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All-electric Polestar 2’s starting price is set at $60,000

Polestar today announced the formal pricing of its first pure electric car, the 2021 Polestar 2. The performance-oriented fastback has an MSRP of $59,900 in the United States. Destination charges will send the entry price of the Polestar 2 above $60,000.

Polestar also announced the price of add-on options.

  • Performance Pack: $5,000
  • Nappa Leather Interior: $4,000
  • 20-Inch Alloy Wheels: $1,200
  • Metallic Paint Colors: $1,200

The Polestar 2 qualifies for the federal $7,500 tax credit, as well as attractive state rebates. The model’s $59,900 MSRP allows it to squeak by California’s $60k threshold for a $2,000 rebate.

The Polestar 2 sedan provides 408 horsepower and 487 pound-feet torque in an all-wheel-drive configuration. Its 78-kWh battery pack is expected to offer an estimated 275 miles of range (although that’s optimistic). DC quick charging occurs at 150 kilowatts.

Deliveries to US reservation-holders are expected to start in summer 2020. Polestar is also scheduled to open 15 retail Polestar spaces in North America. The first locations will be on the West Coast and in New York in late summer 2020. The Polestar 2 is available for sale in all 50 states.

Gregor Hembrough, Head of Polestar USA, said:

We are quite enthusiastic to announce the US pricing for the Polestar 2. The MSRP is lower than we originally targeted, and will be extended to all of our current reservation holders. With an online purchase option, lower pricing, considerable tax incentives, and production already underway, the Polestar 2 is well-positioned for a successful entry into the US market.

Source: Electrek

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Leaked OnePlus 8 Pro official images show Ultramarine Blue and Glacial Green colors

The OnePlus 8 Pro will have an exclusive color, Ultramarine Blue, which you can see in these official images that leaked a couple of weeks before the phone’s announcement.

Like the vanilla OnePlus 8, the Pro will be available in the new Glacial Green hue as well as a more traditional Onyx Black. The Ultramarine version isn’t a gradient like the Interstellar Glow of the non-Pro model, however.

  • OnePlus 8 Pro in Ultramarine Blue
  • OnePlus 8 Pro in Ultramarine Blue
  • OnePlus 8 Pro in Ultramarine Blue
  • OnePlus 8 Pro in Ultramarine Blue

   
OnePlus 8 Pro in Ultramarine Blue

Leakster Roland Quandt also has some more details to share. As you can see in the images, the display has slightly curvier sides (the vanilla phone is mostly flat). This will be a 6.78″ AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate and and will be able to push out 1,300nits at max brightness.

OnePlus 8 Pro official images show Ultramarine Blue and Glacial Green colors

Quandt confirms the dual 48MP setup on the back with a Sony IMX689 sensor in the main camera (1/1.43″ sensor, 1.12µm pixels) and an IMX586 in the ultra wide cam (1/2.0″, 0.8µm). There will also be an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and a 5MP sensor whose job will be to capture additional color data.

  • OnePlus 8 Pro in Glacial Green
  • OnePlus 8 Pro in Glacial Green
  • OnePlus 8 Pro in Glacial Green
  • OnePlus 8 Pro in Glacial Green

   
OnePlus 8 Pro in Glacial Green

OnePlus already confirmed the 120Hz spec and that the 8-series phones will be powered by a Snapdragon 865 chipset with LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.0 storage, plus a 5G modem, of course. CEO Pete Lau said that the phones will be under $1,000.

  • OnePlus 8 Pro in Onyx Black
  • OnePlus 8 Pro in Onyx Black
  • OnePlus 8 Pro in Onyx Black
  • OnePlus 8 Pro in Onyx Black

   
OnePlus 8 Pro in Onyx Black

By the way, the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro will get Cyan Sandstone cases, which will look great with the Glacial Green paint job. The Pro is also getting Black Sandstone and Karbon (black again), but nothing to go with the Ultramarine Blue.

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Oppo Watch just launched and it looks a lot like the Apple Watch

We knew Oppo was working on a wearable with more than a passing resemblance to the Apple Watch, but now the Oppo Watch has been announced in full, complete with a large and sharp OLED screen.

