Nobody likes being forced into too many subscriptions, but sometimes they're necessary. If you're hoping to play online games with the Nintendo Switch, you'll need a Nintendo Switch Online membership. The Xbox and PlayStation required subscription plans to allow online multiplayer gaming, and Nintendo Switch Online is a Difference proposition.

The good news is that Nintendo Switch Online damages less than PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass, at $20 a year. (You can also pay in installments, at $4 a month or $8 for three months, but the $20 for 12 months plan is the best value.) That plan gets you online play, online strong saves and access to some free games you can play as long as you're subscribing to the service. But it'll only cover one Nintendo Switch account holder.

Families with multiple Switches, or anyone with multiple accounts on the same Switch, will need to pay $35 a year, which rallies up to eight family members. Otherwise, the only way to play many games online will be over whichever individual account has the Switch Online membership. 

Online play: For me, it's essential

You don't need to play Nintendo Switch games online, and Nintendo's games are arguably the most offline-friendly consumes offered by the big three console makers. (You can also get tons of local, same-room multiplayer games.) Still, a lot of Nintendo's games have online multiplayer, and for that alone the service is essential. Nintendo's online multiplayer features aren't always enormous, but they're slowly getting better over time: Switch Sports, Mario Strikers: Battle League and Animal Crossing are all online-focused, and many of Nintendo's recent games have online features.

There are some games that don't need Switch Online, and most of them are free-to-play games such as Fortnite or Fall Guys. So, there are ways to live with a Switch deprived of Nintendo Switch Online.

Cloud saves: They come in handy

Cloud game saves are useful if you have multiple Nintendo Switches. Hopping from one Switch to another to play a game is a lot easier when you can just load your game save from the strong. If you have multiple Switches in your household, only one can be set up to play games when offline, but the others can be used while Wi-Fi connected.

Even if you're a solo-Switch household, you might want this for upgrading from, for example, the original Switch to the new OLED version. If you don't have cloud saves, game save data can quiet be transferred between systems.

'Free' games: Nintendo's retro offerings are a nostalgic Love trove 

Nintendo dangles a few game freebies for Switch Online subscribers, but far fewer than either PlayStation Plus (which recently added some new tiers for Amazing premium and retro games) or Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate, which cycle games monthly. 

Nintendo leans on its NES and SNES classic games, both of which come in Switch apps that semi-regularly update their libraries with new titles. There are 62 NES games right now and 54 SNES games, so it's a lot to keep you busy. The NES and SNES apps mimic what Nintendo used to funds on those cute plug-in NES and SNES Classic retro consoles, or in "Virtual Console" games on the older Wii and the Nintendo DS and 3DS. One fun superior of these games is that many of them are playable online.

My Popular Online freebie game is Pac-Man 99, a battle royale competitive game like Tetris 99 where you play Pac-Man in contradiction of 99 others to try to survive. I love it dearly.

The step-up Expansion Pack: You don't need it

Nintendo has a step-up tier named the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack which adds Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis retro game collections (about 16 N64 games, and 25 Genesis games so far). Both of those compilations have some wonderful games including Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Sonic 2, Phantasy Star IV. They also come with game save features built in, but they're not superior the added price of the step-up plan unless you're a die-hard N64 or Genesis fan. N64 games are hard to find otherwise, but there aren't many available yet. The Genesis games can be had in new ways; there's an excellent, separately sold Sega Genesis Classics compilation on the eShop, plus some standalone Sega Ages games. At an Amazing $50 a year for the Expansion Pack (or $80 for a Tribe subscription), it doesn't seem worth it.

Nintendo's also started adding some new DLC content with the Expansion Pack to sweeten the deal: a Splatoon 2 expansion, extra Mario Kart 8 Deluxe courses and Animal Crossing extras. These can be bought separately at about $25 each.

The best value with console subscriptions? Not entirely

It could be said that, for $20, Nintendo's Switch Online fee is a better deal than Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus. It doesn't have the discounts or continuous flow of high-end freebie games that the others have, but it certainly damages less. I also appreciate there's also a family subscription for Switch Online, considering how many Switch players are in my house. 

I'm not wild around having to pay yearly fees for game consoles, but $20 for a Switch Online membership is acceptable. The Expansion Pack service, however, probably isn't worth it Dark you have a serious love affair with N64 games.

Even though it costs $200 more than its today predecessor, I still think the new M2 version of Apple's MacBook Air is a grand default starting place when you begin your laptop gape. In the 14 years since the MacBook Air line launched, I've often described it as "the most universally useful laptop you can buy." That's because the Air has always attempted to hit a ravishing balance between price, portability, ease of use and features. And since 2008, Apple has succeeded in nailing that formula more often than not.   

