The Sonos Move is receiving a firmware update to enhance its Auto TruePlay calibration feature, bringing it in-line with the improved version that has been introduced by the just-announced Sonos Roam portable speaker.
Sonos’ Auto TruePlay calibration technology, which debuted in the Move, uses the speaker’s microphones to automatically measure the frequency response of its surroundings and optimise sound quality accordingly, whenever the speaker is placed in a new location. This feature has required a wi-fi network, meaning it can only self-calibrate outdoors when within range of your home network, but now, courtesy of this new update, this process can work over a Bluetooth connection too – as it also can with the Roam.
Given the portability of both the Move and Roam – the fact they’re likely to be placed on different surfaces and in different environments, rather than just stationary in one place – Auto TruePlay is a worthwhile feature. We were impressed with the results during our testing of the Move: “We move from our soundproofed test room to a noisy office environment and outdoors. The speaker’s real-world transformation is audible, the Move never sounding out of place once it reconfigures itself. When outside, there’s a definite sense of the Move’s sonic presentation opening up while retaining the clarity and balance of its indoor performance, which is typically Sonos.”
The fact it can now work over Bluetooth gives owners an optimised audio experience in places they may not have been able to before, such as the bottom of their garden or out in the park – providing it works just as effectively as it does over wi-fi.
MORE:
Read our full Sonos Move review
Here’s the A-Z on thenew Sonos Roam: release date, price, features
Sonos Move gets longer battery life and new white colourway
Sonos has just announced a new Bluetooth portable speaker. The Roam is only the firm’s second-ever, following the 2019-launched Sonos Move and marking another break away from its traditional at-home Sonos system. It’s smaller and consequently more portable than Move – cheaper, too. And it’s shaping up to be a real challenger to the best Bluetooth speakers around.
But what does it bring to the already crowded Bluetooth speaker market? And how does it compare to its larger, pricier sibling?
Sonos Roam is official – and the cheapest, smartest Sonos speaker yet
Sonos Roam vs Sonos Move: price
The Sonos Roam is essentially a smaller, more portable Move and so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s more affordable. The Roam costs £159 ($169, AU$279, €179), making it the cheapest Sonos speaker ever (apart from those made in collaboration with IKEA), sitting below the slightly pricier Sonos One SL. That’s also in the ballpark of many of the best Bluetooth speakers around, although for its size (albeit not feature set) there are plenty around asking half that price.
The six-times-the-size Move costs more than twice that at £399 ($399, AU$649), so yes, there’s quite a difference in cost. This might rule the Move out for people’s some budgets, but it’s still worth knowing what you’re getting (or not getting) if you choose either one.
Sonos: everything you need to know
Sonos Roam vs Sonos Move: design
(Image credit: Sonos)
As soon as you clap eyes on it, you’ll see the Roam is a very different beast to the Move. It’s triangular, for a start, like a Toblerone. And it’s a lot smaller – six times smaller in fact, measuring just 16.8 x 6.2 x 6cm. That’s smaller than a water bottle. Naturally, it’s lighter, too, tipping the scales at 430g.
The comparative specs for the Move are dimensions of 24 x 16 x 12.6cm and a weight of 3kg.
One of the biggest criticisms of the Move is that its bulk and heft pushes the definitions of portability. Whereas the majority of Bluetooth speakers are designed to be tossed in a bag and taken to the park, picnic, pool or beach (just as the Roam is), the Move is more of a home speaker that can be moved from room to room or into the garden.
In light of its ultra-portable, outdoor-friendly design, the Roam also more resistant to the elements than the Move. It’s IP67-rated, meaning it can be completely submerged in three feet of water for up to 30 minutes. It’s completely impervious to dust, too. The Move is only IP56-rated, which means it’s only protected from ‘harmful dust’ and ‘strong water jets from all directions’.
The names of both devices are quite apt, then: the Move is intended to be moved from room to room, and the Roam to be taken with you on your wider travels.
Which Sonos speaker should you buy?
Sonos Roam vs Sonos Move: features
While the Roam is a very different proposition to the Move, it does share some of the same traits. For example, it also has both Bluetooth and wi-fi connectivity, so you can stream tunes to it offline from a phone or tablet, or over the internet using a service like Spotify or Tidal, like the rest of the Sonos speaker range. Wi-fi also means it can work as part of a Sonos multi-room system (as the Move can too); it’s as much a member of the family as every other speaker, also controlled by the Sonos S2 app.
Like the Move, the Roam has a rechargeable battery, and despite its much smaller size, it manages to match the Move’s 10-hour run time. In that context it’s impressive, although note that (not-so-fruitfully-featured) Bluetooth speakers do often offer longer battery lives.
To juice it up, the Roam comes with a USB-C cable (but not a power adaptor). Sonos has also launched a $49 dedicated wireless charging base that the Roam clips onto using magnets, although Roam is compatible with any Qi wireless charger.
The Move also has a USB-C cable, with a charging base that comes in the box. Its battery is also swappable, should you need to replace it (it will be a lot cheaper than buying a whole new speaker). Sonos hasn’t yet mentioned such functionality with the Roam, but as the consumer tech world is moving towards more sustainability, we wouldn’t be surprised if it was an option for Roam – if its design even allows for it.
Also like the Move, the Roam has voice control via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, as well as Apple’s AirPlay 2. Neither the Move nor Roam can work as a home cinema surround with the Sonos Arc, Playbar, Playbase, Beam or Sub – that remains the job of the One SL and IKEA speakers.
Right, so that’s enough similarities; let us tell you how the two devices differ.
The first new feature the Roam offers is the automatic switching between wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity and connected devices. That means when you leave the house it can connect to a Bluetooth device without you having to initiate pairing. You don’t have to do anything, in fact. Just grab it and go.
‘Sonos Swap’ is also new and exclusive to the Roam. This lets you ‘hand off’ whatever music the Roam is playing to another Sonos speaker (the nearest to it) by long-pressing its play/pause button. So if you come home from a long afternoon’s picnicking you can seamlessly swap what’s playing to your home system. Neat. (It’s also a feature we’re expecting to work with the highly anticipated Sonos wireless headphones, due later this year.)
Auto TruePlay is on board, too – and introduces improvements over the version that launched with the Move. For the uninitiated, this is automatic calibration technology that uses the speaker’s microphones to measure the frequency response of its surroundings and adjust sound accordingly, whenever it detects being placed in a new location. Move the speaker from a bookshelf to a coffee table, say, and it’ll recalibrate its sound to its new surroundings to give you the best audio possible. This tech was first seen in the Move, but the Roam moves it along by letting it work in a Bluetooth domain as well as a network one. This feature is coming to the Move via a firmware update.
Ultimately, while there’s plenty familiar about the Roam, there’s plenty new too. And it could be the smartest Bluetooth speaker of its size ever made.
Sonos Roam vs Sonos Move: sound
(Image credit: Future)
Of course, for all the bells and whistles, a speaker sinks or swims by its sound quality. The Sonos Move managed to impress us in this area, with a sonic profile similar to the excellent Sonos One: think weighty, full-bodied audio, with a tonality that’s nicely even-handed and not bereft of solid, deep bass.
The Move’s ample size gives it plenty of scale and space – put it at the centre of your garden party, and you won’t be disappointed. But volume never comes at the expense of quality – the audio stays composed even when pushed to the limit of what’s socially acceptable. You can expect similar sonic satisfaction from Bluetooth playback too.
