How to tune in for Sony’s Paris Games Week press conference

Why it matters to you

If you’re a PS4 owner, Paris Games Week promises to showcase a ton of new and upcoming games.

The holiday game rush is here, but for those who are still looking toward the future, Paris Games Week is right around the corner. Sony has had a presence at the annual trade show since 2015, when it delivered a long list of new trailers and details for hotly anticipated games of the time such as Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Gran Turismo Sport, and Horizon Zero Dawn. After forgoing a traditional conference in 2016, Sony will take the stage to show off 21 upcoming games. Of that large batch, seven will be fresh game announcements across both PS4 and PSVR. And that’s before the main event even begins. Here’s how to watch Sony’s showcase at Paris Games Week.

How to watch

Paris Games Week runs all of next week, but Sony kicks it off at 9 a.m. PT on Monday, October 30. As mentioned, however, Sony will announce seven new games before the event even starts. The introductory presser begins at 8 a.m. PT. We’ll be streaming the event right here in this post, so you can bookmark this page and join us. The event will also stream on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and on the PlayStation site. When the press conference wraps up, the stream will continue by taking a closer look at some of the announcements.

What to expect

Paris Games Week has become substantially more popular year by year since its inaugural event in 2010. Attendance surpassed 300,000 in both 2015 and 2016. While those numbers may not mean very much for those situated in North America, it does mean that the event is important enough to warrant some enticing announcements from Sony. The seven new games alone are worth tuning in for, but expect to see new footage from Sony’s big exclusives that are still in the pipeline.

Perhaps we’ll learn more about God of War, Days Gone, or Detroit: Become Human, three huge PS4 exclusives that have received significant attention at other media events. Or maybe we’ll finally learn what is going on with Media Molecule’s Dreams. The ambitious title from the creators of LittleBigPlanet was expected to enter beta this year but has been MIA.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Face the ‘Destiny 2’ Trials of the Nine PVP challenge at 10 a.m. PT today
• Sony will hold a PlayStation media showcase during Paris Games Week 2017
• Get your tickets! PlayStation Experience 2017 set for December
• New LG V30 phone brings OLED goodness ahead of Apple’s OLED iPhone 8 debut
• What to expect from IFA 2017, and how to watch major live-streamed announcements

Samsung Gear Sport Review – middle of the road

Think smartwatch and, chances are, Samsung Gear comes to mind. Running the company’s custom Tizen OS rather than Android Wear, Samsung’s Gear range has had many additions over the past few years. From fitness devices to feature-rich smartwatches and everything in between, Samsung’s approach to wearables is that there’s something for everyone.

Earlier this year, the company unveiled the Gear Sport and the Gear Fit 2 Pro. While the latter is a fitness-focused wearable, the former is designed to fill the gap between the Gear Fit 2 Pro (at the lower end), and the company’s flagship wearable, the Gear S3 Classic and Gear S3 Frontier.

With new partnerships and a feature set that combines most of the features of the Gear S3 with a few of its own, should the Gear S3 be your new smartwatch? Is a fitness-first approach right for a smartwatch? Let’s find out – this is our Gear Sport review.

Design

The design of Samsung’s Gear smartwatch range hasn’t changed much since the Gear S2 and that continues to be true with the Gear Sport. The watch brings a lot of the design cues of the Gear S3 to a lower price point. It looks good on the wrist and, crucially, it’s smaller than the Gear S3 which should mean it’ll fit more wrists.

Like the Gear S3, the signature rotating bezel has grooves that provide subtle tactile feedback. This time, though, there are no indentations to signify seconds on the clock. Instead, the bezel is free of any markings which provides a subtler and more understated experience.

The bezel is my favorite feature on the Gear Sport and it provides what is arguably the best way to navigate any smartwatch on the market. A little tug or a little push is all that’s needed to make it move, and it feels a little easier to use than the Gear S3’s bezel, which seems to be slightly firmer. While you can use the touchscreen, the rotating bezel provides a simple way to navigate the Tizen experience.

One of the biggest complaints with the Gear S3 was its large 46mm casing and Samsung is aiming to make the Gear Sport compatible with more wrists. The body casing is noticeably smaller at 42.9mm. It may still be a little large for some people, but should fit most wrists comfortably.

The Gear Sport comes with a silicon band in the box (either Black or Blue, depending on which color Gear Sport you buy) but there’s plenty of other bands available as well. As we saw back at the Gear Sport launch last month, there’s 10 different designs of Nato bands, and there’s also a hybrid strap that combines rubber at the bottom with leather on top for those who want a more stylish experience. The Gear Sport also supports any 20mm watch band, which allows you to change the band out and make it truly yours.

The rest of the Gear Sport follows the design we’ve come to expect from Samsung with a back and home key on the left and a heart rate monitor under the watch face. During my testing, a key thing I found is that you’ll want to pick the right loop when clasping the watch as too loose and the Gear Sport has a habit of rotating around your wrist rather quickly.

Unlike the Gear S3 Frontier or Gear S3 Classic which have the ability to work with multiple outfits, the Gear Sport is firmly designed for fitness fanatics. The sporty nature (and name) of this watch means it’s designed with a fitness-first approach, but it looks good most of the time. The Gear Sport should work with most outfits, though if you’re wearing business dress you might want to pick something else.

Hardware

Unlike its Gear S3 sibling, the Gear Sport is designed to be a fitness companion on your wrist. While it possesses many of the features that make the Gear S3 a smartwatch, Samsung has removed a few to make the Gear Sport a more affordable watch.

The features removed don’t deter from the experience of the Gear Sport much. For example, the Gear Sport comes with Samsung Pay but only via NFC-enabled terminals. The Gear S3 and Samsung’s smartphones also come with MST technology, which allows you to use contactless payments even at terminals that don’t support NFC.

The Gear Sport is the first Samsung smartwatch to come with 5ATM support, allowing you to swim up to 50 meters underwater

The Gear S3 is rated at IP67 for dust and water resistance up to 1 meter for up to 30 minutes. The Gear Sport comes with 5 ATM support instead, which allows you to swim up to 50 meters underwater. It’s with this that the Gear Sport takes fitness much more seriously than the Gear S3.

Other hardware features include a 1.2” 360 x 360 pixels Super AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 3 support that’s even bright outdoors in direct sunlight. There’s also 4 GB of internal storage, a dual core 1 GHz processor and 768 MB of RAM which provides a snappy experience. An array of sensors and connectivity options also make it onboard, including Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi, NFC, a Barometer, Heart Rate Monitor, and ambient light monitor to automatically adjust the display brightness based on the conditions.

We found that while the display is great at all brightness levels, keeping it at level 4 brightness or lower significantly helps the battery life. At levels 3 or lower however, it can be quite hard to see in bright sunlight so you’ll want to tweak it based on your conditions. I preferred to manually control the brightness rather than use the ambient light sensor as this helps ensure you can maximize the battery life.

The Gear Sport is powered by a 300 mAh battery that lasts between two and three days on average. During ten days with the Gear Sport, the battery was never a concern, but we found it to last around two days when you’re using all of the features. Overnight, you’ll find the Gear Sport drains around 8 to 15%, although if you enable the power saving mode and turn on Do Not Disturb, this can be as low as 5% in a whole night.

Battery life is not a concern and lasts around two days on average

From empty, the Gear Sport takes around 2.5 to 3 hours to charge when using the included charging dock which uses USB-C, but beware: if you use the charger from the Gear S3 (which uses microUSB), it takes noticeably longer to charge the Gear Sport so we’d recommend using the charger that comes with the Gear Sport.

