OPINION: Another week down and it’s been a packed seven days at Trusted Reviews as we gear up for some of the busiest months in the tech calendar.
Friday (11 August) marked the official release date of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5, the big summer phone releases and Samsung’s latest attempt to dominate the growing foldable market. Check out our Galaxy Z Flip 5 review and Galaxy Z Fold 5 review for an in-depth look at both phones and see which one our expert reviewer preferred.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at who we have crowned as this week’s winner, and loser too.
Winner: The iPhone 15 is starting to take shape
We’re around a month out from the rumoured launch date of the Apple iPhone 15, and this week we learned a little bit more about the chipset that’ll likely power the Pro and Pro Max variants of Apple’s next flagship phone.
According to Twitter tipster URedditor (via 9to5Mac), the iPhone 15 Pro’s chip – which is likely to be called the A17 – will feature six CPU cores and six GPU cores.
This would be one extra GPU core compared to the iPhone 14 Pro and its A16 Bionic – adding more power to a phone that already dominates when it comes to overall performance. The A17 Bionic chip is also expected to see Apple switching to a 3nm process, proving more energy efficient than the 4nm process of the A16 Bionic.
A speed bump is generally expected for each iPhone release, but a switch in the process is more uncommon and tends to herald bigger differences on the overall experience of a handset.
Loser: Disney raises prices for 4K streaming
There’s a clear Loser this week and it’s Disney, yes – the House of Mouse itself. It was announced on Wednesday that more price changes were coming to the company’s streaming service Disney Plus, making the streaming landscape an even pricier place to be.
These price rises were revealed in an odd manner, with Disney actually announcing that it was rejigging its tiers a little – adding a new premium plan for £10.99. This plan, which includes 4K streaming and watching on multiple devices, looks to be exactly the same as the previous £7.99 plan.
There is still a £7.99 plan, however it now ditches 4K support and downloads, maxing out at 1080p. There’s also a £4.99 ‘with ads’ plan, which again limits the user to 1080p – but pops in some annoying adverts to the mix too.
Essentially, if you want the true Disney Plus experience with proper HDR and 4K streaming then you’ll be paying £3 more per month from November 1.
Whether or not Disney Plus is worth it will likely depend on your viewing habits, but it’s safe to say that after the widely-derided Secret Invasion series and the extended wait for new titles, Disney’s streaming service isn’t quite as tempting as it was when it launched for £5.99 a mere three years ago.
