reviews

There's more than one way to manifest as a master of the universe, but few show off your upper echelon status with more class and style than slipping behind the wheel of the 2017 Mercedes-AMG S63 cabriolet. Truly, this is the chariot of those who are tired of the ostentatious display brought on by drop-top Ferraris, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis, a megabuck mirage that steals its way to the front of the valet line without drawing daggers from the 99 percent at every stoplight.

Continue Reading

I've always found it difficult to wrap my head around gaming laptops, and when I first opened the Lenovo IdeaPad Y900 notebook, I didn't think my feelings were going to change. I found myself almost immediately wondering why I would use such a bulky laptop when I have my own gaming desktop at home. Still, there's more to a computer than its size, and once I really dug in and got to playing around with it, there were a few things that caught me by surprise. The question then was whether the IdeaPad Y900 was enough to change my opinion on gaming laptops, or if I'd end the review process with the same opinions I had at the start.

Continue Reading

Overview, concept and design - The all-new 2017 Porsche Panamera epitomizes, to me, what a true four-door sports sedan ought to be: bad to its bones. Everything’s new, inside and out; it looks like a Porsche; it drives and performs like a Porsche. The only thing left is for me to actually get behind the wheel myself.

Sadly so far Porsche isn’t quite ready to entrust those outside of the company with the keys, but the automaker did invite me to take a “Taxi Ride” in the new Panamera recently. Don’t let the name mislead you: this is the hottest of hot laps, driven by a pro-driver around a proper racetrack. While I’d obviously prefer to be at the wheel of a car I’ve written about extensively over the past few months, this was definitely the next-best-thing. Launch control? Check. Slicing through hairpin turns? Check. High speed down the straights and then maximum braking? Check. One of the most epic cab rides ever? Oh, definitely check.

Continue Reading

Ultrabooks are a wonderful thing, but they're known to require compromise: you get this (usually thin and lightweight construction), but you have to sacrifice that (let's say battery life and durability). It's this very nature of compromise that turns many off; more than a few laptop owners have gone with larger, heavier models to get the things their ultrabook counterparts couldn't offer. Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Yoga ultrabook changes this -- there is no compromise needed. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find any laptop, ultrabook or otherwise, that can stand up to the utter gem that is this Yoga model. I don't ordinarily feel like reviewing something is an honor, but the ThinkPad X1 Yoga is no ordinary ultrabook.

Continue Reading

For Porsche, unveiling the new Panamera isn’t just about replacing one of its best-selling models, it also ushers in a whole new era for the automaker. When Porsche launched the Panamera four-door sedan back in 2009, it was a couple of years before I had kids. Though anything is possible, to my mind it was unimaginable that you could make a four-door version of the 928, the car that was to me - next to the 911 - the heart and soul of Porsche. After the initial shock, I never really gave it much thought.

Continue Reading

In mid-March, Sony rolled out its previously limited PlayStation Vue service across the nation, bringing three channel packages to anyone with a PS3 or PS4, Amazon Fire TV/Fire Stick, or iPhone/iPad (and, as of June 29, Android). I'd been using Sling TV before this, but I was never too pleased with the service and so when the opportunity came to switch, I did. I've been using PlayStation Vue for the last two or so months and feel confident saying that, for the most part, it's pretty great.

Continue Reading

Lenovo has a new 2-in-1 PC for those who want the convenience of a tablet and the truly usable form factor of a proper laptop. Unlike some competing 2-in-1 systems, the Ideapad Miix 310 features a keyboard with a hinge — attach the tablet portion to the keyboard and the combination of the two feels nearly identical to an ordinary laptop. It’s not just a laptop, though, and it's all the better for it. Is the Miix 310 the inexpensive 2-in-1 you've been waiting for? Read our full review to find out!

Continue Reading

Lenovo has tablets with built-in projectors, but that's not practical for some. If you want to enjoy the same kind of projector sans the entire tablet arrangement, there's the new Lenovo Pocket Projector. As the name suggests, this newly launched projector is small...small enough to fit in many pockets, and definitely small enough to fit in whatever bag you're using. Is the image quality worth it, though? Read our review to find out!

Continue Reading

Want to be a luxury brand these days? Better get in line. Just like every automaker has felt the need to dive head-first into the crossover pool, so goes the desire to push the features needle into the premium red-zone regardless of how affordable a vehicle's starting price might be. Bravely into this murky environment goes the 2017 Lincoln MKZ mid-size sedan, its moxie reinforced by both a redesign and an attitude adjustment under the hood aimed at grabbing the attention at previously-indifferent high end shoppers.

Continue Reading

The 2016 Nissan Titan XD is a puzzling truck. Let me explain. I've been driving trucks since I was a teenager, learning the joys of parking a battleship in an urban environment after my transition from country mouse to city mouse for college. In the intervening years I've seen the full-size pickup market blossom into the behemoth-laden bastion of Big Three profits that it's become today, with ultra-luxury trucks now as common as BMW and Lexus sedans at country clubs across the nation.

Continue Reading

I've never been a good sleeper. Ever since I was a kid I'd toss and turn hours past my bedtime, chasing elusive Z's and secretly panicking as the clock ticked closer to reveille. As an adult, I've gotten better at shutting my brain down and nodding off, but throw in distractions like noise, lights, or the impending existential dread that can grip us all in the dark of the night, and it's easy enough for my brain to cling desperately to consciousness and leave me exhausted for the following day. This is where Hush smart earplugs come in.

Continue Reading

In recent years modern automotive enthusiasts have become a spoiled lot. It’s hard to blame them though – we live in an era of unprecedented access to hair-raising performance, one in which 600 horsepower hardly raises an eyebrow and the prospect of a sub-four second dash to sixty miles per hour almost seems quaint. But amongst this output arms race, a contingent of sports car fans still yearn for a wholly different approach to driving bliss.

Continue Reading