Bose SoundTouch 30 review – CNET

The Good The Bose SoundTouch 30 is a large, likable tabletop Wi-Fi speaker which offers convenience features like Bluetooth and shortcut buttons. The app is pleasant to use and most functions are straightforward. The sound is immediately impressive with deep bass and an articulate, exciting midrange. The ability to tailor the bass response to your taste is welcome.

The Bad Bass is overemphasized by default and can distort at higher volumes. The revealing nature of the speaker means some genres of music can sound quickly tiresome. There’s no mute button. The competing Sonos offers more services over Wi-Fi, more sound-tailoring features and a better app.

The Bottom Line The Bose SoundTouch 30 keeps a good pace for both price and feature count with mostly excellent sound quality, particularly at moderate volumes.

For many years Sonos had the DIY wireless multiroom audio market largely to itself, but it’s now facing serious competition from…well, pretty much every company you can think of. But perhaps the biggest challenge is Bose, which is also targeting mainstream consumers and has been steadily improving its software to make its systems easier to set up and use. For 2016, Sonos and Bose have new (late 2015) versions of their flagship tabletop wireless audio speakers — the Sonos Play:5 and third-generation Bose SoundTouch 30 — both of which cost $500, and are clearly direct competitors. (In Australia, both products retail for AU$749; in the UK, the Bose is £500, the Sonos £429.)

It’s also worth noting that each of these speakers are part of the the companies’ respective “ecosystems” for wireless audio. You can buy more speakers in each family, and expand each system into more rooms in your home. And in each case, prices start as low as $200 (AU$300, £170 ) for the Sonos Play:1 and Bose SoundTouch 10.

So why buy the Bose SoundTouch 30 instead of the Sonos Play:5? Well, the Bose speaker comes with a few features the Play:5 doesn’t have: Bluetooth connectivity (in addition to Wi-Fi), a remote, and a presets system that allows you to get your favorite playlists or Internet radio stations up and running instantly.

In terms of sound, the Sonos Play:5 is the better performer, particularly at high volumes. With its pronounced bass and generous headroom, the Play:5 is more of a party speaker.

In its favor, the SoundTouch 30 has a more nuanced and revealing sound. It’s also a little more open and has a wider soundstage. The Bose simultaneously aims for both bass punch and enhanced vocal clarity but falls down a little at high volumes, where it can sound aggressive with overly bassy or trebly tracks, and distorts.

Of course, audio is a subjective experience, and if you want something that’s a little more exciting and a touch more hi-fi, you may prefer the Bose’s sound. But if you’re looking for a speaker that you can crank up at parties (and also sounds good at more moderate volumes), the nod definitely goes to the Sonos.

That would be the review in a nutshell, but there’s a whole lot more to chew on, particularly if you’re looking to build out a multiroom system for your home and are trying to decide between Bose’s and Sonos’ ecosystems.

Bose’s expanded offerings

In the two years since Bose’s SoundTouch line first appeared, it has gone through several changes. What began as two tabletop speakers and a portable has become an entire suite of wireless multiroom speakers. Many Bose products, from Wave radios to the company’s home theater systems, and even outdoor speakers, now include Wi-Fi and are designed to link up with other SoundTouch system in a multiroom setup.

The Bose SoundTouch range received a makeover in September 2015 with the addition of a new speaker, the entry-level SoundTouch 10, and a few extra tweaks, including the addition of Bluetooth to all the new speakers in the line going forward. While it may seem counterintuitive to add Bluetooth to a Wi-Fi speaker what it does is improve the system’s flexibility — especially when compared against the company’s main rival.

Design

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The Sonos Play:5 (left) versus the Bose SoundTouch 30

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The Bose SoundTouch 30 is a large tabletop speaker at 17 inches wide, 10 inches high and 7 inches deep. Attractively designed, it comes in a choice of white and black finishes (with a matching gray or black speaker grille) and features a black-and-white OLED display in the center of the unit.

The speaker features a black and white OLED screen on front.

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On the top live the rubberized controls that include six shortcuts as well as volume, an aux/Bluetooth switch and power — though, sadly, no mute or play button. The top of the unit is finished in a patterned, carbon fiberlike material. While it’s only about a third bigger than the the SoundTouch 20, it’s a lot heavier at 18.5 lb (versus 7 lb).

The included remote.

