Tech
Schools Overhauled Reading Programs. Older Students Are Being Left Behind.
A little girl stared at a list of test questions in her science class, unable to answer the majority. Resigned, she wrote at the top, “I failed badly” — although she misspelled it, instead writing, “I felled bedly.”
She was not in an entry-level grade, or even elementary school. She was a student of Laurie Lee’s sixth grade class, more than two decades ago.
Lee never forgot the reading difficulties she witnessed while teaching fifth and sixth graders.
“It becomes clear pretty quickly how they’re struggling,” says Lee, now a senior research associate at the Florida Center for Reading Research. Beyond test scores, she says the struggle was also evident in the questions her students would ask their classmates in response to assigned reading: “It’s often not because of content areas; it’s because they can’t read.”
Lee was not the only education leader grappling with older students’ lack of reading skills. Rebecca Kockler saw similar issues when she worked as the assistant superintendent of academic content at the Louisiana Department of Education. Recently, the state was the second-most-improved in the nation for fourth grade reading results, rising from No. 50 in 2019 to No. 16 in 2025, with high scores measured in 2024. But despite the strides Kockler’s fourth grade students were making, it was all but erased by the time they hit eighth grade.
“It was just, ‘What is going on?’” says Kockler, now the executive director at the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund’s Reading Reimagined program. “What was frustrating for me is I could not touch my middle school reading results.”
According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress results, only 30 percent of eighth grade students are reading at a NAEP “proficient” level. Fourth grade students had similar scores, at 31 percent. Both fourth and eighth grade scores were not significantly different than when the data collection first began in 1992.
Many states, similarly to Louisiana, are focusing on deploying research-backed reading programs for their younger students. But despite a stagnant reading comprehension rate for older students, they are continually left out of the conversation about improving literacy.
“There’s this focus on K-3 without a lot of resources dedicated to helping the kids in secondary school that fell through the cracks,” says Anna Shapiro, associate policy researcher for the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit public policy research firm. “Starting early makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways, but there’s also all these kids in the school system that didn’t benefit from that and do need intervention as well.”
Research-Backed Reading Laws
The phrase “science of reading” has cropped up more and more over the last few years. Simply put, it looks into the research behind how one learns the foundations of reading, such as sounding out letters, forming words and making basic sentence structures.
The research is not particularly new. Congress convened a 14-person panel in 1999, dubbed the National Reading Panel, which submitted a 480-page report in 2000 with its science of reading findings. It found students need explicit instruction in five pillars of reading: phonics, phonological awareness (or sound structure of spoken words), fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension.
But the last two decades have been dotted with various methods for improving — and teaching — reading skills. There’s phonics, or sounding out the letters of words, that was lauded in the National Reading Panel report. “Whole language” style of reading, which had readers focus on context clues and guess the word that would accurately fit the scenario, was widely popular in the middle of the 20th century, despite not being studied or recommended in the National Reading Panel report.
The modern science of reading push began to inch into the mainstream in 2019, after Mississippi overhauled the way its school systems taught reading starting in 2013 — and saw drastic test result improvements six years later, catapulting to No. 9 in the nation for fourth grade reading skills on the NAEP assessment. The state was No. 1 for reading and math gains since 2013. Some dubbed it the “Mississippi Miracle,” with those in the state calling it a “Mississippi Marathon.” It was a model that Louisiana followed quickly after.
Then, the science of reading was flung into the general public’s consciousness with the hit podcast “Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong,” which details the history and debates behind teaching children to read.
By 2025 roughly 40 states had passed laws either mandating or reference using evidence-based methods for teaching reading, though what that specifically means, and how many resources are actually financially backing those methods, varies by the state.
Some laws are more detailed than others, with most focusing on “foundational” — or lower-level — grades. Most, if they did specify, target kindergarten through third grades, requiring teachers of those grades to go through science of reading training, and students that age to undergo screening practices. Others, including laws in North Carolina and Connecticut, expanded those efforts to K-5, with Iowa as a standout requiring personalized reading plans to struggling students through sixth grade. Some states, including New Mexico and Nevada, require all first graders to be screened for dyslexia.
But change in student outcomes has been slow. According to a study by EdWeek Research Center, more than half of the 700 polled educators said at least a quarter of their middle and high school students had difficulty with basic reading skills. More than 20 percent said half to three-quarters of their students struggle.
