LG V40 challenges Galaxy S9+ with 6.4-inch display, five cameras

New OLED display, penta-camera combination and high-end specs make a great package.

We already had a darn good idea of everything the LG V40 ThinQ was going to offer, thanks to leaks and LG’s own pre-announcements, but it’s all official now. (And yes, this is a “ThinQ” phone officially, but I’m just going to mention that here once and move on.)

LG V40 ThinQ review: Five cameras aimed straight at Samsung

LG did all it could to make a modern high-end flagship phone.

LG’s story with the V40 is essentially that it’s a big, powerful flagship-level phone with a new camera setup and all of the hardware features you want. The cameras are indeed the differentiator. As some companies have done, there are three rear cameras: a 12MP main camera, 16MP wide-angle camera and 12MP 2X zoom telephoto camera. The standard camera is a notable upgrade from the LG G7, with 1.4-micron pixels and an f/1.5 lens. The wide-angle is the same as the G7, which is great because of the unique field of view but somewhat disappointing because it doesn’t have OIS and the sensor quality is just average. The telephoto camera enables portrait mode shots and lossless zooming at 2X, which is basically table stakes for phones nowadays.

The LG V40 offers a typical high-end spec sheet. It has a Snapdragon 845 processor, supported by 6GB of RAM across the world with no restriction to any sort of “plus” variant. There’s 64GB of storage as well, again worldwide. The battery takes a bump up from the G7, now 3300mAh, underneath a larger 6.4-inch display. Yup, it has a notch, but it’s also a different display from the G7 — this one’s OLED, with a 3120×1440 resolution (and super-tall 19.5:9 aspect ratio). The brightness doesn’t quite match the G7 in raw nits, but it can max out its brightness automatically as ambient conditions require, rather than being triggered for a short time manually.

LG V40 specifications

The V40’s hardware is effectively a scaled-up G7 … except for that amazing matte glass finish.

The design of the V40 is effectively a G7 scaled up to fit the larger screen. Even still, this isn’t a huge or particularly unwieldy phone compared to the Galaxy S9+ and Note 9 — dimensions land within 1-2mm. It’s tall, for sure, but importantly it’s narrow, thin and light. The metal frame has a high-gloss finish on its rounded exterior that flows directly into the glass curves on the front and back. LG has also deployed a fantastic new matte finish on the V40’s rear glass, which reduces fingerprints and adds grip. It’s a frosted-style finish that’s gorgeous — but disappointingly, it isn’t available on the Aurora Black color, which is one of two options in the U.S. You’ll also have the choice of Moroccan Blue, which I will instantly recommend to anyone over black purely based on the feel.

LG basically made its own Galaxy S9+ — and that’s probably a fine strategy.

The rest of the hardware rounds out just like the G7 — but that’s a good thing. It has the same button and port layout, BoomBox speaker, headphone jack with 32-bit Quad DAC, IP68 resistance and wireless charging. The phone’s launching on Android 8.1 as well, which is unfortunate with many manufacturers getting Pie out the door — and LG isn’t giving a timeline for the Android 9 update. But for what it’s worth, LG’s making a concerted effort to limit the amount of bloatware and duplicate apps on the V40, which I can always applaud. LG’s integration with Google services continues to run deep, with the Google Feed on the stock launcher, Google Assistant button, Google Lens in the camera, and Google Calendar taking over as the sole calendar app on the phone.

Rather than the month (or more) we’ve waited for so many other LG flagships, the V40 is available for pre-order right away and will release fully on October 18 — an excellent improvement. In the U.S. it will be available from all major carriers, but we don’t yet know unlocked availability. Pricing will give many of you sticker shock: the LG V40 starts at $900, varying between carriers, with Verizon coming in the highest at $980. Pre-orders will receive a DJI Osmo Mobile 2 gimbal and a SanDisk 256GB microSD card, a $260 combined value, which could ease the blow for potential buyers.