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The speaker ships with a remote, which is a welcome addition for a device without a touchscreen and limited controls. The clicker features the same six shortcuts as the app and speaker and these offer the ability to play a preprogrammed radio station or album without too much effort. The remote has an attractive rubberized finish and is a significant step above most credit-card offerings you’ll find at the price. (You can also use an Android or iOS app, of course.)

Features

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Usability is one of the system’s strongest suits. By including six shortcut buttons on both the unit and an accompanying remote control, it’s a lot easier to get music playing on the Bose system if you don’t have your phone handy. The only thing that the system lacks is a mute or play/pause button which would be useful.

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The speaker includes two full-range drivers in a stereo configuration and a single bass woofer. Unlike the sealed Sonos, the Bose features a vertical bass port at the back.

Gionee S8 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

It’s a favorite Mobile World Congress pastime of mine to visit the stands of upstart Chinese phones manufacturers hoping to get noticed. That’s why I cruised by Gionee’s booth to see what the company had to offer. Though it lacks the international presence of Xiaomi or Huawei, Gionee has been doing pretty well in China and India. And here in Barcelona it took the sheets off its new Gionee S8 phone.

With a shiny but not unusual metal-clad body, there’s not much about the S8 that immediately catches your eye. Rather, the story here is something a lot of Chinese Android phones have in common — a strong resemblance, either in features or in design, to Apple’s iPhone. The S8 definitely has the “iLooks” down, but more interesting is that it has its own version of 3D Touch.

On the iPhone 6S, 3D Touch is a pressure-sensitive display that lets you press down onto the screen to interact with it, calling up quick menus or preview links. Fully push down on a link and it opens up into a new normal window. In theory, it sounds like a great feature, but of all the iPhone things for the S8 to borrow, I wish Gionee had picked something else.

The home button also doubles up as a fingerprint sensor.

Aloysius Low/CNET

Putting aside the fact that I hardly ever use 3D Touch even on my iPhone, on the S8 it’s way too limited. There’s no peeking to do, as it only opens quick menus on the default apps. If you try it with other apps, such as Google’s or those downloaded from the Play Store, the feature just simply doesn’t work.

Honestly, the S8 would be better without it as the phone sports some redeeming features that would be far more useful. It comes with dual SIM support as well as support for dual WhatsApp accounts. The latter enables two instances to run on two different numbers at the same time, so messaging addicts will be able to message themselves. It’s easily done by using 3D Touch on the WhatsApp app and clicking on the clone option.

If you’re still interested, Gionee’s retailing the S8 for €449, which converts to about $495, £350 or AU$685. It will be sold in China and India soon, and will make its way to Europe as well.

What you should know

• Has a feature similar to Apple’s 3D Touch, but limited to just menus
• Slim metal body draws the eye
• Supports two WhatsApp accounts
• Fingerprint sensor on the home button

Hardware specs

• 1.9GHz MediaTek MT 6755 Helio P10 octa-core processor
• 5.5-inch AMOLED full-HD with 3D Touch
• Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software
• 6.07 by 2.95 by 0.28 inches (154.3 by 74.9 by 7 mm)
• 5.19 ounces (147 grams)
• 4GB RAM, 32GB onboard storage
• Dual SIM, 4G connectivity
• 16-megapixel rear camera, 8-megapixel front

Sony Xperia X Performance Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Sony has taken the wraps off three models in its new Xperia X series of smartphones here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. They are the Xperia X, the XA and the X Performance, which we’re looking at here.

The Performance, as you might have guessed from the name, is the top-end model in the range — although it hasn’t yet been priced — thanks to the more burly specs shoved inside by Sony. It’s packing Qualcomm’s top-end Snapdragon 820 processor, an octa-core chip backed up by 3GB of RAM. That puts it neatly above its two X-range siblings, which pack lesser dual and hexa-core chips.

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The other thing the Performance has over the other X models? Waterproofing. I was very disappointed that the X and XA don’t have waterproof designs — something I’ve come to expect of all of Sony’s Xperia line — so it’s a relief to see it on at least one out of the three. X Performance owners can rest easy around swimming pools, sinister children with water pistols or clumsy friends chugging beer.

The Performance’s specs are otherwise pretty much on par with the standard Xperia X — they both have 5-inch, full HD displays, both have 23-megapixel rear cameras, 13-megapixel front cameras and both run the latest Android Marshmallow software. There’s 16GB of storage and you can slot in a microSD card too.

