Snapchat’s ‘Phone Swap’ show is heading to television

Snapchat is making a television show, folks. Phone Swap, a dating series whose first season net more than 10 million viewers per episode, is breaking out of its Snapchat prison and heading to TV. Snapchat teased the show in June, but executives confirmed the news on today’s earnings call. Early reports said reality television producer Robin Ashbrook (MasterChef) would work with Snapchat and Vertical Networks, the company that actually creates Phone Swap, to bring it to TV.

Phone Swap is a dating series that has so far existed solely on Snapchat. It follows strangers as they exchange phones and trawl through each other’s dirty digital secrets, after which they’re able to swipe right or left on the entire situation. It’s charming with a hint of, “Wow, this is really how the world works now.”

Snapchat isn’t alone in its foray into television. Silicon Valley is all about building TV shows at the moment, though Snapchat has positioned itself at the forefront of this new frontier.

The Wirecutter’s best deals: The UE Roll 2 Bluetooth speaker drops to $50

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.

You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot — some of these sales could expire mighty soon.

LucidSound LS30 Wireless Gaming Headset

Street price: $135; MSRP: $150; Deal price: $97

At $97, this is the best price we’ve seen on the LucidSound LS30 wireless gaming headset and it’s a nice opportunity to pick one up in black (the white is only $3 more, matching our previous low of $100). The LS30 headset usually sticks close to a $150 price with sales down to $130 or $120. While we’ve seen more sales on this headset recently, it is still very much a deal at this new low price. Shipping is free.

The LucidSound LS30 is our wireless pick in our guide to the best gaming headsets. Kimber Streams wrote, “The one thing that all of the aforementioned headsets have in common is that they’re wired. A small percentage (15 percent, to be exact) of the Wirecutter readers we surveyed about gaming headsets insisted that wireless was the only way to go in this category. Last time, our testers struggled to fully embrace any of the wireless models we tested. This time, we all fell in love with the LucidSound LS30 due to its solid performance, especially intuitive controls, sleek design, and cross-platform compatibility. Although it doesn’t officially support PCs, we tried this headset with two different desktops and didn’t have any issues.”

Netgear CM500 Cable Modem

Street price: $70; MSRP: $70; Deal price: $50

Clip the on-page coupon to get the deal price of $50 on this recommended cable modem. We’ve seen a number of deals on the CM500 of late, with it hitting a low of $48 in early to mid-July. At just $2 more, this is a nice deal and definitely one we wouldn’t hesitate to grab as this modem is often over $70. Shipping is free.

The Netgear CM500 modem is our runner-up pick in our guide to the best cable modem. Patrick Austin and David Murphy write, “If the SB6183 is out of stock or too expensive, or you use Time Warner Cable and need IPv6 support (which that ISP currently doesn’t support on the SB6183), consider the Netgear CM500. The CM500 is a DOCSIS 3.0 16×4 cable modem compatible with nearly the same number of ISPs as our pick. It’s well-reviewed and popular (if not quite as widely liked as the SB6183), but has only a one-year warranty.”

L.L.Bean Stowaway Day Pack

Street price: $40; MSRP: $40; Deal price: $32 w/ code KIDS20

A good, easily stow-able day pack is a necessity for travel and useful in a number of other situations as well. Use code KIDS20 in cart to get $8 off this recommended packable day pack, the L.L.Bean Stowaway. This day pack is usually $40, but with the use of the code you can get it for $32. The one downside – a number of colors are presently backordered, but all but one are scheduled to be back in stock by next week, so as long as you’re willing to wait a short time, this is a good opportunity to pick one up cheaply. Shipping is free. This deal ends 8/27.

The L.L.Bean Stowaway Day Pack is the top pick in our guide to the best packable day pack for travel guide. Jean Yoon writes, “Among the backpacks in our test group, the L.L.Bean Stowaway Day Pack offers the most versatile combination of comfort and organizational features. Fully unpacked, the Stowaway Day Pack performs almost as well as a dedicated backpack thanks to its ventilated and comfy straps and back panel, yet it still compresses down to the size of a 99¢ chip bag. While it isn’t the smallest or lightest of the daypacks we picked, it is one of the few equipped with a waist belt and sternum strap—which help with heavier loads—and the only one to combine that design with an external kangaroo pouch that can accommodate a pair of shoes, rain gear, or anything else you wouldn’t want to muck up the inside of the bag. Its ripstop-nylon construction sheds rain and resists wear better than cheaper polyester, but should anything go wrong, it’s covered by L.L.Bean’s legendary lifetime satisfaction guarantee.”

