Nokia 7 Plus review: The perfect mid-range smartphone

First unveiled at MWC 2018 in Barcelona, the Nokia 7 Plus was positioned as the mid-range device in HMD Global’s 2018 portfolio of Nokia phones. A couple of months down the track and here is our full Nokia 7 Plus review.

After the pitch of “pure and up-to-date Android” last year, the company has now adopted Android One across the board. The trusted stock Android experience, combined with a competent specifications sheet makes the Nokia 7 Plus seem well-rounded on paper.

With a host of new releases, the Nokia brand is having a resurgence under new custodian HMD Global, generating a lot of consumer attention in the process. Is the Nokia 7 Plus the device to translate that interest into sales?

For this review, I took the Indian variant of the Nokia 7 Plus for a spin. My colleague, Adam Sinicki, used the same unit to shoot the video review in the UK.Show More

Design

The Nokia 7 Plus scores high on aesthetics. It exudes class and looks gorgeous. The phone’s copper accents — the strip running along the edges, the buttons, and the rings around the camera module and fingerprint scanner — make it really stand out.

The Nokia 7 Plus features an 18:9 display which dominates the front of the phone, with just a small chin at the bottom and Nokia branding on the bezel on the top. The rounded edges make the phone nice and comfortable to grip. The soft matte finish and ceramic coating on the back give it a nice tactile feel which will help prevent the phone from slipping out of your hand.

The camera module protrudes slightly from the back, but the copper trim would likely protect the lenses from picking up scratches.

Built from a single block of series 6000 aluminum, the Nokia 7 Plus feels solid and well built. At 183 grams, it’s a little hefty, but the weight is distributed quite well.

Overall, the Nokia 7 Plus is a well-built smartphone that looks more premium than its price would indicate. It will no doubt have a lot of people gawking in a coffee shop.

Display

The Nokia 7 Plus sports a 6-inch IPS LCD Full HD+ display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of 402ppi. It is the first device in the Nokia portfolio to adopt the newer trend of taller displays.

Overall, the display is pretty good. It’s quite vivid and the viewing angles are great. For an LCD, the blacks are so deep you’d almost mistake it for an OLED panel. If you prefer more true-to-life colors, you might find the Nokia 7 Plus slightly oversaturated. Personally, I quite like it. Unfortunately, the display is not too bright, so sunlight legibility is not exceptional, though it’s not terrible.

The touch response on the Nokia 7 Plus is perfect and running your thumb across the display while scrolling provides insatnt feedback. There’s also Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for scratch protection.

Performance

Powered by the freshly minted octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset with Adreno 512 GPU, the Nokia 7 Plus packs in 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, expandable up to 256GB with a microSD card. With only default apps running in the background, there’s 2.7GB of RAM available at any point.

The Snapdragon 660 is one of the most powerful SoCs for mid-range smartphones out there, managing flagship-grade performance on a budget by using Kryo 260 cores manufactured with the 14nm FinFET process.

That horsepower combined with stock Android makes the Nokia 7 Plus a solid performer. It can take anything you throw at it without breaking a sweat. It can handle graphics-intensive games at max settings without heating up, even when playing games for an extended length of time.

The Snapdragon 660 is a powerful and frugal processor that makes the Nokia 7 Plus a solid performer.

The Nokia 7 Plus packs in a massive 3,800mAh battery which will easily last a day and a half of moderate usage. Even with my aggressive usage, I managed to carry it through the day with about 20 percent juice still left after dinner. In our standard HD video loop test, it managed over 13 hours.

Once the battery does run out, the Nokia 7 Plus supports Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging. The bundled charger can charge the phone from zero to 100 percent in less than two hours, which is pretty good for a high capacity battery. The phone does get a little hot while charging.

At its price point, the Nokia 7 Plus packs solid innards and outperforms most smartphones with older Snapdragon 600-series processors. It can easily handle the daily grind for most users and offers a smooth Android experience.

Hardware

One of the less talked about features of the Nokia 7 Plus is its spatial audio capture with three microphones which is quite useful for content creators and people who record a lot of videos.

The Nokia 7 Plus is a dual-SIM device, sporting a hybrid tray slot so you can either use two nano-SIMs or a nano-SIM and a microSD card.

