The Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE (Fan Edition) could be officially launching soon according to a new German product page spotted by WinFuture. The tablet appears to be a renamed version of the previously leaked “Galaxy Tab S7 Plus Lite” that first made the rounds in March 2021. The Galaxy Tab S7 FE is the first Fan Edition of one of Samsung’s tablets, a tweaked version of the earlier iPad Pro-inspired 12.4-inch Tab S7 Plus.
While the Tab S7 FE shares the same 12.4-inch screen size as the older Tab S7 Plus, it appears to be using a TFT LCD display, like the 11-inch Tab S7, rather than the OLED found in the Tab S7 Plus. Another cost-saving measure is found in the processor: the Tab S7 FE has a Snapdragon 750G octa-core processor and 4GB of RAM. For storage, the tablet comes with 64GB of UFS memory, which is partially used by the device’s One UI skinned version of Android 11, and expandable with a microSD card. The Tab S7 FE hangs on to the optional 5G support of its more expensive siblings.
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7 Fan Edition with optional S Pen stylus.Image: Samsung
If you happen to be a tablet photographer, the Tab S7 FE includes an 8-megapixel back camera and a 5-megapixel front camera. In a plus for anyone who’s complained about camera orientation on the iPad Pro, the Tab S7 FE’s front-facing camera is in landscape orientation, perfect for long Zoom calls. To get the device through those long calls, the FE has a 10,090mAh battery, which Samsung claims should last up to 12 hours on LTE (oddly, no estimate is given for 5G), and 13 hours specifically for video playback.
The silver Galaxy Tab S7 FE with S Pen stylus.
Image: Samsung
The black Galaxy Tab S7 FE.
Image: Samsung
The FE can come with an optional S Pen for note-taking tricks like converting handwriting to text. The tablet also has Samsung DeX, which can add Windows-esque interface elements like a taskbar, window-ing, and a “Start menu” automatically when you attach a keyboard. Whether any of those tablet features can elevate the FE into a true productivity device for you is harder to say. We found the Tab S7 and S7 Plus to still work best for simpler tablet tasks like video watching and web browsing rather a whole day of work. Nothing about the Fan Edition suggests that will be different.
The Galaxy Tab S7 Fan Edition currently isn’t for sale in Germany (you can sign up to be notified when it’s available) and is priced at €649 (approximately $792) for either the silver or black version. That’s less than the typical price of a base Galaxy Tab S7 in Germany (€698) and for the larger screen size of a €979 S7 Plus. Should the Tab S7 FE come to the US, it will likely cost less than the rough conversion of the German price to US dollars. We’ve reached out to Samsung and will update if we hear back.
WinFuture says Samsung has other colors and models with different specs in the works as well. We’ll keep an eye out for an official announcement in the future.
Sony has announced the arrival of its top LCD TV for 2021. The hotly anticipated Sony X95J will be available to buy in June and is even open for pre-order already in some regions in 75in and 85in panel sizes. The 65in model will be released later in the year.
The X95J features Sony’s all-new Cognitive Processor XR – a picture processor that aims to add a more human perspective and enhancement to each sound and frame – as well as a full-array 4K HDR panel with X-Wide Angle and X-Anti-Reflection technologies.
These IMAX Enhanced-certified TVs have much of the premium look and feel of the Master Series sets from the 2021 range. They have aluminium, backlit, voice remote controls as well as the super-skinny Seamless Edge Bezel design. There’s a three-way stand on the two bigger panel sizes with a central position not required for the smaller 65in variant.
The X95J gets the slight step-down version of the Sony Contrast Booster technology, XR Contrast Booster 10. It’s designed to boost peak brightness while maintaining well exposed whites and blacks in the image. X95J owners also get 12 months’ access to Sony’s Bravia CORE high bitrate streaming service with credits for five film purchases.
Like all the sets in the Sony 2021 TV range, the X95J gets Sony’s Ambient Optimization technology, Dolby Vision HDR, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth with A2DP. There are HDMI 2.1 features, such as 4K 120fps, VRR (when available) and ALLM, and it’s also one of the first Sony sets to make the switch from Android TV to the Google TV platform.
(Image credit: Sony)
There’s no pricing on the X95J at present, but the fact that the step-down 65in X90J retails at £1799 should be a decent steer.
If these premium, big screen LCD TVs are a little out of budget, then take a look at the Sony X85J range, which Sony has also confirmed for a June release today.
The X85J is an edge-lit LED TV without local dimming abilities. It comes in 43in, 50in, 55in, 65in, 75in and 85in sizes but doesn’t get the Cognitive Processor XR. Instead it makes do with the very able Processor X1 from the 2020 range – so that means no XR Contrast Booster or 3D Sound Upscaling either.
Sony’s X-Balanced speaker system takes care of sound, but there’s still Google TV and much of the other technology support mentioned above, as well as Sony’s high-performance motion processing. Again, no pricing is available at present.
(Pocket-lint) – Despite being TCL’s current flagship 4K TV, the C81 costs under a grand in its 65-inch format. A price which becomes all the more eye-catching when a scan of its features uncovers such high-end attractions as QLED Quantum Dot colour technology, support for both of the premium Dolby Vision and HDR10+ high dynamic range formats, and even a built-in soundbar designed by Japanese audio brand Onkyo.
The TCL C81 therefore has all the ingredients it should need to be just the sort of hit with consumers that might put it on the TV map. But what are the compromises to keep that cost down?
Design
3x HDMI 2.0, 2x USB ports
LAN & Wi-Fi Multimedia
The C81 looks unusually premium for an affordable 65-inch TV. Its metal frame delivers robust build quality for starters, and it’s remarkably slender across much of its rear panel. Almost OLED-thin, in fact. Even the inevitable ‘chunky bit’ housing the processors, image drivers, connections and a bass speaker is pretty elegantly integrated.
The most striking thing about the C81’s design, though, hangs unusually boldly from the screen’s bottom edge: a built-in soundbar. As well as benefiting aesthetically from a mild blue tint and adding too rather than detracting from the TV’s aesthetic appeal, this forward-facing speaker enclosure looks big enough to potentially do some serious audio damage.
Pocket-lint
Unusually the TCL C81 sits on three feet rather than two. Two of these sit under the left and right corners facing forwards, while the third faces backwards from the middle of the bottom edge, counterbalancing the other two.
While the C81’s key connectivity of three HDMIs and two USBs falls short of the most high-end TVs, it’s good enough for its money. Gamers should note, though, that none of the HDMI ports can handle the 4K at 120Hz or variable refresh rate (VRR) features now being served up by the PS5, Xbox Series X/S and latest generation of Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. However, a provided game preset does get input lag down to a very respectable sub-17ms.
What is ALLM and VRR? TV gaming tech explained
Picture Features
HDR Support: HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision, HDR10+
Processing engine: Clear Motion and IPQ 2.0 Engine
Affordable 65-inch TVs tend to struggle with high dynamic range (HDR) sources, thanks to a lack of brightness colour range. The C81, however, is having none of that.
For starters, it can produce a peak brightness of 540 nits – that’s substantially higher than the figures possible with most LCD TVs in its price range. It also boasts Quantum Dot colour technology, which can produce wider and more accurate colour gamuts, but is still typically associated with more expensive TVs than this TCL.
Pocket-lint
It further bolsters its HDR credentials by supporting both of the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats. These improve on the industry standard HDR10 system by providing extra scene-by-scene picture information, usually resulting in more dynamic-looking pictures. Most TVs only support one or other of these (or sometimes neither). Given that there’s plenty of content out there that’s only available in one or other of these formats, the C81’s format-neutral stance is very welcome.
The TCL C81 uses a VA rather than IPS LCD panel type. This bodes well, since experience shows that VA panels typically produce significantly better contrast than IPS ones, even though it means less wide viewing angles are plausible.
Less promising, however, is the C81’s use of edge-based lighting. Direct lighting – i.e. where LEDs are placed directly behind the screen – typically provides better contrast, especially on screens as large as 65 inches.
However, a Micro Dimming feature raises hopes of some localised light control that might help enhance contrast. In fact, though, this feature merely refers to a system that breaks the image down into small sections for more accurate analysis.
Smart Features
Smart System: Android TV 9.0
TCL has turned to Google’s Android TV platform for the C81’s smart features. It’s version 9.0, meaning it benefits from improved stability and responsiveness, as well as enjoying the Android platform’s huge app support (backed up by Freeview Play to provide all the UK’s main terrestrial broadcaster catch up services).
As usual, using Android TV brings with it built-in Google Chromecast support, as well as the Google Assistant voice recognition system. There’s even a mic built into the TV’s main bodywork.
Pocket-lint
The full-screen Android TV interface, though, continues to feel a bit old-school and cluttered – especially given how few customisation options it offers. Android still doesn’t feel as clever as some rival platforms, especially when it comes to providing intelligent viewing recommendations based on viewing habit analysis.
At the time of writing there’s no support on the C81 for Apple TV app or Apple AirPlay.
The 65C815K handily ships with two remote controls: a long, thin but still comfortable to hold ‘regular’ one; and a smaller, stripped back ‘smart’ one. Either works perfectly well, though most people will likely gravitate towards the smart remote after initial setup.
Picture Quality
The TCL C81 certainly stands out from the crowd. Out of the box its HDR pictures blaze off the screen with a level of brightness and, especially, colour intensity that just isn’t supposed to happen in this price bracket.
In fact, the richness of its colours leaves many way more expensive TVs looking flat and muted by comparison. Here for once, it seems, is an affordable TV that really can unlock the joys of the wide colour gamuts and volumes associated with HDR sources.
TCL
It doesn’t take long, though, before something starts to feel a bit off about the C81’s full-on colours: it starts to look overly aggressive rather than delivering a genuinely helpful, measured application of all the colour horsepower QLED technology has clearly put at the C81’s disposal.
The boldest tones regularly look over-saturated, for instance, standing out unnaturally from the rest of the image. The QLED colours push brightness and saturation so hard that subtle shading gets lost in all the histrionics. Some shades – including skin tones – look pretty unnatural as well.
Fortunately, you can tame the C81’s most gaudy out-of-the-box HDR instincts. The best fix is to try and feed the set as much Dolby Vision or HDR10+ content as possible. The extra picture information supplied by these two HDR formats has a dramatic effect, reining in the TV’s excesses and balancing the tonal range to create a far more immersive, even-looking image. Colours don’t hit the same blistering extremes that they do with HDR10, but they’re still unusually vibrant for such an affordable LCD TV. With bright Dolby Vision and HDR10+ scenes, at least, the C81 can look really very good.
This suggests that the C81’s HDR10 problems are down to issues with its tone mapping engine – the processing it uses to map HDR to its screen capabilities. There are, though, settings that can at least calm the crazy default HDR10 images down.
Pocket-lint
Using the Movie or Low Power presets rather than the default one is a good start. But even with the relatively restrained settings of these presets it’s a good idea to also turn off the Dynamic Contrast and Black Stretch options, since whenever anything’s left in play that might enhance the dynamic range things tend to go off the rails again.
Brightness, too, plays a big part in how well the C81 holds up with HDR10 content. Only with the brightness level reduced by around a quarter from the default 540 nit level do the picture’s excesses really melt away. Which is a pity, of course, since with that much light removed from the picture, colours look less punchy, and the images start to look more typical of the ‘normal’ affordable TV market.
There’s another issue with C81’s pictures that proves a more stubborn one to address: backlight clouding.
It’s always difficult for edge-lit TVs to control their light evenly across large screens – and the 65C815K proves this point. A number of pronounced areas of light inconsistency are routinely visible during dark scenes – a situation not helped by how they’re not restricted to the image’s edges.
