Life is Strange review: Still a (mostly) hella good time on Android

It’s been almost three years since the episodic adventure series Life is Strange wrapped up on PC and console, and seven months since it debuted on iOS devices. Now Dontnod Entertainment’s acclaimed five-part story has finally arrived on Android on the Play Store

With the original developer working on Life is Strange 2, Black Wing Foundation and Turn Me Up Games once again take the reins following the generally positive reception of the two studios’ iOS port.

Editor’s Pick

15 best Android games of 2018!

Gaming on mobile has been improving at a far greater rate than any technology that came before it. Android games seems to hit new heights every year. With the release of Android Nougat and Vulkan …

Life is Strange has already garnered a well-deserved reputation as one of the best adventure games to adopt the third-person adventure style popularized by Telltale Studios’ work — itself heavily inspired by classic point-and-click titles of the 1990s — and without doubt one of the finest examples of a coming of age story in gaming.

After such a long wait, is the Android version as wonderful as ever, or will you wish you could go back in time and refund that $8.99 all-episodes pass? Find out in our Life is Strange review.

Teens and time-travel

Full disclosure: I adore Life is Strange. Playing through the game on Android marks the third time I’ve experienced its genuinely moving tale of friendship, love, tragedy, destiny, and disaster. I was still an emotional wreck by the end.

However, I want to spend as little time as possible talking about why Life is Strange is so utterly brilliant, instead focusing on whether you should play it on Android over the many other platforms where it’s already available. Let’s touch on the basic premise and gameplay, just in case you’ve yet to be convinced.

In Life is Strange you step into the sneakers of 18-year-old avid photographer Max Caufield, an often irritatingly sincere, but charmingly genteel dork who returns to the fictional coastal town of Arcadia Bay after years away to attend Blackwell Academy boarding school.

On top of the struggles of navigating Blackwell’s social minefield, capturing quirky snaps for a possibly life-changing photography competition, and trying to get her head around some ominous premonitions, Max’s life gets a lot weirder after she suddenly gains the ability to rewind time and effectively reshape the world around her.

In gameplay terms, this lets you rewind key sequences and decisions to see multiple outcomes, which is unique spin on the usual “this person will remember that” style of conversations in so many adventure games.

Life is Strange is a moving tale of friendship, love, tragedy, destiny, and disaster.

As a whole, Life is Strange retains the light puzzle and detective elements of its genre peers, but rises to the top of the pile through its storytelling and character work.

Before long, Max’s powers thrust her into a whirlwind journey complete with a compelling murder mystery and eerie (un)natural phenomenons. However, the story remains grounded thanks to its central relationship between Max and her estranged BFF, Chloe Price.

Brought to life by Ashly Burch’s incredible voice performance, Chloe is the rebellious, hella cool heart of Life is Strange and the game is at its best in the less action-heavy episodes in which the outcast pair rekindle their lost friendship and generally laze around doing quintessentially teenage stuff.

You’ll still get the emotional drama and high stakes you may be looking for, but don’t be surprised if your favorite moments are those spent lying on a bed, staring into space, humming along to a chill Bright Eyes track.

Awkward adaptations

The bulk of Life is Strange is spent walking around, chatting to Max’s school frenemies, interacting with often mundane everyday objects, solving simple logic puzzles, and hitting the rewind button to roll back any social missteps or questionable decisions.

Time shenanigans aside, we’ve already seen these mechanics translate well to touchscreen controls in the numerous excellent point-and-click-style games found on the Play Store, particularly ports of Telltale’s similarly designed adventure games like The Walking Dead, Batman, The Wolf Among Us, and more.

Ignoring optional Bluetooth controller support — undoubtedly the best option if you have a gamepad handy — there are three basic control options in Life is Strange on Android. One is your basic virtual control stick set-up, another ties all movement to screen taps, and the final, least fiddly of the three lets you move Max around by swiping on the left side of the screen and swing the camera by swiping the right side.

All three options come with their own grumbles, but navigating the halls of Blackwell and the sunny climes of Arcadia Bay is mostly intuitive, as long as you don’t mind constantly swiping around with your thumbs.

No matter which you pick, when you want to interact with anything, be it a fellow Blackwell student, a neglected house plant, or a dusty CD player (remember those?), you’ll need to tap on small, contextual icons.

This can be quite fiddly, especially when multiple icons are close together. Sometimes you’ll even need to awkwardly walk Max face first into objects to actually get the touch icons to appear at all.

Navigating around Blackwell Academy and Arcadia Bay is fairly intuitive as long as you don’t mind constantly swiping around with your thumbs.

Other actions, like flicking through Max’s diary and text messages with a few swipes, feel much more natural. The rewind controls lack the deft trigger controls of a gamepad, but the “quick undo” option alows for instant do-overs.

With no real quick time events to speak of, Life is Strange’s slower pace fits a touchscreen experience more so than some of its genre peers. Just don’t expect to get through the entire game, much less an episode, without a little frustration when lining up Max and the camera to bring up the crucial touch icon you need to progress to the next scene.

The mobile version’s fun Photo Mode, which debuted with the iOS port, fits in perfectly with the game’s snap-happy protagonist and features plenty of sliders and filters to play with if you fancy letting your own artistic side free (as long as you can ignore the huge Life is Strange watermark on all your shots). You can also switch up Max’s stance and wardrobe to take in-game selfies which, as we all know, is a dumb word for a wonderful photographic tradition, right Mr. Jefferson?

Out of focus

On the visual side, Life is Strange’s pastel-esque art style casts the entire game in a hazy, warm glow that fits the tone perfectly. It also gives the game some wiggle room when rendering characters and environments on less powerful mobile hardware compared to other platforms.

However, there’s still a notable downgrade in lighting and shadow effects throughout. This isn’t as noticeable during daytime scenes, but those set at night look a little washed out and flat. Likewise, there doesn’t appear to be any anti-aliasing going on at all, which means you’ll encounter a lot of jagged edges on NPCs and objects as you explore Arcadia Bay.

This would be acceptable to some extent if the iOS version suffered from the same issues, but it doesn’t. Check out this comparison shot on Imgur to see the difference.

The visual problems are made worse by the complete lack of any graphics options. I ran the game on a Google Pixel 2 XL which sits well above the minimum recommended specs listed on the Play Store, but I still ran into low resolution textures throughout and more than a few frame rate drops during action-heavy scenes.

Some legacy issues also carry over from previous versions of the game, such as wayward lip syncing and somewhat lengthy load times.

I should also note that if you’re a Chromebook user with access to Android apps you won’t be able to play the game at all. It’s currently incompatible with Play Store-ready Chrome OS devices like the Google Pixelbook.

