With 200,000 laser dots, this glass orb puts the Milky Way on your desk

In late 2016, Clemens Steffin launched a “Universe in a Sphere” project on Kickstarter. A bit like the memorable scene in Men in Black in which it’s revealed that our entire galaxy is simply swirls in a toy marble played with by some unimaginably giant alien, the “Universe in a Sphere” was a representation of our universe inside a glass orb. What made it so awesome was that Steffin used an industrial laser to individually laser 380,000 dots into the glass, each one representing its own galaxy. The results were pretty darn great, and 4,000 units have subsequently sold.

Now, Steffin is back with a new Kickstarter project — and, in contrast to most sequels, this time he’s thinking smaller instead of bigger. That’s because, instead of focusing on the entire observable universe, he is re-creating the Milky Way as its own instantly recognizable 8-cm glass desk ornament.

“We learned a lot — like a lot lot — from the first campaign,” Steffin told Digital Trends. “How to get yourself motivated, how to be more structured, how to build a company, how the tax laws in Germany work, how to organize packing, shipping, and so on. I have the feeling that everything will be a bit easier this time around because we know so much more. Last time was a challenge, but we overcame the hurdles and made it a success.”

Steffin says that the goal of the project was to re-create the Milky Way as accurately as possible. Steffin and his brother started out by using data from European Space Agency missions, and then combined this with additional infrared data, stellar density data, pictures, photos, and more to create a 3D prototype. There are 200,000 lasered dots in all, and — at least from our layperson perspective — the results look pretty amazing.

While all the usual rules about crowdfunding risks apply, if you do decide to pledge money for the project you can get hold of a Milky Way sphere for prices starting at 49 euros ($60). Other options costing more come with gift boxes, LED base plates, 3D-printed display bases, and more. Shipping is set to take place in July.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Awesome Tech You Can’t Buy Yet: Snooze-proof alarms, ridable backpacks, and more
• For the first time, scientists discover exoplanets in a galaxy far, far away
• 14 major milestones along the brief history of 3D printing
• 7 Exotic technologies that were once science fiction, but now exist in reality
• The best 3D printers you can buy (or build) in 2018

Underwater swarms and sonar-bombing drones: Meet the deep-sea Xprize finalists

Nine finalists have been announced for the Shell Ocean Discovery Xprize, a three-year competition to map the seafloor using autonomous technology. The teams are now tasked with venturing to the deep and returning images of biological, archaeological, or geological features.

“The inspiration for this competition is that we just simply don’t have a map of our own planet – we have better maps of Mars and the moon,” Jyotika Virmani, prize lead and senior director with XPRIZE’s Energy and Environment Group, told Digital Trends. “At Xprize, we have an Ocean Initiative, which has a vision for a healthy, valued, and understood ocean. We believe that in order to make something healthy, you need to value it. And in order to value it, we have to understand it, and a map is fundamental to understanding — we use maps to orient ourselves with our surroundings.”

Sponsored by Shell — an oil and gas giant with a vested interest in mapping the contours of the deep seafloor — the Ocean Discovery Xprize was launched in December 2015 with the goal to pull back the curtain on the ocean’s depths and reveal its mysteries with a high-resolution map of the ocean floor. Thirty-two teams made up of more than 300 people representing 26 countries signed up to compete. The number was eventually whittled down to 19 semifinalists.

The nine finalists bring unique approaches to the competition. Duke University’s Blue Devil Ocean Engineering team is developing a heavy-lift aerial drone designed to airdrop and retrieve sonar pods. The Texas A&M Ocean Engineering team is working on drone ships and autonomous underwater vehicles to reach remote ocean habitats. And the German Arggonauts team is developing two swarms of robot drones, one for the deep sea and one for the surface.

“All nine finalist teams are incredible,” Virmani said. “They have all advanced our ability to access the deep sea. For example, we see autonomous surface vessels and even an aerial drone, that can carry the subsurface equipment out to sea — this addresses one of the challenges in the competition, which is that there will be no humans in the competition area. For the subsurface component, we are seeing everything from single vehicles to vehicles working together like a swarm. Some move horizontally through the water, others will drop vertically to the seafloor.”

Despite the innovative ideas, there won’t necessarily be a winner come the competition’s end in early 2019. Xprizes are infamously challenging and competitions, like the Google Lunar Xprize, have previously ended without winners.

“There is always a possibility that the challenge is too audacious and teams are simply not able to meet the requirements at this moment in time, however, after further development, they would,” Virmani said. “But even if we stopped the competition now, we have made an impact. The teams that are already working on this competition have already advanced the field of autonomous marine technologies.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• ‘Saturday Night Live’ goes behind the scenes of the Amazon HQ competition
• Amazon’s HQ2 has 20 potential new homes, but Atlanta may be the frontrunner
• Watch this coordinated drone swarm fly in tight formation — without GPS
• ‘Operation Apex’ lets you explore the deep, no scuba gear required
• Airbus’ delivery drone takes packages to ‘parcel stations’ run by robots

Digital currency prices fall after SEC warns about exchange dangers

The values of many digital currencies took a tumble after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Wednesday, March 7, that platforms used to trade digital currencies need to be registered. Bitcoin dropped 6.65 percent to $10,082 after the warning, Ethereum fell 7.55 percent to $756.29, and Bitcoin Cash dropped 9.14 percent to $1,095.77. Waltonchain, Hshare, and IOStoken took the biggest hit with a value decline of more than 22 percent over the last 24 hours. 

According to the SEC, digital currencies are deemed as investments, or securities, because each digital coin has a value that rises and falls like stock. Even more, many platforms for swapping digital currencies for cash or other cryptocurrencies fall under the “exchange” umbrella as defined by federal securities laws. These platforms should either register themselves as a national securities exchange or be exempt from federal protection. 

“The SEC staff has concerns that many online trading platforms appear to investors as SEC-registered and regulated marketplaces when they are not,” the SEC states. “Many platforms refer to themselves as ‘exchanges,’ which can give the misimpression to investors that they are regulated or meet the regulatory standards of a national securities exchange.” 

The SEC notes that many cryptocurrency exchange markets claim strict standards regarding trade, but investors should be aware that these standards are not equal to or meet the same standards enforced by an SEC-registered national securities exchange. Even more, said markets provide books regarding updated bid and asking pricing along with the related data, yet there’s no guarantee that they have the same “integrity” as those provided by an SEC-monitored exchange. 

As an SEC-listed platform, a cryptocurrency trading market will have rules in place to prevent fraudulent and “manipulative” trades. That includes means for disciplining investors, exchange platform members, and all associated individuals. The market also must comply with the SEC’s rules while also submitting its own rules to the government agency. 

