Three is the magic number. Three steps to heaven. Jaws 3. Well, maybe not the last one – but there’s ample evidence that good things generally come in threes. And that’s why I’m joining Lance and Matt as a regular host of this, your TechRadar Week in Review.
Of course, the fact that both Lance and Matt are selfishly on holiday this week might have something to do with my presence here too, but let’s pretend I’ve not been press-ganged into this, and instead focus on the big topics of the past few days.
And there’s certainly plenty to pick through – not least the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy S23 smartphones. There's another thing that comes in threes – in this case a base model, a Plus model and an Ultra version. We’ve got more about the new phones below, plus a veritable feast of other stories you might have missed. Sadly, there are more than three of them – so that little thematic conceit will have to end here.
Anyway, enjoy the newsletter – and please feel free to drop me an email with your thoughts, including 'NEWSLETTER' in the subject line.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra is this year's top-of-the-line phone from Samsung (Future)
The launch of a new Samsung flagship is always worthy of note, so Wednesday’s Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event dominated our week here at TechRadar HQ. There was no surprise about the flagship that took its bow onstage – the aforementioned Galaxy S23, along with its Plus and Ultra variants – and truth be told there weren’t many surprises about its specs, either; this was a phone that had been heavily leaked in recent weeks.
That said, there’s nothing like actually getting your hands on a new phone, and that’s what Lance Ulanoff and Alex Walker-Todd did this week. Take a look at Lance’s hands-on Samsung Galaxy S23 review and Galaxy S23 Plus review, and Alex’s Galaxy S23 Ultra review for their initial impressions.
Funnily enough, Samsung is pretty much the only breed of smartphone I’ve never owned; I’ve had iPhones, Pixels, Huaweis, Sonys, Motorolas, OnePluses and HTCs over the years… but never a Galaxy phone. Having been a tech journalist for many years I’ve used them, of course, but never for more than a few weeks at a time.
My head could be turned by the Galaxy S23 Ultra, though, not least because I want to give its new 200MP camera a whirl. Our own Mark Wilson, a man who knows a thing or two about photography, has delved into the S23 Ultra’s 7 biggest new camera features, and I’m already halfway there.
POLL QUESTION:
Which of the Samsung Galaxy S23 models would you buy?
The Ultra is the most exciting of the models: this is a thin and light laptop built for gamers and creatives, with a gorgeous AMOLED screen, plenty of ports and a 13th-gen Intel CPU in either Core i7 or Core i9 flavors.
The wider question is whether Samsung can crack the laptop market in the way it’s taken hold of the phone and TV worlds. Computing editor John Loeffler believes it can, and he’s set out how he thinks Samsung can finally make a name for itself as a laptop maker in a follow-up piece.
ChatGPT has introduced a Plus option, but you can still use the AI chatbot for free (OpenAI)
The arrival of ChatGPT and the many other AI bots springing up in its wake is undoubtedly the most exciting development in the tech world in the past few months. Scratch that – it’s probably more like years; these things have the potential to change the world.
It’s therefore good news that ChatGPT has now unveiled a paid trial, but mainly because of what that means for the free tier. Sure, the paid version will cost $20 a month, which is no trifling amount, but the chatbot's maker, OpenAI, says it’s taking this step so that it can "help support free access availability to as many people as possible".
That means fears that the whole thing will go behind a paywall appear to be unfounded, meaning everyone will be able to experience the same sense of wonder I had when using ChatGPT for the first time. Admittedly, it’s not perfect yet, but AIs of this kind represent our future – it looks like Google is also about to get in on the act with its own take on ChatGPT – so we might as well get used to them now.
We’re so conditioned to want shiny new toys that the arrival of any new model instantly triggers a FOMO reaction among most of us. It certainly does for me, which is probably one of the reasons why I do this job – I get to play with all the latest tech without having to actually buy it all. But as Alex says, there are advantages to instead looking further back into a product line, and buying not the latest model, but the last-one-that’s-still-good model.
In the case of the current iPhone series, that would be the iPhone 11, which he describes as “a surprisingly smart buy”. It’s certainly a lot cheaper than the iPhone 14, and that’s no bad thing in this current climate.
The Homepod 2 is a great speaker, but more so if you're invested in Apple's ecosystem (Future)
I’m writing this while listening to my Sonos Move, one of the best Bluetooth speakers you can buy. Not that long ago, one of my daughters had control of the Move, before switching to her Sonos Roam when I kicked her off. My other daughter, or my partner, might well use the Move tomorrow.
None of this would be possible with the Apple HomePod 2, because we’re a platform-agnostic family who between us own Androids and iPhones, MacBooks and Windows laptops, iPads and Fire tablets. But, in typical Apple fashion, the HomePod 2 is locked down to Apple’s own AirPlay 2, making it instantly less useful for many households. That’s compounded by the fact that there’s also no Bluetooth.
That’s a shame, because as TechRadar’s Managing Editor of Entertainment, Matt Bolton, explains in his Apple HomePod 2 review, it’s one of the best smart speakers when it comes to sound quality and design. I get that Apple does things the Apple way, but sometimes it does feel as if it’s being exclusionist just for the sake of it.
Let's hope that Punxsutawney Phil was wrong, again (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Yesterday was Groundhog Day, so celebrity rodent Punxsutawney Phil was woken from his slumber in order to predict whether or not there will be six more weeks of winter. Apparently there will be.
What am I talking about? Well, this is stretching the definition of ‘science’, but as our sister site Live Science reports, this is a tradition that’s been taking place now for 136 years. Phil emerges from his burrow, and if he can see his shadow, that means spring will not come early.
The story will be familiar to anyone who’s seen the Bill Murray-starring comedy Groundhog Day, and if you’re not among them then you should correct that error right away; it’s on AMC Plus in the US, or Now in the UK, or you can rent it from Prime Video, AppleTV and other streaming services.
Unfortunately, Phil’s predictions aren’t actually very good – his accuracy rate is around 35-40%. Still, it could be worse: Phil’s Canadian counterpart, Fred la Marmotte, was found dead just hours before he was due to make his own fortune-telling appearance in Northern Quebec. Wonder if he saw that coming?
The Sign-off
And on that cheery note, that’s all for this week. One of Lance or Matt will be back next week for your next installment of tech news, and I’ll return later in the month. Until then, have a great weekend – and If you have any comments about or suggestions for this newsletter, just drop me a line.
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