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The most powerful Wear OS watches are held back by Wear OS

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For the past month, I’ve been testing the two most powerful Wear OS watches you can buy: the TicWatch Pro 3 from Mobvoi and the Fossil Gen 5 LTE. They’re not spec-for-spec identical, but they do share a basic shape: big, chunky, round, and black. If you’re using Android and want a smartwatch, they’re at the top of a persistently tiny list of top-flight smartwatches.

Despite Wear OS’s reputation, both watches are perfectly competent and can do the basics of what many people want out of a smartwatch. Both also offer what I’d characterize as acceptable battery life: a full day most of the time, two at a stretch. The TicWatch can actually go much longer, thanks to a clever second screen layered on top of the first one.

But Wear OS does have that reputation: for years, watches that ran it have been slow, ran out of battery life quickly, and suffered from a tiny ecosystem of apps. Some of those problems have been solved, but that doesn’t mean that these watches (or, honestly, any smartwatch available to Android owners) lives up to the polish and features iPhone users can get with the Apple Watch.

The Apple Watch comparison isn’t really useful for Android users — it’s not and probably never will be an option. Instead, let’s just look at these two watches on their own terms.

The Mobvoi TicWatch 3 Pro

TicWatch Pro 3 review

At $299.99, the TicWatch Pro 3 is not an impulse buy. But the price is about right for what Mobvoi has created. It has pushed the limits of what Wear OS can do in two ways.

First, it has crammed the best technology it could get for a Wear OS device in here. One big differentiator for the TicWatch Pro 3 is that it is the only watch using Qualcomm’s latest smartwatch processor, the Snapdragon 4100. (More from Motorola and possibly OnePlus have been rumored to be coming this year.)

That processor makes the watch faster than other Wear OS devices — though it still can sometimes feel a step behind both Samsung’s Tizen-based watches and even Fitbits. It also accounts for some of the TicWatch’s battery life, which I’ve found can last two and even three days with all the bells and whistles turned on.

The second thing Mobvoi has done to push Wear OS is add a bunch of bells and whistles to make up for the platform’s missing features. The main thing it’s done is put an LCD panel on top of the regular OLED screen. This allows the TicWatch to go into a low power mode when it’s on standby and a super-low power mode when you need it to last for more than a few days on a charge.

Wear OS powers its fitness offerings with Google Fit, which has seen a few updates but is very far behind Apple’s fitness offerings. Mobvoi can’t fix that, but it has tried to fill in the gaps with its own suite of fitness apps on the watch. It even includes a blood oxygen sensor — though it’s no more accurate than the norm for smartwatches, which isn’t very good.

However, using them requires you to place a large amount of trust in Mobvoi the company — as the watch makes perfectly clear when you try to launch these apps, there’s no way to do that without sharing a bunch of information with Mobvoi. I applaud the transparency, but that still wasn’t enough to make me comfortable with it.

One thing to keep in mind with the TicWatch Pro 3: its aesthetics. It’s unapologetically a big, chunky watch. I don’t have huge wrists and it absolutely feels dominated by this thing. It is “honest” in its design, at least, in that it isn’t trying to look like a fancier watch than it is — right on down to the matte plastic lugs that hold the replaceable straps in place. I also wish it had a rotating crown for scrolling.

I ended up using the TicWatch Pro 3 like a bog standard Wear OS watch in the end, turning off its extra screen and sticking to Google Fit for fitness data. It absolutely did the job, but at $299 I think most people would be better off considering other options.

There is only one spec that the TicWatch lacks: LTE. For that, you’ll need to buy the Fossil.

The Fossil Gen 5 LTE

Fossil Gen 5 LTE review

I reviewed the original Fossil Gen 5 smartwatch in 2019, and I called it the “best of a Wear OS situation.” I think that (dubious) honor now goes to the TicWatch Pro 3, but if you need LTE, the $349 Fossil Gen 5 is one of two options you’ve got on Android (the other is Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 3 LTE).

Fortunately, the Fossil Gen 5 is essentially unchanged by the addition of LTE. If you’re willing to pay your carrier the extra monthly charges to turn it on, using the Gen 5 with LTE felt virtually the same as using it with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

Even battery life didn’t seem to be a problem. I did notice the watch was more likely to hit two full days with LTE turned off, but I usually didn’t manage to drain it in a single day even when using mostly LTE. Sadly, Fossil also feels as though it needs to make up for Wear OS’s shortcomings by keeping its entirely too complicated battery saver features. A watch should never require users to dig into granular radio toggles.

