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Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Master Preview: Remastered for Z590

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

While we still don’t have an Intel Rocket Lake-S Core i9-11900K CPU to use for testing, the Intel Z590 motherboards are arriving in our labs and on store shelves. So while we await the ability to talk benchmarks, we’ll be walking in detail through the features of these brand-new boards. First up on our bench was the ASRock Z590 Steel Legend 6E Wi-Fi, and now we have the Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Master to dive into.

The latest version of this premium motherboard line includes an incredibly robust VRM, ultra-fast Wi-Fi and wired networking, premium audio, and more. While we don’t have exact pricing information at the time of this writing, the Z490 version came in just under $400, which is around where we expect the Z590 version to land, if not slightly higher.

Gigabyte’s current Z590 product stack consists of 13 models. There are familiar SKUs and a couple of new ones. Starting with the Aorus line, we have the Aorus Xtreme (and potentially a Waterforce version), Aorus Master, Aorus Ultra, and the Aorus Elite. Gigabyte brings back the Vision boards (for creators) and their familiar white shrouds. The Z590 Gaming X and a couple of boards from the budget Ultra Durable (UD) series are also listed. New for Z590 is the Pro AX board, which looks to slot somewhere in the mid-range. Gigabyte will also release the Z590 Aorus Tachyon, an overbuilt motherboard designed for extreme overclocking.

We’re not allowed to list any performance metrics for Rocket Lake (not that we have a CPU at this time) as the embargo wasn’t up when we wrote this article. All we’ve seen at this point are rumors and a claim from Intel of a significant increase to IPC, but the core count was lowered from 10 cores/20 threads in Comet Lake (i9-10900K) to 8 cores/16 threads in the yet-to-be-released i9-11900K. To that end, we’ll stick with specifications and features, adding a full review that includes benchmarking, overclocking and power consumption shortly.

The Z590 Aorus Master looks the part of a premium motherboard, with brushed-aluminum shrouds covering the PCIe/M.2/chipset area. The VRM heatsink and its NanoCarbon Fin-Array II provide a nice contrast against the smooth finish on the board’s bottom. Along with Wi-Fi 6E integration, it also includes an Aquantia based 10GbE, while most others use 2.5 GbE. The Aorus Master includes a premium Realtek ALC1220 audio solution with an integrated DAC, three M.2 sockets, reinforced PCIe and memory slots and 10 total USB ports, including a rear USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C port. We’ll cover those features and much more in detail below. But first, here are full the specs from Gigabyte.

Specifications – Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Master

Socket	AM4
Chipset	Z590
Form Factor	ATX
Voltage Regulator	19 Phase (18+1, 90A MOSFETs)
Video Ports	(1) DisplayPort v1.2
USB Ports	(1) USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, Type-C (20 Gbps)
	(5) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-A (10 Gbps)
	(4) USB 3.2 Gen 1, Type-A (5 Gbps)
Network Jacks	(1) 10 GbE
Audio Jacks	(5) Analog + SPDIF
Legacy Ports/Jacks	✗
Other Ports/Jack	✗
PCIe x16	(2) v4.0 x16, (x16/x0 or x8/x8
	(1) v3.0 x4
PCIe x8	✗
PCIe x4	✗
PCIe x1	✗
CrossFire/SLI	AMD Quad GPU Crossfire and 2-Way Crossfire
DIMM slots	(4) DDR4 5000+, 128GB Capacity
M.2 slots	(1) PCIe 4.0 x4 / PCIe (up to 110mm)
	(1) PCIe 3.0 x4 / PCIe + SATA (up to 110mm)
	(1) PCIe 3.0 x4 / PCIe + SATA (up to 110mm)
U.2 Ports	✗
SATA Ports	(6) SATA3 6 Gbps (RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10)
USB Headers	(1) USB v3.2 Gen 2 (Front Panel Type-C)
	(2) USB v3.2 Gen 1
	(2) USB v2.0
Fan/Pump Headers	(10) 4-Pin
RGB Headers	(2) aRGB (3-pin)
	(2) RGB (4-pin)
Legacy Interfaces	✗
Other Interfaces	FP-Audio, TPM
Diagnostics Panel	Yes, 2-character debug LED, and 4-LED ‘Status LED’ display
Internal Button/Switch	Power, Reset, BIOS switch, SB switch
SATA Controllers	✗
Ethernet Controller(s)	(1) Aquantia AQC107 (10 GbE)
Wi-Fi / Bluetooth	Intel WiFi-6E AX210 (802.11ax, 2×2, MU-MIMO, OFDMA, BT 5.2)
USB Controllers	Realtek RTS5411E, ASMedia 1074
HD Audio Codec	Realtek ALC1220-VB
DDL/DTS Connect	✗ / DTS:X Ultra
Warranty	3 Years

Opening up the retail packaging, along with the board, you’re greeted by a slew of included accessories. The Aorus Master contains the basics (guides, driver CD, SATA cables) and a few other things that make this board a complete package. Below is a full list of all included accessories.

Installation Guide
User’s Manual
G-connector
Sticker sheet / Aorus badge
Wi-Fi Antenna
(4) SATA cables
(3) Screws for M.2 sockets
(2) Temperature probes
Microphone
RGB extension cable

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After taking the Z590 Aorus Master out of the box, its weight was immediately apparent, with the shrouds, heatsinks and backplate making up the majority of that weight. The board sports a matte-black PCB, with black and grey shrouds covering the PCIe/M.2 area and two VRM heatsinks with fins connected by a heatpipe. The chipset heatsink has the Aorus Eagle branding lit up, while the rear IO shroud arches over the left VRM bank with more RGB LED lighting. The Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0 application handles RGB control. Overall, the Aorus Master has a premium appearance and shouldn’t have much issue fitting in with most build themes.

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

Looking at the board’s top half, we’ll first focus on the VRM heatsinks. They are physically small compared to most boards, but don’t let that fool you. The fin array uses a louvered stacked-fin design Gigabyte says increases surface area by 300% and improves thermal efficiency with better airflow and heat exchange. An 8mm heat pipe also connects them to share the load. Additionally, a small fan located under the rear IO shroud actively keeps the VRMs cool. The fan here wasn’t loud, but was undoubtedly audible at default settings.

We saw a similar configuration in the previous generation, which worked out well with an i9-10900K, so it should do well with the Rocket Lake flagship, too. We’ve already seen reports indicating the i9-11900K has a similar power profile to its predecessor. Feeding power to the VRMs is two reinforced 8-pin EPS connectors (one required).

To the right of the socket, things start to get busy. We see four reinforced DRAM slots supporting up to 128GB of RAM. Oddly enough, the specifications only list support up to DDR4 3200 MHz, the platform’s limit. But further down the webpage, it lists DDR4 5000. I find it odd it is listed this way, though it does set up an expectation that anything above 3200 MHz is overclocking and not guaranteed to work.

Above the DRAM slots are eight voltage read points covering various relevant voltages. This includes read points for the CPU Vcore, VccSA, VccIO, DRAM, and a few others. When you’re pushing the limits and using sub-ambient cooling methods, knowing exactly what voltage the component is getting (software can be inaccurate) is quite helpful.

Above those on the top edge are four fan headers (next to the EPS connectors is a fifth) of 10. According to the manual, all CPU fan and pump headers support 2A/24W each. You shouldn’t have any issues powering fans and a water cooling pump. Gigabyte doesn’t mention if these headers use auto-sensing (for DC or PWM control), but they handled both when set to ‘auto’ in the BIOS. Both a PWM and DC controlled fan worked without intervention.

The first two (of four) RGB LED headers live to the fan headers’ right. The Z590 Aorus Master includes two 3-pin ARGB headers and two 4-pin RGB headers. Since this board takes a minimal approach to RGB lighting, you’ll need to use these to add more bling to your rig.

We find the power button and 2-character debug LED for troubleshooting POST issues on the right edge. Below is a reinforced 24-pin ATX connector for power to the board, another fan header and a 2-pin temperature probe header. Just below all of that are two USB 3.2 Gen1 headers and a single USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C front-panel header for additional USB ports.

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Gigabyte chose to go with a 19-phase setup for the Vcore and SOC on the power delivery front. Controlling power is an Intersil ISL6929 buck controller that manages up to 12 discrete channels. The controller then sends the power to ISL6617A phase doublers and the 19 90A ISL99390B MOSFETs. This is one of the more robust VRMs we’ve seen on a mid-range board allowing for a whopping 1,620A available for the CPU. You won’t have any trouble running any compatible CPU, including using sub-ambient overclocking.

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

The bottom half of the board is mostly covered in shrouds hiding all the unsightly but necessary bits. On the far left side, under the shrouds, you’ll find the Realtek ALC1220-VB codec along with an ESS Sabre ESS 9118 DAC and audiophile-grade WIMA and Nichicon Fine Gold capacitors. With the premium audio codec and DAC, an overwhelming majority of users will find the audio perfectly acceptable.

