Lutron Caseta In-Wall Wireless Smart Lighting Kit review – CNET

The Good Lutron’s in-wall smart switches are reliable performers that work with Alexa, Nest, IFTTT, Apple HomeKit and more. The well-designed Lutron app is easy to use, and offers plenty of helpful features, including geofencing, scene management, and a security mode that’ll help make it look like you’re home when you’re not.

The Bad Lutron won’t let you program your lights to fade on or off over a custom length of time, and the Lutron Bridge requires a hardwired Ethernet connection to your router.

The Bottom Line These are the best-performing, most fully-featured smart switches currently available, and well worth the money if you’re serious about connected lighting.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

If you’re thinking of replacing your light switches with smart, app-enabled switches you can automate or control remotely, then Lutron belongs right at the top of your list. It’s not particularly close, either.

Put simply, these are the best smart switches money can currently buy. We’ve been testing them throughout the CNET Smart Home for months now, and they’re reliable, well-designed, easy-to-use, and loaded with helpful features. Plus, they work with just about everything: Alexa, IFTTT, Nest, Wink, Apple HomeKit — you name it.

A two-switch starter kit with the mandatory Lutron Bridge retails for $190, which definitely isn’t cheap — especially considering that Belkin WeMo Light Switches cost about $50 each, and don’t require any bridge at all. But, after testing both options extensively, I’m convinced that Lutron is the far superior choice, and well worth the extra cash. It’s smart lighting that actually feels smart, and a clear Editors’ Choice-winner for the connected home.

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Installation and design

Each Lutron switch requires you to connect three wires: line, load and ground.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

In terms of looks, Lutron lands right in the smart switch sweet spot. Available in a variety of colors and tones, each switch looks appropriately fancy, yet still understated enough to blend in with most home decor.

That balance applies to the way you use the switches, too. Pressing the button at the top brings the lights to full brightness, while the button at the bottom fades them out. The buttons in the middle allow for fine adjustments. The smooth, gentle fades from setting to setting make each light feel like a high-tech, luxury fixture, but the controls are still perfectly familiar to anyone who’s ever used an ordinary old dimmer switch before.

Installing the switches is a cinch, so long as you’re comfortable flipping the power off at the breaker. All you’ll need is a screwdriver and a few minutes to swap one out. Just connect the three wires — line, load, ground — then screw the switch into place, snap the base plate over top of it, and flip the power back on at the breaker.

You’ll need to keep the Lutron Bridge plugged into your router.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

From there, you’ll need to plug the Lutron Bridge into your router via Ethernet cable and connect to it using the Lutron app on your Android or iOS device. Then, you’ll pair each switch with the Bridge one at a time by holding a button down when the app tells you to (each Bridge can manage up to fifty devices). If you’re just talking about the two-switch starter kit, getting up and running should only take you about 30 minutes, if not less.

The Caseta switches communicate using Lutron’s proprietary “Clear Connect” wireless protocol, a radio frequency designed for reliability and to minimize interference. The Bridge’s job is to act as translator between the switches and your home network. You can also use the Wink Hub to control your Caseta gear, but you’ll lose out on Apple HomeKit compatibility.

Lutron wouldn’t share any specifics on the steps it takes to keep Clear Connect transmissions and customer data secure, but the nearly sixty-year-old company has a good track record here. A spokesperson adds, “Lutron’s first principle is to take care of the customer. Lutron adheres to and/or exceeds industry standards when it comes to the security of our products and protecting our customers.”

Lutron’s app is well-organized and easy to use, and even lets you customize the way things look with preset themes or pictures from your own home.

Screenshots by Ry Crist/CNET

All about the app

Lutron’s app is a snappy standout, with a clean, neatly-organized design and customizable themes. You can tap to control individual lights right from the home screen, or setup preset lighting “scenes” to activate with a tap later. Those scenes can also include Lutron’s Serena shades if you have any.

2016 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack review – Roadshow

The Good The car has just enough power to make you feel like a badass. The nostalgia value is high with this one.

The Bad No Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

The Bottom Line Starting at $37,995, the 2016 Challenger R/T Scat Pack provides an excellent value for muscle-car enthusiasts.

