📈 Last day: use my Xbox Game Pass hack before the price hike, 📱 Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold review, 🎧 Anker $200 headphones, 💰 Why PS5 is so expensive?

5 tech stories in the quickest format possible

Wednesday’s 5-story newsletter ends with discount codes below ⤵️
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🟩 1. Xbox Game Pass’s price increases after tonight – avoid it for THREE years

• 🟩 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate renewals will increase in price after tonight

• 📈 It’ll cost $20/mo ($60/quarter or $240/yr) for Xbox’s online service

• 🤓 My proven Xbox hack makes it $9/mo ($28/quarter or $122/yr)

• 💵 You can “stack” (aka redeem at once) up to 3 years of Game Pass

• 🤷‍♂️ After tonight, this reliable hack may not work

For the last two years at The Shortcut, I’ve taught subscribers how to get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for 50% off. 67,030 of you took advantage of the deal.

But starting tomorrow, Microsoft will increase the price of Xbox Game Pass renewals from $16.99 to $19.99/mo. It’ll also limit how many passes you can redeem at once. It’s currently three years (36 months), but tomorrow it’ll be capped at 13 months. You’ll want to get the best price for all 36 months and redeem by tonight.

So, once last time, here’s my hack to save:

• Go to Eneba to buy a 3-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate code before it sells out and use my discount code TSC8

• It’ll show $28, which means it’s already discounted from the $51 (today’s price) or $60 (tomorrow’s price) that Microsoft charges on its site. My discount code will save you on any service fees and a little bit extra

• Enter in my discount code before final checkout: TSC8

• Note: some credit cards reject Eneba transactions. But PayPal and American Express have worked for me in the past (yes, I buy this too). You must also be in the US (or use a VPN to pretend to be in the US) to make a purchase.

• Eneba will reveal an individualized Xbox Game Pass Ultimate code to you

• Redeem that code after logging into your Microsoft account

• 🙌 You now have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for 3 months at 50% off!

• 📈 You can (and should) buy up to 10 codes per Eneba transaction (so 30 months) and Microsoft allows you to redeem (aka stack) up to 36 months worth until tomorrow (when it becomes 13 months) and the price goes up

Notes

🤦‍♂️ Common error: Like I said, I helped 67,030 get these discount codes. So…please don’t try to put TSC8 directly into your Microsoft account and then ask me why it doesn’t work. If you do that, you skipped a step. My TSC8 discount code is for Eneba where you get an individualized Xbox Game Pass code for use on Microsoft’s site.

🤔 Still works: Microsoft already raised the price for NEW accounts. But I let my subscription lapse and still tested it out today. I was able to redeem for just $28.

🙋‍♂️ Questions? Ask me on X or on IG or reply to this email. Good luck!

Ask Matt Swider on Twitter or Instagram for hand-picked deals from Walmart / Best Buy / Amazon / B&H / Samsung / Google / GameStop / Xbox / Microsoft Office (PC) deal / MS Office (Mac) deal

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📱 2. Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold review: the best foldable phone yet

🏆 Review score: 4.5 out of 5

Pros

• ✅ 📐 The 6.3-inch front screen size feels like the Pixel 9 Pro

• ✅ 📱 8-inch tablet inner screen is the largest on a phone

• ✅ 🪄 Good cameras with AI magic tricks like ‘Add Me’

• ✅ 👀 Made You Look: a cute way to get kids to look at the camera

• ✅ 💡 Brighter display and slightly thinner bezels than 8 Pro

• ✅ 🤖 Gemini Advanced is free for a year with Pixel Pro phones

• ✅ 🔋 Lasts 24+ hours despite smaller battery capacity

Cons

• ❌ 💰 Starts at $1,799 – almost 2x the price of Pixel 9 Pro

• ❌ 📸 Google’s 2nd best cameras (cheaper Pros have it better)

• ❌ ⚙️ Other minor specs favor the Pixel 9 Pro XL

• ❌ ⚡ Slower wired and wireless charging

• ❌ 🧲 No magnetic Qi2 wireless charging

If the world of smartphones handed out a ‘Most Improved Player Award’, I’d give this year’s prize to Google for its meteoric worst-to-first foldable phone comeback. I’ll be blunt: I bought the Pixel Fold 1 last year and immediately took it back. This year, I’m scoring the new Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold ahead of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6.

