Huawei Mate 9 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
If you’ve just had to send back your Samsung Galaxy Note 7 before it catches fire and you’re struggling to decide what to replace it with, Huawei’s new Mate 9 phone might be the answer.
It’s a beefy phablet, packing a 5.9-inch display into an all-metal body. The display’s resolution is only full HD (1,920×1,080 pixels) — which is a step below the 2,560×1,440-pixel display of the Note 7. That said, there are enough pixels on screen to make text look nice and crisp.
Beyond the display, the phone runs an octa-core Kirin 960 processor, which Huawei claims is “the fastest processor [it has] built.” It certainly seemed nippy during my hands-on time with the phone, but we’ll be putting it through its paces properly in the full review. Huawei also says it’s made a whole bunch of software tweaks to keep it running smoothly over time.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
I’ve not been too keen on Huawei’s software before now because it changes so much of the stock Android interface that it ends up feeling quite bloated and sluggish. It’s been toned down somewhat this time round, which I’m hoping will make for a more pleasant experience when using the thing. At its core though, it’s running the latest version of Android Nougat.
The back of the phone is home to the same dual-camera setup that we’ve seen already on its P9 phone. While one 12-megapixel sensor takes photos in colour, there’s another 20-megapixel sensor which is specifically designed to only shoot in black and white. I was really impressed with the P9’s black and white shots — they were rich, detailed and with a really satisfying contrast. I’m hoping for similar results from the Mate 9.
The Huawei Mate 9 has a lot of exciting tech stuffed inside its metal body, and if Huawei has indeed made its software less bloated then it could well be a great handset to consider if you’re after a powerful phablet. It’s due to go on sale globally before the end of the year, although prices have yet to be announced.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
Huawei has also partnered with Porsche Design for a limited edition version of the Mate 9. As well as Porsche Design branding, the phone will have 256GB of storage, 6GB of RAM and a higher-resolution display. Huawei has yet to confirm where the phone will be available or how many.
Specs and features
- USB-C charging port
- Four microphones for active noise cancellation during calls
- Infrared blaster for controlling TVs
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- 4,000mAh battery with fast charging
- Fingerprint scanner
- 64GB storage
- 4GB RAM
Google Home review – CNET
The Good With Google Assistant built-in, the Google Home integrates with Google Calendar, Maps and even Chromecast, so it gives you personalized answers. Say the word, and Home can also control your smart home gadgets or send music and video to your TV and speakers.
The Bad The Home can’t personalize for multiple family members, and its integrations with other Google services don’t allow a lot of give and take — you can’t create appointments in your calendar or make a to-do list. As a smart home controller, the Home only works with four platforms.
The Bottom Line While the Google Home shows a ton of potential, it’s currently not as versatile or useful as Amazon’s Echo — though we expect it to improve in the days and months ahead.
Amazon’s Echo is the undisputed king of the nascent smart home market — a tabletop speaker with a disembodied online “smart assistant” named Alexa, available at your beck and call to answer your questions, tell you a joke or control dozens of compatible networked products in your house.
But with the release of the Google Home, Google’s own voice-controlled smart speaker, the Echo is finally getting some serious competition. Google, of course, already knows as much or more about you than Facebook, thanks to your web history, your Gmail metadata and tracking the GPS records on your phone. And now the tech giant is aiming to use that data to out-Alexa Amazon, making the little countertop speaker a friendly face for its search-engine-powered online brain.
Google Home pulls info from your Google account to keep you informed about your calendar appointments, and the traffic on your commute. Home even remembers your previous questions to better answer you in the future. It can also control some of your smart-home gadgets — albeit a fraction of what Echo can — along with your TV and speakers if you have Chromecast video or audio streamers.
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No, that’s not an air freshener, that’s Google Home
For now, as a tool meant to entertain and help you, Google Home lands well past competent, but short of greatness. For $130 (about £100 or AU$170) — significantly less than the cost of an Echo — it admirably fulfills its duties as an entertainer, an assistant and a smart home controller. But Amazon’s assistant Alexa bests Home in the latter two categories.
Simply put: Google Home is not yet ready to dethrone Alexa or the Echo ($180, £150 or about AU$235) as the best always-listening smart home speaker.
But since all of Home’s smarts (like Echo’s) are online, that balance of power isn’t set in stone. Google’s Android went from a one-time iPhone wannabe to the world’s dominant mobile operating system in just a few short years, and Echo is pretty much the iPhone of the smart home world right now.
In other words: Game on, Alexa.
Your new assistant’s first day
The Google Home is on sale for $130 starting tomorrow, November 4. The purchase includes six free months of YouTube Red, the site’s premium ad-free service, which normally costs $10 per month. Home’s price converts to around £100 and AU$170. At launch, you can only buy Home in the US, with other countries yet to be announced.
Getting started with the Google Home is a lot like onboarding a highly qualified human assistant. After downloading the Google Home app, I was up and running with the speaker in minutes, and initially enthralled with how much it could do. Over the course of the first day, however, my initial enthusiasm faded. As assistants go, the Home shows room for improvement.
Without a doubt, though, the Home’s design is excellent. Yes, it bears some resemblance to a canister of Glade air freshener (or Renuzit, if you really want to dial in on Home’s doppleganger), but I like the slick, clean look. The customizable bases snap on and off easily, letting you add a splash of color. The top responds well to touch. You can rotate your finger clockwise or counterclockwise to change the volume, tap to start or stop the music you’re playing, or long press to give the Home a command without saying the wake words, “OK Google,” or “Hey Google.”
