicted as the result of a lawsuit, it would have been extremely difficult for them to sign a lease to rent office scape anywhere in the city. In order to avoid such a situation, Musk has made the move even before an eviction lawsuit was filed by the property owner, Unico Properties. Having said that, the landlord of Twitter’s Seattle office can still sue the company for outstanding rent, and other damages.

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India officially mandates USB-C ports for mobile phones, manufacturers need to comply by March 2025

Mobile devices being sold in India will need to adopt the USB-C port as the standard charging port by 2025, a report by the Business Standard said. India started mulling over the idea after the European Union passed similar legislation earlier this year, that mandated all devices, laptops, smartphones, tablets and wearables being sold in the EU to use the Type-C port, by December 2024.

Earlier, the Central Consumer Protection Authority formed a sub-group comprising industry representatives, educational institutions and others to research the feasibility of a universal charging port, being implemented in India.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has set quality benchmarks for the charging port, which the department of consumer affairs wants device manufacturers to put in their products.

Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary to the Department of Consumer Affairs, said, “The government will come up with two common types of charging ports for mobiles and wearable electronic devices.”

The deadline for 2025 was set after consulting with industry stakeholders about standards and considering global supply chain constraints and the availability of products. The deadline will follow the European Union’s timeline for uniform charging ports’ standards.

India is currently, the world’s second-largest smartphone market after China, and had taken the position from the US back in 2019. It is estimated that over 95 per cent of the smartphones being used in India are Android-based, most of whom already come with the Type-C port. However, a vast majority of mobile phones being used in India constitute Feature phones that still use micro-USB or some form of a proprietary charger. 

Along with those feature phones, iPhones still use the proprietary Apple Lightning port, and Apple has recently seen significant sales growth in the region where it now manufactures the iPhone 14.

Apple previously pushed back against the EU’s attempts to make the company adopt the USB-C charging standard, but has since publicly confirmed it will comply with the new rules.

Moving towards a universal charging port will be in line with the Lifestyle for Environment or LIFE mission that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 2026 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. LIFE calls for “mindful and deliberate utilisation” by people worldwide instead of “mindful and wasteful consumption.”

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Amazon introduces Prime Air, begins drone delivery service in California and Texas

Amazon has officially started delivering orders by drone under their new Amazon Prime Air. Amazon’s Drone deliveries is now operating in two cities Lockeford in the state of California and College Station in Texas, and will only be delivering a small number of packages just in time for the end-of-the-year holidays.

The retail giant finally received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States of America to use drones for package deliveries, earlier in August this year. The maximum payload for deliveries using Prime Air is 5 pounds or 2.25 kilograms, which is about 85 per cent of all Amazon’s shipments.

Residents of both towns now have the option to sign up for the service. Once they do, Amazon will then confirm whether the company can deliver safely to the customer’s address. Once a customer places an order, the customer gets an estimated delivery time and tracking info.

“The drone will fly to the designated delivery location, descend to the customer’s backyard, and hover at a safe height,” Amazon said. “It will then safely release the package and rise back up to altitude.”

Using Prime Air, Amazon plans to deliver shipments in under 60 minutes of receiving an order. 

“We want to securely take our drones up into the air” said Natalie Banke, an Amazon Air representative in a statement released to the media. “We are starting in these locations(Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas) and will progressively extend delivery to additional customers over time.” 

The MK27-2 delivery drone that Amazon uses has a hexagonal shape and six propellers to reduce high-frequency sound emissions. The company’s primary focus right now is on safe travel. While Amazon is presently monitoring deliveries and has appointed human operators to keep a track of each of these drones,  the aim is for the drones to fly independently while utilising algorithms to avoid hazards like electrical wires and chimneys, just like a flying electric car with complete autonomy would. 

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From Sony WF-1000XM4 to Realme Buds Air 3, here are the best true wireless (TWS) earphones of 2022

It is that time of the year when we reflect on things gone by. Today we focus on the best true wireless earbuds that launched this year across various price brackets. Other than sound quality, which was obviously given the highest weightage, we have also factored in features like active noise cancellation (ANC), battery backup and more. All things considered, here are the best TWS earbuds of 2022.

Best TWS earbuds of 2022 under Rs 20,000
We have two products in this budget that deserve the honour, starting with probably the first major audio release of 2022.

Sony WF-1000XM4
Generally the products released at the start of the year are often forgotten by the end of it, but not these Sony earbuds. The Sony WF-1000XM4 set the bar so high that literally nobody could surpass it in almost 12 months. The performance remains a cut above anything we came across south of Rs 20,000 this year, with a warm and detailed sound output that works well across most genres of music and visual content. 

Add to that Hi-Res codec support, a good companion app and impressive battery life, and we have a solid all-around product. But one aspect that shines through even more is the active noise cancellation which is the best among TWS earphones under 20K to date. A few missing features like multi-point support were added recently through a firmware update, making the product more complete. Factoring in all of that, the Sony WF-1000XM4 is easily the best pair of TWS earphones of 2022.

Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro
The Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro is a close second and matches the Sony feature to feature. It probably would have been a tie had the company not reserved a lot of goodness for just Samsung phones including 24-bit audio support. Despite that, it is an excellent pair of earphones that’s more ergonomic and a few thousand bucks cheaper than the Sony too. The sound quality is detailed with a very good soundstage and separation.

The Galaxy Buds2 Pro employs dual drivers in each earbud, and the tuning by AKG really sparkles. The ANC is among the best in the business at the moment, and the ambient/transparency mode is quite natural. If you own a Samsung phone or plan to buy one, these earbuds are the best that you can get. Even otherwise, they are comfortably among the best of 2022 for those looking for a premium experience.

Best TWS earbuds of 2022 under Rs 15,000
There was a clear winner in this segment and absolutely nothing else came close given the performance and value that the Oppo flagship offers.

Oppo Enco X2
The Oppo Enco X2 didn’t just need to battle the competition but also had to surpass the high standards set by its illustrious predecessor in every department. The latter was probably the harder test, but these TWS earbuds passed with flying colours. The warm and detailed sound output is a treat to the ears and the feature list of this product is longer than any of its competitors in this price bracket. Little surprise that it just waltzed into this list.

The dual driver setup and Dynaudio’s tuning is a great combination that handles the three major frequency ranges quite well with tight and punchy bass, detailed midrange and sharp highs. Support for high-end codecs like LDAC and LHDC 4.0 over Bluetooth 5.2 helps in providing higher bandwidth for high-bitrate sound. Add to that support for multi-point, and good ANC that can reduce the ambient sounds up to 45 dB and we have a product that’s hard to beat in this budget, and it has stayed that way.

Best TWS earbuds of 2022 under Rs 10,000
As weird as it may sound, we came across nothing great in this budget this year that deserved a place in this list. So we decided to leave it empty. A hint for TWS earphone manufacturers to fill this void next year.

Best TWS earbuds of 2022 under Rs 5,000
Just like the top budget class, we have two products in the sub-5K segment that are so evenly matched that it’s hard to pick a clear winner. So we have included both.

OnePlus Buds Z2
While the OnePlus Buds Z2 was a more than decent product at launch, it probably wouldn’t have featured in this list the way it was. In terms of features, it was pretty good with the likes of ANC, wear detection sensors, impressive battery backup and customisable controls better than any prior OnePlus earbuds. But the sound was distinctly V-shaped with ample bass and sharp highs. The mids suffered as a result, with noticeable auditory masking. There was no way to alter the sound profile then.

That changed in the second half of this year, when a firmware update not just provided new sound presets, but also the ability to create your own sound profiles using a multi-band equaliser. Thanks to that, one could make the OnePlus Buds Z2 sound way better than before. With the most important box ticked, it automatically became worthy of being in this list of the best of 2022. 

Realme Buds Air 3
Realme set out on a mission a couple of years ago to ‘democratise ANC’, or in simpler words, make ANC affordable and available for the masses. While their age-old Buds Q2 is still going strong in the sub-2K segment, the Realme Buds Air 3 is the current pinnacle of ANC for the company. And it works great, way better than what one would expect from earphones priced at 4K. It cuts down on the hum of an AC or the whirr of a fan when indoors, and significantly reduces traffic noises and human chatter in public transport.

The Realme Link app has been a big plus for the audio products from the company, letting you customise the sound and controls among other things. As for sound output, though on the warmer side, it is fairly balanced and more importantly, enjoyable across a variety of tracks. Features like wear detection sensors and robust battery backup add to the value quotient of this already well-price pair of TWS earbuds.

That completes our lineup of top TWS buds for this year. We now look forward to some of their successors and competitors in 2023. If they manage to dislodge some of these products from their respective thrones, it would truly be music to our ears.

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Indian scam call centres looted over $10 billion in 11 months from US senior citizens this year

Data from the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI showed that US citizens have lost more than $10 billion to call centres running scams. These call centres operate as startups or fake customer service call centres and offer tech help to unsuspecting victims, who get scammed into sharing their personal details or worse, access to credit card or bank accounts.

Some of these scammers have even tried to get their hands dirty with romance-related phishing scams.

The data that the FBI released showed that of the $10.2 billion that was looted from American citizens, about $3 billion was done through call centres offering tech help over a VoIP call, and the rest through various other means. All this data was collected over the first 11 months of the year, and the FBI estimates that by the end of the calendar, year, the figure maybe as high as $12 billion. In just these 11 months, the figure saw an increase of 47 per cent, over last year’s $6.9 billion.

Reports state that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has appointed a permanent representative at the US embassy in New Delhi to collaborate closely with the CBI, Interpol, and Delhi Police to break up these phishing gangs and recover money sent via wire and digital currencies to scamming organisations based in India. The FBI is worried that Indian-based phishing gangs are scamming elderly Americans of their life savings.

