Almost a year after the last update, Apple released a new version of iOS 12 on Wednesday, meant to patch a security hole that was recently fixed in newer versions of the OS. If you’re still using an iPhone 5S or an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, it’s worth taking the time to update — Apple obviously doesn’t release security updates for its older software that often, so when it does, you know it’s a reasonably serious issue.
The vulnerability fixed by iOS 12.5.6 is one that could let a malicious website run unchecked code on your phone if you open it in Safari or another browser. What’s more, Apple says it’s possible someone out in the world has tried to use this exploit. While this type of warning isn’t a reason to panic — it’s relatively common for the company — it does mean that you should probably exercise a bit of caution until you update your phone.
You can download and install the update by going to Settings > General > Software Update. If your phone warns you that you don’t have enough storage to install the update, you can follow our guide on how to free up storage — some of the screens may look a bit different, but the basics will mostly be the same.
The update’s also available for a few other devices, too, such as the original iPad Air, the iPad Mini 2 and 3, and the sixth-gen iPod Touch. If you have any of those floating around, it’s probably a good idea to take some time today and update them.
Our Tuesday deals begin with the first substantial discount we’ve seen on the Sony WH-1000XM5 noise-canceling headphones. The original price for the XM5 headphones was $399.99, but Woot has discounted them to just $339.99. If you’re okay with settling for Woot’s 90-day limited warranty instead of the one-year warranty offered by Sony, this is definitely a deal worth looking into. While the XM5 headphones don’t offer any sweeping changes over the previous iteration, the XM4, they still include some of the best noise cancelation capabilities you’ll find in a pair of headphones, in addition to improved sound quality and better performance on voice calls. Read our review.
Hot on the heels of some of our Xbox Series S deals from last week, you can currently get the Xbox Series S for less than retail at eBay, courtesy of Antonline. It may not come bundled with any games, but right now, you can get the Series S for roughly $238 when you use the code LABORDAYSAVE at checkout. This is the best price we’ve seen for the standalone, digital-exclusive console that typically sells for $299.99. It may lack the disc drive of the Series X and play games at a lower resolution, but the Series S is still an excellent way for GamePass subscribers to access their titles in their living room. Read our review.
Another excellent Android deal includes the unlocked model of the last-generation OnePlus 9, which is currently discounted to $379.99 at Amazon in its black and white colorways. Originally available for $729, the performance of the OnePlus 9 may pale in comparison to modern flagship phones, but its SnapDragon 888 CPU is still enough to outdo some contemporary midrange options. Some of the other specs you get at this accessible price point include a 6.55-inch 1080p OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera. If you’re not married to the Apple ecosystem and want to try an Android device outside of the realms of Samsung or Google, this deal on the OnePlus 9 is worth checking out. Read our review.
The Elgato Game Capture HD60S Plus is available at Best Buy for $139.99, its lowest price ever. It’s not a gadget for your typical gamer, but it’s an essential for any streamer or content creator who wants high-fidelity video from a console or external PC. Capable of capturing output from any 4K HDMI source at 60Hz, the capture card plugs into your console and operates as a throughput to a nearby PC with streaming software.
An inexpensive wireless headset that nails the basics, the HyperX Cloud Core Wireless is currently discounted to $49.99 at Best Buy from its usual price of $99.99. The Cloud Core Wireless has a mostly aluminum frame with leatherette cushions on the headband and earcups. The headphones can operate for up to 20 hours on a single charge and feature DTS:X digital surround sound. While it does come packaged with a 2.4Ghz wireless dongle, the headset is, unfortunately, only compatible with PCs.
Correction August 30th, 2:17PM ET:An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the WF-1000XM5 headphones were on sale. The correct name of the model being discounted is the Sony WH-1000XM5. We regret the error.
Twitter Circle is a lot like Instagram’s “close friends” feature, which lets you share your posts with a smaller group of people. On Twitter, you can add up to 150 people to your Circle, whether they follow you or not. When you want to send out a tweet that you might not want the entire Twitterverse to see, you can choose to share it with your Circle instead.
You’ll see the option to share to your Circle when you open the tweet composer. Choose the dropdown menu at the top of the composer, and then hit Circle. You can choose who you want in your Circle by hitting the Edit button that appears next to the option. Users won’t receive a notification when you add or remove them from your Circle. But those included in your Circle will see a highlighted badge that reads, “Only people in @[username]’s Twitter Circle can see this tweet” beneath posts sent to your Circle.
The feature could help users gain a little more control over their privacy without making their accounts completely private. However, content shared with your Circle is still subject to the platform’s community guidelines, and it also doesn’t stop other users from screenshotting your posts.
Watch out: someone is spreading cryptocurrency-mining malware disguised as legitimate-looking applications, such as Google Translate, on free software download sites and through Google searches.