I’ve always said the Dodge Challenger is the only big car that would make me cheat on my own little Miata, but that claim has been based on emotion. I’d never actually driven one, just admired them from afar.

That, my friends, has finally changed.

Emme Hall/Roadshow

I slipped behind the wheel of the 2016 Challenger Scat Pack at an old airstrip. Too impatient to worry about launch control, I slammed my foot on the skinny pedal on the right and held on to the wheel for dear life. The 6.4-liter V8 engine produced a glorious noise as the eight-speed automatic transmission blipped through the gears, and suddenly I was approaching the end of the runway at 140 mph.

Yowza.

It’s been great to see the muscle car wars of the 1970s heat up in the new millennium. Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet have been pulling out all the stops, trying to turn their high-horsepower drag strip kings into machines that can also conquer the twisties.

Emme Hall/Roadshow

At 485 horsepower and 475 pound-feet of torque, the Challenger Scat Pack lies below the crazy-pants 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat. But the Hellcat starts at $64,195, and good luck finding one at that price as dealer markups have been a bit out of control. The Challenger R/T Scat Pack starts at a much more reasonable $37,995 and gets a cool drag-racing bumblebee badge.

Frankly, I was surprised at the relative nimbleness of the Challenger. At 4,200 pounds, it’s a relatively heavy beast, but it handles better than I expected. My test model arrived with the optional 20-inch forged-aluminum wheels, wrapped in 245/45Z all-season performance tires. It would be interesting to see how the Challenger would perform with some good Michelin Pilot Super Sport or Pirelli P Zero summer tires.

On rougher roads, the Challenger’s ride quality suffers from its stiff Bilstein suspension. It’s fine for daily driving, but I found myself avoiding broken pavement when I could.

Power goes to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission, a $1,400 option over the standard six-speed manual. Although I always prefer the manual option, this ZF automatic shifts quickly on its own or lets you blip the paddle shifters in manual mode. In the Challenger, it enables cylinder deactivation, giving the car EPA fuel economy of 15 mpg city and 25 mpg highway, up to 2 mpg better than the manual.

Apple Watch Series 2 Nike+ review – CNET

The Good A bright display, onboard GPS and waterproof to 50 meters. Integration with Nike+ Run Club. Comfortable strap and comes with two exclusive Nike watch faces.

The Bad GPS battery life is short. No altimeter for measuring elevation. Workout data can’t be exported to other services. Lacks always-on display.

The Bottom Line If you’re a loyal Nike user, this is the Apple Watch to get, but it’s really just an Apple Watch Series 2 with a few minor changes. There are cheaper alternatives for pure fitness and run tracking.

If you’re ready to run and want an Apple Watch, you should know there’s a Nike edition available this year. Do you care? Should you care? Well, no, not unless you’re addicted to Nike+, the shoemaker’s fitness tracking system.

The Apple Watch Nike+ Edition isn’t all that different from the Apple Watch Series 2. It’s the same size and weight, and it can be used to make phone calls (when your iPhone is connected) and run apps. It also features the same ultra bright display, dual-core processor, GPS and swim-proof design as the Series 2.

The difference is the integration with the Nike+ Run Club app. You also get an exclusive silicone two-tone strap and two exclusive Nike watch faces. Essentially, this is the same Apple Watch we already like — you can read our full review on the Apple Watch Series 2 here.

I’ve logged more than 100 miles testing both the Series 2 and Nike+ Edition over the past few weeks. Both watches get the job done, but unless you’re set on a full-blown smartwatch, there are arguably better and cheaper alternatives to consider for running and overall fitness tracking.

What’s different?

The Apple Watch Series 2 and Nike+ Edition both start at $369, £369 or AU$529, but that’s for the smaller 38 mm model. Most people will likely opt for the larger 42 mm model, which will cost you $30, £30 or AU$50 extra. Here’s everything the Nike+ model can do over the Series 2:

• The Nike+ Run Club app comes preloaded on the watch and works with exclusive Siri commands, such as asking her to start a run. The app also offers daily motivation through run and weather reminders — exclusive to the Nike+ Edition — and will show when a friend has ran more miles than you.
• The watch comes with a lightweight, breathable (i.e. it has holes in it) two-tone silicone strap that’s exclusive to the Nike+ model. Color options include black and silver bands with accents in either gray, white or yellow-green (a shade Apple calls “Volt”).
• It also has two exclusive Nike watch faces (a digital one and an analog one) that can be personalized to show activity data and heart rate, or provide quick access to the Nike+ Run Club and weather apps.

