Tag: review

Beats Solo 4 Review: Minimal Features, Maximized Sound

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There’s not much to the new Beats Solo 4 headphones at first glance. Starkly missing in this $200 package is any form of noise canceling or transparency mode. There’s no auto pause feature or water-resistance rating—something you might expect from headphones shown as jogging companions in marketing videos.

Beats seems proud of the Solo 4’s stark minimalism, pointing instead to their slimline design, upgraded sound, and versatile core features. Highlights include up to 50 hours of playback per charge, the ability to plug in with either 3.5-mm or USB-C for lossless audio, and most convenient, in-house features for both Android and Apple phones like one-touch pairing and a headphones tracker.

I was admittedly dismissive of the Solo 4 for their lack of firepower at first, but over multiple days of testing, the sound kept calling me back. Their warm, clean, and buttery performance stems from a redesigned acoustic architecture that proves Apple’s sonic influence on the Beats brand runs deep. You can get a lot more tech from other options, but there’s enough here to make the Solo 4 worth considering for some—especially once the price inevitably drops.

Slick and Simple

The Solo 4’s aesthetic hasn’t strayed far from its roots. You’ll get all the trappings of a modern Beats device here, like matte plastic casing in flamboyant colors and the signature Beats logo on each earcup. The headphones fold down for travel, fitting into a nifty compact case with pockets inside for the included 3.5-mm and USB-C cables.

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

On-ear headphones like the Solo 4 are a rarity these days, and I generally find over-ear headphones more comfortable since they press against your head, not your ears. The Solo 4’s clamping force can cause some discomfort over time, but I was able to wear them for multiple hours without major complaints, and had no trouble throwing on some sunglasses.

The firm grip keeps the headphones in place and provides some solid passive noise isolation—a good thing considering the Solo 4 eschew any form of ambient audio. It’s undeniably odd in 2024 for such sporty-looking headphones to forgo transparency mode so you can hear the world around you when working out. A good water-resistance rating, something most flagship headphones don’t offer, would have been a nice inclusion in its place.

I do like the Solo 4’s simplified control system, offering intuitive volume and playback keys centered around the left-side Beats logo. Like the Studio Pro, the plastic key feels a bit clanky, but it’s less of a concern at this price. The Solo 4’s other major omission that vexed me over multiple days is the lack of auto pause sensors or auto power-down. Once again, it’s not a huge deal given the massive 50-hour battery life, but it’s something I’d expect at this level.

Either/Or

That’s not to say the Solo 4 are without advanced features. They offer an intriguing double dip of tricks for both Android and Apple devices courtesy of the Beats Proprietary Platform. The system, which also drives the Studio Pro (7/10, WIRED Recommends) and many of the latest Beats earbuds, allows for convenient one-touch pairing and Find My features for either device type, while catering to each in a few key ways.

Android-friendly features include auto pairing and audio switching between Google-connected tablets and phones, as well as a Beats app for some basic customization and firmware updates. On the Apple side, you’ll get “Hey Siri” hands-free voice control, basic in-phone customization options, message playback, and audio sharing. They’ll also auto handoff to your Apple Eatch, but don’t allow for automatic switching between iCloud devices like AirPods.

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May 11, 2024
Logitech Aurora Collection Review: Heart and Cloud-Shaped Boxes

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Everywhere I look, I see an ad for Logitech’s Aurora Collection of accessories. At least, it feels that way. Often it’s the distinctive, cloud-shaped palm rest, or the beautiful all-white headphones. They follow me across social media platforms. You got me, Logitech: I’m interested.

The Aurora Collection checks several boxes for me: It’s designed for gamers like myself, but with a softer aesthetic, featuring white form factors and colorful accessories, something that’s hard to find in a landscape of all-black everything. (Someone bring back the colorful monitors of the iMac age! I’m begging you!) It nicely toes the line of visually pleasing without being cheap or infantile, and isn’t so feminine in its design choices that it feels exclusive to anyone who identifies as a woman.

I tested three key components of the collection: the G705 gaming mouse ($80), the G715 wireless mechanical keyboard ($180), and the G735 headset ($200), plus the included cloud rest for the keyboard and the carrying case for the headphones. (There’s also a wired version of the keyboard for $140.) I’ve been happy using these as I work and game throughout the day, but my favorite item of the collection surprised me.

