TCL's NXTPAPER 11 could be a budget-friendly dream tablet - if you can get it

In the midst of all the high-end gadgets shown off at MWC 2023, TCL Mobile went the opposite route by revealing a bunch of new budget-friendly devices. 

Chief among these is the TCL NXTPAPER 11, a tablet whose features allow it to be a jack-of-all-trades for work and entertainment. It comes equipped with the company’s proprietary NXTPAPER 2.0 suite to improve screen quality. First, it bumps up the brightness level by 150 percent compared to the previous version allowing the 11-inch 2K display to output at 500 nits. If you use the device for an extended period of time, the integrated light sensor will “automatically [adjust the] color temperature” to protect your eyes. Anti-glare tech is also a part of the package by “incorporating multi-layer screen protection” to reduce eye strain. For the cherry on top, TCL added its AI Boost tech to further enhance video quality. 

Work features

As for the productivity features, the NXTPAPER 11’s screen sports a “nano-chemical [coating]”. When used alongside the T-pen stylus, the device “offers a realistic and smooth feel,” like pen on paper, according to TCL. On the front is an 8MP front wide-angle camera that can capture video up to 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels) at 30 FPS. Add in a quad speaker/dual microphone setup and you might have a pretty decent work tablet.

The NXTPAPER 11 will be available for purchase starting May 2023 for $249 in Dark Grey and Digital Lavender. It’ll first launch across Europe but there are plans to release the tablet elsewhere later in the year. If you don’t want to wait for the tablet to release in your country, there is the TAB 11 coming out that same month for $179 (LTE version available starting at $209). It’s very similar in terms of features and performance; however, it lacks NXTPAPER 2.0.

Growing smartphone line

Moving past the tablets, TCL also introduced three new 5G phones during MWC exclusive to North America. In total, you have the TCL 40 X 5G, 40 XE 5G, and the 40 XL with the first two being fairly similar. They have the same MediaTek Dimensity 700 model processor, 6.56-inch HD Plus (1600 x 900 pixels) display sporting “NXTURBO display enhancing software”, as well as 4GB of RAM. The main differences are that the 40 X 5G has a better camera system and biometric security installed. The TCL 40 XL, on the other hand, comes with the weaker MediaTek G37 processor, but makes up for it with a bigger 6.75-inch screen plus Dual Speakers for better audio.

Starting June 2023, both the 40 X 5G and 40 XE 5G models will be available for $199 and $169, respectively. The 40XL comes out a little earlier in May for $149.

Also, be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best cheap tablets for 2023. It features more mainstream devices like the iPad 10.2 and Amazon's Fire line. 

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Lenovo’s ‘rollable’ laptop prototype is seriously cool, but I still wouldn’t buy one

By far one of the coolest laptops on show at MWC 2023 in Barcelona right now has to be Lenovo’s ‘rollable technology’ concept unit. As a helpful Lenovo rep informed me, it’s nowhere close to being a marketable product right now - and if I was the person in charge of this particular product, I’d quit while I was ahead.

For starters, I’m going to object to the terminology used here. While the display certainly can be ‘rolled’ to reduce its size, the idea of a ‘rollable’ laptop immediately puts me - and, I would imagine, a lot of people - in mind of a whole device that can be rolled up to make it more compact when not in use. Imagine being able to roll one of the best laptops - or the best phones, since Lenovo also included a compact version of the display - into a nice thin tube to slip into a bag or pocket!

That, sadly, is not what this concept product does. Instead, it features a roll of unused display hidden inside the hinge and a small motor housed within the display casing that can unspool this section of screen to enlarge the whole display. Naturally, this only expands the screen vertically, giving the visual impression that the panel is sliding upwards to reveal more screen space underneath.

It’s certainly an incredible feat of technological engineering, and I can only congratulate Lenovo for making it happen. I think ‘scrollable’ or ‘spoolable’ (is that a real word?) might’ve been a clearer term, though - and that’s not the only problem this new frontier of display tech has.

The concept laptop already has a fairly tall screen even before the additional display space is unfurled from the base. (Image credit: Future)

Needs vs desires

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” So said Jeff Goldblum (in full leather-clad heartthrob mode) in Jurassic Park, and I think that quote applies here. This is some fantastic technology, but does anyone really need it?

Much like the foldable laptops we’ve seen in recent months, such as the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED, this feels like an exercise in innovation for innovation’s sake. Perhaps that’s cynical of me, but these sorts of products are prohibitively expensive once they make it into full production, and the average consumer simply doesn’t need (or even necessarily want) a laptop that can swap between two different screen sizes.

