HP Chromebox G2 has a Kaby Lake Core i7 and 16GB RAM

HP returns to the Chromebox.

We saw some excellent Chromebooks in 2017, but the market for Chromeboxes has been much quieter. However, just in time for CES 2018, HP’s announced its all-new Chromebox G2.

For first impressions, the G2 doesn’t look all that exciting. In fact, if you quickly glanced at the thing, you might mistake it for an Apple TV. On the outside of the G2 is a solid selection of ports, including a 3.5mm headphone jack, one USB Type-C, three USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, one HDMI output, and one RJ-45 connector (not to mention a microSD slot).

Take a peek inside the G2, and that’s when you realize why you might want to consider buying the thing. You can choose to pick up a configuration with Intel’s Celeron 3865U, but we’d recommend going with the Kaby Lake Core i5 (7300U) or i7 (8650U). The Celeron model ships with Intel HD Graphics 610, but going for either the i5 or i7 will bump you up to Intel UHD Graphics 620.

You can get up to 16GB of DDR-2400 SDRAM that’s equipped thanks to two memory slots, and you have the choice of either a 32 or 64GB M.2 SSD for storage.

There’s currently no word on pricing for the HP Chromebox G2, but we should see a release at some point in April.

Chrome OS will finally let you run Android apps in the background

LG Tribute Dynasty coming to Sprint and Boost Mobile for $99

Act fast and get the phone for just $59.

If you wanted to buy an Android phone for $200 or less a few years back, you’d end up with something that had a good chance of breaking down within a week. We’ve thankfully left those dark days behind us, and as such, have devices like the LG Tribute Dynasty.

LG just announced the Tribute Dynasty ahead of CES 2018, and while there’s nothing here that’ll blow your socks off, the Tribute Dynasty does look like a respectable Android handset for tackling the basics. On the front of the phone is a 5.0-inch 1280 x 720 IPS display, and right above it is a 5MP front-facing camera for all your selfies and Duo calls. An 8MP camera is on the back with LED flash, and a 2,500 mAh removable battery promises up to 15 hours of talk time.

The Tribute Dynasty is powered by a MediaTek 1.5GHz octa-core processor and 2GB RAM. There’s 16GB of expandable storage (up to 32GB) for your apps, games, and pictures, and Android 7.1 Nougat is present out of the box.

You can get the LG Tribute Dynasty now from Boost Mobile and it’ll be available January 12 on Sprint. The retail price is set at $99, but if you buy the phone now, you can get it for just $59.

See at Boost Mobile

Nintendo set to sell neon ‘Splatoon’ Joy-Con controllers in the US

Love the Nintendo Switch controllers but tired of only having them in gray? The company will broaden the Joy-Con color palette in the US market when it releases them in neon pink and neon green later this month. While these hues have been out in Europe and Japan for awhile, they were previously available in America only as part of a Walmart-exclusive Splatoon 2 console bundle that launched last summer.

Keep your #NintendoSwitch looking fresh when you play #Splatoon2 with these new Neon Pink and Neon Green Joy-Con controllers! Look for them in stores later this month. pic.twitter.com/NWZlMIG2q0

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 5, 2018

Interesting trivia, as pointed out by Polygon: The US Joy-Cons pictured above have their colors flipped compared to the international and original Splatoon 2 bundle, though that could be the result of a mirrored image. If not, then novelty may soothe the wounds of the color scheme’s delayed release in the US. Nintendo hasn’t announced how much the neon pink and green controllers will cost (a standard set is priced at $80), nor whether they’ll come in a pair as the image Nintendo tweeted suggests.

Via: Polygon

Source: Nintendo (Twitter)

Court rules Zepp has to stop selling its baseball and softball sensors

Zepp Labs’ sensors let you analyze your performance across a number of sports, including baseball, softball, golf, tennis and soccer. But some of its performance-tracking products will soon be no more. In 2015, Blast Motion, a company that makes similar products, sued Zepp for patent infringement and today the two companies announce that they’ve reached a settlement.

A US District Court has found that both companies infringed on each other’s patents and the two parties have agreed to a settlement that will allow both to keep their products on the market, save for one. Zepp’s baseball and softball sensor products will no longer be sold in the US and the court’s injunction will go into effect after June 17th of this year. The rest of the agreement has not been released.

Zepp says that it will continue to support its existing baseball and softball apps, maintaining the features they currently have, and it will still introduce new features to the Apple Watch and other wearables going forward. Blast Motion says it will soon announce measures on its part that are in support of Zepp customers.

