Lenovo’s Tab P11 Pro is the company’s top-tier Android tablet. With an 11-inch OLED screen, quad speakers, and snap-on keyboard, it’s meant to go head to head with Samsung’s Tab S7 and Apple’s iPad Air. But while the Tab P11 Pro is excellent for watching movies — that OLED screen and the Dolby Atmos speakers are quite nice — it’s considerably less impressive when you attempt to use it for productivity.
Pricing for the Tab P11 Pro is aggressive, particularly when you add up everything you get. The list price for a base model with 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM is $499.99, but thanks to Lenovo’s frequent discounts, you can buy one for $375 right now. The model I’ve been testing has 6GB of RAM and comes with a detachable keyboard and active stylus pen in the box. That one’s list price is $599.99, but it’s currently discounted to $460 on Lenovo’s site.
Considering the similarly sized iPad Air starts at $599 before you add a pen or keyboard to it, the Lenovo has a lot of value on its side. No matter which model you opt for, you get the same 11-inch 2560 x 1600 OLED screen; Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G processor; quad JBL speakers with Dolby Atmos tuning; 128GB of storage with the ability to expand it with a microSD card; and premium aluminum unibody design.
The screen and speakers are really the stars of the show here. The OLED panel is not as bright as you can get on an iPad, so it isn’t as good in direct sunlight. But in almost every other scenario, including outdoors in the shade, it looks fantastic. Colors are rich, blacks are deep and inky, and the resolution is sharp. It provides a great experience for watching movies or any video, really.
The P11 Pro’s OLED screen looks great, and the quad speakers sound fantastic.
Similarly, the quad speakers are loud, punchy, and immersive. The Tab P11 Pro’s speakers outclass the iPad Air’s dual speakers and easily hang with the excellent sound system on Apple’s higher-end iPad Pro. Unfortunately, Lenovo is taking the same route as Apple and omitting a headphone jack, so you have the option of using a USB-C dongle (not included) or wireless headphones for personal audio.
Combined, the OLED screen and quad speakers provide the best movie-watching experience on a tablet anywhere near this price. To get something better, you’re going to have to pay a lot more money.
But Lenovo isn’t pitching this as just a couch potato tablet — it’s following Apple and Samsung’s lead in presenting the P11 Pro as a tablet that you can also get work done on. And that’s where the P11 Pro falls on its face.
Starting with the keyboard and pen accessories that are included with the top-end bundle, there’s as much to dislike as there is to like. The snap-on keyboard has a nice fabric cover and comes in two pieces: a back cover with a built-in kickstand that attaches via magnets and the keyboard itself that communicates with the tablet through pogo pins on the bottom edge of the P11 Pro. It’s a similar design to what Samsung uses on the Tab S7 line, and I like the flexibility it affords. I can use just the back cover to prop the tablet up for movie watching without having to have the keyboard in the way all the time. It’s great to have this flexibility when you’re using the tablet on a cramped airplane tray table.
Unfortunately, the typing experience on the keyboard itself leaves a bit to be desired. The layout is as cramped as expected with an 11-inch tablet, and there’s no backlighting available. The trackpad is small and has palm rejection issues — even just using the keyboard to write this relatively short draft was an exercise in patience, as my cursor would randomly jump around any time my left hand brushed against the trackpad as I typed. There’s also very little software support; I can’t adjust the scrolling direction on the trackpad as I can do with a laptop or other tablets.
The bundled stylus is nice to have, but it, too, falls behind the competition. It has many levels of pressure sensitivity, and it writes smoothly enough for my basic note-taking needs. But it doesn’t charge on the back or side of the tablet like Apple or Samsung’s pens (you instead need to plug it in via a USB-C port on its end), and there’s nowhere to safely store it on the tablet. Lenovo includes a rubbery holster for the pen that you’re supposed to stick to the back of the P11’s case with adhesive. But the adhesive is weak, and the pen holder falls off very easily. It all just feels like an afterthought.
Similarly, the software support for the pen is weak. Lenovo includes the Squid notes app (the basic free version, not the full version) for jotting down notes, and you can download many other options from the Play Store. But the pen doesn’t integrate into the system like it does on Apple or Samsung tablets. You can’t use the pen to take quick notes from the lock screen or easily capture screenshots and mark them up like you can on the iPad Air or Tab S7.
The P11 Pro’s “productivity mode” leaves a lot to be desired.
When you attach the keyboard to the tablet, Lenovo’s custom productivity mode launches. This is designed to provide a desktop-like interface, similar to Samsung’s DeX feature. But it’s a mess: few apps can be launched full-screen with it, and every app opens in a tiny, windowed box that you have to resize each time. I was able to successfully create a split-screen between a Google Doc and another window, such as Slack or the browser. But in general, the productivity mode feels like a tacked-on afterthought, just like the pen, and really isn’t a great experience.
Elsewhere, the software is standard Android (version 10; there’s no update to Android 11 as of the date of this review, though the P11 Pro does have the latest security patch available), which works best when you’re watching a full-screen video or playing a game, and doesn’t have as many tablet-oriented apps as iPadOS. The Snapdragon 730 processor isn’t as powerful as you get in Apple or Samsung’s tablets, but it’s not really a bottleneck here. You’ll be limited by the lack of tablet-optimized apps way before you hit the performance ceiling of the chip.
In all, the Tab P11 Pro is the tablet to get if you are looking for an excellent movie watching experience and don’t want to spend more than $400. You won’t find a better display or speakers for this price. I’d personally skip the pen and keyboard bundle entirely (even though that does mean you give up the handy back cover and its kickstand) and just use this tablet for what it does best: entertainment.
The latest iPad Air gets more than just a makeover – it’s a brilliant all-rounder and all the tablet most people could ever need
For
Great picture and sound
Attractive design
Excellent user experience
Against
Imperfect front-facing camera
Touch ID button is awkward
Not the cheapest tablet around
It’s not every day an Apple product gets what you could call a major revamp. On many occasions in the past, there has been a slight change here and a minor tweak there, leaving the tech world slightly underwhelmed. However, by Apple’s standards, it has positively gone to town on the iPad Air (2020).
Not only does the fourth generation iPad Air boast a brand new design, complete with a new Touch ID sensor and speaker layout, there’s also a bigger screen, more powerful processor and improved main camera. Everything is set up for the iPad Air (2020) to make quite the splash, but where does it rank when it comes to the best iPads you can buy?
Pricing
The fourth-generation iPad Air slots between the entry-level iPad and the flagship iPad Pro (2021). It’s available with either 64GB or 256GB of storage and prices start at £579 ($599, AU$899) for the entry-level 64GB Wi-Fi-only model and £729 ($749, AU$1129) for the Wi-Fi/Cellular model.
That makes the latest generation iPad Air around £100 ($100, AU$120) more expensive than the previous model. If Apple had just touched up the design and kept the status quo, you’d probably consider that a big jump in price. But the new model is a clear improvement on iPad Airs of old.
Build
(Image credit: Apple)
Nowhere are the changes more obvious and apparent than with the new iPad Air’s exterior. It has been redesigned to mirror the iPhone 12, and if you like the look and feel of that smartphone, you’re going to love the iPad Air 4.
Apple iPad Air (2020) tech specs
(Image credit: Apple)
Screen size 10.9in
Resolution 2360×1640 pixels
Storage 64GB/256GB
Finishes x5
Battery life 10 hours
Cameras 12MP rear / 7MP front
Dimensions (hwd) 24.8 x 17.9 x 0.6cm
Weight 458g
Those flat sides and crisp edges give the tablet a more purposeful appearance from the off. It makes for quite the contrast switching from the smooth, curved edges of the previous version, but it doesn’t feel uncomfortable, and those flat sides make it easier to grip when you’re watching in portrait or landscape.
It’s similar in look and feel to its big brother, the iPad Air Pro, although the Air is the first iPad to be made available in a range of optional colours. There are Rose Gold, Green and Sky Blue variants to choose from, in addition to the more traditional Silver and Space Grey. We find the Green finish of our review sample particularly easy on the eye.
Run your eyes around those flat edges and you’ll also spot a couple of new additions. The first is the presence of speaker grilles on the top and bottom of the tablet. Instead of offering speakers along just the bottom, the iPad Air 4 now offers landscape stereo speakers. That’s right, no longer does audio sound lopsided.
The iPad Air is now fitted with a USB-C port instead of Lightning, which makes one wonder why Apple is persisting with Lightning on the iPhone. Perhaps we’ll see the socket on the iPhone 13 when it makes an appearance later in the year?
The iPad Air’s volume buttons remain in the same location, as does the power button, although it’s slightly larger and longer, likely because it now handles Touch ID duties. We find that this takes some time to get used to and is at times a little more awkward to operate than the dedicated face-mounted Touch ID button of before. We can’t help but think a fingerprint sensor built under the screen, which is already used by smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 range, might work better.
Features
(Image credit: Apple)
The big news on the screen front is that the new iPad Air is bigger than ever. At 10.9in, it’s marginally larger than the previous model (10.5in), but you only notice the difference when viewing the two tablets together. The effect is emphasised by the slimmer bezels at the top and bottom, which have been achieved by ditching the fingerprint scanner/home button. It all makes for a streamlined viewing experience.
Resolution is 2360 x 1640 (vs 2224 x 1668 on the iPad Air 3) with a pixel density of 264ppi and a maximum brightness of 500 nits.
It’s still a wide colour display with True Tone, so the iPad Air can adjust the balance of its screen based on ambient lighting conditions. The only thing it doesn’t have compared to its more expensive Pro sibling is a 120Hz refresh rate, which would be nice, but not vital.
The new iPad Air (2020) has the brains to match its beauty too. It is powered by Apple’s A14 Bionic chip, the same silicone that drives the entire iPhone 12 line.
In terms of CPU performance, Apple claims the iPad Air 2020 is 40 per cent faster than the previous generation A12 Bionic chip, while its GPU performance is supposedly up 30 per cent, too, for faster graphics processing.
Although it can’t match the specs of the iPad Pro 2021, both in terms of processing power and storage, Apple still claims the Air is more than powerful enough to be able to edit 4K video on and it’s fully compatible with the Apple Pencil 2, which will come in handy for creative types.
So how do Apple’s claimed performance percentage increases translate into real life? The iPad reacts extremely well to multiple apps being open and even the rigours of gaming. In fact, the iPad Air arguably turns the iPad Pro into even more of a niche product. For most people, the iPad Air 2020 will be a powerful enough tool.
Apps such as Netflix and Amazon Music boot up without hesitation, and even if you have more than a handful of apps running in the background, the iPad Air won’t struggle to cope. Navigating between apps via a series of simple swipes is quick and hassle-free, and once again, Apple’s intuitive iOS operating system delivers a smooth and class-leading user experience.
As far as cameras are concerned, the iPad Air 2020 sports a 12MP snapper on the rear (up from 8MP on the previous version) while it sticks with the old 7MP FaceTime HD camera on the front. The Air can record in 4K resolution at 24, 25, 30 or 60fps and capture slow-mo video in 1080p at 120fps or 240fps.
Apple has stripped down the accessories included in the box for the iPhone, but you still get a 20W charger to go alongside the USB-C charging cable. With a full battery, the iPad Air 2020 should be good for up to 10 hours of battery life under average use. As an occasional web browser and viewing device for the odd episode of The Crown, you should be more than covered.
