Razer Blade Pro (2017) review

Research Center:
Razer Blade Pro (2017)

Razer made a name for itself as a purveyor of high-quality gaming peripherals and systems, and its signature Blade lineup is legendary for its design, performance, and price tag. At the tip-top of Razer’s catalogue sits the Blade Pro, a massive, massively expensive gaming laptop, peering down from its obsidian throne at every competitor. For our Blade Pro review, it descended from its lofty throne to prove its worth once and for all.

Our review model featured a 17.3-inch 4K touchscreen, an Intel i7-7820HK processor, 32GB of RAM, a 512 GB solid state drive, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, all for the low, low price of $4,000.

At that price, the Blade Pro isn’t exactly an entry-level gaming laptop. It’s a laptop equal parts myth and song. Legend has it this is a device you seek when you’ve left dozens of gaming laptops shattered in your wake, their GPUs burned out, keyboards worn to dust. Then, and only then, do you seek out the Blade Pro. Let’s find out if the legends are true, or if it’s just an expensive laptop.

A black rider

Clad in black aluminum, with a bright, glossy screen, the Razer Blade is luxurious. The matte black interior, unibody construction, and pulsing keyboard backlight make the Blade Pro look like something out of Ghost in the Shell — the original, not the weird remake. It’s stylish, understated, and just the right amount of audacious. When you open it for the first time, it’s hard not to smile as the Chroma-lit mechanical keyboard pulses to life.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Despite its luxury pedigree and price tag, this thing is built like a tank — in every sense of the word. It’s durable, reliable, and very heavy. It weighs 7.69 pounds, but let’s just call that eight, because that’s how it feels when you’re carrying it around.

The Razer Blade Pro devours anything you throw at it and asks for more.

When you’re just moving it around an office, not hauling it in a messenger bag, it’s a good weight, like a luxury timepiece. It feels like quality. There’s no creaking or cracking when you pick it up, nothing moves or flexes, and even the display has little give. Though it has a large footprint, it’s only .88 inches thick, so it looks smaller than it is when it’s closed and resting.

That said, the neon-green snakes on the back-side of the display still feel a bit out of place. It doesn’t look bad, but the glowing plastic panel doesn’t look quite as luxe as an engraved set of writhing snakes might. Razer does offer a more discrete gunmetal edition of its Blade Stealth laptop, but that treatment isn’t available on the Blade Pro.

Something missing

The Razer Blade Pro has a standard array of ports, but it’s a bit slim for a laptop of this size. Altogether, it features a power port, three USB ports, one USB Type-C port, an SD card slot, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, a headphone jack and — thankfully — a Kensington lock. Wireless connectivity includes 802.11ac Wi-Fi provided by a Killer Networks wireless card, and Bluetooth 4.1.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

We never ran out of places to plug in our peripherals during testing, but the Blade Pro is one port shy of the full complement of four USB ports offered by the slightly slimmer Asus Zephyrus gaming laptop.

Mechanical precision

It’s easy to overlook keyboard and trackpad quality on laptops, since they’re rarely anything to write home about, but that would be a mistake here. The Razer Blade Pro features an ultra-low-profile mechanical keyboard — yep, a real mechanical keyboard — and an unusual but accurate trackpad.

The Blade Pro isn’t an entry-level gaming laptop, and with its reputation, it’s a device equal parts myth and song.

Typing on the Razer Blade Pro is a joy. Every keystroke is snappy, responsive, and provides a satisfying click. When you get going on a Word document — like, say, a product review — the clicks and clacks become loud, but that’s half the pleasure. Key travel feels deep, and never stops short like, the MacBook Pro’s keyboard does.

The trackpad isn’t as remarkable. It’s smooth and precise, with support for Windows Precision Touchpad, but its defining feature is its bizarre location. Seated on the right-hand side of the keyboard, the trackpad will present a problem for left-handed owners. The trackpad is a decent size, and we never felt cramped, even when using it for gaming — which is still just as awkward as it ever was. X-Com 2 would probably be all right, as would be any turn-based game. But, speaking from painful experience, this trackpad is not accurate enough to use in Overwatch.

Now, let’s move on to the most important part of any Razer Product, the Chroma lighting. The Blade Pro’s keyboard and trackpad both feature Chroma lighting, with tons of customization options available in the Razer Synapse software.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Even if you don’t want to wade through the options, Chroma does some cool stuff. Some games, like Overwatch, actually change the lighting based on in-game conditions. Keys pulse when your abilities are on cooldown, and during character selection, colors cascade across the keyboard depending on which character you have selected. It even pulses to Lucio’s music.

Tack-sharp and crystal-clear

That’s enough about the keyboard. Let’s talk about the display. At 17.3-inches, it’s huge for a laptop. But with a 4K display panel, every square inch of that real estate is used. Well, almost.

We couldn’t help but notice the big, fat bezel around the outside of the screen. It’s almost an inch wide in some places. It makes the Blade’s display look like it’s undersized, due to the ratio between bezel and display. We understand there are technical concerns here, like finding a display panel that has the right dimensions, and lighting it properly, but this is 2017. Big bezels look instantly date the look of any new laptop.

