The TCL X11L is the company’s flagship TV for 2026, and it takes a different path than previous TCL mini-LED TVs. A key difference is TCL’s use of Super Quantum Dots (SQD), a new, enhanced quantum dot formulation that allows for full coverage of the BT.2020 color gamut – a claim several other TV brands are also making, but for their new RGB LED sets. If high brightness was the previous goal for flagship TVs, then extended color has become the new frontier.
Assisting the TCL X11L on its extended color quest is an Advanced Color Purity algorithm and new Ultra Color filter. The latter features 5 nanometer particles compared to the 60 nanometer particles in standard mini-LED TVs, and this allows for “more accurate pixel-level color” and more “consistent color saturation,” according to TCL. Moving beyond 100% BT.2020 coverage, the X11L’s specifications cite peak brightness at up to 10,000 nits, with up to 20,000 local dimming zones.
Note that both those numbers are for the 98-inch X11L, not the 75-inch version that TCL sent me for review. The 75-inch model instead features around 11,500 zones, which is still a considerably greater number than you’ll find on other flagship mini-LED TVs. In general, more local dimming zones means higher brightness and deeper, more uniform blacks, and the X11L is helped on that front by TCL’s Halo Control System. This uses a new 26-bit backlight controller and a Dynamic Light Algorithm, along with a reduced optical distance between the TV’s mini-LED backlight modules and light diffuser layer, to virtually eliminate backlight blooming. As you’ll see in the Viewing Impressions section below, the results here are seriously good for a mini-LED TV.
As attention-grabbing as the X11L’s specs are, all that technology comes at a price. The 75-inch version lists for $6,999.99, while the 98-inch X11L clocks in at $9.999.99. Even with recent price drops (the 75-inch X11L can now be found for $3,999.99) that is a big premium over the company’s stepdown SQD Mini-LED TV, the TCL QM8L series. The QM8L has a lower specified peak brightness at 6,000 nits and a lower local dimming zone count at 4,000 (for the top 98-inch screen size), but it provided an excellent overall level of performance when we tested it. The QM8L also has a mostly similar feature set, leaving its much pricier X11L SQD Mini-LED big brother with a lot to prove.
The TCL X11L is the top series in the company’s 2026, SQD Mini-LED TV lineup, followed by the QM8L and QM7L series. It features Super Quantum Dots for extended color, up to 20,000 backlight local dimming zones, and TCL’s high-contrast WHVA 2.0 Ultra Panel with an anti-reflective screen filter. Similar to the QM8L series, X11L TVs are outfitted with TCL’s TSR AI Pro processor, which provides AI-enhanced contrast, color, motion, and upscaling.
Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, and HLG high dynamic range formats are all supported by the X11L, and a planned software update for summer 2026 will add Dolby Vision 2 Max compatibility, providing enhanced features such as bi-directional tone mapping and Authentic Motion de-judder processing. The X11L also has Filmmaker Mode and IMAX Enhanced picture presets plus Intelligent picture and sound modes that make automatic adjustments based on content.
The X11L is the first TCL TV to feature four HDMI 2.1 ports for gaming. These support a 4K/144Hz refresh rate and there’s also 1080p/288Hz and FreeSync Premium Pro support for PC gaming. The TV’s Game Master mode provides a Game Bar pop-up menu for making easy gaming-related picture adjustments, and it also reduces input latency.
TCL clearly put a lot of work into the X11L’s physical design. Its 0.9-depth is alluringly slim for a mini-LED TV, and its polished aluminum side, top and bottom panels give it a luxury look. The support feet carry over the aluminum theme and also provide a solid foundation for the TV. TCL’s ZeroEdge design minimizes the screen’s bezel for a near “all-picture” appearance and there’s a fully backlit remote control with a built-in mic for voice commands.
In addition to its four HDMI 2.1 ports (one with eARC), the X11L has an optical digital audio output, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, an Ethernet jack and an RF input for an antenna. The connections are all located on a side-facing panel on the TV’s back, allowing easy access for wall-mount installations.
The X11L is the second TCL TV series to feature Google TV with the Gemini AI assistant. That feature is also available on the TCL QM8L, and it makes content searching easier and more enjoyable via its conversational format. Using either the mic button located on the remote, or the far-field one located on the TV itself, you can ask, “What are the best Sci-Fi movies?” and then drill deeper with additional queries such as, “Which are the best ones from the past decade?” to get a more refined list.
Google TV with Gemini isn’t just for content searches; like the Gemini app on your phone or laptop, it can be used to research anything. I asked the TV how tornadoes get formed, and it created a multi-slide, multimedia presentation on the topic (adding the caveat that Gemini can make mistakes, of course).
Aside from Gemini, the Google TV platform itself is easy to customize so it presents relevant apps and personalized content recommendations based on your viewing and browsing history. You can play screensavers pulled from the Google TV library, as well as images from your Google Photos account and also Gemini AI-created ones. Additionally, there’s a Live tab on the home screen that lets you view a grid guide of both Freeplay free-to-stream programs and local broadcast channels pulled in by an antenna connected to the TV’s built-in ATSC 3.0 tuner.
TCL doesn’t provide much in the way of specs for the X11L’s built-in speakers other than it has Audio by Bang & Olufsen. There is processing and pass-through support for both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and a quartet of “Ultra Bass” drivers on the TV’s back panel are used to reinforce bass effects in movie soundtracks. Equalizer adjustments in the TV’s Sound menu provide Center and Surround level sliders, and these indicate that there is a dedicated center channel driver in the TV’s front-firing speaker array, alongside dedicated drivers for surround channel information in soundtracks.
Another Sound menu highlight is the Beosonic interface. This lets you customize the TV’s sound to your liking by moving a slider up and down between Bright, Energetic, Warm and Relaxed quadrants. Overall, I found that the X11L’s built-in speakers delivered clear dialogue, clean bass and a decent sense of surround ambience, but the sound also had a somewhat thin quality.
Emphasizing Warm and Relaxed on the Beosonic interface helped a bit here, but the X11L should ideally be paired with a soundbar or external speakers. To that end, support is provided for connecting an optional TCL wireless subwoofer for extended bass, and the X11L is also Dolby Atmos FlexConnect capable, supporting a 4.1.4-channel Atmos speaker configuration using TCL’s Z100 wireless FlexConnect speakers and Z100-SW wireless subwoofer.
After doing some casual viewing with the X11L, I started my testing by making measurements using Portrait Display’s Calman Color Calibration software. Other than disabling the Adaptive Brightness feature, which adjusts brightness automatically based on room lighting, I left the Filmmaker Mode and Standard presets at their default settings for the measurements.
Peak HDR brightness measured on a white 10% window pattern in Filmmaker Mode was 2,174 nits and 465 nits on a 100% (fullscreen) white pattern. In Standard mode, peak HDR brightness on 10% and fullscreen patterns was 4,011 and 407 nits, respectively. The X11L’s peak SDR brightness was notably high, measuring 1,958 nits on a 10% window pattern in Standard mode and 669 nits on a 100% pattern. Those results indicate that the X11L will be a great bright room option for viewing sports, much of which is broadcast or streamed in high definition/standard dynamic range.
