04 Jan
Blog

Klipsch Cinema 600 Soundbar Review: Big, Bold Stereo Sound

Klipsch Cinema 600 soundbar

Klipsch Cinema 600 soundbar

"The powerful and precise Cinema 600 is a soundbar for everyone who likes it loud."

  • High quality materials and surfaces

  • Easy to set up and use

  • Effective dialogue modes

  • Powerful and precise sound

  • Subwoofer not challenged

  • Mediocre virtual surround mode

The soundbar market is huge, with models ranging from tiny TV speakers to monstrous, multi-device home theater replacements, priced anywhere from $ 100 to over $ 1,000. Somewhere in the middle you should be able to find a system that offers powerful, room-filling sound, easy setup and use, and a price that doesn't make you rethink your life choices. That void falls into the $ 500 Klipsch Cinema 600, a 3.1 soundbar system with one of the largest subwoofers we've seen.

Does the Cinema 600 satisfy? Let's try it out.

What's in the box?

Klipsch Cinema 600 soundbarSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

The Cinema 600's L-shaped box is an unwieldy animal you might want to recruit a friend for – the courier who delivered our test model nearly injured himself with a dolly while negotiating our front stairs. Inside you will find the soundbar, the subwoofer, two power cables, an HDMI cable, wall brackets with a template, a remote control with batteries and the operating instructions. A lot of styrofoam is used to protect the components, but the rest can likely be roadside recycled if you don't keep them.

The company designed its soundbars to attract your eyes just as they do your ears.

design

Klipsch Cinema 600 soundbarSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

Klipsch is obsessed with making its speaker technology visible to everyone. The distinctive copper drivers are so diverse that many people never bother installing the included black fabric grilles that come with Klipsch products. So it's no wonder the company designed its soundbars to attract your eyes as well as your ears.

Black stained wooden end caps, accents made of brushed metal and a black fabric grill exude a restrained, high-quality atmosphere. The exposed tweeters at the ends, framed by Klipsch's signature Tractrix horns, may be more polarizing. Personally, I don't want visual distractions that take my eye off the screen while watching TV, so I prefer subtle sound bars. These silver plastic horns are hard to ignore if they catch even the slightest trace of room light. It makes the Cinema 600's design harder to sell for me, but I think Klipsch fans won't mind at all.

At 45 inches wide, the soundbar is in the long side category, but it's height that could be an issue. With a size of almost five centimeters, there is a possibility that part of the screen is covered on TVs with very short stands or feet. Measure your setup carefully, unless you plan on wall mounting the pole (which is easy thanks to the hardware included).

The control buttons for power supply, source and volume are located at the top right in the bar under a small display on which the status of the individual functions is shown. It's convenient to have them, but the play / pause and mute buttons feel like obvious omissions.

The wireless subwoofer is, I'll just say it: freaking enormous. It stands over 18 inches tall and is over a foot wide on each side. You probably shouldn't put objects on it or use it as a stool, but it's nice to know you could – it's ultra-solid, with the same furniture-grade black wood as the soundbar, with an uninterrupted frame on five sides.

Klipsch recommends placing it near the front of the viewing area – on a wall or in a corner – for a stronger bass effect. However, due to its size, this may not be possible in every situation.

Setup and connections

Klipsch Cinema 600 soundbar connectionsSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

Setting up the Cinema 600 is a breeze. Connect the soundbar to your TV using the HDMI cable provided or your own optical or analog cable, then plug the soundbar and subwoofer into the appropriate sockets. That's it, you're done. Note, however, that in the manual, the soundbar must be connected first and then the subwoofer. This makes the pairing sequence between the two components much smoother.

The included remote control is well designed and impressively lit so that it can be easily viewed in a darkened room.

Using the bar's HDMI ARC connection will allow your TV to control volume and mute. However, like many sound bars, some audio formats that require HDMI ARC are not supported (such as Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Atmos). It also lacks an HDMI input to use as a passthrough. So if your TV has limited HDMI ports, you can use an optical cable instead. You'll lose volume and mute, but don't worry, there is a workaround – the soundbar can be set to respond to your TV or cable box remote control.

In addition to the optical and HDMI connections, you get an analog socket and Bluetooth for wireless streaming from a smartphone. Each input can be selected using the buttons above or the remote control. This means that you have up to four sound sources easily accessible.

The connection ports are located in a very small cavity. So if you want to run cables to each cable, you may have to play around with the order so they don't bump into each other.

The Cinema 600 also has a USB port behind the right end cap, which is mainly used for firmware updates, but can also be used to play audio files from a USB stick or hard drive. I haven't tested this feature.

user friendliness

Klipsch Cinema 600 Soundbar remote controlSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

The included remote control is well designed and impressively lit so that it can be easily viewed in a darkened room. A motion sensor will light up as soon as you record it. Deeper functions such as bass level, surround mode, dialogue enhancement and night mode are easily accessible via special buttons.

Whether it's Hollywood blockbusters or the latest original TV series from HBO or Netflix, the sound is punchy, precise and energetic.

It's completely intuitive, but I'm not crazy about the bar with LED dots on the front of the soundbar as an indicator of what's happening. As a volume indicator it works perfectly, but once you switch to surround or dialog mode you need the manual to interpret point sequences. It's like morse code. Klipsch should consider shipping the Cinema 600 with a display-equipped remote control, as Vizio does with its mid-tier and flagship soundbars. The last thing you want to do while watching a movie is digging up a manual.

Sound quality

The Cinema 600 is a 3.1-channel system, ie you get three loudspeakers (left and right front channel and a center channel) and the subwoofer. This is a near-perfect setup for people who simply want a lot better sound than their televisions can produce. It gives you excellent stereo separation while providing crystal clear dialogue through the center channel.

Whether it's Hollywood blockbusters or the latest original TV series from HBO or Netflix, the sound is punchy, precise and energetic. And wow, this system gets loud when you want it – without a hint of distortion. After all, 600 watts is a lot of power.

The four dialogue modes successfully improve speech intelligibility, which I rely on for dialogue-intensive shows like The Crown.

Overall, it's an extremely fun TV sound system. But there are two areas that I found less than great.

First, you'd think that with a subwoofer this big, low-end bass rumble would go off the charts. But even when the bass level is at its maximum, low frequency effects are seriously attenuated. Some of this can be traced back to where I placed the subwoofer – in the middle of my viewing wall, not in a corner. But I don't think that should make that much difference. Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot of bass, but it feels like it is produced by less than half the size of the unit that comes with the Cinema 600.

Second, you can activate a virtual surround mode which theoretically expands the sound beams coming from the bar to achieve the equivalent of a full 5.1 surround system. Using this mode definitely increases the width of the soundstage, but at the same time it breaks the high frequencies and pulls back the midrange. The effect actually smooths the sound instead of making it more immersive.

If you want a true 5.1 system, you don't have to choose between great 3.1 and mediocre virtualized surround sound. The Cinema 600 can be expanded with Klipsch's wireless Surround 3 speakers ($ 250 per pair), or you can purchase them together as a bundle in early 2021.

The music in the Cinema 600 is also very dynamic (this surround mode should also be avoided here). Modern, studio-produced tracks like The Weeknds Blinding Lights or Beck's Uneventful Days sound particularly good, while older material is not quite as lively, but is still fun.

Our opinion

Klipsch delivers a lively and loud 3.1 home theater soundbar in the Cinema 600, which has good connections and a well-designed remote control.

Is there a better alternative?

There's no shortage of excellent soundbar options for the same $ 500 price as the Cinema 600. The LG SN7Y is a 3.1.2 system that delivers Dolby Atmos decently from a single bar, and the HT-G700 from Sony is possibly the best at Klipsch and LG when it comes to virtualized surround sound. Any of these sound bars will likely prove more satisfactory than the Cinema 600 from a multi-channel perspective. However, if you're looking for a clean, powerful sound, Klipsch is hard to beat.

How long it will take?

Klipsch is known for high quality equipment and the Cinema 600 is a well built system that should last for many years. Klipsch grants a one-year guarantee on the electronics and a three-year guarantee on the housing and woofer components.

Should you buy it?

Yes. While the Cinema 600 isn't as impressive as some soundbars, its performance and precision make it deserve a spot on your shortlist.

Editor's recommendations




04 Jan
Blog

LG 27GN850 Review: The Perfect 4K Gaming Monitor?

LG 27gn950 Monitor Review dsc02946

"The LG 27GN950 is a 4K gaming monitor designed for the next generation of PC graphics."

  • Extremely good image quality

  • Excellent fast gaming performance

  • Intuitive, sharp and responsive OSD

  • Classy appearance

  • Easy access to I / O

  • No HDMI 2.1

  • Inconspicuous stand

If you're one of the lucky few who managed to get your hands on one of the latest graphics cards, you need a 4K gaming monitor to go with it too.

But even the best monitors have a hard time delivering both great image quality and a high refresh rate. LG's new 4K gaming monitor the 27GN950 claims to do just that. With nano IPS screen technology, it may be as close to perfection as possible without jumping all the way to an OLED TV.

design

As a 27-inch monitor, the first thing you notice about the 27GN950 is that it is not very large. Among the massive ultrawide monitors and 32-inch 4K giants, this 27-inch panel is a breath of fresh air as the focus is exclusively on a razor-sharp image.

The bezels around the panel are hair thin, with the lower one being slightly thicker than the others. There is no LG logo on the front of the panel. Without a curve, it looks surprisingly elegant – if you leave out the somewhat garish stand.

Looking at the back of the monitor, you'll find that the display case isn't made out of the fancyest materials. It's just cheap, scratchy plastics. Fortunately, it's in the back so it won't hit you too often.

Around the bracket and the entry / exit island there is a large RGB ring that lights up with the monitor and can adapt its colors to the colors displayed. This is a good party trick to add immersion despite the modest panel size.

Then there's the stand of the display, which I'm not a fan of. The adjustment mechanism has all the necessary settings for height, tilt and rotation. But with a panel that looks so elegant, I find that the stand itself is designed a little too aggressively. It's like a throwback to an older generation of gaming equipment, but I'm not nostalgic.

The front feet are strangely connected to the main pillar, and I wish LG had turned off the logo for a cleaner aesthetic. However, if you're a minimalist like me I would drop the stand and use a monitor arm. There are VESA 100 mounting holes to aid in this.

Connections and controls

If you're a pure PC gamer, the 27GN950's rear input / output panel is a good choice. It comes with a DisplayPort 1.4a connector that supports DSC (Display Stream Compression) to provide full 4K, 160Hz, 4: 4: 4 RGB support when using an RTX 20 GPU or later.

If you're someone who has a console in addition to your PC to get access to Sony's exclusive products, you may feel a little disappointed for one simple reason: the lack of HDMI 2.1. In fact, given the promising 4K gameplay from the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X over HDMI 2.1, it seems a little strange that LG chose to only install an HDMI 2.0 controller, even though most of its latest TVs support HDMI 2.1 . This means that the maximum refresh rate supported by the 27GN950 through the HDMI ports is only 60 Hz. There are at least two HDMI ports here, so you can hook up two consoles if you're okay with the refresh rate being compromised.

