Technology

• Ultraloq Bolt Mission UWB + NFC will use ultra-wideband
• It will know not just when you're heading home but exactly where you are
• iOS 18 is required

You might not always know if you're coming or going, but there's a new smart home doorlock that will.

Ultraloq's Bolt Mission UWB + NFC is finally taking advantage of an iOS 18 feature Apple unveiled months ago at its WWDC 2024 conference and part of the vast iOS 18 update for your best iPhones.

CES 2025

TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2025 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!

Unveiled here at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, the new deadbolt is the first smart home lock (although more are sure to show up here, so keep watching our CES News feed for more updates) to enable UWB awareness. There have been countless smart home locks that work with Near Field Communication (NFC) to let users unlock with their smartphones, but that's purely proximity-based technology. UWB is far more sophisticated and has a longer range. You may be more familiar with it if you've recently used your iPhone to locate your lost AirPods.

In the case of the $399 Ultraloq's Bolt Mission UWB + NFC, the lock can detect the phone in your pocket or bag from a distance (line of sight is up to 150 meters) and also knows if you're heading to the door or away from it and if you're inside or outside the house. All of that works to ensure that the door only unlocks when you're approaching it from the outside.

Having used NFC and even Apple Home, which never knows if I'm coming or going and, with the former, will only work if I am literally touching my iPhone to my Lockly smart lock, this could be quite an upgrade.

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(Image credit: Ultraloq)

Looks-wise, the lock might be an acquired taste. It has no screen for number entry or a fingerprint reader. Instead, it has a circle of physical buttons for your entry key. Some may like that because the shape is more traditional deadbolt-style. Naturally, there's also a physical key slot. While the lock is battery-powered, Ultraloq claims it can run up to a year on a charge.

Granted, this new lock will still support NFC entry, so if you have the iOS 18-supporting iPhone in your hand, you can tap the deadbolt to open it. Ultraloq says the Bolt Mission UWB + NFC comes with Matter support for integrating Apple Home, Alexa, and Google Home homes. It also supports Samsung SmartThings and, thankfully, does not need a hub to connect to your home's WiFi network.

While Ultraloq didn't provide an exact ship date, they said the Bolt Mission UWB + NFC should ship sometime in Q1 of this year. It should also be available in Canada, Mexico, and Australia, though Ultraloq did not provide international pricing.

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• 2K video is coming to Ring Floodlight Cam Pro and Spotlight Cam Pro
• The update will start rolling out on Wednesday, 8 January
• If you already have a camera, you can get the update via the Ring app

CES 2025

We’re covering all of the latest CES news from the show as it happens. Stick with us for the big stories on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok for the latest from the CES show floor!

Two of Ring's most popular outdoor security cameras are getting a big upgrade this week. The Ring Floodlight Cam Pro and Spotlight Cam Pro currently capture footage at 1080p, but following a new software upgrade, both will be able to record at 2K resolution instead. The update was announced at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, where tech companies from around the world gather to reveal their latest innovations.

Ring makes some of the best home security cameras we've tested, and this update will really give these two models an edge. Most cameras (whether indoor or outdoor) are only able to record at 1080p, and the improved resolution should make it easier to identify people even in low lighting conditions.

If you own a Ring Floodlight Cam Pro (shown here) or Spotlight Cam Pro, you can download the 2K update through the Ring app. (Image credit: Ring) Looking sharp

Both the Floodlight Cam Pro and Spotlight Cam Pro will use the company's Ring Vision post-processing to improve balance and contrast, and provide motion-smoothing so the 2K video will be as clear as possible when you watch it on your phone.

2K video capture will be available for these two cameras from Wednesday, 8 January, and if you already own one, you will be able to download the update free via the Ring app.

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• Ring and Kidde are now partners
• New alarms will have Ring capabilities
• No Alexa app integration for now

Ring is partnering up with Kidde to introduce the first Ring-enabled smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

CES 2025

TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2025 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!

The two companies have a rich history in their respective markets and Ring does offer its own branded line of listening alarms, but this mashup is a first and it mostly means that Kidde’s latest line of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are smart home-ready. Kidde and Ring unveiled the new Smart Smoke and Combination Smoke + CO Alarms with Ring technology built-in at CES 2025 in Las Vegas.