The display on the largest 46mm model is 1.91 inches and has a 473 x 402 resolution and 326 pixels per inch. For comparison, the largest Apple Watch 5 model has a 1.78-inch screen with a 448 x 368 resolution. Though there is also a smaller 41mm Oppo Watch model with a 1.6-inch, 360 x 320 screen.

Still, at the top end the Oppo Watch is larger and has a higher resolution than the Apple Watch 5, while retaining a similar design, complete with a square-ish screen with curved glass, and an 11.35mm thick aluminum or stainless steel frame.

It’s also water resistant up to 50 meters, has a heart rate monitor, and supports cellular connectivity via an eSIM.

The battery is 430mAh in the 46mm model and 300mAh in the 41mm one, and can apparently last 40 hours of regular use, which sounds like a fairly average amount, but switch to power-saving mode and Oppo claims it’ll run for up to 21 days. This mode will display notifications, but turns off many of the smart features.

And charging the Oppo Watch up should be fast, with the company saying it can go from zero to 100% in 75 minutes, or from zero to 46% (apparently enough for a day of life) in just 15 minutes.

The software could be a sticking point for some users, as this doesn’t run Wear OS or any of the other major smartwatch platforms. Rather, it runs Oppo’s own ColorOS Watch software. This is based on Android, though – like the hardware – it bears some resemblance to what you’ll find on the Apple Watch.

We’re not yet sure of the software’s full capabilities, but it can do general stuff like control music playback and track exercise and sleep.

Oddly, the Oppo Watch is powered by the Snapdragon Wear 2500 chipset, which isn’t one of the most powerful smartwatch chipsets, but then maybe lots of power isn’t needed with Oppo’s OS. There’s also 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage in all models.

The big remaining question is if and when you’ll be able to buy the Oppo Watch, and how much for. Today’s launch was just for China, where it will start at CNY 1,499 (around $215 / £165 / AU$325), but don’t expect an exact conversion when it launches elsewhere.

Oppo has told us that its watch will come to Europe at a later date, so those in the UK at least will likely be able to buy it without importing it, but we’re not sure when. We’ll update you as soon as we learn more.

Source: Tech Radar

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Redmi Note 9 series coming on March 12

The highly anticipated Redmi Note 9 series is confirmed to go official next week on March 12. We actually got several hints from the official Redmi India Twitter account as well as Xiaomi India head Manu Kumar Jain.

From the official teasers, we can see the Redmi Note 9 series will sport a four-camera array on the back housed in a square cutout. An Amazon placeholder also touts the newest Redmi Notes will offer premium design, immersive gaming experience and improved fast charging capabilities.

In a separate teaser post, Manu Kumar Jain showed out the phone laying on its screen, revealing the lower half of its back as well as its Type-C port, headphone jack and speaker grille. That’s all we have for now but it won’t be long before more leaks and teasers surface leading to next week’s big event.

Source: GSM Arena

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Microsoft reveals more Xbox Series X specs, confirms 12 teraflops GPU

Microsoft is revealing more specifications about its next-generation Xbox Series X hardware today. The biggest new confirmation is that the Xbox Series X will include 12 teraflops of GPU performance, which is twice what’s available in the Xbox One X and eight times the original Xbox One. This type of performance puts the Xbox Series X beyond most mid-range graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia, and it’s an impressive jump for a game console. It certainly shows that the next-gen Xbox and PS5 are going to go far beyond the Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro.

“Xbox Series X delivers a true generational leap in processing and graphics power with cutting edge techniques resulting in higher framerates, larger, more sophisticated game worlds, and an immersive experience unlike anything seen in console gaming,” claims Xbox chief Phil Spencer.

Microsoft has previously revealed hardware-accelerated DirectX ray tracing and variable rate shading (VRS), and the company says it has patented its own form of VRS. “Rather than spending GPU cycles uniformly to every single pixel on the screen, [developers] can prioritize individual effects on specific game characters or important environmental objects,” explains Spencer. “This technique results in more stable frame rates and higher resolution, with no impact on the final image quality.”