The extent to which the backlight clouding distracts depends to some extent on ambient light levels. In bright rooms it’s much less likely to be a major distraction than it is in dark rooms. But even the most casual users will likely want to dim the lights for a movie night from time to time, and when they do, as noted previously, there isn’t any setting in the TV’s menus that really fixes the clouding issue really satisfactorily.
Pocket-lint
Despite these highlighted issues, with the right content and preset selection, the TCL C81 can deliver good images. As noted, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ images look vibrant and dynamic, plus baseline black levels can actually look pretty respectable for an edge-lit TV too – though ironically this fact arguably exaggerates the impact of the clouding problems.
While motion can cause a little softness to creep into the image, the TV’s native sharpness with relatively static 4K images is also very good. And finally, even though the C81’s processing engine is rather hit and miss, it scores a solid hit when it comes to upscaling HD sources to the screen’s native 4K resolution.
Sound Quality
Working with Onkyo on the C81’s audio has paid off handsomely. The distinctive integrated soundbar proves to be powerful and expressive, casting sound a surprising distance left, right and forward of the screen.
Pocket-lint
The directness and scale of the sound is backed up by good dynamic range, too, so that punchy, tight bass is able to sit in effective opposition to crisp, clean treble details. High frequency sounds appear largely free of harshness, too, even at high volumes.
There is a limit to the available bass though, so don’t expect the rear-mounted subwoofer to deliver the same sort of rumble depths you’d expect from a good external soundbar. Heavy basslines can cause a little unwanted humming on occasion too, and voices sometimes sound slightly detached from the onscreen action. Overall, though, the C81’s sound is way above the affordable TV norm.
Verdict
At first glance the TCL C81 looks like it might rewrite the affordable LCD TV rulebook. Its QLED colours are explosively rich and dynamic for its price point, and it’s bright enough to give HDR real impact. It pushes the boat out sonically, too, with its impressive Onkyo-designed speaker system.
Unfortunately, closer examination uncovers some clouding issues from the edge-illumination, while many presets are overly punchy when it comes to colour and finesse. It’s a common issue at this price, really, and that’s the compromise.
Still, there are times when – with the right content and/or presets selected – that pictures can look pretty good. Find Dolby Vison or HDR10+ content and this is where the TCL finds its groove. But otherwise the C81 is a bit too out of control and high maintenance to deserve a whole-hearted recommendation.
Also consider
LG 65NANO906
A new power management system that counteracts most of the contrast issues associated with the 65NANO906’s IPS panel type, together with LG’s excellent Nanocell colour technology, results in LG’s most effective LCD TV to date. Though as with the 65C815K, it’s better suited to bright than dark rooms. score
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
The Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G is a rugged phone that doesn’t require you to give up too many modern conveniences to gain the benefits of extreme durability. It’s common for rugged phones to feature older processors and lack modern features — these phones often have specialized uses, like barcode scanning or taking payments, and more or less just need to keep working in harsh environments.
The DuraForce Ultra 5G includes both the durability of a rugged phone and modern features like 5G, wireless charging, a high-quality processor, and dual rear cameras. At $899, it’s an expensive phone — you can buy a very nice non-rugged phone for that much — but if durability is a must and you don’t want to sacrifice performance or convenient features, the DuraForce 5G is (quite literally) a solid choice.
Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G rugged features
Pick up the DuraForce Ultra 5G and you’ll know right away that you have a rugged device in your hands. The top and bottom of the phone are wrapped in thick plastic bumpers, the sides feature a texturized finish, and at 278g (9.8oz) it’s much heavier than your standard smartphone. The screen itself isn’t very big — just a 5.45-inch 1080p LCD panel — but the sizable bezels and thick chin make it a chunky device overall.
Despite its dimensions it’s actually easy to use one-handed, since the screen itself is relatively small. The phone will fit in a jacket pocket, but it’s too bulky for any of my jeans pockets. Haptics are aggressive, even at the “medium” default setting, which is a good thing in a phone you might be using with gloves. Otherwise, you can turn touch vibrations down to low or off.
The phone is both IP65 and IP68 rated, meaning there’s generous protection against water intrusion both from jets and immersion (up to 6.5 feet for up to 30 minutes). The DuraForce Ultra 5G meets the Military Standard 810H specifications and includes protection against vibration, blowing dust and sand, extreme temperatures, drops from five feet onto concrete, high altitudes, and plenty of other hostile conditions.
I couldn’t test it against all of those conditions, but I did subject the phone to plenty of abuse including an hourlong stay in the freezer, water immersion for 30 minutes in the kitchen sink, exposure to sand, and a drop from about five feet onto driveway asphalt. Aside from some minor scuffs acquired in the driveway test, the DuraForce Ultra 5G merely shrugged at my efforts and kept on working just fine. Kyocera does include a two-year warranty with purchase, so as long as you use the phone within the conditions it’s rated to withstand, you shouldn’t be putting your purchase at risk.
In addition to rugged features, the DuraForce Ultra 5G is just loaded with buttons. There’s a power button with embedded fingerprint sensor, three programmable keys, and a large volume rocker that’s easy to press with gloves on. I frequently pressed one of the programmable buttons accidentally when I grabbed the phone — they’re in easy reach when you’re using the phone, but that unfortunately means a lot of unintentional presses, too. These buttons do require a long press to bring up whatever shortcut function you’ve assigned to them, so a brief press won’t do anything. You can also assign any of them to “do nothing” when pressed if you’d rather not use them.
Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G screen, performance, and battery
Aside from the obvious difference in appearance and ergonomics, the DuraForce Ultra 5G handles pretty much the way any other Android device does. The screen looks a little low on contrast in comparison to your standard display — likely because the panel is optimized for viewability in bright sunlight. That’s probably more important to the phone’s target user than a rich multimedia viewing experience, and the panel is indeed usable even in very bright direct light.
The screen’s protective “Sapphire Shield” remained free of scratches during my testing, but it does pick up reflections easily outside, more so than other phones with Gorilla Glass. It wasn’t enough to bother me, but someone planning to use the phone outside in bright light often might find it distracting.
The DuraForce Ultra 5G ships with Android 10; Kyocera says it will provide an update to 11, but that the timeframe is still being determined. Android 10 is fine for now, but given that Google is readying Android 12 for the public, it’s definitely a step behind. Kyocera says it will provide a minimum of two years of security updates, which is a common if not terribly generous policy.
The DuraForce Ultra 5G uses a Snapdragon 765G processor with 6GB RAM, which puts overall performance on par with a midrange phone. There’s some slight stuttering when scrolling quickly through screens with lots of images and video, and a noticeable pause after taking a photo in the camera app, but other than that it keeps up well — especially considering the lower performance bar in the rugged class.
There’s a 4,500mAh battery built into the DuraForce Ultra 5G. It’s a comparatively large battery for the class, and it got me through a full day of moderate to heavy use. The phone supports Qi wireless charging, which is uncommon among rugged phones. The phone was a little finicky on my stand-style Belkin wireless charger, but it eventually worked when set on the charger in landscape orientation.
And of course, there’s one of the DuraForce Ultra 5G’s namesake features: 5G. This model works with both widely available sub-6GHz frequencies and hard-to-find but much faster mmWave spectrum (also called Ultra Wideband by Verizon, hence the UW in the phone’s name). It’s only sold through Verizon in the US, which makes sense: the company has been pushing mmWave much harder than the other major carriers and does offer more coverage, though it’s still relatively scarce. Verizon’s 5G network is kind of lackluster overall at this point, though it will improve over the next couple of years. It’s a good feature to have on a phone you’re going to hang onto for a while, but definitely don’t buy this (or any phone, really) just for mmWave since you’ll probably have a hard time finding a signal anyway.
Kyocera DuraForce Ultra 5G camera
The DuraForce Ultra’s rear camera array consists of a 24-megapixel f/1.8 standard wide and a 16-megapixel f/2.2 ultrawide, plus a time-of-flight sensor. Around front, there’s an 8-megapixel f/2.0 selfie camera. That’s a cut above what’s offered on many rugged phones. Picture-taking likely isn’t a high priority for prospective DuraForce Ultra owners, and image quality is certainly not up to what you’d find on conventional $900 phones, but it does the job.
Taken with ultrawide camera.
Taken with ultrawide camera.
Photos in good light look fine, if a bit on the low-contrast, washed-out side. Exposure and color can shift noticeably between two images taken with the same camera at slightly different angles, and I noticed some odd misses here and there, like a blurry shot of a static subject where it looked like the camera had tried to apply too much HDR. But most of the time in bright light, photos are perfectly fine, and a cut above what I’d expect from a rugged phone.
There’s also a mode that will overlay live information on your still image or video about whatever extreme situation you happen to be in, including location, altitude, speed, and G-force. Extreme activities are generally not recommended in your second trimester of pregnancy, so I didn’t really test this out. I imagine if you’re into something like mountain biking or climbing and you want to record that kind of information with your activity, you probably have a better way of doing so already. In any case, it’s there, and it’s definitely more of a casual, fun feature than it is practical.
If you’re merely curious about living a rugged phone lifestyle, the DuraForce Ultra 5G isn’t for you. The phone’s extremely hardy specifications would be appealing to anyone who’s nervous about dropping their phone or occasionally brings their phone to rough environments like beaches or backcountry camping. If that’s you, spend your $900 on a good standard phone (many are IP68 rated) and a rugged case. You’ll get better performance, a better camera, timelier software updates — basically, a lot more for the money.
If you need a rugged phone on the job as a frontline worker, first responder, or construction worker, for example, then the DuraForce Ultra 5G makes a lot more sense — especially if it’s going to be your primary phone off the job and you’d really like some extra bells and whistles. The inclusion of 5G, wireless charging, and processing power that’s a cut above the rest of the class makes it a good tool on and off the job site.
However, $900 is an awful lot to spend on a phone, and I think that very specific kind of customer for this phone is a pretty small group. You could buy a less expensive rugged phone with more limited functionality like Kyocera’s own DuraForce model from last year and a darn good midrange phone for around the same price. You probably can’t get mmWave 5G that way, but that’s no great loss.
Still, the DuraForce Ultra 5G represents a convenient option for a particular type of person if two phones feels like too much fuss. It certainly handled everything I threw it at, and functioned well as a daily companion for more pedestrian tasks like scrolling social media and navigating trips across town. If extreme durability is a must and you don’t want to give up too much to get it, then the DuraForce Ultra 5G is a good choice.
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
Battery life has been the Achilles’ heel of smartwatches and fitness watches. While solid state storage and processing power have been evolving at a rapid clip, battery life has remained stagnant. This goes quintuple for watches that track your activity using GPS, which is a particularly power-hungry thing to do. And yet, somehow, the Garmin Enduro now exists. If you’re the type of person who likes to run until their kneecaps have been ground into a fine powder, this is the watch for you.
The $800 Enduro is a multisport fitness watch. And by multi, I mean pretty much all the sports. Built-in activities include: Run, Ultra Run, Trail Run, Treadmill, Virtual Run, Track Run, Indoor Track Run, Bike, Mountain Bike, Indoor Bike, Pool Swim, Open Water Swim, Triathlon, SwimRun, Hike, Expedition, Climb, Indoor Climb, Bouldering, Ski, Snowboard, Cross Country Ski, Cross Country Skate Ski, Backcountry Ski, Surf, SUP, Kayak, Row, Indoor Row, Navigate, Track Me, Pilates, Yoga, Breathwork, Cardio, Strength, Golf, and others (including downloadable options made by third parties) but honestly I’m tired of typing. Basically, it has all of the same activity modes as Garmin’s current multisport flagship, the Fenix 6 (starting at $550, up to $1,100), but there are some significant tradeoffs, which I’ll get to in a sec.
