Oppo Sonica Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Oppo Digital

Just when you thought that all of the players had showed their hands, where all of the companies that were going to release proprietary wireless speakers already had, along comes Oppo Digital.

Most well-known for its line of videophile disk players, and then a bunch of mobile phones through its sister company, Oppo is now extending its AV know-how into every room of your house. The Oppo Sonica is a thoroughly 2016 version of the wireless speaker with a host of connectivity options in addition to built-in room correction.

The Sonica was designed by Igor Levitsky, who was also behind the Oppo PM-3 planar magnetic headphone. This is a stereo speaker with two wide-band drivers mated to three (!) separate bass drivers — a 3.5-inch “long displacement bass driver” and two 3-inch balanced bass radiators. This speaker takes its bass very seriously.

In addition to Bluetooth, the speaker includes Wi-Fi — with AirPlay and iOS and Android support via the Sonica app — as well as USB and a 3.5mm auxiliary input.

If you want to play music in high-res, the app features 24bit/192kHz playback of most file formats (though not DSD). It currently includes streaming from Tidal while other services have yet to be announced.

Related Links

• Oppo BDP-105: Not your average Blu-ray player
• Oppo PM-3 headphones review
• The best Wi-Fi music systems for 2016

The speaker will enable multiroom playback to other Sonica speakers (only at this stage) as well as enable you to hook up two speakers side by side as a stereo pair.

At $299 the Oppo Sonica speaker is relatively affordable for its size and the number of features it has. While we’ve yet to confirm which system the speaker uses, it appears they’ve chosen not to go with Play-Fi, and this is kind of mysterious; if any company is going to be successful at taking Sonos on at its own game, it’s surely through compatibility with other stuff you already own. No one likes DRM or the walled garden approach. Your music should just play. And Play-Fi is the largest and best alternative to Sonos yet.

If you are a fan of Oppo’s headphones and Blu-ray players, and don’t mind a lack of intercompatibility or streaming services, the Sonica could be worth a look.

Oppo has yet to announce pricing or availability in the UK or Australia, but at current conversion rates this equals £203 and AU$415.

2016 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid review – Roadshow

The Good The 2016 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid’s powertrain offers good midrange torque and respectable fuel economy. The plug-in model adds 27 miles of electric range to the mix. The sedan’s driver aid suite is highlighted by one of the smoothest adaptive cruise control systems I’ve tested in a while.

The Bad The Sonata Hybrid seems to lack the Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity that is boasted by the non-hybrid model.

The Bottom Line Whether you go plug-in or self-contained, the 2016 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid is a solid performer in this class and an excellent tech value.

Hyundai follows up its redesign of the Sonata midsize sedan with a one-two-punch combo of efficiency. First is the jab that is the hybrid variant, followed up with right cross of a plug-in hybrid model that boasts fantastic EV range. Like the opener, these electrified models boast excellent dashboard tech, a very modern suite of available driver aid and safety systems, and a more mature design that — while maybe a bit less exciting than the previous generation — is sure to appeal to a broader audience.

A solidly performing hybrid

Just behind the more mature fascia of the 2016 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, the engine room is home to a 2.0-liter Atkinson-cycle gasoline powerplant making 154 horsepower and 140 pound-feet of torque. It’s not alone; the combustion engine is mated to a 38 kW e-motor that adds 51 horsepower and 151 pound-feet of torque to the mix, bringing total system output to 193 horsepower. The hybrid power flows through a six-speed automatic transmission before meeting the road at the front wheels.

The 2.0-liter hybrid powertrain boasts really good midrange torque, which makes the sedan feel responsive around town and allows for smooth passing without much drama. The six-speed automatic transmission can be a bit of a fun-damper. The gearbox can take a second or so to downshift when more immediate passing power is required and seems to get a bit confused when asked for spirited performance on twisty B-roads. To be fair, most owners don’t buy hybrids for their performance chops, so I won’t knock the Sonata too much here.