UE Roll 2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker

Street price: $75; MSRP: $100; Deal price: $50

Here’s a great deal on our top portable Bluetooth speaker, matching the lowest price we’ve seen. While we’ve seen it hit this price before and more often over the past few months, it’s still a great deal to pick up this speaker. These sales are still usually pretty brief, so it’s unlikely this deal will stick around for more than a day. Currently only available in blue, purple, and a black & gray pattern. Shipping is free.

The UE Roll 2 is our top pick in our guide to the best portable Bluetooth speakers. Brent Butterworth writes, “The original UE Roll was our unanimous pick for the best portable speaker when we tested 30 new models last year, and we feel just as strongly about its replacement, the UE Roll 2. Like the original, the UE Roll 2 sounds full, with smooth reproduction of everything from bass notes to cymbals, and it plays loud enough to fill a hotel room or a spot at the beach with sound. It’s so watertight, it will survive being dunked 1 meter underwater for 30 minutes. Seven months of worldwide traveling with the original Roll have only confirmed our love of this design. The only real downside is that it lacks a speakerphone function.”

Because great deals don’t just happen on Thursdays, sign up for our daily deals email and we’ll send you the best deals we find every weekday. Also, deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.

Xbox’s self-published indies have their own space on the store

Finding self-published indie games on Xbox is a lot easier as of today. You’ll be able to find them on the Xbox Store hidden in their own “Creators Collection” marketplace. Microsoft’s Chris Charla (director of its ID @ Xbox indie outreach program) says this is a way to maintain the main store’s curated experience — citing concerns for families with young kids who could stumble across something that isn’t age-appropriate.

You know, because the M-rated Resident Evil: Revelations Collection featured on the store’s landing page is appropriate for everyone. Especially compared to utterly gruesome fare like party game Animal Rivals and the “relaxing puzzle game” ERMO.

Much like the program’s predecessor on Xbox 360, this wall, as minor as it might seem, cordons off the high-profile indies Microsoft has a vested interest in pushing — and limits potential income for developers — from the ones anyone can publish on the system. I digress. The offerings has grown since the Creators games were available in limited fashion, and a vast majority of them are free. The most expensive title is Derelict Fleet from developer Bionic Pony priced at $9.99. For more info, check out Xbox Wire and the video below.

Source: Xbox Wire

Google cancels all-hands meeting due to safety concerns

At the same time Google fired the author of a 10-page memo criticizing its diversity efforts due to “biological” differences, CEO Sundar Pichai scheduled a company town meeting for today to discuss the issue. Now, Recode and Business Insider report that he sent another email to employees canceling the event, citing websites that posted personal information about employees critical of the memo. Instead, the company plan is that “in the coming days we will find several forums to gather and engage with Googlers, where people can feel comfortable to speak freely.”

Source: Business Insider, Recode

Investment firm sues Uber’s Kalanick to oust him from board

It has been only a couple of days since Uber co-founder Garrett Camp promised that former CEO Travis Kalanick would not be coming back to the company as CEO. Now Benchmark Capital, an early investor with a seat on Uber’s board, is suing Kalanick for fraud. The complaint seeks to invalidate an earlier vote to expand the board with three seats, one of which Kalanick assigned himself to after stepping down as CEO. Benchmark claims that it would never have voted for the board expansion in June of last year had it known of Kalanick’s “gross mismanagement and other misconduct at Uber.”

“Plaintiff Benchmark brings this action to redress the fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and breaches of contractual obligations perpetrated by Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber, to entrench himself on Uber’s Board of Directors and increase his power for his own selfish ends,” states the complaint.

Benchmark also claims that the former CEO promised to only fill the remaining two seats with full board approval, but that he has not made the changes official via an amended voting agreement. Should the June 2016 stockholder vote — which created the three new board seats — be invalidated as per the lawsuit, then Kalankick would no longer be on Uber’s board. Benchmark Capital is also seeking a preliminary injunction against any involvement in the company’s board by Kalanick. This would also make it so he could not be considered for the currently open CEO position. Uber has declined to comment on this matter.

Source: Original Complaint, Axios

Clever new satellite propulsion system borrows a trick from inkjet printers

Why it matters to you

Miniature micropropulsion system will help tiny satellites better maneuver through space.

When you think about next-gen propulsion technologies for space travel, your mind probably goes to something like NASA’s EmDrive project or ion engines before it does a material like boring old water. After all, we like our propulsion materials to be rare and science fiction-sounding, as opposed to a freely available liquid that covers two-thirds of our planet.

