Philips Hue White Ambiance Starter Kit review – CNET

The Good The Hue White Ambiance LEDs are reliable and fairly easy to set up and use. Hue’s wide compatibility with third-parties means that you’ll be able to use them with a variety of different platforms, including Nest, SmartThings, Alexa and Apple HomeKit.

The Bad Siri doesn’t recognize the white light spectrum yet, so you can’t ask her to change the tone of your lights without pre-programming a scene first. Also, the bulbs aren’t as bright as advertised.

The Bottom Line The White Ambiance LEDs fill in a gap in the Philips Hue family of smart bulbs, but they didn’t outperform color-tunable LEDs from Lifx and Stack. They’re really only worth it if you’re already committed to Hue, or to HomeKit.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

On one end of the smart bulb spectrum, you’ve got relatively inexpensive lights that don’t change colors. On the other end, you’ve got fancy lights that do. Philips Hue makes both, but for what seems like ages, they’ve been ignoring the middle ground: reasonably priced “color tunable” bulbs that don’t change colors, but instead, offer a full array of natural, white-light tones. In the meantime, competitors like Lifx, GE, Osram, and Stack have all beaten Philips to the punch.

The Philips Hue White Ambiance LEDs aim to change all of that. They won’t put out light in pink, purple, or green like other Hue bulbs, but they will shift color temperatures within that white-light spectrum: warm, candle-like tones at one end and cool, bluish-white daylight tones at the other. The cost per bulb? $30, with a two-bulb starter kit available for $130 (the White Ambiance LEDs aren’t available outside of the US just yet, but other Hue products are — those prices convert to roughly £20/AU$40 per bulb, or £90/AU$180 for the kit).

Philips Hue’s White Ambiance bulbs let you…
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For the extra cash, the starter kit comes with a handy wireless remote as well as the second-gen Hue Bridge, which brings Apple HomeKit support into the picture. That means you’ll be able to control the bulbs with Siri commands alongside other HomeKit-compatible smart home gadgets. And, if HomeKit isn’t your platform of choice, you’ve got a number of other Hue-compatible third parties to work with, including IFTTT, Wink, SmartThings, Nest, and Amazon’s Alexa.

That broad compatibility has always been one of Hue’s best selling points, but keep in mind that the competition has done a lot of catching up in the last year or so. And, as for brightness, almost all of them have flat-out passed Philips by. Specifically, I’d point to the sensor-powered Stack LED downlights and the Lifx White 800 LED as strong alternatives — and arguably better ones if you aren’t married to HomeKit.

The new version of the Hue app offers a refined look and a few new features, including easier controls for crafting automated lighting changes.

Screenshots by Ry Crist/CNET

What’s new with Hue?

Oh, you know, not too much. The new bulbs look like the old ones, and the new white light spectrum controls have actually been a feature of the full-color Hue bulbs since the very beginning. At $30 a piece, they’re essentially taking the place of the soft-white-only Philips Hue Lux bulbs, which were phased out last year.

There is a new Philips Hue app, available for both Android and iOS devices. It adds in new lighting scene presets for your bulbs, including white-spectrum-specific presets like “Concentrate” and “Relax.” It also borrows a page from the HomeKit playbook and lets you group bulbs by room. Aside from that, a lot of the differences are purely cosmetic — though to its credit, it is a better-looking app than before.

More than anything, the new app seems to be optimized around Hue’s integration with HomeKit. There’s an expanded section in the settings that’ll hand control of your bulbs and scenes over to Siri, complete with instructions on how to help Siri understand your lighting commands. When you want to add a new room in the app, it asks if you’d like to import a room from your HomeKit setup. You can run HomeKit-esque lighting “routines” for things like waking up and heading to bed. If last year’s debut of the second-gen Hue Bridge represented a marriage of sorts for Apple and Philips, then the new app reaffirms the vows.

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Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Control your tone

You can change the color temperature of the Philips Hue White Ambiance LEDs with just a few taps in the app. Like in the old app, you’ll drag a little cursor to the specific tone that you want, though the new app omits the full RGB color spectrum with these white-light-only bulbs, and gives you a full-screen white-light spectrum, instead. Nice touch.

But a good smart lighting setup shouldn’t be too reliant on an app — ideally, you’ll be able to automate lighting changes that anticipate your needs, saving you the trouble of pulling your phone out of your pocket. To this end, Hue’s new timed routines are a good step in the right direction, especially the location-aware routines that track your phone to run automatically as you leave and come home.

