WhatsApp update set to bring the awesome new feature you’ve been searching for

WhatsApp is testing a new feature that promises to make unearthing text messages much faster – and less hassle. We’ve all had that teeth-grindingly frustrating moment when you’re trying to unearth an old message with an address, phone number, birthday or a group selfie sent a few months earlier. But that could soon be a thing of the past.

According to @WABetaInfo – a hugely influential Twitter account that unearths features in-development and shares details from the latest beta releases – WhatsApp is looking to add a new way to search through old messages.

As long as you know roughly when the text, voice message, video, document or photo was sent, WhatsApp’s new feature will let you immediately time-travel back to a specific day, month, or year.

Based on the latest beta, when you launch a search within a chat – you’ll get a Rolodex of dates to quickly cycle through. Of course, don’t get too excited quite yet. After all, Facebook-owned WhatsApp experiments with new features and functionality all the time – and not all of these make the cut for updates to Android and iOS users worldwide.

So there’s no guarantee this new date-search will make it to your smartphone. However, WhatsApp has clearly been trying to overhaul its search capabilities in the last few months. The world’s most popular messaging service treated iPhone owners to the ability to drill-down their search based on the type of file. The ability to narrow the search based on a date would be a very useful, complementary addition to the search functionality.

And that’s not the only trick WhatsApp has up its sleeve.

Another nifty feature purportedly coming soon is an improved storage management option. As it stands, WhatsApp cannot see how much memory on your Android handset or iPhone each chat is occupying. That makes it difficult to know which Group Chat to cull if you’re looking to save space.

Finally, a recent report from the beta files from WABetaInfo shows that users could soon have a separate tab to see large files on your phone and delete them with a quick tap. There’ll also be a dedicated tab for Forwarded files, so you can easily delete duplicates that you’ve sent around to family members or friends.

Huawei MateBook 13 AMD Edition launched in the UK

Huawei is updating its ultra-portable MateBook 13 with an AMD Ryzen 5 series processor and Radeon Vega 8 graphics card and it’s now available in the UK. The laptop features a 13-inch IPS LCD with a 2160 x 1440 pixel resolution and a 3:2 aspect ratio. It covers 100% of the sRGB color space and also packs a 1MP camera for video conferencing.

The MateBook 13 features an aluminum alloy unibody design and weighs in at 1.31kg. It features a full-sized chiclet keyboard with adjustable backlighting and a fingerprint reader for fast log-ins. In terms of I/O, you get two USB-C 3.1 ports and a 2 in 1 headphone jack and microphone combo. There’s also a bottom-firing dual speaker setup with Dolby Atmos.

The big difference this year is the AMD Ryzen 5 3500U processor which is paired with the Radeon Vega 8 graphic card – disappointingly it’s not one of the current gen 8nm Ryzen CPUs. The laptop features 8GB DDR4 RAM and 256GB or 512 GB PCIe NVMe SSD storage.

The battery is rated at 42 Wh and Huawei is bundling a 65W USB-C charger with Huawei SuperCharge which can also charge compatible Huawei and Honor smartphones. On the software side, you get Windows 10 Home with Huawei Share which brings seamless continuity features for Huawei phones.

The 8/256GB version of the MateBook 13 AMD Edition is available for £699 from the official Huawei Store. Select retailers will also offer an 8/512GB version for £749.

This EKWB custom loop kit reignited my love for building a gaming PC

There’s something about building your own custom water-cooled PC from the ground up that makes that moment when the fans whirr to life, and ‘American Megatrends’ flashes across the screen, all that much sweeter. You earned that post screen with your sweat and blood—no, seriously, blood—and damn, if you don’t just want to do it all over again.

I won’t pretend building a custom water-cooling loop is for everyone. I wouldn’t recommend a day and a half toiling with tubing and tearing your hands to shreds to many. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my experience, it’s that to the right person—someone that loves to fiddle with their PC more than most—building a custom loop water-cooled PC with hardline tubing is more than an exercise in efficient cooling solutions: it’s an entire hobby in itself.