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Hard to miss the similarities.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
Right now, here’s what you can ask the Home to do:
- Add items to a shopping list
- Check your calendar
- Set an alarm
- Snooze that alarm
- Set a timer
- Tell you about the weather
- Check traffic for your commute to work
- Play the news
- Answer a question involving a quick Google search
- Perform a calculation
- Call an Uber
- Play a customized daily briefing including traffic, weather and a news briefing you curate with the app
That list doesn’t include what the Home can do as an entertainer or a smart home controller — more on both in just a bit.
The Home app is easy to use on both iOS and Android and integrates the Home with the conversational Google Assistant. Recently showcased in the company’s Pixel phones, the Assistant leverages Google’s services to provide personalized results. However, the Google Assistant on the Home can’t do everything it can do on your phone. Some of the things the Home can’t yet do include:
- Remove items or change your shopping list
- Add entries to your calendar
- Integrate multiple calendars
- Give you directions
- Send directions to your phone
- Create lists other than a shopping list
- Set reminders
- Interact with email
The Home also endeavors to have a personality. Alexa can be positively charming, and Google follows suit by offering Easter egg responses to statements like “I am your father.” Google’s responses, though, tend to either be bland or way over the top. Much like an assistant who’s new on the job, Home’s friendly, but it’s definitely trying too hard.
For more, check out our full breakdown of everything Google Assistant can do, as well as what you can ask it to do on Google Home, specifically.
Let’s talk about privacy
As the Google Home deepens its integrations into every aspect of your life in the service of convenience, the inevitable questions torn from the pages of dystopian science fiction novels become more and more pressing. Is Google listening to me? How safe is my information? How do I weigh privacy against convenience?
With the smart home at the center of recent attacks on the internet, these are worthwhile questions to ask, and the Home probably won’t have the answers to assuage all of your worries. That said, Google’s saying the right things on this front. The Home only records what you say after you activate it with a tap, or with the wake words — same as the Echo. You’ll see it light up in response to know that it’s listening — same as the Echo. In the Home app, you can look over your search history and delete a specific query or clear the history entirely if you’d like — same as the Echo. There’s also a mute button that stops it from listening for its wake word at all — again, same as the Echo.
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7 reasons Alexa is better than Google Home’s built-in Assistant
The art of conversation: Google Home vs. Amazon Echo
As for what the Home hears, its far-field microphones listen well — just be sure to speak clearly if you have a complex command. Most of the time, I talked to the Home without hassle from across the large main room in the CNET Smart Home. The Home heard me from adjacent rooms as well, given clear line of sight, and it even heard me through one wall — though I do have a booming voice.
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Home lights up when it hears you.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
For those with more of an indoor voice, or a place larger than a one-bedroom apartment, you might want multiple Homes so you always have one within shouting distance. Supposedly, if multiple Homes hear your command, only the closest one — the one that hears you best — will respond. Alexa has a similar feature on its Echo devices that works well.
On occasion, the Home wouldn’t respond to commands I know it understands. I’d have to repeat myself and punch up my pronunciation of the consonants. Given how new the Home is, I expected to need patience on occasion. From my experience, the Home’s better than the Echo was when it first launched and roughly on par with where Alexa is now. The Home performs admirably when listening for you over music or background noise, again keeping up with — but not besting — the Echo.
Giving Google Home an ear exam
Can Google Home hear you over background music? I pit it against Amazon Echo and turn up the volume to find out.
by Andrew Gebhart
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Google Home review: The Assistant steps into your living room
The Google Assistant was the big news from the company’s I/O conference earlier this year, but it took months for Google’s true Siri competitor to really arrive. First it was baked into the largely unnecessary Allo chat app, and then it showed up as a flagship feature on the new Pixel phones. Now Google Home is shipping, putting the Assistant a voice command away even when your phone is in your pocket.
Its inspiration is obvious: The $129 Home directly takes on the Amazon Echo. Indeed, many of the features here are the same. But Google is betting that the vast amount of data it stores, combined with the vast amount of data it knows about its customers, can make for a more useful product. It’s a reasonable notion, but Home isn’t quite ready to deliver on the promise of “your own personal Google” just yet.
Hardware
Unlike with a phone you carry every day, or a laptop you type on and stare at for hours, you probably won’t dwell much on the Home’s design. Still, it’s important that it be unobtrusive and inoffensive — otherwise you’re not going to want to put it out in the open, where it’ll work best. Fortunately, Home is small and relatively pleasant to look at, and it offers a few customization options to help you match it to your living space.
Much like Google’s OnHub routers, Home is a contoured cylinder that reminds me of a wine bottle or flower vase. Its front is sloped, so you can see the array of LED lights that light up when you’re talking to the device. You can also tap that front panel to pause music, or run your finger around it in a circular pattern to adjust the volume. Or you can hold your finger on it momentarily to make it listen to your voice if you don’t feel like shouting the “OK Google” activation phrase.
The upper two-thirds of the device are white, but the bottom contains a changeable “base.” Again, it’s similar to the OnHub, which has different “shells” you can swap out. The Home’s default accent is a gray fabric, but I also had a chance to try out a “marine” blue fabric and a copper metal case. They’re super-simple to pop out (and you get a peek at the internal speaker setup while you’re at it). Of course, you’ll need to shell out extra cash for another Home base. Those start at $20 a pop.