This isn’t a problem impacts performance, however. The Blade Pro’s display looks fantastic.

At maximum brightness, the Blade Pro’s display hit a contrast ratio of 900:1. Colors are sharp and vibrant, while shadows are deep and dark without losing any definition. This makes the Blade Pro’s display killer for gaming. Every scene is crisp, richly defined, and vibrant. Plus, thanks to the display’s support for Nvidia’s G-Sync, games don’t stutter or suffer screen tearing.

To put it in perspective, the Blade Pro’s only real competitor is its smaller cousin, the Razer Blade, which hit 1040:1 at max brightness. Colors are a bit more vibrant, and shadows are a bit darker, but it’s easy to forgive the Blade Pro’s display because of its wide color gamut.

We couldn’t help but notice the big, fat bezel around the screen.

Alienware’s R13 with optional OLED display is the only gaming laptop we’ve seen with better contrast. Its ratio of 360,000:1 effectively breaks the chart. Unlike the Blade Pro’s standard LED, the Alienware’s OLED can deliver a near-perfect black level, which amps up the contrast. Alienware doesn’t offer the OLED option on its larger laptops, though, and we doubt anyone’s really going to consider the R13 as an alternative to the Blade Pro.

Hitting 98 percent of the AdobeRGB spectrum, the Blade Pro’s color gamut eclipses most of its nearest competitors. Most gaming laptops, and most laptops, end up covering around 75 to 80 percent of the AdobeRGB color space — decent but not unbelievable scores. Even the Razer Blade only hits 76 percent of the AdobeRGB color space, despite its superior contrast ratio.

There’s one other hitch though, and that’s the color accuracy. To the naked eye, the Razer Blade Pro looks great. Colors are rich and vibrant, and there’s no noticeable discoloration. However, it renders some colors more accurately than others, and its overall color error is 2.4 according to our tests. That’s not a bad score, but given its price, we hoped for better. Other gaming laptops do beat the Razer Blade Pro in color accuracy. The Asus Zephyrus hit 1.31, coming closer to a perfect score than the Razer Blade Pro.

Razer Blade Pro (2017) Compared To

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming Laptop…

Origin EON15-S

Asus ROG Zephyrus

Razer Blade (2017)

MSI GS63VR 6RF Stealth Pro

Alienware 13 R3

Acer Predator 17 G9-791-79Y3

Alienware 15 (2015)

Asus ROG G501

Digital Storm Triton

Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Edition

Alienware 17

AVADirect Clevo P157SM-A

Alienware M14x (2012)

Origin Eon 17-S

Overall, the Razer Blade Pro’s display is a winner. We’ve seen only one that can beat it – the optional OLED display on the Alienware R13, which we mentioned earlier. Its contrast level is unmatched. Yet the Blade Pro does keep up to it in color gamut, sharpness, gamma, and other important areas. Plus, Alienware’s OLED doesn’t have G-Sync.

It’s quiet — too quiet

The Razer Blade Pro features a pair of speakers embedded on either side of the keyboard. They’re narrow for a laptop of this size, and a bit underpowered. They provide clear, rich sound, but they’re too-often drowned out by the Blade Pro’s internal fans.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

When you’re playing any game, the fans kick on and do a good job of keeping your legs cool, but also overwhelm the poor speakers. If you’re planning on using the Blade Pro without external speakers, at least make sure you have some headphones handy.

HK vs HQ

When you buy a new laptop, chances are you’ll see one of just a few processors purring away under the hood — a dual-core Intel i5-7500U, or a quad-core Intel i7-7700HQ. In everyday use, you’re honestly not going to see a difference between these two processors.

Fire up any application in the Adobe Creative Suite, though, and it’s a different story. The heavy-lift capabilities of a processor like the Intel i7-7700HQ, or the Razer Blade Pro’s i7-7820HK, are impressive, but it’s hard to show even in our benchmarks.

In Geekbench, you can see that the i7-7700HQ and the i7-7820HK are neck-and-neck. They have, ultimately, the same range of capabilities at stock speeds. The Blade Pro’s CPU is a bit quicker than its siblings, but these razor-thin margins in Geekbench don’t tell the whole story.

Our Handbrake test illustrates how these two chips differ, however. The i7-7700HQ is a reliable performer, one of the best on the market, but the i7-7820HK edges it out when performing a real-world task like encoding 4K video.

You can overclock it, though given that the Razer Blade Pro is a laptop, we wouldn’t recommend it.

By finishing the encode in just seven minutes, the i7-7820HK pushes ahead by a narrow margin, beating out the quickest i7-7700HQ in our stable by about six seconds. Look at a slower i7-7700HQ, like the one in the Asus Zephyrus, and that narrow margin becomes a sizable gulf — almost a full minute.

Naturally, an extra minute on an encode here and there won’t change your workflow all that much, but having a bit of extra horsepower is never unwelcome — especially if you’re doing a lot of video encoding, or regularly editing 4K footage.

