ASUS have announced their latest Intel-Driven Copilot+ PC, the Zenbook S14 powered by the new Intel Core Ultra 7 (Series 2) processor, which is now available to pre-order in Australia.

The Zenbook S14 (UX5406SA) comes as a part of ASUS’ latest wave of AI products which have previously included AMD and Qualcomm powered offerings. This latest Zenbook S14 uses the newly announced Intel Lunar Lake CPUs which can generate up to 47 Trillion Operations Per Second (TOPS) to power the on-board AI functions including Microsoft CoPilot (with a dedicated Copilot Key on-board), as well as the ASUS-exclusive StoryCube and MuseTree apps. 

The Zenbook S14 utilises the new Ceraluminum material announced for the Zenbook S16, and comes in a Zumia Grey colourway. The Ceraluminum offers the strength of ceramic, with the design options of metal, with the S14 including US MIL-STD 810H military-grade certification to protect it on the go. At just 1.1cm thin and 1.2 kg light making it ASUS’ slimmest 14” AI PC.

ASUS has been including stunning displays in their Zenbook series and the S14 is no different with a Pantone validated 14” 3K touch display capable of 120Hz refresh rate.

The new Intel Core Ultra 7 (Series 2) processor is matched with 32GB LPDDR5X and 1TB SSD and comes with Intel ARC Graphics. ASUS are also spruiking some incredible battery life, which offers a number of benefits, with up to 27 hours of unplugged use ensuring all-day productivity.

While you’re on the road, you’ll find a load of connectivity options with USB Type-C (Thunderbolt 4) and Type-A ports-onboard, as well as HDMI out. There’s Wifi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 on offer for connecting wirelessly as well. 

Bradley Howe, Head of Consumer, Systems Business Group, ASUS Australia, said: “We’re excited to collaborate with Intel on the launch of the new ASUS Zenbook S 14. This device offers quick access to AI experiences and is our thinnest, lightest and most powerful PC yet. We wanted to create a device for those looking to combine performance with aesthetics that will last throughout the day also making this our longest-lasting PC with up to 27 hours of battery life.”

The new ASUS Zenbook S14 with Intel Core Ultra 7 (series 2) processor is available for pre-order for $3,399 from today through ASUS E-shop, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman and Officeworks. You’ll be able to see them in-store from September 24th. 

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ASUS announced their second gen Windows handheld, the ROG ALLY X back in June. It’s now on-sale and time to take it for a spin thanks to ASUS sending a unit over to check out. 

At $1,599, the ROG ALLY X is a pricey device,but it’s received a few key updates from the original including upgraded storage, RAM, and battery life. The unit itself has also been redesigned for better ergonomics, and there’s a new all-black colour scheme. 

The original handled pretty well, but how does this upgraded model handle? I spent the last couple of weeks with the ROG ALLY X and here’s how it went. 

What’s New

The ROG ALLY X has seen a number of updates both inside and out, with the result being a smoother running handheld that’s more comfortable to hold and play with for longer periods.

Under the hood, the ROG ALLY X uses the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme CPU as the original, with ASUS adding more memory bumping the original 16GB to 24GB. 

ASUS has also upgraded the size, as well as the form factor with a 1TB M.2 2280 Gen 4 SSD inside – with the 2280 M.2 drives offering larger capacity above 2TB, as well as being more commonly stocked making it easier to upgrade down the track. 

The major criticism of the gen 1 ROG ALLY was the battery life, which has been doubled for the ROG ALLY X with a whopping 80WHr battery powering the unit. 

On the outside, that new black colourway looks clean and shows off the RGB LEDs around the thumbsticks even better than the white and the unit has a more rounded shape to feel more comfortable in the hand.

The ROG ALLY X keeps the fingerprint sensor enabled power button on the top which supports Windows Hello login, however ASUS has replaced their XG Mobile eGPU slot with another USB-C port which allows for more accessories to be plugged in and more. 

In terms of ergonomics, the ROG ALLY X has changed the arrangement of buttons and thumbsticks to a better angle, as well as changing the slant on the triggers making them easier to press. The macro buttons on the rear have been shrunk to reduce accidental taps.

ASUS have also replaced the thumbsticks with more durable modules, as well as replaced the D-Pad with a more functional 8-way option more suitable for fighting and retro games.

Finally, ASUS has worked their magic on cooling with smaller fans that use thinner fan blades but move more air, and cooling the ROG ALLY X more efficiently over longer periods. 

What’s Great

The ROG ALLY X has improved a number of things between generations, though the two biggest for me have been smoothness of performance and the dramatically improved battery life. 

The original saw around an hour of gaming before you began experiencing performance issues, but the ROG ALLY was easily able to get to at least two hours of hard-core gaming on Turbo mode.

Charging is pretty decent with the 65W charger getting you back to full in a little over an hour and a half – however I used my Anker 737 powerbank on the move to keep it running for a fair bit longer. 

The other major difference for me was the smoothness of performance. The bump in RAM up to 24GB has meant an decrease in loading times, and overall smoother performance.

The games load quickly, but you also get very decent Frames Per Seconds from the AMD Z1 Extreme platform – with games like Fortnite, Sons of the Forest and Cyberpunk 2077 hitting 40-50fps easily. 

The whole design feels a little more comfortable in the hand, even if it is a little heavier – 70 grams to be exact. The change in design has shifted the weight to sit where your thumb and forefinger lie while gripping the device, keeping it balanced. 

Lastly, the star of the show for me has been the improved ASUS Armoury Crate app, which launches when you first login to Windows.

From Armoury Crate you can install the various game storefronts, then launch into them. You can also change key mappings, hardware settings and loads more in the command centre. Armoury Crate also handles updates and more, leaving you free to jump into games when you want. 

The final bonus is the 3-months of Xbox GamePass Ultimate, letting you access the pretty extensive library of games available through Microsoft’s subscription service on the ROG ALLY X. At $17.99/month though, just remember when Microsoft is set to charge you and decide if you want to continue.

What’s not so great

While ASUS has listened to the feedback and from a technical standpoint have delivered a fantastic second-gen device, there are some things that aren’t great. My two big bug-bears for the ROG ALLY X are the price, and Windows. 

The improvements in hardware across the board on the ROG ALLY X have really helped ASUS to nail this new model. Those improvements come at a cost though, and $1,599 is a pricey option. 

There are a number of options available – even from ASUS offering NVIDIA RTX graphics and decent specs for around the $1599 mark. This makes it more of a decision on whether you want a portable handheld gaming device or laptop. 

At a cheaper price point, the ROG ALLY X would really shine, but the reality of rising parts and manufacturing costs, as well as shipping has led to this price point. 

The other factor for me is the Windows system really isn’t suited for a handheld gaming device. 

ASUS’ Armoury Crate software really makes an effort to offset the clunky Windows interface on the 7” display – like entering your password on the on-screen keyboard when the fingerprint sensor doesn’t work.

While Windows really shouldn’t be navigated on a 7” display, the touch display does make it a little easier to get around – but it takes you out of what you’re doing, having to fight Windows to navigate or do things.

Overall it’s just Windows that needs to change but Armoury Crate tries its best and the ASUS developers are continuing to work to make it a little easier – even if Microsoft isn’t.

Final Thoughts

The improvements to the device design, as well as internals have made for a great second gen device in the ROG ALLY X. 

The only drawbacks are the jump in price to $1,599 and the clunky Windows experience that you have to endure when Armoury Crate can’t pick up the slack. 

Overall though, the jump in RAM, bigger battery and the changes to the design have meant for improvements all round that make the ROG ALLY X the best Windows Handheld gaming system you can get right now. 

You can check out the ROG ALLY X over on the ASUS eShop and JB Hiifi.

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The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is making its long-awaited appearance in Australia this year and after using it for the last week I can easily say that they have hit the ground running with a phone that can rival even the mainstays of our foldable device market.

Starting at $2,699 RRP, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold sits atop the pricing pile of the Google smartphone lineup and when you get two phones in one it is easy to see why.  Available in Obsidian and Porcelain the phone is a great looking foldable, mostly following the design language Google has switched to this year.  

Design and hardware are outstanding

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a smartphone that looks incredibly similar to the Pixel 9 and the Pixel 9 Pro released just a few weeks ago.

The front of the Fold looks a lot like the Pixel 9 and that is because it has the exact same 6.3-inch display on the front as the Pixel 9, albeit with bigger bezels.  The left hand side of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold houses the hinge which is why that side of the phone sticks out more — see below images.

The Fold, when folded over, has the dimensions 155.2mm height, 77.1mm width and 10.5mm depth whereas the Pixel 9 is 152.8mm height x 72.0mm width x 8.5mm depth.  The differences are not massive and when they are in your pocket you do not notice the difference but when holding in your hands the difference is very distinct.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold may have an extra display and a hinge mechanism, so it is amazing that it only weighs 59 grams more than the Pixel 9.  The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a heavy phone though, weighing 257 grams.  That 6.3-inch outer display is the same as it is in the Pixel 9 — bright, vibrant, responsive and smooth, although it is only 1080P.  It is capable of refresh rates of 60-120Hz making for a smooth experience. There is a selfie camera in this outer display, a 10MP camera, which works reasonably well, but is there really that much call for better selfie cameras anymore?  Luckily this camera has a better selfie camera anyway — read on.

The power button and volume rocker on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold are in the exact same location as they are on the Pixel 9, and they look identical.  Google has done a great job keeping the design language consistent from one device to another.  The only difference is the rear of the phone. Instead of the new rear camera pill that we saw on the other Pixel 9 smartphones the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a more traditional smartphone camera island — I dare say because of space constraints.  The phone is so incredibly thin I dare say there wasn’t much in the way of ways they could make everything fit.

  The rear surface of the Fold is a matte glass finish, the same as that on the Pixel 9 Pro XL and I love it.  Fingerprint proof (if you decide not to wrap it in a case) and stylish it screams premium, as does the matte metal rails along the side of it.

Inside the phone is a big 8-inch Super Actua Flex OLED display (LTPO) with a resolution of 2067 x 2152 pixels at 373 PPI.  It is smooth to use, partly because the refresh rate will change from 1 to 120Hz as required and partly due to Google’s Pixel Experience. The display is really good to use and although you can feel it is not the same as a standard display it looks amazing, considering it wasn’t that long ago when foldables were something out of a sci-fi movie.

As with all foldables, there is a crease present on the display and while it is there and you may try and look closely at it for the first few times you use the device, it is so minimal that not only does it not affect how you use the phone but you also barely or even rarely notice it at all after a day or two.

The inner display once again has a selfie camera, the third such one on this phone.  I used this for Zoom calls and while it is good enough for that it is much better to use the rear camera system for selfies instead.

As for durability, the cover screen is covered by scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 with the same covering on the rear silky matte back.  The Pixel Pro 9 Fold is IPX8 water resistant which is decent considering the hinge is the obvious weak point with foldables.

Connectivity-wise, Google has included a load of connectivity features in the Pixel 9 Pro XL including Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth v5.3, the full suite of GPS, GLONASS, BAIDU etc. support, and there’s also a new Ultra-wide band chip inside for proximity reliant features like unlocking your phone with your Pixel Watch 3, finding lost devices and more.  

Buttery-smooth performance

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold sports Google’s new Tensor G4 processor giving it all the power, performance and AI chops that appeared on the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro.  Check out thos ereviews for more information but in my use, some of the new Gemini AI features are gimmicks and some are great.  It’s hit and miss and I suggest you try them all out and see what works best for you. I loved the integration with the Pixel Screenshots app but I don’t need Gemini AI to write a text message for me. Day to day performance was as you would expect from Google — smooth, flowing and consistent.  A Pixel Experience needs to be seen to be believed.  If you haven’t experienced it you don’t know just what it is and will most likely underestimate it.  

Google has advertised that some games will be coming with support for dual screen mode where the game is split into two and the bottom screen is the controller for the game but at this stage their beta testing links were not working so I was unable to test them out.  The current games listed are:

• Asphalt Legends Unite
• Disney Speedstorm
• Dungeon Hunter 5
• Modern Combat 5

Some apps don’t play well with the larger dual screen but a simple solution is to display the app in a split screen mode — drag and drop a different app icon to the other side — and the app will then display in a more traditional way.  

Camera

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold sports a triple rear camera but each camera in the setup is inferior to that in the Pixel 9.  This is disappointing given the price point the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is set at.  At that price I’d want and expect the best camera possible.

Now do not think that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold does not take great pictures, because it does and thanks to Google’s computational photography the images are still excellent.  It could just be better, that is all.

The triple rear camera includes:

• Wide Camera – 48 MP Quad PD wide camera, ƒ/1.7 aperture
• Ultrawide Camera – 10.5 MP ultrawide camera with autofocus, 127° field of view and Macro Focus
• Telephoto Camera – 10.8 MP 5x telephoto camera, Super Res Zoom up to 20x

There is also a multi-zone LDAF (laser detect auto focus) sensor, a spectral and flicker sensor and optical and electronic image stabilisation on wide and telephoto.

With all these it should take good pictures, and it does.  As you can see below the images are bright and although not as natural as Google’s images have been in the past, they are still less processed and less saturated than some other manufacturers.

The selfies with the front camera are decent but the ones taken with the triple rear camera setup are far superior, as you would expect.  There is a quick shortcut whenever you open the camera app to take a selfie using the rear camera — and you should.  It is easy to do and the resultant image is much better quality than the single 10MP selfies cameras can produce.

Battery and charging

I was able to get a full day’s use out of the 4,650 mAh battery in the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and considering that was over an hour of Bluetooth music streaming at the gym, over two hours of wireless Android Auto and using the inner 8-inch display more than half the screen on time (6hrs, 15min) I was impressed.  In total that was about 12 hours in total and I use my phone a lot (too much).

