Technologies

Pokemon Legends: Z-A Hands-On: Trying Out Real-Time and Mega-Evolution Fights

A 20-minute peek at the highly-anticipated sequel to Pokemon Legends: Arceus.

I wandered the halls of the Anaheim Convention Center days before it would be flooded with tens of thousands of fans for the 2025 Pokemon World Championships, looking for a tucked-away room to get a taste of a game diehard Poke-nerds would give anything to see. For a brief 20 minutes, I got to play Pokemon Legends: Z-A.

Let’s be clear: My time with the upcoming game — split into two 10-minute sessions — was hardly enough to reveal every way Z-A will build on its predecessor. The groundbreaking 2022 title Pokemon Legends: Arceus brought the storied monster-training franchise into an open world set in its distant past — a wilder, less civilized era when Pokemon roamed the land largely unchecked.

Instead, Pokemon Legends: Z-A brings the series into the present — a shift that’s stirred mixed feelings among fans. In my brief hands-on, though, I spotted some promising tweaks to the Arceus formula, especially on the Switch 2 (docked mode, to be exact), where I saw no performance hiccups.

The first 10-minute slice of Pokemon Legends: Z-A focused on trainer battles in a sprawling city. I started with a four-monster team which included familiar faces like Chikorita, Mareep and Weedle, and entered the Battle Zone. There, I could challenge (and be challenged by) other trainers. All of it was part of the mysterious, eponymous Z-A Royale, a competitive league where I began at the very bottom: Z grade, naturally.

The twisting alleys of the Battle Zone hid trainers ready to pounce, but unlike in Arceus, battles here start instantly in the field and play out in real time — enemy Pokemon will chip away at your HP if you don’t send one of your own to fight. Holding L2 targets an opponent, and each of your monster’s moves is mapped to the face buttons (A, B, X, Y), each with its own cooldown. That let me slip in stat-affecting moves like Growl between damage-dealing Tackles — almost like injecting some fast-paced Pokemon Unite DNA into the open-world formula. Swapping Pokemon is simple: Use the directional pad to pick a benched monster, then press up to switch it in.

Like any Pokemon game, trainers can catch you off guard, letting their Pokemon sneak in a few attacks before you send out your own. You can turn the tables by locking on with L2 and choosing an attack from your active Pokemon, making the Battle Zones feel almost like PvP areas. Unlike in Arceus, you can use potions and other healing items between or during battles — just watch out, as real-time attacks don’t pause while you’re in menus.

With my party of level-seven and -eight monsters and just a trio of trainers to beat, this Battle Zone felt like an early section designed to help players get acclimated. There’s no telling how complex future Battle Zones might get — or what other environments might allow battles between trainers (or even wild Pokemon). These areas seem tuned to the Z-A Royale competition, with beaten trainers awarding not just rank-improving tickets but also prize medals (earned for wins and forfeited for losses). Battle Zones take place at night, and at daybreak you’ll receive prize money based on how many medals you’ve won or found lying around.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s Mega-Evolution battles

The second 10-minute demo, short as it was, held the flashier attraction: a Mega-Evolution battle that served as a hefty, story-driven boss encounter. While Arceus had plenty of big, strong Pokemon to encounter in the wild, Z-A’s addition of Mega Evolution lets players face beefed-up versions of regular monsters in longer, more challenging fights.

I started the demo chasing a legendary Zygarde in its dog-like 10% form, which led me to a city rooftop and an Absol radiating Mega Power. It’s not the first time Pokemon have bristled with unstable energy — a mysterious, professorly figure named AZ caught up to us, calling it another Rogue Mega Evolution. Just as the creature evolved into Mega Absol, AZ lent us his Lucario to battle the frenzied Pokemon.

This boss battle took the lion’s share of the second demo to beat, building on the real-time combat I’d experienced with trainers and adding its own unique mechanic: When I’d dealt enough damage to the Mega Absol, it would drop colorful Mega Power orbs I could collect. While dangerous to collect — the Mega-Evolved Pokemon hurled attacks my trainer had to dodge or risk losing health — filling the bar let me Mega-Evolve my Lucario to carve off even bigger chunks of the boss’s HP.

What followed was a fun romp and a promising glimpse at the game’s boss battles, with me (the trainer) darting around the small arena to dodge lunges and ranged attacks while managing Lucario’s move cooldowns to chip away at Mega Absol’s health. Some of those moves were damaging, while at least one other — Protect — nullified enemy attacks, a very neat application of an otherwise passive, classic Pokemon move.

After a close shave with my health in the red, I defeated Mega Absol and won an Absolite for my trouble — a stone that would let me attach it to my own Absol to Mega-Evolve it in a future battle.

