Whoa! Is Nissan about to add Microsoft Cortana to its cars?

You may be sick of CES news already, even though the week has only started, but we promise you Nissan’s latest tease is worth your time.

Okay, so Microsoft has said it is opening up Cortana so that third-party companies can release devices with the assistant. Harman Kardon has already teased a Cortana-enabled speaker, which we’re assuming will function a lot like Google Home and Amazon Echo, two smart speakers with their own always-on, voice-activated assistants. Now, Nissan – the car maker – is teasing it’s first product with Cortana.

Nissan took to Twitter on Monday to strongly hint that Cortana will be a part of its 5 January keynote at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company didn’t provide any other details, so we can only assume what’s coming, and our imaginations are running wild. Keep in mind Microsoft recently brought Skype for Business to Volvo’s 90 cars, and Volvo is interested in bringing Cortana to its cars.

• Nissan’s autonomous driving future: The Qashqai and beyond

In other words, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that Microsoft wants not only smart devices but also cars leveraging its assistant. If Volvo is exploring the possibility, Nissan probably is as well. We should know more in a few days.

Pocket-lint will be on the show-floor to bring you hands-on reviews and the latest as it happens.

Three days until #Nissan’s keynote at #CES2017! (Just ask #Cortana to remind you…) Catch it on @Twitter or @YouTube: https://t.co/yre8W4jf8F pic.twitter.com/ZMfs4xCem9

— Nissan Motor (@NissanMotor) January 2, 2017

You only have two weeks left to buy a Tesla with free supercharging 

A few months ago, Tesla gave its customers the bad news: new buyers will have to pay for their own electricity. It was a small surprise, considering the fact that free use of Tesla’s Supercharger network was a big bonus for buying the company’s vehicles. The free access was supposed to drop off for any vehicle purchased after the start of the year, but the company seems to be offering a slight reprieve: prospective Tesla buyers now have two weeks to buy a car with unlimited free access to the charging network.

New Tesla vehicles purchased before January 15th will be able to top-off for free at any Supercharger station, same as always — but cars purchased after the date will be limited to just 400 kWh of free energy per year. Tesla says that’s enough to drive about 1000 miles. Charging beyond that will cost an unannounced additional fee, but the company says it won’t be too expensive, claiming it will cost drivers “less than the price of filling up a comparable gas car.” That doesn’t sound too bad, but if you were saving up to buy a Model S anyway, maybe buy it sooner rather than later.

Source: Road Show

Steam’s 2016 top sellers include ‘No Man’s Sky’ and ‘Rocket League’

Want a (mostly) complete snapshot of the PC gaming scene as it was in 2016? Head over to Steam. Valve’s portal has listed the top 100 best sellers of the year based on revenue, and it clearly reflects what people were buying. Indie titles had a particularly strong showing in 2016, most notably No Man’s Sky — yes, despite the backlash over its grandiose promises, the space exploration game raked in enough cash to be one of Steam’s “platinum” sellers. While NMS’ $50 price tag no doubt helped (it didn’t have to move as many copies as its rivals to rake in money), it’s apparent that the PC version wasn’t the outright commercial flop some expected it to be.

As for other, less drama-laden games? Some of the biggest successes were actually hits from 2015, such as Rocket League, Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Major add-ons and evergreen gameplay go a long way toward keeping a game fresh, folks. And importantly, the size of a studio didn’t guarantee high placement on the chart. It’s more than a little significant that indie champs like Ark: Survival Evolved and Stardew Valley were in the “gold” tier alongside heavyweights like Doom and Call of Duty: Black Ops III. About the only obvious domination by a big-leaguer was Valve itself. Its games were strewn across the chart, and the Steam Controller even managed to squeak on to the list (hardware counts, apparently).

The top 100 comes right as Valve has announced the winners of its first-ever Steam Awards, and they continue that attention on games that are perennial favorites or underdogs. Triple-A blockbusters like Doom and Dark Souls III are joined by years-old games that would otherwise never get a nomination — Euro Truck Simulator 2 managed to snag two awards for being both the hipster pick (“I Thought This Game Was Cool Before it Won an Award”) and one of the most calming games (“Sit Back and Relax”).

