Lenovo Phab 2 Pro review: Stumbling out of the gate
I just spent 15 minutes wandering around the office, trying to shoot ghouls in the face with lightning. Before that, I dropped a virtual rococo sofa into the empty space next to my desk, just to see if it would fit. And before that, I measured… well, everything. Welcome to the augmented life, courtesy of Google and Lenovo. Google has spent more than two years taking its “Tango” technology from project to full-blown product. The goal: to help our gadgets examine the world around them and overlay information — or even whole new worlds — on top of the reality we already know. Along the way, Google tapped Lenovo to help craft the first consumer-ready Tango device: an enormous slab of a phone called the Phab 2 Pro. And now it’s here.
If the Tango stuff alone didn’t make the Phab 2 Pro a groundbreaking device, this is also the first Lenovo-branded smartphone to land in the United States. Too bad it’s not quite ready for primetime.
Hardware
I can’t emphasize this enough: The Phab 2 Pro ($500) is enormous. Then again, how could it be anything but? We have plenty of things to thank for that, from the phone’s 6.4-inch IPS LCD screen to the bank of capacitive buttons below it, to the massive 4,050mAh battery under the hood. Of course, the real reason the Phab 2 Pro is so big is because of all the Tango tech Google helped squeeze inside. It’s worth remembering that Google’s Tango reference device for developers was a tablet with a 7-inch screen, one of NVIDIA’s Tegra K1 chipsets and two — two! — batteries.
That Google and Lenovo managed to squeeze all the requisite bits into a mostly pocketable smartphone is a feat unto itself. There are, after all, plenty of non-standard parts here. Just look at the Phab 2’s back if you don’t believe me. Nestled between the 16-megapixel camera and the fingerprint sensor are two more cameras — one has an infrared emitter to determine how far things are from the phone, and the other is a wide-angle camera with a fisheye lens that works as part of Tango’s motion tracking system. Turns out, Lenovo had to punch a hole in the phone’s main circuit board to make room for all those sensors.
Those cameras and sensors work in tandem with a customized version of Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 652 processor. We’ve seen more conventional versions of this mid-range chip pop up in devices like ASUS’s new ZenFone, but the version we have here has been tuned to more accurately timestamp the data captured by all of the phone’s sensors. Why? To keep the phone’s location in lockstep with all the crazy AR stuff you’ll see on screen. Also onboard are 4GB of RAM, an Adreno 510 GPU, 64GB of storage, a micro-USB port and a tray that takes either two SIM cards or a SIM card and a microSD card as big as 128GB.
So, long story short, the Phab 2 Pro is massive, and for good reason. The last time I played with a non-Phab phone this big was three years ago, when Sony launched a version of its Xperia Z Ultra running a clean version Android in the Google Play Store. Since then, the market has coalesced around big smartphones with screens about 5.5 inches big. Years of similarly sized devices, then, means the Phab 2 Pro feels extra unwieldy.
It would’ve been more of a problem if Lenovo hadn’t done such a good job putting the Phab 2 Pro together; the body is carved out of a single block of aluminum and the screen is covered by a sheet of Gorilla Glass that’s ever-so-slightly curved around the edges for that subtle “2.5D” effect everyone seems to love. The aesthetic is pleasant enough if you’re into minimalist design, and big-phone fans are probably going to drool too. If you’re thinking of getting one, though, best if you can get hands-on before taking the plunge.
Display and sound
The 6.4-inch screen on the Phab 2 Pro is indeed massive, but mostly unremarkable. Lenovo went with an “assertive” IPS LCD screen, which basically means the panel can optimize colors and contrast on the pixel level. It’s a handy trick for when you’re traipsing around outdoors — it’s excellent under direct sunlight — but the screen is otherwise forgettable.
Don’t get me wrong: Its 2,560 x 1,440 resolution means it’s still plenty crisp, even if it isn’t as pixel dense as other devices because of how big the panel is. Color reproduction is accurate too, though it’ll definitely feel a little flat if you’re coming from a device with an AMOLED screen like the Galaxy S7. What’s more, brightness is respectable — this screen is just a touch dimmer than the iPhone 7 Plus’ — and viewing angles are also pretty great. I half-expected the screen to be worse since it would have been a likely place for Lenovo to cut corners on a $500 phone.
The sound quality lags behind screen quality, but that’s no surprise. The Phab 2 Pro has a single speaker carved into its bottom edge, which makes for anemic, muddy sounding music, with bass notes utterly lacking in oomph. It’s fine for sound effects in Tango-enabled games, but headphones are otherwise a must. It helps that the Phab 2 Pro ships with a Dolby Atmos app that launches automatically when headphones are plugged in. Included are presets for music, movies, games and voices (say, for podcasts), and in general they added a decent amount of oomph to my audio. Music in particular felt a little punchier and more expansive, though the results seemed to vary from song to song.
Software
Motorola has long been a fan of near-stock Android, and I’m glad its parent company Lenovo seems just as fond of it. The Phab 2 Pro ships with a build of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow that has been left almost completely untouched. Seriously, there are no extra widgets, no visual junk, no bloatware. If you put the Tango-specific stuff aside, there are but a few add-ons: an app for simple file sharing, another for cloud backups, a sound recorder, a Dolby Atmos app for audio tuning and Accuweather. The rest of Lenovo’s work on the software front is much subtler, and largely meant to make using such a big phone easier.