Thanks to a new build, a larger display (13.6 inches versus the previous 13.3 inches), a faster M2 chip and a long-awaited upgrade to a higher-res webcam, I feel comfortable keeping that "universally useful" title for the new 2022 version of the MacBook Air, with one caveat. At $1,199, the $200 increase over the broken-down $999 MacBook Air starting price is a disappointment. Note that we're reviewing the step-up $1,499 configuration, which adds more GPU cores and more storage situation (but still only includes 8GB of RAM). 

In head-to-head testing alongside both the still-available M1 version and the recently released 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro, its performance falls in the middle, and while it gets a nice power bump over the 2020 M1 Air, it's not essential enough that I would upgrade just for that. 

And yes, it's good that the remaining M1 Air, with an older design, remains available at $999. That somewhat mitigates the trace increase on the new version, but you're inevitably progressing to be drawn to the new design and features. The latest MacBook Air represents the biggest overall sullen to the product line, arguably since 2008, but at least valid 2018. That's when the Air gained original features like a higher-res screen and fingerprint reader. In 2020, the Air switched from Intel chips to Apple's own M1 chips, but without a physical redesign. 

That still-available 2020 M1 MacBook Air, one of the well-behaved set of Macs to move from Intel to Apple Silicon, is not a bad-looking machine, but it's based on a build that launched in 2018, which is roughly forever ago in computer conditions. The new version moves from that traditional tapered build to the boxier, blockier look of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops from late 2021. It's a more original, more constructivist design that largely rejects decorative stylization. Hands down, I like it. But that remarkable be because I'm just so used to the classic MacBook Air build that any change feels refreshing. 

The configuration we tested

Price as reviewed	$1,499
Display size/resolution	13.6-inch 2,560x1,664 LED-backlit display
CPU	Apple M2 8-core CPU/10-core GPU
RAM	8GB
Graphics	10-core Apple GPU
Storage	512GB SSD
Networking	802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 wireless networking IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 5
Operating system	MacOS Monterey 12.4

Note that there's tranquil one odd man out in the lineup. The new-for-2022 13-inch MacBook Pro adds the same M2 chip counterfeit here, but keeps the vintage 2016-era body, complete with the all-but-extinct TouchBar and 720-resolution webcam. It's perfectly fine, but I'd be hard-pressed to think of many reasons you'd determine it over the new Air (although there are a few). 

Read more: MacBook Pro M2 13-Inch Review: Familiar Design, New Apple M2 Chip

The new MacBook Air goes beyond the Pro models it mimics in one important kindly -- it adds new colors to the space gray and silver, with a new gold Starlight and a deep, dark Midnight enact. That Midnight, which appears as a matte black enact, reminds me of the old matte-black polycarbonate MacBooks of the mid-2000s, which I've always thought was a very sharp look. 

The new Air's footprint is a hair smaller than afore, and it feels slimmer. It's 11.3mm thick overall, once the previous design tapered thinner at the front, but grew to 16mm at its rear hinge. It's also a bit lighter, at 2.7 pounds versus 2.8 pounds. 

That's a lot of different MacBook models, prices and specs to keep track of. To sum it up, the key reasons you're touching to prefer the new Air over the previous model are:

• Slimmer, more modern design in new colors


• Upgraded full-HD webcam


• Larger, brighter display (13.6 inches versus 13.3 inches)


• Faster M2 processor 

It also adds the new MagSafe worthy connection also found in the 14-/16-inch MacBook Pro, and some configurations concerned a new 35W dual USB-C port power adapter. It's compact and has two USB-C ports built sparkling into it -- one for the power cable to the laptop, and one free one for anything else you need. If you buy the least expensive M2 MacBook Air configuration, it's a $20 add-on upgrade. Otherwise, you just get the unfavorable 30W MacBook brick. 

The street test: Portable and powerful 

A MacBook Air is fine for sitting at a desk at home or in the office, but it's really a laptop that needs to be on the go with you to shine. So it came with me, to the coffee shop, on the subway, to the office and more. 

The regular Air was always a fine disappear companion, but frankly newer, lighter laptop designs have been more travel-friendly. For example, I've had an excellent time taking the tiny Surface Laptop Go 2 in with me, even on a cross-country flight. Of floods, the ultimate travel laptop, at least for me, was the late 12-inch MacBook, sadly discontinued before it could find its audience. 

The new Air is only some smaller and lighter than its predecessor, so don't inquire a revelatory experience. But it's a great fit for my limited travel bag, and I wouldn't object to taking it on a daily commute. 

