David Imel | The Verge

Samsung’s newest foldable finally feels Ultra

2026-07-22T08:30:21-04:00

While we wait for Apple’s rumored foldable iPhone, Samsung is polishing a design it already has on the market. I just spent three hours with my hands on the new Z Fold 8 Ultra, and all I can think about is how Samsung finally made the crease invisible.

Samsung says it achieved this thanks to its new Flex Titanium display tech. Its foldable screens now utilize a titanium film that sits below the OLED panel, which Samsung says has 20-times the mechanical stiffness as opposed to the polymer film it used in its old foldables. This film is bonded to a new titanium plate, and when used together, the crease that used to plague foldable devices is practically nonexistent. I spent a lot of time pressing my finger down on the center of the screen trying to feel the crease. If you apply a lot of force and are specifically looking for it, you can feel it ever so slightly, but I came away very impressed with how minor it is. In day-to-day use, there’s very little chance you’re going to notice it.

Oppo recently did away with its crease, too, albeit in a different way. It used 3D liquid printing to fill the uneven gaps in the Find N6 hinge. I haven’t had the opportunity to use that device, but if it’s as impressive as Samsung’s technology, we may be well into the no-crease foldable future.

The new Fold 8 Ultra mimics the silhouette of last year’s Fold7 almost to a tee, but it has improved on just about everything that made the Fold7 great. Core specs of the Fold 8 include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, 256GB of base storage, and 12GB of RAM, which are all identical to the S26 Ultra. And the battery has been improved, too, bumping the phone to a 5,000mAh cell also in line with the S26 Ultra. This is a fairly significant upgrade from the 4,400mAh battery we saw on the Fold7, and it’s mostly due to a chemistry change. Samsung confirmed that it’s finally using silicon carbon technology in the Fold 8 Ultra.

That chemistry change also came with a charging upgrade. The Fold 8 Ultra can now charge at 45W on a wired connection and 20W on a wireless charger, up from 25W wired and 15W wireless in last year’s Fold. Samsung says the phone itself doesn’t have magnets included in order to keep it as thin as possible, so while it’s not a Qi2 device technically, it will be “Qi2 ready” with compatible magnet-equipped cases.

The cameras are also a bit more in line with the S26 Ultra. The main and telephoto cameras are the same 200mp and 10mp sensors as last year’s Z Fold7, but the ultrawide has been updated to 50mp to match the S26 Ultra. This enables dual 8k video recording out of the main and ultrawide sensors on the phone. You still aren’t getting the fourth 10x telephoto lens yet, though. Maybe we’ll see it next year. There are some software updates to the camera this year, too. The Fold 8 Ultra now supports the APV pro video codec introduced in the S26 series, and you can edit the footage directly inside Samsung’s gallery app with built-in color styles.

Samsung also has some updates to it and Google’s AI features, optimized for foldable displays. Samsung’s “Now Nudge” proactive notification feature that suggests actions based on what’s on your screen has been optimized for the Fold 8 Ultra’s display. Now Nudge will now show up as a floating bubble on the side of the screen as well as in your notification shade when it identifies an action you can take. For example, if someone texts you asking what your calendar looks like next week, the feature will now show up as an ambient floating bubble, as well as a notification in your notification tray. If you tap it, it will open your email app in a split-screen view.

Google’s Gemini’s Automated Tasks feature is now optimized for foldables, too. Now when you ask Gemini to complete a task for you with the screen unfolded, the phone will create a pop-up window with the task in progress so it doesn’t take up your entire screen. You can also have it work in the background minimized, but it’s nice to be able to work on other things while still keeping an eye on how Gemini is running through your task. Screen context is making its way to the Fold 8 Ultra as well, allowing you to do things like add events on your screen directly to your calendar.

And finally, Samsung is introducing a new “Fan Cam” feature across its foldable lineup, which can take footage recorded on the phone, identify subjects, and cut the video into various horizontal and vertical aspect ratios. This is useful for creators who need to deliver footage in different formats for clients. In practice, the edits feel a bit “floaty,” with the finished product giving a sense that it’s moving around ever so slightly, even if the source footage is incredibly stable. What is stable is Samsung’s Super Steady Horizontal Lock feature, which debuted on the S26 series, and is coming to all its new devices it debuted today.

All of these upgrades aren’t without price bumps, though. The Fold 8 Ultra will start at $2,099.99 for the base 256GB/12GB model. This is a $100 increase over last year’s Fold7 of the same storage and RAM SKU. With the price of everything becoming more expensive by the month, this isn’t exactly surprising, but that doesn’t make the fact that paying over two thousand dollars for a phone is going to be a massive investment for just about anyone — especially one that starts at 256GB.

I almost forgot Samsung’s Z Flip 8 was a foldable

2026-07-22T10:56:25-04:00

Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Flip 8 feels more like a regular phone than ever. It’s thinner, lighter, and has a front screen you can do just about anything on. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, I’m not quite sure yet.

I spent three hours with Samsung’s newest flip phone last week, and it doesn’t look too different from last year’s Z Flip 7. It’s still got a 6.9-inch FHD+ AMOLED display on the inside. It’s still got a 4.1-inch Super AMOLED cover screen on the outside. It still starts at 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and it still has a 4,300mAh battery. But this year, Samsung has added even more features that make this thing a full-on phone while it’s closed.

For starters, Samsung has added three new gestures to the outer display. If you swipe down from the top left of the screen, you’ll see your notification tray. Swipe down from the top right, and you’ll get quick settings. Swipe up from the bottom, and you’ll get near a full-blown app drawer. If you wanted to use your closed phone for practically everything, that’s what Samsung is offering here.