We’ll find the PCIe slots and M.2 sockets in the middle of the board. Starting with the PCIe sockets, there are a total of three full-length slots (all reinforced). The first and second slots are wired for PCIe 4.0, with the primary (top) slot wired for x16 and the bottom maxes out at x8. Gigabyte says this configuration supports AMD Quad-GPU Cand 2-Way Crossfire. We didn’t see a mention of SLI support even though the lane count supports it. The bottom full-length slot is fed from the chipset and runs at PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds. Since the board does without x1 slots, this is the only expansion slot available if you’re using a triple-slot video card. Anything less than that allows you to use the second slot.

Hidden under the shrouds around the PCIe slots are three M.2 sockets. Unique to this setup is the Aorus M.2 Thermal Guard II, which uses a double-sided heatsink design to help cool M.2 SSD devices with double-sided flash. With these devices’ capacities rising and more using flash on both sides, this is a good value-add.

The top socket (M2A_CPU) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 devices up to 110mm long. The second and third sockets, M2P_SB and M2M_SB, support both SATA and PCIe 3.0 x3 modules up to 110mm long. When using a SATA-based SSD on M2P_SB, SATA port 1 will be disabled. When M2M_SB (bottom socket) is in use, SATA ports 4/5 get disabled.

To the right of the PCIe area is the chipset heatsink with the Aorus falcon lit up with RGB LEDs from below. There’s a total of six SATA ports that support RAID0, 1, 5 and 10. Sitting on the right edge are two Thunderbolt headers (5-pin and 3-pin) to connect to a Gigabyte Thunderbolt add-in card. Finally, in the bottom-right corner is the Status LED display. The four LEDs labeled CPU, DRAM, BOOT and VGA light up during the POST process. If something hangs during that time, the LED where the problem resides stays lit, identifying the problem area. This is good to have, even with the debug LED at the top of the board.

Across the board’s bottom are several headers, including more USB ports, fan headers and more. Below is the full list, from left to right:

Front-panel audio
BIOS switch
Dual/Single BIOS switch
ARGB header
RGB header
TPM header
(2) USB 2.0 headers
Noise sensor header
Reset button
(3) Fan headers
Front panel header
Clear CMOS button

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

The Z590 Aorus Master comes with a pre-installed rear IO panel full of ports and buttons. To start, there are a total of 10 USB ports out back, which should be plenty for most users. You have a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C port, five USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A ports and four USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports. There is a single DisplayPort output for those who would like to use the CPU’s integrated graphics. The audio stack consists of five gold-plated analog jacks and a SPDIF out. On the networking side is the Aquantia 10 GbE port and the Wi-Fi antenna. Last but not least is a Clear CMOS button and a Q-Flash button, the latter designed for flashing the BIOS without a CPU.

Firmware

The Z590 Aorus Master BIOS theme doesn’t look any different from the Z490 versions. The Aorus board still uses the black and orange theme we’re familiar with. We’ve captured a majority of the BIOS screens to share with you. Like other board partners, Gigabyte includes an Easy Mode for high-level monitoring and adjustments, along with an Advanced section. The BIOS is well organized, with many of the more commonly used functions easily accessible without drilling down multiple levels to find them. In the end, the BIOS works well and is easy to navigate and read.

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Software

Gigabyte includes a few applications designed for various functions, including RGB lighting control, audio, system monitoring, and overclocking. Below, we’ve captured several screenshots of the App Center, @BIOS, SIV, RGB Fusion and Easy Tune.

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Future Tests and Final Thoughts

With the release of Z590, we’re in a bit of a pickle in that we have boards in our hands, but not the Rocket Lake CPU designed for it. We know most of these boards should perform similarly to our previous Z490 motherboard reviews. And while there are exceptions, they are mostly at the bottom of the product stack. To that end, we’re posting these as detailed previews until we get data using a Rocket Lake processor.

Once we receive a Rocket Lake CPU and as soon as any embargos have expired, we’ll fill in the data points, including the benchmarking/performance results, as well as overclocking/power and VRM temperatures.

We’ll also be updating our test system hardware to include a PCIe 4.0 video card and storage. This way, we can utilize the platform to its fullest using the fastest protocols it supports. We will also update to the latest Windows 10 64-bit OS (20H2) with all threat mitigations applied, as well as updating the video card driver and use the newest release when we start this testing. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted.

While we do not have performance results from the yet-to-be-released Rocket Lake CPU, we’re sure the 90A VRMs will handle the i9-11900K processor without issue. We quickly tested the i9-10900K and found the board quite capable with that CPU, easily allowing the 5.2 GHz overclock we set. For now, we’ll focus on features, price, and appearance until we gather performance data from the new CPU.

(Image credit: Gigabyte)

The Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Master is a well-rounded solution, bringing a lot of premium features to the table. Baked into the chipset is USB 3.2 Gen2x2 support, and on the network side, a 10 GbE port and Intel’s Wi-Fi 6E AX210 card are basically the best you can get out of the box. The 90A 18-phase VRM for the processor does not have any issues with an overclocked Comet-Lake CPU, so the new Rocket-Lake CPUs at the same TDP shouldn’t have a problem. This board can be used for sub-ambient overclocking (though the Gigabyte Z590 Tachyon is the purpose-built board by Gigabyte for such a thing).

Since Z590 added native PCIe 4.0 support (with Rocket Lake CPUs only) and additional PCIe lanes, we’ll see more boards with up to three M.2 sockets, just like the less-expensive Steel Legend has. The Aorus Master sports one PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) slot and two PCIe 3.0 x4 (32 Gbps) slots. Add to that the six SATA ports and nearly everyone’s storage needs should be covered. The 10 USB ports on the rear IO include a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C port and should be plenty for most users.

If I had to pick out something that needs improvement, I would like to see more expansion slots. As it stands, there is only one full-length PCIe slot. The $400-plus price tag will also likely put off budget users. While Gigabyte hasn’t listed an exact price for the Aorus Master, the Z490 version came in at just under $400. We expect the Z590 version to be at that point or a little higher.

Compared to similarly priced peers (think ASRock Z590 Taichi, MSI MEG Z590 Unify and the Asus ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi ), the Gigabyte Aorus Z590 Master covers all the bases. If you prefer the latest audio codec and four M.2 sockets, instead of three, the Asus Z590-E Gaming has you taken care of. If you need ultra-fast networking, Gigabyte has you covered with its 10 GbE. All of the comparable boards are certainly capable and include quite a bit of features at this price point, so it comes down to the price, appearance, and features you need.

In the end, The Gigabyte Aorus Z590 Master is, like most Z590 motherboards, an iterative update from Z490. You get Rocket Lake support out of the box, superior power delivery, ultra-fast networking, and a premium appearance. If you’re looking for a Z590 motherboard around the $400 price point, The Z590 Aorus Master should be on your shortlist. Stay tuned for benchmarking, overclocking, and power results using the new Rocket Lake CPU short list.

Phanteks P360A Review: An RGB Bargain

Our Verdict

Phanteks’ P360A is an excellent, affordable residence for a moderate build, and it comes with a whole lot of good-looking RGB too!

For

So much RGB
Includes well-featured standalone D-RGB controller
Chart-leading thermal performance
Excellent case for simple ATX systems
Just $65

Against

Materials are kinda cheap
No real intake filtration

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Features and Specifications

Whenever a new case comes out with a price point that’s below $100, I get a little excited. When its $25 below that, it gets me pretty excited. So just imagine my joy when Phanteks sent me the P360A, which carries an MSRP of just $70 but is available for a few dollars less if you shop around.

Add to that an absolutely brilliant, vibrant, and lavish RGB implementation with two fans, an LED strip and a genuinely effective controller. My day has been made, and if you’re in the market for a case for a budget-oriented system but still want it to look good, this case is for you.

Of course, clear shortcuts have been taken to bring this kind of feature set to the table at this price. The sheet metal is quite thin, the paint job on the interior doesn’t ooze quality like more expensive cases, and the case doesn’t even include basic essentials such as a power LED, HDD LED, or a reset switch. There’s no USB Type-C to be found here, either.

However, none of those things really matter at this price – when finished, a system in the P360A genuinely looks good, cools well, and it’s easy to assemble. In case you haven’t guessed yet, the Phanteks P360A is easily deserving of a spot on our Best PC Cases list as Best Budget ATX case. Let’s find out why, shall we?

Specifications

Type	Mid-Tower ATX
Motherboard Support	Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX
Dimensions (HxWxD)	18.5 x 7.8 x 17.7 inches (465 x 200 x 455 mm)
Max GPU Length	15.7 inches (400 mm)
CPU Cooler Height	6.3 inches (160 mm)
Max PSU Length	9.8 inches (250 mm)
External Bays	✗
Internal Bays	2x 3.5-inch
	2x 2.5-inch
Expansion Slots	7x
Front I/O	2x USB 3.0, 3.5 mm Audio/Mic Combo
Other	Tempered Glass Panel, D-RGB Controller
Front Fans	2x 130 mm (Up to 2x 140mm, 2x 120mm)
Rear Fans	None (Up to 1x 120mm)
Top Fans	None (Up to 2x 140mm)
Bottom Fans	✗
Side Fans	✗
RGB	Yes, Two Fans, LED Strip, D-RGB Controller Included
Damping	No
Warranty	1 Year

Features

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Touring around the exterior of the Phanteks P360A, it is immediately clear that this is a budget case. The sheet metal and glass panel are thin and the latter doesn’t quite line up with at the back of the case. And the PSU shroud is external, allowing for a smaller glass panel. Regardless, these shortcuts don’t take much away from the final look of the product, as the paint job on the outside is nice. The mesh intake is also well-manufactured, and as you’ll see later, there is a very nice RGB strip along the bottom of the side panel.

