Audio - Page 27 of 104

Sony RA5000 speaker review: extravagant sound at an unreasonable price

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Sony’s new SRS-RA5000 is a $700 single-unit speaker that is filled to the brim with drivers, has convenient features like Spotify Connect and Chromecast built in, and is capable of producing immersive 360-degree audio.

Though it’s only coming to market now, the RA5000 dates back to CES 2019, where Sony exhibited it as a prototype speaker for its new-for-the-time 360 Reality Audio format. So it’s been in the hopper for a while. Same goes for the smaller, less expensive RA3000, which Sony demonstrated a year later at CES 2020. Now they’ve both evolved into consumer products and look practically unchanged.

At 13 inches tall, the RA5000 is much bigger than any smart speaker. And yes, from the top, it absolutely looks like an oversized electric razor, thanks to the three round speaker grilles. If this thing was all white, you might confuse it for some kind of futuristic humidifier or air purifier. But Sony has stuck with the mix of black and rose gold that has been the signature look for many of its recent headphones and earbuds. I continue to dig the contrast this creates, and the speaker’s sides are covered in a knitted fabric that hides the innards. There are touch-sensitive buttons on the left and right sides. You get volume and play / pause on the right, with the left side handling power, mode selection (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or aux input), and a calibration feature that tweaks the sound for whatever room the RA5000 is in.

There’s no denying the electric razor resemblance.

The internal layout breaks down like this: there are three up-firing speakers, three outward-facing speakers positioned at the middle of the speaker’s sides, and a single subwoofer at the bottom. Around back is a 3.5-millimeter input and a little NFC icon, which you can hold an Android phone to for quick pairing. Underneath the speaker is where the power cord plugs in, and the RA5000 comes with a big honking external power supply. That’s something I didn’t expect to see considering how large the product already is. It needs to be plugged into power at all times, so Sony’s fancy speaker is wireless but by no means portable.

The setup process is… a lot. Sony’s mobile app guides you through numerous steps like adding the RA5000 to the Google Home app, bringing it aboard your Wi-Fi network, linking it to Amazon’s Alexa platform, and more. The speaker initially had a lot of trouble connecting to my home Wi-Fi, but with some persistence, eventually it worked. As is standard for Sony, the app isn’t very polished or pretty, but it gets the job done.

The RA5000 has touch-sensitive capacitive controls.

The RA5000 offers a ton of flexibility for how you play music on it. You can pair a device to the speaker via Bluetooth — AAC and SBC codecs are there, but not LDAC — but you’ll get far better quality when the music is coming over Wi-Fi. There’s built-in Chromecast support for audio casting, and the RA5000 can also be added to a speaker group with either Google Home or Amazon Alexa. I’d have loved for Sony to round out the streaming options with AirPlay 2, but no such luck. The speaker hardware includes a microphone, but this is only used for the calibration feature. You’ll have to rely on another device to get music playing on the RA5000 with your voice, but since it’s compatible with both Alexa and Assistant, this can be done wirelessly with a cheap smart speaker or your phone.

When in traditional stereo mode, this speaker is a powerhouse, though you might expect more bass for the size. (There are EQ options in the Sony app if you want to boost the low end.) It easily blanketed both my living room and bedroom with sound; the up-firing drivers help give it a very full presence. In my average listening, I never pushed volume beyond the 60 percent range. Going much higher would probably result in some very annoyed neighbors if you’re in an apartment. But despite its big, boisterous sound, there’s no mistaking the RA5000 for a proper set of stereo speakers. It sounds every bit like the single enclosure it is.

It dwarfs most other smart speakers.

And that leads us to the standout trick: 360-degree audio. Sony’s 360 Reality Audio uses object-based spatial audio to try to build a captivating soundscape. The pitch is that it can feel “as real as if you are there at a live concert or with the artist recording in a studio.” When you close your eyes and listen to 360 Reality Audio, the RA5000 definitely sounds bigger and wider than its physical footprint. It’s a noticeable change from plain stereo. But does it put me in some mind-blowing sphere of music coming from all directions? No, not really.

When you hop between 360 tracks, you’ll notice that not all content really takes advantage of its scope. It remains unclear how involved and invested most artists really are when it comes to these 360 mixes, so I’m skeptical of any claims that this is how songs were meant to be heard. Jazz sounds fantastic; the instrumentation really benefits from bouncing off walls and your ceiling. Concert recordings, like Liam Gallagher performing Oasis hit “Champagne Supernova” with an enthusiastic sing-along crowd, also have an impressive breadth to them that feels distinct from regular stereo sound. The LED at the bottom of the speaker illuminates green when you’re playing true 360 Reality Audio music.

The speaker supports music over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or aux input.

Only a few music streaming services, including Tidal, Deezer, and Nugs.net, support Sony’s 360 Reality Audio at present. Amazon Music HD will also let you play 360 audio on the RA5000 as of April 6th. You can cast 3D audio directly from these apps to the speaker. But even among services that offer 360 Reality Audio, adoption from musicians and labels has a long way to go. Not a single song in Tidal’s “Top Tracks” section had 360 Reality Audio, nor did any of the Top Albums. That really speaks volumes. There’s a dedicated section in the explore tab where you can easily browse through playlists and albums that do support 360-degree audio. A vast majority of it is older stuff, but recent records like Haim’s Women in Music Pt. III are there, too, as are hit singles like Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar.”

The unconventional looks fit the novel 360-degree sound.

To make up for the lack of content that’s truly mixed for 360, Sony includes an “immersive audio enhancement” setting that attempts to re-create the same effect for two-channel music tracks. This algorithm-powered approach doesn’t work nearly as well. Toggling it on adds an obvious layer of artificial reverb and ambience to everything that you play, and you lose the soundstage precision that’s there with genuine 360 Reality Audio content.

At its eye-popping price of $700, finding direct “competitors” for the RA5000 is complicated. There’s a HomePod-looking device in Sony’s promotional video, but that Apple speaker was less than half the price and is now history. The $500 Sonos Five is my favorite single-unit speaker, but it sticks to stereo audio. Then you’ve got high-end, luxury audio alternatives like the $900 Formation Wedge speaker from Bowers & Wilkins, but again, that’s aiming for an audiophile-grade stereo experience. Sony’s speaker outperforms the $200 Amazon Echo Studio and can crank much louder — but that’s exactly what I’d expect considering the huge price gulf.

So the question I’m left with is this: who is this speaker for? It sounds excellent, can satisfyingly fill any normal-sized room, and 360 Reality Audio is a fun party trick. But the asking price is hard to get over. A lot of people who are serious about audio gear would sooner pay for a nice pair of stereo bookshelf speakers than drop $700 on this single unit. I think Sony’s trying to make the RA5000 a jack of all trades — led by immersive sound and an array of convenient streaming options. But I come away feeling like this speaker just tries to do too much, especially when the worth of its headline feature remains unproven and often inconsistent.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

Instagram launches its own TikTok Duet feature called Reels Remix

Instagram Reels already mimics TikTok in multiple ways, and now, it’s getting one more feature from the popular video app: duets. On Instagram, users can now “remix” a reel, meaning they can upload a video next to another user’s, building on top of the original clip. The feature is already popular on TikTok, often for dance challenges, under the “duet” function.

To remix a reel, tap the three dot menu on a reel and select “Remix this Reel.” From there, you can record your reel or upload pre-recorded footage. You can also control the volume for the original audio or your recorded audio, and add a voiceover, along with other editing functions. Only new reels will have remixes enabled automatically, but if you already have a reel that you want people to be able to remix, you can manually turn that on by tapping that three dot menu on your own video and selecting “Enable Remixing.” If you want to turn off remixing on all your reels, you can do so via your broader profile settings.

Reels launched in August last year and initially, Instagram seemed open to having people repurpose their TikToks on the platform. But as the months have gone by, Instagram has added more TikTok-like features while also deemphasizing any content that’s been recycled. The company is clearly serious about making the short-form video content a mainstay. It added a Reels button to its home screen and even ensured the videos made the cut for its global Lite app. It’s just getting closer and closer to resembling TikTok exactly.

Discord’s new Clubhouse-like feature, Stage Channels, is available now

Discord is the latest company to introduce a Clubhouse-like feature that lets people easily broadcast live audio conversations to a room of virtual listeners. Discord says its take, called Stage Channels, is available now on all platforms where Discord is available, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and the web.

