In December 2024, OpenAI announced o3, its most advanced reasoning AI model, and said the model will be released after proper safety testing. Finally, the frontier AI lab has launched the full o3 AI model after a gap of four months. Along with that, OpenAI has also released the next-generation o4-mini (and o4-mini-high) reasoning model.
In these four months, OpenAI has improved the o3 model even further and says o3 is the “most powerful reasoning model” developed by the company. Both o3 and o4-mini models can use multiple agentic tools inside ChatGPT, including web search, Python tools, and more. The reasoning models can finally analyze images as well. Both o3 and o4-mini are trained to pick the right tools, depending on the task.
OpenAI says o3 sets a new benchmark in coding, math, science, and visual tasks such as analyzing images, charts, and graphics. Early testers say that o3 can “generate and critically evaluate novel hypotheses—particularly within biology, math, and engineering contexts.“
Image Credit: OpenAI
On the other hand, the new o4-mini is a smaller model, designed for speed and cost-efficiency. It excels in math, coding, and visual tasks. In fact, the smaller o4-mini model achieves 99.5% on AIME 2025 when given access to a Python interpreter.
As for benchmarks, both models have nearly saturated AIME 2024 and 2025. However, on GPQA Diamond, o3 achieves 83.3 and o4-mini gets 81.4. On Humanity’s Last Exam, o3 (without tools) scores 20.32 and with tools, gets 24.9. Finally, on SWE-Bench Verified, the o3 model scores 69.1%, even higher than Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro (63.8%).
Image Credit: OpenAI
On multimodal benchmarks, both models are pretty competitive and achieve high accuracy in MMMU, MathVista, and CharXiv-Reasoning.
Lastly, OpenAI also released Codex, a new command-line agentic tool, somewhat similar to Anthropic’s Claude Code. You can run it from your terminal and take advantage of multimodal reasoning using o3 and o4-mini.
Availability: OpenAI o3 and o4-mini
As for availability, o3 and o4-mini are rolling out to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team users, starting today. The two new models will replace o1, o3-mini, and o3-mini-high. OpenAI says ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu users will get access in one week. Thankfully, o4-mini is also coming to free-tier ChatGPT users, which can be accessed through the ‘Think’ button.
OpenAI has also assured that o3-pro is coming in a few weeks with support for all tools. Meanwhile, ChatGPT Pro users can continue to use the o1-pro model.
OpenAI o3 is a Powerful Reasoning Model
In case you missed the 2024 announcement, OpenAI’s o3 reasoning model was the first to crack the ARC-AGI benchmark, scoring an impressive 87.5% on the ARC-AGI Semi-Private Evaluation set in a high-compute configuration. François Chollet, the creator of ARC-AGI, noted in a blog post:
This is not merely incremental improvement, but a genuine breakthrough, marking a qualitative shift in AI capabilities compared to the prior limitations of LLMs. o3 is a system capable of adapting to tasks it has never encountered before, arguably approaching human-level performance in the ARC-AGI domain.
However, it was also revealed that o3 had been trained on 75% of the ARC-AGI Public Training set, raising questions about how much of o3’s performance relied on generalized intelligence or benchmark-specific tuning.
Nevertheless, a recent report from The Information reveals that o3 can blend information from multiple fields like Nikola Tesla. It can come up with novel scientific ideas and experiments in areas like nuclear fusion and pathogen detection. In fact, OpenAI reportedly believes that its capabilities are powerful enough to justify a $20,000 per month pricing tier and calls it a “PhD-level AI.”
Arjun Sha
Passionate about Windows, ChromeOS, Android, security and privacy issues. Have a penchant to solve everyday computing problems.
NYT Wordle is a satisfying and tricky test of vocabulary and logic that challenges players to guess a new five-letter word every day. However, things can get a little too challenging at times, and that probably explains why you’re here. So, if you don’t want to break your word-guessing streak or get too frustrated, take a look at today’s Wordle hints and answer for puzzle #1398 for April 17, 2025, down below!
How to Play Wordle
Wordle is a word puzzle game by The New York Times. You are given six attempts to guess a five-letter word. The letters are highlighted in Yellow, Green, and Grey when you input a word. Yellow denotes that the letter appears in today’s Wordle answer, but it’s not at the right spot. Meanwhile, when a letter turns green, it means you have guessed the right letter in the right position. At last, a grey letter means the letter is not part of today’s answer.
While it may seem that winning at Wordle is easy, it is difficult to get that pesky five-letter word right. To help you out, here are some quick tips on how to play Wordle:
Open with a strong word – Using the right Wordle starting words rich with multiple vowels and consonants is important. While you can take a look at our dedicated guide, starting words like AISLE, SALTY, and DINER are my go-to choices.
