Incipio Offgrid Express for iPhone 6/6S review – CNET

The Good The Incipio Offgrid Express will fully charge the iPhone once and powers up your phone’s battery just as quickly as more expensive chargers.

The Bad The case has a few inelegant open seams that look unattractive and awkward.

The Bottom Line The Incipio Offgrid Express has some design flaws, but get this over the pricier Mophie Juice Pack.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

If you’re looking for a slim battery case to charge your iPhone on the go, but you don’t want to spend more than $100, the Incipio Offgrid Express is a good $80 option (or £60 and approximately AU$110). The accessory offers a meaty 3,000mAh battery and it can double your phone’s battery life for a good deal less than Mophie’s $120 Juice Pack Plus.

Though its battery reserves aren’t as high as the Juice Pack Plus (the Mophie sports 3,300mAh battery) and its design isn’t as clean cut, Incipio’s case does essentially the same thing and works just as well.

To use the Offgrid Express, plug the handset into the battery charger and snap the bumper around the phone’s edges to attach both pieces together. For the first few times, I had a hard time snapping the bumper into place all the way since there always seemed to be a gap at the seams. But as I kept fastening the case together throughout the day, I eventually got the hang of it.

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On the bottom right edge is a button that turns on the indicator lights so you know how much charge is left. You can also long press the button to turn the charger on and off. The case uses Micro-USB charge, which is common for iPhone battery cases. Because of this, you’ll need two different cords to charge your case and iPhone (the latter uses a proprietary eight-pin Lightning connection). If this is a big deal for you, Apple has its own Smart Battery Case that uses the eight-pin port too.

During my time with the case, I saw that it did attract some fingerprint smudges, but they’re much easier to wipe off compared to Mophie’s case. The Offgrid Express also adds extra bulk to your device, especially at the bottom. Because your headphones may not fit through the case and into the handset’s headphone jack, Incipio included a headphone port extender. In addition, a small rectangle on the left of the case is cut out to allow users access to the phone’s ring/silent switch. Given the overall thickness of the case, that means you’ll need to dig your fingers a bit deeper to toggle this on and off.

Ozmo Active Smart Cup review – CNET

The Good The $60/£45/AU$80 Ozmo Active Smart Cup looks great, its related app is easy to navigate and its simple reminders encourage you to drink more water and less caffeine.

The Bad Ozmo occasionally thinks water is coffee — and vice versa. It can’t track other caffeinated beverages like tea or soda.

The Bottom Line Ozmo’s Active Smart Cup is a neat concept whose hit-or-miss performance and limited features don’t match its high price.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

The Ozmo Active Smart Cup is an intriguing concept that gets bogged down by its high price and lack of features, ultimately making it tough to recommend. Here’s the gist.

To combat dehydration, Hong-Kong-based startup Ozmo developed a $60/£45/AU$80 16-ounce Bluetooth-enabled cup available worldwide (also called Ozmo). Of course, you can put any drink under 176°F (80°C) in this sturdy-lidded drink holder, but it’s specifically designed to auto-log your water and coffee consumption via built-in sensors. Initial question: Do we really need this much help remembering to drink water?

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The Ozmo app walks you through the simple initial configuration then asks for some basic information — your age, your height and weight, and your activity level (from low to extreme). From there, it arrives at an optimal amount of water you should drink every day. Mine was 108 ounces or 13.5 cups. That seemed high, but it’s probably because I grew up with the ol’ 8 cups of water a day adage and never really questioned it.

The software also decides on a maximum daily caffeine intake for you, 21 ounces in my case — just over 2.5 cups.

Motorola Moto G4 Plus review – CNET

The Good In addition to retaining its sibling’s water-resistant body and full HD screen, the Moto G4 Plus adds a fingerprint sensor, slightly better camera, and you can select more storage and memory.

The Bad That fingerprint scanner confusingly looks like a home button, and the lack of NFC means you can’t use the phone for contactless payments.

The Bottom Line The Moto G4 Plus adds a fingerprint sensor and slightly better camera to the mix, but its cheaper sibling is still the better deal.

See manufacturer for pricing.

The Motorola Moto G4 Plus and Moto G4 are extremely similar Android phones that perform far better than you’d expect for the price. In fact, these fourth-generation entries in the Moto G line effectively redefine value in the smartphone realm, moving from merely “good enough” to “amazingly good for the money.”

Both phones offer a bevy of solid features, including 5.5-inch full HD screens, capable octa-core processors and decent 3,000mAh batteries, including some notable niceties — expandable storage and water-resistant bodies — not found on current iPhone models that retail for three times as much.

