Google's Nest Wifi arrives as mesh networking is firmly embedding itself in the mainstream. Three years ago, Google Wifi surfed into homes at the bleeding edge of mesh, promising whole-home coverage with multiple interconnected routers filling in any dead spots. Now, Nest Wifi promises the same, only with fewer units and the addition of Google Assistant smart speaker functionality.
If the AirPods' convenience was enough to make Apple's fully-wireless earbuds a runaway hit, adding active noise cancellation could send them stratospheric. That's the theory behind the Apple AirPods Pro, anyway, instantly familiar at first glance but packing the sort of sound isolation that city dwellers, office workers, and frequent fliers dream of. At $249 they may not be cheap, but can the AirPods Pro make up for that in the ears?
Lenovo is back with its new Legion Y540, a gaming laptop that offers the performance and features players want combined with a surprisingly light weight and mature design. The Legion Y540 is offered in 15-inch and 17-inch sizes with multiple configuration options and a low, relatively speaking, starting price. Will this model meet your needs? Read on to find out.
We're suddenly in a golden age for active noise cancelling headphones, and the Beats Solo Pro are aiming to oust the Bose from your bag with some Apple razzle-dazzle. The latest iteration of Beats' wildly successful headphones range, the Solo Pro were redesigned from scratch with Apple's H1 chipset at the heart, and a fully-automatic noise-cancelling system to keep the outside world at bay. Read on for the full review.
The Huawei Watch GT 2 is a smartwatch that runs the company's own mobile operating system Lite OS. It does not run Google's Wear OS, and it's not exactly like what Samsung has with their smartwatches running Tizen. This watch looks a lot like most smartwatches released over the past several years, with a few watch faces built-in, a few sensors under its hood, and a decent display. But here's the kicker: It's got the battery life of your average tablet.
I owned a fair number of games for the Sega Genesis when I was a kid, but two that will forever stick out are The Lion King and Aladdin. Though I played both games for hours on end, I’ve only ever managed to actually beat just one of them: Aladdin. Aladdin was a game that was difficult enough on its own, but it didn’t hold a candle to the sadistic challenge of The Lion King. I have seen the end of The Lion King, but I didn’t get there through determination and skill. No, I had to use a Game Genie to get infinite lives and invincibility or to skip levels. Despite the amount of time I sunk into that game, I never managed to beat it legitimately.
For something intended to be hidden out of sight, the NVIDIA SHIELD TV (2019) sure is a funny shape. Then again, after four years solidifying its reputation as the go-to Android TV box, perhaps NVIDIA's brand new SHIELD TV is allowed to step outside the lines a little. One thing's for sure: with a new AI-powered upscaler, lower sticker price, and brand new remote, there's more to this 2019 model than just a fresh shape.
Unlike a chest of gold in the movies, the Pixelbook Go may not cast a honeyed glow on your face when you open the lid, but the keyboard you find waiting inside is no less precious. More affordable and more mainstream than the Pixelbook, Google's newest Chromebook puts Chrome OS on a far more traditional form-factor. With a starting price of $649 the Pixelbook Go may still have its flaws, but its big advantage over rival laptops cuts through them all.
The OPPO Reno 2 (or OPPO Reno2 if you like) is an interesting piece of hardware. It's a smartphone thats part of a very, very similar set of associated handsets, all under the same "Reno" branding name. OPPO's not failed to deliver impressive smartphone hardware to our review bench since we first started reviewing their devices. But here's the thing - if a phone has good hardware but less-than-great software, is the overall experience still good enough for the price?
I wanted to love the Pixel 4, but instead I can only bring myself to like it, and if it sounds like I'm being demanding then you may not have been keeping up with smartphones in 2019. Apple's iPhones are the best they have been in years, there are numerous affordable Android phones that don't sacrifice top-tier photographic talents, and expectations from whatever device we entrust our SIM to are rightfully high. Into that fray arrives the Pixel 4, Google demonstrating that it can still innovate - and still shoot itself in the foot.
For years, Honor has been carving out an identity separate yet connected to parent company Huawei. On the one hand, it naturally uses Huawei's technologies and resources, particularly the silicon and Android UX that runs on it. On the other hand, Honor has risen up as a mighty name that even managed to outperform Huawei's phones when it came to sales numbers by offering nearly the same or equivalent smartphones at half Huawei's price tags. The Honor 9X Pro announced just last July has the makings of a great mid-range device but, unfortunately, its fate lies in forces beyond Honor's direct control.
The Falcon Northwest 20th Anniversary Edition Talon is not a mobile PC. It's a heavy beast, made with 4mm thick aluminum plating and optional glass panels, coming in at around 40-pounds in all. The folks at Falcon Northwest made a name for themselves with custom-painted, custom-built, meticulously detailed high-end PCs. As their 20th Anniversary Edition Talon build was launched here in the second half of 2019, we decided to put their team to work on creating a build that was not only stocked with a powerful set of innards, but a custom-painted exterior to boot.