There’s no charger included in the box but you do get a USB Type-C cable. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold does support a faster charging speed, as do the rest of the Pixel 9 series – if you purchase their new 45W USB Type-C charger for $49.99.  The fine print is that Google, in the specs, do not list in the specs they gave us just how long it takes to charge the Fold to 55% like they do the other Pixel smartphones.  Some spec sites list it as 21W wired charging which is a lot less than the 37W the Pixel 9 Pro XL charges at.

Of significance also is that they list the Fold as supporting “Wireless charging” whereas they list the other Pixel phones as “Fast Wireless charging.”  In my testing, the wireless charging does seem to be slower than the other Pixel phones but haven’t had the chance to get actual numbers yet.  The same spec sites list the wireless charging as 7.5W wireless compared to 23W with the Pixel stand and 12W on the Pixel 9 Pro XL.  The wireless charging difference is most likely due to the difference in thickness of the charging coil section of the phone.

I should mention here that if you have a Pixel Stand or Pixel Stand 2, the Fold won’t work out of the box with your Google wireless charger.  This is due to them locating the charging coils in a different location to every other Pixel phone that has wireless charging.  Strange decision but I dare say space was the contributing factor once again.  To make up for this I added a 1cm piece of gym flooring foam to the bottom on the phone rest on the charger and it charged just fine.

Software

Google is launching the Pixel 9 series with Android 14, an unusual occurrence given the latest version of Android is on-board. The Pixel 9 phones will receive Android 15 as soon as it’s released – likely in October based on recent leaks – and will continue to receive OS updates, and monthly Security updates and Pixel Feature drops for seven years.

Just as with the other Pixel 9 phones, Gemini is front and centre.  I’m still not a massive fan of it and no matter how much I play with it, it just doesn’t seem to be fully ready for prime time just yet.

Some of the photography AI enhancements work as they should but others are very hit and miss.  You can check out Dan’s review of the Pixel 9 Pro if you want a more in-depth analysis of Gemini and the AI on the Pixel 9 smartphones – he did such a good job of it, I’m not going to rehash his great work here.

Folding software

The only folding software that you can change is what happens to apps when you close/fold the phone.  You can choose whether you want the app to open automatically, not at all or only with a swipe interaction on the display.  I chose the swipe because I don’t want every app every time opening on the cover display when I close the phone.

  Google has optimised their own apps for the large screen foldable format and I love their new layouts.  Hopefully other app developers get on board – maybe we’ll see it in a few years when foldable pricing drops and we see more people buying them (fingers crossed).

Who buys the Pixel 9 Pro Fold?

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a great phone and has a good camera, two great displays, has all of Google’s Pixelly goodness, looks stylish and feels premium.  It would be perfect if it had the best Pixel camera possible and faster charging solutions. The large 8-inch display is magnificent to use while the outer display can be used all the time as it is a standard sized smartphone display.  When folded the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is still relatively thin and in the pocket feels the exact same thickness as the Pixel 9 Pro XL.  This is a big drawcard for it.  

If you want a phone that you can use to watch media in a large format, multitask on the single display like with a tablet, and runs smooth software with some of the best AI around then the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is for you.

The only real negative is the price. $2,699 is steep but unfortunately this is a standard price for a large screen foldable smartphone in 2024.  If you have the money then I can say the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is worth every penny.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is available now starting at $2,699 RRP for the 256GB version and $2,899 RRP for the 512GB version in Obsidian and Porcelain colours. Get it from the Google Store, JB HIFI, Telstra, Optus, Harvey Norman, Officeworks, and Vodafone.  

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Sennheiser has produced several different true wireless earbuds this year, each with different use cases and so far we have been really impressed.

The latest to cross our review desk are the ACCENTUM True Wireless earbuds which straddle the consumer and audiophile ranges, offering very near audiophile sound but at a “more-affordable” consumer price.

The ACCENTUM True Wireless are available for RRP $349.95AU pricing them amongst the top of the range consumer earbuds.

Read on to hear my thoughts on the new Sennheiser ACCENTUM True Wireless and where they sit in our ranking ladder of true wireless earbuds.

Design and fit

The Sennheiser ACCENTUM true wireless are the third pair of Sennheiser earbuds I’ve tested in the last few months, and they are the third different design, not just in earbud shape but also charging case size and shape.

Take the ACCENTUM TW out of the box and you will be surprised at just how small the case is.  At just 49.45mm x 51.72mm x 28.95mm it seems tiny in comparison to other charging cases I’ve used.  It is impressive that the smaller case still supports Qi Wireless charging too.

The ACCENTUM TW case only has a 420mAh battery inside but they are incredibly efficient with their power consumption given the earbuds offer six hours of listening time and another 22 hours in the charging case.  There is quick charge support too, so as little as ten minutes of charging in the case can give the earbuds another hour of listening time.

As with most devices these days the estimates given by the manufacturer closely resembles the real-world battery life, I was able to achieve with them.

You should be able to get a decent fit with these earbuds given that there are four different sizes of ear tips in the box (alongside a USB-C charging cable).

The design is different to the other Sennheiser earbuds I’ve tested this year but they are probably the most comfortable out of all of them.  They are relatively stable in the ear although you should be careful with excessive head movement while exercising in case they do fall out — there is less holding them in than the sport ones we tested out previously.

The outer surface of the earbuds are capacitive buttons allowing you to easily control the music/media without dislodging them from the comfortable fit in the ear.

The ACCENTUM TW were able to maintain a consistent, high-quality connection with first my Pixel 9 at all times.

How do they sound??

Sometimes it is difficult to test headphones from one manufacturer to another, especially when they each have their own app and equalisers.  For the purpose of this review I listened to them straight out of the box using the equaliser in the PowerAMP app on the same settings for each set of headphones and used FLAC files only.

These $350 earbuds are some of the best sounds I’ve heard from a set of earbuds in this price range.

When comparing them to the Jabra Elite 10 the bass is punchier but also crisper making the low end of the sound have true impact and clarity without being too overpowering.  The mids were clean and precise with the Jabra not having quite the brightness of sound in this area.

The Jabra’s fared better with the highs but still didn’t have the depth and range of the Sennheisers.  Sennheiser is known for its audiophile sound quality so it should come as no surprise.

So how do they compare to the $500 Sennheiser MOMENTUM TW4?  Good but not as good.

The Jabra Elite 10 were closer to the ACCENTUM TW than the ACCENTUM TW were.  The MOMENTUMs just had a louder sound, a wider soundstage with more depth across all areas of the sound.  Now they aren’t as comfortable in the ear as the ACCENTUM TW but the sound was exquisitely better.  Then they are $150 more so there is that.

On their own though, the ACCENTUM TW earbuds sound amazing and it is only quickly comparing side by side with the MOMENTUM TW4 that you will notice a difference.  On their own they sound amazing with a crisp sound that has great, sharp bass and a great upper shelf and decent mids.

ANC

The Sennheiser ACCENTUM TW earbuds offered amazingly good ANC, better than that in the Jabra’s, without affecting the quality of music much at all.  You can use the Smart Control app to alter the amount of ANC you apply to the earbuds based on where you are listening to them along with removing wind noise.

Software

The Sennheiser Smart Control app is nothing that other manufacturers have not done already to support their products, but the Sennheiser app removes the fluff and adds options that improve the quality of music. Interestingly, and it shows forethought by Sennheiser, each set of Sennheiser earbuds I own have different options activated within the same app.

Final thoughts

Sennheiser has a reputation for high quality audio devices and it is easy to see why. They do not make cheap products but they do make very good products.

The ACCENTUM True Wireless are at the upper end of consumer products at RRP $349.95 but when comparing them to similarly-priced products they compare extremely favourably. They are comfortable as any others while offering even better sound quality.

The ACCENTUM True Wireless have an extremely high-quality sound across the entire soundstage with crisp punchy bass that does not get muddy at all. The mids are also excellent but the highs are amazing with crisp high-end sounds well differentiated and accurate.

If you are shopping in this price range for true wireless earbuds I recommend you check out the Sennheiser ACCENTUM True Wireless earbuds. They are now available at all decent tech stores and online for RRP $349.95 in Black, Blue and White colourways.

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The ninth generation Lenovo Legion Pro 5i was announced earlier this year at CES. There’s been a focus on AI powered laptops, but sometimes it’s nice to kick back and play some games and the Lenovo Australia team have sent across one of their Legion Pro 5i 2024 models over for review.

The Legion Pro 5i (16”, 9) we’ve received is the full business, including a 14th gen Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB gen 4 M.2 SSD.

It’s a lot of hardware and carries a $4,489 AUD RRP – but you can find good deals if you shop around. 

I’ve had a great time with the Legion Pro 5i for a couple of weeks now and here’s how it went.  

Hardware

Design

The Legion Pro 5i in its 9th generation hasn’t changed much since last years model, offering the same grey colour option with that look and feel of a Lenovo Legion laptop. 

Like most gaming laptops, the Legion Pro 5i is fairly chunky in design with a thick profile that also extends back beyond the hinge giving it a slightly thicc(?) rear end. That bump gives you more room for both ports and cooling exhaust. 

As a gaming machine you can definitely expect a focus on cooling with hexagonal vents on the base drawing air in, and exiting through the vents on the back and sides. 

It’s a pretty loud experience when you crank the performance up. The new Lenovo ColdFront cooling system is in effect though, offering a software based system which uses the dual fans and heat pipe to be quieter – though in performance mode, I can tell you it moves a lot of air and isn’t quiet.

There’s a vast array of ports on the Legion Pro 5i, with an ethernet jack, USB Type C and dual USB Type A ports alongside a HDMI port and the proprietary power connector port on the rear. There’s ports on the sides too, a USB Type A and Type C ports on the left, and USB Type A port on the right along with the combo audio jack and privacy shutter for the webcam. 

The large 16” display is in 16:10 aspect ratio and defines the overall shape of the laptop. The only large bezels around the display are at the top where a slight lip protrudes to make opening the laptop easier, as well as fitting in the 1080p webcam.

Unfortunately you’ll be typing in your password every time you login, as the webcam doesn’t support Windows Hello, and there’s also no fingerprint reader.

I do like the full-sized Lenovo Legion ‘TrueStrike’ keyboard on the lower deck which includes a numeric keypad. I like the raised guides on the S key for centring your fingers during games, and the abrasion resistant paint on the keyboard should keep it looking schmick for a long time.

The keyboard is backlit, including a 4-zone RGB system that can be tuned through the Legion Vantage software.

Display and Audio

The 16″ WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution IPS panel is paired with a dual speaker system tuned by Nahimic Audio.

The 16” display is nice and big with excellent viewing angles. The IPS panel can support up to 240Hz refresh and supports NVIDIA G-Sync which looks great. I like the viewing angles on the IPS panel, but I would like to see an option for an OLED panel to give deeper blacks and a little more pop to the colours as I find this to be a little muted. 

Overall though it’s a decent display that can be seen in almost any lighting conditions, with the matte finish a great help to eliminate reflections and glare. 

The audio is surprisingly good for a 2-speaker system, though running 2W speakers is a great way to do it. There’s plenty of power in the speakers, which isn’t a problem with the Nahimic Audio tuning delivering a clear sound full of crystal clear mids and highs, with a satisfying low end that while it isn’t super bass heavy, delivers more than I’m used to on a laptop. 

Performance

Stacked to the gills, there’s little more you could want from a gaming laptop. There’s an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB gen 4 M.2 SSD.

The Legion Pro 5i will eat up any office work, web browsing or video watching, and works well for any creators with video editing or 3D rendering.

Gamers will love the experience on the Legion Pro 5i with the RTX4070 able to produce a solid 60fps on a slew of games including Cyberpunk 2077, Sons of the Forest and Fortnite.

That performance obviously comes at a price and that price is cooling with the Legion Pro 5i getting quite loud when under load. 

As usual we sent it through 3DMark and here’s how it went

Battery and Charging

The 80Whr battery in the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i can be charged using the simply massive 300W charger included in the box. 

The 80Whr battery would normally be massive in any ultraportable, however you get around six hours of use doing fairly mundane office work, web browsing and YouTube. As a gaming laptop though, you’ll want to play some games on the go – but be warned, you can drain the battery on performance mode in just under an hour. 

The good news is that the 300W charger is fast, getting you up to 50% charge in just 15 minutes before getting to 100% full in under an hour. 

Software

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i includes a copy of Windows 11 Home with an assortment of pre-installed apps and utilities. 

The pre-installed apps include the usual suspects: MS Office 365 trial, McAfee Livesafe 30-day trial (which it will remind you is about to expire constantly), as well as some Lenovo utilities.

The list of Lenovo utilities includes Lenovo Now, a sort of hub for Lenovo services. You also get apps for all those services including Lenovo Vantage which is used to manage your laptop or get support, Lenovo Hotkeys, a place to set custom functions like changing the power profile or refresh rate, Legion Arena for managing your games.

While there’s a lot there, I generally use Lenovo Vantage the most. It’s easy to use and changing settings is relatively pain free. I’ve often changed to the dGPU only for gaming before switching back to the integrated GPU for simple office work – it helps with fan noise. 

Should you buy it?

As far as pure performance goes, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i has got absolute boat loads of it. 

For gamers there’s not a lot to wish for in the laundry list of specs, however the battery life is on the low side if you’re really wanting to play games on the go and it’s very loud when under load. The display is also a little muted on colours, but at 16”, it’s still big and bright and that’s what you need. 

All that said, if you have the money to spend – and some time to check out some deals, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i is a great laptop for gamers. 

You can check it out over on the Lenovo online store. 

