Amazon is refreshing a handful of products in its Echo line: the Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 5, plus it’s adding a Kids Edition of the Echo Show 5. The big new feature on both models is the camera, but the upgrade is more impressive on the bigger Echo Show 8. It now has the same 13-megapixel sensor that you’ll find on the Echo Show 10. Instead of moving the screen around to point at you as the 10 does, the Echo Show 8 provides a wider, 110-degree field of view. Within that range, it does the pan and zoom trick to keep subjects centered in the frame.
To power that trick and some other new software features, Amazon says there’s a new “octa-core” processor inside the Echo Show 8. Otherwise, it’s the same Echo Show 8 that we reviewed in 2019, with dual speakers and a choice of either white or charcoal gray. It still sells at the same price, $129.99.
The other software tricks include using the camera to detect if a human has walked into the room and then plugging that information into routines (like turning on the lights). Amazon emphasizes that this is an opt-in only feature and it even requires users to manually punch in a code during setup to ensure they really mean to turn it on. It also does its human shape detection locally.
Amazon will also let all Echo 8 and 5 devices turn on Alexa’s security mode, so you can remotely view the cameras from your phone. Finally, the Echo Show 8 is getting new AR effects for Amazon’s own video chat service, including “reactions” like filling the screen with hearts or setting custom virtual backgrounds.
As for the smaller (and more popular) Echo Show 5, the upgrades are less impressive. The camera is doubling in resolution, from one megapixel to two. It won’t have the horsepower to do the follow mode on the camera. However, the Echo Show 5 is getting a permanent price drop; it’s now $84.99. It comes in the same charcoal and white colors but adds a new blue option.
If you want to spend $10 more, you can get a Kids Edition of the Echo Show 5 with a wild print on the rear fabric. That extra $10 also includes a year of Amazon Kids Plus services and a two-year warranty against whatever damage your child can inflict on the thing.
All three versions of the Echo Show should be available for order immediately, but shipping could take a few weeks — even Amazon is not fully immune to chip shortages, it seems. As for fans of the Echo Spot orb, it’s not seeing any updates today and is in all likelihood not going to make a comeback — Amazon tells us that most customers just opted for the Echo Show 5 instead.
(Pocket-lint) – Google’s second generation of its smallest Google Assistant speaker comes in the form of the Nest Mini.
The Nest Mini replaces the Google Home Mini, and while it looks very similar, there are a few differences and a few upgrades. Here’s how the Nest Mini compares to the Home Mini and what the differences are.
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What’s the same between the Nest Mini and Home Mini?
Design
Features
Price
The Google Nest Mini and Home Mini share the same cute puck-like design and they offer the same dimensions too. They are both circular with a material covering and they both feature LED lights at the top, which light up when Google Assistant is activated.
The two devices also offer the same main features in that they both offer Google Assistant built-in, like the other Google Home devices and Nest Hub devices, allowing you play music, control smart home devices and ask Google pretty much any question you want an answer to, whether that be what the weather is like, what your calendar is like for that day or how old Einstein was when he died.
The launch price was also the same between the Home Mini and the Nest Mini with both costing $49/£49, though you might struggle to get your hands on the Home Mini now.
What’s different between the Nest Mini and Home Mini?
There would be little point in releasing a second generation model if there were no improvements, so unsurprisingly, the Nest Mini offers some upgrades to the Home Mini.
Design
Nest Mini: Built-in screw mount, more sustainable
Home Mini: Accessory required for wall-mounting
While the main design between the Google Home Mini and the Nest Mini is the same, the Nest Mini adds a screw mount on the rear, allowing the device to be wall hung.
This makes the Nest Mini much more flexible when it comes to placement, given the wall-hung option is built-in rather than requiring an additional accessory, like the Home Mini.
Additionally, the Nest Mini is more sustainable than the Home Mini, made from 35 per cent recycled plastic, while the fabric is made from recycled bottles.
Home Mini: Tap volume controls, physical microphone mute button
The Google Home Mini has a physical microphone mute button and it’s also possible to control the volume with a tap on each side of the device.
The Nest Mini meanwhile, also has a physical microphone mute button, but the volume tap controls are next to the LED lights on the top of the device and there’s an ultrasound detector built-in that lights up when your hand approaches, allowing you to tap to pause too.
Sound
Nest Mini: 40mm driver, 360-degree sound
Home Mini: 40mm driver
The Google Home Mini is a great little device for an entry point into Google Home and Nest speakers, but its sound quality isn’t as good as the other devices in the range. Fine for background music and for answering your questions, but not necessarily a device you’d use to listen to music day-in-day-out.
The Nest Mini meanwhile, has an improved hardware platform and 40 per cent better bass response compared to the Home Mini.
Features and hardware
Nest Mini: Three microphones
Home Mini: Two microphones
Along with sound improvements, the Nest Mini adds a third microphone compared to the Home Mini. It enables the second generation model to respond to voice better and faster than the original model.
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Conclusion
The Google Nest Mini retains the cute, compact design of the Home Mini that we know and love, but it makes it more sustainable, whilst adding the convenience of a built-in wall mount.
The second-gen device also improves the sound quality, adds more on-device control and adds an extra microphone for better voice response, whilst retaining the same price.
The Nest Mini is a no brainer over the Home Mini if you are choosing between the two. If you are considering an upgrade, you’ll get some good improvements over your Home Mini, but it’s probably worth considering the Nest Mini as an extra Google Assistant device in your home, rather than a replacement to the Home Mini as the Home Mini is still great.
(Pocket-lint) – Gaming phones have become something of a fixture in the Android space; while many flagship devices push their gaming prowess, for a select few, gaming is their raison d’être, their everything.
The ROG Phone is one such device, pushing Asus’ Republic of Gamers brand and weaving into that the experience Asus has gained from its regular phones. And in the fourth-generation of this phone Asus is more ambitious than ever.
Here’s why the Asus ROG Phone 5 is not only a great gaming phone, it’s a great phone outside of that too.
Design & Build
Dimensions: 173 x 77 x 9.9mm / Weight: 239g
Under-display optical fingerprint scanner
3.5mm headphone jack
ROG Vision rear display
Gaming phones often show their colours when it comes to the design. Aside from being large – which the ROG Phone 5 definitely is – you’ll often find more overt graphics and emotive finishes rather than just being a safe black or grey.
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The ROG Phone 5 doesn’t go to an extreme though: from the front it just looks like a normal phone. Flip it over and you’re treated to subtle design touches etched into the rear glass, which also gives some indicator of where the touch points are for the AirTriggers (which Asus describes as “ultrasonic sensor zones that can be customised to perform different functions, such as reproducing actions in specific games and launching specific apps”. We touch upon these in more detail in the last section of this review).
The thing that gives the game away is the ROG Vision display on the rear of the phone. There are two different versions of the display, with a dot display on the regular ROG Phone models and a slightly smaller but more sophisticated display panel on the Pro and Ultimate models – the Pro is shown in this review.
ROG Phone 5 comes in regular, Pro and Ultimate editions
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That blows the subtlety out of the water, allowing you to have RBG illumination on the back of the phone – with the Pro and Ultimate models offering a wider range of graphics and animations – all of which can be controlled through the Armoury Crate app on the phone, just like Asus PC components.
That control includes turning the Vision display off if you don’t want it – but you’ll soon forget it’s there until people mention it. It’s on the back of the phone and it’s rare to be looking at the back of the phone when you’re doing something, so let’s not dwell on it.
There are a couple of other quirks around the body: The USB-C on the base of the phone is offset to one side rather than central (and we don’t know exactly why), while there’s a secondary USB-C on the side of the phone. This secondary USB sits alongside the contact point to power the AeroActive Cooler 5 – the clip-on fan – and both have a rubber seal that presses into the side to keep out dust.
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This cover is probably the worst piece of design implementation on the ROG Phone 5. The fact that there are a couple of spares in the box tell you everything you need to know: you’re going to lose this cover, because it’s a separate piece of rubber.
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We’ve found it flapping off when pulling the phone from a pocket, and just when handling the device. We’re constantly pushing it back into place and a couple of times we’ve found it missing and then located it in the bottom of a pocket.
An out of box experience all phones can learn from
One of the great things about gaming phones is what you get for your money. There are a whole range of phones on offer and none are really expensive compared to flagships from brands like Samsung and Apple. The ROG Phone 5 starts at £799 in the UK – and that’s for a 12GB RAM model with 256GB storage, not the bottom of the range loadout.
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But it’s not just about the core device, it’s about the rest of the experience. Lavishly packaged, opening the ROG Phone 5 is an event. From the cool comic book graphics of inside of the box, that flow through into the startup process for the phone, there’s a sense of theatre. It’s a reward for your custom and it’s so much better than just sliding a phone out of a box.
You also get more in the box: the 65W charger that will deliver a fast charge; the case that brings some grip to what is, admittedly, a slippery phone given its massive size; and the clip-on AeroActive Cooler 5 fan, which integrates a kickstand, two physical buttons, and another RGB logo.
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Some might baulk at this as more landfill, but some companies will make you pay for the charger – and here you’re getting a powerful charger you can use with your other devices too.
Display
6.78-inch AMOLED panel
Up to 144Hz refresh rate
2448 x 1080 resolution
There’s a 6.78-inch display in the ROG Phone 5. It’s big by any standard, with Asus hanging onto the bezels top and bottom. The top bezel integrates the front-facing camera, so there’s no need for a notch or punch-hole.
It’s also a flat display, all practical design decisions made to give you the best gaming experience, ensuring that you get as much visual space as possible. Given how problematic we found the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s display, we’re just fine with the ROG Phone 5 going flat.
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The ROG Phone 5 models all stick to a Full HD resolution and while devices like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra can technically produce finer detail, generally speaking that makes little difference. We can’t fault the ROG Phone’s display for detail.
It also offers refresh rates up to 144Hz (if you have any games that support that, there’s a full list on the ROG website), with options to select 60 or 120Hz – or Auto, which will pick the refresh rate based on the content.
HDR 10+ is supported to bring pop to the visuals for high dynamic range content, while that AMOLED panel provides rich colour visuals, with the option to tune that to your preferences.
It’s a great display and about the only thing that separates it from the best displays on the market is the peak brightness. It offers 800 nits, which is still bright enough for most, but Samsung’s top-end offerings will outshine this model – most notable when outside in sunny conditions.
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Flanking the display top and bottom are dual stereo speakers, while there’s also a 3.5mm headphone socket for those wanting to go wired. The speaker performance is stellar, amongst the best you’ll find on a smartphone. It’s rich and immersive, with substantial bass and volume that means you don’t need headphones to get the most from your content.
Hardware & Performance
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform
8GB-18GB RAM, 128GB-512GB storage
6000mAh battery, dual USB-C 65W wired charging
The fact the ROG Phone 5 houses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 platform makes it especially good value for money – as you’re getting the latest flagship hardware that will embarrass some other phones.
