How to set up HDR gaming on your Xbox One and 4K HDR TV

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Week just ravaged your wallet (ours too), and all you got in return was … a bunch of awesome Christmas gifts for others and new toys for your own enjoyment! OK, that’s not so bad. If one of your new toys happens to be an Xbox One S or an Xbox One X, you are probably salivating at the thought of gorgeous, color-laden HDR graphics adorning your TV screen (that is, assuming you’ve got a 4K HDR television).

Getting all set up to make that happen is a little more complex than you might expect, though. To properly activate HDR — High Dynamic Range — you need to check (and potentially adjust) the settings on both your console and your television, and of course, you need to be playing a supported title. With that in mind, we have thrown together a quick-hit guide on how to get gaming in HDR on the Xbox One.

A note before we begin: If you’re rocking an original Xbox One — not the One S or the One X — please note that it doesn’t support HDR or 4K playback. The same goes for anyone without an HDR-enabled TV. Until you have the proper hardware, you won’t be able to drench your display in vibrant HDR contrast and color shades. If you’re a PlayStation 4 owner head here for our guide to enable HDR on your PS4 and PS4 Pro.

Setting up your television

Les Shu/Digital Trends

The Xbox One S and One X will auto-detect your TV’s 4K and/or HDR capabilities, but only if your TV is set up correctly beforehand. With that in mind, let’s get your TV set up correctly first.

This process may seem a little tricky at first, as not every TV works the exact same way. Depending on what brand you have, the menus might have slightly different layouts and category names, Don’t panic! We outline the basics here, so you should be able to figure it all out on your own.

Make sure your console is connected to an HDMI 2.0a/HDCP 2.2-compliant port on your TV. You might think that because your TV is 4K/HDR all ports would be usable, but in most cases, only one or two ports are HDMI 2.0a/HDCP 2.2-enabled. What is more surprising is that the compatible HDMI port you need is not necessarily HDMI 1. Sometimes TV manufacturers label the ports so you know by looking, but even those labels can be misleading. To be absolutely sure, check out the specs section for your TV’s model at the manufacturer’s website to determine which HDMI ports support HDMI 2.0a, and use one of those for your console.
Open your TV’s settings menu. Head to the picture settings section, then look at the presets to find your TV’s “game mode.” This mode will reduce picture processing, and your picture quality may appear to take a slight hit in the process (we’ll be fixing that, too), but it will also reduce input lag, so if you’re a competitive gamer, make sure Game Mode is chosen to preserve your connection in multiplayer matchups. If you typically play single-player games (or if you value graphics over performance), go ahead and pick whichever preset suits your eyeballs best — we typically prefer “movie,” “cinema,” or “standard” modes.
Next, you need to enable HDR on your television. Go back to the picture settings menu. From here, it depends on what type of TV you have. Some televisions have HDR settings right in the main picture settings menu while others will list them under “input settings” “advanced picture settings,” or even the main options menu. You’re looking for a setting like “HDMI HDR,” “HDMI Color Subsampling,” “HDMI HD Ultra Deep Color,” “HDMI UHD Color,” “10-Bit Color,” or something similar. You need to enable this setting (aka switch it to “on”) for the HDMI port where the console is plugged in. If you’re not sure where to locate your TV’s HDMI HDR settings, consult your user manual or check the manufacturer’s website.
Your TV is now set up to accept HDR content from your game console, but you may want to fine-tune the picture quality. We suggest adjusting brightness and contrast controls to taste, but before you start tweaking these settings, you want your TV to be displaying some kind of HDR content. This could be an HDR game for your console, or a movie or TV title in HDR via Netflix, Amazon, or Vudu. Once you’re playing HDR content of some sort (many TVs confirm this by putting an HDR logo on the screen), go into the picture settings to make adjustments. You will notice that your TV is in an HDR picture mode. By making adjustments while in this mode, you are adjusting picture quality only for the TV’s HDR mode — this will not impact picture quality settings for those times you are watching SDR content, be that a non-HDR movie on Netflix, a standard Blu-ray disc, or good ol’ over-the-air broadcasts.

In the market for a new TV? We can help! Take a look at our picks for the best TVs of 2017 or hit up our 4K TV buying guide for more info.

Setting up your Xbox

Les Shu/Digital Trends

Note: Both the Xbox One S and the Xbox One X should automatically enable HDR if they detect a compatible television via HDMI (though this requires that your TV is set up correctly beforehand.) That said, we’re still going to show you how to do it just in case you connected your console before setting up your TV properly.

Head to the Settings menu on your Xbox (the interface is identical, regardless of console variant), then to Display & Sound. Once there, you want to navigate to Video Output, then Advanced Video Settings. You should see boxes for “Allow 4K” and “Allow HDR.” Make sure both of those boxes are checked.

In case you want a more active tutorial, check out this video from the official Xbox YouTube account.

Playing the right games

Of course, not all games are optimized for HDR playback. For your convenience, we have a full list of all compatible Xbox One games. Of course, more supported titles are released fairly often (if Okami HD doesn’t support HDR, we riot), so be sure to check back with us for updates. Below, we named a few prominent titles that might whet your visual appetite, so to speak.

• Gears of War 4 (pictured above)
• Battlefield 1
• Final Fantasy XV
• Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
• Forza Horizon 3

Make sure the picture looks great!

Now that you’re all set up and playing an HDR title, the picture quality should be stunning and gorgeous. But what if you aren’t impressed? Perhaps it actually looks worse? What now?