There is also a USB hub with two ports and a headphone jack. The monitor is powered by an external 110 watt power supply module that is thin and easy to hide under your desk.

Having instant access to brightness controls is extremely valuable.

The OSD (On-Screen Display) control panel from LG is in a league of its own. The user interface is controlled by a single directional switch at the bottom of the display and is extremely clear, responsive and easy to navigate. To control the brightness of the display, simply press the switch forwards or backwards to jump directly into the brightness controls. To adjust the volume of the headphones, simply switch left or right to decrease or increase the volume.

The OSD is also easy to navigate. It has five main sub-menus including Game Mode with some presets and Game Customization with advanced options like Adaptive-Sync, a black stabilizer to improve detail in the dark, and a deceptive crosshair. The Image Adjustment menu provides options for adjusting the settings for brightness, contrast, sharpness, and color. Finally, there is a submenu for inputs and a submenu called General System.

The only complaint I have about the OSD is that it doesn't seem to render in high resolution. The 4K panel can display extremely sharp and razor-sharp images. So it's a little weird that the OSD is rendering a bit fuzzy even though you don't spend much time here anyway and it's still better than most of the others.

picture quality

LG's Nano IPS-based gaming monitors are characterized by high image quality, and the 27GN950 is no exception. The company promises that the 27GN950 will cover 98% of the DCI-P3 space, and while our device didn't quite hit that number, it wasn't far off with a tested value of 96%. Our sample included 100% of the sRGB space and 88% of the AdobeRGB.

We also tested the monitor's color accuracy, which resulted in an average Delta-E (difference from real) of just 0.69. Keep in mind that anything below a Delta-E of 2 is generally considered good enough for professional work, and you'll probably agree that the 27GN950 is great for creative graphics work, which we don't often see on gaming monitors see.

However, where the display gets stuck is the contrast performance. The fast Nano IPS panel is ideal for fast reactions, high frame rates, a wide range of colors and precise colors. However, one of the weaknesses of IPS is its poor contrast performance. Our sample achieved a value of 980: 1 at full brightness, which is pretty much the promised 1000: 1 ratio on the data sheet. If you like to play games at night and don't need the wide color gamut and color accuracy, you might opt ​​for a cheaper VA panel.

The 27GN950 is great for graphic work – something we don't see often on gaming monitors.

The maximum brightness we achieved with the 27GN950 was 462 nits, which is more than adequate for most use cases including brightly lit rooms and is more than promised on the spec sheet. Gamma performance was perfect right away too, and the 6900K white point is pretty close to the 6500K target, although this can be easily corrected with OSD settings or calibration.

After calibrating the monitor, I was able to pull out 1% more DCI-P3 cover, correct the white point and increase the color accuracy from 0.69 to just 0.63. While these are improvements, it's safe to say that calibrating the 27GN950 is of little use and that most users won't have to worry about it.

Gaming performance

When it comes to gaming on the LG 27GN950, there is one thing you need to consider before you take the plunge: this display requires a ton of GPU power if you're running modern titles at the full 4K resolution and want to take advantage of the high refresh rate.

This isn't that big of an issue with older games, but today's AAA titles, especially those with ray tracing, will be tough to push. You need at least a GeForce RTX 3070 or Radeon RX 6800 XT if you want smooth performance. Even with these cards, you won't get near the high end of the panel's 144Hz refresh rate when you run the games at maximum settings.

However, this is not a fault of the monitor. When it comes to panel performance, the 27GN950 puts on an impressive show. The Nano IPS control panel reacts extremely quickly and can easily be overclocked to 160 Hz after updating the firmware of the display with just one push of a button. The stuttering and tearing is dealt with by the compatibility of FreeSync Premium Pro and G-Sync, and the display has low frame rate compensation for the inevitable drops in modern titles.

In contrast to VA panels, the Nano IPS panel does not smear here.

The smaller 27-inch form factor is also good for competitive gameplay because you can keep an eye on the entire game. It's also a great monitor for those who want to get up close and personal during intense gaming thanks to the sharp image.

In contrast to VA panels, the Nano IPS panel does not smear here either. High refresh rate budget monitors often come with VA panels. Although they offer better contrast ratios, they can lead to noticeable color smudging, especially in dark scenes. The 27GN950 has no such error.

What is special about the 27GN950, however, is the combination of this outstanding gaming performance with the sharpness of 4K and the extremely wide range of colors offered by the 96% DCI-P3 coverage.

I've played a fair amount of Horizon Zero Dawn on this panel, and this game makes great use of its wide range. The way it portrays the colors of the sun, the intense red sunsets, the vibrant green for the foliage and the deep blue for the water, along with the sharp image … it was something to see.

The downside is that it's not as impressive as the LG 34GN850 Curved Ultrawide with the same nano-IPS technology, but not everyone wants a huge ultrawide monitor on their desk.

What to Expect from the HDR600

The 27GN950 is also supported by HDR600, which means it can produce a peak brightness of up to 600 nits with just one of the HDR zones. It comes with 16 edge-lit dimming zones, which is fine but not great. It is certainly not an OLED panel, and VA panels are usually better able to produce deep black levels.

Of course, if you want a true HDR experience on a gaming monitor, you'll have to find one with FALD (Full Array Local Dimming) lighting, but this LED arrangement behind the panel instead of edge lighting costs a lot of money. Think two big amounts of money.

Personally, I prefer to play with HDR turned off. It's nice to play around with what the 27GN950 can offer, but the cleanest picture is produced with the picture off. Also, Windows looks very hidden with HDR turned on, and you need to enable it in Windows in order to enable it in your game settings.

Our opinion

If you are looking for a 4K monitor for gaming and creative work in the market, the LG 27GN950 is as good as your only option right now. If it offers a responsive panel with a refresh rate of up to 160 Hz, while maintaining a large color gamut and extremely good color accuracy that we don't see often. It is also one of the first 4K gaming monitors to use DSC.

The main drawbacks are the contrast performance, a nondescript booth, and the distinct lack of HDMI 2.1, which is an odd omission considering that LG has been using it on its OLED TVs since 2019, and next-gen consoles don't have enough bandwidth to run high To achieve frame rates.

Are there alternatives?

Currently the only two alternatives are the Asus XG27UQ and the Acer Nitro XV273K, both of which are a bit cheaper. They're not overclockable to 160Hz, but limited to 144Hz, and their overall look is a little stickier. Aside from the stand, the LG 27GN950 looks simple, clean, and refined.

How long it will take?

Although the low contrast ratio of IPS technology is showing its age, the 4K 160 Hz panel means this monitor should last a while as it will be a few more years before GPUs can reach their refresh rate.

The monitor should last as long as most monitors: at least 5 years. However, LG only offers a 1 year guarantee.

Should I buy it?

Yes, if you need a monitor for work and play and it has to be 4K, the LG 27GN950 is a great option.

Editor's recommendations




04 Jan
Blog

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Review: Dual-Screen Fever Dream

Lenovo Thinkpad x1 Fold Review Center

  • Innovative design

  • Feels robust

  • Nice OLED screen

  • Very portable

  • Tight keyboard and touchpad

  • Chunky performance

  • Accessories cost extra

This should be the year of the foldable dual screen laptop. With Microsoft Surface Neo in the pipeline and a specially developed version of Windows, we felt we were entering a new era of PC design innovation.

Then happened in 2020. Like many things we have been looking forward to, all of this has either been delayed or canceled entirely. Microsoft itself seems to be bowing out of the running.

Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Fold is still the only laptop that can be brought to market with a flexible screen. It's one of the most unique PCs ever made, and allows for some new experiences that feel really fresh. But is the ThinkPad X1 Fold, as a first-generation product, now with no competitors, too strange to look at by itself?

design

When everything is folded up, the ThinkPad X1 Fold resembles a Folio notebook. With its synthetic leather casing and small footprint, you'd never guess that it could fold into a full PC – including a keyboard and 13.3-inch screen. The professional aesthetic fits right into the ThinkPad X1 line, which was designed for a discerning and modern businessman.

All of the elements of the X1 Fold hold tightly together and it is possibly the most impressive design feature. The screen closes just as well with the keyboard as it does without. This is important because the $ 2499 base model doesn't include it.

You don't have to worry about space either. The ThinkPad X1 Fold is half the size of a standard 13-inch laptop and fits easily in a handbag or small pocket. This is the first perk of a bendable screen laptop that Lenovo uses many of them.

As a problem with many foldable devices, the ThinkPad X1 Fold cannot be as thin as other tablets or laptops when folded. It is 1.09 inches thick, closed and 0.45 inches open. Portability is the main selling point of this device and it weighs only 2.2 pounds. This makes it one of the lightest laptops you can buy.

The real magic, of course, is when you bend the screen back and see the design in all its glory. The X1 fold uses a silicone hinge and many layers of plastic to ensure that the screen can "fold" without damaging the glass. Using leather to cover the unsightly hinge on the back is awesome. The Galaxy Z Fold 2's aluminum hinge looks classy, ​​but the ThinkPad X1 Fold makes you forget it's there itself.

The foldable screen enables a number of different “modes” for using the ThinkPad X1 Fold. The first is like a Windows tablet. You can open it flat and use it as a large screen or, easily folded, as a book. This is probably the mode I have least preferred. Windows just isn't a great platform for app-driven touch-only experiences. A bendable screen won't change that. We'll have to wait for Windows 10X to support a more rugged tablet experience.

The device has a built-in leather stand that lets the screen stand on its own and offers some helpful angles for things like zoom and YouTube. I've found that I don't use it any differently than a Surface Pro or iPad, except that the ThinkPad X1 Fold can be folded in half. The kickstand still feels a bit weak, however, and the 720p webcam above isn't as good as the 1080p options found on many tablets.

All in all, Windows software limitations would be a deal killer if only tablet use were good for the ThinkPad X1 Fold. There's even more to the story thanks to the innovative keyboard implementation.

Keyboard, touchpad and pen

The keyboard is important in making the ThinkPad X1 Fold a working product. The implementation itself is pretty clever. First, it can be magnetized to fit in the bottom half of the foldable screen, mimicking a mini laptop. The magnets feel strong enough to hold the keyboard in place but loose enough to be easily removed. With just half a 13-inch screen, it comes as close to a netbook as any laptop that hit the market in the past 10 years.

The wireless keyboard connects easily via bluetooth and charges the keyboard while it is at the top of the screen. Once the keyboard is in place, the system will automatically darken half of the lower screen and resize the screen to the upper half. It's a pretty fluid transition, switching between the different modes and orientations. Lenovo also created a manual mode switch in Windows. However, if everything is working correctly, you shouldn't have to use it.

The keyboard layout is downright strange.

When developing the keyboard, it was clear that Lenovo was careful to keep the QWERTY distance known. My hands, of course, fell right on the size and shape of the keycaps, as opposed to some smaller layouts like the Surface Go 2 Type Cover. I am happy for that. The layout, however, has a major tradeoff.