Siri doesn’t have a vocabulary for the white light spectrum.

Screenshot by Ry Crist/CNET

It also helps that Hue’s LEDs are about as bullish on voice control as bulbs come. Aside from the integration with Siri, Philips Hue setups enjoy native support from Alexa, Amazon’s voice-controlled virtual assistant. Philips is wise to position itself at the front of the curve here — voice-activated lighting can quickly make app controls feel antiquated.

I’ve got just one qualm here: Siri doesn’t have a vocabulary for the white light spectrum. Ask her to set a bulb to “daylight,” or “soft white,” or “2,700 K,” and nothing will happen. She has no idea what those terms mean.

That’s a bit baffling, frankly. Philips Hue was an early and enthusiastic member of the HomeKit bandwagon, and that white light spectrum’s been there from the beginning. Maybe teaching Siri to recognize thousands of specific color temperatures is a bit much, but would it have been so hard to let her know what “daylight” means? The color tunability and the Siri compatibility are the two top selling points here — why is there a wall between them?

Kinsa Smart Ear Thermometer review – CNET

The Good The Kinsa Ear Thermometer gets quick and accurate readings, and the app organizes that information intuitively.

The Bad Kinsa can’t quite justify its price — especially when some parents might only use it a few times.

The Bottom Line Kinsa is useful, especially if your child has known health concerns and you need to monitor their temperature over time.

Two months into fatherhood, after rescheduling a forgotten appointment, I tried and failed to recall my son’s birth date, weight, and height for the doctor. While that might not nominate me for a “Worst Dad” award, it’s tough to feel confident when you’re sleep deprived and you can’t remember if it was diapers or wipes you needed to buy on your way home.

Luckily, devices and apps for overwhelmed new parents (or just absent-minded ones like me) are gaining popularity. The Kinsa Ear Thermometer is the most recent addition to this movement, and its function is simple: it records the time and date of your child’s temperature readings, then pairs them with any accompanying symptoms (such as coughing). Besides this device-to-app communication, the thermometer records accurate temperatures in about a second, so holding the probe in the ear of your squirming kid isn’t so difficult.

After using the FDA-cleared Kinsa myself, I’m impressed. It does what it advertises, and it does it well. The only problem is, it costs $60 (about £41 or AU$83).

This smart thermometer keeps baby healthy
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Here’s what using Kinsa looks like: You turn on the thermometer by pressing the big white button, and it immediately prepares to pair with your phone via Bluetooth. Once you pair through the Kinsa app (which takes all of 30 seconds), the thermometer is ready to use. Take a temperature reading and it will show up in the app. All you have to do is enter your child’s name, assign the reading to them, and add any additional symptoms you noticed.

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Kinsa’s sensitive probe can be cleaned with rubbing alcohol and stored with an included clip-on cover.

Chris Monroe/CNET

While checking the temperature of a healthy baby is a good precaution, you don’t really need an app for it. Kinsa’s smarts help with situations where you must monitor a child’s temperature over time. For parents of children with known health concerns, this sort of information organization is invaluable.

Having a baby? Check out our takes on this related tech.

• The Fisher Price SmartConnect Sleeper
• The Hatch Baby Smart Changing Pad
• The 4moms Infant Tub

As I mentioned, Kinsa costs $60. Compared to other ear thermometers, that’s a relatively reasonable price. But for new parents, it’s about as much as a decent sleeper or changing pad — and you’ll use both of those far more than a thermometer. For many parents, a $10 thermometer to use in their baby’s armpit will suffice. That said, if you find that you need an ear thermometer, Kinsa is competitively priced and smarter than the alternatives.

SodaStream Beer Bar Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

SodaStream

Just add water, and you can brew beer using SodaStream’s Beer Bar. The latest beverage machine from SodaStream, the makers of popular countertop carbonators, aims at an adult crowd. Mix concentrate with freshly carbonated water, and you’ll have a glass of beer to drink in seconds.

The Beer Bar is only available in Germany and Switzerland for now, but SodaStream expects to launch it in other markets by the end of this year and early next. It ships with a 1-liter bottle of concentrate for a light beer called Blondie that yields 3 liters beer that is 4.5% alcohol by volume.