In its defense, toggling the Drive Mode selector to the Sport mode tunes a bit of the hesitancy out of the electronics, and slapping the transmission into its manual shifting mode and forcing it to stay in, for example, third or fourth gear for a twisty bit eliminates the gear hunting altogether. If you choose the ratios yourself, the Sonata Hybrid can feel surprisingly alive, thanks to its torquey electric assist, but even then the gearbox can be sluggish to change speeds, and without paddle shifters, it’s a little more trouble than it’s worth.

Tested at 38.5 mpg, I got close to the EPA’s fuel economy estimates even with a significant number of my miles tested miles being spent sussing out the sedan’s performance envelope on back roads. The stated numbers are 39 mpg city, 43 mpg highway and 41 mpg combined. It’s no Prius, but those are respectable numbers that I believe I could have easily met with less-aggressive driving.

Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow

At the Limited trim level that I was able to test, the Sonata Hybrid rides on 17-inch wheels shod with 215 mm wide all-season tires. Between the body and the wheels is a MacPherson strut suspension at the front end and an independent multi-link rear.

Handling is pretty good, with a nice and planted feel. The steering is direct enough but lacks engagement and feeling. The Sonata’s fraternal twin, the Kia Optima, has slightly better fingertip feeling, while Ford’s newly refreshed Fusion Hybrid feels significantly better than either. That said, the Sonata’s steering isn’t bad, merely uninspired.

Plug in, turn on, green out

Hyundai doesn’t just offer a traditional gas-electric hybrid — there’s also a plug-in model available. With an MSRP starting at $34,600, it’s only a couple of hundred dollars more expensive than the top-trim gas model, the Limited 2.0T. If you want that same Limited trim level, the price jumps to $38,600.

Packing an enlarged, 9.8kWh battery, the Sonata plug-in promises 27 miles of all-electric range. And it’s easy to achieve that figure, so long as you’re not cranking the HVAC system on the highway. In fact, the highway was not kind to the Sonata Plug-In’s range. I regularly saw two miles of range disappear for every mile driven.

If you’re limited to short trips in the city or suburbs, though, the Sonata Plug-In is a peach. If you don’t have the infotainment system set to display the real-time distribution of power between battery, electric motor and gas engine, you’ll have a hard time telling when the gas engine kicks in. It’s a seamless, quiet transition.

There are multiple modes available, depending on what you’re after. You can max out your range in EV-only mode, keep more of a balance between gas and electric in hybrid mode, or put the gas engine to work charging the battery. The latter mode is nice when you know you’ll be transitioning from highways to city roads, where electricity will get you a fair bit farther.

The engine revs up to charge the battery, which does lead to some strangeness as you might only be going 25 mph, but the engine sounds like it’s racing along at a higher RPM. Not that you can tell what the engine’s speed is, because the car lacks a tachometer, replacing it with a gauge that displays current charge status and power output.

In a mix of charge-building mode and pure EV mode, I achieved approximately 53 mpg, with most of my miles being on the highway. I spent the first few days in EV mode alone, so the computer constantly displayed average fuel economy as 99.9 mpg (the readout doesn’t go any higher — although I wish it did, like in the Chevrolet Volt). Had I been driving a more balanced route, there’s no doubt I would have seen my economy rise to 60 mpg, if not more.

One downside about the larger battery, compared to the Sonata Hybrid, is the space it requires. It eats up a fair bit of trunk space, but I still managed a trip to the garden center just fine, bringing home several bags of mulch and a whole load of perennials of various shapes and sizes without issue.

Dell 43 Ultra HD 4K Multi-Client Monitor Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Dell P4317Q.

Dell

You’ve always wanted a desktop covered with monitors — your own personal command center to control multiple computers, watch the game, and play Xbox all at the same time. But actually hooking up multiple monitors could be a logistical nightmare. Enter the Dell P4317Q: a 43-inch, 4K screen with four video inputs so you can have four screens in one.