Unlike traditional Kidde alarms, you’ll set these up using the Ring app, which is also where you’ll get alerts about smoke and CO alarms. And instead of the Kidde alarms chirping when they need new batteries, you’ll get that alert in the Ring app, too. If, however, you ignore the alerts for a week, you will get the annoying chirp.

Installing the new alarms should be easy since they’re Wi-Fi connected and do not require an extra hub. Better yet, if you already have a set of wired Kidde alarms, they can deliver their alerts through to new alarm and its connected app. It might be like a whole-home protection upgrade.

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(Image credit: Ring)

The two new alarms arrive in April (US-only), and list for $54.97 (Kidde Smart Smoke) and $74.97 (Kidde Combination [Smoke + CO]). If you’re anxious to get your hands on one, you can visit ring.com to sign up for alerts for when the Ring-ready alarms are ready for purchase.

For more protection, Ring is launching a 24/7, $5-a-month protection service that will automatically contact emergency services and contacts in the event of an alarm. This works separately from Ring's Home subscription, which the company says is not required for the emergency protection service to work.

Ring tells us that its Smoke and CO Listener will listen for alarms from the Kidde alarms but they also added that you can not check the status of the Kidde Alarms through Amazon's Alexa app.

Some not-so-alarming questions

Combining smart home technology with home protection is a smart move, especially when it's simplified and works with existing protection infrastructure.

In my home, I already have a network of wired Kidde alarms and would love to add one intelligent one that gives me peace of mind when I'm out traveling. I still remember trying to add a Nest smoke and fire alarm that, unfortunately, required a hub. It now sits forgotten on a shelf.

(Image credit: Ring)

Since Ring is an Amazon company, it is a bit frustrating that they are not integrated with your Alexa app. Not that I expect we could talk to these Kidde alarms, but being able to check through an app I already use for my various echo devices would be preferable.

Are these alarms all you need to protect your home from fire and smoke? We'll know more when TechRadar tests them later this year.

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Intel announced its latest series of mobile processors at CES 2025, the Intel Core Ultra 200HX series, the Core Ultra 200H series, and the Core Ultra 200U series, targeting enthusiasts, premium, and thin and light laptop users, respectively.

The new chips, hot on the heels of the incredibly well-received Intel Lunar Lake chips (sold as the Intel Core Ultra 200V series), offer even more variety of processing power for users who found the Core Ultra 200V series to be good, but not quite powerful enough for their needs.

The new chip lines, which are built off the same Intel Arrow Lake architecture used in the Intel Core Ultra 200S series desktop processors (including the Intel Corez Ultra 9 285K and Core Ultra 5 265K), have a bit of an expectations problem.

Arrow Lake for desktop was rather underwhelming (for gamers at least) at launch and the arguably more advanced Intel Lunar Lake laptop chips currently on the market are simply some of the best laptop processors anyone has ever made, so following that up with an already maligned architecture will be tough.

That said, Intel Arrow Lake has a lot going for it, especially once you step away from gaming. In everyday and professional workloads. On desktop, The Intel Core Ultra 200S series chips came out pretty much even with the previous-gen Intel Raptor Lake Refresh chips (Intel's Core 14000 series), while using less power to do so. The hope, it appears, is that Intel is offering at least even or better laptop chip performance as the previous generation with meaningfully less power consumption, something that actually matters for laptops.

It remains to be seen if any of this will sway anyone expecting big performance gains, but at least for these mobile chips, improved energy efficiency could be enough to tip the scales in their favor.

New Intel mobile SKUs

(Image credit: Intel)

Here are all of the new Intel Core Ultra 200HX, Core Ultra 200H, and Core Ultra 200U SKUs announced during Intel's CES 2025 keynote.

(Image credit: Intel)

There are some noteable things about the specs we've gotten on these new SKUs.

For one, only the Core Ultra 200H series has integrated Intel Arc graphics, while the HX and U series chips all opt for the basic, lower-end Intel Graphics GPU. This makes some sense, as the 200HX-series will likely be paired with a discrete GPU, so the basic integrated GPU will be more than enough for basic Windows use to save power.

The 200U series, meanwhile, won't have a discrete GPU, but it also won't likely be called upon to do any heavy-duty graphics like 3D gaming, so Intel Graphics is fine for the U series.

The 200H series, however, might need to do a little bit more gaming or video processing/encoding than the U series, but not enough to get a discrete GPU, so Intel opted to give it it's higher end integrated Arc GPU.