The cryptomining Trojan, known as Nitrokod, is typically disguised as a clean Windows app and works as the user expects for days or weeks before its hidden Monero-crafting code is executed.
It's said that the Turkish-speaking group behind Nitrokod – which has been active since 2019 and was detected by Check Point Research threat hunters at the end of July – may already have infected thousands of systems in 11 countries. What's interesting is that the apps provide a desktop version to services generally only found online.
"The malware is dropped from applications that are popular, but don't have an actual desktop version, such as Google Translate, keeping the malware versions in demand and exclusive," Check Point malware analyst Moshe Marelus wrote in a report Monday.
"The malware drops almost a month after the infection, and following other stages to drop files, making it very hard to analyze back to the initial stage."
Along with Google Translate, other software leveraged by Nitrokod include other translation applications – including Microsoft Translator Desktop – and MP3 downloader programs. On some sites, the malicious applications will boast about being "100% clean," though they are actually loaded with mining malware.
Nitrokod has been successful using download sites such as Softpedia to spread its naughty code. According to Softpedia, the Nitrokod Google Translator app has been downloaded more than 112,000 times since December 2019.
According to Check Point, the Nitrokod programmers are patient, taking a long time and multiple steps to cover up the malware's presence inside an infected PC before installing aggressive cryptomining code. Such lengthy, multi-stage infection efforts allowed the campaign to run undetected by cybersecurity experts for years before finally being discovered.
"Most of their developed programs are easily built from the official web pages using a Chromium-based framework," he wrote. "For example, the Google translate desktop application is converted from the Google Translate web page using the CEF [Chromium Embedded Framework] project. This gives the attackers the ability to spread functional programs without having to develop them."
After the booby-trapped program is downloaded and the user launches the software, an actual Google Translate app, built as described above using Chromium, is installed and runs as expected. At the same time, quietly in the background the software fetches and saves a series of executables that eventually schedule one particular .exe to run every day once unpacked. This extracts another executable that connects to a remote command-and-control server, fetches configuration settings for the Monero miner code, and starts the mining process, with generated coins sent to miscreants' wallets. Some of the early-stage code will self destruct to cover its tracks.
"At this point, all related files and evidence are deleted and the next stage of the infection chain will continue after 15 days by the Windows utility schtasks.exe," Marelus wrote. "This way, the first stages of the campaign are separated from the ones that follow, making it very hard to trace the source of the infection chain and block the initial infected applications."
One stage also checks for known virtual-machine processes and security products, which might indicate the software is being analyzed by researchers. If one is found, the program will exit. If the program continues, it will add a firewall rule to allow incoming network connections.
Throughout the multiple stages, the attackers use password-protected RAR encrypted files to deliver the next stage to make them more difficult to detect.
Check Point researchers were able to study the cryptomining campaign through the vendor's Infinity extended detection and response (XDR) platform, Marelus claimed. ®
As Google carries out the needlessly complex process of combining both the Meet and Duo apps, now it’s throwing a feature copied from Zoom in the mix. In an update on the Google Workspace blog, the company announced that Google Meet will soon give you the ability to unmute yourself by holding down the spacebar and to mute yourself again by releasing it.
If you frequently use Zoom, this feature might sound a lot like its push-to-talk feature — and that’s because it’s essentially the same thing. Zoom obviously didn’t revolutionize this feature (we have walkie-talkies to thank for that), but it conveniently makes it available during video conferences, which comes in handy whenever you want to chime in during a meeting but don’t want to stay unmuted for long. Cisco’s Webex has a similar capability, while Microsoft Teams lets you unmute using a Ctrl + Spacebar shortcut.
Google says it'll start rolling out its own version of the shortcut to all Workspace users on September 9th, but it could take up to 15 days for you to see it. Once it arrives, it won’t be turned on by default, so you’ll have to enable it from Google Meet’s settings.
Confusingly, Google’s efforts to merge Duo and Meet have left us with the new Meet app (the one that combines both Duo and Meet), the old Meet (Original) app, and a Duo shortcut that leads to Meet. It’s truly something only Google could think up. That said, I’m pretty sure the new push-to-talk feature’s coming to the new Google Meet app, but it’s still not exactly clear whether it’s coming to the Meet (Original) app, as Google will eventually discontinue it. The Verge reached out to Google to see if it could clear things up but didn’t immediately hear back.
Update August 28th, 2:15PM ET:Updated to clarify that Zoom wasn’t the first to create push-to-talk, and that some other services use similar features.
For over a year, it’s been rumored that Apple is working on the ability to bring satellite features to the iPhone. First suggested for the iPhone 13 series, this function may now be available with the upcoming iPhone 14. While this function could help iPhone users report emergencies in areas without cellular service, it’s now been discussed by Apple, bringing this functionality to a new generation of the rumored Apple Watch Pro.