Let’s start with the body. Physically, the Enduro is a perfect twin of the larger Fenix 6X. (You can see a more in-depth comparison between the two on Garmin’s site.) It has a 1.4-inch transflective (sunlight visible) color LCD screen. It’s extremely easy to read, particularly outdoors (at night it lights up with the push of a button). The screen also doubles as a low-key solar panel, giving you extra juice when you wear it outside.
The body is just over two inches by two inches and 0.6 inches thick. In other words, it’s a bit chunky, and people with smaller wrists probably will not like it. I have weirdly big wrist bones, so I didn’t mind the way it felt, and it didn’t look like I was wearing a tablet on my arm. Despite its size it’s quite light, coming in at 71 grams for the steel version or 61 grams for the more expensive titanium version. That weight is partly due to the new, slightly stretchy nylon strap, which is comfortable and dries quickly. There are a lot of other strap options to choose from, should you so desire.
Like the Fenix and most other Garmin watches, the Enduro has five physical buttons which you use for navigating in lieu of a touchscreen. This is the most intuitive of any of the fitness watches I’ve used, and the UI has only gotten better with age.
The Enduro lacks a touchscreen but has five physical buttons.
In addition to being a training watch, it has basic smartwatch features, including displaying notifications from your phone. Android users (like me, I tested it with a Pixel 5) can quick reply to messages from the watch (unfortunately Apple has blocked this feature on the iPhone for any device except the Apple Watch, which seems pretty anti-competitive if you ask me).
From the main screen, pressing the bottom left button (the down button) gets you to a bunch of widgets that provide a lot of data at a glance. It’s just the right amount of information density. If you want more granular info, you can dive into the Garmin Connect app (iOS and Android), which has a lot of detail, but its design is very dated and it can be tricky to find what you’re looking for in it. It’s not bad, but it could benefit from a refresh.
In addition to daily tracking of things like steps, floors climbed, heart rate, sleep quality, and even respiration rate, the Enduro also has a pulse oximeter which uses a special red LED. In my testing, it was roughly as accurate as the finger-based (medical grade) one I bought toward the beginning of lockdown last year. You can choose to have it track your pulse ox 24/7, but that will take a big bite out of your battery life. You can also choose to just track pulse ox as you sleep, which might be good for someone who suffers from sleep apnea. If you don’t have any underlying health concerns, though, I’d just leave it off and check it on demand whenever you want.
The Enduro is primarily a training watch, and it has all of the excellent tools that the Fenix line has, including Body Battery (which surprisingly mapped quite closely to how well rested or depleted I felt), Stress, VO2 Max over time, as well as Training Status. There are some new features debuting on this watch as well. One of the most useful I found was Trail Run VO2 Max. It takes terrain into account, so if you’re running slower because of rocks, it won’t give you an artificially low V02 Max score. Garmin has also upgraded its ClimbPro features, which take ascend and descend into consideration in both your stats and your pace recommendations. The watch can even alert you before you get to a hill (you have to preload a route into the watch) so you can prepare yourself for a climb. There are also new Ultrarunning specific features which I was unable to test because I prefer other ways of injuring myself. It’s worth noting that these new features are also making their way to the Fenix line.
So, why might you want the Enduro over the Fenix? Capital B Battery life. That is really the one and only reason. The battery lasts more than twice as long as the Fenix, and the Fenix is one of the longest-lasting training watches I’ve tested. If you currently use an Apple Watch, you may weep when you read this, but here are the numbers the company claims:
Smartwatch mode: up to 50 days / 65 days with solar
Battery Saver Watch mode: up to 130 days / one year with solar
GPS: up to 70 hours / 80 hours with solar
Max Battery GPS mode: up to 200 hours / 300 hours with solar
Expedition GPS Activity: up to 65 days / 95 days with solar
That is absolutely unparalleled. It’s also conservative in my estimation. I wore this watch for a solid month, constantly using it as a smartwatch (checking notifications, checking my vitals, etc). That included 12 hours and 51 minutes of surfing (GPS tracked), four hours and three minutes of running (GPS tracked), and three hours and 16 minutes of strength training (non-GPS). I did not have to take the watch off to charge it at all. Not one single time. It is easily the longest-lasting training / smartwatch I have ever tested, and by a gigantic margin. Garmin claims that it didn’t do this by stuffing in a larger physical battery but by optimizing the underlying platform. I tried to get more details, but they were understandably tight-lipped about the secret recipe.
So, you may see that and think “well then, obviously this is an easy choice over the Fenix 6, right?” Well, not quite. There are some things the Enduro doesn’t have, and they aren’t insignificant.
Garmin’s app is functional but in need of a refresh.
The biggest thing the Enduro lacks is maps. The Fenix 6 has topographic maps of the entire US built right into it, and that’s been incredibly useful to me. It’s actually kept me from taking wrong turns while hiking on a number of occasions. You can still track back with the Enduro, bread-crumb style, but it will appear as a disembodied trail without any context or landmarks to help guide you. This also means the Enduro doesn’t have some specific cycling training and other navigational features.
The other big thing the Enduro is missing is music. The Fenix allows you to store songs on it and play them via Bluetooth earbuds, so you can leave your phone at home. The Enduro doesn’t. If you want tunes to go with your workout, you’re going to need to carry a second device. This brings up a somewhat frustrating point.
With those things missing, you might assume that it’s because the Enduro has less storage compared to the Fenix. It doesn’t. In fact, it has double the storage of the Fenix at 64GB vs. 32GB. As far as I can tell, the only reason the Enduro doesn’t have maps and music is because Garmin didn’t want to cannibalize sales of the Fenix 6, which is frustrating. If you compare the Enduro to the Fenix 6 Pro Solar edition (which has the same hidden solar-panel display as the Enduro), both watches are a wince-inducing $800. The Fenix is a bit more svelte and has a very slightly smaller screen, but otherwise they’re the same. You just have to choose, do you want maps and all the features they come with, or do you want double the battery life? Garmin could have easily given you both — and perhaps the Fenix 7 or Enduro 2 will have both, or a firmware update could bring maps and music to the Enduro — but for now it’s an either / or between two fantastic features.
The Enduro is the watch to get if you never want to worry about charging it.
It’s a strange dilemma. Ultimately, I think the Fenix 6 is the better, more complete watch, and so that’s the one I would lean toward recommending. You just have to remember to charge it three times as often. That being said, the Enduro is still an excellent watch, and being able to go on a very long trip and leave the (proprietary) charger at home is a real boon, and if you do any ultra-length activities, then this is absolutely the watch you want. For now, I’ll stick with the Fenix 6 in case I get lost, again.
If one thing is certain, it’s that Raspberry Pi fans have a taste for science fiction. Some of the best Raspberry Pi projects we’ve seen were inspired by franchises like Harry Potter and Stargate. Today, we’re sharing a cool Darth Vader-shaped PCB created just for the Raspberry Pi Pico by TheAmplituhedron.
Not only does this custom board look like one of our favorite space baddies, it also functions as a base for TheAmplituhedron’s cryptocurrency tracking project.
There are more details coming out soon but here’s what we know so far: The Vader board is designed to support the Raspberry Pi Pico form factor which should also work for Pimoroni’s Pico LiPo board. At the top is a place designated for an ST7789 SPI LCD display, likely intended to output cryptocurrency data.
It has space for an ESP01 header which can provide Wi-Fi support with a ESP8266. Lastly there’s room for a buzzer, which is great for triggering alerts for custom situations.
If you want to get a glimpse of this board, check out the original thread on Twitter and be sure to follow TheAmplituhedron for updates.
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
How much do you care about having a great screen?
That, really, is the only question that matters with the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro. It has a new kind of display so good I think it is the best thing for watching movies that isn’t a high-end television. It starts at $1,099 for a 128GB version, but increased storage and accessories like a keyboard or the Apple Pencil can shoot the price up fairly quickly.
Both the 12.9 and the smaller 11-inch iPad Pro (which starts at $799) feature Apple’s M1 processor and some other updated specs, all of which are excellent. But even that fancy processor — the same as you’ll find in the new iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini — doesn’t fundamentally change the story of what the iPad Pro is and what it can do.
It is an iPad, after all.
But the 12.9-inch version of the iPad Pro is an iPad with a very beautiful display. And so again, the question is what that screen means to the experience of using an iPad, especially since the price has jumped $100 compared to the last model. How much do you care about having a great screen?
Here is a very brief, wildly incomplete, and necessarily oversimplified education on flat panel screen technology. (Chris Welch has a longer one.)
There are two basic types you usually see, LCD and OLED. Both have pixels that combine red, green, and blue subpixels to create colors, but in order for you to actually see those colors the display pixels need to be lit up. OLED pixels are self-lit; LCD panels light up the display pixels by putting one, several, or many LED backlights behind them.
The benefit of LCD panels with LED backlighting is that they’re relatively inexpensive, long-lasting, bright, and unlikely to burn in. The benefit of OLED is that the black pixels are not lit at all, meaning you get superb contrast, but they are relatively expensive and don’t get as bright. Each technology’s strength is the other’s weakness.
Mini LED, the technology powering the 12.9-inch iPad Pro display, is designed to bring the LCD panel as close as possible to OLED’s contrast and black levels. Its display pixels are not self-lit, but instead lit from behind. The trick is that they’re lit by 10,000 tiny LED lights split up by software into 2,500 local dimming zones. It’s almost like the backlight itself is a lower-resolution screen behind the screen, tracking the image and making sure the black parts of the picture aren’t lit up.
I would never call the display on the 11-inch iPad Pro bad, because it’s a stellar display. But because it uses a more traditional LCD backlight system with fewer dimming zones, you can see that the blacks are actually just a little gray. On the 12.9-inch version, Mini LED lets blacks be truly black, offers a high contrast ratio, and can also get very bright.
Apple is calling this screen the “Liquid Retina XDR display.” And it has all the benefits of Apple’s previous iPad Pro displays: it’s very high resolution, color-accurate, and it has fairly good viewing angles. It supports ProMotion, Apple’s term for a variable refresh rate to increase smoothness and match the frame rate of videos. (“Liquid Retina,” as far as Apple has ever told us, refers to the Apple-specific method of making round corners on an LCD.)
The funny thing about the 12.9-inch iPad is that it is very easy to miss the benefits of Mini LED in normal day-to-day use. At first you don’t see it.
Sure, there’s great contrast when you’re browsing the web, texting, playing games, and so on, but really it’s not very different from any other iPad. Apple still limits the max brightness in most scenarios to 600 nits, which is bright enough but not eye-popping (the iPad and iPad Air max out at 500 nits).
The magic kicks in when you are viewing videos or photos in full-screen. When you do that, the iPad Pro kicks into a different HDR mode (or in Apple’s parlance, XDR, for “Extreme Dynamic Range”) that really is stunning. The overall max brightness of the screen jumps up to a powerful 1,000 nits and peak brightness for certain lighting can hit 1,600 nits.
You don’t see it until you see it — but then you see it.
The iPad Pro with the Liquid Retina XDR displayPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
The joke I’ve been telling people is that the display is so good that Tenet actually makes sense when you watch it on this iPad Pro. HDR content is incredible on this screen. I am not a display quality enthusiast, but this screen is functionally equivalent to a high-end OLED TV to my eyes, especially in a dark room.
If you are also not a display quality enthusiast, you might be left unimpressed with descriptions of nits and contrast ratios. I get it, but there are intangibles to the screen that I struggle to describe and have struggled even harder to capture in photos and video. For example, some colors just look better and more accurate to me, especially textured yellows. It just does a better job showing fine detail in situations where dark and light elements get mixed together, like with hair or a building reflecting sunlight.