But the SEC’s statement issued on Wednesday warns of a mix-and-match method involving platforms registered with the agency, and services that don’t fall under the official exchange” banner, but still deal directly with SEC-registered platforms. These services would include digital wallets that receive, hold, and transfer digital currency. 

“In advancing the SEC’s mission to protect investors, the SEC staff will continue to focus on platforms that offer trading of digital assets and their compliance with the federal securities laws,” the SEC added. 

The many cryptocurrencies available are decentralized, meaning there is no central agency managing the monies, like a bank. The coins are also protected by cryptography, meaning the monies can’t be traced back to a specific individual. But the SEC’s new encouragement for trading platforms to register with the government indicates a rising interest from Uncle Sam, which recently cracked down on companies selling initial coin offerings, or ICOs. 

Last week, the agency issued dozens of subpoenas to companies, lawyers, investors, and related individuals who may have violated securities laws through these token sales. According to the SEC, all digital currencies should be listed as securities and registered with regulators. 

Editors’ Recommendations

• Companies, lawyers probed for selling cryptocurrency initial coin offerings
• How to buy Bitcoin
• Major investment firms are now offering Bitcoin futures
• A Bitcoin exchange bug sees one user try to cash out $20 trillion
• Go ahead, pass laws. They can’t kill bitcoin, even if they try

Can a Chromebook replace a laptop in a photographer’s workflow?

Daven Mathies/Digital Trends

Historically, Chromebooks haven’t really targeted serious power users, but the $900 Google Pixelbook looked like it could change that perception when it came out last year. Beyond its high-class exterior, the Pixelbook can even be optioned with an Intel Core i7 processor (albeit, the mobile version) and 16GB of RAM. Clearly, this is meant for powering more than an operating system that started its life as little more than a glorified web browser.

The Pixelbook is a surprisingly capable photo editing machine.

Chrome OS, as far as it has come, is still a bottleneck in the overall experience — as our full Pixelbook review showed — but as more of what we do moves increasingly to the cloud, this has become less of a problem. The new Adobe Lightroom CC, for example, allows for RAW image editing on virtually any internet-connected device, from your desktop to your smartphone. And as Chrome OS matures, Adobe has even signed on to make bespoke versions of its creative apps for the Pixelbook.

All of this means the Pixelbook is a surprisingly capable photo-editing machine, but to answer the question of whether it can replace your MacBook Pro or Windows laptop, well, no — not exactly. Instead, the Pixelbook redefines the post-production experience, offering a hybrid blend of tablet and desktop editing that will feel right at home to people young enough to have grown up with a smartphone in their pocket, but will feel very unfamiliar to photographers who remember when a cloud was simply a puffy white thing in the sky.

Android: The Pixelbook’s secret weapon

The Pixelbook hardware is stunning to look at. The screen is gorgeous, and the 3:2 aspect ratio is perfect for photography. The display is very glossy and reflective, which isn’t exactly great for photo editing, but is pretty much par for the course today. For this article, Google provided us with the midrange Core i5 model with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB solid state drive ($1,099). Opting for the Core i7 pushes that up to $1,549, but you also get double the memory and storage space — although, we’re not sure if a 512GB drive would be necessary on a Chromebook.

Dan Baker/Digital Trends

One of the cleverer aspects of the Pixelbook is that it can run standard Android apps right off the Google Play store. While the experience won’t be as refined as that for Pixelbook-specific apps, like Lightroom, it opens up some opportunities for photographers that other laptops don’t have. If you have a Wi-Fi-enabled camera, you can install your camera manufacturer’s remote control app right onto the Pixelbook and control your camera from it, just as you would from your phone.

You can share images mages straight to Instagram from the Pixelbook.

This also lets you wirelessly transfer images from your camera to the Pixelbook, which could be great, but in reality it’s just shy of pointless. Most camera apps will only transfer JPEGs, so if you want to edit the original RAW, you’ll need another solution. What’s more, this is somewhat of a slow and clunky process — a simple SD card slot (which the Pixelbook lacks) would have been much more convenient.

Fortunately, the Pixelbook does at least have two USB Type C ports, so you can plug in your camera directly to transfer files, even when charging at the same time (if the camera supports USB charging).

Being able to install Android apps also means you can put Instagram on the Pixelbook. Within Lightroom, as it is technically the mobile version of the app, you have the option to share images straight to Instagram from the Pixelbook, something you can’t do from the MacOS or Windows versions of the app. If you’re an Instagram power user, this is a pretty great trick — typing out photo descriptions and hashtags on a keyboard might save you a lot of time.

Touch, don’t click

The Pixelbook’s specs may be all laptop, but trying to use it the way you would any other laptop for photo editing is an exercise in futility. Part of this is simply due to the fact that the Pixelbook version of Lightroom isn’t built like a desktop app. Its interface more closely resembles the mobile version, and there are no keyboard shortcuts, so even navigating the interface is much slower.

Flipping Google’s Pixelbook into tablet mode makes it easy to churn out quick edits

However, this all goes away the minute you remember the Pixelbook’s screen can be flipped over and put into tablet mode. Suddenly, you’ll be powering through edits in no time. If you haven’t used Lightroom on a tablet before, it takes surprisingly little time to pick it up. Really, it’s the most natural-feeling way to interact with your photos.

We did have some occasional issues. Adjustment sliders didn’t always respond to touch input on the first try, for example, and we’re not sure if this the fault of the hardware or the software. (We had a similar issue when trying to click-and-drag with the trackpad, so this may be a bug in Lightroom.) Exporting images to the Pixelbook’s internal drive also led to the strange problem of not being able to delete those files later, due to an apparent permissions issue.

The Pixelbook isn’t a revolutionary new device, but it shows how the standards of postproduction are evolving.

There are two larger concerns about this entire paradigm, however. First, while retouching photos by touch feels very natural, it also means you end up with fingerprints all over the screen which, like reflections, can be a big distraction. Second, it begs the question: If you’re going to use the Pixelbook as a tablet, why not just buy a tablet? Even the 12.5-inch iPad Pro starts at just $799 and weighs nearly a pound less than the Pixelbook — and it runs Lightroom very well.

The Pixelbook, then, is the single-product solution for someone who wants both a tablet and a laptop, but can afford only one. And like other hybrid solutions, it’s not the best in either role. If you want desktop photo editing with tablet convenience for travel and entertainment, it’s not for you. If, instead, you enjoy editing photos by touch — perhaps you currently work often from your phone — but you also need a computer that lets you hammer out the occasional Google doc or spreadsheet, then the Pixelbook might be just what you’re looking for.