Rather than picking up the phone to see what time it is, for instance, you can toggle an option to wake the device by double-tapping the screen. Still another option causes the lock screen’s PIN input pad and the phone’s dialer pad to slide to the left or right depending on how the Phab 2 is tilted so you don’t have to stretch your thumbs across the screen.
And if you’re in luck if you’ve been looking for a smarter alternative to the traditional home button. There’s an option for a floating on-screen button that provides quick access to all three traditional Android navigation keys, plus the screen lock, calculator, audio recorder and flashlight. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need to whip out a calculator all that often, so the inability to change any of those shortcuts is a little frustrating. You can add a second page of app shortcuts too, though the resulting grid of icons looks pretty ugly.
Lenovo’s light touch with software is appreciated, but it’s far from perfect. Certain apps (here’s looking at you, Gmail) offer notifications that are hard to read because some of the text is too dark against the translucent gray notification shade. The problem is even worse when you’re using a dark wallpaper, and surprise: a good chunk of the included wallpapers, including the one that’s on by default, do indeed fall into that category.
Life with Tango
As I write this, there are 35 Tango apps available in the Google Play Store, and broadly speaking they fall into one of two categories: tools and games. I’m not going to dissect all of them — not unless you all really, really want me to — but there are recurring themes across these apps that speak to the larger experience of living with Tango.
Despite all the whimsical, weird stuff we’ve seen Tango do in the past, Google is making it clear the tech can help you get stuff done too. The Phab 2 Pro ships with Google’s Measure app, for one, which does exactly what its name suggests. Fire up the app, point at something, tap to drop an anchor, then tap to drop an anchor at that something’s endpoint. Congratulations, you just measured something without having to grab a tape measure. The Lowe’s Vision app has a similar trick, and when Tango’s sensors cooperate, the results can be very accurate indeed.
That’s definitely not a given, though. Let’s say you’re measuring the edge of a box or a desk. The depth sensor sometimes has trouble figuring out where the edge begins, and you have to maneuver just right to tap on the correct spot. (To Google’s credit, Measure says it offers estimates instead of hard numbers.)
Tango recurring theme #1: The Phab 2 Pro occasionally fails at figuring out what it’s pointed at, even in bright conditions.
Speaking of, we’ve seen Lowe’s app used in Tango demos for ages now. In fact, the Phab 2 Pro will even be sold in select Lowe’s stores. Even so, it’s still fun filling an empty room with virtual ovens, sofas and end tables. Online retailer Wayfair has a similar app, which generally seems to work much better; the dressers and couches and cabinets I’ve dropped into the world around me were faster to load and didn’t randomly appear right on top of me as in the Lowe’s app. In fact, the Wayfair app is a joy to use at least partially because it doesn’t try to do too much — just plop furniture down and that’s it. Same goes for Amazon’s Product Preview app, which lets you see how different TVs would look on your wall. It does one thing, and does it well.
Tango recurring theme #2: When it comes to augmented reality apps, the simpler the better.
Tango’s tools aren’t just about seeing how junk fits in your home, by the way. One of my early favorites is Signal Mapper, which prompts you to wander around and visualize how strong your WiFi signal is (future versions will support cellular networks too). Keep at it long enough and you’re left with a signal strength heat map that doubles as a rough blueprint of… wherever you happened to be. Then there are apps like Cydalion, meant to help the visually impaired get around more easily. In brief, these apps provide audio and touch feedback when they start getting too close to a nearby object.
Tango recurring theme #3: The technology might not be perfect yet, but the potential here is just astounding.
So yes, there are plenty of Tango utilities for you to play with. But let’s be real: The first thing I did after receiving the Phab 2 Pro was load up a handful of games. As it turns out, though, games are where Tango’s shortcomings become most apparent. We’ve seen some of these augmented reality games before, like Domino World, which scans your surroundings and lets you build convoluted structures out of those tiny tiles. But there’s a tendency for the app to think a flat surface like a tabletop goes on longer than it does, so you’ll often build a long string of dominos that jut out the air, just waiting to be knocked over.
Other games, like Woorld, are heavier on the whimsy. Designed in part by Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, Woorld turns the space around you into a playground where the only real goal is figuring out how to find new pieces — like a sun, clouds, sprouts and picnic tables — to add your tiny domain. It’s cute, it’s fun and I blew the better part of an afternoon on it. Woorld is, by the way, the one game I played that really threw the Phab 2 Pro for a loop. It was the second time I had fired up the game, and less than 10 minutes after I started plopping cottages and clouds and sprouts on a conference room desk, the real-world view provided by the RGB camera nearly ground to a halt.
I’m not exactly sure what caused the issue — maybe a memory leak somewhere — but it hasn’t happened again. Suffice to say, this sort of laggy behavior was an exception, not the rule. I’m actually still surprised that the Phab 2 Pro performed these AR tasks as well as it did, but I probably shouldn’t have been: This phone was supposed to launch at the end of the summer, and it’s clear Google and Lenovo used the extra time to to tighten up
Even so, the software is buggy. Playing Phantogeist, the ghost-blasting game I mentioned in the beginning of this review, was great until said ghost spookily hunkered down inside a wall, rendering my lightning-gun-thing useless. When it wandered back into the field, I nuked it from a distance and continued doing that to all its nasty, non-corporeal friends.
Tango recurring theme #4: When everything works the way it’s supposed to, Tango can feel like magic.