The information comes from Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter. According to the journalist, a new generation of the not-announced rugged Apple Watch Pro could have satellite features.
The company has also internally discussed the idea of giving its watches satellite features, which could make sense for a future version of the new more rugged Apple Watch Pro.
In today’s newsletter, Gurman discusses how big of a deal adding satellite connectivity to the iPhone could be.
That’s a step up from the current iPhone and Apple Watch feature for quickly calling emergency services and providing them with your location. The features also will give stand-alone satellite-based devices, such as the Garmin inReach, a run for their money. (…) The prospect of having an iPhone that can reach first responders without a cellular connection is only the beginning of what Apple is planning. Ultimately, users could have global internet access and be able to make regular phone calls over satellite links. The combination of speedy 5G networks and satellite service could one day turn the iPhone into the most powerful global communications device available.
While this feature is not expected for the first generation of the rumored Apple Watch Pro, there are a few features expected for this Watch, as you can read more below.
What to expect from the Apple Watch Pro?
On September 7, Apple will announce the iPhone 14 alongside the Apple Watch Series 8. A new Apple Watch SE and this rugged Apple Watch Pro are also rumored to be announced at the “Far Out” keynote.
According to reporting from Mark Gurman, the Apple Watch Pro will visually differentiate itself from the Apple Watch Series 8 with a new design, although rumors diverge on whether it will have or not flat edges. Gurman talks about an “evolution of the current rectangular shape.”
One of the key changes to the Apple Watch Pro will be the materials from which it’s made. Currently, the Apple Watch is available in aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium. The Apple Watch Pro will reportedly feature a “more durable formulation of titanium” as part of Apple’s efforts to make it as rugged as possible.
Alongside that larger design, the Watch is also reportedly set to feature improved battery life. Longer battery life is going to be a key factor for the “extreme sports” buyers of this Apple Watch, and that is seemingly something Apple is aware of.
Much like the Apple Watch Series 8, this new Apple Watch Pro is expected to add support for body temperature measurements. The Apple Watch won’t be able to give you an exact measurement of your body temperature, but rather it would send you an alert when it detected that your temperature is elevated. Then, you could take your temperature using a traditional thermometer.
Are you excited about this new watch and its satellite features? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Apple is widely rumored to introduce a rugged smartwatch that it may call the Apple Watch Pro at the September 7Far out event and a new rumor today says it may be a bigger design upgrade than we were expecting and there will be a lot of fanfare surrounding the announcement.
Macotakara's new report mostly reiterates what we have been hearing about the Apple Watch Pro so far, such as it will have a 1.99-inch display and feature a larger case size of 47mm, which should result in nearly a 7 percent larger screen area. In contrast, the Watch 7 comes in 41mm and 45mm variants and has a 1.9-inches display.
Previous reports had also claimed that the watch would be targeted at athletes and would pack a beefier battery than the regular Watch Series 8 to let users track workouts and other physical activities for a longer period of time. Rumors had also said that it could come with a shatter-resistant screen and a rugged metal casing.
The Watch 7 has a 20 percent bigger screen than the Watch 6 and its glass is slightly more curved at the edges. The Apple Watch Pro was previously rumored to flaunt the first redesign since 2018 but was not expected to come with flat sides.
Macotakara says that the Apple Watch Pro will take design cues from the iPhone 13 Pro and may have a flat display and metal casing. The outlet also references a May tweet from leaker ShrimpApplePro that said that a future Apple watch could come with a flat glass.
Other earlier reports had said that the watch could be made of titanium and may have a price of around $900 or $999. The rugged Apple Watch Pro, as well as the Watch Series 8, are also rumored to have a temperature sensor. Apple's new watches will allegedly be powered by the S8 chip, which isn't expected to be much different from the S7 and S6 chips.
Will the Apple Watch Pro be good enough to outshine the best smartwatches of 2022? Apple apparently seems to think so as today's report says that the Apple Watch Pro will be a 'One More Thing' announcement, which is a practice Steve Jobs started in 1999 where he would leave big announcements to the end of an event. Even the OG Apple Watch got the One More Thing treatment in 2014. The last One More Thing was the first iPhone with a notch, the iPhone X.
Samsung’s virtual RAM feature for Galaxy smartphones and tablets will improve with the release of One UI 5.0. It seems like every significant One UI update has added something new to RAM Plus, and One UI 5.0 will finally allow customers to disable this feature entirely.
RAM Plus debuted on the Galaxy A52s 5G in 2021, and when it did, it lacked any user options. The feature essentially reserved 4GB of storage to use as virtual RAM by default. Although users couldn’t choose the amount of storage they could convert into virtual RAM initially, Samsung later released One UI 4.1 and updated RAM Plus to give customers this option.
Now, Samsung intends to put even more control in the hands of the users with the upcoming One UI 5.0 update.
