The Samsung Galaxy M55 5G is coming soon, and today its specs have leaked alongside the official-looking renders you can see below.
The M55 is said to come with a 6.7-inch FHD+ 120 Hz Super AMOLED+ screen with thin bezels and a 1,000-nit peak refresh rate. It will be available in light green and black, as you can see, but Samsung may of course choose to call these colorways something more exciting.
On the rear there's a triple camera system, comprising of a 50 MP main camera with OIS, an 8 MP ultrawide, and a 2 MP macro shooter. On the other side, you get a 50 MP selfie...
I have a new favorite premium Xbox controller, and its name is the Victrix Pro BFG. While it’s true the PS5 version of the controller has been around for a good while now (and we loved it in our original Victrix Pro BFG review), a version of the gamepad supporting Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and Xbox One consoles (as well as PC) is now available, too.
Fundamentally, the Xbox version of the Victrix Pro BFG is identical in all but brand-specific iconography. PlayStation shapes have been swapped with Xbox lettering, and the central home button takes the form of that familiar Xbox logo. The Xbox version of the controller keeps up all the winning combinations, but do be aware that the $179.99 / £179.99 / AU$269 price tag holds firm still. Outside of sales events, it’s a staunchly premium purchase, but it’s certainly one of the best Xbox controllers and well worth your hard-earned cash.
Design and features
(Image credit: Future)
While the Victrix Pro BFG bears a similar silhouette to that of the standard Xbox Wireless Controller, it certainly looks a lot busier thanks to its front-facing textured grips, larger central buttons and triggers, and those screwed-in modules. However, this isn’t to say the controller is in any way complex or difficult to use.
Included in the box is a miniature screwdriver for use when swapping out those modules. There’s also a set of swappable thumbsticks (two extra here - one with a longer shaft and one shorter), two additional d-pads, and two analog stick gates should you prefer more precise inputs here. Also packaged are a USB-C cable for wired play, a 2.4GHz wireless dongle that works on both Xbox and PC and a carry case.
There’s also a unique fightpad module featuring a six-button layout. This is exceptional for some of the best fighting games like Street Fighter 6or Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. The other two modules, affixed to the controller by default, assume the familiar Xbox layout. However, you’re free to swap these around if, say, you prefer the symmetrical stick layout found on the DualSense, for example.
From almost top to bottom, the Victrix Pro BFG has a very premium feel. Overall build quality is fantastic, and it rests comfortably in the hands thanks to those front and rear-facing textured grips. And while the stark black finish is quite understated, I’m a big fan of the purple accents and light around the Home button that certainly lends the controller some flair.
Performance and battery life
(Image credit: Future)
The Victrix Pro BFG seriously delivers as a premium Xbox controller. The analog sticks feel simply sublime, and you have a good deal of control over them thanks to a tight deadzone. The d-pad and face buttons are similarly responsive, and I was especially impressed with the fightpad module’s mechanical buttons that register with an ever-so-satisfying clickiness.
I will say that by default, the rear triggers are quite sensitive, often registering inputs with just the slightest tap. This can be adjusted with the trigger locks which allow you to customize their travel distance, but it often led to me performing inputs I hadn’t intended just because my fingers rested a little too heavily on them.
Similarly, the Victrix Pro BFG doesn’t feature drift-eliminating Hall effect sticks by default. This may see you run into stick drift if you use the controller frequently enough. However, the gamepad is compatible with Hall effect sticks, and modules for this are sold separately on PDP’s website.
Battery life remains a win for the Xbox version of the Victrix Pro BFG. You’ll get roughly 20 hours on a single charge. While this is practically half of the enormous battery life found with the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, it’s still an admirable amount and is more than made up for by the sheer quality of the controller overall.
Should I buy the Victrix Pro BFG for Xbox?
(Image credit: Future)
The Victrix Pro BFG is our new favorite premium Xbox controller. The exceptional build quality, paired with intuitive swappable modules and a wealth of Pro-level features make it absolutely essential for players looking for the most robust gamepad experience they can get on Xbox hardware.
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
How we tested the Victrix Pro BFG for Xbox
I spent a week with the Victrix Pro BFG, playing a range of games on both Xbox Series X and PC. I found the fightpad module to be a fantastic option for fighting games on both platforms. It’s especially great for online shooter titles, too, like PUBG Battlegrounds and Halo Infinitethanks to features like remappable buttons and customizable trigger locks.