Of course it comes in at different price points, with RAM and storage leveraging the price, although not all models will be available in all regions. We actually tested the 16GB/512GB model (the ROG Phone 5 Pro – a model that isn’t planned for the UK; although there’s a 16GB/512GB version of the standard ROG Phone 5, the only difference being the type of display you get on the back of the phone).
The performance is also exemplary. There are a number of elements to this. It’s got that great hardware and, as a result, we’ve found the gaming performance to be outstanding.
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This is a phone that eats hours of Call of Duty Mobile or PUBG Mobile, giving solid gameplay, combined with those design elements and some software enhancements that feel like they give you edge, or at least give you the opportunity to establish new preferences thanks to the bespoke gaming options offered.
We also didn’t find the ROG Phone 5 to get excessively hot under load, despite the option of the clip-on fan.
But the important point about performance is that the ROG Phone 5 also runs fast and smooth outside of gaming. We’ve seen gaming phones that drop the ball when it comes to simple tasks, because of poor software. The ROG Phone 5 is stable, which makes for a great experience.
There’s a huge 6000mAh battery, which is fitting for a phone of this size, again with Asus splitting the battery and enabling 65W wired charging. That makes for really fast charging, with the option to bypass charging – and just have the power used for the system rather than recharging the battery.
Again, this is an option for gamers, so you’re not charging (which produces heat) and loading the system (which produces heat) and could potentially lead to a drop in performance.
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A big battery means big battery life. In regular use the ROG Phone 5 will easily see you through the day and into the next. It’s not a charge every night type of phone. Even with a couple of hours of gaming thrown in – at top brightness and max settings – battery life isn’t a worry. That’s a great position not just for a gaming phone, but any smartphone.
There are power modes available, with X Mode firing up full power to let things rip, and a Dynamic Mode to keep things balanced. You can customise the power modes to suit your preferences with things like network, display, performance, and other controls all selectable.
There’s an under-display fingerprint scanner that’s fast to unlock, while calls comes through loud and clear too – with no detected problems with Wi-Fi or 5G connectivity.
The camera on any gaming phone is often something of an afterthought. The focus is on the experience of gaming – so the camera is seen as less of a focus. Despite that, Asus is pushing the ROG Phone 5 as having a triple camera system.
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The main camera is a 64-megapixel sensor, using pixel combining to produce a 16-megapixel image as standard. You can shoot in full resolution, but you have to dig into the menu to find that option, which no one is ever going to do.
There’s an ultra-wide lens, giving the equivalent of 0.6x, although the quality isn’t great, with visible blurring around the edges if there’s any detail there – but fine for open shots of expansive landscapes.
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1.0X MAIN CAMERA
The final camera is a macro camera, which we’re generally non-plussed about. As on other devices, macro cameras seem to be thrown in to make up the numbers – and that’s what it feels like here too.
So back the main camera and the performance is reasonable, producing naturally balanced pictures, although perhaps not getting the most out of scenes and not showing as much pop as other cameras we’ve seen can offer.
Low-light shooting offers that slow exposure so you can watch the image get lighter, which we like – and it will take those shots automatically in low light, which means people will actually use it.
There’s a portrait mode for blurring the background that works well enough, although it seems to soften the background with over-exposure which makes results look a little clumsy.
Portrait works on the front and back cameras and we generally prefer the results without portrait mode – and you can’t adjust the levels of blur after the fact, so it’s worth taking a few photos and figuring out what gives you pleasing results so you can change the settings before you take the picture. The selfie camera is generally good, although images quickly get softer in lower light conditions and aren’t good when it gets dark.
There’s no optical zoom on offer here, although you can pinch-to-zoom from the main camera out to 8x. It’s not an especially elegant system and the results are typical of digital zoom, with quality dropping as you increase the “magnification”.
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One of the reasons for the high-resolution sensor – apart from for the benefit of the spec sheet – is to allow 8K video capture, on top of the 4K 60fps option.
The important thing about the camera is that it gets the job done: while other phones will sell themselves on camera features above all else, that’s not really the ethos behind the ROG Phone 5. This phone is all about the power and the gaming experience. So, yes, there are more engaging cameras elsewhere, but at the same time, this Asus will give you perfectly good results in most situations.
Software and custom gaming options
Android 11
Armoury Crate
Custom gaming controls
As we’ve said previously, the software on the ROG Phone 5 runs smooth and fast. We’ve experienced no problems with the tweaks and changes that Asus has made over Google’s Android operating system, and it’s easy to swing in with Google versions of apps rather than supplied alternatives.
It’s running Android 11 too, so the latest version of Google’s OS – although Asus doesn’t quite have the update record that a company like Samsung now offers, so there’s no telling how long it would be before it moves to Android 12 once that’s released later down the line.
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What’s more relevant here is the gaming software and the options that controls. We’ve mentioned Armoury Crate, which will let you control things like the ROG Vision display on the back of the phone, and act as a launch pad for your games.
Within each game you can see how long you’ve spent playing that game, but more usefully you have a record of profiles for that game. You can, for example, restrict background CPU usage when playing a particular game, change the touch performance, turn off background network syncing – all designed to ensure you have the optimal gaming experience.
That you can customise this to each game is great. For something like a shooter where connection and touch matters more, you might want to restrict everything else. For something casual like Pokemon Go, you might be happy to have everything else on your phone happening. It’s freedom to choose, rather than one gaming mode fits all.
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Within games you have access to the Game Genie dashboard too, allowing you to perform essential things, like tweak the brightness, turn off alerts or calls, speed up your phone – and block navigation gestures so you don’t accidentally exit the game.
There’s the option to have stats always showing – CPU and GPU usage, battery, temperature, fps – and you can drag these to anywhere on the screen so they are out of the way.
But it’s the AirTriggers that are the biggest differentiator from other phones, giving you a range of touch zones around the body of the phone that you can customise. That also includes two physical buttons on the AeroActive Cooler accessory too – which might convince some people to use it, as those buttons feel more positive than the touch areas of the phone’s casing.
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The Cooler buttons are great for things like dropshotting in shooters, because you can hit the deck while still firing, and get back to your feet, all without having to touch anything on the screen – which is a real advantage during games.
There are two ultrasonic buttons on the top of the phone, like shoulder buttons, with haptic feedback. These can offer a full range of programmable options – taps, swipes, slides – and they can be divided into two buttons each side, or you can programme and assign a macro to that button for a sequence you might use in a game.
Then there’s motion support, which you can assign to controls in the game – like forward tilt to reload, or whatever you like.
There’s also (on the Pro and Ultimate models only) rear touch zones you can use for slide input for your fingers on the rear of the phone.
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The challenge is how you incorporate all these tools to make things easier for you during games – although setting them up is easy enough and each setup is unique to each game.
Even if you just find one thing that’s useful, then you’re a step ahead. That might be using an additional AirTrigger for an on-screen control you find hard to hit – or that you can then remove from the display so you have less UI in the way of the game.
Verdict
The thing that really hits home about the Asus ROG Phone 5 is that it’s not just a great gaming phone: it’s a great phone full stop.
Yes, you can’t avoid the fact that the majority of phones are now based around the camera experience – and that’s one area that the ROG Phone 5 doesn’t really go to town on. But with huge battery and display, this is a great media phone in addition to a gaming delight.
For keen gamers, there’s a market of phone choices out there – and the ROG Phone 5 should definitely be high up your shortlist. For everyone else, if you can accept that this Asus is designed for gamers first, it’s still an awful lot of phone for the money.
Also consider
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Nubia Red Magic 6
This gaming phone attempts to steal the show with a 165Hz display. Despite being a powerful device that’s good value for money, it does oversell the cameras and also brings with it some software quirks you’ll need to work around.
HTC kicked off its Vivecon 2021 virtual event with a big announcement. During the opening keynote today, the company revealed a pair of near-5K resolution VR headsets, the HTC Vive Pro 2, which connects to a PC, and a standalone product called the HTC Vive Focus 3. HTC said these upcoming devices are primarily for businesses, but the specs and features, including a data compression technique not yet seen among the best VR headsets, will also interest gamers with a penchant for a high-end headset upgrade.
HTC Vive Pro 2
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HTC new PC VR headset, the Vive Pro 2 is, more of an evolutionary change than a revolutionary change from the original HTC Vive Pro. HTC poured its attention into improving the visual experience you get from the new headset rather than redesigning the entire structure of the product.
The HMD maker worked with AMD and Nvidia to implement Display Stream Compression (DSC) on the Vive Pro 2 – a first for a VR headset – enabling lossless transmission of high-resolution data. The Vive Pro 2 includes dual fast-switching RGB subpixel displays, giving the headset a total resolution of 4898 x 2448. These displays also operate at a speeder 120 Hz refresh rate to reduce motion blur. Faster refresh rates also improve user comfort, as we learned with Valve’s Index.
DSC, which is standardized by VESA, helps the high-bandwidth display signal stay within the constraints of DisplayPort 1.2. It even allows HTC’s Vive Wireless Adapter accessory to carry the Vive Pro 2’s high-bandwidth signal, which upon release will make it the highest resolution wireless PC VR solution.
The Vive Pro 2 shares the same shape and design as the original Vive Pro, including a rigid, mechanical headstrap and built-in adjustable headphones. This time, however, the headphones feature 3D spatial audio and Hi-res-certified speakers. The new headset also retains compatibility with all SteamVR and Vive Pro accessories, such as the Vive Trackers, Vive Facial Tracker and Valve Index controllers. The screens and the lenses are the significant changes.
HTC said you would need an Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics card or an AMD Radeon 5000-series or better to get the full potential out of the Vive Pro 2. However, you can set the screens to run at 90 Hz if necessary, which should allow you to use the new headset on lower-end graphics cards while you wait out the GPU shortage.
Beyond increasing the resolution and refresh rate, HTC also expanded the field of view (FOV) by a slight margin compared to the original Vive Pro from 110 degrees to 120 degrees. The improvement closes the FOV gap between the Vive Pro and the Valve Index (adjustable up to 130 degrees), but it’s still a far cry from ultrawide Pimax headsets.
HTC developed new dual-element lenses to achieve the FOV improvements within the existing Vive Pro form factor by enabling the displays to sit closer to the lenses and retain focus.
HTC is approaching the market with the Vive Pro 2 the same way it did with the original Vive Pro headset. The headset will initially hit the market as an upgrade kit for people with an existing SteamVR-based VR system. It works with both the 1.0 and 2.0 versions of Valve’s base stations.
The headset alone will sell for $749 (£659 / €739), with pre-orders open today and hardware shipping before the end of the month. A complete Vive Pro 2 kit, with base stations and controllers, will be available on June 4 for $1,399 (£1,299 / €1,399).
