Apple unveiled its new iPhone 15 lineup at its Wonderlust event on Tuesday, announcing plans to bring some AAA console and PC games to the mobile platform. That is if you purchase an iPhone 15 Pro, which is powered by the cutting-edge six-core A17 Pro chipset that allows for the games to run natively on the device with ray-tracing enabled. Games like Resident Evil 4 remake, Resident Evil Village, Death Stranding, and the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Mirage will be out on the iPhone 15 Pro later this year and into early 2024. The company has historically boasted about its mobile devices’ gaming performance, but this would be the first time we ever actually get to see it in action.

This partly has to do with AAA game developers’ reluctance to ship the titles on Apple’s latest devices, which is understandable considering its hardware previously wasn’t strong enough to run high-profile titles at decent framerates. Hideo Kojima was the first to embrace the company’s new claims, announcing that his genre-defying package delivery game Death Stranding would be headed to macOS, later this year. At the time, we got to see some slightly laggy raw footage of the game utilising the Metal 3 graphics processing system, though there was no confirmation of a mobile port until now. AAA gaming on mobile previously relied on cloud-based technologies to stream PC and console games onto handheld devices, where the performance was heavily affected by varying internet speeds.

Resident Evil 4 Remake Review

It’s insane to think that the newly-released Resident Evil 4 remake will soon be playable on a mobile device, throwing us back into the ghoulish Spanish village to save the US President’s daughter from the clutches of the Los Illuminados cult. Even more remarkable is the fact that Assassin’s Creed Mirage — out October 5 on PC and consoles — is headed to iPhone 15 Pro by early next year, marking the first time a mainline entry from the franchise will be playable natively on mobile. The Baghdad-set chapter has you play as Basim Ibn Ishaq, a small-time thief who gets indoctrinated into the Hidden Ones clan and rises the ranks to become a professional assassin. With this entry, Ubisoft is also taking a back-to-basics approach that’s focused on crafty stealth assassinations, rather than the open-world RPG affair the franchise veered into in the last few years.

Another Ubisoft title coming to the iPhone 15 Pro is The Division Resurgence, which is a mobile game through and through, set in a post-crisis New York City after a deadly virus outbreak led to the collapse of society and the government. It will also be available on Android in autumn/ fall 2023.

While all this sounds cool, I find it hard to imagine anyone would be willing to pay AAA prices to play these games on a tiny screen. Not to mention, having to deal with the translucent on-screen buttons that would take up the left-hand side for a movement analogue stick and the right for action buttons. Sure, some of this can be mitigated by connecting the iPhone 15 Pro to a detachable mobile controller via USB-C — Backbone’s Android controller, for instance — though I really hope that the games come with an option to disable touch-screen controls. Then there’s also the battery and heat management factor. There’s so much we still don’t know.

Apple’s latest iPhone 15 series goes on sale on September 22, but there are no concrete release dates for the games coming to iOS.

iQOO is getting ready to unveil the iQOO 13 in its home country. While we’ve already got confirmation about the chipset and design of the upcoming flagship, the company has posted new teasers detailing the phone’s display. The iQOO 13 will come with BOE’ Q10 8T LTPO OLED display with 2K resolution. The Vivo sub-brand revealed that the upcoming phone has scored over 3 million points on the AnTuTu test. The iQOO 13 will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC and pack a 6,150 mAh battery with support for 120W fast wired charging.

As per the latest teaser posters shared (in Chinese) by iQOO on Weibo, the iQOO 13 will feature a Q10 8T LTPO OLED display with 2K resolution and 144Hz refresh rate. This screen co-developed with BOE will offer 1,800nits of HBM brightness and 510ppi pixel density. The display has HDR10+ support as well.

The iQOO 13 is claimed to be the world’s first Android phone to come with OLED circular polarised light eye protection technology. Its display has TÜV Rheinland certification and certification from the National Ophthalmology Engineering Center (machine translated).

iQOO 13 Outperforms Realme GT 7 Pro, OnePlus 13

Further, iQOO revealed that the iQOO 13 scored 31,59,448 points on the AnTuTu benchmarking test, which is higher than thee 30,94,447 points managed by OnePlus 13 and the 30,25,991 points scored by the Realme GT 7 Pro. 

iQOO 13 launch is set to take place on October 30 in China. It is also confirmed to debut in India soon and will be available for sale through Amazon. It will be equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC.

