Can Sony strike gold two years in a row while offering a more affordable product to the masses? Based on our time with the WH-ULT900N over-ears, that’s just possible. But there are a few items to consider before you put your money down.

Looks are everything

These over-ears are definitely products of Sony’s design lab. In appearance, they come across as a hybrid of the WH-1000XM4 overs from 2021 and 2022’s WH-1000XM5.  The headband resembles the XM5’s but the whole unit folds up in the same manner as the XM4 set. Visually, it’s attractive, but picking them up immediately shows that these aren’t the top of the range. The heft and weight we’d expect are replaced by a slightly hollow feeling that still feels sturdy enough. But it’s not premium.

Our review set was a pre-production model but everything we encountered should be in place in the final retail units. The left ear cup hosts three physical buttons as well as a 3.5mm jack and USB-C charge port. The right cup doesn’t have any external additions but the right-hand panel acts as a gesture panel for play, pause, and navigation.

The three buttons are further indicators that the WH-ULT900N overs aren’t quite for the premium market. The power button also sets up Bluetooth pairing and there’s a key for turning on noise cancelling or ambient modes. The third key is marked ULT. Giving it a poke plays a little sound effect inside the cups and drops listeners into one of three preset audio modes. We found ourselves favouring the default setting but there’s a satisfying bass jump in the middle setting that deepens into an aggressive rumble in the third option.

Sound decision

Whatever the WH-ULT900N’s faults, and we’ll get to a few of them in a second, there’s one thing they do extremely well. The audio is top-notch. As mentioned, we stuck mostly with the default setting which, in our opinion, didn’t need tweaking at all, but there are a couple of bass-enhancing modes available via the ULT button. The first is just a little more bassy. The second would give a speaker-laden taxi a run for its head-rumbling money.

But the ‘ULT’ portion of these cans isn’t really required. Those with more precious audio tastes can lovingly craft their own personal EQ settings in Sony’s app. Others, the folks Sony seems to be after with these over-ears, can simply jack up the bass until it’s capable of crumbling concrete foundations.

If, like us, you’re one of the world’s more or less normal people, at least as it pertains to audio, then Sony’s default setting is an excellent experience. There’s clear separation of lows, mids, and highs, excellent clarity throughout, and whatever you’re playing, from classic 90s thrash metal to more sedate offerings from the softer side of Spotify, sounds as fresh as the first day you heard it. There’s even a little space for nuance in complex melodies if that’s your thing.

Sony claims a solid 30 hours of battery with noise cancelling and Bluetooth enabled and a serious 50 hours with noise cancelling off. We… didn’t get to run them all the way flat before the review was due but that was partly due to their arrival in South Africa, partly the admittedly excellent battery life, and partly the fact that we gave these cans a brief charge about midway through the review that added 15% to the battery total. Not bad for ten minutes’ work.

The catch

Obviously, you won’t purchase a R5,000 set of headphones (the planned retail price for Sony’s WH-ULT900N overs in South Africa when they land) and expect perfection. It would be nice, but there were a few sacrifices made to get there. One of the main ones we’ve already mentioned — the build falls short of being truly premium but it’s quite far above ‘seriously budget’ as well.

There are other aspects that we weren’t thrilled with. The physical controls could have been slightly better placed. A button always seemed to be under a thumb as we raised and removed the WH-ULT900Ns, switching us to a bassier profile or ambient mode without consulting us first. The touchpad on the right side also took some getting used to. Swiping between tracks always worked but convincing it to pause or play on command was another sort of mission.

Noise cancelling… works. We’ve experienced better from Sony itself but even from similarly-priced headphones. Sony chose to focus on one main aspect with these overs. As a result, these will cancel noise well enough but they’re unlikely to blow you away with their stunning silence. It’ll mute the office and traffic and almost everything else in your immediate vicinity. But others have done that task better.