Life is Strange review: Wrapping up

Life is Strange on Android keeps the best elements of Square Enix’s superb game intact. The soundtrack is lush, the visual palette is gorgeous, the voice acting ranks among the best in gaming, and the narrative is as heartwarming (and heartbreaking) as ever.

Yet while the episodic structure lends itself to casual play on the go, Life is Strange is an objectively better game on PC or console, due to the platforms’ huge visual and technical advantages.

However, if the Android version is the only one available to you, or if you’re just looking to play through it all over again, you’d have to be hella stupid to skip over this classic adolescent adventure.

Google Play: Download Life is Strange

Dell XPS 15 vs. Razer Blade 15

Dan Baker/Digital Trends

You can pick up a dedicated gaming notebook and put up with a sci-fi aesthetic with jet fighter exhausts, or you can pick up a stodgy business-oriented machine that looks like something out of a cubicle farm. Those are your only choices, right?

Wrong.

Today, you have other options, tweeners that straddle the gamer aesthetic and performance fence. They won’t stand out too much in both a boardroom or a LAN party. Here, we compare two such machines, the Dell XPS 15 and Razer Blade 15, that provide a mix of (relatively) conservative looks and some moderately good gaming chops. But which is better?

Design

Riley Young/Digital Trends

Razer took the previous Blade 14 design and modernized it, expanding the display by framing it in smaller side bezels. This avowed gaming notebook is surprisingly thin at 0.66 inches and it’s contained within a relatively svelte, all-aluminum chassis that weighs a reasonable 4.5 pounds. We call that “reasonable” because that chassis tucks in some seriously powerful components. The Blade also enjoys an excellent keyboard that offers sufficient key travel, beautiful RGB lighting, and even spacing with only a handful of irksome layout issues. The attractive and sleek aesthetic manages to avoid projecting its owner as either an overt gamer or a conservative businessperson.

Dell’s 2018 XPS 15 looks a great deal like the same version a couple of years ago. In fact, it’s pretty near to identical, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s made of machined aluminum and carbon fiber that combine for a sturdy and particularly comfortable notebook to carry around and use. It’s not the thinnest notebook around, coming in at 0.70 inches at its thickest point, and it’s not exactly light at 4.5 pounds when equipped with its massive 97 watt-hour battery (more on that later). But it’s maybe the smallest 15.6-inch notebook around thanks to super-thin bezels that unfortunately relegate the webcam to an unflattering location below the display. The keyboard is top-notch, with decent travel enhanced by a snappy mechanism that invites fast and accurate typing, and the touchpad — Microsoft Precision, of course — is expansive and oh-so-comfortable to swipe.

The Razer Blade is prettier, and the Dell XPS is smaller, but both are solidly built and neither will embarrass you no matter the environment.

Performance

Riley Young/Digital Trends

The Razer Blade is built around Intel’s latest 8th-generation 45-watt CPU, the Intel Core i7-8750H that packs in six cores and twelve threads. It’s a supremely speedy mobile CPU that burns through whatever task it’s assigned whether physics-oriented gaming or video editing and encoding. Storage is also fast thanks to a PCIe solid-state drive (SSD), and the CPU is kept well-fed by fast RAM. Finally, given its fundamental nature as a gaming notebook, the Razer Blade offers powerful GPU options including the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q and GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q.

The Dell XPS 15 also equips Intel’s 8th-generation 45 watt parts, including the same Core i7-8570H. It, too, enjoys a speedy PCIe SSD and high-speed RAM. And, all of that computing power is mated with an Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti Max Q that’s good enough for light gaming. But one difference from the Razer Blade is the Dell’s more conservative tuning and cooling system, which tries to keep things quiet and cool to the touch rather than enabling full-out — and hot — gaming performance.

Interestingly, the XPS 15 holds its own against the Blade when it comes to CPU-intensive tasks. For example, in our Handbrake test that encodes a 420MB video to H.265, the Dell was faster than the Razer, finishing the job in 150 seconds compared to 203 seconds. But when it comes to gaming, the Razer Blade, of course, takes a massive lead thanks to significantly faster GPUs. If you want to get your work done and then game a little on the side, the XPS 15 is your best choice. If you’re a gamer, though, who squeezes in some work between competitive sessions, then your choice is equally clear.

But don’t forget the displays. Dell offers two options, Full HD and 4K panels aimed at being bright and colorful. The high-res display, in particular, is excellent for professional videographers and photographers with its near-100 percent AdobeRGB gamut support, accurate colors, and superior contrast and brightness. The Razer Blade, on the other hand, focuses on gamers with display options that range up to a 144Hz refresh rate. Color support, contrast, and brightness are closer to average, and so once again the same caveat about gaming versus professional workflows applies.

If your a gamer first and businessperson second, then the Razer Blade is your better choice. But the Dell XPS 15 provides more well-rounded performance and beautiful displays that are more likely to please more of the people, more of the time.

Portability

Dan Baker/Digital Trends

The Razer Blade and Dell XPS 15 are equally dense and very close to equally thin, while the latter is smaller overall thanks to its insanely small bezels. Neither are particularly easy on the back when you toss them into your backpack, but that’s the price you pay for carrying around so much power.

But Dell packed in a massive 97 watt-hours worth of battery capacity into that hefty frame, justifying the weight more than the Razer’s 80 watt-hours’ worth. And in our battery tests, the XPS 15 outlasted the Blade even more than that disparity would indicate — not quite twice as long when playing video or running a web benchmark, but close enough that it puts the Dell in a different category. If you need to work for longer away from a charger, then the XPS 15 is a better choice.

Neither of these meaty machines is exceedingly portable, but considering how powerful they are, they’re more portable than you might expect. Even so, the XPS 15 lets you keep the charger behind and is thus the more mobile option.

Conclusion

Dan Baker/Digital Trends

If you’re looking at notebooks in this class, then you’re likely not quite so sensitive to price. Even so, the Dell XPS is the better value. You can pick one up for $1,000 at the low end — with a Core i5 and 56 watt-hour battery — and spend up to $2,900 with a Core i9 CPU and 2TB SSD. The Razer Blade, on the other hand, starts out at $1,900 and also maxes out at $2,900 if you go whole-hog on the GPU selection.