The iQOO 13 will have a 6,150mAh battery with 120W fast charging support. It will run on the latest OriginOS5 and come with dual speakers. The handset will include a 1016H haptic motor and multi-layer graphene, 7K VC heat spreader for thermal management. It will also come with iQOO’s self-developed gaming chip Q2 that is said to offer an enhanced gaming experience.

Amazon Mega Electronics Days Sale is now live on the e-commerce platform and customers can avail of massive discounts on several electronics products. During the ongoing sale, buyers can avail of discounts of up to 80 percent on several products. Meanwhile, if you have an SBI credit card, ICICI Bank credit card HDFC credit or debit card, and J&K Bank credit or debit card, you can also avail of additional discounts to further lower the prices of electronics products during the ongoing sale.

Amazon Mega Electronics Days Sale timeline, discounts

The ongoing Amazon Mega Electronics Days Sale will end on April 18, according to the e-commerce platform. During the sale, customers can avail of discounts on laptops, headphones, tablets, smartwatches, cameras, and other products that are on sale at lowered prices. It is advisable to compare the regular price of products that are discounted with their sale price, in order to identify the best deal for the product you are looking for during the sale.

Several bank offers can help you lower the cost of your next electronics purchase
Photo Credit: Amazon

While several products are on sale at discounted prices during the sale, you can also use an SBI credit card or ICICI Bank credit card and credit card EMI transactions to lower the price of your purchase by 10 percent. This 10 percent discount is also applicable on J&K credit and debit cards, while HDFC Bank customers will get a discount up to Rs. 5,000 on credit card and debit card EMI transactions. 

Amazon Mega Electronics Days Sale: Best deals and offers

During the Amazon Mega Electronics Days Sale, you can purchase gaming laptops at discounted prices. For example, the HP Victus gaming laptop with a 15.6-inch IPS screen and a 12th generation Intel Core i5 processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU is currently available for Rs. 68,900 while the laptop was originally listed on Amazon for Rs. 888,646. Similarly, the Asus TUF F17 gaming laptop with a 11th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU and an RTX 2050 GPU is priced at Rs. 49,990, down from its listed price of Rs. 77,990.

If you’re looking for a regular laptop, you can also pick up the HP 15s with a 12th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU and 16GB of RAM that is priced at Rs. 53,990, instead of the MRP of Rs. 68,223. Similarly, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 with a 11th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU and a 512GB SSD can be bought at Rs. 59,990 instead of Amazon’s previously listed price of Rs. 79,690.

Those looking to purchase an iPad or upgrade their existing one can consider the iPad Air (5th generation) with an M1 chip and a Liquid Retina display that is priced at Rs. 53,999 instead of Rs. 59,900. Similarly, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite that ships with an S Pen, is now available at Rs. 22,999 instead of Rs. 30,999.

The GoPro Hero 12 that was launched in India at Rs. 45,000 is now priced at Rs. 37,990 during the ongoing Amazon Mega Electronics Days Sale. Xiaomi’s Mi 360 Home Security Camera 2K with AI-based motion detection and night vision support currently costs Rs. 2,999, which is lower than its MRP of Rs. 4,999.

Meanwhile, Sony’s popular WH-1000XM4 headphones with 30 hours of battery life and active noise cancellation is priced at Rs. 19,990 instead of Rs. 22,990. You can also consider the Bose QuietComfort 45 which is available at the same price as Sony’s headphones, down from its listed price of Rs. 29,900. If you’re looking for a pair of true wireless stereo earphones, the JBL Wave Flex is priced at Rs. 2,998, which is lower than its listed price of Rs. 4,999.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and select models which have been plagued by the infamous green-line issue will be eligible for a one-time screen replacement at authorised service centres in India. This offer will be available until the end of the year, the company has confirmed. However, the South Korean technology conglomerate has placed some limitations on the eligibility of devices, taking into account their purchase date, condition, and other factors.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Screen Replacement

First discovered by tipster Tarun Vats, Samsung Support confirmed that its screen replacement program will be valid for Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, Galaxy S21 series, and Galaxy S21 FE 5G models which are out of warranty until December 31, 2024. However, the devices should not have any physical damage or signs of water damage.