See at AT&T
See at Verizon
See at T-Mobile
See at Sprint

Regardless of any pre-order incentives, that pricing competes directly with the Galaxy Note 9, and gets undercut by the Galaxy S9+ by $100-150. That may make it a tough sell for a V40 that is closer-matched to the less expensive (and extremely popular) Galaxy S9+. Given LG’s history of quickly dropping prices after launch, though, the V40 could be extremely enticing at the $800 mark in a month or so.

LG V40

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LG V40 ThinQ vs. Samsung Galaxy S9+: Which should you buy?

We’re a virtual company made up of tech experts from across the globe. We live and breathe Android phones, and do extensive research to find all of the best choices.

LG V40 ThinQ

All-arounder

$900+ at LG

Pros

• Fun and interesting triple camera setup
• High-quality headphone DAC
• SD card slot and wireless charging
• Simpler software with Google integrations

Cons

• Phone this large should have a bigger battery
• No high storage option
• Secondary cameras struggle in low light
• Arguably too expensive

LG has made a great all-around capable flagship phone, hitting all of the big points with no real downsides. The V40 has all of the latest specs and features, plus an intriguing five-camera array and huge OLED screen. The only potential worrying point is the proportionately small 3300mAh battery.

Samsung Galaxy S9+

The standard

$815 at Amazon

Pros

• Amazing display
• Great pair of cameras
• SD card slot and wireless charging
• Stereo speakers
• Available with 128 or 256GB storage

Cons

• Software can be cumbersome
• Slower wired charging

The Galaxy S9+ is the flagship phone all Androids are measured by. It consistently outsells the competition for a reason: it has everything people want, with few caveats. Build quality, performance, specs and features are all here, plus a fantastic camera and well-known brand to wrap it all together.

The two South Korean phone makers have arrived at very similar conclusions with their latest flagships. The V40 and Galaxy S9+ are nearly identical in so many areas, choosing between them comes down to just a handful of points — and most of all, personal preferences.

Which phone is right for you?

In the hardware, specs and core features of the smartphone experience, you get basically the same package from either the V40 or Galaxy S9+. They’re near-identical in physical dimensions, and sport the same metal-and-glass construction. Both have good speakers, water resistance, a convenient fingerprint sensor, headphone jack, SD card slot, wireless charging and a huge display.

Even the areas where these phones differ are merely small differences in implementation or personal preference, which means choosing between these phones comes down to the finer points.

They go toe-to-toe in every respect — the differentiation comes in the minute details.

Both phones have great, high-resolution OLED screens — Samsung’s is simply a little better. Both have solid, but unspectacular battery life, though the Galaxy S9+ battery is 10% larger. You can argue Samsung’s main camera is better, but LG offers more variety with its wide-angle camera and dual front-facing shooters. The V40 can charge faster thanks to Quick Charge 3.0 tech, but the jump over the GS9+’s Quick Charge 2.0 isn’t necessarily perceptible. The V40 has a higher quality DAC for headphone listening, but you may not even notice or know what a DAC is in the first place.

These phones have the hardware and specs to be an Android phone you’ll love to use every day.

Really, both of these phones have the hardware and specs to be an Android phone you’ll love to use every day. There are a few differences to take note of in the software department, though. If you haven’t use an LG phone in a few years, it’s worth resetting your expectations with the V40. LG has cleaned up and simplified its experience to the point where it’s generally less cluttered and cumbersome than Samsung’s take on Android — and that is, of course, a good thing. The V40 still has its quirks, but you can turn off its most-annoying features and don’t have to grapple with tons of duplicate apps and bloat. The Galaxy S9+ is infinitely customizable, but the number of features and options can be daunting if you’re just looking for something simple.

Finally, you have to look at the price. With the Galaxy S9+ being several months old, it’s regularly available around $750-800. The new V40 starts at $900, and U.S. carriers have it for as high as $980. Depending on where you go it’ll be about a $150 premium to pick up the V40 — that may be a tough sell for you considering just how similar these phones are.