The post Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (16”, 9) 2024 Review: A budget gaming powerhouse appeared first on Tech Guide.

Shookz has today taken the wraps off their new OpenRun Pro 2 open ear headphones, complete with all new DualPitch technology to deliver improved sound quality.

The new DualPitch technology combines their tenth-generation bone conduction technology with an air conduction driver with the former providing the mids and highs of the sound and the latter the bass.

The sound quality in the OpenRun Pro 2 is vastly improved on the sound quality I was able to extract from the first generation OpenRun Pro headphones.  The bass is much better and the overall sound is crisper and clearer.  Now don’t expect audiophile-quality music but it is a lot improved on the last iteration.

The main function for these headphones is the ability to hear your surroundings while exercising outside.   It does this well.  Although the music is louder than last time you can still hear your surroundings easily.  While running I was able to hear cars, my own dogs, other dogs and of course people near me, all while listening to music or podcasts.

Now, use these in a loud environment, such as your gym and the music will be drowned out by all the environmental noises such as the gym music, weights dropping, talking etc.  They are not designed to be used in this ‘safe’ environment but instead when there is a time when you need to take extra caution to remain safe.

Just using them around the house was great too.  I was easily able to hear my wife talking to me, so it was a win for her too.  The music quality is nowhere near perfect but for times you need to hear those around you they are great.

With an IP55 rating the OpenRun Pro 2 will survive some water splashes while the multipoint connectivity allows you to connect to two devices at once.  This year the OpenRun Pro 2 headphones do not have a proprietary charging port but instead have included the universal USB-C charging port- a big improvement.

You will get close to 12 hours of playback from a single charge — I did — and if it runs out when you need it, plug it in for just five minutes for another 2.5 hours of music playback.

Weighing just 30 grams, the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 are extremely comfortable and you can barely even feel them on you.  The neck band now comes in two sizes, with the larger one easily big enough for my neck.  the only thing you feel is a slight clamping force of the bone conduction section of the headphones in front of your ears.

I was able to wear them for hours at a time without any discomfort at all so no matter how long your workout is you’ll be all good. 

Who buys these?

The Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 are for those who exercise outside.  The ability to be able to listen to your media (music, podcast, audiobook etc) while exercising but at the same time being able to hear everything that is happening around you is not just handy but safer.  

Don’t get these if you want the best quality sound possible but get these if you want to be able to hear decent music while also hearing anything that may be dangerous around you.  The sound quality is a massive improvement over the OpenRun Pro so even if you have the first gen you should consider upgrading to these.

The Shokz OpenRun Pro 2, is available in Black and Orange (Standard and Mini size) and will be on pre-sale for $319 from 28 August 2024 at Shokz.com.au. They will be available for purchase at Amazon, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman and 99 Bikes, from 5 September 2024.

The post Shokz unveil the new OpenRun Pro 2 open-ear headphones with improved audio and better fit appeared first on Tech Guide.

Home security cameras are normally fixed to a certain projection and to change where they are viewing you have to physically move the camera itself.  Now Ring has released a camera that can pan a full 360 degrees and tilt vertically 169 degrees.

Unsurprisingly called the Ring Pan-Tilt Camera, the new camera has been front and centre in my kitchen for the past few weeks and although it’s a breath of fresh air when it comes to Ring home security cameras, Ring could have, and should have, done so much more.

At just $129 it is not expensive so you shouldn’t expect it to be perfect but at $129 it does represent good value for money.

Design

The Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera is very reminiscent of the Ring Indoor camera and it looks exactly the same as one, except it has a pan-tilt base underneath instead of a simple stand.

The footprint is nearly as compact as that of the Ring Indoor Camera so it takes up very little room wherever you end up placing it.  Ring has also included a base mount that you can use to easily mount the Pan-Tilt Indoor camera on your wall or ceiling.

The Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera includes the manual shutter that debuted on the Ring Indoor Camera refresh last year and although it is incredibly flimsy it does the job it is designed for.  There is no remote control over it of course, just a physical movement of the shutter itself by you.   Simply slide it into position and the camera lens is physically blocked.

The rest of the Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera is extremely well built and solid, as we have come to expect from Ring cameras.  Installation is easy with all the screws and mounts required for full installation included, as well as easy step by step instructions for those of you like me who struggle to know which end of the hammer to hold.

The Pan-Tilt camera from Ring includes all of their usual features which are great and easy to use.  One of my favourites is the colour night vision.  Don’t expect the colour to look like daylight but that addition of a small amount of colour adds a lot of useful information when viewing captured vision.

The two-way intercom works great with both sides of the conversation able to hear each other easily — being an inside camera only does help with the clarity of reception of course.

Ring introduced GPS geolocation reminders for changing the Ring protection status which I love but it would be even nicer to have them automated.

I love the GPS geolocation reminders for changing the Ring protection status but it would be even nicer to have them automated and not have to think about changing it yourself.

Pan and Tilt

To pan and tilt the camera you just need to open up the camera in live view and tap on the rotate link/menu button at the bottom of the page.  Up pops the left/right, up/down arrows to allow you to move the camera as you wish.  It moves smoothly allowing for a non-stuttering video.

The downside is that it will not move without you.  While some smart displays have auto person tracking the Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor camera does not.  In other words, if you don’t jump into the app and follow the intrusion yourself you will not get the entire field of view possible and the pan-tilt function of the camera will have been for nought.

But what about…

Ring cameras are very good at recognising packages, people, and pets with their camera software, so I hope they harness this to then follow those that are human faces — as mentioned above.  This is essential in my opinion if they are to maintain their market share, and if we are talking about removing blind spots with this camera, face and person tracking would really remove the blind spots!

1080P HD recording used to be a selling point for security cameras but that has long passed.  Many cameras are now 2K and 4K but Ring continue to bring the same optics and 1080P to their cameras.  It is time for an overhaul.  Most of us have faster home Internet and 5G now so we can handle 2K and 4K streaming of a security feed, time for Ring to step up.

My final bug bear, which isn’t an issue for me but could be for others.  There is no local recording in the form of SD card and to get full use and functionality of your Ring camera you need to have a subscription to Ring Protect or Protect Plus.  They are far from the only company to do this though so my advice to everyone is, find a camera system you love and stick with it.

I have over 10 Ring cameras in and around my house and thus the subscription is relatively affordable for me because once you hit more than three cameras it becomes cost effective to get the full Ring Protect Plus subscription.

Final Thoughts

I love the addition of the pan and tilt functionality to the Ring cameras. I have so many of these types of indoor cameras around my house that I now wish many of them also had this functionality.

For me, I cannot see myself replacing any of my current Ring indoor cameras with an exact same camera only with pan and tilt. Now, were I to need another location covered and needed another camera then yes, definitely, it’s a purchase I would consider in a heartbeat — $129 is not much more that the standard Indoor Camera but with so much more functionality.

I sincerely hope that Ring are working on new optics for their cameras as their current ones are getting a bit old in the tooth and run the risk of falling behind their competitors. If Ring introduced a new camera of this size with pan and tilt but with NEW optics and 4K recording then hell yes I would start replacing my older cameras when the funds deemed it possible.

Should you buy the Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera

The Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera is a good camera that could be great.  If you are in the Ring ecosystem already and need a new indoor camera then it is a no brainer.  Buy the camera and pair it with your Ring Protect subscription for full functionality.

If you are not in the Ring ecosystem yet and want to get into a security system you could do a lot worse than Ring.  I would be careful investing too much money at this early stage until we see what Ring do to improve and modernise their cameras in the next year or two.  If Ring add in automatic person tracking and 4K video then it sells itself, to anyone and everyone.

The Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera is available now in white and black colours for $129 from Ring.com and all the usual Ring retailers.

The post Ring Pan-Tilt Camera review — compact and versatile appeared first on Tech Guide.

If you want to know how well regarded LG OLED TVs are, just scroll back three years here at Techguide and Stephen said “When it comes to OLED, LG is the undisputed king”. Having celebrated 10 years of OLED TVs last year, the 2024 range is seemingly no different.

I opted to review the 55 inch model, easier for me to unpack on my own, but also I get so attached to big beautiful screens I think LG would need to call Police to get it back from me if it was any larger.  Unboxing is a breeze, and the Desktop Stand which comes in a seperate box but included in the price was my choice because if I got this thing mounted on the wall then LG would have a real drama getting it back:)

For those who’ve owned or seen an OLED screen before you might be thinking of that ultra-thin coin thickness TV panel.  Remarkable.  LG even did that “wallpaper” version some years back.

But the “Gallery” series, or G series as LG call it isn’t about that.  This is frankly a TV designed to be wall-mounted.  It’s mere centimetres thick and consistently so from top to bottom.  Paired with the included wall-mount and the LG OLED G4 can sit flush on the wall.  It’s a stunning look.

Picture wise there’s nothing but joy here.

As you’d expect from knowing that OLED is the best picture quality you can buy – the LG OLED G4 does not disappoint.  Ridiculous blacks and the contrast to the bright whites or colours is unmatched.

LG has tweaked all their TV technology within the OLED screens over many years to get far better brightness too – and while it’s on measure not yet at a LED backlit level it’s more than perfectly adequate – for any room.

I wouldn’t strongly recommend an OLED in a bright Aussie lounge room with no clear window controls – that’s still a struggle for a reflective panel like this. However again, LG has added an anti-glare coating to improve that a decent amount.

In movie viewing, TV or gaming, you won’t have a criticism of this TV.  It’s gaming capabilities make it a remarkable gamers view – but most Gamers would likely opt for the C4 because I think going G series might be overkill unless the loungeroom is your gaming hub.

Sound from the LG OLED G4 is clear and strong, but I’ve heard better from a TV’s built-in sound – so get a soundbar folks, do a deal with the retailer to bundle it all up.

LG Channels is going from strength to strength in 2024 so you’ll find a range of internet streamed specialist channels like bingable old-school TV shows and even SKY News Australia.

Your LG TV can also be a hub for your smart home, a destination for sports scores and music.  It’s a jack of all trades.

The main home menu is great for showing you cross-platform trending content from across all the streaming services too.

WebOS has come a long way and is now a slick all-encompassing operating system to challenge the very best.  I don’t think they’re lacking in any app compatibility either.

Prices start at $4,199 for the G4 55 inch.  The 65 inch goes $5,299, 77 inch at $7,999.  Retail prices are even lower, so there’s deals to be made.

You’re going to be watching a lot more of that 4K streaming content if you get yourself an LG OLED G4, no complaints possible – it’s the benchmark.

The post LG’s OLED G4 is a masterclass in TV design and picture quality appeared first on Tech Guide.

After years launching two devices, Google has stepped up this year announcing four Pixel 9 phones, the Pixel 9, the Pixel 9 Pro, the Pixel 9 Pro XL and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL and Pixel 9 go on-sale today, with the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro Fold set to arrive next month – so keep your eyes on TechGuide for the reviews as they’re published.  

I’m taking the Pixel 9 for a spin this week, with Scott taking on the Pixel 9 Pro XL review which you can see here.

The Pixel 9 is the base model for the series, including the new Tensor G4 processor but scaling back on the display, battery and of course only using a dual-camera system on the rear. 

Google, like many companies, has also raised the price on the Pixel 9, which starts at $1,349, compared to last year’s Pixel 8 which starts at $1,199. The bump in specs include a newer, larger and brighter display, bigger battery and improved rear cameras – and of course new AI features on-board.

Is the Pixel 9 worth it in a sea of new Pixel 9 phones? I’ve been using it for six days and here’s how it went. 

What’s New

The Pixel 9 series is a big jump for Google in terms of design. The display now melds into the side rails almost seamlessly, and the squared off rails on the side remind me of the iPhone and Galaxy S design. 

The rear of the Pixel 9 retains the glossy rear glass from the Pixel 8, though it now has that new pill-shaped camera bar. I liked the phone spanning bar from previous Pixels, but it’s a more cohesive design for Google and it looks great. 

Google hasn’t changed the button placement on the Pixel 9, with the volume rocker and power on the right as usual, with the SIM Tray, USB-C port and speaker on the bottom. 

I received the new Wintergreen coloured Pixel 9 for review, but there’s also a new bright Pink coloured option called ‘Peony’, as well as Obsidian (Black) and Porcelain (White) if you like a more classic colour choice.

If you like the new colour options, but don’t want the phone in that colour – you can also order a case in a range of colours. The Pixel 9 is the same size as the Pixel 9 Pro which will launch in a couple of different colours meaning you can get the case in Rose Quartz and Hazel as well as the four Pixel 9 device colours.

The Pixel 9 has increased the size of the display by 0.1”, offering an updated 6.3” Actua display with a peak brightness of 2700 nits – a jump of 700 nits from the Pixel 8 display. The display also now finally includes an ultra-sonic fingerprint sensor which is super-fast, although you still get the excellent Face Unlock if you want fast, touchless logins.

Internally, the new Tensor G4 offers faster app loading and web browsing, as well as new AI features including the latest Gemini AI with Multi-Modal input. There’s also been a bump in RAM to 12GB, though Google has again decided to start storage off at 128GB, however you can get a 256GB model if you want.

The new Tensor G4 and 12GB of RAM makes for a nice and smooth experience. I noted a couple of games I play are now able to handle more visual assets on-screen without stuttering and web browsing is now smoother.

What’s Great

The compact size of the Pixel 9 is what is going to be a big draw-card for a lot of people, though it faces competition later this year from the Pixel 9 Pro which will bring the pro features including Zoom Enhance, as well as the Telephoto camera sensor, and brighter display. 

The Pixel 9 will still have the latest features like ‘Add Me’, an option for anyone normally left out of group photos because you’re too busy taking the picture. Add Me uses Augmented Reality to add you into a group shot after it’s been taken. 