For example, your right little finger lands on the Enter key instead of the semicolon. The colon, semicolon, apostrophe, and quotation mark are blocked by the P key, which requires many keystrokes. It took some getting used to, and I would have preferred a shortened Enter key instead. It is similar with the hyphen and the plus keys.

The biggest culprit is the question mark key. It no longer has its own key, which is very inconvenient and difficult to get used to. Again, I'd be happier with a shorter shift key.

Beyond the layout, the keyboard is surprisingly easy to type. The trip is very flat but it's about what I would expect from a device like this. After all, keeping it as thin as possible is of the utmost importance. It feels a bit thick to type as a laptop because the palm rests are almost non-existent. This also means that the touchpad is very small. That is unfortunate. It's going well enough, but it feels tight.

Fortunately, once you pull the keyboard away from the screen, the device thickness problem is resolved. This is my preferred way of using the ThinkPad X1 Fold. With the screen fully open and supported by the stand, you can sit back with the keyboard and use it however you want. This is an attitude that even the Surface Pro cannot replicate. I found it ideal for getting work done thanks to the 4: 3 13-inch screen.

Of course, you'll still face the limitations of the keyboard, but the freedom of movement is excellent. If only the ThinkPad X1 Fold could act as a secondary monitor! You can of course use one of the USB-C ports to connect to an external display while the other is used for charging.

The second problem with both the keyboard and the pen, however, is that none of them are included. As with other Windows 2-in-1 devices, I would be very disappointed if I only bought the ThinkPad X1 Fold without a keyboard. This is a bummer, especially when the keyboard feels like such an essential aspect of the device.

Adding both peripherals costs an additional $ 250. This is more than what Microsoft charges for the Surface Pen and Type Cover.

Display and speaker

The foldable OLED display is the star of the show. It's a 13.3-inch screen with a resolution of 2048 x 1536. This is an aspect ratio of 4: 3 and makes the screen so different from your standard 16: 9 or 16:10 laptop. The square shape makes for a better tablet and a wonderfully large work area. Lots of space to distribute apps and display the entire length of the web pages.

The screen has a pleasantly warm tint and the color accuracy is not the strength of this laptop. Thanks to the performance limitations, you shouldn't be doing much beyond basic photo editing here anyway. With the large color spaces (100% sRGB and 97% AdobeRGB) and the striking contrast of the OLED, the ThinkPad X1 Fold is a great device for watching videos and films on the go.

The folding aspect of the screen cannot be pulled off as seamlessly as on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2. In contrast to the single fold of this device, the ThinkPad X1 Fold has a double fold. This is especially noticeable when the brightness is lowered or when the touchscreen is used, similar to the Motorola Razr folding phone in this regard. Lenovo has got off to a good start with this technology, but the creases and the obvious layer of plastic on the screen feel a little cheap under your fingers. Samsung's implementation still feels higher quality. The ribs along the ThinkPad X1 Fold's bezels along the hinge don't help, and are highlighted by some of the thickest bezels you'll ever find on a product released in 2020.

But none of that takes away the cool factor of the ThinkPad X1 Fold. It feels futuristic every time you unfold this screen and it is sure to delight your friends. Do I wish Lenovo had cut off some fat and cleaned up the bezels? Sure. If we ever get a second generation of this, there is certainly room for improvement.

The speakers suck. They're labeled Dolby Atmos, but that doesn't mean much these days.

Many tablets have fantastic audio, like the iPad or the Pixel Slate. These benefit from the fact that the speakers are located at the front next to the display. The ThinkPad X1 Fold's speakers are on the sides, which is not ideal. In addition, they sound terribly thin. Unfortunately, you get richer audio with an iPhone.

performance

The ThinkPad X1 Fold is unique beyond its form factor. The processor inside is also an experiment. It is one of the first devices to run on Intel Lakefield chips. These are hybrid processors that combine elements from the mobile and desktop architecture. One “big” core for laptop-like performance and five “small” cores for tablet-like efficiency. The ThinkPad X1 Fold manages that, but in the end it feels more like a low-performance laptop.

Using PCMark 10 as a benchmark, the ThinkPad X1 Fold is about 25% slower than a standard laptop for basic tasks such as surfing the Internet and word processing. This has been tested on laptops like the HP Specter x360 and the Dell XPS 13, which are your standard class of Intel U-series Ultrabooks.

In Geekbench 5, it even loses to Core m3 laptops like Microsoft Surface Go 2 or Windows to ARM laptops like Lenovo Flex 5G. This applies to both single-core and multi-core processing. For a device valued at $ 2,499, that's not too promising.

The chunky performance was definitely felt when I used the ThinkPad X1 Fold for my daily work with web apps, multitasking, and productivity. Heavier tasks like 3D gaming or content creation are not allowed as this Lakefield chip does not benefit from Intel's improved Iris Xe graphics in 11th generation Tiger Lake.

The performance limitations seem reasonable when using the X1 Fold as a netbook or simple tablet. You probably don't want to do more than one task at a time with such a small screen. But when I was working with the keyboard unfolded, I wanted a faster processor.

My test unit came with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage, though you can upgrade that to 1TB for a whopping $ 3,099.

Battery life

The ThinkPad X1 Fold does not have a long battery life. Thanks to Android tablets and iPads, I always expect devices like the X1 Fold to have long-lasting batteries. You always disappoint.

It pales in comparison to an iPad, but also an average laptop. The ThinkPad X1 Fold lasted six hours and 13 minutes on a single charge when surfing the Internet very lightly – but with a full display and no keyboard. Get an hour and a half more in laptop mode. That's better, but still not quite as good as similar laptops or tablets.

The X1 Fold is used for a maximum of nine hours, which the device lasted for local video playback.

Our opinion

The ThinkPad X1 Fold is the kind of laptop I want to love. There were moments while using the device that I experienced the spark of innovation that makes it so unique. It remains one of the most exciting PCs to hit in 2020.

But between these exciting experiences lie moments of frustration, confusion and disappointment. Too many to make this one that can be recommended to everyone except the most adventurous early adopters.

Are there alternatives?

The ThinkPad X1 Fold is the first of its kind. However, the experience of using it is most similar to a 2-in-1 device like the Surface Pro 7, Surface Go, or even an iPad Pro. The ThinkPad X1 Fold is by far the most expensive of these devices – and the slowest.

But once you include its foldable screen, it stands alone. On the smartphone side, however, devices like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 or Motorola Razr could cause the same pliable screen scratch.

How long it will take?

Durability is an open question about the ThinkPad X1 Fold and not one that I can currently answer. You open and close it much less than on a smartphone, that's for sure. For what it's worth, the hinge feels sturdy enough for years to come.

The bigger problem is performance and software. The X1 Fold already feels chunky and that won't improve over time. With Microsoft's lighter Windows 10X operating system coming out next year, you might want to too

Should you buy it?

No. It's expensive, first-generation hardware that doesn't have the software support to be successful.

Editor's recommendations




03 Jan
Blog

Eufy RoboVac G30 Review: Won’t Break the Bank

Eufy robot on the floor

Eufy RoboVac G30 Hybrid Review: This robotic vacuum cleaner isn't going to break the bank

"This is a cute little robotic vacuum cleaner that you can use to keep your home clean without cleaning your wallet first."

  • App informs you when parts need to be serviced

  • Manual remote control for easy cleaning

  • Very comprehensive app

  • Inexpensive for a 2-in-1

  • Questionable brush durability

  • The wiping is a little weak

Finding a good robot vacuum is not difficult. It's harder to find a good one that won't break the bank. Eufy is trying to solve this second problem with its RoboVac G30 Hybrid. I have been testing this robot vacuum for two weeks and am very impressed with what the vacuum offers. It has good suction, a very comprehensive app and talks to you.

The $ 379 Eufy RoboVac G30 Hybrid, which our daughter named "Mando" because it looks a bit like Mandalorian armor, definitely does the job as efficiently as possible. This is demonstrated by the exact back and forth pattern it follows across the floor. I can appreciate this simplicity. The Bissell Spinwave follows its own algorithms that defy logic. Not this one.

Set everything up

The Eufy Spin brush may not last long

The setup is similar to most robot vacuum cleaners. Find a place free of obstacles, put down the charging mat and lock the charging stand. As with other robotic vacuum cleaners, you should leave plenty of space on both sides. I didn't and like other vacuum cleaners it worked just fine. The vacuum cleaner can clean my 172 square foot family room / office in about 34 minutes.

On the bottom is a single three-pronged spin brush that sweeps dirt into the path of the vacuum. Due to my two weeks of use, I am concerned about the longevity of the spin brush. My office has low-pile carpets and the brush looks a bit disturbed. The Eufy Home app, which we will get into in more detail later, has a useful feature that reminds you when to clean or replace various components. According to the app, I have to replace my side brush within 247 hours. I am not optimistic that it will take that long.

The vacuum hardware itself is very attractive and unobtrusive. The top is made of very shiny plastic with a neat pinstripe pattern. At just 2.85 inches high, the vacuum fits easily under my couch and the step plates in my kitchen. There is a single sided sweeper on the right and a trash can on the back. The vacuum cleaner also includes an attachable mop accessory that falls under the garbage can.

Wiping is too short

The wiping function is just fine. The attachment under the garbage can doesn't have much space for water, but it covered my kitchen well. In contrast to the Bissell Spinwave, however, the mop head does not move and does not move. It just pulls itself behind the vacuum. The mop is also designed for water only, which is similar to most robotic vacuum cleaners, but again different from the Spinwave, which actually comes with wiping agent in the box. The smaller mop head keeps the original trash can in place. So if you have a dusty, dirty floor, you can run the vacuum as usual and pick up the same amount of dirt. But honestly, I probably won't be using the mopping function anymore because you need more than just water on a high-traffic floor like a kitchen.

This is a good, solid vacuum cleaner that will clean your floors and carpets well.

The vacuum also comes with magnetic strips that you can use to block areas where you don't want the robot to travel. That's not really ideal. My office is carpeted and I really don't want to put tape over the carpet. In general, putting tape on the floor to cordon off certain areas is a thorn in the side. I prefer to put a board over the threshold to my son's room as I can just slide it away later.

The vacuum has a speaker and gives verval warnings and status updates which is very nice. Some vacuums use a series of beeps to alert you to problems. A vacuum speaking to you removes any doubts about what is wrong. It's a nice touch.

software

The app for the vacuum is just as nice. Since I mentioned above, I'll start with the fact that the app will notify you when it's time to swap out components or order new parts. In addition to the side brush, you will be informed about the roller brush, the filter, the sensors and the rubber strip. That is a core function. Robotic vacuums run on their own, so it's harder to tell when something isn't working as it should. In all honesty, all robotic vacuums should have this built into their apps.

You can also schedule cleans, adjust the suction and voice settings, and even use your phone as a remote control to get the vacuum where you want it. It can also do spot cleaning and show you the layout that the vacuum created for itself. This isn't particularly useful data, but it's fun to look at.