Some Gear S3 features make their way to the Gear Sport, one of which is GPS, which allows you to see a live map of your route, as well as the route you took after the run. Combined with the new calorie counter feature – more on that below – this is great for those who take fitness seriously.

A fitness-first experience

The Gear Sport is definitely a worthy contender if you’re serious about your fitness. Like the Apple Watch, it brings several watch faces designed to show your workout and fitness stats at a glance. Automatic workout tracking also makes it easy to keep track of your fitness goals and the addition of a partnership with Speedo for swim tracking is perfect for tracking laps in the pool.

Part of the Tizen experience is based around the different home screens, each of which are occupied by a widget. A turn of the bezel to the left of the home screen pulls up different screens for each notification but it’s when you turn to the right that you see the full dedication to fitness in Tizen.

Out of the box, there are several widgets dedicated to showing your fitness stats. From the calories burned counter – with a helpful reminder of yesterday’s calories so you can compare – to your step counter, floor counter and average heart rate, there are several ways to check your stats at a glance.

One widget that is particularly useful is the workout screen which allows you to activate trackers for running, walking, cycling and swimming with just a couple of taps. The automatic workout tracker is definitely useful but we found that it can mistake brisk walking for a run. This widget makes it simple to ensure you’re accurately tracking your various exercise routines.

There’s also plenty of other widgets available, like a screen dedicated to showing your Samsung Health info (exercise, steps and sleep), a counter to show you how many cups of water you’ve consumed and various others around challenges, a leaderboard – where you can compare your weekly step count with your friends – and particularly useful for coffee lovers, a caffeine counter.

Of course, there are other non-fitness related widgets like App shortcuts, calendar, contacts, news briefings, an alarm, and a world clock. There are a few others available to download via Gear Apps but I found no need for these as the preinstalled widgets offer the functionality that I personally want to use.

Samsung has updated its Health app to offer you personalized fitness advice. After setting up your profile in Samsung Health, you’re able to pick from a variety of fitness programs that are tailored specifically to you. Once you pick your fitness program, you can either watch them on your phone or on your home TV.

Partnerships

Samsung partnered with a few companies in launching the Gear Sport.

The first of these is Under Armor, which launched an exclusive set of apps on the Gear Sport. As mentioned earlier, the live mapping of your run is through the Map My Run feature, which is now exclusive to Gear Sport. It’s unclear whether this will launch with other Gear devices via an update, but Samsung has said it’s under consideration.

The biggest partnership – for me at least – is Spotify. The Gear Sport is the first device to come with full offline capability for Spotify free and Premium users. This is my number one music streaming service and on the Gear Sport it’s great to have the ability to store around 400-500 tracks on the 4GB of internal memory.

I found it works rather well and while it takes a little bit of time to download to the Gear Sport, it’s incredibly useful for those times when you don’t want to take your phone with you. There’s also a collection of Spotify Run workout playlist. While I have very specific tastes in music, I found that these playlists are great to increase the tempo and get your heart rate pumping.

I’m not personally a swimmer so I’ve not really been able to try out the watch’s final partnership, with Speedo. This is Speedo’s first wearable partnership and while I’m yet to try out the feature, Samsung says it can track your laps in the pool, the distance, and the time of each lap. After each swim, the app supposedly produces a report on your swim workout. We’ll put this to the test in the near future and update with our findings.

Gear Sport – should you buy it?

Android-compatible smartwatches have undergone several changes in the few short years they’ve been available to purchase. Initially billed as a way to stop looking at your phone screen unnecessarily, they quickly became a method to track fitness. Samsung’s own internal research shows that 92% of active smartwatch owners use their watch primarily for fitness and this shows in the approach to the Gear Sport.

Designed to affordably bring the fitness benefits of the Gear ecosystem to a larger audience in mind, the Gear Sport mostly delivers on its goal. Rather than make a smartwatch with some fitness tendencies, Samsung opted to make a fitness device that fits sleekly on your wrist and offers the main smartwatch features that people use (fitness, communication, news and entertainment, and utilities).

As someone who’s getting back into fitness, I found the Gear Sport useful to keep track of my fitness goals

As someone who’s getting back into fitness, I found the Gear Sport useful to keep track of my goals. The subtle prompts around my progress coupled with at-a-glance reporting of where I am with my day’s fitness goals provides a welcome companion to keep me on track.

Should you buy the Gear Sport? If you’re interested in a device that offers a fully-fledged smartwatch experience with an emphasis on fitness, then the Gear Sport certainly delivers. If you’re more interested in a smartwatch that fits every outfit you’re wearing and also has fitness options, then the Gear S3 might be a better pick.

What do you think of the Gear Sport and do you plan to buy one? Do you use a smartwatch and if so, which one? Let us know your views in the comments below!

LG V30 Review: A photography and videography dream

The LG V series of smartphones has always been for those who want a phone that is a photo, video, and audio powerhouse. Now in its third iteration, LG aims to achieve that goal once again by refining its recipe even further. With a refreshed design, a bezel-less screen, and a host of new camera features, is the V30 the phone to beat this holiday season? Find out in our LG V30 review!

Design

Most smartphone series tend to have iterative designs for a couple generations before completely revamping things. No series has changed more drastically since it’s inception than the V series. Instead of the G5-esque metal of last year’s V20, or the chunky duraskin of the original LG V10, the LG V30 now boasts a design that is very similar to many other smartphones on the market— it’s made of glass.

There’s glass on the phone’s front and back with a metal frame sandwiched in between. The glass gathers fingerprints quite easily, which is to be expected, but it’s not as slippery as you might expect, especially without any sort of added texture for grip. The corners and sides are rounded and the back has a slight taper along the edges, which gives it a sleek and comfortable feel. It’s easily one of the most comfortable and beautiful looking phones I’ve used this year.

Although the design and materials used are pretty different from previous V series entries, LG managed to retain a MIL-810G rating against shocks and drops despite the phone having a more luxurious appeal versus the V10 and V20’s more rugged looks.

Display

Another drastic change that LG made to the V30 this year is with the display. Not only has LG switched up the display technology but the once signature secondary screen is now gone. It lives on in the form of a software feature, but we’ll talk about that later.

The screen is now a 6.0-inch POLED display with 18:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2880 x 1440 or QHD+. LG calls the display a “Full Vision” display, a buzzword for a screen that practically goes edge to edge. By no means is the LG V30 a one-handed phone, but thanks to the aspect ratio and minimal bezels, it feels far more manageable than other 6-inch phones like the Nexus 6 or 6P.

LG’s switch back to OLED is certainly a welcome change.

LG’s switch back to OLED is certainly a welcome change and something for which many, including myself, have been waiting for a long time.

The display itself is gorgeous in every way imaginable. It’s easily LG’s best smartphone display to date and is one that can even give Samsung a run for its money. The colors are vibrant, the blacks are truly black thanks the OLED panel and it has fantastic contrast, too. Outside visibility is also quite good as it gets so bright that even under harsh sunlight the screen is still easy to read.

The large size is perfect for web browsing, checking social media, playing games, watching YouTube, or streaming Netflix, or whatever else you can throw at it. The V30’s display is just an absolute joy to use. There are still some apps out there which aren’t optimized for 18:9 though, so you will still experience letter- or pillar-boxing with videos or certain games, but I don’t find it to be that bothersome. 18:9 is still relatively new but it’s only a matter of time before developers catch up to the new standard.

