Latest news with #RSeries
Tom's Guide
3 days ago
- Business
- Tom's Guide
My favorite midrange phone is now available for the same low price that made me fall in love with it
I'm a big fan of the R Series phones from OnePlus, which takes many of the premium features found in that company's flagship phones and repackages them in a more affordable device. The OnePlus 13R is certainly part of that fine tradition, even if it costs a little bit more than its predecessor. But thanks to a current smartphone deal, you can get the OnePlus 13R for just $499 at Best Buy — and even wind up with a little bit of cash to spend on other gadgets. Best Buy currently lists the OnePlus 13R at its usual $599 starting price. But dig a little deeper, and you'll see that if you activate the phone with either AT&T or Verizon when buying it from Best Buy, you can save $100. On top of that, Best Buy is offering a $100 e-gift card whether you buy the phone unlocked or not. The OnePlus 13R delivers impressive battery life, strong performance from a high-end Snapdragon chipset and improved cameras over its predecessor. There's only a 256GB model, which means the phone starts at $599, but if you activate the phone with either AT&T or Verizon when purchasing it from Best Buy, the price drops to $499 — the same cost as the 128GB OnePlus 12R. Best Buy also includes a $100 gift card with your purchase. The OnePlus 13R delivers everything we love in a good midrange phones, starting with some of the best phone battery life we've seen. The phone fell just shy of 19 hours in our battery test, topping the average device's performance by an astounding 10.5 hours. When testing the phone for my OnePlus 13R review, I was also impressed by how much better the cameras were compared to the OnePlus 12R. The fact that OnePlus includes a 50MP portrait lens that doubles as a telephoto camera helps out matters considerably, but a new sensor for the main lens also captures more light, resulting in better low-light performance. I also appreciate the fact that unlike other midrange phones that use lesser chips, the OnePlus 13R turns to a fairly recent Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which powered some of the top phones of 2024. The catch is that OnePlus only offers a 256GB configuration for the OnePlus 13R. While the extra storage is nice, it also means the OnePlus 13R's starting price is $100 more than the 128GB OnePlus 12R available in the U.S. last year. That's where Best Buy's deal comes in, knocking off that $100 when you activate the phone with a carrier and throwing in that extra gift card to sweeten the deal. Don't want to commit to a carrier with your smartphone purchase? You can buy the OnePlus 13R unlocked at Amazon, which is currently selling the phone for $549 — a $50 discount.
News.com.au
13-06-2025
- News.com.au
Why Australian passports are so expensive
Aussies have questioned if they are getting bang for their buck with the latest series of passports being issued to citizens, showing how they appear to quickly become misshapen. The R series Australian passport, which was rolled out from September 2022, promised to be 'even more secure' than its 2014 predecessor the P series. 'In an Australian first, the R Series has a high security photo page made of layered plastic, making the passport harder to forge and less susceptible to damage,' the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said at the time. A standard adult passport with a 10-year validity costs $412, although shipping fees often bump that price up significantly ($300 for priority processing or $104 for fast track). But some Australians have noted that despite paying the most in the world for the their passports, the front cover of new issues have been bending much quicker than old ones. One Reddit compared the wear on their new passport to older international counterparts, sharing an image showing the Australian document looking worse for wear. 'A Japanese passport (6 years old), a German passport (3 years old) and an Australian passport (2 weeks old). Stored under same conditions,' they wrote. The post drew hundreds of comment, with one remarking: 'Yeah and guess which one costs the most, right?! +$400 now for it.' A similar Reddit thread started in the same week also showed the new passport side-by-side with the previous generation, with the fresh document displaying significantly more curling. 'I just got a brand new one. It was curling from the moment I took it out of the envelope,' one commenter wrote. Independent Senator David Pocock this year commented on the issue and compared the $412 cost of Aussie passports to its counterparts, showing citizens of New Zealand, Canada and the US pay half as much or less. 'This seems totally nuts that we charge Australians so much to have a passport,' he wrote on his social media accounts. David Beirman, an adjunct fellow of management and tourism at the University of Technology, said the government used passports and international visas as a 'cash cow'. 'It's got nothing to do with the cost of producing our passports and the fact that there's a lot of security elements in our passport to make sure that they are safe,' he said. 'But what Australia does isn't hugely different from what just about every other country does. 'So it's a money-making thing. 'It's essentially a monopoly enterprise. They can charge whatever the hell they want.' Dr Beirman, however, pointed out that Australians benefited from visa-free travel in many countries and saved on costs in that department. 'Our passports are one of the more powerful passports in the world … so it's a good passport. 'From that point of view, it's definitely well worth the money.' In a short statement, a DFAT spokesperson defended the quality and cost of the R series passports. 'The Australian passport is respected internationally as a high-quality travel document,' they said. 'This is a key reason why Australian passport holders receive visa-free access to over 180 countries – a practical benefit for many Australians.' Passport costs are indexed in line with inflation, and have risen several times in recent years. The curling is attributed to changes in humidity and it should not affect the validity of the passport at international points of entry. Authorities and the manufacturer work to improve both quality and security of Australian passports. One Reddit user shared a recent response they received from the Australian Passport Office (APO) after complaining about their document. 'The APO is aware of some instances of curling passport covers and has been investigating this issue, including consulting with counterparts in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and United States, who have also observed issues with curling of their passport covers,' it said. The APO continued: 'As a part of our continuing investigation, our blank passport book supplier is conducting testing on components of the production line to identify and remediate the issue.' The body also explained it no longer provided the protective plastic sleeves issued with previous generations of the passport to 'minimise our carbon footprint and reduce plastic waste entering our environment'.