So, what about TCL’s 10,000 nits peak brightness specification for the X11L? The highest brightness measurement I recorded was 4,860 nits in Vivid mode, which is roughly half of what TCL claims for the series. Still, the 75-inch X11L’s overall brightness is exceptional, even if there were some odd brightness-related artifacts that I noticed during my subjective viewing tests.
Specifically, the X11 sometimes displayed brightness “pumping” effects where the picture would be super-bright, particularly on a cut from a dark to a bright scene, and then gradually get dimmer. I mainly noticed this when viewing the demonstration footage on the Spears & Munsil Ultra HD Benchmark 4K Blu-ray disc with the HDR10 option selected. The same pumping effect did not show up when I watched the 10,000 nits Dolby Vision version on the disc, however, and I also didn’t see it on any other Dolby Vision HDR content I watched.
A listed benefit of TCL’s SQD Mini-LED tech is 100% BT.2020 color gamut coverage, and while the 89.7% I measured in Filmmaker Mode came up short of that number, it’s still an excellent result and one that’s comparable to the TCL QM8L SQD Mini-LED TV. P3 color gamut coverage was 97.8, another excellent result that matches what I measured on the QM8L.
Delta-E (the margin of error between the test pattern source and what’s displayed on-screen) averaged 3.9 for grayscale and 5.0 for color, both of which are higher than the 3.0 result considered to be the threshold for what’s indistinguishable from perfect to the human eye. Unfortunately, the TV’s White Balance (2- and 20-point) and Color adjustment menus didn’t provide sufficient range to let me fully calibrate the picture, though I was able to make minor improvements to gamma and color point accuracy.
Gamers will want to select the X11L’s Game picture preset and also turn on the Game Master mode in the System menu settings for lowest input lag while gaming. Using a Leo Bodnar input lag meter, I measured 14.5ms for a 4K 60Hz input. With the exception of the QM8L, which measured 9.8ms on the same test, that result is comparable to past TCL TVs I’ve tested.
Running through my regular slate of 4K Blu-ray demo clips post-adjustment, the X11L’s picture looked fantastic on the James Bond movie No Time to Die. Skin tones were accurate, and there was impressive black depth and shadow detail in dark scenes. A scene where Bond traverses a rocky hillside cemetery did show a degree of judder, though this could be fixed without adding any soap opera effect by setting both the Judder and Blur sliders in the Clarity menu’s Custom Motion mode to 3.
Switching back to the Spears & Munsil disc, demo clips showing flowers, birds, and lizards against a stark black background revealed virtually no backlight blooming. Equally impressive was the TV’s micro-contrast in an overhead shot of a city at night. A mini-LED TV with average local dimming control will typically show some degree of light bleeding in this sequence, which limits the overall contrast level and softens detail. On the X11L, however, the black level remained rock solid, and highlight detail was clearly defined.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse has been one of my recent go-to 4K discs for testing color on TVs, and the X11L looked every bit as good as the QM8L when it came to color saturation and detail. Overall, I thought the computer-animated picture here looked punchier and overall better owing to the X11L’s superior contrast and shadow detail. I had similar thoughts when I watched scenes from Alien: Romulus, another movie with plenty of scenes with bold colors and bright objects pitted against dark backgrounds.
The X11L’s 4K upconversion of standard HD programs was excellent. When I watched a PBS documentary on the American naturalist and writer Henry David Thoreau, fine details in shots of the Massachusetts and Maine woods were clearly defined, and so was the inky scrawl in close-up shots of Thoreau’s journals. The set’s anti-reflection screen also did a good job of minimizing glare from lights and open windows when I watched this doc during the day, and its color saturation was mostly maintained when viewing from far off-center seats.
TCL’s flagship X11L SQD Mini-LED TV is as bright as TVs get, and with its extended color gamut coverage and refined local dimming, it delivers truly attention-grabbing picture quality. TCL has claimed the X11L to be the “best overall TV in the industry,” and there’s plenty here to back up that statement.
With a discounted price of $3,999.99 for the 75-inch model I tested, the X11L is still about as expensive as TVs get. At that cost, you’ll be wondering what else it has to offer other than a great picture, and in this case the extras include a slim, premium design, better-than-average built-in sound, and Google TV enhanced with the Gemini interactive AI assistant. The X11L will also be made Dolby Vision 2 Max compatible with a software update scheduled for later in the year, and that same update will also add an Intelligent Device Control feature that will let you adjust picture and sound settings using voice commands.
About the only thing stopping me from giving the TCL X11L a full two thumbs up recommendation is the TCL QM8L, which provided nearly as impressive performance when I tested it, and was much easier to calibrate for an accurate picture. It also packs many of the same features as the X11L. The price for the 75-inch QM8L dropped from $2,999.99 to $1,999.99 since I reviewed it, making it a dramatically less expensive option than the X11L. The TCL X11L is undeniably a great TV, but there are clearly better values to be had.
Over the past two weeks, those of us who spent hours mulling over the Strogg combat from Quake 4 have been in for a treat, a 10-minute clip of the previously unfinished expansion. The Awakening has appeared on the internet. That’s right, Justin Marshall has now produced a clean version free of the obvious watermarks that were muddying up prior versions of the footage. Anyone viewing can now see a truly raw early prototype build straight from the creators, with all of the bells and whistles intact as they were when the team ceased working on it.
Ritual Entertainment was the team behind the project, and they had the Quake formula down pat after honing their talents with one of their previous mission packs. Unfortunately for them, the parent firm, Activision, canceled the entire project after Quake 4 sales fell short of expectations. According to reports, the expansion was 95% ready at the time, with a few scraps reaching users via the version 1.3 patch. The original game had a napalm launcher and eight new multiplayer levels, as well as a new team-based mode dubbed DeadZone, which sparked a lot of interest.
Sale
The new footage jumps right into the campaign, with cutscenes that use straightforward blocking and conversation to introduce the new group and task. It seems like a homecoming as we join up with the marines who have been through so much and hear their experiences as they trade them on the transport during Operation Sentinel. The squad joins up with Atlas walker forces and Hades infantry to take down one of Strogg’s oldest raw materials processing plants, as the aim is simple: get in there, grab some data, and then blow it up.
Naturally, not everything goes as planned. Anti-aircraft fire appears out of nowhere and whacks the dropship, causing it to take significant damage and rapidly lose altitude, with the crew calling out coordinates and warnings as the engines begin to shut down. You have to make quick judgments, and one of the team members must cut the harness so that the team can jump to safety or at least lower ground. It’s chaos, with shouts and the sound of metal ripping apart as the dropship battles to stay airborne long enough for everyone to escape.
When the crew hits the ground, the pace kicks up again, and we’re back in the Quake 4 groove, with Strogg turrets hammering the area and friendly walkers and troops locked down. You know the score; move low, use your cover, and wait for partner forces to call in reinforcements. There are supply tubes that provide a secondary route to the injured walkers for plate repairs. Clearing those tunnels and continuing the offensive are critical for progress.
