Black+Decker 6.5-Quart Multicooker review – CNET
The Good The Black+Decker 6.5-Quart Multicooker performs a handful of tasks well, especially roasting and baking.
The Bad There’s no timer built onto the machine, and the slow-cooking mode made some disappointing pot roast. Plus, the multicooker is $130.
The Bottom Line Skip this multicooker in favor of other countertop products that are less expensive and do the same tasks.
Simplicity is part of the appeal of the Black+Decker 6.5-Quart Multicooker. This countertop appliance covers a handful of common cooking tasks, and it does a decent job at all of them. But that’s not enough to justify its $130 price, especially when there are similar countertop products that cost a lot less.
The cooker’s controls are easy to use, but there’s not a built-in timer.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
This multicooker aims low with its promise to complete just three cooking tasks: sear/sauté, roast/bake and slow cook. I cooked food using each mode, and everything came out fine. Roast/bake was the multicooker’s sweet spot. The chicken I cooked fit comfortably in the 6.5-quart cooking pot and was just as good as roasts I’ve prepared in conventional ovens.
Baking was a bit trickier. The biggest challenge was finding a baking sheet or pan that would fit into the cooking pot. I improvised by wrapping the included roasting rack in aluminum foil before I baked chocolate chip cookies in the multicooker. The cookies were perfect when they were finished baking, but Black+Decker should include an appropriate-size pan for folks who want to bake for one.
This is where my praise for the multicooker ends. On a lower-priced product, the multicooker’s shortcomings would be relatively minor: there isn’t a built-in timer, and a pot roast that I slow-cooked wasn’t nearly as pull-apart tender I had hoped (something we’ve seen with other multicookers that opt for metal cooking pots over ceramic). But these are inexcusable drawbacks for a small appliance that costs more than $100.
The Black+Decker Multicooker is a decent product that would keep you from having to turn on a full-size oven all the time. But its average performance isn’t worthy of its $130 price. Consider less expensive products that can perform similar tasks, such as the basic, non-connected version of the Instant Pot Smart we’ve reviewed. And if you just want some countertop baking, the Panasonic FlashXpress Toaster Oven has a stellar performance and a comparable price.
Gourmia GCR1700 10-in-1 Multi-Function Robotic Cooker review – CNET
The Good The $299 Gourmia GCR1700 10-in-1 Multi-Function Robotic Cooker, aka the Cook-A-Riffic, has a removable arm that automatically stirs dishes like stews and stir-frys.
The Bad The promised cooking modes are misleading, temperature settings are wonky and the pot that cooks your food gets too hot too quickly.
The Bottom Line The cooker doesn’t perform its promised 10 functions well enough to earn a coveted spot on your countertop.
The Gourmia GCR1700 10-in-1 Multi-Function Robotic Cooker, aka the Cook-A-Riffic, makes a striking first impression. The multicooker’s exterior looks like a finalist for a new Daft Punk helmet. The name is so terrible that it somehow becomes cute. And most importantly, it comes with a removable arm that stirs dishes for you.
That’s no space helmet, it’s a multicooker.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
But when it comes to cooking, this countertop appliance is a dunce.
The $299 cooker (it’s selling a lot cheaper on Amazon) claims to be able to perform 10 common kitchen tasks. In reality, the cooker only has four core functions — stir-fry, steam, stew and grill. From those functions, you have to tweak the default time and temperature settings to access the other six cooking modes — sauté, pan-fry, sauces, slow-cook, soup and bake. For example, if you want to slow cook, you have to use the stew mode, then change the time and temperature at which you want to cook your dish.
These workarounds are a pain, especially if you’re working with a recipe that doesn’t specify temperatures (a slow-cooker recipe usually tells you to cook something on low or high rather than, say, 350 degrees). To make matters worse, you can’t dial up or down to get exact numbers — the minimum temperature is 122 degrees, the max is 428 degrees, and there are seemingly random set temperatures in between. And be careful if you don’t adjust the default temperatures — the cooking pot gets hot quickly, which resulted in some burnt-bottomed chocolate chip cookies and a pot roast that looked like it was wearing a leather jacket.
The removable stirring arm is the one highlight of the appliance. You slip the arm into a part of the machine that extends above the cooking pot, and it will automatically rotate the arm when you’re operating in stir-fry or stew mode. The attachment rotates slowly enough to keep vegetables from burning, and some broccoli and carrots I chopped for a stir-fry turned out pretty tasty.
But the handy arm isn’t enough to save the Cook-A-Riffic from itself. It takes up a lot of space, even though the cooking pot is relatively shallow. Its design makes it hard to keep the lid clean and creates some hard-to-reach spots in the cooking pot. Skip the this appliance and go for a multicooker that can perform all of its promised tasks well.
Black+Decker 6-in-1 Stirring Cooker review – CNET
The Good The $70 Black+Decker 6-in-1 Stirring Cooker has an automated arm that stirs risotto for you.
The Bad The cooker does a lousy job at just about every other task.
The Bottom Line Skip this cooker — unless you’re really into risotto.