The recent shift towards 16:10 rather than 16:9 as the productivity aspect ratio of choice has demonstrated that consumers apparently are interested in taller laptop screens rather than wider laptop screens, but this feels like a bridge too far. Fully unspooled (I’m not saying ‘unrolled’), this Lenovo concept laptop is really, really tall - to the point where it feels a bit alien to look at as a regular laptop user.

When fully 'unrolled', the display is effectively equal to two 16:9 widescreen panels stacked vertically. (Image credit: Future)

The limitations of this technology

There are other complications when it comes to displays such as this. While we might be looking at a revolutionary era of flexible displays, the technology still has a way to go - Asus had to make some serious sacrifices to make the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED work without making it ridiculously thick, which included forgoing any ports larger than a USB-C and splitting the battery in two. Everything becomes harder to plan for, from portability to thermal management.

Let us not forget, though, that this isn’t Lenovo’s first dance with flexible display technology. The ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 was a bold reimagining of the company’s iffy original foldable laptop, and I quite liked it in my hands-on review. A big problem with currently available foldable laptops is that they can’t reasonably incorporate a discrete graphics card, which is a shame since they would be very well-suited to digital artists and other creators.

However, this new type of display could bypass that issue. Since the ‘rolled-up’ portion of the display is tucked away at the base of the screen bezel when not in use, the whole bottom portion of the laptop is, well, just like a normal ultrabook. With foldables, manufacturers have to fit all the internal components behind the screen; here, a GPU could be implemented without any particular difficulty.

One big concern with flexible panels is durability; virtually every folding device from phones to tablets has had criticisms leveled at them for being easier to damage than a conventional display. Here, it’s even worse. We’re not just talking about the need for a durable hinge. That spooling display is motorized, which means we’ve got tiny, delicate moving parts around an even more delicate flexible display panel. I don’t mean to be a Negative Nancy here, but that’s asking for trouble.

Perhaps in five years, or ten, or twenty, we’ll be using sexy, flexy screens in every aspect of our lives. But now’s not the time - and while I do respect companies like Lenovo and Asus for pushing the envelope with interesting new designs, we’re not going to see them selling big any time soon.

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Apple's next iPad Pro could have the best OLED display yet, but it'll cost you

Apple’s next batch of iPad Pro tablets, which are expected next year, could be the most expensive yet, thanks to the inclusion of a rumored display upgrade.

Following on from the iPad Pro 12.9 (2022) and the smaller – but otherwise practically identical iPad Pro 11 (2022), Apple is expected to drop another two new iPad Pro models next year. When they launch we’ll likely see Apple’s best iPad tablets get a few upgrades in terms of their processor and feature set.

However, while hardware improvements are always welcome, reports are suggesting we might be a little disappointed about one update. Next year’s iPad’s OLED displays are being rumored to be a lot more expensive than the screens on the current models screens – and that means the 2024 iPads are likely to cost more too (via The Elec).

According to reports coming out of South Korea, where Apple’s display partners Samsung Display and LG Display are based, Apple is looking to use a two-stack design for its next-gen OLEDs, with two light-emitting layers rather than one. Two-stack displays are brighter and longer lasting than single-stack screens – but they also cost a lot more.

Currently, Apple’s iPad Pro displays cost an estimated $100-$150 to produce (around £80-£125 / AU$150-AU$225), but it's reported that the cost of the new two-stack screens would jump to around $270 for the 11-inch model, and $350 for the 12.9-inch (around £225, £300  / AU$400, AU$520).

If those rumors are true, Apple will almost certainly look to pass some, if not all, of the extra cost onto consumers. So if you were planning to upgrade your tablet next year, you might want to start thinking about whether you're really going to need the very latest and greatest iPad, or can perhaps make do with a slightly older and cheaper, but still solid option.

The next iPad Pro models should be brighter, and pricier (Image credit: Apple)

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Analysis: Money for something

While we have to take any rumors with a pinch of salt, if the reports are true, the new iPad’s displays might actually be a worthwhile upgrade if you do choose to splash out.

Most OLED tablets aren’t bright enough to offer anything serious in the HDR department. Don’t get us wrong: the screens look great, but they aren’t delivering the full OLED effect; nothing like what you’d get from one of the best OLED TVs.

If Apple adopts this tandem structure, however, its screens should be a lot brighter than other OLED options on the market.