The i7-7820HK has another trick up its sleeve — it’s unlocked. That means you can overclock it, though given that the Razer Blade Pro is a laptop, we wouldn’t recommend it. Overclocking a desktop system is different, since you can upgrade your cooling setup to compensate for the extra heat your faster — and now hotter — CPU will generate. You can’t do that in a laptop, and that makes overclocking your CPU a risky proposition. It’s cool that you can, but you probably shouldn’t.

Speed-reading

The Razer Blade Pro comes in a number of different flavors, storage being one of the options you can really push to extremes but those 2TB SSDs don’t come cheap. Our review unit featured a more modest and attainable 512GB M.2 SSD, but don’t be fooled by its size — this thing is fast.

Pitted against a few of the quickest SSDs we’ve tested recently, the Blade Pro comes out very near the top with its read speed of 2,401 megabytes per second. Only the Asus Zephyrus was quicker, and only by 7 MB/s.

Look how quick it- oh. All right, while its write speed is good, but it’s not anywhere near as quick as a couple of its competitors. Both the Alienware 15 R3 and Asus Zephyrus kept pace with one another, hitting write speeds of 1,464 MB/s and 1536 MB/s, respectively. The Razer Blade Pro managed a little under half that, topping out at 621 MB/s.

In practice, moving files around with the Razer Blade Pro is quick enough, and it never felt slow during our tests. You might have some trouble if you regularly move enormous files in the 10-20 GB range, since the Blade Pro’s write speed isn’t quite as quick as it could be.

Power overwhelming

To put it simply, the Razer Blade Pro devours anything you throw at it, and asks for more. It’s unstoppable, insatiable, and awesome. Destiny 2 in 4K. On a laptop. That’s all there is to say, isn’t there? All right fine, we’ll unpack that a bit, but let’s make it quick. The Traveler needs us.

Our 3DMark results here read like a progression chart for Nvidia’s 10-series graphics cards. Each graphics card performs about how you’d expect, with the GTX 1080 pushing past even the quickest GTX 1070, and the GTX 1060 falling in just behind.

It’s worth noting that the Alienware 15 R3 and its GTX 1070 manage to stay just behind the GTX 1080s in the Blade Pro and Asus Zephyrus — it’s a very capable card, and almost as capable as its more expensive sibling.

All right, let’s move on to some real-world tests. Starting at 1080p, it’s clear that even the most demanding games offer little challenge for the Blade Pro, and even the Asus Zephyrus, since both laptops feature GTX 1080 graphics cards. In Battlefield 1, for instance, the Blade Pro hit 134 FPS, and the Asus Zephyrus hit 121 FPS. Both framerates would’ve been high enough to get the most out of a super-fast 120Hz monitor, and that’s with all the detail settings maxed out.

We see similar margins in For Honor at max detail settings, with the Blade Pro hitting 120 FPS, to the Zephryus’ 113 FPS. Again, killer performance out of both graphics machines, so let’s move on to something a bit more challenging.

It’s rare for laptops, even gaming laptops, to push past 1080p. Even 4K laptops like the Dell XPS 15 rarely have the hardware necessary to run games in 1440p or 4K, but the Blade Pro pulls out all the stops.

Taking another look at Battlefield 1, the Razer Blade Pro only lost 8 FPS, hitting an average of 126 FPS. Again, it’s a strong showing, well in excess of what you’d need to get the most out of the Blade’s 60Hz G-Sync panel. Performance faltered a bit in For Honor at max detail settings, where the Blade Pro only hit 96 FPS, but it was still incredibly fluid in actual gameplay.

In notoriously demanding Deus Ex: Mankind Divided the Blade Pro hit 58 FPS on ultra-high settings, just beneath the threshold you’d need to get the most out of its G-Sync display. That’s not bad, as everything looks great and feels smooth. The framerate dipped a bit in firefights, but never felt choppy.

What about 4K?

We normally don’t test games at 4K resolution on a laptop, even when the resolution is an option. Modern laptops usually have zero hope of playing games at 4K. The Razer Blade Pro is absurdly powerful – and expensive – however, so we made an exception and loaded up several titles.

At 4K, with detail settings at maximum, the Blade Pro had some trouble running Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Our average framerate was 25 FPS, which is playable but far from smooth. That’s important to keep in mind, because that was our experience with pretty much every other game in our test suite, with one exception.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Max the detail settings, turn the resolution up to 4K, and even the Blade Pro starts to chug. However, if you turn those settings down just a single notch — from Ultra to High, in most cases — and you can absolutely play games in 4K with this machine.

Destiny 2 is living proof. Playing through the open beta’s prologue at 4K with settings maxed, we were lucky to hit 18 FPS on average. But when we took just one step back, pulling the detail settings down to high instead of highest, our framerate jumped back up to the mid-fifties, staying around 55 FPS in all but the most demanding firefights.

We also saw smooth results from Overwatch. Even when turning the resolution — and render scale — to 4K, and pushing the graphical settings past ultra to the fully-maxed-out epic graphics setting, our framerate never fell below 58 FPS.