If you’ve used Discord before, you might know that the app already offers voice channels, which typically allow everyone in them to talk freely. A Stage Channel, on the other hand, is designed to only let certain people talk at once to a group of listeners, which could make them useful for more structured events like community town halls or AMAs. However, only Community servers, which have some more powerful community management tools than a server you might share with a few of your buddies, can make the new Stage Channels.

The feature’s broad availability makes Discord the first app to offer an easy way to host or listen in on social audio rooms on most platforms. Clubhouse is still only available on iOS, though an Android version is in development. Twitter’s Spaces feature works on iOS and Android, but only some users have the ability to make audio rooms right now. (The company plans to let anyone host a Space starting in April.) LinkedIn, Mark Cuban, Slack, and Spotify are also working on live audio features, and Facebook reportedly has one in the works, too.

At the top of this post, you can see what a Discord Stage Channel looks like on desktop, and here’s what one looks like on mobile:

Image: Discord

I got to participate in a Stage Channel to be briefed on the feature, and it was quite similar to using Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces. When I joined the Stage Channel, I was automatically put on mute and listed as an audience member. I could see who was speaking and who else was with me in the virtual crowd.

When I wanted to ask questions, I pressed a button to request to speak, and a Stage moderator brought me “on stage” so I could talk. Stage moderators can also mute speakers or even remove them from the room if they are being disruptive.

Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 review: Ring’s best doorbell yet

Ring’s new $249.99 Video Doorbell Pro 2 is the best video doorbell yet from a company that has nearly become a household name for video doorbells. It has an excellent field of view and video quality; plenty of customizable features for notifications and recording zones; and speedy performance, whether that’s sending alerts to your phone or smart speaker when someone rings the bell or pulling up the live feed from the Ring app on a phone. If you can tolerate the price tag, are able to install a wired doorbell at your door, and aren’t put off by Ring’s Neighbors app or police partnerships (both of which you can opt out of), the Video Doorbell Pro 2 is one of the best video doorbells you can get right now.

The new Video Doorbell Pro 2 is Ring’s top-of-the-line model, replacing the original Video Doorbell Pro from 2017. Unlike Ring’s other doorbells, the Pro 2 does not have a battery option; you have to have wiring running to it for power. But because it doesn’t have to house a battery, the Pro 2 is much smaller than Ring’s battery-powered options and has faster response times when you want to pull up the feed on your phone or an Echo Show smart display. It also can work with an existing doorbell chime in your home if you have one.

Despite its higher-than-average price tag, the Pro 2 doesn’t really look all that much more premium than other Ring models. The housing is made entirely of plastic, and there’s a big Ring logo stamped on the bottom. If sleek design is what you’re after, Google’s Nest Hello or the Logitech Circle View Doorbell are better choices.

Ring has added a number of new features this time around, but the most significant change is how the Video Doorbell Pro 2 captures video clips. Unlike the prior model and every other Ring doorbell before it, the Pro 2 shoots 1536 x 1536-pixel square video, which lets you see visitors from top to bottom. It also makes it much easier to see if packages have been left at your doorstep because you can see the ground right in front of the doorbell.

On my doorway, the Pro 2’s wide and tall field of view was able to let me see the entirety of my small porch much better than the older 16:9 format Ring doorbells or others that have a tall but not as wide aspect ratio, like Logitech’s Circle View Doorbell. The Pro 2 captures a sharp and detailed image, complete with HDR for balancing bright skies and visitors’ faces. It also has a dedicated infrared night mode that will come on automatically if the light levels are low enough. The porch light I have at my doorway was sufficient enough to keep the Pro 2 in normal video mode, so I was able to have full-color video captures at night without blinding visitors with a light on the doorbell itself like what happens with the Circle View Doorbell.

Thanks to support for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, pulling up the Pro 2’s video feed through the Ring app on my phone is a painless process that just takes a couple of seconds. Likewise, asking an Echo Show to display the feed is quick and easy. The Echo Show and Fire TV devices will even automatically display the feed from the camera whenever the doorbell is rung. Older video doorbells used to take an agonizing amount of time to show their video feeds. I’m glad to see this newest crop is much faster than before.

The Pro 2 also has a new “3D Motion Detection” feature that lets you see the movements of someone on your property even if they are out of frame of the camera. The name oversells what this is doing a bit: the app will show a top-down view of movements represented as colored dots on the map of your home overlaid over the recorded video clip. It’s designed to let you see where someone has been on your property before they show up on the primary camera. But the range for this feature is limited to only 30 feet — that’s about enough to reach a third of the way down my driveway — and while it’s a neat demo of technology, I didn’t find much utility in it.

The Video Doorbell Pro 2 shows more of my front porch than other doorbells. The new 3D Motion Detection feature provides the bird’s-eye view of movement on my property, seen in the right image.

The other thing I didn’t find much use for is the Alexa Greetings feature, which lets you have Alexa answer the door through the Ring doorbell if you don’t get to it within a set amount of time.

There are two reasons I didn’t really like this feature. One is since we’re still spending the majority of our time home due to the pandemic, I don’t really need someone else to answer the door for me — I’m always there. The other is the idea of having Amazon’s Alexa robot speak to a visitor in my place. Alexa can ask couriers to leave a package in a particular place you specify or record a message from other visitors that will be sent to your phone. In my tests, it works like a typical Alexa interaction, with a slight delay between each prompt.

But in general, it feels a bit off-putting and rude to force visitors to interact with an unexpected robot. I feel the same way about using the two-way audio to talk to someone at the door through my phone. While there may certainly be great accessibility use cases for these features, they weren’t helpful for me, and I left them turned off. I think basic package detection and notifications, which other doorbells offer, would be more useful, but Ring doesn’t have any features like that.

The Alexa responses feature requires a subscription to Ring’s Protect plan, which starts at $3 per month and enables other features such as a six-second pre-roll recording for motion alerts, the option to only get alerted when a person is detected, video history for up to 60 days, and the ability to save and share clips. You can use the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 without paying for this subscription, but you’ll be limited to motion alerts, live view, two-way talking, and six preset responses if you’re not home. Neither one of Ring’s plans, paid or free, offers continuous 24/7 recording. If that’s something you want, Google’s Nest Hello is a better choice.

The Video Doorbell Pro 2 has a traditional grayscale infrared night mode (right), but if you have enough light, it will fall back to its color feed at night (left).

Since Ring is an Amazon company, the Pro 2 works best and offers the most utility if you have Amazon Echo speakers or smart displays. In addition to the ability to automatically show the feed when the bell is pressed, you can have Echo speakers announce when someone’s at the door so you never miss a visitor. This feature isn’t available with Google Nest smart speakers or displays; again, the Nest Hello would be a better choice if you’re running a Google smart home. (Likewise, if you’re running an Apple HomeKit smart home, the Logitech Circle View Doorbell is a better choice.)

Lastly, I can’t cover a Ring product without mentioning its controversial Neighbors app and police partnerships. The Neighbors app is a separate app that collates crime and safety reports from other Ring owners in your neighborhood. By default, the Neighbors feed is integrated into the Ring app, allowing you to see other posts and share video clips from your camera.

Similarly, the Public Safety feature allows police and other public service agencies to request video clips from your camera to aid in solving crimes. You then have the option to approve or deny the request.

Ring has made it easier to manage these features. Both of them are controlled in the app’s Control Center section, where you can disable the Neighbors feed and block public agencies from requesting clips from your video camera. You can also enable end-to-end encryption, which will disable these features and limit the ability to share video clips with others. But I wish Ring would go even further and disable both of them by default, letting owners decide if they want to opt in or not during setup.

Ring’s portfolio of video doorbells has grown significantly over the past couple of years, and it can be confusing to figure out which one is right for your needs. The Pro 2’s pitch is simple: this is the best video doorbell camera Ring sells, provided you have the ability to hook it up to existing doorbell wiring or run new wiring to it. If you want the best performance and are in Amazon’s Echo ecosystem, the Pro 2 is the doorbell to get.

Photography by Dan Seifert / The Verge

MQA, BluOS and Radio Paradise bring hi-res audio to internet radio

(Image credit: Paradise radio)

Lenbrook International – the owner of Bluesound, NAD, PSB Speakers and high-resolution multi-room streaming platform BluOS – has announced a new hi-fi internet radio station exclusively for BluOS products.

The new service, launched in association with MQA, will see Radio Paradise, a listener-supported internet radio station, providing MQA-encoded audio on all four of its mix channels, utilizing high-resolution 24-bit masters where available. The collaboration marks the first time an internet radio station will carry MQA content. MQA technology notably powers hi-res Tidal Masters on Tidal, while hi-res MQA hard files are also available to download.