Source: Zepp Labs, Blast Motion

Review: OWC’s ThunderBlade V4 Offers Blazing Fast External Storage for Professionals

OWC this week is announcing the newest member of its family of “extreme performance drives,” the ThunderBlade V4. The ThunderBlade V4 is an external drive targeted at professional users who need the fastest possible speeds, and it packs four M.2 solid state drive blades into a single enclosure that runs over Thunderbolt 3, with total capacities ranging from 1 TB to 8 TB. The result is what OWC says is the “fastest SSD ever made,” with read speeds topping out at 2800 MB/s and write speeds up to 2450 MB/s.

We’ve spent a bit of time with the ThunderBlade V4, and it’s definitely an impressive piece of technology, although its pricing that starts at $1200 and rises significantly from there will limit the potential market. This is an accessory for demanding professionals who need to squeeze every bit of performance out of their external drives and is undoubtedly overkill for consumers simply looking to back up their computers.

Design

The ThunderBlade V4 comes in a hefty aluminum enclosure covered in large fins to help with heat dissipation, as this drive can get fairly warm when you’re reading and writing a lot of data. There is no active cooling in the drive, which helps with the ThunderBlade V4’s ruggedness as there are no moving parts.

The ThunderBlade V4 measures just under 5 inches wide, a little over 7.5 inches deep, and just over an inch high. It weighs a little under two pounds, which gives it a solid feel and good stability on a desk. A separate power adapter also adds some bulk to deal with elsewhere.

The only feature on the front of the ThunderBlade V4 is a thin three-inch long LED that shines white when connected to power (and also when connected to a sleeping computer) and blue when the drive has an active connection to a computer. While the LED appears to be a single thin indicator, it’s actually made up of four distinct segments, one for each M.2 drive in the ThunderBlade.

Each segment will blink blue when data is being written to or read from the corresponding drive. With the speed of the drive and the four onboard SSDs, you’ll see a sort of flickering ripple effect across the LED as data is moved.

An ambient light sensor on the rear of the ThunderBlade V4 dims the front LED in dark environments.

In addition to the light sensor, the rear of the ThunderBlade includes a port for the power adapter connection and a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports. One Thunderbolt 3 port is used to connect the ThunderBlade to your computer using the included 0.5-meter Thunderbolt 3 cable, while the second is available for daisy chaining a display or other peripherals.

The Thunderbolt 3 ports are capable of supplying 15 watts of power each, but that won’t be enough to power a MacBook Pro. This isn’t intended as a true docking station, however, so it’s not surprising that the power output is limited and primarily intended to drive downstream peripherals rather than host computers.

Speed Tests

We ran some QuickBench disk speed tests on the ThunderBlade V4, and while we didn’t quite hit OWC’s top numbers, the drive still showed some seriously fast performance. Connecting directly to a 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro, we saw read and write performance in the range of 2400 MB/s in extended testing mode with transfer sizes in the 20–100 MB range.

Similar speed tests using Blackmagic with larger transfer sizes of 5 GB yielded slightly lower speeds of over 1900 MB/s read and 2100 MB/s write, although it is difficult to directly compare the two different methodologies. Even that performance allowed the ThunderBlade to ace Blackmagic’s “Will it Work?” rating system that determines whether a drive is fast enough to handle video in various combinations of formats, resolutions, and frame rates.

Results were similar in various configurations even when other peripherals up to and including a pair of LG UltraFine 5K displays were connected to the MacBook Pro’s other Thunderbolt 3 ports.

With an LG UltraFine 5K connected to the downstream Thunderbolt 3 port on the ThunderBlade, we obviously saw lower speeds as some of the bandwidth was being dedicated to the display. Write speeds were impacted most significantly, dropping to around 800 MB/s, while read speeds dipped slightly to around 2050 MB/s.

RAID

The four SSDs inside the ThunderBlade V4 come preconfigured in RAID 0 format to offer the full stated capacity of the drive. A license for OWC’s SoftRAID XT (formerly SoftRAID Lite) is included with the ThunderBlade, and the software can be used to reformat in RAID 1 to provide mirrored redundancy.

While RAID 0 and 1 give you the option to prioritize storage capacity or data redundancy, it would be nice if some of the higher RAID modes were available on the ThunderBlade to offer more flexibility.

With the downstream Thunderbolt 3 port on the ThunderBlade V4, you can daisy chain multiple units together for even more storage, although you’re of course limited by the total bandwidth of the single Thunderbolt 3 connection they’re all running over. You can even set up two ThunderBlade V4 units as a single RAID array.

