Author: easyfilo

Enlarge / DisplayPort cable. (credit: Getty)

Pixel and speed enthusiasts have anticipated DisplayPort 2.0 products since the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), which makes the spec, announced its incoming in 2019. While the pandemic inhibited the ability to test products for supporting the video protocol and slowed its release, we’ve inched closer to seeing monitors, PCs, and other devices earn DisplayPort 2.0 certification.

VESA on Monday announced certification for AMD’s Ryzen 6000 laptop CPUs to support DisplayPort 2.0 at up to one of its highest data link rates, Ultra-high Bit Rate 10 (UHBR10), which has a 10Gbps link rate and max throughput of 40 Gbps across four lanes.

VESA introduced UHBR labels to DisplayPort 2.0 in February. Once DisplayPort 2.0 products are readily available, it’ll be easier to determine which products support the higher bandwidth capabilities of the backward-compatible spec. The move came after the HDMI Licensing Administrator, which makes the HDMI spec, received backlash for not clarifying which HDMI 2.1-certified products support the max capabilities.

Enlarge (credit: Google)

Google I/O today contained a million different hardware announcements, some of which were just two-minute product teases, presumably to head off product leakers. First up is the Pixel 7, Google’s flagship smartphone launching later this year.

Google called the work it did with the Pixel 6 and Google Tensor SoC “a hardware foundation that we’ll be building on for years to come,” and the Pixel 7 is the next step on this road map. It will have a similar design and next-generation Google SoC. The camera bar is now polished aluminum rather than glass, which should help some of the light glare issues on the massive glass panel on the current camera bar. The Pixel 7 Pro has three rear cameras, and the Pixel 6 has two rear cameras. Google promises the pro will “set a completely new standard” for camera performance.

That’s it. That’s how quick these teases were. Next!

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  The new Sonos Ray is Sonos’ most compact and affordable soundbar to date. [credit:
  Jeff Dunn ]

Confirming earlier rumors, Sonos on Wednesday announced a new soundbar aimed at more budget-conscious buyers, as well as a new voice-control feature for its existing speakers.

The former is called the Sonos Ray and will be available on June 7 for $279 (279 pounds, 299 euros). It’ll slot in beneath the $449 Sonos Beam (Gen 2) and $899 Sonos Arc as the popular connected speaker maker’s most affordable and most compact soundbar to date, measuring in at 559×95×71 mm (so, about 22 inches wide). By comparison, the similarly compact Sonos Beam comes in at 651×100×69 mm (about 25.6 inches wide). As with the Beam, the Ray’s small size should make it best suited with smaller rooms and secondary TVs, though Sonos posits the device could also work on a desktop and more generally positions it as a starting point for those interested in their first upgrade from their TV’s built-in speakers.

Paying less means you’ll sacrifice some features, though. Unlike the Beam and Arc, the Sonos Ray doesn’t support Dolby Atmos virtual surround sound. It also lacks an HDMI port, instead opting for a lower-bandwidth optical audio port and an Ethernet jack as its only connectivity options, with no additional HDMI adapters in the box. The omission of an HDMI ARC port could make the cable situation a bit messier for those with more involved home theater setups, though Sonos says the Ray can still work in parallel with your TV remote through its IR receiver.

Enlarge (credit: Google)

Years of rumors are finally coming to fruition today—Google is finally launching the Pixel Watch. Google has been building a smartwatch OS for eight years, but it has never made self-branded smartwatch hardware. That changes today, or at least “this fall,” when the Pixel Watch is slated to hit store shelves.

Google only gave a brief overview of the Pixel Watch on Wednesday and didn’t include specs or a price. The watch includes Fitbit integration, the expected Google apps, and the design that leaked earlier. The front is all glass with spinnable crown on the site. The body is stainless steel and the bands are removable. It supports NFC for tap and pay, and there’s a new Google Home app.

The bands come off. (credit: Ron Amadeo)

Google’s smartwatch OS—first called “Android Wear” and now “Wear OS”—has been dormant for years in both the hardware and software categories. Qualcomm strangled the Android smartwatch market by going six years between significant smartwatch system on a chip releases, and Google let three years pass between major Wear OS updates. Google launched a plan to resurrect its smartwatch platform in the past year, with the launch of Wear OS 3, and a serious, more reliable hardware partner in Samsung. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 dumped Samsung’s Tizen OS and is the first (and so far only) Wear OS 3 watch. So far, the plan seems to be working, with Counterpoint Research tracking a huge Wear OS market share increase year over year, and now the OS is in striking distance of the Apple Watch.

Enlarge / The Pixel 6a is here at an incredible price. (credit: Google)

It’s Google I/O today, and a big part of the keynote was the official confirmation of the Pixel 6a, Google’s next mid-range smartphone. The Pixel A series has been a great option since its inception in 2019, but this year is different. The Pixel 6a—confirmed today to cost $449—is shipping with a flagship SoC—the very same Google Tensor chip that ships in the $600 Pixel 6 and $900 Pixel 6 Pro. Apple regularly ships its flagship SoC in the $400 iPhone SE, but for most Android markets, especially the US, this kind of hardware at this price point is unheard of.

For $449 you get a 6.1-inch 2400×1080, 60 Hz OLED, that flagship Google Tensor SoC, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 4,306 mAh battery. It really feels like the goal here is to create a “third flagship,” and the three Pixel phones are now all equally spaced from each other. Each tier is around $150-$200 more and increases by 0.2-0.3 inches, 30 Hz, and 2GB of RAM: the $449 Pixel 6a with a 6.1-inch 60 Hz display and 6GB of RAM; the $600 Pixel 6 with a 6.4-inch 90 Hz display and 8GB of RAM; and then the $900 Pixel 6 Pro with a 6.7-inch 120Hz display and 12GB of RAM.

Just like how the spec sheet makes this a smaller flagship Pixel phone, the design follows that motif, too. The Pixel 6a looks just like the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, with an all-screen front design, a centered front camera, and an in-screen optical fingerprint reader. The back has the Pixel 6’s trademark back camera bar. We were big fans of this design with the Pixel 6, both for being very distinctive and good looking, while also giving the phone a stable base to sit on when you put it down and start tapping it. So many phones are wobbly on a table, but not the Pixel 6.