HTC Vive Focus 3: A Standalone Vive
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The Vive Pro 2 is HTC’s top PC VR offering, but that’s not the only incoming Vive headset. The Vive Focus 3, which doesn’t require tethering to a system, shares a handful of the new features introduced on the Vive Pro 2.
HTC’s new standalone includes the same dual-element lenses found in the Vive Pro 2, giving it the same 120-degree FOV as the PC VR headset. The Vive Focus 3 also has dual 2448 x 2448 RGB panels, but they’re limited to 90Hz. HTC’s new headset also features adjustable IPD (interpupillary distance, the amount of space between your pupils), with a granular range of 57-72mm.
Unlike the Vive Pro 2, which borrows its exterior design from its predecessor, the Vive Focus 3 features an entirely new industrial design. HTC reduced the weight by 20% compared by building it from magnesium alloy instead of plastic. HTC said the metal housing is also 500% stronger than plastic.
To help balance the weight evenly, HTC installed the battery pack under the rear cushion of the headstrap. The battery gives the headset roughly 2 hours of run time, with a charge time of approximately 30 minutes. The battery is also removable, so you can always keep a spare ready to go. The headset doesn’t have a backup power source, so you can’t hot-swap the batteries while it’s running.
The Vive Focus 3 has a pair of speakers embedded in the rigid head strap, plus a headphone jack so that you can use your favorite headphones with it. Four onboard cameras embedded in the front of the visor handle inside-out tracking and provide tracking for the two wand controllers that ship with the headset.
In this era of working in a pandemic, no one wants to share something like a VR headset. That’s why HTC looked to make the Vive Focus 3 simple to keep hygienic. The front and rear cushions are easy to remove for cleaning, thanks to a magnetic mounting mechanism.
A Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 SoC does all the heavy lifting to power the Vive Focus 3. HTC installed a copper heatpipe and an active cooling fan to extract the most performance possible out of the XR2 platform. By contrast, Facebook throttled the XR2 in the Oculus Quest 2 standalone headset to keep it within certain temperature constraints.
Not Really for Gamers
On paper, the Vive Focus 3 looks like a worthy competitor to the Oculus Quest 2. Unfortunately, it’s not priced for consumers and doesn’t include a game library to back it up. However, HTC said the new headset will support streaming PC VR content wirelessly over WiF, so maybe we’ll see support for PC VR gaming.
The Vive Focus 3 will be available on June 27. Buying one will set you back $1,300 (£1,060 / / €1,180). For this price, you get the headset with controllers and a business warranty.
A Business Ecosystem
HTC is offering more than just a pair of new VR headsets. The company has put together an entire ecosystem for using VR in business announced today. Vive Business provides a handful of business-focused VR solutions, such as the Vive Business Device Management System, which gives IT departments the tools necessary for keeping track of a fleet of devices.
The Vive Business platform also includes an Android-based progress monitoring system for instructors called Vive Business Training and a VR meeting place called Vive Sync.
Meanwhile, the Vive Business AppStore offers a curated collection of off-the-shelf business-related VR software for the Focus 3 headset. HTC said it would launch with roughly 20 titles, with more content in development from various ISV partners.
With all of these tools, HTC hopes to accelerate the adoption of VR in the workplace. The company believes that as more people encounter VR for the first time at work, it will drive more adoption in the home. So don’t think we’ve seen the last gaming-centric Vive headset quite yet.
The new Atom’s headline ability is headphone playback, but don’t underestimate its value as a preamplifier. It’s a classy and versatile addition to Naim’s Uniti range.
For
Top-notch streaming
Great headphone stage
Also a great smart preamp
Against
No HDMI ARC input
Sound+Image mag review
(Image credit: Future)
This review originally appeared in Sound+Image magazine, one of What Hi-Fi?’s Australian sister publications. Click here for more information on Sound+Image, including digital editions and details on how you can subscribe.
UK-based Naim Audio became first renowned for its amplification, proving the importance of power quality from the early 1970s. Three decades later Naim was also quick to recognise the future of file-based and streaming music, and today enjoys great success with its Mu-so wireless speakers, while the Uniti range of all-in-one streaming systems deliver simple but definitely hi-fi ‘just-add-speakers’ solutions.
In a way the Uniti players brought together everything Naim has learned – the wireless, multiroom and control elements of the Mu-sos, with the solid hi-fi amplification developed over decades, including more recent trickle-down tech from the developmental fillip of investment made in the company’s no-holds-barred Statement amplifier project.
Now here comes the Uniti Atom Headphone Edition (£2399/$3290/AU$4299), which takes the smallest of the existing Uniti all-in-ones and does something rather unexpected for Naim – it throws out the part on which the company built its reputation, the amplification.
10 of the best British amplifiers of all time
(Image credit: Naim Audio)
Features
Well, that’s not entirely true. There are no amplifiers for loudspeakers, as provided on the other Uniti units (excepting only the Uniti Core, which adds networked hard-drive storage to the range).
But as the ‘HE’ of the new name suggests, it caters instead to headphones. On the front there are headphone outputs for jacks of full-size quarter-inch (6.5mm in new money) and 4.4mm Penteconn balanced connections, while round the back there’s a second balanced connection on 4-pin XLR.
We’re told that for this product Naim has used an all-new amp implementation designed especially so it delivers the best headphone amplifier experience, including a new transformer design to provide power tailored to the needs of the headphone amplification.
But this is not only a headphone amp. It’s also a preamplifier, and Naim has optimised its preamplifier performance also, “including elements originally used in our flagship Statement Amplifier” it says.
As a preamplifier it offers one analogue input pair on RCA sockets, and then digital inputs: two optical and one coaxial, plus USB-A slots both front and rear. There’s also Bluetooth available, which includes the aptX codec.
What doesn’t it have? It loses from the original Atom the HDMI ARC connection which was handy to play audio from your TV, and there’s still no USB-B connection to play direct from computer.
But its outputs are expanded, its variable preamplifier output available on both unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR outputs to feed your downstream amplification. This could play straight to power amps, since there is full volume control in the Atom HE – either from the remote, from its app, or from the heavenly Naim knob which sits on top, the only disadvantage of this positioning being that it is hidden when the unit goes on a good rack shelf, though its minimal height of 9cm means you should still be able to squeeze your hand in there for a knob spin when the urge presents itself.
(Image credit: Naim Audio)
Streaming
And in addition to physical inputs, this Naim has all the streaming prowess of other Uniti members, and that’s to say as complete a set of protocols as you’ll find anywhere – so many, indeed, that when the range originally launched, it was significantly delayed by the paper trail for all the licensing involved.
So this includes being easily addressed from any Spotify app, free or paid, or using Apple’s AirPlay 2 to stream the output of a Mac or any app on an iOS app, and Chromecast too, for point-to-point streaming from Android devices. Those with music libraries on a PC can use its UPnP ‘server’ function. It’s also Roon Ready, and although the Roon-direct licensing was still going through when it arrived for review, it was nevertheless available in Roon via its Chromecast and AirPlay abilities.
Then there are the services available within the Naim app itself. These include internet radio and podcasts, Tidal, and Qobuz (the latter newly available to Australia). You may note these are services which offer higher-quality subscriptions; Naim emphasises this quality also in its internet radio app, with a section devoted to higher-rate streams than the often grungy desk-compressed pop stations.
And one last batch of capabilities – the Atom HE is multiroom-capable with other Naim equipment including the Mu-so wireless speakers, so you can have music playing in unison (and Uniti) throughout your home. Chromecast and AirPlay 2 offer other paths to multiroom and multi-device playback.
Best music streamers 2021
Setting up
Having previously reviewed the standard Uniti Atom, we found set-up here to be a breeze. You have to pair the remote control by holding it to the full-colour five-inch front-panel panel display while you push ‘Home’ for three seconds. Our Naim app, already installed on an iPad Pro, needed a reinstall before it saw the Atom HE on the network and delivered it a firmware update, losing contact until the update was complete.
Beyond that, we had absolutely zero operational issues, and indeed throughout our testing we were able to generate no criticisms at all – not one – because Naim has honed its highly versatile and potentially complex operation to something near perfection.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Future)
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(Image credit: Future)
The Naim app presents all its streaming services on one screen, the inputs on a scrolling second screen; if that doesn’t appeal you can use the settings to reorder the inputs to your preference, banishing unused ones to the second screen.
We had connected a Thorens turntable via a phono stage into the analogue input. We connected our computer to an optical input, using a DAC between them as a USB-to-SPDIF converter.
To kick off, we ran the Atom HE’s unbalanced pre-outputs to our resident power amps, always a slightly nervous connection to make when the preamp is digitally controlled and might flick the output to max accidentally. (Once we had Roon connected, we specified a safety level beyond which the volume slider then can’t go.)
We addressed it first from Tidal on the Naim app, then from the Tidal app itself, then from Roon.
Indeed during the Atom’s visit it may have be physically located in one room, but it seemed omnipresent. Wherever we accessed music – on the music room computer, on our Chromebook, the iPhone, a tablet – there was the Naim Atom as a playback device waving at us as if saying ‘Play to me! Play to me!’ There are so many ways to play that surely any current preferred path to playback will fit right in.
(Image credit: Naim Audio)
Listening
We can fully believe Naim’s claim that the preamp of the Atom HE is actually superior to those of the current Uniti range. Even in our initial set-up without the benefit of the balanced connections, all the cues from our favourite tunes poured from power amp and speaker references, dynamically delivered, cleanly resolving the good and the bad.
The effect on Alex the Astronaut’s main vocal for Split the Sky can sound curiously excessive on systems lacking resolution, degenerating into a mush. Here it could be discerned separately, part delay, part reverb. More to the point, the music and the emotion were entirely unchecked. The quite awful subject matter of her remarkable I Like To Dance is chilling; her Triple J cover of Mr Blue Sky – The Go-Betweens’ Lindy Morrison on drums – is sheer joy.
The Tidal stream through the Atom HE easily outperformed Spotify’s relatively softened sound. Naim’s Uniti platform does not support the MQA encoding which Tidal uses to ‘unfold’ its high-res Masters to their high definition – Naim could change this by firmware update, it has said, but is being led by demand.
Whatever you might think of MQA, it may be that uncompressed FLAC high-res streaming as offered by Qobuz and Deezer represents a purer future – after all, with today’s bandwidths defined by streaming 4K video, what need for data compression of high-res music any more?
So with Qobuz newly launched in Australia, we took the opportunity to connect our Roon to Qobuz, and our Roon to the Uniti. Roon’s excellent quality check pop-up box reminded us that Roon via Chromecast dropping the high-res to 48kHz, so we switched to Qobuz direct inside the Naim app. And what a joy that was. Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way was almost alarmingly crisp; details on Toto’s Africa (the left-channel chuckle on the intro) astoundingly apparent, especially as our usual playback preference for this slice of soft rock is the vinyl 45.
