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The Coalition believes making Gears of War: E-Day an Xbox exclusive was the best decision, but not all Xbox Game Studios teams are aligned on the approach to console exclusivity.

Christian Pulisic misses USA's clash with Australia due to injury, as the co-hosts continue their FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign. Here's how to watch the Group D fixture for free online and from anywhere.

As the British Prime Minister shared plans to ban all under-16s from social media, speculation is mounting as to whether VPNs will be next. While we wait for the government to share further information on this in July, here's how the debate has been unfolding.

The shallow, sunny waters of the reflecting pool are an ideal incubator for algae growth in the summertime. Experts say the recent renovation may have helped accelerate it.

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Three minor vulnerabilities chained together can cause a lot of trouble but Microsoft fixed it on time.

• Looking for the free video editor version? See our DaVinci Resolve 21 (2026) review

DaVinci Resolve comes in two flavors: a powerful free version - which I reviewed recently, and it remains the best free video editing software and best video editing software I've ever used.

But there's also the more powerful DaVinci Resolve Studio. This is the high-end, pro-grade variant for professional filmmakers and videographers. It unlocks a raft of extra features for a reasonable one-time fee.

Now, I'm a massive fan of both of Blackmagic Design's video editing tools, so I was keen to see what the latest version of Studio brings to the editing bay.

You can download the app by clicking here.

DaVinci Resolve Studio 21: Pricing & plans

• One-off cost just under $300
• Advanced professional non-linear desktop video editor and visual effects compositor
• Frankly, it’s a steal at this price

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that you have to pay for professional software. Yes, the free version of DaVinci Resolve is the outlier here, as it offers so much for free, but there are some limitations compared to Studio.

For instance, whereas Resolve limits your exports to 4K and 60 fps (which is honestly fine for the overwhelming majority of us), pros have been known to need more, so Studio lets them work up to 32K and 120fps.

This is but scratching the surface of course, and I’ll show you some exciting features Studio exclusively has over its free sibling in this review, but how much will this cost you, I hear you ask. Less than $300.

Not as a subscription, not the price you have to pay for each major new version, but $300 as a one off, which is the same price Apple charges for Final Cut Pro - at least as long as Apple keeps its one-time charges, since unlike Blackmagic Design, the company have now embraced subscription pricing for its Creator tools.

So yes, $300 for a professional video editing platform, which includes powerful colour grading, special effects creation and audio cleanup, for Windows, Linux and Mac computers. Not too shabby.

Why is it so cheap? Because just like Apple, Blackmagic subsidizes the development cost through their hardware sales - which is there waiting for you, when you’re ready to take your video editing to the next level

• Score: 5/5

DaVinci Resolve Studio 21: Interface

(Image credit: Future)

• Modern interface
• Cleverly crams so many features into a single app

Launching Studio after having worked in Resolve, you’ll be hard pressed to notice any difference. The interface looks identical. Even the app’s icon is merely labelled ‘DaVinci Resolve’. The only way you can definitely tell at a glance which version you’re in, is lower left of the bottom toolbar - you’ll either see ‘DaVinci Resolve 21’, or ‘DaVinci Resolve Studio 21’.

Very briefly, Studio’s interface is divided into various sections, which are referred to as ‘Pages’. They’re listed in the order you’re expected to work in (although that’s by no means compulsory). ‘Media’ is where you import and catalog your clips and footage, and ‘Photo’ is brand new for 21 (I explored it in greater detail in my review of the free DaVinci Resolve 21).

‘Cut’ and ‘Edit’ are there to build your project; one is for quick work, the other is for more precise editing, coupled with far more tools and features. ’Fusion’ is for all your special effects magic, while colour correction and grading is done in ’Color’. ‘Fairlight’ is for detailed audio work and sound editing, and when all your work is done, ‘Deliver’ is where you export your finished project.

Each Page offers different tools and capabilities, keeping all workspaces focussed on the work at hand, while letting you effortlessly and seamlessly switch between each as you need to. It’s a great way to keep the interface as simple as possible while allowing you to do everything in a single app, and allows for the easy addition of new Pages, as the developers have just done with Photo.