The moral of the story? You can play at 4K – sometimes. Games known for pushing hardware to the limit will be out of reach, while more moderate titles will be playable, though they may not hit a consistent 60 frames per second. You’ll need to decide for yourself whether you prefer to hit 60 FPS at maximum detail settings, or dial back the framerate to experience the sharpness of 4K gaming.

Heavy duty

All this power comes at a price. That 17.3-inch display, the aluminum chassis, the 99 watt-hour battery, those powerful components and all their cooling fans – it adds up. Taken together, the Blade Pro weighs 7.69 pounds, which like carrying an 8-pound weight in your bag all day. It’s a very heavy device, and it doesn’t lend itself well to being carried around. It’s almost impossible to get enough leverage for the familiar one-handed-laptop-carry.

Even with a 99 watt-hour battery — the largest allowed by FAA regulations — the Blade Pro has some trouble with battery life. To be fair, that’s a problem you’re going to run into with any gaming laptop running a graphics card like the GTX 1080. It’s a fact of life for high-end gaming laptops, but it’s still something you should be aware of.

In our Peacekeeper battery test, the Razer Blade Pro managed to survive for about two hours and 38 minutes before falling flat. Normally, this is the most demanding of our battery tests, and it’s usually a lot lower than what we see in everyday use. That’s not really the case for the Blade Pro. During our time with it, we rarely saw more than two and a half hours to three hours out of a single charge during mixed use.

On our video loop test, the Razer Blade Pro managed to last for about three and a half hours, putting it slightly ahead of the Asus Zephyrus but well behind the Alienware 15 R3 and quite a bit behind the Razer Blade — the Blade Pro’s smaller GTX 1060-powered sibling.

You’ll get enough life out of a single charge to do some light web browsing, and maybe even a little work, but don’t go too far without the charger.

Clean boot

The Razer Blade Pro ships with a delightfully lightweight assortment of software. Just the usual utilities, and of course Razer Synapse, but nothing you’ll need to trouble yourself with uninstalling. There’s not even a McAfee Antivirus trial to uninstall.

Warranty information

The Razer Blade Pro comes with a standard one-year warranty protecting against manufacturer defects. It’s the same deal you’d see from other manufacturers like Asus and Dell — one year of coverage in the box, with an extra year up for grabs at an added cost. It’s unfortunate, given how expensive this system is, but it is what it is.

Our Take

Laptop gaming is all about caveats. Big machines aren’t as portable, portable machines aren’t as powerful. Do you go with a quiet laptop that runs hot? Or a loud laptop that runs cool?

Razer has managed to find a middle ground between all these extremes with the Blade Pro. It’s powerful enough to run most games in 4K at medium or high (but usually not ultra-high) graphics settings, yet portable enough that you can reasonably put it into a backpack. It’s also $4,000, you get what you pay for.

Is there a better alternative?

You might find better alternatives, though most of them depend on price. If you want a gaming laptop that looks nice and runs well, the regular Razer Blade is an excellent choice, as is the MSI GS63VR. Any laptop with a GTX 1060 (or even a GTX 1070) is going to offer excellent gaming performance at 1080p, even with the latest games. These laptops will run you about half the price of the Razer Blade Pro.

But, if you need a portable GTX 1080, or just want to replace your gaming desktop with an equally — or nearly equally — capable gaming laptop, then the Razer Blade Pro is a great choice. Plus, it’s the only laptop we’ve encountered that can reliably play games at 4K without any major issues. That’s huge.

How long will it last?

Considering how well it handles recent games like Battlefield 1, and brand-new games like Destiny 2, the 4K gaming performance you get out of the Razer Blade Pro will last you a couple years. After that, you’ll have to scale back to 1440p, and eventually 1080p. Yet that’s a pretty long lifespan for a gaming laptop. The Razer Blade Pro is an investment that should stick around for some time.

Should you buy it?

If you want to kick desktop gaming to the curb without sacrificing performance, the Razer Blade Pro is your best option. It’s big, powerful, and expensive, but it’s also a real monster of a gaming rig.

Look at those curves! A new Curvature Pen Tool is coming to Photoshop

Why it matters to you

Adobe says the new tool will make curved shapes and selections faster and simpler.

Photoshop will soon be giving designers and photographers more control over curves in less time. In a sneak peek video, Adobe shared a new Curvature Pen Tool that will be coming to an upcoming version of Photoshop CC.

The new Curvature Pen Tool makes it easier to create a curving path in Photoshop, a feature both useful for graphic design and for selecting specific areas for photo editing. On YouTube, Abode demonstrated how the new path tool will work. Clicking to add points creates automatic curves, adjusting based on the placement of the next point. Double-clicking, instead of single clicks, creates a corner point. Without swapping tools, users can customize the shape by clicking a line or point along that new path and dragging into the desired shape.

Along with creating shapes inside a design, the new curvature path tool will be one of the several ways to create specific selections inside of an image, like for whitening just the teeth in a portrait, along with existing tools. Photoshop includes a number of different ways to create paths and selections, but the new tool is designed to be a quicker way to create a curved shape path to edit just a specific portion of the image.

