Reviews

Last week, company Optoma launched a new pair of earbuds called the NuForce BE2. The earbuds were hawked as a premium product with a less-than-premium $49 price tag, seemingly offering the best of both worlds. On paper, at least, there's a lot to like about this model: water-resistance, AAC audio support, a 10-hour battery life, wireless functionality, and more. Does it live up to those promises in the real-world, though?

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The 2017 Mazda CX-5 is a near-complete redesign of the brand's strong-selling compact crossover, and it comes hot on the heels of last year's unusual 2016.5 model year refresh. With striking looks, simplified drivetrain offerings, and a focus on answering the complaints lodged by previous owners as well as those from SUV shoppers who passed on Mazda's entry, the latest CX-5 manages to maintain much of its fun-to-drive edge over the competition in what has traditionally been a dynamically dull segment. Check out these 5 things you need to know about the 2017 Mazda CX-5 crossover.

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Every year, our homes become mini data centers, with the addition of new computers and mobile devices as well as the introduction of smart home and IoT appliances. We not only consume more massive amounts of data and content, we also produce just as much via our smartphones, digital cameras, and software. The measly hard drives confined to our desktops are no longer sufficient. We need a data storage that is not only capable of storing that much data but can also grant access to the same quickly and painlessly. Fortunately, Synology’s DS416play NAS offers storage, reliability, and convenience in one neat and affordable package for your home.

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The Moto E4 Plus Review we've got on deck today rolls through the basics of its hardware and software and offers judgement on its overall value. While the hardware is decent - especially for this price - it's within the long-lasting battery that this device truly shines. Can a device whose display, camera, and processor would be home in the mid-range two years ago survive as a low-end smartphone here in 2017? How about if it has a 5000mAh battery, 2.5x the size of the battery of the latest iPhone?

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I struggle with the new SQ5 because the Q5 is already an amazing mid-size SUV. There’s so much goodness I’d imagine one would struggle with the idea of anything better, right? The correct answer is, wrong. While the differences are subtle for what you can and cannot see, they might be just enough for the right buyer in search of a high performing vehicle that stands out from the rest of the crowd; especially when there are over 1.5-million first generation Q5 roaming the roads today. That’s where Audi’s S-badge comes in.

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Say it ain't so: a week after I grudgingly returned my 2017 Cadillac CTS-V tester it was revealed that Cadillac will be nixing the ATS, CTS, and XTS automobiles entirely in favor of a single replacement sedan to be labeled the CT5. While the CT5 may get a high performance edition of its own one day, the current CTS-V marks the end of the line for one of the more unabashedly dominant sport sedans ever built. The third, and final generation of the Cadillac CTS-V is the most powerful and most refined of the three versions to have been unleashed on American asphalt, and it's a fitting swan song for a car that has continually pushed the limits of four-door performance. Check out these 5 things you need to know about the 2017 Cadillac CTS-V

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Motorola’s Moto Z2 Force couldn’t have asked for a better - or tougher - test over the last week, as it became my go-to phone on back to back events. The tl:dr? It’s an evolutionary follow-up to the first-gen Moto Z Force, for better and worse. Full disclosure, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Z’s raw and rugged design when there isn’t a Moto Mod attached to the back. When I saw that it had loaded up with upgraded specs and a thinner design, I was mighty curious to see how the changes played out.

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The new Genesis brand, launched by Hyundai as a way of capturing the premium dollars lurking outside its more value-focused showrooms, has been making waves on the luxury market for almost a year now. It's been roughly that length of time since I last found myself behind the wheel of the Genesis G90 full-size sedan at its official launch in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and coincidentally, that's also where I picked up my most recent tester as part of a 10-day road trip through the coastal province.

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Deja-vu. That's the first thing I felt behind the wheel of the 2017 Mercedes-Benz E300 4MATIC sedan, and not just because it had only been a matter of weeks since I drove its E400 Coupe sibling. No, what's striking about the E300 is just how much of the S-Class experience it offers.

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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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