In both the charts and the awards, Valve is undoubtedly drumming up sales for games that you don’t already have. All the same, it’s a refreshing break from the usual tendency to focus primarily on major releases. It’s a reminder that games frequently have a life well beyond their first year, and that some of the most popular games fly under the mainstream’s radar.

Source: Steam (top 100), (winners)

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 chip is big on photography and VR

Qualcomm hinted that its Snapdragon 835 processor would be something special, and it’s ready to show all its cards now that it’s at CES. Battery life is one of the chip’s strongest selling points, as you may know (we’ll recap that later), but Qualcomm has also revealed that the 835 also carries a ton of upgrades that reflect a rapidly changing mobile landscape. Take virtual reality, for example. On top of 25 percent faster Adreno 540 graphics, it improves positional audio and reduces the lag between motion tracking and what you see on-screen. You won’t be as likely to feel seasick or turn the wrong way, in other words.

Shutterbugs should also like what’s in store. Image stabilization and zoom should be smoother thanks to both the updated graphics and a newer signal processor. You should have less trouble focusing your shots, as well. The 835 will support both dual photodiodes in cameras (think Galaxy S7) and improvements to hybrid autofocusing systems. Qualcomm’s chip can also help merge multiple shots to improve the sharpness, reduce noise and add high dynamic range effects.

And yes, as we mentioned, the new Snapdragon should be more efficient. It’s Qualcomm’s first 10-nanometer CPU, and that results in a physically smaller chip (30 percent tinier than the 820) that uses 40 percent less power even as it runs up to 27 percent faster. In theory, that leads to phones that are thinner while still having plenty of room for larger batteries. And Quick Charge 4 will help in those moments when you run low, getting you 5 hours of battery life with as little as 5 minutes of charging. Combine these with faster wireless (both 802.11ad WiFi and LTE) and your future phone should be noticeably speedier.

It won’t surprise you to hear that Qualcomm is shy on naming devices that will use the Snapdragon 835. However, it already said that the first hardware to ship with the CPU is due in the first half of 2017. It’s reasonable to presume that most of the flagship phones and tablets launching in that time frame (possibly including the Galaxy S8) will have an 835 under the hood. In that way, the new Snapdragon is one of the most important products of the year — it could easily be ubiquitous in a matter of months.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Via: Evan Blass (TwitLonger)

LG CordZero Stick Vacuum Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

LG

LG’s newest stick vac looks to bring an extra dose of power to mobile cleaning. With a motor that supposedly turns 16 times faster than an airplane engine, the LG CordZero Stick Vacuum also packs in two removable batteries and a telescoping handle to help you reach corners.

On display at CES in Las Vegas this week, the CordZero stick has lots of other impressive-sounding features:

• Five-step HEPA filtration system
• 140 AW of suction
• Axial Turbo Cyclone to capture fine dust
• Anti-tangle brush roll

All of that certainly sounds fancy, and supposedly the battery lasts a full 80 minutes. If LG’s new stick can genuinely clean like an upright and run for that long, it’ll be a nice buy indeed. The feature list doesn’t convince me, though. I’ll want to test these stick vacs myself when they come out this year to see if they measure up to another powerful brand that uses cyclone filtration — Dyson.

LG also announced the upcoming US availability of its CordZero Canister Vacuum that follows you around. We got a first look at that vac last year, and I’m glad a release date is becoming more concrete: It’ll supposedly go on sale this summer.

LG hasn’t announced pricing for either the stick vac or the canister. Check back for more information throughout the week.

Tesla’s super fast P100D offers tech-heavy luxury for the rich

When you drive the $134,000 Tesla Model S P100D you want to tell the world that it goes from zero to 60 in 2.5 seconds. You’re like a child excited about a new toy, stopping strangers on the streets to regale them with your tales of wonder. But to many that staggeringly quick acceleration has little to no meaning. They have no personal barometer to judge it against. They really have to experience it.