The fingerprint scanner on the back works reasonably fast, although it is positioned a little too high for my tastes. If you have small hands, you’re likely to have a little trouble reaching it comfortably.

Camera

The Nokia 7 Plus uses a dual camera setup on the back with Zeiss optics. There’s a 12MP primary lens with f/1.75 aperture and 1.4µm pixel size paired with a 13MP telephoto lens with f/2.6 aperture and 1.0µm pixel size.

The Nokia 7 Plus camera manages to take some great images in daylight with crisp colors and a good amount of detail. The camera often took a bit of time to focus though and action shots came out blurred.

For portraits or bokeh shots, the telephoto lens blurs out the background nicely and the edge detection is quite good. The telephoto lens offers a 2x lossless optical zoom while there’s also 10x digital zoom if you need it.

In low light conditions, some noise does creep in. But thanks to the f/1.75 aperture, the camera manages to capture a good amount of light. Using the Pro mode and fine-tuning the settings gives much better results. The dual-tone LED flash is not overpowering and helps maintain natural skin tone and white balance.

On the front, there’s a 16MP camera with f/2.0 aperture and Zeiss optics. Most selfies have pretty good color reproduction and enough detail to keep your social feeds happy. The beautification mode has a slider to adjust for the level of vanity you can digest.

The rear camera supports 4K video recording at 30fps (the front camera supports 1080p video recording). There’s no optical image stabilization, and the automatic electronic image stabilization works only in 1080p mode. But it works quite well, and combined with the OZO audio technology with spatial recording capabilities, the Nokia 7 Plus manages to capture some great videos. 

Editor’s Pick

Nokia brings back its Pro Camera mode from the dead for its Android phones

As forgettable as Nokia’s Windows Phone days were, they introduced several smartphones whose cameras were more capable than anything else on the market. That was partially thanks to the Nokia Pro Camera mode, which introduced …

The camera app on the Nokia 7 Plus is similar to the one Nokia introduced with the Lumia series back in the day. It offers an intuitive way to fine-tune the settings while looking at the results in real time. There’s also the dual-sight mode, previously marketed as a “bothie,” which lets you take shots or record and stream videos using both front and rear cameras simultaneously. It’s an interesting option for vloggers or if you have kids and pets at home but is pretty pointless for most others.

The camera on the Nokia 7 Plus is pretty good, but it’s not perfect. One expects a little more spark in the camera department on a Nokia phone. That said, there are no showstopping issues and it’s a pretty good camera at its price –  and there’s nothing that cannot be improved with a software update or two.

Software

The Nokia 7 Plus comes with stock Android 8.1 Oreo with support for Project Treble. There are no customizations and no bloatware of any kind. It’s a minimalist Android experience out of the box. The Android One device will also get regular security updates as well as an upgrade to Android P.

HMD Global has a good track record for delivering updates like clockwork across its entire portfolio, so a Nokia phone is the best deal apart from the Pixel devices for fans of a pure and up-to-date Android experience.

Specifications

Display	6.0-inch LCD 2,160 x 1,080 resolution (Full HD+) 403ppi 18:9 aspect ratio
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 (64-bit octa-core, 2.2GHz)
GPU	Adreno 512
RAM	4GB
Storage	64GB
Cameras	Rear: Dual 12MP and 13MP telephoto with PDAF and Carl Zeiss optics Front: 13MP f/2.0
Battery	3,800mAh
IP rating	IP54
Software	Android 8.0 Oreo
Dimensions	158.4 x 75.6 x 7.9mm

Gallery

Pricing and final thoughts

The Nokia 7 Plus is a well-rounded mid-range smartphone with a very capable specifications sheet, no-frills Android experience, and good-looking chassis. You’d be hard-pressed to find a flaw with this device, really.

Nokia 7 Plus is a well-rounded package that offers the right amalgamation of performance and aesthetics.

At 25,999 rupees (~$387) in India, some of my media colleagues at the launch said that it was priced a tad high — I disagree. There’s a justifiable premium for visual appeal and dependable hardware that comes in a package with an overall finesse. For me, the Nokia 7 Plus has just the right mix of performance and aesthetics. In a segment that’s usually under-served, the Nokia 7 Plus deserves the crown.