Unfortunately, this may mean that your TV is not well-suited for HDR, even if it says HDR right on the side of the box. To pull off HDR well, a TV needs to be able to achieve high-contrast ratios and expanded color. If your TV can’t pull off the contrast necessary for impressive HDR, your picture could end up looking either dark or washed out, with a lack of detail in either dim or bright areas, depending on your picture adjustments. If this ends up being the case, we suggest you disable HDR and play in a standard mode. If the picture quality looks much better as a result of reverting back to HDR, just stick with it.

Editors’ Recommendations

• How to set up HDR gaming on your 4K HDR TV and PS4 and PS4 Pro
• What is HDR TV (and why should you care)?
• What is HDR photography and how can I shoot it with my camera?
• Vudu brings HDR to a wealth of TVs and streamers with the addition of HDR10
• An upcoming Apple TV 4K update should fix its forced-HDR problem

A faithful satellite drifts stunningly close: The best supermoon photos

From the first total solar eclipse to grace the continental United States in nearly 40 years to the recent Leonids meteor shower, we earthlings have been spoiled with a regular collection of astronomical events this 2017. And although the year may be coming to an end, the awe-inspiring events just kept coming over the weekend. Recently, skywatchers had the opportunity to take in a rare supermoon overhead — the first and last supermoon of this year. Above, we curated a list of some of the best supermoon photos snapped around the globe but what exactly is a supermoon?

Rather than a perfect circle, the moon orbits around our home planet in an elliptical pattern and one full orbit around our planet takes roughly 29.5 days. Depending on the moon’s location on this elongated orbital trajectory, our faithful natural satellite is sometimes closer or farther away from our planet. At the closest point of this orbit (perigee), the moon is a more than 31,000 miles closer to our planet than it is during its farthest point of orbit (apogee).

Similarly, as most of us well know, the moon drifts through a sequential set of phases as it orbits our planet: Full, crescent, waxing, and waning gibbous. (NASA’s so-called “Dial-a-Moon” feature allows individuals to easily track and predict this shifting phases.) A “supermoon’ occurs when we observe a full moon during or near its perigee. Sunday’s supermoon appeared specifically 16 percent brighter and seven percent larger than the moon normally does. Per Jim Lattis, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this celestial treat occurs roughly once every 14 full moons.

During this latest supermoon, our natural satellite was roughly 222,000 miles from Earth — for perspective sake, the moon is normally roughly nearly 239,000 miles away. This supermoon will be the first in the series of three consecutive full moon supermoons, the next two will be in January. Also, just a fact to keep in your pocket until the next supermoon, the scientific term for the event is actually “perigee-syzygy.”
 
If you enjoy this photo gallery, you may also enjoy our collection of the best space photos as well as our Cassini tribute Saturn photo gallery.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The Orbital Reflector, launching in 2018, is the world’s first space sculpture
• The 10 best exoplanets we’ve discovered so far, ranked
• Astrophysicists want to shield Earth from solar flares with … a giant magnet?
• Watch NASA test the supersonic parachute for the 2020 Mars mission
• Prepare for liftoff! 17 upcoming space missions worth getting excited about

What’s on TV: ‘The Grand Tour,’ ‘Psych: The Movie’

After a few years away Psych is back, with a two-hour movie this week on USA (and it’s not the only one returning — Cash Cab: Celebrity Edition rides again on Discovery). There are also a slew of season and fall finales, including Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The Walking Dead, Broad City and Outlander. Movie fans can get the Transformer movies, Men in Black Series or Despicable Me 3 on 4K Blu-ray, while gamers have DLC for Destiny 2 plus LocoRoco 2 Remastered and The Walking Dead Collection. Last but not least, Amazon kicks off season two of not-Top Gear aka The Grand Tour, while Netflix has season two of The Crown. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• Despicable Me 3 (4K)
• Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series
• Better Watch Out
• Jumanji (4K)
• Transformers (4K)
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (4K)
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon (4K)
• Transformers: Age of Extinction (4K)
• Men in Black Trilogy (4K)
• 100 Years of Olympic Films (Criterion)
• Destiny 2 – Curse of Osiris DLC (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
• The Walking Dead Collection (PS4, Xbox One)
• Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package (PS4)
• Let Them Come (PS4)
• The Surge: A Walk in the Park (PS4, Xbox One)
• Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition (PS4)
• This Is the Police (Switch)
• Jak X: Combat Racing (PS4)
• Rememoried (Xbox One)
• Chaos on Deponia (Xbox One, PS4)
• Jak 3 (PS4)
• Jak 2 (PS4)
• A Hat in Time (PS4, Xbox One)
• Riptide GP: Renegade (Switch)
• Battlestar Galactica Deadlock (PS4, Xbox One)
• Hello, Neighbor (Xbox One, PC)
• LocoRoco 2 Remastered (PS4)
• Steep: Road to the Olympics (PS4, Xbox One)
• Boiling Bolt (PS4, Xbox One)
• Justice League VR (PS VR)

Monday

• Steelers/Bengals, ESPN, 8:15 PM
• The Voice, NBC, 8 PM
• The Great Christmas Light Fight (season premiere), ABC, 8 PM
• The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee, HBO, 8 PM
• WWE Raw, USA, 8 PM
• Supergirl (fall finale), CW, 8 PM
• Man with a Plan, CBS, 8:30 PM
• Angry Angel, Freeform, 9 PM
• Arrow, CW, 9 PM
• Superior Donuts, CBS, 9 PM
• 9jkl, CBS, 9:30 PM
• Ride with Norman Reedus (season finale), AMC, 9 PM
• Woman on Fire, Starz, 9 PM
• Cash Cab: Celebrity Edition (series premiere), Discovery, 10 PM
• Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics, AMC, 10 PM
• Scorpion, CBS, 10 PM
• Meth Storm, HBO, 10 PM
• The Wall: Deck the Wall, NBC, 10 PM
• The Good Doctor, ABC, 10 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM

Tuesday

• Marvel’s Runaways, Hulu, 3 AM
• Craig Ferguson: Tickle Fight, Netflix 3 AM
• Lethal Weapon, Fox, 8 PM
• The Flash (fall finale), CW, 8 PM
• The Voice, NBC, 8 PM
• The Middle, ABC, 8 PM
• WWE Smackdown, USA, 8 PM
• Will & Grace: A Gay Olde Christmas, NBC, 9 PM
• Major Crimes, TNT, 9 PM
• The Mick (fall finale), Fox, 9 PM
• DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (fall finale), CW, 9 PM
• Inside the NFL, Showtime, 9 PM
• Fantomworks, Velocity, 9 PM
• Brooklyn Nine-nine, Fox, 9:30 PM
• The Mayor, ABC, 9:30 PM
• Superstore, NBC, 9:30 PM
• The Mane Event, BET, 10 PM
• Who Killed Tupac?, A&E, 10 PM
• Chicago Med, NBC, 10 PM
• Hunt for the Zodiac Killer, History, 10 PM
• The Challenge, MTV, 10 PM
• Drop the Mic, TBS, 10:30 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM

Wednesday

• Shut Eye (S2), Hulu, 3 AM
• Survivor, CBS, 8 PM
• Riverdale, CW, 8 PM
• Empire, Fox, 8 PM
• Speechless, ABC, 8:30 PM
• Dynasty, CW, 9 PM
• Law & Order: SVU (fall finale), NBC, 9 PM
• Modern Family, ABC, 9 PM
• Star, Fox, 9 PM
• Vikings, History, 9 PM
• American Housewife, ABC, 9:30 PM
• Happy! (series premiere), Syfy, 10 PM
• Mr. Robot, USA, 10 PM
• Knightfall (series premiere), History, 10 PM
• Criminal Minds, CBS, 10 PM
• South Park (season finale), Comedy Central, 10 PM
• Chicago PD (fall finale), NBC, 10 PM
• The A-Word, Sundance, 10 PM
• Broad City (season finale), Comedy Central, 10:30 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM

Thursday

• Saints/Falcons, NBC, 8:25 PM
• Psych: The Movie, USA, 8 PM
• Supernatural (fall finale), CW, 8 PM
• The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 8 PM
• Gotham (fall finale), Fox, 8 PM
• 32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide, HBO, 8 PM
• Young Sheldon, CBS, 8:30 PM
• Arrow (fall finale), CW, 9 PM
• The Great American Baking Show, ABC, 9 PM
• Van Helsing, Syfy, 9 PM
• Mom, CBS, 9 PM
• The Orville (season finale), Fox, 9 PM
• Life in Pieces, CBS, 9:30 PM
• Beerland (season premiere), Viceland, 10 PM
• Top Chef (season premiere), Bravo, 10 PM
• The President Show, Comedy Central, 10 PM
• Ghost Wars, Syfy, 10 PM
• The Menendez Murders, A&E, 10 PM
• SWAT, CBS, 10 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM
• The Rundown with Robin Thede, BET, 11 PM

Friday

• The Crown (S2), Netflix, 3 AM
• The Grand Tour (season premiere), Amazon Prime, 3 AM
• El Camino Christmas, Netflix, 3 AM
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (fall finale), CW, 8 PM
• Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year, NBC Sports Network, 8 PM
• Blindspot, NBC, 8 PM
• Macgyver, CBS, 8 PM
• Once Upon A Time, ABC, 8 PM
• Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., ABC, 9 PM
• A Football Life: Aeneas Williams, NFL Network, 9 PM
• Jane the Virgin (fall finale), CW, 9 PM
• Z Nation, Syfy, 9 PM
• Hawaii Five-0, CBS, 9 PM
• The Exorcist, Fox, 9 PM
• All Def Comedy, HBO, 10 PM
• Superstition, Syfy, 10 PM
• Kevin Hart Presents, Comedy Central, 11 PM

Saturday

• Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, BBC America, 9 PM
• Saturday Night Live: James Franco / SZA, NBC, 11:30 PM

Sunday

• No Activity, CBS AA, 3 AM
• Ravens/Steelers, NBC, 8:20 PM
• Outlander (season finale), Starz, 8 PM
• The Simpsons (fall finale), Fox, 8 PM
• Wisdom of the Crowd, CBS, 8:30 PM
• Bob’s Burgers (fall finale), Fox, 8:30 PM
• Shameless, Showtime, 9 PM
• The Walking Dead (fall finale), AMC, 9 PM
• Counterpart: The Crossing, Starz, 9 PM
• Family Guy (fall finale), Fox, 9:30 PM
• Graves (season finale), Epix, 10 PM
• Smilf, Showtime, 10 PM
• Talking Dead (fall finale), AMC, 10 PM
• Good Behavior, TNT, 10 PM
• Search Party, TBS, 10 PM
• White Famous (season finale), Showtime, 10:30 PM

[All times listed are in ET]

Researchers develop a way to train robots with just a gentle nudge

Researchers at Rice University have developed a way to train robots with just a little push. Their method uses algorithms that allow robots to not only respond to a human’s touch in the moment, but alter their trajectory based on that physical input. “Here the robot has a plan, or desired trajectory, which describes how the robot thinks it should perform the task,” said graduate student Dylan Losey about the project. “We introduced a real-time algorithm that modified, or deformed, the robot’s future desired trajectory.”

