Bad reviews could help battle drug dealers on the darknet

Why it matters to you

Law enforcement can’t always move fast enough to fight wrongdoers on the darknet. But bad reviews could help keep them at bay.

Some parts of the darknet operate like an eBay or Amazon for illegal goods or services, ranging from the illicit to the abhorrent. And while law enforcement is proactively engaged with the problem, criminal investigations can take a long time to pursue, which is why experts are helping to come up with new ways to pour cold water on the darknet marketplace. One such researcher is Scott Duxbury, a sociology doctoral student at Ohio State University. Duxbury’s idea for cracking down on darknet drug sales is strikingly simple: leave bad reviews.

“There’s been a surge in darknet market purchasing over the past few years, some of the larger markets are bringing in over $500,000 per month,” Duxbury told Digital Trends. “We wanted to figure out how these markets behave, instead of just documenting the extent of trafficking. We wanted to examine the market as a complex system. So, how does it grow, where is it vulnerable, [and] what purchasing patterns sustain the market? We found that the biggest factor in market growth is trust. Contrary to what we’d expect, pricing has very little influence in how people decide to purchase drugs from the darknet. In another related study that we just presented at the American Sociological Association, we also found that the darknet drug market is more resilient to disruption attempts than real-world drug distribution rings.”

As part of Duxbury’s research, he analyzed transactions between 57 sellers and 706 buyers in opioid-related darknet transactions. He concluded that 82 percent of users during the period valued trustworthiness over cost. His idea, therefore, is to flood sellers’ pages with negative reviews, thereby rendering buyers unsure of who they can trust.

“Our evidence suggests that reviews count for more than on Clearnet markets or services, mainly because drug purchasing is high risk,” he continued. “Even without the threat of violence, drugs can be misidentified or contaminated with other substances, buyers have little recourse for fraud, and if a seller isn’t subtle in how they package drugs, buyers could be at risk for being identified by law enforcement.”

Duxbury and his colleagues have received a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation to extend their study. Currently they are in the process of collecting additional data to see how the market grows and responds to interventions or external shocks. If all goes according to plan, maybe it won’t be too long before a team of FBI agents — or maybe some smart bots — begin busting illegal drug rings.

A research paper was published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology.

For a laptop that lasts, these are the brands to buy

When looking for a new laptop, you want a machine that you won’t have to drag back in for repairs for at least several years. Reliability and dependable performance rank high on buyer’s lists, but which brands are the best? Which manufacturer offers the most reliable laptops? To find out, we’ve scanned the pages of Consumer Reports, considered reader’s choice selections, analyzed crowd-sourced voting, and consulted the studies of our peers. Combining all of that with our own experience in laptop testing, we’ve pieced together a consensus on the most reliable brands out there today. Read on to find out which brand is the most dependable.

Type of laptop

Before we start naming names, we’re going to point out a general rule: The smaller the laptop, the higher the failure rate appears to be.

There are several reasons for this. Small laptops are harder to take apart and repair yourself, so official repairs may be more common. They are also more portable, and therefore more likely to be dropped or banged around. So before considering specific brands, take note that if you want a more durable laptop, opt for the larger models.

Most reliable: Apple

MacBook Pro 13 with Retina

If there’s one thing that nearly everyone agrees on, it’s that Apple laptops are the most reliable of the bunch. When you buy a MacBook Pro, you know what to expect, and that rarely involves failures or returns. Part of this is due to Apple’s solid design philosophy. MacBooks, Airs, and Pros are consistently growing thinner and more powerful, but the overall design style remains the same.

The aluminum frame and tightly packed electronics also help reduce damage and failure rates. In fact, Apple’s devices tend to get more reliable with later generations, as design becomes tighter.

Removing ports, for example, is not a popular move — but it does decrease what can break.

It’s also worth noting that Apple does many of the smaller things well. The keyboards are snappy, pleasant to use, and nigh unbreakable under usual circumstances. The battery life of MacBooks tends to be high, too, and doesn’t suffer from swift performance drop-offs or fluctuation. Displays issues tend to be rare, and in Consumer Reports studies, Apple beat out nine other laptop brands when it came to needing repairs within the first three years of ownership.

On the other hand, MacBooks are a definite blow to your wallet, ranging from $1,000 to $1,800 for the most popular models. That’s a lot of money for the average laptop buyer. Despite the high price, the default warranty lasts only a year, as with other more affordable brands. But Apple has on multiple occasions offered free warranty extensions for common manufacturing issues, a practice other brands rarely emulate.

