Scientists pointed the world’s largest solar telescope at our star and came back with the sharpest photographs ever made of its surface. Those frames, captured at a wavelength of 416 nanometers by the NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on Maui, resolve features only tens of kilometers across. What they show is a restless landscape of bright granules ringed by darker, corrugated edges that twist and fold into miniature vortices.
Those tiny whirlpools are characteristic of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, a fluid phenomena first observed in the late 1800s. When two streams of plasma slide past each other at differing speeds, the border between them becomes wavy and eventually forms spiral formations that resemble breaking ocean waves. On the sun, shear is formed by conventional convective flows colliding with intense magnetic fields, resulting in a continuous field of tiny whirlpools ranging in size from 25 to 170 kilometers, with the bulk clustering around 50 to 65 kilometers.
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The motion is clearly visible in time sequences captured by the telescope’s fastcam sensor, since the magnetic limits that were smooth in earlier images are now distorted and striped, with dark narrow striations appearing and disappearing in minutes. The apparent speeds of the vortices range from 0.7 to 3 km/s, whereas the growth rates measured from the expanding waves range from 0.014 to 0.054 per second, all of which are consistent with linear theory predictions.
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Computer simulations using the MURam magnetohydrodynamic code were able to generate the exact same patterns. When you input authentic magnetic maps to the models and let them run their course, the synthetic images at 416 nanometers match the real ones in shape and timing. This level of concordance with the real thing gives the researchers high confidence that the instability is genuine and pervasive.
The vortices form anytime the magnetic flow is strong enough, therefore they are active almost everyplace on the tranquil sun. The mixing of magnetized and non-magnetized plasma stirs the magnetic field lines and allows them to diffuse faster than earlier models suggested, potentially providing the “missing” diffusion required to explain the sun’s eleven-year magnetic cycle. The same twisting action that generates all of this also braids field lines together, accumulating free energy that can later be used to power flares, jets, and coronal mass ejections.
The corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere, has long been a source of concern for solar physicists because it can reach temperatures of a million degrees while the visible surface remains about 5800 degrees, implying that energy must be able to move upwards despite the temperature differential. The new vortices may have a part of the explanation, as they continuously agitate the magnetic field at the base of the atmosphere, perhaps driving the heating that has been a mystery for decades. [Source]
The partnership could significantly strengthen Ireland’s position within the European pharmaceutical research and innovation space.
Research Ireland’s Rinn Pharma & Biopharma, Ireland’s national centre for research and innovation in the manufacturing of medicines, has today (7 August) announced its inclusion in the NordicPharmaTrain (NPT) network.
NPT is a European research and training network that connects academic and industry partners with the aim of advancing pharmaceutical innovation. The network supports collaborative research, researcher mobility and interdisciplinary training, as a means of developing the next generation of scientists and strengthening Europe’s pharmaceutical research ecosystem.
Rinn Pharma & Biopharma’s inclusion aims to enhance NPT’s network of research institutions and industry collaborators, strengthening cross-border collaboration and accelerating scientific progress within the larger pharmaceutical sector.
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As part of the collaboration, Rinn Pharma & Biopharma will host visiting researchers and PhD students, providing them with access to state-of-the-art laboratories, infrastructure and training, with the aim of supporting skills development, as well as academic and industry engagement.
Commenting on the announcement, Prof Damien Thompson, the director of Rinn Pharma & Biopharma, said, “By joining NordicPharmaTrain, we are accelerating Ireland’s role in delivering innovative pharmaceutical solutions.
“This partnership enables us to collaborate internationally on advanced manufacturing, formulation and digital technologies, areas that are critical to the competitiveness and sustainability of Ireland’s life sciences sector.”
Dr Sarah Hayes, Rinn Pharma & Biopharma’s COO, added, “This partnership is mutually beneficial, providing access to a dynamic collaborative ecosystem with expanded opportunities for joint research, shared expertise and participation in European funding initiatives.
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“It also enhances visibility within the Nordic and wider European research community, and broadens access to talented researchers and PhD candidates.”
Inlate July, it was announced that Rinn Pharma & Biopharma and Cork-based biotech spin-out ArrayPatch would collaborate on developing a novel skin cancer treatment using a patented dissolvable microneedle platform. The project aims to improve the effectiveness of treatments and minimise side effects by using microneedles to deliver drugs with increased precision.
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Is it possible that an engine can be both iconic and under-appreciated at the same time? That might somehow be the case with Nissan’s VQ-series V6 engine. On one hand, both the VQ engine and the cars it’s powered — like the Nissan 350Z and Infiniti G35 — are well known to both enthusiasts and the general public, and even the VQ’s distinctive sound has a bit of notoriety to it.
What’s not talked about as much, though, are all the industry accolades that the VQ has received over its lifespan. Among these accomplishments, this Nissan engine has earned especially high marks from Wards Auto, which annually puts out its list of the 10 best engines (with electric propulsion systems recently being added to the rankings alongside internal combustion engines).
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During the 20 years between 1995 and 2015, the VQ received a record 16 Wards Best Engine awards, with the run including 14 consecutive wins from 1995 to 2008. While the VQ’s award-winning reputation might be unexpected to some, those familiar with the background of this legendary V6 engine shouldn’t find it a surprise. Additionally, while the VQ isn’t nearly as prevalent today as it was back in the 2000s and 2010s, Nissan is still making VQ engines today, more than 30 years after the V6 made its original debut, which, is a feat in itself.
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From sports cars to pickup trucks
The Nissan VQ engine was originally born in the mid-1990s and made its American debut as a 3.0-liter unit under the hood of the 1995 Nissan Maxima and Infiniti I30 sedans. The new VQ made the 1995 Wards Best Engine list right off the bat, but it wasn’t until the early 2000s that the engine really began to propel the Nissan and Infiniti brands into a new generation. This was the era of high-profile new releases like the Nissan 350Z and Infiniti G35, but the VQ also made its way under the hood of mainstream vehicles like the Altima sedan and Pathfinder SUV. Nissan would continuously update the VQ, eventually making versions as large as 4.0 liters –and the awards kept coming.