Finally, there’s a button that turns off the microphone; the power cord goes into the bottom and is routed through a little opening on the back. All told, Google made a piece of hardware that most people won’t mind having out on a shelf or kitchen counter, and that’s the most important thing here.
In use
OK Google: What can Google Home actually do? That’s the most important question we need to answer in this review. First you’ll need to set up the device, but that’s a painless process, accomplished with the new Google Home app for iOS or Android. (The app already let you set up and manage your Chromecast devices, but it has since been renamed and expanded to include Google Home.) The software detects that you have a new Home device, connects to it, hooks it up to your local WiFi network and asks you to sign in with your Google ID.
Once that’s done, you can start yammering away to your heart’s content. Saying either “OK Google” or “Hey Google” makes the speaker start listening for your query. But what can it do?
The most obvious way to get started is by asking it the same sorts of things you might normally ask Google. What’s the weather outside? How about this weekend? You’ll need to say the command phrase every time you want to ask a follow-up question, but Home remembers the context of your conversation, so you can ask “When was Abraham Lincoln born?” and follow up with “When did he die?” and get the right answer.
The list of things you can ask the Google Assistant is limited only by your imagination, and that’s one of Home’s biggest strengths. Amazon’s Alexa assistant has gotten smarter, but Amazon still doesn’t have access to the same breadth of information as Google. Alexa doesn’t understand context the way the Assistant does either. By comparison, Home and the Assistant are far more conversational.
So you have access to just about everything Google knows — which includes everything Google knows about you. Provided you opt in, of course. But once you have, you can ask Google when your next flight is, or how long it’ll take you to get to work, or what the next appointment on your calendar is. You can ask Home to add things to a shopping list, and that list will then show up in the Google Keep app.
There’s a nifty feature where you can ask Home to tell you about your day and it’ll give you commute info, your first appointment, the weather and any reminders you have set before jumping into a news broadcast. You can choose whether or not you want to hear this broadcast and then pick exactly where you want that news to come from. I have NPR and AP Radio news selected, but there are several dozen options, grouped into different categories. If, for instance, you’d rather hear sports and health news or a rundown of the latest in technology news (I should probably sign up for that one), you can.
It’s great that Home can access info in your Google account, but there are a few catches. Even though anyone can shout “OK Google” and start talking to Home, the device can link with only one Google account at a time. So a spouse or roommate is out of luck in terms of getting any personalized information about their day. This presumably will extend to being able to send text messages from Home, a feature that Google has shown off but hasn’t released yet. Also, some things that you’d expect to work right out of the box, like adding appointments to your calendar, surprisingly don’t.
Since you can use only one Google account at a time, you’ll potentially need to choose between your home and work accounts. Most of my schedule is contained in my work account, but I use my home account for just about everything else. This means it’s basically impossible to get Home to tell me my next appointment. Hopefully, in the future, Home will let you include multiple Google accounts — either for a single person or so that multiple people in the house can make the most of the device.
It’s worth noting, though, that regardless of the use case, Google Home’s voice recognition is excellent. Rarely did it misinterpret what I was asking (though it confused “play U2” with “play YouTube”), and ambient background noise didn’t throw it off. Home reliably woke from sleep and responded to whatever I was saying. I’m not surprised, given how good Google’s voice recognition is on the company’s other products, but it’s particularly important here.
Music and entertainment
Just like on the Echo, Google Home’s speaker is good for more than just talking — it’s also a handy way to play music and podcasts. For now, Home works with Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora and Google Play Music. That isn’t a ton of options, but given that Spotify is the market leader (and Apple Music isn’t likely to work with Google Home any time soon), I can’t really complain. You can even use Home with multiple services, but one will have to be set as the default.
Once you’re set up, Home recognizes a wide variety of music commands. You can ask it to play specific songs, artists or albums. With both Spotify and Google Play Music, I was able to name playlists in my library and have it play them back; GPM’s stations work just as well. You can simply tell the device to “play some new music” and it’ll select an appropriate playlist, tell you its name and start it up. Genres and even more vague descriptors work — I asked Home to “play me some music good for focusing” and it started up the “Electronic Focus” station from GPM (my default service).
Once playback has started, you can ask Home to tell you more info about the song — but, sadly, you can’t ask it to add songs to a playlist or give them a thumbs-up. That’s one missing feature I hope Google can fix, because otherwise new songs I hear and enjoy are just going to float past me into the ether, never to be heard again.
The only potential catch here is Home’s speaker quality. It’s loud enough to fill an average-sized living room with sound, but it’s certainly not going to power a party. The speaker isn’t stereo and lacks much of a low end, despite the two passive “radiators” meant to increase bass performance. It mainly seems suited to solo listening, or to have light background music on while entertaining. Initially, I was impressed with the sound quality for such a small device — but that was before I compared it with my Sonos Play:1, which was superior in every way. However, for most people, Home is just as good as an average Bluetooth speaker, which means it’s still useful.
While Home may lack the sound quality I crave, it makes up for it with convenience. After a few days of asking Home to play me various albums and playlists, going back to managing my music with the clunky Sonos app felt like a chore. I was almost infuriated I couldn’t ask the speaker to pause for a moment or turn its volume down. And the good news is that Home plays with Google’s ecosystem of Chromecast devices, so if you have a pair of good speakers, you can just add the $35 Chromecast Audio and start telling Home to play music through that rather than its own internal speaker. I’m already dreaming of setting up a few pairs of nice speakers with Chromecast Audio and having a multi-room, voice-connected music system.