Finally, there’s the audio cutoff when removing the headphones. Initially, it didn’t work at all and now, following a few days with these headphones, it’s still a little iffy. Power management is also a little iffy. Sony’s cans will turn themselves off if you put them down for a while, which is great. But you’ll have to physically turn them on again in order to resume listening. That’s very much a first-world problem but Sony’s pricier headphones have spoiled us somewhat.

Sony WH-ULT900N verdict

Sony’s headphones, at the time of publication, aren’t in South African stores just yet. When they do drop, at that RRP of R5,000, you’d be doing yourself a favour by checking them out. They’re aimed at folks with middling budgets who like some rumble with their tunes but that doesn’t mean that Sony has skimped on the sound. The WH-ULT900N headphones have plenty to offer where it counts and a handful of properly premium features to explore. The few cost-cutting aspects can easily be forgiven when the sound is as good as it is.

You’d think that title would belong to someone like Swiss watchmaker Swatch. But you’d be wrong. Bulgari is a previous record holder but had to go thinner when it was dethroned by a 1.75mm-thick Ferrari-branded wristwatch. The Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC measures just 1.7mm thick.

Talking total Bulgari

That’s not to say that the Octo Finissimo Ultra is a half-baked effort at high-end wristwear. There are 170 different components tucked away inside that 1.7mm thick 40mm case. Some of these are visible through the dial and most of them are made from titanium. The back panel, which acts as a mainplate for all the other bits, is constructed from tungsten carbide. You know, the heat-resistant material used for high-speed drill bits and some men’s rings?

Bulgari’s wristwatch is so skinny that the case it comes in is used to set and wind the watch. There’s no space for you to do it manually. Its thickness is ascribed to the brand’s engineers managing to shave some width off the sapphire crystal screen covering the working mechanism. Despite this, and unlike Bulgari’s previous record holder, the Octo Finissimo Ultra is a certified chronometer. That’s where the ‘COSC’ suffix, which stands for Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres, comes from. The acronym signifies that this wristwatch is verified to be capable of accurate timekeeping.

If you want one of these on your wrist, you’ll need about R11 million ($590,000) and a time machine, because the Italian luxury goods brand only made twenty of these mechanical wonders. Still, it’s quite something to peer at these pictures and marvel over the engineering feat that makes them look so otherworldly.

But you can say that about basically any backup battery. Does it have anything special to recommend over the vast swathes of other battery brands in the local market today? That’s a slightly more difficult question to answer. Sure, the Bluetti EB70 has a lot going for it but is it enough?

Built like a brick…

The Bluetti EB70 716Wh battery is a substantial rectangular brick of plastic that will blend into most darker corners. Stuff‘s images, shot under lights, make it seem more prominent than it really is. For all its monochrome nature, the various markings are readily visible. As is common with power stations, the various sections are grouped and powered independently. If you’re only after the 12V socket and a couple of USB ports, there’s no need to activate the AC output, for instance.

There are nine output ports in total and only a single input. If you’re hoping to use a portable solar panel or something similar to charge the EB70, you’ll have to make use of the included adaptor. Outputs consist of dual USB-C (100W each), USB-A, and 12V DC ports, as well as a single 12V socket. The remaining two are a pair of Type D AC sockets capable of delivering 220V of power with a draw of up to 1000W. There’s also an LED light with two levels of brightness, in case you need to see what you’re doing in the dark (spoiler: you do).

Station operation

As with most power stations, Bluetti’s EB70 is a simple matter of plug-and-play. Plug in your TV and console and you’ll be able to play during Eskom’s outages. The same is true of other appliance combinations, obviously. The EB70’s operation is actually simpler than most products of its type. Any power button will begin proceedings, meaning there’s less fiddling in the dark if all you want is the LED, while shutdown calls for all the power buttons to be turned off.

The LED display offers basic input/output information and also shows the battery level. The level indicator takes a second to fire up so it always looks like it’s flat for a few seconds before the bar climbs to the top. There’s little other information available, so there’s no problem with the LED shutting itself down a few minutes after it lights up. The info is still there and you can wake the LED if needed. You just won’t need to.