It’s affecting teachers too. According to a 2024 RAND survey, more than a quarter of middle school English teachers reported frequently teaching foundational reading skills like phonics and word recognition — “things that should be mastered in lower grades,” according to Shapiro.
Older Students Left Behind
By middle school, the consequences of poor literacy skills pop up across academic disciplines, like in Lee’s middle school science class.
“If they have trouble reading independently, they’ll have problems with other things as well; it’s not just language arts teachers, it impacts everyone,” Shapiro explains.
Many reading experts have used the same example: a young child learns to read and understand the word “cat,” but that same child struggles when he gets older and comes across that same set of letters — c-a-t — in new, more complex words like “vacation” and “education.”
“It’s that application into complex words that we basically didn’t teach kids anywhere in our system, in the same explicit way we do with younger kids,” Kockler says.
Ideally, no child would arrive in middle school unable to keep up with his or her assigned reading. Some states are taking efforts to ensure that does not happen, with Louisiana, for example, passing a law in 2023 requiring students to be held back if they do not pass their state reading test unless they qualify for an exemption.
In the interim, though, older students with reading issues are still getting neglected. And researchers are at a loss about how it happens.
“From our research we don’t really know exactly how these kids are getting to middle and high school and struggling with reading,” Shapiro says of RAND’s findings. “There’s this focus on K-3, without a lot of resources dedicated to helping the kids in secondary school that fell through the cracks.”
Identifying struggling students can be challenging. And there seems to be a major disconnect between what parents think about their children’s literacy skills and the reality. While 88 percent of parents believe their child is reading at grade level, only roughly 30 percent of students fall into that camp, according to a 2023 Gallup poll.
Most older students, once they hit a certain age, read independently — making it difficult for parents to know how well their child is grappling with the content. Meanwhile, some students with poor reading skills are able to cobble together their own tactics to understand assignments, and may not be initially flagged as reading below grade level.
Time and Training Needed
For older students who have been flagged as weak readers, there are traditional protocols for offering them additional support. Kevin Smith, who, along with Lee, co-founded the Adolescent Literacy Alliance, says in most schools, struggling students will leave their home classroom to work with a reading interventionist in the day, if the school has one. Other students get more intensive training, focusing on fewer skills for a longer amount of time.
The missing piece: Implementing reading strategies in every class, across all grade levels — not just language arts classrooms.
“We can’t intervene our way out of instruction,” Smith says. “There’s not enough time in the world to get caught up if they’re not getting help throughout the day.”
Most of that instruction tends to happen in the earlier grades.
“There’s learning to read, then reading to learn,” Tim Rasinki says, quoting an oft-used phrase. He taught middle school students before becoming a reading interventionist. “Even beyond grades three and four, there’s still things you need to learn about reading. Critical thinking is a huge thing, but those [reading skills] need to be taught as well. I’m not sure the extent they are.”
Yet according to the EdWeek survey, 38 percent of educators said they are getting no training in how to handle older students reading below grade level, with roughly a quarter teaching themselves. The remaining 38 percent stated they are receiving training, from either their school, district, or state agency.
Many of the dozens of new state laws explicitly discuss teacher training, with California going as far as to mandate that universities change their teacher training programs. Other organizations, like the Reading Institute, have rolled out a free, 10-hour “Intro to the Science of Reading Course” for all New York City-based teachers.
But teachers say they have an increasingly loaded plate juggling stressors including test scores and keeping curriculum on a set schedule.
As for building in more time for improved literacy teaching, “We’ve heard, ‘Look, Lincoln has to be dead by Christmas; how can we do that?’” Smith says. He advises teachers to focus on implementing evidence-based reading strategies on texts that are most challenging.
Katey Hills, the assistant superintendent for Governor Wentworth Regional School District in New Hampshire, said there was some pushback when her district initially began requiring professional development to teach science of reading techniques. Each of the kindergarten through sixth grade teachers had to undergo training, along with seventh and eighth grade English teachers.
“If you’re waiting, you’re a bit behind the times,” she says. “It is a lot of change and change is hard but it can be done. It’s really important that teachers are trained and you give them the support, but it can be done. Once teachers start seeing the results, it sells itself.”
She recommends creating a task force to hear from teachers on best adoptions for the material.
The district just put the program into place widely last year, but already, one first grade classroom is 100 percent literate.
Meanwhile, Lee and Kockler both say they are optimistic about the future of literacy for older students.