Performance

The specs of the LG V30 are fairly standard 2017 flagship specs. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 835 processor, 4 GB of RAM, and the Adreno 540 GPU. In everyday use, the V30 is fast, fluid, and responsive. Apps are quick to launch, scrolling and swiping through the interface is very smooth, and more graphics-intensive tasks such as games all run with no noticeable hiccups.

The V30’s performance holds up well no matter how much you push it.

Multitasking has not been an issue either as the 4 GB of RAM is plenty for running apps without any slow down. It’s an all-round pleasurable experience and the V30 holds up well no matter how much you’re pushing the device.

Hardware

In terms of hardware the LG V30 comes packed to the gills. It provides everything you could want out of a 2017 flagship. The phone comes with 64 GB of storage and there’s a V30+ model which doubles the storage to 128 GB if you happen to live in a region where it’s available. In the U.S. the plus model is currently only available through Sprint. Storage is also expandable via microSD with support for up to an additional 256 GB if the phone’s internal storage is not enough for you. Its also got Bluetooth 5 on board for better wireless throughout and longer range connections.

The LG V30 provides everything you could want out of a 2017 flagship.

Like most phones nowadays, the LG V30 carries IP68 certification which protects the phone against dust and water for up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. This means if you get caught in the rain or drop the V30 in a puddle of water, it will survive and function perfectly fine.

The fingerprint sensor is centered on the backside, where you would typically expect to find it on an LG phone. It’s fast, accurate, reliable, and comfortable to reach with an index finger. What I enjoy most about LG’s fingerprint sensor is that it doubles as the phone’s power button. This eliminates the need for a dedicated side mounted power key and is a feature that I think more manufacturers should adopt.

Audio is a big part of the experience on the LG V30 and it’s one that audiophiles will definitely enjoy. For starters, the V30 retains the headphone jack so no adapters are required here. Secondly, the V30 utilizes a 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC from ESS Technology to drive the audio experience. This year the audio tuning is done by B&O regardless of region.

Audio is a big part of the experience on the LG V30 and it’s one that audiophiles will definitely enjoy.

This means audio will be of much higher quality with less distortion, less noise, and an overall improved dynamic range. This also means that the V30 can properly drive a pair of high impedance headphones. While using high impedance will give you the best experience and allow you to take full advantage of what the Quad DAC can provide, the improved audio experience is still noticeable on a more average pair of over the ear cans.

Just like the LG G6 or last year’s V20, the Quad DAC provides a 75-stage volume control and left and right channel controls, but this year LG has added some new customization options to allow for further tuning of the audio to your ears. There are now sound presets and digital filters which make for quick and easy adjustments of the audio. Sound presets range from normal, enhanced, detailed, live, and bass. Digital filters offer the choice of short, sharp, or slow, which will either give you an ambient, natural, or clearer sound.

Another new improvement to the V30’s audio experience is the support for Master Quality Authenticated (MQA). This is a relatively new audio format that allows for Hi-Res audio output at a much smaller file size. This means that streaming Hi-Res audio is a possibility without eating up your bandwidth. There aren’t many streaming services offering MQA just yet but one of the most notable ones is Tidal. If you happen to have Tidal with the proper subscription tier you can take advantage of the Hi-Res streaming right away. Spotify is also rumored to be on the cusp of supporting MQA.

Editor’s Pick

AptX HD – what is it and why should I care?

Audiophiles have rightly been sceptical of Bluetooth audio implementations in the past, with slow data transfer speeds and connection drops falling short of the quality offered by high-end wired solutions. Bluetooth technology has improved over …

If you prefer streaming audio over bluetooth, the V30 supports aptX HD. This is Qualcomm’s audio codec for delivering Hi-Res audio over wireless devices. While most of us will have to wait for the Android Oreo update to get aptX HD support, LG managed to include it on the V30 running Nougat.

The V30 is the first in the V series to not offer a removable battery, although this was an expected decision considering the LG G6 also removed the feature. Without the ability to swap batteries anymore it’s important that the V30 can get you through a full day.

The 3,300 mAh battery was plenty capable of comfortably getting me through a full day no matter my usage. If you’re a light-to-moderate user who mainly uses their smartphone for browsing the web, social media, texting, and the occasional YouTube video, you’ll have no troubles getting through a full day. But in my experience, heavy use also seemed to pose no issues for the V30.

I play games quite frequently on my smartphone and watch several hours of YouTube a day. Even with all of that piled on top of more typical smartphone use, the V30 never struggled to get me through the day and five hours of screen on time, or more, was easily achievable. Fast charging is available via USB Type-C when you need to top off or fill up. The V30’s glass back also allows for wireless charging if you don’t want to fuss with cables.

Camera

A big draw for the LG V30, as with prior V series smartphones, is its camera experience. You won’t find another smartphone that packs more features into its camera than the V30.

You won’t find another smartphone that packs more features into its camera than the V30.

Just like last year’s V20 and the more current LG G6, the V30 offers two rear cameras— one standard and one wide angle lens. The main sensor is a 16 MP shooter with an f/1.6 aperture, OIS, and laser and phase detection autofocus. The secondary wide angle sensor comes in at 13 MP with a slightly narrower aperture of f/1.9. There’s no OIS on the secondary sensor, but it doesn’t need it due to its wide angle and the focus being set to infinity.

The V30’s cameras have a lot of feature. While many are from previous V series phones, others have made their way over from the LG G6. Like snap shot, which let’s you take a photo and instantly see the preview in the bottom half of the viewfinder, or guide shot, for matching the framing and composition of a previously taken photo.

Editor’s Pick

LG V30 vs Galaxy Note 8: Camera features

Smartphone cameras have grown in importance over the past couple of years, with most manufacturers aiming to follow the lead of LG, Huawei and others in adopting dual-camera setups. Dual cameras come with several benefits …

Manual controls are available on both the photo and video side of things. While this isn’t a unique feature, LG’s manual controls are very extensive, offering useful tools that you normally only find on DSLRs or mirrorless cameras such as a histogram, horizon leveler, and focus peaking.

One of the newest features that LG has added to the V30’s camera is called Graphy. This let’s you take the look and feel of a pre-existing photo and apply its settings to the next photo that you take. This not only gives your photo a very specific look but it means you don’t have to fumble around with filters or editing the photo after the fact. It works well but the pre-existing image that you pick needs to match the current lighting situation or else you’ll have to make adjustments to ISO and shutter speed for the proper exposure.

The other new features added to the camera apply to video, and will help you take your smartphone videography to the next level. First is the ability to shoot log footage. Log profile is typically found in DLSRs or mirrorless cameras. It provides a flatter image and better dynamic range allowing for heavier manipulation in post production.

If you’ve ever shot in log you’ll definitely appreciate the presence of this feature, but it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The bitrate from the footage is rather low even when on high settings, making it tough to push the colors in post production without the image falling apart. The log footage is also extremely green in color and it takes quite a bit of effort to get the colors and peoples’ skin tones looking natural. The availability of log footage alone definitely puts the V30’s video recording capabilities miles ahead of other smartphone cameras, but it could be better.

The availability of log footage alone definitely puts the V30’s video recording capabilities miles ahead of other smartphone cameras, but it could be better.

If you’re not into grading footage in post production, LG has another feature called Cine Video. This lets you shoot video while applying LUTs, or color grading presets, directly in camera, to give you the desired look. It’s simple, easy and eliminates the need for off loading your footage in order to grade it. I would imagine most users will use this instead of log, due to the simplicity alone.