It does still use the older Snapdragon 3100 processor, though it didn’t feel particularly slow as a result. Aesthetically, it’s very slightly different from the regular Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle that I own and it’s not that much smaller than the TicWatch, but subtle differences make it look just a little more premium.

All in all, if you must have an LTE smartwatch and you use Android, this is your best option if you really prefer Wear OS to Tizen. If you’re agnostic, I think the Galaxy Watch 3 with LTE is probably a better choice.

Wear OS watches

As I’ve been harping on for three years now, every smartwatch for Android involves some kind of compromise.

Samsung watches need a lot more apps and require you to install a lot of extra stuff on your phone to get them working.

Fitbits are great for fitness but not so great at integrating into Android. There’s also the not-so-little matter about the company now being owned by Google’s hardware division. The future of the entire Fitbit ecosystem is sort of up in the air right now.

And honestly, the future of Wear OS is also up in the air. There’s little movement lately in app support and though Google has done a decent enough job keeping the OS from falling into utter decay, it hasn’t done much more than that. It’s overdue for an overhaul.

There are likely more Wear OS watches coming that might be worth waiting for, but the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 remains the best option for traditional smartwatch stuff. At the end of the day, it’s difficult to recommend anybody spend three or four hundred dollars to get on board the rudderless Wear OS boat.

Both the TicWatch Pro 3 and the Fossil Gen 5 LTE are good enough smartwatches for what they are. It’s just that what they are is the best of an old platform with a questionable future.

Photography by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

What we actually want from an upgraded Nintendo Switch

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.

Sonos Roam will include Auto Trueplay and new ‘Sound Swap’ feature

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.

Polar Verity Sense review: Adding heart rate to your workouts

(Pocket-lint) – Many have accepted that heart rate monitoring is part of their workout routine. With heart rate sensors now common on sports devices, we’ve come a long way from the dark days when such monitors were expensive devices exclusive to the sporting elite.

So with such wide availability of the hardware, is there a demand for something as simple as the Polar’s dedicated heart rate monitor, the Verity Sense?

Design and build

30 x 30 x 9.6mm, 5g
50m water resistance

The Polar Verity Sense is basically just the optical sensor, battery and connectivity hardware you might find in a sports watch, but in a neat button, measuring 30mm in diameter and just under 1cm thick.

The idea is that you can wear the sensor rather than having to wear a watch, or as an alternative to wearing a chest strap – which for many years was the mainstay of heart rate sensors. The Verity Sense is Polar’s second-gen device, improving on the OH1 in many ways.

Pocket-lint

The Verity Sense offers 50m water protection, designed for protection against swimming, so it’s more than happy to be sweated into too. That’s what it’s for – it’s a sports device you wear next to the skin, which means you’re going to be sweating into it a lot.

There’s a single button on one side to power on and off, and switch through the three different modes that it supports. On the opposite side is a coloured LED which will visually display the mode you’re in – blue when connected to another device, green when storing its own data, white when in swimming mode.

Wear and comfort

Strap and clip included
Goggle clip for swimmers

The Verity Sense is designed to be worn against the skin, clipping into a holder on an elasticated band which will keep it in place. This can be adjusted to fit, so will suit various sizes, designed to be worn on the fore or upper arm.

Best fitness trackers 2021: Top activity bands to buy today

By Britta O’Boyle
·
2 March 2021
· Updated

Our guide to the top fitness trackers available, helping you count steps, track calories, monitor your heart rate, sleep patterns and more.

Polar advises against wearing on it the wrist like a watch. Given the size of the strap, we think most people would struggle to wear it securely in that position anyway.

Pocket-lint

You basically wear it like a band and we found it easy just to slide it up the arm to a position where it was tight enough to stay in position, but not so tight that it’s uncomfortable. Having been cycling, running, and done plyometric exercises wearing the Verity Sense, we’ve found it stayed in place without a problem.

