It's known for its software smarts, can Google's hardware let its screens stand up against the competition?
Beyond reading the blurbs of "higher peak brightness!" every year, people often wonder if there are any other tangible improvements in yearly display upgrades. Besides, if other outlets are reporting color reproductive claims that are "indistinguishable from perfect," what more can they really improve upon?
The 2022 edition of the HP Envy x360 13 is great for portability, but it also has enough performance for all your day-to-day workloads.
After the Spectre lineup, the Envy family is where some of HP's best laptops live, and the 2022 edition of the Envy x360 13 is a perfect example. HP brought some of the premium features from the Spectre series to the Envy, including a 16:10 display that's great for work and a 5MP webcam.
You can still get high-quality webcams with a lot of features for around $100, which is where the Dell Pro Webcam comes into play.
The interest in super high-quality webcams has really increased in 2022. It's why many laptop makers like HP push to include crisp 5MP integrated webcams with their devices. However, the best way to get around a built-in webcam, regardless of quality, is to just buy an external webcam. It's why you'll find super-premium webcams like Dell's own $200 UltraSharp 4K, and super cheap webcams like the $27 Logitech C720.
If you have Google across your devices and want to stay that way, add the Mecool Now KA2 Android TV with video calling to your list.
Sometimes a computer screen can be a bit too small if you want to video chat with a group of people, like your family. Now Mecool has introduced an add-on camera for your TV that will let you get the entire group into the frame when you chat. The Mecool Now KA2 is the latest Android TV video camera offering from Mecool, which has a range of home entertainment products, boxes, and sticks. It also offers a range of accessories, such as flash drives, keyboards, and remotes.
Microsoft's Surface Pro 9 with 5G comes with a Qualcomm processor, giving it Windows Studio capabilities and great battery life.
In 2019, Microsoft introduced the Surface Pro X, the first ever Surface Pro not to include an Intel processor. Living side-by-side with the Surface Pro 7, Surface Pro 7+, and finally the Surface Pro 8, the Redmond firm decided this year that Windows on Arm is mature enough to merge the two brands. The Surface Pro 9 with 5G is the first product from the mainstream Surface Pro lineup to include an Arm processor.
Nothing's new earbuds offer a half-in-ear design that could be more comfortable for some.
How much do looks matter for consumer gadgets? The pretentious side of me wants to say "not much. I only care about performance."
The HP EliteBook 865 G9 is a very capable business laptop with AMD's latest Ryzen processors, a lightweight design, and long battery life.
The HP EliteBook 865 G9 is one of the largest business laptops in HP's lineup, and one of its most premium. It comes with a big 16:10 display, a premium aluminum design, and the latest AMD Ryzen 6000 series processors, which deliver very good performance. HP has also brought its 5MP webcam to all of its premium laptops in 2022, including the EliteBook 865.
The MSI Vector GP76 is a truly powerful laptop with great gaming performance, but it's expensive and not for everybody.
MSI makes some of the best gaming laptops around, so I was excited to check out the MSI Vector GP76. This 17-inch gaming laptop has powerful specs, including the highest-end mobile chip in Intel's 12th-generation lineup, the Intel Core i9-12900HK, Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti graphics, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB solid-state drive (SSD).
Intel's newest Core i9 has more cores and performance than ever before, taking back the short-lived crown from AMD.
Not that long ago, we were proudly declaring the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X as the biggest, baddest CPU on the planet. It wasn't without its flaws, but the results spoke for themselves. However, AMD is no longer in a league of one because Intel has answered right back with the Core i9-13900K. In some regards, this 13th-generation upgrade is a minor one over the 12th, but in others, it's a substantial leap.
The Apple Watch Ultra is aimed at athletes and adventurers, but there's still a lot here for casual users.
Apple's new Watch Ultra is a maximal wearable with new features designed to make life easier for mountaineers, deep sea divers, endurance sports athletes, and people who don't spend their days in front of a laptop screen in general. I am none of these things, but even as a merely semi-active urbanite, I can see the appeal of the Apple Watch Ultra -- it's got a bigger, brighter screen that's easier to read even from a distance or under the most intense sunlight; it's built like a tank, so I don't stress when I accidentally clang my wrist against table edges and car doors; and battery life is much, much better -- enough that I can take it on a weekend trip without needing to bring a charger.
Has Intel done it again and built the best CPU for gaming PCs? You better believe it did.