According to the legal attache to the US embassy in India, Suhel Daud, most of these scam victims are senior citizens over the age of 60. Daud claims that although it is not now a national security threat for either India or the US, it nonetheless contributes significantly to harming our nation’s image. He said that the FBI is ready to close any gaps in the investigation by providing evidence to the local law enforcement agencies so they may bring charges against the implicated parties.

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US House of Representatives, Kansas governor bans TikTok on govt. devices, app faces risk of nationwide ban

TikTok received a major blow in the United States, as the US House of Representatives has ordered staff to delete TikTok from any House-issued mobile phones. Moreover, the governor of Kansas has also issued a similar ban. Other states are also planning to come up with similar legislation, which may see the app being banned on all government-issued devices. 

What this would mean, is that all staff, including the personal staff of the Representative, and Representatives themselves will not be allowed to have TikTok on their office-issued devices. In Kansas’ case, no government employee on any level will be allowed to have the social media app on their office-issued apps. 

TikTok is already banned on government-owned devices by the local administrations in 19 states citing security concerns.

Several state governments are actually considering banning the app for all government employees even on their personal devices. 

The directive in the House of Representatives was reportedly issued by Catherine L Szpindor, the chief administrative officer of the House, and bans the popular social media app from being downloaded on House-issued devices going forward. The memo stated, House staff are NOT allowed to download the TikTok app on any House mobile devices.” It also added, “If you have the TikTok app on your House mobile device, you will be contacted to remove it.”

Earlier this month, Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher introduced a bill in the Senate and House of Representatives that sought for a nationwide ban on TikTok over growing concerns that the app was being used to spy on Americnan citizens, and that China tried to influence American elections using the app. Just this week, TikTok reportedly fired four employees for spying on journalists in the US.

Asserting that US user data is not maintained in China and that it is not shared with the Chinese government, TikTok has long claimed that the way in which it handles user data should not be a reason for worry.

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Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra for 2024 will feature a new telephoto sensor

Samsung will be releasing the Galaxy S23 series sometime in February at a special event. However, rumours around the 2024 inbound S24 series has already started to leak, even before people get the chance to see the S23 series of devices.

S23 Ultra’s successor, which will land in early 2024, will reportedly feature an all-new telephoto sensor.

According to prolific leakster Ice Universe, the Galaxy S24 Ultra will replace the telephoto sensor used in its predecessors, and “adopt a new solution”. While Ice Universe doesn’t mention which telephoto sensor this concerns, we assume it’s the periscope zoom one. Then again, the renewal could apply to both that and the 3x zoom module.

On the other hand, the main camera in the S24 Ultra is said to either remain the same as in the S23 Ultra, or will only be slightly upgraded – nothing too major. While the upcoming S23 Ultra has been rumoured to keep the same zooming hardware as its predecessor, for the S22 Ultra, the image quality has been rumoured to improve thanks to a better colour science, image processing and the use of several “AI algorithms.” 

It looks like the S23 Ultra will improve zoom image quality somewhat, while the S24 Ultra may be bringing us some really revolutionary new tech. On the other hand, when it comes to the main camera, one of the biggest changes to come to the S23 series will be the introduction of the new 200 MP ISOCELL HP3 sensor, which will be used in 2024 too either in identical or slightly-altered form.

The ISOCELL HP1 was the first 200MP sensor in the world and was developed by Samsung. We have already seen the sensor being used in a bunch of devices, most notably, the Motorola X30 Pro. The HP3 sensor is a slightly tweaked and much more refined version of the HP1 sensor, and was launched earlier this year.

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Twitter suffers from a massive outage, users get “error” messages when trying to log in

Twitter suffered a major outage issue earlier today. Although initial reports suggested that users of the platform who use desktops and laptops to log in via Twitter’s web services were facing difficulties a later report revealed that users who were using the Twitter app on iOS and Android devices were facing issues as well.

Both mobile and desktop users could not access the site or manage notifications and were greeted with pop-up messages.

Over 10,000 users reported issues with accessing the social media website in the United States as of 7:40 pm ET. While some users said they were getting logged out automatically, others complained that their Twitter notifications were not working.

“Twitter is experiencing international outages affecting the mobile app and features including notifications; incident not related to country-level internet disruptions or filtering,” Netblocks said in a tweet.

Ever since Musk took over and got rid of a bunch of engineers who were responsible for keeping the platform operational, analysts have claimed that the platform now runs the risk of repeatedly crashing down as there are very few people working on maintenance. Although Musk has hired some people to maintain the servers and the codes that Twitter uses to stay functional, the number of people hired is incomparable with what the maintenance team had earlier.

Several users took to Twitter, sharing that they couldn’t log in.

User reports indicate Twitter is having problems since 7:13 PM EST. https://t.co/qqqwagygy9 RT if you’re also having problems None

— Downdetector (@downdetector) December 29, 2022

I’m able to see this but newsfeed isn’t loading & not getting notifications 🙃 pic.twitter.com/EHEg0k2EHK

— Lauren Lee Malloy (@LaurenLee_915) December 29, 2022

Twitter’s been having performance problems since Oct 28, 2022.