Typically, when robots are programmed to respond to physical contact from a human, they usually only only do so in the moment and go right back to their original trajectory soon thereafter. But with the Rice team’s algorithms, their robots were able to take that input and use it to adjust their trajectories in real time. “By replanning the robot’s desired trajectory after each new observation, the robot was able to generate behavior that matches the human’s preference,” said Losey.

You can check out the robot in action in the video below. In it, the researchers show that when the robot was in a typical impedance mode, humans could only adjust the robot’s movements temporarily and changing the path in any real way took constant adjusting. But when it was placed in learning mode, a single adjustment could set the robot on a new, more desirable path. “The paradigm shift in this work is that instead of treating a human as a random disturbance, the robot should treat the human as a rational being who has a reason to interact and is trying to convey something important,” Losey said in a statement. “The robot shouldn’t just try to get out of the way. It should learn what’s going on and do its job better.”

The research was published recently in IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

Via: Rice University

Source: IEEE Transactions on Robotics

Starbucks offers AR tours of its lavish Shanghai coffee shop

Starbucks has a long, long tradition of using tech to bring you into its coffee shops, and that will be truer than ever with the latest supersized Reserve Roastery location in Shanghai. The beverage behemoth will use a mobile app to offer guided augmented reality tours of the coffee-making process when the restaurant opens on December 6th. Point your phone at equipment like the roaster or cask and you’ll get an explanation of what happens as beans eventually turn into your venti latte.

The chain is offering virtual badges for participating in the tour, and you’ll get a “unique Roastery filter” to mark your trip. We’re not sure who’s excited to show that they’ve visited a Starbucks (even if it’s a very elaborate one), but it at least means you’ll have a virtual record of your trip.

There’s no mention of whether or not you’ll see this AR experience in other Reserve Roasteries (we’ve asked about future plans), but it’s reasonable to expect that this won’t be available at your corner Starbucks any time soon. This is more about turning your visit into a mini event and encouraging you to linger a while longer. As it is, we could see other restaurants following suit if this catches on.

Source: Starbucks

SIM-Free iPhone X Now Available From Apple Online Store in the United States

Starting today, Apple is offering a SIM-free version of the iPhone X from its online store in the United States, allowing customers to buy an unlocked iPhone without choosing a carrier.

SIM-free versions of the iPhone X in all capacities list the same ~one week delivery estimate available for other iPhone X devices. SIM-free iPhone X models ordered today will arrive on December 12.

SIM-free iPhone X models will work with any carrier and have full support for both CDMA and GSM networks, much like the Sprint and Verizon versions of the new smartphone. iPhone X models from AT&T and T-Mobile do not support CDMA networks and are not compatible with Sprint or Verizon.

Since iPhone X pre-orders kicked off on October 27, Apple has only allowed customers to buy an iPhone X with an AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon SIM, though models purchased in full are listed as unlocked. At launch, Apple was requiring carrier pre-activation to make an iPhone X purchase, but that requirement was lifted in mid-November.

It’s been possible to get the equivalent of a SIM-free unlocked iPhone X ordering a Verizon model and paying full price, but now there is an official SIM-free version.

Now that SIM-free iPhone X models are available, Apple is will also soon allow its employees to purchase the iPhone X through the internal employee site at a discount.

Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

Asus Zenbook UX330UA review

Research Center:
Asus Zenbook UX330UA-AH54

Based on the convoluted name alone, you may enter this review with some skepticism. We’re with you. Well — we’d be with you if laptops in this line hadn’t repeatedly impressed us over the years. In fact, the 2016 version of the Asus Zenbook UX330UA has been sitting at the top of our best budget laptops all year.

Laptops under $800 used to be hard to recommend. They were often poorly-designed, featured low-end components, and were full of notable compromises. But with machines like the $800 Dell XPS 13 and the $650 Swift 5 on the market, there’s now a host of great options in that lower-mid tier price range. It’s no longer necessary to spend over a thousand dollars to get a laptop that won’t be outdated in a year.

These simple, affordable laptops aren’t going to turn heads, but they’re a joy to use because they nail the fundamentals.

Asus has introduced its 8th-generation Intel Core processor to the Zenbook UX330UA. Outside of the new CPU, you won’t notice many other changes to this late-2017 update. But when you’ve got a laptop that still delivers all the essentials at such an affordable price point, who’s going to complain? Follow along as we put the new processor through the ringer and see if the Zenbook UX330UA still holds up to the competition.

The laptop equivalent of a t-shirt and jeans

The Asus Zenbook UX330UA allegedly isn’t identical to the previous model, the UX305UA. According to the specifications, the newer version is a tenth of an inch thinner at just a half-inch thick. It’s also lighter, at 2.6 pounds. You’d never notice those differences without a specification sheet in front of you, and we doubt most people could tell the difference between the UX305UA and UX330UA even if the two were placed side-by-side.

When a laptop delivers all the essentials at an affordable price, who is going to complain?