View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET

Features

The Apple Watch is waterproof up to 50 meters (164 feet), has GPS, an optical heart-rate sensor, all-day fitness tracking and can run dozens of third-party apps. There’s also 8GB of storage, 2GB of which can be used for music storage (about 500 songs). When connected to your iPhone, it can be used to make calls, respond to messages and view incoming notifications from apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.

View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET

Running features vary from app to app. I used both the default Apple workout app and the Nike+ Run Club app, which includes auto pause and auto lap, and will display pace, distance, elapsed time and beats per minute. That’s all most people will want (and need), but given the high price I was expecting the Apple Watch to do a little more. The Garmin Forerunner 35 offers all of these features, can display notifications from your phone, and includes structured interval workouts and information on specific heart rate zones — all for half the price.

Sony MDR-XB50BS review – CNET

The Good The Sony MDR-XB50BS is affordably priced, sweat-resistant, sounds decent and fits well (it’s easy to get a tight seal). Battery life is good at 8.5 hours and the headphone has strong bass performance.

The Bad Not the greatest-looking wireless sports headphone; performed only OK as a headset; no protective case.

The Bottom Line It’s got some small downsides, but the reasonably priced Sony MDR-XB50BS is a step up in sound from a lot of inexpensive wireless sports headphones.

Sony’s new MDR-XB50BS Extra Bass Sports Wireless in-ear headphone is worth considering for a few reasons: Not only is it relatively inexpensive at around $60 online (£60 or AU$130), but just as importantly it fits well and sounds good, particularly if you listen to bass-heavy music.

A bit clunky-looking, it isn’t the smallest in-ear wireless headphone, with a footprint around the size of the Beats Powerbeats3 Wireless (which is, in turn, three times more expensive). However, it’s fairly lightweight, and fit me better than the Powerbeats3, though the Powerbeats3′ ear hooks are beneficial in keeping the earphones on your ears.

The MDR-XB50BS comes with a few different size fins and eartips, and I was able to get a nice tight seal with the large size of both, and that seal was crucial for maximizing bass performance. This is a noise-isolating headphone and it does passively muffle ambient noise pretty well, so you won’t be able to hear traffic while you’re running if you’re playing your music even at moderate volume levels.

The headphones come with three different sizes of eartips and sport fins.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Speaking of running with these earphones: While I got a snug fit and the headphones stayed in my ears just fine walking around New York City and while lifting weights at the gym, I did notice a little bit of slippage when I ran with them. For me anyway, the fin wasn’t locked in my ear quite as well as I thought it was. To be clear, everybody’s ears are shaped differently, and these may lock very well in your ears. But I’m just passing along my experience, which left me with some doubts about whether they’d be the perfect fit for runners.

Battery life is rated at 8.5 hours, which is decent, and the headphone is water-resistant but not waterproof. I can’t say they seem like the sturdiest headphones in the world, but they do only cost $60.

HP Spectre x360 (late 2016) review – CNET

The Good The new HP Spectre x360 is a durable, stylish and light machine with a comfortable keyboard, touchpad, long battery life and a crisp backflipping touchscreen. Extras include excellent speakers, USB-C charging and Windows Hello face login.

The Bad Only one full-size USB port. No HDMI output or SD card slot. The fan is noisy and spins up frequently. The size tradeoff doesn’t justify the missing features.

The Bottom Line The new HP Spectre x360 is an excellent laptop with a lot to offer in a small package, but it’s only incrementally better than the previous model, and leaves out some useful features.

If your laptop could be thinner, lighter and smaller with the same great battery life and performance, would you celebrate? Or complain about all the missing ports?

That’s not a rhetorical question, it’s the deciding factor when you consider the latest version of the HP Spectre x360.

Earlier this year, I called the 13-inch Spectre x360 one of my favorite laptops, because it didn’t force me to compromise. It offered powerful processors, long battery life, a beautiful backflipping hybrid screen, a relatively thin aluminum frame plus enough ports to plug in two monitors, a mouse, keyboard, a USB thumb drive and my camera’s SD card simultaneously.