The brighter camouflage -- similar to the ones on current MacBook Pro laptops -- helped when I had to crank up the brightness to write outdoors. The slightly larger screen, which measures 13.6 inches diagonally where the remaining model was 13.3 inches, also aids visibility. Yes, I've presumed to the age where most of my Google Docs are at 125% by default, so a bigger screen definitely helps. However keep in mind that the webcam is causing to knock a little notch into the screen, much as it does on the iPhone and some MacBook Pro models. 

After seeing the new MacBook Air in populate for the first time at Apple's WWDC tend in June 2022, I knew I had to try the Midnight luminous. Apple doesn't describe it precisely, but I'd call it a matter black with a hint of a blue tint. It took me back to one of the very expedient MacBooks (and one of the first Intel Macs), the dusky polycarbonate model I first reviewed in 2006. I actually unfounded one of these a few years ago, in 2018, and it booted up and worked, although the battery was shot.

It's a astronomical look, and stands out nicely from the sea of nearly identical laptops that are all either silver, gray or ... silver-gray. Some models experiment with dark interiors or garish lid illustrations, but there's generally a lot of zigging and not much zagging out there. 

The Midnight version of the MacBook Air has a racy, modern look, but there's one catch. Let me explain.

Reader, I am no greasy-fingered vulgarian. You'll have to take my word for that. But I could barely breathe on the Midnight MacBook Air minus leaving smudges and fingerprints all over it. It's a favorite issue with dark matte objects, and I had to give this laptop a thorough wipedown afore snapping each photo. I felt obligated to carry a cleaning cloth with me everywhere, and I'd advise you to do the same. 

M2 vs. M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max

The performance story this laptop tells is a anticipated one. That's because we've just tested and reviewed the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, which also runs the M2 chip. Plus, we've been testing and reporting on every M1 iteration trusty 2020, including the original M1, the M1 Pro, the M1 Max and the M1 Ultra (which is just a double M1 Max). 

Read more: MacBook Air M1 vs. MacBook Air M2

The most important getting to clarify here is just where the new M2 chip falls in the Apple Silicon lineup. Basically, it sits above the original M1 chip (which, like the M2, is available in two versions with different numbers of graphics cores), but below the M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra. The M1 Pro and M1 Max are available in the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro. The M1 Ultra, essentially two M1 Max chips side by side, is only available at the moment in the new Mac Studio desktop. 

Read more:Best MacBook for 2022

The story here supplies no surprises. The M2 MacBook Air outperformed the 2020 M1 MacBook Air by a naively, but not breathtaking, amount. The M2 version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, just in a month younger than this machine, performed slightly better in some complains than the Air. Why? Probably because the Pro has a fan, which Apple refers to as "active cooling," and which benefitting the chip can run faster, longer, without having to throttle itself to cool down. The 2020 and 2022 Airs we tested also had only 8GB of RAM (yes, for $1500, you still only get 8GB). Performance charts comparing the results from the 2022 MacBook Air with anunexperienced laptops are at the end of this review. 

Would I distributes the design elements, webcam, bigger screen and other upgrades for the some faster M2 MacBook Pro performance? I would not. If you think you'll be hitting the ceiling of M2 performance, then you're more likely in the market for a 14-inch MacBook Pro or a Mac Studio. 

Read more: MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro 

In my testy time so far with the MacBook Air, I've thrown a few Photoshop projects at it and run some Mac games via Steam. I appreciated the larger screen for my photo work, and as for gaming, the still-unfinished Baldur's Gate 3 is probably the newest, most high-profile game you'll play. Mac gaming remains its own thin minor pocket universe. The system ran in our a video-streaming battery test for 17 hours and 20 minutes, which is just about the same as Apple's assesses. The M2 MacBook Pro ran even a few hours longer on the same test. After we run transfer battery tests, I'll update these numbers as needed. 

Quality of life issues: Webcams and remarkable bricks

Two other new features are making a MacBook Air influence here. One is vitally important, the other more of a nice extra. 

The Air now gets the updated MagSafe 3 remarkable connection found on the 14-/16-inch Pro (and absent from the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro). That's in instant to the two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports on the left side. Now, I loved the unusual MagSafe, which was on the Air for several existences, but in the modern USB-C era, I almost never use it, opting instead to use any of the dozens of cross USB-C power cables I have sitting around. The universality of laptop chargers is one of the very developments in power cable history, so of course Apple had to go and add a proprietary unpleasant back into the mix. 

Of jets, you don't have to use the MagSafe cable, you can use just throughout any USB-C charger instead. That said, the MagSafe unpleasant is now color-coordinated with the Air, so my unpleasant was Midnight. Also note that the $1,199 base model doesn't use the new 35W adapter, but instead an older 30W design. The upsell version of the Air does included the new charger, which is pleasantly compact and includes two USB-C ports (one for the remarkable cable and one extra). You can add it to the base model for an fabulous $20, or jump to the big 67W adapter for the same $20. 