One UI 5.0 should allow Galaxy device users to disable RAM Plus
Samsung should soon let Galaxy device users disable RAM Plus if they so desire. This addition was hinted at in the first One UI 5.0 beta firmware but was inactive.
However, the second One UI 5.0 beta update that rolled out earlier this week introduces the option to disable RAM Plus entirely. The process requires a device reboot, and in essence, it allows customers that use Galaxy smartphones equipped with plenty of RAM to save some storage that would otherwise be reserved for RAM Plus.
Keep in mind that some features are subject to change throughout the One UI beta testing period, so there’s no absolute guarantee that the option to disable RAM Plus will be available in the first One UI 5.0 public build once it goes live. But all signs so far point to Samsung wanting to give customers this choice.
At this point, Samsung has a lot of experience making true wireless earbuds. While the company flexed its design muscle early with the Galaxy Buds line, it hasn’t always nailed the details. It rebounded quickly with its second installment, the Galaxy Buds+, and since then Samsung has continued to refine its aesthetic, improve sound quality and add handy features. It even found time for a polarizing open-wear model with the Galaxy Buds Live.
While the leguminous Live were the first of Samsung’s earbuds to include active noise cancellation (ANC), the open design rendered the feature ineffective. With the Galaxy Buds Pro that debuted early last year, the company finally delivered true ANC, but there was room for improvement in terms of both noise blocking and overall audio quality. Now Samsung is back with version 2.0 of its flagship earbuds, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro ($230). This set is not only smaller and more comfortable, but they showcase the massive gains the company has made over the last year and a half. However, the most attractive features are reserved for the Samsung faithful.
Critics - Not yet scored
Users - Not yet scored
Pros
Great sound
Better fit
Improved ANC
Cons
Samsung-exclusive features
Battery life
Call quality
Touch controls make fit adjustments tricky
Design
Billy Steele
Overall, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro have a similar design to last year’s Buds Pro, but there are a few notable changes. First, this new model is 15-percent smaller than the 2021 version, which means they fit better in your ear and are more comfortable for longer periods of time. What’s more, Samsung added a vent on the inside of each earbud to help relieve pressure. Of course, the tiny stature means they tuck nicely into your ear, leaving very little sticking out from the side of your head. It’s a design Samsung adopted early on for its earbuds and subsequent models have continued to be satisfyingly svelte.
The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro have a soft-touch matte coating where the Galaxy Buds Pro was a glossy affair. I prefer the former as it’s more pleasant to the touch and isn’t a fingerprint magnet. However, it doesn’t necessarily offer more grip and neither surface impacted the touch controls. The included charging case for the Buds 2 Pro is covered in the same matte finish, so it too is pleasantly tactile. Like the Buds Pro, this model is IPX7 rated, which will allow you to submerge the earbuds in up to three feet of “fresh water” for up to 30 minutes, according to Samsung.
Touch controls are mirrored on both earbuds for the most part. There’s single tap for play/pause, double tap to skip ahead, triple tap to go back and a customizable touch and hold gesture. That long press can be used to change noise controls – ANC/ambient sound, ANC/off or ambient sound/off – or to summon Bixby, activate Spotify or control volume (down on left, up on right). If you don’t want to sacrifice some of those other features for volume, there’s an additional Labs option that will allow you to double tap the front edge of the earbuds to adjust audio levels.
It’s a little tricky to master, but I didn’t have any serious problems with edge tapping once I got the hang of it. The real annoyance with the touch controls comes when you try to adjust the fit of the earbuds. The Buds 2 Pro fit well, but as is the case with all true wireless models, you have to regularly reposition them in your ears. Due to the sensitivity of those touch panels, and the small size of the buds, it’s easy to make an errant tap when you’re just trying to readjust. It happened often enough to become very frustrating over the last two weeks.
Software and features
Billy Steele/Engadget
Like previous Samsung earbuds, all of the features and settings for the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are accessible through the Galaxy Wearable app on Android devices. Unfortunately, the company is staying consistent with recent models by not offering an iOS version. Samsung used to have onr, which made its buds a great option for both operating systems, but that hasn’t been the case for a while now. You can still use the earbuds with Apple gear, but you’ll lose some of the more attractive features by doing so.
Inside the app, you’ll get battery percentages for both the earbuds and the case right up top. The main screen also gives you access to noise controls, so you can see which mode is active (ANC, off or ambient sound) and make a change with the software if needed. Just below, there are options for enabling/disabling Voice Detect, 360 audio, touch controls and finding lost earbuds. Voice Detect is Samsung’s new feature that can tell when you’re speaking and automatically activate ambient sound while lowering the audio volume for quick conversations.