• Score: 4.5/5

DaVinci Resolve Studio 21: AI tools

(Image credit: Future)

• AI tools speed up workflows
• Seriously useful features like background cataloguing

Version 21 of Resolve Studio brings a wealth of new features for the free and paid-for versions, like the aforementioned Photo Page. There are also some interesting and welcome additions, like a spell-checker, as well as emoji support, and being able to see nodes - which are always a challenge for Resolve newcomers - as a list.

This makes them look more like the effects you’re used to from other competing video editors. All that and more is great, but what truly sets Resolve Studio apart is its AI tools, and version 21 introduced some much needed ones, some impressive ones, and some deeply troubling ones.

But let’s start with the positives: AI IntelliSearch. The concept isn’t anything new, as Adobe Premiere Pro has had that ability for a while, and even Apple introduced the same for Final Cut Pro recently (imagine trailing behind FCP…). What this does is ever so useful, especially if you have to deal with a ton of media: select all the clips you need to sort, then right-click, and go to AI Tools > IntelliSearch > Analyse for Search.

If this is the first time you’re doing this, you’ll need to download some ‘packages’, namely ‘AI IntelliSearch Faster’. You can also take the opportunity to grab the ‘Better’ search package, along with any others you’d care to install.

Resolve Studio will then analyse your chosen clips, and depending on how many you have, this could take a little time. Once done, use the regular search field to look for anything specific, like clips containing a ‘person’, a ‘tree’, or an ‘insect’, and after a few seconds, your media pool will only show clips with what you’re after.

Another useful new feature for large projects, is the ability for the algorithms to detect a slate, and catalog your footage based on the information contained on it. You no longer need to manually type in all that info - it’s all done for you upon request. This is what complex algorithms are supposed to do: making cataloguing and organising easier for us humans.

• Score: 5/5

DaVinci Resolve Studio 21: Clips

(Image credit: Future)

• Use AI to fix clips without costly reshoots
• Your mileage may vary here

Then we have tools designed to fix problematic shots - those whose focus was a little off, for instance. Ultra Sharpen is an effect that will help salvage such shots… but it doesn’t work miracles: don’t expect a clip whose focus was way off to be rescued in that way.

AI Motion Deblur takes this a little further and aims to sharpen up blurry moving shots. This works by Resolve creating entirely new clips based on the original. You access this feature via the AI Tools menu, just like you do to initiate IntelliSearch. I could see a difference between the original and the improved clip, but I wasn’t able to replicate the remarkable improvements you see in Blackmagic’s promotional pages. You’re given options prior to rendering a new clip, such as choosing an ‘Extreme’ or ‘Standard’ model (the former is selected by default), rendering at the source resolution or not, or using more GPU memory to improve the quality. I turned everything on, and that did actually make for a better output.

These tools are definitely worth checking out if you need to fix some clips and have no alternatives. They’re definitely better than if they weren’t there.

AI Cinefocus lets you alter the focus of footage after it’s been shot. If your foreground and background are pretty much even focus-wise, you can use that feature to add depth of field to your clip, and choose to focus on the foreground, background, or move between the two over time, thanks to a few convenient sliders in the Inspector sidebar. This is a surprisingly powerful filter, with easy to manipulate controls.

• Score: 4/5

DaVinci Resolve Studio 21: Face reshaper & transformerFutureFuture

• A common tool for complex AI algorithms
• Improve - or degrade - a person’s face with just a few clicks

If you’re used to manipulating images in Photoshop and the like, you’ll have no trouble understanding these three new tools Resolve Studio are introducing in this latest version. One of them lets you remove blemishes from people’s faces. The process is but a drag and drop away, with a slider to alter the extent of the effect’s power. It’s as simple as you can get, and you don’t even need to put on your makeup!

Face Reshaper is an odd one. After it’s detected the face you wish to alter, and analysed your clip, tracking your subject over time, you’re able to make changes to their facial features - make the eyes wider, reposition the nose, thicken the left eyebrow, and even alter every change you make over time. It can be a little disconcerting, but it can have its uses, especially if you wish to simulate cartoon-like effects in live action footage, or give viewers that ‘uncanny valley’ feel.

And speaking of uncanny valley, there’s AI Face Age Transformer. Remember how we laughed at Marvel’s original de-ageing technology, only to later be impressed with what all those Disney dollars could achieve? Well now it’s possible to replicate this from the comfort of your own editing chair. More or less.