These past two years have turned Tango into a functional product, but it’s a long way from seamlessly good. There were, however, plenty of those moments where everything came together just so and I felt I like I was playing with a tricorder pulled out of storage on the USS Enterprise. Some of these issues will be addressed in future Tango hardware — Google’s Tango program lead Johnny Lee has said more is coming — but here’s hoping software fixes patch up some of these early troubles. The potential benefits are just too great to give up on.
Camera
Since the Phab 2 Pro’s 16-megapixel camera plays such an important role in making Tango’s augmented reality work, you’d think Lenovo would’ve chosen a top-flight sensor. Not quite, but it has its moments. When the conditions are right — by which I mean there’s plenty of light — the camera yields detailed shots with colors that are mostly true to life. Pro tip: You’ll probably want HDR mode on all the time to give your photos a dose of verve that would otherwise be missing.
My biggest gripe so far has been the finicky autofocus, an issue that only gets more bothersome in low light. Our office already has a Christmas tree in the lobby, and it posed no problem for the iPhone 7 Plus or the Galaxy S7. The Phab 2 Pro, on the other hand, refused to lock onto the tree no matter how many times I tapped to focus on the screen. This doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s a pervasive enough issue that Lenovo should really issue a software update to address it.
I wish I could say the 8-megapixel front camera was better, but it has a lot of trouble accurately rendering colors in selfies. Take me, for example: Around this time of year I’m sort of a pale, milky coffee color, an observation backed up by selfies taken with the iPhone 7 Plus and the Galaxy S7. For reasons beyond comprehension, though, the Phab 2 Pro’s front camera made me a deep orange-brown. That’s with the face-smoothing mode off and everything else set to auto too. Seriously disappointing, Lenovo.
The camera app itself isn’t much to write home about, either. Sure, there might not be much in way of manual controls, but there are eight scene modes, a “touchup” mode for cleaning up your face in selfies and some basic white balance and exposure controls. The thing is, they’re tucked away inside a settings menu making them easy to miss. It’s just bad design. (Then again, looking at the interface Lenovo slapped together, is another bit of bad design really a surprise?)
Since the Phab 2 Pro is all about augmenting reality, it’s no shock that there’s an AR mode within the camera app too. Tapping the AR button brings up a live view of what’s in front of you (duh) along with options to turn that space into some sort of bizarre fairy garden (complete with freaky child-fairy) or a playground for a kitty, a puppy or a chubby, oddly designed dragon. Sound familiar? These sorts of AR tricks figured prominently in Sony smartphones like the Xperia X line, where they were just as hokey. They’re good for a chuckle or two, but the novelty doesn’t last long (unless you have kids). At least the Phab 2 Pro does a better job dispelling the heat that tends to build up during intense AR kitty play sessions.
Performance and battery life
We’ve already established that, beyond the occasional hiccup, the Phab 2 Pro can keep Tango apps running at a decent clip. But what about everything else? Even though the Snapdragon 625 is specifically tuned for Tango, the Phab 2 Pro should be able to handle most people’s daily routines without issue. My days, for instance, are filled with lots of frantic app launching and multitasking; I’m constantly bouncing between Slack, Outlook, Spotify, Trello, Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud and more for hours on end.
The Phab 2 Pro took that mild insanity like a champ, with occasional stutters punctuating long stretches of smoothness. Not bad. If your day features a lot of hardcore gaming, however, you might want to look elsewhere. Graphically intense games like Asphalt 8 (with the visual settings cranked to the max) sometimes proved to be a little much for the Phab 2 Pro. In other words, don’t freak out if you see the occasional jerkiness or dropped frame. Though this is an important device, you’re not exactly getting flagship-level power.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
Lenovo Phab 2 Pro
AndEBench Pro
14,941
16,164
13,030
8,930
Vellamo 3.0
5,343
5,800
4,152
4,922
3DMark IS Unlimited
28,645
29,360
26,666
17,711
GFXBench 3.0 1080p Manhattan Offscreen (fps)
46
48
47
14
I was also expecting more from the Phab 2 Pro’s 4,050mAh battery — it’s the biggest I’ve seen in a recent smartphone, after all. The usage time skewed more middle-of-the-road than I expected, but that’s still sort of a win after all the time I’ve spent playing with Tango apps. Since seeing the sun for any appreciable period of time now requires me to be up early, I usually pulled the Phab 2 Pro off its charger at around 6:45AM, then put it through the daily wringer, with lots of time to get acquainted with Tango. I mean, who could resist?
Over the course of a few days like that, the phone settled into a predictable pattern: It’d power through 12-hour workdays just fine with about 10 to 15 percent left in the tank. On weekends where I spent much less time glued to the phone, it generally stuck around for closer to two days on a charge.
Things were a little less promising in Engadget’s standard rundown test, wherein we loop a high-definition video with the phone connected to WiFi and the screen’s brightness fixed at 50 percent. The Phab 2 Pro lasted for 12 hours and 8 minutes — 20 minutes less than the Google Pixel, and a full two hours less than the larger Google Pixel XL. Such is the downside of having to power such a big display.
Wrap-up
The Lenovo Phab 2 Pro is an incredible thing, and it’s just brimming with potential. It’s also unpolished and frustrating to use a lot of the time. When the hardware and software don’t come together as they should, it makes me wish Google and Lenovo spent a little more time ironing out the bugs. But when everything does come together — which happens frequently — I feel like I’m playing with something from the future.
