Apple has officially sent out invitations to the company’s next event called Spring Reloaded. The event will be held online on Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Considering the plethora of rumors surrounding Apple’s products due to be announced this year, it is close to impossible to guess what the company plans to unveil next week.
The official invitation flyer has a wavy Apple logo along with Spring Loaded tagline, which gives little food for imagination. The official video has Apple Park inner yard with more squiggly lines that form Apple’s logo, which also implies almost nothing (except, perhaps, a new Apple Pencil).
Typically, Apple refreshes its tablet lineups in the spring, but since it introduced new iPads and iPad Airs last September, it’s more likely that the company will release new iPad Pros along with a series of accessories. Speaking of accessories, rumor has it that Apple will finally introduce its AirTag devices at the event. (These are supposed to help in finding lost items.)
Meanwhile, Apple now has plethora of various non-compute devices, including Apple TV set-top-box and smart speakers. The current 5th Generation Apple TV (based on the ancient A10X Fusion) was released in 2017, so it’s past time for it to be replaced by something new.
Over the past few months, we reported on Apple’s plans to introduce brand-new Mac Pro, iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air PCs running its own processors this year. All of these systems will likely be powered by successors of the Apple M1, so we’d suspect refreshed versions of MBP 13 and MBA to launch later this year. Meanwhile, Apple typically launches new MBP and iMac systems in June and MacBook Pro PCs in Q4, so, chances that next week the company will reveal revamped PCs are low.
Apple is also rumored to be working on a Mini LED display. While Apple is evaluating the Mini LED technology, like any other display supplier, it is unclear whether the company is willing to replace its Pro Display XDR a little less two years after it was introduced and less than 1.5 years after it was launched. To that end, it is not likely that Apple will introduce a new ultra-high-end monitor next week.
The JBL 4309 is a smaller version of the JBL 4349 and shares the same retro aesthetic. The compact speakers (they measure just over 41cm/16in tall) come equipped with a 1-inch compression driver teamed with a High-Definition Imaging horn and a 6.5-inch, cast frame pure-pulp cone woofer.
The crossover network features air-core inductors, cast wire-wound resistors and low-ESR metallized film capacitors, which JBL says optimise the performance of those drivers.
On the front panel, an ultra high-frequency tonal adjuster lets users tweak the sound to their preference, and the enclosure is braced with 3/4-inch thick walls incorporating a bass-reflex design with dual front-firing flared ports. On the back, you’ll find twin sets of gold-plated binding posts suitable for single-ended or bi-wire/bi-amplified connections.
2021 marks JBL’s 75th anniversary, and to help celebrate this milestone, the speaker baffles are presented in the brand’s iconic blue. The cabinet comes finished in a choice of walnut (with a blue cloth grille) or black walnut (with a black grille) satinwood veneers.
The JBL 4309 Studio Monitor will be available from June priced at $2000 a pair.
Microsoft is launching Surface Headphones 2 Plus today alongside two new headsets, all with dedicated Microsoft Teams buttons. It’s Microsoft’s latest hardware attempt to push Microsoft Teams, after the company launched new intelligent speakers for Teams last month and monitors started appearing with Teams buttons earlier this year. These aren’t the only headsets to feature a Microsoft Teams button, but now Microsoft’s trying to make it the new norm.
First up is Microsoft’s Surface Headphones 2 Plus for Business. Much like the Plus moniker on the Surface Pro 7 Plus, this is more of a refresh than a major redesign. All of the same features on the Surface Headphones 2, including battery life, remain the same, but Microsoft is now certifying these headphones for Teams usage. That means there’s a dedicated Microsoft Teams button and a new USB dongle that includes a light to let you know whether you’re on mute.
As the name implies, Microsoft is only selling the Surface Headphones 2 Plus for Business (what a mouthful) to business and education customers. The headphones will only be available in a black color option for $299.99 starting today.
Alongside the Surface-branded headphones, Microsoft is also launching two new headsets with dedicated Microsoft Teams buttons. After launching an impressive Xbox Wireless Headset last month, Microsoft’s new Modern Wireless Headset offers a somewhat similar option for laptops and PCs. This wireless headset includes padded ear cups, a microphone that automatically mutes when you flip it up, and on-ear controls for mute, volume, and Teams controls.
While the headset includes Bluetooth support, it will require the included USB-A dongle for the Microsoft Teams features. Microsoft is promising up to 50 hours of music listening on this Modern Wireless Headset, or up to 30 hours of Microsoft Teams talk time. The headset can be charged fully in two and a half hours. Microsoft isn’t releasing pricing for the Modern Wireless Headset yet, but the company says it will ship in select markets this June.
If you’re not interested in wireless, then there’s the Microsoft Modern USB Headset. Despite the modern name, it connects over USB-A, not USB-C, and includes in-line controls for volume, mute, and the Microsoft Teams button. It’s mostly a lightweight headset with padded ear cups that’s designed to be a somewhat affordable Microsoft Teams headset for $49.99. This headset will ship in June for business and education customers.
Spotify’s first gadget has landed. Car Thing, a Spotify-only, voice-controlled device for the car, is launching today in limited quantities to invited users. It’s a dedicated, Bluetooth-connected device for controlling Spotify without the need for a phone screen, which seems to be meant for people who drive older cars without built-in infotainment systems or phone connections.
Before getting to the device details, let’s focus on the basics. Car Thing is only being released as a “limited product launch,” so you can’t buy one outright. Instead, you can sign up for the waitlist and hope Spotify reaches out. It’s only available for US customers, and you have to subscribe to Spotify Premium to qualify. Another thing to know: if you’re chosen to try Car Thing, the device is free, but you have to pay for shipping. Spotify declined to comment on how many units it’d be giving away. The company’s also billing the gadget as an “exploration,” so it’s unclear how serious the team is about the product and its future.
The device is shockingly small and lightweight. It has a thin profile and features two prominent buttons on the front, a small one that serves as a back button and a larger knob that lets you interact with whatever’s on-screen. There’s no speaker, so it’s easiest to think of the device as, essentially, a Spotify remote. Yes, you could use your actual phone to play Spotify content, but instead, Spotify is betting that you’ll want voice controls and a dedicated interface to control your audio.
Photo by Ashley Carman / The Verge
I’ve tested Car Thing for a couple days and found the voice controls to be easy to use and relatively intuitive. I drive a 2009 Honda Fit and already keep my phone mounted to the dash for navigation, so I ended up mounting the Car Thing on my vent. This meant I had two bright screens facing me throughout my drive. (I do have a screen built into my car, which you’ll see in photos, but I don’t use it for anything because I prefer Google Maps.)
The voice controls mostly worked — for some reason it only got tripped up on a Kid Cudi request — but I grew frustrated with the steps it took to control music. When a song that I didn’t like played, it took longer to say, “Hey Spotify, skip” than it would have to just tap the skip button on my phone. I generally felt like I could more efficiently navigate Spotify just by using my phone at stop lights. The device does shine, however, when you ask the voice assistant to start a playlist, and it registered those commands easily.
As for the hardware itself, Car Thing pairs with a phone over Bluetooth. It needs this phone for a data connection, so yes, users will require a decent amount of data to stream. In a press briefing, Spotify noted that right now, there’s no way for users to pull only from their downloaded content, although that functionality could come in the future. Depending on a car’s connectivity, users can either rely on an auxiliary cable for sound or keep their phone paired to their car’s Bluetooth to play audio content over the speakers. The Car Thing doesn’t have a speaker itself, and it’s basically controlling the Spotify app on your phone. It’s a strange setup.
The device comes with a 12V adapter into which you’ll plug the provided USB-A to USB-C cable. Car Thing does not include a rechargeable battery and needs to be plugged in at all times. The device also ships with three different mounts: a vent mount, a dashboard mount, and a CD player mount. You can clip a magnetic attachment to these mounts, which then lets you take the Car Thing off easily. (Also worth noting is that the dash mount doesn’t come with a suction cup and instead requires that you stick it to your dash with 3M adhesive backing.)
Spotify
Once mounted, you can interact with Car Thing in three ways: through your voice using a “Hey Spotify” command, through its tactile buttons and knob, or through its touchscreen. It also features four preset buttons on the top of the device, which you can set to specific content.