They have to sit in the car and feel their internal organs and eyes warp as the car leaps forward. And when they do, there’s nervous laughter, swearing and sometimes pleas to never do it again. Seriously, if you’re rich and own one of these, give all your friends a ride. The fact is, you don’t have to push your passengers into their seats time and time again to realize how wonderful the P100D actually is.

That thrill of going extremely fast in a very short period of time (while exciting) is only a small portion of the P100D’s charm. In a dense urban environment like San Francisco there aren’t a lot of opportunities to live out your Top Gear dreams. Instead I spent most of the week with the car commuting, meeting with family (holidays!) and heading to Costco.

The Model S is a glorious luxury car with the amenities you’d expect to find in fine German sedans, and it has enough room to cram your brood and their presents into the cabin and trunk. It’s also on the cutting edge of semi-autonomous and EV tech that’s working its way into less-expensive vehicles. Whether on surface streets, hitting the freeway or navigating the hellscape that is a box-store parking lot, the car performed admirably.

On the highway is where you’ll find the true Tesla experience thanks to Autopilot. We’ve talked before about how it lowers the stress of commuting and can help reduce the chances of a collision. It still does all that, but an update that reins in one of the core features is a welcome addition.

Now Autopilot limits drivers to the posted speed limit on undivided roadways. So, if you’re on a small four lane highway without a median, you can’t make Autopilot grow a lead foot. It’s a small thing that’ll probably produce some grumblings on Tesla message boards, but it’s good to see the automaker thinking more and more about safety while pushing the boundaries of auto tech.

Other than the updated Autopilot, the rest of the technology in the Model S is pretty much what we found in the Model X. The enormous 17-inch touchscreen that controls everything from the car’s ride height (from very low for that sport look to high enough to get over the tallest speed bumps) to music is still, for the most part, easy to use. Although, I would prefer that climate controls be physical buttons. A few times I reached over to peck at something on the display and missed. Fortunately, some of the features like music and voice commands can be controlled from the buttons and turn knobs on the steering wheel.

Tesla is known for innovation and speed, but people overlook the Model S’ luxury. The vehicle sits five, no problem, as long as the rear passengers are shorter than six feet tall. The leather seats were cozy and the wood and suede trim in the cabin add a dash of class without being ostentatious.

If you need to do more than drive folks around, the trunk is huge. During a Costco run, I was able to fit a microwave, space heater, random food and enough toilet paper to survive the zombie apocalypse in it with no problem. That’s without using the hidden space below the trunk floor. With seating and cargo space a plenty, the interior feels almost cavernous.

That probably has something to do with the lack of an internal combustion engine, but really, it’s the size of the car itself. It’s a huge sedan. Pulling into compact parking spaces meant riding the edge of the painted lines and hoping no one parked next to me. Fortunately, thanks to its low center of gravity and stiff chassis, it doesn’t feel like you’re driving a boat. The steering and handling are crisp and trick you into thinking you’re driving a smaller car.

In fact, the Model S P100D is three cars. It’s a technological marvel capable of driving 315 miles between a charge (I got about 305 miles) and will take care of the heavy driving in stop and go traffic. It’s a supercar that will silently launch you down the road so quickly you’ll find yourself doing 90 in the blink of an eye. And it’s a luxury sedan that smoothes out the road, makes you feel comfortable and cements the idea that you’ve made all the right decisions in life. Oh, and it’s good for a Costco run.

Cramming three spectacular cars into one isn’t cheap. Starting at $134,000, the P100D is out of reach for most of us. It’s definitely out of my reach. But Tesla says this car will help fund the building of the Model 3. Of course the 373,000 presales, at $1,000 a pop, for the low-cost Tesla are also probably helping get the $35,000 automobile on the road.

So the P100D is for the rich; the folks that can afford to enjoy mind-blowing speeds one minute and a trip to a five star restaurant with their friends the next. Supercars and luxury sedans are for people that vacation on yachts and have very strong opinions about estate taxes and Bordeaux.