This is not a real photo straight out of the camera but an AI composite photo using Google’s Add Me mode. Kevin took the first photo, and I took the second.

The two photos Google's Add Me combined. We got the entire team (minus Adam) in front of the IFA Berlin sign using the Pixel 9 Pro Fold – and WE took the photo, not a stranger and not with an awkward-to-carry tripod (Image credit: Matt Swider and Kevin Lee / The Shortcut)

Google nails the dimensions for a foldable, taking more cues from the OnePlus Open than Samsung. It also throws in the AI camera features I loved in my Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review, like “Add Me” to create composite group pictures so photo takers can jump in the frame. Last year’s “Best Take” returns to swap heads among a series of pics in group photos, eliminating closed and half-closed eyes. These are actually useful AI features that people want.

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🎧 3. Anker’s new $200 headphones seem really impressive

These $199 Anker headphones are a tempting deal, though the Sony Ultra Wear headphones are our current Editor’s Choice and also $199. Review coming soon.

• 🎧 Anker sub-brand Soundcore has announced the Space One Pro headphones

• 😍 They come with a premium design that’s easy to collapse

• 🔕Includes  premium features like ANC and transparency mode

• 🔋60 hours of battery life, up to 3x longer than other wireless headphones

• 💲 They’re priced at $200 and launch today on Amazon

Not everyone can afford the $549 AirPods Pro Max (Amazon link). That’s why we’re testing these new $199 headphones from Anker sub-brand Soundcore. So far, they’re impressive and rival our current favorite affordable headphones, the Sony Ult Wear.

Or go with Sony for the same $199 price:

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💰 4. Why is PS5 Pro so expensive?

• 💰 The newly announced PS5 Pro isn’t cheap at $699.99

• 🥇 It’s the most expensive console Sony has ever made

• 📆 PS5 Pro pre-orders begin on September 26

• 😲 Many were expecting the console to be $599.99 – at most

The price of the PS5 Pro has left many gamers in a state of shock. At $699.99, the PlayStation 5 Pro is the most expensive console Sony has ever released, surpassing even the infamous PS3 reveal in 2005. But why is PS5 Pro so expensive?

Adam dives into what makes the hardware pricey and if it’s worth it.

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🤫 5. Forget iPhone 16 Pro, here’s why iPhone 17 Air is my next Apple upgrade

• 🤔 The rumored iPhone 17 Air could make Apple’s device exciting again

• 🪶 A super slim, lightweight iPhone will appeal to many who seek big changes

• 👏 Apple already proved it can create impossibly thin devices like the iPad Pro

I’m getting an iPhone 16 Pro for that bigger screen and clutch camera button, and I’ll review it on The Shortcut, but Adam is holding out for next year’s iPhone. Given the rumors that it’s shaping up to be a dramatic change, I don’t blame him.

This year’s 6.9-inch iPhone 16 Pro Max really makes me want to see Apple create a foldable just like the Google Pixel 9 Fold Pro I just reviewed. Will we see that next year? The year after? Rumors point to a flip phone – like the one seen in my Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 review – but I want an iPad mini that folds into a phone.

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🔒 Bonus: $100 PS, $50 Nintendo & Xbox gift card deals; 50% off Game Pass

• 🟦 $100 PlayStation giftcard for $88

• 🍄 $50 Nintendo Gift Card for $44

• 🟩 $50 Xbox Gift Card for $44

• ❎ 50% off Xbox Game Pass for $28 (Microsoft’s MSRP is $51 and soon to be $60 for 3 months)

We’re expanding our discount codes for paid subscribers as a pack-in. It’s sort of like CD-ROM pack-ins for subscribers of 90s magazines.

😬 Can’t afford it? Totally fine. I’m opening up more ways to be a paid subscriber for people who can’t spare the $5/mo ($4.16/mo) to keep us going. Support us in other ways by referring your friends & family to The Shortcut. Help us grow!