RELATED

Microsoft’s next Xbox is Xbox Series X, coming holiday 2020

The Xbox Series X will include a custom-designed CPU based on AMD’s Zen 2 and Radeon RDNA 2 architecture. Microsoft is also using an NVMe SSD on the Xbox Series X, which promises to boost load times and “nearly every aspect of playing games is improved,” according to Spencer.

Xbox Series X will also support 8K gaming and frame rates of up to 120fps in games. Microsoft says it has partnered with the HDMI forum and TV manufacturers to enable Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) on the Series X as part of its HDMI 2.1 support. This should reduce input lag and smooth out visuals in games on TVs.

Alongside the hardware specs, the next-gen Xbox Series X is also set to feature a “quick resume” feature. Microsoft used a similar feature on the Xbox One to resume games, but it’s now promising to let Xbox Series X owners resume multiple games from a suspended state. That will be a big improvement for switching between games or when you resume from standby.

Microsoft is also fully supporting backward compatibility on the Xbox Series X, including original Xbox and Xbox 360 games. The Xbox maker is also branding its future Xbox Game Studios as “Smart Delivery,” meaning you can play the games on the Xbox One or Xbox Series X consoles. Third-party publishers will also be able to brand their games in a similar way so consumers know how they’ll work for the next-gen of consoles.

Microsoft is promising to share “share more details about the new Xbox with you in the coming months,” as the company approaches key dates like the Game Developers Conference next month and E3 in June. We’re still waiting to hear more information on pricing, exact availability, next-gen launch titles, and whether a second, cheaper next-gen Xbox is coming in 2020.

Source: The Verge

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Nikon finally updates its most popular full-frame DSLR

This week at CES, Nikon is announcing the new D780 DSLR. It’s the long-awaited successor to the D750, which came out in 2014 and is described by Nikon as its most popular full-frame DSLR ever.

The D780 still has a 24-megapixel full-frame sensor, but now it has backside illumination that should further boost the camera’s low-light performance. ISO is now up to 51,200 native and expandable to 204,800. The image processor has also been upgraded to the Expeed 6 chip found in the latest Z6 and Z7 mirrorless cameras.

Nikon says the autofocus system is much-improved, making use of an algorithm from the pro-level flagship D5. (As an aside, the upcoming D6 isn’t getting a full reveal at CES.) When using live view, the D780 has the same 273-point AF system as the Z6, which should make it a much more practical option than other DSLRs if Nikon’s claims hold true. The live view mode supports continuous electronic shutter speeds of up to 12 frames per second, while the mechanical shutter can fire at up to 7 frames per second.

The D780’s video support is comparable to the Z6’s, with 4K/30 and 1080p/120 options and 10-bit output with N-Log or HLG HDR. There’s a tilting 3.2-inch screen that has gained touch functionality, while the body continues to be rugged and weather-sealed. Nikon has added USB-C connectivity and charging along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.

Nikon is selling the D780 later this month for $2,299.95 body-only or $2,799.95 bundled with a 24-120mm f/4 lens.

Nikon’s other CES announcements include a $2,599.95 Z-mount 70-200mm f/2.8 lens; a $9,499.95 F-mount 120-300mm f/2.8 lens; and the Coolpix P950, a $799.95 point-and-shoot superzoom camera with an 83x 24-2000mm-equivalent lens. All three products will be available in February.

Source: The Verge

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Nikon D750 rumored to get a successor at CES 2020

Mirrorless cameras may be all the rage in 2020, but both Canon and Nikon aren’t keen on seeing DSLRs disappear, with a successor to the now five-year-old Nikon D750 likely to join the ranks this month.

According to reliable camera news leaker Nokishita, Nikon is preparing to announce what will likely be designated the D780 “soon”, along with another CoolPix shooter and two new lenses.

Translated, the above tweet says that Nikon has updated its product list in overseas markets (exactly where is as yet unknown) to include the D780, a CoolPix P950 superzoom bridge camera, an AF-S Nikkor 120-300mm f/2.8E lens and a Z series 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. Although the tweet states that the products will be “announced soon”, unconfirmed reports suggest that the official announcement date will be January 7, the first day of CES 2020.

Source: Tech radar

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Tesla has one more vehicle to unveil according to Elon Musk’s master plan, Part Deux

Over a decade ago, in 2006, on my birthday (not related, but I’m just saying), August 2, Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted ‘The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me)‘.