Buy one now from:

Apple  Best Buy

Second pick: Dell

Dell’s work, particularly in the ultrabook field, has yielded an incredible new crop of ultraportable laptops that work great, have powerful specs, and don’t give up the ghost without a fight. If you need a PC for work or school and want it to last for as long as possible, Dell’s machines are a great choice.

This is especially true with its latest XPS models, which do a little of everything and do it anywhere. This includes the latest screen resolutions, connections, and software. In a recent review of ours, the Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 really impressed us, blending its typical reliability and somewhat flashy looks, with solid internal hardware for its price point.

Another important reason Dell gets such high marks for reliability is that Dell’s customer support is easily the best you’ll find outside of Apple. If something goes wrong, a quick customer service call with Dell is more likely to yield a solution, or at least a repair plan, than with other brands. Sometimes the most important factor in reliability isn’t the computer itself, but the company you are dealing with.

Buy one now from:

Dell Microsoft

Third pick: Asus

Asus ZenBook UX305UA

If you want an extra-reliable computer, but don’t want to pay too much for it, then you’ll be pleased to see that Asus also makes it on our list of the most reliable laptop brands. The company has consistently scored well in surveys, though it usually doesn’t take top marks.

While you might want to avoid some of its higher-end, gaming laptops, Asus computers tend to be sleeker and lighter than a lot of brands on the market. If you are less interested in a desktop replacement and more interested in a portable option, this is the path to follow. Asus also tends to lean toward extremes, with laptops of many varying sizes. There’s a good deal of experimentation and joint ventures in this brand, which makes it an interesting option to explore.

The downside to Asus is its customer support, which is hit-or-miss. The company receives average to below-average marks in customer service surveys we’ve seen. Web support is a particular sore spot. Navigating the Asus website can be confusing, even if the company is not the worst in this regard.

Buy one now from:

Amazon Asus Newegg

Runner-up: Samsung

Samsung is a newcomer to our list, and though its Notebook 9 15-inch didn’t fair too well in our review, the company has been producing quality laptops for a number of years. It came in second place during the latest Consumer Reports customer survey for reliability, and the Samsung Chromebook Plus ended up earning out Best in Show award at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.

Samsung’s current lineup ranges from mid-range, more affordable offerings with Intel Core i5 processors, right up to powerful Core i7 systems with 4K displays. The bodies of its new Notebook 9 models utilize a magnesium alloy, which provides durability and a lightweight frame, making the units less likely to be dropped. If you do manage to drop your machine, though, it’s also more likely to survive.

Unlike higher entries on our list, Samsung’s customer support leaves something to be desired. In LaptopMag’s support testing, it won a respectable, but less than stellar 67/100, falling well behind Apple and Dell and just behind Asus. And although Samsung does offer a standard one-year warranty with options for up to 36 months of coverage, it does not currently offer first-party extended warranties.

Buy one now from:

Samsung Amazon

Final note: Extended warranties

When it comes to repairs and malfunctions, one of the most important computer components is that warranty document. So what’s the deal with warranties today? Basically, don’t worry too much.

Extended warranties, as a general rule, exist to make extra money for companies. Buying one doesn’t tend to do much good — only about 8 percent of people who have extended warranties ever use them, according to Consumer Reports.

Additionally, the normal warranty that comes with a new machine is likely to cover around 75 percent of common repairs or problems anyway. Yes, it will suck if you don’t buy the warranty and you happen to have a problem, but, over the long haul, the extended warranty tends to cost more than it’s worth.

Update: Replaced Toshiba with Samsung in the runner-up position.

Pandora appoints Sling TV’s Roger Lynch as CEO

It’s been a rough year for Pandora. The service followed its relaunch as an on-demand streaming service by looking to get bought, but soon closed shop in Australia and New Zealand and got sued by PayPal to boot. Finally, CEO Tim Westergren stepped down, leaving the company he co-founded in 2000. But Pandora has found his successor in Roger Lynch, the founding chief executive of Sling TV.

While Pandora certainly trails competitors Spotify and Apple Music, Lynch is no stranger to carving out a niche for his company amid colossal rivals. Sling TV launched soon after winning Best of CES 2015, and by the awards ceremony the following year Lynch was still confident his service would disrupt television carriers despite some growing pains.