Flagship smartphones tend to perform very well outdoors or in well-lit situations and the LG V30 is no different. Photos are nice and crisp with plenty of detail and sharpness and the colors have a pleasant amount of vibrancy to them. The V30 also does not appear to be as aggressive with sharpening as previous LG phones which is a definite improvement. Dynamic range could be better, though, as detail in highlights is lost due to overexposure in these areas.

The wide angle lens is certainly a lot of fun to use and makes it easy to fit more into the frame without having to take steps backwards. It makes landscape shots look breathtaking and there’s less barrel distortion now, meaning you no longer have that GoPro-like look at the edges of the shot.

The quality of the wide angle lens is not as good as the main sensor, but it’s a lot of fun to use.

As expected, the quality of the wide angle lens is not as good as the main sensor. The lack of autofocus means a softer image overall and overexposure in highlights is more problematic. These problems become more apparent as the lights start to dim and the sun sets.

Images from the wide angle lens in low light lack sharpness, detail, and typically struggle with proper white balance. The main sensor achieves much better results in every aspect including overall color, and black levels are handled well without much noise or clipping. While there are times you may want to use the wide angle lens in low light such as a quick group photo, I’d recommend you avoid using it if you can due to its inferior picture quality when compared to the main sensor.

For selfie lovers, the V30 sadly doesn’t come with the most impressive front-facing camera. Its 5 MP resolution is fairly low compared to most other smartphones on the market. The quality is passable though and still good enough for social media, but it falls behind competitors in features and overall quality.

Software

The software experience on the LG V30 is very similar to LG’s early 2017 flagship, the G6. If you’ve used any recent LG phone you should already know what to expect. LG’s UI feels are improved with this iteration, with cleaner app redesigns and less intrusive software feature. But it still feels somewhat cartoony to me. Though some animations are still rather awkward, icons are bright and vivid and there are many color flourishes sprinkled throughout the UI.

The always on display is one of my favorites. Not only is it great for showing battery-friendly notifications and access to commonly used functions such as the flashlight, wifi, or media controls, but it’s also highly customizable. There are many different clocks to choose from and LG preloads a good amount of fun images that can be used for the AOD, or you can use a custom image of your own.

One of the newest software tweaks to the LG V30 is the floating bar. This feature’s purpose is meant to replace the functionality that was previously achieved through the secondary display of the V20 and V10. The floating bar is simply a toggle bar that can be repositioned anywhere along either edge of the display and is brought into view with a simple tap. It’s a similar concept to Samsung’s edge UX as it can be used for shortcuts to apps or specific phone functions, provide media controls, contact shortcuts, and different screen capture functions such as creating a GIF or drawing on a screenshot.

While I don’t use this feature much I personally like this implementation better, as the secondary display on the V10 and V20 were tough to use due to their location. Because the floating bar is also software based it can easily be turned off, whereas previously you were stuck with the secondary display whether you liked it or not.

Currently the LG V30 is running on Android Nougat and not the latest Android Oreo, which is odd considering the V20 was the first phone to launch with Nougat last year. It seems like LG couldn’t pull the same trick this year with its accelerated launch window, but fingers crossed that it will get the delicious Oreo update soon.

Gallery

Specifications

Display	6.0-inch QuadHD+ P-OLED FullVision 2,880 x 1,440 resolution 538 ppi Corning Gorilla Glass 5 18:9 aspect ratio
Processor	Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Mobile Platform
GPU	Adreno 540
RAM	V30: 4 GB LPDDR4x V30+: 4 GB LPDDR4x
Storage	V30: 64 GB, UFS 2.0 V30+: 128 GB, UFS 2.0 MicroSD expansion up to 2 TB
Cameras	Rear cameras – Main: 16 MP Standard Angle sensor with ƒ/1.6 aperture, laser detection autofocus, OIS, EIS – Secondary: 13 MP Wide Angle sensor with ƒ/1.9 aperture Front camera – 5 MP Wide Angle sensor with ƒ/2.2 aperture
Audio	32-bit Advanced Hi-Fi Quad DAC 3.5 mm headphone jack
Battery	3,300 mAh Non-removable Wireless charging Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0
IP rating / other certifications	IP68 water and dust resistance MIL-STD 810G
Network	LTE-A 4 Band CA
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac Bluetooth 5.0 BLE NFC USB Type-C 2.0 (3.1 compatible)
SIM	Nano SIM
Software	Android 7.1.2 Nougat LG UX 6.0+
Colors	Aurora Black, Cloud Silver, Moroccan Blue, Lavender Violet
Dimensions and weight	151.7 x 75.4 x 7.3 mm 158 g

Pricing & Final Thoughts

The unlocked LG V30 is available for pre-order now through B&H for $829.99 with expected availability in December. Through U.S. carriers prices will vary, so expect it to cost you $800 or more. While the price tag is certainly no drop in the bucket, it’s fairly standard flagship pricing and still undercuts competing devices like the Galaxy Note 8.

The LG V30 justifies its price tag and is easily a top contender for smartphone of the year.

LG’s goal with the V series has always been to provide a photo, video, and audio experience that is unparalleled by any other smartphone. Not only does it beautifully tick all those boxes, it’s also wrapped up in one sleek package. The design is gorgeous and even greater to hold, and the display is quite the attention grabber. The LG V30 justifies its price tag and is easily a top contender for smartphone of the year. If you haven’t paid attention to the LG V series of smartphones, this is one year you definitely should.

Apple fires an engineer over daughter’s iPhone X video

Why it matters to you

Be careful what you post on social media. it could cost you or a family member their job.

Apple has fired an engineer after his daughter’s hands-on video went viral on YouTube, according to a report on The Verge. Earlier this week, Brooke Amelia Peterson posted a video showcasing her trip to Apple’s campus to visit her father and see the new iPhone X he had been working on. The video was posted to tech sites such as 9To5Mac and then quickly spread across the internet.

Peterson says that her father was fired due to the video. And in a second video, she explained that her father had broken Apple’s rules by allowing her to film the iPhone X during her visit to the Apple campus. Apple asked her to take the video down — but by the time she did, it had already spread far and wide.

The video doesn’t contain anything we haven’t seen before in regards to the iPhone X, but it did include footage of an iPhone X with employee-only QR codes. It also showed the Notes app and a list of codenames of unreleased Apple products, which might have been a motivating factor in Apple’s decision to fire Peterson’s father.

“At the end of the day, when you work for Apple it doesn’t matter how good of a person you are,” Peterson said in the video. “If you break a rule, they just have no tolerance. They had to do what they had to do.”

Peterson’s father had apparently worked for Apple for about four years and helped design the iPhone RF and wireless circuit.

Peterson said her father had apologized for the video and took responsibility for breaking Apple’s rules regarding filming on the Apple campus. She went on to explain that she made the video for fun because she liked making YouTube videos. She also said that she didn’t realize she was breaking any rules.

Interestingly, she also said that she wasn’t going to stop buying Apple products — even though they fired her dad.

This is hardly the first time someone has lost a job due to social media. Microsoft fired an employee whose son posted pictures of the Xbox 360 prior to its release date, for example. Apple is known for being extremely strict in regards to upcoming products, however, often giving codenames to unannounced products and tracking down leakers.