Our opinion

This is a really solid buy at $ 379. It's one of the cheapest robotic vacuums out there, and it has a wide variety of features that are usually offered at higher prices. The vacuum cleaner does a good job on my office carpet and a slightly better job on the tile floor of my kitchen. Overall, I have no complaints about how it does its job. I just want a better option for locking certain areas.

Is there a better alternative?

A better alternative is hard to imagine at this price. High-quality models of robotic vacuum cleaners such as the Roomba s9 + have self-emptying trash cans. For a little extra cash, you can opt for something like the Roborock S5, which also comes with wiping accessories and has more advanced sensors.

Will it take?

The build-up of the total vacuum is fixed. I ask the app's estimate of how long the side brushes will last, but that's about the only question mark I have when it comes to durability. Side brushes are $ 10 for a pack of 4, so I'm not too worried about that. Eufy robotic vacuum cleaners come with a 12-month guarantee and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Should I buy it?

Yes. This is a good solid vacuum cleaner that will clean your floors and carpets well. I like the voice and remote capabilities, and maintenance reminders in the app are perfect for me. Now all we need is one in green so we can call it Grogu.

Editor's recommendations




03 Jan
Blog

RHA TrueControl ANC Review: Fit For Every Ear

RHA TrueControl ANC real wireless earbuds

"Great sound and unique shape are held back by a low battery and a high price."

  • Full, rich sound

  • Responsive, customizable controls

  • Ergonomic design

  • Tons of earplugs included

  • Expensive

  • Mediocre call quality

  • Bad battery life

At the top end of the true wireless earbuds category, you can find some standout products like the Sennheiser Momentum 2 True Wireless, the Master and Dynamic MW07 Plus, and the Bose QuietComfort earbuds. If a company wants a seat at this table, it has to bring its A-Game with it.

That's what RHA is aiming for for the new $ 300 TrueControl ANC, a line of noise-canceling earbuds that defy conventional thinking in their shape, touch controls, and charging case. But are these innovations enough to earn our recommendation's TrueControl? Let's look at them.

What's in the box?

RHA TrueControl ANC real wireless earbudsSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

With the exception of a few very small plastic stickers, the packaging of the TrueControl is made from 100% recyclable paper and cardboard, which I think is very commendable.

In the packaging, the TrueControl ANC earphones are already in the charging case, a USB-C charging cable and 10 pairs of earplugs, three of which are made of memory foam and were manufactured by Comply.

design

RHA TrueControl ANC real wireless earbudsSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

Typically, true wireless earbuds are built so that you insert the tip into your ear canal and then twist the earbud back and forth until you find the magical combination of comfort, safety, and sealing. The RHA TrueControl ANC takes a different approach. The earphones are made of a non-slip, matt black plastic and are asymmetrically shaped and contoured so that they can only be inserted directly into the ear.

The touch controls are some of the best I've tried.

Once seated, this shape prevents any twisting or turning. It's a bit of a risky design decision considering how differently everyone's ears are shaped, but RHA believes they were designed to "fit right in the ear". Although they stick out a bit from your ears, they're no bulkier than the Sennheiser and significantly less bulky than the Bose QuietComfort earbuds.

The touch controls also deviate from the norm. They look like physical buttons, but are actually tiny gesture-based touchpads that can be swiped or tapped.

The charging case is identical to the RHA used for the TrueConnect and TrueConnect 2 earbuds – a stunning and unique rotating barrel with a black aluminum frame – but this time with wireless charging. A tiny indicator with three LED battery life indicators on the barrel lights up when you open the case. Unfortunately, the unusual choice of design and materials makes the case large and heavy – it weighs 3.8 ounces with the earbuds, down from just 2 ounces for the Jabra Elite 85t.

The edges of the aluminum frame can scratch other items if you don't know exactly where to stow it. Another unique feature of the case design is that the earbuds are swapped out when you open them with the plastic case facing up (this is the only option if you want them to lie flat on a surface). The left is on the right and vice versa.

If they're new in the box, take a good look at the earbuds and case. It's probably the last time you'll see them without their fingerprints. The slightly rubberized matt plastic is an absolute magnet for fingerprints.

The earbuds are easy to remove and replace and are held in their charging sockets by strong, but not overly strong, magnets.

Comfort and control

RHA TrueControl ANC real wireless earbudsSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

Due to their unusual shape, the TrueControl ANC have a large contact area. This means that they likely feel like they “fill” your ear more than other earbuds like Apple's AirPods Pro, which have a much smaller profile. Once you get used to it, it's surprisingly convenient. It's also very safe, so you no longer have to rely on ear fins or other support structures like those found on the Bose QuietComfort earbuds.

RHA's inclusion of a wide variety of earbud sizes and types is a big reason I was able to find a good fit, and this should be the industry standard. After using the standard silicone earbuds for a few hours, I eventually swapped them out for the largest size of Comply foam tips, which I think offer even more comfort and much better sound quality (more on this below).

I can't tell you with 100% certainty that the TrueControls will suit you, but given the number of tips to choose from, your chances are far better than if RHA had simply offered the same three sizes as the vast majority of real wireless earbuds. Yes, a few extra tips that you probably never will use are a little wasteful, but better than returning the earbuds as you can't get them to fit.

The touch controls are some of the best I've tried, probably because – unlike other so called touch controls – they use a capacitive touch surface rather than a motion sensor to detect when you're using them. Not only does this make it easier for custom typing (since you don't have to worry about how hard you hit them), it also enables TrueControl's swipe-based gestures.

Skipping forward a track will swipe the left earbud forward, and skipping backward will intuitively swipe backward. The volume is adjusted using the same procedure, but using the correct earbud.

Once you find the earplugs that give you a good seal, the TrueControl ANC sounds really great.

Not sure if you like the swipe control method? The RHA app lets you customize them and select swipe or tap gestures for volume, track skipping and ANC mode, as well as the earbud used to perform these tasks.

The infrared wear sensors are also very good at detecting when you've removed an earbud, pausing the music quickly and restarting it when you put the bud back in.

Sound quality

RHA TrueControl ANC real wireless earbudsRHA

Once you find the earplugs that give you a good seal (another reason I love that RHA has so many in it), the TrueControl ANC sounds very good. Using the factory EQ provides a very satisfactory frequency balance with plenty of warm low-end bass, detailed mids, and crisp highs. With the RHA app you can adjust these settings with four additional presets. However, there is no way to create your own settings. This is a surprising omission given that this feature is standard on so many other high-end models (and even some budget-friendly ones). .

Voices, more than music, can be drowned out by vehicles, and TrueControl has practically kept those interruptions at bay.

The stereo imaging is well rendered and I particularly like the resonant and authoritative feel of the bass response. But as good as they sound – and I think most people will enjoy them a lot – I don't think they do as well as some of their direct competitors. The $ 230 Jabra Elite 85t and $ 230 Sony WF-1000XM3 both offer a wider soundstage and overall greater clarity, especially for vocals. To be clear, there isn't much of a difference and you would have to listen to the same tracks over and over and switch between those models to find out the intricacies.

If you're an Android user, you'll also benefit from the aptX Bluetooth codec which, under the right circumstances, offers better audio quality than SBC or AAC, although that difference is negligible when streaming from very high quality sources like Tidal and HiFi.

Noise cancellation

The RHA TrueControl ANC can compensate for external noises very well. One of my favorite torture tests is wandering busy streets listening to podcasts. Voices can be drowned out more easily by overtaking vehicles than by music, and TrueControl has easily kept those interruptions at bay. When seated in an environment with persistent noise like a loud fan or vacuum cleaner, they don't display the amazing silent cone effect that the AirPods Pro offer, but I have yet to come across another set of ANC buds that can. High frequency sounds can still prevail, but low frequencies are canceled very effectively.

Oddly enough, the TrueControl does such a good job of passive noise isolation (especially when it comes with the Comply foam tips) that you might not need an ANC. However, you will feel the need for ambient mode which runs very well. This can be turned on as always, or just briefly selected for Quick Surround mode by tapping and holding the left earbud. You can adjust how much sound gets into the RHA app.

Battery life

RHA TrueControl ANC real wireless earbudsSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

ANC appears to be a serious problem for the battery life of true wireless earbuds. RHA's non-ANC TrueConnect 2 offers excellent playback of 9.5 hours and a total lifespan of 44 hours with the included housing, but the TrueControl barely does what I want for the minimum of endurance with just five hours per charge and a total of 20 hours keep up with the fall. RHA does not say how long they last if you turn ANC off.

For comparison: the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 receives seven hours per charge and a total of 28 hours with the charging case.

In this price range, only the Bose QuietComfort earphones achieve poorer performance with six hours per charge and only 18 hours of total playtime.

A 14 minute quick charge will give you an extra hour of life, which is roughly average.

Call quality

Call quality on the TrueControl ANC is good, but not great. Callers could hear me with acceptable clarity, but background noise – even moderately loud – tended to be annoying. When call quality is paramount, the Bose QuietComfort earbuds are a much better choice.

Oddly enough, I couldn't get the microphones on the TrueControl to work with voice recording apps on iOS or Android.

Our opinion

A solid set of features coupled with great sound quality and good ANC make the RHA TrueControl ANC a great set of noise canceling earbuds, but their unusual shape and high price tag might keep them out of the running for some people.

Is there a better alternative?

Because the TrueControl ANC is priced at $ 300, many of the best noise-canceling models make great alternatives, especially if price, battery life, and call quality are your primary concerns. This includes the $ 230 Jabra Elite 85t$ 230 Sony WF-1000XM3$ 280 Bose QuietComfort earphonesand if you're an iPhone user that's $ 249 AirPods Pro.

How long will they last?

The RHA TrueControl ANC and its charging case are built super solidly and I expect them to last for many years. RHA grants a three-year guarantee on them, which is by far the longest factory guarantee in the industry. With an IPX4 rating for water resistance, they should be able to handle moderate sweat with ease.

Should you buy it?

Yes. While the TrueControl ANC is expensive compared to the competition, it sounds great, offers a very secure and tight fit, and does a good job of canceling noise.

Editor's recommendations




03 Jan
Blog

Apple MacBook Air M1 Review: Fast, Fanless, and Fantastic

Macbook Air M1

"The MacBook Air M1 finally delivers on the promise of a small laptop with no performance restrictions."

  • Apple's M1 blows Intel around

  • Phenomenal battery life

  • Excellent keyboard and touchpad

  • Very solid build quality

  • Just good looking

  • Supports an external display only

Apple was never afraid to break with the past, even if the transition might be painful. For example, when it found the floppy disk was out of date, it dropped it and went all-in USB. The same thing happened with Motorola CPUs, which were dropped for Intel when the PowerPC could no longer keep up. Now it's that time again, this time the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro 13 and the Mac mini will be equipped with their own ARM-based silicon and Intel will be left behind.

For some MacBook fans, this could be a scary proposition because how well could the Apple M1 work if ARM's only showcase to date has been the very overwhelming initiative of Windows 10 on ARM? If you've read our MacBook Pro 13 M1 review, you already know the answer to that question. At least on this machine there is nothing to be afraid of. I put the MacBook Air M1 through its paces to see if the fanless version of Apple's initiative works too.