This is likely the same integrated Arc graphics found in Intel Meteor Lake chips since Arrow Lake is largely built off that architecture rather than the more advanced Lunar Lake Xe2 graphics. It also has a higher max TDP, likely to account for more GPU power than the other two chip series.

We also don't have the max clock for the E-cores and LPE-cores on the 200H and 200U series SKUs yet, but hopefully Intel will provide more detail in the days ahead.

The battle of the Core Ultra 200 series chips

(Image credit: Intel)

I'll be honest, there's simply no getting around how good Intel's recent laptop chips are (the Intel Core Ultra 200V series, based on Lunar Lake).

Intel has had an Apple problem ever since Apple moved to its own M-series silicon based on ARM's BIG.little processor design, with several generations of its laptop chips simply not being able to keep pace with the best Apple had to offer.

However, all that changed with Intel Lunar Lake, released late last year. While Lunar Lake laptop chips still lag well behind Apple's latest M4 chips, they are more than capable enough that you'd only be able to tell the difference if you had the two side-by-side.

Meanwhile, Lunar Lake's greatly improved energy efficiency and powerful integrated GPU based on Intel Arc Battlemage architecture turned out to be an incredibly powerful combo that offered incredible battery life on a Windows PC to rival even the best MacBook Air models and a GPU powerful enough to play the best PC games remarkably well for a thin and light laptop processor.

Intel Lunar Lake isn't an enthusiast-class processor, however, and those who demand the highest levels of performance from their laptops, whether for work or play, haven't had much to look forward too for a least a year or more.

Needless to say, there's a lot of pressure on Intel's newest laptop chips to avoid the mistakes that undercut their desktop counterpart, and it remains to be seen if Intel can deliver.

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Real-time language translation takes another step forward with these earbuds.

Get live reports and photos of all the products, trends, and quirky stuff we're seeing this week at CES in Las Vegas.

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The accessory acts as a satellite hotspot to send text messages in signal dead zones.

• Adaptive noise cancellation and spatial audio with head tracking
• Included wireless transmitter to stream from almost any source
• $399, on sale April 2025

JBL makes some of the most interesting headphones around, and the newly announced JBL Tour One M3 have a very interesting component. JBL calls it the SMART Tx, and it's a little wireless transmitter that makes it easy to stream to your headphones from pretty much any audio source, and to share that audio with others, too.

The specification of the headphones is pretty tasty too, with adaptive ANC, hi-res Bluetooth streaming and lossless audio too. Battery life is a promised 70 hours, and you can get five hours playback from a five-minute fast charge.

(Image credit: JBL) JBL Tour One M3: key features and pricing

The Tour One M3 headphones are built around newly developed 40mm mica dome drivers, and the sound they make can be personalized via the JBL headphones app using the JBL Personi-Fi 3.0 custom hearing profiles. Those profiles include 12-band EQ and separate optimization for the left and right stereo channels. The headphones also have JBL Spatial Sound with head tracking.

The Tour One M3 come with version 2.0 of JBL's adaptive noise cancelling, which uses eight microphones to listen to the world around you and which also offers customizable Ambient Aware and TalkThru modes to control what audio you want to let in. There's adaptive beam-forming via four microphones to make you sound clear in calls.

Bluetooth is 5.3, and there's support for Auracast broadcasting as well as receiving, and there's a built-in DAC to deliver lossless audio over USB-C.

(Image credit: JBL)

Auracast is one of two tricks that the SMART Tx transmitter offers. First, the box enables you to connect your headphones to almost any audio source – USB-C or analog – and then stream its audio to your headphones in high-quality audio that also promises to be latency-free. But you can also share audio over Auracast to compatible devices, so you can connect the transmitter to your laptop and broadcast to as many people as you want. It's an interesting idea and could potentially be a lot less fuss than constantly pairing devices or trying to find cables to connect to.

The JBL Tour One M3 headphones with JBL SMART Tx will go on sale on April 13, 2025, in a choice of Black, Mocha or Blue. The US price will be $399.95, which is roughly £322 / AU$640.

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• Step 1: add AI to everything
• Step 2: …
• Step 3: profit!

Many years ago, The Blackout Crew had a hit with a song urging us to "put a donk on it". And now LG and Samsung are doing something similar, but instead of a song it's a TV, and the donk is AI.

Both Samsung and LG are seemingly leaning hard on AI to sell you a new TV this year, and they're both doing it with Microsoft's Copilot, as well as with their own AI features.