Tesla Master Plan

Elon Musk wrote a two-part “super-secret Master Plan” for Tesla that the company has been following fairly closely over the last 14 years.

Tesla already unveiled almost all of the vehicles that Musk announced in the plan… except for one.

The main points of the plan were:

  1. Create a low volume car, which would necessarily be expensive
  2. Use that money to develop a medium volume car at a lower price
  3. Use that money to create an affordable, high volume car, and…
  4. Provide solar power. No kidding, this has literally been on our website for 10 years.

With the Roadster, Model S, Model 3, and Tesla Energy, Tesla has mostly completed that original plan – although they are still working on higher volumes for both Model 3 and Tesla Energy.

In July 2016, Musk followed up with a ‘Tesla Master Plan Part 2’.

In this new plan 3 years ago, Musk laid out Tesla’s plan to expand solar and energy storage, launch a future compact SUV and a new kind of pickup truck.

Today, the company has made great progress on all of those projects, with new solar products, like solar roof tiles, new energy storage products, like Megapack, the new compact SUV turned out to be the Model Y unveiled earlier this year and the “new kind of pickup truck” was the Cybertruck unveiled last month.

Musk’s plans also included Tesla’s ambitious initiative to have autonomous cars in a shared fleet, which Musk now says should happen by the end of next year.

The CEO recently said that Cybertruck is Tesla’s last new product for ‘awhile’, but there’s actually one more vehicle that was in his plan that Tesla has yet to unveil.

Tesla Electric Transit Vehicle

In ‘Tesla Master Plan Part 2’, Musk talked about two other segments Tesla is looking to electrify:

“In addition to consumer vehicles, there are two other types of electric vehicle needed: heavy-duty trucks and high passenger-density urban transport. Both are in the early stages of development at Tesla and should be ready for unveiling next year. We believe the Tesla Semi will deliver a substantial reduction in the cost of cargo transport, while increasing safety and making it really fun to operate.”

Tesla did end up unveiling the Tesla Semi, the “heavy-duty truck”, but it never unveiled a vehicle for “high passenger-density urban transport.”

Musk has talked about Tesla making an electric minibus based on the Model X before, but it didn’t come to fruition.

It’s the only electric vehicle that is officially part of the Tesla Master Plan and that the automaker has yet to officially unveil.

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Watch this supercut of Elon Musk unveiling the Tesla Cybertruck

Tesla CEO Elon Musk took the stage on November 21st to unveil the Cybertruck, Tesla’s all-electric pickup truck and the automaker’s sixth vehicle since its founding in 2003.

There will be three versions of the truck — 250 miles, 300 miles, and 500 miles of range — with a variety of towing capacities and 0–60 mph capabilities. Musk unveiled the truck at a cyberpunk-inspired event with many, many lasers and even a surprise ATV.

But the event didn’t exactly go according to plan. In an effort to demonstrate the truck’s shatterproof windows, Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen smashed them with a heavy metal ball thrown at close range.

There are three versions of the truck available:

  • Single motor rear-wheel drive with 250 miles of range, 7,500-pound towing capacity, and 0–60 mph capabilities in under 6.5 seconds, for $39,900
  • Dual motor all-wheel drive with 300 miles of range, 10,000-pound towing capacity, and 0–60 mph in under 4.5 seconds for $49,900
  • Triple motor all-wheel drive with 500 miles of range, 14,000-pound towing capacity, and 0–60 mph in under 2.9 seconds for $69,900 (though this version won’t start production until late 2022)

Musk has called the design “heart-stopping” and said the project is his “personal favorite” out of all the ones Tesla is working on.

You can read our complete breakdown of all the rumors and speculation here. And be sure to follow us on Twitter and theverge.com as we cover the event live.

Source: The Verge

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Tesla’s new Solar Glass Roof tiles are the first version ready for a wide rollout

Elon Musk has unveiled a redesign of Tesla’s Solar Roof tiles, dubbed “Solar Glass Roof.” The new roof design will cost around $42,500 for a 2,000-square-foot roof with 10kW of solar capacity before tax credits (or about $21.25 per square foot), according to Tesla’s website, though pricing will vary by size and location. The new roof will come with a 25-year warranty, and be offered in a dark tempered glass finish to start, though Musk said Friday he hopes to unveil new designs “every six to nine months.”