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Phanteks doesn’t bother with a power LED, HDD LED or reset switches – all of that costs money and is rarely important anyway, so why bother when the funds can go to RGB instead? Front IO is covered by two USB 3.0 ports and separate headphone and mic jacks. The power button is at the center, and the two buttons you see below the USB ports are the RGB mode and RGB color selectors.

Internal Layout

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Inside the P360A there is space for up to an ATX motherboard and long graphics cards up to 400mm (15.75 inches), so you’ll be able to fit very powerful gaming systems in here. Storage options aren’t lavish, but then again that isn’t the focus of this chassis. There’s room for two 3.5-inch drives that slide in from the front, and two 2.5-inch drives behind the motherboard tray. You can buy an optional third tray to add a third 2.5-inch drive.

You’ll notice that on the interior, the paint job isn’t quite as nice as the outside, but it’s nothing to be concerned about.

The connectivity for the RGB is also found inside. The fans and LED strip all connect through Phanteks’ own 3-pin headers, but a ‘standard’ header is present to connect additional RGB devices not from Phanteks, and you can opt to connect the RGB to your motherboard and override the built-in controller. But in all fairness, what’s here is quite a good controller – there’s no need to shop for a board that has an A-RGB header, which can help you save some money.

Cooling

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Another spot where Phanteks cut costs is in the filtration – or rather, lack thereof. Of course, the marketing lingo is all about how the front panel filters without the need of a filter, but we both know that’s to cut the cost of a real air filter. The front has a 1mm perforation, which should take care of the worst offenders, but stuff will still get through more than a dedicated filter. Of course, the lack of removable filtration will be good for cooling.

That being said, you have to evaluate these things on a per-use-case basis. If you’re like me, and you run your PC for 12+ hours a day, you obviously want to pass on the P360A because you’ll be cleaning out the interior far too often. But if you only play games on it for a couple hours a day or so, the amount of dust that accumulates in the system will be far lower, so won’t be as much of an issue. Fortunately, there is a filter at the top above the radiator exhaust to protect from falling dust and debris, which will protect the system from passive pollution. The power supply also has its own filter to spare cleanup jobs there.

However, cooling is another area where the P360A differs from the P300A. It comes with two RGB fans instead of one non-RGB spinner, and the top radiator mount supports up to 240mm radiators instead of only a 120mm unit – something many buyers may appreciate. Theoretically, the case should also be able to fit a 280mm cooler at the top, but you’ll undoubtedly run into the VRM coolers or tall memory with the vast majority of motherboards, so I’d recommend you stick with a 240mm AIO at the largest.

If you’re dead-set on a 280mm radiator though, you can mount it at the front, but I don’t see why you would want to get rid of the pretty fans that are included.

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Features and Specifications

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McIntosh MHA200 valve headphone amp designed for “virtually any headphones”

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McIntosh has expanded its immense, product-spanning catalogue with the all-new MHA200 vacuum tube headphone amplifier, which promises to get the utmost out of virtually any pair of headphones.

The MHA200 – compact for McIntosh amplifier standards (at 15.6 cm wide and 23.2 cm deep), although no less ‘McIntosh’ aesthetically – is driven by pairs of 12AT7 and 12BH7A valves. The former work to amplify the incoming audio signal, while the latter are designed to provide the power to drive the output to the headphones.

So that the MHA200 can work with “virtually any headphones”, McIntosh has adapted many of its proprietary technologies. This includes the Unity Coupled Circuit transformers, which were a key element of the company’s foundational products back in 1949, and which can still be found in its full-size amplifiers today.

McIntosh has designed the transformers to match the valve amplifier section to the headphone output stage, ensuring maximum power transfer for various loads. Uniquely, the transformers ensure the full power of the MHA200 is available regardless of the impedance of the headphones, negating the need for your headphones’ impedance to be matched with the amp’s voltage gain.

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The MHA200’s power handling shouldn’t impact your choice of headphones, then – and neither should its connections. There’s 3-pin balanced XLR connectors, a 4-pin balanced XLR socket (for balanced stereo) and the more typical 6.35mm jack. Both balanced and unbalanced inputs complete the spec sheet.

Aside from a relatively compact footprint, McIntosh has worked to make the MHA200 easy to accommodate by providing long balanced cables, which should maintain signal accuracy and give you greater flexibility with positioning. If you’re connecting to a McIntosh system, know that a Power Control input and output allows the MHA200 to turn on and off with other connected McIntosh components.

The McIntosh MHA200 will be available in the UK from April, priced £2795; in the US from March, priced $2500; and in the rest of the world soon after.

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HP’s Spectre x360 14 review: the best 2-in-1 you can buy

HP’s Spectre x360 14 is a luxury worth paying for.

I have used a heck of a lot of laptops in the past year, and some of them are quite nice. MacBooks have nailed the “premium” look and feel for years, and I’ll never waste an opportunity to gush about the build quality of Dell’s XPS line.

But I’ve never touched a consumer laptop as gorgeous as the Spectre x360 14. The new Spectre’s sturdy black body, lustrous accents, and boldly sharp edges would make it a standout among convertible laptops across the board, even if it didn’t have a slew of other excellent qualities — which, from its 3:2 screen and packaged stylus to its stellar performance and battery life, it absolutely does.

With a starting MSRP of $1,299.99 ($1,589.99 as tested) the Spectre x360 is easily my new favorite 2-in-1 laptop. Today’s market is full of capable convertibles that look good, work well, and do certain things really well. But while the Spectre x360 14 isn’t a perfect laptop, it tops the pack in almost every area. It’s a stylish chassis, premium panel options, stylus support, a powerful processor, and fantastic battery in one. It’s proof that you can have it all — for a price.

The HP Spectre line is second to none when it comes to design, and this latest model is no exception. Like its 13-inch predecessor, the Spectre x360 14 is made of CNC-machined aluminum. Also like its siblings, you can get the 14 in “nightfall black,” “Poseidon blue,” or “natural silver.” Take a look at some pictures before selecting your color because they each have pretty different vibes. The nightfall black option has a sophisticated, svelte aesthetic that looks tailor-made for a boardroom. Poseidon blue is friendlier and probably the one I’d go for myself.

The accents, though, are what make the Spectre stand out from the legions of other black laptops out there. Lustrous trim borders the lid, the touchpad, and the deck. The hinges share its color, as does the HP logo on its lid. It’s bold without being obnoxious. The two rear corners are diamond-shaped, and one of them houses a Thunderbolt 4 port on its flat edge. (On the sides live an audio jack, a USB-A, a microSD slot, and an additional Thunderbolt 4, which is a decent selection — gone is the trapdoor that covered the USB-A port on the 13-inch model.) And the edges are all beveled, making the notebook appear thinner than it actually is (it’s 0.67 inches thick). Careful craftsmanship is evident here — I’m not exaggerating when I say this Spectre feels like artwork.

Take it in.

And, as the “x360” moniker implies, the Spectre is a 2-in-1. At 2.95 pounds, it’s a bit heavy to use as a tablet for long periods, but it’s smooth and easy to fold and the hinges are quite sturdy. Unlike with many convertibles, there’s barely any wobble when you use the touchscreen. The display is also stylus-compatible; the Spectre ships with HP’s MPP2.0 pen, which attaches magnetically to the side of the chassis.

Despite its design similarities, this Spectre looks noticeably different from its ancestors, and that’s because of the screen. The new model has a 3:2 display, which is 13 percent taller than the 16:9 panel on last year’s device. (It’s kept the same 90 percent screen-to-body ratio.)

Microsoft’s Surface devices have been using the 3:2 aspect ratio for years, and I’m glad that the Spectre line is finally making the switch. If you’re used to using a 16:9 display (which many modern Windows laptops have) and you give a 3:2 a shot, you’ll see what I mean. You have significantly more vertical space, which means less scrolling up and down and less zooming out to fit everything you want to see. It makes multitasking significantly easier without adding much size to the chassis.

This 3:2 panel can come in a few different forms. My test unit has an FHD option that HP says should reach 400 nits of brightness. I measured it multiple times, but it only reached 285 in my testing — which is dimmer than I’d hope to see from a device at this price point. I’ve reached out to HP to see what’s up and will update this review if it turns out to be a bug. (Of course, 285 nits is still more than enough for indoor office work.)

The OLED panel is certified for “low blue light.”

In addition to the FHD display, you can opt for a 3000 x 2000 OLED panel (HP didn’t provide a brightness estimate for this one; LaptopMag measured it at 339 nits) or a 1,000-nit option with HP’s Sure View Reflect technology, which makes the screen difficult to read from the sides. This will mostly be a benefit for business users.

