Leisure
To celebrate the launch of Marvel's Spider-Man, the hotly anticipated game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment exclusively for the PlayStation 4 Pro, Sony released a limited edition PS4 themed after the arachnid super hero. Themed consoles are nothing new, though this one seems to have struck a cord with gamers. Every time a retailer replenishes its inventory, it sells out faster than Peter Parker can change from an unassuming teen to a web-slinger in tights. Lucky for me, I was able to snag one at my local Walmart, which for a brief period of time claimed...
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DJI has once again stepped into the spotlight with another powerful, yet portable, 4K drone that combines the video capabilities of its highly regarded Mavic Pro, with the smaller footprint of the consumer-focused DJI Spark. DJI has gone to great lengths in recent years to appeal to consumers looking for more portable devices. As a photographer, I carry a camera bag littered with lenses and DSLR bodies; but most will agree that something like DJI's earlier Phantom drones were simply too large to consider highly portable. With DJI’s latest and greatest drone, the Mavic Air, however, photographers...
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Gamers are willing to spend more on PC hardware than the average consumer, but at the same time, they are a knowledgeable and discerning bunch who understand exactly what it is they are getting for their hard-earned buck. They also follow market trends and appreciate a good value when one comes along. Dell is likely hoping that is what gamers will see in its recently introduced G Series laptops. And after spending some hands-on time with the new G7 15 Gaming, we think the Round Rock crew might be on to something. As the model name suggests, the G7 15 Gaming is a 15.6-inch laptop. It sits atop...
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HDR -- you’ve undoubtedly seen the three letters stamped on the box of the latest 4K monitors and TVs while passing by them in the store, and while it is still relatively new HDR (High-Dynamic Range) technology is, without question, changing the way in which our senses take in next-gen entertainment. NVIDIA is at the forefront of driving this cutting-edge display technology with new G-SYNC monitors that profoundly impact three primary pillars of how visual entertainment is perceived by the human eye: color, brightness, and contrast. How that translates to today’s...
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The Lenovo Smart display is the first in an assault of Google Assistant-enabled devices set to hit the market this year. They will take on Amazon's Echo Show in a battle for smart home assistant technology, with not only a set of ears, but also a set of eyes and a display face to complete the experience. Priced at $249.99 for a 10-inch version and $199.99 for an 8-inch variant, with identical hardware specs except for the display, these are a new breed of smart home devices that have the potential to give Google and its OEM partners a leg-up on Amazon. Since they're part of the "Android...
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Ask a group of gamers or hardcore PC enthusiasts what they want in a monitor and you’ll likely get a few common answers. High resolutions and refresh rates, adequate size, wide viewing angles, thin bezels, and a fully adjustable stand will likely be on the list, along with support for adaptive refresh rate technology and perhaps HDR (High Dynamic Range). The monitor we will be showing you here today, the 32" Samsung CHG70 Gaming Monitor with Quantum Dot Technology checks many of those boxes, and ups the ante even further with a curved screen, back bias lighting (sort of), and USB pass-through,...
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The ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ has been a long time coming, and spoiler alert, it was worth the wait. The ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ is one of the first monitors to finally bring together a full complement of cutting-edge technologies and combine them into a single offering, like a delicious stew full of tasty gaming ingredients. In this case, the recipe calls for a 4K Ultra HD (3840x2160) in-plane switching (IPS) panel with a blazing fast 144Hz refresh rate, seasoned with High Dynamic Range (HDR) visuals, and garnished with NVIDIA G-Sync support. Talk about a drool-worthy dish! ASUS first teased the PG27UQ...
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Gaming laptops typically make no bones about price points and usually command a premium, due to their more powerful components on board. Either that, or some machines pack potent components inside somewhat lack-luster skins, leaning into their inner mojo to attract gamers. With its G Series, Dell set out to appeal to price-conscious mobile gamers that still want good firepower, in addition to a quality, good-looking chassis design. Lower cost gaming notebooks often sacrifice on materials and build quality in an effort to drive cost down. However, in a follow-on to its successful Inspiron Gaming...
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Corsair's line-ups of K70 and Strafe mechanical gaming keyboards have been on the market now for quite some time. The Strafe is a more streamlined speedster for performance freaks and the K70 a more full-featured deck with ultra-premium build quality. We recently looked at Corsair's K70 Lux RGB in a 5-way round-up and the board walked away with our Editor's Choice award. Today, fresh off its Computex 2018 unveil, Corsair returns to our lab with buffed-up and decked-out versions of the K70 and Strafe, both sporting some disco RGB goodness, but now in their MK.2 (pronounced Mark 2) incarnations,...
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Predicting the level of success enjoyed by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, aka PUBG, would have been very tough ahead of its launch. Who could really predict that an indie title would have three million concurrent players mere months after its launch? Since that time, the game has added two new maps, alternating modes, and more aesthetic enhancements than you can shake a frying pan at. Unfortunately for developer PUBG Corporation, the game has been on the decline ever since the start of the year, despite the team rolling out of the new maps and mechanics. The website Steam Charts shows that...
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It’s evolving. Alienware’s Area-51 is back with new upgrades to accommodate Intel’s most demanding enthusiast CPU yet – the Core i9-7980XE. Sure, on the surface everything seems similar to previous iterations of the machine, but within something new courses through its veins. The new Alienware Area-51 R5 arrives with liquid cooled GPUs for the first time since the brand was introduced. This is the natural next-step for one of the most powerful gaming desktops. Additional cooling should allow for more performance to be squeezed out of its already impressive hardware to tackle...
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Amazon and Google are massive tech giants, for vastly different reasons. Google is the leading search engine provider, a smartphone platform juggernaut, and huge advertising machine, while Amazon is the largest e-tailer in the world and a cloud services powerhouse, though Google is coming up strong. Though they are different animals, these two companies find themselves locked in heated battle with their respective Google Home and Amazon Echo devices; a battle for AI dominance that could determine who will ultimately control a good chunk of the Smart Home market. The Smart Home market has massive...
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Boutique, custom-built Gaming PCs from some of the more prominent brands are almost always a cut above mainstream pre-built computers from larger OEMs. However, even among premium boutique brands, build quality, design aesthetics and cost can vary greatly. Maingear has delivered its share of ultra-high end killer gaming rigs to us for evaluation over the years, but perhaps nothing so custom and so premium in design as the machine we're about to dig deep on today. We got a look at Maingear's highly custom F131 back at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, and though we came away impressed at the time, it...
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There are a litany of reasons why you might consider buying a gaming PC rather than rolling your own rig, including cost. Yes, many graphics cards have recently settled down closer to MSRP, but who knows if they will go back up again? On top of that, system memory is still trending on the high side (compared to a year or two ago). For the most part, pre-built systems have been somewhat sheltered from these volatile markets relative to the channel. That means the opportunity still exists to get into PC gaming at a reasonable price with a pre-built PC; Dell's Inspiron Gaming Desktop (5680) is...
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