Google’s Revamped News App Now Available on iOS Devices

At its Google I/O developer conference last week, Google debuted a revamped Google News app focusing on balanced news delivery with personalized news suggestions, and as of today, the new Google News app is available for download on the iPhone and iPad.

According to Google, the News app is designed to use “the best of artificial intelligence to find “the best of human intelligence” by taking advantage of new AI techniques to organize a constant flow of new information into digestible storylines.

A “For You” section offers up personalized news suggestions based on user interests, which is designed to learn user preferences through continued usage. It displays five personalized stories with a mix of important headlines and local news.

A “Headlines” section offers the top headlines in the world, and an accompanying “Full Coverage” feature is meant to provide details on all of the different ways a particular story has been presented by a variety of news sources, aggregating the headlines from multiple publications.

Through the “Newsstand” tab, you can discover various news websites as well as more than 1,000 magazines, and you can subscribe to paid news sites like The Washington Post and The New York Times using a Google Play account if so desired.

Google News for iOS replaces the existing Google Play Newsstand app, which has been overhauled with a new name and a new design with the launch of Google News. Full release notes for the update are below:

Google Play Newsstand is now Google News!

What’s new:
– Enjoy an entirely new, cleaner look, designed for a better reading experience
– Get up to speed with a smarter briefing that shows you the top five stories for you right now
– Explore all the coverage of a story in one place. See a timeline of events, FAQs, people and places involved, perspectives, analysis and more for every news story
– Subscribe to credible sources with a single click

Google News can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Google
Discuss this article in our forums

The Surface Hub 2 can ’tile’ four units into one big display

Nearly three years after the launch of the original Surface Hub interactive whiteboard, Microsoft introduced the second-generation model on Tuesday, May 15. It won’t be made widely available to businesses until 2019, but Microsoft plans to test the Surface Hub 2 waters this year with “select” commercial customers. Pricing will be “competitive” with other devices on the market, Microsoft says. 

The unit Microsoft introduced on Tuesday sports a 50.5-inch multitouch screen with a 3840 x 2160 resolution. By comparison, the original 55-inch unit has a 1920 x 1080 resolution for $8,999, while the pricier 84-inch sports a 3840 x 2160 resolution for $21,999. That said, Microsoft appears to be shooting for the best of both worlds with a “sleeker, more agile, and more affordable” device for collaboration. 

Microsoft doesn’t mention a larger unit like the current 84-inch model, and there’s good reason why the company may not take this larger avenue: Tiling. With the introduction of the Surface Hub 2 comes the ability to align up to four Hubs together to create one enormous touch-supporting screen. Microsoft’s example shows four digital whiteboards vertically mounted side-by-side, showing one presentation although you can mount them horizontally too. 

“Seeing four of the beautiful Surface Hub 2s lined up together has undeniable visual effect and will have a profound impact on what groups can accomplish together, allowing users to display multiple pieces of content side-by-side,” says chief product officer Panos Panay. “Imagine how much your team could get done being able to work simultaneously across Microsoft Whiteboard, PowerBI, PowerPoint, and a full view video call.” 

Unfortunately, Panay doesn’t get into the hardware specifics. Instead, he says the Surface Hub 2 is easier to move around in your workplace thanks to a collaboration with Steelcase. The company created rolling stands and easy-to-use mounts for better collaboration between team members throughout the building.  

The current models rely on fourth-generation Intel Core i5 (55-inch) and Core i7 (84-inch) processors. For graphics, the 55-inch model uses the CPU’s integrated HD Graphics 4600 component while the 84-inch model sports a discrete Nvidia Quadro K2200 graphics chip. Both have 8GB of system memory and 128GB of storage on an SSD. 

Powering the Surface Hub is Windows 10 Team, a customized version of Windows 10 Enterprise. It’s designed from the ground up to support the large screen and 100-point touch input. It doesn’t have a lock screen, but rather a welcome screen listing specific apps and scheduled meetings generated by the device’s calendar. Anyone can use the hub without the need to log into the operating system itself. 