That’s fine. On its own, the UX330UA holds up. The mostly-metal chassis features the distinctive “spun metal concentric circle” finish that’s common to all Zenbooks, and is meant to remind you of ripples in a pond. We’ve always liked the look, which is handsome, and adds unique flair that competitors from Acer, Dell, and Lenovo can’t claim.

Having said that, our review model’s silver finish wasn’t a head turner. In the past, Asus has sometimes offered subtle yet distinctive alternatives, like the dark blue-black of the Zenbook UX305CA. There’s no such choice here. Silver is fine, but the lack of another option feels notable given last year’s models came in several eye-catching shades.

Though light, the UX330UA is a solid laptop. The chassis shows little sign of flex when handled roughly, and what can be found isn’t enough to be concerning. Our only complaint is one we’ve had with past Zenbooks — the display bezels are wide, and the laptop is large for a 13-inch system as a result. It’s not a major problem, but some competitors, like Dell’s XPS 13, fit the same screen size into a smaller, more portable footprint.

A little new, a little old

Asus takes a mixed approach to connectivity, pairing two USB-A ports with a single USB-C. The USB-C doesn’t support Thunderbolt 3, and can’t be used to charge, so there’s still a proprietary charging connector. Micro-HDMI, a headphone jack, and a card reader round out the options.

Asus Zenbook UX330UA-AH54 Compared To

HP ZBook Studio G4

Acer Aspire VX 5-591G 5652

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 (2017)

Acer Swift 7 SF713-51-M90J

Asus Zenbook 3 UX390UA

Lenovo ThinkPad X260

Dell Precision 15 3510

Lenovo Ideapad 710S

Acer Aspire S 13 S5-371-52JR

Dell XPS 13 (Skylake)

Dell Latitude 12

LG Gram 15 Z960

Samsung Notebook 9 Pro…

Asus Zenbook UX501VW-DS71T

Sony VAIO VGN-S480

While it’d be nice to see Thunderbolt 3, it’s hard to complain about either the number or type of connections here. The UX330UA offers some future-proofing, but will also work with your current peripherals.

Wireless connectivity includes 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1. This is typical of a laptop in any price range.

Solid keyboard, mediocre touchpad

The thin profile luckily doesn’t compromise typing on the UX330UA, which offers a respectable 1.5 millimeters of key travel, and a nearly full-sized keyboard layout. This is where the large footprint pays off. There’s plenty of space to rest your palms, and almost all the keys are properly sized. Only the arrow keys are tucked away – but how often are those used, really?

Keyboard backlighting is standard, and serves up three levels of brightness. All three are dim enough to be usable in a dark environment without becoming a distraction. Not all keys are evenly backlit, which cheapens the look, and a fair amount of light leaks around each key.

Below the keys is a normally sized touchpad, about three inches tall by four inches wide. It offers full support for Windows 10 Precision Touchpad gestures, which work well. Yet the touchpad never felt great to our hands, largely because of its super-slick surface. The lack of friction provided less tactile feedback than we’d like, making it easy to overshoot gestures. We turned down the touchpad sensitivity and cursor speed down, which helped a bit in comfortably moving the cursor around.

With touch-to-click turned on, we found the system often confused single clicks with click-and-drag actions.

The click of the touchpad is a little mushy for our taste. With touch-to-click turned on, we found the system often confused single clicks with click-and-drag actions. Lastly, it should be mentioned that the keyboard does have some flex in it. It’s not terrible, but even in normal typing, you’ll notice the movement of the keyboard beneath the weight of your keystrokes.

A fingerprint reader is integrated into the touchpad, which is impressive, given the price. The square it occupies unfortunately isn’t responsive to touch input, so it knocks a small but awkward chunk out of the usable surface. The fingerprint reader hooks seamlessly into Windows Hello, and generally accepts input well, though on a few occasions it did fail, forcing us to type in a password anyway.

Overall, the touchpad isn’t horrible, especially compared to some other Windows 10 laptops in this price range. However, coming from something like a MacBook or the Dell XPS 13, it’s one of the most noticeable weaknesses of the laptop.

A display that’s always beautiful

Like past Zenbooks, and many of its competitors, the UX330UA ships with a 1080p non-touch display. This is the most common resolution among 13-inch laptops but, of course, panel quality can vary widely from one model of laptop to the next. Luckily, this screen is a good one.

A few numbers immediately jump out from the rest. The screen displayed 98 percent of sRGB and 74 percent of AdobeRGB, figures that don’t break records, but are better than expected from a laptop in this price range. The contrast ratio of 940:1 is also strong. While it’s behind the Apple MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar, and is passed the Dell XPS 13, it beats similarly-priced laptops like the Acer Swift 3 by a mile. Maximum brightness comes in at 315 lux, which is not the best we’ve seen, but it’s more than adequate in a laptop with an anti-glare screen.

We did find some flaws. The gamma curve came at 2.4, which indicates the screen renders content slightly darker than it should appear. Color error came in at 2.56. Because this is an error value, a lower score is better, and anything below one is generally unnoticeable to the human eye. The UX330UA’s score is not bad, but the Acer Swift 3, Dell XPS 13 with 1080p display, and HP Spectre x360 all score slightly better.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Testing aside, it’s hard to fault the UX330UA’s display in day-to-day use. The anti-glare coat keeps it usable in a variety of scenarios, including outdoors, where the reasonably bright backlight can compete with the power of the sun.

Yet, somehow, the display also looks good playing a movie in a dark room. Its strong contrast ratio and reasonably accurate color combine to provide a clear, crisp image. It’s not going to knock your socks off, but it’s hard to fault.