The technology is impressive and works the same way as the Face Reshaper tool, but instead of altering your face like it’s made of putty, you tell Resolve Studio the age the person is and how many years you’d like to add or remove to them (the offset is limited to 50 years either way).

I found aging a person yielded better results, as adding more wrinkles feels more convincing than smoothing out a face (anyone remember those “almost people” from Doctor Who? I kept thinking of that when I used the filter to de-age myself), but it’s still highly impressive what you can achieve with a personal computer these days: de-ageing for the rest of us!

• Score: 4/5

DaVinci Resolve Studio 21: AI speech generator

(Image credit: Future)

• An amazing - yet terrifying - feature
• Could be used for nefarious reasons

I've touched on a lot of AI tools found in Resolve Studio 21.

What comes next, though, is as amazing as it is terrifying: AI Speech Generator. Now this is not new. Resolve Studio already allowed you to clone someone’s voice, but you needed a recording of about 10 to 15 minutes, then you had to record yourself speaking and Resolve would then graft the generated voice onto your speech cadence… this was a lot of work, especially compared to what you can do now…

As with IntelliSearch, should you be trying this for the first time, you’ll need to download an additional package. It’s just as free, and is pretty much a seamless experience.

Resolve Studio’s Speech Generator comes bundled with two male and two female voices, which sound pretty much as you’d expect a generated voice to sound… but that’s not even close to the interesting part: there’s also the option to choose a ‘Custom Voice’. In order for that to work, you need to load a recording of the voice you wish to copy. 10 to 15 seconds of clean audio will do, although there’s a hurdle.

A tiny little hurdle: the audio must be a WAV file - not even AIFF is acceptable. This means that if you record someone with your phone, you won’t be able to use that audio - until you convert it into the approved format (which frankly isn’t hard to do).

You then only need to type in your script, click on ‘Generate’, give Studio a few seconds to work its magic, and a new audio clip will appear in your timeline sounding… exactly like the original. You have a few parameters you can alter, such as speeding up or slowing down the speech, altering the pitch, or adding some variation to the audio. Each change you make necessitates the generation of a new audio file before you can check the result, but once you’ve found the right balance, you can churn out clip after clip.

Considering how little this filter needs to work its magic, the result really is truly impressive. It’s so good in fact, it’s concerning. It’s far too easy to make anyone say anything they never said, nor would ever say.

Now of course, Resolve Studio is not the only software capable of doing this; frankly, the genie’s been out of that particular AI bottle for a while, and it’s far too late to put the cork back in. I can see so many potentially useful ways this could be of benefit to a video project, but I also know scammers and nefarious people are also going to love this.

• Score: 2.5/5

Should I buy DaVinci Resolve Sstudio 21?

(Image credit: Future)

Buy it if...

If you’re serious about video editing, need a powerful all-in-one software package which includes the creation of special effects and powerful audio tools, love very useful and well implemented AI tools, and especially appreciate an affordable one-time fee.

Don't buy it if...

The additional tools go above and beyond what you’re looking for in a video editor, you don’t need to export video at 32K, would rather not deal with AI algorithms, and feel the free version of Resolve is more than powerful enough for your needs.

(Image credit: Future)

For more creative software, we've tested and reviewed the best video editing software for beginners and the best video editing apps for mobile devices.

Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve Studio is their top of the line desktop video editor. Are the new tools introduced in version 21 worth your time?

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Contains spoilers for all of Sugar season 1.

Sugar season 2 is here after a two-year wait, and the Apple TV series is one of the eight huge new movies and shows streaming this weekend (June 19).

If, like me, you have been eagerly awaiting John Sugar's return, you may have mixed emotions. Although it's great to be back in the sunny LA backdrop with those stunning film noir vibes, it doesn't explore the huge twist we saw in season 1.

Sugar's season 1 twist was so huge, in fact, that if you tell it to someone who has never seen the series, they'll probably laugh at you. It's quite the reveal and does not suit what we see at face value, changing the tone of the series entirely.

In season 1, episode 6, we learned that the sophisticated private detective (played brilliantly by Colin Farrell) is actually an alien disguising himself as a human. It is a plot twist that can make or break a series, as this goes from a film noir mystery to full-blown sci-fi in seconds. Mind blown.

Believe it or not, the alien reveal does work, and it made me more interested in the series as a result. So I was disappointed that Sugar season 2 does not focus on the sci-fi elements as much as it should've, disguising itself once again behind the glitz and glamor of Old Hollywood and the totally normal humans who reside there.