— PlantiFa – 🐀🚜🌻 #RuthSentMe (@zenyatta4ever) December 29, 2022

Unable to log in to my web twitter account. Keep getting this error after login. Anybody know the issue / hack? pic.twitter.com/FZyjqkFbXc

— Sajith Pai (@sajithpai) December 29, 2022

Musk even responded to one, in his typical manner.

Works for me

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2022

Although the services were restored across many areas and several people who complained of not being able to log in were later seen reporting that they could log in again, Twitter continues to be choppy in other areas.

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Tesla plans on running its Shanghai plant at reduced capacity in 2023, fearing an economic slowdown

Fearing the impending slowdown of the Chinese economy, one of the markets where Tesla has shown the fastest growth, the car company has decided to slow down the production facilities that cater to China. Namely, Tesla China will be operating the Shanghai Tesla factory at a reduced capacity from January 2023.

Tesla has already started to reduce the output of its factory in Shanghai mainly due to the recent COVID outbreak in the country, and the subsequent difficulties in arranging components for their cars. 

As per a report by Reuters, Tesla China will be giving its factory workers an extended break for the Chinese New Year, and will only have the production facility making cars, for a period of 17 days in January, starting from January 3 to January 19.

In comparison, last year, Tesla’s Chinese arm kept normal operations during the last week of December last year and allowed workers to take a three-day break for Chinese New Year.

Tesla’s Shanghai plant employs about 20,000 workers. The Shanghai plant accounted for more than half of Tesla’s global output in the first three quarters of this year. 

Tesla’s latest production cuts in Shanghai come amid a rising wave of infections after China stepped back from its zero-COVID policy earlier this month. That move has been welcomed by businesses although it has disrupted manufacturing operations outside Tesla.

Like other automakers, Tesla has also faced a downturn in demand in China, the world’s largest auto market. Earlier this month, Tesla offered an additional incentive for buyers taking possession of vehicles in December. The company has cut prices for Model 3 and Model Y cars by up to 9% in China, in addition to a subsidy for insurance costs.

Moreover, Tesla has been finding it increasingly difficult to sell cars in the country. The CMBI or the Brokerage China Merchants Bank International said in a report that daily retail sales of Tesla in China were down by 28 per cent this December, compared to last year. 

On the other hand, industry-wide sales, were up by almost 15 per cent in the same time period. BYD, Tesla’s biggest rival in China, were up by 93 per cent.

Tesla had set a target of 50 per cent growth in output and EV deliveries for the year 2022. However, analysts expect that by the end of the year, they will fall short of that by 5 per cent, mainly because of what will seemingly be an unimpressive fourth quarter. 

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Uber and Amazon have some of the poorest working conditions for gig workers in India reveals study

Several prominent startups in India, including Ola, Uber, Dunzo, PharmEasy and Amazon have some of the worst working conditions for gig workers in India, revealed a report by Fairwork India. The report assessed several prominent businesses and scored them on the basis of how proactively they worked to create fair working conditions for the lowliest of their workers, namely gig economy workers.

The study, which was conducted in partnership with the University of Oxford, said the aforementioned firms failed to provide fair pay, fair contracts, fair management, fair representation or fair working conditions to their gig workers, getting a score of zero on 10. 

On the other hand, firms, such as Urban Company, BigBasket, and Flipkart, did fairly well. The report gave Urban Company a score of seven out of 10, six to BigBasket, five each to Flipkart and Swiggy, four to Zomato, two to grocery delivery firm Zepto and one to Tiger Global-backed delivery firm Porter.

In its annual report, Fairwork India stated that “This year, only Bigbasket, Flipkart and Urban Company were awarded the first point because of the public commitments they have made to paying workers at least the hourly local minimum wage after factoring in work-related costs.”

“Bigbasket and Urban Company have operationalised this by committing to reimburse the difference between worker’s earnings per hour and the hourly local minimum wage after costs. Flipkart and Urban Company have committed to basing their pricing structure for workers on the hourly local minimum wage after costs. Flipkart has also undertaken steps to hold its third-party service providers to the same commitment,” the report added.

In recent years, more and more people have been participating in part-time, or gig-based work. Despite this, there has been no effort by most companies relying on gig workers to extend the employee benefits that regular employees enjoy, to gig-economy workers. The benefits that gig workers are deprived of include some basics like health insurance. 

“The promise of the flexibility of the digital platform economy raises as many questions about livelihoods as it offers opportunities. We hope the Fairwork report provides the basis for an interpretation of flexibility that allows for not merely the adaptability that platforms seek, but also the income and social security that workers lack,” said Professors Balaji Parthasarathy and Janaki Srinivasan, the principal investigators of the team, in a statement.

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US Government controls all social media platforms, suppresses information, claims Elon Musk

Elon Musk has often claimed that the US Government basically had Twitter in its pockets, and would often pay millions of dollars to suppress some news and posts that would not suit their agenda. With the ongoing Twitter Files Saga, Musk reiterated the claim, causing a ruckus to interrupt.