The new version of the Solar Roof is the third design Tesla has come up with, and the company says it should be cheaper and quicker to install than version two, which is what Tesla was selling before Friday’s announcement. With version two, Musk told reporters, Tesla was “basically trying to not lose money” on each installation, in part because that version of the roof needed additional work done after it left the factory and arrived at a home. He called them “quite artisanal,” and compared their installation to “building airplanes and you finish your construction on the runway.”THIS IS THE THIRD VERSION OF THE SOLAR ROOF, WHICH WAS UNVEILED IN 2016

“[It] just wasn’t a version that was worth scaling,” Musk said.

The new Solar Glass Roof, however, is the first version he feels comfortable scaling production-wise thanks to a simpler design with fewer parts and sub-assemblies. Musk compared the progress to how other technologies tend to need a few iterations before they gain wide adoption. “Windows 1 or 2 didn’t really work, frankly,” he said, presumably referring to Microsoft’s early operating systems.

The billionaire CEO claimed the new roof tiles, which are bigger and more power dense, will help “make roofs come alive,” creating a world “where you look around the neighborhood and the roofs are all gathering energy.”

“I think in the future, it will be odd for roofs to not gather energy,” Musk said.

The promise of the Solar Roof has always been an enticing one. Pay a premium over standard solar panels, and you can get a normal-looking tiled roof that will suck up the sun’s energy all the same. It won’t be for everyone, though. Musk tweeted on Thursday that the Solar Roof will “only make financial sense for new houses or replacement roofs.” If a potential customer’s roof is more than five years away from needing to be replaced, he said, they’re better off going with a standard solar panel setup.“I THINK IN THE FUTURE, IT WILL BE ODD FOR ROOFS TO NOT GATHER ENERGY.”

“It costs a price point that is less than what the average roof costs plus solar panels,” Musk said on the call.

Musk originally unveiled the Solar Roof in October of 2016 on the set of Desperate Housewives, right around when Tesla was in the middle of acquiring SolarCity — a company Musk was chairman of, and one founded by his cousins. That deal stirred up a great deal of controversy, with detractors calling it a “bailout” of SolarCity, which had started to struggle after years of growth. A number of Tesla shareholders even sued Musk over the deal, alleging he overvalued SolarCity, and claiming he did not properly recuse himself from the deal. (The lawsuit is still ongoing, and more documents — including Musk’s deposition — were unsealed Friday. Tesla and Musk have denied any impropriety.)

The Solar Roof project itself has been besieged with problems. It was originally supposed to go on sale in 2017, but design issues forced Tesla to delay the launch. Production eventually began in 2018 at the company’s second Gigafactory, a repurposed SolarCity factory in Buffalo, New York, but the rollout of the Solar Roof has been extremely limited while Tesla worked on what Musk referred to as “version three” of the design.

Tesla could use a win on the solar side of the business. The company deployed fewer solar panels in the second quarter of 2019 than in any other quarter since acquiring SolarCity, dropping it to third in the residential solar panel market in the US, and that number just barely ticked up in the third quarter. Tesla tried slashing prices and recently started offering a rental plan for its solar panels, though it’s still too early to tell whether the latter will help the company regain its market lead in the US. Tesla was also sued by Walmart in August, after a number of the retailer’s stores suffered fires allegedly started by Tesla and SolarCity solar panels.

“It’s been quite hard to get to this point,” Musk said Friday. “This was a quite a difficult product because roofs have to last for a long time. And then when you add electrification to the roof,” it gets even more difficult, he said.

Tesla says the new roof will be simpler, faster, and more intuitive to install than previous iterations, and that the goal is to install 1,000 roofs per week in the “next few months.” Musk said he believes the addressable market for the Solar Glass Roof is “100 million homes worldwide.” Musk also said Tesla has two internal installation teams competing on how to best install the new roof (a tactic he recently used with SpaceX’s Starship prototype), and is hiring a lot of installers. But Musk said Tesla will also bring in outside installation companies to figure out how to improve from there.

Source: The Verge