The Razer Blade obviously has significantly better gaming performance, but we like the Dell XPS 15 for more people. It’s fast, efficient, and elegant, and it lets you take a break from your work and get in some gaming — and in our opinion, that’s a mix with a significantly broader appeal.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Razer Blade 15 vs. MacBook Pro
• Dell XPS 15 9570 review
• Dell XPS 15 9560 review
• HP Spectre x360 15 vs. Dell XPS 15 2-in-1
• HP updates Omen 15 laptop with a slimmer design, next-gen CPU

A mouse pad, portable SSD, and more are discounted today

Whether you’re looking for new tech gear or household items, we’ve got you covered.

We found plenty of great deals today that include big discounts on the Essential Phone, the SteelSeries mouse pad, a portable SSD, and more!

View the rest of the deals

If you want to know about the deals as soon as they are happening, you’ll want to follow Thrifter on Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter, because missing out on a great deal stinks!

Slip an unlocked Halo Gray Essential Phone into your pocket for $280

One of the best prices we’ve seen.

We’ve seen deals on the Essential Phone in the past, and while this isn’t quite as good as Prime Day pricing, it’s still a heck of a deal. Right now you can get the phone in Halo Gray (the best color) for just $279.99.

It comes with 128GB of internal storage, a dual camera system on the back, and it’s powered by the Snapdragon 835 processor. You can also add the exclusive Essential 360 camera. Essential has already released the Android Pie update for the device as well, so you’ll be able to install that as soon as you receive yours!

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The best cases for the Moto G5 Plus

Because metal scratches too easily.

Motorola’s 2017 budget phone, the Moto G5 Plus, is a great option if you’re looking to get a metal phone at plastic prices. (In other words, it’s a great product.)

If you recently bought a Moto G5 Plus at a discount, you should reinvest some of that money you saved on a case to keep it in tip-top condition. We’ve rounded up a wide variety of cases here —from heavy duty and rugged to slim and sleek — so you can find the one that fits your lifestyle best!

• Ringke FUSION case
• Supcase Unicorn Beetle Pro
• Spigen Rugged Armor case
• Incipio NGP case
• TUDIA Ultra Slim case
• Cimo clear case
• Poetic Revolution rugged case
• LK Leather Wallet Flip case

Ringke FUSION case

See at Amazon

Striking the right balance between protection and thickness, the Ringke Fusion series is one of the most popular for a reason. Get the Moto G5 Plus version in three colors for just $10.

Ringke has a good reputation as a solid case manufacturer, and for good reason: its Fusion series always fits and protects well without adding too much bulk.

The Moto G5 Plus version, available in Clear, Rose Gold Crystal, or Smoke Black colors, is no exception. All versions leave a clear back while the two colored options merely accentuate the sides of the phone. The case covers the ports with little flaps, preventing water from getting inside, and the TPU covering is reinforced at the corners to ensure MIL-STD 810G drop protection

Supcase Unicorn Beetle Pro with Built-in Screen Protector

See at Amazon

The Supcase Unicorn is thick and bulky for a reason: it’ll protect your Moto G5 Plus from anything life throws at you. It comes with a built-in screen protector, too. Get it for $18.

Do you regularly head out into the great outdoors with your phone and need a case that’s rugged enough to take on the elements? Supcase offers its Unicorn Beetle Pro case, which features rugged, dual-layer protection and a built-in screen protector.

It combines a rugged polycarbonate shell with soft TPU to create a durable case with a sporty design. Supcase brags that this case exceeded military shock standards by surviving a 4-foot drop test 26 times so if you’re prone to dropping your phone this is the case for you. All the ports are covered to keep out dirt and lint with access to the phone’s ports and buttons, and also comes with an optional swiveling belt clip holster. It comes in sleek all black, or premium color cases.

Spigen Rugged Armor case

See at Amazon

Spigen’s Rugged Armor lineup offers a great balance between style and functionality without adding a ton of bulk to your phone. This is one of the most popular cases in the world for a reason. Get it for $13.

This one-piece case is made from flexible TPU with an internal spider-web pattern to help disperse the shock from drops along with Spigen’s Air Cushion technology in the corners. The screen is protected with a raised lip around the front, and on the back, you’ll find a precise cutout around the camera along with glossy, carbon fiber textures at the top and bottom of the case which increases your ability to maintain a solid grip on your phone.

Precise cutouts around the ports and raised tactile buttons ensure the functionality of your phone is never impeded. For a great, lightweight case that offers rugged protection, you really can’t go wrong with Spigen.

Incipio NGP case

See at Amazon

If you’re looking for a lightweight rugged case, Incipio’s NGP case is the right voice for you. It’s a no-fuss choice that provides considerable protection, specifically around the sides and back. Get it starting at $14.

Featuring a textured back and bumper to ensure you maintain a solid grip, this one-piece polymer case is designed with enhanced drop protection — you’ll notice the honeycombed interior which helps to disperse the shock when your phone inevitably hits a table or floor.

Precise cutouts mean you’ll have full access to the charging port and headphone jack as well as the volume and power button on the side.

Tudia Ultra Slim case

See at Amazon

Tudia’s carbon fiber Ultra Slim case is the perfect way to cover your Moto G5 Plus with minimal bulk. A stylish and inexpensive solution at $11.

Tudia’s Ultra Slim case for the Moto G5 Plus is a very stylish option for protecting your phone. It features stylish carbon fiber designs at the top and the bottom of the backplate, which both looks great and helps with grip.

Made with high-quality TPU, this sleek case won’t add much bulk to your phone, while the raised edge around the screen help keep your phone protected when it’s face down on a surface. It’s available in three color options: black, grey and navy blue.

For a really stylish and slim option for protecting your Moto G5 Plus, the Tudia Ultra Slim case can’t be beaten.

Cimo clear case

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Cimo’s cases are some of the highest quality you can find, and this clear case shows off the Moto G5 Plus’s excellent looks. Grab it for under $10.

Cimo’s cases always fit really well and their clarity is excellent. Made from flexible TPU, these cases have a great in-hand feel that’s not slippery, so you won’t be fumbling your Moto G5 Plus all the time. There’s a raised bezel around the front of the case to protect your phone’s screen when you lay it face-down, and the ports and buttons are cut out precisely. It’s important to note that clear TPU will almost always yellow after some time due to the way it absorbs sunlight. But for around $8, you might as well grab a few.

Interested in checking out other clear case options? Check out the best clear cases for the Moto G5 Plus.

Poetic Revolution

See at Amazon

If rugged protection is the name of the game for you, you’ll want to consider this Poetic Revolution case for the Moto G5 Plus. It offers full protection for your phone, including a front plate with a built-in screen protector that also adds water resistance to the mix. Starts at just $13.

This two-piece case combines polycarbonate and TPU on the back to provide a balance of shock absorption and scratch protection, while the front plate is made of solid PC and includes a screen protector to keep your screen protected better than any other case on this list.

