Kalakshar US

As promised, Meta has restored former president Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, two years after it suspended him from both platforms. The company previously said it would apply extra “guardrails” to his accounts to “deter repeat offenses.”

Meta, like Twitter and other services, kicked Trump off of its platforms in January 2021 after he praised those participating in the Capitol Hill insurrection. The company initially locked the accounts for 24 hours over two policy violations before it suspended him indefinitely. Meta’s Oversight Board was among those who criticized the handling of the ban. 

The company later said Trump’s accounts would remain suspended for two years, after which it would reassess things. In late January, it emerged that Trump would soon regain access to the platforms, not long after it was reported that he had pushed Meta to restore his accounts. 

By 2:30PM ET, Trump, who is running for the White House for a third time, had not posted anything on either platform. He has an agreement with his “free speech” app Truth Social, whereby he has to share social media posts there first and can’t plop them anywhere else for at least six hours. Twitter restored Trump’s account on its service late last year, but he hasn’t returned to what was once his favored social media platform either. Maybe he’s still too butthurt about that one thing Chrissy Teigen wrote about him.

 

Tesla’s Autopilot was not at fault in a 2021 crash in which two people died, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). In a final report spotted by Ars Technica, the agency determined that the 2019 Model S accelerated just before hitting a tree in Spring, Texas, just north of Houston. Neither occupant was in the driver’s seat when they were found, leading to questions about the use of Autopilot.

Based on information provided by Tesla, the NTSB found (PDF) that the car’s rapid acceleration from 39MPH to 67MPH two seconds before the crash and a loss of control of the EV was likely due to “impairment from alcohol intoxication in combination with the effects of two sedating antihistamines, resulting in a roadway departure, tree impact and post-crash fire.” The NTSB says data indicated that Autopilot had not been employed “at any time during this ownership period of the vehicle.” Investigators did not find any “evidence of mechanical deficiencies” that could have contributed to or caused the crash.

One of the occupants was found in the front passenger seat, while the other was in the rear. It’s presumed that the driver was in the back seat because he was trying to escape. Security footage showed that the men were in the front seats as they set off, while data showed that both front seatbelts were buckled at the time of the crash — the car left the road around 550 feet from the driver’s home. The men died as a result of the collision and post-crash battery fire.

 

Microsoft announced new AI-powered classroom tools today. The company sees its new “Learning Accelerators” as helping students sharpen their speaking and math skills — while making teachers’ jobs a little easier — as children prepare for an even more technologically enhanced world.

Speaker Progress is a new AI classroom tool for teachers. Microsoft says it saves them time by “streamlining the process of creating, reviewing, and analyzing speaking and presentation assignments for students, groups, and classrooms.” It can provide tidy summaries of presentation-based skills while highlighting areas to improve. Additionally, it lets teachers review student recordings, identify their needs and track progress.

It will be a companion for Speaker Coach, an existing feature Microsoft launched in 2021 that provides one-on-one speaking guidance and feedback. For example, it uses AI to give real-time pointers on pacing, pitch and filler words. “Speaker Coach is one of those tools that kind of was a lightbulb tool for a lot of students that I’ve worked with,” said an unnamed teacher in a Microsoft launch video. “Being able to practice and get real-time feedback is where Speaker Coach really comes in and helps our students, and it even helps us as adults.”

Microsoft’s AI math tools are its answer to nosediving math scores during the pandemic. Math Coach deconstructs problems, walking students through the steps to solve them while encouraging critical thinking. Meanwhile, Math Progress is the teacher-focused companion tool, helping them generate practice questions and provide more efficient feedback. The company says the features work together: Math Coach uses teacher input from Math Progress to develop new lessons. Additionally, it says schools can use the tools’ overall math fluency data to track progress and better meet their goals.

Speaker Progress, Math Coach and Math Progress will launch in Microsoft Teams for Education in the 2023-24 school year. Meanwhile, Speaker Coach is available now in Teams and PowerPoint.

 

It’s easy for students to search the web when working on assignments, but Microsoft now wants to teach those students how to spot misinformation and otherwise think critically. In addition to an existing Search Coach, Microsoft is introducing a Search Progress feature in Teams for Education that helps teachers foster healthy online research habits through practice work. Educators can not only require a certain number of sources for an assignment, but check to see that students are searching responsibly — they’ll know if pupils are only clicking the first site in the results, or using filters like NewsGuard to check source quality. Students can show their reasoning and work before turning in a project, too.