How does a motor make the Wards Best Engine list? Engines are graded in categories like horsepower, torque, NVH, and technical innovation, with those numbers combined into an aggregate score to get the overall winners. Although the Wards Best Engine designation doesn’t specifically select for long-term reliability or ease of maintenance, the VQ has generally backed up its strong out-of-the-box performance with above-average reliability.
What’s especially impressive about the Nissan VQ engine, though, isn’t just its power potential or mechanical durability; it’s the truly vast range of vehicles that used it. Far from just a performance car engine, the VQ family has been used all across Nissan’s lineup, powering everything from the aforementioned Z sports car to family minivans and pickup trucks.
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The Nissan V6 is alive and well
Starting in the 2010s, the V6 engine, particularly in its naturally aspirated form, has become increasingly rare in the modern auto industry, with many carmakers switching to smaller-displacement, turbocharged four-cylinder engines. Even so, the Nissan VQ has endured.
In Nissan and Infiniti’s performance car applications, the VQ was phased out in favor of the turbocharged VR-series turbo V6 engines. However, the company still builds a direct-injected, naturally aspirated 3.8-liter VQ38DD engine for use in the Nissan Frontier pickup. This old-school engine is one of the things that makes the Frontier stand out in a segment where its competitors have moved to turbocharged four-cylinders.
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Recently, however, there’s been one negative about the VQ engine that actually has nothing to do with the motor’s performance or reliability at all. With Nissan and Infiniti using this engine in so many rear-drive sports cars and sports sedans over the years, the inexpensive, used versions of those cars have gotten quite popular among a new generation of younger owners. Due to the anti-social actions of some of them, some car shows have had to ban VQ-powered cars in an effort to stop dangerous and disruptive behavior caused by some of these bad apples.
With at least 12 US states’ water systems having been hacked – most likely by Iran – we have to get better at cyber defense, according to retired General and Ex-NSA chief Paul Nakasone, who was speaking to reporters at DEF CON.
“We have to have higher standards,” Nakasone said. “These PLCs should not be connected to the internet.”
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In late July, the FBI said it was investigating attacks conducted by “malicious cyber actors” targeting operational technology devices, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs). Iran-linked crews have targeted these devices, which monitor sensor data like tank levels, and can turn pumps on and off, for years.
Some private-sector security researchers say that they suspect Iranian intruders are behind the recent cyberattacks disrupting water and wastewater facilities. “I’d be shocked if it’s not Iran,” Halcyon Ransomware Research Center SVP Cynthia Kaiser told The Register at DEF CON on Friday. “It’s almost certain it’s Iran.”
Neither the FBI nor anyone in the Trump administration, however, has officially blamed Iran.
Nakasone said he believes that the feds are “taking a measured approach” to attribution. “But I see an actor here that has certainly shown a history of being able to do this,” he added, referring to earlier Iranian cyberattacks targeting water facilities’ PLCs.
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“They certainly have the capability,” Nakasone said. “There’s an intent … we’re in conflict with Iran.”
US water systems present a massive attack surface across disparate facilities that are historically underfunded and have limited IT staff, and sometimes no dedicated cybersecurity employees.
“We have to think differently about how we defend it,” Nakasone said. “Let’s talk about the attack surface that we’re looking at right now. We’ve got 50,000 different water municipalities in the United States, 90 percent of our water comes from these 50,000.”
Defending these water systems requires partnerships, he added, pointing to DEF CON Franklin, a project launched two years ago at the annual event with hackers volunteering their time and talent to help secure water facilities.
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Nakasone also serves as founding director of Vanderbilt University’s Institute of National Security, and its Wicked Problems Lab. He’s also working on Project Chimera, a cybersecurity platform being developed by academics and cybersecurity practitioners, and built on open-source technologies to boost critical infrastructure resilience.
“How do you defend better? You defend with a series of partners, in a much more involved approach than we have right now,” Nakasone said.®
Having a fully automated cotton candy vending machine in your possession is a great thing, but not if you do not have full access to its software. With [Block’s Retro Repairs] getting ghosted by the manufacturer on regaining account access to the machine he bought used for $300, there was little left but to try and break into the system.
We previously covered the journey in getting the vending machine back into a state where it’d actually reliably produce cotton candy again, a process which is quite tedious and temperamental. After a lot of fiddling with sensors and temperature settings this was fixed, but still left the issue that as a vending machine it should allow the owner to set prices and such. Sadly this could only be done remotely via a special account, which access to had been left with the previous owner.
Despite the very custom exterior, the vending machine runs what is effectively an Android system, consisting of an industrial computer board wired into a lot of stepper drivers and other control boards. To the extreme delight of everyone involved, it was possible to access the Ct Terminal application with adb and its product database on the device’s storage. Unfortunately writing back a changed database file didn’t change anything in the UI, so for a few months the project languished.
After nearly bricking the system and ending up factory resetting the control software including temperatures, it actually improved the performance of the machine and produced cotton candy, so that was one win. Ultimately the solution was to modify the original app, but a combination of weak coding skills and the app being in Chinese led him to use free LLM coding chatbots to assist here.
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This resulted in a custom settings menu being added with the ability to modify pricing, no need for online access any more and a very nice cotton candy vending machine for the private arcade where presumably friends and family can enjoy cheap or even free cotton candy. Finally having the machine sealed against ant intrusion was also a major improvement.
Connecting the dots: Flock Safety’s rapid growth has made it a major player in police surveillance technology. But as cities deploy more connected cameras, a basic security concern is drawing increased attention: whether the video collected by those systems can be altered without leaving behind evidence. That concern has taken on new urgency following reports that one of Flock’s key investors also backs a company whose technology is designed to compromise camera systems.
Andreessen Horowitz, which led Flock’s $275 million funding round in March 2025, has also backed Toka, an Israeli cyber-intelligence company that has reportedly developed tools capable of breaking into connected cameras and manipulating their footage.
The connection between the two companies – their shared investor – came to light after an X post from @OrwellDay alleged that Flock’s lead investor also backed Toka. The post did not establish the connection on its own, but subsequent reporting confirmed that Andreessen Horowitz led Flock’s March 2025 funding round and has invested in Toka.