That could be where you are making a mistake, though. At Purdue University, researchers are developing a smart new micropropulsion system which uses a configuration of tiny nozzles that release precise bursts of water vapor to maneuver outside Earth’s atmosphere. The propulsion system is not designed for big spacecraft, however.

“[What we] have developed with the Film Evaporation MEMS Tunable Array (FEMTA) is a tiny microthruster rocket engine for orienting CubeSats or other very small satellites,” Anthony Cofer, a spacecraft laboratory engineer at Purdue, told Digital Trends. “The thruster uses microscale effects to obtain a thermal valve with no moving parts.”

Purdue University/Erin Easterling

CubeSats refer to some of the (relatively) low-cost “microsatellites” and “nanosatellites” which are currently being launched to carry out various tasks — ranging from high-res imaging to internet services to military surveillance. These satellites are much smaller than traditional ones or other spacecraft, therefore necessitating a smaller propulsion system.

The Purdue engine works using small heaters which create water vapor as the water inside is forced through tiny capillaries, just 10 micrometers in diameter. The result is something that functions much like an inkjet printer, which employs heaters to push out ink droplets — only in this case the droplets provide thrust.

In demos, the thruster exhibited a thrust-to-power ratio of 230 micronewtons per watt for impulses lasting around 80 seconds. The entire prototype weighs just six pounds, including electronics and an inertial measurement unit sensor for monitoring the thrusters’ performance.

Looking to the future, the team is optimistic about the project. “Our plan is to work with NASA Goddard to progress to the required Technology Readiness Level for insertion into a space flight mission,” Alina Alexeenko, a professor in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, told us.

Best of all, if it turns out that there is indeed an abundant source of water on the Martian moon Phobos, a water-based propulsion system such as this will have a ready-made refueling station in space. Smart, huh?

Don’t like sharing your number with your Uber driver? In-app messaging can help

Why it matters to you

If exchanging numbers with your Uber driver makes you uncomfortable, this new in-app messaging feature will help assuage your concerns.

Your Uber driver may be your ride home, but that does not mean he or she is your best friend. So naturally, you should not be clogging up your texts with random messages from your driver’s unknown number. Happily, Uber agrees, and has now introduced in-app messaging. That means that you can now connect with your driver from within the Uber app itself, putting an end to those potentially awkward (and oddly personal) SMS exchanges.

“Every great ride starts with the pickup, so we’re always thinking about ways to make the pickup experience as frictionless as possible for riders and drivers alike,” Uber noted in an announcement. “That includes helping riders and drivers connect should they need to get in touch with one another to solve for things like road closures, or to just provide information on their exact location.”

Getting connected is as easy as going to your Uber feed and tapping the “contact” section, and then tapping “chat.” The messages you send to your driver will be read aloud to him or her (so don’t worry — there will be no texting while driving as a result of your communication). Drivers can acknowledge that your message has been read with a single tap, which will send you a thumbs up emoji. Plus, both riders and drivers will have read receipts, so you will know that you are on the same page.

The addition of the in-app chat feature will eliminate the need for drivers and passengers to share their phone numbers with one another, which could help to address some privacy concerns. And perhaps more saliently, not all of Uber’s cities can actually make use of these shared numbers. “In many of our markets, SMS isn’t actually available for us, we don’t have the technology in place,” Uber Product Manager Jeremy Lermitte told TechCrunch. “That’s especially true in some of our key markets like Brazil and India. And then in other emerging markets where we do offer SMS, we don’t have the technology in place to anonymize the personal contact info, so the rider and driver are actually sharing their personal contact information in some of those markets.”

In-app messaging, however, could solve many of those issues. The feature is rolling out globally to drivers and riders alike over the coming week, and you will need the latest version of the app to take advantage of it.

Corsair Neutron NX500 SSD burns with speed, but doesn’t scorch your PC

Why it matters to you

Corsair’s new solid state disk fits into an open PCI Express slot in your PC, providing read speeds up to a blazing fast 3,000MB per second!

Looking to beef up your desktop with super-fast storage? Corsair has a new solid state disk that takes advantage of your PC’s speedy PCI Express lanes by plugging directly into an add-in card slot. It’s called the Neutron NX500 NVMe PCIe SSD AIC, and it’s available in two capacities now, to be followed by a third capacity at the end of the month.