Pay attention to colors – Keep track of the yellow, green, and grayed-out letters to eliminate incorrect positions and letters. To make every guess count, avoid accidentally repeating letters that have already been eliminated.
Isolate the vowels – There can be days when your usual starting words don’t help much. In that case, try to test the remaining vowels by using different words.
Repeating letters is good – Don’t be afraid of repeating letters as history is proof that there are chances the Wordle answer will have one or two letters that repeat themselves.
Use the Wordlebot – As described above, NYT’s Wordlebot is an intuitive bot that analyzes your responses and compares them against itself. Instilling some healthy competition can help you improve your own Wordle guessing and see what you could have done better.
If you still need more details, learn how to play Wordle and check out more Wordle tips and tricks to ensure you get the answer almost every time.
Hints for Today’s Wordle Answer for April 17
We know you are here for Wordle hints and clues, and we are eager to help you. Like always, to assist you with today’s puzzle, we list the starting word for today’s Wordle answer, whether it has any vowels or repeating letters, and more.
After that, we also provide an additional hint for today’s Wordle game to get one step closer to the answer. So scroll down if you’re ready. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Does Today’s Wordle Have Any Vowels?
Today’s Wordle answer for Thursday, April 17, 2025, has a vowel repeated twice.
If you guess the vowels correctly, there is a high possibility that you will guess the correct 5-letter answer in no time.
Does the Wordle Today Have Double Letters?
Well, there are double letters in the Wordle answer today.
What Does Today’s Wordle Answer Start with?
Today’s Wordle answer starts with the letter “S.”
Spoiler Warning:
Scroll slowly past this point. Major hint and answer for today’s Wordle #1398 lie ahead.
Additional Hint for Today’s Wordle Answer
If the above-mentioned hints haven’t helped much, here’s the Wordle cheat hint that will definitely get you to the answer. The final hint for today is:
Past tense of stand.
What Is Today’s Wordle Answer?
The answer for Wordle today on April 17, 2025, is STOOD.
Image Credit: NYT Games (Screenshot by Sagnik Das Gupta/ Beebom)
Meaning of Stood — To have been in or to have moved into an upright position on one’s feet.
My three reliable Wordle starting words came in handy once again, as I got an “S” in the green. In addition, these three words also gave me “T”, “D”, and “O” in yellow. While STOOD came to mind almost instantly, I wasn’t sure if it would be that easy. I gave it a try anyway, and well, that was indeed the Wordle answer for the day.
Previous Wordle Answers
For regular Wordle players, we have curated the answers of all past Wordle answers in one place. If you are trying to find patterns in these word puzzles, check out our list of past Wordle answers.
Why Is Wordle Still So Popular?
Despite over 1,350 puzzles and nearly four years since its initial surge, Wordle is still going strong as a free-to-play word puzzle game that it is. What started as a simple game to pass the time during the pandemic has now become a daily habit for millions of The New York Times readers.
Just like reading your early morning newspaper, Wordle adds some productive value to your daily life as a brainteaser, which explains the incredible player base. Some avid Wordle players even stay up late to solve the puzzle as soon as it releases at 12:00 AM local time.
The fact that there’s a single puzzle on a daily basis that every player tries to solve makes it all the more competitive and challenging. According to a report by The Conversation, just in 2022, Wordle had around a whopping 3 million users across the world. As of 2025, one can only imagine where this number has soared.
That said, if you are one of them, hope the Wordle hints we shared today helped you figure out the answer without having to scroll to the answer.
What are the best 3 words in a row for Wordle?
While there are a ton of words to start your Wordle with, we suggest using SALTY, DINER, and POUCH today.
What are the NYT Wordle hints for April 17, 2025?
The NYT Wordle today starts with “S” and refers to being upright on your feet. It has a single vowel repeated twice.
What is the NYT Wordle answer for April 17, 2025?
If you are unable to figure out puzzle #1398, then the Wordle answer today for April 17, 2025, is “STOOD.”
What was yesterday’s NYT Wordle answer?
The answer for yesterday’s Wordle #1397 on April 16, 2025, was “MORAL.”
Sagnik Das Gupta
Sagnik is a tech aficionado who can never say “no” to dipping his toes into unknown waters of tech or reviewing the latest gadgets. He is also a hardcore gamer, having played everything from Snake Xenzia to Dead Space Remake.
Tekken 8’s Season 2 update hasn’t exactly been well received by the playerbase as a whole, and the developers are going to try and amend that very soon.
Bandai Namco will be releasing an emergency balance update for Tekken 8 later tonight, April 16, but first the game will have to go through some server maintenance first.
The server maintenance is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. PT / 9:30 p.m. ET, which is the same time the patch notes are supposed to release.