“Mississippi and Louisiana are incredible examples of when you have good research and tools to deploy, you can see real results,” Kockler says, adding the next step is to get more clarity and better tools focused on helping older children’s literacy. “I feel very hopeful. But there’s a lot of work to do, for sure.”
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A global shortage is responsible for every electronics and computer manufacturer in the world — including Apple — paying twice as much for RAM and flash storage as it did in 2025, and 10 times more than it paid in 2020. Here’s why there is little hope of that improving anytime soon.
Memory is in short supply globally — Image credit: SK Hynix
Apple has historically been able to closely control the cost of its components. Buying in huge numbers, from multiple suppliers has historically given an economy of scale that made Apple a sought-after customer for everything from display makers to storage vendors.
But that dynamic has changed. A global shortage of key components like memory and storage has seen the price of both skyrocket. Apple is far from the only company impacted.
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For 2026, the comparison between baseline iPhone and Android flagships comes down to two phones that are closer than they’ve ever been — the Galaxy S26 at $899 and the iPhone 17 at $799. Same form factor, same screen size, very different philosophies.
We’ve broken down everything that actually moves the needle — design, display, performance, cameras, battery, and software — because the right phone isn’t the one with the longer spec sheet. It’s the one that fits how you actually use it.
Price and availability
The iPhone 17 kicks off at $799 with 256GB baked in from the start — no arguing with that. The Galaxy S26 lands at $899 for 256GB. Last year’s S25 was $859, so Samsung snuck in a $40 increase, and the ongoing memory shortage got the blame.
So there’s a $100 gap sitting between these two phones right out the gate. Whether the S26 justifies it over the iPhone 17 — or whether Apple’s just quietly winning on value before the comparison even starts — is what the rest of this piece is for.
Design
Pick up the S26 and the iPhone 17 back-to-back and the first thing you think is: did these two companies share a blueprint? Heights are dead-even at 149.6mm. Width differs by 0.2mm — which doesn’t make a different in real life.
Apple’s phone is thicker at 7.95 mm versus Samsung’s 7.2 mm, and heavier too, tipping the scales at 177 grams against the S26’s 167 grams. What gives away Samsung’s entry-level flagship is its boxy corners, which are immediately recognizable against the rounded corners on the iPhone 17.
Both phones use aluminum frames, so nobody’s winning a materials fight there. The glass is where they split — Gorilla Glass Victus 2 front and back on the S26, and Apple’s Ceramic Shield 2 on the iPhone 17’s front, which Apple says scratches three times less easily than regular glass.
Dunking either one is fine either way; IP68 on both. The S26 comes in Black, Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, and White — pick one and people will notice. The iPhone 17 gives you Black, White (my personal favorite), Mist Blue, Sage, and Lavender — tones quiet enough that your phone practically whispers.
Display
Both screens measure 6.3 inches, so that argument ends before it starts. Where things get interesting is everything underneath that number.
The iPhone 17 sports a 2622 x 1206 pixel OLED panel at 460 ppi, sharper than the Galaxy S26’s panel, which maxes out at FHD+ with 2340 x 1080 pixels (411 ppi). The S26’s display is fine, looks good, and frankly most people won’t lose sleep over it. Side-by-side though, the difference shows (I hope Samsung sees it as well).
The S26 peaks at 2,600 nits outdoors, which handles most sunny days well enough. The iPhone 17 pushes to 3,000 nits — and upon using it side by side with the Galaxy S25 (which shares its peak brightness with the S26), I found the iPhone to be noticeably brighter, especially under direct sunlight.
Both do 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rates, so scrolling feels equally fluid on either one. Then there’s always-on display — both phones keep your notifications visible without fully waking the screen, which sounds minor until you’ve used it for a week and then picked up a phone without it.
While I’ve grown accustomed to the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 17, you might not like it in the first glance, especially if you’re upgrading from an Android phone with a punch-hole camera — that’s something to keep in mind as well.
Performance
Specs-wise, Samsung shows up with more — Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, 3nm, 12GB RAM. Apple brings the A19 and 8GB. On a spec sheet that reads as a clean Samsung win, but phones aren’t spec sheets.
Benchmarks tell a messier story. The S26 pulls ahead when multiple cores are working together, which is relevant for heavy multitasking. The scores are almost similar in the single-core test, which is what your phone actually leans on for most things — launching apps, typing, switching between tasks. All-in-all, both phones offer similar (read excellent) day-to-day performance.