By default, the tool will go back to regular levels 10 seconds after you stop talking, but you can set that time to five or 15 seconds too. During my tests, Voice Detect worked well, and it doesn’t seem to be as easily tricked by coughs as Sony’s version of the feature. It also continues to work when I’m connected to my MacBook Pro, not only with a Samsung or Android device. However, I prefer Sony’s method of fully pausing the audio rather than just lowering the volume with its Speak-to-Chat tool. So while it’s handy, Samsung’s co-opting of Sony’s feature isn’t as pleasant to use despite its more accurate speech detection.
Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro review | 12 Photos
Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro review | 12 Photos
The Galaxy Wearables app also offers more detailed settings like EQ presets, an earbud fit test, read notifications, hands-free Bixby, ambient sound during calls, in-ear detection for calls, seamless connection with some Samsung devices, neck stretch reminders and Labs features. There is a lot packed into this software. Everything is pretty self-explanatory, but I will note that a second Labs tool is a Gaming Mode designed to minimize latency.
There’s also an Accessibility section that lets you adjust the left/right balance. Here, you can also choose to keep ANC active when you remove one earbud (the Buds 2 Pro turns it off by default) and you can adjust ambient sound volume and tone for your hearing. Some assistance with amplifying environmental audio isn’t new for earbuds, but it’s nice that Samsung offers a degree of customization here.
One item that’s still in the works is LE Audio. Samsung mentioned this during its recent event, explaining that the feature will allow you to capture 360 environmental sounds while you’re streaming or recording. For example, if you’re livestreaming. There weren’t a ton of details shared, other than the feature will arrive later this year. The Buds 2 Pro will also support Bluetooth LE, the next-gen wireless audio standard that’s on the way after being first introduced in 2020.
Sound quality
Billy Steele/Engadget
Samsung’s earbuds have never really impressed me with sound quality. They’ve ranged from just fine to good, but never truly great. Well, for the first time, the company has wowed this jaded headphone reviewer. The Buds 2 Pro pack plenty of bassy punch with a pleasantly open sound that is both full and filled with details and clarity. The low-end is also deep and nuanced, not just a heavy dose of thundering boom.
Plenty of earbuds offer balanced sound with good bass. What separates the great from the good is usually in the subtle details that can be difficult for something so small to replicate. Samsung does this with a combination of a 10mm woofer for the low-end and a 5.3mm tweeter so the treble cuts through. Across a range of genres, that setup enables stellar clarity and depth, keeping songs layered and immersive rather than compressed and messy. Amanda Shires’ vocals, for example, seem to float on top over every song throughout her latest album Take It Like A Man.
A big piece of the upgraded audio quality is 24-bit/48kHz Hi-Fi sound processing. Samsung’s new Seamless Codec (SSC) allows 256 times more sound data to be transmitted from your device to the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. On the previous model, 24-bit audio was converted to 16 bit by the time it reached the earbuds. Swiping over to the Android developer settings confirmed that 24-bit/48kHz was indeed coming from the Galaxy S21 FE 5G I used to test the Buds 2 Pro, but there’s no mention of bitrate. That number would be an indication of overall quality.
Samsung’s virtual RAM feature for Galaxy smartphones and tablets will improve with the release of One UI 5.0. It seems like every significant One UI update has added something new to RAM Plus, and One UI 5.0 will finally allow customers to disable this feature entirely.
RAM Plus debuted on the Galaxy A52s 5G in 2021, and when it did, it lacked any user options. The feature essentially reserved 4GB of storage to use as virtual RAM by default. Although users couldn’t choose the amount of storage they could convert into virtual RAM initially, Samsung later released One UI 4.1 and updated RAM Plus to give customers this option.
Now, Samsung intends to put even more control in the hands of the users with the upcoming One UI 5.0 update.
One UI 5.0 should allow Galaxy device users to disable RAM Plus
Samsung should soon let Galaxy device users disable RAM Plus if they so desire. This addition was hinted at in the first One UI 5.0 beta firmware but was inactive.
However, the second One UI 5.0 beta update that rolled out earlier this week introduces the option to disable RAM Plus entirely. The process requires a device reboot, and in essence, it allows customers that use Galaxy smartphones equipped with plenty of RAM to save some storage that would otherwise be reserved for RAM Plus.
Keep in mind that some features are subject to change throughout the One UI beta testing period, so there’s no absolute guarantee that the option to disable RAM Plus will be available in the first One UI 5.0 public build once it goes live. But all signs so far point to Samsung wanting to give customers this choice.
Lucid has a mission: to take on the German luxury brands. Those automakers all have their own performance sub-brands, so Lucid now does. At the annual Monterey Car Week festivities, Lucid unveiled its Sapphire performance brand. As expected, the Air was the first to get the high-powered treatment. The Lucid Air Sapphire has 1,200 horsepower and will do zero to 60 in under two seconds.