In that sense, it’s comfortable, more convenient and, for many people, more accessible than a chest strap. We only found ourselves adjusting it on a ride going over 2 hours and then you can move it down your arm a little, or tweak the strap a little to make it looser, if your arms have expanded slightly over the course of the activity you’re doing. The slider on the strap is easy to nudge a little to make it slightly looser on the move.

Being low profile also has a distinct advantage: you can fit the Verity Sense under long-sleeve tops easily. Even when wearing it under tight bike kit or compression gear, we didn’t find it a problem. Having fought with chunky sports watches under tight sleeves, it’s a welcome change – although wearing a chest strap under tight gear has never been a problem either.

Pocket-lint

It can, however, function just about anywhere that it can stay in contact with the skin – indeed a clip is supplied so you can wear it on your goggle strap when swimming, to get your pulse from your temple. We haven’t had the chance to test this in the pool, because the pools are closed at the time of writing, but we’ve worn it to check that it would get a reading through a layer of hair and it seems to work reliably.

Functions and connections

Three recording modes
Bluetooth and ANT+
Polar Flow app

Supporting Bluetooth and ANT+ means that the Verity Sense is compatible with a wide range of devices. Bluetooth is commonplace, allowing you to connect to your phone, laptop, or smart trainer like the Wahoo Kickr, and a whole lot more.

ANT+ is widely supported in sports devices, allowing connection to Peloton, Garmin Edge bike computers, and more.

Having both available means connections are a breeze, so you can setup whichever devices you want to benefit from Polar’s data. We found that connecting to the Hammerhead Karoo 2 was as straightforward as connecting any other sensor.

Pocket-lint

The Verity Sense will also support two simultaneous Bluetooth connections, so you can have it connected to different devices if you want to record and monitor heart rate on two different platforms at the same time.

There’s also the option to disable ANT+ if you never use it via the Polar Flow app – which is another aspect of this device. It’s managed via Polar’s app, so will need to connect to your phone for firmware updates or to download data you choose to save to the internal memory.

There are three modes of use. The first is as a heart rate sensor for another device. As described above, this will let Verity Sense supply live data via Bluetooth or ANT+ to be recorded or displayed elsewhere.

That might be using it with Apple Health or Strava to record a manual activity, with an indoor bike trainer or treadmill, or with bike computers to get a more complete set of data on your rides.

Pocket-lint

When used as a sensor, you don’t have to use Polar’s apps at all. The only time you’d need to use Polar’s apps are when using the other functions that it offers.

The second mode is to have the Verity Sense record the data itself. In this mode, as soon as you switch this mode on it will log the heart rate data to its internal storage, up until you turn it off.

It will hold up to 600 hours of data and you’ll have to sync to Polar Flow to extract the data, where you can then examine it. Bear in mind that it will be recording the whole time the device is on (with the green light showing), so that may well include all those breaks, any delay before you start, and so on.

This mode means you don’t need a phone or any other device nearby for that activity – and if you’re doing something where you don’t want to wear a watch, it’s especially useful. We’ve used it for workouts and it’s a useful feature, even if you can’t immediately figure out how you might apply it to your own exercise routine.

Pocket-lint

Finally there’s the swimming option. This gives additional support, using the internal sensors to detect turns in the pool. You’ll have to set the length of the pool in Polar Flow, but then you’ll get a readout of pace, distance and your heart rate for your swim.

Performance and battery life

20 hours battery life

What’s perhaps surprising about Polar’s optical heart rate sensor in the Verity Sense is that we’ve found it to behave itself better than some of Polar’s other devices, like the Vantage V, which was a little temperamental when we reviewed it.

That’s a good starting point for the Verity Sense, in that it acquires your heart rate quickly and sticks to it, avoiding some of the warm-up lag that sometimes plagues optical heart rate sensors. But it’s an accurate sensor too.

Pocket-lint

Comparing with a Garmin chest strap and a Garmin Fenix 6, we’re getting averages within a beat of those devices, hitting the same highs, seeing the same recovery drops when pausing at traffic lights or coasting downhill and so on.

What can send things out of sync slightly is the inability to control the activity time. As we said above, when using it to save data internally, it starts once the mode is set, and stops when you turn it off. (A little secret here – it doesn’t actually turn “off” it just stops measuring heart rate, because it will still sync with your phone once all the lights are off.)