Sound
(Image credit: Apple)
One of the more exciting changes to the iPad Air’s design from an AV perspective relates to its speakers. On the previous iPad Air, they were positioned on one side, on the edge beneath the Touch ID sensor. Here, the speakers have been repositioned to fire out from either end of the tablet, so you can be treated to proper stereo audio with both sides of your iPad contributing equally.
Not having the audio offset to one side makes a big difference. It’s a better fit for watching programmes in landscape mode, especially while bingeing episodes of your favourite series on Netflix. The most obvious improvement is a wider spread of sound, which helps give it a more cinematic and immersive feel. It’s not exactly surround sound, but it is better than it was previously.
The sound coming out of the speakers is more solid and defined too. There’s extra weight to dialogue and although the vibrations through the iPad’s chassis can be pretty disturbing at higher volumes, it never seems to muddy the clarity of what you’re hearing. Stick to normal volume levels and you’ll be just fine.
You still need to be a little careful about hand placement if you’re holding the iPad in landscape mode, although it is much improved on the older model.
Switch to playing tracks through a pair of wireless headphones and Apple’s trademark musicality is there to enjoy. The iPad makes quick work of Radiohead’s 15 Steps and its attempts to trip the tablet over, displays an excellent sense of rhythm and there’s a real snap to the claps that help keep the track on course. There’s plenty of precision to the percussion including a solid, weighty kick drum.
Screen
(Image credit: Apple)
Apple’s tablets have a reputation for delivering excellent images when watching video and the iPad Air 2020 doesn’t let the side down. It’s punchy and bright, but also throws in a great level of subtlety when the scene demands. Compared with the previous model, the latest iPad Air appears a bit sharper, slightly better detailed and capable of great subtlety in dark scenes.
Playing the second episode of Jupiter’s Legacy on Netflix, as everyone lines up at the funeral of their fallen comrades, the detail and definition in each character’s suit really captures the eye. Blacks are deep and rich, but there’s subtlety around creases and where light casts a shadow on certain areas. There’s a great general sense of depth to the scene too.
The iPad peers into the nooks and crannies and paints different gradations of black and grey with great care and attention. It also picks out subtle differences in the intensity of the white shirts worn by some of the characters. Skin tones also appear natural. As Sheldon, Walter, Grace and Brandon sit down for dinner, the bulbs in the chandelier bulbs emit a welcoming, warm glow and there’s a great sense of depth.
Verdict
If you want the ultimate iPad experience, Apple would probably point you in the direction of its Pro range. But the iPad Air 4 (2020) is all the iPad most people will ever need. It’s such a solid and capable all-rounder, that very few will feel the need to spend the extra for the iPad Pro.
The design is superb, the user experience is tough to beat and both sound and picture quality are on point. It’s an excellent tablet, and even with a slight price increase, we still feel it’s worth every penny.
SCORES
Picture 5
Sound 5
Features 5
MORE:
Read our guide to the best tablets
Read our Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ review
Everything you need to know about the new Apple iPad Pro
In a bid to overcome US restrictions on its Arm designs, Huawei’s HiSilicon has turned to the open-source RISC-V architecture and has even released its first RISC-V board for Harmony OS developers. Due to being blacklisted by the U.S. government, Huawei and its chip division HiSilicon do not have access to development and production technologies designed in America. The restrictions include many Arm processor architectures, including those used in various microcontrollers that Huawei uses widely.
HiSilicon’s HiSilicon Hi3861 development board is based on the company’s own Hi3861 controller. Huawei’s documentation doesn’t disclose exactly what the chip does, but it describes it as a main controller chip. The Hi3861 chip is accompanied by a serial port controller as well as a USB-C port. Among the more important aspects, the Hi3861 seems to have all the logic that enables USB-C functionality (e.g., synchronization and port alignment) and GPIO (general-purpose) pins.
(Image credit: HiSilicon)
Overall, the HiSilicon Hi3861 development board has rather vast (at least Raspberry Pi-like) capabilities, but not for a world that Huawei’s HiSilicon is used to, at least in terms of public opinion.
(Image credit: HiSilicon)
The Hi3861 is aimed mostly at the IoT market, whereas HiSilicon’s development efforts were historically aimed at high-margin smartphones, tablets, PCs, and embedded systems. But Huawei needs computing platforms to use for its other devices, so the HiSilicon Hi3861 is just what the doctor ordered at this time.
When it comes to high-volume products made by Huawei, a non-Arm-based chip makes exceptional sense and also gives the company experience working with an open-source architecture. Only time will tell if the company uses its RISC-V experience to develop other, more powerful devices.
(Pocket-lint) – Make a list of things the world is crying out for. How far up your list does ‘another pair of true wireless in-ear headphones’ come? The answer may well be ‘not very’.
However, at least LG’s Tone Free HBS-FN7 aren’t just another ‘me-too!’ by-the-numbers attempt to steal market share from the likes of Apple’s AirPods Pro.
The HBS-FN7 have a feature or two that sets them apart from the majority, including ultraviolet (UV) cleaning. So while the world is all too familiar with products like this, might it find room in its heart for these LGs?
Design
Black or white finish
Weigh: 5.6g per earbud
Included charging/self-cleaning case
The wireless earbud arrangement pioneered by Apple, whereby a stem drops from the wearer’s ear like some hi-tec jewellery, is a bit of a ‘Marmite’ proposition, isn’t it? So whether you dig it or despise it, that’s the route LG has gone down with the HBS-FN7. The stem is pretty short here, mind you, though that’s counterbalanced (literally) by the fairly bulbous in-ear area of the FN7 design.
Best true wireless earbuds: Wire-free Bluetooth audio bests
At less than 6g per earbud, though, the LG are undeniably easy to get comfortable and to wear – even for hours on end. They’re provided with a selection of hypoallergenic eartips, too, so even the uncommonly sized ear should have no trouble finding a decent fit.
Pocket-lint
The options for earbud finish – it’s shiny white or shiny black – look good until they’re dulled by fingerprints. And that happens pretty much immediately.
The brilliantly compact charging case – which is less than 3cm deep, less than 6cm in diameter, and a mere 39g – is in a much more successful (and slightly grippy) matte finish. Fingerprints, therefore, are less of a bother here.
Best USB-C headphones for Android phones 2021
By Dan Grabham
·
You won’t be staggered to learn, given that it’s LG we’re discussing here, that build quality is beyond criticism. Keep them safely in their case when you’re not using them and the HBS-FN7 will last a long time.
Features
Bluetooth 5.0
IPX4 splash resistance
Ultraviolet (UV) cleaning
Sound tuned by Meridian
Active noise-cancellation (ANC)
Battery capacity: 390mAh (case), 55mAh (per ‘bud)
Having promised an unusual feature or two, that may as well be where we start – with LG’s UVnano technology. Pop the earbuds into their charging case, close the lid and wait for the little blue LED to illuminate – this indicates the case is scrubbing the earbuds free of bacteria using UV light. And in these ‘hand-sanitiser everywhere you turn’ times, that can only be a good thing, right?
Pocket-lint
Elsewhere, it’s business slightly more as usual. The FN7 use Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless connectivity, and are compatible with SBC and AAC codecs. That’s more than good enough to access some hi-res audio from a top-tier streaming service subscription, but it would have been nice to see aptX Low Latency too – after all, we all like to consume a bit of video content on the move, don’t we?
The sound, once it’s on board, is delivered by a couple of 6mm neodymium full-range drivers. And as another differentiator, LG has opted to give the FN7 a bit of hardcore hi-fi credibility by continuing its partnership with UK specialist Meridian. So there are some Meridian-derived equalisation (EQ) settings to be investigated.
There’s active noise-cancellation (ANC) included here too, and while that’s hardly a revolutionary feature it’s not especially common down in lower price brackets. There are a couple of intensities to choose from – ‘high’ and ‘low’, naturally – as well as an ‘ambient sound’ setting that boosts external noise to keep you orientated. Noise-cancelling can be switched off, too.
Pocket-lint
Battery life is an OK-we-suppose 5 hours from the earbuds (with noise-cancelling switched on), with another three full charges available from the charging case. So 20 hours, all in, is plenty long enough to go between charges, but there are plenty of alternative earbuds that will go for longer. For recharging there’s USB-C or wireless Qi charging is available.
Interface
Raised touch-surface
Control app
There’s the tiniest little bump at the top of each FN7 stem – it’s a capacitive surface, and it proves extremely responsive. So you can instruct the earbuds to ‘play/pause’, ‘volume up/down’, ‘skip forwards/backwards’, ‘cycle through noise-cancelling options’ and ‘answer/end/reject call’ really easily and with confidence.
Pocket-lint
Alternatively, you can always avail yourself of LG’s impressive Tone Free control app. It’s very nicely rendered, is unswervingly stable and reliable, and has quite a breadth of functionality. Rearrange the way the touch-controls respond, explore Meridian’s EQ presets (‘natural’, ‘treble boost’, ‘bass boost’ and ‘immersive’ are pretty self-explanatory), control noise-cancelling intensity, or save a couple of EQ presets you’ve defined yourself.
It’s here where you can update software too, and where you can provoke the earbuds into emitting a piercing chirrup. ‘Find my earbuds’, that last feature is called – and they’d have to be quite a long way away for you to fail to hear them calling to you.
Sound quality
As far as sound quality is concerned, what the HBS-FN7 do well they do very well indeed. Where they’re found wanting, though, they fall down quite heavily.
Pocket-lint
On the plus side, set the EQ to ‘natural’ and the balance of the sound is very nicely judged. The low frequencies have weight but plenty of momentum too – so a chunky tune like The Bug’s Poison Dart hits more than hard enough, but doesn’t get bogged down by its own heft.
The feverish vocal in the midrange of the same tune is detailed, packed with character and enjoys a lot of breathing space too, and as a consequence there are real powers of communication on display here.
And the top of the frequency range has ample crunch but doesn’t get particularly hard, even if you like to listen at oppressive volumes.
The integration of the whole frequency range is smoothly achieved, too, so there’s convincing unity to the sound – nothing is overstated or underplayed. (Of course, mess with the EQs and you can undermine all of this good work. The choice, as always, is yours.)
The soundstage upon which all this happens is properly laid out and coherent. There’s more than enough space available for each individual strand of the recording to be identified, but that’s not at the expense of unity or integration – there’s proper confidence to the way the FN7 stage a song.
Pocket-lint
What there isn’t much of, though, is dynamism or attack. The LG just can’t summon the reserve to put much distance between the quietest and the loudest parts of a recording, and neither can these ‘buds shine much of a spotlight on the little harmonic variations that are so important to giving the listener the complete picture. Attack, of which in normal circumstances The Bug is far from short of, is of the mildest, politest type. And anyone who knows this recording knows ‘polite’ isn’t really what it’s aiming for.
The active noise-cancelling is only a qualified success, too. Set to ‘high’ it undoubtedly takes quite a lot of external noise out of the equation – but it introduces a slight-but-definite hiss at the bottom of the noise-floor as it does so. Set it to ‘low’ and it may as well be set to ‘off’.
Verdict
We go out as we came in: by pointing out that you’re spoiled for choice where products of this type are concerned.
The LG HBS-FN7 have some real strengths, no doubt about it – the balance of their audio reproduction, the quality of their construction and the excellence of their control app, for instance, as well as the reassurance of their self-cleaning technology.