Best music streaming services
(Image credit: Naim Audio)
On Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill, the continuous rolling drums’n’bass were entirely segregated from the other parts, and the emotional lift of multitracked Kates as we reached the first ‘Come on baby, come on darlin’ was thrilling at an almost tactile level. We began regretting our agreement to return the Atom HE to distributor BusiSoft AV within an unusually brief two weeks; we were barely getting started and we were missing it already.
Headphone playback
Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition specs
(Image credit: Naim Audio)
Inputs: 1 x analogue RCA, 2 x optical digital, 1 x coaxial digital, 2x USB-A
Streaming: Apple AirPlay 2, Chromecast, UPnPT, Spotify Connect, TIDAL, Qobuz, Roon Ready, Bluetooth, Internet radio
Also visiting from Naim’s Australian distributor were the Final Audio D8000 Pro headphones, themselves a mere AU$4999 (£3995, US$4299) with their silver-coated cables trailing away to the Atom HE’s full-size headphone jack like weighty twisted tinsel.
The Naim had not the slightest trouble driving these esoteric 60-ohm planar magnetic headphones to their maximum ability, whether delivering a tight and punchy kick drum under the guitar and synthscape of The Triffids’ Wide Open Road, or highlighting the curiously lo-fi elements opening Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know.
The Naim and Finals delivered a mind-meltingly zingy portrayal of The Go-Betweens’ Streets of your Town, currently resurrected for advertising purposes by Ampol but here crisply separated to the point where our attention was constantly darting around the soundstage to small sonic elements like the cunning combination of panned rhythm guitars, the tight block hits in the left, each element easily individually selectable by the mind’s ear, yet held together in a finely musical whole.
We also ran more affordable headphone references – open AKGs, closed Sennheisers – and there wasn’t a pair which didn’t display their full abilities or receive more than enough power on tap from the Atom HE – enough, indeed, to achieve quite worrying levels without any hint of congestion or distortion.
The relevant figures are 1.5 watt-per-channel output into 16 ohms (from all headphone outputs), and output impedance of 4.7 ohms. The headphone amp remains in pure Class-A except for lower impedance headphones pushed to the extremes of volume, when a Class-AB circuit is “seamlessly” invoked.
If you like it loud (bearing in mind the dangers of so listening), the Atom HE will at least ensure you get your music with a minimum of damaging distortion.
After a head-pumping serve of Wolfmother’s The Joker and the Thief we wondered if we should take a rest, but Qobuz continued serving such delights that we didn’t, instead diverting to some high-res classical. This confirmed the dynamic reserve of the headphone output and a remarkable ability to stay tonally accurate across different impedance headphones. All this was from the standard unbalanced quarter-inch headphone socket; the balanced outputs could potentially lift the Atom HE’s game still higher.
Best headphones 2021
(Image credit: Naim Audio)
Having an assortment of active stereo speakers in residence for our group test this issue, it occurred to us that the Atom HE’s abilities as a preamp perfectly complemented just such devices. The ELAC Navis, for example, has balanced XLR inputs, to which we connected the Atom HE’s balanced outputs.
The result was wildly successful – a brilliant pair of speakers provided with a perfectly-pitched preamp output backed by physical inputs, streams galore, an app, a physical remote control and Naim’s big knob. Adding good active speakers to the Atom HE makes for a wonderfully compact yet versatile system, boosted by its particular powers to make your headphones sing when privacy is required.
Verdict
The Atom HE is an excellent addition to the Naim Uniti range – something genuinely different in offering a streaming preamplifier with a top-quality headphone amplifier. Use it alone with headphones, with power amps, or with active speakers, and you have a system just as versatile in its streaming abilities as the Mu-so, more versatile in its connections, and far higher in its hi-fi quality. And it comes with the best knob in hi-fi. It’s a big thumbs up from us.
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The Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel is a computer I will never own. But I really, really wish I could.
Artists, creators, and engineers who are looking for a powerful high-end convertible have all kinds of options on today’s market. But only Acer’s ConceptD line can fold in six different ways. There are not one, but two hinges attached to the display: a traditional clamshell hinge and another one in the middle of the lid that enables the screen to rotate outward. By using the two hinges in tandem, you can put the screen in nearly any position you want. This unique form factor makes the ConceptD 7 Ezel unlike any other laptop on the market.
There are other things that separate the Ezel from something like a MacBook, of course. It also has a sleek look with an attractive finish, a gorgeous 15.6-inch 4K UHD touch display, a built-in Wacom EMR pen, and all the ports you need. The chips on the inside are quite powerful. But you can find similar benefits in many convertibles that are half the price. The people who should shell out thousands of dollars for this device are those who have a need for the combination of its unique form factor and large screen — and the rest of us can be jealous of them from afar.
Before ogling too much over this form factor, you might want to know how much it costs. The $2,499 base model comes with an Intel Core i7-10750H, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. For $2,999.99, you can bump the graphics up to a GeForce RTX 2070 and 2TB of storage. I was sent the top model, which has a Core i7-10875H, 32GB of RAM, and a GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q, for a whopping $3,999.99. These components are both a generation old — Acer hasn’t refreshed the ConceptD with the latest chips yet — but they still deliver solid performance, as you’ll see later on.
These prices will make the ConceptD 7 Ezel an unrealistic purchase for most people, but there’s a 14-inch ConceptD that’s more affordable if you’re interested in this form factor. For those whose work involves professional design and video editing, CGI, machine learning, and the like, Acer also sells a ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro with an Nvidia Quadro GPU. Those are expensive, and people whose work requires a Quadro likely know who they are.
A normal-looking laptop, until you start bending the screen.
There are all kinds of ways you could theoretically arrange the ConceptD, but Acer has defined six. There’s Laptop (self-explanatory), Pad (tablet mode), Float (screen facing forward, hanging above the keyboard deck), Stand (screen facing forward, forming a tent shape over the keyboard deck), Share (screen facing upward, parallel to the keyboard deck), and Display (clamshell shape, but with the screen facing away from the keyboard).
I started out using the Ezel in Laptop most of the time, but Float grew on me quickly. It brought the screen much closer to me — it’s pretty far away in Laptop mode, given the size of the keyboard deck. I can see the use cases for the other modes as well: I’d love to use Stand to take notes during a lecture, for example, and Share could be useful for drawing while standing at a desk. The one form I can’t really see myself using is Pad because, at 5.6 pounds, the Ezel is too heavy to practically hold as a tablet unless you’re swole.
The one hiccup I ran into is that the screen is very top-heavy. A few times when I picked the device up, the screen would start to fall forward and I’d have to catch it to keep the lid open. My preferences for Windows tablet mode vs. Windows desktop mode also didn’t quite line up with the device’s. It stayed in desktop mode when in Stand, for example, but I’d prefer it switch to Tablet Mode in that form since the keyboard isn’t accessible.
Acer calls this the “Ezel Hinge design.”
The fact that these form factors are useful, of course, doesn’t mean that most people needthem. Convertibles like the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 can emulate most of these positions as well (Float and Stand are the really unique ones). The Ezel is really meant for people who will be using the nontraditional forms a lot. For those folks, it has two main benefits: moving the screen around is quite smooth and seamless (you don’t have to use two hands to flip the whole machine around, as you would with a 2-in-1 workstation), and the hinge is also sturdy enough that you can draw in Float and Share with no wobble at all. Of course, this sturdiness comes with a big weight penalty, in addition to its price premium — the Ezel is much heavier than most convertible machines.
That extra heft isn’t for nothing — there are some serious fans in this device. Specifically, there are two “4th-Gen AeroBlade 3D” fans in addition to three heat pipes, and there are vents all over the place including the sides of the case and above the keyboard. The system (which Acer calls its “Vortex Flow” design) did a good job of keeping the chassis cool during my day-to-day work — the bottom sometimes got warm but was never uncomfortably hot, and I never felt much heat on the keyboard or palm rests.
Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel benchmarks
Benchmark
Score
Benchmark
Score
Cinebench R23 Multi
8610
Cinebench R23 Single
1249
Cinebench R23 Multi looped for 30 minutes
8413
Geekbench 5.3 CPU Multi
7879
Geekbench 5.3 CPU Single
1280
Geekbench 5.3 OpenCL / Compute
91801
PugetBench for Premiere Pro
604
The fans had trouble keeping pace with the CPU, though. Temperatures stayed solidly in the mid-70s to mid-80s (Celsius) during a 30-minute loop of Cinebench — but throughout several runs of a five-minute, 33-second 4K video export in Adobe Premiere Pro, I saw it jump up to the mid-90s, and even high-90s often. Cinebench scores did decrease over time, and export times also got slower.
The ConceptD took two minutes and 55 seconds to complete the video export, which is one of the fastest times we’ve ever seen from a laptop. The Dell XPS 15 with the same processor and a GTX 1650 Ti took four minutes and 23 seconds (though different versions of Premiere Pro can impact export times, so synthetic benchmarks such as Cinebench are more precise for direct comparison).
Chunky as tablets go.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Here’s Stand.
There’s a “specialized silent switch” under the touchpad.
The webcam’s okay. There’s no privacy shutter.
All ConceptDs include a Pantone-validated display.
SD card reader on the front.
On the left: one USB-A, two Thunderbolt 3, one headphone jack, one Kensington lock slot.
On the right: One USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, one DisplayPort, one HDMI, one Ethernet, one power port.
Check out that hinge.
I also ran PugetBench for Premiere Pro, which measures a device’s performance on a number of real-world Premiere Pro tasks, and the ConceptD scored a 604, which beats the XPS 15 as well. The ConceptD also solidly beats the XPS on Geekbench 5 across the board. The XPS isn’t exactly on a level playing field here, since it has a weaker GPU — these results just illustrate the increased performance that the ConceptD will give you for the extra money. Acer’s machine did lose to Apple’s M1 MacBook Pro in both single-core tests, which underscores how powerful Apple’s processor is in single-core workloads.
The Ezel comes with some software features tailored to creative work as well. In Acer’s ConceptD Palette app, you can swap between Native and Adobe RGB color presets, as well as customizable profiles. You can also monitor CPU, GPU, and memory usage to see how much power your apps are using, and you can toggle between various split-screen layouts if you’re multitasking.
Acer says it’s worked with developers to “optimize” the device to work with various software including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Maya, Revit, and KeyShot. You could also run games on the ConceptD, but it wouldn’t be the best choice since the screen is just 60Hz and won’t be able to display very high frame rates.
As is often the case with big workstations, the Ezel’s battery life isn’t amazing. I averaged four hours and five minutes of continuous use with the screen around 200 nits of brightness. That’s not unexpected, considering the high-resolution display and the discrete GPU, but it’s worth noting that you’ll probably need to bring the hefty brick with you if you’re taking the Ezel out and about.
