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Sony Xperia 1 review: Powerful, but not sensible
I don't love admitting this, but it can be hard to take Sony's phones seriously sometimes. That's not because of a lack of effort on its part — it's more that the phones they do release often seem gleefully out of step with the mobile mainstream. Need further proof? Just look at the Xperia 1. This is the first high-powered flagship Sony has released in some time, and it's nothing if not unusual. Super-tall, super-high-res screen? Check. A vibration motor that plays along with your music? Uh-huh. A surprisingly small battery? Sadly, yes. There's little question that the Xperia 1 is the kind of device only Sony would make, and that no other smartphone maker out there is working with the same set of priorities. Occasionally, that means the Xperia 1 feels refreshing. The rest of the time, though, it's enough to make you wish Sony had just made a few decisions differently.
NVIDIA RTX 2060 Super and 2070 Super review
For once, AMD made NVIDIA sweat. NVIDIA's new RTX Super graphics cards are clearly a response to AMD's new midrange GPUs, the Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT. For months, AMD has been hyping how much faster they are than the first RTX cards. The only solution for NVIDIA was a surprise batch of faster cards, which, in turn, led to AMD announcing a price drop at the last minute. Witness the capitalist ideal of competition in action.
Zero’s SR/F electric motorcycle makes a great commuter bike
Zero has been on a roll for the past few years. Great electric motorcycles keep coming off their assembly line and the number I see on the streets of Northern California keeps growing. Before, if you rode an electrified motorcycle you got stares and questions. Now, not so much. Like Teslas, Zero is no longer an oddity.
The Jeep Gladiator is for truck buyers craving adventure
The Gladiator is essentially a Jeep Wrangler with a bed strapped onto the back. During my tests, I found it to be capable on both dirt and asphalt. But it's not for everyone.
Valve Index review: Next-level VR
Where does virtual reality go next? Right now there seem to be two paths: portable and self-contained headsets like the Oculus Quest or those connected to computers and consoles like the Rift and PlayStation VR. Valve is clearly betting on the second way with the Index, its first VR hardware. It crams in just about every feature you'd expect from a high-end headset, including some truly transformative finger-sensing controllers. It's too bad the entire Index package costs $999, putting it out of reach for most people. But maybe that's the point. It's a boundary-pushing headset meant to keep the VR industry from getting stale.
'Super Mario Maker 2' is another love letter to Nintendo’s 2D platformers
It's impossible to play Super Mario Maker 2 without having a huge smile on your face. It's a total deconstruction of what makes Nintendo's 2D platforming franchise so special. You're just a plumber, standing on a stage, hoping to make it to the goal intact. The real hook, of course, is that you can take everything you've learned from Mario games over the years and craft your own levels, with the freedom to make them as simple or thumb-numbingly complex as you'd like. And if you're just in the mood to play, you've got a practically endless supply of levels from Nintendo and the online community to feed on. There's no doubt Super Mario Maker 2 banks heavily on nostalgia, but it's also a way for both old and new players to truly grasp the power of 2D platformers.
The Kia Niro EV is relentlessly sensible
The EV market is growing. More people are realizing that the majority of their drives don't stray far from the cities or towns they live in. While a robust charging infrastructure still isn't in place (unless you own a Tesla), topping up the battery at home and at work is typically enough to keep an electric vehicle on the road without range anxiety creeping in.
The 2019 Acura NSX is a supercar built for everyday auto nerds
By law, I have to mention the 1990 Acura NSX before telling you about the 2019 NSX. It was a big deal -- supercars were supposed to be from Europe, not Japan. The NSX changed that with an outstanding vehicle that caught everyone's attention. People adored it, then Acura stopped it.
The BMW M850i elevates the road trip with high tech
Road trips are wonderful. But while cruising along in a beat-up Civic or Bug made for great stories in your 20s, as you get older you want a little more comfort. You also want some power and the latest tech. And you know what, let's throw in the wind rustling through your hair. Turns out you get picky as you age. Don't fret, older human, BMW's got your back.
Alienware Area-51M review: A gaming desktop stuffed inside a laptop
The Area-51M is a unique beast. At first glance, it looks like what we used to expect from gaming laptops: It's an intimidating, hulking machine that doesn't belong in the modern age of slim notebooks. But what makes it special is under the hood. Instead of slightly slower and energy-efficient mobile components, it features powerful gear you'd typically find in desktops, like Intel's octa-core i9-9900K CPU, NVIDIA's full-speed RTX GPUs and up to 64GB of RAM. Best of all, you can upgrade those parts down the line, just like a tower gaming rig. What exactly do you call a machine that looks like a laptop but functions like a desktop? The Area-51M practically defies classification. Let's take the philosophically simple approach for now: It's a gaming laptop like no other.
The Nissan Leaf Plus adds more EV range but not more fun
While other automakers were debating the merits of the electric car, Nissan was already selling the Leaf (the little EV hit the market in 2010, two years before the Model S). The automaker has sold over 400,000 units since then. That's impressive. But in the past nine years, the EV market has changed, and when the latest version of the vehicle was unveiled, it had a range of 151 miles. That's clearly not enough for our new over-200-mile-range vehicle world. So in January of this year, the Leaf Plus (starting at $36,550) with 226 miles of range appeared. Problem solved, right? Well, maybe.