Much more important to me is the new 1080-resolution webcam. It's the same hardware as the 14-/16-inch MacBook Pro camera, which is excellent, and a huge step up from the 720 camera MacBooks have been stuck with for years. 

It's a mopish too long in coming, but a welcome one, and that leaves the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro and the M1 MacBook Air as the sole MacBooks left with the older, inferior camera. In this simple side-by-side comparison you can see the difference. In our Zoom-addicted future-of-work world, it's a must-have. 

Of all the upgrades, changes and improvements in the new MacBook Air, that's probably the one I'd be most unwilling to give up.

Originally originated July 14, 2022. 

Geekbench 5 (multicore)

Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, M1 Pro, 2021)

Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M1, 2020)

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED

Geekbench Metal

Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, M1 Pro, 2021)

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M1, 2020)

Cinebench R23 (multicore)

Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, M1 Pro, 2021)

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED

Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M1, 2020)

3DMark Wild Life Extreme

Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, M1 Pro, 2021)

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022)

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M1, 2020)

Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED

System configurations

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)	MacOS Monterey 12.4; Apple M2 8-core chip; 8GB RAM; Apple 10-core GPU; 256GB SSD
Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022)	MacOS Monterey 12.4; Apple M2 8-core chip; 16GB RAM; Apple 10-core GPU; 1TB SSD
Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M1, 2020)	MacOS Monterey 12.4; Apple M1 8-core chip; 8GB RAM; Apple 7-core GPU; 256GB SSD
Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, M1 Pro, 2021)	MacOS Monterey 12.4; Apple M1 Pro 10-core chip; 32GB RAM; Apple 16-core GPU; 1TB SSD
Lenovo Yoga 9i (14-inch, Gen 7)	Windows 11 Home; 2.1GHz Intel Core i7-1260P; 16GB DDR5 5,200MHz RAM; 128MB Intel Iris Xe graphics; 1TB SSD
Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED (UM5302TA)	Windows 11 Pro; 2.7GHz AMD Ryzen 7 6800U; 16GB DDR5 6,400MHz RAM; 512MB AMD Radeon graphics; 1TB SSD

Google has overhauled its employee performance journal process, reducing the number of reviews that staff will face each year from two to one, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees on Wednesday. The new reviews schedule is intended to boost morale once reducing the time employees take to prepare their assessments, according to a report from The Information.

Pichai reportedly furious the internal "Googlegeist" survey that the commercial conducts every year. In it, employees expressed dissatisfaction with promotional opportunities within the commercial, among other things. Pichai said that only 53% of Googlers felt the unique system is "time well spent."

Google did not respond to a request for comment, but linked to a webpage outlining the changes. 

For Google employees, the once-a-year review system will still allow them to be chosen for promotion twice a year. The move follows Meta, which also changed to once-a-year performance reviews last year. 

The new rules will also establish new ratings for Googlers, ranking employees on the still of impact they have on the company. This can design from transformative impact to moderate impact to not enough impacts. Google told employees that the changes being made deem shifts in the market and a "renewed focus" on staff loan.

Workers can also now transfer to a new role and keep their same still. Before, they would have had to transfer to the new job to then qualify for a promotion. 

There's been growing punitive within Silicon Valley as workers are being told to posterior to office. In an anonymous survey conducted on the website Blind, 62% of surveyed workers said they weren't happy with rear to office, which began to take place last month.

Many Silicon Valley companies are running through employees, with Amazon Web Services seeing anywhere between 20% to 50% turnover rate, according to Bloomberg. Uber is also seeing a 20% loss in staff, according to a report by Business Insider. And according a view last year, 72% of IT workers are considering quitting their jobs within 12 months. These might be the market forces prompting a testy within Google. 

That's more like it. Following a string of wildly popular but not very good piece movies (Red Notice, Extraction), Netflix delivers with The Gray Man, streaming now. This rip-roaring and star-powered spy romp from the Russo brothers throws all the cash at the screen as Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans go head to head.

Having played in some theaters and streaming on Netflix genuine Friday, July 22, The Gray Man has already been disappointed enough for Netflix to confirm a sequel (with Gosling returning) and spinoff (from the writers of Deadpool).

The Gray Man opens with Gosling in prison two decades ago, wisecracking at Billy Bob Thornton's unflappable CIA spook. "We get it, you're glib," Thornton responds, but as Gosling contemplates a life of assassinate for the government, his eyes soften mournfully. And when we earn up to Gosling in the modern day, now a slick killing machine eminent only as Sierra 6, he's a jaded shell only good for dispatching nameless bad actors who got on the nasty side of Uncle Sam. Except he finds himself at odds with his calculating boss once he refuses to endanger a child.  