Previously, you had to use Samsung’s Good Lock to launch apps on the cover screen, and while it worked, it was basically a workaround. Now, this is a native feature. On first impression, it’s nice to have the option, but part of the magic of a flip phone, for me at least, has always been the limitations. If the Flip 8 is simply a phone, but in a small, square aspect ratio, will I still feel less motivated to doomscroll?

Samsung has also shaved a few fractions of a millimeter off this thing to make what it says is the thinnest and lightest flip phone on the market. The Z Flip 8 is just 13.1mm thick folded and 6.1mm thick unfolded, and weighs 180g. This is still thicker than Samsung’s own Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which comes in at just 4.1mm unfolded, and it’s certainly still thicker than a regular phone while closed. But as far as flip phones go, it’s currently the one to beat.

This year’s phone has also been made thinner using Samsung’s new Flex Titanium display technology, which is also in its new Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra. Samsung says Flex Titanium shaves off thickness by using a thinner titanium film under the OLED, as well as a tighter bonding between the base plate and display module. In practice, I’m not sure you’re going to notice a fraction of a millimeter, but Samsung says this display is 20x more durable, which is sorely needed considering the amount of Z Flips with cracked inner displays I’ve seen while riding the subway.

New battery technology also had a part in enabling a thinner and lighter phone. Samsung has finally made the transition to silicon carbon — which allows for denser batteries than standard lithium ion — though it says it’s using less silicon than competitors for safety and longevity reasons. In the Flip 8, the capacity and charging speed are the same as the Flip 7, but it was able to make the cell physically smaller.

If you were hoping for a massive camera upgrade this year, you’re going to be disappointed, as the Flip 8 is sticking with the same camera hardware we saw in last year’s Flip 7. You’re still getting a 50MP main and 12MP ultrawide, which are fine enough, but don’t expect the 200MP main camera from the Z Fold 8 Ultra or even the 50MP ultrawide from the Z Fold 8. That said, Samsung has brought its impressive Super Steady Horizontal Lock feature to the phone.

Probably the coolest feature I tried during my three hours with the device was the new “Now Brief” widget generator, which can create Now Brief widgets to proactively show you information about your day. During my time with the device, Samsung demoed asking the phone to show the pollen levels every morning, and the Flip 8 generated a custom UI showing the day’s pollen level. I’m eager to get my hands on the phone for a longer period to pressure-test this feature, as Samsung made it seem like you could ask for a huge variety of widgets. This feels very similar to Google’s recently announced Android 17 feature, but optimized for the front display of the Flip.

The Flip 8 is more expensive than last year. This year, it’s starting at $1,199.99, up from the Flip 7’s $1,099.99 starting price, for the same storage and RAM configurations. Just about everything is subject to the RAM apocalypse these days, but if you want a flip phone that’s more phone than ever in its closed state, the Flip 8 might be the one to get.

Peak Design’s modular Field Bracket has a finder tag built-in

2026-07-22T05:39:18-04:00

I am a very clumsy man. So clumsy, that I have AirTags hanging off practically every camera I own. Have I left my camera in an Uber? Yes. Have I left it on an airplane? Also yes. For me, finder tags are essential for my cameras.

The problem is, strapping a finder tag to a camera is always cumbersome. I currently have them hanging off my camera straps like a phone charm circa 2001. They’re ugly, and very much get in the way when I’m trying to focus on shooting. But Peak Design thinks it has a solution in its new Field Bracket system, which it launched today on Kickstarter, starting at $150 for early birds.

The Peak Design Field Bracket is part L-Bracket, part hand grip, part cheese plate. It’s made for photographers and videographers who want to quickly switch between landscape and portrait orientation on their tripod, or sometimes want to mount a light or mic to their camera when there isn’t a dedicated place to do so. But possibly the most enticing thing, to me at least, is that the bracket comes with a slot for a dedicated Finder Tag.

Peak’s Beacon Finder Tag is a Peak Design-branded finder that works with Apple Find My and Google Find Hub. That means it’ll work with both Apple and Android phones, so you don’t have to worry about losing access to your camera finder if you switch ecosystems. The tag uses a standard CR2025 battery, and Peak says it’s rated to last up to six months. It’s also rated for IP67 water and dust resistance, and it fits flush inside the base plate of the L-bracket.

The Beacon Finder Tag is just one of the accessories Peak Design is selling alongside the Field Bracket. The base product you’ll be buying is in fact an L-bracket, but once that’s on your camera, you’ll have access to other add-on accessories like a hand grip, finger grip, and cheese plate. Peak says the Field Bracket will work with most ARCA-compatible tripods, and won’t get in the way if you use it with its own capture clip or camera straps. In fact, the bracket itself has dedicated slots to attach your Peak Design camera strap, so you won’t have to sacrifice the strap you own to use the bracket.

Peak calls the vertical attachment to the L-bracket the Field Latch, and it uses the company’s new locking system to quickly attach and detach it without any tools. This is the same place you attach the optional cheese plate, which pulls out in adjustable stops in case you need to access ports or run cables from the camera.

Of course, you’ll have to choose the exact bracket you want for the camera you own, considering it’s molded specifically to that body. At launch, most cameras supported are the newest or near-newest models of each camera line. You can see a compatibility list here. And if you want to see your camera supported, Peak has a dedicated feedback page to submit the camera you own.