Risotto is a hard dish to master, mainly because it requires time, attention and a good amount of stirring to steadily let your rice absorb liquid. The $70 Black+Decker 6-in-1 Stirring Cooker addresses some of the tedium of this dish with an arm that automatically stirs the contents of the pot. The pot makes a decent risotto, but that’s about the only thing that makes it worthwhile.
The removable stirring arm sits on a knob at the bottom of the cooking pot. The knob rotates when the cooker’s on risotto mode.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
The cooker has six settings — rice, pasta, slow cook, sauté, warm and risotto. That last feature was a surprise standout during testing. To use the risotto setting, you place a small stirring arm over a knob on the bottom of the cooking pot. Fire that risotto mode up, and the knob will start turning the arm.
I wasn’t sure how well the arm would stir a batch of mushroom risotto I made; the rice gathered into a pile as it expanded, and the arm just slowly scooted the mass of starch around the cooking pot. But the pile eventually collapsed, and the arm steadily stirred the expanding rice. The risotto was better than I anticipated; a little past al dente, but better than I could have cooked myself.
The cooker won’t alleviate all your kitchen woes, though. Even though you don’t have to stir your risotto manually, you still have to stand over the pot and gradually add your liquid until the rice absorbs it. And the cooker’s other settings were disappointing. It’s hard to sauté in the cooker because of the knob at the bottom of the pot. It also took more than 18 minutes to get water boiling for pasta, and water couldn’t get hot enough to sustain a boil after I added my noodles. This resulted in noodles that were still partially raw after cooking them according to package instructions.
The cooker does help when it comes to making risotto, but it’s not great at the other five tasks the product claims to tackle. Unless you just love a good risotto, pass on this cooker.
Google Daydream View review – CNET
The Good Affordable, portable and easy to set up. The bundled motion controller is convenient and easy to use. Exclusive YouTube, Google Street View and Google Photos feel like potential killer apps.
The Bad It only works with Google Pixel for now. The headset is front-heavy and frequently needs adjusting. There’s limited app selection at launch and you can’t walk around or grab things in VR.
The Bottom Line The Daydream View is the simplest, most affordable way to turn a phone into an immersive VR headset.
Cardboard is cheap. Gear VR only works with Samsung phones. The pricy Oculus Rift and HTC Vive require an expensive gaming PC and loads of setup, and the PlayStation VR needs a PS4.
Virtual reality is hard.
But for $79, £69 or AU$119, Google’s new Daydream View could be the break we’ve been waiting for.
It’s a soft cloth eyebox that turns any compatible phone into a VR headset, and it comes complete with its own Wii-like motion controller for manipulating objects and menus in VR.
It’s the easiest VR to use by far.
But does that mean you should run out and buy one? Not necessarily. Not yet, anyhow.
The Google Daydream View.
Josh Miller/CNET
Magical but murky
One of the pitfalls of most VR is the number of cords, ports and things you have to adjust. The Daydream View puts them all to shame. Here are the steps to set it up:
- Open the headset’s front door and remove the included controller
- Turn on your phone (if it’s off) and place it on the door
- Close the door, place the headset on your head and adjust until the image looks clear
- Adjust the straps
- Hold down a button on the controller to calibrate, and start playing.
That’s it. No adjusting the lenses, no fiddling with pairing procedures, no ports or cables to plug in. The phone automatically pairs with the headset and adjusts the screen to the correct position, like magic.
Once you’re inside, the included motion controller makes navigating menus a breeze. Just point where you want to go, and a little mouse cursor follows your motion quickly and accurately.
Modeling the Daydream View. (I’m trying to grow out my beard.)
Josh Miller/CNET
Just know that “easy” doesn’t mean “perfect.”
When I handed the Daydream View to my colleagues, many of them instinctively put it on the wrong way. The curved straps are supposed to rest on top of your head (like a crown) but it’s tempting to cinch them down like a pair of ski goggles — which isn’t terribly comfortable.
And though the Daydream View is almost entirely made of soft, cushiony fabric instead of hard plastics, that didn’t stop my wife and colleagues from complaining how front-heavy it was with a large Pixel XL phone inside. Even if it weighs less than a pound (roughly 0.85 lbs with the phone) there’s still potential for neck strain over time.
The image quality is good — I definitely felt like I was somewhere else! — but it’s not going to fool anyone who doesn’t want to be fooled. And I often found I had to recalibrate the headset and controller in the middle of a session (it’s easy — just hold down the home button).
I even found a bug that makes VR totally unusable until I reboot the phone — though I understands a software fix for that is coming soon.
Up close with Google’s Daydream View headset
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Here’s the rub: unless you have a Google Pixel or other Daydream-certified phone, the Daydream View won’t work at all. That’s by design: Google’s pitch is that Daydream can keep you from getting sick in VR by ensuring both phones and apps meet a certain quality standard.
I haven’t gotten sick — so far.
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This handy bundled motion controller makes a big difference, and tucks into the headset when not in use.
Josh Miller/CNET
But that means a murky future for Daydream, because we honestly don’t know how many phone manufacturers and app developers will wholeheartedly support Google’s new platform — or if the results will be as good as these preliminary ones. Even the 5-inch Pixel offers a lesser experience than the 5.5-inch Pixel XL, because its screen is lower-resolution.
