The best mobile accessories at CES 2018, from skin scanners to selfie drones

CES never fails to surprise us. From a roll-up television to sleep robots, CES 2018 was no exception. But while CES is best-known for big product launches, there are also tons of accessory manufacturers showing off their newest products. We roamed the halls at CES 2018, looking for the best mobile accessories. Here’s a few of our favorites.

Neutrogena Skin360

From L’Oréal’s wearable that can track UV exposure to Foreo’s high-tech facial masks, beauty tech was a huge trend as CES 2018. However, the Neutrogena Skin360 was the most exciting beauty accessory we saw this year. The Neutrogena Skin360 attaches to your phone to analyze your skin. The Skin360 can keep track of pore size, skin moisture, and skin quality. With the Skin360, you can easily track how small changes, such as drinking more water, have an effect on your skin.  The Neutrogena Skin360 should be available in stores this summer and will be priced at $50.

 To learn more:

Neutrogena

Selfly

If you’re looking to up your selfie game, the Selfly camera drone may be right up your alley. Selfly is a phone case that includes a detachable autonomous camera drone, so you an easily carry the camera drone around all the time and pop it out whenever you want to grab a selfie. You can pre-order the Selfly drone on Indigogo now, with an anticipated ship date of February. Pre-order pricing starts at $109.

Buy it now from:

Selfly

Osmo Mobile 2

The Osmo Mobile 2 gimbal offers plenty of improvements over last year’s model. For starters, battery life is more than tripled on the Osmo Mobile 2, to 15 hours. The Osmo Mobile 2 also offers zoom control, active tracking, and several different modes such as hyperlapse and slow-motion. The best part is the Osmo Mobile 2 is about $50 less expensive than its predescessor, coming in at $130.

Buy it now from:

Osmo Mobile 2

Catalyst Case for Apple AirPods

Sometimes it’s the most simplistic mobile accessories that catch our eyes, and the Catalyst Case for Apple AirPods is the perfect example. The Catalyst Case is a drop-proof and waterproof case for your AirPods. The case is made out of a high-grade silicone and features a removable carabiner so you can easily attach it to your backpack.  You can even connect your Lightning connector to the AirPods case through the removable plug in the bottom of the case. The case is only $25, which is much less expensive than replacing a lost or damaged AirPod.

Buy it now from:

Catalyst

PopSockets Car Vent Mount

Speaking of simple, it doesn’t get much more easy than the PopSockets Car Vent Mount. This plastic mount connects easily to your car vent, allowing you to use your existing PopSockets phone grip to hang your phone. While there are plenty of car mounts available for your smartphone, they usually don’t work with phone grips like the PopSockets. The PopSockets Car Vent Mount will be available in the coming weeks for $10.

Buy it now from:

PopSockets

iMate

Don’t let the generic name fool you, the iMate is one of our favorite accessories from CES 2018 because of its versatility. It’s a charger, battery backup, and portable docking system. Since the iMate uses Type-C power delivery, the it can quickly charge your phone, iPad, or MacBook. The iMate even features a mobile charging base for the Apple Watch, so you’ll never have to worry about running out of juice on any of your devices. Pricing and availability for the iMate will be announced in the future.

To learn more: 

iMate

Editors’ Recommendations

• From TVs to automobiles, Google Assistant looks to make a big splash at CES 2018
• Affordable new products and the future of tech highlight day 3 of CES 2018
• Totally tubular tech: 20 of the coolest products at CES 2018
• Nanoleaf remote, music visualizer will turn your smart home into a fun home
• China’s Tuya expands its reach further with launch of IoT platform for the U.S.

From car tech to micro drones, we discuss our top products at CES 2018

From potentially revolutionary computer chips to tiny micro drones, our editorial staff spent the past week investigating some of the most interesting and fun emerging technology on the planet at this year’s CES conference in Las Vegas.