There’s no word on pricing as yet, and Sony has been vague on exactly where it’s going on sale. Although it originally told me it was set to be an “Asia-only phone”, it’s since said it’ll be heading to the US. In Australia Sony says local availability will be revealed “at a later date”. We’ll keep you updated if we hear any more about where this phone might end up.

Nikon Coolpix B700 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Nikon’s newest 60x zoom camera, the Coolpix B700.

Nikon

As far as bridge cameras and compact megazooms go, Nikon hasn’t slowed down on making new models in the slightest. To prove it, the Tokyo-based camera manufacturer has started two new lines of them: the Coolpix B700 and B500 and the A900.

Though they do have updated features compared to current Coolpix P- and S-series superzooms, nothing is drastically different. Still, it’s certainly worth breaking down the highlights for each, so here it goes. (I’ve put an asterisk next to the key selling points compared to what’s already in the Coolpix lineup.)

Nikon Coolpix B700

• 60x f3.3-6.5 24-1,440mm lens*
• 20-megapixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor
• o.5-cm (0.2-in) high-resolution electronic viewfinder
• 3-inch vari-angle touchscreen
• Raw capture (NRW format)*
• 4K UHD (3,840×2,160) at 30 frames per second movie capture*
• VGA slow-motion video at 120fps
• ISO 100-1600 (ISO 3200 available in P, S, A or M modes)
• Shutter speeds 1/4,000 – 1 sec. (15 sec. available when ISO is set to 100 in M mode)
• Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LTE for faster connection to mobile devices*
• Available in spring 2016 for $500 (converts to apporximately £350 or AU$700)

Nikon Coolpix B500

Coolpix B500

Nikon

• 40x f3.0-6.5 22.5-900mm lens*
• 16-megapixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor
• 3-inch high-resolution tilting LCD
• Full HD (1,920×1,080) movie capture at 30fps
• VGA 120fps high-speed capture for slow-motion video*
• ISO 125-1600
• Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LTE for faster connection to mobile devices*
• AA-size batteries (4x alkaline, lithium or Ni-MH rechargeable)*
• Available in spring 2016 for $300 (approximately £200 or AU$400)

Nikon Coolpix A900

Nikon Coolpix A900

Nikon

• 35x f3.4-6.9 24-840mm lens*
• 20-megapixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor
• 3-inch high-resolution tilting LCD*
• 4K UHD (3,840×2,160) at 30fps movie capture*
• VGA 120fps high-speed capture for slow-motion video*
• ISO 80-1600 (ISO 3200 available in P, A, S, or M mode)
• Shutter speeds 1/2,000 – 1 sec. (8 sec. when ISO fixed at ISO 80, 100, or 200 in P, S, A or M mode)
• Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LTE for faster connection to mobile devices*
• Available in spring 2016 for $400 (approximately £280 or AU$550)

Razer Blade Stealth review – CNET

The Good The Razer Blade Stealth is slimmer and lighter than similar laptops from Dell and Apple. Even the base model includes a Core i7 processor and fun Chroma backlit keyboard, and future expansion via an external graphics box for gaming is promising.

The Bad Battery life takes a nosedive with the 4K screen. The promised add-on gaming module still has no price or release details.

The Bottom Line The Razer Blade Stealth is a rare mix of slick design, great performance and top-notch value in a laptop — but the great-looking 4K screen on the top-end model takes a major hit on battery life.

Buy direct from Razer.

After turning heads and garnering accolades at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show, the Razer Blade Stealth is here. And having spent some quality hands-on time with the final product, it’s not hard to see why this slim Windows 10 laptop with a 12.5-inch screen caught so many eyes when it was unveiled in January. Razer, best known for its keyboards and other gaming peripherals, saw a hole in the 13-inch laptop market (which we interpret loosely to include 12.5-inch screens), and drove a very unique matte black truck through it.

This is not exactly a slim-at-all-costs high-fashion ultrabook. Nor is it a gaming laptop, despite Razer’s years of experience in the PC gaming biz. It’s an amalgam of many different ideas about what a high-end ultrabook-style laptop should be, including some wish-list items we’ve wanted for years — and a few we never thought to even ask for.

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The company’s previous laptops have been well-received gaming systems with 17-inch or 14-inch displays, all notable for being reasonably thin and light despite packing in mid- to high-end gaming components. The Razer Blade Stealth keeps much of the look and feel of the previous models, such as the matte-black shell, rigid construction, minimalist design and green snake-like logo. But the most important thing to keep in mind is that this is not actually a gaming laptop.