Documents released by Elon Musk and his team as Twitter Files, showed that the platform often colluded with the FBI, CIA, Pentagon and other government agencies to suppress information on elections, Ukraine, and COVID-19.

This revelation comes to us because of the several reports that journalist Matt Taibbi has published with Musk’s approval. Taibbi claims that the platform’s senior executives held regular meetings with members of the FBI and CIA, during which the agencies gave them lists of “hundreds of problem accounts” to suspend in the run-up to the 2020 election.

Musk has claimed that apart from Twitter, the FBI and the CIA also engaged with other social media companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Reddit, Pinterest etc. In all of these meetings with heads of these platforms, agents from the CIA would sit in to ensure that what is being discussed actually gets carried. Furthermore, Taibbi claims that the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, which was initially formed to counter election interference by foreign states, would often make a ton of moderation requests on domestic accounts. 

Retweeting ‘Part 7’ of the Twitter Files, Musk posted, “Government paid Twitter millions of dollars to censor info from the public.” Not only Twitter, he continued, “but other social media companies as well.”

Most people don’t appreciate the significance of the point Matt was making:

*Every* social media company is engaged in heavy censorship, with significant involvement of and, at times, explicit direction of the government.

Google frequently makes links disappear, for example.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 27, 2022

The debate over the controversial ‘The Twitter Files’ saga sparked following Musk’s decision to release the new instalments behind internal company communication which also included the company’s decision to block a media report regarding Hunter Biden’s international business operations.

Twitter Files, for those who are unaware, is a set of reports based on documents that Elon Musk dumped on several independent journalists. These documents show how Twitter suppressed information that would have been damaging to Joe Biden’s election campaign, colluded with the FBI to remove content the agency wanted hidden, assisted the US military’s online influence campaigns, and censored “anti-Ukraine narratives” on behalf of multiple US intelligence agencies.

Although the White House and Joe Biden’s administration has refused to comment on the allegations that Musk and Twitter files have raised, the FBI in a recent statement said that the correspondence between its agents and Twitter staff that Twitter Files is referring to shows nothing more than examples of their longstanding practice of the federal government engaging with the private sector.

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Watch: NASA shares images of the ‘Winter Wonderland’ Mars becomes as temperatures dip 123 degrees below zero

Some people think that the cold weather in Delhi or the winter storm in the US is harsh. Well, they certainly wouldn’t like to visit Mars when space travel actually becomes a viable option. NASA took to their social media feeds across Twitter and Instagram and shared some magnificent images and factoids about the winter wonderland that Mars becomes.

The images reveal that barring the temperature, the weather behaves almost identically to the Earth’s winter season. 

The images were first shared in the form of a video by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory or JPL. The video showed what snow, frost, and ice would look like on Mars.

Through the video, we also learn that Mars has a ton of dry ice, which is a form of carbon dioxide that is solid. The dry ice, instead of melting like regular ice, sublimates, or changes over to gas. During the process, it creates some bizarre but scenic landscapes, which give the images an ethereal appeal.

🎶Walking in a winter wonderland🎶

While you may not see a snowman on Mars, you can see frost – both the kind we’re used to (water) and dry ice frost (CO2)! @NASA spacecraft on the ground & in orbit help us study these unique Martian winters. Learn more: https://t.co/PoG5b1O2QF pic.twitter.com/1lv3RXcxEH

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) December 22, 2022

Mars also has water or regular ice. JPL Mars scientist Sylvain Piquex states in the video, “If you get to the correct spots, you will find water ice, similar to the one we have on Earth. This is the sort of water ice that astronauts might one day use when we travel there.”

Ice crystals fall on Mars just like snow always does on Earth. Phoenix discovered ice crystals dropping from a cloud when it used its Canadian-made LIDAR (or, light detection and ranging) to fire a laser into the planet’s sky.

There is also frost on some parts of Mars. NASA’s Viking landers captured images of water ice on Mars in the 1970s, and more lately, the Odyssey spacecraft and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have captured images of carbon dioxide ice on the planet.

The presence of carbon dioxide ice on the planet should give you an idea about just how cold temperatures can dip on Mars. “We don’t experience CO2 frost here on Earth. Where you would discover CO2 ice, it is really cold, at -190 degrees Fahrenheit,” Piquex states. That’s almost -123 degrees celsius, far below what water freezes. 

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2023 is the year when super apps make a comeback as more and more app studios vie to project growth

Although it is not exactly a new concept, super apps are set to make a comeback in 2023, not just in India, but in a number of other countries as well. App developers and studios have realised that in order to get more and more users onto their platforms, super apps will be essential. 

A super app is a mobile application that offers a wide range of services and functions, often including social networking, messaging, e-commerce, ride-hailing, and other features. These apps are designed to be a one-stop-shop for users, providing them with access to a wide range of services and functions from within a single app.

Super apps are popular in countries such as China, Indonesia, and Singapore, where they have become a dominant force in the mobile market due to their convenience and versatility. 