The RAM gap is where it gets more practical. Twelve gigabytes means more apps stay open in the background without reloading. If your phone use involves juggling a lot at once, the S26 has more headroom. And yes, both are perfectly capable of handing the most demanding games at high frame rates, it’s just the matter of whether the developer has included support for it or not.
I’ve been using the iPhone 17 for about six months now, and I haven’t, for once, felt that the phone doesn’t offer enough CPU or GPU performance, especially when needed. That’s the thing with top-tier mobile chipsets; they’ve got more horsepower than most people can use upfront, but it helps maintaining the performance in the long-term.
Operating System
The S26 runs One UI 8.5 on Android 16 — the most put-together version of Samsung’s skin yet. Rounder, cleaner, and stuffed with settings you’ll spend a Sunday afternoon exploring.
Galaxy AI actually pulls weight now: Now Nudge suggests replies by reading your screen context, Call Screening stops unknown callers before your phone buzzes, and Audio Eraser finally works inside YouTube and Instagram, not just Samsung’s own apps. Bixby gets Perplexity as backup for the questions it used to fumble.
iOS 26 got a full face-lift with Liquid Glass — translucent menus and icons that split opinion pretty cleanly between “stunning” and “bit much.” Apple Intelligence handles real-time translation across calls, Messages, and FaceTime, though it’s not as useful as Galaxy AI. The ecosystem perks, however, are still superior.
Samsung commits to seven years of operating system and security updates, while Apple usually provides around five to six years of software support.
Cameras
The S26 has a 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, and a dedicated 10MP 3x telephoto. The iPhone 17 runs a 48MP main at f/1.6, a 48MP ultrawide, and a 2x “zoom” that’s just the main sensor being cropped — not a real telephoto lens.
Daylight shots on both look great, full stop. Where they differ is taste. Samsung cranks up the saturation and contrast — your photos come out looking like they’ve already been edited, ready to post. Apple mostly shows you what was there, i.e., the camera reproduces natural, neutral colors.
After dark, the iPhone quietly holds its own. Apple’s Night Mode has been one of the best in the business for years (along with the f/1.6 aperture). Zoom goes the other way. A real 3x optical lens on the S26 versus Apple’s cropped 2x is a clear hardware win for Samsung.
The most unique thing about the iPhone 17’s camera system is its selfie shooter — an 18MP (f/1.9) square-shaped camera sensor that can capture super wide selfies in multiple aspect ratios. Apple surely needs to bump up the resolution for the visual area the sensor covers, but even so, Samsung’s 12MP sensor is no match for it.
Video on both is strong at 4K/60fps with good stabilization. Apple’s color science gives it a slight edge in footage quality, plus the sensor-shift stabilization works like a charm, but the S26 shoots 8K if that’s something you need. Most people don’t, but the option exists.
Battery
The S26 has a bigger tank — 4,300mAh versus the iPhone 17’s 3,692mAh — and Samsung claims 31 hours of video playback to Apple’s 30. One hour in it, with a notably smaller cell on Apple’s side. That gap says more about the A19’s efficiency than it does about the S26’s battery.
Charging is where iPhone pulls ahead. With 40W wired charging, the handset reaches 50% in roughly 25 minutes. The S26 still sits at 25W — same as its last two predecessors. Wireless is where the gap reopens. The iPhone 17 does 25W via MagSafe; the S26 base model caps at 15W standard wireless.
Conclusion
The S26 makes a stronger case on paper. More RAM, a bigger battery, a real telephoto lens, 8K video, and One UI 8.5 giving you enough customization to keep a hobbyist busy for weeks. It’s the better phone for power users, Android loyalists, and anyone who shoots a lot of zoom photos or wants their phone to last the full day.
The iPhone 17 wins on the things that are harder to put in a spec sheet. Faster charging, better low-light photography, smoother sustained performance under load, the refreshing iOS 26 experience, and an ecosystem so tightly integrated it borders on a lifestyle choice. If you own a Mac, iPad, or AirPods, the iPhone 17 doesn’t just work well — it works together in a way the S26 can’t replicate.
Netflix’s mystery series Wednesday reinvigorated the Addams Family for the modern age, becoming one of the streaming giant’s most-watched shows. It’s only natural that Netflix keep the hype running with Wednesday‘s upcoming third season.
