Tag: review

  • David Attenborough dominates our pick of 2024’s best science and nature documentaries so far

    David Attenborough dominates our pick of 2024’s best science and nature documentaries so far

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    Mammals,28-04-2024,Heat,5 - Heat,Elephants, Zebra and Springbok gather in high densities at one of the dwindling waterholes in Etosha Salt pan, Namibia. ,BBC Studios,Screen Grab

    BBC TV series Mammals shows why this group dominates the planet

    BBC Studios

    When it comes to TV criticism, three things tend to be true: documentaries don’t always get the attention they deserve; when they do, they are probably about nature; and they are probably narrated by David Attenborough. I am not immune to this tendency as you will see from what follows.

    There have already been many science documentaries that we haven’t had a chance to cover this year. Here are some of the best.

    Let’s start, inevitably, with entries from the incomparable Attenborough. …

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  • Neakasa M1 Self-Cleaning Litter Box Review: Automated No-Scoop Cleaning

    Neakasa M1 Self-Cleaning Litter Box Review: Automated No-Scoop Cleaning

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    The biggest selling point to an automatic litter box is its ability to separate clumps and therefore contain odors until you’re ready to empty it. All of the ones I tried did this remarkably well, so much so that when you open the waste drawer, you are hit with a wall of intense stench. Neakasa created a unique drawer to help this a bit, as long as you use drawstring bags. When you put a new bag in, gently pull one end of the drawstring through a hook near the front of the drawer. When it’s time to empty, open it just slightly to reveal that hook and pull the string to tighten the bag before opening the drawer all the way. It doesn’t contain every bit of odor, but it reduces it a ton. One thing I could do without is the shrill beep the machine lets out when you open it.

    This bag system is inventive, but it does present one issue. Your cat’s bathroom habits need to be monitored (more on that below), but actually seeing the pee and poo is helpful too. If there’s an issue you need to know: Is it runny, is there blood, are urine clumps too small? The Cat Daddy himself, Jackson Galaxy, explains that this is one reason he does not recommend automatic boxes. It’s something to keep in mind. A few seconds of odor isn’t that bad if it means your cat gets help if necessary.

    Closeup of a drawer pulled out from an automatic cat litter box a blue plastic bag sticking out

    Photograph: Medea Giordano

    App Connection

    In my reviews, I’ve stressed the importance of keeping an eye on your cat’s litter habits, because it gives you extremely important insight into their health. Cats are unfortunately prone to bladder blockages that can be fatal, which is why automatic litter boxes have not been recommended by experts in the past. Now, all the trusted brands connect their boxes to apps, which include a list view of visits and weights so you know who went when and can quickly notice if someone’s habits are off—I like the Petivity that sits under any standard box, because not only does it monitor when cats go, but it tells you if they went number one or number two.

    Neakasa’s app is easy to use, but it needs work. You set up profiles for each cat with their weight, so it can automatically add their names to the records. Sometimes it knew who went and other times it didn’t, even when it was the same cat as the last time. When that happens, it reverts the weight to kilograms instead of my selected pounds.

    The weight changes slightly often, too, even when the box is correctly calibrated. According to this, my cat Eely-Rue goes from 4.40 pounds to 4.84 to 5.06 in the same day and then weighs 3.74 the next morning. She’s particularly small and light, so that could be presenting an issue, but my other two cats simply didn’t use this one enough for me to track if it was happening with them too. Yep, even if you spend several hundred dollars on a box, you should still have another, basic box somewhere else—at least until you know your cat actually wants to use a fancy one.

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  • Movano Evie Ring Review: Running Out of Time

    Movano Evie Ring Review: Running Out of Time

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    No one was more excited than I was to try the Movano Evie ring. When it was first announced, I added it to our list of the Best of CES in 2023. I was excited to finally find a fitness tracker that solved an actual problem for an underserved population! It is really hard for many women to track their menstrual cycles, and this is especially relevant if you’re a woman in perimenopause. The 10-15 years before your period ends are typically characterized by health conditions like hot flashes and lack of sleep. Monitoring these conditions would be the first step to treating them effectively.

    However, in the intervening year, almost every fitness tracker has come out with a similar cycle tracking feature. Apple debuted skin temperature sensing and automatic ovulation detection with the Series 8 (8/10, WIRED Recommends), and so did the Samsung Galaxy Watch and the Withings ScanWatch (7/10, WIRED Recommends). Several months ago, the period tracking app Clue introduced a new feature set, Clue Perimenopause, where you can manually track perimenopausal symptoms.