But while we’ve pored over the features and design of the Sonos Roam, we haven’t given it a through going over in our test rooms yet – watch. this. space – so we can’t comment on its sound quality. Sonos speakers are renowned for their sonic competitiveness – the company’s reputation is not only built on seamless integration and user experience but also performance – so we’re expecting big things, even from a relatively small package.
While we don’t expect the Roam to match the much bigger Move’s scale of sound, our expectations regarding pound-per-performance value are high. If we get the same Sonos sonic character but just smaller in scale and lighter on bass, the Roam shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Not that the Roam will have an easy time of it; competition is fierce where the Roam is positioned. To make its mark, it’ll have to compare to the likes of the JBL Flip 5 (currently number one in our list of best Bluetooth speakers), Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Gen), Audio Pro Addon C3, and UE Megablast. No mean feat, although the Roam’s extra and Sonos-centric features will have to be accounted for.
All of these best-in-class portable Bluetooth speakers are superb options from established players in the market, and each of these manufacturers has a lot of experience of making such devices. Sonos is a big name in multi-room audio, but portable products are a different kettle of fish.
We’ll have a full review for you as soon as we can.
Sonos Roam vs Sonos Move: early verdict
On paper, the Roam looks like a great device, addressing the criticisms of the Move by being more portable and cheaper. It shouldn’t exactly undermine the Move, though, as the two are quite different propositions: the Roam is a proper portable for taking out with you and by design will have its sonic limitations, while the Move is a Sonos speaker you can take to the garden or another room and get a decent scale of excellent sound from.
The great thing about the Sonos ecosystem is that consumers, and especially Sonos loyals, may well have valid reason to choose both.
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Staying in? You want the best computer speakers money can buy
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is the gaming laptop to beat.
When I tested Asus ROG’s Zephyrus G14 a year ago, I was blown away. Not only was it just over 3.5 pounds — a weight unheard of for a system with both a powerful processor and a discrete GPU — but it ran even the most demanding games at much better frame rates than any gaming laptop we’d ever seen at that size. And then everything else about it — the keyboard, the touchpad, the audio, the battery life — was also great. The G14 wasn’t just better than other gaming laptops in those areas: it was better than most other laptops at its price point, period.
Given the G14’s resounding success, it was only a matter of time before Asus put it in a 15-inch chassis. The formula wasn’t broken, and Asus didn’t fix it — Asus just made it bigger. While I had some questions when I heard the G15 was on the way (could it deliver the same combination of portability, battery life, and performance as a 14-inch product? Could it do that without costing over $2,000?), what’s become clear throughout my testing period is that the device isn’t just as good as its 14-inch counterpart; it’s somehow even better. Asus and AMD have done it again.
Gaming on Cloud 9.
The G15’s secret weapon is its processor. All models have AMD’s monstrous eight-core Ryzen 9 5900HS. My test model, priced at $1,799.99, pairs that chip with Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 3070 (an 80W version, with dynamic boost up to 100W), as well as 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. This configuration is a step above the base model, which includes an RTX 3060 and 512GB of storage. There are also two RTX 3080 models — pair it with 16GB of RAM for $1,999.99 or 32GB of RAM for $2,499.99. (I think my test model hits a sweet spot: 512GB of storage isn’t a lot for a gaming laptop, and it seems like the RTX 3080 models are fairly low-clocked and don’t perform hugely better than the lower-tier options.)
Asus says the G15 has a “desktop-inspired layout” with separate keys to control the volume, toggle the microphone, and pull up Armoury Crate.
Another highlight, consistent across all models, is the G15’s 165Hz QHD display. We’re finally starting to see 15-inch laptops with QHD screens en masse this year, indicating that this is the first year that manufacturers think mobile hardware is powerful enough to take advantage of them. Traditionally, mobile gamers have had the option of a 1080p display or a 4K display. (Not only is the latter quite expensive, but very few laptops can run demanding games at playable frame rates in 4K.)
You get over 3.5 million pixels from this QHD display.
So, the big question: Can the Zephyrus G15 run games at QHD resolution? The answer is an emphatic yes.
Some raw numbers to start. The G15 averaged 178fps on CS:GO at maximum settings — dust particles, fires, and other graphically intensive effects looked just fine. Red Dead Redemption II, also at maximum settings, averaged 58fps. (Come on, that’s basically 60). Ray tracing was no problem for this machine: the system averaged 61fps on Shadow of the Tomb Raider with ray tracing on ultra, and a whopping 81fps with ray tracing off. Remember, the G15 is running these at QHD resolution, which is already a bigger haul than traditional 1080p.
Those frame rates mean you should be able to run whatever game you want in QHD without bumping down any settings. They put the G15 about on par with MSI’s GS66 Stealth with an Intel Core i7-10870H and a GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q — the two laptops tied on Red Dead and were just one frame apart on Tomb Raider. MSI told us that the QHD GS66 model costs $2,599 — so the G15 with an RTX 3070 is getting the same frame rates for literally $800 less. The G15 also did better than the QHD / RTX 3070 Intel configuration of the Razer Blade 15 Base (53fps on Red Dead, 46fps on Tomb Raider), which costs $400 more. Those differentials should speak for themselves. Yes, the GS66 has a 240Hz screen, but that’s going to be excessive for most people at QHD resolution. If I didn’t already know where the G14 was priced last year, I would be emailing Asus to check if $1,799.99 was a typo. It’s an unbelievable value.
The games all looked great on this screen, which covers 100 percent of the sRGB gamut and 89 percent of AdobeRGB, and maxes out at 334 nits of brightness. It isn’t the highest refresh-rate screen you can get at 165Hz — Razer’s Blade 15 Advanced has a 240Hz QHD model, as does MSI’s GS66 Stealth — but it’s still a significant step above the Zephyrus G14’s 120Hz display. While the G15 doesn’t deliver the best picture I’ve ever seen, it still looks great and certainly improves upon the G14’s 1080p panel. Movement was all smooth, without a stutter in sight, and colors looked great. I saw a small amount of glare when using the device outdoors, but it was still quite usable at maximum brightness.
Cooling, while sometimes iffy on the G14, is stellar on this device. The G15’s “intelligent cooling” system includes two 84-blade fans and six heat pipes. It had no problem with any of the games I threw at it, spending the vast majority of its time between the mid-60s and mid-70s (Celsius) and never jumping above 80 degrees. That’s some of the best cooling performance I’ve ever seen from a gaming laptop, especially considering that this one was running heavy AAA titles, maxed out, at QHD resolution.
More impressively, the fans managed to do this without being deafeningly loud. I could certainly hear them while the machine was under load, but it was standard gaming-laptop noise, and I had no problem hearing game audio. You can also swap to the “Silent” profile in Asus’ Armoury Crate software. That toggle lived up to its name and completely silenced the fans, without causing any heat or performance problems that I observed.
Speaking of audio, the G15’s speakers also sound great. That’s to be expected — there are literally six of them, including two front-facing tweeters and force-canceling woofers under the palm rests. They deliver clear audio with very strong bass and powerful percussion. I don’t often get to say that about laptop audio, especially on gaming laptops. The G15 comes preloaded with Dolby Access, which you can use to jump between equalizer presets for gaming, movies, and music, and it makes a huge difference.