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The HP Spectre x360 has slimmed down.

Josh Miller/CNET

Starting at $1,049 or AU$2,299 (UK availability TBD) the new, slightly revamped version of the HP Spectre x360 is just as good in almost every way — but it’s missing a lot of those ports. Like Apple with its new MacBook Pro, HP chose thinness over utility.

HP Spectre x360 (late 2016)

Personally, I’d buy last year’s laptop. The same point goes for last year’s MacBook Pro if you need HDMI or USB-A ports. But I’m not you. Here’s what you need to know about HP’s new Spectre to make the right call.

Sony PlayStation 4 Slim review – CNET

The Good The newer PS4 has a smaller footprint, slick design, quieter operation and keeps intact all of the PS4 awesomeness it’s offered since 2013. The slightly updated DualShock4 controller is a bonus.

The Bad The slim PS4 loses its optical audio port, which will be a bummer for third-party headphone users. The somewhat pricier PS4 Pro delivers a larger hard drive and the promise of better graphics.

The Bottom Line The PS4 Slim is a deja vu game console: great for gamers on a budget, not quite as good as the PS4 Pro and skippable for any existing PlayStation 4 owner.

There are really only three things you need to know about the PlayStation 4 Slim.

• If you already have a PS4, you can ignore this model. It’s basically the exact same hardware, just in a smaller case.
• If you’re in the market for a new PS4, you should first consider the PS4 Pro, the step-up model with a larger hard drive and (potentially) better 4K-friendly graphics.
• If you don’t have a 4K TV and you’re a first-time PS4 shopper on a budget, the PS4 Slim may well be a great option for you.

If none of that quite makes sense, don’t worry. Here’s why Sony currently has two PlayStations on the market, and how they differ from one another.

The PlayStation 4 Pro arrived in early November and retails for $399 in the US, £349 in the UK and AU$559 in Australia, though deals abound online.

The redesigned version of the baseline PS4, which everyone calls the “PS4 Slim” because it’s even more svelte than the original 2013 model, sells for $300, £225 in the UK and AU$440 with an included game. You can find both PlayStation models with hefty discounts during the holiday shopping season.

Both new PS4 models run the same games and can use the same accessories, including Sony’s PlayStation VR headset. But the Pro is designed to offer sharper graphics when connected to a 4K TV, if and when you play a specific title that’s gotten a software patch to enable the better visuals. The problem? In the handful of initial 4K-friendly games we viewed, we didn’t see a huge difference from the non-enhanced version running on an identical TV from an old-school PS4.

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That may well change in 2017 when we see the first batch of games designed from the ground up to take advantage of the Pro’s more powerful hardware. Early peeks at Horizon: Zero Dawn and Days Gone, for instance, looked promising. But even without the better graphics on day one, the PS4 Pro’s larger 1TB hard drive and the knowledge that you’re getting a degree of futureproofing might be worth that $100 extra for some.

Where does that leave the PS4 Slim? The internal hardware is basically identical to the earlier 2013 model, just crammed into a smaller housing. In other words, there are zero reasons for existing PS4 owners to get one. And the PS4 Pro should be the first stop for gamers looking to finally take a leap into the PlayStation realm (if you have have a 4K TV). But with sale prices as low as $250 — with Uncharted 4 included — the PS4 Slim is at least a great budget game system, and one that doubles as a solid Blu-ray player and video streamer to boot.

View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET

What’s different? Not a lot

So what’s different about the PS4 Slim? For the most part, just the plastic body. It’s rounded now instead of pointy at the ends and it’s surprisingly thin. In fact, I wouldn’t stand it vertically without the optional stand Sony sells. I also like the tactile power and eject buttons on the front left side. Sony had replaced the overly sensitive touch ones in later runs of the original PS4, but these are even better.

The console itself does run quieter than the original PS4, but I’m not sure it runs much cooler. The PS4 Slim seems to warm up just like its predecessor does, but it handles the heat just fine.

Thankfully, the Slim also lets you easily swap hard drives: any 2.5-inch laptop SATA drive (including solid-state models) up to 6TB should work.