We wouldn’t call the Pixelbook a revolutionary new device for photography, but it is an example of how the standards of postproduction are evolving. For a new generation of photographers, the idea of a desktop-based editing workflow is a foreign concept. Working by touch and letting the cloud manage your files can be quite freeing, even if it may take a while for some of us old-schoolers to wrap our heads around it.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Samsung Notebook 9 Pen vs. Pixelbook
• From classic to cloud: How I learned to love Lightroom CC
• Best Chromebooks
• Adobe narrows the gap between Lightroom CC and Classic with new tools
• Lightroom CC adds distortion-fix tools, voice control in latest update

Japan to crack down on cryptocurrency exchanges after high-profile hacks

After major cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck suffered massive losses to hackers last month, the government of Japan is set to introduce punitive measures to a few crypto exchanges as a push for greater investor security. Some exchanges might actually be forced to suspend business as a result, according to Reuters.

“The [Financial Services Administration] will mete out the punishments after uncovering flaws in customer protection and anti-money laundering measures during on-site checks at the exchanges,” Reuters reports. “After the Coincheck heist, the FSA said it would investigate all cryptocurrency exchanges for security gaps. As a result of those checks the FSA will order some of the unregistered exchanges to halt their operations”

Japan’s crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges comes in the wake of several high profile hacks and data breaches. Coincheck, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan, lost an estimated $425 million in NEM tokens to hackers in January 2018. The hackers accessed an unsecured “hot wallet” — a cryptocurrency wallet used to store funds for purchases or exchanges — and made a series of transfers before Coincheck caught on to the breach.

“The exchange has promised to repay about $425 million of the cryptocurrency it lost in the theft. Last month it said it has sufficient funds to make the repayments, but declined to specify when it would repay investors affected,” Reuters reports.

In 2017 Japan became the first country to officially start regulating crypto exchanges at the national level. To date, 16 exchanges have registered with Japan’s regulatory agencies. Another batch of 16 exchanges have submitted applications, and were permitted to continue operating while their applications were under review by regulators.

“After the Coincheck heist, the FSA said it would investigate all cryptocurrency exchanges for security gaps, and ordered them to file reports on system risk management and cryptocurrency storage,” Reuters reported. “The FSA told Coincheck after the cyber heist to bolster its security systems. The second improvement order will focus on customer protection, the sources said, with the FSA monitoring progress of compensating investors affected by the hack.”

These moves by financial regulators in Japan underscore just how new all of this is to government agencies. Cryptocurrencies have been around for several years now, but governments are still struggling to rein in cryptocurrency exchanges and enforce strict security regulations to protect investors.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Japan’s Coincheck will refund $400 million in stolen cryptocurrency tokens
• Amid cryptocurrency frenzy, South Korea affirms support for ‘normal’ trading
• Hackers steal as much as 10 percent of new cryptocurrency funds
• Federal investigation into Equifax hack said to wither, even with more data exposed
• Companies, lawyers probed for selling cryptocurrency initial coin offerings

iPhone X review: A second opinion

This is some of my favorite hardware ever, but the software experience isn’t always to my liking.

The iPhone X has been out for a few months now, and if you haven’t heard, it’s one of the biggest shifts in iPhone design since … well, the very first iPhone. Gone are the bezels, the home button, the headphone jack, and the fingerprint sensor — all that’s left is a glass slab of screen that, as it turns out, makes for a pretty great phone.

But what’s an iPhone review doing on Android Central? Well, just as Daniel found in his review, the iPhone X has basically all of the same Google apps and services available that an Android phone would, so we figured, why not treat it like one?

See at Apple

By now you’ve probably seen the iPhone X a time or two before. Like a lot of other iPhones, the X features a glass front and back, but this is the first time we’ve seen Apple use a stainless steel frame since the 4S — with its polished finish, it’s grippier than the more commonly used aluminum, which is nice, but it’s not really that different otherwise.

The iPhone X is fairly hefty at 174 grams, and a bit thicker than other recent iPhones at 7.7mm. It’s different from the industry’s usual “the thinner, the better” attitude, but I actually like this added mass; it makes the phone feel more substantial, like I could drop it and it would be just fine. Apple seems to think so, too — it claims that the iPhone X uses the most durable glass ever on a smartphone — but glass is glass, and this phone still breaks like any other with enough impact.

I still miss the feeling of the matte aluminum from the iPhone 7, but the glass back does allow the iPhone X to support wireless charging. Since this phone uses Apple’s Lightning connector, and my apartment is entirely outfitted with USB-C, this has quickly become the only way I charge the phone. As with any other phone, charge times aren’t quite up to speed with a fast charge wired connection, but you might not even notice since Apple doesn’t include a fast charger in the box. Ridiculous, I know.

While we’re on the topic of missing features, the iPhone X obviously has no 3.5mm headphone jack. It still sucks, just like carrying the included analog-to-Lightning adapter still sucks, but apparently this is the future we signed up for. At the very least, Apple also includes Lightning-native EarPods in the box, which sound fine but literally only work with iOS devices.

So let’s get into the real meat and bones of the iPhone X. As far as build quality and materials go, the iPhone X isn’t that different from the iPhone 8 and others before it — but you already know the big differentiator.

The notch is there, but you probably won’t notice it most of the time.

Yep, it’s that notch. This is the first iPhone to feature a nearly edge-to-edge display, trimming away nonessentials like the large bezels and home button. Because the face of the phone is almost entirely screen, the front-facing camera and other sensors had to be condensed into a notch that occupies part of the display at the top, and love it or hate it, it’s one of the iPhone X’s most identifying characteristics. If you ask me, it’s a fine compromise in exchange for minuscule bezels (some Android OEMs agree!), but it’s not perfect — more on that later.

As for the display that notch dips into? It’s a 5.8-inch Super AMOLED panel with a crazy 19.5:9 aspect ratio and what Apple calls “Super Retina” resolution — that’s 1125 x 2436. This is the first time Apple has moved away from LCD in an iPhone, and it’s a stunningly good panel, with terrific color reproduction and great outdoor visibility. It isn’t nearly as bright as the Galaxy Note 8 or S9, but it also isn’t nearly as cool-toned — especially thanks to Apple’s True Tone technology.

The iPhone X also features 3D Touch, which allows the display to measure different levels of pressure for various actions throughout the software. Pressing with a bit of force on a home screen icon, for example, opens a contextual menu with shortcuts to key functions of that app. It works in tandem with one of my favorite parts of using the iPhone X, Apple’s Taptic Engine, to reinforce your interactions with precise “clicks” and vibrations.

Oh, and before I move on to software, can we talk about how incredibly convenient the iPhone’s mute switch is? It’s been around since the original iPhone, and I simply don’t understand why more Android manufacturers aren’t copying this wonderful feature, rather than the notch.