Now that I have a Car Thing, can I see it being a success? I guess it depends on how comfortable people are with a Spotify-owned microphone in their cars and whether they think the device offers a more meaningful experience than their built-in infotainment systems. Because my car is older, it did provide a hands-free interface for music while also adding another screen to my setup. But I also feel uneasy about a Spotify microphone being within earshot of all my conversations. (The device does feature a digital setting to turn the microphone off, probably to address concerns like mine, but still.) Spotify’s voice privacy page says it only records and stores what users say after its “Hey Spotify” wake phrase is spoken, but I still don’t love the idea of an always-listening microphone near me. The privacy page mostly details the company’s interactive voice ads, which I have yet to come across.
Broadly, I’d assume people with modern infotainment systems likely won’t need or want a Spotify-only Bluetooth remote, whereas people like me, whose cars are older, might end up wanting to stick with whatever system they’ve already figured out. One thing that Spotify might accomplish with Car Thing, however, is getting users who default to the radio to switch to Spotify instead. It’s clearly making a play for the space with its Your Daily Drive playlist, which updates daily with music and spoken word content, as well as its push into podcasts. I default to the radio often because it’s the easiest thing to put on. Car Thing, if I keep it in my car, would admittedly change that and give Spotify more of my listening time, and that’s likely all Spotify wants.
Between the excellent operating system and solid all-round performance, this is an impressively complete package at a reasonable price
For
Excellent upscaling
Bold, colourful picture
Superb Roku UI
Against
Sonically lightweight
Colours can be heavy-handed
There are reasons why wine is dated by year. The grapes might come from the same fields, the fermentation process may be identical and the barrels alike, but the taste and quality still vary from season to season. While TV panel production is unlikely to be quite so affected by the weather, the Hisense Roku R50A7200GTUK proves that just because you use the same materials and method as last year’s excellent vintage, it doesn’t mean the results will be the same.
The Hisense Roku R50A7200GTUK is likely to be the cheapest 50in TV we’ll see on sale in the UK this year from a major manufacturer. It promises a good-sized, punchy 4K HDR image and all the major apps and services you could need, without so much as an additional box or stick in sight.
It’s a pledge that Hisense delivered so well in 2020 with its R50B7120UK model that it has decided to leave the recipe pretty much as it was for its 2021 Roku TV. While there are many Roku TVs available in the US, for the UK this Hisense model stands alone.
Pricing
The Hisense Roku R50A7200GTUK is priced at £349, although if last year’s set is anything to go by, that could drop significantly later in the year. The Hisense Roku TV A7200GTUK is also available in 43in, 55in and 65in sizes, though our review sample here is the 50in version. On paper, these other panel variants are identical, apart from that the 43in size comes with a lower-powered, twin 7W speaker system and the top-end size benefits from a two 10W speaker set-up.
These Hisense Roku TVs are only available in the UK and are Argos exclusives.
Features
(Image credit: Future / The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things, Amazon Prime)
The Hisense Roku R50A7200GTUK is simple and unassuming in style and appearance and the chassis is almost the same as the previous model. It’s a little more even on the rear, though the overall thickness remains identical. The feet are matte plastic instead of gloss, but that’s about it.
The one key improvement is on the front, where the bezel has been reduced from a basic-looking 1cm band to something closer to 4mm, giving a more contemporary aesthetic. There’s no change to the usable and fully featured remote control. There are direct shortcuts buttons to Freeview Play, Netflix, Google Play Movies & TV, Spotify and Rakuten, plus some clear navigation and media controls too.
Around the rear of the set are three HDMI 2.0-rated ports which can manage frame rates of up to 60Hz at 4K level. There’s also a USB 2.0 socket, a wired headphones connection, and ARC support for easy connection to a soundbar.
Hisense Roku R50A7200GTUK tech specs
(Image credit: Future / The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things, Amazon Prime)
HDR formats HDR10, HLG
Sound formats Dolby Audio, DTS Studio Sound
Inputs 3x HDMI 2.0 (inc ARC), USB 2.0, headphones out
Freeview Play Yes
Dimensions (hwd) 72 x 113 x 26cm (with stand)
Weight 9kg
The Roku TV smart platform is pretty close to flawless. It covers all the major streaming services as well as thousands of seriously niche ones. You want a channel dedicated to crossbow hunting? It’s there. Fancy gaining more knowledge about the cigar industry? You’ll find that here too, along with plenty of other topics.
The only gaps in its offering are Britbox, Apple Music, Amazon Music and VLC, although it does have its own Roku media app, and Airplay support means you can stream most missing content from Apple devices.
You’ll find 4K HDR content available on all the big players. Since last year’s model was launched, UHD support for Google Play has arrived as has the BT Sport app, which is good news for football fans.
It’s also well worth downloading the Roku Channel, which brings free access to over 10,000 films, TV episodes and documentaries from over 40 content partners. But it’s not just the apps that make Roku great, it’s the ease of use. The menu system is simple and clear and the universal search is excellent. Type in the name of an app, TV show, film, actor or director and it brings up all the information you need. Results pages show all the streaming services where each title is available, with the resolution and price information. That now includes the catch-up services, which is an upgrade on the platform compared to last year’s Roku TV.
To set up voice searching, you’ll need to download the handy Roku TV app allowing you to add new channels, cast content from your mobile or tablet to your TV, or just use it to control playback. We also love the Private Listening mode on the app interface; press that and the TV’s sound is routed through your device. Attach a pair of headphones to your mobile and you have a personal AV experience – perfect for late-night viewing.
For live TV, the Freeview tuner is at the helm, along with the Freeview Play homepage of curated catch-up content. At the heart of the experience is the exact same quad-core processor to do the leg work. It offers more than enough to drive the system with barely a hint of lag or frozen responses at any point. Once again, Roku TV is a pleasure to use from top to bottom, from app to screen.
Picture
(Image credit: Future / The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things, Amazon Prime)
Despite its low price, the Hisense Roku R50A7200GTUK is still a direct-lit LED TV – and it shows. Compared with others at this end of the market, the light levels are fairly even across the panel and, even if there’s a little bit of bleed, the blacks are strong with no off-putting blotchiness. Unlike pcirier direct-lit LED sets, though, there appears not to have been enough left in the budget for any local dimming zones, and that’s probably the most telling absence on the spec sheet.
We watch the opening sequences of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2 on 4K Blu-ray and the Missouri cloudscape is more heavy-handed than we’re used to. The dramatic overtones are still there, with plenty of contrast to handle that, but the lack of close control to individual areas of the backlighting means that it’s missing the subtlety of a more expensive TV set.
However, Hisense seems to know where this TV’s strengths lie. It’s not trying to offer finesse, it’s aiming to land a punch. And it does so successfully. The picture is bright and colourful, and even sharper and richer than its apparently identical predecessor.
This second run of Hisense Roku TVs for the UK really comes into its own once we leave the confines of Earth and head to the Sovereign planet for the Guardians’ battle with the Abilisk and a firework display of colour and fun.
The kaleidoscope of gases spewed by the multi-dimensional, tentacled monster look terrific, and the characters flying around it are bold and well-defined in all their HDR glory. There’s no adjustment for motion processing onboard, but while there’s some judder it isn’t hard to cope with. There’s no blurring and smearing of the action to distract either.
Switching down to standard-definition material with Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Blu-ray, we are reminded of last year’s Roku TV and its brilliance with upscaling from 1080p. Fortunately, that ability remains intact.
The opening scene in the hut is as revealing in terms of shadow detail as we could hope. It’s worth adjusting the brightness slider in the picture settings until you strike the right balance. In terms of starting points, the ‘Normal’ setting gets you closest to the best results, but make sure ‘TV Brightness’ is set to max.
Both the early scenes of Rey’s desert home on Jakku and the lush green forests of Maz’s home planet of Takodana are produced with enthralling colours and so much natural detail that it’s hard to find fault with the picture. Even watching BBC News in SD, the picture is remarkably sharp and stable for a panel this size, even if the colours are more simplistic.
Our only real criticism of the image is at higher resolutions. Occasionally that punchy approach can take things too far; it doesn’t have the same chromatic complexity as more expensive TVs. The result is that every now and then, the colour of a piece of clothing or skin tone misses the mark.