Fortunately that third car, filled with technology, is coming for the rest of us. It will be either the Model 3, Chevy Bolt or some other vehicle that changes the way we get from point a to point b. The P100D is an outstanding car. But more importantly, it’s part of a process to get us all into long-range EVs with autonomous features. It’s like Usain Bolt reminding us to go out and run. Sure we’ll never be as fast as the olympian, but he’s getting us to treat our bodies better.

So let the wealthy enjoy their speed and luxury so we can eventually treat the roads and earth just a little bit better.

Source: Tesla

LG and Dell to Showcase Latest USB-C Displays for New MacBook Pro at CES This Week

CES 2017 kicks off in Las Vegas this week, and a handful of USB-C displays compatible with the new MacBook Pro will be unveiled at the show. USB-C displays display up to 4K video, transfer data, and charge the new MacBook Pro over a single cable connected between the display and notebook.

Dell today introduced the S2718D Ultrathin Monitor, a 27-inch IPS display which it claims is the “world”s overall thinnest monitor” with HDR10 support for vibrant colors. The display has a glossy finish with Dell’s ultra-thin InfinityEdge bezels, but its base is bulkier than average to accommodate for the internal components.

Dell’s new S2718D display is indeed very thin (Image: Engadget)
While the display is indeed very thin, its other specs fall short of some existing USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 displays on the market. It is not 4K, for instance, but rather Quad HD with a resolution of 2,560×1,440 for 108 PPI. And while it covers over 99% of the sRGB color gamut, it does not support the wider DCI-P3 color gamut.

The display has a 60Hz refresh rate, peak brightness of 400 nits, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 6ms response time, and 178⁰ wide viewing angle, per Tom’s Hardware. It can connect to a new MacBook Pro or 12-inch MacBook over a single cable, but with only 45W of power delivery. There is also one HDMI 2.0 port and an audio line out.

The S2718D Ultrathin Monitor will start at a rather expensive $700 on Dell.com, with U.S. availability expected on March 23.

LG will be showcasing more attractive options at CES this week, including the 32UD99, a new 32-inch IPS display with HDR10 support and 4K Ultra HD resolution of 3,840×2,160 for 137 PPI. In addition to HDR, the 32UD99 covers over 95% of the DCI-P3 color gamut for wider and more immersive colors.

The 32UD99 can connect to the new MacBook Pro or 12-inch MacBook over a single cable, but LG did not specify the wattage for pass-through charging. The display also features built-in speakers with “Rich Bass” technology and a “True Color Pro” setting for “color reproduction accuracy unmatched in the industry,” according to LG.

While it does not have USB-C input, LG will also be showcasing the 34-inch 21:9 UltraWide Mobile+ Monitor at CES 2017. The new 34UM79M model is “the world’s first Chromecast-enabled multimedia monitor,” enabling users to stream movies, music, games, and more from mobile devices directly to the monitor.

Also on display in Las Vegas alongside LG’s UltraFine 4K and 5K displays will be its new 34-inch 21:9 UltraWide gaming monitor. The 34UC99 model is equipped with AMD’s FreeSync technology, 1ms Motion Blur Reduction, Dynamic Action Sync, Black Stabilizer, and other gamer-friendly features. No word yet on USB-C input.

LG did not confirm pricing or availability, but those details should become known once CES gets underway later this week.

Dell’s and LG’s new USB-C displays provide new MacBook Pro owners with a couple of additional choices after Apple discontinued its Thunderbolt Display. LG’s UltraFine 5K Display remains one of the best options, but those looking for alternatives should read our USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 Display Buyer’s Guide.

Related Roundup: Displays
Tags: LG, USB-C, 4K displays, Dell, CES 2017
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Asus ZenFone AR leak reveals it to be second Tango phone – see it here

Qualcomm prematurely announced the new ZenFone AR on Monday – ahead of its official unveiling during Asus’ event at CES.

