Technologies

This ‘Game of Thrones’ Limited Edition Phone Is the Coolest Collector’s Item I’ve Seen in 2025

Commentary: Realme collaborated with Warner Bros. Discovery to launch the limited-edition phone. It’s artistic, innovative and exciting all at once.

Game of Thrones was a cultural phenomenon in its prime, and it still seems to generate plenty of interest. That’s why, six years after the show ended, Chinese phone-maker Realme has collaborated with Warner Bros. Discovery to give us a phone that appears to have come straight out of Westeros. Instead of just adding a theme to the UI or a couple of design changes, the two companies have transformed a midrange smartphone into a unique collector’s piece.

An unboxing experience like no other

Unlike modern smartphones, the Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition screams premium (and royal) from its packaging. It’s filled with Easter eggs from the show. You get a walnut wood-textured gift box with metallic edges, which features eye-catching design elements like the sigils of all nine houses of Westeros and a GOT metal nameplate.

I was already amazed with the packaging, but wasn’t ready for what was to come.

Opening the box reveals a stunning 3D Iron Throne, designed to hold the phone. Once you look past that over-the-top craftsmanship, you’re led to an inlaid map of Westeros with introductions to Houses Stark and Targaryen. It evokes the grandeur and drama that GOT fans would expect.

Lifting the right side of this flatly laid box reveals the phone, while the left side houses customized accessories and more Easter eggs, including a UV-treated letter whose text is only visible when exposed to sunlight. And that’s not even the best part.

My favorite is the customized SIM-ejector tool, which is inspired by Tyrion Lannister and styled to look like the King’s Hand pin. Other phone accessories include a case, an 80-watt charger and a USB-A to USB-C cable. Plus, there are a few stickers and four postcards with portraits of Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, Arya Stark and Tyrion Lannister.

This is the perfect mix of artistry and innovation

The Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition features some striking visual elements. It has Westeros house sigils engraved under the glass housing of the now-extended camera module, with dragon claws digging into the two bottom corners.

Each camera lens sports a gold accent ring with different engravings. The main lens is engraved with House Stark’s iconic «Winter is Coming,» while the chroma sensor ring below features House Lannister’s «Hear Me Roar.» Moving toward the bottom of the camera module, you’ll find another elegant «Fire and Blood» engraving.

Too much text can sometimes lessen the charm of a design, but not on this phone. The black-and-gold themed camera island has so many details and, surprisingly, none of them grabs attention from the other.

The Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition also features a 3D-engraved House Targaryen sigil on its lower back. Its gold accent offers a stunning contrast to the rest of the back’s black color, and is only accentuated by the matte finish on the gold side frame. Every time I pick this phone up, I pause and look at it for a bit. You can admire this design all day long.

As if that wasn’t enough, Realme made a color-changing back panel. Its black leather transforms into a vivid red color when exposed to temperatures of 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher. As it cools, the panel returns to its original black. It’s super cool to see the color-changing effect in action. The phone is IP68 and IP69 rated, so you don’t need to worry about water getting through.

This immersive experience continues as you switch on and set up the phone. Realme’s GOT-themed design language extends to its UI, including a Targaryen house sigil on the fingerprint unlock, two unique camera filters (Northland and Kingdom), custom icons and Light and Fire-themed live wallpapers.

As for the specifications, it’s identical to the regular Realme 15 Pro. So, you get a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen with support for a 144Hz refresh rate. It’s easily legible outdoors.

The new Realme phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset, paired with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It packs a 7,000 mAh battery with support for 80-watt fast charging, which is rated to charge the phone from 20% to 100% within an hour.

Despite the big battery and screen size, this special edition Realme phone weighs under 200 grams. It might not seem like a huge deal on paper, but it’s one of the most comfortable-to-use big phones, in my experience. It’s also slimmer than many mainstream flagship phones. For context, it measures 7.84mm, which is less than the iPhone 17 (7.95mm) and Google Pixel 10 (8.6mm). Doing this with a hint of luxury makes it an excellent value proposition.

The Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition is a spectacular mix of artistry, innovation, drama and grandeur. It sports the right amount of extravagance and practicality to be a collector’s item as well as a day-to-day phone.

Realme is only making 5,000 units of this special-edition device, and it’s now available to purchase in India, though it’s currently out of stock. The Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition doesn’t get a huge price bump over the regular model. It remains attainable at 44,999 rupees (approximately $510), which is a great price when you account for all the unique extras.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Dec. 5 #642

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Dec. 5, No. 642.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one, and the theme is interesting. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Feeling peckish?