The bracket itself will MSRP at $149.95, and if you want a bundle of all the accessories currently offered, you can get everything for $269.80. As usual, though, Peak Design is offering a Kickstarter discount, which puts the bracket at $125 and the bundle at $199, while supplies last at least.

OnePlus never had a chance in the US

2026-07-16T11:29:40-04:00

Twelve years after the launch of the OnePlus One, OnePlus announced today that it has exited the United States. It’s bittersweet, as the brand has been on a comeback tour of sorts with its excellent OnePlus 15 and widely praised (though still too expensive) OnePlus Open.

The writing has been on the wall for a while now. T-Mobile stopped stocking OnePlus’ flagship phones after 2022, instead deciding to only carry its low-end Nord devices, and Verizon’s run with OnePlus only lasted two years, from 2020 through 2021. Even though it continued releasing flagships, OnePlus’ US footprint has been fading. In January, Android Headlines even claimed that the brand was being completely dismantled, though OnePlus denied that report.

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This outcome didn’t seem inevitable. In 2014, when the OnePlus One arrived, nearly every tech enthusiast I knew was buying the phone. There was a cult-like enthusiasm for OnePlus that was hard to find elsewhere, and it used that community-driven approach to develop and grow a long-lasting, loyal fan base. For a while, it was practically impossible to call any other phone a “good deal” when a OnePlus phone also existed.

But most of the sales were online-only, directly from OnePlus. When it decided to officially launch through carriers in the US, it was probably doomed from the start.

OnePlus first launched on a US carrier in 2018, and according to T-Mobile, nearly 200,000 customers had already been using OnePlus phones on its network before it officially carried the devices. That’s far from Samsung or Apple numbers, which accounted for an estimated 90 percent of all phones sold at US carriers in 2020, but there was a case for T-Mobile trying to capture OnePlus’ growing enthusiast fan base.

What is the value of a $600 “flagship killer” versus a $1,200 flagship if there is no tangible price difference?

OnePlus grew its loyal fan base primarily through its “Never Settle” moniker, implying that you shouldn’t have to settle for inferior specs when you buy an affordable phone. It used the phrase “Flagship killer” to describe this ratio of price to performance, and fans ate it up. Especially in 2014, near the end of the “2-year phone contract era,” people were begging for a device you could buy outright without being locked into a long and resentful relationship with your telecom.

But that’s just not how people buy phones in the US. Here, it’s all about carrier deals, and specifically, bill credits. The bill credit model gets a phone in your hand immediately, often with no upfront cost, and the price of the phone is diluted into your phone plan for 24 to 36 months. T-Mobile will give you a brand new 256GB iPhone 17 Pro today for just $4.16 a month on top of your phone plan. If you’re on AT&T, you can get that same phone for just $2.78 per month, as long as you trade in a phone and “upgrade to a qualifying unlimited plan.” And yes, that qualifying plan starts at $80 a month. If you switch carriers early, you’ll owe the remaining retail cost of the phone.

You can see why this might incentivize a carrier to focus on selling expensive flagships and not “affordable” flagship killers. Carriers want to offer you the idea of a deal, and if your new phone feels like it costs less than three bucks a month, that feels much better than paying $600 out of pocket, even if you’re paying much more than that over time.

What made OnePlus attractive was fundamentally in opposition to this model. What is the value of a $600 “flagship killer” versus a $1,200 flagship if there is no tangible price difference? The carriers need you to stay on their premium plans, and if they’ll only have $600 hanging over your head instead of $1,200, they have less incentive to carry these devices. Add to the fact that reportedly 75 percent of all smartphones sold at carrier stores are now iPhones, with Samsung making up another 15 percent or so, and there isn’t a whole lot of pie left to go around.

The main line that did well for OnePlus in the US is its ultra-affordable Nord series, claiming 428 percent growth for the company in the first half of 2021. But after it lost its deal with T-Mobile in 2022, it was much harder for OnePlus to move volume. The US phone market is carrier dependent in almost every way, and without T-Mobile stores stocking the phones, it became hard for OnePlus to justify even selling the Nord here.

The ethos of OnePlus has always been about value for money. That is fundamentally at odds with the incentive system of the US phone market, which prioritizes trapping users in long-term relationships. OnePlus was already fighting for scraps here. OnePlus tried to kill the flagship, but in the end it was the flagships, sold by carriers, that killed OnePlus.

Clarification, July 16th: The first sentence of this post originally referred to OnePlus’s “eight-year run,” counting from its 2018 availability directly from T-Mobile; it now counts from the 2014 launch of the OnePlus One.

Siri AI is already changing how I use my iPhone

2026-07-13T16:43:20-04:00

Siri AI in iOS 27.

iOS 27 escaped the developer world today with the launch of the first public beta. I’ve been testing the new operating system since early June, looking for quirks and seeing if it can live up to the hype Apple promised in the keynote.

This year’s iOS upgrades are what one might call a Snow Leopard update. That means it’s light on new features and instead focused on fixing things that were broken and speeding up processes across the OS. App launches, Photos search results, and AirDrop transfers should all be faster. The Messages app now supports in-line replies and end-to-end encryption for RCS messages. Liquid Glass has gotten more refined, with better legibility around hard edges and text. These are all wonderful updates, particularly for those who have aging iPhones. But by far the biggest and most anticipated change in this update is that Apple finally, actually for real shipped the revamped Siri AI, in the form of an opt-in beta program. And this time, I think Apple might have actually done it. Or at least it finally laid the foundation for a successful version of Siri.