The Progress tool bolsters Search Coach (shown below), which encourages students using Teams to both search more precisely and watch out for falsehoods. They can limit searches to certain domains (such as .gov or .edu), date ranges and file types. They can even pass queries through fact checking sites to learn if a claim holds up under scrutiny. Bing’s safe search is enabled by default, and the results are ad-free. Teachers can also use search trends to refine their lessons.

Search Progress will be available in preview form later in the year. Search Coach is already available in Teams worldwide. Both features will work with over 50 languages, Microsoft says.

Microsoft also wants to improve students’ overall reading skills. The company’s Reading Coach will be available in the Immersive Readers for Word Online, OneNote, Teams Assignments, Minecraft Education and other platforms, giving students more reading fluency experience both online and in the apps they use. Reading Progress, meanwhile, will add comprehension questions to be sure kids truly understand what they read. Both upgrades will be available later this year.

 

Lucid’s luxury Air electric vehicle exceeds the thresholds for federal tax credits, but the company is still offering what it’s calling an “EV credit.” Until March 31st, those who buy certain configurations of Lucid Air Touring and Air Grand Touring models will be able to save up $7,500.

“We think our customers still deserve a $7,500 credit for choosing an EV,” Zak Edson, the company’s vice president of sales and service, said in a statement. “With this limited time offer, we hope to get Lucid Air into the hands of even more customers so they can experience the best for themselves.”

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the $7,500 federal tax credit applies to electric cars, sedans and wagons priced under $55,000. SUVs are eligible if the sticker price is under $80,000. All Lucid Air models exceed those limits, as the base Pure variant starts at $87,400. Even so, that model is not eligible for Lucid’s so-called credit.

The Lucid Air Touring starts at $107,400 and the Grand Touring version starts at $138,000. While a $7,500 discount will always be welcome, it gives buyers savings of under seven percent. That’s a far cry from Tesla being able to effectively drop the price of a five-seat Model Y Long Range by almost a third from $65,990 with the help of tax credits (Tesla slightly increased the price earlier this month). While Lucid is operating in a different market to rivals that sell more moderately-priced EVs, it seems like the company is doing what it can to keep up with the tax credits that they’re eligible for.

 

An estimated two thirds of the US population watched the Super Bowl last year – and it didn’t even have Rihanna. Super Bowl 2023 will take place in Glendale, Arizona at the State Farm Stadium on Sunday, February 12th with a kick off time of 4:30pm Mountain (or 6:30pm Eastern/3:30pm Pacific). The Philadelphia Eagles will play against the Kansas City Chiefs to see who takes home the Lombardi trophy this year. Whether you show up for the snacks, the halftime show or actual football, here are all of the ways to watch Super Bowl 2023.

Who’s airing the Super Bowl this year?

Fox will televise the game this year, and have confirmed it will air in 4K as the network did in 2020. Airing rights to the Super Bowl rotate annually between broadcasters and since 2007, the game has alternated between CBS, Fox and NBC (ABC will get a turn in 2027). As it’s Fox’s year, you can watch the game on local Fox broadcast stations and on Fox channels offered through your cable or satellite TV provider, including Fox Sports 1 and the Spanish-language Fox Desportes. You can also watch through certain live TV streaming services and the NFL+ app on mobile. If you’re watching outside the US, here is a list of international channels that will carry the game.

How to watch with cable or satellite TV

If you already pay for cable, you’re set. Even basic cable services include access to your local Fox channel, and most also include Fox Sports 1, both of which will air the game. You can find your local Fox channels here. Having a cable or satellite subscription also means you can log into the standalone Fox Sports app and watch via your smart TV or computer.

How to watch Super Bowl 2023 without cable

For those who’ve cut the cord, live TV streaming offers a bunch of ways to watch. A few – but not all – of those services will let you watch the Super Bowl this year. Here’s a list of providers that carry Fox Sports, along with their monthly subscription fees:

Sling Blue – $40 per month, $20 first month

YouTube with Live TV – $65 per month

Hulu with Live TV – $70 per month

FuboTV (Pro tier) – $75 per month

DirecTV Stream (Entertainment tier) – $75 per month

Sling TV is the cheapest way to watch the game with live streaming, and the channel lineup confirms access to Fox Sports 1 with their Blue package. Many of these services also include a free trial period, so you could sign up before the game and cancel afterwards to avoid a charge.

