latest
How to use Netflix test screens to calibrate your screen
Netflix has the perfect test pattern for your color adjustments. Here's how to use it
Do you want to make sure your display is properly calibrated and color-optimized? Today's HDR features help a lot, but not every device is compatible with HDR (high dynamic range) technology, and many people prefer to make their own custom adjustments.
Smartphone users come in all colors, and Pantone's making sure their phones (accurately) reflect that
Color accuracy may be the next hurdle for smartphone displays
Skin tones have been mentioned in passing during countless smartphone announcements over the years, but none had made accurate and authentic looking skin come across as a priority until Google announced Real Tone for the Pixel 6. Now that the subject is on the table, Pantone is challenging smartphone manufacturers to show people as they look in real life with its new SkinTone Validated program.
Weekend poll: How important are colorful smartphones?
A must-have, a welcomed perk, or the most inessential entry on the specs sheet?
There’s no better time than fall to upgrade your smartphone. With new entries flooding the market each week and big discounts on all those flagship devices leftover from the spring, you have dozens of choices in front of you. Unfortunately, you might get to choose your favorite color — at least if you’re shopping for “Pro”-level smartphones, that is.
Chrome gets even more colorful with its big Material You revamp
A recent Canary update for Chrome on Android adds dynamic color theming everywhere
Google announced Material You at this year's I/O conference, and this post-Material Design chapter looks like it's arguably the company's most ambitious move yet. Material You is all about embracing emotion and expression, using humanistic principles like soft shapes and dynamic color theming that adapt to your wallpaper. We've seen Google's radical new design language trickle down to its apps over the last few months — one of them is Chrome, which saw a sprinkle of color extraction when we covered it last month. Now it looks like Google is going all in with Chrome's Material You makeover.
It seems like every new update to Android 12's early builds brings along some changes to the settings menu. Developer Preview 2 brought along an all-new look sans subtitles, which Google brought back in Beta 2. With Beta 3 out now, it seems like we're due for another update. While the subtitles have remained, all of the color in the settings menu has been drained, leaving behind a stark black-and-white appearance.
Galaxy S21 series colorways leak shortly before launch, Custom Colors said to have wait times
And there's plenty to choose from
Read update
- Courtesy of Quandt via WinFuture.de, we've learned some more information about these Custom Colors. According to him, the Phantom Gold and Phantom Red colors for the S21+, as well as the Phantom Titanium, Phantom Navy, and Phantom Brown colors for the S21 Ultra, will all be considered "custom." This means that customers will have to order it via Samsung's site and have a wait time of several weeks, as these colors are apparently only delivered upon request. There won't be any additional costs or storage spec limitations, though, which is nice.
We're already well-acquainted with the Samsung Galaxy S21 series by now. We know pretty much everything about the phones — right from the next-gen hardware and software to pricing and availability. The leaks are still coming in, though, and the latest one gives us a look at all the colorways that we will see on Samsung's upcoming flagships.
OnePlus 8T teaser shows off new Aquamarine Green color
Why get a black or white phone when you could get a cool color like this?
We've already seen quite a bit about the upcoming OnePlus 8T leaked, and now OnePlus has gone ahead and released an official teaser for the phone. Here, it's showing off how the 8T's Aquamarine Green color (which we've seen in renders) came to be.
There's little to complain about when it comes to the just-released, often-leaked Pixel 4a. In our review, we praise Google's latest phone for its phenomenal performance and great hardware in a more than affordable package, and smaller nitpicks like a tinny speaker and a lack of secondary camera lenses can be forgiven at $350. There's one thing we can't quite understand, though — the Pixel 4a is only available in matte black.
During I/O 2018, Google gave the public a sneak peek at a Photos feature that could colorize old black and white pictures, making them look as if they had been taken with an actual color camera. One year after its unveiling, word around further development on Colorize went silent, save for a promise from Google that the beta would be launching "soon." Fast forward five more months, and a functioning version of Colorize has finally been unearthed in beta via the latest Google Photos 4.26 update.
Hue bulbs are among the best ones on the market, thanks to their reliability and compatibility with many third-party services such as Alexa, Assistant, IFFT, and many more. Unfortunately, they're also known for their relatively high price, but this deal on the color starter kit with two bulbs is a steal at just $78, almost 50% off their traditional MSRP.
Google's paintbrushes for its Pixel phones have generally been black, white and something else. The first time around, it was one flavor of blue. The second go? Another sort of blue. The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL have this option called... "Not Pink." So, what will the company do for the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL?
Most Android users I know stick with Gboard nowadays, but there are some of you out there who still use third-party keyboards. The most popular one on the Play Store is SwiftKey, and now, the beta version has been updated to color the navigation bar with your keyboard's primary theme color.
The third-generation Google Pixel leaks continue. At this point, the company doesn't seem to have anything hidden from us — unless you believe the wild conspiracy theories about a mystical notch-less Ultra Pixel. Even Google seems to have given up on hiding things and, in a teaser for the new Pixels on its Japanese site, has revealed a potentially third aqua/mint color.
Samsung is no stranger to releasing new colors for its phones, but the US usually misses out on these new colors. Sunrise Gold and Burgundy Red were announced for the Galaxy S9 and S9+ last month, but the United States hadn't been name-dropped in Samsung's press release. However, it looks like the US will be getting the S9/S9+ in Sunrise Gold after all (though there's unfortunately no mention of Burgundy Red coming as well).
The Essential PH-1 is easily one of the most beautiful smartphones on the market, with its almost-nonexistent bezels and ceramic back. Back in October, the company released a 'Pure White' version of the PH-1 that looked fantastic, but white isn't really a very special color. If you want special, you'll have to look to the Ocean Depths color, which Essential is now teasing a launch date of February 15th for.
The LG V30 was somewhat of a mixed bag. While the hardware and design is excellent, the high price and questionable display quality made it a hard sell for many. LG seems to think a new color option might convince a few buyers, so it has been working on a 'Raspberry Rose' model. The new color will be shown off at CES later this month.
Sometimes you don't want to read up on how someone "feels" about a product. Everything's subjective, of course, and it's good to combine multiple viewpoints, but once in a while, it's nice to just sit down and examine the raw data, that way you can come to your own conclusions. And Dylan Raga over at XDA-Developers just assembled an intense and in-depth analysis of the Pixel 2 XL's display that's worth a read. At least, if you'd like to scratch that purely quantitative itch.
One of the more vocal complaints leveled against Google's Pixel 2 phones was the display's default color calibration. Although some might prefer the over-saturated vibrance of less accurate color profiles, Google opted for a more calibrated default that was closer to sRGB as a means of providing color-accurate backward compatibility with apps that didn't immediately declare their color space.
The design of Google Maps doesn't get updated very often, so when it does, it's kind of a big deal. The latest tweaks are all about adding a bit more color to the interface and making things a little easier to pick out as a consequence. What you see will also be more relevant to the mode of transport you're using, too.
Duo has done well positioning itself as a simple, yet innovative app for video chat. Despite a focus on simplicity, it's time to begin experimenting with enhancements that can establish Duo with new audiences. The latest update contains clues suggesting the development team may bring some advanced camera settings to the app so users can make sure they're sending the very best image possible.