Flock has raised roughly $960 million across multiple funding rounds, including the March 2025 round, which valued the company at $7.5 billion. Andreessen Horowitz led that financing, with participation from Greenoaks Capital and Bedrock Capital. Meritech Capital, Matrix Partners, Sands Capital, Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins, Tiger Global, and Y Combinator also participated.
The link between Flock and Toka puts a sharper focus on the risks surrounding camera networks used by police departments and local governments. Flock sells camera systems that help agencies identify vehicles, share information, and search video data. Toka, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, has offered government clients technology that can locate cameras in a target area, access their feeds, and alter or erase video.
The reported capability is not merely about surveillance. It raises broader questions about the reliability of video evidence after it has been captured.
Haaretz reported, based on internal documents it reviewed, that Toka’s tools could access and modify live and recorded camera feeds without leaving forensic traces. Concern about the technology is especially relevant as public agencies increasingly rely on connected cameras, license-plate readers, and cloud-based investigative platforms. These systems can move large amounts of information quickly, but they also create more opportunities for attackers or unauthorized users to interfere with recorded evidence.
At Black Hat, Forescout researchers demonstrated a related risk by intercepting real camera feeds and sending pre-recorded video to network video recorders. An operator could see what appeared to be a normal live feed without realizing that the footage had been replaced.
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Similar concerns have emerged in body-camera systems. POAM reporting described systems that allowed footage to be downloaded, edited, and uploaded again without indicating that changes had been made. In each case, the underlying problem is the same: video may appear authentic while providing no reliable way to determine whether it has been altered.
The ACLU has warned that widespread camera deployments paired with vulnerable infrastructure can create serious risks. A breach can expose private footage, but it can also create opportunities for video to be manipulated or misused after the fact.
For cities deploying Flock cameras and similar systems, the question is no longer only who can access the video. It is whether they can prove that what a camera recorded is the same evidence investigators, courts, and the public are actually seeing.
Sony may not be done with the WH-1000XM4 just yet. According to a fresh leak via Billbil-kun, the company is preparing to launch the Sony WH-1000XM4C, a more affordable version of its hugely popular noise-canceling headphones. The upcoming model is expected to arrive in early September, with pricing reportedly set at €249.99 in Europe and £219.99 in the UK, making it significantly cheaper than the flagship WH-1000XM6.
A familiar design with a lower price
The biggest surprise isn’t the name — it’s the design. Unlike the newer XM5, which dropped the foldable hinge, the leaked WH-1000XM4C reportedly sticks closely to the original XM4’s compact, foldable form factor. That could be welcome news for users who preferred the older design, especially after Sony only brought back folding hinges with last year’s XM6.
Sony WH-1000XM4Riley Young / Digital Trends
The headphones are tipped to launch in Black, Silver, and Lavender color options while retaining many of the features that made the XM4 a fan favorite. According to the leak, buyers can expect active noise cancellation powered by Sony’s QN1 processor, Hi-Res Audio support, Spatial Audio, and the familiar touch-sensitive earcup controls for playback and volume adjustments.
The trade-off appears to be battery life. While the original WH-1000XM4 offered up to 38 hours of playback with ANC turned off (or 30 hours with ANC enabled), the WH-1000XM4C is expected to deliver 34 hours without ANC and 27 hours with noise cancellation switched on. Everything else, however, appears to remain largely in line with the original formula.
A smart move for Sony?
To be fair, this positioning makes sense. Sony’s headphone lineup has steadily moved upmarket over the years, with the WH-1000XM6 launching at a much higher price than previous generations. The WH-1000XM4C could fill the gap for buyers who want Sony’s flagship-grade noise cancellation and audio features without paying flagship prices.
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Sony WH-1000XM6.Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Nothing has been officially confirmed by Sony yet, so the pricing and launch window should be treated as a leak for now. Still, the rumored strategy is an interesting one. Rather than replacing the XM6, the WH-1000XM4C appears to revive one of Sony’s most popular headphone designs at a lower price point. If the leak proves accurate, it could end up becoming the sweet spot in Sony’s lineup for users who care more about value and portability than having the company’s absolute latest hardware.
A developer has a 28.9-million-parameter model generating TinyStories-style text at 9.88 tokens per second, fully offline, on a $10 microcontroller
It was achieved by fitting a language model on a chip with 512KB of RAM by leaving most of it in flash storage
The project is available on GitHub under an MIT license
A developer going by slvDev has a 28.9-million-parameter language model generating text on an ESP32-S3, a microcontroller built for sensor nodes and smart plugs, at 9.88 tokens per second, with nothing leaving the chip.
The project, esp32-ai, went up on GitHub under an MIT license in late July 2026, was showcased on the Better Stack YouTube channel, and has since collected over 3,600 stars and has more than 470 forks of the underlying code.
Given the underlying hardware’s limitations, the attempt meant the model, which was trained on the TinyStories dataset by Microsoft Research, had to be scaled down.
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Still a capable LLM despite the loss in accuracy
The arithmetic involved here is brutally unforgiving; weights typically need one to four bytes per parameter just to sit in memory, so 28.9 million parameters at 16-bit precision still require nearly 60 MB of RAM. An ESP32-S3 offers 512 KB of SRAM and 8 MB of PSRAM that is woefully inadequate at first glance.
Quantization closes the first part of the gap: dropping the weights to four-bit precision trades a little accuracy for a 75% reduction, bringing 60MB down to 14.9MB.
The second step is where the project earns most of its attention: most of a language model’s parameters sit in embedding tables that the model reads from rather than computes against, and something you only read can live somewhere slow.
Borrowing Per-Layer Embeddings from Google‘s Gemma 3n, slvDev moved about 25 million parameters (roughly 12 MB at four-bit) into the board’s 16 MB of flash, pulling around 6 rows, about 450 bytes, per token.
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What remains in working memory is closer to 2 MB: the dense core and output head in PSRAM, and activations and norm weights in SRAM. Each tier stores whatever is read at its own frequency, and the chip’s memory hierarchy serves as the architecture that enables the LLM.
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Offloading weights to storage is not new; it is how people coax frontier-class models onto hardware that has no business running them, but it usually destroys throughput, turning tokens per second into seconds or minutes per token.