“The new Curvature Pen Tool makes path creation easier and more intuitive in Photoshop CC by enabling you to create paths more quickly and precisely,” Adobe said in the video. “This is just one of many new features coming to Photoshop CC later this year.”

The Curvature Pen Tool will join the Pen Tool and Freeform Pen Tool. The existing Pen Tool already makes it possible to create curved selections, however, the process is a bit more complex than the steps for using the upcoming tool. In the existing versions of Photoshop, users have to hold down the mouse button while adding a point — this gives the resulting point “handles.” Turning those handles allows the designer or photo editor to customize how that line curves. With the lines automatically generating curves based on the placement of the next points and no tool swaps necessary to adjust the resulting shape, the Curvature Pen tool is designed to both simplify and speed up the process.

Adobe did not say specifically which update the new feature will be coming to but said the update will be this year, among a long list of new features. Photoshop 2017 launched in November 2016, so if that trend continues, Photoshop 2018 could be out before the end of the year.

Like the clock from Harry Potter, Eta Clock tells you where your loved ones are

Why it matters to you

This clock lets you keep tabs on your friends, colleagues, or loved ones in a fun way.

Based on its time zone, a regular clock can give you some idea of where in the world you are, narrowed down to the nearest 1,000 miles. What most of them can’t do is to tell you where your loved ones are. That is something a new Kickstarter product called the Eta Clock plans to set straight.

Much like the Weasley family’s magic clock from the Harry Potter series, the Eta Clock moves its hands to reveal where people are, using icons instead of hourly numerals. Each colored hand represents a person you care about, while each segment of the clock face corresponds to a destination. As people move around through the day, an Eta app on their phones sends geolocation coordinates to a secure server, which then relays these coordinate to the Eta Clock device to adjust its hands. (The only slight issue is that the clock doesn’t also tell the time.)

“The idea for the Eta Clock started two years ago when we wanted a way for our parents to feel connected to our lives without sacrificing our privacy,” co-founder Kristie D’Ambrosio-Correll, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumna, told Digital Trends. “For my parent’s 35th wedding anniversary we decided the perfect gift would be a device that gives them peace-of-mind; something that keeps them connected to their adult children without requiring invasive tracking. The Eta Clock concept was born! As we spent the next year building the clock and honing our design, we realized that there were many people who wanted a similar device, sparking us to launch our first Kickstarter campaign.”

It’s definitely an innovative idea and, while certainly not a replacement for your regular timepiece, it is a fun concept that’s likely to appeal to a variety of customers.

“We had envisioned our target customer as a tech-friendly family: A family who wants to stay connected but maintain a sense of independence,” D’Ambrosio-Correll continued. “However, since building the Eta Clock, we have found that this product is perfect for so many situations. Most uniquely, we have had requests from large and small companies alike asking for a version that displays where their key employees are located by time zone or office. We could even envision the Eta Clock being perfect for roommates, living communities, sororities, and fraternities.”

If you want to join the Eta revolution, you can currently pre-order your own clock on Kickstarter. Prices start at $350, with the clock shipping in your choice of oak or walnut wood finishes. Delivery should take place next July.

Like the clock from Harry Potter, Eta Clock tells you where your loved ones are

Why it matters to you

This clock lets you keep tabs on your friends, colleagues, or loved ones in a fun way.

Based on its time zone, a regular clock can give you some idea of where in the world you are, narrowed down to the nearest 1,000 miles. What most of them can’t do is to tell you where your loved ones are. That is something a new Kickstarter product called the Eta Clock plans to set straight.

Much like the Weasley family’s magic clock from the Harry Potter series, the Eta Clock moves its hands to reveal where people are, using icons instead of hourly numerals. Each colored hand represents a person you care about, while each segment of the clock face corresponds to a destination. As people move around through the day, an Eta app on their phones sends geolocation coordinates to a secure server, which then relays these coordinate to the Eta Clock device to adjust its hands. (The only slight issue is that the clock doesn’t also tell the time.)

“The idea for the Eta Clock started two years ago when we wanted a way for our parents to feel connected to our lives without sacrificing our privacy,” co-founder Kristie D’Ambrosio-Correll, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumna, told Digital Trends. “For my parent’s 35th wedding anniversary we decided the perfect gift would be a device that gives them peace-of-mind; something that keeps them connected to their adult children without requiring invasive tracking. The Eta Clock concept was born! As we spent the next year building the clock and honing our design, we realized that there were many people who wanted a similar device, sparking us to launch our first Kickstarter campaign.”

It’s definitely an innovative idea and, while certainly not a replacement for your regular timepiece, it is a fun concept that’s likely to appeal to a variety of customers.

“We had envisioned our target customer as a tech-friendly family: A family who wants to stay connected but maintain a sense of independence,” D’Ambrosio-Correll continued. “However, since building the Eta Clock, we have found that this product is perfect for so many situations. Most uniquely, we have had requests from large and small companies alike asking for a version that displays where their key employees are located by time zone or office. We could even envision the Eta Clock being perfect for roommates, living communities, sororities, and fraternities.”