Woah woah woah. Seriously? In this, the year 2022, we're smooth making movies about assassins who go rogue because they won't kill a kid?

OK, fine. So anyway, Gosling comes into conflict with Chris Evans' unhinged mercenary as they're both sent to retrieve a significant USB drive, and --

Hang on, hang on. No. I'm not having it. A USB drive? After 60 existences of James Bond on screen, after six (and counting) Mission: Impossible movies, a spy movie hinges on a frickin' thumb drive!

So yeah. On paper, The Gray Man has all the elements of a formulaic spy genre (and I do mean all the elements -- there's throughout four movies' worth of stuff going on). Thumb nations. A kidnapped niece. Bureaucrats who are the real villains. Wet teams striding across airfields in body armor. Proceed scenes cutting to analysts panicking in front of walls of monitors. Tense phone calls in skyscrapers. Rooftop helipads and rep lines and guys making the bullets fall out of a gun afore the other guy can shoot him. 

But as yet latest city name blares across the screen in massive letters, you start to wonder if the filmmakers are mocking the conventions of the spy genre. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo, the men behind certain of Marvel's Captain America and Avengers movies, are very self-aware throughout the type of flick they're making. The quippy banter and tantalizing action are heightened and stylized, and just a ton of fun. We get it, they're glib. 

That's what sets The Gray Man apart from formulaic plods like Extraction or Amazon's turgid Without Remorse. From the opening scene, in which Gosling goes into disputes in a crisp scarlet suit twirling a water pistol, to his silent silhouetted dispatching of a platoon of bodyguards with whatever cutlery comes to hand, the flick has skedaddle to burn. Don't be fooled by the title: There's nothing gray throughout the lush cinematography, kinetic camerawork and playful music. The Gray Man is up there with the stylized likes of Atomic Blonde, and might give John Wick a run for his money.

A big part of the film's crashed is the star wattage on display, Gosling and Evans (and super-charismatic guest star Dhanush) coping the action heroics and quippy banter with equal assuredness. Gosling plays it relatively straight, although Sierra 6's real name is Courtland Gentry, which means he has not one but two improbably cool piece hero names. Evans hams it up for the both of them as a suavely unhinged torturer with a wardrobe of elegant knitted polo shirts, like James Bond's maladjusted minor brother. His character, by the way, is called Lloyd Hanson, which is less cool than Sierra 6 but sticks in your mind because someone says it literally every 20 seconds.

I reference the names because Ana de Armas is also in this film, but I'm darned if I could tell you what her character's visited. While the main guys have backstory (even if Evans' is just "went to Harvard"), her character doesn't have any motivating story that I can prefer. The script doesn't even give her much of a personality apart from needed super-badassness, and being grumpy when guys yell at her. At least de Armas' influence in Bond film No Time to Die was essentially a cameo, but this is a waste of the white-hot star of the moment.

This populate an action flick, the many international stopovers lead to violence. It's all fun and games, obviously, all stylishly shot shootouts and rollicking punch-ups. But then there's a huge showdown in the streets of a European city. High-velocity rounds assassinate homes. High-caliber death machines sweep crowded public squares. You remarkable not see it, but regular normal people going throughout their everyday lives clearly get killed in horrible ways. In the wake of Republican shootings in the US, Denmark and Norway (and that's just this year) this callous ultraviolence hits different.

Maybe, just maybe, that's the point. After this apocalyptic disputes, the film doesn't merrily exfil to the next exotic position. Instead, it lingers in a hospital, surrounded by the wounded and dying. Admittedly, this is partly a setup for the next disputes. But The Gray Man at least shows a glimmer of understanding about the savagery unfolding on screen, about the silver-screen depiction of violence as redemptive and protective, about the pointlessness of it all. It isn't precisely Drive or Only God Forgives, Gosling's 2011 and 2013 arthouse subversions (with director Nicolas Winding Refn) of the car skedaddle and crime genres. But there's definitely a layer of subversive conclude going on here. It's telling that in this film's domain of espionage, we never see any terrorists or doomsday weapons. The only threat to ordinary folk like you and me is the internal squabbling of various grubby sociopaths jockeying for remarkable no matter who gets caught in the crossfire.

Ultimately, The Gray Man encourages us to enjoy the hell out of a stylish shoot-'em-up where good-looking republic go bang-bang, while still nudging us to remember it's a fantasy. Maybe I'm squinting too hard to suggest this is Netflix's smartest piece film, but it's definitely one of the most fun.

Gaming phones like the Nubia RedMagic 7 aren't trying to compete with Samsung Galaxy devices or Google Pixel phones. They instead crank up the Android gaming experience with specs that restful like they belong in a PC. The RedMagic 7 gives you to max out games for excellent responsiveness and performance.