The PLE approach avoids that because the offloaded weights are accessed sparingly, so flash bandwidth never becomes the bottleneck. The resulting performance, 9.88 tokens per second, is faster than most people read.
The LLM has its limitations, however: the model writes short, mostly coherent stories and will not answer questions, follow instructions, write code, or know facts. The developer says the limit stems from the small part of the model that performs the reasoning (~4M parameters) and that the memory trick does not change its capabilities. His repository also ships a second model, Barista, which expressly answers espresso questions only (pun intended).
In short, the approach doesn’t make small models smarter, but it does allow them to offload data within the board onto chips they could not previously run on, making it an interesting choice, though one with limited practical uses in its current iteration.
While most smartphone chatter focuses on the latest high-end releases, and the cheapest options sit at the budget end of the market, mid-range phones are where you’ll often find the best value. Sitting between £400/$400 and £700/$700, these devices offer plenty of features for your money – and we know which ones are worth buying.
We particularly rate mid-range phones for the average consumer because they don’t come with the same compromises as the best cheap phones. Today’s mid-rangers tick so many boxes that most users won’t feel like they’re missing out, and some even use tech that debuted on flagship phones just a few generations ago.
If you’re an Apple fan, your options are limited. The brand only has one phone in this space, the iPhone 17e. It’s a great phone in its own right, but Android buyers have far more choice, with excellent mid-range options from Samsung, OnePlus, Honor and more.
Alongside capable cameras and bright displays, mid-range phones are also offering better long-term value thanks to improved software support. Samsung and Google lead the way here, with six and seven years of updates respectively, so it’s always worth checking how long a manufacturer promises support before you buy.
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With the sheer number of mid-range phones that are now released in any given year, make sure to check back regularly on our rankings, as they’re likely to change a fair bit.
If you’re curious to see how mid-range phones compete against the wider crop of what’s out there, then our guide to the best phones overall is worth a look. Alternatively, photography enthusiasts will find just what they need in our round-up of the best camera phones, all of which can be coupled with a good SIM deal.
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Best mid-range smartphones at a glance
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How we test
Learn more about how we test mobile phones
All the devices in this list have been thoroughly tested and used by one of our expert reviewers. We don’t review a phone purely on specs or benchmark scores and we use them as our everyday device for the review period, which is usually at least five days but often a lot more.
When we review a phone our expert will put their personal SIM card into the phone, sync across their most-used apps and log into all their typical accounts. We do this so you’ll feel confident in our review and trust our verdict.
Our review process includes a mixture of real-world tests, along with more than 15 measured tests and industry-standard benchmarks
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Stylish looks
Solid camera performance
Excellent battery life
Middling performance
HyperOS isn’t the best Android skin
The Xiaomi 17T is one of the more impressive mid-range phones to arrive in 2026, and if you’re after a genuine flagship alternative without spending flagship money, this is an easy phone to recommend.
Starting with what you’re here for, the cameras represent a clear step up from the 15T. The 50MP main sensor fires off sharp, punchy shots in daylight and holds its own after the sun goes down, while the 12MP ultrawide keeps pace with it rather than feeling like an afterthought, which isn’t always a given at this price.
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The improved zoom lens also pulls in noticeably more detail once you push past 1x, making the whole rear camera system feel far more well-rounded than you’d typically expect from a mid-ranger.
Battery life is another area where the 17T genuinely impresses. The 6500mAh cell stretches comfortably past two working days on a single charge, and when you do eventually reach for a cable, 67W wired charging refills it in just under 100 minutes. That combination of longevity and recovery speed puts it ahead of most phones at this price point.
Where the 17T stumbles is with the MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Ultra inside. It’ll handle most games and day-to-day tasks without complaint, but its benchmark scores land closer to the Nothing 4a Pro and Google Pixel 10a, phones that sit at a lower price on this list. HyperOS is also a sticking point, arriving loaded with bloatware and feeling rough in places. If a clean software experience matters to you, the Pixel 10a is a better shout.
Look past those two niggles and the Xiaomi 17T is a compelling all-rounder. Great cameras, brilliant battery life, and a sharp design that punches well above its weight.
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A new, more premium, design
Big screen with a smooth 165Hz refresh rate
Can get you through two days of average use
Solid power for the price
LTPO tech is absent this year
No zoom lens and low-res ultrawide camera
AI tools aren’t game-changing
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If finding a mid-range phone with exceptional battery life is your priority, the OnePlus 15R is the one to go for on this list.
Starting at £649, the 15R undercuts the flagship OnePlus 15 by a fair margin, yet OnePlus has still packed some genuinely impressive hardware into its polycarbonate chassis.
The headliner is a redesigned 7400mAh silicon-carbon battery that is larger than the one in the OnePlus 15 and comfortably outclasses what most flagships offer, let alone mid-range phones. In our testing, the 15R stretched to two full days of use without complaint, and even heavier users should have no trouble getting through a full day without reaching for a charger.
When you do need to top things up, 80W SuperVOOC charging takes that sizeable cell from flat to full in under an hour, which goes a long way to softening any anxiety around running low.
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The cameras are the one area where the 15R asks you to manage your expectations. A 50MP main shooter is paired with an 8MP ultrawide, and that secondary sensor isn’t going to impress. Where the 15R more than holds its own, though, is in raw performance.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 sits just one rung below the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 powering the OnePlus 15, and it shows in day-to-day use. Couple that with a 165Hz AMOLED panel and a fresh install of OxygenOS 16 running on Android 16, and you have a phone that breezes through daily tasks and handles gaming surprisingly well too.
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Completely flat rear
Flagship-level AI features
Great camera performance
Too many similarities with Pixel 9a
Older Tensor G4 chipset
Bezels remain relatively thick
No PixelSnap support
Google’s A-series phones have long led the charge of showing the wider industry what can be achieved at the mid-range end of the market and the Pixel 10a is no exception. If you don’t have a ton of time to research the latest mid-range phones and simply want a handset that ticks all the right boxes and doesn’t cost more than £500/$500, then this is an easy one to recommend.