All BluOS devices will receive an update in April 2021 to enable Radio Paradise MQA as a native music streaming option. It will also be included as standard on all future BluOS-based devices from hi-fi brands like Bluesound, NAD Electronics, DALI Loudspeakers, Monitor Audio, Roksan, Peachtree and PSB Speakers.

Radio Paradise first began streaming its main internet channel in 2000 and offers eclectic DJ-mixed music focusing on high-quality audio. Three additional mixes – mellow, world and rock – have recently been added to its service, too.

Speaking about the collaboration, Bill Goldsmith, founder of Radio Paradise, said: ”As music lovers and audiophiles ourselves, it was a revelation to hear the performance difference in music when encoded into MQA, even when only 16 bit/44 kHz masters are available.

“The team at BluOS has been 100% committed to delivering high-res audio direct to the listening room and has long supported our work at Radio Paradise. Our shared values for best-in-class audio make this collaboration a totally natural evolution.”

MORE

Our pick of the best music streaming services

Need Inspiration? 50 of the best albums for audiophiles

Read all our Bluesound reviews

New Sky Q update adds voice search for Disney+ content

(Image credit: Sky)

One of Sky Q’s greatest strengths these days is its aggregation of content from third-party apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+. There is a downside, though: it can take longer to get to the content you want.

That’s an issue that Sky is constantly looking to address and is taking another step towards solving with its latest update, which integrates Disney+ content into voice search. Simply say, for example, “WandaVision” into your remote and you’ll be taken to the WandaVision Show Centre as seen in the picture above.

(Image credit: Sky)

That’s not the only new feature coming in the latest Sky Q update, which has started rolling out today and will apparently be with all Sky Q users by the end of April.

The new Voice Guidance option, seen in the image above, is designed to make Sky Q more accessible for the visually impaired through the addition of spoken descriptions of menus and available options, and audio instructions to easily get you to specific shows and movies. Voice Guidance can be enabled in the Settings menu or simply by saying “Voice Guidance on” into the remote control.

Sky Go is also getting some tweaks over the next month, including a new ‘Continue Watching’ rail that makes it easier to pick up a show or film where you left off, and ‘Sky Channels’ and ‘Browse by Category’ rails are also being added.

MORE:

Read our full Sky Q review

Then check out our Disney+ review

Looking for a new TV? Here are the best TVs you can currently buy

Even LinkedIn is making a Clubhouse clone

It feels like just about every big tech company is working on a Clubhouse-like social audio feature — Twitter’s Spaces feature is rolling out now, Facebook is reportedly building one, Spotify is making one, Mark Cuban has one, even Slack is getting in the game. But now, the idea of the shared audio space, which started on Clubhouse largely as an exclusive club for tech venture capitalists and elites, has come full circle. Professional social network LinkedIn is working on an audio networking feature of its own, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.

“We’re doing some early tests to create a unique audio experience connected to your professional identity,” LinkedIn said in a statement to TechCrunch. “And, we’re looking at how we can bring audio to other parts of LinkedIn such as events and groups, to give our members even more ways to connect to their community.”

LinkedIn said the feature will begin beta testing soon. Below is a mockup of what the feature might look like, which LinkedIn shared with TechCrunch. Like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, it features a stage of speakers front and center and a list of people in the audience lower down the screen.

Image: LinkedIn via TechCrunch

LinkedIn has already been working to make itself a destination for creators with tools like a new Creator mode that denote you as a LinkedIn content creator on your profile. A Clubhouse-like feature actually seems like a natural fit.

Privacy and ads in Chrome are about to become FLoCing complicated

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is forging ahead with its third-party cookie replacement technology

Repent, o ye ad trackers, for the cookiepocalypse is nigh!

If Google sticks to its roadmap, by this time next year Chrome will no longer allow websites to use third-party cookies, which are cookies that come from outside their own domains. The change theoretically makes it vastly more difficult for advertisers to track your activities on the web and then serve you targeted ads. Safari and Firefox have already blocked those cookies, but when it comes to market share, Chrome is currently the leader and so its switchover is the big one.

Blocking third-party cookies means that only websites you explicitly visit will be able to save those little cookie files on your computer, and they should theoretically only do what cookies were originally intended to do: keep track of smaller things like whether you’re logged in or which shopping cart is yours. Blocking third-party cookies also means ad networks can’t figure out who you are and serve you targeted ads, which is a big problem for the ad industry.

Google, which is the biggest player in online ads, has claimed that it does not intend to replace third-party cookies with “alternative identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web.” This seems like a win for privacy all around, but if something about the story of Google as the privacy and anti-ad crusader strikes you as a little… off, you are far from alone.

Because of course Google doesn’t want to kneecap the online ad industry — the one it dominates and from which it makes all its money. Instead, Google wants to replace the third-party tracking cookie with a complicated set of (bird-themed) technologies that are meant to let ad companies target specific demographics like age and location, while at the same time allowing the people who are targeted to remain anonymous.

Google is trying to avert the cookiepocalypse for the ad tech industry, no repentance necessary.

And so today, the company is forging ahead with an “origin trial” for one of these new technologies, the Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). In an origin trial, websites are able to begin testing without asking browser users to turn on specific flags. The feature itself will be slowly turned on inside Chrome via the usual process of introducing it into developer builds, then beta, then finally in the shipping version most people use.

But what the hell is FLoC, and does it really protect your privacy?

FLoC: a Federated Learning of Cohorts

FloC is a proposed browser standard that, in Google’s words, will enable “interest-based advertising on the web” without letting advertisers know your identity. Instead, you’ll be associated with a “cohort,” a group of users sufficiently large enough to make you at least semi-anonymous to the companies targeting you.

That’s the simple explanation. The technical one gets very complicated very quickly. Here’s a quick version. Chrome browsers will use algorithms (the “Federated Learning” part) to create a very large number of “cohorts,” groups of people that share certain qualities and interests. Each person’s individual browsing history is kept private and never shared with anybody, but the browser itself will look at the history and then assign a user to one of those cohorts.

When you visit a website, Chrome will tell that site that the visitor is part of cohort 198273 (or whatever) and then it’s up to the website to know that cohort 198273 (or whatever) is interested in pickup trucks and shoes with vegan leather. Since Chrome will never assign a user to a small cohort (Google has proposed that it will wait until there are “thousands” in a group), your identity as an animal-loving coal roller is theoretically protected.

Chrome itself isn’t assigning any content labels to these FloCs; Google is leaving that to the ad tech industry to figure out. So you won’t be able to open up a privacy page inside Chrome and see what it thinks you’re interested in (though there’s theoretically nothing stopping a third-party website from telling you).

Since FLoC is structured in this way, it could mean that the powerful players in ad tech could become even more entrenched, because they have the technology to parse what FLoCs mean and what ads to target against them. Or it could mean smaller players could find a way in. We don’t know all the possible repercussions of FLoC, which is why it has both ad industry executives and privacy advocates so unsettled.

You can read the whole proposal and even check out the code for how it works at the GitHub repository for FLoC inside the Web Incubator Community Group. As with most things on the web, it’s being developed out in the open and is part of a process of proposals, critiques, counter-proposals, attempts to get other browser vendors to join, arguments, harangues, screeds, and good-faith efforts to make the web a better place. It’s a party, y’all.

The new front in the browser wars: privacy

No other browser vendor has signaled its intention to support FLoC. The rest are simply blocking third-party cookies and letting the chips fall where they may. And those chips are messy.

Whatever motivations you want to imbue on the Chrome team, it is already apparent that simply blocking third-party cookies will lead to very problematic new solutions from the ad tech industry. So Google is creating both FLoC and a suite of other technologies to replace the third-party cookie, in order to hopefully forestall even worse replacements.

One of the very bad things Google is trying to forestall is fingerprinting. That’s the generalized term for ways that websites can identify you through little data signals that leak out of your browser when you visit a site. Sites can look at your IP address, the OS you’re browsing from, the size of your window, whether your browser supports Bluetooth controllers, and much more.

Battling fingerprinting is a huge arms race for browser engineers and new, nefarious methods pop up seemingly weekly. Here’s a new method of fingerprinting I just came across: playing a very tiny bit of audio and then analyzing how your particular browser and device handle it, and then using that data to individually identify you in milliseconds. (The website that proposed it sells fingerprint services to legitimate companies so they can ostensibly use it to better identify potential fraudsters on their sites.)

Apple has very publicly and vociferously advocated for cutting off all methods of individualized tracking, including fingerprinting, and has committed itself to that arms race indefinitely. The Chrome team’s concern is that essentially such a hard line creates an incentive for legitimate ad tech companies to start engaging in fingerprinting, which will then be all but impossible to stop or regulate.

