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This is the lowest price we've ever seen for a foldable phone
The Motorola Razr 2023 is on sale this Black Friday for $499, which is the cheapest a foldable phone has ever been
Remember when foldable phones were exorbitantly expensive? Well, thanks to Black Friday, we've seen a foldable phone drop to $499, which is the lowest price on record for a mobile device with a folding screen yet.
I test so many wireless earbuds, and this OnePlus Buds Pro 2 deal is the best you'll find
The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 were good at the time of release. Now that they're nearly half off for Black Friday, they're easier than ever to recommend
This Black Friday will bring no shortage of deals on wireless earbuds, but it's going to be pretty hard to top this one. OnePlus' excellent Buds 2 Pro are on sale for $100, which is a 44% discount over the full retail price. The OnePlus Buds 2 Pro sit near the top of any best earbuds lists regularly because they're sleek, stylish, sound great, and are priced reasonably — even before the Black Friday discount. Now? They're the earbuds you should buy if you are on the market for a new pair and don't want to splurge.
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is the latest entry in Samsung's foldable line-up this year. It's still a book-like inner foldable with basically the same design language as last year's foldable, so it looks very similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 4. It does, however, has a few changes that make it slightly better than its predecessor.
Galaxy Z Fold 5 review: Samsung can't get away with incremental updates for much longer
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is just a Fold 4 with a better hinge and new Snapdragon chip. But it's probably enough to claim the best foldable title again
The original Galaxy Fold was an important smartphone, but in hindsight, it wasn't a very good one. The hinge was loose and floppy; gigantic bezels wrapped the outside screen; and the inner screen had an ugly cutout. Just a year later, Samsung released a vastly improved Z Fold 2, which made significant improvements to the overall design and hardware, including the hinge and those screens. In fact, in my review of the Fold 2, I called it a "masterpiece," "phone of the year," and the "single biggest generation improvement in mobile history" because of all these changes.
MacBook Pro 16 (M3 Max) review: Apple’s just flexing
The 10-month old M2 Max MacBook Pro is still more powerful than 99% of laptops out there, then Apple released an upgrade with more graphical prowess
Apple's new M3-powered MacBook Pros have had quite an odd release. They were announced at an online-only event in the evening hours of a U.S. workday and just 10 months after the M2 Max MacBook Pro first hit the market, so many people are curious about Apple's strategy here.
DJI Osmo Pocket 3 review: Almost a must-have for content creators and influencers
DJI's handheld gimbal camera brings a new 1-inch sensor, drastically improving image quality — and overall appeal.
With a fluctuating economy and the world in such a tumultuous state lately, I don't feel comfortable calling any tech gadget an absolute "must-have," but the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 is an almost must-have for any solo content creator (an increasingly growing category that includes conventional YouTubers and vertical video-driven influencers) who usually doesn't have a second person helping with camera work.
DuoOne portable dual-monitor review: Easy triple-screen setup
The DuoOne is very useful for digital nomads such as myself; too bad it's a Kickstarter project for now.
Between frequent work trips and a job that is entirely remote, I very regularly work off a laptop at coffee shops, hotel rooms, and airport lounges. My M2 Max MacBook Pro is powerful and efficient enough to handle all of my work, but working off just one laptop screen can feel limiting, not to mention put strain on my neck from looking downwards. So I often travel with a portable monitor. There is no shortage of them on Amazon, but my favorite one yet is the DuoOne, which is essentially two monitors connected by a clamshell hinge and shaped like laptop. When opened up, it resembles dual stacked monitors, and can be used with just about any modern device like MacBooks, iPads, Windows machines, and even most recent smartphones.
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE review: For casual users on carriers and few others
If you walk into a carrier store and want to spend less money on a phone, the Galaxy S23 FE might be for you
After skipping a release last year, Samsung's Fan Edition line of upper midrange Galaxy phones returns, along with a tablet and earbuds, with the S23 FE. At $600, the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is a pretty good deal for Americans who can either get $100 slashed off the price from select carriers or can get it free outright from carriers with a contract. I single out "for Americans" because the users in the U.S. buy through carriers more than in other regions. The market is also more limited, missing the bulk of Chinese options that are known for their bang-for-buck value.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds review: An S upgrade more than an Ultra one
Bose' new Ultra earbuds are great, but other than the addition spatial audio, improvements over the last generation model are non-existent.
I have reviewed almost all the major wireless earbuds released in the last couple of years, and if you ask me for the best one that money can buy, I'd give you a three-way tie between Apple's AirPods Pro 2 (best transparency mode and seamless connection with the most used phone in the world), Sony's XM5 (tremendous acoustics in a sleek, stemless design), and the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 (absolute best-in-class active noise cancelation).
Best foldable phones in 2024
Looking for a new foldable phone? We have tested all of them, so read on to see which one to get.
Foldable phones are becoming more prevalent as a serious consideration for the average consumer, but up until now, it has been mostly Samsung leading the charge. There have been a ton of different foldables debuting in Asian and European markets, but the competition in North America hasn't been up to par — that is, until now. After a slew of early summer releases, Samsung now has serious threats to its big and small foldables coming from Google, Motorola, and OnePlus. The question is, are those challenges enough to dethrone Samsung as the foldable leader in North America?