Had they gone harder on the sci-fi, I would have definitely rated this season higher because there is plenty to enjoy here. John Sugar continues to blend in as a human, while most of his alien race have already left Earth. There's a key reason for this, as he's looking for his missing sister Djen (Maeve Djen) and does not want to leave Earth without her.

Sugar's investigation seems legitimate enough; humans go missing all the time, so he's been able to hide his real identity... for now. But when the trail runs cold, he takes on a new case to occupy himself involving Danny Moon (Jin Ha), an up-and-coming boxer whose brother and trainer, Ji (Raymond Lee), has gone missing. Nothing like a new missing person to distract you from your own personal demons.

Kirby Howell-Baptiste has more of a guest role in season 2. (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

Sugar season 2 also features less from Kirby Howell-Baptiste, who plays Sugar's handler and confidante. As an alien herself, she has since left Earth, leaving John behind to do what he needs to. Those hoping to see more from Howell-Baptiste will be disappointed, as Ruby has much more of a backseat role this time.

I am hopeful that, if Sugar season 3 is confirmed, we will see more from Ruby and the other aliens, especially since their mission was compromised and some humans are aware of the alien existence. Sugar simply being on Earth is dangerous, which does present opportunities and threats for future episodes.

The sci-fi elements are not completely forgotten, thankfully, and we do see Sugar using his extraterrestrial powers throughout. But it's like he is trying to hide much of his true self from the audience as well as the in-universe characters. It makes sense given the slow burn of the series, but I really would have liked to see more alien stuff going on, personally.

Sugar season 2 is not quite as good as its predecessor, but I did enjoy returning to its universe after a long break. There's some escapism in the vintage aesthetic; every scene is styled and acted beautifully, but much like the fashion, it won't be to everyone's tastes.

If you liked the noir aspects more than the sci-fi ones, I certainly think you will like Sugar season 2, as it picks up with new cases and characters to learn about. The universe is crafted with care, creating a world full of secrets, no matter what planet you come from.

But you would be forgiven for wanting more, especially since season 1 has dangled that reveal in front of us only to leave us wondering. If they had balanced the Old Hollywood vibes with the sci-fi ones better, I honestly think season 2 could have been perfect.

Sugar season 2 ultimately feels like a sequence of slow, filler episodes teasing what's to come later, which isn't all bad. But it means if season 3 does not happen we will be left with more questions than answers, much like John Sugar left behind on a planet that is not his own.

Sugar season 2 is finally here but its slow burn and persistent mysteries may start to frustrate some fans.

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Outkitel WP500 Ultra: 30-second review

Oukitel has plenty of mid-tier phones, but it’s always interesting to see what it comes up with for a flagship release.

The WP500 Ultra brings a 640 x 512 thermal camera, a hardware privacy kill switch, and a Dimensity 8300 chipset into a single package. Most of those things aren’t gimmicks and are potentially useful to the right buyer.

This design packs a punchy SoC with a good GPU and NPU in the package, plenty of RAM, tons of storage, and a decent camera cluster. But at the asking price of nearly $700, you might reasonably expect that, and possibly more than the 10000mAh of battery.

But the headline feature here is the AI thermal imaging solution using Smart ClearTherm and SceneSync Fusion. This produces remarkably detailed thermal images and video.

For those professionals who want a rugged worksite phone that does most things, the Oukitel WP500 Ultra ticks plenty of boxes. But the asking price still seems a little on the high side for a company that makes some excellent $200 rugged phones.

The only thing stopping this from being one of the best rugged phones we’ve tested this year is the price.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Outkitel WP500 Ultra: price and availability

• How much does it cost? $700/£522/€604
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? Direct from the maker or via an online retailer

The Oukitel WP500 Ultra launched with an MSRP of $1,099.99. Direct from Oukitel, the ‘Early Bird’ price is $699.99 in the USA, £521.77 in the UK and €603.86 for those in Europe.

I do hope those lower prices stick a little, because north of $1,000 seems excessive even with these specifications.

At this price, the hardware package is genuinely strong. A Dimensity 8300, 1TB of storage, and a 640 x 512 thermal camera at under $700 would have been exceptional by 2024 standards. And, in the middle of 2026, the price point remains an important factor.