If you have audio apps on your phone or tablet that work with Google’s Casting technology, you can use Home as a destination speaker and start playing audio there as well. And Home can control video Chromecast devices too, although support for that feature is rather limited as of launch. You can ask Home to start playing cute puppy videos, for example, and it’ll open up YouTube and start a relevant video. But asking it to play TV shows from Netflix, Hulu or even Google Play videos doesn’t work yet. Google says support for third-party Cast apps is coming at some point, but for now it’s far more limited than I had hoped.
Smart home / third-party integration
The last piece of the puzzle is what Google Home can do beyond just accessing Google information. Out of the box, Home can control smart home devices from Nest, Philips Hue and SmartThings, and you can use IFTTT “recipes” to expand Home’s capabilities as well. I unfortunately have a pretty dumb home, though, so I wasn’t able to give this a shot.
While Home works with some of the biggest smarthome options out there, it lags behind Echo. The Echo has a distinct advantage in that regard — it’s been on the market for much longer, which means Amazon has had more time to strike deals with more manufacturers. Echo works with WeMo, Samsung SmartThings, Wink, Insteon and Ecobee, in addition to Nest and Hue. If you’re looking to have a centralized voice assistant to run your home, Amazon’s option is the better choice right now.
It’s a similar story with third-party services (or “skills,” as Amazon calls them). Over the past few years, the developer community has embraced the Echo to a surprising degree, and there are now tons of third-party commands that work on Amazon’s speaker, with more coming every week. It’s something Google can’t match just yet. The company definitely has ambitions to open up the Assistant and let you do things like book restaurant reservations through OpenTable or buy movie tickets on Fandango, but those features aren’t live yet. You can book a car through Uber once you link your account, but that’s about it right now (outside of the aforementioned integration with streaming services like Spotify and TuneIn).
The competition
If you’ve made it this far, it should be obvious who Google Home’s main competition is. Amazon’s Echo devices are time-tested and have a vast amount of third-party support at this point. Google Home undercuts the full-size Echo ($129 vs. $180), but the tiny and excellent Echo Dot only costs $50.
It comes down to how invested you are in Google’s ecosystem and how patient you can be. I have no doubt that Home will see expanded third-party support down the line, but right now the selection is limited. Still, Home knows way more about your world than the Echo, thanks to Google’s massive knowledge graph. And on the other hand, if managing a smart home is more interesting to you, Amazon’s Echo has the advantage.
Wrap-up
Google CEO Sundar Pichai wants to “build a personal Google for each and every user,” and the Google Assistant (and therefore Home) are key to that mission. But it’s not there yet. Yes, Google Home knows some basic info about me, but it doesn’t know quite enough to make me feel like it’s my own personal Google. Nor does it have the third-party services that’ll really let me customize the device to fit my home and my needs. If I had some compatible smart-home products and a handful of Chromecast devices, Google Home would be much more appealing.
Right now, however, it’s little more than a toy. It’s fun and occasionally very convenient to ask it questions and have it perform simple tasks, but it’s hardly an essential part of my life. But Google Home is worth keeping an eye on — it will almost certainly be more capable in three months (or even three weeks) than it is now. If you’re someone who loves tapping into Google’s mighty store of knowledge, don’t sleep on Google Home. Just as the Echo got smarter and more valuable over time, I expect the same will happen here. And if you’ve already bought into Google’s ecosystem, this might indeed be the home assistant for you.
Chris Velazco contributed to this review
2016 Mustang Shelby GT350R review – Roadshow
The Good Performance and sound unlike any Mustang that has come before.
The Bad The look won’t be for everybody, and this is not exactly an affordable machine.
The Bottom Line The most purposeful road-going Mustang yet, and a truly great car to drive.
Ford’s Shelby GT350R isn’t your average Mustang, and it only takes a glance to figure that out. Whether it’s the huge splitter up front, the giant scoop of a wing hanging off the rear bumper or the imposing black wheels that do little to hide the massive Brembo brakes beneath, you can immediately tell this is something special.
Fire it up and any lingering doubts about normalcy are immediately shattered. The 5.2-liter V8 here sounds like no Mustang you’ve heard before. And it truly isn’t like those before. In fact, it’s more than twice as expensive as a base model. This is the $62,000 Shelby GT350R, current king of the modern pony cars. And, unlike many Shelbys that have come before, this one can dominate the track in every form.
Mustang Shelby GT350R lounging on the…
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That motor
The base Mustang is a very solid car. Redesigned for the 2015 model year to make it lighter, lower, meaner and quicker around the track, today’s pony car is a quantum leap forward over the old. For less than $25,000, you can get a 300 horsepower model. $26,000 gets you the the 310-horsepower EcoBoost model and $opens the door to the 5.0-liter GT model, with a 435-horespower V8 and a series of other upgrades that make it an overall more serious contender.
But none of the above really compare to this, the GT350R. Under the hood here is a 5.2-liter V8, barely bigger than the GT yet a much more exotic bird. It’s been built with a flat-plane-crank configuration, meaning it not only delivers a whopping 526-horsepower and 429 pound-feet but it revs up to a remarkable 8,250 RPM. This changes up the firing order of the engine, giving it characteristics much more like a proper race motor than anything you’d typically find idling in the next lane over at a stoplight.
Meaty strut-tower bar? Very necessary.
Nick Miotke/Roadshow
And when I say “race” I don’t mean dragstrip. This is a motor designed for the track, and it delivers its power appropriately. While most Mustangs are all about the launch, oodles of torque delivered down low to swat you off the line and kick you in the rear with every power-shift, the GT350R wants you to rev it, coming alive toward the termination of its big, analog tachometer and screaming encouragement as you flirt with the redline.