How to watch the Super Bowl on mobile

If it’s just you watching and you’re thinking of using your smartphone or tablet, NFL+ is an over-the-top subscription app that’s $5 per month or $13 for the NFL season (which ends with the Super Bowl). We should note that the app won’t work on a TV and doesn’t support casting, so this is only a good option if you were already planning on watching on mobile.

How to watch the Super Bowl for free

Local Fox stations will broadcast the Super Bowl over the airwaves and access is free, provided you have a way to receive the signal. Indoor HD digital antennas are available for between $20 and $100. These devices plug into your RF connection input (the coaxial port) on your TV and tend to work best when placed in a window. They’re not all that beautiful to look at, and there is an initial cost, but they do give you the ability to grab content out of the air for (almost) free.

 

Samsung’s Ultra branding is typically reserved for devices that pack as many high-end features as you can fit in a single gadget. The Galaxy S23 Ultra starts at $1,200 and has a big, beautiful OLED screen, a new chip with even better performance, improved cameras and some revamped software. And, of course, there’s a built-in S Pen for all your drawing and notetaking needs. So while that sentiment still generally rings true for the new S23 Ultra, the company’s latest flagship phone doesn’t look or function all that differently from last year’s.

Display and design: You’ll need to squint to spot the changes

While the standard S23 and S23+ got a facelift this year, the Ultra appears to be a carbon copy of its predecessor — unless you look real close. You get a big 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and a 3,088 x 1,440 resolution. And it looks awesome, even if those specs haven’t changed much from the previous model. Colors are dazzling and brightness tops out a stunning 1,750 nits, with a typical max brightness of around 1,000 nits in my testing.

The rest of the phone is a nice combo of Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and Samsung’s durable Armor Aluminum. There are a few minor tweaks to the chassis, including slightly less curved edges on the screen to help prevent accidental touches. That said, I never really had an issue with that on last year’s phone. The S23 Ultra’s frame is also a bit flatter, which makes the whole thing feel boxier. And thanks to Samsung’s continued focus on sustainability, small elements of the phone like the lock button are made from ocean-bound plastic. But that’s about it. So, unless you’re already familiar with the S23 Ultra’s new color options (which include cream, lavender, green and black), even when you look at the S22 Ultra and S23 Ultra side-by-side, it’s almost impossible to tell them apart.

Performance: New chip means more speed

The S23 Ultra is one of the first phones on the market to feature a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip. However, Samsung didn’t stop there. It worked with Qualcomm to create a custom version of the processor just for Galaxy phones. So what does that get you? Simply, a wealth of speed. In tests, the S23 Ultra posted multi-core scores in Geekbench 5 that were 40% higher than what we got from last year’s phone. That’s a huge jump, so it probably isn’t a surprise when I tell you that everything feels smooth – apps, games, you name it.

Now I should mention that the custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy platform that Samsung uses has a clock speed that’s only around 150 MHz higher than the standard chip, which honestly, isn’t a difference most people (including me) can discern in normal use. However, one of the biggest changes for 2023 is that every version of this year’s Ultra will feature a Snapdragon chip, so people outside North America won’t be saddled with a less powerful Exynos processor like in previous years. The base model features 8GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, but if you jump to the 512GB or 1TB storage options you get 12GB of memory.

Software: One UI 5.1 is nice, but not essential

Alongside the debut of the Galaxy S23 line, Samsung is also introducing One UI 5.1 which features some handy tweaks and customizations. That said, a number of additions like the new personalization options on the lock screen or a wider palette for the UI’s accent colors are sort of things we’ve seen before in iOS 16 or Android 13’s Material You. You can even do things like add info to the lock screen so it’s easier for people to return your device to you if you lose it. However, out of the box, our review unit came with a message that said “Hi help me” which seems more like a cry for attention than an attempt to provide assistance.

Samsung is also making it easier to create custom stickers from your photos, which you can do by simply long pressing on an object and then dragging it to another app for easy sharing. Unfortunately, some subjects are easier to clip than others. Faces and animals tend to work relatively well, but other things like flowers can often end up looking a bit off, so your results may vary. There’s also a new Modes and Routines section in the menu that lets the phone adjust multiple settings for specific activities like exercising or relaxing. But aside from the Sleep mode option, I didn’t find this new functionality all that useful. When I work out, all I need to do is find some good music and I’m ready to go.