Elsewhere, the ConceptD 7 is a fine laptop to use. The keyboard is a bit flatter than I prefer but comfortable enough. The backlighting is a dark orange color (Acer calls it warm amber) that looks nice against the white deck. The touchpad is a bit small for a laptop of this size and I sometimes hit plastic while scrolling, but it is quite smooth. The chassis itself is a sturdy magnesium-aluminum alloy, and it’s covered in a nice white finish that Acer says is “highly resistant” to dirt and sun exposure. There’s a fingerprint reader built into the power button on the left side of the chassis, which works just fine.
I enjoyed using the built-in stylus, though it’s a bit stiff to pull out of its garage and requires a substantial nail. The pen uses Wacom EMR technology, meaning it never needs to be charged; it draws its power from inside the display. I enjoyed the limited drawing I was able to do on the smooth matte display (I’m an amateur artist at best).
The pen lives on the right side.
Acer says the ConceptD utilizes “improved psychoacoustics” to provide a better listening experience. You can swap between presets for music, voice, movies, and various types of games in the DTS:X Ultra app that comes preloaded if you have external speakers or headphones connected. If you’re using just the laptop, there are Music, Game, Movies, and Voice presets in ConceptD Palette. The dual front speakers themselves deliver not-great audio that’s quite lacking in the bass department.
Do you want to switch to tablet mode?
The ConceptD 7 Ezel is… well, in a word, it’s awesome. But you don’t need me to tell you that you don’t need to spend $4,000 to get an awesome device. If you want a touchscreen convertible with stylus support and can live without quite this much processing power, devices like the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 and the HP Spectre x360 15 are half the price of this device, more portable, and also have outstanding screens. The Spectre’s screen doesn’t literally fold over the keyboard, but it’ll work for many of the same use cases. And even for folks who want this particular form factor, the smaller ConceptD 3 Ezel will be a more practical purchase. The ConceptD 7 Ezel is for those who need serious power.
But man, is the ConceptD 7 Ezel a great device for content creators. As a professional reviewer, I’ve used more creator-focused laptops than most people on the planet — and I’ve never used anything like this. It’s a great idea, it’s powerful, it’s well-built, and it’s a lot of fun to use. I won’t recommend that you buy it — but if you do, please know that I’m very jealous of you.
Naim has launched a ‘Headphone Edition’ of its multi-Award-winning Uniti Atom just-add-speakers streaming system. The new just-add-headphones variant essentially gets rid of the power amplifier and speaker output stages and instead goes big on the headphone output. To that end, there are three headphone sockets on the front panel – the standard 6.3mm, plus balanced 4-pin XLR and Pentaconn.
While the standard Uniti Atom has a headphone amplifier feeding a 3.5mm jack, the Uniti Atom Headphone Edition has been “fully re-engineered” to deliver a more advanced headphones listening experience. Using technology trickled down from its flagship Statement amplifier, Naim has developed a new discrete headphone amp which it says is capable of driving even the most premium headphones. Naturally, Naim would point you to Focal’s high-end pairs, while the relatively niche balanced connections lend themselves to accommodating further examples of such.
(Image credit: Naim)
The Atom’s internals are based around an all-new discrete transistor circuit design, too, with a new transformer design providing power to it.
Like the existing Uniti Atom, but unique in its implementation in a headphone amplifier design, the Uniti Atom Headphone Edition is a fully formed music system, with built-in streaming smarts and connections aplenty. At its core is Naim’s streaming platform, a gateway to streaming services (such as Qobuz, Tidal and Spotify), internet radio and DLNA playback. Support for AirPlay 2, built-in Chromecast and Roon builds on that streaming savviness. Analogue and digital connections, including USB, coaxial, optical, RCA and phono, are also onboard for connecting additional sources.
While the new Atom has been designed with headphones users in mind, it can of course also be used as a streaming preamplifier, either connected to a power amp, or a pair of active speakers.
The Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition is available now, priced in line with the standard Uniti Atom at £2399 ($3290, AU$4299). And, while it probably has more niche appeal than the standard Atom, if it’s as good for headphones as its sibling is for speakers, we’re looking at another desirable member of the Naim Uniti family.
MORE:
Read our Naim Uniti Atom review
Our pick of the best audiophile headphones 2021
Check out these superb straight-up headphone amplifiers
MSI is getting a new lineup, including some new designs, in sync with Intel launching its Tiger Lake-H processors. While it refreshed recently at CES 2021, this new launch includes more new designs. Some of them will also utilize Nvidia’s new RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti graphics cards. Pre-orders begin today, and laptops will begin to ship on May 16.
MSI GE76 and GE66 Raider
The GE76 and GE66 Raider have taken the flagship spot. (The latter has long been on our list of the
best gaming laptops
.) They’re the same design, but with 17-inch and 15-inch screens, respectively. Both will go up to an overclockable Intel Core i9-11980HK and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080. At launch, the GE66 will go up to
4K
, while the GE76 will only have faster but lower resolution 1080p screens. Higher-resolution screens for the 17-incher will come in May and June.
While the design is the same, including a blue aluminum, MSI said it intends on using more powerful cooling. The Raiders also have
FHD
webcams and have bumped up to Wi-Fi 6E and Thunderbolt 4 for connectivity.
MSI GE76 Raider
MSI GE66 Raider
MSI GS76 Stealth
CPU
Up to Intel Core i9-11980HK
Up to Intel Core i9-11980HK
Up to Intel Core i9-110900H
GPU
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (16GB GDDR6)
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (16GB GDDR6)
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (16GB GDDR6)
RAM
Up to 32GB at 3,200 MHz
Up to 32GB at 3,200 MHz
Up to 64GB at 3,200 MHz
Storage
Up to 1TB
Up to 2TB
Up to 2TB
Display
17.3-inches, 1920 x 1080, up to 360Hz (QHD coming late May)
15.6-inch, up to 4K, QHD up to 240 Hz
17.3-inches, up to 4K, FHD up to 300 Hz
Networking
Killer WiFi 6E AX1675 (2×2), Bluetooth 5.2
Killer WiFi 6E AX1675 (2×2), Bluetooth 5.2
Killer WiFi 6E AX1675 (2×2), Bluetooth 5.2
Battery
99.9 WHr
99.9 WHr
99.9 WHr
Starting Price
$1,499
$2,299
$1,999
MSI GS76 Stealth
(Image credit: MSI)
We’re also seeing a larger version of the existing MSI Stealth. The new GS76 is a 17.3-inch version of the laptop. (We only saw the GS66, the 15.6-incher, at CES, though that is getting upgraded to new parts, too.) It won’t get the overclockable processor, but you get RAM going up to 64GB at 3,200 MHz, up to 2TB of SSD storage and the same 99.9 WHr battery as the Raider line. Like the Raider, there will be
QHD
options coming later in the month.
The new design has top-firing speakers, and MSI says this laptop will have a far more tactile keyboard than the previous 17-inch Stealth, the GS75.
MSI GL66 Pulse and Crosshair
The MSI GL Pulse is a new entry that joins the Crosshair, both of which are intermediate-level gaming laptops. They’re largely the same, including metal lids, but the Pulse has some engraved designs where the Crosshair is plainer.
Both the Pulse will start at $959 with a Core i5-11400H and RTX 3050 and go up from there, topping out at $1,799. Both are getting new keyboards with single-zone RGB, and while the more expensive Raider and Stealth will have Gen 4 SSDs, the GL lineup will stay on Gen 3.
MSI GF Katana and Sword
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: MSI)
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(Image credit: MSI)
MSI’s most entry-level gaming notebooks are the new Katana and Sword. They’re replacing the previous GF Thin line. The two notebooks differ only in color: Katana is black with a red keyboard, while Sword is white with a blue keyboard. These differ from the GL lineup in that they are plastic and have fewer panel options.
Katana starts at $999 with a Core i7-11800H and an RTX 3050 Ti and goes up to $1,449 with a Core i7 and an RTX 3060. The white laptop, Sword has a single $1,099 configuration with a Core i7 and RTX 3050 Ti. Sword has a 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 display at 144 Hz, while Katana will be at both 15 and 17 inches.
MSI Creator Z16
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(Image credit: MSI)
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(Image credit: MSI)
Image 3 of 3
(Image credit: MSI)
MSI is taking another shot at the MacBook Pro crowd with its new Creator Z16. It starts at an eye-watering $2,599 with an Intel Core i7-11800H, an RTX 3060, 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. The $2,999 configuration bumps up to a Core i9-11900H and 2TB SSD.
The new top-of-the-line creator notebooks are minimalist with a CNC aluminum build. MSI has opted for a 16:10 touch display with 2560 x 1600 resolution and a speed of 120 Hz. It also includes two Thunderbolt 4 ports, microSD slot. Unlike the Raider, this sports a 720p webcam and a 90 WHr battery.
With Intel’s new eight-core, 35-65W Tiger Lake-H processors, Dell is rolling out updates to its most premium workhorses and some of the best ultrabooks, the XPS 15 and XPS 17. The pair will be available sometime this summer, with more exact dates coming soon.
The Dell XPS 15 (9510) will start at $1,199.99 with processor options going up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTTX 3050 Ti graphics card. Dell calls it the “smallest 15.6-inch performance class laptop,” with a 92.9% screen-to-body ratio thanks to a 16:10 display and a new, thinner InfinityEdge bezel. Like the XPS 13, Dell is introducing a 3456 x 2160 OLED screen in the top end.
Dell XPS 15 (9510)
Dell XPS 17 (9710)
CPU
Up to Intel Core i9-11900H
Up to Intel Core i9-11980HK
GPU
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (4GB GDDR6, 45W)
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (4GB GDDR6, 70W)
RAM
Up to 64GB DDR4-3200
Up to 64GB DDR4-3200
Storage
Up to 4TB PCIe SSD
Up to 4TB PCIe SSD
Display
15.6-inch 3840 x 2400 touch, 3456 x 2160 OLELD touch, 1920 x 1200 non-touch
17-inch 3840 x 2400 touch, 1920 x 1200 non-touch
Networking
Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650, Bluetooth 5.1
Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650, Bluetooth 5.1
Battery
56 WHr or 86 WHr
97 WHr
Starting Price
$1,199.99
$1,449.99
Dell’s ports are still minimalist, including two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, a headphone jack and a full-size SD card reader.
(Image credit: Dell)
The new Dell XPS 17 (9710) will start at $1,499.99 and go a step higher with some components. It will go a step further with the processor, topping out at the unlocked Intel Core i9-11980HK with a
boost clock
of 5.0 GHz, while the GPU will go up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060. Potential customers will have the same storage and RAM options, but there is no OLED screen here – just a
4K
touch version and
FHD
non-touch.
Dell says this is the smallest 17-inch laptop with a screen-to-body ratio of 93.7%. While that’s impressive, there aren’t that many 17-inch non-gaming laptops out there right now. It has four Thunderbolt 4 ports and a headphone jack, with no SD card reader like its 15-inch counterpart.
