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Take a look at the OnePlus 13 in all its glory
2:43 am | October 18, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Comments: Off

The OnePlus 13 will be unveiled before the end of this month, after Qualcomm introduces the Snapdragon 8 Elite on Monday. That SoC will power the new OnePlus flagship of course, and if you've been wondering what the phone will look like, wonder no more. Today three different images depicting it have been leaked in China (the last one showing it next to the Oppo Find X8). So we can, for the first time, gawk at the new design, which isn't entirely removed from what we've seen in the OnePlus 12, but has some differences anyway. OnePlus 13 leaked images The camera island loses its...

Realme GT7 Pro gets unboxed underwater just as reservations start
11:59 pm | October 17, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Comments: Off

Realme is making the GT7 Pro official before the end of this month, and it looks like the company can barely contain its excitement about the upcoming smartphone. It already posted a quick unboxing video, with a twist - the unboxing takes place underwater. This is clearly done in order to highlight the device's water resistance rating - IP68/69. In other related news, reservations for the GT7 Pro have been launched in China, where you can pay a mere CNY 1 to place a reservation. If you do so, you'll get a special two-year warranty, apparently, as well as a 30-day worry-free returns...

iPhone 16 Pro vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max
8:42 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Comments: Off

Unlike the 2023 pair of Pro iPhones, the 16 Pros don't differ in anything else other than size (and that one other aspect that comes as a result of it). What that means is the seemingly arbitrary choice to fit a 3x telephoto on the 15 Pro and a 5x one on the 15 Pro Max is no longer on the list of considerations in choosing a Pro from the 16 generation. So Apple has made it easier this year, right? Or is it the other way around? Let's look into the similarities and see if we can find any less obvious differences. Table of Contents: Design Display Battery Life Charging ...

iPhone 16 Pro vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max
8:42 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Comments: Off

Unlike the 2023 pair of Pro iPhones, the 16 Pros don't differ in anything else other than size (and that one other aspect that comes as a result of it). What that means is the seemingly arbitrary choice to fit a 3x telephoto on the 15 Pro and a 5x one on the 15 Pro Max is no longer on the list of considerations in choosing a Pro from the 16 generation. So Apple has made it easier this year, right? Or is it the other way around? Let's look into the similarities and see if we can find any less obvious differences. Table of Contents: Design Display Battery Life Charging ...

Oura Ring 4 review: a future-proof smart ring with a subscription attached
7:36 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Health & Fitness | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

Oura Ring 4: One minute review

The Oura Ring Generation 4 is better than the Samsung Galaxy Ring – provided, that is, you subscribe to the $5.99-a-month Oura Ring membership program. It’s more comfortable thanks to the lack of nodules, it’s got theoretically better heart rate, blood oxygen and skin temperature recognition thanks to the way its sensors are designed, an AI ‘Oura Advisor’ service, sophisticated women’s health tracking insights, ‘stress’ and ‘resilience’ metrics along with all the features available on the app to previous-gen Oura Ring users.

It’s a wonderfully-designed Ring, supremely comfortable to wear at night thanks to the lack of protruding inner nodes, easy on the eye, and available in six metallic finishes, all externals comprised of tough titanium. The redesigned app is great, providing detail and context missing in other smart rings with the use of timelines and easy-to-add ‘tags’. Battery life is good, with the Oura Ring matching expectations and lasting around six days as advertised with multiple workouts.

Automatic workout tracking also works terrifically, and is now able to be used for more than walking and running. The ring is able to correctly identify up to 40 different workout profiles, and I really enjoyed this aspect: it correctly identified running and yoga after I listed them as two of my most common workout types. I tried one of the guided meditations from the app’s Explore content section and felt as though it was comparable to other mindfulness services, like the Calm app. It really does feel like a futuristic wearable in every respect, from its design to its performance.