But if the reason you’re buying earbuds is to get as complete an account of the music you like as your budget will allow, they come up fractionally short. Still, the UV cleaning technology is undoubtedly a special attraction.
Also consider
Pocket-lint
Sony WF-1000XM3
For a little less than the cost of the LG, Sony will sell you equally adept (and more attacking) sound, much better noise-cancelling and a different, but equally odd, physical form. You’ll have to clean the bacteria off them manually, mind you…
Last month, Gigabyte announced its first gaming monitor to sport HDR, 4K resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. Now, the full spec sheet for the FI32U has been revealed, fully detailing Gigabyte’s impressive upcoming 32-inch display.
For those that care about gaming performance and picture quality equally, the Gigabyte FI32U comes equipped with a 31.5-inch Super Speed IPS panel with a 4K resolution, a 144Hz refresh rate (120Hz console mode), and a 1ms G2G response time. The 10-bit (8-bit + FRC) panel covers 95% of the DCI-P3 gamut and 123% of the sRGB spectrum and features DisplayHDR 400 certification. Rated brightness is set at 350 nits and the contrast ratio at 1000:1.
Like most other premium gaming monitors, the FI32U packs a slew of gaming-oriented features including Aim Stabilizer Sync, Black Equalizer, ANC for consoles, and the Game Assist overlay. Other features include flicker-free technology, OSD Sidekick, Dashboard overlay, PIP, PBP, HDR modes, a 6-axis colour control, and a KVM switch.
Available video outputs include 2x HDMI 2.1 ports and a DisplayPort 1.4. There’s also a 3.5mm mic jack, a 3.5mm audio jack, 3x USB-A 3.0 ports, and a USB-C port. Both audio ports are powered by an Audio ESS Sabre HiFi chip. The back of the monitor features RGB Fusion 2.0 lighting, which users can synchronise with other compatible RGB products of their system.
The included stand of the Gigabyte FI32U is very versatile, allowing users to swivel (±20º), pivot (+90º), tilt (-5º to 21º), and adjust the height (0-130mm). Kensington lock and support for VESA wall mounting 100x100mm is also included.
KitGuru says: Looking for a new high-end monitor? The Gigabyte FI32U might be worth considering.
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It’s so, so, so much better. But the moment Apple showed off the second-generation Siri Remote, it was obvious that this would be a huge improvement over its detested predecessor. It’s easy to tell which way is right side up when you reach for it. The clickable touchpad area that dominated the upper third of the prior remote has been replaced by a more intuitive D-pad. The Siri button has been pushed to the remote’s right side, almost guaranteeing that you’ll never unintentionally trigger Apple’s voice assistant. And now there’s a proper power button for your TV.
Listing all of these “upgrades” on the new $59 Siri Remote really illustrates just how disappointing the old one that somehow lasted six years on the market was. Before this big redesign, the most Apple did in that time was to try to cure the “which side is up?” confusion by adding a white rim around one of the buttons. “Can’t innovate anymore, my ass.”
But this? This new Siri Remote is a very good remote. There’s nothing exceptional about it, but it’s functional, accessible, and painless to use. If you used those words to describe the original Siri Remote, you’d be in the minority.
It feels really nice, too. Apple makes the remote from a unibody aluminum shell that’s taller, heavier, and considerably thicker than the old Siri clicker. It’s slightly narrower than the black remote but still feels larger on the whole — and that’s a positive. The previous Siri remote was so thin that it was easily lost to the deepest reaches of the couch. I don’t see that being as much of a problem with the new, chunkier hardware.
The Siri Remote is in keeping with Apple’s renewed fondness for hard edges. With the remote gripped in hand, you never really feel the edges on the front, but you do at the back. The back metal is curved, but there’s still a hard edge at both sides. As long as you don’t squeeze the remote too tight, it should prove reasonably comfortable.
Apple has added power and mute buttons to the new Siri Remote.
Instead of putting what basically amounted to a trackpad on the top section of the remote, Apple has switched to a much more traditional directional pad. Within that circular D-pad is a touch-sensitive center button that still lets you swipe around content or move in any direction just like you could before. (And yes, you can still play with the subtle movement of app icons on the home screen by gently nudging your thumb around.) But some streaming apps didn’t work perfectly with that input method, so Apple is now including the far more precise D-pad.
This choose-your-preferred-navigation method — Apple calls it the “clickpad with touch surface” — has a very short learning curve. Initially, I would inadvertently activate the touchpad when I just meant to move my finger from down to up or vice versa on the D-pad. That didn’t last long, but if it winds up a bigger hassle for you, there’s an option in the remote’s settings menu to assign the center button to “click only,” which gives the D-pad all navigation duties.
Apple has also come up with a clever jogwheel function that lets you circle a finger around the outer ring to scrub through videos at faster or slower speeds depending on how quickly you’re thumbing around the circle. It’s a direct callback to the days of the iPod clickwheel and does a great job helping you land on an exact moment in a video.
But I must confess something: I had an embarrassing few hours where I couldn’t figure out how to make this work. Eventually, I learned the trick: after pausing a video, you’ve got to rest your finger on the D-pad momentarily before you start circling around it. An animation will pop up in the progress bar (with a little dot that indicates where your finger is) to let you know you’re in jogwheel mode. If you just pause the video and immediately start the circular movement, it doesn’t do the right thing. Don’t be like me and unnecessarily factory reset your Apple TV 4K because of this.
The buttons themselves all have a satisfying click and don’t feel the least bit mushy. The clickpad is quieter when pressed than the buttons below it, which are each significantly noisier than any other remotes I had to compare against, be it for a Roku, Chromecast, or otherwise. Again, it’s not a problem unless you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, but you’ll absolutely hear the volume rocker when you’re turning up a certain scene in a movie or show. The Siri button on the side is whisper quiet; you still have to press and hold it down whenever you’re doing a voice command.
You might also have to overcome some muscle memory challenges since the mute button is now where play / pause was situated on the old remote. The “menu” button has been rebadged as “back” but does the same functions as before, which means, in most cases, the new icon makes a ton more sense. The buttons aren’t backlit, but it’s easy enough to memorize them by feel once you’ve used the remote for a while.
There’s a circular D-pad with a touchpad in the center.
But as good as the new Siri Remote is, it feels like Apple missed some opportunities that frankly seem like low-hanging fruit. The most glaring is that there’s no way to locate the remote if you’re unable to find it. As I said earlier, the bigger dimensions should make for fewer instances where the remote gets misplaced, but some way of having it alert you to its location would’ve been nice. “Hey Siri, where’s my remote?” seems like such an easy thing to make happen, but that voice query won’t do you any good or make the remote beep. And unlike Apple’s recently introduced AirTags, there’s no ultra-wideband chip in the remote to help pinpoint its position in a room. If you’re finding that the remote goes MIA constantly, you might just have to settle for a case that combines an AirTag with the Siri Remote. But having a simple, straightforward remote locator feature is one area where Roku objectively beats out Apple.
A less impactful gripe is the lack of an input button for switching between HDMI sources; the Apple TV automatically becomes the active input when you power it on or wake it from sleep. But an input button would’ve at least made life easier for people switching between an Apple TV and an Xbox or PlayStation. As a result, I just can’t quit my LG TV’s remote, much as I wish I could. Most of my devices automatically grab the TV’s attention when they’re switched on, but a button is foolproof.
I can complain about buttons being absent, but I can also praise Apple for the same reason: there are no branded shortcut buttons whatsoever on the Siri Remote. Not even Netflix can lock down its own button, whereas you’d be hard-pressed to find another streaming box remote without that logo somewhere.
The Siri Remote still charges with Apple’s Lightning connector — despite now being thick enough to house a USB-C jack. USB seems more natural for this type of scenario, but what do I know? I’m just one man who’s elated to have a reliable, sensibly designed remote control again. Apple is going to keep doing Apple things. I was not able to test the new remote with third-party charging stands designed for the old one, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that industry catches up with the new design in the near future.
The right choice is clear.
The gyroscope and accelerometer from the previous Siri Remote are history, so you won’t be able to use this one for Apple Arcade games that rely on those sensors. But it’s unlikely many people were gaming with it to begin with; tvOS now supports many third-party gamepads, including the latest Xbox and PlayStation controllers, if you hadn’t heard.
Any way you slice it, the new Siri Remote is a win on every level. It’s inconceivable that we put up with the last one for so many years, but its time has come. And the remote control taking its place is extremely good at doing remote control things. Much as how Apple’s M1 MacBooks would have earned perfect scores if they’d had competent webcams, the Siri Remote would be flirting with perfection if it just had some way of letting you easily find the thing. Or if the buttons were backlit. My review of the new Apple TV 4K is coming soon, but if you’ve already got the last model, this is the only real must-have upgrade to go for.
Cambridge’s Award-winning recipe has been refined to include app support and extra sonic clarity and detail
For
Extra ounce of dynamic expression
Great clarity for the level
Slick app support
Against
No noise-cancelling
When Cambridge Audio announced a new model in its inaugural and two-time What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Melomania line-up, we heaved a collective sigh of relief. The Melomania 1 Plus (or Melomania 1+) promise the same look and feel of their decorated older sibling, the original Melomania 1, but with additional app support, customisable EQ settings and the British audio firm’s innovative High-Performance Audio Mode.
There’s a new colourway, too – gone is the ‘stone’ grey hue we lovingly dubbed ‘NHS Grey’. Here, the upgrades are hard to spot to the naked eye, but then again, beauty is usually in the detail. The pricing hasn’t changed, with the Melomania 1 Plus launching at the now-traditional £120 ($140, AU$185).
So how good do they sound, and are they worth upgrading to?
Build and comfort
(Image credit: Cambridge Audio)
The fresh white finish of our Melomania 1 Plus charging case sample (also available in black) is a matte affair and a solid upgrade on its predecessor. It feels cool, tactile, more pebble-like and means that fingerprint smudges no longer collect on the perfectly sized case.
Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 Plus tech specs
(Image credit: Cambridge Audio)
Bluetooth version 5.0
Finishes x2
Battery life Up to 45 hours (low power)
Dimensions 2.7 x 1.5cm
Weight 5.6g (each)
The five-strong row of LEDs to indicate battery life remains, just below the snappy flip-top lid. The ‘L’ and ‘R’ on each earpiece, underneath the tiny LED light on each, are now written in electric blue lettering. You now get a USB-C fast charging port, too.
Although multiple ear tips were promised to ensure a secure fit, what Cambridge has done is double up on its standard small, medium and large offerings, so you now get two sets of each rather than one.
There are also two sets of medium and large ‘memory foam’ options, but curiously no small option. The memory foam tips are only supplied in black, too – the regular tips are white – which spoils the ice-white aesthetic somewhat.
The bullet-shaped buds are practically identical in build to the Melomania 1 – each weighs the same 4.6g, boasts IPX5 certification against rain and sweat, houses a 5.8mm graphene-enhanced driver and boasts Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity with aptX and AAC codec support.
Features
(Image credit: Cambridge Audio)
The Melomania 1 Plus boast up to nine hours of battery life on a single charge plus four extra charges from the case, which adds up to an impressive 45 hours of total playtime when in Low Power mode. In the default High-Performance mode, you’ll get seven hours from a charge or 35 hours in total courtesy of four more blasts from the case, which is still highly competitive.