Here’s how Google puts it in its blog post:

When other browsers started blocking third-party cookies by default, we were excited about the direction, but worried about the immediate impact. Excited because we absolutely need a more private web, and we know third-party cookies aren’t the long-term answer. Worried because today many publishers rely on cookie-based advertising to support their content efforts, and we had seen that cookie blocking was already spawning privacy-invasive workarounds (such as fingerprinting) that were even worse for user privacy. Overall, we felt that blocking third-party cookies outright without viable alternatives for the ecosystem was irresponsible, and even harmful, to the free and open web we all enjoy.

It’s hard to separate each company’s financial incentives from their very real philosophical differences. Google prints money with its de facto monopoly on monetizing the open web through ads and is therefore incentivized to keep it going. At the same time, Chrome’s developers are true believers in the power and importance of the open web. Meanwhile, Apple wouldn’t be sad if Google made less money amid a massive online ad tracking reckoning. At the same time, Apple’s developers are true believers in the importance of personal privacy and the urgent need to go all-out in protecting that privacy against constant online assaults.

In any case, the problem with fingerprinting is that once you’re identified, it’s much harder to anonymize yourself. A cookie can be deleted, but the way your particular computer processes a milliseconds-long snippet of audio is much harder to change (though Brave has an innovative solution called Farbling).

The basic argument from the Chrome team is that erecting a so-called “privacy wall” will entice legitimate ad tech companies into succumbing to the temptation of fingerprinting. Google is hoping that ad tech companies will adopt FLoC as an alternative.

If nothing else, there’s one big thing to take away from all this: FLoC is a hell of a lot better than the current status of third-party cookies that directly identify you anywhere you go on the web. But “better than the worst” is a low bar, and it’s hard to know yet whether FLoC just clears it or vaults way over it.

Is FLoC really private?

Instead of a trying to build a metaphorical privacy wall that blocks all forms of ad targeting, Google plans on building a Privacy Sandbox inside Chrome. Within that sandbox, websites can still legitimately request to know certain details about your browser as they need. A game streaming site could ask to know if your browser supports a game controller, for example. But ask too much and you’ll exceed the browser’s “privacy budget” and get cut off. Websites can have just a little identifying information, as a treat.

FLoC will be part of that privacy sandbox and further should protect your identity by only associating you with a cohort if that cohort is sufficiently large. Chrome will also change what FLoC cohort your browser is associated with on a regular basis, say once a week or so.

But whether FLoC is actually anonymous is very much up for debate. Bennett Cyphers at Electronic Frontier Foundation recently put up a handy post detailing some of the biggest concerns with FLoC.

One of the key aspects of FLoC is that Google isn’t making some giant list of interests and demographics and then assigning you to them. Instead, it’s proposing to use Federated Learning to create a ton of these cohorts algorithmically. Chrome won’t really know what any of them are actually about; it’ll be up to ad tech vendors to understand that over time.

But as Cyphers points out, that algorithm will inevitably create cohorts that could be incredibly dangerous — say, a group of people who have visited sites about getting out of domestic abuse situations. The Chrome team says it recognizes this concern and so will be analyzing the algorithmically created cohorts to see if any are related to what it deems to be sensitive topics — and then Chrome won’t serve those cohort IDs. But FLoC isn’t centralized, so it’s important to know that if another browser vendor adopts FLoC, it will be incumbent on that browser to create similar block lists.

Websites will be able to opt out of participating in FLoC, meaning that visits to their sites won’t contribute to an individual FLoC user’s profile. Similarly, the Chrome team intends to put opt-out toggles somewhere in Chrome’s settings for users who don’t want to provide FLoC IDs to the websites they visit.

Could FLoC become just another data point for fingerprinters? It seems likely, and defending against that seems to be another job for Chrome’s privacy budget and privacy sandbox algorithms.

One more thing: FLoC is a very convenient way for the websites you visit to know enough about you to target relevant ads, which means that FLoC is a very convenient way for websites to know things about you. It’s certainly no worse than the current cookie situation, but it’s far from the “You Shall Not Pass!” philosophy other browser vendors (like Apple and Brave) apply to allowing access to potentially identifiable information.

What’s next?

This first FLoC “origin trial” is designed to help websites learn how FLoC works; some of the testing for Chrome users will come later. Here is how Google describes the way it’s going to work:

The initial testing of FLoC is taking place with a small percentage of users in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines and the U.S. We’ll expand to other regions as the Privacy Sandbox expands globally. In April, we’ll introduce a control in Chrome Settings that you can use to opt out of inclusion in FLoC and other Privacy Sandbox proposals. In the meantime, if you’ve chosen to block third-party cookies, you won’t be included in these origin trials.

If you look at that list of countries, you might notice that something stands out: none of them are in the EU, where GDPR regulations are in effect. Recently, Robin Berjon of The New York Times wondered whether that meant that FLoC would run afoul of those privacy regulations. According to the product manager for the Chrome privacy sandbox, Marshall Vale, it’s more a matter of limiting the size of the early tests and that his team is “100% committed to the Privacy Sandbox in Europe.”

Under normal circumstances, a newly proposed web technology wends its way through mailing lists and W3C conference room debates. It gets supported by the browser vendor that championed it and then, if its lucky, other browsers. Thus, the web manages to not become browser-specific in the ways it was back in the bad old days of Internet Explorer 6.

But when Google originally announced its intention to block third-party cookies last year, I pointed out that the rhetoric between browser vendors was getting sharp. It’s only gotten sharper as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Brave, and others have gone further down their respective paths.

It seems unlikely that FLoC will lead to a standard because everybody agrees on a good way to allow targeted advertising. If FLoC does become a standard, it’ll probably be because Chrome will eventually turn it on and it will become the norm just through sheer market share — both Chrome’s within the browser market and Google’s within the ad tech market.

That possible future might avert the cookiepocalypse, but it could also become a different kind of nightmare for the web: one where websites once again try to push you to use the browser they can best monetize via whatever ad tech platform they’re using.

XMG Announces Rocket Lake, RTX 3080-Equipped ‘Ultra 17’ Gaming Laptop

(Image credit: XMG – Highend Gaming Laptops & Desktops)

XMG today announced its first laptop equipped with Intel’s new Rocket Lake processors, interchangeable RTX 30 Series graphics, and a bevy of other features that are supposed to ease the pain enthusiasts have suffered because of the ongoing chip shortage. It’s called the Ultra 17, and the first units could reach consumers as early as May.

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Let’s start with the CPU. The XMG Ultra 17 can be configured with 10th Gen Core processors for people willing to sacrifice performance for affordability, but the focus is on the 11th Gen CPUs that debuted today. XMG offers seven models: the i5-11500, 11600, and 11600K; the i7-11700 and 11700K; and the i9-11900 and 11900K. Check out our review of the i9-11900K and the i5-11600K for details on their performance.

The company offers fewer graphics options—just the GeForce RTX 3060 (6GB), 3070 (8GB), and 3080 (16GB). But there’s a lot of flexibility here, too, with XMG claiming that “this GPU takes the form of an interchangeable card, opposed to being soldered into the mainboard,” and that it’s “the first graphics card in the mobile sector that is already connected via a full 16 PCI Express 4.0 lanes” and capable of a TGP of 165W.

XMG also offers a bunch of M.2 SSD storage options between 200GB and 2TB from a variety of manufacturers, two different Wi-Fi modules, and support for up to 128GB (4 x 32GB) of DDR4-3200 memory from Samsung. (As well as smaller kits from Crucial.) The keyboard features per-key RGB back-lighting and is available in many languages, too, in case you worried the company had forgotten to add pretty lights.

But the main arguments for the Ultra 17 being a desktop replacement—aside from the CPU and GPU of course—are the laptop’s display and connectivity options. There are two 17.3-inch display options: a 1080p version with a 300Hz refresh rate and a 4K version with a 60Hz refresh rate that also covers 100% of the Adobe RGB spectrum. Both versions of the display offer Nvidia G-Sync support as well.