It should last for approximately two hours, so servers should come back around 8:30 p.m. PT / 11:30 p.m. ET.
Tekken’s Version 2.00.02 update should be available to download around 7 p.m. PT / 10 p.m. ET.
During this downtime, all online features will remain unavailable including matchmaking, the in-game store, lobbies and more.
Bamco has already laid out some of what they plan to change in the new patch to bolster their unpopular update that saw Tekken 8’s Steam reviews drop to “Overwhelmingly Negative” upon release at the start of the month.
They’re increasing the max health of characters for starters as well as adjusting overly high-reward moves for some characters, but that’s not all.
Another update is planned for mid-May to further hopefully improve the game with more balance changes.
Stay tuned for more updates and the patch notes for Tekken 8 once they become available.
NYT Connections is the one word association game known for the difficulty and amusement that it brings. However, if you are part of the folks lost as to what today’s Connections answer is, then you are in the right place. We post a NYT Connections answers guide every day to help you solve each day’s puzzle easily. So, let’s not waste time and check out Connections hints for today’s game #676 to help you get to the answers for April 17, 2025.
What is NYT Connections Game?
After Wordle’s overwhelming success, The New York Times embraced the fun and launched another word puzzle game called Connections. NYT Connections is a popular word puzzle game available to play for free on mobile and desktop.
Thankfully, it’s easy getting started with NYT Connections. This word association game spreads 16 random wordsacross a 4 x 4 grid. Players must find well, connections among these words and divide them across four categories, colored yellow, green, blue, and purple, based on difficulty.
Connections Hint Today for April 17, 2025
As mentioned above, the NYT Connections puzzle has four different categories that are divided into color-coded difficulties. From Yellow category being the easiest to the hardest Purple one, the game can quickly become difficult if you’re unprepared.
To make your life even easier, here are the NYT Connections hints for today’s categories:
Yellow Category – Found in the middle of the human body
Green Category – Often found in a specific Italian dish
Blue Category – Alcohol served in various quantities
Purple Category – Legends of Baseball
Spoiler Warning:
Scroll past this point AT YOUR OWN RISK. Major category hints and answers for today’s NYT Connections below.
Check out Today’s Connections Categories
The Connections categories today are an interesting mix of themes, which might get a bit difficult for us all. That said, here are the NYT Connections categories for Thursday, April 17, 2025.
Yellow – CENTRAL SECTION OF THE BODY
Green – COMPONENTS OF A PIZZA
Blue – UNITS OF BEER
Purple – BASEBALL GREATS
Do you finally see where each word should go? No? Then, keep scrolling to see the NYT Connections answers for today.
Today’s Connections Answers for April 17, 2025
The answers for Connections today, on April 17, 2025, are:
CENTRAL SECTION OF THE BODY – Core, Midriff, Torso, Trunk
COMPONENTS OF A PIZZA – Cheese, Crust, Sauce, Toppings
UNITS OF BEER – Case, Forty, Growler, Six-Pack
BASEBALL GREATS – Bonds, Mantle, Trout, Young
Image Credit: NYT Games (screenshot by Upanishad Sharma/ Beebom
How to Play Connections: Tips & Tricks to Solve the Puzzle
Given the fact you’re here, chances are that you already know how to play NYT Connections. As you might be able to tell by now, Connections by The New York Times is a word association game where players sort out 16 random words into four categories by finding a common ‘connection.’ This can be anything from a common sound to a deeper meaning.
That said, if you’re still confused, here are the best tips on how to play NYT Connections:
Simplicity is key: Connections will often throw ambiguous words at you. While it’s easy to get caught up in the details, the answer almost always lies in the simplest connections possible. So, instead of dear and deer being connected through a hunter-prey dynamic, they most likely connect because of a similar sound.
Watch those guesses: A key thing to note is Connections only gives you four chances in 24 hours for a single puzzle. As such, we advise not being trigger happy and carefully weighing in your words before pressing that submit button.
Shuffle Away: While a bit tricky, the sneaky Connections editor deliberately puts the first word placement as a misdirection. So the one golden tip here is to press that Shuffle button before you go on solving it.
If you’re still unsure how to proceed, check out our dedicated how-to-play NYT Connections guide for all the help you need.
We hope you had similar luck as I did for today’s game. If not, please let us know in the comments below!
What are the NYT Connections answers for April 16, 2025?
The Connections categories for April 16 are Yellow: Burlesque Wear, Green: Mess up the surface of, Blue: They roar, and Purple: Latin dances with a vowel changed. For in-depth answers, check out our Connections hints and answers for April 16.
How to play past Connections games?
Thankfully, it’s very easy to play old NYT Connections games. Simply head to the Connections archives and pick any date you wish to replay!