Editor’s Recommendations

• DT Daily: Apple iPhone X, Apple Watch Series 3, Apple TV 4K event recap
• High-tech sign stealing: MLB says Boston used Apple Watch to gain edge over NY
• Miss the keynote? Our Apple event roundup has every announcement of note
• Apple iPhone 8 launch fails to garner much enthusiasm worldwide
• Everything you need to know about Apple Park

Samsung Gear IconX 2018 review

Research Center:
Samsung Gear IconX (2018)

Samsung’s first pair of fully wireless earbuds, the Gear IconX, were a welcome addition to the burgeoning segment when they debuted last year, packing a wealth of features into a sleek and sporty package. But weak-kneed battery life of less than two hours made the IconX all but dead on arrival, leaving Apple’s latecomer AirPods to dominate the market (as per usual).

For the IconX 2018, Samsung has nearly tripled the battery life, while adding new features to compete against the cutthroat throng of competitors vying to usurp Apple. In our Samsung Gear IconX 2018 review, we put Samsung’s latest buds through their paces to find out whether this pair can rise above the pack.

Out of the box

The IconX 2018 look almost identical to last year’s pair from the outset, arriving in a nimble, plastic charging case that’s similar in its pill-box size and design to the AirPod case (or should we say that the other way around?). Dual LEDs up front indicate earbud charging status, and more around back indicate the case’s battery level, next to a USB-C port and a Bluetooth pairing button.

The earbuds arrive with a welcome selection of tips and earhooks to keep them secure in virtually any scenario.

Samsung’s case is impressively small and light, but it can’t match Apple when it comes to elegance in design or ease of use. While the AirPods slide gracefully in their respective charging stands and the case snaps shut with a nudge of your thumb, the IconX are a bit more difficult to seat, and the case’s light lid is prone to pop open like an over-packed suitcase if you don’t exert some real force. Unlike many other brands, the charging stands lack magnets to secure the buds, making them harder to keep in place.

On the other hand, the IconX are also more fundamentally “earbud-like” than Apple’s golf-tee design, and similar to sportier designs like Bragi’s Dash Pro, they arrive with a welcome selection of tips and earhooks to keep them in your ears in virtually any scenario. Also in the package is a USB-C to Micro USB cable, and two adapters to connect said cable to a phone via USB-C or Micro USB.

Setup

Setup for the IconX 2018 is a bit more difficult than most true wireless buds, but for good reason. Among their lengthy features set, the buds offer 4GB of internal storage (3.4GBs of which is usable), so you can work out phone-free if you so desire. As such, you must first mount the earbuds in their case and plug it into your Mac or (more likely for Android users) PC via the included cable.

The storage feature mirrors Bragi’s Dash and Dash Pro (and this won’t be the last time we reference them) which also offer 4GB of storage each. Oddly, Samsung’s earbuds show up on on a computer as two separate drives for both the left and right buds, while Bragi’s appear as one.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Photo Credit: Bill Roberson/Digital Trends (top) and Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends (bottom)

It’s here that we encountered our first hiccup with the IconX 2018: After plugging in, we couldn’t eject the drives from our Mac. Every time we tried, the drives would disappear and quickly reappear, and the only way to disconnect was to simply pull the case or the earbuds free, soliciting a “disk not ejected properly” warning. We had no such trouble via PC, though, one of many indications that — as we might have guessed given their pedigree — the IconX 2018 aren’t exactly designed around the Apple faithful. We used an LG V30 for our review to access the Android-only features.

Other than the eject issue, the earbuds are relatively straightforward to set up for the moderately tech-savvy user, instructing you to download Samsung’s Health app and Gear manager, the latter of which walks you through pairing to your phone in seconds.

Design and controls

The IconX 2018 come in three colors, including black, white, and pink (last year’s blue model went bye-bye). Our DT colleague thought it would be funny to order up the pink model for a male reviewer, and he was right. But hey, if former NFL running back Chris Johnson can rock a pink Bimmer, we can roll with pink earbuds. Just be warned — this color is not for the timid.

The IconX offer plenty of features you won’t find on more basic options.

Other than the Barbie aesthetic, the IconX 2018 design is similar to a lot of fitness earbuds — though they unfortunately aren’t water resistant like many of their peers. The silicon earhooks and eartips in small, medium, and large sizes are easy to swap out to create a tight and secure fit, but you’ve got to push them in pretty tightly to make sure the sensors on the interior make contact with your ears. As such, wearing them for more than an hour or two can be fairly uncomfortable.

On the exterior of each bud are touchpad controls for everything from summoning voice assistants (compatible with Samsung Voice, Google Assistant, and Siri), to fielding phone calls, accessing fitness features, and, of course, playing music. Like most buds with touchpads, a series of taps moves you through options like play/pause, calling, and song skip, while a swipe up or down controls volume.

The tap controls for the IconX are generally pretty accurate, but we went through waves in which they had trouble registering volume swipes. One solution is to simply move your head up and down instead of your finger, but the buds still ended up reading our swipes as taps about a third of the time.

Battery upgrade

With around 4 to 5 hours per charge for Bluetooth streaming, and as much as 7 hours for onboard music playback, the GearX now stand toe-to-toe with peers like the Dash Pro, AirPods, and Jabra Elite Sport. To get there, Samsung dumped the heart rate monitor, but we’d say that’s a fair tradeoff.

Unlike the above choices, however, Samsung’s wireless charging case curiously offers just a single recharge on the go, totaling up to 10 hours. Nearly every major competitor offers more, including up to 29 hours of total playback time for the AirPods. It’s not a deal breaker, however; the case will quick-charge your buds for an estimated hour of juice in 10 minutes, and The Headphone from Bragi nabbed the top spot in our Best True Wireless Headphones list without a charging case. Still, we wish the IconX 2018 aimed a bit higher there.

Interestingly, we also noticed battery life doesn’t drain equally between earbuds, running out more quickly on the right bud, which we selected as the primary bud for fitness tracking and also used most often for control taps. That appears to be part and parcel with the IconX design, as it’s shown the same way on Samsung’s IconX webpage.

New features

Along with the battery boost, the IconX offer some other new features — mostly for Android users — that you won’t find on more basic options like The Headphone and the AirPods. For instance, a personal “Coach” will help Android users through workouts like a 30-minute brisk walk, in which a female voice gives you encouragement: “Way to pick up your stride!”

The Gear app tracks metrics like workout duration and steps taken thanks to the buds’ built-in accelerometer, and the data can then be synced with Samsung’s Health app for long-term tracking. While it can be difficult to actually quit a workout early via the buds alone, requiring an extra-long hold on the touchpad, the features work well overall and should appeal to runners — especially those who need some extra motivation.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

As mentioned, you can also upload music to your IconX from either your Mac or PC, or your Android phone via the included cable — a nice convenience for runners who don’t have room for a phone on the path. New this year, you can also transfer tracks from your phone via Bluetooth. It takes around 30 seconds per track, however, and there’s no batch transferring so the feature is really only good for a song or two when you’re on the move.

The IconX 2018’s Ambient sound feature, which allows you to listen to the outside world while you jam out, was greyed out from within the Gear app when we first tried to use it. We finally realized our left ear wasn’t quite making contact with the sensor on the earbud’s inner wall, and after forcing it in deeper, finally got the feature working. Frankly, we’re usually less than impressed with such features in wireless earbuds anyway, and engaging it here elicited a distinct whistling noise and a severe delay in audio especially notable indoors that made it annoying to use. Samsung claims this may be an issue with our review unit, and is sending another pair – we’ll update this space if that bears out.

