Reviews

The Range Rover Evoque Convertible's time in the autoshow spotlight may have faded to distant memory, but its oddball status remains. Even several months after they started showing up on dealer forecourts, usually sufficient time for the gloss to fade on all but the most unexpected exotica, the Evoque Convertible still turns heads. A reasonable part of that, I suspect, isn't so much because onlookers necessarily like the design, but because seeing an SUV with the top chopped off is still strange.

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Even if you're not as lazy as I am, you probably spend a lot of your time sitting down. Desk jobs may have spawned a whole industry of ergonomic seating, but getting up off your chair altogether is the newest trend. First came standing desks, initially seen as a fad but gaining traction so that no modern office is without at least a few of them; now, treadmill desks like LifeSpan's TR1200-DT7 are looking to crank up your movement even more. I may not know whether "sitting is the new cancer", but I do know I need more exercise.

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It's easy to leap to categorizing new products like Apple's iPad Pro 10.5 as either revolutionary or evolutionary. Do they break new, uncharted ground, or are they last year's flagship, polished and refined for another attempt? At first glance, the iPad Pro 10.5's familiar shape makes it easy to conclude evolution, but I'm not so sure.

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The Surface Pro Review we have here passes judgement on the Surface Pro released in June of 2017, as first outlined earlier this year. With the newest version of the Surface Pro, Microsoft made an equivalent to the iMac G4 by combining two important elements. The Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) is both enjoyable to use in a unique way, and it’s reliable. The unique/enjoyable factor comes from the keyboard attachment – the one that doesn’t come standard with the Surface itself.

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Thunderbolt 3 may be the wunderport of the future, but sometimes it feels like nobody told the peripheral-makers that. While notebooks like the most recent MacBook Pro may have switched entirely to Thunderbolt 3 and the USB Type-C connector, actually finding things to plug into them can be hard going. Enter Belkin's Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock, one of the first to market to take advantage of the connection's 40 Gbps throughput and power/display/data flexibility.

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At first, I thought Mophie had screwed up. The portable battery company has made a name for itself as offering some of the easiest ways to keep your smartphone going when its own charge is running low, with an array of external power-packs and battery cases for the most popular handsets. Yet the newest Mophie Charge Force Cases for iPhone 7 don't even have a battery inside.

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Does it matter if all modern cars start to look the same, if your slick new 2017 BMW 530i could easily be mistaken for a 7 Series twice the price? The new entry point to 5 Series ownership isn't cheap, of course, but it's certainly cheaper than you might expect. There are a couple of compromises along the way if affordable Bavarian motoring is your modus operandi, mind.

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I have no problem admitting that ARMS has caught me off guard. What I'd initially written off as “just another motion control game” for a largely post-motion control world has turned out to be a very interesting and refreshing take on the fighting genre. Before we dive into the review, though, you should know ahead of time that these impressions are coming from someone who doesn't necessarily consider himself a fighting game fan.

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When is 'more' simply 'too much?' That's the question I found myself asking again and again from behind the wheel of the 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, a luxury sport sedan seemingly so intent on occupying extremes that I wouldn’t be surprised if its Italian masters came out with a Vanilla Ice Signature Edition further down the line. Chugging Mountain Dew and challenging horses to straight-line tests of speed from the back of a sport bike might not be in the Quadrifoglio's repertoire, but this sultry turbocharged weapon alternately frustrated or frightened me nearly every time I picked it up, no matter how longingly my eyes caressed its outrageous curves.

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TVs are getting smarter, either via an extra dongle like a Chromecast or through their own power. While Samsung, LG, Sony, and Sharp may be the household names when it comes to smart TVs, Vizio isn’t one that can be easily ignored. It’s practice of offering “bang for buck” premium features at affordable prices has put it in the sights of Chinese entertainment giant LeEco. Vizio definitely dodged the bullet there, but it served to highlight Vizio’s market potential.

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HTC learned the hard way that, in the cutthroat smartphone industry, you need to bring your A-game each and every time. Make a misstep and, though recovery isn't impossible, it'll cost you dearly - cash that HTC just doesn't have to splash around. The stakes are high for the HTC U11, then, and in a year packed with compelling flagships from deep-pocketed rivals it can't afford less than a surefire hit. Question is, does the U11 have what it takes?

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Apple's HomeKit may have had a quiet start, but third-party accessories for an iOS smart home are gradually picking up pace. Latest to store shelves is Elgato's Eve Degree, a compact temperature, humidity, and air pressure sensor, wrapped up in a simple and handsome design, and promising to be the smart trigger your connected home has been asking for.

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