Of course, saying that you’re brewing beer by adding sparkling water to concentrate equates to cooking by microwaving a frozen dinner. I’m highly skeptical that a beer made by the Beer Bar would actually be something I’d enjoy drinking, but I’ve been wrong about beer devices before.

I thought Fizzics — which claimed to make bottled beer taste more like it came from the tap with sound waves — would be a bust, but it was surprisingly effective. Pat’s Backcounty Beverages has sold beer from concentrate for awhile now and has garnered some positive feedback. Sparkling Drink Systems — a SodaStream competitor — has a similar beer making device that uses Pat’s mixture.

Beer machines that actually brew beer

• Brewie
• ArtBrew
• PicoBrew Pico

If you want help automating a more authentic beer making process, check out the PicoBrew Zymatic, or the upcoming PicoBrew Pico, Brewie or ArtBrew. Whirlpool is even getting into the beer brewing game with a machine that helps you ferment beer called Vessi.

All of the above machines still require some effort and input on your part, so if you want to just push a button and be done with it, the Beer Bar from SodaStream could be for you. Just be sure to drink the results responsibly, and cautiously.

2016 Lexus ES 350 review – Roadshow

The Good The ES 350 upholds traditional Lexus tenets — it’s quiet, it’s comfortable and it’s plenty spacious.

The Bad It’s far less stylish than its stablemates, the powertrain feels old, and even the bare-bones base model is quite expensive. It also has the worst satellite radio antenna known to man.

The Bottom Line If you plan on stretching your bucks to slide into the luxury-car life, you’re probably better off going with a fully equipped, non-luxury competitor, like a Toyota Avalon or a Nissan Maxima.

Luxury automakers constantly assault you with advertisements, claiming that it’s never been easier to nestle into the lap of luxury. With base models offering ridiculously attractive pricing, it all seems rather attainable. But let me tell you — what you get for that advertised price ain’t always exactly luxurious, and it might make more sense to avoid going with a premium badge altogether.

Thus is the conundrum with the 2016 Lexus ES 350, equipped as my review model was, which is to say not terribly well. It represents the least expensive way to pick up any new Lexus sedan, but at $38,000 before taxes and delivery, it’s tough to make the value argument when you’re staring down non-luxury vehicles that can arrive on your driveway with much of its ride quality and way more luxury and safety options and doo-dads for much less money.

A little refresh

This ES 350 should look a little different from the hundreds of others you’ve seen on the road since waking up this morning. For 2016, Toyota updated its midsize luxury sedan’s exterior with slightly tweaked front and rear fasciae and some new wheel designs. It’s a very conservative update for a very conservative car, falling far short of the aggressive styling seen on other new Lexus models, like the NX and RX. In fact, all its sedans are playing catch-up to the crossovers, which is a pretty good metaphor for the state of the auto industry.

Inside, the steering wheel is slimmer and sportier looking, there’s a new in-cluster display and there are new “Enter” buttons on either side of the take-it-or-leave-it infotainment system controller. The interior remains on the conservative side of handsome, although harder plastics creep up the lower you look. The cabin leather is comfortable to the touch, and screen-averse buyers will love the panoply of physical switchgear for radio and HVAC controls.

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That pesky tech

Lexus’ infotainment system is definitely love-it-or-hate-it. Personally, I find the system’s method of mouse-like cursor control to be just as easy to use as any touchscreen, although learning how it works can be difficult, as it’s not like any other system on the market — even Toyota’s.

Devoid of options as my tester was, I didn’t get any connected services that couldn’t be utilized through the satellite radio connection. I had weather updates, but otherwise, my technological experience was quite limited. There are two USB ports up front, however, which is a nice touch, although low current means a slow charge on larger, newer phones.

This knob is now the third different kind of screen manipulator I’ve found on a new Lexus, the other two being a touchpad and a mouse-like knob.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

The satellite-radio antenna is the worst of any car I’ve ever driven, cutting out at random, far away from tree cover or overpasses. Occasionally, it took 30 seconds or so to find a station’s signal, and when it did, I got a minute of music followed by more seeking. Over my week with the car, it never worked correctly.

The in-cluster screen works as it does on any other Lexus or Toyota product, placing pertinent info (fuel economy, navigation directions when applicable, audio data) in the driver’s line of sight. It’s easy to adjust using steering wheel controls, and I found that it cut down on my center-stack screen glancing to a great degree.