Color Injection

Photograph: Nena Farrell

Something about the G715 wireless mechanical keyboard reminds me of my childhood keyboard. I think it’s the bulky form factor paired with the dark gray buttons on the top; it sends me right back to using my parents’ big gray keyboard while I played Freddi Fish.

On the build design alone, it feels like a classic, old-school keyboard. There’s some weight, but it’s not particularly noteworthy when compared with fun keyboards like the Logitech Pop (9/10, WIRED Recommends). It doesn’t come with circular keys, for example, and there’s no numpad.

The G705 mouse, too, looks similar to other gaming mice I’ve used, but the light strip that runs through the back half (where your palm sits) certainly makes it more fun on my desk. The collection as a whole is pretty classic in its design, yet the white backdrop and well-placed pastel lights give it an entirely new look.

The G735 headphones have the sleekest look of the Aurora line and are the least stereotypically gamer-y. They look fairly high-end, akin to Apple’s AirPods Max (8/10, WIRED Recommends), and have a thinner headband since they’re designed with smaller heads in mind. I have a large noggin and was worried about how they would fit; they were certainly snug, but not so much that I had a headache or couldn’t comfortably wear them for a few hours at a time.

Control Boxes

Courtesy of Logitech

All of the Aurora collection is controlled by the Logitech G HUB, a computer app that will connect to all of these devices and several other Logitech peripherals. The app not only gives you a huge variety of controls and options to customize your lights, but also lets you adjust key commands and macros on the keyboard, your mouse sensitivity, and way more.

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May 11, 2024
Razer Blade 18 (2024) Review: The Gaming Laptop of the Future

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Razer’s Blade 14 is my go-to recommendation for anyone hunting for a good gaming laptop, but as impressive as it is, it trades power for portability. If that’s the kind of sacrifice you don’t want to make, then say hello to the Razer Blade 18—this is the powerhouse you’re looking for.

Side-by-side with the Razer Blade 14, the Blade 18 looks like a protective big brother. You can see the family resemblance, but the larger Blade is more imposing. Its 18-inch Mini LED display is so bright it’s almost overwhelming in dark rooms, and it produces vivid colors that rival the already stunning screen on the Blade 14.

The Blade 18 starts at $3,100, but the model I tested is $4,500. You get a lot of power for the price. It packs a 14th-generation Intel Core i9 14900HX processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU (upgradable to the beastly RTX 4090, which is what I tested), 32 GB of RAM, and a 1-terabyte solid-state drive. It’s the kind of power that can tear through even the most demanding games.

Smooth Screen

Razer outdid itself with the display on the Razer Blade 18. The Mini LED panel has a 2,560 x 1,600-pixel resolution, with 2,000 local dimming zones, delivering exceptional contrast between brighter and darker areas of the image. The Razer Blade 14 was already one of the most vibrant laptop screens I’d seen, but the Blade 18 makes it look dull by comparison.

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

But what sets it apart is the 300-Hz refresh rate. At their best, most gaming laptops only support 240 Hz, which is plenty for most games, but for fast-paced titles like Overwatch 2, you want all the frames you can get, and the Blade 18 is one of the few laptops I’ve tested that can crank out that many reliably.

Maintaining such a high frame rate is going to be a drain on the battery, but Razer’s Synapse software has an option to automatically switch the display to 60 Hz when on battery power. This dramatically cuts down on how many frames your games have to render, conserving power, but will lead to less smooth gameplay. You can also press Fn+R to cycle between 60 Hz, 240 Hz, and 300 Hz while connected to a charger.

Synapse also has a color profile selector that lets you swap between DCI-P3, Adobe RGB, Rec.709, and other profiles to get precise, accurate colors. This is especially helpful for gamers who are also designers and photo or video editors—where color accuracy is incredibly vital to their workflow.

Powerful Performance

A great display doesn’t matter much if you don’t have the horsepower to back it up, but fortunately, the Razer Blade 18 rises to the task. The model I tested comes equipped with the GeForce RTX 4090 (you can also choose between the RTX 4070 or 4080), and it tore through most games. Starfield, a notably less-than-optimized game, was getting 60-plus frames per second in crowded areas like New Atlantis on Ultra graphics settings, and maintaining 80 to 90 fps on Medium.

