Reviews
Engadget's experienced review team thoroughly tests products and services across a wide range of categories.
All Reviews
Powerbeats Pro review: The best-sounding Beats headphones yet
Despite being a hugely popular headphone brand, Beats has had one glaring hole in its wireless headphone lineup: true wireless earbuds. Thanks to a hint in iOS code, the Powerbeats Pro weren't exactly a well-kept secret, and as expected, they carry the latest Apple tech that's also found inside version 2.0 of the AirPods. At $249.95, the Powerbeats Pro is near the top end of the true wireless spectrum price-wise, and its over-the-ear hook design isn't for everyone. However, the combination of features and sound quality makes quite the impression.
Fujifilm X-T30 review: A street photography and 4K-video champ
Amid all the drama in the full-frame mirrorless camera world, Fujifilm quietly unveiled the world-beating APS-C sensor X-T3, last fall. With an all-new 26.1-megapixel X-Trans 4 backside-illuminated (BSI) sensor, it was a major improvement on the X-T2 in speed, autofocus capability, ergonomics and, especially, video. Then, to further press its advantage on Sony, Fujifilm subsequently launched the X-T30 with the same sensor and image quality as the X-T3, for $600 less. Despite that price gap, the X-T30 is packed with features. It has full APS-C 4K video, shooting speeds up to 30 fps and AI-powered face- and eye-detection autofocus. All of that is squeezed into a lightweight, well-designed body that's ideal for travel and street photography. You can't have everything, though, so the X-T30 is missing some features found on its higher-end sibling. To find out how it would fare against rivals, like Sony's A6400, I took it for a spin on the streets of Paris.
DJI Osmo Action review: A worthy GoPro rival
Well, here's a surprise. After GoPro trod on DJI's foot with its ill-fated Karma drone, DJI is stomping right back with a rugged camera of its own -- the Osmo Action. It looks like a GoPro, is similarly priced ($349 -- $51 cheaper) and pretty much goes toe-to-toe with the Hero 7 Black on key specs. Can DJI pull off what GoPro couldn't, and give its rival a run for the money? We'll get to that, but at the very least, the king of action cams has a new challenger to fend off, and that can only be a good thing for video-loving action fans.
OnePlus 7 Pro review: The first true OnePlus flagship
OnePlus can be funny. Sometimes, the company reveals top-notch smartphones with minor flaws. Other times, new devices land with new features that were a flop. The 6T I reviewed earlier this year is a prime example of the latter: OnePlus' first in-display fingerprint reader wasn't very responsive, and even though I was a fan of the dewdrop-notch design, the phone's selfie camera often took blurry shots. Today, OnePlus makes another attempt, and it's more ambitious than ever. For the first time, the company is releasing two flagship models simultaneously: the OnePlus 7 and the larger OnePlus 7 Pro. I've spent the last five days living with the $749 maxed-out OnePlus 7 Pro (with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage), and yes, with its $669 base price, it's the most expensive phone ever from the company. Still, this is easily my favorite OnePlus phone to date, and if all goes well, it may even end up being my favorite smartphone of the year.
The Mercedes A220 raises the bar for 'inexpensive' luxury cars
Luxury vehicles are expensive. German luxury vehicles are very expensive. Sure, you get bottom-of-the-barrel trim on the cheapest fancy car, but typically that means you end up longing for the models that are the next level up. The Mercedes A-Class changes that.
Origin EVO16-S review: A powerful gaming laptop with a bigger screen
When NVIDIA unveiled RTX ray-tracing GPUs for laptops, a lot of new models launched: 40 of them in all. Origin, a company best known for its customized models, tried to separate itself from the pack with an interesting hook. Rather than releasing a 15.6- or 17.1-inch model like everyone else, it unveiled something in between -- the 16.1-inch EVO16-S. While packing a bigger screen, it's just as thin and no heavier than most 15.6-inch laptops, but much lighter than any 17.1-inch model. Packing up to a 9th-generation Intel six-core CPU and GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU, it crams in top-flight gaming performance and ray-tracing, to boot. The EVO16-S is also pretty well-priced compared to rival models with smaller screens, so let's find out how it measures up.
Pixel 3a XL review: Google's triumphant return to affordable phones
From the moment Google's Pixel 3 and 3 XL went on sale, us reviewers were largely in agreement: The phones' software was far more impressive than the hardware. Fair enough; Google is still pretty new at this "making its own devices" thing. But somewhere along the way, things took a turn. Shortly after launch, we started hearing about a litany of issues plaguing those Pixels, from increasingly sluggish performance to worrying battery life to camera-stability problems. It's not clear whether any of these failings specifically led to the disappointing sales Alphabet spelled out in the company's most recent earnings call, but they surely didn't help. So, what does a company like Google do when its flashy, premium smartphones aren't doing so well? In this case, the answer wasn't "launch some new flagships so everyone forgets about the last ones." Instead, Google decided to take the fundamentals of the Pixel experience and squeeze them into two new, affordable spinoffs: the $400 Pixel 3a and $480 3a XL. I know what some of you are thinking: Taking a phone with a shaky track record like the Pixel 3 has and stripping it down to its bare bones could be problematic. And on paper at least, it doesn't seem like the Pixel 3as should be all that interesting; they're cheaper versions of devices we've already seen, designed to appeal to people who don't want to drop $750 on a smartphone. After testing the Pixel 3a XL for a week, though, I'm starting to think Google might be onto something here. Yes, it's more limited in some ways, but those limitations never, ever felt like dealbreakers. If nothing else, the 3a XL is a surprisingly capable take on the Pixel formula that, in some ways, proves to be more valuable than either of the models that came before it.
Oculus Rift S review: Just another tethered VR headset
Who needs the Rift S, really? That's the question I kept asking myself as I tested out the latest PC VR headset from Oculus. It's not a sequel to the original Rift, which helped kick off the modern VR era in a spectacular way. And even calling it an incremental upgrade isn't quite right -- there's some new tech, like built-in sensors, but it's also worse than the Rift in some ways. So while the $399 Rift S could be a good option for a VR newcomer with a gaming PC, it might make more sense just to find a discounted Rift.
Nintendo Labo VR review: Cute, cardboard and kinda boring
Virtual reality devotees scoffed at the introduction of Google Cardboard five years ago: Why would anyone settle for such a limited, feeble-looking piece of paper when "real" headsets were on the horizon? But Cardboard was never about competing with Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. Instead, it was a way to give non-early adopters a low-cost taste of immersive technology. Years later Cardboard has faded into the background as the VR scene has taken off, but Nintendo never forgot about the promise of low-tech VR. Labo VR builds on both the initial ideas of Cardboard and the inaugural Labo sets to create a unique, endearing and most important, playful experience.