Demo Flips / Add Me (youtube.com)

The Pixel 9 can also take advantage of the new Auto Frame option in Magic Editor. The Auto Frame option lets you reframe shots you’ve already taken, with Google AI able to show you the best cropping, positioning and more  based on ‘known photographic techniques’. While you can crop, you’ll also find Google AI adding onto the picture and expanding it, with AI generating fill for the new image. 

On the Pixel 9 Google has added multi-modal input to Gemini which has expanded its usefulness. You can now add in images to help with your query making it more useful. 

You can also now start an ongoing conversation with Gemini Live, though you will need Google Advanced which is bundled with a Google AI Premium plan through Google One to use it – which at a cost of $32.99 per month (that includes 2TB of storage as well) is a bit pricey.

Gemini has been quite helpful in planning my raised garden beds, even going so far as telling me to get a garden roller to make sure the base is firm enough to support the sleepers – guess what I’m doing this weekend!

While it’s not a new feature, it is one of my favourites. Google Assistant Voice typing is also back on the Pixel 9, with some of the best, and most accurate transcriptions I’ve seen on a mobile device. It makes replying to messages on the go an absolute breeze.

In a win for longevity, Google has also announced that the Pixel 9 – as with the other phones in the series, will be receiving seven years of OS, Security and Feature updates, making it a phone that’s going to last.

AI

As Google moves forward as an AI company – a change they made in 2016 – the focus has moved towards finding new features and ways to apply AI. In the Pixel 9, those two new features are Pixel Studio and Pixel Screenshots.

Google’s AI generated wallpapers on the Pixel 8 series was fun, but Pixel Studio brings the AI generated imagery to a simple app you can have fun playing around with. Using simple text prompts, you can get an image generated in a number of styles.

I’ve been using this to add images to chats from offhand comments. Like my son commenting on being a robot on the soccer pitch.

If, like me, you take a LOT of screenshots, the new Pixel Screenshots is a life-saver. The app will apply AI generated descriptions, as well as use AI to help you find information from within the screenshots like Menu items, shopping lists and Wifi passwords. 

I’d love to see the AI applied to your photos as well as your screenshots – I have loads of WIfi passwords saved in pics – but it’s a great way to try and find information you’ve tried to remember. 

Camera

The Pixel Camera is again a feature of the Pixel 9, with Google offering their computational photography algorithms to deliver blur-free shots in almost any lighting conditions. 

The Pixel 9 includes a 50 MP main sensor, and 48MP Ultra-Wide sensor with 123° field of view, which also doubles as a macro sensor for shots as close as 2cm. There’s also a 10.5MP front-facing sensor embedded in the display on the front for taking selfies. 

The Pixel 9 camera is excellent, with great details on both rear sensors in all environments – I don’t think I took a bad shot over the past week. 

Final Thoughts

The Pixel 9 is the Pixel for those that don’t need, nor want all the bells and whistles of the full Pro Pixel experience. 

The compact form-factor in a premium design, which offers one of the smoothest experiences from Android available, and still gets the full 7-years of updates makes for a phone that’s worth a look. 

I’m again impressed with the 6.3” Actua Display, with the screen easily viewable in even full sunlight, and the dual rear camera system uses the same top-tier sensors as those in the Pixel 9 Pro series, making a great combo for those that don’t need a telephoto sensor. 

The Gemini and AI inclusions are interesting, and their usability and functionality are growing, but I’m still waiting on that ‘killer’ use case for AI. Things like AI summaries in Pixel Screenshots are starting to make the case for it – but with 7 years of OS, Security and Feature Drops, I can’t wait to see what Google tries next in AI and the Pixel 9 is ready to show them off when they’re ready.

For now though, the Pixel 9 remains the entry point for this years Pixel phones and the new features on-board. You can check it out now online through the Google Store online, as well as JB Hi-Fi, Telstra, Optus, Harvey Norman, Officeworks and Vodafone.

The post Google Pixel 9 Review: Good things come in smaller packages appeared first on Tech Guide.

Google announced their 2024 flagship smartphone line-up just a week ago.  This year they launched four new Pixel 9 devices, the Pixel 9, the Pixel 9 Pro, the Pixel 9 Pro XL and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

With their respective availability being staggered in the coming weeks there will be reviews trickling out so it will be difficult to keep up.  We suggest you keep your eye on TechGuide for reviews as they are published.  

First cabs off the rank are the Pixel 9 and the Pixel 9 Pro XL – their ‘traditional’ Pixel-sized and specced phones.  Dan has been checking out the Pixel 9 for the past week or so whereas I’ve had my hands on the Pixel 9 Pro XL.  

You can read his thoughts here but if you want to hear my thoughts on the big dog, the Pixel 9 Pro XL, read on below.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL is a direct replacement for the Pixel 8 Pro with size and specs (accounting for the usual yearly spec bump) virtually identical to each other.  This year, like most things in life, the Pixel 9 Pro XL has seen a price hike.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL price starts as $1,849 which is $150 more than last year.  We did see the spec bumps but not much out of the usual yearly bump.  Inflation.

WHAT’S NEW

The design is of course the first thing you see that is new.  The soft curving rear of the Pixel phones of previous years are gone, replaced with a newer boxier design and a metal frame around the sides of the phone.  It reminds me a lot of the iPhone 15 but that’s not a bad thing.

The rear of the phone has a boxier design too with the camera bar now a camera pill.  I’m here for it and, combined with the matte glass finish on the rear of the device, the new edging and shape offers a stylish, premium looking and feeling design.

The camera bump is such that the phone still sits easily and safely on its back on your desk without any rocking when using it.  The volume rocker, power button and USB-C port are still there in the same location.

Google has released a new colour with the Pixel 9 Pro XL, Rose Quartz (it is also available in Obsidian, Porcelain and Hazel) which is a pastel colouring of a soft pink and I’m here for it.  It’s the pink that is soft and is worn by both men and women these days.  

The front of the Pixel 9 Pro XL houses a massive 6.8-inch Super Actua display with a peak brightness a massive 3000nits and bezels that are even smaller, 15% smaller than last year in fact!  At 2K resolution (1344 x 2992 LTPO OLED at 486 PPI) it supports a refresh rate of anywhere between 1Hz and 120Hz offering a smooth experience and also a lasting battery. Big, bold and beautiful with colours that pop and an easy, flowing experience. 

Inside is Google’s new processor, the Tensor G4 which offers 20% faster web browsing and 17% faster loading of apps.  The new chipset also allows the Pixel 9 Pro XL to run Gemini Nano onboard allowing you to get the most out of their AI assistant.  

On a day to day basis it seems snappier than last year but for me it’s more that the added AI workloads and software do not slow it down.  The Pixel Experience, which in my opinion is the best smartphone experience in the world, is not slowed or encumbered by the new AI processing requirements thanks to the new chipset.

This year Google has also finally improved their fingerprint sensor.  Yes, you can still use face unlock securely for all banking apps and unlocking your phone but for some a fingerprint is easier (eg. if wearing a mask etc).  The in-display fingerprint sensor is now an ultrasonic sensor making it not only still accurate and consistent but also lightning fast.  

WHAT’S GREAT

Some of the things I think are great about the Pixel 9 Pro XL I’ve already discussed above – the design being number 1 on the list.  This is a big change for Google and I’m surprised they’ve gone with a design that is so similar to the iPhone 15

Google has some useful and innovative camera software features and this year they have introduced even more.  There’s a new Add Me, where you can add yourself, the original photographer, into a photo after you’ve taken it.

The other big new feature is Auto Frame in Magic Editor.  The editor will suggest new framing of photos you have already taken based on  ‘known photographic techniques’, you can even add or remove people or things in the background to finish the edit.

The Zoom Enhance on a Pixel is not just new but quite impressive. The Pixel 9 Pro XL includes a 5x optical zoom, but can also offer a 30x zoom.  Zoom Enhance lets you crop out a section of a photo and have Google AI process it to make it look like a zoomed in shot.

It’s super simple to do from Google Photos simply open the photo, tap edit and then scroll to the Zoom Enhance option under ‘Tools’

Gemini AI is good but from my limited testing it has very limited use cases.  I’m sure the more you use it the more ways you’ll discover to use it.  I was helping my daughter search for her first car so I asked Gemini AI to compare the 2022 Suzuki Swift GL and GLS models.  It gave me a very useful and handy list that helped us to decide which car to go with.

Google’s Assistant Voice typing deserves a mention in the What’s Great segment.  As someone who is on the road a lot for work I often have to quickly reply to messages without touching my phone.  

Assistant Voice typing is the fastest and most accurate voice typing on the market.  No other brand or manufacturer comes even close.  It not just listens to what you are saying but checks to see if it makes sense and corrects it to what it should be more often than not.   Not only does it type what you want it to but you can command it to send the message when you’re done dictating it.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL does support a faster charging speed this year, as do the rest of the Pixel 9 series – if you purchase Google’s new 45W USB Type-C charger for $49.99.  The Pixel 9 series now supports fast wired charging rates up to 27 W on Pixel 9, up to 27 W on Pixel 9 Pro and up to 37 W on Pixel 9 Pro XL. 

Unfortunately we haven’t gotten our hands on a Pixel Charger for testing, but on their Google Store page, they advise ‘Pixel 9 Pro XL can charge to 70% in about 30 minutes’.

GEMINI AI

A big ticket item for Google this year is Gemini AI and I’m sure the more we use it the better it, and we, will become.  There were times it wasn’t great and it kept trying to do things before I had finished my command as I was pausing to try and tell it exactly what to do.

Within Gemini AI there are a couple new AI features – Pixel Studio and Pixel Screenshots.

Pixel Studio is, in a nutshell, an AI image generator that runs directly on your phone.  It provides for a simple interface and allows you to generate an image from a text prompt which you can modify, or play around with an existing image, including removing objects or even clipping parts out to create stickers to add to your AI images.  Handy for trolling a friend in a chat but not earth shattering — it is still hit and miss in its accuracy, as most AI image generators are.

Pixel  Screenshots is an app where all your screenshots are dumped automatically and you can organise them into collections allowing similar information to be grouped together.  Gemini AI processes them all allowing the app to be searchable – eg. What is the password for the Guest Wi-Fi at the AirBNB?

Gemini AI will also summarise the information on each screenshot that is also searchable within the app.  I’d like it to go one step further and search the Internet for similar products etc and tell me about them if I ask.

CAMERA

Google’s Pixel smartphone cameras have always excelled thanks to their excellent computational photography capabilities.  The Pixel 9 Pro XL is no different offering great imaging in all situations with night video better than ever with Night Sight Video.

The rear camera array includes a 50 MP main sensor, a 48MP Ultra-Wide sensor with 123° field of view that can also double as a macro sensor for shots as close as 2cm, and a 48 MP telephoto sensor with optical zoom up to 5x. 

On the front, Google has updated the 12MP front-facing sensor used on the Pixel 8 Pro to a massive 48MP sensor on the Pixel 9 Pro XL, which also has a wider 103° field of view. 

The photos offer crisp details, colours that pop but are also not over saturated that so many other manufacturers do.  It is fast to focus and takes great photos quickly.  What’s not to love?  

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is a healthy upgrade from its predecessor, the Pixel 8 Pro.  It received a bump in power, overall specs including an improved camera and has even smaller bezels than last year.  The new design is exceptionally premium and stylish making it great to look at and to hold.

Its camera is able to match the best in the business, producing amazing pictures in any scenario or environment and with Google adding even more AI features to its computational photography the Pixel 9 Pro XL is a photographic beast.

The catch is the cost — it compares well to similarly specced phones though — and starting at A$1,849 it is not cheap.  If you are looking in this price range and you want the biggest and best smartphone Google has to offer then you are not missing out on anything.  It is the best Android smartphone on the market.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is available now through the Google Store online, as well as JB HIFI, Telstra, Optus, Harvey Norman, Officeworks and Vodafone starting at A$1,849.

Another Aussie view:

Head over to GadgetGuy for Chris’ take on the Google Pixel 9 Pro for another Aussie perspective on this cracking device.

The post Review: Google Pixel 9 Pro XL — the best Android experience appeared first on Tech Guide.

We have seen some CoPilot+ PCs make their way onto the Australian market but not everyone thinks that they, nor the world, are ready for that just yet.  AI might be the next big thing but is it really ready for the primetime?

For a vast majority of us there’s not much of a need to CoPilot+ and lucky for us there are plenty of options available.  HP sent us one such option recently, the HP Spectre x360 16, a big, bright and beautiful laptop that has left us incredibly impressed.

The Spectre x360 range from HP is the premium convertible laptop range with 360 degree hinges and touch displays of either 14- or 16-inch in size.  The HP Spectre x360 16-inch laptop we were sent is their most premium Spectre laptop with a touch 2.8K OLED display, with 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H 3.80GHz processor and a NVIDIA GeForce RTX4050 GPU.

The Spectre range can cost anywhere from the top end $5,148 (review laptop) down to just $2,999 for the 14-inch Ultra 5, 16GB, 512GB version.

Hardware and design

Our HP Spectre x360 16 in Nightfall black aluminium with their ‘sandblaster finish’ and while it sounds spectacular it is just marketing speak.  It is black.  It does have stylish edging though to make it less of a black block.

I quite like this styling.  Without being over the top it is an elegant design that looks good without being gaudy or cheap.  Speaking of cheap, which it is far from, it does not feel cheap with the premium build quality exactly what you would expect from a brand that has been making laptops for a long time.

The HP Spectre x360 16 is HP Spectre x360 weighs 1.95kg which, although not the lightest laptop around, is easily manageable if you were carting it around for personal use.  