There are three microphones, which had no trouble picking up my voice. They also have presets for game streaming, music recording, and conference calls. Those are handy, but they’re not enough to make the G15 a good choice for remote work because it doesn’t include a webcam. The G14 also didn’t have a camera — Asus seems to have decided that webcams aren’t necessary on Zephyrus products. It’s the one significant knock against a device that is basically perfect otherwise. It’s also very odd to have such an advanced microphone setup and not have a webcam to go with it.
There are a couple other things to note about the G15’s chassis. Like many other Asus laptops, the G15 has an ErgoLift hinge, which folds under the deck when the laptop is open and lifts the keyboard above the ground. This is supposed to create a more ergonomic typing position, though I can’t say I ever noticed the difference. It does dig into your legs a bit if you’re using the laptop on your lap, though. The G15’s hinge isn’t as sharp as some other hinges, but as a frequent couch user, it’s still not my favorite feeling.
The keyboard and touchpad are both great as well. The G14 had one of my favorite keyboards of 2020, and the G15’s is quite similar. The click is comfortable, with 1.7mm of travel, and the dedicated volume keys (a Zephyrus staple) are quite convenient. There’s a fingerprint sensor built into the power button, which is on the top right of the keyboard deck.
The touchpad is massive, at 5.1 x 3.4 inches — 20 percent larger than that of the prior G15 generation. It’s so big that large portions of both my hands were resting on it when they weren’t typing, rather than on the palm rests. This was a bit annoying, but to the G15’s credit, it didn’t cause any palm-rejection issues. It’s also a bit loud and not the easiest or deepest click, but those are nitpicks — it’s a fine touchpad.
But what impressed me the most about the G15 is its battery life. This thing never dies. Using it as my daily driver with an office workload on Asus’ Silent profile around 200 nits of brightness, I averaged eight hours and 32 minutes. That’s just under what I got from the G14, and the G15 has a larger and higher-resolution screen to fuel. The result puts the G15 right up there with its smaller sibling as one of the longest-lasting gaming laptops we’ve ever seen. It has a large 90Wh battery inside, but plenty of gaming rigs with comparable bricks can only make it a few hours on a charge.
Gaming significantly shortens the G15’s life span, of course. I got an hour and 21 minutes of Red Dead out of one charge. Impressively, though, the game was quite playable for much of that time, avoiding stutters and performance issues. The game didn’t drop below playable rates until the G15 was down to 10 percent with six minutes remaining. The 200-watt charger also juices the G15 decently fast — during very light Chrome use, it got the device up to 60 percent in 37 minutes. If you don’t want to carry that heavy brick around and aren’t doing GPU-intensive tasks, the G15 also supports 100W Type-C charging.
G15s are available in eclipse gray (like this model) and moonlight white.
At the end of the day, there are things I can nitpick about this device. In particular, the lack of a webcam is egregious. And there are reasons it won’t be for everyone. Folks who are looking for a higher refresh-rate screen may prefer to spend more on a Blade 15 Advanced or a GS66. Those who want a jazzier design may find Asus’ Strix Scar 15 a better fit. And while $1,799 is a great value for these specs, anyone on a tighter budget has options like Lenovo’s Legion 5 on the table.
But almost everything about this laptop is fantastic. And not only is it fantastic, but it’s fantastic for several hundreds of dollars less than its QHD competitors. If you are willing to use an external webcam and you don’t need a 240Hz screen, there’s really no reason you should be buying any other QHD laptop in the thin 15-inch class. The G15 is superior on battery life, superior on power, superior on weight, and superior on price. It’s just the best.
Twitter’s social audio feature Spaces continues to expand its test group, but currently if you miss a live session, you miss the conversation for good. That, however, might change soon. In an interview with The Verge’s Nilay Patel on his Decoder podcast, Kayvon Beykpour, head of consumer product at Twitter, says the company plans to build a way to natively record conversations.
“I think it should be a choice,” he says. “If you think that the conversation was worth playing back, you ought to be able to do that. I personally am a little bit more bullish on two things. One, obviously the host should be able to save it and do whatever they want. Maybe you host a Space, you save it, then want to go edit it. You should be able to do that.”
He goes on to say that the idea of recording and sharing clips gets trickier when participants want to share audio without the host’s explicit consent.
“I also think that the notion of letting the audience pick sound bites and share them as clips could be really, really powerful,” he says. “Now, the challenge with that is you have a sort of a really challenging consent issue because you have the host’s intent in mind of, does the host want this conversation to be preserved or shared? [Then] there’s the speakers, who are a different actor than the host. Their consent is really important.”
Currently, Twitter does record conversations and retains them for 30 days, but only for moderation purposes. The hosts can download that data for as long as Twitter has it, as well as a copy of the transcription (so long as the host had them turned on during the session). Its competitor Clubhouse, on the other hand, only keeps conversation recordings when a room is live, in case a rule violation comes up, but then deletes the data once the room ends.
The idea that Twitter might let users natively record sets Spaces up to be a direct funnel to podcasting. It also changes the energy of a Space from an off-the-cuff conversation to one that might sound more professional. The functionality might be similar to the forthcoming audio app from Mark Cuban and Falon Fatemi called Fireside, which will also allow people to record their conversations. The app, which The Verge checked out last week, even builds music into the live shows so that the recordings sound more like a podcast. Fireside itself will eventually allow people to distribute their recordings natively through RSS feeds.
Twitter doesn’t seem to want to align Spaces that closely with the podcasting ecosystem, but the team does appear to recognize that people want their conversations to be preserved and distributed outside of Twitter itself.
You can hear the full Decoder conversation below in which Beykpour discusses more of Twitter’s new features, including Super Follows.
Ultra-high-end Swiss hi-fi manufacturer Goldmund has launched a new SACD player, the EIDOS Reference, costing £175,000. The player takes its name from Plato’s theory of forms and is as high-minded as it is high-priced.
The Eidos Reference can read all current digital disc formats (SACD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW) and audio data from DVDs. Alongside the dedicated balanced and unbalanced analogue outputs, there’s also a USB input capable of supporting PCM audio up to 384kHz and DoP up to DSD512.
The EIDOS is the consequence of a long-term project researching disc mechanisms at Goldmund’s Geneva labs.
A mechanism from D&M was chosen and integrated into a Goldmund mechanical grounding system. Goldmund says its magnetic damping technology further increases the loader mechanism’s rigidity, thus improving sound clarity.
Goldmund has also included all of its technologies that relate to vibration control, power supply regulation, digital conversion and analogue circuitry, in order to extract the best performance possible.
Each Eidos player is handmade in Geneva, weighs a substantial 110kg and comes in either a classic aluminium finish or a new, matt black option. If you’re a discerning music lover with a suitable hi-fi system (and a strong back), this could be your next source.
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As you may have heard one or two times, we’re now roughly a year into COVID and pandemic lockdown life. To fill the void in our lives that was once occupied by social gatherings, visiting family, and breathing indoor air freely, many of us have turned to new hobbies and habits. Some of them are even healthy!
Taking a daily or, if I’m being honest, semi-daily walk is a lockdown habit that has seen me through These Unprecedented Times. I’m not alone, either — without gyms or really anywhere else to go at all, lots of us have embraced (or at times, endured) a daily walk around the neighborhood.
To be sure, it’s not always easy. I got tired of walking by the same houses and the same pieces of fossilized trash about six months in. It rains a lot where I live and that can turn an otherwise pleasant walk into a real bummer. Other days, the motivation just isn’t there and the mailbox is as far as I get. But a few tricks along the way have helped me and fellow Verge staffers stay committed to the walk ritual. Here are some techniques to keep your pandemic walk routine fresh and the apps that can help you put them into practice.