Traditionally, mechanical hard drives and cartridge-like solid state disks connect to the Serial ATA (SATA) bus (freeway) on a motherboard via ports and cables. The third revision of the specification powering this bus caps read and write speeds at 600MB per second, which is fine for general applications like browsing the internet, checking email, writing documents, and performing other mainstream tasks.

Meanwhile, the PCI Express bus is extremely fast. It’s built for handling add-in cards shoved into slots that are essentially an extension of the motherboard. Short for Peripheral Component Interconnect, this bus relies on “lanes” for sending and receiving data from multiple card-focused slots. Because SATA was created with slow hard drives and optical drives in mind, it bottlenecks the full capabilities of the newer, super-fast NAND Flash technology that drives today’s solid state drives.

Thus, moving SSD storage to PCI Express makes sense. As of late, stick-shaped SSDs have become a popular form factor, connecting to special “M.2” card-style slots on a motherboard. These slots can be based on the PCI Express or SATA 3 bus, depending on the manufacturer. These slots also rely on the NVM Express or the SATA Express storage access interface, the latter of which uses a PCI Express bus to provide transfer speeds of up to 1,969MB per second.

But what if you don’t have an M.2 slot on your motherboard supporting PCI Express? That’s where Corsair’s Neutron NX500 add-in card comes into play. Just shove it into an open slot, and you immediately have a crazy-fast SSD without disrupting the other storage devices installed in the PC. It’s based on the NVM Express interface, which was originally designed for the high-speed needs of the enterprise market. Corsair’s SSD requires a slot that supports the PCI Express 3.0 specification, and at least four lanes.

Here are some of the details:

Sequential Read Speed:
Up to 3,000MB per second
Sequential Write Speed:
Up to 2,400MB per second
4K Random Read:
Up to 300K IOPS
4K Random Write:
Up to 270K IOPS
Interface:
NVM Express via PCI Express 3.0 x4 slot
Operating Temperature:
Zero degrees to -70 degrees Celsius
Storage Temperature:
-40 degrees to -85 degrees Celsius
Lifespan:
2,000,000 hours
Dimensions:
4/76 x 6.49 (L) x 0.82 (H) inches
Storage Capacities:
400GB ($320)
800GB
1,600GB (1.6TB)
Storage technology:
MLC NAND

Outside the speed factor, the Neutron NX500 add-in SSD comes packed with a high-surface-area heatsink to keep the card cool and fanless, enhanced error correction, dedicated DDR3 cache, and a five-year warranty. It’s compatible with Corsair’s free SSD Toolbox software, too.

The 400GB ($320) and 800GB ($660) models are available now. The 1.6TB version won’t be made available until the end of August.

Samsung Galaxy S8 camera tips that will make you a better photographer

The Galaxy S8 might not boast the iPhone’s fancy dual-sensor setup, but its 12MP camera is nothing to shake a stick at. It ranks third on camera benchmarking site DxOMark’s list of top-ranking smartphone cameras, the second-highest score ever achieved by an Android phone. In our testing, the Galaxy S8, manage to capture clear, color-accurate shots pretty consistently.

That said, taking exceptional photos with the Galaxy S8 isn’t as easy as whipping it out of your pocket and hitting the shutter button. It’s worth learning a thing or two about close-ups, wide shots, high dynamic range (HDR), and filters. Once you master the basics, you’ll be well on your way to producing DSLR-quality snaps with the Galaxy S8’s camera.

Here are a few Samsung Galaxy S8 camera tips and tricks that’ll help you make the most of the the phone’s camera.

How to quickly zoom in and out, or take a burst shot

Zooming in with a smartphone camera can be a two-handed pain in the rear, but the Galaxy S8’s app makes it easy. When you want to enlarge a portion of the frame, tap and drag the shutter button to the right — it’ll turn into a horizontal slider that shows the current zoom level.

Quickly capturing a burst shot with the Galaxy S8 is even easier. Just tap and hold the shutter button, and that’s it — you’ll find the photos in your gallery.

Learn how to use the Galaxy S8’s camera modes

The Galaxy S8’s camera app is a little overwhelming, at first glance, but Samsung has made an effort to trim the fat. A swipe left pulls up a wealth of different modes, including Auto, Pro, Panorama, Selective motion, Hyperlapse, Food, and virtual shot.

Here’s what each of them does:

Auto: Auto, the Galaxy S8’s default shooting mode, handles everything for you. It’s a point-and-shoot affair.