My 20 minutes with Pokemon Legends: Z-A left a lot of questions unanswered about the upcoming game, which comes out Oct. 16. Would it have the Breath of the Wild-style open-world exploration that made Pokemon Legends: Arceus such a success? What other changes are in store for the switch to a modern-day setting? But at least I can satisfy fan curiosity about the real-time combat: It’s engaging, fast and rewards quick thinking to maximize type advantages. Still, plenty of stones remain unturned for Pokemon Legends: Z-A.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Sept. 19

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Sept. 19.

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.

I didn’t get off to a great start with today’s Mini Crossword, completely blanking on 1-Across. Thankfully, the other clues were easy, and that answer filled itself in. Need some help? 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: Cancel on plans at the last moment
Answer: FLAKE

6A clue: Shade of light purple
Answer: LILAC

7A clue: ___ acid (protein builder)
Answer: AMINO

8A clue: Sarcastic «Yeah, sure»
Answer: IBET

9A clue: Sardonic boss on «Parks and Recreation»
Answer: RON

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Stylish panache
Answer: FLAIR

2D clue: Party game that tests how low you can go
Answer: LIMBO

3D clue: Visitor from outer space
Answer: ALIEN

4D clue: Philosopher who posed the question «What can I know?»
Answer: KANT

5D clue: Environmentally friendly prefix
Answer: ECO

Technologies

Your Old Android Isn’t Dead. These Tweaks Can Bring It Back to Life

Clear space, optimize your battery and update the basics. These quick changes can make an old Android phone feel snappier.

You don’t need the latest Android flagship to get good performance.

Thanks to longer software support from brands like Google and Samsung, older models can still run smoothly, as long as you give them a little attention. Clearing out unused apps, updating your software and tweaking a few settings can breathe new life into a device that feels sluggish. These quick fixes can help your phone last longer and save you from spending on an early upgrade.

Before you start shopping for a replacement, try a few simple adjustments. You might be surprised by how much faster your phone feels once you free up space, optimize battery use and turn off background drains.

Whether you use a Samsung Galaxy, Motorola or OnePlus phone, chances are you can still improve battery life and overall speed without buying something new. Just remember that Android settings vary slightly from brand to brand, so the menus may look a little different depending on your phone.

Don’t miss any of CNET’s unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome.

Settings to improve your battery life

Living with a phone that has poor battery life can be infuriating, but there are some steps you can take to maximize each charge right from the very beginning:

1. Turn off auto screen brightness or adaptive brightness and set the brightness level slider to under 50%

The brighter your screen, the more battery power it uses.

To get to the setting, pull down the shortcut menu from the top of the screen and adjust the slider, if it’s there. Some phones may have a toggle for auto brightness in the shortcut panel; otherwise, you need to open the settings app and search for «brightness» to find the setting and turn it off.

2. Use Adaptive Battery and Battery Optimization

These features focus on learning how you use your phone, including which apps you use and when, and then optimizing the apps and the amount of battery they use.

Some Android phones have a dedicated Battery section in the Settings app, while other phones (looking at you, Samsung) bury these settings. It’s a little different for each phone. I recommend opening your settings and searching for «battery» to find the right screen. Your phone may also have an adaptive charging setting that can monitor how quickly your phone battery charges overnight to preserve its health.

Why you should use dark mode more often

Another way to improve battery life while also helping save your eyes is to use Android’s dedicated dark mode. Any Android phone running Android 10 or newer will have a dedicated dark mode option.

According to Google, dark mode not only reduces the strain that smartphone displays cause on our eyes but also improves battery life because it takes less power to display dark backgrounds on OLED displays (used in most flagship phones) than a white background.

Depending on which version of Android your phone is running, and what company made your phone, you may have to dig around the settings app to find a dark mode. If your phone runs Android 10 or newer, you’ll be able to turn on system-wide dark mode. If it runs Android 9, don’t despair. Plenty of apps have their own dark mode option in the settings that you can use, whether or not you have Android 10.

To turn it on dark mode, open the Settings app and search for Dark Mode, Dark Theme or even Night Mode (as Samsung likes to call it). I suggest using dark mode all the time, but if you’re not sure, you can always set dark mode to automatically turn on based on a schedule, say from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day, or allow it to automatically switch based on your location at sunset and sunrise.

Keep your home screen free of clutter

Planning to hit up the Google Play Store for a bunch of new Android apps? Be prepared for a lot of icon clutter on your home screen, which is where shortcuts land every time you install something.

If you don’t want that, there’s a simple way out of this: Long-press on an empty area of your home screen and tap Settings. Find the option labeled something along the lines of Add icon to Home Screen or Add new apps to Home Screen and turn it off.