Even though we are still looking at an early build, the level design maintains the tight flow of movement and shooting that defines Quake 4. The surroundings combine industrial Strogg architecture with the tight passageways and open kill zones that fans are already accustomed to. Of course, there are a few reminders that we’re looking at an unfinished prototype; placeholder textures and some weird animations here and there indicate that this is still a work in progress, not the finished product.
[Source]
Audio Advice is heading west. The Raleigh-based high-end audio and home theater retailer, already one of the largest players in the Southeast, has announced its expansion into Las Vegas with Chris Oram appointed as General Manager of the new location. After moving into the Midwest last year and with another Audio Advice Live event scheduled for August, the Las Vegas move suggests the company is no longer thinking like a regional retailer.
Sin City may be better known for casinos, spectacle, and bad decisions made after midnight, but it is also a serious luxury market and that makes it fertile ground for custom theaters, premium two-channel systems, and CI projects with real budgets.
The Las Vegas move also makes sense once you look beyond the Strip, the casinos, and the tourists who think a $38 cocktail is a personality trait. Henderson, Summerlin, Anthem, and other affluent suburbs around the valley have become landing spots for wealthy buyers relocating from California, Washington, and other high-tax markets, bringing the kind of homes and budgets that support serious custom theaters and high-end audio systems.
Vegas is also no longer just a weekend escape hatch; it is becoming a major sports and technology market, with the Raiders already in town, the Athletics relocation underway, the Golden Knights proving that hockey can own the desert, and the NBA formally exploring Las Vegas as a potential expansion city. Add Mitch Marner’s new eight-year, $96 million Golden Knights deal to the mix, and yes — he can probably afford something with more channels than a Rogers cable package. Audio Advice Las Vegas might be arriving at exactly the right moment.
Audio Advice is expanding into the western U.S. with a new super-showroom in Las Vegas, marking the company’s latest move beyond its Southeast roots and recent Midwest expansion. The new location will operate at 750 Pilot Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89119, with former Eagle Sentry executive and industry veteran Chris Oram appointed General Manager to lead the launch and growth of the storefront.
Audio Advice’s modern showroom model is built around letting customers experience complete systems in person, from smart home control and lighting to two-channel audio and full-scale home theater systems. That matters in a category where photos, spec sheets, and YouTube demos can only do so much. At some point, you need to sit down, dim the lights, press play, and see whether the system delivers or just looks expensive in walnut.
“Chris is an exceptional leader with deep industry expertise and a proven track record of building high-performing teams and delivering outstanding customer experiences. His passion for innovation, operational excellence, and commitment to the client journey make him the ideal person to lead our expansion into Las Vegas,” said Jonathan Stephens, Chief Revenue Officer of Audio Advice. “We’re thrilled to welcome Chris to Audio Advice as we continue building world-class experiences for customers nationwide.”
Oram’s appointment also gives Audio Advice someone with established local market experience and a background in custom integration, which should matter in a city where residential AV projects can quickly move from “nice media room” to “Bond villain bunker with Dolby Atmos.”
“I’m incredibly excited to join Audio Advice and be part of this next chapter,” shares Chris Oram, General Manager of Audio Advice Las Vegas. “I’ve admired Audio Advice for years. As a longtime YouTube subscriber, I’ve always appreciated their dedication to authentic, expert guidance and helping customers make confident decisions. They’ve also built an incredible community, something I’ve had the opportunity to experience firsthand at Audio Advice Live. I’m honored to bring that same passion for excellence to the West Coast and create exceptional experiences for clients in Las Vegas.”
Audio Advice Las Vegas is a smart move because the company is not just opening another retail box with demo rooms and a few expensive loudspeakers under dramatic lighting. The bigger play is customer experience, education, and regional reach. Based on our experience at Audio Advice Live 2025, and with Audio Advice Live 2026 coming this August, Audio Advice has shown that it understands something a lot of the high-end audio industry still pretends not to know: people need to hear it, see it, touch it, ask questions, and feel like they are part of the process before they commit real money. “Trust us, it’s good” is not a sales strategy. It’s what villains say before the trapdoor opens.
The Las Vegas location gives Audio Advice a serious foothold in the western U.S. and a market filled with luxury homes, custom integration opportunities, and customers who are not afraid of premium experiences when those experiences are properly explained. It also raises a very interesting question: could Audio Advice Live Las Vegas eventually become a thing? Nothing has been announced, so let’s not pretend the dice have already landed. But Vegas already has the hotels, infrastructure, airport access, and national draw to support something like that. CES is still huge, but outside of TVs and some scattered audio demos, it has largely stopped being a meaningful high-end audio and home theater show. That leaves room.
Could an Audio Advice Live event in Las Vegas pull attention from T.H.E. Show Las Vegas or even T.H.E. Show SoCal? Possibly. Not because Audio Advice would simply be another show on the calendar, but because its formula is different. Audio Advice is a retailer with access to some of the best brands in the world, but its real strength is the face-to-face educational model: curated systems, real demos, expert guidance, and customers who can ask actual questions without being treated like they wandered into the wrong velvet-rope room.
Audio Advice is betting that the West Coast and Southwest luxury AV market is ready for a larger, experience-driven showroom model. In Sin City, that may be one of the smarter bets on the board.
AUDIO ADVICE LAS VEGAS
750 Pilot Rd
Las Vegas, NV 89119
Phone: (702) 381-1899
Duolingo beat every Q1 estimate, then told investors it would slow monetization to chase 100 million daily active users by 2028. The stock dropped 14 per cent as the market priced the risk that AI will commoditise language learning before the bet pays off.
TL;DR
Duolingo beat every Wall Street estimate for the first quarter of 2026. Revenue rose 27 per cent year on year to 292 million dollars. Earnings per share came in at 89 cents against expectations of 76 cents. Daily active users grew 21 per cent to 56.5 million. Paid subscribers grew 21 per cent to 12.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 29 per cent. Then CEO Luis von Ahn told investors that the company was going to slow down on purpose. Duolingo would prioritise user engagement and long-term growth over near-term monetization. Bookings growth would decelerate to six per cent in the second quarter. Full-year guidance called for 10 to 12 per cent bookings growth, 15 to 18 per cent revenue growth, and a 25 per cent EBITDA margin, all below the trajectory the stock price had priced in. The shares fell 14 per cent. The stock is now down more than 40 per cent in 2026 and roughly 80 per cent from its all-time high. Von Ahn is not concerned. He is making a bet that in the age of AI, the only thing that will keep Duolingo alive is the thing that made it successful in the first place: the daily habit.
Von Ahn’s letter to shareholders laid out the logic with unusual directness. Duolingo’s goal is to reach 100 million daily active users by 2028, nearly doubling its current base. To get there, the company is investing in product improvements that increase engagement, even when those improvements reduce short-term revenue. The most significant change is expanding access to features that were previously locked behind the paid subscription. Longer free trials, free access to the Explain My Answer feature that uses GPT-4, and a redesigned progression system are all designed to keep users coming back daily. The calculation is that users who build a daily habit are more likely to convert to paid subscribers eventually, and that the lifetime value of a habitual user exceeds the subscription revenue lost by giving away features in the short term.