Now it’s time we had a talk about the software. The iPhone X is running Apple’s iOS 11 (more specifically, mine is on iOS 11.2.6) platform, and it probably isn’t your favorite software experience if you’re a regular here at Android Central. As an Android user of seven years, I’m right there with you, but there’s still a lot to love about the way this phone operates.

Despite a modern hardware design, the iPhone X still sticks with the same static grid of icons we’ve seen on the last decade of iPhones. You can rearrange the icons and group them into folders, but that’s about as far as home screen customization gets here. Notifications are still an absolute disaster on iOS, and you still can’t change default apps. Something that’s completely different on the X, though, is how you navigate that interface.

Since there’s no more home button, all of the usual navigation controls have been delegated to swiping gestures along the bottom of the screen. You can swipe up from any app to go home, or swipe left or right to quickly switch between apps. It takes a bit of getting used to, but if you’ve ever had the pleasure of using a webOS device, this will quickly feel like second nature.

There’s a learning curve to the new gestures, but they mostly feel natural after a short time with the phone.

Unfortunately, the gestures within the recent apps list are a bit less intuitive. You can access your recent apps by swiping up and leaving your finger on the screen for a second or two, or speed up the process by swiping up and over to the right. Once you’re there, you’ll probably try to close an app by swiping up on the corresponding card — except, that just takes you back home. Instead, you have to long-press the card first, adding a minus button to the top-left corner, at which point you can finally start swiping active cards away. The whole process is slow, frustrating, and overly complicated — and a reminder that this phone is still very much in its testing phase months after its release.

Oh, and another growing pain — while I’ve been mostly unbothered by the notch in the display, it does annoyingly cut into the available space in the taskbar. As a result, you can’t see important information like your battery percentage unless you jump into Control Center by swiping down to the right of the notch.

Control Center is great in theory; it’s a hub for all sorts of shortcuts, just like the Quick Settings tray on Android. I love the large vertical sliders for volume and brightness, and the fact that you can 3D Touch them to open more toggles like Night Shift and True Tone. But that’s sort of the problem — most of these are just toggles. 3D Touching the WiFi or Bluetooth buttons does nothing; the only way to change networks or devices is to open the Settings app.

iOS isn’t all bad, though. App support is, unsurprisingly, fantastic, and there’s an enormous selection of games and useful tools available for the iPhone X, many of which don’t have Android counterparts. Even cross-platform apps often work better — especially social media apps. Instagram, for example, has a number of features exclusive to iOS, including switching cameras while recording video to your Story.

Using an iPhone also has a lot of benefits if you’re a Mac user. Handoff is an extremely useful tool that lets you quickly and wirelessly transfer files from your Mac to your iPhone, and I use it all the time. I also appreciate being able to make iTunes backups if need be; iCloud works fine for the most part, but a local copy won’t eat up my online storage, and the optional encryption keeps me from having to retype all of my passwords in the event of a restore.

iOS isn’t always convenient or intuitive, but it’s rewarding if you own a Mac.

There’s also iMessage, which is actually a lot more than just being able to text from your Mac or iPad. With iMessage, you can send your blue bubble friends full-res media (yes, even video), play games, send those ridiculous Animoji, and even send and receive money through Apple Pay. Of course, you can also see when someone has read your text, as well as when they’re typing a response.

Oh, and since there’s no home button anymore, there’s also no fingerprint sensor. You’ll need to get used to using Face ID instead, which means you won’t be able to sneakily unlock your phone during class or meetings anymore. It isn’t quite as fast as Touch ID on the iPhone 8, but it still works extremely well, even in complete darkness. Just be mindful that, like Samsung’s iris recognition on the Galaxy S8, it runs into trouble in direct sunlight, at which point you’ll likely need to revert to your PIN.

Aside from the notch, the easiest way to identify an iPhone X over older models is by looking at the dual camera module, which has shifted from a lateral to a vertical orientation. As for the cameras themselves, you’re looking at a 12MP f/1.8 wide lens and a 12MP f/2.4 2x zoom lens. Both lenses feature OIS, providing stability for handheld photos and videos, you can even shoot in 4K at a whopping 60fps.

The iPhone X produces warm, beautiful photos — as long as you’re not shooting in Portrait Mode.

The camera software is pretty basic, without any form of manual controls. Just a few shooting modes to choose from, including Photo, Video, Slow-Mo, Time-Lapse, Portrait, Square, and Panorama. You can toggle flash, Live Photos, and a three or ten second timer, but that’s about the extent of your options. That’s sort of okay though, because the iPhone X takes some pretty stellar photos on its own.

The Pixel 2 still takes sharper, cleaner photos, but I really love the warm natural colors out of the iPhone X, and I don’t seem to get them from any Android phone. The 2x lossless zoom is also great for getting closeup shots without having to physically move closer to the subject, but I know a lot of people will prefer the ultra-wide angle approach that LG has taken with its dual camera phones.

One thing that’s just consistently bad with the iPhone X’s camera, at least in my experience, is Portrait Mode. In a vacuum, it does okay, and it’s probably enough for the occasional selfie or product shot. But compared with the Pixel 2’s Portrait Mode, the iPhone X has horrendous separation between the subject, foreground, and background, and even worse, because it primarily uses the zoom lens you have to step far back away from your subject. The secondary lens’s slower aperture also means that Portrait photos are darker than shots captured in the default shooting mode.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to determine whether the iPhone X’s battery life is good, or just acceptable. I think it’s somewhere in between. On paper, the 2716mAh cell is absolutely tiny, especially when compared to the 3500mAh battery on the Galaxy S9+, or the 4000mAh battery on the Huawei Mate 10 Pro. And yet, it’s usually enough to last me through even a heavy day of use — though just barely. For the most part, I’d say that unless you’re constantly playing high-end games, you’ll probably have pretty good results with the iPhone X, but it’s not quite the battery champ that I found the iPhone 7 Plus to be.

We’re getting to the last bit of the review, where I’m supposed to tell you whether or not you should buy this phone, but it honestly feels next to impossible to give a one-size-fits-all answer — and not just because this is an iPhone review on an Android-focused site.

There’s a general rule of thumb when it comes to tech that you shouldn’t buy the first generation of a new product line, and instead wait for the second model to work out the bugs. I wish I’d heeded that advice when I bought my 2016 MacBook Pro, which has been plagued with the growing pains of Apple’s new Touch Bar and #datdonglelife, and there’s already a small laundry list of issues with the iPhone X’s usability. Even if you’re okay with essentially beta testing for Apple, though, there’s a second hurdle when buying the phone: the price.