I’ve often found myself drawn to the lure of a shiny GPU water block or reservoir, but honestly never had much luck actually going about picking the parts, tools, and fittings required to actually use one in a build for myself. That was until we were offered the EKWB Fluid Gaming barebones kit—essentially all you need for your own, fully-fledged custom loop PC for $650.

EKWB admits it doesn’t talk about its Fluid Gaming lineup quite as much as it perhaps should. This build was the first I’d heard of it. But the premise is relatively simple and straightforward. Essentially it’s a case—the highly-configurable Lian Li O11 Dynamic—with a reservoir/pump combo distro plate and triple-fan radiator pre-installed. In the box is a CPU block, GPU water block, and all the fittings, tubes, and tools required to piece it all together.

The kit amounts to a lot of gear once tallied up. Here’s a full breakdown of what’s included:

EK D-RGB CPU block (Intel – 1151 or AMD AM4)

EK D-RGB GPU Block (Nvidia RTX – full compatibility list here)

D-RGB Distribution plate with Integrated SPC-60 pump

Acrylic hard tubing

Black and silver G1/4 compression fittings

3x 120mm D-RGB Fans

360mm radiator

3x EKWB Vardar RGB fans

Saw

Mitre box

Sandpaper

Fan splitter

Pump and PSU jumpers

Thermal paste

Lian Li O11 Dynamic case

GPU thermal pads

All you need to bring to the workbench is compatible PC hardware and coolant (pre-mixed fluid, preferably, as none is included with the kit). In lieu of office access, I had to grab what was at hand. My personal gaming PC is fit with an Intel Core i7 9700K and Nvidia RTX 2080 Founders Edition. Using my own personal parts for this build also meant the pressure was on—if I broke anything, it would be my own hardware that would pay the ultimate price.

My old build wasn’t exactly screaming for an update, I’ll admit. My BeQuiet! case, capable twin-fan Founders Edition graphics card, and colossal Noctua D15 cooler kept everything running cool and quiet—these high-end components all made for stern competition for the finished loop, too.

But it’s not everyday that you’re offered the chance to sink some time into a custom loop on the clock, and I had been vying for a chance to do just that for the past two and a half years.

After dismantling my existing gaming PC, it was time to prep my components for a liquid lifestyle. To ensure a clean application (but mostly for my own peace of mind) I cracked out the Arcticlean thermal grease remover and got to work. It makes quick work of just about any thermal paste going, and my CPU was spick-and-span sharpish.

Following that, it was time to load up my motherboard and start the process of building into the Lian-Li O11. It’s a relatively simple case layout, with a gratuitous access and copious cable tidy grommets. The side and front panels simply slide out once the top panel’s been removed. Only two thumbscrews in and the whole case falls away, essentially.

My motherboard of choice for this build is the rather excessive Asus ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390, which is fitted with the EKWB Crosschill EK III VRM block. A dedicated VRM cooling block is not a requirement for a custom-loop PC, not by any means, and in fact this included water block brings us onto one very important aspect of open-loop building: choice of metal.

Despite having a compatible block already built-in to my motherboard, and just begging to be connected up, if I were to do so I’d break the whole damn thing. The EK III VRM block is made of copper. Every component included with the EKWB kit is manufactured out of aluminium. These metals cannot be mixed—’try telling Linkin Park that’, my housemate responds.

If I were to mix my metals, the less noble of the two, in this case the aluminium, would slowly but surely dissolve and wear away due to the water flowing through it and the copper components. Eventually, the corrosion would render my entire rig useless.

Copper, and nickel-plated copper, are common across water blocks, and are favoured for their exceptional thermal performance. These don’t come cheap, however, and that’s why EK has settled for aluminium for its Fluid Gaming lineup—it’s the more budget-oriented product line, after all. It still promises decent thermal performance nonetheless.

Onward with the (hopefully) corrosion-free build!

