It’s that time of year again, ahead of MWC, where smartphone brands are making announcements left and right. Slightly ahead of the pack comes Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, which I was lucky enough to attend live and in person in San Francisco this year. 

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked is where they reveal all there is to know about the latest devices, and this year it was the Samsung Galaxy S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra smartphone line-up. 2026 has not brought many major changes to the lineup, but every phone in this series will be powered by the newest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, which packs serious power.

This year, the Samsung Galaxy S26 series has made some slight changes to its design, mirroring a phone I loved last year, the Z Fold7. The camera bump on the S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra will see this design change, making it more prominent and highlighted. On the Galaxy S26 Ultra, two additional lenses are featured to the right, which aren’t present on the S26 or S26+. 

The Samsung Galaxy S26 series also features slightly more curved edges, and the S26 Ultra is 3mm thinner than the previous Galaxy S25 Ultra and four grams lighter. Samsung has stayed with very similar colours since last year’s Galaxy Unpacked, launching each phone in Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue and Black. There will be online exclusive colours, Silver Shadow and Pink Gold, across the lineup, along with the Galaxy Buds 4 and 4 Pro, which also come in Pink Gold.

Of course, I know you’re all eager to hear more about the internal components in the Samsung Galaxy S26 series. I think a lot of people have been thinking (or hoping) that Samsung would be moving away from their 5000mAh battery that has been with the brand for years. I am here to report that, unfortunately, that is one miracle users will not be seeing from Samsung this year.

Though the S26 base model has seen a battery increase from 4000mAh to 4300, the S26+ remains unchanged from last year at 4900 mAh, and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is still rocking that 5000 mAh battery. With that, though, comes some good news. The S26 Ultra has seen an upgrade to charging, now allowing for 60W Super Fast Charging 3.0 and 25W Fast Wireless Charging, up from 2025’s 45W and 15W.

As mentioned, the entire series is powered by the latest Snapdragon chip, which has already proven powerful in other devices since its launch. RAM and storage configurations remain mostly the same, with the base S26 and S26+ coming in 256GB or 512GB with 12GB of RAM (gone is the 128 GB option for the S26), and the S26 Ultra comes in 256GB/12GB, 512GB/12GB or 1TB/16GB. You can find a full list of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Series specifications below:

Samsung Galaxy S26 Smartphone Series Specs:

On first glance, it looks like Samsung didn’t do much with the cameras in the Galaxy S26 series, and though the MP look largely the same, the sensors have changed on the S26 Ultra. Last year saw a 200MP, f/1.7 wide lens, a 10MP, f/2.4 telephoto lens, a 50MP, f/3.4 periscope telephoto lens, and a 50MP, f/1.9 ultrawide lens. 2026 brings a 200MP, f/1.4 wide lens, a 50MP, f/1.9 ultrawide lens, a 50MP, f/2.9 periscope telephoto lens and the 10MP telephoto lens remains unchanged.

During a briefing, Samsung revealed that these new sensor sizes allow for 37% brighter photos with the telephoto lens and 47% brighter images with the 200MP wide lens. These sensor sizes support one of the new features Samsung is bringing this year: Nightography Video. Thanks to its wider aperture, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will capture more light in darker environments, resulting in brighter, clearer video. 

Samsung has also continued the push into AI image editing, taking their previous Sketch to Image feature a step further, allowing you to use text or voice commands to make changes to your photos. At a preview event before Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, I used my powers for good: I added cake to several photos and turned an S26 pink, and in practice, it was flawless. Samsung’s Photo Assist also sees an update with several new styles you can add to pictures, too.

Of course, AI is where every brand wants to focus its time, and the Samsung Galaxy S26 series is no different. Beyond just the photo capabilities mentioned above, 2026 is bringing a few updates to AI features we are already familiar with. Now Brief has received an update to allow fewer steps for users. Where you would have to create an event in the past for Now Brief to monitor, it can now pull that information, like reservations or a meeting, directly from your notifications.

Now, Nudge is a feature embedded in your keyboard, so apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, etc., can display prompts to streamline certain processes. For example, if someone suggests a meeting, it may prompt you to create an event, or if a friend asks you to find a photo from a specific event, your S26 will be able to find it for you instead of searching yourself.