With a starting price of $999.99, the iPhone X is one the most expensive phones on the market, alongside the Galaxy Note 8, and with other great phones available for less like the Pixel 2 and Galaxy S9, it’s hard to swallow that kind of cost. Still, if you’re a dedicated iPhone fan with deeply lined pockets, or if you’re willing to add $30-$40 in financing to your monthly phone bill, the iPhone X is a hell of a phone that I’ve certainly enjoyed using.

See at Apple

Samsung Galaxy S9 review: A fantastic phone for the masses, but not an exciting one

The best-selling Android phone of 2017 just got better.

Look, I’m not going to sit here and try to tell you that the Galaxy S9 and S9+ are all-new phones worthy of praise for doing a whole bunch of things that their predecessors did at the start of 2017. Not a whole lot has changed in the last year, and that’s just the reality of what we’re working with here.

Not only is Samsung using almost all of the same materials, design, components and features found on its last-gen flagships, but the similarities go down to using the exact same box, wall charger, USB cable and the AKG earbuds. The Android Oreo and Samsung Experience 9.0 software is near-identical to the update that started hitting the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in January. In many ways, Samsung isn’t even trying to act like these are altogether new phones. Iterating the branding to “S9” is purely an exercise in keeping naming consistent for consumers than a true indication of a generational jump.

If any other company did this, its phones would quickly be cast into the shadows for lacking innovation or an eye-catching feature to draw in potential buyers. But Samsung isn’t like other companies — Samsung is sitting at the very top of the Android world, sucking in nearly all of the available profits in the $700+ price segment. To quote myself, “it’s Samsung’s world and we’re all just living in it.” And that affords it some flexibility to release an iterative update set to fix the Galaxy S8’s few flaws and re-release phones that almost anyone looking to buy in 2018 will enjoy.

About this review

I’m writing this review after 9 days using the U.S. unlocked Galaxy S9+. The phone was used exclusively on the AT&T network, first roaming in Barcelona, Spain and then locally in Seattle, WA. The software build was 1UEU1ARB7, with the February 1 security patch, and was not updated during the course of the review.

Considering their similarities, the entirety of this review is applicable to both the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, except in portions where Galaxy S9+-specific commentary is noted.

In video

Samsung Galaxy S9+ Video review

There’s a place for words, and then there’s a place for a concise video review — thankfully, we have both available for you right here. To get things kicked off, be sure to watch our full Galaxy S9 video review, and to get more details, read on for the complete written review right here.

More of the Samesung

Samsung Galaxy S9+ Hardware, design and display

The Galaxy S9 is near-indistinguishable from the Galaxy S8, but the hardware is still absolutely a strong point. This is a beautiful, modern design that looks great and is functional in terms of getting a ton of screen in a relatively small package. The standard Galaxy S9, in particular, is downright compact by modern smartphone standards.

Who cares if it’s near-identical to the Galaxy S8 when the hardware is this nice?

The metal frame and tightly curved glass are gorgeous, but Samsung is still showing it didn’t have to sacrifice functionality for form. The Galaxy S9 is IP68 water resistant, of course, and the glass back enables wireless charging, which isn’t a must-have feature for me but I’ll always use it if it’s there. There’s also a fan-favorite SD card slot for up to 400GB of extra storage — or up to 2TB when the cards come out at that capacity. And look at that on the bottom of the phone: a headphone jack! The increasingly rare port matches up well with a really good pair AKG earbuds you’ll find in the box, but is wonderful to see regardless. Samsung is saving us from dongles for at least another year, and I applaud it.

Samsung was smart to stick with everything that made the Galaxy S8 so appealing — but it did manage to fix the few hardware quirks we latched onto last year.

Yes, you can actually find and use the fingerprint sensor without any hand contortion. It’s slightly easier to reach on the smaller Galaxy S9, and the sensor isn’t quite as easy to blindly find as on the Google Pixel 2 or OnePlus 5T, but this is a massive improvement and no longer a weak point of Samsung’s flagships. And for times when you can’t reach, the new “intelligent scan” system lets you quickly unlock the phone with your face while retaining iris scanning for protecting more sensitive data in the phone. I kept it turned on and it never interfered with my fingerprint sensor use, but was there when I needed it — again, a vast improvement over last year.

Without changing the exterior design, Samsung made a few choice upgrades on the inside. A new top earpiece complements the down-firing speaker to form a stereo pair — providing critical audio separation when you’re watching landscape video, and making it impossible to just block all sound coming out of the phone with a single finger. Samsung claims the pair is 1.4-times louder, and I won’t go that far — but I definitely notice a boost to both volume and bass when listening to music without headphones. That’s all we really needed.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs

On the other hand, going far beyond “adequate” is this AMOLED display, which is absolutely leading the industry. Samsung outdid itself by increasing brightness 15% over last year, complementing what’s already a fundamentally fantastic display in terms of colors, clarity, off-axis viewing and visibility in direct sunlight. DisplayMate’s tests show all of the specifics, but you don’t need to know any of that — trust me, you’ll either love having this display, or you’ll wish your phone had it. The only puzzling decision Samsung makes is still putting the phone in FHD+ resolution by default — turn that thing up to QHD+ and enjoy the brilliance.

Standard Samsung

Samsung Galaxy S9+ Software, specs and performance

With years of iteration, Samsung’s software has made leaps and bounds in terms of design, overall fluidity and features — but its out-of-box experience is still burdensome and clunky if you’re used to any other company’s phones.

Preserving legacy features may be comforting to some longtime Samsung users, but others will be frustrated by it all.

Samsung Experience 9.0, built with Android Oreo, still feels like it’s hanging on to vestiges of previous software versions in many places. Countless settings pages go several layers deep concealing features new and old, leaving search as the only realistic way of finding something quickly. Many design cues, like the notification shade design, are mismatched with new Oreo-targeted apps. Samsung’s launcher just now offers long-press actions that came to Android in Nougat, but they’re half-baked and aren’t useful like they are on other phones — at least the notification badges are now actually tied to the notification shade. Somehow, its keyboard is still not even in the same ballpark as Google’s Gboard with prediction and swipe input — and don’t even get me started on the poor voice dictation.

The preservation of legacy features and a design lineage that stretches back several years may be comforting to some longtime Samsung users, but for people who just want to get the basics done the Galaxy S9 has a mountain of cruft to contend with. I personally can deal with it all just fine through an afternoon of tweaking settings, but then again, should I have to?

Jumping through hoops to get the phone to work the way I want shouldn’t be necessary.