PC Compatibility

While OWC is focused on Macs and the ThunderBlade V4 comes formatted for Mac as a RAID 0 Journaled HFS+ volume, it can also be used with PCs once the drives have been reformatted and reconfigured. Unlike on Mac, however, booting from the ThunderBlade is not supported on Windows.

Pricing and Availability

As should be expected for a product with large storage capacities using the fastest SSD designs and Thunderbolt 3, the ThunderBlade V4 isn’t cheap. The 1 TB model is priced at $1199.99, with the 2 TB model at $1799.99, the 4 TB model at $2799.99, and the 8 TB model at $4999.00.

But for professional users who need the absolute fastest external storage, the ThunderBlade V4 looks like a solid option that takes maximum advantage of the bandwidth offered by Thunderbolt 3. All models come with a rugged case, a three-year warranty, and one year of complimentary Level 1 data recovery coverage. All four models will be available from OWC starting January 8.

Note: OWC provided the ThunderBlade V4 to MacRumors for the purposes of this review, and it will be returned to OWC. No other compensation was received.

Tags: OWC, ThunderBlade
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Twitter: Banning world leaders would ‘hide important information’

In a blog post today, Twitter made an attempt at clarifying its stance on how political figures and world leaders use its platform. Many have called for the site to block Donald Trump as he has repeatedly tweeted violent and threatening posts, and Twitter has often stumbled through its explanations of why it hasn’t done so. In its post today, the company says that blocking leaders or deleting their tweets would ultimately limit important conversations. “Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets, would hide important information people should be able to see and debate,” it said. “It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.”

In other words, it won’t be banning Trump. The president has come under fire multiple times for things he’s tweeted including violent anti-Muslim propaganda videos and threats against other countries. Color of Change just released a new petition today calling for Twitter to remove Trump’s account. Following the president’s retweeting of violent videos, Twitter initially responded to inquiries as to why those were allowed to remain up by saying some videos can if they are newsworthy or of public interest. It later changed its position, explaining that the videos didn’t violate its policy.

In today’s post, which never directly mentions Trump, Twitter also noted that it works hard “to remain unbiased with the public interest in mind,” and that “no one person’s account drives Twitter’s growth, or influences these decisions.” A comment that seems to be a response to accusations that it keeps Trump around for the clicks. “We review Tweets by leaders within the political context that defines them, and enforce our rules accordingly,” it said. “We are working to make Twitter the best place to see and freely discuss everything that matters. We believe that’s the best way to help our society make progress.”

Source: Twitter

Here’s how to take a screenshot on PS4 so you can brag to all your friends

Finally beat that insanely punishing Bloodborne boss and want to brag to your friends? Or maybe you’re just a beleaguered gaming writer on a deadline in need of image assets. Whatever the reason you might need to take a screenshot of your games on PlayStation 4, you’re in luck, because capturing and sharing your play is integral to modern gaming, with easy functionality built right into the PS4 out of the box. Here’s our quick guide on how to take a screenshot on PS4.

Taking a screenshot

Step one, actually taking a screenshot, is about as simple as it gets. To the left of the touchpad on your DualShock controller is a “Share” button, which you can use to capture images and video at any time whether you’re in a game or navigating the menus. Hold the Share button to capture and save a screenshot of whatever was on your screen at the moment you pressed the button. Alternatively, if you press and immediately release the Share button, you will pause the action and bring up the Share menu. From there, you can press triangle to save a screenshot or select “share screenshot” (highlighted below) to send your image directly to your PSN activity feed and social media.

Sharing a screenshot

To share an image immediately from the game, press the Share button once to pause and bring up the overlay. Select the Screenshot option and press “X” to be given a choice of channels through which you can share your content.

The first time you share a screenshot through an external social network like Facebook or Twitter you will have to enter your login credentials. Otherwise, you are ready to share at will in PlayStation’s own Activities feed, in direct messages to your friends, or to any Communities of which you are already a member.

Saving a screenshot

Alternatively, if you want to share screenshots after the fact, you can do so from Capture Gallery, which can be reached at any time by pressing the PS button and navigating through the home screen menu.

Your media is automatically sorted into screenshots and videos, and within that in folders by game. Find the screenshot you want to share and press the Share button, which will bring up the same options as before for available channels.