AI isn't new to TVs: it's become a catch-all term for smart systems that take care of things such as audio and video upsampling. And the AI in the two firms' 2025 TVs seems to come in two flavors: things that might improve your TV experience, and an AI app that might just tell you to put glue in pizza (AI Overviews, we're looking at you there).

(Image credit: Samsung) What are LG and Samsung doing with AI In their 2025 TVs?

Samsung calls its AI features Samsung Vision AI, and this year it'll be coming to TVs including the Neo QLED, OLED, QLED and The Frame models. The goal, Samsung says, is to make TVs aware of their surroundings, adaptive to user preferences and "autonomous in delivering intuitive features".

In practice that means better integration with SmartThings plus three key features: Live Translate, for real-time subtitle translations; AI-generated wallpaper; and Click To Search to tell you more about who or what is on screen. And as before it means dynamically optimized visuals based on what you're watching and how much light there is in the room where you're watching it.

As for Copilot, Samsung says it'll "enable users to explore a wide range of Copilot services, including personalized content recommendations." There's no more detail at the moment, which suggests it's still some way off becoming a core part of the smart TV setup.

LG's going down the AI-powered personalization route too. In addition to using algorithms to upsample lower-res and lower-quality visuals there's AI-powered surround sound and a new name for the remote control: it's now the AI Remote.

LG says your TV will greet you by name, provide tailored recommendations and detect different voices and adjust the on-screen suggestions accordingly. There's AI Search, an AI Chatbot help system and once again, generative images and Copilot querying.

It's easy to be cynical about the current AI hype – do we really want to burn the planet faster in order to make more images of people with six fingers? – and the AI prefix in tech marketing is starting to feel a bit like "cyber" or the "i" prefix did back in the bad old days. But AI audio and video upsampling and optimization is getting really good; I think it would be a shame if the more gimmicky stuff distracted from the genuinely useful things AI and machine learning can do for TVs in terms of improving what you actually see and hear.

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• Microsoft has pushed out another pop-up urging Windows 10 users to upgrade
• In this case, though, there are reports of the pop-up locking up
• It’s not a good look having a full-screen nag crash, especially given all the problems with bugs in Windows 11 24H2 right now

In a rather embarrassing turn of events for Microsoft, its latest bid to urge Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11 has gone awry because the pop-up in question crashes.

This is a full-screen pop-up, of which we’ve seen very similar (if not identical) variants before, which urges you to ‘Start planning for Windows 10 end of support’ ahead of the End of Life date for the OS which is October 2025.

It’s a multi-panel nag to upgrade to Windows 11 (if you proceed to click through it all), and rather in-your-face as it takes up the entire desktop (usually following a cumulative update for Windows 10).

The fresh wrinkle here, though, as Windows Latest reports, is that this pop-up is crashing for some Windows 10 users, as flagged up by a denizen of X (@ems_konto).

>application pops up to tell me to upgrade to windows 11>immediately crashesthanks microsoft pic.twitter.com/DuEQSVCk24December 31, 2024

So, what we have here is a message urging you to start planning what you’ll do when Windows 10 support runs out, telling you to prepare now, and that the Windows Backup app can help you transfer all your files to a new Windows 11 PC.

And then the pop-up window immediately freezes, becomes unresponsive, and informs the user that ‘Reusable UX Interaction Manager is not working’ – whoops.

(Image credit: Shutterstock) Analysis: An unfortunate error to say the least

This is rather unfortunate because Microsoft is pushing folks to plan ahead in good time and upgrade to Windows 11 one way or another (it hopes), and the very piece of code doing this then crashes – which, the more cynical might suggest, could be read as a flavor of what’s to come if you do go ahead and upgrade. Given all the bugs that have been plaguing Windows 11 24H2 of late, certainly (particularly those hitting PC gamers).

Granted, this is code within Windows 10 crashing – it’s nothing to do with Windows 11 – but the impression that’s made by a Microsoft program urging you to ‘upgrade to Windows 11’ and then locking up completely is obviously not a good one.

We haven’t ever encountered a nag screen crashing in the many years we’ve been using Windows – since Microsoft first implemented these kind of nudges, which have become increasingly bigger shoves to upgrade – so this is a first as far as we’re aware. And presumably something Microsoft will be keen to fix quickly, and a mistake that’s not to be repeated.