The caveat is that the specialist features inflate the cost relative to buyers who do not need them. A user who wants only a fast, durable, rugged phone can spend less and get a comparable daily-use experience. The WP500 Ultra makes the most sense for buyers who will actively use the thermal camera and the special privacy switch.

To a certain degree, Oukitel is competing with itself for rugged phones with thermal cameras, since they also have the WP61 Ultra. That design costs about $30 less and has double the battery capacity, but that comes with a weight and size penalty.

A phone with thermal vision is the AGM G3 Pro, which sells for the same price, but has less storage, a less powerful SoC and a lower thermal resolution.

If you just want thermal vision and don’t care about the resolution of the sensor, Blackview still makes the BL9000 Pro, which can be found for as little as $550.

Overall, the Oukitel WP500 is offering a better platform than the majority of competing options, but matching their price isn't easy.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

• Value score: 4/5

Outkitel WP500 Ultra: Specs

Item

Spec

CPU:

MediaTek Dimensity 8300

GPU:

ARM Mali-G615 MC6

NPU:

MediaTek NPU 580

RAM:

12GB LPDDR5

Storage:

1TB

Screen:

6.78" IPS TFT 550 nits

Resolution:

1080 x 2460 FHD+

SIM:

2x Nano SIM

Weight:

414.3g

Dimensions:

177.2 x 82.6 x 22.9mm

Rugged Spec:

IP68 IP69K dust/water resistant (immerse up to 1.5m for 30 min), MIL-STD-810H Certification

Rear cameras:

108MP Samsung S5KHM6 + Samsung 8MP S5K4H8 Night Vision/Mix + Thermal AI sensor

Front camera:

32MP Sony IMX616

Networking:

WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.3

OS:

Android 16

Battery:

10,000 mAh battery (Max 33W charge wired, 7.5W Reverse)

Colours:

Orange, Black

Outkitel WP500 Ultra: Design

• Chunky rugged phone
• Anti leaking technology
• No SDCard slot

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

There is no pretending the WP500 Ultra is anything other than an industrial tool. It is big, heavy, and it is built to take punishment. At 414.3g and nearly 23mm thick, this is a device that earns its keep rather than lives in your pocket unnoticed.

The chassis is reinforced polymer with rubberised grips along the sides and corner armour that looks like it means business. It does. The thermal camera module dominates the rear panel. It is the largest single element on the back of the device and leaves nobody in any doubt about what this phone does for a living. Unless they mistake it for a speaker.

Oukitel has covered all the certification bases. IP68 handles immersion to 1.5 metres. IP69K adds resistance to high-pressure water jets at close range. MIL-STD-810H extends protection to extreme temperatures, shock, vibration, and altitude. That is the full rugged stack. Nothing has been left out.

The screen is covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 at 1.1mm. That is a sensible, honest choice. The privacy kill switch sits alongside the standard power and volume controls on the chassis. Its position matters. It needs to be reachable with gloves on, and Oukitel appears to have thought about that.

However, the phone comes with a bumper that left this reviewer entirely confused. In other Oukitel phones I’ve seen recently, a soft TPU bumper was included, but this is a hard, rigid plastic that is as likely to transmit any shock it receives to the phone as it is to protect it.

There is another issue with this bumper that I’ll discuss in the camera section, which might encourage many to dump it.

Where Oukitel haven’t wandered off the rugged phone highway is with the button layout, which has all the usual suspects located where you might reasonably expect them.

The one exception to this model is an extra button that Oukitel amusingly labelled as the “Anti leakage button” and also as ‘the one click encryption button’, or even ‘Privacy kill Switch’, depending on where in their documentation you look.

So what does it actually do, you might reasonably wonder? According to Oukitel, “A single slide instantly disables cameras, microphones, and GPS, preventing photos, videos, audio, and location data from being captured. Ideal for sensitive meetings, confidential work, and situations where privacy matters most.”

My immediate reaction is that it’s a feature someone involved in a criminal enterprise might like, but it makes almost no sense in a business context. Because if you are your worst security threat, and record conversations and take pictures in sensitive meetings, then you’re probably not going to click this button to stop yourself, are you?

And if the phone is doing all these things on its own because it’s been compromised by malware, then that’s probably disabled the button anyway.

Oukitel promises peace of mind with this feature, but presumably only if you don’t think about it.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

Other aspects of this design seem better considered, especially the screen.