Evleaks quickly followed Qualcomm’s slip up with front and back press shots of the upcoming smartphone, which is being marketed as the second handset to support Google’s Tango platform. The first phone, the Lenovo PHAB2 Pro, was announced in June. Tango-equipped devices can leverage augmented reality, 3D mapping, and more – as the software basically adds a virtual layer to the smartphone’s camera.

• What is Google Tango?

According to Qualcomm’s press release, which GSMArena spotted after it was presumably posted early, the ZenFone AR will not only come with Tango but also Daydream VR support, allowing it to take advantage of Google’s new mobile VR platform. It will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 processor as well. Specs, pricing, and other availability details weren’t revealed in any of these new leaks.

However, we should know more soon. Asus has an event scheduled for 4 January at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Pocket-lint will be there to bring you the latest as it happens. 

Lenovo Yoga 910 review: The devil is in the details

Hello, Engadget readers, and welcome to our first laptop review of 2017. The Lenovo Yoga 910 went on sale about two months ago and indeed, we’ve been working on this one for a while. During the time I’ve been testing it (with some very lengthy battery tests slowing things down), Engadget has published reviews of new machines from Apple, Microsoft and HP.

It makes sense, then, to follow up with a critique of Lenovo’s latest, not just because it’s such a big name in PCs, but because the company’s Yoga 900 series has, until now, ranked among our favorite laptops. The 910 ($1,180 and up), seemed like another shoo-in, with a thin and light design similar to the same Yoga machines we’ve praised in the past. It also offers some impressive specs for the price (a seventh-generation Core i7 processor comes standard) as well as long battery life that lives up to Lenovo’s already-lofty claims. And yet.

Hardware

You’d think that, as a matter of course, each new generation of every laptop would be thinner and lighter than before. In Lenovo’s case, though, this is the second year in a row that its Yoga 900 series has been heavier than the one that came before it. All told, the new Yoga 910 weighs in at 3.04 pounds, up from 2.8 pounds. Which is to say, it’s still pretty light! To put those 3 pounds in context, the Yoga 910 is on par with both the 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, and just a shade heavier than the new HP Spectre x360.

Throughout, the 910 mostly looks like recent Yogas that have come before it, with Lenovo’s distinctive “watchband” hinge that takes style cues from watch links. The all-metal design has a slightly soft finish on the keyboard deck, while the chassis has a slight overhang on the edges meant to mimic spines on a hardcover book. The black backlit keys and their slightly odd layout are typically Lenovo as well.

The 910’s lightness is especially impressive when you consider it has a larger screen than the competition, not to mention last year’s Yoga. This year, it rocks a 13.9-inch screen, up from 13.3 on the previous-gen Yoga 900. Like so many other modern flagship laptops, the 910’s screen has narrow bezels around the edges, allowing it to fit a more compact chassis than it would otherwise. Indeed, the 910 doesn’t feel like a nearly 14-inch notebook. The fact that it’s slightly thinner than last year’s model (0.56 inches versus 0.59) also adds to the illusion that the laptop has a smaller screen than it actually does.

That said, the 910 is just long enough that it won’t comfortably fit into a standard 13-inch laptop sleeve; you’ll want to size up to one designed for 14- or 15-inch systems. Unfortunately, too, another cost of that bigger screen is some blank space at the bottom — a thick black bar where instead of pixels you’ll find the 720p webcam. This isn’t the first laptop we’ve seen with a camera on the lower bezel, so I can say from experience that a setup like this could make for some potentially unflattering angles.

Those drawbacks notwithstanding, it’s a fine screen, with good contrast and viewing angles. Though higher-end configurations have 4K, 3,840 x 2,160 resolution, I tested the entry-level model, which has a lower-res full-HD screen and promises even longer battery life as a result. (More on that in just a moment.)

Instead of a Windows Hello webcam, you’ll find a fingerprint reader at the right end of the palm rest. Unfortunately, the setup process wasn’t nearly as seamless as the Windows Hello cameras I’ve tested — I fought through repeated error messages saying the sensor couldn’t detect my finger. Worse, this fingerprint reader wasn’t nearly as reliable. More often than not, I was forced to enter a PIN instead.