However, it’s also pricier than its contemporaries. The Samsung Galaxy Ring and Ultrahuman Ring Air are expensive wearables, but once you buy them, that’s it. The Oura Ring is also a premium device, starting at $349 / £349 (Australia pricing is TBC) with the added subscription acting as a paywall to access almost all features other than your Readiness, Activity and Sleep scores. I can understand a premium device demanding a premium price (I recently gave the pricey Garmin Fenix 8 a coveted five-star rating) but the ongoing nature of the subscription means the Oura Ring does lose half a point in the value stakes.

Garmin also continues to add new features to its devices via software on a regular basis, just like Oura. Unfortunately, Oura makes you pay for these, and only gives you a one-month free trial; comparable services, like Fitbit Premium, often give you six months free as an incentive to sign up. That said, it’s a really excellent service, and I can’t recommend it enough – if you can afford it. If you’re on a budget, though, rival smart rings offer almost as much versatility in a better-value package.

Oura Ring 4: Price and availability

Oura Ring 4

(Image credit: Future)
  • $349 / £349, with Australia prices TBC
  • $5.99 subscription (priced in USD across all regions)
  • Some colors incur an additional cost

As previously stated, the Oura Ring 4 starts at $349 / £349, with Australia pricing TBC as it’s currently unavailable in that region. Some designs and colorways cost more, with Rose Gold being the most expensive at $499 / £499.

The Oura Ring Membership, which is required if you want to unlock the ring’s full potential, costs $5.99; you get one month free when you purchase the ring. As mentioned above, If you’re going to buy the ring, you really have to subscribe to see its full potential.


The Oura Ring’s closest rival, the Samsung Galaxy Ring, costs $399 / £399 (around AU$750). That’s $50 / £50 than the base-model Oura Ring, but with no subscription attached, and other smart rings tend to hover around this price or cheaper. I don’t think the subscription is poorly priced, but as with a Whoop or a Fitbit, it smarts to pay a premium for the device, only to then have to keep paying in order to access your own data.

  • Value score: 3/5

Oura Ring 4: Design

Oura Ring 4

(Image credit: Future)
  • Simple and elegant
  • More comfortable than the Generation 3
  • Redesigned app

The Oura Ring 4 is beautifully designed, and makes several leaps forward ahead of its competitors. All colorways are made of titanium now, with options of Black, Silver, Brushed Silver, Gold, Stealth (gray) and Rose Gold available. A notch on the underside of the ring shows which orientation it should be worn in.

It doesn’t have the concave design of the Samsung Galaxy Ring to protect its surface: its body is more of a traditional ‘straight’ wedding ring design. It’s tough, and should withstand a bit of beating up, but if you care about the look of your ring you will want to go careful. After a week of wear I can see some very light scratching on the surface of my Brushed Silver model, and I’m certainly too nervous to wear it to the gym without gloves.

However, the important changes here are on the underside of the ring. Gone are those skin-contact nodes, and in their place are flat sensors. These sensors are, Oura says, better at detecting signals than those on the previous models, and the ring can now be twisted 30 degrees in any direction and still take an accurate sensor reading thanks to the option of new pathways for the LED’s signals to travel. The other upside of the ring’s lack of three-dimensional nodes is that it’s more comfortable than ever to wear, especially for sleeping. It’s quite thick for a ring (but not for a smart ring, I suppose) but unlike even the best smartwatch it can be worn either to bed or during the day, and in either case you could genuinely forget you’re wearing it.

The Ring now has more sizing variety than ever, ranging from sizes 4 to 15. The larger sizes offer slightly longer battery life, up to eight days in comparison to the old Oura Ring’s maximum of seven. Of course, it also means those with slender fingers and thicker fingers can get an Oura Ring too.

The app has also seen a comprehensive redesign. Following the lead of Fitbit Premium, all content is organized across three tabs (Today, Vitals and My Health), with additional granular features available via a drop-down menu at the top-left of the screen. It’s simple and intuitive to navigate, showing your scores at the top of the page and providing options to break each one down into more detail if you want to. It’s really intuitive to use, and a logical progression from the old app.