On both laptops, Dell is touting quad-speaker designs with Waves NX audio. The company says those speakers were tuned by Jack Joesph Puig, a Grammy-winning producer who has worked with Green Day, U2, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Sum 41 and more.
The smallest in the lineup, the Dell XPS 13 last saw an update in April, when the Tiger Lake U-based system was updated with an OLED display option.
The Progression is a hugely capable and versatile integrated. Rarely have we come across an amplifier that offers such sonic insight and control
For
Staggering clarity and detail
Superb build and finish
Modular nature
Against
Headphone socket on the rear panel
Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems (to use the company’s full name) only plays at the top table. Despite its hefty price tag, the Progression Integrated amplifier is the starting point for the brand’s range, but that doesn’t make it a diluted facsimile of products further up the chain. It’s more like everything the brand knows in a condensed package.
At its most basic, this is a line-level analogue integrated amplifier costing £19,998 ($18,000, AU$34,995). But add the optional digital module for an extra £6000 ($5000, AU$8995) and you get a good range of digital inputs alongside network streaming capabilities.
Want to play records too? There’s a switchable moving magnet/moving coil phono stage module available for an extra £2250 ($2000, AU$3995) and it offers a decent range of cartridge loading options. In case you wondered, it is possible to fit both the digital and vinyl modules at the same time. As an aside, it’s unusual to see such a large difference in the USA and UK prices given the exchange rate.
Our review sample of the Progression has the digital module fitted, which has us wondering whether it should even be described as an amplifier – maybe streaming system would be more appropriate?
Features
(Image credit: Dan D’Agostino)
The category lines between product types have blurred significantly in recent years and this is yet another example. No matter, though. As a just-add-speakers unit, the Progression Integrated is a truly mouth-watering proposition.
It’s a powerhouse, no doubt. The combination of discrete, balanced, direct-coupled circuitry with a generous power supply results in a claimed power output of 200W per channel into an 8ohm load. That’s plenty, but the impressive thing is that the claimed power doubles as the load impedance halves. In practical terms, that means this unit is capable of driving any speaker to serious levels without issue.
Connectivity is good, with four balanced XLR inputs, plus two single-ended options (one of which would be used for the optional MM/MC phono module if chosen).
The phono module’s gain of 60dB should be able to accommodate all but the lowest output moving coil cartridges on the market without issue. There are a variety of selectable cartridge loading options available to help fine-tune the performance with the cartridge of your choice.
The digital board fitted to our review sample is also well equipped. Buy this and you get digital inputs – a USB type-B, coaxial and optical – along with a network renderer and access to streaming services such as Tidal, Qobuz and Spotify. The digital module can connect to your network wirelessly, though we always recommend going the wired route for the extra stability it brings. Roon compatibility is also on the menu.
The module’s onboard DAC supports music files up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM and DSD256, which should be more than enough for most people. It also decodes MQA, so you can make the most of Tidal’s hi-res Masters offering alongside other recordings so encoded.
Build
(Image credit: Dan D’Agostino)
There’s no complaining about the D’Agostino’s build quality. This is an immaculately crafted beast. Every surface is beautifully finished and that large volume dial moves with impressive smoothness, exhibiting nothing in the way of obvious play. The two power meters look a little ornate but work well in their dual role of showing volume and signal level. They also help when we want to set the balance between the channels more accurately.
The dedicated Progression app to run the streaming module is decent, too. It looks like a reskinned version of the well-established mConnect media player software, and we have no issue with that. We’ve used mConnect for a number of years with various products and it has proved reliable. Some of the amplifier’s controls are only available here, so you can’t change digital input or select the internal streamer any other way than using the app.
This integrated runs warm in use, so it makes sense to take care over positioning. Make sure you leave plenty of room for ventilation around it and that your chosen support is comfortable with the amp’s hefty 26kg weight.
Any amplifier at this level demands high-quality sources, of course. While the built-in digital module might be all the source that most people will need, we also plumb in our reference Naim ND555/555 PS DR music streamer to test the line level and digital inputs. Our usual Technics SL-1000R/Kiseki Purple Heart MC record player together with Nagra’s Classic Phono (phono stage) provides back-up as an alternative analogue source.
At the other end of the signal chain, we have our trusty ATC SCM50 speakers alongside Wilson Benesch’s Precision P2.0 floorstanders and ProAc’s new K1 standmounters. The Progression shows no particular preference and works well with all of them.
Even the 6.3mm headphone output proves unfussy, delivering great results with the likes of the Focal Stellia and Beyerdynamic T1 (3rd Generation) over-ears. However, it’s a shame the designer thought that putting the headphone output on the back panel was a good idea. It plainly isn’t.
Sound
(Image credit: Dan D’Agostino)
Listen to this D’Agostino in full flow and you get a glorious experience. At this level, it’s fair to expect excellent detail resolution and superlative transparency, and we get both. We play Jupiter from Holst’s Planets Suite and are swept along with the energy and drama on offer.
This is an amplifier that excels at displaying the power and scale of an orchestra in full swing. Yet, despite all the sonic fireworks, it’s the Progression’s framework of composure and control that is most striking. It never sounds stressed no matter how high the volume level goes or complex the music gets.
It’s a taut and precise presentation; one that edges towards the lean side of neutral without going as far as to be criticised for being thin or lacking in tonal colour. It’s this balance that allows the amplifier to sound so nimble for something so muscular.
Stereo imaging is terrific. The Progression paints a broad and expansive soundstage and populates it with crisply focused instruments. The orchestra is convincingly layered and there’s a pleasing impression of depth. This positional grip isn’t compromised when the music gets difficult either.
We switch to Massive Attack’s Heligoland and are floored by the D’Agostino’s low frequencies. They’re superbly defined, beautifully layered and punched out with rare agility. There’s plenty of muscle and authority of course, but that’s to be expected given the power output on offer. What surprises – and impresses – us the most, though, is the Progression’s articulate nature.
Things are surefooted rhythmically rather than truly enthusiastic, but there’s enough in the way of drive and musical momentum to keep us satisfied. Unlike many similarly priced, high-powered alternatives, the D’Agostino manages to sound musically cohesive and emotionally engaging.
The midrange is wide open and delivers Hope Sandoval’s vocals on Paradise Circus brilliantly. Her voice is rendered in an unusually clean and precise manner, though the Progression avoids sounding clinical by having enough in the way of natural warmth and dynamic nuance to convince. The highest frequencies certainly aren’t shy, but they remain nicely integrated and brim with information.
The D’Agostino’s sonic strengths shine through regardless of whether we use analogue or digital inputs. The onboard streaming module holds its own against similarly priced alternatives too, though such is the clarity of the analogue circuitry that a carefully chosen (invariably pricier) premium music streamer would deliver even better results, as listening to the Naim ND555/555 PS DR through it proves.
Our time with the D’Agostino had us trawling through our music collection, impatient to hear what all those familiar tracks sound like through it. It’s rare to find such a powerful amplifier sounding so transparent and responsive.
Verdict
There’s no doubt the D’Agostino Progression Integrated is a hugely capable product. It delivers a superb all-round performance and its modular nature means it offers far greater flexibility than most rivals. Regardless of whether you’re after a straight high-end integrated or something more fully featured, the Progression Integrated is something that must be heard.
SCORES
Sound 5
Features 5
Build 5
MORE:
Read our guide to the best stereo amplifiers
Read our Chord DAVE/Ultima 5 review
Read our Nagra Classic Preamp/Classic Power review
Bluesound has refreshed its excellent Node 2i music streamer and Powernode 2i streaming amplifier. The next generation of the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning devices or now boast new DAC designs, more powerful processors, and touch panel controls with presets. They simply carry the original Node and Powernode monikers.
For the uninitiated, the Node is a music streamer that works either as a source in a hi-fi system or with active (or powered) speakers, like the Award-winning Audiolab 6000N Play. The Powernode, meanwhile, has amplification built in and just requires a pair of speakers, like the Award-winning Marantz PM7000N.
The former has a new DAC that can decode both hi-res 24-bit/192kHz and MQA files and feeds coaxial, optical, USB Type-A and, giving it TV system appeal, HDMI eARC inputs. There’s also RCA inputs and a 3.5mm headphone jack, plenty of music streaming service support courtesy of wi-fi and Apple AirPlay 2, internet radio and aptx HD Bluetooth (which is two-way, meaning it can wirelessly receive Bluetooth files for playback and send whatever it is playing to Bluetooth headphones or speakers). Naturally, the Node can also work in a multi-room environment with other BluOS kit.
As well as having a touch control panel with presets providing shortcuts to your favourite music, the Node can be voice controlled using voice assistants like Apple Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
The Powernode has a very similar skillset to the Node – all the BluOS streaming features, digital connectivity including HDMI eARC, and MQA support, for example – but with the addition of a built-in amplifier. The amp delivers 80 watts per channel, up from 60 watts on the previous model.
The Bluesound Node costs £549 ($549) and the Powernode £849 ($899) – slightly up from the launch prices of the previous-gen models. Both are available to pre-order now for shipping in June.
MORE:
Check out the best multi-room systems
Read our full Bluesound Node 2i and Powernode 2i reviews
Full explainer: Multi-room audio: everything you need to know
JBL’s Charge 5 hails from a victorious and dominant product line, and the winning trend does not stop here
For
Clearer and more detailed sound
Wider soundstage
Updated dustproofing
Against
Nothing at this level
When it comes to rugged, portable, no-nonsense Bluetooth speakers, some product lines have consistently impressed us under review. JBL’s Charge is as good an example as any, and so the fact it’s now entering its fifth generation is big news. Anyone looking for substantial on-the-go sound from something roughly the weight and size of a bottle of wine should take note.
The new JBL Charge 5 is, the US audio specialist claims, 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.
The iconic aesthetic, available in eight different finishes including our review sample’s navy blue, has been tweaked to introduce a bolder JBL logo and an extra dollop of rubberised reinforcements, too. So, is the Charge just as recommendable as ever in its latest guise?
Build and features
(Image credit: JBL)
Sitting our Charge 5 sample next to its older sibling, the Charge 4, we play a quick game of spot the difference. The logo is now bigger but looks classier and less like a badge than the branding on its predecessor, with simple metallic accents around the letters rather than a block frame.
The rubberised underbody now comprises pleasing diagonal lines for traction when you set it down, as first seen on the Go 3, rather than a block of opaque rubber.
Gone is the 3.5mm port for wired listening, and the new USB-C charging port is uncovered this time. Under a smaller rubber cap, you still get the useful USB-A port for using the Charge 5 to charge your devices.
JBL Charge 5 tech specs
(Image credit: JBL)
Finishes x8
Battery life 20 hours
Bluetooth version 5.1
Dimensions (hwd) 22 x 9.6 x 9.4cm
Weight 960g
The ends of the Charge 5’s trademark barrel-like bodywork boast a slightly more robust rubberised reinforcement, while the speaker itself is a whole 1mm taller, 2mm deeper, 3mm wider and 5g heavier than its older brother – although there’s little in that to the naked eye.