A Razer laptop without a dedicated graphics card sounds like an Apple product without an app store — unexpected, and potentially not playing to its maker’s strengths. But this is still Razer after all. So while the Blade Stealth is not a gaming laptop by itself, Razer plans for it to eventually become one component of a larger gaming ecosystem. Announced in January at CES 2016 — but not yet available to even preorder — is the Razer Core, an external box built to house a single desktop graphics card (for example, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980), and route its graphics rendering power to the laptop via Thunderbolt-enabled USB-C connection. (That single wire will also handle power duties, too.)

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The not-yet-available Razer Core add-on.

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Others have gone down this road before, attempting to create an external graphics solution for laptops, but no one has yet cracked the code of balancing price, performance, flexibility, and design. Asus has offered similar products off and on for years, including a new version coming later this year, while Dell attempted to add an external GPU box to its Alienware 13 in 2014, but that product was too expensive and too proprietary to catch on.

At some point later this year, we’ll hopefully hook up a Razer Core unit to a Razer Blade Stealth laptop and be able to judge it as a gaming machine. But for now, we’re looking at it strictly as a flare-filled ultrabook with an optional 4K screen. If anything, that restriction makes the Blade Stealth even more impressive. It offers a great design and high-end components, plus extras such as the highly programmable and fun to play with backlit Chroma keyboard, all starting at $999. There’s no separate UK or Australia pricing right now, but the US base price works out to around £705 or AU$1,380.

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The $999 base model includes a 2,560×1,440 (QHD) touchscreen display (not 4K, but still pretty good), a current-gen Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Adding more storage and the optional 4K display jumps the price up, and the model reviewed here combines a 4K screen and 256GB of storage for $1,399.

Razer Blade Stealth

The upgraded configuration is impressive, but the entry-level model represents an especially good overall value compared to other slim laptops. The Dell XPS 13, one of our current favorites, drops the specs to a 1,920×1,080 nontouch display and a Core i5 CPU for the same $999. The 13-inch MacBook Air also has a lower-res 1,440×900 nontouch screen, Core i5 CPU and only 4GB of RAM for $999. The Lenovo Yoga 900 adds a hybrid hinge, but doesn’t even show up to the party until you shell out at least $1,200. Also, the Blade Stealth, at 2.75 pounds and 13.2mm, is a little thinner and lighter than the XPS 13, MacBook Air or Yoga 900.

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The most notable upgrade in our more-expensive configuration is the 3,840x,2160 resolution UHD/4K screen. This 4K display is one of the brightest I’ve seen on a laptop in this class, and it presents 4K video content, games and apps with great detail. But this is no Dell XPS 13, with a razor-thin (pardon the pun) screen bezel. In one of the only concessions to the reality of price and performance vs. design, there’s a thick black border around the touchscreen display. It doesn’t kill the experience, but it’s one of the few things about the overall design that feels less than ideal. The 4K screen can show a full 100 percent of the Adobe RGB spectrum (as does the Dell XPS 15), while the QHD screen (which we have yet to test in-person) hits a still-respectable 70 percent.

A colorful keyboard

The Chroma-branded keyboard is another standout feature, and makes for a fun little show-off demo of the Stealth. It’s actually the complete opposite of stealthy, with bright colors, strobing lights and more programmable options than all but the most hardcore of standalone gaming keyboards.

Using the Chroma app, different sections of the keyboard can be programmed to show different colors — such as highlighting the all-important WASD keys in a different color than the rest of the keyboard. Rather than meticulously programming a unique keyboard light layout, I had a lot more fun just running through the different presets, many of which seem to take advantage of the entire spectrum of 16.8 million possible colors.

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Set the entire keyboard to “spectrum cycling,” and the keys fade new colors in and out in unison, just slowly enough to not be overly distracting. “Reactive” leaves a trail of lit keys in your wake as you type, like a fading echo. “Ripple” sends a burst of a single color expanding outward, away from each individual key press. Hitting keys slowly, one at a time, has a Matrix-like effect of lit up letters and numbers; using it while typing causes random explosions of color all across the keyboard. For a demo that will amuse friends and family, set the keyboard to “Wave,” and a rainbow of colors will move rapidly left to right (this movement is also adjustable) across the entire keyboard. It’s all a bit silly but offers a degree of personalization that other ultrabooks don’t come close to matching.