Samsung Galaxy S10e review: Smaller, but not lesser
When it's time to start building their new, premium smartphones, companies like Samsung are usually driven by a simple mantra: "more." More power, more features, more cameras. And it's to the point where — after a while — it all starts to seem like overkill. Sure, all of these high-end devices are drool-worthy, but honestly, who needs that much smartphone? Maybe you do, since you're reading a review on Engadget. And so do I, as you might expect from a professional phone snob. The thing to remember is that, broadly speaking, we're the outliers here. Most people want a powerful, capable phone that doesn't cost $1,000 and won't feel obsolete in a year. That's where Samsung's smaller, $750 Galaxy S10e comes in. If phones like the S10+ represent the company at the peak of its hardware and software game, the S10e reflects an understanding that these new developments really shine when more people get to use them. The end result: A smartphone that, while not as flashy as its siblings, packs nearly all of the modern conveniences that make those pricier devices such a pleasure to use.
Nintendo Switch revisited: Two years makes a big difference
The Nintendo Switch is no Wii U -- we knew that much when we reviewed it on March 1st, 2017. Its portable design lets you play your games anywhere, and it seamlessly turns into a home console when you dock it, something that still feels magical today. Best of all, you can hand off one of its controllers to a friend for some quick head-to-head action. While Sony and Microsoft chased the specter of high-end 4K gaming, Nintendo, once again, took a different path -- one that ultimately led to its most innovative console yet. It's still not perfect, but Nintendo managed to fix most of the complaints, like a lack of titles and no real online service, from our initial review. And it also showed us a few surprises along the way.
Hyundai’s Kona EV is the car you didn't know you were waiting for
The gas-powered Hyundai Kona is a great little crossover. It's inexpensive, it's fun to drive, it's got distinctive styling and it has room for you, your friends and some of their stuff. Then Hyundai went and made an EV version of the tiny SUV and it's a better vehicle in almost every way. But, more important, it's the electric car that a lot of folks have been waiting for.
Infiniti's new QX50 blends exciting engine tech with a big redesign
When Infiniti announced that the QX50's turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine would have variable compression, my first two thoughts were "wow that's incredible" and "I can't wait to see how this works in a hybrid." The QX50 is not a hybrid, but what the automaker has accomplished is amazing. But it still needs a little fine-tuning if you're expecting a huge increase in fuel economy.
ASUS ZenBook S13 review: A gamer’s ultraportable
It's already clear that 2019 is going to be a big year for intriguing gaming laptops. But ASUS's ZenBook S13 proves that even ultraportables are in for some wild changes. It's a 2.5-pound laptop with one of NVIDIA's dedicated GPUs, which absolutely trounces the integrated graphics plaguing most light notebooks. And it packs all of that power in a sleek frame with some of the thinnest screen bezels I've ever seen. The ZenBook S13 is close to being the laptop of my dreams, one that's incredibly light, but that can also play some games.
Alienware m15 review: Dell’s first thin gaming laptop doesn’t disappoint
Alienware finally made a thin and light gaming laptop, and it was worth the wait. For years, Dell's gaming brand has been pumping out powerful, but hefty gaming machines. The Alienware m15, though, is its first step towards a truly modern laptop design. And it's here just in time -- throughout 2018 we saw companies like ASUS, Razer and MSI all deliver thin new machines of their own. The m15 is a sign Alienware won't be left behind.
Nintendo’s Switch NES gamepads are an unnecessary blast from the past
How much would you pay to be transported back into the 8-bit era? Nintendo already gave us a taste of nostalgia with the $60 NES Classic, and now it's offering a similar experience with a pair of NES controllers for the Switch. The big downsides: They also cost $60 and they're only available for Switch Online subscribers. And, not that this comes as a surprise, they're practically useless outside of NES games on the Switch.
Surface Studio 2 review: A better all-in-one PC twist
The Surface Studio made all-in-one PCs cool again. Now with the Surface Studio 2, Microsoft is making it something even more compelling for creative professionals. The original Studio showed there was still the potential for innovation beyond iMac-like desktops -- thanks to its hinge, all it took was a push on the top of the display to lay the whole screen down like a drafting table. By doing that, the Studio became a giant easel, the sort of thing that would be ideal for digital artists. But despite being so innovative, Microsoft saddled that first machine with an aging CPU and slow graphics. This time around, the company is fixing most of those issues, with newer CPU options, faster storage, and most important, significantly beefier NVIDIA 10-series graphics. The only downside, once again, is that you'll have to pay a steep price for a machine you can't upgrade down the line.
PlayStation Classic review: A disappointing dose of nostalgia
The PlayStation Classic is a mistake. It's a quick attempt by Sony to cash in on the micro-console trend, something Nintendo kicked off with the NES and SNES Classic. (Sony didn't even try to differentiate the name from Nintendo's systems.) There's definitely room to improve upon the idea of a tiny retro console, but Sony simply didn't. What we're left with is a machine that has an odd collection of games and a problematic controller and, perhaps most damning of all, betrays the memory of the original PlayStation. Okay, maybe I'm being too dramatic. Younger gamers who didn't grow up with the PlayStation might find something to enjoy. It gives them a reason to explore the first generation of 3D titles, even if some are too ugly and awkward to play for very long. And at $100, it's an easy gift option. But it's hard not to be disappointed.