Under the hood, however, are plenty of improvements. The 52 x 90mm bass driver is a couple of millimetres wider than before, and there’s a new 20mm tweeter. These units both have dedicated power amplification – 30W for the woofer and 10W for the highs. There is also Bluetooth 5.1 rather than 4.2, but the same 7500mAh battery offers the same 20 hours of playback from a single charge.
The Charge 5 now features a JBL PartyBoost button on the control panel on top of the speaker, too, where the Connect+ button sits on the Charge 4. JBL’s updated daisy-chaining tech means you can beef up your portable sound by linking the Charge 5 with up to 100 other PartyBoost enabled JBL Bluetooth offerings, although that is currently limited to the Boombox 2, Flip 5 and Pulse 4. What you can’t do is link the Charge 5 to the older Charge 4, or any older Connect+ enabled JBL speakers for that matter.
There is support for the Charge 5 on the JBL Portable app, formerly called JBL Connect. It’s good for firmware updates and to deploy PartyBoost from your phone, where other app-supported JBL speakers (including the Flip 5) will appear ready to link. With another Charge 5, you can create a stereo pair by toggling across from “Party” (mono sound) to Stereo when hitting the PartyBoost button, but the app is otherwise basic and doesn’t offer anything by way of EQ optimisation.
Leaving the app, we press the PartyBoost button on the Charge 5, then on our Flip 5, and sound dutifully comes from both, clearly and with no notable lag. It’s a neat feature, although some existing JBL owners may be irked by PartyBoost’s inability to play nicely with the older Connect+ tech.
Sound
(Image credit: JBL)
We cue up Chamillionaire’s Ridin’ on Tidal and the Charge 5’s extra ounce of prowess over the Charge 4 reveals itself. It’s a fairly minor upgrade, but the hip-hop riff intro is marginally more impactful – the leading edges of notes through the low end are crisper, resulting in a more agile performance. Vocals are also more energised and feel well-placed in what is an expansive mix for a portable speaker of this size.
Erykah Badu’s voice in Tyrone is emotive and as much celebrated through the treble frequencies as through her juicy lower registers. The walking bass guitar that underpins the track feels three-dimensional and is just one of several instruments held in check, alongside whoops from the crowd and occasional drum fills within a cohesive mix.
Bowed strings in British Sea Power’s melancholy soundscape, Tiger King, are detailed and accurate around the track’s sporadic cymbals and drum crashes, proving the Charge 5 is capable of delicacy and nuance as well as oomph and bass clout.
Any brightness in the Charge 5’s new tweeter melts away once the speaker is run in, leaving only cleaner, clearer treble frequencies. Prince’s vocal in Sometimes It Snows In April veers between his trademark head and chest voices and both are equally as impactful through the Charge 5, alongside the pared-back keys and guitar. Female backing vocals in the later choruses are as present and as ethereal as Prince intended.
Verdict
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. One day JBL may produce a Charge that can be outdone by a new and plucky rival, but rest assured, that has not happened yet with the rather splendid Charge 5.
SCORES
Sound 5
Features 4
Build 5
MORE:
Read our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers
Read our JBL Flip 5 review
Read our Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd gen) review
Voice control isn’t the sole preserve of wireless smart speakers, you know. Barking “Alexa, open Just Eat” at your Echo Dot (or other Alexa speaker), or “Hey Google, what’s in my calendar for today” to your Google Assistant speaker just for the joy of hearing that your schedule is clear, is now commonplace. But using spoken word to command the main music system in your home – your serious, great-sounding hi-fi setup – may not seem so natural. It may be a jump many audio enthusiasts are reluctant to take, even. But give this a moment’s thought, music lover, because verbal control over your hi-fi might be just what your household needs.
Here, we explain the various ways in which you can have voice control as part of a hi-fi system, whether you are keen to use Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant or Apple’s Siri platforms, and whether you want to bring your a traditional ‘dumb’ system into 2021 or are looking to invest in a new set-up with virtual voice assistance at its core…
(Image credit: Amazon)
Add voice control by connecting a smart speaker
One of the easiest routes to giving your vintage hi-fi system a voice is by connecting an external smart speaker to it.
Add Alexa The Amazon Echo Dot smart speaker comes with its own built-in driver under its little spherical fabric jackets, but you can beef up its audio by making it play through the speakers in your sound system instead. (Amazon launched a speaker-less Echo Input device a few years ago for this very purpose, but it’s now been discontinued.) This may be handy, but note that audio quality will be limited here.
The Echo Dot offers wired and wireless connectivity, and will work with just about any integrated amp, receiver, soundbar or pair of active speakers with a 3.5mm aux input or Bluetooth connection. With either connection, all of the audio – including Alexa’s verbal answers – will play through the connected speakers in your system.
The diminutive, cheap and cheerful Amazon Echo Dot has a 3.5mm output, which means you can wire it to any receiver, integrated amp or powered speaker with a 3.5mm input. Alternatively, it features built-in Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) Bluetooth, meaning you can connect it wirelessly to any Bluetooth-enabled receiver, speaker or soundbar.
Best Alexa speakers 2021
Add Google Assistant Want Google Assistant to run the show instead? Similarly, you can pair a Google Nest Mini* (Google’s version of the Echo Dot) over Bluetooth for voice commands and music to play through your Bluetooth-toting system. However, it does not have a 3.5mm output.
*Older Google smart speakers, such as the Home Mini, can also do this.
Best Google Assistant speakers 2021
How about hi-fi with Alexa or Google Assistant integrated?
As we’ve explained, almost any receiver, integrated amp or powered speaker with a 3.5mm input or Bluetooth connection will essentially ‘work’ with Alexa (or Google Assistant, for that matter), if you’ve already got an Alexa- (or Google-) powered device to physically or wirelessly connect it to.
Products with Alexa and*/or Google Assistant baked in, however, do not require you to already own and connect a third-party smart device. These products – ‘smart’ themselves – have integrated microphones to pick up your commands, and run Amazon’s voice software internally, rather than simply being able to work with the technology. These are, for now, more or less limited to wireless ‘smart’ speakers, though.
*Some wireless speakers are platform agnostic and support both Alexa and Google Assistant, such as the Sonos One.
How about the Amazon Echo Link/Amp or Sonos Amp?
(Image credit: Sonos)
If it’s an Amazon Echo device, that means Alexa must be built in, right? Wrong. The Echo Link and Echo Link Amp – Amazon’s music streamer and music streaming amplifier respectively – don’t have integrated microphones so still need a third-party Alexa device, such as an Echo Dot, connected to be obey commands and be part of voice-controlled music groups throughout your home.
Similarly, the Sonos Amp – which you may well think would be voice controllable – doesn’t have an in-built microphone for voice control. It will, however, respond to voice commands issued to connected Alexa-, Google- and Siri-powered devices, including, naturally, the Sonos One.
Sonos: everything you need to know
Multi-room hi-fi platforms with Alexa support
If you’ve yet to buy a hi-fi system and want to get one that puts voice assistant friendliness at its core, there are now several hi-fi and home cinema components that have Alexa-friendly multi-room platforms built in. These include those based on Yamaha’s MusicCast, HEOS by Denon, and BluOS, all of which offer an enhanced Alexa experience when a third-party Alexa device (like an Amazon Echo) is connected to them through specific Alexa ‘skills’.
MusicCast MusicCast is a wireless multi-room audio system built into several Yamaha AV receivers, soundbars and wireless speakers. It allows these devices to be connected together through your home wi-fi network and controlled by an app on your smartphone or tablet. By adding Alexa through a third-party Alexa speaker, you can kick back on the sofa and simply ask for music on your MusicCast AV receiver.
In case you didn’t know, Alexa provides capabilities (called ‘Alexa Skills’) that enable us to create a more personalised experience according to the kit we own, which can be downloaded from the Alexa Skills store, or simply by saying “Alexa, enable [skill name].” Since said skills are cloud-based, they don’t take up space on your device, so there’s no limit to the amount you can enable. There are two Alexa skills that work with MusicCast: the MusicCast Smart Home skill and the MusicCast skill.
The MusicCast Smart Home skill brings standard Alexa commands such as power on/off, volume control and play/pause/skip to the party. To turn on the AV receiver in your living room, you just say, “Alexa, turn on the Living Room.”
The MusicCast skill goes beyond the basics, giving you control of unique MusicCast functions, like linking/unlinking rooms and direct access to playlists and favourites. In order to access the MusicCast skills, you need to add “ask MusicCast to” after the “Alexa” wake word (or whatever your wake word is): for example, “Alexa, ask MusicCast to link the Living Room to the Kitchen.”
(Image credit: Future)
BluOS
An operating system developed by NAD Electronics and its sister brand Bluesound, BluOS sits at the core of connected products from those two brands, plus Dali and Monitor Audio.
To add Alexa voice control to your BluOS multi-room system, simply download the BluOS Voice Control skill in the Alexa app and link your BluOS-enabled products. You can then tell Alexa to play songs or playlists from subscribed services like Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer, adjust volume levels or pause what’s playing with a single voice command.
BluVoice is the voice-control interface (or trigger word) that acts as the intermediary between BluOS and a compatible voice assistant, so BluOS owners can ask their Echo device: “Alexa, ask BluVoice to play new songs on Tidal”.
DTS Play-Fi Similarly, to use Alexa with DTS Play-Fi hi-fi products, you’ll need to ask a connected Alexa-supporting speaker to play music, which it can then do across the rest of your compatible Play-Fi products.
HEOS When it comes to the HEOS platform, we’d point you towards the What Hi-Fi? 2020 Award-winning Denon AVC-X3700H (above). It’s an 8K-ready home cinema amplifier, but those intending to use it for music playback can also take advantage of the AVC-X3700H’s hi-res audio decoding of files up to 24bit/192kHz and double-speed DSD. Most importantly – in regards to voice control, at least – there’s a HEOS Home Entertainment skill to enable in the Alexa app, which means you can control all of your HEOS-enabled devices by conversing with Alexa through.
HEOS-based Denon and Marantz kit that supports AirPlay 2 can also benefit from Siri voice control when controlled by an iOS (iOS 11.4 and later) device, too. Which leads us to…
Can I voice control my system using Siri?
In a word, yes – as long as something in your system supports AirPlay 2.
While Apple’s Siri voice assistant is integrated into the Apple HomePod or HomePod Mini smart speakers, other speakers (such as the Sonos One) and streaming systems (such as the Bluesound Powernode 2i and KEF LSX) rely on AirPlay 2’s connection to your iOS device to speak to Siri. You simply have to Open the Apple Home App on your iPhone or iPad and select ‘Add Accessory’ to add, group and then voice control your device over Siri.