With the Surface Hub 2, the upcoming device will support multi-user sign-ins. With this feature, teammates can log onto the device simultaneously and share their documents and ideas to create one big collaborative project. Previously, only one individual could sign on at a time to retrieve their files and schedules from the cloud. Presumably the Surface Hub 2 still doesn’t provide means to actually log into the operating system itself. 

“This feature is a truly magical experience,” Panay says, “making collaboration as natural as meeting at a whiteboard.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• SmartThings ADT Home Security Starter Kit Review
• The Surface Hub 2 Can ‘Tile’ Four Units Into One Big Display
• The LG G7 ThinQ: Here’s everything you need to know
• Mozilla’s ‘Hubs’ builds a chatroom in VR for any browser and headset
• Dell XPS 13 vs. Microsoft Surface Book 2 13

X-ray laser heats water to 180,000 degrees in a fraction of a second

In our busy 24/7 world, no one has time to sit and wait for a kettle to boil, do they? Fortunately, a new demonstration carried out by scientists suggests we might not have to wait those agonizing 3 to 4 minutes each day for much longer — provided that we can get hold of a superpowerful X-ray laser, that is.

Of course, it’s not really intended as a method for boiling water for your tea or coffee so much as it is a fundamental investigation relating to matter.Scientists used this X-ray laser to raise water temperature from room temperature to a massive 180,000 degrees Fahrenheit (100,000 degrees Celsius) in just one millionth of a millionth of a second. The world’s fastest water heater experiment was performed at Stanford University’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. It involved firing extremely intense and ultra-brief flashes of X-rays at a jet of water, resulting in an entirely different way of heating H20.

“The method is not really meant for boiling water,” Nicusor Timneanu, a physics and astronomy researcher at Sweden’s Uppsala University told Digital Trends. “X-ray lasers are typically used to investigate the structure of matter on extremely short time scales. Often one has proteins or protein crystals embedded in water, and we have discovered that water is heated in an extremely violent way, by ionizing it and breaking all the bonds. Conventional ways of heating water will give energy to water molecules through heat transfer on a stove [or] vibrations in a microwave. Using X-ray lasers will basically vaporize the water ultrafast. This is exciting for us because we would like to understand how it is vaporized on such short times, using both computations and experiments.”

As for practical applications for vaporizing water, Timneanu acknowledges that there aren’t any that immediately spring to mind. However, that could conceivably change in the future. “Understanding why and how it works helps all projects using X-ray lasers to investigate structure of proteins and or living cells, because they would know what the limitations and challenges are of such techniques,” Timneanu said.

A paper describing this research, “Ultrafast non-thermal heating of water initiated by an X-ray Free-Electron Laser,” was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Editors’ Recommendations

• A Nike patent could have your athletic wear looking like Iron Man’s suit
• Monolith BBQ Guru Edition Classic review
• Instant Pot DUO60 pressure cooker review
• The Mercury jacket from Ministry of Supply claims to heat up automatically
• Nest Temperature Sensor review

Doctors in Britain are zeroing in on a universal cure for the common cold

The common cold might get a bit less common if researchers from the U.K.’s Imperial College London have anything to do with it. They have developed and lab-tested a new molecule that could help battle the cold virus by stopping it from hijacking human cells. Although it’s still in the early stages, their solution has been shown to be effective at completely blocking multiple strains of the cold virus. If this is successfully extrapolated to humans, it could help stop burgeoning sniffles in their tracks.

“Rhinovirus is the most frequent cause of the common cold. In healthy people, this is not usually a serious illness, but if you have asthma, COPD, or cystic fibrosis, this can trigger a significant worsening of your symptoms,” Dr. Roberto Solari at Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute, told Digital Trends. “There is currently no vaccine to prevent rhinovirus, and no antiviral drugs to treat it. Like all viruses, RV exploits the machinery of our cells to make new copies of itself and so spread. It has been known since the 1980s that the polio virus, which is a related virus to RV, uses an enzyme from our cells to add a small fat molecule to one its coat proteins. These form the outer shell of the virus. We have made a chemical inhibitor of this enzyme, and found that it blocks the formation of new viruses.”