For example, Quill’s overcoat ends up a little too oxblood in the throne room scene in front of Princess Ayesha. There’s also a moment when Gamora’s green face is a little too lurid, but there are relatively few of these mishaps. What this TV does with its limited technical resources is impressive.
Sound
(Image credit: Future)
According to the spec sheet, there’s no difference between the Hisense Roku R50A7200GTUK and its 2020 predecessor, but their two sonic presentations are like chalk and cheese. One favours clarity, the other authority, but ultimately neither one produces particularly better TV sound than the other. It seems there’s only so much life that can be squeezed from this modest two 8W speaker system.
As with the picture adjustments, there are only a few settings to play with – only really the DTS processing mode and a dialogue enhancer. There’s also a TruVolume mode for night-time listening which will limit the peaks and troughs of loudness at any one volume level, so that you can hear the onscreen action without waking your neighbours.
Watching the battle sequence outside Maz’s tavern midway through Star Wars: The Force Awakens, gives an excellent sense of what this speaker system can manage. Given its limited resources, this TV copes pretty well. The sound effects of the laser blasts and the TIE fighters screaming past are crisp and detailed. The battle cries and dialogue of the rebels and troopers are clear and placed effectively in the soundscape. When the X-Wings come to the rescue and chase off the Empire, the rousing score still manages to excite.
Naturally, there’s room for improvement. There’s not enough under the hood here to produce the whole frequency range with quality. Hisense has opted to prize the midrange and upper-mid sounds, which is good for voices but means that there’s not a huge amount of impact to gunshots and explosions. Equally, the sound can feel a little strained and congested in the treble. If you find it borders on being difficult to listen to, switch off the DTS.
That said, to expect much more from a TV at this price would be unrealistic. It never fails to deliver the meaning of the source material, no matter the content. You might wish for a little more fun while watching big action movies, but you’ll be thanking your lucky stars every time you opt for more character driven dramas.
Does it spread the audio all the way round the room? Does it offer height-infused Dolby Atmos sound? No. It’s a TV with small speakers and just enough processing that means you can understand what everyone is saying. Not all soundbars can manage that.
Verdict
The vintage may be different, but this is another great year. We suspect that Hisense and Roku have made the best 50in TV you’ll find for under £350 in 2021. Neither the picture nor the sound are perfect but, combined with a brilliant feature set and an unbeatable content offering, the results are a lot more than the price infers.
It’s like uncorking a £4 bottle and discovering that it’s no cheap plonk. And that’s something we can all drink to.
(Pocket-lint) – With some LCD TV makers – including LG! – making a big song and dance about the introduction of Mini LED backlight technology for 2021, the pressure on mainstream OLED TVs to deliver their own substantial hardware leap that’s been rumbling along for years now has become particularly intense.
Just as well, then, that LG’s OLED G1 is stepping up to the plate with a new ‘Evo’ panel design that promises both more brightness and better colour than any LG OLED TV has managed before. Besides that, it’s got all the bells and whistles that cinephiles, gamers and designers will crave in a wall-mount TV. So just how good is it?
Design
4x HDMI 2.1 inputs, 3x USB ports
LAN & Wi-Fi multimedia options
As with LG’s debut Gallery OLED TVs in 2020, the OLED G1 – reviewed here in 65-inch, there’s also 55- and 77-inch versions – is designed very much with wall-mounting in mind. So much so that it only ships with a wall bracket. If you want to place it on desktop legs you’ll have to pay extra for them. And even then they won’t really do the G1’s thin, elegant profile justice.
Pocket-lint
The G1 wall-mount is designed to sit within a recess on the TV’s rear, allowing the screen to hang perfectly flush to a wall. Its impact on your living space is minimised even further, too, by the extreme narrowness of the screen’s frame. You can even choose to play artworks on the screen in a low power mode when you’re not watching it, further justifying the Gallery name.
The only issue with the design, perhaps, is that most people actually don’t wall-mount their TV, but may well still want to get their hands on the G1 series’ unique high brightness panel. If that sounds like you, be prepared to pay the extra for those optional support feet – or a new tripod-style Gallery floorstand LG has introduced for 2021.
The OLED G1’s connections put those of most rivals to shame. Especially when it comes to its four HDMIs, which all meet the latest HDMI 2.1 specification and so can support all the latest features of 4K HDR playback at 120Hz, automatic low latency mode (ALLM) switching for faster gaming response times, and variable refresh rates (VRR). Even in 2021 most rival premium TVs are only offering one or two full-spec HDMIs.
What is ALLM and VRR? TV gaming tech explained
Picture Features
HDR Support: HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision
Processing engine: Alpha 9 Gen 4
The advances of the OLED G1’s new Evo panel (which is exclusive to the G1 series) come in two main areas.
First, a new ‘luminous element’ is included to enhance brightness without using lots more power or, so LG claims, increasing the likelihood of the OLED G1 suffering with the permanent image retention issue that can affect OLED technology.
Second, LG has introduced a new green layer into the OLED G1’s panel construction that should, in conjunction with new narrower wavelengths for the red and green colour elements, lead to more dynamic and precise colours across the spectrum.
With Panasonic and Sony also using brightness-enhancing panels on their premium OLED ranges for 2021, though, LG has one other bit of the OLED G1’s picture story it’s keen to talk about: its new Alpha 9 Generation 4 processor. Without this, LG argues, the OLED G1 would not be able to unlock the new panel’s full potential.
The Alpha 9 Gen 4 processor also boasts a few potentially important new more general image tweaks. These include new Natural and Cinema Movement motion processing modes, and enhancements to both LG’s AI Picture Pro and AI Sound Pro automatic picture and sound optimisation options.
On the AI Picture Pro front, the latest processor can now use AI learning to identify when an image may be showing a city scene, a landscape or a night shot, and apply specific rules to the image accordingly. It can even apply ‘rules’ to specific objects or areas of specific content within any overall image, creating a more three-dimensional and natural effect than would be possible by just applying the processing rules equally across the whole image.
The OLED G1’s use of an OLED rather than LCD panel – no surprise given the name, eh? – brings with it innate picture quality advantages too. For instance, it can be watched from almost any angle without its colour saturations or contrast deteriorating significantly. It can also deliver light control down to individual pixel level, so that the darkest blacks the panel is capable of can appear literally right next to the brightest whites, without any dimming/greyness/backlight clouding trade-offs. This sort of local light control just isn’t possible with LCD TVs – not even those that use Mini LED technology.
As usual with a premium LG TV, the OLED G1 supports the Dolby Vision and HLG formats of high dynamic range (HDR) technology, alongside the industry standard HDR10 format. There is no support for the rarer (in source terms) HDR10+ format.
The OLED G1 picks up where the company’s popular 2020 X series OLEDs left off when it comes to gaming, continuing to offer 4K resolution, HDR, 120Hz refresh, plus variable refresh rates (VRR) across all four HDMIs.
Pocket-lint
It introduces a roster of new gaming options via a Game Optimiser ‘dashboard’ too. These options include a series of selectable game genre-based picture presets, an AI Game Sound mode, separate tweaks for the bright and dark extremes of gaming graphics, a Reduce Blue Light option for shifting game graphics to a warmer, less fatiguing colour tone, and separate Standard and Boost input lag reduction options that deliver exceptionally fast response times of just 12.4ms and 9.4ms respectively.
There’s also a new Fine Tune Dark Areas option for VRR gaming that provides a counter-measure to the tendency of OLED TVs to exhibit raised black levels when playing VRR images. So LG is clearly hell bent on retaining the legion of gaming fans it picked up with its forward-thinking 2019 and 2020 LG OLED series.
Smart Features
Smart system: WebOS 6.0
After years of merely refining its much-loved webOS platform, LG has finally introduced some really significant changes on the OLED G1.
A new full-screen interface takes over from the old and familiar strip of app icons along the bottom of the screen. This interface focuses for the most part on recommending content based on household viewing habits and currently popular shows from across the wide range of apps the TV supports. There’s a substantial box to top right, too, that takes you to a well-presented and wide-ranging content search page.