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• The Withings Omnia reflects your health stats back at you
• Withings says the mirror will also pull in data from other devices
• For the time being, there's no word on pricing or a launch date

The weird and wonderful tech show that is CES 2025 gets underway this week, and one of the products that's already caught our eye is the Withings Omnia: a smart, AI-powered mirror that gives you a full health assessment as well as showing your reflection.

Actually, Omnia covers a whole ecosystem of products, though the smart mirror is the big new idea. Data would also be pulled in from other Withings gadgets to give you a comprehensive rundown of your key health metrics.

There is some sensing capability built into the mirror though, via a base that you stand on that measures weight, heart health, and metabolic health. Heart rate and blood pressure are two stats the mirror can monitor, and Withings says it will also be able to run ECG (electrocardiogram) scans and check for signs of atrial fibrillation.

In combination with other synced devices, you should be able to use the Omnia mirror to get feedback on just about anything to do with your heart health – from the quality of your sleep to the workout recovery and VO2 max monitoring.

Ask an AI

The mirror will include some sensors of its own (Image credit: Withings)

As well as collecting some of this data, the mirror will display stats on screen, and give you relevant feedback on them via an AI assistant. You might see a recommendation to book a check up with the doctor, or just to fit more active minutes into your day.

Withings is calling the bot the AI Vocal Companion, and in true AI chatbot fashion, you'll be able to ask questions about your health and get answers in return – though there's no word on what this AI has been trained on, or how likely it will be to make mistakes.

For now, this is still in development, so there's no news on a price or a launch date. Withings certainly seems committed to making Omnia a reality though, with Withings founder Eric Carreel calling it "a monumental step forward in health technology" which will "transform personal health".

With Withings' strong track record in launching products in this category, we're hopeful the Omnia will make it past the concept stage – and some parts of the AI guidance are scheduled to start showing up in the Withings app later this year.

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We’re covering all of the latest CES news from the show as it happens. Stick with us for the big stories on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok for the latest from the CES show floor!

• The Garmin Instinct 3 is here
• It comes in two sizes, and prices start at $399
• It features a new more rugged design and up to 24 days of battery life

Garmin has today announced its brand new Instinct 3, the latest iteration of its popular outdoor smartwatch.

The new Instinct 3 comes with a brand new AMOLED display (or solar display) and features a new metal-reinforced bezel and a built-in flashlight.

Garmin says the new AMOLED model is good for up to 24 days of battery life on a single charge, with unlimited battery life on the solar model, weather-depending, of course.

The case is made from fiber-reinforced polymer and the Instinct 3 boasts a MIL-STD 810 toughness rating, as well as water resistance at up to 100 meters.

Garmin Instinct 3 details

(Image credit: Garmin)

The AMOLED and Solar versions of the Instinct are available in two sizes, 45mm and 50mm. There's also a new Instinct E available in a smaller 40mm size. There are new colors including Neotropic, Black, and Electric Lime.

Garmin says the new Instinct 3 boosts the solar efficiency of its sun-powered range, offering five times more battery life than the Instinct 2 Solar in GPS mode when solar charging, making it one of the best Garmin watches yet when it comes to battery life.

It features the usual array of health monitoring including heart rate, advanced sleep monitoring, wrist-based Pulse Ox, heart rate variability (HRV) status, and more. Morning reports provide sleep and HRV status, and there's now support for Garmin Pay contactless payments.

There are tons of apps for activities like HIIT, cardio, and more, as well as the myriad of features you'd expect from Garmin. That includes HRV status, stress tracking, blood oxygen monitoring, respiration, hydration, Garmin Coach, workouts, recovery time, and support for Garmin Connect and Garmin's Messenger App.

Prices for the new Instinct E start at $299, while the new Instinct 3 AMOLED is $449 or $499 for the 45mm and 50mm models respectively. The new Instinct 3 Solar model starts at $399, or $449 for the 50mm version. The new Garmin Instinct 3 will be available to order on January 10.

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• CrowdStrike says it has regained $30 million in market value as share prices climb
• The company retained 97% of its customers following July 2024 outage
• CrowdStrike says accountability and swift action helped recovery

CrowdStrike has revealed it has succesfully regained much of the market value it lost following the major July 2024 outage affecting its products.

Shares in the company had dropped to a low of $217.89 as a result of a drop in investor confidence, however CrowdStrike has been working hard to rectify that.

