Computer Shopper - UK (2019-08)

ISSUE 378|COMPUTER SHOPPER|AUGUST 2019 15

ALLINALL,the OnePlus 7Pro looks like a
proper flagship smartphone,rather than one
that has some of the features of high-end
handsets but falls slightly short of being atrue
premium device.
We will have to reserve our full judgment
until we have the phone in forreview.However,
as things stand, the 7Pro looks like taking
OnePlus in adirection that will see it directly
competewith Apple,Samsung and Huawei in
the premium phone arena.
That’s an interesting position to be in, given
those trio of hardware makers have arguably
been driving alot of smartphone innovation,
meaning atrue flagship phone really needs to
bring something new to the table.The OnePlus
7Pro’s massive premium displayisarguably
one such feature –but it comes at acost.
With astarting price of £649,the OnePlus 7
Pro is several hundred pounds below the
£1,000 price mark that fully specced Apple,
Samsung and Huawei phones have no qualms
about sailing past. But £799 foratricked-out

SOWHAT?

Gummed up

The fingerprint scanner

ontheNokia9PureView

was fooled by pressing

down on it using a

packet of chewing gum.

The problem has now been patched,

thus avoiding astickysecurity situation

Facial unrecognition

San Francisco has become the first city

in the US to ban facial-recognition tech

because of concerns about embedding

bias in AI technology and society

Haranguing Huawei

The US government has banned Huawei

from buying American-made equipment

without government approvalasfears

mount over the alleged risk the Chinese

firm poses to national security

Counting the cost

The 2017 security breach of credit

report giant Equifax has cost the firm

$1.4bn thus far, making it one of the

largest data breaches ever recorded

Bendy laptops

Lenovo has jumped on

the folding-screen trend,

only rather than putting

one in aphone,ithas

made aThinkPad with a

flexible display. Lenovo

calls it the world’s first foldable PC

Gold at the end

of the rainbow

The estateofHarold Arlen, composer

ofOvertheRainbow,issuing Apple,

Google,Amazon and Microsoftafter

finding more than 6,000 unauthorised

copies of Arlen’s songs on their services

Ethical AI

The government has appointed ahost of

experts to its artificial intelligence

council, including Alan Turing Institute

chiefexecutive Professor Adrian Smith

and Ocado CTO Paul Clarke,with the

goal of ensuring ethical AI use

HPE goes cray-cray

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has snapped

up supercomputer firm Crayfor $1.3bn,

with the goal of cranking out more

high-performance computers. Expect to

see new supercomputers with mind-

boggling performance before toolong

OUTOFNOWHEREis the best wayto
describe this partnership.While Microsoftand
Sony mayhaveworked together in the past,
theystill remain staunch rivals in the gaming
arena. And with xCloud set to
debut this year and thus rival
PlayStation Now,that rivalry
isn’t likely to dissipate.
Getting agame-streaming
service off the ground is
notoriously tricky. While
Sony acquired the game
streaming flop that was
OnLive,itcan’t match
Microsoftinterms of cloud computing reach.
As such, tapping intoMicrosoft’s cloud
infrastructure could be one wayfor PlayStation
Now to boost the performance of its service.
ForMicrosoft, it means another big brand on
its Azure cloud, but also achance to learn from
Sony’s PlayStation division and use the
Japanese giant’s experience with PlayStation
Now in order to finesse its game-streaming
capabilities when xCloud launches.

Given Google is entering the game-steaming

arena with its Stadia cloud-powered service

(seeShopper377), both Microsoftand Sony

could be facing agaming upstart that has the

scale to challenge them.

So sharing expertise and

resources would make

sense when it comes to

fending off Google.

However,there’s more

to the partnership,notably

the work on AI and

image-sensor technology.

There’s achance that

the next wave of Sony Xperia phones and

Bravia TVscould come with Microsoft’s

Cortana virtual assistant built in, adding anew

level of cloud-powered smarts to such gadgets.

With the combination of Sony’s image-

sensor hardware and Microsoft’s cloud-based

AI systems, we could envisage aDSLR with

Wi-Fi connectivity,which can not only send

photos to the cloud, but also apply AI-based

image processing to shots.

SOWHAT?

7Pro is still well within the realms of flagship

territory; there are some of us that remember

high-end phones costing around £500.

We only hope that the move to compete

with premium handsets doesn’t see OnePlus

lose its roots of providing its dedicated

community of users with aphone packed

with the features theywant at aprice that

remains palatable.

There is asaving grace in the form of the

OnePlus 7, effectively aOnePlus 6T with

updated internals and the same 48-megapixel

main camera lens as its Pro sibling. It also

shares the same price as its predecessor,

showing OnePlus is still creating impressively

specced phones fordecent prices.

Nevertheless, the debut of the 7Pro is an

indication that OnePlus is ready to grow from

middle-of-the-road upstart intoafull-blown

premium phone maker.That means there are

some exciting times ahead forthe company

and its followers, especially if it turns its hand

to creating afoldable phone.

Our joint

development of

futurecloud solutions

will contribute greatly

to the advancement of

interactive content”

SonyCEOKenichiroYoshida