Snapchat Spectacles review – CNET

The Good Do you use sunglasses? Do you like Snapchat? Then these are made for you. You actually film what you see and the battery lasts a loooong time.

The Bad They only work with Snapchat. You can’t really wear regular glasses with them.

The Bottom Line If you use Snapchat, you’re going to want a pair of these.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

I use Snapchat all the time but I still wasn’t expecting to like Spectacles as much as I did.

They do one thing — record video for Snapchat — but they do that one thing really well.

I took them to the beach, jumped on trampolines, dodged balls, climbed a pyramid play structure, watched the sunset and played tennis with them. A whole lot of fun captured from my point of view.

Regardless of age (or activity), if you use Snapchat a lot, Spectacles opens up the possibility to capture hands-free, phone-free moments.

Before I go any further, here’s a cheat sheet review in case you’re already feeling the need for a TL;DR.

What I like

1. They feel like regular sunglasses and they look pretty good on just about everyone.

2. Video quality is great for Snapchat. If the light is good you’re getting a pretty decent picture.

3. Spectacles record circular video. You can rotate your phone to see more of the image.

View full gallery Lexy Savvides/CNET

4. Filters, emojis and text. Once the video’s in Snapchat, it’s just like editing a regular snap.

5. They don’t need to be connected to a phone to work, only when you want to view and post snaps.

6. They won’t fall off your face if you jump around or play sport.

What I don’t like

1. You look like an idiot wearing them indoors, at night or with prescription glasses underneath.

2. Spectacles only work with Snapchat.

3. No face filters (aka lenses) allowed. Sorry, those funny Snapchat face swaps and Bambi ears won’t happen here.

4. The audio is good, but not great. It picks up sound pretty well from the wearer so narrating the action is what you’ll end up doing most of the time.

5. Mirror selfies. Unless you take off the glasses or have a friend wear them to film you, selfies are hard.

6. Spectacles take video only. No still images.

View full gallery James Martin/CNET

Who would want Spectacles?

• Athletic types: Unless you’re going bungee-jumping or riding a rollercoaster, they’re probably not going to fall off your face. I wore them playing trampoline dodgeball and they didn’t budge.
• Parents: Being able to film your kids (or pets!) hands-free is probably worth the price of admission. I played fetch with a dog and captured ten awkward seconds of him not returning the ball, perfect Snapchat footage.
• Someone who wants to be part of the action: They’re on your face so they don’t get in the way and other people are less likely to be weirded out when being filmed. (Try not to be such a creeper.)
• Anyone who needs a point-of-view perspective: You can see what I see. Cooking, dancing, singing, hands and all.

Polk MagniFi Mini review – CNET

The Good The affordable Polk MagniFi Mini is capable of a much bigger sound than its minuscule size suggests. The package is compact and will fit easily into most living room setups. The ability to Cast directly from your phone simplifies music streaming.

The Bad The Wi-Fi connection on my test unit was unreliable, and the ARC-only HDMI input limits connectivity somewhat.

The Bottom Line The Polk MagniFi Mini’s mix of features, performance and compact size makes it one of the best sound bars for the money.

If the prospect of a traditional home-theater setup with a half-dozen speakers and a bulky receiver doesn’t thrill you, you may want to a consider a sound bar. These small speakers are discreet, easy to set up, and sound much better than your TV’s speakers. And they don’t come smaller or better-sounding for the money than the Polk MagniFi Mini.

Flexible and affordable, it sounds adept with both movies and music and includes some must-have features. The best is Google Cast, which enables easy streaming from your phone, works with numerous music apps, and even make the MagniFi Mini part of a whole-house music setup. While I found the Mini’s connectivity a bit quirky, it’s nonetheless an excellent buy.

Design

View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET

Everything small is big again. While some gadgets have grown in size, like TVs and cell phones, the prevailing trend in the AV world is toward smaller devices. It applies to everything from Blu-ray players to receivers to sound bars
.

The Polk MagniFi Mini is tiny compared to most other sound bars, just 13 inches wide and three inches high. Although constructed of plastic and cloth it’s pleasing enough to the eye. Its small size means also means it’s less likely than many bars to block your TV’s infrared remote control sensor.

A set of lights on the front of the unit are designed to inform you of volume and input selection, although they’re mostly incomprehensible for the latter. At least there’s a limited number of inputs, and so switching until you find what you want is easy.