The challenge with developing a cure to the common cold is that it is caused not by one virus, but by hundreds of variants. While we can develop immunity or resistance to a few of these, it’s almost impossible to do so against all of them. The viruses also rapidly evolve, which allows them to gain resistance to drugs. As a result of these factors, existing cold remedies mainly focus on treating symptoms — such as sore throats and runny noses — rather than the actual virus.

However, the Imperial College research could change that since all strains of the cold virus nonetheless rely on the same protein to make copies of themselves. The molecule could therefore bring an end to the reign of terror of all cold strains — along with other not-insignificant viruses such as polio and foot and mouth disease.

“We are at the preclinical stage,” Solari said. “We have tested it in human cells. The molecule is very potent, but we need to perform additional studies to show its safety and efficacy before it can go into human volunteers.”

A paper describing the research is being published in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Editors’ Recommendations

• In new breakthrough, CRISPR tools target RNA to tackle dementia
• Move over pesticides! This new RNA vaccine could help keep crops safe
• 5 modern inventions that are way older than you think
• Drug testing could get a boost from MIT’s ‘body on a chip’
• Glowing contact lenses could be the key to stopping diabetic blindness

AirFly connects wireless headphones to wired-only devices

Plenty of wireless headphones include a cable to plug into audio gear that doesn’t support wireless, but if you’re using headphones like the Apple AirPods, you’re out of luck when it comes to anything that doesn’t support Bluetooth. There are gadgets that let you use your wired headphones with Bluetooth devices, but what about the other way around? That’s exactly what Twelve South’s AirFly is meant to do.

The AirFly is a compact gadget that features a 3.5mm jack for plugging in to the gear of your choice and a USB port for recharging. Just pair your headphones with the AirFly, and you’re free to use your wireless headphones with anything that features a headphone jack, from the in-flight entertainment on an airplane to your vintage stereo. The AirFly offers up to eight hours of battery life, so while it won’t last through the longest of flights without a recharge, it will last long enough for most use cases.

This isn’t the only device of its kind that we’ve seen. There are plenty of Bluetooth transmitters available that are meant to let you use your wireless headphones with wired-only audio gear but many, like Astell & Kern’s AK XB10, are meant to be used with higher-end gear. These can be nice, but they don’t offer the same compact and easily portable package as the AirFly, and they’re also on the pricey side.

While the AirFly can be used with most Bluetooth headphones and any gear with a 3.5mm headphone jack, Twelve South clearly has a few specific use cases in mind for the product. Fitness clubs and flights are frequently referred to as when you’d want to use the AirFly, and Apple’s AirPods are shown prominently on the product page. If you’re familiar with AirPods, you’ll know they generally prefer to be paired with an iPhone or iPad, so the AirFly product page features a video showing you how to pair your AirPods.

The AirFly is available now for $40 direct via Twelve South. If you’re having trouble getting your AirPods to pair, take a look at our guide showing how to fix the most common AirPods problems.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best headphones for running
• Headphone buying guide
• Best wireless headphones
• Best cheap headphones
• Best headphones under $100

Here’s everything we know about Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S4

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Following last year’s launch of the Galaxy Tab S3, rumors have been surfacing about its successor, the Galaxy Tab S4, including that it could be released this July. While there aren’t too many details, various reports and rumored specs have helped us gather information on Samsung’s latest tablet.

Here’s everything we know.

Specs

Key Specs

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835

Memory: 3.1GB RAM

Storage: 52GB

Screen size: 10.5-inch

Resolution: 2,560 x 1600

Connectivity: Bluetooth 5

Operating System: Android 8.0 Oreo

First spotted by Sammobile, a benchmark-spec listing surfaced for a device called the Samsung SM-T835 — which is most likely the Galaxy Tab S4. The latest report from the site confirms a Galaxy Tab S4 is in the works after the company received a Bluetooth certification. Under product name, the document specifically names the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 as the device that received the certification. Samsung earlier received certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance at the beginning of May.