With 184,000 people in attendance, the expo halls and meeting rooms at this year’s show were jam-packed not only with people, but with compelling and unique technology that will provide entertainment, fuel industries, and shape the world of the future. With so many intriguing products to investigate, we rely heavily on the experts from our editorial team to seek out, try, and report back on the best of the bunch.

This year’s conference was special in many ways, but perhaps most so when it came to our top tech pick. Though we typically choose a consumer-facing product like our best-of-2017 winner, the Samsung Chromebook Plus, this year we picked a product that most people will never lay eyes on, the Nvidia Xavier processor. We believe the lightning-fast in-car computer will play a pivotal role in the next generation of intelligent cars, allowing you to travel quicker, safer, and perhaps without even touching a steering wheel.

As part of our best of CES coverage, Digital Trends’ Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Kaplan and Managing Editor Nick Mokey sat down to discuss our picks for the best of CES, sharing our choices and elaborating on why we made them.

“We have 15 to 20 journalists running around the floor, exploring everything there is too see — and there’s a lot to see,” said Kaplan about the way the awards were chosen, “Everyone scrambles to see as much as they can see, and we all get together in a little room, and eventually decide what the best products are from the show.”

Watch the full video to learn why we picked each of our favorite items at this year’s CES conference, and be sure to check out our full article detailing our choices.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Best home theater product of 2017
• The best laptops you can buy
• AT&T says actual 5G wireless super-fast network will debut later this year
• From TV tech to smart homes, Samsung’s Scott Cohen takes our questions
• As self-driving cars evolve, so will your car stereo. Here’s how

Ethereal Machines’ Halo takes 3D printing to a new dimension, literally

Three-dimensional printing is a revolutionary technology, and it hasn’t even come close to what will eventually be possible yet. During our coverage of CES 2018 we’ve seen a giant 3D printer meant for printing yacht parts, but what may be even more impressive is the world’s first 5D printer, the Halo from Ethereal Machines. We caught up with Ethereal Machines’ Kaushik Mudda on the show floor to see just what makes the Halo so unique.

“Regular 3D printers operate on just three axes: X, Y, and Z,” Mudda told Digital Trends. “What we’ve done is we’ve added two additional axes to it: A translational axis and a rotatory axis as well.” Those two axes are why Ethereal Machines refers to its process as five-axis or 5D printing.

This method allows for printing of complex shapes and structures without the extra hassles that most 3D printers impose. In printing a shape with parts that extend off of the main body, a standard 3D printer would need support structures in order to print the design. Thanks to the ability to rotate and precisely position the object during printing, the Halo doesn’t need these structures, and can instead print into thin air.

“Imagine making structures without any support materials, and the kind of finish you get with this five-axis 3D printing,” Mudda says. “That’s something that the world has never seen. This is the first [machine] of its kind in the world.”

On the way to this unique new method, Ethereal Machines also spent time creating standard 3D printers. Once it had the five-axis idea, it took the company a year and a half to take it from concept to reality. The machine can reach temperatures up to 350 degrees Celsius and supports most 3D printing filaments including nylon. The Halo can also handle subtractive manufacturing, making it useful for both hobbyists and businesses creating parts and prototypes.

We haven’t yet have the chance to test out the Ethereal Machines Halo, but once we do, there is a chance that it could end up on our list of the best 3D printers available. The Halo won a CES Innovation Award, and officially launched last month. For more information, see the Ethereal Machines website.

Best Waterproof Cases for Skiing and Snowboarding

Keep your phone safe whether you’re hitting the snowy slopes this winter

Smartphones are indispensable tools when you’re on vacation. We use them for getting directions, taking beautiful photos, or listening to tunes as you carve down the mountain. And fortunately, phone manufacturers are doing a better job of making great waterproof phones.

But when there’s a chance your phone may get stuck in a snowbank from a nasty spill, having a little bit of waterproofing redundancy is a good feeling. Fortunately, there’s a variety of ways to keep your phone — and other valuables — secure and protected as you scream down the mountain.