Pro: If you know your way around a camera and want to make the most of the Galaxy S8’s snapper, Pro mode will suit you fine. It puts settings like the ISO, aperture, IRIS setting, autofocus, white balance, and exposure at your fingertips. One of the most useful is manual focus mode, which draws green lines in the viewfinder over the object that’s in focus.

Panorama: The Galaxy S8’s panorama mode stitches multiple shots together into a single, ultra-wide photo.

Selective focus: Selective focus, a feature introduced on the Galaxy S5, snaps multiple photos consecutively with varying focus. The end result is a photo with an adjustable focus level; you can swap focus between objects in the foreground or background.

Slow motion: The Galaxy S8’s slow motion mode captures videos at a higher-than-normal frame rate (240 fps compared to 30 fps or 60 fps), which has the effect of making things seem “slower” when played back at normal speeds. You’ll have to settle for a lower resolution than normal-speed video — Slow Motion mode maxes out at 720p — but the effect is worth the sacrifice.

Hyperlapse: Hyperlapse lets you create time lapse videos, or clips that compress hours of footage into a few sped-up, super-fast minutes. Samsung says it’s smart enough to adjust to what you’re recording automatically.

Food: Food mode is optimized for pictures of delicious grub, as you might expect. Activate it, and you’ll get enhanced color, contrast, and blur effects that make everything fancy. A handy tip: Moving the circle in the viewfinder adjusts the level of background blur.

Virtual shot: Virtual shot isn’t the most useful mode in the Galaxy S8’s arsenal, but the effect’s neat. Basically, you move the camera in a circular motion around an object as your phone snaps pics. Then the Galaxy S8 stitches photos together in an animated file.

How to apply filters, effects, and overlays

There’s more to the Galaxy S8’s camera app than shooting modes. Swiping to the right of the Galaxy S8’s camera menu brings up the filters, effects, and overlays section. It’s a lot to unpack.

Filters are akin to color palettes: They tweak the lighting, brightness, and contrast of your photo to match a certain style. There’s an Auto filter that corrects for lighting conditions, plus colors like “Cream,” “Deep,” “Forest,” “Classic,” “Cosy,” “Memory,” “and “Maple.”

Tap the bear-shaped icon to access the effects menu, which consists of Instagram-style filters and stickers that lay atop your photos (think stylized titles like “Best friend,” “Cool,” “Enjoy,” and “Happy Anniversary”).

Overlays, which occupy the same menu, are like Snapchat Lenses. They’re digital masks, bunny ears, sunglasses, tiaras, and party hats that sit atop people’s faces. It’s like augmented reality, but without the need for a third-party app – they’re built right into the Galaxy S8’s camera app.

If you’re not happy with the default selection of filters, effects, and overlays, you can download additional stamps, face masks, and more from Samsung’s Galaxy Apps store. Note that not all are free, though — you’ll have to shell out cash for some of them.

How to use your voice, palm, or face to capture a photo

If snapping pictures with the shutter button is starting to feel old hat, good news: The Galaxy S8 lets you trigger a photo with voice commands, palm gestures, or even your face.

To enable voice controls, head over to the camera app’s settings menu and tap the Voice control. There isn’t much in the way of customization, here, but you can trigger a photo by shouting words like “smile” and “cheese.” Saying “record video” switches the camera to video mode.

Alternatively, you can use a finger. When the front-facing camera’s active, placing your finger over the heart rate sensor on the back of the Galaxy S8 (opposite the side of the camera module) snaps a shot. It’s not always consistent, but it’s easier than trying to tap the shutter button one-handed.

Holding out your palm works, too. With the camera in selfie mode, hold out your palm when you’re framing the shot. The Galaxy S8 will automatically set a short countdown timer to take a photo.

How to take the perfect selfie

If you’re not entirely pleased with the way your selfie turned out, the Galaxy S8’s camera app can help you tweak it.

Swipe down anywhere in the frame to switch between the Galaxy S8’s front camera and rear camera. Then swipe to the left to get several different shooting modes: Selfie, the default; wide selfie, a wider-angle mode that makes it easier to fit a multiple people in the frame; and selective focus, which blurs out your photo’s background.

There’s more than angle adjustment, here. Tap the brush-shaped icon when the Galaxy S8’s in selfie mode and you’ll get options to tweak your skin tone, face and eye shape, and backlighting. Once you settle on the right combination of settings, snapping a selfie’s as easy as hitting the shutter button.

How to add shortcuts to the home screen

Tired of having to switch to a different mode every time you launch the Galaxy S8’s camera app? Good news: The Galaxy S8’s shortcuts feature lets you pin frequently used modes to the home screen.