LG V40 ThinQ

All-arounder

$900+ at LG

A great all-around phone with very few shortcomings, and a fun camera combination.

LG made an amazing flagship phone, and did so by simply following Samsung’s lead. The V40 is effectively a Galaxy S9+, with a few tweaks to make the camera experience a bit more rewarding and the software a bit less annoying. It goes toe-to-toe with the GS9+, and in a few ways bests Samsung’s latest.

Samsung Galaxy S9+

The standard

$815 at Amazon

The benchmark Android phone that does it all, and looks great doing it.

It’s hard to argue with Samsung’s formula. The hardware is beautiful, well-built, and filled with top-end specs and features. The GS9+ has an industry-leading display, fantastic camera and every feature a phone buyer wants. The software just requires some massaging to work the way you need it to.

The LG Watch W7 is a $449 Wear OS smartwatch with physical watch hands

More than just another Wear OS smartwatch.

Alongside the announcement of the new LG V40, LG took the wraps off of its latest smartwatch, the LG Watch W7. This is the first new wearable from the company since the Watch Sport and Watch Style launched in partnership with Google back at the start of 2017. LG is hoping to ride the momentum of launching at the same time as Google’s rollout of a new Wear OS interface, but the company is doing something altogether unique: this is a “hybrid” smartwatch with physical hour and minute hands, like a standard mechanical watch.

At its base, this is a standard Wear OS smartwatch. It has a 1.2-inch circular LCD at 360×360 resolution, Bluetooth 4.2, IP68 resistance, and all of the typical sensors. It’s also worth noting that it’s running the last-generation Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor (LG can’t do a whole lot about that, the new chip just isn’t ready), and has the usual 768MB of RAM and 4GB of storage.

But beyond that, things get a little odd — there’s a small cutout in the center of the display that supports an hour and minute hand to sweep the dial to display the time. The hands run on a quartz movement, like a standard watch, meaning it can keep time independent of the “smart” parts. With regular use the Watch W7 has the usual two-day battery life of other Wear OS watches, but after the “smart” watch dies you continue to get a basic ambient watch face with the moving hands for another two days. You can also switch over to a standalone “just watch mode” and let it only use the physical hands with no display — and get this, it can last for 100 days on a full charge.

This is an old-school solution to a smartwatch-created problem.

So how do you use a smartwatch that has its display obscured by the watch hands? LG has a few tricks. First, this is still a touch screen device — LG was able to separate the “touch” layer from the “display” layer, and place the touch components up against the glass while putting the display underneath the hands. Really neat. In that respect, you can just use the Watch W7 as you would any other smartwatch.

When you’re trying to read something on the screen that’s blocked by the hands, just press a side-mounted button and it will bring the hands together at one position, or separate them (at 12 and 6, or 3 and 9) to get out of the way as best as possible. We don’t yet know how well that’ll work in practice, but LG is at least thinking about the complications of having a display underneath physical hands. Given the relatively low information density of Wear OS screens, this shouldn’t be a huge problem.

For all of that hybrid watch goodness, you’ll pay a bit more than you would expect for a standard Wear OS smartwatch. The LG Watch W7 is $449, sending a signal that it’s focused on quality rather than mainstream appeal. And despite its unique watch hands, it’s available almost immediately — you can get one from Best Buy on October 14.

LG V40

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• LG V40 wish list
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Here’s where you can pre-order the LG V40, and how much it’ll cost

Here’s how much you can expect to pay for LG’s latest.

LG’s going for the extreme high end of the market with the V40, and unlike the G7 earlier this year it has the support of all major U.S. carriers to do it. The V40 starts at $900, which puts it at the absolute top of the range for most people, so carrier financing plans are going to be key to get this phone out the door.

Here’s what you can expect to pay from each carrier and retailer out there, along with all of the current deals and incentives on offer to try and lighten the blow of that price tag.

AT&T

AT&T is promoting its “Next” plan, which gets the monthly cost for the V40 down to $31.67 per month … though that’s spread over 30 months rather than the typical 24-month payment plan. The total price for the phone is $950 all-in.

