Adobe Unveils Photoshop and Premiere Elements 15 for Mac

Adobe today released new versions of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, its affordable photo and video editing software aimed at consumers. Both Photoshop and Premiere Elements include new tools and enhancements to existing capabilities to make the photo and video editing experience even more streamlined and simple.

Photoshop Elements includes a new Transform tool that’s able to turn frowns into smiles, adjust squinting eyes, and make other quick, easy adjustments to photos in a matter of minutes. Filters have been improved and can be layered and edited more simply, and there’s a new Smart Tags system that scans images for content and makes it easier to find them based on subjects like cats, dogs, sunsets, birthdays, people, and more. Search using multiple terms is also available.

For those who are new to the photo editing process, Photoshop Elements has a range of new Guided Edits to do things like add text elements to photos, layer multiple effects, add motion blur behind subjects, turn photos into paintings with texture and color, and create custom frames.

On touch screen devices, which pertains to Windows machines, there are new options for using the Organizer and Quick Edit with touch-based gestures, an improvement also included in Premiere Elements. Both Premiere and Photoshop Elements also include integration with Facebook, YouTube, and other social networks to make it faster to share videos and photos.

Premiere Elements features a simplified search tool to quickly locate video content you want to work with, and there’s a new tool for clearing haze from landscape shots for clearer video. As with Photoshop Elements, Premiere Elements includes new Guided Edits, including one that allows users to apply effects across multiple clips or an entire movie.

Face detection allows Favorite Moments to automatically locate the people in your videos to bring them to the front and center, a feature that’s also new to Pan and Zoom and Smart Trim, enhancing the functionality of these tools. A new music remix feature lets users pick a music file that can be automatically rematched to the length of the movie, and there’s a tool for creating dynamic collages from photos and videos.

Photoshop Elements 15 and Premiere Elements 15 for Mac and Windows can be purchased from Adobe’s website for $99.99 each. Bundles are available for $149.99, and existing users can upgrade for $79.99 for one product or $119 for the bundle.

Tag: Adobe
Discuss this article in our forums

Moto Z Play lands in India for ₹24,999; Moto Z debuts at ₹39,999

Lenovo has launched the Moto Z Play and the Moto Z in India. Both phones will be available starting October 17 on Amazon India and Flipkart, with the mid-range Moto Z Play set to retail for ₹24,999 ($375) and the Moto Z for ₹39,999 ($600).

Lenovo is also bringing several Moto Mods to India, including the Hasselblad True Zoom, which will retail for ₹19,999 ($300). You’ll be able to buy Moto Mods for a discounted price when bundled with the Moto Z or Z Play. Here’s the breakdown of the pricing:

• Moto Style Shell (Wood and Ballistic Nylon) – ₹1,099 ($16) – ₹899 bundled ($13)
• Moto Style Shell (Leather) – ₹1,599 ($25) – ₹1,299 bundled ($20)
• Incipio power pack – ₹5,999 ($90) – ₹4,999 bundled ($75)
• JBL SoundBoost – ₹6,999 ($105) – ₹5,999 bundled ($90)
• Moto Insta-Share Projector – ₹19,999 ($300) – ₹15,999 bundled ($240)
• Hasselblad True Zoom – ₹19,999 ($300) – ₹14,999 bundled ($225)

As for the phones, the Moto Z Play sports a 5.5-inch Full HD display, 14nm Snapdragon 625 SoC with eight Cortex A53 CPU cores clocked at 2.05GHz, 3GB of RAM, 32GB storage, microSD slot, 16MP rear camera with PDAF and 4K video recording, 5MP front shooter, NFC, and a 3510mAh battery.

Moto Z Play preview

With a thickness of 5.19mm, the Moto Z is one of the sleekest phones available today. The phone’s thinness is what prompted Lenovo to ditch the 3.5mm port, with audio routed through the USB-C charging port. Customers will get a 3.5mm to USB-C dongle to connect their audio gear to the phone. In contrast, the Moto Z Play has a traditional 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Moto Z features a 5.5-inch QHD display, and is powered by the Snapdragon 820 SoC along with 4GB of RAM. There’s 64GB of storage as well as a microSD slot, 13MP camera with 4K video, 5MP front camera, and a 2600mAh battery. Both the Moto Z and Moto Z Play come with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box, and feature a fingerprint sensor at the front.

Moto Z review

Best Android Phone Under $900

Getting the best sometimes costs a lot. If you’re looking for the most premium (and expensive) phone out there, the Galaxy Note 7 is the one to go for.