Some examples of super apps include WeChat – which is extremely popular in China and is used by people for practically everything from online payments, booking a cab, instant messaging, ordering food, booking tickets etc, – Gojek, which is extremely popular in Indonesia, and Grab, which has a significant hold over Singapore.

Even in India, we have a few apps that have tried to turn into an “everything app” or a super app, but to varying degrees of success. The best example that we can think of will have to be PayTM. While a few years ago, it was just another platform to get talktime and internet plans for your cellular connections topped up, the app today has become a portal of sorts to pay for all kinds of things – from your credit card bill, rent, electricity bill to a medium to pay your local kirana stores. The app also allows you to pay for challans in certain cities, and will also let you book tickets for trains, flights and movies.

Super apps are popular in certain regions of the world, particularly south-east Asia, but they have not gained as much traction in other parts of the world. There are a few reasons why this may be the case. 

One reason is that the market for mobile apps is very competitive, and there may already be a large number of apps that offer similar services to those found in super apps. This can make it difficult for a new super app to gain a foothold in the market.  

Another reason is that the business model for super apps may not be as well-suited to certain markets. For example, super apps often rely on monetising their user base through in-app purchases and advertising, which may not be as effective in markets with lower disposable income levels.  

Additionally, the regulatory environment in certain markets may need to be more conducive to the development of super apps. For example, there may be restrictions on the types of services that can be offered through a single app, or there may be barriers to entry that make it difficult for a new super app to enter the market.

It’s difficult to say whether super apps are making a comeback, as they have never really gone away in the regions where they are popular. However, it is possible that super apps may see increased adoption in other parts of the world as the trend towards convenience and consolidation continues. 

One reason for this is that super apps offer a range of services and functions within a single app, which can be convenient for users who want access to multiple services without having to download and manage multiple apps. This can be especially appealing for users who are looking for a more streamlined and efficient way to access the services they need.  

Additionally, the rise of e-commerce and digital payments has made it easier for super apps to offer a wide range of services within a single app, as users can make purchases and transactions directly within the app. This has helped to drive the popularity of super apps in certain regions, and it may continue to do so in the future.

What will really push the development of super apps across the world though, are Microsoft and Elon Musk’s Project X or X.com as it is sometimes referred to.

Microsoft lost the smartphone war to Apple and Google and has been desperately trying to get its footing back. In order to do this, they are considering developing a “super app” that would offer services like search, shopping, messaging and news.

In addition to boosting the tech giant’s ad business, Microsoft executives hope such an app could help bolster its Bing search engine and drive more people to Microsoft tools like Teams.

Although Google and Apple’s ecosystem currently work well, and already come with all the features in-built that a person might need, these functions and features are scattered across apps. As a result, no matter how well these apps are integrated to the ecosystem, jumping from one app to the other, setting them up, kills the seamless user experience that mobile developers are aiming for.

Elon Musk’s Project X, on the other hand, will be something similar to what WeChat does. Musk essentially views X.com as a global WeChat and not restricted to a particular country. 

“WeChat is actually a good model. If you’re in China, you kind of live on WeChat. It does everything. It’s sort of like Twitter plus PayPal plus a whole bunch of other things all rolled into one with actually a great interface,” Musk said on the All-In the technology podcast, back in May. “And we don’t have anything like that outside of China. So I think such an app would be really useful.”

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Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X Review: A thin and light notebook that punches way above its class

Pros
– The display 
– Fast Charging
– The performance and hardware
– The build-quality
– The design and aesthetics
– Keyboard and trackpad are a joy to use.

Cons
– Soldered RAM means no upgradability
– No card reader
– Speakers and webcam could have been better

Price: Rs 1,54,200

Rating: 4/5

Thin and light notebooks, in general, have been designed to give users an ultraportable machine that looks great and feels awesome to show around. The downside, with most thin and light notebooks, however, is that they ignore performance and sometimes even battery life, to the point that no professional or prosumer user would consider a thin and light as a viable option. 

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X, however, is a pleasant departure from this. Here we have a solid thin and light notebook, that not only performs great as an everyday machine for light tasks but is equally adept at handling something beefier like video and photo editing. Plus, it has all the hallmarks of a traditional thin and light – a great and aesthetic design, featherlight weight, and a solid build.

There are a few issues, which some prosumer users would find baffling – the lack of any card reader, for example – but when it comes to downright computing power and performance, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X leaves people pleasantly surprised.

And even though Lenovo is not positioning it as a thoroughbred gaming machine, it certainly has the chops to let users enjoy some of the best titles, at a level that not many laptops are able to achieve.

We take a  look at all the aspects of the Yoga Slim 7i Pro X from Lenovo, and see if this thin and light is worth considering.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X Review: Specs and features
Our test unit of the Yoga Slim 7i Pro X came with the 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H which has 6 Performance cores and 8 Efficiency cores for a total of 14 cores and a TDP of 45W. Users also have the option to go for the i5-12500H. Our unit was paired with a healthy 16GB DDR5 RAM running at 6000Mhz. Users can also go for 32GB RAM in a dual-channel configuration. But do keep in mind that the RAM is soldered on, so there’s no way to upgrade.