In short, Lynch knows a bit about how to attract and retain users, which Pandora will desperately need, as its premium subscription service had only secured about 400,000 users total by June, while Spotify claimed 50 million paid subscribers back in March. But Lynch won’t be the only new face at the company: Former Sony Entertainment CEO and current Snap, Inc chairman Michael Lynton will be joining Pandora’s board at the same time.

Source: Pandora

Gaming chat app Discord starts shutting down racist accounts

Google and GoDaddy aren’t the only internet companies dumping racists in light of the violence in Charlottesville. The team behind the gaming chat app Discord has shut down both accounts “associated with the events in Charlottesville” and the altright.com chat server. As the company explains, it plans to take action against “all forms of hate,” and that its mission is “positivity and inclusivity” — it doesn’t believe gamers will feel welcome if racists have a home in the app.

The move has already drawn criticism from users who believe it’s an attack on free speech and claim that Discord is playing favorites. However, the company maintains that it will take action against anyone who violates its guidelines and terms of service — racists who condone or participate in violence happen to be part of that group. It’s aware that censorship is a “slippery slope,” but it clearly believes that freedom of expression ends when threats begin.

As it stands, services like Discord have pragmatic business reasons to ditch absolute neutrality. As Reddit found out first-hand, racists and other corrosive members tend to scare away fellow users, advertisers and other business opportunities. To an extent, Discord needs a cleaner chat environment if it wants to keep attracting new users and the money that follows.

Love. Not hate. pic.twitter.com/5xFpvHTuI2

— Discord (@discordapp) August 14, 2017

Source: Discord (Twitter 1), (2), (3)

Snapchat can stitch multiple Snaps into one concert video

If you aren’t able to see your favorite performer on stage, don’t worry — random Snapchat users will help you out. The app’s newest feature, Crowd Surf, stitches together snaps of the same event to make a cohesive, seamless video from multiple perspectives.

Certain stories in the Our Stories section are already using Crowd Surf, like the featured video of Lorde’s performance at last weekend’s Outside Lands. As advertised, a button in the bottom-right corner lets you flip between different users’ perspectives while the audio remains playing, and it works well. Obviously, coverage will be limited by how many users are snapping the same event (and at what quality), but get enough people watching and enough are bound to pull out their phones to start snapping.

Snapchat built its own proprietary machine learning tech to automatically recognize the audio among user snaps in order to stitch it into Crowd Surf videos, according to Mashable. The feature will be available for select events; We’ve reached out to Snapchat to elaborate which will get the seamless-video treatment.

While it’s unclear how widespread the feature will become, it’s yet another dynamic addition to Snapchat’s lineup, like custom Stories, that sets it apart from Facebook and Instagram. And it’s clear that the company wants to maintain its lead without competitors copying its advances: Last month, it acquired a team that specifically protects code from reverse engineering.

Source: Mashable

Samsung’s next Gear Fit will track your swimming

We liked Samsung’s Gear Fit 2, but it had its limits. You couldn’t use it to track your swimming, for starters. It’s a good thing, then, that well-known leaker Evan Blass claims to have a training deck detailing a sequel that should be unveiled at Samsung’s August 23rd event. The Gear Fit 2 Pro would look much like its predecessor, complete with that tall, curved display, but would include some big design upgrades. Most notably, it would add 5 ATM water resistance and that hoped-for swim tracking — it’ll sync up with the Speedo On app. Accordingly, the Pro switches from a snap-on strap to a watch-like buckle to prevent it from falling off in mid-backstroke.

The full extent of the software upgrades isn’t available, but the new wristwear should also support offline Spotify playback. So long as you have a pair of Bluetooth headphones, you won’t need to bring your phone to get a soundtrack for your gym sessions. GPS tracking was already included in the Fit 2 and should carry over here.

There’s no mention of pricing, not to mention whether this will replace or complement the Fit 2. The Pro badge suggests that it could be sold alongside the earlier wristwear, but nothing mentioned so far would explicitly justify a price hike. There’s only a few days until the reported launch, though, so it won’t take long to learn whether or not the new model is within your budget.

Source: VentureBeat

Facebook adds a link to Trending News in the app’s main menu

The redesigned Trending Topics section of Facebook is now called Trending News and the updates to this feature — which were announced in May — are now available to most US users on both iOS and Android devices. For iPhone users, Trending News also has its own direct link in the Facebook app’s main navigation menu — a feature that’s in testing for Android, according to TechCrunch.