Exporting to a USB device

If you just want the native image files as JPGs, you can plug in a USB storage device and directly export them. Note that only exFAT and FAT32 formatted devices are compatible with the PS4. With your device plugged in, navigate to the Capture Gallery from the home menu. Find the content you want to share and press the Options button, this will bring up a menu on the right side of the screen which includes “Copy to USB Storage Device.” Highlight this and press X, which will give you an opportunity to select as many screenshots as you would like to export in bulk to the device you have plugged in. The export process is quick, and your content will be filed in the drive under the folders PS4>SHARE>Screenshots, and then again sorted by games.

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LG Tribute Dynasty budget smartphone hits Boost Mobile, coming soon to Sprint

Just days before the start of CES 2018, LG has released the LG Tribute Dynasty, a low-cost smartphone that boasts a couple of nice features.

LG’s newest budget phone packs 1.5GHz Octa-Core MediaTek processor and 2GB of RAM. That’s pretty standard fare for a budget phone, but it should allow you to browse the web and do other tasks without too much trouble.

The LG Tribute Dynasty features a five-inch IPS screen with 780p resolution. With a pixel density of 196 ppi, the screen compares with similar budget smartphones like the ZTE Blade Vantage.

Internal memory is a bit of a disappointment at 16GB . While the memory can be expanded to 32GB with a MicroSD card, it would have been nice to see the phone at least offer 32GB of onboard storage like the similarly priced ZTE Blade Z Max.

A 2,500 mAh battery will give you about 15 hours of talk time on the LG Tribute Dynasty. Again, that’s pretty comparable to other budget smartphones. The fact that the battery is removable is a nice touch.

The rear-facing camera on the Tribute Dynasty comes in at 8MP, while the front-facing camera is 5MP. While both the cameras should work fine in good lighting, we expect them to be on par with other budget smartphones in the same price range.  The camera software does pack some nice features, including face detection and a beautification filter.

In addition to the stock photo software you’ll find on any Android, LG added video-editing software. The Quick video editor app allows you to create and edit HD movies, including soundtracks and text, as well as add effects to your video.

The phone runs on Android 71. Nougat. We’ve reached out to LG to ask if it will push Android 8.0 Oreo to the phone in the future,. We’re awaiting a response, but with its specs and price point, we wouldn’t bet on it.

The LG Tribute Dynasty is available now on Boost Mobile and will set you back about $100, though Boost is offering a limited-time $40 discount to current customers New customers can get the phone for $10 if they port their number to Boost. Sprint users will be able to pick up the LG Tribute Dynasty beginning on January 12.

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Get your phone juiced up quickly with Belkin’s new wireless charging stations

A bevy of new wireless charging options will be unveiled at CES, courtesy of Belkin. The company announced it will update its line of wireless charging pads, as well as introduce a commercial charging solution. Two quick-charging wall adapters and a battery back up are also coming soon.

First up is Boost Up, Belkin’s updated line of wireless charging pads. The collection includes a single and dual charging pads, a car-mounted charging pad, and a wireless charging stand.

While charging pads have become pretty standard fare, the Boost Up pads have a few nice features. Belkin is offering many of the pads in several different colors so it is easy to select one that matches your phone or decor. The company also opted to make the pads 10 watts this year, doubling the wattage of last year’s Boost Up Charging Pad.

Of the Belkin wireless chargers announced at CES, we are most excited about the Boost Up Wireless Charging Stand. The stand allows you to charge your phone both vertically and horizontally. At first pass, this may not sound that exciting, but being able to charge your phone while watching Netflix is a definite win for us.

The Boost Up Wireless Charging Stand is somewhat similar to Samsung’s Wireless Charging Convertible with a few improvements. First, Belkin’s charging stand offers an extra watt of charging power; that extra watt won’t make difference for iPhone users, however, since the phones can only accept 7.5 watts of power via a wireless charging pad. The other major difference has to do with its design. With two legs to rest your phone on, the Boost Up Wireless Charge Stand seems a little more stable.

Belkin also announced a commercial wireless charging solution, called Boost Up Wireless Charging System. The system is similar to Powermat and other commercial charging pads that are becoming an ever-present feature in cafes and conference rooms.

In addition to its new line of wireless charging pads, Belkin also introduced a new portable charger called the Pocket Power USB-C 10K. The charger is compatible with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, so it only takes about 35 minutes to charge your battery up to 80 percent. It’s also thin enough to easily slide into your pocket.

Two fast-charging wall adapters round out Belkin’s announcement. The Home Charger 27W and Dual Port Home Charger 27W + USB-C to USB-A Cable offers high-speed charging through USB Power Delivery. It’s an excellent alternative to using a MacBook charger and adapter workaround that many people are using to quickly charge their iPhones.