Find a new route
Footpath helps you map out new routes and gives you key information like elevation change along the way.
This year I’ve embraced the life-changing magic of hauling myself out of my own neighborhood and going on a walk somewhere else. It feels counterproductive driving somewhere to take a walk, but it really does help shake things up when I’m burned out on my usual route.
AllTrails is an app popular with hikers, but it’s also great for finding nearby parks and trails you may not know about, whether you’re in an urban spot or farther from the city. There’s also an active community who leave helpful tips, like whether the restrooms are a horror show or if the parking lot is a hotspot for break-ins. All of its basic features are available in the free version.
Footpath is another good tool to help identify a new route, whether it’s close to home or somewhere unfamiliar. Use the app’s detailed street map to draw roughly where you’d like to go; the app will snap your route to the nearest streets and pathways. Footpath gives you important details about the route like mileage, elevation gain / loss along the way, and even a time estimate that factors in hills so you know what you’re getting into. You can trace out the full route or draw a path to a destination you’d like to reach and the app can create a loop route back to your starting point.
The free version will help you brainstorm some new walks, but more advanced features like turn-by-turn navigation — iPhone only for now but coming to Android soon — require an Elite subscription ($23.49 annually). Alternatively, you can add Elite features to individual saved routes for a one-time fee of $1.99 each.
Make it mindful
Any therapist or Silicon Valley CEO will tell you about the benefits of meditation. My brain is too noisy for a traditional sitting-and-breathing meditation, but I find walking meditations a lot easier to get into. Calm and Headspace (each is $69 for an annual subscription) offer walking meditations of various lengths; the ones offered by Headspace are tailored to more specific circumstances, like walking in a city or just back and forth at home. There are also plenty of free options if you search YouTube or your streaming music service of choice.
Find something to tune into
Time to Walk is an Apple Fitness Plus feature.Image: Apple
Finding a bite-sized podcast to listen to during walk time is a nice bonus incentive to take a break and head out the door. NPR’s Short Wave is a quick ten-ish minutes with episodes every weekday. One of my Verge colleagues uses her walk to catch up on Gamertag Radio. Or check out an audio book from your local library with the Libby app to make walk time double up as your reading time. And for something a little more freeform, use the time to listen in on a conversation on Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces.
If you’re an Apple Fitness Plus subscriber, Time to Walk is a great option. Featured celebrities like Dolly Parton share stories, recorded as they walk in places that are meaningful to them. It’s a nice, reflective experience with a diverse range of hosts. You will need a subscription to Apple’s $79 / year fitness service and an Apple Watch, so it’s more likely to be an option if you’re already invested in those things.
Gamify it
Seek helps you identify local animals and plant life, rewarding you with badges as you observe more species.
It works on kids and it works on adults: when all else fails, turn it into a game. Tracking walks on MapMyRun or Strava can give you that extra sense of accountability and accomplishment when you get back home and tap the “finish” button. It’s a neat little trick that works on my lizard brain.
Or, do as another of my Verge colleagues does and take note of local critters and plant life with the Seek app. It uses your phone’s camera to identify plants, birds, and other kinds of fauna. Best of all, it will keep track of species you’ve indentified and award badges as you identify more. Badges!
Of course, that’s just the real-life version of the classic catch ‘em all game. Another Verge staffer uses that oldie but goodie Pokémon Go to keep her neighborhood walks interesting. If you missed its rise in popularity the first time around, here’s the gist: several years ago, Pokémon Go tricked a bunch of us into going outside to look for AR characters in real-life locations. Once you find them, you can capture them by flinging virtual pokéballs at them on your phone screen. Keep it casual and just see how many different pokémon you encounter and capture on your walk route, or seek out rarer pokémon more aggressively. It’s your world.
Aya, a startup behind the industry’s first crowdfunded handheld Windows 10-based game console, has begun its Indiegogo campaign. The start of the campaign was postponed earlier due to components shortages, but now Aya thinks that the market situation is right to start the company’s crowdfunding campaign. To be the first to get the Aya Neo, one must pay as much as $789 via the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform, reports Liliputing.
The Aya Neo uses the AMD Ryzen 5 4500U system-on-chip produced using TSMC’s N7 fabrication process (7 nm-class). This APU has six cores running at 2.30 GHz/4.0 GHz along with with the Radeon Vega 6 graphics unit (384 SPs), 16GB of memory, and 1TB of PCIe/NVMe storage. The AMD system-on-chip is cooled down using a proprietary cooling system with to copper heat pipes and a fan.
(Image credit: Aya Neo)
The console has a 7-inch IPS LCD touch-enabled display along with analog sticks, a D-pad, and other game-specific buttons. The Aya Neo exceeds expectations with regard to connectivity, which includes Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, stereo speakers, a 3.5-mm audio output, and three USB Type-C ports.
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(Image credit: Aya Neo)
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(Image credit: Aya Neo)
While a 7-inch x86 Windows-based PC seems impressive, the Aya Neo has its peculiarities. In particular, the console uses a six-year-old Polar/Vega GCN 1.4 graphics architecture that first came to life in the form of the Radeon RX 470 GPU in early 2016. AMD and game developers support this architecture for now, but only time will tell for how long this architecture will be supported given the fact that AMD is promoting its RDNA/RDNA2 GPUs and it is the RDNA2 architecture that powers both new generation game consoles, the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox One X/S series.
In any case, without any doubts the Aya Neo is an interesting device from engineering and gaming performance standpoints.
The Sennheisers offer an even and analytical listen, they’re just missing an extra ounce of energy and fun
For
Expansive, detailed presentation
Comfortable design
Solid build and finish
Against
Beaten for verve and energy
There’s an old Chinese proverb, attributed to zen master Hsi-Tang Chih Tsang in 800AD, that reads: “Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes it obstructs your vision.” Back then, he wouldn’t have had access to the Sennheiser HD 560S open-back headphones, but his summation reminds us that items deemed highly desirable can produce the greatest disdain, should we find them disappointing.
In hi-fi circles, any product boldly claiming to have been “crafted for the analytical audio enthusiast” but carrying a price tag of less than £200 ($200) will probably either turn out to be exceptionally good value or a huge disappointment. So, has Sennheiser struck a rich seam of gold with the HD 560S, or is it about to rub the dust in our eye?
Comfort
(Image credit: Sennheiser)
Sonically, Sennheiser is pushing these cans as the closest option to its thrice-the-price HD 660S, but in terms of comfort the company likens them to the reputable HD 599.
Thanks to the velour earpads and ample padding on the headband, they are really rather comfortable. And at 240g without the cable, their relative lightness belies the size of those large earcups, which really do fit around the ear.
Although Sennheiser’s claimed ‘barely there’ feel is optimistic – the clamping force of the plastic headband is stronger than the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Grado SR325e, for example – they’re an easy wear thanks to the padding, light design and slightly forward-angled earcups. Owing to their open-back design, the HD 560S feel ventilated and cool to wear, too.
Sennheiser HD 560S tech specs
(Image credit: Sennheiser)
Type Open-back, over-ear
Impedance 120ohms
Frequency response 6Hz – 38kHz
Output 6.3mm jack (with 3.5mm adapter)
Cable length 3m
Weight 240g
The headband is plastic and the sliding mechanism clicks when adjusting them to fit, but it isn’t noisy during use. The earcups are anchored low enough to permit just enough movement, in or out from the headband itself, for an optimal fit. The cups are also designed to swivel just enough to ensure they will cover your ear properly.