Pairing is easy using the handy quick start guide. Only one earpiece needs to be paired on your device; the second bud (labelled ‘Handset’) will simply request a connection to it – and that only needs to be done once. During our tests, the connection between both units and our device remains secure and snag-free.
Possibly the biggest upgrade with this new iteration is support for the free Melomania app, which is now considerably more stable than it used to be. With it comes the ability to customise the EQ settings yourself or pick from six presets, check the battery level of each earbud, locate misplaced earbuds on a map, and receive firmware updates.
Touch controls here involve pressing the circular button on each bud and we find these intuitive and useful. Holding down the right one increases volume, while holding down the left lowers it – simple and effective. A single press of either earpiece starts or pauses playback, two skips forward a track (right earbud) or back a song (left earbud), and three presses of the right bud calls up Siri on our iPhone – although note that they can also access the Google Assistant.
These controls are so reliable that we rarely dig out our smartphone when testing them in transit. That should be a given, but it hasn’t always been our experience when testing competing buds at this price.
Cambridge has advised wearers to position the earpieces so that the recessed circle within the circular top surface of the driver housing is at its lowest point so that the MEMS mic in each bud can perform to its fullest. We do so and are able to enjoy clear voice calls.
The good news is that with low power mode deployed, you’ll get a performance that is on a par with the originals.
Sound
(Image credit: Cambridge Audio)
Switching back to High-Performance Audio and with all EQ levels unaltered, we’re treated to an impactful and expansive presentation of Kate Bush’s And Dream Of Sheep (a Tidal Master file). The keys feel three-dimensional in our left ear as Bush’s vocal soars through the frequencies centrally, backed by samples of seagulls, pared-back guitar picking, wind instruments and spoken word. When the brooding storm builds, the Melomania 1 Plus deliver it dutifully and with remarkable clarity for this level. This is a small but definite improvement on their older sibling for layering and detail.
Instruments such as the slinking bass, Wurlitzer and saxophone at the outset of Beck’s Debra are organised with precision and given an extra few yards of space within the mix, too. The low-level, call-to-action vocal before the verse is often lost in muddier bass registers of lesser headphones, but not here. Beck’s distinctive voice is emotive and held masterfully in check even as the intensity builds. Through the mids and treble, we’re aware of the step-up in terms of clarity and refinement over the original Melos.
Through heavier tracks such as Eminem’s Stan, the teeming rain sounds natural at the window as Stan’s scrawl cuts through with clarity, underpinned by an accurate and regimented bassline. There are marginal gains to be had over the originals in terms of the dynamic build too. The leading edges of notes are marginally cleaner in the updated set of in-ears, as demonstrated by the initial synth strings in Dr Dre’s Forget About Dre.
In our review of the five-star Panasonic RZ-S500W, we said that in direct comparison, the Cambridge product suffered marginally for detail. That balance is now redressed with the Melomania 1 Plus. Whether you prefer the Panasonic proposition over the Melomanias will likely come down to the former’s noise-cancelling or teardrop design, neither of which feature in the Cambridges. But for an engaging, detailed, expansive listen, the Melomania 1 Plus are very much back in the running for best at this level.
Verdict
Cambridge’s compact, fuss-free and affordable design was a hit with us the first time around in 2019. The addition of a slicker paint-job, app support for EQ customisation and the step-up in sonic detail and refinement – without the anticipated price hike – only makes us want to heap extra praise upon the new Melomania 1 Plus.
While the original Melomania 1 can now be had for a significant discount, we’d still point you towards this updated model. There’s no noise-cancelling onboard, but those who don’t need shouldn’t hesitate to add these latest Melomanias to their shortlist.
Kensington’s StudioDock, the high-end $399.99 desktop hub for the iPad Pro that was released earlier this year, isn’t compatible with the new 12.9-inch model hitting stores today. A representative for Kensington confirmed the news to The Verge, saying it’s because the new iPad Pro is 0.5mm thicker than the 2018 and 2020 models.
The StudioDock uses a rotatable magnetic mounting plate to secure the iPad when it’s plugged in over USB-C, expanding its connectivity with extra USB-A, ethernet, and HDMI ports. Although the only difference between the StudioDock versions for the 12.9-inch and 11-inch iPad Pro is the size of that mounting plate, Kensington says it won’t be user-replaceable. Instead, the company plans to release an entirely new SKU to fit the 2021 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
The new 11-inch iPad Pro should be unaffected, because its dimensions are the same as last year’s model. The 12.9-inch version, however, is slightly thicker because it uses a new, more advanced display with Mini LED technology. Apple itself has warned that its 2020 Magic Keyboard “may not precisely fit” the 2021 12.9-inch iPad Pro due to this difference in thickness, although we found it worked fine in our review.
No such luck for the StudioDock — you’ll need to buy a whole new one if you want to upgrade your iPad. This wasn’t entirely unforeseeable, and I warned of the possibility when reviewing the StudioDock in March because new iPad Pro models did seem overdue. But the incompatibility is unfortunate for such an expensive product, especially since it was only just released.
Belkin’s new SoundForm Connect Audio is a $99 dongle that lets you turn any pair of speakers with either a 3.5mm or optical port into an AirPlay 2-compatible setup. In other words, it’s effectively an Apple version of the (now-defunct) Chromecast Audio.
As someone who actually likes AirPlay 2, it’s a very interesting concept, especially if you have older speakers or an audio setup that you’d like to get wired into the rest of an AirPlay system.
Setup is simple: just plug in the SoundForm Connect Audio to power (over USB-C, thankfully), and then plug in a 3.5mm headphone jack or optical cable from your speaker system’s input port.
Image: Belkin
Unfortunately, the SoundForm Connect Audio does come with a pretty hefty price tag for what it does. The Chromecast Audio used to cost $35, which made it a pretty nice option for hooking up an old speaker to your multiroom audio setup. An Echo Dot (which is also a full-fledged smart speaker) can be hooked up to anything with a headphone jack to use with Alexa and costs $40 to $50 — not counting Amazon’s frequent sale.
But the SoundForm Connect Audio costs $99 just to add a speaker to an AirPlay 2 setup. That’s between two to three times as much, or as much as Ikea’s entry-level Symfonisk bookshelf speaker (which also offers AirPlay 2 support).
Still, given that there hasn’t really been a solution for this kind of setup since Apple discontinued the AirPort Express (which offered similar functionality for the original AirPlay standard), the SoundForm Connect Audio is better than nothing. But the relatively high price means it’ll likely only be useful for owners of more expensive speaker setups.
The SoundForm Connect Audio is available to preorder now from Belkin’s website, with orders shipping later in June.
Its ambition is to be applauded, but Deezer falls between the two stools of Spotify and Tidal and struggles to justify itself over either
For
Vast catalogue and device support
CD-quality HiFi tier
Envelope-pushing 3D audio
Against
No hi-res streaming
Spotify does discovery better
Tidal does hi-fi better
Deezer appears to be stuck with a bit of an identity crisis. When we first reviewed the music streaming service in 2015, it clearly saw itself as a Spotify rival, bringing a vast library of music to a mainstream audience as efficiently as possible.
By the time of our re-review, in early 2018, Deezer had begun courting the hi-fi crowd with a comprehensive catalogue of CD-quality tracks and murmurings of hi-res MQA support to come.
In 2020, with hi-res yet to appear on the platform, Deezer hopped into bed with Sony and started offering 360 Reality Audio streaming to subscribers to its HiFi tier.
And now here we are in 2021 and 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC files (ie. CD quality) is still the pinnacle of Deezer’s HiFi offering. Yes, it is a solid step up from the 128kbps MP3 files of “standard streaming services”, but those are now few and far between. As both Apple (with Apple Music Lossless) and Spotify (with Spotify HiFi) become well and truly embroiled in a hi-res music war and Amazon Music quietly drops its premium tier by £5 per month to just £7.99 if you’re a Prime Member, where does that leave Deezer?
Clearly, the French streaming service is trying its best to find a USP, and that’s to be applauded, but the result is that it falls short of matching Spotify’s mainstream appeal and Tidal’s hi-fi credentials.
Features
(Image credit: Apple / Deezer)
While Spotify held on resolutely to its compressed music streams until its 2021 HiFi tier announcement, Deezer has offered ‘CD quality’ tracks in the 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC format since 2017.
These tracks are available to those who subscribe to the £14.99 ($14.99) per-month HiFi tier – which used to cost £19.99 until roughly a year ago – and while initially you also needed to own one of a handful of specific devices, they can now be enjoyed on almost any device that supports the core Deezer experience. In fact, Deezer now comes pre-loaded in kit such as Mobee-K’s new smart USB-C headphones while Apple’s own HomePod and HomePod Mini support Deezer voice control, and Deezer tracks can be downloaded to enjoy offline on your Apple watch, too.
It once looked likely that Deezer would add hi-res streaming to its repertoire, but the company has since decided to go down the 360 Reality Audio route. Think of this as a Dolby Atmos rival but specifically for streamed music, and you’ve got the idea.
Deezer was the first music streaming service to offer 360 Reality Audio, but it has since been joined by Tidal, Amazon Music HD and nugs.net (for the uninitiated, that is a streaming service dedicated to live concerts). Back to Deezer and the tracks available in the format are included as part of its HiFi subscription. You will need to download a different app, called 360 by Deezer, if you want to listen to them all, but this extra app also gives access to all of the non-360 tracks of the standard app so you don’t have to constantly switch between the two.
The bad news is that 360 by Deezer is only available on iOS and Android devices. There are eight playlists, including ‘New on 360 by Deezer’ that can be enjoyed on a computer or hi-fi via the desktop app as teasers – but not the full package.
Pricing
(Image credit: Apple / Deezer)
Below Deezer HiFi there are three tiers. Premium (£9.99/$9.99 per month) shares features with HiFi – no ads, unlimited streaming and control on mobile apps, and offline access – but limits sound quality to 320kbps.
Deezer Family (£14.99/$14.99 per month) gets you everything on Premium for up to six profiles. There’s also a free, ad-supported tier with 128kbps streaming and limited mobile app use.
Compatibility
(Image credit: Apple / Deezer)
As well as smartphones and computers, the Deezer app is also available on many other devices: TVs from the likes of Samsung, Sony and LG; wireless speakers by Sonos, Amazon, Bluesound and Bose; and even cars via Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. And that’s far from an exhaustive list.
What’s more, Chromecast and AirPlay allow you to send tunes to yet more devices. Deezer might not quite match Spotify’s ubiquity (it’s missing from Cambridge Audio’s streamers, for example), but it’s close.
Regardless of the device used, subscribers can access a catalogue of over 56 million songs, more than 52 million of which it claims are in the CD-quality FLAC format. It’s an impressive figure, but with all music streaming services making similarly huge claims, the numbers game is rendered a little academic.
What matters is whether the tracks you’re looking for are available and, in our experience, Deezer produces the fewest blanks after Spotify. It’s very rare to find a song in Spotify’s catalogue that isn’t also available in Deezer’s – and usually in that higher-quality format. One nil to Deezer.
We find Deezer stocks pretty much every track of the diverse range we search for, and all in CD quality too. Just be aware that, unlike Apple Music and Tidal, Deezer doesn’t have artist or album window ‘exclusives’, although it does occasionally release its own live sessions with big artists.