The second developer preview of Android 15 is out and enthusiasts are busy scanning the code for new features.
The latest is a toggle to disable the default frame rate for games, which will disable the 60Hz limit, essentially unlocking their peak performance.
Android mostly limits games to 60fps and developers need to enable higher framerates device by device. With this universal toggle, you'll be able to unlock the potential for higher frame rates.
The setting is found in Developer options (which you need to unlock by tapping multiple times on the Build number in your phone's...
The Motorola Edge 50 Pro is getting official on April 3 in India, but it unsurprisingly won't be the only model in the line. It will at some point be joined by the lower-end Edge 50 Fusion, which has had some of its specs leaked last week, and has now been spotted in the Geekbench online database.
The prototype in question ran Geekbench 6 and achieved a single-core score of 913 and a multi-core score of 2,629. It's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset, paired with 8GB of RAM.
The phone will run Android 14 from day one, and that's all that this benchmark run has revealed....
The United States Commerce Department is investigating whether SMIC illegally obtained US tools to make the Kirin 9000S chip. According to Alan Estevez, a senior official in the department, the chip maker potentially broke export rules, but the situation is still being assessed.
The announcement comes after a congressional hearing earlier this week and reports that the Biden administration is considering a ban on 4 more chip makers, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), Huawei's provider of the 7nm FinFET SoC.
Huawei Mate 60 Pro
The Huawei Mate 60 Pro,...
Epic has confirmed that its Games Store is coming to both iOS and Android later this year. This is the same EGS that distributes games on Windows, as an alternative to Steam.
Epic says that its Games Store will offer the same fair terms to all developers, on a true multi-platform store. That means that devs will get to keep 88% of their revenue and Epic will get 12%. In comparison, Google gets a 15% cut on the first $1 million in revenue, and whopping 30% after that.
Epic also says that devs can leverage to keep 100% of their revenue if they use their own payments for in-app...
If you're on the lookout for capable wireless earbuds on the cheap, you probably have the latest arrival in the office on your shortlist. There's something for everyone in this increasingly saturated market, but it's hard to beat the CMF Buds at their price point.
CMF is Nothing's affordable line of products and the Buds are the most affordable among CMF's lineup - sitting below the Pro, which has better noise cancellation.
The CMF Buds are only ₹2,500/€32. Here's what you get for that price - active noise cancellation of up to 42dB and transparency mode, multi-point connectivity...
The OnePlus Nord CE4 will launch on April 1, and the brand has already shared a few of its specs, including its chipset, memory, and charging speed. Now, OnePlus has confirmed the Nord CE4 will pack a 120Hz FullHD+ AMOLED display with a centered punch-hole for the selfie camera.
Previously, OnePlus said the Nord CE4 will come with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 SoC, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, expandable up to 1TB. It will also support 100W SuperVOOC charging, advertised to offer "a day's power in 15 minutes."
The OnePlus Nord CE4 will be available in Dark...
GHD is a styling pioneer. It was one of the first brands to release flat iron straighteners (featuring its iconic ceramic yellow plates) and has consistently led the way when it comes to styling tech. Today it sells a range of stylers from curling tongs to hair dryers, brushes, styling products, and even the wet-to-dry GHD Duet Style, yet it's still best known for making some of the best hair straighteners, and the latest to join this collection is the GHD Chronos.
As a successor to the GHD Platinum Plus, which launched in 2018, the Chronos promises to be faster, smoother, and easier to use. GHD claims it halves frizz, boosts shine by 85%, and styles hair three times faster and, for the most part, it lives up to these claims.
I hadn't realized how much the Platinum Plus pulled on my hair until I used the Chronos. It glided through my hair with surprising ease, and this not only made it easier to use, but it reduced the friction and potential damage to my hair. In turn, this noticeably decreased frizzing and left my hair looking smoother and shiny, both when it was straightened but also when I used it to create curls and waves.
This styler is more compact, and with rounder edges than previous GHD straighteners, but the hot plates have stayed the same size. As a result, the Chronos is easier to store and travel with, but it also makes it more ergonomic, letting you create curls and flicks easily. In fact, the Chronos' ability to create curls effortlessly is its biggest selling point.