The product roadmap supports the thesis. Duolingo’s AI-powered language tutors were among the first consumer chatbot implementations that actually worked, and the company has continued to invest in AI features that make the learning experience more conversational and less mechanical. Video Call, a feature that lets users practise speaking with an AI character called Lily who responds in real time, is being expanded beyond the Max subscription tier. Speaking Adventures, a new feature that places users in simulated real-world scenarios, is designed to address the gap between app-based language learning and actual conversation. Spoken Tokens, a currency earned by completing speaking exercises, adds a gamification layer to the part of language learning that users find most intimidating. Every feature is built to increase time spent in the app, which increases habit strength, which increases the probability that a free user eventually pays.
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The urgency behind the strategy is not financial. It is competitive. ChatGPT can already conduct a fluent conversation in more than 50 languages, correct grammar in real time, and adapt its vocabulary to the learner’s level. Google’s Gemini models can do the same, integrated into the world’s most widely used search engine and mobile operating system. Google has experimented with dedicated language learning features built on its translation and AI infrastructure, and the combination of a free product, a massive distribution channel, and increasingly capable language models makes Google the most dangerous potential competitor Duolingo has ever faced. Meta’s Llama models, available open-source, allow any developer to build a language tutoring application with conversational AI at near-zero marginal cost. The technical moat that Duolingo built over a decade, a structured curriculum delivered through an addictive app, is being commodified by AI models that can generate equivalent instruction on demand.
Von Ahn has acknowledged this openly. In the earnings call, he described language learning as one of the first consumer categories where AI would fundamentally change the competitive landscape. Google’s AI agent strategy positions conversational AI as a platform-level capability available across every Google product, from Search to Android to Workspace. If language practice becomes a feature of the operating system rather than a standalone app, Duolingo’s value proposition narrows to the things AI cannot easily replicate: the streak counter, the leaderboard, the push notification that arrives at 7 p.m. reminding you that your 847-day streak is about to break. The gamification is not a gimmick. It is the product. And von Ahn is betting that it is more defensible than the curriculum.
The disconnect between Duolingo’s operating performance and its stock price reflects a market that is not sure whether the engagement bet will pay off. Revenue growth of 27 per cent is strong by any measure. Subscription revenue of 251 million dollars, up 31 per cent, demonstrates that the paid model works. The 29 per cent EBITDA margin shows operational leverage improving as the user base scales. But the forward guidance, six per cent bookings growth in Q2 and 10 to 12 per cent for the full year, represents a deliberate deceleration that investors are not accustomed to from a company that has been one of the market’s highest-growth consumer technology stocks.
The institutional revenue story adds a complication. Duolingo’s English Test, which allows users to take a certified language proficiency exam through the app, has become a meaningful revenue stream and a competitive alternative to TOEFL and IELTS. But the test business operates on different economics from the consumer subscription: it depends on institutional acceptance, which grows slowly, and on immigration and education policy, which changes unpredictably. The consumer subscription business, which accounts for the vast majority of revenue, is the segment that von Ahn is reshaping. The question investors are pricing is whether the engagement-first strategy produces 100 million daily active users by 2028, or whether it produces a larger free user base that is harder to monetise in an environment where AI has made the core product less differentiated.
The pattern of legacy software products adding AI features to defend their market position is now visible across the technology industry. Slack rebuilt its Slackbot around AI to compete with Microsoft’s Copilot integration. Adobe added generative AI to every creative tool. Notion, Canva, and dozens of other productivity applications have embedded AI assistants that perform tasks their products were originally designed for humans to do manually. In each case, the company’s defence is not the AI itself, which competitors can replicate, but the user base, the workflow integration, and the switching costs that keep customers on the platform. Duolingo’s version of that defence is the habit loop: the streaks, the experience points, the league tables, and the social pressure that make opening the app feel like a daily obligation rather than a choice.
OpenAI has released open-source safety tools specifically designed for applications used by teenagers, acknowledging that AI consumer products face unique regulatory and safety requirements when their user base skews young. Duolingo’s user base includes a significant proportion of students and young learners, and the company’s ability to deploy AI features responsibly while maintaining engagement is both a competitive advantage and a regulatory exposure. The AI features that make Duolingo’s product more compelling, conversational AI tutors, real-time speech recognition, adaptive difficulty, are the same features that attract regulatory scrutiny when deployed at scale to younger users.
What von Ahn is doing is unusual in public markets: telling investors that the company will be less profitable in the short term so that it can be larger in the long term, and asking them to trust that the engagement metrics, not the financial metrics, are the ones that matter. The bet is that daily active users are the leading indicator and that revenue is the lagging one. If Duolingo reaches 100 million DAUs, the monetization will follow because 100 million people who open an app every day represent an audience that advertisers, content partners, and premium subscribers will pay to reach. If it does not, the company will have sacrificed years of revenue growth for a user base that AI competitors can serve for free.
The stock market’s 14 per cent verdict on Sunday night was not a rejection of the strategy. It was an acknowledgement that the strategy carries real risk. Duolingo is trading at roughly 11 times forward revenue, down from more than 30 times a year ago, a compression that reflects the market’s uncertainty about whether engagement-first growth can produce the financial returns that monetization-first growth delivered. Von Ahn has staked his company on the proposition that in a world where AI can teach anyone anything, the only competitive advantage is making people want to come back tomorrow. The owl is the moat. The 14 per cent drop is the price of proving it.
— Yunyan Wang has left Amazon to become chief technology officer at Chewy, the leading online pet retailer. Wang spent more than 12 years at the Seattle-based tech giant, most recently as vice president of Commerce & Supply Chain Services.
“(Wang’s) track record driving innovation at world-class companies makes her the perfect addition as we double down on making Chewy ‘the’ trusted and convenient destination for pet parents and partners, everywhere,” said Chewy CEO Sumit Singh on LinkedIn.
At Amazon, Wang helped expand customer access to Prime Fulfillment, Multi-Channel Fulfillment, Amazon Supply Chain Services and other products — work that fed into the company’s broader push to commercialize its internal logistics capabilities. Amazon took a major step in that direction Monday, launching a business that makes its entire logistics network available to outside companies.
Wang also served two years as technical advisor to Jeff Wilke, Amazon’s first CEO of Worldwide Consumer. She began her tech career in 2001 as a software engineer at Microsoft and later was a director at Expedia.
— Enterprise software company Smartsheet has named Josh Schauer as chief financial officer. The Bellevue, Wash.-based company, which helps businesses organize and track work, last week announced four C-suite changes — two hires and two promotions — and appointed Rajeev Singh as CEO in October.
Schauer will be responsible for building Smartsheet’s revenue model and supporting strategic investments, the company said. He previously served as CFO at insightsoftware and has held leadership roles at Longview Solutions and Verisae. He will work remotely from Minneapolis.
— NetApp has named Alvaro Celis, a longtime Microsoft executive, as chief partner and ecosystem officer, a position in which he will lead the company’s World Partner Organization and build customer relationships.