Free Screen Replacement Offered by Samsung

Gadgets 360 staff members were able to get in touch with Samsung Support to confirm the availability of this replacement program in the country.

The company will carry out the replacement of the OCTA (On-Cell Touch AMOLED) assembly along with free battery and kit replacements, albeit with some terms and conditions. Samsung says devices within three years from the date of purchase will be eligible for free-of-charge parts replacement. Additionally, only the first purchaser will be able to get the replacement upon presentation of the original invoice.

Although replacement of the parts will not incur any costs, labour charges for the repair will be paid by the customer. They can book an appointment at their nearby authorised service centre to take advantage of this offer.

However, this is not the first time that Samsung has introduced such an offer. In April, Samsung announced a special replacement program in the country for devices affected by the green line on screen issue. At the time, the list of eligible devices included Samsung Galaxy S20 series, the Galaxy Note 20 series, Galaxy S21 series, and Galaxy S22. Reports have suggested the green line issues have occurred primarily on Samsung smartphones with AMOLED displays after software updates. However, the tech giant isn’t the only original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to be plagued by it. Last month, OnePlus acknowledged the display issues surrounding several of its devices, claiming it to be an “industry-wide challenge”.

As Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion inches closer, developer CD Projekt Red has warned PC players to test their cooling systems beforehand. In a tweet, lead scene programmer Filip Pierściński claimed that both the game’s paid expansion and the version 2.0 update will be heavy on CPU usage, essentially squeezing every bit of performance out of the chip. As such, a 90 percent workload on an 8-core processor is easily expected, which could lead to thermal throttling. It’s unclear as to what aspect of the update is making the game so CPU-demanding, but past patches heavily focused on ray-tracing features.

Before launch, the developer recommends running software like Cinebench to ensure that the cooling is optimal under heavy loads. For the uninitiated, the free application evaluates your PC’s hardware limits by putting it under sustained stress for a period of time to deduce how stable it is by giving you a score. It’s in no way close to a real-world scenario, but if your PC manages to push through the test without crashing, it generally should be able to deal with whatever you throw at it. Indeed, such comments led to players panicking that Cyberpunk 2077 could potentially melt their CPUs, with many replying to the original tweet with their PC specs to check first-hand if they’re in the safe zone.

To curb the concerns, Pierściński followed that up with another tweet, remarking that Phantom Liberty and version 2.0 update will ‘perform well’ on whatever hardware CD Projekt Red specified in their system requirements infographic. His intention was simply to highlight the importance of proper PC maintenance so that in case there’s some heat dissipation issue, the general performance isn’t affected. For reference, running Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty at the lowest settings will require an Intel Core i7-6700 or an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 processor, the latter of which comes with six cores. When compared to the original — and broken — version released in 2020, the game will rely on SSDs going forward, given it has been completely overhauled.

Phantom Liberty is a paid expansion that puts you on a high-stakes espionage mission to save the President of the New United States of America (NUS). As part of this, we’ll be working with FIA Agent Solomon Reed (Idris Elba) to break into the gated community of Dogtown and in time, learn about his intentions. The expansion launches alongside a significant 2.0 patch that fully overhauls the skill system and adds a maximum capacity for how many modifications your body can handle. Tech augments can be put into overdrive to surpass those limitations, albeit with some penalties to your overall health. It’s nowhere in the same realm as Cyberpsychosis seen in the Netflix anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, but there is some risk-reward factor to how you build your character.

CD Projekt Red has also got a Night City Wire episode planned for this Thursday, September 14 at 8:30pm IST in India/ 8am PT in the US. The event will be live-streamed on the official Cyberpunk 2077 YouTube and Twitch channels and will touch upon the new radio stations, gameplay changes, abilities, and some character details about Reed from Idris Elba himself.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty releases September 26, across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X. It also comes with the free version 2.0 update.

OnePlus unveiled its OxygenOS 15 update on Thursday. The new operating system (OS) update for eligible OnePlus smartphones will introduce a redesigned user interface, artificial intelligence (AI) features, and faster processing. Based on Android 15, which was recently released by Google, the update also brings new security features such as Google Play Protect’s live threat detection and theft protection features. Additionally, OxygenOS 15 will set Gemini AI assistant as the default virtual assistant on compatible devices.