Advanced driver-assistance systems are available, just not on my tester. For the curious, you can opt for a low-cost Lexus Safety System+ option, which gives you adaptive cruise control, forward-collision warning, automated emergency braking, lane-departure warning and automatic high beams.

Zotac Magnus EN980 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Small but mighty and VR ready.

Aloysius Low/CNET

I’ve always thought that you really needed a tower chassis to really get the most out of a PC. Having more space usually means better airflow, after all. And it leaves you room for components, such as an extra graphics card, that can boost its performance.

The Magnus EN980, Zotac’s liquid-cooled mini PC, quite easily proves me wrong. Zotac announced it a few months back, but it’s making its debut here at Computex in Taipei.

This powerful computer may not be big, but it packs a desktop-class quad-core 2.7GHz Intel Core i5-6400 processor and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 980 graphics card. Other specs also include 16GB of RAM and a 240GB SSD. That should be enough for most people, though I’d prefer if there’s was room for an additional hard disk drive.

Key specs

• Small PC
• Uses two 180W power supply units due to limited space
• Liquid cooling helps keep component temperatures down
• Available from the end of June

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 and Intel Core i5 processor mean it’s more than powerful enough to meet the minimum requirements for VR. So you’ll be able to use this with the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift.

Zotac says it plans to ship by end June with a starting price of $1,000 (which converts to about £685 or AU$1,380). That seems like a bargain to me. You could probably get the same specs for less with a tower PC, but they won’t fit as nicely into a small compact package.

Check out the rest of CNET’s Computex 2016 coverage.

Here’s what it looks like without the Zotac chassis.

Aloysius Low/CNET

Sony Xperia X review – CNET

The Good The Sony Xperia X is a winning compact phone for its high-quality camera and ergonomic in-hand fit. The dedicated camera button gives you a convenient quick-shoot option.

The Bad Battery life is constrained, and the fingerprint reader won’t work on the US version of the phone.

The Bottom Line A reliable and likable midrange phone, the Xperia X stands out for its palm-friendly build and strong camera, but we can’t recommend it for US customers.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

Well, well, well, Sony Xperia X. You are a conundrum. I admit that I like you more now than I did when we first met at your February debut, and that’s largely thanks to your sneaky-awesome trait of being really easy to operate one-handed. There aren’t a lot of phones out there these days that are compact enough and proportioned well enough to pull this off, especially for people on the smaller end of the hand-size spectrum.

But you do, and that’s extremely useful for all the times when I’ve got my arms full with my giant purse, work badge, groceries, a cup of tea, a handhold on the bus, whatever. With your square sides that are easy to grip and the fast-acting fingerprint reader built right into the power button on your right spine, you make it incredibly easy to whip you out of a back pocket to read the news or act on notifications without having to uncomfortably stretch my hands to reach your 5-inch screen. Since my thumb is larger than the fingerprint reader/power button, I don’t have to worry about precise positioning to unlock the screen, and your accuracy is spot on.

Sony’s Xperia X phone in all its angles
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But that fingerprint reader is also what gives me pause, Xperia X, because while it works flawlessly for your global variant, it won’t work in the US market at all. Sony is disabling it intentionally, just like it did on some of your brethren, like the Z5 and Z5 Compact. (“Sony Mobile has decided not to include fingerprint sensors in the US models at this time.”) This strikes me as a silly omission that will keep one large market from unlocking you this way and from quickly, conveniently authorizing payments through Android Pay, the Amazon app, their banking app and so on.

Because of your stingy ways stateside, I can’t recommend you for the US. You’ll get 4G LTE speeds on T-Mobile and AT&T if customers buy you directly from Sony’s website or from retailers like Amazon, Best Buy and B&H. But without that fingerprint reader, I just can’t recommend you over the Google Nexus 6P, which has a fast fingerprint reader as well, costs $50 less and will be first in line for Android software updates like Android N this fall, as well as compatibility with Google’s upcoming Daydream VR platform.

But for the rest of the globe, I do like you as a less expensive Android 6.0 Marshmallow option. You probably won’t be as fast as the same-size Xperia X Performance that’s coming out July 17, and you certainly won’t have its water-resistant body, but you do cost much less.