  • Design score: 5/5

Oura Ring 4: Features

Oura Ring 4

(Image credit: Future)
  • Sleep, Activity and Readiness scores
  • Underpinned by other metrics such as Resilience
  • AI health tool

There’s a whole bunch to talk about here. The Oura Ring 4 goes some way towards making itself a real fitness tracker, rather than a passive health monitor, by automatically detecting up to 40 kinds of workouts. It still doesn’t have onboard GPS (understandably, as it’s tiny) but it can crib from your phone’s GPS if you enable location settings.

The three main scores are Sleep, Activity, and Readiness, and each one can be broken down into an inordinate amount of granular detail. Activity, for example, can be broken down into separate factors such as ‘move every hour’, ‘meet daily calorie goals’, ‘training frequency’ and so on. The Timeline, a feature unique to Oura as far as I know, allows you to add context to binary data by adding tags at certain points like ‘alcohol’ or ‘yoga’ or ‘grief’. If a tag doesn’t suit your needs, you can save your own note, which creates a comprehensive health journal, and a better reason to scroll back through the app.

You can identify trends using specific information, such as deep-sleep states or heart-rate variability over a year. Other interesting metrics include Resilience, which details how well you respond to sources of stress, and Cardiovascular Age, to identify how healthy your heart might be. If you’re 32 and you have the heart of a 25-year-old, it’s likely that you’re doing pretty well. If you have a 45-year-old heart? You might want to do a bit more cardio.

Elsewhere, the app packs an AI health tool called Oura Advisor under the beta-testing program, Oura Labs. Asking this AI questions like “How can I improve my running speed?” offers good (if generic) advice, and responds to follow-up questions. Women’s Health tracking is reportedly detailed and accurate (although, of course, I haven’t tested this particular feature myself). All this builds on an absolute ton of app-based features that were already available in previous versions, ready for health nerds to dive into. Full marks.

  • Features score: 5/5

Oura Ring 4: Performance

The Oura Ring 4 in Silver on the new charger.

(Image credit: Future/Matt Evans)
  • Battery performs as described
  • Metrics are interesting and easy to navigate
  • Automatic workout tracking is responsive

I really enjoyed using the Oura Ring 4. I drained its battery down, which for my Size 10 ring took five and a half days of constant use, including several workouts. It was comfortable to wear, and I only took it off a handful of times, such as when doing the washing up. The Ring picked up two separate runs automatically, and offered comparable stats to my smartwatch, minus the more specific stride and cadence information I get from Coros.

Sleep tracking was highly accurate: Oura boasts some of the best sleep tracking in the business, said to be comparable to a professional polysomnography machine, and it didn’t disappoint. It clocked a night of ‘fair’ sleep when my wife and I stayed with a friend, including the correct periods of wakefulness and an accurate wake-up time, rising to ‘good’ when I was back in my own bed the following evening. I added a ‘stay elsewhere’ tag to that night on my Timeline, and I can reuse that tag whenever I sleep in a bed that’s not my own from now on.

Oura Ring 4

(Image credit: Future)

The metrics I received were interesting and easy to navigate (however, they are orientated for long-term use, so Oura is still calculating things like my Cardiovascular Age as it requires around two weeks of use to do so), and the in-app meditation content was more or less comparable to alternatives such as Calm. I completed several different sessions, and enjoyed the experience both times.

  • Performance score: 5/5

Oura Ring 4: Scorecard

Oura Ring 4: Should I buy?

Oura Ring 4

(Image credit: Oura)

Buy it if...

You’re excited about wellness

Data nerds are going to love the depth they can go into with this tiny device.

You want to track sleep

Oura’s sleep-data harvesting is pretty much the gold standard.