• Lifeproof FRE Cases
• Mpow Universal Waterproof Case
• Blue Sky Basics Waterproof Pouch
• MoKo Universal Waterproof Phone Case

Lifeproof FRE Cases

Lifeproof is the go-to case maker for outdoorsy types. The FRE series of cases are designed to offer rugged protection against the nastiest drops, while also keeping out any dust or water from getting at your phone.

Starting at $89 these cases are damn expensive, but an important investment when you consider the rising prices of the latest flagships. With a Lifeproof case, you’re also buying into a flexible platform for taking your phone with you on all your outdoor adventures thanks to Quick Mount accessories for armbands, bike mounts, and car mounts along with ingenius lanyard wrist straps with a built-in charging cable.

And unlike other waterproof cases on this list, these are specifically designed to snuggly fit your phone without impeding its functionality in anyway. With this case on your phone you can stop worrying about your phone getting broke and focus on avoiding avalanches.

• Samsung Galaxy S8 / S8 Plus
• Samsung Galaxy S7
• Google Pixel 2 / 2 XL
• Google Pixel / XL
• LG G5

See at Lifeproof

Mpow Universal Waterproof Case

If you don’t want to splurge on a Lifeproof case, or they don’t make a case for your phone, your next best bet is a universal waterproof case. These are popular cases for beach-goers but they’d work perfectly on the ski hills, too. This case from Mpow will accommodate phones with screen sizes under six inches (sorry, Note 8 owners) and includes a handy lanyard for hanging your phone around your neck. It’s compatible with touch screens with a clear back so you can snap a quick photo wherever you are.

Since this is a pouch, you should be able to slip some cards or cash in there, too, or other valuable items you can’t afford to lose on the mountain. Best of all, this Amazon listing is a two-pack of cases, and at only $8 and one-day shipping available via Prime this is a great last-minute item to get for you and your travel partner before you trek towards the mountains.

See at Amazon

Blue Sky Basics Waterproof Pouch

Looking for something a little more secure in terms of keeping all your valuables close to your body whenever you’re on vacation, but also something that won’t be too clunky when you’re going down the mountain? Blue Sky Basis has a great traveler’s pouch that’s also waterproof when submerged up to 32 feet deep.

This pouch will not only hold any phone, but you could stash more than one, or keep your passport, cash, snacks or whatever else you want with you on the mountain. The strap is fully adjustable and designed to be worn around the waist, as a cross-body satchel, or a shoulder bag. For a functional waterproof pouch that you can take from the mountain to poolside or wherever your adventures take you, you gotta check out this for just $20.

See at Amazon

MoKo Universal Waterproof Phone Case

MoKo is a trusted case manufacturer that consistently delivers great value, and its universal waterproof case is a great pick for most phones and surprisingly functional.

Firstly, this thing is slim and easy to use with secure handy tab mechanism for locking your phone in. The touchscreen is fully accessible, even when submerged up to 98 feet, and MoKo includes a look for connecting a lanyard for hanging your phone around your neck along with an optional armband accessory.

Available for just $6, this is a great waterproof case available in a wide range of fun covers and fits phones with screen sizes up to six inches.

See at Amazon

How do you keep your phone safe on the slopes?

These are the best cases for keeping your phone snow-free on the mountain, but we want to know what you’ve tried? Is a Ziplock bag good enough for you? Let us know in the comments!

You can make Duo calls to Android phones that don’t have the app installed

This might be the most important Duo update ever.

If you want to make video calls on an Android device, Google Duo is easily your best bet. Google’s added a lot of new features and improvements since its release in 2016, but like any other communications app, it’s faced the same issue of forcing you to encourage your friends and family members to actually download it so you can talk to them.

The folks at Android Police recently did some digging around, and it looks like Google actually has a solution for this. With the latest version of Google Duo, you can still successfully call a contact on your phone even if they don’t have Duo installed on their end.

As you can see in Android Police’s video below, a call is made to an Android phone that doesn’t have Duo installed, but it still receives the call as if it did have the app. Duo’s Knock-Knock feature is present to show what the incoming caller’s camera sees, you can swipe up to answer/swipe down to decline, and once the call is accepted, you’ve got regular controls for turning your camera flash on and muting the microphone.