Last week, I was trying to decide if I had time to go to a free concert in the city. The show was four hours long with three acts, and I only really wanted to see one. I couldn’t find the order the bands were performing on the event page, which meant this was a perfect opportunity to pressure-test Siri AI. So I swiped down from the top of the screen and asked, “What order are the bands playing in?” Siri spun its new little wheel for a few seconds, then correctly told me the information I was hoping for: The band I wanted to see was playing last.

It’s practically stopped me from opening my browser for most things

The promise of the new Siri AI is to change the way you use your phone. Before, you went to an app and told the app what you wanted to do (call a car, set a timer, order lunch); now, you say what you want to do first, and Siri AI tries to look through all the apps and information available to it to handle the rest. So when I asked about the concert, Siri looked at what was on the webpage, then searched the web, found the answer, and presented it to me. I didn’t need to jump around browser tabs or look at the band’s Instagram page; it was just there.

In the month I’ve been using Siri AI, it’s surprised me in tons of different ways. On my first day testing the beta during Apple’s dev conference, I was able to ask “Can you add my WWDC briefings to my calendar?” and Siri looked in my email, parsed the data, and added six individual events with correct times to my calendar. I’ll note, it could only add it to my Apple calendar, but I’ll get to why shortly.

These interactions have genuinely altered my brain chemistry a bit. Now, I almost always try to use Siri first, just to see if it can perform the action I need or answer a simple question. It’s practically stopped me from opening my browser for most things, since it’s easier, faster, and more enjoyable to just swipe down from the top of the screen and type a prompt.

Onscreen awareness has probably been the most helpful addition for me. Being able to ask Siri about what’s on my screen saves me a lot of tapping around. When it’s able to take action from that onscreen awareness, like adding an event to my calendar or directing me to an address on my screen, it’s even better.

More often than I’ve expected, Siri is able to do what I ask it to, and when it performs a somewhat complex task, it feels like magic. But when it hits a wall, I’m reminded of why it’s going to take a bit of work to get to the “it just works” universe where Siri not working is the exception, not the norm.

There are still kinks with Siri AI. In the first image, Siri didn’t recognize that my request referred to the page I was looking at and added a generic reminder." data-portal-copyright="" />

Siri’s ability to translate your request into a specific action seems to be one of the main areas where Apple is still working out kinks. For example, when I asked it to “remind me to buy these tickets when they go on sale” while looking at a concert page, it simply made a reminder called “buy these tickets when they go on sale.” I had to be careful to say “buy tickets to this when they go on sale” to trigger Siri to actually look at my screen and search the web for the ticket availability. And most of the time, asking Siri to “route” me to a location didn’t do anything, but “direct” me to a location did. I imagine its word correlation may improve over time as more data comes in, but when the entire point is being able to talk to a computer in natural language and not rely on keyword speak, it can be frustrating.

Right now, if you’re on the Siri AI preview on the iOS 27 beta, Apple apps are the only ones with access to Siri’s new capabilities. If you live inside Apple’s ecosystem, everything is great. Your data probably exists inside Messages, Mail, and Photos, and when you want to take action, you’re adding to-do items to Reminders and Notes. I use a few of these apps daily, and when they work together, like adding a list of events from my email to my calendar, it really is like a glimpse at the future. But if I ask Siri “When did Daniel say he was free to play Dota?” then Siri won’t have any idea, because Daniel and I only message each other through Telegram, which the system doesn’t have access to.

A still from Apple’s video on how developers can integrate with Siri AI. | Image: Apple" data-portal-copyright="Image: Apple" />

The two main updates developers need to implement for Siri AI support are entities and intents. Entities represent the type of data an app can contain, like a photo, recipe, playlist, or note. If an app adds entities to Siri AI, Siri knows exactly what type of data it can pull from that app to use for your personal context. Conversely, an intent tells Siri what it can actually do with that data, like play, save, or delete. App entities and intents allow Siri to control and pull data from them, and Siri’s semantic layer handles the understanding of your words. The app’s entities and intents allow those semantics to control and pull data from them.

And if your digital life exists mostly outside of Apple apps, it will take time for the apps you need to play well with Siri AI. It definitely won’t happen during the public beta. Developers can now build entities and intents against the iOS 27 SDK, but until the SDK itself is out of beta, you, as a user, are out of luck; they can’t actually push Siri AI updates to their apps until the full version of iOS 27 is available in the fall.

Apple is relying a lot on developers to update their apps to support the new Siri, but it’s not like we haven’t seen this before. Practically every time Apple has added a significant new feature, like Dark Mode or iPad apps, developers have had to do work to get them working properly. The difference, I imagine, is that most of the previous updates have directly affected the user experience within the developer’s own app. This time, Apple is asking developers to update their apps to improve the Siri experience.

Siri AI being invoked in iOS 27." data-portal-copyright="" />

Developers I’ve talked to have told me that while they’re super excited about these new capabilities, updating their apps to support them is a pretty massive undertaking. “The conceptual challenge for developers is creating comprehensive support for every screen and function within an app,” says Matthew Cassinelli, who worked at Workflow, the company that would be acquired by Apple and become Shortcuts. “But the transition to agent-based models allows specialized apps to surface relevant data dynamically, which makes them more useful to users who otherwise might not open those specific applications frequently.”

An example of this is the LookBack: Contacts History app. The app shows you who you most recently added to your phone contacts, and if you forget to open it but ask Siri “Who did I meet at the conference last week?” it can use the app to surface the information.