Even so, there’s work to be done. Hardly any of the Tango apps available for the Phab 2 Pro feel like killer apps. As developers continue to get a feel for what Tango is capable of, we’ll see the platform become more useful — at least, I hope so. Part of that growth hinges on people starting to adopt Tango devices like the Phab 2 Pro, but it’s pretty clear that in its current form, no one needs this phone. For all Lenovo’s work cramming Tango into a well-built body, the Phab 2 Pro still feels like a proof of concept. If you’re a developer or an early adopter, then by all means, go get one.
Everyone else should remember that Tango doesn’t end with this phone. It’s special, it’s immersive and I think it could be huge for the future of mobile computing. It just needs time. I’m glad the Phab 2 Pro exists, but if there were ever a phone that wasn’t meant for everyone, this is it. The race is on now, though, and who knows: Maybe the next device with this tech is the one that truly delivers on Tango’s promise
Lutron Caseta In-Wall Wireless Smart Lighting Kit review – CNET
The Good Lutron’s in-wall smart switches are reliable performers that work with Alexa, Nest, IFTTT, Apple HomeKit and more. The well-designed Lutron app is easy to use, and offers plenty of helpful features, including geofencing, scene management, and a security mode that’ll help make it look like you’re home when you’re not.
The Bad Lutron won’t let you program your lights to fade on or off over a custom length of time, and the Lutron Bridge requires a hardwired Ethernet connection to your router.
The Bottom Line These are the best-performing, most fully-featured smart switches currently available, and well worth the money if you’re serious about connected lighting.
Visit manufacturer site for details.
If you’re thinking of replacing your light switches with smart, app-enabled switches you can automate or control remotely, then Lutron belongs right at the top of your list. It’s not particularly close, either.
Put simply, these are the best smart switches money can currently buy. We’ve been testing them throughout the CNET Smart Home for months now, and they’re reliable, well-designed, easy-to-use, and loaded with helpful features. Plus, they work with just about everything: Alexa, IFTTT, Nest, Wink, Apple HomeKit — you name it.
A two-switch starter kit with the mandatory Lutron Bridge retails for $190, which definitely isn’t cheap — especially considering that Belkin WeMo Light Switches cost about $50 each, and don’t require any bridge at all. But, after testing both options extensively, I’m convinced that Lutron is the far superior choice, and well worth the extra cash. It’s smart lighting that actually feels smart, and a clear Editors’ Choice-winner for the connected home.
Lutron lights up the smart home with connected…
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Installation and design
Each Lutron switch requires you to connect three wires: line, load and ground.
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In terms of looks, Lutron lands right in the smart switch sweet spot. Available in a variety of colors and tones, each switch looks appropriately fancy, yet still understated enough to blend in with most home decor.
That balance applies to the way you use the switches, too. Pressing the button at the top brings the lights to full brightness, while the button at the bottom fades them out. The buttons in the middle allow for fine adjustments. The smooth, gentle fades from setting to setting make each light feel like a high-tech, luxury fixture, but the controls are still perfectly familiar to anyone who’s ever used an ordinary old dimmer switch before.
Installing the switches is a cinch, so long as you’re comfortable flipping the power off at the breaker. All you’ll need is a screwdriver and a few minutes to swap one out. Just connect the three wires — line, load, ground — then screw the switch into place, snap the base plate over top of it, and flip the power back on at the breaker.
You’ll need to keep the Lutron Bridge plugged into your router.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
From there, you’ll need to plug the Lutron Bridge into your router via Ethernet cable and connect to it using the Lutron app on your Android or iOS device. Then, you’ll pair each switch with the Bridge one at a time by holding a button down when the app tells you to (each Bridge can manage up to fifty devices). If you’re just talking about the two-switch starter kit, getting up and running should only take you about 30 minutes, if not less.
The Caseta switches communicate using Lutron’s proprietary “Clear Connect” wireless protocol, a radio frequency designed for reliability and to minimize interference. The Bridge’s job is to act as translator between the switches and your home network. You can also use the Wink Hub to control your Caseta gear, but you’ll lose out on Apple HomeKit compatibility.
Lutron wouldn’t share any specifics on the steps it takes to keep Clear Connect transmissions and customer data secure, but the nearly sixty-year-old company has a good track record here. A spokesperson adds, “Lutron’s first principle is to take care of the customer. Lutron adheres to and/or exceeds industry standards when it comes to the security of our products and protecting our customers.”
Lutron’s app is well-organized and easy to use, and even lets you customize the way things look with preset themes or pictures from your own home.
Screenshots by Ry Crist/CNET
All about the app
Lutron’s app is a snappy standout, with a clean, neatly-organized design and customizable themes. You can tap to control individual lights right from the home screen, or setup preset lighting “scenes” to activate with a tap later. Those scenes can also include Lutron’s Serena shades if you have any.
2016 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack review – Roadshow
The Good The car has just enough power to make you feel like a badass. The nostalgia value is high with this one.
The Bad No Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
The Bottom Line Starting at $37,995, the 2016 Challenger R/T Scat Pack provides an excellent value for muscle-car enthusiasts.
I’ve always said the Dodge Challenger is the only big car that would make me cheat on my own little Miata, but that claim has been based on emotion. I’d never actually driven one, just admired them from afar.
That, my friends, has finally changed.
Emme Hall/Roadshow
I slipped behind the wheel of the 2016 Challenger Scat Pack at an old airstrip. Too impatient to worry about launch control, I slammed my foot on the skinny pedal on the right and held on to the wheel for dear life. The 6.4-liter V8 engine produced a glorious noise as the eight-speed automatic transmission blipped through the gears, and suddenly I was approaching the end of the runway at 140 mph.
Yowza.