LG
While it makes sense these days to shift the webOS focus to providing recommended content curated from across supported apps rather than making users explore content on a per-app basis, the layout and ‘weighting’ of the new home screen doesn’t feel quite right. The three link options along the top of the screen in particular feel like they’re been given more weight than they really warrant.
The signature webOS source icon strip does still continue along the bottom of the new full-screen home page, and you can scroll down from there to a small selection of further shelves containing a list of all your connected devices, and direct content links to some of the most popular streaming apps. Strangely there’s no Netflix shelf at the time of writing, though, and you can’t change the order the shelves appear in.
LG’s voice control and recognition features – Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and LG’s own ThinQ options are all available – continue to be excellent. As does the system’s level of app support, with all the key streaming services covered. This includes the UK’s terrestrial broadcaster catch-up services via Freeview Play.
Picture Quality
The OLED G1 undoubtedly delivers overall better picture quality than any of LG’s 2020 OLED TVs. Whether it delivers as much of an improvement as some quarters might have been hoping for, though, is another question.
The new Evo panel makes an impact in two ways. First, where an HDR image, such as a shot of sun-drenched blue sky, features almost full-screen brightness, there’s a slightly higher level of overall intensity to the picture than 2020’s LG models can provide. Second, the very brightest parts of HDR images – naked bulbs and lights, reflections on glass or metal, sun-drenched clouds and the like – look punchier and, as a result, more natural.
LG
It’s noticeable, too, that since the Evo panel is designed to handle slightly lighter peaks of brightness, it typically delivers more subtle detailing and shading in the brightest HDR areas.
These differences, along with a slightly richer, more refined HDR-content colour palette, are more consistently noticeable when playing HDR console and PC games than they are with typical video.
Even with the punchiest games, though, the OLED G1 step up from 2020’s LG OLEDs don’t elevate the brand’s OLED performance into a whole new ball park. It’s more refinement than revolution. While this initially feels slightly disappointing, it doesn’t take long living with the OLED G1 to start feeling as if this initial assessment is a bit foolish.
After all, the OLED G1 is providing a 10-20 per cent HDR performance boost to 2020 LG OLED TVs – which were themselves sensational performers. And that’s actually a pretty remarkable achievement in a premium TV world now so good that even the tiniest improvements should be embraced like long lost relatives.
What’s more, the G1’s picture improvements aren’t just down to its new Evo panel. The new Alpha 9 Gen 4 processor has its part to play too, on two levels.
First, the new AI Picture Pro option is a substantial advance over its predecessor. Its ability to apply more effective enhancements on a more local basis yields pictures which look both more eye-catching and more natural. This eye-catching/natural combination is key, since while LG AI processing has previously delivered enhancements to colour, sharpness and contrast, those enhancements have always been accompanied by distracting side effects. On the OLED G1 the improvements are not only more pronounced, but come at the expense of practically no downsides.
There are, of course, people who won’t use the AI Picture Pro mode because they don’t like the idea of a TV’s processor taking over the way a picture looks. And for those people the OLED G1 still supports all the calibration tools and accuracy of other recent LG generations. The much improved AI Picture Pro is very much worth trying for most users, though.
The other key processing improvement comes from LG’s new motion options. The new Natural motion processing mode used by default with most of the OLED G1’s picture presets is a little too smooth and can cause unwanted processing side effects. The new Cinematic Movement mode, though, does a superbly well-balanced job of gently reducing the rather ‘hard’ judder with 24p movie sources that OLED TVs can exhibit without creating really any distracting side effects. It’s outstanding.
LG
The OLED G1’s improvements have not, thankfully, compromised any of LG’s traditional OLED strengths. Black levels still look inky, actually exhibiting slightly less noise in areas of near-black detail, despite also showing more shadow detail in most picture presets.
Colours hardly ever look forced or over the top despite the slight brightness increase and marginally purer presentation, and sharpness is slightly improved without making the image look brittle or harsh. With HD sources, in particular, the new Alpha 9 Gen 4 upscaling really earns its corn by delivering a markedly crisper finish than seen with previous LG OLED generations without exaggerating noise.
The OLED G1’s pictures are not completely perfect though. There’s noticeable flickering in dark scenes when gaming in VRR, for starters. All Dolby Vision presets (bar Vivid) can cause some crushing of detail in dark areas. There’s a new hint of magenta over pictures if you watch from a wide angle, too, although contrast and colour intensity still benefit from OLED’s viewing angle advantage over LCD in this area.
The OLED G1 can also still exaggerate compression noise in dark (usually SDR) streamed scenes, and even with the G1 it’s still important to stress that while OLED is untouchable when it comes to local (as in, pixel by pixel) contrast, premium LCD TVs can still get significantly brighter with both peak and full-screen HDR content.
Sound Quality
Since LG doesn’t join Sony in using the screen surfaces of its premium OLED TVs to produce sound, there isn’t much space in the OLED G1’s super-skinny design for a big old set of speakers. With that in mind, though, in many ways the OLED G1 sounds pretty good.
For starters, a new Virtual 5.1.2 upconversion system introduced by the Alpha 9 Gen 4 processor does a surprisingly convincing job of adding a mild sense of height to soundtracks that don’t have height channels built-in. At least the sound expands nicely from all of the TV’s edges, even if there isn’t any sense of actual overhead sounds. Voices tend to sound clear and believable, and detail levels are quite high for a sound system that doesn’t have any forward-facing drivers.
LG
There are two fairly significant issues, though. First, while it’s cool that the OLED G1 decodes Dolby Atmos soundtracks (though there’s no DTS support), it doesn’t do so very well. The speakers just can’t deliver anywhere near as much impact as they should with very loud, dense Atmos moments. In fact, the speakers tend to become more subdued just when they’re supposed to be ratcheting up.
This makes LG’s own AI Sound Pro setting a much better option for most content. This does amp up to take on loud moments, as well as somehow make the sound fill the room more.
However, whenever a film soundtrack features low rumbles – especially in AI Sound Pro mode – the TV’s low frequency drivers start to fall prey to significant amounts of break up and distortion. So much so that it can become quite hard to listen to, and a clear distraction from the onscreen action.
Best go buy a separate soundbar/surround system then.
Verdict
At the time of writing there’s a question mark over whether the OLED G1 is sufficiently superior to the upcoming C1 mid-range OLEDs – which don’t get the Evo panel – to justify its extra cost. Based on the type of enhancements it brings over last gen’s CX models, though, it most likely is a worthy step up from the C1 – if you’re looking to wall-mount anyway.
So while it doesn’t quite shatter the OLED rule book in the way some had hoped, the OLED G1’s new Evo panel in conjunction with LG’s latest processing engine delivers comfortably the best OLED TV LG has ever made. That’s what makes this TV special. A fact which should rightly have both AV and gaming fans drooling, given how good LG’s previous OLEDs have been.
Also consider
LG
LG OLED GX
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If you can live without the Evo panel’s enhanced HDR performance and Game Optimiser functionality but like the Gallery design, 2020’s OLED GX is still available for a chunk of cash less.
Read our review
Panasonic
Panasonic HZ2000
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Panasonic was the first brand to introduce new high brightness OLED technology, and 2020’s version of this technology is still available at a slightly lower price than the LG. Stocks are apparently starting to run low, though, so get a move on!
The Audio Pro Addon C10 has consistently been one of our favourite wireless speakers in the three years since its arrival, winning three What Hi-Fi? Awards on the trot in its price category (‘under £500’). Now, the Swedish firm has released a sequel with enhanced functionality, sound quality and design.
The C10 MkII expands its predecessor’s feature list (which includes AirPlay, Bluetooth, aux and RCA inputs, and access to music streaming services via wi-fi) by adding AirPlay 2 and Google Cast streaming smarts. That now gives owners three ways of using the C10 MkII in a multi-room environment – with Apple devices (via AirPlay 2), Google Cast-compatible speakers, and Audio Pro’s other wireless speakers (via the Audio Pro app). These new features are, Audio Pro says, a direct response to customer demand.
In the name of improved sound quality, Audio Pro has also enhanced the electronics and revised the bass port design, while the dual tweeters and woofer that have helped make the original such a sonic class-leader in its field remain.