With the CPU slotted into place and the motherboard secured, it was time to fit the CPU water block sans tubing or fittings. The installation process is a simple one, not unlike the best all-in-one coolers available today, albeit a little more heavy-duty than most. Simply fit the rear rubber layer to the rear of the mobo, hold firm the metal backplate atop of that, and secure with some lengthy bolts through the mobo on the front-facing side. The instruction manual recommends proceeding with this whole process before you install the motherboard, but to hell with it—it works.

Once fitted, you can apply a decent serving of the included thermal paste to the CPU heat spreader, slot the cooler on top, and then tighten the included screws to secure it in place.

From there it’s straight onto dismantling the graphics card. And what a mammoth task that is. I had no idea how many screws I would have to remove in order to take apart an Nvidia RTX 2080 Founders Edition. I naively thought this to be the easiest job of the lot (and the most dangerous; GPU dies are fragile) but it turned out to be just the most arduous and time-consuming.

Even the screw holes on an RTX 2080 have screw holes.

Everything is a screw, and those screws unscrew from screw holes that are themselves screws. My housemates asked me how I was getting along and I felt like I was losing my mind trying to explain it to them. You’ll need a selection of cross-head screwdriver tips to get them all out, and a nut driver, too.

Thankfully, I came prepared with an iFixit kit I’ve been using for a couple of years now, and that had all the necessary bits to get the job done.

I’ll admit I felt a little bad removing the Founders Edition shroud, too. It’s a fantastic cooler, and its twin-fan design is a huge improvement on the old radial blowers of days gone. Of all the 20-series graphics cards I’ve tested since their release, the Founders Edition remains my favourite. Now it’s in pieces sat in a box in my garage.

With the shroud in two pieces and the bare PCB in all its flimsy and very breakable glory in front of me, it was time to clean off the old thermal paste and pads. I think I did a pretty damn good job of it, too. That chip sparkled once I was done.

Thermal pads for the MOSFETs and GDDR6 memory come included in the kit, and you need only trim the former down to size. Once installed, I showed the GPU the thermal paste and gently lowered the water block onto the chip and PCB. Once it was in the right spot you have to flip the whole card over and go about screwing it all carefully down into place. Once secured to the PCB, the included black metal backplate can be screwed in on top and the GPU mounted in the build alongside the remaining key components.

The GPU block has to be the best part of the build for me. There’s something about this weighty hunk of aluminium and acrylic, carved into heat-dissipating channels, that speaks to me on an unfathomably more nerdy level than any other piece of PC hardware. But I couldn’t get distracted for long—as my PC Gamer cohort Alan Dexter tells me: proclaiming you’re nearly there with a custom-loop PC build before even touching saw to tube is like laying your running gear on your bed the night before a marathon and claiming you ran the whole 26 miles.

Not one to be deterred, my next step was to attempt to measure the exact length and angle of tubing required for my new custom-loop gaming PC using only a tape measure from a Christmas cracker. To my surprise, it actually worked out rather well. The tubing, anyways. The rest of it… oh god.

To get the tubing just right you have to measure both the horizontal and vertical distance between the tube and the dead-middle point of the port on the water block. The easiest run was the intake for the GPU, which runs from the bottom left of the distribution plate, just above the pump, and along the length of the GPU. It’s a straight shot, so you don’t have to worry too much for bends or angles.

Measure the length, lay your tubing into the included mitre, measure the length again, leave a millimetre or so on the end as extra precaution (it can always be worked with a little sandpaper later), and get to lopping the rest off. Once your done, sand the edge down and wipe the tube down. I also blasted a little compressed air through each tube to ensure no loose plastic was still lingering around.

Once I’d checked the length, I did the same thing for the slightly shorter top run, which would eventually loop liquid back into distro plate, into the CPU, back out of the CPU, into the radiator, out of the radiator, and finally back into the reservoir to be cycled back through the pump ad infinitum until I eventually get bored and want to change juice flavour—that is to say: anti-growth, low-conductivity EKWB Cryofuel. Don’t smoke this, vapers.

But before we get to filling this rig to the brim with liquid, we need to finish the loop runs. This is where things get a little tricky. Not every LGA 1151 socket is located in the exact same position. Hence why EK chucks in a couple of pre-angled pipes for you to cut-down to fit the slight variance between boards. It’s a slightly daunting but relatively straightforward process once you get a grasp of the diagram located in the manual that explains just how short you need to chop each tube for an optimal fit.