You hate smartwatches

This is the device to replace your smartwatch while you wear a snappy analog number.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget

Oura’s ongoing subscription is essential, making its already-premium price a bit of a slap in the face.

You need GPS

Need dedicated GPS data for outdoor sports? Save your cash and get a good running watch.

You like staying connected

Want a wearable for maps, checking Whatsapp messages, and taking calls? Smart rings aren’t for you.

Also consider

How I tested

I wore the Oura Ring for a week, draining the battery down completely and sleeping with it every night. I went on several runs, comparing its health stats to those from a Coros smartwatch, and tried some of its in-app meditation content. I tested Oura’s Health Advisor service, the Timeline functionality, and dove into the app as much as possible.

Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Active leaks in renders
7:09 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Comments: Off

Xiaomi’s Smart Band series consists of three versions – a vanilla, a Pro and an Active. We’ve already reviewed the vanilla Smart Band 9 and seen renders for the Pro model which will be joined by a more affordable Band 9 Active variant. The first renders for the upcoming Smart Band 9 Active are now out and they show a familiar design not too different from the Band 8 Active. Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Active renders Smart Band 9 Active features a larger screen than the vanilla Smart Band 9 and a more ruggedized casing befitting the Active moniker. Rumors suggest the display size...

Samsung unveils Galaxy A16 (4G), also with 6 years of support
6:03 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Comments: Off

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy A16 5G a couple of weeks ago, but there was no mention of a 4G version – well, that’s now official too, as Samsung France posted a press release that calls the Galaxy A16 and Galaxy A16 5G “smartphones that stand the test of time”. This is because both models will be supported for 6 years – this includes OS updates as well as security patches. The Samsung Galaxy A16 (4G) is nearly identical to its 5G sibling – it has a 6.7” FHD+ OLED display running at 90Hz, a 5,000mAh battery with 25W charging, a 50+5+2MP rear and 13MP front cameras, all packed into a slimmer...

OnePlus will unveil OxygenOS 15 next week
5:25 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Comments: Off

Earlier today, Oppo unveiled ColorOS 15 (based on Android 15) with a detailed roadmap for updating old devices – including OnePlus phones in China. OnePlus is still branding its software OxygenOS for its global devices and version 15 of that will be officially unveiled a week from now. OxygenOS 15 is coming on October 24 (next Thursday) and will be launched under the motto “Speed meets AI”. No surprises here, ColorOS 15 also heavily focuses on AI. OnePlus is mum on details for now, but the company has been working on AI features for months now – from the AI Eraser tool in...

Samsung debuts blazing fast 3 GB DDR7 DRAM for AI & Gaming
4:28 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Comments: Off

Samsung announced today it developed the industry's first 24 Gb GDDR7 DRAM. It is intended for data centers, AI workstations, but also end-user usage in graphics cards, gaming consoles, and autonomous driving. The new memory has twice the capacity of last year's 16 Gb GDDR7 DRAM, revealed. The chip is built on a fifth-gen 10-nm-class process, which improves cell density by 50% while keeping the same size as the predecessor. The speed has is up to 42.5 Gbps, 25% more than the previous version, thanks to a three-level Pulse-Amplitude Modulation (PAM3). Power efficiency has improved by...

Samsung debuts blazing fast 3 GB DDR7 RAM for AI & Gaming
4:28 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Comments: Off

Samsung announced today it developed the industry's first 24 Gb GDDR7 DRAM. It is intended for data centers, AI workstations, but also end-user usage in graphics cards, gaming consoles, and autonomous driving. The new memory has twice the capacity of last year's 16 Gb GDDR7 DRAM, revealed. The chip is built on a fifth-gen 10-nm-class process, which improves cell density by 50% while keeping the same size as the predecessor. The speed has is up to 42.5 Gbps, 25% more than the previous version, thanks to a three-level Pulse-Amplitude Modulation (PAM3). Power efficiency has improved by...

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