Samsung is also rolling out new partnerships with third-party apps. Your AI Agent will be able to actually order an Uber for you. The device will recognize your location and where you need to go and take the steps to get you there. Right now, Uber is the only option, but they are hoping to move to more rideshare apps and even options like DoorDash or Uber Eats.

Ordering food isn’t an entirely out-there idea, either, as Circle to Search has made shopping for items you see online extremely easy already. This year’s update allows you to search for multiple items at once now, and you can even use a photo image to try the items on yourself.

One of the most interesting features coming to the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is the new Privacy Screen. Samsung boasts that this is the first of its kind in a smartphone. When turned on, the screen works much like a privacy screen protector you would buy separately, blocking visuals from the sides, top or bottom of your smartphone. There is also the option to toggle this feature on only under certain circumstances, like when text notifications pop up or when you open a specific app, like your banking. In practice, Privacy Screen is incredibly easy to use and works very well.

We will have a lot more to say once we go hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S26 series for an extended period, but for now, the hardware changes seem minimal. With rumours and hyper surounding the S26 series, I was expecting bigger surprises from the smartphone brand this year; however, Samsung consistantly makes solid devices, and has an extremely loyal following. The Samsung Galaxy S26 series will continue that trend, even if they aren’t making any major breakthroughs year over year.

Make sure to check out more of our Samsung coverage from Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, including news about their latest laptops, earbuds and more.

I still haven’t left the starting area in Skull and Bones, but it’s a relief to know that as and when I do, I’ll have some big molluscs to bombard alongside those boring galleons. Ubisoft’s open world Jolly Rogerer forges bravely on with another season of updates, Eye of the Beast, despite Ubisoft recently jettisoning a bunch of games and studios in their efforts to buoy up the share price. Yes, this is the same Skull and Bones that has 320 in-game players on Steam as of writing, and a worryingly Biblical user review average of 66.60%.

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Developer: WayForward Technologies/Designer Software    Publisher: Hi-Tech Expressions    Release: 02/94    Genre:Puzzle I do not envy the developers of Mickey’s Ultimate Challenge. As a 1994 release it was sitting on store shelves next to Mickey Mania. That is an...

The post Mickey’s Ultimate Challenge appeared first on Classic-Games.net.

Developer: Imagineering    Publisher: THQ    Release: 1991    Genre: Action THQ sure knew how to pick them eh? As a new publisher in the industry they decided their forte would be licensed video games like Acclaim and LJN. Imagine...

The post Attack of the Killer Tomatoes appeared first on Classic-Games.net.

Developer: Red Company    Publisher:Bullet Proof Software    Release: 06/94    Genre: Action RPG In the US RPGs were few and far between during the 8-bit era. But by the midpoint of the 16-bit generation localizations were picking up. Both...

The post The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang appeared first on Classic-Games.net.

Developer: Tose    Publisher: Taxan    Release: 04/89    Genre: Platformer Mappy-Land is a game I ignored growing up for no good reason. I played the original in the arcade briefly but did not think much of it. But by...

The post Mappy-Land appeared first on Classic-Games.net.

The CES show floor officially closes its doors at the end of the day, but there's still a trickle of announcements and reveals coming out of Las Vegas. If you're struggling to stay on top of all the new tech, gadgets, concepts, and AI-powered devices as the final day of CES gets underway, we're still rounding up the best hardware and upgrades that have debuted so far so you can quickly get up to speed.

As the show draws to a close for another year, you can still catch up on all of The Verge's CES 2026 coverage here.

Philips Hue SpatialAware

Preset scenes are the easiest way to take advantage of color-changing smart lights in a room, but t …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Every January, the world of consumer electronics heads to Las Vegas to spend the first full week of the year in the desert presenting, prodding, and gawking at all the new gadgets and gear debuting at CES. The show has once again delivered an avalanche of products, both innovative and vaporous, that will shape the industry in 2026.

The Verge's team has been working around the clock to share the experience. Some of it wowed us while some of it weirded us out, but that's part of the fun of CES.

After taking it all in over the past week, there are some gadgets that stood out from the rest. They innovated on an existing product, entirely ret …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Developer: Tecmo    Publisher: Tecmo    Release: 03/93   Genre: Puzzle Solomon’s Key was one of the earliest NES games that taught me the limit of my gaming skills. I loved the gameplay and level design; the simplicity of the mechanics...