OxygenOS 15 Performance Improvements

The company claims that OxygenOS 15 was designed with a focus on fast performance, enhanced design, and AI capabilities. To improve processing times, OnePlus says it refined animation interactions via proprietary parallel processing technology. 

According to OnePlus, the new update adds comprehensive ‘interruption animations’ that are said to enable faster transitions between apps. The company claims it eliminates lag times even during heavy usage and maintains a stable experience.

Another way the company is speeding up the OS is by removing redundant features and increasing the storage space. OnePlus claims that the OxygenOS 15 will take up 20 percent less storage space on the OnePlus 12 compared to OxygenOS 14.

OxygenOS 15 to Introduce New AI Features

OnePlus has also introduced several new AI features with the OS update. For the camera, the company has added AI Detail Boost, a feature which transforms low-resolution or cropped images into 4K resolution photos. This feature is integrated into the gallery app and automatically identifies pixelated images.

Similarly, the company’s AI Unblur feature improves blurry images natively and makes the photos sharper. Additionally, AI Reflection Eraser will help users remove reflections from images which are shot through glass.

While these features are powered by the company’s in-house AI models, OnePlus is also adding several Gemini-powered features. The first of these is Circle to Search, which will now be available to compatible smartphones with the OxygenOS 15 update.

The visual lookup feature can be activated by long pressing the navigation bar or Home Button. Another is Intelligent Search which will let users run on-device searches by typing a query in natural language. Users can ask about a file, setting, or a note and the AI will return relevant results.

Apart from that, Gemini will also power a new Pass Scan feature which is integrated within the camera app. It can be used to quickly scan boarding passes. AI Notes is also making a debut with OxygenOS 15. Similar to the AI Notes in Samsung Galaxy devices, the tool can format, expand (or shorten) content written in the Notes app. AI Notes can also auto-transcribe voice notes into text.

Further, AI Reply has been added into the AI Toolbox and can be accessed from the smart sidebar. It can understand the conversations in messaging apps and can automatically generate contextually relevant replies that users can copy and paste into the app.

Google’s Gemini AI assistant will be made the default virtual assistant with the new OS update. Users can also access the recently released Gemini Live feature which offers a two-way real-time voice conversation with the Gemini chatbot.

OnePlus Unveils New OxygenOS 15 UI 

Coming to design enhancements, OxygenOS 15 introduces new boot animation, icons, more shelf card choices, and new fingerprint unlock style options. It also adds Shimmering Effects and Gaussian Blur across various system scenarios to offer a new visual experience. Some minor upgrades have been added to settings, notification bar, and control centre.

New design upgrades can also be seen while interacting with the OS. A new OnePlus OneTake feature now improves the phone unlocking animation. File sharing between OnePlus and iPhone devices has also been improved with a new “Share with iPhone” feature.

Safety Features on OxygenOS 15

OxygenOS 15 will benefit from Android 15’s Google Play Protect live threat detection feature that analyses app behaviour to detect potential malware and fraudulent apps. Similarly, new theft protection mechanisms have also been added to protect the user data in case their device is stolen.

The feature can detect movements associated with theft, such as someone snatching a smartphone and running away, and automatically locks the device to protect the data from the thief. Additionally, a remote lock feature has also been added with which a user can lock the device remotely with just their phone number. An offline lock has also been added that activates automatically if the handset remains disconnected from Internet for a prolonged period.

Finally, OxygenOS 15 also implements Android 15’s biometric verification system for sensitive actions such as disabling theft-protection features or FindMyDevice, which the company says adds another layer of protection for users.

OxygenOS 15 Update: Eligible Devices (Expected)

OxygenOS 15 will first be rolled out to OnePlus 12 5G starting October 30. The company is yet to publish an official list of eligible devices, but the following handsets are currently expected to get the update, based on their support window.

Owners of the OnePlus Open, OnePlus 12R, OnePlus 11, OnePlus 11R, OnePlus 10 Pro, OnePlus 10R, and OnePlus 10T can expect to receive an update to OxygenOS 15. Other devices like the OnePlus Nord 4, Nord 3, Nord CE 4, Nord CE4 Lite, Nord CE3 Lite, Nord CE3, OnePlus Pad and OnePlus Pad 2 are also likely to be updated to OxygenOS 15.