What is the hardest Connections category?
The Purple category is without a doubt the hardest NYT Connections category to solve. You have been warned!
Can I play NYT Connections for free?
Yes, you indeed can, as NYT Connections is a fully free game.
Upanishad Sharma
Combining his love for Literature and Tech, Upanishad dived into the world of technology journalism with fire. Now he writes about anything and everything while keeping a keen eye on his first love of gaming. Often found chronically walking around the office.
If you are finding it hard to spot theme words in today’s puzzle, then you are in serious need of the Strands hints below. Those bored with sensational games like Wordle and Connections are turning their attention to Strands for a challenging new experience. If you happen to be one of them and are struggling with NYT Strands, we can get you sorted. So, to help you out, we have added the Strands hints, answers, and Spangram on Thursday, April 17, 2025, below.
What is NYT Strands?
NYT Strands is a word game created by The New York Times as part of its growing “Games” library. The aim of this New York Times game is to connect letters in a six-by-eight grid to form a bunch of words that share the same theme.
To get you started, the puzzle will give you a theme for today’s NYT Strands. You can use it to form multiple “theme” words which will be relevant to this theme, along with one “special” word called the Spangram. This is a word or phrase that spans the length of the grid, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, giving you the key to crack the rest of the Strands theme words.
The theme for today’s Strands can be relevant in many different ways. So, the puzzle keeps you on your toes every day with its intriguing set of theme words and Spangrams.
NYT Strands Hints for Today’s Theme: “THE movies”
The theme for today’s Strands on April 17, 2025, is — THE movies
If you can’t figure out answers for today’s puzzle, here’s a quick Strands hint — think of movies with “The” as the prefix.
Here are hints for a couple of Strands theme words to make it easy for you to solve today’s puzzle on your own without having to scroll down to view the answers:
Hint #1: the greatest mafia movie ever.
Hint #2: the name of a movie which is also means “henchman”.
NYT Strands Spangram Hint: Is It Vertical or Horizontal?
The Spangram for today’s Strands on April 17, 2025, is mostly VERTICAL. It starts with the letters “TI“.
The hint for today’s Spangram for Strands — the name of a book, composition, or other artistic work; in this instance, a movie.
Spoiler Warning:
Scroll past this point AT YOUR OWN RISK. Hints and answers for today’s Strands below.
Today’s NYT Strands Answers for April 17, 2025
Today’s Strands Spangram Answer
The Spangram answer for today’s Strands on April 17, 2025, is — Titles
All Theme Words in Today’s Strands
Still looking for the theme words to get the answers for today’s NYT Strands? You can check them out below:
RING
AVIATOR
SHINING
GODFATHER
GRADUATE
GOONIES
Image Credit: NYT Games (screenshot by Ajaay Srinivasan/ Beebom)
The answers for today’s Strands were pretty straightforward. I started off with the first set of theme words – RING and AVIATOR. Once I spotted the Spangram, solving the rest of theme words was an easy affair.
What is NYT Strands Spangram and How Does It Work?
Every NYT Strands puzzle consists of a unique word or phrase that’s called the Spangram. This word or set of words will run the length of two opposite sides of the grid. One thing to note here is that, a Spangram doesn’t necessarily have to originate or end at the edge of the grid.
In its essence, the Spangram is kind of like a bigger hint that sums up today’s Strands theme in just a word or two. Since it spans across two sides of the puzzle, solving it early helps you figure out the rest of the theme words and vice versa.
Tips and Tricks for Mastering NYT Strands Puzzles
Solving an NYT Strands puzzle successfully isn’t that hard in itself, but in some cases, the approach might not be as straightforward as it looks. So, here are simple tips and tricks that we suggest you follow to crack the theme words and Spangram for Strands puzzles:
Always start at the corners: No two puzzles are the same. But the chances of the Spangram extending to a diagonal form are quite low. So, the best strategy is to find and decrypt relevant words that are at the corners of the grid.
Don’t be ashamed to get hints: Sometimes, a theme word could be all you need to solve the entire puzzle. If that requires getting a hint using non-theme words, then that’s the first thing you should do. After all, the point is to have fun and figure this out, like all of us.
Think both literally and figuratively: Not all themes may land you in the same sense of thought. Some puzzles may welcome more clever answers that may convey something totally different from their actual meaning.
Aim for the Spangram: The Spangram is what splits the Strands board in half. So, figuring it out will help you cross out other potential approaches for a theme. Deciphering even half of the Spangram can get you close to the rest of the answers.
Still finding it difficult to master the art of NYT Strands? Follow our guide and learn how to play Strands, along with more helpful tips and tricks.
What is the NYT strands theme for April 17, 2025?