Samsung Galaxy Buds FE review: Mid-range earbuds finally worthy of the fan label
This is the first Samsung Fan Edition product that doesn’t feel severely watered down
Confession time: I haven't been a fan of Samsung's "Fan Edition" (FE) lineup of mid-range products. I've always been a flagship guy, so these products aren't really for me, but even when I detach my personal preferences and evaluate products objectively, Samsung's FE mobile offerings just seem to cut too many obvious corners, like the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ I recently reviewed that had sluggish animations out of the box.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ review: Good looks, useful software, sluggish performance
The Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ is a good looking large-screen tablet for those on a tighter budget, but be ready for compromises.
Samsung's flagship Galaxy Tab S9 tablets are easily among the best Android tablets, with the alpha dog Tab S9 Ultra able to go toe-to-toe against even the best iPad for overall supremacy. But they're quite pricey, with the base model starting at $800 and the Ultra model reaching $1,200.
OnePlus Open review: The best foldable phone in America
The OnePlus Open brings awesome Chinese foldable hardware and adds software that's optimized for a Western crowd.
The OnePlus Open is being marketed as the debut foldable phone by the Chinese brand, but anybody who follows the smartphone scene closely knows this is not a first-generation device. The Open is actually a rebranded Oppo Find N3, the third-generation foldable by one of Asia's top phone brands. This is great news for foldable fans in America because the first two Find N phones were excellent and offered arguably best-in-class foldable hardware at the time of release. The OnePlus Open is no exception. In terms of hardware, it's clearly superior to the Google Pixel Fold and arguably better than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5.
Motorola Razr (2023) review: The price doesn't make sense
The Motorola Razr is the most affordable foldable phone in North America. The problem is it's not cheap enough.
The Motorola Razr 2023 sounds like a great idea, at least if you hear it in passing, like an elevator pitch: a foldable phone that compromises on some hardware components to reach an affordable price point that, in the North American market, is considered mid-range. And that's exactly what Motorola has achieved here: the Razr 2023 is going on sale today at $599, in what is supposed to be a "limited time $100 off offer."
Viture One review: The most capable AR glasses so far
The Viture One is just another option in the long list of AR glasses, but this one has the most capable hardware and software yet
Even before Apple announced it was entering the space early next year, augmented reality eyewear has been a growing segment in the consumer tech space, with brands like XReal, Rokid, TCL, Lenovo, and Razer all launching versions in recent years. Now that Apple is officially on board with the Vision Pro, many consumer tech brands will pivot even harder into this space — with the XR (extended reality) acronym instead of AR. No matter which phrasing you prefer to use, these glasses all do a similar thing: project a virtual screen onto the real world.
Google Pixel 8 review: The best base model flagship of them all
The Pixel 8 brings a new chip with some very capable AI prowess, but the rest of the package is also polished and near Pro level
Of the big three flagship phone series, the Google Pixel line enjoys the most parity, meaning the gap between the base model and Pro Pixels isn't too drastic. That's not the case with Apple, which gives Pro iPhones newer silicon and more premium build material. Samsung, too, gives the Ultra better main and zoom cameras as well as a stylus. But the Pixels? There really hasn't been much that separates the Pixel Pro from the standard version other than screen size and a zoom lens. This is great news for Pixel fans who want to save a bit of money because they don't have to feel like they're getting a significantly inferior device.
Google Pixel Watch 2 review: Second time's the charm
The Google Pixel Watch 2 fixes the glaring flaws of the first watch and keeps what worked. The price is still perhaps too high, though
The original Google Pixel Watch was an ambitious wearable that aimed to fix Google's previously broken Wear OS ecosystem while also being Android's answer to the Apple Watch. For a first attempt, the watch was a hit-and-miss affair. It had a sleek design, unique shape, and the ability to receive and respond to text messages directly, the latter of which many third-party Android smartwatches fail at. But battery life was objectively terrible, the Exynos chip was slow, and Fitbit integration got in the way more than it helped.
Google Pixel 8 Pro review: A giant leap for smartphone AI
The Google Pixel 8 Pro's generative AI capabilities are legit, and I can't put the phone down
It is beyond cliché at this point to say the appeal of a Google Pixel phone, and what separates it from other best phones on the market, is its software. But it's true more than ever this year. I don't think any single hardware component of the Google Pixel 8 Pro can be called the best or even top three in its category. The iPhone 15 Pro phones have thinner display bezels; Chinese Android flagship phones bring higher-tier camera hardware; Samsung's speakers and haptics are superior; and the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is likely going to beat the Tensor G3 in every conventional benchmark. I don't even think the Pixel 8 Pro produces noticeably better images than the Pixel 7 Pro cameras.
Google Pixel 8 & 8 Pro hands-on: All about Generative AI
The new Pixel phones are here with brighter screens, better cameras, and much smarter brain
After months of leaks, Google finally officially launched the Google Pixel 8 series today at an event in New York. While the phones look similar to the last generation of Pixels, and camera hardware improvements are modest, there is a new Tensor G3 chip that promises to do big things. Essentially, Google is marketing the Pixel 8 phones as the first mobile handsets to run generative AI on device. These new phones, especially the more capable Pixel 8 Pro, are no doubt going to be among the best smartphones of the year.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 Ultra camera shootout: Surprisingly, there's a winner
Samsung's S23 Ultra is one of the best camera phones around, but how does it fare against Apple's much-improved camera system?
Every fall, the new iPhones launch, and every fall, the must-do comparison is between them and Samsung's Galaxy S series. They're the two highest-profile flagship phone series on the market with the widest global availability, and for most people who walk into a store looking for a new flagship phone, the two options will be the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.