In terms of other specs, the base model pairs the 400-nit screen with a Core i5-1135G7, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of storage (plus 16GB of Intel Optane). Then, there are a few upgrades you can go for. My test unit, priced at $1,589.99, keeps the base model’s screen but has a heftier processor (the quad-core Core i7-1165G7) and double its RAM and storage. I think this model is a good option for most people — it gets you a top processor and a good amount of storage without too stratospheric of a price tag. If you want to get fancier, you can get the OLED screen and 1TB of storage (plus 32GB of Intel Optane) for $1,699, or the Sure View screen and 2TB of storage for $1,959.99.

Of course, laptops aren’t just for looking at, but you’re not compromising on performance to get this build quality. The Spectre is verified through Intel’s Evo platform, which means that it offers a number of Intel-selected benefits including Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6, all-day battery life, quick boot time, fast charging, and reliable performance. In my testing, it more than surpassed those standards.

The system handled my heavy workload of Chrome tabs, downloads, and streams speedily with no issues. Battery life was excellent; I averaged 10 hours of continuous use with the screen around 200 nits of brightness. That means if your daily tasks are similar to mine, the Spectre should make it through your workday with no problem. (You’ll likely get less if you opt for the OLED panel.) The processor also includes Intel’s Iris Xe integrated graphics. While you wouldn’t want to use those for serious gaming, they’re capable of running lighter fare.

Elsewhere, I have almost no complaints. The backlit keyboard is snappy with a solid click — it’s easily one of my favorites. The speakers sound good, with very audible bass and percussion. There’s a fingerprint sensor to the left of the arrow keys and a Windows Hello camera, neither of which gave me any trouble.

Apart from the dimness, there are only two things about this laptop that I’m not in love with. They’re both minor; the fact that I’m even mentioning either of them in this review is a testament to how excellent this device is.

The first is the touchpad. It’s quite smooth and roomy (16.6 percent larger than that of last year’s Spectre x360 13) and handles scrolling and gestures just fine. But it’s noticeably stiffer than some of the best touchpads on the market. The press required to physically click is firm enough that I ended up doing it with my thumb most of the time. On the likes of the Dell XPS 13 and the MacBook, clicking with a finger is much less of a chore. When I first clicked with the integrated buttons, I also had to overcome some initial resistance to hit the actuation point (put plainly, every click felt like two clicks). This issue resolved itself during my second day of testing, but it’s still a hiccup I generally only see with cheaper items.

My complaints are minor — this is almost perfect.

Secondly, bloatware. There are a number of junk programs preloaded onto the Spectre and several pinned to the taskbar. Dropbox, ExpressVPN, McAfee, and Netflix are all on here, and I got all kinds of notifications from them. This is an oddity at this price point, and seeing cheap McAfee alerts popping up on the Spectre is like seeing really ugly bumper stickers on a Ferrari. This software doesn’t take too long to uninstall, but I’m disappointed to see it nonetheless.

But those are really the only two complaints I have, and neither of them should stop you from buying this laptop. It’s beautiful to look at and a dream to use. I found myself using it in my free time instead of my personal device (which almost never happens with review units — I really like my products).

When we’re evaluating a convertible laptop at the Spectre’s price point, the big question is how it compares to the gold standard of Windows convertibles, the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1. The XPS has a few advantages: it’s a bit thinner and lighter, its touchpad is less stiff, and it has a more modest look that some users might prefer.

But for me, the ball game is close but clear. The Spectre x360’s meticulous craftsmanship, classy aesthetic, and 3:2 screen put it over the top. It also edges out the XPS in a few key areas: the keyboard is more comfortable, the battery life is better, and Dell’s closest-priced configuration to this unit only has half its storage. The Spectre’s smaller amenities that the XPS lacks — like the bundled stylus, the USB-A port, the blue color, and the OLED option — are icing on the cake.

If you’re looking for a premium Windows convertible with a classy aesthetic, that makes the Spectre a no-brainer purchase. This is HP at its best; it’s a luxury laptop in pretty much every area. I can’t imagine that it won’t be the next laptop I buy.

Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge

Bang & Olufsen wants its new Beosound Level to outlast your average connected speaker

Bang & Olufsen’s Beosound Level is the Danish brand’s latest battery-powered connected speaker. It supports voice controls via Google Assistant, Bluetooth, and you can also stream to it via the AirPlay 2, Chromecast, and Spotify Connect standards. B&O says the Beosound Level uses a modular construction that it claims will make it usable far into the future. It’s a welcome feature, considering the speaker’s high $1,499 (£1,099) starting price.

While many stereos and amplifiers from the middle of the last century can still be used today, the average lifespan of modern integrated audio systems is far shorter. If your music system contains a computer, then it’s inevitable that it’ll eventually become outdated. B&O’s hope is that the modular design it’s using for the Beosound Level will help the company keep it supported for longer, as well as making it easier to repair when components fail.

Central to this modularity is the Beosound Level’s streaming module, which houses the speaker’s digital signal processing (DSP) chip, wireless connectivity tech, and antenna array. It’s B&O’s first speaker to use it, but the company says it won’t be the last; it’ll be standardized across its future lineup of home speakers. B&O says there’s enough processing headroom in the hardware that ships with the Beosound Level that it should be able to handle updates in the immediate future. But when the hardware reaches its limit, the company plans to offer an upgrade service for users who are prepared to send their device in to the company to have the streaming module replaced.

The Beosound Level’s battery is also modular, and unlike the streaming module, it’s user-replaceable. However, its form factor won’t be standardized across B&O’s speaker lineup, so replacing it will require a battery made specifically for the Beosound Level. Battery life is rated at up to 16 hours with volumes at moderate levels, dropping to four hours at max volume.

Other features include a built-in accelerometer that allows the Beosound Level to adjust its sound depending on whether it’s standing vertically, horizontally, or hanging on a wall. (A wall bracket is available separately for $119, or £89.) Internally, the speaker has five drivers: two 4-inch woofers, one 2-inch full-range driver, and two 0.8-inch tweeters.

Charging is either handled via a USB-C port on the speaker itself or by attaching a small magnetic plug (which is powered over USB). The speaker has an IP54 rating for dust and water resistance, touch controls, and it’s available with wood or fabric finishes.

We’ve seen companies try to take modular approaches with their devices before, but success has been elusive so far. Modular smartphones have never really gotten off the ground, and Alienware’s promises about a modular future-proof laptop fell apart after just one year. Bang & Olufsen tells me it hopes to support the Beosound Level for years after it eventually stops producing the speaker, so it might be some time before we see if it’s able to deliver on its goal.

The Beosound Level is available starting today.

ASRock X570 Taichi Razer Edition Review

Introduction

Last year, AMD released the Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors and finally took the gaming performance crown Intel had held for so long. This final step completed the Red brand’s ascent back into the forefront of the desktop processor market that began with the launch of the first generation of Ryzen CPUs.

With the Ryzen 3000 launch last year came the AMD X570 chipset. Featuring PCIe 4.0 support, X570 was an impressive leap from generations past. Ryzen 5000 did not launch with a new chipset, but many manufacturers are still launching improved versions of their best X570 boards in order to best cater to new AMD adopters. Today, we are looking at ASRock’s newest launch with the ASRock X570 Taichi Razer Edition.

As the name suggests, the ASRock X570 Taichi Razer Edition is a collaboration with Razer, the world’s first motherboard to natively support Razer Chroma RGB lighting. Along with the improved RGB lighting and support for Razer’s Synapse 3 RGB software, the ASRock X570 Taichi Razer Edition also features 2.5 Gb/s LAN from Killer Networking, as well as Killer Networking WiFi 6 and a beefed up VRM design to top everything off.

A brand-new look of an award-winning board, the X570 Taichi Razer Edition has a lot going for it, but is the performance still there?

Specifications

Specifications
CPU Support:	AMD AM4 socket Ryzen 3000, 4000 G-Series, and 5000 series processors
Power Design:	CPU Power: 16-phase Memory Power: 2-phase
Chipset:	AMD X570
Integrated Graphics:	Dependent on installed CPU
Memory:	4x DIMM, support for up to dual channel DDR4-4666+(OC) MHz
BIOS:	AMI UEFI BIOS
Expansion Slots:	3x PCIe 4.0 x16 slots (x16/x0/x0 or x8/x8/x0 or x8/x4/x4) 1x PCIe 4.0 x1 slots
Storage:	8x SATA 6 Gb/s port 3x M.2 port (SATA3/PCIe 4.0 x4)
Networking:	1x Killer E3100G 2.5 Gb LAN 1x Killer AX1650x 802.11ax WiFi
Rear Ports:	2x Antenna ports 1x HDMI port 1x Clear CMOS Button 1x BIOS Flashback Button 1x Optical SPDIF out port 1x LAN (RJ45) port 1x USB 3.1 (Gen2) Type-C port 1x USB 3.1 (Gen2) Type-A port 4x USB 3.1 (Gen1) ports 2x USB 2.0 ports 5x 3.5 mm Audio jacks 1x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard combo port
Audio:	1x Realtek ALC1220 Codec
Fan Headers:	6x 4-pin
Form Factor:	ATX Form Factor: 12.0 x 9.6 in.; 30.5 x 24.4 cm
Exclusive Features:	ASRock Super Alloy XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink Premium 60A Power Choke 50A Dr.MOS Premium Memory Alloy Choke Nichicon 12K Black Caps I/O Armor High Density Glass Fabric PCB 2 oz copper PCB Killer 2.5G LAN Killer 802.11ax WiFi Killer DoubleShot™ Pro ASRock steel Slot Gen4 ASRock Full Coverage M.2 Heatsink ASRock Ultra USB Power ASRock Full Spike Protection (for all USB, Audio, LAN Ports) ASRock Live Update & APP Shop

Amazon plans to install always-on surveillance cameras in its delivery vehicles

Amazon plans to install high-tech video cameras in its delivery vehicles in order to better monitor the behavior of drivers as they deliver packages, according to a new report from The Information.