Samsung Gear IconX (2018) Compared To

Bragi Dash Pro

V-Moda Forza Metallo Wireless…

Optoma NuForce BE6i

Jaybird X3

Apple AirPods

Sol Republic Amps Air

Optoma NuForce BE Sport 3

Jabra Sport Pulse Wireless Special…

Jabra Halo Smart

Plantronics BackBeat Go 3

Erato Apollo 7

Bragi Dash

Jabra Sport Pace Wireless

Jabra Sport Coach

Jabra Sport Wireless Plus Bluetooth

Perhaps one of the coolest and most functional features is “Find My Gear,” which, like Apple’s Find My Airpods feature, elicits a tone from the earbuds so you can dig them out of the couch or armchair.

Audio and wireless performance

While Apple’s AirPods aren’t the best-sounding earbuds, one attribute that ranks them near the top is that, unlike a lot of competitors, Bluetooth streaming is virtually always consistent and solid. That may not sound like much of a compliment, but streaming audio from a phone to a microbud — and then through the human brain to that earbud’s counterpart — is easier said than done.

A lot of earlier (and cheaper) true wireless earbud models like the Earin suffered from stereo channel wobbling, as do some Bluetooth speakers when paired together. Samsung’s IconX 2018 share that affliction. On nultiple occasions during our testing, audio playback wandered between the two earbuds, piling audio into the left or right channel. Not everyone will be bothered by this, but diehard audio fans will definitely want to take note.

Sound tends to wander between stereo channels, piling audio into the left or right side.

On the bright side, we had virtually zero dropouts between the IconX 2018 and our V30, even when we placed the phone in our back pocket, which is something many true wireless buds still struggle with.

Apart from the stereo channel issues, the IconX offer a generally pleasant sound signature, highlighted by a clear and prominent midrange with some decent detail revelation, and enough bass to bring some flavor to the table without overcrowding it.

There’s a crispy, synthetic touch to the upper midrange, especially present in organic instruments, including snare drum and cymbals, and piano, which sounds especially tinny. The buds also give an edgy quality to male vocals. Fidelity also tends to break down quickly in the higher frequencies. Ultra-clear treble instruments like the jangling bells in Radiohead’s Daydreaming are particular offenders, losing clarity and textural detail up high.

Performance actually steps up notably when listening to music loaded directly into the buds, though, which may well stem from the fact that Samsung doesn’t include AptX or other Bluetooth codecs aimed at improving streaming resolution.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Call quality is generally pretty impressive, especially from the earbuds side to other callers. From the wearer’s side, though, the issue with the stereo channels is still in play, and hearing voices wandering off center can be rather distracting.

Overall, the IconX 2018 are definitely good enough to get the job done, especially for your daily workout or fielding a quick phone call. But you won’t likely be reveling in the performance of your favorite prog rock or jazz bands.

Our Take

Samsung’s IconX 2018 are a definite step in the right direction, packing in loads of features for Android users in a sleek and compact package. But lingering functionality and battery issues and less than stellar audio fidelity keep them out of the running for our list of top contenders.

Is there a better alternative?

We’ve made no bones about the fact that we still think true wireless earbuds are for diehard first adopters only. But if you have to have them, we suggest going with Apple’s AirPods, which are the most functional in the field. Or, if you don’t mind leaving the battery case behind, The Headphone from Bragi offer the best sound hands down. Both models cost less than the IconX, and suffer from fewer issues.

If workout features are your bag, we’d suggest checking out Jabra’s Elite Sport, which are extremely functional, offer solid audio performance, and even throw in a heart rate monitor. If you can deal with a tether between your buds, Jabra’s Sport Pulse wireless, which offer excellent features and are more affordable than all of these models.

How long will it last?

While the IconX 2018 appear to be solidly built, the relatively low overall battery life and stereo image issues make them more ephemeral than other choices.

Should you buy it?

For Android users who absolutely have to have true wireless earbuds, and also have the need to work out without their phone, Samsung’s IconX could be a viable option. For most other users, there are better true wireless options at the same price or less, and the field will only grow in the coming months and years.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Google’s new Pixel Buds earphones are wireless, but not like Apple’s AirPods
• Work up a sweat with Samsung’s Gear Sport, IconX earbuds, and Gear Fit2 Pro
• Bose enters the world of fully wireless earbuds with the SoundSport Free
• Plantronics rolls out new wireless headphone models ready for any workout
• Samsung Galaxy S8 Active review

Samsung Gear Sport review

Research Center:
Samsung Gear Sport

Samsung’s Gear Sport is the best Android smartwatch, and strangely enough, it doesn’t run Android Wear. Smartwatches need to tug at our heartstrings, and in our Samsung Gear Sport review, we found ourselves wanting to grab the watch to wear whenever heading out. While the Gear Sport isn’t the most attractive Android smartwatch — that is reserved for the Movado Connect — it still looks great, it’s slim, and most of all, the rotating bezel makes it fun to use.

We still think the Apple Watch Series 3 is the best smartwatch you can buy, but Android device owners can’t use it. The Gear Sport is a close second, but it’s the best option if you’re on Android.

Slim, stylish and comfortable

Earlier this year, Samsung released the LTE-connected Gear S3 smartwatch. It’s big, bold, and bulky. Put the new Gear Sport next to it, and it’s easy to notice the differences. The Sport is slimmer, and has a smaller 1.2-inch AMOLED screen, though with the same 360 x 360 pixel resolution. The rotating bezel is a little more subtle with smaller ridges, and despite the screen being fully circular, the 42.9mm case isn’t — it’s a tad squarer than round.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Most importantly, it’s lightweight and comfortable. The lugs that hold the strap are less pronounced and smaller, allowing the watch and strap to sit on your wrist without any gaps. The included silicone band helps a lot too; it has a soft, textured feel that’s pleasant against the skin, and it’s easy to slip on. If silicone is too sporty, you can always swap it out with any 20mm band.

There are only two buttons on the watch: A back button on the top right, and a home button on the bottom left. The home button also opens the list of installed apps, and you can double-tap it to trigger S Voice, or press and hold it for power options. The back button also doubles as a shortcut to Samsung Pay if you press and hold it.

The Gear Sport is downright stylish.

You can go for the black or blue Gear Sport, and we opted for the latter. The case is subtly blue, but the band is far flashier (it won’t hide the fact that you’re wearing a smartwatch). Coupled with our favorite “Pop” watch face, the Gear Sport is downright stylish. Despite its “Sport” name, you can easily wear this watch with most non-athletic outfits.

The AMOLED screen is sharp, colorful, with pitch-dark blacks. It gets incredibly bright — we set the brightness to 60 percent and had zero issues reading the screen in broad daylight.

It’s easy to forget you’re wearing the Gear Sport, while the same can’t be said for the chunky Gear S3. The Gear S3 feels like a smartwatch pretending to be a traditional analog watch, while the Gear Sport completely embraces its smartwatch looks, with a youthful punch.

A clicky rotating bezel

The hallmark feature that makes Samsung’s smartwatches distinct from other smartwatches is the rotating bezel. It’s the outer layer surrounding the screen — you can rotate it left or right, and it makes a ticking sound like when rotating a combination lock.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

It’s the best way of interacting with a smartwatch operating system. Rotate it to the right to see widgets, and rotate it to the left to see your notifications. You can even use it to scroll through walls of text. Since you won’t need to touch the screen as often, it helps prevent smudges and your finger isn’t blocking the small screen.

The rotating bezel is a big reason why we like the watch. Samsung said the tactile sensation and clicking sound have been improved, and it’s noticeable. It’s satisfying to turn and hear the clicks, and best of all it works without a hitch. It does, however, feel a little loose from the case because if you tap the bezel, it clinks with the metal, and it can be a little loud.