If you want to join the Eta revolution, you can currently pre-order your own clock on Kickstarter. Prices start at $350, with the clock shipping in your choice of oak or walnut wood finishes. Delivery should take place next July.

Put 6.2 inches of ‘Infinity Display’ in your pocket with a refurbished Galaxy S8+ for $540

This exclusive deal from our friends at Thrifter make a refurb Galaxy S8+ even more affordable for you!

Samsung’s Galaxy S8+ has been the center of a lot of attention this year, and for good reason. The phone is on the pricey side though, and if you haven’t been able to pick one up yet, this may be the deal for you. Right now you can grab a refurbished unlocked Galaxy S8+ for $539.99 from Daily Steals when you use the coupon code THRFTRS8PLUS at checkout.

These are unlocked Verizon versions of the phone, so it will work on Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and other GSM carriers as well. While $540 may seem expensive for a refurb, this is about $60 less than other retailers like Best Buy are charging for them.

The Galaxy S8+ features a 6.2-inch “Infinity Display”, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, and a top of the line 12MP camera. These are refurbished units, which means that they may show some signs of wear, but should work without issue. Daily Steals is backing them with a 90-day warranty, and you still have the 30-day return period if you are unhappy with your purchase.

See at Daily Steals

More from Thrifter:

• How to get the most out of your Amazon Prime membership
• How to save money using Target’s Cartwheel service

For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

Samsung Galaxy Note 8: Everything you need to know

What are the top things I need to know about the Note 8?

The Galaxy Note 8 is here. It’s the biggest phone Samsung makes, and expectations for it are just as big to match. And rightfully so, as it has a hefty price tag if you’re interested in buying one for yourself. Before you make that decision, you’ll want to do your research, and that’s why we have one handy guide with all of the information you need to know before choosing to buy a Galaxy Note 8.

Watch our Note 8 review video

To kick things off, you’ll want to get the top-level view and see the Note 8 in action with some context in our full video review. When you want more, you can read our complete Note 8 review as well!

More: Samsung Galaxy Note 8 review: An expression of dominance

So the Note 8 is big

“Galaxy Note” has always been synonymous with “big phone,” and that’s still very much true today. Taking on the Galaxy S8’s proportions of being tall and skinny, but applying them to a 6.3-inch display, the Note 8 is very tall indeed. At 162.5 mm, it’s notably taller than the LG V30 (151.7 mm), Note 5 (153.2 mm) and iPhone 7 Plus (158.2 mm) — all while also being wider and heavier as well.

The Note 8 is huge, there’s no way to get around it.

Even with very small bezels around the screen, that big footprint makes it rather tough to reach the top of the display or even reach across for a slide-in gesture from the edge. In many cases you’ll have to awkwardly shift your hand, or just wait until you have both hands available to get everything done. In a pinch, you can use the one-handed mode, which shrinks the screen down to the corner so you can actually use it without fear of dropping the phone.

Some people love the big screen — that is, after all, often why they bough a Note in the first place. But if you aren’t committed to it, and think you may be able to figure it out in the future, consider getting a smaller phone.

Two cameras are better than one

Part of what you get for that added size is two rear cameras rather than one. Samsung is using the most popular formula of two sensors with the same resolution behind lenses of different focal lengths — one “standard” field of view, and another that’s roughly twice the length with a narrower field of view. They aren’t the same sensor, though, and the longer lens has a narrower aperture of f/2.4 to the main camera’s f/1.7 — that means it lets in less light.

Two cameras … and not quite twice the capabilities.

In practice, the second camera offers you an extra shooting option and some more utility. As you zoom in, whether you’re shooting photos or video, the software will automatically switch to the longer lens so you don’t lose resolution. The result? Better photos and video with less noise. You can also just tap the “2X” button to switch to the long lens, giving you a narrower field of view and an altogether different look from a “normal” smartphone shot. It works particularly well for macros, provided you have enough light.

Samsung has also developed a “Live Focus” mode that lets you take photos with both cameras at once, and use that extra data to artificially blur the background … or at least, what the camera thinks is the background. It doesn’t always get that calculation right, and when it misses the mark it looks kind of funny. Thankfully the camera also saves the standard photo from the main camera every time you take a Live Focus shot — an escape hatch, of sorts. Live Focus is worth trying out, and it’s capable of excellent results sometimes provided the conditions are all right, but this feature alone isn’t enough to differentiate this camera from the Galaxy S8+’s single sensor and lens.

It’s very similar to the Galaxy S8+

Chances are you’ve gathered the fact that the Galaxy Note 8 is extremely similar to the Galaxy S8+ released earlier this year. That’s definitely true. The Note 8 is just a couple millimeters larger in its overall external dimensions, and its 6.3-inch display is barely larger than the 6.2-inch of the GS8+ — though the Note 8’s display does get a bit brighter. Internally, the only change is the Note 8’s extra RAM, now up to 6GB from 4GB, and its smaller battery at 3300mAh to the GS8+’s 3500mAh. Of course there are two rear cameras on the Note 8 — but we already covered that.