Now, shares are approaching $360 as the company begins to restore its market trust, regaining $30 billion in value since the incident.

CrowdStrike recovery

The company says the increase has been mainly helped by customer satisfaction – in the incident’s financial quarter, the company still managed to retain 97% of its customers.

CEO George Kurtz told the Financial Times in an interview: “Customers are staying with us.”

He added: “We had one customer say that broken bones heal stronger and they don’t expect this to reoccur. Conversely, from a competitor standpoint, that hasn’t gone through something like this, there’s probably more risk.”

Despite signs of restoration, CrowdStrike did receive its fair share of criticism, including a $500 million lawsuit by Delta Airlines, one of the hardest affected companies, which saw more than 7,000 flights grounded as part of the widespread outage that broke an estimated 8.5 million Windows servers.

Although the effects were felt globally, SVP Adam Meyers stressed in a hearing that the incident was not the result of a cyberattack, reinforcing the company’s commitment to cybersecurity in a year that saw increasing threats fuelled by generative AI.

The company’s quick reaction and acceptance of accountability also helped to restore confidence. Mauricio Sanchez, senior director of enterprise security and networking research at Dell’Oro Group, said (via Cybersecurity Drive): “Kurtz’s quick apology for a defective software update is rare in cybersecurity – I can’t think of any other case – but reflects a growing trend of corporate accountability.”

The CEO took to a company blog post to “sincerely apologize” for the incident just days after it occurred, highlighting the importance of customer and partner trust and confidence.

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• A photo appearing to show a Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con has leaked
• It features a blue and black color scheme
• It seems to be a finalized retail model rather than a prototype

If you thought we’d seen the end of the Nintendo Switch 2 leaks, then think again. It seems as though almost everything regarding the upcoming console is going to see the light of day before the official reveal.

As spotted by users of the r/NintendoSwitch2 subreddit, alleged photos of a Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con controller have surfaced. They reportedly originate from the Chinese web forum Baidu Tieba and show the side and back of the peripheral.

I’m usually pretty sceptical of these kinds of leaks, but this photo certainly seems like the real deal. There are no obvious signs of editing or manipulation and the design lines up perfectly with everything that we think we know about the system so far.

First and foremost, we can see the new Joy-Con attachment mechanism in all of its glory. There are multiple smooth areas that could very well be magnets, which supports previous claims that they would be stuck on magnetically.

The color scheme, blue and black is exactly the same as a recent Joy-Con color leak - which suggested that the left Joy-Con would feature blue elements while the right would be orange and black.

We get a good look at the large side button placed prominently alongside the controller’s trigger, too. It’s still not entirely clear what this does, but its placement would indicate that it’s used to attach or detach the controllers. The rear of the Joy-Con is also crammed with regulatory markings, which would suggest that this is part of a finalized retail console rather than a prototype.

Presumably these photos were taken in an industrial setting, perhaps on the floor of a factory where the Nintendo Switch 2 is currently in production. It seems safe to assume that we’ll be learning even more about the system soon - potentially even later this month.

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• Hyperkin has announced The Competitor Xbox controller at CES 2025
• This DualSense-like controller is compatible with Xbox and PC
• It features Hall effect sticks, two remappable buttons and a symmetrical thumbstick layout

Peripheral manufacturer Hyperkin has announced The Competitor Xbox controller at CES 2025 (via IGN).

The Competitor definitely stands out in the realm of third-party Xbox controllers with a silhouette very similar to PlayStation's DualSense Wireless Controller. That of course means it also has a symmetrical thumbstick layout which is certainly less common on the Xbox platform.

The Competitor's thumbsticks (as well as the triggers) are also Hall effect, which are significantly more resistant to stick drift. That alone is a pretty sizeable upgrade over the DualSense and the Xbox Wireless Controller, neither of which feature the now-standard gamepad tech.

The Competitor looks like it'll come in two distinct colorways: white-on-black as well as fully black. Additional features include two remappable buttons on the rear of the controller as well as a mic mute button between those symmetrical thumbsticks.

No price or release date has been announced for The Competitor at present, but we'd expect it to launch sometime this year. In terms of price, Hyperkin models do tend to be on the more affordable side. For example, the Hyperkin Xenon - a near 1-to-1 recreation of the iconic Xbox 360 controller - retailed for $49.99 / £34.99. The Competitors will likely be pricier than this, but we'd be surprised if it shoots north of $100 / £100.

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