Belkin plans to start selling its charging solutions in the spring and summer, and will announce pricing in the coming months.

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Alcatel Idol 5 vs. Lenovo Moto G5S Plus: Clash of the budget smartphones

The budget phone market is seriously heating up, and while there was once a time when buying a budget phone meant settling for something that could barely handle Facebook, these days most budget handsets are capable of almost all day-to-day tasks and may even have a decent camera. We’ve reviewed dozens of budget phones in the past few years, but there’s one lineup that seems to stand above the rest — the Moto G series, and most recently, the Lenovo Moto G5S Plus.

Of course, it’s not the only budget handset worth looking at. Another great device is the new Alcatel Idol 5, which, unlike naming conventions suggest, was launched at the same time as the Idol 5S. But which is better: The Moto G5S Plus or the Idol 5? We put the two handsets head to head to find out.

Specs

Alcatel Idol 5

Lenovo Moto G5S Plus

Size
148 x 73 x 7.5mm (5.83 x 2.87 x 0.30-inches)
153.5 x 76.2 x 8mm (6.04 x 3.00 x 0.31-inches)
Weight
5.47oz (155g)
5.93oz (168g)
Screen
5.2-inch LCD
5.5-inch LCD
Resolution
1080 x 1920 (423ppi)
1080 x 1920 (401ppi)
OS
Android 7.1
Android 7.1
Storage
16GB
32GB, 64GB
MicroSD card slot
Yes, up to 256GB
Yes, up to 256GB
NFC support
No
Yes
Processor
MediaTek MT6753
Qualcomm Snapdragon 625
RAM
3GB
3GB, 4GB
Connectivity
GSM/HSPA/LTE
GSM/CDMA/HSPA/EVDO/LTE
Camera
13MP rear, 5MP front
Dual 13MP rear, 8MP front
Video
1,080p
2,160p
Bluetooth
Yes, version 4.2
Yes, version 4.2
Fingerprint sensor
Yes
Yes
Other sensors
Accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, compass
Accelerometer, gyro, proximity
Water resistant
No
No
Battery
2,800mAh
3,000mAh
Ports
Micro USB
Micro USB
Marketplace
Google Play
Google Play
Color offerings
Metal Silver, Metal Black
Lunar Grey, Fine Gold
Availability

Cricket Wireless Amazon

Amazon
Price
$180
$240
DT review
3 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5 stars

These two phones may both be considered budget handsets, but they offer slightly different specs. That makes sense considering the slight price difference.

For starters, the two phones boast different processors. The Alcatel Idol 5 offers the MediaTek MT6753 chipset, while Lenovo has stuck with Qualcomm to offer the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625. Along with those processors, both phones offer 3GB of RAM in the base model, though the Moto G5S Plus offers 4GB of RAM for those that want it, as well as extra storage. So how does that translate into performance? Well, the phones performed more or less the same in our tests. On AnTuTu the 4GB RAM model of the Moto G5S Plus scored 63,802, while the Alcatel Idol 5 scored 62,869. The G5 Plus also performed better in Geekbench 4, making it the slightly more powerful option.

There’s also storage to take into consideration, and that could be a big point of difference here. The Alcatel Idol 5 only has 16GB of storage — while the Moto G5S Plus offers 32GB in the base model, and 64GB for those willing to spend a bit of extra.

Considering the fact that the Moto G5S Plus is slightly faster and has more storage, it’s the winner here.

Winner: Lenovo Moto G5S Plus

Design, display, and durability

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Budget phones don’t generally offer cutting-edge designs, and these two devices are no exception to that. That’s not to say they look bad — just that they’re a little basic. The Moto G5S Plus looks pretty much exactly the same as its predecessor, the Moto G5 Plus. It still has a Micro USB port rather than a USB-C port, which is a little frustrating, and on the back you’ll find that signature large camera modular characteristic of Moto phones these days. That makes sense considering the phone now has a dual-lens camera, but we’ll go into that in the camera section.

The Alcatel Idol 5 is a little more unique in its design, and we appreciated that. There are dual front-facing speakers located in small metal protrusions on the top and bottom of the phone, and the back features a nice minimal look. Overall, we think it’s the better-designed phone of the two.