The theme for today’s NYT strands puzzle is – THE movies.
What are the NYT strands hints and answers for April 17, 2025?
Today’s Strands puzzle is mostly VERTICAL, and it includes names of popular movies that have “The” in the prefix. The Spangram answer for today’s Strands puzzle is — Titles.
What was yesterday’s NYT strands answer?
The answer to yesterday’s NYT strands puzzle was – GolfClubs and you can find the NYT Strands hints for April 16 here.
Ajaay Srinivasan
Ajaay’s love affair with technology started young, with the Nokia N-Gage piquing his interest. Since 2016, he’s channeled his passion for tech into crafting explainers and guides on iOS, macOS, Android, social media, privacy & cybersecurity, and AI. When it’s time to unplug, Ajaay enjoys playing EAFC, unwinding to music on a pair of open-backs, building his dream audiophile gear, or watching Arsenal struggle to keep a clean sheet.
A little ways back, NetherRealm Studios’ Ed Boon was asked about Intellectual Property (IP) holders, and how protective they are over how their characters die or fight in the Mortal Kombat games.
“They’re not as protective over how they die, they’re protective of how their characters kill, for sure,” said Boon.
However, it seems most IP holders are just happy to have their characters in a Mortal Kombat game, even if they ask for some minor tweaks along the way.
“Usually the experience we have, is they’re excited to see their character in Mortal Kombat,” Boon stated.
“It’s almost like a badge of honor when we put them in,” he said, noting that it’s a pop culture thing, showing how famous those characters are.
“A couple of times, they’ll say with a pose the character is doing, lift his hand up a little higher, and we’ll do that, but that’s the extent of that,” Boon said.
It makes total sense that most IP holders would know what they’re signing up for when they put one of their characters in Mortal Kombat, and it’s interesting that they’re worried about how they will be portrayed when they’re doing the fatalities that the series is so well known for — not so much when those same moves are being performed on them.
RuneScape DragonWilds has a massive world, and it is not ideal to walk around all the time due to the grinding nature of the game. It can be annoying going back and forth when farming materials or exploring. Thankfully, the game offers fast travel using Lodestones, which can be crafted and placed by the players. However, Lodestones are not unlocked at the start of the game, and players must unlock the recipe, get the materials, and build it first to use it. Want to know how? Here is a complete guide on how to fast travel in RuneScape DragonWilds.
How to Get Vault Cores in RuneScap DragonWilds
The first thing you need to do is find Vault Cores to unlock the Lodestone recipe. Vault Cores are only found inside Dragonkin Vaultsin RuneScape DragonWilds. Here is how you can find the vaults and the Vault Cores:
Vaults are marked with a blue symbol on the map, and they are a sort of Dungeon in RuneScape DragonWilds. We have marked four early vaults in RuneScape DragonWilds in the image below.
Enter the Vaults and look for rooms with Vault Guardians. After defeating them, you will find Vault Cores on a pedestal before illuminated statues.
Collect the Vault Cores to unlock the Lodestone recipe and return to your base.
Image Credit: Jagex (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
How to Build Lodestone in RuneScape DragonWilds
After you have collected the Vault Cores from Vaults, you must build the Lodestone next. Here are the materials you need to build Lodestone in RuneScape DragonWilds:
32 Stones
20 Rune Essence
1 Vault Core
Image Credit: Jagex (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
You can find Stones by farming rocks using a pickaxe or collecting them from the ground. Rune Essence can be farmed from Rune Stones, chests, or by defeating enemies. Once you have all the items, build the Lodestone to start fast travel in RuneScape DragonWilds.
How to Fast Travel in RuneScape DragonWilds
All the Lodestones are connected in RuneScape DragonWilds. You can only fast travel from one Lodestone to another in this game. So, you must build a Lodestone in the area you want to fast travel first. The smart thing to do is to place a Lodestone at your base and then place the others on the different corners of the map.
Image Credit: Jagex (screenshot by Sanmay Chakrabarti/Beebom)
Also, whenever you want to fast travel using the Lodestones, you must spend 15 Law Runes. If you don’t have the required runes, you won’t be able to fast travel in the game. So make sure you keep a handy stock of it.
So, that’s how you can fast travel in RuneScape DragonWilds. Got any questions about the process? Let us know in the comments below.
Sanmay Chakrabarti
An old soul who loves CRPGs and Souls-Like to death. Takes pleasure in simplifying “Complex and Hard” games for casual players with tailored guides and videos. He loves to explore new places, read fantasy fiction, watch anime, and create wacky character builds in his off time.