Sony Xperia X camera takes on Tokyo (pictures)
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Still, you’re pricier than the HTC One A9 (but you take better photos) and customers who prefer a larger screen should absolutely get the 5.7-inch Nexus 6P over you. Sorry, it’s harsh but true. ZTE’s newly-announced Axon 7 also looks promising, with a larger base-model storage capacity (64GB versus 32GB) and comparable camera specs (which doesn’t always equal better performance) — and it costs less than you do. (Read a full specs comparison breakdown with these phones below.)

So while I can easily hold you with one hand while giving your dimensions and camera a thumbs up with the other, you do face intense competition from less expensive phones.

Sincerely, Jessica

Well, that felt good to get off my chest, but I still want to walk about the Xperia X camera, battery life and hardware specs. Also, you should know that this review and specs apply to the 32GB version of the Xperia X. Sony will also offer the phone in a 64GB, dual-SIM model, but hasn’t shared pricing yet.

Whirlpool Vessi Beer Fermenter Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Whirlpool

Whirlpool’s Vessi Fermenter looks like a large appliance, but it doesn’t wash your dishes or your clothes — it helps you brew beer. It’s a single tank that claims it can help your homebrew taste better by reducing contamination and taking control of the temperature and the pressure during fermentation. By controlling the pressure, it can supposedly speed up the carbonation process — that means you shouldn’t have to wait as long to sample the goods.

Beer brewing bots

• PicoBrew Pico
• Brewie
• Artbrew

Vessi flips the approach of the other automatic beer brewers we’ve seen. Instead of helping you through the labor intensive cooking stages like the PicoBrew Pico or Brewie, Vessi leaves that all to you, framing it as the fun part. Instead, the Vessi Beer Fermenter — which was developed by appliance giant Whirlpool and launches a crowdfunding campaign today on Indiegogo — takes over the process after you’ve crafted your wort.

It has an eye-popping price tag of $1,900 (no international availability for now, but that price converts to around £1,300 or AU$2,650). The high cost will limit its appeal to hobbyists, but as a full-blown and decent-looking beer-brewing appliance with Whirlpool’s backing, it could find a market with passionate homebrewers looking to add some professionalism to their craft.

Brewing basics

For the unaffiliated, you brew beer by steeping water with malted barley, then boiling it with hops. The resulting mixture is called wort. Making wort takes a couple of hours of fairly active cooking. Then you mix your wort with yeast, which eats the sugars from the malt and produces carbon dioxide and alcohol. Letting the yeast do its thing can take weeks and there’s not a lot you can do to help you beer along during this fermentation process. However, you will want to keep your beer at a certain temp during fermentation, because extra heat will introduce off flavors.

Measuring up

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Master brewing with the Brewie beer bot

We get a taste of the Brewie automatic beer maker at CES 2016.

by Andrew Gebhart

January 7, 2016

One of my issues with beer bots such as PicoBrew and Brewie is that by automating the first cooking stages, they end up compromising some of the artistry and craftsmanship that goes into brewing beer yourself. And you’re on your own when it comes to fermentation.

So I like the Vessi Fermenter, at least in theory, because you do still have to cook the beer yourself. The fermenter’s role is to help you watch over your beer during the downtime after the brew. And there’s a certain degree of reassurance that comes from a crowdfunding campaign with the backing of a major manufacturer.

In that sense, Whirlpool’s approach with Vessi reminds me of the experimental work GE is doing with First Build, a “microfactory” in Louisville where the manufacturing giant can design, build and sell small batches of experimental appliances in an effort to reach new niche consumer bases. The division of Whirlpool that developed Vessi is called W Labs. It’s an initiative by Whirlpool to test out ideas in areas it might not otherwise have explored on a full-scale production level.

My main hesitation is that price tag. You can control the temperature of your fermenting wort much more affordably with the upcoming $350 BrewJacket Immersion Pro. And most homebrewers do well enough by finding a cool spot in their basement for their fermenting container.

Outlook

I like that you can pour your beer right from the tap at the top of the Vessi fermenter, but since you may have to make room for it in your basement or garage, I’m not sure how convenient that feature will be at a party. The system supposedly also helps with more advanced steps such as secondary fermentation and controlling your alcohol by volume. It’ll need to be pretty advanced to be worth the price.

You can preorder the Vessi Fermenter via the Indiegogo campaign now, with early bird discounts available for the first batch of backers. The products are scheduled to start shipping before the Christmas holiday.