It’s more than just throwing another motor in the back for a tri-motor system. The automaker also enhanced the suspension, added some aero bits, and unveiled a new sport mode called Sapphire. With a starting price of $249,000, it’s not for everyone, but if you’re interested, the automaker will start deliveries in 2023.
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Dell's XPS 13 has been the pace car for the Windows side of the thin-and-light laptop race for years now, ever since it adopted the now-ubiquitous ultra-thin display bezel back in 2015. Dell was also a step ahead of the competition a couple of years ago when it moved to a slightly taller screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio, further improving the design's usability without increasing its size.
But for power users who can afford to spend a few hundred extra dollars, Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon has always been an appealing upsell. It's a little lighter than Dell's ultraportable, but it nevertheless manages to fit in a bigger screen and a better port selection. Lenovo's laptop keyboards and trackpads are almost always best in class. And the ThinkPad's pedigree as a business laptop means that the Carbon's design still makes nods to repairability and upgradability, even if many of its internal components have still been soldered down to save space.
This year's version of the X1 Carbon—we're up to Gen 10, if anyone's counting—doesn't change much on the outside. But it includes new 12th-generation Intel Core processors, which, as we've seen in other laptops, can be a blessing and a curse. Performance in CPU-heavy tasks can be faster, sometimes dramatically so. But it comes at the expense of extra heat and less battery life, and that's a tough trade-off to recommend for a general-use ultraportable.
Look and feel
Enlarge/ The newest X1 Carbon has a characteristically excellent ThinkPad keyboard and trackpad.
Andrew Cunningham
Lenovo gave the X1 Carbon a gentle overhaul from last year's Gen 9 model, swapping out the 16:9 screen for a 16:10 version and ditching Lenovo's semi-proprietary docking port in favor of a pair of plain-old Thunderbolt ports. The Gen 10 model is almost identical—the only physical change I noticed was a slightly raised area above the webcam on the display's bezel, presumably making more room for the upgraded 1080p webcam (the Gen 9 used a 720p model).
For those of you who are less than intimately familiar with the subtleties of the X1 Carbon's design history, the main thing to know is that it takes the classic black angular ThinkPad style and boils it down almost as far as it will go (I say "almost" because the X1 Nano is a thing). It's not as boxy as some of the cheaper L- and E-series ThinkPads, but it's definitely using the same design language that Lenovo and IBM have been refining for 30 years. That is both a blessing and a curse—its sturdy frame and soft-touch finish are pleasant to hold and carry, but it's a hand oil and fingerprint magnet that's hard to keep completely clean.
Enlarge/ The power button-mounted fingerprint sensor. The faintly visible mark from my finger is a testament to how easily the X1 Carbon's finish picks up smudges.
Andrew Cunningham
The most important ingredient in any ThinkPad is a top-tier keyboard and trackpad, and the Gen 10 version of the X1 Carbon has both. A large, accurate precision touchpad and a red ThinkPad pointing nub are both included, and both function as intended. The chiclet-style keys are well-spaced and nicely backlit. The keys aren't quite as firm as those in Dell's current XPS models, and I have intermittently been annoyed that the Fn key is to the left of the left Ctrl key instead of the other way around, though this is a longstanding ThinkPad peculiarity that can be corrected in software if you're bothered by it. But by and large it's one of the best keyboards you can get in a laptop right now.
Ports on the right: a headphone jack and USB-A port.
Andrew Cunningham
Ports on the left: Two Thunderbolt 4, another USB-A, and full-size HDMI.
Andrew Cunningham
Port selection remains one of the best arguments for the X1 Carbon over the XPS 13 or even a MacBook Air. The Carbon outdoes both in quantity and variety: a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, one of which is used to charge the laptop, plus one USB-A port on either side, a full-size HDMI port, and a headphone jack. The Carbon jettisoned its microSD card reader several generations ago, which is disappointing, and the XPS 13 puts Thunderbolt ports on both sides of the laptop so you can charge it (or plug it into a dock, or whatever) from either side. Laptops with nothing but Thunderbolt/USB-C ports aren't as inconvenient as they used to be, either. But having the extra ports is convenient and useful for anyone who regularly uses external displays or other accessories.
Enlarge/ The basic 1920×1200 screen on the X1 Carbon Gen 10 isn't the brightest we've ever tested, but it's fine, and the matte finish helps with outdoor visibility.
Andrew Cunningham
The X1 Carbon can be configured with any one of seven different display panels, including 4K, OLED, privacy-screen, and touchscreen variants; the choice of any of them will subtly change the battery life and weight of the laptop. Our Lenovo-provided review unit uses the 1920×1200 IPS touchscreen, with a maximum brightness of 396 nits, an impressive contrast ratio of 1744:1, and 98 percent sRGB and 71.5 percent DCI-P3 gamut coverage (all as measured by our i1 Display Studio colorimeter). Even the basic screen is bright and colorful, and if you're still using a 16:9 display on an older laptop, you'll find that 120 pixels' worth of extra height makes a surprisingly big difference for usability.
