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OnePlus Buds review: cheap AirPods for OnePlus phones - The Verge
AMD Launches 12 Desktop Renoir Ryzen 4000G Series APUs: But You Can't Buy Them - AnandTech
iPhone SE was a 'bright spot' for Apple, driving sales in Q2 2020 - AppleInsider

OnePlus Buds review: cheap AirPods for OnePlus phones - The Verge

Posted: 21 Jul 2020 07:23 AM PDT

A photo of two sets of OnePlus Buds resting on a OnePlus 8 phone.

OnePlus has been making excellent earbuds for years now, and today, the company is introducing its first true wireless pair. The aggressively priced $79 OnePlus Buds have an AirPod-like rigid design that's all hard plastic — marking a shift away from the Bullets, Bullets Wireless 2, and other OnePlus earbuds that used silicone tips for a sealed-off, in-ear fit.

The OnePlus Buds require a OnePlus phone if you want to get the most from them, so these really won't appeal to owners of other Android devices. You won't get features like wireless charging or noise cancellation at a price this low, but if you've found yourself envious of Apple's AirPods and don't like how in-ear earbuds feel, it's hard to beat the value factor here. The OnePlus Buds have strong battery life, decent sound, and a stable wireless connection. They're available in white and gray in the US, with the divisive blue / green combo reserved for international markets. I think it looks very toy-like, but such a bold color option might be a breath of fresh air to some.

The reality is that a one-size-fits-most approach — OnePlus calls it a "half in-ear" design — is always going to leave some people out of luck. I've never enjoyed how regular AirPods feel in my ears; they're not particularly stable, and for all the praise they receive for all-day comfort, my ears don't seem well-suited for them.

The OnePlus Buds haven't fared much better. When in my ears, I found that they held in place just fine while I was seated or walking around. But if I tried to run with them, they'd eventually get jostled loose. Other people I let try them on told me that they felt just as snug as AirPods and they'd have no hesitation working out while wearing them, so this comes down to your ear shape.

A person wearing the OnePlus Buds earbuds.

As for why OnePlus went this route, the company gave me this explanation:

Half in-ear buds are generally more comfortable for more people, so we wanted to make the OnePlus Buds more friendly for a wider range of users, especially users who are looking for their first truly wireless earphones. We do understand that different people have different preferences, so we will continue to listen to user feedback for future products. Our goal is always to provide a great balance between high-quality sound, fast charging, comfort, and a reasonable price.

Like with AirPods, the open-air design of the OnePlus Buds will limit their sound potential. You're going to hear a whole lot of the world around you, and there's no avoiding that without cranking the volume to a potentially uncomfortable and possibly unsafe level. OnePlus says it tuned the earbuds to boost bass, but without an in-ear seal, the result still falls short of the low-end oomph you'll hear from the Bullets Wireless 2 neckband earbuds or our top true wireless picks.

If you can live with that, the sound they produce has a pleasantly wide soundstage; Phoebe Bridgers' "Graceland Too" shines with ample separation for the acoustic instruments and harmonies. But other tracks like The Weeknd's enduring "Blinding Lights" sound hollow without that full seal. The OnePlus Buds will do the job for casual, through-the-day listening but if you want more powerful bass and better noise isolation, you'll have to spend a bit more money. OnePlus supports SBC and AAC codecs with the Buds; the company went with a non-Qualcomm chipset inside, so it couldn't use higher-quality codecs like apt-X HD. (You're not going to be able to tell any difference between codecs with this open style of earbud anyway.)

A close-up photo of the OnePlus earbuds in a person's hand.

The charging case looks like a squished, squatter version of the Pixel Buds case. OnePlus claims it worked for around 90 days to perfect the case's matte texture. I like the end result, and matte always wins over glossy — especially in the dog days of summer. Take note, Samsung. (The earbuds themselves are glossy, however.) The Buds can reach up to seven hours of continuous battery life, and the case has enough juice to get you to around 30 hours of total listening time.

During my time testing the OnePlus Buds so far, I've been unable to do much with the tap controls on each side. There's no way to pause music with the earbuds right now; all you can do is double-tap to skip to the next song or hold down for three seconds to switch between synced devices. More customization is on the way, thankfully: by the time these start shipping at the end of July, OnePlus will roll out a software update to its phones that will allow you to choose your preferred action for a double-tap so you can pause, activate Google Assistant, or go back to the last song instead of always skipping forward. It's a bit strange that the controls are so limited out of the box — and this is why you should avoid the OnePlus Buds if you've got a different Android phone — but at least a fix is coming.

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It's impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit "agree" to use devices when we review them, since these are agreements most people don't read and definitely can't negotiate.

The OnePlus Buds can be set up and used over Bluetooth without any software agreements. But by using the the earbuds, you're agreeing to the OnePlus user agreement and privacy policy.

Final tally: two mandatory agreements.