What’s more, the structure would give the screen a four-times longer lifespan. So if you’re someone that likes to buy a new iPad pro and then hold onto it for a few years, the 2024 models should be better equipped to deliver in that respect.

We’ll have to wait until 2024 to find out exactly what Apple’s next iPad Pro models have in store for us, but if the prices are set to go up then at least it looks like we'll be getting more bang for the extra buck.

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I played Tic-Tac-Toe with the mobile ChatGPT Bing and it cheated

Bing Chat, the ChatGPT-infused search engine preview that's all the rage is now on your iPhone and Android phones where I found it just as wild an experience as it is on the desktop.

Actually, it's wilder. Unlike the desktop, mobile ChatGPT Bing has the added special ingredient of a voice. That's right, Bing speaks to you. There is some irony here that the most interesting thing Microsoft has done in years is also a moment to reflect on the company's last Quixotic foray into voice-enabled assistants: Cortana.

You remember Cortana, right? If you've ever played Halo, then you have at least a passing knowledge of the AI assistant who helped Master Chief navigate his world. That fictional AI persona was so popular that Microsoft adopted the moniker as a code-name for its own real-world AI assistant and then kept the name when it introduced it a decade ago.

Cortana never lived up to its AI promise and was eventually deprecated and finally removed from Microsoft products.

Another chance at voice AI

Now we have a new AI voice chatbot from Microsoft and OpenAi (via a modified version of ChatGPT) that doesn't have its own name, it simply lives inside Bing.

Still, knowing Microsoft's history, and having spent two weeks playing with the Bing chat on my desktop, I could not resist getting some voice-to-voice time with Bing mobile.

I re-downloaded the Bing search app, a mobile bit of software I haven't touched in years.

While the desktop puts the large "Ask me anything..." prompt window front and center, I had to select the small "b" icon at the bottom of the Bing app screen to access the AI-powered chat.

After installation, you'll still have to decide if you want to let the app track you (I always say "no") and give it access to your microphone so Bing can hear your query (say "yes").

It's weird but I have what might best be called AI anxiety. When faced with an artificial intelligence prompting me to "Ask it anything," I freeze up, unable to think of a single good question.

Helping on the go

I eventually settled on, "Bing, write me a haiku about being on the iPhone," which I spoke to the app.

Note, you don't have to start with "Bing." It's not a watchword and activating the ChatGPT AI-powered Bing took pressing the Bing button.

Bing took a considerable amount of time before it responded. One thing I noticed is that Bing also says what it's searching for based on your query. It's pedantic but also useful in case you hear that Bing misunderstood and you want to stop Bing's search.

After a few moments, Bing recited in a female voice that sounded a little like Cortana this original haiku:

On the iPhone screen

A world of information

Bing is here to help

Not bad and yes, it hit the 5-7-5 syllable limits for each haiku line.

I got some good ideas for dinner from Bing, and all I needed was my voice. (Image credit: Future)

Next, I asked Bing to come up with a romantic dinner for two featuring seafood and rice. The only caveat is that prep time had to be under 30 minutes.

After another long wait, Bing AI chat told me about two recipes and asked me which one I'd like. It's here, though, where the conversational aspect breaks down a bit. Instead of leaving the microphone open to receive my response, I found I had to hit the microphone button again. After doing so, I told Bing that I chose the "second one." Bing then graciously provided the Salmon and Rice recipe, which it would've read out in its entirety if I let it.

Finally, I asked Bing AI chat to play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe with me.

Bing AI Chat plays Tic-Tac-Toe, and apparently cheats. (Image credit: Future)

Bing happily agreed and presented an all-text-based playing board and, without asking me, made the first move as "X." Each time either one of us made a move, it announced the board, not just the position of the "X"s and "O"s, but the dashes and plus signs it used to make it. Fine, I could live with that awkwardness for now.

After a couple of moves, I was prepared to block Bing AI chat for a win. Unfortunately, Bing cheats and insisted it won even though the board showed that it had not.

Aside from its sketchy game moves, the mobile version of Bing AI is relatively engaging. Microsoft still needs to work on the speed if it wants this to be a truly conversational AI and to take on the likes of Siri and Alexa. Otherwise, Cortana may have given her digital life in vain.

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Bing's new Android and iPhone apps let you speak to its ChatGPT brain

Microsoft's new ChatGPT-powered Bing search engine is evolving fast – it's now made the leap to Android and iOS smartphones with new mobile apps that also deliver voice search.

The new apps, which are available today, bring Bing's new AI chat powers onto our phones for the first time. Assuming your account has access to the new search engine, you'll be able to summon its chat assistant by tapping the Bing icon at the bottom of your screen.