Once you end the call, a pop-up message appears asking if you’d like to install Duo, in addition to blocking that person from calling you again. The whole process looks ridiculously sleek, and it has the potential to solve one of Duo’s biggest hurdles. This only works on Android phones as it uses Google’s App Preview Messaging service that was first used with Allo in 2016, so trying to call iPhone users that don’t have the app still won’t work.

Even so, this is a huge step for Duo and one that could finally make it the mainstream video calling app Android needs.

Lead Google Duo engineer teases group calls, web app, and more

Learn to build apps, program for the web, and more with Python for $44!

The wild world of app develop keeps getting wilder and there’s almost always work in the field, whether it’s for various organizations or as an independent consultant. Some apps sell to larger companies for tons of money. On the other hand, some folks just like to build apps for the fun of it. Maybe there’s an app you wish existed, but it doesn’t — you could build that app yourself. Or at least, you could with the right training.

The Python Power Coder Bonus Bundle is the education you need to start building mobile apps with Python 3. It features seven courses, and though it regularly retails for $1,075, you can grab it for only $44 on Android Central Digital Offers — you save 95%! You’ll get 70 hours of content that you can use to learn the basics of Python 3 to not only better your skill set, but to pad your resumé out as well!

With the Python Power Coder Bonus Bundle, you’ll get the following online courses, to which you receive a lifetime subscription:
– The Developers’ Guide to Python 3 Programming
– Step by Step: Build a Data Analysis Program
– The Python Mega Course: Build 10 Real World Application
– The Complete Computer Vision Course with Python
– Learn Python 3 from Scratch
– Python Tutorial: Python Network Programming – Build 7 Apps
– Python Web Programming
– Taming Big Data with Apache Spark and Python

You’ll get the knowledge base to build awesome apps, program for the web, deal with Big Data (including data analysis programs), and more! And the best part is that you’ll get it all for 95% off retail!

See at Android Central Digital Offers

TiVo announces Google Assistant, Alexa, and IFTTT support

TiVo’s smart features will be rolling out over the next few months.

CES 2018 has been home to a ton of different announcements, but one trend that’s been more prevalent than ever is the integration of virtual assistants in a variety of smart home gadgets. TiVo is one of the companies following this trend, and over the coming months, it’ll be rolling out support for Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and IFTTT.

TiVo will launch a Google Assistant app and Amazon Alexa skill in a few months’ time that allows you to use your voice for controlling all of your media playback, but before these are released, you’ll still be able to talk to your Echo or Google Home speaker and control your TiVo box using IFTTT Applets.

This will require a bit more handiwork on your end to get everything set up the way you like it, but with enough tinkering, you’ll be able to use IFTTT to automatically skip commercials without having to raise a finger, pause whatever it is you’re watching when your smart doorbell rings, and dim your smart lights and launch Netflix with a custom phrase.

Exact release dates for any of this have yet to be announced, but once they are, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Google Assistant is coming to Dish Network this year

Samsung Gear Sport vs. Fitbit Ionic: Fitness smartwatch showdown

Samsung and Fitbit have two of the best smartwatches out now for Android users, and we’re here to help you determine which is best for your lifestyle.

If you’re an Android user and are in the market for a new smartwatch, you’re currently in a slightly awkward position. Google doesn’t seem to be giving Android Wear any sort of real attention for the time being, and as such, your best bet is to go with third-party solutions.

The Samsung Gear Sport and Fitbit Ionic were both released in late 2017, and they’ve quickly become two of the best wearables on the market. Samsung’s Gear Sport is an evolution (and a shrinking) of the Gear S3 that came out in 2016, and the Ionic is Fitbit’s first real shot at the whole smartwatch game.

Both are excellent products, but the one that’s best for you will ultimately come down to services and features you’re looking to use.

Let’s dive in.