Yet despite these updates and upgrades, the Chronos still falls a little short. Firstly, the claims GHD makes about its improved responsiveness, speed, shine and more are either in comparison to naturally dried hair, the GHD Original, or on a small sample of consumers, which lessens the impact of those claims somewhat.
Secondly, while the speed, shine, and ease of use improvements I experienced were good, I don't feel like they were dramatic or impactful enough to warrant spending $329 / £289 / $AU465. The improvements between the Platinum Plus and Chronos, for example, were relatively minor on my long, thin hair. Decent, but not groundbreaking.
And thirdly, GHD continues to only offer one temperature setting — 365°F / 185°C — across all of its stylers. GHD says this is because it's the optimum temperature for creating a style without damaging the hair and, for my hair in particular, this is true. However, for thicker, longer, and coily hair, this remains a major sticking point with the Chronos as it does the rest of the range.
The biggest problem I have, though, is that because GHD has continuously led the way with its styling technology, any new product needs to be different enough to warrant ditching one of its older models. The GHD Original, for example, is still a great styler and much cheaper. All of GHD's stylers are so well-built that they last for years, if not decades, and they hold their value — and that's before you look at the wider flat iron market and how much competition there is.
If you've been looking for a new styler, have an older GHD or rival model, or regularly use a straightener to create curls, there's enough about the GHD Chronos to appeal. If you already have the Platinum Plus, need a styler with more heat options, or don't need any bells and whistles then $329 / £289 / AU$465 may be a step too far.
(Image credit: Future)
GHD Chronos review: Price & Availability
List price: $329 / £289 / AU$465
The GHD Chronos is the latest flat iron styler to launch from the British brand and is available in white, and black for $329 / £289 / AU$465. You can buy it directly from GHD in all three regions.
The Chronos is the flagship flat iron styler in the GHD range but it's joined by a wider range of straighteners including:
GHD Platinum Plus – a 1-inch flat iron styler and Chronos predecessor
GHD Unplugged – GHD's first cordless flat iron, with 0.9-inch plates
GHD Duet Style – a 2-in-1 dryer and styler
GHD Original – the original, entry-level 1-inch GHD flat iron
GHD Gold – a model that sits performance and price-wise between the Original and Platinum Plus
GHD Max – 2-inch plates designed for longer, thicker hair
GHD Mini – 0.5-inch plates for shorter hair
GHD Chronos review: Design
Ceramic plates with ultra-glossy coating
Heats up to 365°F / 185°C
Redesigned curved barrel and wishbone hinge
At first glance, the GHD Chronos looks remarkably similar to the Platinum Plus and other straighteners in the range. The body of the styler is made from plastic with a matte finish, available in either black or white. There are two grey-silver ceramic plates fitted on the underside of each arm of the Chronos, above the power button which is surrounded by a white LED. At the bottom end of the styler is a metal wishbone hinge with a 360-degree, 2.7-meter swivel cord attached.
Yet look a little closer at the design and specifications and there are a handful of key differences. Firstly, the Chronos is smaller than previous GHD models, measuring 11.8 x 4.6 x 2.8 inches and weighing 1.63 lbs. The Platinum Plus, for comparison, measures 12.6 x 4.72 x 3.54 inches and weighs 1.65 lbs. Despite the Chronos' smaller form, the 1-inch plates have remained the same size.
There aren't any temperature controls on the GHD Chronos. This is because all of GHD's hair tools are pre-programmed to only a single setting of 365°F / 185°C. GHD claims this is the optimum temperature for heat styling because it's hot enough to manipulate the bonds in the hair and set the style, but isn't so hot that it breaks the bonds completely and damages the hair.
(Image credit: Future)
Features-wise, the Chronos uses what's described as "HD motion-responsive technology with a next-generation ceramic heater" to control heat to the plates.
This is an upgrade to the ultra-zone technology seen on previous GHD stylers, and is said to be powered by an algorithm that identifies how the tool is being used. As you move and use the Chronos, its built-in algorithm understands the angle at which it's being held and the amount of hair in the plates. It then uses this to make sure the heat is evenly distributed. This promises to give you greater precision, and better heat consistency means better results. Ultimately, the technology has been designed to reduce the number of times you need to pass the plates over your hair, which saves you time and effort.