(Image credit: Audio Pro)
The number of preset buttons has been increased to six, too, allowing owners quick access to any playlist and radio station they wish to allocate to each one, without the need to use the control app. And last but not least, the new C10 also boasts a magnetic fabric mesh speaker grille to hide its koala-resembling frontage and bring it more in line with the firm’s latest speakers, such as the G10 and BT5.
Unsurprisingly, those extra features and improvements come at a price over the original C10, which had an RRP of £299 but can now be picked up for £259. The Audio Pro C10 MkII is now available to pre-order now at Richer Sounds for £360 in Arctic White, Storm Grey or Coal Black finishes. Will it prove to be a new favourite of ours? We wouldn’t bet against it.
MORE:
Our pick of the world’s best wireless speakers 2021
(Pocket-lint) – Ceiling and in-wall speakers give you all the benefits of room-filling sound while remaining out of the way of your furniture and out of sight.
Whether you’re looking to install them as part of a home cinema surround sound setup, or you just want to discreetly have music filtered in all around you, these speakers have the potential to provide a more immersive and tidy experience.
Naturally, though, there are some things to consider before you jump in. Installing architectural speakers requires precision and a layout that both matches the room size, your furniture and perhaps your TV setup, too.
Plus, like every area of the industry, these kinds of speakers vary dramatically in their asking price and audio quality.
To help you navigate the niche realm of ceiling speakers, we’ve compiled this list of some of the very best to consider.
Best ceiling speakers you can buy today
Polk Audio
Polk Audio RC80i
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Polk is a solid name when it comes to home audio, and the RC80i is a great example of how you don’t have to break the bank to install a household name into your setup.
In this set of two speakers, you’ll find an 8-inch dynamic balance woofer and a 1-inch tweeter, with the polymer cone and composite driver baskets helping provide balanced output with superb detail.
Like other models on this list, the rubber seal also prevents moisture from sneaking in, while installation is relatively simple out of the box.
Sonos
Sonos In-Ceiling Speakers by Sonance
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Sonos provides an intriguing high-end option, joining forces with architectural speaker brand Sonance to give users all the benefits of its multi-room audio in a ceiling speaker.
Designed to work with the Sonos Amp for Trueplay – which takes into account the size, construction and layout of the room and tunes the sound accordingly – and also with the wider Sonos range, it’s a great solution for those already embedded in the company’s ecosystem.
For those who want a more basic experience, or simply don’t care too much about the Amp and Trueplay integration, there are definitely other excellent-sounding options to consider.
Goldwood
Acoustic Audio by Goldwood CS-IC83
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For those who want to fill out their ceiling with these flush-mounting speakers, Goldwood’s CS-IC83 set is definitely one to consider.
Five speakers are included in the set, each featuring an 8-inch woofer, 13mm dome tweeters and three-way passive crossovers in order to improve fidelity.
As they go, this Acoustic Audio set is also relatively straightforward to install. You receive a handy cutting template in the box, with the speaker’s four clamping clips sitting on the edge helping it stay locked in place once it’s all set up.
Those who want to remain on the entry-level end of ceiling speakers should keep this Amazon Basics pair in mind – the sound is respectable and the flush design is a breeze to install.
Packed inside each speaker (there’s also an 8-inch pair to consider) is a two-way system featuring a 6.5-inch composite woofer and a 1-inch tweeter, helping provide detailed audio reproduction and clear stereo separation between the two.
In the box, much like other models, you’ll also receive a template for your ceiling cut-out, as well as painting masks in case you want to spray them a different colour.
Micca
Micca M-6C
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Like other budget options, Micca’s M-6C comes with very strong sound capabilities, proving that you don’t need to spend wild amounts to bolster your home audio setup.
It offers two-way sound, with the 6.5-inch woofer and 1-inch tweeter assisted by a 6dB crossover and compensation network. This makes them a perfect complement to your home cinema setup, with the low-end frequency response proving excellent.
They can also easily be painted, giving you a bit more flexibility when it comes to blending them into the room.
Klipsch
Klipsch R-1650-C
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Klipsch has plenty of in-wall and ceiling speakers for you to consider, but the R-1650-C is a great place to start looking.
It’s by no means the cheapest speaker on this list, but it is one of the most well-rounded in terms of audio output. It packs in a 6.5-inch woofer, 1-inch tweeter – both helping to provide clear, room-filling treble and midrange sound.
The mounting clamps on the underside also make it a very simple install, while the grill can be painted to match the space, too.
(Pocket-lint) – Owning a top waterproof speaker allows you to take your tunes near the pool, in the shower or on expeditions in the great outdoors – all while remaining free from damage.
While all speakers offer some level of Ingress Protection, the dedicated water-resistant and weatherproof options we’ll be detailing below are a different kettle of fish. These picks are the absolute best bet for those who plan to use their speaker around water, since they can handle everything from splashes to complete submersion.
Still, not all are created equally. Some are designed to act as clip-on devices for your clothing, bags or bicycle, while others are pill-shaped units that can easily rest on tables or the floor.
Below, we’ll take you through everything you need to know about some of the top waterproof speakers.
Best waterproof speakers you can buy
JBL
JBL Clip 3
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If you need a carabiner-like design that you can take anywhere, JBL’s Clip range is one to consider.
The IPX7 waterproof rating of the Clip 3 means the device can survive water submersion of up to 3ft for 30 minutes, while the 10 hours of playtime ensures you’ll get plenty of on-the-go tunes, come rain or shine.
It’s not the newest device in the Clip range, but it’s both affordable and beautifully designed, with the built-in clip, manual control and colour varieties all great touches.
Bose
Bose SoundLink Micro
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Bose’s pedigree is well-known and well deserved within the audio space, and that extends to its more portable gadgets.
The SoundLink Micro is a little long in the tooth nowadays, but it punches above its weight in the sound department and has an excellent design that’s easy to transport.
With the IPX7 rating, it’s able to handle 3ft of water submersion for up to 30 minutes, and the design – aside from being easy to hook onto things – is surprisingly rugged.
There’s also six hours of runtime on the battery, while two SoundLink Micro devices can be paired together for left-right stereo sound.
Anker
Anker Soundcore 2
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Anker built its name by providing excellent devices at an entry-level price, and the water-resistant Soundcore 2 is no different.
With a 12W speaker, enhanced bass drivers and a digital signal processor packed inside the 6.5-inch rectangular design, it’s able to deliver some excellent, punchy sound – especially considering its size.
And with IPX7 protection, it can also handle basic water submersion, as well as splashes, dust and rain. If that’s not enough, the 24 hours of battery life is enough to make it an elite pick.
iFox
iFox iF012 Bluetooth Shower Speaker
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If you’re looking to sing in the shower without a hint of irony, you may as well get a speaker to help you listen along in time. With iFox’s tiny dedicated option, you can do just that.
With an IP67 rating, it’s able to withstand splashes and even submersion in water up to 3ft. Weighing just under 200g and measuring 6cm, too, it’s great for clipping onto your shower caddy or sticking to the wall and blaring out sound through the 5W speaker.
You’ll also get plenty of mileage per charge, with the Bluetooth device able to deliver around 10 hours of battery life.
Comiso
Comiso Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker
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If you want a standing, cylindrical speaker that still boasts waterproofing powers – and remains affordable – Comiso’s option is one to put on your wish list.
The sound is surprisingly strong for an entry-level device, while the IPX5 rating means it can survive splashes (but not submersion).
It’s a great device for taking to the beach or on trips, since the 6.5-inch height is very portable, and two Comiso speakers can even pair together to provide stereo sound. With 36 hours of battery life, as well, you’ll struggle to find a more long-lasting device.
Aomais
Aomais GO Bluetooth Speaker
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If you want a speaker that’s designed more for pool parties than backpacks, Aomais’ IPX7 waterproof option is the one for you.
It’s able to defend itself against basic submersion (up to 3ft for around 30 minutes) like other devices on this list, with both Bluetooth and 3.5mm support for playing your music.
As far as waterproof speakers are concerned, it’s also one of the better sounding picks. Two 15W drivers are and a pair of 10W tweeters are backed up by two passive radiators, with pairing support allowing you to double the sound.
With 40 hours of battery, too, it’s a real powerhouse pick for those who don’t want to compromise on sound or water resistance.