Both Kindle and Apple Books in dark mode, in a very dark room, have a weird gray halo around text not due to normal blooming (Photo edited to best replicate what I saw with my eyes)Dieter Bohn / The Verge
The display isn’t perfect, of course. If you run a local dimming test you will see blooming on brightly lit pixels against a black background. I only noticed this when running tests that are specifically designed to surface blooming, though. In regular use, everything looked great, sharp, and evenly lit across the entire screen.
There was one odd bug I experienced. Putting either the Kindle app or Apple Books into dark mode and viewing them in a near-pitch black room, I noticed a strange gray haze around all of the text blocks. It’s too big to be blooming; it’s more like the local dimming algorithms got a little confused. It’s a minor thing that I hope gets fixed.
For me, the quality of the display when watching video on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is impressive, but it’s also not at the top of my list of priorities when picking a computer. I care a little more about portability, weight, and — yes — functionality.
So let’s talk about that M1 chip.
The iPad Pro is great for video editingPhoto by Kayla Murkison / The Verge
What does it really mean that the iPad Pro now has the same chip that powers Apple’s latest Mac computers?
It does not mean that iPads will be able to run Mac apps now. While Apple is happy to let the Mac run iPad apps and generally let you do whatever you want on it (except touch the screen), the iPad Pro continues to be a more, shall we say, curated experience.
One interesting consequence of the M1 is that for the first time in the history of iOS devices, Apple is publicly disclosing how much RAM these devices have. It’s 8GB on models with 512GB or fewer of storage and 16GB on models with 1TB or more. Whether or not that’s actionable information is another matter.
The M1 is obviously fast, and in benchmarks it’s faster than the last A12Z Bionic that Apple put in the previous iPad Pro models. But in my usage, I didn’t actually perceive any speed improvements in any of the apps that I use — because everything was already very fast on the iPad Pro. I got the exact same export speeds in Premiere Rush on the brand new 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the M1 as on my 2018 iPad Pro.
Both the RAM and the M1 processor are specs that won’t make an appreciable difference to the vast majority of iPad users. They’re specs that will matter to certain “pro” users who have found specific apps and workflows that push the limit of what an iPad can do.
Apple touts soon-to-be released capabilities in apps like LumaFusion and AR effects, and I have no doubt that there are benefits for power users of those apps. For the rest of us, the reasons to get an iPad Pro are less about speeds and feeds and more about the overall experience.
Another consequence of the M1 is that the USB-C port now supports Thunderbolt accessories. In theory, that’s great. I plugged my iPad into my very fancy CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt dock and was gratified to see my monitor light up right away. From there, though, I ran into the same old iPad problems.
I have a USB microphone interface hooked into the dock, and for whatever reason I was unable to get any audio out of it on the iPad, just silence. I also tested out some admittedly old LaCie Thunderbolt 2 drives with an adapter and couldn’t get them to show up in the Files app. Oh and just to remind you: the monitor still can only mirror the iPad Pro — it can’t serve as a second display.
Similarly, the dock has an audio-out so it shows up as a speaker. On the Mac, I can easily change settings to let my computer know to play audio out of its own speakers since I don’t have anything hooked up to the dock for sound. Nothing doing on the iPad Pro — if there’s a setting that would let me move the audio back to the iPad’s own excellent speakers, I couldn’t find it. (Long pressing on the AirPlay icon in Control Center only listed the dock as an option.)
Seemingly every new iPad Pro inspires an admittedly exhausting but also necessary discussion about whether or not iPadOS is actually capable enough to justify the price of the hardware that runs it.
The M1 processor sharpens that discussion. To me, the biggest difference between the Mac and the iPad at this point isn’t the touchscreen, it’s Apple’s approach to the operating system. On the iPad, Apple would rather not offer a feature than have it work in a non-iPad way. That’s noble, but it means the company has committed itself to reinventing a lot of wheels in computing: files, peripheral support, multi-window interfaces, and all the rest have to be re-thought and re-done.
Sometimes that reinvention results in some genuinely great features. The iPad’s “windowing” system takes some getting used to and has its limitations, but it can be a joy to use and makes organizing your digital stuff a bit easier. The problem is that all that reinvention is taking a very long time — it’s been six years since the original iPad Pro.
Center Stage works very well to keep you in frame. And as a bonus, the camera doesn’t blank out when you multitask in Zoom calls anymore.GIF: Dieter Bohn
One new invention I love is the Center Stage feature. It zooms and follows human faces to keep them centered in the frame of the iPad’s wide-angle front facing camera. It works in any video conferencing app without the need for setup and it performs very well, better than similar features on smart displays like the Echo Show or Facebook Portal.
I’d love it even more if the front-facing cameras on the iPad Pro weren’t still in the wrong spot when attached to a keyboard — off to the side instead of centered on top. It’s great that the camera can keep my face centered in frame, it’s not so great that I am literally giving my coworkers the side-eye because I’m looking off to the right of where the cameras are to see their faces.
One more note: Apple has said that the original 12.9-inch Magic Keyboard “may not precisely fit when closed” as the new iPad Pro is slightly thicker. But when I tested it, I couldn’t discern any difference between the fit on the original and the new, white Magic Keyboard. Both worked — and closed — fine.
In any case, set aside the “What’s a computer” argument and let’s be more pragmatic. A 256GB 12.9-inch iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard costs $1,548. A 256GB MacBook Air with the same processor costs $999. And just to be realistic: most people can get more done on the Mac than on the iPad. Taken strictly as a work machine, the Mac wins out on both price and functionality.
That includes battery life, by the way. Both iPad Pros have good battery life, but it’s not significantly improved over previous iPads. And as many people have discovered during the pandemic, if you actually use the iPad for work all day (especially if you do a lot of Zoom calls), the iPad Pro can conk out in eight hours or less. The MacBook Air edges it out.
Last and certainly not least, Apple’s refusal to offer multi-user support on the iPad has gone from being mystifying to obstinate. The company clearly intends this to be a single-user device, despite the fact that it would theoretically make for an even more compelling family computer than the pastel-colored iMacs that share the same processor.
Typing on the iPad ProPhoto by Kayla Murkison / The Verge
But to give Apple the benefit of the doubt here, if you’re looking strictly at the iPad Pro as a work machine, you’re probably missing the point. The iPad Pro is simply a more beautiful, more premium object than even Apple’s own laptops.
It’s easy to take for granted, but the hardware in this tablet really is amazing: Face ID, dual rear cameras that are quite good and paired with LiDAR, quad speakers with superb sound and decent volume, excellent microphones, support for the Apple Pencil, the best screen you can get on a portable device, and on and on.
The reason to get the iPad Pro 12.9 (or even the 11) is simply to get the best, nicest iPad. Unless you can specifically answer right now which app in your workflow is slowed down by the specs on a lesser iPad, the $599 iPad Air or even the $329 base iPad offer the same core features that most people really use.
Except for a slim minority of people, the justification for getting an iPad Pro isn’t its feature set, it’s the experience of using a well-made, high-end object. Until I hit the limits of iPadOS (which I hit regularly), I enjoy using an iPad Pro more than I do any other computer.
The wonderful Mini LED display on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro doesn’t change any of those equations, it just makes the nicest iPad Pro even nicer. And so my yearly refrain about the iPad Pro remains. If you want the very best iPad, this is the very best iPad.
Best Bluetooth speakers Buying Guide: Welcome to What Hi-Fi?’s round-up of the best Bluetooth speakers you can buy in 2021.
Finding the best Bluetooth speaker for your particular needs isn’t the cake walk it might at first seem. It’s nothing to do with shortage of options – every online manufacturer from Apple to Ultimate Ears is vying for a bite of the Bluetooth cherry and by association, your hard-earned cash. The challenge is knowing which model is most worthy of your precious coin. Fret not, for that is where we come in. We’ve done the heavy lifting and rounded-up our pick of the best Bluetooth speakers across all shapes, sizes and prices to ensure you discover a product you’ll be over the moon with.
It may sound obvious, but the key thing when looking for a Bluetooth speaker is to avoid opting for the first model that takes your fancy. Yes, it might be a looker, but is it the best model for you? If you want your love for it to still be strong, after the boys of summer have gone, why not read our independent review of the product – and maybe reviews of competing products in the price category – first? You might discover a few features you didn’t know you could get for the money.
(Image credit: JBL)
1. JBL Flip 5
No frills and fantastic sound quality – this is the Best Bluetooth speaker for value.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: HxWxD (cm): 7.4 x 18.1 x 6.9 | Power: 20W | Features: Bluetooth v4.2, PartyBoost for multiple connections to PartBoost enabled JBL speakers, IPX7 rated | Connections: USB-C charger
Reasons to Buy
Solid bass and timing
Great sense of acoustics
PartyBoost stereo pairing
Reasons to Avoid
No aux-in or microphone
Not Connect+ compatible
Basic app
A What Hi-Fi? 2020 Awards-winner. If all you want is a portable Bluetooth speaker that sounds as good as you can currently buy for around £100 ($100, AU$119), you’ll be hard-pressed to better the fantastic Flip 5. JBL’s newest offering sounds great for the price and is rugged enough to cope with a day at the pool.
The Flip 5 is waterproof to an IPX7 rating, boasts a 12 hour battery life and has a USB-C charging port, meaning it goes from flat to fully juiced in just 2.5 hours. It’s a pleasure to use and scores highly for portability, with a wrist strap that slips comfortably over our hand. There’s also a PartyBoost button that helps you pair two PartyBoost-enabled speakers to create a stereo pair, or link over 100 PartyBoost-compatible speakers in mono.
Sound is impressively weighty and agile, with a good punch of bass and a real sense of openness and texture. Assuming you don’t mind the lack of an aux-in port or inbuilt microphone (as seen in the Flip 4), you’ll almost certainly be wowed by this speaker’s sonic chops. A superb performer.
Read the full review: JBL Flip 5
(Image credit: Tribit)
2. Tribit Stormbox Micro
A fun and bubbly Bluetooth speaker that’s serious when it comes to sound
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: HxWxD (cm): 9.8 x 9.8 x 3.5cm | Power: 9W | Features: water/dustproof, Bluetooth 5.0, stereo-pairing mode | Connections: 3.5 mm stereo
Reasons to Buy
Mature, musical sound
Surprisingly weighty bass
USB-C charger
It’s hard to imagine a home decor, backpack or personal taste that the Tribit Audio Stormbox Micro couldn’t merge in with happily. It’s the size of a stack of drinks coasters, it’s IP67 rated, there’s a useful rubberised strap across the back of it and you can pair two of them in stereo mode.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the bass clout the Tribit is able to deliver. Although a speaker of such dimensions is obviously limited in terms of bass weight, it does remarkably well; close your eyes while listening and you’ll picture a bigger product.
If your budget maxes out at £50 ($60), the Tribit is a splendid option. Similarly, if you only have a small zip compartment in the top of your backpack for a sonic travel companion, this speaker is worthy of that space. Take note, Ultimate Ears: a little-known brand called Tribit Audio just produced a budget belter of a Bluetooth speaker.
Read the full review: Tribit Audio Stormbox Micro
(Image credit: JBL)
3. JBL Charge 5
Updated specs and subtle tweaks for JBL’s fifth-generation Charge
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: HxWxD (cm): 22 x 9.6 x 9.4cm | Power: 30W + 10W tweeter | Features: waterproof, Bluetooth v5.1, power bank, voice assistant integration | Connections: USB-C, USB-A
Reasons to Buy
Clearer and more detailed sound
Wider soundstage
Updated dustproofing
The JBL Charge 5 is even more durable and better sounding than the four Charges before it. Its predecessor carried an IPX7 rating, meaning it could handle being submerged in water to a depth of 1.5m, but the IP67-rated Charge 5 builds on that durability by also being fully dustproof. Want a speaker roughly the dimensions of a bottle of wine that’ll charge your phone and sound great? You’ve found it.