We tried another upcoming Daydream phone, the Huawei Mate 9, only to find out it may not be Daydream-ready until next year.
Microsoft Surface Book i7 (2016) review – CNET
The Good Improved speed, graphics and battery life in a similar design; detachable tablet comes included, as does the Surface Pen; crisp design; has USB ports and SD card slot
The Bad It’s also slightly thicker and heavier than last year’s version, and retains the odd gap on the folding hinge. Expensive compared to other options. Doesn’t meet minimum specs for VR gaming.
The Bottom Line The design remains mostly unchanged, but PC power users will like the extra power and battery life on the updated 2016 version of the Surface Book.
Order from Microsoft.
The Surface Book was Microsoft’s first-ever laptop, and now it’s back for an encore.
The Surface Book with Performance Base is an update to last year’s Surface Book, a laptop with detaching tablet screen that had an iconic look and some pretty good — and weird — design flourishes.
What the Surface Book isn’t is a Surface Pro sequel. The Surface Pro 4, released a year ago as well, hasn’t been updated in 2016 (and isn’t compatible with the Surface Book at all).
Sarah Tew/CNET
But the funny thing is, this year’s version of the Microsoft Surface Book is actually more everyday-practical than Apple’s MacBook Pro in some key areas. It has full tablet and stylus modes for art and creative work, and retains legacy ports like full-size USB 3 and an SD card slot, unlike Apple’s new MacBooks.
If you’re looking for a Windows laptop with good performance chops that can also double as a tablet on the fly, you’ve come to the right place. As long as you can afford the price. The biggest change to last year’s model is the base’s boost in battery, processor and graphics. “Performance base,” indeed.
Can you tell the difference between last year and this year?
Sarah Tew/CNET
Design: Staying the course from 2015
If you looked at Microsoft’s Surface Book last year, lusted after it, but wanted it to be a more powerful computer, this is your answer. It’s a better laptop, and a better experience. But in exchange for that power, it also gets a bit heavier.
The side edges feel the same, but there’s a clear curving bulge on the base now. You won’t notice it unless you stack these laptops side by side, but it’s there.
Last year, we remarked that the Surface Book size and weight was comparable to the then-current MacBook Pro models. This year, the MacBooks got thinner and the Surface Book got thicker. The new Book with Performance Base ranges from 13mm thick at the front to 22.8mm thick in the back, and it weighs at least 3.62 pounds. Last year’s version maxed at 3.5 pounds for the step-up model with Nvidia graphics.
It’s a slightly heavier feel, but it’s so close to last year’s concept that a newcomer probably won’t notice the difference.
Notice the thicker base on the right (the new one).
Sarah Tew/CNET
The problem is that it’s not just MacBooks that have gotten smaller and lighter: the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is down to 3 pounds. Thin is in for other Windows laptops, too. 3.6 pounds now counts as a heavyweight in the ultraportable world.
We had a few issues with the Surface Book design last year, which have unfortunately stayed: The futuristic magnesium hinge unfolded beautifully, but unlike with devices like the Lenovo Yoga it doesn’t flip over end-to-end. To turn it into a tabletop touchscreen, you detach the top and flip it around and re-dock into the base.
Sarah Tew/CNET
There’s also still a weird gap between the top and base when closed, as if the whole Surface Book was a sheet of metal curved and folded in half. A gap-free, slimmer design would still be preferred.
But at least the Surface Book retains its classic ports. Unlike the MacBook Pro’s crazy all-USB-C array, the Surface Book base has two USB-3 ports, a Mini DisplayPort and an SD card slot, plus Microsoft’s magnetic charge connector. USB-C would have been nice, too, but for pros this is probably the preferred arrangement for the present.
Google Daydream View Review
Would you believe that it’s been two years already since Google Cardboard was first introduced to the world during Google I/O 2014? The platform, which was developed by Google, provided nearly anyone and everyone with an Android-powered smartphone with the taste of virtual reality – and without having to invest such a huge sum of money in the process, something that made it accessible to a broad range of people. Fast forward now to the present, the mobile virtual reality experience is evolving with the release of Google’s next-generation headset.
The level of immersion is undeniably critical in making virtual reality believable, so it’s going to be intriguing to see how the advances with the Google Daydream View will make for a convincing argument for the segment. Mobile VR as we’ve seen thus far, has been largely static in comparison to what commercial VR systems, such as the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, have delivered for a decent time now. Let’s just cross our fingers and hope this next iteration is a leap forward – as opposed to just small step up from what we know and have.
- The Daydream VR titles available on launch day
Design
Sorry Cardboard, you were cheap and readily available to the masses, but the comfort and ergonomics weren’t there at all. Thankfully Google’s approach this time is more mindful about those two qualities, seeing that the Daydream View adopts a design that’s more agreeable to the styling of today’s clothing – rather than the monolithic, sometimes sci-fi looking designs of other headsets. In fact, its design is inspired by the clothes we wear, so to that degree, there’s a friendlier demeanor to its particular look and feel.