	XMG Ultra 17-E21
Processor	Up to Intel Core i9-11900K
Graphics	RTX 3080, RTX 3070, RTX 3060
Memory	4 x SO-DIMM, 128GB Max
Storage	4 x M.2 2280
Display	17.3-inch IPS: 1920 x 1080 @ 300 Hz or 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz
Networking	Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, 2.5Gb Ethernet
Ports	2 x Thunderbolt 4, 1 x HDMI 2.1, 2 x Mini DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, 3 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, SD card slot
Battery	97 Wh
Power Adapter	2 x 280W
Dimensions	399 x 319 x 43.5mm (W x D x H)
Weight	ca. 4.6kg

XMG equipped the Ultra 17 with a lot of ports as well. There are two Thunderbolt 4, one HDMI 2.1, and two Mini DisplayPort 1.4 ports for external monitor support; one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 and three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports as well as an SD card slot for accessories; and separate audio ports for headphones and a microphone. Oh, and there’s also a 2.5Gb Ethernet port to complement the built-in Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.

There are some caveats. XMG said that utilizing the Ultra 17 to its full potential requires it to be connected to a pair of 280W power supplies in addition to the battery. The system is limited to 110W on a single power supply and restricts the CPU to just 30W. Performance would be further limited on the internal battery, of course, so we suspect most people will actually treat it as a desktop.

That could be enough in today’s market. The ongoing chip shortage has made it harder than ever to find CPUs, graphics cards, and other components, and even when they’re available, there’s a good chance they’re going to be exorbitantly priced. (Assuming one can even find them before cryptocurrency miners buy ’em up.) This might actually be one of the easiest ways to build a system with the latest parts.

The Ultra 17’s price will of course vary based on the configuration. XMG’s default configuration features an Intel Core i7-11700K, GeForce RTX 3060, 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory, 500GB of storage via the Samsung 980 PRO, and the 1080p display; it costs roughly $3,300 (€2,799) before shipping via Bestware. The retailer estimates that configuration will be available in mid-April with a shipping time of 3-5 weeks.

Meet Beoplay Portal, Bang & Olufsen’s first ever wireless gaming headset

(Image credit: Bang & Olufsen)

Great news for high-end audio lovers and gamers alike: Bang & Olufsen has just announced its first-ever wireless gaming headphones, the Beoplay Portal. The high-end Danish firm promises that the Beoplay Portal brings the hallmarks of its design to a gaming headset.

Whether you plan on using them for gameplay, watching movies or enjoying music, Beoplay Portal offers an impressive set of features, including low-latency surround sound, Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency Mode, Dolby Atmos for Headphones support, and on-ear touch controls (for volume, ANC, transparency, playback and call-handling).

Beoplay Portal was developed as part of the ‘Designed for Xbox’ program, and it’s not the first time a collaboration between B&O and Microsoft has been touted. As such, the headphones connect seamlessly to Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One consoles via Xbox Wireless protocol for a high-bandwidth, low-latency connection. The Beoplay Portal headphones are also compatible with PC and mobile devices via Bluetooth 5.1, aptX Adaptive, and USB-C, allowing gamers to take their immersive audio experience on the go.

They sport two custom-designed 40mm drivers with neodynium magnets, with support for Dolby Atmos for Headphones processing adding virtual surround sound and texture to compatible games, movies and music.

There’s a new generation of the company’s adaptive active noise cancellation technology, plus something B&O is calling Own Voice. Thanks to the four voice mics and four mics for ANC (two per earcup), users should be able to hear their own voices while simultaneously cancelling out extraneous sounds.

(Image credit: Bang & Olufsen)

In terms of design, the earcups feature touch-sensitive aluminium discs; the jaw-supporting earpads are crafted from lambskin-wrapped memory foam; and there is a subtle protrusion on the rear of each cushion that conforms to the shape of the user’s head and promises to minimise sound leakage. The inner headband features offset padding designed to relieve pressure on the top of the head and it is covered with a high-quality bamboo fibre textile, chosen for its durability and breathability.

And at 282g, the Beoplay Portal headphones are quite light for the category, helped no doubt by a feature B&O calls an “all-new virtual boom arm”, which the company claims eliminates the need for the traditional (read: actual) boom arm found on most gaming headsets. Using Directional Beamforming technology, the array of microphones promises to isolate and amplify the user’s voice while eliminating background noise, allowing for clear conversations – whether calling out objectives to teammates or talking on the phone to friends.

The claimed battery life is strong, too, at up to 24 hours of continuous playtime using Bluetooth and ANC, or 12 hours of playtime using Xbox Wireless, Bluetooth and active noise cancellation.

Beoplay Portal will be available in three colourways – Black Anthracite, Grey Mist and Navy – from 29th April, priced at £449 (€499, $499, 3749 DKK), however a Black Anthracite finish is launching in the United States and Canada from today (30th March) exclusively at Bang & Olufsen, Best Buy and the Microsoft Store for a limited time.

MORE:

See our Sony PlayStation Pulse 3D Wireless Headset review

Read up on the best wireless noise-cancelling headphones 2021

Looking for a PlayStation 5? See PS5 stock and where to buy: latest PS5 restock details

How to get the best picture and sound from your PlayStation 5

(Image credit: Sony)

Despite still being in its relative infancy, Sony’s PlayStation 5 games console is already serving up some stunning gaming experiences. The shift up to more consistent true 4K graphics at both 60Hz and, remarkably, 120Hz is joining forces with wider, better use of high dynamic range and the impressive efforts of Sony’s new 3D Audio sound system to make gaming worlds more immersive and beautiful than ever before.

However, getting the most out of this next-gen console isn’t just a case of plugging the PS5 into your TV and expecting everything to just turn out fine. In fact, between the secondary kit you might need and some of the PS5 set-up tricks you need to familiarise yourself with, getting the maximum impact out of your new console is anything but straightforward.

With this in mind, we’ve put together a comprehensive checklist of everything you need to do if you want to be sure you’re getting the full value from Sony’s new gaming beast. Starting with potentially the most expensive…

Get the right television

The single biggest source of trouble when it comes to the PS5’s new graphics capabilities is the currently messy television market – or more precisely, the confusing world of HDMI connections.

Getting the best picture quality (4K resolution at 120Hz refresh rates with HDR and, following an upcoming update, support for variable refresh rates) out of the PS5 requires a TV’s HDMI ports to support data rates of at least 32Mbps, and that’s something the vast majority of current TVs cannot do.

What’s more, there’s currently no easy labelling system to help you spot TVs that might be compatible with all of the latest gaming features. Even if a TV claims to be compatible with the latest 2.1 version of the HDMI input, that doesn’t guarantee 4K/120Hz/VRR compatibility. All you can do is try and trawl through a TV’s small print/detailed specs to see if 4K/120/VRR are included.

We can get the ball rolling, though, with some sets we already know support all the latest gaming features. For starters, all of LG’s OLED CX, GX, WX, ZX and upcoming C1, G1 and Z1 models feature four HDMIs with full PS5 compatibility. Samsung’s QLED models from 2020 and QLED and Neo QLED TVs for 2021 all have one or two HDMI ports that support all the PS5 features, with 2021 models from the Q95A series upwards carrying four PS5-friendly HDMIs.

At the time of writing, Samsung’s 2020 TVs aren’t able to play PS5 games in 4K 120Hz while retaining HDR. Samsung has stated, though, that this apparent ‘bug’ will be fixed by a PS5 firmware update.

Sony, ironically, has just one series in its 2020 range, the XH9005s, that support all of the PS5’s graphics features, via a single HDMI port. Thankfully, more Sony models will carry the requisite HDMI support in 2021.

Philips and Panasonic haven’t so far launched any TVs with next-gen gaming features, but both brands are set to do so in 2021. Cheaper TVs (and brands) in the UK have so far not embraced next-gen gaming features, but hopefully some will do so this year.

One final point here is that, in theory, the PS5 can support 8K. So if you want to be ready for that, you will need an 8K TV. These are relatively expensive right now, and it doesn’t seem as though 8K PlayStation content is going to become common any time soon.

For more guidance here, check out our rundown of the best gaming TVs you can currently buy.

Make sure you use the right input on your TV

(Image credit: Future)

As noted in the previous section, on some TVs only one or two HDMIs have enough bandwidth to support all of the PS5’s graphics features. So make sure you have your PS5 connected to one that does.

Some TVs help with this by labelling the relevant HDMI(s) as Game or 4K/120, but otherwise, you will need to refer to your TV’s manual.

Use the provided PS5 HDMI cable (or pick a replacement carefully)

(Image credit: HDMI Licensing Administrator, Inc)

It’s not just HDMI sockets that need to be able to handle enough data to unlock all of the PS5’s features. HDMI cables also vary in how much data they can carry. So you should stick with the HDMI cable provided with the PS5 where possible, as this is designed to carry all the data the console needs for its maximum performance.

If you really must use a different cable – because the official cable isn’t long enough, for example – look for one that carries the official Ultra High Speed HDMI Cable certification that you can see in the image above.