The result is that, used as a standalone device, you will probably end up sandwiching your workout with non-exercise activity, which can pull the exercise average down. What’s perhaps more important to consider when used like this are the times spent in different zones – and Polar’s software will show you that sort of breakdown.

Pocket-lint

The good performance is backed up by solid battery life too. There’s a lot less demand on this type of device than there is on a watch – but 20 hours of recording is good going. That’s going to cover most people for most activities for a couple of weeks, if not longer.

Charging takes place via USB, by slipping the sensor into the supplied adaptor, so it’s nice and easy.

Verdict

For those who always monitor their activities with a phone – running with it, for example – the Polar Verity Sense is a way to easily add heart rate data to get a lot more information on what your body is doing. That might equally apply to anyone who doesn’t want to wear a watch, or can’t because you’re wearing gloves or something else around your wrists.

There’s immediate appeal for cyclists. With most bike computers supporting additional sensors, adding heart rate without a chest strap – and more affordably – makes the Polar Verity Sense a no brainer. That equally applies for indoor training too, something that’s seen a huge boom.

For many, the Polar Verity Sense is cheap enough to buy as an accessory for those times that you want to use it, even if you have another watch that will offer you heart rate monitoring, just because it is great to have the choice of a dedicated sensor in some situations.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Polar H10

squirrel_widget_3139769

Polar has a chest strap of its own, offering great performance and comfort. It supports ANT+ and multiple Bluetooth streams as well as standalone tracking mode.

Wahoo

Wahoo Tickr Fit

squirrel_widget_4253691

Wahoo’s collection also includes a band-type optical heart-rate tracker, offering Bluetooth and ANT+ to easily get heart rate data into other devices.

Writing by Chris Hall.

Banana Pi Serves Up New BPI-M2 Pro SBC With Amlogic S905X3

(Image credit: Banana Pi)

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.

Sonos Roam vs Sonos Move: Which could be the right portable speaker for you?

(Pocket-lint) – Sonos is expected to announce a new portable speaker on 9 March, which recently leaked as the Sonos Roam.

The speaker will be the second Bluetooth speaker in the company’s portfolio if the rumours are accurate, sitting alongside the Sonos Move, but how will the two compare?

If you’re considering a Sonos speaker and like it to be portable and offer Bluetooth, you’re in the right place. Here is how the Sonos Roam is expected to compare to the Sonos Move.

Price

Move: £399/$399
Roam: $169

First things first, the Sonos Roam and the Sonos Move might be about to share similarities in terms of Bluetooth and portability, but based on the leaks, they won’t be anywhere near each other in terms of price.

The Sonos Move costs £399 in the UK and $399 in the US. The Sonos Roam is said be coming to market in April for $169, which is about £120 when directly converted though could be £169 in reality, so they target quite different budgets.

Design

Move: 240 x 160 x 126mm, 3kg, IP56, integrated handle
Roam: 157.4 x 63.5 x 63.5mm, 0.45kg, waterproof

The Sonos Move and Sonos Roam are very different in terms of design too, based on the rumours. While they appear to share similar characteristics – like the rest of the Sonos portfolio – they are different sizes, different shapes, different weights and they will have different uses too.

The Sonos Move measures 240 x 160 x 126mm (9.44 x 6.29 x 4.96-inches) and weighs 3kg (6.61lb). It’s oval in shape, very rugged and features an integrated handle. It’s also IP56 rated for protection from dust particles and liquid splashes.

The Sonos Roam meanwhile is rumoured to be a triangular prism shape, measure 157.4 x 63.5 x 63.5mm (6.2 x 2.5 x 2.5-inches) and weigh 0.45kgs (1lb), making it significantly smaller and more portable than Move. Based on the leaked images, it doesn’t have any sort of integrated handle as you wouldn’t need it to carry around, but it is rumoured to be fully waterproof so we expect it to be just as tough as Move, if not more so.

The Sonos Move has capacitive touch controls on top, including play/pause, skip, rewind and a microphone button, along with a Wi-Fi to Bluetooth button on the rear and a pairing button. It also has connection points at the bottom to connect to the wireless charging base.

The Sonos Roam is also expected to have capacitive controls on top based on the leaked images, with what we suspect will be the same control options as Move. There also appears to be a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth toggle switch on the side and a USB Type-C port for charging. The Roam doesn’t appear to have any connection points but it does offer small circular feet for when positoned horizontally.