Thanks in part to a new 10W tweeter and racetrack-shaped driver, the Charge 5 is currently as good a sound as you can get in a portable Bluetooth speaker design for under £200 ($200, AU$300). It boasts marginal improvements, both sonically and aesthetically, over its predecessor, the five-star Charge 4 (below).
One day JBL may produce a Charge that can be outdone by a new and plucky rival, but rest assured, that has not happened with the rather splendid Charge 5.
Read the full review: JBL Charge 5
(Image credit: Bang & Olufsen)
4. Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Gen)
The weightiest and most refined little speaker we’ve heard in a while
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: HxWxD (cm): 4.6 x 13.3 x 13.3cm | Power: 2x30W | Features: Alexa inbuilt, water/dustproof IP67, Bluetooth 5.1, stereo-pairing mode | Connections: USB-C
Reasons to Buy
Expansive sound, weighty bass
Competent Alexa integration
Stunning build and finish
Bang & Olufsen isn’t noted for following the herd. In the Danish electronics specialist’s catalogue you’ll find a wheel-shaped wireless speaker, a TV that opens up like a butterfly, and an 8200-watt monolithic speaker comprising 18 drivers. Its output could reasonably be described as “premium” and “innovative” – and the B&O Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) wireless speaker is no exception.
It boasts similar dimensions to a large floury bap, but that’s where any comparisons with baked goods end. The new A1 supports Qualcomm’s latest aptX Adaptive Bluetooth 5.1 codec, and of course, Alexa is built-in.
It works a treat, too, delivering a pleasingly comfortable yet authoritative performance that you’d be happy listening to all day. Throw in its classy, well made design, easy to use operation and the bonus of Alexa, and you’re looking at a Bluetooth speaker sequel that has very much been worth the wait.
Read the full review: Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Gen)
(Image credit: JBL)
5. JBL Go 3
JBL’s newest soap-sized speaker sounds good – but the finish and battery life won’t wash with today’s class leaders
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: HxWxD (cm): 8.8 x 7.5 x 4.1 | Power: 4W | Features: Water/dustproof IP67, Bluetooth 5.1 | Connections: USB-C
Reasons to Buy
Sensible treble
Fuller bass
More volume
Reasons to Avoid
Poor battery life
Not very durable finish
The diminutive, soap on a rope-styled Go 3 features Bluetooth 5.1 instead of 4.1 plus a maximum power output of 4.2W, up from 3W in the Go 2 (listed below). The one specification that hasn’t changed is the Go 3’s stamina. It takes 2.5 hours to charge fully, and you can still only get five hours of playtime from it from a single charge.
If you can live with this, there’s much to celebrate in the sound department at the level. The extra power and overhauled design have resulted in some solid sonic enhancements, and aesthetically it’s perhaps even cuter than the original. We gave this iteration five stars for sound. Will five hours get you through a day at the beach or a lazy picnic in the park though? Probably best to take a wireless charger.
Read the full review: JBL Go 3
(Image credit: JBL)
6. JBL Charge 4
A fun and bubbly Bluetooth speaker that’s serious when it comes to sound.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: HxWxD (cm): 22 x 9.5 x 9.3 | Power: 30W | Features: waterproof, Bluetooth v4.2, power bank, voice assistant integration | Connections: 3.5 mm stereo
Reasons to Buy
Rugged and water resistant
USB port for charging
Great sound quality
Reasons to Avoid
Perhaps too subtle for some
The fact that we really like the JBL Charge 4 should come as no surprise to those who read our Charge 3 review. Not only is this one of sweetest-sounding Bluetooth speakers around at this end of the market, it serves up a whopping 20 hours of playback from a single charge. Impressive.
JBL has fine-tuned the sound in this latest iteration to please even pickier ears. Obviously there’s a limit to the bass floor in a speaker of this size, but the low-end is tasteful – and there’s plenty of punch.
You get a nice array of features for the money, too. The IPX7 water resistance means the Charge 4 can handle being submerged in water to a depth of 1.5m. And unlike the Flip 5 (above), you can also use the Charge 4 to juice up your phone – or any other device that will charge over USB from a 5V supply.
The Flip 5 (above) is cheaper and lighter, but the Charge 4’s rugged design, excellent battery life and ‘battery sharing’ make it a near-perfect speaker for camping, beach trips and home use.
Read the full review: JBL Charge 4
(Image credit: Linn)
7. Linn Series 3
One of the best wireless speakers we’ve heard with a premium price tag.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: HxWxD (cm):25 x 29.6 x 20.6 | Power: : 2x100W | Features: Wireless integrated Linn DSM player, Exakt digital crossover | Connections: Ethernet, USB, HDMI ARC
Reasons to Buy
Wonderfully articulate
Luxury design
HDMI ARC for TV connection
Reasons to Avoid
No analogue inputs
No Tidal Masters support
Let’s address the elephant in the room: the Series 3 is one of the most expensive wireless speakers we have tested. It’s over three times the price of the B&W Formation Wedge. Can such an outlay be justified? Well, yes.
Linn’s gorgeous design aesthetic and proprietary Exakt technology certainly helps. Linn Exakt aims to reduce phase errors by intentionally delaying higher frequencies so they arrive at your ear at the same time as lower frequencies. It also keeps the music signal’s data in the digital domain for as long as possible to avoid any degradation caused by signal processing. We’ve heard Exakt do its thing in many a Linn product before, and here again it contributes to an absorbing performance packed with stunning midrange clarity and a level of insight that sets it apart from more affordable competitors.
As you’d expect, the Series 3 is packed with premium features and Linn’s well established streaming platform, which offers access to networked servers and high-quality music services Tidal and Qobuz via Linn’s app. You even get an HDMI ARC socket, which allows you to connect the speaker to a TV.
At £3000 ($3850, AU$5800), we can hardly describe the Series 3 as a bargain, but we are utterly convinced of its appeal.
Read the full review: Linn Series 3
8. Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2
An affordable Bluetooth speaker with a weighty sound and good battery life.
SPECIFICATIONS
Connectivity: Bluetooth | Power: Battery | Battery life: 13hrs | Charge time: 2.6hrs **Dimensions (hwd):** 10.4 x 9.5 x 9.5cm | Weight: 420g
Reasons to Buy
Punchy, entertaining sound
Hefty bass
Decent battery life
Reasons to Avoid
No wi-fi or smart assistant built-in
No mic for hands-free calls
Ultimate Ears has really made a splash in the Bluetooth speaker market with a number of colourful, fun-sounding and portable models. One its most biggest hits? The impressive Wonderboom 2.
It’s waterproof, sandproof, dustproof and is also designed to float, so it should withstand the most lively of pool parties. Battery life is 13 hours and a full charge takes just under three.
Sonically, the Wonderboom 2 is an exciting listen. Bass is impressive bass given its small dimensions and there’s plenty of detail and a fine sense of attack. You also get a ‘boost’ button on the underside of the unit. When pressed, it restricts the bass frequencies, allowing the UE to play louder through the midrange, which in turn makes the sound easier to hear when the unit is used outdoors.
There’s no built-in mic or app, but the Wonderboom 2 is easily one of the best sounding Bluetooth speakers you can buy for the money – and a What Hi-Fi? 2019 Award-winner too, y’know.
Read the full review: Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2
(Image credit: Dynaudio)
9. Dynaudio Music 5
A superb sonic performance from a distinctive speaker.
SPECIFICATIONS
Connectivity: Bluetooth and wi-fi | Power: 250W (mains powered) | Inputs: analogue audio jack, Toslink optical digital audio | Battery life: N/A | Dimensions (hwd): 20 x 66 x 18.5cm : | Weight: 5.4kg
Reasons to Buy
Expansive, weighty and accurate
Great for larger rooms
Top-notch build
Reasons to Avoid
No AirPlay 2
No Spotify Connect
The Dynaudio Music 5 is the second-largest one-box speaker in the company’s inaugural, four-strong Music series. And love or loathe its angular looks,we can’t help but be won over by how the Dynaudio Music 5 sounds.
It might be a powerful, but the Music 5 has the sonic nous to keeps things refined. While the Award-winning Naim (below) just edges it for both subtlety and a slightly livelier sound, there isn’t much in it – and the Dynaudio Music 5 boasts superiority in other ways. In a larger room, it boasts better weight, scale and authority. Sound is smooth, detail-rich, refined and resoundingly listenable.
Connectivity is excellent, too, with aptX Bluetooth, wi-fi and AirPlay all present. Open up the Dynaudio app and you’ll discover NoiseAdapt, a feature that helps sound cut through a noisy room – useful during loud parties.
Assuming you love its distinctive styling, the Dynaudio Music 5 is a sophisticated performer and a superb buy.
Read the full review: Dynaudio Music 5
10. Audio Pro Addon C3
Portability, multi-room skills and excellent sound quality in an impressive package.
SPECIFICATIONS
Connectivity: Bluetooth and wi-fi | Power: Battery | Inputs: 3.5mm | Battery life: 15hrs | Dimensions (hwd): 11.5 x 21.5 x 13.5cm | Weight: 2.45kg
Reasons to Buy
Mature, refined sound
Impressive timing
Tight, textured bass
Reasons to Avoid
Control app could be slicker
The Audio Pro Addon C3 isn’t just the best Bluetooth speaker at this price, it’s a stylish, wi-fi connected, multi-room capable centrepiece – plus it’s a What Hi-Fi? 2019 and 2020 Award winner.
Sound is focused yet open and airy, meaning you can fill a decent sized room with immersive, weighty sound. It has an fantastic sense of refinement for such a small speaker, not to mention a rear-firing bass reflex port that delivers plenty of low-end grunt.
This model won’t charge your smartphone but it does feature an ethernet port, giving you the option to hardwire it to your home network. The battery serves up around 15 hours playback (less if you crank the volume up to the max).
The C3 supports streaming services such as Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz and Apple Music, and while there’s no built-in voice assistant, you can control the speaker via the Alexa app.
If you’re after something more rugged and portable, we’d suggest rivals such as the Ultimate Ears Megaboom or JBL Xtreme. But as a sensational-sounding multi-room proposition, this speaker gives Sonos a serious run for its money.
Read the full review: Audio Pro Addon C3
(Image credit: Naim)
11. Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation
Just a few tweaks make for a superb second version of this premium Bluetooth speaker.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: HxWxD (cm): 21 x 22 x 21 | Power: : 300W | Features: Apple AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Spotify Connect, Tidal, Roon Ready, Hi-res up to 24-bit/384kHz, remote control | Connections: 3.5mm aux, USB, optical S/PDIF, Ethernet
Reasons to Buy
Open, detailed and expressive
Loads of streaming options
Multi-room ready
At What Hi-Fi?, we know full well the value of revisions. Yet still, it was quite the surprise when first we heard about one made by Naim, with its second generation of the Mu-so Qb wireless speaker. The previous iteration was great, earning five stars when it was first reviewed. This version, however, is even better.
You can now choose between an Olive, Terracotta or Peacock grille alongside the standard black, but the best tweaks Naim has made go far deeper. Remove whatever colour grille you’ve gone for and you’ll be rewarded with upgraded and optimised midrange and bass drive units, all powered by a total of 300W of amplification.
You won’t be short of streaming options, thanks to Chromecast Built-in and Apple AirPlay 2 alongside Bluetooth for streaming from a device, as well as Spotify Connect, Roon Ready, internet radio and Tidal. You’ll also be able to access files up to 32-bit/384kHz anywhere on your home network via the updated Naim app
With punchy bass and sparkling and rich tones across the frequencies, we had no hesitation in awarding the Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation our 2020 What Hi-Fi? Award for the best home wireless speaker over £500 – for the second year running.