There’s a lot of smart design elements in play here, including grippy textures along the side edges of the phone, lint/dust flaps over the ports at the bottom, and ‘edgy’ corners that give the phone a fresh and unique look. Despite all the features and protection built into this case, the profile remains relatively slim so you’re not carrying around a plastic brick in your pocket.

LK Leather Wallet Flip case

See at Amazon

If you’re looking to keep your phone, ID, credit cards and cash all in one place when you’re heading out for a night on the town, the LK wallet case is your best bet. Pick it up for just $7!

Available in both black and brown color options, this case features three card slots on the inside cover, including a windowed slot that’s perfect for your ID, and also includes a pocket for carrying cash as well. Your phone is held in place via a soft TPU shell that offers quality protection in the spots you need it most: the corners. Fold over the front cover to use it as a kickstand for viewing, then use the magnetic clasp to keep your screen protected in your pocket.

Do note that some of the Moto G5 Plus’ functionality may be impeded when the front cover is closed, including the twist and chop gestures for launching the camera and flashlight respectively. Those require the infrared sensor to work properly which is covered by the case when closed. It certainly shouldn’t be a dealbreaker for most, but it’s worth mentioning before you make the purchase.

Updated August 2018: We’ve updated pricing for these awesome cases.

Moto G5

• Moto G5 Plus review
• Moto G5 Specs
• Top 10 things to know about the Moto G5 + G5 Plus
• Moto G5 Plus vs Moto G4 Plus
• Join our Moto G5 forums!

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It’s OK not to be hyped about 5G

You may have heard that 5G is going to change everything. That it’s going to enable the next 10 years of wireless innovation and completely upend how we use our mobile devices. That everything from watches to VR headsets to cars and even hospital operating rooms will be powered by ultra-low-latency wireless networks with enough bandwidth to negate the need for wired connections.

5G is coming, but it’s less about phones than the sensors phones communicate with.

If you’ve been following along with the 5G hype narratives from companies like Qualcomm, Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, Verizon, T-Mobile and others that have considerable skin in the game, once the standard becomes ubiquitous, our lives will never be the same.

Much like the change from analog to digital networks, or from 2G to 3G, which introduced high(er)-speed mobile data to smartphones, 5G is expected to initiate a sea change of new technological possibilities when it arrives next year.

According to Qualcomm, the company most effusively pushing this narrative, 5G will be nothing short of “a unifying connectivity fabric for our society,” a way for people to connect more intimately and for businesses to build dynamic experiences that will make them more productive and, ultimately, more profitable.

Blah, blah, blah — right? It’s OK, I get it. I feel it, too. Even though we’re a few months from companies like Verizon launching an actual 5G-powered home broadband service, and less than half a year from the first 5G-enabled mobile products, it’s still unclear how the hyperbole, the relentless grandstanding, will change our lives. Because our lives are already upended. We do everything on our phones, and when we don’t have super-fast LTE to facilitate those things, we fall back on the comforting ubiquity of Wi-Fi.

And, I mean, is 5G really necessary when all we’re doing is scrollin’, scrollin’ through Instagram and sending a bajillion WhatsApp messages? Do we need super-fast networks to watch more YouTube, or unlimited bandwidth when we’re just playing a couple rounds of Clash Royale?

The issue with 5G is that, aside from the odd frustrating experience with our carrier or our phone, it’s difficult to perceive the improvements in something that hasn’t amazed us yet, and the potential of something that’s right now just a bunch of whitepapers and breathless marketing. Back in June, Qualcomm tried to get ahead of this narrative by putting together a document outlining the real-world changes we’re sure to see out of 5G. It highlights vast improvements to agriculture efficiency — more wheat! — and more efficient public transit — fewer delays!

It preaches that shopping will be more personal, and that 5G will make augmented reality truly useful and even indispensable. And what about the average person? Faster networks with unlimited bandwidth at ultra-low costs, with the ability to capture, share, and instantly upload 4K video or even high-resolution virtual reality footage. Others, like Huawei, say the same sorts of things. More connections! Lower latency! Faster signals! More, more, more.

These things all sound super great, really, and I’m sure they will be. Even the technology behind the initial 5G standard, called 5G NR, is fascinating. In addition to existing low- and medium-range signals, it takes advantage of ultra-fast microwave signals (called millimeter waves) that are incredibly difficult to route long distances, or through walls, or without major interference in general. The radios sending the signals need to be lower to the ground than existing cellphone towers, and there need to be more of them.

The signals, finicky things that they are, use a process called beamforming to essentially lock onto your phone and bend around objects. And when the signals do inevitably crash into things — buildings, cars, people — they have enough intelligence to use that interference to its advantage, breaking into pieces and reforming, Terminator-style, on the other side.

T-Mobile signed a $3.5 billion deal with Nokia to build out a massive 5G network in the U.S.

The amount of work that’s gone into creating the 5G standard is extraordinary. The things that it can and will do are, too. But right now it’s admittedly hard to see what all the fuss is about. The hype is enormous, and the expectations even more so, which makes it even more difficult for the stakeholders to follow through.

Most people just want faster speeds with higher data limits at a lower price. Businesses just want to make more money. City officials just want fewer road accidents and lower maintenance costs. Governments just want their networks to be reliable and secure.

One of 5G’s major promises is real-time, high-quality roomscale VR, and that could be transformative. For some people.

Right now, it’s hard to see how 5G will magically make everything better. That’s OK, because right now it’s just an idea, a promise of progress. When it finally does lurch towards its inevitable pervasiveness, it’s less likely to wow us than encourage us to evaluate our relationships with the technology that we’ve come to take for granted. The phone is still the central thing in our lives, and that’s not likely to change, but 5G promises a radio in everything, which will lead to more connectivity, more fragmentation and, like it or not, more frustration.

Early adopters like me, who are keenly following every 5G milestone, do not represent the average person. LTE’s relatively seamless and transparent rollout — hey, my new phone is faster! — was, like all mobile innovations, concurrent with the rising popularity of apps and tools that were made possible. But whereas streaming video, and lots of it, will be LTE’s legacy, it’s not obvious to me, despite a plenitude of examples, how the average person will perceive 5G’s abundance.

Which is why it’s OK not to be hyped about 5G right now, because mobile data in all its forms is no longer meant to be exciting. It just is, and with that mundanity comes a narrowing of scope. 5G will be awesome, and it will be everywhere, but right now it’s just a lengthening of an existing tendril.

Apple Store in Amsterdam Evacuated, Likely After iPad Battery Overheated

Dutch media is reporting that an Apple Store at Leidseplein in Amsterdam was briefly evacuated today, likely after an iPad battery overheated.