These wired headphones come with a rubberised and relatively slender 3m cable, with the 6.3mm plug designed to connect to hi-fi sources, such as headphone amps and audio interfaces, bearing that connection. The bundled 3.5mm adaptor, meanwhile, will hook you up to digital audio players, tablets and smartphones that have a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Sennheiser HD 560S’ cable is detachable and connected to the left earcup only.
Build
(Image credit: Sennheiser)
Under the hood, Sennheiser’s all-new 120ohm drive unit with a specialised polymer-blend diaphragm and high-strength magnet aims to reproduce deep bass notes and treble with both clarity and control.
Sennheiser says its Ergonomic Acoustic Refinement (EAR) angled driver alignment recreates the optimal triangular listening position you’d find in hi-fi loudspeaker setups and high-end recording studios, too.
Although this is an open-back headphone and susceptible to ‘leaking’ sound by design, we find the Sennheisers actually bleed audio far less loudly than the aforementioned Grado SR325e. That said, if you’re conscious of not upsetting your housemates with your musical choices, take heed.
Sound
(Image credit: Sennheiser)
We cue up Sean Paul’s reggae/dancehall classic, Dutty Rock, and the Tidal Master album comes through with an unusually healthy dollop of spaciousness at this level. The initial chord intro to I’m Still In Love With You snakes between our left and right ears with a greater analytical accuracy than through most competing headphones at this level.
Sasha’s vocal is well handled through the easy treble next to Paul’s deeper registers within a cohesive and layered mix. Instruments such as horns, which can often feel muddied in this track, are celebrated with a good amount of three-dimensional brassiness through the midrange, too.
As the album continues to Bubble, the presentation is even, clear and spacious. The bass is agile, although there is a little extra bass weight available in the pricier Grado SR325e. Roughly struck key chords through the treble are also marginally more impactful and edgier through the Grados, but even accounting for the price difference we feel the Sennheisers don’t convey the full degree of verve and zeal which we know to be part of the recording.
We switch to Melissa Etheridge’s Come To My Window and a shaker is beautifully placed at the top of our right ear. Etheridge’s rhythm guitar joins a cohesive mix where every passage is noteworthy and musically pleasing, alongside an unusually detailed vocal for the category. Our playlist continues to Angels Would Fall and, again, there’s separation and layering, from the initial riff in our left ear to the eventual central, textured vocal.
Over the course of our testing, we find much to celebrate when listening to classical music – stream Ravel’s Jeux d’eaux played by Monique Haas, and the keys are emotive, clear and refined – but we find ourselves wanting just a little bit more energy, punch and excitement from the HD 560S when listening to our heavier, funkier reference tracks.
Verdict
Sennheiser’s extensive back-catalogue of five-star and Award-winning headphones spans more than five decades. This wired set of open-back over-ears is a valid addition, offering a perfectly acceptable and sonically detailed budget-conscious option.
Those looking for audiophile-grade sound quality – as is the company’s claim – will, however, find them just a shade undercooked for punch, zeal and enthusiasm.
The PS5 and Xbox Series X aren’t the only new consoles on the gaming scene. They could soon be joined by a new Nintendo Switch – an updated version of Nintendo’s bestselling console.
Sources have told Bloomberg all about the new console. That includes details on its screen, which is said to be bigger than that of the existing switch and OLED to boot, plus a possible release date and some of its capabilities.
So should Sony and Microsoft be worried? What can we expect from a new Switch? And when might you be able to buy one? We’ve rounded up all the rumours below.
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OLED Nintendo Switch: screen
First things first: the screen. This is said to be the headline feature of the new console, and a real step up on what’s currently on offer.
For starters, it’s bigger than the current model. According to Bloomberg, the new Switch will have a 7-inch display, which would be bigger than the current Switch’s 6.2-inch screen, and the Switch Lite’s 5.5-inch display.
But not only will it be bigger, it should be a lot better, too. That’s because it will use OLED technology, instead of the LCD used in the current Switch. OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode, and is used in some of the best TVs around – see our round-up of the best OLED TVs to see how stunning the tech can be. It makes for true black levels, because each individual pixel can turned off instead of emitting an approximation of black as with LCD screens (which usually look closer to grey). Add stunningly bright whites and that makes for superb contrast levels.
OLED screens are also more energy efficient, which could result in longer battery life. That will be a really big draw for a console that doubles as a portable.
Sources say that Samsung will manufacture the OLED screen. Samsung already supplies OLED displays to high-end smartphones such as the Apple iPhone 12 and Samsung Galaxy S21, but the new Switch’s will be a bit different. Instead of being slightly flexible like those smartphone screens, the one used in the new Switch will be rigid. Samsung is thought to be starting mass production of the 7-inch panels in June, with initial supply put at a million a month. They will start shipping to assemblers around July.
OLED Nintendo Switch: 4K and HDR
(Image credit: Nintendo)
According to the report, the next Switch will also be capable of 4K resolution. That doesn’t mean the screen itself will be 4K (reportedly it will be 720p HD), but that you can hook it up to a 4K TV and play games in Ultra HD resolution.
That would be a big boon for developers and games alike. The former – and probably some of the latter – have expressed frustration at the huge difference between the picture quality on the portable screen and that blown up to the size of a big-screen TV.
Will games be true native 4K though? That seems unlikely. It’s more likely that Nintendo will take the more efficient path and render games in HD – these could then be upscaled when outputted to a 4K TV.
Perhaps the great potential lies in HDR. This stands for high dynamic range – it’s a technology borrowed from photography, which increases the difference between the light and dark parts of the picture, with more gradual steps in between. It results in a punchier and more lifelike image with more depth and better colours.
The vast majority of OLED displays have HDR, and the new Switch’s could well count itself among them. That would make games look more engaging and exciting.
And it might not just be new games that benefit from this. Older titles could get some kind of upconversion similar to the Xbox Series X’s Auto HDR. This uses machine learning to add HDR to games that were designed with only standard dynamic range in mind. So the new Switch could breathe some new life into your current games library. Fingers crossed.
OLED Nintendo Switch: other possible features
So what other features could Nintendo add to a new Switch?
The PS5 and Xbox Series X have HDMI 2.1, which brings more advanced features such as 4K@120Hz, Auto Low-latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), but we don’t expect the Nintendo Switch 2 to follow suit. 4K@120Hz and VRR are technically tricky features that feel unnecessary for the kind of games produced for Nintendo consoles, and the simpler ALLM could be added without the need for an expensive HDMI 2.1 socket.
As previously mentioned, HDR is very likely to make an appearance, seeing how common it is on OLED screen and what a striking difference it would make for games in terms of looks.
Other next-gen consoles have extra audio-visual features such as Dolby Atmos and/or DTS:X, but it’s unlikely Nintendo will add these to the new Switch. From reports so far, it sounds like more of a refresh than a full-blown overhaul of the console, so we expect that 5.1 sound is going to be the best available. Fingers crossed Nintendo at least adds Dolby Digital 5.1 support on top of the standard PCM format of the original Switch, as this increases compatibility with soundbars and the like.
OLED Nintendo Switch: release date
(Image credit: Nintendo)
The OLED-toting Nintendo Switch is rumoured to launch “in time for the holidays”. That usually means autumn/fall time, to give plenty of time to build awareness before the manic Christmas shopping season gets into full swing.