Underneath the hood, the device is powered by the Snapdragon 835 chipset — which is currently the flagship chip. It’s also an upgrade from the Snapdragon 820 included in its predecessor. While it’s listed as having 3.1GB of RAM, it’s likely that it will actually be 4GB once the device is released. The currently rumored 52GB of storage will most likely be 64GB. As for the camera, it will come with a 7-megapixel front-facing camera and a 12-megapixel rear camera.

As for its operating system, the tablet will reportedly run Android 8.0 Oreo — Android’s latest OS. But the potential release of the tablet comes only one month before the official release Google’s Android P operating system in August.

In terms of additional specs, there’s still no word on what we can expect when it comes to weight, battery, or size of the tablet.

Design

Currently, there aren’t many details on the exact look of the Galaxy Tab S4. It reportedly will have a 10.5-inch display, which is larger than the 9.7-inch screen on the Galaxy Tab S3. Its predecessor also included a Super AMOLED screen, but it’s unclear whether the new device will have the same feature.

But we do have some insight on the display, which is claimed to boast a 2560 x 1600-pixel resolution. In comparison, the Tab S3 screen offers 2,048 x 1,536-pixel resolution.

Release date and availability

The Samsung Galaxy S4 tablet is expected to launch in July of this year. But it’s possible it could also launch as early as next month, especially after having already received its Wi-Fi Alliance and Bluetooth certifications.

Price

There isn’t a price yet listed for the Galaxy S4 tablet. The Galaxy Tab S3 was listed at $600 at launch, so we expect the S4 will most likely be priced within the same range.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Samsung’s latest Galaxy Tab Active 2 tablet is rugged and all business
• The S8 Lite appears to be Samsung’s response to a slowing flagship market
• The Galaxy S9 Plus vs. Galaxy Note 8: Samsung’s heavyweights slug it out
• Flagship face-off: Samsung’s Galaxy S9 Plus vs. Google’s Pixel 2 XL
• Here’s everything we know about the Samsung Galaxy S10

YouTube TV rolls out voice control, incognito mode in new test

Ready for marathon couch potato sessions that require lifting even fewer fingers? YouTube TV’s voice-control feature appears to be finally rolling out as some (but not all) users are spotting the feature. It comes alongside a test that creates an incognito mode for those videos you don’t want saved in your watch history.

YouTube TV’s voice control project isn’t exactly a secret — the website’s help page on the feature has been live for a while now. The Google-owned platform can also use Google Home to control the live TV service with your voice. But the new feature, spotted by Android Police, brings voice control using just the YouTube app. The voice control is for YouTube TV, a paid subscription for cord-cutters that streams live content from more than 50 different networks.

The feature hasn’t yet rolled out to all users, but those that have the early access will spot a microphone inside the YouTube TV app. Tapping that (and giving the app permission to access the microphone) enables the voice remote with a handful of spoken commands. The voice remote allows users to ask for or record a specific channel or show, along with navigating to different areas of YouTube TV.

Another potential feature for YouTube’s original app (not YouTube TV) makes it easier to turn off watch history, another feature spotted by Android Police. The test places a “turn on Incognito” option inside the account settings in the app. With this mode on, YouTube doesn’t track what you’re watching to recommend videos later and watch history is automatically cleared. A pop-up window notifies users before entering the mode that incognito doesn’t necessarily prevent teachers, bosses, or internet providers from learning what you’ve watched.

Incognito is similar to being signed off the account — subscription access isn’t available and the profile picture is swapped with an incognito icon. YouTube already has a similar tool inside the privacy settings, with two sliders to pause watch or search history separately. The mode appears to be an easier way to temporarily stop that tracking and is similar to Google Chrome’s incognito mode.

While a help page for the YouTube TV voice control confirms the feature, YouTube hasn’t yet clarified if the voice control is a test or a slow rollout. The company also hasn’t commented on the incognito mode test.

Editors’ Recommendations

• YouTube testing picture-in-picture for non-YouTube Red subscribers
• Google launches YouTube Studio to help video creators nab more views
• What is YouTube Red? What you get, how it works, and how much it costs
• YouTube plans to ‘frustrate’ music fans into paying for its ad-free service
• YouTube launches Dark Theme setting for mobile devices, starting with the iOS app

Amazon Echo vs. Dot vs. Tap vs. Spot vs. Show: Which should you buy?