Unfortunately, while the S23 Ultra comes with an S Pen and a handy storage slot, there aren’t really any new notetaking or drawing features, which is kind of a shame. Samsung’s top-end handset is still unmatched when it comes to stylus support on phones, so I wish there was something, anything new to mess around with. But I must admit even I’m struggling to think of a major feature I’d really like to see added.

Cameras: More pixels better?

The biggest upgrade on the S23 Ultra is its new 200MP main sensor, which features twice as many pixels as before. At Samsung Unpacked, the company showed off snippets of short films from not one, but two, big-name directors to really drive home the phone’s new cinematic capabilities. It sounds impressive, but in practice, it takes a bit of effort to really make the most of that new sensor.

In normal use, the S23 Ultra uses 16-to-1 pixel-binning to help gather more light and produce sharp, colorful images without the need for extra-large file sizes. And in most situations, it produces better-looking pics too. When I used the S23 Ultra to shoot photos of some pizza (which was extremely tasty might I add), images taken using the default 12MP mode featured more accurate colors and better details than those captured with the sensor’s full 200 megapixels. In the right conditions activating the sensor’s full resolution may allow you to capture finer textures on some subjects, but you’ll need to zoom in to see them.

Now part of this is because it seems Samsung’s object detection and optimizer doesn’t work in 200MP mode, but there were also noticeable differences in white balance and sharpness. On one hand that makes sense because pro photographers often prefer images with flatter color profiles which makes post-processing a bit easier. But that also means unless you’re editing everything you shoot in an app like Lightroom or Photoshop, you’re better off sticking with the regular 12MP setting. This is what I mean when I say you need to work to get the most out of the S23’s new camera, and it applies to other stuff like Samsung’s Expert Raw app too.

Designed for more advanced photographers, Expert Raw has a much wider array of settings and tools to tweak every aspect of your shot, from shutter speed, to exposure compensation and more. You also get a new astrophotography mode so you can take better pics of the night sky, that is unless you live in the city like I do. That’s because between light pollution and cloudy skies, I couldn’t get a single photo with the astrophotography mode that I was really proud of. And I even used a tripod to make sure things were super stable.

It’s a similar story when it comes to video, where the S23 Ultra’s improved OIS is a welcome addition for reducing shakes and vibrations while recording. But then there’s the new 8K/30 fps mode (up from 8K/24 fps last year) which is nice because there’s no more 2X crop like you got on the S22 Ultra. But at the same time, who records home movies in 8K, let alone has the proper display to watch those clips at full resolution? Sure, it’s nice to be able to crop in when you want some extra detail. But this feels like overkill, especially when you consider that the file size for a two-minute 8K/30 FPS video is over one gigabyte, which means you’re gonna run out of storage real fast.

At least when it comes to selfies, the phone has a new 12MP camera with dual pixel autofocus, and its pics look great despite a sensor that actually features a lower resolution than on the previous model. The 12 MP ultrawide cam and the two telephoto lenses (3x and 10x) are largely the same, which feels like a missed opportunity because that 10x optical zoom is still my favorite lens on the phone.

Battery life: Just great

While the S23 Ultra’s smaller siblings both got upgrades in battery capacity, Samsung’s flagship stayed pat at 5,000 mAh. But that’s ok because there’s plenty of juice to go around. On our video rundown test, the S23 Ultra lasted an impressive 19 hours and 26 minutes, which is similar to the OnePlus 11 (19:45), though not quite as good as the iPhone 14 Plus’ 21:17. And that was with the phone’s adaptive refresh rate turned on.

In the real world, you’re looking at more than all-day battery life. Even on a day when I was doing heavy benchmarking and playing NBA All-World (which really gulps electrons due to constant use of GPS), I still had 25% battery left at the end of the day. And on days with more moderate usage, I often had 40% or more in the tank when midnight rolled around.

All this means you don’t really need to worry about the phone dying during the day, which is a good thing because that gives the S23 Ultra leeway to donate some charge to other devices via Samsung’s Power Share feature (aka reverse wireless charging). And with 45-watt wired charging, you can refuel the phone in a jiffy too.