While we applaud Google choice for the material employed by the headset, this breathable fabric-esque material dubbed “textiles,” they missed the mark in terms of its fitting. To be fair, though, the soft fabric material feels good over the skin and surrounding area that goes over our eyes. And the uniformity it exudes is much more charming in appearance than the prototype-esque aesthetics of the Samsung Gear VR, or the crudeness of the Cardboard headset.
However, having only a single, adjustable strap that goes around our head with the Daydream View, it doesn’t seem equipped at keeping itself propped up while it’s worn. When you place the Google Pixel XL into the headset, the phone’s weightiness causes the entire thing to become front heavy – making it a nuisance because of the constant need of being propped up using our free hand. Of course, this particular design flaw could be ameliorated by simply adding another strap that would go over the head.
Sure, the decision to go with a fabric exterior is a great direction for the headset’s overall design, but when it cracks under the weight when the handset is positioned into place, it’s more of an annoyance than anything else trying to constantly adjust the straps. Nice design, but that one flaw is glaring.
Setup
Really, there’s nothing to it with the setup process of the Google Daydream View. Once the Google Pixel XL is fastened safely into place, the sensors automatically launch the Daydream app. After that, all that’s needed to complete the initial setup process is to press and hold the home button on the new controller that comes included with the headset.
We will mention, however, that Google manages to at least plan accordingly with the controller. Its diminutive size, in fact, allows it to be tucked away in the inside of the headset when it’s not being used. For what it does in the VR world, this new accessory adds to the VR experience by providing us with an expressive and intuitive way of interacting with things. Not only does it have a touch sensitive pad, as well as the usual home, back, and volume controls, it’s capable of sensing motion. Call it the secret weapon in its arsenal, it’s similar in premise to other motion sensing controllers – like the Nintendo Wii remotes, DualShock 4, and even the HTC Vive controllers.
Once the calibration is completed, we’re automatically brought to the Daydream Home portal, which is set in this forest world and it’s the area where we see all of our downloaded apps and content. Currently, though, this portal is the only way to initiate downloads for Daydream supported apps. Meaning, there’s no separate section yet in the Google Play Store to download apps – so you’re forced to use Daydream’s VR interface.
VR experience
Given that the Daydream View is still the vessel for the brains of the operation, the Google Pixel XL in our case here, its implementation doesn’t stray far from other mobile VR experiences – including Cardboard. In our time checking out the limited selection of Daydream apps and experiences, we can agree that it follows the same fundamental properties of what we’ve seen from mobile VR already. That means that it’s still a mostly static experience, one with limited range extended to looking all around us as we’re sitting or standing still.
Before we get deeper into its experience, let’s briefly talk about the two lenses in the headset that allow us to see into this virtual reality. There’s not a whole lot to complain about, especially when the handset’s Quad-HD resolution is the gold standard for mobile VR currently. Plus, the lenses have a wide enough coverage to never once make it feel narrow as we peer into them. And in our brief time using the headset, we never once felt nauseous using it, which can also be attributed to the processing power and smooth performance of the Google Pixel XL.
Going back to the overall VR experience, Daydreamstill can’t escape the static approach of current mobile VR implementations. Indeed, the addition of the motion controller does nicely to enhance the experience, but at the end of the day, we’re still confined to our space while just being able to look around. Unfortunately there’s no advancement in terms of spatial movement tracking, which obviously would involve a bit more hardware to achieve.
The controller acts as a pointer in the virtual world, and in some instances, it’s even virtualized for us to look at. From the looks of it, the motion tracking seems spot-on and responsive, as waving, tilting, and panning it are precisely tracked – so it very much works like other motion controllers. The caveat is that it’s tethered in the way that it doesn’t respond appropriately in the VR world when it’s raised above the headset. It’s a minor limitation, of course, but nonetheless one that we have to mention.
Don’t get us wrong, the motion controller absolutely enhances the mobile VR experience, but ultimately the overall experience is still very much like Cardboard and Gear VR. Therefore, its level of immersion still falls short of what’s achieved by the complex VR systems out there. For an on-the-go experience, it achieves the same result as other mobile solutions – just that it’s enhanced by the addition of the motion controller.
The games & content
We’ve been checking out a few games and experiences with the Google Daydream View, ahead of its official availability date of November 10th. It’s really tough to say after checking them out if it’s a home run for Daydream, especially when you know developers will no doubt create some cool and innovative content as time goes by. In the meantime, however, we will just say that this is just the beginning – so don’t expect anything extraordinary.
Google apps such as YouTube, Street View, Google Photos, and Play Movies all act as you’d expect, wherein they function in the same capacity to what we’ve been exposed to with mobile VR. Street View allows us to visit famous landmarks in far away places, or alternatively, visit the street where we spent the majority of our childhood. There’s nothing exorbitant with the VR experience, naturally, since it’s a static experience that lets us absorb the sights and scenery – while using the motion controller to quickly jump from one location to another. With Play Movies, it does nothing more than to replicate the big screen experience of a movie theater.
Again, we can’t stress enough about the static experiences here, which is due to the headset unable to measure spatial movement. The motion controller makes it more convenient with interacting with things in the VR world, such as pointing at dots to jump from one area to another in Street View. Despite its addition, it’s not doing a whole lot to move forward the experience – still, it’s better than having to press on some button on the headset, or something like that.