As with so many laptops these days, there are not a lot of ports on this laptop but there are enough.  There is a single USB Type-A port, a full sized HDMI 2.1 port, a headphone/microphone combo jack and two Thunderbolt 4 with USB Type-C 40Gbps ports.  

I’m not sure what else you may want to connect but this is enough for any productivity laptop in 2024.  Connectivity-wise the Spectre x360 16 supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 and while Wi-Fi 7 would be nice but at this stage real world speeds won’t make that much of a difference.  

The keyboard is a laptop keyboard with minimal travel, which I actually prefer.  It is not as pronounced as the keyboard on say, a MacBook Air but it is really easy to type on accurately and with speed.  

One of my must-haves is a backlit keyboard and luckily the HP Spectre x360 16 has this.  There are three brightness settings for the backlight with one of them being off (if you call that a brightness setting).

The touchpad is massive, HP’s biggest ever in a laptop and its great although if you like the left and right click it is difficult to reach all the way to one side quickly with such a big touchpad.

As you may have guessed from the name and the pictures you’ve already seen in the review, the laptop lid rotates around a full 360 degrees.  There is some stiffness to the hinge on the laptop but this means that it will not shake or wobble or fall out of the position you are using it in.

The hinge not only allows you to use the laptop in tent style but also as a tablet – the Spectre x360 16 does support pen use and although HP did not send a pen for me to try I would definitely be buying the pen to use with this.

Performance

The review version of this laptop is specced to the highest level possible so you’d expect it to handle all my productivity purposes easily – and it did.  I was able to run all software needed, including video editing software (this laptop did have a Nvidia GeForce RTX4050 GPU installed) without any issues.  

Using the HDMI port or the Thunderbolt 4 ports I was able to easily drive a 45-in LG OLED curved gaming monitor.  

Whether you need this much power is up to you and what your requirements are.  If you are a creator you will most likely want the discrete GPU but for standard productivity purposes I doubt it.  Obviously this would change the price extensively too.

The camera supports Windows Hello login which I love and wish all laptops had it.

Display is beautiful

The display is beautiful to look at, as many OLED laptops are these days.  Its specs are: 

40.6 cm (16″) diagonal, 2.8K (2880 x 1800), OLED, multitouch-enabled, 48-120 Hz, UWVA, edge-to-edge glass, micro-edge, anti-reflection Corning Gorilla Glass NBT, Low Blue Light, SDR 400 nits, HDR 500 nits, 100% DCI-P3

The high resolution display is a pleasure to use with accurate colours that pop and deep blacks and I can see why HP recommends it for creators.  

The brightness is just 400nits but that is incredibly bright inside and can be used relatively comfortably outside but you may have issues with glare outside at times, as you would with most laptops.

Battery and charging

I was able to easily get a day’s use of the laptop doing basic work, playing some basic games and listening to music.  Not sure what more you could ask for but I’m super happy with that.  It wouldn’t be often I’d be away from a charger for that long.

The HP Spectre x360 16 supports HP Fast Charge and, with the laptop off, you can charge from 0 to 50% in about 45 minutes – according to HP.  In my testing, with the laptop on (but lid closed), I was able to charge from 8% to 61% in 39 minutes so you can be sure HP’s statement is fairly accurate.  Another 23 minutes will get it to 80% for that extra bit of peace of mind.

Should you buy it?

The HP Spectre x360 16 is an expensive laptop but you get what you pay for. The OLED display is extremely high resolution and produces amazing colours and incredible blacks. The hinges are solid and allow for full 360 degrees of rotation of the display and the full tablet use.

The laptop is designed for high end users who want to create, and with the inbuilt discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX4050 GPU it can process large videos with ease. It is relatively portable, even though it is packed full of goodness and is a 16-inch laptop, making it incredibly useful for creators on the go.

If you want to check it out, you can head to the HP online store, or the usual retailers. 

The post HP Spectre x360 16 laptop — big and powerful with an OLED display appeared first on Tech Guide.

LG recently launched their UltraGear 45 OLED (45GS96QB) gaming monitor in Australia and for the past couple of weeks it has been adorning my desk and I’m in love.

The new LG UltraGear OLED gaming monitors arrive in three different sizes, 34-, 39- and 45-inches with each size offering varying connectivity options and the 45-inch the only one with built-in speakers.

My breath was taken away before I’d even taken the monitor out of the box.  Maybe it is because my Alienware 38-in ultrawide gaming monitor is thick(-ish) but this LG UltraGear 45 OLED (45GS96QB) is incredibly thin – think smartphone thickness – and has bezels so small they rival many high end laptops.  The curvature is also a lot more than my 38-inch gaming monitor and this LG has the most aggressive curvature on a monitor I have ever seen.

The OLED display is a massive 44.5-inches in size with a 3440 x 1440pixel UWQHD resolution which is good but not great for a monitor this big.  Although it would have been nice to have a higher resolution that may affect the speed of some games if your PC is not up to the test of pushing a 4K resolution (which is the next step up).

I said above the curvature is aggressive and by that I mean that the 800R curve feels like the monitor is wrapping around you.  The ideal focal spot to use this monitor from is a small 80cm (800mm) which is close.  

While gaming the curve allows for an incredibly immersive experience and really feels like you are closer to the game.  On the other hand when using the monitor for productivity the curve may just be a bit high.  For basic web surfing, word processing etc it is fine but if you are performing more creative drawing and editing you may struggle with straight lines given the curve of the monitor can make a straight line look curved.

For me though all I do is gaming and basic productivity so it was a great experience.

OLED displays are much sought after for a reason – their colours pop while at the same offering deep blacks and a massive contrast and this monitor is no different.  The colours are vibrant, punchy and really a sight to behold.

The refresh rate of a monitor is important when gaming and the  LG UltraGear 45 OLED (45GS96QB) offers a 240Hz refresh rate – easily good enough for 90% of us casual gamers.  I was able to play even the fastest games without any issues at all – my reflexes are not good enough to worry about gaming at a higher refresh rate than that and I doubt yours are either.

LG includes  2 x HDMI 2.1 ports, 1 DisplayPort 1.4, two downstream USB 3.0 ports and a 4pole headphone out (DTS HP:X) port and a USB-C 65W PD port.  It is disappointing that the USB-C port is not Thunderbolt compatible but there aren’t many gaming monitors around with that included because there are better options for gaming than USB-C.  You can use the USB-C port for displaying though so it’s ok but I’d just use  the DisplayPort connectivity option if I were to buy this.

There is RGB lighting for the button underneath and the rear of the monitor.  LG calls this their Hexagon Lighting.  You can change the colour displayed within the settings to a range of preset colours or you can have it cycle through all the colours.

Performance

I tested the monitor on a range of games, some of them a bit old now but I’m old so when I find a game I often stick with it for a while: Battlefield 1, Red Dead Redemption 2, Warhammer 40000 Rogue Trader, Dakar Desert Rally and Cyberpunk 2077.

Taking into account my slowing reflexes, the gaming experience was astonishing.  The 800R curvature might look very too much but when gaming it really puts you within the game.  I love it.  Gaming on this monitor is an experience.

Final Verdict

At a tick under $3,000AUD the LG UltraGear 45 OLED (45GS96QB) gaming monitor is not cheap but it is big and it is beautiful.  The OLED display is bright and vibrant with colours that jump off the screen and the blackest of blacks. 

The curve of the monitor is extremely aggressive but it dumps you right into the middle of the game.  The design is incredibly impressive with the monitor impossibly thin with bezels that appear to be under 7mm.  If you have a spare $3,000 I can recommend you check out this monitor if you want an immersive gaming experience.

The LG UltraGear 45 OLED (45GS96QB) gaming monitor is available now at LG.com/au and leading retailers for RRP $2,999AU. For more information head on over to the LG website.

The post LG UltraGear 45 OLED (45GS96QB) gaming monitor review — curves dumping you into the middle of your game appeared first on Tech Guide.

The recently announced AI focused ASUS range of laptops powered by the new AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors. One of the highlights is the new Zenbook S16 with its new Ceraliminum coating which ASUS have sent over for us to check out. 

The Zenbook S16 is available for $3,499 with anAMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 Processor, 32GB LPDDR5X and 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD. The laptop includes a large 16-inch 3K ASUS Lumina OLED display powered by AMD Radeon 890M Graphics.

Light and thin, the Zenbook S16 incorporates a brand new material, a Ceraliminum coating which brings strength to the chassis, as well as a durable finish which has a ceramic feel, in a Zumaia Gray colour way.

I’ve been using the ASUS Zenbook S16 for a couple of weeks now and here’s how it went.

Hardware

Design

The laptop is ultra-thin and light despite the 16-inch display, measuring just 1.1 cm thin and 1.5 kg. Despite that 16-inch display, the Zenbook S16 still easily fits into a backpack to take with you on the road.

The lightweight all-metal chassis includes the gorgeous Ceraluminum finish on the lid with the ASUS Zen logo represented by crossing lines etched into it. The Ceraluminum finish feels great, as well as making it both strong and durable, with the Zenbook S16 carrying military spec (MIL-STD 810H) certification making it the perfect road companion. 

Despite that thin profile there’s a wide array of connectivity options including a USB Type-A, as well as USB 4.0 Type-C ports and HDMI 2.1 port and 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack, as well as a full sized SD card reader packed in.

The 16-inch OLED display is gorgeous with slim bezels at the side and a slightly thicker bezel at the top to accommodate the FHD camera at the top which supports IR for Windows Hello – though doesn’t have a privacy shutter.

The lower deck has a spacious Backlit Chiclet Keyboard and enormous precision glass touchpad. The keyboard now has a Copilot PC button to the left of the arrow keys, giving you fast access to the Windows AI assistant. 

At the top of the keyboard, you’ll see what appears to be a gorgeous CNC-machined speaker grill – it’s not. Instead it’s an external vent for cooling, but it looks great. Instead, you’ll find the speakers on the side on the base, using the table to rebound sound up to you. 

Display and Audio

The 16-inch Lumina OLED touch panel on the Zenbook S16 comes in a 16:10 aspect ratio, giving the unit a more squared off look. On the audio side, the Zenbook S16 comes with a 6-speaker audio system from Harman Kardon with powerful bass for a full theatre experience

The display offers refresh rates up to 120Hz making it quite smooth no matter what you throw at it. With a peak brightness of 500 nits, it’s not quite as bright as some of the ASUS Lumina displays I’ve used previously, but still bright enough to use outdoors, though the gloss finish shows a lot of reflections.

The display comes with all the certifications. It carries VESA Certified HDR True Black 500, it’s Pantone validated and has 100% DCI-P3 coverage. 

The touch component is useful, and ASUS have also included stylus support with an ASUS Pen included in the box. The ASUS Pen 2.0 is a lovely stylus to use, nicely weighted and comes with replaceable tips in H, HB and B tip sizes. 

I’m a bit of a fan of stylus’s (Stylii) for productivity and the only downside I see is that there’s no place to dock it, and knowing me, I’ll inevitably leave it at home when I need it.

On the audio side, the 6-speaker Harman Kardon system which includes Dolby Atmos support, sounds good. I’m still a little disappointed there’s no up-firing speakers in that grill above the keyboard, but the audio does sound good.

Of course it’s lacking in the lower end, but the mids and highs sound quite good – and you do get spatial audio effects thanks to Dolby Atmos which also lets you select from one of the preset EQ settings for games, movies, music or voice.

Performance

The key feature for the new ASUS Zenbook S16 is the new AI powered AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor which includes the AMD XDNA Neural Processing Unit (NPU) capable of up to 50 Trillion Operations Per Second (TOPS). The processor is paired with 32GB DDR5 RAM and 1TB SSD storage, with an integrated AMD Radeon 890M Graphics card.

The performance can be managed using the AMD software which lets you choose between Hypr-RX, Quality and Hypr-RX Eco profiles, as well as giving you a custom option. You obviously get more fan noise on the higher end performance profiles – but if you need that grunt, you’re going to get fan noise.

The Zenbook S16 can handle most day-to-day, as well as more power user focused tasks with relative ease. It also has the advantage over other ‘Copilot+ PC’s that have been released, in that the Zenbook S16 uses an x86 based architecture instead of the ARM based architecture on Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite processors, so ALL applications run without compatibility issues or need for an emulator. 

The AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics though is definitely not going to cover your gaming needs. Using the lowest possible graphics settings in the likes of CyberPunk and Sons of the Forest, the game was lucky to hit low 20’s frames per second.

As usual, we ran it through the usual 3DMark tests and here’s how it went:

Battery and Charging

Powered by a 78WHrs, 2S2P, 4-cell Li-ion battery, the Zenbook S16 also includes a USB TYPE-C, 65W AC Adapter for charging.

The new range of ASUS PCs are ushering in AMD’s AI entry in the Copilot+ category, putting it squarely up against the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Series processors. In Stephen’s review of the Vivobook S15 with the Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite he saw around 18 hours of battery life, which the Zenbook S16 unfortunately falls short of.

The battery life on the Zenbook S16 is closer to 10-11 hours of solid use making it a great laptop for taking on the road where you won’t be seeing a charger until the end of the day.

Once you do get charging, the compact 65W charger gives you a 30 percent charge in 30 minutes, but took a shade over two hours to charge to full. 

Software

Windows

Running Windows 11 Home edition, the Zenbook S16 also includes fast access to the Microsoft Windows Copilot AI thanks to the button on the keyboard. The ASUS website doesn’t list the laptop as a Copilot+ PC, instead noting that there will be a ‘Free update to Copilot+ PC experiences, when available’.

The Windows experience is fine though, with the AMD processor utilising x86 architecture and hence there’s no Prism Emulator here, so it all just works.