Best Overall

Samsung Galaxy Note 7

See at AT&T
See at Verizon
See at Sprint
See at T-mobile

Forget the drama for a second: The Galaxy Note 7 is well worth its high price tag precisely because of everything that’s bundled with it. Not only does it run on the latest processor, it also offers expandable memory, compatibility with two wireless charging standards, and two different mobile payment technologies. And for those of you who are serious about your smartphone photography, it features one of the best smartphone cameras on the market: a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera equipped with OIS and a f/1.7 aperture, as well as full manual controls and RAW file support. You can then edit those photos with the precise, water resistant, pressure sensitive S-Pen that comes in tow. Now do you see why this phone costs so much?

Bottom line: The Galaxy Note 7 is simply the best, especially if you’re willing to put down the cash for it.

One more thing: We recognize you may be feeling hesitant about the Note 7 because of its massive recall, so read up on what happened before you commit.

Why the Galaxy Note 7 is the best

It’s big, it’s beautiful, and it’s worth the upgrade.

It may seem like the Galaxy Note 7 was just a rehash of its predecessor, the Galaxy Note 5, but it’s not. This phablet manages to stand out on its own, precisely for the reasons that our very own Andrew Martonik pointed out in his initial review:

The Galaxy Note 7 has immaculately designed and crafted hardware, an industry-topping display, top-end internal specs to satiate all but the most avid enthusiasts, and it’s all wrapped up in a water-tight enclosure. Even with all of that, Samsung still absolutely nails the biggest parts of the daily use experience — the software is quick, smooth and powerful, the camera is lightning fast and produces great photos, the battery offers ample longevity, and the S Pen is still the best smartphone stylus experience available today.

The good news is that even though the Galaxy Note 7 is comparatively expensive, it’s available at most carriers through financing, spreading the cost of the phone over a couple year’s worth of monthly payments.

And when you finally get the phone in your hand, with its beautiful edge screen and superb brightness, you’ll understand why it’s worth the cost: it’s just a stunning device. Every aspect of the phone has been improved over not just the Note 5, but its immediate predecessor, the Galaxy S7 edge.

Better for battery

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

See at AT&T
See at Verizon
See at Sprint
See at T-mobile

Yes, I know—we’re not being very original here by choosing another Samsung device, but we can’t ignore the fact that the company launched more than one stellar smartphone this year. Since it’s essentially a slightly trimmed down version of the Note 7, the Galaxy S7 Edge is the next best smartphone in the sub-$900 category. Inside, it’s practically the same as the rest of its Galaxy family, but on the outside it sports a curved metal-and-glass chassis and a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display that’s big and bright. It also offers the largest battery of the three widely available Galaxy variants, so you’ll get more usage from it throughout your day.

Bottom line: The Galaxy S7 Edge is the second best choice if the Note 7 and its stylus are too much for you.

One more thing: The AT&T exclusive (Galaxy S7 Active)[http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-active/home] is another worthy consideration if you’re in the market for something more durable.

Conclusion

The Galaxy Note 7 is one of two phones we recommend between $700 and $900 because, frankly, most other phones in that price range aren’t worth considering. It almost singularly justifies its high cost in a sea of devices that call themselves premium but offer mainly compromise. The Note 7, and to a lesser extent the Galaxy S7 edge, are nearly perfect Android phones, held back only by their slow Android updates.

Best Overall

Samsung Galaxy Note 7

See at AT&T
See at Verizon
See at Sprint
See at T-mobile

Forget the drama for a second: The Galaxy Note 7 is well worth its high price tag precisely because of everything that’s bundled with it. Not only does it run on the latest processor, it also offers expandable memory, compatibility with two wireless charging standards, and two different mobile payment technologies. And for those of you who are serious about your smartphone photography, it features one of the best smartphone cameras on the market: a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera equipped with OIS and a f/1.7 aperture, as well as full manual controls and RAW file support. You can then edit those photos with the precise, water resistant, pressure sensitive S-Pen that comes in tow. Now do you see why this phone costs so much?

Bottom line: The Galaxy Note 7 is simply the best, especially if you’re willing to put down the cash for it.

One more thing: We recognize you may be feeling hesitant about the Note 7 because of its massive recall, so read up on what happened before you commit.

How to set up a new Google account

Google Play, Chromebooks, Gmail … all these wonderful services start with (and require) a Google Account. And whether you’re setting up a professional account to help field headhunters and job offers, or finally offloading one of your tweens to their own account, setting up a Google account is simple and quick, but there are a few tricks to it.

Let’s open the door to the wonderful world of Google.