The hardware and software will be supplied by Netradyne, a California company behind a platform called Driveri that uses cameras and artificial intelligence to analyze a driver as they operate the vehicle. The camera then gives real-time feedback — including automated suggestions like “distracted driving” and “please slow down” — while collecting analysis that is used to later evaluate drivers during their shifts, the report states.

An unlisted, week-old video hosted on the website Vimeo details the partnership. It’s narrated by Karolina Haraldsdottir, Amazon’s senior manager for last-mile safety, and outlines the company’s goals as reducing collisions and holding drivers more accountable for mistakes on the road. The initiative mirrors one Amazon has taken with its long-haul trucking fleet, in which SmartDrive cameras monitor freight drivers for signs of fatigue and distracted driving, according to a separate report from The Information.

The marketing video showcases how the cameras record “100% of the time” (though without audio and not viewable live) and upload footage to a dedicated safety team for review if any one of 16 signals is triggered through an incident happening on the road or an action the driver takes. The driver is able to manually disable the camera, but only when the ignition is off. Drivers are also allowed to manually upload footage when they choose to.

Screenshot by Nick Statt / The Verge

“We’re always searching out innovative ways to keep drivers safe. That’s why we have partnered with Netradyne to help make improvements to the driver experience,” Haraldsdottir says on camera. She describes Netradyne as the first company to merge AI with video “to create industry-leading safety systems, reducing collisions by a third through in-cab warnings and another third through improving driver behaviors.”

Haraldsdottir says Amazon wants to “set up drivers for success and provide them support for being safer on road and handling incidents if and when they happen.” But The Information talked with some drivers who are concerned that the use of Netradyne’s technology might constitute unfair and invasive surveillance and place even further burdens on them as they try to meet tight deadlines.

Screenshot by Nick Statt / The Verge

Amazon has historically relied on last-mile operators like the US Postal Service and UPS to get packages to customers’ doorsteps, but the company has increasingly begun using its own growing logistics network of airplanes, trucks, and delivery vehicles to cut costs. For last-mile deliveries, that has included both third-party delivery companies Amazon contracts directly and a growing platform of Uber-like workers using their own vehicles under the Amazon Flex platform.

As part of this network, Amazon operates a fleet of tens of thousands of delivery drivers all over the country that, as part of these third-party firms, are not technically company employees. Nonetheless, these drivers operate Amazon Prime-branded vehicles and are subject to any restrictions or monitoring the company puts in place in many ways similar to the intense control Amazon exerts over its warehouse workers. That includes minute-by-minute surveillance via mobile app of where a driver is on their programmed route and whether they’re falling behind schedule.

Screenshot by Nick Statt / The Verge

Those monitoring tools appear to also include new Netradyne cameras, although The Information says it’s not clear when Amazon intends to install the cameras and how widespread throughout its delivery fleet they’ll be. “We are investing in safety across our operations and recently started rolling out industry leading camera-based safety technology across our delivery fleet,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Information in a statement. “This technology will provide drivers real-time alerts to help them stay safe when they are on the road.”

In using its own network of both professional and civilian delivery drivers, Amazon has faced scrutiny in recent years for prioritizing speed and consumer convenience over the safety of delivery personnel, while at the same time placing increasingly onerous burdens on its drivers dictating the route they take and the order in which they drop off packages to avoid delays.

Last fall, Amazon was caught surveilling contract Flex drivers in private Facebook groups to see whether some were planning labor actions like work stoppages or strikes. In March of last year, Amazon came under fire for declining to pay Flex drivers forced to stay home due to the coronavirus, despite Uber and Lyft opting to compensate their drivers.

Amazon delivery drivers have also caused dozens of accidents over the last half-decade, including some that resulted in deaths, but the company often avoids liability for the accidents due to the way it employs third-party firms and independent contractors, reported The New York Times in 2019. Just earlier this week, Amazon was ordered to pay more than $61 million to Flex drivers as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over wage theft allegations.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Best USB-C headphones for Android phones 2021

(Pocket-lint) – The headphone jack might just be dead – when Apple first got rid of it, the outcry was widespread, but we’ve now come to accept its absence as the default. Many Android phone makers are opting for Bluetooth and USB-C audio instead.

Removing the jack enables phones to be made thinner, use fewer connectors and be made waterproof more easily. However, the adoption of USB-C headphones has been slow because many opt for Bluetooth headphones instead.

There are advantages to using wired though; a digital connection can help improve audio quality, as headphones can be made with dedicated DACs integrated into them, such as the Audeze Sine and iSine that use the Lightning port on the iPhone.

Best in-ear headphones: 10 great wired, wireless and wire-free earphones

So we’ve rounded up the best USB-C headphones we’ve found – there aren’t huge numbers of options, as you’ll see.

Best USB-C headphones to buy

Moshi

Moshi Mythro C

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These well-rounded USB-C earphones sound great and bass reproduction is decent. That’s thanks to a built-in DAC and four in-line buttons with a mic and a DJ Boost mode. As with many other earphones, you also get many different ear tips, as you’d expect.

Note that while these headphones say they are compatible Google Assistant compatible, they don’t have the assistant built-in, as with some other devices (such as the Pixel headphones below).

Libratone

Libratone Q-Adapt In-ear USB-C

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Libratone already has a pair of Q-Adapt in-ear headphones for the iPhone and has also released a pair with a USB-C connector too. They were made specifically for the Google Pixel 2 and fall under the “Made for Google” program.

They’re sweatproof, so can be used when exercising, have in-line controls for controlling music playback and even have a noise-cancellation mode when taking phone calls with power coming directly from the USB-C port.

Google

Google Pixel USB-C Earbuds

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Google released these earbuds alongside the Pixel 3, and, while they aren’t as good as wireless options, they are dirt cheap.

They also have native compatibility with Google Assistant so you can hear your notifications (just press and hold the volume up button) and get real-time translation from Google Translate.

Razer

Razer Hammerhead

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Earbuds aren’t purely useful for music and chatting, though, and can be great for immersive gaming, too. R

Razer’s Hammerhead earbuds are slightly pricy, but if you really want the edge on mobile games they’ll do very nicely indeed. We also really like the look and feel of the tangle-resistant cable.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi ANC Earphone

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Bringing ANC to the table are these earbuds from Xiaomi which offer a nice alternative to the set from Libratone above, especially if those older buds are out of stock. These have an unremarkable design but do everything you need them to very well.

OnePlus

OnePlus Type C Bullets

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OnePlus rounds out our list with these really solid, incredibly simple earbuds, which aren’t particularly noteworthy but equally are priced pretty sensibly and sound really good for the price, too.

Writing by Dan Grabham. Editing by Conor Allison.

Apple Fitness+ vs Fiit: What do they offer, how much are they and which should you sign up to?

(Pocket-lint) – Apple Fitness+ is a paid-for service from Apple that lives within the Fitness app. Like Fiit and Peloton, it focuses on home workouts, with studio-style on-demand workouts available anytime and anywhere.

If you’re trying to decide between Apple Fitness+ and Fiit, we’ve got you covered. Here’s how the two services differ, how much they both cost and what they offer to help you work out which might be the right one for you.

Fitness+ vs Fiit price

Fitness+: $9.99/£9.99 a month
Fiit: $25.99/£19.99 a month

Apple Fitness+ is available as a standalone subscription, or as part of the Apple One Premier subscription. As a standalone, Fitness+ costs $9.99 or £9.99 per month, or $79.99 or £79.99 per year.

It is included within the Apple One Premier subscription along with News+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+ and iCloud, though this is $29.99 or £29.99 a month.

Fiit meanwhile, offers monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription options. A monthly subscription costs $25.99 or £19.99, a quarterly subscription costs £44.99 or $57.99 and a yearly subscription costs £119.99 or $159.99.

Fitness+ vs Fiit features

Fitness+: Apple users, Burn Bar, variety of workouts, filters, music
Fiit: All users, leaderboard, Fiit points, live workouts, training plans, variety of workouts, filters, music, review system

Apple Fitness+ is based around the Apple Watch, and while you can do workouts without the Apple Watch, you won’t get the full experience.

With a compatible iPhone or iPad and Apple Watch, a Fitness+ workout will display your Apple Watch rings, heart rate, calories and the Burn Bar in the top left, along with the time left on the workout and the countdown timer when you are doing a HIIT workout for example. The Burn Bar will offer feedback during the workout as to how you are doing in relation to other users who have completed the workout before you. It’s possible to turn it off if you don’t want to see it.