Which Amazon Echo is best for you? I have no idea. But here’s how I’d approach each one.

I own too many Amazon Echo speakers. From the original Echo to the Echo Dot and the newfangled Echo Show with its screen and camera. Plus the Amazon Tap, and Echo Look, which you can’t even buy without an invitation. (And you probably shouldn’t but it, for reasons I’ll get into in a second.)

This isn’t a cookie-cutter list of all the Echo speakers and why you should buy them. Hell, a couple I think you probably should stay away from. This is a list of how I see things after having used them all for months and months. Hit the links below to jump on down to the Echo that tickles your fancy.

• Echo Dot
• Echo Dot Kids Edition
• Echo
• Echo Plus
• Echo Spot
• Echo Tap
• Echo Show
• Echo Look

Echo Dot: The best Amazon Echo for starting out

Start simple. If you’re just not sure about this whole Alexa thing and really don’t know how much you’ll get out of an Amazon Echo, it’s best to not spend a lot of money. Start with an Echo Dot.

The Echo Dot costs $49 retail, but it’s not uncommon to see it on sale for as low as $30. And at that price it’s kind of a no-brainer. Buy one and give it a go.

Another pro tip here is to buy more than one at a time. Amazon typically has deals if you buy multiple Echoes Dot at one time — $20 is the usual savings. So if you’re like me and you know you’ll want to stash a few of these around the house, save yourself a few bucks and take advantage.

See at Amazon

The redesigned Amazon Echo: A great mid-range option

Amazon has completely redesigned the basic Echo for 2017. It’s shorter than the original and more squat in stature. And you can get one clad in fabric for $99. That’s not a bad buy, and it’s what I’d recommend for someone who wants to get something better than the Dot, but still not spend more than a hundred bucks. The sound quality is decent for that price. Can you get something better? Yeah. But not for less money.

If you want to spend a little more, though, $119 will get you a new Echo with a wood veneer, or in matte plastic. I’ve found the fabric to be plenty good, though.

See at Amazon

Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition: You know, for kids

Amazon has a new Echo Dot that is made especially for kids. Or, really, it’s a perfectly ordinary Echo Dot that comes with a nice little case (because kids apparently will be prone to breaking these sorts of things that aren’t really meant to be moved in the first place) — and a free year’s access to Amazon Freetime Unlimited.

That’s the part that actually justifies the $80 price tag. (That’s $30 more than the Echo Dot at retail, and $40 more when it’s on sale.) Amazon Freetime Unlimited gives you (and your kid) access to a whole bunch of kid-friendly content, including books, music, games and more. Plus parents get access to the Amazon Parent Dashboard, which lets you set how long the kid can use any of this newfangled tech. It’ll also block non-kid-friendly content, shut off the Echo Dot at bedtime, and teach your kids to remember to say please and thank-you to not-quite-sentient tech. (We have a feeling that’ll be more important than we realize at some point.)

See at Amazon

Amazon Echo Plus: The best-sounding Echo yet

Amazon decided to keep the tried and true Echo design, but give it better internals. That gives us the $149 Echo Plus. It sounds a little better than the previous-generation Echo, and definitely better than the current 2017 model. It comes in the same matte plastic, but now you can get silver in addition to black and white.

Also new for the Echo Plus is the ability to serve as a smart home hub — if the devices you’re looking to support use Zigbee to connect. (You’re forgiven if you don’t know what Zigbee is — it’s not something an end user should ever have to worry about.) It likely won’t solve all your smart home problems, but it’s a nice little addition nonetheless.

See at Amazon

Amazon Echo Spot: An expensive, but cool, bedside Echo

If you take the Echo Show and shrink it down, this is what you’d get. It’s a $130 Echo clock with a decent (but not overly great) speaker and a 2.5-inch display. You’ll get the time, of course, along with weather information and the same semi-useful headlines as on the Echo Show. Plus it’ll make phone calls and video chat with other Spots or Shows. (Yes, that means there’s a camera pointed into your bedroom.)

This is a great-looking device, but it’s not inexpensive, and it’s only $10 less than the much larger Echo Show, which will be better for the video it can still display.