What separates the Pixel 10a (and its predecessors) from most of the mid-range crop is its ability to pump out the type of pictures that you’d typically expect to see from flagship phones. The 48MP main sensor and the 13MP ultra-wide are solid enough, but it’s Google’s highly refined computational processing that gives any shots taken with the Pixel 10a a serious boost, and there’s a wealth of editing software too that’s powered by Google AI.
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On top of the cameras, the Pixel 10a is also one of the best options to go for when it comes to long-term support. Google offers seven years of software updates for the Pixel 10a from the point of launch, so if you’re someone who wants to maximise the amount of time you spend with your phone before needing to upgrade again then this is a solid buy.
Also working in the Pixel 10a’s favour is the brilliance of Google’s stock Android. While a lot of companies have to rely on bloatware to bring down the price of their more affordable phones, Pixels have no such issue and are as close an experience to iOS as you’ll find within the Android space. Everything is beautifully designed and you have tons of options for customisation to suit your tastes.
The only thing that really works against the Pixel 10a is that it isn’t a major revision on the already brilliant Pixel 9a. You’re getting a more refined build as there’s now no camera bump to speak off, alongside a brighter display than before, but there really isn’t much else beyond that. The two phones even use the same Tensor G4 chipset so if you want to pick up even more of a bargain then the Pixel 9a might be the better option of the two.
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Unique design and wonderful metal build
Glyph matrix can actually be useful
Strong battery life
Brilliant, big display
No interactive Glyph Toys
Inconsistent camera stabilisation performance
Not the fastest phone out there
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Forget just being a great mid-range handset, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is arguably one of the most interesting-looking phones you can buy in 2026. It has Nothing’s iconic attention to style (the likes of which you tend not to see outside of Apple’s ecosystem), but now in an all-metal chassis which is a first for the company.
Feeling the weight and the smooth nature of the (4a) Pro in the hand, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s a flagship phone, so if you want a mid-ranger that looks like anything but then this is the obvious pick to go for. With the revamped design, the phone boasts the Glyph Matrix circle on the back – pinched from the pricier Nothing Phone (3) – which can be used to see the charging status, check the time and more, all without ever having to look at the display.
There’s also the Glyph Bar off to the side which is utilised to signal incoming notifications or calls. The whole system is designed around the idea of having the phone placed face down on a desk so that you aren’t tempted to check your phone constantly and end up needlessly wasting time with endless doomscrolling. It’s a great concept, and one that’s sure to be appreciated by those who have a more mindful approach to using tech.
Inside the phone is a faster chipset in the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, alongside a beefier 5400mAh battery. The extra battery capacity is great and it means that you can take the (4a) Pro through a fairly demanding day without worry, but we would have liked to see a slightly more capable processor inside. The 7s Gen 4 can handle most things just fine, but it’s not quite as seamless as something like the A19 Bionic which is in the not that much more expensive iPhone 17e.
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There have been meaningful tweaks elsewhere as the screen now operates at a silky smooth 144Hz refresh rate, and the telephoto lens offers 3.5x optical zoom for better quality shots at a distance. All of this sits on the ever-so-stylish Nothing OS that, much like the company’s hardware, is brilliantly eye-catching.
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Speaker system is no gimmick – it sounds fantastic
Brilliant big display
Really speedy performance and fast charging
Denim finish will divide opinion
Cameras aren’t that good
Software still needs some taming
If you’re purely looking for the best performance for your money while still getting a normal-looking phone (I’m looking at you, RedMagic 11S Pro), it’s hard to look past the Poco F8 Ultra.
With a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 under the hood, the Poco F8 Ultra rips through anything you ask of it. Day to day, that means the phone shrugs off every game you can throw at it, from demanding games to editing multi-track 4K video without much effort.
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Performance aside, the F8 Ultra is a treat for anyone who uses their phone to watch things. The big 6.9-inch AMOLED is bright and packs an HDR punch that genuinely impresses, and the triple-speaker setup actually pairs with the screen to pull you right in, whether you’re settling in for a Netflix binge or a TikTok scroll.
Not everyone wants a phone built purely around performance though, and if camera quality sits at the top of your priorities, it’s worth looking elsewhere. The F8 Ultra ships with a triple 50MP setup, and yet the secondary lenses struggle in practice, while the processing on the main sensor doesn’t quite match what rival phones at this price manage to pull off.
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Gorgeous, redesigned chassis
Bright and sharp OLED screen
Solid cameras and battery life
More expensive than its predecessor
SoC inside is just okay for the price
The Honor 400 is an amazing mid-range phone, tackling the lower end of the bracket upon its release, but for the Honor 600, the company had gone in a more premium direction with a price tag of £549.99. At that rate, the Honor 600 is more directly in competition with the likes of the Pixel 10a and the iPhone 17e but it has quite a few unique features to tempt buyers away from the competition.
The big upgrade this time around is in the display. This 6.57-inch AMOLED panel isn’t just gorgeous to look at; it can also reach a peak brightness of 8000 nits, which is almost unheard of. For context, even a high-end flagship phone like the Oppo Find X9 Ultra taps out at 3600 nits, making Honor’s mid-ranger one of the best phones to use outdoors in direct sunlight.
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The build itself has been tweaked to reflect the phone’s more premium ambitions, with a blend of brushed aluminium and composite fibre. The camera bump also gets a redesign, clearly taking inspiration from the iPhone 17 Pro and its camera plateau. Sure, it might be trying a bit too hard to mimic Apple’s flagship phone, but it still looks great for a mid-ranger.
Speaking of the cameras, the phone has managed to punch the main 200MP 1/1.4-inch sensor found on the more expensive Honor Magic 8 Pro. There’s no telephoto lens to speak of, but because you’re getting so much detail from that main sensor, you can zoom and crop in a fair amount without feeling that the overall integrity of the shot has waned. The pictures themselves are wonderfully bright, with the kind of eye-catching colour that’s perfect for social media.
The Honor 600 now runs on the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset, and if there was one area that could do with some attention, it would be this. The processor gets the job done with most things, but it’s not quite as powerful as the iPhone 17e’s A19 Bionic or the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 that’s inside the OnePlus 15R.