The 6.78-inch panel runs at 1080 x 2460 with a 120Hz refresh rate. Those numbers sit comfortably alongside mainstream mid-range phones. That is exactly where you want a rugged display to be in 2026. Peak brightness comes in at 550 nits. It is adequate for most conditions, but in direct sunlight, it will test it severely.

As for the rest of this design, there are a few things that look a little rushed or that ended up entirely omitted. On the rushed side are holes for a lanyard, where one isn’t included in the box. And missing in action are a headphone jack and a MicroSD card slot.

What’s truly odd about the MicroSD card situation is that on Oukitel’s specification, it mentions storage expansion being a 2TB TF card. But unless I’m being remarkably dumb, there is no place for this to go. The SIM card tray is incredibly small and only carries two Nano SIMs back-to-back. If this phone does take a memory card, I’m interested to know where it goes.

Those points aside, the design of this phone isn’t terrible, but a few things, like the misplaced features and issues with the bumper, do hint that it might have been brought to market at such a pace that didn’t allow these details to be ironed out.

Design score: 3.5/5

Outkitel WP500 Ultra: Hardware

• MediaTek Dimensity 8300
• 1TB of storage
• 10000 mAh battery

The Dimensity 8300 is the right chip for a phone at this price. It is built on TSMC's 4nm process, uses Armv9 CPU cores, and pairs with the Mali G615 GPU. Benchmarks from other devices using the same chip place it ahead of the Snapdragon 778G and close to the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in sustained loads. This is not a mid-range chip in a rugged case. It is a proper performance part.

Previous Oukitel flagships relied on the Helio G99 or Dimensity 7050. Both chips did their jobs. Neither came close to the 8300. The step up here is real, and it shows in everyday use.

I’ve yet to test a device using the new 9000 series chips, which can use 10667 MHz RAM, but until those become more common, chips like the Dimensity 8300 are a solid choice for both compute and graphics.

The 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM is the honest figure to focus on. Some listings inflate RAM numbers by using virtual memory expansion, which uses storage space rather than physical chips.

Oukitel are one of these, putting 36GB in big letters on the box, and then in a much smaller font 12+24GB below. Yes, you can map 24GB of storage as if it were memory, and with 1TB, you have plenty to spare, but it doesn’t mean this phone has 36GB.

Anyway, 12GB physical is a good number for this category, and it will handle multitasking and demanding applications without complaint.

The 1TB of internal storage is where the WP500 Ultra genuinely pulls ahead. That capacity rivals that of a budget laptop and gives field professionals ample room for thermal imaging, 4K video, and documentation without worrying about running out of space for some time.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

Unless weight is a big priority, a 10,000mAh battery is expected at this level. What changes the runtime picture compared with older rugged phones is the chipset. The Dimensity 8300 is a 4nm part, and it is noticeably more efficient than the 6nm and 7nm designs it replaces. That efficiency advantage compounds across a full working day, allowing the WP500 Ultra to perform more and extend its running time significantly.

The 45W wired charging is acceptable, and better than some 33W options we’ve seen elsewhere. Filling a 10,000mAh cell from flat at 45W takes close to two hours and fifteen minutes. Some competitors at this price point have moved to 66W and above, but even with 45W, you can get the battery half full in around thirty-five minutes from flat.

Sadly, there is no wireless charging, and Oukitel could reasonably have done better here given the asking price.

The quoted video playback time is 15 hours, and the standby is a whopping 1754 hours, or just over 73 days.

Some will wonder why it doesn’t have a 20000mAh battery, but that would have elevated the weight closer to 600g, and 414g is enough without making it entirely impractical to carry.

• Hardware score: 4/5

Outkitel WP500 Ultra: Cameras

• 108MP, 8MP and thermal on the rear
• 32MP on the front
• Four cameras in total

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

The Outkitel WP500 Ultra has four cameras:

Rear camera: 108MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KHM6, Samsung 8MP S5K4H8, Thermal AI sensor
Front camera: 32MP Sony IMX616

This camera arrangement can be confusing, especially from the Android 16 OS perspective.

If you ask the phone how many camera sensors it has, it will tell you it has five, not four, but it's obvious, examining the cluster, that there are three cameras on the rear, and another on the front.