This is the kind of lump that shines on a racetrack, and I’m very glad to report that the rest of the car was designed with a similar goal in mind.
The rest of the package
You won’t have to worry about anyone catching you on the track, because you won’t be able to see them through that wing.
Nick Miotke/Roadshow
Mustangs have had plenty of successes on the racetrack in the past, but it’s safe to say that wasn’t exactly their native environment. The GT350R, however, feels completely at home pushing at (or beyond) the limit through apexes early and late and anywhere in between.
Helping that is a full set of MagneRide adaptive dampers, which adjust and adapt dynamically not just based on where you set the suspension knob in the cockpit, but also based on driving mode and conditions. The delta here between comfort and track isn’t as broad as many other modern cars I’ve been lucky enough to drive, but then this is a rather focused beast.
The brakes are seriously up-rated over the base car’s, squeezing massive, floating, cross-drilled rotors. Wrapped around those are 19-inch wheels wearing Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, carbon fiber wheels that weigh a whopping 13 pounds lighter each than those fond on the “base” Shelby 350.
All this, plus over 100 pounds worth of weight savings, puts the GT350R on another plane of existence when it’s time to hit the track.
All this, plus over 100 pounds’ worth of weight savings compared with the base Mustang, puts the GT350R on another plane of existence when it’s time to hit the track. The car will understeer or oversteer appropriately depending on how you get the corner wrong, but is so responsive to corrections that you’re never left wallowing for long in either state.
If there’s one disappointment on the track, it’s the steering. It’s quick and light, which I actually like, but there’s a distinct lack of feel here, muted feedback that can make it a bit difficult to know what’s going on up front. The lack of feel is curious given the 350R’s front suspension setup, which relies on ball joints rather than bushings to provide a more direct connection. Sadly, that hasn’t resulted in a more direct feel.
LG V20 review – CNET
The Good The LG V20 records really high-quality audio and features a swappable battery and secondary wide-angle lens.
The Bad For its high price, the phone doesn’t break any new ground in camera performance or battery life.
The Bottom Line The LG V20 is the best phone you can buy with a removable battery, and its audio recording prowess is a cherry on top, but skip the phone if neither is a priority.
The LG V20 isn’t a bad phone. It covers all its bases with the latest hardware and a solid design. But other handsets edge it out in so many ways that, aside from the V20’s swappable battery, you’re better off buying something else.
If you want a better camera, get the Google Pixel (or its bigger counterpart the XL). If you want a longer battery life, get the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. Faster processing speeds (at least on paper)? The Apple iPhone 7 Plus. Better value? OnePlus 3.
The swappable battery is great. As is the ability to add storage via microSD. And my favorite feature about the V20 is its ability to record high-quality audio. It does this better than any other phone I’ve come in contact with. If the mention of these three features gets you pumped, then this might be the phone for you. If they don’t, then there’s no reason to buy it.
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Metal-clad LG V20 has clever trick to remove battery
Things I liked
So what do I like about the V20? Let me list the ways…
It records great audio
The V20 the phone for the concert-goer because it handles live audio recording superbly. It’s equipped with three mics and four digital-to-analog converters (the latter apparently helps reduce white noise). The phone can record much clearer and accurate 24-bit sound compared to the standard 16-bit.
I took it to a Gallant concert and recorded only a few feet away from the third row. Afterward, I listened to the recordings on separate stereo speakers. It sounded fantastic — bass tones were deep and full without sounding distorted and blown out, and compared to my friend’s footage (who happened to have a Google Nexus 6P), the V20’s recording was notably richer, crisper and more immersive.
The V20 has a couple of options to tinker around with audio quality.
Josh Miller/CNET
You can swap out the battery and increase storage
You don’t always have to offer the latest technology to keep people happy. Like I mentioned before, the V20 has a removable battery and expandable memory. They’re nothing new, but they’re a rarity among marquee handsets these days. Many people can’t live without at least one of these features, and the V20 has both.
A replaceable battery comes in handy when you’re out and about, running low on battery life, and want to quickly swap in a reserve. It’s also useful if you plan to resell the device and you can promise a fresh battery. Expandable storage lets you snap and record way more photos and videos, without really worrying about running out of space..
Press the release button and swap out the battery.
Josh Miller/CNET
Its secondary screen is actually useful
Like its V10 predecessor, the V20 has a secondary screen that sits on top of its regular display. With this iteration, LG increased its contrast and brightness, so it’s easier to read. You can choose to have this screen perpetually on (even if your device is sleeping) or off, and it displays your custom signature, common settings, favorite apps, recent contacts and notifications.
This isn’t essential, but it can be pretty useful. Because there’s no app drawer by default (you can turn it back on from Settings) having shortcut access to your favorite apps is easier than sifting through several home screen pages.
Swipe through the second screen for your favorite apps.
Josh Miller/CNET
It’s as fast as any Android (but slower than the iPhone)
With its Snapdragon 820 processor, the handset had no problem keeping up with its rivals. It performed as well as the Pixel XL (which has the slightly more advanced 821 processor) in our benchmarks, though both the Galaxy S7 Edge and OnePlus 3 edged it out by a hair. The iPhone 7 Plus, however, which has an altogether different and proprietary A10 chipset, dominated the results with impressively high marks.