Strong speakers, facing the wrong way

A pair of forward-facing speakers tuned by Harmon Kardon are included along the bottom lip of this Zenbook. They provided robust sound, including a hint of bass that can be both heard and, if you’re typing while listening to music, felt. The location dampened quality, though, as it’s easy to obstruct the sound. External speakers or headphones are a good idea, but the built-in speakers are fine in a pinch.

8th-generation Intel Core

The new CPU in the Zenbook UX330UA is the real story. It’s a new 8th-generation Intel Core CPU, a series of chips that have performed well across in other laptops we’ve tested, like the Lenovo Yoga 920, and Dell XPS 13. The UX330UA features the Core i5-8250U, which is the 7th-generation version of the same CPU you’ll find in a powerhouse 2-in-1 laptop like the Surface Book 2 . In case you’re wondering, that machine will cost you upwards of $1,499, while the Zenbook UX330UA still comfortably sits at $750. Here’s how the processor ranks against some competitors:

The updated version of the UX330UA zooms past the 7th-generation version (Core i5-7200U) with a 7.8 percent increase in single-core performance, and a 42 percent increase in multi-core performance, in our GeekBench 4 tests. We haven’t been able to test many Core i5 versions of the 8th-generation processors, but you can see that it holds up well even against Core i7 CPUs — even besting the i7 in the Dell XPS 13 in multi-core performance.

In our Handbrake test, we encoded a 4K video clip, and found again that the Zenbook UX330UA compared well to  Core i7 CPUs. It lagged just behind the Surface Book 2, outran the Dell XPS 13, and left the previous generation UX300UA in the dust. You may notice that the blazing Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 outpaces pretty much every competitor with just a Core i5 processor (except the Lenovo Yoga 920, which is the fastest 8th-generation laptop we’ve tested) in both tests.

The Asus isn’t a mobile workstation though. The i5-8250U is meant for typical day-to-day use, and there it provides excellent results for processes like launching applications and cramming through edits of typical, HD-resolution photos without breaking a sweat. This chip will still feel quick enough five years from today, which makes its inclusion in a sub-$800 laptop noteworthy.

Modest hard drive performance

By now, you might be wondering what the UX330UA doesn’t do well. It has a decent keyboard, nice display, and fast processor. Surely something must give, right? Well, that something is the hard drive — kind of.

A skeptic might see a lot to dislike here. The UX330UA’s 256GB solid state drive, which still uses the SATA connection standard, can’t keep up with newer drives that connect over PCI Express. It’s an area of weakness that Asus chose not to update — and that means laptops like the HP Spectre x360 and Dell XPS 13 easily outperform it.

Even so, the Zenbook shouldn’t be dismissed. Its performance is near the top of what can be expected from SATA, and it’s unreasonable to demand a PCIe drive in an affordable laptop, at least for now. In fact, Dell drops down to SATA in the XPS 13 if you choose the 128GB drive, which is the only one available in the $800 entry-level version.

Gamers, look elsewhere

Like most budget notebooks, the Asus Zenbook UX330UA makes no promise it’ll game well. Which is for the best – because it doesn’t. The upgrade to the 8th-generation CPU should offer marginal improvements that keep it competitive with rivals, but that doesn’t mean much.

The scores produced by this laptop are mediocre even for its category, in some cases coming in a few hundred points behind competitors. This significant defeat is only softened by the fact none of the UX330UA’s peers can play new 3D titles at 1080p resolution and anything approaching a respectable level of detail.

We also tried playing Civilization VI, the latest entry in Sid Meier’s long running and incredibly popular strategy franchise. Its performance didn’t see much of an increase, still puttering along at well under 20 frames per second with resolution set to 1080p and all detail sliders set to minimum. That’s not a great experience.

The one score where we saw a significant improvement with the 8th-generation processor on was the 3DMark score. In the Fire Strike test, the new CPU on the UX330UA scored 912, whereas the previous generation scored a measly 457. It finally surpassed the 12-inch MacBook, and the 7th-generation Dell XPS 13. Now, it competes well enough with current models of the Dell XPS 13 and HP Spectre 13.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Still, we wouldn’t recommend anything other than casual gaming on the UX330UA. You simply can’t buy a thin and light laptop that also plays games for less than $1,000. You’ll need to look elsewhere — whether that’s at a gaming laptop like the Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming Laptop, or a thin yet fast machine like the Razer Blade. You’ll be spending more either way.

Battery life takes a dip

Weighing in at 2.6 pounds, the Asus Zenbook UX330UA is quite light for its size, coming in below the Apple MacBook Pro 13 and Dell XPS 13. It’s also thin at just a half-inch thick, though it feels thicker than it is. Blame the boxy body and big, chunky rubber feet. There are certainly thinner options, like the Asus Swift 7, but we highly doubt anyone’s going to complain the UX330UA is too thick.

When moving to the 8th-gen CPU, Asus kept the same large 57 watt-hour battery into this laptop. While we were happy with its performance in the previous model, it has lost some of its superiority this time around thanks to that high-performing processor.

Starting with the iMacros web benchmark test, which is a relatively heavy load, the UX330UA lasted 8 hours and 31 minutes, which has been reduced from the 7th generations CPU’s fantastic score of 10 hours and 25 minutes. We saw a similarly regressive result in our video loop test, which repeats a 1080p clip of The Avengers until the battery dies.