There’s a lot we can expect to see from Wednesday after season 2. It’s unclear what Wednesday and her peers will encounter in the next season, but what makes the show so fun is watching the mystery unfold. In all fairness, we don’t like waiting years for more episodes. Don’t fret. We’ve got you covered with everything you need to know about Wednesday season 3.
What’s the story of Wednesday season 3?
Netflix Tudum wrote that in season 3, “a new wave of insidious interlopers will be darkening the doors of Nevermore Academy.” Wednesday showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar said to Tudum that the third season will also “excavate some long-rotting Addams Family secrets.”
“Our goal for Season 3 is the same as it is for every season: to make it the best season of Wednesday we possibly can,” said Gough. “We want to continue digging deeper into our characters while expanding the world of Nevermore and Wednesday.”
These statements fit with what we saw as Wednesday left Nevermore with Uncle Fester and Thing in search of her alpha werewolf bestie, Enid. In this ending to season 2, Wednesday had a vision of her Aunt Ophelia, imprisoned by Grandmama Frump and writing in blood, “Wednesday Must Die,” suggesting some of the Addams family’s skeletons will come out of the closet.
When will Wednesday season 3 come out?
Since Wednesday season 3 is so early into production, there is no release date set at this time. We can’t see into the future like Wednesday Addams, but it is likely she will return in 2027. Though the second season premiered three years after the first, the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strike stalled production for several months. Barring any future delays, the wait for season 3 should last a total of two years rather than three.
When and where is Wednesday season 3 filming?
Production for Wednesday season 3 started in February 2026, according to Netflix Tudum. Like with season 2, filming will take place near Dublin.
Who will return in Wednesday season 3?
As usual, Wednesday will feature a vast, quirky cast of characters in season 3, including members of the Addams Family and Wednesday’s classmates at Nevermore Academy.
- Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams
- Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams
- Luis Guzman as Gomez Addams
- Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams
- Joana Lumley as Grandmama Hester Frump
- Joy Sunday as Bianca Barclay
- Georgie Farmer as Ajax Tanaka
- Moosa Mostafa as Eugene Ottinger
- Evie Templeton as Agnes DeMille
- Victor Dorobantu as Thing
- Winona Ryder as Tabitha
- Emma Myers as Enid Sinclair
- Hunter Doohan as Tyler Galpin
- Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester
- Billie Piper as Isadora Capri
- Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as Santiago
- Oscar Morgan as Atticus
- Kennedy Moyer as Daisy
- Noah Taylor as Cyrus
- Chris Sarandon as Balthazar
- Eva Green as Ophelia Frump
Who’s new to Wednesday season 3?
Just like season 2, Wednesday‘s third season will welcome plenty of new characters to Nevermore Academy. Actors joining the cast next season include Winona Ryder (Stranger Things), Chris Sarandon (Dog Day Afternoon, The Princess Bride), Noah Taylor (Peaky Blinders, Game of Thrones), Oscar Morgan (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), and Kennedy Moyer (Task, Roofman).
In an interview with Netflix Tudum, Gough and Millar shared a statement praising Eva Green and her performance as Wednesday’s Aunt Ophelia:
“Eva Green has always brought an exhilarating, singular presence to the screen — elegant, haunting, and beautifully unpredictable. Those qualities make her the perfect choice for Aunt Ophelia. We’re excited to see how she transforms the role and expands Wednesday’s world.”
Green also said to Tudum, “I’m thrilled to join the woefully twisted world of Wednesday as Aunt Ophelia. This show is such a deliciously dark and witty world, I can’t wait to bring my own touch of cuckoo-ness to the Addams family.”
Winona Ryder’s casting is also particularly noteworthy. The actor has frequently starred as a main player in producer Tim Burton’s films. Most recently, she starred alongside Jenna Ortega in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Whether or not Ryder’s new character will support Wednesday on her journey, it will be exciting to see the former reignite her on-screen chemistry with Ortega.
Are there any trailers for Wednesday season 3?
On February 23, Netflix shared a fiendishly flamboyant video announcing that production for Wednesday season 3, all while revealing the cast. The trailer also featured a “?” to label one of the season’s cast members, suggesting this mystery character plays an important role that would spoil the story.
Hundreds of employees at Google and OpenAI have urging their companies to in its standoff with the Pentagon over military applications for AI tools like Claude.