The display, on the other hand, is a bit tough to judge. Both phones feature LCD displays with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. The difference between them, however, is that the display in the Moto G5S Plus sits in at 5.5-inches, while the Idol 5’s display is 5.2-inches. With a smaller display, however, Alcatel is able to achieve a slightly higher pixel-density. We don’t really think that slight change in pixel-density will be noticeable here — so we prefer the larger size of the display in the Moto G5S Plus.

Neither of the two phones offer any special features when it comes to durability. They’re not waterproof at all, so keep them away from pools and the bath. Both phones feature heavy use of metal in their build, so you’d expect them to survive small drops and bumps.

The Moto G5S Plus features the slightly larger display, while the Idol 5 combats that with a better design. This one’s a tie.

Winner: Tie

Battery life and charging

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

The Lenovo Moto G5S Plus and Alcatel Idol 5 offer very similar battery sizes, though the Moto has the slight edge. While the Alcatel Idol 5 offers a 2,800mAh battery, the battery in the Moto G5S Plus sits in at 3,000mAh. In the real world we found that extra capacity does translate to better battery life, so you can expect the Moto G5S Plus to keep ticking for longer.

Both of the phones are compatible with slightly different versions of fast charging. The Lenovo Moto G5S Plus boasts compatibility with Lenovo’s TurboPower technology that will get you six hours of use in 15 minutes of charging, while the Alcatel Idol 5 is compatible with fast charging tech that Alcatel says will fully charge the phone in 100 minutes.

If battery life is a big bugbear for you, then the Moto G5S Plus will serve you better.

Winner: Lenovo Moto G5S Plus

Camera

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

The cameras on these two phones are pretty different. While the Lenovo Moto G5S Plus offers a new dual-sensor camera, the Alcatel Idol 5 sticks with a single-sensor camera. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. We found that the Moto G5S Plus was very capable when taking standard photos, but using the second lens yielded very mixed and often poor results. The Idol 5, on the other hand, produced vivid and bright shots in good lighting, though it didn’t offer any extra tricks with its single-lens.

When it comes to specs, both phones offer 13 megapixel rear-facing camera, and they both have an aperture of f/2.0. That means neither of the two is likely to do all that well in low-light tests. The front-facing camera on the Moto G5S Plus offers an 8 megapixel sensor, while the sensor on the Alcatel Idol 5 sits in at 5 megapixels.

This one’s a little tough to judge. On the one hand, the Moto G5S Plus has more tricks and its standard photos are fine too. The Alcatel Idol 5, however, takes better standard photos, and does away with the tricks. We think that companies should start with a camera that shoots great photos, then add features from there — so we’re awarding this one to the Alcatel Idol 5.

Winner: Alcatel Idol 5

Software

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

Both of these devices are Android phones, and they both ship with Android 7.1 Nougat. Neither phone ventures too far from stock Android, but we prefer the extras offered in the Moto app on the G5S Plus to the bloatware on the Idol 5. Both of them will get an upgrade to Android Oreo, but we imagine that Lenovo will support updates on the Moto G5S Plus longer than Alcatel will support them on the Idol 5. Lenovo isn’t perfect with updates, but it has been pretty consistent in getting them out to aging phones eventually.

That’s important for security too. Lenovo is likely to be better at pushing security updates out to the Moto G5S Plus, keeping the phone nice and secure. We’re awarding this one to the Moto G5S Plus for that reason.

Winner: Lenovo Moto G5S Plus

Price and availability

The Lenovo Moto G5S Plus and Alcatel Idol 5 have been pretty head-to-head so far — but they’re actually slightly different when it comes to pricing. While the Moto G5S Plus starts at $240 for the 32GB/3GB version, or $300 for the 64GB/4GB version, the Alcatel Idol 5 comes in at only $180. That’s a pretty great price, but there is a catch — you can only get it from Cricket Wireless if you’re in the U.S. The Moto G5S Plus is available from Amazon, Best Buy, and so on.

In other words, the Alcatel Idol 5 is cheaper, but it’s less available. Still, the big price difference is enough to make it the winner here.

Winner: Alcatel Idol 5

Overall winner: Lenovo Moto G5S Plus

Both of these phones are great, but they’re great for different reasons. The Moto G5S Plus offers more storage, better battery life, a bigger screen, and will likely get updates quicker and for longer, but the Alcatel Idol 5 is cheaper and has a better camera for most situations. So which should you buy? If you’re simply looking for a device to handle day-to-day tasks, capture a few shots every now and then, and you don’t mind switching to Cricket Wireless, then go for the Alcatel Idol 5 and save a few bucks. Everyone else should choose the Moto G5S Plus.

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