Wrap-up

The tricky thing about recommending the S23 Ultra is that it’s everything a super premium phone should be. It’s got a gorgeous display, a great build and more power than you know what to do with. However, starting at $1,200, it’s also really expensive and it’s not that much better than last year’s offering. I have no doubt you can film Hollywood-grade movies using its new 200MP sensor. But it’s important to remember that even in Samsung’s promos, we’re talking about a crew with decades of experience, not to mention additional equipment like external mics, camera cages, gimbals and more. The S23 Ultra’s camera has tons of potential, but it takes more than just a casual familiarity to make those features glow.

For those wondering if they should trade in their current handset after only a year: No, it’s just not worth it. If you’re simply looking for a premium device and don’t care about taking notes with a stylus, I’d argue that the Pixel 7 Pro is a better value. But if you have an older phone and are looking for a major upgrade, the S23 Ultra is unlike any other Android phone on sale today. And with its fancy new sensor, Samsung’s latest flagship might be the closest thing you can get to a pro-grade camera in a phone, just as long as you’re willing to polish your content in post.

 

TP-Link briefly teased its entry into robot vacuums at CES, but today the company released more detail on its first pair of budget-minded cleaning machines. The Tapo RV10 is a $250 vacuum / mop combo, while the Tapo RV10 Lite cuts the mop, doubles the dustbin size and saves you $20.

Both models use gyroscope-based “zig-zag path planning,” which the company says will clean your floor more efficiently than random-path vacuums. In addition, the machines offer four suction levels (quiet, standard, turbo and max) with a maximum of 2,000Pa suction power. They also include noise suppression to keep the sound as low as 53dB in quiet mode. Both devices work with the Tapo app for iOS and Android; Alexa and Google Assistant voice control are also supported.

The mopping RV10 differentiates itself from its vacuum-only sibling with a 300ml water tank, an electronic pump and three water flow levels. Additionally, the RV10 only has a 400ml dustbin, presumably to make room for its mopping hardware; the RV10 Lite’s bin doubles the size at 800ml.

The vacuums each have a 2,600mAh battery, adding up to an estimated three hours of cleaning per charge. TP-Link says if their batteries get low before finishing, they’ll dock automatically, recharge and pick up where they left off.

The vacuums are available today on Amazon. The Tapo RV10 costs $250, while the Tapo RV10 Lite is $230.

 

Netflix is rolling out changes to account sharing in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain after trialing the change in Latin America. If you live in one of these countries, you must set a primary location for where you use it. Then, if you have friends or family who want to share your account, you’ll have to subscribe to either the Standard or Premium tier and pay a fee ($8 in Canada and New Zealand, €4 in Portugal and €6 in Spain) for up to two extra users outside of your home.

In Netflix’s words, “Today, over 100 million households are sharing accounts – impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films.” It’s not clear how new regions will take to the policy. Many rival services don’t have account-sharing restrictions, and given how many options there are now, this could coax users elsewhere. Or maybe people will rediscover illegal streams, torrents and all the other methods we used to watch video before the streaming boom.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

The biggest stories you might have missed

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Virgin Orbit’s first UK orbital launch may have failed due to a $100 component

Samsung’s 77-inch S95C QD-OLED TV goes on sale for $4,500

Apple’s retail staff is reportedly testing its ‘buy now, pay later’ service

Discovery+ will remain a standalone streaming platform after all

Google’s Bard chatbot confidently spouts misinformation in Twitter debut

It falsely said the James Webb Space Telescope took the first pictures of exoplanets.

This week, Google posted an ad to Twitter showing off the natural-language AI model displaying false information. A short GIF showed an example of a Q&A with Bard: “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9-year-old about?”

Among a few facts, Bard says “JWST took the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system.” However, the JWST didn’t take the first pictures. That honor belongs to the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in 2004. Chatbots get things wrong, sure, as did search engines before them. However, stripped of much context, there’s a higher chance of picking up errors and not even knowing.

Continue reading.

Google Maps’ Immersive View is rolling out in five cities

It should make it easier to view directions from your lock screen.

At I/O 2022, Google revealed an Immersive View feature for Maps that uses computer vision and AI to combine Street View and aerial photography into a 3D format. The feature rolled out today in London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo. The feature adds contextual information, including traffic, the weather and how busy a location typically is at different times of the day. You’ll be able to soar over buildings and see things like the location of an attraction’s entrance.