Huawei has once again teamed up with French audio specialists Devialet, this time to provide the sound for a range of flatscreen 4K TVs. The two companies previously collaborated on a smart speaker, while Devialet also lent its expertise to the Sky Soundbox soundbar back in 2017.
The Vision V-Series sets feature up to nine speakers with models delivering up to 75W of power. The speaker systems also boast ultra-thin subwoofers and an intelligent bass algorithm designed to achieve deeper bass and a higher pitch.
The V-Series’ passive bass radiator is powered by Devialet’s iconic Push-Push symmetrical structure, which claims to ensure high-fidelity smooth sound with no background noise.
Huawei’s new range also has an exclusive Devialet mode, which claims to strike a balance between power and subtlety to deliver an impactful but balanced sound experience. This mode is suitable for both music and movies.
Certain models in the line-up come with a vertical, 3D-surrounding sound field, described in the press release as “sky sound”. It’s supposed to appear as though sound is coming from the ceiling. How? The TV sends left and right surround sound channels to the full-range speakers at the top of the smart screen, which supposedly creates the 3D surround effect.
Extra audio assistance is brought by sound field modelling, a system that uses sound waves to map the shape of your room before the virtual spatial sound field is adjusted to match.
In terms of picture technologies, Huawei’s new TV range boasts a refresh rate of 120Hz, with an HDR peak brightness of up to 1000 nits. Special light control technology claims to improve contrast on the TVs too.
And finally, Huawei and Devialet have also created a new classification system for sound quality in televisions, in what is described as an industry first.
This is based on both “scientific evaluation methods”, and on subjective sound listening judgments for power, balance, fidelity and immersion.
TVs will fall into three categories:
Dream level: Score of 90 or more across categories
Expert level: Score of 60-90 across categories
Premier/Elite level: Score under 60
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Huawei’s new 65-, 75- and 85-inch TVs all score higher than 90, while the 55-inch set has Expert level certification.
The Huawei Vision V-Series TVs will be available in 55-, 65-, 75- and 85-inch sizes when they go on sale next week exclusively in China. Prices start at RMB 5499 (£610, $839, AU$1096).
MORE:
These are the best TVs for all budgets
Check out the best OLED TVs around
Looking for a bargain? Consult our list of the best cheap TVs
The 3rd Generation Fire TV Stick is a capable video streamer, but it drops at an awkward price point
For
Strong app offering
Improved UI
Excellent HDR performance
Against
SDR picture could be more subtle
4K model only costs a little more
What’s grey and sticky? The Amazon Fire TV Stick (3rd Generation), of course. Far from being simply another streaming stick, this third version is the first of Amazon’s media streaming devices to feature the company’s all-new Fire TV Experience user interface, which is intended as a game-changer for streaming service integration.
The Amazon Fire TV Stick (3rd Generation) replaces the 2nd generation of the device that was once called the Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote. Back in those simpler days, the first-gen model didn’t have voice control.
Since then, Amazon has added several more branches to the Fire TV Stick family tree. Higher up that tree is the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K (launched in 2018), and below it, there’s now the Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite, the only other Fire TV device to come pre-loaded with the new UI.
Pricing
The Amazon Fire TV Stick (3rd Generation) costs £40 ($40, AU$79) at the time of writing. That’s £10 ($10, AU$20) cheaper than the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K that launched in 2018 and, of course, has the added benefit of 4K content.
It’s also £10 ($10, AU$20) more expensive than the simultaneously released Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite, which lacks TV volume control and can only pass-through Dolby Atmos, rather than decode it.
Somewhat confusingly, you’ll find the Amazon Fire TV Stick (3rd Generation) listed as the ‘2020 release’ in the UK, but the ‘2021 release’ in the US and Australia.
Features
(Image credit: Amazon)
From a design perspective, the Fire TV Stick (3rd Gen) is hardly a departure for Amazon. It’s a gunmetal grey rectangular prism with an HDMI plug on the end and a micro-USB power socket halfway up one side. There’s a good chance that the power cable or simply the Stick’s girth will get in the way of your TV’s other HDMI sockets, so, as ever, Amazon has included an HDMI extender to take your stick clear of the rest of the ports.
The Stick itself is a little shorter than the 4K model but houses the same 1.7GHz quad-core chip. Bluetooth 5.0 and BLE are onboard for pairing with Bluetooth speakers, headphones or video game controllers, and there’s the standard 8GB of internal storage for your app collection.
The included remote is as handy and compact as ever. It’s the same second-generation Fire TV remote that comes with the 4K Stick. There are volume buttons that will work for your TV, playback controls and general navigation, plus a button at the top that turns the remote into an Alexa microphone for voice search.
Amazon Fire TV Stick (3rd Gen) tech specs
(Image credit: Amazon)
Bluetooth version 5.0
HDR support HDR10, HDR10+, HLG
Max resolution 1080p
Dolby Atmos Yes
Storage 8GB
Finishes x1
Dimensions (hwd) 13 x 30 x 86mm
Weight 32g
Those looking for 4K and Dolby Vision support will have to look elsewhere. The Amazon Fire TV Stick (3rd Generation) maxes out at 1080p HD, but can still process HDR metadata in the shape of HDR10, HLG and even Samsung’s HDR10+. Dolby Vision isn’t supported, though Dolby Atmos is.
The headline addition, though, is the all-new Amazon Fire TV Experience. The reimagined UI design pares everything down to four main screens, Home, Find, Library and Live, for a more holistic approach to your entertainment. The platform pulls in content from other streaming services, including Netflix, Disney+ and iPlayer, and sits those suggestions alongside TV and films available on Prime Video. The end result is less of a shop window for Amazon and a more useful quick hit of recommendations from across the board instead.
It’s pretty well done too. The top row on the Home page is itself a mixture of content from your subscriptions, followed by lines of film and TV suggestions dedicated to what’s on specific services such as Netflix and iPlayer. It’s certainly an improvement on the previous iteration of the Fire TV OS, but still isn’t a match for what Google has done with the Google TV UI on Chromecast.
That first row of content on the new Fire TV experience never seems to be as much of a mix as it could be. It tends to start with too big a burst from a single source, whether that’s a few screens of animated Disney content or a slew of Amazon Originals. It’s also still too Prime Video-heavy as we scroll down the page with the rows dedicated to other services swamped by too much of what’s on Amazon.
The ‘Find’ section of the experience is far better, as it seems to give a more balanced approach, as well as plenty of handy suggestions of genres and sub-genres to drill down into. Fancy comedy horrors, action dramas or trending documentaries? This is the place to look.
If you have the right to watch a piece of content for free, the Fire TV OS will let you know. It also directs you to free versions on apps you might not already own, including those available through free trials. The only thing to watch out for is that the UI still encourages you to buy and rent 4K content, even if the Stick won’t allow you to play it back at UHD resolution.
Like all current Fire TV devices, Alexa is along for the ride and makes an easy way to navigate around the OS. The addition of six user profiles per household – each with its own preferences, apps, permissions, watchlists and settings – is also welcome.
All the major apps are present here, apart from Google Play Movies & TV and Rakuten. There’s HDR available on Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and Apple TV, but there’s no Dolby Atmos material on Apple and no way of buying new content on Apple TV through the Fire Stick itself. You have to purchase or rent content via your computer or phone, at which point it will be available in the Apple TV library on the Stick.
Picture
(Image credit: Amazon)
Heading straight to the HDR sections of the popular streaming services, we’re delighted to see that this Stick’s performance is excellent. Watching I Care A Lot on Prime Video in HDR, it’s easy to spot how well this device puts that tonal metadata to good use.
The bright scene outside the courthouse in the first episode is full of potential pitfalls. There are textures to render and different blacks to produce all while under the glare of the midday sun that bounces off the pale stone steps and floods the picture with a harsh white light. Despite all this, the Fire TV Stick copes admirably.
Even at the maximum-supported 1080p resolution, we get a decent sense of the stone-washed jeans of a bystander and the layers of clothing material on the black-clad Eiza Gonzalez. The sky is a searing blue and Rosamund Pike’s dress an expensive red, while the nearby trees remain a natural green. It’s an enjoyable picture with an easy-to-watch balance between dynamism and subtlety.