Image Credit: AS Media
At 2:20 p.m. local time on Sunday afternoon, the Amsterdam fire department tweeted that crews were on the scene. The tweet added that there was “no smoke” at the store, but “three people with breathing problems.”

A spokesperson for the fire department said “there is probably a leaking battery pack,” according to Dutch broadcaster AT5 and NH Nieuws. The incident was also reported by Dutch blog iCulture, which alerted us to the story.

Employees immediately placed the iPad in a container with sand, and the store was evacuated as a precaution, according to the reports. The three people who suffered breathing issues were treated on site by ambulance workers.

The breathing issues may have been prompted by chemical vapors or other irritating substances emanating from the iPad battery, according to the Amsterdam fire department, which aired out the store while it was evacuated.

Fortunately, there does not appear to have been any significant injuries or damage. At around 3:00 p.m. local time, employees and customers were allowed to re-enter the store as usual, according to the reports.

It’s unclear if the iPad battery pack was an official part from Apple or an aftermarket replacement, or if the potential overheating was the result of improper handling during servicing by a Genius Bar technician.

Earlier this year, an Apple Store in Zurich was evacuated following a similar incident with an overheated iPhone battery.

All in all, these incidents are quite rare, but a very small percentage of lithium-ion batteries do pose a risk of overheating, swelling, and bursting open. Without additional details, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact cause.

We’ll update this article if Apple comments on the incident.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
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From white skies to blurry subjects, how to fix common photo mistakes

Hillary Grigonis / Digital Trends

Incredible scenes, people, and moments all inspire a photograph — but sometimes, that original beauty is lost in translation. Maybe the photo isn’t very sharp. Or maybe that brilliant sunset sky turned out completely white. Or maybe your child’s bright blue eyes are dark and shadowed. What went wrong?

A camera doesn’t see the same way the human eye does — and without the right techniques, some of that original beauty can be lost somewhere in between becoming a moment in time and a JPEG on an SD card. If you’re just getting started with photography, or even trying to take better pictures with your phone, chances are, you’ll run across problems with blur, exposure, and colors. Here are seven of the most common photography mistakes and how you can prevent them (or sometimes, fix them) the next time.

Why are my photos blurry?

One of the most common question from new photographers is the cause of the blur in a particular photo. Blur in an image actually has a number of different causes, and determining why that photo turned out blurry starts with recognizing just what kind of blur you managed to capture.

• 1.
  Motion blur from camera shake
• 2.
  Out of focus blur

Motion blur is created when something moves while the camera snapped the photo. Motion blur looks like someone smeared a wet painting — the objects in the photo may not even have the same shape as they do in real life. This is in contrast to out-of-focus blur, where objects will simply look softer (except in cases of very shallow depth of field, where something not in focus may be blurred to oblivion).

If you haven’t ventured into advanced shooting modes yet, try using sport mode.

Once you’ve identified that the issue is motion blur, correcting the problem isn’t difficult to do. First, what’s blurred, just one object or the entire image? If the entire image is blurred, the image is the result of a simple flaw: Your hands moved while the camera was taking the picture. To correct the issue, either increase your shutter speed or use something to steady the camera, such as a tripod.

Miss Zhang/Unsplash

Increasing the shutter speed means the shutter that opens and closes to take the picture moves faster, leaving less time for your hands to shake enough to cause blur. A general rule of thumb is to use your lens length to determine a minimum speed since longer lenses exaggerate camera shake — if you’re using a 50mm lens, use no slower than 1/50 second; a 300mm lens, 1/300 second. That’s just a guideline — if you tend to have shaky hands, you may need to bump it higher, whereas if you have a stabilization system either in your camera or the lens, you may be able to get by slower.

Instead of a smeared painting, an object will look soft with undefined edges.

You’ll need to use shutter priority or manual mode to change the shutter speed yourself, but if you haven’t ventured into advanced shooting modes yet, try using the sport mode on the camera. When shooting in auto, even turning on more lights can tell the camera to bump the shutter speed up.

Also, check to make sure that image stabilization is on, if your camera or lens has stabilization.

Another solution to camera shake is to use a tripod and, even better, also turn the self timer on or use a remote so your hand isn’t on the camera at all when the image is recorded. Tripods are great for eliminating blur when photographing a subject that isn’t moving. If the subject is moving or you can’t haul a tripod around, you’ll need to correct using shutter speed instead.

Daven Mathies/Digital Trends

If, on the other hand, only the subject is blurred, that object or person is to blame for the blur, not camera shake. If something moves while the camera’s shutter is open, it will cause blur. Sometimes, that can lead to a cool effect that might help illustrate the concept of motion and speed; but it’s not so great if you actually need to see detail in your subject. This type of blur can’t be corrected by a tripod — you need to use a faster shutter speed. Alternately, you can try panning with your subject — this can take a little practice, but if you get the timing right, you’ll get your subject in tack-sharp focus against a blurred background.

Why are my photos out of focus?

Unlike motion blur, images that are blurred because of focusing errors will still have the same shape (unless the focus is off by a very large margin). Instead of looking like a smeared painting, an object will simply look soft with undefined edges. Often, blur from a focusing error has something else in the photo that’s not supposed to be sharp, like the background. This results when your camera mistakenly focuses on the background rather than your subject.

You can increase depth of field by selecting a smaller aperture setting, either in aperture priority or full manual mode.

If you’re finding out-of-focus shots on your smartphone, make sure you’re tapping the subject on the screen — this tells the camera where to focus. If the camera still isn’t focusing, you’re probably either too close or there’s not enough light. Since camera autofocus systems need light to work, they don’t work well if it’s too dark.

If you are using a DSLR, mirrorless, or advanced compact camera, you have a few more tools available to correct focus errors. By default, these cameras are set to choose the focus point automatically, and this can lead to errors (typically, a camera will simply focus on whatever the closest object is — but that may not be your subject).

By manually selecting just a single focus point and putting that over your subject, you can dramatically cut down on the number of these errors. This feature will be called different things on different brands (Nikon calls it single point AF, Canon calls it manual spot AF), so refer to your manual if you’re not sure how to access it.

Still getting soft shots? This could be an issue of too little depth of field, which will be more problematic the closer you are to your subject. In a portrait, for example, one of your subject’s eyes may be in focus but not the other. You can increase depth of field by selecting a smaller aperture setting, either in aperture priority or full manual mode. You can read more about aperture in our guide to exposure settings.

Why are my photos too dark or too light?