Read the full review: Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation
12. Amazon Echo Dot (3rd generation)
One of the best and cheapest ways to introduce Alexa to your home.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: HxWxD (cm): 4.3 x 9.9 x 9.9 | Features: wi-fi, multi-room, Bluetooth V4.0, Alexa voice assistant, Spotify, TuneIn, Amazon Music | Connections: 3.5 mm stereo
Reasons to Buy
Clear, solid sound
Improved Alexa capabilities
Budget price
Reasons to Avoid
Alexa intelligence is limited
Amazon’s ever-expanding collection smart speakers dish up decent sound and a whole load of voice functionality for not a lot of money. The Echo Dot is one of the cheapest in the range – and a great little portable device that’s perfect for the kitchen or bedroom.
The fabric-covered puck features a 4cm driver that pumps out decent enough sound. Alexa sounds loud and clear and, for the money, music sounds rich and full. It’s perfectly acceptable as a background music device, plus you can always wire in other devices via the 3.5mm aux output for better sound.
You need to connect the Echo Dot to power, so it’s not as portable as some options on this list. But on the upside, the Echo Dot can be used to play music, answer questions, read the news, check the weather, set alarms and control compatible smart home devices, from TVs to home cinema amplifiers and speakers.
For the money, it’s one of the best cheap portable speakers around.
Read the full review: Amazon Echo Dot (3rd generation)
13. Audio Pro Addon T3
Bigger than some rivals, but still portable enough to give serious consideration.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: HxWxD (cm): 11.5 x 21.5 x 13.5 | Power: 2x 5W + 15W Digital class D | Features: Bluetooth V4.0 | Connections: 3.5mm stereo, USB
Reasons to Buy
Full sound
Expressive and dynamic
Faultless build
It might be one of the less portable speakers in this list, but the T3 can still be carted around thanks to the carry handle. It’s robust rather than heavy, and boasts a battery life of up to 30 hours. Like bass? You’re in luck – the solid chassis and rear-firing bass port will have you tapping your toe in no time.
There’s no wi-fi (if you want wi-fi, opt of the Addon C3), but the Bluetooth-enabled T3 features a similarly classy design with textured surfaces and a leather embossed handle .
Audio Pro tends to ignore gimmicks in favour of high-quality sound but this speaker does have the facility to charge up your smartphone or tablets via a USB port. You also get an auxiliary input for your TV/MP3 player/record player.
Sound is superb, with plenty of depth and detail throughout the frequencies. If you want something for home and in the garden, this could work nicely – maybe not the one for your carry-on luggage, though.
Read the full review: Audio Pro Addon T3
14. JBL Xtreme 2
One of the best Bluetooth speakers we’ve heard with bags of ability.
SPECIFICATIONS
Connectivity: Bluetooth | Power: Battery | Inputs: 3.5mm | Battery life: 15hrs | Dimensions (hwd): 13.6 x 28.8 x 13.2cm | Weight: 2.39kg
Reasons to Buy
Clean, clear sound
Balanced bass
Robust build
Reasons to Avoid
Hefty design
No wi-fi or multi-room smarts
The JBL Xtreme 2’s boombox design has fun and excitement written all over it. The rugged, IPX7 waterproof exterior, 15 hour battery life and ability to charge your phone from its USB port mean it’s a great option for the beach.
Wireless features have been stripped-back, though. There’s no wi-fi, so you can’t stream from Spotify. And it won’t let you talk to Alexa or Google Assistant, just set a button to activate them in the manner of an earphone’s in-line remote.
JBL Connect+ is the most unusual feature on this otherwise standard Bluetooth speaker. It lets you link up to 100 JBL speakers, to make the equivalent of a nightclub PA in your home.
There’s plenty of boom to the sound, but we’re not talking ridiculous levels. That deep powerful bass is also nicely controlled too. Mids are of a high quality and highs show more clarity than you traditionally get from such a product. For the money, the JBL Xtreme 2 is brilliantly balanced Bluetooth speaker.
Read the full review: JBL Xtreme 2
15. Ultimate Ears Blast
Energetic performance, Alexa onboard and Wi-Fi connectivity.
SPECIFICATIONS
Connectivity: Bluetooth and wi-fi | Power: Battery | Inputs: N/A | Battery life: 12hrs | Dimensions (hwd): 118.8 x 6.8 x 6.8cm | Weight: 463g
Reasons to Buy
Great portable design
Exciting, dynamic sound
Good detail and punchy timing
Reasons to Avoid
Top end can get excitable at loud volumes
Alexa features not exhaustive
Ultimate Ears has a knack for making Bluetooth speakers that combine the right combination of sound, design and rugged features, and it does so again with the Blast. Its cylindrical 360-degree design means it throws sound evenly around the room, while the tough ‘IP67 waterproof’ exterior means it can can survive in 1m of water for 30 minutes.
It’s crammed with connectivity, too. You get Bluetooth, wi-fi and Alexa smart assistant voice controls, meaning you can turn up the volume or play songs through Amazon Music Unlimited without lifting a finger. Far-field voice recognition is excellent, and there’s a nifty LED strip that glows and blinks when you interact with Alexa.
The lack of 3.5mm audio input might bother some, but we found the Blast to be a real crowd-pleaser. The 360-degree sound and bass output is far better than one might expect for this kind of money; throw in Alexa smarts and you have a fun, energetic speaker that offers plenty of bang for your buck.
Read the full review: UE Blast
(Image credit: Amazon)
16. Amazon Echo Show 5
One of the best Bluetooth speakers we’ve seen with a screen.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions (hwd): 8.6 x 14.8 x 7.3cm | Connectivity: Wi-fi, USB, 3.5mm line-in | Battery life: n/a | Power: 4W
Reasons to Buy
Alexa voice-control
Decent sound and video
Nicely put together
The Echo Show 5 is the latest in a long and fast-moving line of Amazon products intended to get us all invested in its virtual assistant, Alexa. Where much of the Alexa-enabled kit out there is audio based, concentrated on the Bluetooth speaker market in particular, the Echo Show 5 embraces both sound and video in its abilities to communicate. So, as well as playing music or reading out information, you can access video content on the 5.5in LCD touchscreen. There’s also a camera for video calls.
The Echo Show 5 is a diminutive device, and as such cannot possibly offer the scale of sound that some specialist wireless speakers can. But then it offers so much more ability and functionality than a run-of-the-mill Bluetooth speaker. For what it is, we find the sound perfectly acceptable. It runs fairly warm, sonically, which helps voices on radio and the like, and makes for a comfortable listening experience. There are better speakers out there but this is much more than that. It opens up the world of the digital assistant to a whole new audience for both audio and video; and if that’s what you’re after, this is about as good as you’ll get.
Read the full review: Amazon Echo Show 5
17. Dali Katch
This Dali Bluetooth speaker ticks all our boxes.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions (hwd): 13.8 x 26.9 x 4.7cm | Connectivity: aptX Bluetooth, 3.5mm | Battery life: 24hr | Power: 50W
Reasons to Buy
Powerful, full-bodied sound
Great dynamics and timing
Long battery life
If you’re after a premium portable speaker, there’s every chance that the Dali Katch will blow your cashmere socks off. Dali, better known for its traditional hi-fi speakers, has managed to extract a sound that is quite simply incredible for something of the Katch’s stature.
Two tweeters and a pair of aluminium woofers, driven by a Class-D amplifier, make for a total power output of 50W – not to mention an impressive amount of detail and a nice dose of velvety low-end.
The speaker boasts buttons for power, volume and pairing, which is made easier with the option of NFC. There are also two EQ presets: one for freestanding play and one for positioning on a shelf. And let’s not forget the excellent battery life: just two hours of charge will get you around 24 hours of music playback via Bluetooth.
The Katch isn’t cheap, but you do get what you pay for – a weighty, dynamic sound that defies this speaker’s dimensions.
Read the full review: Dali Katch
18. Ultimate Ears Megablast
A lively, entertaining Bluetooth speaker with plenty going for it.
SPECIFICATIONS
Connectivity: Bluetooth and wi-fi | Power: Battery | Inputs: N/A | Battery life: 16hrs | Dimensions (hwd): 23.7 x 8.8 x 8.8cm | Weight: 1.19kg
Reasons to Buy
Dynamic, detailed sound
Enthusiastic, punchy rhythms
Precise, taut basslines
Reasons to Avoid
Presentation is slightly lean
Not fully featured just yet
The powerful UE Megablast takes the performance of a portable Bluetooth speaker at this price to a new level. If you’re looking for thumping bass, well, let’s just say you’ve come to the right place.
Design-wise, the Megablast is waterproof (IP67 rated), so it will survive being dunked in the pool or exposed to a sudden downpour. Battery life is 16 hours, which is pretty respectable given that it has Alexa voice smarts built-in.
Say the wake word ‘Alexa’ and a white LED strip on top of the Megablast glows in recognition. Features include voice-controlled music playback over wi-fi, through Amazon Music Unlimited and TuneIn radio, plus support for the likes of Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music. There’s no 3.5mm audio jack, though.
A combination of pounding bass and enthusiastic sense of rhythm make for a hugely enjoyable performance. It might not be the most pocketable speaker around, but few rivals can match the Megablast for bass quality. An absolute treat.
Read the full review: UE Megablast
(Image credit: Sonos)
19. Sonos Roam
A pleasing Bluetooth speaker with a full-bodied sound.
Want a Sonos speaker you can drop in a backpack? Meet the Sonos Roam, the multi-room titan’s first truly portable battery-powered speaker (the 2019 Sonos Move is technically portable but weighs a hefty 3kg to the Roam’s 430g).
The Roam works perfectly well as a standalone Bluetooth speaker but it’s also designed to be immersed in the company’s burgeoning multi-room ecosystem. Features includes support for AirPlay 2, voice controls and Sonos’ Trueplay tech, which uses the built-in mic to tune bass and treble to suit your surroundings.
Headed to the beach or the pool? You’ll be pleased to note the IP67 rating, which gives it complete water and dust resistance. The built-in battery offers a pretty decent 10 hours playback and support for Qi wireless charging.
Sound is confident, bold and better than you might expect from an outdoor/party speaker at this price. Other Bluetooth speakers offer a more expressive and detailed sound but if you’re invested in the world of Sonos, the Roam is a smart buy.
Read the full review: Sonos Roam
20. JBL Go 2
Impressive sound from an impressively small and portable package.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: HxWxD (cm): 7.1 x 8.6 x 3.2 | Power: 3W | Features: IPX7 waterproof, Bluetooth V4.1 | Connections: micro-USB | Finishes: 12
Reasons to Buy
Tidy design
Balanced sound
Decent bass
Reasons to Avoid
Battery life could be better
The budget JBL Go 2 might be the perfect holiday accessory. It’s a tiny speaker, no bigger than a bar of soap, which makes it small enough to slip into your pocket. There are 12 colours in the range, including the retro-fabulously pearlescent yellow model pictured above.
The Go 2 has a full waterproof IPX7 rating, so it won’t matter if you drop it in the pool by mistake. Features are thin on the ground, but you go get an aux input, plus a noise-cancelling speakerphone and built-in mic for handsfree calls. There’s no wi-fi, though, and the battery life is a little disappointing: 2.5 hours of charging returns a maximum playing time of just five hours.
Despite an output of just 3W, the Go 2 punches above its weight when it comes to sound. For the money, it’s a lively, balanced and cohesive performer. If you’re the sort of person who likes to travel light, we think this is up there with the best Bluetooth speakers of its type.