But the real game-changer, and a harbinger for the future of AI search, is the addition of voice search to Bing's mobile experience, which Microsoft says is one of its preview community's "most requested features".

This means you'll be able to physically talk to its ChatGPT-powered brain in a more casual way than the desktop version, quizzing it about trivia or potential dinner options (like in Microsoft's preview image above).

Not content with those new features, Microsoft is also making the new Bing available on the homepage of the Microsoft Edge mobile app – and launching a worldwide preview of what it's calling "AI-powered Bing for Skype".

This will let you add Bing to your Skype group, like a standard Skype contact, and ask questions for the whole group to see. Microsoft says this could be particularly useful for organizing trips, where you can get Bing to chime in on weather forecasts and what's happening at travel destinations during your visit.

Microsoft says you can choose whether you want your answers to be provided in bullet points, text, or a more simplified response. If you have a multi-lingual group chat, it can also translate its answers into over 100 languages. Naturally, Microsoft says it will bring these skills "to other communications apps, like Teams, in the future".

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Analysis: Microsoft's 'co-pilots' spread their wings

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft's new Bing and Edge mobile apps, alongside its new ChatGPT-powered Skype, show that the real power of AI chatbots is seeing them baked into existing apps – as well as voice assistants.

We've already seen the power and considerable limitations of combining AI chat with search engines during the two weeks since Microsoft launched its new version of Bing on desktop. 

As we've previously argued, rushing ChatGPT-powered Bing onto iPhones and Android could be a bad idea, given that the tech is still embryonic and capable of forgetting things, getting slightly aggressive, or simply fabricating answers.

Given that, as Microsoft claims, 64% of searches take place on mobile phones, these new apps will likely only stretch the limits of its AI-powered tech even further. Still, the recent introductions of guardrails to keep Bing chats limited to five replies per conversation could certainly help improve the experience – and this will presumably also be the case on its mobile apps.

Microsoft is also building up quite a lead on Google in baking these AI features into its software, with Skype and soon Teams benefiting from their 'co-pilot' assistance. This piles the pressure onto Google to add similar features to the likes of Google Sheets, which has so far only benefitted from ChatGPT plug-ins.

We're also looking forward to seeing how well ChatGPT works with voice search – if the experience is good, it bodes well for a future where the likes of Alexa and Siri (plugging into similar AI-powered tools) actually fulfill their early promise and become good. 

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The Amazon Kindle store could soon be overrun with ChatGPT-authored books

The Amazon Kindle has been a real boon for self-publishing authors, but its virtual book store risks being overrun by a particularly prolific new scribe: ChatGPT.

As spotted by Reuters, there are already 200 e-books on Amazon's Kindle store that list ChatGPT as the author or co-author. But because Amazon doesn't require that authors disclose whether or not they've used AI, that's likely a huge underestimation of the number of titles that AI tools have either written or co-created.

The ChatGPT-created books are published through Amazon’s Kindle Direct publishing arm, which releases over 1.4 million self-published books every year and sells them alongside ones written by big-name authors. 

With no mention of AI tools like ChatGPT in Amazon's Kindle Publishing Guidelines, or any need for self-publishers to disclose using them, that number could well sky-rocket given the popularity of 'large language models' that are particularly skilled at generating text from prompts.

This is great news for 'authors' looking to radically boost their output by funneling ideas through the increasingly popular ChatGPT, which is also now available in Bing. In one example highlighted by Reuters, a New York-based salesman with no previous writing experience created a 30-page illustrated children's book in hours and sold it through Amazon's self-publishing arm.

But it's also a potential bombshell for both authors and readers alike, considering Amazon's virtual shelves could soon be flooded with AI-created books. We've asked Amazon for comment on how it plans to tackle this issue and will update this story when we hear back. 

For now, Amazon has simply told Reuters that “all books in the store must adhere to our content guidelines, including by complying with intellectual property rights and all other applicable laws." But it seems clear that it'll need to go further than that if its Kindle store is to retain a sense of order and help readers distinguish between robo-written books and real authors.

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Analysis: Amazon will need to rein in robo-authors 

(Image credit: Amazon)

The rapid rise of AI tools like ChatGPT is both a blessing and a curse for self-publishers, depending on how you view the technology. Their text-generating skills are ideal for quickly making first drafts, but authors also risk being drowned in a sea of homogenous look-a-likes.