In May, Facebook announced an overhaul of its Trending Topics feature, which it was beginning to roll out to iPhone users. With that update, clicking a topic would bring you to a carousel of publications that had written about that particular subject rather that just one news source. In a statement, Facebook said, “By making it easier to see what other news outlets are saying about each topic, we hope that people will feel more informed about the news in their region.” And the update was meant to get around the news “filter bubble” effect wherein feeds are sometimes limited in scope due to having Facebook friends that all have similar interests.

Along with the news source carousel, Trending News also features actual headlines rather than just a topic — which was hinted at in the May announcement, but not described in detail. With the headlines come a photo, the name of the outlet that published the headline and how many other sources have written on the subject. Each story is also ranked. For example, while writing this, the 17th headline in my Trending News section was this article of ours and the tab noted that 26 other sources had written on the topic.

The revamped Trending section is now available for most US Facebook users on mobile and the direct navigational tab should be coming to Android users sometime soon.

Source: TechCrunch

Sea lions are getting sick from toxic algae blooms

Sea lions off of the coast of California are getting very sick and it’s because of increased blooms of toxic algae. The algae release a chemical called domoic acid and when sea lions eat fish that feed on the algae, it causes seizures, gastrointestinal issues and can lead to brain damage. For many sea lions, the poisoning is a death sentence. “It’s hard. It’s really hard to watch these animals suffer, especially if there’s not something we can do to stop these blooms from happening,” Cara Field a veterinarian with the Marine Mammal Center told CBS News.

Algal blooms are affected by things like temperature and nutrients introduced into the ocean from industrial and agricultural runoff. And as climate change ramps up, these blooms stand to get a lot bigger. Warmer temperatures will boost growth and likely push it farther north while more storms and heavier rainfall wash more of those nutrients — like nitrogen — into rivers and streams.

So far, the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California has taken in 70 sea lions since the beginning of July. That’s how many the center took in during the entirety of 2016. “August and September are peak times for us as well,” said Field, so it’s likely more animals will be affected. “[It’s] more pronounced than we’ve seen in the past few years,” a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesperson told the Associated Press. And the bad news isn’t limited to sea lions. They eat a lot of the same seafood we do. “So if they are getting these seizures and these gastro issues, we can as well,” Field said.

Source: CBS News, AP

Razer Lancehead review

There’s no question that PC gamers are passionate about their hardware. From the components inside desktops and laptops, to the peripherals in their hands, each piece of the PC gaming puzzle is important for optimal performance and precision, no matter the cost. Feeding this frenzy is Intel, AMD, and Nvidia on the hardware side, and Logitech, SteelSeries, Razer, and several others on the peripheral side. The latest entry from Razer is the Razer Lancehead PC gaming mouse, which the company tossed our way. We grabbed the mouse by its tail to see if its hefty $140 pricetag bites our wallet in all the right places.

Welcome to the cult

The Razer Lancehead is an extremely comfortable peripheral in the palm of your hand. We actually loved the SteelSeries Rival 700, but compared to Razer’s new mouse, it’s bulky. The SteelSeries is also designed only for right-handed gamers.

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

By contrast, Razer’s Lancehead accommodates both left and right-handed gamers. It’s a sleek, slim device that – surprisingly – is heavier than the SteelSeries mouse, though the Lancehead is visually slimmer, and shorter in height. Despite feeling compact in your hand, Razer’s mouse doesn’t feel too light in movement, and that’s a good thing.

It accommodates left and right-handed gamers, so the south-paw crowd won’t feel excluded from Razer’s so-called cult.

Overall, the Lancehead’s exterior is smooth and gorgeous, sporting an attractive “space silver” body enhanced by black accents. There are nine physical buttons for your programming pleasure — left click and right click buttons built with Razer’s in-house mechanical switches, a clickable tactile scroll wheel, two sensitivity buttons, and an additional two buttons on each side. All buttons can be customized through the company’s free Razer Synapse software.

On each side of the mouse, you’ll find a black rubberized area residing under the two buttons, enabling a better grip for your thumb and ring finger (or whatever digit you use when fondling a mouse). Both sides also include an elegantly thin LED strip that is complemented by an illuminated Razer logo on the palm rest area, and strips running along both sides of the mouse wheel.

Turn the mouse over, and you’ll find a nifty covered compartment for temporarily stashing away the included wireless USB dongle. To the left of the compartment, but still residing under the compartment’s hood, are two buttons and an LED: one button for switching the mouse off and on, and one for physically cycling through four stored profiles. The handy LED assigns each profile with its own color — red, green, blue, and cyan.