While you can set up a new account on a computer using this link, if you’re on an Android device, Google has baked the Google account setup right into the Settings menu, making things much easier. Here’s how to set it up.

Open Settings.
Scroll down to Accounts.

Tap Add Account, the plus icon in the top right corner of your screen.

Tap Google.
Tap Or create a new account.

Type in the name associated with the account. While you do not have to use your real name, if this is going to be your main account, using your real name is recommended.

Tap Next
Enter the birthdate associated with the account. Note: Google requires all account users to be at least 13 years old and some countries have even high age requirement, but in order to have an account that can use Google Wallet (or use a credit card in Google Play), the account holder must be 18 years old.

Pick a gender. If you do not wish to be identified by your gender, you can decline to state. There is also a custom gender option for those who identify outside the cisgender binary.

Tap Next.
Type in your username. This username will become your Gmail address as well as how you log into Google.

Tap Next.

If your desired username is taken, you’ll be told to pick another and given suggestions. Either select one of the suggested usernames or type in a new one.
Tap Next.

Type in a new password for your account. The password has to be at least 8 characters, but thankfully is not required to have a number or special character, if you want to stick to plain old letters.

Re-type your new pasword in the Confirm password box. You’ll be told how strong or weak the password you’ve selected is.
You’ll be prompted to Add a phone number. This phone number can be used to verify your identity, help log into your account and help people find you if they have your phone number. If you want to add a phone number, type it in.

Tap Next to verify your number or Skip to skip putting a number in.

Google will present their terms of use. After scrolling through and reading the sections that interest you, tap I agree.
Your core Google Account is now set up, and your username and the length of your password will be shown.

If the birthdate associated with your account is over 18, you can add a credit or debit card to your account to use for buying apps or paying for subscription services like YouTube Red, but you’re not required to set one up this moment.

Your turn

What are your stories about opening a new Google account? Problems? Good experiences? Let us know in the comments below!

Best Honor Phone

The Honor 8 is the best phone by Huawei’s youth-focused, online brand, thanks to its excellent combination of build quality, performance, camera quality, and battery life.

Best overall

Honor 8

See at Amazon
See at Honor

No surprise — the best Honor phone you can buy is the newly launched flagship Honor 8. This 5.2-inch handset hits a sweet spot in terms of size and price, at the $400 mark, while delivering speedy performance thanks to Huawei’s homegrown Kirin 950 CPU and 4GB of RAM. The dual camera setup from the Huawei P9 also makes it across to to the new Honor phone, although without the Leica branding.

And on the outside, the Honor 8’s glitzy metal-and-glass body stands out from the crowd, and battery life from the fixed 3,000mAh cell is easily enough to last a full day.

Bottom line: The Honor 8 is an excellent $400 phone with a few software quirks that may take a while to adjust to.

One More thing: European and Asian Honor 8 phones support dual-SIM via Huawei’s hybrid slot, which can take a microSD or a second nano SIM.

Why the Honor 8 is the best

A whole lotta phone for 400 bucks.

With U.S. pricing just shy of $400, the Honor 8 delivers excellent value for money. And if you can deal with Huawei’s EMUI 4.1 interface — it’s something of acquired taste, but sure to get better once Nougat lands — there’s an awful lot to like. The display — a 1080p LCD panel — is bright and vibrant, and the fact that you’re not pushing a 2K panel means there are power savings to be had.

Meanwhile the dual camera setup uses a full color 12-megapixel sensor and another black-and-white sensor combined, to produce clear daylight shots and photos with more detail in low light. EMUI’s camera app also includes super night mode for getting the most from stabilized shots in the dark. And all that in an attractive glass-backed package.

Best value – U.S.

Honor 5X

See at Honor
See at Amazon

Honor’s first phone to launch in the U.S. is its only budget offering in the country to date. The Honor 5X packs a Snapdragon 616 processor and 2GB of RAM into a metal body, with a surprisingly good 1080p LCD display. There’s 16GB of storage built in, and the recent Android 6.0 Marshmallow (and EMUI 4.1) upgrade brings welcome performance improvements.

What’s more you’ll also get a great rear-mounted fingerprint scanner for biometric security — a feature that’s usually missing from phones at this price point.

Bottom-line: $199 gets you a decent phone with metal construction and a fingerprint scanner.

One more thing: The biggest trade-off for the Honor 5X is the lack of oleophobic coating on the screen, meaning it can get gunked up with fingerprints pretty easily.