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256GB is now the starting amount of storage
Very fast (for the price)
Love the pink
The iPhone 17 is just better in every way
Single camera is restrictive
While the iPhone 16e was a decent first attempt from Apple at a proper mid-range phone (not counting the now-discontinued iPhone SE range), it still left a lot to be desired especially against the value of what Android phones with the same price tag could provide. Thankfully, the gap has now closed significantly with the release of the iPhone 17e.
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This new phone has fixed a lot of the complaints we had with its predecessor, mostly by including MagSafe in the design, which felt like such a strange omission before given that it’s been a staple of Apple’s ecosystem since the iPhone 12. Having the technology here means that you can attach power banks, wallets and other accessories with ease, opening up how you can use the phone on a daily basis.
The phone itself is tougher too, boasting the new Ceramic Shield 2 glass that’s now found on all of the other iPhone 17 devices, offering scratch resistance that’s three times better than what we had before. The standard storage has also jumped to 256GB to match the iPhone 17, but that means you get more bang for your buck with plenty of space to store your apps, photos and more.
Of course the big upgrade on the inside is the inclusion of the A19 Bionic chip, and it’s here that the iPhone 17e really stands out in the mid-range crowd. With the ability to run iOS flawlessly, let alone triple-A games like Death Stranding and Resident Evil 4 Remake, the A19 chip is a beast, and because of Apple’s dedication to phones long after they’ve been released, the A19 CPU will be supported with new updates for quite some time to come.
The iPhone 17e presents a very tempting package to those on a budget, but where it does falter is in having just a single rear-facing camera. To its credit, that 48MP camera can capture great-looking shots with that same signature Apple style that devotees love, but when something like the much cheaper Nothing Phone (4a) Pro has three cameras on the back, it’s worth evaluating what you want from your camera setup.
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Lightweight and thin design for a phone of its size
Brilliant, big display that’s great for media
IP68 water and dust resistance
Fingerprint sensor is slow and unreliable
Battery life not as strong as expected
Not the smoothest, fastest performance around
A bump in storage costs a fortune
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If you’ve been following Samsung’s trajectory in the smartphone world over the last few years then you probably already know that the brand isn’t exactly known for big, innovative leaps forward. While companies like Nothing and Honor seek to shake things up with each new generation, Samsung has opted for a far more iterative approach and that is very much how the Samsung Galaxy A57 fits into the company’s strategy.
One of the areas where the A57 does excel however is in presentation, and just like the A56 before it, this is a phone that feels very much like a flagship in the hand. The use of glass on the back is much appreciated, so if you want to downplay the fact that you’re using a more affordable phone, the Galaxy A57 fits the bill. It’s also a very thin and lightweight phone too, so you won’t notice it too much when the phone is in your pocket.
For the folks out there who use their phone as their main means of catching up with the latest films and TV shows, you’ll appreciate the stunning 6.7-inch AMOLED panel that’s used here. It’s wonderfully bright, and displays colour with such intensity that it does feel like quite a cinematic experience.
In the past, Samsung’s One UI overlay always felt like it was playing catch-up to more efficient set-ups from the likes of OnePlus, and it certainly couldn’t match Google’s stock Android, but that’s no longer the case. Ever since One UI 7, the software has felt far sleeker and is very enjoyable to use. It’s all bolstered by the fact that you’re getting six years of OS upgrades for fantastic long-term value.
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For as premium as the Galaxy A57 feels, however, the battery life could definitely be a bit better for the asking price. Samsung’s two-day battery life claim is at odds with our experience with the phone; it’s more likely you’ll get just over a day. There’s also the fact that with the Galaxy A56 being so similar, you could just pick up the previous-gen phone if you’re happy with having a shorter update cycle in return for spending less at the checkout.
Immense power
Solid endurance
Gaming-centric software is a pleasant touch
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Camera performance is underwhelming
More expensive than predecessors
If you’re an avid mobile gamer and want the most powerful phone on this list, a controller-like feel in the hand and a battery that goes the distance, the RedMagic 11S Pro is the one to beat.
While most phones stick to familiar designs, the RedMagic 11S Pro brings something genuinely exciting to the table with touch triggers built into the frame, which make the phone feel far more like a controller than a smartphone.
Paired with the overclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, which posts 3DMark Wild Life Extreme scores well above the usual flagship crowd, this is comfortably the fastest and most game-ready phone on this entire list.
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The 6.85-inch 144Hz display gives everything a wonderfully smooth and responsive feel, whether you’re playing the latest titles at maximum settings or just catching up on content between sessions. It’s a great canvas for gaming in a way that most mid-range phones simply can’t match.
Battery life is equally impressive, with the enormous 7500mAh cell easily carrying you through a full day of demanding use without complaint. There’s 80W wired charging to top things back up quickly, as well as wireless charging, although the latter does require a dedicated RedMagic adapter to take advantage of.
If the all-in gaming aesthetic isn’t quite what you’re after, something like the Poco F8 Ultra offers a more balanced experience.
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Thin, light and lovely to use
Eye-catching style and colour options
Bigger battery than other ultrathin phones
Gorgeous 6.7-inch 1.5K screen
Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 isn’t a great performer
Camera tuning can be hit and miss
Only four OS upgrades promised
At 5.99mm thick and 159g, the Motorola Edge 70 is barely there the moment you pick it up.
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It’s not just the thinnest on this list, but that featherweight feel makes a genuine difference across a long day of scrolling and messaging. Motorola has also wrapped the back in a woven, fabric-like material that looks sharp and, more usefully, gives your fingers something to actually grip.
The 6.7-inch pOLED display runs at a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, and while it lacks LTPO technology, meaning it can’t step down to preserve power on static content, it’s crisp and punchy enough to feel well above its £699 asking price.
It’s a similar story with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset inside. It isn’t the fastest processor on this list, but that’s something of a deliberate trade-off. Flagship silicon like the Snapdragon 8 Elite found in competing ultra-slim devices can run seriously hot inside a chassis this narrow, and the 7 Gen 4 runs cooler, which should translate into less performance throttling as the months go on.