OLED Nintendo Switch: name
What will the next Switch be called? At four years old, the original Nintendo Switch is around the middle of its life cycle, so calling the new version the Nintendo Switch 2 would seem a bit hasty. Rather, odds are that Nintendo will opt for something that sells the upgraded abilities without positioning it as a completely new proposition. Nintendo Switch Pro, maybe.
Pro is a popular moniker in the worlds of smartphones, tablets and laptops, used by the likes of Apple and Samsung to indicate more power than the standard version. So it’s very possible that Nintendo will adopt the same tack.
OLED Nintendo Switch: the experts speak
As you can imagine, rumours of a new Nintendo console have been big news in the gaming and business worlds. The Switch is now four years old, and its successor, the Switch Lite, is getting on for two years old now. Industry watchers weren’t expecting a new Nintendo console this year, but given the demand for Sony and Microsoft’s new games machines, a new Switch makes perfect sense.
Bloomberg quoted one expert who spelled out the benefits of OLED tech for Nintendo.
“The OLED panel will consume less battery, offer higher contrast and possibly faster response time when compared to the Switch’s current liquid-crystal display,” said Yoshio Tamura, co-founder of display consultancy DSCC.
Bloomberg‘s own analysts said the new console could prolong the lifespan of the current Switch considerably.
“The release of a more premium version of Nintendo’s Switch console with an OLED display and support for 4K graphics for the holiday 2021 selling season could drive the company’s sales above consensus for the fiscal year ending March 2022 and extend the life cycle of the Switch platform for many more years,” said analysts Matthew Kanterman and Nathan Naidu.
Other experts agreed with the rumoured launch date. “If they’re making the products from June – we’re hearing they’re going to start shipping in July, that even a September launch should be possible,” Ross Young, co-founder and CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, told Tom’s Guide. “Given the time lag from panel shipment to device production, and then device production to retail, it could be September, October.”
OLED Nintendo Switch vs PS5 and Xbox Series X
With the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X at the end of last year, Nintendo has a fight on its hands. Both consoles are much more powerful than the Switch. So does Nintendo stand a chance?
Yes indeed. Its consoles have never been about pure power, more about fun and innovative ways to play. And the sales reflect this. To date, the Switch and Switch Lite have sold over 79 million units. That makes Switch the second-best-selling console in Nintendo history, beaten only by the original Wii. It also compares well with sales of the PS4 and Xbox One, which stand at 114 million and 48 million respectively. The Switch only launched in 2017, remember, whereas Sony and Microsoft’s previous consoles landed four years earlier, in 2013.
A new Switch won’t beat the new PlayStation or Xbox in terms of graphics or processing power, and chances are it won’t be a better one-stop shop for all your streaming and media needs. But the crucial thing is, it won’t try to. As ever, Nintendo is playing its own game. And it seems to be doing pretty well so far.
MORE:
Read the full report: New Nintendo Switch incoming with OLED, 4K
Next-gen face-off! PS5 vs Xbox Series X: which is better?
Sony consoles duke it out: PS5 vs PS5 Digital Edition: which should you buy?
Apple is making it easier for parents to find podcasts to listen to with their kids. The company is teaming up with nonprofit Common Sense Media, which specializes in age-based content reviews, to curate various collections that’ll appear in the Apple Podcasts app in the US and online. The initial four themes focus on narrative storytelling, shows that kids themselves recommend, mysteries and dramas, and Common Sense’s “all-time” picks. Programming comes from Tinkercast, American Public Media, WNYC Studios, Rebel Girls, and Nickelodeon, among others, and Common Sense will provide age group recommendations.
The collections will be updated monthly with new themes being tied to “important historical and cultural moments,” like Women’s History Month. You’ll see these show suggestions starting today in Apple Podcasts’ main homepage carousel, and then they’ll be available through the Browse tab indefinitely.
Podcasts for children have become increasingly popular as the hype around audio grows and parents look for ways to keep their kids entertained without relying on a screen. Common Sense previously published podcast recommendations, but this new partnership with Apple represents its biggest commitment to audio programming yet. Hot Pod writer Nick Quah reported last year that kid podcast creators saw huge bumps in listenership at the start of the pandemic. One company, Gen-Z Media, said its show Six Minutes performed about 2 million downloads a month, but during the pandemic, it was on track for 3 million.
Other companies, like Spotify and Amazon, place their kid-approved content into separate apps and experiences. Apple seems to think that’s unnecessary for now and that parents can instead rely on themed collections to oversee what their kids enjoy listening to. Apple does provide a kid-oriented device experience, but that’s more to give parents control and insight into what their children are consuming than having Apple actually whitelist content.
Kubuntu Focus has started to offer Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30-series graphics processor with its Kubuntu GNU/Linux distribution-based M2 laptop aimed at gamers and performance-hungry professionals.
Linux-based laptops are usually niche products for people with very specific requirements, so there aren’t many configurations available. Yet, a few companies offer high-end notebooks with powerful hardware that can compete against their Windows-powered counterparts. Kubuntu Focus is one of the vendors that offers such machines.
The Kubuntu Focus M2 notebook comes with a 15.6-inch 144Hz Full-HD display and Intel’s Core i7-10875H (8C/16T, 2.30GHz/5.10GHz) processor that was first introduced last October, Liliputing recalls. At the time, the manufacturer only offered Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 20-series graphics processors based on the Turing architecture with it since no mobile GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs featuring the Ampere architecture were available.
Nvidia has launched its GeForce RTX 30-series graphics processors for notebooks, so now the Kubuntu Focus M2 comes with an option for RTX 3060, 3070, and 3080 GPUs. In fact, the base model now comes equipped with the Core i7-10875H CPU, the GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, 16GB of memory, and a 250GB SSD for $1,795.
Kubuntu Focus’ M2 is quite a powerful mobile workstation with plenty of options and rich connectivity, including a Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth adapter, a GbE port, a Thunderbolt 3 connector, three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A connectors, two display outputs (one mini-DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI), a microSDXC card reader, and audio ports. The beefiest configuration with the Core i7-10875H, the GeForce RTX 3080, 64GB of DDR4, and 4TB of storage costs $4535.
The Kubuntu Focus M2 seems to be the first Linux laptop with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30-series graphics, but it will certainly not be the last one.
Now with RGB, the QuadCast S is great in all the same ways the original model was but with flashing lights. If that’s essential for your streaming setup aesthetic that’s great news. For everyone else, the sound quality and polar options are the big pull.
For
+ Very useful shock mount
+ Superior build quality
+ Sounds as good as similarly priced competitors
+ Four polar patterns
Against
– Not much different from original QuadCast
– Software needed to turn RGB off
– Not quite a studio mic
In the upper echelons of streamer mic, it seems, there are two ways to play it. The first is to emulate the look and feature set of analog recording mics as closely as possible and rely on the convenience of that USB input as a selling point. The Beyerdynamic’s Fox is the gold standard for this approach, for example. The second approach is to go all-in on the gamer appeal. Guess which approach the HyperX QuadCast S ($160 as of writing) opts for?
It only takes the time for the power to make its way along the USB cable and up to that huge RGB lighting zone to figure that one out. This refresh of the existing HyperX QuadCast, which had been one of the best gaming microphones, is meant to give the likes of Razer’s Seiren Emote a run for its money on pure streamer setup aesthetic appeal. But if you look beyond all the flashing color there’s actually plenty here in common with more studious studio mics too. A lot of it inherited from the original Quadcast, we hasten to add. Don’t lose sleep if you bought the original just before this S variant came out. You’re not missing out on anything other than potential migraines; the specs are nearly identical.