For this review, I got the entry-level MacBook Air M1 for $ 1,000 with just 8GB of RAM, a 256GB solid-state drive, and a 7-core GPU. There's another version that gives you 512GB of storage and an 8-core GPU for $ 1,250. My experience didn't even include the maximum 16GB of RAM that can be configured for a few hundred more dollars. Was I disappointed or did Apple pull a rabbit out of my hat?

performance

OK, I know it's not fair to imply that the Apple M1 is doing some kind of magic trick. After all, it is an eight-core CPU with four high-performance cores and four more that come into play for smaller tasks and a sip of electricity. It's just that it's an ARM-based technology that has pushed Intel's core CPUs into the background in terms of perceived performance for some time now. If the MacBook Air performs well, it's no magic. Rather, it is an impressive new technology that promises wonderful things to the MacBook range.

Macbook Air M1Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

There's no reason to keep you going: the MacBook Air M1 surprised me in a good way with its performance. And that's not just a comparison with the current Intel MacBook Air, which uses a 9-watt version of the Intel Core i3 and i5 CPUs that lag behind their 15-watt Windows 10 equivalents. No, the MacBook Air with the 10-watt Apple M1 is using the latest 12 to 28-watt Tiger Lake processors from Intel (this time, Intel gives a range rather than a static value) and in many cases gives them a good old value-fashionable beating.

Before we get into the numbers, let's get something straight. The Apple M1-based computers run the fastest with software written for the M1 architecture. This makes sense and includes all of Apple's software plus a few other applications and utilities. If it wasn't written for the M1, it runs through Apple's Rosetta 2 emulation layer. That means, of course, that it won't be as fast as native software. And sometimes, especially with software that requires hardware drivers, an application may not run at all.

Take Geekbench 5, for example, which runs natively on the M1. The fanless MacBook Air M1 performed slightly better than the fan-filled MacBook Pro 13 M1. We're talking 1,727 versus 1,707 in single-core mode and 7,585 versus 7,337 in multi-core mode, but it's still noteworthy that the less expensive and theoretically slower MacBook Air M1 was faster than the Pro. And with their four cores and eight threads, both machines achieved a significantly higher score than the currently fastest Tiger Lake laptops. The MSI Prestige 14 Evo, for example, has the fastest Tiger Lake CPU you can buy, the Core i7-1185G7, scoring just 1,593 and 5,904 points, respectively. Even the 45 watt Core i7-10850H with six cores in the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 couldn't keep up with the M1 and only managed 1,299 and 6,372.

Worried Apple would force you to give up performance on its transition? Do not be so.

Next, let's look at Cinebench R23, another benchmark app written for the M1. Here the MacBook Air M1 couldn't beat the MacBook Pro 13 M1, but it was in close proximity. And it came almost close to the Lenovo Yoga 9i with its 6-core Core i7-10750H in high-performance mode that cranks up the fans. Notably, the MacBook Air M1 was completely silent (no fans, duh) and barely got warm – I was able to comfortably hold it on my lap while it ran the test. I said before that it wasn't magic, but maybe I'm wrong.

I also did our handbrake test which encodes a 420MB file in two iterations in H.265. The first used Handbrake 1.3.1 which runs in emulation mode and the second used Handbrake 1.4.0 Beta which was written for the M1. In the first case, the MacBook Air M1 took about 4.5 minutes to complete the test. This is roughly the time it would take for laptops with the 10th generation Intel Core i5. In the latter case, the MacBook Air M1 completed the test in 2.8 minutes. This is comparable to 45-watt Intel laptops with six cores and Handbrake 1.3.1 and just eight seconds behind the MacBook Pro 13 M1 with the native version. Again, the laptop barely warmed up. These results provide an insight into the effects of a native on the M1 on an application.

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I ran some other tests in Adobe Premiere Pro (which is not yet optimized for the M1) using the PugetBench benchmark. MacBooks have been the go-to choice for many creatives in the past, but this has never been the game of the MacBook Air. Due to severe performance limitations on the Intel version, running one of Adobe's Creative Suites was a challenge. But the M1 changes all of that, even with the $ 999 MacBook Air.

The MacBook Air M1 competed heavily with the more powerful CPUs from Intel and made mince of the Tiger Lake laptops from Intel. I also ran a Premiere Pro encoding test that produced a 2GB 4K video and the MacBook Air M1 running in emulation was about 40 seconds faster than a Tiger Lake laptop.

Most impressive was that this level of performance ran through the emulation. Imagine how quickly Premiere Pro (and Photoshop, Lightroom, etc) will work if it's native in the M1. Getting that kind of performance on a laptop this thin, light, and fanless is a transforming moment for creative professionals who might want to carry around a smaller machine but don't want to compromise on performance. For the first time ever, you can get some serious creative work on a MacBook Air – and that's a big deal.

In practice, I've noticed some minor slowdowns in legacy applications like Microsoft Office (Microsoft released native versions right after the test report finished). This is especially true for the start: Office apps are only faster on Intel computers than on the MacBook Air M1. But the difference isn't so big that it bothered me, and if I didn't check the laptop, I probably wouldn't even notice. Of course, Mac OS itself and every application optimized for the M1 was incredibly fast.

What about games? I didn't run all of the gaming tests on the MacBook Air M1. This is supposed to be a productivity laptop, not a slot machine, after all. Fortnite ran at around 33 frames per second (fps), however, with a resolution of 1,680 x 1,050 and high graphics that are playable and faster than the Intel Iris Xe graphics from Tiger Lake. In Civilization VI, the MacBook Air achieved 51 fps with the same resolution and medium graphics and sank to 32 fps with ultra graphics. Again, this outperforms Intel Iris Xe laptops and competes with integrated low-end graphics such as the Nvidia GeForce MX350.

This completely silent, fanless laptop is a better slot machine than the equivalent Intel laptops, which you would never have expected from a MacBook Air. Note that I tested the seven-core GPU model. For $ 250 more, you can get an eight-core GPU model that will be … well … one core faster. This version also includes 512 GB of storage space.

Macbook Air M1Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Finally, I mentioned that not all applications will run on the MacBook Air M1, although I don't have many examples to give. The decisive factor was the software for my older colorimeter, which did not require the necessary drivers for the MacBook.

But most of the other apps I tried also ran in emulation and were as fast as I would get with at least a mid-range Intel laptop. There were outliers like the Epic Games Launcher, which was just as sluggish on the MacBook Air M1 as it was on the MacBook Pro 13 M1, but there were few.

Battery life

Performance is just one area in which the Apple M1 promises serious progress. The battery life is different – after all, it is essentially an ARM chip that is designed to be efficient. How efficient can a laptop be when it offers the same performance as CPUs that are purely designed for performance? Let's find out.

Macbook Air M1Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

First, I ran our standard web benchmark, which runs through a number of popular websites. This is the yardstick we use to emulate productivity longevity, and it works pretty well. The MacBook Air passed the 15.5-hour test, one of the longest results we've seen. The Lenovo Flex 5G with its own ARM processor – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx – lasted about 50 minutes longer, but there is a catch. The Lenovo had a Full HD display (1,920 x 1,080), while the MacBook Air M1 has a Retina display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600. That's a huge perk for Apple – give it a Full HD display (not what you want) and we'd expect a few more hours of it.

Next, I ran our video benchmark, which runs through a Full HD Avengers trailer until the laptop shuts down. The MacBook Air M1 lasted 18.5 hours. Again, this isn't as long as some of the longest-lasting laptops we've tested, but it's by far the longest-lasting device with a high-resolution display. The Lenovo Flex 5G was stronger again with almost 28 hours, but it also benefited from its lower resolution display.

We usually use the Basemark web benchmark test to see how long a laptop with its CPU and GPU will last under heavy load. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete the test on the MacBook Air M1 so I won't be able to report on its longevity if you press it hard. However, given the M1's inherent efficiency, we expect that the MacBook Air M1 will allow you to spend a lot of time, even if you ask a lot of it.

design

Macbook Air M1Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The design of the MacBook Air M1 is unchanged from the Intel version. Literally. That said, it's the same wedge of machined aluminum that feels like an alchemical amalgamation of glass and metal. It is completely stable, without twisting, bending or bending. Apple is doing a few things right, and designing and manufacturing laptops that exude rugged elegance is one of them. You can choose from three colors – space gray, gold, and silver – and they all look beautiful.

It's also a very thin and light laptop that is 0.6 inches and 2.8 pounds. Windows 10 laptops like the Dell XPS 13 and HP Specter x360 13 have caught up and are either thinner and lighter or close to it, so the MacBook Air generally no longer maintains its superiority in that regard. And the MacBook Air M1 isn't as small in width and depth as some of its 13-inch rivals, either, as it still has the same relatively large bezels it struggles with. When you add a display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, you'll find that the MacBook Air M1 doesn't fit into the same tiny silhouette as some others.

Really, these are nits because the differences between these sizes are tiny. Perhaps the MacBook Air M1 would look a little more modern with smaller bezels, but it's not like you'll struggle to find room for it in your backpack.

Macbook Air M1Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Connectivity remains a weak point in the MacBook Air M1. You get two Thunderbolt 3 ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. That's it. There isn't even an SD card reader to get your photos and videos. Get ready to buy some dongles, and a Thunderbolt 3 dock would be a good idea. Note, however, that the M1 does not support external GPU cases.

The M1 version only supports a single external display, either via the Thunderbolt 3 ports or via a dock. The reasons are deeply technical and based on the M1 architecture. However, if you need more than one external display, the M1 version is not for you. Compare this to the typical Windows 10 laptop or Intel-based MacBook, which can support numerous displays of different resolutions. Even laptops in the same $ 1,000 price bracket can typically support more than one external display if they have a Thunderbolt 3 port, multiple USB-C ports, or even an HDMI port (hey, remember these?).

Display and speaker

Macbook Air M1Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Like the design, Apple kept the same display for the MacBook Air M1. It's a 2,560 x 1,600 IPS display that looks great. It's not in the same class as the MacBook Pro, but you still get good performance enough for everyone but the most demanding creative professionals.

The brightness was 389 nits, which is enough for a laptop with average productivity but not up to Apple's high-end standards. The color gamut is slightly wider than average at 100% sRGB and 79% AdobeRGB – most premium Windows 10 laptops are 98% sRGB and 73% AdobeRGB. These aren't that big of a difference, but if you're looking to edit photos and videos, you'll appreciate the extra percentage points. The accuracy is particularly good at 1.39, with 1.0 or less indistinguishable to the human eye and the quality standard and the contrast ratio of 1130: 1 is above average (we want to see at least 1000: 1, and so the MacBook Air M1 crosses our threshold here).

The bottom line is that you are going to love this display and you probably won't have many complaints. If you're a creative professional and need the widest color gamut, go for the Pro line. You can choose the MacBook Pro 13 M1, get the same performance, nearly the same battery life, and enjoy a higher quality display.