    Most significantly for biological women in the United States, Roe v. Wade was overturned. Depending on where you live, you might not even want to track your period online at all. Assuming that you still want to track your period in an app, and don’t have menstrual cycle features on your existing fitness tracker, is the Movano Evie ring worth buying? Right now, it’s probably not.

    Affordable Price

    The Evie ring has a number of great features. At $269, it’s relatively affordable (as far as smart rings go), and it doesn’t require an additional subscription fee. I used the free sizing kit and got my usual size 8, and the tester came in a gold finish (there is also silver and rose gold).

    The ring itself is injection-molded and has a titanium finish that feels high-quality and comfortable, with tiny sensors packed into the inside. There is a notch cut into it, which makes the sizing a little more flexible than it might be otherwise. It can accommodate your hands changing size when you work out or have hormonal fluctuations, but the downside is that the notch gets caught in my hair.

    Image may contain Body Part Finger Hand Person Accessories Jewelry and Ring

    The ring’s sensors include red and green LEDs, infrared PPG sensors, skin temperature sensors, photodiodes, and a 3D accelerometer. It also comes with a tiny portable charging case that holds up to ten additional charges and itself charges via USB-C. When I first got the ring, I had multiple charging issues that were only resolved with frequent app and ring updates.

    Right now, I get a little less than 3 days of battery life, which is not that much, especially compared to the Oura ring’s 5 days. I also don’t get any notification that the battery is dead, so I miss a lot of data if I don’t check the app every morning. It takes between 2-3 hours to recharge.

    The app itself looks pretty perfunctory. It’s currently only available on iOS 16 or above, and does not sync with Apple Health. The Daily Summary shows your day as a circle, but that circle doesn’t seem to correlate with your activities for that day. For example, half of the circle is sleeping, even though I only sleep 6-7 hours per night and not 12. A 40-minute run shows up as almost half of my daytime hours. You also have to log workouts manually in the app and can’t note what type of workout it was, only the duration.

    It’s also pretty disappointing that the vaunted skin temperature sensor only shows you deviations from the average, and not a monthly graph. A monthly graph is the only way to see the minute temperature drop that occurs at the end of your cycle. You can see and record the drop on an Oura ring, but not with the Evie.

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  • Apple iPad Pro (M4, 2024) Review: Powerful Yet Premature

    Apple iPad Pro (M4, 2024) Review: Powerful Yet Premature

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    it’s no secret that Apple has mastered the art of smoke and mirrors. When the company debuted the new iPad Pro, the flashy livestreamed keynote—and the hands-on event for media afterward—made it seem as if the company had finally given its high-end tablet the biggest refresh in years. And this is technically true. But that’s also because the bar is already set fairly low.

    The last two iPad Pros haven’t been all that innovative. In 2021, Apple added an M1 chip and a mini-LED display; in 2022, it came with an M2 and some new minor software features. The latest model, which becomes available May 15, comes with new OLED display technology, a larger 13-inch screen size, an all-new M4 chipset, and a few cosmetic tweaks. It’s also thinner—Apple’s thinnest product ever, to be exact. It’s compatible with new accessories too, including a redesigned Magic Keyboard case and the first-ever Apple Pencil Pro.

    It’s more than what we’ve been given over the past two years. And I was genuinely excited about the enhancements. But hours after the event, when the adrenaline dropped, my editor looked at me and said: “If you think about it, the new changes to the iPad Pro aren’t that crazy.” To prove him wrong, I started to list them out loud, only to realize he was right. In the grand scheme of things, the noteworthy updates to the iPad Pro are the external changes to its hardware, ones that were expected and necessary for such a high-end tablet—except for the M4 chip. But with nothing to show for its new processor just yet, aside from a speedier CPU and GPU, this iPad Pro feels half-baked.

    Light ‘n’ Bright

    Instead of recycling the same chassis as it has been doing for the past few years, Apple has finally ditched the old iPad Pro shell for an entirely new one. You’ll now have the choice between the standard 11-inch display or a slightly larger 13-inch size. Apple sent me the latter to test for this review. It’s not a dramatic difference. But as someone who stares at a monitor all day, I’m all for any extra screen real estate. (I use the 15-inch MacBook Air as my daily driver.) If you plan on working off of the iPad Pro full-time, I’d recommend the bigger size.

    Apple has also upgraded the new tablet from mini-LED to OLED panels on both sizes (it was only the 12.9-inch iPad Pro that received the mini-LED treatment on the sixth-generation version). Known as Ultra Retina XDR, it uses a new display technology called Tandem OLED, consisting of two fused OLED layers, resulting in a brighter screen.