If you weren’t already a QuadCast owner though and are looking for a serious USB mic, there’s a lot to like in the QuadCast S.
The QuadCast S is far from a drastic redesign of the original QuadCast, but there are differences. Small ones. The elasticated cord around the QuadCast S’ shock mount is now gray instead of the original red, for example, and the USB input connection is now USB Type-C instead of USB Type-A. We did say they were small differences.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Otherwise, you’re looking at the same unit. You get a large capsule housing three separate diaphragms to offer four polar patterns and a dial to switch between them at the back, a headphone monitoring input below that, a touch-sensitive mute at the top and a smooth and satisfying gain control dial at the base of the mic.
We’ll tackle the different patterns and the sounds they create below in the sound quality section, but let’s cover those other design features. The QuadCast S’ headphone monitoring is clear and doesn’t run too hot for higher gain settings, so there’s very little breakup until you start shouting or getting close to the capsule.
As with the QuadCast and HyperX SoloCast, the QuadCast S’ mute touch button is a nice design that alleviates that audible popping sound you sometimes get from depressing a physical mute switch on other mics. Meanwhile, the mute button’s lighting leaves you in no uncertainty as to whether you’re muted or not.
The gain control feels really well built, but its travel considerably exceeds the visual indicators on each side. So unless you like your output set at between 30%-70%, you won’t be able to get a visual on your preferred setting.
Sound Quality
The QuadCast S is a refresh of an existing mic, so you know what’s coming: The sound characteristics are unchanged, as far as these ears can discern.
And they didn’t need to change. Boasting four polar patterns and three separate mic membranes was something of a party trick for the original QuadCast, so much so that it obviously informed the product name. And while the Blue Yeti X can tick those same polar pattern boxes, there was a gulf in sound quality between the two. So it goes with the QuadCast S we’re reviewing.
There are a couple of provisos, though. Our first is that the QuadCast S comes frustratingly close to being a good low-budget studio mic with all those polar patterns, but since it’s limited to 48K Hz/16-bit recording, it doesn’t quite spread its wings and get there. 48KHz/16-bit is ample for a streamer mic’s intended usage, of course, where the audio will either be heavily compressed at the source or by the platform. But if you have a stereo / omnidirectional / cardioid / bidirectional mic available to you, perhaps you’d be tempted to use it for some home recording and music production. In those situations, it’s nice — not essential, but nice — to have a higher sample rate and bitrate to play with.
Today’s high-end streamer mics all exist within a very narrow gamut with ready-to-go-audio, and the QuadCast S fits the profile. Like Razer, Elgato and cheaper Blue models, there’s definitely a slightly scooped EQ hat boosts low mids, suppresses mids and accentuates high-end frequencies for clarity of speech. That means your recordings sound professional, rather than natural; the mic is doing a bit of EQ and compression for you.
Blue’s Yeti X still offers the happiest compromise between natural and broadcast-ready to our ears compared to the QuadCast S and other high-end mics, but these are fine margins between models we’re talking about.
Features and Software
You know the drill by now with RGB devices. Cometh the lights, cometh the accompanying software app. In this case, it’s HyperX’s NGenuity software that acts as a gateway to customizing the QuadCast S’ two lighting zones (top and bottom), colors and behavior, and it makes doing so pretty simple.
There’s not much tweaking to be had on the audio side though. Gain, mic monitoring and headphone volume are controllable via software, but there are no EQ presets or noise cancellation options. Small footprint software is a plus for some people, of course, but if you were looking to sculpt the mic’s sound without going into a DAW and applying plugins, you should look elsewhere.
For anyone resistant to installing yet another peripheral manufacturer’s app onto their C:/ (this reviewer included), it’s worth noting that customizing RGB behavior is just about the only thing you can’t do without NGenuity installed. You can do everything else, from muting to choosing polar patterns, with physical dials on the unit. That may sound like a given, but with some budget mics, like the Razer Seiren Mini, jettisoning all physical controls, perhaps it’s worth stating explicitly. That leaves the physical unit much more feature-rich than the software, which does its best to act useful when you load it up. But when part of the screen’s devoted to showing you which settings you’ve already selected using physical controls, (such as the polar pattern), you get a clear sense that this isn’t essential software.
Bottom Line
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The HyperX QuadCast S brings a gamer-fied aesthetic to the already great mix available in the HyperX QuadCast, with flexibility and out-of-the-box sound quality. There’s not much to complain about, but if you have the standard QuadCast there’s not much to get excited about either.
If you’re specifically drawn to the QuadcCast S for its four polar patterns and the potential for home recording, consider an analog XLR mic or the Beyerdynamic Fox for its higher sample and bitrate.
If you’re happy to keep things CD-quality when you’re recording however, the QuadCast S will see you right.
Rumors about a long-desired upgrade to the Nintendo Switch have been swirling for some time, and this week, Bloomberg reported that this fabled new Switch might actually be coming soon.
This upgraded Switch will apparently have a 7-inch 720p OLED screen that can output 4K graphics when connected to a TV, according to the report. An OLED screen would be a major upgrade from the Switch and Switch Lite’s LCD, likely providing deeper colors and darker blacks. And the 4K output would be a big jump, too; right now, the current Switch tops out at a 1080p resolution when hooked up to a TV.
But a lot of us here at The Verge still like our existing Switches quite a bit, even those of us with the launch model that debuted four years ago this week. The changes we’re clamoring for aren’t necessarily an OLED screen or additional performance. (In fact, it might be annoying if additional horsepower led to Switch Pro-exclusive games like when Nintendo introduced the New Nintendo 3DS.) And while more battery life would always be appreciated, we’re mostly hoping it just doesn’t dip below the bar Nintendo set with the Switch v2 revision.
Here’s our list.
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge
Better Joy-Cons (and more colors)
The Switch’s Joy-Con controllers, while a creative design that offers more ways to play the console and a handy way to get two controllers in every box, have notoriously unreliable thumbsticks, with many users reporting joystick drift issues over time. Nintendo has said little about what appears to be a widespread problem, but the company did implement a free repair policy in 2019 for users having issues. Nintendo also didn’t use the launches of the Switch Lite and the second revision of the current Switch to fix drift issues, so they’re still ongoing — this could be another chance for Nintendo to make it right.
Other changes could simply make the Joy-Cons better controllers. Putting a real D-pad on the left Joy-Con, similar to the D-pad on the Nintendo Switch Lite, might make playing platformers and fighting games a lot easier than mashing the left Joy-Con’s current four-button design. Slightly bigger shoulder triggers could make the Switch easier to hold in your hands. And I’d really like more colors — perhaps Nintendo could offer an Xbox Design Lab-like way to deck out my Switch and its Joy-Cons when I buy it?
Bluetooth headphone support
Using Bluetooth headphones with your Switch is surprisingly hard: you’ve got to buy and plug a third-party Bluetooth adapter into the headphone jack, the console’s USB-C port, or the Switch’s docking station. (Even though the Joy-Cons use Bluetooth, the Switch has never come with Bluetooth audio support.)
The demand for Bluetooth audio was so strong a whole cottage industry of third-party adapters has sprung up — just search “Nintendo Switch Bluetooth adapter” on Amazon to see some of the many offerings available. But even if you buy, most of these dongles awkwardly stick out of the console’s USB-C port, requiring you to remove them to charge, and some feel like they could snap off if you aren’t looking out.