Sonos Move comes in Shadow Black and Lunar White colour options and the Sonos Roam is claimed to be coming in white and black too.

Features

Move: Bluetooth, Sonos features, Auto Trueplay tuning, smart assistants, AirPlay 2
Roam: Bluetooth, Sonos features, Auto Trueplay tuning, smart assistants, AirPlay 2

Though different in design and price, the Sonos Roam is likely to offer many of the same features as Move, and probably a couple of extras, as is typically the case with new devices.

The Sonos Move is a traditional Bluetooth speaker when in Bluetooth mode, but it is a traditional Sonos speaker when in Wi-Fi mode and connected to a Sonos system, which we fully expect the Roam to be too.

When used as a traditional Sonos speaker, Roam will likely offer all the same features other Sonos speakers do, including support for over 100 music services, multi-room audio, Sonos Radio and alarms, like Move.

We’d also expect it to offer Apple AirPlay 2 support and Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa built-in. Leaks haven’t confirmed if the assistants will be on board Roam, as they are on Move, but we’d be surprised if they weren’t. We’d also expect the Move’s Auto TruePlay tuning feature on the Roam, which automatically adjusts the sound output when the speaker is moved.

Other Sonos speakers have TruePlay tuning on board, but you have to perform the tuning manually and then again anytime you move the speaker’s position.

Audio and hardware

Move: Two class-D amplifiers, mid-woofer, tweeter, far-field mics, 11 hours battery, Wi-Fi 4, Bluetooth
Roam: 10 hours battery, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth

Audio specifications haven’t leaked for the Sonos Roam yet, but based on its size, it won’t deliver the same audio capabilities as the Sonos Move.

The Move has two class-D amplifiers, one mid-woofer integrated into the cabinet and one down-firing tweeter and it delivers excellent sound. It also has a far-field microphone array and a chime to let you know Sonos Move has heard you and is working on a response.

As mentioned, the Move has a wireless charging base but it offers an 11-hour battery life when not on its base. The Sonos Roam has a USB Type-C port for charging based on the leaks, but it is also said to have an optional wireless charging base that can be bought separately.

The Roam’s battery life is said to be 10 hours. We’d expect the Roam to also have a chime and far-field microphone array. Sonos Move supports Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth. Sonos Roam is claimed to support Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth so it should offer better Wi-Fi capabilites if true.

Conclusion

The Sonos Roam looks like it will be a smaller, lighter, more portable Sonos Bluetooth speaker than the Sonos Move. We expect it will offer everything Move does in terms of features, along with some extra ones, and we expect it to be as smart too, but in a more compact format.

We wouldn’t expect the same audio capabilities from Roam as Move delivers given it looks like it will be half the price and size, but as it’s a Sonos speaker, we still expect Roam to deliver on the sound front.

For now, it looks like Sonos Roam will be an excellent addition to any Sonos system, as well as a great starting place for those new to Sonos. It also looks like it will be a lot more portable than Move so perfect for travelling and chucking in a bag.

Meanwhile Move delivers big on sound, but it is big on price too, making it more of an investment. It’s great for those who want an additional Sonos speaker to fill a decent-sized room with sound, but one they can also bring into the garden or the pool. It seemingly isn’t however, the better option out of these two for popping in a bag and bringing to the park as it’s just a little too big.

You can read all about the rumours surrounding the Sonos Roam in our separate feature, but we will update this as soon as the official details are in.

Writing by Britta O’Boyle.

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon Sound for high-quality, low-latency wireless audio

There are many ways for streaming audio to go wrong, especially if there is a wireless headset at the end of the chain. Qualcomm is aiming to address all of these issues with the new Snapdragon Sound platform.

On the phone end, the company has lined up the Snapdragon 800-series chips with the FastConnect 6900 connectivity system. For headsets and earbuds there are the QCC514x, QCC515x and QCC3056 series Bluetooth Audio SoCs.

Between them they support aptX Adaptive, which is capable of delivering high-quality 24-bit 96 kHz audio with very low latency – as low as 89 ms (45% lower than “a leading competitor”, says Qualcomm). For voice calls and teleconferencing there’s the aptX Voice codec. There is an Active Noise Cancellation system available as well.