The Moto G4 Plus edges ahead in the specs race with a fingerprint sensor and a better camera. Unfortunately, though, it doesn’t include NFC compatibility for Android Pay purchases at real-world retailers.

For that reason, we’re more inclined to stick with the base G4 model, which costs just $199 or £169 at its base configuration. But if you value scanning your finger to unlock and zooming in to photos for more detail, the Plus may well be worth the modest price increase — an extra $50 or £30.

Read our full review of the Moto G4 for details on both phones, or continue here for a quick overview on the primary differences between the two models.

Editors’ note (July 6, 2016): This review has been corrected to reflect that the G4 Plus does not offer NFC or Android Pay, and that we recommend the cheaper Moto G4 as the better overall buy.

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What’s the price difference?

Motorola doesn’t make it easy to give a direct comparison between the US and UK markets. That’s because the phone is available in slightly different configurations at retailers (like Amazon) and the company’s own Moto Maker site (where you can configure customised versions). But the bottom line is that both phones have amazingly low starting prices for what you’re getting.

The base 16GB G4 is $199 or £169. Adding $30 or £30 gets you a 32GB version at Motorola’s website. (For the equivalent price in Australian dollars, please see the spec chart at the end of this review.)

The base 16GB version of the G4 Plus starts at $249 or £199. For £30 more (£229), those in the UK can get a 32GB version (not currently available in the US). The Plus tops out at $299 or £264 for 64GB, which also doubles the on-board RAM to 4GB from 2.

The bottom line is that the Plus adds a couple of “nice to have” features, especially if you prefer to unlock the phone with your fingerprint or like to zoom in to your photos for greater detail. But the lack of NFC and full Android Pay features makes us inclined to stick with the baseline G4 model.

What’s different between the G4 and G4 Plus?

It boils down to two main things. The G4 Plus has a larger, 16-megapixel (versus 13MP) camera and a fingerprint scanner that unlocks the phone. What the Plus also allows you to do is spec up the internal storage capacity up to 64GB, which also snags you double the RAM (4GB in total).

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Andrew Hoyle/CNET

If the fingerprint scanner had worked with point of sale Android Pay, the G4 Plus would be an easy recommendation over its less expensive twin. But its lack of NFC means you won’t be paying for cabs and Chicken McNuggets at the register.

One other problem with the fingerprint sensor is that it looks like a home button and I regularly found myself pressing it to leave an app — which does nothing, as it purely functions as a scanner.

Do I need the G4 Plus’s 16-megapixel camera?

More resolution means more pixels are crammed into the image, so fine details on shots taken with the Plus’s 16-megapixel sensor look sharper. Take a look at the comparison image below to see what that really does to an image.

Moto G4 Vs Moto G4 Plus camera resolution comparison (click to see full size)

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

More pixels don’t always make better-looking photos, though. Both phones can capture lovely scenes and are well equipped for your summer snaps. The resolution is only a benefit if you want to zoom in on details, or display them at full screen on a monitor. If you mostly look at your shots on the phone or on Instagram, the extra resolution matters less.

Yamaha YSP-2700 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Yamaha

Until recently there were only a couple of sound bars that peeked “Kilroy was here”-style over the $1,000 mark, but now we have two just from Yamaha alone. The company is following up its gargantuan YSP-5600 sound bar with a sleeker, less-costly option in the YSP-2700.

The YSP-2700 is a “7.1-channel” sound bar — with a wireless sub — that uses Yamaha’s Digital Sound Projector technology to simulate surround sound. The Yamaha uses a series of 16 drivers across the front of the unit to beam sounds around the room. In the past we’ve found the technology works better than competitors’ in providing an enveloping soundstage, even if it’s not very successful at producing rear effects.

Like models such as the Zvox’s SB500 and Definitive Technology’s W Studio series, the 37-inch-wide Yamaha YSP-2700 takes cues from the computer industry by shunning a plastic housing in favor of a solid block of aluminum.

As expected for a $1,199 (AU$1,499; not yet announced for the UK) sound bar, the connectivity includes three HDMI inputs and one output that offer 4K pass-through compatibility. The sound bar will also decode both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio for users who want to be able to decode all manner of Blu-ray soundtracks.

The Yamaha includes Bluetooth streaming both from a phone and even more handily to a set of Bluetooth headphones.

As with most new products under the Yamaha banner, the YSP-2700 includes Yamaha’s multiroom Wi-Fi system called MusicCast. It offers streaming of a number of services including Pandora, Spotify and Rhapsody plus hi-res music from a networked device.

The YSP-2700 will be available in the US in September, while availability in the UK and Australia have yet to be announced.