Haier Watch Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Although Haier is best known for its home appliances, the Chinese company also makes smartwatches from time to time. Its latest wearable is known as the Haier Watch, and it was demoed during Mobile World Congress here in Barcelona.

A year ago, the company made the Haier Smartwatch (it has a very creative naming department) with three different variants tailored for kids, seniors and pets. This time around, however, the Haier Watch is aimed at adults. It plans to launch in Europe for about 199 euros (around $220, £155 or AU$305, converted).

The watch offers a more elegant and mature aesthetic and has three design options: gold, silver and black. You can also swap out the bands for leather, steel or silicone. Its 1.4-inch display is encased in steel and it has a 400×400-pixel resolution. The device is also water resistant to a certain degree (IP56) so you won’t have to worry about it while you’re washing your hands.

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I have to admit that when I first saw the device, it looked chic and polished. But as I began to spend some time with it, however brief, I wasn’t very impressed. Though its design is nice, the watch wore heavy on my wrist. Though I chalked that up to my petite hands, the steel band was also difficult to snap on. There were a couple of times when I thought I clasped it securely together, only to have it snap loose on me again.

Second, the software was quite laggy. When I pressed the watch crown, it always took a few moments too long for the display to turn on. Swiping through the many different menu pages didn’t feel as smooth and instantaneous as other smartwatches I’ve tried.

As for its capabilities, the watch doesn’t run Android Wear, but we were told its OS is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. A Haier representative also said that you can access Google Play on your phone and load apps in your watch from there. The watch is also an activity tracker, so it can measure your heart rate and keep track of the number of calories you’ve burned.

Other features:

• Apps like an MP3 player, weather and calendar
• Connects to phone via Bluetooth 4.0
• Microphone and speaker for calls
• 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage

Oral-B Genius 9000 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Want the pearliest of pearly whites? There’s an app for that — and a brush.

Oral-B’s latest electric toothbrush, the Genius 9000, connects to an app on your smartphone via Bluetooth to help track your brushing and teach you better technique.

How it works

Connect your phone to the toothbrush and fire up the app. Stick your phone on your bathroom mirror at eye level with the screen facing you (a mount with a suction cup is included). The app will help you line up your face with the view from the front facing camera. Once you start brushing, the app uses the camera to judge the position of the toothbrush in your mouth in order to gauge how much time you’re spending brushing each zone of your teeth.

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There’s a representation of your teeth on the screen, split up into different zones. When you’ve brushed for long enough, each of those zones will turn white. Your goal then is to brush each area for long enough to turn all of the areas white. The aim is to not only teach you proper technique in your brushing, but to also encourage you to keep it up.

You’ll be able to view your brushing history on the app, should you want to, and a handy pressure sensor in the handle alerts you with a red light if you’re pushing too hard and damaging your gums.

I tried the brush at Oral-B’s stand at Mobile World Congress here in Barcelona. While I found it a little odd brushing my teeth in front of a crowd of watching strangers, I did find that the brush and camera combo was good at recognising whereabouts I was brushing. Whether it’s enough to make my smile more dazzling than it already is — a tough ask, frankly — is something I’ll have to judge when I can jam one of these into my face on a regular basis.

The Genius 9000 is due to hit shops in the UK and the rest of Europe in July, and the US in December. Prices are expected to be somewhere between $200 and $300 (which converts to around £145 to £215).

Nespresso Prodigio Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The idea of a smart coffee maker isn’t new, but a device that combines an app-connected machine with the convenience of coffee pods surprisingly hasn’t happened yet, until now.

Meet the $249 Nespresso Prodigio Espresso Machine, a gadget designed to whip up single servings of espresso that’s stored in plastic pods and ordered through your cell phone.

Quest for effortless, affordable espresso fulfilled?

Even making a decent shot of espresso can be a difficult, messy, and often expensive challenge. This is especially true if you lack the skill, experience, and tools necessary. For those who’ve been bitten by the espresso bug though and don’t relish the idea of training as a barista, getting their fix at home hassle-free can easily become an opulent obsession.

Proof is the whole galaxy of domestic espresso contraptions for sale catering to lazy coffee drinkers with luxury tastes. The pinnacle of these dream machines are superautomatic espresso makers which do everything required to create cafe standards such as cappuccinos and lattes without you having to lift anything save a button-pushing finger.

Sur La Table

Perfect examples of this elite product class include the $2,500 Krups EA9010 and $3,000 Philips Saeco GranBaristo Avanti. I can personally confirm that both of these devices make truly delicious espresso, particularly the Avanti. Unfortunately you will pay through the nose for the privilege.