Best value – Europe

Honor 5C

See at Amazon
See at Vmall

The Honor 5X is also available in Europe, but its little brother the 5C is arguably better value. For just shy of £150 you get a metal-bodied phone with a 5.2-inch 1080p screen, powered by fast and efficient Huawei’s Kirin 650 processor. That’s running Android Marshmallow on Huawei’s latest EMUI 4.1. There’s a little more plastic than metal here compared to the 5C, and you’ll have to make do without a fingerprint scanner. But what the 5C lacks in pizzaz it makes up for in performance.

Bottom-line: A solid £150 phone with a few missing features, but exceptional performance thanks to Huawei’s own silicon.

One more thing: The Chinese version of the phone includes a fingerprint scanner, but in Europe you’ll have to make do without.

Conclusion

All Honor’s phones are competitively priced, but the flagship Honor 8 is the one to aim for. You’ll get flagship-tier performance and build quality, an impressive camera and all-day battery life for considerably less than the bigger brands are charging. What’s more, it’s only going to get better once Android Nougat and EMUI 5 arrive in the months ahead.

Best overall

Honor 8

See at Amazon
See at Honor

No surprise — the best Honor phone you can buy is the newly launched flagship Honor 8. This 5.2-inch handset hits a sweet spot in terms of size and price, at the $400 mark, while delivering speedy performance thanks to Huawei’s homegrown Kirin 950 CPU and 4GB of RAM. The dual camera setup from the Huawei P9 also makes it across to to the new Honor phone, although without the Leica branding.

And on the outside, the Honor 8’s glitzy metal-and-glass body stands out from the crowd, and battery life from the fixed 3,000mAh cell is easily enough to last a full day.

Bottom line: The Honor 8 is an excellent $400 phone with a few software quirks that may take a while to adjust to.

One More thing: European and Asian Honor 8 phones support dual-SIM via Huawei’s hybrid slot, which can take a micro-SD or a second nano SIM.

Mastercard will now let you pay for things with your face

Mastercard has announced it’s now rolling out a new technology called Identity Check Mobile which should make it quicker and easier to pay for things on your phone. The technology has already been trialled in the US, Canada and the Netherlands and must have been successful since it’s now being rolled out to 12 European countries including the UK.

Identity Check Mobile uses your fingerprints and facial recognition to authorise payments instead of passwords and memorable data. You’ll first need to download the Mastercard app and take a selfie, from which the service will store a digitised version of your face on Mastercard’s servers. Mastercard will use the photo stored as a reference for when you make future purchases, so perhaps it’s best you don’t smile just incase you can’t match it exactly.

And don’t worry about someone using a photo of your face to authorise payments, as Mastercard will ask you to blink to make sure you’re human.

The company also reckons its new service will “dramatically speed up” online purchases, with Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise risk & security at Mastercard adding: “Shopping in person has been revolutionised thanks to advanced like contactless cards, mobile payments and wearables, and now we are making Identity Check Mobile a reality for online shopping in Europe, and soon, the world.”

JBL Reflect Aware review: Lightning earphones for sporty iPhone 7 users

With Apple having famously ditched the 3.5mm jack in the iPhone 7, we’re just on the cusp of audio companies rushing to flood the market. Among this first wave is JBL, with one of the first pairs of Lightning-equipped wired in-ear headphones.

They cost £170, but their feature list and design should ensure you don’t think you’ve thrown your money away… shouldn’t they?

JBL Reflect Aware review: Design

Although they look fairly standard on the surface, the design of the JBL Reflect Aware earphones is fairly unusual when you get up close.

Starting at the tip, instead of employing a bog standard circle outlet for the audio, the JBL’s are oval shaped and the tips have a fairly wide base. This gives them an overall look that’s similar to those shallow plastic cones your PE teacher would throw on the floor during football or rugby sessions.

More importantly, it seems to make them fit a little nicer in the ear. By offering this shaped tip, there’s a better chance it’ll fit individual ear shapes than a traditional circle tip, plus there are three different sizes included in the box.

Pocket-lint

What’s more, the extra material to grip the inside of your ear is made from a grippy, soft rubber, and ensures it doesn’t slip out easily. Or, often, out at all.

As is common with sports earphones, they come equipped with detachable “fins” – the shape of which reminds us of a huge quotation mark – which add further grip, holding the earbuds onto your ears. Again, three sizes are available.

We tested the earphones on several runs and found that they fit so well, they felt comfortable in the ear… well, almost comfortable; as comfortable as anything shoved into your ears can be. Vitally, they didn’t once feel like they’d fall out on any of our runs. The grippy texture and design of the tips and fins ensures they stay in place.