View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET

Unlike some other sound bars, the Mini needs to sit upright and can’t be wall-mounted, though you could put it on a small shelf. The included wireless subwoofer is minimalist and constructed of hollow-sounding plastic, although it’s attractive for the breed.

View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET

Usually inexpensive sound bars come with dinky credit card remotes, but not the Polk. Some thought has obviously gone into the Mini’s clicker, with its ergonomic design and clearly marked buttons.

Features

The MagniFi Mini is a 2.1-channel sound bar with a wireless subwoofer. The main unit includes two 12mm tweeters and four 2.25-inch drivers, two of which are angled to the side for what Polk calls “SDA sound.” The subwoofer features a downward-facing 6.5-inch driver and port.

View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET

Connectivity is a little better than what you’d expect for a $300 sound bar, with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, optical, a 3.5mm input and HDMI. The HDMI port is a bit strange, though. In my testing I found that its Audio Return Channel (ARC) functionality will only work with a TV — specifically for listening to onboard sound from smart TV or an OTA tuner. If you have a Blu-ray player or other device, you’ll need to use one of the other connections, say optical, or connect it to the TV directly (provided that the TV supports ARC). If your TV doesn’t support ARC, you’ll have to use another connection.

View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET

Polk has a long-standing relationship with DTS’ Play-Fi wireless technology, so I found it a bit surprising that MagniFi ditches it in favor of Google Cast. Given the potential of products such as the Google Home and the Chromecast Audio, however, Cast has the potential to actually challenge Sonos in the messy multiroom music race. So it’s definitely a welcome alternative.

Star Wars Battle Quad Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Your squadron has been wiped out, and your battered X-Wing fighter is the Rebel Alliance’s last hope. As you desperately swoop and streak through space, screaming out of the stars comes Darth Vader in his TIE Advanced fighter, lasers blasting… Until you use the Force to flip your X-wing in a daring corkscrew roll and blast the Sith Lord out of the sky. Pew-pew!

“Good shot, kid! Now come inside, it’s time for your dinner.”

Yes, if you’ve ever wanted to graduate from bored moisture farmer to epic space pilot, now’s your chance. The new Star Wars Battle Quads from Propel are remote-control toy drones that challenge each other in glorious recreations of the dogfights from George Lucas’ classic movies.

Pick a side and take to the stars of a galaxy far, far away.

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Choose from a rebel T-65 X-wing Star Fighter, Darth Vader’s Imperial TIE Advanced X1 or a 74-Z speeder bike from “Return of the Jedi”, complete with Imperial Scout Trooper figure to ride it. They’re on sale in special edition packaging in December, and a Millennium Falcon model will be released in 2017.

A Jedi cares not for money, which is just as well as the Battle Quads cost a whopping £230 or $240 each. (Australian prices weren’t available, but the UK price converts to about AU$390.) Seeing as you need at least two for a dogfight, that’s quite an investment.

The models look perfect, hand-painted and packed with detail. There are some compromises to drone flight, such as vents in the TIE fighter’s wings and the little front legs required to hold the rotors. But the rotor blades are transparent and the vents are cleverly incorporated into the design, leaving the drones looking pleasingly like their on-screen counterparts.

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What really sells the Star Wars-iness is the sound. Above the high-pitched whirr of the drones, your controller plays sounds, music and quotes from the movies that take you right into the famous space battle scenes.

The snippets of dialogue react to the action with phrases such as “Stay on target”, “I can’t shake him!” and “Good shot kid!” The music and sound effects help to really draw you into the Star Wars universe. The signature laser-blast “pew-pew!” noises are the absolute best.

The attention to detail even extends to the packaging. When you open each box, it lights up and plays music from the films. Each vehicle has a different soundtrack and dialogue clips. And the Easter eggs keep on coming: the tiny screwdriver required to install the batteries is shaped like a tiny lightsaber.

Even the box is packed with Star Wars detail, including familiar lights and sounds.

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

The drones fire lasers at each other when battling. Up to 12 drones can fight each other at once. They interact with each other, counting down how many lives you have left when you’re hit.