The system has been designed to be resistant to interference from other Bluetooth or Wi-Fi signals, so that it can provide glitch-free audio even in busy environments. Qualcomm also designed things to make pairing easy after you take your new headset out of its box.

Standard Bluetooth audio vs. Snapdragon Sound vs. Wired headset • Super wideband voice

Xiaomi is the first smartphone maker to jump on the Snapdragon Sound train, headphone maker Audio-Technica is on board as well. A partnership with Amazon ensures that there will be no shortage of high quality content to listen to with the “genre-spanning” Snapdragon Sound playlist on Amazon Music HD.

If you don’t have an account for Amazon Music, you can check out this comparison on SoundCloud instead:

“Xiaomi is excited to be the first mobile manufacturer to bring Snapdragon Sound to devices. Snapdragon Sound will bring new high quality, seamless, low-latency audio experiences to our customers everywhere and provide better sound while engaging in voice calls, video conferencing, gaming and/or music listening.” said Lei Zhang, vice president of Mi Smartphone and general manager of Hardware R&D, Xiaomi.

“We believe that with Snapdragon Sound we get closer to our mutual vision of providing wired quality sound, wirelessly and are excited to be one of the first manufacturers to get our products to consumers,” said, Kotaro Narihara, director, general manager of marketing headquarters, Audio-Technica.

Source

Yamaha SR-B20A

Our Verdict

The Yamaha SR-B20A isn’t perfect, but it does offer an impressive spread of sound for minimal outlay

For

Clean and detailed
Good spread of effects
Decent bass

Against

Could be more expressive
Timing not expert

Yamaha describes both of its latest ‘entry-level’ soundbars, of which the SR-B20A is the larger, as upgrades for your TV sound. That’s something very much required these days when flat TV screens generally mean weedy built-in TV sound.

Unlike many rivals at this price, there is mercifully little pretence from Yamaha that the bars will deliver ‘surround’ sound, other than options labelled ‘3D Surround’ and some rather optimistic claims for the inclusion of DTS Virtual:X. These marketing extravagances aside, what’s promised is simply solid sound with which to enjoy your shiny new flatscreen.

What we particularly like about the SR-B20A on review here is that it aims to perform without the usual wireless subwoofer. This not only keeps the price down, it makes the whole package far more convenient to use.

The question is whether a long flat bar of a speaker like this can create solid enough sound without that subwoofer in support. And thankfully the answer here is a fairly resounding yes.

Build

(Image credit: Yamaha)

Despite the entry-level price, the Yamaha SR-B20A feels solidly built, and looks stylish too, with black fabric wrap and curving ends. It stretches to 91cm wide, which makes it a good match for 55-inch TVs but won’t prevent its use with either smaller or larger TVs.

Yamaha SR-B20A tech specs

(Image credit: Yamaha)

Power 120W

Outputs HDMI out (TV ARC)

Inputs 2x digital optical

4K passthrough No

Surround tech DTS Virtual:X

Dimensions (hwd) 5 x 91 x 13cm

Weight 3.2kg

Among the literature in the box is a mounting template that shows the soundbar can be stuck flat to the wall with the supplied foam spacers and a couple of sturdily fixed screws.

If you hang it on the wall, the controls, the indicator lights and most of the drivers usefully face the listener. You can always bench it in front of your TV instead, in which case the controls and lights are less usefully hidden.

The SR-B20A is a stereo soundbar, with six drivers in all. Four of these fire upwards if the unit is benched (forward if on the wall) – according to the specs these are 55mm mid-range units near each end and 75mm bass drivers halfway from each end to the centre, augmented with side-firing ports in the curves of the bar.

The quoted power ratings also suggest that the woofers are running in a dual-mono configuration rather than stereo, which Yamaha confirms. Finally, there are two 25mm tweeters on the front edge (benched) or firing down (wall-mounted); no amount of torchlight could reveal their location through the grille fabric.

Features

(Image credit: Yamaha)

The bar can get sound from your TV in two (or potentially three) ways. The best option is an HDMI cable from the bar to an ARC-equipped HDMI socket on your TV, assuming it has one. If it doesn’t, or if you don’t wish to give up one of the HDMI sockets on your TV, the next best option is an optical digital connection, for which a cable comes in the box; there is no HDMI cable included.