The confusion comes with the 8MP S5K4H8, because the phone thinks it has two of these, where in reality it has one pulling double duty. Normally, it is a night vision sensor that uses infrared to illuminate the darkness and capture images.

But it also provides a source for the thermal camera to mix into its data to improve the detail and context of its thermal image captures.

This is where the WP500 Ultra makes its case. A 640 x 512 thermal camera is the highest resolution sensor currently found in a rugged smartphone. The AGM G3 Pro sits at 512 x 384. The Blackview BL9000 Pro manages 160 x 120. Oukitel leads the segment on this single metric, and the gap is not small.

Resolution tells part of the story. NETD tells the rest. The WP500 Ultra claims a figure below 50 millikelvin. NETD measures thermal sensitivity. A lower value means the sensor can resolve finer temperature differences, which produces more useful images in real conditions. The stated accuracy of plus or minus 2 degrees Celsius is standard for sensors in this class.

Two AI processing layers sit on top of the raw sensor output. Smart ClearTherm handles image enhancement. SceneSync Fusion attempts real-time scene interpretation and object classification.

The problem here is that I’ve no idea what the actual sensor is, because Oukitel haven’t divulged that. And, it might be that what I’m seeing is 320 x 256 thermal data that is then AI processed with the 8MP data from the S5K4H8. That said, however these results are achieved, it looks remarkably good in my examples.

The practical applications are genuine. Electricians finding overheating components, surveyors checking insulation continuity, security professionals detecting heat signatures, and maintenance engineers spotting failing machinery before it breaks are all realistic use cases for this technology.

If you want to take ordinary pictures, the 108MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KHM6 is a stalwart, delivering great colour-balanced images that are sharp and have a great dynamic range even without HDR turned on.

However, it was when I was taking night vision images that I ran into some issues, specifically in relation to the hard plastic bumper.

It appears that the IR lights used to illuminate scenes interact with the bumper, causing it to emit or refract light back into the Samsung 8MP S5K4H8. This causes odd reflections and smears that can clearly be seen. In one of my example images is a printer, and there is one of these aberrations crossing over it. Once I removed the bumper, these went away, and the images had significantly more contrast.

This is clearly a problem Oukitel overlooked, and those who use the night vision mode will need to ditch the bumper and find something else.

To finish on a high note, Oukitel used some of the asking price to cover Widevine L1 certification. That means Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ deliver full-resolution content rather than a downgraded stream. For professionals on extended deployments who want something decent to watch in the evening, it is a useful detail.

Outkitel WP500 Ultra Camera samplesMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark PickavanceMark Pickavance

• Camera score: 4/5

Outkitel WP500 Ultra: Performance

• 4nm SoC
• High-tier performance

Phone

 

Oukitel WP500 Ultra

Oukitel WP210

SoC

 

MediaTek Dimensity 8300

Mediatek Dimensity 8200

GPU

 

Mali-G615 MC6

Mali-G610 MC6

NPU

 

MediaTek NPU 580

MediaTek NPU 580

Memory

 

12GB/1TB

12GB/512GB

Weight

 

414.3g

311g

Battery

 

10000

8800

Geekbench

Single

1239

1246

 

Multi

3525

3968

 

OpenCL

7196

4310

 

Vulkan

8171

4736

PCMark

3.0 Score

15219

13970

 

Battery

22h 37m (19%)

22h 44m

Charge 30

%

42

26

Passmark

Score

18554

16455

 

CPU

8748

8490

3DMark

Slingshot OGL

Maxed Out

Maxed Out

 

Slingshot Ex. OGL

Maxed Out

Maxed Out

 

Slingshot Ex. Vulkan

Maxed Out

Maxed Out

Wildlife

7958

6023

 

Nomad Lite

953

625

Initially, I was going to compare the WP500 Ultra with another phone that had thermal credentials, but my tests don’t cover that aspect, so I went with a different approach.

From the same brand, the WP210 has similar specifications but a smaller battery and no thermal camera. The smaller battery sheds 25% of the weight, though the Dimensity 8200 isn’t far from what its 8300 brother offers at computing tasks.

Where the 8300 excels is with its GPU, which, in a few tests, was 70% quicker at OpenGL and Vulkan. But deep diving into the data I captured when I tested these phones, the GPU improvements mostly come from the memory model each phone deploys.