As for the GPU, we have an Nvidia RTX 3050 with 4GB of GDDR6 VRAM, which boosts up to 1057 MHz, thanks to a healthy TDP of 55W. 

For the display, we get a 14.5-inch 3K display with a resolution of 3072X1920 pixels. The display is an IPS panel, anti-glare display, and supports a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The panel covers 100 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut and has a peak brightness of 400 nits. There are options for a touch panel as well, which do not give up any of the bells and whistles mentioned earlier. 

Our unit came with the top-of-the-line 1TB PCIe 4.0-based NVMe M.2 SSD for storage. Powering the device is a 70W 4-cell battery. 

As for the ports, the options are frugal. you get a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports with support for DisplayPort 1.4, Thunderbolt 4, and power delivery, and an HDMI 2.1 port. You also get a 3.5mm port for your audio accessories.

Wireless connectivity is taken care of by WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1. Considering that the Yoga Slim 7i Pro X is a prosumer notebook and is being aimed at professionals for content creation on the go, we would have loved to see a microSD card slot. 

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X Review: Design and Build
We get a solid chassis made of aluminium, which is available in two colours – Dark Teal and Ultimate Grey. Our test unit was in the Dark Teal colourway, which is actually the better of the two options. The laptop looks stunning thanks to its colour and the way the light reflects off of the panels. And, despite weighing just over 1.5 kilograms, the laptop feels sturdy and built like a tank. It isn’t exactly built like a MacBook, but it is pretty close, and that’s saying something.

The hinge again is solid and easy to operate. Despite the fact that the hinge feels very light to operate, and that it allows the display to be tilted all the way back, it is solid enough to eliminate unnecessary wobbling of the screen. 

On the left side of the laptop, we have the two USB-C ports along with the HDMI port. On the right, we have the USB-A port, along with the power button, a 3.5mm combi port, and a webcam shutter.

The edges of the laptop are rounded and have a softish, pleasant feel. Across the laptop, we find materials that are pleasing to touch. 

As for vents, the Yoga Slim 7i Pro X has an array of vents right below the display which always stays hidden, and a giant mesh at the bottom.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X Review: The Keyboard and trackpad
Let’s start with the trackpad. Despite the fact that the Yoga Slim 7i Pro X is a 14-inch laptop, it has a huge trackpad, that would put 15-inch laptops to shame. It feels great to use, and tracks well. Moreover, it is very accurate and has no noticeable dead zones, and is hardly susceptible to fingerprints. Lenovo has utilised the space below the keyboard really well. Even when resting your palms on the palm rests, the trackpad is easy to reach for both of hands. 

As for the keyboard, we get a white backlit keyboard. The layout is that of a typical Lenovo laptop and is very easy to use. We were back to our regular typing speeds in just under 15 minutes of usage. As with all thin and light prosumer notebooks, the Yoga Slim 7i Pro X uses a membrane keyboard which provides a great and satisfying typing experience. Also, because the keyboards are slightly curved at the bottom edge, they are slightly easier to type on, if you have the tendency to miss hitting the centre of each keycap.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X Review: The Webcam and Speakers
On either side of the keyboards, you will find the speaker grills. You get dual 2W upward-firing stereo speakers, which seem pretty well-balanced for a 14-inch laptop. They are not the greatest sounding laptop speakers in the world, but we have heard worse in notebooks that cost more than the Yoga Slim 7i Pro X. They’re more than suitable for your video calls and for watching videos, but they don’t get very loud. Also, we found that it lacked a punchy bass. However, if you’re looking to use this for serious content consumption or mixing sounds, we recommend going for a better solution than the included speakers.

As for the webcam, it uses a 1080p sensor, which is actually better than most other laptops costing twice as much offer. The output from the camera is pretty decent. The dynamic range could have been better, but at least we have the resolution to do something here. In conditions where the lighting isn’t optimal, videos do get grainy, but not to the point where you would complain. The included camera is more than enough for your work meetings. 

What we love is the fact that there is an electronic privacy shutter, although, we would have loved to see a physical shutter. We also love the fact that the camera supports Windows Hello facial recognition for an added layer of biometric security. It is fast and works instantly. 

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X Review: The Display
The Yoga Slim 7i Pro X  comes with a 14.5-inch 3K IPS display that has a resolution of 3072 x 1920 pixels, laid out in a 16:10 aspect ratio. The panel itself covers 100 per cent of sRGB colour space and has a peak brightness of 400 nits. It also has a refresh rate of 120Hz, which makes using the laptop a breeze, no matter what you’re doing. Our test unit did not have any touch capabilities, but Lenovo is offering users an option to upgrade to a touch panel. Users also have the option to go for a glassy-looking panel. The display is surrounded by very thin bezels which makes using it a very immersive experience. 

The taller aspect ratio of the display makes it great for working on documents and spreadsheets and also has a ton of benefits when you’re editing photos or videos on the laptop. The fast 120Hz refresh rate is another great touch, although we did see some ghosting during games. 