Trouble keeping up

So far we’ve seen that the Bluetti EB70 is a competent power station, even if it’s a little short on features. There is one more feature, not counting the wireless charging pad built into the top of the unit, but it has its ups and downs. The feature is pass-through charging, a nice-to-have on most power stations. This one is a bit of a left-handed gift, however.

Generally, the EB70 operates in silence. You can connect a substantial power draw to the 716Wh battery and it’ll get on with the job without a mutter. But if you happen to connect the charger while this is going on, which has a chunky brick at its midpoint, you’ll be greeted by a lot of fan noise. This is a combination of things — the EB70’s internal fan but mostly it’s the power brick grumbling about being forced to work.

There’s also the charge speed to contend with. The Bluetti is capped at 200W, meaning it takes a few hours to get back up to full strength. Passthrough charging should help this, in theory, but we found that the unit struggled to maintain even that charging speed when powering something on the other side. Disconnection and recharge when it’s not needed is probably the better way to use this one. You lose the convenience of passthrough but you also lose the constant noise of the power brick.

Bluetti EB70 Portable Power Station verdict

There’s plenty to like about the Bluetti EB70 716Wh power station. It’s super-simple to use, will power up to 1,000W of appliances (for a while) and the battery is substantial enough to keep you entertained for the length of a rugby game or more if you’re careful about what’s connected. The main drawback is the noisy power brick, which renders this unit’s passthrough charging more unpleasant than it should be.

At R9,000, the current price for this backup battery, you won’t feel ripped off. Batteries with similar capacity (but also more features) are around R3,000 more expensive. It’s important that you know that the EB70 takes longer to top up than other LiFePo (lithium iron phosphate) batteries we’ve tested. That might be an immediate downside but it could pay off with a longer battery lifespan. We haven’t tested this one for long enough to be sure of that but hey, it could happen.

There’s a lot to be impressed by here. The fit and finish belies the price and the noise cancelling tech definitely does too. The audio doesn’t quite reach these heights but it’s close enough that you’ll want to consider these before dropping twice the price on something else.

The Core of the issue

Anker’s Soundcore range has previously been a bit hit and miss for Stuff, especially in the budget category, but a couple of years makes a serious difference in tech. The design of the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC isn’t especially novel but the fit has seen considerable improvement over the last set of stem-wielding in-ears we tried from Anker. They nestle inside the ear in just the right way to all but disappear — which is also what background noise will do. More on that in a second.

The buds are… well, buds. The build quality is notable. They’re lightweight at under six grams per bud but they don’t feel like they’ll crush under pressure. This carries over to the case, which is one of the better efforts we’ve seen in any set of in-ears in a while.

There’s a fair weight and bulk to the case that translates over to the hinge, which snaps closed without any hint of wobble. The LED button that pops the lid open also functions as an actual button, setting up pairing with a long press.

This goes rather neatly with the other almost premium features of the Liberty 4 NCs — the touch controls along both stems are welcome, there’s an IPx4 rating so you can sweat on them without worry, and the case will charge wirelessly and via the USB-C port. Not bad for buds that occupy the R1,700 to R2,000 price bracket.

Key performance indicators

The real star of this concert is the Liberty 4 NC’s noise cancelling. The company’s promo material claims that it blocks “up to 98.5%” of external noise and we’re more or less convinced there. Sure, you’ll get better noise cancelling from other (more expensive) devices but the silence produced by the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC buds is almost eerie.

Turning on active noise cancelling results in almost total silence. Less ANC produces a low-level hiss but here there is only a smooth emptiness and the very edges of spoken words. Pop on your favourite playlist and you might as well be on an orbiting satellite. Nothing reaches you unless it’s combined with physical contact like a whack on the shoulder.