As a result of these upgrades, and the ultra-gloss coating on the plates, GHD promises "the smoothest glide to deliver one-stroke styling with up to 85% more shine."
Other features include a 20-second heat-up time and a three-year warranty. The Chronos will also switch off automatically after 10 minutes if it's not being used.
(Image credit: Future)
GHD Chronos Review: Performance
Quick to heat up
One pass is enough to smooth hair
Temperature needs to be reset every time
GHD makes a lot of bold claims about the performance of the Chronos. It's said to create styles that last 24 hours, three times faster than previous models. It claims to reduce frizz by half, enhance shine by 85%, and its re-engineered hinge and barrel have been “designed to craft high-definition curls and waves easily”.
In terms of speed, the Chronos took an average of 3 minutes and 15 seconds to straighten my hair. This isn't noticeably faster than the Platinum Plus, which takes 3 minutes and 25 seconds on average. Yet the three-fold increase is in comparison to the GHD Original and without one on hand, I wasn't able to fully test this.
In terms of responsiveness, I didn’t notice much difference between the Chronos and other straighteners I’ve used. That said, I also didn’t have to pass the Chronos over my hair multiple times to achieve the desired finish, nor did I notice any hot or cold patches, so the best I can say about this is that it works as I'd expect.
Frizz was definitely reduced, and my hair did shine more than normal; as I have blonde hair it can be difficult to get a glossy finish due to the way it reflects the light. However, I had family members comment on the good condition of my hair, and I put that down to the Chronos.
Sadly this style only lasted until I stepped outside at which point my hair quickly lost the smoothness and shine the GHD Chronos had created and the frizz returned, which took significantly less than the 24 hours promised. It should be noted that I have naturally wavy hair and it doesn't like any form of humidity, but I still had hoped the style would hold for a little longer than it did.
Curling my hair using the Chronos took much longer – 9 minutes 45 seconds on average. This isn’t necessarily the Chronos’ fault; curling my hair with straighteners always takes longer than straightening it, and the Platinum Plus creates curls in a very similar time frame, but it’s worth noting.
The Chronos also glided through my hair without any friction as I twisted the styler to create the curls. This incredibly smooth experience, coupled with the smaller design and curved barrel, made curling my hair with the Chronos a hugely enjoyable experience. It was a noticeable improvement on the Platinum Plus, and any straightening iron I've ever used, and is where the Chronos really excels.
Again, frizz was reduced, the curls were well-defined and smooth and they caught the light even more than when my hair was straightened. This style held for much longer and looked as good at the end of the night as it did at the start.
For my thin hair, the single temperature offered on the Chronos was more than enough to create the style and hold it in place, until I left the house at least.
The Crucial T705 SSD is inarguably one of the fastest PCIe 5.0 drives to hit the market in recent months, making it a must-have for gamers, content creators, or anyone who needs outstanding storage performance.
Starting at $239.99/£245.99/AU$379.99 for 1TB without a heatsink, this isn't the best cheap SSD on the market, but you're getting a lot for what you pay for, and given that it is a strong contender for the best SSD you can get in 2024, the price isn't out of line with what you should expect to pay.
What you get for that investment is an incredibly fast SSD that reaches speeds that deliver on the promise of PCIe 5.0, including nearly 14,400MB/s sequential read speeds, so gamers especially are going to love the incredibly fast loading times you're going to get from this drive.
Its sequential write speed topped out at 12,465 MB/s in my testing, so this drive is also going to be great as a working drive for content creators like video editors who need to save or export massive files on a regular basis.
That said, seeing as it is PCIe 5.0, this isn't the best PS5 SSD since you won't be able to take full advantage of the PCIe 5.0 lanes (the PS5 is limited to PCIe 4.0, which caps out at about 7,500MB/s), so you're better off with a Samsung 990 Pro, PNY XLR8 CS3140, or a Patriot Viper VP4300, which will get you the absolute fastest PCIe 4.0 speeds on the market (and will probably save you some money too).
In a properly capable PC motherboard though, this SSD will absolutely fly. All this performance comes at the price of significantly higher thermals though, so you will need a heatsink for this drive, whether that's the one on offer from Crucial or the one that comes with your motherboard.