If your photos are too dark, the camera didn’t get enough light; we call these “underexposed” photographs. If they are too bright, the camera had too much light, and we call this “overexposed.” Thankfully, this is an easy issue to fix, but understanding why your camera over or underexposed in the first place will help you anticipate it and save you from having to reshoot multiple attempts.

• 1.
  Underexposed
• 2.
  Properly exposed
• 3.
  Overexposed

A camera is usually trying to find an exposure that works for the entire scene, but if you have a very bright background and a dark subject (a person standing in shade on a snowy mountain on a sunny day is good extreme example) it may underexpose the image relative to your subject.

Exposure compensation can be an easier way of adjusting brightness without messing with manual controls.

The reverse can also happen; if your subject is in direct sunlight but surrounded by shaded areas, the camera may overexpose your subject as it tries to compensate for all the surrounding darkness. Once you learn to spot these scenes, you can anticipate how your camera will react, and you’ll be able to make adjustments accordingly even before you snap a first test picture.

On a phone, tapping on the screen will set the focus and exposure to that point. Often, just doing this will be enough to get a properly exposed image. However, you can choose to make the image brighter or darker using exposure compensation. Depending on the camera app you’re using, this is usually accessed by tapping and holding on the screen; once exposure locks in, you should now be able to drag a finger up or down to brighten or darken the image.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Dedicated cameras also offer exposure compensation, and this can be an easier way of adjusting brightness without messing with manual controls. Some cameras may have a dedicated exposure compensation dial, others will have a button (again, reference your manual for the exact location on your camera). Adjustments are usually made in increments of 1/3 stop — a full stop is a doubling or halving of the amount of light, so if you adjust exposure compensation to +1, you will get an image that’s twice as bright as what you had before.

Why do my photos have weird colors?

Your eyes can easily adjust to all the different types of light we encounter in the world, but your camera isn’t as good at it. If the colors in your photo look off, the culprit is probably white balance.

• 1.
  Daylight white balance
• 2.
  Shade white balance
• 3.
  Cloudy white balance

Setting an accurate white balance will ensure that everything that’s supposed to be white in the photo is white, and thus other colors should fall into place, too. While automatic white balance tends to work decently enough the majority of the time, it isn’t always perfect — particularly if there’s mixed lighting in a scene.

White balance settings are relatively easy to change, although may not be available in your phone’s default camera app. Some advanced smartphone apps will give you control, however.

If you can’t move out of the harsh sun, use the flash to fill in those photos instead.

On dedicated cameras, many will have a white balance button or you can find the setting in the menu. It’s possible to set a custom white balance, but sticking to the built-in settings for sun, shade, cloudy, incandescent, and fluorescent will likely get you close enough for each type of light.

Another option is to shoot in RAW. A RAW file doesn’t have white balance baked into it the way a compressed JPEG does, which lets you change the white balance later without degrading the photo. If you don’t want to spend time editing your photos, this may not be the best choice, but it will give you the most control. And yes, this is even possible on a smartphone if you use a RAW camera app.

Why do my portraits have dark eyes?

When the light source is above your subject, it will cast a shadow directly over their eyes. You may notice this when shooting outside on a bright day when the sun is high in the sky.

Somewhat counterintuitively, the easiest way to fix this is to move into the shade. Yes, you’ll now have less light overall, but the light will be much more even, letting you get a proper exposure that illuminate’s your subject’s eyes without blowing out the rest of the scene.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Of course, shade isn’t always an option. If you can’t move out of the harsh sun, use the flash to fill in those photos instead. That’s right, use flash in the middle of the day. One of the best uses for a built-in flash is to fill in harsh shadows. You’ll have to tell the camera (or your smartphone) that you want the flash on, but that should help fill in those dark shadows and even out the exposure.

The sky was gorgeous — but in my photos, it’s just white.

You see spectacular landscapes with beautiful skies filling your Instagram feed every day — so why is it, that, when you take a landscape picture, the sky turns out white instead? A white sky is simply an overexposed sky. In many scenarios, the camera simply can’t properly expose for the subject and the sky at the same time. As we learned above, you could use exposure compensation to darken the sky — but this will also darken everything else in the frame.

Fill flash can help, but only if you have a subject that’s close enough to the camera for the flash to reach — if you’re trying to illuminate an entire landscape, that’s not going to work. This is where high dynamic range (HDR) photography comes in.

Most phone camera apps have HDR modes built-in, and some may even turn on automatically when the camera thinks it needs it. HDR modes are also found in many dedicated cameras; it may be hidden in the menu or within the “scene” modes on your camera’s mode dial. While HDR in phones is designed to work handheld, note that with a mirrorless camera or DSLR, you might be better off with a tripod as the camera needs to shoot multiple exposures and then line them up to create the HDR image.

Editors’ Recommendations

• What is white balance, and how do you change it?
• 17 essential photography tips for beginners
• What is HDR photography and how can I shoot it with my camera?
• How to photograph fireworks and capture the color of Independence Day
• How to take better pictures with your camera’s automatic mode

Quindim, quiche or quesito? What will Android Q be called?

Sometimes as a tech journalist, you have to pose the really tough questions: Do cell phones cause brain cancer? Does anyone really need an S Pen? And of course, what dessert will Google name the next version of Android after?

We don’t shy away from these issues at Digital Trends, but the alphabet is really making things tough this time around. We had plenty of suggestions for what Android P might turn out to be, though they were all wrong. While the pumpkin and pecan varieties made the list, plain old pie just never occurred to us.

As much we love the letter Q — and the Star Trek character for that matter — we are not overly burdened with dessert possibilities that start there. Here’s what we’ve got for possible names so far, with a likelihood score of 1 out of 10 as the lowest and 10 out of 10 as the highest.

Quiche

Likelihood: 1/10

It might be one of the first foods that pops to mind when the letter Q is mentioned, but why would Google go savory now? It might as well pick Quinoa or Quesadilla, though quiches do at least employ pastry and occasionally have sweet fillings. We don’t think this will be the one. Everyone knows that the best quiches are the Lorraine variety with bacon and cheese in them, which are definitely not desserts.

Quik

Likelihood: 2/10

The chocolate milk Nesquik was originally called Nestle Quik and Google has gone for brand tie-ins before, but no one really calls it Quik so this is a long shot. Also, GoPro has already snagged the Quik name for its video editing software.

Quality Street

Likelihood: 3/10

Brits will be familiar with the Quality Street brand – a box of individually wrapped chocolates, toffees, and other sweets, but it’s probably not well-known enough stateside to be considered. They started in 1936 in England but Nestle acquired the brand in 1988. The purple ones — hazelnut wrapped in caramel — are best, but they’re always swiftly mined leaving you with handfuls of toffee pennies and those green triangles.