On the WP210, the average memory latency was 42.5 ns, and database operations were 55,8 KOps per second, whereas on the WP500 Ultra, those numbers were only 32.7ns latency and 228 KOps per second. Those memory enhancements, coupled with the 4th Gen Valhall architecture improvements in the Mali-G615 MC6, explain why the 8300 is that much better at graphics than the 8200.

While the battery life looks similar, as I recall, the WP210 was completely exhausted at 22 hours and 44 minutes, whereas the WP500 Ultra still had 19% capacity left. That implies another 4 or more hours of runtime to completely empty the battery.

A slightly sobering point is that you can get the WP210 direct from Oukitel for $449.99/£295.99, making it substantially cheaper than the WP500 Ultra. It comes down to whether you need the thermal camera or the extra performance if you wish to invest another $250 in the WP500 Ultra.

• Performance score: 4/5

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Outkitel WP500 Ultra: Final verdict

The Oukitel WP500 Ultra is a phone with a clear identity. It knows exactly who it is built for, and it does not try to be something else. The thermal camera resolution leads the segment, and the hardware kill switch is a unique feature in consumer smartphones.

The Dimensity 8300 and 1TB storage give it a performance foundation that most rugged phones cannot match.

The price is the problem. At $699.99, the WP500 Ultra faces serious competition from the AGM G3 Pro. Both offer compelling alternatives for buyers who do not need a hardware privacy disconnect. Oukitel wins on specialisation. It loses on the value aspect for the general buyer.

For professionals who regularly work with thermal imaging, operate in environments where hardware privacy controls are not optional, and need a rugged phone that can keep up with serious workloads, the WP500 Ultra earns its price. For everyone else, the AGM G3 Pro is the smarter spend.

One thing needs resolving before any enterprise buyer commits. Oukitel must confirm its software update policy. Seven years is the benchmark. Anything less at this price needs to be disclosed clearly and reflected in the final recommendation.

That said, no other phone matches 640 x 512 thermal resolution at this cost. The Dimensity 8300 is genuinely fast, and the 1TB of storage is exceptional. For professionals who will use those tools every day, these features might justify the outlay. For everyone else, there might be cheaper alternatives elsewhere.

Should I buy a Outkitel WP500 Ultra?Oukitel WP66 Score Card

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Value

Not a cheap phone, but the thermal vision system justifies some of the cost.

4/5

Design

Not a radical departure, but there are some missing features.

3.5/5

Hardware

Powerful SoC, 1TB of storage and 10000mAh of battery

4/5

Camera

Impressive thermal AI camera and 108MP main sensor

4/5

Performance

Decent performance and efficient use of the battery

4/5

Overall

Great features, an annoying bumper, but the price is too high

4/5

Buy it if...

You need thermal imaging
This is the highest thermal resolution available on a smartphone, though some of this might be AI-enhanced from lower-resolution data. But it's good for thermal work, unless you need a macro for electronics work.

You can make sense of the privacy kill switch
Not leaking critical information from private meetings is something many in business would find an important feature. However, the button doesn’t stop anyone else from doing it around you, so it might not have the impact you want.

Don't buy it if...

You travel light
For some, a phone weighing more than 400g is a practical dealbreaker, and the size of this one won’t allow it to fit in a trouser pocket.

You need a MicroSD/TF card
While the WP500 Ultra does have 1TB of internal storage, you can’t expand this with a memory card like most other rugged smartphones. If you use these cards to capture images and video and then store them, you will need to come up with a different approach.

Also Consider

Ulefone Armor Mini 20 Pro
Another practical, rugged design with an inbuilt camping light, night vision camera and about 60% of the battery capacity of the WP500 Ultra. It’s cheap, but conversely, the cameras aren’t as good, and the SoC isn’t as powerful. For those needing a cheap, tough phone, the Ulefone Armour Mini 20 Pro might be a good choice as it's easily pocketable.

Read our Ulefone Armor Mini 20 Pro reviewView Deal

AGM G3 Pro
A slightly lower-spec phone that uses the Dimensity 7300 platform and has a 512 x 384-resolution thermal camera. However, the trade down in hardware knocks about $70 off the cost of the WP500 Ultra, and it weighs less, too.

Check out my full AGM G3 Pro review

For more ruggedized devices, we've reviewed the best rugged tablets, the best rugged laptops, and the best rugged hard drives