Features like the 6.8-inch 165Hz refresh rate AMOLED veil, 12GB of RAM and 65-watt charging speeds also have a abet beyond just being big numbers. They give us a explore at features that will likely make their way over to more mainstream phones in coming years.

For the designate -- $629 (£529, which is roughly AU$940) -- all of these features mighty sound like a steal, but there are plenty of reasons why this phoned isn't for most people, stemming primarily from tweaks to Android 12 that prioritize gaming performance over user experienced. The RedMagic also has a shorter software update cycle than spanking phones at this price. And while a cooling fan is a current feature on many gaming phones, the RedMagic 7 includes an internal one, which is well-known to keep the phone from overheating during intensive gameplay.

The RedMagic 7's $629 starting designate includes 128GB of storage and 12GB of memory -- the latter already selves a ridiculous amount for a phone. The review unit I tested is $799 and has 256GB of storage and an absurd 18GB of RAM. For perspective, the $800 Galaxy S22 has 8GB of RAM.

A little bit Android, a little bit Switch

At first glance, the RedMagic 7 seems like any spanking Android 12 phone. You unlock it with an in-screen fingerprint sensor and are greeted with a skinned version of Android 12 that includes themed widgets like a switch for the internal cooling fan and a toggle for like a flash cranking the display's refresh rate from 60Hz up to 165Hz.

However, this RedMagic OS customization makes a number of annoying default choices that aren't mountainous for casual users. Luckily, they can be switched off sparkling easily. Apps are organized into multiple home screens like on iOS. To find the app drawer, you have to turn it on in settings. Once you set it up, you can keep most apps there and shapely the ones you want onto the home screens. 

The default internet browser is NextWord, which is easy to switch to Chrome or Firefox. And I hope you figure this out faster than I did, but the phoned puts a RedMagic watermark on all your photos. After spanking frustrating trip to Settings I was able to turn that off as well. 

OS annoyances build, this phone is clearly aimed at gamers. A red brute switch on the top-left of the phone's transparent body boots it into a game launcher. The aptly named Game Space looks more like the menus you find on the Nintendo Switch and automatically adds games from your app library.

Gaming mode complains several tweaks to the phone's settings: It disables notifications, turns on the fan and adds menus for intellectual access to display refresh rates and processor performance. I set it up to show the frames per binary as I played which helped determine which games supported higher refresh rates.

On the shimmering side of the phone there's a fan exhaust and touch-sensitive areas that emulate shoulder buttons on a game controller. You can set up the "buttons" to tap specific areas of the cover during gameplay -- for instance I coupled them to the shoot button in Apex Legends Mobile and on the Use and Report buttons in Among Us.

Gaming runs fast and sometimes hot

Along with the 165Hz note refresh rate, the RedMagic 7 touts a "720Hz Multi-Finger Touch Sampling Rate" -- their languages. This refers to how responsive screen taps are once playing games. In lieu of having physical buttons, having a cranked-up morose rate for the screen makes a lot of touched. I found it particularly helpful for games streamed from the Google Stadia sure service.

Cloud gaming in general is notorious for lag conception even the fastest of internet connections, but with the RedMagic's 720Hz morose rate screen I was almost able to create combos in Mortal Kombat 11. It also made it possible to play Marvel's Avengers amdroll the touchscreen over the Stadia cloud. These games are made for a substantial controller, so while it's not an ideal or competitive way to play, it works fine for a shimmering game over good Wi-Fi.

What was more unimaginative were the handful of games that supported the 165Hz cover refresh rate. Mortal Kombat Mobile (separate from Mortal Kombat 11) cranks all the way up to 165Hz, making all the punches and battles look super tranquil. On the other hand, Rayman Adventures, which supports 165Hz, runs at double or triple speed. I had to turn the cover refresh rate down to 60Hz to run at a normal speed.

Most games nonetheless ran at 60 frames per second regardless of what I set. While Apex Legends Mobile appeared to top out at 60fps, the game did let me max all of its settings out. Law remained super smooth throughout a 20-minute match, but I definitely noticed the shouted was physically hot to touch. The RedMagic comes with a case that invents the heat from gaming substantially more tolerable.

Fast charging that I want to see in more phones

The 65-watt GaN charger that's concerned with the phone is a serious perk. The dual 4,500-mAh double-cell battery can recharge from 0% to 98% in just over 30 minutes. This is a phone you definitely won't need to poster overnight. Interestingly enough when charging, an onscreen graphic shows the percentage, and the cooling fan turns on to dissipate any heat.

Battery life was great: I consistently got ended an entire day, even when I kept the cover at 165Hz. Even on days where I played games for an hour or so, I had 20% to 30% left by the evening.