Continue reading.

Twitter is shutting down its free API. Here’s what’s going to break

Change your logins before it’s too late.

Twitter announced it would no longer allow any developer to use its APIs for free. Other than confirming a February 9th cut-off date – that’s today – we don’t know much more. Musk has suggested Twitter could charge $100 a month “with ID verification,” but hasn’t elaborated. Once free access is shut off, thousands of apps, research projects, bots and other services will stop functioning. We break down what you should probably do – if things still work. Tweets and DMs were recently not functional for many users.

Continue reading.

Someone made the AirPods Pro case repairable with a USB-C conversion

He designed an open-source PCB available to buy online.

AirPod repair options are limited if something happens to the charging case, and your earbuds aren’t under warranty. Apple will replace the case for a fee – but that creeps close to the cost of an entirely new set of AirPods. There’s no easy way to repair a set of AirPods Pro and limit your electronic waste. Replacement parts are expensive, hard to find or non-existent. Engineer Ken Pillonel, who also created that USB-C iPhone, is trying to fix that. With his latest DIY project, you can swap the battery in your AirPods Pro case rather than replace it altogether.

Continue reading.

Watch Link ride a huge drone in the new Zelda ‘Tears of the Kingdom’ trailer

Other transport options are available.

Nintendo closed out yesterday’s Direct showcase (a remastered Metroid Prime is available to play now!) with a new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, showing off the game’s traversal mechanics and dramatic cinematics. Oh, and Link takes to the skies above Hyrule on a gigantic drone.

Continue reading.

 

Remember that Redmi phone which featured a whopping 210W charging? Well, another Chinese contender has made its next move with a 240W upgrade. The Realme GT Neo5 can apparently charge its 4,600mAh dual-cell battery from zero to 20 percent in merely 80 seconds, or to 50 percent in four minutes, or to 100 percent in 9.5 minutes. On an mAh-per-minute basis, this actually beats the Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition’s 9-minute record, considering that it has a smaller 4,300mAh battery.

Realme’s 240W SuperVOOC rapid charging feat is enabled by a surprisingly compact dual-GaN power adapter, which is paired with a proprietary high-current USB-C cable to deliver 20V/12A of power. This is then converted to 10V/24A by three 100W power management chips before it reaches the battery — a similar implementation to the Redmi. The adapter is also compatible with USB-PD at up to 65W, as well as existing Qualcomm QC and Oppo VOOC-based solutions — the latter’s previous record was 150W. Realme further claimed that even after 1,600 cycles (about four years of usage), the battery health wouldn’t go lower than 80 percent.

Realme’s GT Neo5 has a nice little gimmick on the back: an under-glass Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 decoration surrounded by an RGB light ring, which can be customized with 25 colors for scenes including charging, gaming, messages and more. This is all wrapped around an NFC circuitry positioned to the right of the camera island. Speaking of, you’ll also find a 50-megapixel main camera (featuring a Sony IMX890 sensor and optical stabilization), an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera here.

On the other side, there’s a 6.74-inch 2,772 x 1,240 AMOLED screen (supplied by China’s Tianma) which not only runs at up to 144Hz, but also offers a sensitive 1,500Hz touch sampling rate — a plus for mobile gaming. This is complemented with an under-display fingerprint reader and a 16-megapixel punch-hole selfie camera. Other notable features include a infrared remote blaster at the top (a common feature on Chinese phones), a pair of stereo speakers and an 8-layer heat dissipation design for optimal gaming performance. All of these are packaged into a 199g-heavy, 8.9mm-thick body which comes in black, white or purple, and it’s mostly covered with a piece of frosted glass on the rear side.

The Realme GT Neo5 is already available in China with two flavors offered: the model with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage is asking for 3,199 yuan (around $470), but bumping it up to 1TB storage is just 3,499 yuan (about $520). Interestingly, there’s also a 5,000mAh variant of the GT Neo5 which features “just” 150W charging, and it ranges from 2,499 yuan ($370; 8GB RAM and 256GB storage) to 2,899 yuan ($430; 16GB RAM and 256GB storage).

Realme has confirmed to Engadget that the GT Neo5 will be headed to international markets “soon.” That said, the 240W SuperVOOC feature will actually be introduced to the global market by way of the company’s upcoming flagship phone, the Realme GT3, later this month. Smells like an MWC special here.