Macbook Air M1Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Another area where the MacBook Air M1 can't quite keep up with its Pro siblings is audio quality. The speakers are very nice, don't get me wrong. They are clear and bright, with excellent mids and highs and a hint of bass. There is no distortion at the maximum volume – the only problem is that the maximum is not very loud. So you're good at listening for yourself, but if you want to share with a crowd, you'll need external speakers. And when you want to rock, prepare to pull out your favorite headphones.

Keyboard and touchpad

The MacBook Air M1 features the new Magic Keyboard, which Apple designed to replace the unfortunate butterfly keyboard on previous models. And it's a damn good keyboard, maybe my favorite of all the laptops I've used and the only one that surpasses the excellent version that HP has added to its Specter range.

The keycaps are a nice size and there is enough travel that you don't feel like you are typing on a block of wood (I'm talking to you here, butterfly keyboard). Best of all, the switches are top notch, with superb precision and perfect ground action that lets you know you've pressed a button. I can type faster on this keyboard than any other, and I hate to give up on it when I switch to a Windows 10 computer.

Macbook Air M1Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The touchpad is also superior due to its haptic nature. It's bigger than most of the touchpads you'll find on 13-inch laptops, it's buttery smooth, and once you get used to the haptic aspect you probably have more control than most touchpads. Windows 10 touchpads have gotten a lot better over the years, but still haven't caught up.

Finally, use the Touch ID sensor embedded in the power button to sign in without a password. This works fine. It's comparable to Microsoft's Windows Hello technology, though you won't find facial recognition in the MacBook line-up yet. I missed this while using the MacBook Air M1, although I end up preferring to use a fingerprint reader.

Our opinion

We said the 2020 Intel MacBook Air is "a respectable choice for Mac fans on a budget". I'm going to change that here for the MacBook Air M1: it's a respectable choice for any MacBook fan looking for a smaller device that is perfectly quiet, charges forever, and is almost as fast as the MacBook Pro 13 M1. Not only will you save money anymore – you get a laptop that will blow your mind with its performance (especially since more apps have been developed for the M1) while being extremely thin and light.

However, there are some limitations. You can't get more than 16GB of RAM (neither with the Intel version) and are limited to just one external display.

Are there alternatives?

The same competition that applied to the Intel MacBook Air also applies here. Only you will find that in many cases they are slower and don't last as long on one charge. The Dell XPS 13 is the obvious choice that you can get for $ 980 with a Core i3-1115G4 CPU and the same amount of RAM and storage – but the MacBook Air M1 will blast it out of the water. Configure the XPS 13 with its fastest CPU and you will find that it is still slower than the MacBook in many applications.

The HP Specter x360 13 gives you the option of a better OLED display and the flexibility of a 2-in-1 for a few hundred more, depending on your configuration. But here, too, the MacBook Air M1 is the faster laptop.

Finally, the MacBook Pro 13 M1 is for anyone looking for the fastest M1 machine available (although the difference isn't nearly as big as you can imagine). The display gets better and the speakers will blow your mind. You'll also be spending at least $ 300 more.

How long it will take?

The MacBook Air M1 should have a lifespan of at least five years as Apple keeps its laptops up to date. Certainly the machine itself will last forever because of the build quality, and you'll love the support from Apple (if not the industry-standard 1-year warranty). And the MacBook Air M1 is getting faster and faster as more software is optimized for the M1 CPU.

Should you buy it?

Yes. The MacBook Air M1 isn't just for MacBook fans looking for something smaller. It is intended for any laptop buyer who is happy to move to Mac OS and wants to participate in the real future of ARM-based computing.

Editor's recommendations




03 Jan
Blog

Wyze Video Doorbell Review: You Get What You Pay for

Wyze video doorbell rating lights on

“This doorbell is only $ 30. It's certainly not the best, but it beats its weight class well. "

  • The $ 30 cost is extremely affordable

  • Fun chime extenders included

  • Waterproof construction

  • Terrible field of vision

  • Building materials feel cheap

If you're interested in affordable smart home technology, there's a name to look out for. That name is Wyze. The company is on the rise with a variety of smart home products that are not only very good but also very inexpensive. That brings us to our review today – the Wyze doorbell, a $ 30 video doorbell. This is not a typo. I'm not missing a decimal place. It's $ 30.

In a world where video doorbells are $ 99 and up, $ 30 is incredibly affordable in this area. There are sure to be compromises. I also have to mention that I tested this device with a beta version of the Wyze app. That puts me in a difficult position as a reviewer. Isn't a feature set great because it's beta or because it costs $ 30? I'm pretty sure I cleared the two up, so let's get started!

A tiny plastic box

The Wyze doorbell camera is one of the smallest video doorbells I've ever seen, let alone worked. The inconspicuous hardware is a plastic box with a height of just eight centimeters, a width of four centimeters and a depth of almost two centimeters. It has a white case with a black camera module in the upper half and a rounded square button for the bell. The Wyze logo in between lights up when people approach, as does the bell icon on the button. It makes it very easy to know where to slide.

The bell also comes with a glockenspiel extender that can be plugged into any power outlet. This is important because the doorbell itself does not ring in the house. The doorbell rings to let your visitors know that it has rung. Then the doorbell rings in the house. It seems like an odd omission not to ring the mechanical chime it is connected to for power, but it's understandable since the chime extender comes with the package.

This won't be the last video doorbell you'll ever buy, but there's no reason it can't be your first.

This carillon extender is gorgeous. It creates a separate connection to the app within the doorbell settings. The glockenspiel extender offers 19 different sounds including normal chimes, door knocking and animal noises that drive my dogs crazy. It's pretty much fun. There is no noticeable delay between pressing the doorbell button and ringing the bell. The Glockenspiel Extender works wherever there is WiFi, so you can plug the Glockenspiel in wherever it's most convenient.

I ran into some problems setting up the carillon extender. Sometimes the change I made in the app didn't carry over to the carillon itself. Sometimes it was like that. It was very random. That could easily be a result of the beta app, or maybe less than ideal Wi-Fi. After a while, I managed to set up the right chimes and the problem never came back.

Restricted view

The camera itself has a very narrow field of view. You can see 120 degrees vertically and only 88 degrees horizontally. Wyze says this is because people are taller than they are wide. I understand, but these specs barely allow me to see an entire person horizontally or vertically. Compared to my normal Vivint Video Doorbell Pro, it almost feels like looking through a toilet paper tube. Did I mention this camera is $ 30?

What you can see is decent quality. You can set the camera to capture and stream in HD, SD, or 480p. During the day the picture is a bit washed out and you lose a lot of definition in cloudy clouds. It does a suitable job of identifying people and movement. At night, this time of the year is hard to tell as my front yard is filled with Christmas lights, making it difficult for the camera to decide whether or not to use infrared.

  • 1.
    Night, lights on
  • 2.
    Night, lights off
  • 3.
    During the day

The above Christmas lights are completely blown out and there are no details at all in the highlights. The camera does a good job and shows my front yard at night, which is reminiscent of the Panasonic Home Hawk camera I tested. However, this was due to the superior optics technology while this doorbell benefits from Griswold-grade Christmas lights.

Night vision, when not dealing with Christmas lights, still struggles to decide whether or not it wants to be on. The Wyze logo also lights up as a kind of mini flood light, which complicates matters. When this light is not on and there are no other light sources in the frame, night vision looks good. When you insert a light source, the doorbell freaks out a little.

installation

The installation is a little less than ideal. The doorbell comes with a mounting plate that you attach to the wall. Then attach the cables to the doorbell. The button slides down and clicks into place in the mounting plate. At first I worried about it. I was wondering if I could take the button off as the locking mechanism is in the mounting plate. As it turns out, the mounting plate is also pretty flexible (read: weak) and I was actually able to pull the doorbell out enough to get the clip back and slide the doorbell off. I don't know if it's supposed to work that way, but that's how it worked.

Wyze video doorbell mounted on the wall

Then you have to pair the doorbell with your WiFi. It uses the QR code method which is not one of my favorite implementations. If you're not familiar, connect the doorbell to your WiFi by entering your credentials into the app. This will generate a QR code that the camera will scan. It took well over five minutes to hold my phone at varying distances to the doorbell before I finally got a beep indicating everything was okay.

software

As I mentioned earlier, it's a beta, but overall, not much is missing here, despite being a beta product. Connecting to the camera is a little slow, but navigating within the app isn't slow at all. The clip memory is a little hard to find as you have to exit the device settings to get to the event list. I suspect this is an expectation of Wyze's larger home security system that they just released.

You can set times for the camera to record events or just keep recording motion events. You can subscribe to Wyze Cam Plus for a full 24/7 recording. You can share videos and save them locally. I couldn't find a place to take snapshots, which seems like a failure. Overall, however, the app performs well, especially for a beta.

When it comes to detection, it's a bit sensitive and I get bombarded by the notifications a lot. Smaller events trigger the Wyze video doorbell. So expect to see a preview of the footage, which is most likely filled with false warnings. Yes, it's obviously too liberal on surveillance, but I think that's better than completely missing out on an event.

Our opinion

What to watch out for here is the price. For $ 30, you can buy three of them, have two spares, and still not pay as much as the closest competitor. This video doorbell is so cheap that I should reach out to Wyze to make sure they are okay. If this video doorbell had only worked properly, I would have been amazed. The fact that it is actually good at this price is so amazing that I'm glad I had to sit down to write this review. This isn't the best video doorbell in the world, but I'd estimate you can get a $ 75 doorbell here for $ 30.

Is there a better alternative?

Sure! The field of view is ridiculous. The video quality isn't the best, and at night the sensor has to pick a track and stay in it instead of switching back and forth between IR and normal vision. The next cheapest alternative, however, costs more than three times as much. The Ring Video Doorbell (2nd Generation) is one of those alternatives for $ 100.

Wyze is here to make its products as affordable as possible. This means plastic mounts, inexpensive buttons, and camera sensors that perform poorly.

How long it will take?

The doorbell feels cheap. As for the wear and tear, I'm not particularly optimistic that you will be working on this doorbell for years. The doorbell is weatherproof to IP65 and has an operating range of -4 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Chicago winters are getting colder, so that's another problem. I suspect that more durable building materials could bring operating temperatures into a more comfortable operating range. But that would likely add to the cost as well.

In the event that something goes wrong, there is a one-year limited warranty that covers any defects.

Should I buy it?

Yes. It's $ 30. It's an extra trip to the ATM. Basically, you should almost buy it. Keep a few in your car as last minute gifts. It's crazy cheap. If that doorbell cost $ 75 or more, I'd say no. For a slightly larger investment, you can purchase a product that is likely to last longer and work better, like the Arlo video doorbell. However, at $ 30, this is almost a training video doorbell to see if you're ready for a real video doorbell. This won't be the last video doorbell you'll ever buy, but there's no reason it can't be your first. Remember, this is a $ 30 doorbell.

Editor's recommendations




02 Jan
Blog

Fossil Gen 5E Review: Too Ordinary for its Own Good

Fossil Gen 5e review wrist pocket

"Fossil is shrinking the size and price of the Gen 5E smartwatch, but it ends up with something that isn't special enough to inspire."