Then again, these are just diagnostic tests on paper. All these devices work fast and smooth, and any speed differences between any of these phones would be hard to discern. For all your daily mobile needs, you should be satisfied with any of them.
LG V20 Benchmark Scores
LG V20
1579
3634
29152
Google Pixel XL
1556
5201
28256
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
1724
4062
28031
OnePlus 3
1752
4159
30337
Apple iPhone 7 Plus
3531
6106
37889
Legend:
Geekbench 4 Single-Core
Geekbench 4 Multi-Core
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited
Note:
Longer bars indicate better performance
What gives me pause
The V20 has many strong points, but there are drawbacks, too. While none of these shortcomings are individual deal breakers, they are things to keep in mind.
The camera is good but won’t blow you away
Like the G5, LG is doubling down on its wide-angle endeavors. The V20 has two shooters on the back, including a 16-megapixel standard lens and an 8-megapixel wide-angle lens that can capture up to 135 degrees. The single 5-megapixel camera on the front can also switch between an 83-degree frame and a wider 120-degree setup.
CHiP Smart Cookie Oven Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
To use the CHiP Smart Cookie Oven, you scan the label on a pack of dough pods, drop as many as four pods into the appliance, and press start.
Alex Golov/SideChef
Baking cookies for Santa could get a little easier next Christmas Eve. SideChef, the company behind the recipe app of the same name, just launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for a Wi-Fi-connected cookie oven.
The Chip Smart Cookie Oven is kind of like a Keurig for cookies — the countertop appliance is designed to bake just enough cookies for one (or more if you’re feeling generous). SideChef’s goal is to raise $100,000 to make the Chip a reality, and the company has until Dec. 2 to do so. We’ve seen smart-home gadget companies flourish and flounder when they depend on crowdfunding campaigns, so it’s too early to see where the Chip will land.
Here’s how the smart cookie oven will work: SideChef will sell cookie dough pods that each contain enough for one cookie. You use the Chip’s app to scan the QR code on the package of dough, and the app will send baking instructions to the Chip via Wi-Fi. Pop the dough out of the pods and into the Chip, which contains a 4-inch convection fan that circulates hot air to bake the cookie. Less than 10 minutes later, SideChef promises you’ll have a perfect cookie, and the app will send you a notification when it’s done. You can also use the app to send CookieGrams, videos of you eating cookies that I can only assume is a cruel way to strike revenge on your hungriest enemies.
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You need to know about these smart kitchen gadgets
This product sounds like the Jetsons’ version of an Easy-Bake Oven, and the price reflects that. SideChef estimates that the retail price for the Chip will be $249 (roughly £200 in the UK or AU$325). However, 500 folks who want to get in early can preorder the oven for $99 (£80 or AU$130) during the Kickstarter campaign (if you miss that deal, you can still preorder a unit for $129/£105/AU$170). And don’t forget those pods: SideChef will sell subscriptions for its cookie dough pods with prices ranging from 88 cents to $2 a pod.
This is all running under the assumption that SideChef will raise all the money they need to bring Chip to life. As with other crowdfunding campaigns, nothing is guaranteed.
I love a freshly baked cookie as much as the next gal with a sweet tooth. But that’s a steep price when you consider that you can buy a tub of cookie dough that will make three dozen cookies for about $4 in the US. Fortunately, you’ll be able to use manual settings on the Chip if you want to use your own cookie dough. Just remember that you’ll still only be able to make a maximum of four cookies at a time, which wouldn’t even get me through the first leg of a decent Netflix binge.
Machines like the Chip that are designed to cook one type of food are a questionable use of valuable kitchen countertop real estate, especially if you don’t have daily hankerings for freshly baked goods. But the Chip could go the way of the Flatev, single-serve, pod-based tortilla maker that raised nearly $136,200 during the product’s fully funded Kickstarter campaign. SideChef will just have to prove that the Chip can bake cookies well enough to make folks ignore the value of multiuse toaster ovens and store-bought dough in favor of a specialty product.
Play-Doh Touch Shape to Life Studio Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Play-Doh’s about to meet your iPad. Yes, that Play-Doh. Hasbro’s 60 year old brand is getting its first iOS app and a new connected play kit called Play-Doh Touch. And it’s kinda, sorta, a scanner for kids. But maybe it’s also Hasbro’s newest way of trying to explore app-enabled gaming.
The Play-Doh Touch Shape to Life Studio, coming to Apple stores today, is a set of familiar Play-Doh mini-tubs, along with some shapes and enough bits and pieces that kids could just play like they always do. But it also comes with a plastic tray that acts as the scanning surface. The Play-Doh Touch app, created by the development team that created Monument Valley, uses the iPhone or iPad camera to take a quick picture and scan in the creation. The result then turns into a semi-3D, semi-2D onscreen creation, complete with wiggly limbs and googly eyes, with a pretty uncanny success rate. I’ve been playing around with the kit at the office, and it’s entertaining…but it could have done more. Maybe it will.
Scanning my triceratops in.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Little Play-Doh tubs, plastic stamps, cookie-cutter shapes — it’s all familiar to me as a dad. But the extra white platter that comes with the Shape to Life Studio, that’s new. So is the iPad app, of course. I launch it, scan my little Play-Doh figure into a game I’m playing. Now my pink triceratops is hopping around and making eyes at me.
Connect an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, download the app, and the set works almost like a junior scanner — but one with serious limits.