Fortunately, the keyboard itself is mostly enjoyable to use. The buttons here are well-spaced and offer a surprising amount of travel, especially compared to competing laptops. The Control and Function buttons on the left are undersize, but this only occasionally tripped me up while attempting keyboard shortcuts. Speaking of the Function key, I appreciate that the Function row up top is home to things like brightness and volume controls, all of which you can control without having to hold down the Fn button. Having recently tested the MacBook Pro, which eschews the Function row entirely, I no longer take this for granted.

Sadly, the touchpad needs work. It’s spacious, which seemed like an auspicious enough start, but alas, even basic stuff like single-finger tracking feels like a chore. As on some other Windows laptops I’ve tested, the trackpad has a tendency to latch onto stuff it wasn’t supposed to, causing me to do things like reorder my pinned browser tabs. In this case, though, when I did want to click and drag objects around on screen, the touchpad didn’t always register my left click on my first choice, leaving me no choice but try try again (and maybe again). I’d say a firmware update is definitely in order here.

Like so many other new laptops, the 910 offers USB Type-C ports, though Lenovo mercifully left one full-size one to complement the two smaller USB-C sockets. Weirdly, though, the USB-C ports don’t work the same way: The one toward the back is a USB 2.0 connection meant for charging only, while the port next to it follows the USB 3.0 standard and is intended for video output. Neither supports Thunderbolt 3. Again, the mix of ports isn’t bad, but ideally, those USB-C ports would be interchangeable, as they are on competing machines, like the new MacBook Pro.

Performance and battery life

I hadn’t been doing much on the computer. I woke the morning after my birthday with one immediate goal in mind: Like and respond to all the nice Facebook posts people had left on my special day. And I did just that, occasionally stopping to check email and Twitter, but otherwise focused on the task at hand. To my surprise, even that was enough to get the fans spinning, with the noise loud enough for me to hear over my TV. The whirring persisted even after I took a break and walked away from the machine.

To their credit, at least, the fans do their stated job: The laptop never got hot on the underside — unlike some other systems I’ve tested recently. Speaking of the underbelly, the two JBL speakers deliver serviceable quality (for a laptop) and pretty robust volume; when sitting alone in my apartment, I could get away with keeping the sound set at 30-something out of 100.

If all you wanted was to check email, Facebook and Twitter, you could spend half or a third of the price for a Chromebook or budget Windows machine, and possibly get less fan noise, too. But the Yoga 910 is powerful enough for more than just basic use, which I’d assume is a requirement for most people willing to spend $1,180-plus on a new laptop.

Indeed, that loud fan noise aside, the 910 is a fast machine. It boots in just seven seconds, and the NVMe-made SSD delivers average max read speeds of 1.59 gigabytes per second, according to the ATTO benchmark, though write speeds came in at a less remarkable 313 MB/s. The model I tested had the same 2.7GHz Core i7-7500U CPU and integrated Intel HD 620 graphics as the other available configurations, though my unit has 8GB of RAM and a full HD screen, whereas higher-end SKUs have 16 gigs of memory and 4K screen resolution.

It’s worth emphasizing that the 910 packs one of Intel’s new seventh-generation Core processors. What’s more, the 910 remains one of the few machines to date that actually offers it (many rival systems are still stuck on older sixth-gen CPUs). You can see the edge in our benchmark results, listed above.

The 802.11ac wireless radio was mostly reliable, but on one occasion I was the only one in AOL’s office not able to connect to the usually-fast network. I had to disconnect the network and then toggle WiFi on and off before getting it to work. In general, too, the machine seemed slightly slower than its peers to reconnect to known networks after waking from sleep. Again, though, once connected, wireless speeds were consistently fast.