Once you’ve selected the mode you want, tap the three-dot menu in the upper right-hand corner and hit Add shortcut to home screen. Select your favorite modes, and that’s it — you’ll see them on your home screen, where you can rearrange them just like app shortcuts.

How to use the floating camera button

Having trouble reaching the Galaxy S8’s shutter button while you’re trying to capture the perfect shot? Not to worry — just like Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and Galaxy A5, the Galaxy S8 lets you move the shutter button to a more convenient screen location.

First, though, you’ll have to enable it in the settings menu. Head to the Galaxy S8 camera app’s Settings and tap the Floating Camera button. Then, it’s as easy as pressing and drag on the shutter button with a free finger to a spot that’s easier to tap.

How to fine-tune the camera app’s settings

There’s a lot more to the Galaxy S8’s camera app beneath its colorful icons and animated graphics. Dive into the settings menu, and you’ll see options to tweak the video resolution, preview pictures before you save them, and more.

Here’s everything you can do:

Video and picture size: From the camera app’s settings menu you can change picture size and video size. In terms of the former, you have the choice of 12MP all the way down to 1:1. When it comes to the latter, the Galaxy S8 can shoot up to Ultra HD (3,840 x 2,160 pixels).

Tracking AF and shape correction: Not every picture’s perfect, which is where tracking AF and shape correction come in. Tracking AF focuses on and tracks a subject you selected on the preview screen. Shape correction, meanwhile, reduces distortion at the corners of the S8’s screen at the cost of resolution.

Save pictures as previewed: By default, the Galaxy S8’s selfie camera flips saved images to show you how you really look. Flipping the toggle shows the true photos, instead.

Timer: You can trigger the Galaxy S8 to take a photo after a few seconds.

Motion photo: Motion photo is the Galaxy S8’s version of the iPhone 7’s Live Photos. Toggle the setting, and you’ll get a short video clip of what happens before each picture was taken.

Quick launch: Enable quick launch to open the camera by quickly pressing the power button.

How to edit your photos to your heart’s content

The Galaxy S8 packs more than a powerful camera app. Once you’ve snapped a few shots, switch over to Samsung’s photo-editing tools by launching the Gallery and tapping the Edit button.

Here’s what you can do:

Transform: Transform lets you rotate, flip, mirror, and crop a photo.

Tone: Tone packs brightness, exposure, contrast, saturation, hue, and white balance adjustment tools.

Advanced: Advanced lets you run wild with a photo’s tone curve, color, and backlight. It’s a little tricky to get the hang of, but affords you the most freedom.

Effects: Effects puts all of the Galaxy S8 camera app’s effects in one place, which is useful if you forget to apply an effect before you snap a photo.

Decoration: Decoration lets you overlay things on a photo — you can add images, stickers, labels, and covers, or doodles with your finger.

Acer Predator XB272 gaming monitor review

Research Center:
Acer Predator XB272 Gaming Monitor

Welcome to the future, where high-end gaming monitors are so quick that we can’t actually show you how quick they are. Seriously. During our Acer Predator XB272 review, we were constantly struggling to find ways to put its impossibly fast 240Hz refresh rate into words.

Chances are, the monitor you’re reading this on caps out at 60Hz, which means it refreshes 60 times per second. That’s more than enough for everyday use and most gaming. But the further you climb up the refresh-rate ladder — up to 75Hz, 144Hz, 200Hz, and now with the Predator XB272, 240Hz — the smoother gameplay looks.

High refresh rate gaming poses its own set of challenges, though. To get the most out of a 240Hz monitor like the XB272, which retails for $680 on its own, you need a monster gaming rig.

Predator-lite

Acer’s characteristic Predator styling — red accents, sharp angles — is notably absent on the Predator XB272. If not for the chrome “Predator” branding on the bottom edge of the display, the XB272 would be almost indistinguishable from more mundane monitors.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The stand is largely plastic, and while it does a good job of keeping the monitor steady, it’s not very attractive. It’s just a black column with some black plastic feet. That could be a blessing in disguise, though, if you’re looking for a display that will fit in with your home décor.

Looking at similar displays like the BenQ EX3200R, it’s clear that gaming monitors can occasionally benefit from elegant design. The EX3200R, with its wide, sweeping display, sits atop a chrome metallic stand. It’s modern and stylish, like a faucet in a fancy hotel — one of those swoopy ones.

It’s modern and stylish, like a faucet in a fancy hotel — one of those swoopy ones.