Quaker Oats

Likelihood: 2/10

Before you laugh this one out of the list, consider that you can use Quaker Oats to bake oatmeal cookies or put fruit and honey in them. We also think Android 10 Quaker Oats sounds like an awesome post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie.

Quesito

Likelihood: 3/10

These cute pastries look as though they might fit the bill. They’re flaky, sugar-coated pastry treats, but they’re usually filled with cheese and served with breakfast. They can be vanilla-flavored or have fruit inside, so they have to be in with a chance.

Quindim

Likelihood: 4/10

We hadn’t honestly heard of this Brazilian baked dessert before, but at least it is a dessert. Made from sugar, coconut, and eggs these tasty yellow rings look pretty tempting.

Quince

Likelihood: 3/10

The fruit of the quince tree most closely resembles a pear and is typically made into jelly or jam. It’s often used in desserts, but it’s actually a hard, acidic fruit, so we don’t think it will be the one.

Queen of puddings

Likelihood: 1/10

Terribly British pudding (dessert) of custard, cake, jam (jelly), and meringue that is probably unheard of in the U.S. and so very unlikely to get the nod from Google. It would also make for a stupidly long-winded name, but we bet you want to try it now you know it exists.

Qottab

Likelihood: 1/10

This Iranian pastry or cake is packed with almonds and walnuts and finished with a dusting of sugar, but it’s usually written as Ghotab in English and seems like an unlikely — if delicious — candidate.

Queijadas

Likelihood: 2/10

These are popular Portuguese cupcakes that can be flavored with different things, but we don’t think they’re well known enough stateside to be in contention and pronunciation could be a definite problem.

As you can see we’re struggling here. Have any suggestions for Android Q? Perhaps Google will bypass it completely and jump straight to the best dessert known to humankind: Rhubarb crumble.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Pumpkin Pie perhaps? Just what should Android P be called?
• Microsoft rebrands news service, releases app on Android and iOS
• Forget selfies — you need to take a Bothie with your Nokia. Here’s how
• Essential PH-1 Phone: Everything You Need To Know
• Switching from an iPhone to an Android device

Dell XPS 15 9570 review

Research Center:

Dell XPS 15 9570

Most people don’t need a laptop like the Dell XPS 15. The average person spends closer to half as much as this $1,500 laptop. And even if it was in their budget, most people just don’t need a discrete graphics card, six-core processor, 16GB of RAM, and a larger 15-inch screen.

But what if you need that? What if you’re a video editor, or programmer, or designer, or architect, or music producer? You need a laptop that can handle the heavy workload you use every day. Or perhaps you just want to know your laptop can play games as well as it can work.

Welcome to the laptop you’ve been waiting for.

Party in the back, business up front

While the XPS 13 was refreshed earlier this year with a new color option and a redesigned thermal solution, the XPS 15’s design remains unchanged. That’s not an entirely bad thing, though. The XPS 15 feels more like a chameleon that blends in with its environment, instead of a flashy new toy.

The XPS 15 is a chameleon that blends in with its environment, not a flashy toy.

When closed, or when viewed from the back, the silver aluminum finish of the Dell XPS 15 is elegant and classy. It might not feel quite as modern chic as a Surface or Mac, but it wouldn’t look out of place in a coffee shop or photography studio, either. Open it up, and you’ll be greeted by black polycarbon palmrests and a keyboard that look appropriate sitting next to a ThinkPad or Inspiron. The XPS 15 always looks like it belongs, no matter where you use it.

The ultra-thin bezels still look great and keep the XPS 15’s profile sleek, but they’re not as unique as they once were. In fact, the XPS 15’s bezels are bested by the 91 percent screen-to-body ratio of the Huawei MateBook X Pro. Though it’s no longer cutting-edge, the XPS 15’s small footprint remains impressive.

Dan Baker/Digital Trends

Rather than make the thinnest or lightest 15-inch laptop, Dell has instead continued to focus on rigidity and durability. It’s a full pound heavier than the 15-inch MacBook Pro and 1.6 pounds more than the ultra-light LG Gram. At its thickest (0.7 inches), it’s thicker than even the Razer Blade, though the hinge shape allows for maximum efficiency. It’s also built like a tank. It takes two hands to pry its stiff hinge open, but that means you’ll have to try hard to find any flex or bending in the chassis or lid. That can’t be said for laptops like the LG Gram, which shoot for portability above all else.

While Dell has pulled back the port options on the XPS 13, there’s more options on the XPS 15. With two USB-A ports, a Thunderbolt 3 (four lanes of PCIe), HDMI, and a full-size SD card slot, the XPS 15 proves itself to be made for the messy, incongruent nature of business. Dell has smartly realized that limited connectivity might suffice for casual usage, but more options are needed when it’s time to get real work done.

The webcam will make you want to exercise, but the keyboard won’t

While some laptops are moving toward experimental, short-travel keyboards, the XPS 15 has taken a more conventional approach. That’s not to say you have a lot of travel to work with here, but Dell makes efficient use of its 1.3 millimeters. The keys have a satisfying snap-back that makes typing speedy and comfortable. We had no problem quickly getting accustomed to the action of the keys, and the layout is puts everything we needed in reach.

The webcam placement means inviting your video conferencing guests to shots of your double chin.

The touchpad is similarly responsive, reacting well to multi-finger gestures, two-finger tracking, and palm rejection. The click is a bit louder and clunkier than we prefer, but we became used to it. There are laptops with better inputs, such as Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon or even the Surface Book 2 — but the XPS 15 is no slouch.

The webcam is more of a problem. In case you haven’t heard, the webcam on these XPS laptops has moved beneath the display, so you’ll be inviting your video conferencing guests to shots of your double chin, nostrils, and massive troll hands while typing. It’s a choice that was a bit easier to forgive on the cheaper, more mainstream XPS 13. But for a laptop that could be used regularly for business conduct, it’s a bit more of a compromise. For some this will be a deal-breaker, but others will never end up turning it on to find out how bad the angle really is. At least it’s centered this time around.

1080p is less desirable, but do you really want to pay for 4K?

The XPS 15 comes in either a 4K or 1080p variant, the latter being the one we tested. Opting for the less impressive screen nets you a significantly discounted price, and provides better battery life.

How does it perform? Well, unlike the XPS 13 — where the quality of the 1080p and 4K panels are in the same ballpark — the quality of this panel dips. It’s bright, maxing out at 397 nits, has a high contrast ratio, and even has a decent color gamut. However, it does have a few issues.