See at AT&T

T-Mobile

T-Mobile is the cheapest of the big four carriers, coming in at $920. That breaks down to $38.34 per month over the course of 24 months on a regular payment plan, though many of you have T-Mobile’s Jump! program that will get you an upgrade far sooner.

See at T-Mobile

Sprint

Sprint has the V40 listed for $960, or an even $40 per month over 24 months. The carrier’s likely to push its leasing deal, though, which will save you a bit over the course of 12 or 18 months, but you’ll be obligated to upgrade your phone at the end of that period.

See at Sprint

Verizon

Verizon has the highest price tag on the V40, coming in at a smooth $980. That breaks down to $40.84 per month on a 24-month financing plan, which we suppose lightens the burden a bit.

See at Verizon

US Cellular

US Cellular, as it usually does, comes in with the absolute cheapest offer for the V40: just $900, setting the benchmark for the phone’s price. We don’t yet know what the unlocked pricing will be, but US Cellular gives us a good indication of what to expect.

See at US Cellular

LG V40

• LG V40: Rumors, news, specs and more!
• LG V40 wish list
• Do you think you’ll get an LG V40?
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LG V40 specs: 6.4-inch OLED display, 3300mAh battery, five cameras

Everything that’s inside.

The LG V40 doesn’t make a whole lot of changes from the G7 from earlier in the year, but where it does change it’s for the better. You get a larger display, larger battery, a couple spec changes and new camera hardware to look forward to it LG’s new V-series flagship.

Here’s everything you’ll find inside the LG V40.

LG V40

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Apple CEO Tim Cook to Speak at European Data Protection Conference in Brussels Later This Month

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be the keynote speaker at the 2018 International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners, the European Data Protection Supervisor announced today.

Cook will give the keynote speech at “Debating Ethics: Dignity and Respect in Data Driven Life,” a public session of the conference set to take place on Wednesday, October 24.

“We are delighted that Tim has agreed to speak at the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners. Tim has been a strong voice in the debate around privacy, as the leader of a company which has taken a clear privacy position, we look forward to hearing his perspective. He joins an already superb line up of keynote speakers and panellists who want to be part of a discussion about technology serving humankind.”

The session Cook is headlining is meant to start a global discussion on “right and wrong in the development and use of digital technology.”

As TechCrunch points out, Cook’s attendance at the conference comes as U.S. lawmakers are considering online data protection rules similar to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Europe implemented earlier this year.

Apple is a major advocate for privacy and the tech company that is the most invested in protecting consumer data. Cook and other Apple executives speak often on the importance of consumer data privacy.

In a June interview, for example, Cook said that privacy “from an American point of view” is one of the “key civil liberties” defining what it means to be American. He also often points out that Apple’s customers are not its product.

“We could make a ton of money if we monetized our customers,” Cook said in March. “If our customers were our product. We’ve elected not to do that. We’re not going to traffic in your personal life.”

Just yesterday, Cook spoke passionately about privacy and the need for government privacy protections in a VICE News Tonight interview.

I see privacy as one of the most important issues of the 21st century. We’re at a stage now where more information is available about you online and on your phone than is in your house. Chances are, your phone knows what you’ve been browsing, knows your friends, knows your relationships, has all of your photos.

I mean, just think about this and the magnitude of information. We take that seriously. I’m not a pro regulation kind of person, I believe in a free market deeply when the free market doesn’t produce a result that’s great for society, you have to ask yourself what do we need to do? And I think some level of government is important to come out of it at this time.

Cook went on to explain that there’s a need to work with Congress to make sure that tech companies are doing their jobs of helping regulators come up to speed on what’s possible in terms of the data being collected and how it’s being used.

Apple just recently sent longtime employee and Vice President of Software Technology Bud Tribble to a Senate Commerce Committee to offer support for federal privacy regulations, where he explained Apple’s approach to privacy and the company’s effort to minimize the amount of data collected.