Ease of use
(Image credit: Apple / Deezer)
As HiFi subscribers, we mostly use the desktop and iOS mobile apps, and the ability to flick from one to the other is made easy by the fact each platform offers a very similar interface.
Deezer’s appearance is perhaps best described as stripped-back – almost brutally so. The interface is clean and clear, but also a bit bare, particularly on desktop. Music streaming services are generally similar in layout, with a bottom playback bar and a few left-hand side tabs bordering the centralised chunk of content – and Deezer doesn’t stray too far from this template.
Since our last review update, things have been slightly tweaked. ‘Home’ has been replaced by ‘Music’, although it does the same job as before: presenting users with personalised playlists as well as the opportunity to browse music by charts, new releases, popularity and various moods. Radio stations still appear at the bottom of this page, but podcasts now have their own tab.
‘Favorites’ has replaced ‘My music’, but again, the purpose is unchanged: it’s a gateway to your saved playlists and ‘favourite’ tracks, albums and podcasts.
Performance
(Image credit: Apple / Deezer)
We play the What Hi-Fi? January 2021 playlist, and are pleased to hear Deezer HiFi (CD-quality) streams are clear, full-bodied and, perhaps most importantly, an upgrade from the ‘Better’ (320kbps) quality streams. It’s worth noting sound quality can be changed between ‘Standard’ (128kbps), ‘Better’ (320kbps on wi-fi and 128kbps on mobile data), and ‘High Fidelity’ (1411kbps).
The HiFi streams cling more committedly to the textures of the ‘80s-style keys, percussion and synths underpinning Chaka Khan’s Pallion (aka Hot Butterfly), and those of the affected backing track and vocals in Dua Lipa’s Levitating.
However, we find Tidal’s CD-quality streams a little crisper, cleaner and more precise. There’s more fuel driving Tiny Giant’s Draw Me a Line, and greater space around the instrumental and vocal accompaniment. Timing of the drumbeats and underlying cymbal rhythm is noticeably more accurate, too, with Tidal’s version of Donald Fagen’s I.G.Y. springing into life with a touch more bite.
That said, listening through Grado SR325e headphones plugged into a MacBook Air, the differences are admittedly subtle. And it’s only when we up the transparency of our set-up with a Chord Hugo 2 DAC that these discrepancies become really significant, helped by Tidal’s fancy options for taking exclusive control of the DAC and bypassing the MacBook’s audio processing and volume control. Deezer has no such options.
Of course, the ace up Deezer’s sleeve is 360 Reality Audio, which isn’t offered by any other streaming service. 360 Reality Audio offers a 3D sound space by creating multiple virtual speakers and can be listened to via most standard headphones – although the experience has been optimised for Sony’s range.
At its best, it’s really rather impressive, immersing you in the music and surrounding you with spatially distinct instruments in a way not previously experienced. As a technological showcase it’s very effective, and gives you fresh insight into some of your favourite tracks (although the selection is fairly limited at this point).
But whether the 360 version of a track will replace the stereo version in your affections is debatable. For one, even the best tracks sound comparatively lacking in punch and weight when compared to their stereo equivalents, and some other tracks just don’t seem to have made the transition to 3D particularly well, coming across as rather flat and compressed in terms of detail and dynamics.
It’s worth remembering that 360 Reality Audio is still in its infancy and there’s already so much to like. In time it could be absolutely brilliant – it’s just not a hugely persuasive reason to opt for Deezer over Tidal right now.
Verdict
(Image credit: Apple / Deezer)
While we prefer Tidal’s comprehensive layout and slightly superior sound quality, the main chink in Deezer’s armour is its current lack of hi-res audio.
After all, subscribers to Tidal’s HiFi tier get access to over a million (typically 24-bit/96kHz) hi-res Masters in addition to CD-quality streaming – although they have to pay a little more for it at £19.99 ($19.99) per month – and Amazon Music HD delivers hi-res tracks for £7.99 ($7.99) per month for Prime members and £9.99 ($9.99) per month if you don’t have an Amazon Prime account.
Deezer may still have hi-res in its sights, but all has gone quiet on that front since the announcement of its partnership with MQA back in September 2017. And until it comes as part of a competitive package, it doesn’t shine brightly enough to be the leading light in music streaming.
Its core, non-HiFi subscription, meanwhile, falls just a whisker short of Spotify when it comes to ubiquity, discovery and presentation.
But, while Deezer rather falls between the two pillars of Tidal and Spotify right now, the addition of hi-res streams (and some of the hi-fi-focused features of Tidal) could actually one day see it become the best of both worlds.
SCORES
Performance 4
Features 4
Ease of use 4
MORE:
See the best music streaming services 2021: free streams to hi-res audio
Read our Tidal review
Check out the best music streamers 2021: upgrade to a wireless system
Bang and Olufsen’s latest Bluetooth speaker is the Beosound Explore, a $199 (£169) speaker that’s rated to run for 27 hours “at typical listening volumes” before needing a charge.
That’s an impressive amount of battery life for a small (roughly 5 x 3 x 3 inch) Bluetooth speaker like this. For comparison, JBL’s slightly larger Charge 5 speaker goes for 20 hours, while even the much larger UE Hyperboom tops out at 24 hours.
Bang and Olufsen tells me that the Beosound Explore’s battery life is thanks to a couple of things. It’s one of the first speakers to support the new Bluetooth 5.2 standard, which offers a more power efficient way to receive audio from your devices. This combines with the Explore’s innards, which are tuned with power efficiency in mind. It means the speaker should get a lot of playback out of its modest 2,400 mAh battery.
It comes with a small carabiner for attaching it to a backpack.Image: Bang and Olufsen
Beyond its battery life, the Beosound Explore offers a more typical range of features for a Bluetooth speaker. It’s IP67 water resistant, so it should survive being briefly submerged, it supports being paired in stereo if you have two Explores, and in supports Apple, Google, and Microsoft’s fast pairing standards. Charging is handled over USB-C and takes around two hours, the company says.
The Beosound Explore is available from today in black and green, with a gray model following this summer.
If you told me you’d found an OLED laptop for just $800, I’d have warned you against refurbished computers and deep-discount closeout sales. The inky blackness and gorgeous colors of OLED have notcome cheap. Dell charges a $300 premium just for the screen. And yet Asus’s new affordable OLED laptop defies those expectations.
The new machine is called the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED, and early reviews are already suggesting it could be a slam dunk for budget buyers. While there’s no headphone jack and some are complaining about a cramped keyboard, the 2.5-pound laptop doesn’t seem to skimp on the specs. In addition to that 13-inch 1080p OLED screen (one of the first 1080p OLEDs I can recall on a laptop) with its 100-percent DCI-P3 color gamut, you can configure it with up to Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 processors, 16GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.
The Intel model replaces these USB-C ports with visually identical Thunderbolt 4 ports instead.
Even at the $800 starting price, you get your pick of an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U or an 11th-gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 chip, a backlit keyboard, a Windows Hello ready IR camera, full-size HDMI 2.0 and USB-A ports, a pair of USB-C ports, and a microSD card slot.
There’s a few important differences between the Intel and AMD models, though, according to the company’s spec sheets:
Intel starts with a measly 256GB of storage at the $800 mark instead of 512GB for AMD
The company quotes three additional hours of battery life for the AMD system over Intel (note that both were measured at a fairly dim 150 nits of brightness) from the same 67Wh battery
With Intel, you get a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports instead of plain ol’ USB 3.2 Type-C
AMD models only have Wi-Fi 5, while Intel ones get Wi-Fi 6
As far as I can tell, retailers like Amazon and Newegg quietly put the laptops on sale earlier this month, though the $800 AMD variant doesn’t seem to be shipping quite yet. Here’s a $900 Intel model at Amazon, an $800 AMD model at Newegg, and a whole array of the new laptops at Asus’s own store.
If you’re looking for a 2-in-1 convertible, Asus is sticking its affordable OLED screen in those too, starting at $950, though Intel appears to be your only CPU option there.
We’d heard screen manufacturers were finally going to mass produce laptop-sized OLED panels this year — perhaps Asus’ laptops are just the tip of the iceberg.
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How much do you care about having a great screen?
That, really, is the only question that matters with the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro. It has a new kind of display so good I think it is the best thing for watching movies that isn’t a high-end television. It starts at $1,099 for a 128GB version, but increased storage and accessories like a keyboard or the Apple Pencil can shoot the price up fairly quickly.
Both the 12.9 and the smaller 11-inch iPad Pro (which starts at $799) feature Apple’s M1 processor and some other updated specs, all of which are excellent. But even that fancy processor — the same as you’ll find in the new iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini — doesn’t fundamentally change the story of what the iPad Pro is and what it can do.
It is an iPad, after all.
But the 12.9-inch version of the iPad Pro is an iPad with a very beautiful display. And so again, the question is what that screen means to the experience of using an iPad, especially since the price has jumped $100 compared to the last model. How much do you care about having a great screen?
Here is a very brief, wildly incomplete, and necessarily oversimplified education on flat panel screen technology. (Chris Welch has a longer one.)
There are two basic types you usually see, LCD and OLED. Both have pixels that combine red, green, and blue subpixels to create colors, but in order for you to actually see those colors the display pixels need to be lit up. OLED pixels are self-lit; LCD panels light up the display pixels by putting one, several, or many LED backlights behind them.
The benefit of LCD panels with LED backlighting is that they’re relatively inexpensive, long-lasting, bright, and unlikely to burn in. The benefit of OLED is that the black pixels are not lit at all, meaning you get superb contrast, but they are relatively expensive and don’t get as bright. Each technology’s strength is the other’s weakness.
Mini LED, the technology powering the 12.9-inch iPad Pro display, is designed to bring the LCD panel as close as possible to OLED’s contrast and black levels. Its display pixels are not self-lit, but instead lit from behind. The trick is that they’re lit by 10,000 tiny LED lights split up by software into 2,500 local dimming zones. It’s almost like the backlight itself is a lower-resolution screen behind the screen, tracking the image and making sure the black parts of the picture aren’t lit up.
I would never call the display on the 11-inch iPad Pro bad, because it’s a stellar display. But because it uses a more traditional LCD backlight system with fewer dimming zones, you can see that the blacks are actually just a little gray. On the 12.9-inch version, Mini LED lets blacks be truly black, offers a high contrast ratio, and can also get very bright.
Apple is calling this screen the “Liquid Retina XDR display.” And it has all the benefits of Apple’s previous iPad Pro displays: it’s very high resolution, color-accurate, and it has fairly good viewing angles. It supports ProMotion, Apple’s term for a variable refresh rate to increase smoothness and match the frame rate of videos. (“Liquid Retina,” as far as Apple has ever told us, refers to the Apple-specific method of making round corners on an LCD.)
The funny thing about the 12.9-inch iPad is that it is very easy to miss the benefits of Mini LED in normal day-to-day use. At first you don’t see it.
Sure, there’s great contrast when you’re browsing the web, texting, playing games, and so on, but really it’s not very different from any other iPad. Apple still limits the max brightness in most scenarios to 600 nits, which is bright enough but not eye-popping (the iPad and iPad Air max out at 500 nits).