Presto! No more icons on the home screen when you install new apps. You can still add shortcuts by dragging an app’s icon out of the app drawer, but they won’t appear on your home screen unless you want them to.

Read more: Best Android Phones You Can Buy in 2024

Set up Do Not Disturb so that you can better focus

If your phone routinely spends the night on your nightstand, you probably don’t want it beeping or buzzing every time there’s a call, message or Facebook alert — especially when you’re trying to sleep. Android offers a Do Not Disturb mode that will keep the phone more or less silent during designated hours. On some phones, this is referred to as the Downtime setting or even Quiet Time.

Head to Settings > Sounds (or Notifications), then look for Do Not Disturb or a similar name. If you can’t find it, search for it using the built-in search feature in your settings.

Using the feature, you can set up a range of hours when you want to turn off the digital noise. Don’t worry, any notifications you get while Do Not Disturb is turned on will still be waiting for you when you wake up. Also, you can typically make an exception that allows repeat callers and favorite contacts’ calls to go through. Turn that on. If someone is calling you in an emergency, odds are they are going to keep trying.

Always be prepared in case you lose your phone or it’s stolen

Is there anything worse than a lost or stolen phone? Only the knowledge that you could have tracked it down if you had turned on Google’s Find My Device feature.

To prepare for a successful recovery, here’s what you need to do: Open the Settings app and then search for Find My Device. It’s usually in the Security section of the Settings app.

If you have a Samsung device, you can use Samsung’s Find My Mobile service, which is found in Settings > Biometrics and security > Find My Mobile.

Once that’s enabled, you can head to android.com/find from any PC or mobile device and sign in to your account. Samsung users can visit findmymobile.samsung.com to find a lost phone.

If you have trouble setting any of this up, be sure to read our complete guide to finding a lost Android phone.

Assuming your phone is on and online, you should be able to see its location on a map. From there, you can make it ring, lock it, set a lock screen note to tell whoever has it how to get it back to you, or, worst-case scenario, remotely wipe the whole thing.

And always keep your phone up to date

As obvious as it may seem, a simple software update could fix bugs and other issues slowing down your Android device.

Before you download and install the latest software update, make sure your device is connected to Wi-Fi, or else this won’t work.

Now, open the Settings application and type in Update. You’ll then either see Software update or System update — choose either one. Then just download the software, wait for a few minutes and install it when it’s ready. Your Android device will reboot and install the latest software update available.

There’s a lot more to learn about a new phone. Here are the best ways to boost your cell signal, and here’s a flagship phone head-to-head comparison. Plus, check out CNET’s list of the best cases for your Samsung phone. More of an Apple fan? We have tips for boosting your iPhone’s performance, too.

Technologies

Your Pixel 10 Might Have Issues With Older Wireless Chargers

You might want to try taking the case off your phone in order to successfully charge it.

When Google introduced the Pixel 10 lineup in August, it became one of the first major Android phones to receive the Qi 2 wireless charging standard, which Google calls Pixelsnap. However, users noticed issues with wireless charging on the Pixel 10 almost immediately after its release.

Some people are having trouble charging their phone with the new Pixelsnap charger, and others are having issues with older wireless chargers, including Google’s own Pixel Stands. The bulk of the problems happen when a case is on the phone — whether it has the magnet array or not.

I own both the first and second generation Pixel Stands and both will charge my Pixel 10 Pro XL without an issue if there’s no case on it. However, when I add a case to my phone, the problems begin.

I have three cases for my phone, the Mous Super Thin Clear Case, the Magnetic Slim Case Fit by Grecazo, and a no-name soft TPU case. If my phone has any of those cases on and I attempt to charge it while it’s vertical, it starts to charge and then stops after a second or two, and keeps doing that.

I can fix this for the first-generation Pixel Stand by turning the phone horizontal, but it will still charge very slowly. I can’t seem to fix it at all for the Pixel Stand 2 — vertical, horizontal, it doesn’t charge.

Not everyone has this issue

The problem doesn’t seem to be universal. CNET editor Patrick Holland said he had no issues charging the Pixel 10 Pro during his time with it.

A Google spokesperson told me the Pixel 10 lineup is not optimized for older Qi wireless charging standards, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the phones won’t work with older wireless chargers.

Qi 2 is backwards-compatible with older standards, but the phone’s height and charging coil placement on both the phone and the charger are still factors. If you’re having problems, you might see if removing the case helps.

The prospect of potentially needing to replace your older wireless chargers with newer ones isn’t ideal, especially if you shelled out $80 for one or both of Google’s own Pixel Stands. Still, if you want the best wireless charging speed for your brand new Pixel 10 phone, it won’t be with wireless chargers that only support older Qi standards.