As you can see in the graphs above, the screen Dell chose for the 1080p model has a high rate of average color error at 3.32. It’s not so bad you’ll notice in daily usage, but it should be enough to make photographers and videographers worry. This can no doubt be lessened with calibration, but that’s not ideal in a brand new, $1,500 laptop.

Video editors will want to opt for the higher-resolution 4K model, which claims a wider color gamut and better color reproduction. But gamers, and most everyone else, are better saving $400 to pick up the 1080p version.

Dan Baker/Digital Trends

We wish Dell had made the speakers upward-firing, but they get the job done if you want to watch a movie and don’t have headphones on you. They’re loud and clear, but not beyond the scope of an average pair of laptop speakers.

Another speed demon

Dell’s 15-inch XPS laptops have always been of a different breed of laptop compared to the 13-inchers. The differences come down to performance. For the 2018 model, Dell has included the 8th-gen Core i7-8750H, a processor normally found in thin-and-light gaming laptops like the Razer Blade or Digital Storm Equinox. The 45-watt chip is an impressive piece of hardware that performs fantastic both in benchmarks and in general usage, especially when paired with the 16GB of RAM our $1,500 unit came with.

The bump to 8th-gen Intel Core chips brings significantly faster multi-core speeds, which the XPS 15 now enjoys. In Geekbench, the XPS 15 holds its own, though not against slightly bulkier machines with the same chip. As we’ll discuss in the graphics section below, the XPS 15 does throttle performance, especially in sustained, intensive processes. On the plus side, the XPS 15 never becomes overly loud or hot, even during the most strenuous tests.

With a processor like the Core i7-8750H, you’ll be able to run heavy software like Photoshop, Pro Tools, or CAD — even simultaneously alongside other open programs or browser tabs. It destroyed our Handbrake test, encoding a short 4K video in just two and a half minutes, which is the best score we’ve seen from a laptop and a solid thirty seconds faster than the Razer Blade.

This is the best score we’ve seen from a laptop and a solid thirty seconds faster than the Razer Blade.

While its processor performance stands out, the XPS 15’s storage left us a bit confused. For one reason or another, the 256GB Toshiba XG5 NVMe solid state drive that shipped with our review unit suffered slow write speeds. In our CrystalDisk Mark test, the drive wrote data at an average of only 154 megabytes per second (MB/s). After installing the Windows 10 April 2018 update, write speed worsened further, down to an average of 46 MB/s. As you can see in the graph above, that’s not even in the same ballpark as its competitors, such as the 1,974 MB/s of the Razer Blade. In fact, it’s closer to the speed of an old-school hard disk drive than a modern SSD.

This may be a bug in Windows 10 and, according to posts online, has impacted other machines with the same SSD, such as the Huawei MateBook X Pro. While read speed is more important to the overall experience, write speed will continue to be an issue until Dell, Microsoft, and Toshiba figure it out. We have reached out to Dell about the matter, but a fix remains pending.

Not a dedicated gaming laptop, but it gets by

The XPS 15 isn’t sold as a gaming laptop, but it’s always been surprisingly capable, the 2018 update has only improved that. An upgrade from the GTX 1050 to the 1050 Ti makes playing games on the XPS 15 even smoother and more responsive. The XPS 15 saw an 18 percent increase in its 3DMark score over last year’s model.

In our game testing we noted a similar increase in game performance. In lighter fare such as Rocket League or Fortnite, you can expect a smooth 60 FPS, even with the graphics settings maxed out at Ultra. Even when taxed with Civilization VI or Battlefield 1, we saw a significant jump in framerate over last year’s model. On Ultra settings we averaged 49 FPS in Civilization VI and 52 FPS in Battlefield 1. While that won’t compare to the best gaming laptops, such as the Razer Blade, it’s impressive given the XPS 15’s jack-of-all-trades design.

Dan Baker/Digital Trends

Again, you should know the XPS 15 can throttle at times. Even the more affordable Dell G3 Gaming Laptop, which has the same GTX 1050 Ti graphics chip, is a tad faster overall. That’s despite the extra RAM and processing cores the XPS 15 has. The 15-inch MacBook Pro has the same problem, as does the Surface Book 2, and basically any laptop with a thin profile and a fast graphics chip.

All-day battery

Despite its speed and large screen, Dell has managed to make battery life among the XPS 15’s strengths by including a large 97 watt-hour battery. The Razer Blade has an 80 watt-hour battery, while the Surface Book 2 features 90 watt-hour of juice. In the case of the 1080p model, the result of that large battery was some of the best battery life we’ve seen on a 15-inch laptop.

The laptop lasted just over 14 and a half hours looping a video. That’s even better than the XPS 13, and is only bested by the Surface Book 2, which still holds the crown at over twenty hours. In general browsing and productivity the XPS 15 provides more than a full day of battery, upwards of ten hours of usage.

Dell XPS 15 9570 Compared To

Alienware 17 R5

Razer Blade Stealth (2018)

Acer Predator Helios 300

Alienware 15 R3 (2017)

Asus ROG Strix GL553VD-DS71

Acer Predator 15

AVADirect Avant P750DM2-G

Asus ROG G752VS-XB78K

Acer Predator 17 X GX-791-73FH

Asus G750JX-DB71

Alienware M17x R4

Asus G51J 3D

Asus G51VX

Asus G50VT

Alienware Area-51 m9750

Our Take

The 2018 version of the Dell XPS 15 better than its predecessor in every way. While its look hasn’t changed, it remains a star in all the areas that matter most. Dell even upgraded the graphics card without increasing the price. There are a couple hiccups along the way, such as the webcam placement and the storage speed, but the XPS 15 remains our favorite 15-inch laptop.

Is there a better alternative?

The obvious choice is the 15-inch MacBook Pro, which won’t have the graphics capability, has worse battery life, and is quite a bit more expensive. On the other end of the spectrum, the Razer Blade is certainly a more capable gaming machine, but again — battery life is worse and it’s more expensive. As much as we love the Blade, there’s a trade-off there for the extra performance.

The laptop you should really consider before buying the XPS 15 is one of the Dell G series laptops. They aren’t nearly as thin, light, or premium, but offer better performance at nearly half the cost. The major compromises are screen quality, battery life, and touchpad quality, but if you’re on a budget, it’s a fantastic deal.

How long will it last?

The XPS 15 is a durable, up-to-date, machine. You can expect it to last at least a three or four years, depending how you use it of course. It comes with a standard 1-year warranty, which isn’t anything special.

Should you buy it?

Yes. Not everyone needs this much power, but for those who do, the XPS 15 is the 15-inch laptop we’d choose every time.