Make sure your TV HDMI port is set up for high data rates

Most TVs now will automatically switch their HDMI ports to so-called ‘enhanced’ modes for high data rates when a 4K HDR source is detected. There are still some budget brands, though (Hisense, for instance) where you need to manually switch HDMIs from Standard to Enhanced in the TV’s menus. It’s certainly worth checking the settings on your TV for the HDMI that your PS5 is connected to.

Set your TV to Game mode

Almost all TVs have a special Game mode setting that reduces the time a TV takes to produce its images. This can make as much as 100ms of difference, which could be a lifetime, literally, in gaming terms. Your TV might automatically switch into Game mode when the PS5 is detected, but if response times matter with the game you’re playing, you should check that it has.

Note that Game mode settings can reduce some aspects of picture quality with some TVs. So if you’re playing a less reaction-based title, such as an RPG, you may prefer the overall picture quality with Game mode turned off.

Check your PS5’s Video Output screen

In the System Software section of the PS5’s System menu, there’s an option called Video Output Information. This brings up a screen telling you what graphics capabilities the console thinks your TV is capable of handling, based on its ‘handshake’ with your TV’s HDMI port. This screen is handy for checking that your console and TV are talking to each other as you’d expect.

This Video Output Info can be particularly useful if you’re trying to feed your PS5 through an intermediary audio device, such as a soundbar or an AV receiver, and on from that to your TV. Many people forget that the PS5 will read the capabilities of the intermediary device’s HDMIs and determine supported graphics output based on that, rather than reading what your TV is capable of. So unless your audio device has full HDMI 2.1 4K/120/VRR pass-through support (which is currently very rare), it could limit the graphics you experience.

The best way around this is to connect your PS5 directly to your TV, and then use your TV’s ARC/eARC HDMI jack (if it has one) to output digital sound from the TV to your audio equipment.

Setting up your PS5

(Image credit: Sony)

The PS5 is proactive about HDR, prompting you to run through a trio of simple HDR set-up screens whenever you attach it to a new TV. The way the screens work, though, is rather questionable.

Before going through this HDR set-up, it’s worth checking whether your TV has a menu option called HGIG (HDR Gaming Interest Group) – if so, turn it on. This will make sure that your TV doesn’t try and apply its own automatic HDR optimisation (dynamic tone mapping) processes to pictures that you have already optimised via the PS5’s HDR set up system.

Once done, you can crack on with the console’s calibration, but you shouldn’t do exactly as you’re told. Two of the screens ask you to increase the console’s brightness/peak light levels to a point where you can only just see a relatively dark symbol against a white background. The other one asks you to adjust the console’s black level to a point where a lighter symbol against a dark background remains only just visible. In fact, you should adjust each of these screens to the point where the visible symbol just disappears. In other words, the points at which the first square goes completely white and the second completely black is where you want to set the console.

Even then, not all games are designed to work with the PS5 console’s HDR set-up system, preferring instead to use their own internal HDR calibration screens. Examples of these titles include Dirt 5 and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. You should absolutely go through these game-specific calibration processes and it’s worth checking in these cases whether your TV’s HGIG setting (if it has one) is better switched on or off.

Another key aspect of gaming performance that requires care is frame rates. As with HDR, the PS5’s process for adjusting the frame rate a game uses varies from title to title. So with Dirt 5, the game’s own internal graphics options allow you to select whether you prefer to prioritise resolution or frame rates (there’s always a graphical trade off associated with switching from 60Hz to 120Hz). With Call Of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War, however, you have to choose in the console’s menus whether you want to prioritise ‘Resolution’ or ‘Performance’ (frame rates) before booting the game if you want to get 120Hz.

This ‘Performance Mode or Resolution Mode’ option, confusingly, is found in the Game Presets section of the Saved Data and Game/App Settings submenu of the PS5 itself.

A further refresh rate option of some sort will likely be added when the PS5 is finally enabled for variable refresh rates.

Choose the right audio options

(Image credit: Sony)

We’ll discuss the PS5’s 3D Audio gaming system shortly. First, though, we should note the mess concerning the PS5’s Dolby Atmos activation options. Specifically the fact that there are two of them: one for streaming apps, and a separate one for the built-in Blu-ray/4K Blu-ray player. The PS5 does not support Dolby Atmos for games.

The first Dolby Atmos option appears in the System/Sound menu, under Audio output. Scroll right to the bottom of this page and you’ll see an Audio Format (Priority) option, that will be set to Linear PCM by default. There’s an option to choose Bitstream (Dolby) or Bitstream (DTS) if you prefer that.

However, when you try and play a 4K or HD Blu-ray disc with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, the console still does not output Dolby Atmos. To make it work you need to press the Options button on your PS5 joystick while playing a film disc, then click the ‘three dots’ icon and choose the Bitstream option under Audio Format.

Unlike Microsoft with its latest Xbox consoles, Sony has decided not to use Dolby Atmos for its premium game audio experience. Instead, it has developed its own new ‘Tempest’ 3D Audio system. It’s up to individual developers whether and how they deploy 3D Audio, but notable titles to use ‘full-on’ versions of it include Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Demons Souls.

At the time of writing, the new 3D Audio system can’t be output to any external multi-channel home theatre speaker/AVR system. Currently, it only works via headphones, though Sony has suggested that this will change at some point in the future.

To try out 3D Audio with headphones, first make sure that you have the Enable 3D Audio option in the Audio Output part of the Sound menu activated. Also, when you first use headphones with the PS5, be sure to check out the Adjust 3D Audio Profile option. This plays a ‘babbling brook’ test signal and asks you to pick which of five settings makes the sound feel most at ear level.

You don’t need special headphones to experience the 3D Audio effect – any wired pair will do the job once connected to the DualSense controller – but the quality of the headphones you use certainly impacts how effective 3D Audio sounds.

As you might expect, Sony’s own Pulse 3D wireless gaming headset, which has been designed for the PS5, is particularly effective – though at £90 ($100, AU$150) it certainly isn’t cheap. However, once you start using it that price actually starts to sound more than fair.

For starters, it’s able to deliver the 3D audio effect wirelessly; you don’t need to be tethered to the DualSense controller. It also carries nifty high-sensitivity microphones complete with noise-cancelling technology built into the main headset, rather than in the usual mic ‘arm’, as well as providing buttons for mixing the game sound and chat sound, and for monitoring your own voice.

The Pulse 3D is lightweight and reasonably comfortable, and it does an excellent job of getting both a precise and strikingly large sense of space from the 3D Audio system.

If you want a more luxuriously built wireless headphone option and you’d prefer a dedicated mic arm, Turtle Beach’s Stealth 700 Gen 2 (£130, $150, AU$250) could be up your street. Just bear in mind that while good-looking, great for chatting and more comfortable to wear for epic gaming sessions, they don’t sound quite as punchy as the Sony Pulse 3D models. They can’t be jacked into the DualSense controller when they run out of juice, either, but with an impressive 20 hours of battery life, that shouldn’t be a big problem. Plus you can use them while they’re charging.

If you’re on a tight budget, meanwhile, and don’t mind a wired rather than wireless headset, then the Xiberia V20D (£30) are good value.

For a few other possibilities, check out our Best Gaming Headsets 2021 feature.

Brace yourself

The number of things you need to think about and potentially invest in if you want to unlock the full capabilities of your PS5 is pretty intimidating. Rest assured, though, that Sony’s new console is more than capable of rewarding your effort and expense with truly next-gen thrills. Once you’ve experienced it in full, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

MORE:

Read our full PlayStation 5 review

Considering your next-gen options? Here’s our Xbox Series X review

Check out our list of the best gaming TVs you can currently buy

Our Verdict

The MSI Aegis RS 11th is a powerful gaming desktop with the latest parts from Intel and Nvidia and off-the-shelf components that allow for easy upgrades.

For

+ Off the shelf parts
+ Powerful gaming performance
+ Decent pack-in peripherals

Against

– MSI Center software is clunky
– Middling file transfer speeds

It’s hard to build a computer right now, because many of the key parts are sold out everywhere you look . If you can get a quality desktop prebuilt, it may be worth springing for it just to get the components you want. The MSI Aegis RS11th ($1,999 to start, $2,499) as tested, delivers the latest with Intel’s 11th Gen Rocket Lake and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080. If those are the parts you’re looking for, this PC should be in your consideration.

MSI isn’t using a weird, proprietary

chassis

that’s hard to open; This is made of standardized parts, just mostly MSI-branded ones. That does mean that when parts are easier to buy, this is a PC you’ll be able to upgrade and grow with.