Performance: Good, but complicated
Intel's 12th-gen Alder Lake chips use a mix of larger, faster, and more power-hungry performance cores (P-cores) and smaller, cooler-running efficiency cores (E-cores) to boost performance. As we've seen in our desktop CPU reviews, this usually works well from a performance standpoint—the P-cores ensure good performance in games and other general-use tasks that need small bursts of high speed, while the E-cores can pitch in to help crunch through video encoding jobs and other CPU-heavy tasks. It has been a more mixed bag from a power-usage standpoint. You might think that having "efficiency cores" would help with battery life, but the fact remains that Intel and the PC makers are fitting 12 or 14 physical cores into systems that maxed out at four cores last year.
Lenovo is also using P-series Alder lake CPUs in the X1 Carbon, which have higher P-core counts and TDPs than more typical U-series or G7-series processors that older X1 Carbons have used. This can be either good or great for performance, depending on the settings you're using, though heat can become a problem; we found the same thing in our review of the ThinkPad X1 Yoga.
We tested the X1 Carbon twice, once using Windows' "balanced" power setting and once using the "best performance" setting. For comparison's sake, we did the same thing with last year's X1 Carbon, plus an AMD Ryzen 6000-based ThinkPad Z13. Here are some more detailed specs for the main systems we tested:
Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 has a Core i7-1260P (four P-cores, eight E-cores), 16GB of 5200 MHz LPDDR5 RAM, and an Intel Iris Xe integrated GPU with 96 EUs. We tested it in both "Balanced" and in "Best Performance" mode.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 has a Core i7-1185G7, 16GB of 4267 MHz LPDDR4x, and an Intel Iris Xe integrated GPU with 96 EUs. We tested it in both "Balanced" and in "Best Performance" mode.
Lenovo's ThinkPad Z13 Gen 1 has an AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U (eight P-cores), 16GB of 6400 MHz LPDDR5 RAM, and an AMD Radeon 680M integrated GPU with 12 GPU cores. We tested it in both "Balanced" and in "Best Performance" mode.
The Framework Laptop has a Core i7-1280P (six P-cores, eight E-cores), 32GB of 3200 MHz DDR4 RAM, and an Intel Iris Xe integrated GPU with 96 EUs.
The M2 MacBook Air has an Apple M2 processor (four P-cores, eight E-cores), 16GB of 6400 MHz LPDDR5 RAM, and an Apple-designed GPU with 10 GPU cores.
Dell's XPS 15 9520 has a Core i7-12700H (six P-cores, eight E-cores), 16GB of 4800 MHz DDR5 RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce 3050 Ti laptop GPU.
The Surface Laptop Studio has a Core i7-11370H (four P-cores), 16GB of LPDDR4x RAM, and an Nvidia RTX A2000 laptop GPU.
Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham
When restricted to its "balanced" performance setting, the i7-1260P in the X1 Carbon Gen 10 provides a solid boost to both single- and multi-core performance compared to the i7-1185G7 in last year's X1 Carbon Gen 9. The exception was in our Handbrake video encoding test, which hits all of the CPU cores in a given system for an extended period of time. Despite having many more cores than the old i7-1185G7, the i7-1260P in Balanced mode is actually a bit slower in this test over the long haul, suggesting that Alder Lake is being so power-starved that its cores can't perform to their full potential. The vast majority of the time, this won't be an issue. But it can be an issue if you want to do this kind of work on this laptop.
Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham
If you play games on this laptop—which the Intel Iris Xe GPU is capable of doing, even though this is by no means a "gaming laptop"—you might also run into this problem. 3DMark performance for the X1 Carbon Gen 10 in "balanced" mode is substantially lower than the X1 Carbon Gen 9, which uses a mostly similar Iris Xe GPU and performs about the same regardless of the power setting you use. But in "best performance" mode, the overall and GPU-based scores for the X1 Carbon Gen 10 are nearly identical to the Gen 9's scores, even though the CPU subscore goes up quite a bit. (All this means is that most games will be bottlenecked by the integrated GPU, as long as the CPU is getting enough power to run at full speeds.)
Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham
In fact, looking at the "best performance" numbers, it becomes clear that Alder Lake becomes dramatically faster when fed a bit more power. This is true across the board, from very light tests like Geekbench (which rarely if ever runs for long enough to trigger much throttling) to heavier ones like Cinebench and Handbrake. Toggling between the two power presets makes a much larger difference than it does for the X1 Carbon Gen 9 or the Z13. Performance actually doubles in the Handbrake test for the i7-1260P, where it stays pretty much exactly the same for the i7-1185G7.