To Apple, privacy means much more than having the right not to share your personal information. Privacy is about putting the user in control when it comes that information. That means that users can decide whether to share personal information and with whom. It means that they understand how that information will be used. Ultimately, privacy is about living in a world where you can trust that your decisions about how your personal information is shared and used are being respected. We believe that privacy is a fundamental human right, which should be supported by both social norms and the law.

Cook is likely to share many of the same sentiments again at the data protection conference he’s attending later this month.

Other “Debating Ethics” panel attendees will include World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, philosopher Anita Allen, former chief justice of India Jagdish Singh, HKUST AI research director Pascale Fung, and computer philosophy writer Jaron Lanier.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

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Review: Ten One Design’s Stella Helps You Plug in Your MacBook in the Dark

Ten One Design is known for some useful Mac and iOS products, like the Blockhead that changes the orientation of your MacBook power adapter and the Mountie+ that transforms the iPad into a second screen for a Mac, but it’s newest product, the Stella MacBook Power Cord, is perhaps the company’s most interesting accessory to date.

Stella features a built-in LED that activates whenever it senses a faint electrical field next to an electrical receptacle like a power outlet, resulting in a bright light that comes on whenever you go to plug it in.

The idea behind the Stella is to provide a bit of light when attempting to plug your cord in while it’s dark, which, admittedly, is not a situation that most people are likely to encounter on a regular basis.

Stella snaps onto a MacBook’s power adapter where the extension cable would normally go, essentially replacing the standard Apple extension cable (or short prong portion). The part of the Stella that connects to the power adapter is white and it looks rather similar to the regular extension cable, so there are no surprises there.

The cord of the Stella is made from a nice, flexible braided material that looks great and is a less unwieldy than the Apple branded extension cable. The cable itself is 1.8m long, like the Apple extension cable.

I don’t use an extension cable with my MacBook Pro power adapter because the USB-C cable is generally long enough for most places where I need to plug in, so I do wish that there was an option for a set of light up prongs sans extra cable.

Ten One Design accounted for extra cord, though, with a handy bi-directional slide out clip that can hold the additional wound up cable in place. There’s so much cable that it doesn’t work well on the 29W/30W MacBook adapter, but winds up nicely on the larger 87W MacBook Pro adapter. Because the cord is flexible, it stays wound up neatly.

The Stella website says the cord was designed with the 85/87W chargers in mind, wrapping around them eight times. It also works with the 61W chargers, but you’ll need to wrap it around an additional time or two.

The plug part of the Stella is grooved and shaped in a way that’s simple to grip, and it comes in either blue or aqua. The plug is smaller than the plug of the Apple extension cable, and it is two pronged instead of three pronged. It also takes up less space than a MacBook power adapter without an extension cable, so it’s a good way to save outlet real estate if you have a lot of things plugged in.

The Stella’s LED is located right above the two prongs, and in my testing, it reliably lit up every time it was next to a power outlet, providing sufficient light to find the outlet’s holes even in the darkest room.

It starts lighting up when it’s about a foot away from the outlet, which seems to be an ideal distance. Ten One Designs says this distance can vary, though, depending on the strength of the outlet and based on factors like the material covering the outlet.

Stella also lights up near other devices that are plugged in, so you’ll see it light up if it’s located near your MacBook, your toaster, your TV, or anything else. It needs to be in close proximity, though, so I never found the LED to be irritating.

I didn’t run into any issues with Stella failing to light up, but Ten One Design says that if you hold it sideways against a receptacle it will always light up, which can be useful in situations where an outlet has low signal.

Once plugged in, the light on the Stella goes out within a few seconds, so it’s not going to keep shining in a dark room.

Stella is compatible with all MacBook chargers, 10W and 12W iPad chargers, and PC laptop chargers, though there are different editions for PCs and Macs.

Bottom Line

Ten One Design’s Stella is neat, but it’s something of a novelty. At $34.95, it’s rather expensive when you can just use the flashlight on your phone or a light switch.