Fiit is compatible with the Apple Watch, among other fitness devices like the Samsung smartwatches and Fitbit, which when linked up will allow you to see your heart rate on the workout screen, as well as your Fiit points. There’s also a dedicated Fiit device (a chest strap) to track heart rate, as well as reps on strength workouts for example. Similar to the Burn Bar though, the Fiit points help you compare your efforts with others who have taken the class prior to you. There is a main leaderboard too – something Fitness+ doesn’t offer.

Both apps offer a variety of workouts, trainers and training types, from Yoga to HIIT, though Fiit has a more accomplished catalogue at the moment. Fiit also offers training plans and challenges, like ’14 Days of Cardio’, or a six week ‘Lift’ plan, which Apple Fitness+ doesn’t yet.

There are also live workouts on Fiit, allowing you to schedule yourself onto a class with at least one every half an hour throughout the day. Currently, Fitness+ doesn’t offer live classes, though it does have dedicated audio workouts for walking.

Both Apple Fitness+ and Fiit have music built into their workouts (unlike Joe Wicks and the Body Coach app) and you can filter by music too on both apps, so if you’re someone who likes to workout to dance music, or RnB, both apps have you covered. The Fiit workouts have a bit more going on, with flashing lights in the background of the trainers, while the Fitness+ workouts keep things simple.

For Apple Watch users, both Fitness+ and Fiit automatically select the right workout type, and once you start, they will end automatically too, with a record in the Summary tab of the Fitness app and allowing you to see all your data from there.

One of the final things to note in terms of the difference in features between Fitness+ and Fiit is the way workouts are run. Fiit offers different workouts for different levels. Some workouts have two trainers, with one offering one level and the other a more advanced level, but otherwise, you would typically choose a workout from the options within your level.

Fitness+ meanwhile, takes a slightly different approach. Rather than have different workouts for different levels, Apple has three different trainers for each workout, with all offering the different levels and you follow the trainer that represents your capabilities.

Fitness+ vs Fiit app

Fitness+: Simple, curated sections, trainers section, summary section in different place
Fiit: More comprehensive, stats section, activity section, more filter options

Both the Apple Fitness+ and Fiit apps are easy to use and they both offer a filter function to help you select the workout that is right for you or what you are after.

The Fiit app is a little more extensive compared to Fitness+ at the moment and it has more filter options, with target body part, target area, and equipment and class level all options. Apple Fitness+ only allows you to filter by the type of exercise, followed by the time, music and trainer.

Both apps have curated sections within their apps, such as “New this Week”. Apple Fitness+ has more of these sections, with a Popular section, My Workouts section and Simple and Quick section.

Both have a Trainers section – allowing you to choose your favourite trainers. You’d be surprised how quickly you warm to certain people’s enthusiasm. We love Adrienne Herbert from Fiit for example, and we like Jamie-Ray on Fitness+, though he is also a Fiit trainer, as is Kim so there is some crossover.

Fiit has a Profile section on the app that will show you your All Time Stats, Stats by Studio, your favourite classes and your activity so you can see all the workouts you’ve done. It also has a rating system, allowing you to rate each workout after you finish it to help it work out which ones you like more, improving its algorithm. You can see your past workouts in the Summary tab of the Fitness app for Fitness+ but there’s no specific section within the Fitness+ tab itself, nor are there any stats or streak information.

Fitness+ vs Fiit conclusion

So which is right for you? Well, that depends on what you are looking for and how much you are willing to spend. If you’re not an Apple user and you don’t have an Apple Watch, then Fiit is a no brainer between these two.

If you are an Apple user and you have a compatible Apple Watch, Fitness+ is good, but it is lacking in a few features. It just depends if those features really matter to you or you don’t mind waiting as chances are, they will eventually come to the platform in some form.

Fiit is more expensive – double the price of Fitness+ in fact – but it offers more workouts, as well as more features. There are live workouts available, training plans, challenges, a leaderboard to keep you motivated, a section for all your activity and the option to review a workout when you have finished it to help the algorithm suggest others you might like. You can also AirPlay it to a compatible TV, or cast or stream using Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon TV or Sky Q.

Fitness+ meanwhile has a good selection of workouts, it’s simple and therefore very easy to use and navigate, it has good curated sections, we love the Burn Bar and it works well with Apple Watch. The workouts are more subdued than Fiit, which some will prefer, while others will like the buzz the flashing lights bring to the Fiit workouts. Also, until iOS 14.5 comes out when AirPlay 2 compatibility is coming, the only way to get Fitness+ on your TV is if you have an Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD. It doesn’t support Chromecast or Amazon TV.

At the moment, we would say Fiit offers more out of these two options, but so it should for double the cash.

Writing by Britta O’Boyle.

Spotify subscribers surge past 150 million

Spotify now boasts 155 million premium subscribers and 345 million monthly active users, according to its latest earnings report released today. Those numbers represent a 24 percent and 27 percent year-over year increase. Its biggest increase was in ad-supported monthly active users, which rose 30 percent to 199 million. Last quarter, it reported having reached 144 million subscribers, and 320 million monthly active users.

However, despite the growth in listeners, The Wall Street Journal notes that the average revenue per user fell by 8 percent to €4.26 (around $5.13) compared to a year ago. That’s because of the discounted plans used to lure in new subscribers, and the lower prices it charges in markets like Russia and India. Ad revenue was up, however, accounting for 13 percent of revenue despite historically bringing in less than 10 percent.

Spotify now has 345 million monthly active users.

Image: Spotify

Overall Spotify still made a loss of €125 million, but that’s down from the €209 million loss it made the year before. It’s rare for Spotify to post a profit as the company continues to invest in growth, according to the WSJ.

The earnings announcement comes as Spotify continues to make big investments outside of music, the service’s traditional strength. It recently made moves into audiobooks, experimenting with offering recordings of celebrities reading public domain books like Frankenstein, and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

Spotify is also investing heavily in podcast. This quarter, the company continued to sign big names for its podcast business like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and Ava Duvernay. It now offers more than 2.2 million podcasts through its service, with podcast consumption up nearly 100 percent compared to the same time a year ago. Spotify says that 25 percent of its users engaged with podcast content during the quarter.

Spotify has argued that its investment in podcasts in particular increases usage, engagement, and customer retention, and present an opportunity for it to decrease its reliance on licensing music from labels. Spotify reiterated that belief in today’s earnings release.

However, some analysts say the investment in podcasts has yet to meaningfully pay off, CBNC recently reported. Writing in an investor note, analysts at Citi said that “to date, we have not seen a material positive inflection in app downloads or Premium subscriptions” as a result of Spotify’s podcast investments. Last year, reports indicated that Spotify was exploring the possibility of a subscription podcast service, opening up another source of income.

This earnings report won’t be Spotify’s last major announcement of the month. Yesterday the company teased a “Stream On” event taking place on February 22nd. In today’s release, the company said it will use the event “to share the latest on the state of global audio streaming and where it’s headed in the future.”

Ruark R3

Our Verdict

While we thought its radio sources need a little tonal attention, the highlights here are playback from CD, from streaming music services and Bluetooth.

For

Compact music system
Endless paths to music
CD and streaming

Against

Edgy sound on radio sources
Variable results for ‘3D audio’

Sound+Image mag review

(Image credit: Future)

This review originally appeared in Sound+Image magazine, one of What Hi-Fi?’s Australian sister publications. Click here for more information on Sound+Image, including digital editions and details on how you can subscribe.

We don’t recall a product ever ‘coming good’ during a review to the quite same extent as did the Ruark R3 Compact Music System. It positively alarmed us when we first turned it on. But by the end of our time with this streaming tabletop music system we were using it daily for pleasure as much as for assessment. Join us in our journey with this timeless design from a UK company which has made this genre of smart radiogram-like music system something of a specialty.

Build & facilities

The R3 is a table-top audio system (£629, $790, AU$1299) which stands some 42cm across and 17cm high, bringing together CD replay, reception of DAB+, FM and internet radio, streaming via network and Bluetooth (with aptX), Spotify Connect, Tidal and other music services… pretty much everything, in short, that the modern music world has to offer.

You can plug in additional sources – there’s one optical and one analogue input, also a minijack headphone output and a ‘line out’ at full level, so you could run the whole gamut of sources into a hi-fi amp or a recorder.

Ruark’s great skill is in offering this potentially overwhelming profusion of sources in a friendly box – old-style, you might even call it, with its grey cloth grille and walnut casing, though a more modern-looking soft-grey lacquer finish is also available.

On top is the company’s longstanding Rotodial for control, while a small infrared remote is also included, along with app control from a smart device. And if it’s going bedside, you can avail yourself of the useful alarm clocks, snooze and sleep timer functions.

Ruark’s other skill is sound quality. This is a company we can still remember of old as Ruark Acoustics, making fine British loudspeakers with thrusting names like Sabre and Swordsman through the 1980s and 1990s. Then in the 2000s when digital radio was trending, Ruark developed the little R1, which the UK’s Sunday Telegraph hailed as “the Aston Martin of DAB radios”.

Such was the R1’s success that traditional loudspeakers fell by the wayside (though “never say never”, says owner Alan O’Rourke), and the reinvented Ruark Audio now has a range of radio and streaming solutions, from the latest Mk4 version of the R1 ‘deluxe’ up to a large four-legged radiogram of the future, the highly desirable R7 Mk3.