The MSI Aegis RS 11th’s gaming performance is strong, which makes one of the

best gaming PCs

, but Rocket Lake’s modest core count holds it back in productivity workloads.

Design of the MSI Aegis RS 11th

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How much you like the design of the Aegis RS will rely heavily on how much you like one of MSI’s existing PC cases, the MPG Gungnir 110R, s a mid-tower chassis with both tempered glass and black aluminum.The front is split between the two, making it look like the

Two-Face

of computer cases. Considering our review unit had three RGB fans up front, I didn’t love that they were half covered up. It’s a weird design choice.

The rest of it, however, is far more conservatve. The left side panel is tempered glass, which lets you see your components, while the right side is opaque and covers up the cable management. There are two dust filters: a magnetic one on top of the case, and a second one in front of the intake fans.

There are three 120mm intake fans on the front. There’s another on the rear, as exhaust, but it also cools the radiator on the MSI Coreliquid 120 liquid cooler for the CPU. I would like to see the radiator mounted up top, where there is room for one up to the 240mm in size, and have a regular exhaust fan in the back, since there is no obstacle to that with this case. (In fact, I wouldn’t mind a beefier cooler for this processor, too.) Still, unlike many custom chassis we’ve seen lately, this one doesn’t seem to have particular issues with where to put fans.

The front three fans and CPU cooler have RGB lighting, which can be controlled with a button labeled “LED” on the top of the case, or with a module in the MSI Center software.

At 17.72 x 16.93 x 8.46 inches, the Aegis RS is smaller than the Alienware Aurora R11 (18.9 x 17 x 8.8) and iBuypower Gaming RDY IWBG207 (18.9 x 19.2 x 8.5 inches). The HP Omen 30L, however, is slightly smaller at 17.7 x 16.8 x 6.6 inches.

MSI Aegis RS 11th Specifications

Processor	Intel Core i7-11700K
Motherboard	MSI Z590 Pro Wi-Fi (ATX)
Memory	16GB Crucial Ballistix DDR4-3000
Graphics	MSI RTX 3080 Ventus 3X OC (10GB)
Storage	1TB XPG Gammix S70 PCIe Gen 4, 2TB Seagate Barracuda (7,200 RPM)
Case	MSI MPG Gungnir 110R
Networking	Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210, Bluetooth 5.2
Front Ports	2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 3.5 mm headphone and microphone jacks
Rear Ports (Motherboard)	4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C, PS/2, DisplayPort, HDMI, audio connectors
Video Output (GPU)	3x Displayport 1.4a, HDMI 2.1
Power Supply	MSI MPG A750GF – 750W
Cooling	MSI Coreliquid 120R liquid cooler, 3x 120mm case fans
Operating System	Windows 10 Home
Dimensions	17.72 x 16.93 x 8.46 inches
Price as Configured	$2,499

Ports and Upgradeability on the MSI Aegis RS 11th

There are five ports on the top of the Aegis RS chassis: a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, and separate 3.5 mm headphone and microphone jacks.

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The rear ports are from the MSI Z590 Pro Wi-Fi motherboard, and include four USB 2.0 Type-A ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C, as well as audio connectors and PS/2 for legacy peripherals. There’s also DisplayPort and HDMI, though you’ll likely use the options on the graphics card.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Internally, the Aegis is easy to update or repair, because it’s built just like a PC you might put together yourself. There aren’t any weird custom chassis tricks or hidden parts. MSI makes the case, power supply, graphics card, motherboard and liquid cooler as separate components. There’s nothing proprietary about this that you couldn’t change or update later.

You can get to most of the parts by removing the tempered glass side panel. It’s held into the back of the chassis with two thumb screws, so no tools are needed. There’s a handle to pull it straight back from the case. One highlight here is a sled for a 2.5-inch drive for easy extra storage. The RAM and M.2 SSD are easy enough to access without moving anything.

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The right side panel comes off the same way as the glass door, and it’s the easiest (only, really) way to access the HDD and the PSU, which are hidden beneath a shroud. The case’s RGB controller is also back here, and there’s another 2.5-inch drive sled.

I’m not going to say the cable management is beautiful compared to some other prebuilts, but it’s functional enough (I honestly probably don’t have the patience to do any better) and, unlike some cases, you can easily access it.

Gaming and Graphics on the MSI Aegis RS 11th

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and Intel Core i7-11700K proved potent for gaming.

I played a bit of Control on the Aegis RS, which I like to try because of how well it integrates ray tracing and stresses even the most powerful components. I ran it at 4K with the high preset and medium ray tracing.

In the beginning of the game, which features exploration sequences, combat with hiss guards in the Oldest House and fights on the Astral Plane, the game typically ran at around 57 frames per second. During fights inside the house, the rate dropped as low as 37 fps when I used lots of Jesse’s melee attacks, which bring about large telekinetic explosions with lots of objects moving. In the Astral Plane, which is rendered on a largely white background, it often stayed in the low 70’s, even during combat. With a slightly lower resolution or a few tweaks, you could be at a steady 60 fps fairly easily.

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On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (highest settings), the game ran at 147 fps in 1080p and 57 fps at 4K. It was beat in both only by the Alienware Aurora R11 (149 fps at 1080p, 64 fps at 4K) with an RTX 3090.

In Grand Theft Auto V (very high settings), the Aegis RS had superior 1080p performance at 163 fps and ran in 4K at 54 fps. The Aurora won out in 4K, while the Omen and iBuypower both had identical 4K performance to the Aegis.

On the Far Cry New Dawn benchmark, The Aegis dominated again at FHD, running at 134 fps. In 4K, it ran at 94 fps, behind the iBuypower and the Aurora by a few frames but tied with the Omen.

The Aegis came just behind the Alienware in Red Dead Redemption 2 (medium settings) at 113 fps, but had the highest 4K score at 40 fps. It beat the Omen by 10 frames, though the iBuypower was closer.

On Borderlands 3 (badass settings), the Aegis RS hit 136 fps at FHD and 58 fps in 4K. That’s the worst of the 4K showings, but on par with the HP Omen 30L for 1080p. The Aurora, with its RTX 3090, did the heavy lifting, winning at both resolutions.

Productivity Performance of the MSI Aegis RS 11th

This is the first pre-built desktop we’ve reviewed with the Intel Core i7-11700K. MSI has paired it with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD and a 2TB HDD. The CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads. Its competitors, though, pose a threat, as many high-end PCs come with Core i9 processors that have more cores. It should be noted that even the Core i9 Rocket Lake has just 8 cores, so this isn’t a limitation of testing the Core i7.

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On Geekbench 5, an overall performance benchmark, the Aegis RS 11th notched a single-core score of 1,676 and a multi-core score of 10,102. While that was the highest single-core score, the other three desktops had higher multi-core scores. All of those used Intel Core i9-10900K chips, which have 10 cores rather than the 8 cores in the 11700K.

The PCIe Gen 4 SSD in the Aegis didn’t show off. It transferred 25GB of files at a rate of 635.3 MBps, just edging past the iBuypower and falling far short of the Omen (978 MBps) and Aurora (1,201.87 MBps).

On our Handbrake video editing test, the MSI Aegis RS 11th transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 5 minutes and 19 seconds. That’s faster than the iBuypower, but the Aurora and Omen both beat the Aegis’ time by five seconds.

MSI Vigor GK30 Keyboard and Clutch GM08 Mouse

MSI includes a keyboard and mouse in the box, which are good enough to use if you don’t have a lot else lying around, but that you may want to replace if you already have favorite peripherals.

The mouse, the Clutch GM08, has rubberized grips on the side, though it felt a bit narrow for my wide claw grip. Still, there are some higher-end features here, including adjustable weights (two 3-gram weights and one 5-gram weight) to make the mouse lighter or heavier. It has a PixArt PAW351 sensor that goes up to 4,200 DPI. The mouse has a DPI switch button that lets you adjust sensitivity, and has two buttons on the left side of the mouse, but they aren’t programmable in MSI Center. It typically

sells separately for around $20

, so don’t get your hopes up too much, but it gets the job done in a pinch. The red LED light can’t be changed in MSI’s software, either.

The keyboard, the Vigor GK30, is the same one that came with the MSI Aegis Ti5 I recently reviewed. It’s just OK. The keyboard, which MSI suggests is “mechanical-like” has keys that are stiff and not quite clicky. There’s perhaps too much RGB lighting in a sea around the keys. They can’t be controlled in MSI’s software, either, but can be customized with buttons on the keyboard.

