Hugging this pulsating cushion apparently suppresses your anxiety

Yukai Engineering, the team behind the strangely adorable cat tail pillow, is back with a new quirky invention. Unveiled at CES 2023, the Fufuly is yet another anxiety-reducing cushion from the Japanese company, but this time featuring a gentle rhythmical pulsation as the main therapeutic tool. The idea is that when you’re hugging a Fufuly, its life-like behavior stimulates your belly to induce slower and deeper breathing. Despite its thought-bubble shape (supposedly to evoke the image of a puff of air), the cushion felt more like a mellow creature dozing off in my arms. I even mistook the quiet mechanical noise as a cat’s purr, to which CEO Shunsuke Aoki assured me this was purely a coincidence.

For this project, Yukai Engineering partnered with the University of Tokyo, which researched on the “phenomenon of rhythmical synchronization between individuals or between individuals and objects” as they interact with one another. Think how we usually feel calm when we’re holding a baby or pet in our arms — it’s all subconscious. “Using the cushion for just 5 minutes can reduce users’ stress levels and make them more alert,” according to Aoki.

The Fufuly comes with three operating modes: you have the self-explanatory “regular” and “deep” modes to suit your calming needs, with the third mode based on common relaxation breathing techniques. Sadly, we couldn’t change modes with the prototype on the show floor. Aoki added that his team already had the idea of a pulsating cushion around the same time as the Qoobo cat tail pillow, but in the end, they decided to develop the latter first.

Lightony
Richard Lai/Engadget

Another new device shown off by Yukai Engineering was Lightony, a cute humanoid bedside lamp which literally nods off after a while. Supposedly, the robot’s life-like head tilt and eye roll movements will encourage you to fall asleep faster, though it’s also possible that kids would just stay up as they play with this toy. Lightony also responds to voice commands (all processed locally instead of the cloud), so you can tell the robot to set a countdown when you’re in bed, or say “good morning” to wake it up. 

Aoki told Engadget that the Fufuly will be launching in Japan this year by way of crowdfunding, followed by a global launch eventually, though no price is announced just yet. As for the Lightony, it’s still in its early development stage, so we’ll have to circle back later for an update.

Oppo says its Find N2 is the ‘lightest horizontally folding phone’

Back in August, Xiaomi showed us how to make a thinner horizontal folding phone with its Mix Fold 2, but now it’s Oppo’s turn to demonstrate how to make them lighter. The new Find N2 shares a similar landscape screen design with its predecessor, yet it weighs as little as 233 grams. That’s 42 grams lighter than before, around 30 grams lighter than the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 and even a few grams lighter than an iPhone 14 Pro Max. Oppo therefore claims the new device is the “industry’s lightest horizontally folding phone.” Both the green and white versions of the Find N2 weigh an extra 4 grams due to their glass back, but still come in lighter than the competition.

Oppo uses a smaller second-generation flexion hinge, as well as its carbon fiber underframe (instead of aluminum) for its flexible screen. According to TÜV Rheinland’s certification, the Find N2 can apparently withstand over 400,000 folds under normal conditions (doubling Find N’s record), and over 100,000 folds at 50°C (122°F ) or down to -20°C (-4°F). The same company also gave a green tick to the phone’s 1.2-meter drop test. The battery is about the same size as before, bumping slightly up to 4,520mAh, but now supports faster 67W SuperVOOC charging, which takes 10 minutes to go from zero to 37 percent, or 42 minutes for a full charge.

This Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1-powered foldable phone has a slightly larger 5.54-inch external display, and while its 7.1-inch flexible screen has kept the same 9:8.4 “golden” aspect ratio (1,792 x 1,920), it apparently has a less visible crease along with improved visibility. To make full use of this big landscape screen, the company is also releasing the Oppo Pen, which supports 4,096 levels of pressure and has a battery life of 11 hours. You can also use the pen’s button as a camera remote, which comes in handy when you prop up the camera for “FlexForm Capture.”

Speaking of, the Find N2 has a new set of cameras that have benefitted from some extra help from Hasselblad. You’ll find a 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera (24mm equivalent) with optical stabilization, a 48-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide camera (14mm equivalent) and a 32-megapixel f/2.2 telephoto camera (47mm equivalent) on the back. There’s also a 32-megapixel f/2.4 front-facing camera tucked into the top-left corner of the foldable screen. With Oppo’s very own MariSilicon X imaging neural processor, the Find N2 can also capture 4K ultra night video and 4K ultra HDR video.

Oppo also unveiled the Find N2 Flip which, as you can tell from the name, is a direct competitor of Samsung’s pocket-sized Galaxy Z Flip 4. The 3.26-inch external display here is apparently the “largest cover screen in any flip” device, which is handy for taking selfies, checking calendars and previewing messages. This device also packs the “biggest” battery in this form factor — 4,300mAh as opposed to Samsung’s 3,700mAh, along with 44W fast charging support. Chief Product Officer Pete Lau added that the Find N2 Flip supports dual SIM dual 5G standby, which is apparently also a first for a small foldable phone, thanks to the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ processor. Like the Find N2, the 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera, 8-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide camera and 32-megapixel f/2.4 front-facing camera all get the Hasselblad treatment.