It’s been great to see the muscle car wars of the 1970s heat up in the new millennium. Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet have been pulling out all the stops, trying to turn their high-horsepower drag strip kings into machines that can also conquer the twisties.
Emme Hall/Roadshow
At 485 horsepower and 475 pound-feet of torque, the Challenger Scat Pack lies below the crazy-pants 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat. But the Hellcat starts at $64,195, and good luck finding one at that price as dealer markups have been a bit out of control. The Challenger R/T Scat Pack starts at a much more reasonable $37,995 and gets a cool drag-racing bumblebee badge.
Frankly, I was surprised at the relative nimbleness of the Challenger. At 4,200 pounds, it’s a relatively heavy beast, but it handles better than I expected. My test model arrived with the optional 20-inch forged-aluminum wheels, wrapped in 245/45Z all-season performance tires. It would be interesting to see how the Challenger would perform with some good Michelin Pilot Super Sport or Pirelli P Zero summer tires.
On rougher roads, the Challenger’s ride quality suffers from its stiff Bilstein suspension. It’s fine for daily driving, but I found myself avoiding broken pavement when I could.
Power goes to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission, a $1,400 option over the standard six-speed manual. Although I always prefer the manual option, this ZF automatic shifts quickly on its own or lets you blip the paddle shifters in manual mode. In the Challenger, it enables cylinder deactivation, giving the car EPA fuel economy of 15 mpg city and 25 mpg highway, up to 2 mpg better than the manual.
Apple Watch Series 2 Nike+ review – CNET
The Good A bright display, onboard GPS and waterproof to 50 meters. Integration with Nike+ Run Club. Comfortable strap and comes with two exclusive Nike watch faces.
The Bad GPS battery life is short. No altimeter for measuring elevation. Workout data can’t be exported to other services. Lacks always-on display.
The Bottom Line If you’re a loyal Nike user, this is the Apple Watch to get, but it’s really just an Apple Watch Series 2 with a few minor changes. There are cheaper alternatives for pure fitness and run tracking.
If you’re ready to run and want an Apple Watch, you should know there’s a Nike edition available this year. Do you care? Should you care? Well, no, not unless you’re addicted to Nike+, the shoemaker’s fitness tracking system.
The Apple Watch Nike+ Edition isn’t all that different from the Apple Watch Series 2. It’s the same size and weight, and it can be used to make phone calls (when your iPhone is connected) and run apps. It also features the same ultra bright display, dual-core processor, GPS and swim-proof design as the Series 2.
The difference is the integration with the Nike+ Run Club app. You also get an exclusive silicone two-tone strap and two exclusive Nike watch faces. Essentially, this is the same Apple Watch we already like — you can read our full review on the Apple Watch Series 2 here.
I’ve logged more than 100 miles testing both the Series 2 and Nike+ Edition over the past few weeks. Both watches get the job done, but unless you’re set on a full-blown smartwatch, there are arguably better and cheaper alternatives to consider for running and overall fitness tracking.
What’s different?
The Apple Watch Series 2 and Nike+ Edition both start at $369, £369 or AU$529, but that’s for the smaller 38 mm model. Most people will likely opt for the larger 42 mm model, which will cost you $30, £30 or AU$50 extra. Here’s everything the Nike+ model can do over the Series 2:
- The Nike+ Run Club app comes preloaded on the watch and works with exclusive Siri commands, such as asking her to start a run. The app also offers daily motivation through run and weather reminders — exclusive to the Nike+ Edition — and will show when a friend has ran more miles than you.
- The watch comes with a lightweight, breathable (i.e. it has holes in it) two-tone silicone strap that’s exclusive to the Nike+ model. Color options include black and silver bands with accents in either gray, white or yellow-green (a shade Apple calls “Volt”).
- It also has two exclusive Nike watch faces (a digital one and an analog one) that can be personalized to show activity data and heart rate, or provide quick access to the Nike+ Run Club and weather apps.
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Features
The Apple Watch is waterproof up to 50 meters (164 feet), has GPS, an optical heart-rate sensor, all-day fitness tracking and can run dozens of third-party apps. There’s also 8GB of storage, 2GB of which can be used for music storage (about 500 songs). When connected to your iPhone, it can be used to make calls, respond to messages and view incoming notifications from apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
Running features vary from app to app. I used both the default Apple workout app and the Nike+ Run Club app, which includes auto pause and auto lap, and will display pace, distance, elapsed time and beats per minute. That’s all most people will want (and need), but given the high price I was expecting the Apple Watch to do a little more. The Garmin Forerunner 35 offers all of these features, can display notifications from your phone, and includes structured interval workouts and information on specific heart rate zones — all for half the price.
Sony MDR-XB50BS review – CNET
The Good The Sony MDR-XB50BS is affordably priced, sweat-resistant, sounds decent and fits well (it’s easy to get a tight seal). Battery life is good at 8.5 hours and the headphone has strong bass performance.
The Bad Not the greatest-looking wireless sports headphone; performed only OK as a headset; no protective case.
The Bottom Line It’s got some small downsides, but the reasonably priced Sony MDR-XB50BS is a step up in sound from a lot of inexpensive wireless sports headphones.
Sony’s new MDR-XB50BS Extra Bass Sports Wireless in-ear headphone is worth considering for a few reasons: Not only is it relatively inexpensive at around $60 online (£60 or AU$130), but just as importantly it fits well and sounds good, particularly if you listen to bass-heavy music.