Celis spent more than three decades at Microsoft before departing in 2024, where he held a series of vice president roles in global sales spanning devices, independent software vendors, education and other areas.
In the new role, Celis said he will focus “on strengthening the ecosystem that will help organizations succeed in this new era by connecting the right technologies, expertise, and outcomes.”
— Greater Seattle Partners (GSP) appointed Shannon Braddock as president and CEO of the regional public-private economic development organization. She succeeds Rebecca Lovell, who has served in an interim capacity since December.
Braddock most recently served as King County executive following Dow Constantine’s resignation to become CEO of Sound Transit. She spent eight years with the county in roles including deputy executive and chief of staff, and has held board positions for organizations focused on transit and homelessness.
At GSP, Braddock will lead efforts “across economic development, international relations, global marketing and research to drive jobs, investment and talent to the Greater Seattle region,” the organization said.
— K&L Gates has named Jake Bernstein to the newly created role of global AI and innovation partner, in which he will lead the Seattle-based firm’s artificial intelligence strategy, governance and innovation operations.
“It’s not every day that one’s professional life transforms from a stately drive around town into a rocket-assisted speed run straight into the Great Unknown,” Bernstein said of the appointment.
Bernstein has been with K&L Gates for more than five years, focusing on data privacy and cybersecurity law. He also teaches as an adjunct professor at Seattle University School of Law. Bernstein previously spent nearly eight years as an assistant attorney general in Washington state’s Consumer Protection Division.
— Robb Monkman is now chief marketing officer at Centegix, an Atlanta-based safety technology company. Monkman is the founder and former CEO of Seattle’s React Mobile, a startup that sells safety software and “panic button” devices primarily to hotels looking to protect their workforce. He joins Centegix from Teal Communications, which provides technology to connect devices to data networks worldwide.
— Following a national search, Seattle’s Fred Hutch Cancer Center named Dr. Christopher Li as director of its Public Health Sciences Division and promoted him to senior VP. Li, who has been with Fred Hutch for more than 15 years, will take the role on July 1. He succeeds Dr. Garnet Anderson, who has led the division for more than 13 years.
— Amazon‘s Marie Carlton has been promoted to director, taking on a new role leading AWS Applied AI Solutions partner go-to-market strategy. Carlton has been with Amazon Web Services for a decade. Her previous role focused on working with AWS partners, and she has led multiple women-in-tech initiatives.
— F5 has named Anand Eswaran to its board of directors. The Seattle-based security company said Eswaran will also serve on the board’s Audit and Talent and Compensation committees. Eswaran is CEO of Veeam, a Kirkland, Wash.-based data protection and ransomware recovery company.
— Yoodli, the AI speech coaching platform, has appointed Georgia Gier as director of customer success. Gier joins the Seattle startup from Kirkland, Wash.-based Enlyft. Past employers include Moogsoft, which was acquired by Dell Technologies, and Seattle’s BrandVerity.
— Aaron Altabet launched Shoal Events & Design, a Seattle-based professional events company that organizes conferences, summits, retreats and other meetups. Altabet has held internship roles at organizations including Pack Ventures and Pioneer Square Labs.
— Sara Dutta is now founder of Ocilisni, a life sciences consultancy based in Kirkland. The firm offers AI strategy, business development and program management. Clients include the Allen Institute and Synthesize Bio.
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Filed Under: daily deal
As it turns out, there’s far more to the humble air compressor than filling up soccer balls and getting soft car tires road-ready again. They’re also compatible with pneumatic tools, which use compressed air power rather than gas or electricity to get the job done. Stores like Harbor Freight have no shortage of these tools, and while some can get pretty expensive, plenty are easy on the wallet. That’s to say some worthwhile options stay below the $100 threshold.
If you’re interested in trying out some pneumatic tools from Harbor Freight, there are a few things to know. First and foremost, you should ensure your specific compressor can handle your tools. Certain air tools require specific air compressor sizes to function, otherwise you risk damaging your compressor, the tool, or both. Also, if you don’t have one already, you’ll want to invest in a good air compressor hose, since tools and tool kits don’t tend to come with them. Fortunately, Harbor Freight has plenty for sale at different sizes, shapes, and price points.
With your hose and air compressor, you’re ready to unlock their hidden potential. Here are some Harbor Freight pneumatic tools that are both wallet-friendly and dependable, according to those who’ve bought them.
Harbor Freight is no stranger to ratchets. It has ratchets of all shapes and sizes, individual sockets, and ratchet-socket kits for sale, as well as the ever-intriguing Harbor Freight 24K gold-plated ratchet. It also has pneumatic ratchets, such as the Central Pneumatic air ratchet wrench, in its inventory. It comes in two drive sizes, 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch, which come in at $21.99 and $25.99, respectively. The 1/4 in. model is advertised at providing a maximum torque of 15 foot-pounds, while the 1/2 in. version provides 45 ft-lbs. Both are marketed with a maximum speed of 150 RPM and 4-vane reversible motors.
While the prices and promised performance are nice at first glance, how do these air ratchets actually hold up on the job? According to Harbor Freight customers, they do quite well. As of publication, 1,637 users have left reviews, amounting to a total rating of 4.4 out of five. The tool is often applauded for its durability, light weight, and small size, making it easy for tight spaces. Most also attest that it has a reasonable amount of power for light-duty jobs. Many were more than happy with how it cut down work time, too, especially compared to the average hand ratchet.
Much like how it has a deep selection of ratchets, Harbor Freight sells numerous staplers at different price points. The bulk of its selection is of the pneumatic variety, though these models do tend to be expensive and soar well past $100. With that said, there are some more budget-conscious units in there worth trying that seem to deliver. For example, the Banks 18-gauge crown air stapler, which Harbor Freight lists for $39.99, seems a viable, cheaper choice. Capable of taking in a 100-staple magazine, this stapler works with 1/4-inch crown staples that range from 5/8 in. to 1 1/2 in. in length. It’s also advertised as a slim, lightweight model ideal for both repetitive work and jobs where space is limited.
This stapler has a 4.7 out of five-star rating on the Harbor Freight website, with 799 of its 1,079 total ratings awarding it five stars. Reviews say it is an easy tool to use that’s effective on the job. Many reviewers have reported that staple jamming isn’t an issue, and neither is the power at which it sends staples through material, so they were able to plow through and get their work done quickly. Additionally, this stapler, being a light unit at 3 pounds, is appreciated by numerous reviewers, as is the construction quality and the price point.
To keep surfaces smooth and shiny, sometimes more than some quality rags and brushes are needed. A powered polisher can achieve these attributes, buffing out imperfections with ease and quickly. There are pneumatic polishers out there, such as the model at the heart of the Central Pneumatic air polisher kit.
At $34.99, this cast aluminum polisher features a pistol grip handle and a rear exhaust to push air and debris away from your work surface. It spins at up to 2,400 RPM. Two foam buffing pads and a single wool polishing pad are included for different polishing and buffing scenarios, though it works with 3-inch discs of the hook-and-loop attachment style.