In terms of pre-installed apps, you get the usual Microsoft applications including an Office 365 Trial. You also get the apps for configuring your hardware including an AMD app for the Radeon graphics, and the Dolby Access app for your audio.

ASUS have also loaded their apps onto the  Zenbook S16, including their AI powered StoryCube app as well as their ScreenXpert and GlideX apps, as well as the MyASUS app for configuring the hardware and getting support. 

AI

Copilot

The headliner AI feature for Microsoft is of course Copilot. The ‘ everyday AI companion’ as Microsoft calls it, is accessible almost instantly from the dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard. Copilot can do a lot in terms of searching and summarizing your emails or documents, and it can also generate imagery or text based on prompts. It’s a fun tool, and becoming more useful though I still spend a lot of time checking the output.

RECALL

Of course, one of the biggest features of the Copilot+ PC launch: Recall, isn’t launching. Microsoft announced their Recall feature has been ‘delayed’ over privacy concerns.

For those not aware, Recall was the AI powered feature which would be built-in to Windows. The feature would screenshot your activities and then allow you to easily find apps, documents, or messages you’ve previously used, visited or looked at, simply by asking the AI.

AI Co-Creator in Paint

Microsoft has still not sorted out the payments for their AI Image Creator in Paint. I haven’t been able to accrue credit to use here, and seems to underline the lack of Copilot+ functionality for AMD in Windows. 

Instead, I found I could create the image in Copilot using their generative AI.

ASUS AI StoryCube

ASUS have included their AI powered StoryCube app. The app imports photos from your local storage, connected devices, and can also connect to cloud services including Google Photos, iCloud and OneDrive.

The AI component is supposed to parse your photos, then group faces of your family, friends etc. making it easy to find them.  Where it failed for me was the cloud import, where most of my photos are stored. The Story Cube AI app seemed ok, except I had to reauthorise it each time while trying to test it. Suffice to say, I stopped trying. 

Should you buy it?

The ASUS Zenbook S16 is a stylish, and durable machine that has plenty of grunt to easily take care of your day-to-day browsing, office work and even some higher-end creative tasks. 

Where the Zenbook S16 doesn’t hold up is in gaming, and AI is still really waiting for more applications and use cases, but it IS ready to go on the laptop when those applications arrive. 

The Zenbook S16 though is a stunningly light and sturdy bit of kit, which will easily last through the day on a charge, with enough left for you to relax at the end of the day and happily perform most tasks with ease. 

The ASUS Zenbook S16 is available from $3,499 through the ASUS e-Shop, as well as JB HiFi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks, and Bing Lee.

The post ASUS Zenbook S16 (UM5606) Review: AMD AI smarts on show in a thin and light body appeared first on Tech Guide.

The choice that exists for smart-home security cameras today is quite amazing and that’s only good for Aussies who want to protect their home with a strong deterrent and arm themselves with evidence if the need should arise.

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been testing Uniden’s entirely new App Cam range, kicking it off with the Solo X2k Bullet kit which is literally the one stop shop for all you need given the $199 price tag includes a solar panel for charging.

Setting up the App Cam Solo X2k Bullet

Out of the box this kit has all the things you need – except a screwdriver.  Three simple screws into the bracket base, put the camera on and it’s mounted with ease.

The included Solar Panel is the same – it’s a slightly different mount, but not hard to understand.

Once you have the MyUniden+ app and an account setup, the pairing process to is very very easy – from there it’s just about aligning the picture to get the right angle.

The new MyUniden+ app.

This is a vastly different app – I think its really quite great.  But I can imagine some existing Uniden Solo users seeing it as a leap sideways – sadly, you’ve just got to roll with it – this is the app!

If anything the app suffers from too much detail, and the cameras too many features.

It took me some time to find the motion setting schedule so that I wasn’t getting alerts all day and night – just night thank you!

For a new user I’d highly recommend taking your time to tweak all the settings, learn what they are, enable the functions that matter.

Uniden still offers their 7 days free cloud storage, but there’s a price to pay for more days, as well as a new AI subscription to get additional notification features.  This is mainly useful for differentiating between people and animals, and cars etc.

I’ve just got the one camera setup in this home “unit” on the app, but encouragingly, you can have several sites – so I also have an office profile, allowing me to adjust settings per location.

Camera quality.

Excellent stuff here, very good clarity in the bulk of the foreground. On some morning shots I noticed a bright sunlight at the top of frame, and while it did render that area useless, the foreground was still excellent.

Basically it seems a lack of HDR might mean direct sun is a deep challenge for this one.

But there’s excellent colour night-vision and a spotlight that really lights the area up for you when motion is detected.

Two-Way audio works a charm, though it’s not full duplex so just one person speaking at a time please!

Overall

This is just fantastic value. $199 for an entire camera and solar panel unit is probably the best value on the market.

It’s a larger camera than it’s competitors, but if the three month battery life holds true, the value proposition continues.

Grab yours from Uniden

The post Review: Uniden App Cam SOLO X2K Bullet Kit – Amazing value for $199 appeared first on Tech Guide.

Sennheiser are well known for straddling the line between mass consumer and audiophile-quality music.  They have products that are purely audiophile-quality but then have products that aim to bring a similar quality sound to a more affordable mass consumer product.

The new Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport have a RRP of $549 and although they are not cheap, they produce a high quality sound while offering a myriad of sensors not normally seen in earbuds.

The MOMENTUM Sport house not just the usual audio sensors and ANC hardware but also a heart rate sensor and body temperature sensors.  Not only do they do that, but they can connect these sensors to your favourite fitness monitoring devices.

Sennheiser has a partnership with Polar for deeper integration, but they are designed to work with many fitness devices and apps.  These include Apple Watch/Health, Garmin Watch/Connect, Strava, Peloton, Suunto, Amazfit, Coros, Asics Runkeeper, Nike Run Club, and Adidas Runtastic.

Design and fit

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport are smooth and shaped just like your ear canal, resulting in an earbud that doesn’t need to be stuffed uncomfortably in the ear but instead sits in the ear canal with a small hook/fin that helps it secure in the ear.

I am able to perform even the most aggressive and long workouts without them falling out, nor becoming an uncomfortable annoyance in my ear.  They aren’t the most comfortable earbuds I own but they do what they are meant to do and provide great sound without falling out due to excessive movement.

As per usual the earbuds come with a few options of silicone ear tips to be used for a better fit for you.  I settled on the small option in the end.

Each earbud has a capacitive touch surface on the outside for media and call control.  A simple light touch is all that is required so using these controls does not affect their position within your ear canal.

How do they sound?

I like good quality music and these MOMENTUM Sport deliver just that.  They are not the best sounding earbuds I own but they are the best sports ones.  Their quality is certainly within striking range of the best earbuds in my possession, the Sennheiser MOMENTUM TW4.

For a set of sport earbuds though they sound amazing.  They sound better than the Jabra Elite 8 Active but not by much – Jabra’s really do punch well above their price.  The Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport produces a bass that is sharper albeit possibly slightly overpowering but has a sharper mid and upper registry sound which can be drowned out by the bass at times.  Luckily that’s an easy fix with the equaliser built in to the Sennheiser Smart Control app.

As for why they do not sound as good as my MOMENTUM TW4 you need to take into account the more comfortable design, the improved water proof and IP rating, and of course the body temperature and heart rate sensors.  Add all these in and you can see why the sound takes a small hit.

Sometimes it can be different to discern much of a difference between various earbuds and headphones at this end of the consumer market.  Unless you are comparing them side by side at the same time you may think they sound the same.

The adaptive noise cancellation (ANC) is really good – if you are at a gym they will remove any environmental sound if you wish it to.  You can of course adjust just how much ANC is applied to the surrounding noises by adjusting the “Transparency level” within the Sennheiser Smart Control app.

Smart Control

The Sennheiser Smart Control app is nothing that other manufacturers have not done already to support their products but the Sennheiser app removes the fluff and adds options that improve the quality of music.

Although I’m not normally a fan of adjusting the EQ in these apps (would rather adjust it inside PowerAMP or whatever I’m listening with) as I can quickly adjust to what music is playing, the options in the Smart Control app are great.

For the MOMENTUM Sport the Smart Control app is also the first and default location you will find your body temperature measurement and your heart rate.  It is within here that you connect them to the Polar app or other “compatible” tracking devices.

Polar Flow has the best integration thanks to their partnership with Sennheiser but Apple Watch/Health and many other apps and devices work. Of note though, I was unable to get them to feed their data into Fitbit or Google Fit.

Some fitness-minded folks may have a watch or a chest strap that can do that but there are many workouts that make wearing a watch not possible.  Many weight and strength workouts make wearing a watch either uncomfortable or dangerous – especially if you are using any form of wrist straps.

It provides important fitness health metrics without the need for additional devices – most likely you are going to be using earbuds or headphones anyway so why not one device for all.

This whole one device for all the things explains the premium price of these earbuds.  It has all the added sensors so you do not need these other devices.  The price of these earbuds is still less than a set of top notch earbuds plus a chest strap to use while working out.  One single outlay of funds.

Should you buy these earbuds?

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport earbuds are not for everyone. These are for those who want near audiophile-quality music while at the gym but also need something to track their heart rate and body temperature while working out.

The fit and comfort is exceptional thanks to the many options for fins and silicone tips, and the fitness data tracking seems to be accurate and easy to export — as long as your app or device is supported.

If you don’t need the fitness tracking you may be best served looking in a cheaper price range.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport earbuds are available now from sennheiser-hearing.com and selected Sennheiser retailers for an MSRP of $529.95 AUD and $549.95 NZD. The earbuds come in three colourways; Polar Black, Burned Olive, and Metallic Graphite.

The post Review: Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport, quality audio while tracking your heart rate and temperature appeared first on Tech Guide.

When you talk of e-readers most people think of those from Amazon.  What many folks don’t realise is that there are other players on the market that offer impressive digital reading solutions.  Kobo is one of them and have been my favourite for a long time.

This year Kobo released updated e-readers to the world, with coloured e-ink displays making an appearance.  Kobo sent us the new Libra Colour and the Clara Colour to check out and we were suitably impressed with them, but be warned, don’t expect the display to look as good as your Android or iPad display.  Read on to hear more.

Display + hardware

The Libra Colour has the bigger of the two displays at 7-inches while the Clara Colour is a 6-inch display.  Both are E Ink Kaleido 3 displays with a 150ppi resolution.  While not great, these are designed for reading, not for watching high resolution movies and they accomplish that well.

The Libra Colour display is compatible with the Kobo Stylus 2 but the smaller Clara Colour display is not.  I’m not sure why this difference considering the only difference between the two is the one inch size difference.

The stylus support is handy to have, especially if you are using the e-reader for school or work and you can mark up, draw and write as required while reading documents.  You can also make your own notes for later reference.

Both displays can be navigated by tapping on the display – the location of the taps can be changed in the settings to the areas you prefer to use.  I like this option because sometimes while lying in bed reading I want something different to when I’m sitting on the couch reading.

I did notice that sometimes the display wasn’t overly sensitive to lighter touches when navigating around the e-reader.  Another advantage of the physical buttons.

The Clara Colour lacks buttons so it cannot be navigated using hardware buttons like the Libra Colour can.  Sometimes it is easier to reach and use the physical navigation buttons than the display and as such my preference is to have these buttons.

The front light (or backlight, whatever you prefer to call it) is a ComfortLight Pro which allows for not just altering of brightness but also the ‘temperature’ (warm or cold) of the display which is very handy at night where a warmer display allows for relaxation of the eyes.

The storage of both e-readers is 32GB which is enough for a lot of books (they can store up to 24,000 eBooks or 150 audiobooks based on 1.3MB per book and audiobook length of 6.5 hours with 28.8MB per hour) but if you stick a few comics on it that space will vanish quickly – although how many do you need on your device at any one time?

Comics look a bit faded on the coloured e-readers but it’s nice to have an e-reader which can do both e-books and coloured comics easily.  It means you only need to take one device on holidays with you.

The batteries are of different sizes with the Libra Colour at 2,050mAh and the Clara Colour at 1,200mAh, both of which is enough for up to 40 days of battery life (based on 30 minutes of reading per day with the front light at 30% brightness and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off).  It is interesting to see how much that extra one inch of display size (and maybe the stylus display drives?) must affect the battery life given both have the same expected battery life.

Nothing I’ve seen in this review has suggested to me otherwise which is great to hear because my Sage battery won’t last a week (there was apparently meant to be an update coming to improve battery life but I haven’t seen that in the last couple years I’ve been using it).

The Libra Colour comes with an IPX8 rating meaning it is “protected against the effects of continuous immersion in water.”  The X in it means it has not been tested against dust/solid ingress but water is the main thing for an e-reader with many folks liking to soak in a hot bath and relax while reading on their e-reader.  I’d suggest you don’t deliberately test this out though – I certainly did not.

The Libra Colour is 144.6 x 161 x 8.3 mm which is smaller than my Kobo Sage, mostly due to the slightly smaller display.  This is not a massive issue as it is still larger than most Kindles that you see around, especially if you have decent eyesight.

For me, with my woeful eyesight (without glasses) I do need the text quite large to be able to read properly given that most of my reading is before falling asleep at night, when I do not want to be wearing my glasses.  This results in less being able to be visualised on the page so I do need to turn the page more often – *shrug*.

This is a huge advantage of digital e-readers over normal books – you can alter the text size to suit your eyes.  Can’t do that with a traditional paper book.

The Clara Colour is just 112 x 160 x 9.2 mm in size making it quite compact and great for travelling.   It is 26 grams lighter than the Libra Colour at 174 grams but to be honest, both are light enough to carry in your bag easily without developing any kind of kyphosis or scoliosis from the weight.