Solid performance, and a well-designed Tizen operating system

The Gear Sport isn’t as fast as the Apple Watch Series 3, but it’s speedier than any Android Wear smartwatch on the market. It shares the same specs as the Gear S3: A 1GHz dual-core processor with 768MB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage. Scrolling through the interface and apps is fluid and smooth, and we generally haven’t seen any problems with performance.

Samsung’s proprietary operating system, Tizen, powers the Gear Sport, and the interface is simple to use. If you’re worried how well another OS works with Android, fret not: You’re able to respond to or interact with every notification that comes through. It’s easy to delete notifications; just swipe them up and they immediately disappear from the phone. Tap on a notification, and you can read it in its entirety and act on it. You can use your voice to reply to a message, scribble or type on a keyboard, quickly tap some canned responses, or send emojis.

While the Gear Sport is compatible with iOS, you can’t respond to many notifications, and overall you’re a lot more limited in what you can do. This is the case with Android Wear on iOS too, so if you have an iPhone you’re better off going with the Apple Watch.

The Gear Sport can automatically detect your workout after 10 minutes.

The 4GB of storage lets you add music to the watch so you can play it via Bluetooth-connected headphones or earbuds, if you don’t have your phone near you. The pairing process is quick, and switching between music from the phone and music on the watch is quick. For Google Play Music, which is the default music player on Samsung phones, transferring music to the watch is a little tricky without a computer. Samsung’s Gear app isn’t able to identify downloaded songs from Google Play Music, so we had to use a third-party app called Music Mate to get it all to work. After that, it was easy to add songs to the watch via the Gear app. If you’re on Spotify, you won’t have much of a problem as the Spotify Tizen app easily lets you add your downloaded playlists to the watch — the Apple Watch can’t do this.

Our main gripe, and this extends to Android Wear, is the lack of app support. Ordering an Uber is neat and all, but we would much rather have the ability to initiate conversations without having to wait for a message. There’s no Facebook Messenger, Allo, Hangouts, or WhatsApp, which means you can only send an SMS to your contacts (with the phone tethered). On the Apple Watch, you can open Facebook Messenger and start a conversation with someone from the watch itself.

Two of the main differences between the Gear Sport and the Gear S3, other than size, are the lack of LTE and Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST). The former means you will need your phone with you to get notifications on the Gear Sport. There’s still GPS, which you can use to track your runs via various fitness apps in the Galaxy Apps store.

Samsung Gear Sport Compared To

Apple Watch Series 3

Motorola Moto 360 (2015)

LG Watch Sport

Huawei Watch 2 Sport

Huawei Fit

Samsung Gear S2

Apple Watch Series 2

Vector Luna

Martian Passport MP100WSB

Garmin fenix 2

Meta M1 Watch

LG G Watch R

Wellograph

Martian Notifier Watch

Phosphor Touch Time

MST is the technology Samsung uses to power Samsung Pay. It allows you to use a Samsung phone or the Gear S3 to make contactless payments wherever credit or debit cards are accepted. It’s a step ahead of near field communication (NFC), which is the technology Apple and Google use with Apple Pay and Android Pay. On the Gear Sport, Samsung has opted for an NFC version of Samsung Pay, instead of MST, making the watch’s payment capabilities the same as its competitors. It allowed the company to make the watch a little smaller, but the tradeoff is you can only use Samsung Pay retailers that support NFC.

There’s more the Gear Sport can do: It can control PowerPoint presentations, and can act as a controller for the Samsung Gear VR virtual reality headset. Best of all, you can use it to manage your smart home devices via Samsung Connect, like with HomeKit on the Apple Watch. This is an area where Android Wear struggles despite having Google Assistant onboard.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Samsung’s watch also has an assistant, but it’s not the company’s Bixby platform — it’s the rather basic and slow S Voice. Double-tap the home button and you can inquire about the weather, place calls, or send a text. It’s terrible at search queries, and we’d much prefer Bixby over it. Samsung said it’s focusing on Bixby with its smartphones first.

Fitness and heart rate

Samsung’s approach to fitness on the Gear Sport revolves around the Samsung Health app. On the watch, it can track your calories, your steps, distance traveled, stairs climbed, and more. You can also add a widget to now add how many calories you eat, so that it can automatically deduct it from the number of calories burned. The problem is knowing how many calories are in what you’re eating — you typically need a smartphone to look it up.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The Gear Sport can automatically detect your workout after 10 minutes, where it will constantly monitor your heart rate. It’s accurate, but the workout can go on for a few minutes longer than after you actually stop. Automatic detection works with walking, running, cycling, elliptical training, rowing machines, and a dynamic workout mode covers other activities. You can also manually start some of these sessions, including swimming (the watch is water resistant up to 50 meters, and can even work in salt water).

The GPS on-board lets you map your runs for accurate distance measurements, and the heart rate monitor can also measure your beats per minute whenever you ask it. We found it to be fairly precise: It measured 89 beats per minute, and we manually calculated 85 bpm.

All of this works with a myriad of Under Armour apps that don’t come pre-installed, but Samsung is pushing them heavily. You can choose from Endomondo, MapMyRun, and MyFitnessPal on the Galaxy Apps store. We should note — we installed MyFitnessPal, and it did not load for us. Strava, one of the biggest fitness apps, is also not available on the Gear Sport.

Great battery life

With the always-on screen and GPS toggled off, we returned home around 6:30 p.m. with 75 percent remaining. Our usage largely involved interacting with notifications. We didn’t put the watch on the charger overnight, and it ended up dying around 3 p.m. the next day. You can definitely stretch the Gear Sport’s 300mAh battery longer.

If you leave GPS and the screen on, you’ll unsurprisingly see a hit on battery life. By 7 p.m., the watch was at 47 percent. After a day with the same settings, a 30-minute workout session, and some music streaming, the watch ended with around 35 percent by 7 p.m.

The Gear Sport’s charger is a dock — just plop the watch on it and it’ll charge up relatively quickly. It hit 100 percent from zero in about an hour and a half.

Price, availability, and warranty

The Gear Sport costs $300, and it’s available from Samsung’s website, Amazon, Best Buy, Macy’s, and U.S. Cellular.

Samsung offers a standard limited warranty that protects your device from manufacturing defects up to one year from purchase.

Our Take

The Samsung Gear Sport is great for people who want a feature-rich smartwatch that’s slim, lightweight, and comfortable.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes. One of the closest competitors is a Samsung product — the Gear S3. It’s bulkier and bigger than the Gear Sport, but it has an LTE connection and contains MST technology that lets you use Samsung Pay in far more locations than the competition. It costs a little more at $350.

For Android device owners, take a look at the Huawei Watch 2. There’s no LTE model in the U.S., but it essentially offers the same features as the Gear Sport in a small package. It can be found for lower than $300.

For iOS owners, your experience with Samsung’s Gear smartwatches won’t be as satisfying as using Apple’s option, the Apple Watch Series 3. With a similar price, an optional LTE connection, a small size, and excellent build quality, there’s no better choice.

How long will it last?

The Gear Sport can survive up to 50 meters under water, including salt water, and its metal build should keep the glass protected without issue. Expect the watch to last for two to three years, as you likely won’t get software updates after the second year.

Should you buy it?

Yes. If you’re looking for a stylish smartwatch without an LTE connection, the Gear Sport is your best bet.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Work up a sweat with Samsung’s Gear Sport, IconX earbuds, and Gear Fit2 Pro
• Samsung Gear Sport: News and rumors
• The best smartwatches you can buy
• Got the time? These are the 10 best smartwatch deals available right now
• Diesel On Full Guard Smartwatch review

HP’s ZBook x2 brings the 2-in-1 form factor to workstations

Why it matters to you

The ZBook x2 offers serious performance in a portable and versatile form factor that could well prove popular among business creatives.