These days, most smartphones rely on software smarts to make your photos look nice and tidy. But Xiaomi‘s Ultra series challenges this norm year-over-year by bringing the best camera hardware that fits inside a smartphone chassis. That’s what I felt when I held the Xiaomi 15 Ultra in my hands. But does this €1,499 uber flagship device have what it takes to replace your point and shoot camera? That’s what we’re going to talk about in this review of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra: Key Specifications
Before we move on to the review itself, let’s take a moment to check the full specifications of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.
I am not a professional photographer, and my experience with cameras comes only from reviewing smartphones over the years. So, I felt a bit overwhelmed when working with this smartphone’s photography chops.
This premium flagship houses a 50MP main camera, with a large 1.0-inch sensor. This comes alongside a 200MP telephoto camera and two other 50MP lenses. This setup is complemented by a variety of Leica features, like the Authentic and Vibrant presets. And, you can create your own Pro presets for different photography styles. There’s even a Leica portrait style option.
Even change the shutter sound to a mechanical Leica camera shutter. Or, replace the button with a photo of your choice. Xiaomi and Leica’s level of attention in the camera app itself goes quite deep. Something I am sure camera nerds will have a field day with, but let’s talk about photos.
500 Shots with Xiaomi 15 Ultra: A Photographic Journey
To truly appreciate the engineering marvel of this phone, I took it to capture the engineering achievements of the past century at Delhi’s National Railway Museum.
Starting with the main camera, you can see that the photos generally have a more contrasty look to them. The 1.0-inch sensor flexes its muscles, capturing jaw-dropping details, the likes of which I haven’t seen from a smartphone camera. Just look at the spots of rust around the steam engines and their internal workings.
The bigger sensor also helps you achieve that soft bokeh effect, adding a natural depth that we get to see in dedicated shooters. The HDR tuning by Xiaomi is also stellar. The dynamic range doesn’t brighten up the shadows, nor does it overexpose the highlights. Offering a very close to natural, minimally processed shot.
Given it was a spring Sunday, and the sunlight was giving both me and the 15 Ultra a tough time. While the camera preserves shadows in most situations, it overblows highlights against harsh lightning. As for the ultrawide, the 50MP sensor does a pretty good job all around. The bigger sensor allows for more details, and the color science is in tune with the main lens.
The FOV on the ultrawide isn’t quite as wide. But it still managed to capture the grand stature of this magnificent machinery. But the zoom is where the main highlight of this camera setup lies. Pushing into subjects, whether it is 3x, 4.3x, 10x, 30x, or even 60x, the phone gets you the kind of shot you want without compromising much on the details.
You can crank up the camera up to 120x, and if you have steady hands or are using a tripod pod, then you can get serviceable images. The AI kicks in at 30x to help fix blemishes, but you can choose to turn it off, which is a nice touch. As you can tell, the 200MP 4.3x lens is the one doing most of the heavy lifting. It churns out detailed results even at those zoom ranges. This trend continues at night. And, I feel the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is one of the best smartphones for nighttime photography.
Besides the hardware, I would also like to highlight some of the software stuff that stood out to me. First of all, the shutter speed is stunningly fast. It helped me get some of the more difficult shots of little pigeons hanging out at the ruins of Hauz Khas fort and a scared cat running away from me. Then there’s the filters, especially the Leica B&W high contrast one, which I used a lot.
Then there’s a 32MP selfie camera, which feels like the black sheep of the bunch. It does a fairly good job taking good selfies, portraits, and has decent edge detection. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it barely gets any of the comforts as the back array.
Jumping onto videos, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra can record at up to 8K 30FPS from all lenses individually, which means you can’t switch between them. Or you can shoot at 4K 60 FPS and scroll through all of them for better clarity at longer focal lengths. It can record in Dolby Vision and the LOG format for those professional videographers. Not to forget the ultra-slo-mo 1920FPS at 1080p support.
I Really Leica This Xiaomi 15 Ultra Design
Xiaomi has taken their collaboration seriously this time around, as Leica motifs spill over to the 15 Ultra’s design as well. The silver chrome version has a dual-tone style that evokes a vintage Leica look. The soft matte silver plastic complements the vegan leather deco of the back. And, the round camera plateau with the aluminum frame comes together to create a design that I’m falling for.
But I believe Xiaomi went too far with their ambitions. That’s because the cameras I just praised also weigh down the handset! The Xiaomi 15 Ultra feels very top-heavy. It already weighs 229 grams, and while it is perfectly balanced at the center, I have had instances where the phone almost fell as I was texting or browsing through my apps.
The round plateau also makes it difficult to rest my finger at the back, so I have to continually shift where my finger rests or risk smudging the lenses. The rest of the in-hand experience is great, and the device feels robust, like a flagship should. Xiaomi has even made the power button textured, which is a lovely addition.