Use the Force

• Watch this Star Wars fan film shot using drones
• Millennium Falcon drone is the coolest hunk of junk in our galaxy
• What I learned from watching Star Wars in the wrong order

You have three lives, and when you’re hit a third time the drone falls from the sky. They’ll even tell you if another drone is running short of lives so you know who to target.

Each Battle Quad goes from 0-35 mph in 3 seconds, topping out at 40 mph.

As well as swooping and speeding around in the sky, the drones can pull off nifty corkscrew rolls. Touch the shoulder buttons on the controller and the drone will flip right over.

You’ll get 6 to 8 minutes of flight from one charge. Rechargeable batteries are included.

There are a couple of training options if you’re new to drone flying. You can set a height ceiling so your drone can’t shoot off and disappear or fly over a fence. Or you can learn to fly without actually taking to the sky, with a simulator app game that you play using the actual controller to steer a digital version of the drone on your phone’s screen. You’ll be bullseyeing womp rats in no time — but don’t get cocky.

‘Rogue One’: Meet the characters and costumes

Take a closer look at the costumes worn by the rebels and villains of the new Star Wars movie.

by Jonathan Garnham

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OnePlus 3T review – CNET

The Good The OnePlus 3T’s battery lasts way longer, takes sharper selfies and has a 128GB storage option.

The Bad Pricier than the OnePlus 3, the 3T now directly competes with better phones.

The Bottom Line This is our new favorite budget Android, but if you have the OnePlus 3, you don’t need to upgrade.

If it ain’t broke… make it slightly better.

At least, that’s what OnePlus is saying with the OnePlus 3T — a phone that comes just five months after the company launched its OnePlus 3 flagship in June.

The OnePlus 3 was our favorite mid-price phone until this 3T came along. I have no idea why the company is in such a rush to replace its already excellent phone so soon after its launch, but there you have it. And here you have a phone that’s the new standout in its category. Oh and don’t worry — the 3 is far from obsolete.

Compared to the 3, the 3T has a darker grey color and a new 128GB storage option. It’s got a faster processor, a bigger battery and a better front-facing camera. It’s also a smidge more expensive at $439 or £399 for the 64GB variant and $479 or £439 for the 128GB model. (OnePlus isn’t available in Australia, but that converts to about AU$580 and AU$632.)

For OnePlus 3 owners, don’t panic. You’re only missing out on a couple hours of extra battery life and better selfies. Plus, all the 3T’s new software goodies will soon roll out to 3 owners too. Read on for more details about how the 3T is different (including our spec and price comparison chart at the end), and check out our full OnePlus 3 review for an even deeper dive.

The OnePlus 3T’s darker shade of grey
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Still as fast, and now lasts longer

The earlier OnePlus 3 was fast — it outpaced the Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G5 and HTC 10 in diagnostic benchmark testing scores. This time around, the 3T beats the 3 in the same benchmarks and is just as fast as the Google Pixel and LeEco LePro 3 — two newer phones that have the same Snapdragon 821 processor as the 3T.

When it comes to real-world use, the camera opens and snaps a shot in seconds. You’ll scroll through a webpage and navigate the phone without lag. The keyboard is as quick and responsive as you’d expect. If you plan to download a lot of apps and fill up storage with photos and video, you may want to get the 128GB version to give yourself some breathing room. A nearly full 64GB phone could slow down operations later on.

OnePlus 3T Benchmark Scores

OnePlus 3T

1923

4372

32143

LeEco LePro 3

1878

4372

32304

Motorola Moto Z Play

810

2640

14168

Alcatel Idol 4S

1459

3415

17627

Google Pixel XL

1556

5201

28256

Legend:

Geekbench 4 Single-Core
Geekbench 4 Multi-Core
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

OnePlus gave the 3T a bigger battery than the 3: 3,400mAh instead of 3,000mAh. As expected, it lasts longer. In our lab tests for continuous video playback on Airplane mode, the 3T lasted an average of 16 hours and 56 — a notable 2.5 hours longer than the 3.

The battery still uses OnePlus’ proprietary Dash Charging technology, which charges the battery quickly without overheating. In 30 minutes, the phone charged up to 57 percent, and after an hour, reserves were at 93 percent. A full charge took about 1 hour and 35 minutes. This is about 20 minutes longer than the 3, but that makes sense given the increase in size.