Overwatch 2 is what blew me away, though. On Medium graphics settings, I maintained a full 300 fps (while the laptop was connected to power). This is a game where I’m constantly flying across the map in seconds, whipping out my pistol to land headshots on an enemy that wasn’t in my view a third of a second ago, before rushing back to heal my teammates. Three hundred frames per second is exactly what I need, and the Razer Blade 18 has the display and the power to give it to me.

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May 10, 2024
Eureka E10 Review: An Adorably Dumb Robot Vacuum

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This is not the best robot vacuum I have tested.

The Eureka E10 is fairly affordable in the face of other robot mop-vacs; our recommendation for an affordable option is $800, while the E10 is $600. You might think to yourself, why buy a more expensive model then? Why spend more if I don’t have to?

The Eureka is a little dumb. It bumps into so many things you’d think it’s wearing a blindfold, and if I move the vacuum around too much–like flipping it over to cut the hair on the brush, or my toddler gets curious and pushes it around–it will forget where it is and wipe my home map from its memory. It’s adorably dumb when it can’t figure out how to get around my husband’s office chair, and infuriatingly dumb when it gets itself stuck on the same patch of rug-to-carpet transition five times in a row.

It’s not a bad vacuum. If you can find it on sale and mostly want it for carpet cleaning, you’ll likely be satisfied. I was plenty happy with how it vacuumed my carpet. But the mopping and built-in smarts left something to be desired.

B-Level Cleaning

The E10 is just a B student trying to survive out here in the world, at least when it comes to vacuuming my carpet.

I was pretty happy with the E10’s vacuuming. It left the satisfying vacuum lines and fluffy carpet behind that screamed “freshly cleaned!” But it wasn’t great at getting all the cat litter off the floor, and it tended to pool a little bit of litter underneath itself when it returned to base. Still, the vacuuming experience wasn’t much different than I got with the much more expensive Dreame X30 Ultra (7/10, WIRED Review), and the E10 was much, much quieter than the Dreame while it zipped around my home.

Photography: Nena Farrell

The difference is in the mopping job. Most robot vacuum-mops today have rotating scrubbers or refillable water tanks or self-cleaning tools. Not the E10, which has the same system as robot mops of yore where you pour water into a canteen in the vacuum that’s above the single mop pad. Then the vacuum drags the lightly damp pad around your house to mop your home.

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May 10, 2024
Asus Zenbook Duo (2024) Review: A Two-Screened Laptop That Nails It

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Conceptually, it’s very close to what Lenovo did last year with the Yoga Book 9i, complete with shorthand gestures that help you pull up a virtual keyboard or touchpad, expand the screen to fill both displays or “flick” content from one screen to the other. This is all fairly easy to get the hang of. For the most part, working with the Zenbook Duo is no different than working with two monitors on a standard PC.

Many prior dual-screen laptops suffered on the performance front, and while the Duo didn’t set any records, it’s perfectly capable across a wide spectrum of benchmarks. Business apps load and run quickly, and graphical capabilities are acceptable despite the lack of a discrete graphics processor. Even AI-oriented performance was reasonably good (again, considering there’s no GPU to boost it). If there’s a downside, it’s battery life. I got just 6 hours and 48 minutes of YouTube run time with one screen active, and that fell to 5 hours and 13 minutes with both live. Neither score is all that great.

The muscle behind this is an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H CPU with 32 GB of RAM and a 1-terabyte solid-state drive. The port selection is fine, if a bit limited, featuring two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, one USB-A port, and a full-size HDMI output jack.

The Zenbook Duo is fairly compact given its design, at 25 mm thick with or without the keyboard sandwiched in the middle. The complete package weighs 3.5 pounds, or 2.8 pounds without the keyboard. That’s a bit on the heavy side, which is to be expected, but less than some traditional 14-inch laptops I’ve tested in the past couple of years.

While the dual-screen concept continues to improve, it’s not without some lingering growing pains. I encountered occasional hiccups where the screens didn’t reorient from portrait to landscape automatically. And the unit had the same problem with third-party chargers that I encountered with Asus’ Zenbook 14 OLED, dropping out of plugged-in mode and switching to battery power and back, almost randomly.

Photograph: Asus

My biggest complaint however is design-related. Unlike the Yoga Book 9i, the Duo’s screens aren’t flush with each other when the screen is opened flat. Instead, one sits more than a centimeter behind the other, creating a staggered, stairstep effect. This displeases the OCD side of my brain, which insists that side-by-side screens be aligned on the same plane.

