Month: March 2023

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  The Leia (or ZTE) 3D tablet. [credit: ZTE ]

Does anyone out there want a 3D Android tablet? ZTE and a company called Leia—like the Star Wars princess, I guess—is making a 12.4-inch, $1,100 Android tablet with a glasses-free 3D display. Internationally the hardware is sold by ZTE and is called the "ZTE Nubia Pad 3D," while in the US, where the government has designated ZTE a threat to national security, the tablet is branded as the "Leia Lume Pad 2." As far as we can tell, ZTE is responsible for the hardware, while Leia is bringing 3D tech and software to the tablet.

The magic 3D display is a 12.4-inch, 120 Hz, 2560×1600 IPS LCD. It uses Leia's light field technology for the 3D effect along with face tracking via the stereoscopic front camera. This lets the display sends slightly different pictures to each eye, sort of like a Nintendo 3DS. Presumably the effective resolution gets cut in half in 3D mode. It's hard to tell if this is actually any good from text descriptions and flat 2D videos, but the device made the rounds at Mobile World Congress last month. A Tom's Guide reporter called the display impressive and praised the viewing angle but also complained of headaches.

The specs sheet looks like it came from a 2-year-old flagship, starting with the Snapdragon 888 SoC from 2021. It has 8GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of storage, a 9070 mAh battery with 33 W fast charging, and runs Android 12L. It has a MicroSD slot, a USB-C port on the bottom, four speakers, and a pogo pin setup on the bottom edge for a charging stand. We're working from an incomplete spec sheet here, and neither Leia nor ZTE has published dimensions or weight. The tablet looks a little thick in photos, perhaps a side effect of the extra 3D display layer.

Enlarge / A sea turtle of the sort found in the Paja Formation. (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Roughly 130 million years ago, in an area within what is now central Colombia, the ocean was filled with a diversity of species unseen today. Within that water swam several massive apex predators that are the stuff of nightmares. These marine reptiles could reach lengths of 2 to 10 meters (about 6 to 32 feet), some with enormous mouths filled with teeth, others with relatively small heads (also filled with teeth) attached to long, snake-like necks.

These giants shared the ocean with countless smaller species, many of them predators themselves. These included ichthyosaurs—dolphin-like reptiles—as well as turtles, fish, ammonites, crabs, mollusks, sharks, and at least one species of crocodyliform.

Allowing all these creatures to thrive must have required a flourishing ecosystem at all levels. Thanks to discoveries in what’s called the Paja Formation, a treasure trove where fossils are abundantly and exquisitely preserved, researchers are now beginning to figure out how the ecosystem supported so many apex predators. And they may find hints of how it flourished so soon after a mass extinction brought the Jurassic to a close.

Enlarge / Time for an upgrade—new Framework Laptop 13 motherboards can be purchased new or installed into the Framework Laptop you already have. (credit: Framework)

For the second year in a row, Framework has announced new upgrades for its modular, repairable Framework Laptop that can be installed directly in older versions of the Framework Laptop. There are two motherboards: one with a predictable upgrade from 12th-generation Intel Core CPUs to 13th-generation chips and one that brings AMD's Ryzen laptop processors to the Framework Laptop for the first time.

Framework has also formally renamed its first laptop design; the 13-inch model picks up the "Framework Laptop 13" retronym to distinguish it from the new Framework 16 gaming laptop.

We know a little more about the Intel version of the laptop. There are versions with 12-core (4 P-cores, 8 E-cores) Core i5-1340P and Core i7-1360P, and a high-end version with a 14-core (6 P-cores, 8 E-cores) Core i7-1370P. These P-series processors were partly responsible for the most recent Framework Laptop's mediocre battery life, but the company says the 13th-generation CPUs are more battery-efficient and that it has made further "firmware optimizations" to improve runtime. All Intel models continue to use DDR4-3200 memory, so if you upgrade your motherboard, the RAM can be swapped along with the SSD you're using.

Enlarge (credit: Framework)

We were skeptical at first, but Framework has delivered on the promise of its original 13-inch laptop. Three product generations in, the company has made a respectable competitor for the Dell XPS 13 or MacBook Air that can be repaired, modified, and upgraded, and owners of the original laptop can easily give themselves a significant performance boost by upgrading to the new 13th-generation Intel or AMD Ryzen-based boards the company announced today.

Framework is now looking to build on that track record with an all-new Framework Laptop 16. It's a larger-screened model that can fit more powerful processors, dedicated GPUs, and a range of different keyboard modules, all with the same commitment to repairability and upgradeability seen in the original Framework Laptop (now retroactively dubbed the Framework Laptop 13).

Framework isn't discussing many details yet; preorders won't open until "this spring," and shipments won't begin until "late 2023."