Up to this point, the reviews for this polisher are largely positive. At 4.4 out of five stars overall, 201 of the 308 reviews gave it five stars. Even though it’s often mentioned that this isn’t a terribly large polisher, that doesn’t mean it should be overlooked. Customers frequently highlighted its power, despite its small frame and 1.53-pound weight, and its penchant for reaching tight spaces that larger buffers miss. It has served Harbor Freight customers well in cleaning up metal and plastic surfaces, and some claimed that the performance, build quality, and number of different jobs it can aid in far exceed the price point.
More often than not, a traditional belt or palm sander will serve you just fine. However, in some cases, you’ll have to contend with tight spaces and corners where these larger sanders simply can’t reach. You could use sandpaper and try to get these areas by hand, or use your air compressor to bring in a more specialized tool. While pricey at $99.99, the Baxter professional belt air sander could help here, utilizing a 1/2-inch-wide sandpaper belt to squeeze into these tight areas. It moves at up to 16,000 RPM, you can adjust the speed with its variable speed trigger, and the rear exhaust sends the sanded material away from the area you’re working on.
There are currently 421 reviews behind this sander, which have brought it to a 4.8 out of five overall star rating. Arguably the biggest plus Harbor Freight customers have highlighted is its versatility, as the narrowness of this tool means it can help out in a host of settings most didn’t even consider initially. It’s regarded as sufficiently fast and light, great at smoothing out wood and metal alike, and user-friendly enough when it comes to use and swapping out worn belts for fresh ones. Some also noted that it’s a tool that will endure regular use over the course of years, so while expensive, odds are it’ll prove to be a long-term investment.
When working with anything harder than wood, you need serious power in your tools. To chip away at metal and stone, typically, an impact hammer is the tool. There are numerous pneumatic tools to choose from, and the more powerful ones are full-on jackhammers or rotary hammers. With that said, the Central Pneumatic air impact hammer kit hooks up to an air compressor and uses its power to punch through metal and stone, remove seized bolts, and more, all at an operating pressure of 90 PSI. Harbor Freight has this tool listed at $24.99, and it includes a flat chisel, though it can use other standard 0.401-inch shank bits.
As far as customer reviews, this is another case of a low-price tool appearing to deliver beyond its price point. 769 reviews have put it at 4.5 out of five stars. It’s said to plow through materials like concrete and tile without issue, remove stuck and rusted bolts with relative ease, and serve its purpose in both home and automotive contexts. Even as a lightweight and rather inexpensive tool, customers note it doesn’t feel cheap or underpowered. While some admit it’s not a tool they use often, when they do need to use it, it doesn’t let them down.
Flock Safety’s reputation is in tatters, thanks in large part to its own actions. First sold as a high-tech add-on for homeowners’ associations and gated communities, it soon spread to law enforcement agencies and the cities that employ them. Promising plenty of access to an existing network of privately-owned cameras, Flock insinuated — if not actually stated as much — that cities buying its systems would have access to recordings and ALPR records gathered elsewhere in the nation.
That has largely proven to be true. Law enforcement officers with access to Flock’s camera network have used it to do things like track the movements of a Texas woman who was seeking an abortion and allowing federal officers to hunt down migrants to detain and deport.
Flock has been so bad on the PR front that national surveillance powerhouse Ring pulled the plug on its fledgling partnership with Flock following backlash to its heartwarming-except-for-all-the-dystopia Super Bowl ad.
Even before the Big Game debacle, Flock had been shedding customers. The private sector still seems as interested as ever, but cities were either turning down Flock’s overtures or terminating their contracts with the surveillance camera company.
Flock still can’t get out of its own way, as Jason Koebler reports for 404 Media:
Residents of an Atlanta suburb have been rocked by the revelation that sales employees at Flock have been accessing sensitive cameras in the town to demonstrate the company’s surveillance technology to police departments around the country. The cameras accessed have included surveillance tech in a children’s gymnastics room, a playground, a school, a Jewish community center, and a pool.
While I can understand parents might appreciate cameras being used to protect their kids, they likely never expected that footage of their kids (sometimes clad in revealing clothing) would be used as a sales tool by Flock Safety.
In addition to Flock employees having access to these cameras and recordings, Flock (and its local law enforcement partners) have apparently been sharing this with hundreds of other government agencies. That’s what Dunwoody, Georgia resident Jason Hunyar discovered via records requests and an examination of information made available by Flock itself.
At the 3/23 city council meeting, Lt. Fecht told the public and the city council that only two external agencies (Brookhaven and Chamblee) can view our liveview cameras and that ‘anything liveview is definitely strictly reviewed and on a case by case’ basis’.
The city’s own audit logs prove otherwise. From the data in this file, just since the start of 2025, 1,271 external agencies have been granted permission to view live streams. 358 external agencies have been granted access to record these streams.
We don’t know who else has been accessing this footage, but the data makes it clear certain Flock sales reps and officials are extremely interested in footage of people in pools, gymnastic classes, and fitness centers.
One Flock employee, Randy Gluck, who lives in Raleigh and is a business development manager for their 911 products, was granted live-view access to our cameras. He looked at 54 cameras, with very strange patterns such as clicking through 5 traffic cameras on July 21st last year before settling on the Dunwoody Library camera. The Flock data does not tell us when he stopped watching that footage, but he didn’t look at anything else for two hours.
Two days later, Randy clicked through 3 private cameras at the JCC before he settled on JCC camera ‘Main Pool Right’. It was over 3 hours later before his next view on traffic cameras.
[…]
This brings me to Bob Carter – Vice President of Strategic Relations and Business Development for Flock. Bob spends a lot of time looking through both our live footage and recorded footage. Just since the beginning of last year, he has done this 185 times.
Bob also has some interesting searches. On September 30th, 2025 – Bob looked at just one camera. This camera is in the gymnastics room of the JCC [Jewish Community Center].
A lengthy apology for all of this was given to the Jewish Community Center by none other than Flock CEO Garrett Langley. And while it’s nice to see an apology being offered, the apology doesn’t include any promises not to do this same sort of thing elsewhere, much less address the very real concerns that a number of Flock Safety employees have unfettered access to live cameras and recorded footage.
“You may have seen that questions have been raised about Flock employees’ access to security cameras near MJCCA property. While there is a lot of misinformation propagated by some of the voices making these allegations, I want to be direct and apologize for our poor judgement.”
[…]
“Because of our relationship with Dunwoody PD as a development partner–meaning we had explicit permission from Dunwoody to use their Flock system for both testing (for product improvement) and demonstration–Flock employees did occasionally access Dunwoody’s devices for those purposes,” Langley added. “I recognize that the choice to use MJCCA, rather than parts of the city, was a poor one on our part. I am cognizant of the additional, well-founded sensitivity of the Jewish community to security concerns at this time. Therefore, I would like to extend a formal apology to you and the entire MJCCA community for this poor decision. Candidly, it is because of the very real security concerns the MJCCA community is feeling that I am so proud of our partnership, and those with Jewish organizations across the country.”
While Flock management is apparently angry that some of its employees are now being called “child predators” following the publication of these access logs, it’s apparently uninterested in curbing access or installing guidelines that might deter questionable viewing habits in the future.