Dropping to SDR content is certainly a different experience, but the picture still pleases. It’s a punchy effort with a lot of brightness and big contrast, which helps to keep that sense of zeal to the on-screen action. Watching the sitcom Flowers on Netflix in Full HD, there’s plenty of impact as Mrs Flowers walks down her ramshackle garden to flirt badly with the tradesmen. What could be quite a flat, overcast sky has a bold, foreboding look and works as a fantastic foil to the dark brown, gnarled trees and the thick, overgrown grass. You can’t fail to get a sense of the way the story is going to play out.
That dynamic approach isn’t without its drawbacks, though. The focus on punch can leave detail fairly scant without the benefits of HDR. The faces of the characters sometimes come off a little too uniform, missing the same wealth of tone that is available from the Fire TV Stick 4K, given the same source material. The push for high contrast can overpower black depth and white detail too, unless you keep a careful eye on your TV settings. Again, that’s something the more expensive Stick has a better handle on.
Sound
(Image credit: Amazon)
The differences in audio between the Fire TV Stick (3rd Generation) and the 4K model are far less marked than the picture performance. Their overall character is undeniably similar.
Listening to This is Me from The Greatest Showman soundtrack on Tidal, there’s a respectable sense of rhythm to the music in the build towards the first full chorus. The drum rolls are tight enough to pick out the individual beats of the sticks, the reverb on the guitar is clear and controlled, and all of the excellent diction on vocals is nicely clipped.
Switching to the cinema, we head to the freeway crash shoot-out at the beginning of Deadpool on Netflix with its wealth of surround sound action. The audio is just as spacious as we’d expect from a budget streaming stick. Ajax’s motorbike zips neatly from one side to another as he weaves his way through the traffic, and both the movement and detail of sound as the pin flies out from the hand grenade shows what an enjoyable experience this stick can deliver.
At the same time, the 4K model is just a touch better all over for sound. Dynamically, the more expensive model has a noticeable edge that is easy enough to pick up both with music and while watching video content. It’s also a little crisper, which gives it a shade more energy.
Playing This is Me via the third-gen Stick, there isn’t quite the same thrill as the chorus reaches its crescendo. The equivalent for Deadpool is a slight loss of dimension to the sound effects. The bullets are a little less impactful than through the 4K Stick, and it’s noticeable in more incidental noises, such as the opening of the electric car door window before the eponymous hero pops his head out to address the bad guys. There isn’t quite that same satisfaction to its clunk as the glass reaches its limits.
Verdict
The third generation of the original Amazon Fire TV Stick offers the kind of solid performance we’ve come to expect from the Stick family. It also features all of the most important apps and comes with an all-new interface that offers owners a genuine solution to the problem of what to watch next at short notice. HDR viewing is excellent and it’s hard to ask for much more sonically.
The trouble is that more is actually available and for only a little extra. For just a few extra pounds or dollars, you can buy the 4K version of the Fire Stick, which is slightly better performing with the same content and offers all of that 4K future-proofing too. And that leaves our third-generation model, although good, in a slightly sticky spot.
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I’m not old enough to have ever encountered an original IBM Model M in an office. But in my second year of university, after hearing about how amazing these old keyboards were to type on, I sought out an old model on eBay. For the next two years, every essay I wrote was hammered out on a vintage keyboard from 1985. I never took it to libraries or lectures (I’m not a monster), but my second-year roommate must have been pretty happy to see the back of me that summer.
As of this writing, you can still find plenty of decades-old IBM Model M keyboards for sale online, or you could buy a $104 New Model M from Unicomp, a company with its roots in the Lexington-based keyboard factory that produced many of the original Model Ms. The New Model M is big, bulky, and it’s got the same buckling spring switch mechanism that made its predecessor such a treat to type on. It’s not hard to imagine this board soaking up cigarette smoke and coffee on the desk of a 1980s office worker.
When people ask me what it is I like about mechanical keyboards, I usually respond by saying something about how timeless their designs are. IBM keyboards produced in the 1980s still feel great to type on today, and there’s a good chance many mechanical keyboards made nowadays will outlast the computers they’re plugged into. But feeling great to type on isn’t the only thing a modern keyboard needs to do, and that’s where the New Model M falls short.
The New Model M is available in a variety of different configurations. Although its case only comes in black, its keys are available in either gray or, like we have here, white and gray. It’s available with an old-fashioned PS2 connector or more modern USB. (The cable, unfortunately, isn’t detachable like many modern mechanical keyboards.) It’s available with layouts suitable for a variety of countries, including US, UK, Denmark, Finland / Sweden, France, Germany, Norway, and Spain. If you go for a US layout, there’s the option of getting the keyboard with a slightly longer space bar, and Unicomp will also ship the keyboard with a Mac layout. Some of these options come with customization fees. Unsurprisingly, there’s no option for wireless connectivity, just like there wouldn’t have been in the mid-1980s.
Even for a full-size keyboard, the New Model M is large. There’s a border of at least 2cm (0.78in) of plastic around the four sides of the keyboard, and even between the sections of keys themselves, there’s more empty space than you’ll find with most modern keyboards. It’s a tad narrower and shorter than my ’80s Model M, though not by much. It’s also a lot lighter and doesn’t feel quite as sturdy as my original model. It’s not flimsy; it’s just not built like a tank in the same way the old keyboards were.
There are obvious practical downsides to a keyboard this big, and space-constrained typists should look elsewhere (or perhaps at Unicomp’s more recent Mini M if you’re prepared to give up the Numpad and could use a detachable USB cable). But if you need a full-size keyboard and you’re even slightly space-constrained, then the New Model M isn’t a great choice.
The overall design of the New Model M I could take or leave. It has a kind of retro charm to it, but the Unicomp logo emblazoned on the top right is dated in an ugly way rather than a charming way, and the blue LEDs that light up when you’ve got caps lock or num lock turned on are an eyesore.
Overall, although build quality isn’t quite as good as an original Model M, Unicomp’s keyboard feels solidly built by modern standards. Its keycap legends are printed on using dye-sublimation, so they’re not going to wear away anytime soon, and they’ve got a slightly rough matte texture that feels nice under the fingers. They’re fairly tall and gradually increase in height from front to the back of the keyboard, with squared-off edges and a slight curvature from left to right. (I’d say they’re closer to OEM than Cherry profile keycaps overall.) There’s a pair of raised bars on the J and F keys to help touch typists find their home row, but they’re subtle and take a little getting used to.
Its keycaps are made of PBT plastic and have a slightly rough texture to them.
The quality and style of the keyboard’s PBT keycaps are important because alternatives aren’t nearly as easy to come by as they are for keyboards for Cherry-style switches. Unicomp does sell replacements via its online store, but if you’re someone who’s interested in buying any of the wildly designed keycaps available across the internet, then be aware that vanishingly few of them are compatible with the New Model M. I also found the keycaps weren’t as easy to remove and replace as the keycaps on Cherry MX-style switches.
It all means the New Model M isn’t the best keyboard for tinkerers. There are no Cherry MX-style switches for you to desolder and swap out, and you won’t be tempted by a seemingly never-ending supply of new keycaps to buy online. That won’t matter for the vast majority of typists, but it’s worth bearing in mind if you’re curious about the weird and wonderful world of custom keyboards.
If you’re buying a New Model M, you’re buying it for the typing experience it offers out of the box. Thankfully, that experience is one of the best around. The keyboard’s heavy keys take a little bit of getting used to (I find that typing with my wrists held in the air rather than resting on my desk helps a lot), and pretty soon, the tactile clack of each keypress guides you into a reassuring rhythm. The fact that each key is that little bit harder to press than most other keyboards meant that I mistyped less frequently, making it easy for me to get into a good flow and just enjoy the process. At its best, the New Model M sounds like a glorious cacophony of key-clacking, and it feels every bit as good as it sounds.
People like to give advice about what kind of switches you should buy a keyboard with based on what you’re going to use it for. If you’re a typist, Cherry MX Blues are said to be a good choice, while gamers might be better off with Cherry MX Reds. MX Browns are considered a mix of the two. For the most part, I think advice like this can be a little prescriptive. I know people who game on Blues and type on Reds.
The board is available with white and gray or just white keycaps.
But when it comes to buckling springs, I really do think these are switches for typing and typing alone. That pressure you have to use to press each key is fine when you’re typing, but it can get tiring if you’re holding down a key while playing a game.