What makes this cut a little more frightening than the last is the fact you only get two angled tubes in the box. You need two angled tubes for the build—there are no second chances. I crack out the trusty tape measure, loosely measure the vertical distance, and get to sawing. Lo and behold, it comes together nicely. Admittedly, I have to trim a little more off the end of this first run—I was a little careful to leave some spare length just in case—but it fits a treat. The second run, too, goes off without a hitch.

‘Smashed it’, I think to myself as I sit there, three beers into a liquid-cooled PC build in the early evening, ‘I’ll be done by 11 o’clock’. My overconfidence was to be my downfall; my hubris the three weekday beers.

It was at this point that I decided to prep the fittings in order to ready everything for the final step: filling. I picked up one of the angled G1/4 fittings, one of the compression fittings, and screwed them together. There we, ready for the tube to slot in—oh no, wait, I’m being an idiot. I need to load the tube in first and then tighten the compression fitting.

Ah, it’s stuck, like really stuck. What I’ve done is tightened the thread onto the angled fitting prior to actually stuffing it with the tube, meaning the tube no longer fits and the two fittings are effectively glued together by my own hand.

This never happens. I’m a whizz at IKEA furniture. Hell, I’m one of those weirdos who enjoys it. There’s a lip of thread about 2mm deep visible from the outside of the fitting. That lip is all I’ve got available in order to wrench this thing back off. So I start twisting at it. I twist at it a lot. I twist at it so much that the side of my index finger and thumb, on both hands, start bleeding.

Maybe two hours later and I’ve finally freed the damn thing using a contraption of tubes and fittings—a relatively simple rig that enabled me to gain enough leverage on the compression fitting alone. I would likely have had success with a pair of small pliers, but they aren’t a common Christmas cracker surprise, and therefore I do not own any.

With sliced hands, a tea towel soaked in blood and WD-40, and two now separate fittings, I could continue with my PC build. This was around 11:00 PM on a Thursday. With the knowledge that I could never rest easy knowing the PC was only half-built, I soldiered on. I eventually fitted all the tubing into the build, correctly fitting the tubes, prior to tightening the compression rings, and completed the loop.

The next morning, after a fitful sleep, I swiftly returned to the building process, and to my surprise it actually all looked rather impressive. The tubing runs are clean and consistent, the fittings look in good order, and the whole build honestly looks fantastic.

Next step: filling and checking for leaks. I ordered two bottles of EKWB CryoFuel prior to the build, which is premixed fluid that ticks all the necessary anti-bacterial, non-conductive boxes. There are a heap of colours available—from navy blue to blood red—but I went for pink. Power Pink, to be exact.

Thanks to the inclusion of a filling port on the upper left-hand corner of the distro plate, it’s easy to gently fill the system. It didn’t take long to fill the entire loop, switching the pump on for a moment every so often to cycle the liquid through the system, as instructed. I lay down some tissue beneath most of the fittings to monitor to soggy patches, and following the shenanigans of the night before I was a little surprised to find that there were no evident leaks.

A quick build of the remaining parts, helped along by the Lian Li’s superb cable management, and my PC was essentially finished. Each fan, along with the distro plate, CPU block, and GPU block, all feature RGB lighting controllable through a 5V header, and an included splitter cable makes easy work of connected them all up, too.

As I mentioned previously, my old gaming PC was no slouch. The BeQuiet! Dark Base 900 Pro case is heavily insulated to keep the whirring of fans contained within, and comes with three 140mm fans. I also specifically opted for the hefty Noctua D15 air cooler, and not an all-in-one liquid cooler, for high-performance, low-noise operation, courtesy of twin 140mm fans.

So the bar was high for the custom-loop PC. I’d of course heard of the efficacy of custom-loop cooling, but with the combination of an already thermally content system, along with the aluminium parts, I really wasn’t sure where the EKWB Fluid Gaming kit would fall in comparison.