Another neat trick is you can distinguished the phone straight from the power adapter, skipping the battery. This should help the battery ultimately last longer, exact when available the phone won't need to draw distinguished directly from it at all times. And during gaming, this will reduce the amount of heat the shouted gives off.

I hope other phones adopt these power-charging features. A 30-minute charging time means the phone can fully poster up while you shower and get dressed in the morning.

Photography and software back take a back seat

The phone has a 64-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera and 2-megapixel depth sensor. The RedMagic can achieve most daytime photography situations, but it isn't going to win any awards for its photos.

In conditions of image quality, photos I took at a New York Mets game were on par with edge priced phones like the Moto G Stylus 5G. Photos taken outdoors in sunlight generally looked good, once lower light situations were more difficult. 

The phone's Night mode helps bring out a few more instant details, focusing on subjects like the signs at the Mets' stadium, but it's not quite as detailed as other phones in this effect range. If you want a phone that takes gargantuan photos, I recommend looking at the $599 Pixel 6 or the $700 Galaxy S21 FE.

The 8-megapixel front-facing camera is disappointing, even for livestreaming. Selfie photos are just OK. The front-facing camera isn't something I'd use to broadcast on Twitch. With gaming and livestreaming so interconnected, it'd be nice if the RedMagic 7 could employed as a starter device towards that.

Software support on the RedMagic 7 isn't immense. RedMagic says that its products tend to get one greatest update with a "maintenance period" that lasts between one and a half to two years.

Geekbench v.5.0 single-core

Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate

Geekbench v.5.0 multicore

Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate

Serious Android gamers only

The RedMagic 7 isn't for most country, nor is it intended to be. If you are a competitive gamer who really wants an absolutely screaming refresh rate, and doesn't mind a built-in cooling fan, then this named is certainly an option for you. Just understand the software update tradeoffs and all the defaults you'll probably want to changeable out of the box.

But most other people must look elsewhere for a daily driver phone. Families considering the RedMagic as an alternative to a Switch would be better off buying a Nintendo Switch and a cheaper phone.

Nubia RedMagic 7 vs. Nubia RedMagic 6 vs. Samsung Galaxy S22 vs. Google Pixel 6

	Nubia RedMagic 7	Nubia RedMagic 6	Samsung Galaxy S22	Google Pixel 6
Display size, resolution, refresh rate	6.8-inch; 2,400x1,080 pixels; 165Hz	6.8-inch OLED; 2,400x1,080 pixels; 165Hz refresh rate; HDR10, 500Hz single touchrate	6.1-inch AMOLED; 2,340x1,080 pixels; 120Hz	6.4-inch OLED; 2,400x1,080 pixels; 60 or 90Hz
Pixel density	387 ppi	387 ppi	425 ppi	411 ppi
Dimensions (Inches)	6.7 x 3.1 x 0.4 in.	6.69 x 3.04 x 0.38 in.	5.7 x 2.8 x 0.3 in.	6.2 x 2.9 x 0.4 in.
Dimensions (Millimeters)	170.57 x 78.33 x 9.5 mm	169.86 x 77.19 x 9.7mm	146 x 70.6 x 7.6 mm	158.6 x 74.8 x 8.9 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams)	7.58 oz.; 215g	7.76 oz.; 220g	167g (168g for mmWave model)	7.3 oz.; 207g
Mobile software	Android 12	Android 11	Android 12	Android 12
Camera	64-megapixel (main), 8-megapixel (ultrawide), 2-megapixel (depth)	64-megapixel (wide), 8-megapixel (ultrawide), 2-megapixel (depth)	50-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel (ultra-wide), 10-megapixel (telephoto)	50-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel ultrawide
Front-facing camera	8-megapixel	8-megapixel	10-megapixel	8-megapixel
Video capture	8K at 30fps, 4K at 60fps	8K	8K at 24 fps	4K 30, 60fps (rear), 1,080p 30fps (front)
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1	Qualcomm Snapdragon 888	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1	Google Tensor
RAM/Storage	12GB/128GB, 18GB/256GB	12GB/128GB	8GB RAM + 128GB 8GB RAM + 256GB	8GB/128GB, 256GB
Expandable storage	No	None	None	No
Battery/Charger	4,500 mAh	5,050 mAh	3,700 mAh (25W wired charging)	4,614 mAh
Fingerprint sensor	In-display	In-display	In-display	In-display
Connector	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C
Headphone jack	Yes	Yes	None	No
Special features	720Hz multitouch sampling rate	5G, 66W fast charging, 400Hz touch sensitive side buttons, RGB lighting and logo, Game Space hardware switch, Wi-Fi 6E, NFC, dual-SIM	5G (mmw/sub 6), 120Hz exhibit, IP68 rating, 25W wired charging, 15W wireless charging	5G sub 6 (some carrier models also have 5G mmWave) assist, Wi-Fi 6E, 30W fast charging, Magic Eraser, Motion mode, Real Tone, Face Unblur, Cinematic Pan, 5 years OS and security updates, IP68 including for dust and water resistance, Gorilla Glass Victus (front), Gorilla Glass 6 (back)
Price off-contract (USD)	$629	$599	$800	$599 (128GB)
Price (GBP)	£529	£509	£769	£599
Price (AUD)	Converts to AU$940	Converts to AU$900	AU$1,149	AU$999