I can buy that argument that Siri will help surface smaller apps that users forget to open as often when it comes to smaller developers, who don’t make the five or six apps most people use every single day. But the bigger question on my mind is whether or not players like Google are interested in making Siri more capable. Google makes most of its revenue from surfacing ads, and if instead of making you open Gmail to find the information you’re looking for, Siri could simply surface that information at the top of your screen, Google loses out on that revenue. This said, Google is practically doing the exact same thing with AI overviews, so it’s pretty obvious that it’s been preparing for a world where AdSense revenue isn’t its main revenue source.

The primary incentive driver I can see for Google adopting full Siri AI support is consumer choice. If one email app supports Siri AI to its full extent and Gmail doesn’t, I’m more likely to use the other app. I want Siri to keep performing these experiences, pulling my personal context and performing actions for me. If I start running into roadblocks for what an app is able to do, I might start looking for another one. Whether Google’s own stronghold is powerful enough to keep most people around is another question.

This all remains a work in progress. Not only is this a beta OS, but a beta Siri. And it’s only a partial version of the full experience we’re being promised down the road. It’s impressive, but what truly matters still comes next. Developers need to add support for Siri AI to live up to its potential. And Siri AI needs to correctly route and research your requests far more often than it gets tripped up. So far, I’ve been surprised by how much it can do.

The concert was great, by the way.

Photography by David Imel / The Verge

I’m filling in at The Verge for 6 weeks. Ask me anything!

2026-07-10T15:31:28-04:00

Hello my friends! My protocol pals! My computational compadres!

I’m David, a technology reporter and cohost of the Waveform Podcast. I’ll be hosting a subscriber-only “AMA” today at 11AM PT / 2PM ET. For the next six weeks, I’m filling in for senior reviewer Allison Johnson, who you are all likely very familiar with. That means I’ll be covering new releases from Apple, Google, Samsung, and the works. I’ve already done some freelancing for The Verge, including camera reviews, attending the Switch 2 launch event, and cohosting episodes of the Vergecast and Version History, so you may have seen me before!

You can usually find me here. | Photo: Ben Evans" data-portal-copyright="Photo: Ben Evans" />

I’ve been covering technology since about 2007 when I saw the first iPhone unveiled at MacWorld on a school trip. I then went and bought an Android phone the next year. When I was in high school, Microsoft paid me $100 to put one of my Android apps on the Windows Phone store, but we all know how that went. I quit my engineering job at Intel to head up reviews at Android Authority from 2016 to 2021, and worked as Marques Brownlee’s writer and helped run The Studio Channel for many years.

My specialties generally encompass computational and analog photography, protocols, emoji and linguistics, but I’m always trying to pressure-test the delta between what companies say they’re offering and how people actually use that technology. And most of all, I care about how technology works alongside our lives, for better or worse. Please bring back ambient computing, I’m begging you.

If you’re curious about anything, ask some questions, and I’ll be happy to answer them!

The Nikon ZR gets surprisingly close to a real RED camera (for a lot less money)

2025-12-01T17:59:57-05:00

The Nikon ZR with its touchscreen flipped out.

If you shoot video professionally, there’s a good chance you’ve salivated over a RED camera at some point. RED has long been one of the top choices for big-budget productions, offering a combination of image quality and flexibility that’s unrivaled by most consumer cameras. They’re also wildly expensive, topping out at around $45,000 on the high-end, putting them far out of reach for most everyday projects. But now, Nikon is promising to take the most unique part of RED — the file format that powers its incredible imagery — and offer it at a fraction of the price.

The $2,200 Nikon ZR is full of features tailored to video shooters. It has a big and bright touchscreen, the ability to record audio with an unmatched level of dynamic range, and enough sensor-level image stabilization to skip a gimbal for a lot of tasks. But its most notable feature is its ability to shoot a version of RED’s R3D file format. It’s a cut-down variant called R3D NE that’s specifically designed for use on Nikon cameras. It’s not as powerful, compressing some data that a dedicated RED doesn’t. But for people willing to deal with the limitations, access to RED’s color pipeline and distinct highlight rolloff is wildly compelling.

This is the first camera Nikon has made with RED since acquiring the company in 2024, and if the two brands were hoping to turn some heads, I’d say they delivered. The question now is: just how close does it get to a real RED?

Nikon ZR

Score: 8

Pros	Cons
Access to R3D file format Internal 32-bit audio Highly adaptable Z-mount Big, bright 4-inch touchscreen Fast boot-up and shut down	Micro HDMI Tripod thread too close to battery/media door Hard to swivel touchscreen with any cables connected Joystick is small and a bit mushy Single CF Express slot

Where to Buy:

A little less R3D, a lot less money

R3D is a video format called compressed RAW, which stores almost everything the sensor collects as metadata while still maintaining a manageable file size. This means settings like white balance, ISO, gamma, and color space can be changed in post with effectively no loss in quality. This is both useful for making strong creative decisions after you shoot, or for saving your footage when conditions aren’t ideal. I have strong memories of filming smartphone hands-on videos in terrible lighting conditions many years ago, just to see my (now) Waveform Podcast cohost Marques Brownlee publish a perfectly corrected version of the same scene after shooting on a RED camera. Put simply, R3D is a cheat code.

The R3D NE format that the Nikon ZR supports is unfortunately not the same R3D that dedicated RED cameras use, but a modified 12-bit variant (down from the more detailed 16-bit version on RED’s higher-end cameras) built around Nikon’s sensor and processor architecture. This is because the ZR uses the same 24.5 megapixel partially stacked sensor as the Nikon Z6III, not RED’s own sensor and specialized chip for compression acceleration. In practice, this means R3D NE is more similar to Nikon’s N-RAW file format from a compression standpoint, and it is definitely more taxing on my computer than RED’s traditional R3D files. At 6k 24p, the ZR’s R3D NE files can spin up my fans while editing, while R3D files I shot on a RED V-Raptor at 8k 24p cut like butter.

