Tech

Samsung is expected to soon unveil its next line of foldable smartphones on July 9 during its Galaxy Unpacked event. In the past, the company has only launched two foldable phones during its annual event. However, this year the Korean tech giant could launch a Fan Edition (FE) alongside its Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 smartphones. Reportedly, a Samsung phone was recently spotted on the Geekbench benchmarking website, which is said to be the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE. The phone is said to be powered by an Exynos 2400 SoC.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE Geekbench Scores

According to a report by Gizmochina, Samsung could launch the Galaxy Flip 7 FE with an Exynos 2400 SoC during its Galaxy Unpacked event. The report cites a Geekbench listing that appears with the model number SM-F761B. Recently, the alleged Korean variant of the smartphone was also spotted on the benchmarking website with an Exynos SoC, the report said. The new listing is said to be for the global variant of the foldable phone.

The Geekbench listing for the rumoured Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE
Photo Credit: Geekbench

As per the listing, the foldable phone scored 1940 for single-core performance and 6136 for the multi-core performance. It also revealed that the foldable phone was running Android 16. The rumoured Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE could come with 8GB RAM, the Geekbench listing revealed.

The Korean tech company is currently expected to launch the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 during the July 9 event. If the listing is to be believed, this could be Samsung’s first FE variant in its foldable phones lineup. The company is yet to confirm the details regarding the smartphone.

Samsung’s FE products are priced lower than their non-FE counterparts, sporting fewer features. For example, currently the Galaxy S24 FE is listed on Amazon for Rs. 35,829. However, Galaxy S24 is priced at Rs. 43,490.

Hence, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE can be expected to launch at a slightly lower price than the Galaxy Z Flip 7.

Recently, a tipster leaked key specifications of the soon-to-launch Galaxy Z Flip 7. The smartphone is tipped to feature a 4.1-inch cover touchscreen and a 6.9-inch foldable display, which is larger than the Galaxy Z Flip 6, which comes with a 3.4-inch outer display and a 6.7-inch foldable screen. The displays are tipped to feature 120Hz refresh rated with a peajk brightness of 2,600 nits.

The Korean tech giant is expected to launch the Galaxy Z Flip 7 with a 4,300mAh battery, marking an increase of 300mAh from its predecessor.

OpenAI has generally been tight-lipped about the next generation of its frontier artificial intelligence (AI) model, GPT-5. However, the company has recently shared some hints at what users can expect once the model is available. An OpenAI executive has claimed that the GPT-5 large language model (LLM) could witness the merger of the GPT and o-series models. This means the upcoming LLM will feature both advanced reasoning capability as well as multimodality support. Notably, while there are no confirmed dates, the GPT-5 model could be released in July or August.

GPT-5 Might Be OpenAI’s Most Feature-Rich AI Model

Romain Huet, Head of Developer Experience at OpenAI, recently hosted a session at the Viva Technology conference in Paris. A clip from the session was shared by Tibor Blaho, lead engineer at AIPRM, on X (formerly known as Twitter). Huet highlighted that with GPT-5, the San Francisco-based AI firm is planning to build a “net new great frontier model.”

“So, the breakthrough of reasoning in the O-series and the breakthroughs in multi-modality in the GPT-series will be unified, and that will be GPT-5,” the OpenAI executive added.

This information is not entirely new, as the OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, had said in an X post, “I would love for us to be able to merge the GPT series and the o series in 2025.” Altman has also spoken about discontinuing the o-series in the past. However, so far, it was not known if the company was planning the unification with the GPT-5 model or other AI models after this.

GPT-5 AI model might also witness an integration with the Operator AI agent. In a Reddit post, the company’s Vice President of Research, Jerry Tworek, mentioned that the focus with the upcoming frontier LLM is to make it so feature-rich that users don’t have to constantly rely on model switching.

The executive hinted that apart from making the new AI model perform better than all the previous models in every metric, it can also be integrated with the Operator AI agent. For the unfamiliar, the Operator is a Computer-Using Agent (CUA) which can perform various tasks on the user’s device and online, autonomously. It was first unveiled in January, and then expanded to Pro subscribers in February.