The outside of the plastic housing which holds the drivers features a collection of small holes, used to let noise into the earphones when required. Water and sweat resistance mean you should be good to run in the rain, or do some intense work outs without worrying about ruining your precious buds.

Pocket-lint

There’s nothing remarkable about the cables attaching the earphones to the in-line control and Lightning connector, except to say it features painted-on reflective strips, presumably to help drivers see you at night. Sadly, it’s far too slim to make that much of a difference.

The in-line remote and mic unit, however, is impressive. It has four very easy-to-click buttons, which are also easy to find when running, walking or generally not having the freedom to look with your eyes. They protrude just enough to feel, and click reassuringly when pressed.

Those buttons include the volume up and down buttons, separated by the action button, which is used to answer calls, play/pause music, or activate Siri. The stubby pill-shaped button at the bottom is the ANC (Active Noise-Cancelling) activation button. So switching noise-cancellation on or off is as easy as just clicking a button.

JBL Reflect Aware review: Features

JBL offers an app for use with the Reflect Aware, which can be used to control a few different aspects of the earphones’ behaviour.

As you’d expect, part of it is the equaliser which includes three different presets as well as the ability to fully customise your own sound balance.

You can also use it to switch the noise-cancelling on or off, as well as adjust how much ambient noise you want to let through using the low, medium or high sensitivity. So when you’re running on the road, you can hear what’s coming and aren’t completely sealed off from the world. You can even have different sensitivity settings on each ear.

How useful this is depends very much on how loud your music is. At times we could barely hear cars driving past, even with high sensitivity selected. Still, when music was at a moderate level, any outside noise came through well, although it did kind of sound a bit muted and warped.

If you want complete silence, you can just switch off the ambient noise pass through and switch on noise-cancelling. This does a good job of cutting out low frequency background noises, but it doesn’t completely cut out all the noise – at least not when music is at a lower volume. However, with volume cranked up, the world outside soon disappears.  

JBL Reflect Aware review: Sound

There’s a full, warm and immersive sound from these small earphones. It’s certainly full enough that you can crank it up and pretend the world around you doesn’t exist.

Pocket-lint

However, as in-ear headphones go they’re pretty bass-heavy. There’s always the option to use the app-enabled equaliser if that doesn’t suit, but even with the bass set to low and treble pumped, the earphones do lack a little clarity.

The JBL Reflect Aware are seemingly designed to pump out tunes, and keeping you pumping on the treadmill, Tarmac, or wherever you like to get your move on. For that, you need the bass.

Perhaps the most noticeable thing about these earphones is the volume, and that’s one advantage of using a Lightning connector over Bluetooth or traditional 3.5mm jack. The audio can be pumped up really loud, in fact, so loud that even just getting the headphone volume to the halfway point is enough to drown out everything else around you. 

Verdict

As an overall package, the JBL Reflect Aware offer a great option for iPhone users who need good in-ear headphones that stay in during long runs or workout sessions.

For those who fit in to that category, it’s going to be a tough task finding many in-ears that do it better. The combination of materials and shape make for an earbud that not only feels comfortable and light, but secure. 

At the £169 full asking price, though, it’s a lot of cash for a product that you can only use with your iPhone and not plug in to your computer, or any other device sporting a 3.5mm jack. It only comes with a Lightning connector, which isn’t as versatile or platform agnostic as Bluetooth or the traditional jack. 

Bose QuietComfort 35 review: The perfect travel companion

When it comes to travelling, Bose has long been the headphones king. Its QuietComfort range, with active noise-cancellation (ANC), has improved flights and train rides immeasurably over the years.

That’s because the US firm’s ANC technology is considered one of the best around. It is class-leading and clever in its implementation. It’s also the reason why we’ve used the QC15 headphones on just about every trip we’ve been on since their introduction almost seven years ago.

They were replaced by the QC25s in the company line-up, but in truth Bose merely tweaked a winning formula – and we didn’t like the lack of a built-in battery (an AAA battery? C’mon).

The QuietComfort 35 headphones are an entirely different kettle of halibut. While they look similar to former models, even feel the same on the old noggin when worn, they take the company’s leading ANC tech and put it in a wire-free Bluetooth environment with, finally, a built-in rechargeable battery.

Does that make the QC35 the best travel headphones ever made?

Bose QC35 review: Cutting the cord

Bluetooth connectivity is most welcome in an age where headphone jacks on smartphones are threatening to be a thing of the past – and easy to pair with multiple devices.

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are significant examples; they both have adapters to connect to conventional wired headphone types, and there are some Lightning headphones out there, but really they are primarily designed to make use of Bluetooth. It’s the start of a massive sea change in premium phones.