Speaking of editing videos and photos. the display itself is very sharp and shows great colours, with plenty of contrast. Even though it isn’t an OLED panel, the colours are bright and vibrant, with great saturation. It covers about 70 per cent of the Adobe RGB and 71 per cent of the DCI P1 colour gamuts. Needless to say, we were pretty confident in colour-grading some photos and videos using the display. 

Lenovo also gives you the option to enable G-Sycn on the integrated panel. 

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X Review: Performance
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X comes with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H CPU. The processor has 6 Performance cores and 8 Efficiency cores for a total of 14 cores, 20 threads and 24M cache. The E-cores boost up to 3.5Ghz whereas the P-cores go all the way up to 4.7Ghz. The i7 gets to play with up to 65 watts of continuous power and 85 watts when it boosts. 

For the graphics, apart from the onboard Intel Iris XE graphics, we also have an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU, with 4GB of GDDR6 Memory. The 3050 Laptop GPU here is clocked at 1057 MHz with a maximum TDP of 55W.

Thanks to Lenovo Vantage, we get the option to choose between three performance settings. 

The Yoga Slim 7i Pro X is equipped with an Intel i7 12700H, an RTX 3050, quick storage, and a tonne of RAM, making it capable of doing most jobs without breaking a sweat. When you’re editing video, the dedicated GPU is very useful because it will cut render times in half.

With these specifications, it will also be able to play various games without any problems, which is a very appealing prospect in our opinion. Gaming laptops are often heavier, thicker, and have flashy designs made of cheap plastic. We were pleased with the Lenovo’s performance, and we consider it a huge success when it combines some gaming capability with a sturdy build, a lightweight chassis, and a simple style.

This is made possible by the powerful CPU and GPU processors, as well as the quick working memory and an NVMe SSD with high data transfer speeds. As a result, in everyday usage, the laptop seems to be quite responsive. Applications for the office and the internet are not difficult to use.

Coming to how the laptop performs, in productivity tasks, the device just eats up whatever you throw at it. Want to render some short-length high res-video for Instagram or YouTube on the go? Done. Want to process a huge batch of images in Lightroom or Photoshop to send to an agency or to your clients in a jiffy? Easy. The scores it gets on synthetic benchmarks is proof that this machine is for those who mean business.

As for gaming, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X is a very capable gaming machine, even though Lenovo is not positioning it as one. Because of the rather odd aspect ratio of the display, and the fact that it comes with a 3K display, you will need to run your games at 1080p. But man oh man do games run smoothly. 

We ran games like Grand Theft Auto 5, Far Cry 6, and F1 2022, all AAA gaming titles at 1080P, at the highest presets, and then the second-highest presets. The gameplay we experienced was more than adequate for an enjoyable gaming experience, even at the highest levels – at the second-highest level of details, the gameplay was even better, with very little loss to the visuals. 

In GTA 5, we got about 57 fps at ultra and 105 fps at high, whereas in Far Cry 6, we got 62 fps at ultra and 70 fps at high. In F1 2022, we got 32 fps in ultra and 85 fps in high. 

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X Review: Battery Life
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X has a pretty solid battery life. It isn’t anything to rave about, but given the hardware that the laptop comes with, it is pretty good, especially when you consider other thin-and-light laptops in this price bracket. As for the technical details, we get a 4-cell, 70Wh battery with the laptop, which Lenovo says will last you for up to 10 hours.

During our thorough battery testing, which basically is replaying a 4K video on the loop, with the display set at 200 nits and the volume at 80 per cent, the laptop conked out in just over 7 hours or so.

In an average day of work which involved a ton of writing, some photo editing, a whole lot of browsing, and quite a bit of content consumption on YouTube and Netflix, we got about 8 hours of battery life before we had to look for the charger. 

Do keep in mind that when you game on the laptop without the power cord, the battery life takes a significant hit thanks to the RTX 3050. 

The laptop comes with a 100W USB-C charger, which charges the device from 5 per cent to 100 in less than an hour and a half, and can give users 3 hours of usage time in just 15 minutes of charging. What we really love about the charger, is that it is very portable unlike some of the other charging bricks that we get with high-performance machines.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X Review: Verdict
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X is a well-balanced and extremely capable laptop that has a very portable form factor. You get some of the best hardware that manufacturers are offering at this price point, and the performance to show for it. Moreover, it is very aesthetic to look at. The display, in spite of being an IPS panel, is one of the best we have tested in thin and light notebooks. Needless to say, it is a joy to use the laptop for our day-to-day tasks.

The CPU and GPU combo performs really well. The price makes the performance accessible to a whole lot more people. Thanks to the RTX 3050, the Yoga Slim 7i Pro X is also suitable for some serious gaming, even though, Lenovo isn’t positioning it as a gaming laptop. But then, any device that can carry out hard-core computing tasks such as video rendering and photo editing with ease, is bound to perform well in games. 

If you’re in the market looking for a portable thin and light but do not want to give up on the performance chops of a beefier laptop, then the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X ticks all the right boxes for you.

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