According to the people behind the Nespresso Prodigio, it is the smarter alternative in more ways than one. First the Prodigio supposedly offers an affordable method for enjoying quality espresso at home. For example, an 80-capsule pack should set you back $40, which translates to about 50 cents per serving.

Second are the Prodigio’s smart abilities made possible via a companion mobile application. Through the app users will be able brew coffee on demand or schedule beverage creation ahead of time. Just like the incredibly more expensive Philips Saeco Avanti, the Prodigio is also expected to communicate with smartphones and tablets using Bluetooth wireless networking.

Outlook and availability

I admit that a smart coffee maker that relies on pods instead of freshly ground beans is a distasteful notion to me. Of course grinding coffee and having it sit for hours, days or even overnight exposed to the flavor-stealing air is probably worse. Yes, that assumes delicious java taste was there to begin with. Until I spend enough time with the Prodigio, or any Nespresso machine, I’ll withhold judgment.

If you’re tempted by the Nespresso Prodigio, the espresso maker is currently sold exclusively by retailer Sur La Table for $249. The Nespresso app, available for both Android and iOS, was just updated to include Prodigio functions.

Yamaha YSP-5600 review – CNET

The Good The Yamaha YSP-5600 is the first sound bar to offer Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support. It gives more spacious and immersive surround effects than any other sound bar we’ve tested. The system includes Yamaha’s MusicCast, one of the better multiroom music systems. With four 4K-ready HDMI inputs you can use the sound bar as a switch for your home theater, which is unusual.

The Bad As sound bars go it’s really tall and expensive, and you’ll need to add a subwoofer. It needs to be wal-lmounted as it can move around the tabletop when bumped. Some cheaper sound bars have better overall audio quality.

The Bottom Line The Yamaha YSP-5600 projects a huge sound field — no other sound bar can produce as immersive an experience — but it can sound thin, and dynamic punch is limited.

Dolby Atmos and its still-reclusive neighbor DTS:X are the newest sound formats for use in the home, promising more enveloping sound than ever thanks to upward-firing speakers. Movies that support the format are still rare, but the ones we’ve heard can improve audibly when paired with the right hardware.

While there are plenty of “add-on” modules for existing speaker systems, the Yamaha YSP-5600 is the first attempt to provide Atmos and DTS:X in the relatively compact, design-conscious shape of a sound bar.

For the most part Yamaha’s efforts are successful. The speaker has a huge sound field with both music and movies. The sound bar is able to create a 3D bubble of sound between you and the television that a standard bar just can’t emulate. Of course it’s not as immersive as a true multispeaker surround system, and it won’t place sound objects above or behind you, but it’s still very impressive for a sound bar.

At this price, it’d better be. The US price of $1,699 (£15,99 in the UK) places the sound bar in whole new territory, especially when you consider that to get the maximum benefit you’ll need to spend even more on a subwoofer. Sonically it could no doubt be bested by an equivalently priced system, say an ELAC Debut 5.2.1 surround speaker kit coupled with an Onkyo TX-NR646. The tradeoff, of course, is that the separate system would take up a lot more space.

As the first Atmos sound bar the Yamaha is an intriguing start, especially if you want its combination of single-speaker style and room-filling sound — and if you’re willing to pay for it.

Design

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If you’re used to sound bars being an inch or two in height, then the size of the YSP-5600 will come as a rude shock. At 8 inches high (20cm) it’s taller than most center-channel speakers, albeit quite thin at3.5 inches (8.9cm). It lacks rubber stoppers on the bottom, proving it’s really designed to be mounted on a wall.

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The unit is finished in metallic black and the front is dominated by a wire mesh screen protecting the drivers. Behind the mesh hides a blue LED display, but unfortunately the thickness of the mesh does make it a little hard to read. On the top of the speaker reside a number of controls, while at the bottom lives a 3.5mm jack for connecting the included calibration microphone.

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The full-size remote is welcome in a category dominated by dinky credit card clickers. It’s decently ergonomic with all of the functions within easy grasp, but sadly it’s not backlit.

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The YSP-5600 features an onscreen display, but it’s a little small and ripped straight out of the ’90s with its monochromatic text and Microsoft DOS feel. Be aware that the only way to access the second page of setup is to press “settings” twice rather than the right arrow; not exactly intuitive.