Moving onto the games, they make better use of the motion controller. Games like Wonderglade, makes it necessary to use the controller to play many of the mini games there. For example, it’s used to act as a firehose to douse flames, it becomes a golf club in mini golf, and even show off its motion tracking by tilting it in all sorts of ways to guide a ball through a maze. Wonderglade, by far, best showcases the potential of the motion controller’s implementation in the VR world.
Other games we’ve checked out also make use of the motion controller. In Mekorama, we use the motion controller to help guide out tiny robot friend through these puzzles by pointing it where to go, moving blocks with the motion controller to gain access to new levels, and much more. Endless shooters are being transformed as well with the Daydream View’s implementation. Hunters Gate in particular, utilizes the controller’s touchpad to navigate our player in the map, while using the controller at the same time to target enemies.
These games do a better job of showing how valuable the motion controller is with the overall experience. It’s a small tease so far, so we’re itching to see how other games and experiences try to innovate the overall VR experience.
Conclusion
Cardboard is so beloved not only because it exposed a vast majority of smartphone owners to virtual reality, for the very first time even, but also because of the minimum investment cost coming from users. With the Daydream View, of course, its new motion controller and breathable fabric design means there’s a significant cost attached to it over its Cardboard brethren. At first glance, the Daydream View’s cost of $79 might seem alarming, but it actually undercuts the competition – making for a presentable solution that’s priced effectively.
The bigger question we need to ask, though, is whether or not these new implementations add any value to the overall experience. Early on, it doesn’t seem likely, as we feel that only one game really manages to harness the power of the new motion controller. Then again, things might very well change rapidly once the headset launches and developers can go on to tinker with it more, fine-tune things, and eventually come up with some ingenious ways this system can really sell virtual reality to the masses.
One of the most pressing things, however, is just the continued static approach – something that hasn’t changed at all. The missing piece here is spatial tracking, something that has been the defining, also differentiating factor that separates mobile VR from the full-blown experience we see in things like the Sony PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift. We’re hesitant to recommend picking up the Google Daydream View right now, mainly because it’s only a small step forward from what we’ve seen in the mobile VR space over the course of the last couple of years. Then again, if you have a Pixel, it’s only $79 and so you’re not exactly investing a ton of money for the chance to dive a bit deeper with VR than you could with Cardboard.
Daydream View review: A fantastic step into the next generation of VR headsets
Google’s new VR experience is a universe of possibility populated by a fistful of successful ideas.
The next stage of smartphone-based VR is here, but you’re going to quickly notice a few things are needed for this to be as much fun as it could be.
Pros
- More comfortable than most VR headsets
- Daydream Controller is excellent
- High quality VR experiences
Cons
- Basically no apps at launch
- Light bleed affects immersion
A great fresh start
Google Daydream View Full review
The stewards of Android discovered a long time ago that a democratized platform will grow faster than one rigidly controlled and maintained. The Android OS never would have become the global power it is today had Google not made it something just about any hardware company could make something for. The same can be said for Chrome, Search, Gmail, and most of Google’s other products. Make it something as many people as possible can enjoy on their terms — more or less — and growth will be incredible.
A “20% project” announced almost as a forgotten footnote at the end of Google I/O 2014 is one of the more recent examples. A simple cardboard box with a rubber band and a pair of cheap plastic lenses offered anyone with a smartphone the ability to experience immersive photography and video in a way that hadn’t been so widely available since the View-Master. Google Cardboard grew in popularity at an explosive rate, due in no small part to how many things could interact with the hardware and how readily available the software is across iOS, Android, and YouTube.
As cool as Cardboard is, it’s not particularly easy to improve that experience without leaving behind a segment of the current user base. You can make apps that only work on high-end phones, or apps that work best when you aren’t holding the cardboard box to your face with your hands, but you carve out a big chunk of users with every limitation. In order to reach a higher standard of VR content, a new platform needed to exist that focused only on delivering those high quality, high immersion experiences. Google is calling this upgraded experience Daydream, and the first headset built to deliver this new experience Daydream View.
About this review
I have been using Daydream View with a Google Pixel XL for six days. That Pixel XL, which was sent with the headset by Google, arrived running build NDE63U with a version of Google VR Services that has been updated three times during the review process.
Like wearing sweatpants on your face
Google Daydream View Hardware
No two Google Cardboard headsets are exactly alike, but they all follow the same general layout. It’s a design you can spot from across the room if you own one of these simple VR headsets, and Daydream View looks like a highly stylized version of one of those them. The phone slips into the front cavity, and a pair of lenses sit a couple inches from that space to warp the image on the screen to fit your vision. It’s a familiar setup, one that works well for what Google has been trying to accomplish so far.
As you pick up and use this particular highly stylized Google Cardboard headset, it becomes clear this is much more sophisticated. Opening the front tray reveals the Daydream Controller, a small wireless controller with a wrist strap that gets used to control every aspect of the Daydream experience. Under that controller, which is nicely secured by an elastic strap, there’s an NFC tag to launch Daydream as soon as you put the phone down. That move causes a notification to float up asking you to close the headset so Daydream can start.