However, it seems like they missed an opportunity to include a shutter key, which would have suited the phone’s design. Besides this, the device includes a heavy-duty aluminum frame, Corning Gorilla Glass 7i for the camera, and IP68 protection for accidental spills. Then there’s Xiaomi Shield Glass 2.0 for the display, protecting it against scratches and drops.
A Visual Feast for Content Consumption
Since we are on the topic, the display of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is as high-end as it gets. It’s a large 6.73-inch micro-quad curved panel, a fancy way of saying that it has slight curves on the edges. This wide panel makes enough room for you to enjoy your favorite movies and TV shows. And the WQHD+ (3200 x 1440) resolution just makes everything appear even sharper and detailed.
I’ve been catching up with Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again, and I couldn’t think of a better display to watch it on. The dynamic range is tuned so well that most of the dark scenes come out detailed and well lit. Just like the director intended. Plus, it also has all the bells and whistles you expect from a 2025 flagship display. Like a 120Hz refresh rate, LTPO, 12-bit colors, and Dolby Vision support.
That said, the brightness was an underwhelming aspect. Over my usage, I kept feeling like the display isn’t bright enough. This was more evident when taking photos in direct sunlight. I couldn’t make out anything on the viewfinder, guessing my way through the samples, having to keep looking for a shade to check what I clicked.
Other than that, the speakers are stereo with a 30-70 split. Unlike the screen, the audio does not particularly stand out. It gets loud, does its job, and that’s it. I wish they were louder and fuller, but I am being a bit picky here.
As Top of the Line Performance as Expected
As is typical with every 2025 flagship, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra also comes with the all-mighty Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. This is coupled with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Given you’ll want to click a lot of photos and record videos with this phone, it’s a good decision on Xiaomi’s part to launch the phone with a higher storage option.
Enough chit chat, let’s talk numbers! The benchmark results show top-of-the-line results as expected from a phone of this caliber. Though they do fall behind some other flagships featuring the same chipset. This could be because Xiaomi subdued the performance to keep heating at bay. Despite this, I have noticed the smartphone getting warm while excessively using the camera.
I tried my fair share of gaming, starting with Call of Duty Mobile. It ran without a hitch at Low graphics and 120FPS. But that’s going easy on this phone, so I turned to Warzone Mobile. After just half an hour, I could feel the heat and throttle in performance. Still, the game never stuttered once, and the gameplay was mostly consistent with the phone hitting 30FPS at quality settings.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra: HyperOS 2.0 and AI Features
The 8 Elite also handles Xiaomi’s latest HyperOS 2.0 quite effectively, as the animation-rich UI runs smooth like butter on this phone. Have to say that the company has done some next-level polishing as every icon, notification shade, quick settings, or apps just flows open like they were slipping on the panel, and the 120Hz refresh rate just further accentuates the smoothness of it all.
This iteration is based on Android 15, and I must say, it feels a lot more complete compared to what the company has been doing in the past couple of years. I still have my quirks, as I couldn’t set up my work account, and finding some basic options in settings can be a hassle. Apart from these, this is the first time in a while that I enjoyed Xiaomi’s Android skin. The phone will also receive 4 major Android updates.
The credit also goes to the myriad of AI features available on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. I couldn’t test all of them out thoroughly, but I quite liked the AI Speech Recognition, which I used to jot down my thoughts for this Xiaomi 15 Ultra review. The AI Search function is also quite neat as it can help you find files and other documents based on the term alone, but I wish Xiaomi implemented it to their settings page. To make it easy to find certain options, much like Samsung’s One UI 7.
The AI Writing Tool, which is something I find on most Android UIs, also comes in pretty handy. I used it to summarize a few articles and rewrite certain text messages. I also gave a shot to some of the AI-powered image editing tools available from the gallery app. Like the reflection eraser, but it didn’t quite work as intended, failing to recognise the reflections I wanted it to remove.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra: Battery Life
Finally, we get to talk about the battery life of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. I must say that on a regular use, this is a solid one-day device. I used it normally for texting, taking calls, even playing games in the name of “working”, and by the time I reached home, it still had about 30% left in it. Heck, you could push it to another day if you lower the resolution to 1080p.
It is odd to me that while other phones are chasing the 6,000mAh capacity, Xiaomi packed a 5,410mAh capacity cell in the 15 Ultra. Maybe to save costs, or to make room for the cameras, who knows? Xiaomi is generous enough to offer a 90-watt charger in the box, which can top up the device in little over an hour. Scratch that, you can even charge it at 80 watts wirelessly. Though that does require Xiaomi’s own wireless charger.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra Review: A Top-Tier Camera Phone with a Premium Cost
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a very well-crafted device, whether I go over its design, the cameras, or HyperOS. There’s a lot of phone here to admire, and while in context it doesn’t bring huge upgrades compared to last year’s 14 Ultra, it has a level of refinement that only comes from new iterations.