Given that 'large language models' like ChatGPT and Google's incoming Bard are trained on human-made content, there are also potentially huge copyright issues ahead for works that are predominantly generated using the AI tools.

On the surface, the amount of AI-generated works in Amazon's Kindle store remains a drop in the ocean of its entire range. But that picture could change quite rapidly, given the sheer number of tutorials on YouTube and Reddit that show how easy it is to create and sell a new book in only a few hours.

Amazon's aim for Kindle Direct has always been to remove any barriers to entry for fledgling authors and fast-track the creation of new titles. Its own Kindle Direct tips page proudly states that "there are no gatekeepers deciding which books are published".

While that policy is unlikely to change overnight, it may well need to employ some AI detection tools to at least label ChatGPT-generated books for readers. Without some moderation, the best Kindle ereaders could soon see their virtual shelves buckling under the weight of some incredibly prolific new AI authors.

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Chromebook customization could soon get a major upgrade

Chromebooks are getting a change for the better in a big way with the ability to fully redefine keyboard shortcuts having been spotted in testing with Chrome OS.

About Chromebooks spotted that the latest beta version of Chrome OS 111 contains a revamped keyboard shortcuts app that allows you to remap those shortcuts as you please.

Now, this functionality isn’t working yet – you can change the shortcuts in the new panel, but they aren’t actually enacted, because this is still early testing for the feature.

In fact, the shortcuts app is still hidden to testers in the Chrome OS 111 beta, and you have to mess about with some experimental flags to find the relevant panel.

Even so, it’s great to see that the ability to customize your own shortcuts is incoming for Chrome OS.

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Analysis: An easier life for people migrating to a Chromebook

This isn’t a great surprise as for quite some time now there have been reports that Google is planning to bring this functionality to Chrome OS.

At the moment, it’s only possible to redefine a few basic elements of the keyboard (like switching the function of the ‘search’ key for example). With this change, you’ll have full rein over the entire library of shortcuts (in theory anyway, if the final implementation pans out as it looks now).

This means those who are more used to a Windows or macOS system can keep their favorite shortcuts from those platforms by remapping them under Chrome OS, making their everyday computing life easier on a Chromebook (perhaps one that they’ve just bought which is completely new to them).

It’s possible that this feature has been in previous beta versions of Chrome OS, and About Chromebooks has only just found it. So, Google might have been playing around with the concept in the background for a while now, with any luck, and we’ll see it actually debut in beta soon enough, with any luck – and then in release thereafter.

Via Tom’s Hardware

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OnePlus Pad image leak gives us a better look at the upcoming tablet

We know that the OnePlus Pad is on the way, and will be getting its full unveiling in just a few days time. Now a newly leaked image gives us a better look at the Android tablet than we've had up until this point from official sources.

The picture comes from the regularly reliable Evan Blass (via GSMArena), and shows almost the entire back of the tablet, together with a lot of the front. The OnePlus logo and a large-ish camera bump are visible, together with the Halo Green coloring.

You can see that the leaked image matches the first official picture of the OnePlus Pad that was shown off in a TechRadar exclusive. This second image does give us a better look at the device as a whole though, from a more revealing angle.

Knowns and unknowns

There's still plenty we don't yet know about the OnePlus Pad of course, including how much it's going to cost and what's going to be on the inside (there have been rumors about internal specs, but nothing is official so far).

OnePlus has confirmed that the tablet is going to have an aluminum alloy body and a cambered frame, which makes us think that this will be a well-built device. There's also that Halo Green color, which may or may not be the only available shade.

All will be revealed at the OnePlus launch event on February 7, and we will of course be bringing you every announcement on the day. The date will also mark the international launch of the OnePlus 11 flagship smartphone.

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Analysis: more Android tablets please

We've lost count of how many devices are in the Apple iPad line at any given point in the year, but as far as Android tablets go it's been slim pickings in recent years. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 is definitely the exception rather than the rule.

One of the reasons for this is that many Android apps aren't particularly well optimized for larger screens. Considering there aren't that many tablets out there, this turns into a feedback loop – developers won't make the effort for a smaller number of users.

We have seen Android tablet success stories though, including the hugely popular Google Nexus 7 of many years ago, and the low-cost Amazon Fire tablet series, including the recent Amazon Fire HD 8. Android tablets can work, if they're priced right.

With the OnePlus Pad and the upcoming Pixel Tablet from Google, we're hoping that Android tablets can once again have a moment. There's no reason these devices can't match the iPads for work and content consumption.

• Everything you need to know about the new OnePlus 11

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