The short version of all of this is that the X1 Carbon Gen 10's performance is "good, but it's complicated." Most of the time, it will be faster than its predecessor regardless of the power settings you use, but that's not uniformly true across the board, particularly in sustained workloads like video editing and encoding, gaming, and CPU-heavy rendering tasks. To beat the last-gen X1 Carbon at these kinds of things, you'll need to switch on "best performance" mode and deal with the accompanying increase in power consumption and heat.
Battery life: OK, but diminished
Enlarge/ X1 Carbon configs were both tested with 1920×1200 screens; higher-res versions will have worse battery life.
Andrew Cunningham
But the real problem for most ultraportable laptop buyers is battery life. The X1 Carbon Gen 10 does fine in our PCMark-based battery test, at around 10 hours, and toggling between "balanced" and "best performance" didn't really make a difference in the results (but that's more because the test doesn't include sustained workloads, so the CPU is spending more time idling—battery life would assuredly be lower if you were playing a game or doing something else strenuous). That's better than a lot of options in this category, including the Surface Pro 8 and the battery-challenged Framework Laptop.
But as with the Framework Laptop, the Alder Lake version of the X1 Carbon just doesn't last as long as the version of the exact same laptop with Intel's 11th-generation chips inside—and I ran this test on both laptops in both power modes at least three times apiece to confirm that the yawning gap between the last-gen and current-gen laptops wasn't some kind of fluke. Tellingly, Lenovo's own tech specs page for older X1 Carbon laptops (I checked the Gen 7, Gen 8, and Gen 9) include manufacturer-provided MobileMark battery life scores, while the page for the Gen 10 doesn't. There could be a lot of explanations for this, although given our testing it seems like Lenovo might just be trying to avoid unflattering comparisons.
However efficient the E-cores are, it just seems like the baseline power consumption of all those cores is higher than it was for 11th-gen chips, at least in laptops that move up to P-series chips with higher TDPs (and for the most prominent 12th-gen Ultrabooks, that's most of them). As good as the performance benefits of Alder Lake can be—and they really are transformative for CPU-heavy work—in the context of an ultraportable laptop, giving up a full third of your battery life in exchange for high-end multi-threaded CPU performance feels like the wrong tradeoff.
A flawed version of a great laptop
Enlarge/ The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 doesn't stray far from established ThinkPad design conventions.
Andrew Cunningham
The X1 Carbon Gen 10 is still a great laptop, same as with most of the X1 Carbon versions over the last decade. But the reduced battery life is too bad, and it keeps us from recommending it as enthusiastically as we have in years past.
The Gen 9 and Gen 10 models share so many similarities—same basic design, same battery capacity, same screen options—that it's easy to lay the blame for the battery problems on the processor. It may be that the lower-end X1 Carbon models with the Core i5-1235U would behave better when unplugged, but the higher-power i7-1260P in our test model definitely did poorly. These P-series chips ship in the vast majority of all X1 Carbon Gen 10 configs, and taken together with the also-poor results from the newest Framework Laptop, their increased performance seems to come at a cost.
This is doubly concerning because there are other options out there that aren't asking you to make the same tradeoffs. We'll be giving it a more thorough review shortly, but Lenovo's ThinkPad Z13 uses a Ryzen 6000 processor that's faster than most of Intel's 12th-gen CPUs in every single way, and it has fantastic battery life to boot (Lenovo doesn't make an AMD version of the X1 Carbon, but the ThinkPad T14s Gen 3 comes close). And if you want to look over the fence into Apple-land, the company's M2 MacBook Air is usually a match for the i7-1260P in Best Performance mode—but in a fanless laptop that also has great battery life.
The X1 Carbon Gen 10 still has commendable qualities—its light weight, its great keyboard and trackpad, its 14-inch screen, its USB-A and HDMI ports—but it might be best to skip this year's model or even to pick up a discounted Gen 9 version instead if you aren't doing CPU-heavy work on your laptop. It's not as fast, but for people who spend lots of time away from an outlet, its balance of performance and battery life is a better fit.
The good
A truly great ultraportable laptop design, with a large screen, light weight, a decent port selection, and a comfortable keyboard and trackpad.
Usually performs better than its predecessor and can perform much better using the Best Performance power preset.
A 16:10 screen with lots of configuration options, including OLED and 4K.
Even the baseline 1920×1200 display looks nice.
Upgraded 1080p webcam with handy privacy shutter.
Good documentation for repairs (although, like most thin-and-light laptop designs, many components can't be upgraded).
The bad
Larger-than-usual gap (and tradeoffs) between Balanced and Best Performance modes.
12th-gen Intel CPU's performance can sometimes be slower than its predecessor under the Balanced power preset.
No GPU performance upgrade since last year and can perform worse in Balanced mode.
Pricey.
The ugly
Significant battery downgrade from similarly configured last-gen model.
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Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 review: A fast-but-flawed version of a great laptop - Ars Technica
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