You can’t do all that much with your Play-Doh Touch creation right now, other than have it hop and squiggle through explorational worlds. There’s some customization in the form of scanning in things that can decorate the background. I covered the landscape with orange leaves. Then I added my MetroCard, which also scanned in just fine. You could conceivably use Play-Doh Touch’s app without using Play-Doh at all.
Some of the cut-out shapes and creature molds included can unlock features in the game, such as extra worlds, characters or hidden easter eggs. Using the pieces that way, Play-Doh Touch feels a bit like preschool Skylanders. But the nice thing about Touch is that it uses free-form creative materials. Take away the iPad or iPhone app, and it’s still a regular Play-Doh set.
What if it could do more than connect to a game, though?
Sarah Tew/CNET
It’s cute and it’s fun. And other people I showed it to found it charming. It’s not a full 3D scanning tool but sometimes it feels surprisingly close, and that’s what’s so fascinating about it. Play-Doh Touch approaches the edges of what could be a kid-accessible scannable future. It reminded me of the 3D Paint and phone-scanning apps that Microsoft showed off a week ago, but in a preschool realm.
Play-Doh’s app uses your creations for gameplay purposes, though, and pretty limited ones at that. But maybe the future will go beyond that. I’d love to see a repository of scanned objects that kids could turn into art or animation. Hasbro’s Play-Doh Touch creators wouldn’t confirm what was coming next, but it sounded like what I was discussing wasn’t too far off base. We may be headed for a camera-ready augmented world pretty soon…and it might be coming from a lot of directions at once. Even Play-Doh.
Netatmo Presence review – CNET
The Good Netatmo’s $300 Presence outdoor security camera and floodlight successfully distinguishes among motion from cars, people and animals (most of the time). Its push alerts are prompt, the built-in microSD card records locally for free and you can automatically save video clips to your Dropbox account or FTP server.
The Bad The Presence costs 100 bucks more than competing products. Its bold, modern design won’t appeal to everyone. I wish it worked with more smart home platforms. It wasn’t particularly easy to install, either.
The Bottom Line The Netatmo Presence shows a lot of promise when it comes to advanced motion detection, but it’s too expensive and its design is too distinctive for it to have broad appeal.
Visit manufacturer site for details.
I have conflicting feelings about Netatmo’s $300 Presence outdoor security camera and LED light fixture.
- The good stuff: It’s a highly capable 1080p live video streamer with advanced analytics that correctly labeled motion activity as a car, a person or an animal most of the time. Its internal 16GB microSD card makes event-based video recording a breeze.
- The not-so-good stuff: The Presence is really expensive and Netatmo went bold with its design — if you don’t fancy the modern aesthetic, you won’t like the way it looks. It’s also light on smart home partners, only featuring support for online connection service IFTTT at launch.
While I’m nearly sold on the Presence’s motion capabilities, I’m just not ready to drop 300 bucks on a single outdoor security camera — especially if it doesn’t have much overlap with the broader smart home market. Its design wouldn’t work with my more traditional-looking home, either.
If the price and strong design don’t scare you off, Netatmo’s Presence could work for you. I’d take a look at some other options before you buy, though.
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Netatmo’s outdoor security cam has a commanding Presence
Presence 101
Like the $200 Kuna Light Fixture, Netatmo’s Presence pulls double duty as both a security camera and a floodlight. Weatherproofed and rated for outdoor use, this heavy, rectangular hybrid device has to be hardwired to work properly. As always, be sure to reach out to a professional electrician if you have any questions.
The easiest install method is to ditch one of your existing outdoor wall lights and replace it with a Presence. For the 100-degree field of view Presence camera to work optimally, I’d only install it where you’d typically put a porch light and leave any security lights far above eye level alone.
If you’re familiar with this type of install, it should be fairly simple, but it works best with two people; you need someone to hold the camera and someone else to connect the wires. Netatmo provides a wire terminal so you can more easily connect everything, but the ports were much too small to fit the larger wires we had at the CNET Smart Home. So, I had to remove the wire terminal and use wire nuts to connect everything instead.
I ran into an issue with the length of the wires here — they’re extremely short and it was difficult to connect the wire nuts and tuck them into the terminal box without everything disconnecting. Eventually, I called for reinforcements and our technical editor, Steve Conaway, got everything connected in about 30 minutes. If you include my initial effort, the total time spent on the Presence install was close to an hour and a half.
More connected camera coverage
- This snazzy porch light doubles as a DIY security camera
- The Toucan fits the bill as a subtle outdoor camera
- Nest’s hardy outdoor camera watches over your roost
- Home security 101: Local vs. cloud camera storage
What’s next?
Once the Presence is installed, download the related Netatmo Security Android or iPhone app. Create an account and follow the step-by-step tutorial to pair the camera. Assuming everything is installed correctly, the app will scan for the camera, ask you to connect to the local Wi-Fi network and name your camera — then you’re ready to start live streaming.
This part only took about a minute.
Screenshots by CNET
Lifeprint Photo Printer Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Lifeprint is a mobile instant photo printer that simultaneously delivers the past and the future of how we experience pictures — still and moving.
The pocket-sized block isn’t too different from other small mobile printers like the Polaroid Zip or HP Sprocket. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth and pumps out 2 by 3 inch borderless photos using Zink zero-ink paper. Embedded with cyan, yellow and magenta dye crystals, the paper starts off colorless, but as the print is being made, heat activates the crystals, changing them into the appropriate colors.
The Lifeprint printer is even priced the same as those other models at $130 (approximately £100 or AU$170) with paper costs at about 45 cents a print if you buy in bulk. What sets the Lifeprint apart is what you’re actually able to print.