There is no analogue mini-jack fall-back input here, though one does feature on the smaller SR-C20A (£229, $180, AU$299), and there’s no networking of any kind. There is Bluetooth with support for both SBC and AAC codecs, primarily intended for music streaming from a smart device, although TVs that can output audio via Bluetooth could also send their audio to the bar in this way (at the peril of potential transmission delay, depending on the system).

There are a couple of other connections, besides the mains cable – a second optical input for any suitable device, and a coaxial digital output.

Given that adding a separate subwoofer of quality will more than double the price, you’d do better to buy one in a package if you’re after that bottom octave of movie-style bass: Yamaha has a number of such combos, but the SR-B20A does a good job without additional support.

Sound

(Image credit: Yamaha)

Despite its slim dimensions, the SR-B20A carries that welcoming full Yamaha tone. It’s close to its smaller sibling in terms of character, only the scale here is predictably greater.

The balance is good, too; it is easy for manufacturers to roll off a lot of top-end at this entry-level price point, to avoid anything too harsh, but the SR-B20A is happy to go high into the high frequencies with confidence.

Those built-in bass units get through a fair bit of work as well. You can dial in as much or as little as you like – you might want to tweak a bit if your TV rack is less than robust, to avoid any flabbiness – but with good solid support this is a weighty performance not short of presence. It doesn’t quite rumble like a dedicated subwoofer, but that rarely equates to great sound in an all-in-one soundbar anyway.

More impressive, though, is how the SR-B20A is able to spread effects. This is a long soundbar, and it makes good use of size. While you aren’t going to get anything like 3D sound in reality, this Yamaha is skilled enough to place sounds either side of the listening position in a manner you certainly wouldn’t regularly associate with this kind of price tag.

However, you lose a bit of focus with the soundbar firing upwards at the TV screen, which leads us to consider whether the SR-B20A is actually more suited to wall mounting.

That slight lack of precision is present in the SR-B20A’s dynamic and rhythmic performance, too. Large-scale dynamic shifts are presented well, but we end up wishing there was a little more in the way of expression on offer. Music playback also reveals this Yamaha isn’t quite the last word on timing, but again we’re far off calling it a poor performance.

Verdict

It’s difficult to know what to expect when approaching an entry-level product such as the Yamaha SR-B20A, but it’s safe to say on this occasion any expectations have been met.

This is a big-sounding soundbar that makes full use of its size. It might be best suited to wall mounting, but it’s pretty difficult to make it sound bad.

SCORES

Sound 4
Features 5
Build 5

MORE:

Read our guide to the best soundbars

Read our Sonos Beam review

Read our JBL Bar 5.0 MultiBeam review

Razer’s new Anzu smart glasses break from the pack with truly wireless audio

Razer is tonight formally announcing its Anzu “smart” glasses, which follow Bose, Amazon, and other companies by integrating audio speakers directly into the glasses temples. The $199.99 Anzu glasses will be available in both rectangular and round frames, and each will come in two sizes: small and large. You can place an order beginning today.

Two sets of lenses come in the retail package: a regular, clear pair that offers 35 percent blocking against blue light, and Razer also throws in sunglass lenses with 99 percent UV protection.

Image: Razer

But Razer has deviated from competitors with its approach to audio glasses: the company has used a true wireless design that completely splits the left and right speakers. Razer says this allows for improved comfort since the frames allow for more give and flexibility. On the other hand, it could lead to some strange charging situations: you have to charge both temples at the same time — there are pogo pins on each one — and could theoretically encounter the occasional true wireless frustrations like audio dropouts on one side.

If you need prescription lenses, Razer has partnered with Lensabl for a 15 percent discount that’s available to Anzu buyers. That’ll obviously end up well above the standard cost, but what are us glasses wearers to do?

Image: Razer

Razer has outfitted each side with a 16mm driver, and there are also touch-responsive tap gestures controls on either temple that will let you change tracks, answer calls, or activate a voice assistant. The Anzu glasses are rated IPX4 for water resistance, so you’ll want to avoid serious rain — but they should handle light splashes okay. Razer says it has cut Bluetooth latency down to 60ms.

The Anzu glasses automatically power down when folded shut — achieving up to two weeks of standby time — and then pair to the last device once opened back up. Battery life is rated at “up to five hours.” That’s about on par with Bose, which estimates 5.5 hours for its Tenor audio sunglasses. As for sound bleed, which is always a side effect with these audio glasses, Razer told me that people within arm’s distance will probably pick up on your music.