Pocket-lint

Not only does it free the headset in terms of movement – something we’ve found very useful when travelling on a long-haul flight – it means they will suit all devices and smartphone types, no matter whether they dispense of socketry or not.

Some will bemoan the absence of aptX compatibility, for the best lossless performance, but considering that’s only supported by a handful of phones and, most notably, ignored by Apple, we can see why Bose thought it unnecessary for its main target audience.

That’s not to say it turns its back on Android and the rest of the smartphone market. The QC35s have NFC built-in for easy pairing to devices that support it. And there’s a Bose Connect app for Android as well as iOS, which helps matters further and gives you finer control over which device is paired from multiple options.

Bose QC35 review: Design

In style terms, coming in all black or silver means the QC35 pretty much suit any device you might own. Unlike previous models in the range these are fairly monotone in look, with ear cups matching the headband. They are, therefore, less aesthetically interesting as some rivals but they’re not designed to be a fashion statement.

Besides, in comfort they are up there with the very best. That includes the ear cups themselves, which are made of synthetic leather soft as a pillow made of dreams about unicorns. The headband is durable and has enough spring to clasp your bonce tightly without any feeling of pressure.

Pocket-lint

Comfort also stretches to the active noise-cancelling tech too. We find that some ANC ‘phones can cause earache when used over a long period – not ideal for lengthy flights. Bose QuietComfort models, on the other hand, have always managed to block out ambient noise superbly with no nasty side effects. It’s like pixie magic and the QC35s continue the trend.

Bose QC35 review: Powered listening

There is one drawback. Unlike many rivals, the Bose headphones only work when ANC is switched on. You cannot listen to music or any other kind of audio without it being activated. That’s not a big deal considering how natural and comfortable they feel with it working, but if you run out of batteries you are unable to use these cans at all.

That’s not the case with some other Bluetooth headphones, which come with included cables to let you continue even if battery power is kaput – they simply switch off Bluetooth and ANC. The QC35s also come with a cable, to conserve battery power by only using it for the noise-cancellation, but if there’s no charge at all, you’re screwed.

Pocket-lint

Thankfully, we’ve never found that to be much of an issue. Along with Bluetooth, the QC35s add a rechargeable battery with enough capacity to last up to a quoted 20 hours with wireless functionality and ANC both in full flow.

We’ve found that to be a decent estimate too, having done a couple of hops over the Atlantic without needing a recharge. And considering many planes have USB power points these days, you’ll probably never be stranded with no charge anyway.

Bose QC35 review: Audio quality

The final and possibly most important aspect of the QC35s worth discussing is the audio performance.

The ANC uses a couple of mics to asses and counter ambient noise, and a built-in digital equaliser ensures clean, accurate audio representation. We find them to be satisfyingly neutral in playback, especially at a time where many manufacturers seem to favour throaty bass.

Pocket-lint

If anything, music can sound a little too clear at times, exposing poorer quality files when others might hide the foibles. But that’s an unfair accusation really, and you’ll just have to encode your tracks at higher bitrates.

They are excellent with video tracks and speech in movies too.

Bose has also put great effort into ensuring the headset is clean and clear for phone calls, both in receiving audio and transmitting your own voice. They can also be used to wirelessly speak to Siri, if you favour Apple devices.

Verdict

As QC15 users for many years we were really looking forward to a Bluetooth version and we’re not disappointed by the QC35s. They are as keen when it comes to audio playback and excellent in their active noise-cancellation, and all without the wires.

A rechargeable battery is also much welcome, with days of hunting down the back of drawers for a spare AAA cell blissfully over.

The QuietComfort 35 ‘phones are certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, considering they aren’t particularly fashion-conscious or able to playback grime with the growly thump of bass focused peers, but they are perfectly suited to the travelling lifestyle of their target audience.

A plane journey will never feel quite the same without them.

The NES Mini will have ‘Pixel Perfect’ display mode and game-save feature

Nintendo’s NES Mini Classic Edition is due for release on 11 November but before then, we’ve just been treated to a few more details about the much-anticipated console.

• Nintendo’s new console available to order, but it’s not what you expected

Nintendo has released a three minute promotional video for the console which details some new features, such as three different display modes and a save feature that will be welcome by NES gamers far and wide.

The three display modes are Pixel Perfect, which uses square pixels to make the picture pin-sharp and detailed, 4:3 ratio to simulate an old-school television and CRT filter which adds simulated scan lines.

The original Nintendo Entertainment System wouldn’t let you save moments in a game, so if you got far into one and then had to turn the console off, you’d lose your progress. With the new model, you’re now able to save the game at four different points per game and lock those saves to ensure they don’t accidentally get deleted.