Yes I’m being somewhat nitpicky on a few things here, and there are far more people out there who are accustomed to Samsung’s software than any other single flavor. But it just strikes me every time I pick up a new Samsung phone how many hoops I have to jump through just to get it to work the way I want — sometimes you can go overboard in offering options, and Samsung is walking that line. I doubt the software bloat will actually dissuade anyone from buying these phones, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t filled with potential frustration points.

Quickly, a paragraph about Bixby! The Bixby Home panel connected to your home screen still lacks standout features, leaving me to wonder if we’d all be better served by just integrating the few pieces of it that work into other areas of the phone and leaving this full-screen Home experience to die, as most of it just isn’t useful. Bixby Voice recognition is actually pretty good, if you just downright don’t know how to do something and want it to handle it over voice — but most of the time, touch is faster and more accurate. I could go deep into why Bixby is a flawed system that isn’t making any strides in terms of changing the way we use our phones, but let’s save that for another time — the important part here is that you can use Bixby if you want, and you can turn it off entirely if you don’t.

Bixby has a few good things going for it — but it commands far more attention than it deserves.

It’s sort of the same “use it or forget it” situation for AR Emoji — Samsung’s new Apple Animoji competitor. It works, it’s neat to play with and maybe the younger crowd will latch onto it. But for most of us, we’ll stick to taking great pictures with the camera rather than putting weird masks on our quasi-cartoon avatars in selfies. Samsung once again deserves praise for having a camera feature that’s dead simple to capture and export anywhere, rather than locking you into its platform, but this isn’t compelling enough to be an actual selling point of the phones.

Performance

The Snapdragon 845 processor I’m using in this U.S. model of the Galaxy S9+ is the latest and greatest from Qualcomm, and honestly it’s far more powerful than anything we need in a smartphone today — particularly when it’s paired up with 6GB of RAM. But hey, it means this phone’s ready for the future.

This processor is good for today and far into the future.

As far as using the phone every day, it doesn’t feel any different from the Galaxy S8 using Oreo, or the Note 8 using Nougat for that matter. Anyone who’s spent time with a Pixel 2 or even last-gen Pixel will be able to sense moments of dropped frames or stutters on the Galaxy S9, but let’s be honest it just isn’t that big of a difference. The Galaxy S9+ handled everything I threw at it without any hesitation, and I experienced zero slowdowns, app crashes or system instability. The phone’s been rock solid, and I just hope it stays that way over time.

Battery life

Samsung’s promise of “all day” battery life holds true in my use, if just barely, with the 3500mAh capacity inside the Galaxy S9+. Without fail, I got 17 to 18 hours of battery life each day, including 3 to 4 hours of “screen on” time, at the point when I settled into bed and tossed the phone on its wireless charger. That’s certainly good enough for most people, and roughly on par with what I get out of my Pixel 2 XL — but heavier users will need a midday top-up if they’re going to be hitting the phone hard.

I got 17-18 hours of battery life without fail, and that’s plenty for most people.

On the other side of things, light users will still be charging at night regardless, as the standby battery life just isn’t fantastic on the Galaxy S9+. Even with light usage and most of my day spent at home on Wi-Fi, the phone was still estimating roughly 18 to 19 hours of battery life. Consistency is good in most cases, but keep in mind that even if you baby it throughout the day you aren’t going to be able to push far into a second day without charging.

Despite this being the year 2018, Samsung is curiously still supporting just Quick Charge 2.0 charging speeds and supplies the same charger as it did with the Galaxy S7 and S8. It’s not really an issue, and the phones do support USB-C Power Delivery for another fast charging option, but it’s so odd that an otherwise extremely technologically advanced phone wouldn’t have at least Quick Charge 3.0.

Sticking with a 3000mAh battery, I have worries about the standard Galaxy S9’s longevity.

As I only have the larger Galaxy S9+ for this review period, the only question mark that remains is just how the Galaxy S9, with its smaller 3000mAh battery, will fare. Given my S9+ experience of a full day, and realizing that the Galaxy S9 has all of the same specs and capabilities with what is still a very large display, I expect the smaller phone to once again underwhelm in its longevity. That’s the one trade-off you take into consideration when getting the smaller phone for its ease of use in one hand.

The big improvement

Samsung Galaxy S9+ Cameras

With the move to a an all-new 12MP sensor, the Galaxy S9 has dramatically improved its processing for photos of all kinds. Each photo saved is the combination of 12 frames captured simultaneously, blended into 3 batches and then worked into a final image. The result is insanely crisp details and almost no noise even in extremely dark conditions, without the typical over-processed or artificially-smoothed look we so often see associated with low noise.

Samsung’s new sensor and lens isn’t just hype, it’s a huge jump in quality from the Galaxy S8.

The camera’s trick new lens that can switch between f/1.5 and f/2.4 helps even further. A majority of shots are taken at f/1.5 to let in as much light as possible and give the sensor a better chance at keeping the ISO down. It will switch to f/2.4 in bright daylight scenes and provide even better fine detail, and I found the camera does a great job of choosing which one is right for the job. You can fiddle around with Pro mode if you want, but I was blown away by the quality of photos in Auto.

The biggest comparison here is of course the Pixel 2’s camera. These phones don’t take the same types of photos, but they both produce fantastic images in their own right. The Pixel 2 is capable of creating scenes that no other smartphone can, and uses its advanced HDR processing to create eye-catching photos that have a very dramatic look with extra saturation and highlights — it basically does an advanced editing job after capturing. On the other hand, the Galaxy S9 comes closer to natural reproduction of a scene, with great colors and amazing detail — you might want to tweak it in some cases, but you get a fundamentally great photo to start with.

The Galaxy S9 and Pixel 2 take different types of photos, but both are fantastic in their own ways.

On the whole, I’d say both phones have great cameras that anyone would be happy to shoot with. The Galaxy S9+ isn’t going to dethrone the Pixel 2 as the “best” camera out there in my opinion, because things are just more nuanced than that, but it does just as good a job in most situations and has plenty of features the Pixel 2 doesn’t. I was consistently amazed by the photos I took with the Galaxy S9+ — and at that point, whether it took the “same” photo as the Pixel 2 in any given situation is basically irrelevant to me.

The photo quality is so good from the main camera it almost obviates the need for the secondary camera — which is near-identical to the Note 8’s. That second sensor and lens aren’t anything special, meaning in many dimmer scenes you’ll just be using the main sensor with a digital crop anyway. And the Live Focus portrait mode still runs into processing issues where the f/1.5 main lens can often provide better, natural background blur. None of the photos I’m showing in this review use Live Focus … I always took a better shot in Pro mode at f/1.5. When you take this into account, it really doesn’t feel like Galaxy S9 buyers are losing much by not getting that second camera — so don’t let that be your deciding factor between the two sizes.