HP’s new ZBook x2 is looking to bring some of the portability and versatility of a consumer 2-in-1 convertible tablet into the workstation space. It’s a smart-looking laptop with a detachable keyboard, a vibrant display, and a sturdy chassis, and plenty of powerful hardware under the hood.

As the traditional desktop PC market continues to transition in a more portable direction, one of the most popular hardware types to pick up the slack has been convertible tablets. The 2-in-1 that lets a user operate it as a tablet or laptop has proven to be a winning formula for many manufacturers, HP included. And now the company wants to see if that same style can benefit the workstation crowd, too.

With the ZBook x2 though, HP is looking to do more than just bring the 2-in-1 form factor to its workstation customers. In crafting it, HP talked with amateur creatives and professionals alike and discovered that their biggest obstacle was the lack of performance in convertible tablets. That’s why the ZBook x2 comes packing some powerful components, as per Anandtech.

When configuring your new workstation system, you can decide from a seventh- or eighth-generation processor from Intel, with Core i5 and i7 options. All models come with 32GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory, and up to 512GB of solid-state NVME storage. For those who need more than Intel HD or UHD graphics, there is also the option for a discrete Nvidia Quadra M620 with 2GB of GDDR5.

All of that powers the 14-inch 4K display, which comes with an IPS anti-glare panel, or a Dreamcolor anti-glare touchscreen. Connectivity wise, the ZBook x2 offers an HDMI 1.4 port, a single USB 3.0 Type-A port for charging, two USB 3.1 Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 2 support, and a 3.5mm headphone/mic connector. It also has a built-in smart- and media-card reader. Wirelessly it supports 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2.

The chassis itself can transition through four modes: tablet, detach, dock, and laptop. The keyboard is LED-backlit to make operation in low-light environments possible and it can be entirely detached for a more tablet-like experience. The on-board battery offers 70 watt-hours and is said to last up to 10 hours in ideal settings.

Although HP hasn’t detailed all of the pricing options for the new ZBook x2 just yet, it has said the starting price is $1,750 and availability will start in early December.

Editor’s Recommendations

• HP ZBook 14u G4 review
• HP’s newest ProBook 400 G5 upgrades to Intel 8th Gen notebook CPUs
• A tale of two hero devices: Google Pixelbook versus Microsoft Surface Pro
• Spin it or flip it? HP Spectre x360 vs. Microsoft Surface Laptop
• High-end tablet takedown: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet vs. Microsoft Surface Pro

Surfboard dubbed ‘The Roach Tail’ is made from 10,000 cigarette butts

Why it matters to you

The Roach Tail represents an authentic way of looking at recycling and ocean conservation by taking 10,000 cigarette butts and turning them into a functional surfboard.

When you think of cleaning up the ocean, you might imagine large-scale beach gatherings where trash is picked up and removed, rather than reused. Santa Cruz based surfer Taylor Lane had a bigger idea in mind when he constructed “The Roach Tail” — a surfboard made from 10,000 cigarette butts collected from the California coastline. His creation brought to light an important environmental concern and earned him 1st place in the Vissla and Surfrider Creators & Innovators Upcycle Contest. 

Taylor’s idea sprung from participation in a beach cleanup in Northern California, during which he realized cigarettes are the most common form of ocean pollution. After 200 hours of labor, many setbacks, and multiple failures, he successfully constructed The Roach Tail and entered his masterpiece into the Vissla Upcycle Contest, hosted by surfbrand Vissla and the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation.

“People see this board and they are visually drawn to it, it’s visually disgusting — but awesome in how gross it is,” Lane stated to the O.C. Register. “It just ties together surfing and something we care about — the environment, the ocean, and the health of the ocean.”

The contest challenges surfers to take waste and create something that can be used in the ocean, “converting waste into want.” Applicants create their projects over a three-month period and must document the process in photos or video. This year’s competition publicly recognized 14 finalists at a gala held on October 20 at The Ecology Center, drawing a full house of guests who came to check out the projects. 

The winners are deliberated based on detail, creativity, and level of “upcycled-ness”. The second-place award went to François Jaubert, who constructed a surfboard from a wood palette, recycled styrofoam, and smaller pieces of wood. The third-place award went to Shane Swindler who engineered a short board and a trailer to carry it from a discarded stand up paddle board perimeter, wood from a 1913 building, and reused aluminum golf cart wheels. While the top three contestants took home shopping spree prizes, all the entries were recognized for their passion in helping make the ocean a better place.

Plans for The Roach Tail don’t stop here. With the help of filmmaker Ben Judkins, Taylor Lane intends on creating an environmental surf documentary on the making of the board and recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to highlight beach pollution from a new angle.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Jaguar Land Rover made a surfboard out of recycled plastic
• Heavy water doesn’t bother hydrofoil surfboard innovator Kai Lenny
• The Roland Sands Moto Beach Classic mixes music, surfing, and moto racing
• Surf’s Up: Kelly Slater will open public artificial wave pool in Florida
• Designer Thomas Meyerhoffer’s modular surfboard may be the only one you’ll need

Gear Sport / IconX review by MrMobile

Smartwatches are in a strange place right now. Android Wear is on more wrists than ever, but the software isn’t the best; the Apple Watch is basically useless if you don’t carry an iPhone; and old stalwarts like Pebble have been swallowed up by bigger fish to produce … well, whatever the Fitbit Ionic is. So when Samsung launched its newest smartwatch in September, I was excited for another contender from the company that brought us the excellent Gear S3 – and it turns out you don’t even need to be a fitness fanatic to appreciate it.

The Gear Sport is a smaller, sleeker, and (yes) sportier revision of Samsung’s previous-generation smartwatches, with heightened durability and a boatload of new fitness features that help counter its slimmer spec sheet. My favorite feature so far: pairing Samsung’s new IconX earbuds directly to the watch so I can stream music from the Spotify app with nary a network connection in sight. Join me for a look at both products in my Gear Sport / IconX review, and then check out Android Central’s take on Samsung’s latest wearables. Spoiler alert: at least half of this gadget cocktail is worth checking out.

Stay social, my friends

• YouTube 
• The Web
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Snapchat
• Instagram

The newest Roku Streaming Stick is down to just $40

Stream all your favorite shows.

Is this deal for me?

This Roku Streaming Stick media streaming device is down to $39.99 on Amazon. The street price for this device is $50. It hasn’t dropped this low before.

This is one of Roku’s newest streaming devices, a refresh of previous models. It just released in early October and has sold steadily at its $50 since then. Roku claims the processor in the new stick is 50% faster than last year’s model. The remote is also updated with voice control and a few extra buttons, including power and volume control.

Features include:

• Powerful and portable
• Voice remote with TV Power and volume
• 500, 000 Plus movies and TV episodes
• Easy-to-use remote, intuitive navigation, search across top channels
• Free mobile app for iOS or android

It comes with two AA batteries, but you might consider adding some rechargeable batteries so you can just power them back up and keep on streaming when they get low.

TL;DR

• What makes this deal worth considering? – This is a new 2017 device, and this is the lowest price it has gone since being introduced.
• Things to know before you buy! – It requires two AA batteries. It comes with a set, but you can add rechargeable batteries to keep it powered up for a much longer time.

See at Amazon

Happy Thrifting!