How is the display to use?

As mentioned above there were times when tapping the Libra Colour display to turn the pages did nothing and there were times when it reacted so slowly I ended up skipping a page.  I’m not entirely sure why this was the case because it was difficult to replicate it when trying to figure out a reason so it was obviously not that much of an issue.

The Clara colour display did not have this issue so I suspect it was something to do with the stylus display driver on the Libra Colour.  It wasn’t bad enough to make me stop using it though, just a minor frustration that I noticed on occasion.

The colour marking up with notes etc was incredibly simple, especially when using the Kobo Stylus on the Libra Colour.  To highlight words, lines and paragraphs though you do need to tap and hold on a word using your finger rather than the stylus.  The Clara Colour does not support marking up, only highlighting.

The colours used for highlighting etc, along with the colours of the display are incredibly subtle and muted compared to that on a smartphone or tablet but that is one of the limitations of an e-ink display (at this stage – never say never).

The displays are easy to read and I love the ability to change the temperature or ‘warmness’ of a display based on time of day and also your preferences.

File Support

One of the main reasons I love Kobo e-readers are their vast file support.  It natively supports 15 file formats –  EPUB, EPUB3, FlePub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR.

It also supports audiobooks BUT ONLY Kobo Audiobooks which is crazy.  I tried to put a standard mp3 audiobook file on there, all to no avail.  It also means that audiobooks from sources such as OverDrive will not work either.

One more reason I love Kobo readers is the multitude of ways you can put the books and other files onto your e-reader.

With the more advanced Libra Colour, not only can you drag and drop from your PC but also download from OverDrive, Google Drive, Pocket and Dropbox.  The Clara Colour does not support Google Drive or Dropbox though.  It is very handy and it makes me wonder why this option is not included on the Clara Colour and given its $260 price tag it really should be.

One software option hidden away inside ‘Beta Features’ is the web browser.  It is very simple and can’t do much to be honest but it can be used to search quickly for the name of a book from Goodreads for example.  I’m not entirely sure when you would use this all that much given that these days most people have an Internet connected device such as a smartphone or tablet nearby that has a fully functional browser.

Notebooks

Notebooks within the UI of the Kobo Libra Colour allow you to make notes (funny that) on the go and then export them.  This is very handy but just how useful I’m not entirely sure.  I just wonder who doesn’t have an Internet-connected device designed for this sort of thing nearby to use but I think it’s a great push towards a healthier digital lifestyle (ie. away from the distracting and mentally-taxing social media).

Now the advanced notebooks did convert my handwriting into text well, it did not recognise smiley faces so you’d have to insert these as a freehand drawing if you really wanted them in.  You do not have the formatting that you’d get in a fully-fledged office program but it is designed for basic use only.

Interestingly, it was only during using the notebooks that I noticed any ghosting on the display.  As you can see in the pictures below, the writing was still ‘present’ after it had been converted to text.  I suspect that is a small software tweak needed where it should refresh the display once converting to text but doesn’t.

Audiobooks

Unfortunately, the only audiobooks that will play on either Kobo e-reader are those downloaded from the Kobo store which is incredibly disappointing.

Those that you have downloaded from there though will play as designed once you have connected a Bluetooth speaker or headphones to the e-reader.  I tested with both a speaker and headphones and they both paired quickly and easily and played the audiobook as expected.

The audiobook interface is super simple as you would expect, similar to that on Audible but it was refreshing for those who like an audiobook on occasion.  I just hope that they open it up to audiobooks from other sources too.  They haven’t closed off the standard books to those from their store so I am not entirely sure why they have done so for audiobooks.

Accessories

Kobo offers some great stands/covers that you can purchase separately from the e-reader.  They offer standard folio covers (SleepCovers) along with some that fold into a stand to help prop up the book while reading it.

The SleepCovers start at $44.95 for the most basic Libra Colour version but add an extra $5 for one that includes a folding stand in its design. Clara Colour SleepCovers start at $44.95. SleepCovers are actually great value and although I’d prefer them to be cheaper the ones with the included stand in the design are incredibly useful.

There is of course the Kobo Stylus as well.  There is a special cover/folio case that has a stylus holder too.  For me I think the stylus could be of great value if using the e-reader for marking up, such as reading and making notes on articles, grading papers and editing articles.  While the Kobo e-reader is not perfect for this task it is good that the stylus extends the uses of the Kobo Libra Colour meaning you may be able to get away with carrying one less device.

The Kobo Store and Kobo Plus

The Kobo Store is Kobo’s version of the Kindle Store but although Kobo doesn’t say just how many books it has we know it has more than 1.5 million, it doesn’t seem to have quite the same coverage that the Amazon Kindle Store does.  This is not a huge issue if you know where to buy the book you can relatively easily transfer the book from another device to your Kobo.

As for Kobo Plus I’m still yet to be convinced.  Kobo Plus has over 1.5 million eBooks and 150,000 audiobooks but for some reason there are very few of the big-name books or big new releases.  While Kindle Unlimited doesn’t either, it does give you the option to buy one for free each month.

For this reason I’m not convinced that Kobo Plus is decent value for your hard earned.  You are more likely to get better value out of OverDrive which uses your local library’s online ebooks and is normally fairly extensive.

Kobo Plus Read and Kobo Plus Listen are both $13.99 per month or you can opt for both of these for $16.99 per month.  You can get a month free trial though if you sign up so that may be an option for those undecided.

Use it forever

Forever may be a bit of a stretch but Kobo wants to extend the life of your e-reader with a design that allows it to be taken apart – and repaired.   They have partnered with iFixit to allow users to buy and replace their own batteries, circuit boards and screen replacements.

The overall goal of this program is to be more environmentally conscious.  Not only are the new Kobo e-readers made with recycled plastics and their retail packaging from 100% FSC-certified recycled paper, printed with soy-ink but the tablets themselves should have an extended lifespan due this repairability.

Verdict

The Kobo Clara Colour is a great little device.  Compact and incredibly portable, it is a great e-reader, but that is all it is. It is unfortunate that Kobo has limited the ways to add books to the e-reader as it would have been nice to see Dropbox and Google Drive support for it too.

This e-reader is for those who are either on a budget or only want their e-reader to read books (and listen to audiobooks if you want to get them from the Kobo Store). The black and white version of the Kobo Clara is just $20 cheaper than the Clara Colour which is makes the colour version a no-brainer in my opinion. At $259.95 it is still not cheap but one of the cheaper e-readers on our market here in Australia.

The Kobo Libra Colour though is an e-reader that does it all. It is compatible with the Kobo Stylus 2, it has colour, it has support for Google Drive and Dropbox and has physical buttons (and gestures on-display) for navigating. You can browse the web, mark up articles or assignments etc, make notes in the notebook, read e-books, listen to audiobooks — everything possible in an e-reader.

There really is no equivalent Kindle to the Libra Colour with the Scribe supporting stylus use but is a massive 10.2-inch display (you may as well buy a tablet at $549 for the Scribe), the Oasis is the same size and has physical navigation buttons but doesn’t support stylus use and neither of them are coloured. The Oasis is also much more expensive at $559.

The Libra Colour RRP is $359.95 which I think is a great deal. It may be $100 more than the Clara Colour but it can do so much more. If you are looking for an e-reader that can do everything and do not care about using Kindle Books then the Kobo Libra Colour is for you.

Kobo Libra Colour retails for $359.95 AUD, Kobo Clara Colour for $259.95 AUD, and Kobo Clara BW for $239.95 AUD at www.kobo.com/ereaders and select retailers. The Kobo Stylus 2 is currently available and retails for $119.95.

The post Kobo coloured e-readers, the Libra Colour and the Clara Colour — read in style appeared first on Tech Guide.

Motorola had  the feature phone that everyone wanted back in the day, the Razr.  In the last few years Motorola has reintroduced it in the form of a flip smartphone and boy has it impressed.

The Motorola Razr 40 Ultra was thought by many to be the best flip phone of the year so this year when they released the next iteration, the Razr 50 Ultra we were expecting great things — and Motorola has delivered.

The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra flip smartphone looks good, behaves how a flip/foldable phone should and is really well built with some incredibly useful software. 

Design is mostly the same

The Razr 50 Ultra looks extremely similar to the Razr 40 Ultra from last year but compare them side by side and you will see some significant differences.   The cover display is bigger with much smaller bezels and it is even more useful.  

The Razr 50 Ultra cover display is a 4.0-inch pOLED display, 0.4 inches bigger than last year with it extending to cover the entire outer surface of the phone.   It is so big that you can run any app on it that you want and interact with it just as you would a full sized display.

The hinge is improved with a smaller crease will hold the phone open anywhere from 0 degrees to the full 135 degrees.  This opens up many possibilities for uses such as acting as a tripod while you record a video or are on a video call.

The hinge is designed this year to be easier to open one handed but I’ve never ever wanted to open it with a single flick of the hand and to be honest I’d be worried of having it fly out of my hand to do that too often.

I’m not a fan of this added functionality of the hinge and I’m sure some may use it but it would only be sparingly and likely only to show off but I’d prefer it not to flip and close slightly when I’m trying to twist my wrist/phone to open the camera.  Not a deal breaker and maybe I just have to learn to hold the phone better, that way we can all have what we want!

The Razr 50 Ultra is 0.22mm thicker when folded than last year but this makes no difference at all to how well it fits in your pocket.  I love the foldable form factor as it sits like a tiny device in your hand and pocket but can be opened to a full size smartphone at any time.

Motorola has once again included a case for the Razr in the box but this time, instead of a cheap clear case it’s a softer, solid colour that matches the phone colour you buy.  A nice addition and something very few phone manufacturers do these days.

The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra is available in Midnight Blue, Spring Green and Pantone Colour of the Year 2024, Peach Fuzz with them having a soft touch backing which makes it feel comfortable in the hand and not slippery like so many phones do. I’m not convinced of the Peach Fuzz colour but I’m sure there are many that will love the Peach Fuzz with rose gold accents. It’s not for me — I much prefer the colour Midnight Blue.

External display fully functional

The external display is bigger than last year and more functional.  You can now run any app on it along with any widget.  This is a nice increase in versatility of the cover display.

There is a front page for the clock up to four quick launch shortcuts for apps.  There is a launcher page where you can put apps that you would like to use on your cover display at times.  You don’t need to put all of your apps on there, just those you might want to launch from the cover display.

There is a widget panel where you can place a widget from any app on your phone. If the widget is too big it will add it so the page becomes a scrollable page to scroll to each included widget.

Spotify has once again collaborated with Motorola for their own panel.  A weather panel is also an option, as is a calendar panel, Google News, and games.  You can add or remove these panels as you wish from within the settings.  Super easy and super flexible.

If you have an app open on the inner display and you close the display there are two ways to open it, depending on what you have set as your preference.  If you want apps to open automatically you can easily set it to do that and they will open on the cover display without any intervention from you.

The other option is to swipe the notification that shows up on the cover display to open the app – this allows you to not have the app open on this outer display if you don’t want it to.  I have some that open automatically and some that don’t and instead require me to swipe on an icon to open it.

Whatever you can do on the inner display you can basically do on the outer display.  

 

Inner display

The inner display is once again a tall 22:9 ratio, 1080P 6.9-inch display.  It’s tall and it’s super bright and, being a pOLED, super vibrant.

This year all apps displayed correctly on the tall display which is different to last year.  I’m not sure if that was Google’s or Motorola’s doing but it doesn’t really matter in the end.

 

Viewing the inner display in direct sunlight was good, not as good as a standard OLED display but still acceptable.  I did find that the adaptive brightness was a bit low and I often had to manually increase the brightness of the display to make it more readable.

The inner display once again has a refresh rate at 165Hz and, as the display is an LTPO display, it can adjust its refresh rate anywhere from 1Hz to 165Hz depending on what the system requires at the time.  This helps to extend the battery life. 

 

Software

The Motorola foldable software is excellent.  From personalising the theme, icons, fonts etc to changing clocks on lock screens and the shortcuts there is so much you can do to customise the Motorola Android experience to how you want it.

 

Motorola has included useful gestures such as hold the phone in your hand, twist your wrist and the camera opens (double tap power button can also be used) and chop the phone twice and the flashlight turns on.  There is very little superfluous fluff (gimmicks) that you see in many phones these days.

 

Motorola advertise the Razr 50 Ultra as being powered by moto ai and if it is I haven’t noticed it – and that’s a good thing?  At this stage Gemini on mobile is still inconsistent at best so that inclusion on the Razr 50 Ultra is not all that important — at this stage.  All purchasers of the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra will get three months of Gemini Advanced for free which includes 2TB of cloud storage and the inclusion of Gemini in Google apps.

 

 

The camera AI enhancements include:

• Photo Enhancement Engine – simultaneously applies settings from multiple shooting modes to a single image to deliver a single stunning photo (ideally)
• Adaptive Stabilisation – determines the speed of movement while filming and dynamically adjusts the stabilisation level for the best results, ideally to capture videos while running or riding a bike
• Action Shot – automatically increases and adjusts shutter speed and illumination based on different lighting conditions, perfect for sporting and jump in the air moments.
• Long Exposure – for capturing artistic light trails or smooth waterfalls with a single tap.
• Super zoom – takes photos even further away by enhancing the results through an AI-based machine learning algorithm, to capture details even when far away.

 

 

Battery life

The battery has been improved this year from 3,800mAh to 4,000mAh and this time the phone can charge at 45W through the USB-C port, and 15W wireless (Qi charging).  

Battery life on the phone is impressive at a full day of heavy use, most likely because of how functional the smaller, outer display is. You can do a lot on the cover display and as such you do not open the phone each and every time you need to interact with the phone.  A smaller display uses less battery. 