To find out, I ran Cinebench R20 and Metro Exodus and jotted down the results. I left the fan curves to the standard Asus BIOS preset and the CPU at 4.9GHz all-core, for now.

As you can see in the graphs above, the liquid-cooled machine manages to significantly lower GPU temperatures throughout three runs of Metro Exodus and drop CPU temperatures a touch across videogame and Cinebench R20 runs.

I originally reported that the GPU temperatures were hovering only slightly below the air-cooled values, but it turned out I hadn’t tightened the water block fully and as a result it wasn’t making complete contact with the die—that’s what you get for being terrified of shattering a GPU die, I suppose. EKWB’s own in-house benchmarking puts an RTX 2080 below 55°C in a selection of games, but I’m hesitant to flush the entire loop in order to tinker with the block directly and so I’m settling with the performance I’ve got for now.

What’s also impressive with the custom loop is that it manages to such cooling efficacy without necessitating an increase in decibels. I don’t have a sound stage in which to test the exact acoustics, nor do I think that particularly necessary in this case, but I can say I haven’t noticed any considerable difference with my own two ears.

That’s actually quite the compliment for the liquid-cooled rig. Sans acoustic baffling, clever and quiet ventilation, or large 140mm fans, it manages to maintain a steady hum no matter what I throw at my machine. The SPC-60 pump, too, is exceptionally quiet—despite always running at 100%. When the rig does ramp up, it’s only the triple EKWB Vardar fans that make any audible noise.

And was it worth it? Every bit. The results are nothing short of spectacular in appearance: no place more so than the GPU block with a maze of fluid snaking around and sapping heat away from the RTX 2080 beneath. The three RGB fans ignite the pink liquid within the tubing runs and create a dazzling semi-fluorescent appearance, and the CPU block sits centre-stage above the Formula’s small OLED screen—vibrant, stunning, and personal.

I was worried that I would be missing something in first dipping my toe into the custom-loop pool with a pre-built kit. And I suppose I can’t confirm if I did or not. It sure feels like I got the full custom-loop experience, no matter the boilerplate design or build by numbers manual.

And it sure feels like the final custom-loop gaming PC is unlike any other, too. A day and a half I spent toiling over this machine, and adding the final touches one week on I can confirm that my love for it hasn’t subsided, nor has it leaked, thankfully. Its many imperfections are reflections of my time building it. I bled for this PC, and, surprisingly, it still works.

OxygenOS Open Beta 15 update brings Dark mode toggle to the OnePlus 7/7 Pro

One reason why fans of the OnePlus brand has stuck to the brand over the years after from its affordable flagship models is the regular software updates it pushes to the custom OxygenOS. The company has now started pushing OxygenOS Open Beta 15 update for the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro models.

The main highlight of this new update is the dark mode toggle option it brings to the UI. The toggle button is accessible on the notification bar, alongside other quick toggles. The toggle button is a shortcut to switch between light and dark modes instead of navigating to the Dak mode switch in the settings menu.

Apart from the new Dark mode toggle, the new update also brings fix for the sharp edges of application cards in the recent apps screen. In addition, the update ushers in a fix for the screen flashing issue after locking the device. The OnePlus brand logo has also been updated for a refreshed look.

Yet another entry on the changelog is the addition of the Bluetooth hearing aid app connection under the Android 10 Audio Streaming for Hearing Aid (ASHA) Agreement. The step counter’s accuracy for recording movement has also been improved.

Furthermore, OxygenOS Open Beta 15 update also ushers in Android Security Patch for June 2020. That is the latest security patch that Google released for the Android operating system. Finally, the call app now shows a list of frequently dialled contacts in the number dial interface of the app.

OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro users running the OxygenOS open Beta build are now receiving the Open Beta 15 update via OTA. Users running stable build can also install the new update manually by downloading the update package when it becomes available. The package can be installed manually without any loss of data. However, such users won’t be able to switch back to the stable version without loss of data.

