Author Archives: Vincent Nguyen

Smartphone cameras these days have all become sophisticated and powerful, enabling image and video capture with great detail and quality. Most smartphone makers are content to simply boast about those cameras though a few do try to put some context behind these sensors. More than just being able to take great photos or record smooth videos, Xiaomi is creating a new "Cinemagic" buzzword around the idea of dropping heavy and expensive movie-making equipment for a Xiaomi 11T or, better yet, a Xiaomi 11T Pro.

Continue Reading

It may have been Apple's day yesterday, but Xiaomi is daring to claim today for its own. Not content with just announcing the Xiaomi 11T series and the affordable Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE, the company is showing its hand and announcing new products across the board. Taking advantage of the recent surge in tablet sales, Xiaomi is unveiling the Xiaomi Pad 5 as its racehorse in the new world order in work and personal life. It also has some new devices designed to upgrade your home life and keep you safe even when you have to buy things outside.

Continue Reading

The BMW i Vision Circular has a lot going for it, quite a feat for an all-electric concept car. BMW unveiled a few teaser images of its latest green concept car before the 2021 IAA in Munich. We knew beforehand the concept is a compact hatchback in the same mold as the i3 electric car. But unlike the i3, you won’t mind sitting behind the wheel of BMW’s latest I Vision Circular concept car.

Continue Reading

With the popularity of Apple's AirPods and the congestion of the wireless earbuds market, it's no surprise you might not have heard of some brands like Earin. The Swedish company, however, launched what may have been the market's first truly wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds, predating the AirPods, and has gathered a small but faithful following through the years. This year, its big ambitions come in a small package, testing a different strategy to get it heard, so to speak. The Earin A-3 is aiming its guns at the Apple AirPods or the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro and we put it through the wringer to see, or rather hear, whether its petite size could actually stand up to the giants.

Continue Reading

German automaker BMW is cooking up a storm at this year’s Monterey Car Week at Pebble Beach by unveiling its latest customer racing car: the M4 GT3. With its plethora of aero appendages and that magnificent rear wing, it’s clear the M4 GT3 belongs on the racetrack. Based on a 2021 BMW M4 Competition Coupe, the newest M4 GT3 replaces the M6 GT3, and is the latest member of BMW’s race-only portfolio, joining the M2 CS Racing, M8 GTE, and the M4 GT4.

Continue Reading

Few cars are as legendary as the Lamborghini Countach, the original poster boy of supercars. Conceived in the 1970s to replace the aging Miura, the Countach broke tradition by being the only Lamborghini car to have a monicker not associated with bullfighting or bulls in general. When news broke of Lamborghini's plan to revive the Countach, meanwhile, images of hybrid technology immediately came to mind, particularly given the automaker's breathtaking Sian hypercar, the progenitor of new-age Lambos with its supercapacitor-powered hybrid technology.

Continue Reading

Audi is no stranger to bedazzling concept cars, but few stretch the imagination quite like the new Audi skysphere. More ambitious than the the e-tron GT Concept - which, three years ago, was a production-ready prototype - or the A6 e-tron Concept which itself looks almost ready for the showroom, it's a vision of a Level 4 autonomous future that intersects with the recent grandsphere concept, formerly known as the Artemis Concept, but at the same time takes pains not to leave keen drivers out of the game.

Continue Reading

It seems a long time since I was lucky enough to get a first crack of the Audi e-tron GT about three years ago. At that point the sleek four-door EV was still a prototype, though even then its focus was fairly clear. While Audi's high-performance electric grand tourer may be the mechanical twin of the Porsche Taycan, here that all drives to a different tune. Porsche touts the Taycan as a four-door all-electric sportscar, as close right now to a four-seater electric 911 that you can get. Audi's e-tron GT, meanwhile, is a genuine grand tourer, albeit one with the same propensity for speed as the Taycan.

Continue Reading

Sometimes, expectations weigh heavy on you. Big names, promising big things, and with big implications: the 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS is a prime example. After spending two full days driving the German automaker's attempt to redefine luxury through Zurich, Switzerland, it almost comes as a relief to report that the EQS surpasses all my expectations of Mercedes-Benz. To risk a cliche, it's the S-Class of electric luxury, redefining what a modern-day high-end sedan embodies through form and function.

Continue Reading

If you had to define the Audi Artemis project in just a few words, you could say it's upending, well, everything. How a car is designed, how it's driven - or, more accurately, how it drives itself - and how the occupants interact with the technology as a result. Today, as Audi pulls back the curtain on just what its Artemis team has been working on, I caught up with Marc Lichte, Head of Design, to hear about big changes and even bigger promises.

Continue Reading

Some rivalries run deep. The 2021 Ford Bronco is a legend reborn, a fresh SUV at a time when the market is ripe for them, and boasts a long laundry list of goodies its predecessors could hardly dream of, but all we really want to know is one thing: can it truly take on all-conquering Jeep Wrangler? After all, the Bronco nameplate first appeared back in 1966 to compete with the International Harvester Scout and, you guessed it, the original Jeep CJ-5.

Continue Reading

The S-Class is hands down the best-selling luxury car in its class, so where do you begin in trying to describe a whole new generation? For as long as I can remember, the S-Class has always been a hotbed for world-blazing technical innovations. From the first-gen Sonderklasse - or "Special Class" - revealed in 1972, to the 8th-gen W223 model at my disposal, the S-Class sits at the pinnacle of the luxury car hierarchy. I was spoiled with unprecedented levels of comfort, sportiness, refinement, and an eye-watering lineup of technologies.

Continue Reading