Then BenQ looks good, but maybe it’s not for everyone. Design decisions are always a risk, so it’s hard to blame Acer for hedging its bets here, and going with something bland and functional.

While the Acer Predator XB272 isn’t the fairest in the land, it’s certainly sturdy. Every inch of the display feels solid, there’s no creaking or settling when you give it a good squeeze, and once you adjust its positioning, it tends to stay put. The stand provides excellent isolation, too, so the display doesn’t wobble much when the desk it sits on is bumped.

The monitor is VESA compatible, and with its super-slim bezels, it wouldn’t be a bad choice for a wall-mount. The bezels also make this monitor great for multi-monitor setups.

Portacular

Never in the history of this earth has anyone looked at a device and thought “this has too many ports.” The Acer Predator XB272 embodies this philosophy, in some ways at least, by including four USB Type-A 3.0 ports and one USB Type-B port. That last one is a weird inclusion, but a welcome one.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Moving on to the essentials, the DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4 ports are conveniently located just behind the frontal lip of the display. They can be reached from the front just tilting the display back, which is a nice touch.

An extra DisplayPort or HDMI port would have been welcome, but gaming displays have been pretty stingy with those recently, so it’s par for the course. The Acer Predator Z35 also features a single HDMI and DisplayPort.

Buttons within buttons

Monitors usually come in two varieties, those with buttons and those with jog buttons — a little joystick that is also a button. We seldom have a choice in the matter, it’s a binary imposed upon us by monitor manufacturers. But following in the footsteps of Prometheus, who bore fire to mankind, the Acer Predator XB272 offers us the gift of choice.

Welcome to the future, where high-end gaming monitors are so quick, we can’t show you how quick they are.

It’s a monitor with both a jog button and regular buttons.

Okay, that might not be the most exciting thing about this monitor, but it’s helpful because the Predator XB272 is very customizable. Hitting the jog button brings up the main menu, from which you can navigate to several sub-menus to adjust brightness, contrast, color settings, and the built-in “Aim Point” reticle — a crosshair the Predator XB272 can superimpose on your display to make in-game aiming easier.

The “regular” buttons bring up an additional quick menu where you can adjust brightness, tweak the contrast, and cycle between presets for gaming, movies, or graphics work.

Silk-fast and lightning-smooth

In some ways, high refresh rate gaming is on its own parallel path alongside other graphical innovations like 4K gaming. Currently, it’s just not feasible — even for high-end gaming PCs — to offer 4K gaming at 240Hz. That’s why we’ll often see gaming monitors support either 4K or a super-high refresh rate, but we rarely see both together.

That’s also why we see so many high-refresh-rate monitors max out at 1080p. Consistently running games at 240 frames per second is tough, but scaling back the resolution to 1080p makes things much easier. The image won’t be as sharp, but you’ll get to max out your detail settings — depending on the strength of your hardware.

The Acer Predator XB272 is one such monitor, with the resolution dialed down to 1080p and the refresh rate dialed all the way up to 240Hz. If your hardware can handle it, hitting 240 FPS and turning on G-Sync makes every game a visual symphony. On this display, a game like Overwatch becomes hyper-real. Fluid animations, fast-paced gameplay, and killer visuals all cascade across the screen, imbued with an unparalleled sense of movement and momentum.

That rapid-fire refresh rate comes courtesy of the Acer Predator XB272’s twisted nematic or TN display panel. These kinds of displays are typically very quick, but often suffer from poor viewing angles, and the XB272 is no exception. Moving too far left or right will cause the display to appear discolored, but thankfully the stand is very easily adjustable, so this drawback is easily mitigated.

Let’s see how it stacks up to competitors in a few other areas.

While it’s tempting to compare the Acer Predator XB272 to its larger cousin, the 35-inch ultra-wide Acer Predator Z35, it faces strong competition from the BenQ EX3200R.

With a contrast ratio of 2,060:1 the BenQ EX3200R takes the lead, and the Acer Predator Z35 comes in second with a contrast ratio of 1,190:1. Both are superb scores, which illustrates that both monitors are capable of rendering highlights and shadows right beside one another without losing much quality, if any. Images, videos, and games all possess a sense of depth you just don’t see at lower contrast ratios.

The Acer Predator XB272, with its contrast ratio of 740:1, does well for itself, but when compared side-by-side to the BenQ EX3200R, there’s a staggering difference between them. The BenQ is lavish by comparison. Even flat images possess a sense of life and detail you just don’t see on the Predator XB272.