The 2019 Razer Blade Stealth series was a huge mess. The 2020 series puts it back on track

Normally, yearly laptop updates should offer faster performance or better features than the year before them even if the differences are sometimes marginal. After all, it would be counter-intuitive for an older version to perform faster than the newer, pricier version. The 2019 Blade Stealth series was an unfortunate victim of this as these first Ice Lake SKUs from Razer would perform slower than the Whiskey Lake-U-powered 2018 Blade Stealth that came before it. In other words, Razer was charging users more for less processor performance.

Now that the 2020 Blade Stealth series is available, Razer has right this wrong by dropping the 10 W Core i7 CPU and having the 25 W version be standard on these latest configurations. The 10 W Core i7-1065G7 was disappointing to say the least as it would perform 15 percent slower than the Core i7-8565U in the older 2018 Blade Stealth. In our reviews of the two different 2019 Blade Stealth SKUs last year, we didn’t recommend either of them because the 2018 Core i7-8565U and GeForce MX150 would still outperform the 10 W Core i7-1065G7 and integrated Iris Plus G7 GPU, respectively.

Our tables below comparing the 2018 Blade Stealth, 2019 Blade Stealth, and 2020 Blade Stealth show the 2020 version being comfortably ahead in key benchmarks like CineBench and 3DMark. It took Razer two years to release something that we can finally say is a worthy successor to the 2018 version. If you’re in the market for one, you may want to skip the 2019 series and go with the 2020 series or 2018 series if GeForce GTX graphics aren’t your thing.

See our full review on the 2020 Blade Stealth here to learn more about the high-end 4K SKU. Keep in mind that the chassis has remained almost the same between the 2018 and 2020 SKUs meaning that the faster 2020 version will inevitably run louder and warmer than its previous iterations.

The DSLR Camera Isn’t Dead Yet, But Is It Time to Ditch Yours?

The DSLR camera market has truly been struggling with the growing popularity of mirrorless cameras. They may not be dead entirely, but the ones you have are getting hit even worse.

For the past couple of years, due to the emergence of faster and higher-resolution mirrorless cameras, along with the exponential growth of lens lineups for most major brands, people have been anticipating the death of the DSLR. But what are the parameters to be able to pronounce it dead? More importantly, who pronounces it dead? The truth is that no one can really tell until we all realized that it truly has died. It is most likely that we all only begin to realize it’s death when we notice that no new DSLR camera model has been released in the past few years. But for now, we know that it is still alive, but we have to think of our longevity as photographers with this camera format. 

Signs of Life

We know that camera manufacturers still have not entirely given up on the line because of the development of the Canon 90D, the Canon 1D X Mark III, the Nikon D780, and the D6. But we should admit that about six years ago, the rate at which new DSLR models were released was at least three times faster. You would expect that by now, we should have at least the Canon 5D Mark V or VI or something similar. We must also acknowledge the fact that lens development for DSLR cameras has gravely declined. Canon and Nikon may have already established their DSLR lens lineups by now, so that is acceptable, but if we look at the third-party lens manufacturers previously aggressive in the DSLR game, namely Tamron, Sigma, and Tokina, we know that they could have developed more lenses (like a more affordable tilt-shift lens, for example) but got sidetracked by the rapid growth of demand in mirrorless camera lenses. In the past year alone, they have barely released anything for the DSLR system, and for the one brand that did, it was a mere update of a really old lens variant.

Is Yours a Dying Investment?

Because of the so-called “mirrorless revolution” that boosted the demand for the newer cameras, demand for DSLR cameras rapidly declined. Since people were more interested in the lighter and more compact cameras, there are consequently fewer people interested in used DSLR gear as well. Because of that, the used market for DSLR cameras and lenses suffered as well. Depreciation of value for such cameras and lenses accelerated. With a random search for used gear on B&H, Amazon, and even Craigslist, you would see that most high-value DSLR gear released in the last three years and in good condition is, at best, 40-60% of their original price. That means that if you have gear that is about five years old and up, its value has definitely gone down very quickly, with the exception, of course, of not-so-common pieces of gear.

Is It Time to Adapt?