Everything else is identical. The materials and build quality, while excellent, are unchanged. The Galaxy Note 8 has a bit sharper corners that give it a more blocky look, but that’s pretty minor. The charging technology, ports, speaker and call quality are all the same. So if you have a Galaxy S8+, you shouldn’t be considering an upgrade to the Galaxy Note 8. But if you’re on a different phone and you want a top-end Galaxy, these phones should be head-to-head in your consideration — just know that you get about 90% the same phone in either case.

More: Galaxy Note 8 vs. Galaxy S8: Which should you buy?

What’s new with the S Pen

Several generations in, the existence of the S Pen nestled inside the phone is what gives the Galaxy Note its name. This is, of course, the best and most capable S Pen yet — but it isn’t much different from what we saw debut on the Note 7, nor is it dramatically different from the Note 5’s.

The S Pen is fantastic, if that’s the sort of tool you need.

The new S Pen has higher sensitivity of 4096 levels, which is fantastic when paired up with the very fine 0.7 mm stylus tip, and together you continue to have a very accurate instrument for writing and drawing. The S Pen-focused software is basically the same as far as the core features of Samsung Notes, Screen write, Smart select and Translate go. You get a new “Live message” feature that lets you write out and send animated gifs, and the “Screen off memo” feature has been improved, but that’s about it.

The S Pen is still a super effective tool for getting all of the fine control work done on your Note 8, and it brings those extra utilities that you can’t just get on any other phone (even a Galaxy S8+) — but it won’t be a game-changer for everyone. If the idea of the S Pen doesn’t immediately speak to you when you test it out before buying, that’s the best indication yet that you should consider the Galaxy S8+.

How about battery life?

For all of that massive size, the Note 8’s battery capacity is rather conservative at 3300mAh. As noted that’s actually smaller than the Galaxy S8+ and Note 7 (ahem), and the same size as smaller phones like the LG G6 and OnePlus 5. With a super-efficient processor and display, the Note 8’s battery life is good; but it isn’t necessarily great.

In our testing as part of our review, we found the Note 8 could get you through a full day, even with pretty heavy use, but it wouldn’t have anything left in the tank in doing so. Getting upwards of 16 hours of use out of the phone with just a 3300mAh battery is quite good, and probably enough for most people given their typical usage. But not getting exceptional battery life out of a Note, something the line’s long been known for, can be a bit disappointing to those who are upgrading from a prior model.

Yup, it’s expensive

The Note 8 is very clearly the top-end device in Samsung’s flagship lineup, and it has all of the best technology the company has to offer. It also has the highest price, retailing around $950, give or take a few depending on the market and carrier. While you can find some good deals out there, if you just walk into a store today and want to buy one it’s going to be very costly.

So is the phone worth the money? Well, that’s a personal decision — everyone has a different threshold for what they are willing to pay for a phone. If you want the absolute biggest and best Samsung has to offer, you’re going to have to pay up. But if the idea of a $900+ smartphone makes your eyes water, know that you can save $100-200 by getting a Galaxy S8+ or the small-but-capable Galaxy S8 and still get the core experience that makes the Galaxy Note 8 great.

More: Where to buy the Galaxy Note 8

Any more questions?

If you have any other questions you need answered, we hope you drop a comment down below or hop into our Galaxy Note 8 forums!

Samsung Galaxy Note 8

• Galaxy Note 8 review
• Complete Galaxy Note 8 specs
• Galaxy Note 8 vs. Galaxy Note 5: Which should you buy?
• Which Galaxy Note 8 color should you buy?
• All Galaxy Note 8 news
• Join our Galaxy Note 8 forums

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint
Best Buy

Facebook’s fact-checkers say the company is withholding useful data

Facebook has been plucking away at its big fake news problem over the last few months. So far, it has cut off fake news sites from ad revenue and blocked advertisements from Pages that spread fake news. It has also deprioritized false reports and posts shared by high-frequency posters. And the company has also been incorporating fact-checkers into its system who go through articles tagged as fake and look into their claims. If they do turn out to be riddled with errors, the articles get flagged and fact-checked reports will now even show up alongside other related articles in the Trending News section.

But a report from Politico suggests that Facebook is holding back information that could help fact-checkers do their jobs more efficiently. All of the data the company has collected on the effects of its fact-checking efforts and fake news flagging hasn’t been shared with those doing the fact-checking — groups like Snopes, FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.

Some of the information these groups are seeking include how often copycat articles appear after one article is flagged as fake, which articles have already been checked by other fact-checkers and if certain stories should be prioritized more heavily. Information that helps fact-checkers choose which articles to tackle would also be beneficial. The executive director of Politifact, Aaron Sharockman, told Politico that one fact-check could take up to five hours so knowing which stories to pick is important. “There’s 1,200, 1,500 stories that we could look at today, and we’re going to look at two,” he said.