So Ruark has a heritage of hi-fi sound, and we’ve enjoyed many of its players in the past, so were looking forward to this new R3.

(Image credit: Ruark Audio)

Setting up

We had no problems setting up the R3; we gave it Ethernet and attached the antenna required for radio reception; this may confuse newbies by flopping around loosely, but we knew from previous Ruark visits that there’s a special aerial spanner in the packaging for this very purpose!

We began our listening by sampling its skills with radio. We selected digital radio and, being fresh from the box, the R3 scanned Sydney’s airwaves and found some 70 available DAB+ stations all awaiting selection via a shuttle of the R3’s top Rotodial. And all were sounding pretty unpleasant – very spitty in the treble, artificial-sounding, with voices thin in their midrange content, and music lumpy in the bass.

We changed to internet radio – it was no better, indeed slightly worse on low-resolution stations. We were worried by this, to be honest: it was not the sound we expect from Ruark devices, which normally present a warm friendly radio sound.

We hastened to the tone controls through the menus. There are four elements to the tone controls: bass and treble adjustment, a loudness option which was ‘on’ by default, and – ah! – a ‘3D’ option. This 3D option was also on by default. Switching it off went a long way to removing the artificial spittiness from the radio sources.

We further tamed the treble by a few notches, left the loudness on, and kept the bass in its central position. This brought the radio sections back to what we’d expect from Ruark – full and friendly, just a teeny bit fizzy up top but no longer distractingly so.

The remote control has three large preset buttons, which are available separately for each source, so three for FM, three for DAB+, three for internet radio. You store them by simply pressing and holding the button when listening to a station.

But in fact there are 10 presets for each type of radio; you can access the rest by pressing and holding the ‘preset’ button then pressing the left-right buttons to reach presets 4 to 10. Recall them the same way, without the holding. It’s easy, versatile, and very useful.

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App control

For those with less than 20/20 vision who can’t read the small lettering on the front display across the room for source selection (let alone the tinier menu options), there’s a handy free app available for control. This is Undok, the control app from Frontier Silicon, maker of the smart module within the R3.

We’ve long enjoyed Undok, and are pleased to see it back after an unexplained hiatus. Undok controlled the R3 effectively, though not entirely. For example, there’s access to bass, treble and loudness, but not the all-important ‘3D’ option, for which you’ll need to use the remote and/or Rotodial to switch on or off.

App quirk two: we tried to rename the R3, but it refused to change to ‘Ruark R3’… yet when we jokingly tried ‘Simon’, that was OK. Turns out that you can only pick a one-word name, e.g. Ruark.

App quirk three: the bass slider in the app was glitchy, advancing a few notches, then jumping back again, up then back – very odd.

But otherwise the app is very useful for local control, for switching sources, for saving presets. One tip for internet radio: if there’s a station you can’t find (our local community station, for example, was not listed), you can head to Frontier Silicon’s site https://smartradio.frontier-nuvola.net, set up an account, link your R3, ‘manage favourites’, and enter the URL manually. The station then appears under ‘My Favourites’. Nice flexibility!

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(Image credit: Ruark Audio)

Streaming

Ruark R3 specs

(Image credit: Ruark Audio)

Drivers: 2 x 75mm NS+ full-range

Quoted power: 30W Class-AB

Inputs: RCA analogue, optical digital, USB-C, FM, DAB+ radio, Bluetooth (SBC, AAC, aptX), Wi-Fi/Ethernet, internet radio, Spotify Connect, Tidal, Deezer, Amazon Music, DLNA/UPnP

Outputs: line out, headphone minijack out

Dimensions: 420 x 220 x 167mm

Weight: 5.3kg

Radio listening completed, we switched to music streaming. For Spotify you use the Spotify app and point it at the Ruark for playback – we were pleased to find this works with free Spotify as well as paid (which isn’t the case for many streaming platforms and products).

And it was immediately evident that for all the other inputs – music services, CD, Bluetooth streaming – the R3’s sound balance was completely different. Gone was all the spittiness, gone the bass lumpiness. So we headed back to the tone controls, put the treble and bass back to zero, left the loudness on – and turned the 3D sound on.

And with these sources you should definitely try the 3D sound option. It gives the sound a real lift, a widening, an additional enjoyability, though it still occasionally has deleterious effects on certain tracks. We played Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al from Spotify Free and all was good.

But on the next track, Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard, the janglier right-channel guitars became nastily edgy and artificial until we turned ‘3D’ off again. We tried the same track from our own CD-quality collection sent by Bluetooth (which supports both AAC and aptX), and this softened the edginess somewhat, but it still sounded better with 3D off.

The more we played, the more songs reacted badly to the 3D setting, and we ended up keeping it off, with one notch down also on the treble slider to prevent residual fizziness in the treble.

So for best sonic results, adjust the tone options whenever you switch from file-based playback to radio, and vice versa – especially disabling the 3D sound for radio sources. It’s a shame the R3 can’t remember your tone preferences for each source (as it can for input levels, which are trimmable for each analogue and digital input), and we’d go so far as to suggest Ruark should simply disable 3D sound entirely for FM, DAB and internet radio sources, as its effects there are particularly nasty. Better still, a big ‘3D Sound’ button on the remote control would allow easily toggling of this sound mode, as on, say, a soundbar.

But if you’re happy to pop over to the R3 and switch this manually each time, you can enjoy the best which the R3 has to offer, which is considerable. It’s a delightful CD player, for example, those full-quality files filling the room with well-balanced sound. And the louder you play, the happier the R3 seems to be; the bass available from the two 75mm drivers is remarkable as you raise the level; its response begins in the 40s of hertz and rises impressively smoothly.

Soft recordings get a boost from the treble lift of the sonics here; Paul McCartney’s My Valentine has rarely sounded so well-defined. And as with all Ruark units we’ve tested, the R3 is adept with classical music, and we blasted forth the London Musici’s 1991 Conifer/Technics recording of Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ symphony to confirm the R3’s adherence to this track record, pushing up the bass a tad to underpin this dynamic piece.

The R3 proved equally enjoyable from streaming music services. From Apple Music we streamed Neil Finn’s 2010 solo concert at Sydney’s intimate Seymour Centre, and the Ruark did a lovely job of presenting Finn’s voice and the decay of both artificial and venue reverb as he switched from guitar to piano, serving the latter with both percussive attack and pianissimo softness, as required.

There is a ‘Music Player’ option which you can use to play either from USB or from music shares on the network, although unfortunately the R3 couldn’t see our NAS drive of music (only our PVR, from which it bravely offered to play episodes of Home and Away etc., but of course couldn’t). From USB it was able to play MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV and FLAC, the last two up to 24-bit/48kHz, so no support for higher-res PCM or DSD.

Note that Ruark has chosen to include not a standard USB-A slot but rather a USB-C 5V charging connection, very up-to-date of it, except that you can’t plug in normal USB sticks and drives. USB-C sticks are widely available, so that’s what we used. Adapters are also available, though when we tried one, the R3 announced that ‘USB hubs are not supported’. Sticks must also be formatted in FAT-32 format.

(Image credit: Ruark Audio)

Verdict

So quite the journey we enjoyed with this versatile music system. While we thought its radio sources need a little tonal attention, its highlights are playback from CD, from streaming music services and Bluetooth, and overall it’s an impressively easy-to-use and attractive table-top unit which accesses pretty much every kind of music under the sun, delivered effectively under local, remote or app control.

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Epson EpiqVision EH-LS300B

Our Verdict

Epson’s EH-LS300 UST projector is practical for everyday use, with some limitations, as well as for truly immersive bigscreen movie nights.

For

Powerful bright image
Free-to-air TV catch-up services
Convenient way to get a really large picture

Against

No Netflix or Prime support
No Ethernet
1080i/50 and 576i/50 issues

Sound+Image mag review

(Image credit: Future)

This review originally appeared in Sound+Image magazine, one of What Hi-Fi?’s Australian sister publications. Click here for more information on Sound+Image, including digital editions and details on how you can subscribe.

Ultra-short-throw projectors are going great guns. Even mainstream companies not previously or not recently involved in projection (LG, Samsung, Hisense) have realised that a projector sitting on a bench can deliver a large-screen ‘TV-like’ experience with a convenience that a conventional projector cannot when it has to be pushed back in the room or hung on a ceiling.

As a consequence the ultra-short-throw is rapidly evolving. Since it’s going to work like a TV, shouldn’t it have speakers? Shouldn’t it be smart, like a TV? Yes it should. So here comes Epson, a company which declares itself the world no.1 in projection (on the reasonable basis it has been declared so by Futuresource Consulting for the last 17 consecutive years), with models for just this space. The ‘4K Pro UHD’ EH-LS500 arrived first, and now this EH-LS300, which offers Full-HD resolution of 1920 x 1080. With such underlying expertise, but a lower resolution, does it deliver the promised new age of UST?