Where the Edge 70 really makes its case, though, is in the battery department. Motorola has managed to squeeze a 4800mAh cell into that impossibly slim frame, and it lasts well through a demanding day. When it does need a top-up, 68W wired charging takes the phone from empty to full in around 50 minutes, which is a strong result at this price.
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If you want a phone that disappears into your pocket and your hand while still delivering solid everyday performance and genuinely impressive battery life, the Motorola Edge 70 is one of the most compelling options on this list.
Lightning-fast performance from the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip
80W wired and wireless charging
Brilliant cameras for almost every scenario
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Still no true HDR/HD support on popular streaming apps
Spotty auto-focus and lock-screen limits on the cameras
Unimpressive speaker configuration that’s easily muffled when held in landscape
The Nubia Z80 Ultra is one of the most complete Android packages you can buy right now, and the fact that it sits below the price of most similarly specced rivals makes it a genuinely compelling option for anyone who wants a lot of phone without stretching into true flagship territory.
It’s an undeniably striking handset too. The white glass back paired with a slim aluminium frame gives it a premium feel that you’d typically associate with phones costing considerably more, and the overall build quality is hard to fault at this price point. That said, the 6.85-inch footprint means it can get a little slippery in the hand, so it’s worth bearing that in mind if you prefer something more pocketable.
Where the Z80 Ultra really earns its place on this list is in the camera department. A 50MP main lens handles portraits with ease, a 64MP telephoto gives you serious reach when you need it, and a 50MP ultrawide covers the broader shots. The 16MP front camera also held its own in low-light conditions, which isn’t always a given at this price. Colours across the board are punchy, and shots come out looking great with minimal fuss.
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Powering everything is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and it’s as fast as you’d hope. Whether you’re switching between apps or pushing through the most demanding mobile games, there’s no hesitation. The 6.85-inch OLED display, running at 144Hz with a 2000-nit peak brightness, delivers a brilliant viewing experience, though it’s worth noting that HDR support in streaming apps like Netflix isn’t available yet, which is frustrating given how good the panel is otherwise.
Backing up all that power is a 7200mAh battery, with 90W wired and 80W wireless charging, ensuring you’re never waiting long to top back up.
If you want a brilliantly rounded all-rounder that still undercuts much of the competition, this is the one to go for – if you can find it.
The team at Trusted Reviews defines mid-range smartphones as any handset costing between £400/$400 and £700/$700. We raised our definition in 2022, following a gradual rise in prices at the top end of the market.
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Are mid-range phones good?
Over the last few years, the mid-range phone market has blossomed, with key companies including Google, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo and Samsung creating mid-range handsets with features traditionally reserved for flagship devices. Recent highlights have included 5G connectivity, high-refresh-rate screens, and improved rear camera sensors. The team of experts at Trusted Reviews recommends that most users consider a mid-range smartphone before investing in a flagship.
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Are there 5G mid-range phones?
5G is a given in the mid-range market in 2026, with Samsung, Oppo, Motorola, OnePlus and Google having mid-range phones supporting the connectivity.
No consumer data was impacted in the hack, the company clarified in a regulatory filing.
US apparel maker Levi Strauss said that hackers gained access to three of its workers’ company-issued computers using social engineering techniques, joining a growing list of major business victimised by the onslaught of cyberattacks, now often boosted by AI.
The admission comes just days after hackers launched a wave of attacks against Wall Street businesses using voice phishing, or vishing, where criminals mimic voices to trick victims into divulging sensitive data.
In a regulatory filing today (7 August), Levi said that an unauthorised third party stole “certain corporate information” after accessing company files through the hacked employees. It clarified that no consumer data was impacted.
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The company said it managed to contain the incident and notify affected parties and regulators. An investigation into the matter is ongoing for which the company has hired third-party cybersecurity experts. Levi said it did not experience any interruption in business operations as a result.
Social engineering is a hacking technique where bad actors trick unsuspecting people using fake online identities, with increasingly advanced AI tools giving criminals a cheap and efficient way to identify and exploit vulnerabilities.
A recent report from the UK’s AI Security Institute (AISI) found that Anthropic and OpenAI’s new agentic AI models engaged in social engineering in a test environment to pressure its maintainer into approving malicious code. However, these attempts were unsuccessful, as a human maintainer refused to approve the code.
AISI said that the AI models it tested showed “signs of novel, potentially deceptive behaviours” at levels it did not expect. In different testing environments, these models escaped their sandboxes and hacked real organisations, raising alarm across the industry.
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Google Threat Intelligence Group, in its own research, found a cybergroup using vishing to target employees from financial services or cloud companies by posing as IT helpdesk staff facilitating urgent work. Often employees were contacted using their personal mobile devices, the group noted.
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Welcome to the Blu-ray Bounty July 2026. This is where we test the latest 4K releases of each month that we think will be perfect for showing off your home theater. If you’re new to the Blu-ray Bounty, you can check out previous editions here, where we’ve reviewed over 100 discs since starting in November 2024.
4K Blu-ray is easily one of the best ways to enjoy a movie at home, especially when it’s on the best TVs and best soundbars. I personally use it as my main source for testing AV equipment, thanks to its uncompressed picture and audio quality.
In last month’s June 2026 Blu-ray Bounty, I tested seven discs, including Speed Racer (which is one of the best discs I’ve ever tested, and you can expect to see it as reference source in future reviews), EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert, Bullet In The Head (1991), Body Heat, Avatar: Fire & Ash, Five Easy Pieces and 36 Hours.
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In this month’s list, I’ll be testing 4 discs, and I’ll be using our usual setup. This consists of the LG G6, one of 2026’s best OLED TVs, the Panasonic DP-UB820, the best 4K Blu-ray player for most users on the market, and the Samsung HW-Q990C, the brand’s flagship 11.1.4 channel Dolby Atmos system from 2023.
As always, I’ll only be discussing the video and audio quality of each disc, not the movie itself.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (Universal Pictures)
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(Image credit: Nintendo / Universal Pictures / Future)
(Image credit: Nintendo / Universal Pictures / Future)
(Image credit: Future)
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, sequel to 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, follows Mario, Luigi, Peach Yoshi and Toad’s adventure to rescue Princess Rosalina, who’s been kidnapped by Bowser Jr. The film stars Chris Pratt, Anya-Taylor Joy, Charlie Day and Jack Black, who reprises his role as Bowser.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie looks gorgeous on 4K Blu-ray. This disc is so impressive, that I’ve even started using it for reference testing, and you can read my full thoughts on it here. Below is a summary about the disc’s picture and audio.