A Switch with native support for Bluetooth headphones might be particularly nice for playing in bed, no extra dongle or wired earbuds required.
A Quick Resume-like feature
We’ve really liked Quick Resume on the Xbox Series X / S, which lets you swap between games without having to boot them from scratch before getting back to where you left off. We think the Switch would really benefit from a similar feature, especially since it has so many games that you can jump into for a few minutes at a time. Imagine hopping from a visit to your friend’s Animal Crossing island to a Hades run to a quick bout in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, all without having to wait for the games to cold boot each time — sounds great, right?
One Verge editor would also really, really like not to have to find a save point in his JRPG every time their partner wants to tidy up their Animal Crossing island.
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge
A better kickstand
The current Switch’s kickstand seemed like a good idea at first, but in practice, it isn’t quite as useful as we had hoped. It’s small, unstable, only clicks into one angle, and, terrifyingly, snaps off rather easily (though it’s easy to put back on). That means the kickstand works best on flat and still surfaces at only one angle — which hasn’t been all that great for many situations where we’ve actually wanted to stand up the Switch, like on an airplane or in the backseat of a car.
One thing many of us really want is for Nintendo to fix this with a bigger, Microsoft Surface-style kickstand. Not only would that make the console much more stable stood up, but it could also be adjusted to many different viewing angles, which could be really handy for things like backseat Mario Kart races.
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge
Glass screen and smaller bezels
The current Switch has a plastic screen that scratches very easily — many Verge staffers have immediately slapped inexpensive tempered glass screen protectors on their consoles to avoid permanent scuffs. A lot of us are hoping Nintendo adds a glass screen to this new model that’s more scratch-resistant so we don’t need to add our own.
A bigger screen hopefully means that we’ll see smaller bezels, too, which would give the console a more premium feel. The current Switch has giant black bezels that reveal just how much space could still be filled by screen. And if you’ve used the Nintendo Switch Lite, while it has a smaller screen, the bezels also aren’t as prominent, which makes the Lite’s screen’s smaller size less obvious.
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge
An upgraded dock
The Switch’s current dock works well enough — it gives the Switch a place to charge and helps the console connect to the TV — but we’d like it more if it was smaller, had magnets to make the Switch just a bit more secure, and a built-in Ethernet port, since plugging in a USB-A to Ethernet adapter to get wired internet is a clunky solution.
A good name
Nintendo isn’t exactly known for easy-to-remember hardware names. This is the company that signified an entirely new console generation with the letter U, released a handheld called the New Nintendo 2DS XL, and released a smaller version of the Switch that can’t actually “switch” at all.
While it seems likely Nintendo will just call it the “Switch Pro” or “Switch Plus” or maybe the “Super Nintendo Switch” for fun, we thought we’d also come up with a few names Nintendo can throw in the trash right now:
Nintendo Switch Max
New Nintendo Switch i XL
Nintendo Switch VII Remake Intergrade
Nintendo Switch HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue 358/2 days χ[Chi] øø™
$witch
The SwitcherU
2 Nintendo 2 Switch
Nintendo Swiitch
Nimtenbo Swantch
Nintendo Switch 3(+ months between game releases)
Swii
Netflix
The Nintendo Switch, which turned four years old this week, still doesn’t have a Netflix app. Perhaps the added potential horsepower of a 4K-enabled Switch means we’ll finally be able to watch Bridgerton.
On Tuesday, Sonos will introduce its latest product called the Sonos Roam, which The Verge extensively detailed a couple of days ago. Now I’m able to share a bit more about new functionality that will debut first on the tiny, take-everywhere speaker.
My previous report laid out the core specs of the Sonos Roam. Measuring 6.5 inches long and weighing around a pound, the portable speaker will offer up to 10 hours of battery life on a charge. Just like the Move, it will support voice commands for either Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Sonos plans to sell it for $169, and the Roam will ship in April.
But now on to the new stuff:
The Sonos Roam will include automatic Trueplay. Like the pricier, larger Move, Sonos is building its Auto Trueplay audio tuning feature right into the Roam. The speaker will use its built-in microphones to calibrate performance based on its surrounding environment. This can make a real difference in echoey rooms.
You can play songs over Bluetooth to your entire Sonos system. Sonos has designed the Roam so that it can use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth simultaneously (with the Move, you had to choose one or the other). Connecting to both at once will allow you to play a song from your phone or another device nearby to the Roam over Bluetooth — and that music can then also be played across the rest of your Sonos multi-room system.
“Sound Swap” will let you pass off music from the Roam to another Sonos speaker. Another new feature that’s exclusive to the Roam is what Sonos will call Sound Swap. If you hold down the play/pause button, the Roam will send the music it’s currently playing to whatever Sonos speaker is nearby. I don’t know the full details on this one, but my guess is that it involves using Bluetooth Low Energy to figure out which speaker is closest.
The Roam is rated IP67 for dust and water resistance. This means it is fully dustproof and waterproof in up to one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. That puts the Roam on equal footing with the popular UE Wonderboom speaker.
No, you can’t use it as a surround speaker for the Sonos Arc or Beam. The Roam can’t be used as part of a Sonos home theater setup. That’s not altogether surprising, since the same was true of the Move. If you’re looking for cheap surrounds for a Beam or Arc, your best options remain the One SL or the Ikea Symfonisk bookshelf speakers.
The photo at the top of this story is another new image that makes for an easy size comparison between the Roam and the larger, more expensive Sonos Move. And here’s what the optional wireless charger looks like:
The biggest question I can’t answer is how this thing sounds. Can Sonos make good on its sound quality track record with a speaker this small? I’m optimistic the answer will be yes — but don’t expect miracles.
Automatic Trueplay could help the Roam set itself apart from many of the Bluetooth speakers it will compete against. A UE Boom or JBL Charge will always sound the same no matter where you place them. But if the Roam can adapt in noticeable ways to its surroundings, that’ll be a differentiator. And that Sound Swap trick sure sounds like it would be useful for an eventual pair of Sonos headphones…
We’ll be covering any other news Sonos has to share on March 9th. Just in case there are still some surprises on the way.
If you’ve had enough Raspberry Pi, it might be time to sample Banana Pi’s latest single-board computer (SBC), the BPI-M2 Pro module. This new 65 x 65mm board is based on the Amlogic S905X3 chip.
The Amlogic S905X3 is a quad-core microprocessor capable of reaching speeds as high as 2.0 GHz. For graphics, it uses a Mali-G31 MP2 GPU. The new Banana Pi SBC also comes with 2GB of LPDDR4 and a microSD card slot that can support up to 256GB, as well as16GB of eMMC flash onboard.
Users can opt to use both Ethernet and Wi-Fi for network connections. There’s a Bluetooth module as well for connecting to wireless peripherals and more. The BPI-M2 Pro has HDMI output for both audio and video and two USB 3.0 ports.
Makers can make use of the 40-pin header for things like I2C, UART, SPI and PWM connections. The BPI-M2 Pro includes a power/reset switch for safely turning the device on and off. Note that it requires a 5V/3A power source.
Is this board a replacement for the Raspberry Pi? Not exactly, but it definitely stacks up against other SBCs on the market. Check out the Banana Pi BPI-M2 Pro Wiki page for more details about the new board.
Exact release details have not yet been made available.
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