That said, having two screens does change the game when it comes to mobile productivity, even if they are a little cattywampus. I’m used to working on dual screens in my daily life when I’m desk-bound, but when I’m on the road and have to shift to working directly off a single laptop display, my productivity vanishes.

The Duo has a price tag of $1,700—and that’s for the fully loaded configuration. That’s not exactly cheap, but it’s far less expensive than most other dual-screen laptops and even competitive with many that have a single display. Ultimately, I’m hard-pressed to find a reason not to recommend this device if you’re at all like me, finding that a single, small screen fences you in and slows you down.

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May 9, 2024
Samsung Galaxy A35 5G Review: Struggling to Stand Out

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The optical in-display fingerprint scanner is quick and reliable, and while there’s no headphone jack on this handset, you get a microSD card slot to expand on the base 128 GB of storage. The Galaxy A35 is IP67 water resistant, so it’ll be OK if you accidentally drop it in the pool, and it supports contactless payments—I’ve been using Google Wallet to pay for pretty much everything these past few weeks.

Problems start with the performance. The Samsung Exynos 1380 chipset inside is paired with 6 GB of RAM, and while it bested the Moto G Power 5G’s benchmark scores, my real-world testing has been noticeably laggier than Motorola’s phone, with far more stutters in daily operation. I can do everything I usually do with flagship smartphones, but apps load slowly, switching to another app can feel stuttery, and the interface can feel janky with the slowdowns.

It’s not frustrating like the Galaxy A15’s performance, just annoying. It’s not always like this; there are periods when it feels smooth and fast when I’m siloed in one app for a while (like doomscrolling on X before bed).

Battery life is also nothing to write home about. There’s a 5,000-mAh cell. With average use, I usually ended a full day with around 40 to 30 percent left. But on a few occasions, if I used it more rigorously—for GPS, music streaming, browsing Instagram, and taking pictures (around five and a half hours of screen-on time)—I’ve had to recharge it by 5 or 6 pm.

Strong Points

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

There’s a triple-camera system on the A35, but you should stick to the main camera. It’s a 50-megapixel primary sensor joined by an 8-MP ultrawide and a 5-MP macro. Over on the front is a 13-MP sensor. Selfies look sharp—no qualms there—and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the photos out of the main sensor.

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May 9, 2024
Britax Willow SC Review: A Fantastic Stroller and Car Seat Combo

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Everyone tells you how tired you’ll be with a newborn, but take it from someone with a 3-month-old: It’s more than you can anticipate before having kids, unless you were previously an ultramarathoner and/or offshore oil rig worker.

When you’re putting your freshly baked human into a car seat, stroller, or generally taking it anywhere with you (which you have to do, apparently), you don’t just want the process to be easy; you need the process to be easy. That’s why I’ve fallen in love with the Britax Willow Grove SC travel system.

This car seat base, car seat, stroller, and stroller base all come in a package together, and everything just works. There are no tricks for installation or daily use. Anyone can easily figure out how to use every part of these things, even when you haven’t slept in days. Just click your little one into either the stroller or car seat attachment, fold up the wheeled base with one hand, and you’re off to wherever you need to go. The price you pay for this system is about $100 higher than you might pay for another all-in-one option from Chicco, but the build quality and ease of use is well worth the extra cost.

Getting Loaded

The most important thing for any newborn is a quality car seat and base; the hospital literally checked that we had ours installed before they allowed us to leave. There aren’t any official safety ratings for this system, but the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration recommends rear-facing seats like this for infants. I grew up (and later babysat) in a time when you had to take your car to the fire department to install your car seat base permanently in the back seat until a child was old enough to not need it, so color me excited when I realized how easy the Britax base was going to be to install.

Photograph: Parker Hall

Simply click the two hooks around the now-standard child seat restraint area on your car’s seats (two hooks that often hide behind the cushions), put the seat belt through the company’s proprietary ClickTight Installation system, and press down. It all tightens in place easily, taking about 30 seconds to install. Once you’ve done it one time, swapping between cars is a breeze. No need to own two bases for different cars/friends/family.

Clicking the actual car seat into the base is also a breeze; it just clicks right in, with a handle on the forward side of the carrier (where your baby’s back faces) that easily allows you to detach it with one hand as your other grabs the handle of the carrier. Apart from the weight of your baby (we have a lunker!), it’s extremely wieldy and convenient.