  • 42mm and 44mm case options

  • Stylish, varied design

  • Easy to use basic fitness tracking

  • The Snapdragon 3100 processor is out of date

  • Wear OS notification support is unreliable

At first glance, the Fossil Gen 5E is a very desirable smartwatch. It's reasonably priced, has a great design, has a smaller body than the Fossil Gen 5, and covers most of the features that casual trainers need. However, due to some questionable hardware choices and the lack of desirable features outside of design, it doesn't feel very new or special.

Does this affect the excitement? Does it struggle to tie you up and convince you to put the clock on in the morning? Let's go into a little more detail Fossil Gen 5EGood and bad points.

design

Fossil knows what it does to watches, and the Gen 5E is further proof of that. The black silicone strap on my test model is excellent. Its design and feel is very reminiscent of the silicone straps on my Seiko diving watches – flexible, comfortable and robust, and that's a very good thing. It is matched to a 44mm black stainless steel case that is the same size as the older Gen 5 watch but without the two buttons that flank the crown. This gives it a neater look without drastically compromising functionality.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

While the watch shown here has a 44mm case, you can also buy the Gen 5E with a 42mm case, which makes it suitable for smaller wrists. Buy the smaller watch and it will have an 18mm strap instead of a 22mm version of the larger Gen 5E watch. Since there are few smartwatches made exclusively for women, such a choice is very welcome. Fossil's design palette for the Gen 5E is diverse and well thought out, the build quality is excellent and I like the stealthy black style that doesn't go too far down the tried and true minimalist path.

Fossil's range of designs for the Gen 5E is diverse and well thought out.

This is where the good news ends and things that fail the Gen 5E show up. The watch's bezel is smooth, curved, and helps with swiping across the screen. However, the bezel of the screen is almost unbearably large. The screen of the Gen 5E measures 1.19 inches, so it is quite small and, in combination with the large black housing, underlines the large black screen bezel. It reminds me more of fitness-oriented smartwatches than one made by a top watch designer.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

I didn't miss the two extra buttons on the case, but I do miss a rotating crown to make scrolling through Google's Wear OS software a little easier and faster. The Gen 5E's fixed crown is a button to open the menu, return to the watch face, and, if held down, open the Google Assistant. The lack of this feature and the large screen bezel make the Gen 5E look pretty old compared to many other smartwatches released in the past few months.

Screen and software

The 1.19-inch screen is just right for a smartwatch. These screens are not for watching videos, they are for showing information at a glance. They are perfect for this. The 390 x 390 pixel resolution offers the same density of 328 pixels per inch that you'll find on the larger Gen 5 watch. So it is spicy enough and also pleasantly colorful. There are dozens of Fossil watch faces to choose from, and they are wonderfully diverse.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

It's version 2.23 of Google's installed Wear OS software, but not the latest H-MR2 update with various new features and potential performance improvements. However, current fitness and design updates are on board, e.g. B. the redesigned weather tile and the ability to call the Google Assistant with a long press on the crown. The watch also has the latest features from Fossil, including the Wellness App and Extended Battery Mode.

The Wear OS still has flaws, and the Wear 3100 chip just feels old at times.

Fossil's proprietary fitness tracking system uses the Snapdragon 3100's co-processor to help extend battery life, but it's very simple. There are only two training options – indoors and outdoors – and you get time, distance and heart rate data on the screen. The Gen 5E does not have a built-in GPS, so it is not suitable for serious athletes anyway. However, Google Fit is also on board if you want more targeted tracking.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The wellness app records daily activity, sleep and heart rate and then displays the data on a screen without putting too much strain on the battery. It's annoying that you can't add wellness as a tile, forcing you into the app itself. As with fitness tracking, simple data rather than detailed information is provided here. I don't think this is a bad thing. Not everyone wants to follow a 100 mile bike ride and will appreciate an incredibly simple one-tap activity tracking feature and a display of the three most important stats.

Fitness tracking is easy, but not everyone is a serious athlete.

It's a bit fragmented though. For example, wellness is an app with a screen, while fitness tracking is a tile. Then Google Fit is also a tile, while all of the different Google Fit apps (goals, workout, heart rate and breath) are listed separately as apps and come pre-installed with Fossil Cardiogram, Nike Run Club and Spotify. It's a little messy and can lead to confusion about which app to use and where to find it. Fossil's activity tracking is synced with your Google Fit profile. So there is an incentive to use it and hopefully save battery at the same time.

The Fossil Gen 5E is fluid and fast and, apart from one aspect, has worked brilliantly. One aspect is notifications. On Wear OS, it becomes a kind of joke advertisement for notifications as the frequency with which they arrive is often ridiculous. Some days the Gen 5E warned me of so few notifications that it was reasonable to say that it wasn't a function of the watch at all. It's incredibly inconsistent, not a new problem, and not aided by the Gen 5E's overly subtle vibrating alerts that are easy to miss.

Battery and performance

The Fossil Gen 5E has the old Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor and not the newer Snapdragon Wear 4100 of the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3. It is coupled with 1 GB of RAM. Is it a disaster? Fortunately, and perhaps surprisingly, this is not the case. It responds quickly to touch, there is almost no slowdown during normal operation, and even energy-intensive apps like Maps and Google Play are manageable. It's not what you'd call bubbly, however, and the Snapdragon Wear 4100 improves performance and battery life significantly. Even if it is usable, there is a far better option, and that's annoying.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The old processor is a problem, and part of the blame for the Gen 5E feeling out of date. I appreciate the ability to take calls on the watch, which works surprisingly well with its speaker, and NFC for Google Pay. There's no shortage of features, it's just that we've seen it all many times. At this point, I really need something new from a Wear OS smartwatch, and the Gen 5E isn't delivering.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Battery life depends entirely on your usage. The 24 hour usage reported by Fossil is approximately correct. If you turn it off overnight and don't follow any activity, it will take two working days. With a full charge in the morning, average usage, and a 30-minute workout with Fossil's own app, it'll take a single day. It's not good, but it does match most Wear OS watches apart from the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3 and Suunto 7.

Price and availability

The Fossil Gen 5E smartwatch has an MSRP of $ 249 or £ 199, but it can be bought for less at a variety of retailers. At the time of writing, the Fossil Gen 5E is available in multiple points of sale for $ 169 and is great value for money at that price. However, inventory can be difficult to find.

Our opinion

The Fossil Gen 5E looks great on my wrist, is for the most part quick and easy to use, and cheaper and more versatile in size and design than the regular Gen 5 smartwatch. It's no use, however, as it isn't well-equipped to be a serious fitness tracker and the hardware is old, which hurts its desirability and longevity. The main feature is the solid quality of the money as it is well below $ 200 thanks to discounts.

The Fossil Gen 5E is a good smartwatch – aside from the Wear OS notification issues – but it's rather common, and there are inevitably more smartwatches with the new Snapdragon Wear 4100 processor on the horizon, and it's worth waiting for instead of messing with this one to be satisfied.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes. The Apple Watch Series 6 is the best smartwatch for iPhone owners. If you have an iPhone, buy one of these instead. If you have an Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is our recommendation.

However, both are more expensive than the Fossil Gen 5E. Instead, check out the Apple Watch SE or the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3. Both offer the Fossil Gen 5E superior functionality and battery life.

How long it will take?

The stainless steel case should be durable and the watch has a water resistance of 30 meters. So you have to be pretty careless to destroy it. Otherwise, its longevity will depend on software support and battery degradation. In any case, you will be fine for at least two years. At this point, however, the Snapdragon Wear 3100 will be very old.

Should you buy it?

No, you can do better without spending a lot more.

Editor's recommendations




02 Jan
Blog

Kangaroo Home Security Review: Affordable and Powerful

Kangaroo security sensor alarm cameras ces 2019 motion door

"The Kangaroo Home Security System is easy to install, but its photo doorbell camera leaves a lot to be desired."

  • Affordable prices

  • easy installation

  • Telephone notifications from Kangaroo

  • Doesn't compete well with competing products

Home security is more important than ever now, especially with people spending so much time in their homes. A home security system should provide adequate coverage, be easy to install, and be affordable. The budget-friendly system from Kangaroo meets all of these requirements and offers professional surveillance around the clock. It is also one of the easiest to install systems on the market thanks to its peel-and-stick mounting system.

Friendly prices and plans

Kangaroo's five-piece starter kit is $ 80 and includes two motion / entry sensors, a keyboard, two Roo tags (keychain accessory that can be used to disable the system), a promotional sign, and five window stickers.

It's not bad value and individual components can be purchased at no great additional cost. For example, the doorbell camera with chimes costs only $ 20, while additional motion sensors are only $ 15 each. The water and climate sensor costs $ 30. The most expensive single component is the Siren + Keypad, which alone costs $ 70.

These prices are competitive and often cheaper than other security systems on the market. Kangaroo also offers three plan options.

Kangaroo completed

The first is Kangaroo Complete, which is $ 8.25 per month or $ 99 per year. This is the most comprehensive option and the best choice for someone who wants a serious security system. Many of the best Kangaroo features are behind the overall plan, including smart assistant integration, the ability to qualify for homeowner insurance discounts, and more.

Kangaroo Complete includes professional monitoring, notifications and 30 days of cloud storage. If you are looking for a real security system that has it all, Kangaroo Complete is the only real option.

Kangaroo Porch Protection Plan

Another option is the porch protection plan. At $ 23.88 per year, the name is self-explanatory: it focuses on protecting against package theft. It offers 365-day cloud storage for doorbell cameras, as well as package theft coverage of $ 300.

Kangaroo Basic

The Kangaroo Basic plan is the free option for Kangaroo users. It provides notifications within the app when activity is detected, enables the system to be activated and deactivated with just one tap, and offers up to 24 hours of cloud storage for all cameras. It lacks the more powerful features of Kangaroo Complete, but it would work for the security of an off-site storage shed or property that you don't need full coverage for.

Kangaroo's peel-and-stick system makes it easy to install on almost any surface.

Functionality through accessories

Kangaroo impresses not only with its affordability, but also with the level of customization it offers. Each sensor can be customized to suit your needs. You can notify individual sensors in a certain way. For example, if you only want a call when your bedroom sensor is off, you can turn off the voice notification setting. Below is an overview of Kangaroo's offers:

Kangaroo motion sensor

The motion sensors are incredibly sensitive. You record activity from a distance of 15 feet with a field of view of 120 degrees. The good news is that built-in pet rejection will automatically ignore anything up to 2 feet, 4 inches tall – though doing so carries the risk of break-in by precocious toddlers.

Kangaroo water + climate sensor

The water + climate sensor is a particularly useful addition. It monitors temperature and humidity and can detect leaks with just 1mm of water. It doesn't need to be mounted to anything either – just stand it up and lay it on the floor. I use it to monitor for leaks under the sink and around the washing machine. I didn't have any water leaks (and couldn't trigger the system by dripping water on it), but it warned me when the air conditioning failed and the temperatures started to rise.

Like the motion sensor, the water and climate sensor will warn you when a threat is detected or when the temperature is outside of user-defined limits.