    Closeup of tablet propped up on desk with a floral pattern background and app icons on the screen

    Photograph: Brenda Stolyar

    Compared to mini-LED, OLED delivers better contrast ratios, deeper blacks, and more vibrant colors. It usually doesn’t get as bright, but the additional layer within the Ultra Retina XDR screen helps to produce twice as much light as a standard OLED panel. Apple says both sizes can hit 1,600 nits of peak brightness in HDR, which is the same amount as the sixth-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The more notable difference is with SDR content—the M4-powered iPad Pro can hit 1,000 nits while its predecessor hits 600 nits.

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  • Google Pixel 8A Review: The Best Smartphone

    Google Pixel 8A Review: The Best Smartphone

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    A personal gadget needs to feel, well, personal. I have what I call the table test. If I’m out at a restaurant or coffee shop, do I leave the phone with its screen facing up? Or flip it around and admire the design?

    Well, it might be functional—placing a Pixel face down toggles on Do Not Disturb mode and keeps me away from attention-grabbing notifications—but the Google Pixel 8A is also too pretty to hide its looks away, especially in the new Aloe color.

    This is often a rarity on a smartphone that costs less than $500. Flagships get the star treatment and cheaper phones look bland. This year, I’ve noticed a change, with smartphones like the Motorola Moto G Power 5G and Nothing Phone (2a) making things more aesthetically interesting at the low end. Google’s Pixel 8A continues that trend with its elegant, matte, colorful design.

    Say Aloe

    Hand holding up a mobile phone showing the backside cameras and details

    Minty! Smartphones are getting more aesthetically interesting at the low end.

    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

    Google’s A-series phones take elements from the flagship Pixels while cutting costs elsewhere to make the package more accessible. The Pixel 8A employs 76 percent recycled plastic in the back cover versus glass, uses the older and less protective Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for the display, and has an OLED panel that doesn’t get as bright, not to mention lesser camera specs. There are other small changes, but this helps bring this phone down to $499, which is $200 less than the Pixel 8.

    And yet, this phone doesn’t feel too out of the ordinary compared to its pricier siblings. The metal frame and camera bar give it that luxe look; the lovely curved edges and its 6.1-inch screen size make it a comfy phone to hold and use one-handed. This is the most refined A-series Pixel to date, and the Aloe color steals the show.

    My mom noticed it in my hand immediately and asked about it, admiring the translucent green hues. (Google’s official case also color-matches the phone perfectly and makes the camera bar flush with the back so it’s still thin.)

    The 6.1-inch screen doesn’t feel too small—it’s quite refreshing considering most of the phones I test these days have screen sizes 6.5 inches or more—and the OLED display is sharp. I stared at this screen on a near-perfect sunny day in New York City this past weekend, and the Pixel 8A ratcheted up its brightness accordingly so I didn’t have to squint. This used to be a common flaw with Pixels of old, but screen brightness is no longer a problem. Google also has brought a 120-Hz screen refresh rate here, so everything is wonderfully fluid (make sure you turn this on in the phone’s settings).

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  • Yamaha NS-600A Review: Tonally Bright, Viscerally Moving

    Yamaha NS-600A Review: Tonally Bright, Viscerally Moving

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    The bright bounce of a Yamaha grand piano holds a special place in the soundtrack of my youth. As a young performer and singer, I spent countless grade school hours listening to the sunny tones of an obsidian Yamaha grand in our local performance hall. So it was probably inevitable that Yamaha’s gorgeous new NS-600A speakers, inspired by the brand’s instrumental legacy from design to tonal delivery, would evoke some visceral nostalgia.

    You’ll find plenty of Yamaha’s signature sound in the NS-600A, with sparkling articulation and clarity, a wide and dimensional soundstage, and stirringly dynamic bass. Their premium price further rewards buyers with a posh design, embodied in elegant angular cabinets with a marbled piano gloss finish that oozes luxury.

    For all their spoils, the NS-600A’s brighter tonal flavor can sometimes evoke more bite in the upper register than some of my favorite speakers at their lofty price point. That’s more personal preference than gospel, though, and the speakers mostly delight across content. Listeners with a massive budget who favor acute clarity over tonal subtlety may well find the NS-600A hit all the right notes.