When you close the phone into Daydream view, it’s perfectly centered against the lenses in the headset without you needing to move a thing. This happens thanks to the two black rubber nubs touching the phone display, which tells the apps you’re about to use where the “center” is without your assistance. That’s a big deal, and not only because it means jumping into Daydream is even more convenient any other mobile VR platform right now. This mechanism removes the one real adjustment Google Cardboard users have to do to ensure a clear image, something you’ll never need to worry about on Daydream.
The thing that really sells Daydream View as a Gear VR competitor is that you don’t have to use a Samsung phone.
Putting the headset itself on is easy. There’s a single strap, and you pull it onto your head and tighten the strap until you’re comfortable. The strap adjustment sliders are convenient and work well for adults, but don’t quite get small enough for many younger users. As you’ve seen in the photos, Daydream View is almost entirely fabric, including big plush pads for the forehead and sides. It’s a quick, comfortable fit to be sure, but the winner of our Most Comfortable VR Headset award still goes to PlayStation VR for now. The pressure caused by tightening the headset all rests just above your eyebrows, and even with a loose fit you’re going to feel that pressure after about an hour.
The spacing on the face hole for this headset is wide enough for you to be able to put just about any size prescription lenses inside without being too uncomfortable, which is fantastic. You may notice some initial discomfort when trying to get the headset into place, especially if your glasses are prone to pressing against your face already, but in most cases a quick adjustment will make this a smooth ride. What you get in exchange, unfortunately, is some significant light bleed on either side of the headset.
It all comes together to form a VR headset that feels an awful lot like a response to Samsung and Oculus.
The sides of the headset don’t sit flush against your skin, so any amount of light from behind you will be visible as a reflection on the lens just in front of your display. Those reflections aren’t great for establishing total immersion in what you’re doing, but more importantly, rapidly adjusting focus between the reflection and the VR world can lead to headaches in a hurry.
All of this comes together to form a VR headset that feels an awful lot like a response to Samsung and Oculus. The Samsung Gear VR didn’t really have any competition until now, and Google’s offering sets you up with more input options with the Daydream controller, a nearly identical field a view, and a more compact and comfortable headset. The thing that really sells Daydream View as a Gear VR competitor is that you don’t have to use a Samsung phone, and that eventually there will be more options than just the Google Pixel and Pixel XL supported in this headset. That has the potential to be a very big deal, assuming support comes at a fast enough pace.
Totally contained, and damned impressive
Google Daydream View Software
Your days of crawling Google’s seemingly endless Play Store for quality games that will work in your Cardboard viewer are, thankfully, behind you. Google has a standalone Daydream app for your phone, and its job is to manage your Daydream apps and offer a simple, separate place for your VR world. For the most part, Daydream in app form is a way to organize your VR apps and offer you a 2D way to access Daydream settings. If you want to set a different VR keyboard, this is the fastest way to do that. If you want to pair a new Daydream Controller, this is where you do that. It’s fairly straightforward, which is exactly what it needed to be.
It’s also the most visually compelling app Google has ever released.
Every listing in your Daydream library is interactive. Pause on a listing for a moment and the static image for the app or game turns into a window for you to peer through into the world contained within. This simple 360-degree image encourages you to move your phone around and peek into the world in order to see what you’ll be doing with the headset on. It’s not only a great way to distract yourself for a few minutes at a time, it’s the perfect way to show off new VR apps to people who aren’t sure about buying something untested. No other VR service offers a comparable setup right now, but this should be the default experience for buying VR apps and games.
The Daydream app is the perfect way to show off new VR experiences to people who aren’t sure about buying something untested.
When you aren’t browsing in the Daydream app, you have the headset on your face and are getting the full VR experience. Google has built Daydream in much the same way Oculus has built Home, as a fully contained VR experience that lets you search through your library and purchase new apps without needing to take the headset off. This experience is built in a total 360-degree world unique to Daydream, and encourages users to stick around in the VR world for longer than a quick tour through any single app or game.
Daydream’s controller lends a lot to this experience. You hold the wand in the real world, and in the virtual one you see a laser pointer to interact with whatever you want. The accuracy of this controller is key, and something Google nailed out of the box. When you move left and right, up or down, and even spinning the controller around, you see that represented in the VR world. It’s not a full travel system like HTC’s Vive controllers, but it’s the closest you’ll get from a Bluetooth-connected accessory. Using the Daydream Controller to navigate everything feels noticeably more natural than a gamepad or touch pad on the side of the headset, and if your goal is to use the headset for extended periods of time that’s a big deal.
Google’s software team worked very hard to minimize what’s called the Screen Door Effect through software, especially in the primary menu and Play Store. The use of Material Design elements with bold primary colors makes it more difficult to spot the display lines on the Pixel XL, and throughout all of the text Google supplies everything is perfectly readable without a lot of harsh black lines from the display. Google’s software partners didn’t work quite as hard, so in several other apps the SDE is more noticeable. It’s likely Google will offer up some UI guidelines to help reduce these experiences, but for now know that all of Google’s apps follow this fairly well.
