Spare a thought for the iPhone 12 mini . It was supposed to be the perfect phone - a cheaper way to get a new iPhone , with high-end specs in a pocketable form factor.
It didn’t sell well . So Apple tried again with the iPhone 13 mini , but it seems that the sales still haven’t been stellar, despite the improvements to the battery and camera (at least in China, where its sales are lagging quite considerably behind its bigger siblings ).
So it seems likely the mini model will be dropped from the iPhone 14 range this year (and that makes sense given the iPhone SE 3 is heavily rumored to land in early 2022, offering an easy way to get a smaller, cheaper, 5G-imbued iPhone).
This is my roundabout way of saying that I think this is great news - as it leaves a spot open for possibly Apple’s best-selling phone of the year: the iPhone 14 Max .
No, not the Pro Max - the iPhone 14 Max, without the fancy Pro extras. As a long, long-time user of the largest phone I can get my hands on (and, by the way: they’re not phablets, they’re just big phones) I’ve gravitated toward things like the HTC One Max , the Samsung Galaxy Note and, more recently, the iPhone Plus and Max lines.
And they’re pretty good, as you can read in my iPhone 13 Pro Max review - great camera, loads of power, just about able to grip it. But more than that: the best battery life on an iPhone yet and a large, expansive screen for web browsing and watching films. It’s a feeling many people seem to share, with the iPhone 12 Pro Max showing to be one of the best-selling iPhones of 2021 .
But with that great power comes great respons… oh wait, no…comes great cost. It’s the most expensive iPhone, starting at $1,099 / £1,049 / AU$1,849, and while the bigger frame contributes to that cost, it’s also because of the more powerful innards, greater screen refresh rate and high-end camera.
Don’t get me wrong, those specs are great if you’re a creative sort and want to do things like shoot 4K HDR video and edit it on the go. Or you’re going to be doing high-end 3D renders on your smartphone.
But I’m looking around on the commuter train I’m chugging home on, and I don’t see anyone doing anything nearly that professional. They’re messaging happily on jokey group chats, watching films, or idly thumbing through the internet, looking for something to keep them occupied before they can go home and collapse in front of the TV.
And for those people - OK, let’s be honest, my people - we don’t need the high-end camera or the speed. We just want the bigger screen for the odd movie and great battery life, and that's the best iPhone for us.
Because without all that extra performance, the time you can spend off the charger would be even greater - and I think a ‘cheaper’ iPhone with the best battery life ever would sell like nothing else.
Add in the fact that our ongoing Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review , the biggest phone from Samsung’s glut of new releases this month, is the most popular article on the site right now, and it’s pretty clear: people want big phones from the big brands.
How likely is the iPhone 14 Max?
Well, I hoped that we might see the iPhone 13 Max last year, but instead Apple went with the 13 mini, as mentioned. But the rumors of the 14 Max are gaining speed at the moment, and as the average size of the smartphone creeps up year by year ( in 2022 it’s predicted we’ll see 660 million smartphones shipped with a 6-7-inch screen, up from 295 million in 2018), a 6.7-inch ‘normal’ iPhone is easy to imagine.
It would sit between the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro in terms of cost - given both of those are likely to land at $799 and $999 (if Apple keeps the costs similar to last year). Then the $899 slot is appealing indeed to a different demographic of user - those who want all the screen size and less of the cost when deciding the best phone to spend their hard-earned cash on.
Given we’re at least seven months away from seeing the new iPhone 14 range appear, the whispers of how the iPhone 14 Max will appear are still pretty scattered - at this point in the rumor mill, it’s common for misconception or incorrect leaks to emerge, which is why some of the mooted specs make little sense.
For instance, there’s talk that all the iPhone 14 range will have a 120Hz screen , with a fast refresh rate. That’s fine, and it would be an improvement on the standard 60Hz screen that the iPhone 13 has, but it comes at an extra cost - save that money and charge less for the handset. (That said, the 120Hz screen on the iPhone 13 Pro range is also really battery-friendly, so maybe that’s the reason Apple is thinking of sticking it in).
The other rumor is that the iPhone 14 Max will have a triple camera - again, while it’s great to have an ultra-wide and telephoto zoom lens, it’s not necessary. If Apple made an iPhone SE with a bigger screen and longer-lasting battery but just a single lens, I bet it would still sell just fine.
So come September 16 (or September 23, perhaps), when Tim Cook gets on stage to kick off another round of new Apple handsets, here’s hoping his hands are stretched a little further with two Max models in there rather than just the one.
Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti may have been pushed back: Who cares?
Nvidia announced the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti all the way back at CES 2022 , and since then we've heard nothing officially from the company. However, there has been a lot of talk about what has happened to the BFGPU-Ti.
The latest rumor comes via The Verge , which got in touch with Nvidia and was told that the company didn't have any information about the GPU, but would provide info when it was available. For a graphics card that was supposed to come out at the end of January, it's getting really close to March.
This isn't the first I've heard of Nvidia's troubles with the new flagship graphics card. I started hearing word of its delay just days after CES wrapped, and on February 1, there was a leaked EEC entry for a new PCB design for the RTX 3090 Ti. That alone suggests that the graphics card is a little ways out - and we're getting really close to the point where Nvidia would traditionally wind down production of its Ampere 3000-series cards.