The magic kicks in when you are viewing videos or photos in full-screen. When you do that, the iPad Pro kicks into a different HDR mode (or in Apple’s parlance, XDR, for “Extreme Dynamic Range”) that really is stunning. The overall max brightness of the screen jumps up to a powerful 1,000 nits and peak brightness for certain lighting can hit 1,600 nits.
You don’t see it until you see it — but then you see it.
The iPad Pro with the Liquid Retina XDR displayPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
The joke I’ve been telling people is that the display is so good that Tenet actually makes sense when you watch it on this iPad Pro. HDR content is incredible on this screen. I am not a display quality enthusiast, but this screen is functionally equivalent to a high-end OLED TV to my eyes, especially in a dark room.
If you are also not a display quality enthusiast, you might be left unimpressed with descriptions of nits and contrast ratios. I get it, but there are intangibles to the screen that I struggle to describe and have struggled even harder to capture in photos and video. For example, some colors just look better and more accurate to me, especially textured yellows. It just does a better job showing fine detail in situations where dark and light elements get mixed together, like with hair or a building reflecting sunlight.
Both Kindle and Apple Books in dark mode, in a very dark room, have a weird gray halo around text not due to normal blooming (Photo edited to best replicate what I saw with my eyes)Dieter Bohn / The Verge
The display isn’t perfect, of course. If you run a local dimming test you will see blooming on brightly lit pixels against a black background. I only noticed this when running tests that are specifically designed to surface blooming, though. In regular use, everything looked great, sharp, and evenly lit across the entire screen.
There was one odd bug I experienced. Putting either the Kindle app or Apple Books into dark mode and viewing them in a near-pitch black room, I noticed a strange gray haze around all of the text blocks. It’s too big to be blooming; it’s more like the local dimming algorithms got a little confused. It’s a minor thing that I hope gets fixed.
For me, the quality of the display when watching video on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is impressive, but it’s also not at the top of my list of priorities when picking a computer. I care a little more about portability, weight, and — yes — functionality.
So let’s talk about that M1 chip.
The iPad Pro is great for video editingPhoto by Kayla Murkison / The Verge
What does it really mean that the iPad Pro now has the same chip that powers Apple’s latest Mac computers?
It does not mean that iPads will be able to run Mac apps now. While Apple is happy to let the Mac run iPad apps and generally let you do whatever you want on it (except touch the screen), the iPad Pro continues to be a more, shall we say, curated experience.
One interesting consequence of the M1 is that for the first time in the history of iOS devices, Apple is publicly disclosing how much RAM these devices have. It’s 8GB on models with 512GB or fewer of storage and 16GB on models with 1TB or more. Whether or not that’s actionable information is another matter.
The M1 is obviously fast, and in benchmarks it’s faster than the last A12Z Bionic that Apple put in the previous iPad Pro models. But in my usage, I didn’t actually perceive any speed improvements in any of the apps that I use — because everything was already very fast on the iPad Pro. I got the exact same export speeds in Premiere Rush on the brand new 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the M1 as on my 2018 iPad Pro.
Both the RAM and the M1 processor are specs that won’t make an appreciable difference to the vast majority of iPad users. They’re specs that will matter to certain “pro” users who have found specific apps and workflows that push the limit of what an iPad can do.
Apple touts soon-to-be released capabilities in apps like LumaFusion and AR effects, and I have no doubt that there are benefits for power users of those apps. For the rest of us, the reasons to get an iPad Pro are less about speeds and feeds and more about the overall experience.
Another consequence of the M1 is that the USB-C port now supports Thunderbolt accessories. In theory, that’s great. I plugged my iPad into my very fancy CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt dock and was gratified to see my monitor light up right away. From there, though, I ran into the same old iPad problems.
I have a USB microphone interface hooked into the dock, and for whatever reason I was unable to get any audio out of it on the iPad, just silence. I also tested out some admittedly old LaCie Thunderbolt 2 drives with an adapter and couldn’t get them to show up in the Files app. Oh and just to remind you: the monitor still can only mirror the iPad Pro — it can’t serve as a second display.
Similarly, the dock has an audio-out so it shows up as a speaker. On the Mac, I can easily change settings to let my computer know to play audio out of its own speakers since I don’t have anything hooked up to the dock for sound. Nothing doing on the iPad Pro — if there’s a setting that would let me move the audio back to the iPad’s own excellent speakers, I couldn’t find it. (Long pressing on the AirPlay icon in Control Center only listed the dock as an option.)
Seemingly every new iPad Pro inspires an admittedly exhausting but also necessary discussion about whether or not iPadOS is actually capable enough to justify the price of the hardware that runs it.
The M1 processor sharpens that discussion. To me, the biggest difference between the Mac and the iPad at this point isn’t the touchscreen, it’s Apple’s approach to the operating system. On the iPad, Apple would rather not offer a feature than have it work in a non-iPad way. That’s noble, but it means the company has committed itself to reinventing a lot of wheels in computing: files, peripheral support, multi-window interfaces, and all the rest have to be re-thought and re-done.
Sometimes that reinvention results in some genuinely great features. The iPad’s “windowing” system takes some getting used to and has its limitations, but it can be a joy to use and makes organizing your digital stuff a bit easier. The problem is that all that reinvention is taking a very long time — it’s been six years since the original iPad Pro.
Center Stage works very well to keep you in frame. And as a bonus, the camera doesn’t blank out when you multitask in Zoom calls anymore.GIF: Dieter Bohn
One new invention I love is the Center Stage feature. It zooms and follows human faces to keep them centered in the frame of the iPad’s wide-angle front facing camera. It works in any video conferencing app without the need for setup and it performs very well, better than similar features on smart displays like the Echo Show or Facebook Portal.
I’d love it even more if the front-facing cameras on the iPad Pro weren’t still in the wrong spot when attached to a keyboard — off to the side instead of centered on top. It’s great that the camera can keep my face centered in frame, it’s not so great that I am literally giving my coworkers the side-eye because I’m looking off to the right of where the cameras are to see their faces.
One more note: Apple has said that the original 12.9-inch Magic Keyboard “may not precisely fit when closed” as the new iPad Pro is slightly thicker. But when I tested it, I couldn’t discern any difference between the fit on the original and the new, white Magic Keyboard. Both worked — and closed — fine.
In any case, set aside the “What’s a computer” argument and let’s be more pragmatic. A 256GB 12.9-inch iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard costs $1,548. A 256GB MacBook Air with the same processor costs $999. And just to be realistic: most people can get more done on the Mac than on the iPad. Taken strictly as a work machine, the Mac wins out on both price and functionality.
That includes battery life, by the way. Both iPad Pros have good battery life, but it’s not significantly improved over previous iPads. And as many people have discovered during the pandemic, if you actually use the iPad for work all day (especially if you do a lot of Zoom calls), the iPad Pro can conk out in eight hours or less. The MacBook Air edges it out.
Last and certainly not least, Apple’s refusal to offer multi-user support on the iPad has gone from being mystifying to obstinate. The company clearly intends this to be a single-user device, despite the fact that it would theoretically make for an even more compelling family computer than the pastel-colored iMacs that share the same processor.
Typing on the iPad ProPhoto by Kayla Murkison / The Verge
But to give Apple the benefit of the doubt here, if you’re looking strictly at the iPad Pro as a work machine, you’re probably missing the point. The iPad Pro is simply a more beautiful, more premium object than even Apple’s own laptops.
It’s easy to take for granted, but the hardware in this tablet really is amazing: Face ID, dual rear cameras that are quite good and paired with LiDAR, quad speakers with superb sound and decent volume, excellent microphones, support for the Apple Pencil, the best screen you can get on a portable device, and on and on.
The reason to get the iPad Pro 12.9 (or even the 11) is simply to get the best, nicest iPad. Unless you can specifically answer right now which app in your workflow is slowed down by the specs on a lesser iPad, the $599 iPad Air or even the $329 base iPad offer the same core features that most people really use.
Except for a slim minority of people, the justification for getting an iPad Pro isn’t its feature set, it’s the experience of using a well-made, high-end object. Until I hit the limits of iPadOS (which I hit regularly), I enjoy using an iPad Pro more than I do any other computer.
The wonderful Mini LED display on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro doesn’t change any of those equations, it just makes the nicest iPad Pro even nicer. And so my yearly refrain about the iPad Pro remains. If you want the very best iPad, this is the very best iPad.
(Pocket-lint) – A lot has happened in the world since the launch of the iPad Pro 12.9-inch in 2020, yet the need for us to work on the go is still an key factor for many people.
Apple’s 2021 iPad Pro looks to up the ante once again, bringing a new processor, a new screen, 5G connectivity, as well as improvements to the camera and elsewhere.
So, is this the year that the Apple iPad Pro will finally – yes finally – let you ditch the laptop altogether? We’ve been using the iPad Pro 2021 with M1 processor to find out.
Design gets heavier
Same design as 2020 model
Finishes: Silver or Space Grey
Dimensions: 281 x 215 x 6.4mm
Weight: 682g (Wi-Fi), 685g (5G)
Having launched previously with a much squarer design, which has since been adopted by the iPhone, the iPad Pro keeps an almost identical design to its previous offering.
For 2021 the 12.9-inch model is ever so slightly thicker than previous versions, thanks to new Mini LED screen technology, but it will still fit your previous cases (albeit snugly), including the Apple Magic Keyboard that launched in 2020.
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That extra thickness also means it’s a bit heavier, with around 40g extra. While that’s not hugely noticeable over the previous version, it does mean that the Pro is getting heavier and heavier – which is something to bear in mind.
To put it in perspective, though, the 2021 Pro is actually the same weight as the original iPad from way back in 2010. And while no one will begrudge that this iPad is considerably more powerful, it’s interesting that all that tech, and batteries to power it, means that the days of a thin-and-light iPad have come to an end – well, certainly at the top-end of this market.
Why’s that important? Because it is no longer a slip-in-your-bag-and-not-notice-it device any more. Add in the Magic Keyboard – which is another 710g – and you’ve got a device that’s 1.395kg. That’s roughly the same as the company’s M1 13-inch MacBook Pro or many other Windows-based laptops – indeed it’s actually not too difficult to find sub-1kg laptops.
Display gets brighter
12.9-inch ‘Liquid Retina XDR’ Mini LED display
2732 x 2048 resolution (264ppi)
1600-nit peak brightness
120Hz refresh rate
The 2021 iPad Pro gets an updated display technology – called Mini LED – which makes it considerably brighter than older models. It’s a relatively new panel technology that’s only just making its way into the latest TVs.
What is Mini LED? The display technology explained
In the case of this 12.9-inch model that means over 10,000 LEDs are positioned behind the screen to create, at times, a much brighter display that is also more nuanced to what is happening on the screen.
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The enhanced technology is instantly noticeable. The screen is physically brighter for starters, and has the ability to increase that brightness further depending on what is required. Previously the peak brightness was 600 nits, now that can go up to 1600 nits for those high dynamic range (HDR) moments.
While the average user will benefit from watching high-resolution content from their favourite streaming service – even the end credits of a movie look stunning – creatives will certainly enjoy the ability to see all that extra detail in their images or video, especially if they are working within the realms of HDR or Dolby Vision.
Combine that with the Pro’s usual array of screen tech – such as P3 wide colour gamut, ProMotion (120Hz refresh rate), and True Tone – and you won’t find much to complain about when it comes to the screen.