Asus crams a large 57 watt-hour battery into this laptop

The 7th-generation version of the UX330UA lasted an impressive 13 hours and three minutes, while the 8th-generation version lasted 11 hours and 6 minutes.

It tests better than the Dell XPS 13 and HP Spectre 13, but easily falls behind standouts like the Lenovo Yoga 920 and the HP Spectre x360 13.

Across the board, the UX330UA went from being an industry-leader to squarely middle of the pack. The battery has taken a step back from previous iterations — and that’s a disappointment. It still outlasts all laptops in its price range, but no longer run laps around them.

Quiet, until it’s not

The Zenbook UX330UA is not fanless but, like Apple’s MacBook, it hides the exhaust vents within the display hinge – and the vents don’t even span the entire width of the laptop. It’s extremely difficult to notice the fan when the laptop is idle, or under light load.

Heavier load can tease the fan out, and it becomes extremely noticeable once a heavy load, like our Handbrake benchmark, runs for more than a minute or two. The laptop also heats up significantly under these conditions. That said, its overall noise and thermal performance isn’t outside the norm for a 13-inch laptop.

Software

Bloatware is a common problem on laptops at this price, yet the Zenbook UX330UA almost entirely dodges the problem. There’s very little pre-installed here, except for everyone’s favorite McAffe anti-virus software, and a handful of games. We would have liked to see the laptop to have just relied on the proprietary Windows security, but McAffe is easy enough to uninstall or disable if you don’t want it to bother you with notifications.

Warranty information

Asus ships the Zenbook UX330UA with a one year warranty. That’s the industry standard no matter a laptop’s price, so we wouldn’t expect to see it much

Our Take

Asus’ Zenbook UX330UA was a worthy successor to the UX305UA and the 8th-generation CPU is a nice addition to the mix. The new CPU boasts some impressive results, and ensures that the Zenbook UX330UA stays competitive well into 2018 and beyond.

Is there a better alternative?

Competition in this price bracket is fierce. Acer’s Swift 5 is the greatest threat, as it offers similar hardware for about $750. It’s a 14-inch laptop, so it’s larger overall, and it also has a slightly smaller battery. Lenovo’s Ideapad 710S is another possibility, but it sells for $800, and has a smaller 128GB solid state drive. Lastly, if design matters to you more than power, check out the beautiful Dell XPS 13, which has an entry-level configuration ($800) that has a slower 7th-generation Core i3 processor.

Most other systems comparable to the Zenbook UX330UA in size and weight are several hundred dollars more expensive when similarly equipped, such as the HP Spectre 13, Lenovo Yoga 920, or MacBook Pro.

How long will it last?

Though affordable, the Zenbook UX330UA is packed with current hardware, and its connectivity arrangement provides ways to hook up both old and new USB devices. This laptop should last as long, if not longer than, most laptops purchased today. The updated CPU makes it the perfect time to buy this laptop for maximum longevity.

Should you buy it?

Yes. There’s no need to spend more than $1,000 on a great laptop. The Zenbook UX330UA is as fast and portable as any, yet priced within reach.

Sell! Sell! Sell! This AI tries to predict when the bitcoin bubble will pop

Is bitcoin the future of currency as we know it or the center of a massive “pump-and-dump” scheme that will eventually see its bubble burst? Whichever way you view it, the fact that everyone’s favorite cryptocurrency was worth 30 cents in 2010 and is valued at more than $10,000 today means there’s a long way for it to fall — and potentially take your savings down with it.

Thank goodness, then, for artificial intelligence, and a new tool called Bitcoin Bubble Burst, which was recently presented at the Disrupt Berlin Hackathon. Using machine learning sentiment analysis, and then scraping online marketplaces and social media for news about bitcoin’s changing value, Bitcoin Bubble Burst could turn out to be a savior for anyone getting antsy about their cryptocurrency portfolio. It takes the form of a regular subscription newsletter that collates the information it’s found. If a certain threshold of warning signs is reached, its creators claim it will also allow you to know first — so you can cash in your savings before there’s a run on the virtual bank.

“The idea came from discussions we had inside the team about whether the bitcoin bubble will burst soon, or will the value keep rising,” Saad El Hajjaji, one of the team members, told Digital Trends. “Since it’s a topic that many people are interested in, we thought it would be good to try and predict the changes before they take place, so that you always stay in the loop.”

Hajjaji said that he is personally “optimistic about the future of bitcoin in the long run,” but acknowledged that some other colleagues on the project didn’t entirely share his views. Ultimately, though, he points out that you don’t have to be a bitcoin alarmist or utopian to be interested in setting up an early warning system. Considering that some seriously big investors are getting in on the bitcoin game, it would be silly to assume that major financial players don’t also have access to tools like this. However, if you’re more of an everyday investor — the kind of person who doesn’t have Warren Buffett in your iPhone contacts — it could certainly be worth checking out.

Hajjaji said that the team is working to add SMS notifications to its system, as well as considering creating a mobile app to offer live updates. Any other plans to venture into more bubble-related territories? “For now, we will concentrate on bitcoin in particular and see how it goes,” he said. “[But] in the future, we might work on other cryptocurrencies as well, and as our prediction model is getting better with time, we might venture into some other bubbles, too.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• CryptoKitties lets you buy, sell, breed virtual cats using real digital currency
• Bitcoin’s latest boom sends it scorching past $9,000
• You’ll soon be able to bet on Bitcoin’s future value on NASDAQ
• Bitcoin Cash surpassed Ethereum as world’s second most popular cryptocurrency
• Survey: Bitcoin buyers prefer investing in it over using it as a payment method

Tune in here for Qualcomm’s December 5 Snapdragon Technology Summit keynote

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Technology Summit starts on Tuesday, December 5, and to kick off the event, the company will live-stream the keynote at 10:30 a.m. PT (1:30 p.m. ET) on its website. You can also catch updates prior to the keynote and during the presentation as they’re rolled out on Qualcomm’s Twitter feed. The keynote will be presented by Qualcomm Technologies executive vice president Cristiano Amon.