If you are a DSLR user who still hasn’t gotten one foot through the door into the mirrorless ecosystem, you have quite a limited number of choices on what actions to take in response to this. First, you can shift now. Get that new mirrorless camera body and its native lenses. That way, they don’t depreciate as fast, and your money’s worth won’t go down as quickly. Doing so would also allow you to sell your current gear. That may not give you any significant profit and won’t really decrease your expenses since prices for used gear have gone down, but at this point, you can, at least, prevent any further losses rather than waiting for what you have to lose even more value.

Another option, of course, is to upgrade to a new-old DSLR camera or lens that was much more expensive a couple of years ago. This way, you can actually take advantage of what is happening and upgrade to something that you may have been wanting for a couple of years now. Of course, if you’re going to get it cheap, keep in mind that it’s only going to get cheaper in the future. Don’t expect to sell it for a good price in the future.

Lastly, of course, you can opt to stick to what you have right now and let your gear live out its life. Especially if you don’t do photography professionally or if your line of work doesn’t really require so much on the technical aspects, then, of course, you can survive the rest of your life without having to upgrade. It is just important to realize early on that if you ever do upgrade, selling or trading your current gear for an upgrade can be quite helpful in decreasing the amount of money that you spend on your next camera. Older cameras are obviously also less likely to be accepted for such deals.

Planning Long-Term for Your Gear

Let’s face it. After everything discussed, the reality is that 99% of us can survive life without an upgrade. If your gear has delivered the images that you’ve needed in the past few years, the chances are that it can still deliver what you need in the next three years. Camera models turn over pretty quickly, but this is not in any way due to a certain need or requirement for most of us but is instead simply driven by the desire for new gear.

The past and next couple of years are quite crucial for photographers in terms of making gear choices. It may be tempting to shift to a mirrorless system of the same brand or maybe even shift to a new brand altogether. Know that every choice you make should always be 10 steps ahead of the game. Unless you have unlimited resources, you should think of how feasible your gear choices are and how quickly they might depreciate in the coming years. On the other hand, you should also know which pieces of gear you are willing to keep for the long haul. Many photographers (including myself) have one or two lenses in their lineup that are only used about 3-5% of the time, and it’s important to remember that no matter what, they will depreciate. Lastly, we are in a time of rapid development, at least for the mirrorless systems. If the need is not that compelling, then it may be prudent to wait things out and weigh your options once more of them are available.

As for the DSLR, who knows? The chances are that it won’t really ever die since we’ve seen so many camera formats survive the advancements of technology and digital cameras. Heck, film is certainly not dead. They may be reduced to the bare minimum, but the DSLR format will always have its value. 

Stable MIUI 12 update arrives for the Xiaomi Redmi K30 5G, Redmi K20 Pro and Mi 9T Pro

Xiaomi has released stable versions of MIUI 12 to the Redmi K30 5G, Redmi K20 Pro and Mi 9T Pro. Both updates are based on Android 10, with Android 11 versions inevitably arriving later this year. The arrival of MIUI 12 on the Redmi K30 5G, Redmi K20 Pro and Mi 9T Pro follows the release of the OS upgrade for the Mi 9, Mi 9T and Redmi K20.

The update for the Redmi K30 5G carries the build number V12.0.1.0.QGICNXM and is a 759 MB download. Meanwhile, Xiaomi has released V12.0.1.0.QFKCNXM to the Redmi K20 Pro and Mi 9T Pro. Both builds have been released to the China Stable branch of MIUI, but other branches should soon receive the MIUI 12 update too.

MIUI 12 will also reach a host of devices in Round 2 of Xiaomi’s release schedule. Seemingly, Round 2 will commence when Xiaomi has finished upgrading the Mi 9, Mi 9T/Redmi K20 and the Mi 9T Pro/Redmi K20 Pro.

We have included the changelog for MIUI 12 below. Please be aware that Xiaomi has included a comprehensive changelog, meaning that it is rather long. Both updates will arrive over-the-air (OTA). Xiaomi may be issuing the update in batches, but you can download the builds manually from MIUI11_Updates and Xiaomi Firmware Updater.