Design and fit

As someone with small wrists, I was very pleased to find that both the Gear Sport and Fitbit Ionic aren’t oversized like most Android Wear options. The Gear Sport has a round display that sits atop a shiny, metal squircle body, and it’s definitely the better looking of the two. The watch doesn’t look out of place whether you’re at the gym or in the office, and thanks to the 22mm band size, you can swap out the included silicon band with just about anything you’d like.

There are two physical buttons on the right side of the Gear Sport’s body, and while these work fine, the real star of the show is the rotating bezel that surrounds this display. The bezel can be rotated left and right for navigating the Gear Sport’s UI, and along with having excellent tactile response it also makes it easy to go find what you’re looking for without covering up the screen with your fingers.

Samsung has the looks and Fitbit excels at comfort.

On the other hand, the Fitbit Ionic very much looks the part of the fitness-focused watch that it is. The square body is boxy and not nearly as sleek as Samsung’s option, but what the Ionic lacks in looks it makes up for with how darn comfortable it is.

The Gear Sport isn’t an uncomfortable watch by any means, but you almost immediately forget that you’re wearing the Ionic as soon as you strap it on. Not only is the included band soft and easy to adjust, but the lighter weight of about 50 grams compared to 67 grams with the Sport makes a big difference.

Samsung’s nailed the aesthetics down, but if you prefer comfort over looks (which is arguably more important when being active), the Ionic is the way to go.

Fitness features

Speaking of being active, this is the thing that both Samsung and Fitbit are marketing the most for their respective wearables.

As expected, both the Gear Sport and Fitbit Ionic do a great job at counting your steps, calories burned, and recording a variety of different exercises (including swimming thanks to 5 ATM waterproofing on each one). There are obviously small discrepancies between the stats that each one tracks, but one area where I found the Ionic to be much more accurate is with how many floors I walked up and down. On the Gear Sport, I found myself having to walk up and down a flight of stairs twice before it registered a single one, whereas the Ionic was able to keep up without any trouble.

Another area where the Ionic shines is with on-screen workouts. There are three loaded onto the watch by default, and you can get more with a subscription to Fitbit Coach. Being able to follow personalized workout routines right on your wrist is extremely convenient, and while Fitbit Coach will cost you $40 for an annual subscription, it’s one of those things that’s hard to live without once you’ve tried it.

The Gear Sport has a surprisingly extensive fitness package.

The Gear Sport doesn’t have anything like this, but it does have a few nice features of its own that the Ionic surprisingly lacks. You can use the Gear Sport for logging your food, water, and caffeine intake throughout the day, set desired targets you’d like to hit during a workout, and even view your weekly performance for steps, calories, heart-rate, etc. These are all things that Fitbit could add to the Ionic with a future software update, but for the time being, you have to go to the Fitbit app on your phone to see/do any of this.

Even with that said, I still found myself more motivated to be active with the Ionic. The frequent reminders to get 250 steps in per hour is a nice encouragement to keep moving, and a lot of Fitbit’s clock faces do an excellent job at showing your steps, heart-rate, and calories burned. This is entirely subjective on my part, but I did actually notice myself wanted to hit the gym more often than not when wearing the Ionic.

Smartwatchy stuff

When it comes to non-fitness-related features, this one’s a mixed bag.

To be perfectly blunt, notifications on the Ionic just aren’t that good. You’ll get notified of any calls, texts, calendar appointments, and other apps that you grant permission to, but there’s no way to interact with them. You can answer or decline phone calls, but that’s about it. If you get a text or message on Hangouts, the only thing you can do is swipe it away.

The Gear Sport is the best with notifications, but Fitbit’s quickly gaining strong developer support.

You can dismiss notifications on the Gear Sport, but you can also Like messages on Facebook Messenger, archive/delete emails, and respond to texts by typing on a T9 keyboard, handwriting, using your voice, or even sending emojis. I certainly wouldn’t advise writing long emails on the Sport, but being able to send off a quick reply to incoming messages without having to pick up your phone helps this feel a lot more like a proper smartwatch than the Ionic.