It’s also been reported that you can access original instruction manuals for each of the games by scanning a QR code on screen.

The NES Mini Classic Edition will be released next month for £49.99 and comes supplied with an HDMI controller, a controller, USB cable and 30 games pre-installed.

Sony ZD9 4K TV review: The HDR master

The pages of AV history are littered with “here today, gone tomorrow” features only truly memorable for the amount of hype that surounded their launch. We have no doubt, though, that the latest feature on the AV block, high dynamic range (HDR) playback, isn’t going anywhere. Which is why we’re rather excited by the Sony KD-65ZD9BU.

This is a TV, after all, that’s been conceived, designed and manufactured with HDR right at the heart of everything it does. For instance, it’s capable of pumping out unprecedented amounts of brightness, outgunning by a few hundred nits even the mighty efforts of Samsung’s ground-breaking KS9500 SUHD TVs.

Even more excitingly, it delivers its huge brightness via an LED lighting array positioned directly behind the screen which is driven by the most advanced local dimming system the LCD world has seen to date. Every single one of its LEDs can have its output adjusted individually, to potentially deliver unfathomable blacks right alongside those unprecedentedly bright whites and retina-searing colours.

Is the Sony ZD9 the best LCD-based 4K HDR TV on the market right now then? It might well be, if you have deep pockets: the 65-inch model on review here costs £3,999.

Sony ZD9 4K HDR TV review: Bettering the competition

There are other TVs out there, of course, that use direct LED lighting and local dimming systems. Panasonic’s DX902 TVs can even also control each LED light individually. Look to the alternative tech, OLED, and the LG E6 is also outstanding, albeit less bright in the HDR stakes.

Sony

However, the ZD9 has a couple of extra tricks up its sleeve compared to the Panasonic: Calibrated Beam technology, and X-Tended Dynamic Range. The first of these enables the TV to focus multiple LEDs as a group on particularly bright image element, to boost its on-screen intensity. The second, X-Tended Dynamic Range, allows Sony to redirect the power available to the 65ZD9’s screen away from where it’s not needed (dark image areas) to where it is.

The extra brightness and contrast the ZD9 is designed to deliver should also feed into its colour performance, making it easier to achieve the expanded colour spectrums that HDR sources like Ultra HD Blu-ray and, now, Netflix and Amazon also deliver. The 65ZD9 also beneftis from Sony’s Triluminos technology, which has for the last two or three Sony TV generations done an excellent job of boosting colour satuation.

Sony KD-65ZD9BU TV review: Android TV limitations

We know you’re keen to find out just how well all of the 65ZD9’s intriguing screen technology translates into picture quality, but there are few other features to quickly cover first. Kicking off with its Android TV smart system.

Sony

We continue to be unconvinced by Android TV, though. It feels old-fashioned and cumbersome thanks to its full-screen presentation, lack of customisation options, and frustratingly sluggish responses. Android does, though, provide a vast library of apps for you to explore, including the 4K and HDR-capable versions of both Netflix and Amazon.

Thankfully Sony has also added YouView support to its UK TVs to get around Android TV’s ongoing failure to carry the catch-up apps for all of our main terrestrial broadcasters.

Sony ZD9 4K HDR TV review: Setup

Setting the 65ZD9 up is not a job for the faint hearted. Its brushed aluminium stand is awkward to attach to the TV, and its remote control is a horror show thanks to its use of buttons that sit almost flush with the remote’s front edge. It also takes a painful amount of time to get the Android-related features up and running.

Pocket-lint

It’s not all bad news, though. The 65ZD9’s picture presets are unusually thoughtful, giving you a number of genuinely useful out-of-the-box presets for both HDR and SDR (standard dynamic range) viewing. Though if you do want to tweak things or even pay a calibrator to do it for you, the 65ZD9 certainly isn’t short of fine tuning tools.

Sony ZD9 4K TV review: HDR peaks

Settling down to see what the 65ZD9 can do, the first word that comes to mind is “wow”. The brightness the screen is capable of pumping out is breath-taking, for instance, delivering an instant impact with HDR sources that can only be described as transformational. HDR’s killer brightness peaks look more explosive than we’ve seen them look before, even on Samsung’s KS9500 series, while UHD Blu-ray’s wider colour gamuts look both explosively vibrant but also beautifully subtle thanks to the way the extreme brightness brings out even the tiniest tonal differences.