A bit clunky-looking, it isn’t the smallest in-ear wireless headphone, with a footprint around the size of the Beats Powerbeats3 Wireless (which is, in turn, three times more expensive). However, it’s fairly lightweight, and fit me better than the Powerbeats3, though the Powerbeats3′ ear hooks are beneficial in keeping the earphones on your ears.
The MDR-XB50BS comes with a few different size fins and eartips, and I was able to get a nice tight seal with the large size of both, and that seal was crucial for maximizing bass performance. This is a noise-isolating headphone and it does passively muffle ambient noise pretty well, so you won’t be able to hear traffic while you’re running if you’re playing your music even at moderate volume levels.
The headphones come with three different sizes of eartips and sport fins.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Speaking of running with these earphones: While I got a snug fit and the headphones stayed in my ears just fine walking around New York City and while lifting weights at the gym, I did notice a little bit of slippage when I ran with them. For me anyway, the fin wasn’t locked in my ear quite as well as I thought it was. To be clear, everybody’s ears are shaped differently, and these may lock very well in your ears. But I’m just passing along my experience, which left me with some doubts about whether they’d be the perfect fit for runners.
Battery life is rated at 8.5 hours, which is decent, and the headphone is water-resistant but not waterproof. I can’t say they seem like the sturdiest headphones in the world, but they do only cost $60.
HP Spectre x360 (late 2016) review – CNET
The Good The new HP Spectre x360 is a durable, stylish and light machine with a comfortable keyboard, touchpad, long battery life and a crisp backflipping touchscreen. Extras include excellent speakers, USB-C charging and Windows Hello face login.
The Bad Only one full-size USB port. No HDMI output or SD card slot. The fan is noisy and spins up frequently. The size tradeoff doesn’t justify the missing features.
The Bottom Line The new HP Spectre x360 is an excellent laptop with a lot to offer in a small package, but it’s only incrementally better than the previous model, and leaves out some useful features.
If your laptop could be thinner, lighter and smaller with the same great battery life and performance, would you celebrate? Or complain about all the missing ports?
That’s not a rhetorical question, it’s the deciding factor when you consider the latest version of the HP Spectre x360.
Earlier this year, I called the 13-inch Spectre x360 one of my favorite laptops, because it didn’t force me to compromise. It offered powerful processors, long battery life, a beautiful backflipping hybrid screen, a relatively thin aluminum frame plus enough ports to plug in two monitors, a mouse, keyboard, a USB thumb drive and my camera’s SD card simultaneously.
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The HP Spectre x360 has slimmed down.
Josh Miller/CNET
Starting at $1,049 or AU$2,299 (UK availability TBD) the new, slightly revamped version of the HP Spectre x360 is just as good in almost every way — but it’s missing a lot of those ports. Like Apple with its new MacBook Pro, HP chose thinness over utility.
HP Spectre x360 (late 2016)
| $1,099 in the US, AU$2,299 in Australia |
| 13.3-inch 1,920×1,080 touch-display |
| 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-7500U |
| 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,866MHz |
| 128MB dedicated Intel HD Graphics 620 |
| 512GB SSD |
| 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.2 |
| Windows 10 Home (64-bit) |
Personally, I’d buy last year’s laptop. The same point goes for last year’s MacBook Pro if you need HDMI or USB-A ports. But I’m not you. Here’s what you need to know about HP’s new Spectre to make the right call.
Sony PlayStation 4 Slim review – CNET
The Good The newer PS4 has a smaller footprint, slick design, quieter operation and keeps intact all of the PS4 awesomeness it’s offered since 2013. The slightly updated DualShock4 controller is a bonus.
The Bad The slim PS4 loses its optical audio port, which will be a bummer for third-party headphone users. The somewhat pricier PS4 Pro delivers a larger hard drive and the promise of better graphics.
The Bottom Line The PS4 Slim is a deja vu game console: great for gamers on a budget, not quite as good as the PS4 Pro and skippable for any existing PlayStation 4 owner.
There are really only three things you need to know about the PlayStation 4 Slim.
- If you already have a PS4, you can ignore this model. It’s basically the exact same hardware, just in a smaller case.
- If you’re in the market for a new PS4, you should first consider the PS4 Pro, the step-up model with a larger hard drive and (potentially) better 4K-friendly graphics.
- If you don’t have a 4K TV and you’re a first-time PS4 shopper on a budget, the PS4 Slim may well be a great option for you.
If none of that quite makes sense, don’t worry. Here’s why Sony currently has two PlayStations on the market, and how they differ from one another.
The PlayStation 4 Pro arrived in early November and retails for $399 in the US, £349 in the UK and AU$559 in Australia, though deals abound online.
The redesigned version of the baseline PS4, which everyone calls the “PS4 Slim” because it’s even more svelte than the original 2013 model, sells for $300, £225 in the UK and AU$440 with an included game. You can find both PlayStation models with hefty discounts during the holiday shopping season.
Both new PS4 models run the same games and can use the same accessories, including Sony’s PlayStation VR headset. But the Pro is designed to offer sharper graphics when connected to a 4K TV, if and when you play a specific title that’s gotten a software patch to enable the better visuals. The problem? In the handful of initial 4K-friendly games we viewed, we didn’t see a huge difference from the non-enhanced version running on an identical TV from an old-school PS4.
Sony’s PlayStation 4 Slim meets its fatter,…
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That may well change in 2017 when we see the first batch of games designed from the ground up to take advantage of the Pro’s more powerful hardware. Early peeks at Horizon: Zero Dawn and Days Gone, for instance, looked promising. But even without the better graphics on day one, the PS4 Pro’s larger 1TB hard drive and the knowledge that you’re getting a degree of futureproofing might be worth that $100 extra for some.