What is Apple’s True Tone display?
Front-facing camera gets more intelligent
Improved front-facing camera: 12-megapixel, 122-degree field of view
New ‘Center Stage’ technology (for subject tracking)
If you’re like us, you’ll have spent a lot of time in 2020 on video calls talking to colleagues, friends, and family. So for 2021, the iPad Pro celebrates video calling by adding a new front-facing TrueDepth Camera.
It’s unique to the iPad (at launch anyway – we suspect that will change in the future) and for the most part you won’t notice that it’s ultra-wide. That’s because of a new feature Apple has introduced specifically for the iPad Pro: Center Stage.
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No doubt inspired by devices like the Facebook Portal and Amazon Echo Show 10, the idea is that the front-facing camera can now follow you as you move about so you’re always “centre stage”.
By cropping into the captured image to deliver the same image crop iPad users are used to, nothing physically moves within the iPad itself. Instead Applehas opted to emulate that movement by digitally cropping in on the image as it follows you.
The feature, which works just as well in Apple FaceTime as it does in Zoom and other video calling apps, can be fun, but it can become jarring.
Anything with a head and shoulders is automatically picked up and the frame will resize to fit them in. Add more people and the feature zooms out to make sure everyone is in the frame. That’s fantastic for a family catch-ups with the kids trying to jostle around the iPad Pro screen, or for ensuring you’re fully in the shot.
The 122-degree viewpoint is wide enough to catch most of you, wide enough to track you around the room, and wide enough to still move if you’ve stepped some distance from the camera (we got to around 5 metres away).
Where things get tricky is if you move around when using it and the iPad Pro is stationary on the desk. Not because it doesn’t follow you, but because of the fluidity to the follow. You move and the camera slowly moves with you.
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The resulting affect is as if Apple has applied a Ken Burns effect to dramatise your video call. Or, as we found when being fairly close to the camera, it looks a bit like being on a boat and bobbing up and down with the tide. It can, at times, be very nauseating.
Best tablet 2021: Top tablets to buy today
By Britta O’Boyle
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However, go hands-free and the technology helps stabilise your movement – making it a much better experience as the tracking is kept to a minimum and less pronounced.
It’s probably why business calls from our desk garnered plenty of complaints, but family calls resulted in much more positive feedback with the grandparents in awe of the technology in action, and a chance to see everyone for the first time without us having to stand miles away from the screen.
Performance: Everything is faster
Apple M1 processor, 8GB/16GB RAM
Options for 128GB to 2TB storage
Apple Pencil support (2nd Gen)
LiDAR sensor on back
Thunderbolt / USB4
With every iteration the iPad Pro gets a faster processor, normally on par with the iPhone. This year, rather than trying to keep pace with the iPhone, the iPad keeps pace with the Mac.
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Because now you’ll find Apple’s new M1 processor instead of an upgraded iPhone processor powering the pro tablet. Yes, the same chip that powers the MacBook Air or iMac or MacBook Pro now powers the 2021 iPad Pro. We’ll let that sink in for a moment.
According to Apple that results in a 50 per cent boost in performance without compromising the battery – so you’ll still get around 10 hours per charge. Although, just like a Mac, the battery life widely varies in performance depending on what you do and how bright that screen is.
Also just like a Mac, there are now RAM options for the first time on the iPad Pro, all the way up to 16GB – although that option is restricted to the 1TB or 2TB storage options (you guessed it, that means pricey pricey), whereas it’s 8GB RAM for the 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB storage capacities (and more reasonable price points).
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The M1 processing power means the iPad Pro whizzes along with any various tasks that you’ll throw at it, just in the same way we find apps on the M1 MacBook Pro perform.
Whether that’s photo editing in Adobe Lightroom, drawing in Procreate, or designing in Affinity Designer, we had no problem loading, importing, editing, or saving large files on any of the ‘pro’ apps we use.
Working with large sound and video files proved little stress to the new 2021 iPad Pro either, while power hungry games like Asphalt 9, Call of Duty, or NBA2K21 loaded almost instantly – and, yes, noticeably faster than on previous iPad Pro models.
And if the M1 isn’t enough to keep that workflow process happy, the iPad Pro 12.9-inch now also comes in a 5G flavour for those who want speedy connectivity on the go. An afternoon hot-spotting via an EE SIM proved just as productive as being on the Wi-Fi in the home office.
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Elsewhere there’s an improved Thunderbolt / USB4 port for transferring files to and from the device even faster – it’s up to 40Gbps, whereas previously it was USB-C and therefore 10Gbps.
You still get the dual camera and LiDAR sensor setup on the back for taking pictures, video, or playing with AR too. It’s the same 12-megapixel main and 10-megapixel wider-angle as on the previous generation.
iPadOS needs to offer more
Software: iPadOS 14.5
Given that the iPad Pro has the same technical power of a MacBook Air but running iPadOS, it can at times feel a little underwhelming in terms of what you can do – especially given the sheer power under the hood.
Apple broke iPadOS away from iOS a number of years ago to be able to offer things like file transfer and track support. But now with the more powerful innards it feels like it needs to do more than just offer a series of app icons on the Home Screen.
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Of course Apple watchers will know that we’re due an announcement for iPadOS 15 at WWDC in June 2021, so we’re hoping that a greater emphasis on multi-tasking, a more useful Home Screen option, and other features will come to the experience later this year. That could be a game-changer.
It’s not that the iPad Pro 2021 isn’t capable – far from it – it’s just at we can feel that there’s something much bigger coming that’s just around the corner to help capitalise on that new found power within.
Verdict
When Steve Jobs first revealed the iPad back in 2010 it was all about casual reading and surfing from the sofa, about access to apps to empower, entertain, and educate us.
More than a decade on and the 2021 iPad Pro still embraces those principles. But for today’s creative types who want more than just basic typing and surfing it’s a more empowering experience – largely thanks to the M1 processor – bringing greater opportunity for both work and play.
For all intents and purposes the 2021 iPad Pro 12.9-inch is like a touchscreen-enabled MacBook Pro with 5G connectivity that runs iPadOS instead of macOS. It’s the closest to a laptop-replacement that Apple has ever taken the iPad.
Yet the iPad Pro is still in transition. It doesn’t completely replace the laptop just yet, because Apple hasn’t quite cracked the software. So if that’s what you’re after then let’s hope iPadOS 15 changes that later in 2021.
Also consider
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iPad Air (2020)
The ‘non-pro’ iPad will be good enough for many. So unless you want the higher storage, ProMotion higher refresh rate, or dual cameras, you’re just as well getting the iPad Air as the iPad Pro 11.
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 is so good that it makes us wonder why Dell didn’t team up with AMD on a laptop sooner.
For
+ Strong gaming performance
+ Excellent productivity performance
+ Unique chassis
+ Not too costly for it power
Against
– Internals run hot
– Middling audio
– Bad webcam
It’s been 14 years since Alienware’s used an AMD CPU in one of its laptops, but AMD’s recent Ryzen processors have proven to be powerhouses that have generated a strong gamer fanbase. It also doesn’t hurt that AMD-based laptops have frequently undercut Intel in price. Point being, times have changed and now Team Red can easily compete with the best gaming laptops that Intel has to offer.
So it makes sense that Alienware’s finally been granted permission to board Dell’s UFO. And with the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5, it’s getting a first class treatment.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Specifications
CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6, 1,702 MHz Boost Clock, 125 W Total Graphics Power
Memory
16GB DDR4-3200
Storage
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Display
15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080, 165Hz, IPS
Networking
802.11ax Killer Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Ports
USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 x 3, HDMI 2.1, USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 x 1 (DisplayPort), RJ-45 Ethernet, 3.5mm combination headphone/microphone port
Camera
720p
Battery
86 WHr
Power Adapter
240W
Operating System
Windows 10 Home
Dimensions(WxDxH)
14.02 x 10.73 x 0.9 inches (356.2 x 275.2 x 22.85 mm)
Weight
5.34 pounds (2.42 kg)
Price (as configured)
$1,649
Design of the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
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Unlike other recent Alienware laptops, the m15 R5 Ryzen Edition only comes in black. The “lunar light” white isn’t an option here. Still, it’s a bold design that puts the emphasis on the laptop’s build quality rather than on decoration, and it pays off. The m15 R5 feels sturdy in the hand and its smooth edges give it a unique premium flare. It’s not too plain, since lighting options for the Alienware logo on the lid plus a circular LED strip along the back rim add a touch of flair. On that note, the stylized “15” on the lid is stylish, though it can look a bit much like a “13” from the wrong angle.
Hexagonal vents that sit above the keyboard and along the back also give the m15 R5 a bit of functional decoration and help make up for the small and well hidden side vents. The keyboard on this model has four-zone RGB, but it can be a little dim in well-lit areas.
This laptop veers on the large and heavy end for systems with an RTX 3060. At 14.02 x 10.73 x 0.9 inches large and 5.34 pounds heavy, it’s generally bulkier than the Asus TUF Dash F15 we reviewed, which has a mobile RTX 3070 and is 14.17 x 9.92 x 0.78 inches large and weighs 4.41 pounds. The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, which manages to fit a mobile RTX 3060 into a 14 inch device, is also especially impressive next to the m15 R5. Granted, both of those use lower-power processors designed for thinner machines. Specifically, the Acer is 12.7 x 8.97 x .70 inches large and weighs 3.75 pounds.
The Alienware m15 R4, which has a 10th gen 45W Intel Core i7 processor and an RTX 3070, is 14.19 x 10.86 x 0.78 inches large and weighs 5.25 pounds. That leaves it not as bulky as the m15 Ryzen Edition R5, but about as heavy.
Port selection is varied, although distribution differs from my usual preferences. The left side of the laptop only has the Ethernet port and the 3.5mm headphone/microphone jack, which is a shame as that’s where I typically like to connect my mouse. The back of the laptop has a few more connections, including the DC-in, an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port that also supports DisplayPort. The right side of the laptop has two additional USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports.
Gaming Performance on the Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5
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Our review configuration of the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 came equipped with an 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen R7 5800H CPU and an RTX 3060 laptop GPU. It’s the first time we’ve tested a 45W CPU with an RTX 3060 and, to that end, we’ve decided to compare it to one 35W laptop with an RTX 3070 CPU, the Asus TUF Dash F15 with an Intel Core i7-11370H, and one 35W laptop with an RTX 3060 GPU, the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE with an Intel Core i7-11375H. We’ve also thrown the Alienware m15 R4 into the mix, which has a 45W 10th gen Intel CPU and an admittedly more powerful RTX 3070, plus a significantly higher price tag than any other competitor even on its cheapest configuration (the thing starts at $2,149).
I played Control on the Alienware laptop for a half hour to get a personal feel for gaming on the system. I tended to fall between 60 – 70 fps at high settings throughout, and turning ray tracing on using its high preset dropped that to 30 – 40 fps. The fans are certainly noticeable but aren’t ear-splitting, and the laptop neither got hot-to-the-touch nor did it spray hot air on my hands.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s benchmark running at highest settings, the m15 Ryzen Edition R5’s CPU seemed to do it a favor, as its 73 fps average only barely fell behind the m15 R4’s 77 fps average. The Acer laptop was next in line with 61 fps, while the Asus laptop was significantly behind all other options at 54 fps.