Fitbit’s app selection is smaller, but there are more big names here.

Both the Ionic and Gear Sport can store music for offline listening, have NFC chips for mobile payments, and can run apps. I prefer the use of Spotify on the Sport as opposed to Pandora on the Ionic for storing songs, and Samsung Pay has support for a lot more banks than Fitbit Pay in its early stages. When it comes to apps, however, I have to give the upper hand to Fitbit.

Samsung’s wearables have had a lack of compelling apps since the original Galaxy Gear that came out in 2013, and this, unfortunately, hasn’t changed all that much five years later. There are some big names here, such as MyFitnessPal, ESPN, Bloomberg, and Endomondo, but most of what you’ll find in the Galaxy Apps store isn’t worth messing with.

Numbers-wise, there are much fewer apps available for the Ionic. However, just about three months since its release, there are already apps for Starbucks, Yelp, Philips Hue Lights, Nest, Strava, Flipboard, E*TRADE, and others. Smartwatch apps aren’t something I enjoy spending a lot of time in, but paying for my coffee at Starbucks and turning on my Hue lights (with an official app I don’t have to pay for) are things I can’t do on the Sport, and likely won’t ever be able to.

Other tidbits

A few other things I noticed while using the Gear Sport and Ionic before we wrap things up:

• You have to download four apps to use the Gear Sport on a non-Samsung phone. For the Ionic, you only need one (the Fitbit app).
• The Gear Sport lasts for a solid two days on a single charge, but the four or more days of use on the Ionic is amazing.
• Fitbit chose to use a proprietary band system on the Ionic, but there are already a ton of third-party options to choose from on Amazon.
• You can change watch faces directly on the Gear Sport, but have to open the Fitbit app to do so with the Ionic.

Final verdict

The Gear Sport and Fitbit Ionic share the same retail price of $299 (though they’re both cheaper than that right now), and to be perfectly honest, both are well worth the price.

If you’re in the market for a smartwatch that looks great, handles notifications well, and is a very respectable fitness tracker, it’s hard to be disappointed with the Gear Sport. This is the smartwatch I’ve been wearing since the day it came out in mid-October, and I’ve really enjoyed my time with it.

See Samsung Gear Sport at Amazon

With that said, I’m moving over to the Ionic as my daily wearable. The Ionic may not be as flashy as the Gear Sport or have its rotating bezel that’s endlessly fun to use, but it works better for my lifestyle. For someone who’s at Starbucks just about every single day, using my watch to pay for my morning coffee is a big convenience that I like to have. The Ionic stays more secure on my wrist when I’m running compared to the Sport, Fitbit’s companion app is more enjoyable to use, and when you pair the watch with the Aria 2 scale, it’s easy to see why the Fitbit community has become as large as it is.

See Fitbit Ionic at Amazon

If you own a Samsung Gear Sport or Fitbit Ionic, which one did you choose and why?

Smartwatches are awesome. So why aren’t they more popular?

Huawei VR2 aims to be the one-stop headset for phone and PC virtual reality

Huawei is taking another swing at virtual reality, both in viewing and creation.

Huawei’s VR2 headset was unveiled officially in late 2017, but CES 2018 served as a Western debut and the first chance for most people to get their eyes and hands on one. This is Huawei’s second take on virtual reality, and it comes in partnership with IMAX (perhaps you’ve heard of that) instead of Google — yes, this VR headset doesn’t run Daydream.

In some ways, that IMAX partnership makes sense, as Huawei is positioning VR2 as more of a competitor with higher-end VR headsets rather than the likes of Daydream View and Samsung Gear VR. This standalone headset has built-in screens rather than a spot for a phone, and that means it takes its data connection via USB cable — it can be powered by a new Mate 10 Pro, or a PC like an HTC Vive.

This is an interesting take on semi-mobile VR, bridging the gap between phones and PCs.