I like that there are little plastic tabs on the left and right sides of the car seat you can use to hold the straps while you place your baby’s butt in the seat. This makes it super easy to then click your baby in place with the three-piece click harness and to cinch them in with the strap between their legs.

On a Stroll

The best part of the car seat is that it easily clicks in and attaches to the foldable stroller base, which means you don’t have to transfer a sleeping kid to a stroller seat when you want to roll them somewhere fresh out of the car. This is awesome, especially because the foldable stroller section can easily be deployed one-handed, thanks to a simple hook-to-hold mechanism on the outside of the right rear wheel pole. You just unhook the plastic piece that’s holding the stroller folded, and gravity does the rest.

Photograph: Parker Hall

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May 8, 2024
Delonghi Specialista Arte Evo Espresso Machine With Cold Brew Review: A Little Weird

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The counter space in my kitchen is at a premium. It’s valuable real estate, and every square inch matters. So when a new espresso machine arrives at my door, I always have to play a high-stakes game of countertop appliance Tetris to figure out how everything will fit—or who needs to get banished into a cupboard. When the De’Longhi Specialista Arte Evo rolled into my kitchen, I was ready to make tough decisions.

From the box’s size, I was sure the rice cooker or the food processor would have to be exiled. When I got the De’Longhi out of its box, though, my appliances breathed a sigh of relief. This is a svelte espresso machine, and it fits perfectly without sending any of my favorite appliances to a pantry gulag. Things were off to a good start, and it only got better—mostly.

Slim and Consistent

The first couple of shots I pull out of any espresso machine will usually require some finagling. When an espresso machine has an internal burr grinder, that’s just one other thing I have to dial in from scratch. By the second shot, I was happy with what I was getting out of the Specialista.

The espresso poured into the cup in two streams of luxurious caramel-gold liquid, the crema gathering on top in an even layer. I changed the settings and pulled more tester shots to see how it performed with different grind consistencies and amounts for testing purposes, but by that second shot, I knew I’d found the sweet spot.

Photograph: Jaina Grey

Something I always like about De’Longhi espresso machines is the knobs. A lot of different models from the company up and down the price spectrum have really good knobs. The ones here are a joy to use. They’re raised from the surface of the control panel, and the outward face has the signature concentric circles of machined steel; the sides are adorned with textured metal accents. One controls the amount of coffee to grind, and the other toggles between brewing modes.

When you turn the grind knob, there’s a little resistance, just enough to feel like you have very fine control. The mode knob has a satisfying click when you switch from one mode to another. How much you enjoy using a device is important, and these little details make the Specialista Arte Evo feel good to use.

The Specialista Arte Evo comes in at a delightfully narrow 11.2 inches, sparing quite a bit of my counter space—especially since this is taking the place of two appliances, an espresso machine and a coffee grinder. There are smaller espresso machines—the new KitchenAid Semi-Automatic Espresso Machine is about as narrow as the Specialista—but most that have a built-in grinder are a little wider.

Photograph: Jaina Grey

Some Assembly Required

The Specialista’s built-in conical burr grinder can grind coffee fine enough for espresso and coarse enough for drip or other brewing methods, so it’s capable of replacing a stand-alone grinder. There is one little quirk, though. The portafilter can’t slot into place underneath the grinder unless you attach the “grinding and tamping guide.” This component is a short cylinder of plastic that locks onto the portafilter to guide the grounds directly into the basket and help direct the tamp down onto the grounds.

It’s weird. The guide doesn’t feel as high-quality as other parts of the Specialista, almost like a cheap 3D-printed plastic. If you try to slot the portafilter underneath the grinder without the guide, you have to hold it there the whole time, and the grinder will likely spill some grounds into the drip tray. It feels like the grinding and tamping guide was added as a fix to the issue of the grounds spilling out.

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May 8, 2024
Vodafone Pro II Ultra Hub Review: Wi-Fi 6E With 4G Backup

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While it works well, the 4G backup is likely a superfluous extra for most folks. If your internet service is stable, as it should be if you have full fibre, you’ll never need the 4G service. Folks lucky enough to live in an area with 5G coverage can get much faster backup service or even consider 5G home internet instead of wired broadband.