Scores were a bit more even in Far Cry: New Dawn’s benchmark running at ultra settings. While the m15 R4 hit 91 fps, everything else was in the 70s. The m15 Ryzen Edition R5 had an average of 79 fps, while the Asus scored 74 fps and the Acer reached 73 fps.
The m15 Ryzen Edition R5 fell to third place in the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark running at very high settings, where it hit an 82 fps average and the Asus laptop achieved an 87 fps average. The Acer laptop was significantly behind at 72 fps, while the m15 R4 was significantly ahead at 108 fps.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s benchmark running at medium settings saw the m15 Ryzen Edition R5 once again stay in third place, though by a more significant margin this time. The R5 achieved a 53 fps average, while the Asus led with 61 fps score. The Acer was once again behind at 48 fps, while the m15 R4 stayed ahead at 69 fps.
We also ran the Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition through the Metro Exodus RTX benchmark 15 times in a row to test how well it holds up to a sustained heavy load. During this benchmark, it hit an average 56 fps. The CPU ran at an average 3.63-GHz clock speed while the GPU ran at an average clock speed of 1.82 GHz. The CPU’s average temperature was 90.36 degrees Celsius (194.65 degrees Fahrenheit) and the GPU’s average temperature was 82.02 degrees Celsius (179.64 degrees Fahrenheit).
Productivity Performance for the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
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While Alienware is a gaming brand, the use of a 45W AMD chip does open the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 up to high productivity potential.
On Geekbench 5, which is a synthetic test for tracking general PC performance, the m15 Ryzen Edition R5 hit 1,427 points on single-core tests and 7,288 points on multi-core tests. While its single core score was on the lower end when compared to the Asus TUF Dash F15’s 1,576 points and the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE’s 1,483 points, the Alienware blew those laptops away on multi-core scores. The Asus’ multi-core score was 5,185, while the Acer’s multi-core score was 5,234.
The Alienware m15 R4 was a bit more even with its AMD cousin, scoring 1,209 on single-core Geekbench 5 tests and 7,636 on the program’s multi-core benchmarks.
Unfortunately, the m15 Ryzen Edition R5 couldn’t maintain that momentum for our 25GB file transfer benchmark. Here, it transferred files at a 874.14 MBps speed, while the Asus hit 1,052.03 MBps and the Acer reached 993.13 MBps. The m15 R5 hit speeds of 1137.34 MBps.
The m15 Ryzen Edition R5 was the fastest contender in our Handbrake video encoding test, though, where we track how long it takes a computer to transcode a video down from 4K to FHD. The m15 Ryzen Edition R5 completed this task in 7:05, while the Asus took 10:41 and the Acer was even slower at 11:36. The m15 R5 almost caught up to its AMD cousin with a time of 7:07.
Display for the Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition
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Our configuration for the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 came with a 15.6 inch 1920 x 1080 IPS display with a 165Hz refresh rate. While it boasted impressive gaming performance and strong benchmark results, it still proved problematic for viewing content.
I watched the trailers for Nomandland and Black Widow on the m15 Ryzen Edition R5, where I found the blacks to be shallow and the viewing angles to be restrictive. In my office during the daytime, I couldn’t easily see the screen’s picture unless I was sitting directly in front of it. Turning my lights off and closing my curtain only extended viewing angles to about 30 degrees. Glare also proved to be an issue in the light, although turning lights off did fix this problem.
Colors were bright enough to pop occasionally but not consistently, with bolder tones like reds and whites holding up better than more subdued ones. Here, Black Widow came across a bit more vividly than the naturalistic style of Nomadland, so this screen might be better suited for more colorful, heavily produced films.
Our testing put the m15 Ryzen Edition R4’s color range above its closest competitors, the Asus TUF Dash F15 and Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, though not by much. With an 87.3 DCI-P3 color gamut, it’s only slightly ahead of the Asus’ 80.6% DCI-P3 score. The TUF Dash F15 had a starker difference, with a 78.5% DCI-P3 color gamut.
Our brightness testing saw the Alienware pull a more solid lead. With an average of 328 nits, it easily surpassed the Acer’s 292 nits and the Asus’ 265 nits.
The Alienware m15 R4 blew all of these systems out of the water, although the OLED screen our configuration had makes the comparison more than a bit unfair. Its DCI-P3 gamut registered at 150% while its average brightness was 460.2 nits.
To test the m15 Ryzen Edition R5’’s 165Hz screen, I also played Overwatch on it. Here, I had a much more pleasant experience than I did when watching movie trailers. The game’s bright colors appeared quite vivid and the fast refresh rate was perfectly able to keep up with the 165 fps I was hitting on Ultra settings.
Keyboard and Touchpad on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 configuration we received has a 4-zone RGB membrane keyboard, though other configurations do offer mechanical switches made in collaboration with Cherry. You can currently get that upgrade for an additional $98.
The membrane nature of this keyboard didn’t mean it wasn’t impressive, though. Keys have a noticeable resistance when pressed and 1.7mm of key travel gives you plenty of tactile feedback. I consistently scored around 83 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is impressive as my average is usually around 75 wpm.
In an unusual choice, the Alienware’s audio control keys sit on the keyboard’s furthest right row rather than being mapped to the Fn row as secondary functions. Instead, the Page Up and Page Down keys that would normally be found there are secondary functions on the arrow keys.
The 4.1 x 2.4-inch touchpad doesn’t fare as well. While it has precision drivers and is perfectly smooth when scrolling with one finger, I felt too much friction when using multi-touch gestures to pull them off comfortably or consistently. For instance, when trying to switch apps with a three-fingered swipe, I would frequently accidentally pinch zoom instead.
Audio on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 has two bottom firing speakers that are loud with surprisingly decent bass, but tend to get tinny on higher notes.
I tested the m15 Ryzen Edition R5’s audio by listening to Save Your Tears by The Weeknd, which easily filled up my whole two bedroom apartment with sound. I was also surprised to be able to hear the strum of the song’s bass guitar, as it’s not uncommon for other laptops to either cut it out, make it quiet, or give it a more synth-like quality. Unfortunately, higher notes suffered from tinniness and echo.
Upgradeability of the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 is easy to open and has plenty of user customizability. Just unscrew the four screws closest to the back of the laptop, then loosen the four screws on the front (we used a PH0 Phillips Head bit).
Gently pry the case off, and you’ll see the networking card, two swappable DIMMs of RAM, the M.2 SSD and a second, open M.2 SSD slot (if you don’t buy the laptop with dual SSDs).
The only tradeoff here is that the SSDs are in a smaller, less common M.2 2230 form factor (most are 2280) , so you’ll probably need to buy a specialized drive for this laptop.
Battery Life on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 is a power hog, with half the non-gaming battery life of the RTX 3060 and RTX 3070 35W laptops we tested it against. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, since it also has a 45W CPU, but don’t expect to be able to spend too much time away from an outlet.
In our non-gaming battery test, which continually streams video, browses the web and runs OpenGL tests over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the M15 Ryzen Edition R5 held on for 3:29. That’s about 3 hours less time than we got out of both the Asus TUF Dash F15, which had a 6:32 battery life, and the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, which lasted for 6:40.
The Alienware m15 R5, with its 45W Intel chip, also had a shorter battery life than our 35W laptops, though it was slightly longer than the m15 Ryzen Edition R5’s. It lasted 4:01 on our non-gaming test.
Heat on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5’s surface temperature was impressively cool during non-gaming use but could get toasty in select areas during our gaming benchmarks. For our tests, we measured its temperature both after 15 minutes of streaming video and during the sixth consecutive run of the Metro: Exodus extreme benchmark.
The laptop’s touchpad proved coolest during the video test, registering 81.1 degrees Fahrenheit. This was only slightly behind the center of the keyboard’s temperature, as the typer hit 85.5 degrees Fahrenheit in between the G and H keys. The bottom of the laptop was warmer, hitting 90.9 degrees, although the center-left of the display hinge is where it was hottest, registering 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit.
Our gaming test saw a mild jump in temperatures in all areas except the bottom and the hinge, where numbers spiked much higher. The touchpad was 83.3 degrees Fahrenheit and the center of the keyboard was 90.9 degrees Fahrenheit. By contrast, the bottom of the laptop was now 121.5 degrees Fahrenheit and the hot zone on the hinge was now 136.1 degrees Fahrenheit.
Despite these higher numbers, though, the laptop never became too hot to touch while gaming. It did feel pleasantly warm, however.
Webcam on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
The Alienware M15 R4 Ryzen Edition’s 720p webcam is, like many premium gaming laptops, a bit of an afterthought. Regardless of lighting conditions, its shots always have a blocky and fuzzy appearance. Adding light also adds a distracting halo effect to silhouettes, while dimming your surroundings will just bring down detail even further.
Software and Warranty on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 comes packed with software, although most of it serves a genuinely useful purpose.
Most of these are apps like Alienware Command Center, which lets you customize lighting and thermals as well as set up macros. Some are less useful than others — Alienware Customer Connect simply exists to get you to fill out surveys — but apps like Alienware Mobile Connect, which lets you easily mirror your phone’s screen, transfer its files or take phone calls from your laptop are definitely a standout. It might be easier to navigate these functions if they were all centralized into one hub app rather than being their own standalone programs, though. My Alienware tries to be this hub app, although it’s mostly just a redirect to Alienware Command Center with a bunch of ads on the side.
This laptop also comes with typical Windows pack-ins like Microsoft Solitaire Collection and Spotify. Its default warranty is limited to one year, although you can extend it at checkout.
Configurations for the Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition
Our configuration of the Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition came with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, an RTX 3060 laptop GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GGB SSD and a 1920 x 1080, 165Hz display for $1,649. That actually puts it towards the lower end of what’s available.
You can upgrade this laptop’s CPU to the Ryzen 9 5900HX, which has the same thread count but boosts up to 4.6 GHz, and its GPU to an RTX 3070 laptop card. Memory options range from 8GB to 32GB, while storage options range from 256GB to 2TB. You can also add on an additional SSD with the same range of options, making for up to 4TB of total combined storage.
There’s also a 360Hz version of the FHD display available, as well as a QHD version with a 240Hz refresh rate and G-Sync support.
Perhaps the most interesting option that wasn’t included on our configuration is the mechanical keyboard, which features physical ultra low-profile switches made in collaboration with CherryMX.
These upgrades can raise your price up to $2,479, with the display and keyboard upgrades being the most costly components in Dell’s customization tool. The Cherry MX keyboard will add $98 to your price at checkout, while the QHD display costs $78. The FHD @ 360Hz display is only available on the highest preset option, which locks you into a Ryzen 9 5900HX chip and starts at $2,332.
By contrast, the low end of this laptop starts at $1,567.
Bottom Line
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 proves that Team Red and Alienware make a strong pairing . While it’s not quite the beast that the minimum $2,149 Alienware m15 R4 is, it still manages performance that equates to and sometimes beats peers in its price range on most titles, all while rocking Alienware’s unique premium looks. At $1,649 for our configuration, it’s an easy premium choice over the $1,450 Asus TUF Dash F15. And if you prefer power over size, it’s also a better option for you than the $1,400 Acer Predator Triton 300 SE.
While it’s certainly not the most portable contender and could do with more even port distribution and stronger audio, its 45W CPU lends it just enough of an edge on power to make it a solid first step into Dell’s flagship gaming brand.
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