MSI Center, Software and Warranty on the MSI Aegis RS 11th

This is the first MSI PC that’s crossed my desk with MSI Center, the company’s replacement for its two previous swiss army-knife applications, Dragon Center (for gaming) and Creator Center (for, well, creating).

MSI Center, though, seems barebones. Sure, it has an optional light/dark mode switcher, which is nice, and you can still see CPU and GPU temperatures and usage, and there are still different usage scenarios to choose from, though they’re buried behind menus. But some features from Dragon Center are nowhere to be found, including one-click optimization for games, Mystic Light and the LAN manager are optional modules to add on. This feels like it’s in beta; there’s an area to “downlaod, update or uninstall” (MSI’s typo, not mine).

But MSI still includes its share of bloat, including MSI App Player, its version of BlueStacks, which runs Android apps, as well as LinkedIn. It notably doesn’t have the Cyberlink suite that I’ve complained about on previous systems, though no one can escape the bloat that comes with

Windows 10

, like Facebook Messenger, Hulu and Roblox.

MSI sells the Aegis RS 11th with a one-year warranty.

MSI Aegis RS 11th Configurations

We reviewed the Aegis RS with a new Intel Core i7-11700K “Rocket Lake” processor, 16GB of RAM, and MSI RTX 3080 Ventus 3X OC GPU, a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD and a 2TB, 7,200-rpm HDD. When the system becomes widely available in mid-April, it will run for $2,499.

When we were reviewing this model, MSI told us that the RS 11th series would start at $1,999. It didn’t have completely finalized specs, but suggested the base model would have an RTX 3070 and 650W GPU and ditch the HDD. Several configurations may continue to utilize a Z490 motherboard and then transition to Z590 as supply levels out. The Aegis RS series is expected to top out at a Core i9-11900K, RTX 3090, 32GB of RAM, an 850W power supply and a 240mm CPU cooler, going possibly as high as $3,899.

Bottom Line

If you’re looking for the latest and greatest, the MSI Aegis RS 11th delivers you the most recent parts from Intel and Nvidia (at least, as long as it’s in stock).

Unlike some other prebuilts, there’s nothing proprietary here. It’s all standardized parts, mostly from MSI, that you can easily upgrade down the line.

Intel’s Core i7 Rocket Lake and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 in our review configuration worked potently together. In productivity, though, Rocket Lake’s limited core count didn’t stand up to some competition, which affects some workloads.

MSI needs to add polish to its MSI Center utility.. If you use the app to monitor CPU usage, check temperatures or change RGB colors, it will feel a bit like beta. If you prefer other applications, you may not notice.

As a whole package, the Aegis RS 11th is a powerful gaming rig with few frills. If you need a PC to play games, this will stand up, even in 4K with the right settings.

Socket	LGA 1200
Chipset	Z590
Form Factor	ATX
Voltage Regulator	14 Phase (12+2, 50A MOSFETs)
Video Ports	(1) HDMI 2.0
	(1) DisplayPort 1.4
USB Ports	(2) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-A and Type-C (10 Gbps)
	(2) USB 3.2 Gen 1, Type-A (5 Gbps)
	(2) USB 2.0
Network Jacks	(1) 2.5 GbE
Audio Jacks	(5) Analog + SPDIF
Legacy Ports/Jacks	PS/2
Other Ports/Jack	✗
PCIe x16	(2) v4.0 x16, (x16/x0 or x16/PCIe 3.0 x4)
PCIe x8	✗
PCIe x4	✗
PCIe x1	(2) v.4.0 (x1)
CrossFire/SLI	2-Way CrossfireX
DIMM slots	(4) DDR4 4800+(OC), 128GB Capacity
M.2 slots	(1) PCIe 4.0 x4 / PCIe (up to 80mm)
	(1) PCIe 3.0 x4 / PCIe + SATA (up to 80mm)
	(1) PCIe 3.0 x4 / PCIe + SATA (up to 80mm)
U.2 Ports	✗
SATA Ports	(6) SATA3 6 Gbps (RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10)
USB Headers	(1) USB v3.2 Gen 2×2 (Type-C)
	(2) USB v3.2 Gen 1
	(2) USB v2.0
Fan/Pump Headers	(7) 4-Pin
RGB Headers	(2) aRGB (3-pin)
	(2) RGB (4-pin)
Legacy Interfaces	✗
Other Interfaces	FP-Audio, TPM
Diagnostics Panel	Yes (4-LED Q-LED display)
Internal Button/Switch	✗
SATA Controllers	✗
Ethernet Controller(s)	(1) Realtek Drason RTL8125BG (2.5 GbE)
Wi-Fi / Bluetooth	Intel WiFi-6E AX210 (802.11ax, 2×2, MU-MIMO, OFDMA, BT 5.2)
USB Controllers	ASMedia 1074
HD Audio Codec	Realtek ALC897
DDL/DTS Connect	✗ / ✗+
Warranty	3 years

Socket	LGA 1200
Chipset	Z590
Form Factor	ATX
Voltage Regulator	16+2+1 Phase (90A MOSFETs for Vcore)
Video Ports	(1) HDMI (v1.4)
	(2) Mini-DisplayPort (input), (2) Thunderbolt 4 (output)
USB Ports	(2) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-C (10 Gbps)
	(4) USB 3.2 Gen 1, Type-C (5 Gbps)
	(2) USB 2.0, Type-A
	(2) Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C) ports (Up to 40 Gbps)
Network Jacks	(1) 2.5 GbE
Audio Jacks	(5) Analog Plus SPDIF
Legacy Ports/Jacks	✗
Other Ports/Jack	✗
PCIe x16	(2) v4.0 x16
	(1) v3.0 x16
	(x16/x0/x4, x8/x8/x4, x8/x4+x4/x4)
PCIe x8	✗
PCIe x4	✗
PCIe x1	(2) PCIe 3.0 x1
CrossFire/SLI	AMD Quad GPU Crossfire and 2-Way Crossfire, 2-Way Nvidia SLI
DIMM slots	(4) DDR4 5600+, 128GB Capacity
M.2 slots	(1) PCIe 4.0 x4 / PCIe (up to 110mm)
	(2) PCIe 3.0 x4 / PCIe + SATA (up to 80mm)
	(1) PCe 3.0 x4 / PCIe (up to 80mm)
U.2 Ports	✗
SATA Ports	(6) SATA3 6 Gbps (RAID 0, 1 and 10)
USB Headers	(1) USB v3.2 Gen 2 (Front Panel Type-C)
	(1) USB v3.2 Gen 1
	(2) USB v2.0
Fan/Pump Headers	(8) 4-Pin
RGB Headers	(2) aRGB (3-pin)
	(2) RGB (4-pin)
Legacy Interfaces	✗
Other Interfaces	FP-Audio, TPM
Diagnostics Panel	Yes, 4-LED ‘Status LED’ display, 2-character debug
Internal Button/Switch	LED/BIOS switches, Power/Reset buttons
SATA Controllers	✗
Ethernet Controller(s)	(1) Intel I225-V (2.5 GbE)
Wi-Fi / Bluetooth	(1) Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 (MU-MIMO, 2.4/5/6GHz, BT 5.2)
USB Controllers	??
HD Audio Codec	Realtek ALC4082
DDL/DTS Connect	✗ / DTS:X Ultra
Warranty	3 Years

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What’s next?

Get the right television

Make sure you use the right input on your TV

Use the provided PS5 HDMI cable (or pick a replacement carefully)

Make sure your TV HDMI port is set up for high data rates

Set your TV to Game mode

Check your PS5’s Video Output screen

Setting up your PS5

Choose the right audio options

Brace yourself

Design and build

Setup and introducing sleep sensing

Sleep tracking and bedside performance

Display, interface and sound quality

Smart home and expanded functions

Alternatives to consider

Lenovo Smart Clock

Amazon Echo Show 8

Our Verdict

For

Against

Features and Specifications

ASRock Z590 Steel Legend WiFi 6E Specifications

Our Verdict

For

Against

Features and Specifications

MSI MEG Z590 Ace Specifications

Our Verdict

For

Against

Design of the MSI Aegis RS 11th

MSI Aegis RS 11th Specifications

Ports and Upgradeability on the MSI Aegis RS 11th

Gaming and Graphics on the MSI Aegis RS 11th

Productivity Performance of the MSI Aegis RS 11th

MSI Vigor GK30 Keyboard and Clutch GM08 Mouse

MSI Center, Software and Warranty on the MSI Aegis RS 11th

MSI Aegis RS 11th Configurations

Bottom Line