Speaking of third-party apps, it’d be really nice if Daydream had a few! During the review Google Play had ten whole apps, five of which are made by Google. Here’s what I experienced:
- Arts and Culture — Taking guided 360-degree tours of amazing places all around the world.
- Play Movies — Grab a seat in a theater in a glade, with the stars above you and your Play Movies library projected on a sheet in front of you.
- YouTube — Immerse yourself in the best of YouTube, with menus that fly in to your perspective at the press of a button.
- Photos — Take a look at any photos you’ve taken, including Cardboard Camera and Photosphere pictures.
- Street View — Stand in the middle of a street, and look around to see almost any place in the world.
- Star Chart VR — Take a look at the world, or any other world in our solar system with your futuristic laser pointer.
- WonderGlade — A theme park full of minigames all involving your motion controller.
- Mekorama VR — 360-degree puzzles where you move the whole world to get your character to the goal.
- WSJ VR — 360-degree stories with an impressive level of detail.
- Hunter’s Gate — A classic dungeon crawler with a VR twist.
While no doubt a diverse offering of incredibly well-made apps, it’s possible to enjoy all of these apps in a single day and be ready for more. When the embargo lifted, Google unveiled nine more apps in the Play Store for everyone to enjoy. While no one expected Google to immediately compete with the massive list of Gear VR games that are available after years of competition-free existence, the lack of content is frustrating. We know Google has lots of support promised for the not-so-distant future, including names like HBO and Netflix as well as exclusives from CCP Games and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which is actually available now), which is exciting and will be worth it.
Speaking of third-party apps, it’d be really nice if Daydream had a few more!
Google could have added support for the utterly massive list of Cardboard games that are available in the Play Store to flesh this list out, but it’s important to note the difference in quality between Cardboard games and Daydream games. Daydream games are immersive, rich, and offer high resolution and high frame-rate gameplay or visuals. Cardboard apps are not nearly as capable, and don’t support the basics of Daydream Controller interaction. We have some small crossover with Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes and VR Karts: Sprint that previously lived as Cardboard only. For now, and quite possibly forever, these two Google-made VR experiences are basically totally different worlds.
It’s fantastic to see Google nail software, however scarce the launch apps may seem. Everything about the Daydream world is well executed, from the spatial audio to the way many of Google’s apps are visually connected to the center “house” you start out in. It’s a great first step, and hopefully that store gets full quickly.
Lots more of this, please!
Google Daydream View Experience
From the moment you put on these goggles that weirdly feel like sweatpants, you’re in another world entirely. Pressing the activation button on your Controller causes the world around to go dark, followed by the sound of insects and flowing water. As the world gets a little brighter, the floating menu in front of you invites you to take part in a host of exciting experiences. Some of these are dedicated apps for games or immersive VR stories, but everything is a little different and there’s something for everyone. As you turn around, the rest of the little house you are sitting in comes into focus. It’s simple room with paths that lead to other apps and just enough fun randomness on the wall to encourage you to look around and soak it all in.
Daydream View is a complete thought, which is something I don’t get to say often enough when looking at new VR platforms. This isn’t a way to soak up the existing VR content and act as a gatekeeper for those experiences, it’s a standalone idea. Google, much like HTC and Valve, thinks motion controllers are the way forward. Waving your hand through the air and seeing it represented in VR is something special. Being able to swipe your thumb across the pad and quickly flick your wrist for real actions in Daydream is significantly more convenient and natural than any other control mechanism out there today.
This headset will eventually be supported by something other than Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL, but what these phones offer initially is pretty great. There’s undeniably a quality difference when looking at things through the lower-resolution (1080p) Pixel, and light bleed will be more pronounced with smaller phones that allow the bezel to be seen through the lenses, but the Pixel XL experience is great. Not once in upwards of 50 hours of use so far has the phone shown any signs of lagging or slowing down, and the games have been consistent across each play session. Your phone will be warm to the touch after a few minutes of active gameplay, but never hot enough to be painful even after hours of gameplay.
Daydream View has the potential to be the best mobile VR headset you can buy.
Battery is always a concern with smartphone-based VR, and Google promised to work hard on ensuring that experience was as good as it could be. On average, Daydream consumes 30% of battery for every hour of use, which is better than you’ll get in any other smartphone-based VR system. That having been said, the lack of any face detection sensors like the ones on the front of the Gear VR means if you take the headset off and set it down to answer a knock at the door or rush into a meeting, Daydream will continue running without you.
At the end of the day, the biggest problem with Daydream View is that I’ve already run out of things to do with it. It’s a fun system, but Google needs to step up the available content ASAP. Games are a big part of what comes next for this platform, but also watching 2D and 360-degree videos through the various apps that support your activity right now. For early adopters this is going to be a waiting game, and hopefully Google and their partners don’t keep us waiting for long.
It’ll probably be awesome eventually?
Google Daydream View Bottom line
This headset has the potential to be the best mobile VR headset you can buy, and maintain that title for quite some time. Google’s efforts in implementing motion controls, controlling the software to an extent, and making sure the headset is comfortable enough to want to use for longer periods of time are great. The price is great as well, $79 is within striking distance of many higher end Google Cardboard headsets and undercuts Samsung’s Gear VR by $20 on the shelf. Aside from the light bleed, the headset itself is well executed and the controller is genuinely fun to use while also being accurate.
