What if, what if OEMs figure out that reverse local tone mapping exists too? Will it become an inescapable trend at some point too when everyone gets bored of dehazing and clarity?

Citing a Chinese friend:
More nonsense added to Xiaomi BL shenanigans. You may be banned and subject to legal actions if you use the unlocking permission on someone else, or transfer the device to another user/account without relocking it first.

We don't even know if such a claim has legal power in China. Either way, congrats to Xiaomi for going straight to a state where competitors will find the means to analyse their devices, while conscious powerusers will stay repelled.

This clause obviously won't come to global (skipping the illegality), as Xiaomi seemingly thinks that their limited permission system works well enough to keep people consooooming their products in belief that they're "normally unlockable", so it'll take time before they make it worse, if they do.

As I've been saying, crazy apps will have to switch from strong to device integrity, only ultimately crazy apps will dare to still require strong thanks to security patch check involvement and the OEMs who don't recognize that obsolescence is possible despite a long and timely support

For more context, look up the specs of Galaxy A16 and its promised support length. This thing won't run well 5 years from now, despite still being supported. The path to obsolescence is simple: poor specs, component aging, poor component availability, high component pricing, high teardown difficulty. OEMs can offer long support without worrying about the lost future sales.

What's great:
- local (offline) AI models
- self-controlled TrustZone (and equivalents)

What's dystopian:
- online AI models
- devices with factory provisioned keys you can't access that can't be replaced with your own while preserving all of the capabilities

Just wanted to say the obvious.

Vivo just released a phone with cameras needed by OP13T, minus the SoC and unlockable bootloader.

I'm guilty of not linking this article before. The future of high dynamic range on small sensors is bright.
https://www.mdpi.com/2674-0729/4/1/8

What is a small phone? People vary about the definition, but to me, they basically don't exist anymore, so what I'm used to call "small" is what I actually consider as normal. The barrier of it to me is the width of 72mm. Considering how small the list is, I decided to categorize each Android phone that hits ≤72mm and 12GB RAM and got released 2024+ that pops up on GSMArena (sorry, Japanese OEMs). Marked the aspects I roughly care about.

Motorola S50 / Edge 50 Neo / ThinkPhone 25
✅ Unlock
⚠️ Small tele with OIS
✅ Unbothering cam island
⚠️ 4310 mAh
✅ 171g

Motorola Edge 60 Neo
✅ Unlock
⚠️ Small tele with OIS
✅ Unbothering cam island
✅ 5200 mAh
✅ 174.5g

Oppo Find X8s
⚠️ Paid unlock
✅ Peri tele with OIS
❌ Bothering cam island
✅ 5700 mAh
⚠️ 179g

Vivo X200 Pro mini
❌ No unlock
✅ Peri tele with OIS
❌ Bothering cam island
✅ 5700 mAh
⚠️ 187g

Pixel 9
✅ Unlock
❌ No tele with OIS
✅ Unbothering cam island
⚠️ 4700 mAh
❌ 198g

Pixel 9 Pro
✅ Unlock
✅ Peri tele with OIS
✅ Unbothering cam island
⚠️ 4700 mAh
❌ 199g

Xiaomi 15
⚠️ Painful unlock
⚠️ Small tele with OIS
⚠️ Big cornered cam island
✅ 5240/5400 mAh
⚠️ 189-192g

Galaxy S24
⚠️ No unlock if cemented
⚠️ Small tele with OIS
✅ Unbothering cam island
❌ 4000 mAh
✅ 167g

Galaxy S25
⚠️ No unlock if cemented
⚠️ Small tele with OIS
✅ Unbothering cam island
❌ 4000 mAh
✅ 162g

OnePlus 13T
✅ Unlock
⚠️ Small tele without OIS
✅ Unbothering cam island
✅ 6260 mAh
⚠️ 185g

Vivo S30 Pro Mini
❌ No unlock
✅ Peri tele with OIS
✅ Unbothering cam island
✅ 6500 mAh
⚠️ 186g

Xiaomi 17
⚠️ Painful unlock
⚠️ Small tele with OIS
✅ Unbothering cam island
✅ 7000 mAh
⚠️ 191g

Xiaomi 17 Pro
⚠️ Painful unlock
✅ Peri tele with OIS
⚠️ Big top cam island
✅ 6300 mAh
⚠️ 192g

Pixel 10
✅ Unlock
⚠️ Tiny peri tele with OIS
✅ Unbothering cam island
✅ 4970 mAh
❌ 204g

Pixel 10 Pro
✅ Unlock
✅ Peri tele with OIS
✅ Unbothering cam island
⚠️ 4870 mAh
❌ 207g

Vivo X300
❌ No unlock
✅ Peri tele with OIS
❌ Bothering cam island
✅ 5360/6040 mAh
⚠️ 190g

Vivo S50 Pro Mini
❌ No unlock
✅ Peri tele with OIS
✅ Unbothering cam island
✅ 6500 mAh
⚠️ 191g

Meizu 22
❌ No unlock
✅ Peri tele with OIS
⚠️ Big cornered cam island
✅ 5510 mAh
⚠️ 190g

Xperia 10 VII
✅ Unlock
❌ No tele
✅ Unbothering cam island
✅ 5000 mAh
✅ 168g
* No 12GB RAM variant

Imagine a reviewer who'd collect these rather than the Ultras and actually say a word on their ergonomics :( I love my Moto Edge 2022 despite not even meeting the size criteria above, simply because the power of material friction, body curvature and weight are absolutely able of being as important as size.

It takes half a day to update a Sharp from A11 to latest A13. Releasing full OTAs is such an obvious move, and yet there still are OEMs willing to frustrate their users for genuinely no reason. Imagine you just fixed a significant bug, why would your customer only become aware that you fixed it after few hours past taking the device out of the box? You even risk a return.

Wow, Switch 2 is foldable!

Dear Samsung product manager, no, I don't need a good telephoto to shoot at inflated 100x zoom, I need a good telephoto to shoot in the range of 3x to 10x, thanks.

Sorry Sharp, but I'm afraid that shorter than usual duty cycle with lesser number of concurrent PWM pulses and a usual pixel rate don't make me buy that it's just like 240 Hz. Even if you managed to hit 50% duty cycle or less at max brightness, even if your pixel rate would be twice the current one, when people are thinking of a 240 Hz screen, they're thinking of one that displays 240 frames per second, not 120. Yes, it feels unique, but so many "news" sites ignore your asterisks and think it's a real deal.