Read the full review: JBL Go 2
21. Bose SoundLink Mini II
This Bose portable speaker is a decent option for the money.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: HxWxD (cm): 5.1 x 18 x 5.8 | Features: Bluetooth V3.0 | Connections: 3.5mm stereo, micro-USB
Reasons to Buy
Full-bodied sound
Weighty bass
Portable
Reasons to Avoid
Lows lack precision and agility
If you’re after a portable speaker that doesn’t scrimp on bass weight, the SoundLink Mini II could be just the ticket. The small but hefty design pumps out a big, bassy sound that will get you dancing by the pool.
Bose has kept features to a bare minimum; there are buttons for power, pairing (you can link two devices at a time and switch between them) and volume. You also get an aux input and a USB input for charging. Battery life is 10 hours – pretty good for a speaker of this size.
The big attraction here is the sound quality. While lots of portable speakers offer fuller bass, it’s often boomy or distorted. That’s certainly not the case with the SoundLink Mini II, which sounds taut and expressive. Vocals are exceedingly rich and instruments are given space to breathe. In fact, the sound is as good as anything we’ve heard at this price and stature. Other speakers are better value for money, but this high-quality Bose speaker is still a fantastic buy.
A new batch of leaked images shows what could become Samsung’s least expensive 5G phone yet: the Galaxy A22 5G. The Galaxy A32 5G currently holds that title at an already low $279. The images come from 91mobiles and match up with previous leaks hinting that the phone might be on its way with a 200,000 KRW price (~$180), though it may be only destined for India and parts of Asia in the immediate future.
The leaked images show two variants — 5G and 4G versions — with two slightly varied sets of specs. The 5G model will allegedly have a 6.4-inch LCD and a rear triple-camera array (probably a 48-megapixel main / macro / depth sensor combo). A MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset looks likely, thanks to a previous Geekbench leak, plus a substantial 6GB of RAM. The 4G model includes one additional rear camera and an OLED rather than LCD. They’re both expected to offer large 5,000mAh batteries.
Leaks suggest that the A22 5G will offer a 6.4-inch LCD, rear triple-camera array, and 5,000mAh battery.Image: 91mobiles
There are a few other budget phones between the $200 and $300 mark offering 5G, including the Realme 8 5G for €199 (~$240) and the OnePlus Nord N10 5G for $300, but the A22 5G stands to become one of the first in the sub-$200 range, depending on how things shake out. In the US, 5G is still in a sorry state, but wireless carriers are racing to improve their networks and may be eager to stock their shelves with more aggressively priced 5G devices like the A22 5G soon.
Taiwan started a rotational electricity blackout across the country on Thursday following a major incident at a coal-fired power plant in southern Taiwan that caused its shutdown. The outages have not affected TSMC, the world’s largest contract maker of chips, other foundries, and DRAM makers. However, chip packaging houses had to halt operations briefly.
Taiwan’s high-tech manufacturing, which serves the lion’s share of the world’s need for chips, is crucially dependent on electricity supply. According to Reuters, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. admitted that some of its facilities suffered a ‘brief power dip,’ but power had been restored. According to DigiTimes, United Microelectronics Corp.’s fabs located in southern Taiwan also suffered a voltage drop, yet this did not interrupt production.
Taiwan is home to several major contract makers of semiconductors, including TSMC, UMC, Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS), and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC). At this point, they control 56% of the global contract chip production, so any issue they experience can become global.
Semiconductor production facilities usually run on diesel generators during brief power dips, but these cannot feed the power hungry fabs for long. Neither TSMC nor UMC had to shut down any fab because of the controlled blackout. TSMC said that it had seen “no major impact so far.” Just like the top contract chipmakers, smaller contract producers of semiconductors in Taiwan, namely VIS and PSMC, did not run into any problems, according to reports from DigiTimes and TrendForce.
There are also multiple DRAM fabs owned by Micron and some independent manufacturers like Nanya, accounting for about 21% of the global output. NAND production is not Taiwan’s strong side, but some makers produce specialty flash memory. Fortunately, production at all DRAM and NAND fabs was not interrupted, yet some companies confirmed voltage drops.
Several companies, including AU Optronics and Innolux, produce LCD panels in Taiwan. Like semiconductor fabs, LCD production facilities cannot be shut down even for a short time without any impact. Therefore, blackouts can certainly affect supplies. The good news is that neither AUO nor Innolux had to halt operations anywhere in Taiwan because of the blackouts.
ASE Technology, the world’s largest outsourced semiconductor assembly and test provider, confirmed that its operations had been affected. ChipMOS Technologies also informed that its gold bumping lines were impacted by the blackouts but did not elaborate.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Science and Technology cited by Bloomberg, all three major science parks in Taiwan were at least partly affected by the blackouts. Obviously, Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) was affected the most. Meanwhile, the administration of STSP said that 7 out of 40 companies located in the park were affected by the power blackout.
A major failure at the coal and gas-fired Hsinta Power Plant in Kaohsiung that required its shutdown occurred at 2:47 PM local time (2:47 AM ET). At around 3 PM, Taiwan residents received an emergency alert about the incident, reports Taiwan News. According to Reuters, the notice said that the country did not have enough electricity capacity in the power grid and that the government began a rotational electricity blackout across the country.
Taipower said that the rotational outages would continue until at least 4:40 PM and that six million homes were hit by blackouts, though this seems to be an underestimate as Taipei went black at 3:15 PM.
If Tim Cook was more into retro computers, then the newly redesigned iMac might have looked like this. It doesn’t of course, but that doesn’t matter – we’ve got Pigenoaut’s Callisto II, as spotted by Hackaday.
Within that lovely late 1970s / early 1980s 3D printed shell sits a Raspberry Pi 4 running the show. The screen is a Pimoroni eight-inch LCD as used in their Picades, with an appropriately 20th-century 4:3 aspect ratio and 800 x 600 resolution. The mechanical keyboard is 60% of normal size and fits snugly into the custom designed space. Inside the unit is a USB hub, power supply, and a lot of good fresh air to keep the Raspberry Pi 4 cool. A hatch on the back of the case, which snaps together without glue, allows access to the innards, in case you want to fill the void with hard drives or swap out the computing board with another model.
(Image credit: Pigeonaut)
Possibly the best thing about the project, though, is the accompanying website which strikes precisely the right note even if it isn’t period authentic. From the dithered images to the liberal use of GIFs, it’s filled with links to Pigeonaut’s other adventures in DIY computing, as well as the brilliant online OS, PigeonOS.
With its friendly design and range of pastel colors, the Callisto II would look great on any desk.
(Pocket-lint) – The HTC Vive Pro was revealed as the successor to the HTC Vive, back at CES 2018 in Las Vegas. Since then the company has launched the HTC Vive Pro Eye and HTC Vive Cosmos. In 2021, at Vivecon, the company the revealed the HTC Vive Pro 2.
While Oculus is focussing on making accessible and affordable VR headsets for the masses with the Oculus Quest line-up, HTC is very much aiming for the top-tier, best-in-class VR experience.
We’re summarising the differences between the headsets so you know what’s changed.
HTC Vive Pro 2: Dual front-facing cameras, adjustable comfort dial
The original HTC Vive was a striking VR headset with a funky black finish and an unmistakable pocked-marked design. A wired virtual reality headset that required a fairly high-end gaming PC in order to work. This headset was the start of serious VR headsets from HTC and the company has continued to improve upon an award-winning formula since then with various iterations of the Vive Pro line-up.
The HTC Vive Pro is immediately recognisable thanks to some striking design changes. Where the original headset came in black, the HTC Vive Pro came in a bold blue with two front-facing cameras.
The classic pocked-marked design remained with the sensors still a key part of the VR tracking experience, but the Vive Pro included some comfort upgrades missing from the original Vive. As well as other improvements too.
Where the HTC Vive featured three velcro straps that need adjusting to get the right fit, the Vive Pro had an updated design that includes a solid strap, integrated headphones and a clever comfort system. This included a dial at the back that allows for easy fit and comfort adjustment.
The design of the HTC Vive Pro also features enhanced ergonomics to give a more balanced fit by decreasing weight on the front of your face while you play. This includes a redesigned face cushion and nose pad combination which blocks out more light than the current design on the original HTC Vive.
The HTC Vive Pro has two front-facing cameras that look like eyes on the front of the headset. These are primarily designed for developers to take advantage of, but allow for better tracking of your environment as you game too.
The HTC Vive Pro 2 has mostly maintained the same outward design aesthetics as the Vive Pro. The main difference being the front faceplate is now black instead of blue. A lot has changed under the hood, but HTC has taken an “if it isn’t broken don’t fix it” attitude to the general setup of the headset itself.
The HTC Vive Pro uses a DisplayPort 1.2 connection. This is something to bear in mind if you’re considering the upgrade or purchase of the HTC Vive Pro – as not all graphics cards have a DisplayPort output and you might need an adapter.
Despite significantly upgraded visuals, it’s said that any machine capable of running the Vive Pro will be handle the Vive Pro 2 as well. That’s thanks to something called “Display Stream Compression” which downscales visuals if necessary on lesser hardware.
HTC Vive Pro review: The best VR experience… if you can afford it
HTC Vive Pro Eye review: The future of VR is controller-free
HTC
The Vive Pro Eye was an interesting addition to the Vive line-up. A powerful VR headset that’s was more aimed at “professional” users than gamers.
It features similar design aesthetics to the HTC Vive Pro but stands out as having rings around the two front-facing cameras. The highlight of this device is the internal tech though as the HTC Vive Pro Eye features eye-tracking technology. This design, therefore, includes LED sensors around the lenses that both track and analyse eye movements as you observe the virtual world.
The HTC Vive Pro, the HTC Vive Pro Eye and Vive Pro 2 all features adjustable headphones, head strap and eye relief system to ensure you get a comfortable gaming experience. All these headsets are compatible with a wide range of games available from Steam and Viveport.
Best HTC Vive and Vive Pro games: Incredible experiences to play right now
HTC
Display resolution and specifications
HTC Vive Pro: 1400 x 1600 per eye (2800 x 1600 overall resolution), 110-degree field of view, 90Hz refresh rate
HTC Vive Pro Eye: 1400 x 1600 per eye (2800 x 1600 overall resolution), 615 PPI, 110-degree field of view, 90Hz refresh rate
HTC Vive Pro 2: 2448 x 2448 pixels per eye (4896 x 2448 overall resolution), 120-degree field of view, 120Hz refresh rate
The original HTC Vive was the pinnacle of VR when we first reviewed it. Things have come a long way since then and screen technology has changed a lot.
The HTC Vive Pro offered an increased resolution to deliver an even better optical experience. Dual-OLED displays on the headset offered a total resolution of 2880 x 1600. That’s 1400 x 1600 per eye compared to 1080 x 1200 per eye on the original HTC Vive.
The HTC Vive Pro Eye offered the same visual specifications as the Vive Pro. With the only difference being in the way this headset tracks your eyes.
The HTC Vive Pro 2 has lept forward even more with the offer of not only 4896 x 2448 pixels but a faster 120Hz refresh rate and a wider field of view too.
HTC claims the Vive Pro 2 has the “best-in-class” display with the highest resolution to date, even compared to top-of-the-line competitors like the HP Reverb G2 and Valve Index.
This resolution change improves clarity during gaming as well as enhancing immersion for gamers. The HTC Vive Pro 2 offers clearer text rendering and a crisper picture whether playing games or watching videos while using the headset. In-game textures are smoother and more realistic as well as stunning to look at.
HTC has also improved the Vive Pro 2 with the addition of a dual-stack lens design with two lenses redirecting the image for a wider field of view. This is said to have a bigger sweet spot and a more realistic view of the world around you. The fast-switch LCD IPS panel also sports RGB subpixel technology and that, combined with the high pixel count should result in virtually no screen-door effect.