You can't deny their AirPodish looks, but the OnePlus Buds benefit from those long stems. Each bud has three mics — at the top, middle, and bottom — and runs some noise-reduction algorithms to help people hear you more clearly on calls. Everyone I called while wearing the OnePlus Buds was able to hear me without any issue. The company is also touting extremely low latency between the earbuds and OnePlus phones when in game / fanatic mode, which should help them keep up with all of the action on-screen.

They lack wireless charging, but the OnePlus Buds do pack some frills despite the low price: they're rated IPX4 water resistant, so they can withstand sweat and some splashes of water. They'll automatically pause music when one earbud is removed, and they also support Android's Fast Pair feature, which ties them to your Google account, shows battery levels for the buds and case, and lets you find a misplaced earbud by playing a sound. Unfortunately, you can't use either of the earbuds standalone for audio or making calls, and they can only pair to one device at a time.

A photo of the white and blue/green OnePlus Buds.

I think future OnePlus true wireless earbuds will put a bigger emphasis on sound and have a design more in line with the company's Bullets series. But with the OnePlus Buds, the focus was clearly trying to come up with a cheaper version of AirPods for OnePlus customers. You're getting a very solid set of earbuds for that $79 — if the fit is right.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

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AMD Launches 12 Desktop Renoir Ryzen 4000G Series APUs: But You Can't Buy Them - AnandTech

Posted: 21 Jul 2020 07:00 AM PDT

Today AMD is finally lifting the lid on its long-awaited desktop Zen2 based APU family. Using the same silicon as in the Ryzen Mobile 4000 family, AMD is pumping it up into 35 W and 65 models in the same AM4 platform that is in use today. There has been strong demand from PC builders to release these chips, which were on the topics of forum conversation all the way back at CES. There's only one downside to these new processors: you can't buy them on their own. AMD states that the initial release of Ryzen 4000G hardware is for OEMs like Dell and HP only for their pre-built systems.

The new processors use the same 8-core Zen2 plus 8 compute unit Vega that we saw in Ryzen Mobile 4000 at the beginning of the year, but as with previous APU launches, the frequency and power thermals have been pushed up into more manageable desktop environments. To that end, AMD will be launching hardware in the Ryzen 7, Ryzen 5, and Ryzen 3 product lines at both 65 W and 35 W, all on the AM4 platform.

AMD Ryzen 4000G Series APUs
AnandTech	C/T	Base Freq	Turbo Freq	GPU CUs	GPU Freq	TDP
Ryzen 4000G
Ryzen 7 4700G	8 / 16	3600	4400	8	2100	65 W
Ryzen 7 4700GE	8 / 16	3100	4300	8	2000	35 W
Ryzen 5 4600G	6 / 12	3700	4200	7	1900	65 W
Ryzen 5 4600GE	6 / 12	3300	4200	7	1900	35 W
Ryzen 3 4300G	4 / 8	3800	4000	6	1700	65 W
Ryzen 3 4300GE	4 / 8	3500	4000	6	1700	35 W
Ryzen Pro 4000G
Ryzen 7 Pro 4700G	8 / 16	3600	4400	8	2100	65 W
Ryzen 7 Pro 4750GE	8 / 16	3100	4300	8	2000	35 W
Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G	6 / 12	3700	4200	7	1900	65 W
Ryzen 5 Pro 4650GE	6 / 12	3300	4200	7	1900	35 W
Ryzen 3 Pro 4350G	4 / 8	3800	4000	6	1700	65 W
Ryzen 3 Pro 4350GE	4 / 8	3500	4000	6	1700	35 W

The top processor is the Ryzen 7 4700G, coming in at 65 W TDP with a base frequency of 3.6 GHz and a turbo frequency of 4.4 GHz. It uses all eight compute units for the graphics, running at a mind-numbing 2100 MHz.

At the lower end is the Ryzen 3 4300G, with four cores and eight threads, with a base of 3.8 GHz and a turbo of 4.0 GHz, which should mean that performance is very consistent. This part has six compute units for graphics, running at 1700 MHz.

Every version has a GE counterpart at 35 W, which for the most part reduces the base frequency and TDP only. The exception is the Ryzen 7, where 100 MHz is lost on turbo and 100 MHz is lost on graphics.

All the APUs support DDR4-3200, and have eight PCIe 3.0 lanes for add-in cards (and perhaps more for NVMe, although AMD didn't elaborate). On the PCIe lanes, this is because the mobile chip was built with eight PCIe 3.0 lanes for add-in cards, to save on power in a mobile environment. AMD sees these chips being used mostly on their own without a separate discrete graphics card, given that the company already has the Ryzen 3 CPU family for those that want discrete graphics.

At the same time as the Ryzen 4000G APUs, AMD is also launching the Ryzen Pro 4000G versions for the commercial market. These specifications mirror the standard Ryzen counterparts, but fall under AMD's Pro Technologies feature set, with additional security, manageability, and business ready pillars. This includes full memory encryption and support for DASH management, OS image stability over 18 months, guaranteed processor availability for 24 months, and enhanced QA.

