Daily Authority: 🎮 Game over for gaming phones?

🍩 Good Morning, Daily Authority readers. Wednesdays are usually the sweet spot in the week. The Monday rush is over, and Friday is just around the corner. I quite like the day, especially because I get to compile this newsletter for you guys.

Today we have another smartphone brand leaving the game for greener pastures, or as Lenovo puts it, “a wider business transformation.” To be clear, the company will continue making Motorola phones, but it’s the end of the road for the Legion brand of gaming phones. This and more in today’s Daily Authority.

Game over for gaming phones?

The dedicated gaming phone space hasn’t been receiving a lot of attention of late. Things are also not looking good for gaming phones out there. Is their time up? Does anyone really need a dedicated gaming phone with powerful Android devices out there in general?

• Lenovo has already backed away from the game. The company confirmed to Android Authority that it’s shuttering the Legion Gaming phone line for good.
• Lenovo’s decision comes on the back of a wider gaming portfolio consolidation.
• But let’s face it, the dedicated gaming phone industry isn’t ripe for the picking right now.
• With Lenovo gone, there are only two brands left in the game: ASUS with its ROG phones and Nubia with its REDMAGIC devices. Razer was wise enough to stop making gaming phones a long while back.
• What about Xiaomi-backed Black Shark? Well, the company laid off hundreds of employees recently. It’s reportedly having trouble paying out salaries. There’s also word going around that Black Shark devices are off the market.
• A quick look at the Black Shark website in different parts of the world shows that none of the phones the company makes are available to purchase. They are out of stock everywhere, including last year’s Black Shark 5 series.

Gaming phones KOed?

• Let’s face it, you don’t need a dedicated gaming phone to play games.
• There are plenty of powerful handsets out there that are great for gaming, including the Galaxy S23 Ultra, iPhone 14 Pro, and even cheaper devices like the Poco F4 GT, the newly launched Redmi Note 12 Turbo, realme’s GT Neo 5, and more.
• Gaming phones also don’t bring all the goods that regular flagships do. Often users have to make compromises in areas like photography, design, software updates, and more.
• They do bring dedicated features for mobile gamers, but that’s not a big enough draw for consumers looking for all-rounder flagships that they’ll stick with for at least a few years.
• So is it time to sound the death knell for gaming phones? Well, I wouldn’t want to discourage companies still in the game, but it looks like, eventually, they too might have to surrender their weapons.

Roundup

📱 While we’re still talking gaming phones, the specs of the ROG Phone 7 have leaked, and it’s not all great news (Android Authority).

🙏🏼 Onto foldable phones — Looks like a new Galaxy Z Flip 4 competitor is coming soon from a brand that’s never made a clamshell phone before (Android Authority).

🍏 In Apple land: Is Apple Pay Later a new reason for Android users to jump platforms? (Android Authority).

🔍 Switching gears to Google — there’s a new “Perspectives” feature coming to Search (Android Authority).

🏠 Google’s ADT partnership also has a new home security product to show for it (ADT)

👋🏻 Also, AI-powered hand-raising gesture is coming to Google Meets (9to5Google).

🔐 Speaking of AI, Microsoft is letting its generative AI loose on cybersecurity (TechCrunch).

🤐 Meanwhile, the craziness continues on Twitter. The platform wants you to pay to be seen or heard (Android Authority).

😕 Tweet replies have also stopped showing who users are replying to (The Verge).

Wonderful Wednesday

The new Zelda game is bringing back some of the most-loved features of Breath of the Wild. In the new 10-minute gameplay preview of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, producer Eiji Aonuma showed off all the ways players can interact with the environment, just like in the previous game.

• Breath of the Wild featured Stasis and Magnesis, two abilities that allowed players to bend physics and move stuff around.
• In Tears of the Kingdom, players will get at least two brand new tricks like those, one called Fuse and another known as Ultra Hand.
• Players can also create their own weapons from items around them in the game world.
• Link is also getting a new mobility trick to swim up through any space with a ceiling.
• TechCrunch has done a great job of summing up the new preview. You can read that take here.
• The game’s out on May 12, and from what we can see, it looks pretty wonderful!

Have a nice day,

Adamya Sharma, Editor