Despite these changes, the Vive Pro 2 can still run on similarly specced gaming PCs:
The recommended specifications are:
Processor: Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350, equivalent or better.
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce® GTX1060 or AMD Radeon RX480, equivalent or better.
Memory: 4 GB RAM or more
Video out: DisplayPort 1.2 or newer
USB ports: 1x USB 3.0 or newer port
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 8.1 or Windows 10
Audio quality and features
HTC Vive Pro: High-performance Hi-Res certified headphones with a built-in amplifier and 3D spatial sound, dual microphones with active noise cancellation
HTC Vive Pro Eye: Hi-Res certified headphones, built-in digital amplifier, 3D spatial sound, dual microphones with active noise cancellation
The HTC Vive Pro includes earcups built right into the design. These headphones offer a similar design to the Deluxe Audio Strap upgrade for the HTC Vive, but with improvements to enhance them further.
The HTC Vive Pro includes high-performance headphones with a built-in amplifier that delivers a superior audio experience including a “heightened sense of presence” and better spatial sound.
The HTC Vive Pro only requires a single cable to connect to the link box which then attaches to your PC, so there are far fewer cables to get in the way as you game.
The headphones click down into place when you need them and click up out of the way when you don’t.
The design of the HTC Vive Pro also includes dual built-in microphones with active noise cancellation for a superior communication experience when playing multiplayer or co-op games. These headphones also include volume controls and a mic mute button built right into the design for easy access while you play.
The HTC Vive Pro Eye and the HTC Vive Pro 2 offer the same audio experience as the HTC Vive Pro. There are no upgrades here as far as we can see from the specs or from testing. It is worth noting though that the headphones on the HTC Vive Pro 2 are detachable so you can pop them off and use your own if you so wish.
HTC
Tracking compatibility and upgrades
HTC Vive Pro: Backwards compatibility with original base stations (sold separately)
The original HTC Vive required users to plug two base stations into the mains power supply in the room that would make up the playspace. These sensors would then help track and relay movement data of both the headset and controllers back to the PC. With a base station in either corner of the room, users can achieve a Room-Scale play space of around 4×3 metres.
The HTC Vive uses sensors that make it capable of tracking six degrees of movement – meaning it can track all movement up and down, back and forth and around the play space as long as the base stations can see you.
The HTC Vive Pro is compatible with the original HTC Vive base stations meaning theoretically if you own the original VR device you can just buy the new headset and it will work fine with the original setup. New and improved base stations also offer an increased level of Room-Scale tracking with up to 10×10 metre playspace.
Similarly, the Vive Pro 2 follows the same logic and with the headset available to buy on its own it makes a logical upgrade path for anyone who owns the original headsets.
As we mentioned earlier, the HTC Vive Pro Eye boasts an upgrade in terms of its tracking capabilities that includes LED sensors that monitor eye movements. This is said to not only allow your eyes to act as a controller but also allows the headset to gather data on your eye movements while you play or look around the virtual environment.
In practice, this will result in faster reactions in gaming and useful data for businesses who are trying to track audience gaze. For example, monitoring what products or virtual objects get the most attention from a lingering look. It also presents the possibility of controlling games with just your eyes – whether indicating where you want to go or by controlling different menus within the game.
The Vive Pro 2 is interesting as it’s still compatible with the HTC Vive wireless adapter, it will also work with the Facial Tracker and with the Vive Tracker 3.0 setup which means you can theoretically track anything in the real world.
The Vive Pro 2 will also work with both Vive wand controllers and Valve’s Knuckle controllers, giving you more options to control the headset with ease.
HTC
Which is the right HTC headset for you?
The HTC Vive Pro 2 is now the most logical choice for those considering an HTC VR headset. It isn’t cheap, but if you’re upgrading from previous HTC headsets then you can save some money by just purchasing the headset and nothing else.
For those who are new to VR, the HTC Vive Pro 2’s price tag might seem high compared to the likes of the Oculus Quest 2, but with some serious specs under the hood, it should be the pinnacle of VR. Though you’ll need a high-end PC to make the most of the headset and the full kit in order to successfully track it.
We thought the HTC Vive Pro was one of the best VR headsets money could buy and the Vive Pro 2 should continue that trend too.
The Blade 11 Prime offers a 6.5-inch screen and Qi wireless charging in a well-priced budget device.
If you’re already invested in a wireless charging lifestyle, the Blade 11 Prime is a budget phone to match it
The ZTE Blade 11 Prime offers one standout feature in a field of largely similar sub-$200 phones: wireless charging.
In the smartphone trickle-down economy, wireless charging is basically guaranteed on any flagship-level phone, but it’s still hit-and-miss among midrange phones and all but absent from the budget class. You’re much more likely to find a really big battery on a sub-$200 phone than wireless charging.
Outside of that feature, the $192 Blade 11 Prime’s specs are much the same as competing models like the Galaxy A12 and Moto G Play. Like those models, it offers a 6.5-inch 720p LCD, though it includes a little more RAM (4GB compared to 3GB) and a little less battery capacity (4,000mAh compared to 5,000mAh).
Choosing a phone that’s priced under $500 means you need to pick your priorities carefully, and that’s even more true of a $200 phone. If wireless charging is your chosen priority, then I have good news: the ZTE Blade 11 Prime is the budget-priced phone for you. If it’s not a major priority and more of a nice-to-have item, then I’d suggest looking elsewhere. You won’t do a lot better on any individual feature, like a better screen or camera, but you can do a little better.
The Blade 11 Prime supports the Qi wireless charging standard at 5W.
ZTE Blade 11 Prime screen, battery, and performance
The Blade 11 Prime is on the bigger side with a 6.5-inch display. Its 720p resolution is stretched a little thin here, and you’ll notice certain images looking a little pixelated if you look closely. The screen gets nice and bright, but its auto-brightness setting kept bringing the level down a little too dim for my liking. I also noticed faint repeating vertical lines on dark parts of the screen indicative of a low-quality panel — not a huge distraction but visible.
It doesn’t have the biggest battery in its class, but the Blade 11’s battery performance is generally good anyway. I got about two days of light, mostly Wi-Fi use on a single charge. Spending a full day out and about on LTE would drain the battery faster, but most people could expect to get through at least a full day of heavy use before needing to charge up again.
The Blade 11 Prime’s marquee feature, wireless charging, works well if a little slowly; the phone supports Qi charging at 5W. Taking it from 50 percent to a full charge took almost exactly two hours, during which the phone got warm but not worryingly so. As long as you don’t expect incredible speeds, wireless charging is a convenient option on the Blade 11 Prime, particularly if you’re the type of person who charges your phone overnight.
We don’t expect dazzling processing speed from a $200 phone, but the ZTE Blade 11 Prime falls a little short even considering its price. It uses a MediaTek MT6762 Helio P22 chipset with a relatively healthy 4GB of RAM, but this combination struggles with even light tasks like scrolling through Instagram or Twitter.
Apps open quickly enough, but there was significant stuttering and hesitation just browsing my usual social media timelines or scrolling through the home screen app drawer. Some slowness is expected in this price bracket, but I didn’t see as much consistent stuttering using the Motorola Moto G Play recently.
The ZTE Blade 11 Prime ships with Android 11, which is nice — some of its slightly less recent competitors are still on 10 waiting for an update. ZTE says there’s no plan to offer any additional Android OS upgrades, only that it will offer security patches as needed. That’s not too surprising given the phone’s price point; the Blade 11 Prime just isn’t built for longevity past a couple of years of use. There’s also 64GB of built-in storage, which isn’t a lot. If you don’t download too many apps or store too many photos on your device, you’ll be able to get by, otherwise adding a microSD card for additional storage to your purchase is a good idea.
Camera hardware is modest: on the rear panel, you’ll find a 16-megapixel main and 8-megapixel ultrawide camera.
ZTE Blade 11 Prime camera
The rear camera system on the Blade 11 Prime includes a 16-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel ultrawide, plus a 2-megapixel depth sensor. It’s a basic setup, and it does fine in good lighting conditions. It’s a little more prone to clipping very bright spots in photos than other systems I’ve used recently, but it does a nice job overall with exposures of high-contrast scenes. In moderate indoor lighting, some detail-smoothing noise reduction is visible, and low-light photos look smeary even at the reduced image sizes used for social sharing.
Taken with ultrawide
Taken with ultrawide
Taken with ultrawide
As for the other cameras, they’re just fine. The ultrawide doesn’t handle high-contrast scenes as well as the main camera, with some noticeable noise appearing in shadows. There’s also a short delay after pressing the shutter button before you can take another photo that isn’t present when using the main camera. The selfie camera thankfully avoids over-smoothing faces, and photos look good as long as there’s plenty of available light.
If you aren’t already a wireless charging devotee, it would be best to look elsewhere in the budget phone class.
If your budget is strict and wireless charging is a must-have, then the ZTE Blade 11 Prime is the right phone for you. But if you can make do without wireless charging, I’d strongly encourage you to look elsewhere. Iffy performance with basic tasks will be more of an inconvenience in the long run than having to plug in your phone every night to charge it.
This year’s Motorola Moto G Power would be a worthwhile alternative if you can spend a little more; you’ll get a faster processor and better battery life, though you should definitely plan on buying a microSD card to supplement its meager 32GB of storage. The G Play is a good alternative, too, even with a processor that’s a bit slower than the G Power’s.
There’s definitely something intriguing about accessing public data—from citizen band radio to tracking the ISS, the Raspberry Pi has proven to be a capable choice for tinkerers with a hunger for information. But for those with an interest in local aerospace activity, you’ll need a Raspberry Pi aircraft monitoring rig like maker Dr2mod has created!
Most aircraft use ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast) technology to transmit location data to control stations in real-time while in flight. This data is also accessible by anyone using the right receiver. Dr2mod is able to access this data using a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ alongside a HackRF One software-defined radio (SDR).
The data is output to a 3.5-inch Waveshare LCD SPI screen. Each airplane detected is represented as an arrow, facing the direction of flight, superimposed over a map.
To get the best signal, the antenna needs to be fully extended and near a window. When possible, externally mounted antennas will provide the best results. Signal requirements will vary depending on local topography.
The best Raspberry Pi projects are the ones you can recreate yourself and this one is suitable for a summer endeavor. Visit the original project thread at Reddit for more details and a closer look at how everything goes together.
The Raspberry Pi might be known as a pocket-sized computer but it does turn up in all manner of places. This maker, known as Littlespleen online, decided to use an old Apple laptop as housing for a Raspberry Pi 4.
The best Raspberry Pi projects breathe life into old hardware, and this one recycles a broken MacBook. This exact model, the A1181, was chosen due to the trackpad and keyboard which connect via USB—perfect for attaching to a Raspberry Pi.
The Raspberry Pi 4 outputs video to the original MacBook screen via an adaptor. According to Littlespleen, there are many third-party controller boards on the market that can take inputs from HDMI / DVI and VGA and output to LCD displays. Users need to research the exact model number when recreating this project to make sure a compatible board is chosen.
Image 1 of 3
(Image credit: Littlespleen)
Image 2 of 3
(Image credit: Littlespleen)
Image 3 of 3
(Image credit: Littlespleen)
As space is at a premium, careful decisions had to be made and one was form factor. This required some capacitors to be placed on their side to make room for the LCD controller board installation. Most of the hardware was placed under the keyboard after gutting the original internals. The onboard batteries power both the Raspberry Pi and the display, with careful consideration made to include a voltage regulator / switching power supply to ensure the Raspberry Pi only sees 5V.
The end result is a fully functional laptop that looks like Apple but tastes like Raspberry. If you want to read more about how it goes together, visit the original Reddit thread for more details.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