Stella is undeniably useful when you might want to plug in your MacBook cable with the lights out, but I can’t imagine that such a situation is a regular occurrence for most people.

Apple’s USB-C MacBooks don’t ship with an extension cable anymore, with Apple instead selling them for $19. Stella is priced at $34.95, which means it’s a $15.95 premium over what you can get from Apple.

Whether that’s worth it for the braided cable and the built-in light will depend on your needs. If you work in the dark a lot or travel often, the Stella is potentially worth the upgrade, but if you’re not moving your power adapter on a regular basis, it’s probably not worth the extra cost.

Ten One Design has said that it plans to license Stella technology to other manufacturers, so it’s possible we may see more useful applications in the future with the light up functionality perhaps added to power adapters of other types, such as those meant for iPhones or iPads.

How to Buy

The Stella MacBook Power Cord can be purchased from the Ten One Design website for $34.95.

Note: Ten One Design provided MacRumors with a Stella MacBook Power Cord for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.

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Wi-Fi Alliance Simplifies Wi-Fi Naming Scheme With Upcoming ‘Wi-Fi 6’ Release

The Wi-Fi Alliance, dedicated to developing new wireless networking standards, is planning to make Wi-Fi naming simpler with the upcoming launch of the newest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ax.

802.11ax will be known as “Wi-Fi 6,” making it easier for Wi-Fi users to understand the difference between 802.11ax, 802.11ac, and 802.11n.

With the launch of Wi-Fi 6, 802.11ac will be known as “Wi-Fi 5,” while 802.11n will be known as “Wi-Fi 4.”

“For nearly two decades, Wi-Fi users have had to sort through technical naming conventions to determine if their devices support the latest Wi-Fi,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance. “Wi-Fi Alliance is excited to introduce Wi-Fi 6, and present a new naming scheme to help industry and Wi-Fi users easily understand the Wi-Fi generation supported by their device or connection.”

Wi-Fi 6 will introduce higher data rates, increased capacity, better performance in dense environments like concerts and sporting events, and improved power efficiency so Wi-Fi won’t eat up as much battery on future devices.

In 802.11ax tests, speeds of up to 4.8Gbit/s over the 5GHz band have been reached. In demonstrations at CES, speeds maxed out at 11Gbit/s.

The new capabilities being introduced are outlined below, as specified by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

• Uplink and downlink orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) increases efficiency and lowers latency for high demand environments
• 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation mode (1024-QAM) enables peak gigabit speeds for emerging, bandwidth-intensive use cases
• Improved medium access control (MAC) control signaling increases throughput and capacity while reducing latency
• Increased symbol durations make outdoor network operations more robust

Wi-Fi 6 is expected to provide performance improvements to smart home setups with multiple Internet of Things devices, as well as businesses and those running large-scale deployments. The Wi-Fi 6 standard is expected to be finalized next year.

Tag: wi-fi
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Apple Looking Into LTE Connectivity Issues Affecting Some iPhone XS and XS Max Owners

Apple is looking into reports that some customers are experiencing LTE connectivity issues with the newly released iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.

According to one iPhone XS Max owner, Apple is conducting an outreach program with some customers who have a new device that is experiencing LTE problems.

Apple has asked him to install a baseband logger to track his cellular connection, presumably to figure out if there are any serious issues that need to be resolved. We’ve heard similar reports from MacRumors readers who have been asked to provide device logs to engineers when troubleshooting the issue.

@reneritchie Apple just reached out to me to see if I could answer some questions about my Xs Max reception issues they’re doing an outreach to some affected users and are asking to install a baseband logger to track my connection to the tower

— Devin Meredith 🇺🇸🧐 (@Devmer11) October 3, 2018

iPhone XS and XS Max owners began complaining about LTE connectivity and signal problems shortly after the two devices launched on September 17. Many users have discovered noticeable differences in cellular reception between iPhone XS models and older iPhones like the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X.