Dell Inspiron 11 3000 2-in-1 (2016) Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

You’ll never find a cheap laptop that doesn’t cut corners, but 2014’s Dell Inspiron 11 3000 2-in-1 came close. For $400, it was one of the very best budget convertibles you could buy. (I know because I tried them all.) Now, Dell’s bringing back the 11-inch portable with a new price and some fresh coats of paint: Just $249 (roughly £170) or AUD$599 in your choice of a beautiful blue, red, white, or silvery grey.

The new Dell Inspiron 11 3000 2-in-1 (2016).

Dell

Now, you might be a little bit confused. Wasn’t this laptop already on sale? Not quite, that was the regular $199 Dell Inspiron 11 3000, which doesn’t come with a fancy hinge to let it flip over backwards or a touchscreen display.

But other than those two characteristics, they seem like basically the same machine. Your $250 buys you the same dual-core Intel Celeron processor, paltry 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, low-resolution 1,366×768-pixel screen and a decent 10 hours of manufacturer-estimated battery life with those particular specs. You can also upgrade to 4GB of RAM (which we recommend) or add a faster processor if you’re willing to sacrifice some battery life as well as your cash.

Dell’s 13-inch entry level 2-in-1 at Computex 2016.

Nic Healey/CNET

So how does it feel? A little cheap, but cheerful, especially in more vibrant colors like the blue and red. At just under 0.8 inches (21mm) thick, it’s pretty slim for an entry-level laptop and surprisingly solid too, like something you can trust a kid not to break in a few minutes. The low-resolution screen doesn’t dazzle and the hinge feels a little stiff at first, but for the price it seems like a well-built product.

We’ll have to spend a good bit more time with the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 2-in-1 to let you know if it’s the new budget laptop champ, but if you were already eyeing the standard Inspiron 11 3000, now you know you can get a touchscreen, too, for an additional $50. It’ll go on sale in the US and China on June 2nd.

Dell Inspiron 17 7000 2-in-1 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Dell Inspiron 17 7000, codename “Starlord.” Don’t ask us, ask Dell.

Dell

What if you never had to type your Windows password again? The technology exists. If your computer has an infrared camera, Windows 10 can automatically log you in using advanced facial recognition. Trouble is, most computers don’t have them, and you often have to pay extra for those that do. But an infrared camera is just one of the many premium features that come standard on Dell’s new Inspiron 7000 series laptops.

Starting at just $749/AU$1,699 (roughly £510 converted), the new 13-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch Inspiron 7000 laptops come with all of these things, guaranteed:

• An infrared “Windows Hello” camera to log you in with a glance
• A brushed aluminum chassis
• A precision touchpad certified for Windows 10
• A 1080p touchscreen that bends over backwards into a tablet configuration
• A backlit keyboard
• An Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processor and DDR4 memory
• Fast 802.11ac Wi-Fi
• A USB-C port that can be used to charge the laptop, adding hours of battery life with one of Dell’s $99 external battery packs (though they’ll ship with a standard barrel-jack AC adapter instead of USB-C)
• One USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 port, one HDMI jack, and a full-size SD card reader

The 17-inch Inspiron on display at Dell’s Computex press conference.

Nic Healey/CNET

The 13- and 15-inch models also come standard with solid-state drives — a must-have for speedy multitasking and the ability to quickly wake the machine.

But it’s the new 17-inch model that’s the real star of the show. Not only is it the first 17-inch laptop that can turn into a touchscreen tablet (according to Dell, but we’re pretty sure it’s true), the 17-inch Inspiron 17 7000 can also come with discrete Nvidia GeForce 940MX graphics for some light gaming. And unlike many larger midrange machines, it offers up to 10 hours of manufacturer-estimated battery life — the most of any of Dell’s Inspiron 7000 series. The 17-incher will start at $899, a bit more than the other models.

My colleague Nic Healey got an early look at the Inspiron 7000 series, and he had this to say:

“You’d expect a top of the line flagship to look good and the 7000 doesn’t disappoint. From 13-inch to 17-inch, the brushed aluminium body screams premium quality, something you don’t always associate with the Inspiron name.”

The new Inspiron 7000 series goes on sale June 2 in the United States and China. It won’t be the only way to get a facial recognition camera from Dell — the newly refreshed Dell Inspiron 5000 series will also have optional infrared cameras on laptops starting at the $749 mark.