The Find N2 comes in two price tiers: the 12GB RAM with 256GB storage model is asking for 7,999 yuan (around $1,150), and the more advanced 16GB RAM with 512GB storage version costs 8,999 yuan (around $1,290). As for the Find N2 Flip, it starts at 5,999 yuan ($860) with the 8GB RAM plus 256GB storage version, and it maxes out at 6,999 yuan ($1,000) with the 16GB RAM plus 512GB storage variant.

Both phones are available for pre-order in China today, ahead of the December 23rd launch for the Find N2 and then the December 30th launch for the Find N2 Flip. Oppo reps also told Engadget that the Flip will launch in international markets, but they are still evaluating whether to do the same with the bigger Find N2.

Tecno’s Phantom X2 Pro phone has a pop-out portrait lens for ‘pure’ bokeh

Many smartphones these days offer artificial bokeh in their portrait photography modes, but with the help of a retractable camera, you can achieve true optical bokeh without missing any edges. Chinese brand Tecno is now bringing such a feature to its latest flagship device, the Phantom X2 Pro 5G, which packs a “world-first” pop-out portrait lens. This is just a little over two years after Xiaomi showed off a retractable 120mm-equivalent wide aperture lens, but it never left the prototype stage.

Tecno’s intriguing portrait camera has a 50-megapixel resolution with a relatively large 1/2.7-inch sensor and 1.28um pixel size. Optically, this 2.5x zoom lens offers an f/1.49 aperture, 65mm focal length and 18.9cm depth of field. When you switch to portrait mode in the camera app, you can see (and hear) the portrait lens physically pop out on the back of the phone. This is complemented with Tecno’s “self-developed” beautification mode with upgraded make-up settings — up to three faces are supported in each image. 

I had a chance to shoot some portraits with my Phantom X2 Pro 5G earlier today, and with the exception of the aggressive skin smoothing, my subjects were quite pleased with the natural bokeh, optimized brightness and virtually non-existent distortion.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro 5G
Richard Lai/Engadget

There’s more on this amusingly large camera island. The 50-megapixel main shooter uses Samsung’s 1/1.3-inch GNV ISOCELL 3.0 sensor, which offers 1.2um pixel size and is supported with an f/1.85 aperture. You’ll also find a 13-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera nearby, as well as a 32-megapixel front camera on the other side of the phone — in the form of a punch-hole near the top of the curved 6.8-inch AMOLED screen (2,400 x 1,080 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate; Gorilla Glass Victus).

The Phantom X2 Pro 5G is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 9000, which is a 4nm octa-core processor — similar to the faster Dimensity 9000+ found in ASUS’ ROG Phone 6D series. It also packs 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, along with a generous 5,160mAh battery with 45W fast charging support. While this phone lacks an IP rating, a company rep claimed that the retractable portrait lens is waterproof and dustproof — the interior of the lens is apparently sealed, and likewise with the connection between the lens and the body. Still, it’s probably best to avoid the water when you’re carrying this device.

Tecno’s new phone runs on a customized Android 12 system dubbed HiOS 12, which features an AI gallery with face recognition and editing functions, along with some productivity tools (built-in translator, file scanner with text and PDF conversion etc.) and a connection speed optimization engine. Tecno added that its device passed TÜV Rheinland’s fluency test over a 36-month simulation, meaning its storage memory performance shouldn’t deteriorate much (read: fragmentation) during the same period in real life; but we’ll take this claim with a pinch of salt for now.

Tecno will initially be launching the Phantom X2 Pro 5G in markets including India, Nigeria, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Turkey, and the Philippines from the end of December, and it’ll reach over 60 markets globally later (we’re waiting for specific details on Western markets). The device will be available in “Stardust Grey” and “Mars Orange,” with the latter featuring an eco-friendly back cover composed of plastics recovered from the shores around the Indian Ocean. Tecno claims that this “Eco-Friendly Edition” reduces carbon emissions by approximately 38 percent when compared to virgin plastics, “with each individual cover producing an estimated 2.4g fewer emissions on average.” 

If you manage to come across a Phantom X2 Pro, the asking price is around $930 (based on the 3,499 Riyal price tag in Saudi Arabia), which is probably difficult to justify for just some natural bokeh. There’s also the Phantom X2 which is around $215 cheaper and looks very similar, but it only has 8GB of RAM and lacks a retractable portrait camera; you’ll instead get a 64-megapixel main camera and a 2-megapixel depth camera, along with the same 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera and 32-megapixel front camera as the Pro model. The orange option is also replaced by a “Moonlight White” design.