The Vodafone app is pretty barebones, but it’s easy to use. You can review connected devices, set up a guest network, and easily share login details with a QR code. There’s also a built-in assistance option that attempts to automatically troubleshoot and fix network issues. Parental controls and security features would be a welcome addition.

Competition and Availability

Photograph: Simon Hill

You can pay for fast internet service, but a decent router is required to get the most from it. Sadly, most ISPs in the UK do not supply good equipment. The worst offender is BT (British Telecom), which sends most customers the aging Smart Hub 2, a dual-band Wi-Fi 5 router that’s woefully out-of-date.

Most providers at least offer Wi-Fi 6 routers nowadays. I like TalkTalk’s approach. Instead of rebadging a white-label router, it partnered with Amazon’s Eero. The slower and cheaper Full Fibre contracts come with an Eero 6, but the Full Fibre 900 includes a pair of Eero Pro 6 routers, which is an excellent system for most homes. Interestingly, Three has also partnered with Eero for its 4G and 5G home broadband service.

Pricing and availability of Vodafone Pro II service depends on your location and required speed, but it starts from £39 a month with a minimum two-year contract. That two-year commitment is a definite turn-off, and you can expect annual price hikes in April, but it is a sadly common catch with UK ISPs.

Ultimately, Vodafone has kicked things up a notch with its Pro II service, and the Ultra Hub is perhaps the best ISP-supplied router you can get in the UK today. Many folks will still do better by picking the best service in their area (depending on budget and speed requirements) and then buying from our best routers or best mesh guides, but you will have to spend a few hundred to get something comparable.

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May 6, 2024
Xiaomi Watch S3 Review: Quirky Customization

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The Xiaomi Watch S3 is an affordable smartwatch with a highly customizable look that includes swappable bezels. It can track your health, fitness, and sleep, bring phone notifications to your wrist, and last several days between charges. The downside? It runs Xiaomi’s software, which feels a bit basic, and you can forget about third-party apps.

Closing in on a month with the Xiaomi Watch S3, I’m impressed by its tracking capabilities, considering the relatively low price, and the changeable bezels are a neat idea. But I’m also fine with saying goodbye to it. The Watch S3 has too many limitations for me, but it’s important to remember that this device is less than half the price of the most affordable option in our best smartwatches guide.

Before we dig in, it’s worth noting that there is a global version of the Xiaomi Watch S3, but it’s not sold in the US, there’s no official US support, and certain features (like NFC for payments) vary by region.

Smartwatch Chameleon

Photograph: Simon Hill

For folks who like to match their watch with their outfit, the Xiaomi Watch S3 has a unique trick up its sleeve in the shape of interchangeable bezels. Changing the strap on a watch can be impactful, but being able to change both the strap and bezel almost makes it look like a completely different device.

The Watch S3 has quite a chunky 47-mm aluminum case with angled lugs and two buttons on the right. A stainless steel bezel sits on top of the screen, and you can rotate it to remove and replace it with a different bezel. It’s easy once you get the hang, and there’s a wee marker on the inside to help you align. The bezels slot into place securely, and I never worried about them coming loose.

Attach a new bezel and the Watch S3 suggests a matching watch face. It’s a neat trick. There are more than 100 watch faces in every conceivable style, and you can even create your own. Changing the strap is also straightforward, so you can quickly change your look. My favorite of the straps and bezels Xiaomi sent was the classy green and black combo. You get one black or silver bezel with a matching fluororubber strap with the Watch S3, and alternatives must be purchased separately.

The 1.43-inch AMOLED screen has a layer of protective Corning glass. The display is roomy and crisp, but the relatively low peak brightness of 600 nits (a luminance measurement) meant it was sometimes hard to read in direct sunlight. The Watch S3 is also 5ATM rated for water resistance, meaning you can swim with it.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Streamlined for Stamina

The Xiaomi Watch S3 focuses on the basics with call and notification alerts from your phone; health, fitness, and sleep tracking; and a handful of utilities like a voice recorder, camera shutter control, and compass. It runs HyperOS, so there are no third-party apps like you will find on a Google Wear OS smartwatch.

Navigating around the Watch S3 is slick and lag-free. HyperOS is not the most attractive software and lacks a cohesive design, with a mix of dull and garish icons. But it mostly worked well, aside from the odd missed notification from my phone. It connects via Bluetooth 5.2, and you can use it with any phone running Android 8 or iOS 12 or later. I tested with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

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May 5, 2024