But when does this stop being the cool thing early adopters get because they could or because it was free with their Pixel? The promise of Daydream lies in being able to offer something like View and know that many different phones will be able to use it to access whole worlds of content. None of that is true yet, and buying something because it might one day be what you want it to be is never a good idea.
Should you buy it? Eventually
If you’re a Pixel XL owner and want something new, there’s a lot to like in this headset. If you recently ditched a Note 7 for the Pixel and are hoping this experience rivals your Gear VR, Daydream View isn’t going to fully measure up.
See at the Google Store
Your Wi-Fi could betray the pin on your phone
Always know you can trust the Wi-Fi network you’re connection to. Always.
There are lots of individual mechanisms for extracting a pin or password from a user without their knowledge. Some involve cameras, we’ve seen examples of guessing based on smudges on the screen, and of course if you have direct access to the phone itself there are other avenues. Adrian Croyler shared a new mechanism being used that relies on Wi-Fi interference from your hand, which is both fascinating and terrifying.
WiKey uses CSI waveform patterns to distinguish keystrokes on an external keyboard. WiPass detects graphical unlock passwords. But WindTalker is particularly effective because it doesn’t require any access to the victim’s phone, and works with regular mobile phones, and it piggy-backs on an existing wifi connection.
Now, there’s a lot of ifs and maybes in the current implementation of this tech. You have to be connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot controller by the attacker, and some time to evaluate your usage patterns needs to be done before a precise model can be created. It’s not as though every Wi-Fi network in the world is dangerous, but it does call to mind an all too often ignored personal security measure. It’s important to know and trust the Wi-Fi networks you are connecting to, and with services like Google’s Project Fi increasing in popularity that’s happening less and less. Being connected to a strange Wi-Fi network through Google’s secure VPN isn’t going to protect you from this attack, because it’s entirely about measuring your physical hardware once it is connected to the network.
It’s still super unlikely an attack like this would be used on you in the immediate future, but if you care about your digital security this is one more reason to avoid that free Wi-Fi at Starbucks.
You can use the Nexus 6P in Daydream, but you really shouldn’t
You’re going to have a bad time, but it’s there if you want it.
Google has not been at all shy about whether the Nexus 6P is a good phone to use in their new Daydream headset. The big warning on the side of the Google Developers site letting you know this phone is only useful as a development model for future Daydream products should be enough. On the other hand, if all you have is a Nexus 6P and you want to see what you’re missing out on, Google didn’t work too hard to stop you from trying.
You’re only going to get about 5 minutes into Daydream on the Nexus 6P before performance takes a hit.
You don’t actually need the Daydream View headset and controller, but it certainly helps. Much like the Daydream demo Google unveiled back at I/O, all you really need is a pair of phones and simple Cardboard headset. The Daydream app can be sideloaded onto your primary phone, and Google’s Daydream Controller Emulator can be installed on the second phone if you don’t have a View. Daydream will start up and give you access to all of the same things you’ll get on the Pixel and Pixel XL. If it sounds clumsy, that’s because it is.
You’re only going to get about 5 minutes into Daydream on the Nexus 6P before performance takes a hit. The phone will overheat, the processor will slow down to compensate, and the apps and VR motions will stutter. This isn’t just a bad experience from a visual experience, it’s one of the fastest ways to experience nausea through VR. a consistent framerate and accurate head tracking are two of the most important parts of a successful VR experience, and Daydream on the 6P guarantees neither of these things.
So like I said, it’s possible to take a look but you probably shouldn’t.
Google’s Daydream VR now available to buy and experience
Get in the game.
Google’s Daydream View launches today, as you may know, but along with it is a host of software experiences you can get for the new platform.
That’s because Daydream is both hardware and software, and the View is just the first example of hardware we’re going to see for it; as Cardboard did to inexpensive mobile VR, Daydream hopes to do with slightly-more-expensive-but-still-affordable mobile VR.
The Daydream View itself is available for $79 in the U.S., and goes on sale today. It’s also available in Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia, all through Google and in some cases, like Canada and Germany, at various carriers.
The software story is a little weird. Google has released updates versions of Google Play Movies & TV and Street View on which to view VR-enabled content, but there isn’t much in the way of original content, at least at launch. There are 12 games, including Mekorama and Hunter’s Gate, and 13 apps, including Fantastic Beasts and YouTube VR, that are Daydream-optimized.
Russell Holly, in his review, says that the Daydream View, and its accompanying platform, are fully-formed out of the box:
Daydream View is a complete thought, which is something I don’t get to say often enough when looking at new VR platforms. This isn’t a way to soak up the existing VR content and act as a gatekeeper for those experiences, it’s a standalone idea.
Right now, the Pixel and Pixel XL are the only two phones that work with Daydream, but that number should increase relatively quickly as more phones are released running Android 7.1 Nougat.
Are you planning on picking up a Daydream View, or did you receive a code for one when purchasing a Pixel? Let us know!
See at Google
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