We won't know definitively what's going on with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti until Nvidia shares word on it, but it's not exactly what the GPU world needs right now.
Another expensive graphics card
Of course, because Nvidia never actually came out and revealed the nitty-gritty details about the RTX 3090 Ti, we don't know how much Team Green was looking to charge for it. However, given that the RTX 3090 retailed for $1,499 before the graphics card shortage caused prices to skyrocket, it probably won't be cheap.
Right now, the last thing we need is another graphics card that will likely cost around $2,000 before the state of the GPU market causes prices to climb. And sure, that situation is starting to improve, but we're still not at the point where GPUs cost what they're actually worth, and a super-high-end graphics card like this would cost an arm and a leg.
What we really need right now are actual budget graphics cards - ones that are more affordable than the $249 (about £185, AU$350) RTX 3050 or the $199 (about £150, AU$270) RX 6500 XT . It's unlikely that we'll see graphics cards like that, especially ones that aren't a complete waste of space, but it would be nice to see products that people can actually buy again. I miss that.
It's kind of pointless anyway
Even ignoring the price, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 is too much card for most people. There's no reason you would actually need one unless you're just trying to play Cyberpunk 2077 or Dying Light 2 at 4K and you're too stubborn to turn down any of the quality settings (basically, if you're like me, specifically). An RTX 3090 Ti probably isn't going to be much more powerful than the original flavor RTX 3090.
According to an earlier Verge report, the RTX 3090 Ti would have the same specs, just with faster clock speeds for the GPU and VRAM. I can tell you from experience that while the faster clock speeds look nice on paper, they're not going to translate significantly faster game performance.
Heck, for gamers, the RTX 3090 by itself is overkill, as the 24GB of GDDR6X memory is only really useful for creative professionals that are going to be loading it up with Blender or Premiere Pro. If you want the ultimate 4K gaming graphics card, that already exists - and it's the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
That said, the 3080 Ti is almost impossible to buy right now. But even if Nvidia were to launch the RTX 3090 Ti into the wild, it's unlikely it would be the silver bullet that magically ends the graphics card shortage.
Basically, if the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti were to come out today, it would only serve to get people fanatically refreshing Newegg and give bragging rights to the few people lucky enough to get it in their carts before the stock runs out within a few minutes. At this point, do we really need that?
Resident Evil 4 remake was nearly headed by original director Shinji Mikami
An official remake of Resident Evil 4 is reportedly in the works and set to be revealed later this year. While it will make significant changes to the original game, the remake was nearly headed by original director Shinji Mikami.
According to a report by Fanbyte , the upcoming Resident 4 remake was first being developed at M-Two (a studio formed primarily of former PlatinumGames developers) under the auspices of Capcom. By agreeing to the project, Capcom had hoped to entice Mikami to join the game and work alongside PlatinumGames founder Tatsuya Minami.
Although Mikami reportedly considered the offer, he ultimately declined, believing his own studio, Tango Gameworks (which he founded in 2010 and is currently developing Ghostwire: Tokyo ) would collapse if he were to leave.
Consequently, work on the Resident Evil 4 remake continued without Mikami and moved over to Capcom’s internal development team after Resident Evil 3 Remake , which M-Two also assisted on, received a mixed critical reception.
Fanbyte claims Capcom is making substantial changes to the original game, leaning into its horror elements. Several segments of the game will be altered, with much of the game now taking place at night, including the much-loved introductory sequence in which protagonist Leon S. Kennedy fights his way through the infected Ganado village.
Drawing from early demos of the original game that were left on the cutting room floor, the development team is aiming to draw on their supernatural ideas to establish a spookier tone for the remake.
It will also restyle some of the original game’s side content, combining the Assignment: Ada and Separate Ways expansions into a single package. Side characters, such as Ada Wong, will also be given “bigger roles and more screentime” in the main game.
A change of direction
Since the successful critical and commercial release of Resident Evil 2 Remake in 2019, rumors that a similar Resident Evil 4 remake is underway have been circulating widely in the game’s community. Usually ranked as the best in the series, and often said to be one of the best games of all time, Resident Evil 4 has a huge following and its remake has a lot to live up to.
Capcom’s attempt to entice its original director to contribute to this reboot, however, is somewhat surprising. Much of the success of Resident Evil 2 Remake hinged on its alterations from the base game. The core gameplay remained, but its levels, fixed camera, plot, weapons, and persistent antagonist Mr. X were all changed to bring the game in line with modern triple-A titles.
That Capcom was keen to bring back Mikami might suggest it had originally wanted to keep the upcoming Resident Evil 4 remake closer to the original. That’s not entirely unexpected, given it was released in 2005 (seven years after Resident Evil 2), established several mechanics that are now considered staples of the series, and more closely matches modern games.
Had Mikami accepted Capcom’s offer to develop the remake, it’s possible that even bigger changes would have been made. In a recent interview with Newsweek , Mikami said he hopes any eventual remake of Resident Evil 4 improves on the original’s story , which was only written in two and a half weeks.
Of course, the Resident Evil 4 remake hasn’t yet been officially confirmed. Fanbyte reports Capcom hopes to reveal the game early this year.