Another downside to consider is their volume: buckling springs are loud. They’re so loud that it’s not just an issue if you’re planning on using the keyboard in a shared dorm or office, but their loudness also caused problems for me on Zoom calls. I had to mute myself while on a recent call to avoid disturbing everyone else with my clacking, and I had to turn up my speakers’ volume on other occasions to be able to hear a press conference while I typed up notes. Another time, I managed to completely ruin a recording of an interview because all you could hear was the sound of me clacking away while an interviewee spoke.
If all you do on your computer is type, then the New Model M does that brilliantly. But when you need to use your computer for other things, like playing games or making calls, the keyboard’s lack of versatility becomes obvious.
I loved using my IBM Model M, and there’s no way I’m going to part ways with it anytime soon. But soon after I was done with school, I switched to a more modern keyboard with much quieter Cherry MX Brown switches. Ultimately, I needed my computer’s main control peripheral to be good at things that weren’t just typing.
Like its predecessors, when you’re using the New Model M for what it’s designed for, typing, there are few other keyboards around that do it quite as well. People have been clacking away on buckling spring keyboards for decades for good reason. But Unicomp’s keyboard is just as uncompromising as any Model M from the ’80s. It’s too loud for any modern office or video calls, and its stiff switches aren’t great for gaming.
Still, if you’re after the best typing experience around at whatever cost, then the Unicomp New Model M is one of your best options. You just need to understand exactly what “whatever cost” is.
Cambridge Audio has just unleashed two beautiful beasts into the just-add-speakers streaming system market. The Evo 75 and Evo 150 are the first of their kind from the British brand, and oh boy don’t they look lovely?
Hopefully they sound just as lovely too – not least as they’re positioned in the firing line of the multi-Award-winning Naim Uniti Atom and five-star Arcam SA30.
Cambridge is hoping to continue its good run of form with this new product venture, which is naturally based on the company’s established StreamMagic streaming platform for playback over – deep breath – DLNA, AirPlay 2, Bluetooth, Chromecast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Qobuz, aptX HD Bluetooth and internet radio. The new Evo systems are also Roon Ready.
(Image credit: Cambridge Audio)
The Evo 75 and Evo 150 are powered by Hypex NCore Class D amplifiers (chosen by Cambridge for their, “clear advantages in clarity, resolution and musicality”) and rated at 75 and 150 watts per channel respectively.
The other discrepancy between the two models lies in physical connectivity: both have RCA, optical and coaxial inputs as well as HDMI ARC and 3.5mm headphone sockets, but the Evo 150 expands on that further with an MM phono stage, asynchronous USB and balanced XLR inputs, plus two sets of speaker terminals for running two pairs of speakers. The Evos are determined not to be out-featured.
That walnut wooden panel you see up top is a nod to Cambridge’s first-ever product, the 1968-released P40 amplifier, although owners can choose to dress the black anodised aluminium cabinet with black side panels made from Richlite (an innovative new material made primarily from recycled paper) instead. The side panels can also be switched out according to each customer’s taste.
Completing the look is a dual-concentric rotary dial and 6.8in LCD panel that hark back to the company’s flagship Edge products.
(Image credit: Cambridge Audio)
The Cambridge Audio Evo 75 and Evo 150 will be available from this month, priced £1799 ($2250) and £2249 ($3000) respectively.
A specifically designed Evo CD transport (£799, $950) and a pair of Evo S speakers (£649, $750) will join the Evo range later in the year, with further details on those promised nearer the time.
Whether or not the new Cambridge Evo systems have sonic appeal remains to be heard, but one thing’s for sure: they have plenty of visual appeal.
MORE:
Good news! Tidal Connect comes to Cambridge Audio music streamers
See our pick of the best hi-fi systems 2021: micro, hi-fi, vinyl
If portable audio has been shaped by anything other than advancing headphones technology in recent years, it’s the arrival of portable DACs – pocketable ‘middleman’ devices that connect between a phone or laptop and a pair of headphones to improve sound quality. We’ve had laptop-friendly AudioQuest DragonFlys and the more versatile Audiolab M-DAC nano, for example, and now THX (yes, that same firm famously behind cinema audio standards) is entering the consumer electronics market with a similar device.
The all-new THX Onyx ($200, €210) is a dongle designed to enhance the performance between your USB source and your headphones or desktop speakers. You can plug it into any PC, Mac or Android device toting a USB or USB-C port, with iOS devices requiring the slim Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter to be compatible. At the other end, the Onyx has been designed to drive all manner of headphones – those with impedances from 22ohms to 600 – via its 3.5mm jack, through which desktop speakers can also be connected.
It’s the first DAC of its kind to utilise THX’s AAA-78 amplifier technology, which is the highest-powered configuration within the company’s Achromatic Audio Amplifier design and promises the same power output as a desktop THX AAA DAC amp – just in a much smaller package. THX says this technology can “reduce harmonic, intermodulation, and crossover distortion by up to 40dB”, promising a performance with “infinitesimally low levels” of noise and distortion. It also claims this makes the Onyx up to five times more powerful than other similar USB DACs.
Our pick of the best DACs 2021: USB, portable and desktop DACs
(Image credit: THX)
That AAA technology is bolstered by an ESS ES9281PRO DAC chip, as well as a Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) renderer for playing back MQA hard files and (MQA-encoded) Tidal Masters in their native quality.
The Onyx has an all-metal body, with LED lights to signify the quality of file being played through it – blue denotes 44.1kHz or 48kHz PCM files, yellow signifies sample rates above that, while red and pink display DSD and MQA signals respectively. THX has incorporated cable management into the design so that wires from connected headphones are kept neat and tidy, too.
THX Onyx is now available in the United States and Europe for $200 and €210. Needless to say we look forward to taking it for a spin very soon.
MORE:
See all our DAC reviews
Astell & Kern AK USB-C Dual DAC cable promises to boost your portable listening
Ikea and Sonos are starting to tease the next products that the two companies have collaborated on. The furniture giant today posted an Instagram story that directly mentions the “Symfonisk” line and flashes the Sonos logo at the end, so there’s little doubt that new hardware is coming soon. Two fresh filings have also just appeared at the Federal Communications Commission.
The Verge can exclusively share details on what’s coming. The first new product, covered in this filing, is a revamped version of the Symfonisk table lamp. It’s expected to be sold for around the same price ($179) as the original product, which basically stuffed the sound quality of a Sonos Play:1 into the body of a lamp.
But from what The Verge understands, the $99 Symfonisk bookshelf speaker — the most affordable gateway into the Sonos platform — is not due for any major updates. Instead, the second product that Ikea and Sonos will announce in 2021 is completely new: a piece of wall art with an integrated speaker.
Ikea and Sonos are also preparing an updated table lamp speaker.Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Companies like Soundwall have produced artwork speakers before, but it’s safe to assume that Ikea and Sonos are targeting a price point that’s dramatically lower than those expensive products.
The Verge has seen an early image of this product, codenamed “Titan,” but details about how it functions couldn’t yet be learned. Specifically, it’s unclear whether the entire artwork print is the product or if the speaker unit can be transferred between different exterior art housings. One of the two new FCC filings from Ikea and Sonos is for a “wireless module.” At a distance, it could look like any of Ikea’s wall prints, only with much more tech on the other side (and a power cord running down from the bottom).
All of the Symfonisk products so far have been designed with a dual purpose in mind. The lamp combines a speaker and light source; the bookshelf speaker can literally be used as a shelf when mounted to a wall. And they’re also meant to blend into home decor. From that angle, combining artwork and a music speaker seems like a natural progression for the Symfonisk series.
I’ve heard from a fair number of Sonos customers who use the Symfonisk bookshelf speakers as rear surrounds for Sonos’ Arc and Beam soundbars. They work very well for that purpose, but a stereo pair of wall art speakers could make for an even sleeker home theater setup.
Ikea and Sonos have not yet revealed exactly when they plan to announce their latest collaborative efforts. The Verge has reached out to Sonos for comment. In the immediate future, Sonos is gearing up for the launch of its new Sonos Roam, a product first leaked by The Verge, which starts shipping on April 20th. You can read my full review of that excellent portable speaker.
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