Battery life

Lenovo Yoga 910
16:13
Surface Book with Performance Base (2016)
16:15
Apple MacBook Pro 2016 (13-inch, no Touch Bar)
11:42
HP Spectre x360 (13-inch, 2015)
11:34
Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display (13-inch, 2015)
11:23
Apple MacBook Pro 2016 (15-inch)
11:00
iPad Pro (12.9-inch, 2015)
10:47
HP Spectre x360 15t
10:17
Apple MacBook Pro 2016 (13-inch, Touch Bar)
9:55
ASUS ZenBook 3
9:45
Apple MacBook (2016)
8:45
Samsung Notebook 9
8:16
Microsoft Surface Pro 4
7:15
HP Spectre 13
7:07
Razer Blade Stealth (Spring 2016)
5:48
Razer Blade Stealth (Fall 2016)
5:36
Dell XPS 15 (2016)
5:25 (7:40 with the mobile charger)
Razer Blade Pro (2016)
3:48
ASUS ROG Strix GL502VS
3:03

Spoiler alert: I saw much, much better battery life on the 910 than I did on last year’s Yoga 900. There are two reasons for that. One, Lenovo stepped up to a larger battery: 78Wh, up from 66Wh. Second, whereas last year’s flagship was sold exclusively with a 3,200 x 1,800 display, the 910 is available with a lower-res (and more power-efficient) full HD screen option, which is the one I tested. All told, I got an average of 16 hours and 13 minutes on Engadget’s video rundown test — even more than the 15.5 hours Lenovo promises on the full HD model. (The company promises 10.5 hours with a 4K display and 16GB of RAM.)

Weirdly, early on in my testing I got one result in the 19-hour range and another around 17 hours, but neither of these stellar outcomes was reproducible; it was only in the 16-hour range that I ended up seeing consistent results, so it’s from that batch of scores that I calculated the official score presented in the above table.

That’s obviously a big improvement over the nine hours and 36 minutes I logged on last year’s Yoga 900. Sixteen-hour runtime is also good enough to best most of its rivals, including the HP Spectre x360 and the new MacBook Pro.

Configuration options and the competition

The Yoga 910 starts at $1,180 on Lenovo’s website, though $1,330 is presented as the original price. This is the configuration we tested, which comes with a Core i7-7500U processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB solid-state drive and full HD display. For $1,280 (usually $1,430) you get the same specs, but with a 4K display. Moving on, $1,630 nets you 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD. Finally, for $1,650 you get the same processor, 16GB of RAM and 4K display, plus a terabyte of storage.

HP’s recently refreshed 13-inch Spectre x360 is remarkably similar, in everything from price to specs. The machine starts at $1,150 and weighs 2.85 pounds, also with a 360-degree hinge and metal body. It, too, packs Intel’s seventh-generation Core processors and up to 16GB of RAM and a terabyte of storage. The battery life is long, though not as quite as epic as the 910’s, and there’s no 4K screen option. The touchpad is also stubborn, but still better than the one Lenovo used. Also similar to the 910, the x360 can get loud, and it runs warmer, too. Still, I prefer it to the 910, partly because of the touchpad, and because it offers a Windows Hello webcam that performs far more reliably than the fingerprint reader on Lenovo’s laptop.

You should also check out Microsoft’s recently updated Surface Book thanks to its well-built design, 16-hour battery life and comfortable keyboard and trackpad, though the heavier weight (3.68 pounds) and high price ($1,499-plus) might be a turnoff to some.

The 2.7-pound Dell XPS 13 ($800-plus) is also a perennial Engadget favorite, thanks to its small footprint, nearly bezel-less display, comfortable keyboard and well-constructed build. Though it’s had the same design for nearly two years now, Dell has done a good job updating the internals, with the maxed-out model offering the same seventh-generation Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage as the competition. Problem is, that model will set you back a whopping $2,250, which doesn’t seem reasonable given what Lenovo et al. are charging.

Meanwhile, Acer has the Spin 7 convertible, which Engadget hasn’t reviewed, but I can already spot a few downsides: For $1,250 it has a lower-performance Core Y-series processor, with a relatively low-res full HD display (Lenovo gives you 4K for about the same price). The design isn’t as sophisticated, either, though that’s, of course, subjective.