The Liberty 4 NC buds offer audio in keeping with the rest of this reasonably-priced package. It’s almost universally great, though a touch heavy on the bass in some of the default EQ settings. Audio maintains clarity through most genres and, while you can get better budget audio, these are good enough that we wonder how Anker manages to justify the price of the Soundcore Liberty 4 buds. Must be the presence of 360° audio jacking up the cost in those buds because there’s not a whole lot of room for improvement in other areas.

Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC verdict

We’ve barely touched on the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC’s battery up till now. That’s because it was so far from being an issue that we almost forgot about it. There’s an advertised 10 hours in a charge and a total of 50 hours with the case taken into account and that sounds about right to us. We couldn’t kill them on any single work day and the case certainly has the bulk needed to provide the legs Anker’s advertising here. So are the Liberty 4 NC’s the perfect in-ears?

Well… no. But they’re a serious value proposition for anyone with designs on excellent audio and features with less than two grand in their pocket. It’s possible to get better performance, better noise cancelling, and better battery life from your in-ears. It’s probably not possible to get all three at this price point. Or, if it is, we just haven’t had a chance to give those headphones a spin just yet. That time will come, in that case. For now, consider these.

You don’t actually need to know any of this. All you need is the desire to own a basic cellular phone with a battery that will outlast Eskom’s longest load shedding avoidance streak since March 2021. A desire for monster keys and a return to the T9 keyboard format from the late 1900s would also be useful since that’s what you’re getting here.

Something old, something new

So what does a twenty-first-century dumbphone look and feel like? It’s a fair amount like the devices from the heyday of cellular phones but with lighter plastic. The folded device is neatly compact and even unfolded it’s very easy to handle in a single hand. This owes a lot to the Nokia 2660 Flip’s narrow width and generous keys. Even the cellphones of yesteryear didn’t feature keys this large. There’s the classic T9 configuration topped by a navigation wheel and other physical buttons to help you get around not having a touchscreen.

The Nokia 2660 Flip is otherwise light on physical features but there’s one rather modern(ish) one to marvel over. That would be the external 1.77in display. It’s really only good for checking the time and the odd notification but since it helps you avoid flipping even this low-effort device open, it’s handy to have. Oh, and there’s a camera sensor and flash on the outer side.

A headphone jack, a charge port (microUSB), a volume rocker, and a wakeup key along one edge round out the other features. There’s also what looks to be a dock connector at the base of the phone. Being what the Nokia 2660 Flip is, the whole rear panel can be pried off. Inserting one or two SIM cards and a microSD card (there are slots for all three) calls for this operation. Very retro.

Mocor, fewer worries

That’s almost all there is to this smartphone. The official specs list a Unisoc T107 processor inside the Nokia 2660 Flip, along with a mighty 128MB of storage and 48MB of RAM. Yes, they’re measured in megabytes. When you scroll through the very simple-t0-navigate operating system, you’ll see why. The internal 2.8in, 240 x 320 display doesn’t call for much in the way of speedy hardware. It doesn’t take that much to play Snake, after all, even if the revised version of Nokia’s mobile classic is now rendered in colour instead of monochrome.

It took us a while longer than expected to run down the Nokia 2660 Flip’s Mocor operating system. This OS is developed by MediaTek and is typically used on lower-end phones. Long story short, don’t expect to download and install much, though there are a set of apps pre-installed. Some of these you’ll somehow be asked to pay for, in the case of the trial versions of Tetris, Doodle Jump, Crossy Road, and a couple of others. Facebook, as ever, is entirely free. So are the calculator, stopwatch, and converter apps. There’s also a voice recorder, which is a nice touch. It’s simple to read and navigate, which suits this device’s target market.

There are a couple of other features still outstanding. There’s a built-in FM radio and the flash on the outer screen doubles as a torch during load shedding. We know this because you have to use the Torch app to turn it on. Finally, there’s actually a camera. It’s a 0.3MP camera, sure, but it’ll take photographs. We wouldn’t post the pics to social media unless it was being done ironically, but it’ll let you assign a face to a contact on your device effectively enough.