As for the city itself, it doesn’t seem to care that many residents are opposed to further Flock camera use based on what’s been uncovered here. The state’s attorney general took time from his busy running-for-governor schedule to praise Flock and the mayor of Dunwoody for their continued partnership.
When something like this can’t deter cities from continuing to do business with Flock, it makes the allegedly heartfelt apology issued by the company’s CEO look a lot less heartfelt. This isn’t someone offering contrition and promise to do better to a potential customer. This is someone saying the sort of stuff that sounds like contrition but is ultimately meaningless because neither Flock nor the city government actually care what the general public thinks of them.
Filed Under: alpr, dunwoody pd, garrett langley, georgia, surveillance state
Companies: flock, flock safety
Website traffic from AI will surpass traffic from traditional search by 2028. Do you know that almost 70% of businesses report higher return on investment (ROI) with the use of AI in SEO? And this data shows the surging demand and usage of SEO intelligence.
But how is it different from just seo or why is there so much buzz around a separate term? Keep reading to know all about modern-day search engine optimization.
SEO intelligence is all about the process of refining your website to achieve higher rankings on the search engines by collecting, analyzing, and leveraging data related to search engine performance. It gives you a picture of how your website is doing in organic search, how it stands against the competitors, and what the strategy is to do better in search rankings.
This is the most common confusion. Let me clarify for you.
SEO is about the basics of optimizing your website for it to rank better, and it is more about using the right keywords, improving technical seo and tailoring web content accordingly.
Whereas SEO intelligence goes a layer deeper, it is the advancement of the basics that goes with a strategic approach. Here, it is not just about practicing seo but practicing it with the right tools, using data and analysis before deciding what seo actions will be the best for expected outcomes. It is about being precise and making data-backed decisions, and it is a proactive approach.
SEO is about execution, whereas SEO intelligence is about what & why to execute.
These are the 8 top-most benefits of SEO intelligence:
When you are using the right seo tools and each of your decisions is backed by clear figures, facts, and industry insights, it helps you stay ahead of the competition. Moreover, intelligence starts with gathering data, which includes what your competitors are doing, taking note of beneficial strategies from them, and what you should avoid while learning from others’ mistakes.
Use of intelligence in seo processes helps you make informed decisions as you look at analysis and reports rather than playing on assumptions. You can make and maintain highly effective and high-performing plans for traffic generation.
Gives you an understanding of what type of content will work best for your target audience and platform. Better-aligned content leads to higher engagement rates.
It is not only about your website performance on search engines, but also how the website treats users or visitors. Intelligent data gives a view of how your site is utilized by visitors and what can be improved in usability and navigation.
It is a seo process at core, and the purpose of seo is to rank your website higher, which indeed will increase footfalls and consequently conversion rates. Now adding intelligence to basic seo makes these increments much higher.
Applying intelligence while working on seo magnifies the power and scope of expansions. The combination of seo intelligence, search intelligence, product, and market intelligence fosters a holistic and all-rounded strategy.
When you are constantly monitoring your website and using analytics, you can make real-time decisions and improvements, avoiding the piled-up work. This helps to stay effective for a longer period of time as seo keeps working in the background, offering you organic results.
This seo practice allows businesses to focus on high-intent keywords, avoiding budget wastage on irrelevant traffic. Also, it avoids guesswork and works on data, resulting in a higher ROI, allowing savings on paid advertising. It reduces Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).
Focusing beyond keywords and page loading speeds seo intelligence supports in spotting new opportunities by working on user intent, identifying low difficulty keywords, and optimizing SERP features and artificial intelligence. As you deal with data and more in-depth information throughout the process, it automatically improves the technical health of the website and assists in building topical authority.
While working with this format of seo you need to adhere to the following metrics for it to really work as desired:
Before you choose a seo intelligence tool, look at the factors such as automation, data accuracy, prediction capabilities, and scalability to understand whether the tool really meets the needs of intelligence or not.
It is one of the best choices for editorial teams wanting to improve content quality. It offers advanced content grading and checks, ensuring the content is SEO-optimized and human-friendly.
Clearscope bags a strong client base of YouTube, IBM, Adobe, Deloitte, and more.
Some limitations are that it has limited automation, no AI writing at scale, a steeper learning curve, and is expensive for small teams.
Best used for SERP based content briefs and FAQs, and it is a much more economical option to Surfer and Clearscope. It talks about being an all-in-one solution for an intelligent seo process.
Companies like Thomson Reuters, Under Armour, Coursera, Hennessey, and more are the clients held by Frase.
Some fallbacks are shallow optimization compared to Sufer or Clearscope, and constrained scalability for large teams.
It is best suited for big publishers, enterprise sites, and content-heavy SaaS brands. Topical authority and content strategy are strong points of Market Muse by Siteimprove.
Their clients include Orbit Media Studios, ON24, Sumo Logic, and more.
It lacks somewhere because it is a killer for small blogs, has a steep learning curve with required training, and is also expensive.
If you really want to succeed in your search engine optimization, you need to adapt SEO intelligence. Because it will not only tell you to ‘do it’ but will make you understand why, what, and how to do it in a much more effective and efficient way. The process has some important elements, including prediction, content optimization, backlinking, and more, as I have mentioned.
We also discussed some of the best tools for a robust seo intelligence strategy. So you have got it all, what is seo intelligence, its importance, how to practice, what are the best ways and tools you can use. Get going and boost your website ranking and business.
Related: 15 Best International SEO Companies To Grow Your Business
It shouldn’t be any surprise that NFC and similar RFID implementations are capable of providing power to a receiver, since this is after all how RFID tags can work without a battery. The question is more whether you can do more with NFC than just briefly power some low-power circuitry to spit out some data. This is the topic of a recent [Denki Otaku] video.
Although both Qi and NFC use electromagnetic induction, they differ in the frequency and correspondingly the maximum power that they can deliver to a receiver. For NFC this is around a Watt, with the used NFC module supporting up to 250 mW, which already sets the rough scope of what one can expect from an NFC-powered device. That said, an NFC transmitter and receiver can be significantly smaller than those for Qi due to the much higher frequency.
An additional benefit of NFC is that it offers more freedom to the user in its protocol in terms of user data, which is useful for applications where you don’t just want to power a device. In the video an MCU and IMU are powered along with an OLED display, which demonstrates wireless charging as well as data transfer of the IMU data to a second MCU.
The benefits of NFC over Qi would thus be the smaller antenna size, and depending on the used NFC implementation also charging and data transfer at the same time.
The first India’s Favorite Smartphone awards, powered by Flipkart, just wrapped up. And what a stellar night it was. Instead of the usual jury picks, this one was decided by people. Users voted for their favorite smartphones, and the results are actually pretty interesting. If you missed it, here’s everything you need to know.
There was a time when smartphone cameras were just okay. Good enough to take photos in the day, but once the light subsided, so did the quality. Well, that’s not the case anymore. Different smartphone makers excel at various things. Portrait photography, for instance, is clearly a battleground. Phones like the vivo V60 (Best Smartphone for Portraits Under ₹40,000) and the Google Pixel 10 (Best Smartphone for Portraits Above ₹40,000), which won in their respective segments, show how much brands are focusing on skin tones, edge detection, and that DSLR-like look.