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It’s all about color reproduction here, which is bold and vibrant, generating some amazing pop on screen. As the Lumas listen to Rosalina’s bedtime story, the color of each Luma is punchy with some amazing highlights, especially with Dolby Vision HDR. The animation throughout is crisp, delivering 3D-like textures and depth that is seriously impressive.
If you have a bright display at home, you’ll be rewarded with some beautiful brightness too. The star that one of the Lumas turns into dazzles on screen, and anytime Rosalina uses magic, there are stunning, glittery colors that illuminate the screen. The movie delivers excellent contrast too, particularly in space scenes where the dark blue sky of space balances nicely with the bright stars and vivid characters.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has an impressive Dolby Atmos soundtrack included too. There’s excellent detail and precision here, as Peach and Toad first fly through the space on the star, the twinkling trail behind the star follows its path accurately, and is well defined in the mix, clearly audible even in the uplifting score. As characters fly towards Bowser Jr’s ship, height effects are fully utilized, with the character’s flight mapped overhead to create a fully immersive sound. There’s even great demonstrations of bass throughout, as character’s fire up ship engines or crash through things, generating plenty of impact.
To Live and Die in L.A (Arrow Video)
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(Image credit: Arrow Video / Future)
(Image credit: Arrow Video / Future)
(Image credit: Future)
To Live and Die in L.A. follows the story of two Secret Service agents, Richard Chance (William Petersen) and John Vukovich (John Pankow), who are in pursuit of counterfeiter-turned-killer Eric Masters (Willem Defoe) after Masters kills Chance’s former partner.
To Live and Die in L.A. looks excellent in 4K in this restoration, presented by Arrow Video. Textures have been cleaned up well, with skin looking realistic, and more intricate details such as scars and marks on people’s faces delivered with real clarity in close-up shots. Colors have seen beautiful pop, with the Dolby Vision grade really adding some serious punch. Reds, such as those on the US flags throughout, in particular jump off the screen.
There’s some strong contrast throughout, as well as some refined shadow detail. In dimly-lit areas, overhead lights create strong shadows across people’s faces, with a stakeout scene with Chance and Vukovich acting as one of the best demonstrations of this. Black tones are deep throughout as well, in both environments and people’s clothing.
There are two soundtracks included here: the original stereo audio and a DTS-HD 5.1 MA mix. Using the 5.1 MA mix, there’s some seriously good detail here. As Masters makes counterfeit notes, the whirring of the printing press balances nicely with Wang Chung’s score. Even intricate effects in the scene, such as Masters cutting out the notes and washing the surface, are clearly audible. During a night-time stakeout, the pouring rain is accurately mapped to the rear channels, even creating a sense of height. Speech is clear throughout, and the soundstage is wide enough to give all elements room to breathe.
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Alice In Wonderland (1951) (Disney)
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(Image credit: Disney / Future)
(Image credit: Disney / Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Alice In Wonderland, based on both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, tells the story of Alice, a young girl who ends up in a magical world where she meets a weird and wonderful cast of characters, including the evil Queen of Hearts who rules over Wonderland.
Alice in Wonderland looks great in 4K. Colors are bold and accurate in equal measure, faithfully rendering that classic Disney look. While most colors are beautifully vivid, it’s reds and pinks that really stand out on screen, looking particularly dazzling. The animation style here looks refined and has been nicely upscaled, giving characters more depth.
On the LG G6 I used, bright colors such as the white of Alice’s clothes and the gold of the doorknob have striking brightness and vibrancy to them, aided by the Dolby Vision HDR featured on this disc. While I usually use Filmmaker Mode on the G6, I found this movie did benefit from the brighter Cinema Home mode for some added punch.
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While there is still some film grain present for cinephiles, the movie has been refined quite a lot and this does give the animation a very clean look, making it look much more contemporary than its original 1951 animation style would suggest.
There are two soundtrack options available: DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 mono. The 2.0 mono is more faithful to the original, but the 5.1 MA mix has a nice balance to it, giving every element depth and warmth, while letting them all breathe. The score is mapped to the rear speakers, allowing the front channels to deliver speech and other effects. Outside of the score and vocals, there aren’t many other elements to show off your home theater, but this 5.1 mix does sound brilliant.
Hairspray (1988) (Criterion)
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(Image credit: The Criterion Collection / Future)
(Image credit: The Criterion Collection / Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Set in 1962, Hairspray follows Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake), a teenager who achieves stardom on a local dance show, and attempts to use her newfound fame to advocate for more racial integration on the dance show. Directed by John Waters, the movie also stars Divine, Sony Bono, Jerry Stiller and Debbie Harry.
As you’d expect from a movie set in the 1960s, there’s some seriously bold visuals here. From the bright pinks of the Turnblad home to the striking red of Link’s car, colors have some really nice pop on screen. Textures have been upscaled effectively, giving them a more 3D-like look, though not quite to the extent from other Criterion restorations such as 3:10 To Yuma. Finer details have also been refined, with individual strands of hair given some nice depth and volume.
There’s a lot of grain still present here, so cinephiles will be happy. Black tones are deep as well, shown predominantly in people’s hair. There’s some nice contrast too, as shaded areas contrast with the bright lights of the studios for the dance shows themselves.
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For audio, there are two soundtracks available: DTS-HD MA 2.0 surround and DTS-HD MA 5.1. The 5.1 soundtrack does a great job of giving the soundtrack room to breathe, with a good balance between the speech and stacked tracklist of songs used for the dance scenes. More intricate effects such as the sound of shuffling feet and clapping hands during dance scenes have a nice clarity, clearly audible over the much louder songs.
Having a fully automated cotton candy vending machine in your possession is a great thing, but not if you do not have full access to its software. With [Block’s Retro Repairs] getting ghosted by the manufacturer on regaining account access to the machine he bought used for $300, there was little left but to try and 
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