Image quality from the Nikon ZR at 800 ISO." data-portal-copyright="" />

That said, the R3D NE files from the Nikon ZR look extremely similar to the R3D files from the RED V-Raptor. R3D NE still uses the iconic color pipeline, IPP2, that’s been on RED’s own cameras since 2017, offering extremely smooth highlight rolloff, great color, and an almost film-like tonal response. Compared to standard R3D files, the ZR’s R3D NE files look almost identical, save for a slight green cast, most likely caused by the different color response from Nikon’s Expeed sensor.

One major difference between the two cameras is how they handle ISO and noise. On a RED, ISO is simply metadata that tells the program how many stops brighter or darker to display the image, but doesn’t actually bake in analog amplification at the time of capture. This means as long as you protect the highlights while shooting, you can change the ISO in post with minimal changes to noise or dynamic range.

The Nikon ZR (left) vs. the RED V-Raptor (right) at 2500 ISO. The ZR shows more noise in the shadows.

On the ZR, changing the ISO directly changes noise and clipping, because R3D NE bakes in sensor gain before compression. This means changing the ISO in post on the ZR will quickly show more and more noise. Nikon tries to get around this by forcing you to shoot at one of its two native ISOs — either 800 or 6400 when recording R3D NE. This results in a clean image, but it gets noisy if you need to make serious exposure adjustments in post. The image looks great if you control your exposure with an ND filter or your aperture, but you definitely have less exposure control than you would with a dedicated RED.

Even with the limitations, it’s fantastic just how much of RED’s power Nikon has brought down to this far cheaper camera. If you’ve always wanted access to RED’s color science and image characteristics, the ZR will get you most of the way there. The limits really come down to your ability to expose your scene correctly while shooting. You’ll still have the ability to radically adjust things like white balance and color space after the fact. Still, if you mess up exposure, you’ll have more trouble easily saving your image than you would with a dedicated RED.

The opposite of RED hardware

Another big reason people want RED cameras is their modularity. RED’s cameras start with just the “brain,” a big box with an image sensor, processor, and a whole lot of inputs that you can plug things into. The cameras are so stripped back, and so designed around modularity, that they need a variety of additional accessories like a monitor and handle just to be usable.

On this metric, Nikon has gone in the total opposite direction. The ZR is practically the opposite of a RED camera — something that has so many features built in that you can shoot high-quality footage with nearly zero add-ons.

The first example of this is the ZR’s 1,000-nit, 4-inch fully articulating touchscreen, which practically removes the need for an additional monitor. The touchscreen articulates 180-degrees and looks great outside, though if you have something plugged into the mic jack you’ll have trouble articulating it all the way around. Unfortunately, the ZR doesn’t offer RED’s famous “Traffic Light” and “Goal Post” onscreen exposure tools, which are helpful for making sure you don’t clip your image — something even more important on the ZR than a traditional RED — but it’s super sharp at 3.07 million dots and supports DCI-P3 color for a more accurate representation of what you’re capturing.

Another one of the ZR’s impressive integrated features is support for recording 32-bit FLOAT audio from the internal microphone, digital hotshoe, or mic jack. The ZR is the first camera to do this, and honestly, this is a huge deal. 32-bit audio is very difficult to clip, allowing you to capture a wide variance of loudness without your audio being ruined. Traditional shooting setups require a separate audio recorder to record 32-bit FLOAT, and the ability to record it internally can reduce the size of your kit even further.

This all exists inside a body that’s very compact and light, at just 1.4 pounds. Nikon achieved such a slim and light profile by using a fanless design, which is unusual for such a capable video-focused camera. It also manages to include 7.5 stops of in-body image stabilization, which is something you won’t get in any of RED’s own cameras.

The ZR is not without its faults, of course. The tripod thread is too close to the battery/media storage door, making it difficult to swap batteries or storage while on a tripod. The camera uses Micro HDMI instead of full-size, and a single CF Express Type-B slot and micro SD slot make backup recording nearly impossible if you’re shooting at high quality. I also found the joystick to be a bit small and mushy, and there’s a frustrating 125-minute cap on recordings that limits the camera’s use in long interviews.

Still, at the end of the day, the Nikon ZR is pretty much what Nikon promised: a $2,200 ticket to shooting RED-like files. It’s an incredible value for prosumer video shooters. Nikon has been outpaced in the video space for about a decade now. The ZR is the kind of camera a company makes when it’s looking for a comeback.

Photography by David Imel

Nikon’s first RED co-brand is the Nikon ZR

2025-09-10T02:12:53-04:00

Nikon has just unveiled the ZR, its first official co-brand with RED, the cinema camera company it purchased in April of last year.

The ZR takes what Nikon has already been doing well, with its heavily adaptable Z-mount, internal RAW video recording and popular color science and turns it up to 11 for video shooters. That’s headlined by its ability to shoot RED R3D NE files. These files allow you to change settings like ISO and white balance can be changed in post, giving you way more flexibility after shooting. It was a big reason people purchased RED cameras in the past, and it’ll makes it much easier to color match these cameras to existing RED footage.