Nokia 2660 Flip verdict

The Nokia 2660 Flip is a basic cellular phone and it doesn’t pretend to be anything else. It has a R1,500 starting price point, which might seem contentious since you can grab a budget Android for less than that. But Nokia’s flipping dumbphone is designed for a very specific market that will appreciate what it has to offer. We’re talking about folks with (some) mobility or visual issues who can’t easily handle a smartphone.

The oversized keys, simple navigation, and stripped-back features make it ideal for older users, those with some physical issues, and even folks who just want a cheap business backup or emergency phone. The battery lasts for absolute ages when powered on and even longer when the phone is off. That’s handy to have when you’re stranded on the side of the road with a couple of flats and a car boot full of slowly melting ice cream.

The folks over at 9to5Mac have noted a change in Apple’s App Store guidelines. One difference is that streaming apps can now direct users outside the company’s ecosystem, the result of a recent EU ruling. In the EU, of course. But there’s one other change — retro game emulators will finally be allowed on the platform.

Retro pirates?

Emulators on iOS are not a new phenomenon. Having them officially available is. Previously, if users wanted to fire up old copies of games that no longer have working hardware, they’d have to side-load apps or jailbreak their iPhones. Apple has confirmed to developers that this no longer has to be the case. Retro (and other) emulators can now be developed and released on the App Store, with a caveat or two.

The company says in its guidelines that developers are “…responsible for all such software offered in your app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws.” In other words, actually offering the software (commonly called ROMs) could prove a bit tricky.

It leaves the door open for someone like Sega or Nintendo to release their retro catalogues in emulator format, as if that hasn’t been done to pieces already, but make it impossible for any other offering to support simple downloads. Any apps that sneak past Apple’s front door will likely find themselves being very specific that the software is ‘designed only to play personal backups of legally owned titles for [insert defunct platform here]’. How any retro games get there after the download is something nobody will be able to effectively police.

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The report, via the Financial Times, reckons that the choice is being made in response to the expense of developing and maintaining AI systems within the company. It’s not an unusual call to make. Users keen on the latest features from OpenAI are expected to hand over a monthly premium for the same reason.

Smart, Google

The company feels that its new search features, reportedly a single response to search queries in a similar manner to that offered by ChatGPT and other AIs, are worth charging for. Other features will probably also fall under this banner as they are developed. The main question is how to charge users.

It’s not immediately clear whether Google will create an all-new subscription service for users. It’s more likely that folks who are already giving the company money will gain access to enhanced artificial intelligence assistance for search queries — if that’s what they want. A small subset of users are already testing new features but others will have to sign up for access when it becomes more broadly available.

Read More: Google Gemini replaces Bard as catch-all AI platform

It’s a slick idea and one that might drive adoption of existing paid-for Google products. AI is increasingly being used to tempt users over to a particular brand rather than acting as a standalone product. Microsoft’s Edge browser, Adobe’s services, and many others are touting AI integration. Even Mercedes is bragging about ChatGPT integration. The search giant probably will have little issue putting this idea over with its users.

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The main tease? It is, of course, artificial intelligence. All Stuff got was a look at the logo, a stylised “AI”, and a reminder that Oppo AI is coming. Of course, since its own AI centre was announced in February this year, it sort of has to be.

Oppo’s newest

And now, a closer look at the new wearable, in-ears, and smartwatch. The latter is the first real smartwatch to arrive from the company and it’s packing a dual operating system. There’s Google’s WearOS, similar to what you’d find in new Samsung wristwear, but also a bespoke system designed to maximise battery life.

Crystal sapphire glass, the ability to take calls and send voice notes on your wrist, and a full ATM5 waterproof rating are all key features but, at a quick glance, there’s nothing really exceptional about the Watch X. It’s Oppo’s first, of course, but it does little to stand out from competitor products. That said, it also ticks all the necessary boxes to be a contender. Some time with the wearable will be the decider here and Stuff’s getting to that very soon.