The included leatherette case has a magnetic latch and flap for storing the charging cable or extra lenses. The Anzu glasses are exclusively available from Razer.com and physical RazerStore locations. In North America, you can get them from Best Buy US and Best Buy Canada.

Sonos Roam portable Bluetooth speaker heavily leaked ahead of March launch

(Image credit: The Verge)

Sonos’ next product, which is due to be officially unveiled next Tuesday (9th March), looks almost certain to be a portable Bluetooth speaker called Roam.

As reported by The Verge and according to a source it states has “direct knowledge of the Roam”, the Sonos Roam (pictured) measures 6.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 inches, making it much smaller than Sonos’ existing Move Bluetooth speaker and more comparable to the size of the popular UE Boom and JBL Charge.

Sonos hasn’t confirmed the existence of the Roam to the publication, but the leak carries a fair bit of weight – not least as rumours of such a device have been circling for months now and, let’s be honest, it does look very Sonos.

The report doesn’t delve into all of the features but does state that the Roam will come with a USB charging cable, with a wireless charging dock provided as an optional extra costing $49. The Sonos Roam itself will supposedly cost $169 when it goes on sale on 20th April.

That suggests that the US company’s other heavily rumoured product, Sonos wireless headphones, could well be the second of the two products it plans to release this year.

More to follow…

Bluetooth 24-bit/96kHz support is coming via Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound

(Image credit: Qualcomm)

Qualcomm has introduced a new system-on-chip platform that supports 24-bit/96kHz audio over Bluetooth.

Currently, Qualcomm’s aptX HD and flagship aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codecs can transmit music up to 24-bit/48kHz, but the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound takes that to 96kHz – the sampling rate studio music is often recorded and, as digital hi-res files, distributed at. (That said, as Snapdragon Sound utilises aptX Adaptive codec technology, transmission is still slightly compressed – the bitrate scales dynamically from 279kbps up to 860kbps.)

Depending on manufacturer take-up, this means we could see 24-bit/96kHz Bluetooth passthrough between a variety of headphones and smartphones very soon.

This higher data transmission support is only one element of Snapdragon Sound, which is a package of audio-related technologies that promise to deliver high-quality wireless sound end-to-end across the chain, from source (a phone) to receiver (headphones).

Qualcomm’s goal here is to offer manufacturers of headphones, phones, tablets and other consumer electronics components a hardware and software solution that provides their products with best-in-class audio quality, latency and connectivity robustness.

(Image credit: Qualcomm)

In addition to expanding aptX Adaptive to support 96kHz with 89-millisecond latency (“45% lower than a leading competitor”, says Qualcomm), Snapdragon Sound also incorporates the company’s Active Noise Cancelling and aptX Voice wide-band technologies to offer its optimal noise cancellation and voice calling experience.

Away from wireless device use cases and geared towards wired listening with a phone, is Snapdragon Sound’s incorporation of the Qualcomm Aqstic DAC, which supports native playback of PCM files up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM, as well as DSD.

Qualcomm says we should see the first products with Snapdragon Sound in the second half of this year, with phones and headphones to initially appear before PCs, watches and XR glasses. Presumably, they will be higher-end devices in their fields and, as confirmed by their launch partnership, Xiaomi phone(s) and Audio-Technica headphones will be in that first batch.

“We believe that with Snapdragon Sound we get closer to our mutual vision of providing wired quality sound wirelessly, and are excited to be one of the first manufacturers to get our products to consumers,” said Kotaro Narihara, Audio-Technica’s director and general manager of marketing headquarters.

Snapdragon Sound – available to OEMs from today – will be offered within Qualcomm’s latest QCC514x, QCC515x and QCC3056 series of Bluetooth audio SoCs, which have been geared to enhance the true wireless headphones experience.

With 24-bit/96khz music increasingly prevalent thanks to the hi-res support from streaming services such as Tidal, Qobuz and Amazon Music HD, Qualcomm hopes to encourage and improve the hi-res audio listening experience. It has also partnered with Amazon to launch a collaborative (and celebratory) ‘Snapdragon Sound’ playlist of hi-res streams on the Amazon Music HD service, available today.

MORE:

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