However, Siri’s usefulness is more limited than Alexa’s and Google Assistant’s, only allowing you to directly ask to play music that’s either on Apple Music or stored locally on your iOS device. You can ask to play from Spotify too, but you’ll need to say “on Spotify” after your request.
MORE:
See our pick of the best smart speakers 2021
Or the best multi-room systems 2021
Starting from scratch? Read up on the best hi-fi systems 2021
The Monoprice Dark Matter 27 leaves out a few minor elements but includes everything needed for a satisfying game experience. Its 240 Hz refresh rate with adaptive sync means fast action will render clearly. Accurate color and good contrast deliver a first-rate image and the whole package sells for less than $300. What’s not to love?
For
+ Value
+ Snappy response with low input lag
+ G-Sync & FreeSync
+ Decent contrast
+ Color accurate with calibration
Against
– No extended color
– No additional contrast for HDR content
– No USB ports
Features and Specifications
When it comes to high performance gaming monitors, you usually get what you pay for. Mainstream brands all sell similar levels of speed and features for roughly the same cost. But if you’re willing to stray from the beaten path, there are some terrific value choices out there.
We’ve looked at such displays from smaller companies like Viotek and Pixio. Monoprice is also a major player in the budget monitor category. It’s gone from a few simple enterprise-level offerings to a healthy stable of gaming screens in every popular size and shape.
If high frame rates are your goal, then you’ll want to shop at 240 Hz or higher. And that is considered the premium tier if you buy from Asus or Acer. But the Monoprice Dark Matter series offers much of that same performance for much less cash. Designed to compete with the best gaming monitors, Tthe 27-inch 240 Hz model, product number 40778, delivers FHD resolution in a Fast IPS panel with adaptive sync, HDR and high brightness for less than $300.
Brand & Model
Monoprice Dark Matter 27
Product number: 40778
Panel Type & Backlight
AHVA-IPS / W-LED, edge array
Screen Size & Aspect Ratio
27 inches / 16:9
Max Resolution & Refresh
1920×1080 @ 240 Hz
FreeSync Premium: 48-240 Hz
G-Sync compatible
Native Color Depth & Gamut
8-bit / sRGB
HDR10
Response Time (GTG)
1 ms
Brightness (mfr)
500 nits
Contrast (mfr)
1000:1
Speakers
–
Video Inputs
1x DisplayPort 1.2
1x HDMI 2.0
1x HDMI 1.4
Audio
3.5mm headphone output
USB 3.0
–
Power Consumption
22.5w, brightness @ 200 nits
Panel Dimensions WxHxD w/base
24.3 x 18.3 x 9.9 inches (616 x 465 x 252 mm)
Panel Thickness
2.2 inches (57mm)
Bezel Width
Top/sides: 0.3 inch (8mm)
Bottom: 0.8 inch (20mm)
Weight
10.7lbs (4.9kg)
Warranty
One year
The Dark Matter 27 is a Fast IPS panel running at 1920×1080 pixels. While that may turn off some buyers, ultimate motion resolution should be considered. 240 fps in FHD will look just as clear if not more so than Ultra HD at 120 Hz. Keeping detail sharp when engaged in a twitch-fest shooting game is more dependent on frame rates than pixel count.
The Dark Matter 27 relies on FreeSync as its native adaptive tech and is G-Sync compatible as confirmed by our tests (see our story on FreeSync vs G-Sync). It has not been certified by Nvidia. HDR10 signals are supported as well with both technologies, again confirmed by our tests. While its IPS panel won’t deliver life changing contrast, and there is no dynamic option for HDR, it offers a bit more dynamic range than many of its more expensive competitors.
The main thing missing here is extended color. Many HDR monitors today include a wide color gamut as part of their feature set but the Monoprice tops out at sRGB. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it is not uncommon in the budget monitor genre. You’ll have to decide how much that extra color is worth because it will cost you a bit more. It should also be noted that many monitors running at 240 Hz and higher don’t offer a wide gamut.
The Monoprice Dark Matter 27 also includes gaming options like aiming points, timers and a blur-reduction feature that works fairly well if you prefer that approach over adaptive sync. But at 240 Hz, a rate that’s easy to achieve with a mid-level video card, you won’t need much additional help to smooth out the image.
On paper, the Monoprice Dark Matter 27 looks attractive next to some premium 27-inch screens. How it works in practical application is what we’re here to find out. Let’s take a look.
Assembly and Accessories of Monoprice Dark Matter
The Monoprice Dark Matter 27 comes with its upright already attached to a lightweight panel. You’ll need a Phillips head screwdriver to attach the solid metal base. The bolts are found inside the main accessory bag which also contains an HDMI cable. We wondered why there was no DisplayPort cable until we discovered that the monitor would run at 240 Hz with adaptive sync and HDR over its HDMI 2.0 input. The only other item in the box is an external power supply.
Product 360 of Monoprice Dark Matter
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The Monoprice Dark Matter 27 is simply styled with only a few molded in lines in back to indicate its gaming focus. From the front, the bezel is flush and shows an 8mm frame around the top and sides of the image. The trim across the bottom is 20mm wide and features a tiny Monoprice logo.
The base and upright are all metal and finished with a black crackle texture that reflects no light. The only adjustment is tilt which goes 20° back and 5° forward. There is no height adjustment so you’ll either need to tilt the screen up toward you, or place it on a pedestal if you prefer a perfectly vertical panel. There is no swivel adjustment either.
In back, you’ll see some styling features that look a lot like the Pixio PX279 Prime. We initially thought the Monoprice Dark Matter 27 was a rebadged display but after running our suite of benchmarks, there are some differences in the results. We’ll get into those later but suffice it to say that the Monoprice and Pixio monitors are not the same product.
Other external features are minimal. There are no USB ports or built in speakers. The input panel is well-stocked with one HDMI 1.4, one HDMI 2.0, a DisplayPort 1.2 and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The USB port is for service and firmware upgrades only.
OSD Features of Monoprice Dark Matter
The Monoprice Dark Matter 27’s OSD control is managed by a tiny joystick which opens three different quick menus for input selection, picture mode and gaming aids. Pressing it opens the full menu which is divided into six subsections that have image calibration, gaming enhancements and everything else you need to optimize performance.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Display menu has basic luminance controls and access to the seven picture modes. User is the default and best preset for all content. Black Equalize raises the black level to make shadow detail easier to see. The sharpness control will add obvious edge enhancement at any level over 50 so we recommend leaving it alone. Ultra Vivid adds a lot of ringing and other artifacts in an attempt to sharpen the picture. It too should be left off.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Color menu has a complete set of image controls including four gamma presets, four color temps and hue & saturation sliders. You also get a low blue light slider to help with fatigue when reading text against white backgrounds. A User color temp offers three very precise RGB sliders which helped us achieve excellent grayscale tracking. Color in general is a tad over saturated but very close to the sRGB spec.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Gaming Setup menu lets the user toggle adaptive sync, choose from three overdrive levels (Low is best), and toggle HDR, dynamic contrast (SDR signals only) and MPRT which is a blur-reducing backlight strobe. It has no pulse width adjustment, but it does work well, if a bit subtly, at reducing blur. It only reduces brightness by about 10%. It cannot be used in conjunction with adaptive sync.
Setup and Calibration of Monoprice Dark Matter
The Dark Matter 27 comes out of the box in its User mode and doesn’t quite qualify for our calibration-not-required list. Grayscale is a little cool though not excessively so. Color is slightly over-saturated but again, this is not objectionable. The default 2.2 gamma preset is accurate, so we just adjusted the RGB sliders to achieve excellent grayscale tracking. Below are our recommended settings.
To engage HDR mode, apply the signal first, then switch modes in the Gaming Setup menu. You’ll have to do the reverse when returning to SDR mode. HDR doesn’t deliver much improvement in contrast as there is no dynamic feature.
Picture Mode
User
Brightness 200 nits
34
Brightness 120 nits
17
Brightness 100 nits
13
Brightness 80 nits
9
Brightness 50 nits
3 (Min. 37 nits)
Gamma
2.2
Color Temp User
Red 51, Green 51, Blue 49
Gaming and Hands-on with Monoprice Dark Matter
The Dark Matter 27 is a competent monitor for everyday tasks and an excellent gaming monitor. For things like spreadsheets and word processing, more resolution would be nice but 82ppi is enough to get the job done. The touch of extra color saturation is certainly welcome when editing graphics or watching video. It’s close enough to spec to look natural but delivers plenty of punch, even though the gamut is sRGB.
This monitor has a little more contrast than the average IPS screen and it shows. Blacks are nice and deep, and the picture has good dimension. We tried the dynamic contrast option and though it had a positive effect on shadow detail, making it blacker and more realistic, it made the overall image much too bright. The backlight can’t be adjusted when it’s engaged so its use was restricted to gaming during our tests.
Booting up Tomb Raider, we saw an immediate advantage to the dynamic contrast. It made blacks truer without washing out detail. Highlights popped nicely without being too harsh. Occasional flares of light looked harsh, but only for short durations. We’d play most SDR games with the option turned on. In either case, color was well saturated and natural in tone.
Video processing was as expected from a 240 Hz FHD monitor. The frame rate remained maxed when playing in G-Sync mode on a GeForce RTX 3090. Our FreeSync platform maintained around 220 fps with a Radeon RX 5700 XT card. We tried the backlight strobe briefly, but it had no impact on image quality, either positive or negative. Adaptive sync is the better choice. The overdrive is very effective at its low setting. Other options caused visible ghosting and trails behind moving objects.
Response was always quick and input lag seemed non-existent. While any refresh rate higher than 60 Hz is an improvement, 240 Hz and higher will spoil you. Once you’ve experienced it, even for a short while, it’s hard to go back. That’s why lower resolution is often the better choice. Frame rate is more important than pixel density. In the Dark Matter 27’s case, you are getting a lot of performance for under $300. We’ve gamed on plenty of high-end monitors and this Monoprice can go toe-to-toe with most of them.
Xiaomi has its Black Shark gaming division, but the Redmi brand wanted something for itself, so it came up with the K40 Gaming smartphone. It is part of the K40 family, but has its priorities set slightly differently.
Last week the phone arrived on sale in China and unsurprisingly sold thousands of units in seconds. Now, the Redmi K40 Gaming is still available only on the domestic scene, but we heard Poco might relaunch the very same phone as Poco F3 GT.
This week we’re asking you if/when the phone escapes the home market, will you purchase it? We’ve seen a lot of arguments in comments that gaming phones are a gimmick, so we’ve added a third option as well.
And before you cast your votes, let us remind you this is a lovely Dimensity 1200-powered smartphone with all the latest bells and whistles on the hardware side. Moreover, the Xiaomi Redmi K40 Gaming has the unique pop-up shoulder keys, JBL-tuned stereo speakers and 67W fast charging.
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