While the new $1,350 monitor (roughly £918 or AU$1,876) is primarily targeted at financial traders and software developers who need charts, graphs or a whole lot of code on screen at any given time, it’s got the ports for other use cases as well: two HDMI 1.4 sockets; DisplayPort and Mini DisplayPort; and a VGA jack for legacy applications. You can assign each port to any corner you want, place two side by side or even fill the entire screen with the push of a button, according to Dell’s product page.

Audio is piped to a pair of 8W speakers, and there’s a headphone jack if you need. If you use the DisplayPort, it should support 4K resolution at 60 hertz, fast enough for many PC games.

That’s a lot of charts.

Dell

With a fairly average 8 millisecond grey-to-grey response time and an 82 percent color gamut, the P4317Q likely won’t be terribly impressive visually, but Dell does claim wide-viewing angles of 178 degrees in any direction.

We’ve never seen a monitor quite like this, and it’s a smart idea from Dell. You may or may not know that every 4K screen is technically the same as four 1080p screens — but you’ve never been able to put four separate video sources in each corner of a giant 4K screen until now.

Fisher-Price Newborn Rock ‘n Play Sleeper with SmartConnect review – CNET

The Good Fisher-Price’s SmartConnect Sleeper makes calming your baby easy and hands-free. The movement patterns work well, the cradle itself is soft and comfortable, and the sound quality is great for this type of product.

The Bad You can’t play your own music through the speakers with either an auxiliary cable or via Bluetooth.

The Bottom Line Every parent should consider buying the SmartConnect Sleeper. It’s a device you’ll probably use for at least a few hours every day, and one that calmed my baby better than any other I’ve tested yet. At only $100, it’s a steal. The app connection and flexible settings are just an added bonus.

I started reviewing baby-related technology a few weeks after my wife delivered our first child. But dealing with the forced frugality of early parenthood (our “Friday-night-movie” money has been reallocated into “diapers-and-wipes” money) at the same time as testing the trendiest and priciest infant tech has made me reluctant to label any products “must-buy.”

Then I put my infant son in the Fisher-Price Deluxe Newborn Auto Rock ‘n Play Sleeper with SmartConnect (or if you hate long product names like I do, the SmartConnect Sleeper). It’s a simple sleeper that works during the first year or so of your baby’s life. It keeps them comfortably on their back to avoid SIDS, and features a curved base so parents can rock their children to sleep. More notably, the SmartConnect Sleeper offers automated movement that helps soothe your child as well as a Bluetooth-connected app so you can do so hands-free. And did I mention the cost? The sleeper is $100, a surprisingly reasonable price when similar products without the smarts can cost as much as $150.

Every baby’s needs are different, but the SmartConnect Sleeper offers enough features to appeal to most parents. Personally, after testing and living with the sleeper for a couple weeks, my family’s having a hard time adjusting to life without it. It’s well worth a $100 investment if you’re in need of a little calm in the hectic life of new parenthood. For that reason, the SmartConnect Sleeper has earned CNET’s Editors’ Choice Award.

This Fisher Price Sleeper boasts low-key…
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What it does

The Fisher-Price SmartConnect Sleeper has a pretty standard basic design. The plush material that cradles your baby is comfortable and breathes well. The sleeper rocks on the curved tracks at its base. You can even attach the included textured plastic rings to the harness so your baby can receive tactile stimulation while falling asleep.

Here’s where the smarts come in: On the side of the sleeper, a control panel allows you to queue music, ambient sound, vibration and rocking. This control panel is replicated on the iOS and Android-compatible app with more precision — you can control vibration patterns and intensity, rocking speed and even specify particular environmental sound effects.

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This control panel lets you toggle music and sounds, rocking speed, volume and vibration.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Other devices feature vibration and speakers (although SmartConnect’s are better than most of the competitors’ I’ve tried out). The novel addition is the automatic rocking. A short leg extends from the bottom of one of the sleeper tracks and rocks the baby. It’s a simple mechanism, but it moves the baby like you do when you’re rocking them to sleep.