Facebook has said that the efforts are working, but hasn’t provided any numbers to back that up. Facebook’s News Feed product manager, Sara Su, told Politico that the company does plan on sharing this information with fact-checkers eventually but that protecting user privacy is also a concern. “We want to be as transparent as we can be while also respecting the privacy of people on our platform,” said Su.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment and we’ll update this post if we receive any additional information.

Source: Politico

‘L.A. Noire’ is coming to HTC Vive and modern consoles

Red Dead Redemption 2’s release might’ve gotten pushed into next spring, but Rockstar Games has something else to fill that gap: an unexpected HD (and UHD) remaster of its 2011 detective simulator L.A. Noire. This goes beyond the expected gussied up graphics for modern consoles though, as it’s also getting a pack of missions cases designed specifically for virtual reality.

A post on the Rockstar Newswire details it as seven self-contained cases from the original game rebuilt with VR in mind. The HTC Vive blog goes a little deeper in its description:

“Players can use real-world physical motions including grabbing, inspecting and manipulating individual clues or using the detective’s notebook to make notes or draw freehand.” In addition to that, you’ll be able to use the Vive’s wands to steer cars, open their doors, shoot while driving and change the radio station. Cool.

Speaking of motion controls, L.A. Noire is coming out for the Nintendo Switch, too. Like its PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions, this includes the original game and all its add-on packs in addition to gesture controls, HD rumble and a new, wider over-the-shoulder camera angle and touchscreen controls.

The PS4 and Xbox One versions have also been optimized for their stronger siblings. Both the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X versions will run in 4K resolution (PS4 and Xbox One will be in “native 1080p”) and feature enhanced lighting and high-res textures.

The console versions will be released November 14th, but there isn’t a date for when it’ll appear on Vive just yet. We’ve reached out for more information and will update this post should it arrive.

L.A. Noire first released in May 2011 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and drew a slew of praise for its technical advancements. Original developer Team Bondi pioneered a facial scanning system for performance capture that sought to accurately recreate facial expressions in real-time as its actors (many from Mad Men, given its 1950s Hollywood setting) gave their performances. As Detective Cole Phelps, you had to investigate crime scenes and interrogate witnesses, sussing out truths from lies based entirely on reading the subject’s face.

The PS3 and Xbox 360 version currently sits at an 89 on review aggregator Metacritic, with the PC edition scoring an 83. By August 2011, rumors started floating that Team Bondi was being shuttered and that the studio faced numerous allegations of unpaid wages and bonuses.

In 2012, the studio confirmed that it was working on a second game, Whore of the Orient after being bought in part by Mad Max director George Miller and changing names. Last summer after a lengthy silent period, the game was effectively cancelled.

Source: Rockstar Newswire, PlayStation Blog, Xbox Wire, HTC Vive

Intel installed its 3D camera system in eight more NFL stadiums

Intel’s 360-degree replay system is already in place for Major League Baseball and has been available for the National Football League in Baltimore, Houston and San Francisco for some time. The technology company has just announced that it will expand what it calls freeD technology to another eight teams in the NFL, including the Cardinals, Panthers, Browns, Colts, Chiefs, Vikings, Patriots and Redskins. This brings the total to 11 NFL stadiums equipped with the system.

Intel acquired Replay Technologies a little over a year ago, and has since used its freeD technology to capture volumetric shots of the action for MLB and NFL games. The tech consists of 38 5K ultra-high definition cameras placed around each stadium to capture the recordings. The data is sent via fiber-optic cables to Intel servers in the stadium that can process up to one terabyte of data for each 15- to 30-second highlight clip. The video is then sent to an on-site production team that virtually recreates the clip in 3D. It’s then available for fans to access the highlights at NFL.com, the NFL mobile app and the NFL YouTube channel.

“By expanding freeD to more teams across the NFL, we’re empowering fans to see every side of the play and relive the excitement of game-changing moments,” said Intel’s James Carwana in a statement. “During Super Bowl LI, fans experienced a pivotal play from the quarterback’s point of view. Seeing key plays up close and from new perspectives is redefining what it means to watch the game.”

Source: Intel

Fitbit’s Ionic smartwatch will help diabetics track glucose levels

Fitbit is pairing up with Dexcom, a company that creates continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices for people with diabetes. In an announcement today, the companies say that their first initiative is to bring Dexcom’s monitoring device data to Fitbit’s new Ionic smartwatch.

For those unfamiliar, Dexcom’s CGM devices work with a sensor that sits just under the skin and measures a person’s glucose levels every few minutes in order to provide them with a bigger picture of where their glucose levels are and where they’re heading. As of now, a transmitter attached to that sensor lets you see readouts of those levels on a smartphone or even an Apple Watch, but soon you’ll also be able to see them on Ionic’s screen.

Dexcom and Fitbit say they’re hoping to get this feature available to Ionic users in 2018 and are working to develop other diabetes management tools in the future. “We believe that providing Dexcom CGM data on Fitbit Ionic, and making that experience available to users of both Android and iOS devices, will have a positive impact on the way people manage their diabetes,” said Dexcom’s CEO, Kevin Sayer, in a statement.

Source: Fitbit and Dexcom