Customizable for your favorite games

Because the mouse has on-board storage, you can locally save four sets of configurations containing different button assignments, sensitivity levels, acceleration rates (zero to ten), polling rates, and illumination. The lighting aspect consists of five effects that support 16.8 million colors — Breathing, Reactive, Spectrum Cycling, Static, and Wave. These colors and effects can be synchronized with Razer’s other Chroma-branded devices.

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Lancehead owners can assign profiles to specific games, too. For instance, we created a special DOOM profile using specific sensitivity settings, button configurations, and a red “Reactive” lighting effect. Every time we fired a weapon, all lighting zones would light up in red and slowly fade away. The lighting duration can be switched between three settings, as well – short, medium, and long.

You can also program macros using Synapse, and then assign those macros to specific buttons. There’s even an option in Synapse to install special Chroma apps, such as Chroma for Outlook, which lights up the mouse when you receive an Outlook-based notification.

Running like its tail is on fire

On a performance level, Lancehead owners can jump into Synapse and switch the polling rate between three levels: 125Hz, 500Hz, and 1,000Hz. The number correlates to how many times the mouse updates the processor with its location each second. Thus, by default, the mouse provides a report 500 times per second. When testing the wireless connection, we saw an average of around 482Hz using swift motions, and the same results after connecting the peripheral’s included seven-foot braided USB cable.

We could keep talking about how we love the Lancehead, but what you need to know is this – you should buy one.

As for the sensitivity, the Lancehead’s 5G laser sensor is capable of up to 16,000 dots per inch. That’s an insane amount, meaning you can cross three connected high-resolution screens by physically moving the mouse around 0.375 inches horizontally across a desktop surface. That’s where the five on-the-fly sensitivity stages come in, which are fully customizable in the Razer Synapse software.

Honestly, we couldn’t see a difference in gameplay whether the mouse was wired or wireless, and our software test showed that there doesn’t appear to a loss in connectivity quality just because the mouse is on a 2.4GHz wireless connection. Aiming in first-person shooters like Quake Champions and DOOM felt spot-on and tight, although all of our play testing relied on the wireless dongle mounted roughly 14 inches away from the mouse.

You can’t go wrong with Lancehead

We could probably keep talking about all the goodness stemming from the Razer Lancehead mouse, but we’d rather you go purchase the device instead. The only notable drawback with this peripheral is that it took a while to fully recharge, but you could simply plug it into their parent PC overnight to have it at full capacity the next morning. When wireless, the mouse goes into sleep mode at idle, so a single charge should go a long way.

Kyle Wiggers/Digital Trends

Of course, Synapse will show the battery’s current capacity, but the software is not always front and center on the PC’s screen. This prompted Razer to include a neat trick where the mouse will shut off all illumination save for the mouse wheel. At that point, the wheel’s strips will continuously flash in a red, two-burst loop until the mouse is plugged into a USB port. The loop then stops, and your original illumination returns as the battery begins to recharge.

Ultimately, the cost of Razer’s new mouse is like a lance to the head. Its $140 price tag isn’t cheap, it’s justified by solid quality, performance, and Razer’s stable, proprietary wireless technology. Razer isn’t known for cheaply made products, hence its “cult” following in the PC gaming community. So yes — bite the bullet, and spend an uncomfortable amount of money on this awesome mouse.

Maze Alpha 4G hands-on review

Research Center:
Maze Alpha 4G

The Maze Alpha is a smartphone you have likely never heard of, but it brings together technology you normally have to spend $600 or more to get, into a sub-$225 device. That’s right, like the Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6, or Xiaomi Mi Mix, it has a massive, almost edge-to-edge screen for a futuristic look that’s achingly cool right now, at a price that’s shockingly good value. Throw in a dual-lens camera and it ticks all the must-have boxes for a smartphone this year.

A budget Mi Mix

At first glance, the Maze Alpha looks almost identical to the Xiaomi Mi Mix; but get closer and there are several differences, all of which enable Maze to charge a lot less for the Alpha. What do you miss out on? There’s no piezoelectric speaker behind the screen, the display is smaller, the bezels slightly larger, and the base section much deeper. The fingerprint sensor is on the front too — it’s not made of ceramic, and doesn’t have any 18k gold finishing touches either.

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

The great thing is, not all of these features detract from the Maze Alpha, and none turn it into a bad phone. There is a real speaker above the screen, but it’s so tiny you have to look for it. The Maze Alpha’s glass and metal combination also has more grip than Xiaomi’s phone.