Lastly, there’s Apple, for which I submit the 12-inch MacBook and the new 13-inch MacBook Pro. (The MacBook Air’s aging design and specs make me hesitant to recommend it for the kind of person eyeing Lenovo’s latest flagship.) Neither machine is a convertible or even touch-enabled, of course, and the 12-incher, in particular, isn’t going to match Lenovo in terms of either battery life or performance. But at 2.03 pounds it wins on portability. All told, I don’t really see it as a Yoga 910 competitor, except that its $1,299 price puts it in the same ballpark as some of Lenovo’s configurations.

The new MacBook Pro ($1,299-plus) weighs in at 3 pounds and outmatches the 910 on both graphics potential, audio quality and the touchpad experience. The battery life isn’t as long, but it’s still respectable, at least if you go for the lower-end MacBook Pro, which eschews the Touch Bar above the keyboard. (The Touch Bar isn’t useful enough to justify giving up the convenience of Function buttons, though it’s worth noting you only get a Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the Touch Bar edition.) The 910 wins on port selection, if only because there’s a full-size USB connection, but that’s not enough for Lenovo to secure the higher overall score, especially if the available ports don’t even support Thunderbolt 3.

Wrap-up

Suffice to say, the Yoga 910 has enough flaws that it couldn’t possibly rank as my favorite Windows laptop (that would be the Dell XPS 13 or maybe the Spectre x360 or Surface Book). Still, it has a lot to recommend it, including a thin and light design, good specs for the money, long battery life and a mostly comfortable typing experience. Oh, and a full-size USB port — can’t take those for granted these days.

All told, my biggest grievance is the touchpad, and that’s thankfully (hopefully) something Lenovo can alleviate with a software update. That would still leave some fan noise, a few shrunken keyboard buttons and a lack of Thunderbolt 3 support, but these are more minor concerns. If Lenovo can fix the trackpad and replace that temperamental fingerprint reader with a Windows Hello webcam in next year’s model, the 900 series will once again stand among the winners.

LG’s latest 4K TVs deliver better color through ‘nano cells’

If your TV line already has 4K, HDR and all the other buzzwords that promise top-tier image quality, what do you do next? For LG, the answer is simple: make sure everyone sees those colors. It just unveiled its Super UHD TV line for 2017, and all three models (the SJ8000, SJ8500 and SJ9500) revolve around Nano Cell LCDs whose uniformly-sized particles promise more accurate and consistent colors, even when you’re watching from an off-center position. The technology absorbs excess light wavelengths, preventing unwanted color bleeding (such as from green to blue or yellow), fading and other effects that reduce the vibrancy of the picture.

The company is even going so far as to partner with Technicolor in a bid to improve accuracy through both a special Technicolor Expert Mode and support for Advanced HDR. When combined with Dolby Vision, HDR10 and High Log Gamma support, you shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not you’re getting the most faithful colors.

LG is also promising a more sophisticated approach to high dynamic range imagery regardless of the format. All of the Nano Cell sets tout an Active HDR feature that inserts HDR data into specific areas in each frame — you don’t need to worry about what kind of HDR data is included in the raw material. An HDR Effect feature, meanwhile, punches up the quality of standard images.

The webOS software on the new TVs isn’t a revolution, but it still promises to make your life easier compared to last year’s models. A Magic Link button on the remote both gives you quicker access to favorite material (such as Amazon and Netflix) and details about what you’re watching, such as the actors. You can watch 360-degree VR material if you plug in a computer or phone through USB, and it’s easier to zoom into a scene to see something you’d otherwise miss.

You aren’t getting many details about the lineup at this stage, alas, but it’s evident that the SJ9500 is the darling of the bunch with a frame that’s just 0.27 inches thick at its slimmest point. The big question: what are Samsung, Sony and other heavyweights doing this year? While Nano Cell, Active HDR and other perks may help, it’d likely be wise to wait for LG’s rivals to show their cards before you commit to buying a set.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: LG Newsroom