Where does that leave the PS4 Slim? The internal hardware is basically identical to the earlier 2013 model, just crammed into a smaller housing. In other words, there are zero reasons for existing PS4 owners to get one. And the PS4 Pro should be the first stop for gamers looking to finally take a leap into the PlayStation realm (if you have have a 4K TV). But with sale prices as low as $250 — with Uncharted 4 included — the PS4 Slim is at least a great budget game system, and one that doubles as a solid Blu-ray player and video streamer to boot.
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
What’s different? Not a lot
So what’s different about the PS4 Slim? For the most part, just the plastic body. It’s rounded now instead of pointy at the ends and it’s surprisingly thin. In fact, I wouldn’t stand it vertically without the optional stand Sony sells. I also like the tactile power and eject buttons on the front left side. Sony had replaced the overly sensitive touch ones in later runs of the original PS4, but these are even better.
The console itself does run quieter than the original PS4, but I’m not sure it runs much cooler. The PS4 Slim seems to warm up just like its predecessor does, but it handles the heat just fine.
Thankfully, the Slim also lets you easily swap hard drives: any 2.5-inch laptop SATA drive (including solid-state models) up to 6TB should work.
Snapchat Spectacles review – CNET
The Good Do you use sunglasses? Do you like Snapchat? Then these are made for you. You actually film what you see and the battery lasts a loooong time.
The Bad They only work with Snapchat. You can’t really wear regular glasses with them.
The Bottom Line If you use Snapchat, you’re going to want a pair of these.
Visit manufacturer site for details.
I use Snapchat all the time but I still wasn’t expecting to like Spectacles as much as I did.
They do one thing — record video for Snapchat — but they do that one thing really well.
I took them to the beach, jumped on trampolines, dodged balls, climbed a pyramid play structure, watched the sunset and played tennis with them. A whole lot of fun captured from my point of view.
Regardless of age (or activity), if you use Snapchat a lot, Spectacles opens up the possibility to capture hands-free, phone-free moments.
Before I go any further, here’s a cheat sheet review in case you’re already feeling the need for a TL;DR.
What I like
1. They feel like regular sunglasses and they look pretty good on just about everyone.
2. Video quality is great for Snapchat. If the light is good you’re getting a pretty decent picture.
3. Spectacles record circular video. You can rotate your phone to see more of the image.
View full gallery Lexy Savvides/CNET
4. Filters, emojis and text. Once the video’s in Snapchat, it’s just like editing a regular snap.
5. They don’t need to be connected to a phone to work, only when you want to view and post snaps.
6. They won’t fall off your face if you jump around or play sport.
What I don’t like
1. You look like an idiot wearing them indoors, at night or with prescription glasses underneath.
2. Spectacles only work with Snapchat.
3. No face filters (aka lenses) allowed. Sorry, those funny Snapchat face swaps and Bambi ears won’t happen here.
4. The audio is good, but not great. It picks up sound pretty well from the wearer so narrating the action is what you’ll end up doing most of the time.
5. Mirror selfies. Unless you take off the glasses or have a friend wear them to film you, selfies are hard.
6. Spectacles take video only. No still images.
View full gallery James Martin/CNET
Who would want Spectacles?
- Athletic types: Unless you’re going bungee-jumping or riding a rollercoaster, they’re probably not going to fall off your face. I wore them playing trampoline dodgeball and they didn’t budge.
- Parents: Being able to film your kids (or pets!) hands-free is probably worth the price of admission. I played fetch with a dog and captured ten awkward seconds of him not returning the ball, perfect Snapchat footage.
- Someone who wants to be part of the action: They’re on your face so they don’t get in the way and other people are less likely to be weirded out when being filmed. (Try not to be such a creeper.)
- Anyone who needs a point-of-view perspective: You can see what I see. Cooking, dancing, singing, hands and all.
Polk MagniFi Mini review – CNET
The Good The affordable Polk MagniFi Mini is capable of a much bigger sound than its minuscule size suggests. The package is compact and will fit easily into most living room setups. The ability to Cast directly from your phone simplifies music streaming.
The Bad The Wi-Fi connection on my test unit was unreliable, and the ARC-only HDMI input limits connectivity somewhat.
The Bottom Line The Polk MagniFi Mini’s mix of features, performance and compact size makes it one of the best sound bars for the money.
If the prospect of a traditional home-theater setup with a half-dozen speakers and a bulky receiver doesn’t thrill you, you may want to a consider a sound bar. These small speakers are discreet, easy to set up, and sound much better than your TV’s speakers. And they don’t come smaller or better-sounding for the money than the Polk MagniFi Mini.
Flexible and affordable, it sounds adept with both movies and music and includes some must-have features. The best is Google Cast, which enables easy streaming from your phone, works with numerous music apps, and even make the MagniFi Mini part of a whole-house music setup. While I found the Mini’s connectivity a bit quirky, it’s nonetheless an excellent buy.
Design
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
Everything small is big again. While some gadgets have grown in size, like TVs and cell phones, the prevailing trend in the AV world is toward smaller devices. It applies to everything from Blu-ray players to receivers to sound bars
.
The Polk MagniFi Mini is tiny compared to most other sound bars, just 13 inches wide and three inches high. Although constructed of plastic and cloth it’s pleasing enough to the eye. Its small size means also means it’s less likely than many bars to block your TV’s infrared remote control sensor.