You need it. This is a big phone. The Alpha is even larger than an iPhone 7 Plus, and is slab-like in shape, therefore you need to hang on tight unless you want it clattering on the floor. The front fingerprint sensor should be on the back though, as it’s awkward to use with one hand in its current position. It’s sometimes slow to respond, and we often needed a couple of tries before it unlocked the phone. The low price means corners have certainly been cut. Still, the overall construction of the Alpha is excellent. There are no sharp edges, no poorly-fitted panels, and the whole phone feels very high quality.

It ticks all the must-have boxes for a smartphone this year.

The screen is the reason to buy the Maze Alpha. It’s 6-inches with a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution, and covered in a 2.5D piece of curved Gorilla Glass 4, resulting in an 83 percent screen-to-body ratio. It looks fantastic, with strong colors, high contrast, and plenty of brightness. Even with the brightness set halfway, it’s easily visible in sunlight. Videos looks superb, and when played through YouTube, they fit the screen well. It’s an immersive viewing experience, which is unlike most other phones, particularly at this price. It’s the same browsing the web, where more information is visible at one time, resulting in fewer swipes.

Android 7.0 Nougat is installed and our review model it had the August 2017 Android security patch already. Maze has left Android almost completely alone, but has opted to remove the app drawer. The icons used aren’t always the most up to date, leaving the user interface looking a little messy. Otherwise, it operates smoothly and without fuss, and is free of bloatware. There are some annoyances, such as swiping up the Android software keys only for them to readjust the screen size rather than overlaying the display, and pressing a button to make them disappear instead of swiping them away.

Speedy and good battery life, poor camera

A MediaTek Helio P25 processor with 4GB of RAM powers the phone, with a large 4,000mAh battery to keep it going. Standby time is exceptional, and the phone happily lasted for a couple of days without a recharge. It has a USB Type-C connector and fast-charging, although it still takes a good while to top up a cell that big. Performance is good. The Alpha played simple games like Happy Hop without a problem, and Reckless Racing 3 with the graphics turned up was free of jitter. The Maze Alpha is a good gaming phone due to the large screen too.

Sadly, the camera lets the Maze Alpha down. The dual-camera setup features a 13-megapixel main camera and a secondary 5-megapixel lens — it doesn’t replicate the Portrait Mode effect on the iPhone, but instead it’s used for increasing quality and contrast, a monochrome mode, plus a 2x optical zoom. In the right conditions it takes pleasant photos, but it’s never outstanding. The f/2.2 aperture makes low-light and overcast day shots a real challenge. The Maze Alpha’s camera is what we’d expect a phone costing this amount to be like, but that’s not really a good thing.

The app has modes for monochrome shots, video, and a Pro mode, plus a comprehensive editing suite. To use the selfie camera, you have to spin the phone round, as it’s under the screen, unless you like pictures of your neck. It’s worth mentioning Maze has pushed at least one software update to our phone since we’ve been using it, and that did improve the camera performance and responsiveness. We hope it continues to refine the camera more.

We like the Maze Alpha. Phones priced at around $200 tend to all look the same, and while the Maze Alpha looks a lot like the Xiaomi Mi Mix, at least it doesn’t look like the iPhone. The screen’s a beauty, the battery lasts ages, and the performance is strong. The camera is just acceptable, and can’t match more expensive devices for low light shots. The major downside is the lack of 4G LTE support in the U.S. We tested the Maze Alpha in the U.K., and it connected to O2’s 4G network without a problem.

Maze Alpha 4G Compared To

ZTE Blade Z Max

Moto Z2 Force

Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom

Moto Z2 Play

Motorola Moto E4

Huawei Nova 2 Plus

ZTE Max XL

Huawei Honor 8 Pro

Lenovo Moto G5 Plus

Meizu M3 Max

ZTE ZMax Pro

Blu Pure XL

Huawei Mate 8

ZTE Grand X Max+

LG G Flex

It’s an import phone, so don’t go looking for it at Best Buy. Chinese electronics specialist GearBest sells the Maze Alpha for $225 at the time of writing, and has good after sales support and warranties. It’s available elsewhere too, and if you’re lucky it can be found for under $190. If you’re prepared to go without super fast data, and only have a few hundred dollars to spend on a phone, the Maze Alpha stands out from the crowd. It certainly won’t get mistaken it for many other phones when you put it down on a table.