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ReviewsLaptopsGaming LaptopsAdata’s First Gaming Laptop Nails It
I find it exciting when a new laptop brand enters the gaming market. The space is a little crowded at the moment, sure, but it can be refreshing to review something new. In my experience, there’s usually some feature or some hardware combination that I haven’t seen before, or the thermals are as pleasant as … Continued
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ReviewsVPNFitness+ Is Hands Down the Best Apple Service
Apple’s services aren’t terrible—it’s just the competition is usually better. Despite Apple’s best efforts, Spotify is most people’s music streaming app of choice. TV+ is nowhere near the best TV streaming service. Apple Arcade just doesn’t have much appeal to die-hard gamers. There are a bazillion other cloud storage services besides iCloud. But the newly … Continued
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ReviewsHeadphonesBowers & WilkinsThese Ultralight Carbon Fiber Headphones Are Perfect for Traveling Again, Whenever That Might Be
Carbon fiber, the high-tech material that now makes up everything from car hoods to iPhone cases, is light and strong. When Bowers & Wilkins designed a Carbon Edition of its PX7 headphones, the goal was to create a pair of headphones that were rugged and streamlined with solid audio quality. They pulled it off. B&W … Continued
By John Biggs -
ReviewsWearablesSmartwatchesThe Amazfit GTR 2 Raises the Bar for Budget Smartwatches
Generally speaking, budget smartwatches tend to keep things simple. You usually get one advanced feature, cheaper materials, a fuzzier display with big bezels, and a barebones companion app—basically, a fitness tracker in a smartwatch form factor. The affordable Amazfit GTR 2, however, blows up that formula. For $180, you get on-demand SpO2 readings, two voice … Continued
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ReviewsOther GadgetsMake the T-Shirt Designs of Your Dreams With the Brother ScanNCut DX
As we’re all crafting this holiday season, the Brother ScanNCut DX offers endless possibilities for DIY decorations. The ScanNCut is a CNC-style cutting machine designed to create shapes in paper, vinyl, and even thin wood. It also includes a small spatula for removing the stickers from the mat. The device consists of a sharp stylus … Continued
By John Biggs -
ReviewsLaptops2-in-1sLenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Review: Standing at a Crossroads
Right now the laptop industry is at a crossroads. Traditional clamshells aren’t going anywhere anytime soon (for good reason), and over the last decade convertible machines like Microsoft’s Surfaces, Apple’s iPad Pros, Lenovo’s Yogas, and others have helped address the needs of people who need flexible computers that are good on the road. But as … Continued
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ReviewsSmart HomeLightingPhilips Hue’s Play Gradient Ain’t Cheap, But It’s the Lightstrip Your TV Deserves
With the idea of going to a good ‘ole movie theater seeming like a bigger and bigger pipe dream every day, I’ve spent a lot of time this year thinking about how to upgrade my TV and movie-watching experience. Right now, watching TV is one of the few reliable methods of stress relief a lot … Continued
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ReviewsOther GadgetsThe Mikme Pocket Is a Solid Little Voice Recorder for Your Phone
The Mikme Pocket is something you don’t know you need until you try it. Created by a hardware startup in Vienna, Austria, this pocket-sized audio record is the second product in the Mikme line and, arguably, and it makes it easy to record meetings, vocals, and video soundtracks with a box the size of a … Continued
By John Biggs -
ReviewsWearablesSmartwatchesYou’ll Be Perfectly Happy With the Fitbit Versa 3
Fitbit’s Versa line of smartwatches has always been a winner: They’re less hideous than the Ionic and the Blaze (which we’re still trying to forget), less expensive than most of the competition, and decently full-featured. The Fitbit Versa 3 continues that steady, dependable, and affordable tradition, though the simultaneous launch of the more premium Fitbit … Continued
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ReviewsHome EntertainmentSoundbarsThe Vizio Elevate’s Rotating Speakers Are a Clever Dolby Atmos Solution
Dolby Atmos soundbars have a problem: They struggle to simulate height. Regardless of how many drivers a speaker has or how fancy its room-tuning audio is, you can tell the sound isn’t coming from above you. That kind of sucks when you have a fancy home theater setup but the spaceships on-screen don’t sound like … Continued
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ReviewsGraphics CardsAMD RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 Review: AMD Finally Does Ray Tracing
I was definitely excited when AMD announced all the specs and neat features of their 6000-series graphics cards at the end of October, albeit skeptical of what kind of ray tracing performance AMD’s latest GPUs would have. AMD was quiet about the ray tracing performance, and it could have been because its cards wouldn’t beat … Continued
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ReviewsLaptopsMSI Creator 15 Review: A Well-Balanced Laptop for Games or Work
Creator-focused and gaming laptops can sometimes be indistinguishable from each other. Both usually have a high-end specs to transcode videos as quickly as they load graphically intensive games, enough ports to transfer raw image files from cameras and hook-up streaming equipment, and sometimes even 4K displays. But something like gaming laptop maker MSI’s Creator 15 … Continued
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ReviewsGamingSony PS5 Review: Breaking the Mold
This week, video game consoles are taking a big step into the next generation with two new systems sporting upgraded CPU, GPUs, SSDs, and a bunch of fancy new features. So on the eve of the PlayStation 5’s launch, there’s no better time to take an in-depth look at what Sony is bringing and how … Continued
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ReviewsOther GadgetsThis Wireless Backup Battery Is Only Worth It If You’re All in on Apple
It’s not a bad idea to keep a tiny backup battery in your bag for dead smartphone emergencies, but Satechi’s new Quatro is a little big for your every day carry. As a travel accessory, however, it could conveniently replace a rat’s nest of charging cables and wall warts if you’re an iPhone user with … Continued
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ReviewsHeadphonesSkullcandy’s Incredibly Cheap Wire-Free Earbuds Sound a Lot Better Than You’d Expect
Released to coincide with the news that the iPhone 12 line would no longer ship with headphones, Apple’s new $50 Beats Flex are the cheapest wireless earbuds the company sells—but they’re not completely wireless, and they’re not that cheap. Skullcandy’s new Jib True wireless earbuds easily best Beats with a truly wireless design, a $30 … Continued
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ReviewsPhonesGoogleThe Pixel 4a 5G Is Hands Down the Best $500 Phone
The Pixel 4a 5G is an interesting phone, because on the outside it’s as plain as can be. But just like the Millennium Falcon, she’s got it where it counts. The Pixel 4a 5G is also somewhat awkwardly named, having more in common with the Pixel 5 than its smaller sibling, the standard Pixel 4a. … Continued
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ReviewsGraphics CardsThe Nvidia RTX 3070 Has No Business Being This Good
While Nvidia’s RTX 3080 release last month didn’t quite go as planned, there’s no denying that Nvidia’s 3000 series of ray tracing graphics cards are the ones that matter. The RTX 3080 finally made 4K gaming at 60 fps possible and more affordable for the average PC gamer, and the 3000-series as a whole makes … Continued
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ReviewsLaptopsHP’s MacBook Rival Has a Lot to Love, but the Thermals Are Terrifying
Sometimes the only thing differentiating a gaming laptop from a workstation laptop is the aesthetic. A lot of gaming laptops are dressed in a deep, matte black and accented with an RGB keyboard, or the air vents resemble a muscle car rear end. Mobile workstations blend into the coffee shop environment much more subtlety, only … Continued