 

The camera

The external cameras are:

• 50 MP, f/1.7, 24mm (wide), 1/1.95″, 0.8µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS
• 50 MP, f/2.0, (telephoto), 1/2.76″, 0.64µm, PDAF, 2x optical zoom

Both of these are an improvement on last year and, combined with the new moto ai, the resultant photos show that.

 

One feature that is disappointingly lacking is an ultrawide camera.  I never realised just how often I zoom out to less than 1X when taking a photo.  Being unable to do it was incredibly frustrating.

The internal selfie camera is a 32MP f/2.4 camera, the same as last year but once again I cannot imagine a time when you would use this camera when you can easily use the MUCH better external cameras and the cover display as the viewfinder.  Much better quality images, so much so, that they are better than the selfie images of most smartphones because they only have a single, fixed focus camera for selfies.  You would hope a dual camera system would be better, and it is.

 

 

Motorola once again is pushing the use of the phone while holding as if it were an old school camcorder.  I used it, and the functional start, stop etc of the videos was easy to use and very functional but by now we are all used to using a smartphone to take video, using it as a “camcorder” is no longer “natural.”

Other uses of the flip phone is having it sitting as a stand on the table etc, instead of having to use a tripod to take a selfie, record a video etc.

 

Should you buy the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra?

If you want a premium flip phone there are really only two viable options in Australia, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 and the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra (the OPPO is not up to their level due to its tiny external display unfortunately). The Razr 50 Ultra has a bigger outer display and comes with one of the best Android skins on the market.

The camera is improved on last year with really good images being captured under all conditions — although I would have preferred them to include a camera with ultrawide functionality. 

 

If you want a flip phone and buy the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra you will not be disappointed. Last year the Razr 40 Ultra was my phone of the year, such that I spent my own hard earned money on one for my personal use. This year’s iteration may well compel me to do the same, I am that impressed with it.

The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra is available now in Midnight Blue, Spring Green and Pantone Colour of the Year 2024, Peach Fuzz:

• RRP $1,699 at JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, OfficeWorks, The Good Guys, Mobileciti, Amazon, and motorola.com.au

The post Motorola Razr 50 Ultra review — same same but different and better! appeared first on Tech Guide.

]]> https://www.techguide.com.au/reviews/computers-reviews/logitech-g309-lightspeed-gaming-mouse-review-comfortable-wireless-gaming-with-a-premium-price/ Fri, 09 Aug 2024 03:05:17 +0000 https://www.techguide.com.au/?p=134189

Peripheral maker Logitech recently updated their G305 gaming mouse, launching the Logitech G309 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming mouse. The G309 has just launched here in Australia, and around the world so it’s time to give it a whirl.  Featuring their Lightspeed wireless connectivity, and including a Hero 25K sensor offering improved accuracy at low latency, and […]

The post Logitech G309 Lightspeed Gaming Mouse Review: Comfortable wireless gaming with a premium price appeared first on Tech Guide.

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Peripheral maker Logitech recently updated their G305 gaming mouse, launching the Logitech G309 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming mouse. The G309 has just launched here in Australia, and around the world so it’s time to give it a whirl. 

Featuring their Lightspeed wireless connectivity, and including a Hero 25K sensor offering improved accuracy at low latency, and Lightforce Hybrid Switches and a refined design based on feedback from their e-sports partners.

Priced at $149.95, the Logitech G309 is aimed at casual gamers wanting a premium experience. I’ve been using the Logitech G309 for a couple of weeks now and here’s how it went. 

 

What’s in the box and Setup

The small box for the Logitech G309 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming mouse includes everything you need to get up and running. The G309 itself, as well as Lightspeed dongle and a USB extension cable. This mouse has ‘Batteries included’, with a AA battery ready to get you up and running. There’s also a set of grip stickers and a Quick Start guide and safety info.

It’s easy to connect, plug the battery into the mouse and turn it on. You can use Bluetooth, or just plug the dongle into a USB Type-A port on the PC you want to use to use the Lightspeed connection.

There was no issues connecting on Windows or Chrome OS using either the dongle or Bluetooth and I was easily able to pair it to my Android phone via Bluetooth.

For the more advanced users, you can download Logitech G Hub software for PC and Mac. The software can help with a number of configuration options like setting DPI for games, as well as assigning functions for games, or just updating your mouse firmware. 

The dongle itself may look like previous generations, but it’s had an update letting it support dual device connections with compatible keyboards so you don’t need two dongles. The list of compatible keyboards includes the G515 TKL, G715, G915, G915 TKL, Pro X 60 and Pro X TK making it an easy choice for owners of those keyboards to update. 

Design

The Logitech G309 Lightspeed doesn’t have a wild design. It’s a pretty standard looking 6-button mouse with a scroll wheel. 

The real changes in design have come in the overall shape of the mouse. Logitech has improved the Claw and Palm grip, which they say has given it a little more width at the back and more height in the top to more comfortably fit into your hand and making it easier to grasp. 

It works too, it feels great in the hand – even with my larger hands. There is a small area of what Logitech calls ‘Negative Space’ behind the mouse buttons that will attract dust and other gunk, and I’m not a huge fan.

While the space could be a magnet for dirt, the space is where you get the multi-coloured LED which indicates your profile, and also makes it easy to remove the back cover to access the battery and the slot to store your dongle when it’s not in use.

The Lightforce switches have a great click to them, with no extra force required. It’s just a nice, easy click. The scroll wheel though, while it has a great click – It does not have a free wheel option which is disappointing. 

You get PTFE pads on the feet, which offers a super smooth experience with very low friction when moving the G309 across almost any surface. You’ll also see the PowerPlay connector on the base, letting you remove the battery – though the $149.95 price tag is fairly rich to save a few grams on the battery on an already fairly lightweight mouse.

Charging and Battery Life

Running on a single AA battery, or the Logitech G PowerPlay Wireless Charging mat, you have a couple of options with the Logitech G309 Lightspeed Gaming mouse.

You can get up to 300 hours using the Lightspeed connection, or 600 hours using Bluetooth. The Lightspeed connection offers more accuracy and a report rate as low as 1ms, making for a super accurate device – but you’ll pay for that with higher battery drain.

At 300/600 hours, I admit to not having tested this out. I’ve been using the mouse for two weeks though, and it’s currently tracking at 95% after that time. There’s an auto shut off on the G309 as well which will save you some battery. 

 

Should you buy it?

As far as gaming mice go, the Logitech G309 is a pretty good update in terms of tech and design improvements. 

There’s a couple of issues with the negative space, and I’m not a huge fan of the lack of scroll wheel, but overall, it’s a super comfortable mouse to use and it connects really easily. 

It’s a premium option, so at $149.95 it’s not going to be for everyone – but for anyone starting to get serious about their e-sports career it’s a great starting point. It has the Lightspeed connection, Hero 25K sensor and Lightforce switches – all with a super long battery life and comfortable design. 

If you’re a gamer and want to cut the cord, the Logitech G309 makes for a great option for casual gamers wanting that premium mouse. 

You can check out the Logitech G309 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming mouse on the Logitech website, or through JB Hifi and Bing Lee. 

 

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]]> https://www.techguide.com.au/reviews/audio-reviews/the-samsung-music-frame-brings-music-without-the-look-of-a-sound-system/ Sun, 04 Aug 2024 23:13:41 +0000 https://www.techguide.com.au/?p=134101

With the popularity of the Samsung Frame TV – a unit that takes the “black box” on the wall and makes it artwork when you’re not watching TV, you can see the small leap that was made at Samsung to come up with the concept of the Samsung Music Frame. This is a speaker, but […]

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With the popularity of the Samsung Frame TV – a unit that takes the “black box” on the wall and makes it artwork when you’re not watching TV, you can see the small leap that was made at Samsung to come up with the concept of the Samsung Music Frame.

This is a speaker, but at no point would anyone pick it was a speaker.

Out of the box and once setup (which is a really fast and easy process), this looks like a large photo frame.

You can hang it on the wall, all the hardware required for that comes with it, but that would also require you to run the 2m power cord through the wall and plenty wouldn’t bother with that.  However, if you have a TV that’s wall hung, it’s worth considering doing the same here, just for the look.

It’s possible to get two of these and hang them each side of your TV and get stereo sound with epic quality over and above your TV – without having to install a soundbar – something plenty might choose for the pure aesthetic of it.

Samsung Music Frame has an Optical input if you’re hard wiring a TV, or it will operate on WiFi and offer Chromecast, Apple Airplay and WiFi streaming via Samsung Q Symphony which means for a recent Samsung TV you should be able to choose the Music Frame for sound output.

The output is certainly room-filling – a booming sound, with two clear bass speakers at the back this doesn’t lack.

I’d say there’s a very finite lack of clarity from the sound, but I think that comes from the form factor, with no direct speaker grill – instead you’re firing sound into and around the plastic cover that is your chosen photo or artwork.

That’s not at all to say the sound is bad, in fact it’s fantastic – I’ve loved having music filling the room these last week or so.

At $499, it’s reduced from $699 and that’s a far better price point.

If you want to throw your own photo into the frame, you can insert n 8x10inch print but only the 8×8 centre of the image will show.

Or, you can create your own custom front cover.  I did this at a site called Marpple and the cost came to almost $150 AUD with the design and shipping.

Really cool product.  I think no doubt an Audiophile would be better placed with a solid soundbar or speaker to choose for this placement, but for a style and tech-minimalist approach this is a really great idea and great sounding speaker.

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]]> https://www.techguide.com.au/reviews/amazons-new-echo-spot-2024-is-a-smart-speaker-but-not-a-smart-display/ Sun, 04 Aug 2024 23:02:41 +0000 https://www.techguide.com.au/?p=134070

The new Echo Spot from Amazon is an Alexa-powered device ideal for the bedside table or the desk with a screen that can display various custom clock faces and colours.  Priced at $149, the Echo Spot is designed to replace the Echo Dot with Clock in Amazon’s Echo line-up. While the device itself is only […]

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The new Echo Spot from Amazon is an Alexa-powered device ideal for the bedside table or the desk with a screen that can display various custom clock faces and colours. 

Priced at $149, the Echo Spot is designed to replace the Echo Dot with Clock in Amazon’s Echo line-up.

While the device itself is only available in Black, Glacier White and Ocean Blue, the display can be customised to various colourways to match your décor — orange, violet, magenta, lime, teal and blue. The colour changes are subtle but add a little bit of customisation that can make a device feel like part of your furniture.

 

Echo distinctive design language

The design of the Echo Spot follows the design language of the recent generations of Echo smart speakers.  Instead of a full sphere, it is a portion of the sphere, much like the Echo Pop.  The front of the device has a display which takes up just over half of the top of the front of the device.  The bottom section is a speaker covered in the usual Echo cloth.

 

The rear of the device is a sphere upon which is located the volume up and down buttons and a microphone mute button while the proprietary charging port (yes, not USB-C unfortunately) is housed at the bottom of the rear.

 

The display is basic at best but good enough for showing the time, alarm clock, basic weather information and the album art of media you are currently streaming on the device.  The display is so basic that you cannot view any of your Ring cameras on it which is incredibly disappointing — the burning question here is, what is the point of an Amazon/Echo/Alexa device with a display that cannot show you (Amazon-owned) Ring cameras on it?  I wish it did.

Move from the front of the Echo Spot and the display dulls very quickly.  Not the best display so be careful where you are positioning it if you want to see the display in full detail.

The Echo Spot is Matter complaint so one day you *should* be able to use all Matter compliant devices, no matter the manufacturer — but I doubt the display will ever be able to show the video but will allow for two-way audio.

The speaker is good but nothing special.  The speaker is good enough to listen to music in a pinch or if you are not that fussed with high fidelity audio (such as for audio books and podcasts) but it lacks the loudness and depth of bass to allow it to take the place of the dedicated headphones or high-end speaker you may currently use. 

For most folks the audio quality will be more than acceptable, especially for a device with such a small footprint.

The downside of the display is that it is small and unable to play videos.  If you want to see the album art of the music you’re playing/’casting’ through it though you’re all good.  Weather?  Yep, got you covered.  Time and alarms?  Yes. But that’s about it.

 

The display is a touch display and although not as sensitive as your phone it can be used to control audio playback and some basic smart home devices.

One thing missing which is very disappointing, is a video camera so you cannot use this display to make video calls.  It is possible this has been done to reduce costs but the device is not cheap at all. 

 

So what can it do?

It is basically an Echo Dot with Clock (which was my previous office Echo device) but with a small display (albeit very limited).  The Echo Dot with Clock has been discontinued and this new Echo Spot is designed to take it’s place.  It does that but only in a very small incremental upgrade.  The Echo Spot has full Alexa functionality and will display some helpful information – as long as that information is the time, weather or album art.

Not everyone needs a large fully functional display on their smart hub and that is who this is for.  Some very basic information displayed for you but the device still includes all the Alexa skills of any other Echo speaker.

Use it as an alarm clock, bedside clock and a way to quick check the weather and occasionally play some media and this is perfect for you.

 

Final thoughts

The Echo Spot is just an Echo Dot with Clock but with a much improved display (and speaker).  The display shows the same information the Echo Dot with Clock showed but in a nicer, coloured touch display — and with some pictures.

Buy this if all you need is a basic speaker with a very basic display.  If you do not need a fully functional smart display with the ability to view cameras and make video calls (among others things).  Buy this if all you need is a smart speaker — the display is just a (small) bonus.

The all-new Echo Spot is available now for $149 AUD at amazon.com.au/echospot, JB HI-FI, and in leading Australian retailers. It is available in Black, Glacier White, and Ocean Blue.

 

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