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Features

The Yamaha YSP-5600 is the first Atmos- (and DTS:X)-compatible sound bar and uses the company’s proprietary Digital Sound Projector (DSP) technology for its surround effects. The speaker has 44 separate “beam drivers” which bounce sound waves off your walls, creating (sort of) the illusion of surround sound.

Unlike previous DSP-equipped speakers from Yamaha, the YSP-5600 now includes 12 angled “height” drivers at both ends of the speaker, in addition to the surrounds. These beam drivers are supplemented by two 4.5-inch woofers. Unfortunately, the level of these drivers isn’t adjustable.

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One major criticism you could level at almost every sound bar on the market is that connectivity is pretty terrible. At best you’ll get an HDMI input, but most of them make do with just an optical port. The Yamaha has the best complement of inputs we’ve seen yet, with four HDMI 2.0a ports in addition to dual optical, a coaxial digital and an analog auxiliary.

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The Yamaha is well-prepared for wireless music. In addition to AirPlay and Spotify Connect, it also offers Bluetooth (both receiving and streaming to Bluetooth headphones). Like most of Yamaha’s latest products, the YSP-5600 includes the company’s own proprietary multiroom system called MusicCast. MusicCast enables streaming from your phone, your network or from a number of services including Pandora, Rhapsody, SiriusXM and Internet radio. For you golden-eared audiophiles out there the system will support 24-bit/192kHz FLAC and WAV files, something the leading multiroom system (Sonos) does not.

Setup

To get started we ran the YSP-5600’s IntelliBeam automatic sound optimization system with the supplied microphone sitting atop the cardboard mic stand. We positioned the mic in the prime listening position on the couch in the CNET listening room, and initiated the test sequence. For the next few minutes the IntelliBeam automatic sound optimization system sent a long series of tones, beeps and swooshes through the YSP-5600 sound bar and our Klipsch R-110SW subwoofer.

Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter (2016) Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Microsoft’s new Wireless Display Adapter.

Microsoft

For $59, £59 or AU$99, Microsoft’s new Wireless Display Adapter promises the simplest way to beam your laptop, tablet or phone’s screen to a TV. Just plug one side of the dongle into your TV’s HDMI port, the other side into a USB port for power, and your TV basically becomes a wireless external monitor for the device of your choosing.

If you think that sounds a lot like Apple’s AirPlay, you’d be right — in fact, it uses a very similar technology. Both AirPlay and this device’s Miracast are basically direct Wi-Fi connections between your computer and your television, which can make them extremely easy to set up. Unlike a Roku, Chromecast or game console, you don’t need to pair them with your home Wi-Fi, because Miracast transmitters and receivers can automatically find each other.

The difference is that AirPlay only works with Apple devices, beaming a MacBook, iPad or iPhone to a television via an Apple TV, while Miracast is an industry standard that’s built right into Windows 10 devices and a variety of Android phones and tablets too.

The Microsoft Wireless Display adapter is like a pair of nunchaku: one end plugs into an HDMI port, the other into USB for power.

Microsoft

That doesn’t mean Miracast is necessarily better, though, as I found testing out Microsoft’s latest device. While setting up my first laptop was a breeze — you just tap the Connect icon in the Windows 10 Action Center and voila, external monitor — I had to uninstall and reinstall some drivers on the second Windows 10 laptop I tried.

And when I tried to connect my Samsung Galaxy S6, a flagship Android phone from only last year, motions were stuttery and the connection often seemed to be on the verge of crapping out. When I swapped those devices out for an iPhone 6S and an Apple TV, my game of Hearthstone was far smoother by comparison.

Miracast isn’t a new idea. It’s been around for years now, but it’s always been plagued by haphazard manufacturer support. Sometimes companies have called it by different names (“AllShare Cast,” or “Smart Share”) to make it seem like they invented the technology themselves, while other times they’ve just failed to support the feature or buried it deep in a phone settings menu.

Microsoft has done much better, making it universal and extremely easy to access on Windows 10 PCs, and creating this dongle itself. And when it works, it’s pretty good. There’s still enough lag between the time I press a button on my laptop and the time I see my TV screen react that I wouldn’t want to play games on it, but it seemed perfectly fine for sharing photos, watching videos or triaging email using the TV as a huge external monitor.

It’s not quite as foolproof as Apple’s AirPlay and it’s no substitute for a good HDMI cable, but it looks like it could be a useful tool if your video-casting needs are modest.