Selfies have also made a comeback as a serious category. With devices like the Motorola Edge 60 Pro (Best Smartphone for Selfies between ₹20K – ₹30K) and OPPO Reno14 5G (Best Smartphone for Selfies between ₹30K – ₹40K), it’s clear that front cameras are no longer an afterthought, especially in a creator-first world. Still, the most important thing when it comes to smartphone photography is nighttime shots, and here the vivo X200T took the night photography crown in the above 40K budget. Unsurprisingly, it was Apple that bagged the best video award with the iPhone 17 Pro Max. On the other hand, the best videos award in the 30K-40K segment was won by the vivo T4 Ultra.
Rounding up the camera section, the best smartphone for photography between the 20K-30K was the Motorola Edge 70 Fusion. The same award, but between 30K-40K, was awarded to the vivo V60e. Last but not least, the overall best flagship phone for camera was OPPO Find X9 Pro.
For all the talk about AI and cameras, most people still care about two things: battery life and performance. That’s exactly why budget battery champs like the realme P4 Lite 5G (Best Battery Life Smartphone under ₹10K) and realme P4x 5G (Best Battery Life Smartphone between ₹10K-₹20k) matter. These aren’t flashy devices, but they solve a real problem: getting through the day without constantly looking for a charger.
Gaming, on the other hand, has become its own category entirely. Phones like the OPPO K13 Turbo 5G (Gaming Smartphone of the Year Between ₹20K-₹30K) and POCO X8 Pro Max (Gaming Smartphone of the Year Between ₹30K-₹40K) highlight how performance today isn’t just about benchmarks, it’s about sustained performance, thermals, and real gameplay stability.
Beyond gaming, the other thing that makes or breaks the phone is the software experience. While most phones today have good software, the winner in this category was absolutely clear: Nothing. The Nothing Phone (4a) and CMF by Nothing Phone 2 Pro swept the stage, winning the best software experience both under the ₹20K and ₹30K categories.
But if you just want the best overall performance and a mix of software and gaming, then the iQOO Neo 10R 5G is the way to go in the ₹20K-₹30K category. Build quality is also getting more attention. Devices like the vivo T5x and Motorola Edge 60 Fusion stand out for their in-hand feel and durability. That’s something buyers are starting to notice more than before.
Despite all the innovation happening at the top end, the core of the Indian smartphone market hasn’t really changed. Categories like Best Value 5G and Best All-Rounder exist for a reason. Phones like the Moto G57 Power 5G (Best Value 5G Smartphone Between ₹10K-₹20K) and realme P4 Power 5G (Best All-Rounder Smartphone ₹20K-₹30K) aren’t trying to be the best at one thing.
Smartphone design has remained the same for the better part of a decade. But Nothing has been changing that trend slowly but surely, with unique designs and lighting. As expected, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro won the Chromatic Disruption Award. On the other hand, the Motorola Edge 70 Fusion took home the Color Material Finish (CMF) award. At the same time, the iPhone 17 Pro winning for trendsetting design is a reminder that consistency and familiarity still carry a lot of weight.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 series (Capture the night right award) being recognized as the “Smartest Smartphone” says a lot about where things are going. It’s less about raw power now and more about how intelligently a device can adapt and assist. Similarly, phones like the vivo X300 Pro (Future of Smartphone Photography) show how AI is playing a bigger role in photography, not just enhancing images, but defining how they’re captured in the first place.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Best Smartphone for Portraits (₹30,000 – ₹40,000) |
vivo V60 |
| Best Smartphone for Portraits (₹40,000 & above) |
Google Pixel 10 |
| Best Smartphone for Selfies (₹20,000 – ₹30,000) |
Motorola Edge 60 Pro |
| Best Smartphone for Selfies (₹30,000 – ₹40,000) |
OPPO Reno14 5G |
| Best Smartphone for Night Photography (₹40,000 & above) |
vivo X200T |
| Best Smartphone for Videos (₹30,000 – ₹40,000) |
vivo T4 Ultra |
| Best Smartphone for Videos (₹40,000 & above) |
Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (Silver) |
| Best Smartphone for Photography (₹20,000 – ₹30,000) |
Motorola Edge 70 Fusion |
| Best Smartphone for Photography (₹30,000 – ₹40,000) |
vivo V60e |
| Best Smartphone for Photography (₹40,000 & above) |
OPPO Find X9 Pro |
| Best Battery Life Smartphone (Under ₹10,000) |
realme P4 Lite 5G |
| Best Battery Life Smartphone (₹10,000 – ₹20,000) |
realme P4x 5G |
| Gaming Smartphone of the Year (₹20,000 – ₹30,000) |
OPPO K13 Turbo 5G |
| Gaming Smartphone of the Year (₹30,000 – ₹40,000) |
POCO X8 Pro Max |
| Best Software Experience (₹10,000 – ₹20,000) | CMF by Nothing Phone 2 Pro |
| Best Software Experience (₹20,000 – ₹30,000) | Nothing Phone (4a) |
| Best Build Quality Smartphone (₹10,000 – ₹20,000) |
vivo T5x |
| Best Build Quality Smartphone (₹20,000 – ₹30,000) |
Motorola Edge 60 Fusion |
| Best Performance Phone (₹20,000 – ₹30,000) | iQOO Neo 10R 5G |
| Lifestyle Creator of the Year |
Sejal Kumar |
| Pop Culture Creator of the Year |
Baccha mat bolna |
| Visual Storyteller of the Year |
Ankur Agarwal |
| Entertainment creator of the year | Danny Pandit |
| Best Value 5G Smartphone (Under 10,000) |
vivo T4 Lite 5G |
| Best Value 5G Smartphone (₹10,000 – ₹20,000) |
Moto g57 Power 5G |
| Best Emerging 5G (₹10,000 – ₹20,000) | Samsung F70e |
| Best All-Rounder Smartphone (₹10,000 – ₹20,000) |
vivo T5x 5G |
| Best All-Rounder Smartphone (₹20,000 – ₹30,000) |
realme P4 Power 5G |
| Tech Creator of the Year |
Rajeev Makhni |
| India’s Most Trusted Tech Creator |
Tech Burner |
| Review Master of the Year |
Beebom |
| Fastest Growing Tech Creator |
RJ Abhinav and Techs Venom |
| Smartest Smartphone (₹40,000 & above) | Samsung Galaxy S26 Series |
| Best Designed Smartphone (₹30,000 – ₹40,000) | Nothing Phone (4a) Pro |
| Best Color Material Finish (CMF) I I Chit chat will happen here | Ai+ Smartphone |
| Capture the night right award | Samsung Galaxy S25 Series |
| The Chromatic Disruption Award | Nothing Phone (4a) Series (Pink) |
| Best Colour Material Finish (CMF) I I Chit chat will happen here | Motorola Edge 70 Fusion |
| Trendsetter of the year | Apple iPhone 17 Pro (Orange) |
| Future of Smartphone Photography | vivo X300 Pro |
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