The ZR is based heavily on Nikon’s Z6III from last year, with a similar partially-stacked 24mp full-frame sensor, 7.5 stops of IBIS and 15+ stops of dynamic range, but it slims down the body to just 133×80.5×48.7mm and adds additional video-focused features like 32-bit audio out of the hotshoe and mic jack and a large 4-inch articulating touchscreen with 1000 nits of brightness.

The Nikon ZR will be available for $2,199 on October 20th.

A night at New York’s biggest Switch 2 launch event

2025-06-05T09:43:05-04:00

Dawn received the first Switch 2.

I’m standing outside the GameStop at Union Square in New York City on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon, with plenty of cars rolling by and people basking in the late spring sun. On the corner of E 14th Street and University Place, a line has formed around the block.

Tonight is the official launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, a console people have been waiting for years to arrive. Some publications and influencers received theirs one day early, but for the rest of the world, tonight is the first opportunity to play it. And for a lot of the people in this line, that means they’re willing to wait a little longer.

By 7PM I’ve talked to plenty of people queued up, and the overwhelming sentiment is that everyone is excited for Mario Kart World.

Left, Andrea. Right, Kyle." data-portal-copyright="" />

“It’s been forever since the last one,” Kyle and Andrea tell me. “It only makes sense to get it now. Might as well.”

The last version, Mario Kart 8, first launched in 2014 for the Wii U, eventually becoming Mario Kart 8 Deluxe when it launched on the Nintendo Switch. Mario Kart World is the first truly new console edition in a decade, and fans are eager to start playing.

Chris has been waiting in line for about four hours and brought his own chair. He tells me that his friends have been working all day, so he’s trying to hold them a spot.

“These are crazy hard to get. I don’t have a lot to do today, so I’m gonna see if I can save a spot in line for them.”

Chris." data-portal-copyright="" />

Finally, I find one fan who tells me he’s excited for the Switch 2 because of its power. “I had the Switch and then the Switch OLED, and I’m honestly pretty stoked to run this thing at 4k 60fps. It’s a huge jump,” Anthony tells me.

Anthony (left) and his girlfriend, Mary (right)." data-portal-copyright="" />

Inside the store, staff has been working since 11AM, pre-processing customers to make tonight’s launch go smoothly. They take four people at a time from the line outside, check them out with consoles and accessories, and hand them a ticket with a number to come back and claim later. There are still a few hours to go, so most people are walking down the street to grab dinner or drinks.

A body painter (left) paints a customer’s arm (right)." data-portal-copyright="" />

To tide over patient customers, GameStop has set up various stations. There’s a body painter giving people Nintendo-themed paint-jobs, a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate set up, and, of course, Mario Kart. Kids flank the stations while their parents check out, and the store even lined up a DJ to keep people entertained.

GameStop has completely outfitted the store with Mario-themed ornaments. There are full-sized cardboard cutouts of various characters spread throughout, and a map of Mario Kart World embedded into the floor. It’s clear the retailer knew this would be a massive launch, and it decked out the store to help fans celebrate.

Around 9PM, Doug Bowser, the CEO of Nintendo of America, makes a surprise appearance. Bowser talks to customers and recites a likely pre-scripted conversation with GameStop staff on camera which will probably appear in a LinkedIn post, then moves to the mural on the wall for a photo with employees.

I asked Bowser what he was most excited for, and he blasts off a quick speech about Mario Kart. It’s expected at this point — a theme of the night.

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People start merging back into the line at 11PM, now stretching down the block and around the corner. Earlier in the night, GameStop employees handed out raffle tickets for free games, and they start calling numbers for the winners. If you won, you were graced with a copy of Splatoon 3, a game not currently updated to take advantage of the Switch 2’s superior hardware.

At 11:55PM I head inside, alongside the first few customers awaiting the midnight release. Dawn is the first to receive his Switch 2 after waiting outside this GameStop since 4:17AM.

Dawn walking away with the first Switch 2 of the night." data-portal-copyright="" />

“I can’t really believe I’ve been waiting this long, but it was worth it.” Everyone cheers and the line starts flowing faster. Crowds of people who didn’t pre-pay for the console continue to show up and get in line. They’ll probably be here until morning.

I left the store about 30 minutes after release, wondering how many instances of anecdotal evidence it would take to make the console a success. But if this store is anything to go by, the Nintendo Switch 2 is already a hit.

Photography by David Imel.

Fujifilm GFX100RF review: one sensor, nine cameras

2025-03-24T01:34:48-04:00

When Apple introduced the iPhone 15 Pro, Greg Joswiak, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said the device’s three rear cameras would give consumers “the equivalent of seven camera lenses in their pocket.”

We could spend multiple podcasts debating the technical validity of that statement, but what Joswiak was trying to imply was that the iPhone now had sensors with a resolution that was big and high enough that it could crop in to emulate various focal lengths.

Now, Fujifilm is trying the same thing.

With a 35mm lens stuck to a body shockingly similar to the super-popular X100VI, it would be easy to assume Fuji’s new GFX100RF is the company’s attempt to take a winning strategy and scale it up to medium format.

But while most fixed-lens cameras like the X100VI create intentional limitations and encourage you to shoot more than you think, the GFX100RF is all about flexibility and intentionality. Using its high-resolution 102MP sensor, an all-new aspect ratio dial, and four different digital “zoom” modes, Fujifilm aims to replace nine cameras and four lenses with one relatively compact body.

Fuji GFX 100RF

A medium-format spin on the X100 formula, the GFX100RF uses a large 102MP sensor and a unique aspect-ratio dial to offer photographers a lot of flexibility when it comes to framing.