There was a time when many gamers, system builders, and enthusiasts would pass by the Intel Core i5. It's not that it was bad, but it was a little uninteresting for many years. That changed with the Core i5-12600K, so we've been waiting (im)patiently for its successor. And that successor is now here, unsurprisingly called the Intel Core i5-13600K.
Microsoft's Surface Laptop 5 doesn't get some of the perks of the rest of the Surface lineup, but it has more power at the same price point.
The Surface Laptop 5 isn't much of a change over the Surface Laptop 4, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. The good news is that it keeps the price down when laptop prices are skyrocketing. (Seriously, I keep looking up prices of products I'm reviewing and shocking myself with how much they cost.)
The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is a great gaming laptop with AMD Ryzen 9 6800H CPU and Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti graphics. And it can run any game you think of.
Gaming laptops come in all shapes and sizes these days. Not only are they powerful, but they can also be stylish to suit the needs of serious gamers. However, if you’re like me and mainly use a laptop for daily productivity, you might not want a gaming system that’s too visually striking, but you do want the raw power to play games like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.
Dell's new XPS 13 (2022) is a complete redesign from its predecessors, now coming in colors like Sky and Umber, and it's a pleasure to use.
Without a doubt, Dell's XPS laptops are some of the best laptops around. Indeed, year in and year out, I'm excited when one arrives at my door, and every time, I get to say that it's one of the best laptops on the market. The Dell XPS 13 9315 (the 2022 model) is no different, although things are a bit different this year.
If you want a new Android flagship phone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra or Pixel 7 Pro are near the top of your lists -- but which phone is better?
The Google Pixel is in an interesting spot. It is technically the default Android phone because it is made by Google, but because Samsung has been making phones for so much longer, and has such a wider global reach, it is instead Galaxy phones that are considered the default Android phone in the eyes of many casual consumers. And so, every time a new Android flagship comes out, it has to be compared to the latest Samsung flagship.
There is no other graphics card like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090. Its power is unmatched, as is its size and its power consumption.
Christmas definitely came early for PC gamers this year. AMD has yet to show its hand with its next-gen graphics cards, but Nvidia and even Intel already have, and there's a lot to talk about. Different approaches, yes, but extremely interesting nonetheless. Nvidia, true to form, has gone right for the jugular with its new flagship, the GeForce RTX 4090.
If you remember the mayhem caused by the Google Pixel 6 Pro from last year, then you'll also recall how simply divisive it was. Many Pixel fans will attempt to rewrite history and state that it was the best thing since sliced bread, but it was anything but. It was a good smartphone with a lot of problems, and in the case of the Google Pixel 7 Pro, Google has attempted to right a lot of those wrongs by approaching the same recipe with alternative ingredients.
I've been using macOS Ventura for several months. While it has some neat additions, they won't be useful for a lot of people, including me.
Apple released the first macOS Ventura developer beta back in June. Its initial reveal occurred during WWDC22, along with that of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and watchOS 9. Unlike the packed iPhone update, Ventura is a relatively minor bump that further streamlines the Mac. Ever since the notable Big Sur release, the company has been making smaller tweaks that move macOS closer towards perfection, so this isn't surprising.
The Google Pixel 7 finishes what the Pixel 6 started. It's a refined, intelligent smartphone that shows off Google's vision. Read our review!
Ever since its birth in 2016, the Google Pixel series has offered excellent software performance but subpar hardware. The original Pixel had a hilariously thick chin bezel that served no purpose (it didn't house any buttons or sensors); the second Pixel had display quality issues; the third Pixel had that hideous notch on the XL; the fourth Pixel replaced that notch with a bulky bezel housing a 3D facial scanning system that didn't always work; and the Pixel 5 neither used a flagship processor nor premium build materials. Winds of changes arrived with the Pixel 6, the first Pixel phone to offer beautiful hardware to match the industry-best software. But even then, there were still hardware quirks, including a display that didn't get bright enough and an in-display fingerprint scanner that was frustratingly slow.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 is a really surprising Chromebook thanks to the MediaTek SoC under the hood, as well as its great design.
Some of the best Chromebooks I've ever used feature Intel, AMD, or Qualcomm chips. I argue that those chips are quite powerful for Chromebooks as is. But there's one player in the Chromebook market that many people (and even myself) often overlook: MediaTek. It's been part of the Chromebook story since 2016, and recently, it put its newest chips in some great Chromebook models. The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 is one of them.