The XB272 looks fine. Images aren’t washed out, and videos don’t display any visible banding due to low contrast — but for almost $700, it’s not a bad thing to expect more than fine.

If your hardware can handle it, hitting 240 FPS makes every game a visual symphony.

Moving on to color gamut, the XB272 hits 75 percent of the AdobeRGB color space, while the Predator Z35 managed to render 79 percent. It’s not a big difference, and none of these monitors are achievers when it comes to color gamut. Even the Z35, with its slightly-higher-than-average-score, would be a poor choice for color-sensitive work in Photoshop.

Color accuracy is a slightly different story. The Acer Predator XB272 and BenQ EX3200R lead the pack in this category, with average color error scores — 1.74 and 1.29, respectively — close enough that neither monitor features any noticeable distortion.

With color error, a lower score is better, and anything below one is hard for the human eye to notice. So these scores are very good, and in league with the low-end of monitors that claim professional-grade performance.

The Acer Predator Z35 and Dell S2417DG were within inches of each other with scores of 2.45 and 2.4, respectively. Those scores are low enough that nothing on either display ever looks severely discolored, but high enough that you might want to refrain from using either one for photo or video editing — especially if you’re doing any color-correction.

No calibration necessary

Calibrating a display doesn’t always unlock hidden potential, but it can sometimes mitigate a monitor’s undesirable traits. The Acer Predator XB272 is just as capable right out of the box as it is after calibrating with a professional-grade colorimeter, which is a mixed blessing.

Acer Predator XB272 Gaming Monitor Compared To

BenQ EX3200R Gaming Monitor

Dell S2418H

LG 27MD5KA‑B Ultrafine 5K

Samsung CF791

Dell U3417W

Samsung CFG70

LG 38UC99

Dell s2417DG

Dell S2716DG

Acer S277HK

Acer XB280HK

Acer B286HK

AOC G2770PQU

AOC mySmart A2472PW4T

Dell P2314T

On the one hand, it means you won’t have to fiddle with the XB272 to get it to perform well. It’ll do that from day one. But on the other hand, it means there’s not much you can do about the XB272’s painfully average color gamut, or contrast ratio.

The color accuracy did improve a small amount, but the XB272 already does well in that regard, so moving from a score of 1.74 to 1.58 isn’t really worth the time it takes to calibrate the display.

Warranty information

The Acer Predator XB272 comes with a three-year limited warranty, covering parts and labor in the event of any manufacturer defects. That’s pretty long for a gaming monitor, as we commonly see one and two-year warranties on monitors in this price range.

Our Take

The Acer Predator XB272 is a good gaming monitor. It’s held back because it offers only 1080p resolution at $680, but the ultra-high refresh rate puts it well ahead of its nearest competitors when it comes to raw speed. That presents its own problem, though. Do you really need 240Hz to get that liquid-smooth gaming experience? Can your PC even handle it?

Is there a better alternative?

Yes, there is a better alternative: The BenQ EX3200R. It’s a 31.5-inch curved, ultra-wide monitor with killer picture quality and a lightning-fast 144Hz refresh rate. It’s not as quick as the Acer Predator XB272, but put them side by side, and you might not notice the difference. The BenQ is also a 1080p display, but its more reasonable $400 price tag helps excuse that potential downside.

Generally, you’ll experience diminishing returns the further you push past 60Hz. At 75Hz motion takes on that glassy-smooth quality, while at 144Hz games become otherworldly. The Acer Predator XB272 looks great at 240Hz, but the difference between 144Hz and 240Hz is minimal … and almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

A 1440p display with a 120Hz or 144Hz panel is another possible alternative. Acer and Asus offer panels with this combination of resolution and features, such as the Asus ROG Swift PG279Q, and most sell for around the same price. They offer a good compromise between image sharpness and refresh rate. You can always scan our list of the best computer monitors for additional choices.

How long will it last?

The Acer Predator XB272 benefits from a long three-year limited warranty, and it is a well-built little monitor, so it’ll probably last long enough to wear out that warranty. Also, at 240Hz it’s going to be able to keep up with your gaming rig for the foreseeable future, or last long enough for your hardware to catch up to that refresh rate.

Should you buy it?

If you can’t possibly settle a refresh rate less than 240Hz, yes, you should buy the Acer Predator XB272. It offers slightly above average picture quality, even if it is a bit pricey. If you can get by with 144Hz though, you would be better off going with the BenQ EX3200R, or another 144Hz competitor.