See at Amazon

Amazon Tap: Smaller, portable, expensive

For whatever reason, this isn’t an “Echo” device. It’s “Alexa-enabled.” OK. (Maybe it’s because the “Alexa” hotword isn’t enabled by default, and instead you’re supposed to push the microphone button.) But no matter. For all intents and purposes it’s an Echo, and it’s meant to be portable.

The Tap has a charging base that allows you to just pick up the speaker and take it wherever you want. And it sounds decent. Not great, but good. Good enough for $129 retail, though? Eh, now Amazon is starting to ask a lot — particularly when you can get a portable battery base for the original Echo for just $50 and get a much better speaker for your troubles. Or you could stick an Echo Dot in this little cordless speaker and get a decent experience — again, for just $50.

Personally, I don’t really see the necessity of a portable Alexa speaker — especially since the speaker itself is going to need to be connected to the Internet at all times for the Alexa stuff to work. And hotspotting to your phone just isn’t something I want to bother with.

Your money probably is better off with any other Echo — or just a traditional Bluetooth speaker.

See at Amazon

Echo Show: Will it ever get better?

I was an early fan of the Echo Show — the potential for an Alexa-enabled device with a large touchscreen is enormous. Unfortunately, it’s yet to pan out in the first few months. The headlines you get are pure fluff, with very little actual news, if ever — and Amazon says it’s done this on purpose.

Then Google decided to not let YouTube videos play on the Echo Show — likely because Amazon’s implementation was doing so without advertising. That killed one of the few reasons I’d actually recommend the Echo Show.

And then there’s the fact that very few Alexa Skills actually take advantage of the display in the first place. It’s a novelty at this point, not a necessity — even though making video calls on the Echo Show is still a great experience.

See at Amazon

Echo Look: How much do you care about what you wear?

There’s a pretty good chance you shouldn’t buy the Echo Look. Unless you really care about fashion — to the point that you want to take a picture of what you’re wearing and send it to Amazon for cataloging and analysis — then you’ll just want to ignore this. For that’s what Echo Look is good at. It’s got a camera and its own app for taking your picture from head to toe, and it does a nice job of highlighting you while downplaying everything else.

From there it lets you flip back through what you’ve worn day after day, and you can have it compare two outfits and decide which it thinks looks better on you. (To varying degrees of success, I found.)

You very much will get out of Echo Look what you put into it. I don’t care so much about what I’m wearing, so this wasn’t really $200 well spent for me. Your wardrobe mileage may vary.

And to be fair, you can’t just go out and buy an Echo Look. You’ll have to tell Amazon you’re interested in it, and then wait for an invitation.

See at Amazon

Updated May 2018: Added the Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition. You know, for kids.

Amazon Echo

• Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
• All about Alexa Skills
• Amazon Echo review
• Echo Dot review
• Echo Spot review
• Top Echo Tips & Tricks
• Amazon Echo vs. Google Home
• Get the latest Alexa news

See at Amazon

How to use the private browser on Oculus Go

Getting to incognito mode easily

So you’ve got your Oculus Go up and ready and you’re looking into all the cool things you can do with it. One of those things might be Googling the weird questions you think of at 3AM that you never want to show up in your search history for anyone to see. The solution to this is going incognito, and here’s how!

How to open the browser

Finding the browser on your Oculus Go has been made pretty easy for you, and we’re thankful for that.

Select the “Browser” button on the menu located at the bottom of the screen.

Select the “G” icon for the usual Google Browser.

Select the website bar at the top, type in the place you would like to go and hit enter.

Using your controller

Your Oculus Go controller has a couple of different functions. When you want to select something all you have to do is hover over the target and press the trigger button. If you want to scroll through the web page then use the touch pad to glide your thumb over it in the direction you want to move.

Getting to incognito mode

Open a new tab by looking to your left and selecting the “+” symbol on the top.

Select incognito by selecting “Enter private mode.”

Oculus Go

• A parent’s guide to Oculus Go
• Oculus Go vs. Lenovo Mirage Solo
• Best Gamepad for Oculus Go
• Best Battery Backup for Oculus Go

Oculus Go 32GB
Oculus Go 64GB