The post Fire ‘n Ice appeared first on Classic-Games.net.

Developer: Now Production    Publisher: Takara    Release: 1993   Genre: Action The Neo Geo’s technical superiority to the SNES and Genesis meant that even the simplest genres seemed more grandiose due to the outstanding production values. I am not much...

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Developer: Kemco   Publisher: Kemco    Release: 9/90    Genre: Platformer I dreaded most licensed games on the NES. Acclaim/LJN was largely responsible for making me realize video games could be bad as they butchered one license after another. But there...

The post Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout appeared first on Classic-Games.net.

Developer: KID    Publisher: VAP    Release: 08/09/91    Genre: Action In the mid-90s there was an odd surge of 2d platformers featuring soccer. I suppose if cavemen and witches can have their day than football deserves its turn too....

The post Doki Doki Yuuenchi appeared first on Classic-Games.net.

Developer: Traveller’s Tales    Publisher: Sony Imagesoft    Release: 11/01/94    Genre: Platformer Mickey Mania was billed as the ultimate Mickey adventure to celebrate his 65th anniversary. There were many titles starring the famous mouse during the 16-bit era but...

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Synaesthesia Never Felt So Good

HIGH Tutorials that help me get better at Lumines.

LOW Visual overload can make it hard to focus.

WTF How is the soundtrack this good?

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everyone, Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.

I haven’t played a lot of Lumines, historically.

The remastered version from 2018 was my first intro to the series, and honestly… well, I didn’t really enjoy that first pass at it. It felt too loud, both audio and visually, and I couldn’t wrap my head around the horizontal puzzle style. Knowing that the people behind Tetris Effect were also behind Lumines, though, I wanted to give it another shot and see if this new entry was a better way to get into this franchise.

Mea culpa, Lumines — I was wrong about you. (At least in some ways.)

Lumines: Arise is a block dropping puzzle in conversation with Tetris, but rather than the classic tetrominos filling horizontal lines, it instead focuses on asking the player to create 2×2 blocks anywhere on a horizontal plane. Blocks drop from the top of the screen, and players need to move them around in order to create 2×2, 3×3, or larger, in order to score points. A “timeline” moves across the screen and erases any complete blocks it comes across, clearing more room for players to create more blocks, and so on. There is also a rare “chain block” that will allow all linked blocks of the same color to be erased from the timeline, even if they’re not in the shape of a square.

The big mechanical addition to this version is “burst”.

As players create blocks, a meter will fill at the top of the playfield. At any point, players will be able to activate the burst, which then stops blocks from falling for a few moments. If players can create a block during this burst period, it will cause blocks of the opposite color to fly above the screen. Players can continue and make more fly up. All of those blocks come rushing back down once the burst is over, then creating a large chunk of squares to combo with.

Gameplay is broken up into a couple of modes for Arise.

Journey takes players through sets of stages (four or five, normally) with increasing difficulty as things progress. Playlist mode allows players to combine their favorite stages together in a custom order to play, or just to watch if they want to take in the visuals and music. Lastly, there’s multiplayer, which consists of some solo leaderboard competition or battle modes.

I also will shout out the tutorials specifically as Arise tailors them to new players and gives small missions that make it easy to understand and learn not only how to play, but also how to grasp more advanced techniques. These tutorials made me better in a way other puzzle titles haven’t.

At this point in the review, it feels a little like burying the lead to only just now mention the visuals and the music.

Since each stage only has two colors players need to match, this mechanical simplicity allows for some creative and striking ways to keep the play field visually interesting, and the developers lean hard into delivering over-the-top sound and graphics, far above what you might expect for a puzzle title.

One in particular that I enjoyed was a food-themed level. Blocks started as red apples and green melons, but then changed to broccoli and tomatoes as I got further in, while classical string music played in the background. Another had orbs of fish and hermit crab shells that changed color to reflect the sun setting on the beach landscape behind the playfield while listening to slow, smooth pop vocals. The visuals and music combine masterfully to pull players into Arise on a level above just block-matching, and it eats up time in a way that hasn’t happened to me in a long while.