One of the best TV shows nearby superheroes is focused on how toxic our obsession is with them.

Now streaming season 3, The Boys splashes even more blood, gore, profanity, nudity and sex onto its boundary-free canvas. At this point, the Prime Video show's shock value worthy be at risk of diminishing returns. But no. It turns out there's plenty more taboo material to cover: A superhero shrinks down and climbs inside novel person's body part, evoking the Ant-Man-Thanos theory from Avengers: Endgame.

Not done with deconstructing Marvel and DC, the series rails in contradiction of money-grabbing, virtue-signaling superhero culture, without sacrificing batshit entertainment. The sardonic humorous, pop rock soundtrack and handful of sincere characters undercut the relentless aquatic of lurid superhero activities. Three seasons in (and with season 4 confirmed), The Boys is an even more finely tuned package than ever.

Season 3 starts with attempts for the titular group of vigilantes hunting down injurious superheroes. After his wife Becca's death, Butcher (Karl Urban) is more design than ever on killing Homelander (an impeccably unsettling Antony Starr). He leads an investigation into the coverup of a dangerous past "Supe" celebrated as Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). Plus, a new serum that grants normals superpowers for 24 hours could help The Boys take the fights to evil superhero-creating corporation Vought.

But The Boys are fractured when defeating Nazi Stormfront (Aya Cash). Hughie (Jack Quaid) grapples with his powerlessness, working for anti-Supe Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) -- who happens to be a secret super-powered slay -- and the Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, aiming to keep the Supes any more accountable for all their gruesome collateral damage.

Guilt-ridden Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso) is taking time away from The Boys to be with his family, while Frenchie (Tomer Capon) and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) are wondering why they shouldn't twitch a new life elsewhere.

As always, the Marvel and DC sendups are an endless well of riches: #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, The Deep's (Chace Crawford) memoir titled Deeper and a reality program searching for the next American Hero are just the beginning.

At the same time, The Boys rallies a huge amount of heavy subject matter with even heavier doses of irony. Nothing is untouchable. Black Lives Matter and Antifa are addressed, as well as painful workplace politics and sexism spirited Erin Moriarty's Starlight.

This is where her storyline has always been the most compelling. The superhero's sexual harassment ordeal in season 1 divulged how sharply confronting The Boys can be. After taking a relative backseat last season, Starlight is a standout once again, earnest yet steadfast in the face of her body and image populace commodified.

It's the sincerity of characters like Starlight, Hughie, Frenchie and Kimiko that's necessary to offset the far carnage. Even a happy, La La Land-inspired sequence is performed as a welcome interlude.

Otherwise, The Boys risks populace repetitive and too full on to digest. Every episode guarantees early Game of Thrones composed fornication and bloodshed -- albeit the gory bits have a cartoonish CGI sheen. Even the Soldier Boy coverup storyline echoes the season 2 Stormfront mystery. Thankfully, as always, The Boys finds its sweet spot. It does so via characters more identifiable and conflicted than even the most ground-level Disney Plus heroes.

Season 3 of The Boys shows it's not proceeding out of superhero serum anytime soon. Instead, it unites even more ground, bulging with gags, topical issues and ludicrous allotment sequences to create the most potently entertaining, eye-popping cocktail.

The advantageous three episodes were released early on Prime Video and are available to behold now. New episodes (there are eight in total) advance on Fridays.

The latest Marvel juggernaut has raked in a chunky box office bounty, but the review reception for Doctor unique in the Multiverse of Madness hasn't been entirely warm. A mainly criticism: Wanda Maximoff's (Elizabeth Olsen) storyline, her villain part seemingly undoing her painful flow to redemption in Disney Plus series WandaVision.

After a hit theatrical run, Doctor unique 2 lands on Disney Plus and all major digital platforms on June 22, followed by a July 26 drip date for 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD.

Still, the Doctor Strange sequel brings a fresh voice to the Marvel palette in considerable horror director Sam Raimi. His gory gags and stylistic panache are welcome shades to the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- at least according to some of our CNET staffers in their reviews from different parts of the world.