Also due at the Stuff offices is the Oppo Pad Zero, an 11.6in tablet packing a Helio processor from MediaTek, 6GB of RAM (there’s also an 8GB version out there), and 128GB of storage. The display has been optimised for reading, a welcome feature for… well, readers, while an internal microSD slot will give you loads of space for your books, comics, and other literature. You can sort that bit out.

Oppo is touting a large 8,000mAh battery, which should give users over twelve hours of video, and 33W charging. It’s the company’s patented SuperVOOC tech but it’s still just 33W. It’ll top up quickly enough, we reckon. Expect a review of that one, including any interoperability between it and the Watch X, as soon as we can manage it.

Finally, there’s the new Oppo EncoBuds, the announcement of which was light on deeper information. An IP54 rating, active noise cancelling, and a total of 28 hours of usage from the buds and case mean these affordable in-ears might prove an attractive proposition. We’ll be testing these as soon as they arrive at the Stuff offices as well. Let’s see how good the noise cancellation and AI-powered voice boosting really is.

You’ll need to fork over R7,000 to get the Pad Neo, with contract options also available at various mobile service providers. The same deal applies to the R6,000 Oppo Watch X and even the R1,000 EncoBuds.

That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who tends to have a very clear inside line on what the company is up to at any given moment. And Gurman reckons that Apple has teams investigating the feasibility of developing and launching a line of home robots.

Robotic Apple

It turns out there are all sorts of folks looking for something to do at the company’s ground-based UFO campus following the end of Project Titan, Apple’s exploration into the world of self-driving automobiles. One of these tasks they’re exploring is some sort of home robot.

Don’t expect anything like an announcement at this year’s WWDC, however. Gurman reports that the exploration is still in the very early stages and it’s too soon to properly speculate what will be on offer. This assumes that development leads to production. Apple is known for taking its time there, too.

Still, there is some speculation. A prototype apparently exists that will follow users around, similar to the behaviour of LG’s recently unveiled AI agent. Another test device sits on a desk and tracks users, which sounds like a more advanced version of the now-defunct Meta Portal. Any and all devices, should they see release, will presumably incorporate the artificial intelligence functions the company is expected to unveil in early June this year at WWDC 2024.

The major challenge for the project’s continuation seems to be uncertainty over what folks will pay for an Apple-made in-home robotic assistant. The company’s hardware wouldn’t be cheap — witness the cost of the Vision Pro headset — and convincing folks to buy into something super-pricey and fairly experimental might be a hurdle that isn’t worth clearing. It may simply continue its push into the VR space with the Vision Pro and its successor headsets, something that is currently taking place anyway. As ever with Apple, it’s only official once it’s announced on stage. Or when someone ‘accidentally’ leaves it in a bar.

The first deliveries of the SU7 have already been made, with the vehicles coming from a pool of 5,000 that were manufactured and ready for shipping. Everyone else on the pre-order list, which numbers well in excess of the 88,898 reported initial orders, has a fair while longer to wait. A little over six months, in fact.

The SU7 queue

That wait time is specifically for Xiaomi’s SU7 Max, the speedier version of the EV that’ll nail 100km/h in a little over 2.7 seconds. It’s also got an increased range (800km on a charge) and top speed (265km/h) over the standard model, so it’s hardly surprising that the vehicle is in demand.

The price point isn’t too shabby either. The Max version of Xiaomi’s first EV starts at about R780,000 (300,000 yuan) while the basic version of the car costs about R560,000 (216,000 yuan). It beats out Tesla’s local pricing in China by a considerable margin while offering similar or even superior capabilities. The only tricky factor is that pesky waiting list, an issue that Tesla also faced when it released its Roadster in 2008. The waiting list… hasn’t really gone away.

Xiaomi seems a little more confident in its ability to deliver. Its vehicle construction is handled by Chinese state automaker BAIC. The Beijing facility where the SU7 is made can output as many as 200,000 vehicles annually. Whether it can do so with a brand new EV remains to be seen but that’s the whole point of this exercise.

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