And honestly, you're better off with either the Crucial or a more 'powered' heatsink that has some form of active cooling like a fan, because the heat generated by this SSD is not for the faint of heart.
So, in the end, the question is really whether you should be buying this SSD for your next rig or workstation, and the answer is unequivocally yes, assuming you have a setup that can take advantage of the PCIe 5.0 tech built into this drive.
Right now, all the best graphics cards are PCIe 4.0, so you don't have to worry about splitting any PCIe 5.0 lanes just yet, but if you're planning to run a top-tier system in the coming years, make sure your motherboard can support both your GPU and this SSD, since it's quite an investment and the rollout of PCIe 5.0 drives like the Crucial T705 has driven down the price of the best PCIe 4.0 drives a good bit.
If your motherboard can only support one or the other, and you're looking to snatch up the Nvidia RTX 5090 when it drops in late 2024/early 2025, you're going to get a lot more out of a PCIe 5.0 graphics card than a PCIe 5.0 SSD. If that's your situation, you might be better off opting for the top-of-the-line PCIe 4.0 SSDs like the 990 Pro, which you can get for much cheaper than this drive. But if high-end graphics card performance is less of a concern that fast loading times for gaming and rapid exports to disk from Adobe Premiere Pro, AutoDesk, or other similar content creation apps, than the Crucial T705 SSD is a fantastic drive to get you the kind of performance you need at a reasonable price-per-terabyte.
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
Crucial T705: Price & availability
How much does it cost? Starting at $239.99/£245.99/AU$379.99
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia
The Crucial T705 is available in the US, UK, and Australia, starting at $239.99/£245.99/AU$379.99 for 1TB, without a heatsink.
For those with beefy motherboards with M.2 slot heat sinks, this should be fine, but for high-performance machines and workstations, I recommend upgrading to an included heatsink for an extra $16/£20/AU$50, which does a better job of keeping the SSD cool.
The T705 is also available in 2TB ($399.99/£454.79/AU$729, without heatsink) and 4TB ($713.99/£833.99/AU$949, without heatsink), which puts it on the higher end of the best M.2 SSD options out there. The Samsung 990 Pro, for example, is the best PCIe 4.0 SSD currently and retails for $169.99 / £155 / AU$265 for 1TB, and going as high as 4TB for $464.99/£284/AU$699, before including an option for a heatsink.
This puts the Crucial T705 on the high-end of SSDs, but it's only slightly more expensive than the best PCIe 4.0 SSD going but delivers about twice the performance, so it's hard to argue that the T705 isn't an incredible value in the end.
Crucial T705: Specs
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
Should you buy the Crucial T705?
Buy the Crucial T705 if...
You want fast loading times for games and apps
With incrediblly fast sequential read speeds, this drive will load your games, apps, and even your OS in no time.
You need to write large files to disk frequently
If you're a content creator, exporting a work-in-progress to disk can be time consuming, but this drive makes it much easier.
Don't buy it if...
You're on a budget
This is hardly the cheapest PCIe 5.0 drive out there.
You're looking for a PS5 SSD
This drive's PCIe 5.0 interface makes it way more expensive than a PCIe 4.0 drive, so PS5 users are better off going with a cheaper SSD since you won't get the full performance of this drive on a console right now.
Crucial T705: Also consider
If my Crucial T705 review has you looking for other options, here are two more M.2 SSDs to consider...
How I tested the Crucial T705
I spent about a week testing this SSD
I used it for gaming, content creation, and general storage use
I used my standard suite of SSD benchmarks as well as daily use
To test the T705, I ran it through our standard benchmark suite, including CrystalDiskMark 8, PassMark, PCMark 10, 3DMark, and out proprietary 25GB file copy test.
I used this drive as my main system storage (C:\) drive for over a week on our test bench, where I used it extensively for loading games for benchmarking purposes, content creation, and more.
I've been reviewing PC hardware for several years now, in addition to earning my Master's Degree in Computer Science, so I know how an SSD of this caliber should perform for the price, and I leverage that knowledge to help you find the best SSD for your needs and budget, whether it's the Crucial T705 or an alternative.
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.