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Can I see a menu?

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BAKE, BAKER, BONE, BONES, SIRS, FUNS, FACT, BUTT, DIET, DIETS, GREW, STEW, GOUT, DINE, NEST, NETS, TEAK

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

BAKERY, CAFE, BISTRO, BUFFET, BREWERY, STEAKHOUSE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is DININGOUT. To find it, start with the D that is three letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Dec. 5

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 5.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Three of the clues involve a now-infamous Gen Z/Gen Alpha joke, so you might want to have a young person nearby. Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Beaver’s building project
Answer: DAM

4A clue: Unit of distance originally equivalent to 1,000 paces
Answer: MILE

5A clue: Number of dwarfs or deadly sins
Answer: SEVEN

6A clue: Extra-large film format
Answer: IMAX

7A clue: Crosses (out)
Answer: XES

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Difficult-to-work-with stars
Answer: DIVAS

2D clue: U.S. soccer star ___ Morgan
Answer: ALEX

3D clue: Roughly half of the adult population
Answer: MEN

4D clue: 5-Down-5-Across, for one
Answer: MEME

5D clue: Broadway musical about the wives of Henry VIII
Answer: SIX

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Technologies

The Mystery of the iPhone 17 Pro’s Missing Night Mode for Portraits

Is it a bug? Is it a technical issue? Or did Apple just yank a camera feature that wasn’t popular?

It’s a mystery. Night mode isn’t available in Portrait Mode on the iPhone 17 Pro, and no one seems to know why. Yet.

Night mode automatically brightens photos and captures more details, even in low-light conditions. You can adjust the exposure time manually. In Portrait mode, the camera focuses sharply on the subject you’re snapping and blurs the background, creating a depth-of-field effect.

The first clue that Night mode for Portrait mode was gone came from an Apple support document titled Take Night mode photos with your iPhone camera. It states what many iPhone aficionados already know: «Night mode automatically brightens photos and captures more detail in low light.»

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Night mode for the iPhone 17 Pro is listed in two separate parts of the iPhone online user guide (here and also here) for selfies and time-lapse photos. But it isn’t included on the guide’s list for snapping Night mode photos in Portrait mode. The feature is still available on iPhone Pro and Pro Max on the 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 series.

Upon investigation, CNET staffers verified that, indeed, Night mode is no longer an option in Portrait mode with the iPhone 17 Pro.

An Apple representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

When the iPhone 17 Pro was launched in September, Andrew Lanxon, CNET’s lead photographer in Europe, was impressed by the camera upgrades over the iPhone 16 Pro, including optical zoom that doubled to 8x, a telephoto camera sensor 56% larger than before and 48 megapixels of resolution.

Lanxon, a professional photographer and YouTuber, was excited to get shooting with the iPhone 17 Pro. But apparently, he will have to do without Night mode in Portrait mode.

Why did Apple do it?

Why was Night mode removed? «There doesn’t appear to be a hardware reason for it,» said CNET senior writer Jeff Carlson. «The Lidar camera that helps with low-light focusing and depth perception is still there. Perhaps it’s a software issue, but as of the iOS 26.2 release candidate, the feature isn’t present.»

Carlson found it curious that it’s taken three months since the launch of the new pro model before people noticed that it’s missing. He speculates that the feature was possibly removed because it «wasn’t being used and Apple could devote other processing resources elsewhere,» he said. «Perhaps something broke in the development of the new operating system and revamped Camera app, and it hasn’t been a high enough priority to fix in the regular release schedule.

«People have gotten used to having iPhone models that enable shots that are otherwise difficult for smartphone cameras, especially on a flagship like the iPhone 17 Pro,» Carlson said. «I hope the feature returns to give everyone the most control over the photos they capture.»

One parallel might be what Samsung did earlier this year — removing S Pen Bluetooth connectivity on the new S25 Ultra. Samsung said they removed the feature because not many people were using it. Is Apple doing the same thing with Night mode for portraits?

Some people miss it, some don’t

A subreddit on the topic appeared to be a mix of «who cares» and «oh darn.» Redditor kaoss_pad was «low key happy» that the feature had vanished, saying that «it would often surprise me and activate when I didn’t want it and ruin a moment.»

Some Redditors weren’t even aware of the feature. CultofCedar posted, «lol didn’t even notice that wasn’t a thing,» and Successful-Cover5433 wrote, «I didn’t even know you could.»

A couple of folks weren’t happy about the mysterious disappearance, including nsfdrag, who posted, «Kind of a bummer, I like the feature.»