I must say that using this phone’s camera is the most fun I have had clicking photos. Especially when I paired it up with Xiaomi’s Photography Kit for the 15 Ultra, which is an additional set of accessories, including a case, a grip that also packs a 2,000mAh battery, a thumb grip, and a 67mm mount for ND filters. The kit made the experience of using the phone more like a traditional point-and-shoot camera, as it felt more natural to use.
Its level of detail in photos is unmatched by any Pixel, an iPhone, or even a Samsung. So if you are serious about your smartphone’s photography prowess, then you wouldn’t mind Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s €1,499 price tag. But for most of you out there, it is with a heavy heart that I must say, you can look elsewhere for a better option.
It was quite a surprise announcement when Capcom revealed the Capcom Fighting Collection 2, especially considering that it’s been nearly three years since the first Capcom Fighting Collection was released.
Capcom Fighting Collection series and Street Fighter series producer Shuhei Matsumoto recently sat down for an interview with Famitsu to discuss these collections. During this interview, he revealed why these collections were made in the first place.
“How about we start by talking about what led to the first compilation, Capcom Fighting Collection, being released,” begun Famitsu.
“Capcom released a really large amount of fun fighting games back in the day. So because of that, people would definitely want to play them on modern hardware and with online capabilities, right? That’s what we were thinking.” — Shuhei Matsumoto
“Capcom released a really large amount of fun fighting games back in the day. So because of that, people would definitely want to play them on modern hardware and with online capabilities, right?” responded Matsumoto.
“That’s what we were thinking. We’d been feeling that for a long time and the last compilation was us finally being able to put those feelings into reality.”
The first collection consisted of Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge, Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire, Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers’ Revenge, Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire, Red Earth, Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness, Hyper Street Fighter 2, Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, and Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo.
Of course, this meant that half the collection was devoted to the Darkstalkers series. Famitsu would make mention of this during the interview.
“In the first game, it really felt like the Darkstalkers series was the main focus, but what was your basis for selecting the included titles?” continued Famitsu.
“We started from the assumption ‘the Darkstalkers series is what people mainly want to play on modern hardware, right?’ And then we really wanted to include Pocket Fighter and Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, ha ha,” said Matsumoto.
“Also, the development team said ‘Let’s bring this one over!!’ for Red Earth so we included it.”
Of course, this mindset also carried over into the development of the Capcom Fighting Collection 2. There were certain games that were becoming older that the developers wanted to see on more modern consoles.
“There’s still a lot of games we want to bring over to modern hardware, so that made us think ‘Now we HAVE to make a 2 as well, right?’” — Shuhei Matsumoto
“And how did that lead to this current Capcom Fighting Collection 2?” asked Famitsu.
“There’s still a lot of games we want to bring over to modern hardware, so that made us think ‘Now we HAVE to make a 2 as well, right?’” said Matsumoto.
This second collection consists of Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro, Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001, Capcom Fighting Evolution, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, Power Stone, Power Stone 2, Project Justice, and Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein.
A special thanks goes out to Nicholas “MajinTenshinhan” Taylor for the translations featured in this article.
After waiting for well, not so long, RuneScape Dragonwilds is here. This four-player survival game is set in the same fantasy universe and attempts to recapture the same magic. With early access out ahead of its 2026 release, PC gamers are already flocking to the game. As it goes with all PC games, Dragonwilds has its own system requirements you must fulfill to ensure you can play it. Want to know what they are and if you can run them? Keep on reading to find out about the RuneScape Dragonwilds system requirements and whether your PC is up to the task.
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit (latest Service Pack)
As you can tell for yourself, RuneScape Dragonwilds doesn’t exactly come with heavy system requirements. As such, any old PC packing a GTX 1060 should be able to run it quite easily. Moreover, combined with the best RuneScape DragonWilds settings, it should help you reach the 60-100 fps finish line.
Furthermore, the game requires a measly 25 GB of storage. While the game doesn’t mention an HDD or SSD, we recommend getting the latter for the fastest loading times possible.
Lastly, as it goes without saying, you should have a fantastic internet connection ready to download and play the game. With a lot of Dragonwilds being more fun with friends, be sure your ISP has given you a fast connection before you hop on the game.
And now you know about the RuneScape Dragonwilds system requirements. So, is your gaming rig up to the task? Let us know in the comments below.
Upanishad Sharma
Combining his love for Literature and Tech, Upanishad dived into the world of technology journalism with fire. Now he writes about anything and everything while keeping a keen eye on his first love of gaming. Often found chronically walking around the office.