Joshua Goldman/CNET
You see, while the Lifeprint does a fine job of printing stills, it can also print video clips, Snapchats, GIFs or Apple Life Photos as what the company calls hyperphotos. For example, using the Lifeprint Photo app (available only for iOS at the moment), you can select a video clip, trim it down to a max of 15 seconds and then select a frame from the video for your printed picture. Then, using the player in the app, point your iPhone’s camera at your print and it will near-instantly start playing the clip you made on top of the photo as if it was a tiny TV.
The hyperphotos can be a combination of two unrelated pieces of media as well. With the app, you can select any photo you want to print and then attach whatever video you want to play when viewed in the app. The app is free, too, and you don’t need to sign up for anything in order to use the viewer.
Lifeprint created its own social network around sharing hyperphotos as well. You can post them and send them to family, friends and followers so they can print out your shots with their own Lifeprint printers. You can keep your hyperphotos private, too, though you’ll have to make that call before you share them the first time. Otherwise, you’ll have to delete them from your profile, which will turn a printed hyperphoto into just a regular print.
I don’t know if this is the future of photo prints, but it’s definitely cool to see still images suddenly spring to life. If you want to see it for yourself firsthand, the Lifeprint is now in Apple stores. There’s a sample image on the back of the box, so you’ll just need to download the Lifeprint Photo app and point your iPhone at the image.
Nanoleaf Aurora review – CNET
The Good Nanoleaf’s triangular light panels are bright, colorful, easy to assemble and downright cool to look at. The app makes it easy to create your own animated scenes, and you can control everything using spoken Siri commands, too.
The Bad Decorative, wall-mounted panels aren’t nearly as practical as smart bulbs are, and they won’t fit in with every aesthetic. Also, the lack of a music sync feature is a missed opportunity.
The Bottom Line These unique, color-changing smart panels are delightful to look at and easy to use, especially if you’re an iOS user.
Visit manufacturer site for details.
Triangular, color-changing LED light panels you can control on your Android or iOS device, or by using spoken commands: That’s the pitch for Nanoleaf Aurora, one of the most design-centric devices for the connected home that we’ve ever seen.
This isn’t your typical smart-home gadget. It doesn’t promise to make your life more convenient or your home more comfortable. It isn’t even a very practical light source. Instead, Nanoleaf Aurora is a design play for the connected living space. It wants your smart home to express itself.
And you know what? All of that is fine. People buy pretty things to hang up on their walls all the time — so why not a pretty-looking smart light setup?
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Nanoleaf’s new light panels want to color your smart home
At $200 (about £165/AU$260), the nine-panel Nanoleaf Aurora starter kit doesn’t come cheap. But it isn’t outrageously expensive, either, especially when you consider how eye-popping these panels are — or that the cost is roughly as much as you’d pay for a three-bulb Philips Hue starter kit.
Like those Philips Hue bulbs, the Aurora panels work with Apple HomeKit, the smart home standards built into iPhones and iPads that run the latest iOS software. HomeKit lets you toggle your lights and devices right from your phone’s Control Center or by using spoken Siri commands, and the Aurora panels do an outstanding job of putting it all to work. Compatibility with Amazon’s Alexa is coming by the end of this year, too, so you’ll soon have a second means of voice control.
All of it adds up to a cutting-edge in-home experience for out-and-proud smart home enthusiasts. You don’t need these things on your walls — nobody does — but it’s tough to deny that they make a pretty compelling case for novelty smart lighting.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
A future we were promised
If you’re a fan of classic sci-fi, or if you just watched a lot of cartoons as a kid, then maybe these things look familiar. Color-changing light panels have been a mainstay of faux-futuristic pop culture for decades now, lighting up countless spaceships, alien bases, and dwellings of tomorrow. Now, Nanoleaf thinks it’s time these panels lit up your living room, too.
And why not? They look terrific, thanks to a design that leans on a modular build, geometric simplicity and bold, vivid colors, all of which combine to offer a wide range of display options.
You can connect any side of an Aurora panel to any other Aurora panel using these connector chips.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
You can connect any panel to any other panel using an SD card-like connector chip to join their sides. Power flows through all of them from the base attachment, which can handle up to 30 panels. If you want more than the starter kit’s nine panels, extras are available in three-packs for $60 each (about £50/AU$80).
Setting everything up is a bit of a delicate process. Those connector chips don’t feel terribly sturdy and they don’t snap into place. As I hung everything, I worried that I wasn’t using enough of the included sticky tabs to keep everything snug and secure.
Nanoleaf doesn’t provide a whole lot of guidance as far as best mounting practices go; it pretty much just tosses you an envelope of those sticky tabs and say, “Have fun!” Everything stayed on the wall for the duration of my tests, but I still would have appreciated some more specific instructions.
That said, I was beyond impressed with these panels once I had them up and running. They’re plenty bright (about 100 lumens per panel), the hues are vivid and true, and the preprogrammed, color-changing scenes look great (you can make your own in Nanoleaf’s app, too). They made a strong first impression on just about everyone who saw them, including co-workers of mine who think color-changing smart lights are kind of dumb.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
Colorful smarts
With the Aurora panels affixed to your wall, your next step is to download the Nanoleaf app to sync them up with your phone. Doing so is pretty painless. The base station broadcasts a Wi-Fi signal when you plug it in. You connect to that signal in your phone’s settings, then sync it up with your own home network, all of which meet Apple HomeKit’s rigorous security protocols.
AIVAnet 