“This year’s Snapdragon Technology Summit will feature an inside look at the latest innovations built into Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Platforms, along with demonstrations that exhibit upcoming technologies and advancements that will continue to shape the way we use mobile devices, always connected PCs and other future technologies,” the company says.

Qualcomm is expected to reveal the Snapdragon 845 mobile processor slated to arrive in early 2018. It will follow the company’s current flagship processor, the Snapdragon 835, and supposedly provide better single-core performance than Apple’s A9 chip used in the iPhone 6S, and the fifth-generation iPad released in 2017. That information is based on benchmarks leaked in September, which likely don’t fully show the 845 chip’s optimized performance numbers.

The Snapdragon 845 will likely be the processor of choice for Samsung’s unannounced Galaxy S9 phones. It was also recently listed in a since-removed job listing for Microsoft’s Redmond-based campus, indicating that the company may be working on a first-party, Surface-branded device based on the chip. But it won’t appear in the first batch of Windows-based laptops slated to hit the market before the end of December.

As previously reported, the ARM-based Windows 10 laptops will rely on Qualcomm’s current Snapdragon 835 chip. These will be manufactured by Asus, HP, and Lenovo, including two 12-inch models produced by HP with 4GB of memory and 128GB of storage, and 8GB of memory with 256GB of storage. The Asus model was already spotted on Geekbench running at a base speed of 2.21GHz.

That all said, the keynote will likely officially launch the Snapdragon 835-based laptops while also promising performance improvements for future next-generation models packing the Snapdragon 845. The latter chip was accidentally revealed by Qualcomm early this year when a page appeared in its CreatePoint Portal bearing the “SDM845” identifier. Microsoft’s recent listing of the chip in its job offering only solidified what we already saw through benchmarks and “accidental” listings.

“We will be joined on stage by several major industry leaders who we are collaborating with to enable many significant technological achievements that will change the way we use our smartphones and other mobile devices,” says Cristiano Amon.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Microsoft job listing hints at Surface device with a Snapdragon 845 chip
• Leaked benchmarks for new Windows 10 laptops show meager performance
• Rumored tests of early Windows 10 on Qualcomm processor fail to impress
• Qualcomm unveils a new chipset and 5G reference design at an event in Hong Kong
• Sony Xperia XZ1 review

Tune in here for Qualcomm’s December 5 Snapdragon Technology Summit keynote

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Technology Summit starts on Tuesday, December 5, and to kick off the event, the company will live-stream the keynote at 10:30 a.m. PT (1:30 p.m. ET) on its website. You can also catch updates prior to the keynote and during the presentation as they’re rolled out on Qualcomm’s Twitter feed. The keynote will be presented by Qualcomm Technologies executive vice president Cristiano Amon.

“This year’s Snapdragon Technology Summit will feature an inside look at the latest innovations built into Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Platforms, along with demonstrations that exhibit upcoming technologies and advancements that will continue to shape the way we use mobile devices, always connected PCs and other future technologies,” the company says.

Qualcomm is expected to reveal the Snapdragon 845 mobile processor slated to arrive in early 2018. It will follow the company’s current flagship processor, the Snapdragon 835, and supposedly provide better single-core performance than Apple’s A9 chip used in the iPhone 6S, and the fifth-generation iPad released in 2017. That information is based on benchmarks leaked in September, which likely don’t fully show the 845 chip’s optimized performance numbers.

The Snapdragon 845 will likely be the processor of choice for Samsung’s unannounced Galaxy S9 phones. It was also recently listed in a since-removed job listing for Microsoft’s Redmond-based campus, indicating that the company may be working on a first-party, Surface-branded device based on the chip. But it won’t appear in the first batch of Windows-based laptops slated to hit the market before the end of December.

As previously reported, the ARM-based Windows 10 laptops will rely on Qualcomm’s current Snapdragon 835 chip. These will be manufactured by Asus, HP, and Lenovo, including two 12-inch models produced by HP with 4GB of memory and 128GB of storage, and 8GB of memory with 256GB of storage. The Asus model was already spotted on Geekbench running at a base speed of 2.21GHz.

That all said, the keynote will likely officially launch the Snapdragon 835-based laptops while also promising performance improvements for future next-generation models packing the Snapdragon 845. The latter chip was accidentally revealed by Qualcomm early this year when a page appeared in its CreatePoint Portal bearing the “SDM845” identifier. Microsoft’s recent listing of the chip in its job offering only solidified what we already saw through benchmarks and “accidental” listings.

“We will be joined on stage by several major industry leaders who we are collaborating with to enable many significant technological achievements that will change the way we use our smartphones and other mobile devices,” says Cristiano Amon.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Microsoft job listing hints at Surface device with a Snapdragon 845 chip
• Leaked benchmarks for new Windows 10 laptops show meager performance
• Rumored tests of early Windows 10 on Qualcomm processor fail to impress
• Qualcomm unveils a new chipset and 5G reference design at an event in Hong Kong
• Sony Xperia XZ1 review