Build

Ultra-short-throw projectors use a combination of lenses and mirrors to cast the picture up onto a screen almost immediately above them. The Epson EpiqVision EH-LS300B is a fairly compact specimen at 467mm wide and 400mm deep. Inside there are three 15.5mm LCD projector panels using Epson’s C2 Fine technology, and a laser diode. That kind of light engine works by firing the laser into some phosphor, which then produces a bright white light.

The use of this kind of light engine means several good things. Firstly, long life. The projector is rated at 20,000 hours of lamp life. Secondly, the projector turns on fast – 5.5 seconds when in standby, according to our stopwatch, or 6.5 seconds if it has been disconnected from power. It goes off fast as well.

And the lamp can be controlled in level to help darken scenes. Epson says that the dynamic contrast ratio is as much as 2.5 million-to-1 (on the datasheet) or 1.5 million-to-1 (in the US manual we found online).

There are two HDMI inputs, a USB socket for playing back video content from a USB stick, and Wi-Fi for the smart TV stuff. Surprisingly, there’s no Ethernet connection – we’d prefer that option rather than having to rely on Wi-Fi in our somewhat RF-congested modern environments. But it is dual-band Wi-Fi – 2.4GHz and 5GHz – supporting the 801.11ac standard, so it may well outperform the usually-installed 100Mbps Ethernet of many devices. (Our 100Mbps test clip was pretty choppy… but we do have an extremely busy Wi-Fi environment.)

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(Image credit: Epson)

Sound

A nice touch: built-in sound that is quite good. As always, we believe that the sound of your system should match the scale of the video. Since the Epson EpiqVision EH-LS300B delivers big vision, a decent external sound system should be in order. But absent that, we were quite impressed with the audio built into the projector. Epson relied on the audio expertise of Yamaha for this: a 2.1-channel forwards-firing audio system with 20W of power, better than any actual TV that we’ve used – and we’ve used plenty. We also checked the Audio Return Channel capability via HDMI to a connected home theatre receiver, and it worked perfectly well.

Setting up

The projector is available on its own at £2500 ($2000, AU$4000). But in Australia you can also get it as a package with an ‘Ambient Light Rejection’ screen in 100 inches (AU$5099 package) or 120 inches (AU$5699). These employ a surface treatment which reduces the reflection of light coming from above or directly in front, increasing their contrast ratio when there’s light in the room. These screens weren’t available to us at the time of review, so we used our regular viewing screen.

Epson EH-LS300 tech specs

(Image credit: Epson)

Projection technology: 3 x 15.5mm C2 Fine LCD panels

Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels

Aspect ratio: 16:9

Lamp: Laser diode

Lamp life: 20,000 hours (Normal and Quiet modes)

Brightness: 3600 lumens (both white and colour); 1800 lumens (ECO mode)

Inputs: 2 x HDMI, 1 x USB, Wi-Fi

Outputs: Optical digital audio

Control/other: Mini-USB (Service)

Dimensions (whd): 467 x 133 x 400mm

Weight: 7.2kg

In a couple of ways an ultra-short-throw projector is a little trickier to set up than a regular projector. There is no zoom lens, for example, so the size of the picture is determined entirely by the distance between the projector and the screen – far less than a conventional projector, but still significant for the largest screen sizes. For a 100-inch screen, the distance from the wall to the back of the projector (the side facing the wall) should be 26.6cm. With the largest recommended screen size of 120 inches, the distance is just 38.6cm. The projector itself is getting on for 40cm deep, so its front will end up more than 75cm from the wall – which is a lot of bench depth.

The other slightly tricky thing is that the image is cast at such an extreme angle you have to adjust everything with better-than-millimetre precision. The slightest angle to one side and you have a marked trapezoid of a picture. You really don’t want to be nudging the projector when you’re dusting.

But there is a clever adjustment system for picture geometry. There’s even a dedicated button on the remote. With this you can drag the corners of a box to make sure everything’s square. It’s kind of like a supercharged keystone correction system. But like keystone correction, it’s done digitally, which means that Full-HD input signals are no longer directly mapped onto the display pixels, so detail is lost. So it’s best avoided if you can.Get the physical placement right instead.

Last thing on physical set-up: we found the focus adjust lever quite spongy, so a bit tricky to get the focus exactly right. With perseverance we did succeed. (One of the oddities about this kind of projector: focus adjustment has basically no effect at all at the bottom of the screen, which is always in focus, and a massive effect at the top.)

As for the smart set-up, Android TV has this well under control. You just use the Google Home app on your phone – it works on iPhones as well – which talks you through with very little fuss. We had the unit connected within a couple of minutes.

(Image credit: Epson)

Performance

It turns out that 3600 lumens allows a surprisingly viewable picture even under the full glare of our room’s fluorescent tubes! Not that we did any kind of critical viewing that way, we hasten to add. But we suspect that kids would be perfectly satisfied with afternoon cartoons served this way, especially onto an Epson directional screen. And it’s fine for the news and such. So consider this not just a home cinema device, but a (kind of) everyday TV.

Then, when night fell, we started to use it as a real home cinema projector. And we were impressed. What impressed us? The colour and the black levels. The subjective black levels were entirely satisfying. Which is to say that with all the material we viewed – including HDR content from 4K Blu-ray – the black elements of the picture seemed, well, entirely black. And yes, 4K Blu-ray, because even though the projector delivers 1080p output, it supports Ultra-HD inputs including HDR (and Dolby Vision, which it treats as HDR).

We jammed in as much night-time viewing as we could in the time available, and we must say that we found it entirely satisfying: bold, accurate colours; sharp, detailed image.

The EpiqVision quickly demonstrated that it’s not really one for interlaced video in Australia. With both 576i/50 and 1080i/50, it seemed simply to assume that all such signals were video-sourced. So it applied motion-adaptive deinterlacing, rather than checking to see if a simple weave might be better for any given bit of video. Most of the time you won’t notice this, but occasionally there’ll be some lines or grid in the picture which adversely interact with the processing and develop distracting moire patterns. The solution, as always: use a source with good quality deinterlacing.

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Network streaming

When you first set the Epson up, you’re offered a default bunch of apps, including (in Australia) TV station apps such as iView, SBS On Demand and so on. There’s YouTube, Google play Movies & TV, Disney+ and Stan, Vimeo, Spotify and Tidal and a whole lot more. Even after we’d finished the setting up, it took a little while to download and install them one by one. It was kind of fun watching them pop up in the list of apps as they were loaded. When it had finished, we went to fire up Netflix – one of the paid video services to which we subscribe. We couldn’t find it.

So we figured we’d try Google Assistant to help us find it. A press of the microphone button on the remote and the utterance of the word Netflix, and the projector announced in the familiar Google Assistant voice, ‘Here’s Netflix on the Google play Store’. And there was, indeed, the play Store entry for Netflix. Only problem was, at the bottom of the screen it said, ‘Your device isn’t compatible with this version.’ This was also the case for Amazon’s Prime Video.

We checked the projector’s website and, sure enough, there it was in the fine print: “Not all streaming apps are natively available on the EpiqVision EH-LS300B. An external streaming media device is required to stream some services, including Netflix. Netflix cannot be streamed using Chromecast from Android TV, iOS, Mac or Windows devices.” (We assume by that ‘Android TV’ that Epson actually means Android, as in an Android phone.)

In other words, not only does this projector not support Netflix, apparently you can’t stream Netflix from your phone to the projector via Chromecast. We tried. In fact, we could kind of stream Netflix from our phone, but only in the slowest, choppiest most broken-up way. To compare, we plugged an actual Chromecast with Google TV device into one of the EpiqVision’s HDMI inputs, and found that Netflix would stream fairly smoothly via that route.

YouTube, by contrast, streamed smoothly via either route, as did iView and SBS On Demand and Stan. We did find it quite puzzling why any version of Android TV would not support Netflix and Prime, the second and fourth most popular streaming services (that’s counting YouTube as being number one).

Apparently the projector is also able to support video calls using the Epson Online Meeting app – powered by Zoom. You’ll need to plug a camera and microphone into the USB socket for that.

(Image credit: Epson)

Verdict

Aside from the inability to play Netflix and Prime Video direct, we were impressed. The Epson EpiqVision EH-LS300B delivers a bright and impressive image to a large screen – and we would indeed recommend using a screen such as one of Epson’s, rather than a non-flat non-reflecting bit of wall, because we assure you, walls will never get the image truly flat. Plus the good quality sound and the extremely long-life light source makes this unit practical for everyday use, with some limitations, as well as for truly immersive bigscreen movie nights.

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CPU	Core i9-10980HK
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
Memory	32GB DDR 2933 MHz
Storage	512GB Boot, 2TB (2 x 1TB RAID 0) SSD
Display	17.3-inch, 1920 x 1080 360 Hz
Networking	Killer Wi-FI AX1650 (Wi-Fi 6), Killer Ethernet 2.5 Gbps NIC, Bluetooth 5.1
Ports	3x USB Type-A 3.2, 1x HDMI 2.2, 1x mini DisplayPort 1.4, 1x Thunderbolt 3, 1x microSD card reader
Camera	1280 x 720
Battery	86 WHr
Power Adapter	330W
Dimensions (WxDxH)	15.74 x 11.56 x 0.87 inches
Weight	6.6 pounds
Price (as configured)	$3,586

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