Kangaroo doorbell camera

The doorbell camera + chimes is a good compromise for a smart doorbell, but not the best device I've ever used. It is not a video doorbell, but photos of activity outside your door. It doesn't pick up movement well – if someone walks across their field of vision, you'll be lucky enough to get a shot from the back of their foot.

The built-in button is directly connected to the carillon and rings when someone rings the doorbell. There are also several modes to better improve the picture quality, including sunlight mode when the camera is exposed to direct sunlight or night vision when there is no light on the porch.

The battery is designed to last a year of normal use and AA batteries are included. This is especially useful for apartment residents as the doorbell camera does not need to be hard-wired. If you live in a crowded area or an apartment complex, the batteries will drain much faster. Expect three to six months if the camera is triggered frequently.

Though better than nothing, the photos taken by the doorbell cannot be compared to real videos.

The data protection camera is a surveillance camera for indoor use that can be wall-mounted or placed on a shelf. It has digital zoom functions and two-way audio. You can also customize the privacy modes and there is no doubt when the camera is in private mode. An opaque field is displayed above the lens itself. A green LED lights up during recording.

Kangaroo siren + keyboard

After all, the siren + keypad is the heart of the system. While no hub is needed for most of the system, the siren + keypad is connected to other sensors and triggers an acoustic signal when the doorbell is pressed. If a motion sensor detects movement while the system is armed, the Siren + Keypad will give off a rather intimidating alarm before triggering the 85 decibel siren – definitely loud enough for neighbors to hear if they live nearby. The siren penetrates walls quite well.

The built-in microphone is even more impressive. The Siren + Keypad waits for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and notifies you when a hazard is detected. The microphone can only pick up sounds in the range of 3,000 to 4,000 Hz, which means that human speech is not recognized.

installation

The most surprising part of the whole setup was the installation. All sensors, from the motion / entrance sensors to the doorbell camera, use a peel-and-stick system that makes installation and assembly a breeze.

The setup is done via the Kangaroo app. Just tap the Settings icon, then tap Add New Device. The on-screen instructions are easy to follow (and include pictures from each device). Once the accessory has been added to the system, simply clip it to the wall or door and press for 30 seconds.

The setup process is just as easy for the privacy camera or siren + keyboard. However, these are not peel-and-stick accessories. The camera must be mounted with screws, while the siren + keypad has no mounting system.

The glue used is strong. Even after months, the doorbell camera kept a good connection when removed (and actually peeled some paint off the door).

Our opinion

The Kangaroo Home Security System is one of the easiest models to set up that I have ever used. Installation is simple and it is a breeze to explain how to activate and deactivate the system to people unfamiliar with the system (e.g. apartment maintenance teams).

Most of its powerful features are behind the $ 100 per year subscription. Even the integration of Smart Assistant in Amazon Alexa and Google Home is limited. If you invest in the premium subscription, Kangaroo is definitely worth it.

After all, most other security systems often cost more than $ 8.25 per month for all of the features Kangaroo offers. The system as a whole is tremendously useful, and the only real weakness is in the doorbell camera. While photos are good, the actual video would be significantly better.

How long it will take?

Kangaroo offers a one-year guarantee against defects in the system under normal use. The components are well built and should last for several years, although the doorbell camera can fail faster if exposed directly to the elements, simply due to increased wear and tear.

Is there a better alternative?

Kangaroo is a good choice, but it might not be the best. Both Ring and Simplisafe are alternatives with similar prices, but potentially more features. Ring's surveillance plan is also $ 100 a year, though the accessories are more expensive than Kangaroo's.

Simplisafe offers far more accessories to choose from, including glass break sensors, a panic button, smoke alarms and much more. The downside is that it is far more expensive than kangaroo.

While Kangaroo is a budget-friendly option, it lacks the features that more expensive brands offer.

At just $ 8.25 per month, Kangaroo's professional monitoring is a bargain.

Should you buy it?

For the price, Kangaroo Home Security is definitely a worthwhile investment. It's affordable in ways other security systems don't, but it lacks easy integration with a larger smart home system.

Editor's recommendations




02 Jan
Blog

Bose TV Speaker Review: Elegant And Effortless TV Enhancer

Bose TV speakers

"The Bose TV speaker is a little expensive for what you get. It's the easiest way to get great TV audio."

  • Small, elegant design

  • Very easy to set up and use

  • Impressive bass for its size

  • Effective dialogue mode

  • Optional subwoofer

  • A bit expensive

  • Cannot be paired with Bose headphones

  • No HDMI inputs

Soundbars are a fantastic way to give yourself much better TV audio without the hassle of running cables or having multiple speakers. But there are also different levels of complexity in the soundbar world. Some come with wireless subwoofers, others with additional surround speakers, and many try to double or triple as smart speakers and Wi-Fi music systems. But what if you just want your TV to sound better with the least amount of hardware and expense? Bose's answer is: $ 250 Bose TV speakers.

What's in the box?

The Bose TV speaker is packaged with two small foam cradles, but the rest is lightly made from recycled cardboard. You will receive a power cord, a slim remote control with pre-installed button cell battery, an optical cable and a quick guide. Although the TV speaker has an HDMI ARC input and an additional analog input, Bose strangely does not include HDMI or analog cables.

design

Bose TV speakersSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

While the Bose TV speaker lacks many of the features found in the company's high-end smartbar soundbars (300, 500, and 700), its design and design means it is firmly in the same family as these more expensive speakers. The flat, perforated metal grille and the completely smooth surface give it a sophisticated, first-class atmosphere. The matte black plastic shell is non-intrusive, which means all of your attention is focused on the sound, not the speaker as it should be.

At just over 23 inches wide and hair over 2 inches wide, it easily fits in front of 32-inch TVs without blocking the bottom of the screen, which is an occasional problem with its predecessor, the Bose Solo 5 TV sound system.

If you'd like, you can mount the TV speaker using the same $ 40 wall mount kit that Bose sells for its other soundbars.

Setup and connections

Bose TV speaker connectionsSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

The beauty of a soundbar that is as simple as the Bose TV speaker is that it is as easy to set up as possible. Connect the speaker to your TV using the optical cable provided or your own HDMI or analog cable and plug the speaker's power cord into the wall. Congratulations you are done.

The TV speaker automatically detects which of these three connections you want to use, so you don't have to select the correct input. But you're not limited to using just one either. You can connect separate audio devices to all three if you want. The catch is that the TV speaker defaults to using the first one it detects as active. So if you want to play TV audio from HDMI ARC and switch to a CD player via the optical connection, you must first turn off your TV and then click play on the CD.

HDMI ARC is a good option, especially if your TV doesn't have an optical port, but the lack of an HDMI input means you are giving up valuable HDMI input on your TV just for the speaker. Since the TV speaker doesn't support any of the high bandwidth audio formats enabled by HDMI ARC (like Dolby Atmos), it might be better to use the optical connection if you can.

There is a dedicated subwoofer output that can be used to connect one Bose Bass Module 500 or 700 via an optional $ 10 cable.

You also get bluetooth. This can be used as a wireless connection for streaming music from a phone, tablet or computer. However, you can also connect the TV speaker as a companion device to a Bose smart speaker or soundbar using the Bose Music app.

Speaking of bluetooth, I wish Bose only had the ability to pair a set of Bose wireless headphones like you can with the company's smart soundbars. Given that the TV speaker is in many bedrooms, this would have been an excellent addition to home TV.

user friendliness

Bose TV speaker remote controlSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

If you just want to hear your TV through the Bose TV speaker, there is next to nothing to do, especially if you're using HDMI ARC. This connection allows your TV remote control to send volume and mute commands to the speaker. This is all you need for basic operation. As a bonus for Roku TV owners, the TV speaker is Roku TV ready. This means that all of the speaker's functions can be controlled through on-screen menus and your Roku remote.

There are no physical controls at all in the soundbar – just two LED indicators in the front left corner indicate when the speaker is being turned on, muted, or using Bluetooth.

The included remote is not illuminated, but the main volume and mute buttons are easy to spot in the dark thanks to their layout and recessed design. With the remote control you can activate bluetooth mode, switch the speaker to dialogue enhancement mode and adjust the amount of bass, all of which are effortlessly possible.

The Bose TV speaker is as simple as a soundbar, which is exactly what some buyers want.

Sound quality

Bose TV speakersSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

Consistent with the TV speaker's focus on simplicity, you don't get any audio extras – no Dolby Digital, no Dolby Atmos, no DTS: X – heck, there isn't even a virtualized surround mode that pretty much every $ 100 Soundbar offers these days.

What you get is excellent 2-channel stereo sound that makes watching TV far more enjoyable. Bose has always been able to make small speakers produce big sound, and the TV speaker is no exception. There is no built-in subwoofer and yet the soundbar creates a lot of low-end – especially if you use the bass adjustment to the maximum.

The two angled full-range drivers convey a sense of breadth and depth that sometimes surprised me with its realism. At the price, it would have been nice if Bose had given us the ability to control other aspects of the EQ like highs and mids, but given the balance of the speaker that is out of the box, I doubt I would mess around with them myself when i had her.

Dialog mode does exactly what you'd expect, enhancing the upper registers where voices live while emphasizing the other soundtrack material.

Unlike some other dialog adjustments I've tried that can result in a harsh, brittle sound, the Bose TV speaker simply delivers cleaner, more understandable speech.

Bose TV speakersSimon Cohen / Digital Trends

The TV speaker can definitely get loud enough to fill large rooms with sound – with virtually no distortion – but its sweet spot is smaller rooms like bedrooms or dens. In these rooms, the loudspeaker really shines and offers a much wider and deeper soundstage than a standard TV without having to rely on pure energy when working.

Can you use the Bose TV speaker for music too? Absolutely. Streaming sources like Tidal, Spotify, and YouTube Music over Bluetooth sounded very good, although unlike Bose's Soundbar 700, which is used to reveal hidden details in my favorite songs, the TV speaker simply offers decent stereo sound through a single speaker. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Our opinion

While the Bose TV speaker can be significantly more expensive than larger, bolder soundbars with more features, it's the perfect TV companion for those who are short on space, patient, and high-quality sound.

Is there a better alternative?

If you're looking for a simple TV speaker this is it Bose Solo 5 TV sound system is still available and is often offered for less than $ 200 off-peak. It is bulkier than the TV speaker, does not have HDMI ARC and does not have a special tweeter to improve dialogue.

If you want a soundbar with a similarly small footprint and more features, the $ 400 Bose Smart Soundbar 300 or $ 400 Sonos Beam are great options with voice assistants, Apple AirPlay 2, and smartphone apps that let you do a variety of EQ – and other settings.

How long it will take?

Bose products are of excellent build quality. I assume the Bose TV speaker will last as long as you need it, especially because of its simple design and features. However, Bose only provides a one-year manufacturer's warranty.

Should you buy it?

Yes. While expensive for what it is, the Bose TV speaker is a premium and easy-to-use TV audio add-on that will make your movies and shows sound as good as they look.

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