The new camera sensor tech also enables 960 frame per second slow motion, which is very clearly a gimmick — but it’s a darn fun one. With the right conditions and a steady hand, you can get jaw-dropping slow-motion scenes. And Samsung’s automatic capture interface makes it dead simple to get the shot you’re looking for — something that was sorely missing when I reviewed the Sony Xperia XZ Premium. Be sure to check out our review video for some choice slow-mo action from the Galaxy S9+.

The new standard

Samsung Galaxy S9+ Bottom line

It’s become increasingly clear to me that the Galaxy S line of phones is no longer exciting, at least from the standpoint of those who strive to see the latest and greatest technology. They are, instead, becoming the new standard Android phone by which all others are measured as a baseline. A vast majority of Galaxy S9 buyers will not know much about the details of their phones, nor do they need to — but they know that this phone has cool new features, does everything they ask of it, and in turn brings no measurable flaws, trade-offs or downsides.

The Galaxy S9 and S9+ aren’t necessarily exciting, but they don’t have to be — because Samsung made two fantastic phones that do what people want.

These are expensive phones, but the value proposition is pretty simple. When someone walks in the store and asks for a phone that has a specific feature or can do certain things, undoubtedly the Galaxy S9 or S9+ can do it — and that same phone can fulfill different requests from the next person that walks in. Samsung doesn’t have to turn away any customers, because these phones just do everything.

It’s funny how we now appreciate a phone that just does things customers want, in a normal way, rather than trying to force some new agenda or change before it’s ready to happen. With the Galaxy S9 and S9+, Samsung isn’t pushing the envelope: it’s just making phones that can appeal to as many people as possible. The excellence in these phones is that Samsung managed to make the “phone for the masses” while keeping them grounded as a proper, finished product rather than a portmanteau of random ideas that’s less than the sum of its parts.

Discerning phone buyers may consider a Pixel 2 or 2 XL instead, and for good reason, but nobody will be unhappy with a Galaxy S9 or S9+.

The real question is, for the discerning buyers out there who don’t want a phone that does everything but wants one that does certain things best, and will put up with a couple compromises, whether they’ll be better served by a phone like the Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL. They may not have the brilliant display or mountain of features, but their software experience and simplicity are undeniably better — and that’s important for some people. If you’re willing to look at the details, you may be better served by those phones — but statistically most people will buy a Samsung phone, probably one of these two in 2018, and they’ll undoubtedly love it.

Samsung is going to sell an insane number of these phones — not because they’re groundbreaking or hyper-innovative, but because they’re solid, beautiful, feature-packed and have fantastic cameras. And that’s why Samsung is now the default choice for non-iPhone buyers — and even some in Apple’s camp — around the world.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+
• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. iPhone X: Metal and glass sandwiches
• Galaxy S9 vs. Google Pixel 2: Which should you buy?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint

What’s the best wireless carrier in the United States?

AT&T vs. Sprint vs. T-Mobile vs. Verizon

If you live in the United States and are looking to join a new wireless carrier, you’ve got a few different options to choose from. Each carrier comes with its own unique set of pros and cons, and this can make choosing just one over the rest a difficult decision.

One of the Android Central forum members is looking to upgrade to the Galaxy S9, and while they’re currently on Verizon, they’re wondering if they should stick with Big Red or jump ship to something else.

Plenty of other people in the community were quick to respond, and these are just a few of the top answers.

gibsonb2
03-07-2018 10:02 AM

“

Well… It depends on your location how good certain ones would be. I think Verizon has the best comprehensive coverage nationwide. AT&T has good coverage as well. In my area, Sprint is horrible and T-Mobile is pretty crappy too.

If you’re mainly in an urban area, you shouldn’t have issues with any of them. Further out, AT&T and Verizon are probably you’re best bet.

Reply

tube517
03-07-2018 10:28 AM

“

Do you travel alot?

T-Mobile is great in my area(home and work) but for travel, it’s still not as good as Verizon.

I don’t travel much but when I went out to the mountains/camping, the people w/Verizon were able to call out while I had no signal anywhere on the campground

Reply

wookiee2cu
03-07-2018 03:33 PM

“

As others have said, depends on your location. I would ask your friends who their provider is and if they have any reception issues. Also depends if you travel alot. I’m with T-Mobile in the Seattle area and it’s great in the city but once I head over the mountain pass I’ll lose reception for a while. I used to be with AT&T and their coverage was better in the mountains but I would still lose…

Reply

Retinella
03-07-2018 03:53 PM

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If you like Verizon’s coverage but hate Verizon, Xfinity Mobile would be a great option. I am on Xfinity Mobile and I love it. It’s $45/month for unlimited data (throttled at 22GB, obviously) but then you get millions of WiFi hotspots with it. I’m paying the same amount on Xfinity Mobile as I did on T-Mobile. On T-Mobile, I was not on a device payment plan. The price was just service and data. On…

Reply

Now, we want to hear from you – Which U.S. carrier do you think is the best?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Carriers

• Which unlimited plan should you buy?
• Verizon’s Unlimited plans: Everything you need to know
• Everything you need to know about the T-Mobile ONE unlimited plan
• Everything you need to know about the AT&T Unlimited plan
• Everything you need to know about Sprint’s Unlimited Freedom plan
• Join the Discussion

Oculus Go: Everything you need to know!

We now have a third headset on the way from Oculus.

At Oculus Connect 4, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Oculus is working a new headset that sits in a “sweet spot” somewhere between Gear VR and Rift.

Officially called Oculus Go, this headset requires no phone and no cables running to the PC. It will be able to play movies, run games, and help you meet up with friends in VR. We’ve got the details for you here!

March Update: Oculus VR CTO John Carmack gives us more information

Yes, significantly better. BTW, did someone from support get in touch with you about the video regression? There is a task open.

— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) February 23, 2018

We still don’t have an official release date for the Oculus Go, but John Carmack has recently answered some tweets that give us a little more information on this anticipated device! He’s confirmed the OGO will most certainly perform better than the Galaxy 7 on a Gear VR. This information doesn’t surprise us as far as expectations go, but it’s still nice to have them confirmed!

To elaborate, as mentioned below in regards to specs, the OGO will sport new lenses. a WQHD LCD fast-switch display with a higher fill-factor than OLED, and a Snapdragon 821 processor. Given the fact that The Samsung Galaxy 7 uses Snapdragon 820, it only confirmed John’s statement wasn’t just for advertisement. That being said, the OGO processor doesn’t beat the Galaxy 8, which sports a Snapdragon 835.

So, although they previously mentioned the OGO will be “Somewhere between the Gear VR and the Oculus Rift,” it seems like it’ll more so be between the Gear VR on a Galaxy 7 and the Gear VR on a Galaxy 8 (in regards to performance).