    Concert-Hall Class

    Front view of 2 shiny black rectangular speakers on a red clothcovered surface

    Photograph: Ryan Waniata

    Pulling the speakers from their individually packed boxes, you can’t deny their dashing good looks. Rounded corners at the front fade toward the back panel in angled lines, making the cabinets seem to lean toward the listening position ready to spring. The glossy finish looks as stunning as Yamaha’s top pianos, and each speaker’s hefty weight of just under 22 pounds lets you know there’s stout bracing and high-end components within.

    At the back of each speaker panel, ergonomic binding posts rest below a beveled bass port, designed to minimize port whistle when the bass ramps up. Even the magnetic acoustic grilles flex some floss, with a sympathetic curve that hugs each speaker’s rounded top, leaving the front face’s gold logo exposed below.

    Back view of two shiny black speakers showing a circular indent and 2 posts on each

    Photograph: Ryan Waniata

    Yamaha says its engineers utilized the same acoustic principles for sound absorption and vibration suppression found in its musical instruments to optimize the NS-600A’s internal cabinet design. The speakers use Yamaha’s patented “Absorber” tube to minimize standing waves, while a specialized Resonance Suppression chamber sits behind each tweeter, both aimed at preserving the character and tone of instruments and vocals.

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  • Twelve South BookArc Flex Review: Unstable and Expensive

    Twelve South BookArc Flex Review: Unstable and Expensive

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    i’ve never jumped at the opportunity to use a dock for my laptop. I prefer using an external monitor and a laptop stand, with my MacBook as the second screen. It’s been my setup for the last seven years, and up until now, I had no desire to change it. But when Apple launched the M3-powered 15-inch MacBook Air with support for two external monitors—as long as the lid is closed—I realized I’d have to give in to the world of vertical laptop stands to test it properly. I didn’t have room on my desk to let it lie flat.

    These stands aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing. I’m not that picky about my desk accessories, but I don’t want a clunky eye-sore of a stand. And it felt like that’s all that was out there. I was super excited when Twelve South reached out about testing its BookArc Flex. It’s a beautifully crafted laptop stand, with a minimalist design that would blend in nicely on my desk. It’s compatible with a wide range of MacBook models too.

    I was confident this would be the answer to my problem. At WIRED, we’ve had great experiences with Twelve South’s products. A lot of the company’s products are featured as top recommendations in various buying guides, including the StayGo Mini hub, the Forte iPhone stand, the HoverBar Duo 2.0 stand, and more. These accessories work well and look good. Unfortunately, only the latter applies to the BookArc Flex. And that’s not enough to justify incorporating it into your workspace.

    Proceed With Caution

    The BookArc Flex has a very distinct design, complete with a metal arc on each side and a flexible rubber cradle in between. When you place your MacBook onto the rubber piece, the laptop stand uses the weight of the laptop to lock the arcs against the lid and the base of the machine. It’s elevated too, which Twelve South claims is to improve airflow and heat dissipation (to keep the MacBook from overheating) and to also keep it safe from accidental spills.

    Top and side view of laptop stand made up of 2 connected curved metal rods

    Photograph: Brenda Stolyar

    In theory, it sounds simple to use. Unbox it, place it on your desk, and plop the MacBook into the stand. There was no need to read the instructions. But I was wrong. Whenever I put my 15-inch MacBook Air into the stand, it would lean against one of the arcs and topple over. At one point, I thought I had to somehow mold the middle piece to fit the laptop. After some finessing, I was able to get it to sit securely. But the slightest movement still caused it to fall over.

    After this happened a few times, I decided to reach for the brief Owner’s Guide, which clearly states that you should “set the MacBook or laptop hinge down,” which means the logo needs to be facing up. I was doing the complete opposite—placing the MacBook with the logo facing down. “Surely, this had to be the issue,” I thought to myself.

    But I was wrong. Yes, placing it right side up kept it upright instead of leaning to one side of the stand. However, it didn’t help lessen how sensitive it was to movement. It would still fall over whenever I reached over to turn the lamp on behind it, accidentally bumped against my desk too hard, or brushed my hand against the edge of my MacBook while moving my mouse around.

    I hated how careful I had to be in its presence, especially when I had any sort of liquid on my desk like a cup of coffee or a can of Monster. I was terrified I might knock over the laptop stand and make the MacBook crash down onto the mug or can, spewing liquid all over my keyboard and monitor. I couldn’t even leave my MacBook on the stand when I left the room. The smallest motion would cause it to tumble onto my desk and damage both the MacBook and my peripherals.

