Reviews

People love cheap, usable notebooks. Rewind a decade or so and 'netbooks' were just becoming a hot item. Things like the Sony Vaio P existed. Consumers gobbled them up, and though the market as a whole eventually moved on from the ultra-tiny laptop trend, the fact remains that a portable, inexpensive laptop is almost always a desirable option to have. Thus enters Lenovo's new budget-friendly 2-in-1 Miix 320 convertible laptop.

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I’m sorry, you’re called what? The Demon? The demon of what, you might also ask? It’s the torpedo of drag racers, born out an addiction to speed in a straight line, and its singular mission is to obliterate the competition on any drag strip. The specs say that the 840 HP V8 can propel this particular 4,275-pound missile from 0-60 mph in 2.3 seconds, and hammer out the quarter mile in 9.65 seconds at 140 mph. This is the world’s fastest production car, and it’s wearing an American badge.

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While the Raspberry Pi is undoubtedly the darling of makers and tinkerers, it has always been envisioned for use in education. But in order to keep the single board computer (SBC) affordable and accessible, the Raspberry Pi had to remain what it is today: a bare bones board that, by itself, isn’t exactly useful. You need at least an external display, keyboard, and mouse, not to mention a compatible OS installed on a memory card. This simplicity it both a boon and a bane, the latter because of the nearly infinite amount of choices users, particularly educators, have to make. Fortunately, there are those like pi-top that build greatness on top of greatness. We take its flagship product, the pi-top, to build ourselves a laptop powered by the Raspberry Pi, with a bent towards educating and empowering the next generation.

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Microsoft knows how to make sleek hardware. If the Surface Book is handsome but bulky, and the Surface Pro is more minimalistic but suffers a less-compelling keyboard, then the Surface Laptop falls happily in-between. You don't get a fancy detachable display, no, or even a 360-degree hinge. Instead, it's a neatly finished, beguiling traditional laptop form-factor with some eminently pleasing material decisions.

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Amazon won't be content until Alexa is within earshot of us all, and iHome wants to give her a place on the nightstand. The iHome iAVS1 Bedside Stereo Speaker System for the Echo Dot is effectively a dumb clock-speaker with a bay for Amazon's smart speaker. Pair the two together, and in theory you've got the ideal addition to bedtime. At $69.99, though - and that's before you've bought the Echo Dot itself - does iHome do enough?

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There is no shortage of smartphone and tablet accessories of all kinds. We power banks and chargers of different wattage and technologies. We have stands and holders of all shapes and sizes. There are, however, only a few that combine these two traits: docks. And those that do are, more often than not, specifically designed for a specific model or OEM to the exclusion of others. Chuwi wants to do away with multiple wall chargers and multiple stands for those with multiple devices and it does so in a rather unique way. Chuwi calls it the Hi-Dock and it’s almost exactly what the doctor ordered. Almost.

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Summer is upon us and with it comes trips out into the wilderness. No doubt you'll be taking at least one gadget with you on your next camping trip, and that means you have keep charging in mind. While a large power bank will keep you up and running for a day or two, you'll need to get a solar panel if you need something more substantial. iClever has released a new solar panel product for this summer, one with an 8,000 mAh battery built into the case. How does it hold up? Read on to find out!

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This week the Motorola-made Moto E4 for Verizon is on our review desk, and things are looking up. This device is one of the lowest-cost Motorola smartphones ever made, made to take the place of the Moto G as king of the budget smartphones. Where the Moto G was one of the most inspiring low-cost high-quality phones made in the past half-decade, the Moto E4 is the less-hyped but better-suited tiny monster that's now the best value smartphone available through Verizon - and soon other carriers, too.

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This week I've been working with both versions of the InkCase i7 - one for the smaller iPhone, one for the Plus. Both are from the newest generation of e-ink case from the folks at Oaxis, who've made these cases for the following people: "adventurers, bookworms, the businessperson, selfie-takers, and everyone else." Thus far I've found the case to be not only interesting, but helpful and downright fun, too.

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Lenovo is back with another stylish and slim laptop, this one being the Yoga IdeaPad 710S Plus. There's a lot to like about this model, not the least of which is its crisp display and slim bezels, multiple processor options, and fingerprint reader. The laptop, at first glance, greatly resembles some other Lenovo products, but in what way does it make itself unique? Read our full review to find out!

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Our OnePlus 5 review focuses on the real-world use of the smartphone with special regard paid to design and the use of the device's camera. The value of this smartphone is in its ability to perform at or above the level of its competitors whilst costing just a bit less than the most popular smartphones on the market. While the OnePlus 5 costs more than its predecessors, it also has a few features that make it just a bit more premium, too.

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No good idea in the tech world goes without replication, and while eero may have started the home mesh networking segment, it can't afford to rest on its laurels. Throw open your doors, therefore, to the second-generation eero and the new eero Beacon, promising more flexibility, a more competitive price, and more speed. Indeed, performance is said be as much as twice that of the original eero, which launched back in 2015.

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