With that said, some of the levels do get overwhelming as previous versions of the game. However, there is a moment of pause and the music fades out between each song, giving a welcome break to catch your breath and reset before going into the next stage. There are also a wealth of accessibility options that allow players to adjust any of the visual stimuli including background effects, particle effects on the playfield, and so on. If it’s too much to take in visually, it can be turned down.

While my memories of playing it in the past weren’t great, the masterful music and visual presence combined in Lumines: Arise really turned me around on the series. It’s not one to miss!

For me, Lumines: Arise gets 8.5 blocks exploding into glitter out of 10.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Enhance and Monstars, Inc. and published by Enhance. It is currently available on PS5, PSVR2 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 6.5 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. Around 1 hour was spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E and contains Mild Fantasy Violence.  The blocks will explode into particles on screen, fantasy violence amounts to spiders and snakes that fight each other in the background (but these can be turned off in accessibility menus).

Colorblind Modes: There are multiple colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Sound is not needed to complete the game. Captions for character dialogue can be resized. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls are completely remappable.

The post Lumines Arise VIDEO Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

I’ve been fascinated with headphones from an early age. My dad was a broadcast journalist and a real geek, filling our house with space-age tech like reel-to-reel players, condenser microphones, and CB radios. Most important, though, were the headphones. Huge, unwieldy things for my tiny head, they still opened my eyes – and ears – to just how good music could sound, and that fascination has stayed with me ever since.

So my interest was piqued by SIVGA’s latest, the Robin SV021, a closed-back, wired audiophile pair of over-ear headphones, which boast earcups crafted from wood. While they look genuinely beautiful, the sound they produce is even better.

Each of the Robin SV021’s earcups are handmade from Rosewood. If you want a pair of headphones that’s immediately different from the metal and black plastic-toting ones elsewhere, it’s a great place to start. Imprinted with the SIVGA logo, the external surface is perfectly smooth, and the wood carries a warmth and softness that plastic and metal simply can’t. I did worry about their durability, but after cramming the Robin into my bag on more than one occasion, they remained unblemished.

Elsewhere, the headband is wrapped in leather, with a thin slice of memory foam beneath it, while the frame, extenders and hinges are made from rigid, burnished metal. It’s all finished off by a pair of the plushest, softest ear cushions I’ve come across in a while, and they feel absolutely fantastic, moulding around your ears and providing a decent level of passive noise cancellation as well. The Robin SV021 look and feel utterly premium, and they definitely punch above their £150 price point.

Audio is handled by dual wiring to each earcup, with the two ends of the braided cable leading down to a single gold-plated 3.5mm jack. While the braided section is noise-free, the single cabling to each earcup will produce cable noise if rubbing against clothing, which does make it less appealing for listening while on the go.

That’s not its main draw, though. The Robin SV021 are reassuringly universal, and I’ve spent my time hopping between a MacBook, Nintendo Switch 2 and my PC. It has a relatively low impedance at 32 Ohms, and it performed well with every device I tried, with plenty of volume while retaining an excellent level of detail.

The SIVGA Robin SV021 sound excellent. The 50mm drivers are capable of moving plenty of air around, and there’s a wonderfully wide soundstage here, giving instrumentation and audio some real room to breathe. I’ve been playing a huge amount of Octopath Traveler 0 on its way to review, and the orchestral soundtrack has been delivered exquisitely by the Robin SV021, with that wider soundstage making it feel as though you’re experiencing a live recording.

They’re absolutely perfect for gaming, thanks to their lightweight design and ultra-soft ear cushions. I was able to wear them for hours, and they may well be the most comfortable headphones I’ve reviewed this year.

Checking in with my music collection, I loved how enveloping Gunship’s Tech Noir sounded, with the throbbing synth tones delivered with an exacting level of detail. The intro’s sci-fi spoken word sits clearly apart from the ominous notes beneath, while the bass response is excellent, with plenty of warmth and clarity. The Robin SV021 are certainly warmer-sounding rather than clinical, and they’re easy to live with across a range of different genres and content types. Crucially, they make you want to listen to music.

At £150, the Robin SV021 are aimed at the mid-range audiophile who’s looking for something a little different. Despite their closed-back design, they boast a wide soundstage, and their well-balanced tuning provides a hugely enjoyable listening experience no matter what you’re using them for.