Score: 7

Pros	Cons
Aspect ratio dial is a fantastic addition 102MP sensor gives tons of flexibility Compact design	f/4 minimum aperture feels limiting No in-body image stabilization Filter adapter and lens hood triple size of lens

Where to Buy:

Fujifilm’s GFX100RF is the company’s most compact medium-format camera yet. Housing the same sensor as its flagship GFX100II, the $4,900 camera is hugely capable, delivering the same delightful physical controls and rich colors the brand is known for. There’s a reason people love shooting with Fujifilm cameras, and if you’re looking for more of that experience, the GFX100RF won’t let you down.

The new twist this camera adds to the formula is its aspect ratio dial. This physical dial, mounted to the back of the camera, lets you pick from one of nine different formats to frame your image. As someone who still shoots a lot of old film cameras, it had me geeking out big time — particularly because the aspect ratios the camera offers are based on real film cameras Fujifilm manufactured decades ago. It’s a very fun throwback. You can choose between 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 17:6, 3:4, 1:1, 7:6, 5:4, and, my favorite, 65:24 — an homage to Fujifilm’s legendary TX-1 panoramic camera.

Taken on the GFX100RF." data-portal-copyright="" />

Because Fujifilm didn’t include the hybrid optical viewfinder like you’ll see in the X100VI and X-Pro3, it included three different view modes for composing with those aspect ratios instead. You can see the full scene with frame lines, a 50 percent opacity mode that lets you see what’s outside your frame, or a full blackout mode that only shows the crop you’re shooting.

After testing this camera for about a month, I’ve started to wonder why every camera doesn’t have a dial like this. Carrying the camera around Utah, it was a ton of fun to jump around different ratios while composing a photo. In multiple circumstances, an image that I’d only considered “good” in the full 4:3 mode was upgraded to “great” once I found the right crop for it.

Now, obviously, when you crop out a large portion of an image, you’re also cropping a decent amount of resolution. But even when using the most-cropped 65:24 ratio, you’re still left with a large 50MP file. And if you shoot RAW in addition to JPG, and you edit in Adobe Lightroom, RAW files will be ingested pre-cropped with the option to zoom out to the full 4:3 image. I love that.

The super-high resolution of the sensor has another benefit, though. The GFX100RF offers four virtual focal lengths, which crop into the center of the sensor to deliver a different field of view. The camera offers 35mm, 45mm, 63mm, and 80mm options, which equate to about 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 63mm in full-frame terms. These “zoom” modes will also cost you resolution, though, with the full 80mm focal length cropped to 65:24 and spitting out a 9MP image.

To make zooming simple, Fujifilm added a small switch to the front of the camera similar to what you’d see on an old camcorder. And right above that, you’ll find a remappable knurled dial, which strangely wasn’t mapped to anything out of the box on my unit.

It feels like Fujifilm built this camera to do it all, and in a lot of ways, it defies expectations of what a fixed-lens camera is built to do. But unfortunately, the GFX100RF is also limited in two key ways: a relatively slow f/4 aperture and a lack of optical image stabilization.

Taken on the GFX100RF." data-portal-copyright="" />

An f/4 aperture on Fujifilm’s medium-format sensor equates to about f/3.16 on a full-frame camera, and while that isn’t horrible by any means, it felt limiting in my time with it. A slower aperture means less light on the sensor, and less light means pushing up the ISO or pulling down the shutter speed. On a camera like the Fujifilm X100VI with optical image stabilization, I could comfortably drop the shutter speed down to a full second handheld. But on the GFX100RF, the slowest I could comfortably shoot handheld without getting a shaky image was 1/30 — maybe 1/15 if I was especially steady.

As someone who carries around a tripod nearly every time I go take photos, this wasn’t a huge deal for me. But Fujifillm is positioning this camera as the best everyday camera on the market, and without a faster lens or optical image stabilization, you might have trouble shooting with this camera hi once the light gets low, unless you use uncomfortably high ISO values. When I had to shoot in lower light, I often switched to Fuji’s excellent Acros black and white simulation, which is made to look quite grainy anyway.

It’s understandable why Fujifilm may not have added optical image stabilization to this camera. The 100RF is only marginally bigger than the Fujifilm X100VI, so it may not have developed a stabilization system compact enough for the body yet. And at $4,899, which is still quite expensive, this camera comes in cheaper than any other GFX body Fujifilm currently sells. Plus, this one includes a lens.

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But what perplexes me the most about the camera is the decision to use an f/4 aperture. Taken alone, the lens is shockingly small — smaller than every dedicated GF lens that Fujifilm sells by a long shot. But Fuji also includes a lens hood and filter adapter ring in the box, and, added together, these accessories just about triple the overall footprint of the lens to the point where it’s about as big as the lens on the Leica Q3. And at that point, why not just make a bigger, faster lens?

There’s no doubt the GFX100RF will be consistently compared to Leica’s full-frame Q3 — primarily because, until recently, if you wanted an even remotely new fixed-lens camera with a large sensor, the Q3 was pretty much your only option. And while Fujifilm has Leica beat with its new versatile aspect ratio dial and ultra-high resolution, Leica trades those features for a much faster f/1.7 lens and optical image stabilization. Which features matter to you is probably going to depend on what kind of photographer you are. And, at the very least, I’m glad there’s finally another option available on the market.

I really loved my time with this camera. Composing nearly every aspect of your final image in-camera is a real joy, and I have a soft spot in my heart for physical dials. But for a camera that aspires to do it all with one lens, you’re going to need a tripod to make that a reality.

Photography by David Imel