Affected users have noticed fewer bars and poorer signal on iPhone XS and XS Max compared to older devices, but it doesn’t appear to be a universal problem. While some people have complained of weak connectivity and slow speeds, others have noticed LTE improvements, which confuses the issue.

Many of the early complaints came from Verizon users, suggesting there are perhaps carrier firmware issues that need to be resolved, but it’s unclear if carrier firmware is the full extent of the problem.

In the most recent iOS 12.1 beta, Apple updated the modem firmware in the iPhone to version 1.01.20-1, up from 1.01.12 in iOS 12.1 beta 1. On the Verizon network, the iOS 12.1 update also introduces new 33.5.6 carrier firmware.

New firmware on left, iOS 12.1 beta 1 firmware on right
Modem firmware updates are a routine part of major .1 iOS releases, so it’s not yet clear if the new firmware specifically addresses issues that customers have been experiencing with LTE connectivity.

Early reports on the MacRumors forums have, however, suggested that iOS 12.1 does indeed bring some improvements. MacRumors archer75, for example, says the update has doubled his LTE speeds. Other users, though, have said the update does not address LTE problems.

Regardless of whether a fix has been bundled into the iOS 12.1 update, Apple is taking reports of LTE problems seriously and investigating what might be going on, so should this be a software-related issue, a resolution is likely in the works.

Related Roundup: iPhone XSTag: LTEBuyer’s Guide: iPhone XS (Buy Now)
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Razer’s new Sila router is primed to deliver lag-free gaming connections

Although Razer made its start in the gaming space by building sleek laptops, mice, and keyboard accessories, the company seemingly wants to own more of the gaming ecosystem. Newer product categories include a gaming phone and speakers, and today, October 3, Razer is entering the wireless router market. The Razer Sila is a tri-band (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac) router that promises to deliver lag-free gaming connections for $250, or 300 euros, starting today.

“Meet Razer Sila — our first gaming router that isn’t just built to deliver unhindered speed, but lets you prioritize your applications for smooth wireless gaming performance,” Razer said on its website. “Say goodbye to congested Wi-Fi networks and experience reliable throughput anytime and anywhere at home.”

As a router, the Sila shares a similar design language with Razer’s recent phone and Blade 15 gaming laptop. Unlike some other offerings in the space, it doesn’t come with a bunch of protruding antennas, and Razer applied its minimalist design philosophy by housing the router’s nine antennas internally in a slim black box.

To give gamers the connection speeds they crave, the Sila relies on Razer’s FasTrack QoS engine to prioritize bandwidth for gaming applications and manage traffic when there are too many devices in use. “By using deep packet inspection and adaptive learning technology, Razer FasTrack allows users to prioritize traffic based on application and device types, from mobile phones and smart TVs through to laptops, PCs or consoles,” Razer said in a statement. “With built-in detection for PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch consoles, users can easily fine tune their networks for the smoothest gaming or streaming experiences. Razer FasTrack also features a one-touch gaming mode, to automatically reserve bandwidth for online gaming.”

The Sila is an 802.11ac wireless router that also adds support for wireless mesh networking. By linking multiple Sila routers together, users can blanket a larger home or space with fast Wi-Fi coverage. It supports multi-user MIMO and beam-forming technology to improve coverage. And like most modern mesh networking devices, Sila comes with its own companion app, available as a free download on iOS and Android devices, that allows users to quickly setup their routers, manage guest networks, and configure parental controls.

If you prefer to use a wired connection instead, the Sila also comes with four Gigabit Ethernet ports. It has two USB ports, one of which is a slower USB 2.0 port, for connecting devices like a printer or external storage drive.

Though not entirely new to the router market, Razer is heavily promoting its Multi-Channel ZeroWait DFS technology on the Sila. This allows the router to scan and automatically switch you to the best channel to avoid congestion. Razer claims that it “utilizes radar-sensing hardware that grants you exclusive access into normally restricted bandwidth frequencies.” We’ll have to test Sila to see how it performs compared to its peers.

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