While a concrete release date is not known, Altman has recently hinted in a live stream that GPT-5 could arrive in summer. Since only two months are left in summer (based on the US climate), the AI model is expected to arrive either in July or August.

iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are expected to be launched in September alongside the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Air models. As we wait for the formal reveal, yet another render has leaked, showing the rear design of the iPhone 17 Pro models. The alleged render shows the repositioned Apple logo and redesigned MagSafe magnet array of the phones. They appear to have a new, larger camera island and an aluminium frame. The elongated camera module seems to have three rear camera sensors.

iPhone 17 Pro Series Leaked Render Shows Significant Design Changes

The latest image posted on X (formerly Twitter) by tipster Majin Bu (@MajinBuOfficial) shows the alleged iPhone 17 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ Max in clear cases. The renders show the devices with a new camera bar featuring three lenses that extend across the width of the rear panel. This marks a shift from the square camera array of the iPhone 16 Pro series. Previous leaks had also indicated this design revamp for the iPhone 17 Pro models.

The Apple logo is seen to be positioned lower on the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, compared to the centred position on the iPhone 16 Pro models. The leaked render also suggests that MagSafe charging will get a similar repositioning. The MagSafe magnets form a complete circle above the vertical dash line in the iPhone 16 Pro cases, but the latest image suggests a break in the circle to allow for the new placement of the Apple logo.

The new wider camera island on the iPhone 17 Pro models may have prompted Apple to shift the logo placement and tweak the MagSafe charging coil design.

The render also indicates an aluminium frame in the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. The frame has a cutout below the camera bump for a glass segment to enable wireless charging.

iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are expected to be announced in September. The former is said to get a 6.3-inch display, whereas the latter could sport a 6.9-inch display. They are rumoured to run on an A19 Pro chip, paired with 12GB of RAM. They are likely to feature a new vapour chamber cooling system.

The founder of Arkane Studios, a subsidiary of Microsoft-owned ZeniMax, has called Game Pass “unsustainable” in the wake of widespread layoffs at Xbox. Raphael Colantonio, who founded the studio behind games such as Dishonored and Prey and currently heads Wolfeye Studios, called Microsoft’s game subscription service “the elephant in the room” that hurts sales of Xbox games.

Xbox Game Pass Called ‘Unsustainable’

“Why is no-one talking about the elephant in the room? Cough cough (Gamepass),” Colantonio said on X (formerly Twitter) Saturday. The former Arkane president, who left the company in 2017, criticised the Game Pass model, which has been the centrepiece of Microsoft’s gaming strategy for years, after the latest round of cuts at Xbox saw studio closures, project cancellations and layoffs.

“I think Gamepass is an unsustainable model that has been increasingly damaging the industry for a decade, subsidized by MS’s “infinite money”, but at some point reality has to hit,” Colantonio added in the replies to his post. “I don’t think GP can co-exist with other models, they’ll either kill everyone else, or give up.”

He claimed the Game Pass economic model was flawed and pointed out that releasing titles day one on Game Pass impacted sales. All first-party Microsoft games are launched day one on the subscription service, allowing members to play new titles at no additional cost.

The Value of Game Pass

While Game Pass does offer value to gamers, the service has been criticised in the past within the games industry. The service offers visibility to smaller, independent games, but it can end up hurting sales for newly released titles. Back in 2023, while deposing at the US FTC trial over Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan had claimed that video game publishers unanimously agreed that Xbox Game Pass was “value destructive.”

While being on Game Pass can chew into unit sales of new titles, some games have found commercial success despite launching onto the service day one. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the acclaimed turn-based RPG from French developer Sandfall Interactive that launched on April 24, sold over 3.3 million copies in just over a month after release, despite being available on Game Pass.

In April, Rebellion Developments CEO said launching the studio’s action-survival game, Atomfall, on Game Pass had been a huge success. The game, which was released in March, has reached over two million players.

Xbox Layoffs

Last week, Microsoft laid off around four percent of its workforce — over 9,000 employees. The layoffs hit the Xbox division hard, reportedly impacting Candy Crush developer King, Call of Duty makers Raven Software and Sledgehammer Games, Halo Studios, and Forza Motorsport developer Turn10 Studios.

As part of the cuts, Microsoft also cancelled the Perfect Dark reboot and shut down developer The Initiative. Rare’s action-adventure game Everwild was cancelled, too, along with several unannounced projects.

The Seattle Times reported that the latest round of job cuts at Microsoft could represent the company’s efforts to cut costs as its AI spending balloons. The Xbox parent plans to spend more than $80 billion (roughly Rs. 6,87,456 crore) on AI infrastructure in the coming year.

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