Tell us what you think in the comment section below!

February 14th update: Developers give public feedback

“The display is much crisper than CV1. The FOV seemed slightly tighter (not much). Felt like the same performance as a GVR, just better screen.”

kevinw729 on the Oculus Forums has announced that he was one of the Devs that got to try out the Oculus Go (OGO) and gave us his feedback.

Kevin also notifies the public that he did not see a slot for an SD card nor does he know what the final production of the battery life will be like. I’m going to stand by my assumptions in the last update that everything looks far too “consumer” ready for changes at this point. As I still wouldn’t be surprised if they were already in mass production, who knows?

Finally, as of right now no one is sure if the OGO is going to only be accessible to the Oculus Store, or if it will be able to branch out to others as well. If so I think Kevin and I are in an agreement here, Google Daydream might be in some trouble.

February 2nd update: Developer kits revealed

Developers have received the first Oculus Go boxes and gave us a sneak peek of them, as seen above. The images have since been removed from their Twitter accounts, but thankfully are still floating around.

If you notice the box it looks consumer ready already. I’d imagine they are just as close to the release date as they say they are. Oculus’ Website promises an official release early 2018, so I’m anticipating a late Spring release.

Other than this we’ve also been told that the Gear VR games will be compatible with the Oculus Go as well. This means plenty of titles will be available right from the start! A list of compatible games and experiences are listed below!

What is Oculus Go?

Oculus Go is the third headset from Oculus, and it’s meant to sit between Gear VR and Oculus Rift. A cordless headset, you’ll no longer have to strap in at your PC or have enough juice on your phone in order to play in VR.

It is built to be lightweight, has a new mesh foam interface, and it supposedly has the best visual clarity so far seen in VR, thanks to new lenses and a WQHD LCD fast-switch display with a higher fill-factor than OLED. We learned at CES 2018 that Oculus Go is going to be made by Xiaomi, and it will be run by a Snapdragon 821 processor making it more than capable of playing the awesome games that are going to be available.

Oculus says this headset lives somewhere in between the Gear VR and Oculus Rift, but it leans much closer to the Gear VR than you might expect. This is a standalone headset, meaning the computer is inside the headset with the display, but it’s still an Android-powered headset. The good news is this means it will run many of the apps currently available for the Gear VR. That means the headset will not let you walk around and do much. Functionally, this will be very similar to the Gear VR.

Read more: Lenovo Mirage vs Oculus Go

Whats the difference between Oculus Go and Gear VR?

To begin with, Oculus Go is a stand-alone headset. This means no need to be wired into your computer like Oculus Rift, or the need for a top of the line phone like with Gear VR. It’s a middle of the road option that is priced affordably in an effort to draw in new users to help Oculus reach their goal of one billion VR users.

Instead of including headphones with the headset, a spatial audio experience is built right into the headset. That is spatial speakers that are built on the rails of the headset to let you hear what’s going on clearly without headphones. Of course, if you’d rather go with classic headphones, you can plug a set of your own into a 3.5mm jack. Oculus Go will have a controller similar to that of Gear VR, meaning devs can create apps that work on both platforms.

Indeed, a lot of the Gear VR’s best apps will be available for the Oculus Go from day one. The controller employs three degrees of freedom (DoF), which is the same as the Gear VR controller. It’s interesting to note that the Go headset will also use three DoF. To put that into perspective, the Oculus Rift uses six DoF.

Oculus Go will also have access to its own catalog of games and apps to dive into on launch day. While ports of Gear VR games are sure to show up, you’ll be getting access to new content with Oculus Go. From the photos we’ve seen of Oculus Go, there is also a fairly pared down look compared to Gear VR. No touchpad on the side of the headset, and only two buttons on the top; volume controls, and a power button.

Games and Experiences

Since we have been notified that Gear VR apps and games will be compatible with Oculus Go we know we’ll have plenty to keep us occupied. Some of the titles in games you’ll be able to play are:

• Where’s Om Nom?
• Bait!
• Cloudlands VR Minigolf
• Lands End
• Ocean Rift
• Smash Hit
• Rush
• VR Sports Challenge
• Dragon Front
• Sing Space
• Dead and Buried
• Anshar Wars 2
• Ultrawings
• Rangi

And as for Experiences you’ll have:

• Facebook 360
• Netflix
• Discovery VR
• Hulu
• Jurassic World: Apatosaurus
• Rooms
• A Night’s Sky
• Star Chart

When is it launching?

The official website for Oculus Go still has the announced release date to be sometime in early 2018. If you want to keep notified keep checking in or sign up for their e-mailed newsletter by following the link below.

Redditer LifeWithAdd has found an image released by Oculus where it simply says “2018” instead of “early 2018″. Yet, as the website still shows “Early”, we’ll be expecting the headset before June 2018!

Get notified about the launch date at Oculus

How much will it cost?

While we don’t have an exact launch date yet, we do know how much Oculus Go is going to cost. You’ll be able to pick up this standalone headset for a tidy sum of $199. Considering Gear VR alone costs $129.99 and requires a top of the line smartphone, this is pretty exciting news!

Are you excited?

For now, we don’t have a ton of information about everything that Oculus Go will be able to offer, but that should be changing soon. However, the details we do have are definitely worth getting excited about, especially since this is a stand-alone headset, with an affordable price tag. Are you excited about Oculus Go, or are you sticking with another Oculus headset? Let us know about it in the comments below!

Updated March 2018: We’ve updated this post with comparisons to the Oculus Go processor to the Galaxy 7 processors running a Gear VR, confirmed by the VR CTO of Oculus!

Deal: Get a £50 PayPal credit when buying a Huawei P Smart in the UK

Available now through March 18, 2018.

In early February of this year, Huawei launched a new budget phone in the United Kingdom called the Huawei P Smart. The P Smart already offers a lot of phone for its retail price of just £229, but thanks to a new promotion, you can get a free £50 credit to spend however you’d like after buying it.

Between now and March 18, buying a Huawei P Smart will make you eligible to receive a £50 PayPal credit. After buying the P Smart from one of Huawei’s qualified retailers, you’ll just need to wait 14 days from the date of purchase, complete the online claim form, and you’ll be good to go!

Once your £50 credit is applied, you can either spend it anywhere PayPal is accepted or transfer it directly to your debit/credit card or bank account.

As a quick refresher, the Huawei P Smart has a 5.65-inch 18:9 display, Kirin 659 processor, and dual 13MP + 2MP cameras on the back. You’ll also find a 3,000 mAh battery, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, and Android 8.0 Oreo.

See at Huawei