The screens are interestingly LCD, and come in at 3K, or 1440×1600 resolution, per eye. They have a 90Hz refresh rate, which is supposed to smooth out the experience and help with motion sickness if you’re someone who faces that issue in VR. I’ll say that it was very comfortable and eye strain wasn’t an issue for the 15-20 minutes I spent in the experience, though I could notice a little pixelation on the screen still. Being an IMAX partner product the most visually compelling experience was a visual theater with a handful of action-packed movie trailers playing — it looked (and sounded) fantastic, and was running off of a Mate 10 Pro. The IMAX partnership means the Huawei VR2 has its movies fed directly from IMAX, whereas Google’s ongoing IMAX deal simply gives you access in Daydream to some 3D titles that are already in the Play Store.

Huawei also demoed the same headset paired up with a PC and a controller playing a game from Steam, which puts that 90Hz refresh rate to the test and also looked good. In both cases the headset feels comfortable compared to your typical Daydream headset, which makes sense considering it has better weight distribution and a more structured head strap system with tons of padding. The headset felt tight and stable and didn’t put pressure on my cheeks or nose. Unfortunately Huawei didn’t have the phone-based controller working when I was using it, but it feels near-identical to the latest Gear VR and Daydream View controllers in terms of weight and buttons.

For content creation, Huawei was also showing off its EnVizion 360-degree camera attachment released in 2017. This little pod plugs straight into the USB-C port of your Mate 10 Pro (as shown here) or other recent Huawei phone, and captures photos right into the native gallery. Yes that means your phone is held upside down, but it’s not awkward at all — and it means the 360 camera is very compact and easy to stow away when not in use.

This is a nice little 360-degree camera.

The camera captures 5K photos and 2K video from a pair of 13MP wide-angle cameras, and the shots we took (in admittedly bad trade show lighting) looked good on the Mate 10 Pro’s display. To my eyes the stitch line between the two cameras was very well hidden, except for the usual spots down near the bottom where you held the phone. The app was useful, but nothing surprising — it basically offered a couple shooting modes, live filters and video recording. That gets the job done. The most important thing was it all seemed very smooth to operate and the process of switching to 360 and capturing took just a few seconds after plugging in.

Huawei’s EnVizion 360-degree camera is available online through resellers if you’re dying to have one, with prices around $150-200. The Huawei VR2 headset, though, doesn’t yet have a release date but the expected price is about $300 — plus the phone or computer to power it, of course. There are a whole lot more moving pieces involved there, including phone- and computer-side software and content partnerships. With a name like IMAX involved you’d hope that Huawei follows through, but we’ll have to wait to see future developments on this one.

Huawei Mate 10

• Huawei Mate 10 Pro review
• Huawei Mate 10 series specs
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro U.S. review: Close to greatness
• Join the discussion in the forums
• More on 2016’s Mate 9

Sony Xperia XA2, XA2 Ultra, and L2 now available for pre-order

Prices start at $249 for the L2 and go up to $449 for the XA2 Ultra.

One of the biggest smartphone announcements of CES 2018 came from Sony in the form of the Xperia XA2, XA2 Ultra, and L2. All three of these are mid-range handsets with pretty typical specifications, but this is the first time in years that Sony has announced phones in the United States with working fingerprint sensors.

Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra

Sony previously said that these phones would be available at some point in February, but pre-orders have already gone live in the United States at Best Buy and the United Kingdom through Clove.

Along with the working fingerprint sensors, you’ll find a pretty standard array of mid-range specs. The XA2 and XA2 Ultra are the more powerful of the bunch, and each comes with a Snapdragon 630 processor, 1920 x 1080 display, and 23MP rear-facing camera. The XA2 has a 3,300 mAh battery, but the XA2 Ultra kicks things up to 3,580 mAh.

With the Xperia L2, you’re getting a lower-res 1280 x 720 display, MediaTek MT6737T processor, and a 3,300 mAh battery.

The Xperia XA2 Ultra is the most expensive of the bunch at $449, the XA2 comes in at $349, and the L2 costs (you guessed it) $249.

See at Best Buy