The letter, titled “We Will Not Be Divided,” calls on the leadership of both companies to “put aside their differences and stand together to continue to refuse the Department of War’s current demands for permission to use our models for domestic mass surveillance and autonomously killing people without human oversight.” These are two lines that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei should not be crossed by his or any other AI company.
As of publication, the letter has over 450 signatures, almost 400 of which come from Google employees and the rest from OpenAI. Currently, roughly 50 percent of all participants have chosen to attach their names to the cause, with the rest remaining anonymous. All are verified as current employees of these companies. The original organizers of the letter aren’t Google or OpenAI employees; they say are unaffiliated with any AI company, political party or advocacy group.
The open letter is the latest development in the saga between Anthropic and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who to label the company a “supply chain risk” if it did not agree to withdraw certain guardrails for classified work. The Pentagon has also been in talks with Google and OpenAI about using their models for classified work, with earlier this week. The letter argues the government is “trying to divide each company with fear that the other will give in.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told his employees on Friday that the ChatGPT maker will draw the same red lines as Anthropic, according to an internal memo seen by . He told on the same day that he doesn’t “personally think the Pentagon should be threatening DPA against these companies.”
Tech
Smartphone Market To Decline 13% in 2026, Marking the Largest Drop Ever Due To the Memory Shortage Crisis
An anonymous reader shares a report: Worldwide smartphone shipments are forecast to decline 12.9% year-on-year (YoY) in 2026 to 1.1 billion units, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. This decline will bring the smartphone market to its lowest annual shipment volume in more than a decade. The current forecast represents a sharp decline from our November forecast amid the intensifying memory shortage crisis.
According to a new report from market research firm International Data Corporation, global smartphone shipments are expected to total around 1.1 billion units this year, down from 1.26 billion in 2025. This marks a significant downward revision from the company’s November 2025 forecast, which projected a decline of between 0.9…
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Rather than relying on a single model, Perplexity AI’s Computer system functions as an orchestrator across multiple models. Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 serves as the primary reasoning engine, while Gemini handles deep research tasks. Nano Banana generates images, Veo 3.1 produces video, Grok executes lightweight, speed-optimized tasks, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT…
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Loewe has announced the Vega, a new range of compact 4K Ultra HD smart TVs available in 32 and 43-inch sizes.
The Vega sits below Loewe’s flagship Stellar OLED line, which spans 42 to 97 inches and starts at £1,699, but uses VA LCD panels with full-array Direct LED backlighting rather than OLED, a technology choice that allows Loewe to hit higher peak brightness figures across a smaller and more affordable chassis.
The 43-inch model carries 390 LED dimming zones and reaches a peak luminance of 880 cd/m², while the 32-inch version uses 260 dimming zones and reaches 550 cd/m², both figures sitting above what most competing LCD televisions at this screen size typically deliver to living rooms in bright daylight conditions.
Both models support the full range of HDR formats, including Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10, and HLG, with the Vega marking the first time Loewe has offered a 4K Ultra HD panel in a 32-inch format, a size that most manufacturers continue to supply only in Full HD resolution.
The integrated soundbar delivers 60 watts of Class-D amplification developed and tuned by Loewe’s in-house audio team, supporting Dolby Atmos and connecting to external sound systems through HDMI eARC, a configuration that competes more directly with premium soundbar bundles than with the basic speakers typically built into televisions at this screen size.
Smart features and connectivity
Loewe’s os9 smart platform, built on the VIDAA operating system, handles streaming access across Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, and Apple TV, with Apple AirPlay, Miracast, DLNA, and Matter connectivity expanding the Vega’s integration with both Apple and broader smart home ecosystems.
The 43-inch model carries two HDMI 2.1 ports supporting 4K at up to 120Hz alongside VRR and ALLM for low-latency gaming, while the 32-inch version supports 4K at up to 60Hz through its HDMI 2.1 ports, with both models also offering cloud gaming access through Blacknut and Boosteroid via the VIDAA platform.
A brushed aluminium frame, rotatable metal table stand with chrome finish, and integrated cable management with magnetic rear covers reflect the same design discipline Loewe applies across its higher-end OLED TV range, placing the Vega closer in aesthetic approach to Bang and Olufsen than to mass-market LCD televisions at comparable screen sizes.
The Loewe Vega 32-inch is priced at £1650 and the 43-inch at £1900, with both models available through selected Loewe retail partners from March 2026.
For a closer look at how the Vega’s LCD panel compares against the best screens on the market, our guide to the best OLED TVs rounds up the top picks from every major brand.
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