Just to be clear, AMD specified OEM and not system integrators (SIs). On our call, AMD clarified that the market for its APUs is skewed very heavily towards the big mass-market prebuilt customers like HP and Dell, rather than custom home builds. The numbers quoted were around 80% of all APU sales end up in these systems, and by working with OEMs only, AMD can also help manage stock levels of the Renoir silicon coming out of the fabs between desktops and notebooks.

What this means is that unless you are choosing to buy a pre-built office-focused business PC, then the only way to get hold of these processors would be through distributors who are selling them piecemeal – AMD is not creating official boxes and bundles with coolers for these processors.

Those pre-built office-focused business PCs are expected to be out shortly. Just in case you control a corporate budget and need a few hundred of them.

Will we ever get Ryzen 4000 APUs for Desktop?

AMD says that they are planning a consumer-grade release of APUs 'soon'. It was stated in our briefing call that there will be a launch of a future Zen2 APU for the consumer market compatible with 500-series motherboards. The company specifically did not say 400-series, but did clarify that the 4000G series announced today was for 400 and 500 series.

When exactly this launch will come, and what it will be, and what price ranges AMD will be aiming for is unclear. As mentioned, we were discussing Zen 2 based Renoir desktop APUs with vendors back in January, and at this point it certainly feels late to the game. Could AMD be hiding something up its sleeve? A PCIe 4.0 version perhaps (would this require new silicon?) or maybe something up at the 105 W TDP performance level? It really is unclear.

There's also some new Zen+ APUs

For the lower end of the prebuilt market, AMD is also offering a new set of Zen+ APUs. These are the first desktop parts to carry the Athlon Gold and Athlon Silver branding.

AMD Athlon 3000G Series
AnandTech	C/T	Base Freq	Turbo Freq	GPU CUs	GPU Freq	TDP
Athlon 3000G
Athlon Gold 3150G	4 / 4	?	3900	3	?	65 W
Athlon Gold 3150GE	4 / 4	?	3800	3	?	35 W
Athlon Silver 3050GE	2 / 4	3400	-	3	?	35 W
Athlon Pro 3000G
Athlon Gold Pro 3150G	4 / 4	3500	3900	3	1100	65 W
Athlon Gold Pro 3150GE	4 / 4	3300	3800	3	1100	35 W
Athlon Silver Pro 3125GE	2 / 4	3400	-	3	1100	35 W

We believe these to be based on the same silicon as the Athlon Gold and Athlon Silver mobile parts. We're still waiting on full details for the 3000G family.

The Final Word: We were told that there will be a reviewers' guide shared with us. Whether that is for these OEM-only parts, or for something upcoming, we don't know. But we have our fingers crossed.

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iPhone SE was a 'bright spot' for Apple, driving sales in Q2 2020 - AppleInsider

Posted: 20 Jul 2020 02:53 PM PDT

The iPhone SE was a "bright spot" for Apple in a quarter that otherwise saw a drop in sales for every smartphone manufacturer, a new report claims.

According to new sales estimates data from Counterpoint Research on Monday, smartphone sales volume in the U.S. declined 25% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2020. Apple's U.S. iPhone sales were down 23% in the same period.

Among smartphone brands in the U.S., Apple and Samsung were better able to maintain their sales volume better than other manufacturers. For Apple, that's largely because of the success of the iPhone SE, Counterpoint Research's data suggests.

"Apple volumes grew through the quarter and were especially helped by iPhone SE volumes. The device has been successful and selling above expectations in both postpaid and prepaid channels," said Jeff Field Hack, Counterpoint's North American Research Director.

A number of factors helped the iPhone SE drive Apple sales throughout the quarter, including the re-opening of retail channels in the U.S. and subsequent promotional offers from stores like as Walmart, Metro and Boost.

The device also appears to be attracting Android switchers, since Counterpoint estimates that 26% of iPhone SE users moved from an Android device. According to Fieldhack, that's higher than the normal rate of Android-to-iOS switching.

Buyers upgrading from an older device also represent a significant portion of iPhone SE buyers, since 30% of customers upgraded from an iPhone 6s or older.

Similarly, Counterpoint's checks indicate that iPhone SE sales aren't likely to cannibalize the fall "iPhone 12" lineup, due to the fact that "iPhone SE buyers are more pragmatic about price, less concerned with 5G, and the smaller display is not considered a hindrance."

The research firm also notes that smartphone sales for May through June actually grew week-over-week, and that June 2020 sales were higher than the same month last year. According to Counterpoint, that suggests that the smartphone market is starting to recover from the impacts of coronavirus.

Earlier on Monday, data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners indicated that the iPhone SE made up nearly one-fifth of all iPhone purchases in the first quarter that it was available.

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