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  • Hisense U8N TV Review: Loaded Package, Shades Required

    Hisense U8N TV Review: Loaded Package, Shades Required

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    The U8N also lets you control the volume output of its optical port with the TV remote, making it much simpler to control older audio systems that don’t support HDMI ARC/eARC, like my original KEF LSX speakers. If you decide to settle for the onboard sound, the U8N’s 2.1.2 speaker system offers some decent detail, and a bit of extra bass punch for its woofers.

    The TV is well stocked on the gaming front, including VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and AMD FreeSync Premium Proto for fluid high frame-rate gaming, as well as ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) for low input lag. Gaming feels realistic and responsive, with impressive HDR performance. I like the variety of available picture settings, including both Theater and Game modes, which provide rich contrast and vibrant colors for details like Kratos’ ruby red armor in God of War Ragnarok.

    Peaky Blinder

    The U8N provides an almost intimidating level of picture settings for deep-dive adjustments. The Peak Brightness setting is the most confusing. When applying my usual picture modes during setup, like Theater Night for standard dynamic range (SDR) and HDR Theater mode for HDR10, Peak Brightness was set on High by default, which really pumps up the overall picture. This can result in raised black levels and white-hot highlights in content and menu bars, especially with HDR video, leading my wife to call the U8N “the hurty TV” at first.

    There are a few things going on here. First, Peak Brightness is primed for daytime watching in bright rooms with sunlight pouring in, allowing even the darkest scenes to pop. Hisense also includes an adjustable Automatic Light Sensor under the General picture settings, something most reviewers tend to turn off for consistent performance but is all but necessary for Peak Brightness. It does a relatively good job taming the splashy brightness in low lighting, even if I don’t always love how it reacts to each environment.

    Still, Hisense’s decision to quietly set Peak Brightness on High (often without the light sensor engaged) in picture modes that are usually more restrained is confounding, even for someone used to digging through picture settings. A colleague suggested that the TV’s default Energy Saving mode—a dimmer setting that includes the light sensor on for Peak Brightness—is the one Hisense expects most viewers to experience since most folks apparently don’t change their picture settings. The light sensor is also helpfully engaged by default in some other modes, like Dolby Vision Dark.

    If you decide to use Peak Brightness, which is necessary to reach the TV’s highest brightness levels, I suggest starting on Low and turning the light sensor for night viewing. This worked well for illuminating challenging SDR content like Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows during daylight hours, where the darkest scenes seemed to have even less pop than the U8K without the peak brightness setting on.

    My brightest HDR testing content often looked overcooked and oversaturated in this mode. That’s not surprising, considering the TV can reach over 3,000 nits, or triple the brightness at which most videos are currently mastered (though this baseline will change with the latest mastering tools). I usually left the setting off for HDR, but it can be useful in brighter rooms, especially for the always murky Dolby Vision Dark mode. I couldn’t help but marvel at how vibrant and flashy some scenes looked with the setting on, such as the monster scene in Moana, where the giant crab Tamatoa’s golden shell burst to life in disco psychedelia.

    Slackjaw Spectacle

    However you utilize the U8N’s picture settings, it’s capable of the signature beautiful picture we’ve come to expect from the series, with deep black levels, fabulous backlight control, very little “haloing” around bright objects, and intense colors that sparkle like jewels in sunlight.

    This is showy performance, especially for high-quality 4K HDR productions like Netflix’s Our Planet. Episode 4’s coral scene looks incredible, with dashing neon yellows, sapphire blues, and lifelike sunlight sparkling across it all. Occasionally the TV tends to oversaturate reds, especially when using the Warm1 color temperature, but even so it’s stunningly beautiful. It’s the kind of picture that makes you just want to sit there, slackjawed and dumbfounded, as the pretty colors and bright sparklies dance before your eyes.

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  • Gazelle Eclipse Review: A Luxury Dutch Electric Bike

    Gazelle Eclipse Review: A Luxury Dutch Electric Bike

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    If you’re looking at bikes online—or anything, really, whether it’s headphones or monitors—you have to consider price versus payoff. Gazelle has billed its newest ebike, the Eclipse, as a long-range comfort cruiser. It is basically the expensive Dutch version of the direct-to-consumer (DTC) Rad Power Bikes’ Radster Road (8/10, WIRED Recommends).

    I brooded over that price difference while I was riding, until I realized that I really was much more comfortable, and for a really dumb reason. The handlebars on the Eclipse are much narrower than the Radster’s, as well as the other DTC bikes that I have tested. Most bikes have smaller parts for smaller frames, but if you’re a smaller or newer bike company, you might standardize your handlebar sizes due to restricted supply or economies of scale. That’s just not something you would do if you’re Royal Dutch Gazelle, which has existed for more than 130 years and holds the royal warrant in the Netherlands as a distinction of high quality.