It’s a big relief, too, to see the 65ZD9’s HDR pictures looking entirely free of the colour striping issues that have hindered a number of rival HDR sets this year – including Samsung’s KS9500s.

Sony

Crucially, though, the 65ZD9 doesn’t push brightness at the expense of all the other traditionally key aspects of picture quality. In particular, its unique LED backlighting system does a better job than that of any other LCD screen to date of minimising light pollution around HDR highlights when they appear against dark surroundings.

There are none of the vertical bands of light running down the screen you get with edge-lit LCD HDR TVs, and while the set isn’t immune to light halos around ultra-bright objects, these halos are both less intense and smaller in scale than those seen on other TVs that use direct LED lighting technology. This is impressive indeed considering the 65ZD9’s ground-breaking brightness, and in ensuring that the unwanted side effects of HDR on LCD TVs are less distracting it makes the experience instantly more engaging and immersive. Which is, of course, exactly what HDR is supposed to be.

The 65ZD9 is also jaw-droppingly good at making its 4K resolution count. Its ground breaking light control combines with all those pixels and some stunning colour finesse courtesy of the Triluminos engine and X1 Extreme chipset to deliver pictures of sublime detail, crispness and depth. So much so that pictures often look three dimensional without the need for any pesky glasses.

Sony

The sharpness holds up unusually well during sport and action scenes too, thanks to what’s arguably the most effective motion processing engine in the TV world right now. The True Cinema processing mode, in particular, does a terrific job of reducing judder and motion blur without making the picture look unnaturally smoothed out or troubled by unwanted digital side effects. This motion clarity makes the 4K experience feel fantastically consistent and emphatic.

Sony KD-65ZD9 review: It does 3D too

The 65ZD9 is the first TV we’ve tested for an age that also ships with 3D glasses included. Indeed, you get two pairs. Its 3D pictures – delivered using the full resolution active shuttering system – are pretty strong, combining an engaging sense of depth and space with an excellent colour response and plenty of detail.

There can be some fairly noticeable crosstalk ghosting noise around bright 3D objects, but this rears its head fairly rarely by active 3D TV standards.

Pocket-lint

The main problem with 3D on the ZD9 is how dull it looks compared with the set’s spectacular 2D HDR images. So much so that we can imagine many previous 3D fans feeling increasingly reluctant to sacrifice HDR’s thrills for 3D’s extra depth. It was only a matter of time before 3D was more-or-less killed off.

Sony ZD9 review: Content, what content?

Unfortunately, of course, while the 65ZD9 performs like no TV before with HDR sources, such sources are currently pretty elusive. But fear not, for the 65ZD9 is also a superb performer with standard dynamic range content.

It still produces a lovely blend of colour intensity and subtlety with SDR colours, still serves up an excellent SDR contrast peformance only bettered by LG’s OLED TVs, and SDR pictures still look phenomenally detailed.

Sony

Even HD sources look something like native 4K thanks to the outstanding ability of Sony’s upscaling processing to boost the resolution of non-4K content without exaggerating source noise.

Sony ZD9 TV review: Slim on the sound

Aside from the quirky application of a gold colour to its outside edges, the most eye-catching thing about the 65ZD9’s slightly bland design is that it doesn’t incorporate any of those spectacular sounding but huge magnetic fluid speakers found on the past two or three generations of Sony flagship TVs. While this may make aesthetic sense, it certainly doesn’t do Sony’s sound quality any favours.

The biggest issue is that there’s hardly any bass. This leaves treble sounding over-exposed and can lead to quite a brittle presentation of loud action scenes – especially if you try to push them to the sort of volume levels many scenes typically benefit from.

Sony

To be fair, vocals are always easy to make out and reasonably well-rounded, and the TV is built well enough to avoid issues like speaker crackle or cabinet rattle. If ever a TV deserved to be accompanied by a decent external audio solution where finances permit, however, it’s the 65ZD9.

Verdict

The 65ZD9 is not a perfect TV (if such a thing could ever exist). Its Android smart engine is more of a hindrance than a help, its sound is pretty average, and there’s still some evidence of backlight haloing around stand-out HDR objects, despite Sony’s exciting new LCD illumination technologies.

None of this, though, stops the 65ZD9 from winning hook, line and sinker when it comes to HDR content though. Its unprecedented combination of colour, brightness, sharpness and contrast is virtually addictive, and undoubtedly adds up to what is simply the most spectacular and convincing next-generation TV picture performance of 2016.

It’s a long way from affordable, but if LG’s ultra-slim OLED options aren’t on your radar and you want the ultra bright peaks that high dynamic range content can offer then, hands down, the ZD9 is the HDR master.