A set of lights on the front of the unit are designed to inform you of volume and input selection, although they’re mostly incomprehensible for the latter. At least there’s a limited number of inputs, and so switching until you find what you want is easy.
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
Unlike some other sound bars, the Mini needs to sit upright and can’t be wall-mounted, though you could put it on a small shelf. The included wireless subwoofer is minimalist and constructed of hollow-sounding plastic, although it’s attractive for the breed.
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
Usually inexpensive sound bars come with dinky credit card remotes, but not the Polk. Some thought has obviously gone into the Mini’s clicker, with its ergonomic design and clearly marked buttons.
Features
The MagniFi Mini is a 2.1-channel sound bar with a wireless subwoofer. The main unit includes two 12mm tweeters and four 2.25-inch drivers, two of which are angled to the side for what Polk calls “SDA sound.” The subwoofer features a downward-facing 6.5-inch driver and port.
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
Connectivity is a little better than what you’d expect for a $300 sound bar, with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, optical, a 3.5mm input and HDMI. The HDMI port is a bit strange, though. In my testing I found that its Audio Return Channel (ARC) functionality will only work with a TV — specifically for listening to onboard sound from smart TV or an OTA tuner. If you have a Blu-ray player or other device, you’ll need to use one of the other connections, say optical, or connect it to the TV directly (provided that the TV supports ARC). If your TV doesn’t support ARC, you’ll have to use another connection.
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
Polk has a long-standing relationship with DTS’ Play-Fi wireless technology, so I found it a bit surprising that MagniFi ditches it in favor of Google Cast. Given the potential of products such as the Google Home and the Chromecast Audio, however, Cast has the potential to actually challenge Sonos in the messy multiroom music race. So it’s definitely a welcome alternative.
Star Wars Battle Quad Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Your squadron has been wiped out, and your battered X-Wing fighter is the Rebel Alliance’s last hope. As you desperately swoop and streak through space, screaming out of the stars comes Darth Vader in his TIE Advanced fighter, lasers blasting… Until you use the Force to flip your X-wing in a daring corkscrew roll and blast the Sith Lord out of the sky. Pew-pew!
“Good shot, kid! Now come inside, it’s time for your dinner.”
Yes, if you’ve ever wanted to graduate from bored moisture farmer to epic space pilot, now’s your chance. The new Star Wars Battle Quads from Propel are remote-control toy drones that challenge each other in glorious recreations of the dogfights from George Lucas’ classic movies.
Pick a side and take to the stars of a galaxy far, far away.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
Choose from a rebel T-65 X-wing Star Fighter, Darth Vader’s Imperial TIE Advanced X1 or a 74-Z speeder bike from “Return of the Jedi”, complete with Imperial Scout Trooper figure to ride it. They’re on sale in special edition packaging in December, and a Millennium Falcon model will be released in 2017.
A Jedi cares not for money, which is just as well as the Battle Quads cost a whopping £230 or $240 each. (Australian prices weren’t available, but the UK price converts to about AU$390.) Seeing as you need at least two for a dogfight, that’s quite an investment.
The models look perfect, hand-painted and packed with detail. There are some compromises to drone flight, such as vents in the TIE fighter’s wings and the little front legs required to hold the rotors. But the rotor blades are transparent and the vents are cleverly incorporated into the design, leaving the drones looking pleasingly like their on-screen counterparts.
Fly to a galaxy far, fay away with the Star…
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What really sells the Star Wars-iness is the sound. Above the high-pitched whirr of the drones, your controller plays sounds, music and quotes from the movies that take you right into the famous space battle scenes.
The snippets of dialogue react to the action with phrases such as “Stay on target”, “I can’t shake him!” and “Good shot kid!” The music and sound effects help to really draw you into the Star Wars universe. The signature laser-blast “pew-pew!” noises are the absolute best.
The attention to detail even extends to the packaging. When you open each box, it lights up and plays music from the films. Each vehicle has a different soundtrack and dialogue clips. And the Easter eggs keep on coming: the tiny screwdriver required to install the batteries is shaped like a tiny lightsaber.
Even the box is packed with Star Wars detail, including familiar lights and sounds.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
The drones fire lasers at each other when battling. Up to 12 drones can fight each other at once. They interact with each other, counting down how many lives you have left when you’re hit.
Use the Force
- Watch this Star Wars fan film shot using drones
- Millennium Falcon drone is the coolest hunk of junk in our galaxy
- What I learned from watching Star Wars in the wrong order
You have three lives, and when you’re hit a third time the drone falls from the sky. They’ll even tell you if another drone is running short of lives so you know who to target.
Each Battle Quad goes from 0-35 mph in 3 seconds, topping out at 40 mph.
As well as swooping and speeding around in the sky, the drones can pull off nifty corkscrew rolls. Touch the shoulder buttons on the controller and the drone will flip right over.
You’ll get 6 to 8 minutes of flight from one charge. Rechargeable batteries are included.
There are a couple of training options if you’re new to drone flying. You can set a height ceiling so your drone can’t shoot off and disappear or fly over a fence. Or you can learn to fly without actually taking to the sky, with a simulator app game that you play using the actual controller to steer a digital version of the drone on your phone’s screen. You’ll be bullseyeing womp rats in no time — but don’t get cocky.
‘Rogue One’: Meet the characters and costumes
Take a closer look at the costumes worn by the rebels and villains of the new Star Wars movie.
by Jonathan Garnham
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