    You can swap out handlebars pretty easily on acoustic bikes, but doing so on an electric bike is a more complicated matter. Finding a narrower handlebar was such an unexpected comfort. It’s just … a really nice bike. Even the paint job is nicer than other bikes I have, with four hand-applied coats and dimensional shading to make it look slimmer. If you’re not trying to pinch pennies, there are a lot of really nice things about the Eclipse.

    So Much Information

    There are two different models of the Eclipse. Both have an aluminum frame, but the T11+ HMB has a Shimano Deore XT derailleur gear, while the version I tested is the C380+ version, which has the Enviolo CVT gear hub and a low-maintenance Gates belt drive. May I never have a chain drop out while crossing a busy street again!

    Both come in a step-over and step-through version with three different frame sizes, with the smallest being a 46 centimeters. I’m 5’2″ and was positively thrilled to find a Dutch bike that comes in a size this small as the Dutch are tall people and this is unusual. Of course, the bikes all have UL certification, which means that the bike has been certified to comply with Underwriters Laboratories safety standards and won’t inadvertently set your garage on fire.

    Side view of red and black electric bike propped up by the kickstand with graffiti covered buildings in the background

    Photograph: Adrienne So

    Probably the first thing you’ll notice is the new Bosch system. It has a Bosch Performance Line motor with 85 nm of torque and a 750-Wh ginormous battery integrated into the downtube. After about 45 miles of biking up hills and hauling gear, I only got the battery down to 45 percent. It’s a class 3 ebike with a maximum speed of 28 miles per hour.

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  • Apollo Go (2024) Review: A Great Commuter Scooter

    Apollo Go (2024) Review: A Great Commuter Scooter

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    Control is all I want in an electric scooter. OK, that’s a lie, I also want decent range, good power, and a reasonable weight. Being able to control speed, regenerative braking, and how turn signals work—if they’re even available—is not something you find on most escooters. And even if you can access those things, tweaking them isn’t always intuitive. The new Apollo Go changes all of that.

    I’ve tested Apollo scooters for a few years now, and the Apollo Go is my favorite yet. It’s speedy, isn’t terribly heavy, has a decent folding system, includes perks like turn signals and a bell, and delivers satisfying range. Best of all, I have easy control over some core features through the companion app.

    Good Control

    The sleek-looking Apollo Go has a pretty simple setup process once you take it out of the box. Just add some screws to affix the handlebar to the scooter’s stem and you’re good to go. In the box, you get a nice tool kit for handling basic repairs yourself.

    It’s worth noting that while Apollo does have service locations across the country, it recently shut down its New York City service center, citing “the current regulatory environment.” There’s still a third-party service partner you can take your scooter to in Manhattan, but you can check this map to see if there’s a location near you. It’s always smart to make sure there’s some kind of ebike or escooter servicing shop in your area before buying one.

    Screenshots from an app for an electric scooter indicating the lights braking system and ride mode

    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

    Connecting to the app is a snappy affair, and you do need to use the app to unlock the scooter’s top speed for safety reasons. Lo and behold, you can finally customize the speed modes on the Apollo Go. Most escooters have three speed modes you can cycle through, but these speeds are usually fixed. Apollo lets you set a preferred speed for Eco, Comfort, and Sport. Now I no longer have to deal with the speed modes that are too fast or too slow. I’ve set the Comfort mode here to 15 miles per hour, the speed limit for New York City, and I can still switch to Sport mode if I need a boost. (It has a top speed of 28 mph, but you can lower this if you’d like.)

    The app also lets you choose how much regenerative braking you want—this feature recharges the battery slightly every time you use the regen brake—as well as the acceleration response to increase the torque. I maxed out both of these. You can choose a max speed for the Go, control how long it takes for Cruise Control to kick in (so you don’t have to keep holding down on the throttle), and even whether the turn signals should turn off automatically after seven blinks or manually by pressing the signal button again. The best part is I don’t have to bother with the app after I’ve done all this initial setup.

    Go Go Go

    Front view of electric scooter in front of metal gate

    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

    The aluminum Apollo Go weighs 46 pounds, which is manageable for me, but might be a smidge too heavy for some people. The good thing is the stem isn’t too thick to comfortably carry, and there’s a grab handle at the end of the deck for two-hand toting. If you will have to carry this scooter up and down more than two flights of stairs regularly, I’d suggest getting a lighter model.

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